Misted Deceit

Breezy

Forrest stared at the eyes in shock, and continued to stare as they emerged to form a dragon.  Brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows splashed across her body while the wings were a emerald green.  Tall, antler-like horns sprouted from their head and brown spikes ran along the spine, ending in a large, leaf-shaped tail.

"I am Autumn Breeze, or Breezy for short" the stranger said, "and, yes, I do live in the middle of the Woode."

Composing himself, Forrest spoke.  "I-we, um, never expected to meet another dragon out here.  Oh, and I'm Forrest and this is Orchid."  An awkward silence fell over the group, and Breezy shifted nervously, clearly not accustomed to having company.

"Do you two want to spend the night at my house?  The woods are very dangerous when the moon comes out."

Orchid snorted, "We found that out the hard way."

"Oh?"

"I do believe there is a stream nearby.  We were following it and, as you just said, the moon came out and we lost it."

"The glowing flowers, I presume?"

Forrest looked at the newcomer, "Yes, why?  Are they, like, evil plants or something?"

She laughed, "Hardly, but they are very attractive, as you two found," Turning towards the cabin,  she called, "Come on!" and bounded off.  Orchid and Forrest stared once again at her in awe; her agileness in the trees was unnatural.  Looking at each other and shrugging, they followed her.  They arrived to find her waiting patiently for them, munching on a fish.  Swallowing, she entered the house with the two dragons trailing behind her.

When they walked inside, they found a neatly kept living space with a hearth and stone mat.  Remnants of a meal lay scattered on the wooden table.  Candles flickered in the windows, causing the shadows to dance and spin.  Another door led to a bedroom.  Orchid lay down, shouldering off her pack; Forrest remained standing.

"It is rare to find dragons this far east," Breezy stated, "Normally it is just some poor, lost animal.  And occasionally a hydra will pass through, but those days have long since gone by."

"Hydras?  They come here?" Forrest asked, worried.  While he was eager to find out what was really going on, he didn't think that they would be too happy to discover a dragon in their country.

"Yes, of course.  Their passage to Pyrrain is just a bit south of us, but they've never bothered me," she explained.

Orchid looked up in surprise, "South passage?  Why is it that we have never heard about this before?"

Breezy suddenly appeared nervous, glancing around and not meeting their eyes, "I, uh, I'm not sure.  It is, ah, not hard to...miss?"  Forrest stared intently at her.  She was hiding something and had just made a serious blunder; he could tell by her scared smile and the way her answer sounded more like a question.  Breezy shifted uncomfortably under his gaze before turning and watching the fire.

"So, have you seen any hydras return lately?" Orchid ventured cautiously.  Forrest gave her a surprised look.  Breezy turned towards her, a puzzled expression on her face.  "Why do you want to know?" she replied.

"Personal reasons that require no explanation," Orchid answered quickly.

Autumn Breeze raised her leaf-like wings in protest, "Alright, alright!  I wasn't going to ask anyways.  And, yes, I actually did.  They had with them some large, covered object.  It appeared to be heavy as it left deep rivets in the ground.  I wasted four moons filling them in."

"Thank you.  Sorry about that.  I'm just a little worn from everything that's happened since we left camp."

"Ahh, I see," Breezy nodded in understanding.

As Forrest listened to their conversation, he saw an opportunity that was too good to pass by.  "Autumn, you said that the hydras had a large object with them, yes?"  She nodded.  "Could it have been, say, a cage?"

"Possibly.  Why?"

"We believe two of our friends have been captured.  Maybe Zanzi and Solar were, I don't know, handed over to the hydras for some reason.  If that happened, where would we be able to find them?" he looked at her, hoping that the answer was what he thought it was.

Breezy tilted her head, thinking, "Most likely?  Water Falls, the capitol.  But that's only if they were given to us.  And that is a big if."

He thanked her, and mulling over what she just told him, went outside.  Standing in the biting mountain wind that blew, he let his ideas flow.  With this new potential knowledge, a different plan started to form.  Solar and Zanzi needed their help, and they would give it to them.  And if it meant having an audience with the king and queen, so be it.  Autumn Breeze would lead them; something told him that she had a very important connection with the hydras, with the way she knew about the south passage.  However, what really got him was that she'd used 'us', as if she was one of them.  Orchid had seemed not to pick up on it.

"Forrest?"  she called from inside, "Come in.  It's almost dark."  Nodding absently, he returned to the house, and upon entering, distanced himself from the others and curled up to sleep.