Last night…

Brenna propped her feet on the dashboard, taking photos as her field partner, Florian drove, navigating an unfamiliar back road. She sent the pictures to her boyfriend Liam and slid her shoes back on, buckling up again.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Florian began, “If you end up being stuck in an office training someone, then I’m going to use up all my vacation days at the same time.”

Liam texted her back a shirtless selfie with a pair of her red heels on the counter in the foreground. She sent him a flame emoji, turned off her phone, and stowed it in her bag. It was too much of a distract and she was in the middle of a mission. That and Florian would be insulted if she didn’t focus on him for what could be her last day in the field for a while.

“Why would you waste your time off like that?” She asked. “Are you going to be that depressed not to see me every day? Should I send you footselfies too?” 

“As much as I’d love a collection of pics of your miniature feet,” He laughed, “It’s more that I’ve gotten used to living a life of minimal injuries and little risk of death, and I can’t go back to the stressful way it used to be anymore.” 

“I know, I’ve spoiled you.” She smiled. “But there’s very little chance Dustin will agree to join, so it might be nothing.” She tried not to get her hopes up since recruiting was difficult given what they had to sell to the average civilian. But she didn’t want to think she had wasted the last year doing a cover that wasn’t going to pay off. 

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to come from a regular life and then hear about all of this.” He chuckled. “If I didn’t grow up with it, I don’t know if I’d believe.” 

“I’m still not sure I believe all of it myself.” She pulled her ponytail forward and combed through the strands with her fingers, “But being a field agent doesn’t require blind belief, since everything is very real and straightforward.” She paused to check her makeup in the visor mirror before adding, “And it’s never dull. I probably wouldn’t have joined if I was going to be in the office answering emails and reading all day.”

“Yeah, as strange as this sounds, I was the opposite growing up. I would’ve liked to be an Office Knight myself, but my family has always been field agents and it wasn’t going to go over well if I deviated from that expectation.” He sighed. “They all think Office Knights are lame.”

“Well, this guy I’m trying to recruit is better suited in the office, so I’m going to have to be lame for a little while.” She laughed. “As you know in my cover, I substitute for his high school class, and you wouldn’t believe the book of instructions he sends me every time. I feel like I’m doing NOK training modules all over again.”

He chuckled, then stopped short to say, “It just occurred to me. Why are they getting you to bring in an Office Knight?”

“Because I came from the outside and would know how to deal with the transition.” She responded. “And because I volunteered.” 

“Okay, I guess that makes a little more sense.” He scratched his nose. “But I didn’t think they did stuff like that. I mean, do you even know how to do the job yourself?”

He had a valid question. She was trained in the office a little when she was first brought into the Network of Knights a few years ago but hadn’t thought about it since. 

“It’s just about passing on information from the database and tracking the Oracle dreamfluence cases, so how hard could it be?” She asked. 

Saying it aloud suddenly made her less confident that the full task of training someone in how to keep NOK’s greatest enemy from escaping the Void should rest solely on her shoulders.

“Right.” Florian returned with a sarcastic tone. “It’s not like dreamfluence cases aren’t most of what we do every day. Except for these special moments when we –“ 

Suddenly Florian jerked the wheel like he was swerving from something and pulled over to the side of the road. 

“This looks like a good spot to hide the body, right?” He asked with a maniacal laugh while parking. 

“As good a place as any.” She smirked, shaking her head at his goofiness. 

They got out of the car, opened the trunk, and were greeted with a horrific smell so strong it made their heads turn.

The body bag they zipped it in was specialized NOK equipment that helped contain all the nasty guts from leakage but did nothing for the smell.

“Ugh, I didn’t realize they decompose this fast.” Brenna declared in disgust. 

She was already disappointed that they had to move the stupid thing due to being too close to a residential area. Normally they’d just let it rot where it was killed, but that’s when the kill zone was in more secluded areas, and they could afford to let nature take its course. But leaving it out for a civilian to potentially run into wasn’t going to make a tidy mission report.

“Gross! Let’s bury it and get out of here.” Florian said while tenting his nose in his shirt.

She opened the door to the backseat and searched around until she found their fold-up travel shovels in a box on the floor and put them into her bag.

Then they armed themselves with work gloves and surgical masks and lifted the body from the trunk.

As they carried it into the woods, Florian looked over at her from across the long body bag. “This is so romantic, isn’t it? Just you, me, this dead rotting carcass, and the moonlight.”

She laughed and almost dropped her end. 

“What about here? I think it’s far enough from the road now.” She suggested.

He paused. “Yeah, fine, let’s get this over with.” He had been complaining about needing a hot shower since they emerged from the hunt and judging by his dismissiveness, he clearly had no idea how long it was going to take to bury it. 

They dropped the body and Brenna pulled out the fold-up shovels from her bag. She opened them to full size and handed one to Florian.

Since this annoying task was going to take all night, their flashlights weren’t practical. So, she drew a lantern out of her bag, setting it nearby so they could see what they were doing. 

“Don’t you think this seems a little medieval? Shouldn’t we own a place where we can cremate these things?” She asked.

“I think we do.” He wiped off sweat from his brow before starting to dig. “But we aren’t allowed to burn them.”

“Why not?” She plunged her shovel into the ground and found it was even harder than she anticipated. This was going to take forever.

“Besides it being poisonous for us to breathe, it also tends to draw more of them since it’s like a new territory advertisement, I guess.” He shrugged.

“That would be a good thing, then we could get rid of an entire forest full all in one go.” She returned using her foot to leverage the shovel into the unforgiving ground.

“We don’t tend to like fights that can draw a lot of attention.” He laughed. “Killing one Big Foot discreetly isn’t going to make headlines, but killing a whole horde is going to need an extensive cover-up and possibly intervention from Merlyn himself.”

“If people knew about these, they’d be glad we were getting rid of them.” She returned.

“True.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Civilians have no idea what horrors we’ve protected them from. Anyone that survives a night in big foot infested woods is just lucky.” 

It occurred to her that although she’d killed roughly fifty of them since she joined NOK, she didn’t know their origin story.

“Where are they from originally?” She asked aloud. 

She only knew what an Office Knight had told her when she first requested information on the strange creatures she needed to eliminate for a mission. The Office Knight called it big foot, even though she didn’t see a resemblance to the common mythology of a tall hairy bipedal being. They were not as tall or hairy as reported in legend and instead of arms, they had stalks that divided into two giant multi-jointed fingers. These long digits were each about a meter long with articulation every inch allowing them to keep their fingers curled up until a meal walked by; at this point they’d unwind these sharp appendages and impale the unfortunate creature like a javelin. The segmented joints would then create a fluid curve from the site of impalement, slicing through the neck, torso, leg, or ankle, back to the predator’s own body to effectively hold the victim in place. The captive could only get away if they ripped through their own flesh, causing debilitating injury or instant death depending on where they were hooked. Then the beast shredded its terrified prey alive with its other pair of razor-sharp fingers as well as its teeth. 

And their prey was anything that happened to stroll by in the middle of the night including campers, people lost in the woods, nocturnal animals, or small pets. Their skin was greenish brown and mossy to camouflage while they waited deathly still for something breathing to cross by and activate their kill instinct. 

In the case of the one in the body bag, they had answered reports of numerous tails of animals being found near one another in the forest. Just the tails, no signs of any other part of an animal. Her and Florian knew what they were up against going into the mission since this was a definitive sign of the mossy beast’s presence; for whatever reason they were the only creature recorded in NOK’s InfoNet that would eat everything but tails. Brenna thought perhaps it reminded them too much of their own limbs and felt cannibalistic. But this, of course, made it hard to determine if it had eaten a human recently since they typically didn’t have tails to leave behind.

“I’m pretty sure they’re from Earth.” Florian answered after a long, contemplative silence. She didn’t realize her question would be so thought-provoking. “But if I remember correctly, they’re the work of some ancient magic that no one is really clear on.”

She rolled her eyes. Of course, they never really had any answers, just more questions. 

“But why are we classifying them as Big Foot creatures? They don’t have anything in common with the mythology, including the big feet. Literally nothing matches up. I mean, I’d call them swamp creatures from the Black Lagoon since that legend at least involved a green hairless monster.”

“Actually, these are technically called NuKans. There’s a separate entry in the InfoNet that says there’s only one Big Foot and we aren’t allowed to hunt him. All information on that guy is classified.” He shrugged. “So, calling these the same thing is just slang. There are a lot of things like that. Lazy lingo that gets passed down because no one wants to be technical anymore.”

The idea of being lazy like this made her think of how appalled Dustin would be if he knew how things were handled. Earlier that evening, he had messaged her twice while her phone was in silent mode as she tracked the location of the hidden NuKan. When she checked for any missed communications later while in the car, she realized he sent the second one because he left off an S at the end of one word. 

“If my new recruit works out, I think we’ll have someone that wants to be technical again.” She laughed. “Dustin resends me five pages of notes over one minor typo. And if I ask him a question he can never just answer yes or no, it always has to be a book.”

“Sounds like the type of guy you want sending you mission info but at the same time you’d also try to avoid in the hallway at HQ.” Florian chuckled.

“He’s not so bad.” She said while smirking up at him. “But I always seem to get stuck with redheads.” 

Florian paused and swept back his currently stringy and sweaty bob of strawberry blond. “Red hair is the mark of a warrior and also signifies fertility, you know.”

“Right.” She laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind when looking for a mate.”

“I know he doesn’t have the hair color of the privileged few, but what about Agent Thomas? He seems to be interested in collecting your footwear. Maybe he would like even smaller, baby sized shoes.”

“Ugh.” She sighed. “I’m not getting married or having kids anytime soon. It’s enough I have to take care of you.”

“Yeah, that’s true. And pregnancy would get in the way of your carnage.” He reasoned. “But if you do have kids, I’ll get a custom-made crib mobile of your favorite firearms in fake miniature. That way they can fall asleep to the gentle sound of barrels tinkling together.”

“As cute as that sounds, I’m not interested in more responsibility.” She said, shaking her ponytail behind her shoulder as she tossed a shovelful of soil onto the slowly growing pile. “I feel like I have enough to worry about just keeping a small team alive. Plus, Kirsten is hardly ever here because her kids are always sick.”

“But that makes us a dynamic duo.” He grinned enthusiastically.

“I don’t mind working with one partner most of the time.” She paused heaving dirt to stretch her back. “But when it comes to shoveling, I’d rather a full team.” 

“Can’t argue with that one.” He sighed. “If I could get an Esit from the Lady of the Lake, I’d ask for one that could dig holes for me.”

She laughed. “I’m sure that’s why she’s never made you a Triwyn.”

“Hey now, why not?” He asked in a fake offended tone.

She shook her head and smiled. “You’re too short-sighted and easily amused.”

“Only if I don’t have my contacts in.” He returned with an exaggerated wink.

Several hours and numerous complaints later…

“This looks deep enough.” Brenna declared, placing her shovel down with a heavy sigh. Florian agreed with a weary toss of his digging instrument, and they team lifted the body. But they barely made it a step before she dropped it from exhaustion, almost breaking a nail.

“Let’s roll it in.” She coughed as the rotting smell hit her nose through the face mask.

“Just be glad this one was a juvenile.” He said, “They may be more erratic, but also happen to be much lighter.”

They rolled it like an awkward log into the hole and then proceeded with the work of covering it. When the first shovels of dirt hit the body bag, a howl broke the silence.

“What was that?” Florian jumped.

“Werewolves.” She joked.

“Right. Those aren’t in the InfoNet, so we can assume it was a regular old wolf.” He moved a chain from under his collar to rest over his coat. The necklace was weighed down by a specialized dog whistle, which was standard issue NOK equipment for dealing with wolves. She kept hers in a pocket of her Kevlar-like armor since it wasn’t fashionable enough to wear around her neck all the time. 

 As Florian continued to shovel dirt into the grave, she felt the prickling of neck hairs, alerting her that they were being watched. She pulled off her mask and gloves and stuffed them in her pack. He stopped shoveling and followed suit without question. They needed to have all their senses and dexterity at a moment like this.

She took out her flashlight and immediately hit a pair of reflections. Florian saw it at the same moment.

She knew Florian enough to know what he was thinking. This was the biggest wolf they had ever encountered. It reminded her of a tiger in size, with that same toying intelligence behind its eyes.

She eased her gun out of her side holster. The wolf’s jaws rippled into a low growl. Brenna froze in place to calm its defensive response. With weapon in hand, she waited for its next move…because, unfortunately for her and Florian tonight, when it came to wolves, they couldn’t just point and shoot.

Merlyn specifically trained the Knights to “Never kill a wolf that calls you by name.” It was a strange idiom, but the interpretation was simple: Don’t kill wolves. 

She didn’t like absolutes in general, especially when it came to animal behavior. Wild animals, no matter where they were from, were unpredictable. To ask Field Agent Knights to never kill something wasn’t taking in consideration the diversity of scenarios and endangered everyone. 

And right now was one such occasion that could mean she would have to break the rules or they weren’t going to make it out of the woods. 

There was a throaty cry as Florian attempted to get his whistle in place. She didn’t know what he was so scared of since the wolf’s eyes were clearly trained on her even though he was the one making whimpering noises and fumbling. The wolf knew which one of the two humans was the clear threat.

“It’s not working…” Florian said in a shaky low tone. If the whistle didn’t work, they had few options, and their problems were compounded by exhaustion from the dig which made them both physically and mentally less capable. But any stupid mistake at this critical moment could cost them dearly. She had to read the signs, assess the danger, look for an exit strategy… 

The beast howled. Was it signaling to its pack? She wouldn’t be as worried about handling one and not reporting to Merlyn, but a pack of wolves, especially if they’d all grown as big as this one, wasn’t going to go unnoticed. Same problem as the big foot creatures or NuKans or whatever they were calling them at the moment.

They stood locked in position, Florian on a silly dog whistle, her with a Glock 20, and the wolf staring and sniffing.

Hmm… it was sniffing, which meant it was drawn not just by their presence but by the stench of the NuKan carcass. 

“It wants the body.” Brenna said quietly to Florian.

“Then we give it to him…” He returned just as quietly.

“Back away slowly.” She directed him.

“Okay, but I hope the pack isn’t around us.”

She had already come to this same conclusion but needed to keep him calm.

“It could be a lone wolf.” She offered.

A set of howls burst out in the distance as though responding to her attempt to lighten the mood.

“Nope.” Florian confirmed with a gulp.

“Plan Echo.” She said firmly. He immediately moved in answer to this pre-agreed upon alphabetical plan, which in this case was the back-to-back cover. He would tell her if anything was coming from the other direction. She heard the subtle sound of his gun sliding from its holster.

“We’re done with it. It’s all yours.” She said in a gentle, but firm tone to the wolf, who had only briefly lost eye contact with her when Florian shifted. “Go ahead, take it.” She motioned with her head. “You don’t harm us, we don’t harm you.”

Besides it being Merlyn’s protocol for the Knights, it was natural for her to talk to predators. She was quick at noting weaknesses or motives and making decisions in the moment. This wolf was intelligent, not a savage killer like the NuKan in the freshly dug grave. And she needed to treat this canine with respect.

The wolf paced. She felt the rhythm of its movements and kept her gun predicting, but not following. It didn’t know what kind of hunter she was and if she kept moving her weapon it would think her weak and afraid.

Suddenly it jumped forward, landing a few feet away. She could see the wet of saliva on its gums by the lantern light as it bared its teeth. The air smelled sour.

“If you want it, take it. Otherwise, we need to finish burying it.” She urged, relaxing her tone. Florian’s back was tense against hers. 

“I wish he showed up before we went through all that trouble of digging.” Florian whispered. 

The wolf let out another howl. It was much louder at such close range and rang through her eardrums. More howls followed; this time they were nearer… 

They had to get out of here. Now.

As the wolf broke eye contact to scratch the ground, she whispered to Florian, “Plan Foxtrot.” The wolf looked up at her a moment, tapping the ground twice. Beside its paw in the dirt was a distinct mark. She photographed it in her mind, then filed it away quickly. This was no time to delay on details; Plan F was to run as fast as they could away from the threat. 

They just had to wait for the wolf to be busy with the carcass…

Sniffing around a moment, it finally decided to set its jaws into the grave. Getting a grip on the body bag, the black wolf began to drag it out…

“Now.” She ordered and signaled the direction to run with her flashlight.

In a mad dash, they raced down the path of broken branches and pressed ground that they created while carrying the corpse into the forest. 

But soon Brenna became aware that it wasn’t just their footfalls running. She immediately recognized the fast crashing of brush being mowed down by large entities. And these sounds were coming from all directions, surrounding them. 

“The pack!” Florian yelled, increasing speed as she had never seen him do before.

But they were still too far from the road and the car. Too far from getting inside. And she didn’t fully know what they were up against. These wolves were enormous and if there was a pack, then the car was no safety…

Brenna knew they had to make a stand.

“Plan Romeo!” She shouted, planting her feet, and scanning for the advancing animals, trying to get a count. 

Quickly she found sets of eyes around them. One, two, three, four, five…

“What?” Florian cried out, halting at her command. “Romeo? That’s suicide!”

She looked over at him just in time to see a long green stalk arm reaching for his neck. Six. Without hesitation she put two bullets into the beast’s head, and it fell to its knees before keeling over, knocking into Florian. He kicked it away, wiping the green sludge of their blood from his face before directing his gun at the live one coming straight for him. No longer caught off guard, Florian homed in on it, putting four bullets through its elongated torso. The NuKan crumpled to the ground, its limbs coiling up tightly as it breathed its last.

From her left, a green blur lashed out. She shot the attacking arm first. Upon impact the creature screeched like the sound of tires skidding on pavement, its stalk arm wriggling disconnected on the ground. Then with the same steady hands that could apply eyeliner perfectly in a moving vehicle, she blew off the green monster’s head. An explosion of lime colored liquid covered the dark tree bark it had only moments before been concealing itself against. 

At her feet, she saw movement and fired. A head rose up in rage, and as it bared its sharp teeth, she shot through the center of its two luminous eyes. 

That left two more she had counted skulking in the dark. The blown off NuKan arm was still writhing, and Florian kicked it into the brush, cursing. 

As they tried to steady themselves and their breathing, she realized none of this made sense. NuKans brazenly attacking? And so many of them in one place? 

“There’s at least two more.” Brenna said, “Do you see them?”

 “No, nothing.” He responded as they frantically scanned the trees and brush with beams from their flashlights.

“Why are they all grouped like this?” Florian asked, “And when did they start becoming pack hunters?”

“I don’t know. This is all wrong.” She said as she struggled to look for signs of the NuKan’s green lichen speckled skin. Leaves moved from a low bush and a bird flew out. She shot it before her mind could process it was not a threat.

Steady. Think.

Why were the NuKans gathered here? Did the smell attract them even without the burning? Was this social behavior new for them? Were they taking revenge? Were they attempting to claim a new territory?

She only knew them to be solo hunters. It didn’t seem likely they started to have familial or friendship bonds just for tonight. And they were not known to be scavengers or to share prey. So, what were they doing?

Then it occurred to her: what if the NuKan’s themselves were the prey?

Perhaps their erratic behavior was due to being rounded up and cornered…

She felt a puff of air near her left arm, and she trained her gun down to meet the golden eyes of a wolf. She hesitated at the calm of the canine’s demeanor. His head was bowed, and she could make out a mixture of black and grey fur. This wasn’t the same one as before, which was solid black. 

It was so close she felt its breath on her hand. 

“Bren…” Florian said through clenched teeth, “What’s happening? Why are they just staring?”

She glanced up to see three more wolves surrounding them. They were still and curious, cocking their heads to look over Florian.

“They’re opportunists.” Brenna said. “They saw we could handle a NuKan, so they drove more here to kill for them. And right now, they’re tracking the missing ones to finish the job themselves.” It was a guess, but an educated one that she hoped she’d be able to write in the mission report later if given the chance… 

Unfortunately, Florian was too busy trying to find the whistle on the cord around his neck that he wasn’t listening. It was barely to his mouth when the wolves snarled and leapt. 

Brenna glimpsed a twitch of green stalk and made the split-second determination not to shoot. 

But Florian couldn’t see what she saw and fired as a white wolf knocked him to the ground. The other two wolves were tearing at a NuKan who was concealed at Florian’s feet, just inches from taking its jointed fingers and piercing his ankles or legs.

 Then the white wolf sunk its jaws into something near Florian’s shoulder and began to rip at it. The wolf had saved him, and he shot it. This was an unfortunate miscalculation and meant the brief informal pact between human and canine was now over. 

Brenna holstered her weapon and rushed to pull him away from the deadly clash. 

“Run!” Brenna said as soon as Florian was on his feet in a daze. 

As they sprinted, she filed rapidly through her memory banks for anything useful. Her mind recorded things in perfect detail whenever she was in battle, which proved to be a strange but useful talent. These images were then thrown aside as a safety measure in order to deal with the present conflict. After a threat was neutralized or she needed more information to make a decision in the moment, as she did now, she could recall the images and sort through them like files on a computer.

She drew up the image of the white wolf’s condition after the shot. It had no blood on its fur. It was unlikely Florian could miss at that range. But the wolf didn’t retaliate as it was still focused on its mission to kill the lurking NuKans. It wasn’t adding up, but she knew now wasn’t the time to ask her partner for details of the encounter.

As they reached the car, she knew his nerves were too shot to drive, so she pushed him into the passenger’s side and ran to the opposite door.

“You didn’t shoot at the wolves even though they attacked me!” Florian yelled as she shut the door on the driver’s side.

“They weren’t attacking you.” She said, calmly moving the seat up.

“But you didn’t know that!”

“Yes, I did.” She said, starting the car with her hand symbol. “Now let’s get out of here.”

“Gladly.” He frowned, folding his arms tightly.

Once they were miles away and Florian was breathing normally again, she glanced over at him. “Florian, I know about predators. I figured out what the wolves were doing. We lost track of the NuKans, but they didn’t. And since the pack leader, the one we first encountered, didn’t attack us, I knew they were more interested in the green meaty things than us.

The white wolf saved you since we already delivered a few free meals. Almost like a tip.” 

He didn’t answer, only sulked, turning his head away.

“Trust me, I wouldn’t leave you hanging.” She said, “We’ve never had two strange species converge like that, especially on a mission that we thought was nearing completion.” She hesitated, then added, “And if there’s a good reason why we’re trained not to kill wolves, I think we just found it.”

He unfolded his arms and sighed.

“I know. I’m sorry.” He relented. “I do trust you. I just wasn’t ready for that. I thought dealing with one thing tonight was enough.”

“But that’s the first rule of missions: Plan A to Zed and you won’t be dead!” She laughed, repeating Merlyn’s signature saying. 

“Right, and I guess that rhyming wisdom saved us once again.” He straightened up in his seat. “And either we found a new species or the plentiful food sources in the area made those wolves the size of cars.”

He was exaggerating, but they were too big to be a natural variation. That much they agreed on.

“Where did you shoot it?” She asked, hoping to address the question hanging in her mind. “It had no reaction.”

He pulled a hand through his hair and exhaled. “I don’t know. It was all very confusing.” He began. “I must’ve missed. There was no impact and the only blood on me is from the NuKans.”

“So, when it knocked you over, your gun was twisted to the side?”

There was a long hesitation before he responded in a low voice, “I shot it point blank, Bren. Right up against its chest.” 

She glanced over at him and nodded before adjusting her hands on the steering wheel, pondering this startling revelation. 

“I don’t know what it means.” Florian followed up.

“Neither do I.”

Suddenly an image flashed through her mind. It was too quick before, but she returned to it now that they were out of the danger zone. This image was of what the first wolf, the solid black one, did in the dirt. It didn’t just scratch the ground in front of her, it left what looked like a hieroglyph. It was well-formed, almost like what a human finger could draw in the sand. And as she recalled the simple shape, she saw it in her mind’s eye as the empty imprint of a half-moon. 

They were barely off the dirt roads and onto the main highway back to HQ when Brenna got a text from their boss, Ruth. It read:

“Don’t forget to pick up the thumb drive and coin at my office for tomorrow.”

Brenna started to hit ‘ok’ with one hand, but as she went to swipe off some dirt from the screen, she accidentally included one of her feet photos from earlier. She groaned and frantically tried to explain herself when Ruth sent a message back.

“As much as I appreciate a good set of arches, I think we should just stay friends for now.”

Brenna laughed, deleting her lengthy text, and sending a broken heart emoji instead. Ruth was a different kind of boss with a strange sense of humor. She was very strict with protocol on missions but would give them some slack at unexpected moments.

“So glad we’re out of there.” Florian said, releasing tension in his shoulders. 

“I have a weird feeling about all of this.” She admitted aloud. “We’ll have to get an Office Knight to document it.” She wasn’t ready to tell him about what she saw in the dirt; he was dealing with too much already. But it was something she needed to think about in private before putting it together for the file.

“Yeah, and I also have this weird feeling that I need to change my pants.” He laughed nervously.

“I would think you’d be used to this stuff by now. Where’s your steel nerves in the face of danger?” She joked.

“I think my nerves are made of noodles, actually. An unfortunate birth defect.” He responded. “And maybe a little PTSD from you always using me as bait.”

“What can I say, you’ve got the bulk monsters want to eat and you scream better than I do.” She smirked, glancing over at him.

“Oh, I wondered who was always screaming.” He touched his throat as though it were sore.

 They laughed. It felt good to laugh everything off.

Suddenly they both received a familiar alert, indicating a new mission assignment.

“Yellow banded snakes again.” Florian whined glancing down at his watch. “And you’re off tomorrow.”

“I can still do it in the early morning.”

“That’s in a few hours.” He frowned. 

“Relax, I’m not going to leave you alone on this one.” She said, “You can sleep in and just arrive for clean up like usual.”

“Really?” 

“Yes.” She smiled, “I’ve got your back, always.”

They were at a stoplight, and he looked at her with that starry-eyed expression that he did when she was being protective of him. Then he reached over and tapped his watch to her watch with a funny grin on his face.

It took her a moment to realize that the emoji he left on her watch face was a gold metal that he just transferred to her account. This was the last award she needed to get her own Courageous Knights of the Round poster photo shoot. This prestigious spotlight on Knights who went above and beyond in the line of duty also came with international recognition. It was the equivalency of celebrity status, and it was all thanks to her superior sniper skills, and in particular, this bizarre night of choices.

She grabbed Florian by the collar and brought him down to her face, kissing him on the cheek. “I’m giving you a signed copy when they’re printed!” She beamed.

“Whoa, easy does it, I don’t want Liam to kill me.” He rubbed his cheek. “Maybe I’ll hang it on the inside of my closet just to be safe.”

She laughed. “Unless he gets transferred to the East Coast, you don’t have to worry about it.”

Florian tapped his fingers on the armrest between them a moment before saying, “I’m going to miss you in the field, but I hope your recruit works out after all that effort. Though, if it doesn’t, it’s because that guy has no clue how awesome you are.”

“Well, if he doesn’t see that then he’ll run the other way for sure when he hears about all of this.” She smiled. “But either way, he’ll be shocked to know about my exotic Knight life.”

Want to learn more about this and other fantasy sci-fi books I'm working on? For more on maps, world building, and stunning art by amazing artists of my two worlds - Drea and Hiraeth - check out my website at: Corrinamp.com