Chapter 1: Silvertongue

I could see the different shades of green through the tangle of low-hanging vines. The only other color was the brown on the giant's underbelly. I was hunting the beast that had terrorized my people for as long as anyone in the land could remember. Stay calm I told myself, just don't look it in the eye. I stepped out into the clearing where in the middle a monstrous dragon lay curled in a sleep, its rough back facing me.

Slowly I raised my weapon, a dark red sword with a line of brilliant silver running right down the middle. Next I raised my shield the same color as the sword but with my family crest outlined in the same silver. A thought hit me, I had run away from home in the early hours of the morning, I had taken my father's battle gear and left no note in its place. If returned home now I would shame my family, but if I returned with a dragon pelt...

"Well," said a voice that sounded like sand paper, "Vera Greypen, brown hair, shoulder length, light green eyes, father Henry Greypen, mother Anika Dustail, older brother Kage Greypen away in the army. Am I right in thinking you are here after you were told not to come?" I didn't dare move, this creature I had never seen and only heard about already knew who I was, and the fact that he seemed so bored telling me about me was weirder still.

"How do you know me?" I asked in a voice I would have had liked to be stronger.

"Your, what, fifteen, sixteen years old?" asked the dragon without turning its head around and totally ignoring my question.

"Seventeen." I answered in a much stronger voice.

"Seventeen, sorry, but that still makes me about three hundred years older than you. Anyway, I've been keeping a very close watch on you over the years and I think you are ready" At these last words the dragon swung its neck around and I got a first look at its face.

He had two long fierce looking horns coming out the top of its head and a smaller but still sharper one sitting atop its long snout. But the things that I couldn't stop staring at were the golden eyes that seemed to reading my soul and my thoughts.

"Drop you weapons, all of them." It barked at me. My sword and shield fell to the ground and I tried to pick them up, but my muscles didn't respond to my brain and I just stood there. "I believe I said all your weapons." He said again as if scolding a small child. I unstrapped a belt that was hidden underneath my cloak. The belt held a bottle of poison, two grenades, an extra dagger and a healing potion. I threw it aside. At this, the dragon seemed more pleased.

"I have nothing more to hide." I declared.

"Agreed." Said he, "But might I suggest taking off that garlic? There's no such thing as vampires you know." His voice had become easier now and not so gruff. "Well then, better be off."

"O-off?" I stammered. But the beast only looked at me hungrily and the next thing I knew I was in the claws of the winged giant soaring above the trees.

"Why yes," he finally answered, "we have to go to Isla De Dragon right away, we are expected there."

a a a

"This is your last chance, Silvertongue, give me the girl." A new voice, scary and strong, but who was it? It didn't sound like anyone in my village. And who was Silvertongue? I tried to answer these questions by looking around, but I found I couldn't open my eyes, it was like they were glued shut. My hands reached up but they touched something slimy. Ok, don't panic, try to remember what happened. Well what happened was after the dragon took me up I'm pretty sure it looked at my with its golden eyes, blew smoke at me and then I'm here. Where is here? I felt around the floor, it was a cool smooth rock, a cave I thought to myself. I sat there a while listening to Silvertongue and Mr. Anonymous argue about "who would get the human" (they must have had there backs to me) until I finally got the courage to reach my hand up to my eyes again. This time when I felt the slimy thing I grabbed the sticky edges and pulled. With a loud pop it came off, I looked at it and saw something that looked like gooey tar lying in my hands. Eww I said to myself as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"Well Silvertongue, it looks like your human has awakened from the spell I put on her, you know it's really too bad I had to waste that saliva that was covering her eyes, it's vary hard to get a dwarf to give you a spit." Said the new voice. I looked up and saw two dragons; one was the one I had been flying with and the other one I had never heard about. He was much bigger than Silvertongue (I guessed that was his name) and he looked stronger too. They were similar in there looks besides the fact that the new dragon was the same color as my sword, a deep, deep red.

"Human," said the red dragon as it approached me, "just who might you might be?" it said in a much smoother, oily voice that made me want to puke. I opened my mouth to say my name, but Silvertongue stepped in front of me and quickly said,

"Come, human, it's time we left Farnier to himself."

As Silvertongue led me out of the long winding cave he spoke,

"I suppose you have many questions to ask, and I will try to answer them as best I can. No, we are not on Isla De Dragon, we are in an ice cave in the region you call Greenland. The red dragon's name is Farnier, we came to him to get directions to the island, I have haven't

been to it in a long time you see, so I needed someone who had directions. Yes, he wants to keep you a prisoner because, right now, you are his biggest threat. No, I will not tell you why now, the council will describe to you that. Oh, and of course, werewolves don't exist either. But you want to watch out for salamanders, fiery little devils." He finished his speech like he had just won an academy award. We stepped out of the cave and an icy snow hit my face.

"Don't suppose you have a jacket, do you?" I asked with virtually no hope at all.

"We will wet to the tropical island soon enough human." He confronted. Now get on my back and we'll be off."

"What?" I asked uncertainly "Oh no, now way, sorry, no can do, no. You terrorized my village for hundreds of years and you want me to willingly climb on your back?! Sorry, I'll take the claws." I finished felling happy with myself.

"Well," said the dragon, "I was looking for you, but, suit yourself." And with that he rose up a few feet, grabbed me in his mammoth hand and we were gone.

a a a

Chapter 2: Rome

"Vera, please, you're the only one who can save us." The voices faded and started up again, mixing and blurring together. All saying the same thing, "Vera, help us." Suddenly red fire came rushing toward me, I screamed and then... my eyes opened. Church bells were ringing somewhere close by. What had that dream meant?

"Good morning, Ms. You slept o.k. I hope?" Ok, time out, this was definitely NOT Silvertongue; way too clear of a voice, and too polite. I turned around to see a small boy about the age of ten staring at me. He had big brown eyes, sandy hair and he was dressed in rags.

"I slept fine, thank yo-"

"Good!" said the boy interrupting me, "The dragon came last night, I told it you could sleep here and he's over in a hilly area somewheres. I spose' your wondren' where ya' are? Well you're in Rome, Italy." The boy never stopped talking an-, "Well my name's Moto, I'm the bell ringer, do you want some toast? Oh! And what's your name?" Wow, I couldn't even finish a thought, but I said to myself, I might as well answer before he explodes of anxiety.

"Sure, I'll have some toast, my name is Vera Greypen, and doesn't making a deal with a dragon, like, scare you away?"

"Well," he started again while reaching for a shelf that held the toast and jam, "before my mum died she believed in dragons a real lot, she tout' me that if I ever meet a dragon to do whatever it tells me. My master tells me that now my mum gets to live with the dragons." After that Moto slowed down and got very quiet. "I hope she's having a good time..."

"Haven't you got a father?" I asked uncertainly while spreading jam on a slice of bread.

"No." He answered blankly, and he said nothing else. Just as I was about to change the subject Moto reached into a deep, ratty pocket and pulled out a pocket watch that was made of silver, "He gave me this right before e' left."

"I'm sorry." I said to try to comfort him.

"For what?" Moto asked.

"Didn't your father die too?" I didn't realize how wrong the question sounded until I said it.

"No." said Moto, "He just got up and left. I think my mother dying had something to do with it." He finished his toast and walked over to a small dusty wooden window. The early rays of the sun were shining through the window in the corner of the room. It hadn't occurred to me, but the room was all dusty, and small, very small. In the corner was a bed made out of straw and two leather-bound books, and that was all that was in the tiny room except the bells. There were giant bells and tiny ones too, even ones big enough to fit two Silvertongues inside. Moto gave me some more toast and sat down cross legged in front of me. We both munched in silence, but not awkward science, just enjoying each other's presence.

I stood up and looked out the small window, it was beautiful. You could see practically all of Rome from the view. All the roads and tall buildings and back alleys lay like a detailed map right before my eyes.

"I'm drawing that, you know." Said Moto in a voice that was full of pride. He went over to his bed, pulled up the flimsy mattress and from under produced a more-than-average sized sketch pad. He flipped a few pages and came to me. When I saw the picture he had drawn on the white piece of paper it completely erased my mind. I looked from the paper to the window and back again and saw, in full color the most amazing thing I will ever see. Moto was a natural born artist. His picture of the city far below looked almost more real than the real thing. Minuscule people seemed to be alive on the page and the colors, the colors were magnificent.

"I want to be an artist," said Moto, "but my master won't let me, he says I am to ring this bell until I die or the church falls down." Moto sighed, "If he had found out about this painting..." Moto shuddered, "But see this part right here?" He pointed to a tall building right in the center and I noticed that it was still black and white. "I ran out of colors right when I was about to paint it."

"Can't you buy more colors?" I asked.

"Buy?! More colors?! Ha!" Moto said as if the idea was totally ridiculous. "Do you know how much paints cost?" He asked again, his voice loaded with sarcasm.

"Well I haven't exactly been here very long." I retorted.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I fur got. Well paints are real expensive; I'm savin' up a few half lira at a time. Let's see, where you come from, good paint would probably cost 18 dowlars for a set, right?" since I wasn't about to tell him he had said "dollars" wrong I just said,

"Yeah."

"Good, so right now I would have about 16 cents. Pretty good fur one whole month of ringing' this bell, don't ya think?"

"One month?!" and you only got 16 cents? Dude! People make more than that in two minutes!" I practically screamed.

"Really?" asked Moto, clearly confused, "But that means I couda' bought my paint a long time ago!" he finished, his anger clearly rising. But before any more could be said the sound of thrashing air filled the attic, Silvertongue was back, and his fabulous green scaled head appeared in the window.

"Come, Vera, with luck we should be able to reach the island before tomorrows night." Said the dragon in a hurried voice.

"Moto," I started to say, "When it's all over I'll come back." I finished and I promised myself I would. I turned to Silvertongue and said,

"I'm ready, let's go." I looked back at Moto one more time, than ran to the window and jumped. The bell tower was so much taller than I expected, but that didn't stop me from falling fast. Only a few yards from being a human pancake, dark green wings flew under me,

"Well aren't we the little dare devil?" asked Silvertongue as he grabbed me in his claws again.

"I can come back can't I?" I asked hopefully.

"We will see, little human." He answered as he rose higher and toward the direction of the sea.

"So," I said, "Where exactly are we going?"

"Well," started Silvertongue, "If you really must know we are going south to the South Atlantic to an island a little Northeast of another island called Bouvet." Wow I thought he really must know where he's going.

"Hey, Silvertongue," I asked

"Yes, small one?" he replied

"This morning, when I woke up, I remembered I had a really weird dream. I was standing all alone in the darkness and people were calling me. It was horrible. Do you know what it means?" I finally finished.

"Yes." Said Silvertongue, "and I had hoped you wouldn't have the dreams until everything was explained to you!" he ended with a growl. "We are very much behind schedule." He barked and flew faster and faster until the land below me was a blur and my ears were screaming.

"You know," said Silvertongue, "this part of the flight is much smoother if you aren't awake, if you want, I could put you to sleep." And he slowed down to wait for my reply. I started to think he was impersonating a flight attendant but I hesitated, then said,

"Ok, but if we land again, or anything else happens I want to be woken up." My answer, I thought, was pretty good and my voice didn't shake at all.

"Very well." And his huge head turned to look at me. I could not tear my eyes away from his golden ones. But my vision was obscured by a grey haze that smelled strangely of incense and I realized it was his smoke. And sure enough, my eyelids drooped; my thoughts blurred and my dreams began.

a a a

Chapter 3: Volcano

"Vera..." the dream voices came again, but now only one stood out, a man's who's voice sounded strangely familiar. Then I recognized it, my father. "Vera. You must go, Vera." The voice was scratchy and near, but I couldn't see anything but black. "Vera," the voice started up again, "you are in danger, Vera. He will mark you as powerful but he shall have power of his own. The end is not clear. Vera you must go with the dragon..."

"Vera!" I recognized the warm, rustic voice of Silvertongue. "Well, you asked to be woken up when we got here, so, here we are!" Silvertongue seemed exited, but I felt a knot in my stomach begin to grow.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"About 4:20 A.M." he replied cheerfully,

"You slept all day yesterday. And now we're finally here!" and you've been drinking caffeine all day yesterday I thought, but I forced myself to say,

"Great." In barely more than a whisper. In the distance I saw a small island with what looked like a big rock on it. As we got nearer I could see small white sandy beaches, the foam from the whitecaps just touching the sand line and beautiful looking palm trees in the background. Besides the big hunk of black rock the island looked like a dream vacation spot.

"See that big black rock? Of course you do, no one can miss it. Anyway, it's a dead volcano and the smoke that comes out of it is really dragons breathing out smoke so scientists will think it's a live volcano and stay away. But inside it's full of caverns and...well, I won't tell you the rest, you'll just have to wait and find out. Oh, and see all the palm trees surrounding it? You can't even see the bottom, but howler monkeys live there! They're so strange, leaping around those trees. But of course there not native here, our first leader brought them with him for entertainment." As Silvertongue had been talking we were nearing the middle of the palm trees. And he was right, as soon as we hit the ground, dozens of howler monkeys leapt onto the nearest tree, eager to see the new visitors.

"Alright, Vera, time to get a move on. The only way to get to the volcano is to walk, and that's what we have legs for, right?"

"Yeah," I said half confidently. I took one step forward and collapsed, fresh earth that smelled like monkeys met my face. The howlers in the trees all screamed with high-pitched laughter. I didn't know why I fell at first, and then I realized it was because my legs had been dangling out of Silvertongue's claws and they had probably fallen asleep or gotten numb.

"Come on, human, get on my back. It will be much faster and it will only feel like riding a horse. Besides, your legs will have to wake up and that's time we don't have, we're already late. Come on." He added in a bit of a playful voice. Should I? I mean, after all it was a dragon. But something inside me told me to go for it, after all, it did sound like a lot of fun.

"Ok," I said as I made my mind up, "Ok, I'll do it."

"Then climb aboard!" He said and his wing slanted toward the ground for me to climb on. I looked at it a minute, it looked papery and thin. I was afraid if I stepped on it I would rip it. But, I reasoned with myself if it was strong enough to hold a dragon in the air it must be pretty strong.

I got on my knees and started to crawl up, and to my amazement the tissue-like material didn't even sink a little as I moved on it. I reached the top of the wing and was staring at razor sharp spikes that ran from the back of Silvertongue's head to the tip of his tail. I was wondering where I was supposed to go when I saw a gap where it looked like a few spines were missing right where his long neck met his back. A perfect fit. I thought to myself, and I awkwardly clambered over to it. Even just sitting there I could feel the dragon's warm heart, and he hadn't even moved yet.

"Ok, Vera, hold on." His voice sounded smooth, like I could listen to it all day. My hands grabbed the neck spike nearest me, and Silvertongue set off at a steady pace. The crowds of howlers seemed to grow bigger around us, some of them howled, others swung over us, and others just stared. Riding on Silvertongue was nothing like riding a horse, when you ride a horse it's bumpy and, well, closer to the ground. Silvertongue was smooth and flawless, and he was so big the tips of his horns almost touched the trees.

"Hold on, one moment, Vera." He said suddenly. I barely had time to grab the spike before he stood up on his hind legs and I became parallel to the ground. I looked up and saw his massive head smash through the tops of the trees ahead. It took a moments delay before a shower of branches, leaves and twigs met my body. Then Silvertongue pulled his head back out of the huge hole he had created and said,

"Well, we're almost there, only about six miles." Then he lowered himself back down to the ground and kept on walking as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. As he kept his steady rhythm of pace I felt oddly drowsy, but I just slept a whole day I told myself. Why am I tired all of the sudden? It wasn't because of Silvertongue's smoke, maybe it was his even heartbeat so close to me, or because the monkey's screaming had died down, but soon everything became sleep and my brain completely fell onto a dream state.

a a a

"Vera." Silvertongues warm nuzzle was lightly pushing me. "From here you can not ride. The mountain is steep and there is still no way to fly." His words barely made sense. Mountain? My eyes slowly opened. I was no longer on the dragon's back; I was on my back, looking up at a still sunny and slightly cloudy sky. I sat up, and got dizzy all of the sudden. We were at the foot of the volcano and I could see it had only a few trees scattered here and there.

"Ok." I murmured and stood up. I stayed next to Silvertongue as we made our way up the steep rock. It took about two hours to finally reach the top of the volcano, and I was surprised that we had made it so quickly.

"Now, Vera," said Silvertongue, "you may get on." and again a papery wing slid down to me. I hurriedly got on the dragon's back, eager to feel his smooth scales. As soon as I sat down Silvertongue dove straight down into the mouth of the volcano. The volcano from the outside looked black and dull, but from the inside it was bursting with color and life. Swarms of dragons were flying around, and not only dragons, I could see other mythical creatures darting every witch way. Gryphins soared with dragons, a few banshees could be seen on the very bottom of the cavern, and I could just barley see a family of unicorns going down a tunnel far below. Silvertongue spiraled down onto the large floor (the floor was hardened lava that had turned solid for over thousands of years.) and said, "You stay on my back, I don't want you wandering off." and I nodded and in return said,

"Yes, I'll stay with you, but I'd like to look around a little."

"Ok, just tell me where you want to go." I looked around until I saw a brightly lit tunnel that seemed to slope upward a little.

"That tunnel." I finally said and Silvertongue padded off toward it.

As soon as we stepped inside I realized that this was no ordinary tunnel. Instead of the floor being bumpy and rocky like magma would make it, it had been worn smooth and tiny crystals were scattered in it. The lamps on the sides of the tunnel were not lit with light bulbs, instead they were small rubies pieced together and gave off a red glow. I took a breath of air, it smelled like incense, the same thing dragon smoke smelled like. As Silvertongue walked his claws clinked against the ground sending small echoes through the tunnel.

"Where does this tunnel lead?" I asked. I wanted to get there soon because the red light was starting to hurt my eyes even though it was so beautiful, "And why are there lights red?"

"This tunnel leads to the diamond room, it is a wonderful place to relax, a small pool is there filled with exotic fish. As for the lights, they are red because you know how you go into a dark room on a sunny day, then come out and your nearly blinded by the light? Well it was proven that red lights wont do that, you can go outside and not know the difference." As Silvertongue was talking we came closer and closer to the diamond room and when he finished we finally stepped through the stone archway that I couldn't help but notice, was studded with diamonds.

Chapter 4: Telemnar

We stepped inside, only one other creature was there, a small gryphin, who looked scarred and confused. The diamond room was huge, gigantic slabs of diamond were everywhere, a high arced ceiling curved upward and the whole room sparkled brilliantly. The small gryphin looked at us then ran off to a corner of the room and hid next to a plant that was next to a beautiful little pond.

"Is it lost?" I asked Silvertongue, unsure.

"I think so. Let me ask it." Silvertongue slowly approached the small creature and lowered his head to it. Slowly the gryphin stopped shivering and sniffed the dragon's snout. It gave a small squeal of delight and ran out of its hiding place. "He's fine." Silvertongue said, "Scarred and lost, but he's ok." I looked at the dragon quizzically; he hadn't even spoken to the creature.

"How do you know he's ok? You didn't even talk to him." I asked

"Oh, well, it's kind of hard to explain. You see, some creature's minds are different​​​​...​​ "

"Different in what way?"

"Some creatures, can read minds." Wow. It's like I've entered a parallel world or something.

"Ok, so you and this little gryphin can read minds?" I asked uncertainly.

"No, no, no, no" he said, "I can't read minds, but he can. He can tell me stuff, when he's reading what I have to say. Does that make sense?"

"Not really, but I kind of understand, he can read your mind, and he can also talk to you, in your mind."

"Right. But he wants us to take him to his family; they live in a cave somewhere."

"But the whole volcano is filled with caves! Who will we know which one is his?"

"All the creatures that live here are separated into small communities, he would be in the gryphin community and he says he can find his way home from there."

"Oh, ok, well lets take him there then." I said happily. I wanted to see more of this extraordinary place.

"Very well, can you hold him then?" Silvertongue reached down to the ground and the small creature jumped into the dragon's outstretched arm. As the little gryphin was brought up to me it jumped and landed in my lap. "His name is Telemnar." Said Silvertongue wisely. I stroked the bundle of fur and feathers and awed at the way both feathers and fur blended so smoothly. Telemnar chirped at me,

"Hey! Cut it out!" I said playfully as he started to nip at my hand. He was only about the size of a puppy and it looked like he couldn't fly yet. Silvertongue started to turn around and go back out the tunnel until we reached the main floor again.

"Hold on you two!" I barely had time to grab a spike and Telemnar before Silvertongue took off and swerved in and out of winding tunnels. Once, while we were soaring in a rather large tunnel I thought I saw a stray howler monkey, but I could've been mistaking. Then the dragon suddenly stopped as the tunnel we were in fanned out to another large cavern. This cave smelled very faintly of sulfur and had a very slight orange color to the walls.

"We're almost at my cavern, I hope you'll like it there." The voice was unfamiliar and strange. I looked around to see who was talking to me, but I couldn't see anyone as Silvertongue spiraled upward and flew into another hallway to the left. I let my eyes slowly wander down to Telemnar. I stared curiously down at him and saw his red beak curve into a smile. Then Silvertongue flew into a place that was filled with nothing but gryphins. Some were very large and some were barely bigger than Telemnar was. The small creature let out an exited chirp and flapped his wings expectantly.

"He says that we can drop him off here and he'll be just fine." Said Silvertongue over the rushing noise of gryphin wings flapping all around us.

"Ok, but I'm really going to miss this little guy." I said solemnly. For a last time I hugged Telemnar close to me and regretfully let him oddly fly away. I tried not to think about him as Silvertongue turned around to go back down the tunnel.

"You will be given some food and then you will meet the dragon council. Alright?" I barely understood as a question formed in my head.

"Silvertongue, if your such a good dragon, why did you terrorize my town for so long?" Silvertongue went rigid,

"I was looking for you." he stated simply. He did not talk anymore as we made our way to a great hall.

Food was everywhere, I hadn't realized that I hadn't eaten in forever. My stomach growled almost as loudly as Silvertongue could, the food looked simply magnificent. Silvertongue padded over to a table stoked with nothing but meat, lamb, pig, cow, chicken, it all looked delicious. I served myself to some and ate it gratefully as he went to a fruit table. Pineapples, bananas, mangos, and fresh strawberries met my hungry eyes and I couldn't help but grab a plate of that too. Slowly we made our way to table after table of sweet delicious food(some of them were desert tables!). Slowly stumbling out of the feast room Silvertongue finally managed to slump down in a small, private cave where we both fell asleep.

I was the first one of us to wake, the cave was good sized, but a little damp, and it smelled strongly of incense. I walked toward the cave entrance, stretching my arms and yawning. I reached the opening and was surprised to see that the place was so alive with creatures. Gryphins, unicorns, and dragons alike flew and walked by me. I looked back at the sleeping Silvertongue, he looked quite dead, only breathing every half minute. I looked back at the bustling tunnel, would it hurt if I looked around a little? I took two steppes out of the cave and Silvertongue's massive clawed hand swept me back in.

"You mindless human!" He spat, "How dare you go off alone! I have told you, 'Stay close to me"!! It's dangerous out there if you don't know where your going! How do you think Telemnar got lost?" Small embers shot out of his mouth when he finished and I felt my legs shaking like goo under me. "When I wake up, we will see the council." His mighty head fell to the ground and his eyelids closed and a steady stream of smoke started to come from his nostrils.

Chapter 5: The Council

A few hours later I was riding on Silvertongue's back with his wings making a bubble around me so I couldn't see outside and so I couldn't go outside. It was horrible, I could hear snickers outside that I knew were about me, but Silvertongue kept walking proudly as if he couldn't hear them. It's funny, you never realize how much color the world has until it's gone, now all I could see was a deep green. After a while the laughing died down and then Silvertongue came to a stop. His wings slowly went down and I looked up in awe at a magnificent towering hand carved archway with the word 'Eiprash' engraved on the top.

"It is in elfish tongue, it says Judgment." Silvertongue. "This is the place where the Dragon Council resides." Silvertongue said and he eased up a little as if he were going to forgive me for trying to leave the cave. he walked through the archway and bowed his head, I looked up and saw four black dragons perched on tall stone pillars. Each one was looking down at us with their wings out stretched so that they looked like huge vultures. The room we were in was circular with a high arched ceiling and the walls were a painted red, like pastel. One of the dragons spoke, he had long spiraling horns and vicious teeth, but his wings were not as big as Silvertongue's.

"Well, Silvertongue, it looks like you have accomplished your purpose, you have brought the human. Well done." His voice was raspy and dry, his deep purple eyes stared right at me. "Hello, Vera, oh yes, I know who you are, and my name is Erolothil, welcome to the volcano." He finished talking and he eased back on his pillar to stare at me more.

"Hush now, Erolothil, you'll scare the poor girl." another dragon, a female gave Erolothil a nasty look the flapped her enormous wings and flew down to Silvertongue.

"My name is Anaranë, the more civilized of the council." she shot a look at Erolothil who returned it with a spew of blue flames. Anaranë ignored it and turned toward Silvertongue, "Oh, it's so good to see you again, Silvertongue." She locked her neck with Silvertongue's as a greeting and started to talk again. "Well you must tell me all about your journey! I can't wait to hear about it!"

"That, will have to wait for later my dear Anaranë, for some of us have not yet introduced ourselves." The voice came from the third dragon, a monstrous beast with needle point white claws that extended about a foot away from his hand.

"My name is Calnocar, I am very pleased to meet you, but matters are at had that must be taken care of. I have learned from Pip that Farnier is on his way to the island along with four rebel dragons." I had almost forgotten about Farnier but now I remembered who he was, an evil dragon who killed for pleasure. But who was Pip? I looked at Calnocar and saw a black raven seated on his head. That must be Pip. I said to myself.

"Well if he's on the way then we must tell her what she has to do." The rough voice of Erolothil.

"The we will tell her!" a booming voice filled the chamber and I saw the last dragon, his eyes were red, his silver claws sharp, his great wings out stretched and a crown of horns on top of his head. "Anaranë, return to your place and we will begin." His voice was so loud and Anaranë turned and flew back to her perch. "My name, dear human, is Gelyon, I am the ruler of this island and of all who inhabit it, but now, there is a story to tell. Erolothil, you may begin." Gelyon bowed his head and Erolothil began.

"Once, long ago," his raspy voice became softer as if were a great tragedy, "There were five dragons in the Council, Gelyon, Calnocar, Anaranë, me, and, Farnier." here he paused and took a steady breath. "We were good leaders, and ruled peacefully for many centuries. But Farnier began to grow selfish, and wanted all the power for himself, he tried to defeat us in one on one battles, but lost when he got to Gelyon."

"He fled the island." Anaranë started, "And flew all the way to Greenland to regain strength." here she stopped and let Calnocar take over. "He as been there for a long time, training, gaining strength and followers."

"We always knew he would try to come back." said Silvertongue in a steady voice.

"And now he has!" Gelyon boomed over us all. "So what are we going to do about it? We fight back!" he snarled. "Vera! You must be the one to slay him, look." he pointed a claw at the ground of the cave. Cave drawings covered the floor so much that I couldn't believe I had missed them. The one that was closest to me depicted a human meeting with four black dragons accompanied by a green dragon, then while riding the green dragon it slayed a red dragon with a red sword and the black dragons behind.

"But, that cant be me." I said almost to myself. "It can't."

"Ahh, but it is, don't you see?" This time he pointed to the archway again, from the inside it said something different, it said, Vera.

Chapter 6:The End

A little while later Silvertongue was outfitted with dazzling golden armor covering his entire body, and I was draped in heavy chain mail and green full body armor. We were waiting outside the council room waiting for the four. One by one they emerged, all plated in black armor, each one showing off there most deadly weapon, horns, teeth, claws, everything.

"Time to go." Silvertongue's voice floated through my helmet and echoed I my ears. Just a minute ago he had presented me with my sword and shield back, with the same line of silver running through it.

Before I knew it we were all outside the volcano looking every way for the oncoming attack.

"Calnocar? Exactly when did Pip say Farnier would get here?" I couldn't tell who had spoken, but I think it was Anaranë.

"Patience! Pip could've seen him a long way off and just flown faster, but we've wasted a lot of time so he should be here soon." Then my vision caught a dark blur far ahead, he had arrived.

"There he is!" I shouted so everyone could hear me.

"She's right!"

"Here he comes!"

"Get ready everyone!" He was there in a flash. Him and his followers all grinning evilly at us.

"Well hello, long time no see." He let out a mighty roar and dragon lunged at dragon. The council fought against Farnier's dragons and Silvertongue let out a blast of fire directly at Farnier. He dogged it and took a swipe at Silvertongue, but in vain. I gripped to Silvertongue for dear life as we hovered above the dense jungle, below I could here hundreds of howler monkeys screaming up at us. I took a look at Farnier, he was dressed in armor too, but right where the neck bended, there was a small plate missing. But how to get at it? I hoped Silvertongue noticed it too, but it looked like he hadn't, he kept swiping at Farnier's head . I grabbed my sword out of the sheath and almost lost it as Silvertongue jerked.

"Silvertongue! Look at his chest!" I screamed loudly over the noise of the battles raging around us. Silvertongue and Farnier both looked at his chest. "Fire!" I yelled at him and intense blue flames burned Farnier before he had time to think. His head swung up in time to get the full blast of the flames and I drew my sword and while Silvertongue was still blowing fire then I plunged it right through the missing plate. Farnier's eyes dilated, his mouth opened but nothing came out. Silvertongue's fire stopped and I pulled my sword out. Farnier fell backward and diapered in the dense jungle below. Seeing there fallen leader the four who had been fighting the council turned around and flew at high speed in different directions. I sat frozen on Silvertongue, not believing what I had done. Finally I said to the council.

"You all were the ones in my dreams, weren't you? You took on the form of my family so I would come help you, didn't you?" the voice coming out of me didn't sound like mine, I felt like bees were buzzing in my head, everything was backwards and then, I fell. I fell backwards down, down, down into darkness.

a a a

"Vera. Vera you have saved us all." The voice sounded like Silvertongue, but I didn't open my eyes, I wanted to rest. "Vera, you have guests. Don't you want to see them?" A sharp beak pecked at my hand,

"Come on, come on! get up get up get up! we wanna see you O hero of the dragons."

"Telemnar?" I sat up and found I was back in the volcano in the same cave where Silvertongue and I had slept after a delicious meal. Telemnar was rubbing his soft head on my arm and I petted it carefully.

"So, good sleep?" Silvertongue bent over me, "You have another guest you know." looked behind me and I followed his gaze and found Moto.

"Moto!" I was overjoyed to see him and he smiled at me and immediately started talking.

"Oh, Vera, I can't thank 'ya enough for the money 'ya left behind! I got to buy new paints! And look!" he picked up a rolled up piece of paper and unfurled it. His finished product of Rome from the bell tower was extraordinary. Everything was in full color and it looked magnificent.

"Oh, Moto, it's spectacular." I stared in awe at it until he rolled it up again.

"Thank 'ya very much and I could see that he was very proud of himself.

"Silvertongue, I want to stay here in the volcano a while, after I see my family of course, but I still feel that I haven't seen everything. Is that ok?"

"If that is what you wish, it is done, we will leave tomorrow, after the party, of course."

The End

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