Lauri was furious. She read Ralem’s pitiful letter over again, her nails digging into the parchment. After all he put her through… and he writes this? So sorry, he had said. Ha! Sorry wasn’t going to cut it. Seriously, was he still in fourth grade or something? And what was with the ‘trouble’ Rrashkirr? What kind of trouble? Couldn’t he be a bit more specific?

But what really made her mad was that he had said he was in Redfield. Then it had totally made sense. He felt so sorry for himself about Arianna that he had decided to go and have a good cry with his family. He needed a support group for his tender, aching heart. He had put all Baroke in jeopardy, had risked both his and his dragon’s life, and had left without notice and nearly gave Lauri a heart attack. “I am going to send ‘someone quik’ but that person is going to drag him out, kicking and screaming, away from his precious family. And when I get a hold of him I am going to kill that little son of a goblin! I can’t believe he’s seriously that stupid! I mean, I knew he could be a little slow, he’s a male and all of them are like that. But, seriously, this? I can’t believe it!” And with that she crumpled his letter into a ball and chucked it at the wall. Before it could hit the ground a javelin pierced it and it dangled there like a mangled ornament.

Before she could fling another javelin, Vali walked into the room behind her and nudged her back. “Rider,” she said smoothly, her voice soothing Lauri’s raw nerves. Her body brushed Lauri’s as she circled around her before plopping down like a sunning cat.

Lauri dropped the javelin and sat down, leaning on Vali’s chest. The water dragon’s long, webbed fingers curled around her and pulled her closer to her warm body. “What’s wrong?” she said softly.

“Everything!” Lauri said, running her fingers through Vali’s tassels, “I just got a letter from Ralem- yes, him- and he said that he’s in Redfield and to send someone quick. After all we’ve been through looking for them and he’s at home with his family probably eating pies and having a good laugh!”

Vali didn’t say anything for a moment. Lauri sank into her side grumpily. “I guess I’ll send Ryan and Thistle to go fetch them.”

“No,” Vali replied, “It’s too dangerous.”

“Why?” Lauri sat up to look Vali in the eye.

“There’s been a… development. Renaldi and Ezra just arrived back bearing news. A Felinus has been spotted less than a mile from the castle.”

Lauri jumped to her feet and started pacing, her heart beating wildly, “You can’t be serious. You just… can’t. Are the magical borders still up? We need to go into lock-down. Have the bridges raised and all guards to the wall. We need every defense we can get.” She stopped suddenly, realizing she was trying to order Vali around. “Sorry,” she apologized quickly, “But this is bad. Really bad. Why did Ralem have to choose to take off now? We need them more than ever.”

“I fear that may be the Felinus doing,” Vali said heavily, “Which means the letter…”

“Is probably a trap,” Lauri finished. “But we need to at least try! They could be our only hope for winning the war!”

Vali heaved to her feet, “You rely too much on them. They are young and stupid. We win this war by men, not a foolish wind dragon. So I advise you to stop fretting like a mother bird over two lost chicks and to start acting like a Commander-in-Chief!” And with that she swished back out of the room.

Lauri stood there for a moment before sitting down at her desk, a quill poised. She had a lot to do today. And finding that wind dragon was one of them.

Chasing cats was a lot harder than Arianna expected. They had been on the road now for about a day and a half and their biggest lead had been a small tuft of blonde hair and some blood. After that… it was mostly guesswork.

She had no idea what she was doing, and she was one of the greatest trackers in the country. Still, being the princess, she was able to put on an air that she had every clue what she was doing. Almost everyone bought into it except for Daemon. Arianna knew that he had been biting at the bit, and she was just waiting for the accusations to start pouring out. Daemon was almost as good as she was and knew her better than anyone else there so he wasn’t fooled at her fancily worded explanations why the cat had gone ‘northwest’ because a twig was broken in that direction.

But he had kept it to himself so far. Actually, he had kept everything to himself so far. Although Fraylon liked to chat with Arianna, Daemon stayed either in the back or in the front tracking. They hardly talked at all since they left, only for necessary things did they direct conversation towards each other. And Arianna liked it that way. She was still mad at him and besides, it was just too…. Awkward. She never knew he had feelings towards her, but did he have to embarrass her with those gooey words about her body and… she shivered. Yuck! She didn’t want to think of it.

The whole walk she had to make sure to keep an eye out for Sprite. The pony Pegasus was constantly falling behind and Arianna had to double back just to find her cropping some grass or talking to a family of raccoons. Now, on the second day she was quite unhappy at being woken up at six, without time for Arianna to do her mane or tail, and was even more stubborn. And she completely hated Fraylon, saying he was stinky and had creepy eyes. Unfortunately, he had heard that comment. Arianna had told the Pegasus off and now she was forced to carry the tents instead of the dragon.

Drake, on the other hand, was being quite a trooper. Most of the time he was Arianna’s ‘protector’, sitting in her hair and keeping his huge bat ears poised for danger in the trees. Somehow, it didn’t make her feel much safer that a mouse sized bat with a cute little nose was her defender.

When Drake got tired of sitting in her hair, he walked alongside them in human form, which really freaked Daemon out, or flew as a little bat. Either way, he was extremely talkative and wouldn’t shut up almost the whole time until Arianna told him that if he didn’t be quiet he would alert the cats of their location. Then the vampire shut up real quick.

Now Arianna was getting pretty desperate. They were stopping for lunch by the same river she had rafted down months before with Jaydon and Ralem. She was starting a small fire by the bank, all the while watching Fraylon fish out of the corner of her eye.

He was the most beautiful dragon she had ever seen. She could hardly peel her eyes away from him when they were together. He just had that aura of beauty, like that of a crashing waterfall or breathtaking mountain view. Every move he made seemed to be one of a master ballerina, like he was fragile yet strong at the same time. Now he stood, waist deep in water, poised like a stork. His intense blue eyes studied the rippling water, head snaking almost indiscernibly to the left or right as if following a fish.

She didn’t realize that she hadn’t been focusing on her task until Fraylon struck like lightning, snatching up the fish in a wave of water. She jumped and let out a light scream of surprise. Fraylon turned his head towards hers, fish flopping in his smiling mouth, and gargled out, “Youmph kay?”

Arianna started laughing, “Yes, I’m fine. You’re a great hunter, Frayfray.”

Fraylon stepped onto the bank and shook like a dog, spraying water everywhere. Arianna put her hands in front of her face as little droplets pelted her. She heard a wet plop as Fraylon set the fish down by her feet. “Thanks. Daemon taught me,” he said, nudging Arianna with a scaly snout, “That’s for you to cook. I’m going to catch one for me.” And with that, he frolicked back into the water.

Arianna smiled at him as he resumed his stork pose. He was such a little kid. Arianna felt almost motherly towards him, just as she did towards Jaydon sometimes. Jaydon… he was just so much more intense and deep, like he harbored deep secrets in his young age. And he was just… fun. Arianna remembered that one night when they were out shopping and Jaydon had took her out to an Asian tavern. He almost made her die from laughing when he snorked a noodle up his nose and accidently set fire to the cook’s pants. She would always remember that mortified look on his face…

“Arianna, the fish is burning.”

Arianna jerked back to reality and she yanked on the stick impaling the fish she had been holding over the fire. “Uh oh,” she said as the fish slid off the twig before sailing over her shoulder.

Fraylon dove for it, his eyes wide. “Not the fish!” he moaned.

The fish’s buggy yellow eyes bugged even more.

Daemon face palmed.

Sprite snorted and ate a daisy.

And the fish fell.

Onto Drake’s furiously flapping bat wings. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” he yelled triumphantly before he went splat!

Arianna scrambled over to him and peeled the fish off of the poor vampire. “Sorry Drake,” she couldn’t help but giggle.

Drake shook his head and staggered away, looking tipsy. “I’ve got it,” he mumbled, “I got-” he collapsed on the ground and immediately started snoring.

“Aww poor baby,” Arianna crooned before gently picking him up and setting him carefully in her hair where he subconsciously snuggled into her bun. She turned towards the rest of the group, brushing off the fish nonchalantly. “It’s fine,” she said, tearing off a piece. “Dig in.”

They ate in silence, mostly because they were all pretty hungry. Fraylon ate five fish, while Arianna and Daemon shared one big salmon. Arianna was pretty proud of herself. It was pretty good.

After she was done, she let out a very un-princess-y burp and got to her feet. “Onward we go then!”

Daemon got to his, “Onward… where exactly?”

Arianna searched the surroundings thoughtfully. She pointed upstream. “North.”

“And how do you know they went upstream? Couldn’t it just have crossed the river? Do you even know they came this way?” The questions seemed reasonable enough, but somehow it really grated on Arianna’s nerves at the moment.

“Are you saying that I don’t know what I’m doing?” she said coldly, folding her arms over her chest.

“I’m just saying that if I’m going to be on this little quest, we better at least be going the right direction!” Daemon shot back.

“Of course we’re going the right direction!”

“I don’t believe you,” Daemon said coldly.

“Well don’t believe me all you want but I’m a better hunter than you ever were!”

“Oh yeah? You really think that? Well you try spending four years in the wilderness and survive because-”

“I spent half a year and did just fine- and that was by myself with no dragon to protect me-”

Daemon laughed harshly, “Dragon? Protecting me? More like I was protecting him! He was as worthless as a church mouse when it came to protecting anything! I was the one providing everything! We almost starved half the time!”

“And is that supposed to be his fault? He was just a hatchling!” Arianna cried, “I can’t believe how you treat him. In fact, I’m glad that-”

“I don’t want to hear how you think I should treat him,” Daemon snapped, “He’s my dragon, not yours.”

“Ugh! He is not your property!” Arianna felt like slapping him all over his face. “And neither am I!” she blurted.

“I never said that!” Daemon replied, his nostrils flaring. “There you go again, making stuff up that I never said!” His fists started to turn blue.

“What are you talking”-her eyes narrowed- “are you saying I’m a liar?”

“No, I’m just-”

“Hey, hey!”

They both looked over to find Sprite looking annoyed. She shook her mane. “Come on, peoples. You two have seriously got to stop squabbling like lovesick loons! I mean seriously, you both are being out-rage-ous! Look, you’re making the scaly thing cry!”

“I’m not crying!” Fraylon retorted, snapping his wings frustratedly.

“Yes you is!” Sprite neighed, “And your pitiful argument is going to make me cry too if you keep it up. So chill and let’s get this creepy-guy search on so we can get it over with. Got it?”

Sprite had never been more sensible. Arianna’s shoulders slumped. “You’re right,” she said. –“Of course I’m right!” Sprite called- “We shouldn’t have fought like that. Shake on it?” she extended a hand.

“Girls don’t shake,” Daemon said. “But you never were much of one to follow rules, were you?” he gave a brief smile before shaking her hand, which was much colder than hers. “I’m sorry for saying all that… I didn’t mean it,” he said.

“Neither did I,” Arianna snatched back her hand and tried to massage warmth back into it.

Daemon smiled shakily, “Okay… north it is.”

And without another word they put out the fire in the camp, covered their tracks, and started north.

It was undeniably beautiful out here, with the tall firs and maples swaying in the breeze, the distinct smell of the river, and the backdrop noises of the steady lapping of water onto the land. A couple swans swam gracefully, their necks poised as they rippled across the ponderous current. A family of turtles sunned on a log. Birds trilled in the trees as sunlight fell warm through the heavy laden branches. Arianna felt completely at home out here, in the woods. She loved the crunch of pine needles underfoot, the different calls of the wild birds, and the complete wildness aura that was the heart of the whole scene. Her hunter senses were alert, and her eyes were constantly moving through the forest like a restless beast. Any random noise would send her on alert mode.

Daemon was the same way. He was even more silent than she was, and she could tell he was getting steadily uneasy. What was wrong? Was the fight they had just had still heavy on his mind? The way his eyebrows pinched like they always did when he was troubled caused her to become even more nervous.

Drake snored, oblivious, in her bun.

Ten minutes later and she relaxed. Daemon had always been one to over-react. It couldn’t be anything. She rolled her tense shoulders and fingered her ring on habit. Sprite sped up suddenly and trotted to her side so she could scratch her behind the ears and run her fingers through her mane.

Suddenly Fraylon went rigid.

Arianna bumped into him and was about to tell him to keep moving when she realized every muscle in his body was tense as a bowstring. “Fraylon?” she asked in a small voice. He didn’t move. She looked at his face. He was staring, staring very hard at something. Both her and Sprite stumbled to his side before following his gaze.

Immediately Arianna’s eyes teared up and she fell to her knees and retched. Sprite let out a piercing neigh and pawed the sky, the whites of her eyes showing. Daemon drew his sword, scanning the trees and underbrush, sweat building on his forehead.

In front of them, a beautiful red dragon lay.

Dead.