You know how to use a fishing net?" Dusty asked as Thyra unfolded the net.

"Somewhat," she shrugs. "We used to just wade into the water and stab fish with a spear. It required a lot of patience that i didn't have, so i eventually learnt how to fish with a net. I'm not perfect at it, though. You?"

"I've been on a ship more than I can count, so I know how to use these, but this one requires two people, less you want to do it a different way." Dusty said looking into the stream.

"You're the expert, so I'll follow your lead." Thyra replies.

"We can do it manually, and you cause more harm than good, or I make a fish trap, which is as effective as doing it manually, due to the current." Dusty said with a small smile.

"Well the idea of a fishtrap sounds pretty good, that way we can try and sort out some shelter while we wait. I don't think we'll be too welcome back in that cave without a good enough reason to be there." Thyra grins with a shrug.

"I can actually see that cave from here." he says while pointing at the obvious dark spot on the cliffside in the distance.

"Imagine if they're watching us from a distance...just staring." Thyra shudders.

"They probably are, so let's always keep that in mind." he says as he grabs a few rocks, of all sizes, "help me with these rocks."

"Yeah," Thyra nods, grabbing a few decent sized rocks.

It takes them a few minutes, but they are able to make a V, with the bottom pointing downstream, with the rocks.

"Now, hand me the net." He says while putting his hand out.

Thyra tosses him the net with a grin. "Let's catch some fish, eh?"

"We're not catching fish, the trap is," He says whose securing the net at the hole they left at the bottom of the V. "You see what I'm doing here?"

"Yeah, I get that, I was just being enthusiastic!" She nods, watching him.

"Alright, now we just have to wait, so how about we find some shelter, and this time, make sure it's vacant." he says jokingly.

"Oh, haha, like we had any idea." Thyra mutters sarcastically. "I say we keep away from the cave for now, and head upstream. There's gotta be something interesting." Thyra suggests.

"What could possibly go wrong?" He asks while a familiar squawk sounded behind them.

"Hmm. I dunno. We don't have a partially clean record!" Thyra says as she turns to face the noise. "Ah, Flame. I was wondering where you ran scared off to!"

Flame drops a whole load of fish from his mouth, before nuzzling Thyra.

"Well, I guess someone's been busy." Dusty said, examining the pile.

"Aww, thanks buddy!" Thyra grins. "Too bad I'll never eat fish again..." she mutters, wincing at the terrible memories.

"I don't think the fish is for us." Dusty says as he steps away from the pile.

"Thank the gods above for that!" Thyra breathes. "For the dragons maybe?"

"I know you don't thank them for your terror friends." he says looking above her.

"Ugh." she mutters, following his gaze.

To find the certain terror land on her head.

She pulls her off, and drops the dragon by the fish. "Eat your fish, leave me alone." she sighs, rolling her eyes with a small smile.

"You coming along, or are you staying with the fish?"

"Ha. I'm coming, pushy. I think Irritation over there can handle it." she points to the terror with a laugh.

"Irritation? That's a rude name don't you think?" he says with a laugh

"It explains her perfectly, but hey, if you have a better idea, feel free to share!" She smirks, walking forward.

"Well she's dark red, maroon?"

"Pfft, you can do better than that." Thyra laughs.

"It's Maroon or Irritation, I'm going with Maroon." he answers.

"Alright, but i'm still gonna call her Irritation, even if you don't like it!" she grins.

An apple hit her on the back of the head, and the now named terror started laughing her tail off.

She turns around and hisses at the terror half heartedly, making the dragon look insulted. "Let's just go, yeah?"

"Already ahead of you!" he called from the edge of the clearing, clearly waiting on her.

She rolls her eyes and hurries to catch up, the dragons following after them.

"You have all your weapons? Better to check now than later." he says sheathing his daggur.

"Yep." Thyra nods, searching herself really quickly. "This rope might come in handy, too." she gestures to the rope she's tied around her waist for convenience.

"You good with anything else? Besides the crossbow and throwing knives?" He asks as he shoulders his bow.

"Well, I used to mess around with my friend's staff," she nods, miming using one in battle. "They're so fun to wield." she glances at Dusty. "And you?"

He put his hand on the sword on his hip,"it's been awhile, but I dueled with swords a few years back, guess I'm bout to find out how much I remember."

"Yeah? You're like the stereotypical pirate!" she laughs, before considering his words. "And what do you mean by that last bit?''

I used to compete in tournaments with my sword, won almost every single one as well. Then when I started going with my dad, I got caught up using a bow on the ship, better to keep pirates at range then up close." he says as memories from that night rolled through his head.

"That would be handy," Thyra admits.

"How big was that staff you worked with?" Dusty asked with a thought in his mind.

"It was pretty big, taller than me, with cool designs. Shame I saw it burn." she sighs.

"Burn?, were you not supposed to have it or something?" he asked jokingly.

She laughs. "No, my idiotic friend decided to put it in the village bonfire, to make a 'fire staff', but he put it in too far, and refused to pull it out. He wouldn't let anyone pull it out, actually. I hardly understood him, yet he was one of my best friends."

"Sometimes the people closest to us are the hardest to understand." he said, good and bad memories rolling in his mind.

"Yeah," Thyra agrees. "A lot of people you thought you knew, turn out to be like strangers, when their true colours are revealed, and it's those who hardly know that pull you out of the mud."

"My dad was almost assassinated by his best friend at his own house, but I was able to stop it, by putting an arrow in the guys head." he said recalling that night.

"Ouch." Thyra mutters, "I guess that some people are just not meant to be trusted."

"I hope we can trust each other." he says looking at Thyra.

"Yeah," she returns his look. "It'd be a shame if we couldn't. I kinda like teasing you."

"And I like laughing every time a fish lands on you." and right on cue, a fish lands on her, and Dusty laughs.

"Ha, ha." she mutters, flinging it into a bush. "This is why your shoulder will be bruised!"

She puts a hard punch on his shoulder, and grins at his pained expression.

"Are you always displeased?" he asks while rubbing his still bruised shoulder.

"Nah, sometimes I just do it for the hell of it!" she says with a grin, before she lands another punch to prove her point.

"Geez, if starvation doesn't kill me, you will." he mutters under his breath. Before finally seeing something. "Well, found another cave."

"Good, let's make sure it's unoccupied!" Thyra picks up a stone, and with a hard throw, it sails through the air and into the cave, bouncing off the stone ground.

No sound comes from the cave.

"Hmm, it might actually be empty." Dusty says picking up a decent sized stick, and holds it up to flame, "hey bud, could you light this?" he asks the dragon, who seems confused, but does what he thinks he needs to do, and sets the end of the stick on fire.

They warily edge into the cave, unoccupied hands resting on their weapons as they get further into the darkness. This time Flame stays with them, providing a little comfort.
"Yep. seems empty. Surely we would have been attacked by now." Thyra exclaims after a few minutes.

"I think we found our home, well for now at least." he says as he goes to gather wood for a fire.

"Agreed." Thyra nods, running a hand over the stone wall. "It's wet. Must still be a pretty good water supply above."

"Let's hope it stays up there." He says as he looks into the trees, and freezes.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is a storm." Thyra says.

"Thyra, we got a problem." he says just loud enough for her to hear.

"Yep. Of course we do." she says with complete acceptance, and follows his gaze.

To see the blue eyed night fury looking right at her from the treetops.

"Oh, hi, Night Fury." she mutters nervously. "Come to kill me? I know I smell of fish, but blame it on the Terror!" She points to the terror, licking its eyeball. As soon as it see's the Night Fury, the little 'Irritation' or 'Maroon' runs off with her tail between her legs. But Flame didn't budge from behind them.

The Night Fury climbed down until it was on the ground. "Where's the other one?" Thyra whispers to Dusty.

A small growl answered them.

"Apparently, right behind us." he says as he turned, to see the Green eyed night fury advancing on Flame, who spread his wings wide and extends his tail spines.

The blue eyed one creeps up steadily, effectively making the three surrounded. "What Now?" Thyra asks, keeping eye contact with the blue-eyed mystery.

Dusty tries to think of something, when something catches the corner of his eye. The fish Thyra threw away earlier. He quickly grabs it, and presents it to the dragons. "Hey big guy, umm, hungry?"

"Yeah? Hungry?" Thyra mutters. "If you are, don't eat me."

"Hey if they do, one less mouth to feed." he said jokingly.

Thyra promptly ignores him, and glances at Flame's feet. "Flame, slide me that fish..." The dragon must have regurgitated it up, or something. Flame uses his tail to swiftly slide the surprisingly in-tact fish to Thyra, who bends down to pick it up without looking away from the black dragon in front of her.

Both dragons sniff the fish, before snatching them up and swallowing them in a blink of an eye.

"Well that went better than expected." Dusty said loud enough for Thyra to hear

"Yeah," Thyra nods, too busy watching the dragon as it's eyes widen slightly. It puffs out smoke in her face, but they don't break eye contact. "I'm assuming that's a thanks?" she whispers to the dragon, not expecting it to reply. It eyes her for a few more seconds, eyes becoming large for a moment, before turning and flying away as if it was never there. The one Dusty is dealing with does the same.

"How many times have we cheated death now?" Dusty asks trying to get a number.

"I stopped counting after three. It occupied my running away time."

"One of these days, our luck is gonna run out, but we've faced those night furies twice now, and we are still alive."

"Yes. surprisingly. But we'll probably be okay. We can probably make our own luck."

"Let's get this fire going, you look for some food, I'll feel better once we're back in that cave." he said, grabbing a few twigs.

"I'm on it." Thyra nods, drawing her crossbow and taking off into the underbrush, Flame deciding to follow because it doesn't seem like Dusty will go too far. But 'Maroon' or 'irritation' decided to stay and help Dusty.

By the time the sun went down, Dusty had a fire going in the cave, and Thyra returned with some goods.

"Whatcha manage ta find?" he asked as she walked into the cave.

"Only managed to shoot a couple birds, but I found some berries too. Trust me, they're edible!" she replies, presenting three birds.

"Go ahead and pluck the tail feathers off, I can use them to improve my arrows and your bolts." he said as he plucked the first bird.

She nods and gets to work, professionally plucking the birds in a matter of minutes. "And, now we've got food!" she cheers, setting the prepared food aside.

"You've don't this before, haven't you?" he asked, setting his bird aside.

"Yep, used to hunt." she replies cheerfully.

"Used to?" he asked curiously

"Yeah, before the whole, slavery fiasco. Well I stopped a while before that, my parents thought they'd rather teach me the history of the tribe, or manners, stuff like that. It was so boring."

"Well, it's certainly useful now." Dusty said as he put the birds on the fire.

"Yep. I forgot how much I missed it!" She cleans her equipment and sets it aside.

"There's no way were getting our lives back, less you want to take down the whole freaking Roman Empire, and make the brand void." he said pulling his sleeve up.

"Yeah, as much as I wish to do that, I'm not in the mood to die." she laughs. "No one could be that stupid."

"I think we're stupid enough." he said laughing.

"You'd have to, like, take it out from the inside." Thyra says.

"If you want to do that, strike at the heart. Its capital, Rome, and the Emporer." he says

"Easier said than done. Besides, I'd rather take out my Uncle, first."

"Do you have any idea why your uncle did it?" he asked still wanting answers.

"To be honest, I think it's because I was heir, while he was shoved to the side. His logic was probably thinking, if he got rid of me...he and his daughter would be next in line. Unless it was some other diabolical plan he made with my parents, that's all I can come up with." she lets out a bitter laugh.

"Was he related to your mother of father?" he asked

"Father." she replies. "They were pretty close, too. Don't know if they are now."

"Answer this for me, why would your parents, mostly your father, help you become the best heir the whole freaking tribe could have, teach you everything they know, then just dump you. It doesn't add up." he said, "unless your uncle staged a coup to overthrow you and your family."

"I've been thinking about this ever since i woke up on that ship. It could be along them lines, or it could be blackmail. My father loves my mum, but he has secrets, ones I shouldn't know about. And if any of these secrets were to get out? Well, let's just say it wouldn't be good."

"Like what? Did he run an illegal dragon training arena?" he said jokingly

"I wish!" she laughs. "But try...having a secret wife in Sweden. With three kids."

"What? You serious?" Dusty said in disbelief.

"Mhmm. I got suspicious because he was always sailing off, every few months, so I snuck on board his ship once. Saw them with my own two eyes. He had a whole other life there."

"You never met them?" He asked

"Not face-to-face, but I did spy on them, to try and get answers. I don't know...some part of me wanted it to be a misunderstanding. But they have a house together. They even...share a bed." she shivers at the end.

"Ok...that's disturbing." Dusty says

"Yeah, my poor ten year old eyes at the time have been scarred for life!" she laughs.

"Ok, let's get off that topic. Anything else horrible?"

"Not gonna argue with you there. Hmm? Well, have I mentioned my cousin? She's my uncle's daughter. And she is the biggest brat you will ever meet! She's covered in gold, holds her head high as if she's above us all, and can't even wield a sword!"

"So basically, she's a spoilt brat with everything handed to her on a silver platter?"

"Precisely."

"I hate people who are just handed positions, and don't earn them. You should earn your position of power." he said, thinking about all the brats he's run into in life.

"Yeah, I've worked hard my entire life to please my parents, to try to prove to people that I can handle my position, but to tell the truth, I don't really care about being Chieftess. It sounds so...regal. And boring. I'd rather become best friends with my cousin, then spend my life like that." she cracks a grin. "Being chieftess is impossible for me now, anyway." she glances at where the brand would be under her sleeve. "Shouldn't have happened like this."

"Yeah, it shouldn't happen to anyone. If I could, I would get rid of slavery alltogether." he said looking at his brand.

"Same, but that's impossible. Too many people still believe in it."

"I think the birds are done" Dusty said as he grabbed them.

"Yum, I'm starving." Thyra grins. "All I've eaten is coconut and fish."

"Here, catch." Dusty said and tossed the biggest bird to her, "Only the best for the queen of sarcasm." he said with a laugh.

"Thanks. And as my next order as queen, I order you to chew my food!" she laughs, biting into her bird. "Not bad..."

"Now your taking it a bit too far." as he bit into his bird, and he looked at Flame, who was blocking the cave entrance.

She chuckles as she takes another bite. "Get in here, Flame!" she calls after swallowing.

Flame moves into the cave, and curls around the two friends. And Dusty hands him the last bird, which he was happy to accept.

"Aww, you like bird? Kinda ironic.." she mutters the last few words.

"I don't think they waste a good meal." he looks outside. "I think we need to get some sleep, I haven't had a good rest in forever." He said while laying against Flames warm side.

"No more rocking ship!" Thyra grins dreamingly, settling down.

"No guards waking us for fun."

"No guards at all."

"Even better."

"You go ahead and sleep, I'll take first watch." he said while getting his sword and bow in reach.

"Alright," she shrugs, moving herself so she's comfortable . "If you're sure."

"I'm sure, I'll wake you in a few hours."

"Alright. If you wake me in an evil way I'll end your life right here, though." she warns with a grin.

"Yes your majesty." Dusty says sarcastically.

Thyra laid her head against Flame, and for the first time in weeks, fell into a deep sleep.