Chapter 2

Dak and Winger flew over the ocean, they were flying so fast that they didn't notice that the island was soon well out of sight. They weren't worried though, they knew the area pretty well by now. Winger did all his favorite flying tricks and Dak whooped with excitement. The Swiftwing pulled out of his latest dive and leveled off to catch his breath. They glanced around to get their bearings. They noticed what they were hovering over a small island. Then they spotted the black plume of smoke rising out of the top of the island. A low rumble seem to come from the island itself.

"It's Volcano Island," said Winger, remembering when Aggro had been trapped in the volcano's crater. There came another low rumble.

"Let's check it out," Dak said excitedly.

"Okay, as long as we don't get too close," said Winger. He cautiously approached the top of the volcano, stay clear of the smoke. The smell of sulfur was very strong. Winger circled around the crater. On the other side of the island they were suddenly distracted from the volcano by a large, elegant looking ship that was stuck on the rocks.

It didn't look like a Viking ship and was larger and grander than any pirate ship the Rescue Riders had encountered. It was at least 200 feet long with three tall masts and a shorter one at the back. Its four bright red sails slightly resembled dragon wings. Its hull was painted black, and the upper decks were painted white, with gold trim. On top of the highest mast was was a sliver flag with a black symbol of a Night Fury forming a spiral shape. The name Dracorex was carved in silver letters on the side of the triangular bow. So far there didn't seem to be anyone onboard.

"That ship must have run aground during the storm," said Winger.

"Never seen a ship like that before," said Dak, curious. "Let's get a closer look." Winger was hesitant.

"What if it's a pirate ship?" He said nervously.

"It doesn't look like a pirate ship, and there doesn't seem to be anyone on it," said Dak. "Let's just get a closer look and if it is a pirate ship, we'll get out of here." Winger sighed.

"Okay," he agreed. He flew towards the ship. As they flew over the deck they spotted two people, a man and woman, on a large sun deck at the back of the ship that overlooked the main deck. The women was sitting in a deck chair while the man was attending to her right foot. They seemed to be the only ones on the ship. For the moment they hadn't noticed the dragon circling their boat. Winger stopped and hovered out of their sight.

"Looks like they're in trouble," said Dak. "Maybe we should help them. They don't look like pirates to me."

"Good idea," said Winger. He headed for the sun deck. He circled it once to get the man and woman's attention, then landed on the opposite side of the sun deck.

The two strangers looked up curiously. The man was wearing a plain blue tunic, brown trousers, black boots, and a belt that held a pair of swords. The woman was wearing a green leather blouse, blue trousers, and her feet were bare. Her golden brown hair was pulled back into a braid. Around her neck was a large golden orange locket, with a ruby stone in the middle of it.

"Hello," said the woman. "Can we help you?"

"Actually we were hoping to help you," said Dak. "I'm Dak and this is Winger."

"I'm Chris, and this is my wife Serenity," the man said. He finished putting Serenity's foot in a hard leather brace.

"Nice to meet you two," Serenity said, her voice was strained as though her foot was really hurting her. "We could sure use a wing. I took a nasty fall off those stairs when we ran aground." She pointed to a staircase that lead up to the helm. "I can't walk, so I'm pretty useless." She leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh.

"We'll have to wait for high tide if we're going to get this ship off the rocks," Chris said getting to his feet. Dak turned to Winger.

"Let's go get the others," he said. "This will take teamwork."

"Great idea," said Winger. Chris and Serenity stared at them, bewildered.

"You can talk to that dragon?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, we were saying we should go get our friends," Dak said.

"Oh, no need to explain," said Serenity. "We can talk to dragons too." She smiled.

"Wow, we've got to tell the others now," said Winger, excitedly. "We'll be right back."

"We're not going anywhere," Chris said. "Our own dragons are out hunting, they should be here by the time you get back." Dak jumped onto Winger's saddle. They took off and headed back to Huttsgalore.

When they got there; the others were having dinner. They looked up when Winger landed. Edelweiss was trimming Eclipse's talons.

"You're just in time for dinner," she said.

"Guys, we found a ship stranded on Volcano Island," said Winger. "And there's two humans on it that can speak dragon. They need our help to get off the rocks." Everyone sat up with interest. Edelweiss dropped the talon clippers.

"Did you see the name of the ship?" She asked.

"It was called the Dracorex," said Dak. Edelweiss jumped to her feet.

"Those are my parents!" she exclaimed. "They must have been coming up here to surprise me."

"Cool, we get to meet your parents," said Aggro. Layla got to her feet, closing her Dragon Diary.

"Let's go help them," she said, mounting Summer. Edelweiss jumped onto Eclipse and they all set off.

The sun was starting to set as the Rescue Riders approached the stranded ship. They all landed on the sun deck. Serenity was still in her seat, her injured foot was resting on a foot stool. Chris was sitting next to her. Four adult dragons were standing around them: there was a blue one, a green one, and two black ones. One of the black dragons was a golden eyed Night Fury and the other looked like a larger version of Eclipse with green eyes. They all looked up when the Rescue Riders landed.

"Edelweiss!" Serenity exclaimed.

"Mama!" Edel answered. "Daddy." She jumped off Eclipse and ran to them. She hugged her father, then her mother. "Are you okay?"

"I hurt my foot," Serenity said. "But it's nothing too serious." Eclipse reunited with her parents too. The large blue dragon turned to their visitors.

"You must be the Rescue Riders," she said. "Edel and her friends told us all about you."

"That's us," said Burple boldly.

"Edelweiss told us about you too," said Layla happily. "You were raised by a dragon like we were."

"Yes," said Chris. "My parents here found me when I was a baby." He pointed to Re and Aurora.

"I was found when I was five years old," said Serenity. "My guardian dragon, Ruby is back at home right now, but he visits sometimes." She shifted around in her seat, wincing. Suddenly the ground shook violently, and there came a lout blast from above. They all looked up to see huge columns of heavy smoke and red hot lava bombs erupted out of the volcano above. Ponderous flows of lava started gushing out of the crater, and slowly flowed down towards the ship.

"That's not good," said Tenor, jumping to he feet.