Fall In The Dark Lair

"Glitter stones? So that's what they're called. And they're priceless? We have found about 5 of them." I told Trisha. "You can stay here if you would like to sleep for awhile and as for repaying us maybe you could bring us deer every once in awhile?" said Antonis.

"Sure. If I'm correct, these stones just might hold magical properties. I've always wanted to experiment with them." I jumped to my feet, picked up the stone, and blew a little flame on it. It lit up and flame danced inside it. Then, I reached and picked it up wit my jaws, and whispering words quietly. Then, with sudden shock, I looked around, scared. To me, the world was whirling around me. Not knowing exactly what was happening, I spit the stone out. The whirling and spinning stopped, and my vision focused. Snarling and spitted out bits of leaf that had somehow gotten in my mouth, I sputtered, "So much for magic practice. I think I'd keep away from breathing fire on these stone, hatchlings. Not that you were old enough to, anyway. And don't try to fly, you'll just hurt your selves because your wings aren't fully developed."Shaking my head, I asked, "Any more questions?"

We were all amazed at our good fortune, having magic, rare stones was beyond our comprehension. I was wondering that maybe our parents had been to the Water Lair and brought them back and buried them before they disappeared. I told Trisha my thoughts and then wondered out loud, "Maybe some kind of magic in the stones took our parents away and if we can find the magic spell, maybe it will bring them back. How do we learn? Maybe someday when we're bigger we can do some kind of magic to bring them back. What do you think Trisha?"

"What, your parents are gone? Strange. I think you should not use magic, and if anything I should try the magic. Probably dangerous though, so until then you just worry about living your own lives, OK?" I then politely asked, "Mind if I take this stone? I'll head to the Water Lair. No following me, I don't want you getting trapped with magic." I still expected one of the hatchlings to follow me, though, because they were young. I took to the air, holding the stone gingerly in my mouth.

Antonis was tempted to follow Trisha as she left our lair and flapped his wings a few times but then had second thoughts. I watched him as he turned around and came back to join us. "Antonis, what were you thinking? That was dangerous! You could have been lost out there. You heard what Trisha said, she told us we shouldn't follow her!", I cried. "I couldn't help myself, I had to try, I really want to fly and explore". I was thinking there were plenty of places to explore right here and we could dig for more of the glitter stones and I shared this with my big brother. He agreed and we decided after scouring the cave for dinner we would go check out the other tunnels and caves with our brothers and sisters. Maybe we could find something besides spinners to eat too. We were all thinking about
Trisha as we dug for stones, we would miss her and hoped she would visit again soon.

"This isn't fair, I'm the oldest, if I want to I can follow Trisha. Skylar can't tell me what to do, she's too bossy." Antonis thought. He quietly started walking out of the lair toward the opening and saw Siris watching him. Siris looked at him with a puzzled face. Antonis understood Siris might speak at any moment and didn't want to alert anyone else of his plan so he said to him, "I want to go and explore and I also want to find Trisha, I think maybe she can help us find our parents. Don't tell Skylar or she'll demand that I stay, ok?" Siris was very young and looked up to his older brother and trusted him with all his heart so nodded, understanding and quietly went back to digging, pretending not to see Antonis leave.

I dug and dug with no success and looked up. I noticed it seemed to get quiet the last few minutes and I turned around to see that Antonis was gone! "Antonis! Antonis!" I shouted. I looked at my brothers and sisters, "Did you see where Antonis went?". Siris, the youngest brother looked at my sheepishly, "Um...aaa... i think... he...left." "What? Where did he go??" "He made me promise not to tell you, but I think ...now...um.. he went to follow Trisha." Siris said struggling not to cry as he realized the danger his big brother could be in for.

"Oh, this is bad, very bad. I've got to go find him", I thought. Turning to Jasper,the next born after me I said, "You will have to be in charge and take care of Cami and Siris. I've got to go and find Antonis". I quickly left, wondering if I should go left or right out of the cave.

I took a chance and turned right, out of the cave. I walked and walked for what seemed like an endless amount of time, and my eyes adjusted to being outside the Dark Lair because things were very bright as I traveled.

At night I lay down to sleep, it was peaceful and quiet were i was and as I went to sleep I drifted off to the sound of water lapping against a shore.

I woke up with a start, my stomach growling because I was so hungry. I looked around at this beautiful place and was amazed. There were glitter stones on the shoreline, "this must be the Water Lair that Trisha told us about". As i searched the area I found some small fish along the water line and tried one out. "These are delicious!" i thought to myself, "and now that I'm full I must continue to search for Antonis".

The colors went away, revealing the Dark Lair. I was still laughing for no reason at how close I -and Skylar and Antonis for that matter- had come to being eaten by Ackos. Finally, I stopped laughed, and turned around to face Antonis and Skylar, who both looked scared. I wasn't surprised, it had taken me a long time to get used to laughing off events where I almost died.

One moment we were in the Death Sea with the terrible Ackos, who wanted to eat us and the next moment our friend and protector, Trisha said the secret words and we were back safe at home.

I walked forward and looked at the younger hatchlings Skylar and Antonis had mentioned once. My right wing was still torn and it stung and my right side right quite badly, but the pain was numbed by the fact Ackos's teeth weren't stabbing me right now.

Jasper, Cami and Siris ran towards us, happy and relieved. "We're so glad you're back and safe," Jasper said, "But you don't look so good Trisha." Cami and Siris were so happy to see Antonis and Slylar and Trisha and were both jumping up and down and turning somersaults like little Dark Lair dragons sometimes do when they're happy.
"Well, we were moments from death when Trisha saved us from the most terrible, frightening dragon you can imagine. We would have been dead for sure." I said. Cami and Siris stopped their acrobatics at once. "What happened?" they asked in unison.
"It's a long story and I don't want to scare you little ones so we'll leave that for another time, but if it wasn't for Trisha we would surely be dead" said Antonis wisely. "But now we must find the red jewel that I hid or our lives will be over for sure. The bad dragon Actos will surely find us all if we don't give it to him."

"Indeed. Ackos is the violent sea serpent, and his has their scent." I nodded. "Go and get the red jewel, I wouldn't look."

Antonis went to the large boulder and started digging. In a few moments he located the red jewel. It was magnificent; glowing a deep, dark red like the color of blood with lighter shades of red at the edges and it was perfectly oval shaped, almost like an egg but much bigger. The younger dragons looked in amazement at this beautiful stone, and were almost transfixed by its glow.

"Trisha, you saved our lives, we're forever in your debt, and I trust you. If we find another red jewel we will give it to you to show you our gratitude." said Antonis. He handed the treasure to her with great care.

"You don't have to give me anything." I said, and transported myself to the Death Sea. As the colors formed and glittered, just as I vanished I roared, "Don't worry! I'll be back!"

"The deed is done. Ackos is happy and will continue looking for your mother. Don't get into any trouble, I may visit you occasionally from the Fire Lair, but not often. Bye!" I smiled at all the hatchlings, and realized my right wing was still torn. I ran and flapped, ran and flapped, but only managed to get a few feet off the ground. I thought I could not keep running like this, but somehow I managed.

"Goodbye Trisha!!" "Bye" "Thank you" we all shouted as we watched Trisha go, sad to see our dear friend leave. We all wished she could stay longer but knew she couldn't take care f us forever.

"Hey," I said as I landed lightly on a pile of leaves. "Thought I might pay you guys a quick visit before heading back to my Lair. What's up?" I didn't feel like being formal today, I just wanted to have fun.

"Trisha!" we all yelled enthusiastically, happy to see our friend and protector. "We're so glad to see you", I said. Over the past two weeks we had been busy exploring our cave, hunting for food and practicing our flying when we had the extra time. We were all getting really big and Antonis was now twice as big as he was last week. "We've been exploring our cave and think we can tunnel into the cave next door and use it as another lair and maybe a hiding place," Antonis said. He continued, "at night we hear strange noises and we're just too exposed in this lair, we want to protect ourselves in case something dangerous comes here." Antonis felt responsible for all of the other hatchlings as he was the oldest and it was his job to make sure we all stayed safe.
"What have you been doing at your lair? Did Ackos accept the jewel we gave him? Has he found our mother yet? Do you think someday we can go look for her if he can't find her?" I asked.

"Yes, he did accept it. I think you should wait until you're at least a dragon. I would say until you are done with your Quest, but I know you so . . ."
I flapped my wings, nodded, and snorted so that flames flickered out of my nostrils. I blinked and absent-mindily looked at the darkening sky. What shall I do? Besides Hannah, there is hardly any dragon than me, except Wyverns. But you cannot really count them as dragons. Ah, the fates of common life, or unusual life anyhow. My life, I have so much to do. So much to see. I shook my head of these thoughts and looked back at the hatchlings.

We watched in amazement as Trisha nostrils flared with fire. "That's so cool, Trisha, how did you do that? Can we do that too?" I asked. All my brothers and sister were anticipating the ability to breathe fire and since we couldn't even fly yet maybe we could practice breathing fire to protect us from the scary noises we heard at night.

"No, no, no. You can't breath fire, you breath Dark Breath or whatever, and that's when you're way older," Sighing, I stretched and said goodbye to everybody. I flew off to the Fire Lair.

"Good Bye Trisha" we all said. "I hope you come back soon" i sighed. Things were sometimes uneventful in our little cave but that didn't last for long we soon found out.