Disclaimer - I don't own the Worst Witch, just this story and the ones in my profiles.

Feedback - Useful critiques will really be appreciated. Please make them better than something repeated in numerous stories, chapter by chapter, they get boring very easily.

The Hunter Strikes.

After being up for hours the night before speaking to the Water dragon, Mildred was understandably very tired. The good news was when she'd gotten back her mum was still asleep, so she got to bed quickly without disturbing her, though truthfully she didn't get back until 1 o clock, which was at least better than 3 in the morning. Fortunately Julie was still asleep but in the early morning, however, Mildred was wide awake and thinking even if she had only had a few hours sleep under her belt.

She still found it hard to believe what she had seen during the night, in fact she had problems thinking despite the most exciting thing.

She had seen the Loch Ness Monster!

The childish part of Mildred's mind wanted to leap up with joy that she'd seen the legendary monster, but it was tempered by the knowledge that others had seen it, but seeing and speaking to an intelligent magical creature was still exciting for her. She wondered how her friends would take it, but they would probably say they'd encountered the dragon when they were kids or something.

But the excitement she felt was spoilt slightly because of what the dragon had told her about the hunter. Mildred's successes against Miss Gullet and Agatha Cackle had only come down to sheer luck. If she had had the kind of upbringing that girls like Esmerelda, Felicity, Ethel and Enid had then maybe she could stand up against an older, more experienced wizard.

But this wizard was different. He was a hunter, and he probably wouldn't care about hurting anyone who got in his way, especially a girl not even in her teens yet. The dragon hadn't touched upon what would happen to the guardian witch who was supposedly responsible for his care and protection, but Mildred had enough common sense to work out what would happen to the guardian if the hunter found her.

The guardian would probably be murdered.

And if Mildred got in his way….. Would he even care about killing a preteen girl?

Mildred felt cold just thinking about it, and she asked herself if she should interfere with the hunter's plans directly. Maybe she could be there and stop him without being seen? Could she do that, though? Could she actually deal with the hunter without been seen, what if he uncovered her hiding place and killed or injured her? He would be more experienced than her, after all, and Mildred had encountered enough adult witches and wizards to know they were more higher on the level than someone like her. The Water dragon had told her she wouldn't be alone in dealing with the hunter, and while she was pleased by that since she still wasn't ready enough to stand on her own two feet magically, she did feel a bit annoyed the dragon hadn't told her that little fact without putting pressure on her shoulders.

Another problem on her mind was her mum. Julie encouraged her a great deal, but Mildred knew that her being a witch was unnerving since there was no way Julie could understand some of the subjects. The prospectus Cackle had given her after that disastrous Selection day had managed to help her understand the basic principles of the lessons to a point - the people who'd written the prospectus had assumed the readers were magical themselves, and would know what the subjects were about.

Plus there was the issue of what had happened only a few weeks ago. Julie hadn't been impressed with her actions, how she had just disobeyed HB and gone to that cottage in the forest, losing her broom and having to deal with the real threat of Agatha and Miss Gullet at the same time - all because she had jumped to conclusions about Miss Cackle's mental state at the time. And she hadn't been too pleased when Mildred had grabbed a cleaning mop and used it as a broomstick to take her back to the academy, and stopping the two evil witches from turning students into cakes and forcing teachers into paintings. There was only so much her mother would put up with, and while her mother was open minded and casual, Mildred had learnt a long time ago never to push her too far.

A wizard hunter, someone who trapped and killed magical creatures, or simply sold them off to zoos and laboratories for cash who wouldn't give a damn about murdering witches or wizards who got in the way wouldn't let a little thing like age get in the way of a fortune, might be what finally made her mother crack, and Mildred had begun to suspect there was a rift growing between her and her mother.

It wasn't a nice feeling. What made it worse was Mildred didn't know how to fix the rift except hope for the best, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt she couldn't tell her mother about the hunter. She could tell her about the dragon, and how it lived in the loch and was magically protected by a guardian, and she could tell her mother she wanted to spend some of her time with the creature without giving too much away. But the problem was what if something happened to her, something beyond her control? Something she simply could not hide? Her mother was many things, ignorant was not among them. It would break her heart if Mildred suddenly kept secrets away from her, dangerous ones as well, and she had always told her mother about things that happened, either at school or around her.

She wasn't going to tell her lies.

Not now.

But how would her mother react?

"No, Mildred."

"Mum, I know how you feel. I don't like it anymore than you do," Mildred said in protest. "After what happened with Agatha and Miss Gullet I don't really want to deal with evil witches or wizards again. But the dragon won't leave me alone. You saw and heard what happened yesterday, and last night. It got into my head, drove me out of my mind mum. Can you imagine what it would do if I just ignored it?"

Julie glared at her daughter, her patience with magic dying slightly. She had woken up this morning in a good mood, hoping she and her daughter could spend some quality time with each other, only to hear this. When Mildred had told her she'd flown out over to the loch and met the Loch Ness monster and discovered it was a magical creature, a water dragon, she had been enthralled. It made sense to her the monster was magical, otherwise how else could it have hidden itself for so long? But hearing that a hunter, some kind of magical hunter was after the dragon, and that the same water dragon wanted to use her daughter to protect it because the person supposedly looking after it was useless was making her angry.

She didn't want her daughter to keep putting her life in jeopardy. She had been upset with Mildred when her daughter had told her about what had happened before the last term at Cackles' ended. But she had to admit that she was proud of her child for caring enough to worrying about her headmistress, but she cursed Ada Cackle for not putting Mildred's mind at ease. Still she was proud that she had been reinstated at the school, though deep down she wondered if Cackle's academy was really right for her.

Mildred had often told her how…strange the school was, how little she truly knew about the lessons and everything about magic. It was akin to moving to another country and learning that everything you'd known before was little help. Julie was tempted, really tempted, to write Cackle's a letter telling them to give Mildred some help out of concern for her daughter.

But hearing that a dragon wanted Mildred to help it was more than Julie could stand. Mildred had told her some of what the hunter might do, though her lack of knowledge of what they could do was showing. That worried Julie, who could read between the lines and see that Mildred genuinely did not have a clue about what could happen if she went on a fool's quest to help the dragon.

Julie wanted to meet the creature for herself, partly out of fascination and partly to find out if putting her daughter's life in danger was really necessary, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer. Plus how did she know the dragon would speak to her, with all the protections around it and the loch, how did she know the protections that were around Cackle's which prevented normal people like her from seeing the school weren't similar to the ones around Loch Ness?

Julie sighed. "Mildred, it was awful when I left you back at the flat and then returned to find you were gone again," she whispered. "I can't stand the thought of you risking your life, only for something to kill you!"

Mildred swallowed. Julie was pleased the same thought had entered her daughter's mind, she didn't let it show though. Maybe what had happened with Agatha and that evil teacher of hers had done some good after all.

"Did the dragon tell you anything about when this hunter might make his move?"

Mildred shook her head. "No."

Okay, so she knew it was dangerous.

While Julie stewed, Mildred said her piece. "Mum, I didn't want this to happen anymore than you did. I wanted to spend my time with you seeing the sights like we normally do on holiday. I didn't know the Loch Ness monster would latch onto me to help protect it because its real guardian is neglectful and so stupid to go off on her own. I'm as annoyed as you are, because it doesn't just ruin my holiday but it ruins yours as well."

Mildred had to hide her cringe when she saw the look on her mum's face. Julie sighed, got up and walked away. Watching her go Mildred felt truly guilty, because now she saw there was a gap widening between them and their solid relationship. Her emotions got to her and she kicked the table in frustration, a move completely unlike her.

Cursing the dragon for this new mess, Mildred stood up and gently went to look for her mother. She found Julie in the kitchen, unnecessarily cleaning the tops of the units, with equally unnecessary force. Mildred walked up behind her, and wrapped her arms around her slowly and cautiously in case her mother was so angry she didn't want to be touched by her just yet. Julie stiffened noticeably, but she didn't push Mildred away.

"I'm sorry," Mildred said, wishing she could say something more meaningful to her mother. "I didn't want this anymore than you did. But there's still a chance the hunter won't actually go after the dragon, not if he thinks the protective net which covers the loch will be too much of a problem. And there's a chance the stupid cow who's supposed to be doing this sort of thing anyway, but I don't know how to contact the magical authorities and warn them about the hunter."

Julie turned around and wrapped her arms around Mildred's neck, forcing the girl to rest her chin over her mother's shoulder. "I didn't want to fight with another witch or wizard who have god knows how many years of experience over me," she whispered. "I learnt my lesson after what happened. I was stupid, reckless, and I endangered myself when I went off like that."

Mildred wasn't just saying all this to placate her mother, and Julie knew it. Ever since she had been cornered by Miss Gullet and Agatha in the woods, Mildred had realised how reckless she could be, and she didn't like it one little bit. She had decided she'd take her time in case Agatha did find a way out of the picture the Great Wizard had sealed her inside and tried to regain her powers and plan another scheme to take the school away from Ada, though whether she'd bother after the girls had voted to stick with Ada when they'd found out what Agatha and Gullet had been doing behind their backs to those who crossed them was something even Mildred couldn't answer, but she wasn't going to expect Agatha had changed her mind about wanting the academy. She wasn't the type to give up.

Julie didn't say anything. She didn't need to - the silence was screaming her agreement only too well for Mildred's mind. Finally she pulled away until their faces were so close together their noses almost touched, but were separated by an inch. "Do you remember when you persuaded me to let you go to Cackles?"

Mildred's crow crinkled in surprise at the question. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Julie nodded in approval, and carried on. She'd been meaning to say this to her daughter for a long time. "When I heard it was a boarding school I was worried, mostly because boarding schools mean you'd be spending more time there than with me, but also because it was a magical school. When you told me about everything that went on, I was disappointed - not with you - but disappointed in the teachers like Cackle and Hardbrush-"

"Hardbroom," Mildred corrected with a smirk. Her mother knew full well what HB's name was, she just chose to forget it from time to time for reasons known only to her. It had become sort of a joke between them.

"Whatever, I was disappointed they hadn't taken the time to tell you more about magic and everything that surrounded it. You should be shown spells and potions in private tuition lessons, so then you won't fail your tests."

Mildred nodded gravely. When the dragon had told her about how spells really worked, Mildred had realised that it was such a simpler idea to think up a spell based on your own imagination, though there would be a foundation of spells you couldn't really make up, but adjust on your own. But now Mildred was hoping that with the new piece of knowledge that she had not been told, though she was displeased none of her friends and teachers had bothered to tell or teach her how to do it she was now excited because it would allow her imagination to surge up for the first time.

One thing she was proud of was when she'd gotten everyone at the school chanting that counter spell that reversed Agatha's annihilation spell and the other acts she and Gullet had cast over the school.

"Hopefully things will change in the coming term," Mildred said hopefully.

"Now, young witch," the dragon said gravely, its voice sounding as timeless at it was, like the creature had seen so many things over the centuries and would probably live to see more. "I shall help you develop the confidence to master magic."

Standing in the underground cavern again close to the underground pool, Mildred went very still, though she couldn't help but wonder how the dragon intended to do this. She watched in amazement as the dragon closed its eyes and the water flowing around and over its sinuous and sleek body like a million roller coaster rides going over the same tracks over and over again, glowing with magic as it went.

And then the dragon breathed on Mildred.

For a second the girl was frightened the dragon meant to immolate her as dragons out of legend and in film did, but the only thing to leave the dragon's mouth was steam, and even some of the water moulding the dragon's body transformed into steam that left its body and joined the spurting steam leaving the dragon's mouth and nostrils.

The steam enveloped Mildred. It was hot, and at first Mildred instinctively stepped back but then the steam washed over her like she was in a shower cubicle. Overwhelmed she closed her eyes as the magic washed over her. Yes, it was magic! She could feel her brain fill with magical concepts and ideas and theories that were so incredibly old they'd been lost to time. Unbidden she watched as a tall man with long brown hair wearing tatty robes holding a magnificent sword that seemed to glow with power as he drew the sword out of a beautiful lake. It would have been placid if it hadn't been glowing and bubbling like a freshly brewed potion.

In her mind Mildred watched as the man learnt the sciences behind magic and potions making, and as the man learnt them so did she. She saw the man learn how to cast spells and learn the arts of the enchantments, sometimes he read them in old books and scrolls which looked so old they were virtually falling apart even as the man delicately handled them in his own hands, and she witnessed as he spent years and years studying magic and all the while he barely aged a minute. But while the man was certainly skilled and powerful, there were many things he couldn't do. And that surprised Mildred; she'd had the impression this man was powerful, and he was in many fields.

And then he changed.

He stopped using magic as the scrolls and books determined it should be done, and found a way to re-invent magic until it resembled the magic Mildred herself was using at Cackles. It was the magic she was using at Cackles!

The image changed, this time showing a woman wearing a dress which was equally tattered as the man's own clothes, though there was something about her bearing which made the raggedy state of her clothes seem irrelevant. She was a beautiful and breathtaking woman, or would have been if there wasn't a permanently etched expression of hunger, greed, and weirdly enough innocence mixed in with the madness that was just about hidden from view, but appeared from nowhere with no warning.

She seemed familiar to Mildred somehow, but the girl could barely place where she'd seen the woman before. Instead she was content to just watch as the woman, like the man before her, practiced magic. But unlike the man who was more successful when it came to studying from books, the woman could barely seem to manage it.

Finally, she gave up, and decided to study magic the way she herself determined though truthfully the first thing she did was spy on the man which wasn't really difficult, she just needed to be a bit creative in the way she did it, but she managed it despite the man hiding his secrets so determinedly.

After seeing his technique and how he seemed to make spells up, the woman tried her own hand at it and her powers grew by leaps and bounds, but her actual talent was in potions and she pushed the boundaries of potions knowledge to the brink.

Whispers of their techniques passed into Mildred's mind, and she felt her brain swell with the knowledge of what she was learning. Mildred wasn't stupid as people often thought she was, nor was she simple. But she didn't believe that complicated solutions were always right - she always believed that the simpler the option, the better since it would easier to clean up afterwards.

As her brain tried to process what was coming into her mind, she knew she would need to spend time to herself, if she could get it, and learn what she could, it might take years but eventually she'd get there in the end.

Anyway, she also learnt something about the two sorcerers that the dragon had shown her.

They were Merlin and Morgana. Having their knowledge in her head made Mildred unsure of how she should be reacting, she had just absorbed their knowledge like a sponge because a dragon had passed it on. How had it managed to get all this knowledge anyway? Oh right, magic.

Silly her.

Well, actually the dragon wasn't giving her the knowledge of spells they had used, instead it simply gave her the theories behind their methods rather than simply fill her brain with spell upon spell. But that would change in a moment or two.

Both of them had developed their own ideas for how magic should be manipulated and moulded to their wills; Merlin used words strung together to form incantations for his spells, so he had developed a really great knowledge of vocabulary. In contrast Morgana's method was simply to force magic to do what she wanted it to do with gestures and mental control. So, if she'd wanted to lit a room, all she would need to do would be to walk up to a candle, a lantern or a wall sconce, whatever, and wave her hand over it, initiating the size of the flame and think and will up a flame to light the room.

Despite being enemies (lovers and occasionally friends - like Mildred wanted to know that!), Merlin and Morgana did respect one another and occasionally they learnt much from each other despite their fights. Both of them exchanged information, though their method was simply one of them accidentally revealing something without meaning to, and letting the other work it out for themselves.

In time Merlin began using magic the way Morgana herself did, and vice versa in order to balance each other out, and with that their conflict just grew and grew.

But unlike King Arthur who viewed the woman like she was a monster, Merlin and Morgana actually viewed their conflict differently, sort of like a game of poker mixed with chess or battleships.

At the end of the conflict when King Arthur was dead, Morgana and Merlin themselves perished. But their magical secrets lived on. Morgana, surprisingly, was the first of the duo to begin training apprentices, but she had stopped fairly quickly before regaining her passion for teaching others what she had learnt about magic. They had chosen many apprentices over the years, and while the two were cautious about what they taught though they had decided to teach their apprentices pieces of their knowledge. Several apprentices taught by Morgana learnt varying levels of potions, others would have learnt enchanting, again at various levels.

Morgana was paranoid that if she taught her apprentices ALL her knowledge, they would become greater than her, so in an act of selfishness geared by jealousy, the great witch had limited the amount of knowledge each of her apprentices learnt. But there was a more practical reason to go with that one - Morgana had been training an apprentice, a young boy, and she had been more naive back then. She had taught him more than she would teach any of her future apprentices, and indeed it would be many years before she actually felt safe to train another in the arts of magic which she and Merlin had pioneered in different directions.

She had been forced to fight off this former apprentice when he misused the knowledge Morgana had taught him by becoming an evil sorcerer determined to cause even more chaos than Morgana herself had caused. She was forced to kill him in a long, drawn out duel. The fight was so nasty she had been forced to beg Merlin for help.

Okay, despite the rather unsightly gaps in each apprentices knowledge, they knew enough to really shape the future of magical society. And they did in different fields. And they worked well with the apprentices trained by Merlin.

Merlin had always been focused on exploring his knowledge like Morgana had, but unlike her he didn't have the foresight to train and to teach others until much later. But when he did he did much like Morgana had done; taught students a specific amount before letting them go off on their own. After learning for herself what had happened with one of Morgana's first apprentices, Mildred was unsurprised by the wizard's cautious approach, and in fact she wouldn't be surprised if that had been the primary reason for why it had taken him so long in the first place to actually get started.

After the two legendary sorcerers had passed on, died, said their last goodbyes, the former apprentices of Merlin and Morgana Le Fey had eventually met and joined forces to help the magical world grow. For centuries magic had been a subject of learning, but with Morgana and Merlin's influential work they changed it all.

But they had kept their secrets, and now Mildred Hubble, the Worst Witch of Cackle's academy and the first witch from a non witchy family, was rediscovering them for herself.

The dragon had been breathing steam at her for a long while, but because Mildred had been so lost in her mind and her thoughts with the influx of magical knowledge her brain had just received she found it hard to tell how long she'd been standing there, but she came to herself as the steam dissipated when the dragon stopped.

Mildred took a deep breath and blinked rapidly up at the dragon, who was looking down on her in amusement before it sank beneath the surface of the underground pool.

"How did you find out all that about Merlin and Morgana?" Mildred asked breathlessly, rubbing her eyes as if trying to massage a headache out of her skull.

The dragon lifted its head, and the water around its head moved around and joined the pool water as though the water itself was a glass sculpture.

"We magical creatures know many things about witches and wizards, and contrary to the people of magical Britain each country has its own versions of Merlin and Morgana; a powerful witch or wizard who grow into their own, and develops magic to a different level than what's known and traditionally accepted.

"I wanted to prove to you that even the greats struggled with tradition and they ushered in a new golden age of magical understanding, whether the traditionalists liked it or not."

Mildred blinked again. "You mean I'm going to change magical society?"

The dragon's lipless mouth showed the creatures' sharp pointed teeth in a smile, but it came off as sinister and predatory. "You might do. Haven't you already created…controversy over the fact you're a witch from a family which has never practiced magic? You were instrumental in rescuing the Great Wizard himself by creating that counter spell. You won that competition for your school, did you not?"

Mildred frowned a little at that one, still remembering the scholarship offer but she said nothing.

"I think Pippa Pentangle would have been fair minded, Mildred," the dragon said, once again proving to have as little tact as possible.

Mildred growled under her breath. "Do you have to rummage around through my brain?" she demanded.

She didn't mean to be rude, but she was so sick and tired of the dragon rummaging around in her mind instead of simply asking her what the problem was verbally, that way she could have given him a decent excuse about it being nothing at all. Instead the dragon just peeked into her mind like privacy was a concept beyond its comprehension.

But what had Mildred worried the most was the fact the dragon had been, from what she'd learnt just now, around for thousands of centuries. That implied it had spent most of those years alone. Was that what happened with immortal or near immortal beings, they lost sight of simple concepts like privacy?

The dragon blinked in surprise then it bowed its head. "Ah, forgive me. It is just your mind is so easy to read that I lose sight of the social niceties."

Mildred nodded, forgiving the dragon this time and deftly changed the subject. "Did you ever meet Merlin or Morgana?" she asked.

"No, I never had that honour, but I have met dozens of other powerful wizards over the years. But Morgana and Merlin shaped the history this country in ways so many have forgotten. Without their knowledge and their ingenuity, the Craft wouldn't be where it is now," the dragon replied, moving past the earlier rebuke smoothly.

Mildred scrunched up her face thoughtfully, and nodded. "Yeah, I can see that," she said, "how can I change the magical world? Does that have to do with Morgana and Merlin?"

The dragon's answer was typically cryptic. "It could be, Miss Hubble."

Sitting on top of a rock by the shoreline, Mildred was smiling as she drew the dragon on a massive sketchpad - she planned to use her watercolour paints to truly bring the picture out, but for now she just wanted to enjoy the scene - while keeping her mind off the colossal task the dragon had set down for her. Indeed it was dangerous for the dragon to be exposed like this, but she'd needed the moonlight to truly pick out the dragon's shape and form, and the dragon itself had been reluctant to expose itself.

But while there'd been no sign of the wizard hunter who wanted the water dragon for god knew what reason, Mildred didn't want the dragon to live in fear, and besides while there were good advantages to just hiding there was also the chance the hunter would find the dragon no matter where it hid itself.

Mildred was getting into her stride when the dragon distracted her from her work. "Mildred, I would like to leave and return to my cave now," the dragon said. "I'm too exposed."

"I know. But you can't live in fear forever," Mildred replied.

She had a plan. Yeah, the Worst Witch had a plan, but she wasn't sure if she could make it work. The plan was straightforward enough, expose the dragon in a large enough area, and then hide itself and travel around the lake before moving out of the loch itself and into the open sea where it could spend as long as it wanted away from the loch, to freedom and would be able to travel to any lake in the world it wanted to go to before it decided to return to Loch Ness, if it ever did. Mildred hadn't told the dragon yet because she'd wanted it close to the surface, swimming around for a short period before she explained what she wanted it to do. She hadn't told the dragon anything yet because honestly, she had just thought the plan up.

Mildred knew it was careless of her, but she was still unsure if she could take on a fully trained wizard. She had experimented a little with the knowledge the water dragon had passed onto her about Morgana and Merlin. Completely out of sight of her mother, that is. Mildred sighed a little in sadness as she thought about her mum. She and her mother had always shared a bond, and she resented her life as a witch getting in the way of that bond.

But while she'd managed to make some headway and made spells which actually worked, Mildred had to admit that her spell knowledge wasn't that good or high yet, that was why she was reluctant to even take on an adult wizard. Mildred knew her limits, and she knew that unless she continued to practice she'd never be able to handle a magical fight. Her mind went back to that mess where Agatha had managed to take over the school and put her own sister into that painting, Miss Hardbroom had hoped she'd be able to get Ada out of the portrait because she hadn't been in the school when Miss Gullet had cast that detection spell over the place, but it hadn't worked. Mildred had thought she'd gotten the spell wrong, but Miss Hardbroom said that a witch's power's grew over time.

Pushing those thoughts aside Mildred beckoned the dragon over to the shoreline. Mildred waited until the dragon's glowing form reached the beach before she opened her mouth to tell the creature what she had in mind -

The transportation spell was something Mildred had felt several times over the past year, and she disliked it. She didn't like having no control over where she ended up, hence the reason she planned to study the transportation spell and find a way to stop it working on her again unless she wanted it to.

Mildred blinked when the haze that came with forced magical transportation faded away, and when she did she wasn't sure if that was a good thing. Her eyes widened in horror when she realised she was in the same cave as the diamond, where that was that looked like a red magical cage lit over it, but her eyes caught sight of the dragon. The creature's magical glow, the water which moulded itself over its body to sculpt new forms…. were gone leaving behind a large black shape. The dragon was virtually unconscious.

"No," Mildred whispered and ran down to the dragon's head, she reached out a hand and stroked its scales. "I'm so sorry, this is all my stupid fault."

The feeling of the girl's hand and the sound of her voice was enough to rouse the dragon. It's eyes flickered open, and focused on her, but it was like a sleepy person just waking up after getting only a few hours sleep.

"Mildred?" Mildred frowned in worry and concern at the sound of the dragon's voice; it was no longer clear, deep and resonant, now it sounded like a drunken slurring drawl.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault."

"No, young witch," the dragon seemed to be using all its energy to just get the words out. "It would have happened sooner-"

"But I'd wanted you to show off a little bit before getting out into the open sea away from here," Mildred interrupted harshly, angry at herself and with the dragon for lying there telling her it wasn't her fault when she knew it was. It had no right to tell her none of this was her fault. The blame lay with her, the hunter, and the idiot guardian.

"You could have moved off to a different lake, away from here and safe," Mildred finished.

The dragon seemed to chuckle. "Would that have helped?" It asked rhetorically. "If there is one hunter, there are bound to be more, just like there are bound to be dozens of humans in both worlds like Adolf Hitler, or Agatha Cackle."

Mildred said nothing because it was true. She had never really liked it when her own species created monsters that seemed only to cause more death and destruction. Why, what was the point? The dragon was right about there being more than one hunter out there, and the thought that she would be responsible for the dragon being hunted no matter where it went made her sick.

"Your dragon is right," another voice said, "there are others of us. But I'm not going to let another like me take my prize."

Mildred's head shot up and she caught sight of the figure gazing down at her with a mocking smile. She didn't need to ask him who he was, she knew.

The wizard hunter had caught them both.

Author's note - I am so sorry for the long wait, but I hope this chapter will be worth it. I also hope to finish Two Religions soon, but at the moment I'm busy with two other projects, but I haven't abandoned this story or Two Religions.

Ciao.