[Keeno POV]

I woke up early the next day, just as the suns were rising over the trees. I moved the curtain a bit to look over everything and nearly audibly gasped. It was a stunning sight. Mist covered the world with the tops of the trees poking out of it like rocks in the sea. The light from the suns cast shadows and illuminated some places with orange and blue. My ears twitched when I heard movement behind me. Glancing to my left, I saw that Freya was the one awake. She walked over and stood next to me.

“This is some beautiful scenery. She said as we looked over the forest. “It’s a shame Pram is so scared of being up this high.”

“I agree. But it’s not like she doesn’t have her reasons.”

“She’s never told me there was a reason. I thought it was just a normal fear of heights.”

Freya’s tail swished as her ears half flattened against her head.

“Well, aside from our first time leaving Solheim, there was one incident. My own ears flattened as I recalled the memory from that time. “It was one of Huginn and Muninn’s less tasteful pranks when they were young. They took one of Pram’s favorite necklaces and put it on the top of a tree. Pram, being the little tomboy she was, climbed right after them to get it and strangle the pranksters. She managed to get it, but the limbs snapped under her and she fell. Fia caught her, but she was terrified of heights after that. Granted, it’s gotten much better since then, but as you can see, it’s still not great.”

“Says the one that keeps putting her in these situations.”

“I have no rebuttal for that. Honestly, I’m surprised she doesn’t hate me yet.”

“She could never hate you. She’s told me as much. I mean, do you know how much she sings your praises when we’re alone?”

“I thought she’d obsess over you more when the two of you are alone?”

“She does, but she also talks about you a lot. Mostly how she wishes she had your confidence and fearlessness.”

“I’m not fearless. We just haven’t run into or experienced things I’m terrified of yet.”

One of Freya’s ears perked toward me.

“What are you afraid of?”

“Aside from the normal not being able to protect the people and things I love, there’s being trapped inside a cave with no way out. Those mongrels that birthed me into this world somehow reviving and taking everyone away from me. Some of the Runes I learned when I progressed that Authority a little.  Things like that.”

“That second one aside, I can understand the first one, but why that last one?”

“They are SCARY. Like, soul rending scary. And that’s just their basic function.”

“What would you even use those for then?”

The genuine concern in her voice was exactly what I felt every time one of those Runes brushed past my thoughts when I needed to use other Runes.

“No clue, honestly. I understand what they mean and what they do, but I don’t understand the reason I know any of that right now. Of course, there may come a day I understand, but I hope it doesn’t come.”

We fell into silence again as we watched the suns rise. I found it mesmerizing watching the mist flow around the trees almost like a river, every so often seeing birds fly up from below only to dive back in like fish.  It was so pretty, I was tempted to ask Ama to change our place to look this way for a while when that thought got interrupted. With an agitation soaked voice, Eblana spoke through our telepathy.

“Keeno, I know you’ve been heading over to the other continent. Have you arrived, or are you still stuck on that bridge?”

“We made it onto land again yesterday. What’s wrong, Eblana, you seem…upset.”

“Upset? UPSET!  I’M ABSOLUTELY LIVID! That disgrace of a lizard in Tamist is mucking everything up! I’d fly over there myself and end him if I wasn’t currently dealing with all these mongrels in whatever the country’s new name is always killing each other. Shu isn’t a fighter so she can’t go deal with it and Calus is locked away in his library again. Volundr…Loughshinny and I can’t find him for some reason and your mother refuses.  There is a place for arrogance, and this isn’t it. She’s the queen, so she should deal with her ‘exiled’ subject properly and not leave you to deal with it. Her rant continued on for a good 15 minutes more before she stopped herself. Letting out a long sigh. “Sorry, I was out of hand there. Please don’t tell the Queen I said a lot of that.”

“It’s fine, but I’m assuming you were saying all of that to ask us to go to Tamist as soon as possible, right?”

“*sigh*Yeah. I know you probably want to take care of the Dead Zone in Valkyr and meet Shu, but the longer that thing lives, the harder your time will be in Tamist. It may no longer be a dragon, but the witches and warlocks of that country don’t care at this point.”

“…”

“Keeno, what’s going on?”

Freya had a concerned look on her face as she studied my expression.

“Freya, we may be going somewhere else before getting this Dead Zone. Eblana is giving me a earful about something in Tamist that’s better dealt with quickly…Wait, how do you even know what’s going on there, Eblana?”

The connection went silent for a moment before she finally answered.

“Shu keeps tabs on most everything on that continent and she, due to being the equivalent of an aide to the Queen, shares that information with the rest of us through familiars. I’m sure most of us don’t really care about what she informs us of, but her latest reports about Tamist are growing increasingly infuriating. Like I said earlier, I’d handle it myself if I wasn’t so busy here. And I’m NOT sending  Loughshinny to deal with that bastard.”

“But you’ll send me.”

“…Shu hasn’t sent you any of that information since, I think, she doesn’t trust you, even with you being the queen’s daughter. Please don’t take that fact personally, she’s just paranoid.”

“Hold on a minute, answer my question!”

“Buy!”

The connection went dead and wouldn’t pick up again no matter how hard I tried.

“I’m so going to punish her later.”

“What happened, you just stopped.”

“Eblana is taking advantage of me to take care of a mess mum left behind.”

“…And why should we take this seriously then?”

“Cause it’ll make our lives harder if we ignore it apparently…what a mood ruiner. We were having a nice moment between friends and now it’s all business.”

“You’re right. Freya said as her ears perked up and her tail swished in agitation. “Next time we see Eblana, we’re gonna have to teach her a lesson.”

After her statement we both burst into laughter. In that moment Freya was the most relaxed id seen her in a long while. It made me happy she could feel that relaxed around me since, ever since we first met, she always had the slightest distance between us. She’d only ever really fully opened up to Pram, and I’d only, briefly, seen this side of her in full.  Not letting this nice thing end, we continued to happily chat until Mostima woke up. I filled her in in the Eblana situation and thus, our next destination was potentially chosen.  All that was left was getting Pram down form here and getting her input.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: Wow. That was so NPC of Eblana. Just, hey boss, here’s a quest for you, see ya.

I agree. She needs to work on asking politely.

Order: It seems all dragons in that world have a bit of an expectation problem.

I think it comes with the inherent pride and arrogance.

Luna: Good thing Keeno is half Kitsune then.

…

Order: …

Luna: What?

You do know kitsune aren’t normally any better right?  I mean, that’s what makes them endearing, fluffy appendages aside.

Luna: I’ve never been so offended by a compliment before.

See! This right here!