While Viliant had gone into town for the third time, Fia hummed to herself as she entertained herself with the wildflowers. One of her earliest memories had been a bright, sunny day in a field of flowers with her mother.

"Focus, Fia," her mother cooed. "Feel the fire burn in your belly. Let your happiness turn to fire!"

Try as she might, every time she blew on the flowers, the petals simply wavered with her breath. Fia could not produce a lick of flame at that age. "Wah! I can't do it! Are you sure I'm even a fire dragon?"

"Yes, dear. Focus. I know you can burn the flower. You'll make me so proud, just like you always do!"

"Mhm." Eyes closed, she nodded fiercely. Those blue irises reopened to stare at her target—a yellow blossom with round petals. Fia's cheeks puffed out with the big breath that she was holding in. Then, she let it all out. Instead of breathing fire, she blew on the flower hard enough to snap some of the petals off.

Her intense gaze turned watery. Fia was about to cry again because she could not produce a flame.

Her mother lay beside her the entire time, plucking the wildflowers and weaving them together until she had a complete circle. "I made a flower crown for you, my little princess!" Her mother placed the ring of flowers over her horns, perfectly sized to fit Fia's head.

"Mmm!" Jumping up, the little girl could hardly contain her excitement. Words had not come to her as easily back then, so she simply roared in joy and pranced her claws up and down. Fia's glee bubbled over and embers spattered from her maw.

The edges of the flower caught alight and spread till the entire blossom was consumed in a ball fire. "I did it, Mama! I did it!"

"You did!" Her mother cheered, leaping up to celebrate with her. "I'm so proud of you, Fia. Do you think you can show Papa?"

"Ooh, yes! Papa!" she called. Fia started to bound back home, completely forgetting that her mother could fly them back much faster.

The larger, adult dragoness easily dashed in front of her daughter. Fia's mother extended her wing so that the baby dragon could skip up her back. From there, Fia snuck up her mother's neck so she could sit on her head, between her horns. Her first taste of the sweet sky and refreshing clouds was on her mother's back.

Fia had closed her eyes with the nearness of the sun on her scales.

***

When she opened her eyes again, the dragoness was staring down at a yellow flower with pointed petals. The plants were different in this land, reminding Fia how far away she was from home. She blew out an ember, igniting this flower just as she had done when she was younger.

I can't wait to see Mama and Papa again….

To preoccupy herself, Fia tried to figure out how to weave a flower crown like her mother had once done. All she ended up doing was setting the flowers on fire when she got frustrated. "Hmph!" Her nose stuck up in the air as she recalled Viliant's warning.

No fire! Don't draw any attention to yourself while I'm gone.

Fia steeled her nerves and offered more patience to her arts and crafts. Eventually, she figured out how to link the flowers together. I wish Mama could see me now.

She made the chain of flowers bigger and bigger. This crown would not be for her own head, but Viliant's. I bet he'd look so pretty with flowers around his horns! Already, she knew that he would never accept it willingly. Fia tried to devise a way to place it on his head without him knowing. That way, she could admire how cute he looked with the flowers complementing his grumpy scowls.

A happy hum filled her eardrums, up to the point where footsteps interrupted her song. Somebody was approaching from the grassy field.

Viliant…! she called, but her friend was not around to establish a mental connection. A knot twisted in her belly. Oh no.

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Some of the steps had sounded small but heavy—and many. When those drew to a halt, lighter feet touched the ground. The clang of boots and armor reminded Fia of humans.

No, no, no! What do I do? Where do I go? Posed on her three good legs, Fia swiveled her neck from side to side. Viliant! Help! she tried calling out of desperation.

However, he was nowhere near her. Fia was all alone. A group of humans steadily approached her location in the forest. The light from the torches bobbed with every step closer.

The trees were tall and thick. Fia could try to hide behind a trunk or find a hollow in the ground surrounded by roots. Not enough sunlight reached the forest floor to support a large amount of undergrowth, leaving the dark, nighttime woods barren. If she tried to run in her injured state, the humans would catch her on their horses even if she tried to wind between the trees. Worse yet, if she fled into the grassy field, the horses would chase her down faster.

Think! She needed to act now if she wanted any hope to withstand the humans.

An idea struck her, inspiring her head to tilt straight back. In this situation, there was one thing which Fia could still do better to escape humans and horses: climb.

With the flower crown clutched in her mouth, she clambered up the closest tree trunk. Her claws bit into the bark easier than the stone wall of the capital, but she sorely missed Viliant's aid with her injured leg. Her shoulder screamed from the solitary effort. Fia hauled herself onto the lowest branch and stilled her body as much as possible. She could scarcely breathe as the humans came within sight.

The two knights were clad in steel armor. Though it was dull beneath the nighttime trees, the firelight reflecting off the metal looked too bright in her eyes. One man spoke to his companion in an ominous tone. They stopped to examine the claw tracks which the dragoness had left behind.

Her eyes darted down to the tree trunk. Scratches adorned the bark from her hasty climb. It was too late for her to glide to the branches of a different tree. When she looked back to the humans, their attention had already shifted to the trunk.

Fia's lower jaw clenched so tightly that her fangs severed the flower stems. The crown came apart and dropped to the ground. The fallen flowers attracted the humans' gaze momentarily, then their faceless helmets shot upward.

A high-pitched squeal peeled from her chest out of fright. A fireball shot from her split jaws, hitting the human directly below, squarely on the front of his helmet. Fia wasted no time in turning tail and fleeing. Her wings flapped in a flurry and carried her to the next tree.

Viliant! After failing to reach him through telepathy yet again, she let out a terrorized screech as loud as she could. The dragoness hoped that her voice could carry far enough for him to hear her. It might be a while yet before Viliant returned from town, so she would have to hold out against the humans as long as she could.

A big breath filled her lungs. In the face of terror, she tried to calm down and think more clearly now that she had more distance between her and her adversaries. I need to get lucky… but I also have everything I learned in the coliseum!

She devised a battle plan. First, I need to take out one as quickly as possible. The only reason why she had been able to defeat the terror birds was because she prevented them from fighting as a cohesive unit. I'll focus on the guy I already hit! Then, I'll only have the last one to deal with.

The men were rushing towards her. One lagged slightly behind the other. The thinner sections of metal on his helm around the eye guard had gained an orangish tint. Since they were clad from head to toe in armor, Fia had an elemental advantage. While she could not produce fires hot enough to melt steel quickly, she could bake the men in their armor.

Fia's neck straightened as she rose up on the tree branch. An explosive stream of fire belched from her maw. She concentrated her attack on the one which had taken a fireball to the face earlier. Even through the furious haze of her flames, the color of the knight's armor brightened. He dropped down with the screams curling from his scorching hot helm.

One down. While the floundering man was not dead yet, he was incapacitated for the time being. Fia focused on the man still charging towards her. One more to go, she thought though this one was already starting his attack.

His hand was drawn close to his hip, but he was not bothering to reach for the sheathed blade. The fingers cupped within the armored glove seemed to gather energy at the tips. Some objects shot out like arrows and whizzed by Fia, too small and fast to see. Instinctively, she jumped to the side and fluttered to the next tree.

A shallow pain sliced across her side. The attack left some bloody streaks on the surface of her intact, pink scales below the wound. Fia's attention was wrenched to the sound of splintering wood where she previously stood. Sections of the tree peeled apart where thin, metal razors were embedded.

Squealing, she thought, A real metal mage! Fia jumped and flapped her wings frantically to reach the next tree. What little she knew about the foreign elements of this land, she assumed that it would be impossible to hurt him unless her fire could melt through the steel which he could manipulate.

I can't do anything! If I didn't dodge just now, I'd be dead! Tears were blurring her vision as she fled to the end of the treeline. There was nowhere else for the young dragoness to run.