I am honestly tired of this. All this crap that everyone is feeding me. All these lies about who I am and what they want me to be because I'm not Alex. I was there when they took the three of us and stole us away. Away from our parents, our life, our future. They turned us into fighters. Into people other people would fear. But you don't know the story about us. About who we are. About what we've done and what we will be because you just picked up this book. I don't know if you liked the cover or not. I don't give a damn. I just want you to know what you're dealing with here. You're dealing with a full grown rider who has been through hell. So just listen. You need to. If you were doing something important it can wait because this is more important. Way more important. Just lay back. Sit down. And read on, because, Matt, Alex, and I. We're out there. Somewhere. Somewhere in the meadows. The Sahari have kept us hidden and with good reasons. But let me tell you of how we came to these fields of grass. You're probably heard of them. The meadows that is. In the middle of the meadows there is a giant plateau. The Sahari call it the Sleeping Giant. Matt and I know it as home. The place where are parents live. Where we belong. Alex doesn't remember what happened when the Sahari came and took us. When they decided to kill us. She was only two. Yet she could stand, and fight, and walk, and talk as well as any grown man. That girl was a survivor. Always will be. But I'm tired of telling you about where we come from. Let me tell you of how we got here. How we came to the meadows. It isn't pretty. But then it has to do with me and my family. And nothing about that is pretty. By the way, I'm Cody. Cody Griffin. I'm the oldest of us. The youngest is Alexandra. We just call her Alex or Lex. Then in between Alex and me there is Matthew. I call him Matt most of the time, unless I'm really pissed off at him. Lex calls him Moonface Griffin, or Rocketship Griffin, and sometimes Starkid Griffin. He's obsessed with space. But this is who we are. This is where we came from. This is how we got here. This is our story. And if you really care. Maybe you could help us. Sometimes. I just with that our parents knew we existed. But you need to know what we've gone through. Because that's who we are. I will never change who I am. Neither will Matt or Alex. Because we're stronger then you. All of you. All of you humans combined. So if you really do have a heart. Read this. This is our past, our present, and our future. This is what's happened to us. It might happen to you. It could happen to anyone. Just read and learn about who we are. Do it. Please.

~Cody Griffin

Anything But Ordinary

"Alex," I screamed. She turned to face me. Her pale face and bright green eyes stared at me. I saw the fear underneath the strength. I tried to contact her. With my mind. I did. I swear on it. She didn't hear me. I mouthed the words that I longed to say to her. It will be alright. It will always be alright. No matter what happens we will always be together. You, me, and Matt. The family of blood. The power of three. The three children who dared to dream. Who dreamed to dare. That will always be us. No matter what they say. No matter what they do. That is us and that is who we are. Nothing will change that.

"Ladies first," The guard who stole us shoved Alex forward, her bare feet. I heard her squeak in pain. I struggled against the chains binding my hands together.

"NOT MY SISTER," Matt screamed at the man, "LET GO OF MY SISTER." They stared at us. I knew why. We were well brought up men from the Highlands. They never knew that when they harm our little sister we would be so pissed.

"THAT'S MY SISTER YOU MONSTER," like Matt, I struggled to get free, "YOU LAY ONE HAND ON HER AND YOU'RE DEAD. AS A DOORNAIL. ABSULTLEY DEAD. SO DEAD A MAGI COULDN'T BRING YOU BACK."

"Do you really want to test us?" the main guard stared at me. Then kicked me in my balls hard. I doubled over. In the background I could hear Alex screaming. I remembered her voice in my ear when I was covered with scratches from climbing the castle walls. Listen to me Cody. Pain is only weakness leaving the body. It's only weakness leaving the body.

"THROW ME OFF FIRST," Matt was snarling at the guards, "SHE'S ONLY TWO. THROW ME OFF FIRST." I knew we would get nowhere with yelling.

The guard nodded at the one holding Alex. "GET OFF ME YOU JERK," she shrieked. The guard was emotionless. Alex twisted in his grasp and sank her teeth in his right shoulder. My little fighter. She never gave up. That was one of the things people loved about her. She never gave up. Even if her life depended on it. She was so stubborn. She got that from our Mom. She got lots of things from our Mom. Her hair color. Except Alex's was a paler shade. Everything about Alex was pale. Her pale hair, her pale skin, except her eyes. She had dark green eyes with a ring of brown around the pupil. A trait she got from our father.

Anyways, Alex was latched on to this guys shoulder. I felt sorry for the guy. It was really pathetic looking, just this two year old kid acting like a pit bull. But that's what she was. When Matt and I are long and dead. When the Sahari are just stories of a people that used to belong. Alex would be standing tall among the dry grassland of the meadows.

The guard finally dislodged Alex, her small body flung from his shoulder and over the edge of the cliff where they would have made her jump anyways. Then the guard turned to face Matt and I. "So," he drawled, "Who's next?" Matt and I were speechless. We had just seen our sister get thrown off a cliff.

"Do the oldest," the smallish dwarf-like guard muttered. The leader nodded and grabbed my shoulder, yanking me to stand where Alex once stood. I would have fought. Now I wish I had, it would have made her proud. But I just thought I had lost her. Of course I wasn't going to fight. I was not the usual fighter. I would rather argue then fight. Alex and Matt just avoided fighting.

The guard shoved me so I was standing on the edge of a plank, the same plank Alex almost died on. Under his breath Matt started singing. I listened closely, recognizing the words to his favorite song, Marching On by One Republic. Then we all froze as we heard it, the roar of a dragon.

"What type is it?" I heard the guards asking on another. Matt and I knew the type.

"A night fury," I breathed.

"Dark as day," Matt whispered, "Bright as night. The spawn of lighting and thunder and evil itself." The night fury finally crested the ridge. The guards turned back in terror.

The dragon was black with bright purple eyes, wide and big like a puppy. I stopped caring about the dragon when I saw who was on the dragons back.

"ALEX," Matt cried, I quickly echoed his whoop of joy. I needed it. I really did. The knowledge of knowing that my sister wasn't dead just made my day. It would have made any ones day. Something changed within the guards when they saw a two year old ride a night fury.

"You honor," the guards all bent down on one knee. Alex gazed at them strangely. You couldn't blame her. She just wanted to be free. Just like our mother.

"Let me go," She said, "Let all of us go." It scared me the way she said it. You could tell she wanted to strangle something. Her voice was emotionless and her eyes where dark, so black you couldn't distinguish pupil from iris. But that isn't what made her scary. It was the fact that she had a living night fury right at her shoulder. A LIVING NIGHT FURY. If you can't tell that that's a big deal you're either stupid or stupid.

"Of course your honor," The guards continued bowing, "We will take you to your new home." And that's what happened. One day we were taken from our home. Our real home. Our home in the highlands. And the next day. Alex rode a night fury. We lived with the Sahari. And I never knew that things would be the same again.

But before I hand this over to Matt, or Alex. I don't know whose next. I want to talk to you about who we are. We the family of blood. The power of three. I exist. I'm that person you swear you saw out of the corner of your eyes. The thing that you feel like someone stole from you. It was probably Alex taking it to survive. And that stranger you can never remember but seemed to see right through you. That's Matt. We're different. We're special. We're riders. But we're the fighters who will do anything to survive. We're a family. We're inhuman. We're anything but ordinary.

And there you have it. Us. How we got here. And what we want to do. But that's not all. Shit. Got to go. They're coming. But something big is happening here. I know it. I can feel it in my bones. A cold wind blows. It will probably be Matt next. Or Alex. I'm not sure. They'll tell you what in the hell is happening here.

~Cody Griffin