"A Dragon Shifter and a Fallen Noble Walk Into a Forest..."

All the humans leaped to their feet and began calling out "Stephanie? Where are you?" After more than a minute passed with no answer, they looked at each other.

"She was right here when we made introductions," Andy commented.

"So she can't have gone far. Jester, Strawberry, can you track her?"

"Well, we'll just see. Give us a minute or two," Strawberry said, jumping to alert.

"I guess it pays to have hunting dogs in your party on an expedition like yours," Ryon commented as he watched the pair fan out from the group's stopping point, checking and double-checking what the other had already gone over to see if anything had been missed.

"It certainly does. And they would never have forgiven me if I'd left them behind," Cleo smiled. She was proud of her training methods and of her two loyal dogs.

Strawberry and Jester came trotting back after circling the entire clearing and then conferring with one another silently. "Reporting in, mistress," said Jester, sitting at attention at her feet.

"Proceed," Cleo told him, trying to seem like a stern general and not like a girl talking to her dog.

"Someone came along behind you and kidnapped Stephanie while you all were talking. Whoever it was cast certain spells to conceal themselves from sight and scent, and Stephanie's scent too after they'd taken her. But that person, or persons, forgot an important detail."

"What detail was that?" asked Andy, listening intently.

"The herbs the person used to cast the spell have a scent of their own, a scent they forgot to include in the cover-up spell. Strawberry and I both have the specific combination and could follow it from here to the North Star if we had to. All we have to do is follow the trail of spell-scent and overtake whoever kidnapped her."

"Then we can't wait. If we're to lose as little time as possible on this, we'll have to go now," Andy exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Hop on, Ryon. We don't want to leave you behind." The two men climbed onto Colonel's back while Cleo went to Tulip. It seemed odd not to have Stephanie behind her as she mounted up.

"Good work, you two," Cleo told her dogs as soon as she was settled. "Now, lead us on the trail as quietly as you can. We want to sneak up on this person if possible."

"No problem, Mistress Cleo. Off we go then," said Strawberry, moving to take the lead with Jester. The group started on their way again, moving into the trees more silently than could have been believed given the size and makeup of their party. The horses tread carefully and didn't stumble on any roots or rocks as they made their way along. In what seemed like a very short time, though it could have been hours later, the group came upon a clearing with a tiny cottage at the center. Smoke blew gently out the window, and they could hear the faint strains of off-key singing coming from inside.

Strawberry came and gently put her paws up on Tulip's side so that she could talk to Cleo without the sound carrying too far. "We'll go make a circle around this clearing, to make sure this person we're looking for didn't just go on by."
"I agree," Cleo whispered back, "This looks promising, but it might not be the right place after all. We don't want to disturb whoever lives here if they happen to be innocent. Go on." The greyhound nodded and dropped to the ground.

Within two minutes she was back. "This is the place all right. The scent goes no further than this clearing. We'll try to get closer, if you want."

"Wait a minute, and we'll come with you," Cleo said after a conferring glance with Andy and Ryon. She slid out of her saddle, hit the ground as quietly as possible, and started crawling towards the cottage to keep out of sight of the windows, the two men at her side. Jester came with them, while Strawberry decided to stay behind to keep watch with the horses.

The singing grew louder as they approached the nearest window of the cottage, taking on an ear-aching whine that made Jester shudder with every high note. When they were so close that they could take refuge directly under the window by leaning against the plaster walls of the cottage, they paused to look at each other. By silent conferring of eyes, they agreed that Ryon would put his head up to the window and peer inside to see what was going on. When he came back, his face was white.

"A witch," he hissed, lowering his rasping voice until it was almost inaudible, "A witch lives in that cottage. She's got Stephanie tied up hand and foot in there, and is busy making a huge fire with a spit over it. I've heard of such people. They go for years without food, so they can feast only on the humans they can kidnap. I also heard they can never be killed by any man, because devouring man's flesh makes them invulnerable to a man's weapons. What can we do to get her out of there?"

"What we need is some sort of distraction," Cleo said. The two men turned to look at her.

"But won't whoever distracts the witch get eaten in turn? That doesn't solve our problem, just makes it worse," Andy whispered, frowning.

"That would be true, if the distracter was human," Jester put in, catching on. "I could get her to come to the door while the rest of you grab Stephanie."

"I don't think that will work. What if the witch sees it's only a dog and turns around too soon? And anyway, how would we get in there if she's at the door?" asked Andy doubtfully.

Ryon smiled suddenly. "I think I have an idea. I'll go to the door with Jester and keep the witch busy. Andy, if you or Cleo can get a long, thin branch, you can unlock the window from the outside. Then you can climb into the room and get Stephanie. I think Andy should be the one to do that. Cleo can cover him with your bow in case of emergency."

"But you said that people like this witch can't be killed by…wait. I get it. She doesn't apply to the rule because she's not a man." Andy's face lit up with this realization. Then he frowned again. "But how are you going to distract the witch without getting eaten yourself?"

"You'll see in a minute. Go get a branch that can fit between the window frame and the swinging part of the window itself. I'll go back to the forest and come around the proper way, so she'll think I've come out of the woods. My signal will be clearing my throat once the witch has come to the door." Ryon began crawling away from the cottage and back towards the trees. Cleo and Andy looked at each other, and then started to hunt around for a thin stick strong enough to lift the window latch.

In a minute or two, everything was ready. Cleo and Andy crouched by the edge of the house, watching for Ryon to appear from the forest. When he did, neither one of them could believe their eyes.

A remarkable creature strode out of the woods. While he was still recognizably human in shape, huge glittering dragon-wings sprouted from his back, catching the rays of the sun. His skin also seemed to shimmer, and as he got closer Cleo could see individual scales just under the surface as though waiting to emerge. It gave his entire body an exotic bluish tinge. Just before ducking back around the corner of the house, Cleo noticed two more details: through his hair sprouted small, stubby dragon's horns and his eyes had gone from ice blue to a fiery, slit-pupiled yellow.

By the time Ryon knocked on the door, Cleo and Andy were back in place. There was a heavy pause after the knocks died away and then a shuffling told them that the witch had taken the bait, at least temporarily. The door creaked open.

The witched gasped in surprise. "Master! I hadn't expected to see you! Do come in, I was just about to have a nice little snack."

Master? Cleo mouthed to Andy.

The Devil, he mouthed back, and Cleo suddenly understood. The batlike wings, the horns, and the slit-pupiled eyes all made Ryon appear to be an image of the deity that all evildoers worshiped as their overlord. She slid an arrow onto her bowstring and dared to peer over the windowsill to get a better look at the scene taking place.

If Ryon saw her, his serpentine eyes gave no sign of it. However, he cleared his throat significantly before saying in his gravelly voice, "Forgive me for dropping in on you like this, but I needed the assistance of a subject. I cannot tarry, but perhaps if you'd step outside for a moment…"

Andy tapped Cleo on the shoulder, and she helped him unlock the window before boosting him gently into the room. Stephanie turned towards him, her white face lighting up when she realized who it was. She turned around to reveal what she'd been working on: her rope bindings were more than halfway spilt by rubbing them against the sharp corner behind her. Cleo and Andy both smiled as Andy leaned down and slit the rest of Stephanie's bindings with his dagger. The pair quietly made their way for the window as the voices outside continued to rise and fall. Cleo put her bow down to help Stephanie through the window.

Just as they had gotten Stephanie at the point of crawling out the open window, the door opened and the witch and Ryon came striding inside. Andy, thinking quickly, gave an enormous shove that threw Stephanie completely through the window. Unfortunately, Stephanie collided with Cleo and the two women tangled helplessly together.

There was a shriek from the witch, and a thump against the walls of the house as she lunged and grabbed Andy. A yelp from Andy as his head hit the windowsill mixed with a snarl from Jester was all Cleo needed. She fought free of her entanglement with Stephanie and nocked an arrow faster than she could have believed possible. She pointed her bow through the open window and coolly took in the scene.

Ryon and Jester had backed the witch up against the roaring fire. She was plainly frightened, since neither of them was truly human and could thus do her harm. She also held a knife to the squirming Andy's throat. A faint line of blood trickled down from the knife point where it was pressing a little too hard into his neck, and Cleo could see he was still somewhat stunned from dashing his head against the windowsill.

She didn't think. She took careful aim, and before the witch had time to duck her head behind Andy's she let fly. The arrow flew straight and true and buried itself in the witch's right eye, not two inches from Andy's head. The witch gave a gasp of surprise and fell back into the fire, dropping her knife and releasing Andy. Ryon lunged forward and yanked the dazed prince away as the fire roared up like a whirlwind, consuming the witch's body. Then it died completely, leaving nothing but cold ash behind.

For nearly a minute all of them stared at the dead fire. Even Stephanie, who had peered over the sill at about the same time Cleo had loosed her arrow, seemed struck dumb by the old witch's sudden demise.

Jester recovered first. He gave a great shake of his head that traveled straight down his body to his tail tip, and let out a joyful bark. Still supporting Andy, Ryon turned towards the window. "That was some shooting, Princess," he said, nodding with approval, "Not even the Clan Gryffin archers, who are the best in the Woods, could have made so close a shot with such accuracy." With that, he seemed to shiver very slightly. As they watched, his wings and horns retracted, and his skin and eyes regained their human shade.

"I didn't know you could transform halfway like that," Cleo commented as she climbed through the window to help get Andy out the door. He seemed on the verge of passing out, and she hoped the light outside would help.

"It's a useful technique when we of the Clans want to blend the skills of our human and mythic forms, but it takes a great deal of practice before we can control exactly what changes. It was years before I managed to grow my wings enough so that they were fully formed but weren't dragon-sized so they didn't look so awkward. Now, I can change only my teeth to dragon-sharp if I want to, but it takes concentration. The more specific the change, the harder it is."