Aurin wandered along the river, following the flow towards a lake. He could see a red-haired girl in a purple dress standing at the edge with a Splashard, a Tadpool and a soaking wet Innogon who was shaking the water from himself.

“Luna!” called Aurin as he approached, startling her.

She turned around and beamed a wide smile at him then ran towards him. She hugged Aurin tightly and gave him a small kiss before releasing him. She pointed at each of his Minakai multiple times, wanting to be certain she hadn’t miscounted all the way to three.

“They’re all still here,” said Aurin, laughing.

“Good,” said Luna. “Mine are too, but Tadpool took a bit of a beating a little while ago. He’ll be okay though, we just need to be more careful in the next battle.”

“Was Innogon swimming?” Aurin asked, nodding towards the little drake who was shaking off the final droplets of water from his sleek blue scales.

“Item hunting,” said Luna. “I haven’t found anything yet! Everything is so well hidden, I’m starting to wonder if anybody has anything.”

“Snippet,” said Aurin, beckoning forward his armoured purple insect.

Snippet wandered forward and held up the egg Aurin had found mere minutes ago. Luna stared at it in awe.

“Where did you find that?”

“Back there,” said Aurin, pointing up the river path.

“I came from there earlier and didn’t find a single thing.”

“I guess you weren’t looking hard enough,” shrugged Aurin. “It was just off to the side in a clearing sitting on the grass in a circle of mushrooms.”

“I wonder what’s inside,” muttered Luna, bending down to look at the egg Snippet was holding. The soldier ant was under strict orders to not crush the egg with his pincers.

“It’s a Petalcub,” said Aurin. “I found an Identifying Glass at the windmill a while ago.”

Luna’s head drooped down. “Am I the only one who can’t find anything?” she asked with a sigh before standing up again.

Aurin couldn’t help but laugh. “My items are useless to me if I can’t find a way to hatch this egg.”

“At least you’ll be able to keep the egg even if you get knocked out of the tournament.”

“True,” admitted Aurin, then turning to Tadpool. “How are you holding up?” he asked the icy frog.

Tadpool croaked, not sounding too much worse for the wear as Splashard carried him around in her arms.

“His legs took the hit worst,” said Luna. “All I need is a Healing Herb or an Orna Berry and I can treat him easily. It’s just a matter of finding one.”

“If I had one, I’d give it to you,” said Aurin.

“No injuries?” Luna asked.

“Shamtile is a little bruised from a battle with Clarke just now, but he’ll be alright.”

“Clarke? I didn’t hear him get eliminated.”

“We agreed to each put one Minakai on the line.”

“You won?” asked Luna, lifting up Shamtile and throwing him into the air. “Good job,” she said as Shamtile curled himself into a ball, allowing himself to be tossed around. It entertained him endlessly and Steambot was constantly playing catch with him back at the ranch.

“Seeing as we’re both here and strong, shall we stick together for a little while?” asked Aurin.

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Luna with a nod.

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“We’ve been downstream, so let’s see where upstream takes us.”

The tamers and their Minakai wandered back into the forest and kept close to the river. They talked about everything they had seen and done so far as well as all of the tamers they’d heard be eliminated.

“Tamer forty, Master Arnold, eliminated by tamer three, Master Gardner,” came Lord Kensington’s voice from one of his many hidden speakers.

“Is that Gardner’s first elimination?” asked Luna, thinking back over the announcements.

“It is,” said Aurin with certainty.

“How many tamers do we have left?”

“Including us, I think there are just under fifty of us left. There’s still plenty in the game, but it’s nice to hear that some of them are being taken out while we’re safe for the time being.”

“It is, but I want to get stuck into more battles too.”

“It’s unavoidable,” said Aurin, “and I’d expect a lot of the best tamers will be left standing a couple of hours from now.”

“Or they’ll be overly eager and tire themselves out.”

“Tamer forty-seven, Master Kevin, eliminated by tamer seven, Master Frederick,” came Lord Kensington’s voice once again.

“Another one?” asked Luna.

“That’s three for Leo, right?”

“Yep,” confirmed Luna. “Do you think he’s being overly eager or do you think he’ll be left standing?”

Aurin thought about his answer for a moment. “Based on the tamer numbers he’s been defeating, he’s removing some of the weaker tamers in the competition. I would be surprised if he’s lost a single Minakai. He’s always been a sly one, so I doubt he’d risk the competition to show off too much.”

Aurin, Luna and their Minakai continued to follow the river and the rushing of the water was now joined by a crashing. When the trees parted, they found themselves before a cliff from where a waterfall poured into a pool that flowed as the river.

“I like this place,” said Luna, walking over to the edge of the pool and sitting on the grass.

Aurin walked over and joined her, glad to have some time to relax before the next battle. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said.

“Hmm,” said Luna, staring at the pool. “Inno!” she called and the blue dragon ran forwards and hopped into the water.

A few seconds later, he blasted out and into the air on a stream of water before plopping onto the grass. He wandered over to Luna and dropped an Astral Shard at her feet.

“Oh no,” sighed Luna, picking it up. “I can’t use this for anything!”

Innogon yapped and bounced around.

“Of course,” said Luna, stroking his head fin. “You did great, thank you for going down and retrieving that.”

“That’s just the luck of the draw sometimes,” laughed Aurin.

“I’m glad you think this is so funny,” frowned Luna.

“You aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. There are lots of other items up for grabs, but even then you don’t need to fixate on them. They might not make or break the tournament.”

“I don’t know about that,” lamented Luna. “An egg like yours means an extra team member.”

“An untrained team member who needs to get good very quickly,” Aurin reminded her.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“We’ve got plenty of time left in the tournament. If you don’t find anything else, trade it to another tamer for something you can use. If you get really stuck then just lob it at one of your opponents.”

“I hope you won’t be throwing it at me,” giggled a woman’s voice from behind.

Aurin and Luna stood up and looked over at Abby who was standing beside the river with her Guilgon by her side. She had no other Minakai with her, so she her Guilgon must have been her last monster standing.

“What are you doing here, Abby?” asked Luna, more rudely than she intended. “I mean, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Abby laughed. “It’s alright, I knew what you meant,” she said. “You need to speak more confidently, Luna. No need to second guess your words.”

Abby walked towards them so effortlessly it was as though she was floating while her sleek black hair flowed behind her. This in wild contrast to her Guilgon who stomped along behind her with a cunning smirk on its face.

“This place is nice,” she said, glancing at the waterfall. “I’ll have to mention it to one of the photographers for the Spring season photoshoots.”

“You’re a model?” asked Aurn.

“When I’m not competing in pageants, yes,” said Abby. “How about you both, what do you do?”

“We…well, I suppose we’re full-time tamers,” said Luna, holding a finger to her chin.

“I compete professionally,” said Aurin much more assuredly. “I was in the national championships last year.”

“Oh yes!” exclaimed Abby. “I remembered you from Tamer Day before, but Clarke mentioned that you were at the nationals earlier too. You got beaten by that other boy from Hazelton, right?”

Aurin scowled. “I had a bad day,” he said, at which Abby giggled. “Next time, I’m going to make a comeback and rise to the top.”

“You know I tried my hand at competitions a few years ago,” said Abby. “My father said, ‘Abigail, you need to focus and not stretch yourself too thin,’ and I think he was right. I’m down to just my Guilgon. She’s the only one keeping me in this tournament.”

“Did you do any damage on the way out?”

“Plenty, sweetie,” she said, winking at Aurin which elicited a briefly annoyed look from Luna. “Oh, I didn’t realise,” she added apologetically to Luna.

“Do you want to see if you can do any more damage?” asked Luna, now sounding fired up.

“Tell me more,” said Abby, sounding intrigued.

“We’ll have a battle right here,” said Luna.

“You think I have a chance of winning?” laughed Abby, knowing the odds were heavily against her.

“No,” said Luna, “but if you can take out any of my team then you go out with a much bigger bang, don’t you?”

“That is true,” said Abby, folding her arms and leaning against her Guilgon. Aurin only noticed now that she was still wearing her heels, even on the grass. “Alright, Luna. We’ll battle right now and see how things play out, shall we?”