A/N: This chapter is more ation packed thankfully and is the first step for our heroes on their unfortunate adventure. This has been highly revised but may still contain old pieces of writing. But anyway, enjoy please.

Chapter 2: The Lake

After a quick farewell to her mom, Tracy raced out the door with Amy and Vince on her heels. Amy was taller than Tracy but also had an athletic build and long dark red hair. Her brown eyes went well with her hair and the freckles covering her face.

The two girls walked down the worn road that weaved through town and touched every porch in the small village, Vince followed close behind. Not far from Tracy's house was Jeremy's. His house was a petit two story and similar to Tracy's except his had a roof over the front porch and it was painted a slightly different color.

Sitting on the porch, Jeremy and the rest of the gang talked quietly to each other, obviously waiting for the lazy people who like to sleep in. Tiffany, a short, spunky black-haired blue-eyed monster of a girl, sat next to Kevin who was also short with brown hair and blue eyes but was more of the calm type. Between him and Tiffany, they seemed to get along the best and Kevin was the only person who could keep Tiffany's wild behavior tamed. Tiffany wasn't a bad person, she just liked to have a little too much fun that resulted in people getting in trouble or injured. Kevin was also one to keep a straight face in times of danger and never showed too much emotion; which is almost the complete opposite of Tiffany. Jeremy and Amy is sort of the couple of the group of friends and are proud to let people know. Jeremy was what we called arrogant but what he called sophisticated. This caused Amy to roll her eyes before smacking him upside the head.

"Hey you guys!" Tracy greeted her friends. Amy went and sat between Tiffany and Jeremy while Tracy stood next to Kevin who was watching the clouds with Vince.

"Look, look Kevin. See that one there?"

"Yes I do. Do you know what that is?"

"Is it a wolf?"

"It sure is."

From back down the street, the group heard a familiar voice calling to them.

"Hey people, wait up!"

Everyone turned to see the last member of the party, Kris, running toward them. "Come on, don't you dare leave without me."

'Sure, we are just going to turn and run away as fast as we can.' Tracy thought to herself.

Kris, like the rest of them, was also well toned from working out in the country side like the majority of the people in the village except Kris had looks to match his body. His hair was a light brown with some spots bleached white from days in the sun. Of course the thing that caught most people's attention was his emerald green eyes that always seemed to glow in the bright sun or dark moon. Some believed him cursed to have such radiant eyes, but Tracy and the rest of his friends thought he was just gifted with good genes.

"How could we ever leave you behind Kris?" Jeremy said and stood up to greet his friend. Tracy watched them for a second before both Tiffany and Amy stepped over to her and stood on each side, almost trapping her on the stop.

"So what's your plan?" Tiffany asked eagerly.

"Excuse me?" Tracy looked at her confused.

"You know, about Kris?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Tracy denied.

"Come on," pushed Amy.

But before Tracy could answer, Kevin spoke calmly from behind her. Tracy jumped for she had forgotten he was still standing nearby. "I think we should get going."

"Yeah, let's go to the beach, the beach!" Vince shouted next to him and started running down the road that led out of the village and into the thick forest.

"It's not a beach!" Jeremy yelled and chased after him.

"Yes it is!" Vince yelled back.

They all laughed.

Yup, it was pretty good living out here, even though there weren't very many people around. But the strangest thing about this place was that people here weren't at all what they seemed and this island allowed them to do what most places would never allow or deem possible. But growing up here you wouldn't really know that the things they could do, was not really what some would call normal.

Many of the kids who lived here weren't really sure of how the town came to be way out in the middle of no where and on a remote island. But it was fun to live here anyway. At least it was fun.

The three girls walked ahead of three boys and Vince was running from side to side way out in front of them which made Tracy nervous with all the dangers lurking around, especially in the forest. Tracy knew all too well what was out in the unknown land but she was confident that they would stay out there and not bug them today. It was too hot and too bright.

She turned around to look back at the boys and smiled at them when they looked back at her. Tracy smiled back but it quickly faded when she saw a flicker of light behind them. It had looked like someone had a piece of glass of mirror and had reflected the sunlight toward her. She squinted to try and get a better look but whatever it was it had disappeared back into the forest before she could catch a glance.

When she turned her attention back to the boys she noticed they were squinting at her and making funny faces. She rolled her eyes then turned back around. She smiled when she saw the lake ahead under brilliant blue sunny skies and her brother screaming as he ran toward the undoubtedly cold water.

Jeremy and Kris rushed past the girls and chased after Vince, plowing into the chilled water. As soon as Jeremy hit the water though, he froze, spun around and ran right back out.

"That's beyond cold!" He said jumping around on the warm sand.

Kevin scoffed then walked over to Jeremy. He approached somewhat slowly so Jeremy had no chance when Kevin suddenly grabbed him, picked him up off the ground, and ran him back toward the water.

Tracy and Tiffany laughed so hard when they heard Jeremy screaming all the way down to the water that they had to sit down on the sand to keep from falling over. Amy yelled at Kevin, however, not at all happy at how mean Kevin had been to just pick up Jeremy and throw him into the water.

Kevin's expression of boredom never changed, even when he picked up Amy and threw her in after her boyfriend.

A few hours later after much swimming and splashing and just laying in the sunshine, Tracy's gut continued to feel uneasy and an annoying tingle in the back of her mind had started about an hour ago. She sat on the sandy shore and watched Amy and Tiffany splash Vince and Jeremy. Kevin was building a sand castle that Vince had originally started but had quickly gotten bored of and left Kevin to finish it. Kris was standing to the side of the road by the forest edge picking black berries.

She looked over her shoulder at him and saw that he had a nice towel full of lack berries. 'Good thing they are the same color,' she thought. He glanced over at her and smiled at her with that beautiful smile he had before picking a few more berries and walking back toward her. She grinned at him.

It wasn't until he was only 20ft away from her and just stepping onto the sandy ground that her grin vanished and was replaced by a look of horror.

Standing behind Kris, teeth glistening in the sun, and claws spread, was a silver dragon. Against the sun lit ground the dragon almost seemed to have appeared out of thing air. Apparently Kevin saw it too for out of the corner of Tracy's eye she saw him quickly get to his feet and start running toward Kris.

Not sure of what else to do, Tracy shouted "Kris behind you!"

Kris's body tensed and was turning around to see what the commotion was but was too slow in reacting. The dragon brought its muscular arm up high into the air and swiped at Kris. Barely reacting in time, he dropped the shirt full of black berries which scattered as they hit the ground and tried to jump back but the dragon caught him on his shoulder, sending him down to the ground with brutal force and knocking him unconscious. Kris lied motionless on the ground while Kevin raced toward the monster.

When the dragon looked up and saw Kevin fast approaching, it reached down and grabbed a handful of Kris's shirt and lifted him up off the soft ground, blood dripping from Kris's limp mouth. Kevin was only a few feet away from them but the dragon suddenly snapped open its wings, crouch down and leapt into the air, gaining altitude with every stoke of its wings and taking Kris with it.

"Tracy, get the others to hide in a safe place until I come back." Kevin shouted back at her as he followed the departing silver dragon.

Tracy stood and spun around to check on the other and was relieved to see that Tiffany and Amy had heard the commotion, had grabbed Vince and were now fleeing toward a large drift log.

They quickly ran behind it then peaked over the top of the log and watched in horror as Kris was carried off by something so beautiful yet so evil. Tracy smiled at their quick thinking and was glad to see Jeremy running after Kevin. Thinking that Kris needed her help more than the girls did at the moment, Tracy pivoted on her foot and sprinted down the road, Kris not too far away from them.

She was confident that the three of them could retrieve Kris as safely as possible for her parents had taught her well about what to do when one encountered something out of the ordinary. So really, finding a dragon out her was like an everyday thing to them. Except the dragons have never been know to attack humans unless they got to close to their territory which was on the other side of the lake. But living in a place of such extraordinary things required the ability to learn extraordinary talents.

As the dragon rose above the road, Kevin held both his hands to his sides as he ran and a light began to glow in his palms. It grew brighter and brighter until the lights flashed then disappeared. In its place, Kevin now held two small daggers. Jeremy did the same except a staff appeared in his hands.

They both ran toward the dragon as it flew higher and higher, their weapons up and ready. Just when it seemed like the dragon was going to escape with its catch, Tracy saw Kris wake. When he realized what was happening, he struggled to get loose, clawing and scratching at the dragon's tight hold on his shirt.

After a few seconds and deciding that his struggling wasn't working, he tried a different approach. Holding out his right hand, a ball of light flashed into existence and began to grow. When it filled his entire palm, the ball burst into flames and spun slowly around in his palm. Then with practiced grace, he brought his arm back then threw the flaming ball at the dragon's arm that held Kris, landing a direct hit.

It roared with rage and released Kris then stumbled in the air before losing altitude. Now in reach of Kevin and Jeremy, Jeremy planted his staff into the ground at a run, launched himself into the air and managed to land a firm kick into the dragon's plated chest. The dragon was thrown back and landed hard on the ground. Though still not off its feet, Kevin took the opportunity of it being off balance and tried to jab the dragon's soft belly. The dragon saw him coming and was able to keep its composure while swinging its tail around and blocking Kevin's attack.

While Jeremy and Kevin fought off the dragon, Tracy rushed over to Kris He had landed awkwardly on his feet and was unable to stay upright so had rolled instead to a screeching halt. He was lying on his back when Tracy reached him.

"You ok?" She asked with urgency. He merely nodded though blood crested his lower lip and chin. Then he slowly stood, his body wavered slightly and threatened to fall over again. Tracy gently grabbed his arm and swung pulled it around her neck to keep him from collapsing. He smiled weakly and muttered thanks. She nodded then looked up to see how Kevin and Jeremy were holding out. But unfortunately what she saw didn't look good.

The dragon had managed to regain its footing and was now snarling at Kevin for leaving a nasty cut on its arm. Jeremy was next to Kevin, staff out and a cut above his right eye.

Suddenly the dragon rushed toward Jeremy. Jeremy tried to dodge but the dragon clipped his side and sent Jeremy flying backwards down the road a few yards then landed on his back. The dragon swung around for another charge at Jeremy while he was down but Kevin had reacted quickly and now stood between the dragon and his friend.