After a while of flying Air Felix, sand and dune gave way to rock and dirt. A short while after the transition, the faint outline of trees and civilization started to appear on the horizon as the sun descended behind the two. Bridget had fallen asleep at some point, thankfully with her hands still touching her carrier. Felix, to his credit, had not dozed off while airborne.

"Bridget, wake up," he called out, nudging her.

"Whohuh?!" she mumbled as she jerked awake. She looked down, then over. "Oh…!"

"Yep, there it is," he confirmed as more and more of it came into view. "Hasn't changed much since I… left."

One landmark in particular was Felix's target, though. As he started a smooth descent, Bridget noticed that they weren't landing in front of the village gates, but at a nondescript clump of trees off to the side, with a dilapidated ring of rubble marking a foundation of some kind.

As his feet made contact with the ground once more, he gently set Bridget down and, without waiting for her, moved toward the foundation.

"What's this?" Bridget asked. Why take a pit stop so close to their destination when he hadn't needed one the entire way?

Felix didn't respond. Instead, he walked up to the rubble and gingerly ran his hand over broken clay and dust from the desert. He half-smiled, but had other things to attend to than what used to be a building.

Bridget walked up behind him to ask about it, but before she could inquire further, Felix turned towards a cairn that had been delicately assembled some time ago. While the stones were weathered, they had withstood the test of time well, and each stone was in its place except for one that had become dislodged slightly. In the center of the cairn, a single Rubato crystal was placed, almost honorifically.

Felix knelt down and put the stone back in its place, then silently closed his eyes and remained in quiet contemplation.

Bridget quietly reached into her knapsack and took out her tome to peek at Felix's symbol. It was coursing an intense blue, like the crashing of an ocean wave against the docks. Whatever was going on, he was internalizing it pretty strongly. Using the information around her, Bridget ascertained a guess as she put a hand on Felix's shoulder.

"Is this… where you and your nan used to live?"

Felix weakly gave her a thumbs up from in front of her. Seemed like he didn't want to talk about it.

Bridget quickly surveyed the area. It had looked like the house - what was left of it, had been wiped out relatively quickly. She surmised that with the Naturalian occupant gone, the villagers would likely have wanted to "move on" from Felix's presence. Which meant that the cairn must be…

She squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. In a rare moment of not putting her foot in her mouth, she decided fewer words were better and remained with him for a short while as he "caught up", so to speak.

After a few minutes in silence, Felix took a deep breath and got up. "…Thank you," he said thickly.

Bridget smiled. "Don't mention it."

"I wasn't—" he began, clearing his throat. "I didn't expect them to erase the house."

Bridget frowned, unsure of how she could possibly make it right. "We go in, we deliver this stupid box, then we turn our backs on this place forever. Deal?"

Felix brushed the dirt off of his pants. "I don't suppose you'll let me burn the whole place down on the way out."

"Unfortunately, that would get back to HQ."

"Figured it was worth a shot."

The two laughed. Maybe this whole thing was going to work after all.

Bridget looked at the walls of the village that they could see from where they stood. "So there's no chance of this being a happy reunion, huh?"

Felix shook his head. "Even having personally been the subject of it for years I cannot impress on you enough how much they hate me for no reason."

"Would you be willing to come with me, then? You can stay here, if you'd like."

"I need to be your bodyguard in case something goes wrong. So, as much as I hate the idea, I'll tag along." He started unraveling his scarf, but as if having a realization, stopped suddenly. "Uh, can you turn away for a second?"

"What's wrong?"

"Something you might not want to see, just give me a second to use this scarf to hide my face."

"Is it bad?"

"It's not pretty…"

"I'd like to see, if that's okay."

Felix relented and continued unraveling his scarf. Once he got the final layer off and his bare neck was exposed, Bridget was shocked to see a rather nasty burn scar across his neck and extending to his right shoulder.

Answering the unspoken question, Felix said while tying the scarf in a different fashion, "Got this when I was in my early teens. A group of shithead kids cornered me when Nan sent me into town one day to get us water. I tried to explain myself, but they weren't having it. I clawed at one of their faces to get away — doing a whopping moderate scratch of damage — and apparently the appropriate retribution from another was to hurl a fireball at me. Nan didn't let me go into town at all after that, no matter what her schedule was."

"That's awful," Bridget said, tears welling up a little. He seemed to handle it so well, but who knew how long he had had to build up defense mechanisms for himself.

"I heard that the kid who scarred me later picked a fight with the wrong crowd — i.e. not a defective half-breed — and got himself killed in the commotion." Felix fastened the scarf around his head, having fashioned a makeshift balaclava that completely covered every inch of skin except his eyes. He had left it baggier in the front, both for breathing room and to give the plausible suggestion of a snout. "I read his obituary with great joy," he added in a muffled voice as he pulled his cloak around his arms to hide them. With this, he almost passed for a Natural, assuming that a prying eye didn't look too far.

Bridget questioned whether it was right to bring him here after all. He had mostly volunteered, but there was a part of her that felt like this was reopening an old wound, opening a book that had better been left closed. "Are you sure you want to come with me?"

"Yes, Bridget," he insisted. "Let's just get in and get out."

Bridget clicked her tongue in resignation and gestured for him to come with her. "Right."

The two walked up to the Grandina gates, where an ibis Natural stood guard. The ibis was dressed in simple armor, and looked like he had seen some fights, if the scar over his eye was any evidence. Upon noticing Bridget and her companion, the ibis held a spear in front of them to block their progress. "Halt!! Purpose?"

Bridget followed instructions and stopped. "I am a trader, and have a delivery for the warehouse here," she explained. "This man is my escort."

The guard looked at her, then at Felix who, for multiple reasons, was sweating bullets under the scarf. "Da dove viene?" he asked Felix.

Surprised to be the one addressed, Felix looked over at Bridget. She goaded him to continue with a curt nod. "Ah…" he began, trying to make his voice as clear as possible through the scarf. "Lei è venuta qui dalla costa," he replied. "Kalanichi Imports?"

The guard nodded, then pulled his spear away. "Go," he said to Bridget. To Felix, much more politely, he said, "Tienila d'occhio, signore."

Utterly weirded out that this was actually working, Felix slipped past along with Bridget who proceeded with confidence. He didn't think he recognized the guard, but he felt like he knew him from somewhere before… more concerning to him was that if this was true, he couldn't be sure if the guard recognized him. Once the two were out of earshot and on the main street, he leaned over and hissed, "That's the first time I've been addressed by someone from here with a term I can repeat in good company." He looked warily over his shoulder and around as they passed various Naturals of all shapes and sizes, who did not acknowledge him in the slightest. A couple of them pointed at Bridget and seemed curious by her presence, but there was no hostility - it was merely out of the ordinary. Felix blended in like any of the rest. Needless to say, he was quite out of his element.

Bridget gave his shoulder a reassuring pat and looked ahead at the KI outpost building a few stores up, marked by its distinctive logo. "Right there. We get there, we drop it off, we go," she recited. It was a simple plan, and they were at the finish line.

As they approached the door, another set of guards stood watch, this time a cheetah and a gazelle. Bridget thought to herself that it was a curious pairing but let that thought remain in her head.

Seeing a human approach, the two did the same spear-blocking maneuver. "Purpose?" the gazelle asked, staring down at them. Her horns looked particularly pointy reflecting the afternoon sun.

"Delivery, and this is my escort," Bridget stated. She pulled the box out of her knapsack carefully so as to not startle them and showed her ID.

The cheetah visually inspected the chest, aware enough of its origins to know that this was surely an important item. "You may pass," he said gruffly, pulling his spear back along with his companion.

The two made to enter the building, but after Bridget passed, the two guards re-barricaded the entrance before Felix could continue. "What's wrong?" Bridget asked, looking back at her companion, who shot her a worried look.

"Employees only," the cheetah said. "He waits outside."

"He's my traveling companion," she protested, trying not to look suspicious. She prayed this did not look suspicious.

"He stays," the gazelle emphasized. "C'è un problema?" she asked Felix.

He shook his head. "No, aspetterò." There most certainly was a problema, but he couldn't let them know that. "Go ahead Bridget, I'll be right here," he said, trying to sound encouraging, but secretly dying inside.

Bridget looked back at him again and did a little wince of sympathy and mouthed "I'll be done soon!" before going inside.

Felix sat outside on a rock, feeling the daggers of the guards' gazes on his back.

The gazelle prompted, "Che cosa è successo alla tua faccia?"

"M-mi brucio facilmente," he replied, as taken aback by being addressed at all as by the sheer forwardness of the question. Technically, he supposed, it wasn't a lie, on account of not actually having scales.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Un drago, eh?" the cheetah said. "Una cosa rara da queste parti."

Felix couldn't tell whether it was a simple comment, or an attempt at getting him to slip, so he simply nodded in agreement.

Hurry up, Bridget, he pleaded, hoping his thoughts could get to her.

Inside the office, Bridget placed the chest on the counter where a particularly bored-looking zebra was stationed, sorting some records. "Hello," she began.

The zebra grunted at her in response.

"I have a delivery from Alspo…" she continued, pulling the manifest she had grabbed from HQ out of her knapsack.

"You're late," the clerk said brusquely.

"There… was a bit of a hiccup, I'm not actually the original delivery agent," Bridget explained, laughing nervously. "I'm not supposed to be doing deliveries at all if you can imagine!"

"They try to get you killed?" she asked. "Many dangers on the path, I've heard."

"No! … Maybe? Why does everyone keep saying that?!" Bridget said exasperatedly.

The clerk remained unimpressed. "Stamp here," she instructed, pulling out a form that she stamped with her hoof.

Bridget pulled out her stamp from her bag and marked the form with it, and passed her manifest to the clerk so she could do the same. "That's it then?" she asked.

The clerk put the chest behind the counter, on a shelf that looked like it had taken in recent deliveries. "That's it," she replied.

Not much of a talker, Bridget thought as she put the manifest into her bag. "Okay then…" An idea suddenly came to her. "Wait, there wouldn't have happened to be a camel who made his way here, would there?! We got… separated, but he was supposed to navigate here."

The zebra raised an eyebrow, not expecting this line of questioning. "Yes, actually. From Alspo?"

The relief Bridget felt was palpable. "Yes oh my gods thank you so much. Where is he?"

The clerk pointed towards the entrance of town. "Stables."

"Thank you!!" Bridget called back, already halfway out the door.

"Umani…" the zebra muttered under her breath, going back to her duties.

Upon making her exit, Bridget found Felix growing more uncomfortable by the second. "Hey, we're finished!" she said cheerily to Felix. "And Humphrey did make it! We just have to go to the stables to get my stuff."

"Great," he replied, hopping off of the rock and trying to act as casual as possible. "Let's get going then." The two set off for the stables, their great (yet anticlimactic) delivery finished.

"We can grab Humphrey and make our way back to Alspo," Bridget explained while walking,

"I guess we'll have to ride him, huh," Felix surmised. "Doubt that Rhythm trick works with camels. Or for anyone who isn't you."

Bridget nodded in agreement. "If he still has most of my supplies, we should be fine if we find shade for the hardest parts of the day. And don't find killer scorpions or anything."

"I'll keep them away," Felix said confidently. "This Alspo place… how long did it take you to get to the cliffs?"

"6 hours?" she guessed.

"So if we don't stop long we could make it in a day or two," he estimated.

"Right."

The two concluded their conversation as they approached the stables, where another zebra — Bridget wondered, was it rude to ask if they were related to the clerk? Or point out that an equine was running the stable? — stood watch. More importantly, though…

"Humphrey!!" Bridget squealed, running up to the camel who looked no worse for wear, much to the stablemaster's confusion. She gave his neck a giant hug, then started rummaging through the supplies on his pack to check what had made it out of the desert okay.

The zebra turned to Felix. "Lui è tuo?" he asked. "…Lei è tuo?" he added, watching Bridget titter around with bewilderment.

"II cammello è suo," Felix replied, shaking his head. "…E io sono con te," though he was reluctant to admit it.

Bridget called out, "I don't believe it! Everything is here!" She bounded back over to Felix and the stablemaster. "Can we take him back? I'm not sure what the process is."

Felix looked at the stablemaster, who shrugged and waved the three off in a "whatever, just get out of my face" way. "He says we can go," Felix said. "Saddle him up and let's get moving."

"Already on it," Bridget said, getting up on Humphrey's back and setting him up with a bag of feed that she had already put a few coins in the collections box for. "Alright, boy, let's go home," she said gently to her newly-reunited steed as she hiyahed what remained of his straps. He almost seemed excited about the whole thing as he took off at a camel's version of a trot.

Felix leapt up behind her and instantly was put off by the bumpy ride. "You're telling me you do this regularly?" he asked.

"Well, not on a camel, but with horses, yeah," she said. "Same idea, different form."

"I think once we get out further I'll just fly. I don't care if I have to make circles around you."

"You're going to get tired eventually. You already did the whole way here without breaks."

He grumbled, not having a good comeback to that.

The two approached the gate again, where the same ibis stood guard (after all it had been around an hour at max). Almost home free. Closer, closer…

As they were about a hundred feet away, Humphrey stumbled on a pavement stone and buckled slightly, causing Bridget and Felix to lose their balance. Instinctively, the two flung their arms out for stability.

For only one of the two, that was okay, since they weren't trying to hide the fact that they weren't actually a full dragon.

The ibis had looked up at the sound of the camel stumbling just in time to see Felix's decidedly-not-scaled arms. His beady eyes widened in shock. "…Mezzo!" he growled, spreading his wings to give chase.

"Merda," Felix cursed. Naturally his luck would run out at the last possible second. "Bridget, run!!"

But there was nowhere to run, as their only exit was blocked. The commotion had attracted the attention — and ire — of the townsfolk as well, who quickly converged on them and cut off their escape. Mothers hushed their children, and a few boisterous Naturals looked like they were relishing the chance to hit something.

Having been cornered, Bridget and Felix shared a look — what should they do? Neither had an answer until the guard, spear pointed, spoke.

"Human. Get down," he said in a low growl (Bridget was impressed, she didn't know their vocal cords could do that). She complied and gave Felix a hesitant glance as she clutched the knapsack.

"E tu, mezzo," he said, addressing Felix with a deep, primal hatred, "come osi." He pointed his spear directly at Felix's neck, then gestured downwards.

Not desiring to get stabbed, Felix slid off as well, tail literally between his legs. "Bridget, I—"

"Non una parola," the ibis warned, thrusting the spear towards Felix.

Addressing Bridget, he spoke in Maelish. "This filth, why do you bring it to our village?"

Bridget tried to defend her partner. "He saved me! I was delivering a package from Alspo when I got caught up by some aberrant wildlife, and Felix resc—"

"Felix?" the ibis exclaimed.

Should she not have said that?

The ibis restrained Felix and ripped his scarf off his face, revealing his definitively-human features. A few members of the crowd gasped and others jeered and booed. The avian threw the scarf on the ground and made a point of stomping on it, leaving Felix's face and neck — and his whole sense of self — fully exposed.

"So it returns," the ibis sneered, beady eyes boring into Felix's reptilian eyes. "Ti ricordi di me?" he asked. Bridget didn't need her magic tome to know that this guy's aura was pulsing off the charts.

Felix stared straight back, gritting his teeth. "Non rie—"

"Silence!!" the man shouted in Maelish, pressing his spear right up to Felix's neck. Even without the natural curvature of his bill, his scowl was enough to send chills down Felix's spine. (The spear did not help.) He pressed his face close to Felix's, then said simply, "Abbiamo ottenuto queste cicatrici nello stesso momento."

Felix's blood went cold and his pupils expanded back to regular size. "Thoth…?" he guessed as a lump formed in his throat.

"Giusto."

Thoth tapped his spear on Felix's neck, taking care to trace it around his scar. He gestured to his eye with his other wing. "You did THIS," he said, switching languages for Bridget's benefit, "and you have not suffered enough." He drew a thin line with the speartip directly on Felix's scar, enough to draw a tiny amount of blood.

"I… beg to differ," Felix said, before the ibis kicked him in the gut and he started cough-choking. A few cheers and encouraging whoop!s from the crowd.

"Stop!" Bridget pleaded. What the hell was wrong with all of these people?

"You are not out of trouble either," Thoth warned. "You are just as complicit, human."

He addressed Felix again. "Running you out of town was not enough to kill you, hm, mezzo? Perhaps I should finish the job." More cheers and agreement among the crowd.

Felix looked up, clearly in pain but still with some fight left. "I… only came back to help her…" he started, pausing to catch his breath. "Like I would ever come back here… voluntarily."

"It seems the half-breeds are more resilient than we thought," Thoth replied, addressing the audience. He abruptly flipped his spear around and hit Felix in the stomach with the butt of it, causing him to buckle.

"Felix!!" Bridget yelled.

Thoth flipped the spear around again. "This time, you will not escape," he said, drawing it back. "Arrivederci, rifiuti."

With a tear of pain streaming out of his eye, Felix looked up at his executor, but instead of expressing fear or resignation, grinned at him confidently. "Non oggi. Bridget!"

"Tempesta di Sabbia, Pianissimo!!" Bridget yelled, her hand pressed down firmly onto her palm-print on the tome as Felix's blazed azure.

The air crackled with yellow and blue Rhythm sparks as Maestro and Resonator linked up and a gust of sand erupted from the area surrounding Felix. Thoth squawked in shock and the crowd started screaming as they were assaulted by sand and dirt.

"Tempestia di Sabbia! Pianissimo!" Bridget continued shouting, making Felix fling sand everywhere and anywhere to mask them from the angry crowd.

"Felix!" Bridget called out into the storm, extending her hand. Felix caught it, clasping onto her hand firmly.

"Let's get out of here!" he shouted, taking the opportunity to grab his scarf with his free hand as he deftly flung her atop Humphrey (mercifully excluded from getting sand in his eyes). The three ran off into the desert, leaving the village of Grandina and all of its citizens behind them. "Keep casting!"

Bridget struggled to focus as she kept repeating herself and her voice grew hoarse, but kept thinking about lending Felix her Rhythm. As Humphrey's toes against the dirt pounded in her ears, she felt herself getting more and more drained. Still, she shouted, and the adrenaline rush aided the three in making it far, far away from their assailants.

Once the trio had made it a safe distance from the village, and only then, did she finally stop yelling. Felix noticed that his companion had stopped moving as much, and her hair… had started to go white?

"Bridget?" he asked, hesitantly poking her shoulder.

"Mmm…" she mumbled, slumping forward to rest on Humphrey's extremely patient neck.. There were beads of sweat on her forehead. "That… was a lot…"

"You kicked ass," he said encouragingly. "But… are you okay?"

"Tired…" she said slowly.

Felix reached for the tome that she had been clinging onto - now dangerously limply - and looked at the energy gauge. Sure enough, Bridget's was pulsing very weakly and dimly, like a light about to go out.

"So, I guess there's a literal cost to this," Felix said aloud. "Guess that's not surprising… we'll have to be careful."

"Yeah… hey… Felix?"

"Huh?"

"Those guys… are dicks." That seemed to be curtains for Bridget, who then passed out.

"Yeah. Yeah, they are. Haven't changed a bit," he replied, as he put his scarf back in its rightful place. "Glad to be rid of them."

As the sun started to dip below the encroaching dunes, Felix took over navigating since he knew the area well based on aerial reconnaissance.

"So, Humphrey, was it? — what did you make of their hospitality?"

A snort in response.

"Me too, buddy. Me too."

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