The sun was almost at it’s peak in the middle of the desert. It was only twenty minutes until noon when the race started, and she still hadn’t spotted Wolfe in the crowd. Gwendolyn had been excited when she received the letter from her charming troubadour, who had even gone so far as to stamp a flower into it.



“Dearest Lady Gwendolyn,

It hath been far too long since my eyes have laid upon your big, voluptuous…eyes. I write you this day to bring you to Zeinav, there is a race in which I shall participate, and I wish you to be there with me. Should I win, I pray, I might have your heart. Turn left at the cactus and you shall find the racegrounds, and may we lay eyes upon each other soon.



Yours, Truly,

Ast Wolfe.”



    An odd error for a note, but perhaps he had run out of paper to write a new one. Regardless, her interest had been piqued. It was not often that knights called to win tournaments in her name, so old fashioned. Almost out of one of the fairytales her maids would read her when she was younger. She sighed, fantasizing about him before her current maids brought her back to reality.



    She sat in an open-top wagon with sleighsleds instead of wheels. It’s alabaster white siding shone in the desert sun brighter than anything, and three maids sat with her, each scanning the crowd for handsome knights. The reindeer at the front panted in the heat, it's loose cloth wrappings some of it's only protection. It was not her intention to participate, but her search for her champion had brought the wagon dangerously close to the loosely defined starting line.


Pets: Reindeer
NPCS: Millicent, Priscilla, Mori

When Astrid heard of the races in Zeinav, she decided that could be a fun activity, different from the usual fighting beasts and bandits they’re used to – even if she and Blue Wolfeberry both hate the desert heat. “Well, it’s a race!” she said. “We’ll be movin’ the whole time, so at least we’ll have some wind, ya know?”

She regrets that. It’s unbearably hot, and the only thing keeping Astrid sane is the fact that both of her hammers have icy enchantments that give off cool air. Now more than ever, she’s glad she fought a dragon. There’s no turning back, though, for Astrid has been plotting.

The plot is harmless, really. She simply took inspiration from Cantio’s stories of knights and maidens, proposed the idea of inviting Gwen to Blue Raspberry (perhaps by bending the truth only slightly about its contents), and created the most official-looking letter she possibly could. In this effort, she made use of her magical piece of paper to create the fanciest version she could think of, then she spent an entire day trying to copy the text loop-for-loop. Everything was perfect… until she reached the end and started to sign it as her name.

Oh, Astrid, always the prankster. That last bit will be fine, because today, despite her unwitting noble status, Astrid is but a squire to the noble knight Wolfe of Dragon’s Cradle. And they’re here to win a race.

Helping to shade both Astrid and Blue Raspberry from the desert sun is a majestic pegasus with a stormy gray pelt speckled with flecks of white to match its shockingly white mane and tail. Its wings, outstretched like an awning, match the gray of its pelt with iridescent shimmers of blue in the feathers. On its back, it’s fitting with a saddle that holds a rider on its shoulders ahead of its wings, perfectly designed for the leather not to impede its movement.

This is Arcus, Astrid’s pet pegasus, gifted to her by Cantio* at some point recently, and Arcus makes a perfect mount for any race. (That does not make Astrid a perfect rider, but she certainly got a lot of practice on the way down from Sky Peak.) The pegasus looks back at his master and her partner with sky blue eyes full of curiosity, snorting and blowing air between his lips, shaking the white whiskers under his chin.

“Ah, yeah, I know, bud. It’s hot,” Astrid says, petting his face. “Wolfe, d’ya see Gwen? Ya think she showed?”

---

*I don’t know when, at this point I’ve given up trying to make it make sense. She would have told Blue about it as soon as she got him.

Pets: 
Arcus (reindeer pegasus)
Spicy Pawsage (pet pocket) 

Blue Raspberry wasn't a big fan of the desert. It was hot and there was nothing around to eat except sand, which wasn't the worst tasting thing they'd ever eaten, but it wasn't very good. Thankfully, the heat of the desert wasn't as bad as it had been near the top of a volcano so close to boiling lava. The ooze wasn't turning into a blue puddle in their armor this time, but they still felt just a tad softer than they were happy with as the heat made them slide just a bit closer to liquid than solid on the scales they usually kept well balanced. They were excited to compete in a race though, so they just had to bear it. They were also happy to see Gwen again.

Blue looked around, trying to spot Gwen in the crowd. There was a pretty decent turnout for the race, the stands and the starting line being pretty packed. Just how famous was this event? How were so many people willing to be in this heat? Blue Raspberry just couldn't understand. Blue looked at the starting line again and thought they saw a flash of a familiar blue dress around a weird wagon. Was that one of the maids that had brought them into Gwen's house? If it was, Gwen was probably with them.

"Oh, I think I see her over there, by the starting line. Is she joining the race too?" Blue pointed the wagon out to Astrid and started clanking their way over.

    She felt the ring pulsate with happiness, and also discomfort… Was he worried about meeting her? Priscilla tapped her shoulder, before slyly pointing over her shoulder to the approaching knight. Excitedly, she stood, waving at the approaching blue-haired man walking towards her in the crowd. It was rather hot out, and her pale-blue formal dress billowed gaily in the wind as she called to him.



“Wolfe! Over here!” Hopping out of the crowded wagon, she pushed through the crowd to meet him. “Wolfe! Ahem, so good to see you. I was very happy to have received your invitation, best of luck in the race today.” She straightened out her outfit as she talked, trying to regain the composure that the man had first been introduced to at the dinner. Behind him, out of the crowd, thumped a rather impressive pegasus, it’s wings gleaming in the sunlight. Along side of which a small….Blonde……Armoured……….Astrid.



“Astrid? Whatever are you doing here? Were you following...” She looked confusedly at Wolfe. No, there was no way. Just a coincidence, it was a rather popular race after all. And this was the most well known child in half of Charon at this point apparently. It was odd to hear of this misfit child’s antics in the ballrooms back home, but by now she had gotten used to it. “Nevermind. Wolfe, this is my friend Astrid, we met some time ago back in the Frost Gale. Astrid, Wolfe, He’s and adventurer and if luck serves well will win this race on my behalf.” She said, blushing slightly.

Astrid does her absolute best to keep a shit-eating grin off of her face, looking as innocent as she can as she follows Wolfe over to meet with Gwen. Oh, and this time Gwen has a few more assistants with her. The one Astrid met before, Millicent, was surprisingly calm about the two of them nearly dying in the Dragon’s Spine.

Clearly, Gwen did not expect to see Astrid here. Did Wolfe not mention her when they had their date? Well, that’s gonna be even more interesting, isn’t it?

“Hiya, Gwen,” Astrid says as cheerfully as can be. “I’m here ta race with Wolfe! Ya don’t need ta introduce us, but thanks. We’ve been adventurin’ together basically since I started on me own!” Without a care in the world, Astrid pats Wolfe’s cuirass, a metallic clanging as her gauntlet meets its polished surface. “How do ya like their new armor? I got ta make it fer ‘em! Custom tailored ta their build.”

“Glad ta see ya get along just fine,” the child continues. “Ser Wolfe said ya told ‘em about the time we made a thundercloud together! When ya sent that invitation, I told ‘em they had ta go meet ya.” She winks playfully, hamming it up. “I told ‘em yer a pretty cool person. Seems like ya proved it right.”

Blue gave a small wave as Gwen greeted them and smiled. They were happy to see her even in this uncomfortable desert heat. They made their way over to her, Astrid right behind them.

"Lady Gwendolyn. Nice to see you too! Thanks." Blue greeted her in turn, but then looked over at her wagon, confusion evident on their face. "But, aren't you competing too? Your wagon's real close to the starting line. Your horse doesn't look very good though." Blue indicated the heavily panting, drooping reindeer at the front of the wagon. It looked like it was handling the heat even worse than the ooze. "Hot out here, isn't it?"

"Me and Astrid have been lots of places together, on all sorts of adventures. We're best friends!" Blue laughed. What did Cantio call them? It was like family, but more specific since they were both like his children. What was it? Oh, right! "We're brother and sister!" Blue thought out loud, smiling proudly.

"It's the best suit of armor in the world! Astrid made it just for me, so it fits me perfectly. It's way better than my old suit. Oh, wait, you didn't see my old suit since I wore those other clothes when we had dinner. It looked pretty nice, but I think this suit looks better."

Blue pulled their helmet out from behind their back beneath their cloak, discreetly extracting it from their stomach, and put it on.

"Look, it even has horns! We match!" Blue leaned sideways over Astrid, pointing to the horns on their helmet and the horns on Astrid's head at the same time. Through the ring, Gwen would feel pure joy coming from the ooze as they showed off their forged family resemblance.

    She felt dizzy. Astrid….And Wolfe? The ring vibrated with pure joy, it wasn’t some tall tale. A million things buzzed through her mind. Made his armour, adventuring with him, Told him to go to the dinner… Gods above. They were practically related. wait...They actually ARE related. Brother and Sister?! Astrid had to be doing this on purpose at this point, there was no way this was a coincidence. Brother and Sister?! Going further with Wolfe meant accepting Astrid as a regular part of her life. Up until now they had been extremely coincidental friends. Is it weird that a knight is hanging out with his little sister in the middle of a desert race? Conflict raced through her mind as she calculated all this information with the blankest look on her face, at least until the one minute call was made for the race to start.



    “Ah, armour, very nice. Yes… uh no Albus is alright he’s just being a baby… It really is quite a dashing set… oh I…I think I am competing actually. Yes, yeah! I’m on the starting line after all… why not!” Her extremely fazed look turned more into determination as a maniacal scheme concocted in her mind. A race for her heart…With her as a participant. It would be simple, if Wolfe beat her she would pursue him further. If she beat Wolfe and Astrid, then she would return the ring and live her best life. Alone. The emotions were complex. jealousy, confusion, Righteous determination. She wasn’t even sure what outcome she wanted out of all this.



    “Well, I guess we should be off. Gotta give Albus some last minute ice chips before we get ready! Best of luck!” She waved, walking off to her wagon full of maids pretending that they hadn’t been eavesdropping on the whole conversation.



“Wait, so we’re gonna race? Isn’t Albus more of a snow steed?”

“Is this about Astrid… We told you to just let it go”

“Mmmm fun!”



    A red-robed woman walked out in front of the line of racers that had grown almost 50 entrants wide. It would seem that they were almost ready.


Priscilla
Millicent
Mori

Astrid quite enjoys seeing Blue show off the armor she worked hard on for them. They love it, and it shows. She also quite enjoys seeing Gwen's absolutely shocked expression upon Blue so boldly declaring that the two of them are siblings. Astrid was going to go with a knight and their squire, but siblings sounds pretty fun. They do basically share a dad, after all. 

"Aye, siblin's is a good way ta put it," she says, nodding in agreement and grinning. "Adopted families can get kinda weird, ya know?" 

While Gwen fumbles over whether or not she's competing and wanders away, Astrid lets out the giggle she's been stifling. "I really don't think she expected ta see us together," she half-says, half-squeaks. The way the maids whisper when Gwen returns to her wagon makes her giggle harder, and she gives them a small wave.

When she recovers, she climbs up on Arcus. "So, Wolfe, ya gotta win fer her. Knight's honor an' alla that. Think we can manage it?" Astrid looks around at all the racers lined up and raring to go. There's a lot of competition, but this is a huge event. She wouldn't be surprised if they see someone else they know here. "The competition looks fierce," she notes, then looks at Blue. "People are gonna play dirty, I bet." 

"Oh, okay. Thanks! Good luck to you too!" Blue was a little surprised by Gwen's sudden departure to go prepare for the race. Everyone else seemed to be gearing up as well though, the race about to start. The ring on Blue's finger was flashing with so many different emotions that the ooze thought it might be broken. Weird.

Blue shrugged and looked back to Astrid.

"Wait, knight's duty? Ah! Okay, yeah, I'm gonna win, I gotta!" Blue panicked. It's a knight's duty to win races!? They didn't know that! Did it count if they weren't technically a knight yet, or would they not be allowed to become a knight anymore? They'd better be safe and win this thing.

Blue looked around at the competition. They really did look fierce. What did Astrid mean they were going to play dirty? Were they going to throw dirt at each other? Well, Astrid had goggles and Blue had their helmet, so that shouldn't be a problem. They and Astrid also had plenty of tricks up their sleeves to mess with the competition and weren't above using them.

The only problem now was that Blue didn't have a mount. They'd sort of expected to be riding with Astrid, but now they knew they had to win this themself to be able to be a knight. There were some donkeys available for entrants to use, but they really didn't seem very fast.

"I'm gonna win this!" Blue declared to Astrid before dropping to all fours and shifting their form. Their armor disappeared into blue fur as they transformed into a large, blue feline with a long, thin tail. When they were done their transformation, Blue Cheetahberry got into position on the starting line with the others.

---

Shapeshifter Plate

Gwendolyn was barely paying attention to her surroundings when she attempted to step back onto her wagon full of maids. For one, the starting line had completely encroached her, blocking them in backwards and forwards, side to side. Suspiciously, all of her maids as well had stopped giggling, only staring daggers at her. A second to process why they weren’t opening the latch was followed by the crimson-clad womans announcement.



“RULES?!” She shouted to the crowd, a wicked smile across her face.

“NO RULES” They responded, the vibrato of nearly a hundred combined racers and spectators rumbling the sand.

“READY?! GO!” She dropped the white flag to signal the start of the race. Gwendolyn took the split second to look back at her cohort, Priscilla standing at the steps of the wagon. She could only see her face as the normally pleasant young woman pushes her off and the rest take flight. Millicent whips the reins of Albus and the confused reindeer rears back, before taking off with speed.



The rest of the competitors all tore out of the starting gate like bats out of the hells. Horses, Duneriders, Devilish contraptions each rushed to evacuate what was quickly becoming chaos incarnate. The riders threw spells and potions, arrows and swords flew left and right as many crashed and burned not even ten feet from the start. And Gwendolyn stood there, dumbfounded, and desperately trying to avoid both the racers and their disastrous designs from ending her beautiful life. If one thing were to come across the ring at this moment, it would be fear.

With her racing partner determined to win as any noble knight would, Astrid watches the woman with the flag. The crowd of racers roar around her. Arcus tosses his head and snorts, threatening to be startled by the uproar, but Astrid pats his neck to calm him. She settles in the saddle, checking the straps that help hold her in while airborne, gripping the sides with her knees, and waits readily. Then she watches the flag fall. 

Thunder rumbles around them as all the racers charge forward at once, herself included. Chaos erupts around them, so she steers Arcus straight up into the sky. Something explodes right beside him and blows them off course, the hot air forcing his wing up and tilting them unexpectedly. Arcus whinnies in surprise and fights to flap his wings and right himself as he charges into the air. They get some breathing room, and Astrid looks back to check on Blue and Gwen. She spots Gwen's cart hauling forward, but no Gwen! 

That's when she spots Blue and Gwen back at the starting line and beelines back toward them to keep pace. This race is do or die, and she's going to support Blue to the finish line. "What happened?!" she shouts as she nears them. 

---

Flight (Arcus)

The race was off to an explosive start! In almost an instant, half the racers were out of the competition. One wagon was hit by a giant ice shard right to one of its front wheals, causing it to crash into another cart next to it, the one that had fired the ice shard into it actually, and both were totaled. One wagon that had no animals in front to push it started to make a loud noise, its wheals turning and it launching forward only for it to suddenly explode! Whatever it was making it go forward, maybe the world just wasn't ready for it.

Blue dodged beams and projectiles, their cat shape quite nimble even for its large size. But, before they ran very far forward, they stopped and turned around. The ring that had been stored inside them during their transformation suddenly sent them one feeling loud and clear. Fear. Running back, they could see why. She was left abandoned, her wagon gone, and chaos all around her.

The big blue cheetah ran up to her and lowered to the ground, looking at her and silently offering a ride. They might have been competing against each other a moment ago, but something was off about this situation. Why would her wagon take off without her? They couldn't just leave her there, looking confused and feeling afraid.

---

Gwen's Eternity Ring

    Explosions and chaos surrounded her. She could see Astrid circling the skies but not a moment was spared for her to gether her senses about her. Explosions and ice beams, malfunctioning contraptions sent her too and fro in an effort to not get ran over. A small opening found a massive blue cheetah kneeling before her. The combination of it’s assuredness and the desire to leave found her not even thinking as she mounted it with a quick “Hyah!" Astrid circles down, sacrificing a prestigious lead to ensure her safety. "I don't know!" She shouts back, "The maids took off without me! I think Albus got spooked or something!" The denial was palpable. Priscillas cold glare as she pushed her off the cart was uncannily stuck in her mind.



    The powerful, suprisingly soft beast erupted forward, dashing through the crowd to break out of the dense pack of remaining racers. She held on with her arms clinging tightly to it’s furry neck as it leapt up over a burning contraption and dashed forth. Finally, out of the bulk of the chaos, it looked like only half or a fourth of the racers had made it off the line. Was this normal? Gwendolyn looked back, spotting Astrid on her flying steed and waved at her. Hopefully some small assurance of her safety. Turning back, she contemplated her own situation, A giant blue cheetah had rescued her from certain doom and is now following the race lines? She leaned forward to its tucked back ears.



“I don’t know if you can understand me, but thanks!”



    Not moments later, her wagon came back into sight. Priscilla sat at the front, manning the reigns with a severe determination as Mori and Millicent sat in the cabin. Oddly enough, the two of them seemed very interested in Gwen and her Cerulean Cheetah.

“What? Why the heck would they do that?” Astrid asks, turning Arcus back towards the raceway as Blue lurches forward. The pegasus’ feet skirt the ground to get more momentum before his wings lift him into the air again, flapping hard to keep up with the fast feline but keeping pace alongside them. “We’ll get ya back ta yer cart! Wolfe’s got ya! They can understand ya!”

As they work on catching up, the group has to dodge fallen animals, broken carts, disoriented racers, and small craters from magic. Now that the initial damage is done and a significant portion of underequipped racers have been eliminated, the debris becomes more sparse and easier to dodge, but magic still flashes in between the horde of competitors ahead of them.

“There’s the cart!” Astrid calls, pointing it out. “Catch up to ‘em, Wolfe! I’ll keep anythin’ from hitting ya!” Just as she makes that declaration, a spiked wheel breaks off a cart just ahead and goes flying toward them. Astrid summons her war hammer and then lets it fly across the field, smashing into the wheel and sending splinters of wood and metal into the air more harmlessly than it had been just seconds before.

---

Summon Possession

The big cheetah nodded. They could speak while in animal forms, but it was more difficult. They usually just resorted to staying silent and nodding or shaking their head to communicate. Thankfully, Astrid had come back to help them out and explained things to Gwen. The cheetah was Wolfe, and they could understand her.

With Gwen on their back and Astrid flying overhead, Blue dashed forward, not wanting to stay in the middle of all the crashing and exploding racers that had met their defeat early in the race. Their feline form was a lot faster than the horses and other mounts pulling heavy wagons or carts behind them. They zoomed ahead of most of the competition easily, but some competitors had tricks up their sleeves to make themselves faster or to take out the others.

Spells and projectiles flew and they dodged out of the way of them, occasionally one coming close to hitting but suddenly veering off course before hitting them or were destroyed by Astrid's hammer.

Blue raced toward Gwen's wagon which had somehow gotten a good lead despite the panting reindeer pulling the heavy thing. Maybe the three maids on board had some tricks they were using, or maybe the sled tracks were better suited to the sand than the wheels many of their competitors were using.

---

Static Field