"Are you sure we're going to find them over here, A?"

"I never said that we would, one hundred percent," A says, glancing back at Sky. "I said there was a chance that we could find them." She looks forward again, and sighs. "The problem is, I can't remember how exactly to get into her place."

"And you said she lives in a cave?," Sunny asks.

A nods. "Yeah. Somewhere in one of these huge hills."

"Well, what do you remember about it?," Glimmer asks. "Was there any sort of formation around the way you got in?"

"Um... I think it was in some sort of dip in the ground. Not a ravine, but it wasn't just sitting on flat ground, you know?"

"The eastern side of the hills has the dried up rivers," Deadlox reminds them, "Might be around there."

A nods, eyes wide. "Yeah! I remember now. This way."

The group of seven venture on, and Sky looks back at Seto as they do. Seto was looking up at the sky, eyes narrowed and his gaze shooting from spot to spot.

"Anything?"

"No," Seto says. "Nothing." He shakes his head. "If there's anything out there, we'd better hope it doesn't blend in with the night sky."

"That's all we can hope for," Sky says, nodding.

After a bit, A looks back from where she was leading the group forward. "Okay. Lydia's place is right around here. We might be able to split into smaller groups and-"

"Shh," Glimmer says, going still. Everyone else stills as well, listening closely. "Do you hear that?"

The all listen, and a quiet sound of footsteps are heard from not far away. A voice accompanies it, and Deadlox gasps. "Jerome?"

"Jerome?!," Sunny shouts, walking forward with the others following. They walk into a long pit in the ground, almost immediately noticing the hole that was coming out of the side of the pit closest to the giant hill. It had obviously been a river at one point which had dried up, the lines the flowing water had carved into the ground standing out clearly.

Jerome suddenly bursts out from the cave, Camilla right behind him, and they let out a breathe of relief as they see the others coming toward them. "Good. Guys, we need help."

"What happened back there, Jerome?," Glimmer asks him, glancing back and forth between him and Camilla.

"We can talk about it later," Camilla tells them. "Mitch is hurt. He needs medical attention and Lydia doesn't have any good supplies."

"How hurt?," Seto asks.

"He's lost enough blood that he's starting to lose consciousness," Jerome tells them. "We need to help him before he blacks out."

"It'd be easier to treat him where we know there are medical supplies," Seto says, and turns to Deadlox. "Do you remember the way back to my place?"

"Yeah," Deadlox tells him. "You think we should take him there?"

Seto nods.

"Good thinking, Seto," Sky says. "Deadlox, go with Sunny and make sure that the path from here to Seto's is safe. We'll catch up as fast as we can."

"Wait," Camilla says before the two can leave. "Let me come with. I know what to look for that could be dangerous."

"No, lets get Jason," Jerome tells her. "You aren't a dragon, and no offense to you but the one who should be facing what attacked us should be a dragon. Plus, he can see further than most of us. That would help them."

Camilla glares at him, but nods. "Fine." She turns to the others. "Come on. The others are this way."

"So what happened?," Jhon asks Jerome and Camilla as they begin walking. "I mean, what was with the fire?"

"We were attacked," Camilla says. "Lydia and I were hanging out on Jerome's porch and we saw something shooting for us from the sky. She and I just managed to get inside and get Jason and Jerome down on he ground before the entire wall came down and flying pieces of the house could hurt them. Luckily Mitch was protected by the back of the chair he was in and managed to duck in time and Ebony and Hikari were in a completely different room."

"But what attacked you guys?," Sky asks her.

Her eyes narrow. "A Darktail."

"A Darktail?," Deadlox asks, he and Sunny coming with them so that they could meet up with Jason before leaving. "As in, there's more than the one that hides in the End?"

Jerome looks back at him and nods. "Yeah. There's at least one more of them."

"Any reason why it might have attacked?," Glimmer asks him.

It's Camilla that answers. "Not at all. We were just waiting for you guys. At least, Lydia and I didn't do anything to influence the attack."

"But don't they have bad hearing?," A wonders aloud. "I mean... if you and Lydia were so calm, how would they be pushed to attack if everyone else was out of their sight?"

"Maybe they could smell the others," Sunny says.

"Maybe there's more to Darktails than we originally thought," Sky sighs, and they walk on.

"How's he doing?," Seto asks Jerome and Sky, who were helping Mitch walk with them over to Seto's house.

Sky looks at him. "What do you think? You were the one who managed to slow the bleeding. He's exhausted and needs rest."

"Well, he can get that once we get back to my place," Seto tells them.

"How much further until we get there?," Lydia asks. She glances up at the moon which was already at its highest point in the sky, and yawns. "I could really use a nap."

"I think we all could," Jhon mutters.

"We don't have much further now," Seto tells them all. "Only a couple more minutes. Then I can help Mitch out and we can all sleep."

"To think that earlier today we were going to try to get help from everyone in the city," Hikari says. "So much for trying to draw more support to dragons. If anything the attacks on us only made it worse."

"It might not be such a bad thing, though," Camilla says. "I mean, only the Darktails have been aggressive so far. Maybe it's only them or something."

"Actually, Deadlox was attacked by a Boulderskin at one point," Sky tells everyone. "He said it was just territorial, though. And that makes sense."

"When was that?," Seto asks him. "That couldn't have happened recently."

"Actually it was not long ago at all," Sky tells him. "Within the last month. Maybe even the last few weeks. It broke his leg."

"Well, he did say it was territorial," Ebony says.

"What was he doing in a Boulderskin's home, then?," Jerome asks.

Sky shrugs. "I never asked." His eyes then narrow. "I have a bigger question, though."

"What?," Glimmer asks him.

"When he was attacked, he says he was saved by another dragon," Sky says. "Not a mutt or a Windflyer or anything like that, though. A Frostback showed up to help him."

"They aren't extinct?," Ebony asks, bewildered.

"Apparently not."

A appears to be deep in though. "The taiga biome is quite a ways from here, though. Unless the Frostback is living in the taiga biome that the city gets all of its guard wolves from, what is it doing here?"

"And how is it staying hidden in the taiga biome nearby if it does live there," Jerome wonders. "I'm fairly certain that nobody would miss a giant ice dragon."

"Uh, that's another thing," Sky says. "We also think it can change. Like us."

"Really?," Seto asks, eyes widening. Sky nods. "That's incredible. I've never met one that could change before."

"Well, you'll have to wait a while more," Lydia says, and jerks her head toward Mitch who was visibly exhausted even with help walking. "We need to help Mitch out before we even think about going to recruit another dragon."

Camilla sighs and begins to mutter. "Why can't we recruit another human. I'm starting to feel like the human token of the group, or something."

"We will get him back to my place so that I can give him a health potion and a regen if I have one," Seto says. "Afterward, I want to go find the Frostback unless you guys want more support first. We need to keep moving forward in our plan."

Sky looks around at everyone before looking back at Seto and nodding. "We know."

Seto nods back at him. "Lets go, then."

Sorry this chapter took longer to come out than expected. That entire last scene was the hardest thing to figure out, no joke. However, now that I'm moving on to writing this next part that is coming up in the plot line its gonna be easier to do, so yay!

Also, I want to say that I am aware that some key characters like Husky and Sundee as well as OCs of mine own aren't being used that often. I have a plan for them just like I have a plan for OCs that I have gotten that haven't shown up in the story yet. They all have their own specific place in the story and will come in when it is time.

Now the dragon fact!

Dragon Fact

Though the myths of ice breath are fake, a Frostback can turn water into ice just by blowing on it.

Anyways, I really hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I definitely like these later chapters more than the earlier ones. I actually know what I'm doing at this point so the chapters aren't huge messes XD

Have a good couple days! Bye!

Ttyl

-TheRealDigiGal