The Villain Wants to Quit

Failing a Mission

Theo had his bones repaired by the camp medic as soon as dawn broke, but no amount of medical attention would heal the bags under his eyes.

He barely slept between his pain and drunken snores last night once all his roommates returned.

Theo was nodding off as he saddled Carrot up.

Thankfully, the unicorn was used to the lack of sleep that often accompanied Theo's stays at the camp and helped nudge Theo awake and reminded him to get rations.

Before anyone but the current patrol woke, the trio was out of the base and on the road.

The freedom combined with a healed body felt refreshing.

Once they had trotted a few miles from camp, Theo tapped the couple's ring three times to tell Marc to meet. Then, he tapped it twice.

Getting to the capital in time would necessitate a back-breaking pace, but Theo wanted to meet Marc as soon as possible.

He only had a week and a half to two weeks before Dullahan would expect to hear news about the theft.

Theo stared at the ring, waiting for a response. He counted the seconds. When he got to seven, the ring vibrated once.

Theo smiled. Marc delaying the timeline would have complicated matters.

"Let's plan to meet our new friend in the capitol in two days." Theo kept the wording vague but trusted Carrot would understand.

"Can we make it three?" Carrot grumbled.

"Tight deadline," Theo answered.

Carrot sighed.

It was the closest to a "yes" that Theo would get.

Meanwhile, Scourge was sitting on top of Carrot's head, so Theo plucked him up by the scruff of his neck and tucked him in the new cloak he had picked up at camp.

"Unhand me, Mortal Theo!" Scourge squeaked. "Disturb not my view!"

"Trust me, you're going to want your view disturbed," Theo said.

"What do you-"Scourge stopped as Carrot broke into his fastest gallop.

Instead, he dug his needle-like claws into Theo's flesh. It made Theo feel like he had a kitten – a thought he kept to himself.

Theo patted Scourge's head and ducked his eyes down to avoid the stinging cold wind as much as possible.

The fast speeds always made Theo feel nauseated, but it was a feeling he always managed to quench after his first time to ride Carrot at this speed.

The first time Carrot had taken Theo at this speed was when they were children.

Theo had vomited all over Carrot's head. Carrot had refused to speak to him for a week. Everyone else thanked Theo for the rare silence from Carrot, but Theo had been rather bored without Carrot.

They continued their pace well into the night. Carrot eventually stopped near at a small cave they often camped at.

A series of well-hidden campsites was one of Theo's few secrets from Dullahan.

He liked to dream that if he ever managed to get rid of the oath around his neck, he could use the campsites to run away and become a hermit.

This particular one had a couple of small cooking pots, a wooden chest with dried meat, vegetables, and oats, and some wards to keep animals out.

Theo struggled to light a fire as his fingers were stiff with cold, but once he did, Scourge clambered out of his cloak and curled up so close to the fire that the flames would lap at his scales every once in a while.