The river was further than they had anticipated. Luna forced her way through the bushes, fighting to keep her balance as Minx moved around on her back and adjusted her injured wing.

"It's a miracle you can even carry me," She snorted.

Luna shrugged, glancing back at Nyx who was leading Quin by the hand through the thickets. It brought a smile to her lips, the way he picked the easiest path for Quin to take. When they were children she always taken the hardest path; the one blanketed by thorns or nettles. She was even doing it now, pushing through brambles and snapped branches as they wove their way towards the river.

Axel, Alistar and Jags had remained back at their hastily made camp with instructions to come looking for them if they weren't back by daybreak. Luna look up at the sky and scowled. But the way the sky looked dawn would never come. It had stayed still, a permanent shade of black, since they'd departed. Minx pulled her from her thoughts with a low growl.

Nyx froze, grabbing Quin by the wrist and holding a finger to his lips. Quin nodded quickly and clasped his hands over his mouth in order to stifle his breathing. Luna listened closely. The sound of running water rose up from somewhere in the distance. But closer still was a insistent scratching, something lurching clumsily through the thickets nearby. Luna's hand snapped to her belt to where a knife rested in its sheath, one Axel had given her before they'd left "just in case."

Nyx lifted his head, his eyes glazed, and motioned towards the trees to their left. Luna followed his gaze and swallowed hard.

It was one of Pasirima's soldiers, ink face so smudged it was barely even a drawing, but its body was different; long and lean like a snake's. Arms with long sharp claws lazily snagged against a holly bush, the creature propelling itself forwards with spider-like legs protruding from its back.

Nyx met Luna's gaze and nodded slowly. She nodded back and started to move forwards, watching where she placed her feet, keeping noise a minimum. The creature sniffed a tree and its face ripped open, jaws snapping angrily at the air. She froze, waiting, as it settled down again before continuing.

Minx had her lips pulled back in a silent growl, her claws tapping anxiously against Luna's shoulder. They froze again as the creature swung its head to face them, sniffing the air.

It continued like that for a while, a dance between the group and the monster, freezing then walking then running and freezing again in a wide arc around it. By the time it had vanished from sight Luna's nerves were in tatters. Nyx, on the other hand, seemed to view it as no more than a minor annoyance. He just shrugged and continued to walk. Luna smiled and caught up to him.

"You've changed," she said carefully. Again, he just shrugged.

"I guess it's easier to feel confident when you can move things with your mind."

Minx chuckled. "Not without getting a nosebleed, you can't!"

Nyx glared at her and sighed. "I guess. I'm still working on that," he admitted with a lopsided smile. Luna paused before taking off her hat and slapping it on his head. He didn't speak. Nyx unwound the charred scarf from his neck and tossed it to her. It was like a promise they had now, to keep each others possessions. A promise they would come back.

Quin stiffened, looking between them in confusion. "So what? You guys are a couple now?"

Luna snarled at him. A warning. He fell silent. Nyx just laughed.

"No. Just friends," Nyx reassured him.

Minx bit her lip. "Yeah, if Luna wanted to go out with Nyx she could just do it how dragons show they're in love."

"And how do they do that?" Quin asked, his eyes widening.

"Minx," Luna warned, but Minx wasn't listening.

"Dragons fight first, to make sure our mate's not weak, then we mark each other here with a bite deep enough to scar," she pointed to a spot on her chest, just above the collar bone. "It's very romantic."

Quin frowned. "Is that how humans do it?"

"No. You see humans like to consummate their relationship by-"

"Hey look the river!" Luna cut in at the sight of slow moving, murky water through the bushes. Minx looked down sheepishly and leapt off of Luna's shoulder, landing softly in the mud.

"Well then," Nyx stooped down and started to roll up his trousers. Luna just trudged forwards alongside Minx, glad for once that she was still wearing shorts. "Let's get wading."

~

Quin followed behind Luna and Nyx, his teeth chattering as they followed the icy water downstream. Minx was happily bobbing along, her entire body sumberged save the top of her head, which stuck out above the water like a crocodile. Tiny silver fish swam around his ankles, brushing up against his bare legs as he walked forwards.

The further he went, the harder to became to keep his balance. He stumbled forwards on legs so numb that he couldn't feel them anymore. The water kept splashing back up onto his chest and arms, and the brisk air made him even colder. Luna glanced back and suddenly Quin was aware that he was dropping behind, Minx swimming in looping circles in order to keep and eye on him. He struggled forwards, flailing almost useless limbs in an attempt to catch up. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him along with her, letting her body heat sink into his wet clothes. He lent into her and she flinched, but after a moment pulled him closer, tugging a jacket slightly dryer than his so it was resting across both of their shoulders.

"Chin up kiddo," she laughed, "only a little longer to go."

"Luna?" he chocked. She didn't look back at him; she simply nodded for hike to continue. "What if we can't defeat Pasirima?"

It was something that had been playing on his mind for a while, but everyone seemed to have taken it as an absolute certainty that they would win.

"Because we're the good guys. We have to win, don't we?" Minx spluttered, squirming in between them. She snorted water out of her nostrils. "That's what always happens in the stories, at least."

"But what if we don't?" He insisted.

Nyx assured him again. "We will. You wanna know why?"

"Why?"

Nyx stopped, turning to face them. His expression was calm, and this in turn calmed Quin. Nyx knelt down in the water so he was at Quin's level.

"Because we're going to keep fighting until we win. Even if we get hurt, or...or really hurt, we'll keep going until we can't go anymore. And if we reach that point, if we reach that point, then we'll all sit back and say 'we tried our best, and then we went past that'. Can you do that for me Quin? Keep going until you can't and then go even further?"

For the first time in what felt like forever, Quin smiled. And actual, happy smile that radiated warmth through his entire body, a million times more that what Luna's jacket had provided. He looked put to see a burnt timber skeleton peeking out from above the treetops, wood stained by ash and flames long since dead.

"Yes. Will you?"

Luna took his hand, and the Nyx's too. Minx stopped swimming, standing with them in the shadow of Luna's jacket. They all stared at their destination, so close now that Quin though he could just reach out and touch it.

"We all will," Luna said.

Together, the four of them swerved towards the bank, towards the forest that despite everything, still buzzed with a nighttime chorus of insects. For the first time in a long time, Quin felt he had a family now; people to protect. He would fight with them, for everyone he had lost. For everyone he had yet to lose.

~

Pasirima took great joy in ripping his brother's paradise to shreds. Flower petals fell, like fresh blood. Green stalks bent and withered at his feet. The ground turned to ash that blew away in the wind, exposing the next layer. His brother had vanished completely, and as he tore away at what was left his soldiers would be hunting the last ones down, capturing them so he could lock them away for eternity. In his mind, he had won. How could he lose? Nothing would- nothing could- stop him now.

Nothing.