Everything was quiet. It had been three days since the kids had started to accompany them, and they were no longer in the lushly forested area that had surrounded the ruined city where they had found the kids.
Instead, it was a barren land. A desert stretched for miles forward and to the sides as well, though behind they could still see the edge of green. The ground was so dry that cracks had spread across it, and bits of it crumbled and blew in the wind, giving a gritty texture to everything.
Dawn had never actually been in a desert before, and she did not particularly like it. Much as she did not like it, Raven hated it. Though he did not have to worry about it getting in his eyes. Pretty much everyone disliked it, Lowks was the only person who seemed rather apathetic to it.
But it would take longer trying to go around so they braved the place and hoped that they had enough water. Due to the flatness and high visibility for all the surroundings the rangers did not bother with scouting as they would have to go too far away to attempt at spotting things coming up that they could not just see from being with the rest of the group. Besides if they did run into something dangerous there were not many places to hide here.
Tira had given them all advice on how to keep from spending too much energy and avoiding excess lost of liquids. If it had not been for her, Dawn would not have thought twice about traveling throughout the day. Due to the intervention though they had swamped to night travel.
It had taken some getting used to, but Dawn felt more acclimated to it now. It was cold but Dawn actually found that a little nice. Though it did make her really want her husband just to cuddle with him. Arrion had been a good cuddler, being able to change into fluffy warm balls of fur was definitely one of his specialties.
It was not all that surprising that it was so quiet at the moment. There were very few animals here and none of them were saying anything. It was more a companionable silence though, as the biggest reason that they were being quiet was because the kids had all fallen asleep.
Dawn felt her lips curve into a smile as she glanced at the sight of Raven cuddling Rex in his arms. There was such a look of happiness on her friend's face that she could not help but smile.
Everything felt so peaceful, under the dark sky lit with a million stars. Dawn lifted her head to look at it, thinking to herself that Arrion would have loved to see them. She could still remember him waking her up in the middle of the night and dragging her to the roof, pointing out the constellations and near waxing poetic on how he viewed the specks of light.
Arrion had loved everything about life. He had never slowed down. And he had been deadset on dragging her along. She wondered to herself why he had loved her so when she was so different from him. She wished that she had been able to get over her childhood quicker and at least give him the satisfaction of knowing she loved him.
Her heart felt so heavy all of a sudden, nothing like how lighthearted it had felt a minute ago. But she would not stop thinking about her dear shapeshifter and missing him even if she could. It was the least she could do for him.
As she peered up at the stars, trying desperately not to break down in tears she found herself wishing, not for the first time, that this was all a bad dream and that she would wake up with Arrion holding her close and be able to tell him those words she desperately wished she had said at least once.
She lowered her head, taking her eyes away from those bright stars and focused on the mission she had set for herself. Every time she thought of the terrible thought that Arrion was no more her resolve to decapitate those who had set his demise in motion grew twice as strong.
She did not actually hate Nix'Rylians as a whole, as she understood where they were coming from, but she could not understand just blaming complete strangers and going after them for the way their life was. Especially, when the complete stranger would have gladly helped them like Arrion would have (He had a track record for going out of his way to help people).
But she did believe that if they were willing to commit the atrocity then they should be prepared to pay the price. Which she planned to carve straight out of their flesh.