Behind her Hannah heard growling. She decided not to look back at what it might be, and started climbing up the rocky mountain immediately.

As she climbed she noticed that the vicious growling did not get any closer to her, but remained in the same spot behind her on the ground.

She turned her head reluctantly, and the vertigo of being some ten feet above the earth did not frighten her as much as did the sight of a three-headed canine on the ground below her.

For a monet she felt completely paralyzed. Then she realized how small the creature was... yet still sounded so vicious.

A moment after, she started climbing faster.

Soon Hannah was exhausted and, noting that the animal did not try to climb up after her, she lay down on a ledge and went to sleep.

/l\

She awoke, again, in a strange place; this time, not such an intimidationg and flat-out creepy place.

She looked around the room she was in--the walls, this time, seemed to be made of some sort of bamboo.

She, herself, was in a bed just barely big enough to fit her.

She sat up, remembering about the animal at the foot of the mountain, and falling asleep on a rocky ledge.

No grey creatures.

No gas.

And so, she wondered even more how she had gotten here.

Hannah looked around. There were all kinds of wooden furniture, and a window on the wall to her right. Suddenly, as she was staring through the window from the bed she was in to see the mountain she now knew she was on, a pair of eyes and a mop of red hair popped up behind the window.

Hannah gasped and, knowing she had no way to protect herself, thre the blanket atop of her over her whole body, including her head, and nearly started crying with fear.

The chin beneath the eyes popped up now, and upon it was a broad smile.

"Don't try to hide," it said; for she did not know yet what it was, though she was fairly certain by the voice that it was a child.

"I can see you." It jumped through the window and walked over to her, putting out its hand in a friendly gesture to shake.

Hannah held back, her eyes now poking out of the blanket.

By its looks Hannah was now quite certain that it was, indeed, human, and probably female at that.

Confused, and probably rather offended, it put its hand down with a frown.

"Anyhow," it said, "I'm Jael. What is your name?"

Once again trying to say her name was as difficult as if she could not speak at all. But she managed a small whisper:

"Hannah."

Jael giggled.

"Speak up, silly one," she said, "else I'll never know what to call you."

"Hannah," she said more strongly.

Jael put her hands on her hips and smiled triumphantly.

"Ahh, Hannah!" she said. "Odd name, but I knew I'd get it out of you sooner or later!"

Hannah tried on a faint smile. She hesitated, then slowly put her hand out to shake. Jael gladly shook the hand vigorously.

"That's it," Jael said cheerily. "It may be a strange place, but you'll find yourself at home here." She paused. "You must be quite a warrior, getting past all of those vicious Cerberi, and the Adaros in the rivers!"

"Warrior?" Hannah asked, confused. "Cerberi? Adaros? What?"

Jael closed her eyes and shook her head.

"We live in the mountain because the creatures on the ground are too dangerous. We don't have running water on this mountain because the Adaros inhabit all the water around. The only creatures that can stand against them are the dragons. So we send the dragons down to the rivers to fetch buckets of water.

"The dragons... they are dying out. We only have two male dragons left... Arkitosis and Jun. I don't know what will happen when they die... my mum says 'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'

"But then, Jun is Arkitosis' father, and so, is much older. He's already having trouble spreading his wings evenlt--sooner than most dragons. He also has a grey beard upon his chin.

"The last litter bore only two male eggs, and shortly after, our only female dragon, Ajilana, died of old age. She had only one litter because her mate died shortly after conceiving.

"When Ajilana was born, there was one other female in the litter, but she ventured too far from the mountain at too young an age and was killed by the evil Adaros.

"The Adaros are somewhat related to the Merfolk... our cousins who live in an ocean far off. They chose the water instead of the mountains because there are no Adaros in their waters.

"They do, however, have Cerberi living above the sea, but since the Merfolk live underwater, they do not need dragons to fetch water.

"There is also a group far, far away that live in the trees. They are called Ahuizotl. They make harmony with the squirrels and birds, sharing their food so that the animals don't have to venture down where the Cerberi are. The Ahuizotl have dragons, too, but they have only two legs and are called Wyverns. They're quite a bit smaller than our dragons, and they perch in trees like birds. As I've said, they are small, but strong enough to defeat the Cerberi and Adaros."

Hannah listened to this all intently, never having experienced something so strange.

"Why didn't I see any of these creatures?" she asked.

Jael frowned.

"I don't know..."