After two days, Pyrite still had no clue where they were headed. She barely knew the layout of the land, just foggy memories of a map in school. The CaveDragons never let on about their destination; they didn’t even talk about it amongst themselves. All Pyrite could tell was they were headed northwest.

Luckily, Pyrite hadn’t had any more dreams, though she still could not remember her nightmare. It bothered her and got her on edge, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.

At the Evening Meal (fish), Sapphire, Turquoise, and Pyrite had produced a sound guess: CaveDragon territory.

And now, lying on the ground, Pyrite started out of her worried dreams. She could feel it. She was fourteen now. All those days waiting to turn….and she had had no idea how different it would be. Pyrite wondered if the Gathering had happened, or if the village was too busy searching for them. By Emerald’s name, I hope they’re okay, Pyrite thought anxiously.

Pyrite closed her eyes and remembered the day she and her friends met. The day her life turned around completely.

*************

The school bell rang, announcing it was time to eat the Afternoon Meal. Pyrite took a deep breath before opening the door. So many faces! Pyrite was a little bit nervous; today was her first day. She cautiously walked to the back of the Meal Line.

Pyrite was dishing up her plate when the girl in front of her tripped over something. Pyrite backed away fast, and the girl went crashing to the floor.

“Sorry,” the girl whispered, trying to scramble back to her feet. But Pyrite saw someone hold her down with his boot pressed to her spine. He sneered at the girl and pressed her onto the floor again, making her gasp with pain.

Pyrite shifted in her boots, not knowing what to do. Her mom’s angry voice echoed in her mind. “No more fights, keep your head down.” Sorry, Mother, Pyrite thought defiantly. Her mom had been really angry about her starting fights. She didn’t know why; Onyx never worried about Pyrite. But Pyrite still winced at all the fights and rule breaks she’d done in the past.

What Pyrite had done: Gotten in a fight with a boy over the last food tray. Gotten in a fight with a girl because she gossiped too much about another girl’s earrings while she eyed them enviously. Gotten in a fight with a bully who threw a dodgeball so hard that it gave one of the younger boys a black eye. Gotten in a fight with a bully who threatened another girl, telling her that she would push them off the Crevice ledge. Explored and mapped out the Tunnels, which were forbidden. Tried to find information about her father, which was “classified”, apparently.

The last straw on Pyrite’s conscience was when the bully kicked the girl’s side. Pyrite burst into action, tackling the bully, and trying to fling him aside. A boy in the crowd that was growing around the fight joined in. The bully was forced to retreat at both of their strength.

Pyrite heard the Elders coming and backed up. The Elders formed a semicircle around the bully. One of them broke out of the circle and led the bully to the Punish Room, where he would get a severe lecture. The rest of the Elders followed, leaving Pyrite and the boy behind. Pyrite looked at the other boy, panting slightly. He looked about her age, but was slightly taller than her, with strong, skinny limbs. His kind eyes were a piercing sea blue green, sparkling with curiosity and exhausting (and perhaps a bit of loneliness). He wore a dirty t-shirt and jeans, and his messed-up, jet-black hair was shaggy and ruffled.

“I’m Jade,” he admonished, studying her.

“Pyrite,” she said. Those eyes made her feel slightly uncomfortable, and a little bit flustered.

They both looked down at the girl on the floor.

“What’s your name?” Jade offered his hand to the girl and helped her up.

“Sapphire,” she said in a soft, quiet voice. She pushed her glasses up her nose automatically and looked at Pyrite with sad, gentle, blue eyes, brushing her long black hair out of her face. She was small and scrawny, with barely any muscle at all on her. No wonder the bully had decided to pick on her; she was the perfect target. At her waist was a tattered satchel held together by a small trinket: a tooth, like the baby tooth of a dragon. Pyrite wondered what the satchel held.

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“Want to sit at my table?” Jade asked them, grinning, and when they both said yes, he beckoned to an empty table. Pyrite and Sapphire sat down, and as soon as they did so, a girl walked up to their table, blond and bold.

“Can I join your table?” she asked, a little loudly. Her voice held a little bit of doubt. Pyrite guessed that she was socially awkward.

“Sure,” responded Jade, still standing. They all sat down and began talking, learning each other’s names.

Pyrite opened her eyes, smiling at the memory. She never had learned what was in Sapphire’s satchel, which she carried around with her wherever she went. She’d never bothered to ask. At least she knew why Jade had looked so lonely at first: his father left him alone every day, kind of like Pyrite’s mom. She missed him a lot already. What would he do in this situation?

Pyrite tried to review her knowledge of the Surface to see if that would help, but she knew frustratingly little about the continent, for the Elders had never really gone in depth about it. All she knew was the entire continent was at war. Although the details of how it started were fuzzy, Pyrite knew the basics: the BloodDragons, for centuries, had lived in peace. Then something happened, something killed King Bloodtail and Queen Fang. Princess Crimson had inherited the throne, declaring war on the StealthDragons and blaming her father and mothers’ deaths on the StealthDragons. With them were the SpineDragons (by negotiation) and the PhantomDragons and GhostDragons (by promise). The StealthDragons reached out to fellow tribes and called upon the CaveDragons and CrystalDragons (by negotiation) and the WindDragons (Queen Serenity and Queen Wyvern go way back). But Pyrite knew zero history on the tribes and their territories.

Pyrite tried to go back to sleep, but the unusual feel of the Green String kept her awake. Quietly, Pyrite found a more familiar rock ledge and pretended she was back home, with Jade, Sapphire, and Turquoise.

************

A rooster crowded. Pyrite awoke and saw the others getting ready to fly onward. Dark, ominous clouds covered the sky. Thunder rumbled continuously, as if telling the group to fly away. The CaveDragons flew right into the thunderheads confidently.

As they entered the storm clouds, the thunder boomed louder. Pyrite was shocked by how loud it was. From afar off, it sounded like the scraping of boulders together, but from close-up, it sounded like a thousand stalactites falling right next to Pyrite’s ear and echoing in her skull. She quickly covered her ears to stem the noise, but it did almost nothing.

The group had a different formation today. Instead of forcing the friends into their cages, the CaveDragons had let them choose who to be with. Turquoise and Sapphire had decided to give Pyrite some space, and went in one cage with their dragons—the one Archer was carrying. Pyrite had taken the other, held by Grayclaw and Chasm. Looking back, Pyrite saw Turquoise and Sapphire mouth “Happy Birthday” from their ice cages. Pyrite smiled nervously as a lightning strike barely missed Grayclaw, followed by deafening thunder.

The group continued deeper into the storm. Rain slathered the ice cages, while the dragons seemed to be trying to control the rain. The storm was too much for them. Wind howled and slashed against all of them. How are the dragons telling which direction we’re going? Pyrite wondered.

Suddenly, a bright flash lit the sky. A lightning bolt streaked out of a thunderhead and hit Archer, who was too slow to react. With wide eyes, Archer went limp, plummeting to the ground, with Pyrite’s friends in tow.

***************

Turquoise and Sapphire were dead, and it was all Pyrite’s fault. Her nightmare finally came back to her: the large, misty apparition laughing at her demise. Will you save yourself, or your friends?

Maybe if Pyrite had gone with them, it would have created a different outcome. It was too late now. Too late, a part of Pyrite’s mind chided. Your friends are dead, and you could have saved them. Too late. It was time to move on, Pyrite knew, so she forged on through her grief, curled up at the bottom of her ice cage.

After a long time had passed, the wind died down and the rain stopped. There was a jarring thud, and Pyrite’s ice ball rocked back and forth. With a crack, her cage opened, and sunlight poured through.

Pyrite climbed out of her ice ball and was astonished. Emerald-green, rolling hills with teal waterfalls covered the landscape. A mountain here and there jutted out into the sky, with pine trees and aspen forests everywhere. Ponds, lakes, meadows, and trees decorated the perfect green string. To the West, a gigantic black hole gaped open. A big, noisy river ran right by it, and then snaked throughout the land. When Pyrite breathed in, her nose caught scents of flowers and fresh green string. With a pang of guilt, Pyrite knew her friends would’ve loved it.

Something caught Pyrite’s eye, and she swiveled her head to see gray dragons, probably CaveDragons, flying towards the West mountains. Then the scales of a few caught the sunlight, and Pyrite inhaled sharply. Those scales weren’t gray…. They were silver. Pyrite knew where they were now: the StealthDragon territory.