They made it to the city sooner than Candy thought.

Her breath caught in her throat and her chest tightened. What used to be neat little rows and cobblestone streets was now blackened remains and crumbles. Every now and then, she spotted an angry mob of people, running down the streets with torches and weapons, shouting and encouraging each other.

She shrank back into the wagon, wishing that would make every worry disappear somehow.

"I guess the war reached here," Scorpian said softly. Candy barely heard her over her own heartbeat.

If she'd had enough energy to be surprised, Candy would've, the moment they pulled up in front of the castle. Parts of it were burning and falling to the ground, but it seemed strangely intact.

There were still guards posted by the front doors, but none on patrol like there had been when she'd left. The slithery, smooth voice of Glade was heard in the front of the wagon. Candy had forgotten completely about her.

"I have something for . . ." Candy didn't hear the last part.

"What was that about your escape plan, Scorpian?" she swung her head around, angry at her friend for some reason. Scorpian put aside her fiery self for a moment, saying nothing in return. A small part of Candy felt sorry for being angry, but a bigger part was confused and scared.

"Guys . . . do you hear that?"

All eyes fell onto Silver, who had his head pressed against the ceiling. "It sounds like . . . get down!" He roared, spreading his wings over his twin. Suddenly, the whole wagon erupted into a white flame, completely blowing off the ceiling.

The smokey sky swirled above them, welcoming them into it with a dangerous secret as if it was eager to kill them the moment it got.

Pain dug at Candy's scales, making her wince with every movement. She glanced down, immediately regretting it after she saw the bloody gashes scattered across the scales on her shoulders. Her head felt airy and her stomach felt like she'd eaten a swarm of bees.

She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could unsee it all.

Someone was shouting her name, drawing her attention with them. She looked around, realizing her friends were gone. No, being carried away by another group of dragons. She barely had time to realize what was happening when she was being picked up, out of the wagon, and carried in their direction.

She bit away her pain, clawing, and biting at the talons that carried her into the air.

"Calm down, kid!" A voice shouted above her, getting a better grip on her and enforcing the burns that cut into her scales.

She howled, tensing at the feeling. Suddenly she was falling towards the fires below. She yelped, fighting to right herself again. The second she caught the wind, she flapped as hard as she could, carrying herself into the ash-choked air.

She wheezed like Silver had, searching for the direction her friends had gone. She spotted them entering the wood across from Emerald forest. Without trying to, she remembered from the maps from her childhood that the forest led to the mountains.

Every flap of her wings sent fire through her scales, making her wince at the pain.

Without warning, a bigger dragon appeared in front of her with his talons up in a peaceful manner. She growled, backing away and bristling. He jerked his talons forward, reenforcing his indicator for peace. She growled, low and slowly, but her wings felt worse with every beat and she could feel her energy draining.

He hasn't trapped me in a net or a cage yet, that's a good sign.

Her throat was too raw to speak, but she nodded towards the mountains, waiting for him to get the message.

I'll follow you.

He reluctantly nodded and swung around, gliding towards the mountains. She followed him, hurting all over. The night air cleared the farther they got from the castle.

It smelled good and felt good to be free, but Candy winced as the wind bit at her wounds. The dragon ahead slowed so that he was flying next to her. She realized only at that moment how much he looked like her - a Chamelokye.

He was green with little red speckles sprinkled over his talons and wings with bright red horns and forest green eyes and had a yellow underbelly.

He was an adult, she didn't doubt that, but assumed he couldn't be a very old one. Under the silvery light of the moon, she noticed scars all over his body; a deep one was etched in across his eye and down his cheek, one slid across the underside of his wing, and one was slashed across his forearm.

Despite all this, he had a kind and strangely reassuring look on his face. It bothered her, though, how much he kept glancing at her.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Her voice was hoarse and it hurt to talk, but she couldn't stop herself. He smiled.

"No - you just look like . . ." he didn't finish, gazing at the mountains ahead. She wanted to ask who, but it hurt enough to speak before.

"Can I help you?" he looked her over, making it clear how tired she must look, flapping like a hatchling learning to fly with blisters and burns all over her back and wings. She just looked at him hoping he'd somehow know she was wanting to know what he meant without having to say anything.

He nodded his head towards his back, "Climb on, I'll take you the rest of the way."

She steered a little bit away from him, encouraging a laugh.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Besides, if I did mean any harm, you'd be dead already," he said it like they were talking about the weather. She considered the thought. It weirdly made her feel a little better and haunted her at the same time. She reluctantly sighed, nodding her answer.

He gently dipped under her, gliding steadily beneath her talons. Somehow, they both already knew what to do without saying anything, as he sped up and she sped up, steering downward until she gently landed on his back.

It felt strange, to say the least. She imagined her back and wings would feel something like this. It wasn't hard to get comfortable as he maneuvered in ways so that she wouldn't fall off. Her body eagerly relaxed, even though she didn't really want it to. She felt the dragon chuckle underneath her as she felt herself grow heavy on his back.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"If it's easier to be a human, you can transform," he said without missing a beat. Her head shot up and she croaked out, "What?"

"You know because you're a dragon shifter."

She tensed, sending a fresh wave of pain through her back. He laughed. "You must not know a lot about your own kind, huh?"

"How do you . . ." she said a little before trailing off with a cough. Her whole body shuddered as she did so.

"I'll save you the trouble of talking. Have you ever noticed the little mark under your left wing? That's the mark of a dragon shifter."

She pulled in a sharp breath. If Glade knew about it then they're careful planning had been for nothing. How many dragons know about this?

Just as she was beginning to wonder if he was one, he seemingly read her mind.

"Before you attempt to ask, no - I'm not one. I'm just a regular, old dragon. I'll tell you what, though, we're the same kind so that's pretty cool."

She let her head fall back onto his neck again, managing to relax again - although a little less than before.

He flew in silence, the moon glowing brilliantly over them. It was oddly hard not to fall asleep, even though Candy had prepared herself, thinking there was a large chance he was bad.

It was strange how much he knew about dragon shifters, for not being one himself. She might even say suspicious.

After a peaceful flight, they were suddenly dipping towards the mountains. Candy was in a drowsy mood, but the second she realized what they were flying over, her head shot up.

"The Cursed mountains!?" She'd whispered it, but he heard her still.

"They aren't what we want dragons to think," he said as he dipped even closer to the jagged peaks below. Here, the wind blew Candy just about as much as the wind at Dragon Teeth rocks. "Hey, but that's a closely guarded secret so not telling." Something told her he said it with a smile.

This dragon was a strange one.

"Hold on," he shouted it, and even then Candy had only barely caught it over the increasing wind. She set her jaw, biting back the cries of pain as it clawed at her back, snapping at her fresh wounds. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clutching it as tightly as possible.

Then suddenly they stopped. She looked up, carefully loosening her grip around his neck. He coughed, resting his talons over the place where she'd held on so tightly. But she was too involved in the world around her to notice that she'd accidentally half-strangled him.

The sun was climbing into the sky, shedding light over them and their surroundings.

They were standing on a stone slab, it by itself almost as big as the castle in Nigintia, with little weeds popping up in some places. They were in the center of the mountains, tall peaks decorated with sunlight that stood miles above the ground. Dragons walked all around - Candy realized with a warm feeling that almost all of them looked like her - the stone slab, which was like a courtyard. It had giant stairs, some leading to the edge of the courtyard, with towering pillars and archways.

It looked old in a strong sort of way. Candy spotted a palace sitting across from them. Well, it wasn't really a palace. More like a giant, royal looking temple fit for a queen with pillars lined along the outside and wide steps leading up to it.

Candy was so busy being amazed by the scene she'd landed in that she didn't notice the dragons walking up until they were standing right beside the dragon she was sitting on.

"What was your name?"

The parrot-looking dragon had his head turned around to look at her, along with the other three dragons who'd walked up. Candy's heart picked up at the feeling of being stared at.

"Uh - um, Candy."

The dragon she sat on nodded at the others, who all smiled. Candy noticed - with a jolt of adrenaline - the blood freshly splattered across the dragons' scales.

"These are the healers, they'll help you with those burns. Also, I bet you're hungry . . ." she didn't hear the last part, or even really the first, still caught up in the sight of the dragons and their blood. Where did it come from!?

She scrambled off the dragon's back, landing on the ground in a very ungraceful manner, sending more fire across her scales.

"Woah, are you alright there, Candy? . . . Candy?"

How could I of trusted him!? She inched back, bristling from head to tail tip. Thoughts of the nymphs and the massacred dragons in Sun Tree town flooded her head, beating her heart faster. Some of the passing dragons were looking over, making her scales crawl. All those eyes staring at her, waiting for something.

Candy spun around and bolted away. She discovered there were stairs leading to the buildings below only after she'd tumbled off the edge of the courtyard. She frantically righted herself in the air, sending tendrils of fire down her scales. She yelped, loosing the current she'd been flying on.

The world spun around her for a few timeless seconds until someone caught her. The talons held tightly to her, pulling her into the air. She roared, biting, and clawing at them. The dragon holding her quickly let go, accidentally letting her drop a few more feet until catching her again.

"Candy! Candy, calm down! I'm helping," it was the same dragon from before, but the sound of his voice made her gut tense. She managed to knock him away with her wing (nott without a cruel amount of pain) and bolted towards the little stone village below.

She landed on the dry ground a little harder than she'd anticipated, losing her balance and toppling to the ground. She was on her talons in a flash, frantically searching her surroundings for any kind of safety. To her surprise, she spotted her friends, chatting in a group as their injuries were being tended to.

She jumped forward, wanting to be with them as fast as possible. She slid to a stop on the dusty path in front of them, her heart beating so hard she thought it might explode. Danger lurked around every corner, they needed to get out of there immediately.

"Night! Twins, listen, we have to get out of here," she looked around the village, anticipating any attack coming.

"Candy," she snapped her head back to them, eager for them to leave with her. "Woah, you don't look so good. What's wrong?"

Their eyes went wide at the sight of her burns, but her mind was racing and she was itching to get away. Night inched towards her, his talons out. She stepped back, not wanting him to touch her for the sake of her burns.

"Candy, calm down. Speak to us, what's the matter?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing back out. she couldn't slow her breathing and it felt like the air around was closing in. Night stepped forward, arms extended. She stepped back, shaking her head. She heard steps behind her and spun around. The parrot dragon from before was standing there, his head dipped down.

"Candy, we're just trying to help, okay? What do you want? Why are you freaking out?"

He - he's going to trap us and kill all our friends, she backed away, bumping into Night. She caught a glimpse of the parrot-dragon nodding at Night before she took a step away from him.

Her heart pounded in her chest, screaming at her to fly far, far away.

Suddenly arms wrapped around her wings and shoulders, pulling her back. She nipped at them, tossing her head back in an effort to make him let go.

The world blurred and there was a little crowd of people and dragons walking towards her. Everything seemed to be closing in. She pushed away from her holder, desperate to get away.

"My dear," a voice reached her ears, crisp and clear. She spun to face the voice, her nostrils flaring and her breathing heavy. She barely noticed the pain that crawled up her back as the arms around her pulled her closer. A royal purple dragon stood in front of her, silver and gold speckles were flecked all over her.

"That's right, just focus on me," she realized it was the dragon who was speaking and remembered that she wanted to escape. She threw her head back, feeling her horns connect and the arms let go. She bolted forward, grabbing Night and spreading her wings.

"Ca-" she tried to take off with him, so close to the sky but with unfamiliar faces all around. Voices swirled around her like blurry colors, she didn't understand any of them. With a start, she realized Night was holding her down. She fought him, but the more she struggled, the closer he pulled her to him.

In all the chaos, she barely registered the whistle and felt a prick on the side of her neck. A warm fluid pumped through her veins, all through her. She fought it too, trying her best to stay awake - she was the farthest thing from sleeping. Then she felt her muscles, against her will, relax and slump into the warm arms around her.

Her heart beat widely, but she could feel it slowing. I am not going to fall to sleep, I can't. I can't, the world darkened around her and she grew more aware of the scales around her. She still fought it, barely noticing the giant, cream-colored wings that wrapped around her.

Without the staring eyes and unfamiliar place and buildings, Candy managed to relax, just a little. But it was just enough for her to sleep into darkness.