The two continued flying over the MudWings swamps for some time, until they finally reached their destination, north of the MudWing Palace.

"There!" Torrent said, pointing a claw at the ground below. There was a large clearing in the woods, where a series of abodes stood, centered around a strange stone tower, intricately carved. A couple of MudWings could be seen walking around from above; Torrent hoped that they wouldn't notice him or Griffin flying.

The village looked like the right place. Although the map didn't show Torrent's location, he thought that this should be around where the blotch representing the animus was. The large tower also looked highly suspect; a mysterious tower seemed like someplace a magical animus would live.

Griffin glanced at Torrent skeptically, but followed him as the SeaWing dove towards the ground. "So, what's your plan on dealing with this dragon? Are you just going to barge in there and give them a heads up, like, 'just letting you know but I know you've got magical powers and I've got a magical dagger thingy, so don't do anything bad?'"

Torrent thought for a moment. "Mallard said that apparently there have been dragons going missing around here, so I don't know if the animus will be that friendly. You don't have any anti-magical things unless you're touching my dagger, so you should be cautious."

Griffin snorted. "Yeah, no way am I going near that death weapon; I can guess what happens to me if I'm disenchanted. Guess I'll just have to fend for myself."

A grin crossed over Torrent's snout. Torrent had grown a lot since Griffin's creation, and at this point, Griffin reached barely above Torrent's underbelly. If he was in a fight with a full-grown dragon, he would undoubtedly be outmatched.

"What?" Griffin squawked, noticing Torrent's grin. "You think I can't fight off anything that comes my way?" He puffed out the feathers on his neck and raise his head up. "I'll just peck out their eyes or something!"

"Sure didn't seem like that when River caught you," Torrent replied, without thinking. Torrent instantly regretted what he'd said. What if that was a sore spot for Griffin? Torrent really didn't want to even think about what Orca had done to their sister. The SeaWing shivered as he remembered River's severed head slowly sinking to the ground beneath them. She might have been an annoying brat, but she didn't deserve that.

Griffin didn't seem to have taken Torrent's comment personally, but then again, Torrent really had no idea what was going inside in his friend's feathery head. Did gryphons think or show their emotions different than dragons? Did Griffin even count as a gryphon, being created by magic? Did Griffin even experience feelings? Torrent sure thought he did, he had shown most of the usual ones, but maybe it was just the magic working through him, making the stone statue at his core react and respond to what happened in the outside world. Torrent tried not to think about that too much; he didn't have any good answers, and didn't want to think of his friend as being some soulless automaton.

"So, where do you think this animus is?" Griffin asked, as the two started to get closer to the ground below. "I don't see anyone or anything down there."

Torrent frowned. "What do you mean? There's a whole village down there, I can see MudWings all running around and such!"

"You sure you just haven't been looking at the swamp for too long?" Griffin asked. "Because I'm pretty sure trees and murky water is all that's down there."

Torrent thought for a moment, and glanced again at the village. No, he was sure that there was something down there. He touched the amethyst on his dagger and pointed the steel towards the village. He moved the weapon back and forth a bit, so that his map and Griffin's enchantment wouldn't interfere. "There's definitely an animus down there," he said. "I can feel it." Torrent came to a sudden realization. "An animus! That's it, there must be some magic down there which hides the village from outsiders, and I can see it because the enchantments don't affect me!"

Torrent flew closer to Griffin and held out the dagger for the gryphon to take. "Here, you can use t—"

"GET THAT AWAY FROM ME!" Griffin sqwaked, rushing away as soon as he saw what Torrent was doing. "DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME OR SOMETHING?"

Torrent pulled the dagger away in shame. "I think there's some clause on the enchantment which keeps it from blocking magic I'm fine with," he muttered. "It's probably safe."

"I don't want to take any chances," Griffin hissed, glaring at the dagger, then Torrent.

The two reached the edge of the swamp clearing, and landed. Torrent shook squeamishly as his claws sunk within the soft, damp soil. Griffin frowned, still a little irritated over what had happened earlier with the dagger. Hopefully he would forgive Torrent soon.

They walked a little further into the clearing, and Griffin looked up in surprise. "Oh, you're right," he observed, slightly surprised, "I can see the village now."

He turned around and attempted to walk back out of the clearing, evidently wanting to see if he would be unable to see the village again. Suddenly, his beak rammed up against something invisible, and he squawked in surprise. Griffin tried to dig his claws into the mud and move out of the clearing again, but to no avail. His talons only dug through the soft soil, pushing it away.

"It's an invisible wall," Torrent said, frowning. "But it keeps things from exiting the area, not entering. Weird. I can get rid of it, if you want." As if to test, Torrent waved a claw through the area where the wall would be, passing right through it.

Griffin thought for a moment, then shook his feathered head. "Nah, we'll have plenty of time to get rid of it later. Who knows what purpose it has, maybe it's keeping something in." He glanced towards the stone tower in the middle of the village with a gulp. From down below, it looked more like some sort of extravagant temple. "I think we know what happened to those missing MudWings though; I'll bet they came in here and couldn't get out again."

Torrent nodded. That sounded about right. Suddenly, Torrent noticed something in the village. Two MudWings were quickly running towards them. "Hide," Torrent whispered to Griffin.

"Where?" Griffin asked, snorting. "All the trees are illusory, remember?" Griffin looked out at the two MudWings. "Hello!" he called in a friendly manner. "We come in peace!"

The two MudWings stopped when they reached Torrent and Griffin, looking like they were in some hurry. One of them looked to be around the same age as Torrent, but a little smaller. She had dull grey-brown scales covering most of her body, and a cream underbelly. Her body was similar to the average MudWing, stockier than the other tribes and with a squarish head. A determined grimace rested on her face, and she looked very impatient.

The second loomed over her, and even Torrent. His scales and wings were a dark brown the color of ebony; he didn't look that old, but pure strength radiated from his very being. A grim glare rested on his snout, as if he was permanently displeased with everyone and everything around him. He looked down at Torrent, then at Griffin, as if he was a father disappointed in his dragonets.

"Come with us," the smaller one hissed, "now." She glanced behind them, as if checking to make sure no one was following her and her friend. No one else had appeared to notice the strange SeaWing and gryphon.

Torrent shifted into a defensive position, evidently not liking being ordered around by this strange and possibly hostile MudWing. "What do you mean?" he snapped.

The smaller MudWing seethed. "You and your . . . thing are in danger. We want to help you. If you don't come with us, you could be killed, or worse."

"If you're talking about the animus," Torrent replied, "I've got ways of dea — "

"Yep, right away!" Griffin interrupted. He exchanged a glance with Torrent and pointed a talon at himself. Torrent suddenly recalled that Griffin, unlike him, would not be immune to any animus magic. Torrent might not be in danger, but Griffin could be.

"Great," the smaller MudWing muttered. "This way, quickly and quietly." She motioned the two with a claw, and walked towards the village. Griffin quickly followed, then Torrent after him. The larger MudWing trudged after both followed.

The village's mudhuts and houses were blocking the sight of the MudWings inside, fortunately, so none of them saw the four skirting along the edge of the village. They trudged through the swampy mud until they reached a small house. The younger MudWing ushered the three inside, glancing around of the entryway to make sure no one was spying on them. The house was somewhat barren on the inside; it looked almost unused. The larger MudWing walked to the center of the room, and dug his claws into the wooden floor. He pulled up a hunk of the floorboard, which cleanly came off, revealing a short staircase beneath. Torrent heard other dragons murmuring.

The younger MudWing went down the staircase, with the other three following, and the older MudWing moving the floorboards back. It got dark, and Torrent's eyes slowly adjusted to the light, his nightvision activating. A small lantern stood in the middle of the secret cellar, surrounded by five densely packed MudWings.

One of the MudWings appeared to be severely injured, and was wrapped in cloth bandages. She appeared to be asleep. Another was a young dragonet, looking at Torrent and Griffin nervously. The other three stared blankly at the two.

"Glen, what is this?" one of the MudWings hissed. "Why did you bring this dragon and this . . . bird into here? Do you know what would happen to us if Adobe saw you enter?"

"He didn't, I made sure no one was looking," the younger MudWing, evidently Glen, snapped back.

"What if he used his magic to spy on you? What then?"

"If he's using his magic to spy on us now, we're as good as dead anyways. But I doubt it, we're clearly not a threat as long as we stay silent."

Glen turned to the other MudWings in the group and raised her head proudly. "This SeaWing and this, um, bird thingy, entered the sphere today, and left again. They can get in and out."

There were a couple murmurs of surprise from the other MudWings. "Are you sure you saw that?" the same MudWing who had spoken up earlier asked. "The sphere is invisible, you know, you could've judged wrong."

Glen shook her head. "No, the bird thing was trying to get out of the sphere, but it couldn't, then the SeaWing waved his claws through sphere, unaffected."

"Oh," the MudWing replied sarcastically, "so only the SeaWing can get out of the sphere. Now, how does this help us exactly? Adobe's enchantment only works on MudWings?"

Glen let out a small growl in frustration. "If he can exit the sphere, it means that we can send a message. We can ask Queen Moorhen for help, or Grizzly can tell his sibs where he is, or anything at all."

The MudWing snorted. "And what can Queen Moorhen's armies do against Adobe? They'll all just get trapped in here with us."

Torrent, by now, was fed up with these MudWings bickering about him like he wasn't even listening. "Alright!" he exclaimed, irritated. "Tell me what's going on here!"

The MudWing arguing with Glen looked at her indignantly. "You didn't even tell him what was happening?"

"I didn't have time!" Glen protested. "We had to make sure Adobe didn't see us!"

The other MudWing scoffed. "And he just followed you in here? Do you really think a naïve SeaWing will be any help?" She turned to Torrent. "If Glen is too busy, I'll tell you what's going on. It all started years ago, when Queen Moorhen declared her alliance with Princess Blister."