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Blankets spread on dry ledges, aromatic steam easing lungs. Star bounded across warm rocks, wings shaking droplets free. Mira slipped into quiet sleep while Fenna checked, her fever already dropping.
Luke sat by a shallow pool, still clutching his spear. "I owe you." From a pouch he offered three thumb-sized healer crystals, the last of his cargo. "One for your… Hollowback."
Zephyr accepted a shard with solemn thanks. It felt cool, alive.
He chipped a sliver and offered it to Star. The dragonling gulped; light washed violet scales. Life Attribute +1. Zephyr felt a tingling echo in his own veins, bloodline feedback like early spring sap.
Steam curled around them, veiling cave walls in shimmering curtains. Fenna laid fresh salve across Zephyr's shoulder. "The Guild is pushing deeper. We'll need more than one VeilStone soon."
Zephyr opened the System pane. Stage-4 objectives glowed: reach Level E, 35 % bloodline, 5 km circuit. He closed it, while saying. "Tomorrow, we will train flight in these updrafts. Star rides steam columns, first taste of true hovering. I'll meditate to refine my bloodline."
"And I'll brew stronger tonics," Fenna added, eyes bright with challenge. "We'll outrun the Guild and anybody else."
Luke listened, silent admiration in his gaze. He thought they were helping him and his sister to avoid the guild members.
Zephyr studied the small dragon stretching eager wings in the mist. Fire burned in that young chest; fire answered in his own. Each step into danger only sharpened their edge.
Outside, snow-laden wind wailed through stone fangs of the range. Distant horns called, Guild pursuit closing. But within the shimmering steam cave, hope and courage kindled a fiercer blaze.
Tomorrow, a dragon will rise higher. And a fledgling tamer would edge closer to legend.
Luke and Mira's fever-damp breaths ghosted into the dawn as Zephyr, Fenna, and Star guided the sled down through thinning pines. Not even the Guild risked the deep forest bordering the range, its tangled undergrowth swallowed sound and scattered mana like broken mirrors, perfect cover for two fugitives and two exhausted siblings.
By mid-morning the last blue spruces gave way to frost-crusted birch. A wide wagon track half-snowed, rarely patrolled cut east toward the river towns. Zephyr halted at the treeline. "This is as far as we dare," he told Luke. "Keep to the hollow between ridges. You'll pass a charcoal camp by dusk, we got some important stuff to do. I hope you understand."
Luke shouldered his spear, eyes bright with relief. "I don't know how to repay you."
"Live," Fenna said, pressing a final bundle of fever-leaf tea into Mira's hands. "And stay clear of Guild checkpoints until you reach your home. Until you find a solution to your problem."
Mira squeezed Fenna's fingers. "If fate is kind, we'll meet again."
Zephyr nodded, echoing the old caravanner blessing: "Paths part, hearts remember." With a grateful glance backward, the siblings vanished between the birches, sled runners whispering over snow.
The silence that followed felt heavier than the snow cloud sky. Star fluttered down from a branch to Zephyr's shoulder, as if sensing the knot in his chest.
"Fenna," Zephyr began, voice rougher than he intended. "Back at Lowmoor you were supposed to attend the Beast Bonding Ceremony, in one week. First month tradition, every student gets a shot at a partner. They teach the basics to tamer before making a bond. But… Because of me… because I dragged you into running and hiding, you won't get that chance."
Fenna's boot crunched ice. She studied him, snowflakes catching on chestnut hair. "You think I regret leaving a roomful of pompous sponsors and half-tame grazers?" She nudged Star's tail. "I chose this."
"But you should have had a choice," he insisted. "I'm sorry."
Her smile was small but bright. "I'd trade ten academy ceremonies for one night like last night, fighting raptors beside you, saving two kids. I can tame a beast from the wild, That's real taming, Zephyr. My beast will come in its own time. I believe soon, I will find my tame." She stepped closer, fingers brushing his bandaged shoulder. "Until then, I'm exactly where I want to be. By your side."
Heat that had nothing to do with bloodline spread through him. For a heartbeat the forest fell away, just her eyes, winter-bright, reflecting the violet shimmer of Star's wings.
Zephyr let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. "Thank you."
Fenna raised her tiptoes, pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, snow-cold, lightning-warm. "Now quit brooding and move. The Guild doesn't send flares for show. Stop your blushing. You know that, I like you."
Zephyr's full face became red as tomatoes. Hot air was coming out of his head. Although they had kissed a few times. But this Fenna confesses to him. Zephyr doesn't want to keep her hanging, he replied in a low voice, "We are childhood friends, I also like you. You are my best friend."
"Silly Zep," Then she thinks, "You don't know what to say. How unromantic. That's okay. I feel relieved, you can't impress other girls. You will always be mine."They turned north, skirting ridge shadows. Three times before noon Zephyr Dragon Sense spiked. Guild outriders combing draw after draw.
First time, Zephyr hauled Fenna into a fox-den tunnel while Star flattened behind a thorn bush. Hoofbeats thundered overhead, search hounds whining at a phantom scent they could not trace.
Second time, a sky-kite patrol wheeled low. Fenna hurled a flash-phial into a frozen bog; steam geysered skyward, masking Star's heat while the pair slipped beneath ice-coated roots.