With fuel being a commodity to be hoarded, and food becoming increasingly available, we were assigned to our new dragon friend. He gathered us up and launched powerfully into the air. "I can't thank you all enough," he said as he soared through the air. "They gave me a whole warehouse to myself, and I've already made some friends. It feels silly, but being helpful is a lot more satisfying than just bossing people around when I wanted something. God, listen to me. I sound like I'm fresh out of some kid's show."

Sandra softly pet the part of the dragon she can reach. "Hey, we're never too old to learn things. You're alright in my book."

"Thanks, uh, and sorry about the whole, you know, asking to kill you thing."

Sandra frowned a little. "Well... at least you didn't actually do it."

"Sorry. I did find a girl though!"

Dusk tilted his head, looking over the massive bulk of the dragon. "Who on earth is that?"

"They, there's three of them, together. They're a huge hydra that lives in the ground as often as not, and she likes me. I won't, uh, bore you with the details, but we're getting along, if you know what I mean."

Cindy burst into a fit of giggles even as her thoughts pushed into my own, ~It's good that they found each other. Biological courtship is fascinating. The idea that new life can come from life is amazing! You can create life. You have no idea how... It's just so hard to grasp.~

I thought back at her curiously, ~You said you just... kinda came into being?~

~Yes. The conditions were right, and so I and a dozen others simply appeared. It's very rare, but it happens on its own. We don't 'make' children like you do. That's... part of why I was ready to split from you, if it meant we could do the courtship ritual and make a life, together...~

I felt a blush rise in my furry cheeks. "I seem to be a popular person for having kids with."

Sandra tilted her head up at me. "What?"

I hadn't realized I spoke outloud. "Oh, sorry, just thinking to myself and it leaked."

Dusk squirmed a little. "I'll stop asking if it bothers you that much, William. I didn't mean to bother you."

I softly scratched Dusk behind an ear. "You're not bothering anyone, me least of all. Thanks for being there."

We were set down in southern Arizona and he saluted lightly. "Last stop. Good luck out there. Let me know when you get back, alright?" We all waved as he took off and left. For being a huge dragon, he was amazingly fast once he got going.

Dusk waved across the desert they were surrounded with. "Well, here we are! We just go the opposite direction he went in and we should hit Mexico, right?"

Sandra nodded. "That sounds right. The sun's low, so now's the right time for desert hiking, last I remember?"

With little option but forward, we began hiking. Sandra asked as we went, "Don't you think we should practice the teleporting a bit, short range preferably. Remember what happened with Crystal when she tried to do a long distance jump? She sent you flying off to who knows where."

Dusk tilted his head. "I wasn't there for that, but we don't want that. Should I try first?"

Sandra moved in close to him. "Sure, just a few feet ahead. It should be easier with me than Will and Cindy, considering how big they are."

Cindy flashed a cheeky grin. "Did you just call us fat?"

Sandra turned up her nose. "I just said there's a lot of you to love, right Will?"

I held up a hand. "Oh sure, drag me into this now."

Dusk's horn glowed, and he and Sandra vanished, only to reappear further ahead, though Sandra was off to the right by a large degree. She rushed up to Dusk. "See, that's what I meant. We can't be doing that if we're trying to move farther than a few feet, or I could end up in the middle of the ocean or something. What did Crystal say she did to fix it?"

I thought back through hazy recollections. "I think she said something about wrapping her passengers up, like putting a shield around them just before she jumped."

Dusk bobbed his head and looked eager. "I'll try that." A faintly visible bubble appeared around him and Sandra. "Ready?"

Sandra nodded and they promptly vanished with the complex eddy of the magic involved. They appeared just as close to one another that time, and Sandra rewarded him with an eager hug. "Great job!" She trotted up to me. "Your turn. Everyone that can do magic should have this down. Our lives could depend on it."

Dusk rubbed behind his head. "I have to confess something. I don't know how to teleport out of line of sight."

It seemed so obvious to me. Once I figured out how to teleport at all, making subtle adjustments to the basics seemed plain and simple. But that fit the pattern given so far. "Alright, so you can only do exactly what Crystal demonstrated?" He nodded at me. "So let's make sure we have line of sight working, then we can work on more and get ourselves closer to the border."

I wrapped magic around Sandra, covering us both in a bubble of force before I launched us forward into that other space. For just an instant I could see endless space, and then we were further ahead.

Cindy pointed with a finger at the space that wasn't there anymore. "That was it! That was home. Did you see it?"

I nodded while Sandra shook her head. Sandra pointed at herself. "I just saw white."

Dusk quickly caught up with us, smiling. "You did great! How are you going to show the other one? Where could you teleport to?"

I frowned, thinking of teleporting underground, or back to base, and both seemed like bad ideas. Then it struck me. "Oh, I'll just teleport backwards."

"Backwards?" Dusk tilted his head.

I hiked a thumb over my shoulder. "Literally. I can't see it."

Dusk clopped his hooves. "Great idea! I'm watching."

Wanting to keep our progress going forward, I turned around so my back faced Mexico, and wrapped them both in a bubble before I dived into the space between spaces. Without a clear destination in mind, I was suddenly adrift in what I assumed was Cindy's world. To call it a 'world' seemed a poor fit. It was a universe with no planets in sight, just empty void and bands of bright light in different colors depending on where you looked.

I willed myself backwards, and came crashing back into the physical world. I didn't recognize the land around us at all, but we were all together at least.

Author's Notes:

Where did Will take them all? Are there typos in this new land? Probably.