The next day, the alarms started going off again in a different way. All the male adults and a few teenagers grabbed rifles and headed out to the wall of the castle to see what was going on.

Meghan and Katy stayed behind and distracted the younger kids by telling them a few fairy tales to keep them calm.

Suddenly, they heard commotion outside.

"Stay with them," Meghan said to Katy. She got up and went out where she saw a ton of strangers she had never seen before walking into the castle. "Hey, Creedy!" she called to the man as he passed by her. "What is going on? Who are these people?"

"Why don't you ask Quinn?" Creedy answered with thick annoyance in his tone.

"What did he do?"

"He let a bunch of Americans who claim to be dragon killers into the place."

"Dragon killers? Are you serious?"

"Who knows if they're actually telling the truth? For now, we need to get all of the kids into the shelter. Quinn apparently trusted them enough to let them in the castle, but not enough for everyone to keep living the way we have. So we have to keep the kids safe. You and Katy will need a rifle in your bunk room."

Meghan was speechless at all she had just heard. All she could do was nod and head back to the kids.

"Katy," she said as she came into the room. She quietly whispered all that Creedy had told her out of earshot of everyone else in the room.

"Okay, everyone," Katy announced to the children. "Mr. Quinn has asked you all to stay in the shelter for tonight."

The kids began panicking and running around the place.

"Calm down!" Katy screamed. "No one's in danger. There hasn't been a dragon sighting. He just wants you all in close quarters for right now so he can keep an eye on you. That's it. So gather up what you want and head on down with me. The older ones will be there with you soon. Let's go."

Together, Meghan and Katy brought all the children down to where they went for shelter when a dragon was sighted. Eventually, enough adults came down so Meghan and Katy could head back up.

Meghan ended up running into a blonde woman.

"Sorry," the woman said shortly. "Didn't see you there. I'm Alex."

"I'm Meghan, and this is my friend, Katy."

"Pleasure. You know where I can get some whetstone?"

"You'll have to ask Quinn. He would know. He's probably in the kitchen area right now. It's right around the corner over there."

Alex nodded and went off in that direction. Meghan and Katy looked at each other.

"Well…I guess I've dealt with worse," Katy remarked.

Meghan scoffed. "Really?"

"There was this one girl I bunked with who complained all the time about being hungry and not having a mirror to look at herself."

"That's pretty bad."

"I had to listen to her rant for at least 45 minutes as I tried to fall asleep."

"I guess the bar wasn't set too high when I got put there."

"Are you kidding? You're the best girl I've ever bunked with!"

"I'm honored!"

The two girls laughed lightly and went to go get their dinner ration. As they ate, Meghan noticed that Quinn was nowhere in sight. Creedy soon came and joined them.

"Hey, Creedy," Katy said.

"Where's Quinn?" Meghan asked.

"He's dealing with our new friends. Make sure you get a rifle and keep it on hand in your bunk."

"Got it."

"You guys wanna know a secret?" Creedy said drawing them in close and lowering his voice. Both girls nodded eagerly. "Quinn's got his eye on someone."

"Really?" Katy asked.

"Yeah, he's been acting so much different lately. Like he hasn't got the weight of the world on his shoulders."

"I don't think it takes much to guess who it is…"

Katy and Creedy looked over at Meghan. "What, me?" she said astounded.

"No," Katy said. "The other person Quinn can't keep his eyes off of. Oh, wait, there isn't another person like that. Which I'm sure all the other girls are happy about."

Meghan began blushing. "Don't you think he'd be more interested in that Alex girl? She's a fighter like he is."

"She's also commandeering and looks like she has absolutely no idea how to have any kind of fun at all. I haven't seen someone so stiff in years."

"I think Creedy is just imagining things."

"He's been my best friend since we were both 14," Creedy countered. "I know when he's acting different. And right now, he couldn't be acting more different."

"Maybe he's acting different because a bunch of American 'dragon killers' are running around our home."

"He's been acting different since the night we put on Tarzan."

"Hah!" Katy exclaimed. "Called it! I told you you guys were having chemistry!"

"I think you're both just seeing things."

"Not a chance."

A bald man with a huge beard came over to them. "Name's Denton Van Zan," he said as he held his hand out. Neither Katy nor Meghan made a move to return the gesture. "Nice to meet you."

The alarms started going off, so they three were forced to abandon what little food they had.

"Creedy," Van Zan said. "We need your help. We're gonna kill ourselves a dragon."

"Good luck," Katy said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't need it," Van Zan replied.

Katy looked at him then at Meghan. "Overconfident American," she muttered.

The two girls ran to where the kids were to make sure they were all there and were safe. "Meggy!" Jackson said as he ran up to Meghan. "I'm scared."

"I know, but you're gonna be okay. I told you I wasn't going to let anything happen to you."

The loud roar of a dragon pierced the air above them making all the kids shriek in fear.

"Katy," Meghan said. "Take him."

She handed Jackson over to her and took off. "Where are you going?" Katy called.

"They need help!"

"Meggy!" Jackson yelled as tears started running down his face.

Katy looked after her friend. "Sarah!" she called. An older woman came over to her. "Watch over all of them!" Katy handed Jackson over to her and took off up the stairs after Meghan.

Meghan ran to the entrance of the castle and looked up to where a man was riding on a motorcycle up the hill. He was carrying some kind of high-tech tool and it looked like it carried great importance.

Suddenly, the dragon appeared seemingly out of nowhere and the man on the motorcycle was burned to death in a matter of seconds.

Meghan had no idea what that tool was, but she knew it had to be crucial that it got to the top of that hill for whatever reason. After looking up at the sky to make sure the coast was clear, she took off in the direction of the hill and ran as fast as her legs would carry her while still keeping her eyes on the sky.

Katy ran up to the entrance and saw Meghan running out in the open. "Meghan!" she screamed loudly.

Meghan could not hear Katy's screams as she kept running. Before long, she heard the sound of hoofbeats behind her. When she turned around, Quinn was galloping up to her on his horse. "Give me your hand!" he yelled.

Barely even slowing down, he grabbed Meghan's hand and pulled her up behind him onto the horse. She tightly held on to his waist as they went up to the hill.

When they got to the top, they both dismounted and scoured the land for the tool the man on the motorcycle had.

"Quinn!" Meghan called when she found it. Together, they turned the machine on and stuck it into the ground.

"What were you thinking?" Quinn yelled at Meghan.

She had no time to answer because they both heard, "Piscatella." They looked around and saw the man's walkie-talkie which was a bit burned, but evidently still worked. "Piscatella, do you read me?"

"Van Zan!" Quinn said into the walkie-talkie.

"Who is this?"

"Quinn. Meghan's with me."

"Quinn, where's Piscatella?"

Quinn and Meghan looked at each other. "He's gone," Quinn finally answered.

"Are you ready to ride 'cause you got about thirty seconds before that thing is on top of you guys." Both of them looked up to the sky in a panic. "You bring her to me. You're the bait, guys. 1600 pounds of dragon flesh. Ride her right down my throat. Do you read me? Ride the north road to the quarry. Bring her to me, guys."

"We're coming."

Meghan and Quinn ran back to the horse and mounted on it once more. Then they took off as fast as they could back to the castle.

"Come on!" Quinn screamed, urging the horse on.

Meghan kept turning around and looking for the dragon. Finally…there it was. "Quinn!" she screamed. He urged the horse on even faster. When they made it over the hill, Quinn saw a spear headed straight for them.

"Duck!" he yelled to Meghan. They both did so and the spear nailed the dragon and it went crashing to the ground. Dead.

Meghan and Quinn galloped up next to the beast. She had never seen a dead dragon before and it was a miraculous sight. At least she now knew the American team hadn't been bluffing about being able to kill them.

That night, the biggest celebration to ever happen at the castle in Northumberland took place. Lights were turned on, music was played, and drinks went around for all.

A ton of people congratulated Meghan for helping out the Americans to kill the dragon. The only people who didn't were the girls who knew that she had worked together with Quinn and were still jealous about her relationship with him.

"Meggy!" Jackson squealed when he saw the girl. She knelt down and scooped him up in her arms.

"Hey, Jackson!"

"You're a hero, Meggy!"

"Thanks, buddy."

"You and Mr. Quinn are amazing!"

"It wasn't just us. Our visitors did most of the work. We just…gave them a helping hand."

Quinn came up to her. "Good work out there."

"Thanks. You too. Um, have you seen Katy?"

"Yeah, she was over there earlier." He pointed towards the kitchen area and she saw Katy with her arms folded across her chest, looking pretty ticked off.

"Jackson, go with Quinn. I'm going to go talk to Katy." She handed Jackson over to Quinn and walked over to where Katy was. "Hey!" she said.

Katy looked away from her.

"Katy, what's wrong?"

"You helped those…Americans. Why?"

Meghan scoffed. "Americans or not, they needed our help. And because we helped them, a dragon is dead."

"Yeah, so what? Another will take its place. You've done nothing but helped those stupid Americans."

"Katy…"

Meghan didn't get to finish because she was drowned out by all the cheering from everyone as Van Zan came into the room.

"Envy the country that has heroes, huh?!" he yelled. The cheering got even louder. "I say pity the country that needs 'em." At that, everyone immediately silenced. "What are you celebrating?" Van Zan asked angrily. "One dragon down, three men dead? Oh, yeah. At that rate, we might just be getting somewhere in about 320 years. Is that what you want? You want a little accommodation? Unh-unh. These beasts live on ash. They feed on death. There's no middle ground. Not for them, not for us. And sure not for my men who died out there today.
But you go ahead. Have your little…soiree. Personally, you disgust me." He began to walk away with his American posse. "We bury our dead at dawn."

Meghan looked at Quinn and saw him shake his head. She quickly went after Van Zan. "Hey!" she called to him. "Van Zan!"

He turned around to face her and she realized that he was a lot more intimidating up close, but she held her ground.

"Give us a little credit, will you?" she said angrily. "No one here has ever seen a dead dragon before and it's exciting to us. I get that you lost three of your guys, and I'm sorry. But that doesn't mean that you have to make everyone miserable with you. Just let us have our moment because this is the first ray of hope we've seen since these dragons were let loose."

Van Zan looked at her. "It's Meghan, isn't it?" Meghan nodded. "You were with Quinn out there today. You helped him get that third vertical up. I appreciate that."

That was all he said before he walked away again.

Later, when Meghan was about to head to the kitchen to get the dinner ration she had skipped previously, she saw Jackson talking to Van Zan. Van Zan was showing the boy the dragon tooth he wore around his neck.

"Got this from the first dragon I ever killed," Van Zan said.

"Jackson!" Meghan called. "Come here." She pulled Jackson into her arms. "Go get ready for bed. I'll tuck you in a bit." Jackson ran off and she went up to Van Zan. "I don't want you talking to him," she said firmly.

"He came up and talked to me first," Van Zan countered.

"I don't care. Don't. Talk. To him. Just because I helped you guys does not mean that I trust you. And I don't want that boy getting hurt. Got it? Good."

Meghan whipped around and went down to where the kids were now sleeping.

"Meggy," Jackson said as she tucked him in. "Why couldn't I talk to that man?"

"He's still a stranger to us, Jackson. I just want to keep you safe."

"Okay. But Meggy? I want a dragon tooth like that man has got. It'll make me look brave."

"You, sir, are brave enough without a dragon tooth. But, I'll see if I can get one for you one of these days. Get some sleep now."

"Meggy? I love you."

Meghan stopped in her tracks. It had been so long since anyone had said that to her. She leaned over him and gave him a kiss on his forehead. "I love you too, Jackson."

She left the boy to his dreams and went to go get her dinner ration. She saw that Quinn was in the room getting a drink.

"Hey," she said awkwardly. "I was just…getting some food. I never ate my dinner."

Quinn went about getting a plate ready for her. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Meghan leaned against the counter and began eating her food standing up.

"Meghan, what were thinking today? Why on earth did you just run out into the open?"

"I saw that man get burned to death and I assumed that whatever he was doing was important so I wanted to go help."

"You're just lucky that dragon wasn't near you at the time."

Meghan sighed. "Looks like no one is happy with my decision today. Katy's barely talking to me and I have a feeling it's about that. I don't know why everyone's so upset. I was just trying to help out the Americans with whatever it was they were doing. It's okay if a guy helps out, but as soon as a girl gets involved, everyone panics. Well, if Alex can help, then so can I!"

Meghan slammed her empty plate on the counter and left the kitchen to go back to her bunk. On the way she ran into Katy, but Katy just looked at her coldly and kept walking.

"Katy, what's your problem?" Meghan demanded.

"I already told you," she answered shortly.

"There's more to it than just me helping the Americans, isn't there?"

"No."

"Katy, please!" Meghan begged as they stopped walking. "I can't lose you as a friend."

Katy finally turned to face her. "You could've been killed," she said quietly.

"But I wasn't. I'm fine."

"What would Jackson do without you? What am I supposed to do without you?"

"Katy…"

"No, listen, I have never gotten so close to someone the entire time I've been here. Not even Georgia or Lauren. Especially in such a short time. I can't lose you."

"You won't lose me."

"You don't know that."

"Katy, if I can walk for miles on end with a dislocated knee and a huge gash on my arm and still not get killed by a dragon, I think I'll be fine."

Katy laughed lightly and the two girls shared a tight hug.