Chapter 1: A Silent Death

She couldn't see through the smoke no matter how hard she batted at it with her hands. Where were they? They needed to leave! The house was burning down! She cried out to them. Soon she heard their cries and sobs. Her feet fell hard against the floor as she forced herself faster. She could save them! She could save them! She just needed to...

And like always she reached the room in time to see her parents thrown into the flames.

Amy surged upright. The terror from her nightmare pumped her with adrenaline. She clung to her sack-cloth blanket for stability, as she tightened her grip on reality. She looked around to see the rest of the inhabitants of Grestling Town Orphanage sleeping soundly.

The orphanage wasn't of much help to the children in any town you went to. They were only there because the king had decreed it, due to the fact his wife had complained so often of the poor abandoned children. Amy's personal bitterness told her that he'd just done it to get the queen out of his hair.

Amy violently shook her head to remove the scene from her mind. It was rare that she ever got a good night's sleep with such a reoccurring dream. There were very few changes to it. Sometimes she would jump into the fire with her parents. Other times she saw the dragon eat her parents after they'd been burned. But the worse was when the dragon revealed itself as one with green scales and yellow eyes, a variation of her imagination she knew was false.

She clawed at her skull. No! She did not want to think about that right now! She groaned. There was only one place she liked to go that always cleared her head. She hopped out of her cot. She didn't bother to put on any shoes or socks for her feet. The cold bare floor helped drag her back to reality.

This wasn't a rare thing for Amy to do. In fact, she had snuck out more often now then she had previously. Her first few months at the orphanage served as absolute hell for Amy. Usually you got an orphan whose parents died from some disease, murder, or freak accident. And of course Amy's parents had to be killed by dragon. For months there had been all sorts of knights or knights-in-training asking Amy about the awful accident, when all Amy really wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there. Every person who visited Amy pledged that they would kill the dragon and avenge her parents. Amy didn't want them to do that.

She wanted to kill the thing herself. That dragon and every other dragon she met.

It was a vendetta that brought a fire from her loss, one that sewed her broken self together, creating a bitter, vengeful Amy.

She crept through the room of sleeping bodies. She had done this enough to be silent while walking across the room.

Though she never ceased to wake one person up...

“You going out again?” she heard someone whisper from behind her.

Amy turned to see Bethany upright in her cot. Even in the dark, Amy could see Bethany's red curls fall in disarray around her face. Bethany was the one of the most compassionate orphans. Her parents had disappeared mysteriously when Bethany was ten. They were never found, therefore assumed dead. She came to the orphanage when Amy was eight, two years after Amy's parents had died. Unlike Amy, she cared about the other children and did everything she could to make their lives easier. There were families who fell in love with her kind attitude that sought to adopt her. Unselfishly (or stupidly as Amy thought) she begged them to let her stay. It was something that always confused and frustrated Amy. This place was hell. The food was awful, the people were awful, the conditions were awful, and the caretaker, Donna, was the most awful. It had only frustrated Amy more when Bethany became fond of her, seeking every opportunity to talk to Amy, give to Amy, catch her when she was sneaking out, and cover for her when she had been caught. Such kindness annoyed Amy at first, but then she became accustomed to Bethany and accepted her as the only friend she had in the orphanage.

Amy nodded wordlessly at Bethany's question.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Bethany asked.

Amy shook her head.

Bethany sighed. “All right. I'll cover for you in the morning.”

Amy shrugged and crept out of the room.

She slyly slide her way through the halls, silently tiptoed up the stairs, and cautiously opened the roof trap door. She pulled herself through the hatch and climbed up on to the roof. She had built this contraption herself when she was ten. She had often scaled the wall when seven to get to the roof. There was a strong rain storm, and Donna had charged Amy with the job of fixing the roof. For being only a decade old, Amy proved to be skillful with a hammer and nail and had fixed a trapdoor in one of the roof holes, so she could access the roof more easily.

Six years later, Amy still used the trapdoor for a place to escape to after her usual nightmares. Bethany was the only other person who knew about this. Her fondness for Amy eventually led her to the roof. Fortunately, Amy only needed to say, “Leave” for Bethany to understand that this place was Amy's place, and her place alone.

The cold air awakened her senses. She looked up at the stars. They sat in the sky like holes in a black blanket blocking the sunlight. She counted them, connected them into shapes. She looked at the town of Grestling below her. The tops of the houses in Grestling fascinated her. Though she had been looking at the town for sixteen years, it still interested her to see it from above. She could almost pretend that she was outside it all, outside the misery and pretend that she was merely looking at it from the outside.

She let herself pretend, letting herself, even if only for a few moments, be the observer, not the victim. What a pathetic town! she thought. She recalled what Bethany always said to her: Everything can change. Everything can be redeemed. They just need a light.

Amy laughed to herself. What a lie! Grestling was a place of thieves, murderers, betrayers, and vagabonds. No one paid heed to the king's law. It was a selfish town. Bethany was just a rare exception. Her thoughts drifted to her dreams as a young girl. She still remembered them. They were far too vivid to forget. She remembered the green dragon nestling with yellow eyes. She remembered how he had told her about the race of dragons and how they protected the humans.

She also remembered how it was a lie!

She remembered too how it had been a dragon to attack and kill her parents! How it was a dragon to destroy their home!

And the nestling didn't even warn her!

A burning fury boiled in Amy. Her hand went to her head, and she ripped at her hair, using pain to block out the memories. She didn't want to think about that right now! She concentrated on breathing, letting that focus seize her full attention.

Finally Amy felt her fury dim, and let herself fall backward against the roof. The coolness of it was strangely reassuring to her. It kept her in reality, away from the dark thoughts of her past. She closed her eyes letting her sense of touch take over. She explored the rough texture of each roof tile with her fingers. She noted the edges, and pressed her fingers against the corners. She brushed over all the imperfections. She noticed the damp mist kiss her cheeks.

A pigeon flew over head. It landed on a rooftop in Amy's view. Animals were always so interesting to Amy. They were so different from humans sometimes, yet so the same. It was always compare and contrast with them. Bears were one example. Mothers of both species cared for their young, but the bear defended her cubs herself, and the human depended on town law enforcement. Both had homes, but humans were social, living near other humans, and the bears were solitary.

Both species had orphans, but the bears actually adopted orphaned cubs, and the humans put theirs into these hell holes called orphanages, Amy thought bitterly.

She felt something soft begin to rub against her arm. She sat up with a start.

The culprit was a cat with brown and white fur and pale green eyes. It purred as it rubbed against Amy's forearm, begging to be petted. Amy laughed. “It's been a while since I've seen you up here,” she said, itching the cat behind the ear. “Thought you grew bored of me. That or you got eaten by a dog.”

The cat shot Amy an unamused look.

Amy laughed again. “You know. It's almost like you know what I'm saying.”

The cat seemed to roll his eyes and nudged Amy's hand for more pets. Amy complied. “Such a curious cat you are. Hmmm... maybe that's why I haven't kicked you off my roof yet. You're too fascinating.”

The cat meowed in response and curled up on Amy's lap. Amy began to stroke him absently and watching the horizon. “Can't sleep again. Same as usual.” She sighed. “Same memories. Same nightmares. Same damn place I'm usually in. Of course, not like you care. You're probably thinking about that mouse you ate today. Or maybe a lady cat you got your eye on,” she said slyly, wagging her eyebrows.

Amy saw one of the cat's ears flick as a reply.

Amy shrugged. “But what do I know? I can barely get my own thoughts straight. Let alone guess someone else's.”

The cat snorted, almost sarcastically.

She sat there with the cat on her lap for a long time. Her thoughts dwindled into nothing and soon there was just peace. Peace on a rooftop. The cat eventually hopped out of Amy's lap and jumped down gracefully to the ground before it ran off into the night.

A couple hours passed before Amy's thoughts began to take form again. There was a nagging thought, the one at the back of Amy's head that kept her alive. Don't turn around! Don't turn around! Amy felt an awful and eerie presence at her back. Her instinct was of course to turn around and face it, but like always, Amy clung to that survival voice in her head telling her to not turn around. She waited and waited. She clenched her fists to keep her head straight and control her fears.

Finally it passed, as silently as it came.

What the hell! she thought. She dared to turn around. There was nothing. She shivered involuntarily. She decided it was probably best to go inside right now. She stayed on the roof for a few minutes longer, admiring the scene below. The sky had become paler now, indicating the coming morning.

Amy got up from her spot, stretched, and crept back through her trapdoor, down the stairs, through the hallway, and back into her cot. She closed her eyes to at least pretend she was asleep, but something kept on bugging her. There was something wrong about this place when she entered. Instinct told her to open her eyes and scan the room. She did. She found Marcel's cot, the cot next to hers, empty...

And the sheets were drenched with blood.

Prologue: Dreams to Nightmares (cont. II)

Arithoth continued through the forest, following Drolin's instructions. The rest of the clan trailed behind wordlessly. Along the way Arithoth felt Thirwyn fidget in his sleep, kicking spontaneously and twitching his tail. This was usual behavior for Thirwyn when he slept. Often he muttered in his sleep, though the words were indiscernible, even for Arithoth's keen ears, but this time Thirwyn's movements were less subtle and more desperate and violent. His muttering became whimpers and small cries. This concerned Arithoth. “Is he all right?” he asked Miren.

Miren looked over at Thirwyn. “Probably nothing, but you might want to wake him up. The young'un wants to see our new home, doesn’t he?”

Arithoth shook his head slightly to awaken the nestling. “Thirwyn. Thirwyn! Wake up! We're almost there.”

Thirwyn woke up with a start, gasping, panting and trembling so much his scales one would think his scales would fly off.

“Thirwyn? Is everything all right?” Arithoth asked.

“I didn't do anything,” Thirwyn muttered in dismay.

“What do you mean? Thirwyn, what's wrong?”

“Why is she mad? I didn't do anything.”

“Who's mad?” Arithoth asked.

But Thirwyn just curled up into a ball, lost in his cloud of unknown misery.

“Thirwyn?” Arithoth looked to Miren.

Miren looked curiously at the nestling. He seemed just as confused as Arithoth.

Drolin examined Thirwyn with extreme fascination. “Does he usually do this?”

“No,” Arithoth said.

“Does he have dreams?”

“All the time.”

“Has he told you about any of these dreams?”

“No. He usually keeps them to himself. He mentioned one, once, saying he met some human in a dream, but some of the nestlings teased him about it. He didn't mention them much after.”

“He met some human?” Drolin asked.

“That's what he said.”

Drolin went silent, lost in thought.

Arithoth was startled. “Is this bad?”

Miren assured him. “It was probably a just nightmare. Look at you! You're so nervous your scales might drop off from fright. There is nothing wrong with the young'un. Be at ease, he's a perfectly healthy little nestling.”

Arithoth sighed but smiled slightly at the older dragon’s reassurance.

“Stop here,” Drolin instructed.

Arithoth stopped at the trunk of the oak just as Drolin had instructed. “Uhhh... Drolin, what exactly are we supposed to see here?”

“Just a moment.” Drolin scaled down from Miren's head. He scramble to the base of the tree and began pulling away weeds and leaves at the mixed with the roots.

Arithoth looked at Drolin curiously. “Is this really the time for weeding?”

Then Drolin took a small rope in his teeth from underneath the debris, and tugged. There was a groan from underground and then a trap door fell revealing the entrance to an underground den between the roots of the oak.

A unified gasp of amazement came from the whole dragon clan and murmurs of barely held excitement and joy rippled through the crowd. Arithoth's eyes widened in surprise, and he tried to use this new discovery to cheer up Thirwyn. “Thirwyn! Look this is where we will live for now on! Isn't it amazing?” he said as he walked through the entrance. The nestling remained silent on his father’s head.

The inside was lit with torches as they proceeded down the earthy stairs. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they entered an enormous den big enough to fit a hundred dragons (which was more than sufficient for this clan of thirty dragons). The dirt was soft under the weary claws. The walls were decorated with blue symbols that glowed in the dirt walls. Along the walls on the ground were nests softened with the dirt and dried grass. Some nests were larger than others to accommodate both dragon individuals and families. At the very center of it all was a large glowing orange stone that shed light on every inch of the cave.

“Thirwyn! Look!” Arithoth urged,

Thirwyn made a small dispassionate sound.

“Thirwyn. Please, what is it?”

Thirwyn grumbled, “I don't want to talk about it.”

From the far corner of the cave came a very tall and wiry woman. She wore a simple white dress with a pale lavender shawl draped loosely around her shoulders. Around her neck was what looked to be a silver jewel. She wasn't young, but she wasn't exactly old. Her face had only a few wrinkles to indicate her approach to old age, and her black hair had only partially surrendered to the gray. Her smile emphasized the growing wrinkles in her face, as she held her hands out and bowed slightly before Arithoth. “Welcome, dragons. I hope you find it comfortable here.”

Arithoth unconsciously backed away and moved his head higher so Thirwyn was out of reach of the new woman. Arithoth looked in shock at the woman. “You are... human.”

“You could say that,” she answered, straightening from her bow. Drolin bounded from the dragon clan and nimbly climbed up on to the woman's shoulders. The woman smiled and stroked the cat fondly.

The adults and the fledglings, who had seen a human before and knew of their habits, stared apprehensively at the woman, waiting for her to strike at them with her human hatred for their kind. On the other hand, the newly awakened nestlings and hatchlings' eyes widened at the sight of the woman and begged for their parents to tell them what this new creature was. The parents hushed them, promising to explain the situation later.

Miren, however, was the only who saw no problem with the woman's presence. “So this is the lass you've been talking about, Drolin? I must say she is quite a sight for these weary eyes.”

The woman laughed. “You must be the flattering Miren.”

Miren bowed, extending his wings slightly, making the bow look almost gentlemanly. Most of the dragons looked completely dumbstruck at thod. The hatchlings and nestlings laughed. Miren straightened and looked to the clan. “She isn't dangerous. She's a wizard. Her family has been helping dragons for generations.”

The dragons, still too cautious to come any closer, examined the woman from a distance.

“He speaks the truth. When I sent Drolin scouting the land, he came back with stories of your clan and all the hardships you have endured. I decided to help you by making a home here. It is only a few miles from Grestling, the human town nearby. I hope you don't object.”

“Not at all,” said Arithoth, “I would rather we settled near a human town in order to keep our promise to them. We just never expected... errr... you to be here.”

“I really did not intend for it to be so much of a surprise.” The woman looked over at Miren.

Miren smiled. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

The woman sighed. “Well, this is what I prepared. I made it a bit larger than what you require; I didn't know how many exactly you were bringing. There are nests near the walls as you can see. This whole place is ensured to hold up with magic, hence the blue inscriptions on the wall. I'll have to renew it every now and then, but not too often. I couldn't exactly put a fire in here because of the smoke, but I enchanted that stone in the middle. You can dim it by tapping on it once.” She walked over to the stone and knocked on its shell once. The stone dimmed to one third its usual brightness. “And brighten it by tapping twice.” She knocked twice, and the stone returned to its original brightness. “And just press on it to turn it off, but I don’t think you guys would want to. I know you dragons like sleeping in some form of light. Hope it helps.”

“It does,” Arithoth said. “Err... What is your name?”

“Oh! Leah. Leah is fine.”

“Arithoth,” Arithoth introduced himself. “But if I ask, Leah,” his eyes dropped to her silver pendant. “Your choice of jewelry concerns me.”

Leah looked down at her necklace and smiled somberly. “As you would be concerned, but I assure, this was not taken by force. A dear friend of mine gave it to me before his passing.” Her smile disappeared and her eyes softened with sadness. “I only wish I could've done more to save him.”

Arithoth’s mouth twisted in a skeptical grimace.

Miren rolled his eyes. “Dear, Arithoth! You can't seriously be thinking the lass is against us?”

Arithoth felt ashamed of his doubts, but the evidence in front of him was too condemning.

Leah sighed. “I know it looks bad. I use magic. Drolin here is clearly an imp. And I have a dragon scale around my neck. But I assure you, there is one thing that I have that no witch would.” With that, she lifted the hem of her dress slightly to reveal a birth mark on her ankle in the shape of vortex with a line drawn through it.

Arithoth brought his head closer to see it. Miren snorted, “That's definitely the mark all right. And really, Arithoth, I have heard of wizards carrying a dragon scale. It isn't uncommon, especially now with the state of things.”

Arithoth nodded. “I'm sorry to have doubted you.”

Leah waved it off. “Do not worry about it. I understand your concern for your clan, not to mention the safety of the little one on your head,” she said, her gray eyes spotting Thirwyn.

Thirwyn was still curled into a ball on Arithoth's head. He paid no heed to Leah.

“Thirwyn, show some gratitude toward this woman,” Arithoth commanded, “She's giving us a home.”

“Thanks,” Thirwyn said curtly.

“Thirwyn,” Arithoth growled. “Please be polite.”

“I just want to sleep,” Thirwyn grumbled. He scrambled down his father's back, landing on the soft earth. He then walked straight past Leah and Drolin and crawled into one of the nests and slept a dreamless sleep.

Prologue: Dreams to Nightmares (cont.)

The older dragon continued through the woods, scanning every possible place an enemy could be. His ears perked for the slightest sound of danger. He heard one of the clan's dragons approach him. His eyes flitted to the side to see the brown ancient walk to his side. He was definitely an old dragon, undoubtedly the oldest in the clan. His scales used to be brown, but were now faded to tan and khaki colors. The wrinkles in his snout and brow were deeply defined and his brown eyes had replaced the brightness of youth with the soft glow of age.

“I see the young'un has finally had it in for the night,” the ancient said.

The father smiled. “Yes. The rain won't hurt him too much will it?”

“No. If he was alone, yes, but you generate enough heat to keep the nestling healthy.”

“I wish I could stop worrying, but that is not so easily done. He was asking about humans again today.”

“And why should that be reason to worry. We do protect humans. Why should he not ask about what he will eventually have to know?”

“Most nestlings around his age don't even know about humans.”

“Then you should be proud your son is ahead.”

“But I don't even know how he found out about humans. One day he just walked in and asked, 'Hey Dad, what's a human?'“

“He could've heard it from some other dragon. Besides, it is good that he knows about them.”

“Yes, except for the fact that he wants to see them.”

“What is the problem with that?”

“Miren, you and I may know humans hate dragons, but Thirwyn does not. He wants to meet them, talk to them, be friends with them. He does not understand that they see us as enemies.”

“Have you told him?”

“He is too young. I want him to enjoy as much of his childhood as he can. He has already had so much robbed from him. The least I can do is spare him that.”

“I don't think he is as deprived as you think he is, Arithoth” Miren said as he looked at the small nestling sleeping his father's head.

Arithoth didn't say anything. The two dragons continued to walk side-by-side. Arithoth slowed his pace down to accompany the old dragon.

“Do not slow for me.” Miren laughed. “I am old, but I can still keep pace with any young'un, including you.”

“Young'un? Do you still see me like that?” Arithoth asked with a smile.

“When you get to be my age, everyone is a young'un, young'un.”

Arithoth chuckled. His eyes fixed on a single spot in the woods. The bush shifted and twitched a bit with movement. He stopped and crouched slightly in preparation for danger. The clan saw this and followed his example. From the bushes, a cat with a bark brown back and a snow white belly walked up to the dragons. The cat's mint green eyes glowed with intelligence though his form seemed to say otherwise.

From behind Arithoth the rest of the dragons murmured with anticipation. Arithoth slightly lowered his head (being very careful not to disrupt Thirwyn) as a small nod of respect of the cat. “Drolin. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

The cat meowed in confusion, licking its paw.

Arithoth's ears twitched in surprise. “Errr... Miren, is this the cat?”

“Oh, yes it is! Stop playing with the poor boy, Drolin!”

The cat immediately looked up at Miren and Arithoth at Miren's comment. He smiled. “That trick never gets old!” he said. “Miren! Dear me, it's been a while.”

Miren smiled. “It's good to see you again, friend.”

Arithoth nodded to where Drolin just came from. “This way?” he asked.

Drolin nodded. “Not that far now, fortunately for you. I see you have had a rough set of travels.” Drolin then scaled Miren's leg, hopped on his back, ran up his long neck, and sat on his head. “I'll see it better from here. Keep going forward until you see a large oak.”

*                                                                           *                                                              *

Finally, after waiting for so long, Thirwyn felt Amy’s presence begin to break into the dream. Only, it wasn't exactly Amy's presence. Of course he knew she was going to appear in the dream, but the energy she set off was dark, terrifying, and violent.

“Amy?” Thirwyn called.

She appeared on the other side of the meadow. Thirwyn broke into a run to her. “Amy! What happened? Great scales I was so…”

She looked up, and as soon as their eyes connected, Thirwyn knew something was wrong. He stumbled to a stop. “Amy?” he called tentatively. The scene began to change. It was no longer a bright green meadow with a shining sun. Instead, the air filled with smoke that blocked out the vanilla sky; the sun dimmed to nothing; the soft grass became a hard, ash-covered, wooden floor. “Amy? What’s happening? What’s going on?” But the smoke closed in around him and concealed Amy from his sight. “Amy!” He charged forward. The only light to guide him was a flickering glow through the smoke. He heard Amy scream. He sped toward the sound, calling out her name. “Amy!” he called. “Amy! Where are you?”

What is this? he thought. The dreams weren't usually like this. Sometimes either he or Amy would have a nightmare, but there was always the other to fight it off. But this felt more real than a nightmare. The terror wasn’t easily broken; it felt as thick and powerful as it infect the air around him.

“Mom! Dad!” Thirwyn heard Amy cry.

Thirwyn heard other screams, different from Amy's. There was sobbing, begging, gasping. Thirwyn began using his small wings to bat away at the smoke. The smoke began to clear. Finally he found her on the ground, in tears and blood.

“Amy!” Thirwyn roared as he ran toward her.

She didn't hear him. “Please. Let them go!”

Thirwyn looked to what Amy was pleading to. There was so much smoke he could only see a vague outline of it. In front of him was a large silhouette of a broad head with ram horns and webbed wings expanding above the smoke. A dragon! But how could a dragon have done this? Thirwyn's father had always told him that dragons protected humans. They didn't cause destruction like this!

 At the feet of the dragon-like creature were two humans that Thirwyn did not recognize. One was a man, and one was a woman. The creature laughed at Amy and pick up both humans with one dragon-like paw.

“Don't! Please!”

Thirwyn could only watch in horror as the dragon tossed the two sobbing humans into the fire beside it.

“NO!” Amy cried and surged toward the fire, as if she could rescue them. The creature slammed Amy with its tail and surged into the sky with a single beat of its giant wings, taking with it the whole scene of terror Thirwyn had witnessed.

They were in the green meadow again. It wasn't as bright as it was before. There was a hue of darkness that hung in the air. The sun had dimmed, and the sky had darkened. It was as if the horrible scene had left its awful essence.

Thirwyn spotted Amy curled into a ball. Thirwyn hurried to her. “Amy! Amy, are you all right?”

Amy said nothing.

“Amy, it's all right. The nightmare's over.”

“It wasn't a nightmare,” she mumbled.

“What?”

“I said it wasn't a nightmare!” she snapped and sat up. “It happened, Thirwyn! What you saw back there just happened to my parents.”

“Amy, this is a dream. It couldn't have happen.”

“It happened just now. It happened when I woke up.”

Thirwyn stiffened. The small spine on the back of his neck lifted in anxiety. “What?!”

Amy roared. “Are you deaf or something? I said—”

“I know what you said, but that's…that's impossible. A dragon would never—”

“A dragon just did!” Amy snapped.

“So your parents are...”

“Dead? Yeah. They are. Thanks.”

Thirwyn felt a cold horror slip over him as he heard those words. Not too long ago he had lost his mother after a band of Dark Followers raided their clan. For days, Thirwyn had tried to crawl out of his morbid stupor. If hadn't been for his dreams with Amy and his father's persistent attempts to keep Thirwyn sane, Thirwyn might not have been as stable as he was.

He approached Amy, hoping to comfort her, as she had only a couple of years before. “Amy, I'm so sor—”

“Don't touch me!” Amy hissed, recoiling from Thirwyn.

Thirwyn stumbled back, shocked by Amy's words. “Amy...”

“Get away from me! GO!”

The sky became darker with rain clouds. Thunder and lightning mimicked Amy's emotions and lashed out in the sky.

“Why?” Thirwyn begged.

“You told me a dragon would never hurt a human! You told me that dragons always protected humans! I believed you! And now this has happened!”

“But that's what dragons do. We don't hurt people! We save them.”

“Then where were your dragons when this dragon decided to barbeque my parents.”

Thirwyn shuddered at her harsh tone. “I don't know. Our clan is just moving. Amy, I swear, I would've been the first to warn them if—”

“But you didn't! You heard the crash like I did! You didn't wake up to tell anyone.”

“I was waiting for you-”

“You should have been calling for help! But you didn't. Also, you didn't warn me about the dragon attacking us!”

“I didn't know. We don't even know if it was a dragon!”

“What else do you think it was?” she snapped.

Thirwyn tried to find something, but he came up with nothing.

“How can I trust you? My parents are dead because some dragon! So you lied to me! You didn't try to help me! You didn't even do anything to tell me! And how do I know you aren't just saying all that about dragons because you want to trick me?”

“What?! No! Amy, I'm saying that to trick you. It's the truth-”

“No it's not! My parents are dead.”

“Amy...”

“Go, Thirwyn!” she snapped. “Just go! I don't ever want to see you!”

“Amy! Please—”

“GET OUT! I hate you, and I hate dragons!”

“Amy...”

Thirwyn. Thirwyn! he heard his dad's voice call from outside the dream.

“No! Amy!” Thirwyn felt himself being pulled away by the sound of his father's voice.

“LEAVE! DON'T YOU EVER COME BACK!” he heard Amy scream before he reentered the world of consciousness.

Prologue: Dreams to Nightmares

Rain water ran down the glossy scales of the dragons walking through the forest of Grenvale on the third night of the rainy season. There were dragons of all ages: hatchlings and nestlings that clung to their mothers' backs; fledglings that huddled together and desperately tried to keep pace; adults that kept the pace of the clan; and the ancients the lingered in the back strong in mind but weak in strength. The clawed feet dragged in the earth and their ram horned heads were just high enough to keep their noses from inhaling dirt. The rain pounded on their scales. The spikes that ran down their neck were flat from exhaustion.

The dragon heading the group held a more upright, alert position. His oak brown eyes scoured every inch of the path for danger. Deer-like ears were perked and twitched at every sound. His head was higher, though he too was just as exhausted (if not more exhausted) as the rest. His scales were like expertly carve emeralds. His wings, though furled, were webbed and large. His four legs were bulked with muscles that threw five thousand pounds of power into every swipe against his enemy. Of all the dragons, this one seemed the least approachable with claws ready to swipe and jaw tensed, ready to clamp on any spine.

On the head dragon's head was a smaller, younger dragon, a nestling at the best. The older dragon had no trouble carrying the younger child on his broad head. The nestling was as light as an adult cat, no problem for a human to carry and practically weightless for a dragon. In fact, the nestling was so light that the older dragon only knew the nestling was there by the sound of the nestling's heartbeat and breathing.

The nestling was a smaller, more innocent version of the dragon that carried him. His head was smaller and more rounded with youth. He hadn't grown into his barely taloned claws and his wings certainly hadn't grown to fit his body. His bright yellow eyes drooped with exhaustion, but he fought it off. Unlike the adult dragons that had to walk, he fought the urge to sleep because of the growing child-like excitement that burned and warred with his tendency and need for sleep.

“Are we there yet?” the nestling asked.

“No,” the older dragon said. “But we are close.”

“You said that half a day ago.”

“It was not that long ago,” the older one chuckled.

“Yes it was. The sun was up then.”

“The sun is up now. The rainclouds are just blocking it.”

“I don't believe it. It's darker than it would be.”

“If it's so dark, then you should get some rest.”

“Then I'll miss it when we finally get there.”

“I'll wake you up when we're close.”

“But you already said we're close. That's why I'm awake.”

The older dragon laughed. It came out in soft, gruff, low-pitched breathes that came from deep in the dragon's belly. “It might be a while.”

“But you said we were close.”

“Yes. But the rain isn't helping our travels.”

“Will we get there tonight?”

“Most probably.”

“Then I'll stay awake.”

The older dragon laughed again.

The younger dragon yawned, despite his promise to stay awake. “Dad?” the nestling called to the older dragon.

“Yes?”

“Have you ever seen a human?”

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

“What did the human look like?”

“Hmmm... well which one? I've seen many.”

“The first one you saw.”

“Hmmm... well, I was a fledgling the first time I ever saw a human. He was tall. Had white fur growing out of his head. He was also very old. Maybe as old as Miren.”

The nestling laughed. “How'd you meet him?”

The father hesitated. “Why are you so curious to hear these things?”

“I want to know. Did you meet him in a dream?”

“No. Of course not,” the older dragon laughed. “You can't meet someone in a dream.”

“Not even a human?” the nestling asked, confused.

“Not even a human.”

“Oh.”

“What brings these strange questions?”

“Oh,” the nestling said, sounding embarrassed, “Nothing.”

“It's nothing to be embarrassed about.”

The younger dragon fell silent. The father heard a yawn, then after a few minutes, he could hear the nestling's soft rhythmic breathing indicating that the nestling had finally fallen asleep. “Good night, dear Thirwyn.”

*                                                                           *                                                              *

Thirwyn found himself in the green meadow in his dream. The grass was always as bright green as it was after a nice rain. However the vanilla sky above showed no sign of rainclouds and the sun shown just as bright as always. It was a simple scene, but it was mesmerizing to Thirwyn. This was where he always started in his dreams. Here he would wait for his friend to join him. He rested on the grass and pawed at a particularly tall blade. She would meet him here, and they would create adventures, worlds, and stories in their dream. One night they would battle against giant man-eating flowers, the next they would be exploring the great fish kingdom in the sea.

Soon he began to feel another presence entering his mind. He jumped up in anticipation. His friend would be here soon. He saw her stand at the other end of the meadow, wearing an orange linen dress. He smiled and ran to her.

The girl ran to him and tackled him to the ground. Thirwyn laughed and tried to wrestle out of her hold, but like always, she beat him with her size. “I win,” she said triumphantly as she sat on him.

Thirwyn laughed. “You know, Amy, I'm gonna be a big dragon, and then we'll see who wins.”

Amy let him up. “You know, for some reason my parents don't really like dragons. I was telling my parents about the adventure last night, and they were horrified when I was telling them about you.”

“Hmmm... that's strange. My dad is a bit weird about humans as well. Whenever I ask him about them he always changes the subject somehow.”

“Parents are weird.”

“Tell me about it.”

Amy shrugged. “Oh well. What do you want to do now?”

Thirwyn thought for a second. “I always wondered what would find if you dug to the center of the earth.”

Amy smiled. “And I know a tribe of mountain trolls around here that can help us dig. Come on.”

The two ran out of the meadow into a mountain range covered with snow. There was no end to what their young six-year-old imaginations could conjure. Amy would built up forts as big as palaces for them both to wander. They imagined going to war over the precious Treasure of Holmust against the trolls that inhabited a neighboring fortress. Thirwyn laughed as he dumped snow from high places on the grotesque invaders. Amy giggled as she launched rapid snowballs that stopped the oncoming forces. They were winning of course. Their palace would be safe, and they would valiantly retrieve the Treasure of...

Then Thirwyn heard a large crash and scream that shook the whole dream. He looked around and saw that Amy had disappeared, and he was back in the meadow. The crash must have come from Amy's outside world and woke her up, he concluded. It had happened before. One of them had been woken up before the other. However, usually it was the sound of some kind voice that beckoned them back to the conscious world. Worry pressed in on him. Was everything all right? The crash wasn't bad, was it? Was someone trying to hurt her?

He anxiously paced around in the grass. Should he wake up? Or should he just wait for her? In the end, Thirwyn decided to remain in the meadow and wait. His anxiety would not cease until he knew Amy was all right.