This is the story of me, Lily Gonestar, but I did write it in the third person. Why? I really don’t know. And please. Don’t ask.
Lily Gonestar sat outside her transforming class, watching Cindy Rosa shape-change. Cindy flew over in the form of a sparrow. “Guess what I’m going to be when I grow up,” she said. Cindy shape-changed. “A swan!” she tittered. Lily wanted to be a fish. Only, she could never control her powers. “I’m going to be a frog.” Lily declared. Frog, frog, frog, frog! Lily thought. “Close.” said Sandy. “A spotted yellow gecko. Neat. Can you show me how to do that?” “No.” she said. Sheepishly, she turned into a canary. It was the only thing she could turn into. “Try flying faster that me!” chirped Sandy, turning into a swallow. Cindy became a swallow, too, and flew off. Swallows were way faster than canaries, everybody knew that. She tried. It didn’t work. Lily took off after Sandy and Cindy, and somehow, passed them. She looked at her tail feathers. She couldn’t believe it! I’m a whitetail swallow! Lily realized. She flew back to her friends and exclaimed, “Look, look! I’m a whitetail swallow!”
Sandy was so surprised she nearly fell out of the air. Cindy really did fall out of the air. Luckily, she changed into a flying squirrel and then into a gray tabby cat. Lily changed herself back into a human. Ms. Mares was making them line up into two lines. She was over eighteen, but her brother, Mr. Greenwald, made a potion that allowed adults to change into different animals for a minute. He only gave it to schools, for educational purposes. “Today is changing tests. You will fill out each question with a complete answer. Line one, come in.” Everyone filed in. “Ok, class, start your tests.”
Lily looked at the first question.
A1) What do you do when you shape-change into a bird?
Easy. Thought Lily.
When I change into a bird, I absent-mindedly think of wanting to be a bird.
A2) What happens when you turn 18 years old?
You must choose an animal to shape-change into for the rest of your life.
It went on like this until Ms. Mares stamped her feet. “Class, each of you will shape-change into your favorite animal." Lily tried turning into a frog. It didn’t work. She tried turning into a whitetail swallow. That didn’t work. Instead, she turned into a sparrow, and fluttered high into the air.
Ms. Mares looked at Lily quizzically. "Er, Lily, is your favorite animal a sparrow?" Lily fluttered down into her seat and shook her head.
"No Ms. Mares. My favorite animal is a frog."
"Please stay after class, Lily," Ms. Mares requested. Lily nodded and hung her head. I failed! Again! Lily had failed thousands of transformation tests. The oral stuff was easy. The shape-changing never worked. Ms. Mares continued teaching. Finally, two minutes until the bell rang, and Lily would be free, Ms. Mares instructed, "Lily, show the class how to turn into a whitetail swallow."
Shakily, Lily clambered onto her desk. Her lime-green sneakers left marks on the dirty wood. She concentrated as hard as she could. Poof. In a shimmer of feathers, Lily became a chicken. The whole class laughed.
"Chicken!" Somebody shouted. She clucked and pecked madly at Ms. Mares.
"You can change back," Ms. Mares said reluctantly. Again, feathers, a poof, and Lily was sitting in the stinking room. The only shapes I can transform properly into are a canary and a human. She sat back down and wiped the chicken feathers off the grimy surface. The bell rang. Sandy, Cindy, and Fern all turned into whitetail swallows and fluttered off. As soon as the rest of the class had gone, Ms. Mares walked over to Lily. Lily's brown, purple-streaked hair fluttered in the wind of the closing door. She gulped. Ms. Mares sat down in the chair next to her, dusting off the tabletop with a hand.
"Lily, do you...have trouble transforming?" Ms. Mares was obviously choosing her words carefully.
"Yes!" Lily nearly yelled. "I can't shape-change into anything but a canary or back to me!"
Ms. Mares just smiled. "Try turning into a dragon, Lily."
"But dragons are mythical creatures," Lily pointed out, her purple-streaked hair falling in front of her face. She brushed it away with one hand, and tapped her shoe on the ground.
"Lily, dragons are not mythical creatures," Ms. Mares pleaded. "Just try it."
"Fine." She grumbled and stood up. Dragon. Dragon. Dragon. She looked down at herself and gasped. I was a dragon! Her scales were brown and purple-streaked, just like her hair. She was small, like really small, and her wingspan was twice the size of her whole body.
"Now change back," Ms. Mares commanded. She shrank back into her human shape. Lily found that she wanted to be a dragon again and flap around the room. Her scales were a beautiful, chocolaty brown, and she instantly loved it.
"My theory is now correct," Ms. Mares said. "You are indeed a Penneastrum. Why do you think you have purple streaked hair?"
It made sense to Lily. She was adopted and had had her purple streaks for as long as she could remember.
“So…. what are these pen-ea-strums?” Lily asked her teacher.
A smile flickered on Christina Mares’s lips. “Dragons. A Penneastrum’s main form, when they turn 18, is a dragon. But Penneastrum can still shape-change. Their life force won’t be extinguished if they don’t make the wish. In fact, they don’t make the wish.”
“I see,” said Lily, nodding.
Ms. Mare’s took Lily’s hands in hers warmly. “Lily,” she began gently. “You are 17 years old. Most Penneastrum…well, in truth, there have only been six other Penneastrum in recorded history. You are the seventh. The only difference between you and the other Penneastrum, really, is that the others are now dead.
“Penneastrum are rare gifts, Lily. But there hasn’t been a Penneastrum in 30 years. Penneastrum are different from us. Instead of living in society, in towns, they live in caves, in the wild. Your dragon form will change as you grow. In fact, some Penneastrum even have special powers, other than being a mythical creature and being able to shape-change for the rest of their lives,” Ms. Mares continued.
“So…when should I leave?” Lily asked nervously.
“Now,” Ms. Mares said. “This school is of no use to you. Dragons mature fast. You should be able to shape-change properly by your eighteenth birthday.”
“Where should I go?” Lily asked again. There were so many things she wanted to know!
“The Tigris forest should suit you well. It has plenty of prey.” Ms. Mares answered.
“Prey!” Lily nearly shouted. “That’s what I’m supposed to eat?”
Ms. Mares nodded. “Like a raptor.”
“Um…well…. then…” Lily was suddenly lost for words.
“Just go now, Lily. Good-bye.”
Lily swallowed her fear and lifted her chin high so her red-brown hair cascaded down her shoulders and neck, like a swirl of chocolate.
“Good-bye Ms. Mares.” Crouching low, she turned into her dragon form. She was surprised to find it bigger and more well-muscled than before. She leaped into the air, surging upwards. Flying was sheer joy. This was the first time she’d flown as a dragon and her eyesight was sharper than an eagle’s as she flew towards the Tigris forest.
***
Lily reached in a matter of minutes, and calmly landed, surveying her surroundings. Beside her ran a stream and the forest was layered with shadows and patches of sunlight that dappled the chocolate-purple of Lily’s scales. With the sun on her, and after the joy of flying, Lily was the happiest she’d been in her life. Her throat rumbled with a cat-like purr that echoed off the silvery bark of the trees. Suddenly, a purr answered Lily’s. For a moment, she thought it was an echo, but then, the treetops swished over her head. She looked up and saw a flash of black and red, but then, it was gone.
Lily frowned as much as her dragon facial expressions would allow, and then glanced away. Now, Lily needed a place to live. After fighting her way through bracken and hanging willows, Lily glanced up a steep cliff face that stretched up high above the forest. Summoning all the strength that she had left, she flew up the high cliff, landing, tired and shaky, inside the cave. Too tired to do or say anything else, Lily fell asleep. She awoke on the hard, earthen floor of the cave, feeling the tiredness that plagued each of her limbs.
Standing up, Lily shook out her legs, and swung her tail around, unsurprised to still be in her dragon form. It was only after Lily had lifted a foreleg and begun to scrape off the grit that she noticed the other dragon standing in the doorway.

“Who are you?” Lily asked uncertainly. The other dragon was black with red eyes and a tail-tip. Its pupils of each of its eyes were a deep, dark gray, unlike Lily’s, who’s were solid, jet black. The other dragon shifted forward. “The question is who are you,” it growled. The voice was deep, unmistakably male, and full of authority.
“I am Lily Gonestar, a Penneastrum.”
“Well, then, we have one thing in common. I’m a Penneastrum, too.”
“What’s your name?”
“Talim.”
“Oh.” There was an awkward silence. Then, Talim asked, “What type of dragon are you—I mean, what’s your power, if you have one?”
“I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “I just found out I was a Penneastrum yesterday. And I thought all the others were dead.”
“Well I’m not, for one. I’m alive, not a ghost.”
Lily flinched at Talim’s sudden hostility. “S-Sorry,” she stammered.
“You’d better be,” he growled. “This forest is my territory. Beware of that.” He swooped out of the cave, his darkening form a mere shadow in the blazing sunrise. Lily unfolded her huge brown wings and flapped after him.
Huge gusts of wind spiraled in from the seaward side, and the cold air swirled around her, threatening to drop her bulky body out of the gusty air. How does he do this? Lily wondered, ducking out of the way of an airborne seagull.
After what felt like hours of flying, Lily spied a sandy beach. Something that looked like Cindy, Fern, and Sandy were there. Lily swooped down and changed into her human form before her friends could see her. She walked over.
“Hi guys,” she said.
“Hi Lily!” Cindy said joyfully. “Want to race us?”
“No thanks. I need to know where Talim’s going to.” The words were out of her mouth before she knew it.
“Who’s Talim?” Cindy asked curiously.
“No one,” said Lily, scanning the horizon for the giveaway flap of dark wings. “No one at all.”
“I’m sure he’s someone,” Fern said confusedly.
“Oh, there he goes,” Lily murmured. He swooped low, circling Lily. Before she knew who and what he was, she was a dragon again. Her friends stared at her in wonder. She crouched, sinking one giant claw into the sand. When she was done, her message read, “Come on. Climb up.”
Only Cindy did. The other two stared up at her, quaking with fear. “Lily, let’s go!” Cindy whispered. Scooping up a claw full of sand in one giant foot, she rose into the air. Cindy changed into a bird, a canary, and together, they flew on.
Lily, with her hawk-sharp eyesight, watched Talim’s wings beat along the shore. She flapped her wings hard against the wind, watching the glittering waves crash to the shore beneath her, taking kids who were foolish enough to turn into fish with them. Her gaze turned back to Cindy, who was flying onward bravely.
Lily caught her easily in the sweep of her wings and tossed her up easily into the air.
“Nice day, isn’t it?” Cindy gasped once she had recovered from her trampoline ride.
“Right, Cindy-poo,” Lily replied, laughing as much as a dragon possibly could. And then, Lily was falling, and she gazed down at the hard brown earth below her before she met it with a smack. And then…. well…I guess you could call it embarrassedness.

Jessie slipped through the cool eaves of the forest. She regretted not having any legs. Snake-like and slithery, their mother had often called her. But she had chosen, and this form suited her well. A leaf fell to the ground beside her. She incinerated it before it could settle in with the other leaves. She peered cautiously to her left. Talim must not find her. She gritted her fangs. Every minute she spent in her brother’s presence was a minute wasted. As a slithery serpent-like dragon, she had merely one hundred years on this planet, at most. Many over-estimated her kind, and stereotyped them. She was just a dragon like the rest of them. She deserved the name Dragonwarrior, however much Talim would not relent to it. She had killed more evil Pegasus in this forest than the years she’d been alive. The Pegasus horn seeped the power of the Penneastrum; many had not tasted food or drink for many years. Their law said that they could eat nor drink until having their first taste of Penneastrum blood. But today she was on a different mission. While Talim was away investigating his territory in the Tigris forest, she could fly off and find a different territory for herself. Talim barely let his sister out of his sight, let alone out of the territory they shared. “Talim!” she hissed angrily. Jessie Dragonwarrior. It suited her nicely. Why couldn’t her brother just accept, and let her have the title? Scorching a nearby tree made her feel better. She rose up out of the deadness of the leaf litter and let her long tongue flick out of her mouth and inspected her blue almost black white dotted scales. Like a starry sky. Jessie didn’t like pretty things. Least of all did she like being pretty herself. And thanks to her father, she could incinerate things. It helped her take out her fury. And she had a lot of that. She gazed up, aghast at how much the starry night did look like her scales. One reason she preferred to stay under the trees. The second being there were more things to reduce to the fine powder that often flaked on her brother’s claws. She laughed to herself. When she got over her incontrollable rage, she was actually easy going and friendly. She shook her head and laughed again, swooping on.

Lily opened her eyes, embarrassed to the bone. Talim was crouching over her, as well as some other dragon she didn’t recognize. “Where’s Cindy?” she screeched, shooting bolt upright.
“I’m right here,” the strange dragon said. It was red and green, like Cindy’s hair.
“But…. but…. You’re not a Penneastrum,” Lily managed.
“No,” Cindy agreed. “But I’m a Dragonsister.”
“Dragonsister?” Lily asked, tipping her scaly brown head to one side. “What does that mean?”
“I’m sisters with a dragon,” Cindy said, her face splitting into a wide grin. “You have a new twin.”
“You?” Lily asked incredulously. “But…. you aren’t adopted.”
“Apparently I am. Our parents are two Penneastrum, Sitka and Talimund.”
“Yes,” Talim’s voice cut in. “When there are siblings, usually twins, children of Penneastrum, one gains the power of being a Penneastrum. The other is reduced to being a Dragonsister or Dragonbrother, the siblings of that Penneastrum.”
“But…if Cindy can turn into a dragon, what’s different?” Lily spluttered. “Penneastrum and their siblings are the same.”
“No,” Talim shook his head. “Dragonsiblings are able to turn into a dragon, but choose that form for the rest of their life. They can choose what type of dragon they want to be, but are usually more comfortable in their first dragon form, like us.”
“Wow,” said Lily finally to Cindy. “You’re my sister.” Cindy laughed a high, clear laugh.
“Yes, you poo,” she replied. “I am.”
“Dragonsisters are more common than Dragonbrothers. But you really want to be a Dragonwarrior. That only happens when you’re a hero, or save the world or something. Jessie’s a Dragonwarrior.” Talim explained.
“Who’s Jessie?” both twins asked in unison.
“Someone,” Talim’s eyes narrowed. He turned coldly and swooped out of the cave. Lily swooped after him.
“Wait, Talim!” she shrieked. Cindy took off after her twin sister. Their scales were both brownish-red, and took on the gleam of the bright sun in the fading sunset.
“What an eventful day,” Lily sighed.
“WHAT?” her sister yelled back. “I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE WIND!”
Lily just shook her head and flew on.

Jessie was mad. Her rage bubbled and boiled like the cauldron warming over the fire. Talim had let strangers onto their land. Talim had let strangers on to their land! TALIM HAD LET STRANGERS ON TO THEIR LAND!
Jessie felt an overpowering need to incinerate something. She incinerated the cauldron, whose contents fled onto the floor. She stormed over in a rage and incinerated them, too. She crossed her arms and smiled. A job well done. She blasted the fireplace, releasing the fire. She was finished blasting the fire and was preparing to blast the bed when her conscience gained control. No, Jessie! Do you want to incinerate everything?
The answer was yes, but Jessie Dragonwarrior forced herself to calm down, her mind flaring up at every little stab that half-awoke her anger.
“Dragonwarrior,” she said to herself. “Do you really deserve that name?”
No, I do not. She laughed hysterically at herself. Of course she deserved that name! Who else had killed over fifteen hundred evil Pegasus? No one, of course! It was only she, Jessie Dragonwarrior, who deserved that name. She was nothing without it.

Talim enjoyed the sea breeze that blasted his face. He smiled, but inside, his heart was contorted with confusion. Jessie, for one. She was at home alone. By herself. Without him, Talim. And he had promised Nanuk. Their mother. He spiraled in confusion and uncomfort. And then, for another, there was Lily. Her light green dragon eyes made his head spin. The only way he could regain control of himself was to shut out her mud-colored scales and warm purple streaks and turn his back coldly on her. She was just a Penneastrum. Just another Penneastrum. Like a Dragonsister. Like his sister. Like Jessie. Talim’s mind spun in turmoil. He had always shut out others, hissed and snarled with bared fangs, and pushed them to the always-raging part of his mind. “Nothing,” he spat to himself. “Lily is nothing to you at all. Except another Penneastrum.” Or is she more? The question echoed quietly at the back of Talim’s mind. He pushed it into what he liked to call, “the always-raging side”. The side that took over when he was angry. Really angry. And he enjoyed it. He shuddered. He oftentimes scared himself. But what would he do without Lily’s soothing green eyes? They calmed him, something that nothing usually could. Instead, they flared his rage higher. The question echoed in his mind. What would he do?

Lily flew onward, pushing past the rocky peaks of tall boulders, always keeping Talim in sight. He flew what seemed like, and probably was, miles in front of her. “Talim!” she shrieked out again. “Wait!” He didn’t seem to her. Cindy still flew beside her, her brilliant red scales giving out an unusual gleam of brightness. Lily couldn’t help but envy her. She’s so much prettier than I am. The wistful note of longing took Lily soaring much higher over the peaks of the boulders. Stop it, Lily! She seemed to scream at herself. She needed some space, away from Cindy. She swarmed forward, slowly gaining on Talim. Her sister tried to catch up to her, but failed. Her wings weren’t strong enough on her first flight. As Lily flew over the splotched farmland, she imagined how it all would look in winter. A gleaming sheet of snow would coat everything. Ice would coat her wings and freeze her teeth at such high altitudes. But Talim had told her that dragon scales were tough. They could withstand even the harshest climates. Dragons were machines made to fly. She wrapped her wings at odd angles and spiraled into a dive. With her sharp green eyes, she spied a moor hare running at top speed over the grass. A coyote was chasing it. Good, Lily thought approvingly. It’ll be distracted. She swooped in for her first kill.
She yawned, her jaws gaping open in a huge grin of tiredness. The moor hare had tasted good and greasy, much like a warm slice of pizza. How long ago that seemed. A whole lifetime ago, even though it was only yesterday. Lily flew on following the dark red and black body of Talim into the evening sun. Lily’s mud-brown eyelids drooped with tiredness. She had to rest, and the harsh breeze whipping in her face didn’t help in the slightest. “Ah, well,” she sighed to herself. “At least I know I’ll be able to eat twenty hens.” She laughed and flew on.
Night fell and the steady beating of Talim’s wings in the distance didn’t raise Lily’s hopes. At the start of their journey, she had been confident that Talim would make the journey short. Maybe I should fall again, she thought. At least that seemed to catch Talim’s attention. Don’t be a moor hare, she thought to herself. Falling won’t catch Talim’s attention.
Her eyelids continued to droop, though Talim kept flapping on. He was worried about Jessie. She would probably fly into a rage and incinerate half the cave about a minute before his return. That was what had happened last time. He had found a blackened Jessie standing in a pile of soot and rubble. She had just smiled and tried to look innocent. When he asked her what had happened, she said she had tried to roast some meat, but the cave had caught fire and burned. Talim just snorted and murmured, “Yeah, right.”
He was probably crazier than a raccoon with rabies to let her have stayed home alone. He should have brought her with him. She needed to learn the skill of territory marking before he died. And like all dragons, that was coming soon. He shuddered, and realized how tired his wings were.

Jessie smiled to herself. She had replaced the fireplace and the cauldron. Talim would never guess she had incinerated something again. Unless, of course, she reduced the cave to a pile of rubble again. But she wouldn’t do that. Happy for once, she exited the cave and soared out into the starry night sky. Of course, if she did incinerate the house, she would be gone before Talim was back.

Talim flew on. He flew on until the sky was a blast of pink and purple. He flew until he fell out of the sky from tiredness. Talim was in his own territory when he awoke. The night of fear had faded to mere memory, and in Talim’s world, everything was peaceful again, back to normal. He shook out his ruffled, sleep-wrinkled wings and yawned, his enormous red tongue curling like a cat’s before he straightened it and stared ahead with his gray pupils. He walked through the forest, his tail digging ruts in the leaf litter. It felt good to be home. Suddenly, he felt the presence of others on his territory. He spun around, expecting the newcomers to be behind him. There was nobody. It was probably just his imagination playing with him. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, he reached the cave where he and his sister had lived. It was empty. He stared around in shock. The cave was empty! He would rather the cave burned down than it be empty! He began to hyperventilate, and he started pacing, the feeling of nausea rising in his throat. The cauldron and fireplace, the only things that occupied the otherwise-empty cave were still there. Unincinerated. Jessie Dragonwarrior had left days ago.

The feeling of wind rushing through her legless body made Jessie feel happier than she had been since their mother had died. She stretched out her green and black scaled head and pushed on with her huge wings. Suddenly, a brown and purple dragon rose up from the trees below her, green eyes wild. Jessie’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Who are you?” she snarled. “And what are you doing on Jessie Dragonwarrior’s territory?”

“So you’re Jessie Dragonwarrior?” Lily asked. “Talim’s sister, I’m guessing,” she said, surveying Jessie’s black-scaled body. “You’re very alike, I must say,” Lily said, amused. She glanced down below. “And I believe that is also Talim Dragonwarrior’s territory.”
“HE’S NOT A DRAGONWARRIOR!” Jessie’s face was so close to Lily’s that she could smell the hot breath of the green and black dragon that was Talim’s sister.
“A Penneastrum, then,” said Lily calmly. “Who cares? He’s about as confused as a moor hare being chased by an eagle and a dragon in front of a river.”
Jessie suddenly laughed. “Come on,” she said. “I’ll take you to Talim.”
“Yeah, if you can find him,” Lily said placidly.
“I’ll bet you I can,” said Jessie, rising to the challenge and speeding off.

Cindy struggled on behind her sister. It was hot and stuffy with the sun quickly rising above the mountainous hills that the animals of these parts called boulders. “Lily!” she called. “Wait up!” She watched her sister confront a new dragon, looking exactly like Talim except for the red scales, which were, on her, green. And she was legless. She looked as if she were ready to burn Lily, if she could. Which hopefully she could not. Suddenly, her usually gentle blue eyes burned with anger. She was jealous. Really jealous. And she knew a master who was really powerful. She turned around and swooped towards the sunset where she knew she would find the Tornuaq.

Jessie led Lily over boulders and rocks to the place where she and Talim had lived since Nanuk had left the earth. The wounds in her heart were still fresh and she knew who had made their mother to die. She shuddered, and didn’t dare to think about it. Jessie could slip easily through the icy leaf-strewn floor of the forest without making a sound, but Talim couldn’t at all. He was so big and bulky and could make Jessie laugh so easily. The old Talim, at least. The new one was boring and seemed elderly, no fun at all. It seemed he had two personalities, and the more boring one seemed to be taking over lately. She sighed and slithered on, again regretting having no legs. Suddenly, Talim burst from the undergrowth in front of Jessie. “Jessie! Lily!” he exclaimed. He stared around, confused. “Wait…. what?”
Jessie smiled for what seemed to be the first time in ages. “Welcome back to the world, brother.”
“Erm…. Lily…. this is erm…. Jessie…. and erm…. Jessie…this erm, is Lily….” Talim said awkwardly.
“Talim!” Jessie laughed. “Finally! You stop being so…. boring!” She laughed again. The brave Dragonwarrior leaped on her brother, wrestling as if they were still fledglings. Lily smiled and laughed. Whatever Jessie was on the outside, she was plain happy on the inside. She didn’t even notice Cindy was gone until she had emerged on Salkar’s side of the war.

Cindy stood before a circle of ten men and ten women, ghastly white and eerie in front of the blue black night. The tallest man among the twenty stepped out. “What do you seek?” he asked in a voice as cold and cutting as a knife.
“Nothing, my dear lord,” Cindy replied in a voice of equal ice. “Except revenge.”
A murmur of approval ran through the crowd of ghosts. The man silenced them with a wave. “Against who, may I ask?” he asked.
“None other than my sister, master,” Cindy replied, bowing low.
“Well said,” replied the man. The coldness of his voice, and the sharpness would have made any loving soul cringe. But Cindy no longer loved anyone. “I think the cold and unforgiving name Cassandra will fit you. Something about it gives it a deadly beauty.”
“Thank you, great lord,” Cassandra said. “Indeed, the name Cassandra suits me well. Deadly beauty, as you said. Now, about that revenge. On my own sister, as well as her two little friends.” The ghosts around her snickered coldly.
“Laugh well and cruel, my little minions,” Salkar said. “A fortnight from now, we will be able to drink from the goblet of revenge!” His cold, featureless face conceded to form a snarl of hunger. “Yes, my little cruelties,” he snarled, “You may now plot for revenge.”
The ghosts raised their head to the heavens and howled, long and mournful, like the coyotes of the far north.
“Dearest,” and old ghost cupped Cassandra’s face in his cold, clammy hands. She suppressed a shudder at his grotesque face, and the cool hands slid down her cheek. She found herself wishing away her bursts of anger and jealousy at her sister. “Dear child. You have made a choice.” His breath rattled. “A choice worth dying forever for.”
She saw the fear and despair in his eyes and wanted to flee for her life.

The golden arrow had appeared out of nowhere. Sailing from the horizon, it had pierced his heart. Her brother’s heart. Jessie wanted to wail with despair. Her breath fumed around her, like a cloud. “Talim!” The shriek seemed to echo around the forest. She bared her fangs. Whoever had done this was going to pay, in the costliest way possible. With its life. Lily was by her side in an instant. The Dragonwarrior’s eyes were made of fire and steel. “Who did this?” she roared, rearing back to incinerate a tree. Lily shrank back, afraid. “Jessie,” her voice was quiet and powerful. “The prophecy.”
“What?” Jessie’s head whipped around. “What prophecy?”
“Yes,” Lily replied in a frightened and hushed whisper. “I think Talim is the claw in the prophecy. The claw was supposed to be an object of extreme and supreme evil, but when Theodore split the objects into living beings, Talim was purified somewhat by his existence as a dragon.” Lily explained in a tumble of words. “If we are able to find the other one- the one that represents the scale in the prophecy, she or he would represent pureness in its purest and most beautiful form. That dragon, whoever he or she is, could cure Talim and restore him to full health!”
Jessie lifted her head up. “You really think that could work?” she asked in a hushed whisper. “Talim…to me, he’s always just been…Talim. Do you think he’s really part of a prophecy?”
Lily shrugged. “Perhaps. The prophecy referred to a time ‘the Penneastrum are all but dead’. Talim and I seem to be the only ones left. Talim has to be the dark one. He’s dark-scaled, and he’s shady, yet he seems to know everything there is to know about the magical world.”
“You just described him perfectly,” Jessie told her friend. “But who would be the pure one?”
“There are no others,” Lily replied sadly. “And I cannot be it. I am not as old as Talim. I am younger, at least by a few months, and the prophecy said we would be born at the same time.
“Talim is ten years older than you. Exactly.”
Lily absorbed the information quietly. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to try. It can’t be you, because the prophecy refers specifically to a Penneastrum.” She approached Talim. Then, she stopped. She glanced back at Jessie. “What if I’m not it?” she asked shakily, biting her quivering lip and seeing her own fear reflected on her friend’s face.
“I don’t know.” The brave warrior’s eyes were full of tears at the thought of losing her brother. She had to try. For her friend’s sake. And Talim’s. She pulled at the very back of her mind, at the consciences she didn’t even know were there, and tried to unleash pure healing powers on Talim. Nothing came, except a little flame, burning at the back of her mind. She collapsed into a heap. “Nothing,” she sobbed. “I’m not it.”
Beside her, quiet tears were leaking out of the Dragonwarrior’s green eyes. She flinched away when Lily turned to look at her, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands.
“I’m fine,” she sniffled, turning away. Lily scooted closer to Jessie. In their human forms, Lily wrapped her arms around Jessie.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It’s all my fault.”
“No,” Jessie said. “No, it’s not. You weren’t even here when the arrow fell. It couldn’t have been your fault. In fact, you’ve made him an even greater dragon, to me at least. I don’t know about others.”
“It makes him a greater dragon to me, too,” Lily said. “And I’ll remember him like that forever.”
“For eternity?”
“Doesn’t forever include eternity?”
“Yes, it does.”

A red dragon spiraled above their sightline, a green one joining it. They swooped down low into the forest, landing in front of the two vulnerable girls in front of them.
“Hello, dear sister,” the red one snarled. “How very pleasant for you to be here.”
“Cindy?” Lily asked in disbelief.
“I prefer the name Cassandra now,” she replied with a cool air. “I bring you into the presence of the Master of All, Salkar.” She bowed low and turned to face the green-scarlet dragon.
“Hello, dears,” he said in his icy voice. “Are you wondering where the golden arrow came from?”
Slowly, Jessie nodded. “We would do anything to save my brother.”
“If you join my side of the war, you will have access to healers and treatments from ages past. From maybe…two hundred years ago, may I suggest? Yes,” he nodded to the two gaping dragons in front of him. “I keep my supplies well stocked. And if you do not want to join my side of the war…well,” he smiled. “I suppose we can assume you will suffer the same treacherous fate as the others. Well?” he asked. “Tick-tock goes the clock.”
Minutes past. Salkar spoke quietly to Cassandra. She turned to the people who had once been her friends.
“Master Salkar says—rather, Lord Salkar, Master of All, would like you to make your decision quickly, or die.”
Cassandra’s tone was pleasant; one could say a bit too pleasant. It sent shudders down Lily’s long spine. “You will never get us.”
“Very well,” Salkar said. “I just thought I ought to let you know—my powers extend farther than your wildest dreams could ever imagine. In fact, my powers have already converted your dear Cassandra into a Penneastrum. Yes. It would be so dull without her in the running to be the dark one. Pleasantries exchanged now, bye-bye!” He said all of this in a sweetly pleasant voice.
“Perhaps we should have accepted his offer.”
“No.” Lily said firmly. “My dear sister is in the running to become one of the prophesized ones. I am afraid I will have to beat her.” She smiled happily. “Let’s go back to the cave. Talim will be fine.”
“WHAT?” Jessie Dragonwarrior screeched. “Leave him alone? Go back to the cave? Gah!” She turned to Lily. “I don’t get it.”
Lily just laughed, gazing into a puddle, at her brown-green eyes. There was a dark circle in the center of the irises, and as she gazed deeper into the puddle she understood.
“I am the dark one, Jessie,” she said. “Talim is pure.”
“What?”
“He’s the pure one. See, Salkar—or whatever his name was—said that Cassandra was in the running for being the dark one. That must mean that Talim is the lighter one. It has to!”

It didn’t hurt that much, thought Talim, as he lay on the hard earth. Pure white light flooded his vision, and he made out a gray-and-white shape in the blinding glare. “Nanuk?” he gasped.
“Yes, my precious one. The Place-After-Death has sent me here. I am to give you this message: You are the pure one, the one that represents the scale in the prophecy. You will survive things thrown your way. But when the time comes, you will be helpless.”
“Nanuk, what does that mean?” Talim cried out as she disappeared into the fog. “You will live, my loved one…” The last wisps of her voice echoed and rebounded strangely, eerily, eventually finding their way into Talim’s ears. “Mother….”

“I think he’s waking up.”
“I think so, too.” Blurry voices that he recognized but didn’t quite remember greeted Talim as he awoke.
“Snuggles!” yelled his sister as she leaped on him.
“Don’t squash him,” joked Lily good-humoredly, knowing that Talim must have had to put up with this all of his life.
Talim felt his face fill with color as his sister used the name for him that she hadn’t used in years. “Get…off…” he managed to grunt.
“Snuggles! You’re okay!” Jessie squealed, squashing his face again with one huge swipe of her tail.
“Careful!” he snarled playfully. “One day you’re going to take my tail off.”
“You’re right.” Jessie nodded. “Well, it might as well be today!” She took another swipe at her brother’s face. He tussled with his sister, a thing he hadn’t done since…well, forever. Or so it felt.
Lily stood by the side, her green eyes bright and happy at the sight of her friends play-fighting. Talim turned to her. “Lily…. I need you to help me find the other dragon.”
“What?”
“You know…from the prophecy?”
Jessie staggered up to them, huffing and puffing. “Is it only me who does not know about the prophecy?”
No one replied. She gazed at them. Lily turned away, ashamed. “I’m the dark one.” she replied. Talim stared at her. “What?”
“You’re the light dragon. How else would you have survived the golden arrow?”
“What golden arrow?” Talim looked befuddled.
“The one that fell from the sky and the one that was in your heart—” Jessie gasped. On Talim’s chest was an arrow. A mural of it, to be more specific. Like a birthmark. Lily gasped. Talim gasped. Jessie gasped again. They all laughed.
“I thought Talim was going to die—again.” Jessie shrieked.

Salkar stalked among the line of ghosts and men. “Welcome, my minions,” he said. “I am sure you are all wondering why you are here. His scarlet and green hair billowed out behind him, and his ivory teeth glinted in the moonlight. In his two hands, he held two objects: a scale, and a claw. Murmurs ran through the crowd.
“What are those?”
“The scale and the claw.”
“Do they really have the power?”
“QUIET!” Salkar bellowed, losing his temper slightly. Regaining his formality, he stalked on. “These objects still hold ledgendary power. I am asking my two most trusted to take these objects and use them to kill the two dragons that hold their power. Only an object that once held the opposite power can kill them.”
Hopeful eyes gazed up at him, pleading, begging for the task, but he walked on until he had reached the end of the line. “Cassandra and Kermin.” he nodded to each one of them in turn. “Your task is to kill the two brats who hold the power that they don’t deserve.”
“Yes, Lord Salkar, Master of All,” they murmured in unison.
“Good,” he said, with an air of satisfaction. “Go, now.”

“Nanuk came to me in a dream, you know,” Talim murmured into Jessie’s ear that night. “She said I was the pure one. But….she said I’d live, but….”
“What?” Jessie asked fearfully.
“Never mind,” said Talim determined to protect his little sister from the world as he had done when they were little hatchlings.
“Talim,” Jessie said firmly. “I want you to tell me right now. What ‘but’ is. We’re not hatchlings anymore. I am a Dragonwarrior. I’ve fought Pegasai before. The type with a horn and a wing. I can handle this.”
Talim took a deep breath. “Nanuk said….she said….that….th….at….when the time comes….I will be helpless.”
“You’ll d—die?” Jessie gasped. She felt as if an anaconda where strangling her. Lose Talim? Lose her big brother, the last person that really mattered to her?
“No, Nanuk never said I would die specifically, just that I would be helpless.” Talim said quickly, in the hope of comforting his sister.
“You still might die,” Jessie argued.
“You could die, too.”
“I know.”
“Really?”
“No.”
“Same with me.”
“You’re different.”
“No I’m not!”
“Snuggles!”

The next morning, Lily, Jessie, and Talim were awake before the sun rose. The white light filtered down through the treetops, and Talim sighed contentedly.
“Where to now?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Lily said. “Somewhere Salkar can’t find us. Anywhere he isn’t.”
Jessie nodded grimly. “I agree with Lily.”
Suddenly, Lily gasped and pointed her scaly tail towards Talim’s chest. Words were written on the birthmark-like golden arrow.

Dearest Sister,
Turn yourselves in to Lord Salkar, Master of All, by tomorrow or suffer your fate. Lord Salkar never lies.
Your Unloving Twin,



Cassandra

Lily’s heart skipped a beat at her twin’s mention. Her throat felt dry. “There’s more,” she whispered hoarsely.

Come to the South Pole by midnight. I know you can fly there. And beware of the Dragonwarrior. She will betray you soon.

“I don’t believe a word you say—” And here, Lily called her sister something too bad to write.

You can believe me, or risk your lives with her. Cassandra wrote, obviously referring to Jessie.

“I won’t give up my sister on the word of some lunatic!” Talim screeched.

I am NOT a lunatic. If anyone is, it is that creature you call your sister.

Talim spat with rage, helpless against the writing on his own body.

Go ahead, touch the arrow on your chest, Cassandra wrote. If you do, you are as good as dead.

“You’re bluffing!” Jessie snarled, “You have nothing through that arrow, just a way to talk to us!”

Or do I? Kermin and I are coming for you, today at midnight, and if you do not succumb to our orders, and leave the Dragonwarrior, you will all die! Our sources are verified with the great Theodore’s. Now what say you? Are you coming to the south, or not? What if I said it is the only way to save poor Talim from his own self?

“What do you mean?” Lily’s voice was shaking.

Ah, well, the arrow that we sent for Talim contained the venom from the great dragon’s claw. You know, the one from the prophecy? Now that we know he is the pure one, it will kill him slowly from the inside. The only cure is the dragon’s scale, the other one mentioned in the prophecy. We have that. And the Great Lord Salkar, Master of All promises that to you…if you obey his wishes.
Tut-tut, sister, time is wasting!

“You’re going to die?” Jessie’s voice was scared and afraid.
“No, I’m not,” Talim said determinedly. “Lily?”
“Unicorn!” she yelped.
“Ummm…..are you okay?” Talim asked.
She turned to Talim, a wild fire in her eyes. “Unicorn!” she yelped again.
“Jessie, is Lily okay?”
“She seemed fine just five minutes ago. Maybe all those messages from Cassandra messed around with her brain a bit,” Jessie said.
“No, no, no, guys,” Lily said, frantic. “If we alliance ourselves with the unicorns…. we’ll…. we’ll be able to defeat Salkar, no questions asked!”
“Actually, there’s one question,” said Talim.
“What?” Lily glared at Talim with rocky eyes.
“Will the er…. the er… unicorns er….”
“Spit it out Talim!” Jessie shouted.
“Join er….us….er….?” Talim’s speech ended with Jessie slapping him in the face.
“What are you, a lovestruck warlock?” she asked. Jessie often used metaphors like this. For example, the lovestruck warlock.
“No, I am not,” Talim snapped back at his sister. Or am I? He wondered, looking into Lily’s irresistible green eyes. Control yourself, Talim! His conscience snapped. You have a war to fight. Now hustle!
“Guys, I think we should be trying to find a unicorn. It’s almost noon,” Lily suggested.
“But—” Talim protested.
“You can fight like two-year olds later. But now, don’t you guys want to live?” Lily’s sarcasam was vexing.
The two siblings turned on their friend, hissing and snarling. They were really two very irksome creatures. “Sheesh,” Jessie was the first to speak. “You really can be very annoying sometimes, Lily. Very obsessive.”
“You are, too,” Lily responded, eyes flaming. “But perhaps, you don’t want to live? I know I do!”
“Then you go off and find one of your precious unicorns! We’ll wait right here, and we’ll see who survives the war!” Jessie raged.
“Fine, you and your precious wait-out-the-war! Stay here! Die, for all I care! See if I raise a claw to help you. I’ll be waiting—laughing, in fact, when I see your dead body lying on my doorstep. Or wherever you’re killed, for that matter!” With that, she unfolded her wings and flew off.

“Jessie!” Talim was spitting with rage. “I needed Lily—I mean, we needed Lily!”
“Oh, so you need your Lily but you don’t need me?” Jessie hissed.
“I do, but…”
“But, what? She’s just too special, isn’t she?” Jessie spat. “Well, that just shows how important I am to you.”
“No, no, you’re my little sister….” But Jessie was already flying away. Talim sighed. In his human form, pale skin with short cropped black hair and red streaks, he sat on a log, his head between his legs and arms. He had lost his sister and his best friend in less than in hour. And worse, he had managed to fight with them both. But I guess somebody has got to get to the north pole.

Sinister thoughts plagued Lily as she flew over mountaintops and the large boulders that the local animals called hills. Cassandra was right. Jessie Dragonwarrior—or the Dragonwarrior as Cassandra called it—had betrayed them. Perhaps her sister was right. Maybe Salkar was the Lord, Master of All, like her twin had told her. Maybe he was guided by a conscience and a soul, and love. Was Cassandra right? Or was she just bluffing?
Salkar was probably the right master. Cindy wouldn’t have chosen him otherwise, unless her judgment had been clouded by something. And she and Cindy—no, Cassandra—had been friends for years. And she was seventeen now. The time had come for her to make a descision. To use her powers for good or for evil. And she was almost certainly going with the first choice.
Swooping into a dive, Lily scanned the barren tundra beneath her with eagle-sharp eyes. Now, what had Talim said about where the unicorns lived? Lily thought it was that they lived on grassy plains and grazed into meadows, and were only visible to the magical eye. Or was that the version her mother had read her years ago, as a bedtime story? Lily couldn’t quite remember.
“Saied?” she gasped. Her adopted brother stared at Lily in amazement. Back in human form, Lily was a mess. Her hair was matted, her clothes were soiled with dirt, and her normally bright eyes were tired and messy. But it was unmistakably Lily.
“Lily!” Saied ran to her adopted sister and stared at her. “Is that you?” Saied was strangely calm.
“Yes! Yes, it is!” Lily shouted, excited. Maybe it was because she had fought with her two best friends or because she wanted a companion to help her on what seemed like her impossible quest, but either way, Lily was strangely pleased to see her “sibling”, whom with she usually fought and disagreed with ninety nine point nine percent of the time.
“Why so excited, Lily?” he asked. “You’re usually not that happy to see me.”
“Saied, well, I guess I’ll have to tell you this sometime or the other….” Lily began. “Well, I’m a Penneastrum, a dragon, that can shape-change all of their life. I met one other one, Talim, and his sister, Jessie Dragonwarrior—but she’s not really a Penneastrum, more of a sister who’s a dragon and who fights the Pegasai, they’re evil—and you know, I’ve always thought there was something strange about Cindy, it turned out she was my sister…” and so on, and so on, until, “So, Jessie, Talim and I had a fight and now I’ve got to make an alliance with the unicorns and fly to Antarctica to fight Salkar before midnight.”
“Wait…. slow down…” Saied said. “You’re a legend? I have a sister who is a legend?”
“Yup, exactly right, Saied,” Lily said. “Now, would you hurry up? I have a war to fight.”
“You mean we have a war to fight,” Saied told his sister, clasping his hand in hers. “I may not know too much about the magical world or anything, but I’d never betray you. You’re my sister. How could I?”
Lily laughed and butted her head into her brother’s oversized gray sweatshirt. “I know you won’t.”
He turned his light blue eyes affectionately onto Lily. His light black hair, almost brown spiked her forehead, and his tall, slim figure’s shadow stretched out before them like a tree’s. “Now,” he said in his best grown-up voice. “We have a war ahead of us.”
“Yes,” Lily giggled, poking her brother. “Of course we do.”

Talim flew over the plains and wasteland, his hawk-sharp dragon eyes scanning the ground ahead of him. A herd of unicorns passed underneath him, their thundering hooves kicking up rubble and dust, stampeding over everything in their path. Talim snorted and looked away. They reminded him too much of Lily. The one who had ripped him and Jessie apart. But he couldn’t blame her. She was only trying to save the world. Absent-mindedly, he spiraled towards the sun, then remembered the secrecy of his mission—of all his missions—and he flew back down, into what could be called the shadows of the sky. Not that there really were shadows.
Talim missed the cool eaves of the forest, remembering how much Jessie loved the feel of them on her back. He missed her. But he didn’t know where she had gone. Wait…what was that? Movement on the plain below him. Human movement. He swooped low, but not low enough for the people on the plain below to see him. Lily! And some strange boy with her. He landed behind a patch of boulders, transforming into his human shape. He walked out from behind the boulder. He had spent so much time as a dragon recently that human form felt alien to him—kind of.
He put on a brave face and summoned up his confidence. “Lily?” he called. She spun around, holding up a knife. He felt in his pocket. He found a knife there, too. He had forgotten one claw turned into a knife when Penneastrum were in human form.
Lily’s face relaxed into an expression of relief when she saw him. “Talim!” she yelled.
The guy with her surveyed Talim carefully. It was a while before he finally spoke. “So you’re Talim,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot about you from my sister.”
“Who’s your sister?” Talim asked, equally as careful.
The guy let out a loud guffaw. “Lily’s, of course. The name’s Saied,” he added, seeing the blank expression on Talim’s face. He held out his hand.
“Erm…” Talim began.
“Talim, humans shake hands to greet one another. Not like dragons, who try to kill each other,” she said, glaring at her friend.
“I’m sorry, okay? How many times do I have to say it?” Talim asked.
“Actually, you haven’t said it once,” Lily told him, loudly enough for Saied to hear.
“I’m sorry, again. And I’m sure Jessie would be sorry if she were here, too. You’re her best friend. Did she ever tell you that?” You’re my best friend, too, he didn’t say the words aloud. For the first time in his life, he felt too shy to speak. Well, usually, being in the shadows, Talim didn’t have much of a chance to speak to anyone except Jessie. And she was his sister, so he had no excuse not to want to speak to her.
“Where did Jessie go?” Lily asked, interrupting Talim’s thoughts. “We need to pick her up and prove to Salkar that he was wrong. But first, I think we’re going to need some unicorns.”
“What about me?” Saied interrupted, his voice raising in pitch like a two year old’s.
“Climb on,” Talim offered grimly. Saied scrambled on, and Talim spread his wings and took flight.

Jessie’s eyes were calming as she flew, seething, over the forest. There was only one place she could even think of going: Antarctica, the birthplace of the Tonraq, or rather the Circle of Ghosts that Salkar led. She would go there, and fight him, and prove to them all that she was worthy of the name and title Dragonwarrior. On she flew, over the ocean that lead to Antarctica, the South Pole. Cold, icy winds began to bombard her face. Her wings developed a layer of ice. Jessie shivered. Maybe she shouldn’t go to the South Pole. She shook off the thought. The Dragonwarrior was sure that this time that she was doing the right thing. Not like last time. Last time she had disobeyed Talim’s orders had been a disaster. Now was different. This time she knew what she was doing. She was going to go there, kill Salkar, and come back. Straight back. Unlike last time, when she had took a detour to catch some prey. Last time, Serena had caught up with her, and nearly roasted her wings off. Only Talim, returning from a prey hunt, had saved her life, and nearly given up his in the process.
She missed him, Talim. He was her best friend, of course, until Lily came along. I guess I needed someone my own age, she thought to herself. She missed Lily, too, of course. But she would never admit it to herself. Not now, anyway.
Her wings were nearly frozen, now. She incinerated something off the side of her wing, half-defrosting it. She wobbled unsteadily, the green spikes on the back of her neck tilting perilously on one side, then the other.
“Talim!” she shrieked fearfully, immediately wishing for her older brother alongside her to face the new threat of the wind.

“Kribl,” Salkar barked. “Give me a report on the supposed Dragonwarrior.” He sneered at the word Dragonwarrior.
“She’s done as you predicted, Lord Salkar,” Kribl replied. Then, seeing the look on the great lord’s face, he hastily added, “Master of All.” Salkar nodded and moved down the line. Turning back to face Kribl, he added, “She should be dead by nightfall in the Atlantic, what was it, Ocean. If she’s not, the crew is in your command.”
“Yes, Lord, Master of All, Salkar,” Kribl spoke again, bowing low with lots of flourish to Salkar. He moved on down the line, boots clanking on the hard ground.
“Lunatic,” he muttered once the Lord had left. “Soon, Souris, we will have full control of the crew. Full control. Not that petty bit of power my father gives us to command the crew. I must admit that he has trained me well, as his son, but he was never brave enough to have my kind of ambition. Well, soon, my Souris, soon.” The person, or rather creature, who Salkar’s son spoke to was a small rat mouse creature that perched on his shoulder. It gave a little squeak as Kribl handed it a small piece of sunflower seed.
“That’s all for today. Be grateful you’re alive. My father would never have that kind of heart to let you live,” Kribl snarled in the rat’s face, his breath smelling of chewed tobacco. Once he finished his rather long and very un-heartfelt speech, he spat a wad out, staining the ground with its dark coloration.
“Kribl, get to work,” a man above him snarled.
“I’d rather you not order me around, Ouranus,” Kribl said to the large, and rather swarthy man behind him. “I’m in full control of the fleet until that rat of a Dragonwarrior reaches the mainland so we can slaughter it. Ask my father if you don’t believe me,” he said with the air of a seven year old rather than with the air of a seventeen year old, the age he was.

Cassandra watched Salkar’s cloudy gray eyes, anxious in the brown and dreary captain’s quarters. She paced the room, angry, that she could not turn into her dragon form. The cabin was crowded enough as it was. A lumpy bed, infested with ticks and bedbugs of all sorts stood in one corner, accompanied by a old oaken desk standing, crammed against the bed frame, in another. Taking up most of the room was a large, rickety looking—and rickety feeling—brown steering wheel. Of course, Salkar hadn’t wanted to wake up early at six o’ clock every day to steer the ship, so he had instructed Kermin, Ouranus, and Kribl to steer the ship. Cassandra stared smugly ahead. She was more important than the captain’s own son. She hadn’t had to wake up early just to steer a rat-infested ship. She had other duties. More graceful duties, ones that needed the deadly finesse of the mind. She smiled, coldly and cruelly as she waited for the Captain-Lord’s command. Finally, he turned to her. His eyes had now clouded with the color of his dragon form’s—scarlet red.
“Kribl!” he snapped at one of the other men, who was sitting on the lumpy bed.
“Yes, sir—I mean great Lord,” Kribl said.
“Has the Dragonwarrior been killed yet?” Salkar asked.
“Ye—Yes, supreme Master of All,” Kribl gulped.
“Good.” For the first time in days, Salkar smiled. And was this possibly the last time he ever would?
“Kermin,” he called to another who was slouching against the oaken chest of drawers.
“Yes,” Kermin said.
“Not a very stately answer, but it will do for now,” Salkar said sniffily.
“Sorry, Master,” Kermin apologized, not very sincerely at all.
“Well, you’re going to have to swab the decks later. That’s too bad,” Salkar replied, not very sympathetic at all either. “And for now, I’ll have you poisoned if you don’t find the one they call Lily and bring her here.”
“Actually, Lord,” Cassandra interrupted, with-not-so-sincere- politeness. “I’d like the task of killing my sister, actually,” she told him, not very matter-of-factly.
“Oh, really?” A voice in the doorway hissed. Cassandra turned. It was Jessie Dragonwarrior.
Salkar steamed with rage. He turned to Kribl. “I thought you said the Dragonwarrior was dead.” He said through clenched teeth. “And this is most definitely not dead.”
“You’re right, Salkar,” Jessie snarled. “Fight me. Oh, and you referring to me as ‘the Dragonwarrior’ is just a sign of acceptance that I am a Dragonwarrior. So I guess I can laugh at your slip.”
Salkar was quickly becoming furious. “Fine,” he spat. “I’ll fight you. But don’t expect to be heard of ever again.”
Okay, maybe this was a bad decision, Jessie thought. Why am I always so sure about things, and regret it when I get there? Maybe Talim is the smart one. I guess I’ll have to tell him—wait—I probably won’t be around to tell him. Okay, this was a bad decision. Ummm….whoops? She offered. What was she going to tell Salkar. Umm, sorry Salkar, but I think this was a bad idea, so could we just be friends? She could picture herself saying it to Salkar’s face and him laughing at her and him just killing her. She gulped. Scary situation. Talim wasn’t here. That made a double scary situation. Gulp.
All Jessie could do was change into a dragon and shoot a bolt at him that should have incinerated him. It didn’t. As she and all the others can imagine, she wasn’t happy. It was just then that Jessie saw the bucket of raw fish lying on the boat deck. She picked it up and thrust it onto Salkar’s perfect spines and scales. The lord spluttered under the stench and hissed angrily. “Look at me!” he whined. “Look! You’ve ruined my perfect looks!” He bared his teeth madly and a forked tongue came out of his dragon form’s mouth.
“I didn’t know you were a Penneastrum, Salkar. I wonder why you didn’t try to become part of the prophecy.”
Again angered, Salkar tried to strike back. “There must be a catch,” Jessie said. “I bet you would turn into an ugly wart, and a eagle could’ve been meaner than you.”
“No, well, yes, no, maybe,” Salkar spluttered, disoriented.
“Aha!” Jessie screeched with triumph. There was a small cut, about the size of a paperclip, on Salkar’s shoulder. It was quickly sealing itself.
“Oh, wow,” said Salkar, finally able to regain his cool. “You call that damage?” He reared up onto his back legs and engulfed her in a flaming ball of plasma. Every part of her body screamed in pain and she struggled to free herself, but she was not dying. She was anything but dying. The plasma had given her the hope she needed to fight on. She flung the plasma back to Salkar. “You can’t hurt me,” she said. “Not with your specialty, anyway.”
And she incinerated his inside just as he was opening his mouth.

Lily flew, Talim at her side with Saied on his back, scanning the ground for any signs of a unicorn. Of course, Saied’s vision wasn’t as good as the Penneastrum’s were, but he could detect faint movement nonetheless.
“WHERE DID YOU SAY UNICORNS LIKE TO GRAZE?” Lily shouted to Talim over the wind.
As calmly as ever, he replied, “On open plains and grassland.”
“THERE!” Saied shouted, his voice not half as strong as Lily and Talim’s. “THERE’S A HERD!”
“WHERE?” Lily cried out over the wind.
“THERE!” Talim screeched to her excitedly. He swooped into a slow dive, Lily following him, while Saied held on to Talim’s spines and clutched it for his life. They soon landed, Talim and Lily tucking their wings in neatly with no sign of their fast flight. Saied, meanwhile, was a wreck. As the three approached the herd of unicorns, they stampeded away, shouting in terror. Only one was left.
“Umm, excuse me…” Lily began as she approached the unicorn.
“Hello. My name’s Gerald, what’s yours? Never mind that, would you like some ice cream? I make it in my very own ice-cream making machine!” he rushed.
Lily looked at Talim questioningly. The male dragon just nodded encouragingly, and would’ve probably given Lily a thumbs up if he had been in human form, and if a panting Saied had not been lying on his back.
“Umm, we were wondering if you could…you know…help us like, find some more unicorns…. and umm, you know…. like ….. get them to help us with….umm….the war….you know, you’ve heard of the war right? Against Salkar?” Lily sighed and put her head down. Talim was a great knowledge resource, but when it came to communicating with others, he was a nervous clown. And that wasn’t a good thing.
“Sure, guys!” Gerald said. “Umm…where did all the others go?”
Lily sighed and would have put her head in her knees if she could. “They left, Gerald. They were afraid of us.”
“Oh, well, then, I know where they went, then,” said Gerald. “Wait, which direction did they go in. Both Lily and Talim pointed their arms north. Saied was still winded from his flight.
“Ah, yes,” Gerald said, his eyes foggy. “The Gray Garden. Of course. Come along, follow me!”
Since Gerald couldn’t fly, the four—including Lily and Talim—had to tromp over the rather large, sludgy patches of mud and tiny pastures of grass. As for Saied, well, he was just thankful that they weren’t flying. After a few minutes, Saied turned to them and put a finger to his lips. “Quiet, dragons,” he said, his voice reminding them all of a crazy lunatic’s. “If the herd hears you, they’ll bolt. Stay silent. Linea is a very respected member of this group. If I can win her over to our side, then you’ve pretty much got the whole herd. Got that?” he asked. The three teenagers nodded.
“Yep,” Lily replied. “Now hurry up. Our friend might be in trouble.”
“Okay, okay,” Gerald muttered under his breath. “Don’t rush me.”

Gerald trotted into the herd merrily, as if the war with Salkar hadn’t been going on, and that he was just introducing his wife to some old friends he had met years ago in college.
“Hey, Linea,” he shouted.
“Shush!” his wife replied. “The foals are sleeping.”
“Okay,” Gerald responded in a muted whisper. “I want you to meet some friends.”
“Who?” Linea asked suspiciously. “When did you meet them? I thought you said you’d never been away from the herd.”
“Oh, I have,” Gerald responded. “Just a few minutes ago. I was trying to sell them some ice cream.”
Linea sighed. “If this is going to turn out like that pixie incident, I’m out of here.”
“No, no, no, don’t worry. These aren’t pixies at all,” Gerald said quickly, leaping about madly.
“Just show me,” Linea sighed, annoyed. She followed the white-furred stereotypical Gerald, her yellow mane swinging over the gray splotches that pockmarked her fur. The glade that the three “humans,” if they could be called that, was about half a mile away, and they were practically bored to death. When Linea and Gerald emerged from the trees in front of them, Talim leapt to his feet. “Where were you? You took forever!” he said, sounding exactly like a whining Jessie. When he saw Linea walking gracefully besides the clumsy Gerald, he muttered something and vanished back behind Lily, in her hulking dragon form.
“Er, hi,” Lily said, introducing herself to Linea. “I’m Lily. You must be Linea.”
“Yes, I am,” said Linea, astounded that the dragon she was talking to hadn’t eaten her yet.
“We came to ask for help,” Lily told her. “There’s this evil lord, Salkar, and he’s trying to kill me and Talim. And we think he wants to unleash chaos on the rest of the world, so we were wondering if you guys could help us. In the war against Salkar, I mean.”
“And to save my sister,” Talim said, feeling a little braver after Lily’s introduction. “You see, we are the dragons that are mentioned in a prophecy.”
“Oh,” Linea said, not understanding at all. “Um, well, I guess we could help you…” she trailed off as she gasped. “The….the arrow….”
“Oh, my,” Gerald said. Both unicorns bowed low to Talim, curling their knees underneath their slim bodies like deer. Lily, Talim, and Saied watched, fascinated, as the transformation began. The two unicorns, beautiful creatures of light, were turning quickly into dragons, or at least smaller forms of them. Their heads were V shaped and they had long necks and long, thin legs. In all aspects, they looked exactly like unicorns, except smaller, more dragon-like forms of them. Their eyes, once golden and blue, were now dark red. The rest of their body was black. Their horns stuck out like a deadly needle from their foreheads. At the end of their tails, the tip formed a deadly red arrow, that held poison enough to kill ten thousand dragons. The unicorns were now creatures of darkness.
“We serve you, Talim,” Linea told the black-and-red dragon.
“Ummm….okay….” Talim began nervously. “Back up. Tell us the whole story about why you’re like this.”
“Well, long ago, the dragons and unicorns had and alliance against a great threat of some sort,” Linea began. “But then, a few unicorns and dragons began a skirmish and one dragon was badly wounded, and one other died. The leader of the dragons at that time told the leader of the unicorns that the alliance was over. But he said that, ages later, the two species would be allianced once more, under a great leader, and that he would have the mark of a golden arrow across his chest. The unicorns, we call this form the Pegasus.”
Gerald nodded, serious for once. “Those who have true Pegasus blood in their veins were driven out, because we were thought of as creatures of darkness.”
“Can we hurry up and meet the rest of the herd? My sister could be dying, or already dead,” Talim said.
“Sure,” Gerald said. “The herd’s this way.”

Jessie watched with satisfaction as the bolt of incineration blasted its way into Salkar’s throat, searing his insides and burning his lungs. Salkar again relented, forcing the incineration away from him, along with a burning bolt of plasma. Jessie tried to duck and roll away, but she was too late. The two powers hit her in the head and she knew there was no way she could survive. She screamed in terror, knowing that these words would probably be her last.

Talim landed on the piece of floating ice and stared anxiously out towards the mainland. The fleet of Pegasus, Lily, and Saied landed behind him.
“Do you think Jessie will be okay?” Talim asked Lily.
“I think she’ll be fine,” Lily answered, rubbing her face along Talim’s cheekbone reassuringly. Normally, she would have patted him on the back, but out of her human form, she didn’t have much choice. And this was probably the closest they’d ever get to a kiss. She stared ahead, her hard warrior eyes glazed over. She might lose Saied. She might lose Gerald and Linea. She might lose Talim, the only creature that had ever come close to being more than a friend. But she had to do this. Not only to save herself, Talim, and Jessie Dragonwarrior, but to save the world. She squared her eyes and stared through the metal-embossed helmet that the unicorn-Pegasi had given to her, especially for this battle. She would do this, even if she had to give up her life in the process. The only thing she knew was that she wasn’t going to give up Talim’s.
“C’mon,” she urged Talim. “We’re going to have to face our fate sometime.” He smiled warmly at her, and she smiled back. Then, the two armored dragons took off, ready for battle.

Jessie Dragonwarrior’s burned and blackened body lay on the ice-white tundra, oblivious to the freezing winds and the Lord Salkar next to her, gloating with triumph. He, too, was lying on the freezing sheets of ice, but his eyes were still gleaming with the light of battle and victory over his foe’s own sister.
“Kribl,” he croaked. “Take me to the healers, will you? And leave the Dragonwarrior’s body out here. The enemy will be devastated to see it.” Although he was wounded badly, Salkar smiled. “I fear the enemy will be too crushed at the sight of its sister’s body to go on.”
“Of course,” Kribl replied, smiling with the same cold, satisfied ambition as his father. The enemy won’t be the only one who is crushed….. “Father,” he added.
He seized Salkar’s body harshly in his claws and carried him off and away.

Talim flew strongly ahead of the crowd, Lily at his side. Saied was enjoying himself on a Pegasus’ back. Soon, he spotted mainland ahead. Something was lying there, but it was quickly covered by a horde of ghostly dragons. Talim spiraled into a dive and the unicorn-Pegasai fell on them like a wave of deadly scorpions. Red blood sprayed between her jaws as Lily fought her way into the crowd. She stepped on something cold and thought it was just another body. She looked down. It was. But a few inches away was the remanents of Jessie Dragonwarrior. Lily gasped and held her breath. Jessie had been her best friend ever since Cassandra had joined Salkar. She held her breath with rage. Only the villain himself could have done this to her. This was the body she and Talim had seen from the air. She struggled on.
A few yards away stood Salkar, hissing and spitting and killing despite his injuries. Lily shot a bolt of air at him, directing it to his face. It stunned him, but didn’t even come close to killing him.
“Nice toy, Penneastrum,” he sneered. “A baby elephant could do better!”
“You killed her!” Lily screeched. “You killed Jessie Dragonwarrior!”
“Why yes,” Salkar said, glancing at a chipped nail. “Yes, I did.”
Lily roared, louder than she ever had in her life, her ivory teeth biting off chunks of flesh from Salkar’s scaly body. Salkar lunged forward, slashing his claws through her fierce dragon face.
“Oh, think you’re so clever,” Salkar taunted. “Well, what about some nice plasma bolts to brighten up you day, eh?” The evil Master gave the impression of a wise adviser, smiling brightly at a scared kid. He reared up onto his back legs and looked down on Lily, beating his wings furiously to keep himself upright. He opened his mouth and shot out a bolt of plasma, bearing down on Lily like a torpedo. Lily was furious. She, too, reared on her back legs and spewed out wind at too great speeds, blowing the plasma away in the opposite direction, were it hit Salkar in the chest. The large scarlet-and-green dragon fell over, and Lily clambered onto his bulky body.
“Seems as if while we others were getting ready to fight a real, big-boy war, you were just lying on the sofa, eating popcorn, or whatever it is that you like to eat,” Lily taunted, digging a claw into Salkar’s thick skin. The old dragon just grunted.
“Finish me off,” he whined uncharacteristically. “I am no match for such a strong, young dragon, like you.”
Lily watched Salkar, suspicious. “Funny,” she said. “Seemed like just a moment ago, you were ready to kill me. TALIM!” She yelled over the din of the battle. A blur of black and bloody red flew over and landed next to Lily on Salkar’s stomach.
“Would you like to finish him off?” he asked Lily.
“No, thanks. You can do it. Killing makes me sick to the stomach.”
“If you’re sure,” he replied, and spat a burning ball of fire in Salkar’s face. Salkar screamed and writhed in agony, but Talim kept the ball of fire steady, it growing in size, until it engulfed them both. The fighting ceased as the ball of light caught the soldiers’ attention. Both sides of the war gasped as they saw both bodies drop to the ground. One man dared to voice the question that everyone was thinking. His voice echoed around the battlefield and broke the silence that had been since the roaring ball of fire had extinguished itself. “Are they dead?”

Kribl paced the cabin. Was his father, Salkar, dead? He had seen the blazing ball of fire that had engulfed them both—him and the dead Dragonwarrior’s brother. He didn’t know what to do. Laugh or cry, rejoice or take command of the crew, kill himself or relish his new power. Whatever he did, Kribl had to first see his dead father’s body himself. Changing into a red-and-gold dragon, he flew over the fleet of ships to the cold tundra below, his protective scales immune to the below freezing tempratures. A barren and desolate landscape was suddenly broken by ashes and burned things, the place where the ball of fire had erupted. Then, there were the troops—silent as the dead, all staring in one direction—at Salkar and the Pure One. Kribl landed and folded his wings at his side.
“Move!” he barked at the crowd. No one stirred. “I said MOVE!” Kribl bellowed again. Again, not one dragon lifted a claw. The lord’s son muscled his way through the crowd. He stopped when he reached a female dragon with gold spines. “I said move,” he said quietly to it. “When I say move, you move, Trisha.”
“I am your mother, young man,” said the female dragon, lifting her head and speaking in a voice that trembled with nervousness and age. “You will refer to me as one.” She was the only one that spoke in the crowd of people and animals. Lily moved forward, tears welling in her eyes, to nose the body that had once been Talim. He moved and jerked his head around. “Jessie!” he screeched to no one in particular. “She’s dead! She told me so! She said Salkar was dead!” The crowd of soldiers from both sides cheered with excitement. Men clapped others on the back whom they were, just an hour ago, trying to kill.
“I’m sorry,” Lily rested her cheek on Talim’s shoulder. “I should have told you sooner.”
“I guess it’s not your fault,” he muttered. The dangerous glint was back in his eyes.
“I’d better go. I—I guess I’ll have to take Jessie’s body, too. She deserves a proper burial.”

“Wait? Wait?” Talim yelled at her. In his human form, his voice wasn’t half as loud as it normally was. “She died holding off Salkar until we arrived! She deserves a proper burial!”
Lily bit her lip. “I was only saying you needed a rest, that’s all.”
Talim snorted. “I need nothing of the sort!” he said, enraged and infuriated. He stomped off towards the place where his sister’s limp form would lie.

Inside the warm captain’s chambers, Kribl seethed. Cassandra and Kermin, the only two he would probably ever have hope of getting any response out of, had both fled. When the Tonraq, the Circle of Ghosts, had voted for a new leader, Lily won. Everybody thought it was best she be with her “own kind.” They had also voted that he be trapped in a creepy basement of the ship for the duration of the feasts and merriment. He had only just been let off by Lily, because she was so happy to finally have succeeded in something. Bless her, and curse her soul, he thought. Without her, his father would’ve still been alive, and Kribl would have been in full control of the ship. But without her also, Kribl would probably be trapped in the stinking cellars of the fleet of ships. He, at least, knew how to be thankful for that.

Talim glared at a wall. The room he had been given had been too small for his dragon form, so he was stuck glaring at the wall, his blue eyes and blonde hair putting others under the impression that he was just a normal nineteen year old guy who went to school every day, and wasn’t one of the most powerful dragons in the world. Only the gray eyes really gave it away. For the first time in a while, he shape-changed into something out of the ordinary.
The russet fur and sneaky eyes gave the proper impression of the nature of Talim. Loving, yet sly, cold, and cunning. Or maybe that represented Jessie. Talim didn’t know. Maybe, just maybe, he could make this one of his more normal forms, like dragon or human. Maybe. Just maybe. A smile played on his lips but he shooed it away. The pale pink looked well-cared for and that of a rich man’s instead of someone who has been living in the wild for weeks. Perhaps he could learn to live without Jessie. Perhaps.

Lily smiled, but it was forced. Her eyes were creatures of stone as stared at Gerald and Linea. The bright hall around her was filled with food and laughter, yet she was not happy. The ghosts of the age-old Dragonwarriors were drinking and telling jokes with the Penneastrum and the Pegasai. Suddenly, she got up from her chair at the head of the banquet table and fled down into the bottom half of the ship, where the cabins were. She walked down the long hall, built ages ago to house many men and women gone to waron the sea. She stopped in front of cabin 71, and raised her human fist to knock. She stopped in midair. She wondered if she should really do it. She sucked in her breath, summoned her courage, and hit the door. It fell backwards with a bang. Lily stepped forward cautiously.
“Talim?” she called. The room was quiet. She entered. “Talim?” she called again. When he didn’t answer, she began to get anxious. “TALIM!” she roared. Still, silence. She surveyed the room, from its patched sheets to the old brown cloth sack full of wheat and barley that the soldiers of the dead Master Salkar called a pillow. Everything was empty, up to the oaken dresser that had been full of Talim’s clothes. She ran her finger on top of the dresser. It came out coated with a fine layer of dust. She ran her finger along the dresser again. Talim was gone. It took some time for the realization to fully sink in for her, that her two closest friends were either dead or had deserted her. She fell onto the bed and began to sob. It was there that she discovered the note.

Lily—
I didn’t leave because of you. In fact, that is far from the reason I left. There are too many painful memories here, and my life will never be the same without Jessie. She was my sister, and I had promised Nanuk that I would take good care of her, and never let her come in harm’s way. And now, she is dead. I took her back to the forest, because I remember how much she loved the cool eaves of the trees sliding over her back, especially on a hot summer’s day.
The reason she is dead, is because of Salkar, so, maybe, in a way, her death was your fault. If you had never come into our lives, then Salkar might have never asked for us, and you may have never angered her, and she may have never died.
Maybe she would have died anyway, with whatever torture Salkar was planning to plague the world with. But at least I would’ve probably died with her, and I would be able to protect her, in the Place-After-Death. But I guess she’ll be safe with Nanuk.
In a way, this is all your fault. But I don’t blame you. Things go wrong. For everybody. Like something happens and they lose a prized heirloom. But NOBODY I know has ever had things go as wrong for them as they have for you. Perhaps you deserved to live. Perhaps you deserved to die. Maybe, not either. Maybe, oblivion. But I put none of these curses—or charms—on you. I will let your fate decide itself. Perhaps our paths may cross again, and things may turn out better for the both of us. Goodbye, Dragonwarrior.


Talim

Silent tears leaked out of Lily’s eyes when she read the note. She wiped them away. Talim had called her Dragonwarrior. The title he had once refused to give to his own sister. She folded the note and tucked it into her jeans pocket. Then, she turned and left the room, her eyes red from crying and her cheeks tear-streaked. She would probably never forget Talim, and Gerald, and Jessie Dragonwarrior, and their ended friendship. She sniffled again. Perhaps this was the way things were meant to be. Just like Talim had said. She smiled. Maybe her fate would take her on much brighter paths in the future, filled with friendship, caring, and compassion. And maybe—just maybe—their paths would cross again, just like how Talim had said.

Lily
Well, that’s pretty much how our adventure ended—Talim left, and Jessie died. I guess the impact of Talim’s betrayal and Jessie’s death will never quite sink in, but I’ll always keep them in my heart. Especially Jessie.
It’s been three years since then—three long years. I still wake up every morning and think that I’m still in my cabin number 72, right across from Talim’s, and my hopelessness and desolateness crash over me like a wave. Whenever I get mad, and I need someone to talk to, I still instinctively look for Jessie Dragonwarrior to be at my side. And I’ve realized I can’t ever relate to anyone the same way I related to Jessie all those years ago. Here, I just have Fern and Sandy, and they’re too jolly and merry for my moody self.
They’re nineteen now, too, and they both chose their form to be a human. Of course. Typical them. I never really realized who I was and who I should pick to be my friends until Cassandra betrayed me, Jessie died, and Talim deserted me in favor of burying Jessie. I still haven’t seen a glimpse of any of them since the war ended. Saied—well, he’s my brother. He chose to be a human, just like Mom and Dad did. They will always be my real parents—and Saied will always be my real brother. I know they’ll never leave me, always stick by me, because we’re closer than friends—we’re family. It’s pretty much required for them to never leave me. At least legally speaking.
As for the note—well, let’s just say that after the three years since the war against Salkar, I still keep it in my dresser drawer, among other things, like the arrow that nearly killed Talim. And even though I’m back with living with my adopted parents in their comfy two-story townhouse, I’m pretty much an independent person. And if you ask me, well, truthfully, I guess I wouldn’t mind another adventure.