FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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"Are you sure you want to go back, Keira?" Fallon asked worriedly. "It'll be painful to see."

Keira nodded her head. "I need to see it... I think it'll bring me some closure."

Fallon exhaled and dipped his head. "Very well, then. I'll take you to see your home, but we can't stay for very long. It'll take almost all day if we don't stop for any breaks."

It was early in the morning, when the air was nippy and the sunlight was just beginning to leak from behind the eastern horizon. Fallon worried that his absence for the day may rouse some issues, so he wanted to be back as soon as he could.

She extended her snowy-white wings out and tested them. "I think I can manage," she said uncertainly. "I haven't flown very much like I used to."

"Just let me know if you get too tired," he said and kindly nuzzled her. Fallon took to the sky seconds later and waited for Keira to catch up with him before angling their direction to the North, where giant mountains loomed in the hazy distance.

The smell of pine trees mixed in with the scent of morning dew. It was a delightfully fresh aroma that Fallon loved waking up to as well as the frigid morning air that chilled his scales comfortably. He could easily say this was his favorite time of the day, when the world felt slow and peaceful.

Admittedly, Fallon felt slightly disturbed about this trip. He mostly worried about Keira and how she would take seeing her village left to ruin. She didn't remember much from the day he had found her and wanted to know if anyone else had survived. However, he imagined that she had more purpose than that for returning.

Fallon highly doubted that there was anyone remaining, but if Keira had escaped then there was a small chance someone else had too, though he and Dorian had doubly checked for anyone around the village before they left.

And if there was someone there, would they attack him immediately? It was just over the border of Northern territory. Southern dragons had no reason to go past it, so any stray dragon they would encounter would most likely be a Northerner. He decided that he'd have to hide himself while also keeping a close eye on Keira.

But what pressed most at his mind was that if she did find someone there, would she leave him? Would she try to return to her own life and leave her new one with his family behind?

Fallon hoped not, despite what his brother said before he left. "If she decides to stay, then leave her; don't question it and don't you dare try to dispute it. The sooner we get rid of it the better." The last sentence made his talons twitch.

Mara had been very concerned for his safety and urged him to bring guards along with him, but Fallon thought it would be best for Keira if it were just the two of them.

Then the thought occurred to him that maybe this was all an elaborate plan to assassinate him. Maybe Keira was just a spy for the Northerners that used emotional attacks to infiltrate his clan and lead him away to kill him while he was defenseless. Perhaps he was flying right to his death.

Fallon growled and shook his head. He couldn't let his brother's paranoid thoughts mingle with his own, especially when it was about Keira. She would never betray him, and he knew that for a fact.

"Fallon?" she asked. "Something wrong?" She had to almost shout so he could hear her over the rushing wind.

He shook his head. "No, sorry. Just thinking about all of those scrolls I'll have to read through when I get back," he replied with a chuckle.

She smiled and flapped her wings faster so she flew next to him, a wing's breadth away. "How much further do you think?"

"Oh, we've got quite a long ways yet. Would you like to talk about the city to pass the time?"

Keira rolled her eyes and muttered something he couldn't hear with the wind filling his ears.

"Or maybe we could talk about your studies?"

She shook her head. "I'm trying to get away from that! Why don't we talk about fighting?"

"Fighting?" Fallon looked over at her with a furrowed brow. "Why would you want to talk about that?"

"I'd like to learn how to defend myself," she answered definitely.

Fallon grinned. "Well, that's something that you learn by doing... Maybe I'll teach you sometime, but would you like to learn about magic instead?"

Her crimson eyes lit up as she nodded eagerly.

"Alright then, I'll try to explain it the best I can!"

* * *

"So you can like make bright and colorful lights and stuff, right? Have you tried anything else?" Aidan asked curiously, grinning horn to horn as Ruari showed him his newest magical creation: a rainbow-colored spectrum that stretched horizontally between his forepaws.

Ruari nodded and relaxed his arms as he stopped the flow of energy. "My magic teacher taught me how to make crystals light up so they can be used in houses."

"Well, that's uhm... useful," Aidan teased and showed Ruari some magic of his own. He cupped his paws together and held it out so Ruari could see. A small pool of crystal-clear water formed and filled his talons before drizzling over the edge.

"Haven't you known how to do that?" Ruari asked.

"Wait for it!"

Ruari waited... and waited... and still nothing happened. "You're seven years old! How do you not know more tricks than that?"

Aidan shook his head. "Look into it."

Ruari eyed his friend curiously and shifted closer, looking down into his paws. "I don't see any--"

A rush of water suddenly came gushing upward, hitting Ruari directly in the face before he could recoil and pull his head away. He spat out the water and wiped his dripping-wet face off. "HEY!"

Aidan fell over in a fit of laughter, clutching at his stomach. Water seeped into the grass below them. "I can't believe that worked! Ha ha! You totally fell for it!"

Ruari scowled at the red dragonet and pouted. "It's not funny!" He looked around the yard to see if anyone had noticed. The only other dragon around was the sandy and golden dragonet, Ciara, that Aidan apparently had a crush on. She was lying beneath the sunlight out in the open. Thankfully, it seemed that she was off in her own world.

"It totally is! The look on your face... he he he, priceless."

Ruari sighed and shook the water off. He wasn't particularly fond of getting his ebony scales all damp, but he couldn't help but to chuckle a little bit and smile. "At least you've learned something, I guess."

Aidan calmed down and sat back up. "I've learned a bit more than that, but the other stuff is boring! Plus, you'd have to get hurt for me to show you some of it."

"I'm sure that will be useful someday," Ruari said. "Well... I hope not, at least..."

"We're bound to get hurt sometime in our story," Aidan replied casually. "Then my magic won't be so boring!"

"Our story?"

Aidan nodded and bared a toothy grin. "Our story! The main characters--that's us!--have to get hurt sometime, right? So that way the story stays interesting, but they don't ever die. You're like my sidekick and I'm the main protagonist!"

"Wait, why can't I be the main protagonist?" Ruari complained. "I'm the one that teaches you everything!"

"Exactly! You're the helpful sidekick that gives the hero--me--the knowledge he needs to know to overcome his obstacles! Without you, I would just be a lamewings that would fail almost immediately."

"Well... okay. But if you're the hero, and I'm the sidekick, then who or what is the villain?" Ruari asked.

Aidan shrugged his red wings. "I've no idea."

"Every story needs a villain too!"

Aidan furrowed his brow and scratched his chin, and then an evil look crossed his face. "The villain is hiding in the shadows, waiting for his chance to strike!"

"Why does it have to be a he?" Ciara piped in nosily as she stepped toward them. "Why can't the villain be a she? Maybe I'm the villain!" She tilted her chin up and held a paw to her breast.

Aidan shook his head. "Nope! I think you'd be the damsel in distress! We'll have to rescue you from the true villain." He nodded assuredly as if he was keeping track of all of this in his head.

She scoffed and stamped her talons. "I'm not helpless, you know. In fact, I'm more likely to be the hero since my magic can actually _do_something other than make my scales wet." She huffed out a breath of flames and turned away, walking away with a proud jaunt in her step as her tail swished behind her.

"Why do you like her again?" Ruari asked, snapping Aidan back to reality.

He grinned and shrugged. "I don't really know."

"So, where do I fit in?" Des said and startled them both. He was lying next to them, couchant and relaxed as if he had been there the whole time. At least Ruari was fairly certain that Des had just arrived...

"Maybe you're the villain!" Aidan accused with a giggle. "You'd probably make a good villain."

"I would not!" Des said, taken aback. "I don't have an evil bone in my body."

"You don't yet! Usually something tragic has to happen to the villain, something that's left a festering scar deep inside them and made them hateful."

"Well, I hope nothing like that happens," Des stated with an obvious 'what if' worry line furrowing his brow.

"Or maybe they're greedy," Ruari added. "I've read about criminals that do bad things for money."

Des shook his head. "I don't think I'm greedy either..."

"Yeah, but they aren't very impressive. They always get caught," Aidan returned. "The best villains are the ones that you don't realize are villains until it's too late!" He stared over at Des, and the purple dragonet wriggled in place.

"I am not a villain!"

Aidan giggled and playfully booped Des with his tail. "I'm just kidding! You'd make a terrible villain anyway."

Des rolled his eyes and exhaled sharply through his nostrils. "If anyone's the villain, it's probably Kane. He's always up to no good."

Des tilted his head in the direction of a green and blue dragon that strolled through the grass like he owned the school. Being nearly nine years old, he was older and bigger than almost everyone, and he definitely acted like it. Luckily, Ruari was small enough and not very noticeable that he had yet to have an encounter with Kane.

Aidan nodded and turned his head back toward the conversation. "He wouldn't make the brightest villain... but I could see him tearing the wings off of butterflies."

Ruari and Des both chuckled at that.

"Anyway, looks like it's about time for class again! See you tomorrow, Des. Let's go, Ruari!"

Ruari nodded and waved a wing goodbye to Des before following Aidan back to class.

* * *