Gollum, overjoyed by the unexpected walk and the company he usually wasn't getting, ran a couple of circles around Fiona and Peregrine before he trotted away in the direction of the park, passing so close by Alexandra that he bumped into her. The older woman seemed unsure on her feet in her daughter's borrowed trainers, and the animal's excitement made her complain.

"Will you please put the beast on the leash?" she demanded, looking over her shoulder at Fiona and Peregrine.

Fiona smiled at Gollum who stopped a few metres ahead of them, one foot raised in the air tentatively, his body positioned to bound again as soon as his mistress would tell him where they were off to. She spoke to the dog before she replied to her mother, "Freddie. School. Go. Calm," she added, waving the leash towards him in a silent reminder of the consequences of any misbehaviour on his part.

As Gollum bounded in the appointed direction, silent like a shadow, steering carefully from the passersby  who might fear him, she told Alexandra, "No, Mum. I'm not going to restrain him unless he misbehaves. He is harmless, and he needs some freedom. He spends so much time alone in that flat, poor thing."

"He might just fare better in Silmarea," Peregrine mused aloud, admiring Fiona's relationship with her dog. It told him so much more about her than hours of talking to her would; it was the way one treated his inferiors and animals that reflected their character the best. "Alaric's castle is huge, and there are many gardens. And Gollum might just enjoy getting to know the courtiers." He chuckled, imagining some of them jumping at the sight of the beast of the dog suddenly materialising in their midst.

Well, at least someone would benefit from this crazy move, Fiona mused even as Alexandra, having heard what Peregrine had said, fell into step with them.

Fiona, feeling a slight change in the dragon shifter's behaviour after their near kiss, used it as an excuse to walk ahead alone; they didn't fit in three on the narrow pavement.

"Tell me something about Alaric, Fiona said he's married now?"

She heard her mother enquire, claiming Peregrine's attention while she let her thoughts wander. Botheration! No one had made her feel like this dark and mysterious man did for too long. He made her blush with a mere look, made her heart race with the simplest, most accidental touch, made her want to kiss him whenever he stepped too close... She knew where this would lead if she let herself go. And she didn't want that... not as much for her sake than for him. Fiona could feel him struggle against some deep-rooted ideas; she could perceive the wall growing between them even as he started building it to protect himself from the attraction they were both influenced by. She wasn't going to make his life difficult. She wasn't going to be... clingy and needy only because he was the first man she liked in years. She had been just fine alone for so long, she could go on this way even in the new world she was going to, she wasn't ready for a new heartbreak anyway...

"Married to a man? Well, I did not expect that. However, things change, I suppose," her mum called, disturbing her reverie even as they reached the park and turned right.

Fiona could see Gollum under a clump of trees on the other side of the road, a spot that offered a good view of the building's entrance without being too close. He wasn't allowed to cross the road alone, but she would forgive him this time as he simply followed his new friends, Gilderoy and Leodhais, who were hiding in the shadows cast by the trees.

Peregrine's arm came to rest on her waist before they crossed the road, too, and the touch made her breath hitch. He did it without thinking, quite instinctively, the touch didn't mean anything apart acknowledging the strong attraction between them which they needed to learn to subdue and hide before reaching her father's castle.

"Everything is fine," Leodhais said as the newcomers reached them. "No sign of dragons or other dangers."

"Good," Peregrine muttered, taking a step away from Fiona and looking around cautiously, his eyes scanning the park spreading behind them. The elf was right. They were safe for the moment.

Fiona glanced at him inconspicuously, knowing that he must feel responsible for the situation they were in now, for having put them in potential danger. But she wasn't afraid, from what she had gathered about Highlanders, they were loners. They wouldn't attack in a group, and Peregrine was such a good fighter, she had seen that with her own eyes, that any one of the others would think thrice about crossing his path. The thought of Lagon possibly being dead entered her mind for the first time, but she quickly pushed it into a dark corner to think about later. Now, she only wanted to make Peregrine know that she didn't blame him for anything.

She stepped closer to him, placing one of her hands on Gollum's head, wrapping the other arm around Peregrine's waist, her breath catching again when he laid his arm on her shoulders in an immediate reply. A blush followed when she looked towards the school gate and caught Leodhais observing them with raised eyebrows. She narrowed her eyes at the blond elf challengingly. They weren't doing anything they were not supposed to be doing, nothing that would ever turn into anything more. She just needed to get used to people observing them and drawing assumptions.

"Here they come..." she said as she noticed the first batch of children streaming from the open gate. Some were met by a parent or a guardian the moment they left the school grounds, while others walked away alone in groups of twos and threes.

When she saw Freddie waking out of the school she looked up at Peregrine apologetically before stepping away from the pleasant shelter of his arm and crossed the road, Gollum at her side mirroring her steps like a well trained puppy, but the dragon shifter didn't let her walk away. To Freddie's very obvious delight, he followed Fiona to the gate.

"Are we leaving? We are, aren't we?" the boy whispered to the tall man conspiratorially, not wanting to atrack the attention of the other children and the adults already looking between the dark-clad stranger and the enormous dog warily.

"We are, Master Frodo." Peregrine winked at the boy then took the school bag he was about to pass to his mother before she could. "Let us go; the journey is long."

They crossed the road again, back to the park, to avoid the crowd now flooding the school gate. Peregrine passed Freddie's school bag to Gilderoy, and the men divided the other luggage among them before turning back towards the high road and directing their steps towards the nearest bus stop. Freddie, who appointed himself their guide, clung to Peregrine like a shadow, Fiona and Gollum trailed closely after them, and Alexandra found a comfortable place between Leodhais and Gilderoy just behind, the three of them closing the entourage.

It took them almost two hours to get to Paddington, but at least the journey was comfortable enough. It wasn't quite the rush hour yet, so neither the bus that took them to the High Barnet station nor the tube train taking them south from there were overcrowded.

"The next train leaves in twenty minutes," Peregrine, coming back to where the rest of the group was waiting in the busy hall, with Freddie preceding him like a shadow cast by the sunlight streaming through the glass panes forming parts of the train station's ceiling, announced. "We will arrive at Liskeard after nine. It will be too dark to walk on from there tonight."

"Maybe we should at least walk to that other, smaller town, so we will be closer to the stones in the morning?" Gilderoy proposed as they picked up the bags again to move to the correct platform.

"We need a place to sleep on this side tonight, Gilderoy," Peregrine said. He would avoid making Fiona sleep under the stars as long as he could. "The other town is so small that I doubt there is a hotel."

His eyes followed the woman who had become the only thing he could think of as she walked in front of him and his companions, her hand wrapped tightly around her son's, her mother walking next to them, Gollum following the three a step behind his mistress like a guard.

It pained him to notice how Fiona, his Bella, started to drift away from him after that very intense morning they had shared, it pained him even more to admit that she had only created the distance between them because she could perceive his confused, irresolute feelings. Peregrine hated to think that he might have already hurt her by his actions when the only thing he aspired to was to never make her suffer again. She had been through so much...

He startled when Leodhais shook him by the arm, nodding at Peregrine's feet where Freddie stood waiting for them a few steps away.

"Mummy asks if anyone wants a coffee or anything else to drink, she's going to get some drinks and sandwiches to that cafè," Freddie announced, pointing at the nearest coffee shop to the place where Alexandra now sat on the bench close to the platform, a pile of bags at her feet.

Peregrine watched the boy run after his mother when they all agreed to a cup of coffee. She looked so frail and lost in the crowd, already halfway through to the café, and he suppressed his instinct to follow them. He didn't want her to feel in danger when there was none; there were no dragons lurking in the shadows pooling along the walls of the large hall. He also didn't want to crush the fragile distance they were trying to create between them.

It was better this way, for both of them. He would always be around her, watching out for both her and Freddie, but not too close. Not close enough to leave her heartbroken should something go wrong, taking him from her life forever.