Lady Syri MoonFall was not in one of her better moods.
She was locked up in her room, in what passed for the west wing of the castle.
In all respects, it was a miserable excuse for a castle, as this particular
clan of Unis was the only one that bothered with the feudal system of government
anymore. Even that was failing though, King Righ could not keep things under
control, not even his own sister.
"Syri," he whined, adjusting his crown and trying
to draw himself into a more dignified stance.
"No, you look here!" she snapped, jabbing one
hoof in his chest and staggering him back a couple steps, "I. Won't. Stay. The
sooner you get that through your thick skull, the better."
King Righ looked at his sister in astonishment.
"Syri! Listen to yourself! You are a disgrace
to the MoonFall name!"
"My name is MoonFall, not Syri. Just MoonFall.
And it is not my family name anymore, my family is with child_dragon."
"They've been a bad influence on you."
"About time too, I'd say," she growled, snatching
the crown off Righ's head.
"Give that back!" he protested, grabbing for
it.
"Catch!" she cackled merrily, and tossed it out
into the hall.
It landed with a clatter, and Righ glared at
her for a moment before exiting the room to retrieve it. As soon as the tip
of his tail had cleared the doorframe, MoonFall slammed it shut and locked it.
"Syri!"
She merely laughed and ignored him, instead heading
over to the window which was now barred, and contemplating escape.
***
We met back at my house at sunset, as planned. No one had found anything substantial,
but so far one thing had been agreed upon: Meridell. Or at least the outskirts
of it. Terraile mentioned that her old home was near the area we had all started
to loose the trail.
"Your old home? You mean, the castle?"
She nodded. Sabreur started muttering things
under his breath, and I did my best to ignore his choice language.
"Well then. I think we should pay MoonFall's
brother a visit tomorrow."
***
The child_dragon clan were not the only ones trailing the kidnapped princess.
A brother and sister had witnessed the kidnapping, and had vowed not to let
it go by unresolved. The two were Tridon_Sabrek and Arahna_Silvra. Arahna was
a white Eyrie with silver cuffs and strange pattern on her face. She was calm
and gentle, and was the one who decided to help the kidnapped Uni. Her brother,
on the other hand, was her opposite. Moody, dark and brooding, Tridon was usually
a purple Eyrie with immense magical powers. He shared the same runes on the
face as Ahrahna. Unbeknownst to the Uni kidnappers; the two had trailed them
all the way to the castle and has slipped into the grounds under the cover of
nightfall.
"There," Arahna whispered, nodding towards one
of the higher windows of the castle.
In the dim moonlight a striped Uni could be seen
gazing out disconsolately.
"Let's go then," Arahna's brother hissed.
The two Eyries made their way across the grounds,
staying in the shadows. Once against the castle wall, Tridon took flight up
to MoonFall's window while Arahna kept watch.
MoonFall was slightly surprised to see a purple
Eyrie appear in front of her window, but she recovered quickly.
"Please sir, you must help me."
"Cut the talk," he snarled in response, "I already
know you need rescuing. Now stand back from the window."
Although the window was too small for MoonFall
to climb through, Tridon was not one to let such a trivial matter get in his
way. Murmuring words of power, dark magic grew about him, then burst out and
smashed into the castle wall, obliterating the entire wall section of MoonFall's
room. The Uni was unfazed and daintily stepped about the debris and leaped into
the sky and freedom. From behind her the shouting of guards could be heard.
"Not again!" Tridon exclaimed behind her.
"What is it?" she asked, changing her flight
to a hover to look.
"No, no, keep flying!"
She resumed flight and caught up with the white
Eyrie that had also taken flight.
"I'm Arahna. My brother is Tridon. Follow me
and we'll get you to safety."
"My owner."
"Not now. We've got to get out of here before
they launch pursuit."
MoonFall fell silent and continued flying.
***
We arrived at King Righ's castle early the next morning. We weren't admitted,
of course, but Terraile solved that problem for us. We left the guard pinned
to the wall, he'd eventually manage to pull the arrow out of his tunic, or get
a friend to help. From there, we burst into the throne room.
King Righ was quite disappointing. He let out
a startled squeak and huddled on his throne. I must admit, we had plenty of
reason to terrify him. We were all armed to the teeth and had the attitude of
confident invincibly that only comes from facing incredible odds and surviving.
"Where is MoonFall?" Aldrai demanded, stepping
in front of us.
I was mildly surprised, but remained silent as
I figured Aldrai knew what he was doing.
"I don't know," the Uni whined.
"You know."
There was a long silence. Then my shy, introverted
Zafara did something I'd had suspicions on, but had never dared to voice out
loud. I've long thought that Aldrai has a deeply-buried trace of magical talent,
perhaps natural-born. It had just never revealed itself until the Shadow incident.
Aldrai, for his part, had never mentioned this power. I imagine he just had
to adjust, as did I. Aldrai must have decided that now was an appropriate time
to use his power. He ducked his head and light grew around him. Pure light,
no other trace of elemental magic. Just light. He pushed off and hovered in
the air, his paw barely touching the ground. And he changed. His fur lightened
into pure white, wings burst into snowy brilliance from his back, and a golden
halo appeared above his brow. My Zafara had arbitrarily repainted himself Christmas.
"I now you have her," he whispered, his words
easily carrying across the room.
"I... I..."
"Where is she?"
"She escaped!" he moaned, "I don't know where
she is now. My guards are searching for her. She's my sister, you don't have
a right to take her!"
"She has something called 'free will', Righ.
And she chose to live with us. You shall not touch her, not now, not ever."
Aldrai favoured him with one last withering stare,
then turned and floated out of the throne room. We followed him out of the castle,
into the grounds, and out of the castle walls. Once a safe distance away, he
landed, the light surrounding him dimming. He did not go back to his spotted
colour, however.
"You know," I said lazily, determined not to
make a big deal out of Aldrai's magic, "I could have just bought you a Christmas
paintbrush."
He cocked his head at me and smiled,
"No, I like spotted. The wings are just impressive,
that's all. And useful."
I nodded, understanding his meaning.
"Everyone, split up. Flyers search for her by
air, non-flyers by ground," I directed, "Melody, you head home and wait there
in case she gets there before we find her. We regroup at my house at nightfall."
Everyone nodded, and after a moment of confusion
in which everyone sorted out directions, the group dispersed. I was last to
leave, watching the Zafara make his way across the blue sky, wings catching
the sunlight.
To be continued... | 
