With the fruit picked and the long walk made back down the hill side to the village and back to the house, Reikon plonked the basket of pickings down on the table with a sigh of relief, her feeble arms burning from carrying the weight. Her 'mother' who had gotten back a few minutes of Reikon, either already recovered or, more likely, unphased by carrying her own basket had already set to work preparing the fruit for pickling to last them through the winter months. Reikon too started pulling out some jars, but mother stopped her.

Falere: "No no dear, we're behind, the boys are already back with their catch, I'll carry on with this, can you start preparing some vegetables for supper please"

Reikon: "Yes, Ma ma..." She replied, actually some what happy about that request,... she hated pickling more than she did cooking, "...You say the boys are back?" as she grabbed some carrots from the pantry and placing them on the table. Before Falere had a chance to reply there was a bang of something hitting the table, a wooden sword, making Reikon jump, followed by a childish roar from her little step brother, Magnus, she gritted her teeth and growled at him, a little more Dragon like than she had intended. Magnus, the little 8 year old terror, turned to her from his previous cute victory pose of bulging his imaginary biceps, ran, span and jumped sitting on the table next to Reikon.

Magnus: "How do you growl so well?!" Reikon, trying her best not to look at him while answering,

Reikon: "Years of practice..."

Magnus: "Can you teach me?!" He shouted back enthusiastically, being too close it made her ears ring and she had to lean away slight in pain,

Reikon: "Not something I can teach you, no."

Magnus: "Why not?" he asked, a little disappointment in his voice.

Reikon: "Because..." she said now finally looking up at him "...Because the years of practice requires an annoying little brother" she said with a cheeky smile and a wink. Magnus giggled and leapt of the table and Falere finally caught up with the conversation,

Falere: "Ah little Magnus, where is your father?" The little boy stopped in his run and turned to reply to his mother.

Magnus "Pa pa? he's erm..."

Herleif: "Right here!" a booming voice came into the house as 'Father' rounded the corner of the room, the tall, relatively muscular man strode in, his catch tied with rope hung over his shoulder as he rounded the table to give a quick peck on the lips to his wife.

Falere: "I see your hunt was successful" she stated, noting the small dear that hung from his shoulder.

Herleif: "Indeed, quite a little hunter we have there in the making..." pointing at little Magnus "...he spotted it before I did!" Magnus pulled a hands on hips pose with a triumphant look on his face again.

Reikon: "Don't let it go to your big head little brother, you still have a long way to go and your head's already big enough as it is!" Reikon said mockingly, sticking her tongue out at him, he dropped his pose, stuck his tongue out back and ran off.

__________

The evening proceeded rather uneventfully, they sat down at the table, father blessed the table and they ate, Reikon ate quicker than normal, she wanted to get going... well part of her did... She had been with this little family for the past 12 years, even helped raise little Magnus from a baby, because of that she felt she had the strongest connection to him and would miss him most. And if this was to be her last night on this island, she wanted to savour this moment... this was her family... the only ones who have sheltered her for over a decade, she was in by no ways young, 54 to be precise, still very, VERY, young by the standards of Dragons, although in this body, she looked mid 20s by human standards. But therein lies the issue... she looked as though she hadn't grown a day older in those 12 years. Although her powers and body had been stripped of her, she was still able to talk Draconian and was beginning to wonder if her Draconian life span still applied to her. In which case she would outlive everyone in this village, even little Magnus by a long time.

In that moment of realisation, that was it, she had to leave. She started to stand up, Falere turned to her,

Falere: "Where do you think you're going?" Reikon stopped her movement looking down at the table, not wanting to upset her or cause argument,

Reikon: "May I be excused please? I need some time to think to myself."

Falere: "You're not going anywhere until we've cleaned this table up." Falere said disapprovingly. Reikon was about to retort, but closed her mouth again and started picking up her dish but stopped when father's cheery voice boomed over the table,

Herleif: "Nonsense!, Go Reikon, you may be excused."

Falere: "Herleif?!" she snapped at him, calling him by name was a rarity even for Falere. He turned to and replied to her objection,

Herleif: "Something is troubling the girl, you can see it in her eyes, one night off every once in a while will do no harm... I will help with the table tonight." He added that last bit on to appease Falere, who was going to reply them stopped, she turned back to Reikon and gave a little nod of approval. Reikon Smiled put her plate back down, quietly said thank you and left the room. She snuck out the front door, out of the village and up the hill, pausing mid way to take in the view of the village... maybe she didn't hate this place as much as she originally thought. She ducked her head and continued up to her meeting point.

Skylen was laid on the ground, much like a dog would, bored out of his mind, he had checked the time on on his Bracelet, 7 hours since Reikon had left him, he had been rained on at one point, he had even dozed off at another point but was awoken by a small flock of birds making a racket in the trees above... what nice snacks they were too he mused to himself. Then he heard a rustling of the nearby bushes, he silently stood on all fours, preparing to run and hide so as not to get caught. Then came the calming voice he knew too well,

Reikon: "It's only me, my love..." Reikon then appeared from the bushes, that same smile as earlier appeared across her face. "...Come on." she beckoned him, nodding her head in the direction she came through the bushes and slid back through herself. Skylen did as he was asked and followed her through, getting caught more than she, given his slightly larger size. She was waiting for him on the other side,

Reikon: "See up there?..." She pointed to the top of the nearby ridge where there was a waterfall "... Can you get us up there?" He nodded, turned slightly to expose his back and gestured her to hop on. She did so without hesitation and she barely had time to find any sort of grip other than laying down and gripping around his neck before he launched hard and fast off the ground, she gave a little squeal of fear and screwed her eyes shut as he did so. She gripped on for dear life, the tightness of her grip emphasising the large muscles working beneath her, especially in his back around his wings, to keep this creature in the air. Mere seconds passed before they landed, opening her eyes and sliding off his back,

Reikon: "Phew" she panted, brushing some escaped wind swept hair from her face, realising that she had lost her head scarf during her flight.

Skylen: "I didn't scare you, did I?" Skylen asked mockingly. She tried to show she was being serious by looking through her eye brows at him. But the distressed look she had from being blasted by air was not helping the situation, Skylen struggled to hold back a chuckle, and upon hearing that Reikon couldn't hold a straight face anymore and started laughing herself,

Reikon: "It's been a long time since I was in the air, and I almost fell off!"

Skylen: "Even if you had, you know I wouldn't have let you fall." he grinned back.

Reikon: "I know... you would have been right where I needed you." she smiled back. Skylen paced over to nuzzle the side of her face she smiled feeling his hot breath breathing down her neck. She pulled back and gave him a kiss on the lips... which was actually more awkward than she had imagined, given the difference in sizes of their mouths and her awkward extruding Human nose,

Reikon: "I have missed you." she said, not ruining the moment placing her head on top of his snout and closed her eyes for what seemed like ages. Skylen was the one this time to pull back, looking around him,

Skylen: "Why bring us up here anyway?"

Reikon: "This is where I regularly come to sit and relax on my own, some times sleep, think about the past, the present and how it could have been, and our future..." She replied "... I think the villagers know about it, but there's nothing here for them, the clean water feeds the river below so we get our fresh water from there. There's only a small path up here, would have been too tight for you, but you have wings and it was quicker anyway." She stated sticking her tongue out cheekily, he smiled and shrugged his shoulders,

Skylen: "Being a full dragon has it's benefits." he winked back,

Reikon: "Shut up..." she replied, smile fading slightly "... besides... the view is nice..." she stated looking out upon the valley and the village deep below and Skylen stepping up beside her "...kinda reminds me of the palace views back home." She continued. She turned away and started walking toward the cave entrance, Skylen in tow.

Reikon: “Speaking of the palace… How’s my mother? Do I ever come up in conversation?...” There was no reply noting but silence except for the water rushing past them, she stopped and looked back at Skylen, who had his head bowed down looking very sorrowful “...What’s happened?” She asked taking in his look, now worried.

Skylen: “Your mother… you know she was older and frail… Your banishment… It… took it’s toll on her more than she wanted to admit…” Tears now welling up in Reikon’s eyes, she knew where he was going with this but let him finish anyway, “...it was only a few weeks after, but it became too much for her to bare… and… I’m sorry...” he said, head still hung “...I know she was the one who made the ruling to banish you, but she didn’t want to… you know she still loved you.” Reikon sniffed and wiped her tears away.

Reikon: “I know, but no matter… but I’m guessing that can only mean one thing...” Rage starting to fill her voice, Skylen raised his head slightly “...in my absence, my bitch of a sister has claimed the thrown, hasn’t she?...” Skylen again dropped his head and nodded to the floor. “...I’m gonna kill her...” the rage continued, Skylen raised his head to these words,

Skylen: “You’ll never get to her!”

Reikon: “Are you protecting her?!” She snapped back.

Skyen: “Far from it, I’m protecting you!…” He replied in defence “...She is under protection of the Honour Guards constantly, and the Vanguard, you’ll never make it past them all, even with my help.” Reikon reached down her top, beside her fleshy mounds and pulled out the cloth containing the shard…

Reikon: “Which is why you brought me this!...” she unravelled the cloth and the Shard fell into her hand still slightly shocking her, she growled her way though the pain which after a few moments resided. “...With this, I, sorry, WE, stand a chance!” Skylen looking a bit worried at Reikon’s brash actions merely nodded again,

Skylen: “But… even if we over throw her… Draconia, it’s people,... I doubt most will want to follow you after, and what ever is left of the Vanguard after the coup will want revenge”. Reikon relaxed slightly, taking in her lover’s words, looking down at the Shard in her hand, he was right, getting revenge on a spoilt brat of a sister was one thing, but being able to rule successfully from the throne was something completely different.

Reikon: “What are you suggesting?” she asked inquisitively, drawing her gaze from the shard back to Skylen.

Skylen: “We need an army, one to wipe out and replace the Vanguard, one that will follow your rule.”