Chat wiped the sweat from his brow as he took one last look at his surroundings, turning in a circle to make sure the treeline was entirely clear. He saw no more arrows pointed at him, or soldiers running at him with their swords. Chat sighed in relief as he stuck the dull end of his spear into the ground and leaned up against it.

Kagami seemed to drop out of nowhere, landing deftly on her feet. She shook the dirt off of her clothes as she stood up to her full height, and sheathed her sword once more. "We sent them off running?"

"Yes," Chat said, nodding and trying to regain his breath. "If my brother is going to send people to kill me, I wish he at least made it more of a challenge."

"What kind of brothers try to have the other one killed?" Kagami asked, tilting her head to the side.

"I hope you never have to meet my family," Chat said. He hooked his spear underneath his arm, taking one last deep breath. "You good to run all that way to the cave?"

"You're the one who looks like they need a break." Kagami had already started running by the time she finished her sentence and Chat was left to try and catch up with her. She shouted back at him, "I'll race you there!"

The woods seemed empty and quiet as they made their way toward the stream that Alya had mentioned. Normally, Chat liked quiet. He liked being able to hear himself think, to have the calm to mediate on his thoughts. It helped him come to quick decisions. But now, the only thing he could think was how stupid he had been to not notice that palace soldiers had been tracking them. The thought was incredibly loud, practically screaming at him in his head. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Chat Noir had been nothing but stupid this entire time.

Felix wasn't one to let things go. He should know. His brother had once filled his bed with spiders after he had accidentally torn one of his books. Sending palace soldiers after them wasn't surprising in the least. It should have been expected.

Kagami stopped near the stream to bend down and wipe her face with the water, but Chat kept moving to where Alya had said the hidden cave would be. When he came to the entrance, the pounding of his feet must have alerted them of his presence and he found Marinette sitting on the crowd with Alya crouching over Her protectively. Nino stood at the back of the cave, knife in hand, but all of them visibly relaxed when they recognized who he was.

The Princess was on Her feet quickly and making Her way toward him. She threw Her arms around his neck, sighing with relief. Chat's spear fell to the cave floor as he let go of it completely. He returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around Her waist and pulling Her close to him till Her feet weren't even touching the floor anymore. "You're all safe," he said in a whisper. Setting the Princess back down, he turned to Alya next, nodding firmly. "Thank you for all your help. I'm sorry if we've inconvenienced you-"

"Chat," the Princess said, placing an arm on his shoulder. "Alya has decided to come with us."

His eyes widened in surprise. "Oh," he said, unsure of what else he could say at that moment. He wondered how the Princess had managed to convince her, but he also knew very well that She was capable of sweet-talking anyone into anything. Chat offered Alya a smile. "It'll be nice to have you join us."

"Have who join us?" Kagami asked as she entered the cave, hair slightly damp from when she was washing her face. Her eyes immediately turned to Alya's, lighting up with excitement. "You've agreed then?"

Alya nodded wordlessly.

Kagami retained her composure for all of five seconds before practically flinging herself next to Alya and throwing her arms around her shoulders. The abrupt awkwardness seemed to set in quickly as Kagami's expression blanked and she ended up patting her fellow Dragon on the back with stiff movements. Alya was flustered, but quickly recovered and event slightly returned the embrace by gently laying her hand on the small of Kagami's back.

Chat hadn't quite expected to see either of them so close to each other already. His first impressions of both Kagami and Alya had been that they were rather closed-off people. But perhaps he was doubting the connection that the Dragons shared with one another. From what he could gather, it was a strong bond, painful even at times. He'd seen the Princess clutching Her chest more than once with a pained expression. Perhaps the three of them had found something in one another so great that it bypassed all formalities, giving them a desire for familiar connection instantly.

He grabbed onto the hand that the Princess had been resting on his shoulder, wrapping his fingers tightly around her own. Holding on for a moment, Chat relished in the closeness to Her that it provided, but wasn't at all surprised when She slipped out of his grasp and moved to join the other two girls. Chat's chest tightened as he watched them, unsure of what he was really longing for at that moment, to be a part of their group or just to be with Her.

"Do you think the rest of those soldiers would have retreated by now?" Nino asked him, drawing him out of his thoughts. Chat blinked a few times and stared at Nino with a blank expression before he was able to even really register what his friend had asked, and tried to listen more closely as Nino continued speaking. "I left our supplies back there. We need to eat, so I should probably go and retrieve them."

"I wouldn't risk it," Chat said, wincing. He felt bad for telling Nino no, but they had finally made it to safety. "We'll head to a marketplace before we go anywhere else and resupply there."

"There's fish in the stream outside," Alya piped up. "And the berries here are edible."

"Oh, well..." Nino smiled politely, nodding his head in thanks. "That'll work."

"I can help if you like," Alya said, standing to her feet. "I've been catching fish here since I was a kid."

"I won't say no to that," Nino said.

They made their way toward the entrance of the cave together. Alya paused for a moment, turning back and then pointing to the spear that Chat was still carrying with him. "Can I borrow that?"

"Sure," Chat said, holding it out to her. Once it was out of his hands, he didn't wait to watch them head out, lowering himself to the ground with an exhausted groan and leaning his head back against the cool wall of the cave. The Princess scooted Herself over to sit next to him and Chat cracked open one eye to look at Her. "You should rest, too," he told Her.

"You look like you need it more than me," The Princess said. She leaned Her head against his shoulder, snuggling close to his side as She let out a contented sigh. "Do you think we'll ever reach a point when we don't have to wander around the entire country?"

"If you wanted that, you should have stayed at Plagg and Tikki's," Chat said. Tentatively, he rested his head atop Her's, holding it there for a moment before lifting it up and ultimately deciding to set it back down again.

"Well, I want us to be all together." The Princess, still keeping Her eyes shut, reached across and flicked him on the arm. "You would have left Me there, and I would have never found Alya and Kagami."

"You'd still have Nino," Chat pointed out, trying to sound like he was joking with Her as much as possible.

"Yes, the most loyal of My followers," She said, a smile passing across Her face. "I want you the most, though."

"Careful," Chat said, leaning forward to look at Kagami, who had been pretending not to be listening to their conversation. "You're going to make Your White Dragon jealous."

Kagami frowned at him, but Chat ended up with a matching expression as the Princess moved away from him again and hugged Kagami close to Her side. She covered her ears, shooting a mock glare at him. "Don't say such things. You're the one who's going to hurt her feelings."

"As a matter of fact, I'm quite secure in what my relationship with Marinette is," Kagami said, leaning her back against the Princess's chest. "Can you say the same, cat boy?"
"Cat boy?!" Chat shouted. "Princess, are You sure there isn't another White Dragon out there? Maybe You grabbed the wrong one?"

"Nope, this one's Mine," She said, smiling as She leaned Her head against Kagami's. "If you're My friend, you'll deal with it. We're a family now, Chat."
He was Her friend, so he would deal with it. But Chat hadn't realized that that was how She was viewing this. Her new family. The Princess wanted a new family.

Chat smirked. "I guess I will have to," he said. Settling back against the wall of the cave, he closed his eyes again. "Wake me up when Nino's got food ready."

-------------------------------

Alya had been able to give them directions to the location of the next Dragon, and the group set out the following morning. Finally, they were moving down out of the mountains and heading closer and closer toward the coast. The journey was more easy-going now, as well as easier on the lungs since they weren't constantly fighting against the thin mountain air. Chat, however, was much more on guard than he had been before, now knowing that palace soldiers were likely still trying to track them.

They wouldn't be able to stay in one place for very long.

Everyone else seemed much more relaxed than him, though, and Chat's worry only grew steadily the closer they got to a larger city within the borders of the Earth tribe. It had been the kind of place with a large marketplace they had been looking for, somewhere they could stock up and continue on their journey, but he noticed the changing looks on Alya's face. It'd grown from mild annoyance to like an itch she couldn't scratch enough.

"The Green Dragon is quick on their feet," she said, clutching her head. "I can feel their presence in the city, but they're moving around so fast."

"Is it giving you a headache?" Nino asked, putting a hand on the small of her back and guiding her over to a nearby log. Reaching into his bag, he drew out some of the medicine they'd been able to recover, pulling the top off. "Here, this should be able to help."

"Thank you," Alya said, taking a quick swig of the medicine. She wiped the back of her mouth with her hand, taking a deep breath. "I don't think they're going to be easy to find."

"We'll probably have to split up to cover more ground," Kagami said. She stooped down to crouch beside Alya.

Chat eye's moved from the three of them, pushing their conversation to the back of his mind. It was clear he wasn't the only one not listening. The Princess was standing farther away from the group, staring off at the tree-covered hill before them. He slowly moved toward her, coming to stand right by her side, and followed her gaze. "What are you looking at?"

"Is the-" She said, glancing over at him briefly. "Do you think the ocean is on the other side of that hill?"

Chat's eyes widened as a smile spread across his face. "You've never seen it before. Have you?"

"No," the Princess said, shaking Her head. "Have you?"

"Once, I think." Chat titled his head to the side as he tried to pull the memory from wherever it was buried.

The Princess smirked at him as She picked up Her skirts almost to Her knees, only giving him a little bit of warning before running off. "Hey! Wait-" Chat shouted after her as he tried to catch up.

The hill wasn't too tall, and She was still ahead of him by the time they reached the top. The momentum kept Her moving forward and Chat thought a few times She might start tumbling down the hillside. Grass soon turned to sand and Chat slowed to pick up the Princess's shoes as She kicked them off before making Her way to the water.

The Princess shouted as the cold water touched Her bare feet, hopping around a little as She got used to the feeling. Chat stood a few feet back from where the waves were rolling in. He had no desire to get his feet wet. It would be too much of a hassle to get his boots off and, besides, he was quite content watching the Princess splash around.

She jumped and ran closer back to shore every time a wave came. Chat watched Her face as She spun around, admiring the wide smile that spread across Her lips.

The Princess shouted and started running back to him. "Something slimy touched my foot!" She shouted, clutching tightly on his arm.

"Relax," Chat said, playing a hand on top of Her own. "It was probably just seaweed."

She huffed, wrapping her arms around his biceps tighter. They started off down the beach together, just barely able to see the edge of the port town from here. This place would probably be getting ships from kingdoms to the east coming to port to trade, meaning it'd be crawling with all sorts of people that Chat didn't particularly trust. Criminals and con men. They'd have to find the Green Dragon amongst all of that.

"If we have to split the group up You'll stick by my side, right?" Chat asked, looking down at Her.

"Are you nervous?" The Princess asked. "You seem nervous."

"We've been sticking to pretty remote areas," Chat said. He huffed drawing Her closer to him. "I don't like the idea of going out into the open, especially since we just got attacked by palace soldiers again. It'll be easier to get caught somewhere like this."

The Princess dropped her hands from his arm, pulling the hood of Her cloak up over Her head. She continued to pull the fabric down till it was covering Her eyes and casting a shadow across Her entire face. "How about now? If I just stay like this?" She asked. "Feel better?"

Chat chuckled softly and reached forward to pull the hood off Her. He tried to smooth down her messed-up hair. "I'd feel better knowing You weren't going to trip over Your feet when You couldn't' see them. Like I said, just stay close."

Kagami called to them as she came onto the beach. Chat waved at her, noticing that Nino and Alya were close behind. They waited for a moment for the three of them to get closer, and the Princess grabbed his hand, leading him closer toward the port city. "It's barely been a week since we started this," She said, looking up at him and flashing a bright smile. "I have a really good feeling about this. We're close."

And then what?

Chat wanted to ask but he was sure neither of them knew the answer. It was clear that she hadn't been given any further instructions by the goddess creation after gathering the Dragons. They had no plans beyond that.

Personally, Chat was beginning to like the idea of settling somewhere. Where and how they would do that was a complete mystery to him, but it was still something he had found comfort in dreaming about.

For now, his lady still had a task to complete, and he still had to stand by her side.