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Cyrvanyx awoke as the smell of cooked meat entered his nose. He sniffed at the air, eyes still closed. It did not smell like anything he got to eat in the order´s castle. No salt or any other kind of spice, just meat, and in fact it almost smelled burned. It was when all his other senses awoke as well that he wondered where the smell even came from.

Still a bit sleepy, he slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a cave. He almost forgot that he had fallen asleep in that cave. With half lid eyes he looked around the cave, but with his eyes still half as sleep he could not see anything that could make that smell.

Another scent also filled his nostrils, it was the smell of smoke and burning wood. He blinked his eyes several times and softly shook his head. When his vision started to clear and he was finally totally awake the first thing he noticed was that someone was missing. The warm felling and the pressure on his belly was gone. William was gone.

"William?" When he noticed that Henry´s son was gone he basically jumped on his feet, his eyes wide. In all of a sudden he felt concerned and afraid. He felt a certain responsibility towards William. Watching over him was the least he could do to honor his fallen friend. "William!" He yelled this time.

"Will..." He trailed off as he spotted the young boy sitting at a campfire, looking up at him with a piece of cooked meat in his hands. They both stared at each other for a while. William maintained eye contact as he gulped down a piece of meat he was chewing on and presented the remaining food to Cyrvanyx.

"Do you want some?" He asked with a smile on his face that almost looked smug in a way.

Cyrvanyx stared at him with wide eyes and an open muzzle. He was speechless. Dozens of questions filled his mind all at once. So many questions that he did not know which one to ask first.

Before he could take the time to think of something to say he heard Arylaryl jumping up to all fours. She turned her head left and right, almost panicking. "Cyr, where is..." She stopped in her tracks and stared at William as well, or rather at what was behind him. Only then did he realize that Gareth was laying on his back behind William, with a piece of cloth bound around his head.

"Gareth..." Ary looked at William with a look of confusion on her face. "When did you... I mean... how?"

"Mhm?" William looked at her with confusion. "You want to know what I did to him?" She nodded twice. "His breath was very ragged and unsteady. And when I felt his forehead he felt hot. So I dragged him to here and ripped a piece of clothing off my tunic, wet it in a nearby lake and put it on his forehead. That was what... mother used to do when I had a fever so..."

"What lake?" Cyr asked, tilting his head.

"Just around the corner is a very big lake, can´t miss it."

Arylaryl looked at Cyr and he looked back. She did not have to say anything, as her look already told him that she was just as surprised as he was. That boy had made himself a fire, got himself food and tried to stop Gareth´s fever.

"And... err... how exactly did you get that food?" He asked him while still looking at Arylaryl. "I mean how did you kill an animal on your own?" Then he looked at William, waiting for an answer. "With what weapon?"

"With this." William proudly said, holding out some sort of small wooden tool he had never seen before. "This is a sling, the only thing I had with me when we left. I just found a stone and hunted a rabbit, skinned it, built a campfire and cooked the meat."

At that point, he was actually impressed. Never had he expected him to be able to hunt his food. And he did that with a stone, not even a bow. He was sure that Henry taught him how to do that at some point. Now he was only really starting to understand why Henry spoke so highly of him.

He himself would not have been able to go out and hunt his own food at that age. Well, of course dragons age different than humans, but still.

"Your father taught you this, right?" Cyrvanyx asked and William responded with a single nod. "That´s... impressive." He caught himself smiling as he looked back and forth between William and Arylaryl. She smiled back at him as he laid down on his belly, relishing the smell of food. He was starting to feel hungry all of a sudden. Soon they would have to hunt some breakfast, but he would just lay there for a while longer.

Ary settled down onto her haunches next to Gareth, looking over his sleeping form, if you could call it sleeping. She reached forward with her paw to feel if he really was as hot as little William said. When her paw reached his forehead she immediately retracted her it again and gasped aloud, her eyes widening. "Ancestors, he really is hot!"

"I told you." William took another bite of his meal and turned his head to face her. "You should just let him rest. When I was sick that-"

"But you weren´t hit by a big hammer!" She suddenly yelled at him, making William jump backwards, almost falling right into the fire. "Waiting won´t help! He needs actual help!" William looked up at her, terrified and scared of the green and blue dragoness roaring at him.

Before the situation got worse Cyrvanyx decided to calm her down, or at least try. "Ary!"

"What?" She angrily turned her head towards him and stared at him with fury in her eyes, bared teeth and all the frills on her head flared out. But he did not say anything, nor did she. He just looked at her, kind of scared of the sudden anger within her, as if he was back to his old self when he was still unable to speak to her. He did not know what to say and was locked in place by her gaze. But that seemed to do the trick.

Her frills flattened back down against her head and she closed her muzzle. Unable to maintain eye contact, she looked at the ground, ashamed. "I´m... sorry." Her voice was back to normal again, only with a sad undertone in it. "I just... lost control for bit." She looked over to William who has gotten back into his sitting position next to the fire. "Sorry."

"No problem." William said with a smile. "I understand your fear in a way. If I could somehow be able to safe mother or father..." He trailed off for a moment as those words passed his lips. "Then I would do anything in my power to do just that." He said with confidence in his voice.

Arylaryl smiled at him for a moment before looking before to Cyrvanyx. "When do we leave? Because William seems to understand how much he needs help, not like you." If it were not for the serious tone in her voice he would have thought that as a joke.

"What? Do you think I don´t take Gareth´s life threatening situation seriously? I do. But I look at the bigger picture. We can´t make it to the clan without taking a break or two."

"Haven´t we taken enough of a break already?"

"Yes, but we need food as well. I know you want to save his life, but don´t forget your own needs in doing so."

There was silence between the two of them for a moment while William curiously watched their drama, chewing on his food. after a moment of silence and exchanged glances Arylaryl sighed. "Fine go get us some food then."

"Err..." Cyr gulped and looked at her smug smile. "I actually thought you would do that."

"Oh? And why is that? Don´t you want to show me how strong you are? Prove yourself?" With every word it seemed like her smile widened, or more likely her grin.

"Ary you know it´s been years since I had a proper hunt. I-"

"yes I know that. I know that you rather slept all day and waited until servants brought food for you. Because you are lazy, Cyr."

Then he got up from the ground, wanting to defend himself. "Ary, I-"

"Do you want to tell me that a human child is a better hunter than you?"

That got him. He froze in place, his muzzle hanging open, lost for words. If he refused to go hunting he would shame himself and if he went out to hunt that would mean that Ary gets just what she wanted. He would lose either way.

Instead of taking the risk to say anything wrong, he just said nothing at all and turned away from both Ary and William, facing the outside. Without any further words or glares he walked out of the cave and spread his wings. With one mighty beat of his wings he took to the skies. "Happy hunting!" He heard Ary call after him as he flew further away from the cave.

He sighed and grumbled as he bet his wings. After all these year she still knew how to get him to do whatever she wants. Like he never changed. But then again, she did not change much either. Except for the fact that she got very beautiful over the years. Back then he did not realize that. Her eyes, her curves, her-

He shook his head, trying to focus. He had a task to fulfill after all.

Pushing his thoughts aside, he looked at the woods underneath him in search for prey. In the light of day he could see the forest a lot better. There was a huge variety of trees in these woods. from pines to oak, to ash and other kinds of trees that he did not know the names of. The ground on which the forest stood was very uneven, going up and down, up and down.

The mountain he found the cave in was just one of many others in the highlands. He knew that the bigger the mountains got , the closer they got to their clan. That was all he needed to know.

Some of the trees already had a hue of yellow or orange in their leaves, some of which already fell from the trees. With autumn on its way winter will be there soon as well. That could be very good or very bad. He knew that in the winter it was suicidal for armies to march in the winter so Ulric´s armies would need to wait out the cold. But the same goes for the lords of Albia and their armies.

When winter comes there will be silence.

He kept scanning the woods for prey, even flying lower, just high enough for his underside to not scratch the tree tops to get a better view. He saw some clearings and some small creeks running down hills or smaller mountains. It looked pretty, but he spotted no prey, even after flying around for a while. Maybe he just lost his sense for those kind of things.

Or so he thought, until he sniffed the air. The strong scent of a nearby deer hit him. He was almost surprised how good his sense of smell was, like he forget that he had one. He should have hunted more often, or else he could forget how to be a dragon some day.

The deer was close, very close, so he slowed down and went after the scent. Then suddenly another scent came over him, one that he was very familiar with. He smelled blood, a lot of it. It came from the same direction the deer scent came from. Either some other predator has killed the deer and for some reason left it there to rot, or it was a trap. The latter was more likely.

He should have probably turned back at that point, but he wanted to see if it really was a trap. He only had to watch out for any hints of enemies around him. That lord who commanded the attack on Dragonstone castle probably sent some men after him and the others.

A clearing came into sight as he came ever so close to the scent. It had to be there, whatever it was, it was there. When he was right above the clearing he did not land, yet. Instead he dipped his left wing and took a turn, circling the clearing so that he would have a full view of what or who may be hiding there in the shadows.

He expected to see a dead deer, a trap of some sort, or just dragon slayers shooting at him. But what he saw surprised and shocked him at the same time. All the blood he smelled was not coming from a deer, but from two dragons. Both of them were dead. One of them had fiery red scales while the other´s scales were grey and colorless. But most importantly, they wore armor.

These two were the only ones other than him or Arylaryl that escaped. And it looked like they fell into the trap he thought he would get caught in himself. He circled the clearing one more time before he landed in the middle of the clearing. The smell of blood got more intense once he closed in and stood in front of them.

The ground underneath them was stained in blood. It looked like they bled out. Not a good way to go, especially for a dragon. What he also saw was a dead deer, clearly killed by a dragon, not far away from them. He got a little closer to inspect them, so that he could find the fatal wound that caused them to bleed out. the way he saw it, it was a deep cut in the upper hindleg that killed the old veteran and a the other did not have any visible wounds, or at least none that he could see at the moment.

"Malvurak the old." He said, putting a paw on the old dragon. "And... Sythorix." He was not there to help them, but at least he could honor them and help them on their way to their ancestors. "I knew both of you only briefly, but good enough to know that you didn´t deserve to die like this. I promise that you and everyone else will be avenged. I... wish I had more to say." When he was about to finish his funeral speech he heard something that got his attention.

He perked his ears and heard the leaves whistling in the wind, birds chirping around him, movement in the bushes around the clearing and soon a crossbow being loaded. he took the paw off of Malvurak and looked into the shadowy woods in front of him. How could he be so foolish?

He did not waste any more time and spread his wings before they jumped at him. He did not want to end up like the other two. He spun around, flapping his wings to take off as a sudden sharp pain in his wing joint made him jowl. He tried to ignore it and did not look back. He kept flapping his wings as he took to the skies, even though it hurt.

From underneath he could hear the angry shouts of men, either shouting at him or yelling at each other for failing. He did not care either way. He beat his wings so hard and fast, aiming for the mountain where the cave was. These dragon slayers were not far away. They had to leave immediately.

While he was flying he looked back at his wing to see where the arrow, or whatever it was. What stuck in his shoulder was not an arrow, but a bolt from a crossbow. It was not too deep luckily, or else it could have caused some serious trouble. Him being unable to fly in the situation they were in would mean the end.

He beat his wings even harder, driven by fear and adrenaline. He swore to himself that for Henry´s sake he would protect his son at all cost.

After a while that seemed like an eternity to him he finally reached the cave. Ary looked up at him and smirked as she saw him approaching without any prey. He was panting after he flew so fast for that long. As he landed in front of the cave he saw William sitting at the fire with a big animal next to him, looked like a boar to him.

"Finally you´re back." Ary obviously enjoined making fun of him, just like she did when she was still a hatchling. "And with no prey I see. Well it´s a good thing I hunted something myself, just in case."

Normally he would have thought of a witty thing to respond, but there were other thing on his mind. "There is no time for that. We have to leave, now!"

"So now after I hunted us some food you suddenly want to move on?" She sounded a little angry there. "I thought you were the one who wanted us to eat in the first place!"

"Yes, but I´ve seen dragon slayers nearby! They..." He sighed and lowered his voice. "They killed Malvurak and... the other one who escaped with us."

"Sythorix?" In her voice he could hear that she was just as shocked as he was.

"yes, him." He took a step towards her. "And that´s why we need to leave immediately."

She looked at him, then at Gareth, and back at him again. "Alright, we are going." She turned around and strode towards Gareth. She was worrying about him just like Cyrvanyx was about her and William.

"Why are we going?" William stood up from his campfire, holding a stick in his hands that he cooked his food on before.

"They have caught up with us overnight. We need to leave before they-"

"Is that an arrow in your wing?" He stepped towards him, dropping the stick. Cyrvanyx was just about to respond as William suddenly pulled the bolt out. He barely managed to hold back his roar.

"... Warn me before you do that!" He warned him as he held his wing joint with a paw. but standing on three paws didn´t work too well, so he set it back down. "Come now. get your things and we´ll leave."

"I don´t have any... things."

"Then just..." He held out a paw to tell him that he would fly in his grasp again. "come here and I´ll carry you."

"Wouldn´t it be easier if I was on your back?"

"For me, but not for you. you could fall off."

"But I-"

"No."

"You don´t even-"

"No, William! We have no time for a discussion now."

"... Fine..." He reluctantly agreed. "You begin to sound like father...." He murmured to himself as he approached his paw, but he heard him nonetheless. Cyrvanyx smiled as he took William into his embrace and pressed him against his chest.

"I´m just going to take that as a compliment." he said with the still smile on his snout.

He turned to Ary who held Gareth the same way he did William. She nodded to tell him she was ready, he nodded to tell her that he was as well. They both spread their wings, one stepping out at a time because they did not fit trough the cave entrance with their wings spread at the same time.

Then they both took to the skies and continued their way to their clan.

*Authors note*

So much for the other two dragons who escaped the battle... Anyway, if you liked this chapter make sure to make me know and leave your thoughts in the comments!