Arianna sighed as she lay in her tent, stroking the baby dragon, which lay on her chest. It was still asleep. Arianna wished she was too. They had spent all day looking for the stupid cats yesterday, even until after night fell. Arianna had taken first shift until Fraylon kindly told her he’d take over. It was amazing how the dragon could function with very little sleep. But Arianna wasn’t used to so little sleep. She felt like she had turned into a jellyfish overnight, with every part of her sore. Her body had grown back accustomed to palace life. And besides, she had slept on a rock the size of her thumb, which had practically dug a hole in her shoulder blade. Then the little dragoness had coiled so tight around her arm that it had practically turned blue.

Suddenly light flooded the tent. “Time to get up,” Daemon said gruffly, “Rise and shine, Princess.”

“Argh!” she yelled, snatching the blankets around her before chucking a shoe and smacking Daemon in the face. “Daemon! What is your problem!” she screamed in Grundian, “You do NOT just barge into my tent!” The dragoness on her arm hissed tiredly at him.

“Sorry, sorry!” Daemon said, just barely deflecting another flying shoe.

“GET OUT!” Arianna hollered.

Daemon did so, hurriedly.

Arianna harrumphed as she saw his shadow retreat. “I can’t believe he had the guts to do that!” she muttered, setting the dragoness down on her blanket. She started getting dressed, still muttering about the Rider’s audacity.

When she stumbled out, she found Daemon slowly turning a fish over a fire, Fraylon digging into his own pile of fish, Sprite was grazing on some flowers near the camp site and Drake in human-ish form, sucking a fish dry. He looked up when he saw her, “Morning, Arianna!” he called brightly, his fangs still abnormally large.

At his call, Fraylon also looked up, “Good morning Princess. How are you?”

“Horrible,” Arianna replied grumpily, sitting down hard on the stump, not even caring that her hair was practically a rat’s nest (actually it was a bat’s nest- Drake had made his own little comfy hole in her bun) and reached for some fish.

Sprite caught sight of her hair and nearly choked on her flowers. She swallowed hard. “Girl, you need to do your hair. And while you’re at it, do mine too.”

“Thanks,” Arianna gave her the evil eye.

“Just saying,” the Pegasus shrugged her wings and got back to grazing.

Daemon handed her some more fish, purposefully not looking at her. “Sorry about looking in at you, Arianna.”

Arianna snatched it from him, “You better be.” She was in a bad mood and wanted everyone to know it.

After they had finished and packed up their tents, Fraylon dipped his head and asked, “Hey, Arianna, I understand it’s been a rough night. Want to take a ride on me? I can carry you, easy.” He smiled graciously, his ears perking forwards.

Arianna looked at him and couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks Fray, but I think you’ve got quite enough to carry.”

Fraylon half-spread his wings, straightening to his full height. “I am strong. I can take a little thing like you, no problem. Us ice dragons may look delicate, but we’re made to weather blizzards. Come on, it’s my pleasure.”

Arianna patted his flank, “I’m fine.”

Fraylon crouched, the pots and pans hanging from his back clanging with the sudden movement. He raised his eye ridges at her, “You know you want to get on,” he purred.

“Okay,” Arianna relented, sliding onto his back. He laughed and started forward as Daemon took his place in front and waved them onwards impatiently. She felt a rustle as Drake settled in her hair. Sprite galloped up until she was right next to them, her wings fluttering tiredly.

Something was missing.

“Oh my gosh!” she suddenly exclaimed, “Where is Ellie?”

“Ellie?” Drake said from her hair, “Oh yeah, I saw her run into the forest while you were eating. Figured she was going to go catch some crickets or something.”

“What!” Arianna yelled, “Stop! Stop! We got to find her!”

Daemon stopped and turned around slowly, a pained expression on his face. “Arianna, we’ve wasted enough daylight already. We’ve got to keep moving.”

“But, but she could get hurt out there,” Arianna protested.

“She’s a dragoness. I’m pretty sure she can take care of herself,” Daemon said sternly, “Let’s go.”

“She’s so young. I’m sure-”

“Arianna the cats could be killing Ralem right now. Do you seriously want to risk anyone’s life over a lost dragoness?” Daemon asked.

“When you put it that way,” Arianna relented grumpily.

“Okay,” Daemon watched her for a moment more before turning around, “Onward then.”

And so they journeyed onward into the forest. Arianna found she liked riding Fraylon. He was like riding a trained dressage horse, light as if she were riding a cloud. Also, his smaller ribcage was similar to a horse’s and her legs weren’t splayed. The saddle was soft and padded. All in all, he was a wonderful ride. “Fraylon, you have a dreamy trot,” she accidentally blurted.

Fraylon laughed, “Trot? I think you’ve forgotten I’m not a horse.”

“That’s funny. Sometimes I forget you’re not a hairless moondeer,” Drake piped up. He had been mostly silent today because it had been too sunny, and he claimed that made him more tired.

Fraylon’s ears lowered. “I resent that. Why does everyone compare me with a deer?”

Arianna considered him thoughtfully, “Well it’s because your legs are so slender and graceful. Or maybe because you’re the same color as moondeer. Or it could be your cute ears and horns.”

Fraylon snorted, snapping his wings in annoyance. “Thanks for the nice comments but it still bugs me. I mean, once I saw Jaydon hunting them, and they just stood there while he walked up to them and snatched them up like sitting ducks. They’re so stupid.” Then he realized he had just been talking about Jaydon and he snapped his mouth closed.

“Nobody thinks you’re stupid,” Arianna said gently.

“We just think you look stupid,” Sprite piped up.

“Hey!” Arianna snapped, stretching her leg out, trying to kick the Pegasus.

“Just kidding,” Sprite protested, fluttering to the side, “Just kidding! Can anyone take a joke around here, like-seriously?”

“It’s okay,” Fraylon said, “I don’t mind.”

“Can you all be quiet for one minute?” Daemon complained, “If the cats were anywhere around, they’d know of our location immediately. We need to be quiet!”

Fraylon ducked his head obediently and even Drake managed to be quiet. They continued on in labored silence, marked only by Fraylon’s light padding and Sprite’s little hooves along with the occasional tinkle from the various supplies on Fraylon’s back. Arianna wished that Fraylon had a mane she could play with. Instead she busied herself on rubbing her thumb across his delightfully smooth scales while tuning in to the forest sounds.

They stopped for lunch by the stream again and as Daemon tore hungrily into his fish, he said, “We’re soon to enter the Bjorlaki forest. I’ve found evidence that the cats went this way. If I hadn’t found any evidence, I would have skirted this wood altogether. There are rumors of strange creatures thereabouts, and I’m not sure all of them are just stories.”

Arianna rolled her eyes, “That’s just the thing. It’s just rumors. And I wager they’re all old wives’ tales. I bet there’s absolutely no strange creatures to worry about.”

Daemon swallowed a mouthful of fish. “Look around you, Arianna. You’re with a dragon, Pegasus, and a vampire. Weren’t most of those creatures considered mere rumors in Grunde?”

“Hey!” Drake protested, wiggling his ears, “We try to keep it that way! If everyone knew what we were, then we’d be surrounded by people with garlic!”

Arianna glanced at him as he crawled up her shoulder, “So the rumors are true? You’ll die if we put garlic on you?”

“Die? Of course not!” Drake scoffed, “But have you ever smelled garlic breath?” he pretended to gag, “It’s the worse smell on earth!”

“Well anyway, back on the subject,” Daemon interjected before Drake could say any more, “Just keep an eye out, okay?”

After they had their fill, Arianna took her turn at tracking and Daemon rested on Fraylon’s back. It was clear that most of the time they were talking by the way Fraylon’s eyes glazed and his head drooped a little. Sprite was at her side, letting her run her hands through her honey brown coat or absentmindedly braid her silver mane.

They knew they had entered the Bjorlaki forest when they stepped foot across the border. The trees here were taller and held even more hungry branches to the heavens, leaving little room for sunlight to stream in. Moss grew heavily on the dark wood and huge rocks. A stream trickled in the distance, but it was a more eerie sound in this element. Nothing moved. No branches swayed or thrummed lightly in the wind, no insects added their strums to the late-summer breeze. No birds lifted their voice in song. Just the stream trickling in the distance and sometimes, a groaning creak of branches.

Arianna could tell Sprite was staring to get nervous. She soothed her gently while Daemon slid off his dragon and slid closer to the Princess, casually unsheathing his sword. Fraylon cast a watchful eye at the grumbling trees, his spikes raised aggressively. Drake dug himself into Arianna’s hair, only his big ears sticking up like bunny ears on Arianna’s head.

Suddenly Arianna cried out and skidded backwards, her outburst startling her friends. Daemon dashed to her side, one arm around her, the other thrust before them with a sword. She brushed him off impatiently, “I just almost stepped on a dead animal. Look,” she pointed.

The starch white bones of what used to be a deer lay on the ground, still in a jumping position as if it had died while bounding away. Tufts of hair surrounded the scene, white hair. It had been a moondeer.

Daemon crouched beside it, picking up the skull gingerly. “Interesting,” he murmured, “It looks almost like it was fresh, but it couldn’t be.” He turned it over to look inside the brain cavity, and as he did so green gloop dripped out of the eye socket. Arianna made a face when Daemon hesitantly touched the nasty stuff. Suddenly his eyes went huge. Like dinner plate large. “We need to get out of here,” he gasped, “We need to get out of here now.” He jumped to his feet and grabbed Fraylon’s reigns, motioning Arianna to follow quick!

Arianna had never seen him so scared. She staggered after him, “Wait up! Why are we going back the way we came from? We need to get through this forest, remember?”

Daemon shook his head furiously, his blonde hair flying. “There’s something in this forest. Something bad. Come on, go faster!” He yelled as he surged forward, his legs easily covering twice as much distance than most humans could handle.

Arianna gathered her skirts and ran, looking behind her for any unseen enemy. “I’ll watch your back!” Drake screamed from her hair, “You just focus on running!”

Sprite galloped beside her, urging her onwards, “Is it evil bunnies? I hate evil bunnies.  Please say it’s not evil bunnies!”

“Believe me, this is worse than any evil bunny,” Daemon said, doubling back to pick Arianna up and sling her over Fraylon’s back. Arianna scrambled to get into a sitting position as Fraylon loped over the forest floor, his neck surging forward and back to give him more speed.

Ba-boom, the forest floor shook, a heart-stopping sound.

Fraylon almost tripped on a trunk as the world shifted under him. “Don’t stop running!” Daemon yelled, his eyes wild.

Sprite took to the skies as another, closer BA-BOOM  thundered through the forest.

“What is it?” Arianna screamed, clutching the saddle and wishing Fraylon would go faster.

Daemon was praying to every god he knew even as he ran, his words hardly discernible in the crazed rush.

Ba-boom ba-boom baboombaboombaboom. The sound rung like the beating of a giant’s heart, getting louder and faster and nearer and more terrifying by the second. Leaves shook on the forest floor, trees rattled, acorns dropped from branches, and still the earth continued to shake. Arianna’s breath grew heavy in her lungs as she almost forgot how to breath. She hung on to Fraylon with all her might, her hair streaming behind her as she became lost in the unearthly noise.

In her hair, Drake’s sonar ears was picking up something very disturbing. Those booming noises were not coming from one huge creature, but from many, maybe thousands bounding in unison. He could hear their frenzied panting, their paws eating the earth, and the scurrying sound they made as they traveled at a tremendous pace. “Arianna!” he squeaked, “Might want to tell frostybreath to go a little faster or we’re dead.”

Fraylon skidded to a halt and Arianna’s heart jumped to her throat. “Why are you stopping?” she screamed over the noise.

Fraylon lunged sideways and nearly lost both of them. “Something’s coming from that way!” he panted. “Daemon!” he yelled, “Over here!”

Sprite whizzed over their heads, the whites of her eyes showing in her fear. “I see them! I see them! They’re evil bunnies!”

Arianna’s blood ran cold. There was that many cats? They’d have no chance! She took out her bow and arrows with a tap of her ring, watching the vibrating forest.

The first wave came in a flurry of brown. They were so camouflaged that the only way you could see them was their big, black eyes and gaping mouth from which long teeth jutted. Green goop fell like rain to the forest floor, sizzling to the leaves. They were only about a foot tall, but the sheer magnitude of the horde was enough to inspire fear in anyone’s hearts.

The first couple lunged at Daemon, their teeth snapping hungrily. Fraylon roared and shot three ice spikes, one after another. They impaled three at a time and dug them into the ground, where they lay, slowly dying as they clawed at the killer ice. Daemon swiped with his sword, mowing them down like top-heavy wheat. Arianna slid off Fraylon’s side as his temperatures lowered dangerously. She shot four arrows in quick succession, catching one before it could dig into Sprite’s leg. Sprite reared and screamed, crashing down on several with iron hooves. “Take that, evil bunnies!” she screamed, kicking a couple’s lights out, “And that! You want a piece of this Pegasus? Come and get it, punks!”

“Come on, Drake,” Arianna whispered, piercing three more with a feather-tipped arrow, “Help!”

Drake shuffled out of her hair and flapped into the mass of shaggy brown hair and gnashing teeth. Within seconds he became lost to her sight. I hope he’s okay, she thought, kicking one away from her. “Ouch!” she exclaimed, realizing how heavy they were.

“Princess!” the dragon cried, folding his wings around her. The circle around them was getting smaller and smaller. Snapping, grunting creatures tumbled over each other in haste to get to their prey and were just barely evaded by a slash of a sword or a stomp of a hoof. “We can’t keep this up much longer!” Daemon cried. Arianna screamed when she saw one latch its huge teeth on Daemon’s leg.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Daemon said, peeling it off and flinging it back into the horde, “They can’t hurt me. I’m frozen stiff.”

Arianna jumped backwards as a group of the creatures jumped for her. A flash of white as Fraylon’s talons shot out and raked the first row to the ground. He roared in defiance, even though he were sure this was their last fight. If only there was enough room, we could fly out of here. But I can hardly open my wings without hitting a tree.  Fraylon said as he snapped six up in his jaws, crushed them, and smashed them into a tree.

Arianna screamed when she backed into Fraylon. The things were creeping closer and closer. Arianna, Daemon, Sprite, and Fraylon were all back to back, bravely slashing, stomping, and shooting.

Then the creatures stopped.

They stood in a circle around them, replacements still rumbling from all over the forest, sometimes running over each other. Arianna didn’t stop shooting arrows into the growing mob. She didn’t know what else to do. She noticed Daemon and Fraylon had stopped. “What?” she yelled, “Don’t stop! We’ve got to keep trying!” She fired another arrow, this one running four through before digging its head in the dirt. “Come on!” she yelled hysterically, “Help me!”

Daemon set a cold hand on her shoulder. “There’s too many, Arianna,” he said softly.

She shrunk away from his hand, “So you’re just going to give up? COWARD!” she said breathlessly, her hand moving like a blur as she strung arrow after arrow. The mob grew like one huge creature, heaving and grunting. Waiting. “Fraylon, fight! Fight with me! Sprite? Someone, please!”

“I’ll fight!” someone burped. Out of the pulsing crowd flew Drake, who looked like a flying grape about to pop. He burped again, “I think I sucked one hundred of these things dry.”

Arianna was about to break down. “Good job, Drake. We’ve got this, right?”

She lowered her bow for a second. That seemed to be the signal for the crazed creatures. They charged and suddenly all Arianna could see was flashing teeth and beady black eyes.

“Arianna! Get under my wings! I’ll protect you!” Fraylon screamed over the noise. Daemon had already frozen stiff and Arianna watched in terror as the creatures crawled up him, biting and scratching. Daemon fell to the ground like a statue and soon became lost to view.

“DAEMON!” Arianna screamed, kicking away the creatures pulling at her boots, trying to surge through the storm of beasts to get to him.

“He’s fine!” Fraylon roared, “Quick, get under my wings!” He shot five spikes- boom boom boom! And caught several around Arianna’s form off guard.

Sprite took off the ground, her hummingbird wings buzzing angrily and knocking several unconscious. She kicked one off her legs. “Arianna!” she nickered, flying low to fly the Princess to safety.

“Arianna- look out!”

Arianna twisted her head to the noise to find a creature rocketing towards her, its huge, oversized mouth gaping, teeth snapping like a piranha. She screamed and tripped, right into the waiting mouths of the other beasts.  

And suddenly… silver.