The dragons have searched by air, whilst Volterra has searched by ground; as red and gold soar through Helovia and hunt for the faintest sign of a skull-faced child, their bonded has the less enviable task of searching the undergrowth and caves beneath them for her. He does not think she will be dead - because no child of his loins could possibly submit to death so easily - but he knows he has to find out, so at least Kid can have the closure of her body to mourn.

But thus far their three-pronged hunt has been completely fruitless. Volterra knows that, chances are, Sabra has left Helovia completely, and as he promised Kid, he will send the dragons across the border to hunt for her in the wilderness. He keeps putting off the day that he will do that, because his stomach holds a deep pit of unease about what lurks outside the comfort-zone of Helovian territory. What if the dragons inform him that things are so much better out in the wilderness? What if temptation leads him to abandon all he knows, and he turns into a roving vagabond like his father before him?

But he can put it off no longer. They have looked for Sabre for months without finding a single sign of her, and the longer he waits the more chance there is of something unmentionable happening to her. So he moves towards the Threshold at a steady canter, mane and tail streaming behind him and dragons glimmering like gemstones in his wake, his skull-marked face set int a stony mask of determination. He will find her. His firstborn daughter will return home.

There's a voice, and a flock of birds erupt from the trees. With joyous screams, his dragons dive after the flying prey, and the air is filled with the cacophony of terrified avians and delighted dragons. The behemoth allows his consciousness to drift into the minds of his companions and he watches through them as they hunt down the fleeing birds.

And there, out of the corner of one draconic eye, in a gap between the trees, he sees a blur of black, white and red.

Could it be? Immediately the leviathan's path alters and he trots towards the stranger, heart beating, eyes desperately hunting for confirmation....He sees a filly, a yearling, his heartbeat racing further as he works out the dates and realises that yes, this could be her. He can't help running his approving gaze over her, noting that she's larger than her twin brother, that she has the delightful face marking of Volterra's mother, along with a red splash that looks beautifully like blood; that she's sturdy, well-built, powerful. It's her. His daughter.

He moves closer, suddenly full of trepidation; how does one go about approaching their long-lost child? What if she holds as much hate for him as Kid does? But, he reasons, if that's the case, then he'll just have to deal with it. "Sabre? Are you Sabre?" His voice is a beacon of power over the shrieks of the hunted birds, and his body language is neutral and nonethreatening as he steps closer to his child.