– Chapter Four —

Jeremy/Darrow looked around. He was standing in some sand, looking at a pile of creamy white dragon eggs. He wondered what he was doing here. There were a few people standing around him, although he barely noticed them. He was too busy thinking about his friends.

They had all changed; like they had grown up within the year that they had been gone. Racheal or Kaya had grown about 4 inches taller and her face and body had matured, and she finally grew into her teeth. Although she had matured body-wise, she was still a kid at heart though. Atlan, well, there wasn't much to say about him except that they found him to be a little more responsible than before. Kivessa had thinned out, and she now had an odd glow of friendliness around her. Ekyla hadn't changed much, though she seemed to be a little less anti-social, because she actually had a guy despite her self-isolation. Then there was Rynn. He wasn't sure what had changed about her; all he knew was that it was a change for the better. She suddenly appealed to him, though he had no idea why. He'd never thought of her in this way before.

But none of their kindness could reconcile them from putting him into the position he was in now. He was stolen from his own world, Earth, and brought here, by his renegade friends, and now he was being forced into something he wasn't sure he really wanted to do. His friends assured them it was alright, that he'd enjoy it once it was over, but he was wary. An entire world full of people he'd never even heard of before…

His thoughts were interrupted as people started nattering and pointing at the eggs. The eggs, apparently, had started to crack. Darrow wondered what was going on. As he watched the eggs, he became somewhat rapt by one egg in particular. He watched in awe as it started to crack, and as a shimmering dragon slid out, running over to him and yanking on his pant cuffs.

Finally! Darrow heard a voice in his head, and he thought he was going crazy. Do you know how long I've waited for you to come?

Darrow looked down to see a little blue dragon peering up at him with great interest. He was filled with compassion and he picked the dragon up.

My name is Mikor, the blue said. You can talk in your head too. Try it.

Okay, Darrow replied, ready to burst out laughing. I am nuts.

No you're not. If you want proof, talk to any of the other dragonriders. It's part of the symbiotic relationship.

Okay, whatever. But you're, what… one minute out of the shell and you're already talking like that?

I feed off of your knowledge, and vice versa. Already, before I was even born, you had learned some of the language from me.

This is weird.

I'm hungry.

Okay, but what am I supposed to do about that?

Take me over to where food is. Follow those people. Mikor pointed in his mind.

Darrow followed the young girl with a green and fed Mikor. He was temporarily disgusted at the bloody meats piled atop the table. Someone stopped him on his way out.

"You live here now. Here's where your room is," a young green-haired woman said, handing him a map with directions.

"Thank-you," he replied as he started walking down the hall, reading his map.

He found his new room on the first try. It was indefinitely on the blue level, and it was on the left side of the Citadel. He opened the door and walked in.

It was furnished, but barely. He sighed, and to his surprise, it echoed.

"Well, Mikor, here we are. Home," he sighed to his little dragon, who had already gone ahead and down the stairs. He supposed he was going to have to face it that he had to stay. There was no turning back now.

Darrow, however, went upstairs and inspected his new bedroom. The bed was a double, and it was nice and soft. He was unpacking his backpack, of which was his only memento of Earth, when he heard a loud knock at the door. Then he heard his door open and shut. He wondered what was going on, and ran down the stairs to see who it was, but he only discovered a pile of clothing. He took it, and put it upstairs in his closet. He unfolded some of them. They looked his size, but he decided to stick with what he was wearing already. Darrow went to check the rest of the lair.

Kivessa looked around the familiar surroundings of the classroom. Upon doing so, she noticed that Darrow was in class today. She was so proud of him; she knew he'd bond a blue (she had given thought about ranking with dragons to her friends back home). They had had somewhat of a welcome/congratulations party for him the other night, and they had all had a blast. It was so nice to see him again. He had even helped fight in an argument with Sariyya and Teza. He hadn't changed much; he still had the goofy sense of humor everybody liked, and he basically still looked the same, just a tad more mature. Darrow's Mikor was growing at a phenomenal rate; Kivessa was sure he'd have at the very least a 90-foot wingspan. Mikor must have been eating or sleeping at the moment because Mikor's training usually took up most of Darrow's time.

Darrow waved at her, and she realized that she'd been staring. Her face flushed in embarrassment as she smiled slightly and looked away.

Of course, Tavin was in class also. She hadn't talked to him since she they had gone to the theater together, which was for at least four days. Ekyla had told her what she'd done; it didn't help that the news had spread like wildfire among Sariyya and Teza's group. They were just searching for something about Tavin's new girlfriend to annoy him and Kivessa about, and now they had found it. Teza was pestering Kivessa mercilessly about her "accident" and Kivessa assumed that it was mostly out of jealousy that Teza was doing so. After all, Teza and Tavin had been a couple.

Kivessa figured she should talk to him and apologize sometime today, because she thought that if she left it too long she wouldn't have another chance with him. However, she could not do it while in class. She turned her attention back to the teacher.

"The Pashe-ki are not an enemy to be taken lightly now," the teacher said. The man who was teaching them looked about 20 years of age, not too much older than some of the others in the class. "Pay attention to what they do, because they always change tactics with the change of a leader, which comes every so often. It doesn't help that they eat each other, either." He paused and took out a few worn-out pieces of paper, and handed them out to the students, who were in rows facing the front. Kivessa received one, to share with her friends around her, who were Kaya and Ekyla. They all looked at it, wondering what it was and how to read it. Or if it was even supposed to be read.

The map had three main blobs of scribbles, each line a different thickness or shape than the others. It seemed as if this could possibly be a diagram of something, whether or not it was geographical or not, Kivessa didn't know.

The teacher pulled out a larger version of the map and put it on the wall in front of the class. It couldn't exactly be called a blackboard, it was only a stone wall. He molded little flaps for the paper into the wall, so it was held flat without him holding it up. He brought out a pointer.

"This is a diagram of a Pashe-ki's body," he announced. There were a lot of "oh"s in the crowd as the rest of the group turned their maps right side up and realized what they were looking at. "Notice the wing muscles and the size of the brain. How they can fly like that, well, you tell me. No really, I want you to try and figure it out for yourselves. It should be a challenge considering no one has figured it out yet." Kivessa took another look at the wing muscles. They ranged from the neck all the way down to the tip of the tail. Even through the heart and lungs, stretching all the way through the legs and attached to the talons and scales of the beast.

"It's like a system where the muscle is dominant instead of a human's, where it's mostly nervous system and circulatory," Kivessa muttered to herself and Ekyla. "In fact," she said, eyeing the map even closer for the telltale lines from the brain to the rest of the body, "their nervous system is highly primitive."

"The size of the brain has been a mystery to all of us science heads for a while now. Surely with only a brain stem, the part that controls the functions of the body, they aren't be able to control themselves, as do other creatures we have studied. For example, they don't have a mind of their own, as they don't have an imagination, their brain doesn't have the capacity for something like that. Another thing is that: what guides their instincts? We have dissected a Pashe-ki brain and we have found that the core is made up of dense threadlike components, unlike other animal brains. This is extremely abnormal." This comment brought on a small chatter around the room, and Kivessa thought about what the teacher had said.

I know what's up with the Pashe-ki phenomenon. I have been a part of their collective being. The reason why they have no brain is because Black Eagles are controlled by another, smarter being. Unknown yet by what but… she left her thoughts unfinished as she spoke up, a first in her history as a student.

"Uh… I… uh…" she stammered. "I've got something to say."

"Yes, Kivessa?" the teacher said expectantly. All eyes were on Kivessa as she began.

"I don't know if you have all heard about my little episode at the theater," she said hesitantly.

"Kivessa, is there a point to this?" the teacher said, quickly growing impatient.

"Yes, hold on, it has a little more to it. Okay, you all know I freaked out. Okay, well, the reason was this." She pulled off her necklace - the one she had acquired while finding Dragon Moon - to show the others more clearly the amulet she now despised. There were a lot of confused looks at this, but she continued. "This is otherwise known as the Black Amulet, and if you know your own history, you would find that this has been lost for hundreds of years. Why it has been restored to me, I wouldn't know, but when we went to see the play, something very odd happened. I think I might have dozed off or something, but I found myself in a Pashe-ki's body. I couldn't think up of any other reason for this, so I inquired and took it upon myself to find out what happened. Charmiaz informed me that the necklace was what caused it, being made from a Pashe-ki's body parts. Anyway, I don't know if this will help you, but it's a possibility. What I experienced was a collective… not a collective consciousness, no they have no minds at all… so a collective being. In this it is possible for a single entity to interchange between the Pashe-ki's bodies, and it can somehow control their actions. Also, their actions can be programmed into them, and that's what accounts for the brain stem's stringy substance. It's more like a hard-drive than a brain… but you don't know what a hard-drive is. So I'll just leave it at that." She stopped, and waited for the rest of the students', and her teacher's, reactions.

"Is this provable?" asked Teza snidely. For some reason, Kivessa and her friends' sector of South Telleka included Teza's group unfortunately.

"Not really… but why wouldn't you believe me? As if I could concoct something like that on my own…" Kivessa said, hoping the teacher didn't share the same opinions as her fellow students.

"Kivessa, that will be all for now," the teacher said with no emotion in his voice, so Kivessa couldn't tell if she had even made an impact statement on him. He beckoned them to focus once again on copying out the diagrams of the Pashe-ki.

"Why do we have to do this?" a young man yelled out to the teacher. "It's not like we're going to have any opportunity to use this information in our lifetime."

"It's something you all need to know. You have to know what's inside so that when you have to battle them, you'll know where exactly to aim," he grumbled. There were a few disgruntled looks at this, and the teacher further explained. "The neck scales are the most vulnerable to penetration, as are the soft muscles under the wing joints. These are two small, but convenient areas to puncture, for there is an artery up into the brain that goes up into the neck, and constricting the flow will result in death. The wing joints, of course, if you penetrate them, it will lead to a falter in the wing's functional properties, creating an unbalanced and fatal position."

The teacher droned on about these two points, and where else to attack. Kivessa found that in a sense, he kept repeating himself, however using different words and ways of getting to the point.

Finally, it was time to diverge from the teacher and leave the classroom. The first thing Kivessa decided to do was talk to Tavin. She didn't get a chance to, however, because Tavin was swept away with his friends. She gave a disappointed sigh and went silently to rejoin her friends in the lunchroom.

Kivessa walked out of her lair into the hall. Today, she was going to go to Tavin's lair to apologize. She had somewhat lost her courage the previous day, but this morning she was feeling exceptionally brave. Luckily, Tavin's lair was only a level down, and not too much further into the mountain than any of her other friends. She went down the nearby stairs, walked quickly over to his lair door, and knocked. After five minutes there was no answer, so she decided to walk in. It was only 10:00 after all, so maybe he was still sleeping. She wandered around his lair, first into his living room.

His taste in furniture was okay, but his color coordination wasn't great. Blue furniture on orange carpet… Kivessa almost laughed aloud, but she thought better of it. She checked the rest of the rooms. He wasn't in any of them, although the kitchen did show signs of being eaten in a few hours earlier.

Kivessa saw the stairs to his bedroom and walked up them cautiously. The lairs were all basically the same, Kivessa thought. That would come in handy when getting Xelevan to add some more passageways.

She quietly turned the handle to his door, and the door swung open loudly. She was lucky that that hadn't woken him up. He was lying on his side with his back to the door. He had the covers down to his waist, and Kivessa couldn't help but notice there was a thin scar going down from his shoulder blade to his spine. It wasn't huge, but it was big enough to be noticeable. She dismissed this fact as unimportant and walked over to his bed. He was on the far side, for it was a double. Tavin had a pleasant grin written on his face, and when Kivessa flopped onto the left side of the bed and nudged him to wake him up, he rolled over, opened his eyes, stuck his arm over her, and said, "Am I still dreaming?"

When Kivessa shook her head, his eyes opened wide like he'd just remembered something. Still dreaming? Kivessa thought.

"Aaaah!" he yelled and fell backwards off the bed, taking all the covers he could with him. He reached up his hand and pulled the rest of them out from underneath Kivessa.

"What are you doing?" asked Kivessa, bewildered.

"Making myself suitable. Don't come over here," he said in a serious tone. A few seconds later he stood up, blankets wrapped around his waist and lower half of his body.

"Oh," she said. "Maybe I should go…."

"No," Tavin said as Kivessa started to walk backwards. "It's okay, I can go change quickly."

He didn't wait for her to answer as he ran into his closet and shut the door. A moment later he came out, wearing dark brown pants and just pulling a black T-shirt over his head. His hair was all standing on end, and his eyes were only half open, but he was smiling.

"So, what're you doing here?" he asked as he escorted her out of his room and down the stairs to his kitchen.

"I just wanted to… apologize for what I did the other night. I don't know, the necklace put me in some sort of trance that made me have these weird visions and one of them was so creepy. I guess I screamed right in your ear. Sorry about that," Kivessa explained.

"Necklace? Oh the one you showed us in class yesterday. Can I see it again?" Tavin asked, and Kivessa pulled it out of her pocket. Even though she didn't like its look, she still carried it around with her, now wanting anyone else to have it. He looked at it strangely. "Well, I don't know. It looks… odd."

"It's made out of a Pashe-ki," Kivessa said. "I've already gotten it checked."

"Yeah, you said that in class. Weird," he paused, then smiled. "Well, its okay about the screaming thing, all I had was a ringing in my ear, but its gone now. I'm not one to embarrass easily."

Um, Kivessa, Charmiaz interrupted. You might want to go visit your friends. Gold floor, right near Teza's lair. Everyone but you and Tavin are there. Even Ekyla, and you know she doesn't like to fight.

Okay, thanks, Kivessa replied, and looked to Tavin, who was busy talking to Ondran.

"Well, let's go," Tavin said, and they both went into the main entrance. Tavin quickly threw on a pair of shoes, went out the door with Kivessa, and shut it with a resounding echo behind them.

By the time they had gotten to the gold level and figured out where the fight was, all hell had broken loose. Kaya was engaged in fighting Sariyya, Atlan with P'zaz, even Ekyla was yelling at someone. Kivessa's gaze drifted over to Renyx, who was cowering in a doorway; he was obviously trying not to be seen.

Kivessa sighed. "Well, I've got to go protect Renyx again," she said to Tavin, and started to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?" she heard a feminine voice say, and felt a clammy hand on her shoulder pull her around. She was now facing a girl with jet-black hair and light pink eyes, otherwise known as Teza. Kivessa didn't reply.

"You know what Kivessa?" she said, drawing out the words so that it sounded like she was speaking to a child. "Tavin was once mine, did you know that? We were also contemplating becoming permanent. Until you showed up," she sneered. "You bitch you ruined my chances!" She proceeded to throw a punch at Kivessa, which she easily blocked, but Kivessa wasn't prepared for the knee that connected with her stomach. She got the breath knocked out of her and she lay on the floor gasping. Kivessa was smoldering with envy and hate as she heard Tavin say, "Leave her alone."

Kivessa looked up. Tavin had stopped Teza mid-kick, and it was a good thing that he did because Teza was the kind of person that would keep kicking someone who was down and helpless.

"So, he finally decides to step in," Teza said.

"It's behind us Teza," Tavin said with an extremely serious face.

"Oh, you won't call me by my nickname anymore?" she faked sadness, "Say, how long is this fling going to last? One month? Two? How long before you drop this one? You know, I always thought you could do better than that. But your chance is over now," and with that, Teza walked away.

Kaya stood amidst the fury wondering who next to pick a fight with. She had just gotten rid of Sariyya; Kaya had given her a bloody nose.

She looked over and saw P'zaz standing there, punching some guy in the face. The punched guy fell over. Kaya was very tempted to go and beat him up again, but she thought better of it, since in a way, she wanted to be on his good side. Besides, if she did, he'd probably do something as drastic as chopping her hair off again.

She saw Kivessa fall, and then some girl, whose name she thought was Jarua, punched Kaya's shoulder. Kaya kicked the girl but stopped as she glanced at P'zaz and saw his worried look. She followed his gaze and realized with horror that it was Crel whom P'zaz was gaping at. The scattered fights started to slow things down and people began to pick themselves up off the ground as they saw him.

With every single word that had come out of Teza's mouth, Kivessa had gotten angrier and angrier, up to the point of Kivessa imagining herself strangling Teza, and having a vicious desire to repeat that action on the real physical Teza. Kivessa finally picked herself up off the floor in one fluid motion, and started walking in a determined fashion over to Teza, who was still walking away. She glared at the back of her head and finally catching up with her, twisted her around, and punched her in the face. When she staggered, but did not fall, Kivessa proceeded to kick up at Teza. She hit her in the head and Teza fell over backwards, stunned… or unconscious.

"You had it backwards Teza," Kivessa said, unsure if who she was speaking to was even conscious or not. "It was you who didn't deserve him, not me."

"KIVESSA!" someone yelled. She turned around to see the two opposing groups, now calm and settling, separated by one person… Crel.

In all her rage she must have overlooked the fact that no one had been fighting anymore. She cast a worried glance at Tavin, who shrugged his shoulders and returned the look. A couple of girls ran over to Teza. Sariyya was one of them.

"She's unconscious!" Sariyya yelled.

"But thank God, she's breathing," another said.

"You could've killed her the way you hit her," Crel said sternly. He changed his objective. "This is no way to behave!" he yelled at everyone. "All of you will pack your bags and leave first thing tomorrow! We've warned you several times, and this is by far the worst we've seen! We will not tolerate this!"

"But…" Atlan started to say angrily.

"Do NOT question my authority, Atlan!" Crel yelled. Kivessa noticed a vein throbbing in his neck. This guy is pissed off, she thought. As the crowd dissipated, the only people left were Kivessa, Kaya, Atlan, Tavin, Ekyla, and Rynn.

While Atlan was busy swearing his head off, Tavin pulled Kivessa close and whispered in her ear.

"We have somewhere to go," he whispered.

"We do?… We do! Hey, Atlan! Shut up for a sec!" she yelled to the rest of the group. "I have two words: Dragon Moon."

"Groovy," Kaya said. "I had almost forgotten."

"Do you think it could become permanent?" Kivessa asked Tavin as she looked up at him.

"Um, probably if we want it to be. There is no one telling us to come back, is there? I mean, we got kicked out."

Rynn gasped. "Darrow," she breathed. "We can't just leave him here."

"But we have to," Ekyla reasoned. "Don't you remember how much dragons eat when they're that young? We'd never be able to supply that much food to Mikor. He'd starve if he came with us. It's better that he stays now and comes when Mikor is old enough to hunt on his own."

"Yeah," Rynn sighed. "He's going to be mad though."

"Funny," Tavin mumbled as they meandered along to the cafeteria. "I get kicked out on Cana'Di."

"What?" Kivessa said. She had learned this term meant the same as 'birth day'. "It's your Cana'Di? Why didn't you tell me earlier? I've got to get you something now."

"Huh? You give people stuff on their birthdays on Earth?"

"Yeah. Just a tradition that I'm going to permeate through Kellaria." Kivessa grinned.

Tavin quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

After lunch, which consisted of leftovers from the day before, Kivessa compiled all her junk and ran to Kaya's room. Her door, fortunately, was open, but she yelled a warning just in case Kaya was in her closet changing. She wasn't. Turns out she was in the kitchen eating -- what else? -- chocolate.

"Hey," Kivessa said to her.

"Hey," Kaya said glumly. "How are we going to fit our furniture on our dragons?"

"I don't know. I came over here to ask you. I really don't want to leave my nifty cup chair behind. I traded my CD player with Eli'akim for it."

"Exactly. Same with my groovy rainbow table," Kaya complained. "So, who all got kicked out?"

"Well, all of us, Tavin, Sariyya, P'zaz, Alxra, Orz, Renyx, Teza," a scowl passed Kivessa's face. "Um, Jarua, Eli'akim, Astuar, I don't remember the rest but I think there's an equal number of them to us excluding Tavin.

"Then that would make… nine of them, nineteen of us in total," Kaya figured.

"Well, it doesn't really matter now because we're going to make our own little Citadel of… hopefully 10 people," Kivessa said. "Okay, are we going to make it like a regular Citadel or are we just going to do our own… thing?"

"I have no idea, but I guess it's not up to me now is it?"

"No. But we might as well make up our minds now, and we could just tell Orz what to do. Remember, we wouldn't be able to live there if we didn't have a blue."

"Right. Well, I have to finish packing."

"Okay, I have to give Tavin his birthday present. I'll be back!" Kivessa said cheerfully as she ran back up through Kaya's closet into her own, and into the door that led to Tavin's room. She ran down the steps to Tavin's lair two at a time. It seemed as though Ondran had made the pathway directly beside the passage to Kaya's lair. When it turned around and went through the floor and into the next wall, she noticed that Ondran had not kept up his usual tidiness. The path was no longer smooth and there weren't any stairs. She could barely stand up straight, and she could just imagine Tavin trying to crawl down hunchbacked back into his room.

She knocked on the door, hoping that he was in his room somewhere. Luck was with her, and he was. But he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Hey," he said as he opened the door. "What are you doing here?" She didn't reply, and when he saw her surprised look at his half naked self, he explained. "It's really hot and stuffy up here."

"Oh, sorry," she said as she realized she had been staring and not answering him. "Hi, I'm here to give you something. Just a sec. Now where did I put it?" she mumbled to herself, searching her pockets. "Ah! Here we go." She handed him a glasses case with a red cloth ribbon tied around it.

"Happy Birthday! Er… Cana'Di!," she said and smiled.

He smiled as he stared down at the package. He uttered a "thanks" and put it down on his table.

"Aren’t you going to open it?" Kivessa asked in amazement.

"Oh," Tavin said, and looked embarrassed. He took off the ribbon and peered at the case. He shook it, and he pressed the button on the side that opened the case. Inside was a pair of sunglasses, used of course, since the people of Kellaria didn't make such novelties.

"They were my brother's. I took them 'cause I thought I might need them, but I haven't used them since. I looked goofy in them anyway. So I thought you could have them," Kivessa explained, and since he was utterly clueless about how to wear them, she put them on for him. She was amazed at how good they actually looked on him. He didn't take them off. Instead, without saying a word, he took her hand and pulled her outside onto Ondran's ledge. He stood there for a few moments just looking around, and Kivessa looked at him like he had just gone insane. Kellaria's sun was noticeably brighter than Earth's; it had taken a while for Kivessa's eyes to adjust. For some reason - something to do with the height and thickness of the ozone layer - the ultraviolet rays didn't affect anyone's eyes, so they didn't need protection against it.

"I'm going back inside," Kivessa said and, still grasping Tavin's hand, pulled him back into the vast chamber of Ondran's.

"I'll race you," he said, urging her to run with him.

Kivessa sighed. "Okay," she said, despite the fact that she didn't really want to.

P'zaz woke the next morning with a splitting headache. Despite the fact that he had totally wasted Atlan, Atlan had still delivered a few shots to P'zaz's head. He suddenly wished that he had not stayed up half the night partying with his crowd. He had finally returned to his lair very early in the morning, and now it was almost lunchtime.

He realized with a groan that they had gotten kicked out of South Telleka and were supposed to move out today.

He threw back the covers and rolled out of bed, stretching with his right arm. He ran his left hand through his hair, yawned, and walked over to his closet. He threw on some clothes and then went into his kitchen for some breakfast.

Just as he was about to bite into a rather large piece of esska (or more commonly known as watermelon in English) he heard a knock on his door. He put his piece of esska down in annoyance on one of his white chipped plates his mother had given him. He walked around through the living room and into the main entrance. P'zaz hastily opened the door. It was his best friend, Tavin.

"Oh, it's just you. Shut the door behind you," he said, and walked quickly back to his kitchen. He didn't really feel like eating, but the grumbling in his stomach told him otherwise.

"So, where were you last night?" he asked Tavin through a mouthful of esska. "You missed Teza's party." He started laughing, recalling what Teza now looked like. "You should see her face, it's all puffy and gross. But anyway, where were you?"

"Um, I was hanging out with Kiv and her friends." He looked a little embarrassed.

"Them?" P'zaz said in disgust. "That's like having dinner with the enemy! What're you thinking?"

"I don't know… you wouldn't understand, okay?" Tavin said as he grabbed a piece of esska.

"Oh God, it's not…" P'zaz gave him a 'please don't tell me this' look. "Rynn I could see, but not any of the others." He suddenly remembered that Kaya was in that group. "You're not with Rynn are you?" P'zaz said after an awkward silence. "'Cause that's my bro's chick, and he'll have to beat the hell out of you."

"Rynn?" Tavin looked up in surprise. "Wouldn't think about it." He continued to eat his piece of watermelon.

"Um, Kaya?" P'zaz tried to hide the embarrassment and almost jealousy in his voice. Tavin shook his head. "Ekyla? Alxra? Kivessa?" At the sound of her name, Tavin blushed slightly and smiled.

"Oh," P'zaz was surprised. He wanted to say something, an urge to point out that she was an earthling, and that most of the time she acted like a ditz, but he decided not to.

"What?" Tavin asked P'zaz, a glare creeping into his eyes.

"Nothing!" P'zaz said, and shrugged.

"You were going to say something…"

P'zaz was silent, thinking of what to say. Then: "Yeah, but I didn't. Look I have no problem with it, it's your life…" Tavin looked somewhat disheveled. He bit the last piece from his esska and threw the rind at P'zaz.

"I gotta go pack," Tavin said, got up, and left.

"Meet us at the top!" P'zaz yelled after him, and the door slammed.

Although P'zaz was slightly jealous of Tavin's ability to put whatever people thought aside and have a relationship, he wondered if Tavin maybe needed his approval. After all, they were basically brothers, raised in the same family. No, he thought. That's a father's job. And he grimaced. Tavin's real father was dead, and so was his mother. P'zaz's mother had taken him when he was 8 and raised him like her own, but he still remembered his parents.

To Kivessa, it was the best thing in the world. She had always had an obsession with flying, and now that she was used to flying with Charmiaz, she could not only imagine but also feel the exhilaration. Kivessa had piled up her chair onto Charmiaz's neck, very careful not to hinder her wings. She now sat right in front of it, using her upside-down chair as a backrest.

Charmiaz quite suddenly dropped, and Kivessa felt like she was on a rollercoaster, except for the fact that there was no rail beneath her.

Sorry, Charmiaz apologized. Thermal.

Actually, I wish you would do that more often. It's fun, Kivessa replied.

Hmm, are you secure?

Kivessa adjusted her goggles and smiled. She then moved her hands down to the riding straps, which she grabbed onto and held tight.

Yep, she replied.

Charmiaz caught another thermal and soared upwards going almost double the height they had been. There was a moment of stillness as Charmiaz folded her wings close to her body. Kivessa felt the rush of the wind and leaned into Charmiaz's silver bulk. She just hoped that none of her things would fall off in this intense action. It was kind of strange to see the ground rush up at you while you're going well over 200 kilometers an hour.

In a split second, Kivessa was upside down for Charmiaz had turned so that she was flat, skimming the trees. Kivessa realized that the only thing suspending her from Charmiaz was a worn strip of taeka hide. She had a sudden anxiety attack and pleaded with Charmiaz to roll upright.

Fine, she replied. I'm losing altitude anyway. Wouldn't want to decapitate you, now.

Just as Charmiaz had said this, the ground dropped away from them. Charmiaz rolled over and Kivessa looked behind to make sure nothing had fallen off. Nothing had, but the strap on her chair had come loose. She reached back and tightened it.

When she turned around and surveyed the surroundings, she was awestruck by its beauty. The first time she had seen this place it had been stormy weather, and she hadn't bothered to look in detail. There was a large waterfall running down a cliff in the southern section, and a river flowing from it down the valley. The whole eastern side of the valley was a giant rock face, the place where she presumed future ledges could go. There was a gigantic blade tree at the foot of the cliffs, about 50 feet smaller than the top of the cliffs. Since her and Charmiaz were flying higher than the cliff top, she could see the expanse of the Lapdin Ocean.

A sudden flash of blue caught her peripheral vision. Xelevan! She thought and beckoned Charmiaz to swoop down and land. Right before she landed, Kivessa saw Orz standing right in front of the blade tree, with Xelevan behind him. He had his deep blue head pressed up against Orz's side. They have probably already begun the entrance, Kivessa thought. He could mold this particular substance because the blade tree was really dead cells of a living being, much like a human's fingernail.

Orz was in the middle of carving intricate details into the tree, when Kivessa came running up.

"Spare the frivolities, Orz," she panted. "And just get it open." Charmiaz had landed in the nearest clearing, which wasn't too far away, but she was excited.

When her breathing and pulse slowed, she looked around to see who was there. Atlan, Rynn, Ekyla, Eli'akim (who was surprisingly holding Ekyla's hand), Alxra, Kaya, Renyx, and, of course, Orz. Kivessa was still a little disappointed that Tavin wasn't there; well, more than just a little. But he did have his own friends, and he probably would've wanted to be with them, too. Kivessa wasn't even sure if she and Tavin even had something going or not. It seemed like it, but there was no confirmation between them. But now it seemed he was gone, so she might not see him again. She felt abandoned.

"We're done!" Orz yelled, startling everyone. Orz walked to the door, opened it, and boldly went in. He already knew his way around because of blue Xelevan, and his genetic trait of an affinity with the earth.

They walked in, and they were all surprised by the height of the cavern. It was about 4 stories taller than it had been before, and it had already been smoothed out, Delicate looking crystal veins writhed along the south side, casting odd shadows along the floor.

Kivessa wandered around aimlessly until she found her room, and she was quite disappointed that Xelevan had not yet gotten to refining it yet. But she would wait, since there were other, more important, things to be carved.