Apparently, the chimera with silver children that the head knightless suit had been talking about wasn't very far away, as they were soon there. Donkey studied their location from his perch atop his lady friend.

They were floating in the air above what looked like a stream of rocks. It wasn't that there was a bunch of rocks jutting out of water—it was just that there were no plants in sight, other than a soft bed of dry leaves and grass that were surrounded on three sides by big boulders.

This was, of course, the chimera's nest. Three silver land-fish tumbled in a playful brawl, and a lone young one looked out curiously at the countless rocks, as if wondering if the scenery would suddenly change.

A small true stream of water floated almost impossibly through a section of the rocks merely a few feet away from the back of the middle boulder.

"So, uh, could you go down there and ask her if we could borrow one?"

"No," Dalia replied surely. "One has to become a chimera's very good friend when they do not have babies to be able to come even remotely near one of the children with permission."

Frowning, Donkey noticed the chimera let out a hearty roar and lead her children out of their protective cave after looking cautiously around first. She took them to the stream behind their nest, nudging them with a velvety nose. They plopped into the water, making startled exclamations of joy. Then they disappeared under the water and played a game of tag.

Donkey whispered, as if afraid the mother chimera would hear him. "Now's our chance! If we can catch one in the water far away from the stream, we can snatch it and fly outta here!"

Dalia craned her neck back to give him a dubious glance, but she shrugged and flew carefully on down the stream, landing behind and several yards to the right of the mother chimera.

Silence was the key, and Donkey slowly headed towards the water, knowing that if Dalia tried to get one of the little ones they would most likely be caught in the action due to her, uh, height.

The lone one from earlier was further down the stream, having a lot of fun all by herself.

She gurgled, spitting water into the air and joyfully running under it.

Looking and feeling like a thief, Donkey crept up to the water and began to snatch the unsuspecting youngster before he realized that he had a problem.

Wide-eyed, he twisted his neck back and whispered rather loudly to his partner-in-crime, "I don't got any hands!"

Big mistake.

With a roar that could have been heard for miles away and was doubtless making the suits of armor snicker, the mother chimera charged at Donkey, spitting out balls of fire.

Donkey shrieked and rushed over to Dalia as fast as his short legs would allow him, the strange beast hot on his trail.

The dragon picked him up and placed him quickly on her back, rising into the air and narrowly avoiding being scorched by the very angry chimera.

They finally got out of the mother's range, and Donkey wheezed, "I sure am glad we lost her!"

Something compelled him to look around at his tail, and his eyes widened when he saw a silver land-fish clamped onto it.

"We got one!" he exclaimed.

The baby chimera released his tail, nearly falling off, but Donkey grabbed her by her tail just in time. Upside down, she whimpered, "Keymee."

"Huh?"

"It means 'mother' in Chimera," Dalia told him, flying toward the castle.

"Aww, don't worry about your mama. Papa Donkey'll take good care of you!"

"Deekah?"

"Yeah, dat's right, I'm ya Deekah!"

The child chomped onto Donkey's tail. Hard.

"Yowch!" the pack animal yelled, glaring at the land-fish. "Now, what'd ya go and do that for?!"

Chuckling warmly, the dragon told him, "That means 'food' in Chimera."

"Well, why didn't ya say so in the first place? Geeze, here I am thinkin' the cute little guy thinks I'm his father—"

"It's a girl."

"Well, then, she thought I was—"

"Plub," the cub garbled.

"Now what's it saying?"

"She's getting airsick," Dalia told him, heading for clear land.

"Don't set down now!" Donkey whined. "The castle's just over there! It'll just take a moment to—"

"Would you rather she puked all over you?"

Donkey considered that. "Well, no, not really—"

"Then pipe down!" the dragon snapped.

"Geesh. A guy just wants to get his house built, and what does he get? Snappy replies," Donkey mumbled.

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I just hate taking her from her mother. I know I would hate to have my children taken from me."

"We're gonna bring her ba—"

"Yes, but I would still be worried sick in the meantime!"

"Chim. Mee. Kara. Kuna. Kung!"

"Uh, is it doing some kind of chant or somethin'?"

"Kung!" the cub squirmed out of Donkey's mouth and leapt out into the air, falling toward the ground and spinning like mad.

The sun caught her silver scales, which sparkled in the soft light.

But Donkey didn't care about how pretty things were—all he knew was that the baby had fallen, and he was going after it.

Not thinking about it twice, he jumped off of his vehicle's back.