Court of the Shifter 4 Chapter 2

“Have a seat, Ravvi,” I invited as I pulled out an empty stool. “What makes you seek us out so urgently?”

“I went to the palace first,” the priest admitted as his gaze flickered over his shoulder and back to me again. “The gruff knight said you had ventured into the city. I think this is for the best. The fewer people who know we have talked the better.”

What was his deal?

He was acting like he was about to divulge some world ending information, but the last time we’d spoken he hadn’t known anything about the bear talisman I was after. Could there have been some new developments?

I gestured once more to the empty seat beside me, and the women all gave him encouraging smiles as he hesitantly sank into the chair.

“I came straight to you,” he continued, and his eyes finally landed on mine. “And I told no one else.”

“I’m listening,” I said, and I scooted closer to him as the women all leaned in.

“The talisman.” The bear priest took a deep breath, and a relieved expression crossed his face. “I have news about the bear talisman.”

“You found it?” Luxe’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “I looked everywhere.”

“I did not find it,” the priest sighed, and I tried to hide my disappointment, but then I thought of something.

“But you came here for a reason,” I said as I got back on track.

“Yes, I recently gave hospitality to a wandering minstrel,” Ravvi explained. “And since they had no coin to donate to the church, I accepted the gift of song in exchange for the meal and room for the night.”

“Okay…” I frowned as I prepared for the story to get going.

“One of these songs described a nomadic tribe of bear shifters,” Ravvi continued. “I thought nothing of it at first, but the more I listened to the words he was singing, the more I realized that it was more fact than fiction.”

“What were the lyrics?” Luxe asked and leaned forward with interest. “Was it a familiar song?”

“No, it was a new piece the bard had just completed,” Ravvi said as he shook his head. “When I questioned him afterward, he said he’d met the tribe himself recently, and he assured me the song lyrics were not fictional.”

“So, what was the song about?” I asked.

“There have long been whispers about a tribe of bear shifters who roam the realm,” the priest said as he locked eyes with me. “Many believed it to be nothing more than ghost stories and tales told in the dark. Apparently, this minstrel is one such spreader of stories.”

“What is this tribe called?” I asked.

“Night Folk,” Luxe, Ravvi, and Willow all said at once.

I exchanged a glance with Calantha, but she shook her head. Neither one of us had heard of anything like this before, but the shifters acted like it was common knowledge.

“You’ve all heard of them?” I asked as I looked between my fellow shifters.

“It’s like he said,” my pregnant wife explained. “There have always been scary stories about them prowling on children who wander off after dark. Many considered them to be otherworldly beings or spirits of those who passed. I never believed in them as a child. I always thought it was fake.”

“So, it’s like Zeus and the Greek gods,” I thought out loud. “You never know if it’s just a story or if it was based on something else.”

“I am not sure,” Ravvi said with a shake of his head. “But this song said something else. The minstrel sang about the Night Folk harnessing the magic of the bear talisman to become the most powerful shifters in the wilds.”

“You think this nomadic tribe has the bear talisman?” I arched an eyebrow as I thought this over.

He might as well have said the talisman was on another planet, but nothing was impossible. Even humans on Earth had managed to land on the moon. I could hunt down a mythical tribe of bear shifters and get the talisman from them without starting some sort of problem.

“I believe so, yes,” Ravvi confirmed. “The location of the bear talisman has been unknown for years, but the most recent record puts it in Ordrya shortly before the first known recordings of the Night Folk tales.”

“They had it all along?” I whistled. “Who started the tribe? Where are they now?”

“That I do not know,” the priest sighed. “I have told you everything of note from the minstrel’s song. He has since left the church, and he didn’t tell me where he was headed next.”

“He’d be easier to track down than a children’s tale,” Luxe muttered under her breath. “We can’t take one man’s word as fact.”

“The fact that all of you had heard about this tribe leads me to believe it could partially be based on fact,” I said. “There has to be a way to find this tribe and get the talisman from them.”

“Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?” Calantha fixed her red eyes on me with a pointed look.

“That’s his adventure voice for sure,” Willow said as her lips tugged up into a smirk.

“Adventure voice?” I laughed.

“Yes,” Cal confirmed. “Your voice gets all excited sounding whenever there’s a new quest to complete.”

“Well…” I raked a hand through my hair. “You can say that. I think we only have one option here. We have to go find this bear tribe and see if they even have the talisman for ourselves.”

“Easier said than done,” Willow pointed out. “There haven’t been new stories in decades, and any variations are so overplayed they are cliche.”

“We could find the minstrel,” Luxe suggested with a shrug. “Then we could ask him where he’s been, where he ran into the tribe, things like that.”

“So far, we know very little about this man claiming to be a traveling minstrel,” Calantha observed.

“Was the minstrel a shifter?” I asked.

“He was a Nulmancer, my lord,” the priest said.

“He would likely be one of the only Nulmancers in town,” Willow pointed out. “Shouldn’t be too hard to narrow it down.”

“What did he look like?” Calantha asked. “Any unique facial features or markers?”

“He was normal enough in appearance,” Ravvi said in a thoughtful voice. “His attire was a patchwork of blue fabrics, and his bag was a fat, lumpy thing he flung over his shoulder.”

“Did he say where he was going next?” I asked. “What was his name?”

“I never got the man’s name.” Ravvi shook his head. “But he mentioned something about making money from Ordrya’s taverns before leaving town. I said it sounded like a wise choice, but he was gone before I rose the next morning.”

“Did he leave anything behind?” I pressed. “Something that could give away his scent?”

“No, Your Grace,” the priest said. “He even refused the bed. He slept right on a pew the entire night.”

“I’d like to come by the ritual house and see if I can pick up his scent from the bench,” I insisted.

Just then, the waitress came around to check on us, and I caught Ravvi glance at her breasts, but he blushed beet red when he saw me watching. I guess he wasn’t a purely celibate priest, but I was sure there were a lot of differences between the animal shifters and humans from Earth. Still, he seemed embarrassed by his actions.

I gave him a pointed look, and he dipped his head in a submissive manner.

“You may do whatever you need to, Your Grace,” Ravvi said in a hurried tone.

I signaled to the waitress, paid for the table’s drinks, and then we all followed Ravvi to the ritual house. I had the priest point out which bench the minstrel had slept on, and I picked up on the Nulmancer smell immediately.

It would be easy to isolate the scent from the other aromas of the shifter capital, and my confidence in our mission grew stronger.

We finished talking about everything the priest could remember from the interaction with the minstrel, and then the four of us stepped outside the ritual house, but we paused in the street to discuss our next move. Willow suggested we ask her parents about any known whereabouts and if there was any proof the tribe was real.

I wasn’t sure what King Frejit would know that we didn’t, but it wouldn’t hurt to find out, so we headed toward the very center of the city.

It was still early afternoon, and the sun was just beginning to settle toward the west. The air was warm, but a breeze ruffled through my hair and chilled my scalp. The girls rubbed their arms and huddled against me as we made our way to the palace doors, but it wasn’t long before we arrived at the king and queen’s private chambers.

The royal couple had halted any court proceedings ever since the Court of Representatives were kidnapped, so there was a greater chance of finding them in their personal rooms than in the throne room. I knocked softly on the door, but Willow chuckled before she twisted the handle and went inside.

The rest of us followed hesitantly in her wake, but we entered the room right behind her. The king and queen were lounging on the low couches that occupied the majority of the space, and they looked up from their cups of tea in alarm when we barged into their room.

“I thought you had all gone out for a drink?” Queen Lunaverre asked with a furrowed brow. “What’s going on?”

“There’s been a development,” Willow explained, and she took a seat on the couch beside her mother. “We need your help.”

Cal, Luxe, and I sat in empty arm chairs sitting opposite the couches, but I let Willow take the lead on this conversation. She gave her mom an imploring look, but then her dad cleared his throat.

“What is the meaning of this, Willow?” King Frejit asked. “What sort of trouble are you in?”

“I’m not in trouble,” the shifter princess pouted. “We just had an eye-opening conversation with a priest we know. He says the Night Folk are real.”

“You didn’t know that?” Queen Lunaverre tutted her tongue against her cheek. “I told you they would eat you if you wandered off.”

“I thought those were just stories!” Willow shook her head. “But that’s beside the point.”

“There is evidence that this bear shifter tribe has the bear talisman,” I said in a clear voice. “We need any information you can give us.”

“The Night Folk haven’t been seen in decades,” the king said in a quiet voice, and he tapped his finger against his chin as his eyes kind of spaced out. “I remember my father explicitly saying to keep things the way they are. The last thing we want to do is anger the Night Folk.”

“What’s so awful about them?” I asked in confusion. “Are they cannibals or something?”

“There is no telling what parts of the stories are real or fake,” Queen Lunaverre sighed. “But it is best to leave them be so as not to find out for ourselves.”

“Except that’s exactly what I want to do,” I said, and I lifted my chin proudly. “I’m going to find this tribe and get the bear talisman from them.”

“This task is much harder than you make it seem,” King Frejit said, and he furrowed his eyebrows together as concern filled his eyes. “No one has seen or heard of them since long before Willow was born. There is no telling where they are now, if they’re even still alive.”

“The wandering minstrel ran into them recently,” I pointed out. “They have to still be alive, and within the boundaries of Shyfeterran.”

“Their last known location was far to the northwestern border of our realm,” the king said with a sad shake of his head. “There is some of the roughest terrain in the kingdom between here and there.”

“Well, I’m sure I can sniff them out,” I said without missing a beat. “I can track anything.”

“I’m afraid your confidence will be shattered by this challenge,” the king countered. “Part of their fearsomeness is their ability to remain undetected for so long. If they take a sacrifice, then there is no way to follow them back to their shelters. They vanish like spirits into thin air.”

“Or so the stories say,” I said in a disbelieving tone.

“Some of the stories are true,” Queen Lunaverre sighed. “But Frejit, darling, this is the fabled Ulvant, is he not? Surely he can accomplish such a task.”

“If anyone can do it, it’s me,” I agreed as I puffed out my chest.

“I suppose you have a point,” the king grumbled under his breath. “You have yet to fail a challenge.”

“And you’re not going to see it happen in the future,” I promised. “Between my two animal forms, I am unstoppable, but soon I will have mastered all six.”

“That will truly be the greatest challenge to your power as the Ulvant,” King Frejit said. “We are all looking forward to the day you fulfill the prophecy.”

“So, they were last seen near the northwestern border of Shyfeterran?” I asked to get us back on the topic of finding the bear shifter tribe.

“I can mark it on a map for you,” the king suggested.

“That’s very helpful, thank you,” I said with a bob of my head.

The king rang a small bell on the table beside him, and a servant entered the space with a stiff backed bow. The king instructed the servant to bring a map of Shyfeterran and a quill, and the thin man returned a short while later with the requested supplies.

Then King Frejit pointed to an area on the map that lay beyond a mountain range to the northwest, and there were miles and miles between villages. There wasn’t much written in that area, and some weird squiggles I didn’t understand sat just below the borderline.

“What is that?” I asked.

“It marks the glacier,” the king said. “We rarely get news from the border towns in that direction.”

“What lies beyond?” I pressed, and Willow pressed a calming hand against my shoulder. “No, really, what is outside of Shyfeterran to the north?”

“It used to be the land of the dwarves,” the king sighed. “But the borders have been closed for centuries. Anything that crosses never returns. We eventually stopped trying.”

“That’s sus as fuck,” I muttered, and the king blinked at me in confusion, so I cleared my throat and translated. “I do not trust this situation, Your Majesty.”

The three women behind me giggled knowingly, but the king hadn’t learned to accept my Earth terminology just yet. It took some adjustments to translate into the more formal dialect spoken in the magical realm of shifters.

“Act accordingly, then,” the king suggested in a solemn tone, and he rolled up the map before handing it to me. “I’m sure you will know what to do.”

The four of us left the king’s chambers and paused in the hallway.

“So, we are going on a quest?” Luxe asked in an eager tone. She bounced on the balls of her feet and bit her bottom lip, and I couldn’t help but notice how adorable she was from head to toe.

“Looks like it,” I said, but then I hesitated. “Does that mean you’re going with us?”

“Of course she is,” Calantha said with a dismissive flap of her hand. “Where else would she go?”

“We’ll have to speak with her father first,” Willow pointed out.

“My father could have more information about the Night Folk as well,” Luxe said in a cheerful voice.

I wanted to give her a quick squeeze hug, but I didn’t want to bombard her with affection unless she was clearly open to it. I had nothing but time on my hand, especially if she was joining us on this new quest.

I just needed to convince her dad it was okay first.

Luxe had previously lived a very sheltered life, but little did her father know, she’d already accompanied me on a few adventures outside the walls of Ordrya. The polar bear woman was brave and capable, so I knew I could rely on her in tough situations. She made a valuable addition to the group, and the other girls seemed to have already accepted her.

And if finding the bear talisman helped her finally master her full animal form, well that was even more motivation for me.

The walk into the Bear Zone of the city was short, and we filled the time with rapid fire banter in an effort to prove who’d performed the most powerful move of the battle against the Ancient One. We had all played a role in that victory, though, and we eventually agreed our strengths were better in combination with each other.

The sun was close to the horizon now, and we had to pull on cloaks to protect against the chill in the air, but the streets were lit with torches so it was easy to find our way. Luxe took the lead as we headed to her home, and she just walked right in the front door, so we had little choice but to follow her.

The servant woman who’d greeted us in the past rushed into the hallway at the sound of the door opening, but she visibly relaxed when she saw Luxe walking toward her. It was only after they hugged that the older woman looked over the polar bear shifter’s shoulder and saw us.

“Mistress, what is this?” The woman eyed us up and down. “You should warn me before we are expected to provide hospitality.”

“There wasn’t time to send a messenger,” Luxe said. “My apologies. How is father? Has he left his room at all?”

“No, miss,” the woman said, and she tutted sadly. “I’ve offered him his favorite chair in the sitting room a few times, but he always grumbles something about being tired.”

It seemed like Lord Urman wasn’t coping with his ordeal as well as I’d hoped he would, and I was sympathetic toward his isolation, but I still had to talk to him before I took his daughter out of the city again.

“We’re going to go see him,” Luxe said in a decisive tone, and she hugged the woman one more time before she gestured for us to follow her.

Their home was lavishly decorated with anything bear related you could think of. Clay prints of paws bigger than my head with four inch claws graced the stairwell, and each was marked with the type of bear that had made the track. I wondered what type of bear this mysterious nomadic tribe shifted into, but in the end, it didn’t matter. I would master my bear form next, and if that didn’t impress Luxe, I didn’t know what would.

It would be a lot easier with the bear talisman firmly in my possession.

I still didn’t know what exactly would happen once I gathered all the necessary talismans together. When I’d first met Luxe, the polar bear woman was investigating the last known location of the talisman of her kinsmen, but we’d both come up empty handed even when we’d combined forces.

This was the first real lead either one of us had found, and her excitement was palpable. She bounded up the stairs two at a time, but Calantha and Willow followed behind her at a more stately pace with amused smiles on their faces.

This gave me the wonderful opportunity to watch them all climb up the stairs in front of me.

I shook my head to dispel the dirty images popping into my mind, and I reminded myself that I was there to convince Luxe’s father to let her leave the city.

At the top of the stairs, Luxe took a left and went to a door at the end of the hallway. She knocked as she entered, and we all hurried to catch up with her. The room was dimly lit with only one lantern on the bedside table, and Lord Urman lay in the king sized four poster bed with his back to us.

Calantha, Willow, and I gave Luxe space to wake her father gently, but I was sure it would be unpleasant to wake up to company. The polar bear shifter grumbled something unintelligible, but he eventually sat up with a reluctant sigh. Then Luxe leaned in to whisper in his ear, and his eyes shot to us before he gave his daughter a small nod.

“We need your help, Father,” Luxe said loud enough for all of us to hear.

“What’s going on?” Lord Urman asked as he fixed his gaze on me. “Is there danger?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “Have you ever heard of a nomadic tribe of bear shifters?”

“The Night Folk,” the Bear Representative said immediately. “What of them?”

I exchanged a loaded glance with my lady companions, and they all smiled encouragingly.

“They are probably in possession of the bear talisman,” I explained. “We need to find them and convince them to give the talisman to me so I can fulfill the prophecy.”

“A very important quest,” the leader of the bears said in a thoughtful tone, and he scratched his wiggly jowls as he thought it over. “What exactly do you need from me?”

“Father,” Luxe said in a hesitant voice. “I would like to go with Prince Elijah in search of the bear talisman.”

“Again with your hunt for the talisman.” The Bear Representative threw up his hands in frustration. “Your whole life you’ve prattled on about it, and now you want to run off after a children’s tale.”

“You said yourself you had heard of them,” I pointed out. “There’s enough evidence saying they’re real for me to be able to find them.”

“I assume you’ve heard the stories about the Night Folk?” Lord Urman lifted one eyebrow. “It would be wise to expect every rumor to be true.”

“Like they’re cannibals or something?” I shrugged. “Nothing I can’t handle. But that’s beside the point. Luxe wants to go with us.”

“The Night Folk may not be very welcoming to visitors,” the Bear Representative warned. “There aren’t many tales about surviving an encounter with them.”

“A wandering minstrel just came from a visit with them,” I said. “There’s at least one possible survivor, and that’s the most recent report of their existence.”

“And what did this minstrel have to say about the Night Folk?” Lord Urman pressed.

“We haven’t found him yet,” I said. “We just found out about this earlier today. The king provided us with the last known whereabouts of the tribe, but the information is centuries old.”

“Do you think I have more recent information?” Lord Urman shook his head. “I didn’t even consider them to be real. I dismissed any stories about them as exaggerated fiction.”

“But people have come to you with stories about them?” Willow asked as her emerald eyes glinted with intrigue. “How long ago?”

“Many times over the years,” Lord Urman said. “Usually to report someone going missing while they were traveling Shyfeterran. The Night Folk are an easy scapegoat preventing them from searching too hard, but many dangers lurk in the wilderness, especially to the north.”

“So you just pass it off as tall tales?” I shook my head. “There’s no telling what really happened to those people. What evidence is there of cannibalism?”

“No crops or food stores have been raided,” the leader of the bear people explained. “They leave no traces, never reveal themselves, and operate in the dark of the night. If the tales are true, that is.”

Calantha and Willow gave Luxe a pointed look, and the quirky polar bear woman bit her bottom lip in an anxious manner.

“Father,” Luxe said again, this time a little louder. “I am going with Prince Elijah on this quest. I know more about the history of the bear talisman than anyone, at least before it disappeared from the records. And maybe… maybe the talisman will help me realize my full form.”

The young woman’s father stared at her for a long moment before his gaze flicked to me. It was as though the man was staring into the depths of my soul, and it was more intimate than I was comfortable with, but I held my ground. I had nothing to be ashamed of, and I’d done nothing but help Shyfeterran since I’d arrived. If Lord Urman couldn’t see I was more than capable of protecting his daughter, then he was blind.

“Very well,” Lord Urman finally sighed, and his shoulders slumped in defeat. “But I must warn you, my daughter has never been outside the walls of Ordrya before in her life. It could be quite a culture shock for her to see how people live in the wilderness of Shyfeterran.”

Luxe and I exchanged an awkward smile and didn’t say anything, but her father caught the expression and frowned.

“What do I not know?” he asked in the demanding tone only a parent could master.

“I, um, well, Father, I’ve already been outside of the city walls,” Luxe admitted with a sheepish grin, and she twisted at the waist with her hands clasped behind her back.

“You what?” Lord Urman blinked at his daughter in surprise, but then I saw things begin to click behind his eyes. “When you were searching for the person responsible for the kidnappings.”

“Yes,” Luxe confirmed, but she bit her lip again. “But also, we went to find the liger who used to work for the former king.”

“And you were not injured?” Lord Urman narrowed his eyes while he scrutinized her as though his daughter had just returned from said expeditions. “Or otherwise… assaulted?”

The protective father turned his gaze sharply back to me, and I couldn’t help but swallow the lump that rose in my throat.

“Nothing happened,” I said in the calmest voice I could muster.

He stared at me like he could see into my imagination and knew the things I had thought about his daughter, and I tried to keep my mind blank just in case.

“Very well,” Lord Urman said at long last, and Luxe visibly relaxed.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” she promised as she squeezed him into a quick hug. “You won’t regret this!”

“I should hope not,” her father grumbled, but there was a loving twinkle in his eye when they finally parted.

“We will take good care of your daughter,” I said in a serious voice.

“I’m holding you completely responsible for her well being, Your Grace,” Lord Urman said as he locked me in his gaze once more. “One hair on her head out of place, and I will know.”

We said our goodbyes, and Luxe practically floated into the hallway. The grin on her face spread from ear to ear, and she threw herself into my arms as soon as her father’s bedroom door clicked shut behind us.

“He said yes!” she giggled. “Can you believe it?”

“Let’s hope we keep you out of trouble,” Calantha said with a pleased smirk, and the vampiress picked at her cuticles in a nonchalant manner. “Can’t have your father getting upset and refusing to let you leave again.”

“Whatever happens,” Luxe said without dropping her cheerful smile, “I’m sure it will be an adventure.”

Willow chuckled and shook her head in amusement, but then my pregnant wife gestured to the stairs.

“What’s our next step?” she asked as she took the lead toward the entrance.

“Besides down?” Cal snickered.

“It’s obvious we still need more information,” I said in a thoughtful tone. “We need to find the minstrel.”

“There’s a chance he’s still in the city,” Cal agreed.

“Only one way to find out,” I said in a decisive tone.

We left the Bear Representative’s house at a brisk pace, and the girls quickly took the lead as we trotted down the steps. I couldn’t resist the urge to shift into my wolf form before I inhaled the plethora of aromas floating in the wind. It was overwhelming at first to sort through all the information I gleaned in the blink of an eye, and when I looked back down, the girls watched me with curious expressions on their faces.

“Give me a sec,” I requested with a dismissive flap of my hand, and I continued to use my wolf snout to pick up on the multitude of scents in the city.

It didn’t take me long to pick up on a similar scent as I had smelled on the bench inside the ritual house, and I gestured to the three women to follow me before I took off down the street. The scent wound through the Bear Zone for a while before it left that section of the city altogether, and we followed it to the Bird Zone.

The smell ended at a business that was obviously closed for the night, and I heard Luxe let out a disappointed sigh.

“What is it?” Willow asked in an out of breath voice. “Did you find the minstrel?”

“Not yet,” I said, but I didn’t say anything else as I continued to sniff the air. I could smell the food cooked by the business throughout the day, and I picked up on the scent of rodents in their rubbage pile in the alleyway behind it. Still, through all the chaos of the busy city street, the Nulmancer odor was strong enough to pinpoint.

“Did we lose the trail?” the polar bear woman asked.

“Hardly,” I reassured her. “I can still smell him in the street.”

“Eli’s right,” Cal confirmed with a quick nod. “He didn’t stay here. His scent trails off in that direction.”

The vampiress pointed down the road in the direction the Nulmancer’s scent headed, and Luxe smiled as she took the scent for herself. The polar bear woman took the lead as we followed after it once more, but this time it took us to another business that was already closed for the night.

We increased our pace in an effort to catch up to our prey, and his scent grew stronger and stronger as we continued to follow his trail. We entered a few taverns, and all reported a minstrel coming through to play a few songs during their peak hours, but they didn’t have any more details than that.

By the time the sun set behind the walls of Ordrya and cast the streets in shadows, it felt like we’d visited every tavern and restaurant in the city. The scent was stronger than ever before, but it led toward the gates to the bazaar. It wasn’t a market day, so the area would be used for military purposes, and it was likely the minstrel had already moved on, but we had to follow anyway.

We found our way in the dark streets, but some torches up ahead illuminated a platoon of city guards performing routine drills. We skirted them and walked next to the wall, but they didn’t stop to ask us what we were doing. I knew they could all smell us just like we could smell them, and I wondered if they recognized me.

The minstrel’s scent wandered through the outer ring of the city, and I imagined the space filled with booths and vendor’s tents. Then the smell approached the gateway leading out of the city.

“Are we prepared to hunt this man down in the wilderness?” Cal chuckled. “He could be miles away already.”

“You can always ride on my back,” I suggested with a one shoulder shrug. “Or you can go back to the palace.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” The vampiress crossed her arms and tilted her nose into the air.

“Alright.” I smirked. “Then let’s hurry up and see if we can catch him before dawn. You down?”

“What?” the three women asked in unison as they looked at the ground in confusion, and I laughed.

“Nevermind,” I chuckled. “I just mean are you ready.”

Willow began to shift into her animal form since we could cover more ground on all fours, and I focused my primal energy on turning into a big cat, but I noticed Luxe attempting her full form and failing repeatedly. I left just my mouth in its normal shape to instruct her to ride on Willow’s back, and the polar bear woman shot me an unreadable look before she did as I asked. Then Calantha climbed onto my back, and she wrapped her legs tightly around my torso as she took two fistfuls of hair into her fists.

I inhaled the air again to pinpoint the minstrel’s scent, but then I galloped down the road after it, and Luxe and Willow followed in my wake. I covered miles in moments as my paws pressed into the hard pressed dirt road, and the trees passed by me in a blur of dark green shadows.

I felt Calantha lean forward, and I could feel the difference in aerodynamics instantly, so I lunged forward even faster. I was surprised Willow could keep up with Luxe on her back while she was pregnant, but she was breathing heavily when we finally came to a halt. The scent had grown stronger, but it had left the road and headed into the undergrowth. Luxe slid off Willow’s back at the same time Calantha jumped to the ground, and my wife and I both shifted into our normal forms. Then we all glanced at each other, and the three women shrugged their shoulders.

“Maybe he made camp for the night,” Cal said from atop my back.

We continued into the undergrowth at a slower pace, and the minstrel’s scent grew ever stronger as we approached the light in the distance. When I pushed through the bushes, I spotted a Nulmancer man laying propped against a large sack with his eyes closed in front of a small campfire.

“Excuse me?” I asked in a soft voice, and the man jumped up with a frightened expression on his face. “I’m sorry, I’m not here to hurt you, but I have to ask you some questions.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” the man said in a mousey voice. He was no more than five feet tall, and I could have wrapped my fist around his bicep.

“Ravvi said you sang a song about a nomadic bear tribe,” I said, and I tried to keep my voice as soothing as possible. “I need to know everything you can remember about them, but specifically where they were at or where they are going.”

“It’s just a song.” The man’s eyes darted back and forth between me and the three women behind me. “Nothing serious.”

I imagined we made for an intimidating alarm clock since we were three shifters and a vampire working together, but I didn’t know how to reassure him we weren’t there to hurt him.

I glanced at the campfire, and I noticed he had food put off to the side. It smelled like pheasant, or some other small bird, but I wasn’t about to impose on his dinner. Instead, I took a seat on the ground on the other side of the fire from him, and the three women followed my lead silently. Their eyes were locked on the minstrel like they were barely restraining a million questions, but I knew they were letting me handle the situation in my own way.

We sat there in silence for a long moment, and we all smiled in the most friendly way we could.

“Who are you?” the Nulmancer finally asked as he narrowed his eyes at us from across the campfire.

“I am Prince Elijah,” I said with my chin lifted proudly. “And this is Princess Willow, Princess Calantha, and Luxe.”

“R-Royals seeking me out?” The man’s eyes widened in shock. “What can I possibly do for you?”

“It’s just like I said,” I explained. “I heard you’d encountered a nomadic tribe of bear shifters, and we were wondering if you could point us in the right direction in order to find them.”

“I made promises,” the minstrel muttered with a shake of his head.

“Let’s start with something easier,” I suggested. “What is your name? We followed your scent here from the ritual house, but Ravvi never caught your name.”

The Nulmancer man fidgeted for a moment, and I took the opportunity to scan him over. He had short cropped, curly brown hair tucked beneath a blue cap that matched his patchwork outfit, but his eyes were a lighter color, it was just hard to see what particular shade they were in the firelight.

He had pulled himself upright and crossed his legs, but he still sat in front of the big lumpy pack. His defensive posture and body language indicated that he valued the pack more than he would admit.

“I am called Alias Ventura,” the minstrel said, and a bit of his stage persona began to take over. “I have ventured over all of these great lands, and I have spread my music far and wide. Surely you’ve heard of me?”

“No,” I chuckled, but I tried to ignore the flood of Ace Ventura scenes in my mind. “But it’s nice to finally meet you.”

The three women at my side echoed my sentiments, and the minstrel’s chest visibly puffed with pride.

“I’d love to hear a song,” I said in a nonchalant tone. “Maybe the one about the nomadic bear tribe?”

“Lost in the North?” Alias’s face lit up, and he immediately pulled out a small lute from his large, lumpy sack. He strummed the strings quickly, and he smiled in satisfaction before he began the tune.

Oh, I’ve been east, and I’ve been west

I went every way I thought was best

Dancing my way through town

I went up and I went down

But this story is about the first time I went north

The girls and I all exchanged an excited glance as we leaned forward to hear him better, but his melodic voice carried into the air like a harmonized echo.

Alrighty, then, listen here.

I found a bear with lots of hair.

I snorted with delight as I instantly pictured Ace Ventura’s voice in my head, and the girls glanced at me in confusion. I flapped a dismissive hand and regained my composure, but I’d missed part of the song.

And that’s how I met the clan

All of them a bear, to a man

Stronger because of the talisman

Alias strummed quickly at the end of the song, and he lifted his instrument into the air dramatically before he killed the sound suddenly. We all applauded, but I noticed the girls were less than enthusiastic. I could see the wheels turning behind their eyes, and I knew they were analyzing the lyrics in search of clues.

“Why did the tribe let you leave?” I asked. “Aren’t the Night Folk known for not leaving any survivors?”

“Stories have long been told about them,” the minstrel said. “But little is true. My song is as honest as it gets, and that’s all I will say.”

The fact that this Nulmancer musician was acting this way only added to the mystery of the nomadic bear tribe known as the Night Folk. Why was he accepted? Had his performance simply amazed them enough to be granted visiting privileges?

It didn’t seem like the minstrel was willing to discuss more about the Night Folk, and he eyed me suspiciously from across the campfire. His arms were crossed, his hat was pulled down over his eyebrows, and his entire energy felt defensive.

I had no reason to hurt the guy, so I let out a low sigh as I rubbed the palms of my hands together.

“Listen, Alias,” I said. “I’m not here to hurt you or anyone else. I am on a mission to save the world, and in order to do that, I need to know where you saw the Night Folk. I’m not leaving till I know.”

“I made promises in order to be allowed to leave,” Alias repeated with an adamant shake of his head.

“You have my word that your name will not escape my lips,” I said. “No one will know it was you who told me their location.”

“The word of man is a tricky thing,” the musician muttered with a shake of his head. “It’s not something I consider valuable.”

“What about a fair trade, then?” I arched a questioning eyebrow.

“What else do you have to offer besides words and whispers?” The minstrel mirrored my expression but added a mocking twist to it.

“I’ll trade you stories you can turn into songs for more information about the nomadic tribe,” I said. “Give me what I want, and I’ll let you sing ballads about the many grand adventures of the Ulvant.”

“Ulvant?” Alias scoffed. “Hmmm… I’ve heard rumors about such a man claiming to be the Ulvant. How do I know you’re not speaking tall tales yourself?”

I laughed before I stood to my full height, and a small amount of fear flashed through the minstrel’s eyes as his gaze followed me. Then I focused the primal energy flowing through me, and I shifted into a liger.

“Impressive,” the minstrel said, and he patted the palm lightly. “But half of Ordrya can shift into some kind of cat. Your lady friend here among them.”

I smirked as my features flowed from one type of animal to another, and Alias’s eyes widened as my wolf head formed. I kept going, though, and I focused all my energy on the image of a grizzly bear. There was an intense pressure in my head, and I knew I’d have a migraine after the attempt, but it would be worth it to prove my point.

My head shifted into a bear’s face for the briefest moment, but it was enough to end all of the minstrel’s doubt. He stood with his mouth agape and his eyes wide, and he only regained his composure once I was back in my Nulmancer form.

I made a mental note to practice shifting into the bear form more in the future, but I knew it would be a lot easier once I got my hands on the talisman.

“Alrighty then,” Alias said, and he pursed his lips together. “We have a deal. I’ll tell you everything.”

I unrolled my map of Shyfeterran, and the minstrel marked the location he’d encountered the Night Folk, but it wasn’t too far away from the glacier the king had pointed out to me. It was possible the nomadic tribe had predictable migration routes across the realm, but with a glacier along the northern border, they didn’t have a lot of other places they could go.

Once Alias had given us the information we were after, I spent the next few hours sharing stories about my previous adventures. The girls all chipped in to add their perspectives to the tales, but their version always seemed to paint me as the hero even more so than mine did. Alias was impressed by the descriptions of the monsters we’d killed in the past, and he even wrote some notes down in a little leather bound journal.

Eventually, we said our goodbyes and left him to his campsite. We’d traveled miles outside the city walls, and it would take us the rest of the night to get back even in our animal forms.

The purple hue of predawn illuminated the sky as the city walls came into sight, and we all yawned as we stepped beneath the archway entrance. It had been a long night for all of us, but we’d accomplished a lot.

I was eager for my bed as I led the way back to the palace, but I smelled a vaguely familiar scent following us as we walked to the center of the city. Where did I know that smell from?

“Prince Elijah,” a familiar sounding voice called out from behind me.

I turned to see Lord Sylvester’s daughter standing in the street with her hands on her hips.