Rose

Whoever this Rose was, Astra was ridiculously delighted to see her. Most of the time, she seemed pretty reserved for a dragon-hunting warrior princess, but she was grinning wider than Krissy would have imagined she could, and bobbing up and down in her seat in excitement.

"Well," said Rose, "you know what they say--in Tetrilonia, do what the Tetrilonians do. To answer your question, I've been here for about a year local time, organizing a resistance against the Dragon, like you do."

"How did you--how did the Dragon--oh never mind," said Astra, suddenly pouncing on her and hugging her. "I never thought I'd see you again! I--"

"Yikes!" said Rose. The car almost swerved off the road. "Careful there, Princess!"

"Oh... sorry." Astra sat back in her seat. Krissy could swear she was blushing just a little. "I'm not used to these cars of yours."

"But yeah," said Rose. "It's good to see you. I never thought I'd see anyone from Aquilaria again, let alone you."

"I--Words can't tell you how much I missed you." She leaned on the dashboard, leaning her cheek in her hand and looking up at Rose.

"I missed you too, Astra. I've been thinking all this time if you were here, we could have won already." Rose's gaze darted back and forth between Astra and the road.

"Oh, you're not being fair to yourself at all, dear. You're one of the bravest women I know. Without you, I would never have survived the chimera."

"I know that." Rose smirked.

"All right. So, business. Where are we?"

"We're in another time," said Rose, "sometime in the distant future, though whether it's our worldline or not, I don't know." She glanced back at Krissy. "Is she from here?"

"No idea," said Krissy.

"I could never follow any of that myself," said Astra. "That's your job. Oh, Rose, this is Krissy. She agreed to join me on the quest to slay the Dragon."

"You've already picked up another girl, huh?" Rose wiggled her eyebrows.

"It's... not like that. I just met her, and she has a husband and three children."

"Does she have an oathbound?"

"I doubt they have that where she's from. She doesn't seem like a warrior to me."

"She's not--Astra, why did you bring her? You can't just pick random people up and take them on quests."

"She--she has the potential, I can tell. And anyway, what about you?"

"That was different! I'd been in fights before." She grunted. "Still, I'm not too mad. We need every hand we can get here. If only I could get back to Aquilaria without facing the Dragon... How have things been there, anyway?"

"Oh, much the same as they were when you left. My mother's been pushing me to get married..."

"Ugh. At least as a witch I don't have to worry about that."

Astra started tapping her fingers. "What's wrong?" said Rose.

"Nothing's wrong."

"Look, I... I wish things could have turned out differently, I know. But you have to find someone else to be your oathbound. A Ranger of Artemis can't be oathbound to a mage--not after what happened with Helena. We're on different paths. I'm still your friend, and I'll always be your friend, but what's done is done. You can't spend your whole life fighting alone without anyone to watch your back, just because of me."

"Rose--" They'd been so intent on each other that they hadn't noticed Krissy anymore. But then Astra's eyes darted back and she saw Krissy leaning forward in her seat. "I think we should talk about this in private." Krissy realized she probably had that hungry look that Scott told her she had when there was really juicy gossip around. She put on her best angelic who-me face, but evidently it didn't work. Astra gave her the stink-eye.

For all this time, the road hadn't changed, still wending through the woods. There wasn't much interesting around unless you liked trees, which Krissy didn't particularly. But just then...

1. They reached the hidden base of the anti-Dragon resistance.
2. Rose spotted something following them.

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