The hills of Braddock were about to witness a great race of unseen proportions, there were more than a dozen riders all with their mounts, readying them for the journey ahead it wasn't a very long trek but it was through treacherous and uneven terrain, the road wasn't long but it sure was winding. To ensure those with flying mounts didn't get that much of an advantage, the organizers had put certain way-points in the form of very tall flags, which those who flew had to pass by in whichever order they saw fit. Those who were on terrestrial mounts wouldn't have such handicap, but whoever got out of the predetermined and slightly more even road, ran the risk of getting lost or having their mounts injured. The only rules of the race: get your ass and your mount's to the finish line. if either of you can't continue you'll be disqualified.

Arashi was intrigued by this event, He was passing by the valley when he heard of it and decided to watch, but as luck would have it, that wasn't all he was gonna do.

As he arrived he immediately heard a commotion, "How could you do that! You fucking donkey!!" Arashi (and everyone else really) turned to see what was happening as a young man was being berated by an older one with a heavy accent "B-but" the young man pleaded "He's the Donkey!" He pointed at what was sure enough a donkey. "Well, then you're apparently not even as smart as a Donkey!!!" The older man yelled "how could you be so stupid, as to break your ankle and your wrist right before the race! Not only did I have to to train a freaking Donkey for a race, but it seems that wasn't the only donkey participating!" The younger man begins to cry "I'm sorry! but I needed to do my best in this race to help the family's farm!" "And now you won't even be able to participate!" the younger man fell to his knees defeated, he looked around for someone to help him as he wept, and his eyes rested on Arashi.

It seems he was the closest to them and also the last one to turn around and feign ignorance of the problem. "You sir! Please help me I can't give you much! but I need someone to participate in the race in my family's name!" Arashi looked around confused and then pointed with his finger wondering whether he was the one the young man was addressing "Yes You sir! Please!" Arashi was conflicted to say the least, he always liked to help people if he was able, but this was all too sudden. "I don't even know how to ride a horse..." The young man saw Arashi buckle, a little a bit more and he'd be convinced "Don't worry about that! It's not a horse ,It's a donkey! He's very well behaved! He wont give you trouble I swear!" Arashi sighed, the young man had to resist pumping his fist "Alright... I'll do it."

And that's how Arashi ended up as a registered participant of this wacky race, without a mount of his own and with a family's dream hanging on his shoulders.

Cyran was not traditionally one for races.

Or… horses, really.

It was a silly thing for an assassin to have, but beyond layers of fabric and shade, Cyran could be oddly proper at times. This included, unfortunately, a secret distaste for horses. They were necessary for travel, yes, but he rather preferred to avoid the animals entirely. Their eyes and demeanor were unnerving. He knew how to ride them, but he preferred other animals if he could help it.

Unfortunately for him, he’d been hired to take care of a cheating contestant in a land and sky race in the thick of Braddock Hills. The racer - a rather popular one here in King’s Valley - was heavily guarded most of the time, which meant that the easiest moment for Cyran to dispose of him was during the race in itself.

… And, unfortunately, he was going to have to ride on a horse to accomplish such a task.

Cyran tugged at the cloth covering the lower half of his face with one hand, tugging at the reins of Horse - a mare he’d never gotten to naming, but had served him decently enough over the years - all the way to the starting line. There were plenty of racers mulling around the track, all with stronger and faster looking mounts at their disposal.

That suited him just fine. Cyran wasn’t here to win, after all.

Preferring not to draw too much attention to himself, Cyran took to a quieter corner, where there was another man with what looked like a donkey as a mount saddling up his animal. A pack mule seemed an odd choice for such a race… perhaps he was intending to win based on a steady pace and determination. Still, the younger man wore a pinched expression on his face.

Cyran went about making sure Horse was saddled, turning to look at him. This racer was not Cyran’s target. It wouldn’t hurt to engage in a little small talk, he supposed.

“Nervous?”

As he went to his designated place near a corner of the track, he began making sure the donkey's small saddle, was properly attached, he wasn't a good rider so he didn't want to fall off, rattling it a little he noticed it was secure enough, and refrained from tightening it as he didn't want to hurt the animal either. Now that he realized the pair had never given him the Donkey's name... well it was too late now he was in the track and the other two were watching from a distance.

"Alright buddy... Let's do our best!" Arashi told the Donkey before he noticed someone else was saddling his horse next to him, the man looked at him as he asked if he was nervous... "Is it tat obvious..?" He Sighed and told the other a bit of what had happened. "I wasn't even planning to participate... it got sort of thrust into me all of a sudden... I don't even know much about how to ride, but I guess I'll make do..."

As he explained this everyone else seemed to be just about ready, With a bit of anxiety he tried and sort of awkwardly succeeded in mounting the donkey. There he waited for the sign that they could start...

The other racer seemed startled that Cyran had spoken to him. Cyran gave him a kindly smile, one that he realized wasn’t quite visible under his coverings. Strange that there was a racer here that didn’t exactly know how to ride their mount, but Cyran wasn’t going to question it. They all had their own secrets and reasons for being here. “It’s fairly easy.” He said, attempting to be reassuring. “Just trust your mount, and let it speak to you with its actions. If you listen to them, then the both of you will do just fine.” These kinds of racing societies thought speed was the key to controlling a horse, but Cyran always thought consistency was the key to these events.

The race was getting close to its start. Cyran scanned the crowd, searching for the target specified by his employer. Grekkin had described him as having a red hand painted over his face, a signature whenever he participated in these races. He was over on the other side of the starting line, on a nightmare steed with a flaming mane. Meur-Kir Hildrifk.

Cyran’s goal: to make sure that he didn’t win this race.

He turned to the rider on the mule, and held out his hand. “The name’s Sayah Arden.” He lied, picking a name at random. “I wish you luck.”

With that in mind, he turned and began to mount his horse, waiting for the countdown.

A half-orc announcer took a step on a large rock, holding some sort of wand in his hands. “Ladies, gentlemen, and all things in between… take your starting positions! May the race commence in three… two… one…!”

The sound of a loud blast of magical fire marked the beginning of the event, and the race began in earnest.

"I hope so" Arashi Told the person now known to him as Sayah, "I'm Arashi, and good luck to you too!" He looked around at the other riders and their mounts, there was one in a Flaming horse, he looked quite imposing and sure of himself, there were also a few giant bird riders, some exotic canine and feline riders, and a few more on horseback. Arashi was the only one who was in a slower, less capable mount... While he didn't promise he'd win and he wasn't really asked to win, he still didn't want to ridicule himself in this race, so he would do his best as he had promised

as the half-orc announcer told people to ready up, Arashi's anxiety shot up a little, unsure of what will happen and how long he'd last, Hopefully the other riders wouldn't see him as a threat and would leave him alone, since there were no rules fighting was almost a given and while he was better suited for that, he still didn't want to risk any harm coming to the 'precious' donkey that got him into this mess...

After a quick countdown the announcer shot his wand, "Hyaa!" A huge cloud of dust was created as all the mounts took off at impressive speeds, Arashi was sure he had given the common 'go' command to his mount, yet as the dust settled a little he noticed he was the only one still in the starting line, the donkey stayed still keeping up a grazing motion with its mouth... "Well... this might not work out"

Cyran nodded at the young man - who introduced himself as Arashi - before hopping onto Bespoke horse. With the mule as his mount, he might not pose much threat to winning the race, but Cyran wasn’t out to win the race.

He only had one goal in mind, now.

He took his starting position with the others and took off, eye trained directly on the rider aboard the nightmare steed. He knew what he had to do… but how to go about subtly sabotaging the rider’s horse without calling attention to himself?

An idea occurred to him. It wasn’t one he necessarily wanted to use so early on, but his horse was trained for this maneuver. Cyran nudged her in the flank, whispering in her ear - “Disappearing act.”

She understood what the phrase meant as Cyran immediately turned his attention to the rider, blinked -

And all of a sudden, he was no longer sitting on his horse, who began veering off track into greener pastures where she would be safe and away from the race.^[1] Rather, he was sitting on the back of Meur-Kir Hildrifk’s nightmare steed.

“What the-“

The rider didn’t get the chance to properly react before Cyran dug his claws into the rider’s back in one smooth movement.^[2] The rider let out a strangled, gargling gasp as his lungs filled with blood and he went limp in Cyran’s arms, falling off his horse. Cyran barely spared him a passing glance as he scooted forwards, tugging desperately on the reigns in an attempt to get the steed under control. “Shit!”

---

1. Blink
2. Death Swipe

Arashi could only helplessly watch as the others disappeared from sight, no signal seemed to make this stubborn ass want to move, he bounced his ankles on the donkey's rib-cage, tried whipping the reins, and nothing seemed to work... And any verbal cues and commands he could think of seemed to fall on deaf donkey ears.

Exasperated Arashi got off of his mount and went to try and walk it by pulling on it's reins, he could feel the Donkey's apathy towards him and the whole situation as it refused to look at him and as he grabbed the reins and pulled a little instead of walking this jackass pulled back and refused to take a single step, after struggling for a bit Arashi let go, this was a battle of attrition and the donkey seemed to be winning. "Why don't you want to cooperate?! I'm trying to help save your home you know??" The donkey kept munching away with an uninterested face... so Arashi thought that maybe instead of pulling all this creature needed was a little push in the right direction

So Arashi walked towards the back of the donkey clearly unaware of the dangers of pushing a donkey's butt. as he did it brayed letting out an impressively loud sound as it took a step forward and kicked at Arashi with all of its might, the combination of sound and movement took Arashi off guard and he fell face first on the floor narrowly avoiding the donkey's kick which just grazed his back on his way down. "Dammit!! you had to move and kick me didn't you!" Arashi was extremely embarrassed he could hear the laughter of the crowd that had gathered for the race from here... He climbed back on the donkey defeated as it kept on munching a small patch of grass. he would try to move again in a bit... right now he needed to collect his thoughts and calm down so as to not take out his sword and commit Donkeycide.

Cyran was having a fair bit of trouble with his own mount.

He was not especially adept at handling horses - while he had passable skill, enough that he could maneuver a gentle mare or an even-tempered animal. The nightmare steed, on the other hand, was anything but.

“Whoa!” Cyran grasped desperately for the reins as the steed bucked, attempting to knock the new passenger off. The assassin, whose footing was so sure when he was on solid ground, was unable to secure his boots in the holsters in time, was thrown unceremoniously to the ground with a dull THUD.

The horse stamped its hooves and huffed at Cyran, but made no attempts to run away. Cyran stood, brushing dust off of his coat. “… Okay. Do you’re a rather belligerent animal, aren’t you?” He mumbled to himself. “Now, if I try climbing on gently, will you let me up?”

The horse fixed him with a murderous glare.

Cyran sighed. “Well, so much for winning.” Not that he particularly cared about winning this race. He’d accomplished his mission, after all. But he would at least keep up appearances, as to not arouse suspicion from anyone around.

“Good… horse.”

Slowly, gently, as if dealing with an injured bird, Cyran pulled himself into the horse’s back and setting forward again.

Though the horse did not move to throw him off, it did not move forward, either, leaving Cyran stranded in the middle of the racetrack as other riders left him in the dust.

Arashi sat on top of the donkey, arms crossed, slumped down, as he thought what he would do to get the stubborn creature to move. As he wondered in his mind, something seemed to have listened to his nonexistent plight, he wasn't much for praying or religion, and he hadn't done that now either, but still it seems the universe knew what he was wondering and decided to reply. Just as he was about to give up, the ground began to shake, a faint smile began to form on Arashi's face as people ran away in panic fearing the flimsy stands would crumble on top of them, this would make the damn ass move, now he just needed to guide it along the track and could finally make progress!

Or so he thought... perhaps this donkey was more stubborn if not straight up dumber than Arashi had anticipated, it kept it's uninterested glare while munching at nothing as the world collapsed in front of it's dead eyes. "Go on! Move! Go! Start! what the hell do I have to do to get this jackass to move!" The venue collapsed as the donkey just stared unamused.

Again Arashi was about to give up and call it quits, but as he decided, for a split second he felt weightless... A landslide had taken a big chunk of the starting line of the race including him and the donkey, an avalanche of rocks, mud, and soil tumbled down the side of the hill, as the earthquake raged...

Arashi held on to the donkey which seemed undisturbed as a big rock, which somehow kept itself above the landslide, had caught them.

The race had begun for the pair.

The rumbling of the earth underneath Cyran was the first sign that something had gone horribly wrong. He was still stuck on the unmoving nightmare steed, which had refused to budge while he sat on its back. Cyran wasn’t particularly mad. He wasn’t really in this race to win, but… but now he was well and truly stuck. At first, he’d resigned himself to getting stuck here while everyone else lapped him - but then the earth started moving, enough to spook his mount. His heart rate spiked, remembering the horrible earthquake in Darkveil, when the earth had split open, and Shade’s Valley had crumbled to dust.

No… not again.

Cyran glanced behind him, his worst suspicions only confirmed when he saw the landslide rapidly approaching him.

“Shit!”

He tugged sharply on the reins of his horse - this time, the nightmare steed had no qualms obeying, not when it meant they would both survive. The assassin quickly abandoned the racetrack, turning the steed sharply to the side in an attempt to get as far away from the crumbling mountain as possible.

“Come on, come on…”

He blinked, remembering the destruction of his orphanage.

Another, and he remembered the lava flooding his foyer, burning furniture and rugs and books until there was nothing left behind.

“Faster!”

Until -

Freedom.

The moment that they were free from the landslide, the nightmare steed bucked Cyran off, throwing him to the ground. Not that Cyran cared. His chest heaved as he attempted to draw breath, still unable to get his panic under control.

The race might have just begun for Arashi and his donkey, but Cyran was out for good.

Arashi was terrified at first, he was riding the donkey that was riding the landslide, it felt like a very brittle balance was the only thing keeping him afloat and alive right now, but as the seconds passed and he went farther and farther down the hill with no complications, he began to have a bit of fun! It reminded him of the few times that he went to a small hill as a child and rolled down, only that this was lasting much longer and was way faster. It was an exhilarating feeling, at least for him.

Once he managed to block out the sound of crashing and rolling that was around him, Arashi was genuinely having fun. it was an odd situation but for now at least it seemed safe enough, at least the donkey thought so... a bit longer and Arashi could already see the finish line! Apparently he had been extremely lucky, as the landslide began slowing down thanks to the hill reaching it's end and the slope disappearing, slowing to a halt right in front of the finish line... no one seemed to be close to it yet, this was Arashi's chance!

"Go Donkey! you got this!! Just a few steps and we'll win first place!! your home would be saved!" and at that point the donkey walked slowly apparently it finally grasped the fact that this was a race... or something... anyways after a few exciting moments of donkey walking, Arashi and his Donkey got through the finish line right in time for the top racers to come into view. "We did it!"

What was left of the crowd at the finish line, after most ran away from the landslide and earthquake, they cheered, laughed, and celebrated as Arashi and the Donkey won literally by a landslide.