Chapter 4

Rebecca stood and stared at the 7 year old little girl in front of her. She looked like another girl in her class with her short black bob, but she seemed different from the other kids she had met. The seven year old gawked at the look in the girl's eyes as she stood before her class, waiting for the teacher's cue to introduce herself. Something about the darkness of her irises seemed to intrigue her.

It was as if her eyes were telling everyone around her to fear her and to keep their distance, but Rebecca instead wanted to know more about her. She wanted to know her favorite colour, food, movie, song, game, candy, desert. She wanted to know if she liked school or not, whether she finds math as difficult as she did, or if she was a genius like Brandon. She wanted to know why she had such a cold expression on her face too.

The short, black-haired little girl may have been scary to other people, but to Rebecca, she wanted to see what it took to make her smile. She didn't know why, but Grandma Maya always said she had an "awakened maternal instinct", but she never understood why dad got embarrassed when Brandon and Grandma Maya blamed it on him.

"Why don't you tell everyone your name?" Her name! Rebecca decided she was going to start with her name.

"My name is Britney Park. Nice to meet you." Britney, huh? Rebecca was a bit surprised since everyone's name always seemed to be more extravagant than hers. Except Jason's. He had the same name as a serial killer and quite frankly it fit him.

"You can sit next to Rebecca. Please raise your hand, so she knows where you are." Rebecca excitedly raised her hand as Britney walked over and sat down next to her.

Rebecca held out her hand to greet her, but Britney simply stared at Rebecca's hand before ignoring it and sitting down in her seat. She's a tough one, Rebecca thought as she retracted her hand and opened up her books. While everyone else was paying attention to the math lesson, the curly haired magician simply wrote down different ways to get Britney to open up. Maybe if she actually paid attention, then maybe math wouldn't have been so difficult.

Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it as the bell rang for lunch time. Rebecca excitedly got up and turned over to Britney's desk and asked her what she was going to get for lunch.

No response.

Did she want a hot dog, or a meatball sub, or- "You to leave her alone~." Brandon rudely chimed in while standing quietly behind her. "You've practically been bothering her all day. Lay off a bit, mom~".

Rebecca contemplated beating him up again, but she didn't want to scare Britney off, so she simply ignored the more annoying twin and asked Britney if she wanted to sit with them in the cafeteria.

No response.

Instead of talking, she picked up her backpack and searched for a small box before opening it and revealing the most colourful arrangement of food the three kids had ever seen.

"Woah!" Halley exclaimed, "That's your lunch? Lucky!" Lucky, indeed. Her lunch box looked like something out of a cartoon, but tastier. Wait. Why was she eating in the classroom? "I said she could as I grade papers," their teacher said, walking into the classroom. "No fair!" Brandon said, "I don't want to eat with those stinky sixth graders!" Rebecca and Halley agreed. The sixth grade was crawling with creeps and weirdos.

"I'll make you a deal you can't refuse," Brandon said as he confidently walked up to the teacher's desk and picked up her apple, "You let us eat here too, and we'll organize the classroom everyday during lunch when we're done."

Who was we? Rebecca hoped Brandon didn't mean her too, but by the time she realised he did mean her too, it was too late. Their teacher took the deal before Brandon could realise they got the short end of the stick.

Rebecca turned to see how Britney was doing as Halley scolded her brother for such a flawed business transaction, but she didn't seem to care at all. She simply sat there, eating away at her lunch, and she really did look like a princess as she did. She thought really hard on what to do before a light bulb lit in her head and she turned to the twins for help.

Rebecca whispered her plan to them and they were soon racing down the hallways to the cafeteria.

"Don't run in the halls!" their teacher called to the twins before asking Rebecca, "What did you say to them?" Rebecca simply smiled and glanced at Britney before telling her teacher Halley and Brandon were carrying out the first phase of Operation Grumpy Princess.

The cold princess didn't react at all to the title of the operation as she closed her lunch box and placed it back in her backpack.

Perfect timing! Halley and Brandon arrived back in the classroom with two meatball subs and one small cup of ice cream. "You guys are going to share?" their teacher asked, but Rebecca declared she would not eat a single thing until Britney accepted the cup of ice cream. The teacher giggled at the declaration as Britney simply ignored her while the two twins ate. Rebecca didn't expect her to open up on the first day after all.

*****

The lunch bell rang as their teacher finished up their lesson and called Rebecca to her desk as the other kids raced to the cafeteria. Rebecca couldn't understand what was wrong until her teacher said, "I know you're trying to get Britney to open up, but starving yourself is not the way to do it. You have to eat lunch today or else I'll have to call your father." Rebecca didn't want to go back on her word, though.

She looked at Britney sitting alone with her lunch box in the middle of the classroom, and she couldn't shake the curiosity pushing her to find out more about the little black-haired girl.

"Okay?" her teacher asked, and Rebecca grudgingly agreed as Halley and Brandon returned with two sandwiches and one cup of ice cream. She stared at the one cup of ice cream as their teacher explained their deal to Halley and Brandon.

She didn't want to give up just yet, Rebecca thought as she walked up to Britney as she was eating and handed the ice cream to her.

Ice cream always made people smile. It always did.

Rebecca thought about how happy the treat made her as the world started to swirl all around her before everything went black. She heard faint voices calling out her name over and over, but she couldn't figure out why Halley and Brandon were yelling.

"Why did you push yourself so far for her?" Athena asked her magician as they sat in a familiar darkness, facing each other. Why? Why did she do it? Britney's eyes seemed a bit sad to her, like the way dad would seem sad when he was angry. She thought it was simply backwards for her, so she got her ice cream to make her smile. "There are simpler ways to make someone smile." Yeah, but ice cream is the fastest.

"She might get in trouble too now because of you." She'd protect her. "From adults?" The seven year old vigorously nodded her head before a blinding white light filled her eyes and she woke up in a hospital bed.

What was dad doing there? She wondered aloud as she spotted him squeezing her hand while sitting on a chair near her bed. He was squeezing pretty tight, so she was worried she had upset him, but she couldn't have been more wrong.

He cried on her shoulder as he held her in his arms. Everyone was crying. Grandma Maya, Brandon, Halley too. As Rebecca watched them all cry, Britney suddenly ran through her mind and she asked where she was. "She's in the room over," a doctor said before walking into their hospital room, "Her father is going through the discharge procedures, but more importantly, young lady," he suddenly made eye contact with Rebecca as he asked, "When was the last time you ate?"

The room went dead silent as Rebecca mustered up all her courage and said three days ago. "It was my fault!" Brandon yelled, "I should've talked her out of it." No, it wasn't Brandon's fault. "She's right. It was mine!" Halley suddenly declared, "I forgot these two don't know how to think." Rebecca found herself unable to refute Halley's comment, but she was wrong about it all being her fault. Rebecca was the one who wanted to see Britney smile!

Grandma Maya and dad looked at each other in disbelief before he asked, "So you passed out in school because you didn't eat lunch because you wanted to make someone smile?" He was missing a few details, but yes.

Dad remained quiet before he walked outside to "cool down." Rebecca asked Grandma Maya if they were in trouble, and she said how she was going to "pump them with food until they exploded.", but she really didn't seem like she was joking.

Rebecca suddenly got the urge to see Britney as a nurse came to check on her while Grandma Maya was scolding her grandkids. Dad was still out, so she asked the nurse to go use the bathroom, and she got her off her bed. However, she had to walk around with a giant, impractical walking stick with a bag on it, but she made due as she went over to Britney's room, and opened the door right before a grown man was about to slap the grumpy princess.

She instinctively ran between the two of them and used her body as a shield as she tried to talk the man out of hurting her friend. He started talking in a different language, confusing Rebecca, but she refused to let up as the man's annoyance clearly grew. "Rebecca, is it?" How did he know her name?

"I am Britney's father." Her dad? The more she looked at him, the more she saw the resemblance, but that didn't excuse the fact he was about to hit her!

"I heard you're a smart girl, so you should know why I need to punish such a deplorable little girl like her for what she's done." What had Britney done? As far as Rebecca knew, she was the one who didn't eat in an attempt to make Britney smile. Britney had done nothing wrong, so he had no right to touch her.

Rebecca felt the power rush to her fingertips as she prepared to use her magic, but suddenly felt weak in her knees.

Britney caught her before she could hit the ground as the man crouched down and picked her up. "Where is your hospital room?" he asked her, but she wasn't going to tell him until he promised not to hurt Britney. The man said something to Britney in that other language before saying, "I promise." Rebecca told him she was put next door as dad was walking down the hall, back to the same room.

He immediately ran over to the man and asked him, "Why are you holding my daughter?" in the scariest voice she had ever heard from him, but Britney's father simply responded by saying, "She came to check on my daughter, and fell ill while visiting." What was with adults and forgetting the important details?

Dad carefully picked up Rebecca from the man's arms as Britney opened the door for them and put Rebecca's annoying walking stick next to her bed.

She whispered, "I'm sorry." to Rebecca before she quickly limped away to her father, but Rebecca wished she was strong enough to make her smile. "What a gloomy kid."

Grandma Maya said as she and Brandon and Halley returned. "She gets it from her dad, and I'm willing to bet my life on that." dad added, but Britney wasn't gloomy. She just had trouble smiling. "That is the definition of gloomy," Brandon retorted, "but I agree with Reba."

"She just looks a bit lonely to me," Halley added, "Maybe she's an only child. Ooh! Can we add her to the family, Grandma?" That was a great idea! They would definitely be able to make her smile if she was their new sister. "I'm surprised a good idea actually came out of that big mouth of yours." Brandon commented, resulting in Halley trying to punch him with her cotton ball fists, and Grandma Maya agreeing with them.

"But," Grandma Maya added mid-celebration, "We need to get Britney's opinion and her family's opinion too." That was easy, Rebecca thought as her mind began to ponder all the different ways she was going to convince her to join their family before her eyes were suddenly flooded with light and she woke up in a forest. Not the most comfortable place to sleep in.

"Good, you're awake." 16 year old Halley said as Rebecca remembered how the dragon separated them.

She sat up and saw Kiara, Celestia, and Awan along with only one of the twins. They really did get separated from those three, she thought as Awan expressed how, "we need to find them as soon as possible. "How about I use one of my arrows as a flare?" Halley suggested, but Celestia reminded her, "The Earth dragon would see it too. How about we try to search the woods instead?" They couldn't.

They had no means of communication in the first place. Splitting up was just a recipe for disaster. They just needed to-

The loud echoing earthquake magnitude thud the Earth Dragon made as it landed on the planet cut Rebecca off and shook the ground. And there went her other plan, she thought as Celestia offered the idea to "look for a town nearby. There has to be someone there who could give us directions."

"That's a great idea." Awan said emotionlessly as his eyes turned a midnight blue. What was he doing? "Looking for the place where the most shadows are gathered." He could do that? Why didn't he say so sooner? "It never really came up in our previous conversations- There!" The girls all turned their heads to the direction he was pointing in and hoped he was right as they began their (hopefully short) journey to the town.

"Prince Awan, was it?" Halley suddenly asked as he replied, "Awan is just fine." "Alright, Awan, why are the dragons so mad?" How did she know to ask him? "Julian mentioned it to me and Brit." "I'm not sure why they're behaving the way they are," he began, "but I do know the dragons were some of the first creations as each of them controls one aspect of the universe." Rebecca was pretty sure everyone knew the fairy tale about the dragons.

"Can I?" Celestia asked adorably, and no one could say no to her big, brown eyes. "Once upon a time, long, long ago, all lived on Wisteria in peace and harmony under the dragons. Everything was perfect until the dragons and their people turned on the other Wisterians and planned to destroy the world. However, a brave human saved all of Wisteria by sealing all the dragons and their peoples in Mytherra. That's the story of the first magician."

Bravo! Rebecca couldn't have said it better herself, she declared as she ruffled Celestia's kinky hair. "But that story is just a folk tale made to demonize magic as the story goes along," Halley reminded them, "So if dragons do exist along with Mytherra, doesn't that mean anti-magicians were right all along about magic being a curse?"

The five magicians fell silent as they contemplated Halley's words, before Kiara finally spoke up.

"Magicians are the few chosen ones. Magis choose us to live out their legacies. They bestow upon us the greatest blessing we can receive, and anyone who claims differently simply doesn't deserve their magic." Rebecca and Halley couldn't believe the words coming out of Kiara's mouth as Awan quickly changed the subject, asking, "What was up with Michael?" Michael? Oh. Rebecca suddenly remembered the events of the past book as Halley emphasized the same question.

Julian had said he broke his hypnosis with the cleansing properties of the Fountain water, but Rebecca still couldn't believe what he did while under Richard's influence. Her mind drifted to how Louis was doing as she remembered the scene of his bloody body laying by the shipping container as she woke up. She truly did believe Michael was back to normal, but she couldn't shake the possibility of him going under Richard's control again.

"If Julian said he's fine, then he's fine." Kiara sternly declared, pissing Rebecca off. Even if she was right about it, there was no need for her to be so rude about it. However, as Rebecca was about to say those words aloud, a shiver ran up her spine as she recalled the way Kiara subdued her at the palace. Her mind went blank with fear as she remembered the feeling of not being able to breathe.

The feeling of her entire existence being dominated by a force she couldn't even see. The feeling of her life about to leave her body at any moment Kiara pleased. Don't hurt her. Please, just leave her alone. Don't touch her! Before Rebecca's brain had realised, her body had already swung a barrier-inforced fist at the Dark Creator's magician, but Kiara caught the fist before it made contact.

"What are you trying to do?" she asked in a tone which dropped Rebecca to her knees.

She could only stare at the dirt as she felt her power flowing out of her until Awan placed his hand on the annoyed princess's shoulder and told her, "It was instinctive. Don't hold it against her when we're already here."

How did he know her body moved before her? Was it that obvious? It didn't matter. Kiara finally let go and continued walking into town with Awan as Celestia and Halley helped Rebecca to her feet. The devil was back, not Kiara.

*****

Rebecca wondered if she would soon also get a power up as the others all discussed the matter of their classes. She thought of asking Athena, but a small rustling sound caught her attention first. She quietly tapped on Britney's hand three times before whispering something about them being followed. "You noticed too?" she asked, but Rebecca wasn't surprised. Britney was always quick with those things.

The two of them kept their guards up as they arrived at Chayse's camp, but they kept their approach to the situation casual in order to avoid any needless injuries. Rebecca barely kept up with Chayse's story as the rustling grew more imminent by the minute. Whoever was following them was getting closer to them, but she had to remain calm about it as she went to ask Chayse more about his curse-

Rustle.

Rebecca bolted after the rustling sound next to Britney after confirming whether or not everyone had heard the noise. There was something weird about the forest, but Rebecca paid it no mind as she continued running through the seemingly endless forest, until it suddenly ended with a giant cliff. The terrain had completely switched from a forest to a canyon, confusing all eight of the magicians.

"Where is it?" Michael asked his girlfriend, but she declared, "We lost it." as Rebecca continued to search the canyon below. Right when she was about to turn away, a glimpse of light caught the corner of her eye, making her turn and search for its source as everyone made noise behind her. She went from wondering what the light was to wondering why she was being pushed off a cliff by the weight of 7 high school students, a middle schooler and a gust of wind.

As Rebecca was contemplating what was happening around her, Halley and Brandon's sunlight yellow and turquoise nets appeared below everyone and caught them before they could hit any of the jutted rocks.

"Is everyone okay?" Michael asked aloud, but it seemed like everyone was as Rebecca noticed Chayse's little head poking out of the edge of the cliff above them. She couldn't exactly hear him, but he looked like he was saying something.

She left the deciphering to the others as she turned to the direction of where the light was as she looked down the river at the bottom of the canyon. It seemed to extend for miles upon miles as she observed, but the strangest part was how the light-

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Those heavy footsteps! Rebecca's eyes shot back up to the deer boy as she saw the Earth Dragon standing directly above him.

How did they not notice the dragon until the last minute? It was a dragon! Regardless, Chayse was scared stiff, and didn't seem to be able to hear anyone. Talk about a deer in headlights. Wait, now's not the time to be cracking jokes, but William's powers would've been extremely useful at this point, Rebecca thought as she eyed the sides of the canyon. They were shaped like the sides of a bowl rather than a plateau, giving the young magician an idea.

First, she turned to her friends and asked them if they trusted her, and Brandon replied, "Not exactly." so she offered to leave him behind.

With all tension aside, she asked Halley and Brandon to remove their nets, and after Brandon secured Celestia in his arms, they dropped even further down the canyon until Rebecca released her tangerine coloured powers and bounced them all back into the air, confusing the dragon a bit.

It stared at the kids with noticeable confusion in its eyes right before Michael blinded it with his lightning as Awan swiped Chayse. By this time, gravity took its effect and they began falling down the side of the cliff again, but Rebecca's barriers made the fall to their deaths somewhat of a sled ride through a canyon.

Though, Rebecca soon ran into another dilemma as the dragon's roar pierced the sky.

She had to stay at the back to monitor everyone, but at the same time, she had to be at the front to navigate their path through the new obstacle course, courtesy of the giant, pissed off dragon behind them. Her worry soon turned to embarrassment as Britney maneuvered through all the jutting rocks and earthquakes all around the canyon. How could she forget who she was with? How could she forget how awesome her little sister was?

Things were finally starting to look up as they reached the exit of the canyon, which was a giant circular structure, and it almost looked like a portal-

Boom!

Huh? Another boulder flew past Rebecca as she turned to see the Earth Dragon throwing the rocks on its tail at them. It could do that? Things were going too smoothly for Rebecca's tastes anyways, and it seemed the same for Halley and Brandon too.

Brandon was up first as he carefully swung Celestia down to Michael's arms as they cruised through the canyon upwards of 80 MPH, but at that point, failure wasn't an option.

Once Celestia was secure, Brandon and Halley turned to face the rocks and started to shoot them out of the air as they got closer and closer to them. Halley's power boost was obvious in the number of boulders she was breaking and the size of them compared to Brandon's.

Everyone really seemed to be working together to get them all out of the canyon, except for Kiara, who just sat there, fixated on the exit. She didn't even seem to care about everything happening around her, annoying Rebecca, but her attention soon shifted to the light as it seemed to have changed colour.

At first, it looked more pearly white, but the more she stared at it, the more orange hues she started to see.

Strangely enough, the shade of orange seemed familiar to her as the sound of the chaos around her seemed to dissipate. She couldn't hear anything, but it wasn't a comfortable silence at all. The numbing sensation made all her senses heighten as Brandon's yell brought her back to Mytherra. What was it? "You didn't see the giant dragon throw a rock at the entrance?"

It did what now?

Rebecca finally looked up to see the entire exit crumbling down the closer they got and realised they'd have to avoid it somehow, but they couldn't exactly just turn around. The only place left to go was ... up?

Rebecca watched as all her barriers received a rim of clouds formed around their edges as they all began their ascent above the nearly demolished exit. Rebecca's eyes shot to Celestia as she was moving the barriers higher and higher, away from the ground.

It was working! They were almost there! Just a little further and they'd be out of the canyon, Rebecca thought as she did not see the last boulder heading straight for her until it was blown to bits out of nowhere. She frantically turned around to see what had just blown up behind her, but Kiara simply downplayed it as a falling rock as they made their way out of the canyon into a land of volcanoes.

"Where are we?" Awan asked as they flew above what looked like a lake made of lava until they arrived on solid ground. Rebecca was most awe-struck by how the sky suddenly changed from blue to grey with no seamless change in the middle.

She clearly saw a defined line between the two skies and wondered how exactly it was possible. "I think we're in Fizul?" Chayse said questioningly, but how were they supposed to know if he didn't.

"I've never been outside Earzul, so I'm not exactly sure, but this looks like the place I read about in a book." He could read? Judging from the town, being able to read must've not been very common since all signs were just drawings. There was not a single written piece of information in sight-

"Are we in the land of the fire dragon?" Britney asked as she eyed her surroundings, probably searching for any other animated residents.

"If you mean the Fizulian Spirit, then probably." Chayse answered again, this time even more unsure of himself. If he had something to say, he had to say it with confidence or else no one would take him seriously in-

"Help! Help me!" Rebecca and Britney ran in the direction of the cry without thinking twice, and once again, left everyone behind. The cry itself alerted Rebecca, but what bothered her most was the voice coming from the same direction as the light.

Her intrigue with the light was what drew her to the little girl sitting in the middle of a lava lake, but something about her drew her closer and closer to the lava until Kiara placed her hands on hers and Britney's shoulders.

"Don't. Leave her." she said coldly before walking away as the child cried out for help.

Was she not going to do anything as the child suffered? Did she throw her heart away into that void? If that was the case, then Kiara could spend all her life being bitter for all Rebecca cared!

Kiara, however, simply repeated her warning and kept on walking away, irritating Rebecca to an even higher extreme. Who did she think she was-

"Help me! Please!" the young girl cried, catching Rebecca's attention again. How could she save her? She desperately wondered as Britney walked up beside her and offered her help.

She didn't want the others to choose between the Dark Creator's magician and her, so she composed her entire plan around Britney's athletic ability and the little rock the girl was sitting on. The rock was slowly chipping away into the lava, not giving the two of them much time to grab the girl. Rebecca tested the first part of her plan by surrounding a rock with her barrier, and throwing it into the lava lake before taking it out.

Luckily, the rock was completely unaffected by the lava, which meant Britney would be too, but was she really sure about this? "Don't tell me you think I'm going to fail." she replied, but Rebecca was just worried. "I'm sure you are, mom," She was not Halley's mom. "I'll tend to her wounds when you get her out." Halley added, completely disregarding Rebecca's comment and turning to Britney.

"Be careful, and don't worry about Kiara. Michael's going to talk to her." Rebecca wasn't sure how that would help as she surrounded Britney with her barrier, but she simply pushed it to the back of her mind. She couldn't let anything distract her as she waited for the perfect timing to open and close Britney's barrier. A second too soon, or a second later could possibly kill her, so Rebecca maintained her concentration as Britney's eyes turned their magical pearl.

She jumped from the edge of the lake to the little girl, and Rebecca counted down the seconds to open and close the barrier as Britney got closer to her hand. Almost there, she thought before she heard a giggle behind her, so she turned around, but there was no one there. "What are you doing?" Awan yelled as Rebecca turned back around to see Britney about to fall out of the barrier into the lava.

She rushed to send a barrier to catch her, but as soon as Britney's hand made contact with the little girl's hand, everything turned green again. They were all confused as they walked on the solid, earthen ground over to Britney, who was equally confused. Rebecca looked to Chayse for answers, but he was just as bewildered as the rest of them. No one could explain why the ground went from a volcano terrain to another forest.

Rebecca started to doubt her sanity as the giggling came back. She turned to make sure she wasn't the only one who could hear it, but she soon turned to look where everyone else was staring. What was wrong with Britney-

"Hahahahahaha!" the little girl laughed, but Rebecca was more concerned about how her skin was a mix of tangerine orange and pearl. It was so-

"Who are you?" Michael asked.

That could be more important. "Yup! Yup! Yup!" the girl announced randomly before trying to escape Britney's grasp and failing miserably. "Let go! I want to go to her now!" she declared as she pointed at Rebecca, but Kiara simply walked up to her and placed her cloak on the little girl before Britney eventually let go. Released, she ran straight for Rebecca, jumped up and clung to her as she continued to giggle.

Rebecca found herself smiling as she stared at her mismatched eyes, which went along with the colour of her skin, but who was she? "You dwellers call me all sorts of names, but to you, I would be the space dragon, I think?" The space dragon? No way! She's a little kid, not a dragon, and she didn't seem all that intimidating at all. "But I am the space dragon~" she complained, "How else did I trick you?"

Trick them? "If you can manipulate space to your will," Brandon started, "Does that mean we never left Earzul? Was the lava pond part of your trick?" There was no way-

"Yup!" she proudly declared, "But Isra over there was no fun!" Isra? Who was Isra? Rebecca turned to see who she was talking about only to see Chayse bowing at her feet. What exactly was he doing? "Y-y-you are Spija!" he yelled, "I grovel at your mercy!"

You had got to be joking! The little girl was the space dragon? She wasn't even a dragon! "I don't like that form," she admitted, "It scares people away." Rebecca sensed some sadness in her words as she said that and placed the little girl on her shoulders before Awan began his own interrogation. "The Earth dragon wasn't affected by the time curse because it left Mytherra, but why are you awake?"

"I don't know, but I've been trying to leave this world for eons!" she said, perfectly aligning with their goal. "Why don't you leave?" Michael asked her, but she went quiet for a moment before looking to Kiara and asking, "You haven't told her yet?" What hadn't she told them? What was she hiding-

Rebecca's suspicion melted away at the sight of Kiara's confusion at the question. Why was she confused?

"Well, it's complicated, but I can't leave without the others!" The Space Dragon after a short sigh. Wait. The others? The other dragons? She didn't mean-

"You want us to help you round up all the dragons in Mytherra?" Celestia asked with mild excitement in her voice, but it really wasn't something to be excited about. "Why not?" Britney calmly answered. "As long as it gets us out of here, I'm fine with it." Brandon added as Halley turned and asked, "Which dragon do we go after first?"

"Hmm," she said as she furrowed her brow and tapped on Rebecca's head, "First, put me down." Rebecca obliged to the order as she questioned whether or not they were really about to go roundup dragons. "Do you have any other ideas?" Michael asked. She didn't but-

"Then what's the harm in a little adventure?" Awan asked with a smile as Celestia, Brandon, Halley agreed with a smile and Chayse blushed.

She hated to admit it, but Michael was right, so where to? "Hmm~ Earth dragon is mad at you guys right now, so that's a no go, and Tija is still depressed, so …. that way!" Rebecca hoped she wasn't pointing at anything dangerous until Awan asked "Who exactly is in that direction?"

"It's bad," she replied, "Like really bad, but I think you guys can handle it."

Rebecca's mind ran wild at the thought of what could be "bad" to a dragon who could control space, but there wasn't much she could do as they all turned to follow the little girl deeper and deeper into the woods.