Lena and Aero rolled out of the emerald green portal onto a soft carpet of grass. The dragon immediately found his focus back and concentrated on the portal with only one thing on his mind, change its destination. At first nothing seemed to happen. But just when Lena thought a black shape was appearing into the emerald green light the portal closed.

"Do you think it worked?" Lena asked uncertain, looking up at her friend.

"The portal is closed and no black knights are here with us so…I guess so."

Lena sighed and relaxed a bit. That's when she took in her surroundings. They were standing in a beautiful grass meadow encircled by trees. Lots and lots of trees. And in the background mountains formed a hilly skyline.

"Wow. It's beautiful."

"Of course…Don't you recognize it here?"

"What do you mean? Should I know this place?"

Aero nodded in the opposite direction of where Lena was looking to. The young girl turned around. That's when she saw it. A big tall tree high above all the other trees.

"No way. This can't be real." Lena looked amazed at her friend. She couldn't help but smile. Lena started running towards that big tree with Aero close behind her. It didn't take them long to reach it. Lena's smile got even brighter when she was close to the big three. It was standing on a small hill and under the roots was a cave big enough for Aero to go in.

"I thought that we could live here…You know…just like you and Elliot did" Aero said a bit uncertain. He didn't know what Lena thought of the idea.

Lena sensed her friend's uncertainty. She turned around smiling: "I love it." Aero relaxed. "How did you know where Elliot and I lived?"

"I got a pretty good picture from your mind and when I created the portal I just focused on that picture."

Lena nodded in understanding. She twirled around thinking about all those memories she made with Elliot here. "This place hasn't change a bit" she smiled: "Thank you Aero." She ran to her friend and put her arms as far around his neck as she could. Aero gladly received the hug. "So, we should probably go search for some food. I'm getting kinda hungry" Lena said after pulling out of the hug.

"Why don't you go look for food and I'll get a fire started" Aero suggested.

"Okay…but please be careful not to burn down our new house" Lena smirked.

The dragon grumbled at the young girl who laughed and walked into the woods. She remembered the way to the river quiet well. She and Elliot had caught fish there so many times. It had been their main source of food. Hopefully that didn't change.

Lena arrived back at the tall tree, where a fire was burning cozily, with a dozen fishes hanging on nooses by their tails over her shoulder. She was glad that she had been able to grab a backpack at home with some handy tools like rope, a pocket knife, a compass, a blanket…Stuff she could really use. The rope and pocket knife had been really helpful with her fishing. Lena settled herself down by the fire and started cleaning a thin but strong branch. With her pocket knife she scraped all the bark of the branch. Aero came out the cave and settle down next to her.

"Mmmh. Looks good."

"Here." Lena tossed the fish over to Aero but kept two for herself that she speared on the branch that was now clean and held it above the fire. Aero just ate his fish raw.

"I found moss when I was collecting wood for the fire and mad a bed with it for you."

"Thanks Aero, that's really sweet" Lena smiled at her friend, while turning her fish around: "I'll admit, it will take some time to adjust to this lifestyle again."

"You have camped out with me in forest in Storybrooke before…"

"Yeah, I know but whenever something went wrong or I was hungry I could always go home…Can't do that know, can I…"

Aero nodded in understanding.

After finishing her diner Lena decided to turn in for the night. It was already going dark and she was pretty tired. Aero followed her into the cave and laid down first. Although the dragon had made a very comfortable bed for her, Lena laid herself down against her friend. She used to sleep that way with Elliot too. In the beginning Lena was a bit scared to sleep next to the big dragon because she thought that Elliot would roll over in his sleep and end up on top of her. Turned out that it was the other way around. One morning Lena found herself awakening on top of Elliot's belly, moving up and down in sync with the dragon's breathing. Lena was pulled out her thoughts by a soft voice speaking in her head.

"Lena…"

"Yeah?"

"…Do you already miss them?"

"Yeah." Sigh.

"…Me too…"

Lena woke up with a wonderful smell of baked fish filling her nostrils. With a yawn and a lot of stretching she pushed herself into a sitting position. Walking out the cave Lena had to blink a couple times to let her eyes adjust to the bright sunlight that was slowly pushing through the trees. Aero had already caught them breakfast and had roasted Lena's fish. Happily Lena accepted her breakfast.

"So…Any ideas…what we could do…today?" Lena asked between bites. Just when Aero wanted to suggest something they heard a loud roar coming from their right.

"What the hell…"

"That sounded like…"

"I know…"

"Could it be?..."

"But I thought…" Another roar. It seemed to come from a bit more closer.

"Should we…?"

Lena stood up and jumped on Aero's back, right before his wings. "Let's go."

Aero pushed of and set course into the direction where the roars had come from.

Next chapter coming soon.