Destiny didn’t cringe when the redhead asked her about finding a job, but she had to hold herself back from it. Hell, if I wanted to work I wouldn’t bother pluggin’ a bunch of wires into my head in my free time. Terrasphere was her off time between jobs. Des usually worked in blocks of a week or two, leading a tour or an expedition before coming back home and dissolving into a useless mess for another couple of weeks until the next one. That was how these sorts of jobs went. She knew a bunch of people who traveled in their free time, took the opportunity to check out new places and see new sights—hell, now that she’d found this game Crane had gotten her into, Des could do the same thing. Without having to worry about gettin’ deported, even! …Speaking of Crane, she was still worried about the bastard. He said he’d meet me here, and the place is a smokin’ ruin with a trapdoor down to a goddamn dog pit. How was she supposed to react to that? I’m gonna send him a message. Maybe not right that second, though. “Sure, sure, light up the establishment, I get it,” Destiny agreed. Sure it was a radical move, but wasn’t a game-changer. Besides, look at all the dirt they’d turned up because of it! “Oooh!” Giving a double thumbs-up at Emeranth’s magical finger guns, Destiny sucked in her breath as the array of canines below were fully revealed. The sudden barking that reverberated around the pit was enough to give anyone a headache. What was this, the damn pound? “Holy hell. That’s a lotta dogs.” Her gaze flicked sideways when he mentioned the wolves in Brisshal. “Don’t I know it!” Good thing they usually chased a scrap of meat instead of a scrawny elf when she came across ‘em, or she’d be in real trouble. Well, heck. What were they supposed to do about it now? “Can’t leave ‘em here, can we? Who knows how long it’ll be before someone feeds ‘em.” Then again, freeing a bunch of frenzied pack animals themselves wasn’t too appealing. Unless Destiny could suddenly tap into her inner Beast Master (currently at an impressive zero) it looked like the boys were gonna have to stay in their pens. “Doggone it.” That was a joke. Destiny stuck a finger in her ear at the continued barking, giving a sigh. “Reckon it’s time to head back up and report all this to someone who can do somethin’ about it? Track down somebody in charge?” The sound of growling—throaty and deep, closer than the barks from below—came as the Yladian turned around. She stopped, freezing in place as a black-furred shape emerged from the shadows behind the billiards table. How it had happened—how this one had escaped when the others hadn’t, why it was here now—wasn’t important. What was important was the canine’s bristling pelt and visible ribs, its sharp teeth and the blood crusted on its snout. “Oh, hell.” Destiny stayed frozen. She spoke softly. “Don’t move.” Why did she say that? She should chucksome meat behind them and then they should run. But what if Emeranth was too slow and got ripped to bits? “What’s the plan?” It’d outrun them in a straight shot. They had to get it back into the pit … somehow… or else kill it, and hell if she’d taken the time to buy anything useful like a weapon in this game.
