It was another two hours before another of the crew stirred. Dalit woke, looking around with a yawn and smiled happily as he saw Lei, hopping off the bed into the draik’s lap. ‘Good morning!’

Lei was surprised by Dalit but smiled at the small dragon. “Good morning to you too. How did you sleep?”

‘Very well.’ Dalit nodded, ‘Did you find anything at your home?’

Lei nodded, bringing out the necklace for Dalit to see. “This is what I went back to get specifically.”

Dalit blinked, peering at the necklace. ‘Wow, that’s pretty!’

Lei smiled brightly and nodded “It was my mothers…”

Dalit looked up at him, ‘Really? Where is she?’

“I don’t know…. I never met her.” Lei muttered, smile fading a little.

Dalit looked saddened, ‘I haven’t met my mother either. Or my dad for that matter.’

Lei nodded, hugging Dalit “Ya I know… My dad was only alive for a year after I was born… So I don’t really remember him. I’ve seen pictures though… Want to see my dad?” He asked with a small smile.

Dalit nodded, ‘okay!’

Lei chuckled before pulling out a picture from his pocket, it was old, REALLY old but well taken care of. In it was a tall, handsom draik with bright red scales. “This is my father.” Looking at the draik in the picture then Lei, they looked absolutly nothing alike. It was easy to tell why that side of the family doubted the blood relation of Lei and his father.

Dalit smiled, not minding the difference. ‘He looks cool!’

Lei grinned more as he heard Dalit “He really was. I wish I had been able to talk to him and get to know him more. Its not the same hearing about someone second hand.”

Dalit nodded, ‘Well you grew up pretty well!’ He grinned proudly.

“Thank you Dalit. I hope he thinks that too…” He said with a small nod before hugging the little dragon.

Dalit nuzzled Lei, then looked around. ‘The rest are still sleeping?’

Lei nodded “Seems like it. They all needed their rest after that long walk.”

Dalit nodded, ‘Yeah I guess it WAS a rather long journey.’

“It was… and for everyone else it was a freezing cold journy too…” Lei added.

Dalit nodded, ‘Too bad, it was pretty nice for me!’

Lei grinned, patting Dalit on the head “It was fine for me too… I actually like the cold from the mountians.”

Dalit smiled, ‘Well that’s because you’ve got silver dragon blood in you too!’

Lei nodded “I know… Still kinda trying to remember that. Its weird just learning that now. I guess I would have learned it a lot sooner if I had been able to talk to my dad… or meyt my mother.”

The small dragon shrugged, ‘If they knew…’

“Maybe… Again I have no clue. But atleast I know now, and I was able to meet you.” He said before hugging the dragon again.

The dragon giggled softly. ‘Why don’t we go outside for a while? It’s hot in here.’

Lei nodded “Ok Dalit. Want me to carry you up to the deck or you want to walk?”

‘Carry me!’ He said, hugging Lei.

Lei laughed quietly and nodded, picking up Dalit gentally before he stood, walking out of the dorm and heading up on deck.
 
The sun was peeking up over the snow-filled valley, the smoke of burning coming from the direction of Happy Valley even now, despite the time that had passed since it’s destruction.

Lei looked towards the valley sadly. “Even if the people there hated me and I didn’t like them much… I would have never wished something like that on them.” He muttered quietly.

Dalit looked to the smoke, wings twitching. ‘Not much you could do… your home was burnt too right?’ He looked up at Lei, ‘You’re lucky to have escaped!’

“Ya… My home was burnt to the ground. Nothing but ashes left really… they even destroyed the natural hot springs there.” Lei explained before nodding. “Guess I am… I wouldn’t have been able to fight all those Draconians…”

Dalit smiled, ‘And you’ve got lots of friends now too!’ He looked at the ship. ‘Does this ship FLY!?’

“Yes it does Dalit. It can fly through the air. All the ships from Shenkuu can.” Lei explained.

‘Wow… so this is a Shenkuu ship? How does it fly?’

Lei nodded “I’m not sure completely. I never studyed the ships while I lived in Shenkuu, but a lot of it is just magic. And Shenkuu ships are a little smaller then most ships, so they are lighter and can more easly fly.”

Dalit nodded, ‘it’ll be exciting to see it lift off! Do you think we’ll go today?’ He sked, jumping onto the railing.

“I think so. Later today we will probably head off though I’m not completely sure where they are headed.” Lei explained, going over to Dalit and smiling.

Dalit nodded, looking past the ship at the mountain, then stiffened. ‘Lei…’

Lei looked at Dalit confused “What is is Dalit?” He asked before looking in the direction the little dragon was.

On the mountainside there was a group of dark figures marching along. Two or three had spotted the ship,a nd were pointing down. ‘I think those are draconians.’ He whimpered.

“Oh no… Dalit come on.” Lei said before quickly picking up the dragon to run back down below deck. “Get everyone awake. If those are Draconians we need this ship to start flying now! I’ll head out and slow them down.”

Dalit nodded, ‘Make an avalache fall on them!’ He suggested helpfully, before hopping off to the dorm, ‘GUYS wake up, the draconians!’ He didn’t get much farther before Bast was on his feet, getting dressed, and Silver was dashing out the door in his haste to see. “Where!?” he asked excitedly.

Lei grabbed his sword before heading out, an avalache might be their best bet. “A ways off still. Can you guys get this ship flying? I’ll go distract them and buy you time.” He said as his wings quickly spread, ready to take off into the air.

Jing twitched as she heard the yell, sitting up quickly just in time to see the three guys run out of the dorms. “Wait what?!”

Iris sat up in bed, glancing fretfully to the still sleeping Rena, then at Jing. “Draconians spotted the sip it seems.” She told Jing.

Silver hopped around happily, following Bast’s quick orders to get the ship moving. “We’ll try our best to get it up as fast as possible.” Bast said, completely awake now as he quickly undid the moorings and ran to the helm.

“Alright. Once you guys are safely in the air I’ll fly back up.” Lei said before quickly taking off and flying as fast as he could for the draconians. Quicker he got to them the farther they were from the ship.

Jing blinked in shock as she heard Iris, quickly moving to get up, wincing a little from her feet but ignored it and headed up on deck.

Bast smiled slightly as Jing appeared, and shouted more orders, as the engines of the ship flared into life, and with the two smaller on e’s help, and Bast intervening where necessary, the sails unfurled. But many of them were frozen stiff, and wouldn’t open. Bast cursed. “We need to unfreeze them!” He shouted.

The draconians were starting down the side of the mountain, a smaller group branching off in another direction, probably to report what they’d spotted.

Jing looked up at the sails worried “How? We can’t risk using fire on the sails!” She asked, looking at the Kankiru in hopes he had an idea.

Lei continued to fly towards the Draconians, noticing some of them branching off. This wasn’t good and he hoped the others could get flying quickly. He then started to scan the mountians around them, looking for signs that one would be able to cause a good a good avalance and hopefully bury the draconians.

Bast frowned, thinking for a second. “Boiling water.” He said finally, “Go down and start the fires, and put as much water to heat as possible!”

Jing nodded, running down below deck as fast as possible to get to work boiling water.

Lei got farther away from the ship when he noticed one of the mountians showed signs of an avalance waiting to happen. If he did this right it wouldn’t put the ship in any danger either.

Bast struggled with the sails as he waited, Iris going to help Jing after Silver told her the situation. Silver watched them working. “You know… if we melt them with hot water, won’t they freeze again when the water cools?”

“Do you have any other ideas?” Jing asked looking at Silver. “Maybe even the hot steam from boiling water can thaw the sails enough to work.”

Silver shook his head, “That’d be way slower and they’d still be wet.” He sighed, “I guess it’ll just have to work.” He said, “Though wet sails won’t be as reliable as dry sails, it’s better than frozen sails!”

Jing nodded, looking at the pots which were just starting to boil. “Lets hope this works…..”

Iris nodded, “I’ll help you brng them up.” She said, taking tone of the boling pots and rushing up to the deck. Bast took it and easily made it up the mast, looking down, he called, “Stand clear!” Iris nodded and fell back away from thesails, and Bast began pouring the water on the ice-encrusted sails.

Jing headed up with one of the other pots, standing back by Iris as she watched Bast pour the water over the sails. “Come on work!”

There didn’t seem to be much progress by the time he ran out of water, but he began to shake the sails loose and little by little they parted and as he pulled on the ropes again, the first sail billowed out, some spots still froen but at elast it was free.

Jing grinned as she saw the sail open. “I got more water Bast!”

Bast looked down and noded with a smile, quickly sliding down to land on the deck beside her, giving Iris the empty pot and taking Jing’s. “I think this’ll work out perfectly.” he said.

“I hope so… Where is Lei?” Jing asked, looking around confused.

“He’s keeping the draconians busy.” He glanced towards the mountainside, then took the bucket to unfreeze the other sails.

“Ok…” Jing said, watching Bast. “Think we are going to need more water?”

Bast looked at the sails, then back at them, nodding. “One more pot, just in case.” He said, then got to work, pouring the boiling water on the frozen sails and shaking them out. He glanced at the first one, frowning slightly as he saw it beginning to freeze again. THis would be tricky…

Jing nodded, “Alright. There were a couple more boiling down below. I’ll be right back.” She said ebfore running down below deck again.

Iris moed to go help her once more, and soon enough all the sails were wet and free, and with some care, Bast managed to get the ship into the air. “I hope Lei’s okay.” He said as he steered the ship into the sky.

As they got into the sky they could hear a rumbling from one of the mountians as an avalance started plowing down towards all the draconians, though there was still no sign of Lei.

Jing looked over the side of the ship towards the ground in shock “Did he do that?!”

Bast and the others watched as well, and Bast frowned, “Probably… I hope he’s okay.”

“I hope so too…” Jing said, looking down at the snow.

Bast steered the ship away from the mountains, Silver hanging onto the side as he leaned over, peering down at the destruction below, sharp eyes letting him see much farther than his companions.

Jing watched worried, for any sign of Lei. “Can you see him yet Silver?!” She asked him.

Silver peered through the cloud of snow, “I… can’t see him… or the draconians for that matter.” He said.

“Well… Its good with the draconians… I just hope Lei wasn’t caught in it…” Jing said, looking around more for the draik.

There was a glint of silver in the snow, just enough for Silver to see something that looked like it was flying towards them.

Silver blinked, narrowing his eyes, then he smiled widely, “It’s Lei! It’s Lei! He’s okay!” He said happily, jumping up and down and almost falling overboard.

Jing sighed in relif as she heard Silver, but looked at him and moved over, grabbing his arm. “Be more careful!”

Lei was continuing to fly up towards the others as fast as possible. After all, he still didn’t know how strong the wings were and how long he would be able to fly with them.

Silver grinned faintly as he was saved by Jing and moved farther away. “We’re free! And all safe! Where are we headed now Bast?” He asked excitedly. Bast roleld his eyes, “Back to your village.” He stated.

Jing sighed a little at Silver but then smiled. He was right. They were all safe and good to go.

After a minute or so Lei grabbed ahold of the railing of the ship and climbed on, sighing in relif and wings falling to his side. “Ok… Wings arn’t strong enough to do that a lot yet…”

Bast smiled as Lei clambered on board. “Glad you made it Lei.” He said, “You can rest all you want now, it’ll take us a while to get to our next destination.”

Lei nodded, smiling at Bast “Good to know. But where exactly are we going?” He asked before standing again, wings still pretty limp.

“We’re heading to Silver’s hometown. It’s a safe place, and I think it’s the best place we can leave Rena. We’ll be getting in more and more danger, and she’s too small to be taking her with us.”

Lei nodded in agreement. “Good idea Bast. How long does it take to get there?” He asked curiously.

Jing listened quietly to the two, feeling sorry for Rena. She knew it was best for the girl… but she was so attached to Iris.

Bast thought for a second. “I think it took us two days from there to the mountain. So it shouldn’t take us much longer to get back.” He replied.

Lei grinned and nodded “Sounds good.” He said before looking back at the mountian they were flying away from. “Feels weird to be leaving after so many years…”

Bast shrugged, “Not much left behind though.” He said, “And if we can alert other cities of the invasion before Happy Valley happens elsewhere…”

Lei nodded again “I realize that… And I hope we can prefent it from happening anywhere else…” He said quietly bringing his hand to grab the necklace that he was still wearing after showing Dalit earlyer.

Bast watched him, noticing the necklace. “What’s that?” He asked curiously.

Lei chuckled a little, looking down at the necklace. “The main thing I had to go back to my home to get… It hadn’t been taken.”

“That’s good… family heirloom?” He asked.

Lei nodded “Guess you could say that. Only gift ever given to me by my mother. Its just something… for as long as I have lived… been unable to let go of.”

Bast smiled, “Well, at least you’ve still got it.” He said, glancing back one last time to the mountain, then forward again. Hopefully they’d make good time, and Rena got better soon.

Lei grinned “I’m glad I do.” He said before moving it to hide under his shirt again. He then turned, heading back down below deck.