Once they found the entrance to the palace and were ready to go, a LavaDragon escorted them to the Surface. It felt nice to have the sun on his cheeks and a breeze through his hair, Jade had to admit. He hadn’t even realized how hot it was in the palace until he came out of there. It felt like he had taken off three layers of clothing.
“Wow,” Turquoise said, squinting at the sunlight. “Bright.”
“So, where to now?” Alex asked.
“The ForestDragons,” Sapphire said matter-of-factly.
“And where would they be?”
“In the forest.”
“Okay, which one?” Alex was clearly losing patience.
“The Jungleswamp.” Sapphire chewed on the edge of her pencil nervously, looking down at her map of Terrarestria. “Only problem is, I don’t know exactly where in the Jungleswamp. It stretches for hundreds of miles, filled with deadly snakes, carnivorous plants, giant spiders the size of your head, poisonous frogs, and BloodDragons.” She looked close to panicking. “I just don’t know. What if one of us falls into quicksand? What if a BloodDragon spots us and eats us? What if we run out of food? What if—”
“Let’s not worry about the what-ifs,” Andy said calmly. “Right now, we need to focus on what we’re going to say to convince the ForestDragons to be on our side.”
“Right.” Sapphire took a deep breath.
“Actually, I know of a place where we could get extra food and water, stored in waterproof packages,” Pathtalon butted in. “Roewyn and I used to go there all the time.”
“Wait.” Pyrite held up a hand. “Go where?”
“Trade Island,” Pathtalon said. CloudWing drew breath sharply.
“No,” CloudWing said firmly. “We can’t go there.”
“Why not?” Pathtalon challenged.
“It’s too dangerous,” CloudWing countered.
“Okay, but what is it?” Pyrite asked.
“It’s a place everyone goes to trade,” Pathtalon answered. “Food, water, weapons, pets—everything anyone could possibly need.”
“And it’s filled with thieves, assassins, and who knows what else,” CloudWing said. “We can’t go there. I won’t put everyone’s lives in jeopardy.”
“CloudWing,” Shadowstar walked up to him and put her tail over his. He had his talons pressed to his forehead, as if he were getting a headache. “It sounds like it’s the place we need. Remember, we have powers. You can turn invisible, shoot lightning, and control the air. Pathtalon, Roewyn, and Carrion can shoot a large number of spikes. Tanzanite and Erinite can grow crystals out of the ground and make shields. Jade and Pyrite have swords, as does Andy. Together, we can take any battle.”
When she put it together like that, Jade thought it did sound like they were a powerful force. He looked around at their group and saw determined and loyal faces.
The faces of warriors, he thought.
“We can do this.” Jade stepped forwards. “We can disguise ourselves. Do humans go there?”
Pathtalon nodded. “There are fewer of them than dragons, but everyone takes advantage of Trade Island.”
“Then let’s go,” Turquoise and Alex said in unison. They both looked impatient, fidgeting and fiddling with random things. Their hands appeared to have minds of their own, constantly needing something to keep them occupied.
“Hold up!” Pyrite held up a hand before the twins could hop on their dragons. “Where is the Island?”
Pathtalon walked over to Sapphire’s map and put a talon over the sea right next to the Jungleswamp. “Actually, it’s on our way. Just a few days away.”
“Then let’s get going,” Alex said, with a sparkle in his eye. “I’ve never seen the sea before.”
************
They flew all day, only stopping to get water—not even food. By sundown, Jade was as hungry as a starving dragon, and he was sure the others felt the same. But they couldn’t afford to waste time, not if the world was going to end soon.
They landed in the PhantomDragon Kingdom, which was cold and snowy. Jade had seen snow on Volcano Ridge, but never in this quantity before. When he hopped off CloudWing, he sunk up to his knees in the cold, wet substance. The freezing wind seemed to cut his face and neck with ice, blowing snow into his pockets, sleeves, and boots. He’d never experienced cold like this before.
“T-t-t-t-turquoise found-d-d-d a c-c-c-cave,” a shivering Pyrite told him, zipping up her jacket and putting her hands in her pockets. Jade could only nod and follow her.
He offered an arm to Pyrite and hugged her, sharing their body heat, as they made their way to where Alex was standing on top of a pile of snow, waving his arms and legs like a complete goofball. Turquoise snuck behind him and dumped snow down his coat, and he fell into the snowdrift, his legs sticking into the air and kicking wildly. Jade could hear his muffled yelps as Turquoise laughed at him, pointing. Alex’s leg kicked her leg, and she went under too.
Jade chuckled and shook his head, and Pyrite did the same, grinning. He couldn’t believe the twins, joking around at a miserable time like this. Pyrite, CloudWing, Shadowstar, and Jade reached the summit and helped pull them out of the snow. Alex sat on it and brushed frost out of his hair.
Turquoise slugged him in the arm. He punched her back. She did the same, and soon Jade and Pyrite were holding them apart as they tried to reach each other, flailing their arms.
“Guys,” Jade said, trying extremely hard not to laugh. “Keep it together. Where is that cave you were talking about?”
Turquoise pointed to the other side of the snowdrift, where the others had gathered. Jade carefully slid down, then offered a hand to help Pyrite. They reached the bottom of the hill and brushed the snow from their jeans.
Alex slid down in front of Turquoise, then offered a hand to help her. As she tried to grab it to help herself down, he snatched it away. Turquoise did a summersault down the hill, past Jade and Pyrite, and came up spitting snow out of her mouth. Alex laughed at her as she glared at him, but Turquoise couldn’t help joining in, slowly.
They all went into the mouth of the cave and piled snow up to the entrance. It took a while, but soon they were entirely sealed in except for a small slit at the top for oxygen.
“What were you two hooligans doing?” Andy asked the twins.
“We were settling an absolutely serious matter that could not wait another second,” Alex said. Turquoise nodded soberly. Then they both ruined the effect by bursting out in laughter.
Shadowstar blinked. “What is a ‘hooligan’?”
Sapphire’s head popped up from behind Tanzanite. “According to The Official Terrarestrian Dictionary of Insults: From Arrogant Pompous Worm-Head to Zebra-Spitting Turd-Face, the definition of a ‘hooligan’ is: someone who acts ridiculous and jokes at inopportune times, or who fools around and never takes things seriously—otherwise known as a person of low intelligence.”
The head of Sapphire popped back behind Tanzanite as if this were nothing unusual. Shadowstar blinked again. “Um, okay.”
“Let’s start a fire,” Pyrite suggested, sitting down on the stony ground. She clearly did not find anything unusual in what Sapphire said, so Jade followed suit.
“We don’t have any wood,” Sapphire pointed out, coming over to sit with Pyrite and Jade. “Even then, the fire would use up all of the oxygen in here. We’ll just have to rely on body heat.”
The cave was big enough for all of them with a little room to spare.
“Roewyn, I’m hungry,” Carrion whined. Jade had almost forgotten about the little guy; he was so quiet.
“I know, Carrion,” Roewyn said gently. “We’ll get food in the morning. Hopefully, it will be warmer by then.”
They couldn’t go to sleep immediately, so they sat and talked for a while. Then, Sapphire stood up and gasped. “Guys, look!”
They looked at the window slit and couldn’t believe their eyes. There was green light outside of their cave, bright and flashing. Jade could also hear singing, an eerie melody that brought shivers on his back, but at the same time it brought warmth to his heart.
“What is it?” Turquoise asked. They all rushed to the slit and carved a small window out of it.
The clouds and wind had passed, although it was still cold. The stars were out, blinking brilliantly. But that wasn’t what had caught their eyes.
There were hundreds and hundreds of PhantomDragons flying through the sky. It was they who had been singing the melody, and it was pure and beautiful. Jade couldn’t make out the words, because it was in a language he couldn’t understand. The dragons wheeled and dived, twisted and turned, elegant and peaceful.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
And, dancing and flickering right above them, was mix of green and purple (with hints of pink and blue) flames—it seemed—stretched to cover the entire sky, and lighting up everything below it with a strange and splendid glow.
“Oh,” Shadowstar sighed, looking with wide eyes. They were all enchanted with the beauty. “It’s the Flames of Starlight!”
**********
They fell asleep to the gentle glow of the Flames of Starlight, and woke in the morning to a dark, stormy day—much darker than the evening before, and quite cold and windy.
Jade still couldn’t shake the images of the Flames out of his head. Shadowstar had explained that it was created by the reflecting of light and a bunch of other things that only Sapphire seemed to understand. All he knew was that it was natural for the tundra to look like that every night, and that the PhantomDragons cherished and loved the glow, singing to it each night.
Turquoise peered out of the tiny window-slit that they had made. “Should we hole up for the day, or go outside and brave the storm?”
Pyrite and Jade glanced at each other, and he knew they were both thinking the same thing. What if this storm turned out to be just like the one that had separated Turquoise and Sapphire from Pyrite? What if it was worse? They’d had bad experiences with storms before, and Jade didn’t know if they had the courage to do it again.
“We should stay here,” Jade decided. Turquoise pouted but didn’t argue, and sat down again.
“I’m hungry,” Carrion said softly.
Sapphire rifled through her magic satchel and brought up a stuffed moose head, with the horns still attached. It was huge; Jade had no idea a vegetarian animal could be that big.
Everyone stared at her.
“What?” she asked. “Oh. Hold on.” She tossed the moose trophy over her shoulder and rifled through her pack again, pulling out a bow and arrow. “Nope. No, nope on a rope. No, no, no.”
She pulled out several more things that were much too big to fit in the satchel, tossing them over her shoulder. Finally, she pulled out a whole salmon. It appeared to still be alive, and it was soaking wet and flopping around.
“Yay!” Carrion grabbed it and started eating, quickly snarfing down the whole thing.
Sapphire cleared up everything she had tossed around and stuffed it into her bag with difficulty.
“I didn’t know you fit all of that stuff in there,” Pyrite said in awe.
“I need to toss it out,” Sapphire said. “I was going to do it in the palace, but I couldn’t find anywhere to put it all.”
“Could I—I mean, could a person—hypothetically, of course—fit in there?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. “Hypothetically.”
“You are not going in there,” Turquoise said, folding her arm and turning away, closing her eyes. She opened one. “At least, not before I do.”
“I guess.” Sapphire fingered the baby dragon tooth that kept the satchel from opening. “I don’t know its limits, or how much space is in it.”
They did their best to stay put, but Alex and Turquoise were practically bouncing off the walls.
“Alright,” Jade decided. “Let’s get out and get some fresh air for a couple minutes. Make sure not to draw attention to yourselves.”
“YES!” Alex said, punching the air. “Let’s gooooo—”
“That’s drawing attention to yourself, Alex.”
Alex went silent, and they broke down the ice wall. Once it was halfway down, he and Turquoise vaulted over it and ran into the snow.
Outside, it was cold and dreary. The clouds hung all the way to the ground, and the sunlight had been replaced with darkness. Jade could barely see his own hands, and he was beginning to regret his decision to come outside.
Luckily, everyone stuck close together. Most of the team stayed in a circle, watching Turquoise and Alex make snow people and hit each other with snowballs. Sapphire had made a life-sized snow castle, complete with battlements, windows, an armory stocked with ice armor and icicle swords, stables, walls, swinging doors, a moat, a drawbridge, a prison, and several other features. Jade decided to stay in there instead of in the cold fog, and everyone else followed him in.
“It’s sad that we’ll have to break all of this down,” Pyrite remarked solemnly, looking around at the castle. “We don't want to get spotted.”
Sapphire shrugged. “It was easy to build. I just wish we had more time, and that the weather was nicer.”
“OI!” Alex popped in the doorway, a mound of snow on his head. “Are you guys partying without me?”
“No,” Sapphire replied, giggling. “You have a snow hat on your head.”
“It’s heroic, is it not?” Alex said, puffing out his chest. The snow hat heroically tumbled down the side of his head onto the ground.
There was a muffled call from outside. “Hey! Can you open the—”
Then, a loud scream ensued. “What is that? Guys? Help!”
Everyone scrambled to their feet and ran outside.
Turquoise was on her rump in the snow, looking at something in the fog that Jade couldn’t see. She looked terrified.
There was a loud growl and then a snarl, and a shape emerged from the fog.
Jade didn’t know what to think except pure terror. Every thought and muscle in his body screamed RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN GET OUT OF HERE YOU MORON RUN RUN RUN RUN AND DON’T STOP EVER. Jade didn’t know how Turquoise could stand it.
Whatever it was, it was shaped like a dragon. It had eyes, pure white fiery eyes that pierced his soul but seemed comfortingly intelligent, like this creature knew the value of life and didn’t kill for no reason. Its claws were razor sharp, sharper than Pathtalon’s spikes. Jade was pretty sure he saw a silvery-blue, misty aura around the creature, along with weird symbols and shapes floating around it. Occasionally, a small lightning bolt hit the ground in front of it, or it would phase in and out of existence for a split second. It’s horns were oddly shaped, but maybe that was the misty aura distorting them.
It growled something in an unintelligible language, tilting its misty head. What was it saying? Jade felt the adrenaline and fear run through his veins. Would it attack? How could they defeat something made of mist?
Sapphire sidled up next to him and whispered, “Cayolavae. That’s a cayolavae, a GhostDragon. I’ve never seen one before. Where’s its PhantomDragon partner, I wonder?”
“What can they do?” Jade hissed quietly. He was glad Sapphire knew that information.
“Most of their abilities are unknown. It's rumored that they can shoot lightning, although I’m not sure that’s true. They can supposedly phase in and out of objects and turn invisible. They're practically impossible to defeat because they can set the circumstances so that your sword passes right through it.”
The GhostDragon switched suddenly to dragon. “Who ARE you guys?”
Its voice was clearer than Jade had thought, and female. She had an accent that he couldn’t place—slightly foreign sounding, as if dragon was her second language.
“ACK!” The GhostDragon said suddenly as another lightning bolt smashed at her feet. "STOP THAT, lightning bolt—er, thingy. I don’t NEED DRAMATIC ENTRANCES right now. GO AWAY. Horn pulling, tail thrusting—NO, STOP IT—NO MORE LIGHTNING BOLTS! There.”
“Um, what—I mean, who are you?” Turquoise asked tentatively.
“Oh!” The GhostDragon said. “You speak DRAGON! How, um, SPECTACULARESTIC! Hello! I am Aether the Cayolavae. You may call me Aether.”
“Well hello, Aether!” Turquoise said, grinning. “I’m Turquoise the Human. You may call me Turquoise. This is my brother, Alexandrite. Call him Alex. This is Andy. That’s Pyrite, that’s Jade, and that’s CloudWing. That’s Shadowstar, that’s Pathtalon, That’s Roewyn, that little guy over there with red flesh (don’t worry it’s just salmon) all over his face is Carrion, and the CrystalDragons are Tanzanite and Erinite.”
“Hi everyone!” Aether replied cheerfully. “Mind if I ask—what brings such a big, odd group here in the cold Arctic region? You dragon types are not exactly ALLIES to PhantomDragons. And what tribe is that dragon—Shadowstar, I think?”
Falling stalactites! Jade cursed himself. Of course Aether would tell that Shadowstar was different. The thing was, should they tell a random scary GhostDragon about Shadowstar’s powers?
He looked at Shadowstar, and she nodded slightly. He made a quick choice.
“Shadowstar is a new tribe,” he explained. “They are called StarDragons. She has the power of prophecy.”
Aether frowned. “StarDragons aren’t NEW. They've been around for almost a thousand years! Although, it’s true that the other tribes don’t know about them.”
“How did you know about them?” Turquoise asked conspicuously.
Aether studied her claws absently. “GhostDragons know things. But some of those things are required of them not to tell others about.”
It was a confusing sentence, but Jade got the gist of it: Aether was hiding things, but she had been sworn to secrecy and couldn’t tell them any information.
“Where’s your PhantomDragon companion?” Sapphire asked.
Aether ducked her head solemnly. “She died.”
“Oh.” Sapphire bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry for asking.”
“It’s okay.” Aether looked up. “She died a long time ago, from a StealthDragon. I got him back, the toad sniffing dung-smelling worm headed smug son of a slimy sea snail!” Suddenly she smiled slyly. “Oh yes, I got him back alright. But the village won’t except me. SUPPOSEDLY, what I did was ‘TOO VIOLENT’; if you call chopping off his wings and hanging him upside-down over a large crevice while slicing off each of his spines and limbs one by one VIOLENT. Those cloud chasers, the hypocrites!” Aether snorted in defiance.
“Um…” Shadowstar slowly sheltered Carrion behind her and covered his eyes with one of her wings. “Maybe those weren’t your best thoughts…”
“Do you—” Jade stopped, unsure of whether to procced, but he did anyway. “Do you want to join our team?”
Everyone else looked at him sharply, but Jade just shot them a slightly apologetic look. He liked Aether, and thought she could be a valuable team player. Plus, she had a little bit to learn about violence, and who better to teach her than a team of good people and dragons?
And, according to Shadowstar’s prophecy, they still needed three more members. He remembered the line: There were ten to start the war, but fourteen shall end it. Why couldn’t a terrifying GhostDragon be one of the fourteen to change the world?
Also, there was her name: Aether. He recalled the ancient fables his mother used to tell him when he was a young child, of a group of warriors who defended Terrarestria and rode on dragons, doing good and banishing evil. He remembered his mom telling him about them. Momentarily, Jade found himself in a flashback.
************
Jade’s mother’s voice came back to him, from many years ago. “These warriors, Jade, the valiant dragon friends, do you know what they were called?”
Jade heard himself answer, “I don’t know, Mama. Tell me!”
His mother giggled. “Aetherites. They were called Aetherites, because the Aether is somewhere no one has ever gone before or explored; so the meaning of the word is “secret,” “unknown”, or “untold.” Legend has it that the Aether is an island, where creatures made of Mist and smoke dwell along with the skeletons of dragon heroes. They know every little thing that goes on in this world, dragon and human. Many have tried to find the island, but it is impossible. It has never been charted on a map, and even if someone did land on that island, it is said that they spoke another language, a magic language.”
“There’s no such thing as magic, though, right Mama?” Jade asked. “They won’t come after us, right Mama?”
His mother set Jade on her lap and stroked his hair. “Legends are all based in truth, Jade. No one knows whether the True Aetherites are peaceful or not, but I think they won’t betray their secrets to the rest of the world by trying to take over.”
“You’ll be with me, forever?”
Jade’s mother chuckled. “I promise, Jade, I’ll never leave you. I’ll always be here, forever.”
*************
Jade shook his head, breaking the flashback. He focused on Aether.
“You’re asking ME to join your team?” Aether cried in surprise, her face lightning up with joy. “ME? Really?”
Jade nodded. There was no turning back now. From the look on Aether’s face, she was delighted.
“YESS!!!” Aether shouted. “OF COURSE I’ll join your team!! I’ve never been part of a team, you know.” She scratched her chin with one talon. “Oh well. I’ll DO my BEST. I’ll do GREAT!”
Jade laughed. “Yes, Aether. You will do great, and we’ll all be by your side.”
Aether looked at him with gratefulness, then turned to the others.
“Can someone RIDE me? I want someone to RIDE me! I’ve never had someone RIDE me!” Aether hopped around excitedly, her wings buzzing and getting pieces of mist everywhere.
“I know!” Andy said. “Why doesn’t Alex ride her? They’re perfect for each other!”
Everyone looked at Alex, who was glaring at a pile of snow and eating it in turns, not paying attention to any of them. He looked up, a white crystal beard on is chin. “Huh? A what now? Sorry, I got bored.”
“You should ride Aether.” The more Jade thought about it, the surer he became that Aether and Alex were meant for each other. They both had the same kind of nervous twitch energy, they just expressed it differently—Aether with her loud talking, Alex with his jokes.
“Okay.” Alex brushed his mouth and hands off. “Hello, Aether. Ready to roll?”
“OH YEAH!” Aether grabbed Alex and swung him onto her misty back. Jade didn’t know how he stayed there, but he looked secure. “Get ready for the TIME OF YOUR LIFFEEE!!”