It took another half hour, or maybe even an hour, for Ewan to finally calm down.
His mind, torn between anger, incomprehension, anguish and horror, had been plunged in a state of total confusion.
Then, his stupor gone, something strange had occurred to him.
"But... Wynblow... How do you know all this?" He asked while turning to the dragoness.
"How do I know what?" She asked in turn, clearly confused.
True. She said she didn't know much of her own life, and that she had 'remembered' that incantations existed. So, could it be that...?
"Magic," he said. "You said you remembered that the incantations existed. Isn't that what you said? "
"Y...Yes?" Said she, still confused as ever.
She obviously didn't see where he was going with this question.
"Wynblow!" He exclaimed, smiling as he took a step towards her.
This had the effect of making the dragoness flinch on the spot, for lack of being able to step back or stand up.
"W... What?" She said as she lifted and pulled her head back.
"You remembered!" He exclaimed. "Which means you recalled something you'd forgotten!"
She was silent for a moment, seeming to analyze what he had just said, until a look of surprise crossed her face.
"Oh!" She exclaimed in turn. "I remembered!"
She was now wild with joy, and if she could have, she would surely have jumped around. This relieved Ewan, in a way. The little girl he'd saved was already terrified of the dragoness, so it would surely have made the situation worse to see this monster flailing around.
His excitement momentarily subsiding, he thought aloud:
"So... You've recovered a memory you'd forgotten..." He reasoned. "A memory that must most certainly be part of that whole period of your life that you forgot about."
He began to walk back and forth in front of Wynblow, focused.
"Which means those memories haven't entirely disappeared, and they're still there." He continued, lowering his head, and bringing his hand to his chin.
Then, as if he had just had an epiphany, he raised his head, and turned to the dragoness.
"Wynblow!" he exclaimed. "Could something have triggered the return of that memory?"
"Like what?" She wondered in return.
"That's exactly what I'm asking you!" Ewan insisted, "Something must have stirred up your memory!"
"I... I see..." Wynblow said, confused again. "But... Nothing comes to mind... Really..."
"Nothing at all?" Ewan was astonished.
Wynblow shook her head and answered in negative.
This depressed Ewan a little. He was sure he had a lead to help her recover her memory. But if she had no idea how that memory came back, then it was going to be difficult. He had even secretly hoped that they wouldn't have to go all the way to the north of the continent. But in the lack of concrete evidence of what had happened, and the fact that it could just as easily have been a fluke, there wasn't much choice.
And then, another thing had now crept into the young man's mind.
Was this creature... still there?
For if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that he could not stop such a monstrous being on his own. He even doubted that a lone hunter could do it.
"Say, that creature..." Ewan began, concerned. "Is it still there?"
Wynblow opened and closed her jaw several times, seeming to hesitate about what she wanted to say.
"About that..." She said not without avoiding looking him in the eye. "Maybe I should have said something to you."
She suddenly seemed to look guilty of something, which annoyed Ewan a little; who felt the blood rush to his ears.
"I'm all ears..." He said slowly, with an exasperated tone.
"It... It's better that I show you..." She added. "And for that, there is only one way."
Show him directly? What did she mean by that?
As if to urge him on, Wynblow began to stand up, and slowly began to stir her wings.
"You shouldn't move so much, with that wound of yours..." he remarked.
"I'll be fine, I won't have to use my legs too much," she said in a detached tone.
"I... Do not understand what you're trying to do..." Said he, somewhat confused.
The dragoness then gestured with her head towards her own back.
He... Was afraid to understand, there.
"Oh no. You won't make me do that..." He protested, taking a step back.
This was out of the question. Not in a million years.
"If you want to see what I have to show you, you don't really have a choice here..." Wynblow insisted, while now approaching the young man.
"I... Still prefer a spoken report than a direct view of the facts," he said hastily, taking a step back.
"Simply telling you will clearly not have the same effect as showing you," she said, taking a step toward him. "You simply won't believe me if I don't show you."
"Yes, I will! I'll believe you," he replied quickly, taking a step back again. "Tell me everything!"
Wynblow frowned then, as if she didn't understand his reluctance to get on her back. But Ewan would not budge. He wouldn't.
And to emphasize that fact, he sat on the floor with his arms crossed.
"Tell me," he ordered. "Now."
The dragoness seemed very disappointed by this gesture, and slowly sat down as well, while being careful not to put all her weight on her injured leg.
"You'll believe me, right?" She asked with a voice full of doubt.
Ewan nodded, looking straight into the eyes of the dragoness.
Wynblow then took a quick look at the little girl who was still asleep against Fusain - despite all the racket they'd been making for the past few minutes - then turned her attention back to the young man.
"The creature from the root world is probably still there, but it's not the same at all," Wynblow began, "It... Has grown."
"Excuse me?" Ewan exclaimed, taken aback. " It... 'Grew up'?"
"And not just a little..." She continued. "The truth is, I went back to fly over the area the next day after I rescued you. I wanted to make sure that the creature wouldn't come after us. But what I saw..."
She then remembered flying over what was left of Bohr's village in the middle of the night in complete darkness, looking for the glowing color of the creature. It was probably the only thing she would have managed to see, in this night where the moon was barely reappearing. The preceding evening had been a moonless one, where the darkness was even more intense than at that moment.
But even if one looked carefully, the red light that should have been visible even from miles away was no longer present in the village.
Perhaps the creature had gone back to where it came from?
She took a little more height in the air, to get a better view of the whole area, and then saw a red glow at the foot of the nearby mountain.
Curious.
Had the creature moved there?
Which meant it was most likely moving away from the village.
On this assumption, she then looked behind her, in the direction of the village... And saw with surprise that another red spot was present; a few kilometers after the ruins where Ewan and the little girl had almost died the day before.
'Could the creature have split into two?' Wynblow thought, a ball of anxiety forming in her stomach.
No, she had never heard of such a thing. But 'anything from the root world would defy the laws of nature,' a voice in her mind said. It was possible, then.
But then something drew her gaze to the right. Just out of the corner of her eye, she had spotted a third bright spot.
'There are three now?!' she mentally panicked.
Or... Was what she was seeing...?
She had a very bad feeling, and flew up in the air some more, until she was flying over the whole county of Kells and the county of Barbrun, where the village of Bohr was located.
And what she had feared was finally revealed to her.
All around the ruins of Bohr, a huge circle of fire, several kilometers long, was moving, like a huge snake going in and out of the ground.