Roewyn wasn’t ready for this.

She’d been taking care of Carrion, waiting for Pathtalon to be back from spying. Carrion had been bragging loudly to the fish.

“Oh yes,” he’d said to a cross-eyed salmon. “I is very fierce dragon! No dragon fiercest as I is! You floppy. Not like me. I spiky and dangerous! No one crosses Carrion, nope! They all too scared! They run away when I go rawr!” He pounced on the fish, but it was too quick for him.

“Fish no like speech,” he’d explained to Roewyn. “Fish too stupid.”

Roewyn had giggled.

Everything had been fine.

Jade, Pyrite, and Turquoise had walked towards them, done with their map-observing. They were almost ready to fly to the Jungleswamp.

And then everything had gone wrong.

Silver dragons appeared out of nowhere, breathing their freezefire on everything. Turquoise dived into the bushes to escape, and never came out. Pyrite and Jade rolled behind a nearby stone.

Roewyn bared her teeth and shot her spikes at every nearest attacker. Her foes fell, but there were too many for her to handle alone. Carrion tried to help, and his meek attempts almost made her choke with emotion.

“Go, Carrion!” Roewyn roared. Carrion scurried into the river and disappeared into the mud.

Roewyn breathed fire on the nearest StealthDragon. It did nothing to his scales, but one of his eyes caught fire. He went down, shrieking in agony.

CloudWing appeared and disappeared, shooting lightning and tripping the StealthDragons with bursts of wind. Shadowstar was holding her own, trying to find weak points in the StealthDragons’ armor.

Alex, Sapphire, and Turquoise ran out from the forest with their respectable dragons and Alastor. Turquoise drew her sword. Andy was right behind them, along with Pathtalon.

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Roewyn’s mind ran through their options. At best, they could take out about half of the StealthDragons.

“Pathtalon!” She had to yell to get her friend’s attention. “Take them! Go!”

Pathtalon started to protest. Roewyn fought her way over to him.

“Look,” she growled. “There’s no time. I’ll distract them. Listen, Pathtalon. You must fulfill that prophecy. It will speed you on your journey home. Home, Pathtalon. My only request is that you make your way back.”

Pathtalon nodded grimly, a tear sliding down his cheek. Wiping it away, he called to the others.

Roewyn turned to face her opponents. She blasted fire all around them, creating a ring of flames. Then she shot spikes in all directions, lashing out and breathing more fire.

“Get her! We have to find the other Legends before they do! We must hurry!” what appeared to be the leader shouted. Roewyn saw Pathtalon’s surprised face before he leapt into the bushes. Good, he’d gotten that information.

“You’ll never get them,” Roewyn snarled.

A small body sidled up to her.

Carrion?

“Carrion, go.” She whispered softly. She spewed more fire at the StealthDragons to keep them at bay, then looked down at the wriggling dragonet.

“I won’t,” Carrion said. “I won’t. Roewyn, you promised, remember? You says you never leaves me. I remember it. You and Pathtalon find me in an alley. Pathtalon says, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.’ And you says, ‘I’ll never leave you, Carrion. I promises.’”

Roewyn suddenly realized what Carrion was doing. A dragon could never break a promise, no matter how big or small. It went against one of the ancient laws that dragons were bound by. It was said that if a dragon broke a promise, they would be hunted down forever and killed by Boneva to become one of them. Every dragon was scared of the Boneva. It was the most terrible fate any dragon could ever imagine, and Carrion had saved Roewyn from it.

She was weighed down by emotion. She’d never told Carrion why she’d decided to keep him, but Roewyn remembered him from the palace. After he’d barely hatched, his mother and father had sold him to a slave trader for money that they didn’t need. That was why he was an orphan.

Roewyn felt tears slip out of her eyes. She knew there was no convincing the adorable SpineDragon to run away. “We fierce dragons,” she said, hugging him tightly.

“Fierce dragons,” Carrion agreed. Then he turned and shot his spines directly into the leader’s eye and shot fire at his talons, and Roewyn joined him.

Fierce dragons, was her last thought.