Chapter 14:
Dragons…
The gigantic lizard like creature blinked its large catlike eyes as it looked down at them, not in curiosity, but knowingly, as if they had met before.
The girls had already guessed that this strange creature was a dragon (what else looked like a big lizard with wings?) took a few steps away from it.
"Welcome, "The dragon rumbled loudly, grinning at them (which revealed several sharp teeth) Its huge eyes roved over to Elizabeth "Aahh, you look like your mother."
"I..I.. did you know her?" Elizabeth whispered glancing fearfully up into its face.
The dragon ignored her question, and looked simply delighted. "But you act nothing like her, which is good." The dragon looked at Anastasia.
"Anastasia?" The dragon inquired.
Anastasia quickly curtsied, "Yes, your greatness." She murmured.
"who could forget those dark green eyes, just like Amera." The dragon smiled and it's eyes darted to Ella.
"As dainty and beautiful as your mother, I see." The dragon purred, then glanced at Jade.
"Nothing like Jasmine." The dragon muttered, "But somehow… a lot like Jiana…"
"Wha-" Jade began before the dragon started talking again.
"I am Frostscale." The dragon greeted simply.
"Umm…hi." Anastasia gulped looking at the dragons dagger sharp claws.
The dragon glanced down at the animals, whom quickly hid behind their humans.
The dragon chuckled, and turned around.
"Follow me."
The four girls watched as the dragon turned and revealed a tunnel behind her.
"Follow." The dragon repeated. So the girls followed the Lightblue dragon deep into the tunnel…
The four girls gazed at the narrow walls of the tunnel. Throughout, there were portraits of dragons of all different colors. There was one portrait on the wall with the dragons of a man with brown hair and dark eyes. Then there was a blank spot on the cave, wall, and to the girls, it looked as if a portrait had been removed.
The dragon paused suddenly and turned to the other wall. There were four portraits of women, who looked almost like the splitting image of the girls, and they were standing in a meadow. Jade made a puzzled face, because none of the beautiful portraits looked like her. However, she failed to see the sad looking figure in the back ground of the one that did not look like any of the girls.
The dragon then started to move onward, they almost had reached the end of the tunnel,
Frostscale nudged a wooden door open and then stepped into a lighted room.
Candles glowed pleasantly and a fire crackled as the flames danced in the fire place.
"Sit down please." A voice called from the back of the room.
A dragon with shinning green eyes and green scales blinked at them.
"Wondering what will happen?"
The girls looked at each other, puzzled.
"Umm,,, Yeah, I guess…" Jade replied hesitantly.
"Ok." The dragon replied, then noticed Frostscale, and gave a rumbling growl.
"I'm afraid your friend here will have to leave." He hissed, "She was supposed to be patrolling the hill side."
"But… do you know that I've been waiting for them for-"
The green dragon growled.
"But Fa-"
"No."
Frostscale glared at the other dragon.
"Fine." She snapped, and stomped out of the cave room, slamming the door shut.
"Well then, " The green dragon began, "I'm Forestclaw, and I am the leader of the dragon council of seven." He raised his head and neck proudly, and the girls noticed a red amulet hanging around his neck.
"Excuse me?" Anastasia asked raising an eyebrow.
"You don't know do you? No, I see you don't… oh well." Forestclaw sighed.
"The Dragon Council of Seven is an organization of dragons and humans, mostly dragons of course, but anyways, there is peace between the humans and dragons, most of the time anyways, but now there is only one human, and four dragons-" He was cut off by a confused looking Elizabeth.
"But you told us that it was the dragon council of seven."
"Well, that's its name." Forestclaw sniffed, then went on, "The reason you are here is because…well. You are powerful…"
"Powerful?" Elizabeth asked skeptically.
"Powerful." Forestclaw replied, "Aren't there things you can do that others can't?"
The four girls glanced at each other, and each nervously clutched their jerwlery, and closed their eyes.
Jade opened her eyes to find herself, not in the cave, but, but deep within a forest, and sitting high in a tree. As normal, the tree began to whistle a tune, and the wind joined in. Flowers, ferns, and other plants danced. The whistle became a song, and the grass and the leaves, played the instruments. Something deep inside her, told her that this was special, and not many people could hear this marvelous song, or ever would.
Elizabeth's eyes opened to a vast field, and clouds, thunder, lightning and rain were above, and in the middle of it all, Elizabeth danced. It began to hail, but not once did it touch her. She was neither hot, nor cold, and she felt that all was as it should be. Something seemed to whisper to her, " Only you and your descendants will ever feel this way… only you…" And for some reason, this caused her to laugh with joy.
Anastasia found herself beneath a fir tree in Starwood looking upwards towards the sky.
A raven cawed above her, and she knew that it was worrying about whether there would be enough food for its journey. A wolf howled in the distance, and she knew that it was wondering where its pack was. A nearby river otter was trying to think of a joke that would crack up his parents, and a mouse was wondering how to get out of cleaning it's room. A voice in her head murmured. "You can understand them, very few can understand them…"
Ella was in darkened tower room, A shadowy figure stood in the corner, beckoning. Ella went closer, and grabbed the figures hand. A shower of sparks and a burst of light appeared as the two hands met. "Magic surrounds you…" the figure murmured, and the image flickered away.
The four girls opened their eyes to find themselves back inside the cave with Forestclaw.
"That, "Forestclaw murmured, "Is why you are here."
After a moment of silence, Forestclaw cleared his throat.
"You will be shown to your rooms in a moment." He promised hem watching the door.
Sure enough, a small cat with two tails and green fur appeared at their feet.
"This way please." She meowed.
"But we were staying at a castle-" Ella began.
"An illusion." Forestclaw muttered dismissively, "Now go."
So the four followed the green cat back through the door and to the portraits of the four women.
"Here you go." The cat announced proudly waving her tails, "Bye!" and she trotted off.
"Umm… these are our rooms?" Anastasia asked looking up and down the passageway.
"Behind the picture maybe?" Ella mused.
Elizabeth walked up to the portrait almost identical to her and grabbed the frame, and pulled towards her. The portrait swung forward like a door, and Elizabeth disappeared into a room behind it, the portrait closing behind her. Anastasia and Ella quickly did the same, and Jade reluctantly followed their example.
Their rooms looked very much like the ones at the 'illision' castle on the beach, Since they had stayed there for many days they felt familiar with the rooms, and soon fell asleep.
Anastasia was nudged awake by a smaller, obsidian black dragon with bronze eyes.
"Come on," It urged, " I was told to fly you around the hills."
"And… who are you?" Anastasia yawned getting off her bed.
The dragon did not respond, except to tell her how to ride a dragon.
A few moments, later, Anastasia sitting terrified on the dragon's back, took to the sky. Wind swept Anastasia's hair about her, as the dragon, who's name was Blackdawn, swooped and dived through the air. An irritated looking Ghost clung to Anastasia's shoulder, panic showing in her large eyes.
"Did you know, that some familiars have powers too?" Blackdawn asked as they nearly crashed into an oak tree, "Let me find out when we land."
Minutes later they landed (or rather crash landed), in an empty clearing, and Blackdawn stared into Ghost's frightened eyes.
"Excuse me… but what's a familiar?"
Instead of awnsering, Blackdawn yelped, "She's just a perfectly ordinary bird! This familiar is not even in the slightest special!"
"I have a book on familiars, now that I think of it…, but I didn't know that was what Ghost is…"Anastasia muttered.
"But she isn't your familiar!" Blackdawn exclaimed, "She must be someone elses! She must be seeking… what's it called… Sancturary!"
"But-"
Suddenly there was a loud, 'woosh' and an arrow flew by.
"Hurry!" Blackdawn roared out, "We need to leave!"
Anastasia swiftly got onto the dragons back,and they escaped as quickly as possible from the dragon hunting knights.
Chapter 15:
Knights and war…
"Knights?!" A furious red dragon, named Firebreath, roared sounding outraged.
"How dare they?!" Forestclaw growled.
Suddenly, a man stepped into the room at his side was a hawk.
"They want o drive you out," He stated collapsing onto a boulder next to Forestclaw.
"This is Talion Ontear and Marock." Firebreath explained, "Talion is the only human in the council of seven."
"You see." Blackdawn whispered to the girls, "The knights told us that they would not enter our country without permission, and that they would not harm us… so they obviously broke the promise."
"What shall do first?" Forestclaw sighed.
"Declare war!" Firebreath shouted.
"Before we do that." Forestclaw disagreed.
"Tell the dragons what's going on." Talion announced sensibly.
"Yes… That is the thing to do…"Forestclaw agreed.
"Tomorrow, we shall declare war!" Firebreath roared, as he stamped out of the room to tell the others.
"War?" Jade asked skeptically, "Now?"
"I'm afraid so,,," Talion sighed.
"You're kidding." Elizabeth groaned, "A War while we are here…"
"You will be needed in this upcoming war… you can help us… can you not?" Forestclaw stated.
"I suppose we can." Anastasia grumbled, looking down at the ground, but I don't see how reading animals minds can help."
"Or controlling the weather." Elizabeth put in.
"Isn't there a peaceful way we can solve this?" Ella asked feeling exasperated.
"Umm…" The 4 remaining dragons in the room looked at each other.
"Well, you see,.," A dark purple dragon spoke up, "This is the way we solve things…"
"Well, try something new." Anastasia snapped.
"And have all the dragons against us?" Forestclaw gasped, "My goodness, aren't humans odd?"
"I think we should try it." Talion suggested from where he sat, "The dragons, and Chesafer deserve peace."
Forestclaw opened his mouth to speak, then snapped it shut and nodded.
Talion smiled, "Then it's settled." He announced, "I shall go get a meeting put together…"
"As for now." Forestclaw announce, "We shall treat these young ladies with respect, regardless of what you may think of them."
Ella turned her head and looked around the cave. She noticed one of them-Fjrebreath- as he came back into the cave he looked at them in annoyace, and muttered to himself as he settled down.
"Now, how about some supper?" Blackdawn suggested brightly.
All the dragons rolled their eyes; the meeting was officially over.
Chapter 16:
The girls woke the next day to the roars of victory. The dragons seemed to have been successful in their peace talk and were to have another one in a couple of days.
"Come on Elizabeth scolded.
Elizabeth, Ella, and Anastasia had already bben walking, while Jade had lagged behind.
"Wake up already." Ella commanded.
Jade blinked tiredly, but never the less tried to stay awake.
When they reached the main conference room, there was a meeting goingon, so the four girls quietly waited in the doorway.
"Ahh." Forestclaw murmured, looking up from the scroll he was reading, "You're here."
The others in the meeting looked up.
There was a girl with short, straight black hair and light purple/blue eyes, She nodded her head at them coldly, then looked away. Next to her, were two other girls hidden in the shadows of the room.
"Hi." Ella greeted them, stepping towards the first girl.
The girl looked her up and down with a cold look in her eyes, before a small smile appeared on her face, before it disappeared.
"I am the Lady Crystle of the levitating palace in the great heavens."
"Excuse me?" Jade asked, a little more awake.
"Actually, It's the Castle in the sky." A clear voice sighed.
Ella walked around Crystle, and saw the other two girls, with two familiars.
"I'm Lily." One of the girls announced getting to her feet. She had short, sort of wavy blond hair, and strange colorful eyes that reminded one of lilies.
Next to her, in a tub of water, was a dolphin. And to no surprise, it was name Silverfin.
The girls turned to gaze at the girl next to Lily, She had a lovely face, but something about her made them weary. She had long curly brown hair that hung in ringlets around her face, and icy blue eyes with a strange hint of silver in them.
"My name is Holly." She told them smiling politely.
"And this is Perry, my familiar." She told them indicating a penguin with a bow tie on.
"These fine ladies, as you may already know, live in the Castle in the Sky, above Monutinousisilious Mountain." Forestclaw informed them.
"Mouti, moni…" Jade tried to pronounce.
"Umm,,, no, It's Monutinousisilious. And as I was about to say, these ladies are here to talk to us about our decisions for what to do with the knights.
"Oh, about that, how did it go?" Anastasia asked.
"Fine, thank you." Forestclaw replied rather stiffly, "But anyways…"
"We feel like you should get a good look around the castles interior." Firebreath gruffly informed them.
"Castle?" Elizabeth asked, "You mean these caves?"
"I'm sorry." The dark purple dragon spoke up, "I believe that Firebreath means the castle in the sky, for you are going to be staying there."
"We have to go somewhere else now?" Anastasia groaned, "We just got here yesterday, and now we're going there?"
"Well, It's not up to you human." Firebreath snarled.
"Why not?" Jade exploded angrily.
"You will do as the council demands." A dragon shouted out.
"You're not in charge of us!" Ella exclaimed.
"I always wanted to be on the top of a mountain…" Elizabeth murmured dreamily.
"Then it's settled." Crystal announced rising to her feet, "You will be coming to the castle with us."
Talion stood as well, "Toran will go with you."
"Who's-" Anastasia began, but Crystal and Lily exchanged exasperated glances and groaned, but Holly gave a shriek of delight as a boy, perhaps a year older than the Ella, Anastasia and Elizabeth, entered the room with a small brown dog at his side.
He had dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, and on his feet he wore a pair of shoes that curled up at the end and had a little bell on the tips.
"Oh Toran!" Holly cried out flinging her arms around the boy, "Oh how I've missed you dear Toran!"
The small dog growdel at Holly,
"Umm… hi..," He muttered pushing Holly away.
"Who are you he asked looking at the four other girls,
"I'm Ella Monet."
"I'm Toran Ontear, " He smiled.
"I'm Anastasia." Anastasia greeted before she tripped over Kail and they had to help her up.
"I'm Elizabeth Thistlefern."
"Jade Renwood."
Talion rushed over just then and told them their rides were ready.