Yuma didn't realize just how serious Mizki was about getting to Meredin immediately until she dragged them all to the nearest pawn store to exchange her ring-staff for money. "Mizki!" he hissed when the pawn shop's owner headed to the back of the store to place the ring in a safe place. "That's not even one-tenth of its actual worth!"

She gave him a brief glance as she counted the number of gold coins. "I'll buy it back," she promised as she swept the entire lot into a leather pouch, which wasn't the response he'd been waiting for. "In the mean time, I'll use the hairpin Duchess Sonika gave me."

He would have said more, but he clamped up when the mistress of the store came back from her placing the ring in a safe place. The owner of the pawn shop was a cheerful, honest-looking woman who promised to keep the staff on hold from sale for a month. Yuma admitted – begrudgingly – that a month was more than enough time to get to Meredin, access Mizki's bank account and then come back. It was also more than enough time to go to an Auren Office and draw from their funds. She could give the Orderlies there permission to draw the same amount of money from her bank in Meredin.

"Too long," she replied to his unasked question. "All the forms and the oaths I have to take promising that I'll pay it back, interest and all . . . ."

"It's only one hour," he said. And that hour wouldn't really make much of a difference in the twenty-day walking trip to Silvana City. Taking Ia into consideration, it would take much longer than that, unless they hired a wagon for part of the journey. Ia looked back and forth between the two of them and grabbed both their hands, as if she was making sure that the two of them wouldn't abruptly leave her.

"Still too long," she said before crouching to meet Ia's eyes for the first time since receiving a dream vision from Mew. "Ia," she said, voice gentle and more like herself. "Have you ever taken a dragonpath before?"

"No," he snapped before Ia could answer. Yuma wasn't answering for the young girl, he was vetoing Mizki's suggestion to take the dreaded path. "Absolutely not."

"It's the fastest way, other than teleportation."

And despite having the ability and skill to beat any licensed, university-trained Grand Mage, despite having the ability and skill to become a licensed Grand Mage herself, she couldn't use the teleportation skill. Yuma glowered, knowing he was being quite child-like. "It's too expensive," he said the first thing that popped into his mind as an excuse to not take the blasted thing.

Mizki still retained her excellent debate skills and logic, despite having apparently lost part of her reason in her abrupt demand to get to Meredin immediately."Which is why I just pawned my favourite staff for the expenses," she reminded him.

His next response was a bit more thought out."Ia would be traumatized by the experience."

"I've seen five year olds have fun while on the dragonpath. It's just you."

The comment about the five-year old being braver than him made him grit his teeth. "It's not just me," he defended, but he didn't have any illusions about who had won this round of arguments. Yuma changed the question. "Want to give me a good explanation on just why we're going to go through living hell?"

Again, Mizki's eyes glazed up. "We have to get there," she said in what was almost a drone. "As soon as possible."

Yuma began to toy with the theory of Mizki being touched by a god. Actually touched, chosen by one of the divine deities, not just given a vision of clarity by the goddess of dreams. All the stories and songs, despite having the strange habits of romanticizing everything, told of odd behaviours in heroes chosen by the fickle gods who couldn't quite interfere – not directly.

They also never let the chosen hero go until the hero did one of three things; died, abandoned the gods and joined the opposing force in the particular conflict or completed the quest they'd been sent on.

The first two exceptions were out, no deliberations necessary. Therefore, if he wanted his partner back the way she was he was going to have to face his worst nightmare.

Damn. He had sworn he'd never take the dragonpath unless it was under extremely crucial and necessary circumstances.

The dragonpath was some kind of invisible route that only certain dragons could use. The path itself couldn't lead to any place in the world; the dragons could only bend the distance in to ten places in Terrestria. A dragon running the dragonpath could enter the magic route from anywhere, but there would only be ten locations where it could reappear. The dragons that ran along the dragonpath were always smarter and stronger than most others of their kinds. Because of the limitations they had dragons being used to run the paths were highly valuable and their services were always very expensive.

Yuma had only taken the dragonpath two times in his life and he had hated both experiences with passion. The first time had been when Mizki had been stabbed with a poisoned blade and needed to get to a healer as soon as possible. The second time had been when he was twenty five and Duchess Sonika had fallen ill to a disease that had swept Meredin and Amerys a few years ago. Mizki had been desperate to see her sponsor, fearing that she would die, and had dragged him with her despite his word that he would travel there on foot.

Now, as he took the money from Mizki and paid the keeper of the beast the cost to buy the dragon's service, he wished that he and his partner liked to ride horses. Maybe if the two of them had horses like other wandering heroes god-struck Mizki wouldn't have thought of using the dragonpaths.

The dragon – a large beast with an almost noble head – took an immediate liking to Ia. It sniffed at her and rumbled when she poked the area around its scaly foot. Yuma tensed and automatically reached for his sword when the keeper spoke. "Dragons like it when you touch their paws."

Yuma blinked. "What?"

The keeper looked at him patiently. "They like it when someone touches their paws. It's how you tame one. You take a dragonling and you gently prod at its paws to reassure it."

He looked at the scaly beast again. The creature was now blinking rapidly as Ia clapped.

"She's got a gift with dragons," the keeper noted. Yuma tensed, waiting for an apprenticeship offer similar to the ones the girl had gotten all day, but the man only shrugged on his money pouch, the one filled with the ridiculously lowered price for Mizki's pawned staff-ring. "Get on, sir, time to run."

Yuma took Ia's hand and gently led her away from the sniffing dragon. Mizki was already in the large carrier on the dragon's back, and she reached out to help Ia up the ladder that had been placed there. Once Ia was inside the basket-like carrier, Yuma himself climbed up with dread filling his stomach.

Inside the leather-made carrier, several straps and chains bound to the carrier's sturdy walls awaited him. He chained their bags down before he helped Mizki strap Ia in securely. Then, it was his turn. Straps around his torso, chains around his waist and a padding-wrapped steel bar around his shoulder would all prevent him from being thrown out of the carrier to meet a painful death when the dragon accelerated or stopped.

Ia giggled and clapped. "Glad one of us is happy about this," he mumbled, grabbing onto the padded bar with both his hands. "Have you ever travelled by dragonpath?"

This time the mute girl didn't bother to even nod or shake her head. She was too busy silently bubbling with excitement.

Definitely an odd child.

"All ready?" the keeper bellowed from his seat near the dragon's horns.

"Yes!" Mizki called.

"Hold on!"

Yuma's grip tightened until his knuckles were bone-white. He hated this part.

The dragon, receiving the signal from his owner, began to run. It was slow, but the beast began to pick up speed as it ran, jostling the three of them inside the carrier against the leather walls and restraining bars.

The jostling and the shaking became worse and worse until Yuma heard it – a clear snap.

And suddenly a huge pressure was being applied to him. His face felt like a strong wind was blowing against it, like his skin would stretch off his skull. His eyes told his brain that they were going through a tunnel with blurred lines and lights with no visible end and all through the high pressure and breathless feeling the dragon was throwing them around in there while it bounded through the spaces and his chest felt so tight it was like his heart was beating twice as hard and achieving only half the results–

And after an unknown period of time it all came to an abrupt stop, throwing his body forwards against the bars holding his body down. Yuma took a deep breath, filling his lungs with sorely-missed oxygen as his fingers began to scrabble at the bindings and safety devices. They were at one of the two stop points for the dragonpath destination in Meredin, at the gate of the Royal Graveyard.

"We're here!" the keeper yelled at them from his seat in the front. Yuma finished tearing at the safety measures trapping him before freeing their bags. Mizki had already unbuckled Ia and the three of them exited the carrier.

Their ride lay, exhausted, with its eyes closed. Ia reached out to pat one of its bed-sized paws in sympathy.

Yuma tried very hard to steady his spinning vision and not throw up. He thought he stumbled, but the ground felt like it was turning and spinning under his feet and he couldn't quite tell.

"You're acting like a drunkard," Mizki sighed and let him lean against her like the last time they had taken a dragonpath. Slowly, the ground stopped spinning and his head cleared up. "Better now?"

"Yeah," he said groggily, picking up their bags. "Thank you."

"No problem," she stood there for a moment. "Now that I'm here I don't know what to do."

Yuma nearly dropped their bags as his fingers suddenly lost the majority of their strength.

"And that's how you came to me?" Duchess Sonika raised one slim, green eyebrow after she finished listening to their story.

Mizki gave a sheepish grin, acting like her usual immature self. Yuma was glad to see her return to normal. Her normal. "Why not go to the best?"

"Flattery will get you nowhere," the lady sniffed as she handed Ia a cup of tea. The blonde ducked her head in thanks. "Would she like something to eat? Cakes, biscuits, the likes?"

To his surprise, Ia turned to face Yuma and nodded her approval. "I think she would," he said, translating her body language.

The green-haired noblewoman rang a bell. Instantly, a maid appeared at the door. "Milady?"

"More tea, fruit juice and a platter of cakes. The usual, Momo."

"Yes, milady," the maid answered obediently and left.

"She'll be back in a moment," Duchess Sonika told them. "Momo is an excellent worker. Highly efficient and very good common sense. She's even helpful in the current crisis we have going on in the Database."

Right. That. Yuma had forgotten about the whole library-and-database-under-construction until the noblewoman with now-obvious dark circles under her sharp green eyes had reminded him about one of the reasons why they had brought Ia here. "Do you think we'll be able to find anything on Ia directly?"

"I suppose so," the duchess answered slowly. "It would still take some time – priorities have all been changed to focus on finding the culprit, organizing information and reinforcing defenses. But yes, since you happen to be here it wouldn't be impossible.

"In the meantime, you are a guest. I insist that you eat and rest yourselves for today. Whatever actions are needed, you may make them tomorrow. Today is a day of rest for hard-working heroes."

"A day of rest and planning?" Mizki guessed.

The older woman grinned and at that moment could have been five years younger than her actual age. "Precisely."

The maid brought in the platter of refreshments and Ia fell upon them like a starving beggar.

For the record, taking the dragonpath is like riding a rollercoaster. Some people like it, some people hate it.