Me: And… I'm back! I'm surprised at myself for not taking a week to start on another chappie… Well, let the chapter commence! Also, I own nothing.

Evan walked through the forest, his stride careful, and his vision clouded by dense mists. Strange, glowing symbols were carved onto boulders. Moss covered logs and wide trunked trees populated the forest, and seemed to go on for miles. "Where am I?" Evan thought, looking around.

"The Pact…"

"What was that? I heard something!" Evan exclaimed, feeling more nervous with each passing second. "Who's there?" Was this person, or whatever they were, going to help him? Was it just someone else lost like him? Or was Evan falling into a trap, a predator waiting for the prey?

Evan took some time to focus not on the strange, disembodied voice, but on the environment around him. He didn't even know a place like this existed near his house.

"You who are seeking a Pact…"The voice was louder now. Closer.

"Who's there?" he repeated, eyes shifting back and stopping upon seeing a patch of bushes, a perfect place for someone to hide.

"Did it come from over there?" Evan wondered out loud. With a combination of fear and trepidation, Evan approached the bushes and pushed them out of the way, and looked to see the owner of the eerie voice.

Evan couldn't believe his eyes.

Curled up in the center of a clearing was a real, living dragon.

With surprising boldness, Evan stepped closer to the creature to take a closer look. The dragon's scaly hide was a dark shade of purplish-blue, golden claws, and long, golden horns protruding from the back of its head. Its eyes were closed, which meant it was sleeping, thank the gods, and its massive wings were folded against its equally large body. On the dragon's snout, was a strange symbol, glowing golden with power .

Evan had only heard stories about such creatures. How their majestic beauty was only rivaled by their sheer power. He heard legends of people who worked with dragons and have done great things, as well as brave warriors who fought dragons gone mad. Utah must be right when he said his little brother had no common sense, because Evan began to step closer to the beast, enraptured by its presence. He just couldn't help it. There was something about the dragon that was beautiful yet terrible at the same time. It was so mesmerizing, and he wanted to touch it. Evan lifted his hand to the dragon's side, and felt the smooth, yet hard and scaly surface of its torso .

Suddenly, the dragon opened its eyes, and got up at frightening speed. Evan fell over on his back, frozen with absolute fear. He would have ran, he would have curled up into a ball and cried for his mother, but he couldn't. He was just too petrified.

His entire life flashed before his eyes. He would never see his family again. He would never hear his mother scold him, he would never listen to his father grumble about the weather or how little money they had, and he would never be able to annoy his brother again, vice versa .

Evan expected the dragon to open its mouth and make him disappear forever in a blazing inferno. True enough, the dragon did open its mouth, but instead, it spoke.

"You, who are destined to be the Dragon Master. You have finally arrived."

"What?" Evan's voice quivered. What on earth was this monster talking about? Destiny? Dragon Master? The creature spoke as if Evan should know what he was talking about.

"Go and fulfill your duties as Dragon Master…" The dragon's voice was deep, rich, and commanding, almost like a king's voice. What duties was it talking about? The only duties he had was feeding the pigs and running errands in town. And the penalty was far worse than being eaten by a dragon or incinerated. He would have to clean the pig's pen, which was always swimming with manure.

Suddenly, everything began to fade to black. Evan's perception on this strange place began to fade away, as if the entire forest was a bird that landed on Evan's shoulder, and was now flying away. The last thing he heard before it all went black was, "Carry out the terms of the agreement."

Suddenly, Evan woke up in a cold sweat, eyes darting around his room like he expected a dragon to be in his room. Instead, he was half strangled by the sheets and just an inch away from falling out of bed.

"Oh, good." The fourteen year old sighed in relief. The whole thing was just a dream. There was no psychotic dragon messing with his head, no eerie forest filled with mists and weird rocks.

Running his fingers through his dark brown hair, Evan pulled the sheets off of him. But there was one thing that caught his eye, something way out of the ordinary.

There was a strange symbol on the back of his right hand. It looked like a tattoo, but Evan definitely remembers never getting one. His mother and father would wear out their vocal cords screaming at him if he ever got one. But that wasn't what scared Evan. What made his flesh crawl was that the symbol looked exactly like the one in his dream, carved on the rocks, on the dragon's snout. Okay, now this is really freaky.

His thoughts were interrupted by his brother calling him.

"Evan!" Utah called. "Evan, wake up! I know you're up there, I can hear ya bein' lazy up there!"

Evan rolled his eyes at his older brother's insults, but he never got angry at him, just amused. Busting each other's chops was a little habit they came up with since Evan was able to speak. It was their way of communicating. They would poke fun at each other, and then Utah would give his "baby bro" a merciless noogie. But fortunately for Evan, he was just as tall as his brother now, which annoyed Utah to no end, so he would be able to fight back.

Evan quickly got some fresh clothes on, an orange t-shirt and jeans. He was about to get downstairs, until he remembered the tattoo. Utah would likely blackmail Evan if he saw the tattoo, and he would never survive if either of his parents found out. So, Evan quickly put on some fingerless gloves. He'd just say that he didn't want to get scratches on his hands when he went to feed the dog. That little bastard bit like a rabid wolf.

"'Bout time, baby bro. The sandman must have a crush on you." Utah said with his trademark obnoxious smile. Utah and Evan had near similar facial features, and the same dark brown hair, but Utah had his mother's hazel eyes, while Evan had their father's light blue eyes. They were about the same build, years of manual labor making them both lean, and they had a slight tan that would come from working on sunny days. Being three years older, Utah was taller, but just by half an inch. Evan was still growing, and always teased Utah that he stopped growing a long time ago. Sometimes Evan would even say that his older brother was shrinking, earning the younger brother a noogie.

Utah was sitting at the table, gulping down orange juice. Their mother, Anna, was by the stove, stirring a pot of porridge.

"Morning, sweetheart." His mother smiled at him.

"Morning mom." Evan hadn't noticed it, but merely his voice betrayed how tired he was. The dream he had didn't exactly give him a good night's sleep.

"Did you sleep alright, Evan?" Anna's brow knitted in concern as she saw how tired he looked. Evan considered telling her mother about the dream, but banished the idea as fast as it came. If Utah heard about the dream, his little brother would never hear the end of it, and Evan would rather forget about it. So he just said "Not really", and shrugged the question off.

"Was it the storm?" His mother asked. Evan was so caught up in his dream that he didn't even remember that there was a storm last night.

"I guess," he simply said. Evan sat down on the chair across from Utah's. After breakfast, the two brothers walked outside.

"It's a bit too bad you didn't get much sleep, little bro. Dad gave you a special assignment today!" Utah said, grinning.

"What now? One of the pigs acting crazy? Did the dog piss on the porch again?" Nothing Evan couldn't handle.

"Nope! This time Lee ran away."

"Again?" Evan groaned. The piglets were a handful, but there was one piglet named Lee, that always managed to get himself out of his pen. How he did it was still a mystery to the farmers. Utah tried on several accounts to sell the piglet, but no one was interested in a pig that small.

"Again." Utah answered smugly. "And guess who has the honor of escorting him back home?" He announced it like Evan had just won a million mesos.

"Why can't you do it? You're the older one. Aren't you responsible enough?" Evan asked teasingly.

"Of course I'm responsible." Utah threw his nose into the air haughtily. "But you know, I have to feed the pigs, feed the dog, milk the cow, all that jazz. Finding Lee, doing all the annoying, pointless grunt work, that's your job."

"What's the matter bro? Afraid Lee ran into the woods? Is the big bad older brother afraid of a few trees?" Evan said, smirking.

"Of course not!" Utah huffed. "I fear nothing!"

"There's a fox right behind you."

"Eeeek!"

Me: I think I did more editing here than last chapter, but it's still really hard to notice -3- Just saying, don't expect updates like this a lot. Like I've said a lot of times, I'm lazy and not really time-efficient, so usually my updates on stories are dragged out unless I'm really motivated.