Aytin was walking through the forest, enjoying the weather. The sun shone through the widely spaced branches, warming his wings as he stretched them out.

He didn't have anywhere in particular he needed to be. It was nice just to be wandering. Wandering and watching the shifting trees.

Although, all the trees seemed to blend together. One was just like another, and they went on and on and on. There were no birds, though. Or animals. Just the trees.

He needed to get some water. He had a bucket in one hand, and there was a stream in this direction. He knew that like he knew the sky was endless.

"Tintin! There you are!"

To the left, a dragonette emerged. Aytin instantly recognized her. "Lin!" he shouted, and scrambled to embrace his younger sister. She was wearing her full huntress armor with its pure white enameled breastplate and polished steel edging.

The bucket put Aytin off balance, and he nearly tripped. He couldn't put it down, though. He'd lose it.

Lin just laughed at him. He laughed, too. It was funny, after all. And good to see her again.

"I've been looking everywhere for you," she said.

"What about here?"

"Here, too. Four times. It was where you were supposed to be."

Aytin instantly felt ashamed. He knew he was supposed to be here, but he had needed to get the bucket first. That had slowed him down.

"Sorry."

"You had a good hiding spot. I think you win this game," she said, seriously. "I'll beat you next time, though. So let's get back to the starting spot."

"Right. The great hall?"

"That's fine. It's only a few minutes away." Lin frowned for a moment. "Where's your knife?"

Aytin patted himself down. He wasn't actually wearing anything, but that was alright. There wasn't anyone here but Lin, and he could put on clothes before getting home. The knife was a problem, though.

"I don't know. I was going to find it at the stream." That was what the bucket was for, after all. To drain the stream.

"Well, let's get going." She turned and walked down the path at a fast pace.

It was hard to keep up. The ground was muddy. Aytin's feet kept getting stuck and dragging him back.

"Wait!" he called.

But Lin was too far ahead to hear him.

"Wait!"

The forest was getting dark.

"Wait!"

Aytin couldn't see his sister anymore.

"WAIT!!!"

The world disappeared in an explosion of fire.

Aytin's eyes snapped open as the pre-dawn glow gave way to a curtain of flames. He leapt to his feet, heart beating like a drum even as his mind tried to come to terms with what was happening. 'An attack?!' And then, 'Where's Lin? But... what...?'

He was shaking his head back and forth, trying to drive away the cobwebs of sleep, as the flames began to fade. He knew Faelon had things under control. He was already awake, staring into the long line of burning trees in front of him.

"Faelon!" Aytin shouted. The dragon snapped his head around to focus on the dragonette. "Faelon, what was out there?"

"I..." The dragon seemed uncharacteristically unsure. "There was nothing," he finally answered.

"Nothing?" Aytin looked back and forth between the growing fire and the uncomfortable looking dragon. "That doesn't look like nothing." He had never heard of a dragon using their breath weapon accidentally.

"A memory," he elaborated. "I have never... It... It was worse than it has been in a long time. Far worse."

It was hard to believe a memory could have caused something like that. But Faelon didn't volunteer anything further. And the fires kept growing.

"Uh, Faelon?" Aytin motioned towards what was starting to turn into a respectable blaze. The mat of fallen leaves and needles were burning merrily along with chunks of deadwood. Even the trunks of some of the standing trees were beginning to smolder.

The red dragon blinked a few times, and then nodded once. He strode into the flames, their heat not seeming to bother him in the slightest. Everywhere the fire had taken hold, he stomped it into the ground.

One forest giant was fully ablaze by the time Faelon got to it. He simply strode up to the burning trunk and pushed his bulk up against it. There was a brief crackling as wood splintered followed by a tremendous crash as it toppled to the ground. Faelon stomped on the remains until they were embedded into the soft ground.

Aytin let himself relax as silence returned to the camp. Absolute silence, without any of the chirping of birds or faint rustle of small animals in the brush. Anything that could flee had, and anything that couldn't was either hiding or burned to a crisp.

It was eerie, with only the faint breeze as background. The lack of noise was disquieting, even for someone without much experience in the woods. Between that and the earlier excitement, Aytin knew that he wasn't going to get back to sleep.

"At least it's warm now," he muttered to himself as he made his way over to the pile of supplies. It was positively balmy, in fact. A silver lining to nearly burning down the forest.

Retrieving a slightly bruised apple and a small chunk of meat from the provisions, Aytin frowned at their burned out campfire. It was ironic, really. But a patch of pine needles and sticks were still smoldering nearby. He added a few more branches to the pile, and then stoked it into a respectable campfire.

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Faelon joined him shortly thereafter. He had done a good job ensuring that the forest would not burn around them. Only a handful of embers still glowed in the twilight, and they were winking out one by one.

Whether he was still full from gorging the morning before or he was still coming down from the morning's excitement, Aytin wasn't particularly hungry. He only nibbled at his breakfast. It didn't help that the meal wasn't particularly appetizing.

Eventually, he gave up on breakfast, and looked up towards Faelon. "You were... reliving a memory?"

The dragon considered for a moment, and then nodded.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"I would not." The answer was unequivocal.

"Is..." Aytin stopped and considered his words before pushing on. "Is it the same one you see most nights?" At Faelon's sharp look, he just shrugged. "You jerk in your sleep. Mumble sometimes, too." He had been woken up enough times over the last few days to know. Not that he was complaining.

It took a bit, but Faelon finally nodded. "It is the same memory. Just... this time it was so vivid."

Aytin took another bite of meat. It was slightly more palatable. Still chewy and unseasoned, but he could stomach it. A gulp from a waterskin helped to wash it down.

'I'll need to refill that, soon.' The thought sparked a memory of his own. Of the night before.

Dragonettes went to sleep, and then they woke up. There was never anything in between. Or almost never. Sometimes, they relived memories. That appeared to be Faelon's curse. But even more rarely, something else could intrude on a dragonette's sleep.

"I had... a vision," he said into the quiet. "I think it was a vision, at least. I've never had one before." Aytin paused, trying to remember exactly what he had seen as he slept. Even now, the bits and pieces of the memory seemed to fall away like sand trickling through his fingers. "But... it's not clear. I thought visions were supposed to be clear?"

"Usually, yes." He had Faelon's full attention now. "What did you see?"

It was a struggle to make sense of the vision. "I was... walking? Going to a stream. And my sister Lin, she appeared and she was going to take me home. But I had to find my knife, first. The one she gave me and Xantha stole."

"That sounds straightforward, if a bit odd."

"No. No it was more than just odd. I'm not explaining it well." Frustrated, Aytin wracked his brain, trying to nail down exactly how to describe the experience.

"It was like I was drunk," he finally said. "Everything made perfect sense at the time, but not now. Like, Xantha has the knife, but I was going to find it in the stream. And use the bucket to drain the stream. But I only realized I was going to do that after Lin told me to find the knife."

Something else occurred to him, then. "Maybe I really was drunk. I was stumbling around. But with my magic, that should be almost impossible."

"I have never heard of someone having a drunken vision." Faelon pondered the description. "Perhaps the food is beginning to turn. There are sometimes subtle poisons produced as foods begin to rot. They can produce hallucinations." He twisted to give their food supply a long sniff. "But I do not smell any significant rot."

"And we didn't really eat much yesterday," Aytin added.

"That we did not."

The sun was slowly beginning to rise to treetop level. Both dragon and dragonette watched its accent. Both considered all that had happened throughout the night.

Eventually, by some unspoken agreement, they each stood and began to break camp. Aytin made sure all the supplies were bundled together, while Faelon lifted everything to his back. Then, the dragonette lashed it down. He wasn't particularly fast or skilled, but Faelon was an expert in how to attach odd loads to himself. Aytin only had to tie the knots where he was told to do so, and soon enough they were ready to continue once more.

"I have been thinking," Faelon said, out of nowhere. "Thinking about your vision. And my memory."

"And?" Frankly, Aytin was clueless about the whole thing.

"I do not know," was his reply. "But... I feel there is something I should know. Something about this all seems... familiar."

He didn't elaborate, just extended his wing for Aytin to climb. But the dragonette shook his head.

"I think I'll walk a bit this morning."

"Suit yourself." Faelon took a moment to get his bearings and then motioned with his head. "This way."

Aytin led, bow held loosely, still keeping an eye out for any game. There wasn't any, but there were a few fresh tracks in the loam.

The tracks didn't look like they were left by any hooved animals. Not deer or pigs, and they certainly weren't big enough for tirox. That was about where Aytin's knowledge of tracking ended, so he asked Faelon.

"Likely a wolf or some scavenger attracted by the smell of meat," he answered.

That made sense. "Good thing you were there. He probably got one look at a dragon and ran all the way to the other side of the island."

The dragon made a small grunt of accent.

"Have you ever fought wolves?"

"Once."

"Oh?" There could be some useful information there. "How did you do it?"

"I burned the pack from the air."

Aytin figured that he should have seen that coming. But it still left a question he needed answered.

"Do you have any idea what I should do? If I run into them on the ground?"

Faelon thought about that for a few steps. "Do not be on the ground."

"Ha. Ha." Aytin flicked his ears in annoyance.

But Faelon pressed on. "I was serious," he said. "Wolves cannot climb. Sleep in trees. Keep your food out of reach. Fill them with arrows from a distance. Can you use a sling?"

"No." Slings weren't exactly common weapons. They were nearly impossible to use while airborne.

"A pity. They are an excellent deterrence against wildlife, and ammunition is abundant. You might consider trying to learn."

Aytin nodded. "I'll look into it."

"If you must be on the ground," Faelon continued, "wall yourself in. Small canyons or... caves." After a moment, he added, "Be sure a cave is unoccupied before you use it."

"Got it." A thought occurred to him. "What if I run into a glasmole?"

"What?" Faelon sounded confused.

"You know, glasmole. Big and scaly, breath fire like you. They melt caves and use them as traps. What if one of them is using the cave?"

"There are no glasmoles here," Faelon said.

That... wasn't right. "Are you sure?"

"Very much so. They live only in deserts."

Aytin blinked, then considered the dragon's words. They seemed to rattle around in his head for a few steps. "You're... you're right. Wow, that was a stupid question." He knew very well that glasmoles liked the sand and the heat. Nothing like this place. "Sorry, I guess I'm more tired than I thought."

"Are you sure you do not want to ride?"

"No," Aytin said, firmly. "Besides, you're not all that steady on your feet right now."

Faelon had once again drifted off to the right. He corrected himself, but looked critically at Aytin.

"I'm fine," the dragonette insisted. "I have plenty of energy." He jogged a few steps to demonstrate.

"And how are your wings?"

"Uhh..." In all honesty, he hadn't thought about them much over the last day. When he extended them, the left was tender, but moved without issue. The right, though, brought a small hiss of pain as it reached full extension.

"The infection is returning," Faelon noted.

Aytin cast an eye over the wound. "It's not as bad as it was before," he said.

"But it is worsening."

"Yeah," Aytin agreed. "How long until we get to the cache? You said there was some medicine there?"

"We will arrive late tomorrow, if we move quickly," Faelon said. "Perhaps the day after if we are delayed."

"Then we'll move quickly." There was a gash in a tree ahead. Another trailblaze. Aytin set off towards it at a fast walk, Faelon's slow heavy footfalls following from behind.