"Shaiden, my dear, where's Master Thorne?" Knightriss inquired.

The ninja shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't seen him since breakfast."

Just then, the two saw Kookaburra walking towards them. He was staring down at his Sling-Splatter and turning it over in his hands.

"Kook, have you seen Thorne?" the ninja asked.

The bird arrested his feet and looked up at Shaiden. He nodded. "Yeah. He's in his room. He's not feeling good."

Knightriss looked at her feathered comrade seriously. "What do you mean he's not feeling good?"

Kook shrugged. "Well, when I saw him, he was holding his stomach. I asked him what was wrong, and he screamed at me to leave him alone, then stormed off to his room and slammed the door."

Shaiden blinked. Hmm...well, if he's sick, that'd explain why he's in an even worse mood than usual. "How long ago was that?"

"About a half hour."

Suddenly, Skabb's voice boomed throughout the entire castle. "IT'S BACK! IT'S BACK! AAAAAGGHH!"

Knightriss turned on her heels and started running. "Come on, Defenders!"

Shaiden nodded, then dashed after her leader. Kook rapidly did the same. Out on the moat, the other Defenders were gathered around the Defenders' Douse, overlooking the world outside the castle's walls. The dragon was running around in a rage. It destroyed just about every tree it touched.

The Defenders took aim.

"DESTROY IT!" Gildar screamed.

Instantly, another battle began. The dragon realized it was being attacked, then fiercely came after the warriors. The Defenders fought back hard, but the dragon seemed even fiercer, tonight.

In the middle of the battle, the dragon had drove over half of the Defenders into the moat. Still standing on the front wall were Kook, Gildar, and Shaiden. The dragon smacked the viking's Tenderizer from his hands, then turned and delivered a strong whip from the tail to the blue ninja's face. She groaned loudly and fell on the Starting Platform, but didn't slide into the murky water.

While the dragon was busy with Gildar, Kookaburra fired a rock from his Sling Splatter. The stone hit the beast's neck. The dragon, more enraged than hurt, screamed. It turned around, which resulted in its tail slapping Gildar down. The beast ran towards the bird, then smacked him with its large paw. Kook fell off the wall and to the ground in front of the castle. The beast then got ready to pounce. Kook rolled over just in time to save himself from being crushed. However, the dragon landed on his left arm, severely damaging it. The bird cried out in agonized pain, getting Gildar's attention.

"Kook!"

The viking jumped from the wall and rushed to his comrade. His fist made direct contact with the dragon's snout when he arrived. The dragon screamed as Gildar carefully took Kook's arm into his hands and inspected it. Once it regained its sense of smell, the dragon roared yet again, then came even closer to the two. Gildar curled his hand into another iron fist.

Suddenly, Crocness emerged from the castle and ran for the beast. When she reached it, she got ahold of its left arm and bit down hard on the dragon's paw. The dragon yanked its paw back, furiously crying out. The dragon then seethed down at the reptilian woman, who seethed back.

"Infernal beast!" she cried.

The half-human, half-reptile and the dragon glared at each other, both bearing their teeth. Then, all of a sudden, the dragon's dilated eyes constricted. It blinked a few times, then looked over at Kook. After scanning the bird's mangled arm in Gildar's hands, it looked back at Crocness. As it stared at her, a look of remorse flooded its light-colored eyes. Crocness, surprised, studied its eyes carefully. She suddenly realized that those eyes were not the same color as they were the night before.

Just then, the other Defenders arrived with more exploding splat balls and dangerous weapons. Before the dragon or Crocness could respond, the Defenders fired. The dragon backed up and roared, then turned and ran. The Defenders followed after it. However, they soon lost it, and were forced to return to Crocness, Gildar, and Kook. When they came back, the ninja walked over to Kook and the viking.

"Kook, you alright?" Shaiden asked, kneeling down next to the bird.

Kookaburra forced a smile, but was unable to say anything.

Gildar looked up at the ninja. "His arm's broken, but he'll be fine."

Shaiden nodded, then helped Gildar lift Kook up. Afterwards, the two began to carefully lead the injured bird back to the castle. After exchanging some discouraged words and strategies, the other Defenders followed after them.

Ballista was walking behind everyone else. She suddenly paused, then turned around. Crocness wasn't moving an inch. It was almost as if her boots were glued to the forest floor. The water monster was staring through the trees.

"Croc, aren't you coming?"

Crocness turned to the huntress. "I'll meet you inside. I wanna stay out here a little longer."

Ballista stared at her reptilian friend for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Alright."

As soon as the blonde huntress was gone, Crocness took off running through the maple trees, determined to find the dragon. She kept close to the shadows and avoided stepping on any twigs. After a while, the half-human, half-reptile slowed her quiet run to a silent pace. She eventually came to a dead part of the maple forest. The croc-woman cautiously looked around. Then she finally found her target.

The dragon was standing in front of a large pile of brokenp-off branches and dead trees. It was standing on its hind legs and leaning its hands and upper body against a thick, ancient tree. It was trembling and clenching its teeth together.

Crocness stayed hidden in the shadows and watched the beast intently. She noticed quite a few interesting details. For starters, this dragon was not dark red. It was blue. It was also only three quarters of a school bus.

Then, to the croc-woman's slight surprise, the dragon's tail and wings began to disolve. Its thick, blue arms grew smaller from the elbow up. The creature took deep breaths as its face began to morph into a more familiar shape. Then the transformation froze.

Crocness stepped out of the shadows and stared at the half-human, half-dragon.

"...Thorne?"

A/N: Did you see that one coming? You probably did, huh?

Just so you know, I don't want to deal with all the "unclothed" issues that come with transforming monsters and stuff, so every time Thorne changes back into a human/half human, I'll be describing him as having his clothing back on, kay?