Reunion at Sea

Feral

The caravan raced through the woods, with the rhino and whatever-those-are chasing after, the feral man glaring at them with murder in his eyes. Varian should know, he'd had eyes like that himself.

"Ruddiger," He said, and Ruddiger hopped down and nuzzled him. "Let's slow him down." He grabbed his alchemy bag and opened the door to the caravan.

"Varian, what are you doing?!" Lance asked in alarm. Varian pulled out small alchemy balls and tossed them to Ruddiger, who ate them before jumping out. He changed with a flash of light and then Varian jumped onto his back, riding off to intercept the rhino. "Varian!"

Varian pulled out goo bombs. "Okay, then. Let's see how you stand up to the power of alchemy!" He held onto Ruddiger with one hand and threw alchemy bombs with the other, hitting all three beasts. The rider jumped off the rhino and landed on Ruddiger's back, then held a blade to Varian's neck.

"You're either really brave, have a death-wish, or are really stupid." He hissed in his ear.

Varian tossed dust at him with a flick of the wrist and the man cried out, falling back. He grabbed onto Varian's vest as he fell and Varian managed to look at him. "Wait!" He realized. "That emblem on your clothes! Do you know my father, Quirin?!"

"You--Fath--Qui--WHEN?!" He sputtered. Ruddiger reared back and he let go of Varian's vest as he fell off, rolling on the ground before he ran back to his beasts, who were getting loose of the goo.

"Varian!" Eugene called. "Get back here!"

"Right! Come on, Ruddiger!" Varian said, and they headed back to the caravan.

"Don't do anything that crazy again! We could've lost you!" Lance said as he held out a hand and Varian climbed off of Ruddiger and into the caravan. Then Rudiger glowed and shrank down and Varian caught him just before he fell back, holding him close.

"You're tired, huh, buddy? It's okay, you did well. Let's go take you to bed." He walked off into the other side of the caravan and shut the door.

"That rhino's still coming after us!" Eugene said from the front. "We can't outrun it!"

"Maybe we don't have to!" Rapunzel said.

Varian heard some kind of commotion up front, and then the caravan made a creaking noise. He got up and walked over to open the door and was startled to find the caravan had split in two.

"...Didn't know it could do that." He said, shutting the door again and going back to Ruddiger's side.

"Okay, who's with us?" Cassandra called.

"Just me and Ruddiger!" Varian called back. "I brought him in because he got tired out from the earlier transformation!"

"Alright, what do you see back there?" Rapunzel asked.

Varian got up and went to the window. "Uh, we got the feral guy after us, his beasts went after the others."

"Aren't we lucky..." Cassandra said sarcastically.

The feral man pulled out a mace on a long chain and threw it, latching onto the fleeing caravan. Then he had his rhino slow down just enough to make it taut and stood up to start crossing the metal line.

"None shall enter the Dark Kingdom!" He said aggressively.

"Uh, Cassandra?" Varian called. "He's attached to us and is about to board!"

"What?! Alright, Varian, grab my bow and arrow and meet me on the roof!" Cassandra ordered.

"You packed those?" He started to check her belongings, then grabbed a stool and climbed out of the skylight after he found them. Cassandra helped him up, then took her bow and arrows. "Okay, what's the plan?"