Challenge #04854-M105: Call of the Favour

1: "You are aware, of course, that where you are going is more than far beyond us?"/ 2: "Yes. There's no horse that will be able to make the journey." 1: "Then how do you plan to get there?"/ 2: "We'll need something more than a simple horse." 1: "What do 'we' have in mind?" -- Anon Guest

"It's ten thousand leagues, and we have to get there in a handful of days. We don't have horses for all of us. We don't even have one horse." Scion Naeryn gripped their fists in their hair in anxiety. "Go adventuring, they said. You'll learn about the greater world from the ground up, they said. You'll understand the common throng they said. All the nobles are doing it... They just didn't mention anything about how to get back in a hurry when the evil vizier is plotting a Freja-cursed coup!"

"Breathe," said the Bard Calliope. "Nice deep breaths. We'll get there."

"We won't get there by huffing and puffing," protested Naeryn. "And we certainly won't get there in a week and three days."

"And you won't get anywhere having a panic attack until you hyperventilate and faint," Calliope began plucking a peaceful tune on her kalimba. The music, magically charged, calmed everyone who could hear it. "We already have the solution."

"We do?"

"Yup. Xolthion."

Naeryn glared at her. "Xolthion. The Drakkonbred Sorceror. Mx I'm-not-doing-anything-without-profit Xolthion. Ze's our solution?"

"Xolthion with the Dragon Auntie we did a favour for... and gave hir a special whistle we could use to call it in."

Naeryn continued their depressed slump. "Xolthion still has it, and ze's not letting it go without hir own weight in gems as a payment."

"Or a really good time in the red lamp district in Bolburne," smirked Calliope, holding up that very whistle with a smirk. "Took it out of hir clothes while ze was -er- suitably distracted."

"You're just as bad as Bybynbar," he said affectionately.

Their team Rogue, who had been gathering firewood for their camp, automatically said, "I didn't do it," out of pure reflex. Then a moment later, "What's the accusation?"

"No accusation," soothed Naeryn. "Just a need for a quick plan when Xolthion realises that Calliope nicked his whistle."

"Easy," said Bybynbar. "You go high, I go low, and we stop hir hitting Calliope when she blows it. By then? Job done, favour won, we thank Aunty and haul ass."

If only stopping the vizier would be that easy.

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