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I squint at Starburst and sigh, “I understand why you didn’t tell me. However, it’s been over two years now. I should think I have shown you that I wouldn’t kill you for who your mother is, and I am impressed you are brave to go against her.” Starburst’s head pulls backwards as if surprised, “I was scared, and that is no excuse especially after I introduced you to the Nature Dragons. My mother considers them inferior, because they are so little. Also on her scale of inferiority they are at the bottom of that list.” He sighs, “I saved a handful of them from her slaughtering of their kind, that was why I was so determined to find Leaf a home. She was ready to settle down and start a family, I’d like to see her people grow.” I nod my head in agreement and I see Zander rubbing the back of his neck. “So you found out about Ecthelon then huh?”

Cheshire speaks up, “he kind of couldn’t keep it a secret after he appeared in her dream scape.” Cheshire turns to Starburst, “how many of those things were working for her? Also do you know who she might have that knows I was scheduled for my turn this year?” Starburst lifts his head up looking out to the sky thinking. “To be frank, I had thought all of those Cro Magnon vampires were dead. She had at one time twenty of them, they are only kill able with fire. As you can see they have extreme mind powers. They are stronger and faster than elven vampires as well, that is why the other vampires put a bounty on their kind, as they wish to rule the world of the humanoids as Kings.”

Cheshire squints at me, “do not fall asleep for the next thirsty minutes. I will be right back.” Then Cheshire vanishes, I look around at the rest of the guardians. “Alberich speaks up, “he has most likely jumped over to the City of the Night to let them know about this development. They would have some interest in knowing this,” he looks at Starburst who is still thinking.

We all wait for Cheshire to return Starburst sitting in his thinking pose looking like a statue except for a small wisp of smoke out of his nostrils. Cheshire returns shaking his head, “well as much it can be to make vampire look uncomfortable. They have thanked us for the information, and are; well disturbed. They also profusely apologize to you Gwen for what one of their kind did to you even if they had no control over that person.” I nod my head and Starburst looks down at Cheshire, “I honestly have no idea if my mother has dealing with your people at all. Though don’t you have one total nut ball in there?” Cheshire nods his head, “it’s one of our other males. He is very much into body augmentation,” Starburst gets a disgusted look. “I’ve seen a few Dragons that do that, they tend to be aligned with my mother as they all believe they are better than the rest of the people of their kind.” Cheshire nods his head, “he’s been looking for a way to become as large as our cousins. I know nature made us small because we have so much power, can you imagine one of our kind as a large cat?” He shakes his head, “they could fight and do magics; it would be scary.”

I nod in agreement, “so anything else you guys are hiding from me that we need to know for our up coming fight?” The guys look embarrassed, and Alberich says. “Sorry Gwen, there are things among our species that are considered secrets and we could get in trouble for telling people not permitted to know.”

He then takes in a deep breath, “however I think we need to let that go in the case of you since you are attempting to take her out.” The others nod in agreement, Starburst speaks. “I can say I honestly don’t know who is currently working for my mother, there are a number of Dragons who follow her out of reverence. Thinking she is a living God, or the embodiment of one anyway. Considering she does have technical control over all of the other Dragons, she has the learned ones. She may have a way to coax those Manticore to follow her, which would be bad. However, after seeing the ones who attacked you; she might have discovered a way for them to breed on a regular basis.”

Alberich shudders, “that would be bad. However I have heard from Cassie, that her parents did warn her about a small group of the mages of her kind who are into necromancy.” He turns his head to Starburst, “do you know if vampires come back as themselves when a necromancer wakes one of them up?” Starburst thinks a moment then sticks his nose into the bag he always carries with him and pulls out a large tome. He turns a number of pages and reads something, “necromancers have been debating for centuries whether a vampire can be brought back with their aid. Yet none have attempted this knowing that the stronger a being is the harder it is to control when returned to life. So the concept of returning to life a being who lives almost endlessly is frightening as it is intriguing.” He closes the book and puts it back in the bag and speaks, “so I guess it’s possible that if she had their bodies they could be brought back. Though I imagine if you are referring to the Cro Magnon ones I think they could be killed by ripping them to shreds, so if you are going where I think you are. Maybe?” Alberich nods his head, “I think there are probably human mages on her side.”

“Human mages do you say?” My favorite person appears in the campsite just then and everyone looks ready to murder the old man. Merlin stands leaning against the tree he appeared next to, “I caught wind of what happened here Hunter. So I came to find out what is going on.” He looks at my guardians ready to attack him, “easy everyone. It’s not like I can curse her kind a second time, it required a God’s favor to do that and Morrigan has made it so no one can touch your Hunter in that manner. Happy?” My guardians relax some, and Merlin walks forward and sits near me looking me over.

“So he had her in a dream scape cat?” Cheshire responds, “yes one of the city of Boulder. It included her brother, the Dragon who killed him as well as a group of soldiers and some hatchlings.” My guardians looked pained on hearing that, Merlin rubs his short beard. “Interesting, her brother? The one with the King’s name? Hatchlings you say?” I nod my head and recount the story of when I hadn’t destroyed Dragon eggs. The old mage nods his head, “ah I see. A Hunter with some compassion then. You are a rare one Hunter Gwenyth, then again not many of you with your traits live long do they?” Zander speaks, “not to be rude. Merlin, but what are you truly here for?”

The old man chuckles and looks at Zander, “good to see you have some horse sense my boy. Yes, I am here for a reason. I did hear about what happened as I tend to listen in on interesting things, I have transference spells on every council chamber. That way if something interesting happens I will know about it,” he turns to Cheshire.

“Pity you left the vampire council chamber so quickly, they are really scared by the fact those old vampires might be running around.” He turns a head to Alberich, “and your magical cousins are idiots. Death magics are never a good thing, magical unicorns are bad enough; but to think some want to be necromancers. Ye Gods that is multi leveled stupidity.” Alberich nods in agreement, Merlin continues. “I had a look at those Manticore corpses, and yes those ones were bred. The original ones have a ‘flavor’ of magic if you can sense it, even when they are dead. So these ones were born, this should be a scary thought to everyone. If they can breed Gods know how many they can produce in one litter.”

Merlin looks me over again, “once your head ache passes there should be no ill effects. Your cat is very Masterful at mind magic.” He then turns to Cheshire, “do not leave her side till you know they don’t have more of those vile vampires working for them. I shall do some poking around for you to find out how they knew you were going to be away.” Cheshire nods his head and Merlin stands up and after dusting himself off he vanishes.

Shadow walks over and hands me a plate of food, with a look that said I had better eat something. Zander stares at the spot Merlin was standing in, “hey. Did he just really offer to help us out?”