For a moment, Ed found it impossible to place the woman standing in front of him. It’s been less than a month since he last saw her, but it seemed that she was at least five years older than the sixteen year old girl he’d last seen standing next to the king of the cloud kingdom. Even more jarring was the change between the carefree and elegantly dressed princess and the armored warrior before him.

Fortunately, Katya answered just in time to cover for his gaffe.

“It is pleasure to see you again, Princess Neféli,” The drab said as she dropped into a respectful curtesy.

The princess looked confused when the cat-kin started to speak, but by the end of the sentence, her eyes widened and she leaned in to look more closely.

“Is that you, Miss Petrova? Please forgive me for asking this, but were you not human before?”

“Is quite all right, Your Highness. I was indeed human last time we were in your kingdom.”

“Fascinating. How is it possible for a human to change into a beast-kin like this?”

“Surely you know about Shards and how they work?”

“I have heard about Shards from the delvers who passed through our lands before, but they never explained what the Shards are or how they work, and my own people have never seen one before. But this is not the time to enter this discussion. Come, friends of the cloud kingdom. The King needs to be told about your arrival.”

The princess led the party into the castle, and directly to the king’s council chamber. As a knight of the kingdom and his retinue, the party was allowed to keep their weapons with them. The king was staring intently at what looked like a map of the cloudscape, and after standing at the entrance for a few seconds, the princess coughed politely to get his attention.

“Is this important, Neféli?” asked the king without even raising his eyes. “I have to find the pass the cyclopes are using to raid us. We can’t afford to lose any more of the herds.”

“I know, Father. But this is important. I’ve found us some help!”

At this, the king finally looked up. If the few weeks since Ed had last seen the princess had matured her by five years, then those same weeks seem to have aged her father by ten. His face was heavily lined, and his thick grey hair was now completely white and considerably thinner. But the king’s stance was still tall and proud, and his dark grey eyes sparkled with keen intelligence.

“What is this? Have you finally decided to return to us, Sir Fergusson?”

“Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I did tell you that I and my friends had responsibilities outside the Labyrinth, and that we couldn’t remain here.”

“So you did, but I did not expect you to stay away for five years.”

“It hasn’t been five years for us, sire. Less than a month has passed since we left your castle.”

“Be that as it may,” the king waved his hand to dismiss the matter, “you have come to us at a most fortuitous time. My kingdom is under attack by cyclopean raiders, who come out of the Stormcloud Mountains to steal our cattle and burn our fields. I would have you assistance in finding the source of these attacks and stopping them.”

“We would be happy to assist you,” Ingrid joined the conversation. “But please tell us, where did the mountains come from? I don’t recall seeing them the last time we were here.”

“You are not from the cloudscape, so you would have no way of knowing, but the clouds are always in motion, and parts of the land that were once months of flight away can find themselves close enough to step from one to the other. The mountains appeared next to us six months ago, and the raiders started to attack us a mere week after.”

“What can we do to help?”

“As delvers, each of you is stronger than one of my own soldiers, and as a group you can achieve things that would take my whole army otherwise. The cyclopes have a base, or even a settlement, somewhere in the mountains. I want you to locate it, and if possible destroy it.”

“Which would let you keep your soldiers here to protect the rest of the kingdom,” Ed finished.

“Indeed. I should warn you though that the winds in the Stormcloud Mountains are vicious, and even our cloud horses can’t fly in them. Otherwise my scouts would have located the camp months ago.”

“It shall be as you command, Your Majesty. We’ll head out into the mountains on the morning.”

The princess called for a servant to lead the party to a guest suite, and the four took turns bathing before settling down to dinner.

“Well, there goes our rest day,” Ingrid said as the party sat down in front of a generous selection of cloudscape foods.

“Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to a lazy day. I must say though, I did miss the unique flavor of food in the cloud kingdom,” Lucy said after helping herself to a large portion of roasted Raijū. “The Raijū you can get in the bazaar is simply not the same.”

“Must be your dragon palate,” Katya looked suspiciously at a piece of grey bread. “I do not find taste of lightning in my food to be at all pleasant.”

“I find that hard to believe coming from the girl who actually adds tabasco to the Pug’s flying pig hot wings.”

“I will have you know that Babushka’s hot wings are absolute delicacy!”

“The one time I tried eating those I almost breathed fire. And that was before I was a dragon.”

“You would not recognize good food if it bit you in tongue,” Katya said haughtily. “But enough about food. There is one serious question that needs answer here!”

“And what question is that?” asked Ed, knowingly playing the straight man for Katya.

The Drab set aside her almost untouched plate and pulled Ed back from the table in order to straddle him. “Does this count as entrance to Mile High Club?”