Artefact Hunters: Draikfang

     “Remind me again why we didn’t get to fly back when the whole faerie thing was going on?” Hanso asked.

     Brynn looked over to where her partner was flying on Laelia’s back, several yards from herself and Rallon. They’d left Brightvale behind a couple of hours ago, and now the Haunted Woods stretched out beneath them in every direction. It was more than a little surreal to think about. From up here, bright sunlight dappled the leaves of the forest canopy in shifting shades of brilliant green, and the only sounds that filtered up to them were the whisper of wind and the rustle of leaves. It was a stark contrast to the heavy shadows and unnatural gloom within the Woods themselves, and the thick canopy masked whatever skeletal haunted trees and roving monsters lurked below. It almost felt like cheating.

     Hanso pointed down at the forest. “Because this way, we’re getting past this place in less than two days. You know how long it took to get through the Haunted Woods on foot? Way more than two days.”

     Rallon snorted and tossed his mane. “You were searching for the culprit within the Woods, right? Those tight trees aren’t exactly made for flyers of our size.”

     Hanso scoffed. “Sure, if you want to put logic into it.”

     Brynn couldn’t resist snickering a little at that. She knew he was mostly trying to fill in the quiet of the long trip – he’d done it a lot on their last journey as well – and without the sheer crisis on her hands or the fear of looking like she was showing a biassed treatment toward a suspect, she found she appreciated the effort much more here.

     Hanso must have caught her amused reaction, because he turned his attention to her with a bright smile. “By the way, sweetheart, I’m loving the cape,” he called out to her. “It looks great streaming behind you in the wind like that. You should ditch the helmet so your hair can be all flowy, too.”

     Brynn rolled her eyes, but the traces of a smile still on her face gave her away. “I’m not losing another helmet, Hanso.”

     Laelia’s ear had twitched at the word “sweetheart,” and now she turned her head just a little and angled both ears back to focus on her rider.

     “That reminds me,” she piped up, “I’ve been wondering… How much of those rumours are true? About the two of you, I mean?”

     Hanso opened his mouth again to answer, but then hesitated and looked back at Brynn. “Uhh…”

     Brynn frowned. “It’s complicated,” she hedged. “I guess it kind of depends on which rumours you’re talking about. We knew each other before the Fall of Faerieland, if that’s what you’re wondering, but that was mostly just from his trips to the Brightvale dungeons. And since the Fall, we’ve been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to define exactly what we are now.”

     Laelia hummed in thought. “Okay, fair enough. But you still are some kind of…” she waved a forehoof vaguely, “thing, right? Romantically?”

     Brynn and Hanso shared another glance. She could feel her face flushing, but she smiled a little as she replied, “...Yeah. I think it’s safe to say that much.”

     After a moment, though, her smile fell and her brows pinched in annoyance. “I don’t know how that managed to spread so fast, though. Even when he uses the cutesy nicknames on me, it’s mostly teasing, and people aren’t usually around to hear them anyway.”

     Hanso smirked. “Sorry, sweetie. I guess that’s just what happens when you tackle-kiss someone in front of influential world leaders. And Jazan.”

     Laelia made a strangled sound in the back of her throat and whipped her head halfway around to give her rider a one-eyed stare. “You did what?!”

     Hanso was absolutely grinning now. “I didn’t say I kissed her.”

     Laelia just blinked at him at first. Then she shifted her gobsmacked half-stare to Brynn, who by now was quite certain she was blushing hard enough for it to be visible through her fur. Brynn cleared her throat.

     “He’d just gotten de-petrified and hailed as a hero minutes after I was sure he was gone for good, okay? It was a very, um, emotional time.” Honestly, she sometimes marvelled at her own ability to suddenly go from in-control captain of the guard to an utterly awkward teenager. She was just thankful that Rallon hadn’t been inclined to join in the conversation.

     Hanso shrugged. “It’s okay. We both know you love me.”

     Now it was Brynn’s turn to blink at him uncomprehendingly. “Excuse me?”

     He was smirking again. “You heard me. You lllllove me.”

     Oh. Oh. She had to admit, with all the insanity surrounding that confrontation with Xandra, she hadn’t been sure he’d even realised what she almost said when he was pretending to switch sides. Now that it had come up again, though, she couldn’t say she was surprised that he’d found a way to tease her about it.

     Well, if he thought she was going to sit back and let him mess with her, he thought wrong. She pursed her lips in a show of thinking hard and slowly shook her head. “Mmm, you know, I don’t think I ever said that.”

     Hanso singsonged, “You were trying to~”

     Brynn pointedly turned her attention forward. “That remains to be seen. You have no proof of what I was trying to say.”

     “You were trying to say that and you know it. Don’t deny it.”

     Rallon cleared his throat. “As much as I respect and admire you both, this flirting is very confusing from an outside perspective, and it’s starting to get awkward. Could you save it for later?”

     Laelia cackled. “No, keep going, this is making the flight more fun!”

     Brynn’s mouth snapped shut, and she could tell she was blushing again. She tried to focus on the endless sea of trees ahead of her, suddenly very aware of her company.

     Laelia groaned. “Now see what you did, you embarrassed the riders!” she complained to Rallon.

     The Starry Uni glanced back at the others. “They’ll be fine; it’s a long flight and we have plenty of opportunities to talk. Right now, I’m more concerned about where we’re going to land when we need a break.”

     Brynn let out a soft sigh as the comment brought her fully back to the present. She and Hanso may have come a long way since they first ran into each other at the ruined Faerie Festival, but their journey now was only just beginning.

     Hanso groaned and rolled over on the lumpy forest floor. Camping in the Haunted Woods was an experience he’d never quite get used to, and the faint rustling of a teammate keeping occupied while on watch did little to mask the vaguely threatening sounds further out in the forest.

     Far worse, though, was the sensation of waking up in the middle of the night and realising just where he was. He should have known that everything he’d thought he remembered was no more than an especially pleasant dream. Hero of Neopia? Faerie Queen-sanctioned treasure hunter? Please. He’d been travelling with the slapdash crew he’d dubbed the “Faerieland Rescue Squad” for months now, and he figured he’d be lucky to see the end of their quest on this side of a dungeon or a wraith cavern.

     Hanso opened his bleary eyes. The campfire had long been extinguished. There must have been enough moonlight cutting through the oppressive gloom of the Woods to let them all see without attracting too much attention from Nox or wraiths or whoever else might want a piece of them. On the other side of the fire pit’s remains, Brynn was carefully maintaining her sword as she kept watch. Her ears pricked at the sound of him getting up, and she paused in her work and turned to face him.

     At the same time, he realised that she was wearing the Faerieland armour from his dream.

     “Wha–” He pushed himself upright and lightly slapped at his cheeks to make sure he was really awake. “You mean all the faerie-saving stuff we did was real? Because it sure feels like it should have been a dream.”

     He looked wildly around the campsite. There were Rallon and Laelia, still asleep, a little ways from the fire pit. And next to his bedroll was the pack he’d prepared for the trek through the Lost Desert. Just to be thorough, he grabbed his coat from where he’d tossed it onto the pack and checked its lapel. Sure enough, there was the little gold pin that identified him as an agent of Queen Fyora.

     With another look at the surrounding trees, he suddenly scowled. “All the faerie saving stuff was real and we’re still back in the Haunted Woods?”

     Brynn chuckled softly. “It really brings you back, doesn’t it?” she half whispered, mindful of the sleeping Unis.

     Hanso sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah,” he replied, finally remembering to keep his own voice low. “One minute I could swear it’s been months since the Fall with everything that’s happened, and the next it feels like I’m still in the middle of it. It’s all kind of headache inducing.”

     Brynn sighed as well, taking a moment to cast her gaze about the small clearing they’d found for camp and the thick tangle of trees surrounding it. “I know what you mean,” she replied.

     Then she threw him a small smile. “But, we’re out of it now. Thanks to you.”

     Hanso chuckled and stretched. “As much as I appreciate the well-earned credit, don’t you mean, ‘thanks to us?’”

     Brynn’s smile dropped at that, and she looked back down at her sword with a shrug. “Not really. You’re the one who took out Xandra and broke the curse. All I did was kill a really big wraith.”

     Hanso raised an eyebrow. “Try, ‘a really, really big wraith that could talk and would have been way too powerful for the faerie barrier to deal with on its own.’”

     Brynn just frowned. “Maybe.”

     Hanso nodded to himself and stretched again. He had no idea what time it was, at least beyond “so late it’s probably technically looped back around to morning by now.” But he could also tell that it would be a while before he managed to fall back asleep, so he figured he might as well make the most of it.

     With a low grunt, he rubbed his backside and said, “I take back everything I said about riding Uniback over the Woods. My butt’s still sore after today.”

     That was enough to make Brynn smile again. Score one for him.

     “Want to take over the watch, then?” she asked, deftly wiping her sword down before removing her helmet to shake her hair out. “I could use a little more sleep.”

          Hanso pouted. “What, and deprive me of your delightful company?”

     Brynn shook her head hopelessly at him, but the smile was still tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Hanso, we’ll have plenty of time for –”

     A howl rent through the air, cutting her off. Both of them froze for just a moment, ears pricked and straining to catch a clue to the source of the sound. It wasn’t the first time they’d heard howling while in the Haunted Woods – Werhonds and worse roamed these trees, and their calls carried far through the gloom. But this was easily the closest Hanso had heard it.

     “Wake up the Unis,” Brynn whispered to him, flipping her helmet back onto her head and tossing her cleaning equipment into her pack. “I’ll grab our supplies.”

     Hanso nodded and moved to start nudging the others awake. Laelia grumbled a little as her eyes fluttered open, but stopped at his quiet but insistent shushing.

     Then another howl broke through the night, closer than before and loud enough to wake Rallon up on its own.

     “Those aren’t Werhonds,” he muttered, scrambling upright. “We need to move.”

     None of the others had to be told twice. The little party rushed to secure their supplies and take off, but the oppressive darkness of night in the Haunted Woods made it a much harder task to complete quickly. Brynn kept her sword drawn, holding it in one hand and casting glances in the direction of the approaching barks and yips that had started to accompany the howling even as she used her free hand to hitch her pack and Rallon’s saddlebags to his back.

     And then all at once, the noises stopped. Hanso, who’d been busy fumbling with the straps on Laelia’s saddle, risked a glance of his own just in time to see the first set of sickly yellow eyes emerge through the trees at the edge of the clearing.

     “Aww, leaving so soon?” asked a hulking, shaggy monstrosity of a Lupe as he stepped out into the moonlight. Hanso could hear one of his fellow Werelupes snickering behind him as he added, “We were just bringing in the welcome wagon.”

To be continued…