There was no excuse for what happened. Alexx was forced to fight a dragon by a fanatic. Now he must play a prodigal son until he can escape. And getting away was proving impossible. Huckle took it upon himself to become Alexx's most loyal and obedient soldier. He led Alexx northward, recalling which stars the dragon passed between. He then foraged for roots, leaves, and would shoot when he spotted an animal for eating. Within a mile of walking, Huckle gathered two rabbits, a couple snakes, three squirrels, six wild onions, and a few wild carrots. He also gathered a myriad of insects in a jar for his consumption.

  Huckle set a fire almost instantaneously, and set to work making food. Before long he had skinned, filleted, and prepared various animal meats on skewers. While he waited, he urged Alexx to take a nap, which the pirate gladly accepted. With such a helpful hand, Alexx was finding Huckle a little easier to deal with. He even slept for a few minutes with no difficulty. Alexx awoke to the steam and pleasant salted aroma of meat underneath his nose. He took the skewers offered to him and bit into some crunchy, delectable meat. The hot sensation warmed his stomach and took care of the hunger pains. Huckle crunched his selection of bugs before putting out the fire and moving on. They traveled further north, slightly refreshed. Alexx was getting used to having a little servant around, and the act he played got easier. The trick to it was keeping Silas talking about himself. Silas repeatedly laughed and smiled the entire trip, with some humming an indecipherable hymn mixed in.

  "Yesiree, jus' wait til they get a load of ol' Huckle: The Child o' Prophecies personal gawrd!"

  "I tells ya its good that ya finally came," Silas said after a collective sigh, "I been hearin' so much bad stuff from the big world it's a nuff to make me just stay inside."

  "Oh, if you only knew," Alexx muttered, but remembered that Bacoots have higher senses of hearing.

  "Y'er right, I'm sher I don' hav ta tell ya nuthin."

  Silas' words puzzled Alexx, "I'm not sure what you mean by that though, you know I'm just here to defeat Senkazital, right?"

  "Yeah, yeah," Silas cleared his throat, "But yer a livin' miracle. The gods' own hands have chosen you to do somethin' so big, that i figer you got some time left afterwerds to set some of tha' hoomans straight, you know? Git in thar and stop all that corruptin' lyin', and evil."

  Flippantly laughing, Alexx offered a small reply, "Well if I don't go down with him, I'll see what I can do."

  "And stop all them assassins', pirates, and cultists' while you're at it! Seems like thar in evera' corner a tha warld! It's bad enough we can't keep food and stuff, then we got 'dem jus' stealin' and murderin' for fun... I'm not gunna lie yer disguise was so convincin' when I firs' saws ya. I only decided ta miss at the vary las' minit!" Silas cackled.

  Alexx gave him a less flippant laugh this time.

  The horizon changed color. The sun would soon make its rise from the eastern edge of the world. No dragon could be seen in the sky for miles. Alexx saw this as a good sign for his plan to escape. The longer they looked for the dragon, the more chances he had to get away from Silas, and this whole charade could end.

  "We should be comin' up on tha' Tow'r Graveyard soon." Silas said.

  "Ah!" Alexx replied, "One of my favorite places in all of Rediew!" he stepped a little faster and kept his eyes on the horizon for the multiple towers laying in ruin. It didn't take long until the tallest spires began peaking over. The sky changed to gray, and Alexx could see the definition in everything he passed by. Behind him, he heard the Bacoot huffing to keep up. Alexx didn't slow down or gave any thought to Silas. When he arrived in full view, he stopped to admire the view.

  "Any 'ticular' reason ya like this place so much?" Silas asked as he caught his breath.

  "Rediew's collaboration to reach the moon. Inspiring, and ambitious, don't you think?" Alexx held his hand out as if to grasp the moon, now fading in the morning light.

  Silas breathed again, "You mean greedy and arrogant, right? They just wanted to take all tha' stuff tha' gods knew they shouldin hav' cuz they was wreckin' this place. And they was right!"

  Alexx made no retort. He had heard that before, and no matter what he said, no one ever agreed on anything he said. This Graveyard mattered to his journey for the Moon's Heart. Staring at these remains so many years ago as a young man is what gave him the push he needed to chase after the legends and myths. This was his starting point. It was ironic now that he had returned, pretending to be a savior while fleeing from a dark and very real fable. Despite that, Senkazital proved to him that the Moon's Heart is real, and his adventure finally has an end in sight. But it would seem that on Alexx's personal 'holy ground', something churns with activity on the usually vacant place.

  "Can you hear that, Alexx?" Silas' ears twitched toward the towers.

  "I can see it," Alexx replied, "There's a few things fighting up ahead. And–"

  The belch of flames into the sky confirmed Alexx's fear. The appearance of wings and the black scaled body magnified confirmation into undeniable truth.

  "Thar it is!" Silas bellowed, "Ya ready?"

  Alexx was silent. He wasn't ready to admit he was out of options.

  "I don't know," he said in partial truth, "There's more going on. After all, it's obviously fighting something else."

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  "It's a whole party a heroes waitin' for ya!"

  "All the more reason to stay away," Alexx mumbled.

  "Why?" Silas replied.

  "I shouldn't be seen with heroes," Alexx quickly made up, "It puts my whole charade at risk. Remember, the enemy has eyes and ears everywhere."

  "Well, you should'n have ta' worry 'bout that much longer!"

  This is just great, Alexx groaned in his thoughts.

  As Alexx relaxed his hand on Dracobane, the thought entered into his head that there were no witnesses present. This gave him pause. Perhaps the solution wasn't to run away. Silas looked on to the fight while fiddling with the ammo in his satchel. His back was turned to Alexx. No more talk of gods, or fate, and the act can end before it gets out of hand. The fool didn't even go and tell his family that he was leaving. Alexx could almost see himself heading east. He drew the sword from behind him and stepped forward.

  Silas turned around to the sounds and looked up as Alexx was staring down at him.

  "Ah see..." Silas said with his brows furrowing, hand reaching for his gun, "It's about time, let's slay a dragon!"

  In one move, Silas turned and charged towards the towers in full sprint shouting victory cries and death threats to the dragon. Alexx gripped the sword tightly and cursed under his breath. He was beyond trapped at this point. Silas can follow him anywhere with his nose and eyes, and will follow him everywhere thanks to the beautiful lie he crafted. The small window of killing him disappeared. If he lets the truth out, then that homemade rifle will undoubtedly kill him for pilfering Attricot. At the end of the day, the imminent death from the dragon concludes that following Silas was the most likely end to his tale that was preferable. Alexx ran after the Bacoot.

  "Strange lookin' fellers," Silas said as the reached the area of the towers. They both looked upon a tattered bridge stretching from the peak of the tower in front of them. On the bridge, the dragon was attacking two figures in pale green armor. One's movements were agile, thoughtful, almost dancing like, while the other hardly moved, but deflected almost everything the dragon threw at him. They were holding their own, as the dragon seemed frantic, and young, fighting with stomps and talon swipes. It looked inexperienced, which gave Alexx a little hope. If those fighters couldn't beat it, perhaps all he had to do was finish the job. Now that he was so close, it donned on him that using Silas as a shield for flames, or even letting him shoot the dragon's head could easily end this.

  "Silas, we could easily end this if I go and distract it, while you get a good shot at its head!" Alexx said aloud.

  "Tha's just wat ah was thinkin!" Silas growled happily, "Le's git inside, you lur' 'em in, and from the rafters ah'll hit um between tha' ah's!"

  They hurried in. The interior was covered in broken wood, moss, and a destroyed spiral staircase.

  "Ah heer sumthin' further up!" Silas said.

  "What is it?" Alexx asked as they began climbing the rocky steps.

  "Not entirely sure, sounds like more fightin'!"

  "Let's be careful, stay close!"

  The two of them kept going to new floors of the tower, and still finding nothing, only signs of recent fighting, and the noises of the continuing battle getting louder. There were dull thuds vibrating the tower and screeches which sounded familiar to Alexx for some reason. After two more floors the battle was found, and Alexx stumbled upon Trandin and Kryll fighting each other.

  "Is tha' sworsman!" Silas shouted. Silas' reaction caught their attention, a similar look was on their faces the moment they noticed Alexx.

  Alexx had forgotten the last time he saw either of them, it ended in a fight. He tried to think fast again and escape.

  "Silas we will have to find another way up, the Swordsman is hard at work in this room—"

  But before Silas had a chance to retort, and looming shadow with wings descended upon them.

  "Going somewhere, pirate!?" Said the shrill voice from before. Kryll had used a trick to turn himself into a shadow form and make himself fit between them to block the exit. Silas and Alexx were backing up into the upper room, watching for Kryll's next move.

  "Kryll!" Alexx exclaimed as if to a friend he hadn't seen in awhile, "Good to see you! Have you lost weight?"

  There was no verbal answer, Kryll attacked. His talons were as fast as ever, and his hissing shrieks told of his wrath. Every swing was intentional, and aimed for something vital. Silas scurried away and began climbing up the wall. Alexx remained focused on Kryll. He had the mask on already, and was easily wielding Dracabane against the vicious talons. He tried to smooth talk Kryll into fighting Trandin again, but nothing was getting through Kryll's focus.

  There was a minute where Silas distracted him by shooting him in the eye. Alexx took the opportunity to locate the set of stairs and ran for them, but Trandin stepped in front of him, reaching for his waist. He pulled the chains from the loop, and quickly attached one end to his sword. His feathers were ruffled, and his wings were missing chunks.

  "You look like you've seen better nights," Alexx teased.

  Trandin finished fiddling and turned away from Alexx. He didn't speak a word and leaped into the air toward the opposite side of the room. He landed on the set of stairs going up, and looked at Alexx, then looked away and vanished into the ceiling.

  Alexx shrugged. He didn't have to fight, and that's all that mattered at this point. His attention went back to the fight behind him. Kryll was found flying towards the ceiling, searching the rafters. He must have been searching for Silas, who was comfortably nestled at the stairs reloading, and taking aim at Kryll again. Quickly thinking, Alexx took the chain on Dracabane, and wrapped it around Kryll's foot. He pulled on it in an attempt to make him fall. All it did was as a distraction for Silas to fire a shot into the Kagral's wing. The skin on the wing shredded between the digits ripped wide. Kryll couldn't fly, and it threw him into a frenzy. It had forgotten the chain still entrapping him, and Alexx had just enough strength to hold him in place. When Kryll tried to attack Alexx, it would only end in getting shot. This continued until Kryll had lost his wings, and several shots to the legs. Silas shouted for Alexx to finish him. Kryll sighed between huffs, "I will not die here." Kryll shook off the chain and ran for the stairs, while Alexx approached to swing again.

  "Not this time, puss sack!" Alexx swung and connected. Kryll fell off his feet, crying out in pain, and whining about being humiliated and crawling on the ground.

  "Aw, is it time for a little nap?" Alexx teased standing over the Kagral.

  "You cannot truly kill us." Kryll's talons shifted. A steel blade had pierced his back, above the wings.

  "I know," Alexx said talking inches from his ear, "But I'm still going to tear you open!" Alexx wrenched the sword up the bat's back. A large gash opened and spilled black liquid, but it wasn't blood. Kryll shriveled up, screaming. Before Alexx stepped away, he sliced another large cleft into the general's neck.

  Kryll collapsed into the ground and remained motionless. More of the black liquid gushed from the body and covered the ground. The body began evaporating into a shadowy mist, until it was all gone, including the fluids.

  "Thar' it goes, back to the Void," Silas sighed, "A shame tha' sworsman did' stick 'round and use his swor'."

  "Once Senkazital is gone, we won't have to worry." Alexx replied.

  "Right, les go take care a him, and tha' dragon!"