Elven *finished*

Maturity: Hugging; holding hands; "I love you"s; slight non-graphic violence
Fantasy: Elves; dragons; magic; parallel universe



Prologue
Every morning, as I brushed my hair, I would feel the tops of my ears. And every morning, as my long black tresses fell in bouncy waves down my back, I would be disappointed. My ears were still as rounded as ever.
When my ears were fully pointed, they would begin to glow. That would be the symbol for me to go out and discover what the rest of the world was like, as is the custom of our people. I couldn’t wait. I had heard so much about the rest of the world from the ones who had returned that I would not stop talking about it. I chattered endlessly about the time when I would be allowed to wander.
Now I know that the ones that returned had told me only the good things. They are not allowed to say the hardships of the journey to young elves who have not yet gone.
In those days, we feasted, danced and sang endlessly, at peace with the other tribes. There were no troubles or crimes or disasters or wars or hungry people. At the time, I thought they were made up, to scare the disobedient little ones. But all that was about to change.

Chapter 1
The day my ears began to glow, my mother wept. She too had been on this journey. She knew some of what lay ahead of me, and that I might not return alive.
I didn’t.

The Council directed us to find something that had belonged to us, the Engla tribe, long, long ago.
“It was so long ago that we can’t remember what it looked like,” one of the Elders said.
“Or what it was,” another chimed in.
“But we do know where it is,” the third and youngest Elder added.
The first one to speak, the Senior Elder, glared at the other two. They quailed under his furious gaze. Then he turned back to me, and the other two young elves about to make their first journey.
He cleared his throat. “I was just getting to that,” he said. “It is buried deep in the Mountain of Death. It has the power to bring peace and truth to the land where it is brought.” He cleared his throat again. “You see-”
“We are on the brink of war,” interrupted a deep voice. The Lord of the Engla, Lord Gairn, draped in a magnificent velvet cloak, strode into the large, airy room through green double doors made of every kind of wood in the Elven Forest.
His ears were glowing stronger and brighter than any I have seen thus far, and were peeking out shyly from underneath his chocolatley-brown hair, which fell perfectly straight to his shoulders.
Every elf in the room bowed or curtsied deeply.
“My Lord...” the Senior Elder murmured reverently. “Such an honor...”
Lord Gairn turned to Elna, Dane and me. “As I was, saying, we are on the brink of war with the other tribes. This has been kept a secret from the young ones. We do not want to trouble them.”
Dane, by far the bravest of our little group, spoke up in a timid little voice. “L-Lord?” he squeaked. “What is causing the war?”
“They are accusing us of stealing their secrets. The Deng say we sent spies to say how they cook such fine food, the Kells say the same about their metalworking, and of course the Meekars are upset because they think they’re pottery secrets have been revealed. They chose to accuse us, because they know of no special skills our tribe possesses. But they do not know about one thing that we have, and they do not.”
I finally found the courage to speak. “Wh- what’s that, Lord?”
He turned his penetrating gaze onto me. Then he spoke. “Our magic.”

Chapter 2
Lord Gairn went on to tell us about the upcoming war.
“We would be hard-pressed to defeat even one of the other tribes,” he said gravely. “Our militia is by far the smallest of the Elven Armies. All three against us at once... We would be overrun before nightfall.”
He walked away through the doors, his face grim.

Alright, I confess. As soon as I heard the word magic, I didn’t listen to anything else Lord Gairn said.
“Mom?” I asked, once we were back home in our little cottage, deep in the heart of the Elven Forest. “Lord Gairn said we had magic. I never knew we could do magic!”
My mother was surprised that he had told us this.
“Usually, young elves must discover their own magic, which is different for every elf, on their journey. Lord Gairn must have thought that this was such an important mission that you needed to know beforehand.”
That didn’t exactly make me feel better. I didn’t want the fate of our entire tribe resting on my shoulders, but I had no choice. Luckily, Dane and Elna would be coming with me, so I didn’t have to bear the burden alone.

Chapter 3
We huddled together, listening to the rain pitter-pattering on our little tent.
“Dema?” Elna whispered.
“Yeah?” I answered.
“I’m scared,” she said.
I hugged her. “I am too.”

We didn’t sleep at all that night. We sat huddled together, watching a small lantern flickering light over the canvas, and listening to the thunder outside.
The next morning, the storm had subsided, but it remained overcast all day.
We walked and walked, until we came to a shady spot, ideal for a break for lunch.
I stared at the map the Elders had given us, but it didn’t make any sense. The words were written in ancient runes that no one in the Englas had been able to translate.
“This here, this line, what does it mean?” Dane had been looking over my shoulder. He pointed to a thick line next to a large triangle that I assumed was the Mountain of Death, our final destination.
“I don’t know, figure it out yourself!” I snapped. Half a day of walking had made me very irritable.
“Hey, calm down, Dema,” Elna said nervously.
“Fine!” I turned away, my eyes stinging.
“No, Dema, I didn’t mean it that way!” Elna pleaded.
I softened a little, but I wasn’t quite ready to completely forgive them yet. I rolled my eyes.
“Whatever,” I said. “Let’s get going.”

We stopped by the Annon River at sunset. Elna immediately collapsed on the bank, panting.
I dropped my pack. After a brief rest, I fished out the canteens. They were nearly empty. We had gotten quite hot, even though it was the middle of winter.
I knelt by the river and began to fill the canteens. I leaned a little too far in.
SPLASH!
The river was icy cold. I began to fight it as the current swept me downstream, but my limbs felt like lead. They stopped moving, and my head went under. I knew I was going to die.
Suddenly I felt a tug on my arm. I was dragged to the bank, spewing water left and right.
The winter Wind bit cruelly at my exposed face. I lay there gasping for some time. When I had the strength, I opened my eyes. Elna was staring at her hands like they were something new.
“I think,” Dane said quietly, “that Elna just discovered her brand of magic.”

Chapter 4
Elna was a Water-Elf. She could manipulate water any way she wanted. I wanted to find out what element I controlled, but it never came up.
A few weeks later, we were walking through a pine forest. I was at at the head of our little group. Suddenly I heard a scream from behind me.
“Demaaaaaaaaa!”
I spun around and ran to Dane, who was staring into a pit. It had been covered by dead pine needles, and seemed bottomless. Elna’s scream was echoing from it. Luckily, I could still hear the screaming, so she hadn’t hit anything yet.
I stared into the pit, willing that I could somehow bring her back. I didn’t see what Dane was doing. The scream stopped abruptly, and I cried bitterly, thinking that Elna was gone. Then a rumbling came from the ground, and the pit started to fill up rapidly, the dirt growing from the bottom up. Elna was on top of the mound, her leg twisted awkwardly beneath her, looking terrified.
When the ground was level, she threw herself into my arms and cried, horrible, heart-wrenching sobs that I’ll never forget. I cried too.

Chapter 5
Elna was a Water-Elf, and Dane was an Earth-Elf. I was nothing.
Elna had sprained her leg badly when the mound of earth had broken her fall, and she could hardly move it without crying out. For the next few days, Dane and I foraged in the woods for food to supplement our meager rations, and gathered firewood.
The second day after Elna’s accident, I was reaching for another piece of firewood to put on the fire, when my hand touched something. I spun around, knowing that it could be something dangerous.
Dane was standing behind me with his arm awkwardly extended, looking just about as embarrassed as I felt.
“Sorry,” we both muttered at the same time. We burst out laughing.
“Ha, ha, very funny, guys,” Elna called crossly from inside the tent. “Why don’t you go get more food or wood or something?”
“Well, well, look who’s grumpy today?” Dane whispered to me as, stifling more giggles, we trooped off into the forest.

By the time Elna could walk again, our food supplies were almost gone, although we had been very frugal with our rations.
I heard a rumbling and glanced nervously at the cloudy sky. “What was that?” I asked. “Thunder?”
“No,” Dane answered sadly. “It was my stomach. I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, well, so am I,” I said.
Elna returned from scouting ahead. “Hey guys, there’s a human village up ahead!”
A slow grin spread over my face. I looked at Dane. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked him.
He grinned too. “Time to steal some food.”

“This reminds me of when we were little,” I whispered, grinning. “Do you remember how we used to steal cakes and pies from your mom’s kitchen?”
Dane giggled. “Yeah.”
Elna was nervous.
“Can we just get on with it?” she hissed.
“Okay, okay,” Dane whispered back. He rolled his eyes in my direction, then crept forward and grabbed a box of food from the back of a truck.
“Now let’s get out of here!” Elna said. She and Dane ran quickly out of sight. I was about to follow them, when something caught my eye.
A girl about my age was sobbing with her face buried in her hands, but that’s not what got my attention. One of her ears just barely showed through her curtain of long black hair, and it was just as pointy as any elf’s.
As I watched, it began to glow. I absent-mindedly touched my own ear, its glow hidden by my hair.
I walked slowly over to the girl. Just then, Elna came back to see where I was.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
I pointed at the girl’s ear. Elna fell silent.
I tapped the girl on her shoulder. “Excuse me,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
The girl continued sobbing for a few seconds, then finally managed to choke out, “He’s dead... He’s gone, and he’s not coming back!”
“Who?” I asked gently.
“My dad!” she sobbed.
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly. “You need to come with us, now. We’ll take care of you.”
The girl stood up and waited for us to lead her away, her body still racked by sobs.
“This way,” Elna said. She led us to where Dane was waiting impatiently with the box. He looked quizzically at the girl, but I gave him a “no-questions” look, and he shrugged and turned away to go to where we had left our packs and the tent.

After we had set up the tent in the little clearing, I started asking the girl questions.
“Who are you?”
The girl sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Aznona Belé Henelika,” she said hoarsely. “But call me Az; I hate my name.”
“Who are your parents?”
“I never knew my mom,” Az answered. “She left as soon as I was born and never came back.”
“And your dad?”
“Dead. Yesterday.”
“Did you ever see his ears?”
Az looked at me like I was nuts. “What a strange question. But come to think of it, I never actually did see his ears. Why do you ask?”
For an answer, I lifted up part of my hair, and revealed the faintly glowing ear beneath it.
Az gasped. “You- you’re an elf!” she stammered.
I nodded.
Realization struck her like a lightning bolt. “And- and I am too?”
Another nod.
“And my mom- and my dad-”
I nodded again.
And then she fainted.

Chapter 6
We waited until Az began to stir. She groaned a little bit, and slowly reached a hand up to touch her ear.
Then she sat bolt upright, looked around, and began to cry. “So it was true,” she sobbed. “He’s dead, and I - I’m an elf!”
Dane looked offended. “You’re saying that as if it’s a bad thing,” he complained.
“I - I don’t want to be an elf!” she cried.
“Face it,” Dane said coldly. “You are an elf, and you can’t change that.”
“Dane!” I snapped. “Be nice!”
He got up, spun on his heel, and stalked off alone into the woods.
Elna looked at me helplessly and ran after him, leaving me alone with Az.
Trying to break the awkward silence, I searched franticly for something to say. “I- I’m going to go fill the canteens,” I mumbled. I gathered them up and followed the sound of a small stream nearby. This time I was extra careful not to lean too far in.
On the way back to the tent, I met Elna and Dane coming back. Dane seemed to have calmed down a bit, but he wouldn’t speak to me, and glared at me icily if I tried to speak to him.
I kind of noticed how sad it made me. I hadn’t really known just how close we really were, and how much I valued his friendship.
We stepped into the little clearing and stopped dead. Az was sitting near the fire, playing with something cupped in her hands. It was a small flame.
She looked up when we came in, a small grin on her tearstained face. “Can all elves do this?” she asked excitedly.
As I shook my head slowly, I heard Elna mutter, “Well, she’s an Engla, all right.”

Chapter 7
Elna, Dane, and Az had discovered their powers. They were truly adults. But I? I had no powers, and so I was still a child, by rights.
By the time winter passed into spring, we had walked across the map and were under the shadow of the Mountain of Death.
We had about a day’s march until we actually got to the Mountain. We were walking in a line, with me at the head. Behind me, Elna walked in front of Az, and Dane brought up the rear.
Suddenly a crevice loomed in front of me. “Whoa!” I stopped short right on the edge, but Elna ran straight into me. I lost my balance and teetered on the edge. Someone tried to grab me, but I fell before they could. I heard Elna scream my name at the same time that Dane yelled that the bottom was too far down for his magic.
I knew I was going to die, this time for certain. As I flew through space, I shut my eyes tight and wished I could fly. That’s when the falling sensation stopped.
I slowly opened my eyes, afraid that it was an illusion, and that I was still falling, but it was true. I had stopped in midair.
I was afraid of what might happen, but I willed myself to move upwards. I felt the Wind currents push me up, even faster than I had fallen.
I passed the ledge, where Elna was sobbing hysterically into Az’s shoulder, and Az was crying into hers.
Dane had been staring at the ground and blinking hard, but he looked up as I passed. I willed the air currents to push me where I wanted to go as easily as I could lift a finger.
I twirled in the air, did somersaults and loop-de-loops, and finally gave a wild whoop of exhilaration and landed next to them, just as Elna and Az unburied their heads.
“I think I’ve found my power,” I announced.
And I had.

Chapter 8
“I didn’t see an opening anywhere,” Az said, returning from her scouting trip around the Mountain.
I sighed. “I suppose that means I’m going to have to fly up there and look for an entrance at the top?”
My friends nodded grimly.
“Fine,” I said, annoyed. I willed the Wind to push me up. I felt it give a weak little push, but it wasn’t enough to lift me.
“Dema, this isn’t a time for jokes,” Dane reprimanded me.
“I - I’m not joking,” I stammered. “It’s really not working!”
“Well try again!”
“I - I just did! I’m going to try just one more time...”
I summoned the Wind again. It pushed me up a little.
Harder, I told it firmly. It pushed harder and I got off the ground. I spiraled my way slowly around and up the Mountain. Near the top, I spied a large hole. I turned to my friends, far below me, and signaled that I had found it.
I don’t think they got the message, because just then Elna opened her mouth and screamed, although the sound was faint. She pointed to the top of the mountain.
Too late, I turned and saw a huge shape loom up and slam into me.
My vision was fuzzy and turning black as I struggled to remain conscious. I didn’t have the strength to stop my fall, only slow it, as I drifted slowly towards the earth.
As I hit the ground with a painful thud, I saw dim shapes running towards me. Then my consciousness slipped away and I was swallowed by darkness.

Chapter 9
Water splashed over my face.
“Dema,” a voice whispered out of the blackness. “Dema, please wake up...” A teardrop splashed on my face, then more water.
I tried to move, to show that I was awake, but my arms ached horribly and wouldn’t respond. My back felt like it was on fire, and I couldn’t feel my legs at all.
“Dema, please,” the voice pleaded.
My eyes fluttered open and I groaned.
Az noticed and rushed over to me. “Don’t try to move,” she said urgently. “That was a nasty fall, and three of your ribs are nearly broken. And...” she hesitated, looking uncomfortable, “your spine was fractured, as well,” she finished in a whisper. My brain was too tired and sluggish to remember what that meant.
Elna moved into my line of vision. She wiped her eyes with one hand, while the other held a bucket of water and a wet scrap of cloth. She stuck the dripping rag in the bucket, wrung it out and started bathing my face.
“What - what was it?” I managed to croak.
Dane got up from his seat by the fire. He looked grim.
“Do you really, really, really want to know?” he asked.
I nodded painfully.
“A - a dragon,” he whispered.
“How big?” I asked, my eyes wide with DATENUTS!.
“Big enough.”
Then I fainted again.

Chapter 10
When I came to, I was lying on a blanket with my head propped up on food packs by the fire, alone.
Absentmindedly, my hand crept towards my aching chest. Suddenly the pain disappeared.
I pressed lightly on my chest. No pain. Exited, I pressed harder. Still no pain. So I decided to try it with my spine, too. As soon as my fingers came into contact with my back, the pain was quenched and my legs worked again.
Experimentally, I got up and walked around. When it didn’t hurt, I began to make a meal out of our provisions, which were dangerously low.
Suddenly I heard the clatter of wood. Az, Elna and Dane had returned from collecting firewood.
“H- how-” Az stammered.
I shrugged. “I guess I have two powers,” I said.
I knelt and began collecting firewood from the ground. After a few minutes I looked up. The three of them were still standing there, stunned.
“Are you going to help or not?” I asked crossly. “You dropped it!”
When they didn’t respond, I stalked over to the packs and snatched a canteen. I splashed its contents into their faces.
“W- what?” Elna spluttered.
I just gathered the rest of the wood and brought it into camp.

I gave all three of them the cold shoulder for the rest of the day.
“What did we do?” Dane asked indignantly after I wouldn’t pass him something at lunch.
It hurt more than it should to ignore him especially, but I picked up my plate and stalked into the woods to eat alone.

I was planning to continue ignoring them the next day, but sometime during the night I awoke and heard sobbing from Elna’s sleeping bag. I rolled over and tried to fall asleep again, tears leaking out from under my closed eyelids.

Chapter 11
The next morning, my friends were wary of me, but I was no longer angry. Just sad.
Elna looked terrible, as if she hadn’t slept a wink all last night. Her tearstained face was drawn and pale, and she had dark shadows under her eyes.
All day she sat hidden in a little crevice in the Mountainside. At noon, I poked my head in.
“Hey,” I said quietly. “I- I’m sorry about yesterday...” Apologies don’t come easily to me.
She nodded in acceptance.
“I brought you some lunch.”
She took the stale bread gratefully. “Thanks.”
Then I left.

At dinner, I apologized to Az and Dane. They accepted it immediately, and I felt a little better.
Then I took some more food to Elna. As she munched on the bread, she spoke up.
“I know how to defeat the dragon,” she said suddenly.
“How?” I asked, surprised.
Instead of answering, she marched purposefully out of the crevice.
“I know how to defeat the dragon!” she announced to Az and Dane. “Here’s what we have to do...”
As she outlined her plans, a pair of glittering eyes showed in the crevice Elna had spent the day in. Then, unnoticed, they blinked and disappeared.

Chapter 12
That night, we packed everything up and prepared to leave. With difficulty, I summoned the Wind. I had to struggle to lift even myself; the dragon’s very presence seemed to strongly affect our magic.
My arms outstretched, my eyes squeezed shut with concentration, I struggled to my limit and beyond to lift all four of us along with our packs.
When we were all in the entrance to the Mountain, my knees buckled and I sagged against the wall in exhaustion, drenched in sweat.
My eyes were closed, but as I drifted in and out of consciousness I heard footsteps, and an old, weary male voice say, “My name is Nint... she needs help...” then Dane angrily said, “Why... trust you?” and the first voice, “... can’t make you... only way... save her...” There was silence for a few seconds, then a strong hand gripped my shoulder and I passed out.

Chapter 13
I slowly, painfully regained consciousness on a soft mattress.
I stirred and opened my mouth to try to talk. I heard soft footsteps, then a small spoon with a good-tasting liquid was put into my open mouth, and the old male voice I had heard said, “Shhh. Don’t try to talk. You were very nearly killed.”
The liquid made me feel stronger, and my eyes opened of their own accord. I was in a cave, furnished quite nicely. The old man spoon-feeding me looked kind. When he shifted his head, I could see the tip of a pointy, glowing ear. An elf! And so far away from the Elven Forest!
He looked amused. “Yes, I’m an elf,” he said. He saw the look of wonder on my face and said, “Yes, I can read your thoughts. Some of them. But most I cannot make sense of, and I don’t bother to try.
“Ah, you’re wondering who I am and what this is. I,” he said as he drew himself up to his full height, “am Nint, previously called the King of the Elvenwoods. And this,” he shook the little bottle he was feeding me from, “is Dema’s HoneyBrew.”

Chapter 14
Elna walked through the entrance to the cave-room I was in and saw that I was awake. She flew across the cave-room, sobbing, and hugged me painfully tight. I was much to weak to even try to loosen her grip.
Nint spoke to her briefly in quiet tones that I couldn’t hear, and she released me, still sobbing. She, Az and Dane all looked like they hadn’t slept in a week.
It was then Nint told us of our namesakes, completely out of the blue. I could tell that he had been waiting long to tell us this, probably wanting to wait until I was awake.
In case you don’t know, just let me tell you: elven parents don’t name their children. We say our names as we see light for the first time, and don’t speak again until we’ve learned to talk.
“You,” Nint said to Elna, “were named after a tiny, beautiful flower, that blossoms even after the toughest winter or fiercest storm, and has survived everything since the dawn of time.” At this point his face darkened, as he added, “Except humans.
“And you,” he turned sharply to Dane, “your name means “all” in the Ancient, the powerful language that was the very first to be spoken in the Universe. It is a name of power. Be worthy enough to wield it.
“And Aznona Belé Henelika...” Az flinched when she heard her full name. Nint continued, “My, how long it’s been since I heard that name... It has no translation into this language or any other. Only know that it is a most powerful name, only bestowed upon two other elves in History.”
Last of all, he turned to me. “Dema was the best healer in all the world,” he said. “Not only was she an Elven-Queen, but she was the very first elf ever to roam the earth.”

Chapter 15
No one spoke. To break the awkward silence, or so I thought, Nint then said, “Now, tell me what tribe you four are from.”
“Engla,” Dane muttered.
He nodded approvingly. “Ah, you are of the Magiks.”
“Magiks?” Az asked warily.
“It is a long and terrible tale, that you will hear all in good time. For now, tell me your brands of magic.”
“I am a Water-Elf,” Elna whispered.
“Earth-Elf,” Dane answered.
“Flame-Elf,” Az sighed.
I still felt too weak to respond, so Dane answered for me.
“We - we don’t exactly know,” he said. “She has the powers of a Sky-Elf, but she can heal things instantly.”
Nint looked surprised. “Both Sky-Elves and Healers are quite rare,” he said, astonished, “but both together - that is unheard of!”
Elna looked unable to restrain herself any longer. “Oh, please, let her heal herself!” she pleaded.
“No!” the old elf said sharply. “She has surpassed her magical limits severely; if she uses the slightest magic for many days now she’ll surely die.
Elna fell silent.
“Besides, it wouldn’t work,” Nint continued. “Healer’s magic works only on physical wounds. This is not physical. It is deep in her soul.” Then he turned to me and added, “And I’m afraid you’ll always have a small scar.”
“But - but we can’t hope to defeat the dragon without her!”
Nint’s face darkened slightly. “Defeat the dragon? Why on earth would you want to do that?”
Dane, Elna and Az told our story, taking turns and correcting each other, until they got to me fainting against the cave wall.
“You have had an interesting journey so far,” Nint said thoughtfully. “Indeed, I predicted something like this was going to happen when I left. But now I think it’s time to tell you my story...”

Chapter 16
Nint played with his hands for several long moments. Finally, he began, “A long, long time ago, there was but one tribe in the Elven Forest: The Elvenwood Tribe. In that one tribe, there were certain groups of elves with skills that seemed to be hereditary; potters, blacksmiths, cooks. There was one group that to anyone else’s eyes had no skill of their own, but they did. They had the most wonderful skill of all. Magic.
“They kept it hidden from the other elves, each one having a different power than the next, but among themselves they were know as the Magiks.
“All these groups lived in harmony together. For a short time, I was their King. Then-” he broke off and shuddered, “something happened, and we broke apart into six tribes. The elves with similar skills banded together.
“I tried to bring them back together, to make them see sense, but they wouldn’t listen. I didn’t want to live in a split world, so I ran away. Before I left I made a map, written in the Ancient, in case anyone ever chose to follow.
“For weeks I wandered, with no food or water except the little I could scavenge. I was half dead when Nomescal found me and nursed me back to health.”
“Nomescal?” Az whispered. The word sent a little thrill through my body, as if it alone knew how powerful it was.
“Flame-scale, in the Ancient. I believe she wants badly to meet you, but she most certainly can’t fit in here, and you,” he turned to me, “cannot be moved for a few days yet.
“Now I think we should all get some rest,” he added. As he said that, I realized just how tired I was. I had been so wrapped up in the conversation that I hadn’t noticed it until then.
When the sleep came to claim me, I let it advance until it had me in its grasp. Then it took me deep into a troubled but unbreakable slumber.

Chapter 17
My dreams were confused, showing everything Nint had told us, and more, seemingly on fast-forward.
First there were thousands of elves, dancing and singing and feasting together. A young male elf wearing a small crown on his dark hair was the loudest of all.
Then a shadow passing over the elves, and arguing breaking out everywhere. I watched them form groups, which went into all different directions and spread out all over the forest. I watched the young elf weeping, yelling, pleading with them to come back and be a whole again. I vaguely noticed a slightly older elf, carrying a bundle, running away, but as soon as he was gone I forgot about him completely.
Then the younger elf scribbling something on a piece of parchment and running, crying as he went, leaving his crown behind, growing thinner and thinner and finally collapsing from exhaustion and starvation. An enormous, red-gold figure leaning over him, then picking him up and carrying him through the air to the Mountain.
The elf growing stronger, regaining health and weight, then an egg, a beautiful, green-blue speckled egg. Cracks appearing in the egg, a baby dragon emerging, playing under the shadow of the Mountain. A dark shadow with no distinguishable shape appearing, the air growing colder and colder until I could hardly breathe, even in a dream, the shape grabbing the crying young hatchling in its large talons, taking off and flying away... and then nothing.

Chapter 18
When I awoke, the first thing I noticed was my aching limbs. I could move them a little, but they were still very stiff and quite sore.
The next thing I noticed was the complete absence of noise. My breathing sounded abnormally loud in the silence.
Then footsteps and hushed voices echoed around the little cave-room from right outside.
Dane and Az walked whispering into the stone chamber. When he saw that I was awake, Dane turned right back around and quickly left.
Az sat on the edge of my bed and said, “Thank goodness! We thought you were never going to wake up again!”
“H- how long?” I managed to croak.
“If you mean how long have you been out, you were unconscious for six days, then you woke up and fell back asleep for three more.”
Just then, Dane came back with Nint. Elna trailed close behind.
“How much do you remember?” Nint asked sharply.
“I remember fainting, then waking up and and hearing you ask our tribe, and tell us your story and our namesakes,” I answered slowly.
He nodded. “That’s a good sign,” he said.
Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “What happened to the hatchling?”
“Hatchling? Where on earth did you hear about a hatchling?”
I felt my face go hot. “Dream,” I muttered.
Nint was stunned. “You had a dream about it? What else was in your dream?”
So I confessed what I had seen.
“Amazing,” Nint whispered. “You are one of the prophesiers!”
“What?” Dane asked incredulously. He, Elna and Az looked about as confused as I felt.
Nint sighed. “Nothing,” he said. Then he remembered something. He reached inside his coat and pulled out a glass bottle. It was full of misty vapor, which was swirling around inside. It made me dizzy to watch.
“What is it?” I whispered.
Nint looked at me for a moment, then he finally said, “Dragon breath.”

Chapter 19
“Dragon breath?” I asked. “What is that?”
“Healing vapors. They can heal anything, as long as the heart is still beating,” Nint replied.
“Why didn’t you just give it to her before?” Elna demanded.
“Because it’s difficult to collect, and I forgot we still had some,” Nint replied calmly. He turned to me and pressed the little jar into my hand. “Now, inhale the vapors.”
I tried to open the lid, but I was so exhausted and weak that I couldn’t even get a grip on it. Dane took the jar and unscrewed the top easily. He handed it back to me.
I looked at the mist swirling inside the little jar. With a trembling hand, I brought it up to my nose and inhaled.
For a second, nothing happened. Then the fog began to cloud my vision. I tried to gasp, but it had clogged my throat too!
Just as I began to lose consciousness, all the fog cleared. I closed my eyes as I gasped in much-needed air.
After a few minutes, when my breathing slowed, I opened my eyes to see four worried faces looking at me.
“Are you alright?” Az asked.
As I nodded, I realized it wasn’t quite true. No, I felt... better than alright. I felt completely refreshed, like I had never overused my magic.
I swung my feet over the side of the bed and stood. My legs were a little wobbly after being unused for so long, but they soon steadied.
I took a deep breath. “I’m ready,” I said. “Let’s meet the dragon.”

Nomescal was larger than a house, with bright, flame-red scales. Her voice was loud, but somehow she managed to make it gentle at the same time.
“Hello, Little Elves. I see you have recovered from your little mishap, Dema.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I whispered, awed by the magnificence of the enormous creature in front of me.
“You must all meet Zina,” the dragon said. “Come out, dear.”
From behind the scaled tail came a rattlesnake, larger than I had thought they were capable of being. The snake regarded me with its cold, reptilian eyes.
And then my head exploded.

Chapter 20
I was on the ground, writhing in pain, and my brain felt like it was about to burst, and then someone shouted “No!”, except I didn’t understand, I just wanted the pain to stop, needed it to stop, because if it didn’t I would surely die-
And then it was over. All traces of the pain were gone, and I was on the ground, trembling and sobbing. Dane came over to me, and that alone somehow helped me to calm down. He helped me up and put his arm protectively around me before turning to glare at the snake. Only, where the snake had been, there was a girl. She was human, or so I thought, yet stunningly beautiful. She smiled coldly at me, and in her face I could find traces of the snake that had caused me so much pain.
“Zina is... special,” Nint said. He seemed uncomfortable. “She can go from snake to human and back at will, and, when in her snake form, she can... well, I guess you already know what she can do.”
“But... how?” Elna asked incredulously.
“Because I have power, and you don’t,” Zina spat.
“Now, now, Zina, be nice,” Nomescal chided her. She sounded like a mother telling her toddler not to climb the furniture.
With a final leer, the snake-girl retreated back behind the dragon’s tail. A second later, a threatening rattle came from her hiding place, followed by a hiss that sounded like a laugh.

Chapter 21
Dane and I were walking side-by-side in a forest. In the green light that filtered through the trees, I could see that it wasn’t the woods we had traveled to to get to the Mountain, but the Elven Forest. Home.
As we walked, we talked and laughed, the way we had before we were sent away. After a while, I felt his hand brush mine. A few seconds later our fingers were intertwined. I sighed happily.

I slowly blinked open my eyes. I was lying on a pile of mats in a cave. I moaned and rolled over, not wanting my dream to end.
After a few minutes, I accepted that I wasn’t about to go back to sleep and sat up, nearly hitting my head on the ledge that hung above my head. Someone snickered and emerged from the shadows in the corner.
“You!” I spat.
“Yes, me,” Zina sneered. “Is that all you can say?”
I breathed hard through my nose, trying not to lose my temper. “Go. Away,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Ooh, I’m scared now,” she said, rolling her eyes.
My hands balled involuntarily into fists and my eyes shut tight. Calm, calm, calm, I chanted to myself silently.
“Ha,” Zina snickered. “Can’t even get a hold on your temper?”
Donotrespond donotrespond donotrespond...
“Even your stupid boyfriend did better than that when I zapped you.”
I snapped. Letting out a kind of muffled screech, I lunged at her. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, exactly, I just couldn’t stand that smug little smile any longer. She was going to pay, and she was going to do it soon.
But even as I reached, I felt a kind of strange satisfaction in knowing that my friendship with Dane had grown into something more...

Chapter 22
Through the red haze that clouded my vision, I saw Zina smirk, then, with a little pop, turn into the snake I hated even more than the girl. But I was also DATENUTS!. My body instinctively shied away from the thing that had caused me so much pain. I kept my eyes averted, somehow knowing that it had been the eye contact that allowed her to cause the agony.
The venomous snake slithered out of the entrance to the cave. After a second, her voice floated in from outside.
“Wise of you,” she snickered. “Yesterday... that was my lowest setting.” And then she was gone.
I slumped against the wall, suddenly feeling tired and slightly sick, and sighed. I silently vowed to myself that she wasn’t going to get to me again, although I knew that promise would be broken almost immediately.
I groaned and leaned my head against the stone, closing my eyes. I sat there, lost in thought but not asleep, for a long time.
After a while, I noticed someone had sat down beside me and put their arms around me. I leaned into them, not caring who it was, and I cried.
I cried because I had left the safety of my home - had wanted to leave - and now, when I most wanted to be back, safe in my little cottage, I could not.
I cried for my mother, because it would kill her if I didn’t come back.
And I cried because I just needed to let the tears flow.

Chapter 23
When I woke up, someone was slowly rubbing soothing circles on my back. My tearstained face was resting on the chest of their damp shirt. My throat was raw from sobbing and my back was sore from sitting in such an awkward position for so long.
“Are you awake now?” someone murmured.
“I think so...” I managed in a hoarse whisper. “I’m so, so sorry... I just couldn’t stand it any more. I...”
“It’s okay,” my comforter said softly. “I understand.”
“How long have I been crying?” I wondered.
“You cried for a few hours, then you fell asleep for a few more,” Dane answered. “I didn’t keep track.”
“How did you... know where to find me?”
“I came to see why you didn’t come to see me in the morning,” he whispered uncomfortably. “What happened?”
“Zina-” My voice broke.
“Did she hurt you?”
I nodded slowly. “But not the way you think,” I added when he stiffened. “She - I don’t know, I just couldn’t stand her anymore. She - called you stupid,” I finshed in a whisper.
He growled.
“No, don’t even try. She’s evil. I think she’s out to get us. She’ll just hurt you the way she hurt me the first time, only much worse. Please, Dane.” I looked up at his face. “I - I - I think I’m in love with you, and I - I couldn’t bear it if - if something happened to you. Please.”
Ever so slowly, he relaxed. When he finally responded, his voice was low, little more than a whisper.
“I feel the same way about you.”

Chapter 24
Az poked her head into the cave. She looked relieved when she saw that I was awake. She dropped to her knees beside the two of us and hugged me.
“Are you alright? We were so worried when you didn’t come out in the morning, and then we found you just sitting there...”
“Yeah, I think I’m okay...” I said quietly.
“What happened?”
“I - I’d rather not talk about it...”
“That’s fine. I understand.”

Elna and Az slept in small caves like mine on either side of me, and Dane was in one across the hall. We stayed for a few peaceful days, and Zina didn’t bother me again.
During those days, we fell into a sort of routine. Every morning, Dane and I would wake up early, to watch the sun rise. We sat by the little window in his room until the sun was completely apart from the horizon.
Then, I would take his hand, and we would be carried by the Wind where ever we desired. Sometimes we flew over trees, sometimes over water. Sometimes we would just do tricks in the air, flipping and diving and showing off to no one in particular. Once Elna and Az came too, but mostly it was just Dane and me. It was still hard to use my magic around the Mountain, so we had to take it slow at first. A few times during the day we would stop somewhere far away from the Mountain and talk, and sometimes we would just lie there in silence and think.
When it started to get dark, we would fly back to the Mountain, but this time we would go in through my window, and watch the sun set, too. Then I would fly us to the peak of the mountain, which was surprisingly flat, and lie back to watch the stars. Dane knew so much about them that I learned more about the constellations in those few days than I ever had in my entire life.
The fifth day after we had met the dragon, I woke up quite late. I crossed the hall and peered into Dane’s room, wondering if he had maybe watched the sunrise without me, but it was empty. I checked Elna and Az’s sleeping quarters too, just in case. Both empty. Finally, I checked the huge chamber where Nomescal stayed. Elna, Az, and Nint were conversing quietly in a corner across the room. Zina was in her snake form, curled up on top of Nomescal’s tail. She looked as close to smiling as she could get in that form. I quickly looked away.
Just then, Az caught sight of me and beckoned for me to join them. As I got closer, I saw how sad all their faces were. Elna looked like she might have even been crying a little.
“What happened?” I asked, my eyes wide with DATENUTS!.
Az hesitated for a long moment. Finally, staring at the ground, she whispered, “Dane disappeared. Nobody’s seen him since last night.”
I bit my lip to keep from screaming out loud, but inside, my heart was making its feelings known. It felt like it had been wrenched in two. I didn’t want anyone to see me now, so I ran. I ran faster than I ever had before, across the hall and up to my room. Behind me, someone called, “Dema, wait!” but I didn’t listen. I needed to be alone so I could go to pieces, and I needed to do it now.

Chapter 25
I now knew the reason behind the term “broken heart.” My chest ached like my heart had been ripped out and torn to pieces. I locked myself in my room. I wouldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, and every second felt like years. For a few days, I simply sat in a corner and cried.
And my comforter did not come to comfort me.

I knew that if I tried to close my eyes, I would see pictures, of Dane falling down a crevice, his body never to be found, or lying broken and motionless at the bottom of a cliff. And I knew that if I thought about that, I would scream.
I fought the irresistible urge to close my eyes, but it was useless. They closed, and I slept. And I had nightmares.
I woke up screaming. And once I started, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t care what happened to me now. I didn’t care who I would wake. Nothing mattered in my world any more.
My ears listened, but did not hear. My eyes were open, but did not see. And then pain exploded inside my head and everything went black.

Chapter 26
I didn’t want to open my eyes and surrender this wonderful blackness. I didn’t want to go back and face reality. But I did.
I was hanging by my hands on a damp stone wall. My feet just barely touched the ground. It was pitch black, but I could hear the steady breathing of someone next to me. I breathed heavily, trying to match my breaths with my companions’, trying to keep myself from screaming again as reality came crashing down on me. He was gone, probably not coming back, and I was stuck here.
The person next to me woke up. “Wh - who’s that?” he asked. The voice sent my heart racing.
“Dane?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“Dema? Is that you?”
“Oh, Dane,” I whispered. “I - I thought you were dead!”
He was silent for a long, long time. “I nearly was,” he whispered hoarsely. “She almost killed me.”
“You mean - Zina?”
“Yes. You were right about her, Dema. She’s evil. She’s out to get us all.”
Sure, I was worried about what was going to happen to us. But mostly I was just happy that the two of us were together again.

I don’t know how long we hung there, in the blackness, the silence only broken by our soft breathing. After a long, long time, a sarcastic voice came out of the blackness.
“How sweet. The little lovebirds are finally reunited.”
I stiffened. “Why are you doing this, Zina? What’s in it for you?”
“That’s for me to know, and you to wonder about for the rest of your short, miserable lives,” she hissed. Suddenly there was a bright light. I squinted, unable to see while my eyes adjusted.
By the time I was able to see, she was gone.

Chapter 1
In the sudden light, I could see the toll captivity had had on Dema. Her green eyes, once so full of vitality and life, were flat, dead. Her long black hair hung limply around her gaunt face, and I didn’t like the way her shirt was draped much too loosely on her skinny frame. I guessed I didn’t look much better.
My shoulders and arms ached horribly from suspending me from the wall for so long, and my stomach rumbled fiercely. I didn’t know when I had eaten last, just that it was a long, long time ago.
“Dane?” Dema’s voice was hoarse.
“Yeah?”
“How are we going to get out?”
I paused. “I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Can the earth help us?”
“Maybe. Let me try for a few minutes.” Without waiting for a response, I closed my eyes and concentrated.
The earth is a living thing, and, if you know how, you can talk to it so that it understands. The only way that I’ve discovered is for me to let my mind go into a half-conscious state. I could hear what was going on, and I could become alert at an instant’s notice, but for the moment my mind was ignoring my outside senses.
Hello, little friend, the earth rumbled inside my mind. Do you require assistance?
Yes, I responded. Can you break these chains for us, please? And then tell us how to get out of here?
Of course. My eyes snapped open just in time to see our manacles, strapping us to the wall, suddenly covered in dirt and rock that moved on its own. When the dirt crumbled and fell away, so did the chains.

Chapter 2
The two of us dropped to the ground, massaging our shoulders and trying to get the circulation in our hands going again. I heard several whimpers, and then figured out that some of them were from me. After that I tried to keep my mouth shut.
We lay there for a long while, resting in silence. Before either of us could fall asleep, however, I jumped up, because the earth had spoken to me again.
“Let’s go,” I told Dema. “The earth will show us the way out.”
She groaned and tried to sit up, but flopped back limply, holding her head. “Dema!” I said, dropping to my knees beside her. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” she moaned. “My head hurts... so much...” Her voice trailed off.
“Dema!” I said again, louder this time. “No, Dema, you’ve got to stay awake!” I cradled her head on my lap, praying to the earth to somehow help her.
Suddenly her eyelids fluttered open. “Oh!” she gasped. She sat up quickly. “Oh!” she repeated.
“What?”
Dema shook her head, as if tying to clear it. “I - I can’t remember,” she murmured. “But for a second there, everything was clear...”
“Everything?” I gasped. “Like... everything in the world, everything?”
She nodded. “Everything.”

Chapter 3
I let that sink in for a little while, but soon I had to come back to reality. “We need to go,” I said. Dema nodded.
I sank back into half-consciousness. The earth told me what to do. My eyes opened, seemingly of their own accord. Dema had been staring at me while the earth talked. She looked at me expectantly. “Well?”
I took a deep breath. “Okay, this is going to sound really dumb, but... we need to breathe on the wall.”
Dema looked at me like I was crazy, but didn’t argue. “Which wall?”
“That one.” I pointed to the one we had hung from. I took a deep breath, and exhaled with my mouth inches from the rock wall. Nothing happened.
“Let me try talking to the earth again.”
For the fourth time that day, I let my mind sink back into its stupor.
“We need to both blow on the same spot,” I murmured.
“Okay...”
“Ready? One, two, three!” The wall sort of crumbled away as we blew, and a seemingly endless tunnel stretched out in front of us.
Grimly, we began the long trek back to the real world.

Chapter 4
Dema’s sudden insight seemed to have given her new strength, but I had been exhausted even further than before from talking to the earth, and my limbs dragged with fatigue as we walked.
After a long while, my aching legs couldn’t move fast enough to avoid a rock, and I fell heavily against the wall, cracking my head as I did so. Dema, a few yards ahead of me, didn’t notice.
Lips locked tightly to avoid a cry of pain, I dragged myself to my feet again and trudged foreword, my legs moving automatically. After a few steps, my tired mind vaguely registered, but didn’t care, that the walls were spinning around me. I tried to take another step, and collapsed.
As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I heard Dema’s voice as if from far away.
“Dane!” she shrieked. “Oh, my god, what happened?” I was too far gone to answer.
I felt her warm breath on my face, and then something, a finger, maybe, touched my head where it had been bashed against the rocks and the pain was instantly gone.
I felt my body relax and sink farther into unconsciousness. The last words I heard were from the earth. Sleep, now... it murmured to me. And so I did.

Chapter 5
When I awoke, it was slightly darker than before in the cave. Dema was curled up beside me, deep in sleep. Where my head had been lying, there was a puddle of dried blood. My eyes widened as I realized that that must have happened when I fell. I leaned against the wall, lost in thought, as I waited for Dema to wake up. I didn’t have to wait long.
Dema sat up slowly, blinking sleepily. “Dane?” she murmured, looking around.
“Right here,” I said softly.
“Oh, Dane!” she shrieked. Then her voice got a little quieter. “I didn’t know what happened... with you just lying there... and all that blood...” She shuddered. “What happened?”
“I hit my head on the rocks,” I said. Then I touched my head. “It doesn’t hurt anymore - what did you do?”
She smiled grimly and held up a hand, wiggling her fingers. “I’m a Healer, remember?”
“Oh, yeah... I... forgot,” I muttered. I should have remembered, but... I hadn’t. How strange. Was I losing my mind?
“Uh... Dane? Dane, snap out of it!” Dema waved her hand in front of my face.
“Huh? Oops, sorry, I guess I spaced out for a minute there...” So I was losing my mind.
Dema sighed. “I guess we should get going...”
“Um... yeah, I guess.” I frowned. I could hardly remember why we were in the tunnel.
“Oh, my god, Dane, please don’t tell me that rock has affected your memory.”
I shrugged. Dema groaned. “Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad.”

Chapter 6
Dema took a deep breath. “Okay, Dane, how much do you remember?”
“Starting when?”
“Starting whenever you were captured.”
“I was captured?”
She groaned and put her head between her knees. “Oh, no...”
I felt slightly sick. “I’m sorry...” I whispered.
“No, don’t be sorry,” Dema said. Her voice was muffled. “It’s not your fault. Just answer one question.”
“Yeah?”
Her voice was little more than a whisper. “Do you remember... us?”
Not quite sure what she meant, I hesitated for a moment. After a minute or two, I finally answered as best as I could.
“No.”
Dema’s whole body shook, her face still covered, and at first I thought she was angry. After a few seconds, though, I realized that she was crying.
I’m not quite sure what made me do it. It just felt so... natural. I put my arms around her and rubbed her back, and slowly, gradually, the sobbing slowed.

Chapter 7
As we sat there, the memories came back, slowly at first, then faster and faster. I jumped up, my eyes wide. “Oh!”
“Dane?” Dema asked, confused.
“I remember,” I breathed.
“Oh!”
“Did all that really happen?” I asked. “Being captured, and the dragon, and... Zina?”
She nodded.
“Wow.”
“Yeah. We... should get going.” She sighed. “Elna and Az...” Her voice trailed off.
At first, I couldn’t quite remember who she was talking about. After a second of though, two elven faces filled my vision.
“You remember?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”
She sighed in relief. “Good. Let’s go.”

Chapter 8
After a long, long lime, I began to really notice the lightheadedness from my hunger.
“Dema, we both need food - fast.”
She nodded gloomily. “I know,” she sighed. “But what can we do? There won’t be any food until we get out of this tunnel, and maybe not even then.”
After a few minute’s silent walking, something occurred to me.
“Maybe the earth can grow us some food?”
“Maybe,” Dema agreed, seeming slightly cheered by the prospect. “We need to take a rest, anyway.” She sat down with her back to the wall and closed her eyes. I copied her, and let my mind drift off.
Before it was far enough, however, we were interrupted.
“Are the lovebirds tired?” she hissed. My eyes snapped open and I jumped up at the exact same time as Dema. A beautiful, yet horribly familiar human girl was standing a few yards away,
“You!” I gasped.
“Me!” she mimicked. Suddenly, in her place was a large rattlesnake. Trying not to look at the flat, black eyes, I watched her creep closer to us. Suddenly, she lunged!
Her teeth snapped closed a hair’s breadth from my ankle. I quivered slightly as the venomous fangs whistled past me.
And then, she was the girl again. “You see how in control of my fangs I am?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but Dema beat me to it. “Why are you doing this, Zina?” she said softly. “Why?”
Zina snig.gered. “You mean you really don’t know?” she laughed. “Well let me tell you, and see if you can figure out what I want. If you kill an elf, you receive their powers.”
My eyes widened, horrified. “You mean-”
“Yes,” she snarled. “That’s why I can turn into a snake and slay with a glance. Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘If looks could kill’? That came from me.”
“So now you’re trying to get our powers, too?” Dema asked, seeming calm on the outside, but I knew her well enough to recognize the suppressed rage on her face.
Zina rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”
I gaped. Dema lost it.
“And I suppose if we ever found anything you wanted you’d go right ahead and help yourself to some of that, too!” she screamed, tears of rage streaming down your face.
Zina sighed. “You elves are so du.mb. Of course I would.” Flashing one last malicious grin she changed back to rattlesnake.
I got ready to use my powers. Beside me, I could see that Dema was doing the same. Automatically, it seemed, our hands reached out, and as our fingers intertwined, so did the magic.
Rocks swirled around in a cloud of Wind. In the center of the tiny tornado was a rattlesnake.

Chapter 9
The little storm of rocks and dirt swirled around a few times more, and then slammed to the ground with enough force to rattle the whole tunnel slightly. I heard a faint hiss from the pile... then nothing.
As I stared, dumbfounded, at the mound of small boulders, my stomach twisted. I quickly turned away from Dema, who had slumped to the floor beside me, and retched.
My empty stomach contracted, trying to force something up, but there was nothing to push. I don’t know how long I crouched in the leftover dust, gagging over nothing. When the heaving finally stopped, I was conscious of Dema crouched beside me, rubbing my back like I had always done for her. She smiled at me sadly as I leaned into her for support and fell asleep.

Dema and I were walking side-by-side in a forest. In the green light that filtered through the trees, I could see that it wasn’t the woods we had traveled to to get to the Mountain, but the Elven Forest. Home.
As we walked, we talked and laughed, the way we had before we were sent away. After a while, I felt her hand brush mine. A few seconds later our fingers were intertwined. I sighed happily.

Chapter 10
I very reluctantly woke up from my wonderful dream, feeling like I hadn’t slept all that long, and not quite sure yet why my mouth tasted so bad, but I didn’t have much time to worry about it.
“Oh!” I gasped. My limbs wouldn’t respond to anything. My stomach ached with hunger. I woke Dema, too.
“Dane?” she asked, not fully awake. She started to sit up. “What - oh...” she breathed, sinking back to the ground. “Ask... the earth for food...” she whispered, hardly managing to get the words out.
I closed my eyes and tried to lose consciousness. It wasn’t hard. No words were exchanged, but I felt the silent confirmation in my mind. I snapped awake to see crops growing out of the earth, one-by-one. They grew at just the right speed for us to remember to eat slowly. Soon we were full, and they stopped growing.
Thank you, I murmured to the earth.
You’re welcome, it replied. And then Dema and I were asleep.
But in the deep shadows of my mind, evil waited to ambush me as I slept...

Chapter 11
I couldn’t remember the details of my dream, only that a hideous creature, halfway between human and snake, had stalked me inside a dark, endless tunnel. It was enough. I woke up screaming.
“Dane...” Dema complained. Then she sat bolt upright as she woke fully. “Dane!” she gasped. “What? Did something happen?”
It took me a few more minutes to get a hold on my screaming. When I finally did, my voice was shaking. “N - no...” I whispered. “I - it... was just a dream...”
“That must have been some dream. I’ve never heard you scream like that, even when we were little.”
I nodded. “Y - yeah,” I choked out. “Let’s go.” If I didn’t do something soon I was going to start screaming again.
So together, we stood and faced the darkness of the tunnel ahead.

Book III: AZNONA BELÉ HENELIKA

Chapter 1
I stared after Dema’s back as she sprinted away.
“Dema, wait!” Elna called. She started to run after her, but I grabbed her arm and shook my head.
“Not now. She needs some time alone.”
“How do you know?” she snapped. “You’ve only known her for a few weeks!” She raised her arm and sent a jet of water into my face.
I recoiled as if she’d hit me. The instant her arm was free she raced away without a glance backwards.
I felt like breaking down in tears. Our group was falling apart.

For the next few days, I checked on Dema at common intervals, murmuring softly to her.
If she heard me, I couldn’t tell.
Nomescal was frantic with worry, but not about Dane or Dema. Zina was gone as well, and I got the feeling it had something to do with Dane’s disappearance.

I woke up in my own bed at home.
I knew I was dreaming, but I didn’t care. My dad was alive, and I was still human. At least, I thought I was.
It was like I’d never left. Maybe I hadn’t. Maybe everything with the elves and the mountain and the dragon was the dream, and this was reality.
Maybe.
I jumped out of bed and shivered when my feet hit the cold floor. “Morning, Dad!” I called.
“Morning, Az!” he boomed back from the next room.
I skipped into the kitchen. He was bent over the counter, working on something.
“I had the weirdest dream last night,” I told him, sitting down at the kitchen table.
“Really? Tell me about it.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get a single word out, he turned to face me, and his eyes were eyes I recognized, but not on him.
I screamed.
They were Zina’s eyes.

Chapter 2
I jerked awake in my sleeping cavern, unable to shake the vision of those flat eyes glinting evilly from my mind. After a few seconds, I realized something.
Somebody was screaming, but this time it wasn’t me.
I scrambled to my feet and ran out into the hall, nearly colliding with Elna as she emerged from her cavern. We stared at each other.
“Dema,” we said together. We both turned and raced for Dema’s room.
The screams loudened for a few seconds, then simply cut off, as if someone had sliced the sound with a knife.
Elna and I stared at the empty room in silence, dumbfounded.
And then we sank down to the floor together and began to cry.

“Az?” someone said worriedly. “Are you all right, honey? You fainted.”
Huh? I was back at home, at the kitchen table.
I sat up slowly, completely disoriented. “Yeah, I’m...” I hesitated. Fine wasn’t exactly accurate, but it was the best I could do. “I’m fine,” I finished.
He looked at me, and I could see concern in his - mercifully normal - eyes.
“What day is it?” I blurted.
“October eighteenth,” he answered, bewildered.
My eyes widened. In my dream, if it was that, he had died on the nineteenth, and then Dema had found me on the twentieth.
I had gone back in time, but was it all going to happen over again?

Chapter 3
That night, when I went to bed, I had vague, confusing dreams.
Somebody crying.
Pleading for me to wake up.
“Please, don’t do this to me, Az, you can’t leave me alone like this, please...”
The next morning I didn’t remember any of it.

My alarm clock went off. I quickly pounded the button, but it was too late. I was already wide awake.
I groaned and shifted, too lazy to get up. I did not want to go to school today, for a few reasons.
First, I’d probably forgotten everything.
Second, it would feel way too normal, and I would keep looking around, expecting to see elves or dragons or magic.
And third, if my dream was real, this was the day my dad would die.

Chapter 4
I couldn’t think of an excuse not to go to school, so I went.
“Az, is something wrong?” my best friend, Genesa, asked at lunch. “You’ve been really jumpy all day, and you keep looking around like you’re expecting to see a guy with a gun right next to you.”
A gun? More like magic.
I forced a nervous laugh. “I’m fine.”
Nell, another friend, leaned across the table towards me. “Are you sure? You’ve hardly listened to a word Mrs. Allom says. That’s not like you.”
“She’s right,” Koza agreed. “You never space out in English.”
I sighed as if in defeat. “Okay, you win,” I muttered. “I had a really weird dream Saturday night, and it really freaked me out.”
My friends all looked at me sympathetically. “What was it about?” Nell asked.
I stood up abruptly, pushing my chair back with a loud screechy noise. I grabbed my book bag from under the table and slung it over my should. “I gotta go,” I said quickly, turning and practically running across the cafeteria.

I locked myself in a stall in the girls bathroom. I leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the floor. I unzipped my bag and pulled out my history binder. The page where I should have taken notes was covered with sketches of dragons and elves and everything that had happened.
Definitely not history.
Suddenly angry, I ripped the page out of the rings and crumpled it up into a little ball. Suddenly, it burst into flame.
I dropped it in surprise and quickly quenched the fire with my thoughts before it could burn anything else.
Definitely not a dream, either.

Chapter 5
I think I must have fallen asleep. Voices murmured in my head.
“...so sorry. There’s nothing I can do...”
“But why is she...”
The voices trailed off.
The bathroom was dark and I realized the school must have closed while I was sleeping.
Front door? Locked.
Back door? Locked.
Side doors? Locked and locked.
Windows? Shut and latched.
I gritted my teeth in frustration and, I’m sorry to admit, very nearly burned down the school.
I sat down in the hallway and put my head in my hands.
“Please, please wake up!”
I opened my eyes. Early morning light streamed through the windows. There was no one around. The voice must have been a dream.
I hid in the bathroom until I heard voices coming from the hall. I walked out of the stall like I had just been doing business, washed my hands, and slipped into the crowd of kids heading for class.
But then: just my luck. Mr. Elke stopped right in front of me.
“Where were you last night, Aznona?” the principal said in his raspy voice. I grimaced, even though I had heard what my name apparently meant. That didn’t mean I had to like it.
“I - I don’t know what you mean, sir.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Your father was frantic when you didn’t come home.”
I hesitated, then decided the truth was the best option. “I... fell asleep in the bathroom, and then when I woke up I realized I had gotten locked in.” I blushed.
He snorted, and I could tell he didn’t believe me. “Well, get to class, then,” he said, motioning for me to proceed. I dodged around him and sprinted down the hall to my first class, making it into my seat just before the bell rang.
The next few weeks were pretty much normal, if you didn’t count the fact that I avoided my friends like the plague, I heard voices in my sleep, and I kept getting the urge to light things on fire whenever I got mad.
One Friday, a few weeks after I came back from the “other world,” as I had begun to call it, my friends cornered me outside of class.
“We’re sorry,” Genesa said softly.
“I didn’t mean to pry,” Nell added.
“We won’t ask stuff like that again,” Koza promised.
All three looked at me with hopeful eyes.
I stared at the ground, then looked up and met each pair of eyes individually. I couldn’t doubt their sincerity.
“It’s okay,” I told them. “I overreacted.”
They smiled, all at once, and it was enough to make these miserable weeks all worthwhile.

Chapter 6
“Aznona,” someone said behind me.
I turned around. “Yes?”
“Come,” Mr. Elke said, turning around and marching towards his office.
My friends looked at me with curious eyes. I shrugged and followed Mr. Elke.
He was seated at his desk, his hands folded neatly in front of him and his face somber. “Sit,” he ordered.
I sat.
He didn’t say anything for a long time, just studied my face. I shifted uncomfortably on the hard wooden bench.
He glanced down at the papers he was shuffling on his desk. “Aznona, your father...”
Sparks flashed between my fingers and I clenched my hands into fists to hide them. “What about my father?” I snapped, forgetting to be polite in my fear.
“Aznona, your father is dead.”
And then everything went black.

I stirred. “What happened?” I muttered.
“Az?” someone whispered. It wasn’t my dad. It wasn’t any of my teachers. It wasn’t Genesa, Nell, or Koza.
But still, I knew that voice.
My eyes snapped open and I sat bolt up right. “Elna!” I shrieked.
“Az!” She hugged me tightly around my middle, pinning my arms to my sides. “You’re awake!”
“W - what do you mean, ‘awake’? And... and how did I get back here?”
She pulled back to look at me, confusion written on her face. “You fainted, and then you didn’t wake up.”
“Didn't wake up?” I repeated, bewildered. “But I was - I was back home. And... my dad was there.”
She shook her head slowly. “Az, you’ve been right here the whole time.”
“But-” I broke off and sighed. “I guess that explains the voices.”
“Voices?”
“Yeah. Every time I went to sleep, I would hear you asking me to wake up. At least, I think it was you. It sounded weird.”
Nint, who I hadn’t noticed before, leaned forward from his seat in the corner. “What happened just before you woke up?”
I felt tears come to my eyes. Even if it was a dream, it had felt so real. “I can’t... My dad died. I... I...” I broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Chapter 7
After a while, I head a quiet voice ask, “Would you like to hear my theory?”
Elna jumped up, glaring angrily at Nint. “No!” she snapped, storming out of the room.
I looked at him curiously, and he shrugged. “I think she’s just angry that I couldn’t do anything to wake you up,” he sighed. I stared at the ground. After a few second’s awkward silence, he said, “I believe that your spirit was in so much pain that it took itself to a parallel universe, where your actions, different from the ones you made already, changed the course of events. When the pain returned, your spirit did as well.”
I stared at the floor quietly for a few minutes.
“You’re wondering why Nomescal attacked Dema.”
I started. I hadn’t even realized I was thinking it. “Um... I guess I kinda was.”
He sighed. “Once, a long time ago, Nomescal had a son. He was carried off when he was small by the Great Shadow. Ever since, Nomescal has deeply mistrusted anything that flies and is not a dragon.”
“And... and Zina?”
“You could say she was Nomescal’s replacement. Nomescal trusts her with her life and is blind to all her faults.”

Chapter 8
Elna and I stayed on the mountain for a few more days. Neither of us said it, but I think we were both hoping Dema and Dane might suddenly appear. Besides, we weren’t sure where to get next. What we were looking for clearly wasn’t here.
We were both stretched out on the stone floor of a side cavern, studying the map. Nint had written the translation, and we were arguing about the most likely place the lost thing would be.
“It might be there,” Elna suggested, pointing to a valley at the corner of the map.
I shook my head. “It’s more likely to be here somewhere.” I prodded a picture of a mine with my finger. “Whoever is evil enough to take it probably likes dark places.”
“Not necessarily,” she protested. “It might be here...”
And so on and so forth.
Suddenly Elna looked up. “What’s that sound?”
“I don’t hear anything.”
“I can hear voices,” she insisted. “Very faint, but they’re definitely there. They’re coming from over here.” She pointed to the wall beside her.
Now that she mentioned it, I could hear something. Not enough to hear what they were saying, but enough to tell that it was a conversation.
Suddenly there was a few seconds of silence, and one of the voices spoke again. Another silence, longer this time.
And then the wall split open, and two figures stumbled out, supporting eath other.
Their clothes were torn and ragged, their faces gaunt, their figures emaciated. Then one of them, the young man, spoke.
“We did it, Dema,” he said hoarsely. “We’re out!”

Epilogue - Dema
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Dane,” I began slowly.
I felt him take my hand. “Yes?”
I opened my eyes and discovered they were filled with tears. “I can’t do this. I can’t continue this stupid quest. I need to go somewhere else, where nobody knows me.”
He gasped. “No, Dema, don’t! You can’t leave me!”
I smiled through my tears. “Silly,” I whispered. “Hasn’t all we’ve been through shown you that I can’t live without you?”
“But then...”
“Yes. I want you to come with me.” I searched his face for signs of reluctance. If he refused to go I didn’t know what I would do. What I could do.
But his voice was steely and determined. “I’ll come. But what about Elna and Az?”
I frowned. “I’ll miss them, but this is just something I have to do. Maybe we’ll come back... someday.”
“But... they’ll think something terrible has happened to us, like... like last time.”
I held a cupped hand up to my mouth and whispered something into it. Two tendrils of mist swirled out of it, whispering as they floated towards the door.
“What are you telling them?” he asked me.
“‘Don’t worry.’” And I grabbed his other hand and pulled him out the window to fly beneath the stars.

LOLz, okay!

Oh, yay! It's the awesome one!

Thanks, Shadow. XD

I read book one... took my forever. xD

I'll start on book two tomorrow.

Okie dokes. I know it's long, thanks for reading so far! I wanted to go over it again before I posted it, but then I decided I was way too lazy. XD

I'd basically be unable to do that. xD I hate reading over/editing.

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. If I'm procrastinating my writing because I have WB, I love it. If not, it's kinda boring.

Nice. xD

Aha, Ratty. I still love it.

Hey ratty, do you want me to make a book cover for this? Here's a thread to explain more: https://shadowsowner888.forumotion.net/the-billboard-f27/book-covers-t119.htm#2030

Thankiez, Oyoy.

Danielle, I'll go check it out.

Finally finished reading the second and third books. Pure awesomeness. I really enjoyed it. You're a very talented writer.

Thanks, Night.

That was so amazing!!!

Thanks, Danielle! Um... IDK, normal rattlesnake color, I guess. Sandy brown or something.

Thanks, Akeria!