“Take him back now,” Ewan said, splitting his blanket and carrying the sleeping Biscuit out, while the isle staged the raging battle—Kidd had joined in with a kitchen knife. “His situation is not that hard to deal with, don’t fret too much. He didn’t hurt me.” He caressed Nana’s head, combing her hair, when she sent Biscuit in her rune with tears in her eyes. “A serenity potion would do the trick for him. And some strong stimulant-type potion for Lime would keep him up. I don’t have any solution for Luna yet, but I’ll find something.”

  Her case should’ve been the simplest, because unlike Lime and Biscuit, she was already of the water element before the change. Even if the natural rune invaded them and altered their core, her damage should’ve been the least… Yet, she became the hardest nut to crack.

  “She hasn’t said a word since the change,” Nana said, sniffing, wiping the corner of her eyes.

  Ewan chuckled. “She couldn’t say a word before that either, she’s a bird, remember?” he said, and Nana finally laughed.

  “Boss!” Kidd yelled from amidst the storm of fire, his inky protective barrier defending him. “Check out my new skill!” He wrapped the kitchen knife in Dark-Anima, its edge seething, and flickered around the crowned iguana, slashing with each blink. “Dark Slash!” he hollered, drowning the Fire Iguana’s howl, and his knife chipped on its scales.

  “I’m telling you all, I will never admit I know this idiot in public,” Stefan said, pulling back, and resting his spells, the flame of his lantern receding into a quiet flutter.

  “Vraan,” Lance said, easing off when Kidd took the front. “It probably is at its last leg; we should end this.” Its glistening blood pooled under the Fire Iguana, its gashes dripping more, its tail collapsed on the ground without a twitch, and its droopy eyes barely saw the world.

  “Yeah,” Ewan said, putting his artifacts away. “End it.”

  The scythe danced in Lance’s hands, his shield remained firm before him, and as the chain rattled, the tip of the blade plunged into the iguana’s head and came out of his jaw, snuffing its breath and ending its misery.

  “I was about to kill him,” Kidd griped, his knife shattering into shards when he took the Anima away.

  “We have to buy a kitchen knife because of you now,” Stefan said.

  “Vraan!” Lance shouted, standing by the iguana’s corpse. And when the four came to him, he pointed to the small cave behind that the Fire Iguana sheltered; even in death, its tail hid its entrance.

  “Are there treasures inside?” Kidd asked, his eyes glittering.

  Ewan sighed, for his Ryvia touched the unhatched eggs and the hatched saplings with pink skin that could barely trudge a step. The Fire Iguana could fly, every Step-1 could, it just chose not to…

  Soon, others also checked the cave and looked at each other.

  “What do we do?” Lance asked, helping Kidd gather the iguana’s blood into piling canisters—'Fire’ marked their sides this time. “Sell them?”

  “How much will they even go for? Mere pocket change.” Kidd grunted, lugging the brimming canisters around.

  “Was there any demand for lizard type Astylinds in the market?” Ewan asked.

  “I don’t think so, maybe it’ll go for the average price of unhatched eggs,” Kidd said.

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  “We’ll have to carry them all in suspended state and keep them safe,” Stefan said. “Isn’t there any storage artifact that can keep them? Havanna, can you make one?”

  “I didn’t see any such blueprint in my dad’s collection,” Nana said. “I can try to work on one, but I don’t have much confidence.”

  “We’ll ask around on the hub when we go there, leave it for now,” Ewan said. “And forget about them.” He glanced at the cave. “We can't get much anyway. Let them grow here, repopulate the island, it’ll be good for a sustainable supply.”

  “We came, we destroyed, and we butchered their parents.” Kidd chuckled. “They’ll hate us for sure,” he said.

  “You did the most damage, you even dealt the last blow,” Stefan said, clapping Lance’s shoulder. “Sleep with one eye open, its ghost will visit you soon.”

  “There are no ghosts in this world, there are no ghosts in this world,” Lance mumbled and iterated, inching away from the corpse.

  “What am I?” Walyn misted out of Kidd and hung upside down before Lance, waving his hand with his ghostly cackle. And the man squeezed his eyes and clenched his fists.

  “There are no ghosts in the world!” He emphasized. Perhaps the words soothed his heart…

  Ewan let the clowns be and sent Orange out, working with Nana to fix the island to make it livable for the iguanas. As it was, the water and fire Anima raged too much. Orange reined in the Fire-Anima, though with clumsy control, while Nana checked the Water-Anima, flushing them out to Morinfair.

  “Let’s go,” Ewan said, when the island at least resembled its past, save the greens. “What’s our next destination?”

  “My healing rune!” Nana hollered with a grin.

  “Yeah,” Ewan said, shaking his head. “Let’s hope the information is correct.”

  “The man said there’s a surge in Anima in that area,” Kidd said, putting the canisters of blood away. “Just not sure whether it’s a rune or not, let alone a healing water rune.”

  “We’ll know when we get there,” Ewan said. “How far is it, Stefan?”

  “A year or so away if we sail, less if we fly,” Stefan said. “And Clinmere is on the way, we can visit and confirm their stance too.”

  Ewan hummed a nod. “Let’s sail. As things are, prices should soar soon, and Rigen won't be an exception, we’ll save as much as we can. And for Clinmere, let’s see what their attitude is. If it’s all amiable, we’ll have to stay there for some years, for Frost’s rite. If not, then prepare to kill the last of the winged.”