Okay, in the last chapter, Puck nearly led them off a cliff. xD sorry, I didn't use much detail since I was rushing. Haha, the edge was hidden by the fog and Ani tripped down it.

xD Keep commenting, I like the reviews!

Puck POV

I pulled back slightly to look at her. She was smiling cutely at me and I grinned. She was perfect. Liked trouble, had a good sense of humor, and she was kind.

Her smile twisted into a good natured smirk. "You really shouldn't have said that. I have many more tricks where that came from, and you're easy to distract."

I trailed my hand through her hair absently. "Yeah… you do seem good at distracting me." The sentence came out slightly breathlessly and I blinked. What was I doing? I sounded like a lovesick mortal cooing over their other half. I smirked. "I bet I could distract you if I actually tried." I said this with the faint underlining of a challenge and she laughed.

"I doubt it…" She looked back at the orchards. "Come on, we should get going. We should at least try to find a trod."

I reluctantly released her and followed her gaze. I looked at the orchard, I don't think either of us actually wanted to go back through them, but we had no choice. We would have to find another path to the Mortal world… and one that wasn't unreasonably dangerous. I took point and started to lead her back towards the Fogpod place. If we stumbled across any more cliffs, I would be the one to fall down it, not her. I could at least fly.

We walked for awhile in silence before I pretended to cough. "So… we need to get to Boston." I glanced back at her to make sure that she was still there. She was following a few feet behind me looking around the fog strewn forest. I continued. "To find the Key of Death… well isn't that just a sunshiny sounding name? Maybe the person who named it needed a hug."

I heard her quiet laugh behind me.

"Yeah, that's definitely what they needed."

I shrugged. "Hey, you never know. Maybe they had a bad day at work and-"

"Puck?"

"Yeah?"

"Really?"

I laughed and waved my hand dismissively. "Okay, okay. So we need to get to Boston…" After thinking a second, I cringed slightly. "I know where another trod is."

She sped up to match my pace. "Oh good. Where is it?"

"Dragonden Ally." I stared off in the direction of it and raised my fist to hide what I was thinking. "Let's go slay an ancient and powerful dragon!"

She didn't respond and I glanced back. She was standing with one foot in the air as if she froze mid step. I stopped. "Ani?"

"Let me get this straight…" She looked in the direction of our new destination. "In order to get to Boston, we have to kill a Dragon?"

I nodded and she sighed. "Why can't Grim ever give people simple tasks?"

I laughed. "Furball would most likely say "Because I am a cat." but I'll just say, because he's a pain."

"Good point." She giggled and walked over to me. "I don't think he would like you ripping off his line."

"What will he do about it?"

"Nothing, I guess." She looked around. "So we have to slay a dragon?"

I nodded. "A strong Dragon."

She put her hands on her hips and pouted- she was cute when she pouted- "Okay, well let's go then."

I led her through the woods until a shriek pierced the deafening silence. We both jerked our heads in the direction of the sound.

She gasped. "Was that…?"

I nodded. "A death cry. Come on, let's go see what it came from."

We both jogged towards the direction the we heard the cry come from. I broke through the brambles that tore at my clothes and skidded to a halt. A Dragon lie dead across the clearing. The Dragon. Ani wrenched free of some thorns and spun around. She froze.

"The Dragon."

I nodded. Something had just killed it. Something that was still here.

The figure across the clearing looked up at us. Blood splattered their grey t-shirt and camouflage cargo shorts. I squinted, she was a girl. Who was absolutely armed to the teeth. She regarded us with a look of unsurprised boredom and bent to pick up a knife, it was covered in Dragon ichor and she wiped it off on her pants. Then she jammed it back into her pocket.

Whoever she was- she was capable of killing an ancient monster without help.

I stepped between Ani and the obviously dangerous faery. "Who are you?"

She glanced at me and smirked. "That doesn't matter. All that matters is that we're going in the same direction." He then turned and started walking in the direction of the currently dead Dragon's ally.

I started. "Oi! I'm talking to you! Where are you going?!"

She continued to walk without looking back at us. "Boston, Massachusetts. Same as you, Robin." He gestured for us to follow him. "I killed the pathetic thing, so come on before another trod guardian is placed."

Ani and I exchanged glances. She lowered her voice. "Should we trust her?"

I laughed quietly. "Nah, but let's go with her anyways."

As we passed the dragon, I noticed that it was screwed up pretty bad. It looked like a gang of redcaps went after it!

I looked back at the girl that we were following. She had Fafnir hide boots and gloves that were spiked with drakon teeth, and that wasn't the worst part. She had double swords strapped to her back, a whip coiled to her left side, an overly large war axe slung to her right, and there were daggers sticking out of her boots.

Ani was pressed up against my side. "Do you think we could take her?"

I shook my head. "Let's just hope that we don't have to."

As we approached the clearing, the girl stopped and turned to us. "Alright," She regarded us both in turn. "The trod's here so I'm going, see ya around." She then turned and disappeared through a gap in the trees.

Ani started. "Wait, what?" She looked at me. "What was that all about? How did she know your name?"

I blinked. I've never seen that girl before in my life- which was actually rather surprising. "I don't know. I never met her before."

"Oh."

I looked back at the trod and grinned. "Well at least we didn't have to kill it ourselves- though that would have been fun, I don't think it would have been very quick." I looked around warily. "Well, I guess we should go, maybe we'll actually get to Boston!"

She nodded and took my hand. "We go on three."