The Show Must Go On

            None of us had the energy to continue through the desert tonight, and besides, Cassdiy deserved a proper burial. We went back across the bridge and back to camp, all persons and animals sagging with sadness , despair , and grief.

            We were just walking, and BAM. I swear, this little girl she came out of nowhere. By nowhere, I mean absolutely nowhere! It was almost as if she appeared out of this air.

            " Hallo, everyone~ ! " This little elven girl popped out of who knows where, and exclaimed. Everyone flinched; Both Lilian and Jeriniah toppled on their butts in shock.

            " Why all the glum faces? "

            I sourly held out Cassidy's cold,dead body. Her feathers had all fallen out by now. I had been the only one with the stomach to carry our dead comrade back to camp; one death was enough, two was a crowd.

            " Wanna hold it? " I asked her, sarcastically, with a frown on my face.

            " Why, sure! " the girl cherrily took Cassidy out of my arms, and looked at her face. The elven girl's facial expression turned pouty." Oh, how the beautiful die young.... " she sighed.

            I was disgusted. I snatched Cassidy back from her arms. " Who do you think you are?! "

            " Jaimette Laverte McQuire Monroe. And you are....? " she said it as you would say it to a friend's parents the first time meeting them. Couldn't she hear the hostitlity in my voice?

            I stared at her, long and hard. The chick was both obviously crazy and stupid.

            On closer inspection, she was a short elven girl, short enough that I couldn't guess her age properly. Her hair was long and blonde. She was a wood elf, so she had natural green markings surrounding her face. Her pointy ears stuck out like a sore thumb, but in a good way. Her skin was tanish, and her eyes were the same color as Spooky's, a dazzling green. She wore a tank top-a green one-and a jean mini skirt. She had one sock that was pink and black, that went all the way up her leg, and another sock that was green and white, that went only half way up her leg and stopped. The most odd of her features was the way she carried herself; similar to a ballerina, as if she had something up her butt that made her stand way up on her tip-toes, and as straight as a board.

            " I'm Jerimiah, " said Jerimiah, holding out his hand. I jumped , because I hadn't seen Jerimiah move, and because it was him at all. We all know how shy he is. What was with these crazy people and appearing out of no-place without the slightest warning?

            I looked closely at his face, and saw something there I'd never seen there before.

            Captivation.

            Great. He was captivated by the annoying elf girl.

            " Nice to meet you, " she said, almost purring it out. She then turned to me, and quick as a snake, she was right beside my neck, with a knife.

            " You can let me come with you, or you can get this thingymabob stabbed into your neck. Okay, sweety? " her voice had a weird accent I couldn't pinpoint.

            Dang. She was even cutely stupid when she was threatening to kill you. Everyone just stood there, gaping, the arrival of the new person breaking through their layer of grief. I mumbled out my blessing and Jaime screamed out her yays and woo-hoos. 

            Jerimiah seemed to be pleased. He stood right next to me and whispered.  " Thanks man. I owe you one. Remind me to leave next time you want to make a move on Lil. "

            " The elf girl can't be older than, I don't know, eleven years old. And I don't like Lilian.....! "

            " I've seen the way you look at her. You like her. "

            " Maybe I do, maybe I don't. "

            " Don't what? " Lilian appeared almost out of thin air. ( Again, with the sneaking up on me without warning? ) " You guys were whispering over here so I came to see if I could get in on it. "

            Jaime's arrival had brightened the atmosphere, and griefs were forgotten.

            " No, me and Jerimiah were just talking about how old little Jaime over there must be, and if she is worth anything to the group. "

            I looked back at Jaime. " Hey Jaime. Do you fight? Oh, and how old are you?  "

            Jaime giggled. " Of course I fight, silly. I use bow and do some creepy woodland magic. As for my age, I'm fifteen. "

            " No way! " Jerimiah said happily, as if he couldn't believe his luck. " So are me and Jake over here. "

            " You're fifteen......? " Lilian asked, curious.

            " Yeah. How old are you? "

            " I won't be fifteen until October. "

            Jaime called over to us. " You wanna see my creepy woodland magic? "

            This is gonna be good.

            In example, she called in all the woodland animals;I wasn't really sure how she did it; she blew on a leaf and they all gathered around like they'd been waiting for it all their life. She took out a smooth stick, that looked kinda like a conductor's baton, and waved it around near a squrriel. There was a blue spark  and.... whamo. The squrriel had turned into a bowl of soup.

            Well, at least with her around we will never go hungry.

            " Mmmm.... I haven't squrriel noodle soup in forever. "

            " You ARE evil, " Jerimiah said teasingly, putting his arm around her. Jerimiah had taken to her immediatley, and Jaime was too stupid to realize he liked her, but whether she noticed or not didn't matter. The show must go on.

            " Tommorrow, " I announced, " We move back through the desert. This time, I expect everyone to listen. "

            I buried Cassidy under a williow tree, then climbed that same tree to sleep in it, and many other did likewise, or climbed into the tents. I felt like sleeping in a tree tonight.

           

            That night I dreamed of squrriels that miraclously turned into bowls of soup, houses that spontaneously lit on fire, girls that flied, feathers that turned black and fell off; dragons that epicly failed whilst rolling over in their sleep. Translation? My life is messed up, and makes no more sense then what Jaime did to that poor defensless squrriel.

 

            In the morning we all set out, slowly but surely,bringing all our things with us, to trump the Desert le Death, that had been the place of death for two of our comrades, friends, family.

            We followed the desert cactuses, the unblossoming ones, and came at last to a big metal building. This was the Green Light Area;Grant had told me about once. There was always some kind of beastly monster in it. Afterwards were two more zones after that before the big boss, the core.

            One of those ridiculous signs was posted. I was starting to wonder if we would always come to one of these. Once more I read it aloud. Not because I wanted to know what it said, but because I was reading it for Grant, who no longer could.

            " This is the Green Light Area. It's the second happiest place on Earth. "

            Jaime laughed. " What's the first? "

            " Disneyland. "

            We looked at the door looming ahead. We all knew what it was now. I couldn't wait to fight.I had alot of pinned up anger in me. I grabbed the handles of the big silver door, and flung them wide open.

            " For Grant and Cassidy! " I cheered. I heard my words echoed back to me. We got this.

            The building was only one room. We stepped in and the door slammed shut. We were inside to stay. The beast came out from it's hiding place.

            Inside was one beast, a hydra. The creature was covered in shiny onyx scales, and it's were a golden yellow, and looked like they would better belong on a snake. It had many eyes, because it had seven heads, and each head had one set of two eyes. It's wings looked powerful and strong. Just one thing.....

            " Hahahahaha! " Jaime fell over laughing. She was nearing tears, she was laughing so hard. " It's the size of a stove! "

            She was right. Strong or not, this thing could have been no larger than my stove at home. Even so, big as a stove or as big as a house, a monster is still a monster, and monsters are dangerous.

            The monster sat. It did not move, it did not blink.... it just, sat.

            I put away my bow and switched it for my secondary weapon, a short sword with an easy to grope handle. The blade sharp, but it wasn't the blade I had been aspiring to use. No, it was the broad side.

            " One is black and one is white; there is a horse ,there is a knight; between us there will be a fight, winner gets the bragging right. "   the hydra spoke in a loud, clear voice.

            It was a riddle. I looked back at Storm. He was the tech nerd. He would be useful here.

            " Don't look at me. This doesn't sound technical in the least. " Storm protested.

            " It's a game of chess, you ninnies, " said an astounded Cassel. " That one was probably the easiest question. And we still have six more to go! "

            The hydra sat, but I noticed one difference; the first head had it's eyes closed. One question down, six to go.

            " If you fly away, away today, in your flight, second star to the right.... "

            " Never Land! " said an excited Spooky. " From Peter Pan. "

            The second set of eyes closed, and I looked at Spoky is suprise. " Nice going Spooks. I didn't know you liked Peter Pan. "

            He shrugged.

            " You will be glad if you slip past him alive, around him people do not thrive, three are his heads, Hades his master, if you are running, you better run faster. "

            Jaime giggled. " That's Cereberus. The three-headed dog from Greek mythology. He isn't a nice beastie. "

            Three down, four to go. This would take forever. The questions were getting harder.

            " Would you be impaired, if asked the answer M.C. squared? "

            Jerimiah chimed in. " I ain't got a clue where I know this from, but e=mc squared is a theorm by Einstein, isn't it? So.... energy. "

            Four down. I was glad we got that one answered but I don't have the slightest idea how Jerimiah knew it; he never paid attention in school. In of which is where we would be right about now of our village hadn't of been burned down.

            " Hear us , hear us, all in all.... whom is the brightest here, straight and tall ?"

            Spooky was on a roll. " That sounds like Snow White, the mirror! "

            We had only two left, but I was getting nervous. What would happen, when we had finally gotten all the questions done?

            " Buddha says, a child with out courage... "

            " Is like a night without stars, " Lilian said. " It's a quote from Annie. It's my favorite movie. Of all time. "

            Only one more question. I didn't know why, but I felt like I should know the answer to at least one of these. " This one's mine. "

            " Glasses and scar, you know who you are, spells and bells and your griffin attire, you will be chosen ... "

            " From the Goblet of Fire. " It was a Harry Potter movie.

            The last head shut it's eyes, and the whole hydra turned to stone. We watched as the door behind it opened up, ready for us to leave to building and move on to the next one.

            We all blinked.

            " Is that really all it? " asked a incredilous Cassel.

            Jaime answered what we were all thinking, " I guess it is. We should move on. "

            I knew, suddenly, that our next stage would have to be harder, since this one was incredibly easy. I feared for the things to come, yet I knew somehow that we would succeed.

            I shook my head. " No. This building is empty; we will sleep here for a while. We'll stand two guards at a time, both at the outgoing door, and just hope we aren't ambushed. "

            It was understood. We set up the tents inside, even though there was no need for the protection because we were inside a building. Jerimiah, Lilian ,and I closed the doors we came in from. The hope was that if they were opened, someone would hear them.

            Spooky and Whinjester took first guard. Jerimiah was drinking a rootbeer  ,the kind that came in a glass bottle-I know what you're thinking, but it's a very popular drink on Avaint Island-when I had an idea.

            " Hey, Jerimiah. You think we can teach these city-folks how to have a good time? "

            Jerimiah looked me in the eye, looked at his glass, and the same idea popped in his head. Oh, now it was on.

            " There are at least two different games I know you can play with this bottle, " Everyone gathered, besides the guards, and we sat in a circle. Hearing Jerimiah talk to a crowd is a rare, rare thing, and if you think you have a chance to see it, you would probably want to.

            " Which game you thinkin', Jerry-mia? " Jaime wondered aloud. " If it's Spin-The-Bottle, I'm good at that game. "

            Oh, snap! I looked up at Jerimiah, and saw he was fighting himself internerally; whether he should laugh his head off like he wanted to or keep his mouth shut. He managed compromise and smiled her way. " No...., but if you ever want to play that game, I'd be happy to, " he gave Jaime a wink.

            " Let's play! " Lilian said mischeviously, with that same exact look she had in her eyes when she had wanted to ride the dragons at night.

            Everyone else agreed. I had no choice but to play.

            If you're one of those people who have never played modernized Spin-The-Bottle, then the rules are like this. A boy spins the bottle and kisses the girl it lands closest to. Simple as that.

            Jerimiah reached out and put his bottle in the middle of the circle, but kept his hand on the bottle.

            The message was clear to Cassel, Storm, and I; Is it alright if I go first?

            " Alright, " Jerimiah confirmed when we made no move to stop him, and let the bottle spin. It spun and landed to where it was pointing right across from him.

            Well, my stars. It landed on Lilian.

            They both looked really nervous, but they moved into the middle of the circle. Jerimiah put his hand on Lilian's cheek, he leaned in and......

            " Gahhh! " I couldn't watch, I bolted out of the room.

            My best friend is kissing the girl I like! I hadn't even wanted to play Spin-The-Bottle, I just wanted to play Pop-Top.          

            Pop-Top is a game where you hold a fizzy soda in a bottle towards the wall across from you, shake it up and let it rip. If the top of the bottle hits the wall, you automatic win,and if no one hits the wall, the closest one to it does.

            Gahh! WHY did I let him DO THAT?!

            I sat lonelly on a hill right outside the entrance doors. I left in such a rush, so I couldn't really remember how I got out to the entrance, but I think I threw open the doors and slammed them shut.

            Just thinking about it made my blood boil. I spent the next half hour brooding over how many ways I could have stopped it.

            I spun around as I heard the door creep open. I knew that someone would eventually come out to console me, or at least attempt to.

            " Jake? " I heard Jerimiah ask.

            I waved him towards me with a sigh, and he grimly took his psition by my side.

            " Why would you do that to me? " I whispered, through gritted teeth. " You got ten seconds explaination before I go apeshit on you. "

            Jerimiah sighed. " Don't have a cow, I didn't kiss her. "

            I looked up. " What? "

            " You heard me. " He held my gaze, but I looked away, up at the stars that were fading slowly into view.

            " You kissed her, " I accused one more time, but this time I wasn't so sure.

            " Nope, " he looked so serious, as if someone had died.

            " Then you wanted to! " I screamed. I had actually said it half in tease, but the tone in my voice was still the same. I hadn't expected he would look down in shame and bite his lip.

            " Aw, man! " I said, scrambling away and feeling much like I should throw something at him. " No way, I'm not dealing with this crap. I disown you as my best friend. Get back in that building. " I looked away, and he stealthily went back in.

            Madder than a hatter, I tore the grass out of the ground and threw it as far as I could manage. I knew my friend was now a back-stabber in my mind. What I didn't know was that everyone had heard the screaming outside, though not necessarily the words, and that Lilian would come out to try to console me.

            " I brought you some food.... , " Lilian stood behind me, holding a small tray with some bread and fruit on it.

            I turned to her and reached out to grab the plate. " Thanks... "

            As soon as Lilian gave me the plate, she plopped down beside me, right where Jerimiah had been before.

            " Jake... you aren't mad at me , right? I know he's you're best friend and all, and I know it be weird if yu had to sit and watch him..... either way, we were about to but I made him stop. "

            I smiled. This is why I love Lil.... she is always thinking of others, never her own happiness.

            " Nah. I'm not mad at you. As for Jerimiah I already disowned him as my best friend. Though I think... "

            " Think what? "

            " I think I just wantted to keep you all for myself. "

            Lilian blinked, and smiled. " That's sweet of you, " she leaned her head on my shoulder and we sat there like that for god knows how long. All I know is that I hadn't wanterd it to end, but the sad thing about good things is that they always do. She eventually fell asleep and I carried her inside. Everyone stared at me, but I didn't care. I went straight into the girls tent, which thankfully no one was in, and set her down in a comfy position.

            " Sweet dreams, Lil, " and I kissed her on the forehead.

            That night, a new phrase echoed through my head.

            That's sweet of you.

 

 

 

            *                       *                       *

           

           

            With the previous night finally put out of my mind, I got up and streched. Today was the day we would tackle the Yellow Light Area. Yesterday was easy, and this wouldn't be as peachy. I was just praying that I would get out of this one with all my team.

            I was the first awake, because I had gone to bed earlier than almost everyone. I thought for a minute about stepping on Spooky's tail again to wake everyone, but that was cruel to Spooky, and honestly if I did it again it would be the third time and Spooky would probably bite me for it. I also didn't think it would be a smart idea to use Whinjester's tail. It'd been bitten by her once, and it hadn't tickled.

            Instead, I took the smallest yet loudest explosive I could find and threw it in the air and let it explode. It was a new kind of bomb made about five years ago secretly. It was about as dangerous as a firecracker but as loud as a construction site. People aren't really able to sleep in that degree of noise.

            " Wahh! " Jaime woke up scared as can be. " Where's the fire? "     

            I laughed at her and watched everyone else slowly get out of their tents. Spooky loked at me with a smug grin, but that was really the only other response I got. Everyone was awake, so we packed our things quietly and gathered around for instructions.

            " Today we will not head out for the Yellow Light Area. We'll go tommorrow. I already called Doomeater, and he sent the purple dragon to bring in our reinforcements. They'll arrive in a couple of days. Until then, we're to move on and cover as much ground as possible. The dragons are flying in from Runner Island. They'll arrive in a little while. Doomeater believes the last battle, if we make it, will be combat in the air. So today, we practice air combat. "

            Jaime blinked, " The whats? Oh, I'm lost. "

            I'd totally forgot about Jaime. Since she'd joined I hadn't asked her why she joined where she came from.

            " Why did you join us so rudely, Mrs.Jaimette Monroe? " I asked her.

            Jaime's eyes teared up, and she reached up to wipe them away. " They burnt down my home forest when they first came to the island three years ago. The fire killed my whole family. My little sister, June, was only four. She was killed by a falling tree during the fire. I only got out by slim chance. It left me half blind. My right eye is sightless. "

            I imagined a four year old Jaime. It was a cute picture, really. Then I imagined that little girl being killed in a fire by that stupid ShadowFirez guy. Suddenly I was very, very angry.

            " Those heartless monsters, " I muttered. Jerimiah tried to comfort Jaime, but she couldn't stop crying. It was as if she was reliving the memory over and over again in her mind, her blind right eye forever a reminder.

            We all looked away. Spooky looked up at me with his big green eyes and the loss was plain there. Cassel looked down and scratched at the floor. Lilian held her head up high, as if losing her whole family was a difficult enemy or particularly annoying problem. Jereimiah had failed in his attempt to help out Jaime, and tears were silently rolling down his beautiful face too. Storm was pretending to tinker with his AATD, while Whinjester curled up next to Spooky. We had all lost from the fires, it was clear. 

            I cleared my throat. " For every single person stolen from us by ShadowFirez, we'll destroy ten of them. "

               I meant every word of it.  When I opened up my mouth to say so, I heard a couple of dragons land outside. I motioned for everyone to exit the building, and the dragons surveyed how many of us were left.

            " Only Grant and Cassidy are gone... that's minimal loss of life. Not that they're lives aren't impoortant, " Doomeater said. " I've brought with me Dusk, Pheonix, Inferno, Aquamarine, and Peridot. "

            HIs eyes landed on Jaime. " What's this? "

            I shifted uncomfortablly. " After Grant's........accident, she popped out of nowhere and help me and threatened me with a knife. She isn't useless, and she meets the standards. Her name is Jaime. "

            Doomeater let out an unintelligable snort. " Of course. Has Miss Jaime had any flight training whatsoever? "

            Jaime nodded. " Pygmy Dragons. The only difference is that they're smaller. "

            Doomeater assigned Jaime on Dusk, Spooky on Aquamarine, Lilian on Peridot, Jerimiah on Pheonix, Whinjester and Storm on Inferno, Cassel on his own, and I of course get Doomeater. The clouds were high today, so I knew we would have a nice clear path to fly. I quickly went over the signals. The dragons had brought some low level whistles for us to use to communicate in the sky. Two short whistles was higher, one was to stop and land, or to lift off. Three was right, four was lower, and five short whistles was left. This way we could move in unison around the sky. One long whistle could mean incoming danger , two could mean change of leadership, and three was someone was captured. I hung my whistle aroung my neck. Mine was special, so the dragons could tell my orders from everyone else's. We were ready to go.

            I blew into the whistle and we took off, flying not far off the ground. It felt great to fly again, even though flying Doomeater was difficult. We just kinda flew straight when I remembered again that I was supposed to be giving orders. I fingered my whistle. It was difficult because I need both my hands to fly, so I quickly put it in my mouth while I asked Doomeater to go on autopilot.

             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.

            It seems so, doesn't it?

            I blew the whistle and everyone's dragon turned left, and we circled the buildings below. After doing so, I whistled right and then changed the leadership let him pull ahead of me. Jerimiah flew free and suddenly realized I had handed the job off to him. He ordered us around some and passed it to Spooky. We all got a turn.

            We practiced with toy arrows to see if we could beat eachother in mock midair battles. It went well, but could have gone better. Afterwards, I took back leadership and landed us all. The sun was setting. Tommorrow would be a long, hard day. We would need a little extra sleep time. Besides, everyone but Jaime was tired. Then again, Jaime's never tired.

             I don't know why, but I was scared off tommorrow. I helped set some mines with Jaime. She seemed good enough with it, and with her other abilities she had since proved her worth.

            " Jake! "

            I looked up in suprise, because her voice was so urgent.

            " Your eyes were blue when I met you, and they were blue earlier, but now your eyes are purple! "

            I blinked. I had forgotten about my eyes changing to blue earlier. It still didn't seem important enough to dominate my mind. " My natural eye color is green, " I told her.

            She shook her head and went to bed inside.

            Something was warning me that the worst was coming. What could possibly be in store?