The wild boar demon charged.

His hoofs raised sparks where they struck the rocks. When a shrub appeared before him, he trampled it. When a tree rose up before him, he barreled at it and snapped its trunk. When a boulder too large to shoulder out of the way blocked his path, he surged over it. It was like watching a landslide in reverse.

After a moment, Den realized that he was still dangling off the side of the tree by his six front claws, gawking after the boar. He unhooked them, kicked off the trunk to launch himself through the air, dropped down in the debris, and sprinted after the boar.

“Hey, wait up!”

The boar neither waited nor glanced back. “Yoooou’re too sloooow.”

“I’m – trying!” Den puffed.

Up ahead, the rock macaque who’d captured Floridiana was bounding from tree to tree, heading deeper into the Wilds. The mage’s body bounced in a way that couldn’t have been good for her injuries.

Please please please don’t let her die, Den prayed. O Star who is our patron goddess, please don’t let her die.

As his energy ran low, he fell further and further behind. The boar, however, was gaining on them. Then the rock macaque reached the edge of a cliff, turned around, and started climbing down it. The boar skidded to a halt, and Den finally caught up. Panting, he flung himself to the ground and stared over the edge of the cliff. It was pockmarked with deep holes. The rock macaque was lowering himself hand over hand and swinging from hole to hole.

“Theeeey’re getting awaaaay!”

The boar was outraged. He stamped and pawed, and his hooves knocked rocks off the edge that clattered down and pelted demon and mage alike.

One stone struck Floridiana’s shoulder with a crunch that made Den cringe. Her eyes flew open. Her mouth opened too, but no sound came out. She probably couldn’t draw enough air to scream.

“Hang on!” Den yelled.

Here, the gorge narrowed and the Fog River sped up, throwing up an icy spray that wet the cliff face – and gave Den water to fly on.

He leaped off the cliff, streaking headfirst at the mage and the demon. Just before he reached them, he flipped midair, stuck out all twelve claws, and raked them across the rock macaque’s back. They were barely long enough to get through the fur!

“Raaargh!” Den roared, struck again, and felt the tips of his claws scrape skin.

“Kyaaw! Kyaaw-kyaaw!” howled the rock macaque.

He raised his arm to swipe at Den – but it was the same shoulder that he’d slung Floridiana over. The mage started to slip. On instinct, she clutched at his fur to keep from falling. Then her face hardened. She squirmed off his shoulder and let herself drop.

Catch! she mouthed.

The rock macaque grabbed for her, but Den sank his teeth into his palm. The demon roared and flapped his arm, trying to dash Den into the cliff.

Den opened his jaws and shot after Floridiana, who was now plummeting towards the river. Just before she struck the rocks that pierced its surface, he sank his claws into her tunic and broke her fall. He braced himself against the water in the air, straining to lift her. Ugh! So heavy! Above the river they dangled, the mage’s boots getting soaked by spray.

And that, of course, was when the swallow demons attacked. Dozens shot out of the grottos in the cliff and swarmed them, pecking and biting and beating at them with their wings.

“Get off!” Den twisted but only succeeded in spinning himself and Floridiana like a top. “Get off me, you dumb birds!”

Wait! They were birds. He was a dragon. He could swim!

He plummeted through the swarm, angling for an open stretch of river.

High above them, the rock macaque demon’s voice bellowed, “IDIOTS! They’re getting away!”

The swallows plunged after them, inserting their own bodies under Den and Floridiana and pumping their wings to hold them up. The mage swatted at them weakly. Furious, Den snapped at them with his jaws.

Then a giant fin broke the water. Followed by a gaping maw. Lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth that glinted in the sunlight. The trout demon leaped.

“Aaaaaaargh!”

With a surge of strength he didn’t know he had, Den shot up six feet. The trout demon’s teeth slammed shut on several swallow demons before it splashed back into the river. Icy water fountained up. The remaining swallows shrieked and flapped back.

Water! Water was what Den needed! As the fountain fell back into the river, he kicked off against it and lurched ten feet higher.

Above him, there was a clatter of hooves and a shout of pain. The boar had gouged a path down the cliff face and now had his jaws locked around the rock macaque’s forearm. The rock macaque was screaming and straining to pull free, but he couldn’t use his other arm because he didn’t dare fall into the river either.

With the last of his strength, Den heaved himself and Floridiana onto the path and collapsed. After several long moments, he finally caught his breath and looked over at the mage.

“Hey, you okay?” he managed.

She mouthed two words.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, but she rolled her eyes and mouthed the words again.

Oh. She wasn’t thanking him. She wanted her seal paste.

He rummaged through her pockets until he found it, inked her seal, and then cocked his head, waiting. She’d squinched her eyes shut and seemed to be mustering all her strength.

“Heal,” she croaked at last, and Den pressed the seal to the base of her neck.

Even though he couldn’t see any changes, she started to breathe more easily.

“Again,” she whispered.

They repeated the process a few more times until she could bear to sit up. Then, finally, she nodded at him. “Thanks…for…saving me.”

“No prob.” He was too drained to finish the word.

“So…what’s with…the boar?”

Further down the cliff, the boar had subdued the rock macaque and was dragging him along by his wrist. The macaque groaned and flailed with his other arm.

“Oh. Um. He’s hungry. He wanted to eat those soldiers we knocked out, so I told him only you could break the barrier. Uh, I may have sort of heavily implied that he could eat them if he saved you….”

Floridiana burst into wheezing laughter. When she could speak again, she gasped, “Well, that’s going to complicate things, isn’t it?”

In the end, Den’s improvisation didn’t complicate things as much as Floridiana had feared when he first confessed to her. Once things had settled down and she could speak properly again, she negotiated with the wild boar demon herself. Lord Magnissimus, he called himself, the greatest demon who ever lived.

It was true that he was massive, that he could cave in her skull with one kick, that he struck fear into her heart. The rock macaque demons lived in terror of him. And yet, somehow, he still paled in comparison with The Demon who awaited her on the banks of Black Sand Creek.

Even if The Demon wasn’t actually a demon or even a spirit at the moment.

At the thought of her, Floridiana shuddered. She quashed it. It wouldn’t do to let Lord Magnissimus think she was afraid of him.

Planting her feet, folding her arms, and hiding the pain that shot through her ribs, she met the boar’s eyes. The blue-white ice in them had melted, and they had returned to a normal, animal brown.

“Lord Magnissimus, my partner has informed me that you wish to eat the rock macaque soldiers within my barrier.”

“Yeeees. Giiiive me back my fooooooood!”

The boar stamped, narrowly missing the rock macaque who lay moaning at his feet.

“I am afraid that will not be possible. You see, I have need of them.”

Fire flared in the boar’s eyes. “Theeeey are miiiine. Theeeey have fallen, so they are MIIIINE! That is my treeeeaty with the Lady of the Photinia Tree!”

Well, that wasn’t something the lady had mentioned.

Back when Floridiana and Den were camping out with various awakened trees and measuring their magical growth, they’d come up with the idea of using knock-out smoke against Lord Silurus. On their way out of the Wilds, they’d returned to the Lady of the Photinia Tree to purchase some. Her price had been to deal a decisive defeat to King Haplor’s troops, which had been harassing her borders ever since she defended Floridiana and Den. That arrangement had suited them just fine, since they could then force a weakened King Haplor to lend them troops to use against Lord Silurus.

Except nowhere in any of their planning had the lady mentioned her separate treaty with Lord Magnissimus!

Never trust demons, especially demons shaped like beautiful women.

“Theeeey are miiiine,” the boar was still insisting. “Giiiive me what is miiiine!” Icicles crackled out of his eyelashes.

Floridiana nearly flinched, but she forced herself to continue in the same confident tone. “I have an alternative that I believe will suit your purposes even better than a troop of mangy monkeys.”

(She had heard Den’s insults earlier, after all.)

The icicles retreated, which was an encouraging sign. “Goooo oooon.”

“How would you like to feast upon the flesh of the largest catfish you’ve ever seen?”

Back in Honeysuckle Croft:

We were just one week from the end of the Dragon Moon and the Meeting of the Dragon Host, which Den had to attend, and there was still no sign of him or Floridiana. Where was he? Where was she? And why wasn’t Boot sending us updates on their progress?

“Never trust a cat,” I fumed to Stripey and Bobo in the privacy of her bamboo stand. “Especially never trust a cat spy!”

“Maybe ssshe’s busy,” suggested the way-too-good-natured-and-trusting viper. “Maybe ssshe got sssent on another misssion. Maybe her boss is watching her.”

The duck demon agreed. “Yes, there may be extenuating circumstances.”

Yes, okay, fine. Any of the options Bobo listed could have prevented Boot from contacting us. But that didn’t solve my current problem, which was that I had no idea where the dragon and the mage were. Or if they were even still alive!

No, they were alive. They had to be.

I paced around and around a stalk of bamboo, wearing a groove into the dirt. “Ugh! But where are they?! Yulus is going to head off to the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea’s palace soon, and from there all the dragons in the eastern part of Serica are going to fly up to Heaven together! Den has to be there for that! Where is he!”

That wretched dragon, making me worry like this! I hated worrying about people. It was all his fault for not being more powerful in the first place so I wouldn’t have had to send him into the Wilds.

“I’m sssure they’ll be back sssoon,” Bobo soothed. “Maybe they can turn invisssible now. Maybe that’s why Boot didn’t sssee them!”

At her words, I halted.

Hmmm. Invisibility would be useful against Lord Silurus.

But that was just another reason I needed Den and Floridiana to come back – so they could report how much magical power they had gained and what new abilities they had learned, so we could plan how to use those against the catfish demon!

I went back to pacing.

“Stripey! Stripey! Come quick! You’ve gotta see this!”

A duck demon crash landed in front of us. Stripey snapped into work mode.

“Report.”

“They’re back! The Dragon King of Caltrop Pond and the mage! They’re back! And they brought – they brought – ”

Bobo was already slithering up a stalk of bamboo. Stripey scooped me onto his back and took flight, followed by the other duck.

“See?” she cried, pointing her beak.

I didn’t see so much as I smelled. At the top of the bamboo stand, the wind brought the scent of the Jade Mountains to my nose. Ah, the crisp, fresh scent of the mountains of my birth!

Bobo let out a strangled gasp. Even Stripey quacked in surprise.

Because, in the distance, there marched an army.

Bright green banners snapped over the heads of rank upon rank of human-sized rock macaques. Wagons piled high with lumpy sacks trundled after them, pulled by teams of smaller macaques. In front of the soldiers lumbered a ginormous rock macaque and an equally ginormous wild boar.

And at the head of the procession strutted a human mage and a dragon king whose scales glistened under the summer sun.