There was a slight disturbance in the night, like a whisper from a mouth to an ear. Secrets told and secrets kept. In a dark and rather forbidding forest, a sleek shadow slipped between trees, jumped over rivers. It was like a wind in the grass. Never seen. As it ran, it reached a clearing, and sped up. It ran straight toward the light ahead, the moonlight filtering through the leaves. Like a flashlight outside of a blanket wrapped close. Like a spotlight in a dark room. But as soon as the shape burst from the cover of the trees, it was met by nothing. No ground, no grass, no nothing. Just empty air. It had run off of a cliff and into a canyon. A dark river, like blood trickling from an open wound, ran at the bottom of the rift in the earth.
The dark shape, now shadowed by the cliff, struggled to get upright, struggled to get a grip on the rocks beside it. But the smooth face of the wall had no holds. Its claws just scrabbled uselessly on the water-polished surface. The form pushed forcefully against the wall, pushing itself into the moonlight.
It was a reptilian creature, with a long, lean, scaly body colored midnight black. It had a silvery mane of fur running from head to the tip of its tail, with the tail ending in a tip of fur. As the wind from falling pushed the mane from its rainbow-colored eyes, they shone with a feminine beauty. The eyes sparkled with intelligence, and danced like fire with fierceness. She flicked an ear to catch the sound of the distant thunder, and looked up, her white horns touching the back of her long neck. The creature looked down, and seeing that she was nearing water, held her breath, but at the same time…
BANG!
As the shot echoed through the canyon, the bullet hit its target. The breath was knocked from the beast, and she let out a jet of blue-green fire in surprise. She was a dragon. As she hit the water, she was dimly aware of the fact that she had no breath to help her survive. The dragon lay there, in the bottom of the river like a dead weight, her silver blood tinting the river. Just as she thought she was done for, that she was going to die, a flash of light above her made her wince, but before she knew it, she was falling into the dark and unforgiving hands of unconsciousness.