"Don’t hurt me!" came a desperate scream from down the corridor.

"I bet you ten bucks that’s Sariyya and her gang beating up Alxra, Orz, and Renyx again," Kivessa said with a grim smile.

"I’m not betting you because you’re going to win anyway," Kaya answered, glancing over at Kivessa.

"What’ll we do this time?"

They quickened their pace, squinting because of the lights that had just been installed a few days ago. South Telleka had always been a dim place until the rebels went to earth and found artificial light.

They followed the continuing cries for mercy until they found Sariyya. Alxra was pinned up against the wall by Sariyya, who was holding her by the collar of her shirt, her fist ready.

"Hey! Stop that you freak!" Kaya yelled directly to Sariyya. Sariyya let go of Alxra, turning around to face them.

"Why are you guys sticking up for them? They’re worthless pieces of trash." Sariyya retorted.

"Why does anyone stick up for you, then?" asked Kivessa, feeling that she should have a part in the argument.

Sariyya responded with vulgar language, and threw a punch at Kaya, which hit her in the jaw. Sariyya didn’t know that she had made a bad move. Kivessa had almost gotten her black belt in Karate on Earth, and Kaya had won several championships in wrestling.

Given the time to make a move, Orz had snuck up behind Sariyya and kicked her in the back of the knees. As Sariyya fell forward, her group of friends turned from looking at Kaya and Kivessa to Sariyya.

Kivessa started to laugh, because the expression on Sariyya's face was so surprised and scared. Sariyya, who had recovered from her fall, grabbed Kivessa's ankle and pulled hard. Kivessa fell, somehow twisting herself around, and landed on a young man's shoe. He, being the only shy one there who didn't like beating up on nerds, helped Kivessa up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yup, thanks," she said and looked up at his face. He was about one whole foot taller than her, and he had the oddest hair. It was dark brown yet it had a slight tinge of purple to it. His eyes were a dark chocolate brown, and his smile was one that could make your heart melt.

Somebody tapped Kivessa on the shoulder, waking her up from her daydream. She smiled at the guy who's name she didn’t know, and turned around. Sariyya was standing behind her! Her fist was moving super fast, and was about to connect with Kivessa's unsuspecting face, but Kaya jumped in and shoved Sariyya away in the nick of time. Sariyya's fist came within one inch of Kivessa's nose.

"Thanks!" Kivessa yelled to Kaya, who was busy punching Sariyya in the stomach. "When will they ever learn not to mess with us, eh?"

Kaya didn’t answer her. She was busy looking at the young man who had just entered the scene.

"That was my girlfriend you just punched, you know," a masculine voice arose from the shouting. Kivessa turned around, expecting the worst, but she realized that it was Kaya who had to worry.

"I ought to beat the hell out of you for doing that," the tall brown-haired young man said. Kaya stood directly in front of him and glared at him with squinted eyes.

"Do you know what kind of bitch you are going out with?" she said, not afraid of him. She flung her waist-length hair behind her shoulders.

For a while there was only glaring and shouting, but Kaya finally sucker-punched Sariyya's boyfriend, canned him, and ran as fast as she could out of there.

She didn't stop running until she reached her suite. Kaya didn't know how long the fight had gone on. Thoughts kept running through her head. She had thought that the tall dark-haired guy was kind of handsome, but his taste in women lacked certain respect. Surely he was only going out with her because she was flirty, and for the social position. They could never get married, which was a good thing, Kaya decided. He had bonded a female gold, and Sariyya had bonded a female purple. There was no such thing as lesbianism or gays in Kellaria.

My Iomethe can go with his gold, she thought. It's so perfect, we both bonded strangely. But he is going out with Sariyya, and I can't quite compete with her, even though I know I'm better than her. Oh well, she mentally sighed, he's a jerk anyway.

Iomethe, what time is it? she asked her blue dragon.

Its… past dusk. Approximately 11:00PM. Dragons always knew when it was.

Okay, thanks, Kaya said, are we doing anything tomorrow?

Oh. She liked sleeping in. Well, I guess I better get some sleep then. Goodnight.

She didn't wait for Iomethe's reply, for she was already in bed, half asleep.

"You're actually going to do it?" Sariyya asked.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm sticking up for you," P'zaz replied. In his hands were dull silver scissors.

"So? I wouldn't if I were you."

"Why not? Seriously. I won't do that much damage. Just a little."

"I don't care. You will get into serious trouble. And I don't want that."

"Well, I'm going to. She canned me! Embarrassed me in front of all of my friends, even my so-called enemies!" P'zaz was really angry with the way that Kaya had acted, and wanted to get revenge. His eyes were ablaze.

"Well, then I guess we'll just have to break up then, if that's what you want," Sariyya said. She was getting sick of P'zaz anyway, she thought.

P'zaz's rage quickly turned to sorrow as he heard this news.

"Why?" he simply asked.

"Because, well, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Warian and Fyra can't go together, and you know that. That's why it has to be. Besides, I could tell that you thought Kaya was pretty. I could see it in your eyes."

"But…" P'zaz was finally realizing that no, the two dragons could never be together. Two females are just not able to mate. After realizing this, he blushed because Sariyya had somehow read his thoughts.

"Well, I guess we will still be friends?" Sariyya tried to comfort him, putting her arm around his shoulders.

P'zaz opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. He was emotionally hurt. He thought that he had loved Sariyya.

But it was time to move on. P'zaz got up and ran for the door. Tavin came in the door unexpectedly.

"Hey, watch it!" Tavin yelled. He had been an inch away from being stabbed by the knife-like scissors. Luckily, P'zaz stopped suddenly hearing footsteps from the hall.

"Sorry," P'zaz made a face. He was angry at everyone, even his best friend.

"Geez, what's your problem?"

"Well… s-someone needed to borrow scissors, and they wanted them quickly," he stuttered, lying.

"Yeah, whatever."

"He's going to…" Sariyya yelled from the living space.

"Shh!" P'zaz yelled back, and ran out of the room.

He stole away into the dark hallways, and wandered around trying to find Kaya's room. He went up two floors and looked on the doors. There was no sign of her. He was about to give up and return to his room in shame when he looked at the last door. It was very brightly decorated, with peace signs and hippie things occupying every space. In many places, the name was drawn. It happened to be Kaya's door. He went in. Hopefully, she would be asleep by now. If luck was with him, so would be her dragon. He checked the door handle. Not locked, like so many trusting others. He walked carefully into the lair. He wondered where she slept. He had never been into a blue dragon's lair before. He found his way up the stairs, and peered into her bedroom. There she was, sleeping almost silently, in her colorful tie-dyed bed. He walked into her room. Pictures cluttered the walls, and children's toys and stuffed (fake) animals littered the shelves. He stood above her. He knew he shouldn't do it, yet he had to. He couldn't let Sariyya know if he had chickened out. That would be yet another embarrassing moment for him. He peered at her face. Her eyes were slightly open, and they suddenly fluttered. This scared him, and he quickly ran out of the door. But she only turned onto her back from her side, and mumbled something. She was deep in sleep, P'zaz decided.

He took a handful of her long tangled hair and brought the scissors up to it. He went to snip, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. This would ruin her looks for a while, and since Sariyya knew that he secretly liked Kaya (although she canned him) she would tease him.

Oh well, he thought. It's now or never.

Kivessa awoke to screaming coming from below. That sounds awfully like Kaya, she thought. She put on her silvery housecoat and ran gingerly down the crystalline spiral stairs and into the main hallway. She ran into Kaya's lair.

"Kivessa! That… that guy chopped my hair off!" Kaya screamed in Kivessa's face. It was true. What had been waist-length hair, perfectly straight and light brown, was now choppy, somewhat layered hair. It was now down to her chin.

"Gee, you can't even put it up to hide it, either." Kivessa couldn't help but laugh at her hair. It was cut off very chunky, and the back had stayed long, presumably because she had been sleeping on it.

"Kivessa, cut my hair please. You're good at crafts and things," Kaya didn't ask, she demanded.

"Okay. Do you have scissors?"

"Um, I don't know. Just a sec," she closed her eyes, signaling that she was talking to Iomethe.

"In the kitchen cupboard near the chocolate stash. I needed to open a bag one day. It's amazing the things I forget!" Kaya ran and retrieved the scissors from her kitchen.

"Um, I hope you know that if I screw up, well, I guess that's not my problem then is it," Kivessa said as she gets Kaya to sit down in a chair.

She was done. Kaya's hair was now chin length all around, with just a few mistakes, barely noticeable. On the floor was a mass of all different lengths of light and dark brown straight hair.

"It doesn't look too bad," Kaya remarked after looking in a mirror.

"What do you mean? Would you rather have had the hair before I cut it?" Kivessa said sarcastically.

"No, what do you think I am? A psycho?" Kaya said, not catching onto the sarcasm.

"Yeah, Kaya, you are psycho. Oh by the way, Charmiaz informs me that flying practice has been cancelled."

"But that would've been our first time," Kaya whined.

"I know. This isn't going to be a very good day, I just know it."

"Don’t mind them," Kivessa said to the group of popular snobs and guys snickering at Kaya. They were in the meal room and they had just gotten their lunches. The guy who cut her hair first was in that group.

"They deserve to die. I think I should beat them up just to make them mad," Kaya said loudly.

"Yeah whatever. Like you could," the guy who cut her hair off yelled.

"I could any day," Kaya yelled back.

"Come on Kaya, we better go sit and eat. This is not going to turn into yesterday," Kivessa said.

"Okay," Kaya said, obviously steaming with anger. "What's his name anyway?"

"I don't really know. I think it starts with a P though," Kivessa replied thoughtfully. Both of them walk over to their usual table and start talking to their other friends.

"Can I sit with you?"

Kivessa looks up behind herself in surprise. It was the guy whom she met the other day. The one that she had thought looked really nice.

"Uh, sure," Kivessa smiles at him and makes room beside her.

"Who's that?" Ekyla said from the other end of the table.

"I'm Tavin," he said. "I'm really mad at my friends their being total jerks to me lately. P'zaz almost stabbed me with scissors yesterday."

"Aha!" Kaya yelled. "That's his name. P'zaz."

"Yeah, I guess he cut your hair, didn't he."

"No, really?" Kaya said sarcastically.

"Okay, let me introduce myself," Kivessa butted in. "I'm Kivessa. You know, one of those so-called 'Earthlings'? That over there is Atlan, the tall one, the almost blonde girl is Rynn, she is Ekyla, and she is Kaya," Kivessa pointed to the people one by one.

Tavin asked them questions about Earth, and the conversation went from there. They finished their lunches before they even knew it.

Kivessa wasn't really in the conversations. Tavin kept on looking at her, as if expecting an answer from her, but she was off in her own world. She was in a good mood. The guy of her dreams was sitting next to her, and had asked to sit by her. She reached for her glass of water when her hand brushed Tavin's. It was if they both had decided to take a drink at the exact same time. As her hand touched his for that brief moment, she got that weird tingly sensation in her heart. She liked him. She had started to a long time ago when the five had first come to South Telleka. But not in the way that she did now. Before she had only seen him, not actually known what he was like. He wasn't really talked about much, except for his looks, by the female population.

Ekyla, Rynn, and Atlan got up, leaving the table to Kivessa, Tavin, and Kaya.

"Well, this is interesting," Kivessa said sarcastically, commenting on the silence.

"Yeah," was Tavin's reply.

"Oh great," Kaya said, looking up.

"What?" Kivessa turned around to see what Kaya was looking at.

"So, how do you like your new hairdo?" It was P'zaz and the popular group. Except Sariyya wasn't with them today.

"Don't even," Kaya said.

"Well, Tavin, what are you doing over here? We were looking for you," an unknown young woman said.

Tavin turned around. "Hello," was his simple reply.

"Well, Kaya and I have some business to take care of," Kivessa said as she beckoned Kaya to leave with her.

"I'll go with you," Tavin volunteers.

"Uh, no, that's okay," Kaya said, mouthing 'I need to talk to you' to Kivessa.

Kivessa gave Kaya the evil eye.

"What?" Kaya said.

"Nothing that I can't explain later," Kivessa replied.

"Okay, so, what is up with that Tavin guy?" Kaya said once out of earshot.

"What do you mean what's up with him? He explained himself pretty good, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but I honestly don't think that was the only reason."

"Huh," Kivessa looks away. "So, what do you think of P'zaz?"

"Uh, got to go now."

"Ha I was right. You could just tell. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. Maybe you should go to Rynn for some help about this. I can only notice these things."

"Yeah, remember when she tried to set you up with Aaron… or should I say, Atlan?" Kaya laughed at Kivessa.

"Yes, that was just really, really weird, okay? And don't mention that to Tavin please?"

"Why, do you like him?"

"Maybe."

"Well, it wasn't obvious until now."

"Not as obvious as you, apparently."

"Hey you guys!" Ekyla yelled down the hallway. "Wait up!"

"Hi," Kivessa and Kaya both said in unison.

"So, what's up? You know, I'm angry about the fact that I can't go flying yet. So I was thinking. Maybe we could go flying anyway, without permission. I mean, Mellekey says that she can fly, and some of the older dragons agree with her. I'm sure your dragons can already, too. So, you up to it?"

"Well, I don't know," Kivessa started.

"Why not? It sounds like fun," interrupted Kaya.

"Whatever. I'll do what the majority says, I guess, for the time being," Kivessa mumbled, not really wanting to go, but she wanted to hang out with her friends.

"Let's go find Atlan and Rynn!" shouted Kaya.

The three girls found them, and they agreed with some reluctance. They were just lounging in the main floor, and Rynn was chatting with some guy named K'zaz.

"I wish Jeremy was here," Rynn sighed after walking down the extensive hallways. She had told her dragon to meet her outside, as everyone else had.

"So, where are we going?" Kivessa asked, ignoring Rynn's question. Jeremy had been the five's friend until they had to leave. Talking about Earth made Kivessa feel morose.

"Personally, I think we should go southeast across the mountain range," answered Ekyla, who loved maps and such.

"Okay, sounds good," Kaya responded.

"Who cares? I just want to fly," that was Atlan, never planning for anything, just doing whatever he feels like doing.

"Hey! Kivessa!" someone behind them yelled. "Wait for me!" Kivessa looked behind her. It was Tavin! She was glad to see him. Atlan, however, was not.

"Is that that guy who was sitting with us at lunch?" Atlan asked. "Do you have no better life than to hang out with us?"

"You people are really weird, but that's fine with me," Tavin replied laughing. "My friends are weird in a…different way. So what are you doing?"

"Um, we can't really tell you. See, what we are doing is kind of against the rules," Kivessa said sheepishly.

"Oh, you're going flying aren't you? Yeah, I did that last year. Don't worry, you don't get in too much trouble if you're caught. Hey, I'll go with you. You probably don't know where to put the riding gear anyway."

"Um, to tell you the truth, that thought hadn't even occurred to me."

To recap, here's what has happened...
-The prologue

-Kaya and Kivessa get into a fight with Sariyya.
-Kivessa meets Tavin
-P'zaz cuts Kaya's hair off
-Kivessa, Tavin, Kaya, Ekyla, Rynn, and Atlan go flying without permission
-They find DM and name it after the moon that is eternally directly above it