– Chapter Three —

The play was halfway through, at the part of the infamous Battle of Ashes. The Pashe-ki had already set fire to the forests and the visual effects were amazing. The Pashe-ki were about to attack when…

She was falling, rapidly flapping her huge feather-scaled wings trying to gain control. She didn't remember falling, and her left side had a huge burn from the tip of her eyebrow to about the middle of her wing. It burned intensely for a few moments, then she forgot what it was like to feel pain. It was like she had totally adapted to the ripples of pain flooding her mind.

Suddenly she was on the ground, clawing at a huge mass of blue dragon. All of a sudden the dragon clawed back, striking her in the throat. She could feel the hot crimson blood gush out of her neck. She screeched as loud as she possibly could, and then…

Kivessa blinked a few times to realize where she was. She was sitting in her seat in a fetal position. The people on stage had stopped, and they were looking in her direction. The whole audience was staring at her, arrogant looks written across their faces. When she looked up and blushed at the embarrassment, the rest of the people turned around and the play continued. She looked cautiously at Tavin. He was holding his ear.

"What did I do?" she mouthed to him when he looked at her. He just shook his head.

"I'll tell you later," he mouthed back, and continued to watch.

She looked down at her necklace. She had got it back from Eli just in time to wear tonight. He had confirmed her theory about the use of Pashe-ki body parts. He had done some researching on the subject, but all he had found out was that it had been made from the last standing Pashe-ki.

Kivessa was glad that she had already seen the play. It gave her time to think about what had happened. She decided to put the embarrassment out of her mind for now.

She suddenly realized that she had been a part of the Pashe-ki's central brain. No one had ever figured out how their collective memory actually functioned. Until now. Kivessa had realized that there is one central being, and that being can move around into other Pashe-ki's minds and can control them. However, as soon as they get injured or killed, the Being leaves.

Kivessa took off the necklace and peered at the different parts. The beads were made of the scales, she figured, and they were tied together with its dried intestines. The bones were either its claws or ribs, but she wasn't sure about the black gem in the middle. It may have been the eye, she thought. The eye seemed to control the rest of the Pashe-ki, for it had no part of the brain that controlled voluntary actions.

But now the Pashe-ki threat had subsided, or so they told her. Kivessa had felt some odd tingling sensation on the back of her neck every time she touched the amulet, and was convinced that it had some specific reason for being in her hands. After so many years, it couldn't have been laying there only half-buried. She had her own theory of the central being. Kivessa figured that the being was still present, because how can something that powerful be destroyed?

Tavin looked over at Kivessa.

She is really weird, he thought. But that would be anyone's guess from who her friends are. At the most silent, emotional part of the play, she had curled up into a ball and screamed louder than anyone had thought possible at that particular moment in time. And then she didn't even remember! There were some really weird psychological problems with that girl.

When the play finally ended, she cautiously ran out of the theater. He followed her slowly, hoping that she would wait for him somewhere. He didn't want to look too desperate if he ran after her.

He found her in the hallway, where a bunch of other people were loitering. Kivessa was just standing there, her face in her hands, her hair falling out of place. Tavin walked up and stood right in front of her. He tucked her loose hair behind her ears, and she looked up, startled. Her eyes were green. Not only were they green but they were his favorite shade of green. The kind of green that is a mix of lime and emerald, which made you think of fresh foliage. Her eyes were the one thing that had suddenly intrigued him the day he met her.

Tavin could tell she had been crying. The whites of her eyes were all red and swollen. Her cheeks were tear-stained.

"What's the matter?" he said, not too good a choice of words. Kivessa just gave him a bewildered look.

"I'm so confused, I don't even know what I did wrong and I… those people…" she blubbered.

Tavin decided that now was not the best time to tell her what had happened, so he put his arm around her waist and walked her to her room. When the finally got there, Kivessa suddenly looked into his eyes and hugged him. She buried her head in his shoulder.

Tavin didn't know how long they had stood there embracing, but she finally lifted her head and spoke.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked him quickly. Tavin gave her an astonished look. "No, not like that," Kivessa corrected herself with wide eyes. "It's just that no one else occupies this level with me and I get lonely and bored."

Good grief I sound like a freak! Kivessa thought. I've never known myself to be this… outgoing!

She quickly opened her door and walked in. She inconspicuously looked behind her. Tavin had cautiously come in. Kivessa put her coat down on one of her chairs and flopped down onto her couch. Tavin jumped into the chair opposite to her. Kivessa sat there, staring at a low table for a while, desperately searching for something to say.

When all was silent, they heard loud footsteps and the voices of whom they would soon recognize as Skytris' and Crel's. They knocked on Kivessa's door.

"Will you get in trouble if you're found in here?" Kivessa whispered to Tavin.

"Probably at this hour," he whispered back.

"Um, well, come with me up to my room. We'll hide you in my closet," she said, and pulled him after her around the kitchen to the staircase. She ran up the stairs and into her bedroom, carefully closing the door after Tavin entered.

"The closet's over there. Whatever you do, don't go through the door with a peace sign on it. Hmmm, I think…" she said, then started to talk to Charmiaz.

Charmiaz, Ondran is a blue, right? Well, get him to make a pathway, okay?

Charmiaz gave a mental yawn, then said, Alright.

Thanks.

By this time she had put on her housecoat, ruffled up her hair, and rubbed her eyes a bit to look like she had been sleeping. She still heard the occasional knock, and by the time she had gotten downstairs, Crel and Skytris were halfway down the hallway. When they heard Kivessa open her door, they turned around and started walking back.

"We heard what happened at the theatre," Skytris said loudly. "We were wondering if you were okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine," If only someone would tell me what I did, Kivessa thought. "I just got nervous."

"Oh." Crel looked at her funny. "Well, just letting you know that we're always here if you need someone to talk to."

"Okay. Well, thanks, but I've got to go. I feel like I'm going to fall asleep right here," Kivessa excused herself. She closed her door and ran up the stairs, wondering if Ondran had made the path yet, and if so, if Tavin had left and gone down it yet. She swung open the door to her closet and came face to face with Tavin. Their faces were only one inch apart. Tavin hesitated, then turned away.

"Ondran told me he made a pathway," he said somewhat shyly. "I thought I'd wait to say goodbye though."

"Okay. I'm tired," Kivessa yawned. "Better get some sleep. Thanks for a nice evening."

"No problem, Kiv." He looked remorseful as he stepped out of the closet onto the newly made path. He looked back, but said nothing. He closed the door behind him.

Kivessa stood there thinking for a moment, then changed into her pajamas and went to bed. It had been a long, fun night, she decided.

She awoke at noon to find Charmiaz lying on her side on her personal hatching sands. She was squirming in pain, and every time she moved she groaned.

"Charmiaz, are you okay?" Kivessa yelled off her balcony that overlooked her dragon's lair.

Charmiaz, groaned, then yawned, and said, No, what does it look like? I think I'm going through Tejerte. You know, the thing like puberty in humans? Except it happens within a week for us dragons. And man does it hurt!

"Oh," Kivessa said sympathetically. "This is not good, you know. Did you know that you're the most desirable dragon here? Every horny male dragon will come after us now!"

Yes, well, none of them will be able to catch me. I'm too fast. You should've seen me the other day, I was barely skimming the treetops. Oh, it was so much fun! She groaned again and rolled over, creating a large cloud of dust that lingered.

"Hey, isn't Ondran," she flushed as she realized that Ondran was Tavin's dragon. "the… only one… who can… go with… you?" she trailed off in thought. "Because of size, I mean."

Yeah, that's what I've come to believe. Isn't it weird that we Earthlings dragons "deformities" perfectly coincided with the rest of Kellaria? I mean, with my over-sized wings, not even the largest blue dragon could keep up with me. But then there is Ondran. And Fyra goes perfectly with Iomethe, although they do act like they hate each other.

"Mhmmm," Kivessa mumbled. Her stomach suddenly grumbled. It is time for lunch! She realized.

She quickly dressed into her dark green cords and her light brown tank top. She combed her hair, threw on a sweater that didn't match the rest of her ensemble and ran down the hall. Kivessa wondered if she would still be able to catch her friends. Leaping down the stairs, she remembered that she had to ask either Ekyla or Tavin what she did at the concert that was so embarrassing. She slid into the cafeteria. The lunch today was spaghetti, which they had come to know as ekoren. Spaghetti had been Kivessa's favorite food on Earth. She took a serving and looked for her friends. They were all sitting at their usual table. Tavin, whom she now considered to be her friend, was sitting on the other side of the room. Kivessa went and sat with her friends.

"Where were you this morning? You've been missing for… an hour!" Atlan faked surprise.

"I was up late last night…" Kivessa said, smiling. Atlan got a sudden weird look on his face.

"Maybe I don't want to know," he said jokingly, laughing. Kivessa just wasn't the kind of person that anyone could see being promiscuous.

Kivessa playfully punched Atlan in the shoulder, protesting: "None of that! No, stop it!" Kivessa said to Atlan when he just laughed harder at her comment, laughing too herself.

Sitting there listening to Kivessa and Atlan joke about Kivessa's social life made Rynn somewhat jealous. That's what she used to do all the time back at home with Jeremy. He had been her absolute best friend, and when she had to leave him behind, it felt awful. Remembering the past made Rynn want to go back for him more than ever. She wondered if she ever could someday go back for him.

She finished her meal in silence. When she realized that everyone else was done, she beckoned Atlan to follow her.

"So, you know when I told you about wanting to go back to see Jeremy?" Rynn asked him while walking around the halls.

"Yeah," Atlan replied.

"Well, I'm wondering if you would take me back."

"Okay, whatever."

"Today."

"Oh. Okay, let's go," Atlan said, starting to walk over to the training place. They had just gotten a lesson on how to get ready for flight the day before, so they knew what to do. Myz had been flying everywhere for the past week, and her skill had improved greatly.

Myz, get your butt over here, she told her dragon. She was not looking forward to flying again. Her previous experience had scared her.

"This better not take long," Atlan said. "So, what are you going to say to him?"

"I… don't know. I guess I'll just say hi and explain myself. Not that he'll believe me, though."

"Yeah. Okay."

Soon, Rynn and Atlan were ready to leave for Earth.

"Has Fanth done this before?" Rynn asked uneasily as they walked over to their dragons.

"Um, yes," Atlan said.

"Oh. Okay. Well, how is this going to work?"

"Well, there has to be some sort of physical connection… like this!" he said as he sloppily kissed Rynn's forehead.

Rynn reached behind him, grabbed his butt, and said, "You know you want it." She started to walk over to Myz.

Atlan just said in a laugh, "I don't know what's scarier, the fact that I just kissed your forehead, or that you didn't freak out."

Rynn shook her head. Atlan had always been the odd one. She recalled him having said that exact same thing before.

She climbed up her dragon's forearm and sat in the soft dragon hide chair. They even used the dragons' shed skin, she thought. Talk about conservative. She strapped herself in.

Myz walked over to the ledge. Fanth and Atlan had already gone. Myz took off with a jerky motion. Rynn's head snapped back violently. She was stunned for a moment, then everything went black.

Rynn! Wake up! I know you're alive! She heard very loudly in her head. She cautiously opened her eyes to a much dimmer world. Earth! They were flying low over treetops of the beautiful British Columbian forests. The familiar Mt. Baker loomed ahead of them, and Rynn could see the last place she had set foot on this earth quickly approaching. And she and Myz landed in that exact same spot.

I'm here, she replied, slurring her words together. And the first thing we're going to do is get some Tylenol. I brought money.

She opened her eyes wider and looked around. They were on the all-to-familiar Mt. Baker. But they had come out of Nowhere-space, as she liked to call it, onto the other side of the mountain so no one would see them.

As they landed, Atlan yelled, "Are you okay?" to her.

"Yeah," she tried to yell back, but it made her headache worse.

"Okay, so we're at the foot of a mountain, in broad daylight with two dragons," Atlan said when they got off their dragons. "Well, you two stay here and hide. I guess we'll hitch a ride into town. I hear a highway around here somewhere."

"A highway? I don't remember there being a highway over here. I thought the noise was my headache," Rynn mumbled.

"Well, let's go," Atlan said and started walking. He turned back, for Rynn hadn't taken a single step. "Aren't you coming? You're the one that wanted to come here."

"I… I don't feel so good," Rynn said, putting a hand to her stomach.

"Uh oh. Well, then we better go to town for some medicine."

"Aw, come on!" Atlan yelled at a car. Sure enough, there had been a highway there, but Rynn hadn't remembered. They were having no luck hitching a ride with anyone.

Rynn, being still sick coming down with something, she guessed, didn't want to walk, and sat on the side of the road. She made Atlan do all the work.

"Hey!" she yelled to him. "Are we going to call ourselves 'Atlan' and 'Rynn' if someone asks us our names?"

"No! I think we should stick with our former names."

"What if someone recognizes us?"

"Well, isn't that the point here? I mean, Jeremy better recognize us, we've only been gone 4 months Earth time. But anyway, if anyone who used to know us sees us, at least they'll know we're still alive. Hey, if we have time, we should go visit my cousin."

"No, I don't like your cousin."

"Okay, just Jeremy it is. Hey! Someone's stopping! It's a semi, but oh well, it’s a ride. Come on!" Rynn quickly walked over to Atlan as the large truck squealed to a halt in front of them, and tried to put on a happy face. The truck driver opened the door and said, "Oh, so there's two of you now. That's okay too. Hop in! I got room!" He motioned for them to get in, Atlan in the middle and Rynn in the passenger seat. "So, where're you headed?"

"Cranbrook," Rynn replied. The truck was not going to make her stomach feel any better with its rumbling and bouncing.

"Oh. Well, I was just going that way, got to drop off some supplies to some factory."

"Okay then," Atlan said. The conversation, to Rynn, was a bore, more or less nonsense talk about the weather and about governmental changes and things like that.

"So, did you guys hear about the big scare that happened here about 4 months ago? Yeah, five or so teenagers went up on a hike… never came back. When they went looking for them, no trace of them could be found. Not even their packs. Kind of odd something like that would happen in such a small town as this, eh? And especially with that shortage of deer, s'crazy…"

"Yeah." Rynn gave Atlan a worried glance. "We knew them." Atlan elbowed her when she said that.

"So, who are you? I mean, your names." The pot-bellied truck driver said.

"I am… Liz, and he is Andrew," Rynn said quickly before Atlan could say anything.

"Hmm. Well, I think we're here," he grunted as he stopped the truck at the Husky gas station.

"Okay, here is fine, thank-you," Rynn said.

"Bye."

"Yep. Bye!"

When the truck driver drove off, they realized exactly where they were. They were standing on a curb on a highway, facing a street, the street that the school was on. Rynn checked with Myz. It was a Friday, May sometime, in the middle of the day. She told Atlan this, and they started to walk towards the sign that read, "Cranbrook Senior Secondary School". If they took their time, they could catch Jeremy on his lunch break without having to enter the school.

Rynn made Atlan stop at the nearby 7-11, and she bought some Tylenol and a bottle of water. On her way out, she looked on a bulletin board and a large poster stuck to the board, partially covered by another bulletin caught her eye. It read:

MISSING!

Five teens mysteriously disappeared July 18^th, 2000 on their hike up Mt. Baker. If you can help us in any way, call:

And it went on to say their former phone numbers and all of their distinct physical characteristics. She looked at their pictures. Seeing their faces on a "missing child" poster made her sick to her stomach. Her parents, her brothers… they all didn't know where she had gone, and she could only hope that her disappearance didn't split up her family the way that it split up many others' families that had children go missing. She sighed and continued on her way out.

Atlan was already outside, drinking a slush, and holding a bag of chips.

"So, what do we do now? We've got half an hour," Atlan said while they were walking down the street yet again. The school was farther away than it had looked. Rynn took a Tylenol. Out of the bottom of the water bottle, she could see someone walking towards them. She took down the bottle and looked again. The person walking towards them was someone she recognized!

"Ohmigosh it's Angie!" Rynn whispered to Atlan. "Act normal!"

"Rynn, we're walking to a school full of people we knew, and aren't expecting to ever see us again. It doesn't matter, it's not like we live here," Atlan replied.

"Yeah, well," she smiled as they walked by Angie. Just as Rynn was about to say something to Atlan, Angie tapped her on the shoulder.

"What the hell!?" they heard Angie shout behind them. Great, Rynn thought, we've been noticed. A strange feeling of dread crawled into Rynn's stomach. Both Rynn and Atlan turned around simultaneously, to face Angie.

But Angie's gasp of surprise hadn't been for Atlan and Rynn's sake… Angie had dropped a cigarette on the sidewalk, and stooped to pick it up. Rynn laughed slightly, and turned around. Atlan did the same, and as they walked away from Angie, Rynn mumbled to Atlan.

"Gotta love people with no memories at all."

"Hey, that was scary, okay? She's the kind of person that would announce our reappearance to the world. And we really wouldn't want that," Atlan replied in a low voice. Both of the teens heard a bell resounding from the school,

"Hey, do you know where Jeremy Arowan is?" Atlan asked some girl he didn't know.

"Um, no. I don't think I'm in the same grade as him."

"Okay." Atlan asked the same question to another girl.

"Jeremy? I think he's in woodwork. The room's over there," she replied, and pointed down the hallway.

"Thanks." Both of them hadn't gone to this school, so they had to ask for directions once more just to clarify where the woodwork room was. It turns out they never reached woodwork class; they saw Jeremy unloading his backpack at his locker. Atlan went around to his left side, and Rynn to his right.

"Hi!" Rynn said as he looked up at her.

"Hi," he replied, and looked back down, only to do a double take and look each of them over in surprise.

"What?!" he said. "I thought you…"

"We have to talk to you," Rynn interrupted.

He stood there staring at her with a stupefied look on his face. Jeremy snapped out of it though, and shut his locker, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder. "No kidding," he said, "We'll go outside." He motioned for them to walk towards the doors that inevitably led to the outdoors.

As they were walking, Rynn looked up at him. He hadn't changed much, and she didn't see why they hadn't recognized him. Maybe it was because they had been looking for someone shorter. He had apparently grown a lot and his voice had gone deeper. His eyes were the same old grey-blue, and his dirty blond hair now showed darker roots coming through.

"Do you want some?" Jeremy asked them, offering some of his lunch.

"Sure," Atlan said and took a piece of cold pizza. Rynn shook her head. She was still feeling sick.

"Explain yourselves!" he finally shouted.

"Well, the first summer we went on a hike, we were exploring and we found-and we know you probably won't believe me-but we found dragons," Rynn went on to explain the rest of their story.

"You're right, that is pretty far-fetched. But oh well. Where'd you go again?"

"To Kellaria. It's… some sort of inter-dimensional twisted parallel world thing. We're just here to visit."

"Oh."

"Yeah, it's really fun there. Although there isn't that much technology other than light bulbs, we have lots of fun." They told him more about Kellaria, he just sat there nodding, slowly taking it all in.

"Woah," Jeremy said when they had finished. "That's a little unbelievable."

"I know. We don't expect you to believe it though do we?" Rynn said. "We're just glad to see you."

"Well, the only way I'd believe this is if I actually saw one of those dragons with my own eyes."

"Okay, come with us!" Atlan suggested.

"Um, lunch is already half-way through, and depending on how far away they are, I won't have enough time."

"So? You'll just miss your next class. Hey, this is explainable," Rynn said.

"Sure, this is explainable to someone who would actually believe this stuff. In this case, it would be laughed off and go down in history as the weirdest excuse ever."

"Well, you're coming anyway," Rynn argued. Myz, she said silently to her dragon, meet us up at the mountain behind the industrial park, okay? Tell that to Fanth.

Alright. But there's no guarantee that we won't be seen.

Oh well. We'll be gone before anyone can do anything about it.

If you say so, Myz replied.

"Well, let's get going!" she said, getting up and wiping grass off her pants.

"Over there?" she said to Atlan, pointing to the mountain.

"That's what Fanth says," Atlan replied.

"Oh yeah, Jeremy? Our names are Rynn and Atlan. Not Lauren and Aaron," Rynn explained.

"That's gonna be weird," Jeremy said, got up, and shouted in disbelief, "We're going over there?! I won't make it back before next class!"

"As I said, oh well." Rynn put on a smile and started walking across the field, the other two guys following her.

It took them nearly an hour to get there, but they finally did. They had to go down a steep hill, through the downtown area, across the highway, across the tracks, and up into the industrial park.

"Okay, so where are they supposed to be?" Jeremy asked. The three stood gaping at the empty forest meadow.

"Right there," Atlan said, looked up at them, who were flying just above the city, and said to Fanth, You would think that you, being the only two dragons on this planet would be a little more secretive.

Well, it doesn't matter, we're being followed anyway. Look behind us.

Atlan looked further behind them on the horizon, and saw two helicopters flying in a determined fashion, directly preceding Myz and Fanth. He swore out loud.

"What?" Rynn asked, and followed his gaze. Her expression dropped and turned to a look of horror. "Oh."

"So?" Jeremy said. "Helicopters. What's the big deal?" Atlan guessed he hadn't yet noticed the dragons, for they were blocked by trees from his point of view.

"Look!" Rynn yelled at him. She was obviously not in a good mood. "Our dragons are right there. Chances are, they have already been seen. If that is a cop helicopter, which I can see now that it is some military vehicle, then they might have guns, and seeing a 'threat' like them, they might shoot them. Because of the symbiotic bond between us, if they die, we die too!"

"Oh," was all Jeremy could say.

"This is gonna be rushed," Atlan told them. "Rynn, Jeremy will ride with you."

"What?!" Jeremy yelled as the dragons landed. Rynn and Atlan ran to their dragons. Jeremy was left standing there, having no idea what to do.

"Oh, God, it's the cops," Rynn yelled. Atlan looked up. It was true. He could see the letters boldly printed on the helicopters' sides.

"Okay, first you guys come back, I see dragons, which I was totally not expecting, and now we've got police chasing us. This is too weird." Jeremy said and shook his head.

"It's about to get weirder," Rynn warned, beckoning Jeremy to get on her dragon.

"We'll explain later!" Atlan yelled. He had already strapped himself to his dragon and was waiting for Rynn to hurry up.

When Jeremy was finally seated and sufficiently strapped in, which only took a minute, one of the helicopters had landed a few hundred feet away. The people inside cautiously stepped out, looking warily at the dragons. They had weapons.

"Okay, if we're gonna go, now is a good time," Atlan said. "Up in the air? Or down here where we have the risk of taking one of them with us?" He looked at the approaching people, and told Fanth to take off. The stalkers stepped back in surprise as the two dragons simultaneously jumped up and took flight.

Myz informs me that they're raising their guns, Fanth said. Atlan turned around and strained his eyes to look. He winced as he heard shots being fired. He looked over at Rynn, Myz, and Jeremy. Myz had folded one wing and the other was flapping excessively to try and stay airborne. Blood poured out of a hole, quickly expanding in Myz's folded wing.

Atlan started to panic. He devised a plan in his mind, told it to Fanth, and he followed. Atlan and Fanth swooped down behind Myz. Fanth grabbed onto Myz's wing arms with his fore-claws and her back legs with his, trying not to squish Rynn and Jeremy. He concentrated on teleporting to a location near South Telleka where it wasn't hazardous to fly close to the ground, and initiated his mind.

They were in the terrible void of space-time for a bare moment, and they came out skimming the ground by an inch. Both Rynn and Jeremy had been screaming. Atlan, with Fanth gripping Myz, rose over the next hill and descended into the valley of South Telleka. There wasn't much distance now, but Fanth couldn't let go of Myz. A dragon could not fly with only one wing.

When they finally entered the landing grounds inside the mountainous Citadel, Myz had stopped bleeding. She had ripped a 12-inch hole in her wing. Trails of crusty red blood led down to the edge of her wing. Atlan realized that the whole left side of Fanth's white underbelly had been speckled with Myz's blood.

Rynn jumped off her dragon and ran over to look at the wound. She winced. "That's gonna take a while to heal." Rynn helped Jeremy down.

"Where are we? What the hell happened?" he asked. "This just doesn't seem like Earth anymore to me."

"We're on Kellaria in South Telleka," Atlan said, staring at the wounded wing.

"So, not on Earth."

"No, this is Earth," Rynn said quickly, not really paying any attention to what she was saying.

"What?"

"In a different dimension."

"Oh," Jeremy said, not quite grasping the concept. "So, what're you going to do about that?" he asked Rynn, pointing at the hole in Myz's wing.

"Don't know," she replied.

"What's going on in here?" came a booming voice from the entrance.

"Um, Jeremy, they speak differently here," Rynn said.

"I noticed."

"Just don't talk and we'll be fine, okay?"

"Okay."

"Um, we were flying and my dragon ripped her wing on something," Rynn yelled over to the man.

"Who's that?" the man pointed to Jeremy. "He's not from here."

"Oh, he's my cousin. He's from… Monanti," Rynn improvised.

"He can't be. He's too fair-skinned."

"Well, he is. He came to bond a dragon." Atlan wondered what Rynn was doing. Jeremy bonding a dragon? Becoming a permanent citizen of Kellaria? Jeremy might not like what idea.

"Oh! Well he's just on time. There's about to be a hatching tomorrow morning at dawn. What's his name? I'll sign him up." The man was carrying a pen and a clipboard. He flipped a few pages and waited for a response.

"Darrow," Atlan replied. The name had come quickly to his mind when the man had asked the question. He felt the name suited Jeremy. "His name is Darrow."

"Can't he speak for himself?" the man gave them weird looks.

"He doesn't talk much," Rynn said.

"Okay then." More weird looks followed. "How do you spell that?"

"D-a-r-r-o-w," Atlan said.

"Okay, be there at dawn tomorrow, okay?" he looked at "Darrow".

Rynn nudged him, whispering in English, "Nod your head." He obediently nodded his head and smiled weakly.

When the tall burly man left, Rynn said to Jeremy, "Okay, your name is now Darrow."

"What was that guy saying? I could hardly understand him."

"He was saying that you have to be somewhere by dawn tomorrow morning. Don't worry, I know where. Hey, what do you mean you could hardly understand him?"

"I catch on quick. I could understand that whole name bit. I don't know. I just can't speak it."

"Oh. It took me a few months to fully understand. It's an easy language, especially since it's in you because of the dragon…right. Then how could you…?" Rynn wondered, as did Atlan. The Kellarian language was so different from their native English. Without the help of their dragons' knowledge, Atlan was sure that he'd still be struggling with simple phrases of Kellarian. Jeremy as he remembered wasn't a genius, and his perception skills lacked the ability to deduce that what he saw and heard had anything to do with naming.

Atlan remembered that Rynn had mentioned the naming first, however, and he doubted that Jeremy had actually understood.

Jeremy began talking, and Atlan put his thoughts on hold.

"I don't know," he said, and then changed the subject. "So, are the rest of them here? You know, Mallory, Brandi and Rachael?" Jeremy, now known as Darrow said.

"Okay, one thing to get straight. Brandi is now Ekyla, Racheal is Kaya, and Mallory is Kivessa."

"Oh. You'll have to tell me that later, I'll forget. So I take it they’re here. So, when do I get my explanation?"

"Oh, right. Um, well, we were banned from ever going to Earth, and we kinda broke the rules. But now you can't go back either." He gave a bewildered look. "The police probably know everything about you by now, and you would live a life of ridicule from people finding out your story. In fact, first they would probably drill all of what you had experienced out of you, so they could know. So if you go back, you'd be endangering yourself."

"What do you mean I can't go back?" Darrow said, dropping his former smile.

"Er… once you're here, you can't go back. In fact, we were forbidden ever to go back to Earth again…"

"But you came back to see me? And why is that allowed?"

"It wasn't…"

"So why can't you take me back?"

"I thought you would want to stay here with me…" Rynn said, beginning to look worried. Jeremy wanted to leave her already.

"I had a good life going back on Earth. I was finally getting along with my parents, I had a girlfriend who said she loves me, I was bringing up my marks in school, and now, now you tell me that I can't go back?" Darrow was getting quite upset, and Rynn was on the verge of tears.

"I already told you, Jeremy, besides the fact that we need you here, and that I want you here, you will be questioned if you go back, and people will think you are simply crazy. Your rep would be totally destroyed, and your life probably would still be in the same condition as it is right now, here, on Kellaria." Rynn was getting frustrated now.

"I'm flattered that you care so much," Darrow said sarcastically. "And if I didn't need you to show me around, I would leave."

"Will you show up tomorrow at dawn for bonding?" Atlan asked Darrow. Not too good a time to remind him about it, but he can't go into this regretting it, Atlan thought.

He pondered this question for a moment. Then: "Of course!" And that was all he said. "Now, since I'm so obviously stuck here for life, I guess I'm going to have to make the best of it."

Rynn looked a little less miffed, and she perked up slightly.

"Would you like to go see the rest of the people you haven't seen in a while?" she asked him.

"Lead the way," Darrow said. Atlan wondered with awe how quick they'd gotten over their argument, and was happy it was settled.