"Come on, no more ambushes. No more ambushes." Prince Ayn said to himself as he lead the party out of Endora and down to Dragon Spine Cape. Mieu kept him on track.

"Look, there it is!" Mieu said, pointing to a thin strip of land.

"Well what are we standing around for? Come on!" Ayn ordered, running towards the cape. The rest of the party follwed, but Ayn had stopped just before the cape, for he had seen the most fascinating thing in his whole life. He had seen a dragon! Darren was just as amazed.

"Wow, Samesina has dragons! Cool!" he said. The dragon was a large, brown, scaly, fairly ugly beast. Its massive leathery wings were folded against its sides, and its tail was swishing gently from side to side. It seemed to have seen the party, for it bowed down gracefully and lowered its huge body.

"Climb onto my back. I'll take you to Techna." it said.

"Is it safe? I mean, it's not a trick, is it?" Darren asked. The dragon turned its head to face him.

"Nonsense! I'm always willing to take people to Techna. Some of the people who live there want to come here, so I take them over! I'm a dragon who is willing to do things like this." the dragon replied.

"What, like a taxi?"

"Yes, just like that." Darren gasped. He was sure that this dragon had never been to England before. He stopped, and then the party climbed onto the dragon's back.

"I suggest you hold on tight." the dragon said. Everyone grabbed onto one of its scales, and then the dragon spread its huge leathery wings and took off. It sailed thorugh the air like a bird, soaring up and down, side to side. The party could feel the wind blowing against their faces, and they began to feel exhilarated. Darren began to pant with excitement, and leant slightly to one side, Ayn grabbed his arm.

"Careful!" the prince said as the dragon soared even higher, almost throwing the party off its back.

Fifteen minutes later, the party were at the island where Techna was situated.

"We're here!" the dragon said. It landed and allowed the party to disembark. As soon as they had disembarked, a swirl of brown mist enveloped the dragon and shrank around it. A few seconds later, the mist had formed a vaguely human shape, and it dissipated. A figure stood where the mist had been.

"Whoop whoop WHOOP! I've wanted to do that for so long!" a familiar voice gasped. Ayn turned to face where the voice had come from.

"Lyle?" he asked slowly. "Lyle, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. You didn't think I could do that, could you?" Lyle said, snickering a little. Darren fainted in shock.

"Mind you, Ayn... there's something you should know." Lyle said quietly. He hung his head.

"What is it?" the prince asked.

"When your father was just a prince, his love, Maia, was taken from him by a dragon. That... was me. I took Maia from Rhys seventeen years ago! But don't tell him. He won't..." Lyle said, and then he collapsed to the floor. Ayn rushed over to him.

"Lyle, are you OK?" the prince asked. Lyle managed a small smile.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Mind you, on the way here, the cyborgs attacked me and I couldn't do anything. I had to get to Dragon Spine Cape." he croaked. Ayn brushed his hair out of his face.

"Please, Lyle... you're not... dying, are you?" the prince whimpered.

"I got mortally wounded, Ayn. I'm not gonna pull through this time..." Lyle said, just before his eyes glazed over. The prince began to cry.

"Who's got that technique scroll?" Ayn asked through his tears. Wren pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to the prince. He opened it and held his hand over the lifeless form of Lyle. He muttered the words under his breath, and a bright green beam of magic shot from the prince's hand and into Lyle's chest. Ayn wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Come on... come ON!" Ayn muttered impatiently to himself. The technique was working; it was just taking a long time.

After a five minute wait, Lyle's wounds had healed up. But, he wasn't breathing! Ayn began to panic.

"Oh, now what?" the prince sobbed. Sari listened to Lyle's heartbeat. It was there, so she told the prince to give Lyle the kiss of life. The prince began to shudder.

"What if I... oh, never mind." Ayn stammered. He knelt over Lyle, poised and ready to give the kiss of life, but just as he was about to seal his lips over Lyle's mouth, there was a massive gasp for air. Lyle had recovered.

"Whoa, I'm sure I saw Ayn giving me a kiss!" Lyle said, springing to his feet and picking up his staff off the ground. He bounded towards Ayn, embraced him and gave him a kiss on the lips. The prince blushed.

"What was that for?" Ayn asked. Lyle just said that it was because he wanted to give him a kiss before. He flipped up his eye-patch and made a startling discovery.

"That technique worked wonders, Ayn! I've got two eyes again!" Lyle said excitedly, taking the eye-patch from around his head and putting it into his pocket.

"Well then! We should go to Techna." Ayn said, and he began to lead the party into Techna, the Castle of Power. But before he did so, he stopped Lyle.

"Wait! Lyle, how do you..." the prince began.

"What is it?" Lyle asked. Ayn hesitated for a second.

"How do you... you know, turn into a dragon?" After the prince had finished speaking, Lyle had to stop and think for a second.

"Well, you see," Lyle explained, "I'm one of the few Dragon Knights in existence."

"Dragon Knights?"

"Yeah. A group of highly-trained individuals with the blood of the dragon flowing through their veins. Only Layans could become Dragon Knights, and even then, the power to turn into a dragon only activated when something happened to disgust the Layans. Which is why I kidnapped Maia seventeen years ago."

"What's this about kidnapping my mother?"

"She was a Layan, and she was going to be married to Rhys, your father, also an Orakian. This was seen as a terrible act by the Layans, and so my uncle, the King of Cille, sent me out to get her and sabotage the wedding. When I heard the news, my blood began to boil - literally - and the change overtook me. I would never have deliberately done that, but the instincts of the Dragon Knight were too much for me to overcome."

"But now that the war between Orakians and Layans has settled, how do you activate the power of the Dragon Knight?"

"Simple! Matters of urgency and anything that could spark up another conflict; those two things were serious enough to invoke my hidden power."

"And how do you know when you can... uh, invoke your hidden power?"

"As soon as my blood begins to heat up, that's when I can invoke the hidden power."

"Right. Thanks." After Ayn had found out about Lyle's hidden power, he lead the party into Techna.