At some point between blessed fruits and evil trees, Enoki drifted off into a dreamless sleep. A small blessing since, honestly, ze didn’t want to have any dreams right now. Everything was too weird. And there was also the chance this was some sorta crazy dream. No need for dreams in dreams. As it was, Enoki was so tired ze almost didn’t catch the fact the wolves had gotten impatient and lept over part of the drawbridge to hurry and get inside. 

Not until ze found hirself about 2 feet in the air with En’mat leaning over hir to hold back the barrels that had started to tilt over.

“Wha-? OOF!” The hard landing woke hir up better than coffee would have. It hurt like hell, but ze was probably fine. 

En’mat looked down a bit annoyed. “Could you move or help, please?” A few more bounces shifted the barrels again as Enoki scrambled out of the bedroll, getting up to help hold them still. 

Ze did not get stabbed for these things to break now. Enoki closed hir eyes, thinking of hir favorite cartoons. The ones where the characters would extend arms and act like a slingshot. Quickly, ze flung one hand to one side of the wagon and one hand to the other side, and held on tight. “What is going on?”

En’mat raised one ear and listened. “We have very determined bandits. They came back with reinforcements and are following us into the city.”

“Ok, so what’s more important? Stopping them or the barrels?” Enoki stretched forward at the next hard bounce. Ze could hear the panicked cries of people in the early morning street. This couldn’t be good at all.

“I can get the barrels down but we’re locked in if you recall.” En’mat jerked her head to the wooden doors, still locked with a crack of sunlight being let in. 

“Can you do something if you can get out?”

“Of course! I just need line of sight. The smoke spell last time stopped me.”

“Then move the barrels fast.” Ze grimaced as a sharp turn stretched hir arms hard. “Very fast!”

Without a word, En’mat held up her hands, letting out a note as at least a dozen fiery talons appeared. The talons swooped down, grabbed the barrels, and swiftly moved them so they were down to a single layer. Enoki quickly climbed on top, bending and flopping around as ze scrambled like an octopus towards the door gap. En’mat seemed to catch on: she started to climb around trying to secure everything while getting knocked around. 

Enoki hoped this worked better than it felt. Ze carefully squished through the gap, head first so ze could see what they were dealing with. All ze could see from here was 5 riders on what looked like moose sized stags. Two had a crossbow, and one seemed to be preparing a spell. That orc’s runes were a bright red along its blue skin. 

“That’s probably bad. En’mat! There’s a spell caster. I’m gonna try something. Be ready when the doors open.” Ze shouted as most of hir body started squishing between the door and the bar holding it shut. 

There was no telling what En’mat was saying as there was too much shouting and screaming. Plus the orc’s spell looked like it was getting stronger as laughter started ringing all around them. Enoki instinctively looked up. 

“You need to keep your followers in line if you want that drink later.” 

Getting a lack of answer from the heavens, ze inhaled as deeply as they could, forcing the air where most of their body was. It was almost a question of what would break first, the doors or the bar. The sudden snap of the bar almost caught Enoki off guard. With that, hir body quickly released the air behind hir, forcing it forward like a balloon someone let go. Before anyone could react, Enoki slammed into the orc and landed on the stag. Sitting face to face with the far larger spell caster, ze quickly got hir body back to normal. 

“Hi. I’m here about your steed’s extended warranty.” Ze quickly threw a punch and shook hir hand. “Owww. . .  your mom made sure you ate your veggies, huh?”

“Hand grew them. Now, little freak?” He pulled back to throw his own punch. “Get off.”

Ze felt a small warmth and weight in hir left hand. Bob decided to jump in and form a nice small shield. Perfect. 

“Get off? You didn’t even take me out to dinner.” Ze quickly raised it up, and was very glad ze did. That hit sent shock waves through hir body that made it feel like hir bones wanted to be dust.

“You’re the one getting into a very personal hand to hand combat.” He threw another punch, a grin peeking around the shield. “My boss pays better than the elves. We could go to a nice fighting ring.”

“Wait, are we flirting? I wanted witty banter not dinner and a movie! But if you wanna fall for me anyway,” Ze willed Bob to increase in size and slammed the shield into his body. It wasn’t enough to knock him out but it was enough to knock him off.

“GUH!” He rolled off and into the legs of one of the other steeds, causing it to stumble and fall. 

Enoki looked around, gripping on to the back of the saddle. There were two archers left. And it looked like there were a few along the side. And one Blaze climbing onto the wagon, shouting and scolding as she did.

“You are doing the most stupid and foolhardy thing, you have a mission and you are risking all of it to punch an ORC!”

“Yeah well I— oh shit, I can’t steer!”

The not a moose was starting to panic, it’s formerly tan—ish fur now changing to a bright red as it began to try and shake Enoki off. Ze started to scream, making it panic more, slam into one of the other steeds, and knock off an archer. This was not fine. 

This was not fine!

This was not—!

A blue flame shot off next to Enoki, taking out the other archer. The two on the sides started to slow down, trying to get a better shot at En’mat. Ze was breathing heavily, tired and very hungry. Enoki realized ze probably couldn’t shift much more until after a good meal. Which meant whatever ze did could hurt a lot. Carefully, ze turned around on the steed as it continued to go hard side to side.

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t like you either.” Ze Carefully grabbed the reins, then cracked them hard. “GO!”

The movement must have been a familiar enough command as it leaped forward and picked up speed. As ze pulled up on the right of the other archer, Enoki grabbed the human by the cloak and pulled hard. Their shot went wild. It was enough to catch En’mat’s attention, and for her to shoot a spell at them next, knocking them off. Two more shots and the bandits seemed to be taken care of. 

“Thank creation! Now, maybe, someone can get me off this thing!”  As it was, Enoki was barely hanging on. Especially since the steed had fully realized this wasn’t its rider.

As the wagon began to slow down, En’mat reached down and grabbed Enoki’s hand. Ze dangled. The steed continued to run off, causing some chaos as it jumped on top of an overhang and then onto a rooftop, still a very bright red. En’mat got Enoki on the roof of the wagon, where ze looked at hir new and rather upset friend.

“So. The tour needs some work.”

“Your mind needs some work!” She stood up, dangling Enoki by the arm so they could look eye to eye. “You have a task from the gods and you nearly get yourself killed.”

“Ok true. But. He was casting a spell. And possibly flirting with me.”

“Do you even like orcs?”

“I dunno! He’s the first I met and is a criminal. I can’t really base everything on one person. Though he had respect for his mom. He does get points for that.” Enoki said a small “ow” as ze was dropped onto the roof.

“You are going to need a full holy escort to get you safely around to meet the races at this rate.” She looked to the distance. “For now, be ready. It is almost time to enter the holy grounds.”

“Cool but, breakfast?” Enoki put a hand on hir growling stomach. “I did save your barrels twice.”

“If they allow it. We have to get the barrels in. Check for damage. I’ll need to make reports. Plus discuss about getting you help for the quest and—”

Another loud growl could be heard.

“En’mat?”

“Yes?”

“I’m gonna bite someone if I don’t eat something soon. God chosen or not, that was a lot of magic things.” Hir stomach really did feel like it was going to eat itself. 

Mo’ton and Li’tiana had warned hir about this, to be fair.

“Ah. Fine. Though you should suffer after how stupid that was.”