Their bushy tail swished against the ground, a second glass in hand. Whoever they were, Giu watched the orange canine carefully, Tea already bringing out a knife.
He stepped forward and glass flew in their direction, smashing into his form-changed arm.
“Hey!”
The masked man didn’t wait, turning and crashing through the nearest window. Giu and Tea ran after him, ignoring the screaming lizards and salamanders.
“Get back here!” Tea shouted.
He didn't listen.
They dropped down on the opposite end of the marketplace, scanning around and spotting their target as he fled through a nearby alley. As much as he could try to blend in, his mask was a dead giveaway. As was the fact that he was a canine surrounded by lizards.
“Hey! What’s going on?”
It was Nightfree, the raven landing on the Scaly Treats rooftop. Tea outright ignored her as they flew ahead, tossing a knife that missed its target by a wide margin. Giu cursed.
“Juzia's, down!” he shouted.
“What?”
“No time to explain! Just make sure she’s not dead!”
The raven called after him, but her words faded away as he went to catch up with his pixie companion. If the so-called Crystallites thought they could escape the duo's wrath, they had another thing coming.
The masked man had fled back into the streets, knocking over a crocodile in the process. Giu leapt over the man, jumping onto a nearby food cart and the rooftop close to it. It gave him more of a vantage point to try to predict where their glass thrower was headed.
The masked guy was a lot faster than he looked, dodging carriages and reptiles and even scaling buildings in an attempt to flee. But he had Tea hot on his trail. The pixie managed to catch up, alcohol bottle at the ready. Giu smiled as he heard the crash of glass followed by their tsuchluyavan.
"Nice shot, T-"
The smile faded when he saw the black limb it had hit.
"Oh."
He remembered Juzia's words.
Yeah. Had this weird shadowy magic.
Giu stared ahead as a black tendril retracted, disappearing into the ground as the masked man lowered his hand. The same spell he'd seen used both in the forest and in the Syd. Darkness magic.
Then...he's...
His eyes lit up.
It’s him! That mystic canine!
The masked man took off again, Giu picking up the pace despite running short on building. He leapt to the sky.
“Tea!”
The pixie thankfully took the hint, flying over to catch him.
“Tea, it’s him,” he said. “That’s the guy.”
“Huh?”
“The shadowy guy, remember? The one that attack- woah!”
The pixie dodged as a black arm came whipping by. Then another. Another. They spun in the air, Giu regretting the decision to jump as he swallowed down motion sickness. The masked man wasn't content to be easy pickings. His dark spells were a lot faster than Eli's. Tea had to ascend to escape, Giu’s mind clicking with an idea despite the turbulence.
“T! How good’s your throwing arm?”
The pixie hummed. Considering the speed of their target and how much Giu hated being a ragdoll, there was only one real solution. A nice divebomb. It would end things quickly and stop his battle with motion sickness. He could feel the urge to hurl rising with Tea's crazy spins. And wasn't like he'd get that hurt if they missed. Tea hugged him.
“Guess we can find out.”
They dove forward, Giu feeling the wind blowing his fur back.
The masked canine shot out tendrils again, but Tea wouldn’t let them slow their descent. Giu shut his eyes to try to fight turbulance, feeling Tea weave and arce through the air. The wind picking up.
“Let a rip, Gi!”
The pixie let go, canine bomb rocketing forward. Straight through the shadowy tendrils that tried to stop him.
And right past his target.
“Crap!”
He came crashing through the roof of a coffee shop, several coffee grounds spilling over.
“Gi!"
Tea's voice echoed from the hole he'd created, Giu rubbing his head.
"You- uh- you alright?"
He groaned, having landed right through a stack of boxes. Of which a particularly angry-looking gecko was shouting at him for. He couldn't quite understand what she was saying, but he understood the gist when she started waving a broom around.
“Woah! Easy with that, would you?”
He came running out the entrance, only managing to lose the gecko when Tea came down to pick him up. Not exactly the best impression for a tourist to make.
“You okay?” they asked.
“Not in the pride, no.”
He looked ahead, spotting the masked man several blocks down the road.
“Crap. You got any bright ideas, T?"
They set him down on a nearby rooftop, taking to the skies again.
“Just one. Might take me out for a while, though.”
“And that is...”
The pixie suddenly jerked forward, darting away like an orange beam.
Giu blinked, watching as they caught up to the masked man in seconds. Their max speed. Tea slammed the canine head-on, Giu nodding at the sight.
Forgot they could do that.
Both the pixie and the masked man dropped to the ground, Giu running over as fast as he could. Considering the last time Tea had gone full speed, he knew they'd be too weak to really fly for a while.
“Tea! T, you alright?”
He climbed up to the roof, finding the pixie grunting in response.
“Really hate doing that,” Tea said.
He picked them up as gently as he could.
“But you actually hit him, so that’s something,” he said.
The masked man in question was still wincing from Tea’s hit. They'd probably broken a few ribs as fast as the pixie came crashing into them. But Giu knew he could always break more.
"Alright, you!”
He moved over to the canine, stomping their chest and kicking the mask clean off. Only then did his agitation subside, the terrified canine staring back at him. Or at least who he’d thought had been one. The whiskers across the man’s face were the clearest giveaway. It wasn't their guy. They didn’t even have the species right. They'd been chasing a cat the entire time.
Even so...
Giu pressing down, slinging Tea over his shoulder.
“W-wait!” the man shouted.
He ignored his words raising a form-changed fist.
“I surrender! I’m just a sellsword. I’m not with them, I swear.”
He pulled back at the ready.
“No, please! I’m not lying. I was just paid to make a distraction!”
Giu finally stopped.
“Distraction?” he asked.
The cat was holding up his hands over his face, shaking for his life. Considering he was moments away from the end, he didn't put it past the man to lie for his own safety. But a glance to Tea confirmed he was telling the truth, the pixie regaining some functionality thanks to a quick stamina potion. They could stand again.
“Who hired you?” the pixie demanded.
The cat shook his head. “I-I don’t know. These guys in masks just showed up one day.”
“Masks?” Giu remembered Juzia’s last words. “Was one of them a mystic?”
“A lot of ‘em were.”
Giu channeled magic again the cat flinching. But the threat would be stopped as Tea put a paw on his hand.
“Juzia first, Gi.”
He looked at them, Tea frowning at the cat but giving him a more concerned look.
“He said he’s the distraction, didn’t he? What do you think from?”
As the pixie said those words, realization struck Giu like a metal chair. The glass throwing. The chase. Even the interrogation now. While they were doing it all, they'd left their most important clue to Immy behind. Just as the cat had been paid to ensure.
He whipped around.
“Crap.”
The cat began to speak, but Tea silenced them with a bottle to the head.
“We have to go.”
“Right.”
Giu started to take off, but he slowed down when he remembered Tea’s low-power state. They could barely run let alone fly. He knelt down, the pixie taking the hint and jumping on his back.
“Now we can go,” Tea said.
Giu groaned. At least the pixie was light.
***
Following the smell of sugary pastries, Giu found his way back to Scaly Treats, hoping against hope that things weren't too bad. But that hope was dashed as he saw just how many people were gathered around.
"Crap."
The store's entrance was surrounded by guards, lizards chattering nearby about an assault and break-in. A man who he assumed was the owner went on length about multiple intruders. White masks. Shadow magic. Giu winced, looking from the broken windows to the closed sign hanging outside the window. As he looked around, though, he spotted the one person he'd been most afraid for. Walking past everyone else, he found Juzia next to an too familiar raven.
Nightfree was lying against a wall dabbing at a nasty head wound. She offered an apologetic look when she saw them. One which Giu waved away, instead focusing his attention on the snake next to her. Though she had no injuries, there was a clear stench on her breath. One that Giu recognized even if he'd only smelled it once. The scent he gave off the day he'd forgotten Immy.
The smell of a memory potion.
“J-Juzia?” he asked.
The lizard woman didn’t respond. Not until he set Tea down, the pixie walking up to her. The snake looked up, smiling with her head tilted.
