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Yuma smiled; "Its delicious, our baby is going to be spoiled with good food. I'm sorry I made you come all that way over a stupid woman, so what were you doing while I was with Akuma?"

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"So now that we know where Merril is going, what do we do now, because it is obvious the only one to leave Twilite town was Vermillion." Quannah shook her head at Arcadia's statement; "There isn't much we can do but try to head them off, we promised those people protection, and you alright to fly Arcadia?" SalSoon humphed; "More importantly, what do we do with our prisoner, because we can't leave him here unattended even if he is almost completely paralyzed from the waist down and has no use of his arms." Quannah crushed his head with hind foot and her complete body weight; "Problem solved, now answer my question Arcadia."

"I can fly, I'm just sore as hell though, haven't fought like that in a long time, and all these holes in my wings won't slow me down. Once all this is over with, I'll just have one of you hack my head off, and it will be easily fixed."

Lucid was in a sitting room while he read headlines from the Realm Post. on the front page was a picture of a city in ruin, and the title was. "Dragon attack puts Enthelda in ruin." Lucid promptly spit out is apple juice all over the page. the thought of his home again turned to rubble made is eyes roll back and he passed out.

Yuma brought her dishes over and picked up the towel to start drying what he had already washed. "I agree, and as much as living above a bar grinds against my cautious side. I think we can manage to make it work for all parties involved. So what happens next dearest?"

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Merril stopped her group a single dragon blocked her advance on the path up to twilite town. Merril cursed her luck noticing who it was, and Ilyssa saw right through the disguise her eyes boring into the hateful eyes of the mistress. "I do not need to ask to know that your men surround people who do not wish to follow you. People that up to this point were happy at my daughter's. So I'll kindly ask you to step aside and not send anymore into that place."

Merril stepped forward; "This coming from a dragon who hid behind her husband all those years I ran raids along the river. You don't have what it takes to defeat all of us, you lack the heart of warrior, and you'll be the one stepping aside to let us pass."

Ilyssa rumbled with laughter; "My husband protected me then, as all husband do for their wives who carry children, and it will be your men who dirty their hands against me Merril. You don't have what it takes to face me alone."

Merril nodded; "You're right, kill her!" The men raised their hands, the lightign began to arc up to form a ball at the base of their palm, and Ilyssa smiled as she dug her claws into the ground spreading her wings. She wasted no time and with a downspeed the loose dirt and sand at her feet began to whip up into a one way dust storm. The men were squinting and trying to see through the cloud of dust for their target.

Merril hissed as she tried to spot Ilyssa and gave up to just send strong bolts where she was last seen standing. Ilyssa watched them pass harmlessly under her, and strike the ground. She sucked in a breath and her flame shot forward swirled by the wind. Merril ran to her left and a few of her men were to slow to react and perished. The rest scattered, and the captives took this chance to run. Ilyssa landed taking another breath as she spun on her hind leg. her wing took a few hits but the sweeping flame of her next shot thinned merril's number by one more. Ilyssa pushed forward with six steps as fast as she could make them slashing madly, it hurt like hell to be hit by lighting, but she didn't care about death anymore having come here. She just pushed forward and let her anger keep her alive along with her skills and big friggin body.

Ilyssa thinned them down to one man and two ladies including Merril. Ilyssa was sore as hell from all their attacks, in some places they had punched through her scales and burned flesh had cracked to start bleeding from her constant moving. Muscles were stiff and didn't want to move from being shocked stiff so many times.

"So what are you after Merril, what is within that horrible place you send the innocent in to become trapped there?" Merril smirked; "Samantha Bebus, your widow husbands first wife, and loyal supporter. She will be the knife that will dig into her daughters side and give me the edge I need to kill her." Ilyssa shook her head; "You can't win on your own, and you can't beat her with 10 to one odds. I have faith that even with the wounded heart she would kill her mother and you. So blinded by your political power you fail to see how truly weak you are. You got lucky with vermillion, and Quannah was wore down by your men. You've never fought fair your entire life, you always had to stack the odds, and dirty fighters always loose."

The man and junior mistress turned at the sound of wings and had no where to go as three steams of flame burnt them to crisp, Merrils one side was burnt to a third degree. Ilyssa used what she had left to lunge herself backwards to escape the flames that given her injuries could claim her life.

The trio of dragons stopped and flew over turning sharply to land behind Ilyssa. SalSoon came up to attend to Ilyssa's injuries using the last of her magic to take care of the most severe. Arcadia put the fires out, especially those that were getting close to trees. He had no desire to have a swarm of pissed off sprites chasing him all over the abyss.

Quannah put her amulet on and walked casually up to Merril who pointed her hand at Quannah. Quannah merely humphed; "I'm not here to kill you now, but any further attempts to take people and force them into twilite town will not be permitted under my watch. I plan on addressing this issue with the lord of the Abyss, it will be his duty to see to it your properly dealt with. That and given your injuries death would be too sweet a release from the pain your in right now. If i were you, i would come up with a good explanation for him, because i doubt he'll enjoy cleaning up your mess." Quannah walked away from her, and caught the expression on her mother's face. "What, you honestly thought I was going to kill her, that is what she wants, and its not really my job to overstep the law in this realm." Ilyssa spoke up; "Yeah, but that dress with that hat, i thought I taught you better..." Quannah grumbled; 'I'm sorry, MOM, but i didn't have a whole lot of time to put on a matching outfit when the people i made promises to where kidnapped by miss b***h over there. Where the hell have you been lately anyways?" "Oh just wandering here and there, and avoiding you."

The quartet left the path and picked up their people and ferried everyone back home.