Late the next morning, Craydon and Meryda went to the bottom floor for breakfast.
From a table, the smiling Fae waved them, and they went to it. Meryda hugged the happy green being, and Craydon asked, "Where are our supplies, you lazy plant? You forgot, didn't you?"
"We did not! We already put everything inside the bags the Karkadanns have on their backs. All is set for your voyage. Eat up; you have a lot of hours to fly!"
When Craydon was grabbing a piece of bread, a voice called his attention from behind: "May I have a word with you, young Monster Tamer?"
Meryda and her father looked back, and a Demi-Dog middle-aged man was looking at them, bearing a weird grin on his lips, adorned by a long, curvilinear dark moustache. He was expensively dressed, with clothes embodied with shining gems and a long, dark red cape, which was dragging on the floor and was accompanied by two guards, in full body armour and bearing shields and swords.
With a wave of his hand, he declared, "I am the Count in charge of the lands around. You may address me as-"
With a serious look on her face, Meryda interrupted the man, "And why did you call me Monster Tamer? I am just a normal girl travelling with my father to see my family."
"A normal girl wouldn't be able to tame two Karkadanns, would she?"
"Unless she was an Earth Mage, you mean? Last time I checked, being an Earth Mage is quite different from being a Monster Tamer." Meryda answered while signalling to her small Emptiness which was hiding under the table, to stay still.
The man looked at the staff with a brown crystal on top, which Meryda had leaned on her chair, and he said, "You mean… You are an Earth Mage? That could explain how you caught and tamed such Monsters! When I heard a young lady and her father arrive in the city riding two Karkadanns, and since I heard a few rumours about a powerful Monster Tamer who lives in our country…"
"What rumours? We heard no rumours!" The Fae exclaimed, faking surprise.
"An Ooman army going after a Monster Tamer, one the envoys sent to this country to gather supplies called, and then ordered them to retreat upon meeting that Monster Tamer. Soldiers retreated not because of those orders, but because a wall of Fae stood in their way. Those rumours." He said as he signalled for his men to approach the surprised Meryda.
Suddenly, from the ground, came sharp vine spikes that pointed to the heads of the man and the two guards. With the most serious look on their face that Meryda had ever seen, the Fae said in a low, rough voice, "You will now leave. Meryda is under our protection. Unless you want to become manure to fertilise the farms around, you will forget about this conversation and deny it any time you hear such rumours. You will say those rumours are all lies, and it never happened. Understood?"
The man became pale while looking at the sharp vine pointed at his throat and said, "But… Fae never attacked anyone… or protected anyone…"
As suddenly as they appeared, the sharp vines faded into the ground, and the puzzled Fae asked, "Who is attacking you? We see no one! We are just talking, right?"
"But… but…"
While sitting in the chair again and grabbing a cup of milk, the Fae said, "You were about to leave, weren't you?"
The now-scared man vigorously nodded and rushed to the exit, followed by his men. Craydon looked at the serious Fae and said, "You are deviating quite a bit from your usual non-violent side, aren't you?"
"We have no idea what you are talking about! We just protected Meryda and scared away a weird man in the process. Now, more eating and less talking! It seems you are not safe here, so better continue your voyage as soon as possible. We will make sure you get to the Karkadanns safe and sound, but you should take off as soon as you climb on their backs, just in case."
Without a word, Craydon grabbed a cloth, put inside of it pieces of bread, and pulled Meryda up, going for the exit door while calling out, "Let's go, you weird plant! We are wasting time here!"
Outside, and all along the street that led to the stable, a line of Fae was there, serving as an escort. The people who were also in the street or inside the shops or houses were staring at the strange sight, wondering what was happening for such an elusive and mysterious being to be in their City in such great numbers.
In mere minutes, Craydon and Meryda exited the stable, with the Karkadanns running at full speed along the street while flapping their monstrous dark wings.
As they took off, every guard and soldier in the City found themselves surrounded by sharp vines pointed at them.
Before his Karkadann left the ground, Craydon heard the Fae shouting at him, "Probably better if you try to avoid Cities from now on, you old man! Even if your back is about to kill you!"
"Shut up, you ugly tree! Go call old man to whoever birthed you!"
"How rude! That is no way to talk to someone who has saved you twice already!"
As they were flying, Meryda asked, "Father, do you think that if we stay in another City or a village, this will happen again? Someone will come after me? What did that man want, anyway?"
"I have no idea what he wanted. Maybe deliver you to the Alliance to get a reward? Or maybe he wanted to make you work for him. It is probably better if we do like the Fae said and keep away from Cities and villages. Unless absolutely necessary, and in that case, you should wait for me with the Drakes, and I will go on foot to buy supplies. Or if the Fae appears again, I can ask them to buy it for us."
"They got kind of angry when you made them your maid, you know?"
"I don't care less. I never liked that weird plant," said Craydon with a shrug.
As they were flying side by side to the forest where the Drakes and her other Monsters were waiting, Meryda kept thinking about what that strange Count said, and what was implied in his words.
She held her staff tightly, the one the Guild Master gave her when he was training her. It was the only thing she kept from him, apart from the sad memories of his betrayal.
After they landed, they saw a Fae seated on the back of one Drake, and Meryda went to them after picking up her Salamander and her Slime, with the small Emptiness hovering a few centimetres from the floor.
Despite the enormous fly speed of the Karkadanns, the small, dark fog stayed under their shadows on the ground, easily matching their speed to get to the forest where Meryda's Monsters were waiting for her.
Craydon climbed the other Drake, and Meryda asked her green friend the moment she sat on the Drake's saddle, "Are you going to travel there? Won't you fall off?"
"It will probably be safe. This is not the first time we used these Monsters as a ride, you know? Usually, we sit right where you are, but this can also work. We hope!"
Meryda asked the Drakes to go into the sky, and the two Karkadanns took off immediately after them.
The rest of the day and the following days were peaceful, with only stops for lunch, dinner, and sleep.
The Fae would talk with Meryda during their flight and keep watch at night for her and her father to have a peaceful sleep.
After a few days, and by the end of one afternoon, Craydon saw some shadows on the ground, and they seemed like they were fighting. Approaching the smaller blur shadow, there was one enormous shadow, way larger than the other.
Lights were coming from the smaller shadow and hitting the enormous one, making it tremble and stumble, but still, it kept moving. Behind that group that was fighting, there was a City surrounded by tall walls.
From Craydon's point of view, it seemed that a bunch of people, together with some Mages, were fighting a pack of Monsters or animals, preventing them from going to the City.
He pointed down and shouted at Meryda, who was almost falling asleep, with her head leaning over the Drake's neck and with the Fae holding her in place, "Meryda! Wake up! There are people in trouble down there! I think they are fighting a group of Monsters!"
The sleepy Meryda yawned, and after rubbing her eyes, she looked down. She immediately shook her head to stop her sleepiness and said in a loud voice, "Karkadanns, go help them! Tell the Emptiness down there to help you, quick! Drakes! Dive! Stop those Monsters!"
Craydon flattened himself against the Drake's neck, doing his best not to fall back and die by falling to the ground. The rope that was tying him to his seat by his waist seemed not to do much to hold him tight against the Drake's neck at that speed.
The air was passing by too quickly for Craydon to breathe properly, and he couldn't even keep his eyes open. As if it were a dream, he heard Meryda shout, "Howling gale claws of the shiniest stone! Freezing abyss beam of the highest mountain! Obey my command! Avalanche of Rock!"
The sound of heavy rocks hitting the ground made him open his eyes, and he saw the soil dirtied with red, glowing blood and heavy rocks stuck deep in those glowing pools with pieces of meat and bones scattered all over.
Even with that carnage, the pack of Monsters was still going forward, and the group of fighters stood in their way, with the Mages doing their best to stop the scary stampede.
The Karkadanns and the small Emptiness stood between the pack of Monsters and the fighters, and the moment the Drakes landed, Meryda let her Salamander join the fight and shouted, "Everyone, stop them! Don't let those Monsters get any closer! Kill them all if you have to, but don't let them go forward!"
Craydon jumped to the floor so that his Drake could take off again and attack the pack while he joined Meryda and the Fae.
He frowned as he took a good look at the group of Monsters that were attacking. There were more than thirty of them, and they all looked like a canine of nightmares, half the size of a horse, with glossy black fur. There were some taller than the others, perhaps males. The teeth were absurdly sharp, and the front teeth were very long and so out of the mouth and downwards that they were more like knives than teeth. They all had large, flaming, saucer-sized red eyes, which were threateningly glowing.
Even with their size, they were extremely fast and agile and were evading the Magical attacks the Mages were throwing at them, and even arrows seemed to only hit the place where they once were instead of hitting any of them.
But despite their proneness to fight and evade, they were no match for furious Karkadanns and Drakes, backed up by a sneaky Emptiness who would melt any canine it could envelop and by a furious Salamander, who was blasting fireballs in every direction and hitting one of those Monsters every single time.
From his left, Craydon heard a Mage shouting, "Burning abyss lance of the simplest deep! Empress of highest pride, watch my rule! Obey my command! Spear of Water!" and he watched as a sharp spear made entirely of compressed water hit one of those scary canines, piercing him from one side to the other, killing him instantly.
Someone grabbed his shoulders and pushed him to the ground, seconds before a long wooden spear went above him, straight to a canine that was approaching at high speed.
Craydon looked back and thanked the serious Fae, receiving a slap on his forehead and a warning, "If you are not helping, stay down! Those soldiers don't care less if you are in their way or not! They are doing the best they can to stop the Black Shucks, and you are blocking their view!"
"I can't do much! I left my crossbow tied to the Drake's saddle!"
"One more reason for you to stay still and let Meryda and everyone else do all the work!"
Craydon covered his head with both hands while the Fae lay over him, shielding him with its green body.
From time to time, Craydon would try to peek, becoming astonished by the number of dead Monsters already on the floor, and the fight kept going with Magical attacks going over him, all sent against the pack of scary Monsters.
Then, he saw in horror two of those enormous canines evading a Drake's attack, next the Salamander, and going straight at Meryda. As if nothing was wrong in that situation, Meryda looked calmly at the two approaching menaces and began to glow. The two Monsters glowed in response, and they immediately stopped when she shouted, "Stay! Sit!"
The scary Monsters sat on their back legs, still glowing, and they didn't move until a Drake bit their heads off. The two headless bodies fell flat on the ground, and Meryda closed her eyes, trembling all over.