Shoto recovered after a few hours of careful care, and the others rested, but then dawn broke and it was time to keep moving. This was when they finally asked Ei about his wings and horns, which had vanished again some time ago. Ei sheepishly explained "I'm... kind of a dragon."
Denki laughed. "That's a good one."
But Ei looked serious.
"Wait, in actuality?" Denki said. "But, you're human..." "The Ancient Ones" Momo spoke, sounding awed. "Dragons that could put on human form, is that what you are?"
"Yeah," Ei said. "Who knows, I might be one of the last. I got separated from my family a long time ago, I was on my own until Bakugo found me. He kind of... adopted me I guess."
"You're my servant!" Bakugo growled.

"Yeah, he'd never admit he felt sorry for me," Ei hissed to them, "but I think he kind of did, I mean, I was pretty pathetic looking when he found me. Just a big dragon without a horde and a home. I didn't figure out how to take on human form till after I'd hung around him for a while then it kind of clicked... you should've seen his face when I finally pulled it off, like he saw a ghost."
"I can't picture Bakugo doing anything out of the kindness of his heart," Kyoka said. "He uses you to help him fight, right?"
"Of course, I mean, I really need to fight too, sharpen my skills, you know. So, I don't mind. It's fun."
"Don't dragons eat people?" Denki said. Ei looked insulted. "Not usually, they just imprison them for trying to take their stuff. Knights come and attack us, that's all."
"But you terrorize villages," Denki protested.
Kyoka kicked him. "Shut up."
"I guess some do, but not all dragons are mean, not all humans are mean either," Ei said.
"And not all humans are idiots," Kyoka added, "just the bards usually."
"Hey," Denki frowned.
"I think it's really cool that you're a dragon," Deku said. "And you can fly."
"Yeah, but hey, this is kind of a secret, otherwise people might try to slay me." Ei said.                                                                                                             "Did someone say slay?" A familiar voice said. Everyone jumped and looked around, then most of them sighed. Camie was leaning on a rock outcropping along the pass they were plodding through at that moment. "You guys were faster than I thought, it's like you ran all night or something, you're right on the edge."
"We are?" Deku ran ahead to the other side, then stopped short. At the end of the pass, down the slope, the ground changed color, it began to run dry, and dusty, and dark, but not the healthy dark of good soil, more like a dark stain on the land. Trees looked withered, there was no sign of birds or other small animals, and that stretched on for miles as far as the eye could see. "Whoa..." Deku muttered. "Yikes," Ochaco had followed him.

"Hey, why didn't the wolves attack you?" Denki demanded of Camie.
"What wolves? I don't know, concealment magic probably," Camie waved dismissively. "Where'd you get the little one with a staff?"
"That's the new mage," Bakugo said. "She's a cursed lightweight, but I guess she's not totally useless like Deku." "Oh?" Camie narrowed her eyes at Ochaco. "Wait, are you cheating on me?"
She grabbed Bakugo by the ear.
"How can he cheat on you when you rejected him?" Denki asked.
"Excuse me?" Camie gave him a scary look. "Nevermind," he looked away.
"Don't bother trying to figure her out," Kyoka rubbed her eyes wearily. "Just don't look her in the eye if you're not ready to challenge her."
"Ow, that hurt you witch!" Bakugo yanked himself away. "If you want to fight, do it fair and square so I can crush you."
"Yeah, that's not really my aesthetic, is it?" Camie said. "That does it, clearly I can't trust you to go off alone on these quests with that stupid dragon as your guide."
"The he-- you think you can do about it?!" Bakugo cried. "You don't tell me what to do! You chit of a bandit!"
"If she convinces him to leave our party, I'll never say a bad word about her again," Kyoka commented to no one in particular. Momo winced, "Now, I'm sure Bakugo could be helpful to us, and we aren't in any position to turn down assistance..."
"He's a liability, I say let her talk him out of it," Shoto said darkly.
"Do about it?!" Camie held up a fist. "I'll tell you what I can do about it! I'm coming with you!"
Everyone froze, somehow, no one had seen that one coming. Though it was completely obvious.
"Wait, what?" Kyoka sputtered.
"Who said you could join us?" Bakugo suddenly seemed to have forgotten that he himself had intended to take the map and all this time. "This quest is for serious people with something to contribute! What do you bring to the table other than being obnoxious?"
"Uh, I think after besting nearly all of you, I'm a pretty substantial threat," Camie said.
"You bested two of us, and one of them was Deku." Shoto stated.
"The Other one was you, though," Ei said.
Shoto glared at him. Camie didn't pay any heed to this. "Plus, I'm not afraid of you and your bull," She pointed at Bakugo. "And I can do whatever I want, so if I say I'm coming, I'm coming. That's all there is to it." "Because you think he might like a different girl?" Denki was having a terrible time following her logic... or lack thereof.
"Well that, and, if he dies or something, and I miss it, that would be kind of disappointing after 10 years of hashing this out," Camie waved her hand dismissively. "So, I might as well come."                                                                                          "So you can kill him yourself?" Kyoka said. "Sure," Camie hefted a wand-looking object. "Anyone have a problem with that?"
"Ye--" began Shoto. Momo interrupted:
"Camie, I'm not sure you understand. We're going into the Dark Lands, there's a substantial chance we might never come back, we're all putting our lives, and possibly our sanity on the line, for reasons of our own. You don't have to do that. If it will put your mind at ease, I promise to keep an eye on Bakugo for you, if he still decides to come."
"What, you think I'm scared?!" Bakugo cried. "I eat danger for breakfast! And I'm starving! I don't need you to keep and eye on me, mind you own d--- business, Princess!"
"Why do you never call me 'Princess'?" Camie asked.
"Is that really important right now?" Ei wondered to the air.
"Anyways, Momo, what kind of irresponsible ruler do you think I am?" Camie said, straightening. "You really think I'm going to leave you to deal with my problem?" "The problem of keeping an eye on King Bakugo..." Poor Denki rubbed his head.
"Of course," Camie said. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." She glanced at Ochaco suspiciously. "I'm coming and that's final."

"But, the danger--" Kyoka began. "Who cares, You Only Live Once, right?" Camie said.
"You only die once too,'' Denki said.
"That's not true, haven't you ever heard of the Undead?" Camie retorted.
"That's a myth..." Kyoka said. "Is it?" Camie raised an eyebrow. No one said anything more for a second. "I..." Momo said helplessly, "I... don't think we can stop her."
"Surely, we can, please," Shoto begged.

"Oh relax, dreamboat," Camie said. "I'm not worried about you, you look like a guy who can control himself."
That statement did nothing to change his mind.
"No, surely we can vote about this." But here he ran into an unexpected obstacle. Deku was at least willing to let Camie come.
"She's got a lot of power, she could be useful, even if you don't get along perfectly, I mean, not all of us do."
"But Bakugo wasn't even a member of the party," Shoto protested.
"You think I'm not good enough to be here!" Bakugo seemed to have changed his whole perspective in less than five minutes. "Screw you, Half N' Half."
"And they could take the map at any time if they are here together, she did before," Shoto said. "How do we know that's not their secret scheme? Maybe this was all planned out beforehand.'
"That would be so wild," Camie said approvingly. "I totally should've thought of that."
Shoto slapped his forehead. "You can't all be okay with this!"
"She can follow us even if we say no," Momo pointed out. "I'd rather have her where I can see her."
That was, unfortunately, a good point. Shoto sighed. "Just don't bother us then." "Oh, I won't," Camie held up her hand like she was swearing an oath.

"Do you think," Denki asked Kyoka aside, "That Bakugo changed his mind just to get Camie to pay more attention to him?"
Kyoka shook her head. "I'd easier believe that Camie changed his mind on purpose just for the fun of it, she seems like a simpleton, but I've never once outsmarted her... isn't that frightening? She wins every game of wits. It's like she knows exactly how to throw someone off. Maybe she was planning to join us the whole time, maybe she really thinks Ochaco is a threat, it doesn't matter. Momo's right, we can't make her leave, and even if we could, she'd just follow us-- she's also stubborn."
"Never..." Denki looked askance. "How many times have you fought her exactly?"
"Well, we have yearly gatherings to renew our tribal bond," Kyoka reflected. "And then, on hunting trips we ran into each other a few times, we usually had at least one duel. Momo's the only one who's ever beaten her. I can't. She can make sound illusions too, completely throws me off."
"That's kind of cool though, meeting for stuff like that." Denki said. "I wish my family did that."
"What, men don't do that?" Kyoka said archly. Denki looked down. "Oh, some do... just not my family." Uncomfortable pause.
"Oh..." Kyoka said awkwardly.
"Though, at least that way, I'm not missing anything by being on the road." Denki shrugged it off. "I bet no one's even noticed I'm gone." "That doesn't sound nice," Kyoka stated.
"Oh, it's all you can expect, when people have 10 kids, what's one more or less?" Denki said.
"10!" Kyoka almost choked. "Good round number," Denki didn't seem to see a problem with this. "Could be more by now..."

Once it was settled about Camie, they paused long enough to eat a hasty meal, before venturing further down to the very edge of the land.
"I guess this is it," Deku said nervously. Kyoka grabbed Momo's arm. Momo didn't look much braver at the moment.
"Maybe it's not as bad as it looks," Denki offered. Tibult brayed. "Yeah, I don't believe me either." He admitted.