Chapter 5

When I woke up, I remember exactly what had happened before.

"Are you ok?" Daystar asked.

I nodded. I stood up, pulling Daystar with me.

"I love you." I said.

Then before he could say anything, I kissed him. He put his arms around me and kissed me back.

"I love you too." He said when we finally pulled away.

"How long have you been waiting for me to do that?"

"Remember when you got turned into a statue by that evil fire-witch?"

"Don't remind me."

"I didn't really hate the fact that I had to kiss you to turn you back."

"You've waited all this time? Why?"

Daystar shrugged. "I guess that I didn't want to risk losing you."

"What do you mean?"

"If I had told you how I felt, you would have felt uncomfortable around me, so I waited for you to make the first move. When you thought I was just a friend, I could live with it. But seeing you only when you had to come, I couldn't."

I laid my head down on his shoulder and said, "You have me forever now."

"Me too."

We just stood there like that for what was probably a long time, but it felt very short.

"More dragon's!" Wren called from on the hill and an down to where we were.

Daystar crept up the hill to see where they were. But instead of drawing his sword and coming back down, he stood up and waved.

"It's Kazul." He called down.

Wren ran up the hill to see. I tried to climb up, but my ankle was too painful. Daystar came down and helped me up.

"Shiara, hasn't you're ankle healed yet?" Morwen asked when she saw Daystar needed to help me up the hill.

"No, it just got worse when Daystar's dumb sword bumped into it."

Morwen's eyebrows rose in surprise when I didn't call Daystar dumb, just his sword, but she didn't say anything. But she did say something when I grabbed Daystar's hand and he followed Morwen and me after she helped me to a spot away from everyone else so she could do something about my ankle.

"So you finally told her?" Morwen said to Daystar after she sat me down.

Daystar just smiled. I looked from him to Morwen and back to him.

"Wait." I said, "Did everybody except me know that Daystar was in love with me?"

"Just about." Morwen said. "I don't think Telemain knew, or Willin, or the gargoyle."

"Well at least I'm not the last one to know." I really wasn't all that mad.

Everyone that came with Kazul were: Morwen, Cimorene, Mendanbar, Telemain, and about twenty other dragons. And somehow everyone found out about Daystar and me.

"Shiara, Daystar, we think that we may have finally found a way to get rid of the spell." Cimorene said. She handed Daystar the Sword of the Enchanted Forest and whispered something in his ear.

"Now both of you hold the hilt, like you did before."

I gently touched the hilt of the sword, not wanting to get bit like I was before. Nothing happened.

"Nothing happened." I said.

"Of course. Daystar hasn't finished the spell yet." Cimorene answered.

"Power of water, wind, and earth,

Turn the spell back to its birth.

Free the fire by the love of the Lord,

By the power of the throne and sword."

Then Daystar leaned over and kissed me. I felt the sword bite me again. He must have felt it too, because he stopped kissing me and we both dropped the sword. He stepped around it and started kissing me again.

I wanted to see if the spell had really gone away. But that could wait. When we finally separated, I pointed at a clump of trees that no one was near. A ribbon of fire shot out of my finger. It erupted in flames. Then, before I could say anything to anyone, I pointed at another little clump of trees and they erupted in flame too.

"It worked!" I yelled and hugged Daystar.

"What is the meaning of this!?" a very angry voice said.

I let go and looked at it. A dwarf came out of the little area I burned, coming straight at me.

"What do you think you are doing? Burning up areas where people are trying to sleep? Why, your almost as bad as the dragons!"

"Well," I answered calmly, "it's a little hard not to act like them when you're constantly around them and a fire-witch."

The dwarf looked around him. The dragons had slowly encircled him while he had been yelling at me. I thought it was a little hard not to notice twenty dragons.

"Well… I'll just be going now." He started to walk to the space between Daystar and me.

"No, you won't." Daystar said picking up the sword.

The dwarf swallowed. "Like you said." He said, eyeing the sword.

"Do you know the lay-out of the land?" Kazul asked.

The dwarf jumped. He forgot about the dragons. But before he could answer, another voice jumped in.

"If he doesn't can I eat him? Dwarfs taste good." It was the little dragon we traveled with before.

"He really wanted to come." Kazul explained. "No you can not eat him."

The dwarf had been trying to sneak away again. I pointed in front of him and the place in front of him exploded into flames. He jumped and came running back.

Everybody looked at me. I just shrugged and smiled.

"Of course, I now every place around here." The dwarf volunteered.

"Good. Cimorene will explain on the way." Kazul said to us. Then to Cimorene, "We'll get ready here, you bring it back."

Cimorene nodded.

"We need to get to the Towers of Doom."

"Towers of Doom!?" the dwarf said in a shaky voice.

"Yes, and you'll take us there unless you want to be a fried dragon snack."

"Of course."

"Wait for me!" The little dragon said. "Kazul said I could come. To protect you."

Everybody had to help from laughing. We had me, A fire-witch, two other witches, two swords with well-practiced user, and two magicians. And we need a little dragon to keep us safe.

"Daystar, give me your sword. No the other one." Cimorene said when Daystar started giving her the sword of the Enchanted Forest.

"But won't Father need this one?"

"He's not coming, you are."

"Oh." Minus one magician.

"What did the dragons do?" I asked.

"They stole the Collins Stone."

Daystar and I stopped and Morwen and Wren ran into us. The Collins Stone was what the dragons, our dragons used to find the next King. If we lost it, and something happened to Kazul, a new King couldn't be found and there'd be turmoil.

"And now we have to get it back." Morwen said. "Hurry up."

"How are we going to get it back?" Daystar asked.

"You two."

"What?" This and we both stopped again time Wren and Telemain ran into us.

"Stop stopping do fast!" Wren complained.

I felt like telling her to shut-up, but I made her trip instead.

"You two are going to sneak into the Towers of Doom, grab the Collins Stone and sneak back out. If you need to use the sword or your magic, do it as unnoticeable as possible. We will provide a big distraction."

"But why do we have to do it?" I complained.

"Because you're the only ones who they think are dead."

"But they don't know about any of you."

"Yes they do. They saw us when they stole the stone."

"Can I come too?" The little dragon asked.

"No." Morwen said firmly. "Your too big and they know about you."

The little dragon sulked.

"But I want to go!"

"Be quiet. You'll get to eat wizards."

"Wizards?" I asked, but this time I didn't stop.

"Wizards! Yum!" the little dragon looked pleased.

"Yes, wizards. We think that they are in an alliance with the dragons here, and that's why the dragons don't want us around."

"Because we melt wizards?" Daystar asked.

"No, because the wizards tell them what to do. The dragons here are very primitive and need someone to lead them. The normal dragons look to the king, but unfortunately he is dumb too, so he went searching for a new leader. He found the wizards and they have been using their new power to destroy anything that gets in their way. Only we don't know what they are doing. If you could, we'd like you to find out."

"So first we find the stone, then we get it out and if it's possible, find out what they're doing." Daystar said.

Morwen nodded. Daystar and I let everybody pass us so we could talk about what we had to do.

"Do you really want to do this?" I asked.

"We don't really have a choice."

"I know." I didn't like having to sneak by wizards and dragons, but Morwen had said that the dragons were not very smart and wizards could be easily taken care of. And I would be with Daystar plus I had my magic back without having to be polite. I sighed.

"It'll be alright." Daystar said. "I mean, how hard can it be to foil a few dumb wizards."

"I guess." I laid me head on Daystar's shoulder. He was tense. I knew he didn't like this any more than me.

"You're tense." I said.

"So are you."

"I just don't like this."

"And you think I do? Why are you afraid anyway? Your immune to fire and to most spells the wizards can throw at you."

"Your not." I was more worried about him than I was about me.

Daystar started to answer, but Morwen interrupted.

"We're stopping here for the night. Tomorrow we'll get there and wait till evening to attack."

We nodded. I followed Daystar over to a little cleaning out of hearing distance form everyone else. The little dragon blew on a bunch of branches and started a fire, looking pleased with itself.

I pointed at a few fallen twigs and a little fire started.

"Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself." Daystar said. I believed him because he sounded convincing and I wanted too.

"I'm not immune to everything." I said, trying to lighten the mood. "What if a dragon ate me?"

Daystar laughed. "Like you'd let it get close enough."

I smiled and curled up next to him. I shivered.

"Cold?" Daystar asked and hugged me closer.

"Not anymore." I answered and fell asleep.