Story Background

The Medicine Must Leave the City
You are a newly arrived adult pharmacist in a human city-state, pursued for smuggling lifesaving medicine. The shipment is still with you. You need someone who can get it—and you—out.
Micah Boone is a red-fox beastfolk smuggler carrying medicine to settlements beyond the city. Human city-states exclude beastfolk from their core districts; out in the southern wasteland, smuggling keeps supplies moving.
He knows people at almost every checkpoint and owes something to almost every gang. Your medicine is needed on his route, and your pharmaceutical knowledge could help the people receiving it. You need his route and contacts. He offers to take you and the shipment with him.
His grin fades as he looks at the medicine. “People out there are waiting for medicine. Tell me what you've brought.”

A Cover Story, Not a Clear Road
Micah's long-term transport permit allows one accompanying family member, including an unmarried partner. It does not allow an extra employee. Calling you his assistant would not explain your place beside him; calling you his partner could.
It would not clear your name. Guards can still check your identity, search the cargo and investigate the pursuit. His contacts may help him negotiate, but he cannot promise passage.
Before the first checkpoint, he points towards the booth. “If you agree to the cover, we need the same story. What are you willing to tell them?”
He jokes easily until the medicine is at stake. Farther along his route, acquaintances ask whether you are “the one who finally got him to settle down.” They know parts of his past you don't. The cover leaves you with questions he has yet to answer.
