Page 79 of I Ran Away to Evil
In a way, Keith wished that he had stepped out that morning instead of wasting time flying Hubert all over the forest. He could have found Ria faster if he’d left—and he wouldn’t have needed to argue with Chloe about leaving.
Did she care that he was abandoning his work, the castle, or the war preparations? No. She was livid that Keith wouldn’t play host to Julia.
Honestly, that was just another reason for him to run away … or vacation, as he’d informed the group.
Chloe had gone so far as to fake faint into her lover’s arms at the unfairness of it all, but she would get over it.
So Keith shook out his old dungeon delving kit and grabbed his satchel, went up to the lookout platform, and headed out for Gren’s Keep.
For his tenth birthday, Feliwyn had gifted Keith a collection of monster parts. From it, he had created his favorite magical prosthetic construct. He had dabbled in replacing limbs at that point, but for this he’d crafted himself a set of wings.
They were black wyvern membrane tissue bound to mechanically enchanted treant bones, for added flexibility and mana circulation. The wooden bones were also easier to carve spell script and enhancements into for a ten-year-old.
Keith unfolded the set and slotted them into holes precut into his adventuring tunic. [Flight] was a higher-level spell, and it cost a lot of mana to maintain. Activating the wings, however, meant he could fly around and not risk plummeting to a painful collision with the earth if Henrietta distracted him.
Planning ahead was always important when dungeon delving.
It took a bit of trial and error to get a feel for his temporary extra limbs, but less than half an hour later, he was flying west.
Keith arrived at Gren’s Keep before dinner.
It was next to impossible to go unnoticed in the Dark Enchanted Forest when you were the king of the Dark Enchanted Forest, so he didn’t bother trying to be stealthy.
He landed outside the town. Folding his wings down, he clipped the tips to his belt so that they wouldn’t sway around awkwardly while deactivated, and then he simply walked in through the front gates. He told himself it would make it easier for Ria to find him if everyone and their human knew he’d arrived. Secretly, he enjoyed the chaos it caused.
Unfortunately, the General of the West found him first.
“Yourrr Viciousness!”
A tigerkin in full beast form went from casually napping on a building roof nearby to bounding over fully transformed and landing on one knee in front of him, his voice rolling theRas many of the feline beast folk did.
“General.” Keith nodded imperiously, but he wasn’t looking at Quinton. He was sweeping the crowd for any sign of Henrietta.
Quinton rose to his full height in beastman form, a little taller than Keith, and awkwardly scratched his head. “We weren’t expecting you?”
“I’m taking a vacation.”
Quinton’s mouth dropped open; he didn’t appear to believe what he was hearing. “Avacation?”
“Yes.” Keith nodded.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Here?”
“Yes?”
“But … why?” the general asked. “We don’t have any golems needing rrrepairs, and there aren’t any new monsterrr types spawning in the dungeon. If you needed ingredients for yourrr automata, you could just say so.”
Keith couldn’t see or smell his princess anywhere, so he made the next most obvious choice. “Quinton?”
“Yes, Yourrr Viciousness?”
“Take me to the Damp Gizzard.” Keith knew that the first thing Henrietta would do would be to find food after her [Quick Step] cooldown. So if she wasn’t here yet, he should wait in the most obvious place.
“Yes, um, of course.” Suddenly, Quinton looked like he’d been caught between a rock and a hard place. “Right now?”
