chapter 39 A walk in the forest

"There you go." Kadrid told her in a soft friendly tone.

"Oh thank you so much. We don't have to be on the ground very long, a good fifteen minutes should do it." The sorceress replied.

"It's not a problem, take as much time as you need, I'll rest here." The dragon replied, plopping down on the ground for a short nap.

Pandora just looked at the warlock for a moment. "Walk with me would you?" She asked him.

Salem nodded yes and she led him through the forest adjacent to the enormous mountain.

"Thank you, I like our walks alone." She told him.

"I do too." He replied grabbing her hand.

"How much time did we save flying over that monster sized mountain?" She asked him.

"I'd say most of a day, maybe more. Kadrid is an angel for all of her help on this journey." He told her.

" Yes she truly is. I plan to find something nice to do for her." Pandora admitted to him.

"That is very kind and thoughtful of you." He complimented her.

"It was beyond kind of her to help bring me back. I don't know how much longer I could have taken being away from you both." She pointed out to him.

" We should be home in a few days, possibly less than that." Salem told her.

"Thank the goddess for that, I can't wait. I miss the waterfall. It's so peaceful." She admitted to him.

"As do I. It'll be nice to get back to our lives, the nice quiet evenings together." He added.

She stopped walking for a moment and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"I wanted to kiss the warlock who saved me." She then grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. "Come on, let's keep walking for a bit to let the dragon nap."

"That sounds good to me."

He followed her through the lush giant forest. The two walked at a slow pace, enjoying some time alone. Another mile and a half they went until they came to a small pebbled stone pathway. Deciding to follow it, they went along the path admiring strange plants of various colors. There were small neon orange poppys, gargantuian sized orchids of lavender and rose. They saw huge full trees some were tye dyed, others looked like they'd been painted with rainbow glitter. They looked further down to see yellow and white flowered trees that were shorter than the others, they seemed to be elf sized in height. It was gorgeous, they watched as a fox tailed raven landed in some of the larger trees.

They even heard a few standard pixies talking and giggling far off in the distance. It was an amazing sight. Pandora adored the forest and it's different creatures. She loved going on nature walks, especially when it's somewhere she had never seen before. She was happy to see this new strange forest with her favorite half warlock, experiencing new things with him brought her a happiness she'd never felt before now. They followed the pathway for the next three miles before resting under a silver star willow tree. Then in the tranquility of this mystical place tucked away in the forest they heard a loud repetitive stomping sound. A few seconds later they heard shouting.

"Where are you two? Warlock! Pandora!" The voice cried out.

"We're over here." Pandora answered, recognizing the call of the dragon.

When Kadrid had finally caught up to them she had a worrisome and angered look upon her face. She glared fiercely at the two of them before letting out a growl. She tried to calm her fragile nerves but the anger was too much for her.

"Why did you take off like that while I was sleeping?" The dragon demanded.

"We went walking so that you could rest." Salem answered in a neutral tone, trying not to upset her any further.

"Did you once stop to think I might wake and not be able to find you? I was scared out of my mind that something horrible had happened to you." The dragon told them in the angriest voice she had ever used.

"Please don't be upset, we were planning to turn back soon, but we wanted to let you rest." Pandora told her in a soothing tone.

"Forgive me dragon, I never meant to scare you so badly." Salem reassured her.

Kadrid glared at them with fire in her eyes. She then shook her head for a few minutes. She paced back and forth, then took a long deep breath. Then another. She finally after a very long pause spoke to them.

"Don't either of you ever do that to me again." She commanded in a bold and firm tone.

Pandora had rarely seen the dragon this angry. She was a very frightful looking dragon when she was this mad. All she could do was nod yesand hope not to see this side of Kadrid too often.The sorceress hoped never to upset the dragon this badly in the future.

"Kadrid, our apologies, neither of us intended to frighten you like this. We love you and only wanted to let you rest after such a very long flight." Salem explained to her.

"You both have my forgiveness, this time." She spoke in a dead serious tone.
"Thank you." Salem told told her before holding her for a moment.

"I think I have rested enough."

"Are you sure?" He asked firmly.

"Yes, I'm ready to fly again."

"Sure, we can go ahead." Salem agreed with her.

The dragon smiled, jumping up and down, giddy with excitement.

"Climb on. Maybe we can get a lot closer to home." She told them both.