I felt Moonbeam starting to slip. I readjusted her in front of me. I had no trouble getting her up on Nightflame, and then climbed up behind her. I was puzzled at her reaction to the presence of evil. I felt it strongly, but she had said it hurt. We had been flying slowly for nearly an hour, and I was getting worried. She still hadn’t regained consciousness. I looked down, but a bank of clouds impeded my view of the ground. It made me quite uneasy, having a Cloud Bringer in our party. It as a Cloud Bringer’s arrow that had killed the first Moon Holder queen. There had only been three other Moon Holder Queens in the History of the World. Moonbeam stirred. She sat up slowly.

“Are you alright?” I asked quietly.

She looked up at me. She was at least two feet shorter than I was. She smiled and nodded.

“Why are you smiling?” I smiled as well.

“I always smile when I look at you.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes. Does evil affect you the same way?”

“No. That’s never happened before.”

Moonbeam frowned. “My head hurts.”

“I guess it would. You’ve passed out four times in three days.”

Moonbeam stared ahead, digging her fingers into Nightflame’s mane. Finally after a period of silence, she said, “Where’s Nightwing?”

“He’s flying somewhere around here.”

“If you want, you can be with him now. I’m alright, really.”

I didn’t really believe her, but she acted like she wanted to be alone. “I’ll call Nightwing.” I said, pulling my legs to the same side.

“What are you doing?” Moonbeam asked.

“It’ll be fine. Trust me.” I threw a smile in her direction. I let out a low whistle, and then slid off of Nightflame’s back.

Moonbeam screamed my name, but I was falling so fast, I couldn’t look up. Then Nightwing swooped down and caught me on his back. I looked up to see Moonbeam glaring at me.

“Sorry.” I yelled over the wind, not really sorry.

Moonbeam didn’t reply, just glared. A flash of light blinded me for a moment. When I could see again, Moonbeam was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t that Moonbeam and Nightflame had flown away, because Nightflame was still there. Moonbeam had simply disappeared!