By Texas-SaberFox

Zasta looked around the charred husk of the outpost’s keep. The outside looked pristine but, inside the keep the truth was plain to see. Zasta looked at the holes where some of the floor supports had collapsed due to fire damage. She sighed heavily and walked back outside everything that could have been left behind burned with the keep.

“Good thing it was a wet winter this year, the keep could have taken the forest along with it.” She said, speaking her thoughts out loud. She shook her head while walking to the catwalk that led to her home. “What do we do now? There are no supplies left and the nearest tribe would arrive at the outpost in two weeks. Fuck, gods damn it.”

Reaching the perimeter catwalk, she leaned on the safety railing looking down below to where the carts used to be at. I wonder if they could take us with them, maybe even to the nearest keep? Dayon keep should be the nearest, about a day and a half flight from here. At least I get to see Thoren again.

She smiled at the thought, but the smile fell when she remembered what happened to his wife last spring. Is it wrong for me to want to pursue him?

She brushed away the thought this wasn’t the time nor the place for that. She needed to get Owen and herself back to the others.

Deciding on her next action she moved to the opening in the catwalk railing. Taking a few steps back she ran and dived off the catwalk heading to the ground. With a single hard beat of her mighty wings, she pulled up from the dive, falling the tracks the carts made leading to the clearing not too far away.

Approaching the encampment, she didn’t see where Jasper or more importantly Owen was at. What she did see was Raphael setting up a fire pit and cooking stacks. Raphael being the only other person in the group she knows. She’ll have to ask him where to find Owen or Jasper.

She walked over to Raphael all the while getting curious looks from the two of the strange people she hadn’t met yet. She snuck up behind Raphael deciding that some pay back for earlier was in order.

Thanks to the soft grass on the ground, her foot falls were silent as she approached Raphael. Few meters away from him she grinned with maniacal glee. She waited until he laid the last rock in the fire pit then let loose a loud triumphant roar and much to her great amusement Raphael leapt over the fire pit. (FUCKING HELL!)

She laughed her ass off along with some of the other strange people around her. She never expected a reaction like that. The resulting icy glare kept her going though she didn’t know what that thing on his hip he’s fingering was. It was very shiny with some nice dark wood, but she thought it would look better if the wood was bleached.

“That’s what you fucking get for earlier.” Zasta said, knowing full well that he wouldn’t understand her, but she really didn’t care at the moment. Raphael grows a warm smile and chuckles. She stopped laughing to catch her breath looking back at him. “Raphael? Owen?”

Raphael looked at her for a moment before it clicked and pointed to the cart with the cabin on the back. “Owen (with) Jasper.”

Raphael walked to the cart waving her along. He led her to the door on the side and opened it. Walking inside the cabin was beautiful. The walls were painted a cool cream color with light wood cabinets along both walls with a small kitchen along the right side. Seating and table on the left. She found Jasper seated on a wall mounted couch with Owen curled around one of Jasper’s arms with his head resting on the man’s shoulder and a tail wrapped around the dude’s wrist and hand. Jasper was softly petting Owen on the back.

Jasper looked up at her and smirked then looked back at Owen. Zasta smiled as she let out a little chuckle.

She took a knee and looked at Owen. The dragonette in question smiled with a happy grunting sound. Then nuzzled up against Jasper a little more to get his body heat. He even went so far as to wrap his wings around himself and Jasper’s arm. Oh, gods that’s adorable. He’s cuddled up like he’s sleeping with his favorite hot stone.

Owen looked to be at peace with Jasper. In fact, they had been rather kind and showed no outright hostilities towards Owen or herself. Even though she had held Jasper at bow point. She was going to take a chance with them by leaving Owen here. Looking at Jasper she let out a tired sigh. Standing up, she pointed to Jasper then to her eyes and lastly to Owen making her intent clear.

It took him a moment, but he ended up nodding his head that he understood her. She smiled at him and gave a deep bow before walking out of the cabin.

Upon closing the door, she heard someone yell right beside her. (SURPRISED MOTHER FUCKER!!)

She damn near leapt out of her skin again along with making a very feminine shriek. Turning to look at the ass wipe that nearly scared her shitless, she found Raphael just about dying of laughter. Oh, you little piece of shit.

Zasta glared at Raphael, not very impressed. Before she smiled and walked away from him. Well guess the fuck what two can play at this game if you want to play.

Zasta approached the lake shore and turned head to look back at the camp one last time. “Gods I hope I’m right about you guys.”

She turned her head around and took a deep breath. Sprinting to the water she leapt into the air before she hit the sand. One strong beat of her wings and a small flurry of sand and she became airborne. Flying over to the lake she reached for open skies following the mountain pass to the cave the others were hiding in.

---

It had been three hours since we found Owen and Zasta. We set up camp in a clearing not too far from the tree house village. Nick was flying his long-range drone doing high altitude recon above the mountain pass and was still sulking after Wilson gave him shit about not seeing Zasta. Nick shot back that it was Wilson’s job to charge the quads batteries before they left and would have seen Zasta if he didn’t need to land due to dead batteries.

Wilson, Carla, Jasper was setting up camp with Owen riding on Jasper shoulders with his head snuggled into Jasper’s low-profile afro. Ever since Zasta left Owen hadn’t left Jasper’s side so he’s teaching Owen some basic English to help the little guy talk to us.

Raphael stood on top of Deucelot keeping an eye out for Zasta or hostel wildlife. He was mesmerizing how close to the Scottish Highlands it was. “Raphael, I have something here.”

“Go ahead Nick, what did you find?”

“Well, we’re on a floating island. I’m about 2000 feet and I just saw the southern portion of the island come out of a thunderstorm, with the edge about 35 kilometer east of our current location. I would have flown to it, but the mountains would block the signal.”

“Hmm. Nick, do you think you can see where civilization might be?” Raphael asked, looking up the valley over the lake.

“I think I see smoke to the north in another mountain valley forest, but it’s getting too dark to know for sure.” Raphael raised an eyebrow.

“Really…” He looked at his watch. “That’s four hours before earth’s sunset. Okay, land the drone we’ll talk about our options when it’s on the deck. Also, keep an eye out for Zasta.”

“I already… Reaphel, I tally three bogeys flying in a tight V formation coming from the north-west shore. Looks like Zasta might have found some other survivors.” Nick said as Raphael raised his binos looking at the flight.

“Wilson, Jasper, Carla! We have three possible hostile fast movers burning to us. Safeties off, Jasper get Owen inside Deucelot and protect him as well as Nick.” Raphael called out before getting back on the radio. “Nick, get a closer look and find out if they’re friendly or not.

---

Zasta cruised to the clearing with the others. On her left was Danae, a young nomadic huntress who stayed at the outpost to be with her husband Eragon. Riding on our backs were the surviving children Faulkner, Rakash, and Erwin.

“Do you guys hear something?” Zasta asked, looking at the other two as her ears twitched and swiveled.

“Yeah, just barely.” Eragon said as Zasta looked around. Whatever it was it was getting louder, quickly becoming an airy roar. She moved her head to look right to left when she saw a light bluish gray and purple blur roar past. It was the fastest thing she had ever seen that wasn’t a dragon. It banked right, giving us a full top view of the thing. It was in the shape of an arrowhead with two sets of wings. The largest set of wings started to spread out a little to look like a wide arrowhead. The kite was cobalt blue on its wide flat back, wings, and main pointy body. It also had a royal purple stripe on the leading edge of the largest wing up to the main body. The smaller wing had a purple stripe down the leading edge and center. “Is that some kind of bird?”

“If it is hun then it’s no bird I have ever seen before. My question is, is it dangerous to us and the kids.” Danae replied to Eragon. As Zasta got a hunch about who that thing belonged to. It would make sense, they had enchanted carts, why not have an enchanted kite like thing as well. Fucking hell, this day just keeps on getting weirder and weirder.

“If that enchanted kite belongs to who I think it belongs to, we’re not going to be harmed.” At that Eragon gained a thoughtful expression as Zasta looked back at the kite.

“I hope you’re right, Zasta.” Danae said, the kite came back around, much slower this time with its largest wings out as wide as they could go. The kite had two wings coming out the back with another set of purple stripes down the leading edge and down the center. Its belly was a light bluish gray that would blind rather nicely with the sky, no wonder they couldn’t see it. It was unlike anything she had ever seen and. It. Was. Massive. The kite was nearly three times as long as she was tall despite looking very bulky, but it still had the sleek curves of a highly acrobatic flier. This kite was the source of the roar as it got closer it started to become uncomfortable.

Zasta was flapping her wings when she realized something. Wait, it hasn’t beaten its wings, not even once. How in all the gods is it flying then?

Zasta noticed that the kite had two sections of glass domes, one on top and one on the nose, each dome covering a head? The head in the nose was looking forward and the one on top had five deep black eyes. The center eye was looking straight at her. It felt like it was peering straight into her soul sending a shiver down her spine.

“Why does it have two heads and so many eyes?” Eragon asked out of morbid curiosity with the kite flying nearly wing tip to wing tip with him, the head on top turned to face forward.

“It’s so loud!” Rakash complained on her back. Zasta saw the kite waggle its wings with the rear wings moving ever so slightly to do the waggle motion. Then it moved ahead of us and slightly below.

“I think the kite wants us to follow it.” Danae said quickly on the uptake. Zasta fell in behind the kite and was quickly buffeted with a fearsome wind on her right wing. Before she could react, her right wing jerked up sharply and within a second Zasta instinctually compensated by tucking in her right wing slightly to reduce the lift as she moved under the kite as Rakash shrieked at the sudden sharp movement.

“Zasta! Rakash! You two, okay, what just happened?” Eragon asked in surprise at what had just happened.

“The kite seems to have some kind of wind generating enchantment. My wing got caught up in it.” Zasta said to Eragon, turning her head to look at Rakash. Rakash clenched onto her enameled metal scale brigandine that served as both her huntress and guard armor. “How are you doing back there?”

“I’m scared.” Rakash said, opening her eyes with tears rolling out of her blue blood shot eyes.

“I’m sorry about that.” Zasta said in her most motherly tone before looking back at the enchanted kite. That kite must use the wind enchantment to fly. Damn, I really wish they knew how to speak draconic because that enchantment would be an advantage in an aerial melee especially against Vargulf. However, I can really do without that bloody roar it’s making.

---

Jasper breathed a sigh of relief as the trio flying to them weren’t hostiles. Despite only knowing her for an hour or so, he was glad to see that it was Zasta. He got on to the radio while looking at the computer screen, it showed Zasta as she stared wide eyed at the camera of Nick’s drone. “Rapheal, the fast movers are friendly.”

Jasper felt a tugging on his pants. He looked down seeing Owen, the toddler size dragonette, had his arms stretched up giving him puppy dog eyes just looking absolutely adorable. “Ung zawknee Jasker?”

“All copy, Jasper, if Nick can’t hear me tell him to lead them to the camp.” Raphael said over the radio as Jasper smiled at Owen. Ever since he found little Owen, he’d never left his side.

“Okay, up you go you little rascal.” Jasper lifted Owen up and placed him onto his shoulder. Owen made a happy chirp and Jasper felt him snuggle into his afro.

“aw zawvox vod exwaza.” Owen said in his strange guttural tongue.

“Comfy?” Jasper asked, scratching Owen behind his ears. He chuckled in amusement when Owen leaned into the scratches like a cat. Oh, God help this poor soul that’s too cute. Guess if we were taking Owen with us, we’ll need to teach him English, but I doubt Zasta would willingly allow us to do that. We’ll probably need to take them with us. Their home is destroyed after all, we’ll need to talk about it as a group though.

After Zasta and the others landed they gathered to meet with them. The meeting was a little difficult without the ability to speak the same language. Something we needed to change like yesterday. We went with the good old classic point at yourself and say your name spiel. We learned that the other two adults are named Eragon and Daena along with learning their species called themselves draxoonvaw. With the children being Faulkner, Rakash, and Erwin. After we learned each other’s name the dragonettes watched Nick’s custom ¼ scale F14 land with a slack jaw expression. We hosted them for dinner. Not a fancy dinner, just red beans and rice with sausage and chicken.

When they ate it, they seemed to find it a little too spicy, but they also looked hungry enough to not care. Which was interesting because red beans and rice wasn’t normally a spicy dish, he’d have to tell Raphael to use a little less longhorn chilly next time. However, after being handed a piece of caramel all of their eyes widened. Jasper chuckled at the look on their faces, noting that as soon as he and the others learned their language, he’d need to teach them how to make caramel.

After dinner the group had a meeting as Zasta and the others held a funeral pyre for the little girl he had laid to rest.

Jasper looked at Raphael as he started the meeting. “Okay, I called this meeting to discuss something that will forever change our expedition. Do we take Zasta and the others with us? As we already know their keep is destroyed with no supplies. If we leave them behind, their life is going to be very hard.”

Carla shook her head before talking. “That’s no question at all Ralphy, I say we take them with us. We don’t know when the next trader will come or if a trader comes at all. This place is rather isolated.”

Nick nodded before adding on. “I agree with Carla, we should take them with us. It would be safer for their kids, and we can also use a local guide. This is their backyard; they would know it a hell of a lot better than us.”

Wilson sighed before talking. “As much as I agree. I need to play devil’s advocate. Them coming with us will increase the consumption of our supplies. We only have five months’ worth of supplies. If we take them with use, we’ll need to start hunting the local wildlife sooner than expected. Especially if they eat more than us as well.”

Raphael and the others nod. Raphael looked around before adding. “Wilson makes a good point furthermore when we start hunting, we can’t travel. We don’t know the area and there’s a good possibility that we’ll most likely get lost if we try. However, I say we bring them along with us. As Nick said, they can be a useful guide to us even if that means we have to communicate with hand signals until we learn the local language.

Jasper spoke up. “I say we take them with us.”

“Alright, then it’s decided they’re coming with us. Also, until further notice or we reach civilization. I suggest we start wearing full combat loadout. If we run into the (dragonettes) that are responsible for wiping out this keep. I would like for us to be ready for a fight.”

Jasper couldn’t agree more with Raphael. Jasper’s fists clenched when he thought of the dead kid Zasta and the others were burning. A part of him really fucking wished they would run into the ones responsible so they could distribute some sweet justice on the child killing Basterds.