She had been travelling with Viggo since the week after she had left the village nearly five months ago now, the two of them searching every inch of the world Below for the last of Grimmel's camps. Zoe was confident that they'd found all of the camps, except the location of Grimmel's base. She suspected that it was underground somewhere which made things even more difficult if they wanted to destroy his headquarters. Whilst Drago and Viggo were both fire benders, Grimmel was an earth bender so he would be able to stop any attempts of someone trying to collapse the earth in on his base. Since Amy had decided to stay with Remi, people she had come across had started calling her the 'Lone Rider' as she was the only fury rider. As far as she knew, her new title hadn't made it to Zeb and Alice's village yet, but it was only a matter of time before they would find out and crack jokes about it.

As of now, she would be turning 26 in four weeks; it made her feel old but lucky that she had lived so long since becoming the fury rider. She had her legs stretched out and was sitting against Axel with Uri's head resting on her lap and Sharpshot curled between her feet, Viggo sitting on the opposite side of the fire and resting against Bolt whilst consulting their map. Zoe was passing the time by sharpening her many knives and daggers.

"I think you're right," Viggo sighed as he looked up at her. "He's got to be underground somewhere, likely in the uninhabited cluster of central islands."

"What do you suggest?"

"That's what I was going to ask you," he said, folding up the map and tucking it into his bag.

"Grimmel's hunters aren't prisoners like Drago's were. As far as I can tell, they're there for the money so I don't know what they'll do if we can take Grimmel out," Zoe thought aloud.

"Grimmel works alone," Viggo stated. "He has people who work for him, but they just do what they're told so his hunters shouldn't be a problem without Grimmel leading them," he explained.

"But he rarely comes into the open," she sighed.

"We need bait, something he can't refuse and that he'll want to retrieve himself."

"Such as...?"

"A fury."

"No. Absolutely not-"

"Just think about it, his whole brand is centred around being the night fury killer, the one to end the entire species so the only furies were those that the Bewilderbeast created. He'd do anything to get his hands on another fury, especially a white fury."

"I'm not putting Uri or Axel at that risk. If anything goes wrong, it could end all three of us. I am not dying until I've finished off the hunters," she said firmly.

"We won't let him get near either of the dragons. Yes its risky, but if we plan carefully, I believe it could work," Viggo persisted.

"I have another idea," she said after a few minutes of silence. "What if we make Grimmel believe that he hasn't hunted the night furies to extinction?"

"And how do suggest we do that?" Viggo asked, Zoe sure that he was just humouring her.

"We let some of his hunters see two night furies and they'll immediately report back to Grimmel. We can either follow them to find his base, or wait for him to come into the open, or both."

"I get that, but how are you going to make them believe they've seen a night fury, let alone two?"

"Because they will actually see two night furies," she smiled, slightly amused that Viggo hadn't cottoned on yet.

"Zoe, you might be powerful, but you can't bring back the night furies."

"I'm well aware of that, but charcoal is a mighty powerful thing, don't you think?" she smirked, Viggo finally understanding what she was getting at.

-o0O0o-

She was on Uri's back as they flew parallel to the island, the pair of them chasing after Grimmel and the deathgripper he was riding. Glancing to the side, she saw Axel keeping the other deathgripper from attacking her and Uri. Activating her bow and drawing an arrow from her quiver, she aimed for the vibrant purple syringe that was drugging the deathgripper that Grimmel was riding. Taking a deep breath, she released the arrow and watched as it whizzed through the air and hit its mark, shattering the syringe and purple venom leaking everywhere. She heard a faint shout of anger come from Grimmel as she collapsed her bow and reattached it to her belt.

She was feeling slightly delirious from using so much of her lightning beforehand, but she still urged Uri forward. She was not going to let Grimmel get out of this alive. Making up her mind, she glanced at her dragon who nodded in acceptance. Uri put on a burst of speed so they were flying slightly above and to the left of the deathgripper. Zoe got to her feet, balancing herself before launching herself off of her dragon's back and towards Grimmel who turned his head just in time to see her diving towards him, her hands outstretched.

She knocked him off the dragon, her hands gripping each of his shoulders as they plummeted towards the ocean below. She knew it would either kill her or she'd drown, but she summoned the last of her energy and let the electricity flow from her hands, effectively electrocuting the hunter who went limp after a shout of pain. Just before they hit the water, she took one last deep breath as she let go of Grimmel and angled her body so she could see the sky.

Hey body slammed into the icy water, slowly sinking as thousands of tiny air bubbles rose around her. Turning her head to the side, she saw Grimmel either dead or unconscious and sinking through the darkness. Either way, he wouldn't make it. Just like her. She slowly sank into the ocean's depths, not enough energy to bend to save herself, but she didn't struggle, she just accepted her fate as her vision went black.

Bolting upright, her eyes were assaulted by the early morning light. She looked at Uri and Axel, both who seemed to have woken when she did just seconds ago. The three of them looked at one another trying to come to terms with what the three of them had just seen. Getting up, Zoe and the two furies headed for the highest point on the island, leaving Sharpshot, Viggo and Bolt, all of who were still sleeping.

She stood and watched the sun rise, enjoying the light breeze that swept across her face, her two bonded dragons on either side of her. "I guess each time we see the sun we see rise from now on could be our last," she said quietly.

"You never know, we could have up to a year," Uri responded.

"Or one day," Zoe added. "I'm sorry, Axel," she sighed.

"What for?"

"You've had such a short time-"

"And I'd have it no other way," Axel cut her off as he gently nuzzled her face.

"At least we take Grimmel with us," she said after a few minutes of silence. The three of them just stood there until the sun had risen, then they headed back to their camp site so they'd be back before Viggo woke.

"You're awfully quiet," Viggo said to her as they packed up their camp.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," she said, shaking herself out of her thoughts.

"Everything ok?"

"Yeah, fine. I need to go visit Alice and Zeb, ideally today. Did you want to come?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Viggo smiled. "I'll wait for you on one of the uninhabited islands nearby."

-o0O0o-

Uri and Axel landed in their usual spot next to Zeb and Alice's house, and as usual, Celia and Jamie were the first to burst from the house to greet them. "Aunty Zoe!" they squealed as she got out of the saddle and picked the two kids up.

"And how are you two crazy kids?" she asked, giving them a kiss on the head each. After the two kids had spouted all of their stories, they ran off to play with Uri and Axel, Zoe getting up and heading towards the house. Before she got there, she heard someone running towards her. Turning around, she saw Mathew coming towards her, a big grin plastered across his face and a loaf of fresh bread in his hand.

"Zoe, how are you?" he asked, pulling her into a hug with his one free arm which she returned.

"Not bad, you?" she asked him.

"Yeah good. I assume you're visiting Zeb and Alice?"

"Yeah, just got here actually. You?"

"Dropping off some bread," he said, gesturing to the loaf in his hand. "So, what have you been up to lately?" Mathew asked as they walked up the front path.

"Same old, just chipping away at Grimmel," she shrugged.

"I hear that you have a new name."

"Don't even-"

"The Lone Rider? I think its fitting," Mathew laughed as she just groaned.

"I, on the other hand, disagree. I travel with four dragons and another rider so I'm hardly alone," she said absent minded.

"Wait, what?" Mathew said as he stopped walking. "Who do you travel with?"

"Uh..." she hadn't meant to say that to him, but then again, Mathew was one of her few close friends that didn't know. "You remember Viggo?"

At that moment, Alice and Zeb who had finally noticed them standing in their front yard, came out to call them in.

"Zoe, what were you saying about Viggo?" Mathew persisted as they were lead into the house.

"Well...he's not exactly...dead."

"Are you saying that Viggo isn't dead and is your new travel buddy?" he asked, grabbing her arm and turning her to face him in the hall.

"Its a funny story actually..."

"Explain."

"Uri and I found him unconscious and severely wounded in the wings of a skrill. We healed him and his skrill and when he woke the next morning he told us what happened. I taught him to ride the skrill who he called Bolt and he's been helping me ever since."

"And when did this happen?"

"About a week after I left to look for Amy."

"How do you know you can trust him?"

"He's saved my life and he's helped me find and destroy Drago and most of Grimmel's camps."

"But-"

"Relax, its fine. He's had a change of heart and I'm still cautious. I'm also completely capable of defending myself should I ever need to-"

"You two coming in or are you going to stand in the hall forever?" Zeb called to them from the living room.

"Coming!" Zoe called back as she and Mathew made their way into the living room. "Sorry, I was explaining the Viggo situation to Mathew," she told Alice and Zeb as they sat down, Mathew putting the loaf of bread in the kitchen before joining them.

"Ah, yes. We had concerns about the Lone Rider too when she first told us," Zeb snickered.

"Not you too," she groaned.

"Anyway, what's up?" Alice asked. "You just dropping in because you finally had a spare second, or is there something else?"

Zoe's good mood suddenly faded, her smile slipping off her face before she was able to compose herself. "Actually, I'm here to uphold the promise I made you," she said quietly.

"What promi- oh...that promise..." Zeb trailed off, he and Alice exchanging a sad look.

"Yeah...that promise," she tried to smile.

"Someone care to update me?" Mathew asked, clearly confused after no one had said anything for a minute.

"Do you know about the Dream?" Zoe asked quietly.

"Yeah, my dad was best friends with Max's oldest brother," Mathew explained. "Wait...you've had your Dream?" he asked softly.

"Last night," she mumbled.

"Do you have any idea about timeframes?" Alice asked.

"No," she shook her head. "All I know is that I take Grimmel with me," she tried to smile.

"How?" Zeb asked a little hesitant.

"I drown," she said quietly.

"Sorry, what? That makes no sense, you're an elemental, you can't drown unless you make the conscious decision to," Mathew said.

"I use up all of my energy with my lightning, so I won't have the energy to bend," she explained. "And Uri and Axel will be off dealing with the deathgrippers."

"So you don't even go together?" Alice whispered.

"No idea, I woke up before I really saw anything else. I just sank through the water with Grimmel a few metres away, everything went black and then I woke up," she shrugged.

"Well that puts a damper on the visit," Zeb sighed.

"That's one way to put it..." Mathew muttered.

"Do you know if its just you and Grimmel or will it be a bigger battle with other people?" Alice asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't know. I think the land mass we were flying past was the uninhabited island closest to here so either is possible," Zoe shrugged. "On another note, how's everything here?" she asked, wanting to direct the conversation away from her impending death.

"Same as usual," Mathew shrugged. "Remi and Amy's wedding preparations are going well. The date's set for fifteen weeks at this stage."

"Fingers crossed I last that long," Zoe mumbled quietly so no one else would hear. The four of them sat in the living room just talking for a while before Zoe and Mathew went to see Remi and Amy. Before Zoe left, she dropped in on Thomas, Nick, Elliot and Finn to say hello but to also check in on the latter three's training. Everyone was helping them with their fighting, both hand to hand and with a weapon. Mathew was teaching Elliot earth bending, Remi and Thomas would teach Finn more water bending, and Grace who was one of the only fire benders in the village was teaching Nick. The three of them were improving reasonably well, Finn obviously already knowing more than the basics from the Academy was still the best out of the three.

-o0O0o-

She left an hour or so before sunset, Alice, Zeb and Mathew looking more worried than normal when she left since they didn't know if it would be the last time that they would see her or not. The two furies flew back to the uninhabited island where they'd left Viggo who was supposed to be collecting wood for them to burn into charcoal. When they landed, Zoe was greeted with the sight of Viggo relaxing against Bolt, not a single piece of timber or charcoal in sight.

"What have you been doing?" she asked him as she pulled her helmet off. "I thought you were going to start burning some wood?"

"I decided I'd rather not waste my time," he said casually.

"How is it wasting your time? You agreed that it was a good idea!" she said, exasperated now.

"I think making Grimmel's hunters believe that there are still night furies around is a good idea, but I think covering Axel and Uri in charcoal is a waste of time since they can change the colour of their scales," Viggo pointed out and making Zoe feel incredibly stupid.

"Oh my gods...I am such an idiot! Why didn't I think of that?" she cried in frustration at herself, Viggo just chuckling.

"So, how was your day?" he asked her, trying to supress a smile as she just grumbled to herself.

-o0O0o-

She was crouching down behind dense vegetation at the edge of a clearing that backed onto the entrance to a cave, Viggo on her right with Bolt and Sharpshot on her shoulder, Uri and Axel were lounging in the fading sunlight in front of the cave's mouth, their usual white scales now a pitch black. They were at the spot where most of Grimmel's hunter's stopped over for a few days to restock on natural resources, the clearing being where they usually passed through to get to the fresh water stream. A few shipments of hunters had arrived at the island nearly an hour ago, meaning that a few would come through the clearing to collect water any minute now.

Zoe wasn't too worried about what would happen right now as she knew neither Axel, Uri nor herself would get killed as they already knew how they would die. So far, they'd gotten an extra four weeks than the worst case scenario of dying the day of/after the Dream and Zoe was finding it easier to deal with the knowledge the Dream had given her.

After what felt like forever, they finally heard a few hunters crashing through the underbrush towards the clearing. Uri and Axel raised their heads and looked in the direction of the hunters, their eyes narrowing when two hunters emerged into the clearing.

"The fury rider must be around here somewhere," she heard the larger one mutter.

"No, they're night furies," the other one whispered back. "The fury rider has two white furies. It looks like Grimmel hasn't hunted them all down after all."

"What do we do?" the large hunter asked cautiously as they both took a few steps back when they saw Uri and Axel getting to their feet and snarling.

"We leave them alone and tell Grimmel they were here."

"He'll never believe us, we need proof," one of them protested.

"Well if you want to grab one of its scales or something than be my guest, but I'm getting outta here, they look ready to attack."

Uri roared at them as loud as she could, making the two hunters flee but also so the hunters back at the camp would have heard her; the more witnesses the better. Once the hunters disappeared, Uri and Axel took off towards the opposite end of the island to the hunters, Zoe, Viggo and Bolt weaving through the forest in the same direction.

It took them close to an hour to trek through the forest but eventually the two furies, their bags and Uri's saddle came into sight. Zoe quickly saddled up Uri and strapped the bags onto the saddle before the three dragons took off, heading for a nearby island to spend the night. They would hang around the area until the hunters set off again when they would follow them.

-o0O0o-

It was two weeks before they reached Grimmel's headquarters, and correct to Zoe's suspicions, it was indeed underground and incredibly well hidden that it was no surprise that they hadn't been able to find it. The ship they were following passed through what was solid rock at the base of an island that had tall cliff faces and almost no beaches, the waves slamming violently against the rock. As the ship approached the cliff face, the rock split in two, allowing the ship to sail through into a large cavern. Before Zoe could make a decision on what to do, the stone had snapped closed again, leaving not a single sign for what was inside. Deciding that they'd have to wait for Grimmel to come out, Zoe created a small island with her earth bending for them to settle on as there were no other land masses in sight.

They spent the remainder of the day coming up with various courses of action depending on Grimmel and his hunters, from Zoe splitting the stone wall to break in, to waiting for him to emerge and then attacking. Once both of their brains were fried, they settled down for the night, the two humans and four dragons taking it in turns to keep watch.