“There I was, staring down five armed men with nothing but a big stick and a hangover from hell, and the biggest of them—real odd looking fellow with no neck and skinny legs—shouts at me to give him my money.”

  “But I bet you didn’t!” Penelope hollered with both indignation and excitement over the story Harris was telling the children that skipped alongside him.

  “Well, I told him the truth; that I didn’t even own the shirt on my back so unless he was looking for a pointless beating he should pick on a plump nobleman instead.”

  “Aren’t you a duke?” Penelope asked sharply.

  “I’m not plump, and I wasn’t a duke back then,” Harris explained without batting an eye.

  “Then what happened?” Luca was starting to fidget from excitement.

  “Then one of the gutless ones behind me tried to lunge at me, but I heard his boot in the mud and one shot to his family jewels with my stick had him down on the ground.”

  “Family jewels? Why was he robbing you if he had jewels?” Luca looked to Penelope to see if she was having the same confusion.

  She was indeed.

  Harris glanced forward where Tam and Eli were walking ahead of them. “Family jewels is another name for testicals.”

  “What are testicals?” Luca insisted next.

  Harris cleared his throat. This time when he looked at Tam’s back, he was somewhat hoping the man would turn around and answer his child’s question.

  When that didn’t happen, the old duke sighed. “Behind a man’s shaft is a sack with a line running through it. Those are testicals.”

  “Oh, you mean balls!” Luca perked up in understanding while Penelope made a disgusted face.

  “That’s what balls are?” Her voice was shrill enough that it at last alerted Eli and Tam to the nature of the conversation taking place behind them.

  Both Eli in her large cat form, and Tam swung around.

  “Just what are you lot talking about?” Tam demanded seriously.

  He still looked pale from his time unconscious, and he wasn’t moving as swiftly as he had been before, but the warm glint in his eyes was the same as ever.

  “Harris is being gross!” Penelope shouted while darting over to Tam.

  Harris watched as she grabbed Tam’s hand, and he briefly wondered when she had started doing such a thing naturally.

  “Harris?” Tam called out while drawing out the name.

  “They asked me the meaning behind ‘family jewels’!”

  Tam sighed.

  “He’s making it up, right? Men don’t have balls like that, right?” Penelope demanded seriously.

  Wincing, Tam shook his head. “He’s not lying.” He didn’t elaborate further.

  “Yuck.” Penelope stuck out her tongue and gagged.

  Tam smiled and looked back ahead.

  Harris sighed, then turned to Luca. “So, after I felled the first one, another two lunged at my sides. I held the stick out, bashed the left one in the stomach, and then the right one with either ends of the stick.”

  “But there were two more!”

  “Very right!” Harris grinned down at the boy. “Your math skills are really coming along, Luca!”

  The boy beamed.

  “So, there I was with two more robbers to take care of so I could get back home and jump in the lake.”

  “What lake?”

  “The lake just outside of Sorlia. It’s crystal clear, and I can’t say I’ve been able to swim to the bottom of it. It has lots of fish to eat, and is wonderful to jump into in the summer. Or, as in this story, when your head feels like it’s being smashed open with a red hot fire poker due to a heavy night of drinking.”

  “Does it always hurt like that when you drink?”

  “No, no. Now. Back to the story. The next one that came at me—”

  Eli stopped walking, and her great head came up, ears twitching.

  They all halted.

  *

  “What is it?” Tam lowered his voice and scanned the area around them.

  A low, growling rumble echoed from Eli. Tam gently pressed Penelope behind himself and withdrew two of his knives.

  Harris gave Luca a nudge in the back and sent him darting toward where Penelope was.

  Tam carefully sidled over to Eli. She lowered her great body (that was in fact a little bigger than a shanty), and Tam slowly reached under her to release the straps they had fashioned so that Eli could carry their gear-–in truth it barely fit her anymore.

  She allowed the packs to slide off of her back, but then flexed her powerful body in a pre-pounce position.

  “Where are you hearing them?” Tam murmured quietly.

  Eli’s ears twitched a few more times, her golden eyes staring behind them and a little to their left into the trees.

  “Can you tap your paw on the ground to let me know how many you smell?”

  Eli didn’t quite do this, but she did extend two massive claws.

  By this time, Harris was at Tam’s side with his sword drawn.

  “Tam,” he whispered. “You really should’ve acquired a sword of your own on the pirate ship. Knives are only good in fights when the person is unsuspecting, or otherwise unarmed.”

  “These were lighter which was better for traveling. And it’s not the time for this conversation. There are two people coming toward us.”

  “Are they witches? Can you tell?” Harris asked, glancing over toward Eli.

  She shook her head.

  “Dad? Should Penelope and I go find somewhere to hide?” Luca whisper-shouted from where he and Penelope had backed away.

  “Yes,” Tam called back softly over his shoulder.

  The three adults could hear the children’s footsteps grow more distant, and so readjusted both their attentions and grips on their weapons.

  It was difficult to listen to any sounds coming from the forest over the roar of the river at their side.

  But still they waited.

  Tam’s face paled the longer he waited crouched; his endurance waning quickly.

  Licking his lips, he then asked, “Are they coming closer or moving away? One claw for coming closer, and two for moving away.”

  At first, Eli extended one claw, but then a second.

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  “Are they separating?” Tam guessed.

  Eli bobbed her head.

  And that was when the screams echoed out.

  Tam, Eli, and Harris whirled around to see a Zinferan man with long white hair, and long white beard grasping Luca and Penelope by the back of their necks, and was already starting to rise up in the sky from behind a large rock they had been hiding behind before.

  “NO!” Tam roared.

  He darted toward the air witch, adrenaline pumping through him. Eli had already taken two massive bounds toward the Zinferan, when a massive wave of water rose from the river, and crashed into Tam and Harris, dragging them into its icy depths.

  Eli pounced into the air, her wings pressed tightly against her body, when another massive wave of water grabbed her midjump, and plunged her in the the river, pushing her back and down as the air witch continued to ascend into the sky with the two shrieking children who kicked and screamed against his hold.

  The water witch stepped free of the trees, her hands flexing and sweat beading on her brow with the effort of pushing not only Tam and Harris down the river, but also Eli who was significantly larger than they had been led to believe.

  When she was certain they were long gone, she stopped forcing them against the current, and merely allowed the river to flow as it should.

  They would all eventually wash back—if they didn’t drown of course.

  The water witch then ventured back into the woods to meet up with one of the others to find another air witch to bring her back to Gondol.

  The first witch should be happy. They’d found the boy, and confirmed that Tamlin Ashowan and Elisara Taejo were alive.

  It was work well done, and hopefully signified that the beginning of the end could commence.

  *

  Eli hauled Tam out of the water, her fur soaking wet.

  Harris, who she had managed to pull out of the river first, was shivering on the ground and already rifling through his pack to find a blanket.

  Tam on the other hand, was in the fetal position, shivering and coughing, trying to draw a clear breath.

  Eli shifted back to her human form, and dropped to her knees beside him, her own skin tinged with blue from the cold.

  “H-here,” Harris tossed a folded wool blanket at them weakly.

  Eli reached for it with trembling fingers that didn’t want to fully straighten, but she grasped it and hauled it over Tam, then herself as she huddled beside him.

  “Godsdamnit,” Tam sputtered at last, his voice hoarse. “Gods fucking damnit!” he seethed, his hands closing into fists. “If only I wasn’t weak right now. Godsdamnit they have them. They took them!”

  Eli could see the tears in his eyes as he managed to sit up.

  Her own throat was starting to constrict as she then looked at Harris who appeared equally grim.

  “At least we’re alive,” Eli started to say slowly. “It’s a miracle we weren’t bashed on any of the rocks.”

  “I’d rather be bashed to pieces with the kids still with us,” Tam remarked bitingly.

  “We’re going to get them back, Tam,” Harris called out, though he was looking far worse for wear himself.

  “What if the first witch leaves Zinfera the instant she grabs Luca?” Tam speculated, his hand running through his hair anxiously, his eyes wide with fear.

  “We will find them,” Eli repeated firmly. Something was brewing in her own chest. Something hot, and prickly. Something with teeth that wanted to start tearing the world apart despite her calm outward demeanor. “We are going to get our kids back safe and sound, or so help me I will burn more than just Zinfera to the ground.”

  Harris stared at his niece, knowingness and understanding in his eyes, but she ignored him. He didn’t try to calm the obvious rage simmering in Eli, nor the soul shaking terror and panic that had clearly dug its claws into Tam.

  At the very least, the heated emotions were chasing away the last of the shivering from the river—the hot sun above also lending a passive aid to this.

  “We need a plan,” Eli ground out, her mind already racing. “I can try and improve my flying. Tam you need to recover your magic as quickly as possible. Once back in Gondol, we’ll see what we can find out about where they’ve been taken, and or if the first witch has left Zinfera. We can contact your sister, but not directly—”

  A shrieking, monstrous roar echoed out amongst the mountains and forest.

  The three of them fell silent.

  Harris’s eyes went wide.

  “Good Gods.” He slowly rose to his feet, his eyes transfixed on the mountains, horror filling his face in a way that made him look like someone else entirely.

  “What? What was that?” Tam demanded turning in a full circle to look around.

  “I’ve heard that sound only once before in my life,” Harris started to say while looking at the nearest mountains that lay to the south. “It was twenty-nine years ago. But there are some things you just don’t forget.”

  “Harris, what are you—”

  Eli stumbled back, grabbing Tam’s upper arm, her face turned upward to the sky in distressed awe.

  A great shadow passed over them on the ground.

  “Oh. Oh, no, no, no! What is happening? Why today?” Harris shouted.

  Neither Tam nor Eli could say anything, as gliding toward them, its form only growing larger and larger as it neared, was a dragon.

  A golden dragon, whose scales glinted in the sunlight, blinding them as its great wings, the length of nearly six horses for each wing, flexed against the air, sending a blast of wind at them.

  Despite its size, the dragon landed softly on the ground.

  It lowered its long, glimmering neck, until its snout was close enough to Tam’s chest that he could reach out an arm, and touch it if he dared.

  The dragon breathed in deeply. Then continued to snuff Tam interestedly.

  Its eyes were green. Dark green toward its edges, with faint white lines tracing through them until the bright green in the middle where an inky black slit for pupils stared down at them.

  “I think I’ve pissed myself,” Harris choked.

  The dragon growled, making the earth rumble.

  Instead of intimidating Eli, however, something in her snapped.

  They had enough problems, and she wasn’t going to let a Godsdamn dragon become another one.

  With a shout that sounded like a barbaric war cry, she shifted into her cat form and threw her head back, her shout transforming into a terrifying roar. Her wings snapped out, and her claws dug into the ground.

  The dragon reared backward in surprise, rising up on its hind legs.

  Snarling, Eli prowled closer, power coursing through her muscles that still ached from her growth spurt. She didn’t care. This was one of the worst days of her life, and it had gone downhill so fast, and they’d been completely powerless. And that wretched feeling of helplessness ignited something in her that smothered any exhaustion, wariness, or fear in her.

  Eli drew closer to the dragon. She noted its black claws, and the scales that looked like closely woven sheets of armor while trying to find a weakness.

  The dragon dropped back down to stand on all fours. A peculiar expression on its long face before its lips stretched back, revealing teeth as long as Tam’s forearm that looked quite pointy.

  Eli glowered; until a voice suddenly echoed from the dragon. A voice she heard inside her head.

  “Well, hello, little one. I confess I’ve not met an ancient beast quite like you before. How is it you are a beast, a human, and have the smell of chaos belonging to familiars in your blood?”

  Eli’s head came up, her mind wiped blank in utter shock.

  What… was happening?