And she was more refreshed then she had been since they had stayed at that unicorn's glade for a night. She felt ready to murder those fools who had taken her beloved from her.

They could reach that area by nightfall if they made good time. She was sure of it. Impatience surged through her, causing Zyph to get ruffled up as he sensed her restless energy.

"Whoa there." Raven's comforting voice as he patted her gryphon made her look at him. He had a soft adoring smile on his face as he tried to calm the griffon down.

Dawn was not too surprised that it worked. Raven was good with all the animals, and Zyph really liked him. The two seemed to get along quite well. Surprisingly well, as she was pretty sure that Raven could have gotten Zyph to do anything. Not an easy feat. Zyph would tolerate people if she or Arrion was there to actually be the ones controlling him, but there were very few people the cat-bird actually respected enough to listen to.

Magical animals were like that. Proud and more intelligent than a normal animal they tended to be more difficult to train. But once trained they were incredibly loyal.

Dawn smiled at Raven. "Thanks for calming him down. I'm not in a position to, not with how excited I am."

"…" He sighed, "Dawn, I know you want to ma.s.sacre these people, but…"

"What?"

"Do be careful." He looked up at her, "Your life is more important than any plan for revenge. As your friend I would hate to see you get hurt. You are important to me too, you know. Very important."

Dawn gave him a smile, "I won't be utterly rash. Arrion wouldn't have liked it if I got hurt if I could avoid it."

A relieved smile broke on the druid's face. "Good. Just remember that, okay?"

He really was such a good friend. Dawn smiled to herself and looked away. It was nice to be cared about.

When the sun hit its peak in the sky, Dawn called for everyone, "We need to start being quiet. We don't want to give them any idea we are coming."

They looked more than ready for this. Dawn was glad for it. She trusted these people to do what they came for.

Those Grimshades were going down.

Everyone was so quiet. On guard. Dawn found it a little surprising that all banter had just ceased. It would have been uncomfortable if this had happened under other circ.u.mstances but since it was necessary it was more of a relief to the queen.

She wondered what was going through everyone's minds. To be so close to the end of their journey.

Her eyes fell on Raven. He looked utterly relaxed. Her friend seemed almost nonchalant about what was happening. She would not have been all that surprised if under that cloth his eyes were closed. He looked almost like he was trying to become one with the griffon they were on.

He only moved when in the late afternoon they dismounted to move even quieter. Dawn felt nervous leaving the animals here, but she stamped it down and just turned to their druid. "Raven. Do you think that you can get them to stay?"

"Leave them untied. Zyph will keep them together and bring them back, I already communicated to him."

"Untied?"

"So that no one will be able to just waltz over and run off with them. They like us well enough you know."

She nodded, trusting him to know what he was talking about.

As they continued on, Raven fell into step beside her. Though he was quiet, Dawn drew strength from his presence.

Not long after she saw it. That hide out were they had been staying. She calmly looked at the scouts they had brought and watched as Lowks made a few gestures to the others before they moved out to do their job.

As the rest of them moved to follow more slowly, Dawn felt a tug on her hand. She turned and looked at a serious looking Raven.

"Yes, Raven, did you need something?"

"Can I talk to you a minute?" His voice was quiet.

"Sure, something wrong?" Dawn was unsure what was on his mind. But she wanted to set him at ease.