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I awoke the next morning with Cheshire's head in front of mine looking at me with concern. {I know you are worried about what might transpire in the next day, but know I agree with your choice to see this course of action through. If we as a group plan on helping to bring about the future of all intelligent life it is necessary to take the challenges presented to us. All we can do is hope and pray we make it through without harm}. He then stands and pads off, probably to get some bread from Harriet before we leave.

I stand up and start putting things into my pack for a possibility of at least three days away from camp. {On the plus side we'll have enough time to replace our stores of food}. In addition to the three days of what we consider 'travel rations', I place a skinning knife some extra tarps as well as an extra sleeping bag. I take a few storage jars that are not designed for canning, if I get a chance to kill this monster I want a sample of the poison to store away. {I'm sure it would at least make a Dragon ill enough to make it easier to fight if it doesn't kill it out right}. Alberich sticks his head into the tent, {based on what we know it is possible. We doubt it'll kill an adult dragon, but a nest of recently hatched it might kill.} I nod my head and continue packing my pack. Alberich steps inside fully, {Gwen every species has had moments of stupidity. Even if those moments were meant with good intentions their ending makes the good intentions invalid. The magical unicorns understand this and tend to try to get rid of any Manticore's they find, though they generally have to ask my kind to remove them.

To be fully honest Gwen I don't like going up against them, they are extremely dangerous to fight}. I nod my head again checking my fire starter before placing it back into my pack and then I turn to Alberich. "I understand all that, they need to stop trying to fix the problems of the world with creating something that physically never existed. At least a Manticore is something I at least have a chance to battle. Can you imagine if they had created an illness instead? How could we defeat something like that in this age at this time?" Alberich lowers his head sullenly, {I agree. I will have to find a way to keep tabs on them, or at least find out which ones are of the type to experiment.}

Harriet then walks in with a platter of food, "well if ye be going off to fight a monster best you eat a good meal. Jose went out nearby and hunted up a few deer, I have some of that flat bread you like and it seems that dwarf brought back a gift after he went home so you have a small piece of cheese to add to the roasted meat. There's also a good amount of greens here for you as well Gwen. I expect you to eat it all," she set the platter down after emphasizing the last statement and then heads back out the door tugging at Alberich's mane as she goes. "Come on let her eat and then I'll feed you, the gryphons are already tearing through the extra deer that Jose brought in. They were excited he left the liver's and hearts for them."Alberich follows her out of the tent and I sit down and attempt to eat the food she brought me which looks like it could feed three people.

{I believe she intends on you bringing some of it with you}, I hear Cheshire say. {She's made sure that everyone going on this venture has been fully fed, I think she's worried}. I then decide to eat what I can eating every bite of green as it won't carry well. Then wrapping the leftover meat in the flat bread then putting them inside a leather pouch that is designed to store food in I place it in the top of my pack.

Stepping out of the tent I see Alberich facing Cassie again with Tammy standing next to him, "sweety what he said about those things is horrible. It is not safe fro you to go with even if you feel you need to." Tammy walks over and puts an arm around Cassie's neck, "listen. Children are a gift that adults must care for and keep healthy as well as happy. Sometimes healthy is more important than happy. You can go off and fight monsters when you are a bit older, when you have had enough training. To make sure we aren't being biased about the training we'll get someone else to evaluate you once a year. How about that?" Cassie nods slowly then sighs slowly and walks away head lowered. Tammy turns to Alberich, "you better make it back or I swear I will find a way to make you a zombie." Tammy then runs off to console Cassie, Alberich shakes his head and walks over to me.

{So are you ready to head out to kill this thing?} I nod my head and walk to the edge of camp where Cheshire was waiting with four pairs of gryphons and SwiftFoot was standing nearby grumbling about not being able to fight such a legendary creature. I walk over to her and place a hand on her shoulder, "hey I wouldn't be if it were not important. It is very possible this will kill me then those children will need protection till they reach adulthood. I need someone capable here just in case. Shadow might be a body guard but you also know how to manage people" SwiftFoot unfurls a wing to wrap around me and looks me in the eye. "You come home. Those chicks are a handful." I laugh at her comment, as she was one of the ones helping the twins learn to work together with the gryphon twins and all involved tended to have headaches afterward.

SwiftFoot squawks out a few more orders to the pairs of fighters, and then heads back into camp and I spy Dawn rushing back from playing in the ocean. {I guess SwiftFoot decided it was time for a lesson to keep the kids busy.} Cheshire mentally chuckles, {very much so. She's frustrated so she's going to frustrate the four of them}.

I look at the four pair of gryphons in front of me, seems due to the unknown factor of the Manticore SwiftFoot elected to go with two swift pairs and two bulky pairs. So we'd have the possibility of at least two pairs surviving this encounter. Two for dodging and two for hard hitting, if we just knew more about fighting these creatures we'd be doing well. I glance at Cheshire, {we need to relay everything about fighting this beast to Jessica; provided we survive the fight}. Cheshire nods his head in agreement.

We head onto the mainland and into the nearby woods in the direction of where the dwarf had indicated the village was to be established. As we travel I notice some of the trees look a bit 'otherworldly' compared to the remaining trees. I also felt an urge to not look at these same trees, I look down at Alberich as we pass one of these trees. {Hey, what's the deal with these odd trees}? Alberich tosses his head acknowledging that he heard me. {Well, they aren't normal as you have already guessed. The ones that 'appear' odd have a resident dryad living in them, if you can fight the urge to look away and focus into the canopy. You can see a tree house made with the living tree. Dryads tend to be smaller in stature than dwarves, and tend to keep to themselves. They are essentially the soul of the tree, so they won't leave it ever. They share the energy the tree gathers from the sun and water it drinks. However because they don't sleep in winter they gather the tree's 'fruits' and ingest them all winter.}

I look up into the canopy attempting to fight the 'don't look here impulse', and I do see the tree houses Alberich mentioned. They did look like the branches grew into a shape of a tiny house with even windows included. {I am guessing they age with the tree as well? When do they appear in a tree's life?} Alberich tosses his head again, {well as you can imagine they aren't formed when the tree starts growing. They tend to appear sometime after the tree has gained a decent sized canopy, to give the 'spirit' a place to live. If the tree dies so does the dryad, the reverse is the same. They are literately connected as one being.}

I hope if we encounter any near where we plan to build our city it won't be a problem for us or them. However I am sure with other intelligent species around we'll know when one shows up, just something to watch out for.

We start seeing the path the dwarf made running away from the village in fear, the line of low branches broken randomly. Some on the 'living trees', which based on how they try to get you to not 'see' them I wager is hard unless someone was terrified. {How hard is it for a human to look directly at the trees?} Alberich flicks an ear in my direction as he leaps over a log, {very. As the standard human mind is easily nudged in any direction they would have to have an iron will to see them at all. We were not sure if a Dragon hunter could see them at all, we know wizards can. Unfortunately wizards are also the reason the dryads tend to not trust humans. These trees all tend to have some kind of magical properties, and like to harvest the wood for their personal use. I shudder at the thought, that would be akin to cutting a limb off a person wouldn't it?} Alberich turns his head a moment, {yes very much}.

A few hours later in a clearing upwind from the village we meet up with the gryphons and I take out a pair of binoculars I had stored in my pack. The dwarf was right the Manticore was asleep in the middle of the town. It appeared to be an area where they would hold market, maybe the dwarves tried to make a stand there. Cheshire stands on Alberich's back and peers in the direction of the village with his eagle's head. Gwen, we have a problem. That is a young Manticore, as we don't know how often they do reproduce nor how many young they have we might have more about. I nod my head thinking a moment, "do you know how aware they are of their surroundings? As in can we sneak up and just cut it's head off?"

Alberich turned his head in my direction, {we don't know. The magical's never tried to send someone after one that was sleeping. Thought at this moment it seems the best course of action}. I nod my head and think while looking the village over.

The village was arranged in a wheel pattern with the 'market' space in the center and streets radiating out from there. There were five main 'spokes' to this wheel, the only way I foresaw us attempting this at all was to have each pair take one and me and my guards take the one the Manticore was facing. Hopefully this would buy them sometime if the beast woke up in a bad mood. Cheshire snorted over my mental thought implying he thought they would of course wake up in a bad mood. {Well you may as well tell our friends what the plan is Cheshire, I just wish this didn't feel like a trap.} Cheshire nods in agreement and turns to the gryphons to give them their instruction.

I dismount before heading towards the town contrary to Alberich's wishes, {listen. I need mobility if we are going to fight this thing, I don't have that on your back.} Alberich nods in response, and we head toward the road that leads directly to the Manticore.

As we walk down the street I casually look into the windows of the homes lining the street, they all looked fully furnished. I guess they had been fully moved into the village before the Manticore showed up. Halfway down the street I spy some children's heads peeking out of a window and I stop walking forward. I put a finger to my lips shushing any sound they might make, then I tried to indicate they should remain inside the house. {Alberich tell Cassie about the children in case we don't make it out of here. I am sure someone could sneak in a save them even if the beast can't be killed.} Alberich nods quickly, {done lets get moving. Those kids just increase the need for us to kill this beast now.}

We continue down the street carefully looking into the windows of the remaining buildings as we go, in case more children were hiding out somewhere. Thankfully we saw no other children, hopefully the ones in that house were all of the village's children. So at least something of those families remain.

We knew it wouldn't be a concern taking our time with it as the gryphons were told to wait till we knew what the Manticore would do before coming out of hiding themselves. Reducing of risk and all that good stuff, Cheshire chuckles in my head at the thought. Well even if we face our possible death we still need morals. Don't worry I am keeping a tight grip on my speech only you can hear me, we still don't know if they can hear mind to mind speech.

We reach the edge of the buildings before the 'market' area and we see the Manticore is still sleeping soundly. In fact it was snoring, Cheshire chuckles again. Well, that must be an effect of the human bits. It was oddly amusing in this deadly situation, having such a dangerous creature in front of me asleep and snoring.

I indicate that I want Cheshire and Alberich to stay put while I try to just cut it's head off. While they didn't appear happy they knew it was not a good time to argue with me, and both slowly nod as I slowly remove my Dragon bone falchion. It looked a mite bit sharper than the last time I used it. I made a mental note to ask if a dwarf 'borrowed' it to sharpen. I just hoped it would take one swing to kill the thing. I crept forward slowly my heart beating fast in my chest the closer I got to the Manticore.

I make it all the way to it's body and even as a 'youngster' that Cheshire said it is, it was the size of a full grown tiger. However I had to admit the human head did look child like, which would probably haunt my dreams later. I raise my sword and slice though it's neck sever it's head from it's body and it falls over dead.

The next moment seem to stretch into forever as a multitude of things happen at once. I turn toward Cheshire and Alberich smiling, while I catch a whiff of sulfur in the air. I see a second Manticore a bit larger heading directly for me swinging it's poison tipped tail spikes toward me. The gryphons all burst out of their hiding spots and I am suddenly lifted off the ground, the tail hitting me in the chest but the spikes miss me. The impact felt like my ribs cracked and as I start to pass out from pain I see the Manticore get incinerated as I spy red talons holding me in the air. Then I black out.

I wake up feeling like a furnace is up against me and as I open my eyes I freeze seeing red scales from a Fire Dragon surrounding me and I hear a voice arguing. "It is my fault she is hurt if I had just killed those things when I saw where she was going she'd not have broken her ribs. Also I am not letting anything near her until she wakes up."

I feel Cheshire force himself into my head, {Gwen are you alright the Dragon it shielding you from us. He won't let Gilorndir near you to treat you please attempt to talk to him. I don't recommend vocally as we don't know how bad the damage is from that tail}.

I mentally sigh as I feel Cheshire leave my mind, {Dragon. I need medical attention, NOW. My guardians are afraid of how much damage the Manticore did to me and don't want me to speak till the elvan healer sees me.}

A large head appears in front of my face, "pardon Hunter. I should have been here sooner to help even if I thought you might harm me in the process. Your gryphons tried to battle me while I held you, so you can understand how reluctant I am to let go of you right now." I nod my head then he turns his head away, "you elf. You may come close to look at the Hunter."

I then see Gilorndir climb over the Dragon's tail that was in front of where I was laying up against the Dragon. He didn't look happy at all, "it was pure luck those children whom you have saved were able to find the escape hole that the village had or I would not have been able to make it here to treat you again Hunter."

He held up his hand before I could attempt to speak, "don't try to talk. I imagine breathing is hard right now, the Dragon has promised no harm to you. So just attempt to relax," Gilorndir turns his head slightly, "though letting your guards mentally speak to you would be helpful." The Dragon who had been watching Gilorndir looked sheepish and I could feel some mental barrier lift from me.

The first to speak was Alberich, {I didn't realize a Fire Dragon could use any mental powers. Especially strong enough to keep me out of someone's mind much less Cheshire.}

Gilorndir bends over and tries to gently remove my shirt, "at ease Dragon. I have to remove the shirt to examine her so it's going to cause pain." He spends a few moments prodding my chest in various places to see where the broken bones lie. Then he stands and opens his pouch and pulls out a large mortar and pestle and starts dropping herbs into it.

"Sorry Hunter Gwen it will take me a few minutes to be able to make something for your ribs. I think your windpipe is bruised so you shouldn't speak for at least a week vocally. You will also probably need to sleep most of the next week to heal the damage. Broken ribs is putting it very mildly, that beast almost powdered them." He looks over to the Dragon's head, "you better explain yourself now before those gryphons lose their tempers. They are not known to be calm."

The Dragon nods his head slightly, "well Hunter. Gwen, is it? Let me introduce myself. My name is Starburst and I want to aid you and to have you hunt the Matriarch."