Chapter 48

“What is the Four Corners Region?”

“It is near Lake Pristine near the city of Brennan.”

“Oh, Sorbo, do you think it is possible?”

“In fact I do, my precious girl, and I promise you here and now we will find her and return her to you. Ledger, prepare a thousand men as Princess Casey still lives.”

“What?”

“The Seer came to us in Sharon’s room and told us so. Oh, Sorbo, what are we going to do with your sister?”

“Have someone wrap her up carefully and respectfully and have a dragon return her home. Tell them we will be along as soon as we can. Sharon has moved on, but your sister still lives. She is granted our time and effort. Lender, assemble a hundred dragons and fly to Lake Pristine and the city of Brennan and see if you can notice anything.”

Katarina has long since brought her entire clan here, especially since Andromeda destroyed the cabin. “Katarina, my little sister lives. Can you also fly with your people to the area south of here and secretly look for her?”

“Of course, Dakota.” and with that she has gone to get her people.

“Bolo, Braylard, Sarah, Olob, Harold, Surrong, Sasha, Steve and Mike prepare, we leave within the hour.” Sasha is a fifteen-year-old raven-haired sweetheart who they rescued from slavery. She is now Surrong’s squire.

Things have been happening so fast this morning that they have yet to get fully dressed. As Sorbo and Dakota return to their room Sorbo notices Dakota is visibly shaking. “Fear not, wife,” he says grabbing her shaking hands. “We will find your sister.”

Dakota nods with tears in her eyes and flies into her husband’s arms. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, babygirl. I love you, too.”

“How is this possible?”

“I don’t know, but I promise you we are going to figure it out.”

“I am finding it hard to believe that my baby sister still lives. She must be sixteen years old now. I hope she is okay.”

“We will return her to our world, but you must be prepared. The Seer said we must return her to sanity or something like that.”

“Oh no, do you think the Children of Method, Prophecy and Design have been hurting her.”

“I would say they would get more satisfaction into turning her into one of them as they did with my son.”

“Oh, my Odin, how many times is this going to come around and round? Every time we start getting somewhere it leads back to the same place.”

“As things are happening I’m beginning to get the feeling that is life at its most fundamental.”

“Move out!” orders Dakota, to the assembled forces. “We ride straight through and we will turn the world upside down until we find Princess Casey.”

Sorbo looks at her and takes her hand and kisses it. She looks at him, smiles and takes a deep breath. She nods her head and they begin another part of their journey. It is almost as if certain forces are coming up with things to keep them busy so they are looking elsewhere from the real point of all this. As they ride Sorbo is getting a sinking feeling.

It is now late August and the sun is shining bright. The temperatures are running high and Dakota shows no signs of letting her force take even the slightest bit of a break.

When they ride by a stream and Sorbo sees the horses looking at it longingly he yells, “Whoa! Stop, dismount and take care of your horses and yourselves.”

“No! We keep moving.” The force is not sure what to do.

Sorbo dismounts and pulls his wife off her horse none-to-gently and takes her by the hand into the woods. Just before they disappear Sorbo turn and says, “I said dismount and take care of your horses!” Then he pulls Dakota fighting all the way into the woods. “You listen to me, princess. We may have to fight when we get there and if our forces are depleted because you won’t give them pause we will be doing Casey no good at all.”

Dakota looks like she is going to argue and then she tears up and falls into her husband’s arms. She knows he speaks the truth and he would never do anything to hurt her. She looks up at Sorbo with eyes of sorrow and nods her head.

When they are walking out of the woods Dakota addresses everybody. “I’m sorry for pushing us so hard. We will make camp here for the night along the stream.”

Sarah, the sweet-hearted five-foot-six-mark brunette with brown eyes, who is now twenty, walks over and takes Dakota in her arms. “We will find you sister, my queen. If it was not meant to be, the Seer would not have come to you.” That seems to relax Dakota even more.

The hard pushing was hard on everybody, but the horses that are pulling the wagon are the worst off. They are seen to immediately and through the whole night they are cared for. Dakota helps Sarah with them.

Once Dakota is done helping Sarah with her horses she comes over and sits before the small fire that is for cooking not heat and sits next to her husband. She leans her head on his shoulder and the next thing she knows she is waking up in his arms lying right where they had sat.

Half the camp is assembled. Not five minutes later Lender finds them and spirals down, once he finds a clearing big enough for him to do so. “What have you learned, brother?” asks Sorbo, as he and Dakota run into the clearing to him.

“We can see nothing from the sky so we have landed and have positioned ourselves throughout the region. The fairies have taken over the immediate search since they can do it without being seen, but we are ready to assist them at a moment’s notice.”

“Okay. We will be leaving here in a matter of minutes. As hard as Dakota pushed us those first three days I think we should reach the lake in another three or four days. We will link up on the northeast point of Lake Pristine called Hannah’s Point. Do you know it?”

“Yes.”

“Good, we’ll meet there.” and with that Lender thrusts his massive horned head and body into the air.

“Hannah’s Point?”

“It was one of Princess Hannah’s favorite places and after she died they named it in her honor.”

“Another full circle.”

“Another something that is for sure, my beautiful wife. You ready to get a quick bite and then hit the trail again.”

“Absolutely!”

Once they start riding along, Dakota gets a strange look on her face. “What is it, wife?”

Dakota turns to him and says, “When we went before Aden and when we saw the likeness of our families, Casey was not present in the cabin.”

Sorbo’s mind hurries back to that time and soon he realizes he missed it also. “Son of a pack mule.” As they are looking at each other, Dakota just nods.

They reach Lake Pristine on the setting of the third day. They start setting up camp. It is easy to see that Dakota is getting more anxious the closer they are getting to the area. “Ledger, I want you to choose a hundred men and have them go around the lake westward and then around until they come back here. We will establish a permanent base here. Of those one hundred warriors they will continue to run operations on the northwest side of the lake. In the morning we will move the rest of us down into position between the lake and Brennan.”

“Yes, sir.” He says saluting, and goes off to make the preparations.

“Dakota, Bolo and Braylard take care of your horses immediately and get something to eat and rest for a couple of hours because we pull out tonight.”

“What about me?” asks Sarah.

“Sorry, sweetheart, we are going to be moving with stealth and intent and having an army along or a wagon will give us away. We will move with the shadows and not stop until we find Princess Casey.”

Dakota looks up at him with eyes of love and relief. “You take care of our horses and I’ll get the four of us something ready to eat.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The smile Dakota sends Sorbo melts his heart.

They strip down their horses and take care of them first. By that time Dakota has a decent hot meal ready for them. They eat it readily enough and within two hours the horses are re-saddled and refreshed.

“If they have managed to keep Princess Casey hidden for this long that means they have done it underground, or they have made her forget who she is. I assume she looks similar to Dakota.” Dakota nods her head. “I have lost one sister this week so I am looking to gain another. We must look for the slightest out of place thing or actions. We will ride through the forest and go directly to Brennan. We will do our best to hide our true identities. We are Knights of Odin and we look to correct a long-standing tragedy.”

Dakota, Bolo and Braylard raise their heads in pride and drive, and then they disappear into the forest. They attempt to stay off any visible trails and they try to move with the best stealth they can. Not surprisingly it takes only about three hours for one of their fairies to run across them.

“Greetings, little one, is Katarina about?” asks Sorbo.

“She is in Brennan,” says the adorable girl fairy with blue see-through wings and a dress to match.