Chapter 33

    I run over to Sequoia, who, other than a few scratches, looks fine. Ash, on the other hand, has a steady flow of blood dripping from her neck, and the other dragons are fine. 

    “Harley! Can you get some cobwebs?” Anabelle asks. She nods, and runs off, and comes back in a few minutes with two handfuls of cobwebs. She places them on Ash’s throat, and gently applies pressure. Sequoia lets out a long sigh.

    “It is good to see you, Everleigh. Didn’t eat anything poisonous, I hope?” she asks.

    “No, don’t think so,” I say. Sequoia smiles.

    “Good!” she says happily. Sequoia and I chat, while my friends chat with their dragons. “So, you’ve been doing okay?” Sequoia asks.

    “Yeah, think so,” I say. “Did Raven say anything about future plans?” I ask, a look of curiosity forming on my face. Sequoia’s face hardens.

Bloodred roses
Swaying in the breeze
Petals shimmering
So at ease

But while they are pretty
Adorned with thorns
The roses remind us
Don't touch what's not yours

    “Mom, we need to go to the grocery store,” Nate said as soon as his mother walked through the door. She still had her laptop, purse, and other things for work.

    “Nathaniel, since when do you want to go to the grocery store?”

    “Since now,” he said.

    “Why?”

    Nate wasn’t a great liar. He stuttered over his words. “Um, well, I uh, don’t have great snacks for my, uh, lunches.” Nate knew he should stop. But that wouldn’t be enough! “Every kid has uh, pudding cups, they say they’re only three bucks for um a pack of uh… I think it was…” While it seemed like Nate was trying to think of how many, he was actually trying to think of his next move. “I think it was… ten?”

    “Ten? For three dollars?” His mom’s brows furrowed. 

    “It might have been five…” Nate’s heart pounded. Do not sweat. Do not sweat! Everything is fine! Everything happens for a reason. 

Chapter 28

    After we explain everything to Emma, I leap to my paws, only to collapse on the stone from the terrible pain in my throat. Fresh, red blood flows over the crusted dry blood. I moan in pain. I gaze around. Just me and my friends are in the cave. But it feels empty. But why? I think for a few minutes, and then it hits me. “The dragons!” I choke out. “We need to find the dragons!” I rasp. The effort of speaking makes even more blood flow from the wound in my throat. I start to get dizzy, and my tail jerks wildly. The world is a blur- and then all I see is black. 
    “I don’t know...She’s lost so much blood!” The voice of Emma echoes in my ears. My eyes slowly flicker open.

    “Oh thank goodness! Everleigh!” Anabelle says, relief flooding her gaze. I open my mouth.

PART 2

Everleigh



Chapter 25

    Don’t ask me how I got here, or why I’m here. I couldn’t give you an answer. Sometimes, I think I’m dreaming, but I think if I asked George, or Anabelle, they’d call me crazy. I wonder if they have my doubts. Doubts about this place even being real. I wonder if they worry. About death. Am I the only one who came here with these doubts? I don’t know. But right now, I’m the queen of earth, and riding a dragon, and I doubt I can turn around now. But even if I could, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t leave my friends to die at the hands of an evil shadow queen. It would be stupid to leave them- as I found out recently I am quite good with a bow and arrow. Leaving them unprotected would be selfish and horrible. 

Chapter 21

    “Anabelle, if we are going to leave here, you need to meet your soldiers!” Everleigh says, her eyes flitting around to meet mine. 

    “Right,” I say, and unroll the palace map. “Come on, this way,” I say, still looking at the map. I run straight, turn left, turn another left, right, and then we are in a field. Soldiers aim at targets with knives, bows, and some are even fencing with each other. Wonder fills my gaze, and I walk up to a young woman who is watching, and calling out tips. Must be the general, I think. 

“Hello?” George yells. The woman’s gaze snaps up, and her hazel eyes meet my amber ones. 

“Queen Anabelle! I was wondering when I would meet you. My name is Camilla, and I am the general of the fire army,” Camilla says.

“Greetings,” I reply, trying to sound formal. “Are the soldiers ready to head out tomorrow? That’s when I think we are going to leave,” I say.

Chapter 18

“Oh, relax! We won’t!” George says, rolling out of bed. I follow her. We both grab our bows off the nightstand. As quietly as possible, we open and shut the doors. We stand in the hallway for a minute, and then George starts walking the way we didn’t go to meet Queen Raven. Not meet though. More like the way we didn’t go that almost led to our deaths. My thoughts sure are pure venom tonight. We walk for a little in silence. George is the one to break it, of course.

“How long are we going to stay in your fancy little fire house?” she asks.

“Two more nights. I think we all need to practice with our weapons-”

“Everleigh doesn’t.”

“Yes, yes, still, though. I do. And so do you. And I want to meet my soldiers. And eat some more of Avara’s delicious food!” I say, smiling.

Chapter 14
We all head up winding stairs after a big dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, french fries, and broccoli. (I did not eat the broccoli, Avara brought me some carrots) And after, we had a wonderful dessert of chocolate lava cake. We have all had way too much sugar (even Emma, which is surprising) and are dashing up the stairs. We push open a random door that leads into a bedroom. The walls are like the rest of the house, and the floors are birch. The bed sits near an open window. The bed is red, and five orange pillows lay across the bed. It is king size, and a canopy covers the whole thing. George immediately grabs a pillow and whacks Everleigh on the head. 

    “Hey!” Everleigh says, and she grabs a pillow. In a few minutes, we all have a white tiger sitting on us.

          It was a bright, sunny day outside in Oakbridge, Maine. He was lying, back against the school, book in his hands. He, was Nate. Nathaniel Evan Thanin. He didn’t have many friends. There was Katherin, he supposed, but she was with her friends, laughing and screaming on the play structure. He looked back to The Adventures of the Jungle, which he was now reading for the fifth time. Nobody paid attention to him. Not even the teachers. But they used to. 

They’d ask him, “Are you okay, Nathaniel? Why don’t you play with the other kids?” 

Nate had looked up from his book, placing a finger on the page he was on, and pressed the book close to his chest like it was a precious child. “I’m reading,” he had simply said.

“You can read at other times,” the teacher had observed. “Do you have a friend to play with?” His eyes slowly raked the playstructure. 

Chapter 10

    “Well, let's go,” George says. 

    The dragons flap their wings, and they soar out of the hole in the roof, and into the heat of the sun. Emma shields her face with her hand. 

    “Ugh, it is soooooo hot!” she moans. Ash and I soak up the sun, happily. 

    “Ash, how much farther until the palace? I mean, it's my kingdom, there must be a palace.”

    “Yes, it is not too far,” Ash replies. Ash glances behind at Dove, who is falling behind.

    “Hey, Dove, come on! A snail would move faster than you!” Ash calls. 

    “Hey! Watch your tone!” Dove says, thwacking Ash on the back with her tail. Ash laughs, and growls at Dove. 

    As we keep on flying I catch sight of a huge palace. It sits in the middle of a lake of lava, and it goes up, and up and up. Around it, it's sort of like a savannah, like something you’d find in Africa.