Tycho leaned against a tree. "WHERE are we going?" he asked. They had been travelling without anything that looked like a truly thought out destination for going on a month now. Before that, they'd routed a big creepy house full of dead creepy people and a construct who hadn't looked so dead. And then Toivo had declared war on necromancers, and things just went to hell in a handbasket as far as directions went.

"We're following omens," Toivo said dryly. He'd been through this conversation with his brother far too many times.

"And the omens are taking us... where?" was Tycho's annoyed answer.

"They're taking us where we need to be."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because the universe often conspires together to bring individuals where they need to be."

"Which would be why I'm dead? Is that it?"

"You could have just forgotten about that. Drank of Lethe, gone on to join the Soul of the World, but noooo. You decided to be miserable for a hundred years' time."

Suddenly, Bubo fell from the sky like a stone.

"Dis!" Toivo cursed and ran towards his injured companion. The owl couldn't feel pain, being that it wasn't alive, but its wing manipulators had become severely damaged by what looked to be a strike of lightning.

"What is it?" Tycho asked, peeking over his shoulder.

"It's an omen if I've ever seen one," he said.

"So we're going the wrong way?"

"..." Toivo glared up at his brother. "No," he said sternly. "We're looking for a place that reeks of death and destruction. There's not a cloud in the sky. It's common for mages and sorcerors to use other creatures to scout for them. I would say, judging by the size of the burn marks on Bubo, we're pretty damned close."

"The plot thickens!" Tycho said snarkily.

"You could find someone else to bother, you know, instead of standing around being an ass all the time."

"But it's much more fun this way."

Toivo sighed and started talking to his mechanical owl. "Alright, Bubo." He stroked the whole mesh metal feathers softly. "You're not going to be able to fly for some time. We're not at my lab, you know, and we don't have the equipment to fix you."

"Why are you talking to that thing?" Tycho drawled.

"It makes him feel better."

"You know he can't understand you."

"Oh, so I should, by the same argument, stop talking to you, too?"

"That's not what I meant."

"No, you like doing things so you're the center of attention. Poor you, poor you, you're dead. Well I HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT."

"Oh, so you think that all I want from you is pity and sympathy, is that it?"

"Yes, that's exactly it. If you didn't want me to feel horrible every day of my life, you'd leave me alone."

"And if you didn't like my company, you'd send me on my merry way yourself."

"You want me to?" Toivo asked, glaring. "I could. Easily."

"I'd like to see you try." Tycho stood there, arms crossed over his chest, chin jutted out in a challenge.

Just then, lightning arched from the clear sky to a tree nearby. The mule startled, and Toivo grabbed its lead to struggle with it to calm.

"We'll finish this later!" Toivo shouted over the din of the fire that was started by the lightning.

Tycho, however, was nowhere to be found. "Fine, whatever," Toivo said, tying Bubo's wings together with a length of cloth so he wouldn't try to fly, and thusly mangle his articulators more. Toivo made a series of complicated motions with his free right hand, and a dome of water surrounded him and the mule.

He dragged the mule forwards, Bubo hooting and peeping from the saddle bags at being restrained. As they moved, the bubble of water moved with them, quenching the fire all around them, issuing forth hot steam on the exterior of the bubble. The interior was kept comfortably cool by balancing forces, and Toivo continued to walk on with the mule.

They were making good time, but then whomever was out to get them decided to take things up a notch. The water bubble was struck by more lightning, and Toivo had to hurry to dispell it before the mule spooked too much. The dispelling was difficult with one hand on the lead rope and the other doing half the motions and then restarting the dispell with the other half and the intranscribeables.

And then, a very large flaming branch fell in their way, and they were trapped. Toivo didn't dare use a water spell again, because he was certain that it would be detected and electrocuted again. Behind him, the forest was too much ablaze to consider returning, and the flames were creeping up the sides of the path as well.

Then, he had an idea.

"As above, so below," he breathed. "As below, so above." Well, if there was chaos below, there should be chaos gathering above. He just wasn't too sure if he could pull it off properly. He dropped to the ground amidst the fire, and he began to whisper to the earth, and then to the wind, and then to the water, and then to the sky. He was trying as hard as he could to summon a storm to quench the fire, but, before he could do so, the smoke became too thick, the mule began to dance in fear, and was looking in earnest for an exit.

As the storm gathered, Toivo felt he couldn't breathe. Even staying low, beneath most of the smoke, he coughed and his breaths grew ragged and weary. Before he could steal himself just until the storm came, he passed out, and the elements began to dissipate.

*No,* said a strange voice. *I don't think he's dead, either.*

Toivo tried very hard to believe that he was dead. Then, something nudged him lightly, and he felt a chill run through his body. He opened his eyes.

*Hello,* said the voice again. He looked around, but his ears couldn't believe that anything had spoken, and his eyes didn't see anything right away. *I'm relieved you're not dead. The way you were pressing on made me wonder just what was so important that you were pushing through a froest fire to achieve it.*

"Um..."

*Over here,* the voice said, and a thought nudged his thoughts to look to his left.

Before him stood a large dark blue shape with a white mark in the middle of its -- her, something told him -- forehead. She had four strong legs and a pair of giant ... what looked like leathery wings. Horns, two pokey things anyway, came off her head, which was set with liquid black eyes. She was surrounded by tiny orbs of floating blue-white wispy bits of fire, or at least, they looked like fire.

He reached up to touch one, and he felt his arm fall asleep as it glowed more brightly. He remembered Tycho saying that he could have taken energy from Toivo himself, but it was nicer to take it from the air nearby.

*You'll be fine,* the creature said, smiling at him.

"You're a dragon?" he asked, having heard of them, but seen them only in illustrations.

*I am,* she said. *Your mule hasn't wandered far. You'll be safe here. There's no chance of the fire rising up again.* She smiled down at him, showing a long row of pointy teeth.

"You're a... you're a..."

*Dragon,* she repeated.

"..." Toivo said, and passed out with his eyes wide open.