A/N: And after that huge long one, here's a short one for you. Please, let me know if anything needs to be italicized, or I miss some of those darned ellipses that ffn doesn't like. Thanks! --RR

The next morning, the group all piled either on Sunfire or Mooncry's back and started the journey back. As they flew hour by hour, they suddenly realized just how many miles they had traveled. But, after a few hours of flying, they arrived at the outskirts of the forest surrounding the village. They landed far enough away from the village to not be seen, and as they walked they planned.
"So what exactly are we supposed to do?" Qwen asked as they walked.
Zara was walking in between Sunfire and Andy, his arm around her waist. He had ridden behind her on Sunfire the whole journey meaning that he had to put his arms around her waist the whole trip, and her heart was flying higher than Sunfire had carried them.
"Well, you're supposed to take over the rule of your people, which means the village you came from," Mooncry said.
"My parents' village," Zara said softly. No one said anything for a few moments.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Bowen asked finally.
"It isn't specified, but there is talk of an evil power that you must conquer," Eastflame said.
"Sir Eryk," all the humans said at once.
"Hey, is anyone else tired?" Kara asked. Everyone was tired and they decided to rest for a while. They all sat down on something (Zara and Qwen on their dragons, with Andy and Josh with them, of course) and proceeded to plan out the charge.
"We'll need to train the villagers," Bowen said. Zara nodded.
"You, Kara, and Brother Gilbert will go into town tomorrow and start to train the villagers."
"What about you and Qwen?" Gilbert asked.
"We can't show our faces because of that little scene of magic back at the bar," Zara stated. Then she looked down at her lap. "Besides, there're probably posters of me everywhere."
"And them too!" Qwen cried. "Your parents are probably so mad that they must have posters of all of us up!"
Zara's head flew up. "That's right! How could I have overlooked that?" She shook her head. "What are we going to do now?"
"Um, excuse me?" Westwail asked, coming up. Zara fondly looked down on him, smiling softly. Westwail and Eastflame were quickly becoming some of Zara's best friends. They were so shy and quiet it was cute.
"Eastflame and I may be able to help," he said.
"How?" Josh asked. Andy and Josh still were upset that their dragons were so small, but they had started to tolerate them.
"Well," Eastflame said, hopping off of where he was sitting in Zara's lap and using his wings to let him land softly on the ground by Westwail, "we have magic," he said simply.
"And?" Qwen asked. She was still unimpressed by the little dragons.
"They have magic and we don't," Mooncry said. Everyone stared at him. "That's why they're so small; they don't need to be big to fight. They've got magic."
Zara narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean, magic?" she asked.
Eastflame flew over to Bowen, seemed to regard him for a second, then clapped his two front paws together. Orange smoke popped up and clouded over Bowen's head for a few seconds before it cleared and left—someone.
"Bowen? Bowen, is that you?" Kara asked, in shock.
The man had black hair, shiny as coals, and his eyes glowed hazel. His face was different too, younger, more rugged. The man shrugged. "What?" Even his voice was different, the slightest bit lighter and a little edgier.
"That is you, isn't it, Bowen?" Brother Gilbert asked, coming up a little closer.
The man nodded. "Yeah, it's me. What's the matter with you people?" Bowen asked.
Then Eastflame produced a small pond on the ground. Bowen looked at us all like we were crazy before he leaned down to look at himself in the water. He took once glance, shrieked, and backed away.
"That's not me!" he cried.
Eastflame nodded. "Of course not. I've altered your features. Now no one will recognize you."
Eastflame and Westwail proceeded to do this for all of the people present. Kara got blonde hair and chestnut brown eyes. Her voice went up a few notches, as well. Brother Gilbert became a little bit younger, got a lot of red hair and freckles, and blue eyes. His voice went down a little.
"Amazing!" he cried when he saw himself.
Eastflame and Westwail went to work on Andy and Josh. Andy came out having black hair and the deepest blue eyes that Zara had ever seen. He looked totally different, even though it wasn't much of a change. His voice also went down a little, but not so much that it seemed odd for a fourteen-year-old. And something was added to his voice—an English accent.
Andy seemed to have caught Zara's look after he had examined himself in the mirror pool and smiled at her. He stepped up to her and slid his arms around her waist.
"I don't look that bad, now do I?" he asked with a sly grin on his face.
All Zara could do was stare. He looked completely different—but a good different. No, a great different. Andy reached up and closed Zara's jaw that she hadn't noticed drop open.
Now as Andy's hand traveled to play in the hair around Zara's shoulders, Zara's lips spread into a smile and she put her hands on his shoulder to help steady her as she went up on her toes to kiss him. Their lips pressed together tenderly and he held her tight to his form.
"Aw, isn't that romantic?" Qwen said sarcastically. Zara and Andy broke the kiss, and Zara felt her face flush. She made a small movement to step away from him, but he just held her tighter to him.
"Shut up, Qwen," Andy said, an annoyed look on his face.
Qwen smirked. "Embarrassed?"
"No," Andy replied, getting angry. "Annoyed."
Zara sensed the oncoming quarrel and looked over at Qwen. "Why don't you go and see what Eastflame is doing to Josh?" she said. Qwen looked at her and Zara raised her eyebrows, trying to say "Do it now if you don't want to start a fight with Andy!" Qwen seemed to have gotten the message and she walked away.
Whew, Zara thought to herself. That was close. Now to get back to what I was doing. . .
Zara put her hands on Andy's face and directed it to look directly into hers. "I believe we were busy?" she asked with an eyebrow raised.
He smiled and they leaned up to kiss again.

Qwen walked away from the two lovesick puppies with a stinging heart. She wasn't sure what got her madder: Zara sending her away, Zara and Andy being so darn lovey-dovey, or the fact that she and Josh hadn't gotten so lovey-dovey, or even lovey at all.
She approached Eastflame and Josh, just as the orange smoke was clearing from Josh's face. Her jaw dropped when she saw him.
All the way from reddish brown hair to the cutest black eyes, Josh was hot.
"What do you think?" Josh asked. Qwen felt her heart jump. A Scottish accent!
She tried to keep her composure. "Um, good. You could hardly tell you were. . .you."
Josh went to examine himself. He came back smiling. "You're right!" He stepped up somewhat close to Qwen and Qwen found her heart beating so fast that she was afraid it would beat itself right of her chest.
Josh appeared to grow rather nervous. He coughed a little, then kicked his foot around in the dirt. Qwen looked at him like he was going nuts, because she thought he was. Then he squeezed his eyes shut tight and said in a rush, "I like you."
Although he said it so fast that it sounded like "I lick you."
Qwen's eyes grew wide and she stared at him, getting ready to slug him. "You what?!" she demanded.
"I—I like you," he stammered out, this time slower, slow enough for Qwen to realize that he wasn't saying "lick."
She stared at him now. "You do?" He nodded. "I, um, I like you too."
Josh looked up at her, smiling brightly. "You do?"
She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I do." An awkward moment passed between them. Josh started to say something, but Brother Gilbert cut him off.
"What about Zara and Qwen then?" he asked. "Shouldn't they also be disguised?"
Eastflame shook his orange head. "My magic cannot touch them," he said sadly.
Bowen stepped forward. "Hey! Hey you two!" He was yelling at Zara and Andy, who were still kissing. He snapped his fingers by their faces and they stopped kissing to look at him.
"Yes?" Zara asked.
Bowen shook his head and smiled. "It would be nice if you paid attention. I mean, we are planning your invasion." He tried to sound annoyed and angry, but his dancing eyes gave him away.
Zara smiled and they moved apart a little, Andy only keeping one arm around her waist.
Qwen sighed and rolled her eyes. They were really starting to annoy her.
Suddenly, from out of the woods sprang this woman. Her hair and eyes were wild. She had leaves and twigs stuck all over her head, and her face and arms were smudged with dirt. Everyone backed away from her, seeing that she was crazed.
"Who is that?" Zara asked. No one knew who she was, but Qwen recognized her.
"Hello, Linda," she said.
Linda turned her mad eyes on Qwen, then they fell on Zara. She pointed a shaky finger at the two of them and started to yell, "Black magic! Devil's spawn! Sir Eryk will destroy you!"
Now everyone was paying attention. "What about Sir Eryk?" Bowen asked softly, trying not to startle her.
Linda turned to him, and when she didn't recognize him she smirked. "He's getting magic power. It's the Queen's and he's going to be able to defeat the princesses." She looked back over at Zara and Qwen and spat at them "Witches! Evil! You will die!"
Bowen tried again to talk to her. "Are they going to kill the princesses?" he asked.
Linda smiled again and nodded. "They must be destroyed, daughter of mine or no daughter of mine!" She cackled and looked back at Bowen. "King said so. They're going to die."
Bowen nodded and looked over at everyone. "Well, that was helpful."
She pointed at the Princesses again. "Devil's Spawn! Witches! Evil runs through you!" she cried.
"Um, no," Sunfire said haughtily. "They're good, unlike you."
Eastflame and Westwail snorted, flame coming out of their nostrils as they did so. But Linda did not shut up; she continued to call the Princesses witches and such.
"The Devil runs through you! You will be punished!"
Mooncry rolled his eyes. "Oh, do shut up," he said, annoyed.
"Witches! Evil, black magic witches! Devil's spaw—" Linda started to say, but Mooncry bent down and clamped his jaws down on the mad woman. He lifted his head up, tossed her up in the air a bit, and then caught her again in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed.
"That was disgusting," Qwen said. "But cool."
"At least now we know what we're up against," Bowen said.
"Yeah, I feel so much better now that Linda has told us that, and is now being digested," Kara snorted with a roll of her eyes.
Andy leveled his eyes with Kara's. "Me too," he said seriously.
Everyone burst out laughing, then eventually slowly stopped because a small feeling of guilt crept in at the sides of their minds. Mean and crazy or no, Linda was a person. A bad person, but still.
They continued to prepare to go out to the city. Zara and Qwen walked with them until Bowen had to stop them.
"Don't want to go too close that someone will see you," he warned.

Zara nodded, her thoughts elsewhere.
Andy held her chin and tilted it so that she looked up at him. "Are you okay?"
Zara smiled and nodded, since he had let go of her chin. "I'm fine."
He smiled. "No you're not."
"Yes, I am," she argued back.
"I know when you're lying. I can read your mind. I know you better than you do," he said. "Now tell me what's wrong."
Zara shook her head. "No."
He grabbed her gently around the waist and leaned down to give her the softest, most full of love kiss that she had ever felt before. It was so incredible that she couldn't even react. When it was done he stepped back.
"Tell me."
Zara whined softly. "That wasn't fair," she pouted. Andy raised an eyebrow and Zara sighed. "I'm worried that someone will find out it's you and—and—you won't come back."
Andy smiled. "Of course I'll come back!" Then he added, in a more serious tone, "I promise you I'll come back."
Zara looked up to meet his eyes and she nodded. "Just don't break that promise, okay?"
He smiled and leaned down to kiss her again, only this time it was a consoling and good-bye kiss instead of one full of love. As he smiled over his shoulder and walked away with the others, Zara wondered if it was their last.