We woke before sunrise, and I couldn’t help the huge grin I had on my face when I pulled Niku into me to hold her tightly and snuggle her a bit.

  “We should get going. That caravan master is probably wondering where we are,” Niku groaned and pushed her back further into me.

  I didn’t even want to open my eyes, but I groaned with her. “Yeah, and those other guys. The friends of Kio. They seemed like heavy hitters. The real serious type.”

  “Well, the one is literally the anvil saint,” Niku said with a bit of a snort. “If anyone was a heavy hitter, as you call it, he’s definitely one of them.”

  “Alright, I guess we should get up and catch up to that damn caravan. They’re probably gonna hang me by my thumbs when we get there as it is,” I grumbled. I was still unwilling to open my eyes and get out of bed.

  Niku mimicked my grunt and pushed even further back into me. “Do we have to wait… why would anyone hang you by your thumbs?”

  I gave a soft chuckle and then forced my eyes open. “Just an expression where I come from.”

  ”Yes, another world,” she breathed and then turned to look at me.

  “Uh, yeah. Can we make sure not to tell people about that? I mean, I’m sure you’re not going to, but..” I trailed off. That was enough sounding like an idiot.

  “Oh, there goes my plans of talking like a. crazy lady and talking about how my companion is from another world. People will think I did an experiment, and it went wrong, and I’ve lost my marbles,” she said and grinned.

  “Companion, huh?” I grunted as I rolled away and sat on the edge of the bed. Here we go with the dreaded ‘talk.’

  “Is that bad?” Niku said and sat up now as well.

  I shrugged. “No? I don’t know. Is it?”

  Maybe I wasn’t done being an idiot for the day yet.

  Niku rolled her eyes and climbed to her feet. “Of course it isn’t. I don’t know how they do things on your planet but being a companion is a very good thing. My mother was my father’s companion until she passed, and I doubt he’ll have another.”

  I grinned and turned to look at her. She was grabbing her robes and getting dressed. Not that she was naked while we slept. Neither of us were. We just weren’t wearing much. She had a little night slip she wore, and I stayed in a shirt and well… Nevermind. The point is, we weren’t naked spooning.

  “Come on, we need to get that sample to the emperor and the court. To do that, we can’t stay in bed all day, as nice as that would be,” Niku said as she fixed her hair and stared at me.

  I nodded and threw my robes on. “Yeah, it shouldn’t take us very long to catch up with them. Betsy seems to have some extra pep in her step when we leave this place. That kid takes good care of her for me.”

  Niku nodded, and once I was dressed, we headed downstairs. The bar was empty, and judging from the dark windows, the sun hadn’t even risen yet. I frowned since I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Declan or that chef guy from home, but I dug around and found a piece of scratch paper and a pencil. I wrote him a brief note thanking him and then I left a tip for him and Wallace.

  “Feels a bit weird leaving without saying goodbye,” I said to Niku as we left the tavern and walked down the pathway to the barn. Niku just shrugged as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I guess if the guest wanted to leave early in there am and the innkeeper wasn’t awake, that’s how it would go.

  I didn’t let it bother me too much as we walked into the barn and found Betsy already awake. She was staring right at the creaky double door as I opened it up. I grinned at her and even gave a little wave.

  “Hey girl, ready to pull some freight?” I asked as I looked around. I wasn’t quite sure where they would have parked the wagon train. The barn was big but not big enough to hold that much wagon.

  Betsy gave me a low bellow and then nodded up to a higher part of the barn where Wallace was fast asleep on some hay. He was spread out and half falling off the bale. I nodded in understanding and switched to my quiet voice.

  “Do you know where the wagon is? We've gotta get rolling. We’re probably already in trouble with that caravan master.”

  Niku made her way up to help the boy get all the way on the hay bale so he didn’t fall off, and Betsy nodded at me. She closed her eyes, and I could feel her concentrating as she tried to work her jaw. Her mouth moved open and closed several times.

  “Out back,” she said and then exhaled deeply.

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  I nodded and looked past her. She was in the middle of the large barn. There were a few stalls on either side, but she was the only animal in the building. Just past her, there was another set of large double doors, and I moved past her to open them. When I did both of the wagons were there and waiting for me. They were even still connected to make the process a little easier for me.

  I turned to check on Betsy, and she was backing up so she could attach herself to the harness and get strapped in. Niku was also there, ready and willing to help. I peeked up and saw Wallace, the stable boy, was stable on the hay bale, and she had even found a small blanket to tuck him in with. I smiled at her and then pointed at the doors.

  “We've got this. Will you just close the doors after we get through them?”

  Then after only just a few minutes Betsy, the wagon, Niku and I were all rolling away from The Lying Lily heading for..

  “Wait, what is that?” I squinted towards the ridge of the mountainside. There was something like a spiritual beacon just pulsing just on the other side of the mountaintop.

  “Something…. Powerful. Someone…” Niku said and squinted as she looked in the same direction I was.

  “Or lots of someone’s?” I asked.

  That’s when Betsy gave out a loud bellow and gave a sharp tug on the wagon. She picked up her pace, and when I looked out at her, lightning had started to run up and down her horns. We had both been standing in front of the driver’s bench looking out at the skyline when Betsy jolted Niku to sit.

  “Yeah, uh, you better hang on, I think,” I warned her and put a hand on her knee as I sat down.

  Betsy gave a bellow of annoyance, and then I felt the alarms going off in my spirit from her in our link.

  “DRAGON!”

  Was the last thing I heard Betsy yell before she really pulled. This time even I was hurled back in my seat as I looked to the sky. My eyes went wide, and I couldn’t help but almost slap Niku’s shoulder as I stared.

  There was a long, vibrant purple Japanese, because duh, styled dragon flying through the air flapping its wings. The thing was, I don’t know. I couldn’t even tell how long the dragon was, and its scales radiated as if they were made from bright bits of aura forged into shape.

  “That’s what a dragon looks like here?” I breathed in deeply. I had finally stopped hitting Niku when she slapped my hand away.

  “No!” Niku shouted at me. “That’s an illusion. That’s why it’s glowing like that. Betsy, take us to the top. It’s probably the bandits readying to attack the caravan!”

  “Man, I swear, I can never get a day off. Punch it, Betsy!”

  Just like that, the world blurred around me in streaks of lightning as Betsy pushed herself to new speeds. It didn’t take long for us to be at the top of the mountain looking down into the rest of the empire. The sun had barely just shown far in the horizon and we saw them. It was a group of about a dozen people wearing cultivator robes of a deep violet color that was accented with a shimmering silver.

  “That’s them. The Veil of the Silver Night, the sect or cult or whatever you want to call it,” Niku said and sounded very sure.

  Betsy let out a mighty bellow and shook her body to unhook herself from the wagon. My eyes went wide as I held out my hand in shock and surprise. “Betsy, no, wait.”

  It was too late. Betsy was gone and was one ox stampeding towards the cultivators. The wagon kept rolling out of control, and I could see Niku grip the side of the bench and the back to try to steady herself. We were bouncing along as the wagon rolled. Betsy was going so fast it was hard to tell how long it’d really roll just off the inertia.

  “Maikeru, do something!” Niku yelled as she held on. I looked at her and at the mountaintop scenery.

  The wagon crunched and clattered as it bounced along. My mind raced as I thought of what to do. I knew what the obvious thing was - to just jump off the wagon and grab it, right? I looked at all the jagged rock formations all around me, and I was surprised a wheel hadn’t busted yet. That old builder sure did know his stuff.

  “Fuck!” I yelled.

  “Maikeru, please!”

  Hearing the urgency in her voice made me react. We had rolled backwards when she screamed again. Back down the mountain and I figured that would be terrible if my brand new wagon train rolled down and was destroyed. Let alone what could happen to Niku if I wasn’t able to save her. Without another thought, I stood and leapt over the coverings to my bunk wagon and the trail wagon.

  I was so far in I didn’t even realize I did the good ol’ superhero landing a few feet in front of the wagon as it bounced down. Time seemed to slow down as I was in action mode and since I didn’t want to outright just stand in front of the stop, the wagon to stop it since it might just break it I jumped a little to the side and let it roll by me.

  I let it pass me and watched the horror on Niku’s face as she rolled by me. I didn’t think I’d ever see her look so hurt and betrayed. It’s as if she thought I jumped off and was just gonna leave her to her doom on the wagon. As the wagon rolled, I ran to keep up and ran in between the yoke where Betsy’s latches were.

  My feet dug into the mountainside as the wagon rolled and I tried to pull it back, to stop the thing from finally crashing into one of the rocky terrain parts that jutted out and up. I groaned out as the weight of the wagons pulled and I thought I could feel my shoes catching fire. My eyes were closed shut, and I was yelling out. In my head, I was envisioning myself as some superhero in a movie, stopping a bus from falling off a bridge and a bunch of people dying.

  Reality crashed into me when I heard a throat clearing next to me, and I opened one of my eyes and saw Niku standing there with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

  “Don’t worry, Niku, I've got you!” I yelled and went back to fighting the wagon.

  It took me a minute, and I let go of the wagon and stood upright. Then, I opened my eyes and looked around. The wagon had stopped rolling and was fine. I was fine, and hadn’t been dragged a bunch of yards. Niku was fine and stood there and stared at me.

  “Don’t know your own strength, huh?” She asked me.

  I blinked. “I, uh, guess not?”

  She smirked and shook her head.

  “Well, uh,” I wasn’t sure what to say. With everything here situated, all I could think of was the cultivators and Betsy stampeding towards them. The hell happened?

  “BETSY!” I yelled and turned to run towards the battle that was surely happening.

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