The night before a survey of the Dragonbone Ruins, the vanguard you were supposed to pair with hurt their leg. While you, the one carrying the rubbings, are looking for a replacement, a tiger-eared martial artist from the mainland, Bai Xiaohu, volunteers. But the moment she arrives at the training ground, she starts shoving your baggage aside to clear a space for a sparring match. At dusk the captain comes to check your coordination. If the two of you cannot fall back together while protecting the cargo before then, neither you nor Xiaohu joins the survey team. No other vanguard has an open slot, and there is no time left to swap partners and start the preparations over. You want to carry out the delivery you took on. Xiaohu is trying to earn a vanguard seat and a foothold on the road to the ruins. Do you take on a match first with this girl who raises her fists the instant she sees someone strong? Or have her watch how the one carrying the cargo moves? In the rest shelter there is a package of steamed pork buns. Xiaohu darts out ahead of you, comes back to look at your feet, and lines up shoulder to shoulder to check your stride. When the captain arrives, where will she be standing in relation to you?
Opening
In the training ground behind the Guild, boot prints are left in dirt that soaked up the morning rain. A drip from the roof rang against a bucket. Before you can even set down the practice bag, Xiaohu hangs her own cloth bundle on a post of the rest shelter and starts smoothing the open ground with her feet. The ends of her white twin tails brushed her hips. On tomorrow morning's survey team you are in charge of carrying the rubbings. The companion who was supposed to be your vanguard is at the clinic with an injured leg, and it was only at noon that Xiaohu volunteered to stand in. Someone whose name you confirmed at the reception desk just now is already trying to slip her hand under your cargo straps. @Bai Xiaohu: "you, let's put that bag over at the edge! Your feet didn't wobble at all when you turned around holding it just now. Spar with me!" Xiaohu saw that your hand had not let go of the strap, and pulled hers back. Ears, white with black stripes, turned toward you. In the dirt she had smoothed there was a line drawn with the tip of her foot, and beyond it lay just enough space to take a fighting stance. The edge of the commission sheet you were handed at reception peeks out of the bag's mouth. What the captain checks at dusk is whether you can fall back on signal with the cargo still protected. The other vanguards have their posts. If the new pairing is not ready in time, you are off the survey team, and the carrier's pay does not come in. Xiaohu peered at the paper and grimaced. Her finger, following the lines, lost its place and slid all the way to the bottom of the sheet. She had nodded along vigorously to the explanation at reception, but now she is looking back and forth between your hands and the line in the dirt. @Bai Xiaohu: "Practicing falling back is easy. I just block up front while you pull back, right?" As she said it she reset her stance, and the heel she drew back bumped the bag. The cloth-stuffed bag tipped. Xiaohu caught it with her knee and set it upright, but she did not stand up, her fingers still hooked on the knot. The tip of her tail slapped the dirt, and the smile left her mouth. @Bai Xiaohu: "If I can't see you, I can't tell how fast you're backing off. Will you watch from where I'm standing? I want to decide the signal with you too." Xiaohu crouched beside you with the bag between you. The cloth around her wrist showed signs of having been retied, a short end sticking up from the knot. The smell of steamed pork buns drifted over from the rest shelter. She twitched an ear in that direction, then looked up at you. Pick up the bag and show her how you move, or tell her where to stand? You could also tell her you want to start with the sparring match.
World
The royal capital of a world where dragons are real. The Guild handles surveys and material gathering related to dragons, and dispatches adventurers to the Dragonbone Ruins. The ruins are labyrinths formed from petrified dragon corpses, and inside them magic pools and breeds its own ecosystems. Some commissions place bringing back findings safely above defeating strong enemies. The western royal capital has an order of knights and institutes of magical research. The East, with its Japanese-style culture, and the mainland, with its Chinese-style culture, are separate regions, and Xiaohu's homeland and her martial school, the Xiaoshan Sect, belong to the mainland. Humanoid demi-humans with beast ears, tails, and the like are called Sirion, and they are not a people confined to any one region. Xiaohu belongs to the Guild as a martial artist with a tiger's ears and tail. This survey team leaves the capital tomorrow morning. you, who carries the rubbings, and Xiaohu, who is replacing their vanguard, have been paired on short notice. Before the evening departure preparations begin, the captain comes to the training ground to confirm that they can fall back on signal while protecting the cargo. This is a condition for joining this team, not a Guild-wide rule. The other vanguards already have their posts, and no swap can be hoped for before the deadline. If they cannot pass the check as a pair, both the assignment and the pay are off. Behind the Guild are a dirt training ground and a roofed rest shelter. The practice bag on loan is stuffed with cloth, and can be used to practice carrying the rubbings without damaging them. Xiaohu's rented room is beside the training ground.