Chapter 2

"I can't begin to tell you how bad of an idea this is." Pip started again. On the whole way to their first stop he wouldn't shut up about it. Sakura decided to ignore him in the end and just let him ramble on as she planned their next few steps. First of all they had to get the ingredients for the invisibility potion but for that they needed money. And they certainly didn't have enough on them. So the next logical step was to gather the ingredients themselves.

"Let's see. Chameleon skin, Poper seeds and raspberry extract for a better taste. Well we can buy the raspberry extract but the other stuff we'll have to get it ourselves." Poper was a flower that turned invisible when any threat was around it. Its seeds were used for this potion for the obvious reason.

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Pip asked annoyed yet again by his companion's care-free attitude. This was a suicide mission after all.

"The obvious way silly. We go and get them from out there." Sakura responded sweetly.

"From out where?"

"The wild!" Sakura said with a scary face on. The situation was amusing for her. She never, in her life, found something to be afraid of and if she wasn't scared before, she surely wasn't scared now. This was just an adventure for her. Something to look forward to.

Sakura walked into the supply house they stopped at after they had tied Drago to a stall. Inside was dark. There were tables at every corner but only at the corners and a counter right in the middle like an island. The windows were closed shut and only four candles struggled to keep the room lit. At the tables sat a knight, a nature mender and a man whose affinity Sakura didn't know. Without giving them a second glance Sakura walks over to the counter and asks for her raspberry extract.

"You can't afford it." The person answers.

"Try me." Sakura responded feeling a slight annoyance creep up her spine.

"It's 15 golden coins, sweetheart." She couldn't believe her ears. That was half of what she had brought along.

"Isn't there something I can do to help around here, cover the cost?" She asked desperately.

"Tell me what it's for. If I like what I hear then maybe I'll give it to you." The shop keeper smiled a mean smile that could make any person's day go sour. Sakura thought about it. Finally she decided there wasn't any harm in telling her what they were doing, in fact she felt a sort of pride when she thought about it.

"I need it for an invisibility potion. I'm trying to get into Witch's Meadow, find some blue gnarl."

"Those are rumors girl. Nothing but rumors."

"And I'm gonna check if they're true. Nothing wrong with that." Sakura was already losing hope in getting the extract when she heard a voice coming from behind her.

"I'll pay for her extract. That is, of course, if she takes me with her." She turned around abruptly and found the knight standing there smirking as if he had no worries in the world. Sakura was wondering if she should let him pay for her extract and take him with her. And if she did that what would it mean for the team? Can they trust him?

"And why, exactly, would you do that?" Sakura asked for more information. The knight turned his gaze towards her.

"I need to get to Witch's Meadow. So I buy that extract for you and you show me the way." He said. Sakura thought it over.

"You scratch my back, I scratch yours. I like the way you think."

"Hold on! How do we know if we can trust this guy? There's no way in hell I'm letting him come along, sweetpea." Pip interfered. For him this this business seemed a little too convenient.

"Don't worry little fairy, I'm not gonna hurt your mender." The knight tried.

"Who you calling 'little fairy' you dumbass?" Once again Pip's temper got the best of him. The knight couldn't do anything but be surprised. Mender fairies weren't usually this aggressive.

"Pip shut up! He's coming with us whether you like it or not, we need the extract." With that being said Pip decided this wasn't worth fighting over and shut up. The knight bought the extract and gathered his things.

"So what's your name anyway?" Sakura asked.

"I'm Sir Sasuke Uchiha of the Queen of the North at your service, and you?" His gallant answer made Sakura swoon a little in her shoes.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, a magic mender." They shook hands and smiled at each other. Sakura couldn't help but notice how good looking he was, how gallant, how sweet. And Sasuke noticed a few things in Sakura too, how her eyes would sparkle when she smiled, how her hair was a lovely pink color which meant that she must have meddled with it when she was a child. In truth, Sakura didn't meddle with her hair at all, that's how she was born but people always assume when they meet her and they learn she's a magic mender that she did it to herself. Only Pip knows how many hurt knights, menders, humans, dwarves, elves and what not he had to nurse back to health after Sakura gave them one of her magical treatments in her state of anger. Her hair wasn't something she liked to talk about.

"Ok! So it's a done deal. Give me the extract, shop keeper." The knight said stepping forward and going for his leather pouch.

"You gonna get yourselves killed that's what you gonna do with this damn extract, I tell you. But fine! Be it your way, as long as I get my money." The shop keeper said while she was looking for the raspberry extract. Sasuke paid her the 15 golden coins and the three new friends stepped outside.

"So why do you wanna get to Witch's Meadow?" Sakura asked. Pip listened. They were walking over to Drago together.

"A personal problem I have to take care of." He answered. "Problem is, I never even heard of it let alone know where it is."

"You've never heard of Witch's Meadow? Where did you grow up, boy, in The North?" Pip said.

"Yeah, actually." The North and The South of the realm were two very different parts of the world. They were divided by a wide sea called Bahari which was very hard to cross both for people and traditions. Everything was different about them, religions, gods, kings and queens, politics. The South had the menders and the healers, the fairies and the elves. The North had the knights and the fighters, the giants and the dwarves. There were never any wars between them. The South and The North have been living in peace for over centuries and that's only because of the Great Bahari. One common God. The sea.

"Wow, really? How did you cross Bahari?" Sakura asked impressed by this northern stranger.

"With a ship. We started out with 50 men. Only 7 survived. The waves were unimaginable and the creatures were everywhere but we finally made it. We wanted to prey to our gods for the lost men but we couldn't find a temple."

"You're not gonna find one of those here. Only the ones to God Bahari." Pip answered to Sasuke's story while Sakura was busy taking the food out of her travel pouch.

"That's what we did. We went into one of those. I came here following a rumor about Witch's Meadow. It appears that rumor is true. So can you really take me to it?"

"Yeah, totally. We know these places like the back of our hands." Sakura answered through a mouthful of cheese. "Eat up guys, we have to get to the dragon stables and drop Drago off."

"And why do we need to do that exactly?" Pip asked.

"Well we can't take him with us, silly. We can't ride him now that there's two of us riding so we'll have to walk. It's better for his wing anyway." Pip and Sasuke looked at each other. There was a long way between them and Witch's Meadow and now they had to walk there too.

"So tell me more about this meadow. Why is it so famous?"Sasuke asked.

"Well, there are a number of reasons. First, that's the only place you find witches-"

"Well aren't you a witch? I don't understand." Sakura was interrupted by the knight, very rudely so, she thought.

"No, I'm not a witch. I'm a magic mender, I deal with potions and some wand stuff that I'm not very good at. Nevertheless those are my affinities. Witches are tall, green creatures that roam the night looking for something to sacrifice to their gods. They eat human flesh sometimes, or they serve it to their gods. A witch is no good. A mender minds their own business."

"Not if it's you. The gods know you never minded your own business." Pip said and Sakura smiled knowingly.

"Anyway, as I was saying: first is for the witches. Second, for the untamed dragons. Witch's Meadow is one of the few locations you can find dragons in. That's where my sweet little Drago is from. Got him when he was an egg, trained him up real good. And then there is of course the few medical herbs that you can find there and only there." Drago, upon hearing his name did a little turn of the head from his fish and looked at them for a few minutes. He was a large creature but not large enough to carry two people. He was covered in red and black scales and his tail had two tiny wings for direction during his flights. Despite his large figure and his scary looking scales, Drago was gentle creature who listened to his trainer and lived for her. There was a lot of effort put into that bond coming from both sides.

"I see. So this Witch's Meadow is quite a dangerous place then." Sasuke commented.

"Quite so, boy. That's why I'm so against it. But if she goes there, I go there." Pip responded and Sasuke could swear that if Pip would have hands he would be banging his fists against his chest right now.

"That's a strong bond you two share."

"We've been together for 14 years. Ever since she was 6 and she was still talking to the stars outside her window. I taught her everything she knows. From a simple flower growing potion to pure, deathly poison." While they were talking Sakura was busy taking care of Drago. Having a dragon was a lot like having a horse these days. You had to feed it, train it, wash it and it was a lot better too because in the past it was frowned upon to have a dragon as a pet. It was thought to be dangerous. In some ways it is. But a lot has been discovered about dragons since then and Sakura always thought that if it's not a little dangerous then it's not worth her time.

"Alrighty fellas. Let's talk strategy." She said sitting back down. Her two companions came closer to listen properly. "First we drop Drago off at the dragon stables, that's not gonna take long, a day's walk maybe. Then we have to get the Poper seeds. We do this first cause it's closer to the stables. Now we don't want to scare the flowers or they turn invisible. What we can do is sneak up on them from behind, feed them a bee then they'll trust us and while they're eating we can snatch the Poper seeds. And the last step is getting the chameleon skin. We'll have to catch two of them cause I need one skin for the potion I'm developing. For that we go into The Forest of the Fairies. We catch the Chameleons, I'll skin them myself. You got it?"

At the end of her long speech they both nodded. And just like that a new adventure was starting.