Jacobina liked horses. But there were other animals she liked too. She liked everything in between that you could use to travel from one place to another. Maybe it was her node's fault, maybe she had gotten a little too much from her mother, or maybe she was just weird, she didn't know.

But what she did know was that animals loved her too.

At least the birds did. Sadly she couldn't use them as a mount. That was just impossible unless she managed to shrink herself. She was small, but not small enough to sit on a bird. Her sister always liked to tell her that because of her size she could probably use a wolf or a bigger dog as a mount. That was probably true, but Jacobina didn't like dogs and wolves. They were really scary and hairy.

Luckily, her father's dogs hadn't wanted to talk to her yet. But the birds had talked to her. That had been an eye-opening experience. They had told her many things about dragons and other large animals, many she had never heard of.

Sadly, what they had told her had been frightening. They had told her that most of the larger animals were quite territorial and that they killed anything that entered their territory. But scary things could not hold her back. Her mother had always told her that one should fight what one feared.

The birds had been afraid when she had told them she was going to visit a dragon regardless of the danger. They had told her that she was stupid and naïve. Some of the birds had even sworn that they would tell her father if she ever left the house without his permission.

Stupid birds. Her father couldn't understand them.

But the birds were not only stupid, they were also small and weak. Jacobina firmly believed that she could take down a dragon. Some help was needed, yes, she was only a child. But Selena or one of her many brothers would surely help her. They liked her, especially her sister. Besides, Jonathan would probably instruct his entire order of knights to help her if he wanted to. He was a nice brother. He was a bit strange upstairs, but still he had always been friendly and helpful.

Jacobina smiled and noticed a carriage coming through the gate. The carriage looked beautiful, but that was not what had caught her interest. Even the knights, who were well respected by the guards, had not managed to arouse her interest.

What she did find interesting were their horses. Their fur looked so soft and they were strong enough to carry a knight in full armour. They were amazing animals and unlike dogs, they were not scary and also not too hairy.

The guards tried their best to calm the commotion, but it wasn't that often that strange knights on warhorses entered the city.

"Something important is happening," she thought. Jacobina knew that an important guest had arrived weeks prior. But she had never seen the guest. He was still hiding on the fourth floor of her father's mansion. Jacobina wondered why. From what she had heard, the guest was really very important. Her father had also told her that the guest was his friend and very busy. She didn't know why he would be busy. She had never seen him work.

Maybe mages only worked in their rooms? Her father didn't, but he wasn't a real mage either, he had only been the apprentice of a former court mage.

After the commotion at the gate had calmed down, she slowly tried to sneak up to one of the horses and pet it. A small step, then another followed until she was only five metres away from the dark beauty.

"Young lady," one of the knights roared, "what are you doing? You are frightening the horses. They are afraid of you."

Jacobina stopped. She stood frozen, staring at the knight. Jacobina couldn't see his face, but it sounded like he was worried.

"Please leave them alone for your own safety," the knight added, "they are beautiful but they are not pets."

Her skin turned from the soft white metal, her natural state, to blue crystal.

"Wow," she thought, "it's happened again. Why?"

Jacobina took a deep breath and quickly ran away. Why had her grand plan failed? And why was her skin scared again? She was not afraid. The knight was weaker than her older sister by far. She sighed loudly and entered a small alley. The smell was quite disgusting, but she could ignore that. A few turns later, she arrived near the abandoned estate of a former merchant. The man was sadly gone, but Jacobina loved to visit the garden.

She stopped, something was lying in the grass. That hadn't been the case days ago. It was a black emerald. Jacobina looked at it and slowly approached it. It seemed harmless ... or so she thought. She was no expert when it came to magic or minerals or anything else. Jacobina was only an expert when it came to tea parties with her bird friends and toy friends.

Jacobina picked up the black emerald. It looked beautiful, almost like it was some kind of lost treasure. She closed her eyes and tried to see the composition of the emerald. She found out that the emerald was no emerald but instead a piece of metal.

It seemed interesting, she would ask her sister what the object really was. Selena was by far better when it came to minerals than Jacobina. Her sister was a knight, but also a geomancer. She was something of an expert when it came to using dirt and stone to kill things. Jacobina put the emerald in her deep pocket and stood up. Unfortunately, she had been too absorbed in analysing the stone and so had not noticed the old man who had appeared next to her.

He stared at her and seemed deeply annoyed. He sighed and bared a row of sharp teeth that looked as if they could tear through the hardest kind of skin. He whispered, "Lady Aschen, your father is looking for you."

Jacobina was startled. That had been very scary indeed. Fortunately, her skin had not changed. But why? She didn't know. Slowly she turned around, she knew the man's voice. He was one of the guest's servants, "Y....you have mistaken me. I am not Jacobina. My name is..."

She looked around and found a sign, it read "Frederika's Gems".

"Frederika," she stated with as much conviction as possible.

The old man laughed and said, "I didn't know the margrave's daughter had a twin. What a surprise."

She tilted her head, wondering what he was trying to say. Was her lie perhaps not convincing enough? Maybe that was one reason why her mother always seemed to know what she was doing ....

The old man added, "Excuse me, but it seems that my attempt to entertain you has failed. Yet please come with me. Your father is very worried."

He held out a hand to her and she took it reluctantly.

"Would you like me to carry you?" the old man asked suddenly, grinning.

"I can walk ..." she wanted to finish her sentence with a "myself", but the man was already thirty metres above the ground. Red leathery wings had sprouted from his back and he was gliding through the air.

She cast a cautious glance at the ground before asking, "Are you a dragon?"

"I am a Dragen," the man said, flapping his wings, "but ... my lord knows a dragon. Not my ancestor, mind you."

"Your lord?" Jacobina asked before she realised something important. And it wasn't that she was at least fifty metres above the ground right now. No, she was being carried through the sky by a Dragen, a descendant of a real dragon, in broad daylight.

It was the Season of Harvest. The sun, however, was still quite bright and warm enough that she did not need to wear thick clothing for the cold season. But somehow no one noticed her. Were they all blind? Or was this a really advanced spell?

"Are we invisible?" she therefore asked. One of her brothers was able to do something similar, merging with the surrounding shadows. But there were no shadows in the air....

The Dragen grumbled something before saying, "No, I'm just messing with their perception. Humans and most other races can only see a few different colours. Some animals might see us, but I doubt that there's a bee, a dog or any other animal up here."

Jacobina didn't understand a word of what he had said. She tilted her head in confusion before asking why he was here. The old man simply explained that her father was looking for her.

Those damned birds had betrayed her? There was no other way for him to find out that she was not in her room, she had locked the door.

Was it perhaps not good to lie to her father? Mom didn't seem to mind if she lied. She just told her to be home when they had dinner or when she had to study. Eating and studying were activities she really didn't like. They wasted so much time, time she could use more wisely.

Maybe she should have also told her father that she had left home to pet an animal. But he had been busy taking care of the guest and had ignored her. It was his fault, not hers ...

"A big fool," she thought and pouted. Why was her father so protective? She was strong enough to protect herself.

Jacobina grumbled and looked at the city below her before wondering why a Dragen was serving anyone. Their kind was not known for serving anyone.

She had a feeling that the next few years were going to be quite interesting. She was looking forward to petting the horses, and maybe the dragon the Dragen had spoken of.

But more importantly, she had heard that the new guests were not nobles, but commoners. She couldn't care less about that. Commoners? So what? But a little girl almost her age was going to be the daughter of a new servant. Maybe they could become friends? People were strangely afraid of her skin, but maybe this one wasn't.

"I can hope, can't I?" she thought, closing her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of someone she didn't know.