Faya flew into the dark and picked up a few followers along the way. She had a long flight to the stone tower where the Were king and queen resided. Faya recalled her own days there fondly, with her beast and their many children. Not to say that everything was perfect. The gods were at war in those early days. But mostly it had been a wonderful life, and she hoped Flern and Kined could find some happiness together as well, if she could figure out how to switch Wlvn and Flern back to where they belonged.

When Faya landed, and resumed human form, her followers did the same. She had collected a small crowd behind her on the stone court, and she wondered what they might be thinking, especially since she began to glow over the last couple of miles. “As the crow flies,” she said to herself, and ignored the people behind her as she knocked gently on the door.

A young man opened the door. “May I help you?” he asked, before he took a look at her face.

“Faya, to see whoever is in charge,” she said, and there were several audible gasps from behind. The young man tried to smile.

“One moment.” He shut the door slowly, but his trembling hand suggested he wanted to slam it. A moment later, a rather older and bigger man came and hauled the door open.

“Who dares? I don’t find it funny.” The older man already decided what he would believe before he arrived.

Faya studied the man and saw something of her beast in him these many generations later. She spoke calmly. “I think you may call me grandmother,” she decided.

“Eh?” And for the first time the big old man looked squarely at Faya and into her eyes. Faya let the fires of the sun come up into her eyes. She waved her hand and the vines that clung to the tower grew miraculously and stretched out to the very edges of the door, like they were ready to crash inside the house. Then she rose up until she was able to look him straight in the eye and spoke sternly.

“This is an urgent matter and I have no time to play. Be a good boy and hear me.” She turned and addressed all the ones who had gathered. “My friend Carpasis has likely told you already, but just to be sure. There is a human who rode up on to the plateau with a dragon hot on his trail. Have you seen him or heard of him?”

Everyone said no, including the big man in the doorway.

“I wish to know if he survived or if the dragon caught him. If he survived, I want him treated with respect, fed and rested, and brought safely to the village on the mountainside where Raini and I used to play. Tell him he is to go to the inn of Nadia and her father which is on the road that leads down the mountain and wish him well. If he did not survive, if the dragon caught him, I would like to see the evidence. And if you kill him after this telling, I will find out and I will be very cross with you all.” Faya turned again to face the big man in the door and look at him eye to eye. “Hear me,” she said, and then she could not help putting out her hand and touching the man on the cheek. “My grandchild.”

With that, Faya rose up high into the sky and changed back into the scarlet owl as she headed back toward the inn. Some of her first followers followed her again, and they picked up a group of new ones as well along the way. Faya only hoped she could get back by sunrise. She would be very tired, but she paid for two nights because she knew that both she and Wlvn would need some rest.”

When she arrived, the Were stopped at the wall on the edge of town, but Faya flew freely over the rooftops. She saw a perch erected in the town square, just where she used to land when she visited her cousin Raini. The only thing missing on the perch was the big copper bell. She knew it would be a walk to the inn, but she could not resist. She changed to an eagle with the same red glean in her feathers as the sky in the east turned a corresponding red, and she landed on the perch and paused only to preen her shoulder feather. Then she jumped from the perch and changed simultaneously into Faya as she landed and thought she could not count the number of times she did that in the deep past.

Faya sensed the arrow in the air before she saw it. Her aunt Freja taught her that—aunt Vrya, she corrected her pronunciation. Her right hand came up as she thought and something like a solar flare came from her hand. It turned the arrow shaft completely to dust and the copper head to little melted drops that fell and blended into the soil. At the same time, she raised her left hand and the clouds overhead congealed in a moment of time. A bolt of lightning struck the earth not two feet from the bowman. The bowman got tossed by the explosion. He got singed everywhere, but not badly burnt, and he went unconscious, but did not die.

“Why?” Faya asked out loud. I pose no threat to anyone, she thought, and she started toward the bowman, but stopped after only a step. Wlvn said this should be his job, and she could not argue. All she could do was look around and say it felt so good to be home, and then she went away. Wlvn came back and headed for the archer.

“Jaccar.” Wlvn recognized what passed for a uniform. He wondered how that was possible, but he remembered one of the gods stood behind the Wicca and helped her in her wicked designs. Wlvn had a thought and ran for the inn at super speed before the gathering crowd could block his way.