Chapter 1
Tides turn, heat rises, and rocks fall. That was life. Life is not always easy and it was certainly becoming harder for the three of us teenagers to solve this whole, you know, unite versus tyranny issue. The tides were turning against us, the heat of the issue was rising, and while we’re trying to fulfill the prophecy and save the world, other matters fall on us and change our plans, literally and metaphorically.
The War of the Dragons ended last week. We had spent the next four days practicing with our new powers and transforming into dragons. We had recently heard of Red Blood’s whereabouts. He and his followers were hiding near Fire Clan, probably in the cave nearest to Fire Clan.
When Rockstorm, Firesong, and I unlocked our true potentials and found out we could transform into dragons; we became the first people in history to have ever transformed into dragons. To symbolize that we touched the Dragonstone and survived, our hair has strands of different colors added to our original hair color. For me, my hair is dark blue, but now I had a strand of jet black and another strand of light blue in my hair in addition to my dark blue. Firesong’s hair was orange, now it has a strand of red and a strand of yellow. Rockstorm’s hair was brown, but now it has a strand of yellow and a strand of green.
On top of that, I was busy planning. I had heard a while back that Fire Clan had been kidnapping children from all the clans except their own. We all wondered why, not even Firesong knew. I wanted to travel to Fire Clan, save those kids, retrieve the magical crystal, and rid Red Blood from Aranthalas. Our only hypothesis as to why they were kidnapping kids was to threaten the other clans into submitting to Fire Clan. If the clan attacks, Fire Clan would attack them and kill their men. If the clan submits, Fire Clan has one less obstacle in their way so they could take over the world of Aranthalas.
The question was, where was Fire Clan keeping the children? Firesong suggested that Fire Clan would keep them in the cave nearest to Fire Clan. You need a big place with little ways of escape, and that describes the Fire Clan cave perfectly. However, because Fire Clan lived in a large forest, it was easy to hide around fifty kids in a forest, so they could be anywhere.
I had always wondered why Fire Clan had decided to live in a huge fire zone. There would easily be forest fires with an entire clan possessing the element of fire. Perhaps that’s why the forest was called Firewood Forest?
Another issue that troubled me was that I could not get this voice out of my head that I had been hearing lately. Lately, it has been said that whosoever uses Dragonstone (Red Blood, my friends, and I) gets affected by it. It heals the pure of heart and destroys the wicked. Red Blood had proved himself to be evil, so our hope was that the Dragons Stone’s powers that coursed through the four of us was healing us three and destroying him. If we could wait until he was weak, it would be easy to finish him once and for all. Yet the three of us had decided to go to Lightning Clan first, then to Earth Clan, and lastly Fire Clan to give Red Blood plenty of time to weaken.
Right now, we were training at the cave near Ice Shard Lake. Today, we transformed into dragons and flew to Lightning Clan. We flew over the Desert Plains and Ice Shard River in a day. Ice Shard River came from snow melt from the Snow Peak Mountains. The second day was very windy, and while we tried to fly straight, we were blown a little off course. By noon, I looked to my right and saw something that chilled my heart: a sand tornado. It was hurling itself toward us! Whether we were in the air or on land we wouldn’t be safe. We tried to out fly it, yet it was gaining on us. We were beginning to be pulled east which was in the direction of the tornado. It wasn’t long before we were deathly close to the sand tornado. We were getting sucked in, so I called out:
“Link arms!”
Rockstorm and Firesong, and I linked arms. The tornado sucked us in and we were whirled and tossed about. Rockstorm grew dizzy and threw-up. Some of it blew onto Firesong, which made her get distracted and she lost her grip and became separated from us. She disappeared in a whirl. Eventually, Rockstorm and I were spat out and thrown in the air a good distance. Rockstorm was too sick to fly straight and I was dizzy as we sailed in the air and crashed through the trees of Firewood Forest. When we crashed through the trees and landed on the ground, we fell unconscious.
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Firesong flew through the air, she was still whirling around and too dizzy to see or fly straight. She landed in Bolt Lake and because she got soaked, she nearly died. Yet a boy from Lightning Clan had been fishing and helped get her out. She was still unconscious, so he kept fishing. He had left long after she woke up. The sun was setting. Firesong was shivering, her body couldn’t produce much heat because she was wet. Her left wing ached every time she moved it. So she lay there on the beach of the lake, helpless.
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Rockstorm and I woke up in a treehouse. An old lady sat by the fire, she was cooking something in a pot that smelled foul. I wrinkled my nose as I looked out the window to see it was dark outside and the moon was high. I sat up, only to feel a sharp pain in my back and a buzzing feeling in my head.
“Don’t get up,” ordered the old woman.
She was dressed in a brown and green cloak with red ribbons. She had yellow hair, which meant she was from Lightning Clan.
“Where am I?” I asked
The old woman laughed. “Would you not ask who I am? After all, you are in a stranger’s tree house.”
“Alright, who are you?” I corrected myself.
“Tisk, tisk,” she clicked her tongue at me. “You asked me who I was, when you should be asking where you are, for you are in an unfamiliar place,”
I groaned and was about to ask her why she was playing these games with me, when my back hurt again. I winced.
“Drink this,” she instructed.
It was a hot brown liquid. The smell told me it had been from the pot of foul smelling substance.
“Um...thank-you, but I think I’ll pass,” I replied hesitantly.
“Do you want to keep your pain?” she asked quizzically.
That settled it. The liquid was gone in seconds. It tasted awful and my stomach hurt, but my pain went away.
Knowing my stomach hurt, the woman gave me a salad of strange herbs and the stomach ache went away as well. As I ate, a chipmunk jumped on my bed.
“He doesn’t bite,” spoke the old woman returning to the pot.
“Does he scratch?”
“Does a fish breathe air?” replied the woman.
I took that for a no.
“His name is Chipsqueak, but I sometimes call him Chip,”
“Uh, hi….Chip,” I said as I moved my hand over to pet him. He backed away, but slowly inched closer after a while. Soon, he ducked his head under my hand and I stroked his back. After a while he climbed a ledge near a cabinet carved into the tree.
“What’s your name?” I asked the old woman.
“Lightstream,”
I was about to introduce myself when she finished the sentence for me.
“How do you know my name?”
“I receive visions. I saw you coming, so I made sure to go to the clearing where you and Rockstorm fell.”
That creeped me out. Then an idea came to mind.
“Do you know where Firesong is?” I inquired.
“Oh her? She’s at Bolt Lake. She’s shivering herself into a long sleep,”
“What?!” I gasped.
At my noise, Rockstorm woke up.
“I need to go save her!” I declared.
“Whaaaaat?” moaned Rockstorm sleepily.
“Don’t worry, you stay here and rest and drink that..um, drink that heals you. I’ll bring her here so Lightstream can heal her,” I explained.
With that, I transformed into a dragon and reached Bolt Lake an hour later. Firesong was barely awake. She looked terrible.
“Firesong! Are you ok?” I asked hurriedly.
“N-n-n...” was all she said.
I picked her up and flew back to Lightstream’s treehouse. I turned back into a human and helped Firesong inside. Lightstream put her next to the fire and gave her a dose of the awful tasting drink. The salad followed. While Firesong sat there, Lightstream examined her.
“Yep, broken wing, tisk tisk,tisk, my drink can’t cure that,” she sighed. Then she wrapped Firesong’s left wing in a cast.
“How long until I can fly again?” asked Firesong as Lightstream was wrapping her wing.
“One month or so, just make sure you rest your wing, or it will take longer,” replied Lightstream.
Firesong made a face when she heard that.
“That’ll put a dent in our schedule,” she grunted.
“It’s ok, Firesong, we can do it the old way, you know, how we walked everywhere?” reminded Rockstorm.
Firesong sighed. “Ever since we started flying everywhere, I didn’t want to walk to places anymore. It’s just...so nice to finally fly, especially when traveling,”
I nodded. “Don’t worry, it’s only temporary,”
“What’s more important is that you rest your wing,” added Lightstream.
Firesong didn’t say anything.
“Now, I suggest you all get some sleep. It’s about 3 in the morning you know,” decided Lightstream.
So we got into our make-shift beds. It wasn’t long before sleep overtook us.
The next morning, I awoke to find a baby fox sleeping on me. I let out a sharp gasp and it woke her up. So she jumped off the bed and onto Firesong’s, which made her wake up. She got up and stretched while yawning, then winced because she bumped her wing. I looked at Lightstream’s cuckoo clock, it said it was half past ten.
“Firesong, can’t your flame circle heal your wing?” I recommend.
“No, it only closes cuts,” she responded sadly.
“Ok. I wonder where Lightstream is, I noticed her bed is empty,”
Just then, Lightstream came up the stairs. She saw our puzzled faces and explained: “I was outside picking berries for breakfast. How’s your wing, Firesong?”
“It hurts when I move it,” she reported.
There was a silence. The baby fox jumped on Rockstorm’s bed and woke him up. He sat up, yawned, and looked at us.
“Lightstream, I happened to notice you’re from Lightning Clan. Why don’t you live there?” questioned Firesong.
“Well, the truth is, I’m what people call a dud. I was born without powers,”
“That explains why you don’t have any wings,” remarked Rockstorm.
“Yes, the clan threw me out when I was six. I would have nearly died on my own if traveling merchants from Earth Clan hadn’t found me,” admitted Lightstream. “They were traveling to Ice Clan. Later, they adopted me, because Earth Clan takes in anyone. I admire that in them, they keep the peace and try to befriend everyone. However, when I was 15, Lightning Clan spies found out I was living in Earth Clan. Now, it is against the laws for anyone not of one clan to live in another, whether they’re banished or not. Therefore, I was illegally living in Earth Clan. I was supposed to live outside and alone, so, to keep a fight from starting, Earth Clan sent me away. I found this tree and decided to stay here. I built a treehouse and started caring for hurt animals and some decided to stay. They keep me company.
When I was 21, a young man from Earth Clan found me. We had known each other when we were kids. He wanted to find me to bring me back to Earth Clan. When I asked him why, he professed his feelings for me. He said we could get married and keep it a secret. As long as no one knew, it would work. Yet it was also against the laws to marry anyone not of the same clan. So we decided that we would live in the treehouse together, and got married a couple weeks later.
Five years later, he was hunting and never came back. When he still hadn’t returned, my four year old son and I found him dead under a tree. He had been shot by an arrow from the Fire Clan. So we buried his body outside the tree house. I knew that one day my son would be discovered and taken away if anyone found out I had him. So I brought him to my husband’s family to live with. He stayed with his grandparents and I haven’t seen him since. I reckon he’s in his late forties by now,” explained Lightstream.
“That’s one sad tale,” marveled Rockstorm.
“It’s not a sad tale, it’s uh….a tragedy, with bits of romanticism and drama. It makes your heart long for a happy ending,” Firesong depicted poetically.
Rocksotrm and I simply blinked at her.
“Whatever you say Firesong, anyway, we’re really sorry to hear Lightstream,” I sighed.
“Did your son have powers?” inquired Firesong.
“Yep, earth powers,” replied Lightsream.
“What was his name?” asked Rockstorm
“Rockdust,” stated Lightstream.
“B-but...that’s my dad’s name!” exclaimed Rockstorm.
Firesong and I looked back and forth from Rockstorm and Lightstream.
“How old is your father, Rock?” wondered Lightstream.
“He’s in his late forties,” he responded.
“Does he have lots of freckles, straight brown hair, and brown eyes?” asked Lightstream.
“Yes!” smiled Rockstorm
“Then that means...you’re my grandson!?” gasped Lightstream.
They ran to each other and hugged. Firesong and I were quiet and smiled as we watched this sentimental moment.
“I can’t wait to tell him I found his mom,” sighed Rockstorm.
“Do you have any siblings, Rock?” inquired Lightstream.
“Yep, two older brothers and a younger sister,” added Rockstorm.
“Ok, as much as this is nice and mushy, we really need to get going,” interrupted Firesong stiffly.
I wondered why she was so cross all of a sudden. A look of distaste, or was it sorrow, that had crossed her face as soon as she saw them hug.
“Right, right, I’ll get you some supplies,” remembered Lightstream.
After some hugs and tears from someone, we were back on our course to Lightning Clan a few minutes later. We encountered obstacles along the way and managed to travel twenty miles that day.
In four days we reached Lightning Clan.
“Alright, let’s go over the plan,” decided Firesong. “Gey, you just get close to the statue, it will explode, then you run for your life,”
“What will you two be doing?” I asked.
“Keeping them busy!” declared Rockstorm cracking his knuckles.
“Ew! Gross! Rock, stop that! You’re making me sick,” moaned Firesong.
Rockstorm stopped and chuckled to himself.
“But when they hear the explosion, won’t we get caught?” I added.
“Hmm…” thought aloud Rockstorm.
“Don’t worry, I’m way ahead of you there. You see, that’s why we’ll be keeping them busy. When they hear you, Rock and I will be there to cause more confusion. Then everyone will be distracted and confused and Geyser and get the crystal and slip out undetected. Got it?” explained Firesong.
We nodded.
Everyone got into positions, and waited for night.
