I saw it first. I was looking around to see if Director was following us, and noticed an irregular shadow falling over us. I looked up to see what was making the shadow and presto! There it was.

  A shadow of a dragon. You could tell by how big it was and the wings that stretched for what seemed like miles. We all ducked under the overhang and huddled together, shuddering. Even though it had to be over 90 degrees outside, my blood was as cold as ice. Even though I myself had a dragon, I was scared.

  There was something different about the dragon. It just seemed to scream something malicious.

  Then it landed.

  I suppressed a horrified scream and saw that next to me, the others were doing the same. It was even bigger up close. It was so tall that I couldn’t see his head, or his neck for that matter, over the cliff. His scales were a dark grey and had flecks of white in them. I could hear it as it breathed, loud and laborious. His feet shuffled on the ground and I could imagine what would happen if one of them stomped on us. First, my head would be crushed, and then-

  A giant eye peered through the opening where the low cliff ended. It was amber and taller than me. It stared at us, blinking before the dragon retracted his head. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, he raised his front feet. I awaited impact but all I felt was freezing cold wind. I squeezed my eyes shut, and…

  1…

  2…

  3…

  4…

  5…

  Nothing. Not a peep. I opened my eyes and saw that the dragon was gone. We were safe! I hope so, at least.

  “Well, that was…” I started.

  “Scary?” Storm said.

  “Fun?” Rin added.

  “I was going to say interesting, but yeah, those work too.” I said with a grin. I sat down and heard a growling. I didn’t think much of it because we’d left just before lunch. But the others were looking around uneasily. That didn’t sound friendly. I stood up and peered around the back of the overhang. There was a thing that looked like a wolf but was bigger and it had teeth like a saber tooth tiger’s.

  It stalked closer and made the sound again. Then ten more creeped out from behind. It growled again and the others joined in, making a discordant noise. I reached up to cover my ears. I whipped my head back, but I knew it was too late. The wolf/sabertooth tigers were upon us.

  I looked around desperately to see if Snow was here, but I couldn’t find her! I would know- her blue scales would stand out against the harsh orange-red. Why couldn’t she be here when I needed her?

  “Guys- run.” I said and took off in a random direction. I glanced back and saw that no one else was following me. I huffed a sigh and pointed to the wolves/saber tooth tigers. The saber tooth wolves? I saw Rin peer around the corner and she bolted after me. Even with my head start, she quickly overtook me. After that, everyone started running.

  But something made me turn back. There was a pitiful squawking coming from the place that we were. A baby dragon. The majority of the saber tooth wolves were following us, but two wolves were stalking the baby dragon! I knew I had to do something. Everyone yelled at me to keep going, but I ignored them. I was so tired, but I didn’t dare pause for breath. The wolves were going closer and closer to the baby dragon.

  In a desperate attempt, I lunged at the wolf on the left. It swiped at me. I leapt away from the wolf. It let out a hideous sounding bark as it missed. “Snow!” I called desperately.

  Thankfully, Willows came to my rescue. He leaped on top of the saber tooth wolf, attempting to bite the collar of his neck.

  “Aurora!” Emerald called as she raced over. I dove in the dirt, scraping my face as the other wolf went for my leg. The wolf was a good shot and he got my leg! I yelped and used my hand to try to pry it off. It didn’t work. I could feel the blood spilling freely from two punctures. They were really deep. Storm rushed over and between the two of us we managed to get the wolf off me.

  I stopped myself from yelling when I saw all the blood. It was horrifying. I attempted to stand up, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to.

  Snow barreled in and caught me before I fell. “Where were you?” I yelped. She surprised me with her sudden appearance.

  She said darkly.

  “Fine.” I said. She lowered her head and dropped me to the floor. I hit it hard. Snow looked around and roared. Willows joined in, and the wolves stopped what they were doing and ran away, making pitiful whimpering noises. The second they started, I crawled towards the baby dragon who was making strange sounds. It was like it was crying.

  Once I reached them, I held my hand out. It was about the size of a baby cat. Its wings were thin and its scales were a dark blue, kind of like a whale. I picked them up and brought them close. It trembled in my arms. I gently pet it, cooing. I started to feel lightheaded and bit my lip.

  The small dragon waddled over to the cut in my leg and started licking it. Their tongue was rough and made my cut burn like a papercut and hand sanitizer. I tried to shoo them away but they wouldn’t budge. Once they finished licking, the punctures felt better and looked more shallow. Still bad, but not horrible.

  Emerald rushed over and picked up the young dragon. “Good girl.” She cooed, like it was a dog or something. The dragon licked her ear. Emerald held the dragon at arm’s length.

  “Do you think she knows what licking an ear means?” I ask.

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  “I sure don’t.” Emerald said. “But I believe you are talking about the dragon.”

  “Yes, I am. Basically, when a dragon licks your ear, it's like, an invitation to bond. You can accept by licking their ear back.” I explained. That’s what Director said, at least.

  Emerald wrinkled her nose. “I figured.” The dragon stared at her expectantly. Emerald scrunched up her eyes, leaned close, and licked the dragon’s ear. Then her eyes widened in surprise. “That tastes like dragonfruit!” She exclaimed.

  “Lucky.” I muttered. When I did it, all I tasted was like pink dragon fruit, my least favorite of the dragonfruits. Emerald loved all types of dragon fruit.

  I blinked and when I looked back at Emerald, she had a new clip on earring on her ear. Upon further inspection, I decided it was either a blue blob or a blue heart. It matched perfectly with her gold stud. She had gotten it before we were taken to Hekate.

  “You know,” mumbled Sawyer, “we were pretty helpless in that battle. Aren’t you supposed to know how to use your dragon’s power?” I stared. He was right! The whole battle, all I did was wrestle. I forgot that I was supposed to have Snow’s power!

  “I think you’re right,” I told him. Snow told me. She moved to stand next to me.

  “Well, practice makes better,” Storm said. “Okay. How many of us have a dragon?” Then with a sideways glance at Sawyer, he added, “that’s here, I mean.”

  Me, Storm, and Emerald raised our hands. I saw Rin turn bright red as she realized that she was the only one in our whole group that didn’t have a dragon.

  “Okay. That’s three of us. Maybe we could go practice using our dragons powers over here,” Storm gestured into a shady part, “and Rin and Sawyer could practice over there.” He gestured to the part where we had hidden from the dragon.

  “Hang on!” Sawyer protested. “What are we supposed to practice? We don’t have any dragons.”

  “You could practice your… hand-to-hand combat! That’s always important in a battle.”

  “Fine.” Sawyer said, shooting a stink eye in Rin’s general direction that she returned.

  “My dragon is too young to do any fighting,” Emerald said. “I don’t want her to get hurt fighting your dragons.”

  “Hmm. Good point,” Storm said. “You could get to know her- and see if you can get a name.” Emerald nodded slowly. “That leaves you and me to practice fighting.” Storm said, looking directly into my eyes. I felt butterflies in my stomach.

  The practice session went well. For Storm. He kicked my butt. I blamed it on the fact that I had a weakened leg, but he said that we were even because Willows had gotten hurt in the fight as well. But I still learned some things. For example, if I concentrate really hard, then I can shoot ice shards out of my fingers. Okay, it's only like 3 really small ones, but hey! It’s a start.

  I fondled Snow’s soft nose. “Good job, girl!” Her nose was cold and slick, like ice. She lay down on the floor.

  She said. It sounded sort of strange coming from a five year old, but I complied. I sat on her back and she rose. This was my first time riding her, so I was starting to freak out. What if I fell off? What if I wasn’t aerodynamic enough for flying? Snow started to walk forward. This wasn’t so bad.

  Then she broke into a run.

  I felt the acceleration pushing me back. I felt my hands slipping from their spot around Snow’s neck. I thought desperately. I wanted to tell Snow to stop, but my mouth was frozen in place. My arms slipped and I was only holding on by my legs! I was going to scream, but again, my mouth was frozen.

  Snow reassured me. And I was. I wasn’t falling or careening behind her. Strangely, it seemed like my legs were glued to her body! But that didn’t make any sense. Snow told me.

  My mouth finally was able to open and I said, “NO!” But it was too late and Snow was flapping her wings. We were in the sky. Up we climbed for a long time. I expected at one point for the air to get thinner but that wasn’t what was happening. The world outside looked vaguely distorted.

  We broke through the atmosphere. I expected to have to hold my breath, but, strangely, I could breath. Space looked so weird when you were actually in it. It was like I was swimming. Stars dotted the navy blue water. I also felt weightless. No longer was gravity pulling me down. I was flying! Correction: Snow was flying. I was just a passenger.

  Snow asked.

  I cleared my throat. “Great. Just my normal Thursday.” She laughed.

  “Well, obviously for you! You’re a dragon!”

  “Seriously, how do you do that?”

  I huffed. I looked up and Snow neared a moon. She dove down onto it, wings beating rhythmically. As we got closer and closer to the moon, I felt the weight of gravity pressing down on me once more. The closer we got, the less distorted the world was.

  “Why does the world look distorted as we get farther away from the atmosphere?” I asked.

  She said haughtily.

  “Also, why are you bringing me here?” I asked.

  She said mischievously. I huffed a sigh of resignation. Five year olds were so secretive! When we landed, we had to walk a few paces to slow our acceleration. My legs no longer felt glued to Snow, so I slipped off her back. I stumbled a little bit as she was taller than me standing up so it was a high drop.

  Looking around, I saw a small pole sticking out of the ground and I looked at Snow suspiciously.

  “Was that what you brought us here for? A pole?”

  She wasn’t very convincing. I rolled my eyes. Anyways, I walked toward it. It might not have been Snow’s intention, but it was still pretty cool. I reached it and found it was cool grey metal. I pressed down on the top of the pole and a small part of the top of it rose. There was a small panel with buttons in there.

  “What’s the code?” I was interested in where this was leading.

  Snow replied promptly. I raised my eyebrows but punched it in. The pole slid into the ground and I was worried that it would sound an alarm and we would be arrested for trespassing or something, but no. The ground slowly opened until there was an opening about as wide as Snow, if not wider. A staircase led down into the depths.

  “Should we go, all knowing wise one?” I asked her.

  At this point, I was sure that she had no idea that this was here and was lying through her teeth. As we walked down the stairs, the roof closed above us. I froze when it turned pitch black. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I’m afraid of the dark. Snow moved a step closer to me and I put a hand on one of her scales. It still surprised me that her scales were soft. Not as soft as a dog or cats, but it wasn’t like a wall or something.

  Once we reached the bottom, my heart was beating so fast, I was worried it would beat out of my chest. We walked around. Not carelessly, but not too carefully, either. I peered around a corner in the bend and withheld a scream. I whipped my head back as fast as I could.

  Snow stared at me like I was crazy. My heart was back to super-sonic speed.

  “There’s a person. Mean-looking,” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

  I shot her a glare but didn’t say anything.

  I heard some unintelligible muttering coming from the person’s direction. She was a woman, with chestnut brown hair that flowed down below her back in a braid.

  “I didn’t ask about that! I ASKED HOW MANY COMPETITORS?!” She raged.

  More muttering. I realized.

  “I HAVE TO BEAT FOUR PEOPLE?!”

  Snow slowly walked backwards, and her nails clicked on the hard floor. Maybe dragon ears were more sensitive than human ears, but I wasn’t sure.

  “We must find a way to neutralize them,” She said threateningly. I gulped. I heard a bing. I can’t tell you why, but something gave me an uneasy feeling. So, I turned tail and ran, Snow following close behind. We bolted back where we came from and I leaped onto Snow’s back. She quickly flew away. I didn’t want to, but I had to know, so I looked back. I saw the woman coming out of the place, staring up at us.