Fireball

Forest and her clan were making their way across the river in the direction of the castle that had fallen from the sky when they saw the two Imperials pass by overhead.

“Looks like we aren’t the only dragons heading to that castle,” said Summer.

“I would imagine the commotion would’ve attracted more attention,” Camrynn responded. “It’s not every day you see an entire castle fall out of the sky.”

“Do you think there are more dragons? Inside that castle?” asked Summer.

“Possibly,” replied Camrynn. “Though I’d imagine if they were in there when it fell, they might not be in very good shape.”

Summer turned their head to Forest, who was walking quietly beside them. She hadn’t said a word since they departed from their lair.

“Are you alright?” Summer whispered.

“Yes,” Forest responded softly. “I’m just… my dream. What if the castle…”

She trailed off, and Summer knew that she was very nervous.

“I’m sure it’ll be okay,” whispered Summer. “You aren’t alone anymore, if something bad is there, we’ll stand together.”

Forest nodded. The group of dragons stepped out of the trees and into the grass, entering the open area. Above them, the hole in the sky grumbled, flickering red. Before them, the castle sat quietly with mist clinging to the rocky bottom.

“Are those dragons up there?”
In what appeared to be some kind of courtyard, the clan saw what appeared to be two imperials, probably the two they’d seen passing overhead.

“Quiet,” Oboro said suddenly.

To their right, they heard the sound of approaching wingbeats along with the rustling of the trees; low-flying dragons were approaching.
A blue Pearlcatcher emerged, carrying a smaller blue dragon.

“Hey!” Camrynn shouted, causing Forest and the rest of her clan to jump slightly.

The Pearlcatcher fluttered, hovering for a moment before turning its head to face them. It’s body was lined with red eyes, blinking intermittently at Forest and her small clan.

“Great Gods,” whispered Forest as she saw a smaller black dragon look up from the Pearlcatcher’s shoulder, a tiny Spiral with just as many eyes, only green in color.

The Pearlcatcher landed slowly in front of Forest’s clan, gently allowing the strange-looking blue dragon in her arms to set foot on the ground.

“Who are you?” asked the Pearlcatcher; her tone wasn’t friendly, but it wasn’t hostile either.

“I’m Camrynn,” she answered quickly. “These are my friends. Who are you?”

“Moonbeam,” said the tiny Spiral from the Pearlcatcher’s shoulder. “This is Starshine, my sister, and our friend Allegro.”

“Hey,” Allegro said, sitting down on the greyish, scrubby grass.

Starshine looked over the small clan that stood before her, her eyes slowly settling on Forest, who was staring back. Their eyes met, and the Pearlcatcher lifted her head.

“It’s you,” she said.

“Me?”

“You’re the Prophet, the dragon that has foreseen the events that are about to unfold here.”

“And you’re the Seers,” Forest said, her voice barely above a whisper as she coiled in on herself.

“Yes,” said Moonbeam. “We’re heading back to the castle to meet with the rest of our group. Come with us; we’ve been looking for you. This is where you are meant to be.”

Forest looked at Summer, who simply nodded. The dragons all took flight together, heading for the castle.

Buster, Spee, and Randale sat quietly in the courtyard with Eclipse and Xileram, waiting for Starshine to return with Moonbeam and Allegro. They were a bit surprised when they saw Starshine on the way, but instead of the three dragons they were expecting, they saw eight.

Xileram and Eclipse moved to the side to allow the group of dragons to land. The small courtyard was a bit cramped now, but they’d all made it.
“Who are these dragons?” Buster asked as Starshine made her way towards her.

“We’ve found the Prophet and her clan,” said Starshine.

“The Prophet!” exclaimed Buster. “Who is she?”

“It’s me,” said Forest as she stepped forward. “I foresaw these events… kind of. I knew something would open here, and that the sky would fall… but I was not expecting a castle.”

“No worries,” Buster replied. “No prophet has ever foreseen an event with complete accuracy… well, with the exception of very rare cases but that’s a story for another time. What’s your name?”

“I’m Forest, and these are my friends.” She introduced her clan. Buster and Omen greeted one another, happy to be in each other's company once again. Once everyone had been introduced, Forest asked, “So what exactly is in this castle…? I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“This castle is from another world,” Buster told her. “The magic of that realm was disrupted due to an event that took place here, in your world, causing a massive rift to open. Unfortunately, the castle was sucked into the rift… and ended up here.”

“There are portals in the castle,” Spee said suddenly. “Some of them are still working, and they lead back to realms in the world that it fell from. That's where me and Allegro came from!”

“Working portals to other worlds?” asked Ness.

“Indeed,” said Buster. “And that’s why we’ve gathered here. Something is coming to this castle with the intent of using the magic in the portals to escape from your world, and we can’t let that happen right now. We have to defend this castle.”

“The Darkness,” gasped Forest. “It’s not falling from the sky… it’s coming to the castle that fell from the sky!”

“That’s the consensus,” said Buster. “If the seed of Darkness, as Randale calls it, reaches this castle and manages to go through a portal, it will be torn from the dragon it is currently trapped within… and it’s angry. It will return to your world once it regains its power with the intention of laying ruin to your land.”

“The seed is inside my brother,” Randale added. “It caused him to perform a ritual to open that rift in the sky, allowing the castle to fall into our world in hopes to escape. He’s seen the castle through the eyes of his army of smoke gyres, and I feel that he will be on his way soon.” He turned to face the other two imperials and said, “I know you came here to bring me home but I can’t leave, this castle needs defense… I think everyone here would give their deepest gratitude if you could help us defend this castle.”

“We will stay,” said Eclipse without hesitation. “Xileram, write a scroll and send it with the nearest courier to Obsidian to explain the situation. These dragons need protection, and we’re the largest dragons here. I feel it will be in everyone’s best interest that we stay here for the time being.”

“Thank you Eclipse,” sighed Randale as Xileram began writing the letter.

“If your mother can’t hear me, you tell her we are going to find a way to undo what your father has done and bring her back to her own vessel,” Eclipse added. “I will personally see to that.”

Suddenly, the sound of chimes filled the air, a soft ringing accompanied by the feeling of static.

“Someone’s coming through a portal,” Buster said. “Let’s go into the castle; we should see what portals are still active, as they’ll be what we need to defend when Spyral arrives.”

“We’ll keep watch,” said Eclipse. “Randale, stay here and guard this entrance, I’m going to the top of the castle to watch for any incoming dragons that might bring trouble.” She spread her powerful wings and leapt into the sky.

“I’m going to lie down if that’s okay,” said Allegro. “My leg hurts and I’m honestly exhausted.”

“Yes, you should rest up,” Buster agreed. “Stay here in the courtyard with Randale. He’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” She looked up at the giant blue dragon, who simply gave an affirmative nod.


Inside the castle, Buster led the way to the portals, checking the magical network with Summer and Ness’s help. More portals were active than not, though a few of them had been damaged or corrupted, and it was uncertain where they would now lead if one were to enter them. The dragons wandered up spiraling staircases and across bridges that led them to courtyards and rooms that had once been places of study. The castle was, in fact, a school of magic. Dream magic.

As they were heading down a staircase from one of the towers, the clicking of claws against tile became audible. A small red dragon turned the corner, glancing up the stairs with a look of confusion plastered to his face.

“Fireball!” Spee cried, bolting to the front of the group.

“Spee!” The two young dragons butted heads playfully, greeting one another.

“I was afraid you were going to be lost,” Spee said.

“Yeah, what’s going on?” asked Fireball, the red dragon. “This is… not where the academy was this afternoon when we left.”

“I know,” said Spee. “Apparently a dragon from another world used a magic so powerful that it created a rift between worlds, and the academy got sucked into it... and now we’re stuck here with the giant dragons that have trees for horns, and a bad dragon is coming.”

"Wait slow down," Fireball shook his head. “What do you mean, a bad dragon is coming?”

“A dragon with an angry creature trapped inside him is on his way here,” Buster said as she stepped past the native dragons.

“Buster, you’re here too!” said Fireball. “… where’s Blue?”

“We don’t know,” said Spee sadly. "He never came back through a portal... But we have to stop this dragon with Buster’s sister from getting here because she’s super angry and if she gets through a portal and frees herself from the dragon she’s trapped in, she’s going to come back and ruin this world and all the dragons here!”

“Buster’s sister?”

Buster sighed, and the two young dragons looked at each other nervously.

“Do they know what she really is?” asked Fireball. “The dragons here?”

“Not exactly,” Spee murmured, “but I think we’ll have to tell them soon. They have no idea what kind of a threat an angry Shadow Faery can be.”

“This is bad,” Fireball said quietly. “Is anyone else we know here?”

“Allegro is in the east courtyard,” said Spee. “But I think some of the others may be reachable. Not everyone we left with has returned, and I don't think they got back before us. That means they should still be reachable through the working portals! We just have to be careful and not accidentally go through a broken on.”

“We’re going to have to find them,” said Fireball. “We need an Elder, this is serious.”

“An Elder?” asked Moonbeam; Fireball and Spee seemed to have forgotten they had company.

“An Elder, a dragon with a lot of powerful magic and experience,” explained Fireball. “If we’re going to stop this Shadow Faery and calm her down, we need the help of an Elder. We can’t do this by ourselves, we don’t have enough magic yet.”

“Who do you think we can reach that could help us find an Elder?” asked Spee.

“If we can find Blue he can find TwentySeven, and if we can find TwentySeven, he can find Karlisle.”

“Are those more dragons from your world?” asked Summer.

“Yeah,” said Spee.

“How are you going to reach them?” asked Starshine. All of the dragons had moved into the space to hear the conversation now.

“We can go back through the portals,” said Fireball. “Spee and I will take Buster, she’ll be able to locate Blue once we get to whatever realm he’s currently in. Once we find him, we’ll try to get back to the realm that this castle fell from, and we should be able to find TwentySeven, and he can summon Karlisle. Then maybe we’ll be ready to face this dragon carrying the Faery.”

“How long do you think that will take you?” asked Moonbeam.

“It’ hard to say,” admitted Fireball, “I’m not sure where Blue is offhand, but I have an idea of where he might be. And if TwentySeven is far away, it might take a bit of jumping around to get to him, but once we find him and get Karlisle, we should be able to return to the academy rather quickly.”

“That’s what this castle is,” clarified Spee.

Buster stepped away from the native dragons to join the two young dragons that now stood at the bottom of the stairs.

“We should get moving now then,” she said. “We don’t know how much time we have left; the sooner we can get Karlisle here, the better chance we’ll have at stopping Whisper.”

“Whisper?” asked Starshine.

“That’s her name,” Buster said. “The thing you’ve called a Seed of Darkness, my sister, the Shadow Faery… her name is Whisper.”

“You guys sit tight,” Fireball said. “We’ll be right back, I promise.”

And with that, he and Spee, with Buster on his shoulder, bolted up the stairs and set off in the direction of an active portal that would hopefully take them closer to their friends.