Marcus regained his footing on the riverbed boulders, staring at the sky. He had no clue what could be so massive and could fly so fast as to topple both Layne and him from high up. He leaned around, looking through the sprawling gap in the canopy toward the sky filled with fluffy cumulous clouds. A distant tree crashed, then all became still again.

  But a low rumbling soon followed the silence. Engines, many of them, and they were big. Marcus followed the sound and found it coming from the direction in which the mysterious thing just flew.

  "Is it the Arcadians?" Layne called out; voice filled with panic.

  Marcus blinked and pointed himself in the direction of the noise. He was squared with the path of the riverbed. To his left, standing near where the gully intersected, was the Firestorm.

  "No." Marcus shook his head.

  The noise slowly grew louder, more booming.

  "If it were them, they would be coming from that direction." He pointed toward his upright. "I don't know who that is."

  A slow whooshing droned repeatedly overhead. Marcus again looked up through the gap in the canopy to find a gargantuan silhouette filling up the sky a fair distance up.

  As the thing occluded the sun, it revealed a great balloon attached to a sizable carriage beneath, and a huge propeller on its flat back. It had multiple cannon barrels jutting from the ports embedded on each side of its wooden hull. Netting led from its carriage up higher toward the balloon.

  "Is that a..." Marcus squinted. "Airship?"

  As it passed overhead, a stream of black smoke bellowed from the massive exhausts at the rear, darkening the sky.

  Layne looked at Marcus with wide eyes and then returned his attention toward the flying machines and shook his head. "I don't know, I've never seen one. Have you?"

  Two more, spotted through the gaps in the canopy farther away, flew in formation with the first, in 'V' shape, both higher in the sky than the leading ship.

  Marcus didn't look away but shook his head. "I haven't either. Just heard about them when I was younger." Then a sudden sense of dread lingered in his gut. He lowered his head and stared down the length of the riverbed, in the direction from which the airships came. "I need you to go check something out for me."

  Layne turned back to Marcus.

  "Take a look farther that way and see if there's anything else coming this way from over there." Marcus pointed to his front. He then turned and pointed in the direction which the airships traveled. "I'm going to see if there's anything over there."

  "What's on your mind?" Layne leaned and looked down the length of the riverbed.

  "I want to know if whatever they were chasing is going to bring more Arcadians our way." Marcus started inching toward the embankment stone by stone to get on solid ground. "And if it did, I want to know if it's still out there."

  Layne crossed his arms. "If you're so worried, why don't we just get out of here now?"

  Marcus shook his head after getting onto the forest floor and pointed in the direction from which they fled. "There's almost certainly Arcadians looking for us in the woods in that direction." Then he pointed to the opposite side of the dry riverbed. "And even in the upright, we're not getting down that steep embankment without throwing a joint or losing half of our armor plates in a tumble."

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  Layne sighed with a worried look in his eyes. "I can go that way if you want."

  Marcus shook his head and started off in the direction that the airships traveled. "No, I got it. Just be careful."

  Layne pursed his lips, then nodded and got himself back to the forest floor after hopping from boulder to boulder. "You too. No unnecessary risks. Don't do anything foolish."

  Marcus smirked. "What, like get intentionally captured and used as free labor?"

  Layne stopped and looked at the upright. "We were doing all that for free? What are we, dumb?" He smiled over his shoulder and then departed deeper into the woods.

  Shaking his head, Marcus chuckled and also left to scout. The riverbed shallowed as he traveled farther, the boulders becoming smaller stones, then gravel. Before long he found it led to an empty manmade overflow causeway inlet made from ancient, worn concrete. It intersected with a wide river flowing normally, from Marcus's right to his left.

  He looked upriver and decided against following in that direction, considering it led deeper into the forest. Despite the flowing water, after Marcus closed his eyes, he could hear the airships' engines roaring afar. If he followed the flow of water, it would bring him closer to the sound.

  Opening his eyes, Marcus crossed the causeway's inlet, climbing down the concrete structure and then scaling the angled structure on the other side. He followed the winding river down a gentle slope. The rocks in the middle of the water were covered with thick moss. The edges of the river were firm, overgrown with grass. If not for the chaos looming, it would have been a pleasant walk.

  Then the land flattened, and the river spread out into a shallow basin, curving toward the slope that continued off to the left. Water slid around thin strips of dirt. As Marcus grew closer, a glint caught his eye through the trees of the forest. Before he rounded the river's edge and entered the basin proper, he found what the giant silhouette was that flew overhead earlier.

  Laying on its belly was a golden dragon.

  One of its wings laid limp, splayed into the forest. The other was folded over its body, which was almost as large as the basin itself. Its snout blocked a portion of the slow flowing water. And the beast's girthy tail had knocked over a tree and was drooped over the fallen timber which leaned against others deeper in the forest.

  Marcus's mouth ran dry as he took cover on his side of the river. Behind a boulder, he peeked through a gap between it and a close tree.

  The monster had a sizable wound on its torso just above its arm. The scales around the hole were charred nearly black. Red blood oozed from underneath its scales near the injury, leaking into the river.

  Marcus wasn't sure if it was dead, it laid there with eyes closed and rounded tongue dipped into the basin. Its two wavy, silvery horns glimmered in the sunlight, what caught his eye on approach.

  He decided that this was enough scouting and readied to retreat back to the Firestorm. But the beating of wings overhead halted him. He crouched down behind the stone once more and kept watch.

  From the skies, a smaller dragon whelpling descended, gold of the same hue as the gargantuan. It was maybe a few heads longer than Marcus was tall, and as wide as if he splayed his arms.

  But a sight so grand, so magnificent spurred Marcus to stand up and start to inch forth toward the basin.

  From the back of the whelpling descended a girl of unrivaled beauty. Her flowing, fire-red hair slid down the beast like an inferno consuming a field of wheat. She was mildly sun-tanned, accentuating the white wolf pelt draped around her shoulders. Wearing a linen vest, her toned arms were exposed, and she wore a simple leather skirt.

  Her visage was magnetic. Marcus couldn't help but put one foot in front of the other. To grow nearer to her washed away his worries and doubts. His heart raced, breathing intensified.

  The girl produced broad leaves from beneath her fur cloak and ripped off a small portion, jamming it in her mouth. The rest she stuffed into a gap in the large dragon's scales before ripping a partition and folding it like a tablecloth over the loose portions of hide. Then she spit out the chewed leaves and stuffed her head into the wound. Emerging with a face doused in dragon blood, she then jabbed the masticated leaves into the wound, packing it tight with her fingertips.

  Then the giant dragon's eyes shot open, its pupils slitted like a cat. Yellow and red irises trained on Marcus. The massive beast parted its lips, revealing gargantuan incisors, and produced a muffled snarl.

  Marcus's spirit blew away from his body and slammed into the rock behind him. He stood frozen by fear.

  The girl finished packing the wound and turned her attention to Marcus. With cheeks puffed, she spit a stream of dragon blood off to her side, into the flowing water, with a scowl. The whelpling with her turned and screeched.

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