Lucivar nodded to Daemon and went around to quietly pass the word. Then he found his own spot to stand watch. The dragons even seemed to be more alert, although Xiang was napping against Lien at the moment. Sesshoumaru moved a little closer to Andy.

Nothing happened all night, even with the upped security. Belle felt kind of like an idiot at that, but Eclipse soothed her as they headed for the town.

They never quite made it to town. A big shadow fell over them while they were walking, most of the bishis away in their balls again, and a few people dropped down in a circle around them.

"Hello again, girls," the doctor said, grinning at them and pushing his glasses up his nose. "Don't get all upset, I'm just here for a quick blood sample and then you can be on your way, dears."

Belle's hands hovered over her balls, debating if she should use them or not. Various weapons pointed at the two trainers from the bishis around them, and all of them looked ready to use them. So she raised her hands slowly, her eyes narrowed furiously.

Andy's hand immediately went to her belt as well as they were surrounded. Why couldn't this yahoo just leave them alone? Her hand slowly moved away from her belt, though. She didn't want to give the scientist a reason to try to go after Xiang or anything.

The scientist grinned and moved forward with two needles. He went to Belle first, taking blood from her easily, and she stayed silent through the process. Then he moved on to Andy, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

Andy shrank back a bit when he came at her with the needle. She couldn't help it, needles terrified her. She bit her lip.

The scientist raised an eyebrow at her. "Really, dear, we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

One of his bishis came up behind Andy, ready to grab her and restrain her if he had to. He didn't look very happy.

Andy still ended up taking one last step backwards, and jumped when she bumped into the bishies behind her. She didn't like the idea of being stuck with a needle.

The bishi grabbed her, twisting one arm behind her back and holding her still while he held out her other arm to the scientist. He took the blood he needed quickly, pressing a cotton ball to the place when he was done.

"There. That wasn't so bad now was it?" He smiled benevolently.

Belle wanted to punch him out again. But she refrained, instead going over to Andy.

Andy winced when her arm was twisted behind her back. She was definitely going to have some bruises from that. She made it a point not to look as the scientist took the blood.

"I hope you crawl under a rock and die," she said to him.

The scientist chuckled pleasantly, as if she'd just told him a joke, but didn't reply. Instead, he grinned at them both.

"Until next time, dear girls." And then he was gone, with his bishis, back into the floating house and zooming away.

Belle glared after him before she turned to Andy. "You okay?"

Andy rolled her shoulder a bit and rubbed her wrist. There were red splotches on her skin from where her arm had been grabbed and twisted.

"I'll be fine," she said. "Couple of bruises, that's all."

Belle's eyes narrowed dangerously but she nodded. "Come on. Now might be a good time to hitch a ride on Temeraire." She glared after the floating house, already thinking of good ways to get revenge.

Andy nodded.

"Yeah, alright," she agreed. Reaching for Temeraire's ball, she let the dragon out. Temeraire shook himself out, and looked down at the two trainers curiously.

"Temmy, we need you to give us a ride," Andy said. Temeraire nodded and held out a claw to the trainers. He didn't ask why.

Belle climbed up and hovered closer to Andy than normal. She was protective of her friends, and she was still resisting the urge to go after the scientist and do something nasty and violent.

"How about we head for the ocean, like we'd planned?"

"I like that plan," Andy said, nodding. She kicked at one of Temeraire's scales, so he would feel it. "Head towards the coast, Temmy!"

"Alright," Temeraire replied. Spreading his wings, he took off.

Belle settled in for the ride, grateful that her two fire lizards had popped away between as soon as the scientest had shown up. They'd show up again soon, she figured, as soon as they weren't quite so freaked out.

Andy hadn't been paying attention to the fire lizards, and she knew that Xiang was in his ball for the moment. He wasn't a strong flyer yet, she wasn't even entirely sure he could fly yet, but that would be something to work on once they were out on the coast again. Then the dragons could fly and swim and fish all they liked.

Belle stayed quiet through the trip, just relaxing, or trying to, and not thinking. She even got out her iPod so she could blast loud music and not have to think.

Whatever worked.

Andy made herself comfortable on Temmy's back, letting his steady, rhythmic wingbeats relax her a bit. Taking out her gear, she opened the e-reader app and checked for new releases from her favorite authors. Finding one, she settled in to read for a while, until they landed.

The fire lizards came back part-way through the flight, settling against her and staying curled there until they landed.

Then they couldn't wait to get off and go explore. The gold even tried her hand at fishing for the smaller fish that got close to the shore. Belle rolled her eyes as she slid down to the ground.

Andy barely glanced up from her reading when Temeraire landed. She only stopped reading long enough to slide down to the ground and release the rest of her group. Then she got comfortable again and kept reading.

Belle released the rest of hers as well and slipped into Eclipse's room to change. She'd already asked Thomas if the water was warm, and he, in turn, had shoved Sebastian in, listened to the swearing, and said yes.

So Belle was going to go swimming.

Both adult dragons waded into the water on their own. Xiang looked a bit hesitant.

"It is very pleasant," Temeraire commented. Xiang hesitated for another moment or so before following everyone into the water. He stayed in the shallows, though.

"Are you coming, Andy?" Belle called, having waded out to where her feet couldn't touch the bottom. Sebastian had gone with, since he was already soaked, and had dragged Teaser in with him. The two incubi were currently starting a splash war off to the side, and neither of them noticed Thomas sneaking up behind them.

The two fire lizards, on the other hand, stayed near Xiang, since they'd never been swimming before and didn't really want to try.

"'M reading," Andy replied distractedly. She didn't notice Lucivar coming up behind her until he pulled her gear out of her hand. She yelped and reached for it. "Hey, wait, give that back, I wasn't done!"

"Too bad," Lucivar replied. "You'll get it back later."

Andy opened her mouth to protest, but Tia Dalma came over and handed Andy her bathing suit from where she'd grabbed it out of her trainer's bag. Andy sighed. Clearly, there was no point in arguing, so she went to go change.