They hadn't seen or heard from Zoe in almost five months. It was now December. Thomas and Remi were in a clearing in the forest where Zoe and Hayden had trained Remi all those years ago. The two males were sparring in the early morning light like they did every morning, Remi helping Thomas with his water bending as Zoe and Alice had taught Remi much more advanced things than the Academy had taught him. They were getting a drink and just chatting when Thomas heard a noise behind them. Turning around, he saw a white fury leaping out of a tree, an armoured rider on its back.

"Zoe!" he smiled, making to head towards the newcomers. Before he could take a step, Remi put his arm out in front of him, blocking Thomas' path.

"That's not Zoe and Uri," Remi whispered cautiously as the fury started circling them.

"What do you mean?" he said nervously.

"That fury has blue eyes, not green, and the rider doesn't have dual swords." The to young men were growing increasingly apprehensive; this must be the new fury rider, but where was Zoe? Thomas didn't take his eyes off of the dragon circling them but he noticed that Remi was scanning the trees. After a few tense moments, another fury emerged into the clearing. "Now that is Zoe," Remi said to Thomas quietly, a grin splitting the younger man's face as he ran towards the second rider.

"Hey, bro!" Zoe said as she removed her helmet and jumped off her dragon, embracing Remi. "Sorry for being gone so long," he heard her murmur to Remi. "How have you two been?" she asked as she released Remi and hugged Thomas who was still eyeing the other rider.

"Not bad. At least until you decided to scare the crap out of us just now, well the other rider anyway," he grumbled half heartedly.

"Sorry," she laughed, sounding not remotely sorry at all.

"Sure..."

"This is Amy and her fury, Axel," Zoe gestured to the other pair, Amy removing her helmet and offering a smile to Remi and himself. Thomas noted that Remi was much quieter than usual around the girl, clearly taken with her. Zoe seemed to have noticed the same thing as she smirked, looking between the two. "Anyway," Zoe started, cutting through the tension with a smile still pulling at the corner of her lips, "how's Alice and co.?"

"They're well," Thomas responded. "Did you want to see them now?"

"I think we'd better, I've been gone long enough."

The four of them headed back towards the village through the forest, Zoe and Uri leading the way with Amy and Axel next to them, Thomas and Remi trailing behind them.

When they emerged from the forest, they headed straight for Zeb and Alice's house, Zoe stroking Uri and Axel before the two furies padded around to the backyard, Sharpshot following the larger dragons in the air.

"Zoe!" was all Alice said before pulling her into a hug, Zeb following suit once his wife had released her before she was assaulted by their kids. "How have you been? And who's this?"

"Up and down, but I'm definitely getting better," she said to Zeb and Alice quietly, setting the two kids down that had leapt into her arms. "And this is Amy, her fury is around the back with Uri. Amy, this is Zeb and Alice and their kids, Celia and Jamie."

"Its nice to meet you," Amy smiled as Alice led the group inside.

"Tell us about yourself," Alice called from the kitchen as she prepared some drinks with Remi's help.

"Uh, well I'm 18, I have the gift of winter, I'm a water bender from one of the isolated tribes and I've been training with Zoe for four months now," Amy listed.

"You have the gift of winter?" Zeb asked.

Amy looked nervous so Zoe answered for her, "she sure does, she also rides a white fury."

"Incredible...two white furies at the same time. The hunters better watch out," Zeb added with a laugh.

"I think we need to see how well Zoe's trained you then," Thomas said cheekily.

"Excuse me?" Zoe asked him in mock offence.

"I think we need to see who you trained better, Remi or Amy, that's all," he shrugged with a smile.

"Wait, Zoe hasn't finished training me yet, have you," Amy protested, looking to Zoe for support.

"I've taught you enough. From now on it'll just be showing you how to disable dragon traps and other hunter related things," Zoe responded, taking a sip from her drink. Glancing at Thomas, they made eye contact, both of them smiling into their drinks; he had noticed whatever was between Remi and Amy too.

"I'd say it can be the pre-dinner entertainment," Zeb added.

"Agreed, but to make it fair, everyone should have to fight," Alice said. "Except me," she added, "my role is as healer."

"Now that's unfair," Zeb protested, clearly disappointed that he wouldn't be able to fight his wife, making everyone laugh.

"And the numbers will be uneven," Zoe pointed out.

"I'll invite Mathew then, I'm sure he'd accept," Alice remarked.

-o0O0o-

"Do we want to allow bending or just weapons?" Alice asked as she settled down in front of the fire that Zoe had summoned. It was the small things that made her chest tighten and a lump form in her throat; it had always been Hayden who had set the fires when they would sit in the backyard with Alice and Zeb. In fact, this was the first time that they had done it without him, Zeb and Alice seemed to be feeling the same as her regarding Hayden's absence.

"Definitely no bending," Remi said, eyeing Zoe who just laughed. Thomas was interested to see the outcome of the fights, he had never seen Zoe fight with her swords or really bend up close for that matter. He hadn't seen her during the battle several months ago and when he was travelling with her and Hayden, she only did basic bending. He had seen the destruction she could cause when she saved the Academy, but he hadn't been able to see it in action.

"Fair enough," Alice smiled. "Ok, who's going first?"

"I think we should let Remi and Amy fight one of us first as a warm up and then they can fight each other," Zoe said.

"Sounds good. Remi?" Zeb asked, rolling his shoulders and unsheathing his scythe.

"Bring it, old man," Remi challenged as he got up, the two boys walking into the cleared space and standing opposite each other.

"For that, I'm gonna whoop your arse."

"A true old man, all talk and no action since you can't move," Remi retorted good naturedly, his sword making a shallow slice in the earth.

"Obviously no maiming. The first to concede or be overpowered will be the loser and if you believe you can still fight if you've been disarmed, then be our guest," Alice told them as she got Jamie and Celia to settle next to her, Uri and Rocco helping to entertain the kids.

Remi and Zeb began circling each other, neither of them willing to make the first move. After two full circles, Zoe clearly lost her patience and shoved the two of them towards each other with a gust of wind, both of them springing into action once they had regained their footing. As they fought, Thomas noticed Zoe whispering to Amy, pointing out different techniques and how to overcome them. Nudging Mathew and raising his eyebrow in a silent question, they both subtly shifted towards them so they could hear what Zoe was saying:

"...see how he he's shifted his weight onto his other foot, he's going to feint and attempt to strike from the other side. Watch Zeb, he's noticed it too and so he's changed his footing to step to- there you go. Zeb's scythe has greater reach but its not as good as Remi's sword for quick jabs- did you see that? Remi does that a lot. To counter, you can either lower your centre of gravity and block the blow, but Zeb can't do that with his weapon so he has to dodge. Remi's swings lose some height at the end of its path, so if you're going to duck, make sure you go all the way down or roll to the side-. Oh, this will be interesting; Zeb's got him on the defensive and Remi's not great at blocking repeated blows, make sure you use that to your advantage. There you go, Zeb's got him-"

"I believe that's a win," Zeb smiled as he lowered his scythe from the side of Remi's neck. "I guess the old man still has some juice left."

"Shut up..." Remi grumbled making them all laugh.

"Who's next?" Alice asked.

"Amy better go next so she can have a break before going against Remi," Thomas piped up.

"Good idea, Amy who do you want to fight?"

"Uh, I don't know. I don't really know how any of you fight or even with what weapon," she said earnestly.

"I'll go, it can be your final lesson and a confidence booster," Zoe joked as she stood up, grabbing her swords.

"Fighting you is never a confidence booster," Mathew pointed out. "Your fighting style is like that of the air benders, you didn't even teach Remi to fight with your style."

"You're right, I taught him to fight like a water bender so that he can use his bending in a fight," Zoe said smugly.

"Always have a reason," Mathew muttered.

"You bet I do."

"Alright, Zoe, Amy, you ready?" Alice asked the two girls.

"As I'll ever be," Zoe said as she lowered her stance.

"As ready as I can when I'm about to get my arse handed to me on a silver platter," Amy half heartedly complained, making everyone laugh.

Thomas suspected that Zoe went easy on Amy, using it more like a training session rather than a real fight like she said she would. He was surprised by how well Amy fought, it looked like she had a lot of power behind her swings, neither of the two girls looking like they were going their hardest. Zoe had a look of concentration on her face as she calmly swung one sword down on one side, forcing Amy to block, but also bringing her hand on a weird angle. Taking advantage of this, she hooked her other sword around Amy's and pressing it down, forced Amy to let it go before Zoe brought both of her swords against either side of Amy's neck who was frozen in place.

"Good job, but you fell for that trick again. You need to have more confidence in your ability to dodge instead of blocking everything," Zoe instructed as she lowered her swords and slid them back into their sheaths that would usually be on her back but were now resting where she had been sitting.

"Mathew, Thomas, you two are next," Alice called, pulling Jamie back from the fire.

Zoe spent the time that Mathew and Thomas were fighting talking with Amy, which was quite a while since the two males were very evenly matched.

"You're both water benders and I trained you both, so you will have very similar fighting styles, use that to your advantage as you'll know what to expect and how he'll react to different situations as it will be very similar to how you would."

"But he's also taller than me and very likely stronger too."

"Which means..." she coaxed.

"He'll have a longer reach, so I need to get in close which will also stop him throwing his weight to add power," Amy responded after she thought for a moment.

"Good, see you've got this," Zoe smiled. "You're up," she added when she saw Thomas and Mathew sitting back down.

-o0O0o-

They had been fighting for almost five minutes now. Zoe watched as Remi blocked one of Amy's blows, but this was what she wanted as it forced Remi to change his weight, resulting in Remi having to lunge awkwardly to block her next strike. Dodging Remi's sword, Amy tried sweeping his feet out from underneath him, but he was prepared and easily jumped over her leg.

"Its torturous watching them," Zeb said as he came and sat next to her.

"What do you mean?"

"They've only known each other for a day and they clearly like each other."

"I know," she sighed. "Its stopping them from getting anywhere with this fight and its driving me crazy."

"Its like watching you and Hayden before you finally got together," Zeb mused.

"What?" she said, whipping her head around to face him.

"It was painful watching Hayden being too scared to make a move. But to be fair, you didn't seem interested for the first 12 months and you would have likely broken several of his bones had he tried anything before you were ready," he laughed, at his memories or her expression, she didn't know. "It was obvious he liked you from the day he first brought you here. You made him the happiest I had ever seen him," Zeb added quietly.

"I just wish we had more time together," she sighed, the mood between them becoming sombre.

"So did he," Zeb smiled sadly. "He told me that if you two weren't the fury riders, he'd have asked you to marry him. He wanted a family with you, said he wanted to give you what you lost when you became the fury rider."

"Maybe once I'm up there with him, who knows, maybe we'll be given another chance," she said softly, a few tears pricking her eyes.

"On another note, we need to get this fight going," Zeb said in a stronger tone.

"I agree, its driving me crazy," she huffed. "OI! Stop being a couple of sissies and actually fight each other!" She yelled out to them, the group laughing at Amy and Remi's expressions. After a second, Amy grinned at Zoe before turning around and dealing blow after blow, Remi struggling to block them as he took small steps backwards. Amy had eventually backed him into a tree. Using it to her advantage, she pulled a similar move that Zoe had beaten her with, feinting one way before wrapping her blade around Remi's a yanking it out of his hands before holding the tip of her sword under his chin, both of them staring into each other's eyes.

Zoe counted to thirty before she spoke, pulling them both out of whatever world they were in. "That was much more entertaining. Next time get right to it instead of wasting energy at the start."

-o0O0o-

Zoe was about to go for a flight when Zeb called out to her. "What's up?" she smiled.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Sure."

"Great, I'll just saddle Rocco up," he said, running towards the storage chest at the back door.

They were in the air when Zeb finally got to the reason why he wanted to come on a flight with her. "Zoe, I need you to think about something."

"Is this going to be a long talk?" Zoe asked, wondering if they should land instead of shouting at each other over the wind.

"Why?"

"Would it be easier if we land somewhere?"

"Uh, probably. That sea stack look big enough?"

"It should be," Zoe responded as the headed for the sea stack. "Is this a 'check up' conversation?" she asked once they'd landed and were sitting down, Zoe sitting on the edge of the sea stack with her legs dangling over the edge and Zeb sitting slightly further from the edge with his legs stretched out.

"No, actually. I wanted to speak with you about Amy."

"What about her?"

"You know that white furies are incredibly rare, right?" he asked, rather hesitant.

"Yes?" she responded, confused as to where this was going.

"Well, don't you find it a bit odd that Amy has a white fury? I mean, before Uri, one hadn't been seen in close to a hundred years and now there are two at the same time."

"Maybe the Bewilderbeast decided that it was time for the hunters to go," Zoe shrugged, not seeing the point Zeb was trying to make.

"I'm just saying, what if Amy rides a white fury because you have the soul of a white fury."

"I don't understand-"

"What if Amy rides a white fury because you will be the one that Axel ends up with? What if Amy abandons her role as fury rider and the Bewilderbeast knew that, so he gave her a white fury because Axel would eventually join you and Uri without his rider?"

"Wait, a fury rider can abandon their role?" she asked, she hadn't known that.

"It is rare, but yes."

"And how does that work?"

"I don't really know, I think its down to the fury to decide if its rider is doing the job or not, and then I guess it just bonds to the other fury rider at the time," Zeb explained.

"So what happens when the rider that's bonded to two furies dies?"

"Two new riders are bonded. I guess new riders are chosen when the fury dies rather than the rider in these cases."

"So you think that Amy will abandon her role and Axel?" Zoe asked, not really believing what she was saying.

"I'm just saying its a possibility that you need to be prepared for," Zeb said gently.

"But she's been putting in so much effort and I can't see her abandoning Axel," Zoe reasoned, trying to make sense of everything in her head.

"Things change," Zeb whispered. "As you know all too well."