Avalonna, outside the town of Asterette

The dragon statue hummed in Avalonna's hand and roared to life. It's scales became a vivid green and it grew to the size of a large cat or dog. It seemed to yawn as it stretched it's almost see-through wings and unfurled it's long and pointed tail. It snorted out a puff of smoke and flew along side Avalonna and Drow as they rode.

"A real dragon?" Avalonna said in disbelief. She thought for sure they would be just myths, and if they were real then there would be no way they lived up to their reputation. However, this living breathing dragon flew gracefully around them and even let out a breath of fire when it knew it was being watched. The dragon was amazing to see and quite impressive, even if it was a little small.

"Drow, I thought dragons were large creatures?" She asked. The dragon snorted and raised an eyebrow.

"We can't all be true dragons, now can we?" Avalonna heard a voice reply in her head.

"It talks!" Avalonna blurted out as Drow hid his laughter.

"Yes of course I do, and I am a she" the dragon replied without using it's mouth, snorting out more smoke.

"Dragons are magical creatures, Avalonna," Drow commented,
"They can perform certain spells and communicate with their minds. They are truly awe inspiring. The larger dragons from the legends are known as true dragons, this dragon here is called a pseudodragon, hence her size, though do not underestimate her." He grinned slightly as the small dragon blew a puff of fire in his direction.
"She can do most things a dragon can do, just in a smaller size." He added.

The dragon unfurled her wings to their full length and laid down in the grass.
"It feels good not to be a tiny statue all the time," she replied.

"Well don't get too used to it, we can't go through the next town with a dragon can we?" Drow remarked and the dragon snapped her tail at him.

"Fine... But don't leave me frozen for too long, if you please." she commented and flew towards Avalonna.

Despite being small for a dragon, the pseudodragon was still quite a large animal and made Avalonna flinch slightly. She slowly touched her hand to it's forehead and cast the sleep spell she had cast on her brother's falcon. The dragon began to lose it's color and shrunk back down to it's statue form, though still humming and full of energy.

Avalonna laughed softly to herself and placed the statue back in Drow's box.
"Well that was quite interesting." She said with a smile.

"I thought it would be, talking creatures are always much more unpredictable than normal ones." Drow replied.

"Yes she certainly was. Now may I ask, do you know which town is nearby? I thought we would be in Valrut by now." Avalonna said, taking a look at her surroundings for the first time in a while and not recognizing much.

Drow stared off in the distance as the next town came into view and looked around at any other landmarks.
"Well this is certainly not Valrut... maybe the mishap with the bandits caused us to go slightly off our route. I believe the town we are approaching now should be..." He squinted and hesitated,
"By the gods... It's Asterette." He spat out the name of the town.

Avlonna steadied herself and brought her horse to a slow stop near Drow's.
"Asterette? How could we possibly be anywhere near that place? I chose the trails to avoid it!" She said, worrying slightly. Asterette was physically quite close to Castle Nitehardt's territory and was considered to be the second capital of the kingdom. It governed by members of the Red Guard who were stationed randomly throughout the place. Though it was better built and held more people than most towns, this city was corrupt and dishonorable. Everyone in positions of authority had three things in common; they were despicable, easily bribed, and hated magic and magical beings. The citizens that were unfortunate enough to live in the town were subjected to high taxes and the Guard seizing their possessions whenever they pleased. No person in their right mind would willingly settle down and live in Asterette, but the Red Guard had very convincing ways of making a person stay.

"Well we must have branched off in the wrong direction at a crossroads or such," Drow replied,
"Valrut is southeast of here, so we are at least still headed north." He commented, reading off what Avalonna assumed was a map, though not any kind she had ever seen.
"We can go back and then on to Valrut, but that would put us behind at least a day and a half." He said.

Avalonna thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"No, we can't use up more time. Let us just make our way through Astertte as quickly as possible. If we do not bring attention to ourselves perhaps we won't have to deal with anyone." She said hopefully. Then, against her will, her eyes started to droop and she realized how tired she still was, even more so after the fight with bandits and healing Drow.

"Avalonna... I think we may need to..."Drow started but was cut off.

"No! We are not spending the night in the Red King's hands. I am fine, I can stop after the next town." She replied.

"Val, the next town after this is a day's journey away. You'll never make it, and if we stop along the way we are bound to be attacked again. I can not believe I'm saying this but, I think Asterette is our best option." He said reluctantly.

Avalonna knew that Drow was right, but she loathed the idea of spending any more time in Asterette than was needed.
"Alright, we spend the night here in whatever is closest to a respectable inn."
She replied as they rode into the town.

The town was quite large, with a large stone wall surrounding it that added to a feeling of confinement and control. Avalonna had just noticed that Drow had shape shifted back into his Caspian disguise. She assumed he did so to draw a few people's focus more on him than on herself, as he was now seen as a professional merchant. She did not need any extra attention, being in a city of witch killers. They rode to the town's stable, and after a rude encounter with the stable owner, were finally able to leave their horses for the night and go to the inn. 'Caspian' went to haggle with the innkeeper and Avalonna stood back and waited. While she was standing by, she heard some of the Guardsmen settle in at the tables and have large pints of drinks served to them. They were laughing and banging their drinks together as they ate, making Avalonna glare at how disgusting they were. Then she overheard them begin to talk.

"Have you heard about Eversong?" One of the men, a bald headed man, said laughing.

The other man, who had too much hair, nodded vigorously and took another swig of his drink.
"Aye, my own brother was one of the archers! He said the flames were unbelievable... Ah we should have been there mate." He said as both men laughed.

Archers... Flames? Avanlonna thought to herself. What happened in Eversong?