Amidst the chorus of bodiless voices sounded the lake itself. It called out to her as it had done before, firmly and steadily. The Silence...needs you. The light... will be snuffed out forever...
When Minx awoke, she was still seated beside the fire. Yet another night had begun, merely the latest in an endless loop. She felt trapped, abandoned in the wilderness. If not for Mau snoozing beside her and Kaleb still mending at her feet, she would have felt drained of all hope.
The dragon shifter slept very peacefully. Except for the occasional mutter or grunt from his lips, and the conspicuous damage to his armor, she would have thought him perfectly well. In a time where she had very little to be thankful for, she was pleased at his recovery, at least.
She remained troubled by the dream, however. It stayed with her long past her awakening, the imagery more haunting and sinister than anything previous. The message had been the same as before, but the violent shift in the scene told her that the crisis was soon to reach the lake. There was no telling just how things were going in her homeland; it was possible the army had already reached Pandling Grounds. Maybe—and she shuddered at the thought—the territory had already been overrun and enemy forces were closing in on Heilo Lake. Maybe that was the meaning of the dream... Time is up and there's no saving the lake...
Warming her hands at the fire, Minx shook her head. No matter how dire things seemed, she knew there was no sense in losing hope. They'd gone through so much the past few days, had surmounted so many challenges together. The gravest obstacles still loomed ahead, but she had faith in her friends, and trusted that they would find a way to rise to the occasion.
Tucked away in the dense copse of trees, Minx closed her eyes and attempted to court sleep once again.
A sound from beyond the camp pierced the veil of quiet, however. Her eyes snapped open and she took to studying her surroundings for signs of danger. She held her bow close, giving the strap of her quiver a tug.
That was when she noticed it.
The blue gems in her bracelets were glowing.
It had been days since the dragon hunting bracelets had reacted in this way. The special stones within them only glowed this way in the presence of a dragon, and they'd lit up upon her first encounter with Kaleb. Over the course of their acquaintance, the gems had gone dim, but now, in conjunction with this unexpected noise, they were glowing once more.
The sound, a subtle rustling in the distance, returned to her ears. Unable to make out its source, Minx nudged Mau awake. Hey, do you hear that?
The tired Faelyr sat up, blinking at the fire. Hear what?
I heard a noise beyond the trees. I think there's someone out there, said Minx. And get a load of this. She held one of her bracelets out for Mau to inspect. They're glowing again. Which means...
Mau's eyes lit up. You think it might be a dragon, then?
Minx nodded.
Kaleb was still fast asleep. The Fae huntress and her companion rose silently and slipped out of the camp, ready to engage with this nighttime presence. She didn't want to wake Kaleb for the sake of his health, it was true—and alerting him to the presence of another dragon in the area before she had a chance to scope it out herself seemed doubly unwise.
After all, she hadn't decided yet whether she'd hunt it.
We might secure a dragon's hide after all! said Mau as they pushed through the foliage and searched for the late-night visitor.
Truthfully, Minx had been entertaining the same idea, though she was not without guilt. What would Kaleb think if he saw me skulking around this way, trying to hunt one of his kind? This was silly; her people needed a dragon's hide. It wasn't up for debate. By slaying a dragon and bringing its hide to the elders, she was merely fulfilling her duty. Who could argue with that? What's more, no matter her feelings for Kaleb, she didn't owe a debt to every dragon. The beast setting off the gems in her bracelets was quite possibly a genuine threat—something she'd have to put down before it lashed out at them first.
Through a break in the trees, Minx caught her first glimpse of the immense thing stationed across the field. A dark red dragon, a bit smaller than Kaleb, had touched down a short distance away and was now idling in the grass nearby. Two ruby-colored wings were tucked neatly against the creature's back and its stony tail was wrapped partially around its lazing bulk. Perhaps the dragon intended to sleep there, or maybe he'd simply made a pit-stop, and would take off once he'd enjoyed a brief rest.
There he is, said Mau. Are you ready? If we sneak up on him, we can probably take him out without much noise. He doesn't know we're here, by the looks of it.
This dragon appeared large enough to fulfill her needs. Its hide would save her people, and she felt confident that she could land a killing blow if given enough time to observe the thing. Dragons were tough creatures, no doubt, but they did have weaknesses. She'd learned a lot about dragons by hanging around Kaleb. If she merely applied her knowledge to this specimen, she'd be able to kill it swiftly.
She nocked an arrow and tested the direction of the breeze, considering the most advantageous angle of attack. As she did so, however, she was struck by a profound nausea at the prospect of killing this dragon behind Kaleb's back. Her grip on the bow weakened. She returned the arrow to her quiver and leaned against a tree, arms crossed.
Mau picked up on her indecision and prodded her
