His eyes lit up, clearly excited about the adventure, Maria would know.

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Thank you."

"No problem?"

They walked on for a couple hours, fairly directionless. Maria would glance into her shirt pocket every once in awhile, stopping only when she saw that her dragon friend was fast asleep.

"So, got something interesting in there, or do you just REALLY love pockets?" The guard asked out of the blue.

"What? Oh, it's just a teacup dragon that was handed to me. Apparently he likes travel, and I do too, so I'm taking him along with me."

"Ah, cool."

"Mhm."

They continued in silence for a few minutes or so, but to Maria's annoyance the guard began to talk again.

"So…Do you know where we're headed or are we just wandering this path until we get to a town or city?"

"…I have a.. Vague idea of where we're headed. Just don't know if it's the same place as before."

"Ah, I see. Well, inform me, what is this mystical land like? Why are we going there?"

"It's the town of Dalyn, it's a fairly quiet place. Nice people. However, it's also where Keith liked to hang out and sell his creations.. Believe it or not, he made the first few phones.. He had a lot of potential."

There was a beat of silence.

"Had..?" the guard's voice was inquisitive, he said the word slow, it reminded Maria of what she was like as a child.. Only the guard is a grown man, but she ignored that in her comparison.

"I don't know why, but for some reason Keith decided he didn't want to build things to help people anymore. He wanted complete control over everything, and is trying to take over using his machines. But first I think he wants to destroy my dad's life work, which was to assist in building certain cities and getting supplies for them.."

"Huh..Why would he want to do a thing like that?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. But first, we need to find him."

"Hm, makes sense.. For the sake of curiosity, what where you doing around here in the first place?"

"I was at my home town on a visit, and was going to go back to where I live now when I met a man who told me about the fire. I guessed it was Keith because that city? My dad's life work went into that. And now it's just.. It's gone.." Maria's voice began to tremble, her father's work…Destroyed? Not all of it, but a significant part of it. But if she didn't stop Keith soon, all of it would be gone. All of her dad's effort would be wasted.

She wasn't going to let that happen, not again.

Writer's notes: 

Oh boy, this was a longer one! Hopefully it makes up for me being gone for so long, haha.