A.N. So sorry for the late update, but this was hard to make plausible. Very actiony and kind of depressing, but it had to happen eventually. Thank you to everyone who reviewed my story and I appreciate the feedback. Read and enjoy, but don't forget to tell me what you think!

I would not recommend extended flight on dragonback to anyone wishing to retain their sanity. Sure it is an efficient way to travel, but the monotony of it all combined with the repetitive pounding of the wings really gets on one's nerves. Let me put it this way. It's like when you are sitting inside during a rainstorm and find there is a leak in the corner of your roof. It doesn't really matter and neither does it affect you, but the steady dripping gets under your skin. In the same way, flying by dragonback soon grows tedious.

I switched from Vanilor to Reina quite often to try and keep myself from the boredom that was threatening to engulf my mind. I had recited every song, poem, and story I knew as well as going through my studies of the human language. I talked with the dragons, but after four days of flying with very brief and limited stops, I am sure you get the point.

–Well, I have just been very rudely interrupted by a werecat that does not need to be mentioned. No, this is not completely relevant to the story, but it is preferable to recounting the entire flight. And I am allowed to complain if I wish. It's my story. Anyhow…–

It was at the end of the fifth day that I learned why my parents wished for me to live in Ellesméra. At the time I was sleeping, woken by a long, drawn out scream of pain and then I watched a body falling slowly through the air, an arrow through her chest. We all watched in shock as it landed with a sickening crunch before anyone could react. Then there was fire. A dragon's grief stricken lament for her lost rider echoed through the sky as she, alone, took on the five dragons that flew down from the clouds.

I stared at the dragon, my arms trembling and my eyes filled with tears. That was Jadreis who was attacking. The hundred year old olive dragon had lost her rider. Deidre had been a friend, and she had even taught me on occasion, but now she was dead. It was the first death I had experienced. Jadreis met the five dragons in a fury. Her rider was gone. Lost forever. Dead. Yet she remained. Without care for her safety, she attacked.

A youth on a smaller blood red dragon hung back. "Join us or die. We seek to renew the riders, to effect a change on the order. Any who stand in our way will perish. Do any wish to join?"

The last few words were drowned as Jadreis crashed bodily into a large steel gray dragon and tried to latch her teeth around his throat. They tumbled toward the ground as their wings tangled, each dragon snapping at the other's throat. But without her rider, the enemy cut her throat with a quick stroke of a gleaming sword and the first dragon fell.

I grimaced and turned away, trying to keep myself from throwing up. My father looked back at me. "Careful, Meira. We have to fight. It will be alright." I nodded, but the glory of seeing the world, of meeting the humans, was lost.

The red rider dove towards us. "No takers?"

There was a vehement refusal from the elves and my parents. They had taken a dragon's life. There was no forgiveness or mercy. It was war. I checked the straps on my legs and drew a long dagger from my belt as Vanilor met an ashy dragon in the air. I preferred my double swords, but I could not use them fighting behind my father.

I began to chant, weaving strong wards around myself that Gwendolyn had taught me and which I had changed to fit my own preference. After a feeling like a feather light cloak being put on me settled, I knew they were in place. My father raised his sword to guard Vanilor's spine from a deadly bite. Vanilor hissed and flipped away from the dragon, his claws teaving bloody furrows in the enemys hide. His rider, a pale skinned man with blond hair that was nearly white growled a spell and his dragon's skin knitted back together. Vanilor circled towards the ground slowly as he engaged with the dragon. I realized suddenly what he was doing. I was a handicap and they intended to put me on the ground.

"You cant let him get above you like that." I yelled urgently at my father. "We will be at his mercy."

"Your safety first, Meira." My father grunted as he attacked once again but found another rider's sword blocking his own. Knowing my father would not change my mind, I reached out on impulse before the dragons separated and slashed at the leather straps holding the enemy's saddle in place. The saddle immediately shifted, coming dangerously near to slipping off and the dragon and rider snarled as one. I grinned at my father.

"Now they need to land too, not only us." I watched as the dragon spiraled down and landed in a puff of dust. Vanilor landed a bit away, safe from the advancing rider and my father leapt to the ground. I watched as they engaged in a duel, the dragons beginning a battle of their own. My promise to my mother kept me from interfering until they attacked me first. I could not fight. Vanilor struck like a snake, sinking his teeth into the ashy dragon's side and twisting, tearing the muscles. The dragon screamed and his rider spun away, healing the dragon.

Still I stood frozen, unable to join the fight yet unable to abandon my father. I was terrified. Another of our dragons fell from the sky and collided with the ground, dead. Another pair was dueling on the ground. We had originally had more dragons, but now our number nearly equaled theirs.

I saw it before my father did. A sword slipped around his guard and cut deeply into his left arm, rendering it useless. I took a step forward, my heard pounding.

"Vanilor!" I shouted. Too late. In my father's reaction to his wound, the rider had taken the opening. Without my father guarding him, his opponent's sword slid into the purple dragon's chest, and the dragon collapsed to his stomach on the ground, steaming blood seeping from the hole in his chest.

"No!" My father screamed as his dragon slowly faded. The dragon blinked slowly and his eyes closed, never to open again. I managed to catch a glimpse of my father's eyes then and saw he was no longer my father. Rage and grief filled his expression as he charged the rider and dragon. I watched helplessly through tears as he battled them, holding his own for almost ten minutes before he began to sway from the combination of exertion and blood loss, he slowed and I closed my eyes to avoid seeing the last stroke. He fell and I knew it was over. I opened my eyes and stepped back. The bodies of my father and his dragon lay before me and the rider was now eying me.

Another rider landed behind me and I saw Rintín, a rusty dragon and his rider, both injured. The man grimaced. "I'm sorry, Meira." I nodded.

Then, I flinched away from a flash of silver and watched a knife pass my face. Then I laughed humorlessly and drew my double swords. He had attacked me. My parents had given me the right to defend myself. The man looked slightly afraid as I advanced. Rintín took on the ash colored dragon and his rider, Delton, joined me. "Meira, stay out of this."

I shook my head. "He killed my father." The elf looked at me and then nodded in understanding, it was my fight. With a sword in each hand, I lunged, striking at his chest. The man leapt back with a startled oath and brought his sword up before him. Immediately I engaged him in an series of intense attacks. As I went for a winning stroke at his neck, he sidestepped and I felt a sharp pain in my leg, forcing me down on a knee to support myself.

The sword swung toward me and I would be too slow to parry it. But then there was a rust red rider's sword between me and the enemy. Delton had left his dragon to help me fight, saving my life. Too exhausted and aggrieved to think properly, I opened myself to magic and allowed it to fill me, healing my leg. Shaky from the lost energy, I stood and got a better grip on my swords. I couldn't however reenter the battle of I could off balance Delton. So I waited, ready to spring back into the battle at any time. Neither Delton nor I noticed the knife the man threw until it was embedded in Delton's chest, through his heart. I watched helplessly as the rider fell, before my eyes.

Rintín roared and I knew his rider was gone. The rusty dragon launched himself fully at his opponent. I tore my eyes from the dragons and focused on the man before me. He was chuckling quietly. "Do you really think you, a human girl, could hope to defeat me when two fully trained riders failed?"

I growled in my throat and launched an attack on his mind. Startled, the man swore and set to defending his mind from the attack I was waging on his mind. We locked eyes, each trying to gain dominance, weapons forgotten in our fight. I sent a thought like a spear toward a weaker patch in his defenses, feeling him recoil and slam up shields, going completely defensive.

Redoubling my attack, I raised my swords and stepped forward. His eyes widened, but he was frozen. His utmost concentration was going into the contest. If he defended himself, I would break into his mind, but if he didn't defend himself, I would kill him. As I stepped closer, he panicked and a chink appeared in his mental armor. I dug in and his shields shattered. I grabbed hold of his mind and held him in place, preventing any movement or thought from being attempted.

Rintín had just gotten the other dragon's neck in his jaws. With a shake, he broke his neck and the dragon went limp. The rider in front of me was slipping from my grasp, shields being formed by the single-minded sense of despair. Before I lost my advantage, the blades in a cross, I placed the intersecting swords at his throat and pulled the swords, watching in horror as his head and body were separated. Then I collapsed to my knees and emptied my stomach, crying.

I had taken a life. A rider's life. It was my first time killing. Never before had I ever killed more than an insect and those only when they bit or stung. Wiping my mouth, I walked to my father's corpse and kissed his forehead one last time. His still form bringing fresh tears. "Goodbye, father." I whispered and then went to Vanilor. I wrapped my arms as far around his still warm snout as I could. "Goodbye." I managed to choke out.

Then I turned my gaze to the sky and my chest tightened. There was no yellow in it at all. In fact, only one of the dragons from Ellesméra remained. Panicked, I searched the ground and saw a shape, the color of sunlight. Making myself invisible, I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, but as I neared, I saw the obvious truth. I was alone. Reina was dead, puncture marks at the base of her neck. I could not see any visible fatal wounds on my mother, but knew it was magic that had done that. My mother's legs were still strapped to Reina. Whispering my final goodbye, I ran, not turning even when I knew the last of the elven riders that had flown with us was dead.

I prayed to whatever gods existed, human, dwarf, and unknown. Anyone that would hear me. I begged them to let the other riders be successful. I begged that my parents' sacrifice not be made in vain. But I continued to flee. I reached the nearest city sometime during the night and climbed the wall with magic, slipping into Marna unnoticed. Once inside, I broke down, sinking against a wall and fell asleep in the alley the filthy ground becoming a welcome bed. I had entered the real world.

That was kind of depressing really, but it needed to happen. So, what did you guys think? Any thoughts? Please leave a review. I love seeing what you guys have to say.