Turquoise was proud of her twin brother. He had improved so much, from actually socializing to befriending dragons and leading daring rescues.

Okay, sure, he had accidentally poisoned them all and they had almost died…but Turquoise forgave him for that. They all made mistakes, even if they were large ones. She could only hope that the others had forgiven Alex, too.

Standing on that cliff edge, Turquoise was relieved that they got out of that chasm. The entire thing had given her a feeling of foreboding, like something bad was about to happen. Once they got out of there, she felt warm and more confident.

They all hopped on the backs of their dragons. CloudWing was looking slightly exhausted because he carried both Jade and Pyrite on his back, but he didn’t complain.

They flew up towards the top of the mountain. Turquoise figured there would be more hiding spots there from all the StealthDragons that they had ticked off.

They landed on the peak of the mountain. Below them, all the land of Terrarestria was spread out almost like a map. Mountains formed large silhouettes against the bright blue sky. Rivers snaked through the land, twisting and turning when least expected. It was a beautiful sight, and for a minute Turquoise forgot everything else, taking it all in with deep breaths. She knew she might never get to relive this moment. Maybe she could ask Sapphire to draw it later.

“Guys,” Jade interrupted, sounding slightly reluctant. His voice brought them all back to the present.

“Pyrite,” Jade addressed, sitting on the ground. The others all did likewise. “This is Andy, Pathtalon, Roewyn, and Carrion.” They all bowed their heads in acknowledgement.

Pyrite shook Andy’s hand and nodded at the dragons. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Pathtalon said. Pyrite tilted her head in a very Alex-like way. “Did you just…”

“I speak human, as does Roewyn and Carrion.” Pathtalon explained. Pyrite nodded thoughtfully.

Pyrite walked over to Sapphire and Turquoise and hugged them. Turquoise could feel her shaking a little bit, and patted her reassuringly on the back. “I thought…I thought—" Pyrite began.

“We fell off of Archer, but Tanzanite and Erinite saved our butts,” Turquoise explained.

“They can create a crystal-like shield with their spikes. It managed to cushion our fall,” Sapphire said. She pushed her glasses up her nose automatically.

“I never knew that,” Pyrite pondered. “But what happened to Jade? Where did Pathtalon, Roewyn, and Carrion come from? Why is Alex here?”

Turquoise winced at the slightly accusatory note in Pyrite’s voice. She hoped Alex wasn’t hurt by that. She glanced over at him worriedly, but he was poking the frost on top of the mountain. He glanced up for a moment and gave Turquoise a reassuring grin before turning back to the frost.

All the dragons sat down next to the humans as Jade begun a long-winded explanation of what happened to all of them. When he got to the bit about the poison, Alex hung his head shamefully.

“Hey,” Turquoise nudged him. “It wasn’t your fault. And I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“But what if something like that happens again, and Roewyn isn’t there to help this time?” Alex protested, fiddling nervously with his jacket zipper.

“It won’t,” said Andy, sitting down on the other side of him. “Whether we like it or not, we’re all stuck together now. Nothing should separate us, not even a little bit of poison. We all know now, that was accidental. You guys are all new to the Surface. I should have recognized those berries. After all, I grew up here!”

Alex cheered up quite a bit. Turquoise looked in wonder at Andy. He barely knew them all, yet here he was comforting Alex with confidence. She was grateful for his company.

“It’s nice to know that there is someone in this group who knows his facts,” Alex said. Andy slugged him in the arm.

“Don’t expect me to be your walking encyclopedia,” he warned. Alex laughed, along with everyone else.

“What are we going to do now?” Sapphire asked, subduing them all slightly.

“Never fear,” Alex said, jumping to his feet and saluting Sapphire with a very pompous expression on his face. “Captain Alex is here!”

“No, really,” Sapphire pressed, as everyone dissolved into giggles. “What—”

Suddenly, she broke off, looking in the distance with an odd expression on her face.

“Um…Sapphire?” Turquoise asked. Sapphire didn’t answer, she just pointed to the other side of the mountain. They all turned around and jumped back several feet. Behind them was a cliff, dropping off into nothingness.

“I’ve read of this place,” Sapphire breathed. “It’s called the Void. No one knows what is beyond this cliff, because those brave enough to venture there never come back. The entire thing is full of Mist, and it never clears up. Ever.”

But the fact that was most disturbing was that there was a figure in the Mist that was extremely dragon-like. It appeared to get closer and closer to them, flapping its misty wings. Then Turquoise realized that it was a dragon. She rolled out of the way just in time.

A pitch-black dragon with a galaxy-colored underbelly and galaxy-patterned wing-webbing landed spread-eagled in front of them, panting. She laid there for a minute, breathing heavily, seemingly oblivious to her stunned onlookers.

CloudWing was the first one to act. He ran over to the black dragon and helped her get into a lying down position. She was still wheezing, but she had managed to catch her breath. She growled a feeble thanks to CloudWing.

“Um……” Andy glanced from CloudWing to the black dragon, a furrow in his brow. “Do you know this dragon?”

To Turquoise’s surprise, CloudWing nodded. He glanced at Jade, then began a long monologue of growls and shrieks.

“He says this is his friend Shadowstar,” Jade translated. Pyrite whipped her head around to look at him, and he held up a hand before she could ask. “I can talk to dragons. Anyway, he says she is a StarDragon—”

Sapphire gasped. “I’ve read of StarDragons! The books I read portrayed them as myths, figments of the imagination. A few said they were one of the Lost Tribes.”

CloudWing nodded, then waved at Jade to continue.

“She is from behind the mountain range, below the Mist. Apparently there is an entire tribe living there that no one knows about, I guess? CloudWing has been visiting her for a while now.”

CloudWing nodded to confirm Jade’s information.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Shadowstar slowly rose to her feet and scanned all of them. Her gaze was startling because she had no whites in her eyes. They were black, and the only part that was colored was the irises, which were dark blue-purple. Her entire being was gorgeous, her body smoothly narrowing into a tail, which gracefully curled around her back legs. Her horns curved up and down and slanted inwards slightly, and her snout had a cute upward curve. Her wings were perfectly made to suit her body. Even her sharp talons curved in an elegant way. Her black scales shimmered with a purple sheen, and the stars on her wings seemed to twinkle.

“Pleased to meet you all,” she said in a clear and melodious voice. “I’m Shadowstar.”

CloudWing growled something at her, and she looked at him. “I’m going to speak in human for everyone else, ok?”

CloudWing nodded, and Shadowstar said, “I left my home to find CloudWing I need his help, because in my home, we are under a tyranny. Queen Sephora won’t let any StarDragons go over the mountains, for fear of being discovered by the other tribes. But there is a volcano that is about to erupt upon us. It is angled so that only StarDragons will be affected. We could be wiped out and no one would notice.

“Also, the conditions in the orphanage where I live are getting worse. Punishments are being delivered swiftly and more often, and a few young dragonets have died. At school, we are not allowed to ask questions. We barely learn anything. I need help to change it.”

Sapphire put a hand to her mouth. Everyone else looked grim. Turquoise jumped to her feet, anger coursing through her veins.

“We’ll help you,” Turquoise said. “No matter what it takes, we are going to set this right. First, StealthDragons keep human slaves. Then, StarDragons keep dragonet slaves? I don’t think so.”

Alex rose with her. She noticed him gazing at the mask Alice had given him, but never taken back. He met her eyes with defiance equal to Turquoise’s. Turquoise realized Alex would back her up with all his might, and felt a connection grow with her brother. She would never ignore him again, ever.

“We all will,” Pyrite said, and everyone stood up and looked at Shadowstar. “Where should we start?”

“First off, we need to do this subtly,” Shadowstar warned, looking a lot more energized now. “I don’t have any StarDragon powers or anything, so I won’t be as much help.”

“Wait, StarDragon powers?” Andy held up his hand. “Like what?”

“StarDragons have shadowy powers, abilities connected to darkness,” Shadowstar explained. “We can blend in with the shadows and the night sky, see in the dark, and draw energy for shadows and darkness. Every StarDragon also gets one power from the stars that they are born under. Some are weak or silly, like an extra tail or sharper teeth, but some are powerful, like venom in the teeth or invisibility.”

“Wow,” said Sapphire. She grabbed her notebook from her satchel and started scribbling in it.

“So that is exactly why we have to be careful,” Jade concluded for her. Shadowstar nodded.

“Now we can—” Shadowstar began, but suddenly her body stiffened. Her eyes went pitch black, and she tilted her head up towards the sky. In a voice that sounded like multiple dragons were talking, she spoke:

“There were ten to start the war, but fourteen will end it,

“The world will fall unless the Legends help mend it.

“Seek the dragons found in lava cooled,

“End the dragons that have in past ruled,

“Seek the dragons found in the deepest of seas,

“An old wrong righted from deep within the trees,

“In the sky find those who have never seen the surface,

“You will do them a great service,

“You have already found the Legend of the Stars,

“The tyrant queen among them causes scars,

“However, first you must find

“All the tribes who were lost, and all those left behind,

“For if you don’t then the world will be destroyed,

“And the ghost, Zaerux, will cast you all into the Void.”

Shadowstar then dipped her head down. Silence fell over the top of the mountain as the words sunk in. Sapphire had grabbed her notebook again and scribbled it all down, which Turquoise was grateful for. What was that? It almost sounded like a prophecy, if such things existed…but they didn’t exist…or did they?

“Shadowstar?” Roewyn said, gently nudging her with her wing. Shadowstar stirred, pressing a talon to her forehead.

“I don’t know what that was,” she said, looking confused. “It’s like I couldn’t control what I was saying. I-I don’t—"

“It was a prophecy,” said Sapphire. “Legend has it that the original StarDragon Queen, Stargazer, had the power of prophecy. Maybe you are descended from her?”

Shadowstar shook her head. “That’s not how it works,” she said. “StarDragons can’t pass down abilities through lineage. It just isn’t possible, and it’s never happened before. Plus, I’m an orphan.”

“Isn’t anyone more worried about the words of the prophecy?” Andy pointed out. “Personally, I don’t want the world to be destroyed, or to be ‘cast into the Void.’ And who on Terrarestria is ‘Zaerux’?”

“It also says that we need to find the Legends before we can help the StarDragons,” Turquoise said, giving Shadowstar an apologetic look.

Shadowstar wrung her talons. “I don’t think we should ignore it,” she said. “Terrible things happen to warriors who ignore prophecies, things like falling into Arehvae pits.”

Everyone shuddered. The Arehvae were skeletal dragons feared by all of the tribes. They were impossible to defeat, due to the fact that they were entirely made of bones, which held captive a spirit full of vengeance. If their opponent knocked one of the bones out, they could pick up another one and reattach it to themselves, even if it was one of their opponent’s bones. They were not picky. They felt nothing but a fierce, never-stopping hunger for dragon and human flesh and bones. No one truly knew what they looked like, because only one dragon had lived to tell about them, a WindDragon named Plysso. Even then, he had died soon after. Rumor had it that Arehvae were very rare, almost extinct—and only found in the darkest of chasms. They often fought ferociously with each other.

“I don’t want to become Arehvae meal,” Alex decided. “So where do we start?”

“Well,” Shadowstar said, “I heard a rumor of a StarDragon who flew over Volcano Ridge, and he came back saying there were large lava pools on top of the mountain—not just lava from the volcanoes. He also claimed to have seen shapes moving in the lava, but the Court—a council of StarDragons that help the queen with her decisions and solve petty problems—said that he had been hallucinating, tricked by the Mist.”

“Some sort of lava dragon?” Andy guessed.

“Seek the dragons found in lava cooled,” Sapphire quoted. “Sounds like that is what we’re looking for.”

“How far away are they, exactly?” Pyrite questioned Shadowstar. “How long would it take for us to get there?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Shadowstar confessed, shaking her head. “But I think it would be farther east, towards the PhantomDragons. It might take us three or four days to get there with rest stops and meals.”

“We’d better get started,” Alex said. Turquoise nodded.

“First,” Jade said, holding up his hand, “we need some rest. It’s been a long day, and we need our energy for tomorrow. Let’s find somewhere to camp, and get something to eat. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving.”

Nobody argued, and soon they were all speeding down the mountain. They had decided to camp on the Misty side, since they would be less likely to be spotted.

After a while, the Mist thinned out, and Turquoise gasped. Below them was a forest of pine trees and aspens, bunched close together. The group landed in an area where the forest was thinner than usual.

“I’ll gather food,” Andy volunteered. “I know what foods are poisonous or not, and I know what are edible to humans.”

Alex looked down at his boots, but Andy clapped him on the back. “I want your help,” he said.

Alex perked up. “Me?” he asked incredulously, looking at Andy with a mixture of admiration and confusion. “But—”

“The poisoned berries weren’t your fault,” Andy said, waving a hand dismissively. “Plus, I’ll need an extra pair of hands to carry extra food.”

Alex gave Andy a look of gratitude, then followed him into the forest. Turquoise admired Andy even more. He was exactly what Alex needed—a true, honest, comforting friend. Turquoise was sure that the others would warm up to Alex as well, but Andy would always be there.

Everyone sat down on the grass, waiting for Alex and Andy to come back. Turquoise listened to the bugs chirping in the bushes and the grass. She asked Sapphire what they were, and she responded that they were crickets. What a weird word. Crickets. Turquoise said that under her breath several times.

Then, Pyrite gasped. All throughout the forest, little disembodied lights were blinking and moving, darting from branch to branch and flying through the air. Turquoise rose and cupped her hands around one, trapping the light in her palms.

“I got one!” she cried. She opened her fingers a little bit and saw a strange bug lying in her hand-trap. It was black and red with a hard outer shell and several legs. It’s shiny abdomen kept lighting up repeatedly. She released it into the air, and it became a mini lantern again.

Soon, everyone was trying to catch the evasive little bugs, laughing when they barely escaped or gasping when they caught one. Even the dragons tried to help out, herding the light-bugs with their wings. Whenever the bugs lit up, it bathed portions of the forest in a green and yellow glow.

Andy and Alex finally returned in the midst of their game, and set down the food to join in. After everyone got bored with chasing the bugs, they sat down and began to eat the delicious nuts and berries. For the dragons, Andy had got some weird fish with blue scales.

When they were all full, everyone lied down on the soft grass and fell asleep to the chirping of crickets and the continued flashes of the light-bugs.