Chapter 1: Dreamer's Truth

All the sudden a bright light filled Carrie's eyes, she screamed out at the sudden pain it brought to her eyes. She calmed down after a few moments and took a few steady breathes. She tried to look around at her surroundings, but all she saw were blurry shapes instead of objects. It appeared to her that there were three large moving blurs that were people, well living things anyway. Next to her there was another 'living' blur about her side, both of them seemed to be lying on a bed. All of them seemed to be in a one room house of some short that seemed to have a fireplace, the bed she was on, and a window; which seemed to have something moving behind it. All of this strangely reminded her of her house she lived in now.

"Look," said the large brown blur, "Terra, Kovu, and Drago; twins! One boy and one girl!"

"What are their names, Father?" asked the reddish blur by the fire.

Well, Kovu, I think your father and I have already decided on Carrie for a girl and –"

"Shine-Ra for the boy," finished Kovu's father.

When Carrie heard her name she became worried. Was this dream about her past? Or some other Carrie's past?

Just then another blur appeared out of no where holding something in its arms.

"Father! Kovu!" it called out. "My daughter is born today! Her name is Mystic; here she is for all to see." He indicated that the pinkish-purple blur he was holding was Mystic.

Kovu laughed, "Well Father now you really are the 'Great Mufasa', having two children and a granddaughter all in the same night." Kovu chuckled some more. "Cognates' all the same Kayposa." Laughter came from the window that Kovu was now standing by. "Drago, be nice. For once in your life be nice," she joked. Drago growled something back to her.

For a brief moment Carrie could clearly see that there was a huge red dragon on the other side of the window! She started to fuss and cry when Mystic suddenly floated over to her and Shine-ra and curled up around them. This some how calmed Carrie down.

"Aww how cute," Terra said.

Just then there was a loud knock that made everyone look at the door, and Carrie to wake up.

Carrie opened her eyes and saw her mother, Terra, talking to someone at the door. They were whispering about her!

"…thanks again for getting her before everyone noticed. If Gallus had found her…"

Carrie started to worry when she heard Gallus' name. Gallus was a ruthless, evil man who would stop at nothing to get power. It was widely know that he was trying to get power from anything magical. Many creatures were on his list, such as Dragons, Griffins, the Kerin, and Shape-shifters. Most people didn't worry, care, or both; but they were human. Carrie and Terra were Shape-shifters, so they worried, a lot.

She heard her mom say bye to whoever she was talking to. Outside she heard two people walking away and one of them suddenly say, "Nanuk." Which was the sound the Ettin made. The Ettin are small multi-colored rabbit-dog like creatures. There was only one Ettin that could talk or would even come to see them and that was Lynx. Which meant Bubba, the yeti, had been there as well. Both Lynx and Bubba were the last of their kid; although, Lynx had a mate, he was still the last male of his kind.

Carrie saw her mom close the door and shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She heard her mom walk toward the bed and pull out a chair and sit down.

"I know you are awake," Terra said in a flat voice, "I heard you gasp at Gallus' name."

"Well what does he have to do with me? Why am I home from school anyway?" Carrie said as she got up, "This was my first day in sixth grade, and I am at home!"

"You know damn well Gallus is after shape-shifters. Anyways, you passed out at school. You were most likely pushing yourself too hard again. I told you that skipping 5th grade was a bad i-"

"Mom, I did not skip it, I passed then in 2 weeks."

"Well, pace yourself better. You are only five years old you know."

"Mom, I won't be five till tomorrow. I am four and niney-nine hundredths."

"Well at any rate you are staying home for a while. Oh, cheer up. Gabbie and Miles are coming over tomorrow for your birthday," Terra replied.

"But Mom, they will not arrive here till the day after my birthday. Is lynx or Bubba coming, or how about Ralph?" an egger Carrie asked.

She was sitting at the edge of the bed while her mom was trying to start a fire, so terra didn't answer right away. Plus, she was trying to carefully choose the right words to say. She started to say something about Ralph's responablties at the castle and Lynx and Bubba, but Carrie didn't hear a word. She was staring at her clothes. There were burnt and frayed, she wore them for the first time today…so why were they burnt? Plus, they were fine before she blanked out at school.

"Mom," she interrupted, "why are my clothes burnt? They were fine this morning when I left, and before I blanked out…so what happened?" Terra looked worried at this question. She was quite for a while before she replied with, "You were shivering when you got home so we put you by the fire. While you were asleep the fire went out. I guess we just had you too close to the fire."

Carrie knew her mother was lying; Terra never let the fire go out.

They ate in silence. After they ate Terra got Carrie to talk about what she wanted to do for her birthday. They talked about what to wear, what to wear, what food to make, and how chocolately her cake would be. After a few hours, Carrie fell asleep…

The next thing Carrie knew she on the foot of a bed with Mystic, and Shine-ra. There is another knock on the door and Kayposa answered the door. Two figures came in; a small one about 3 feet tall and a huge 7 foot tall one. The small one suddenly said, "Nanuk!" That meant the ones who cam in were Lynx and Bubba!

"Hello everyone." Lynx said cheerfully.

"Lynx, did you come by just to see the new ones? Or do you have news about Gallus?" asked Kovu.

"I have good news and bad news," replied Lynx."

"Good news first I always say," said Mufasa.

"Your definition of good news is normally no where near the true definition."

"Drago! Be nice to Father! Even if normally wrong," Kovu replied. Mufasa just made a 'humph' sound at that statement.

"Well, your getting the good news first anyway. Good news: Gallus is dead, we killed him!" Lynx started. Everyone was happy and cheering except Kovu, Kayposa, and Drago. Carrie was confused. If he died back then, why is he alive now? She thought to herself. As she thought this Kayposa looked over at her weird, well she was still seeing blurs, so maybe it wasn't a weird look.

"Why do you three look so glum about this? This is good news!" said Terra.

"Good news? That is impossible," replied Kovu.

"How is it impossible? I should know I was there!" Lynx shouted angrily.

"Me there too!" Bubba added.

"Kovu and I do not doubt that, nor does Kayposa. There are other reasons it is impossible," said Drago.

"What do you mean, Dragon? If Lynx and Bubba say it is true, then it was true!" roared Mufasa. Drago did not seem to react well to being called 'Dragon'. Kovu didn't either.

"WhatDrago means Father is that if Gallus is dead then we should be as well," Kayposa replied dryly.

"What do you mean, 'we should be as well'?" asked Mufasa.

"Did you forget Gallus stole the power of the Gods? If Gallus dies, so do we; unless, he lost that power. At any rate, he might come back," Kovu explained.

Carrie noticed Mystic looking at her oddly. Mystic floated over to her father and whispered something in his ear. Kayposa then looked at Carrie.

"You don't have to worry," He said aloud to everyone, "The Gods are safe."

"How do you know?" asked Kovu.

"Never mind that," said Kovu who was also looking at Carrie. "What is the bad news Lynx?"

"Okay, bad news…right before we 'killed' Gallus he ordered his men to come here. They will be here by morning." Lynx replied very fast and very quietly. There was a few moments a silence, then…

"WHAT?!?!?!" screamed Terra. Her scream startled Mystic, who was on the mantle, causing her to jump and knock over a vase. There was a load crash right after the scream and…

Carrie sat up in bed short of breath and sweating…