The next day, after a night’s stop at Three Pines, and another few hours’ journey, they arrived at their destination. “So… this is Dragon Lake?” Father Petrov mused. “The dragon… where is the dragon? We have to see the dragon!” Professor Alexei was already bobbing up and down all around the airship in excitement. “Isn’t this Dragon Lake? Where are all the dragons?” To be fair, Dragon Lake was huge. They couldn’t see the other side of it, and frankly speaking, the horizon of the lake that they could see basically covered just the near corner. “There better be a dragon.” One of the students muttered darkly. “Don’t tell me we’ve come all this way on a hoax just to be laughed at in the end…” Then the lake exploded. Water fountained up hundreds of feet high as a massive shape hurtled into the air with a thundering roar. Five students fell over; two almost fell overboard, and one fainted outright. Family members shrieked and ducked for cover; only one guy’s excited son cheered and jumpe

Days since last Beast Tide: 49. Current Kill Count: 2374 (122 since yesterday). “Still no Beast Waves?” Remian asked, when the weekend finally arrived. “Three weeks, and still no Beast Wave.” Lisa confirmed. “I think it’s true. It really is all over. At least until the count reaches zero and another Beast Tide hits.” “Great.” Remian said, and closed his eyes. For the past two days, he’d been basically in bed all day. Soul-boosted magic took its toll sooner or later; in this case, it happened roughly ten minutes out from Dragon Lake. Remian had been laid completely flat out, unable to so much as sit up without feeling dizzy. “Another spoon?” Lisa sat by his bedside, a bowl of porridge in her hand, spoonfeeding him bit by bit like she used to back when he was younger and they were ordinary citizens in the Rain Sultanate. Despite everything, Remian’s mother had taken time out from her busy schedule to care for her sickly son. Actually, sh

Damien and Lisa Vin were at lunch when they heard the ruckus. “What’s going on?” Ruth glanced out the window. “Darian is fighting Remian.” “Boys.” Lisa rolled her eyes. “Brothers fight sometimes.” Damien shrugged. “They’ll get over it.” *** “I failed.” Darian reported to Doom gloomily some time later. “I couldn’t stop them. I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault. They just wouldn’t accept our kindness. It came to a fight and you were outnumbered.” Doom consoled him. “Try it again with backup and see.” “Yeah.” Darian muttered glumly, not really reacting. There was a short pause. Then, Darian raised his head and found Doom looking at him expectantly. “What?” “What did I just say?” Doom asked. “You said to… try it again with backup…” Darian’s eyes widened. “Wait. You were serious? When?” “Isn’t it obvious?” Doom snorted. “NOW. Go already!” “Okay, okay!” Darian scrambled. *** <

“Where am I?” Mindy wandered in endless mist, aimlessly, the fog around her seemingly in harmony and one with the fog in her mind. She came across something cute and funny. There was this big wolfcat, bigger than a horse, and it was carrying a wolfcat cub by the scruff of his neck. Wait. I know that wolfcat. That’s Carrie. And the cub dangling awkwardly in her mouth is Vigil… But such strange ideas faded and swirled around as Mindy giggled and stumbled in the bog. She called into the fog. “Helloooooooo!” “Chirp!” a bird’s voice answered her from far, far away. Meanwhile, the wolfcats right in front of her wandered off to the right and completely disappeared in the mist. “Aeyrie?” Mindy called. “Chirp!” a big bird came flapping over, a chubby eaglet as big as Mindy herself. “Aeyrie! You can fly!” Mindy remarked in surprise. “Oh, but then, you could already fly a bit for quite a while now. Sorry. I forgot.” She gi

When Mindy opened her eyes, she had a dinner of grilled fish already waiting for her. Seriously, that was the first thing she noticed. It smelled delicious and she was hungry. How long had it been since she ate? It felt like a whole day. Glancing up at the sky, Mindy figured that most of the day had in fact already passed… She sat up, looked around for the food… and then her head spun. “Ugh…” Mindy shut her eyes tight. Pain throbbed. “My head…” “Yeah, Ivan tells us that you and that boy went head-to-head in a literal sense.” Father Petrov came over with grilled fish-on-a-stick. “Here.” “He’s still here…?” Mindy took the fish, took a bite, and glanced around. “Tied to that tree.” Father Petrov pointed. There he was, lying on his side, his hands bound behind his back with a few feet of rope leading to the tree. Darian wasn’t the only one tied to it. Vigil was too. They were both currently asleep, the wolfcat cub serving a