27

I would need to stop whenever I started to feel tired. I needed to have enough energy to flee or fight if something happened. I prefer fighting. That didn't mean I would be lucky enough to end up in a situation where fighting would be an option. It didn't take me long to notice the drone following me.

My lip curled up in agitation.

{What do you two think?} I snorted tendrils of smoke.

{Leave him,} Savannah couldn't see the drone like I could, {He's not worth the time or trouble.}

I shook my head as I turned my eyes back forward. Sending a tremor down my entire spine. Hours passed peacefully while in flight. I blew flames on them once when I found a nice air current. Warming them up.

Their armor absorbed, and held the fire mana. I could feel the cold but it was more of a minor inconvenience then an actual problem. I ignored the drone like Savannah suggested. It wasn't close enough for me to hear so it wasn't that hard to ignore. They probably didn't know I'd spotted it.

Around the five hour mark I started to get winded. I glanced back, and Ethan nodded. It was time for us to descend. I coasted down slowly. My fingers outstretched as they reached for the ground.

The landing was soft. Causing a plume of loose snow to flare up around me. I heated my body up, and melted all the nearby snow. Using the water that resulted from the melting to create a makeshift shelter of ice. Burying us in the snow with a quick lash of my tail.

Nothing would be able to see us from above. I settled down to relax. We'd stay here for a couple hours before continuing to move south. Ethan laid down in close to my chest to get a little sleep. Savannah was too alert to sleep.

"Have you tried shadow manipulation yet?" I watched her as she experimented with her flames.

"Shadow manipulation," Savannah's flames went out, "I can manipulate shadows?"

"Watch," I smirked in amusement.

I let my magic flow into Ethan's shadow before stepping into his shadow. The shadow expanded to allow me in until I was completely in the shadow space. I watched Savannah's surprised expression with amusement. I slowly stuck my head back out of Ethan's shadow.

"It takes less mana to manipulate shadows," I slowly crawled out of Ethan's shadow, "If you give a shadow too much mana then it'll turn corrosive. Eating everything around it." I chuckled, "If you can stretch a shadow enough to touch another one then you can move into the other shadow."

I found it amusing that my impressive bulk could disappear into such a small shadow. I didn't take me long to rest up properly. I woke Ethan, and pulled him to his feet roughly. Ethan wasn't all that worried about being roughed up the way he was. It was basically the only way to wake him once he was asleep.

I wrapped my tail around his mid section, and set him down in his notch. Being sure to breath flame over them both before we took off. My flames would keep them warm until I decided to land again. We lapsed into a pattern of flight, break, and then flight again. Savannah, and Ethan took turns napping.

We went a full day away from the guild without finding anything at all. That made me suspicious. I should have seen something by now. Yet there was nothing. Not a single sign of hunting or leavings.

No cleared out caverns or flattened out spots for nesting.

"I don't think the nest is this way," I frowned.

"You think they tricked Eric?" Savannah climbed up my spikes until she could stand on my horns.

"I don't know why he took their intelligence for granted," I flicked my tail through the trunk of a smaller tree, "He was the one that did all the work to alter them after all."

I managed to spook out a few beasts that looked like six legged foxes. They weren't much bigger then wild rabbits. The snow just opened up for them. Swallowing them a second later as they disappeared into the snow.

"How long are they expecting us to be gone?" I allowed my eye to drift back up to the drone that had been following us this whole time.

"At least another day," Savannah eyed me suspiciously, "Why?"

"It's about time we find out more about our enemy," I stood up slowly.

I hadn't tested the submission method of taking on Savannah's personality yet. I'd need to learn how to do it soon. At the very least I'd need to test it out before I relied on it. All I needed to do now was lose the drone. That was the easy part.

I smiled slyly as I looked up at the drone. That drone had no good way to track me anyway. Not once it lost sight of me. I didn't care how good it was a zooming in. Even if it did have infrared.

There were ways to trick an infrared sensor. I opened a portal, and dove through. Savannah clung to my horns like it was the end of the world. She hadn't expected me to dive through the portal. I'd opened a portal straight to the spot above where I'd fought the wyverns.

Circling down to the ground quickly. I plowed into the deepest snowdrift. Disappearing from sight. Creating an ice shelter beneath the snow. The shelter was barely bigger then I was.

I switched to my human form suddenly. Dropping both Savannah, and Ethan. Ethan caught himself. I caught Savannah in a princess carry. Setting her down gently.

"Why didn't you just go back to the guild?" Savannah looked at me in confusion.

"It's time to sneak in, and get some real information," I stopped myself from snarling, "Because those wyverns aren't in the south. They're somewhere, and I think I'll get a better idea of where they could be holding up when I find out just what Eric did to alter them."