Fireheart:

Chapter 16: Part 1: To Catch a Huntress

Violet slowly opened her eyes, wincing at the throbbing pain in her head. She carefully felt the spot where she'd been hit. As her vision cleared, she began to remember what had happened.

Sun and Haley had come to their house and told them what the others had found out about Jake. Spud and Trixie had come with them. 88 and 89 had shone up a short time later, saying that Lao Shi had dismissed them for the day. Apparently the two boys had somehow managed to break Lao's priceless Ming Dynasty vase, twice.

As the afternoon dragged on into evening, it was decided amongst them that there wasn't much they could until Rose came back from her search, so they settled down to wait for word of her return. But it wasn't Rose who blasted through the upstairs window...

There had been no time to react. Chang had knocked out Spud and Trixie both with one hit. Shade demons had subdued Violet's parents, 88 and 89 had run screaming and hid in a closet at the first sight of dragons, but no one was prepared for when Jake Long swooped out of the smoke filled air to confront Sun and Haley...

Haley was completely frozen in shock, unable to move. It was Sun's leap in front of her to take Jake's attack that snapped the little dragon out of it. She spat fire at Jake to drive him away from the injured dragoness, then both Sun and Haley had attacked him!

But it was all in vain. Jake easily deflected and countered their combined attacks. It was in that moment that he said something which made their blood run cold.

"You call this a fight? Ha! Even Gramps put up more of a struggle then this!"

The realization of what he was saying, what he was claiming, had been too much to take in. Haley had stalled in mid-flight, dropping to the floor like a stone. Sun caught her, but was too late to dodge the lightning bolt that blasted from Jake's palm. Both were out cold before they hit the ground.

Through all of this, Violet had been fighting off the shades, powerless to do anything for the others. And then it was over, and Jake and Chang were coming for her. She fought as best she could against them, but they only sneered triumphantly at her, humoring her struggles as they cornered her. And then her back was to a wall. One strike from Jake talons, and everything went black...

Was that really Jake? She thought, her mind coming back to the present, What happened to him? And for that matter- where am I? She carefully sat up as the throbbing faded, and tried to get a good look at her surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was that it was dark. So dark that she could barely see her hand in front of her face, or at least it would've been, if not for the bright glow of the crackling lightning that danced before her eyes. At first glance, the vertical rod of energy did resemble a lightning bolt, but it never moved from that position, and didn't disappear, even as it sparked and writhed like an angry serpent.

Tearing her gaze away from it, Violet found that there were more of the strange rods placed in a circle around her, each with sparks branching off from both sides to connect them to the rest. Then she looked up, saw that the bolts of energy crossed each other over her head and finally realized their significance.

A cage.

Glancing beyond the cage, she could barely make out the interior of a long narrow building. A raftered ceiling dotted with fire sprinklers, a bare, cold floor that felt like concrete. There were boarded up windows and doors with tiny shafts of moonlight seeping through, and large wooden crates stacked and scattered around the place. A warehouse, long abandoned from the looks of it.

Movement caught her eye then. A deeper patch of darkness in the shadows. The presence as it drew near felt huge and menacing, an aura of terrible power surrounding it. Violet gasped, as the large, glowing red eyes came level with her face. In the light from her cage, the young human was able to see more of her visitor. It didn't take long to realize who it was. They stared at each other in silence as he studied her. Finally, the black dragon pulled his nightmarish gaze away from her face and began circling the cage, though his predatory eyes never left her.

"It is a strange thing..." mused the Dark Dragon, looking her over as he moved, "you share you sister's face. So much so in fact, that I mistook you for her when you were first brought to me. It was only when my shades informed me of your sister's rescue by the American Dragon that I realized otherwise."

"You've never seen twins before?" Violet asked curiously. Despite her initial fear at seeing the black dragon again, she was puzzled by his behavior. There was no doubt that he was holding her as bait for Rose and the others, but why the sudden curiosity? Why was he speaking to her as if... as if... Violet tried to follow this train of thought. As if what?

For a moment, the Dark Dragon seemed taken aback by her question. A strange look came into his eyes. Finally, he said "Such births are- rare, among my kind. Even more so when the two are identical." The words were slow, uncertain, as if this topic was something he would rather avoid. He stopped circling, and looked away into the distance, seeming lost in thoughts. Then he said quietly, "I too had a twin. A sister, long ago..."

Violet didn't speak, not wanting to break the strange spell that seemed to have come over him. The black dragon's eyes where deeply troubled, his words straining, as if he was trying desperately to keep them from coming, but was no longer able to do so. But then he glanced back down at her, shook his head, and the spell was broken. For the fleetest of moments as she looked into those eyes, Violet thought he looked shaken. But it was gone a second later, and his eyes were filled once more with cold, sly malice.

The Dark Dragon then glanced behind him, looking at something Violet couldn't see. He gave a jerk with his head, gesturing for whatever it was to come forward. It turned out to be one of his shade demons. The shade was carrying what seemed to be a thick braid of black hair that glowed strangely in the darkness. It stopped a short distance from the cage and held up the braid so she could see it clearly.

The evil dragon looked at the strange braid, then at her, and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

"No." answered Violet honestly.

"It is sphinx hair." he explained, "It has a strange effect on dragons. When in the presence of a large among, it severely weakens them, no matter which form they take, almost to the point of death..." He let the sentence hang, then continued, "If a net is woven from it, its power will only effect a dragon who is entangled in the net, trapping them in human form as long as they remain there."

"Then, why are you showing it to me?" asked Violet, though she was certain she already knew.

He confirmed her guess by answering, "Now that your sister's powers have revealed themselves, she is vulnerable to its effect." His eyes narrowed as he fixed his gaze on her again. "Perhaps your appearance is not the only thing you share with her..."

The shade held the sphinx hair closer to her, but Violet didn't feel anything. Guess I didn't get the dragon powers after all. She thought, slightly disappointed. But then a plan began to take shape in her mind... She had noticed that the Dark Dragon seemed to back away from the hair, and he hadn't touched it. He said that sphinx hair weakens dragons... Maybe I could...

She staggered slightly, as if trying to back away from the braid, a look of bewildered shock on her face.

The Dark Dragon sneered with pleasure at this, glancing at the shade. It moved closer to her, holding the braid out.

Violet staggered again, worse this time. She swayed on the spot, her eyelids drooping. "Get... Get that away from me..." Her voice was weak, strained.

The shade came closer still...

She collapsed, struggling to push herself up again, but to no avail. The Dark Dragon laughed as the shade moved even closer and she went limp. She could barely seem to keep her eyes open.

Now the sphinx hair was mere inches away from her. Suddenly her eyes snapped open! With a fearsome yell, she grabbed the braid and punched the shade demon through the chest! It vanished like smoke.

Before the Dark Dragon had even moved, Violet ran to the bars of her cage and threw the sphinx braid directly at him! It hit him square in the face before landing right between his front claws.

He blinked in surprise, then glanced down at the hair. Violet waited, willing for something, anything, to happen. Nothing did.

Minutes passed, and then the Dark Dragon started to laugh. "Foolish child!" he said, looking back at her, "Did you really think it would be that easy?" He laughed again at the look on Violet's face, then continued, "But even if you do not share her powers, you do your sister proud. You have the same cunning."

"But- but why didn't it- ? You said that- " She couldn't even finish the sentences.

"Yesss" He crooned, "What I said of the sphinx hair was true. However, I have too grown to powerful for that. I am immune." To prove his point, he reached down and picked up the braid, holding it in his palm. After a few moments, he placed the sphinx hair against his chest scales, right over his heart.

Minutes went by, and still nothing happened. "You see, young one?" he said with a smirk, "It no longer effects me." He pulled the braid away, and tossed it to another shade nearby. But as he did so, Violet noticed something. The claw that had held the braid was shaking. Perhaps he wasn't as immune as he wanted her to believe...

Hi all! Yeah, I know, long time, no post. :( Well, writer's block and college classes starting again, what can I say? Anyway, for those of you who were upset by my "to be deleted" Author's Note awhile back, I would like to appologize for that.

What I meant was that the previous Author's Note about me looking for a Beta Reader was to be deleted, not the story itself. Therefore I'm sorry I didn't make that more clear, and for scaring you. :( Rest assured that I have no plan of ever deleting this story whatsoever. :)

In other news, you may have noticed that this chapter has a "part 1" in the title. The reason for this is because the second half of this chapter is taking far longer to write then I would have liked, and so I think it better to at least post a half-chapter then leave this blank for who-knows-how-much-longer. Anyway, hopefully Part 2 won't take too much longer to write (around homework and other things) and that I still have readers when I finally post it. :P lol jk! At least I hope you guys stick around, because it's finally getting to (what I consider) the good part. :)

Also, before I forget, here is the latest update on the podcast and a little something to tide you over til next chapter (This is also posted on my profile page.):

Podcast News: Unfortunently, Save The Shows has now been discontinued do to a lack of audience. However, we are now working under the new name of Cyberlight Productions. The new website can be found here: cyberlightproductions .com (without the spaces)