We flew for hours. We needed to get to Izenflow soon. With virtually no supplies, no food, and being thoroughly exhausted, we needed help. Underneath us, hundreds of trees, dozens of rivers, and the occasional forest family cabin laid out before us. Soon, I could see Izenflow. Chestnut landed about a mile off, and folded in her wings. Though she loved to fly, pegasi were illegal in this part of Marlon. We would have to go in on foot.
    Twenty klicks later we arrived at the gates. They were wide open to the main street of Izenflow. The average town of the DRW. Small and happy. I was very out of place with me and dark cloak. And having a horse was rare. The second most rare creature to own. Besides a dragon of course. I walked boldly into town, with everyone's eyes on me. Izenflow was a small secluded town in the middle of a mountain range. Strangers were few and unusual. I left the main street and ducked to the left. I wasn't used to so much attention. Besides, I needed to find my friend.
    She lived in a small hut on the left side of town, one of her walls being one of the large stone walls protecting her house. She was the only reason I came to Izenflow. I spotted her house and led Chestnut to the side of the house and tied her reins to a nearby post. It pained me to do it, but I needed to make her look as normal of a horse as possible. Finished, I threw open the door to her house. She was sitting at the table, with many types of illegal objects. She jumped when her door slammed with a loud CRASH. She looked up quickly with a deadly look on her face as she pulled out a bow. When she saw who it was, she relaxed and a smile grew on her face.
    "Sara." I said with a nod
    "Natalie" She said nodding back.

Now, I knew that Sara was not the most trustworthy of all characters, but she was one of my few friends and had good, cheap goods.  She was the one who had sold me the illegal pegasus.  I heard a knock on the door.  "OPEN UP FOR THE DARK RIDERS!" A gruff voice commanded.  Sara quickly shoved me into a dark cranny of her shop and hid...
As the dark riders shoved their way in, I heard yells and sickening thudding noises.  After that, screeching , flapping, ripping, and crunching.  hen, sickening silence.  Blood leaked under the closet door as I opened it.  I could barely recognize the used-to-be dark riders.  Sara crouched calmly amid the mess in her griffin form, uninjured and unfazed.  She was looking for valuables such as arrows and swords amid the gore, and came up with a few knives and bows.  As she searched, she asked me why I had come.


Crouched among the weapons, she turned back into her human form. She was actually quite beautiful, for only being 12 years old. She had stunning black hair, and a pale complexion. But not enough to look sickly. She was a master assassin and was also the top seller in the black market at Neplun crater.
    "I need information." I replied confidently. The confidence was hard to show, Sara was actually very intimidating.
    "Oh really?" She said in her trademark mocking voice."So what have you found this time? A hidden cave of rare squinkett? An ancient key to a lost underground city? A healing crystal?"   
    "Ya. A healing crystal."
    "Really?" she said surprised "I didn't think I would actually guess right" she muttered. "Well what's so confusing about a silly crystal. I'm sure that you've tried one by now. Do you really need to know more than what it does."
    "I don't have questions about the crystal.I'm wondering about the griffin that tried to destroy it." Sara whirled around, looking at me with a crazed look on her face.
    "What griffin?", She asked forcefully. When I didn't answer right away, she rushed toward me and pushed me to the wall, grabbing my tunic.
    "What GRIFFIN?" she yelled as well as she could through gritted teeth. I tried not to look scared.
    "It was near the Hungral forest. I was being chased by a pack of ulgers and it saved Chestnut and I. It, it had green feathers and a black beak." I felt Sara relax. She let go of me and went back to her pile of weapons. She grabbed something and turned back towards me.
    "I've been working on something special." she began "It's called a trudder. Hans has been helping me, but besides him no one knows. It's very important so don't break it." She shoved the weapon at me went to the table. I looked down at the lightweight hunk of wood. It was in the standard shape of a cross-bow, but with one difference. In the place where the string would be, there were two pointy pieces of metal sticking out.
    "Pull the trigger when you get outside the town. Be sure to aim it at a river. It'll cause the least damage. I'm leaving, so if you need help, find Charlotte Goldfire. She'll most likely be in the Gren Top area. And Natalie" she said turning back toward me "Good luck." Then, she picked up the bag she had been packing and walked right out the door.
    An hour later, I was outside Izenflow.I had scoured her house and helped myself to Sara's extra food. Hey, I was desperate. Besides, it sounded like she wouldn't be here for a while. Anyway, I was following Sara's instructions and went to the nearest river.  I found a small stream in the forest. I pointed the trudder at the water, and pulled the trigger. I saw a ball of yellow light form, and all I saw was a huge explosion of water.

  I was awed and amazed.  I had never seen something so clever, powerful, and amazing.  I looked up at the sky and thought that I'd seen a faint flash of golden wings.  Chestnut extended her wings and whinnied in joy.  She was  happy to finally be able to use her wings again.  I carefully tucked the food and trudder into my pack.  I looked up once again just in time to see the griffin land on a branch right above me. It happened too fast for me to react.  The griffin leaped on top of me and pinned me down with razor sharp talons.  One of the talons pierced my forearm.  I felt cold liquid inject into me and it all went black.  When I awoke, my pack was missing.  Sara was besides me, taking the food that I'd stolen from her and stuffing it into her pack.  She had decided to join me.

"I leave you alone for 1 HOUR and you get attacked." She said "What are you going to do all the way Janiper city?"
    "What?" I said woozily. Sara rushed up to me.
    "We're going to Janiper city." This was news. My parents had raised me on the road, avoiding the cities. Now we were going to the capital of the largest province! I had never been in a town larger than Izenflow, and even that made me feel squirmish.
    "We're, what?" I said in shock
    "Ugh" Sara sighed "I'm not repeating myself. Now, let's get a few things straight.One, we avoid the major roads. We don't want to run into any riders. Two, you do as I say, and you don't complain. Three, when we get to Janiper, you are not to do anything to bring any type of attention to yourself. Got it?" I nodded my head obediently.
    "Good, now let's go"
    The next few hours were in silence. We let Chestnut fly above us in the trees, though we wouldn't allow her above the treetops where anything in the air could see her. We walked on a small trail in the forest, heading west. Even though it was afternoon, almost no light shone through the thick overhang. The strange lights created shadows. We didn't know if it was an Ulger, a rabbit, or just a strange tree branch, but we were wary and stayed in the light.
    That night, we made camp in a large tree. We found a wide sturdy branch that was wide enough for us to lay out our sleeping bags, and for Chestnut to sleep comfortably. Our fire was contained by a large ring of fire proof leaves, that would expand when dry and protect more area.  Sadly, through the canopy of trees, we couldn't see any stars or moon to entertain us.
    Sara and I weren't really "friends". We just helped each other in a time of need. Tops, we had spent 5 hours together. Now we would be traveling for a good 2 weeks. Alone. Together. Oy.
   Deep in thought, I barely heard the rustling. It was a faint brush, above us at the top of the trees.I was sitting on the edge of the branch, keeping a lookout as Sara slept. I was thinking about how much of a pushover I was being when I heard something. It was a faint rustling in the trees above us. I shot up and pulled my dagger out.
    "Shhh Andrea. Geeze do you wanna wake up the urgles." I heard a muffled voice say
    "Relax." replied another voice "There's no way they're gonna get up here." I walked toward the trunk of the tree, hoping that I could climb up further and get a better shot at them. The voices continued talking, apparently forgetting their fear of Urgles. Suddenly, I heard a loud CRACK and the voices stopped. I looked down and saw that I had stepped on a twig. All was silent for a moment, until I heard the wiz of a dagger.
    Before I knew it, a diamond hilted dagger had pinned my shirt to the branch, leaving me bent back with my stomach facing up. I heard another woosh as two more daggers pinned my other arm, and one of my legs. I saw shadows coming from the canopy of tree tops, down towards me. Before I knew it, I had a nocked bow at me, and a sword at my throat.
    "Who are you" said the sword wielder. I couldn't see their faces, as they were covered in shadow.
    "Natalie Harpent" I stammered. I wasn't a fighter, and these people seemed as if they could seriously fight.
    "How old are you?" Asked the one with a bow.
    "15 years old."
    "What are you?" Said the third one.
    "A nomad." All I could see were silhouettes . The one with a bow was looking around and observing. She seemed to have her head turned toward the left, where Sara was still sleeping. She nudged the one who seemed to have a blowpipe and nodded toward Sara. The one with a blowpipe went over to Sara and kicked her. When she entered the light, I saw that she had thick, black, curly hair. She had dark skin and wore a purple tunic. I could just see her light blue eyes. Sara awoke with a jolt and sat up. She looked up at the newcomer. She put on a smile, but her eyes grew wide.
    "Violet, long time no see. Did you really have to wake me up so rudely."
    "Can it Sara.", said the one with the sword.
    "Ah, Charlotte. Now how are you and Gladimier? Fine I hope ." Sara said this with thick sarcasm and her sly grin growing bigger. Charlotte rushed up to Sara and pressed blade to her neck. She had long wavy brown hair. She was tall and wore a blue tunic. She had a light tan from hours in the hot sun. Her eyes were a sparkling emerald green.
    "Don't you dare talk about Gladimier in that tone" She said through gritted teeth." Violet turned toward the one with a bow and motioned for her to come over. The girl shrugged and stepped out of the shadows. She was a younger looking girl with pale skin, and fiery red hair. She wore a green tunic had a quiver strapped on her back and the bow hanging on her left. Apparently I had been deemed neutralized.
    "Andrea, my dear. Almost of age I see. Will you be getting a dragon soon?" Dragon? What did she mean by dragon? Then I heard a thundering roar, that shook the whole forest. The trees were being blown back and a large hole was made. Through it, I saw a dragon. It was gigantic. It's massive tail longer than five trees. It was an orange red color that reminded me of the sunset. His head was lacking the many spikes that were a general dragon trademark. Instead, he had many lining down his back and tail. He had a rounder, friendlier face then most dragons, but still made him look just as ferocious. He pulled up higher and then went for a nose dive, straight towards us. His nose hit the branch close to the trunk, and broke it off completely.
    We fell for a moment and landed with a large crash. Me, still being stuck to the tree, had no way of defending myself from the splinters. I looked toward the new girls and saw that they had landed almost ten feet away from us, on their feet. Charlotte walked over, brushing the splinters off of her, and pulled the daggers off of my clothes.
    "That ,Natalie, is Gladimier. What Sara was about to say" she said with much disdain "Was that we are Dragon Riders. And we are here to help."



"As I conversed with the dragon riders, Sara pulled a whistle out of her dark cloak and blew once. I heard a whoosh of leathery wings as Sara's dragon swooped down. It was pitch black, with white claws, teeth, and eyes. She had a pearlescent lightning bold shining on her side. "This," said Sara, "is Shadow, my lightning dragon." I watched in wonder as a halo of electricity crackled around the dragon's crest. She screeched at Gladimier. "This," said Sara, "Is going to get ugly." Shadow took to the air with a crackle of electricity. Gladimier followed suit. I looked at their shaped silhouetted against the moon for a moment. Shadow was skinnier, lither, and more flexible. Gladimier was stronger, stockier. I saw scales fly and claws unsheathe. Ivory teeth were bares and powers were used. Shadow conjured a ball of electricity. It hit Gladimier and sizzled against his scales. They shot up into the sky in hot pursuit. After five minutes of fighting, they grew more playful, gentler, and flew off to a nearby cliff concealed by clouds
and mist.



Charlotte blew up.
    "Why the heck would you do that?!"
    "Do what?" Sara asked innocently
    "Call your freaking dragon like that! We BOTH know how that ends up!"
    "Look, they were just playing!"
    "PLAYING?! I'LL SHOW YOU PLAYING!" In one swift motion, Charlotte pulled her sword from the sheath and prepared to pounce. I heard a loud clang as a the sword dropped from her hand, and a grunt as Andrea tackled Charlotte. There was a dagger laying next to the fallen sword. Violet walked over and helped Charlotte up.
    "Looks like we'll be staying together for the night" Andrea said to break the silence "Charlotte, why don't we go get some firewood?"
    "Fine, whatever," said Charlotte grumbling. She grabbed her sword quickly and stormed off into the forest. Andrea followed, looking over her shoulder with a sheepish face, mouthing sorry.
    I finally had to ask.
    "Ok, what was that all about?"
    "Charlotte is really defensive about Gladimier.", Violet said ,"He's the closest thing to family she's got."
    "What happened to her parents?" Violet cringed at the question.
    "I'd rather not talk about that. Look, I'll go find some food, you two set up camp."
    "Fine, but can I ask one more question?" I beg. Violet sighs
    "Alright, what?"
    "Why does Charlotte have a dragon, but you don't? I heard Andreas not of age, but why don't you?"
    "Mine ran away. I wasn't it's true mistress." Then Violet disappeared into the woods.
   

I was sleeping on the forest floor with the rest of the group.  Andrea alone was keeping guard. Sara's breathing was uneven, and she shifted in her sleeping bag.  I had a feeling she wasn't asleep.  I, however, was drifting off quickly.  The next thing I knew someone was pinning me down.  She hissed in my ear, "Die, unpure one!"  She raised her dagger to attack...and screamed.  Someone had bowled her over and was pinning her to the floor.  She screamed again, and tried to roll out from under her attacker, but the attacker's arm made a quick slashing motion, and Andrea was silent.  The attacker faced me, frowning.  It was Sara.  She had killed Andrea to save me.  Her haze was positively venomous as she paced towards me.  She turned into a griffin and converted to all fours.  She sat on top of my sleeping bag and hissed in my ear, "don't trust anyone."  She then walked off and buried Andrea.


Charlotte and Violet sat straight up.
    "Wha...What's going on?" Charlotte asked groggily. Violet had sprung up quickly and had pulled out a blow gun.
    "Natalie, what happened?" Violet demanded forcefully.
    "Andrea...Andrea's dead." I stammered. The fierce look on Violet's face quickly melted away, and was replaced by a face of what only could be described as mourning. Even Charlotte, who could barely register anything at the moment, bore a face of shock.
    "How did she die?" Asked Charlotte slowly.
    "Sara killed her."
    "WHAT!" Charlotte screamed. She jumped out of her sleeping bag "I KNEW THAT SARA WAS A LOW LIFE CHEATING BAG OF SCUM! I KNEW WE SHOULDN'T TRUST HER! AFTER WHAT SHE DID THE FIRST TIME-"
    "She was protecting me." I said. Charlotte stopped mid rant and just stared at me.
    "Why would that be necessary? Your just a nomad."
    "I don't know. I woke up to her telling me I was "unpure". She was holding a knife over my head, and then Sara attacked her in her griffin form. She flew off to go bury Andrea, and she told me she was leaving and to trust nobody." Violet looked toward Charlotte. Charlotte gave a small nod. Violet turned back to me and said,
    "We're going to Janiper city. NOW." Like, right now? Charlotte walked off toward the clearing that Gladimier was sleeping in, only stopping to grab a bag of food. Charlotte and I quickly gathered the sleeping bags and the tent, and walked toward the east.
    After going through a dense part of the forest, we came to the great orange dragon. Shadow had disappeared and I'm sure she went off with Sara. Violet was already climbing onto Gladimier.
    "Hey!" Charlotte called "If anyone should be the first to be on Gladimier, it should be me!" In response, Violet just glared at her. Now was not the time for jokes. We climbed onto his massive back, into a saddle that settled comfortably between the spikes on his back. We dumped everything into the saddle, and Charlotte scrambled to a similar, smaller saddle by Gladimier head. Gladimier gave a small, high pitched roar of delight when he saw that he would be flying soon. Just as we were about to take off, I remembered something VERY important.
    "Chestnut!" I called. I heard a faint whinny, and saw a chestnut colored blur flying toward us.
    "Follow us girl, and make sure that you keep up." As much as I would've loved to ride her, she would be no match for the speed of a dragon with a whole person on her.
    "Ready everyone?" Charlotte called eagerly. At least as eagerly as someone who just had their best friend die could.
    "Yep" Violet and I both said.
    "Alright then. FLY GLADIMIER!" She called, and  we were launched into the sky.

I watched Chestnut follow us from a distance.  My eyes were just beginning to shift back to Gladimier when a dark black-blue, cloud-like shape appeared in the distance.  Dwarf dragons.  Dwarf Dragons are evil, three inch, screeching little blithers.  they're like piranhas:  A swarm (10-10,000 dragons) can disassemble and digest an elephant in less then a minute.  We were in serious trouble. A single dragon's squeaking screech could paralyze a human, but 500's could wing-lock a dragon.  1,097 dwarves can completely paralyze anything.  There were 1,298.  we were in serious trouble.  
Every single dragon screeched at the same time, snapping Gladimier's wings to his side and Chestnut's stiffened to her sides.  "Chestnut," I screamed, and leapt off of the dropping dragon's back and on to my plummeting pegasi.  I saw the black grow closer...and then it was upon us.  thousands of tiny wings, talons, fangs...oh, and about the fangs, they're venomous.  Dwarves can't breathe fire, they have paralyzing venom on their fangs and claws.  As the screech stopped, the fliers tried to regain their wings, only to have a wave of sickness wash over them.  Their wings, un-stiffening, were now as limp as tissue paper.The fliers closed their eyes and their bodies went limp as thousands flooded into their nose and ears.  I saw a new, darker black and gold tint.  The black and white's tail wrapped around chestnut, supporting her and stopping her fall.  I looked up through the swarm to see Shadow's mighty wings straining with effort as her talons dug into Gladamier's shoulders and wing muscles.  Her wings pumped mightily and a thin sheen of electricity sparked around her crest.  Finally, we reached the ground and collapsed in a heap, helpless against the approaching dwarf dragons.  Shadow collapsed on top of us, her sinewy wings offering a last layer of protection as the dwarf dragons attacked.
I closed my eyes against the effects of the venom and saw a glint of gold through my lid.  Then I felt a tremendous heat: Fire, the one thing FyndFyre was named for.



The noise was the worst part.We were safe under the wing from the paralyzing affect. I knew we were safe under Shadows iron like wings, and Sara's fiery breath (That is you isn't it?) but we could still hear the horrid screeches of the dwarf dragons. Imagine a wall of rock, and then a dragon dragging his claw all the way down to the bottom.  If you can imagine that sound 100 times worse, you could imagine the panic I was feeling.
    I was almost sure that Chestnut was under the protection of Shadow's other wing, but I couldn't imagine Gladimier fitting under a wing. Also, if he was anything like Charlotte, he wouldn't dream of letting anyone untrustworthy protect him.
    I felt as if we had been sitting there for hours. Sitting in the dark can do that to a person. The screeches were still as loud as ever. Then, Shadows wing lifted to reveal Sara yelling at us while climbing onto Shadow's back.
    "We can't hold them off! We've got to run for it." She turned to Charlotte. "Gladimier's fine, but he's still groggy. Don't push him to hard."
    "Thanks." Charlotte said, and raced out through the gap. Violet and I followed suit, and were greeted by thousands of the dwarves diving at us. Our hands covered our ears so hard, that we couldn't hear a thing. Gladimier was standing to our left, but his legs were shaky and unsure. I just hoped that he could fly.
    The attack was horrible. For the most part, we could barely swat them out of the air with our elbows before they bit us, but some got a lucky shot. When we were bit, that area of our bodies went completely numb.  Useless. Before we got to Gladimier I couldn't use my right arm, bend my left knee, or blink with out effort. We reached the dragons foot, and all realized that we couldn't climb. Charlotte tried to smile through her paralyzed face.
    "tis shis her vis vill come n andy." I didn't really care what she said, as long as it helped us. She ran to Gladmier’s side and pulled a basket out from underneath.
    "op n." We clambered in and we started to pull on the rope. We reached the top of Gladimier and plopped ourselves into the saddle. Charlotte didn't even need to give the command. Gladimier knew that we could take off now. He flapped his powerful wings and we took off into the sky.
    Even though Sara had said that Gladimier was groggy, I saw no difference. Though Charlotte and Violet were frowning.
    "We're never going to outrun them at this speed." Violet said worriedly.
    "This was probably why dragons were born with fire breathing." I said "So they could fight off evil midget dragons."
    There was no time to laugh. Shadow and Chestnut had taken off and the swarm finally got wise. Tiny as they were, they were fast. They were soon upon us. At first, it was not very many that could keep up. Ten at a time and were easily killed by swatting. Then the others caught up. It was a huge cloud of dwarves, surrounding every living thing. Which sadly was us. As we were flying, Charlotte bravely climbed to the small saddle near Gladimier head and yelled something in his ear. Gladimier did a sharp turn, that knocked me to the other side of the saddle. He faced the swarm, and let out a jet of fire.
    It was the strongest flame I had ever seen. Though I had only seen three dragons in my life, so my opinion didn't really count. It knocked the whole front portion of the swarm dead. It was a quick victory. We still had most of them on our tail.
    "Natalie!" Violet called to me through the wind. "We need you to get on Chestnut! It might be easier for us all to get away if we're more spread out!" She had a point
    "Ok!" I whistled a high note that was Chestnuts call. She didn't come. I whistled again. Still nothing. On the third time, I heard a faint whinny below us and saw her flying underneath us.
    When I looked over the saddle, my stomach jumped to my throat.
    "I can't make the jump!" I yelled to Violet "I'll never make it!"
    "Of course you'll make it!" She screamed back.
    "I'm too scared!"
    "Then maybe you just need a little push!" She inched out of the saddle and climbed half-way up Gladimier’s neck. She yelled something to Charlotte, who nodded and told Gladimier. Instantly I felt ourselves going higher. At a steeper and steeper angle. We were going in a loop! They were pushing me off. I realized this to late.
    "Good luck!" Violet was yelling at me as she scrambled for a handhold between Gladimier scales. Then I was falling.




I landed with a harsh thump on...a griffin?  I screamed and jumped off to Chestnut.  I thought I heard a sarcastic snort from the griffin and saw a slight wink.  Then It spoke with Sara's voice:  Likin' that pegasus I raised for ya?"
I totally freaked.  Then I realized it was Sara and not some mutant. "You may want to try the Trudder," she said casually.  Typical Sara.  Totally calm and sarcastic when sudden death is on out tails.



I was surprised that Charlotte and her weren't better friends. Both had such a love of wit and sarcasm. That thought was quickly pushed out of my mind, and replaced by the imminent danger. I reached for the bag on my back, and felt nothing. In a moment of stupidity I had left it on Chestnuts back. When Sara didn't see any orbs of light shooting from her back she turned her head towards me.
    "Why the chibun aren't you shooting yet?" she called. "Those freaking dwarves aren't gonna stay behind us forever!"
    "The trudders on Chestnut!" I yelled "I'm gonna have to get it!"
    "Fine. Perfect timing too!" Chestnut had just flown up on our left. I slowly stood up, desperately trying to stay up at our breakneck speed.
    "You better shoot soon. Look." She said nodding to our right. A huge swarm of the dwarves were surrounding something. Gladimier. The cloud was so dense, that we couldn't see even a speck of his orange scales.  Well, that wasn't entirely true. Occasionally, an arrow flew from a gap in the swarm, revealing for a moment the three girls fighting for their lives.
    Remembering the trudder, I leaped from Sara's back and landed hard on Chestnuts back. The impact made Chestnut fall down several feet, but she quickly recovered as I was scrambling for the trudder. I fumbled for the pack, strapped to Chestnut's side. I gave up trying to undo the buckle, and just clamped my legs to Chestnuts side and leaned down.
    It wasn't hard to find the trudder, seeing how large it was. The problem was pulling it out of the bag while I was precariously hanging off my pegasus 500 feet off the ground. I pulled myself up, and brought the trudder to my shoulder. My finger was hovering over the trudder, when I realized a dangerous fact. There was a very huge chance of me hitting them. I couldn't aim it straight into the swarm. I went with my only alternative.
    "C'mon Chestnut." I urged her forward, toward the swarm.



I was taking a huge chance, and Chestnut kept wanting to stay away from her natural enemy, a griffin.  I had to literally PULL HER HEaD to get her to pass the grimacing griffin.  "Ugh," groaned Sara, "It's hard to hold my griffin form for more then a few hours. "  She began to pant, "I...think...I'm...going...down. May as well take a few Dwarves with me."  I was astounded as I watched her use the last of her energy to flap up above the swarm and breathe a huge arc of fire.  Gladimier flew through the hap in the Dwarves and made a beeline for lower ground.  Sara's wings snapped to her sides, and she plummeted through the air towards the ground.  She crashed through the trees, using her golden wings like a protective shell. She seemed to be fine, and so did Gladimier.    I heard a screech, and just as Sara turned back to her normal form down below, a copper colored griffin came flying next to me
  "Hello, " she said, , "I'm Charlotte Goldfire."



I didn't believe my eyes, and wasted precious seconds staring. The swarm had been momentarily confused when Gladimier had suddenly disappeared. But they had found a new target. Us. The black swarm was coming closer fast. There was no way in all of Marlon that Chestnut and I could outrun them. I cocked the trudder on my shoulder and aimed, which wasn't that hard. I didn't hesitate. I pressed the trigger and an orb of gold light shot out of the weapon.
    The swarm didn't know what hit them. I was momentarily blinded as the orb hit the dwarves. When I could see, it was raining corpses. All of the dwarves had been killed on impact. Not even one was there to annoy us. I grinned and looked toward Charlotte. Even though griffins couldn't show emotions, I could tell Charlotte was impressed.
    We dove back down into the trees and were met by the others. Sara was back to her human form and was nursing her right arm. I hoped it wasn't broken. Violet was unhurt, and was coaxing Gladimier to come out from under his wing. All in all, we were unhurt. I climbed off Chestnut and led her over to a nearby stream. She must've been exhausted after that ordeal. While she was drinking, I went over to the other girls.
    "How did you do that?" I asked Charlotte. As far as I know, dragon riders can't turn into griffins. Sara only could because she wasn't full rider. Charlotte, who had turned back into a human, pulled out a purple crystal from her pocket.
    "This" she said "is a transformation crystal. It allows the owner to change into any for that they want. I thought that you needed help up there, and everyone else was too injured."
    "Really? How often does the crystal work?" I asked, rudely ignoring Charlotte's previous comment, now that I think about it.
    "Only once. I thought this time was important." That reminded me of the orange crystal in my pocket.
    "You mean like this one?" I said while bringing it out of my pocket. Then, the other girls collapsed. To me, it seemed as if nothing was happening, but to Violet Sara and Charlotte, it seemed like they were being burned alive. They were pressing their hands to their ears so hard they were turning red. Their faces were twisted into expressions of pure agony.
    "PUT IT AWAY!!" screamed Violet. I quickly shoved the crystal back into my pocket. Soon the other girls seemed to be back to normal.
    "What the chibun was that?" panted Sara.
    "That" Charlotte said "Is a demon crystal." Charlotte looked directly at me.
    "It's the purest form of evil and deadly to most people. Only demons can stand to be around it."

I had only faintly heard Sara's comments. Frankly, it didn't matter to me as much as what Charlotte said. Demons are the only ones that can stand to be around it. While they were on their knees screaming in pain, everything felt normal to me. Was it possible. Could I really be a demon?
    The thought lingered with me throughout the rest of the day. The others could tell I was distracted, and unfocused. Even though they were still recovering from the crystals effects. Chestnut came over repeatedly, nudging me as if to ask what was wrong.
    After dinner, I settled into my sleeping bag and looked up through a gap in the canopy. The last time I had done this, I had awoken to Andrea moments away from slitting my throat. Wait, that was it! This was why she had tried to kill me. It was the only explanation. The "unpure" side of me was what Andrea had detected. She had known I was a demon. But how had she known, when I hadn't even known myself?


Sara seemed to sense my discomfort, and scooched her sleeping bag closer to my own.  "Andrea was a soul finder," she admitted, "and your soul was clouded over.  It was Andrea's mission to kill off all unpure ones." I was startled and asked, "so...I really AM A DEMON??" "Yes," sighed Sara cloudily," "and I would LOVE to have you as my apprentice."
    I was surprised.  I couldn't believe that Sara: THE Sara: Wanted me as her apprentice.  She was well known around the DRW as a super warrior.  But this wasn't the point.  I was a DEMON?  As Sara snored besides me, I lay awake thinking about myself and what would become of me.



After hours of staring at the stars through a gap in the canopy, I finally fell asleep and dreamed. I was in a field of grass swaying in the wind. I could see people off in the distance. I ran toward them, hoping to know what was going on. As I neared, I saw that they looked just like me. But when they turned around, their eyes were pure red, and had forked tongues hidden behind fangs.
I woke up panting and drenched in sweat. The forest was still pitch black, but a small sliver of light was pressed to the edge of the gap above me. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, I got up and started a fire. While the blaze was still low, I went into the forest and quickly slayed a rabbit. I wanted to give the other girls a decent meal before we started the long journey ahead of us.
Violet was the first to wake up. She yawned, stretched and quietly shuffled off into the forest for some "private time". Charlotte and Sara woke up five minutes later and drowsily plopped themselves in front of the fire. I handed them a plate of rabbit and some berries. Breakfast was silent, we all knew what was happening today and no one felt it needed to be said. We were off to Janiper City.
When we finished breakfast, we quickly bundled all of our stuff up and threw them on Gladimier, Shadow, and Chestnuts backs. We found a thin trail that led out of the forest, northeast. By nightfall we were on the outskirts of the forest.
The next 12 days were similar. We had found a road that was seldom used. For the most part, us girls walked and the dragons flew. Occasionally, Charlotte or Sara would fly up and scout for any passerby's, hoping that they weren't enemies. It turned out to be an unnecessary precaution. We only passed an old man on the fifth day who just road by on his horse without giving us a second look.
By the morning of the twelfth day, we were tired. So very tired. My feet were aching, my eyes hurt from seeing the same view for days, and I was hungry from lack of food. Small creatures were hard to kill in the tall, illusive, grassy hills. No one was scouting at the moment, so I was the first one that saw it. The tips of spires were just above the next hill. Only just barely there, but there. We had made it to Janiper City.


I was amazed it was the biggest city I'd ever seen!  I wondered if our creatures would attract any odd looks from passerby's.




Above the next hill, we could see the hundreds of people coming in and out of the city. Hundreds of people that could see our dragons.
    "That could make this a little more difficult." Charlotte said. She turned to Gladimier. "Buddy, your going to have to stay out here. Take Chestnut and Shadow and go find somewhere to camp out for a few days. Ok?" Gladimier let out a hrrr in response. He turned his head toward shadow and let out a few grunts and roars. Shadow nodded her head and quickly nuzzled her head at Sara. Then the two dragons and Chestnut flew up with  a mighty leap, back toward the woods.
    "Alright then." I said "Let's go."
    Getting into the city was fairly easy. All we had to do was jump into the crowd of people. We passed by the guards unnoticed, and were pushed into the Marlonion Capitol.
    It was amazing. The streets alone were enough to take your breath away. They weren't plain, dirt roads like everywhere else along the country. They were paved with smooth stone, and seemed to have been freshly cleaned. Stalls lined these streets, merchants proclaiming their goods (quite loudly I might add) to the people. I had never seen anything of this size. Even the Neplun black market wasn't even this large. And they sold everything imaginable, and strangely, everything legal.
    We escaped the crowd a few minutes later, and where deposited on a narrow street near the castle. Charlotte and Violet went off to get our bearings, as they were the only one's who had been here before, while Sara and I stayed on the street. I went to the nearest wall, leaned against it, and just let my mind go blank. I found a few moments of blissful peace, but there was one question that tugged on the back of my mind.
    "Sara?" I asked
    "Hmmm?" she absently mumbled.
    "Why did we come to Janiper City?"
    "You'll see."I never did see why. We sat there for a short while until we heard the pounding of feet on the pavement. Charlotte and Violet rounded the corner at top speed, and nearly knocked into us when they skidded to a stop.
    "You've got to come. NOW" Charlotte demanded. You could see the urgency in her eyes. This was important.
Sara and I raced after Charlotte and Violet. We weaved through many streets and corners, and I'm ashamed to say that I knocked into more than my share of old women in the process. I almost didn't notice when the other three girls stopped in front of an ally. I stopped and backtracked to the others. They were staring into the ally.
    It was pitch black. The ally had high walls that allowed no sunlight to get in. At first, I couldn't see what they were staring at, but the light from behind us was just enough to make out a small. Something was curled up in the shadows, in a fetal position. We could hear it murmuring, curling itself tighter with every word.
    "Hello?" Sara called out tentatively. The creature twitched, it had been caught by surprise. Long red hair fell down it's back. We had found Andrea, alive.
    "Andrea?" Charlotte said. Andrea rolled back, sprang, and was on Charlotte with a dagger to her throat before anyone could react. In her eyes was cold fear, with no recognition of her friend.
    "ANDREA!" Charlotte screamed "It's me! Your alright! It's me." She said drifting off to a whisper. Andrea relaxed. She recognized Charlotte. She looked around and saw we were all there. Her hand relaxed and her dagger clattered to the ground. The pure fear was replaced by relief. Charlotte stood up, and wrapped her friend in a hug. Andrea gratefully accepted, and her shoulders started shaking as she cried into Charlotte's shoulder.
    We didn't push her for answers, but we did need to know what had happened. How had she gotten here? Was she alright? And most importantly, who had Sara killed?
    Eventually, we calmed her down enough to talk.
    "The night that we all met up. Charlotte and I had gone into the forest, mostly for her to cool off. We were picking up twigs and such for the fire, and I guess I wandered off.  I had walked for a bit and when I looked around, I couldn't find Charlotte anywhere. I called out and retraced my steps and everything, but I couldn't find you guys. So I decided to stand by a tree and hope you girls would come looking for me. I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, I was being lifted over someones shoulder and I was blindfolded. I fought back, be sure of that, but they had my hands bound, and they eventually gave me a sleeping drug.
    When I woke up, I was in a dark room. I was chained to the wall and a man was standing in front of me. First he asked if I was comfortable. I spit in his face in response (Violet gave a small snicker at that) but it didn't faze him. He started to ask me a lot of questions about demons.  Do you know what powers they have? Have you met a demon? Are you friends with a demon? Of course the answer to all of these were no. I've never even talked to a demon (Charlotte, Violet, and Sara gave me a quick look). Then they started to hurt me. A man brought out some sort of device, shaped like a crossbow but it shoots out orbs of fire (yet again, a sheepish glance from Sara). He shot me with it multiple times. Each time I passed out.
    It went on like this for weeks. I don't know how many days went by (for the record 14) but it seemed like an eternity. One day, the man that asked the questions left, but I saw something fall out of his pocket. It was the keys to my chains. So I reached out with my foot, got it on the top of my foot, and kicked it up so that it would land into my open palm. I managed to free myself and get outside. We had been in one of the hills by the city. I knew that they were after me, so I ran here, in hopes of getting lost in the crowd. It almost worked, but the man with the fire crossbow followed me in and shot me one last time in the foot. I dragged myself into the ally and just sat there. The next thing I knew, you guys were here. I didn't know who you were at first, and that's why I pounced."  Andrea finished with a loud gasp. We were all in shock. No one wanted to think about all that Andrea had gone through.
    "Oh! One last thing" Andrea said "Natalie, this is uber confusing, but in that on the cell of the wall, there were hundreds of pictures, of you." Then, Andreas eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fell onto the street with a loud thump. A dart poked out of her neck.



For some reason, I couldn't seem to react.  I had seen Andrea fall, but all that I felt was a buzzing numbness in my skull.  Shock?  No.  Another dart had lodged itself in my neck.  It paralyzed my body, but I was able to think and move my eyes.  Strange.  I managed to groan and turn around...I saw Sara fighting for her life in her Griffin form.  Three black and red feathered Griffins were attacking her from all sides.  It took about five minutes for her to disable two of them.  The third griffin was smart.  It kept its distance and squinted its eyes.  Sara screeched in sudden pain.  The griffin had taken out a replica of the purple crystal.  All sara could do now was moan and twitch.  They quickly injected us with more of the sleeping drug and cuffed our hands and ankles.  They threw me in a chest and locked it.  Then, I heard a mans voice,,"Nice job, Fangor.


The three griffins twitched, and in moments they had turned into humans. I could do nothing to resist when Fangor picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. The other two picked up Charlotte, Sara, and Andrea (the bigger one threw Sara and Charlotte over both shoulders). Another man walked in to pick up Violet. He wore a mask, the kind that only cover your eyes, but you could tell by the way he walked with his head held high that he was the leader.
    "Alrighty boys, let's take them back."  he said.
    All we could do is go along for the ride. They took us down many long, winding streets, avoiding the main roads and curious eyes. Our heads faced to the back, and even if we could support our heads we would see nothing but dark allies and the occasional ally cat.
    After the long journey (which probably only took about 20 minutes, but it's hard to tell when your half conscious) they came to a sudden halt by a hole in the wall of an ally. The hole was only about two feet high, and three feet wide. Large enough for a child to crawl in. Though we often forgot it, we were children. The men bound our hands, and threw us (none to gently) into the opening. They had a hard time with me, me being a few years older than the others and much bigger, which resulted with them forcing me to fold up into a fetal position, and them scooting me in.
    "We'll be back for you later." said the masked man.
    "YA. Try not to move." said Fangor, who then burst out laughing.
    "Enough!" Roared the masked man. "Let's go." Then the men left us. Four young, paralyzed girls, stuck in a hole, to the mercy of Janiper City.



I managed to let a thin moan escape from my lips.  I must have dozed off for a few hours, and now I could wiggle my sore body over to the other girls.  I tried to wake them by moaning, but that didn't work, so I dragged my chains on the stone floor. 
    That woke everyone up quickly enough.  Sara tried to get to her feet, stumbled, and fell back to the floor.  Charlotte and Violet sat up instantly, but Andrea just shivered in her sleep.  I was alarmed at Andrea's condition, but I was more alarmed when I saw the pair of leather boots stomp to the hole.  A huge, scarred hand with, was I imagining it? talons instead of nails popped into the hole and grabbed Violet by the arm.  Charlotte and Sara fought, but it was no use with the cuffs on their hands and ankles.  I and Andrea were last.  I saw my comrades being thrown in a wooden wagon and shocked with a taser-like weapon until they were unconscious.  Andrea was already unconscious, but I was shocked as well.  The last thing I saw before I slipped away was a purple crystal in the man's hand.

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that I was lying in a bed. When the memories of the past who-knows-now long came rushing back to me, I wondered why would our kidnappers give me a bed? The next thing I noticed was that my friends were hanging on the wall. They were shackled and hung by their wrists, 2 feet off the ground. Charlotte, Violet, and Sara were still out cold, their heads hanging down as they mumbled in their sleep, but Andrea was wide awake. Her eyes were filled with fear.
    "Natalie!" She whispered urgently "This is the place. It's where I was kept prisoner. You have to leave, NOW!" I surveyed our cell. It was exactly like I thought Andrea described it. A dark cave, lit by torches hung on the wall. Two tunnels led on to other caves on either side. Nothing was barred. I could easily make my escape, but I couldn't just leave these girls (who had saved my life more than once) to possibly their deaths. Though, maybe I could find the key. I began to devise a plan when I heard a new voice. A man's voice.
    Through the right entrance, the masked man strode in, still wearing his mask.
    "Natalie!" he said warmly "I see that you've awoken. Would you like some food? Water? Anything for you."
    "Why did you bring us here?" I asked firmly. I had no weapon, and knew no defense besides a feeble punch. If we were to escape I would need to think our way out of this.
    The man sighed. "Down to the point I see. As you wish dear. Come, follow me." He gestured for me to follow him out the right gate. I looked to Andrea for guidance. She shook her head urgently.
    "Don't go!" she hissed "He'll hurt you!"
    "Silly girl." the man said "Just because we weren't as kind to you, doesn't mean we will hurt Natalie. Besides, our violence was just." What sort of violence would be just?! I thought. When the man looked in my horrified eyes, he said "Alright, I will even give you back your dagger, so if I hurt you. You can hurt me. That's fair, isn't it?" He pulled a dagger from his belt. It was to small, and to dull, but it was better than nothing. And I wanted to see why he was treating me so much better than the others.
    "Ok, I will go with you. IF you promise to let my friends and I go in the next hour." The man sighed again.
    "I suppose. An hour is all the time we need." I didn't like where this was going, but I followed him into the tunnel.
    We went into a furnished room with a wooden door. It had two wooden chairs and a rock table. The man gestured for me to sit. I remained standing. He shrugged and sat down.
    "Natalie. I'm sure you've figured out by now that you’re a demoness." I nodded, and he continued. "Long ago, demons were created out of rock, mud, and fire by the three fates, or that is how it is told. The fates created the demons to become a thriving culture. To help balance the world, at it's primitive state. And to help the human race become as powerful as it was ment to be. For centuries, the demons did as the were supposed to. The educated the humans, taught them to farm, and write, and become a great society. They were two cultures, side by side. Helping each other to become the best they could be.
    Then, the great flying creatures from the north, wandered into our lands. They sought food and water.  Demons were terrified of the creatures, but the humans seemed, attracted, to them. They befriended the creatures, and called them dragons. At first, they only used their new-found friends to fly and build great fires, and hunt, but they realized the dragons could be used for so much more. They were a weapon. The leaders of the humans, ordered an attack on the demons. Hoping to gain more power from fear than friendship.
    The attack worked. They burnt the demon city, and killed or enslaved every last demon. For centuries they toiled. Enslaved for the race they had created, doing the most menial jobs everyday without rest. Eventually, the demons had a rebellion. They escaped their homes through force, and ran to hide in the woods. The humans had their "dragon riders" scour the land for the demons. That order is still in effect today. The humans are still hunting demons Natalie. Their still trying to kill every last one of our kind. The race that we brought from the darkness of caves, to the glory of an empire, is trying to kill us." The man had been pacing around the room. He looked at me now with tears in his eyes. "They will stop at no end, until our race is extinct. But you. You Natalie Harpent, have a way to stop them."
    "Me?" I asked "How could I stop the dragon riders? I don't even want to!" At this the man grew angry.
    "DON'T WANT TO! They are the one's killing our kind. They are the one's who killed your parents! And you don't want them dead?!" Wait, they had killed my parents? As realization hit, I was filled with anger. Some force made me furious. I thought it was revenge for my parents. I wanted blood. The blood that had spilled from my parents bodies that I had found as they were laying dead in the snow.
    "How can I stop them?"
    "Do you realize who have been traveling with?" said the man "Do you realize how significant those girls are in this world? Violet alone, who is the most timid, took out a whole ship of Sardilian pirates when she was 10. Andrea, has taken on the entire Neplun market, just for a single egg. Charlotte could take over this entire country by force if she wanted to. If you take out these girls, you will cripple the dragon riders enough to crumple their entire organization, enough for a demon invasion." He pointed to the knife I was holding. "This knife is made of demon crystal. Bring it out, and it could make them go blind from the torture just by looking at it. If you stab them in the heart, it's a slow and painful death, taking up to two weeks. They will go mad with pain, lame with torture, and by the end they will be begging for death."


I felt a powerful chill course through my body.  I don't know what it was about this man, but he finally made me feel in control.  I grabbed the dagger from his hand and stalked down to corridor towards the cell which my so called "friends" were being held in.  As I walked into the room, I saw everybody was fighting to free myself.  STOP! I growled, surprised at the cruelty in my voice that reminded me of sara's right before a kill.  I walked up to Sara.  By the time she heard the venom in my voice, she had awoken immediately. I knew that look in her eyes.  It was a look that meant she knew she couldn't fight her way out of this one. I held my dagger up to her neck.  "What have you done!?" I screamed, and elbowed her in the face.  Sara winced, but tried not to show her pain.  "So, Natalie," she purred through a mouth full 0f blood, "what did Fenrir tell you?" I sensed a trick by the way her eyes focused in on me.  I stepped to the side: but a second too late.  Sara had transformed into a griffin, and kicked out with both back legs. 
    People always say that a griffin's FRONT CLAWS are the most dangerous, but no one has ever talked about the talons extending five inches from her lionesque feet.  The punctured just above my stomach: a non fatal but excruciating wound.  Sara transformed back into human, panting from effort.  They had almost starved her to death.  It had apparently been three days that I was asleep.  This, however was the last thing on my mind as I doubled over in pain.  I was bleeding heavily, but my heart was set on revenge...I walked over to violet and hoisted the dagger above my head, fit to kill. 
    It happened too fast to react. Sara was screaming a name, BlackBone I think, and then the wall exploded and claws stabbed my arm with a tremendous impact.  I screamed, but the dagger was already on the way to Violet.  It sliced a long cut down to the bone on her upper arm, but it didn't penetrate her chest as I was hoping it would.  All the girls were awake by now, howling in pain from the dagger, including the Sara, but violet's cry was by far the worst.  It somehow wrenched me out of the the funk I'd been in.  The green and black creature that had punctured my arm was on top of me now, pinning me down, but then he spit some sort of gas in my face and I was unconscious.  When I awoke, I was bandaged. Bandaged but tied up.  And in some sort of sack.  Oy.  I felt the wagon (or whatever it was that I was in) bumping over the road and heard a familiar whiney from a familiar pegasus.  I felt something heavy on top of me.  I tried to groan, but I couldn't.  I realized that they had also tied something around my mouth.  The something on top of me wiggled.  I heard a voice, Sara's I think: "you OK, there, VIolet?"  A thin moan in return.  The thing (Violet) on top of me stirred. and the weight was lifted.  The sack was opened as many disapproving faces stared down on me.  One face was a man's.  He had golden eyes and neon green Hair.  BlackBone.


I was still incredibly fuzzy. Everything was coming in and out of focus, but the one thing I could totally see was the disappointment in my friends eyes. I sat up and put my head in my hands. I had tried to kill my friends. These girls who had repeatedly saved my life and trusted me, I had tried to take their lives because of a stranger. I looked at Violet, and reeled back in horror. She was laying on the floor of the wagon, bathed in cold sweat. She was asleep, but she was shivering, and she let out anguished moans. Her arm was wrapped in bandages. They were soaked with her blood.
   Sara, Blackbone, and Charlotte were sitting in the back tending Violet, and making sure I didn't do anything stupid.
    "I ,I'm so sorry" I whispered. I knew that no matter how many times I said that, they wouldn't ever forgive me.
    "Well you've sure made a mess of things." Charlotte said. Though I couldn't see her eyes, I knew they were blazing with anger. Charlotte turned toward me. "Thanks to you, we were imprisoned for days. Thanks to you, we were tortured to keep you alive. Thanks to you, VIOLET MIGHT DIE!"
    "Charlotte" we heard faintly. We looked down and Violet was awake. "Don't be so harsh." Her eyes flickered, and she passed out again.
    "Why shouldn’t I be?" she yelled to Sara. "We should just leave her on the side of the road, and save ourselves future trouble!"
    "Charlotte. Be calm." said Blackbone. "Natalie knew no better."
    "Look, Phillip. If your going to order me around, please change to normal." Charlotte growled.
    "As you wish." Then Blackbone's (I mean Phillip's) green hair and gold eyes, melted away to blonde hair and grey eyes. He shrunk a foot so that he was just a little taller than me. I only knew of 1 race that had the ability to do that with such ease.
    "Your an elf." I whispered in awe.
    "Yes." he said, in the same deep and commanding voice "Andrea!" He called to the front ,"Could you please stop the carriage with all haste. I need a moment on land."
    "Sure Phillip!"
    We pulled to a stop. We were in the grasslands. All except for Charlotte and Violet got out and stretched. I watched Phillip get out and move. He was so graceful, as only the elven kind are, and handsome. Elves were born with great natural beauty, but this was different. His blonde hair was golden in the sunlight, his grey eyes filled with a sort of whimsical light. He was tall and slender, with thin limbs that seemed thicker with his muscles.
    Chestnut, Shadow, and Gladimier had been following the wagon behind us. When I climbed out Chestnut quickly ran to me and lovingly nuzzled me. At least someone didn't hate me. Gladimier and Shadow kept looking at each other in a way I never noticed before. Maybe something had happened during their time alone. I imagined the fit Charlotte and Sara would have if something did.
    We climbed back into the wagon and went on our way. Sara had quickly told me that we were going to find Murgda, a famed healer in the south. The others hoped that she could find a way to heal Violet, but we had to get there quickly, before Violet's time ran out.



Sara was more concerned then I'd ever seen her.  I had been weaving a hat for myself out of grass when a twig I was using for the top snapped.  Sara bolted upright from a dead sleep and pinned me down once again.  "Do you KNOW how tightly my nerves are strung!?" Hissed Sara, "And you need to go snapping twigs every other minute and drive me crazy!" She half transformed, just enough that she had retractable talons that were digging into my arm. "I-I-I'm really sorry," I stammered." Sara growled, "Sorry doesn't cut it.  Show us the you have the courage to save her!" She pointed at Violet.
    I was definitely shaken by the news the bad news.  Finally, I fell into a fitful and uncomfortable (Due to the fact that my wrists and ankles were still manacled)  sleep.  I awoke to the sound of the swamp.  It was a shortcut to the south, though it was very dangerous.  Due to the swampy mud, our wagon had sunk into the muck.  Gladimier and shadow had to use their combined strength, as well as chestnut's and all of our's (except for me and Violet, of course) to finally pull the wagon out with a sucking sound. We all piled into the wagon as Gladimier took one side, and Shadow took the other, and they lifted it a few feet above the ground.  It was way less risky then taking to the air completely.  Shadow, and Gladimier, used their strength to hover a few feet above the ground as chestnut pulled the lead-rope on the swampy floor.  I tried hard to fall asleep.  I really did.  But when Chestnut's poor, tired legs finally gave out, I was pushed out of the wagon to replace her.  Chestnut clambered up into the wagon and I awkwardly grabbed the lead rope.  It was hard to pull the wagon, even if the dragons were keeping it above the ground, because my wrists and ankles were still chained.  I sighed as my good leather boots sank into the mud up to my knees.  I pulled with all my might.  Even so, we made little progress. 
    Finally, I could take it no more and collapsed into the murky sludge.  Phillip jumped down beside me.  He spilt the rope down the middle and tied on end around his waist and one end around mine.  He helped me to pull the huge wagon.
    Suddenly, The dragons, Sara, and Chestnut raised their heads in alarm.  "Urgles!" screamed Sara. Suddenly, at the worst possible time, Shadow collapsed and dropped the wagon.  I didn't know what was going on until Gladimier, too, dropped everything and rushed to Shadow's side. I groaned until a screech surprised me. Sara had turned into a griffin and was running crazily towards me. She raised a sword high above her head and brought it down towards my back.  I didn't know what was happening until the blade caught my cuffs, breaking a link between them.  The metal cuffs were still around my wrists, but the chain between them was broken.  She unsheathed her talons and handed me the sword. "Leeches!" she screamed, "The urgles are leeches!"  Gladimier was blocking Shadow from view, fighting against the millions of greenish black leeches.  The largest was a foot long.  I felt a pinch on my leg, and another on my wrist, under the cuff. I screamed and sliced at the water with my knife, piercing dozens of the squirmy leeches.  Gladimier used his fiery breath to boil the water directly around him, killing the leeches.  I had no such defense, though.  All I could do was slice madly around me with the blade and hope to survive.  Sara was nowhere in view until she swooped low, breathing white-hot flames, boiling all the water, including the stuff up to my shins.  All the leeches were dead, but now we all had burns.  I heard a groan from Shadow and a purr from Gladimier.  Gladimier moved aside and I saw a baby dragon.  It had black scales, with orange at the tips and an orange crest,  Static electricity crackled on it's head crest and tiny puffs of blue flame came out of its fanged mouth.  "Ember," I whispered and everybody looked at me.



There in the mud, we witnessed the rare sight of a dragon birth. We were all stunned by the sight. The dragon was so beautiful. It was hard to believe that this tiny creature would become a massive dragon like it's parents.
    "What did you say?" Andrea asked.
    "We should name it Ember." I said with finality.
    "You mean name her Ember." Corrected Charlotte. She had sludged through the mud to get to the baby. Gladimier had let her pick up his new baby girl.
    "And Sara" she continued "Looks like we're grandmas."
    "Ya, I guess." Charlotte was giddy with excitement. All smiles. Sara was still very shocked, almost showing no emotion.
    Gladimier put the still very weak Shadow onto his back, and helped her get to mainland. They trusted us to get Ember back to dry land safely. We wrapped her in the blankets that Violet refused to use and we sat in the back while Chestnut pulled. Actually, they all sat in the back while I stayed out with Chestnut. I didn't belong in that circle. They were more tightly nit now that they had a family bond. I was just the outsider looking in.

I was near tears as I sat down and tended to my itching leech bites with a roll of bandages and some iodine that sara had slipped me.  I was grateful for the chance to dress my wounds, but when I poured iodine on my burned legs, it felt like I was being dissolved by griffin stomach acid.  I winced as tears squeezed out of my eyes, and not just tears from the pain.  I finally toughed through it, and dressed CHestnut's wounds and helped her to pull.



  Chestnut and I pulled the wagon out of the bog ourselves. We exited the swamp, and found ourselves back in the grasslands. We found Gladimier and Shadow resting on the banks. Shadow let out a squeal of joy when Charlotte came back out holding Ember.
    The next few days were spent traveling. 4 dragon riders, an elf, and a demon rode in the wagon pulled by a pegasus. The new parents were letting Ember explore through the grass, learning about the world. When we got to far away they would put Ember onto Gladimier's shoulders and fly closer to the wagon.
    5 days after the bog incident, we arrived at the beach. I was the only one that had never been near the ocean, and to me it was breath taking. Lake Lorian was the biggest body of water that I had ever seen, and it paled in comparison to the Sardil Sea.
    "It is quite breathtaking." said Phillip coming up behind me.
    "Ya." I agreed. I was breathless, and I don't think the sea was the only reason.
    "You have missed our planning." Phillip said "We are under a mile away from Murgda's home. We will bring Violet there in the morning."
    That night we slept on the sandy beach, with the waves as our lullaby. For the first time in weeks, I slept peacefully.
    Morning was quick and organized. We were on the road 10 minutes after Andrea woke us up. 30 minutes later we were at Murgda's hut. It was a pitiful thing. It was a circular shack that leaned dangerously to the left. Odds and ends were strewn all over the surrounding ground.
    Phillip was carrying Violet in his arms. She was even worse off now. She hadn't woken for three days. Her body was desperately trying to save energy to repair itself. She was constantly coming in and out of a fever, always drenched in sweat that would make her colder later. Her arm was the worst part. The deep gash that I had cut was festering. Pus and blood were always oozing out of the weakest points in the bandages. The skin around it had turned a pale grey, with no blood was getting to her fingertips.
    Sara went to Murgda's door and threw it open.
    "Murgda! We need your help!" She confidently strode in and the other girls quickly followed. When I walked in, I caught my first glance of Murgda.
    Murgda was crooked old woman with long sliver hair flowing down her black cloak. Her house was overcrowded with hundreds of jars containing strange lumps of goo.
    "Ah!" She said "I've been expecting you girls. Come in, put the girl on the table." Phillip put Violet down on a long table in the middle of the room. Murgda went to work. Everyone else surrounded Violet so that I couldn't see her.
    After several minutes Murgda broke away from the circle and went to gather some of her concoctions.
    "So can you save her?" Andrea asked urgently.
    "Oh I can save her alright." Murgda said " Be sure of that. But, she won't be the same. The poison has racked her mind and body. She will hallucinate occasionally, and her arm will be scarred forever."
    "Fine." Charlotte said. "Just fix her."
    "There's one more catch. The herb that will heal her will leave her comatose for several days. You will have to stay here with her."
    "That's alright. Just hurry up with it." Charlotte said. Murgda shooed us out of the house and got to work. The younger girls went off to catch some fish for later, leaving me alone with Philip.
    "So, what's it like being an elf?" I asked timidly. I knew it was a stupid question, but I just wanted to break the ice.
    "It is.....interesting." He replied.
    "That's nice." This was going nowhere. "Um....how old are you?" I asked.
    "397."  I looked at him in disbelief.
    "Seriously?"
    "Yes. I'm technically still a teenager compared to my people." His expression saddened when he mentioned the elves.
    "You miss them, don't you?"
    "Yes. I wish I could go back to them."
    "Why can't you?" My question was never answered. Out of the bushes behind us, we were ambushed. A group of scruffy men in ragged clothes jumped out from behind the bushes. They pinned us down to the sand and sat on our stomachs.
    "Give us all you got." The one sitting on me sneered.
    "We haven't got anything." I tried to say, but they had knocked the wind out of me.
    "That so? Well missy, I guess we just gotta take the elf. He'll turn a nice profit in Neplun." The man jeered. He hopped off me as the others hauled Phillip up onto their shoulders. They ran off toward a grouping of boats as I was getting up. I felt in my bag for something, anything to use as a weapon. I found the demon crystal knife nestled in the back pocket.  In a desperate attempt I threw the knife at the band of men. The knife struck the back of the nearest pirate, and he was dead before he hit the sand.  The men didn't stop for their fallen comrade. They hopped into the small boats on the beach, and rowed off toward a much larger ship. They were pirates.
    I lay there panting on the beach with the corpse. The others came soon bearing nets full of fish. They were laughing and smiling.
    "Hey Natalie!" Andrea said cheerfully "What's up?" Then they took a good look around. The blood stained sand, the dead pirate, and the lack of Phillip.
    "What happened?" Charlotte asked grimly.



"Pirates," I choked breathlessly.  Sara paled in color.  "They took Phillip?"  Apparently she didn't need an answer. "ASSEMBLE THE DRAGONS!" She bellowed.  "Where's my dagger?'' I panicked.  Charlotte paled as well.  She spoke in a voice fighting to keep steady, "They must have been demons to take the knife."  My stomach turned.  Everyone was staring at me.  Shadow and Gladimier swooped in from above, Ember still gaining the use of her wings  .Gladimier and shadow seemed to sense that something was wrong.  Shadow, the fastest dragon, was still a bit unsteady from having Ember. Sara climbed aboard her back and put on a fishbowl-looking thing over her head.  The other girls did the same.  "We'll just have to leave violet for awhile in the healer's care," called Andrea.  Charlotte cried, "These MorkBlows that you're putting over your head give you the power to breathe...underwater!"  I almost threw up. I thought that we would be pursuing the pirates from the air, not the water!  I was unaware that dragons could swim, as well as fly, run, and climb!  Talk about an all terrain Dragon.  Sara and I hopped on shadow, the rest of the people slid onto Gladimier.  Gladimier took off and plunged into the sea.  I gulped as Shadow swooped down from the air.  The impact from hitting the sea knocked the wind out of me.  I sucked in, expecting a lung full of water, but I got cool, clean air.  It must be the MorkBlow.  I gazed around in wonder.  A thin tendril of bubbles was coming out of Shadow's nose.  I was amazed to see slits open up in her and Gladamier's neck.  They had grown gills!  I didn't know that a dragon was capable of such a thing. I watched in wonder as I saw Gladimier and Shadow's tails begin to elongate and flatten.  Now their tails looked like a muscular, tapered scissor blade.  Far below us, the ocean floor seemed to be moving.  The dragons used all their resources to get moving, including their front arms, back legs, and even their wings and tails to power through the water like they were flying.  I felt a thin twinge of something.  I didn't know what it was.  Suddenly, a pair of talons grabbed the back of my and Sara's tunic, yanking us off of shadow's back.  It was Gladimier, hoisting us out of the water.  We yanked off out MorkBlows and saw the most amazing thing ever.  The ocean seemed to be alive with white, snaky, electricity.  Since most of the pirates on the ship were wet, the electricity conducted its way over the wet body of the pirate ship and on to the pirates.  They convulsed and collapsed on the deck.  Shadow burst up from the water, talons buzzing with volts, and hovered by Gladimier. 
    "PHILLIP!" Shrieked Charlotte, and directed Gladimier towards the massive ship which was empty of life.  When we finally found him, he was tied to the mast, soaking wet.  Nasty electric burns emanated from his feet and exited on the back of his head.  He was alive, but unconscious.  We untied him from the sail, just as we heard the rumble.  Apparently, the sea floor was literally alive...with a huge Kraken.  A tusk reached up and slices Gladimier’s wing.  A tentacle wrenches us free of Shadow just as Sara turned into a griffin.  The tentacle wrenched Shadow's wing to the side with a sickening crunching noise.  We fell to the sea below, utterly helpless to do anything but scream.



Falling really isn't that bad. It's like your floating in space, with no worries around you. But then your yanked back to reality by the screams of your friends and the roars of the kraken below you. My arms were jammed to my sides from the strong wind. I slowly reached into my pocket and grabbed a small whistle. I pulled against the wind and brought the whistle to my mouth and blew.
    A few moments later, Chestnut was at my side. I leaned toward her and grabbed hold to her mane.
    "Come on girl. Let's be the heros for once." I whispered in her ear.
    She folded her wings and went into a quick dive toward the others. As she reached Gladimier, she opened her wings like a parachute and slowed. When we were close enough, I hopped onto the falling dragon's stomach and crouched. I went for my bag and quickly found what I was looking for. I opened the small jar and poured the thick grey liquid over Gladimier's injuries. This liquid in particular was the blood of a trail serpent, known for it's quick healing properties.
    When the blood made contact with the wound, there was a bright flash and the wound had healed. Gladimier realized that he wasn't injured anymore and was righting himself so he could fly again. His stomach was at too steep an angle for me to stay on, and I fell off. Luckily Chestnut was below so that I fell onto her.
    We quickly repeated the process with Shadow and took off. The girls had quickly realized what was going on and hopped onto Gladimiers back and flew away. Everyone was safe, and not even a scratch. Chestnut and I were about to fly away when I noticed something near the kraken's mouth. It was a person. It was Phillip.
    Chestnut sensed my panic and quickly set off toward Phillip. He was right above the krakens mouth, ready to be eaten.
    "C'mon Chestnut. Just a little farther." I urged her. We were nearing Philip, but we were dangerously close to razor sharp teeth. We were 20 feet away. 15. 13. 6. And just before we were about to be eaten alive, Phillip fell right on Chestnuts back and we flew out of reach of the krakens flailing tentalces.
    Gladimier and Shadow flew closer when we were out of range, and blew strong streams of fire at the kraken. It's screams of agony were terrible, but were quickly silenced when it fell down into it's watery grave.
    We flew back to the beach. The other girls and the dragons left to go and survay the Krakens nest, but I had to get Phillip to the healer immediatly. When we landed, I quickly draped Phillip across my back, but I noticed something. When he had fallen onto Chestnut, he had badly burned skin, and bruises everywhere. Now he only had a burn across his left forarm, and a black eye. I put him down and he layed on the sand, unconsious.
    "Phillip?" I asked him. He coughed a little and his eyes fluttered open.
    "Natalie. What happened?" He asked in a weak voice.
    "You were badly injured, but now your nearly healed. How is that?" I asked
    "Elven magic."
    "But, but....." Then he propped himself up and kissed me.
    It was a long and pasionate kiss, and I wish it never had to end. But it did end. I was left with a bewildered look, and gasping.
    "Love is also elven magic." Phillip said with newfound strength. "And I love you Natalie."