James followed Gorgox out of the restaurant with a worried Kira hanging on his arm. The strange meal had spooked her sensibilities, and the looks the two were receiving from the relatively insular Kabali were not all that pleasant. After moving from the residential area to a more construction-oriented sector, James could see weapons of war being built or packaged …

James relaxed, relieved to finally be resting in a bed at an inn. Still, as usual, there was business to review. He tried to figure out what his next meeting would be like. The Kabali or lizard people who lived under the Marjon Mountain were a loud, annoying and prideful people. Each of them was easily stronger than him in …

Cezar monitored James while the engineer worked on the treads responsible for his movement. The machine kept a close watch on its only potential ally in case James had been turned by the local populous and was secretly trying to figure out his weaknesses, or even worse, sabotage his beautiful frame. However, Cezar recognized that to a degree such slight …

It had been about twenty days since James had left his shop behind, and fortunately, but perhaps unexpectedly, nothing extraordinary had happened after the werewolf attack. Based on the maps and local guides he’d conferred with, it would take another nine days to arrive at the trade city, assuming that the weather held. Unfortunately, that assumption seemed increasingly unlikely to …

Chapter 30: Kira’s Story Stretching out her toes, Kira yawned and wriggled out of her sleeping bag. Basking in the sounds of morning, Kira looked around before realizing she was in James’s spare tent. She tried to remember what had happened yesterday. She’d been hunting for the alpha and chased down the pack after she’d ended up victorious… then she’d …

As James had expected, the heroes caught up with them by the end of the day as his group was making camp off the road in a clearing. While it was a rather small space, there had been a small creek nearby, which would allow his weary party to clean up a bit. They had set up two tents, and …

Green grass passed beneath their wagons as a few patrollers would pass by every once in a while to see that the paths were safe. A few birds twittered in the sky as they prepared their stocks for winter. The sun peeked over the horizon, staring at weary travelers who had started their movements early in the day to assure …

The days wore on them, and the lack of any change in pace hardly helped. The group would warily fight off a few bandits and travel beneath the hot sun until they reached a stopping point. If a structure or town were not found by late day, they would set up camp by the road. Diana was still curious about …

Since Diana had her own horse, she rode point to the wagon. Howard controlled the team of horses that pulled the wagon. Kira slept so she could be the night guard, and James worked in the back. To the casual observer, they seemed like a guard, servant, and concubine serving a rich merchant. Before leaving, James met with the wyvern …

Jeffry’s stomach grumbled. He didn’t quite know what had recently been going on, but he did regret eating that red butterfly that had landed on his nose just a few days ago. Ever since then, nothing had seemed quite right. James had disappeared and turned into the next-door neighbor who smelled suspiciously of sheep. Normally, Jeffry would have assumed that …