The second day flying, we hit a storm. Originally Brath tried to fly up above the clouds, but there was lightning and things that looked like things throwing lightning and in the end I guess he gave up trying to get above all of the chaos, because eventually he dipped back down into the rain. He seemed almost desperate to get away from the storm and he pushed himself, trying to fly straight through it, so we ended up in the air for almost two days straight.

I managed to get my goggles into my pack when it had first started raining and then lean over it a bit, but I'm pretty sure its wires are fried.

I mean, I was soaked through to the bone, so I doubt I was much of a deterrent for the rain. Which probably means that book is useless, too.

If karma is real, I'm in for a huge pay day any time now.

Or maybe this is punishment for working with Brath? He's more friendly, like genuinely friendly now, since my little declaration. It's like he thinks I'm as horrible as he is, so now we can be friends.

And I guess the prospect of freedom being a few short days away for him has helped give him energy to keep going.

The third night though, we landed, even though the tempest was still going. It was this charred out little island, covered with broken buildings and trash. The buildings sort of reminded me of Booty Bay, except they were made of metal. As we flew close to the ground, there were broken pieces of glass and metal getting whipped up by the winds and used as shrapnel. It was crazy.

Brath ended up landing near this giant mountain that I couldn't make out through the rain until we were pretty much right in front of it. There were some caves that he ran into with what looked like mining car tracks going through them. A few support posts and old, abandoned lanterns proved that it was a mining shaft, or whatever those are called.

So, I'd been used to riding on his back while he was flying, but it was really different when he was running along on all fours, his wings tucked around me. I think I would have been thrown off, if not for those wings.

When he finally stopped, he let me slide off and then he continued down the tunnel a few more paces and shook the layer of water on him off like a dog might. It was kind of cute and for a split second I could almost forget that he was a psychopath.

I tried to rub the water off of myself, but...well that wasn't happening. I didn't look into my pack, since I didn't want to find a mushy layer of muffin coating my other things. At least the water would be okay, I hoped.

Even as I tried to squeeze some of the water out of my hair—I could have just wrung it out if he hadn't cut it—he trotted over to me and sat down, still in his dragon form. He scraped his claws at the ground twice and then shook his head, his eyes narrowing.

"The ground is too tainted with oils to light a fire."

It took me a moment to realize the fire probably would have been for my benefit. I was too grumpy from being soaked and miserable to be very polite and I just kind of shrugged. I wanted to take my clothes off and let them dry, but I wasn't about to strip down in front of Brath. I don't care if he was a dragon, he could look like a human, too, and I didn't want him getting any weird ideas.

Brath regarded me for a moment and then darted around in a few quick circles, his claws kneading the ground, before finally settling down, curling his tail and neck toward one another. Just as I started looking around, wondering if I could find a sort of soft rock, he cleared his throat and I looked back to see he had one of his wings lifted in the air, an offer for me to curl up with him.

When I just frowned, he lifted his head. "I would keep that frail body of yours from succumbing to illness, if I can. I am no healer and should you succumb to something, this will have proven a great waste of my time."

It took a moment of internal struggle before I finally decided that I was too tired to care where I slept. So I wandered over and slumped against his scaly side. He settled his wing down over me and it was like having a warm leathery blanket. I have to say, I was a bit confused about how warm he was when he was supposed to be a reptile or something, but I decided that I really didn't care about dragon details as I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, I was super stiff. And I had scale imprints on one side of my face and along my arm—which was getting pretty tanned, by the way, with all the sun exposure and no sunscreen. My clothes had sort of dried and were also super stiff, from all the dirt and grime being caked into the fabric.

I'd worn what I thought would be sturdy leather boots when I'd decided to run through the portal, but I guess they were more for show than anything else, because they were starting to crack under the constant beating of the elements. Or maybe they're just not really leather. I wouldn't know.

Anyway, if Bethany could have seen me now, I doubt she would have recognized me, all scarred and dirty.

Well, I tried to slip out from under Brath's wing without waking him up, but I guess dragon wings are really sensitive or something, because the second I put my hands against it to push, suddenly it just flapped up away from me.

Brath laughed at me for jumping at his sudden movement. I tried to ignore him and stretch out. I really missed Booty Bay. At least there, I'd had a warm bed, even if it was someone else's.

It turned out that we were behind schedule. I guess even dragons show some concern for safety during thunderstorms, because he'd apparently slowed down his pace. And he was frustrated that this island—Kezan, I think he called it—was as far as we'd gotten.

However, just as I'd wandered toward the exit, seeing as it had stopped raining, to see if I could find some type of pond or stream or something nearby to at least wash my face, he merely trotted up and turned sharply so that I almost bumped into him. My pack dangled from his mouth and he held his head pointed toward me.

"There's another island, not a twenty minute flight from here," he spoke quickly, his teeth still clenched around my pack's strap. I took it from him and swung it over my shoulder, cringing as I heard a faint slosh inside of it and praying that that noise had been from the water skins. "This island is too entrenched with oils and waste to house food, but we'll be able to find something to eat at the next island."

That was all I needed to abandon my search and hop into the saddle. Recalling his human form, I have to wonder where his saddle goes when he transforms. And his reins, at that.

When we landed, I was kind of surprised that he almost dropped me into a small pond on the island, though he seemed to think better of it and just landed next to it. When I slid off, he looked me over once, then flicked his tail toward the pond. "Take a bath. You reek."

That said, he turned and trotted off into the forest.

I had to say, I was kind of confused about why he'd been avoiding his human form, since he seemed to not really care which one he took, but I think maybe he was trying to appear less threatening when he'd walked around as a human, before. Maybe it had been so that I'd feel like I could relate to a bipedal creature more easily and would go along with his little scheme. Now that there was no need, he seemed comfortable in his own, reptilian skin.

Even so, I waited a good five minutes before I was sure I couldn't see him in the trees or in the air before I stripped down and jumped in. Needless to say, much scrubbing was in order and I'm kind of amazed that the water wasn't permanently stained from all the dirt that I managed to wash out of my hair and off my skin. And once I wasn't covered in a layer of grime, I could see that my leg, where that felhunter had hurt it, was scarred pretty bad. No more shorts for me…

I considered washing my clothes, but then I didn't want to be stuck in wet cloth while I rode a dragon for a few hours again. Plus there were a few spots, like one of my knees, where it looked like the dirt might be all that was keeping it together. I really didn't need my one outfit unraveling on me.

So instead, I just shook them out as best I could, to get rid of the more decorative grossness. And then took another bath to get that dirt off me.

Afterwards, I opened my bag to inventory my damage. The muffins were indeed mush. And the turbulence of the ride had made sure to smear them on everything. I dropped the water skins in the pond to wash off the little bits of food, half wishing that I'd at least tried one before they were gone.

Then, I emptied out the bag—I was happy to learn that the book seemed water proof, by the way—and went about scraping out all the muffin remnants with a palm-sized leaf and some of the water. Once my belongings were as food free as they were gonna get, I refilled the empty skins with water from a little stream that led into the pond and set about inspecting my goggles.

I tried to turn them on, but nothing happened. Not even a sharp zap of electricity. They were long dead. Even so, I repacked them, figuring that what Fizz had said about them proving my other-worldliness would be relevant even broken.

I read up a bit on the different species in that journal and I have to say, Azeroth is just one giant hodge-podge of sentient species. I thought the cow people—tauren, I guess?—were pretty cool. Apparently they're really tough warriors, with honor, so I got to thinking maybe, if I found some, I could appeal to their better nature to get some help.

I mean, why not, right? What's the worst they could do? Tell me to go away? Kill me? At least I'd die trying.

That thought kind of depressed me. How lame would it be for me to spend all this time going through all this crap, just to die before I get anything done? That's the sort of regret that leaves people haunting places and there's no way I'm letting myself haunt anywhere outside of Earth.

That said, I started to wander near the edge of the woods—it was a pretty cool jungle type place, by the way, though that made me worry about those weird diseases that bugs carry in the jungles back home—to see if I could find Brath. Resting was not a luxury I wanted to afford myself, if I could help it.

In the end, I called his name out a few times and he came trotting back from wherever he'd been, a roasted something gripped in his jaws.

I have to say that I wish he wouldn't carry the food he catches in his mouth. I mean, I know that's probably the most convenient for him, but it gets his spit all over it and…dragon spit is still spit. It kind of grossed me out, but I just settled for peeling the skin off my meat.

"Take your time; it will not flee from you," Brath commented, looking amused.

So, I hadn't eaten in like two and a half days at that point. And it wasn't until I was chowing down on the poor animal that I realized how hungry I was. So I was sort of scarfing down the food when he said that.

I would have loved to have some sort of fruit, but I wasn't about to go asking my evil dragon ride for any. Besides, what if Brath did offer to find me something? Then we'd have been there even longer while he looked and then who's to say it wouldn't be poisonous to someone from outside of Azeroth?

When I was done, he ate what was left in two bites. Didn't even chew.

Even as he swallowed whatever it had been, my earlier thoughts on sentient creatures came rushing back and I felt myself blanching. "That…wasn't…"

Brath cocked his head, eyeing me curiously. After a moment, he trotted out to the sunny rocks next to the pond and settled down, seeming to enjoy basking in the warm rays. Maybe he was a giant lizard after all.

"Care you to finish your question?"

"That wasn't a person, was it?" When he turned his head to the side so that he could watch me with an unreadable expression, I tried to explain myself without making myself sound completely ridiculous. "Well, there are a lot of…types of creatures who can think and I was wondering—"

"If you'd just dined one someone you could have conversed with?" Brath swished his tail back and forth slowly. "As a human, no." When I frowned, he shifted around so that he could face me. "There are creatures here, druids, mostly, who can speak with animals and plants—"

"Plants?" I echoed. I'd never considered that my salad might have had a mind of its own and that made me feel a bit sick. Even worse if you considered that each vegetable was probably its own person. Suddenly meat eating didn't seem nearly as cruel.

"Yes, plants. Druids harness the power of nature and as a result, they can speak with it, though it wouldn't be in the sense of you and I talking right now. It's…magical, I suppose." Brath seemed smug that he could use so simple an explanation, but I took it regardless. As though to see if I would squirm further, he tapped the ground beneath him with a claw. "The very earth has a voice. Shamans can hear it. I can hear it."

I started to ask if he was a shaman, but stopped myself. "Because you're a dragon."

"A black dragon," he clarified. "We were charged with guarding the earth, long, long ago."

I walked over and sat next to him. I wanted to ask when we would be leaving, but he seemed in no rush. "So…why are people so against you and your…flight?" When he nodded I felt like I'd accomplished something, even if it was just remembering a name. "Why are they so against you if you're a guardian?"

"The earth is in pain," Brath whispered and for a moment he looked lonely. "It cries out in such agony…when one finds a wounded animal in the woods, crying such, one does not think twice about releasing it from its misery. The mortals of this world are selfish and cruel." His face darkened. "They think only of their own lives and not the price they pay to walk upon this tainted soil." He rested his head against the stone abruptly, a comforting motion, though I couldn't tell if it was meant for himself or the earth beneath him. "An end must be brought about. When there is nothing left to abuse this frail world, it will at last be at peace."

So I know I called him a psychopath before, but this just brought it to a whole new level. Destroying the world so that the dirt would be happy? I mean, maybe if it really has a personality or something I could see defending it, but…destroying all life?

He could see that I was not in agreement with his ideology. "It is a good thing you are of an other world. After you find your aid, you will leave and be one less insect to crush."

"Yay me," I mumbled before I could stop myself. He simply let out a short laugh and closed his eyes. I drummed my fingers against my knee as I looked around. "So…you're saying everything around us has to go? Like the trees and everything?"

When I looked back at Brath, he had opened one eye and was watching me. "You wish to argue on this matter? It is pointless. They have lived in this world far longer than you have and they are much more knowledgeable on this subject."

"They?"

"No one you need to concern yourself with."

I paused. "But they say you have to kill everything?"

"They do," Brath murmured, lifting his head and eyeing me.

"Do they realize that includes themselves?"

Brath blinked at me several times, seeming to consider what I was saying as a novel idea. At length, he shook his head as though to chase away such thoughts. "I am sure my father will handle such matters."

"Oh, right. The big dragon," I mused.

"The biggest."

And for once, Brath didn't sound condescending when he said it. He lay his head back down, and closed his eyes again. "I've a mind to fly straight through to the mainland once we're in the air again, so take a few hours to rest. I'd probably break you if I have to catch you because you're too tired and slip off me in flight."