The sun shining on my face roused me from my slumber. Gertha was lying on her side, snoring gently, and the wind gently whistled through the trees. I bolted upright. I’d bloody fallen asleep on watch, a crime punishable by flogging if I still served the King. Worse than that, we were unguarded, unwatched through the night, and it was entirely my fault. How could I have been so bloody stupid? I couldn’t see anything around us in the trees, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something here, watching us. Lizards were tricky like that; they could change the colour of their scales and blend into the background for anything less than a focused glance. It seemed we’d gotten away with it, though, but I chastised myself. I’d put us at risk.

  Gertha woke and rubbed her eyes.

  “Did I miss my turn?” She yawned as she raised herself to a seated position, stretching her neck out gently before rolling her shoulders.

  “No. I did. I fell asleep, sorry.” My cheeks coloured; I hadn’t fallen asleep on duty, ever. I felt like a child who’d been caught wetting the bed.

  “Well. We’re alive. That’s all that matters. You needed your rest after all of that nastiness.” She said, rising steadily to her feet.

  “So much for us moving at night,” I said, gesturing at the bright summer day. The blue sky was unmarred except for a trail of black smoke that originated from the Tower. My heart fell as I thought of the fire and Eggs. I pushed my feelings deep inside. I couldn’t afford to be struck down by grief. Not out here. Gertha needed me, and I needed her if we were going to make it to the Arcuzane. Was there any point now that Eggs was…gone?

  “If we’re careful and keep our wits about us, we can still make it,” Gertha said.

  “The Arcuzane want Eggs, though. Not us.” I said, my voice betraying only the slightest waver.

  “Not necessarily, what we have is information, which they can still use.”

  “How will knowing that we had, then subsequently lost, the saviour of humanity?” I asked, digging my gauntleted fingers into the palm of my glove.

  “They’ll know that Wyvern’s are possible. Besides, we had a hatchling. Something had to lay the egg in the first place, right?” Gertha crossed her arms as she started sniffing the air.

  “I suppose you’re right.” I conceded, sighing before shouldering my blade.

  “I usually am.” She grinned before laughing. I wished I could, too, but my heart was heavy.

  “Let’s go find your Magi then.” I gestured to Gertha, and she pointed in a direction.

  “This way, it’s fizzier over there!” She called out.

  We trudged forward together, making our way through the trees and bushes, pausing occasionally so I could hack away at some particularly stubborn thorns or branches with my sword. I found the action therapeutic, and I’m convinced that some of the most hate-fuelled sword strikes of my life were received by defenceless plantlife in the middle of the Free Forests. I imagined each branch was that Thing. If I ever got my hands on it, I don’t care what power fuelled it. I would rip its head off or die trying.

  We continued another half an hour or so, stopping occasionally to change direction when I started to feel that familiar prickling sensation on the back of my neck. I tapped Gertha’s shoulder and paused to take in our surroundings. We were in a thick part of the forest, with plenty of bushes, trees and fallen logs around to make it hard to be seen, but also to see. Something had twigged my instincts, and I just needed to catch up with myself.

  “Something’s here?” Gertha asked softly.

  I focused my hearing, and heard nothing.

  “That’s the thing, nothing is,” I whispered.

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  “Which means…” Gertha started.

  Movement exploded from in front of us, as our foe charged from the bushes. A huge maw revealed rows of needle-like teeth; one eye was missing, the wound still fresh but starting to heal over. The other looked at us with pure venom. Two outstretched claws, one missing half of its appendages, reached out toward us keenly as a coiled, muscled tail smashed into the ground, propelling my opponent forward. The bloody thing had somehow tracked us, found us even after all this way and after everything we had endured. I didn’t react with fear this time. This time, I actually sighed. Of course, it was that Lindwyrm; it was totally bloody typical. I was angry, I was grieving, and I was actually happy to have a challenge to kill, and this overgrown snake had it coming.

  “LINDWYRM!” Gertha shouted.

  “THIS TIME YOU FUCKING DIE!” I roared, and I charged that bastard yet again.

  Having survived a couple of encounters with me now, the Lindwyrm expected it.

  I sprinted with my sword raised, hoping I could get under its guard and thrust through its other eye, killing it quickly. Instead, I sailed through the air when the tail smashed me in the chest and sent me careening into a tree. I landed upside down, but fortunately, my armour took the brunt of the blow and the symbols flared in their silver hue. I rolled to my feet, ready for another attack. By all rights, that blow should have at least broken a few ribs, if not my back, but it felt no worse than a hard shove. Say what you like about the Arcuzane being a jumped-up group of robe-wearing gits. They could make bloody good armour.

  Gertha shrieked and let loose a barrage of invisible strikes that pounded into the Lindwyrm, sending it back. It roared, and I saw the leaves and trees bend with each strike she delivered. Air, she was using the air itself!

  I charged in from the side, my sword down by my side trailing behind me, as the Lindwyrm tried to swipe at me. I cut upward with my blade and was rewarded by a deep wound flashing open on the Lindwyrm’s arm. It reared back in pain, but undeterred, I spun forward and with a large arcing cut I opened part of the Lindyrm’s abdomen, roaring as blood fell out and coated the ground and the lower half of me. I flurried with an overhead spin, which bit into the bastard's arm yet again and stopped it getting a hold of me, before rolling to the side so Gertha could hit it yet again with her air fuelled punches.

  The Lindwyrm spun around, and its tail missed me but managed to fell a tree in Gertha’s direction. She yelped as she leapt out of the way, and the trunk fell between us. For a few moments at least, I was on my own. It reached toward me with bleeding arms, but I knew that if I were enough of a danger and pain in the arse, it wouldn’t be able to grab me. I whirled, spun and blocked its attempts to reach me as it roared in frustration. I feinted left, then darted right, getting inside its arms and thrusting deep into the flesh of its neck with my sword. It was nearly a kill blow, but I’d miscalculated. The Lindwyrm had thrown its head back midway through my lunge, the thick hide and muscles inside its neck greedily holding onto my blade as a cascade of blood fell over me. I lost my grip on the handle of my sword and fell backwards, slipping in the mixture of blood and viscera.

  I retreated backwards, narrowly dodging another swipe of the tail, but I could tell the Lindwyrm was slowing. It had been wounded for days, no doubt suffering from the slow wounds of infection, the loss of blood and a sword lodged in the neck wouldn’t do much for its longevity either. The Lindwyrm roared in a defiant wail, and it surged toward me, no doubt as pissed off with my continued existence as I was with its own.

  Long shards of wood thunked into the side of its body and head as Gertha coiled air around parts of the fallen tree and launched them at our foe. I was amazed. The sheer range of abilities this woman had was beyond anything I thought possible for Magi. She was on top of the fallen tree and slipped her hand into the pouch at her side, slipping another arrowhead into her mouth. The Lindwyrm, hacking blood now, surged toward Gertha, easily closing the distance and swatted at her with its tail. She managed to dodge and jumped behind the log, before blasting air upward, staggering the Lindwyrm and sending it backwards. I could see my blade hanging from its neck, firmly lodged in, and I reckoned if I could push it deeper, I might just be able to end it.

  I sprinted toward the Lindwyrm, roaring in defiance with hate in my heart as I leapt toward my blade. As I hung in the air, the beast swatted at me with its arm, jarring my legs as its blow connected with me and sent me spinning, right into its open maw.

  “BALLS!” I swore as I felt hard teeth scrape along the surface of my armour. I could hear Gertha shouting for me, but in my panicked state, I couldn’t have told you what she was yelling. The mouth bit down, and reflexively, I held my arms out to try and hold it at bay. Teeth sank into the palms of my hands, which were only protected by a thick leather, and I screamed in pain as they were forced back and against my chest. I could feel the tips of the teeth pushing and scraping against the metal. Teeth even pushed against the insides of my gauntlets as the teeth pushed their way through the other side of my hands, the scraping of tooth and bone making me squeal.

  I saw a mighty gout of flame, then the Lindwyrm’s maw closed.

  Darkness fell as the beast began to swallow me whole.