As the wagon rolled up to the pond’s sedge-bordered shore, Erin tried not to make eye contact with any of the Nilvaran officials, who of course were all there waiting to see the amazing merling seabeast.

Instead, while Leslyn and Arlis got out to go see the Aeriemaster and General Xavara, respectively, Erin felt unusually tired and climbed over the driver seat to rest in the back of the wagon. She idly watched red-headed Queen Katharesa and her first knight Teryn, the wereling man with catlike ears and a long, silky tail in the same golden brown that matched his hair. She hadn’t spoken to either of them in a few weeks, though she’d seen them often during the aftermath of the dracat attacks, working alongside the regular volunteers who came in from the city proper.

After unloading the barrel, Koben and Kaleit waded into the water with it, stirring up clouds of silt, and released Imyra into the pond. There was barely time to catch the flash of silvery white skin before she vanished in the mucky brown water.

Katharesa, normally a fairly quiet person, exploded in a delighted laugh when the eel-like creature suddenly burst from the water in an arc, her body blinking in waves of joyful green and yellow for being free from the cramped barrel. In a rare moment of visible annoyance, Teryn laid back his ears at the Queen’s loud outburst, tail twitching, but once it was over, he too smiled at Imyra’s continuing antics.

"I can scarcely believe it," Katharesa said, turning her glowing face to Koben as he came back to shore. "I’ve only imagined something this remarkable could happen to me… and now it has."

"You're the Queen," the prince noted with amusement. "Your entire life is supposed to be remarkable."

She nodded, her suddenly much-dulled gaze moving back out toward the water where Imyra continued to play. "I've yet to see that 'fact' come to any fruition."

Recalling some awkward conversations, Erin remembered that several past Queens had failed their mission to find their five knights and restore Emerrane, thanks to the inability for anyone to get very far from Nilvar by sea or air.

With his usual cheer, the prince patted Katharesa’s arm. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t lost the Medelapura in the harbor all those years ago. Because of that, you’ve met Coyrifan, and now we’ve struck an unprecedented bargain with him. Perhaps this is the beginning of the truly remarkable part of your life.”

“I suppose…”

“She nearly lost herself in the harbor, when that merling appeared,” Teryn sniffed, flicking an ear as he crossed his arms. “She was so useless that, for once, I was allowed to do all the talking.”

Moments into trying to figure out what the Medelapura was, Erin had to forcibly cover her mouth to prevent a snort from escaping. Was that what Erin had looked like to the others while they were in the cave? While she’d never admit it to the likes of Kaleit, she did notice that her head seemed a lot clearer now that they were far away from a certain merling and she’d been able to rest for a bit.

With a squawk, the redheaded girl slapped her companion’s arm, getting a growl and a flash of bared teeth in return. Erin blinked, unsure if she had actually seen those teeth grow longer and sharper in that split second before Teryn huffily turned away. They weren't called "werelings" for nothing, apparently.

Erin hopped out of the wagon just as captains Tannoran and Esmor as well as Xavara, Gunu, Arlis and Leslyn were passing by. All of them gathered at the shore with the Queen and the others to see Imyra, with the four young “renegades” somehow, perhaps instinctively, ending up near each other, though Kaleit stood outside of the semi circle Erin, Arlis and Leslyn naturally formed.

“To think, there is a genuine seabeast swimming around in the Eastern Basin,” Gunu said, voice faint with amazement. “And one that doesn’t want to kill us. I never would have reckoned it.”

Leslyn had been watching the silvery little animal leap and splash about, but he suddenly stopped and stared at a group of five or six pine trees that had fallen in a heap upon each other on the far side of the pond, a wary expression crossing his face. “Wasn’t this the pond where the Goma Gomok was?” he asked aloud. “Where did he go?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“The dragon? He was here?” Erin hadn’t known about that, else she would have been even less keen on coming along. She’d never seen him herself, but Leslyn’s description of Goma Gomok that he’d shared some months ago was enough to scare her out of ever wanting to see him up close, if at all.

“He left sometime shortly before, or perhaps during the season’s first dracat attack,” said the Aeriemaster. “By the way, did he ever check in with you, Katharesa?”

“Er, no, he didn’t. That’s odd, now that I consider it. We usually catch up on events after every voyage.”

Captain Esmor startled Katharesa with a sudden swing of his boot at the water, stirring up more muddy clouds. “That blasted dragon flew off and abandoned us, no doubt right after the wyverns arrived.”

“I’m glad he’s gone,” Erin quietly confided to the other young folks. “He sounded awful.”

“He is pretty scary, but I’d still like to meet him,” Arlis said with a shrug.

“As would I,” said Kaleit, not bothering to look away from where the baby seabeast splashed about in the pond. “I’ve a question I want answered, and I suspect he’s the one who’ll be able do it.”

Leslyn, too, looked out at the pond, his expression darkening. “Talking to us and answering a few questions isn’t much help at all. He should be doing things, like helping us fight the wyverns, or helping the Queen with her mission. He could have flown her anywhere she needs to go, but he just talks to her instead.”

Unlike Erin’s quiet confession, Leslyn spoke at a normal volume, drawing the attention of their elders. Katharesa had a look on her face that the girl couldn’t quite read. It seemed a little sad, yet her eyes looked bright, as if something wonderful had sparked inside of her head.

“Agreed,” Esmor said with a scowl. “He places himself upon a pedestal, outside and above our world. He should be using his power to help those lesser than himself.”

Prince Koben nodded sagely, as if agreeing with the captain. “He could certainly be helping those lesser than himself—but what if he feels more kinship with beastkinds and chooses to help the wyverns and dracats instead? What then, Esmor?”

The captain’s blue eyes glared as he tried to refute that, but in the end, he just shook his head. “Not even Wrath could save us, then. A hundred of her wouldn’t be enough.”

“That’s an interesting thought,” Aeriemaster Gunu half-mumbled, clearly well underway in doing exactly that—thinking about something very interesting. “We’ll be able to breed some of her intelligence into our stock, but I wonder where she comes from, and if she is an example of the general stock in that area. It would be a fine thing to be able to import more, if we were able to reach them.”

General Xavara nodded, her eyes going distant as she also began to sink deeply into her thoughts. “I would not discount the idea that she might have been the mount of a military official. Her leadership abilities in battle indicate to me that, whoever they are, those officials use a series of verbal commands, which their griffins can then pass onto the rest using those unique whistles. Perhaps we should begin training our animals to do the same. I’d give much to start with fresh keets, if those riders would be willing to part with them.”

“You’ve both said as much before,” Captain Tannoran began in a jarringly harsh tone, “but there is always the possibility that the people of Wrath’s birthplace will not be interested in becoming our allies—if they don’t just attack us outright, that is.”

“It hardly matters,” was Xavara’s dismissive response. “If we haven’t found them within our sailing range by now, then they’re beyond our reach. We’ll just have to content ourselves with adding Wrath to our breeding program.”

“We’re lucky to have even that much,” Gunu sighed. “If she hadn’t gone into her season and needed the safety of the Aerie to nest and hatch her next batch of eggs, she may have left us after that utterly disorganized excuse for a battle.”

“It was her own fault it became disorganized.” Tannoran again. “Xavara should have shot her down when she had the chance. Now we’re like to have a repeat offense the next time some fool takes it upon themselves to be the hero.” His eyes were very much focused on Kaleit with that last.

Erin couldn’t have missed the white-hot look between Tannoran and his son, even if she tried. She could almost hear the crackle of their fiery glares colliding with each other.

Not only that, but most of those gathered, especially Arlis and Erin herself, spoke out immediately in an incoherent group protest against Tannoran’s cold statement about killing Wrath. She’d become something of an official mascot around the Aerie, even if some of the townsfolk were still wary of her.

“In any case, we’ll see what she’s made with Sythe in a few months,” Gunu said, gracefully ignoring the upset. “After that, I’ve a few other candidate sires for her next clutches, chosen from our most well-documented stock to give us the best chance to recognize her traits when they’re passed.”

“She’ll only live so long, though,” Koben noted. “We’ll most certainly have an incomplete picture, no matter how many keets spring forth from her eggs.”

As Gunu and Koben spoke of Wrath’s traits, Erin’s heart leapt as she remembered that—though it would take them years to manually catalog the blue griffin’s genetics—she should be able to have all of it right there in front of her with one quick snap. She renewed her goal to get those photos of Wrath and Sythe the very next time she was at the Aerie.

After she hugged Phoebe, of course.