Chapter 66

The wolf monster bounded down the cobble street with a panicking sheep girl on his back. He flickered in and out of visibility, more visible than not as time went on, a terrifying shadow, a deeper dark on the dark canvas of night.

Lyra increasingly struggled to maintain her invisibility Skill and by the time they reached their destination she was nearly falling from Rain’s back as her climbing Skill started to falter too.

The building he stopped outside of was vast, more a complex than a building, a huge stable that housed all the horses in Lynthia. Every leveler who came to town for the dungeon rented space and kept their horse in the stable, it was cheap and reliable.

Rain gruffed and scented the air, he could smell meat nearby, lots of it. This, this might do it, this might slake his agonising hunger.

He pushed his paws up against the double doors then with a snarl shoved at them. The drop bar on the other side held for a moment before splintering and coming apart, snapping down the center. The doors slammed open and the cavernous dark interior revealed itself, the scent of hay and horses washing out into the night air along with the sound of nervous whinnies.

Rain stalked forward, fearful noises coming from each stable partition as he passed.

Lyra looked around in dismay. There were a lot of horses in here, a hell of a lot, way more than she could ever keep up with. She let out a small sigh. This was hopeless, there was no way she was going to be able to hide this even a little bit with her Skill. After a moment of hesitation she let her climbing Skill go and slipped from Rain’s back to the floor below, Opal coming with her.

“You’re not gonna try hide it sheepy?”

Lyra gestured at Rain as he disappeared into one of the stalls. A horse shriek followed and a spray of blood from the stall creating a long red line across the ground outside.

“I’m going to pass out if I try and hide all this, I can’t do it, I just can’t okay, I- I don’t know what we’re going to do now, we might have to leave Lynthia after this.”

Opal looked at her then tilted her head to the side. “Why? There won’t be anyone to make a fuss if Rain just eats the town.”

Lyra stared at the Goblin girl, she couldn’t be serious, right? Maybe Opal was the one she should actually be worried about ... She seemed more determined than even Rain to see the worst come to pass. Lyra had her own problems with monsters, but she wasn’t starting to realize that Opal might have her own issues with levelers, not that she could blame the Goblin with how the world worked.

Thinking about it, was she really the only thing between the people of Lynthia and Rain? She needed to do something, to point his monstrous side away from them, to stop him from going too far, to guide Rain, be his good side.

But could she even do that? He seemed more monstrous than she had ever seen before, a ravenous nearly mindless beast, a danger to herself that she really shouldn’t be around.

Yet she didn’t really have a choice, she needed to help him get past this, he was her only real protection against Lord Wranvyre, someone outside of leveler’s social hierarchy. No one else would help her, she had no connections to the powerful and so many would eagerly leap at that ridiculous reward and the chance to gain favour with a noble family as soon as they knew a bounty was on her head.

As she watched Opal followed Rain into the gloom. He went from stall to stall leaving a trail of blood in his wake, his fur and clothing becoming ever more soaked in dark dark red.

She shook her head slightly, she needed room to think.

She stepped outside into the cool night air. Space, just a moment away from the ravenous wolf monster to gather her thoughts. leaving Rain and Opal within she wandered away in a daze until the sounds of panicking horses was out of ear range, further and further down the dark street, the starry sky above casting little light.

She steadied her breathing, calming herself. Breath in count six, breath out count to six. Breath in count six, breath out count to six. She managed her mental state like this for a while, slowly picking apart the nervous knotted ball she’d become. She could deal with this, she could, she must.

It was as she was slowly calming down that a voice spoke up.

“H-hey, Half-elf girl, you’re not from this town right? Can you let me out?”

Lyra turned in surprise, a person had seen her? That- that was very much not a good thing! This was supposed to be a secret mission to help Rain and she’d completely forgotten to make her self invisible after leaving the stable.

Looking around she found no one in view, then a noise made her look up. A cage was hanging from a nearby building, hanging from a wooden frame attached to the wall. Inside the cage was a Satyr, her goat-like legs dangling from the cage’s edge.

It was a prisoner.

Lyra stared at the Satyr, unsure what to do, her whole plan to come into Lynthia unseen and to leave without anyone ever knowing they had been there was starting to come apart at the seams. What was she supposed to do about this now? Leaving behind some mysterious blood stains was one thing, having a witness to her being there was entirely another.

Not sure what else to do she spoke. “ ... hi?”

“Hello, I’m Belle, and you need to listen to me, the Inquisitor in this town is crazy, and the Ranker even worse! I don’t know what they’re going to do to me, I really super need you to get me out of here.”

“ ... well what did you do to get put in a cage like that?”

“Nothing! I’m completely innocent! It’s that raging asshole over there who did it!”

Lyra turned to see a second cage identical to the first. A male Elf slowly lifted his head, his legs and arms were limply hanging from between the gridded bars. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, huge bags under his eyes, his long hair hanging lank and greasy from his head.

“Does it matter anymore you stupid Satyr? It happened, she died, and we’re likely to be given to the Ranker for some awful fate or other, you heard what goes on in this town. Honestly It would be a blessing at this point if It means I no longer have to listen to your incessant whining.”

The Satyr scowled at him. “I’m not going to die for something that I didn’t do, I refuse!” she turned back to Lyra. “Please, can you set me free? You’d be saving an innocent life, I’ll- I’ll do anything, just get me the heck out of here!”