Now that they were nobles, things had changed.... not much at all, really. Thadda still sent Blue and Astrid on routine patrol missions and on missions to do good deeds to help out the citizens of Dragon's Cradle. It was a good thing they didn't become all snooty like other nobles and refuse. They didn't mind doing this kind of stuff and some titles didn't change that.

Now, they were asked to patrol a particularly hazardous stretch of mountain path that was prone to accidents before, but was now just a death sentence to try and traverse thanks to all of the earthquakes and disasters happening everywhere. Some parts of the path had completely collapsed into landslides that fell to the bottom of the mountain. Other sections were buried in rubble from collapses above. It was all so unstable.

They just had to travel along it, checking to make sure no one had been caught in any of these landslides or gotten stuck between collapses or anything like that. One of the biggest reasons they had been the ones asked to do this job was just because the both of them could fly, Blue by turning into a bird or making one from clouds, and Astrid with her retractable wings or Pegasus mount. Really, they were the only ones that could safely handle this job.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Patrol Duty
Participants: Requires exactly two people (you and one other, if the other participant does not qualify, they will not gain the reward)
Location: Anywhere (Can be repeated for a different region)
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +10 Security for selected Region (+10 more if your home region)

Description: The wilderness is full of wild, dangerous creatures and enemies of the realm constantly lurk in the shadows, waiting for their chance to make a strike. You can assist your region by patrolling the borders, standing guard in a village or town, even venturing into other regions to keep an eye on things. You can detail your patrol however you like, throwing any kind of obstacle your way.

While Astrid doesn’t love patrol duty since it can be so boring, she is happy to do what she needs to do to help keep Dragon’s Cradle safe. With all the earthquakes lately, some of the roads have become especially difficult to traverse, and it’s entirely likely that someone without the means has decided to ignore all the posted signs and travel on the roads anyway. To patrol the roads, Astrid and Blue are perfect for the job with their ability to fly overhead.

The day has been relatively quiet so far. Every road they’ve checked so far has been clear of travelers, and most of the roads have a detour or at least posted signs indicating where to find the detour. Part of their duties today involve making sure the signs are in good repair and diverting any travelers they do come across, but also making sure there aren’t any bandits who might have set up ambushes in the rubble.

“So far so good,” Astrid says boredly, looking around. They’ve made one loop of the ruined roads so far, but it’s taken a couple of hours. When they were flying overhead, they did see a few groups of travelers on the roads still in good repair heading towards the broken roads. “Might be a good idea fer us ta double back ta the folks headin’ in this direction.”

"Okay!" Blue called back to Astrid, the armored ooze sitting cross-legged on the back of a blue bird-shaped cloud with red lightning lighting it up from within sporadically. Blue took this opportunity to get some more practice into their new technique while they weren't doing anything dangerous. At least not dangerous for them, with them being in the air. The roads were incredibly dangerous for those on foot.

The cloud bird turned around in a wide arc, its wings flapping lightly. The wings flapping seemed like more of an aesthetic choice than a necessity. Maybe Cantio's sense of style was rubbing off on the ooze, making them want their cloudy mount to look nice. The looks were pretty much down. Now they just needed to work on keeping it solid enough to ride without it taking so much of their concentration.

The two of them doubled back up the broken path, headed back toward where the road up the mountain branched off and connected to the closed down road. Before they made it all the way back though, they saw something on the path. A wagon being pulled by a couple of white stallions. The wagon looked very fancy, polished wood with gold decorations adorning it and lanterns hanging from hooks on the front. The driver looked scared, as if he didn't even want to be there.

They had a pretty good idea immediately of who they were dealing with here. A snarky noble who didn't take no for an answer and thought the broken down path would be shorter and somehow not completely untraversable for them like the signs said.

Astrid tries to keep an eye on the ground, but she quickly gets distracted by Blue’s cloud-surfing starling. It’s really an impressive skill, and she has absolutely no idea where they got it! Maybe that fight with the Arcuilas affected them both… Her magic has felt quite a bit different since then, and now whenever she feels powered up by her lightning, it seems to envelope her whole entire body. She’s less prone to accidentally shocking people now, at least. Poor Cantio.

“Ya’ve gotten pretty good at that, Blue!” she calls with a big smile.

But the smile quickly fades when she notices the white stallions and the overly fancy cart below. Oh no, she remembers seeing that carriage with a bigger group earlier. Either the rest of the group took the detour or they fell off somewhere. Astrid calls forth Melodia. “Hey, Melodia, can ya go look ta make sure no one else is along this path? Blue an’ I got a snotty noble ta deal with,” she explains.

Melodia looks at the carriage below then at Astrid and Blue, wondering if she should help them formulate their words more effectively, but then again, they’re probably going to need to be tough on this person ignoring all the warnings. “Of course. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Thanks! Come on, Blue!” With that, Astrid drives Arcus down to swoop and stop in front of the carriage. “Oi, just what the heck do ya think yer doin’?! Can’t ya read?!”

---

Call Ghost

Blue lowered the cloudy bird down and it dissipated beneath them to let them fall to the ground. They were prepared for it this time, so they landed on their feet instead of their face though. A big improvement from last time!

The window to the carriage opened slowly and the curtain was pushed aside to reveal a lavish interior. The seat were lined with red velvet, a red carpet covered the floor, and it was all lit with little glowing crystals embedded into the walls among fancy carvings of flowers and animals. It was ridiculously gaudy, even having a small chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling. There was even a liquor cabinet in the wall above one of the seats. A strong scent of potpourri and cigar smoke wafted out of the window, right into Astrid's face.

Inside the carriage was an equally lavishly dressed man with a long, almost robe-like smoking jacket made of fine purple silks embroidered with a pattern of golden palm fronds a fern leaves worn over a gold vest, white dress shirt, and black dress pants. His black leather shoes had fancy gold buckles that matched the one on his belt.

He looked at Astrid and Blue with an unimpressed expression, his long, ornately carved pipe made to resemble a dragon held lazily in one hand. He spoke with an air of incredible arrogance, looking down his nose at them.

"Of course I can read, brat. Who do you think you're speaking to?"

Yup, it’s one of these jerks. No, of course, she doesn’t know who she’s speaking to, and clearly he doesn’t know who he’s speaking to either. Oh, it will be such a comeuppance to deliver this dummy back to Sky Peak where he can learn the error of his ways.

Holding her tongue somewhat, Astrid wafts away the smoke with an irritated expression. “Well, I was hopin’ ta speak ta someone with more manners,” she snarks. “Are ya sure ya can’t read? There were plenty of signs posted back there, ya know. Or are ya blind?”

The man chews on his pipe and looks this urchin and her babysitter up and down. “I rather wish I were. You two are not fit to be in my presence.”

That’s not something too unfamiliar for Astrid to hear. All the years on the streets, people constantly looked down on her. She was too dirty, too rowdy, too hungry. But at least those were hardworking common folk, unlike this guy who would look down on anyone and everyone, as evidenced by his complete lack of tact in the situation.

“Mister, we’re just–”

“That’s Lord to you, wretch,” he sneers.

Deep breath. “Sorry. Lord Jerkface McGee, we’re just tryna make sure ya don’t get stranded out here. It ain’t safe.”

Oh, that doesn’t sit well with the nobleman at all. “Of course, it’s safe. I have traveled this path dozens of times. You have no authority to stop me. Driver, let’s go!”

The driver looked uncomfortable, but he couldn't refuse his master's orders. He flicked the reigns to order the horses to go, and after approximately one and half steps, one of the front wheels of the carriage was stuck in a wide crack in the road and refused to budge no matter how hard the horses pulled. The coachman just sighed. This was exactly what he was afraid of, and why he'd stopped the carriage in the first place. Why did he have to get stuck working for such a ridiculously unreasonable person?

"Why have we stopped again!? What is taking so long?" The nobleman yelled, leaning out the window.

"We're stuck, my lord..." The coachman sighed sadly.

"Then get us unstuck, and be quick about it! This place is so dusty, it's horrible. And the locals are dreadful." He said, glancing at Astrid and Blue before pulling the curtain closed.

The coachman climbed down from his seat at the front of the wagon and looked at the stuck wheel. It was in there deep, nearly up to the axle. There was no way he could lift that out on his own. He looked to Blue and Astrid with an apologetic look and spoke quietly so that the nobleman wouldn't hear him from inside the carriage.

"I'm terribly sorry. Lord Bracken can be a bit... much. My name is Jeffrey."

"Really!?" Blue asked excitedly. "My name's Geoffrey, too!"

"Really?" Jeffrey asked, surprised, but also amused.

"Yeah! Lord Geoffrey Wolfe!" Blue stated proudly.

From inside the carriage, there was suddenly the sound of choking and coughing. The curtain opened again and Lord Bracken looked out, a bit of wine streaking from the corner of his mouth to his chin as he looked at the armored man in surprise.

There are few moments when Astrid allows herself to express the smuggest, smarmiest expression that she can muster. This is one of those moments. With the cart stuck, Blue making friends with the other Jeff, and the nobleman looking at shocked as he does, Astrid just stands aside for a moment with her arms crossed and her hip cocked at an angle. She’s enjoying this.

“Aye, Lord– What was it? Breakin’? Lord Breakin’, meet Lord Wolfe of Sky Peak,” Astrid says, regally bowing in a completely over dramatic way.

Quickly wiping the wine from his face, Lord Bracken stammers, “M-My apologies, Lord Wolfe. I did not realize I was in the company of another lord.” Glancing out the window, he sees the front wheel stuck in the crevice. “Jeffery– no, not your, your Lordship. Jeffery free the cart of its entrapment at once.”

Jeffery rubs his head, looking at the situation. “Erm, my Lord, I’m afraid it’s…rather stuck.”

Walking over and inspecting it, Astrid squats down and makes some quiet ‘hmms’ and ‘haaas’ in contemplation. While she and Blue could probably lift the cart up and free it, especially with the help of some replicants, this guy doesn’t exactly deserve that, does he? She stands upright. “Yup, that’s real stuck. Guess we’ll hafta make ya walk from here. Good thing ya got stuck after only goin' this far. Bit farther an' the road might've collapsed under ya.” Only slight dramatization.

The color drained from Lord Bracken's face as Astrid gave her assessment of the carriage's stuckness.

"Wha- No, I mean- But all my luggage! Surely, you must be joking, right? His Lordship, Lord Wolfe! Surely you didn't walk all the way here, did you? I can't- There's no way!" He stuttered, trying to reason with them, and also probably reassure himself that this situation couldn't be true. How could he bring all of his possessions with him, ugh, walking? Not even to mention how expensive his carriage was. It was all hand crafted to his perfect specifications! It was a work of art on wheels!

"Nah, we flew here." Blue stated as if it was obvious. To them, it was. Blue and Astrid flew just about everywhere when they didn't have some caravan to escort or something. It was just way easier and faster.

"Flew? Oh, of course! Yes, your lordship must have a carriage. A flying carriage, how impressive! Maybe you could spare a seat for me." Lord Bracken practically pleaded, but looking around, there was no carriage to be seen. Just Astrid's pet Pegasus, Arcus.

Jeffrey looked at Lord Bracken with contempt. His lord hadn't even asked for a seat for him! Typical.

"Pfft, no, we didn't fly here on a carriage! Carriages can't fly, dummy." Blue laughed and then looked confused. _{"Wait, Cirice's wagon could fly... And so could Gwen's... Can carriages fly?"} They muttered quietly to themself.

"But- but, my luggage... How can I carry it all without a carriage...?" Bracken muttered in fear.

Listening to Blue murmur about carriages flying, she pats the knight on the arm and whispers, _{“Nah, most can’t unless they’re specially enchanted.”}

Meanwhile, the nobleman continues to fret. Astrid lets it go on for a moment before she finally speaks again. “Well, seems like ya’ll just hafta pick yer most important possessions.”

“Wh-What?? But all of them are important!!” Bracken says. The man looks to be on the verge of tears. This is cathartic for Astrid. Jeffery quietly enjoys himself too.

“Lord, there are a lotta folks with nary but the clothes on their backs,” Astrid points out. “I’m sure ya can pick out yer important stuff.”

With great resignation, Lord Bracken finally starts to go through his effects, doing his best to pick out only the most important things, but even then, the pile is much too large. Astrid of course doesn’t tell him that Blue is a walking storage facility. The lord doesn’t need to know that. Instead, she makes him reduce his load until everything can fit snugly inside one bag.

“What about the horses?” Jeffery asks, looking at the prized stallions he’s so fond of. “We can’t leave them out here. And… if the road is treacherous, I’d rather not simply free them.”

Since the horses seem important to Jeffery, Astrid thinks for a moment then snaps her fingers. “I’ll make sure they get back ta town! It’ll take a few days though with the detour an’ all.” Then she snaps her fingers twice more, and two duplicates manifest beside her. Jeffery looks flabbergasted. “They ain’t much fer strength, so they couldn’t help us fix the wagon situation, but they can ride yer horses at least.” It’s a lie. Her duplicates can do just about as much as her, but again, they don’t have to know that. The replicants, however, know Astrid’s scheme exactly.

Finally, everyone is ready to set off, though not without more whining from the lord. Blue resummons their cloud bird, and Astrid climbs up on Arcus. The Lord absolutely hates the concept of trying to ride a cloud, but before he can try to argue that he should ride the flying horse, Astrid pulls Jeffery up, claiming that “obviously peasants should not ride alongside the lords.”

After a surprisingly smooth trip, the group arrives in Sky Peak where they disembark from their mounts in front of city hall where Thadda is standing outside talking to a few people about a project they’re working on. Astrid helps Jeffery off of Arcus while Blue lets the cloud dissipate beneath their and Lord Bracken’s feet. They, of course, forget to mention that part, and Bracken falls on his face like an absolute fool. He’s unharmed though, and Jeffery quickly helps him up. Thadda looks at Blue and Astrid with a concerned furrow on his brow.

“Lord Wolfe, Lady Stormstone,” he says in a simple greeting.

“Afternoon, Count!” Astrid says cheerfully. “We brought ya a guest. His carriage got stuck on the part of the road that definitely had a buncha signs that said not ta go that way.”

Thadda looks between his local nobles and this new visitor. He looks unimpressed. "I see."

Back on his feet, Bracken sputters, “L-Lady??”

Astrid looks back at him with a devious smile. “Aye, guess ya should be careful who yer talkin’ ta, huh?”

The color drains from Bracken’s face. He has had exactly the day he deserves.

---

A couple of days later, Astrid’s replicants return with Bracken’s cart and horses in perfect condition. The two of them easily lifted the cart from the crevice and drove the horses down a much less treacherous path to get to Sky Peak. When they get back, they leave the carriage in front of Thadda’s with a note stating it is a gift from Bracken to Thadda and then they disappear before anyone can see them planting it in a fit of giggles.

---

Replicant