Dusty and Thyra followed the main road for another three days, Misty and Blackwater were glad to see their riders back in their saddles, though they disliked the rubbing of the leather against their backs.

"Ya know, we haven't seen anyone since we left Dannia." Dusty said to Thyra.

"I'm surprised we haven't been ambushed yet." She nods, glancing around.

"How's Tug back there?" Dusty asked Thyra, glancing back.

"He seems alright, limping a little though. That rock really did a number on his frog." Thyra responded, looking back at the horse.

"Has the paste helped?" Dusty asked.

"A little, yeah." Thyra replied.

Dusty looked back in front of them, and saw the lights of lanterns in front of them.

"Well, finally." Dusty says sarcastically.

"This'll be interesting. I have to say, though, we've been in the saddles for ages. I'm kinda itching to get off."

"Looks like an inn, wanna teather the horses and grab a meal?"

"Sounds good," Thyra nodded. "Food we don't have to catch ourselves."

They trotted up to the inn, and teather the horses, two young boys, one probably around sixteen or seventeen, and the other about fourteen or fifteen, opened the door for them. They took a seat facing the door, and waited for their waiter.

"You got your hidden weapons on ya?" Dusty whispered to Thyra.

"Never leave without them." She nodded, feeling her dagger tucked into her belt.

Dusty nodded and looked at the waitress, who was a girl, probably about eighteen.

"What can I get you two?" she asked.

"I'll just have whatever, I really don't care as long as it's warm." Thyra told the waitress.

"I'll take the beef stew." Dusty told the waitress.

"Drinks?"

"Ale." Thyra responds.

"Ale." Dusty says with her.

The waitress nodded, and gave Dusty a wink as she walked away.

Thyra chuckled. "Did...did she just wink at you? Looks like I've got some competition."

"That she did, but I would die before I left you." Dusty said to her.

"Don't get cheesy on me." Thyra shook her head in amusement. "But thanks."

It wasn't long before she came back, and leaned on the booth, "Hey big guy, want a real girl to have fun with? We got a free bed up there."

Thyra nearly spat out her drink. "Did you just try to get with my betrothed?"

The waitress seemed surprised, "Why are you with this hag?"

Dusty and Thurs both heard Blackwater and Misty outside, whinnying loudly.

Dusty got up to check what was going on, but the waitress grabbed him, and put a kiss on his lips, and groped his private area.

Dusty threw her off him as soon as she did it, his eyes slitting willingly.

Thyra stood up, her own eyes slit as she glared at the pathetic woman. "You shouldn't have done that." She growled.

Dusty spit as he wiped his mouth off, "You just earned a front row seat for pain worse than what Heillheim can do."

The woman looked at him, confused and smug. "If that's how you like it." She winked at him, digging her grave further.

The horses gave another panicked whinny and Dusty pushed past the girl to check on them.

The girl gave a smirk before putting a dagger in Dusty's back.

Thyra narrowed her eyes and pulled out her own dagger.

Dusty turned aground and narrowed his eyes, and he felt where the daggur glanced off his undercover armor, "Thyra, I told you this armor was a good idea."

The woman stepped back in shock, she was not expecting that. Thyra stepped towards her and punched her across the face. "Yeah, you were right!" She exclaimed to Dusty, shaking out her fist and raising her dagger.

"Hold up there, I have a better idea." Dusty says to her, and he extends one of his experimental wrist blades, covered in a black sustenance.

Thyra smirks in anticipation. "This will be interesting to watch."

"Mom! Dad! Help!" The waitress screams, as yells are heard outside.

"Hurry up with those Damn horses!" came an older man's voice.

"Dad! They won't move!" Came a younger one, probably one of the boys.

"Are you trying to steal our horses?" Thyra asks, tilting her head to the side as she listened to the yells.

"I'm not telling you anything whore!" the waitress yells, "I'm gonna have this guy tonight even if it's over your dead body!,

"Me? Take a look in the mirror. And do you really wanna treat him like an object?" Thyra replied. "The only thing you'll have tonight is missing limbs."

The waitress reaches into her shirt, and throws a throwing knife at Thyra's neck.

Thyra dodged it easily, shaking her head in amusement as she rips it out of the wall and throws it back with deadly accuracy, hitting the girl's leg. "You missed. Wanna try again?" Thyra asks the waitress, laughing.

The waitress yells in anger and pulls out the throwing knife, chuckling it to the side as she grunts in pain. The waitress charges towards Thyra with a dagger, aiming right for "where the sun doesn't shine". Thyra dodged out of the way barely, backpedaling out of the way and dodging a second swipe.

"That's a low blow, for a prosti like you!" Thyra exclaims, kicking the dagger out of the waitresses hand at the last second. It flies through the air and nearly decapitates a customer. The waitress screams like a brat and chargers at Thyra again, this time wielding a dagger.

Thyra smirks, lunging at the waitress and stabbing her in the shoulder. She jumps up and forces her to the ground, knocking the waitresses knife away in the process.

"I don't think you have the guts to kill!" The waitress exclaims, being pinned under Thyra, who slams her head against the floor multiple times.

"Really? Well clearly you've never heard of the Black Deaths!" Thyra exclaims, as the waitress kicks her away by nailing her right in the stomach. Thyra points over her shoulder to Dusty. "And you've made us both very angry." She slams the waitress away from her, who was trying to choke her.

"Dad! Mum!" The waitress screams for her parents as Thyra pins her to the wall.
"Mummy and daddy aren't here for you now." Thyra laughs, punching her across the face. "But don't worry, my betrothed or I will kill you soon enough." She throws her to the ground at Dusty's feet.

Dusty brought his blade to the girls neck, "Have you ever heard of Nightshade poison?" He asked her.

She looked up at him, fear in her eyes as she stuttered out a pathetic plea for mercy.

"Now, from the look on your face, you don't know what it is, so I'll tell you, I put one little cut on you, you have an agonizing two days till you die."

"And little by little, you deteriorate away. There's no point searching for a cure, you won't be able to speak after five minutes!" Thyra laughs, somewhat bluffing.

Dusty smirked, knowing they had an antidote in Tugs saddlebags.The waitress started crying, then screamed as Dusty's blade cut her arm, nicely long and slow.

"Aww. I wonder how long you'll last? You're pretty weak compared to the others!" Thyra laughs. "You might not even last an hour." She taunts as the waitress screams and cries, begging to be saved.

"I-I don't want t-to d-die!" She sobs.

"And we didn't want to be bothered by you, but we don't always get what we want, do we?!" Thyra responds.

Dusty gives Thyra a nod, and heads toward the door, and what he sees outside is hilarious, "Thyra, come look at this."

"Be right there!" Thyra class, slamming her boot onto the waitress' stomach, winding her and cutting off her crying, before turning and walking after Dusty.

As soon as she saw the sight, she burst out into laughter. The horses were being harassed by the kids, who were trying to urge them away. One was on Tug, who refused to move in any direction whatsoever. Blackwater was busy side-stepping away every time a man tried to get in the saddle, and Misty was nailing a man right in the prized jewels with a powerful back leg. He dropped to the ground, wailing in agony as Misty pranced away from him.

Thyra glanced at Dusty, just as one man jumped onto Misty from above.
"I think our horses want to show off their talents!" She exclaims, as three men tried to hold Blackwater still for one of them to mount him.

Dusty nodded, and whistled a command to Blackwater

Thyra followed suit, and immediately both horses went crazy, throwing their heads down and bucking hard, kicking out their back legs as the men struggled to stay on. Even tug threw off the imposter on his back. The man on Blackwater herald right over his head, and right into a tree. The man on Misty was clinging on the best he could, and could be heard crying as Misty suddenly reared up, so he tumbled off backwards, and being finished off as she trod on his face. Misty and Blackwater cantered over time their riders, snorting loudly with their ears right back and teeth showing, displaying their displeasure. Tug trotted over as well, walking right over the downed man carelessly.

"Hmm, well I guess you three had fun, now where the hell are The inn owners and those two brats?" Dusty asked seemingly no one.

Thyra turned, seeing the door slammed closed to the inn. "Something tells me they're in there." She said, reaching up to settle Misty by a pat to the neck.

Dusty patted Blackwater, grabbed his sword, and tossed Thyra her staff.

She nodded in thanks, gripping it.

Dusty and Thyra put their crate on their arms and bust down the door, to find the owners of the inn hovering over the waitress, while the two boys hold swords, trying to protect them.

"What've we got here, I wonder?" Thyra laughed.

"Don't know, but they're all gonna end up like the brat on the ground."

Dusty used his sword to literally slice through the swords the two boys had, effectively making them useless.

Thyra stabbed one in the neck, while the other out his hands up in surrender and backed off, shaking.

"Now, Thyra, you love torturing, so have fun." Dusty says to her.

"Well, that is true!" Thyra grins, grabbing the guy, who she assumes in the dad, by the arm and dragging him back towards her. "Hi there!" She cheers as he turns to face her, angry and scared.

"You the father of little miss prosti over there?" She adds. He looked over to his daughter.

"What did you do to her?!" He yells. She rolls her eyes and punches him across the face.

"Just a little deadly poisoning. She'll be dead by tomorrow." Thyra responds, grabbing her dagger out and stabbing him in the side. He lets out a yell of pain.

"At least she did her job!" He grunts.

"Not so tough, are ya?!" Thyra shouts as he blood starts flowing out. She pulls the dagger out and slices down his leg. "That was for trying to steal our horses!" She exclaims, before stabbing the man in the shoulder. "And THAT's for sticking your pathetic excuse of a daughter onto us!"

The wife of the man cried out, "Please! Well give you anything you want, just help our daughter?"

"And what could you possibly have that we would need?"

"A...a caravan." is all the woman says

Thyra gives off a mock surprise look. "Wow. Just what we needed!"

"It's carrying something valuable!" The woman says

"And what would that be?"

"They call it black powder."

Thyra glances at Dusty.

"It's headed for Dannia, they're gonna load it on a ship and send it to Rome, to make some sort of new weapon." She tells them

"There's nothing left of Dannia." Thyra responds.

"Wha....what?, a man came through yesterday from there."

"Yeah, and we just came from there." Thyra responds. "We basically burnt it to the ground."

"When's this caravan supposed to come through?" Dusty asked the woman

"Tomorrow, around Noon." she says

Dusty nods his head and walks to the door, "Thyra, they're all yours."

"Letting me have all the fun?" Thyra asked, ramming her staff right through the father's stomach. The woman let out a sob of heartbreak, but Thyra simply pinned her to the ground. She cut her arm with her dagger, and stabbed her in the neck.

"That's probably the shortest 'torture' I've ever done!" She laughs, looking at the crying waitress. "It doesn't feel good without your parents, does it?" She spits on her, before turning and walking out the door after Dusty.

As she passes the cowering kid they'd left alive, she beheads him with a quick swipe from her staff, laughing as the head rolls to rest on the waitress' side, before walking out.

Thyra walks out to Dusty's side. "Hope you don't get a disease from that Waitress." She jokes, nudging his side playfully.

"Eh, I'll live....but there is something that could help me." He says to her.

"And what would that be?" Thyra smiles.

Dusty answers her by turning her around, and kissing her, wrapping his arms around her.

She smiles into the kiss and kisses back, arms around his neck.

"Feel better?" She asks after they pull back.

"That I do, but let's clear these two bodies, they'll give us away when the caravan arrives." He says to her.

"Yeah, we kinda need to rely on the element of surprise." Thyra nods in agreement.

Dusty grabbed one of them, and drug them to the tree line.

Thyra grabbed the other one, making sure to keep it out of sight. "There we go. Might have to wash away the blood stains." She exclaims, brushing off her hands.

"It'll be fine, but I'm ready for some sleep." Dusty said to her

"I have to agree with you there." Thyra sighed. "But hey, I'm pretty sure that waitress said there was a free bed." She smirked, shrugging.

"I'd like a comfy bed for the night, we can call Dark and Pulse in the morning." Dusty answered.

"Sounds good!" Thyra nods. "Ready to find ourselves a room in that dump?"

"How hard could it be?" He asked, as they walked back towards the building.

Thyra steps over a body after they enter. "Guess we'll find out."

They find a sizeable room upstairs, and it isn't long before they're both asleep.

--------

They wake up as the sun rises the next morning, heading down into the main room.

"Hey, she's still alive." Dusty says to Thyra, looking at the sobbing waitress.

"Wow. She lasted longer than I expected!" Thyra laughs. "When'ya gonna die?" She bends over the pathetic waitress.

The girl looked up from her sobs, and throws a knife up at Thrya.

Thyra catches it by the handle midair, and tosses it into the wall. "Nice try. Try it with some skill or talent and you might get somewhere!" She laughs.

Dusty laughed at the pathetic attempt, and walked outside to check on the horses.

Thyra stayed behind a few minutes to taunt the waitress, to the point until she was choking on her sobs as she begged to be left alone. Thyra eventually left the pathetic mess, walking out to Dusty.

"How are they?" She asks.

"They're good, I went ahead and got our equipment together, here's your armor." He says, handing her armor to her.

"Thanks." She quickly slips it on.

Dusty finishes putting his on, and lets out a dragon call.

Thyra let's out a roar after him, and sure enough two roars answer them from a fair ways away.

It wasn't too long after that the familiar shapes of Dark and Pulse appeared on the horizon, and landed next to them, cooing happily.

"Hi there!" Thyra greets Pulse happily. "You missed the party. We killed some people. Oh, and ignore the wailing from inside."

Dark basically drove his head into Dusty's chest, almost knocking the wind out of him, "Yeah, I missed you too bud." Dark shook himself and a number of scales fell off, more than usual.

Thyra grimaced as she was soaked in saliva. "Thank you, for that." She grumbled, trying to wipe it off.

Dusty grabbed the last of his gear, and kept his mask up, as voices were heard off in the distance.

"Keep the line moving! We need to be in Dannia in three days!"

"Shut the hell up Morgan! We're stopping at the inn for a few hours."

"To Hell with stopping, we need to keep going!"

Thyra glanced at Dusty with a smirk. "Guess they're a little early?" She mumbles.

"From the sound of it, they're on a schedule." Dusty said, mounting Blackwater, and giving Dark a hand gesture to fly cover.

Thyra vaulted onto Misty's back, nodding to Pulse, who flew into the forest quickly.

They moved to the side of the clearing, where the shading of the trees almost fully hid them from sight, and five covered wagons came around the corner and stopped in front of the inn.

"Are you sure we can't just move on?" A man asks, stepping onto the ground.

"We've been going for days on cold provisions and almost no sleep, the men need a break."

"At this dump? Surely we can just keep going for half a day, another will pop up."

"Actually we can't...." they were cut off as a rider, bearing the Dannish symbol, ran in from the other way, and stopped next to them.

"Have you seen two riders? Wearing all black and heavily armed?" The man asked the caravan

"No we haven't, why?"

"They burnt the capital to the ground, I got a whole three thousand men behind me looking for them."

"Well that's not good." Dusty said to Thyra.

She nodded in agreement. "Three thousand men might be too much, even for us."

The men in the caravan all stood still at that statement, and some began packing up.

"Well I guess we go at them now." Dusty said to her.

Thyra nodded in agreement, lifting her staff up into a ready poised.

Dusty brought his bow up, and fired an arrow at the man on the lead wagon, which slammed into the man's chest.

Thyra threw a knife with deadly accuracy, which pierced a man's neck.

Blackwater charged forward as Dusty shot arrow after arrow into anyone he was.

Thyra urged Misty on after them, stabbing right through a man with her staff as soon as she was close enough.

Dusty dismounted next to the wagons, and jumped on one, a threw a guy off on his way up, breaking his neck.

Thyra cantered past on Misty, stabbing men left and right from the saddle.

Dusty stabbed a man through the chest, and only seeing three or four left, sheathed his sword, and extended his wrist blades.

Thyra leans down and grabbed a man by the collar. Turns out it was the man from the army. She grinned, she was gonna enjoy this.

Dusty dropped down in front of the men, all of whom decide to drop their weapons and surrender.

"Well aren't you a smart bunch," Dusty said through his mask.

Thyra chuckled, throwing her man to the ground and dismounting, pulling out her dagger as she charged at him. She kicked his sword away, dodges out of the way of a punch, and slices his arm open.

Dusty knocks the four men out, and walked over to Thyra, "Well that went better than I expected."

She reaches down and stabs her victim in the chest. "Yeah, I have to agree." She pulls her staff out, kicking the body to the ground.

They turn around as they head hoofbeats coming up the road, and a dozen men on horseback come around the bend, and stop. And they all aim their bows the Thyra and Dusty.

"Spoke too soon." Thyra muttered.

But it isn't too long before two whisked form in the air, and two plasma blasts literally shred the men and horses apart.

Thyra looks up, grinning. "Thanks!" She calls to their dragons.

Dusty moved to one of the wagons, and grabbed two crates of the powder, and added them to Tugs load, "That ain't too much is it?" he asked the horse, who neighed with a no.

Thyra grabbed two small crates as well, carefully loading them onto Misty as well, bring sure to check they weren't too heavy.

Dusty put two more on Blackwater before mounting and headed toward the road, "Well it looks like the army is finally doing something, took them long enough."

"Too little, too late!" Thyra laughs. "Well, as far as we're concerned anyway."

"Yeah, we're only a three day ride from the border to Germania, then we head south towards the mountains, and I think we'll have to pass through the village where we got Blackwater and Misty."

"Nice! We never got to thank them!" Thyra laughs, patting Misty's neck.

They started down the road, and Pulse decided to do a fly-by, upside down and with her tongue flapping out.

Thyra chuckles, reaching up towards her, brushing her fingers over Pulse's scales, before Pulse flips over and gains height again.

"She just loves playing around." Dusty says to Thyra.

"Yeah!" Thyra laughs, shaking her head in amusement as she watches Pulse do a few flips midair.

They follow the road till nightfall, and pull off and camp near a decently sized pond for the night.