Adventures of the last Wild Dragon

The rest of the evening passed in quiet contemplation and conversation. The two eventually turned in for the night and lay down together and snuggled up together to Violet's delight and Luna's embarrassed pleasure.

Morning came to find the two girls slowly awakening and stretching after a good nights rest.

Morning routines went off as normal with stretches and the cooking of a quick breakfast. Violet stayed in her humanoid form all morning for a change and decided that she should try to get used to combat like this so opted to stay like this for a while longer. Much to a particular leopards delight.

Once ready for the day they swiftly packed away their camp for the night and headed back out into the forest to continue on their journey towards the center of the plateau.

As the two walked they kept their senses sharp not wanting to walk into an ambush. They had noticed that for some reason they never seemed to get targeted at night. They had kept watch initially when starting their wanderings but had soon discovered that particular anomaly. They couldn't quite come up with a reason as to why that might be the case but they were not going to be too upset at being able to have a relaxing night.

Unknown to both of them was the subtle aura that Violet released subconsciously when getting ready to sleep or setting up her 'nest' for the night. It was a mix of pheromones and mana signals that basically radiated outwards signaling that something strong had claimed that area and it would be a dumb thing to investigate.

The beasts that naturally hunted at night were quite sensitive to picking up signals that denoted the territory of powerful beasts and tended to avoid such areas.

Both girls should probabally have realised this to be the case but they were usually either too tired or absorbed in each others presence to figure that fact out.

Regardless during the day the two knew that they were very liable to ambush's and as such kept on guard. They had a decent gauge of the average strength of beasts in this area and knew that they couldn't be careless. A number of times they had to flee from a particularly strong foe that was guarding something nearby or hunting in that particular area.

"How far do you reckon we have left till we hit the center of this place? And what do you think we will find?" Luna suddenly asked.

Thinking it over for a moment Violet eventually shrugged. "Don't know but it has to be something interesting right? And it should be too much longer now iv got a feeling we are close!"

Giving Violet a pointed look which caused the dragon to look away in embarrassment Luna let out a sigh. "Should we really be trusting your famous instincts though? It seems a 50/50 chance of them being right or wrong." She was only half joking as they had run into a few tough situation thanks to Violet's gut feelings, the mud valley being only the latest example.

Deciding to double down on her instincts this time Violet confidently replied we will find something good I know it!" Then deciding to have some fun she continued in a meek tone. "Don't you trust me?"

Luna not falling for her companions shenanigans was just in the process of raising her hand to flick violets forehead she she froze up. As did Violet, for a notification had just been sent to them. And its contents were quite something.

[Regional announcement for the Elemental Valley:

The Star Tree is blooming and opportunity awaits.

In the heart of the Valley the star tree once more awakens ready to bestow its blessing on the lucky few who have the strength or whit to claim on of its fruits.

The tree will blossom in - 23hrs 59min]

As they both read and then reread the announcement Violet turned her head to look at Luna with the biggest grin possible on her face but before she could say anything Luna quickly spoke up. "Don't! Just don't even say anything."

Not deterred in the slightest from the slightly defeated sounding girl Violet merrily spoke up with an enchanting lilt to her voice. "I told you their would be something good waiting for us!"

Sighing in resignation Luna braced herself for the continuation of her companions bragging about her amazing talent or something similar but was pleasantly surprised when the next words to come out were said in a serious tone. "We will have to be careful though. I'm pretty sure every beast within a days travel received that message and almost every beast of any strength will likely head in the same direction as us to try and claim it. It's going to be a rough day."

Grimacing in recognition of that fact Luna could only nod her head in accent. "Yeah this will likely be rough. I think you should go back to your dragon form, now isn't the time to be testing out new ways to fight. And we should try to avoid fights till we are closer and have a better idea of what we are going to face there."

Instantly agreeing she doffed her outfit and began her transformation. Less than a minute later Violet once more stood in her dragon form, her muscles rippling beneath her scales and a gleam visible in her violet eyes. "Alright then, let's go!" And with that the two companions melded into the shadows as a thin layer of void coated them as they rushed off towards the inevitable battle to come.

——

Many miles away on the other side of the Elemental Valley 2 other companions received that same message. They had differing thoughts on what to do. The dogkin former slave was understandably nervous about heading that way. Her clothing was in tatters and she was not in the best of conditions thanks to their prolonged travel through this deadly wilderness.

Her companion a blue dragon was also not looking too great herself with some scales missing and a generally worn down appearance. Yet her eyes still blazed with determination, not once in their long journey had her will to find the Wild Dragon lowered. If anything it had become more pronounced as she began to adapt to life out in the wilds.

She may have thought that life in captivity was tough but at least there she had some semblance of control over her situation. Out in the wilds of the Endless Forest she was under no such illusions as to being in control. The number of times they had to flee from strong foes or hide just to stay alive was innumerable. She had definitely lost some of her arrogance in believing that this would be easy.

But both her and her companion had grown strong. Or at least strong enough to barely survive in this place. Still regardless of their condition both of them knew that they would be heading in that direction. After all Susan had managed to get the same quest as Rhyana just with a different reward. But for both of them their quest was pointing them in a singular direction. Straight towards the center of the plateau where the hoards of beasts would soon be congregating in the wild hope of being able to lay claim to a legendary fruit.