So far on their magical journey, there had been plenty of unbelievable and wild adventures. There had been kidnappings, magical and regular injuries. Not to mention that Virgil had been officially orphaned and kind of unofficially crowned acting king (they had never had the ceremony), and Patton had shot at someone. And all that had happened after Virgil had spent the night in and escaped the Light Realm dungeon, death glared one of his peoples greatest war criminals, stood before a crowd of people that a month ago had probably wanted him dead, and somehow managed to negotiate a peace treaty between two constantly fighting kingdoms (probably the only good thing that had happened honestly).

If you believe in superstition, the number thirteen may seem especially unlucky. Already this trip had been very unlucky, unreal even, it being the thirteenth day since the Dark Realm was attacked may have deterred any that did believe in superstitions. Maybe it should have deterred the travelers as well. Maybe one of them should have thought to take a precaution of some kind to protect themselves against any more bad luck. But they hadn't. And bad luck seemed to be following them like a stray dog. It just. Kept. Coming.

The two princes were still refusing to communicate with each other. Logan and Patton had left them alone to clean up the place they'd stopped for lunch in hopes that they would work out their issues. Meanwhile, they had gone to the nearest town an hour away to gather more supplies. Roman and Virgil were nearly finished packing up the area, which had been done in complete silence, for the most part, placing their things away and getting ready to leave. Roman was putting some things away and Virgil was making sure he had everything in his bag when a roar shook the sky and made both princes jump to their feet and lookup.

A moment later the sounds of people running through the woods made the princes turn to the sounds, each with a hand at the hilt of their swords. Patton and Logan broke free of their green prison just a second later, both looking panicked and pale as they paused momentarily to take a breath. They leaned over themselves, panting heavily and trying to still their quickly beating hearts. Logan looked up at them finally, opening his mouth to speak, "Dra-" was the only sound he was able to get out before something swooped out of the sky, dipping into the clearing, and plucked both Logan and Patton off the ground in a fraction of a second before suddenly shooting back up.

Roman and Virgil could only stare for a moment before grabbing the horses, each taking one horse that belonged to another as well, and taking off quickly to follow. "You still have Dragons!?" Roman asked incredulously.

'They're not exactly easy to relocate' Virgil shot back, though the signs had been mostly been ignored as Roman and Virgil focused their energies on following the dragons.

About a year ago there had been a series of letters between the Light Realm, Dark Realm, and three other kingdoms discussing the matter of Dragons. Particularly plans involving the humane capture and relocation of them. You see the year before had had a large amount of Dragon attacks and it had been decided that they needed to avoid that happening again. For the six months, the plans were discussed the two rivaling kingdoms managed to keep themselves from fighting. And it had actually been them that had made the push for the removal of Dragons to equal relocation and not execution.

What could they say? Janus was a sucker for anything with scales and Roman always wanted to play the hero. So, technically and unknowingly, the two princes had in a way worked together and managed to convince humane removal to not only their parents but the other three kingdoms as well.

The Light Realm along with two of the other kingdoms had managed to relocate every dragon in their kingdoms. Meanwhile, the Dark Realm and the one other kingdom who had been a part of the train of letters had had a bit more trouble. It made a little sense, seeing as these two kingdoms had more Dragons than the other four did but it was still aggravating, to say the least.

"Our kingdoms had a deal, Ann! It's been a year."

'Thanks for the update, Aristotle. I'll make sure to add it to my to-do list right after saving my family and rebuilding my kingdom'

Roman glared at him, "You're unbearable, you know that?"

'And you're a prick'

Roman seemed to gawk at him with surprise and anger but Virgil didn't give him any more chances to speak as he gave Lucy a small kick and urged her to speed up, Molly following at her heels. With Virgil's change in speed, Roman let out a frustrated sigh and did the same to Jezebel with Poe following behind.

They followed the Dragon for nearly thirty minutes. It upset Virgil slightly how the Dragon was taking them off course and this was definitely going to set them back a bit, if they didn't die that is. Eventually, though the Dragon roared as it came to a landing in a cave high above the trees. Both princes stared up at the mountain begrudgingly and with anger.

They'd have to hike up the mountain to get up there. Meaning losing even more time, tiring themselves out, and having to leave the four horses unattended where they could get stolen. They traded angry looks as if a dragon kidnapping their friends was somehow the other person's fault before jumping off the horses and tying them to a tree as hidden as possible. Virgil pulled his hood up again as they left the safety of trees and headed towards the beginning of the mountain.

"You really think the dragon is gonna recognize you? Or care for that matter?"

Virgil rolled his eyes but didn't bother to sign back. If he did Roman would probably keep talking to him and right now that was the last thing he wanted. Besides, it wasn't the dragon he was worried about. Maybe Roman hadn't realized it yet, or maybe he was just too stupid to know, but dragons were nocturnal creatures. So something had to have woken that dragon up, Virgil doubted there was a person in the world stupid enough to wake a dragon up. Unless that is, they could control the dragon.

Not a common ability. But common enough for it to be dangerous. It was one of few magics that were looked down upon in the Dark Realm. They called them Dragon-Witches. Next to Necromancer's and Dark Mages, Dragon-Witches were some of the most powerful and dangerous types of witches out there. It was a type of magic highly illegal in most kingdoms and was only made legal in the Dark Realm during his Grandfathers rule, they had never bothered changing it back because they hadn't had too many incidents regarding those types of magic. Dragon- Witches have all the powers a common witch has with the added 'benefit' of being able to talk to and control any dragon they came across with ease. Considering Dragon-Witches typically practice another one of the, to be cliche, 'forbidden' magics they were often corrupted by dark forces turning them into very powerful and evil people.

So no, it wasn't the dragon he was worried about.

It took another forty-five minutes for them to get near the cave. Both were panting slightly as it was a bit of a steep mountain. They still had five minutes to go until they reached the cave but Roman was beginning to slow, they still needed a plan. He turned back to Virgil quickly, who was mostly focusing on the ground, and at the sight of quick movement flashing in the corner of his eye, immediately jumped backward and began to trip. The younger prince gasped before quickly Roman grabbed one of his flailing arms and pulled him forward until he stood steady again. Virgil let out a slow hiss of pain as the drastic movement had hurt his injuries slightly and Roman looked at Virgil with bits of pity.

"Alright look, Ann, when we get in there try staying behind me you can't get any more hurt than you are."

'I'm fine, I swear'

Roman ignored him, "And if I tell you to leave, you leave. This could kill us and you still have a kingdom to save."

Virgil looked hesitant to agree to that but the look Roman gave said he wasn't going to take no for an answer and he wasn't gonna let them continue until he got an answer he wanted. Besides, he was right. No matter what happened his people had to come first, if this started to fall south, he needed to retreat. So with a bit of a sigh, Virgil nodded his head and agreed.

"Alright," Roman continued, "Now all we need is a plan and some really dumb luck,"

Another twenty minutes later they had finally managed not to kill each other coming up with a plan, and they stood ready to finish their trek into the cave. When they finally entered they took in their surroundings carefully. The cave was filled with piles of gold, treasures of all kinds, and the occasional shiny piece of trash. On this pile sat a large dragon with cales that started as cornflower blue in the higher parts of the body, like the head, neck, and back, turned to a beautiful violet the lower it was, like the tummy and feet. The light caught and bounced off of the scales beautifully, giving the dragon a glowing-like appearance. Sharp and undeniably deadly talons on each of the dragon's fingers, a long and heavy tail with the power to send multiple grown men flying curled around the dragon's body. Strong, pointy, teeth were clearly displayed for the world to see. Lastly, and what seemed most magnificent were the wings. Powerful tools that looked like they could carry the world, a wingspan more than double the width of the cave, and a beautiful display of how the scales changed in colors.

In one far corner behind the pile of treasures they could barely make out a mini-camp of sorts, and while Roman seemed to be confused about it Virgil's features only hardened as his theory of a Dargon-witch controlling the dragon seemed to be proven further. On the other side of the camp, still near the back was an odd barrier of light, behind which sat Patton and Logan. Both princes could tell the barrier was supposed to act as a magical cage of sorts, and trap their friends on the other side.

Logan's body was wrapped in gold coils that stretched from his waist all the way up to his shoulders. His hands barely peeked out from under them and the two princes could see that they had deep gashes in them, most likely to prevent Logan from using his magic. Logan was leaning uncomfortably against the stone wall behind him, head tilted back as if he was asleep. The only reason they knew he wasn't asleep was that despite the injuries Logan seemed determined to attempt a magical escape, his hands moving as close to the correct pattern as they could while the matching incantations left his mouth quietly, every so often sparks would appear and die uselessly in his hand.

Patton was doing only slightly better when it came to restraints and hadn't seemed to get as lucky with injuries. The gold coils only wrapped around his wrists and ankles. He was unconscious, or that's what they had assumed seeing as they doubted that Patton would think that now was the appropriate time to take a nap, their head in Logan's lap and one hand gripping as best and tightly as possible to Logan's pant leg. They could make out a pained and fearful expression on his face, and his eyeballs danced around underneath the lids of them, letting them know they were dreaming. Blood had stained Patton's lightly colored long hair and dripped down their face, a makeshift bandage had been crudely wrapped around their head, as well as his left leg which was also slightly red with blood.

Roman and Virgil quickly crept towards the odd cage, "Logan!" Roman whispered worriedly, making the imprisoned wizard jump and nearly knock Patton's head off his lap.

Logan's eyes widened at the sight of them, several emotions seemed to dance in his eyes before he finally decided on what to say, "Roman you need to get out of here! Take Virgil and leave! This is too dangerous, the kingdom is more important now"

Roman shook his head, "I'm not leaving you guys, Virgil already agreed that if things got too difficult he'd flee. But I'm not leaving my best friends."

"Virgil isn't strong enough to take this force field down! Go now!" Logan demanded, panic seeming to set into his whispering.

'I can try. I've done a few force field spells before,' Virgil signed before immediately attempting the act only to jump back when Logan kicked the magical barrier

"You need, to leave!" He demanded, just a little louder than was expected. Roman and Virgil stared at him for a moment, confused as to why he was refusing their help. The dragon was asleep and the Dragon-Witch was nowhere to be seen, "Roman get him out now!" Logan shouted, voice beginning to sound more desperate and completely out of character for the normally so calm individual.

"I'm not gonna-"

"Leave now! Leave now!" Logan demanded as he began to pound on the barrier with his feet again. "Get out of here! Get out!" Logan continued to pound, his voice now a yell as he became more and more panicked. Then with a gasp, he froze, "She's gonna hurt you!" He shouted suddenly as he swung his legs around and underneath him to sit on them. Patton's head fell to the floor and they groaned as Logan began shuffling forward, "Roman she's after-" his voice was cut off, though his lips continued to move, desperately trying to get a message out as he started banging his shoulders against the barrier now.

"Logan?" Roman asked worriedly as he put a hand to the barrier

"You should've left while you still had time little princes," A cold voice said from behind them. Both princes jumped to their feet and turned to the voice, hands already reaching towards their swords. "Oh those aren't going to do you much good," She said with a high-pitched laugh. In front of them stood a thin woman with sharp features and a tall frame, a hand was held up by her ear, clenched into a fist. Virgil recognized the spell from Janus, it was a silencing spell.

And this was the Dragon-Witch.