Vanmoriel tells me that she has done a reconnaissance mission to the borderlands and that there are two stops that we must make before we go there together. The first is back home in the Elven Realm. The second, she will not elucidate on, for now. Try as I might, I can’t get it out of her.

We practice several wards and charms on our way back to the Elven Realm. I think I sort of surprise her with some of the things that I have learned over the past weeks from Aunt Melinda. Finally, on the third day, we reach the Realm and I go in alone. Vanmoriel stays behind in her cottage; for some reason, she won’t enter the Realm…

An hour later, I am back at the castle and hugging Mother, Lothi, and Miri. Mother wastes no time and takes me to the Tree of Life… There she carefully gathers up an acorn from the special store and places it in a velvet pouch for me. I raise an eyebrow and she says, “Vanmoriel has suggested that you take it with you. If you have to use it, trust Vanmoriel on that, then it will be a noble sacrifice—you remember the growing song, right?” I nod, still confused. I know that now is not the time to ask, though.

After I carefully store the acorn in my purse, Mother goes to the great Oak and places her hands on the trunk. She sings another song…one about great sacrifices… Then she has me come and place my hands on the trunk, as well. She continues to sing and I feel the tree vibrate…and a large limb drops to the ground. Mother has me gather one end of the limb and she gathers the other; we walk back to the village—to a small hut. Mother talks to a man, he nods, we leave the limb with the man and we go back to the castle.

Mother takes me to a private room and says, “OK, Daughter, we have an hour or so to talk. I am sorry that I was not there for you when you had your first menstruation…or that I wasn’t there for you for the aftermath that I am sure you felt once you got to your Father’s fortress. Melinda did give you the potion that I taught her to make, correct? The one that protects you? I would have loved to have been there for you for your first heat, but, what you did was so much more important—one of the downsides of being royalty… You have to put your subjects before yourself at all times…”

I look at her and tilt my head… I ask, “Heat? Is that why I was so…insatiable…? It would have been nice to know that was coming… Does Father know…? I mean, I did my best to hide…my actions…from him… Are you saying I didn’t need to?” Mother giggles and says, “Great Tree, no! He has no idea… It is not something that you will go through every cycle, either. Now that you have gone through your first one…and satisfied the biological need, you will be more or less normal for the next year… The potion both kept you from getting pregnant, but tricked a part of your brain into believing that you are. That will reset your clock for a year… The potion works well, but only in conjunction with actual orgasms…and it takes several. Some Elven traits just can’t be tricked… But, tell me…did you enjoy it?”

I feel my face grow bright red and Mother giggles. She says, “Nelle! It is nothing to be ashamed of—we are connected with nature. And there is nothing more natural than the need to procreate—that the act that goes along with that is enjoyable is not our fault.” The heat from the blush in my face dissipates and I grin at Mother. I say, “Well, it was…very nice!”

There is a knock on the door and Mother goes to answer it. She barely opens the door and whispers to someone on the outside. She takes something from the person and closes the door. She returns with the most beautiful bow and arrow set that I have ever seen. She smiles at the glow in my eye and says, “This was made by our best bow-maker from the bough that the Great Oak sacrificed for you. It is infused with your magic…it will be like an extension of yourself. This is a great gift from both the bow-maker, who is retired, and the tree. Cherish it and use it well, Sweet Daughter.”

She comes and gives me a teary-eyed hug. Then she breaks it and says, “And now it is time for you to go meet with Vanmoriel again. I am not happy about this next stop that you must make, but Vanmoriel has convinced me that it is necessary. Then you will face an even worse enemy. Miri will accompany you and the three of you will buy the Elven Folk and Humanity some time—until we can fully defeat Drakyre… May the Goddesses be with you, Daughter-of-Mine!”

Miri and I leave the castle after saying our goodbyes to Mother and Aunt Lothi. We quickly make our way to the crossing point at the brook and then to Vanmoriel’s cottage. She is waiting for us—impatiently…

We start out immediately. After a couple of hours of walking, she looks at both of us and says, “OK, I need to know your skills with the bow…” She points at an impossibly small target almost a quarter mile away… She asks, “So…which of you can hit that…”

Miri and I both string our bows and nock an arrow… We let go at the same time…and both hit the small target dead center…both arrows, for all intents and purposes, in the same hole… Vanmoriel seems satisfied and we move on…

Several hours later, we are in the foothills of some mountain range. I look at Miri and she shrugs. Vanmoriel has been quiet the whole way… I decide to call her ‘Mori’…her name is just too long… She does not like it—but what do I care? I figure we will all be dead in a few days, anyways…

We stop for the night. Mori is quiet again—I think she is not sure how to interact with Miri… Miri and I giggle and are typical ‘teenagers’… Mori rolls her eyes and goes to bed… Miri and talk for a while and then go to sleep ourselves…

Mori is up first, closely followed by Miri… I feel like a late sleeper—even though I only get two and a half hours. I feel great, though, and get up to help with breakfast.

To my surprise, we head up into the mountains after we clean up from our breakfast. I look at Miri and she shrugs. Mori finally says, “We need a very specific product if we are to have any chance of stopping the flow of poison out of the outer realm… Now, be quiet…I would prefer we do not wake it until the very last minute…” I look at Miri again…she is obviously as confused as I am…

We are headed up a mountain with its peak well above us…the further we go, the more Mori urges us to be quiet. Finally, she stops us and quietly puts a ward on all three of us. I am not sure what it does, though. Mori then, finally, tells us what we are about to do, “The ward I just placed on you is tied to my energy; there is not much else I will be able to do at this point…it is a tremendous drain on me to maintain all three wards. It will not make you invisible to the dragon, but it will make you sort of sylph-like…transparent and misty to it.” I almost blurt out, but catch myself just in time, and ask in an urgent whisper, “DRAGON? What dragon?” Mori ignores me and says, “Miri, you will need to distract the dragon by shooting arrows at its head… Try not to kill it; that is not our purpose… So, do not aim for the eyes… Nelle, you will need to aim this special arrow at the base of the dragon’s tail while Miri is distracting it. The arrow is attached to this very fine, but very strong filament…made from the silk of a very special spider. Once you have the arrow in place, this special compartment will collect a pint of the dragon’s blood…and we will pull the arrow back to us. Then, it will be up to me to strengthen the wards to full invisibility to cover our retreat… Any questions?”

Miri and I both look at her like she has suddenly gone crazy… Mori says, “Move! I can’t maintain these wards forever. The dragon is in the cave. Miri, go draw him out and keep her attention while Nelle gets her blood!”

Miri looks at me…pale in the face. I shrug and say, “I guess you only die once.” I hug Miri and she squeezes me back…and we go to literally pester a dragon…

Miri sneaks up in front of the cave opening…but at least five thousand paces out. I climb up above the opening of the cave. I only hope the size of the opening is not an indicator of the size of the dragon… Miri fires a few blind arrows into the cave…and the ground under my feet shakes from the roar inside.

Having never seen a dragon, I am not really sure what to expect. Whatever it was I was expecting, it didn’t do reality justice. The creature that comes storming out of the cave is huge—almost as tall as the Tree of Life, itself. It is greenish-bronze color and at least five hundred paces long. It has a long, thin neck and a small head. Thankfully, it does not have working wings…nor does it seem to breathe fire—at least that was not its first reaction… But it is FAST!

Miri dodges and shoots arrows at its head… They bounce of the tough scales as if they are feathers hitting a steel plate. She is barely fast enough to stay out of the range of its razor-sharp claws. When it is sufficiently far enough out of its cave, I take aim at the soft spot at the base of its tail… There is a small spot that has less dense scales… I shoot and…miss…

Cursing the swiftness of the dragon, I reel in the arrow by its filament, nock the arrow, pull back on the string, breathe, and release it with a song… It hits the spot dead on and the dragon spins looking for what hit it. Miri plies it with arrows again and it spins around to face her again. I yank hard on the thread and the arrow dislodges itself from the beast. I reel it in again… The attached container is full of the dragon’s blood.

I send up the signal arrow and Mori intensifies our ward… We disappear from the dragon’s sight and run for our lives. When we are at a fairly safe distance, we stop and I give Mori several pieces of dried Moon Fruit. After ten minutes of total silence, she is recuperated enough that we can move on…

I say, “I hope I never have to fight a dragon again… Did you see the size of that thing?” Miri nods her head, wide-eyed, and agrees. Mori just says, “Just hope you never have to fight a full-grown one that can fly and spit fire… That was just a baby…"