I need dragon names... anyone with ideas please review or PM. I'm completely lost with names, so please help. otherwise they will stay as they are and be unpronounceable and hard to remember.

My head pounded as I kept thinking about my disastrous fight with those strange kids.

That girl, Maximum Ride, was definitely a magic user. To have such control over the flames, and she didn't need to speak aloud. Very few magicans could claim that. She had taken his control over Brisinger's fire, he hadn't even thought it possible, till now. Brom had once said something along the lines of 'what is possible is subjective'. Maximum had also used magic to move faster and I only just reacted in time. The cut I gave her must have hurt a lot but she didn't even glance at it. Is she magically immune to pain?

The young man beside her, who kept disappearing? How much energy must he need to keep himself fading in and out of sight? He has to be a least as powerful as the girl.

The youngest, the cute little girl with curly blonde hair. How did she know he'd entered Maximum's mind? To know that, the girl would also have had to be in the older girls mind. She also sent a wave of water to intercept Saphira's fire. Where did so much water come from? Why use water, when it was obvious they could take control of the fire? Sucking so much water from the air would have been a humorous drain on her energy. It also would have made the air dry, though from what I can remember the air was just as humid as it had been.

And the small dog? it spoke. I'd never even considered trying to use magic to make a dog speak, where would you start? What good would it do anyway, to hold a conversation with a dog?

The others the tall one, the small blonde boy and the other girl. Were they magic users to?

Too many questions. Too few answers. I think I handled the encounter badly.

He'd spoken plainly and underestimated them. He'd let a bunch of children get the better of him. How? he was a more than adequate swordsman, fluent in the Ancient language, and most importantly he was a Dragon Rider. He had the full support and backing of Saphira. Her presence should have been fearful enough to measure some respect! But they treated him as a joke. Why?

Someone must have taught them magic before they got their dragons. That explained their skill. Who would apprentice so many children so young?

I must be missing something.

Eventually I put it out of my mind. I'd worry about it once the urgal problem was gone and if we ever saw the children again.

It wasn't long until we left the spine and settled down for the night.

Saphira?

Yes, little one?

I don't think we should have a fire tonight. If the kids are close we don't want reveal where we are. They might show themselves, if we are lucky.

That's a good idea.

Saphira woke me as soon as the sun rose and we once again started out for Kuasta.

Rather than the dense tree covered mountain ridges of the spine, we passed over well-tended farm crops and livestock grazing pastures. Of course there were still large tree groves between farms, but they lacked the sense of mystery and life, I'd had always found in the spine.

We reached the city just before midday.

Saphira hid in the small forest beside the city and I cast a spell allowing me to look less like myself. Kuasta was a large city with similar buildings to Teirm. The Street layout was less organised and narrow paths wove between dirty brick housing and shops.

I wandered the main streets, stopping at stalls along the way, whilst eavesdropping on the local peoples conversations. Most of the talk was about what they were currently doing, buying food or clothing, some was gossip such as a young couple having a shouting match down the road, a lot was News of a shipment of colourful and exotic dyes sinking not far from the city and causing the waters to be a faint red-ish purple.

Everything I heard was of little or no value, and wasted the little time Saphira and I had for this endeavour of the Vardens.

Something did perk my interest slightly. One man buying roofing shingles commented on how much "those bloody beasts" were costing him, the stall attendant nodded knowingly and had said "they came by mine too."

I also thought there should be more children about. Most cities I'd been to had dirty children scampering between stalls and people chasing the odd stray dog or something. Kuasta didn't seem to have that. The few children hung close to their mother's shirts or in the father's arms.

As the day grew longer and the shadows stretched, I found myself looking for an inn. The first few I entered claimed they were full, despite the obvious emptiness of their common rooms.

Eventually I found a fairly large inn down by the docks. The innkeeper was nailing the front door back onto its frame. He gestured for me to come inside, "damn door don't want t' go back on."

"What happened?" I asked.

The inn keeper gave a shrug. "Ma dog, Billy, was barking at a cat or something so I open the door, tellin' him to shut up and such. There be these huge dog monsters," he gave me a look, nodding, he continued, "that my dog billy, been so brave so to scare them away an' I goes out too tell 'im off. They dog-monsters they don't take too kindly to m'self, they came a howling and snarling at me. So I close ma door and hide down in da wine cellar till they go."

"They broke down the door?" I said in disbelief. The door was thick old wood, well oiled, not a sign of rotting and had three solid hinges and heavy bolt lock.

The big man nodded "m'hmm, after they went through my billy." And held up a frayed length of rope, which could have been a collar.

We spoke a bit more, he told me a ruff description of the dog-monsters "big they were, brown and grey, hairy all o'er. More like ah wolf than a dog I'suppose." They attacked two nights ago and caused damage to a lot of the houses in the city. Few people were killed and apparently children were taken.

Claiming the dog-monsters came from the heart of Du Wardenvarden, in response to a curse that a disgraced magician had placed on the city, after his mother became ill of an incurable disease and none of the city healers could save her life.

And all of a sudden the innkeeper became a whole lot less reliable.