The day started like any other, and against all expectations it looked like it would end the same way. Odell sighed as she finished putting away the last of the cleaning supplies. While the small farm that supplied the inn was only a thin shadow of its rural counterparts, it was still enough work for at least five people. Odell made do with three, and two overly enthusiastic dogs. It wasn’t the exciting life she had dreamt of as a child, but there were few enough dragons and knights in the world so she never held it against them that they kept passing her by.

“‘Dell! Dell!” Colby spun around the corner, one arm anchored on the post and the other waving frantically. He neatly avoided yet another scolding for stressing the aging wood by pointing at the smug of dust on the western horizon. “We’ve got company!”