There was a sudden panic, with everyone scrambling to put out the fire, grab the supplies, and hide at the same time. They all tried to hide behind a boulder.

“I don’t want to go back, Pathtalon!” said a voice from behind a gravel hill. “’Don’t speak fleshbag’, my tail! I’ll show her!”

“Hey!” another voice squeaked. “Do you smell that?”

Alex froze. He still hadn’t hidden yet, but he realized—these were dragons, and he could understand them! But why were they speaking Human? Turquoise beckoned to him from behind the boulder, but he ignored her.

A head popped over the hill, and Alex tried to look innocent, kicking away the bow and arrows still on the ground.

“OH MY CLAWS!” a SpineDragon hopped down the side of the hill, almost crashing into Alex but stopping right before.

“Hi! Hi! Are you a HOO-man? Is it true that you don’t have a tail or horns or wings or spikes or claws or really sharp teeth or scales or any breath weapons?”

Alex burst out laughing, and he could see the shocked expressions on his friend’s faces. The SpineDragon was a little dragonet, barely the size of the average dog. He had wide, green eyes, tiny horns, small wings, and sharp little claws. His entire body buzzed with energy, making you want to smile and pet him.

“I am a human,” Alex said, shaking the dragonet’s little claw. When he let go, the dragonet looked wonderingly at the claw as though it had grown an extra talon. “My name is Alexandrite, but you can call me Alex.”

“CARRION!” a voice roared over the hill.

“Over here, guys!” the little dragonet (Carrion?) squeaked, waving his wings. “I met a human and he’s nice and shook my claw!”

Another SpineDragon emerged over the ridge and slid down neatly, followed by another one. These were both a lot bigger than the first one, with more spikes.

“DON’T TOUCH CARRION!” the first one roared, tackling Alex to the ground and pinning him with one claw. She brought her face close, baring her teeth and growling aggressively.

“HEY!” a voice said from the side.

“Turquoise, no!” Alex shouted, but it was too late. A stone came out of the sky and crashed into the SpineDragon, causing her to slump onto Alex, unconscious. Alex wriggled out from underneath the heavy, scaly mass.

“TAKE THAT, you lousy, scaly, spiky, son of a mother toad!” Turquoise shouted, hopping in a circular victory dance.

“Argh! Turquoise!” Alex kicked a rock in frustration.

“What?” Turquoise asked, frowning.

“We’re not supposed to be hostile,” Alex explained. “Now these dragons won’t trust us.”

“RRRRAAAAARRR!” Alex fell face first on the stone as the other dragon landed on top of him. Pain shot through his shoulders as the dragon tightened his grip. “You knocked out Roewyn!”

The dragon whipped around and snarled at Turquoise, getting off of Alex and running towards her.

“Hey, Turquoise just thought she was being hostile!” Alex protested, but to no avail. He ran in front of the dragon, ignoring the pain, spreading his hands, closing his eyes, and bracing himself for impact.

He felt nothing, and opened his eyes to see Andy in front of him, touching the dragon’s nose. Alex lowered his hands and stared in wonder, moving to Andy’s side. Neither he nor Andy dared breathe or break eye contact with the dragon.

“Who…are…you?” the dragon whispered. Hot breath that smelled distinctly like fish flew over him and Andy.

“My name is Alexandrite Vulpes,” Alex answered before Andy, but Andy didn’t seem to mind. “I come from the Caves with my sister, Turquoise, and my friends, Sapphire Lucis and Jade Aspidro, and Andesite, who we met here, on the Surface.”

“What’s your name?” Andy asked softly, lowering his hand from the dragon’s nose.

There was a long pause, during which a few distinct rustles were heard from behind the boulder. The strange SpineDragon was staring at Andy as if no one had ever bothered to ask that question before.

“My name,” the dragon answered formally, “is Pathtalon, of the SpineDragon Palace, son of Spinetalon, King of the SpineDragons, although he has disowned me. I travel with my best friend, Roewyn, hoping to find a place to live, far away from the Spine Kingdom.”

“Woah,” Alex broke in, his eyes widening. He felt all tension snap as he grinned and asked incredulously, “You’re a prince?”

Andy slapped his hand to his forehead in exasperation.

Pathtalon smiled sheepishly. “It’s okay. It’s not something I tend to tell anyone,” he said. “But since you asked, and gave me your own identity, it would have been informal to not tell you.” He looked Alex and Andy up and down, all hostility forgotten. “Your friends that were hiding behind the boulder can come out now,” he added.

Turquoise got to her feet as Jade and Sapphire came out from their hiding place, followed by the dragons. CloudWing just appeared out of thin air, a feat which made Pathtalon arch his brows in a very prince-like manner.

There was a hustle and bustle as everyone introduced themselves, starting with Turquoise and ending with CloudWing. He gave Pathtalon a look that said, “I’m keeping my eyes on you.” And then stalked towards Jade, still glaring at Pathtalon. What’s his problem? Alex thought, before turning back to Pathtalon.

“How are you speaking human?” Turquoise asked. She had just finished apologizing to Roewyn, who had regained consciousness with much growling and snapping of her jaws. Carrion sniffed her hand and then licked it, causing Turquoise to giggle and give the tiny dragonet a pat on the head.

“I learned it,” Roewyn butted in. “Then I taught it to Pathtalon. We’ve been using it so that no one can understand us. It does draw a few odd looks, though.”

“So how long have you guys been…you know…out here?” Andy spread his arms to include the entire SpineDragon Kingdom.

“A few years, at the least,” Pathtalon said. “You seem to have more questions for us than we do for you!”

“Fire away,” Andy replied, leaning against a rock casually.

“What are you guys doing out here?” Pathtalon asked. “I mean, this isn’t exactly the ideal place for a campout, no offense.”

“None taken,” Alex said, then proceeded to tell Pathtalon how they had all gotten separated and then ended up here.

“…so then we had just decided to rescue Pyrite when Carrion came over the hill and we tried to hide,” he finished. Pathtalon shook his head in admiration.

“Quite a lot of events in such a short time,” he said. “Two years of my life contain as much excitement as two weeks of yours!”

“Tell me,” Alex prodded, curious. Everyone sat down around the fire and looked expectantly at the grey dragon.

“Well…” Pathtalon rubbed the back of his neck in a surprisingly human gesture. “Oh…all right, fine. About two years ago, my father—King Spinetalon—figured out that I knew the language of the humans, or “fleshbags” as we like to call you.” Here he added air quotes before continuing, “He learned that I looked to humans as friends rather than tasty snacks. Both he and my mother were furious. The entire royal family—there are fourteen of us, counting Mother and Father—shunned me and cast me out of the palace, which had been my home for eleven years. My faithful servant and best friend—Roewyn—was loyal and chose to come with me.

“For one year, we lived on whatever we could catch—fish, birds, or deer if we were lucky. We hid in small caves and tunnels. Then we came across a Market. A Market is somewhere SpineDragons live but is not big enough to call a city, where dragons make what they can off of whatever we can sell,” he said to their inquiring looks. “There we met Carrion, an orphan stealing whatever food his claws could hold. He was starving, with his ribs showing and fatigue under his eyes. Roewyn and I had compassion, and took him under our wings, where he has stayed since.”

“Wow,” breathed Turquoise. Everyone else nodded.

“Pathtalon,” Jade said, standing up, “will you help us on our journey to free our friend? We could use your help.”

Pathtalon looked at Roewyn for confirmation, then Carrion. They both nodded.

“Sounds like it!” Pathtalon said.

“Who do you want to ride you?” Jade asked.

“The one called Andy,” Pathtalon said, turning towards him and inclining his head. “I am at your service.”

Andy grinned. Alex suspected he had never been chosen like that before, and that he enjoyed it greatly.

“I guess Alex will ride me,” Roewyn said. She smiled at him. “Carrion, you’ll follow me from behind. Let us know if you get tired or hungry.”

Everyone hopped on their dragon mounts and lifted off into the night sky.

***********

Alex enjoyed flying more than anything else in his life so far.

Even though the wind was cold and the sky dark, it felt great to him.

Roewyn moved with liquid grace through the air currents and wisps of fog, occasionally talking to Alex or doing some sort of trick, which caused his stomach to lurch with adrenaline and make him worry about plummeting to the ground far below.

Alex loved it.

“Hey.” Jade flew up next to him, which seemed a tad bit odd to Alex. Throughout the last few hours, everyone had been content to leave him in the back of the procession.

“Hey.” Alex grinned and tilted his head at him, which seemed to unnerve Jade slightly. “Is this amazing or what?”

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“I know,” Jade acknowledged. “The first few flights I had with CloudWing were the best moments of my life.”

CloudWing snorted in recognition and did a barrel roll.

“So…” Alex prompted, looking at Jade with one raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the front, leading everyone?”

“They know where we’re going,” Jade responded, fidgeting. He looked at Alex hesitantly. “Alex…I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Alex stared at him, confused. “For what?”

Jade sighed softly in frustration and stared at the horizon. “You’re not making this easy.”

Alex didn’t know what to say. What was Jade trying to tell him?

Jade took a deep breath. “I mean…I’m sorry for leaving you out on everything, never even talking to you…and ignoring you. To be honest, I think everyone considers you a little weird.”

Alex was silent for a few heartbeats. “Apology accepted, I guess. I was also kind of avoiding you guys in the first place, so it isn’t entirely your fault.” He grinned mischievously. “And being weird is a bonus!”

Jade laughed, and Alex felt the invisible gap between them close. “I guess none of us are normal. If you had told me two weeks ago that I’d be riding on the backs of dragons, I would have thought you were off your cave ledge!”

“Same here.” They rode in silence for a moment. Alex gazed at the two moons in the sky, surrounded by an army of stars. He wondered what force had put them there. Surely something so beautiful couldn’t have come from nothing, right?

As they watched, the sky lightened. A small slip of the sun became visible on the horizon, and everything was bathed in a golden glow. The ground below them was finally revealed, and Alex caught his breath. Green, rolling hills occasionally dotted with trees dominated the landscape, but in between slithered small rivers that glowed in the sunlight. To the west, the trees thickened into a forest, with mountains sloping upwards and ending in snow-capped peaks. The rivers turned and poured into several large lakes that reflected the partial sunlight like mirrors.

Jade and Alex caught up with the rest of the group, who were hovering above one of the lakes. It was relatively small and nestled in the middle of a forest, perfect for a small rest stop.

They landed on the shore of the lake, startling a school of rainbow-sheened fish that were feeding on the surface. Alex hopped off of Roewyn to find his legs almost give out from underneath him. Based on his friends’ similar stances, they felt just as stiff as he did.

Jade grinned at them sympathetically.

“You get used to it,” he promised. “CloudWing and I are going to scout the area. Why don’t you guys find something to eat and rest up a bit?”

As Jade took off into the sky, everyone but Alex collapsed onto the soft grass. Compared to the SpineDragon Kingdom, it felt like a cloud.

“Why don’t I…look for food?” Alex suggested, remembering Jade’s words. Everyone considers you a little weird.

Why?

Nobody argued, and he tramped off into the forest in search of some wild berries or nuts that they could eat. If he couldn’t find any, they could always cook some fish as a last resort. Alex didn’t like seafood, but it was better than nothing.

The smells and sounds of the Surface distracted him from his task. Alex found himself pausing to try and spot every bird, or feeling the rough bark of the trees. He even picked up some grass and smelled it, enjoying the odor—a kind of earthen smell.

He tiptoed up to a small rock and turned it over quickly, finding many wonders underneath. Strange creatures with shells and many legs scuttled off in different directions or burrowed into the ground. A thin, slimy, pink thing inched its way into the grass slowly. A small anomaly with a body divided into three parts wiggled some appendages on its head at him.

Once, Alex spotted a different creature—a furry, large one, not a small, shelled one. It had branches on its head and white spots on its brown back. Alex froze, wondering if it was dangerous or poisonous. It turned its head to look at him with dark eyes, then frolicked away gracefully. It had odd feet—almost like little stones on the end of each of its four legs.

Occasionally, Alex found a few nuts or small berries, but not enough for his friends. He decided to eat those.

When the sun started to come over the treetops, Alex finally stumbled into a small clearing filled with large, bright red berries. The stems were thorny, but the fruit smelled delicious. Alex made a makeshift pouch of some large leaves and stuffed the berries into them.

Alex held up one of the sweet-smelling fruits close to his face. “I need a name for you guys,” he murmured. “How about…” he studied the food. It was an oblong shape, and blood red. “Ovalberries!” Alex decided. “There, that suits you.”

He came back to the clearing where his friends were, sound asleep. This time he had taken no detours, except to scoop a few fish out of the lake.

“Food!” Alex cried, setting his pouch and the fish on the ground. “Come and get some!”

Gradually, everyone rose groggily to their feet and came over. The dragons divided the fish evenly and devoured them immediately.

“Wow,” Turquoise said, popping ovalberries into her mouth. “Where’d you find these, Alex?”

“A clearing in the forest,” Alex said nonchalantly. “I’ve already had some nuts, so you guys help yourselves.”

A shadow came over them, and the next moment Jade was beside them. “CloudWing and I didn’t spot any StealthDragons around,” he informed them, declining the berries that Turquoise offered him. “But we found where Pyrite is being held prisoner.” He proceeded to tell them about the hollowed-out mountain swarming with StealthDragon assassins.

“Sounds like fun,” Alex said, grinning. “Ready to kick some StealthDragon butt?”

Nobody cracked a smile.

“It isn’t that easy,” Jade said seriously. “We’re a company of ten, eleven if you count Carrion. How are we going to beat an entire army of StealthDragons?”

Suddenly, Sapphire swooned. She turned deathly pale, and then muttered, “Don’t…feel…well…” before collapsing onto the ground.

“Sapphire!” everyone cried, gathering around her limp body. She started shaking and sweating like crazy, but her forehead was cold.

“What happened?” Roewyn called, running up to them with the rest of the dragons behind her. Tanzanite took one look at her friend’s frail state and growled with anguish.

“We were making plans and then suddenly Sapphire just fainted,” Andy explained. Suddenly, Turquoise turned the same color as Sapphire. She just had time to mutter, “Oh poop,” before falling next to Sapphire.

“Ack!” Jade said frantically. “What’s going on? Why are they like this?”

Andy doubled over and dropped to his knees, wheezing. “Berries,” he croaked. “Must…be…the berries…you guys…not…affected…didn’t eat…” he took a shuddering breath. “Poison,” he whispered with wide eyes before going limp.

For a moment, everyone froze.

Then, Jade turned to Alex with a murderous look in his eyes. “You did this?” he spat furiously. “I was beginning to trust you, Alex!”

Alex backed away, afraid. “I didn’t—this wasn’t—I-I didn’t mean—I’m sorry!” he stammered. “I forgot to check for poison—”

“FORGOT?” Jade shouted, standing up. There was a slightly crazed look in his face that Alex didn’t like. “They’re going to DIE and it’s YOUR FAULT!”

The dragons gathered behind Jade, growling at Alex. Even Carrion, the sweet, harmless SpineDragon, was baring his teeth.

Jade drew his sword and advanced towards him.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said, backing away faster now. “I’ll fix this. You’ll see.”

He turned his back on his dying friends and ran into the forest, determined not to let Jade see that his cheeks were wet.

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

Alex wished he could punish himself for eternity.

Stupid, stupid! He chided himself over and over again. How could you forget about poison? Now they’ll never trust you, ever again.

He ran through the forest, ignoring all the sights and sounds he had wondered at previously. He needed to go south, until he reached a mountain range. Alex was lucky they were so close, or he would’ve needed a dragon.

He was running from his own friends.

The realization hit him like a falling stalactite. Jade would probably hunt him down to exact his revenge before rescuing Pyrite. It was only logical, wasn’t it? After all, hadn’t Alex just murdered most of his best friends? Alex hadn’t seen the guy as the bloodthirsty type, but Alex had just killed off all of his friends. Wouldn’t Alex do the same?

The thought chilled him to his bone marrow. Hunted. He was being hunted.

He pushed through a few brambles and found himself in the Ovalberry clearing. He tried to ignore the ripe, juicy fruit, and started walking through the bushes. The more he smelled the sweet, compelling fumes, the more his blood began to boil. Finally, he stopped halfway through.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!” he cried, kicking and uprooting the plants as he walked along. As he yanked them mercilessly from their dirt home, they shriveled and turned black.

When Alex reached the other side of the clearing, he turned back and looked at the carnage with satisfaction. The area was unrecognizable, with the dried remains of the killer plants lying dejectedly on the ground, shredded to pieces. Alex smirked at the plants.

“Not so delicious now,” he told them. Then he ran back into the forest, hoping it hadn’t cost him valuable time. Would Jade catch up to him, or would he be tending to their friends? Could they be saved?

The sun was starting to drift lower in the sky when Alex stopped momentarily to rest in another clearing. He was slightly worried since the area was open to the sky, but his legs were starting to strain under his weight. Apparently, he still had not yet fully recovered from his long walk in the SpineDragon territory.

Alex sighed. This was not what he had planned on things to be. A happy reunion, maybe, but not this. What if Turquoise was gone for good this time, and it was all because of Alex?

What would he tell his parents? Could he even go back to the Caves, knowing that his sister was dead, and it was all his fault?

Suddenly, a shadow fell over him.

“There you are,” a cold voice said. Jade landed next to him on CloudWing.

Alex jumped to his feet and faced them, panic building in his chest. Jade had found him!

Jade slid off of CloudWing and regarded Alex. “We’ve been looking for you.”

“What for?” Alex asked.

“To help on our quest, obviously,” Jade responded. “Not that I trust you the length of my fingernail, but the others are in no shape to help.”

Alex’s spirit’s lifted. “They’re okay?” he inquired hopefully.

“Not that you would care.”

“Look, I didn’t—”

“Save it. Come on, hop on back. Hopefully you don’t mess this up, too.” Alex was about to climb onto CloudWing’s back when another shadow fell upon them.

“Roewyn?” Alex asked incredulously. The SpineDragon landed in the clearing right next to them.

“Hey Alex,” Roewyn said. “I thought you could use a ride.”

“But—I thought—”

“I believe you are innocent,” Roewyn amended. “There’s no way you would purposefully poison your friends. I managed to heal them, but they need to recover. I don’t think you did it on purpose.”

“You don’t know Alex,” Jade said darkly. “When we lived in the caves, he purposefully put some liquid in the Elders’ soup that had them sick for days.”

Alex winced. “Okay, I did that one time!”

Roewyn spread her claws in a whatever you say gesture. “C’mon, Alex. Let’s go save Pyrite.”

***********

The mountains were farther than Alex had previously thought. If he had tried to make it on foot, it would have taken him half a day.

Alex didn’t try to talk to Jade. He was smart enough to figure out that his words were not wanted. He told Roewyn his side of the story, though. He was grateful for the dragon’s company.

After about thirty minutes, they reached the side of Volcano Ridge. It stretched in both directions, west and east, as far as Alex could see. A few of the mountains had trails of lava flowing down their sides, which made Alex want to run as far away as he could. What would happen to them if one of the volcanoes erupted?

“So, what are we looking for?” Alex asked, fidgeting nervously with his jacket zipper. “Like, a hole, or a tunnel, or…”

“A tunnel,” Jade answered, scanning the side of the mountain. It might’ve been Alex’s imagination, but he thought Jade’s scowl had lessened slightly since they had first left the clearing. He decided not to try his luck.

“There,” said Roewyn, pointing. Hallway up the mountain, a carefully hidden cave entrance could be seen. Had Roewyn not pointed it out, Alex would have overlooked it easily.

They flew up to the entrance and landed inside, pushing back a thin layer of camouflage netting that hid the tunnel. It was pitch black, and Roewyn breathed fire to see how far it went as they walked.

The tunnel twisted and turned, eventually opening up to reveal a huge cavern—like a hollowed-out mountain. StealthDragons flew to and fro from ledge to ledge in swarms. In the middle of the hollow, a dark structure was built. The entire thing gave Alex goosebumps.

“There,” Roewyn pointed to the bottom of the structure, where a small hole was barely visible. Alex didn’t see any dragons flying in or out of it.

“Are you sure that’s the dungeons?” Alex asked.

“No,” Roewyn replied simply. “But it’s better than nothing, and it looks easy to sneak into.”

They flew down to the tunnel entrance, which was oddly small—barely big enough for Roewyn and CloudWing to walk behind Alex and Jade. The passage was dim, with very few torches that gave off creepy, weird shadows. Everything was eerily quiet.

The group moved along in the semi-darkness, occasionally glancing behind them to see if there were any StealthDragons on their tails. So far, so good.

The tunnel suddenly broadened into a large, spacious room. Torches on alcoves lined the perimeter, which was about the size of Alex’s living room, though it was still very dim. There was another hallway beyond this room, but it wasn’t lit and smelled musty, like no one had been here in a long time.

Then, a small, scuffling noise could be heard from the way the group came from.