Asta's warm body provided comfort for the cold night, as the temperature took a sudden drop below freezing. Silver had not realized it, but the dragon had kept her from going into hypothermia.

The soft sunlight woke the dragon up, and she lifted her head, to see Silver curled up by her chest. Asta had felt glad for a moment, but her eyes quickly dropped grave when she remembered something.

She would tell Silver later.

The blue dragon felt tranquility, as a calm, chilly morning breeze blew through the trees, bringing the frosty smell of pine. Winter was right around the corner.

The peace was disturbed when the dragon heard a threatening growl, followed with a few steps in the bush in front of them.

"Silver, silver!" Asta nudged the girl awake, growing nervous. "Wake up!" She whispered.

"What?" Silver was half asleep, and didn't quite grasp the sound of a growl.

Asta stood up, making Silver fall on the ground. "Ow!"

The growl got louder, and the footsteps grew more frequent.

"What's that?" Silver finally woke up, the growl alerting her. She quickly stood up, and went into her usual defensive position, grabbing one of the gloves in her purse.

A freakin' dog popped out the bush. It was growling, but had no foam at the mouth.

It was safe for Silver at least.

What? Silver didn't know anything about rabies, and neither did Asta.

"Doggie!" Silver smiled, and went up to it cautiously and let it sniff her hand. The dog was rather small, and scruffy. If its fur was groomed, it would've looked like a black yorkie. "Are you just a good pookie, good pookie, good pookie!"

"Silver are you insane!?" Asta picked the girl up on her snout, still not accepting of the dog. "That thing could kill you!"

"It's a yorkie-poo, the only thing it would kill is a squirrel." Her child-like voice rang with laughter. "Don't tell me you're scared of the pookie." She smirked. " Besides, can't you see how pure the little pookie baby is?" Silver's eyes gleamed when describing the dog.

"I'm can, but I'm just concerned for you."

"Yeah right."

"I am!"

"Can you at least let me down? I feel like I'm gonna fall off your snout." Silver looked down at the ground and looked back at Asta's eyes.

"Fine..." Asta said with hesistition.

As Silver slid off her snout, she ran towards the now quiet dog and scratched it's head. "Little baby."

"You're not gonna keep it, are you?"

"I am going to keep it. From now on, this gremlin shall be dubbed.." Silver held the poor mutt into the sky. "Pookie!"

Asta's face fell into a disappointed frown, and she facepalmed. Or would it be snoutpalmed? "Sliver, we need to get going, that group of humans will be after you."

"But where are we going to go?"

"Somewhere, but not here." Asta looked around the woods, examining for any sign of a dangerous human.

"You said you have to save a child, right?"

"Yes," Asta agreed. "What does that have to do with the subject?"

"Maybe if you know my ancestor, you know my mom and dad, and maybe you could take me to them." The girl said. "That'd be like saving a child, right?"

The dragon paused. "Yes, I suppose so. I'm not quite sure where your parents are, but I have an idea. It'd be where Satya found Clark."

"And that is?"

"Well, most likely the headquarters of M.A.D."

Silver's eyes widened as she looked on the back of the glove. The same initials. "So what's M.A.D even stand for?"

"Magical Association of Dragons. They're an organization--a secret one rather--to protect minor dragons, like me. Since we are unable to fight back to humans who wish us harm, they step in and protect us."

"So I come from a line of dragon protectors?" Silver, with her easily excitable personality, jumped up in the air. Before Asta could respond, the girl awed, "Awesome."

"There might be the slightest problem, which is the fact that it's in an extremely isolated place."

"Isolated?"

"Remote. Not close to any cities." She explained to the 9-year old.

"Oh. But we can still find it, right?"

"Yes, but it's in...oh, my words have left me. It's the continent at the bottom of this world. I really do need to remember the geography of your world." The dragon stressed.

"Antarctica?! That's so far, and it's really cold there!"

The dragon froze at the tone in Sliver's voice. Asta couldn't lose her, she told herself she wouldn't do it again. "But it would be well worth it! You could see your parents, you can find out your ancestry, you can become a protector! Please, I'll help you in any way I can."

Silver pondered for a bit. "How are we even going to get there? You don't even have wings, you can't fly there."

"Actually," Asta smilied sassly, "I do have wings. They're invisible to any human."

"How do I know you're not making it up?"

Asta responded by making a gust of wind with her massive wings, blowing strongly against Silver.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying about my wings?" Asta kept up her sass and the gusts of wind as she held Silver in her palm.

"Okay, okay!" Silver giggled when the wind stopped, and looked over to see the poor dog still hanging onto a tree for dear life. "Asta, you scared Pookie."

"Pookie will be fine."

Alerting everyone this time, a call of a human voice rang throughout the woods. Asta sensed it first however, but found a cave nearby with relative ease, and hid.

Silver did not understand as she held her growling dog, and called out for her guardian.

"Why, hello there! I never would've expected someone out here." A female voice called out to Silver.

The lady walked closer to Silver, mainly looking at her dog. She had messy red--and quite short-- hair. A clear tribal green arc ran across her face, going from cheek to the other. "Cute yorkie." Based on her voice and appearance in general, she seemed to be around Jackie's age.

"Thank you?" Silver still had her gloves on, and as she focused on the lady, she appeared with a white question mark.

"Oh, pardon me, my name's Cara. Though, where are your parents?"

Silver's face grew hot with slight embarrassment. "I'm not sure, I'm an orphan."

Cara did something that resembled a flinch, but either way, she seemed a bit unnerved. "Well, would you mind if I brought you back to my village? You look a little roughed up."

Silver had agreed, but with a quick glance back at the cave to the side of her which Asta was in. She realized that these people would most likely harm her. She reminded herself that she would go see Asta at night.

As the two walked, Silver heard the slight chatter of a village nearby. But when they arrived, Silver realized she would never have found this community hidden in the forest.

The area had seemed to be landscaped, trees clearly out of the way for stone and leaf houses. Many people's homes made rows, and on the other side was a more or less a marketplace.

The community was quick to notice the new girl, and lots of waves went to Cara and Silver.

"Hey Cara, who's this new girl?" One of the townspeople asked.

"Well, I'd rather she introduce herself." Cara looked over to Sliver, who snapped back to reality. She was so lost in the community of this village, she didn't realize someone was speaking to her.

"Oh! Hi, my name is Silver, nice to meet you." She replied, her dog quietly growling in her arms. "This is my dog, her name is Pookie."

"I'm Steele, the best steelswoman here." She puffed out her chest arrogantly, and held that posture until the end of her sentence. "Now Cara, are you gonna take this girl to her parents or what?"

Silver felt insecure, having to explain she was an orphan. Everytime someone found out, they looked at her with pity. Was something wrong with her?

The rest of her day was filled with the same situation as she met almost everyone in the village. When they finally arrived at Cara's house, and told her parents the low-down, they let Silver ( and Pookie ) stay the night.

The dog was surprisingly calm, and curled up into a little black fur ball near Silver's side. The girl took her notepad from her purse, and drew. Drew her worries away, just like Jackie did.

I mean, yes, a part of her still cried every night, missing Jackie and just wanting to see her again. But when she did, she remembered to reason with herself, just like Jackie would.

True, when drawing she had forgotten some details on Asta, like her linear marks going down her neck, or the oval circles on her short, stubby tail. Pookie was quite devoid of any detail though.

Soon enough, her peaceful drawing was interrupted, and Silver quickly covered the drawing of Asta, as Cara peered over her shoulder. "Are you doing well? I know I kinda forced you here, I'm greatly sorry for that." She brushed her hair back with fiddly fingers.

"It's okay, thank you." The freckled girl nodded, not knowing what else to add the conversation.

Cara was becoming more nervous as they talked, and she asked Silver if she would like something to eat. Silver, still underdeveloped in detecting other's emotions, happily agreed. This made Cara's nervousness worse. Suddenly, she noticed Silver's glove.

"Hey, what's your glove say?"

Silver took it off, faster than she would when she heard Ms.Diablo steps going up the stairs. "It's nothing." Reverting back to her normal vision as fast as she did made her a little dizzy. "Let's go eat."

As she ate at the table, it felt like when she was introduced to her new foster home. Speak when spoken too. Mind your manners. Sometimes she felt like she was a stage, with eyes watching her every movement.

But she knew she wasn't. She was safe, at least, for now. It was safer than being outside in the forest with Asta.

Her eyes widened. Asta. She had to check in on her.

She asked if she could go outside, alone for a bit. The family, too afraid of losing trust with this new stranger, allowed her, but said in 30 minutes they would check in with her.

Silver ate, grabbed Pookie, and headed out the door. While she wasn't good with directions, she knew where to go by remembering her surroundings.

"Asta?" The girl looked over to the cave in which the dragon hid.

"Silver?" The dragon yawned, and slowly opened her eyes. "Oh, is that other human gone?"

"Yes, but-" Silver was interrupted by a gentle claw grabbing her.

"I was worried about you, why were you gone for so long?" Asta was suddenly awake, and she gripped the girl more with her claw. This, however, made the dog extremely uncomfortable.

Pookie is very expressive, and so she bit the dragon. Shenanigans ensued as Silver tried to calm down her scaly guardian. "Asta, the dog literally smaller than one of your claws! You're not gonna die!"

"I failed S.A.D! I'm never gonna complete my mission, I'll die here, not alone, but I'll die!"

Silver looked so done with this dramatic dragon, she might've ended the story.

"Asta, just calm down so I can explain what happened!" She yelled, which caught Asta's attention quite well.

"Sorry, Silver."

"It's alright," The girl sighed, "So this is what the human said:"