All right, it's time I really dug in and got to continuing this hopefully great story for all of you guys who support me so much. Now let's get started!

"Mom…."

"Dad…"

"_..."

"Hey Dad! Guess what we found?"

"Mom~ Can't I just choose to not watch over my brother? He's is old enough to take care of himself…."

"Mom…. Dad…. Why am I so different…?"

"For the last time, I'm not going to play hide and seek! We're way to old for that anyway!"

"Brother? Hey _! Where'd you go?!"

"Don't do that! Get away as fast as you can!"

"_!"

"Roy…?"

Roy blinked in surprise at his name being called before looking up at Cynder. Grail, and Flame standing next to her, all three staring at the yellow dragon with both curiosity and worry (More curiosity on Grail's part, and worry on Cynder's). "Are you okay?"

Roy stared at the black dragoness for a couple of moments before mentally shaking his head and giving the three a kind, reassuring smile.

"I'm fine, just remembering the dream I had last night." He informs sincerely, Grail nodding with a happy 'Okay!' before running off ahead to join the others, Flame raising an eyebrow before going to walk next to Ember. Cynder however continued to stare at the electric male, who was starting to feel very awkward about the scene before the former terror of the skies spoke.

"What were you dreaming about? You sounded and seem very confused, the same way you did earlier when I first woke you up." Cynder asks quietly.

"Was I that obvious?" Roy asks sheepishly. Cynder giving a small nod, a smile grazing her face as her expression became more relaxed.

"Is an ape hairy?" She asks with a small chuckle, Roy looking down at the floor with a little blush.

For the past 3 hours since they woke up, the group had been trudging their way through the thick forest outside the cave they slept in the previous night, moving in the same direction the dragons and dragonfly were once flying in for the mythical beings deciding to travel through land as to keep Hunter and his little group with them and not run the chance of their friends getting lost. While most of them have been unusually highly aware of their surrounds in the past one hundred and eighty minutes, Roy had been staring off in random directions the whole time. Cynder had noticed it and decided not to speak about it at first, thinking that the electric male would soon return his mind for reality, only to get worried as time went on and Roy had yet to exit his mind. Soon, the curiosity and slight worry became unbearable before Cynder had gone to ask the male who was no older than her if he was all right.

"So come on, what's on your mind?" Cynder asks again with a slightly brighter smile

"I think… Memories…. I can't remember them specifically, but I know they're there…." Roy admits quietly with a sigh as he began to walk after the group at the back, Cynder trailing along next to him as she and the electric dragon took Yami and Dante's place of creating a trail with their tail blades.

"Well that's good…" Cynder says with a gentle smile. "Cause then that means there's a chance you can remember them sooner, am I right?" She asks with a slight tilt of her head and a smirk, Roy blinking in thought and surprise before smiling.

"Yeah I guess it is." He agrees having never really thought about it that way. "Thank you Cynder."

Cynder nods before looking ahead, Roy unconsciously beginning to stare at her for a minute before quickly and awkwardly looking away with a small blush.

"Well, someone seems interested." Ember notes with a small smile, having watched the two's conversation play out before looking at Mysti, who continued to ask who.

"Roy in Cynder." Ember says with a little happy chuckle. Mysti paused to think about the words of the older dragoness before letting out a little cute giggle.

"I see." She says with a big smile before looking at Ember. "Kind of like you are to Flame right?" She asks, Ember's face almost immediately turning into the same color as the mentioned fire dragon's hide.

"H-huh? No I don't!" She hastily replied before taking a deep breath to regain her composure, though that didn't get rid of the ruby scales that now existed on her face. "W-what made you think that?" Mysti smiled brightly at her friend before looking ahead as she began skipping.

"I just know." The ice dragoness simply states with a giggle, Ember staring after her confusedly until squeaking as she heard a certain dragon speak from right next to her.

"Well that was weird." He states half dully, Ember beginning to mentally panic, as she was worried the male had heard everything that was said.

"W-What did you hear?!" She asked hastily, Flame looking at her confusedly before jumping slightly as Ember repeated herself with a louder and slightly menacing voice.

"Nothing! Just her saying 'I just know'! Nothing else I promise." Flame quickly answers, Ember staring at him for a couple of moments longing before mentally sighing and smiling.

"Good. Let's go." She says as she continues onward. Flame scratched his head with his tail at the dragoness' odd behavior before shrugging and trailing behind her.

Meanwhile Dante was looking around at the scenery, half scared/half amazed by the beautifully green forest life. Being new to all the sensations and experiences for he hadn't gone out much in his way younger days, much preferring to stay with his parents and practice his fire element. Cause of this, not only had the fire dragon missed a lot of the experiences of seeing the outside world and satisfying curiosity, but his social skills had suffered hard as the other members of the group have learned firsthand.

"Hey Dante." Yami calls to the younger male, Dante quickly snapping out of his little world and looking at the electric dragoness cautiously.

"Y-yes?" Dante asks a little quietly, the yellow dragoness staring at him for a minute or two before stubbornly stating.

"Try not to stay in your little world too long, if we get ambushed from your end, then it's going to be your fault. And if you end up getting lost, I'm not going to help find you." Came her cold voice, which immediately put some pain in the small dragon's heart. Dante gave a small sad nod as he quickly trailed behind the electric dragoness before freezing entirely.

"Do… Do you guys hear that…?" The red dragon asks quietly, Yami raising an eyebrow at Dante before looking around, Cynder noticing this and telling the others to halt as well.

"Why what's up?" Grail asks with big curious eyes before jumping slightly as he was shushed by Mysti, silence then followed the group of 12 as they all paid careful attention to their surroundings.

"Guys…. I think it's more than one thing…" Dante says with fear evident in his voice, Yami giving him a look of slight surprise and frustration before looking out to the forest again. Many minutes passed, many agonizing minutes of silence, almost as if nothing was there, but the faint sounds of feet, and shuffling would always suggest otherwise, and keep the group on their toes. The pressure and suspense that came from waiting so long was starting to settle into the group, some already preparing their elements or weapons, while others were getting more frantic. And in the meantime, whatever was watching the group continued to watch and watch….

*Crack*!

This sound alone immediately caught everyone's attention as they all looked at the source, which came from behind their electric male. Roy immediately turning a sharp ninety degrees as he quickly looked behind him.

Only to see nothing.

The group of travelers only had a moment to stare in confusion before two loud yelps came from Sparx and Zoey, both falling to the floor as before they had known it, their wings were frozen.

It was like a flash of light, as soon as they registered the dragonfly and fairy from falling to the floor, arrows flew straight into all of the dragon's wings, all of them grunting or roaring as their limbs were damaged save for Dante, who had heard the arrows been launched and moved out of the way at the last second, the crimson dragon looking around in fear before jumping into the air as another batch of arrows had been fired at his legs flew passed under him.

"Guys! J-Jump!" He yelled quickly, the others following the command without a second thought save for Grail, who had quickly built a shield around himself with his earth, with more arrows flying under the group as soon as they left the ground for that moment, the ones that were aimed for Grail digging into the dirt but otherwise un-harming the dragon inside.

"What the hell?!" Flame said loudly before firing multiple fireballs in the directions he had seen the arrows come from, Hunter, Ember and Yami soon doing the same while Bianca quickly started casting a spell. But the sorceress soon halted as the rain of attacks ended as soon as it started.

Cynder halted and glanced around for any sign of other attacks before quickly running to the aid of the two fallen creatures of flight.

"Sparx! Zoey!" Cynder calls running over to the two while grunting at her injured bleeding wings, the dragoness looking down at her friends who looked up at her with helpless expressions, Zoey getting on her legs and standing up as she looked over at Sparx, who couldn't move at all.

"Wha… What the hell was that?!" Sparx asks in a panicking voice, getting no answer as the dragons, the cheetah, and the rabbit all listened out for any attacks. After nothing had happened, Yami carefully shuffled over to Dante.

"Nice job squirt… Looks like you won't be as useless as I-" The electric dragoness started to say before being shoved down to her side by the youngest fire dragon, the dragoness' anger spiking before a loud bang and a yelp was heard, the group quickly looking over as Dante screamed and covered his eyes and ears with his wings.

"Flash Bang?!" Hunter says in surprise before another louder bang from behind him was heard followed by a strong gust of wind and a scream as Grail flung across the small forest and slammed side first into a tree, the remains of an arrow and some pieces of burnt metal and rope where his shield use to be.

"Grail!" Mysti yelled out in fear before dropping to the floor as an arrow flew pass her and hit a tree, soon exploding and sending the dragoness dragging across the ground on her paws with a grunt, Roy looking at the others before immediately firing multiple bolts of lightning erratically into the forest, giving the group a moment to gather themselves.

"Whoever's attacking us was trained to specifically fight dragons." Flame states as he pulls a still surprised Yami to her feet, Ember running over to the whimpering Dante to help calm the dragon down, Cynder charging a purple light in her mouth while Bianca used heat spells to carefully thaw both Zoey's and Sparx's wings.

"Grail!" Mysti calls as she limps over to the earth dragon who groaned and slowly rose to his feet with a cough, the male looking at Mysti and giving her a nod as to lie her worries to rest.

"It's only going to bruise…" He said with a small smile, Mysti gave a small smile of her own back in joy at the earth dragon's safety before she and Grail looked at the others in worry.

"That was a flash bang, and there's only one specific civilization I know that has been able to tie flash bangs and bombs to arrows and still use them so efficiently." Hunter informs looking around for any sign of whether his assumptions were correct or incorrect. Yami blinking as she stared at Dante who Ember was softly talking to as to try and help with the pain for a moment before shaking her head and looking at the cheetah with a fierce glare in her eyes.

"And exactly what civilization is that?! Just spit it out already before-." The dragoness stopped talking as everyone heard Roy yelp in pain, Cynder looking over with wide eyes as multiple arrows were embedded skin deep in the golden dragon's chest with small bombs attached to them, Roy looking in surprise before screaming as they exploded and sent the dragon flying into another tree nearby, his chest being badly wounded and bleeding, the bombs seemingly made to specifically incapacitate the male. Cynder stared with wide eyes for a moment as her mind tricked her into seeing purple scales instead of golden before the dragoness' pupils faded slightly and the sclera glowed, the dragoness firing a constant beam of convexity straight into the forest and turning a full three sixty degree turn as to drag the beam into all the attackers around them. The others quickly dropping to the ground as to not be caught in the former terror of the skies fury, with Ember having to push the temporarily blind and deaf Dante onto the floor for his own protection.

After what felt like countless minutes of the constantly roaring boom sound from the beam of convexity tearing through the forest and environment, the destructive beam finally stopped, Cynder's posture weakening as the dragoness panted heavily from using so much energy, Flame immediately getting up and running over to Roy to check the dragon's condition. Cynder slowly raised her head out of exhaustion to look over as Flame saw Roy's chest moving very quickly.

"He's unconscious but he's still alive…" The fire dragon says with a heavy sigh, everyone else finally relaxing as it seemed the fight was finally over. Mysti helping Grail stand up as Yami watched Ember continue to check on Dante, the dragoness softly trying to goat the male into opening his eyes.

"Come on Dante, it's not going to get better if you keep your eyes closed just slowly open them, slowly." She asks softly and quietly, the male shaking and whimpering as he slowly opened his eyes before closing them and covering it with his wings.

"I-it stings!" He yelps loudly, Ember making a soft shushing noise to help calm the frantic male down.

"I know it stings but you have to ignore it, keep your eyes covered with your wings and slowly open them, please just trust me." She asks gently, getting a nod from the male as he soon stopped sniffling in pain and went silent.

"O-okay…. Now w-what do I do…?" He asks quietly, his voice still shaky while Ember smiled slightly.

"Now just wait a while before slowly remove your wings from your eyes, okay?" She asks quietly. Dante nodding as Yami continued to watch before looking over at Hunter and storming over.

"Answer me damn it!" She suddenly growls, Hunter looking at her as she got in the cheetah's face. "What the hell attacked us?!" She questions, Hunter staying silent for a moment before speaking.

"There is a species that I thought had been wiped out in the time of Malefor's awakening, one that had trained themselves to specifically fight dragons and so became one of the most skilled warrior civilizations second to the dragons themselves." The cheetah informs before blinking in surprise as he looked around him, Yami about to demand the male to continue before she noticed the arrow pointed at her head, the others all freezing up as they all looked at the many arrows and weapons pointed at them.

"Aw damn I knew it, we're gonna die! We're all gonna die!" Sparx yells in fear as multiple creatures stood out of the burnt remains of the small area of forest, all of them looking human from the waist up, but their hips and legs that of goats, Hunter let out a small growl before he was suddenly grabbed from behind and felt a sword pressed against his neck.

"I suggest you all lay down before your pal loses his throat." Came a feminine voice from the creature that was holding Hunter captive, everyone looking over at the cheetah in fear and surprise as Hunter calmly looked back at the group.

One by one, each member of the group slowly laid down on the floor, all glaring at the hostile creatures that threatened their lives, Cynder staring at the unconscious Roy who had three of these woodland attackers guarding him, but the dragoness laid down eventually, Yami glancing around slowly at the group as they each grunted as they were poked with a small dagger. Soon, each one was losing their consciousness, starting from Dante, and going to Ember and Flame, then Mysti and Grail, then finally Bianca. Sparx and Zoey were left alone as any dosage could possibly kill them, the dragonfly hyperventilating while the fairy watched with eyes wide with fear, Yami then growled as she was poked as well, she then looked up at Hunter as he calmly looked back down at her, the dragoness' eyes slowly closing as she heard the cheetah say the name of the species that had attacked and successfully captured the group of 12.

"Fauns."

And there you have it, chapter 9. Once again, I am very sorry for my second-long disappearance, and the probably short chapter … But now after some good old inspiration, I should be getting back in the game of making this story, I hope the action was good and that you all stay for the next segment. This is KDS2, see you all next chapter and take care everybody!