After Cerna had some time to wrap her head around this new and fantastic news, she grabbed her small shoulder sack, placed her whittling wood into it and left the barn. She bounced around town smiling and excited whist she gathered supplies for four to make the months-long trip. After she had gathered everything up, she was ready to head to one of the entrances to town but only just now realized that Kestrin had not told her which way they were coming from.


    She looked around and sighed deep. She was loaded down like a pack mule and did not know which way she was to take all of the supplies. After sitting there irritated for a moment, she chuckled. Kestrin knew he did not tell her and she was sure of that and she was pretty sure he got a right good kick out of it. As she was standing there in her frustrated mirth, a large dragon appeared on the Bands Trail side of town flying towards Bands and swooping down every so often. Even from here she could hear Kestrin’s dragon voice that she herself had only heard a couple hours past. She found herself laughing again because as he swooped he was bellowing out the word rawr rather than actually growling. She did not know who he was rawring at, but she knew which way to go. Heavily laden, she trudged off that way.


    As Bayrn, Renno, and Gia came down the long rise heading into Mova on the Bands Trail, about an hour still from town, a very large shape flew over them. Bayrn was so surprised that he stopped the horses and followed it with his eyes. He could tell right away it was a dragon, though he had only ever seen them pictured in paintings and tapestries. The weirdest part was that as it flew over he could hear it humming an old dancing song.


    “Was that a...” Renno trailed off as he followed it with his eyes.


    “Yep,” answered Bayrn. “Probably the first one anyone has seen in a very long time.”


    Gia kept silent but also watched the dragon as it flew what looked to her as exactly the way they had come. She raised an eyebrow as the dragon could be heard yelling “rawr” and swooping down at something. Thinking for a moment she realized in all likelihood the dragon was swooping down on the soldiers trying to get to Mova to catch Kestrin, which started to paint a picture for her. She had some ideas as to how this mess all added up, but not enough pieces of the puzzle, yet. The one thing she knew for certain is that Kestrin was somehow responsible for the dragon going after the soldiers and it only made her want to find him sooner so she could have more pieces of this puzzle.


    Breaking her silence, she looked at Bayrn and said, “We need to go.”


    “There is no doubt to that,” Bayrn replied, snapping the reins to get the horses moving. He led the horses to a pace far faster than any they had done this trip so far. Gia could tell he sensed the danger as well. Renno looked between them and chewed on his bottom lip, not quite putting it all together as quickly as they had.


    The trip that would have taken an hour would have taken half that if not for a woman standing in the middle of the road with a pile of bags around her. Bayrn stopped the horses almost right on top of her. The three on the wagon stared at her and she smiled at them. No one spoke for a moment and then Bayrn broke the silence, “Is everything okay, ma’am?”


    “Call me Cerna,” she said. “You can help by loading all of this in the wagon, I carried it this far.”


    Bayrn raised an eyebrow. “Looks like you are heading away from Mova. We are heading toward it and while normally I would offer a ride, it looks like we are going different ways.”


    “Oh, you aren’t going there, Bayrn. We’re taking the turn just a little back the way you came and we are going far, far away from here.” She smiled at the confused look on his face. Looking at the boy, she said, “Renno, help a lady out and load these up. I’ll happily fill you in on the details as it looks like you had no idea Kestrin was sending me.”


    “Kestrin sent you?!” Gia exclaimed.


    “Yes, and we need to hurry because I do not think he was just roaring at trees,” Cerna said. Renno was getting down to help and paused in motion as that statement took hold in his mind.


    “The man in the mountain is a dragon?” Gia asked, jumping down and grabbing a bag. Now Renno started moving again and grabbed another bag. Cerna herself started loading and Bayrn sighed and got down to help as well.


    “Yes, and also a man.” Cerna smiled and said, “I had to sit down for a moment after I saw him change.”


    No one asked anymore questions and all stayed inside their own thoughts as they finished loading and Bayrn turned the wagon around. Renno and Bayrn sat up front and Gia and Cerna sat back with the supplies. After they turned down the road Cerna had told them they would take, Bayrn turned his head back and asked, “Will you do that filling in, now?”


    Cerna raised her finger and said, “Sandwiches!” and started opening a bag.


    “Sandwiches?” Bayrn asked right before she started pulling out wrapped packages handing the first to Gia, and then Renno and Bayrn.


    As she handed the sandwich to Bayrn, she said, “Sandwiches.” She climbed up and sat in the middle between Bayrn and Renno. “And I’ll tell you between bites.”


    Bayrn nodded. They all opened their packages and started eating and briefly forgot about her filling them in. The sandwiches were fresh seasoned meat on seasoned bread and were so delicious after having near tasteless dry rations this morning.


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    “Okay,” she started. “Kestrin is a man that can transform into a dragon, or rather the other way around, I’m finally understanding. Dragons used to be all over, and hundreds of years back they all disappeared. Kestrin tells me that it was because of a big war between humans and dragons, though very few dragons actually did any fighting. It was the Keepers that fought in their stead.” She paused and took a bite. Looking back at Gia and with a mouth full of sandwich she said, “Water skin, dark brown bag.”


    Gia reached in the bag and handed it to her. “Keepers?” she asked.


    “Oh, yeah. That’s me. I’m a Keeper.” Cerna swallowed down her food with the water Gia had handed her. “So Keepers are the people that work with the dragons to keep the peace with the other people. There used to be loads of Keepers, now there are only two. Of those two, only one has ever talked to a dragon. Ha! Jaq will be so jealous.” Cerna took another bite.


    “So why are we on this road and where are we going?” Bayrn asked, not quite patient enough to wait for her to get to it.


    “We are going to the Ministry of the Dragon Temple, and why is because Kestrin told me to take you there. He said you and I are to protect these two and go there, so that is what we are doing. They are important to him, and I am bound to the mission he gave me to get you all there.”


    Gia hoped that was enough for Bayrn because she wanted to ask more questions. “The Keepers? Ministry of the Dragon? I have never heard of either and I was forced to learn about a lot of history.”


    “MoS removed us from the records, according to Kestrin. The Keepers are people just like everyone else but they are infused with dragon’s blood. There’s a ritual to it as well, but they gain special abilities based on the blood they are infused with. They work in the Ministry of the Dragon and keep the peace between dragons and humans, or at least they try. It was like that for thousands of years. Dragons and people were living in harmony for a time much longer than the time since the dragons disappeared. I was sent here on a research mission by Jaq to find information about where a dragon might be. I met Kestrin and he told me so much I did not know. There used to be more than a thousand Keepers. In the great war, more than half died. The rest mostly passed on from old age in seclusion because they were no longer accepted among the normal folk. Jaq and I are going to rebuild the Ministry of the Dragon.”


    “And who is Jaq?” asked Renno, joining the conversation.


    “He is the other Keeper. He was the only Keeper for a while until he found me. He is a Keeper of Might and I am a Keeper of Shadow. Oh right! There is another Shadow, but he is not a Keeper. He’s following us.”


    Bayrn looked at her. “He’s been following us, hasn’t he?” he said, pointing at Renno and Gia.


    “According to Kestrin, yes. We are supposed to let him keep thinking he is doing it without us knowing, for a while. Not a good man, from what I am told. His name is Kenton.” Cerna paused, seeing the reaction on Gia’s face. “You know him?


    Gia nodded. “He is one of my father’s men. Hardly ever see him and he lives in the dark tunnels under the MoS. Makes you shiver when he comes into the room like darkness has taken over some of the light.”


    “Hmm.” Cerna said. “I’ll be paying him a visit when we get to the Woods of Arahk.”


    For the rest of the day they traveled on at a milder pace with Gia and Renno occasionally asking more questions, but mostly they thought about what they had learned. Both wondered why Kestrin had taken an interest in them and how it was linked to their fateful departure from their respective homes. The more they knew, the more questions they had.


    Renno thought about the necklaces and what purpose they may have, but something told him they were even more important than he might have ever guessed. He also considered telling Cerna about them but decided to wait. They were too important to reveal just yet with as little as he felt he knew. Cerna, and the idea of people infused with dragon’s blood seemed really interesting to Renno. They were not dragons, but they were more than human, he supposed. Then again, he had not seen Cerna do anything remarkable, so maybe it was not so special. Another thing for him to wait and see about.


    Gia also thought about the necklaces, and would have shown them to Cerna, for her instincts told her she was trustworthy, but the fact that someone was following them and quite possibly observing them unnerved her enough to keep that secret for later. The thought about that certain someone that was following them and what it meant. She was not as na?ve as she let on at the Ministry, and she may not know exactly what Kenton did for her father, but he only seemed to take care of the dire problems that frustrated her father the most, and when he took care of them, they never came again to roost. To her, this meant that her father intended to rid the world of her, though he probably told the soldiers and maybe even Kenton to capture her, but subconsciously he knew that throwing Kenton at a problem meant it would disappear. She had no intention of disappearing but the wariness of that possibility was creeping into her bones. She could feel that death could be around the corner if she paid little attention. She would train hard with Bayrn tonight, and every night that she could. It was fun and amusing at first, and even evoked something inside her, but now it was possibly the one thing that could keep her alive. She suspected Bayrn thought this from the beginning of their joined trip. She felt very thankful to him, but she also knew the best thanks she could give was to constantly strive to learn and perform as best as she could, as if her life depended on it, which it very well might.


    Bayrn was frustrated. When the trio were headed to meet Kestrin, he knew the way, he fairly well knew what to expect, or at least he thought he did. This Cerna threw a torch in the hay pile to that assumption. It was nice that he had his instincts validated when it came to the person following them, but knowing only made him warier. His instincts also told him that Cerna was true in the things she said. She felt like a soldier from another brigade. Someone you could trust in a fight even though you knew nothing about them. She moved with a seasoned grace. He appreciated that on both accounts, as a soldier and as a man, though he was much too old for thinking the latter. He did not like letting the person tailing them keep at it freely, but sometimes in war you have to let your enemy think he is getting an advantage, and this felt like the start of a war to him. It may be early days, yet, but blood was coming. He decided to escort these kids to Mova, and now he was taking a months-long trek. Yeah, he was frustrated all right, but also that energy he used to feel in the field was bubbling up to the top and he felt like for the first time in years, he might just be enjoying himself. He was also elated he could keep training the kids with their weapons. That piece of the puzzle of his life that had been missing for so long was back in place.