Zilferia

“Crystal? Nathan?” I hear a voice piercing through the darkness, bringing me back to alertness. The voice sounds familiar, but I can’t place it at first. Opening my eyes, they slowly focus on a boy’s face looming over me. Lloyd. He looks relieved. “Oh, good. You’re awake. There’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”

He steps back. Sitting up, I see Thaddeus at the door. He comes up to me with a huge smile on his face. He puts a hand on my shoulder. “Well done! You behaved magnificently. Although, looking into the Zyloff’s eyes was a huge mistake.”

“I know,” I say ashamedly. “I didn’t know what I was doing…and I don’t really know what happened after I looked, either.” So I describe to him, Lloyd, and Nathan what happened after I looked into the creature’s eyes. All three stare at me, disbelief written clearly on Lloyd and Nathan’s faces, although Thaddeus’s thoughts are difficult for me to gauge without the help of my dragon eyes. “What? It’s true!”

“I believe you,” Thaddeus says, looking into the distance with a strange look- one hiding something. “It’s just… that has only happened one other time- to your mother, actually. And she only told two people- your father and I. I suggest that you don’t share this with anyone else, it will only make you a target. Especially don’t tell Vladimir.” He turns to Lloyd. “Please do not tell anyone else either, young man.” He nods.

“Wait, why not tell Vlad? I mean, he’s technically my advisor, right? Shouldn’t I tell him?” I ask. Thaddeus shakes his head, sighing.

“No, I don’t think you should. I mean, normally, he would need to know, but…”

“But what?” Nathan asks.

“…It’s nothing that you should be concerned about, it’s just… I have noticed that he hasn’t been himself lately. Ever since… well, the first day you were here. Do you remember how he didn’t show up like he promised?”

“Yes, of course I remember,” he responds. “but what does that have to do with anything?”

Lloyd watches us, both confusion and curiosity on his face, but he doesn’t interrupt, listening silently instead.

“Well, I saw him just a few minutes after I sent you off to the square, and he seemed… confused. He asked me where he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to be doing. It was… strange. I’ve been watching him closely ever since, and he’s been acting differently. I have a feeling something happened to him early that morning or the night before, but he refuses to tell me anything.” There’s silence for a while as we all ponder this.

“So, what happens now?” Nathan asks. “Will they let us recover for a day or so before we have to keep training?”

“Yes,” Thaddeus responds. “In a way. You have the rest of the day to recuperate, and then you three will go to the square to receive your prizes for winning the First Challenge. Then you will have two weeks until the next Challenge. I won’t know what it is for another week, though. So we will just do general preparations during that time. Any other questions?”

“Yeah,” Lloyd pipes in. “Can I hang out with Nathan and Crystal? I don’t really have anyone to be with until tonight. Provided you will have me, of course.” He says to us.

“Of course!” I respond with a grin, happy to spend the day with him.

“And,” he continues, “what will become of me in the Games? Am I out now that my partner is… gone?”

“Yes,” Thaddeus replies, sympathy in his voice. “I’m afraid you are now disqualified. But you will be kept here to observe the rest of the Games and continue to work on finding your Gifts, although it seems you have already discovered one. Your shape shifting abilities are quite amazing.”

After that, Thaddeus leaves and we get dressed and head out into the Village. But we get more attention than we would like, so we head out to the woods. I promise myself that I’ll leave if I start getting too drowsy this time.

We find a nice tree to sit under, and for a while we just lay next to each other in companionable silence. The grass underneath us is soft and green, the trees above us tall and beautiful, and the sky is free from clouds. Birds dance above our heads, singing happily. Everything is peaceful.

It’s too perfect, and it feels almost surreal. Before what happened in the arena, I would be enjoying the peace, but after what I had just been through… I can’t manage to relax and let go of my worries like I would normally be able to. I can tell that my companions feel the same way- especially Lloyd.

We soon get up and begin moving deeper into the forest, exploring. None of us really have the heart for it, although Nathan tries to cheer us up. He brings me some flowers he finds, and gives Lloyd a cool rock as well. We smile and thank him, but we are still numb from the traumatizing experiences that we went through just the day before. He gives up after a while.

Around noon, we get hungry, but we have no desire to head back to the village. Luckily, Lloyd brought a backpack with food in it, so we have a picnic. While we are eating, some birds fly down and begin begging for food. We toss pieces of bread at them, which makes them happy, but then other birds flock us, fighting to get the bread. Laughing, we quickly put the rest of our meal back into the backpack and run from the birds, hands over our heads. After a minute or two, they leave, figuring out that we don’t have any more food to give them.

Turning, we find ourselves at the mouth of a huge cave and decide to explore it. It’s dark inside, but I brought my glowing sword, so we can see well enough. Suddenly feeling reckless, we begin yelling into the cave, daring anything living in it to come out and face us. When we stop, we don’t hear an echo, which is really strange, but we continue on anyway. A little later, our echoes finally come bouncing back to us. The cave must be huge. The light from my sword doesn’t hit any walls or a ceiling, so we can’t really tell just how big it is.

A few minutes later, an animal’s cry comes echoing from deeper inside the cave. We don’t know what it is, but we’re ready to find out. The sound comes again. It sounds like something is mourning. It also sounds young.

After a while, the sounds suddenly cease. I’m then abruptly knocked onto my back as something hard flies into my stomach. My sword spins away. Lloyd grabs it just before it falls into a hole. I hear Nathan saying something, but I’m busy with whatever just rammed into me. Reaching up with my hands, I feel something scaly, yet soft. And then I hear the sound again, only much softer. It’s coming from the creature on my chest. I call Lloyd over to me. When the sword is close enough, I can make out the figure in my arms; and so can Nathan. He gasps.

“It’s… it’s a baby dragon!”

I nod, looking at the poor thing. It’s so small, I figure it that must have been born not too long ago- maybe even as recently as the day before. It seems to be heartbroken, devastated. I sit up, taking it off my chest and setting it in my lap. The light of the sword sparkles off the dragon’s bright blue eyes as it gazes up at me. My heart instantly softens. It’s adorable, and clearly in need of help.

Lloyd speaks up. “You know we can’t keep that thing, right? You can’t exactly march back into the village carrying a dragon in your arms. That poor thing would be ripped to shreds in that crowd. Not to mention the fact that Vlad would never let you keep it. In fact, knowing how he’s been acting lately, he would probably put it to death right in front of you.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” I ask, holding tight to the baby, which croons as if agreeing with me. “I can’t just leave it here to die!”

Now Nathan joins the conversation. “Yes, but maybe it wouldn’t die.” We look at him, confused. “I mean, it has to have a mom or something, right? I know the dads don’t always stick around to raise their kids, but the moms do. So, let’s just find the mother.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd agrees. “She’s probably just a little further in.”

I sigh, reluctant to let my baby go. “Wait,” I say as I realize something. “If the mom’s close, than why wouldn’t she have attacked by now?”

“Maybe she didn’t notice us yet,” Nathan says unconvincingly. “…or maybe it just can’t for some reason. Maybe it’s stuck.”

“Either way, we should find it and give that dragon back,” Lloyd says, settling it. I stand up, cradling it in my arms, and join my friends as they begin walking again. The little dragon settles into my arms, rubbing its head against my arm happily. I should name it, so I don’t keep calling it… well, it. I think for a little bit, going through names until I think of one that fits. Finally, I decide to name him Eric.

We find the mom only a few yards away from where the baby tackled me. Or should I say, what’s left of the mom. As we draw closer, the light from the sword reveals the huge, unmoving heap of scales. Fearlessly walking forward, I lay my hand on its side. Nathan and Lloyd gasp, afraid. Her side is rapidly growing cold- she must have only just died.

The really sad part, however, we only see after going around the body and take note of what she’s curled around. Lying close to her belly are the two cold, unmoving bodies of Eric’s siblings- they are different shades of green, although both are pretty close to Eric’s coloring. Distraught, I look away. Poor little Eric. He leaps out of my arms and races over to one of the little bodies, nudging it with his snout. He turns and looks at me pleadingly, but there’s nothing I can do. I pick Eric up and gently pull him away from his dead family.

When we leave the cave, we see that the sun is nearing the horizon. I still have little baby Eric in my arms, although I don’t know what to do with him since I can’t take him with me.

“I know!” I suddenly exclaim. “I’ll put Eric in a smaller cave closer to the Village, and I can come and feed him, take care of him and everything! I’ll come every morning, afternoon, and night!”

“Eric?” Nathan questions.

“I don’t know…” Lloyd says, contemplating. “You could easily be caught. Not only that, but do you really think that the drag- Eric- will stay put? Plus, you don’t even know what it will eat.”

“Oh, stop being so pessimistic,” I laugh. “I’ll figure it out. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure that no one follows me when I leave. No one will even notice.”

“Yeah…” Nathan adds, “and I’ll cover for you when you leave.”

“Really?” I say, pleased and surprised.

“Really.”

Lloyd looks back and forth between Eric and I. “Sure, but that’s the easy part. How are you going to get him to stay in the same spot until you come back?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I reply. “And the only thing I could think of is that I try to talk to him with my mind.” They both stare at me, but I tune them out, focusing on the dragon in my arms. Kneeling down, I set Eric on a rock in front of me. He cocks his head and looks at me curiously with his big blue eyes. Smiling, I send my thoughts toward him like I did when I had transformed into a dragon and couldn’t actually speak with my mouth.

I’m not sure if it will work, but I try anyway. “Eric?” I think to him, hoping he will both hear and understand me. “Eric, can you hear me?” His eyes widen and his wings flutter. I feel his thoughts in my head. Since he’s a baby, he can’t talk with words yet, but I can feel what he wants to tell me. He’s happy with his name, and happy that I’m here with him. I then feel a sudden, intense hunger. It takes me a minute to realize that it’s Eric’s hunger that I’m feeling.

Turning to Nathan, I ask him to get me a strip of meat left over from our lunch, as well as the water bottle with milk in it. He pulls them out and hands them to me, looking more than a little skeptical. With meat in one hand and milk in the other, I extend both hands to Eric and offer him the strip of meat. He sniffs it, then pushes it away. I thought he would do this, since he probably can’t eat meat yet, so I show him the bottle of milk.

Putting this toward him, he sniffs at it, then licks it, trying to get to the milk while not being able to. Laughing, I ask Lloyd to get me a plate. When he does, I fill it up with milk and set it in front of Eric. It’s warm now, but he begins licking it up just the same, like a cat. I’m a little surprised. Since he’s a wild animal, I figured he would attack it, not calmly lick it up like he was a tame pet.

When he finishes, he happily climbs back into my lap and falls asleep. His thoughts tell me that he’s content and happy. Looking up at my companions, I see that Lloyd has given up. He sighs.

“Alright, fine. Maybe you can do this. …At least until the next Challenge. What are you going to do then?” I look at him, pleading with my eyes. He catches on to what I’m asking.

“What? No! No no no no no! I’m NOT going to take care of that thing while you go on the Challenge! I’m not going to risk getting in trouble for a wild animal!” I continue to plead with him with my eyes. He finally gives in, sighing. “Huh. Fine, you win. But ONLY until you get back from the next Challenge. After that, we’ll just have to see.”

“Thank you!” I exclaim, jumping up and giving him a one-armed hug while still holding Eric in the other. He sighs again.

“Well, let’s just find a new home for this little guy- and fast!” I look up and see that the sun has almost touched the horizon. We have less than an hour left before we’re supposed to be back at the Town Square. We run quickly down the hill and through the trees. A five minute walk from the edge of the trees, I finally find a perfect little cave. Setting Eric down, I wake him up and tell him, “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in the morning. Okay? Will you stay here until I come back?” With a sleepy yawn, I sense from his thoughts that he will wait.

Running with Nathan and Lloyd, we make it back to the square in the nick of time. Panting, I stop before entering the crowd, attempting to fix my frizzled hair. Then, taking a deep breath, I plunge into the crowded square with Nathan and Lloyd right behind me. I am instantly identified by the villagers, and they all start talking at once, offering congratulations, asking questions. I ignore them, seeing Vlad coming up behind them. The crowd parts for him. Luckily, right then Jake and Kat walk into the square and are mobbed, leaving no one paying attention to us.

Except for Vlad, that is. Coming up to me, he reaches into my hair and pulls out a leaf. Gulping, I look him in the eye.

“I see that you went into the forest, although you have been specifically told to stay away from there, am I right?” He smiles evilly.

“I… um… I didn’t go very far, plus Nathan and Lloyd were with me…”

“Perhaps,” he sneers. “But now it’s time for you to get your prize for winning the First Challenge,” he says, leading Nathan and I up the stairs and onto the small stage that had been set up. He sits us down on some chairs on the far right of the stage with Nathan at my left. Lloyd sits next to him, then Kat and Jake. On the other side of the stage, Vlad, Thaddeus, and Zelda sit down. Stepping up to the front of the stage is Nehru, dressed in purple- the color of the winning team. Looking over at the advisors, I see that they are color coded to their team as well. Vlad is wearing blue since he advised Lloyd’s team. Thaddeus is also wearing dark purple, and Zelda is wearing orange. So Kat and Jake must have gotten the third egg. And their color is orange… I’ll have to remember that.

Clearing her voice, Nehru silences the crowd. “Welcome, one and all, to the First Challenge Rewards Assembly! We will start off by introducing your three winning teams! Please come here… Crystal Shay!” My legs wobbling, I stand and walk over to stand next to Nehru. Smiling, she puts her arm around my shoulders comfortingly.

“Well, Ms. Shay. That was very impressive out there, I must say. Especially with the werewolves! You were so brave! Please, tell us. How did you feel? Were you even scared at all? Because it didn’t look like it!” she chuckles.

I swallow hard, trying to find my voice. “I… well, I certainly didn’t feel very brave. I was scared to death. I just did what I had to do, I guess.” Nehru smiles.

“Yes, you did, and you were, once again, very impressive. I’m sure all the girls out there would love to be as brave as you were- am I right?” At this, there’s a surprisingly loud cheer from the crowd. I can’t believe that many people look up to me. “And boys… who wouldn’t want her? Pretty as a flower, smart, brave, talented, determined, loyal… come on now, who wants her?” At this, there is an even bigger cheer. I’m blown away. I’ve never gotten any boys to like me before, but here… everyone seems to. I’m overwhelmed for a moment, but shove it down so I can concentrate.

“Thank you, Ms. Shay. You may have a seat. And will your partner come up? Nathan Anderson!” I stumble back to my seat as Nathan stands up and does pretty much the same thing as I had to with Nehru. Although there are fewer cheers for him than me, he still receives a loud applause. After him, Lloyd goes up. I was to numb to really hear what was going on with Nathan, but I’m a little better now so I listen to what questions she asks Lloyd. “Well, Mr. Jewkes. That was quite an amazing performance there. I’m sure you have many admirers now. Am I right?” The crowd explodes even more than it had for me. When they quiet down, Nehru continues. “And when Miss Hernandez died right in front of you… that must have been so hard.”

“Yes,” he responds, looking at the ground. He speaks so quietly, everyone goes silent and leans in, trying to catch his words. “Yes, it was hard. I had grown to know Roxane better than I thought I would in such a short time. We had become friends. And I thought… I thought maybe, after this whole thing was over that we could… still be friends.” His voice diminishes even more and we all strain to hear. “But then… that monster… it attacked while I was distracted by what had happened to Crystal… and it…” he breaks off with a sob. Nehru lets him return to his seat.

Next, she calls for Kat. I don’t really listen to what she says, but there are some wolf whistles from the crowd. And she tells Nehru that one of her Gifts had indeed grown in while she was in the Games. I discover that it was Charm. I’m not surprised. About the same thing happened with Jake and Nehru, except his Gift was not quite determined, but he was pretty sure that one of his would be Strength. Looking over at Lloyd, I see that he has collected himself and is no longer crying softly- which is good, because our advisors are now done being interviewed as well, and have each been given two packages- except for Vlad since there’s only Lloyd left on the blue team. The advisors place the packages in a group in front of us. Thaddeus comes up to us.

“Now you pick. As the winners, you two get to go first. You each will pick one package, and then sit down and wait for the rest to get theirs. You will all open them at the same time. Okay? Oh, and be careful with it.” We nod, stepping up to the packages. Not knowing which one to grab, close my eyes and take the first one I touch. When I pick it up, it seems to move a little- although it may just be my imagination. Nathan follows me, selecting the nearest box. We sit and watch as Lloyd goes up and picks one, followed by Kat and Jake. At Nehru’s signal, we all begin tearing into our package. It’s a box with holes in it. Lifting the lid, I’m stunned by what I see inside. Reaching in carefully, I pull out my gift. I hear a collective gasp from the crowd as the red-tailed hawk on my arm flaps its wings and lets out a cry. I suddenly feel its thoughts enter my mind. I’m surprised by how intelligent it feels.

“Greetings, Crystal Dragon. I can see that you are confused. Allow me to explain. I am your reward for winning the First Challenge. My name is Nora, and I am here to help you on all of your next Challenges- whether in the Games or not. I am trained as an advisor, message carrier, spy, and hunter, although I can and will do anything else you are in need of assistance with.”

…Wow. I think, amazed at the bird on my forearm. Looking at it with my eyes, it seems normal, but while talking to it with my mind, it is obvious that it’s not. No normal bird is that smart. Looking over at Nathan, I see that he has a large rat. Lloyd has an adorable puppy, Kat has- go figure- a cat. And she, surprisingly, looks dismayed by it. Jake is just pulling out a flying squirrel. It appears we all have a new pet.

“We are not pets!” I hear Nora’s voice echoing indignantly in my mind. “We are here to help you, not to entertain you! We are called Familiars. Most of our kind aid witches and wizards, but my companions and I volunteered to aid you in your quest to discover your Gifts. And I am most pleased to have the opportunity to aid you, Princess Dragon,” she adds, bowing to me, her wings outstretched for balance. I blush, aware that others are watching with dumbstruck, confused, and envious looks on their faces. “I did not dare to hope that I would one day have the privilege to serve one such as you. But there are some things you are not to ask me to do, and one of those is to attack another Familiar.”

“All… alright…” I think back to her, still overwhelmed that I have a hawk- and one that can talk, at that! I look at Nathan. He looks even more confused than I am.

“I… I have a rat… that can talk…” he stammers.

“What’s his name?” I ask him, trying to get him to calm down. It seems to work… a little.

“Greg,” he replies, glancing at my hawk. “What’s your hawk’s name?”

“She’s Nora,” I respond proudly. “Isn’t it awesome that we have Familiars to help us out now?” I say, excited and happy. He nods, still a little overwhelmed. Looking over at Jake, I see that Kat has convinced Jake to trade her Familiars. I start laughing as I realize that Kat doesn’t like cats. Nathan, after realizing what I’m laughing at, begins laughing with me. Turning to the audience, I see that quite a few of them are chuckling as well.

Finally, Nehru bids us goodnight and lets us go home. Nathan and I gladly head back to our house and get some sleep after our long day.