Chapter Eleven

Alina: Quillan called me over to where Jonathan was standing by Trahern. Javis followed.

Ah, Alina. How good of you to join us. I'm going to call your friends over and training will begin immediately afterwards. It will be vigorous and difficult, but you will need these skills on Neptune, Quillan said.

I shook my head. "Wait a minute, sir, are our neighbors royalty, too? Because Mom said that only royalty have dragons."

Kerina smiled. Neptune has three regions. They're similar to what you call continents. The rest of the planet is just oceans. You are the royalty on the biggest...continent. That's why there has to be so many of you. You'll each govern a region when you're old enough. Your neighbors, the ones nearest you at the bottom of the hill, they'll govern a smaller continent separated from the largest by a couple miles of water. Your other neighbors family rules the smallest continent. It's near the bottom of the world, but not quite on the pole. Your siblings will be joining us as soon as they get back from wherever they are, Kerina finished. She looked at mom. Just how long will that be, Alyssa?

It was still weird to hear my moms first name instead of just plain "mom." Mom laughed. "They'll be here within the hour, Kerina. How about you start with these two and their friends, and the littler ones can start when they get here. You might want to take it easy with them for the first few days. They are young still."

Kerina agreed to this and had Quillan call the neighbors dragons. They arrived at a dead run, their people dashing after them.

"Come back, Amaris!" Kendra howled as she puffed up the hill. "I have got to get in better shape," she muttered as she stopped by me. "Hi, Alina."

I greeted her in return, but then Kerina shushed us. I'm glad you all could make it. I am Kerina, Alyssa's dragon. I have been on Neptune for the past fifteen years, but I have come back to earth with Quillan, my mate, with the intention of training you young people to save the planet.

Kenneth's jaw dropped. "We're going to Neptune?"

Quillan frowned. Your parents haven't told you? Oh well. I'll explain it. You see, sixteen years ago, almost to the day, the fools on Jupiter attacked our planet. We have no idea why, they just did. They have always been prone to war on that planet. Anyway, to protect you, your parents came to Earth because it's the only other planet besides Jupiter that can sustain life.

Haley raised her hand. "But I thought that those space satellites said that Earth was the only planet that had a breathable atmosphere?"

Kerina laughed. NASA has no idea of the technology of Neptune. You think that we would not put up a sort of force field to shield ourselves from the probes? It just recorded the information we encoded in the force field and transmitted it back to NASA.

Haley nodded. "That makes sense."

Kerina smiled. I'm glad. Continuing Quillan's explanation, you are the ruling families from the three continents on Neptune. I'll explain in more depth later. First, your training starts.

Quillan interrupted. Okay! We're going to start with the dragons first. Do any of you know how to breathe fire?

Javis hunched down. I can get a tiny flame, but not very often, she said. I looked at her in shock. She'd never told me that!

It's all right. Not many dragons can learn on their own, Kerina said sympathetically.

I looked at Javis. "What else can you do that you haven't told me about?"

Javis looked uncomfortable. Just that. Honest, Alina, just that. I was going to tell you later, once I got better at it, I was kind of keeping it as a surprise...but I guess I was wrong. Sorry.

Javis did look very sorry, so I let it pass. It's all right. I just thought that you'd been keeping things from me, that's all.

Quillan got our attention again by thumping his tail against the ground and clearing his throat. All right, how many of you have riding saddles? We all raised our hands. Oh, good, Quilllan said, sounding vaguely satisfied. Get them, please, we're going to practice diving and shooting flames. At this, Javis and all the other dragons looked uncomfortable.

Trahern said something to Quillan, which made the elder dragon nod and add, Don't worry, I'm going to show you how and tell you what to do first. He smiled. I would never leave you in the dark with something this important.

Kerina playfully shoved him. You'd better not. What would their parents say? Now, please get your saddles, unless you already have them on your dragons. She looked at the dragons in question. Ah! You all have them on already. Excellent. That will save some time. She said something to Quillan, who gave the dragons a brief summary and a demonstration on how to breathe fire. Then he had us get on our dragons and take off, leading us high into the clouds, where it was cold.

I told myself that I'd bring a jacket next time we practiced.

Then Quillan dove. Javis and the others followed, and I leaned back so that the wind coming at me wouldn't rip me out of the saddle. At the very last minute, Quillan pulled up, snapped open his jaws and breathed a long tongue of fire at a target Kerina had set up. Conan was the only dragon to get a respectable amount of flame, so we landed and Quillan went over fire-breathing technique again.

Then it was back into the clouds for another dive-and-flame session. This time, Conan and Trahern both got flames. They were sent over to practice on another target set up for that purpose while Quillan lectured us yet again, and the younger children's dragons, which had just arrived.

The younger kids were all sitting on their dragons when we had landed the second time, and they'd joined us. Quillan gave a more specific lesson on how to breathe fire to the dragons, and we had to go up higher than we'd normally fly yet again. I'd gotten a jacket by this time and was much warmer. On this dive, Fabian, who was a natural at the fire-breathing, Amaris and Javis both got flames. We were sent over to join the boys, who were getting really good at dive-bombing and flaming at the same time.

"Hey, Amanda, Kendra...Alina," Kenneth said as we prepared to take off again. Jonathan laughed, but wouldn't say why.

We soared up into the sky, turned as one and dove back down again, pulling up about twenty feet off the ground and the dragons breathing long tongues of fire. Javis seemed immensely pleased with herself, and Arra and Dion joined us.

Adair high-fived Amanda when we got off two dives later. Kerina replaced the target, as we'd burnt that one to a crisp, and let the others try. Estelle and Larita were the last to learn, which Quillan said was normal. Some dragons take longer to learn how to do things. You'll notice that they pick up other things faster than this.

He was right. Larita and Estelle were the first to master aerial spins, where they corkscrewed while diving. Kerina said that the trick was useful for dodging missiles, as the warfare on Neptune was still rather primitive. They used rocks shot from catapults and bows and arrows, but fought with laser swords and shields.

Personally, I couldn't see the point of the excercise, but if Kerina and Quillan saw the need to learn it, we might as well learn it. After we'd mastered the aerial spin, we took on new challenges, like fighting from dragon-back. I had to learn how to shoot arrows while sitting on Javis' back, how to use a small slingshot to shoot explosive rocks at the ground and things like that.

Kerina told me that when we got to Neptune, I'd have to learn how to fight with a laser sword and shield, becaues it could be useful if Javis got shot down. I shuddered at the thought of my beloved dragon getting shot at, and resolved to learn those skills, but to do my best to keep Javis from being injured.

Alina? Javis asked later that day, while we were taking a snack break. Mom had made chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, and Quillan let us take a few minutes to eat those and drink a glass or two of water. I brought out a huge tub and filled with it with cold water from our hose. The dragons eagerly drank from that, even though the water wasn't all that clean. I'd attached a filter to the hose, something that I'd bought off the internet, but it didn't do as great a job as I wished it did.

Alina? Javis asked again, when I didn't answer right away.

Yes, Javis? I replied.

Are you enjoying this? I mean, I am, sort of, but I'm not really used to all this excercise and my wings hurt. Not that you're heavy, or anything, it's just taking off twenty or thirty times is hard on them.

I laughed at Javis' hurried attempt to avoid hurting my feelings. It's all right, my wonderful Javis. Javis blushed at the comment, turning a brighter blue. It was interesting to watch. No offense taken, I added.

Kenneth and Jonathan joined us, their dragons following at a distance. Conan and Trahern were bonding very quickly, as there wasn't a whole lot of age difference between the two. Jonathan sat next to me, Kenneth on the other side of him.

After a few minutes of silence, in which Kendra sat next to me, Kenneth remarked, "Don't you think it's odd that we only got dragons in our gender? I mean, the girls didn't get a guy dragon, and the guys didn't get a girl dragon. Isn't that sort of...I don't know, strange?"

Quillan looked up. That's because if or when you marry, you have to marry royalty and since the dragons you have become matese as well... He let the sentence trail off, because it was obvious we understood his meaning. I blushed hard.

"Yikes."

Javis laughed in my head. So who are you going to marry, Alina?

The other dragons, who had obviously heard the comment, looked up as I struggled to find an answer. Trahern was grinning, as much as a dragon could grin. Well?

It was obvious that the others were enjoying watching me try to find a reply to the question. Kenneth, especially, was looking at me in a curious way. "I hope there's more royalty back on Neptune," He remarked. "Otherwise there's not enough guys to go around..." He grinned as I blushed even harder.

"I'm not marrying anyone, yet. I'm only fifteen, guys, give me a break!"

Javis laughed again. Good enough for me.

I glared at her. "Thanks a lot."

Javis didn't answer, just went over to where Conan and Amaris were talking with Trahern, Fabian and Byron. I rolled my eyes after her.

"Oh, come on, Alina. It was an honest question," Kendra said. She nudged me. "Besides," she added in a whisper, "I think he likes you." At my questioning noise, she just looked pointedly at her brother.

At this, I stood. "Okay!" I said, hoping that I wasn't blushing again. "I'm done." I walked away.

Quillan joined me as I hurried away from the others as fast as I could. Can I talk to you about something? He asked.

I nodded. "Of course, sir."

I want to explain something to you. Don't worry, you're not in trouble, he added at my nervous look. It's just that on Neptune, you're matched with a prince from another region at birth. So you don't have to worry about choosing who you get married to. He's already been chosen for you. So he'd heard the conversation.

I looked at him in surprise. "I'm almost afraid to ask who I've been matched to."

Quillan laughed out loud. It was a harsh, gravelly sound, just like when they spoke out loud. I could tell you, if you really wanted to know.

Suddenly, I did. "I sort of do. Would you tell me, please? I think that I need to know, since I'll be married to him for the rest of my life."

Which will be a long time, Quillan nodded. You live much longer than a human being. You grow up at a normal rate, but after you hit twenty, you live one year for every five human years.

"About who I'm marrying," I pressed.

Oh. Right. Well, let me think. It's been a while... Quillan was quiet for a few minutes. Are you sure you want to know? He asked after a while. I nodded, cautiously. All right. Quillan paused again. Are you positive?

"Just tell me!" I said, exasperated. "I'm positive. I really want to know, since it's not able to be changed I may as well have a while to accept the fact!"

Well, actually, you'll be married at sixteen. That's how it goes. But since you really want to know-

He never got to finish his sentence, because Kerina interrupted. Come on, let's finish our training for the day!

We got back to learning flying techniques, fighting techniques and similar things like that. It was exhausting.

That night, I climbed into bed, expecting to fall asleep quickly, because I was so tired. But sleep wouldn't come. I laid in bed for a long time, thinking about the marriage in my future. I really wanted to know who I'd be marrying, so I'd have at almost five months to accept the fact. Jonathan and I would be turning sixteen in a little over four months. Would he be getting married, too? At least I wouldn't be alone, doomed to get married in four months without knowing who I was getting married to. Jonathan probably didn't know, either.

Slightly comforted by that thought, I turned over and went to sleep.

A/N: So...how'd you like this chapter? Again, my inspiration is running low, so I'd appreciate some suggestions along with those reviews! And also: who should Alina and Jonathan be matched with? Or should they not be matched at all? R&R, people!