Chapter 1: the dream
Emma gripped the ikran's scaly chest with her bare feet and held on tightly as it plummeted straight down. Her hair streamed out behind her as the rainforest below loomed closer and closer. The wind blew wildly in Emma's face, threatening to rip her off of the back of the four-winged dragon thing that was the ikran.
She wanted to pull out of the dive now, and the ikran responded to her unspoken command. It swooped upward, flapping it's wings powerfully. Emma whooped at the top of her lungs. She was ALIVE!
She was the girl. She was the ikran. She had flapping wings and clinging arms, a mouth and a beak. She felt the ikran's body below her and the girl's weight on her back. She danced the ancient dance of joy across the alien sky. Emma's voice sang out in a wordless cry of exhilaration, her voice blending with a primal roar from the ikran. As they splashed through one of the many crystal-clear waterfalls cascading from the floating mountains, she closed her eyes.
Emma opened her eyes.
Then she opened her EYES.