The very next day, I woke up to an empty cave; Shenuth was nowhere in sight.

"Shenuth?" I called out.

"Jes, I'm outside," I head him say. I noticed that the boulder was out of place. "I have grown over the night, and I am too big for the cave now."

When I exited the cave, I noticed that he was exactly twice as big as me. A large smile was plaited across his face, as he gently lowered his body. "We should start moving; it may still be a little too early to explain to the other dragons if they find us."

I nodded, and got on, feeling how incredibly smooth his scales were. We slowly went through the forest, but soon I began to hear the sound of beating wings coming from overhead. Two large dragons were flying toward us, getting lower by the minute.

"Shenuth, we have to run!" I said. "I think those boys are back, and they found us."

Then, one of his spines grew longer, and it curled up in front of me. "Hold on tightly."

I grasped the spine, and he suddenly ran like a horse running down the backstretch in a race. As he ran, his two stumps began to grow wings by the second. First came out the very tip of his wing, with a hooked claw on each end. As a thin membrane appeared, the end of the wing, a gold spike, appeared, and when Shenuth noticed his newly developed wings, he asked, "Are you ready for the real test?"

I nodded, and he took off into the air, which at first was kind of rough, but slowly it grew smoother, and we swiftly raced away from the two other dragons.

However, they slowly began to catch up, and we heard, "All right Chase; you've been hiding with that dragon for far too long, get over here." The dragon the boy was riding, a blue dragon, roared loudly, and caught up with us. "You can't fool us!"

But when the other boy saw me, he said, "You're not Chase! Why are you with the dragon?"

When I didn't answer, the gold dragon roared. Shenuth glared at the two dragons, and began to rise higher.

"Answer me! Why are you with the dragon?!"

"Because your stupid friend Chase gave me his egg!" I replied curtly. Shenuth looked at me, and said, "Hold on tightly; I'm going to descend rapidly."

I nodded to the dragon, and held on for dear life, as Shenuth began to descend rapidly, and we landed in a vast valley. The other dragons followed suit.

"Why did Chase give you the egg?" asked the boy on the gold dragon.

"How should I know?" I asked in reply. "I thought it was your plan to have him frame the next person he comes in contact with while holding the dragon egg."

"Chase is a big wimp! He was too afraid of what we were planning on doing!" said the other boy. I noticed that the one with the blue dragon had sandy brown hair, and brown eyes, while the one with the gold dragon had black hair, and brown eyes.

"Well, now that you have the dragon, then you're going to have to join me and Brad, then," said the sandy brown haired boy.

"There's no way I'm going to join you jerks," I said curtly. "It's because of you two that the dragons are furious with the human race."

"No, you don't understand," said the boy named Brad. "We are trying to make a group of people that are stronger than any human alive! Think about it; when a specific human comes upon a specific egg, the human and the dragon inside somehow bond, and the egg hatches almost immediately. Didn't that happen with you and that dragon?"

I looked at Shenuth, and he did the same with me. I could sense how uneasy he was with what Brad was saying.

"Whatever happens to the dragon, the human feels the same pain, the same emotions. It's the same with them; they feel what we feel. Trust us; we've experimented on ourselves."

Wow, they really are stupid, I thought, noticing scars on their arms.

"Anyway, we've also found out that you can only understand the dragon you're bonded to; we've also experimented with that. If we're that strong, then we can control the rest of the world! "

"You're not as dumb as you look," I said sourly. "Well, if you haven't noticed, we're not like you; we don't want to create a stronger race of human being that will want to control all of the other humans. We want to help restore the peace that was with us three months ago before you idiots destroyed it!"

But then, the blue dragon looked at its person, and said something, I couldn't understand it. Shenuth looked at the dragon and glared, baring his teeth.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He asked if he could torture me if we refused," Shenuth replied.

"You're making a big mistake refusing our request," Brad said with a smirk. "If you don't join us, then, well…"

All of a sudden, the blue dragon rammed its head and neck against Shenuth, making him roar in pain, and fall to the side. I felt his pain, and I yelled, too, flying off him, and ended up landing on Brad's dragon. Brad grabbed me, and put his right arm around my neck, ready to choke me if necessary. When Shenuth noticed me as a hostage, he roared again, that time with anger.

"Let her go!" he bellowed. As he got ready to attack the gold dragon, Brad tightened his arm, choking me for only a second. Shenuth stopped quickly, afraid of me getting hurt; I saw the worry on his face as his glare temporarily disappeared.

"Ah-ha!" said the other boy. "I knew that it was such a good idea to threaten you, dragon!"

"Zain shut up and let me talk!"

Shenuth glared at the first boy, Zain, and growled. I felt his anger, and, thinking up of something quick, I said, "I don't think you'd want to kill me."

"Why not?" asked Brad.

"If you do, then you'd have one less dragon to try to capture."

Brad let go of me quickly, but I was pushed with so much force, that I was thrown off of the gold dragon. Shenuth grabbed me quickly, and gently placed me onto the ground.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. "A little shaken, perhaps, but I'm fine."

But then, the sound of echoing roars entered the area; the boys grew terrified, and said, "We've got to get out of here!" in unison.

They left with their dragons quickly, as Shenuth hid me underneath him. "You'll be safe under me," he said. "If they only see me, then they'll worry about the other boys."

A group of dragons came to the valley, and looked around; one of them was a red male. "I sensed humans!" he roared, as he turned to face Shenuth. "Did you see any humans?"

Shenuth looked at the direction where the boys ran off. "They stole the eggs that were lost thee months ago."

But then, one of the other dragons noticed me. "There is another human underneath him!"

Shenuth was pushed aside, and, feeling his pain, I grasped my side quickly. The red dragon then pinned me to the ground, and hissed when he looked at me.

"You!" he roared. "You are one of the three humans that helped the others steal my eggs and killed my mate!"

"No, I'm not!" I replied, terrified by his quick judgement. My voice slowly began to quiver as I spoke. "I'd never kill a dragon, nor would I steal anything!"

"Then how come this dragon was protecting you?"

"Someone gave me his egg, and when he hatched, we somehow bonded. There are two other boys that know about this, and they are out trying to steal eggs to form a stronger human race." I began to talk rapidly, in case my answers were to slow for me to live.

"This human speaks no lies…" said a bronze dragon I knew to be the leader of the clan. He had walked up further to face me, and glared at me face-to-face. "…However, she may have joined the other two humans."

"She didn't," Shenuth said. The other dragons looked at him, who came up to my side. "If we had joined them, then we would have left this valley just as they did."

"Tell me, human, have you and the black one been hiding for a while?" asked the bronze dragon less curtly than before.

"Yes, I've been hiding from my home at the orphanage," I replied, with fear still shown in my voice. Shenuth sensed my fear, and pleaded, "Please let her go."

The red dragon glanced up at the black dragon, his glare disappearing. "Shenuth," he said, taking his claw away from me. When I was able to get up, I backed away quickly, reaching Shenuth.

Shenuth nodded; I looked at him, and he said to me only, "It's my father."

"This human, you have been with her ever since you hatched?"

The black dragon nodded again, curling his tail around me protectively. "Like she said, when she was given my egg, we formed a bond. We had decided that we could help restore the peace that was once here."

"How strong is this bond?" the bronze leader asked me.

"It…it's so strong that out of me, and the other two boys, only I can hear him, and we feel each other's emotions…and pain."

"And now you want to restore the peace between us and the other humans?"

I nodded. "I understand that you're mad at the boys who are trying to form the stronger race, but it's mad to take out the anger against the others. I know many people in the town who are fascinated by dragons, and they would be more than happy to help stop the boys from making their strong race."

"However, now you are part of the strong race. If they are to help, and they find a specific egg, then they will be part of it, as well."

"The boys are making the race to make themselves the rulers of the others around them." I noticed that the fear inside me had slowly dwindled away once I had explained how strong the bond between me and Shenuth was. "If Shenuth and I get others to help us stop them, then maybe we can have them make a promise. If they break it, then the consequence could be entirely up to you."

The bronze dragon pondered this thought for a moment. "So, you are saying that we would be in charge of the rules and promises that our helpers must abide and keep when they become…for what better word…Dragon Riders?"

"Yes."

"And we will be in charge of the consequences if a helper breaks the rules and promises?"

"Yes."

The other dragons talked amongst themselves, and I heard very nice comments from them.

"This may actually work."

"The human speaks some sense."

Then, the bronze dragon held up a claw to silence them. Shenuth and I exchanged glances, and smiled at each other.

"Very well then, get some of the humans you know will help us, and…"

But all of a sudden, there was a distant roar that echoed from the mountains. Shenuth glared up at the sky, and saw the two boys on their dragons, taking an entire sack full of eggs.

"We must hurry and get the humans, Jes," he said, looking at me.

"As we will go to see if the others will help," the bronze leader added, as the others left to their nests.