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Serthal flew further through the maze-like sewers, keeping an eye out for any potential hazards. The sewers of Leviana were home to many undesirable things, such as plagues and creatures that were more than happy snack on a careless adventurer. Of course, Serthal never really had these problems, as he could easily escape one should one be in the mood for dragon meat.

Landing next to a slimy wall, Serthal pressed it three times; first in the top left corner, again in the bottom right, and once more on the top. A second later, the wall started to rumble and move to the side, revealing a dark passage that threatened to envelop him.

Casually walking through, he started to hear the sound of chattering and music. A Staircase led him upstairs and he found himself under a wooden trap door, which he was able to push up with relative ease. Once he did, he found himself in the cellar of a tavern.

The cellar was made of rocks, and Serthal sucked in a big gulp of less polluted air that carried the faint scent of pine. Caldrons bubbled before him and the smell of meat entered his nostrils, allowing him to make a pleasurable sigh. His stomach growled a second later, reminding him how hungry he truly was from the excitement earlier.

A Kiral lizard stared at him as if he had another head and she stopped stirring the meat. The scene was amusing and he gave her a seductive wink before climbing up the stairs to the upper floor.

Upstairs was wooden with bits of rocks and plants thrown in to make it less boring to the eye. Serthal looked at the tavern name hanging behind the bar; Twin Moon Inn. Twin Moon Inn was in the 'bad' side of the city, where criminals and gangs patrolled around. To the law, it was an ideal place to raid. For Serthal, it was what he called home.

Despite how starving he was, Serthal decided to wait for Zy to pop up, so he could hunt together with him. Although he liked the smell of cooked meals, he always preferred his game to be raw. His stomach was actually able to process it better without any of the spices placed into the meals. Plus, this was more of a Tiral place; a Kiral such as himself didn't exactly belong.

Leaving the inn, he walked into the dirty streets to find carriages being drawn by beasts. One of which was looked like a lizard or dragon if he had about three times the muscles and half the wit. It's eye met his and he decided to put the mask back on just in case someone other than criminals recognized his armor.

Spreading his wings, he took to the skies once more, nearly knocking a sentient avian out of the sky. She almost pecked him with her sharp beak, but Serthal was too fast for her and he was able to lose her by hiding behind a building. Making a mental note to never set off an avian again, he continued his way across the city.

Passing over a pair of guards, which were getting rarer and rarer to find in this district, Serthal avoided the buildings and instead flew out of the city and into the forest and plains beyond. Here, he felt far more at home and even though there was still technology and homes, it wasn't exactly beating him in the face every time he turned around. To him, Leviana was just a big gold mine and nothing more.

In the distance, he saw the sun slowly start to rise as he flew into a cave that was built into a mountain. At first, it seemed to simply end until Serthal pulled on a stalagmite. The wall moved to the side and scanner flipped out from the rocks. Taking off a glove, the scanner read his claw. Two seconds later, the wall opened up, revealing a room that he quickly ran into.

The wall sealed itself and he was granted light from a crystal hanging from the ceiling. It was very dim and Serthal shot a small fireball at it. The crystal absorbed his fire and instead glowed brighter, brightening the room in a yellow-orange glow.

In the corner, Serthal spotted a blue scaled figure upside down, his finned tail wagging back and forth and narrowly avoiding a screen behind him. A rubber ball was in his fanged mouth but he seemed to refrain from completely popping the ball. The sight itself caused Serthal to chuckle and remove his mask once more, shaking his neck so his golden spine could stand up and then gently relax against his back.

"Oh yay you're back!" The dragon exclaimed as he rolled onto his green scaled stomach, the fins behind his cheeks flapping. "I thought you got caught. You didn't reply to me after you went through the front door so I was worried."

"No Zy, I was just preoccupied with the new Guardian and the guards." Serthal took off his armor, revealing the rest of his body.

Like his face, his chest and right thigh were covered in burns. Unlike the others who reacted with winces or simply stared, Zy didn't seem bothered in the slightest. In fact, his green eyes were instead focused on the satchel more than his burns. It made Serthal smile.

"Oh okay. I see you didn't have to get rid of the satchel this time." Zy got up, butting his pink coral-like horns against Serthal's.

"I only had to do that twice, and it hasn't been for a while." Serthal scowled and removed the black container.

Opening it, he pulled out the crystal and gave a toothy grin. "I wonder how much this'll be worth." Zy blinked, his jaw hanging a bit in amazement.

"Easily worth at least eight hundred thousand gold." Serthal placed it back into the satchel.

"Just that much?" Zy frowned. "I thought it would be worth a million."

"I said at least." Serthal reminded, the glinting of gold catching his eye. Hidden in the shadows of the walls lay piles of gold and other valuables that Serthal decided to keep around. Sometimes it was nice to hold a crystal or stare at it and admire it's beauty.

"Should we give it to Jirmen?" Zy wagged his tail again and started towards the exit. "He'll probably know the price on it."

"That's what I was thinking." Serthal nodded before discarding his armor into a corner. He'd clean it later, but for now, he wanted to sell this and eat before he collapsed. "First, I am starving. Let's go see if the Givral are ripe for the picking today."

"Oooh...yeah, I am in the mood for them too!" Zy replied excitedly and rapidly pressed the wall so they could leave.

"Hold on a second, I need to grab my cloak so the light doesn't blind me." Serthal grabbed a black, many pocketed cloak hanging next to a pile of gold. As he put it on, he could hear the clinking of gold and metal; he always kept a few thousand pieces on him just in case he wanted to buy something.

The sun was almost up from behind the mountains, shining light upon the open plain before them. Small dots representing animals and the occasional hunter could be seen, and Serthal wasted no time in diving down to search for his prey.

Circling the air, he found his target; a young bull Givral. Givrals were medium sized yet fat creatures that only seemed to be worthy of food. Although their furry legs were strong and their fangs sharp, they were as dumb as a brick and could easily be out maneuvered with a few steps to the side.

Signaling Zy to go down to distract the beast, Serthal stayed up the air to take it down once the guard was down. Although stupid, they hit quite hard and could easily injure anyone who was on the same brainwave as them. Serthal had gotten hit by one when he was younger and left quite the bruise. Thankfully Zy was bulkier than Serthal was and could take a blow if the he did slip up.

Sure enough, the Givral was threatened by the presence of Zy. His instinct, of course, was to charge and attempt to snap Zy up with his wide mouth. Of course, his beady little eyes failed to notice Serthal, who had drove down and rammed his horns into the spine of the Givral. He could feel it shatter upon impact as well as feel an oncoming headache.

Snapping the neck of the beast, Serthal jumped off and looked at Zy, who had a small look of disgust. "I wish we could have ended this less painfully. Like hit the neck first..."

"Well, it didn't suffer long." Serthal shrugged as he picked it up by the neck and trotted away with it. He didn't dare eat out in the open lest some guard spot him or some hick decide he wanted a meal too and fight over it.

"True...can we cook it this time? It gets too stringy when it's raw." Zy asked as he walked beside him, his eyes widening like a hatchling.

Serthal sighed through the neck of their kill and nodded. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if he cooked it, but next time, it was going to be raw. Although, when he did eat it raw, he did have to deal with blood...and although he had steeled himself against it, it still managed to unnerve him. Now the idea of cooked meat became more and more appealing.

–

"So are there any other places to steal from that have something around this value?" Serthal bit into a haunch of tender meat, savoring the salty taste.

They were back in their cave and had set up a fireplace in the center, allowing the smoke to filter out through a series of small holes on the top of the cave that Zy had installed for such an occasion. One large hole would cause a large amount of smoke to drift out and potentially cause someone to investigate, so Zy had spread them out so that way it was less thick.

Their meal was resting over an open fire, impaled on a stick so that way they could turn it so it would cook even. Zy had wanted well done for the meal, but he had settled on rare. Besides rare meat was by far juicer and judging from the amount dribbling down the smaller blue dragon's chin, he was loving it as much as Serthal was.

"Umm....no, actually." Zy chewed on a thick piece of meat. "We should lay low for a bit anyway. A heist like that is sure to keep the guards out and about for a while. I don't want you to be thrown in jail..."

Serthal patted the star shaped plate on Zy's head with his tail, causing the latter to close his eyes in happiness. "I won't be thrown in prison like that. They still have no idea what I look like without my mask on. They can suspect me all they want, but they can't do anything about it."

"That's true..." Zy nodded his head in agreement, "Still, I never thought I'd grow up to be a criminal! I always assumed that I'd be a biologist or something."

"Well, I never thought a few things and what do you know, they happened." Serthal chuckled. "Gotta admit though, this is a lot more exciting than studying animals and the like. I mean, what's so interesting about a Givral?"

"I actually wanted to study fish." Zy replied, swallowing the meat in his mouth. "I dunno, I think that I have a special connection with aquatic life, even when I was a hatchling. I think it may be my special ability."

"Special ability?" Serthal stopped chewing to look at Zy oddly.

"Yeah you know...everyone is born with some sort of ability. Mom had the ability to camouflage herself, remember?" Zy asked with a hint of sadness.

Serthal looked away. "Yeah...I remember."

The two went silent for a bit before Serthal coughed. "Hey, you wanna go to the beach later? Maybe you can show off your power to me."

Zy perked up at that, bobbing his head up and down. "Yeah, I'd love that!"

"First, I need to sleep." Serthal suddenly said as he literally clonked out after finishing his meal.

--

About eight hours later, Serthal finally awoke, yawning softly as he found that Zy had also fallen asleep. It must have been about mid afternoon from the way it looked through the holes outside.

"Damn it, I just slept the entire day away!" He groaned. Hopefully Jirmen would still be around by the time they got there. Nudging his brother awake, the two started out of the cave and looked at the city of Leviana.

It was hard to believe that such a grand looking city could be the home to criminals such as himself. Either the guards simply didn't care enough to clean them all out, or maybe there were so many criminals that they couldn't exactly get them all. Scowling, an idea began to form in Serthal's head.

"Hey Zy," Serthal started as Zy spread his pink wings. On his right wing, a tear could be seen in it.

"Yeah?"

"I have this crazy idea..." Serthal motioned that the two should fly towards Leviana. Once in the air, he continued. "This crazy idea being that we should steal from other thieves and expose them."

Zy blinked at him as if he were a whole different dragon. "You want to become a cannibalistic thief? You'll be cast out by even the criminals here!"

Serthal shrugged, adjusting the hood on the cloak.. "It just seems much better sport. I mean, who knows what kind of treasures we can steal? Plus, the guards would be so engrossed with capturing them that they wouldn't bat an eye to us."

Zy placed a white claw under his chin, looking around in thought. "I suppose that could work...but how exactly are you going to expose the other thieves? It's not like the guards are just going to stop chasing us; when everyone is locked away, they'll just turn their forces onto us!"

"Ah, but by then, we will have stripped this city clean of the top prizes and move out of the country to start anew." Serthal wagged a claw at him. "They'll spend so much time searching for us here that they wouldn't even consider the possibility that we simply moved on."

Zy frowned. "I don't think you are thinking this one through, Serthal. The last time you got one of your crazy ideas, you were nearly carted off to an island prison! If I hadn't been on the field with you, you would have been good as gone!"

"Yes but this one would work." Serthal said with a reassuring gaze. "I mean, we're not gonna go face-to-face with the guard station and waltz in saying we have evidence that so and so is doing bad deeds. No, we'll send in a hint."

"You really think they'll fall for it?"

"Only one way to find out! However, we need to stop by Jirmen first. This crystal is starting to weigh me down..."

The two flew in silence after that. Soon they reached Leviana once more, and what a different place it seemed to be. Even the criminal side of town looked a bit cleaner and friendly. Pressing forward past the bad side of town, he instead flew past a guard outpost and entered the far more pleasant districts.

Here he really did not have to worry about a guard chasing him down, even if his black cloak made him stand out a bit from the crowd. His massive height also didn't help matters, but they couldn't take him down unless he was wearing his armor.

The crystalline buildings were in much better shape; Serthal could even see his own reflection from time to time. He didn't dare look up to the sky, though; the light would burn his eyes and he'd be blinded for a bit. It was a crippling weakness that no one exploited just yet. Although if he ran into that guardian again and she used her electricity attacks in front of him...he didn't dare think of the outcome.

Soon they reached the Merchant District. Just about anything he could imagine was sold here; weapons, armor, and rations as far as the eye could see along with a few shady dealers willing to sell illegal substances for a 'low' price. Serthal had once tried one of the substances and he never wanted to again. It was like he had walked into world where his brain could not make a lick of sense out of anything. The hallucinations he saw forever scarred him. The fact that they were getting braver and braver did not speak well of the guards.

Trudging on, Serthal found a small shop on the far side and approached the fine sapphire door and nosed it open, holding the door open for his brother. Once they had both stepped into the topaz room, Serthal immediately began to notice how well this place has been taken care of. The valuable trinkets on show were absolutely spotless. Serthal found himself drawn to a large orange scale with a four sided scythe on it. It was familiar in a way, but he shook his head and focused on the figure sitting behind a counter.

It was an aging Kiral fox with bright, almost glowing, blue eyes. His coat was orange and the fur along his underbelly was white. However, the detail that stuck out the most about his fur was that it was black on his spine.

"Ah, I was wondering when you two would show up." he called in an amused voice. "You're already making headlines again, Serthal. Not five minutes ago I heard the 'breaking story' for tonight."

"Word does travel fast with technology, huh Jirmen?" Serthal asked as he stood before the counter, indicating to a small box. Even though he didn't own one back at the cave, Serthal immediately recognized it as a radio.

"Yes, I do find these things useful. Don't ask me to use a computer though; these paws have been through enough." Jirmen held up his right paw, where two toes were missing. "I do miss the glory days, though."

"Yeah, we coulda used you on a few missions." Serthal smirked, watching Zy finally come over after he was staring at a few of the trinkets.

"Hi Jirmen!" Zy exclaimed with enthusiasm, towering over the smaller fox. Although foxes were shorter than dragons, Jirmen was unusually for a fox like how Serthal was for dragons. In fact, he was almost as big as a wolf.

"Hello Zyrnoth." Jirmen nodded to him before turning to Serthal. "Well? Let's see it already! Don't worry, it's closing time anyway and no one ever comes in for a last second shopping."

shrugging, Serthal took out the crystal and he saw Jirmen's face light as Zyrnoth also extended his neck to see it again, the reflection of the crystal shining in both their eyes.

"My, my, my...this is probably the finest thing you have stolen in a while." Jirmen commented as Serthal placed it on the obsidian counter. "The crystal itself is easily worth a fortune, but to steal the gold container it was resting in as well? You two hit the jackpot on this one; I know quite a few dracidons who will be interested in this."

"How much of the bounty you want from it? Twenty percent for smuggling it out?" Serthal asked. Had this been any other smuggler, Serthal never would have asked or at least lowered the percentage. However, both he and Zy had a history with Jirmen and this was his way of repaying the old fox.

"No, I'll stick with the fifteen percent per usual. I don't need that much gold and platinum anymore." Jirmen laughed as he took it into the back. "Come, you two must be hungry from the job you pulled off this morning."

"We'd love to but we just ate...sorry..." Zyrnoth bowed his head in apology.

"Don't apologize!" Jirmen shook his head, wagging his tail. Serthal once again took note of the missing white tip that foxes usually had. Judging from the wound, it looked like it had been torn off. "However, I would suggest that you two stop stealing for at least a week and let the guard drop a bit."

"That's what I suggested." Zyrnoth replied, looking at Serthal, who was a tad bit disappointed. "Although he came up with another bizarre idea...again."

"Oh this I need to hear..." Jirmen placed the crystal in the back room before returning a moment later. "Well don't keep me waiting, pup!"

Glaring daggers at the innocent look on Zyrnoth's face, Serthal let out a sigh before turning to Jirmen.

"I want to steal from other thieves, getting them exposed so that the guards can go after them instead of focusing their attention on us." Serthal explained swiftly, half expecting someone to walk through the front door as he explained it.

Jirmen looked as surprised as Zyrnoth did and he braced himself for the impeding yelling. Instead, he was met with a contemplative 'hmm' and looked up to see Jirmen staring off into space. Surprised at this reaction, Serthal gave a questioning look at Zyrnoth, who was just as confused as he was.

"Actually that is quite the idea." Jirmen replied a moment later. Zyrnoth blinked. "However we are going to need some preparations. First, tell me how you plan to do some of this."

Serthal smiled and let the words flow out of his mouth.

–

Twenty minutes later, Jirmen walked out from the back room, having left the brothers organize some trinkets as he went to think about what Serthal had told him. Serthal was a bit relieved that he didn't immediately turn it down, but the twenty minutes it took for him to come to a decision didn't ease his anticipation for rejection.

"Well I must say, thieves who steal from other thieves usually end up being hunted down by the law and other thieves. It is a very dangerous idea...but I believe you two can handle it so long as you don't parade the fact that you are stealing from other thieves. Although you may need to send a signal to the guards in a non face-to-face manner." Jirmen started to pace.

"How do you think we should do that?" Zy asked with a defeated sigh as he took a statue out of a box and placed it on a pedestal.

"Hold on, brilliant idea for how to lure the guards." Serthal interjected before Jirmen could reply, having just rearranged some old weapons that were in no shape for battle. "Why don't I leave my 'calling' card at the scene of some crimes to have the guards go rushing to after me and instead find other crooks? I take some of the blame, but I'll in truth be across town stealing whatever is valuable over there."

Jirmen paused in mid walk before staring intently at Serthal. "That...may work. Your reputation would immediately call in the guardians, even if it is a fluke. By throwing them around, you can steal whatever you want, especially after the guards have raided other thieves."

"Exactly." Serthal said with a smirk.

"Okay that is a lot safer than what I originally expected you to do." Zyrnoth said, "I just thought you were going to break in and steal, announcing your presence as a cannibal thief."

"Give me a little credit, Zy. I may not have that brain of yours, but I can come up with some good ideas."

"Alright, you two being here may scare off potential customers." Jirmen started to shoo them out. "Even though no one has seen your without your armor Serthal, you still draw suspicion. I mean, they already described you as a tall dragon with amber eyes...I'm surprised they haven't put two and two together yet."

"I am too, but as I've stated before, they can't just arrest me for having amber eyes and being tall. They need more concrete evidence than that." Serthal replied as he started towards the exit.

Waving goodbye to Jirmen, Serthal tried to figure out what they could do for the rest of the day. Zy could show off that power, but that may take anywhere between ten minutes and an hour. After that, they still had the whole day. Maybe he could pick and chose what thief to go after.

–

It was night time again, but after an hour of roaming the city, Serthal decided he had had enough of Leviana again. So he had decided to have Zy show him his special ability that he was talking about earlier. Serthal, actually, was genially curious to see what his ability could do.

The beach was quite nice and the cool sand felt nice against the burnt flesh on his chest, having been laying down as he watched his brother dip his claws into the small waves of the ocean. The sky was starry and reflected off the water like a million shiny gems. The moons were full tonight as well, and they cast their pale glow onto the beach, illuminating the brothers and making Serthal's scales reflect the moon as if he were a mirror.

They weren't alone on the beach, either. A few couples walked by every now and then, but none stayed and chatted longer than a 'hello'. All Serthal could do was stare at the female and then look to see if they had any valuables worth stealing. None of them did, so he stayed put, resting his chin against his claws and the sand, feeling the soft gusts of air tickle his spine and the webbing between his wrist spikes.

Then, Serthal noted that Zyrnoth was acting a bit odder than usual. He started to move his front claws like he was stamping the ground, but when he looked closer, he could see tiny darting objects underneath the water. The look of absolute glee on Zy's face told him that he wasn't in any form of danger, but now Serthal's curiosity had been peaked.

"What in the world are you doing?" Serthal asked lazily, raising his head to try and get a better look, the sand far too comfortable for him to get up.

"My power does work! I am talking with fish!" Zy suddenly exclaimed with enough energy to put a hyperactive hatchling to shame.

"...Right..." Serthal said with a hint of disbelief. Still, he got up nonetheless to see if there was any truth to Zyrnoth's word.

There was.

Serthal couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that not only were the fish following his brother, but when he stopped, all they did was swim around his claws with no sense of fear. All of the times that Serthal did step in the water before resulted in the fish going in the exact opposite direction. Even when he approached the water in shock, the fish moved away from him and moved closer to Zyrnoth.

"Are...they saying anything interesting?" Serthal asked slowly, the reality of this situation taking a bit to sink in.

"I can't exactly communicate with them as well as you and I communicate, but I can understand them in a way I cannot describe." Zyrnoth started to ramble. "I mean, it is just amazing on what I could learn if I actually did become a biologist! It's just astounding! Did you know that there was a ship that sank over here not too long ago? I didn't!"

Serthal looked down at a small minnow that was gulping down the air in the water. Despite what Zyrnoth had just told him, he really had a hard time buying that such a tiny creature could be a bank of information. Then, the gears in his mind started to think about the ship; maybe there would be some sort of underwater treasure in there.

Watching his brother play with the fish again, he began to wonder what his power was. All of his life, no extraordinary powers showed themselves, except maybe his ability to climb on walls and his above average sense of smell. Was his powers just those? If so, he really got jipped.

Maybe his power would show itself soon. After all, he was still young and Zyrnoth's just started to develop.

"Hey Zy, do you know when powers usually start to develop?" Serthal asked after a few moments of silence.

"Umm...I think it depends on the power." Zyrnoth stopped playing to face his brother. "I remember reading that some powers such as shape-shifting start as young as ten. Others, such as regeneration, begin in the early twenties."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Serthal flapped his wings into the air for a second. "You mean to tell me that dracidons can shape shift and regenerate? That..that's cheating!"

"Yeah I'll admit, some are very lucky with their powers." Zyrnoth shook his head in agreement. "However, those two are quite rare from the book I was reading. The rarest one that is currently known, however, is Arcane."

"The hell is that?" Serthal asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I'm not entirely sure; the section didn't have a lot of information due to the rarity. From what I could gather though, they had the ability to control a certain type of metal and had psychic abilities that range from telekinesis to mind reading."

"Wow...that doesn't sound like it can be abused at all..." Serthal replied sarcastically.

"Yeah...but anything can." Zyrnoth shrugged before looking back at the fish and yawning slightly. "I feel sleepy again. I think using my affinity with fish is draining me. Maybe as I use it more I can talk to more fish and be less tired."

"It'd certainly be useful for scoping out underwater treasures..." Serthal let his inner greed take over him for a moment.

"Is that all you think about?"

"No, I have other things such as females on my mind..."

They stayed at the beach for a little bit longer before Zyrnoth was yawning every few seconds. Deciding that it was time to go, the brothers decided to fly over Leviana one last time to see if there was anything worth noting. It certainly was crowded tonight, but he couldn't figure out the occasion. It was likely just a busy night.

However, as he looked into the rooftops, he stopped entirely to look at the sight before him.

It was that guardian from last night! She was scoping around, and judging from the lack of dealers anymore, she had taken them into custody. Motioning his tired yet curious brother to go back home, Serthal dove down and hid behind a large wall. He normally wouldn't stalk someone, but if he found out more about her, maybe he could use her to get his hints across and find out a weakness just in case she decided to show herself again around him.

After about twenty minutes, she took off into the air, her black armor all but making her invisible in the night. It was all Serthal could do to keep her in his line of vision and not be detected. Once or twice she stopped short and whirled around, with Serthal barely hiding behind the nearest object and keeping out of sight.

Eventually she flew higher into the air and dove into a window of a warehouse, shattering it upon impact. Inside, shouts of confusion and surprise could be heard. Sneaking over to another window, Serthal took a look inside to see the Guardian taking out a small group of thugs.

She was a graceful fighting machine. Not one of the thugs could land a blow on her, as she would dodge the attack with the speed that made Serthal a bit envious. Her attacks were even faster, delivering static blows from her claws and tail to stun the enemy upon impact. Her crystals would shoot off bolts of lightning every now and then, striking a thug or weapon in their claws.

One Kiral wolf decided to whip out a hidden short sword from his vest and sought to take off her head. Serthal was half tempted to shout for her to look out or join himself, but she seemed to catch the attack before it could be fatal. Ducking down, the blade hit her curved white horns that seemed to be made of more crystals. It hit in such an angle that the Guardian was able to move her head and he was disarmed.

Raising her left claw, an electric whip shot out and struck him in the chest, leaving his clothes smoking and the thug out of commission. She stood there panting for a moment before pulling out a communicator orb and speaking indistinctly into it. Taking out another whip from her armor, she began to tie her attackers up and left them, flying out of the warehouse and leaving Serthal to wonder if it was such a hot idea to tail her.

Getting back out to follow her again, he found that she was nowhere in sight. Searching around the area for a few moments, he frowned in disappointment. Even though he swore he knew who she was, he still wanted to figure out a few more things.

"Why are you following me?" a cold voice asked from behind him, causing him to nearly fall out of the sky.

"I wasn't following you." Serthal lied blatantly, finding himself face-to-face with the Guardian.

"I caught you stalking me a few moments before I dove into that warehouse." Her lip started to curl as if she was getting impatient with him.

"Alright fine, you caught me red clawed." Serthal waved his claws in defeat. "Anyway, I was just following you because I was curious. Nothing more, nothing less."

She seemed to calm down at that, even if she didn't show it. For some reason, Serthal could just...tell that she wasn't as angry at him as before.

"Alright, I believe you. Although..." she narrowed her eyes, looking him over. Had this been any other time, Serthal would have been doing the same. "I know you from somewhere. Those eyes aren't exactly something I forget, and I only know one dragon who has them."

Serthal's blood froze. Had she figured him out? "Oh please don't compare me with that Serthal character. Everyone does it and...well..." Serthal touched the burns on his face to put emphasis his false story.

The Guardian went quiet for a moment before looking away. "I apologize. I didn't know that you were often mistaken for Serthal." she spoke his name as if they were hated enemies. "What is your name, anyway? I don't want to mistake you again."

"Uhh..." Serthal paused for a second before cycling through his old identities. "Ornlu. My name is Ornlu."

"Well Ornlu, I would love to stay and chat, but I have to finish my patrol." The Guardian gave him a curt nod. "Also, I advise not following me. My duty is to protect civilians from danger, not lead them into it."

"Alright, sorry for the trouble." Serthal gave the best nervous laugh he could.

With that, Serthal was left alone in who knew where. Serthal watched the Guardian go and smirked to himself. That confrontation confirmed her identity for Serthal at least. Only one dragon he knew acted that way when mentioning his name.

"I'll be seeing you again soon...Virith."