Yip yip yip yip yip.

We have our oblivious pair being oblivious, and our plotting knights doing plots.

Yes, I went thar.

MINE.

~Angel~

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They flew into a valley surrounded by red sandy bluffs, Magnus knowing the area well having shifted from one form to another there. Landing there would cut the actual trek on the roadway in half, even if Rayne had to stand flying a little longer. The road wasn't far, but not exactly close by either. He didn't mind the walking bit, but he also hadn't really had anything hearty since early that morning.

And he forgot the other part of being mortal.

“You forgot my clothes?” Magnus' brow quirked on his head, Rayne looking through her travel pack on the stable ground but she seemed to come back out for air.

“You should have reminded me, since you're used to traveling as dragon and shifting into tiger with clothing SOMEWHERE on your dragon,” Rayne snapped a bit as she slung the pack over her shoulders again.

“I've been so used to being naked as the little form it slipped my mind understandably,” Magnus answered, ignoring her rudeness and tapping his claw on the ground in thought. “Simple. You go to the road, see if there's someone my size and act like you need help with something, DIER help mind you. Males always seem to fall for that. Then you bring him here and I scare the piss out of him, he faints and we steal his clothes. Problem solved.”

Rayne folded her arms across her chest, looking up at the white dragon with a less than convinced expression.

“Well go on, Rayne. This little trip was your idea, now fetch me some garb,” Magnus ordered as he lay down on his side, relaxing and stretching his wings from the long flight there before beginning to pick at his teeth with a claw. There always seemed to be something in there he couldn't quite get.

“I don't know how to get out of here, Magnus,” Rayne said simply, still staring at him. He rolled his eyes before offering her a claw. She frowned and looked up at him which made his long dagger filled smile come through.

“Don't you trust me, Rayne?”

“Not when you smile like that,” she accused, pointing a finger at him but crawling into his opened paw none the less. Magnus pushed back onto his feet, before sitting on his haunches and standing up—up—up on his back legs. He lifted his paw to the edge of the high cliff face above them where Rayne crawled through tall grasses. She peered down at him as he took his paw away.

“I'll be back,” she called to him, before walking briskly away. With a grunt Magnus fell down a bit harder than intended, before hearing something in the valley spooked by the shaking of the ground. He marked the valley wall with his tail before stomping off to find his prey.

A few smaller hoofed creatures later, Magnus slumped back down onto his side where he left the mark, looking regal and relaxed and putting his head down for a quick nap.

He opened his eyes to hear Rayne calling him, or down to him, and realized the sun had moved considerably since he was last awake. He moved around slowly and lifted his paw back up for her, letting her crawl into it with clothes on her arm for him.

“What happened to scaring the piss out of someone?”

“Change of plan, I bought these instead,” she answered. Bought them?

“With what money?”

“The money I brought with,” she answered as she jumped down a few feet into the valley again.

“And...where did the coin come from?”

“The treasury,” she stated calmly, holding up a long cotton shirt that looked FAR too big for her little frame.

“My coin?” Magnus rumbled a bit, narrowing his eyes.

“OUR coin,” Rayne chastised. “Half mine, having some with seemed like a good idea. And look? It worked otherwise some poor sod would have to be naked in the wilderness.”

“My plan saved us the coin.”

“Don't be cheap, Magnus,” Rayne stated in a far too calm manner. He was the dragon here! He was supposed to be scary and intimidating and—in charge! At least a little bit! “And don't be roaring in my face again to assert dominance, unless you want the cliff faces to crumble in on us.”

He would have to think of another way to assert dominance then, which wasn't hard considering Rayne was within sight. His grin came, even as she laid out the clothes for him and didn't see it. He twisted the little band on his finger and shrunk down, seeing how deep the valley suddenly was from this perspective. But he didn't really care for mortal perspectives at the moment.

“Now this is a—Magnus!” Rayne squeaked his name as he grabbed her up and slung her over his shoulder, “What are you doing?!”

“We're going to make camp tonight in a cave just over there,” Magnus ordered as he scooped up the clothing on the ground, “Its far too late in the day to be trekking on the road. I need to explain to you the rules of OUR coin and I can't do that with bystanders because you seem so shy about things like that.”

“This—is not going to work either,” Rayne struggled to say as she tried desperately to slip from his hold on her waist.

“Well one has the right to try,” Magnus rumbled in response.

“We don't even have wood—or a blanket,” Rayne complained as Magnus rolled his eyes.

“I'll be your blanket.”

“Magnus!”

***********************************************************************

“Are you sure they didn't come already?” Loic questioned as they wandered around town for the third time that day. The townsfolk of Sagewynd seemed welcoming enough, but he couldn't help the look Ridder was giving them, like he were a circling beast waiting to snap. Astor went to check on the little two story residence the grey tigress was supposed to own a few moments before.

“I checked with the butcher, she hasn't appeared yet,” Ridder answered in the growl he'd grown within their ride here. “We have a plan, we need to make sure we are prepared to carry it out.”

“It would be easier if the citizens were a little less...fearful of us,” Loic remarked, resisting the substitution of the “us” for “you”. “I can't help but feel like an outsider since we started asking questions.”

“Perhaps you are right,” Ridder mumbled, suddenly turning down the street and heading into the market stands. Loic sighed, before following after him quickly. Ridder seemed more on edge since the incident in the Morio Forest, Loic knew he wasn't sleeping as well as he normally did. Somehow this problem was striking a nerve, the once calm and collected jack rabbit was becoming more rabid, short-tempered, desperate. Was it because Baedden was dead? Was that why Ridder was becoming almost crazed about this?

Ridder was up atop a thick crate when Loic finally caught up to him, calling for the attentions of those still in the market stands in the late afternoon light. Loic stood by Ridder as the crowd focused on him and quieted.

“Good people of Sagewynd! Your Lord Bywren has called upon us to help us capture a traitor to his Lordship and his Majesty the King of these lands.”

Loic blanched a bit, his yellow coyote eyes looking up at Ridder carefully. As far as he knew, only Lord Bywren knew what was going on...What was Ridder playing at?

“We are here as servants to our crown, and have been informed that a large reward for any sightings of the traitor and her companion. The traitor is a grey furred tigress with silver hair, and her companion is a white tiger with black hair. If any of you have seen them or happen to see them—” Ridder untied the large pouch of coins from his belt and hung it in the air, his own coin, Loic knew that. “You will be rewarded with gold. This is a promise. Thank you.”

The crowd turned to chatters and whispers, before they turned away from them and began to move along with their business. Ears were turned, tails were flicking, Loic saw the crowd's change even if Ridder didn't as he stepped down from his crate.

“What are you doing?” Loic asked in a harsh whisper as Ridder began to walk again.

“You wanted them on our side, coin is always the easy way to do that,” Ridder stated.

“What about the large reward you promised? You never mentioned dead or alive for either I noticed,” Loic responded with less than a satisfied growl.

“I said sightings,” Ridder stated. “They might tell me where she is, but they won't approach her, or kill her.”

“Why not? What makes you so certain about that?”

“Because they'd never want her to know who gave her up,” Ridder replied. “This place has some sort of—respect for the girl, they'll come to us secretly wanting the coin, but won't drag her to us even though she's a traitor. We have her, we have the monster and by the gods of old and new I will kill that bastard in sheep's clothing.”

Astor caught up to them as they turned the dirt road corner, shaking his head at Ridder's questioning frown.

“Nothing's changed, no one's been there recently,” he answered Ridder's questions before he had a chance to ask them—again. “And yes, I checked with her tenants.”

“Until sundown, you'll find the highest place where you can see everything. You spot either of them coming into town, you let out the call. One high for north, one low for south,” Ridder ordered, “I'll hear it and Loic will meet with you which ever way they came into town. Chances will be that is the way they will go to escape.”

“If they run,” Astor indicated in a skeptical tone. “What if he just changes, Ridder? What if he tries to use the innocent lives in this town as a shield?”

“We get them separated, we hide her in town. She is our guarantee he won't change,” Ridder answered Astor's question without any hesitation.

“It's a dragon,” Astor said far louder than he intended, his hawk head turning around rapidly. “What happens if we grab her and its rage takes over? Don't tell me it won't because they turn into vicious, unstoppable predators when you take something they think is theirs. We could be putting all of these people into the path of a charging, fire breathing BULL dragon.”

“Astor,” Ridder snapped, almost like a slap to the face. “We follow the plan. I saw this dragon, I know his concerns. He will keep his rage in as long as we have the girl hidden. He won't risk her life.”

Astor sighed as he shifted nervously on his talons, but nodded once in agreement with his leader.

“I'll make sure to keep my eyes on everything,” Astor stated, before taking off his shirt and clasping the shirt in one talon. He shot off into the air, his wings flapping rapidly and disappeared into the sky.

“What if they don't come today?” Loic asked, watching Astor make a hard bank.

“Then he'll go again tomorrow morning, until they come,” Ridder stated in a fixed tone, his face stern and unmoving. Loic physically stood still, but mentally, he was shaking his head at the foolishness of all this.

***********************************************************************

Rayne's stomach was not helping her finish her breakfast. Even though she knew she hadn't eaten anything that usually upsets her stomach, it still seemed to be nauseous. Maybe she was getting sick, all that rain may have given her some sort of mold allergy or something. In any case the dried meat she'd packed made her stomach turn, as did the fruit. The only think she seemed to like to munch on was the ginger root which she knew would settle the unruly stomach.

Rayne handed over her meat and fruit to Magnus, the pair of them rising early from the little cavern and starting their trek just as the sun rose. Magnus was the one that roused her, definitely beginning to press the issue of going to get her things and running as fast as they could back home.

She was still trying to figure out if she should keep the little place or not. Even though it never really truly felt like her home, mostly because she hadn't really been there enough to make it seem like home but...Her uncle. It reminded her of him and she felt if giving the place up would be like giving him up. Of course he'd been long gone for some time but, at least she still had that little two story mess to return to. To remind her.

“Are you sure you're not hungry?” Magnus' brow quirked under his unruly black hair, waving the meat at her.

“You're still hungry,” she responded as she patted his knee and stood off the rock she was using for a seat. She grabbed her travel bag and looked inside. All...ALL the meat was gone. She looked up from her bag to Magnus as he started to chew the last portion of meat calmly. Really, she really needed to stop having those in-depth thoughts when they were eating.

“You ate all the meat?” she asked. “That was to get us there and back.”

“HA!” Magnus laughed through a mouthful of dried beef. “I'll have to eat something else besides the tidbits you had in there, this is just to make sure I don't eat one of your precious towns folk.”

“I thought you didn't eat mortals.”

His clever smile appeared before he stated,

“I will if I'm that desperate. And that little portion of meat you call two days worth of meals will keep me from being that desperate.”

Rayne rolled her eyes, it looked like she would have to visit the butcher not only for more binding material, but to make sure she didn't starve before her very hungry and selfish dragon brought her home.

“You'll still need to feed on something else?” Rayne asked as she crossed her arms and let out an exasperated sigh. In response Magnus merely grunted as he finished off the piece of fruit, grabbing hold of her shirt at her waist and pulling her into his body a bit. He looked up at her, resting his chin on her stomach, watching her carefully. Rayne, arms still crossed looked down at him with a questioning look.

“You entice me, female,” he grumbled as his arms snaked around the back of her thighs. She smiled at him in disbelief, eyes wide as she jerked her hands in the air.

“I stood there! I didn't DO anything!” Rayne practically yelled from their little secluded picnic prairie a few yards from the road. “REALLY Magnus, this is getting ridiculous. Are all male dragons this driven all the time?”

He lifted his jowls up at her a bit, before rubbing his nose into her shirt and growling.

“Your scent's changed,” he stated in a low grumble, “I can't help myself because of it, so if you want to blame someone for my insatiable attitude, you should blame yourself.”

She raised her paws in the air in astonishment.

“How could I know if my scent changed?” She whispered, running her paw through his black hair as he leaned his forehead against her vest. He took in a deep breath, letting out a little rumble through his whole body as his grip around her tightened. “Magnus, why don't you go try to find something to eat? Then meet me in town.”

He growled, his warning growl but he released her abruptly and stood up.

“I won't be far behind,” he said, but she heard the ordering tone in the voice. She nodded once before standing on her tip toes and leaning into his chest, kissing him slowly. He gripped her upper arms and held her long after the first initial kiss, not becoming bolder but Rayne could feel the fight between his rational mind and what ever had changed. Something carnal was always in Magnus' nature as a dragon but this new development was almost becoming beastly, no matter how good it felt.

His paws ran firmly up to frame her face, before he released her mouth, a deep breath running along her face from his nostrils. He kissed her forehead slowly before stepping around her, sniffing the air a bit as she heard his footsteps walk off.

“And don't ruin those clothes,” she warned him over her shoulder as she slipped the pack on. “I paid good money for them.”

Rayne knew she heard his high pitched voice mimicking her teasingly, but she chose to ignore it. Throwing something at him now would only draw him back and she couldn't be responsible for what happened after that.