Bow to Thy Dragon

Very ... interesting chapter. My personal favorite.

             We had to get up early to gather everyone. Lilian went to gather Cassidy, Storm, and Whinjester, while me and Grant gathered up Spooky, Cassel, and Jerimiah. We climbed up the treehouse, slowly, step by step. When we reached the top, we climbed into the building, and were all suprised to see all the dragons there, plus two other dragons I didn't know ;one was silver and one was purple. Each dragon ,except Doomeater, was equipped with their own AATD, despite the fact that dragons techinically weren't animals.

            I hadn't met Cassel yet, and he was another animal teacher,a large bird I couldn't exactly put my finger on. He was at least as large as I was, and had the body of a lion, but the head of a bird, and talons with retracting claws. 

            " I'm a Griffin, " he hissed, in a overly-thick British accent. " Stop gawking like a fine idiot. "

            " Yes sir, " I automatically uttered, and sat down to listen to what the dragons had to say.

            The dragons sat up straight and tall. They sat in order of what I thought was superiority; Doomeater sat all the way to left, Pheonix to the right of him, the silver one to the right of Pheonix, Peridot to the right of it, Inferno to the right of it, the purple one, and lastly, all the way on the right, Aquamarine. I happened to notice, in the sunlight, the Doomeater was navy blue, and not black as originally thought. I pondered for a moment on how they got in here. The hall was an empty room, with a large open wall..... oh. That's how.

            Doomeater spoke, his powerful voice rang loud and clear. " I will introduce the dragons you do not know. Please, Amethyst, indroduce yourself.

            The purple dragon stood. I nodded. Doomeater continued. " Dusk, please, introduce yourself. "

            The silver dragon stood and the purple one sat. All names were now known.

            Doomeater sat, instead of stood, because I wasn't sure he could stand, because he might break the roof. " Today, you have all been chosen to lead the war aganist our mortal enemies. We will bring death to He Who Cannot Be Named, Rory, and Sera! "

            " Sera? " I whispered to Grant.

            " We aren't the only ones in this war with a powerful dragon. "

            Despite our conversation, Doomeater continued. " We know Firez Island is just over the horizion. We must invade. This is where their base is. Now we have the warriors, we are ready. It will be hard, it will be rough, but if we don't move now, we will surely lose. "

            Cheers erupted about the room. Some wore shocked expressions, the ones who had not yet known what this was about. Like say, Jerimiah.

            " Today we will move out across the ocean by air the nearest island, Richter Island. From there, I will instruct you. Cassidy and Cassel will fly on their own wings. Jerimiah will ride Dusk. Grant will ride Pheonix. Whinester will ride Inferno. Spooky will ride Aquamarine. Storm will ride with Grant. "

            " What about Lilian and I? " I braved. I knew what was coming. Doomeater slowly moved his tail in our direction, as if in invitation.

            " You will ride on me."

            Lilian, pale and almost fainted, gathered up her things. We had each brought a small stack of supplies and the weapon we were best with. I knew Lilian was not good with any sort of weapon in particular, so I had urged her to use the extra space in her bag for a small knife, just in case, and more herbs for healing. As she gathered her things, I climbed up the beast's mighty tail, and finally reached his neck. No saddle. It was bare-back flying.

            " I can't.... "

            " They don't make a saddle my size, Master Jake, " Doomeater said quietly. " You're going to have to. "

            I understood pretty well what he meant. It was apparent I was the best dragon flyer ( Flyer? Really? ) here. I helped Lilian up and told her to hold on. This was gonna be rough.

            Everone mounted their dragons. Jerimiah looked really nervous, and I knew he couldn't fly a dragon. He would need help.

            " Jerimiah. Show the dragon who's boss, " I yelled over, smiling. He looked up and smiled apprehensively, and gripped the reins tight. Everyone was waiting.

            " They're waiting on you, Master Jake, " Doomeater chuckled.

            WIth that, I tugged the reins and Doomeater took off out of the treehouse, and dragons, one after the other ,flying out too.

            The game plan was to be the first and most effective way, to see what we were in for, and then send Amethyst back to get back up. Perfect. All we had to do is survive.

            That might be hard enough on it's own, though. Flying Doomeater wasn't easy, and Lilian freaking out about it didn't make it any easier whatsoever. It only took as a few minutes to reach the island, because it wasn't too far away, and set up camp. Grant had brought two large green tents, one for the boys and one for the girls. Jerimiah had brought three blue tents, to be used as medical centers. It took us half the day to set up those, because Lilian and Grant were the only ones who knew what any of the herbs were.

            I had brought extra weopans, so we set up a middle sized red tent to store extra weopans and armors/shields in. By the time we had all the food and water items in a orange tent and throughly refridgerated, it was dark. We all retired to our tents. Everyone was tired , and even the dragons sleeping outside slept almost instantly.

            Except me.

            I couldn't sleep. Doomeater's words, his prophecy, rang through my head , over and over and over again. It was almost as if it echoed from one side of my head to the other, doomed to never leave my thoughts.

             I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured.  I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured.  I am the prophet, I am the seer......

            It wouldn't stop. Restless, I climbed out of the tent, and sat on a small hill, looking at the stars.On the way, I had stepped on Spooky's tail, so he woke up too, and came to sit with me.

            " OW, " he said pointedly.

            " Sorry, " I apoligized. I knew how much cats liked getting their tails stepped on.

            " Look at those stars. Too bad we can't reach them, " Spooky said. " Looks tasty. "

            I laughed, and ruffled his hair. " Hey Spooks, I haven't ever really got to talk to you like this, considering that cats don't talk. Kinda nice. "

            Spooky nodded. " Yes, you're right. It is nice. But then again, I'm always wondering, Oh, Jake pulled me out of a trash can when he found me......  but what was he doing in the trash anyways? "

            We both erupted into laughter.It was a miracle that no one woke up.

            " Yeah. I don't even remember what I was doing. It was the jungle trash can. "

            Spooky turned serious. " What? "

            " That trash can, deep in the forest. I found you in that one. "

            " Isn't that where the .........? "

            It had never occured to me. Spooky was right. That's where the jagaurs lived.

            " Yeah. "

            We were silent. Could it be, all this time, that Spooky wasn't a cat?  With all the shocks of the day, I was suddenly tired, and went to my tent. I was asleep in seconds.

 

            *                       *                       *

 

           

            We all woke up at the same time the next morning, which was when Doomeater tried to roll over in his sleep. It was probably the Epic Fail of the century. We all got up to see what the big noise was.

            " Epic Fail of the Nth Degree, " Jerimiah said, laughing through a yawn. The noise of Doomeater's roll had been so loud, he had woken himself up.

            " Shut up, " Doomeater said crankily, sitting up.

            " Epic Fail of the Infinite Degree, " I corrected Jermiah. Doomeater pointedly ignored me.

            The girls, after getting dressed, had started coming out of the tent by now. The boys hadn't bothered to get dressed; they had come out in their pajamas.

            " Go get dressed!" Lilian shooed us off , laughing. " You look silly. "

            The girls checked everything, and packed up some things while we got dressed.

            Doomeater's plan was going well. From this island we would go to Runner Island. Every year the Olympic games were held here, instead of all over the place like it used to be. Runner Island was connected to Firez Island by a bridge. We would go from there.

            Mounting the dragons, we flew to Runner Island, flying through the clouds, much faster than yesterday. Jerimiah turned out to be one of the best of us, after getting over his fear of flying. Spooky and Whinjester were fun to watch because they looked really funny flying dragons. Cassidy had decided it was too cold for her to fly today , so she joined Grant on Pheonix, which was more than ok with Grant.

            We landed softly on the island, gracefully. It took us less time to set up this time, after the practice of the last island, so we had extra time for hunting.

            I hadn't hunted with Spooky for months.

            We were beast, taking down the prey like mad, because for one, we hadn't hunted together in months, and two, these animals weren't used to predators. We took down five rabbits, three squrriels, a deer, two chipmunks, and at least one of four different kinds of birds.

            " Oh wow.... " Whinjester whispered, " Go team go. "

            Spooky grinned like an idiot, his ego growing larger by the minute. " Hey Jake, why don't you tell her about that huge hawk we took down once? "

            We spent the rest of the night around a campfire telling our best camping stories. It was quite enjoyable, everyone was in a light-hearted and happy mood. No one talked about why that was, because it was obvious. So far so good, we hadn't been caught by the ShadowFirez.

            Yet.

 

*                       *                       *

 

            To get to the bridge that would take us onto Firez Island, we would have to go through the Ridgedale Forest.

            Ridgedale Forest was officially ShadowFirez territory. Once in the forest, there would be little going back. There was no way to know what was ahead. The forest was surrounded a huge electric fence. The fence, they discovered, was on at all times. It was enough energy to fry a person, if they were unfourtunate enough to touch it.  The forest trees were spread far apart, but close enough that you couldn't see the sky in the closest places.

            Part of their fears was what the ShadwFirez would do to protect the property. The ShadowFirez were some powerful people. It would be hard to topple them. Even harder because we had left the dragons behind at the camp; they would oversee from above.

            I laughed in notice of the queer little sign put outside the gate, that depicted a message in a weird language that looked vaguely familiar. It was apparent that only me and Grant could read it.

            " Ridgedale Forest: The place where everyone wants to get eaten, " I read aloud. Everyone stared at me.

            " You can read that junk? " Lilian said, distasteful. " It looks like a third grader wrote the language its in. "

            It was true. The language was weird. The I was a backwards F; the R was a backwards 4. The G was a circle with an X in it. It was written in large letters.

            " Mmm. Jake's right. That's exactly what it is says, " Grant eyed me suspiciously. " How'd you know? "

            I shrugged my shoulders. " Looks familiar from somewhere. "

            Grant just looked more suspicious, but didn't call it out.

            " Ok Mr. Weir' Language, time to test yer leadership skills. Lead us through this here for'st. "

            I looked at the mass challenge pressed upon my shoulders, the forest looming darkly ahead.

            I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured rang in my head.

            I swallowed. " Are you sure? "

            All I got back was a hard stare. I drew my bow, and took the first step though the entrance. Nothing happened, so I signaled everyone else to come in, slowly.

            " Ok, we split up, and take the ground in teams. "

            My heart was pounding a million miles an hour. We had three magic users, but each one was someone I would want on my side. Splitting the group would be hard.

            " There's nine of us. So let's split it into three groups of three. Me, Lilian, and Spooky will make one group, Whinjester, Cassidy and Grant in the next one, and ,Storm, Cassel, and Jerimiah in the last one. Is everyone happy? "

            The reasoning of my picks was obvious; every group had at least one magic user, and one person who wasn't humanoid. To be fair.

            Grant had taken the liberty to mess with every animal's AATD so it would be able to communicate with everyone else's ATTD, so with one animal in each group, we would be able to talk back and forth to some extent. Everyone mounted any type of armor they needed and fingered their weapons; Lilian put on some kind of helmet that made her look like a goddess, Grant pulled his sword out of it's heath, and Jerimiah put his hand on his little blue pouch. Inside was secreted his blue powder that had a million magical uses. Such as turning a dead body into a baby fish.

            " My team will go along the west wall, Grant's team will go along the east wall, and Jerimiah's team will go straight through the middle. "

            " Objection! " Jerimiah said, and then blushed at his own word usge, and the suddeness of it. Everyone looking at him probably didn't help either.

            " I um.... for one, why am I leading the team, even though I'm the newest in my team, and why my team go though the middle? "

            " Yes, Jake. Why? " asked Cassel; apparently the idea of a younger person giving him orders appalled him.

            I shook my head. " Fine, go along the west wall. We'll go through the middle. You're still leading though. "

            Jerimiah's face went ghastly pale. " I can't lead for my life! "

            " This is good practice, then. You're a good leader, you just need to find it,"

            I started to walk away to finalize it, and Lilian and Spooky followed. Jerimiah's team spun towards the west wall, and Grant's team headed towards the east wall. We each ducked behind a tree.

            " See anything yet? " I asked Lil.

            " Nope. "

            We slunk tree to tree. No danger. We went half through forest. Nothing.

            " Where's all the freaking monsters? " I wondered aloud stepping out of cover.

            Which set off the loudest alarm I have ever heard.

            " Now you've done it , Servet! " Lilian hissed.

            The alarm stopped, and a hole opened up in the ground. A platform was rising from the ground. On the platform, sat a cage nearly as big as my house. Well, what used to be my house.  It was a covered cage. It was impossible to see what was within.

            " What's that...? " Lilian whispered.

            The door of the silver metal cage began to open. Out stepped a....

            " Is that a stegosaurus?! " Spooky exclaimed.

            It was true. The burly dinosaur stepped out of the cage. His eyes glowed red. His teeth were bared; each looked like it was more fitting on a dragon or tiger.

            " Stegosaurus? My foot, " said Lilian. " Even if it is, every stegosaurus is a plant eater. Not to mention that they died out millions of years ago! "

            The dinosaur let out an earsplitting cry, and I heard two other similar cries echo it.

            Meaning there was more than one dinosaur, and this was one liked bending the rules, because he was defineatley not a plant eater. What other rules could the ShadowFirez bend?

             I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured......

            Ha. My foot.

            " Stegosaurus or not, what do we do about it? "

            The stegosaurus had patiently waited for it's enemies to shut up before approaching. It approached slowly, it's eyes glowing. Inside it's mouth were several hundred sharp teeth. This thing was definatley dangerous, and was in for the chase.  I didn't want to even think about the other dinosaurs.

            ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!

            " Apatosaurus and Triceratops, " Spooky guessed. He hurled himself like a maniac, onto the unsuspecting dino, which apparently only been looking for people. Before Spooky could be thrown off, it was apparent he had hit what he's been aiming for. The carnivore's left eye was bleeding, gushing, really badly. A half blind dino is a dead dino.

            " Good job Spooks, " I offered, but he was busy licking the wounds he'd gotten from the spikes on the dino, and the wounds from the tree he had with a thunk.

             Lilian jumped in about now. WIth a couple whispered words, lost in the wind, and a hand movement or two, there were two of her. One went to help Spooky, and one stayed with me.

            The furious dino charged, because we were stupidly standing on its right side. We quickly moved, and while it was turning, I just got a glimpse of one of the other parties battling a dino not too far off in the distance. They had not stayed along the wall.

            The fence!

            My mind hatched an idea.It was stupid, reckless, and probably the coolest stunt ever. The way I like it best.

            " Lil, the fence! " I yelled.

            " You're a genius! "

            The dino had been slow, but now it was an angry dino, which seems to be faster than a regular dino. Lilian and I ran for the fence. The dino took the bait; it ran after us.

            The forest was not that big. A few minutes of running and I could almost see the fence. It was coming in quick, and if this failed, we were all toast....

             I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured.....

            The words gave me power. We were about to run into the fence. We had allowed the dino to get close, almost on our tail, and it thought it was winning. We reached the end of the forest and instead of running into the fence, instead of stopping cold and becoming dino chow, we jumped , we jumped sideways.

            The dino didn't see the fence until too late, and couldn't stop in time. Momentum carried it forward. The stegosaurus ran into the fence. The electric fence. The dino was zapped; he was in fact, as Marley would say, dead as a doornail.

            " Hoorah! " screamed the exhausted Lilian. I clamped my hand over her mouth.

            " Shh... you seem to have forgotten about the other dinosaurs. "

            " Opps. "

            I uncovered her mouth and ran back east, careful too hide behind the trees.

            I see how it is. This is isn't about which one of us is more powerful. That's definatley them. This is about which of us smarter.

            We began to approach where I had spotted one of the other parties fighting a dino; well, still were fighting a dino. It was Jerimiah's team. They were fighting a very angry looking triceratops, it's three horns a ghastly pink. Storm was bleeding from his side, Cassel had ripped a talon, and Jerimiah had a bleeding shoulder, but besides that, they were fighting like masters.

            The triceratops was not amused. He got tired of playing games, and swiped Storm out of the way with his tail. The unprepared Storm was smacked in the face, and sent flying. The good news was that Storm was knocked unconsious. The bad news os that whenb he went flying, hit two trees and snapped both of them in half before he ever even hit the ground.

            Frankly Jerimiah was quite angry about it, furious, even. " You mother loving dino butthole ! " Jerimiah screamed.

            " DYAN DEMORsha YUIR GURTE! " Jerimiah hurled a fire ball as large as, well, a dinosaur, at the triceratops. That was the end of that dinosaur.

            Jerimiah snapped out of his fit of rage, and looked down at the pile of dust and bones the dino had left behind.

            " Did I do that? " Jerimiah asked, unconcerned, sarcastically . " Opps. "

            Everyone took about twenty seconds to gap at him until I snapped them out of it. " Where's the third one? "

            A scream came from the south. " Nevermind. "

            We ran towards the scream and found the final dino, along with the last team. It was ugly. Lilian stayed back, caring for Storm's injuries, while the rest of us stood facing the mighty apatosaurus.

            " A long neck, " joked Spooky. " It's the Land Before Time all over again. We've seen Spike, we've seen Cera, and now, Little Foot. "

            It hadn't occured to me like that. He was right; they were all the dinosaurs of the Land Before Time characters. I shook it off.

            " This is no time for jokes, Spooks. Look at that! "

            The " Little Foot " had Cassidy in his mouth. He was biting down hard on her right wing, auburn feathers flying everywhere. He was not about to let go.

            Grant was trying to make it let go by lighting it's feet on fire, to no avail. Where was Whinjester?

            Whinjester was growling from a bush off to the side. She seemed to be waiting for something. The dinosaur responded finally to being set alight, and dropped Cassidy. Whinjester jumped on the very second, landing on the neck of the giant, and clawing furiously, trying to take out it's eyes.

            It threw her off, like a rag doll. She rolled , hitting the ground hard. Spooky let out a cry and jumped straight for the face of the dino. The dino was successfully blinded.         Grant , now able to attack at full power, with everyone out of the way, shot a huge black fireball at the dino. That was the end of the Apatosaurus.
            Everyone was huffing , trying to catch their breath. Storm and Cassidy were badly injured. Everyone had at least minor injuries. Yet, no one was killed. Plus, no one would have said it out loud, but they had just killed three dinosaurs which was pretty awesome.

            The best of all: it was victory.

            Hugging was in order. They had lived past the first test of the ShadowFirez. This was now Avain territory. Grant called into Doomeater.

            " We've won round one. Ridgedale Forest capture complete. "

            Lilian and I bandaged Storm, and we had to wrap up Cassidy's wing, too. She would not flying anytime soon, if ever again. Storm was limping. Since I couldn't wear the heavy armor anyway, we used my armor to melt down and use the metal to fix the fractures in his bones.

            " I'm Storverine! " he said proudly, attempting to look cool and mock Wolverine, though it only revealed how much of a comicbook nerd he was.

            Everyone was at full health. Tonight, they would sleep in trees. Tommorrow, they would face another challenge.

 

*                       *                       *

 

             I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured.  I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured.  I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured...........

            The words played through me head like a broken record. I was exhausted, but I couldn't sleep.

            Something blasted through my mind. Cactus, it told me. Watch out for the flowered cactus.

            I rolled over, and brushed it out of my mind. Tommorrow would be as a rough as today if not rougher. I needed my sleep. Besides, dreams are a great place to come up with stupidly smart plans. Like making a dinosaur run into an electric fence, for one. Or making Jerimiah angry.

            I rolled out of my bed. I had decided to sleep on the ground. A fourth of the team slept in a tree. A fourth slept on the ground. The other half of us were going back to the camp to bring all our supplies into the forest. It was our territory fair and square. We would make camp here. They arrived at a couple hours until dawn, and I stood watch while they slept. Everyone needed their rest.

            The sun came up and I woke everyone by stepping on Spooky's tail. Who knew a cat's yowl could be loud enough to wake a person sleeping a tree?

            Everyone in the trees, of course, didn't find it amusing because as soon as the yowl had woken them, they had been scared out of their pants and had fallen painfully to the ground. At least half of us had fallen asleep on some part of nature last night, while the half that had brought up the camp had slept in the tents, once they were set up.

            " Ow, " said Jerimiah and Spooky in unison, though it was for opposite reasons.

            " Get up everyone. It's time to cross the bridge."

            Grant agreed, though he was about as awake as a zombie. Well, he is zombie, but that's not that point.

            " Yesum. Aft'r that, we gots to go through our first Firez Island territory. The Flores Desert. "

            Did he say desert?

            " What? "

            " The Flores de Cactus Desert. "

            " What's that translate to? "

            " The Flowered Cactus."

            I gripped my chest as a pain passed through my head. I dropped to me knees, and it hit my head again, more powerfully then the last time.

            The cactus! The voice insisted. Watch out the flowered cactus!

            It was over. I looked up to see eight worried faces.

            " You're eyes changed color, " Lilian said awed. " They were green, and then you hit your knees, and they changed rainbow.... and now they're blue. "

            I blinked.

            " Are you ok? " she extented an arm to help me off my knees. " You looked like you were in pain. "

            I was about to tell them but a pain hit my stomach. Somehow I knew not to.

            " I got a migraine, that's all. I'll be fine. "

            The concerned look remained, but he didn't have to answer anymore questions. Everyone got dressed, sharpened their weapons, and gathered around me for the game plan.

            " Here's the deal. This isn't about who's stronger. It's about who can out fool who. This is why we're here. Because they ARE stronger than us. Yet, they are stupider. Like the Little Engine that Could, he didn't win because of his size or strength. This is like that. So today we'll see what happens. One more thing, watch out for the flowered cactuses. I have a feeling they aren't regular cactuses."

            We moved out, leaving the forest behind, and came to the large bridge, with another one of those silly little signs by the bridge.

            " Dope Bridge: the place where everyone becomes an idiot, " I read aloud, cracking up. " Who the heck writes these? "

            I looked at the bridge. It was a covered bridge, and it wasn't that old. It was built to stand. It probably wouldn't drop out of the sky on us , and was made of metal so it couldn't be cut with a pocket knife or anything, like it was in the movies. So pretty safe.

            I took a step onto the riduculously named bridge, this Dope Bridge. Nothing happened, I signaled everyone else to follow. Everyone was on the bridge, and it was a fairly large bridge so everyone had room. The last person was on, and then the unthinkable happened. The DOOR closed behind us.

            I hadn't even known that the bridge had doors! If this side had a door, then that meant...

            SLAM!

            That was the other door slamming shut. We were trapped inside, with no windows visable. Then it hit me , what was coming.

            " Cover you're noses! Jerimiah, blow out that door!  They're gonna gas us with Marijuana! "

            Everyone immediately covered their noses as best the could. The animals and Cassel had a little trouble, but each figured they could borrow someone else's hand. Jerimiah obediently stepped towards the door. The gas started to blow in from the ceiling, in large white clouds.

            " Hurry! "

            " I can't do it, Jake! " Jerimiah whined. " I can't "

            " You can FRY a dino, but can't blast out a door? UGH! "

            Then he got angry and blasted the door at least ten feet in the air and outwards.

            " Yeah, my man! " I congratulated, slapping his hand for a high five.

            We piled out, animals first, and stepped into the desert, our first steps. I had seen through the stradegy of the bridge; make us stupid. The desert, however, didn't look dangerous in the least. Grant stepped forward.

            " Huh. Thought there'd be at leas' some varmints fer us to kill. Apparently not. "

            Something wasn't right. One problem right off the bat was the fact that we were quite open. The other was that the only things in sight were cactuses.

            Half were flowered, half were not. Something occured to me.

            " Cassel, can you give me an aerial view? "

            Cassel took off, happy to be useful, and did a loop around the sky. His expression became puzzled. He landed lightly next to us.

            " It makes a pattern.At the end of the desert is the Firez Fort. Each of the patterns lead to it. The problem is which one to follow. "

            I nodded. " I know the answer to that one. Thank you Cassel, that was helpful. "

            I pointed to a cactus. " That one, then that one, then that one.... " I pointed them out.

            " Yes, that's one way. "

            The one smart point in my plan? None of those cactuses I pointed out were a flowered cactus.

            Grant disagreed. " We can go anywhichway we wanna. I'll prove it, " and the idiot stepped right next to the closest cactus, a flowered one.

            " NO! " I yelled, but I was too late. The ground crumbled beneath Grant. He fell into a hole. A large hole. There was no way out. It was a wet hole, so no one could fly in. Wet feathers can't very well carry a person. No rope was availiable. Grant was stuck.

            " ...........That was stupid of me. "

            " You think? " I screeched angrily. " What if that would have sprung some other trap, and killed us all? How would you have felt then? "

            " Doesn't matter. Yal go on without me. I like this here hole. So much that I might die in it. "

            " No! " Cassidy was crying like a waterworks. She dove into the hole, without a second thought. Grant caught her.

            " Cassidy.... I'm sorry. "

            Grant took off his hood. Underneath was the face of a beautiful teenage man, about seventeen, with black tattoos all over his face. His eyes were blue. His hair was blond. He looked almost exactly like...

            " Grandpa, " Jerimiah gulped.

            Grant leaned in..... and he kissed Cassidy. " I'm sorry Cassidy. "

            He took her, in his arms, and with a tear in his eye, he threw her out of the hole with his amazing strength.

            " But I love you, Grant! " she sobbed.

            " It's my time, Cassidy. You gotta un'erstand dat. I love you, too, " and Grant faded away to dust, his soul finally at rest. The robes that used to dress Grant fell, and became dust, also. The dust miraculously spread out, and seeped into the ground. Where the dust seeped in, the ground turned golden.

            Cassidy was a wreck, her beautiful auburn feathers, one by one ,turning black, and falling slowly down, into the hole and onto the golden ground below.

            Cassidy died of broken heart that very hour that very night.