I did fall asleep a few times as we flew back, but I jolted awake when we landed. The flight had been windy enough to mostly dry me off, but as everyone was already asleep, it didn't really matter either way. I slid down from Leera's back and headed for my tent, but she stepped in front of me.

[Forgetting something?]

I yawned, then looked closely at her. It did seem like I'd forgotten something, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

[My saddle. I'm still wearing it.]

"Oh." I set about unbuckling the straps that held it on her. When I tried to get it down, I nearly dropped it on my foot and decided that hauling around a dragon saddle in the middle of the night was bound to cause accidents. So I left it where I'd dropped it, hoped it didn't rain, and headed for my tent.

[That's not your tent,] Leera said with a rueful chuckle.

I changed direction and headed for one of the other tents, but by what little moonlight there was, I couldn't tell if it was mine or not.

[Not yours.]

I stopped walking and shot her a look. [Could you tell me which one's mine? I'm tired, and I can't see in the dark.]

[I'm tired too. You wanna know why?]

I waved a hand in her general direction. [Forget about it. I'll find it on my own.]

She went on anyway. [I'm still awake because you decided to try and kill yourself.]

[I wasn't trying to kill myself. I just wasn't thinking straight.] I admitted, heading for a third tent. I was almost sure it was mine.

[It's the same thing when you're diving.] She snorted. [Not your tent.]

I stopped just short of the third tent. [Then which one is mine? Unless Moonhawk decided to curl up around my tent, there aren't any more.]

Clarisa's dragon practically glowed in the dark with her silver scales. The other three dragons, including Leera, were just large shadows laying around the edge of the clearing.

[The first one was yours,] Leera said.

[But you said-]

[I was annoyed. The first one is yours, I promise.]

I sighed and headed for the first tent I'd tried. When I opened the tent flap, I saw a shirtless Kuertis reading by the light of a mini glow orb.

When he saw me, he flopped on his back and threw a blanket over himself. "Ella, uh- hello."

I blushed. "I thought this was my tent. I'm sorry, I- good night." I hurriedly backed out of his tent and zipped it up.

[Leera?] I shouted, straightening.

The sounds of dragon laughter came from the shadows nearby. [Maybe it is the one with Moonhawk around it. Try it out, and we can test exactly how fireproof you are.]

[Next time, I leave your saddle on.]

She abruptly stopped laughing. [That's not funny.]

[Neither is making me walk in on a half-naked boy in his own tent.]

[It is funny. Everything about two-leg relationships is funny. From what I saw back in my stable, you spend years pretending you don't like each other until one of you finally admits it, then you run around with each other for a few more years before you finally get married. Then half of you break up and find another mate. It's ridiculous. Dragons have a much better way of doing it.] She shuffled her wings self-importantly, keen eyes glowing in the dark.

[I wouldn't call one male sleeping with a bunch of random females 'better.' It's no better than how animals do it.] The words were out of my mind before I could stop them, and the silence that followed was deafening. I knew I'd crossed the line. [Leera, I-]

But I didn't have a chance to say anything. She growled. [Don't apologize. It wouldn't mean anything coming from someone so stupid they forgot they had a glow orb in their pocket.]

I heard her take off as I stuck my hand in my pocket. Both my velvet wand bag and a small glow orb were in there. If I'd remembered, I never would've gone into the water with my wand bag. I quickly pulled it out to check its contents.

The bag itself felt completely dry, as were the book and wand inside it. I silently thanked Callah for thinking to have it magically water-proofed. With a shaky breath, I pulled out the glow orb and turned it on. It only proved what I'd already thought—that there wasn't a single drop of water on the bag or its contents.

I put the bag back in my pocket and used the orb to find my tent. As I did, Leera's words echoed in my head. Maybe I shouldn't have said what I had. Alright, I definitely shouldn't have said what I had, but she hadn't even given me a chance to apologize. She'd just insulted me and flown off.

I yanked open my tent flap and went in, then dropped to my knees and closed the flap behind me. In silence, I changed into dry clothes and transferred my magical objects from my wet clothes to my pack. I realized that my near-death experience had caused me to forget yet another thing, though this one was somewhat more dangerous than a missing glow orb or a wet rune book.

After I turned from an owl to my true form, I'd forgotten to turn into a talme again to hide my fangs. Then I'd stumbled into Kuertis' tent. If he hadn't been as surprised as I was about me being in his tent, he surely would've noticed.

I was lucky he hadn't noticed, but he could've because of Leera's little trick. She'd put me in very real danger. Stewing, I turned off the glow orb and let myself fall back onto my sleeping bag.

When I woke up after a night of horrid dreams, I was still exhausted. Before I could go back to sleep, though, I heard the others talking over the sound of a crackling fire. They were no doubt making breakfast, and as I hadn't had dinner the night before, I was starving.

Reluctantly, I dragged myself out of my sleeping bag and turned into a talme. That small bit of magic was a struggle being as exhausted as I was, but I managed it and left my tent to join the others.

They were indeed cooking breakfast—or at least, Tawny was. She was turning a speared fish over the fire, while a scowling Clarisa paced behind her.

When I came over, Kuertis glanced at me for a moment before refocusing on the fire. I tried to avoid looking at him as I sat by Tawny on her log. A quick glance around the clearing told me Leera hadn't come back last night, which made me wonder if I'd have to fly myself or hitch a ride with someone else today.

BlueIsle was moaning and burrowing her snout in the dirt nearby. Judging by how sick she looked, Leera's disappearance might not be the only problem on our hands.

"What happened to you after you went to watch the message?" Tawny asked, startling me out of my thoughts.

I blinked a few times before coming up with an answer. "I fell into a stream and got my foot caught. I didn't want to call for help because I was embarrassed, so I waited for a while before asking Leera to come."

Tawny furrowed her eyebrows. "Why would you be embarrassed to call your dragon? We couldn't have known what had happened to you whether you did or not."

"I didn't want to be embarrassed by Leera."

If anything, Tawny seemed even more concerned by this. Kuertis had abandoned trying to pretend I wasn't there and gave me a strange look. Even Clarisa had stopped pacing to stare at me.

Tawny stood. "El, can we talk?"

"Sure." We walked out of earshot of the others.