The situation presented an impossible opportunity.

Breaker had not become the most feared fighter on Althanas by failing to act in such scenarios.

Y'edda leapt off the cliff, and almost like one body, Breaker leapt with her. He left the rocky ground so swiftly that the trickster’s enchanted sandals stayed behind. Josh did not care. His arms and legs cinched around the massive bird of prey as she spread her wings.

The raptor-Goddess let out a fearsome shriek that threatened to shatter his eardrums, but Breaker clung on in determination.

They plummeted downward. Rusty-hued grass raced up to meet them, as deadly and unforgiving as the earth in the realm of mortals.

Y’edda spread her wings and caught a thermal. She shrieked again beneath the strain of Breaker’s weight, but her mighty wings sent them both soaring out over the strangely colored lands.

Rather than threaten to tear him from his perch, the strange slipstream compressed Josh against the Goddess. They flew like one great winged beast until she arced downward into a copse of fir trees with silver branches and golden needles.

“Release me you disrespectful mortal!” Y’edda screamed as her lips reformed, morphing back into a cloaked woman.

Breaker did as she had bidden, meeting the goddess’ glare with a smile.

“I have sat astride the finest horses, a griffin, a dragon, and a ter’ak,” he commented, “but I must say that you make the finest--”

“Call me a steed,” she warned, stepping closer, “and I’ll have Hromagh hold you down while I cut the tongue from your mouth.”

Josh stroked his chin. “It is strange,” he mused, “that you Thaynes are visiting me only one at a time.”

“Is that what you think we’ve been doing?” Hromagh boomed from behind him.