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Posted By: The_Mystic Feb 23, 2005 - 07:19 am

CHAPTER ONE: Missing


The stars in the night sky shined brightly as Gwen looked up at them from her seat in the grass. Xera’s five moons also shone, almost but not quite, full. The sky on Xera was always clear, unlike its polluted brother planet Earth.

Gwen’s mother was cooking dinner on the fire near to where Gwen was sitting and her father was by the house reading the News Book for all the events that happened that day. This was always a pleasant time for the family because it was quiet and the hustle and bustle of the day was gone. Everyone was at peace.

“Mom,” Gwen said, “is the food almost done, I’m starving!” Gwen gave her best impression of someone dying of hunger and rolled over, moaning, on the ground.

“Yes, dear, it’s almost done.” Her mother said absently, as she stirred whatever was in the pot. She didn’t seem to be paying any attention to what she was doing.

Her mother’s response caught Gwen a little off guard. She was usually more cheerful, and Gwen briefly wondered if something was wrong. Then Gwen got up and pushed the thought out of her mind.

Gwen looked up at the sky again and suddenly remembered something.

“Hey mom,” She said as she walked toward her mother “did you know that tomorrow night all the moons are going to be full. It supposed to be the first time in like…”
Gwen trailed off. Her mother wasn’t even listening. She was staring off into space as though she were dreaming.

“Mom,” Gwen said softly as she tapped her on the shoulder. “Are you alright?”

Her mother seemed to snap back into reality finally. “Yes, yes I’m fine.” She said, though it definitely wasn’t true. She looked down into the pot and sighed heavily.

“The food’s done.” She said and went into the house to get some plates leaving Gwen standing puzzled…

As Gwen ate dinner she wondered about her mother’s strange behavior. And as she went to sleep she couldn’t help but think about it. Eventually she decided not to say anything about it and she hoped that whatever was on her mother’s mind would be taken care of in the morning.
***

Gwen was running through a forest. The forest seemed never ending, the trees passed by only to be replaced by another. Finally she reached a gate that seemed to end in the sky. But as soon as she went to open it, it dissolved. In its place was darkness and all she could she were two blue lights headed for right her…


Gwen woke up slowly. The dream she had didn’t surprise her. She had had dreams like this ever since she could remember.

She sat up, reached over and grabbed a pen. She wrote all she could remember about the dream in her dream notebook that was sitting on her nightstand. Then she rolled out of bed.

She walked across the room, nearly tripping on a small stack of her dream diaries of past years, toward the closet, where she searched for clothes to wear that day. She found a shirt and some pants that were to her liking and put them on.

After changing she looked in the mirror to see how she looked. She sighed and tried to do something with her very bed ridden, unkempt looking brown hair. After some serious brushing she got it to look decent, although, Gwen still had problems with it. She actually had problems with her whole appearance. To her, she looked like plain Jane with nothing you could say ‘wow’ over. The opposite was true for her best friend Claire. Claire seemed to have everything to say ‘wow’ about. Blond hair, blue eyes, killer smile, she had the whole package.

‘Nope.’ Thought Gwen, staring at herself in the mirror ‘Nothing great about you.’
Of course her other best friend Isidore, whom she called Izzy, would always tell her differently. He was always trying to make her feel good about herself but she knew better.

Gwen finally turned herself away from the mirror and left her room, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.


When Gwen walked into the hallway, immediately she noticed something was wrong. Silence; it was deafening. She ran downstairs as fast as she could.

The first thing she noticed was that the door was wide open. Her parents always close and lock every door whether they are inside the house or not. She started to panic

“Mom! Dad!” She screamed as she ran back upstairs and checked their room. Their bed was perfectly made as though nobody had slept in it. She went back downstairs and looked out the front door.

“Mom!” She yelled again, walking around the outside of the whole house “Dad!” No sign of them here either.
She went back inside and called their names again.

But the sound of her cries went unanswered. The house was silent, everything still and in its place.

Gwen’s mind felt like it was clogged. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t fathom what was going on. Her whole body felt like it was shutting down. Her parents were gone.

She slowly walked into the kitchen and sat down. Then she cried. She cried as though she had never cried before. The pain in her soul was hurt more than she ever thought was possible.

Gwen cried for what seemed like hours, and stopped. She wiped her face off with a towel and got up. She was thinking a bit clearer now and decided that she needed somewhere to go.

“Claire.” She said to herself and started to go back upstairs to get her things. Then she noticed a note on the counter. She picked it up curiously and read what it said:

Dear Gwendolyn,

If you are reading this letter, then your father and I are gone and you probably won’t see us again. Do not worry about us. Our time has finally run up and your time has come. You must leave the house immediately. Find Claire and Isidore they will help you.

Gwen, you must find a woman named Serenity who lives in Ardosia. She will tell you what I cannot. You must reach her as soon as possible. I know it’s hard but you must go.

Pack traveling clothes, find a map and do what I ask. Remember you must leave immediately.

You will be fine.

Love,

Your parents

Gwen read this letter three times and still it she couldn’t believe it. They knew this was going to happen? Where did they go? They expect her to be able to just up and leave?

Though most of her didn’t want to, she knew she had to go. She didn’t know how she knew but she did. And somehow Gwen knew that this Serenity woman would be able to answer her questions. She folded the letter and put it in her pocket and started to pack.

She found a backpack that she could use and went looking around the house at what to bring. She picked up the News Book, found a suitable map and a few gold and silver coins and put them into the bag. Then she went upstairs to her room.

She looked at everything. She knew she would have to leave most of these memories behind. So that she didn’t have to think about it she quickly stuffed some clothes, hats and a cloak into the bag; she started to walk out when she stepped on something, her dream dairies.

Should she take them with her? She already knew the answer. She grabbed them hurriedly and put them into the bag. She just couldn’t bear to leave them behind.

Gwen went back downstairs, took some food out of the cabinets and put the bag on her back. She walked through the open front door into a new life.

Posted By: chowder Feb 25, 2005 - 02:08 pm

You're off to a great start--loads of potential for this story.

A few things I noticed:

“Yes, dear, it’s almost done.” Her mother said absently

This simply doesn't seem to be enough to catch Gwen off guard and set her to worrying. Her mother's response seems cheerful (though absent-minded), so why is Gwen upset by it. If her mother said the words in a cross voice or if she said "It'll be ready in a minute will you stop bugging me?" --well, you get the idea.

Be careful of these cliches:

-killer smile, she had the whole package.
-She cried as though she had never cried before.
-Silence; it was deafening.

I couldn't get a sense of the place/time in which Gwen lived. Her mother cooks outside on a fire (which led me to believe it was a rather primitive setting). But she uses a pen to write, sleeps in a bed, etc.

Best of luck to Gwen (in her adventures) and to you with your story. Thanks for sharing!

Posted By: The_Mystic Feb 26, 2005 - 07:47 am

Thanks for the reply. As the story goes on you'll get more of a feel for the setting, it is pretty odd. I'll try not to use cliches in the upcoming chapters. I'm going to post chapter 2 very soon.

Posted By: The_Mystic Feb 28, 2005 - 02:09 pm

Chapter 2

Gwen marched down the path she knew to lead to Claire’s house. Claire’s house was only five minutes away and it was right in the middle of the woods. As she walked, the trees towered above and all around her. They sort of reminded her of the dream she had last night. It was eerie.

She was anxious about this whole situation, for obvious reasons. But also she had no idea what she was going to say to Claire.

‘Maybe Claire already knows.’ Gwen thought, not paying attention to where she was walking. ‘And I won’t have to explain anything.’ This thought made her slightly relieved so she kept walking and turned the corner

“Gwen!” She heard someone call out. Gwen looked down the path to see who it was.

‘Well speak of the devil.’ Gwen thought. There was Claire, running down the same path towards Gwen.

“I’m so glad I found you!” Claire said as she reached Gwen and hugged her. Gwen noticed that Claire looked like she had been crying.

“Gwen it’s my mom,” She said while still holding on to her “She’s-“

“Gone.” Gwen said completing her sentence. Claire stepped back and stared at her confusedly.

“How did you know?” She said in amazement.

“My parents are gone too. They left me a note telling me to come find you. Look.” Gwen handed her the note. Claire read through it briefly.

“So they’re just gone?” Clair said, after reading it again “And we have to travel across the entire continent and find this Serendipity or whatever?” She looked at Gwen as though she knew the answer.

“I suppose so.” Gwen said quietly.

“What is this a fairy tale?” She yelled, throwing the letter on the ground. “Gwen we’re not adventurers or world travelers!”

“I know that,” Gwen said calmly picking the letter up off the ground “but we are going to have to become world travelers. I mean there’s nothing left here, is there?”

At her words, Claire’s body language began to soften and she seemed to calm down.

“You’re right.” She said and took a deep breath in. “Let’s go. But I have to get some clothes and stuff first.”
Gwen took a long look at Claire.

“Okay.” Gwen said. “We’ll go back to your house. But after that we have to go get Izzy afterward.” Claire nodded and they were on their way.

They retrieved some things from Claire’s house and started on their way to Izzy’s house. Except there was one problem…

“Where does Izzy live?” Gwen said after they had been walking for a while.

“You don’t know where he lives?” Claire said incredulously.

“No and I hope that you do because we’ve going this way for like 20 minutes…”

“Yes I do,” Claire said indignantly “although I have only been over there one time.” She added.

“He lives downtown in a really big house. But I never got to see the inside; he waiting for me outside of it.” Claire said, trying to flick the leaves out of her hair.

“Really?” Gwen said thoughtfully. “Maybe he’s hiding something from us?”

Claire shrugged. “Maybe.”

The path they were on gradually widened and the number of trees started to fade. Soon they were in the middle of town.

People were everywhere; some were headed to the shops, and some to the Temple to pray. Close by, posted on a tree, was a sign urging people to vote in the next election. Underneath it was another sign that said, “Vote yes on proposal E. Earth is our friend.”

“Look Claire, They’re still trying to make contact with Earth.” Gwen said with disgust pointing out the sign, “I don’t know what their fascination is with that place. It’s dirty, disease ridden, and the people are always trying to kill each other.”

“I think that we should try to help them,” Claire said “the state that they’re in can be fixed and we can’t just leave them to die.”

“The brought it upon themselves.” Gwen said with finality. Claire just shook her head and left it alone.

“This is Izzy’s house right here.” Claire said stopping in front of it. It was a very large older house; it looked almost like an apartment. The paint on shudders was peeling and some of the bricks had broken off. It was no spring chicken but it still looked grand.

.

They walked toward it and out on the stoop sat Izzy. He was on the steps, looking at people pass by. When he saw Gwen and Claire, he jumped off the porch and jogged toward them.

“Hey, What are you doing here?” he said running his fingers nervously through his black hair. His grey eyes were widened with surprise.

“Izzy, something terrible has happened.” Gwen said. Izzy’s jitteriness left as concern came in.

“What’s wrong?” he said. Gwen told him everything she knew. Having to retell what happened brought back the immense feelings of sadness and she tried to hold them back.

“Are your parents gone too?” Gwen asked him after she finished. He hesitated.

“No.” he said. Gwen was about to say something else but he interrupted her.

“Do you know where they are?” He said. She shook her head.

Izzy thought for a moment.

“I think someone kidnapped them,” he said finally, “but they knew it was going to happen.”

“Why would someone want to kidnap them?” Claire asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but I do know that they knew it was going to happen. My real question is, though, why did the person who kidnapped them, not kidnap Gwen?”

This question really hit Gwen. Why wouldn’t they take her? What was really going on?

“Isidore, you are always coming up with some weird conspiracy theory,” Claire said dismissively although she didn’t sound so sure to dismiss it.

“This one’s probably true though.” Gwen said quietly. Claire was silent.

“Well, we need to get going.” Gwen said and she started walking.

“Gwen how do you expect to get to Ardosia,” Izzy said, running up next to her, “on foot?” Gwen blushed a little in embarrassment. She hadn’t really thought about it.

“We need transportation.” He said. “Let’s go over here to “Tom’s Ride Shack” he’s bound to have something.”

The three of them walked over to the shop. Actually it was a barn with a little stand in front of it. The stench of animals and droppings nearly knocked Gwen out and she tried her best to ignore it.

“Excuse me?” She said and the three waited for somebody to come out.

A balding man wearing overalls covered hay eventually emerged. When he saw his customers, he smiled widely showing off the gaps in his teeth.

“How can I help you today?” he said excitedly. Gwen glanced at Izzy and he nodded as though to say he would take care of it.

“We need something that can last us a long time, and doesn’t need much rest. We’re going a long way.” He finished deliberately. The man sort of looked him up and down.

“I think I’ve got just the thing for you.” The man said, as he started headed for the barn waving his hand at them, telling them to follow.

Inside of the barn were a variety of different animals. They stopped at one stall, in it were a couple Oscs lumbering around. They were about 7 feet tall, had large claws, and were covered with fur. Claire stared at them uneasily.

“How about one of these?” the man said, patting one on the head “They’re not the fastest things but they can walk for days.” The man looked at Izzy expectantly.

“No,” Izzy said quickly “not fast enough.” They went to the next stall in which resided several Syrinibi. They were light and agile with bright eyes. Their tails flared out in a fan and the rest of their body was covered in smooth fur. Izzy looked at them closely.

“No,” he said after a minute, “too fragile.” The man looked dismayed. Gwen was tempted to just take them and call it a day but she trusted Izzy on these kinds of things. They continued to the next stall at the end of the hall.

“I haven’t shown anyone these,” the man said, “they were just shipped in a few days ago.” He led them to the door and opened it. Gwen gasped.

It was beautiful. The creature's skin was dark green, and made of smooth scales. It was slightly shorter than Gwen and its eyes were a bright green. It moved with a fluid grace that was totally unexpected. It had no wings but there was no mistaking what it was.

“Is that a Dragon?” Gwen said in awe. Claire just stood in amazement and Izzy nodded, impressed.

“Yep,” the man said proudly “It is. It’s a Miniature Flightless Dragon. It’s fast, has great endurance and,” he added, “It breathes fire.”

On cue, the dragon blew a puff of smoke at them.

“Brilliant.” Izzy said aloud grinning.

“I suppose you’ll be taking him. I’ve got some more in the back if you like.” The man said, about to go get the others. “Oh,” he said as an afterthought “I forgot to ask, will you be buying or renting?”

The grin left Izzy’s face. “One moment.” He said hurriedly, dragging Gwen and Claire out of the man’s earshot.

“How much money do you have?” He asked, furiously checking his own pockets. Gwen looked in her bag and so did Claire.

“I’ve got 10 gold and 16 silver.” Gwen said

“3 gold and 17 silver.” Said Claire.

“I have 25 silver.” Izzy said, casting a glance at the man. He was still waiting.

“I hope we have enough.” He said, and started walking toward the man with sudden false confidence.

“How much are three to buy?” Izzy said determinedly. The man looked at him suspiciously.

“Hmmm…” the man said as he thought carefully “That’d be about 30 gold a piece.”

“Okay, how much to rent?” Izzy said, with his air of confidence blown away with a gentle breeze.

“I’d say 5 silver a day.” The man said. Izzy looked like he was at war in his mind. Gwen thought she knew what he was about to do.

“We’ll rent three for a week.” Izzy stumbled out. They handed over 9 gold and 15 silver pieces to the man and he was pleased. He gave them the Mini-Dragons, complete with saddle and reigns.

“I hope to do business with you again.” He said as he helped Gwen and Claire onto the back of the dragons. And the three of them trotted off out the back.

Riding a dragon wasn’t as hard as it would seem. Gwen rode it with ease as though she had had ridden dragons her whole life. Claire did not share in her abilities.

“Nice dragon.” Gwen heard Claire say, slowly patting it. Gwen laughed and Claire threw her a faux nasty look, which did not help to seize her laughter.

“Where are we going?” Gwen asked Izzy after Claire tried to hit her with a rock.

“First we need to head toward the Silent River,” Izzy said, looking at the map “It’s not to much farther from here and we can camp out there.”

‘This is it,’ Gwen thought. Their adventure begins now.

Posted By: chowder Mar 01, 2005 - 02:32 pm

Mystic
I warn you--I've critiqued just a bit of your chapter--but it is critiqued. Your story is moving right along and promises to be exciting and interesting. But you've got to follow that old writing cliche: show don't tell. Good luck to you and keep writing. If you'd rather I didn't post crits of your chapters, please let me know.


Gwen marched down the path she knew to lead to Claire’s house.It's assumed by the reader that Gwen 'knows' because it's from her POV. Perhaps reword (eg): Gwen marched down the parth leading to Claire's house Claire’s house was only five minutes away and it was right in the middle of the woods. Delete: As she walked, the trees towered above and all around her. They Delete: sort of. Be specific in your descriptions reminded her of the dream she had last night. It was eerie. instead of telling us it was eerie, show us what Gwen felt--did she shudder?

this bit is telling. Again, try showing: She was anxious about this whole situation, for obvious reasons. But also she had no idea what she was going to say to Claire.

‘Maybe Claire already knows.’ Gwen thought, not paying attention to where she was walking. ‘And I won’t have to explain anything.’ This thought made her again, show us how she felt: slightly relieved so she kept walking and turned the corner

“Gwen!” you can delete this whole bit: She heard someone call out. Gwen looked down the path to see who it was.

‘Well speak of the devil.’ Gwen thought. There was Claire, running down the same path towards Gwen.

“I’m so glad I found you!” Claire delete this bit:said as she reached Gwen and hugged her. delete this because we know it's from her POV: Gwen noticed that. Here again, show us. Are Claire's eyes red? Her face damp? Claire looked like she had been crying.

“Gwen it’s my mom,” She said while still holding on to her “She’s-“

“Gone.” Gwen said delete this. You don't want to be directing the reader: completing her sentence. Claire stepped back and stared at her delete--this just doesn't sound right: confusedly.

“How did you know?” She said in amazement. instead of telling us she said it in amazement, show us: were her eyes wide? did she stagger back clutching her heart?

I won't keep harping on the show don't tell thing.
This following bit didn't ring true. It seems a bit of a stretch for Gwen to automatically think Izzy is hiding something from them:

“Really?” Gwen said thoughtfully. “Maybe he’s hiding something from us?”

Claire shrugged. “Maybe.”


They've just lost their parents--who knows where or how--and they stop to discuss the latest political campaign? I know you want to get this information across to the reader. Can you find another way? Perhaps when they go to rent an animal, they have to wait while the owner and another customer discuss this issue--or something like that:

“Look Claire, They’re still trying to make contact with Earth.” Gwen said with disgust pointing out the sign, “I don’t know what their fascination is with that place. It’s dirty, disease ridden, and the people are always trying to kill each other.”

“I think that we should try to help them,” Claire said “the state that they’re in can be fixed and we can’t just leave them to die.”

“The brought it upon themselves.” Gwen said with finality. Claire just shook her head and left it alone.


“Nice dragon.” Gwen heard Claire say, slowly patting it. Gwen laughed and Claire threw her a faux nasty look, which did not help to seize her laughter.

where did she get the rock?
“Where are we going?” Gwen asked Izzy after Claire tried to hit her with a rock.

Posted By: The_Mystic Mar 01, 2005 - 06:04 pm

The part about Izzy hiding something was suppossed to be more of a joking, half serious thought and I agree I didn't explain it very well for the reader.

In regards to the telling and not showing, for the most part I meant for it to be that way, in order to get a feel for how the character, Gwen, would tell it. But I see that's not working.

And in regards to the rock being thrown I was caught between to actions and landed on this one and had a brain flop.

Thanks for the comments.

Posted By: The_Mystic Mar 01, 2005 - 06:05 pm

CHAPTER THREE

Gwen, Claire, and Izzy rode the dragons until it was almost time for sunset and all conversation faded. The only sound heard were the rhythmic footsteps of the dragons, which had a sort of hypnotic effect. Gwen saw that Claire was starting to lean off her saddle, and that Izzy was in a daze staring at the same spot on the road. Gwen felt sleep catching her eyes as well. She decided to spark some conversation.

“Who do you think this Serenity is?” She asked them loudly. Claire sat up straight at the sound.

“What-Who is Serenity?” Claire said, trying to reorient herself. “I think she’s probably one of your relatives who’ll take you in until you come of age.”

“Oh I think not,” Izzy said with sudden life, “she’s definitely the key to all this. She’s probably some wise, old, grey haired witch who been living in the woods for hundreds of years waiting for Gwen to come by so she impart a magical but cursed stone on her so that Gwen can throw into the fires of Hell.”

“Yeah,” Claire said, sarcastically “that’s likely.”

“Just a thought.” He said, raising his eyebrows. Claire raised her eyebrows back at him.

“Whoa!” Claire exclaimed. Her dragon had suddenly stopped and was rearing back. Claire hung on for dear life as Gwen and Izzy slowed down.

“What’s wrong?” Izzy said, jumping off. Izzy said some soothing words to it and it calmed down. He turned and saw what it was fussing about.

“The Silent River.” He said. Indeed it was a silent river; they almost fell into it. “This is where we’re going to camp.”

Where they were standing was a clearing about twenty feet across, flat and dry. Still the idea of sleeping there was not too comforting to Gwen.

“Where are the dragons going to sleep?” Gwen said, hopping easily off hers.

“Can’t we just tie them to a tree or something?” Claire answered, slowly easing her way off her dragon.

“No need.” Izzy said. “They’re dragons; they can understand what we say. If we ask them to stay with us, they’ll stay. But ask them nicely. We don’t want any pissed off dragons traveling with us.” Izzy walked over to his dragon and started talking to it. Gwen and Claire looked at each other.

“It’s worth a shot.” Gwen said and Claire agreed and went, with caution, to her dragon. Gwen turned around and was met by her dragon’s luminous green eyes.

“Hi there.” She said as it walked toward her. “I’m Gwen.” She stuck her hand out and the dragon stared at it.

“Er… right,” she said, taking her hanging hand and running through her hair trying to play it off. “Listen, we’ve reached where we’re going to camp and I was wondering, if it’s alright, if you could, like, not go off too far? We really need you.”

Gwen waited for the dragon to respond. It cocked its head to the side and then nodded. Gwen was a little surprised.

“Thanks.” She said and the dragon walked off, yawned and laid down. Gwen saw that Claire and Izzy’s dragons went to go lay down next to it. Izzy and Claire came back up to Gwen.

“That went well.” Claire said.

“I told you.” Izzy said

“I’m going to lay some blankets down for us to sleep on.” Claire said, ignoring Izzy’s comment. Claire went to work with the blankets. A gust of wind blew by and went through the branches of the trees creating ominous leaf chatter.

“Don’t we need to start a fire? I’m freezing.” Gwen said, trying to take her mind off the fear and also feeling the chill.

“I’ll go get some firewood.” Izzy said, and collected firewood around the edge of the clearing. He set up a little campfire with rocks around it.

“There you go,” he said proudly, “Now all we need to do is light the fire.

“How do you make a fire?” Gwen said embarrassedly. Her mother and father used to do that and she never did learn. Izzy picked up two of the sticks.

“You rub these sticks together like this.” He said, making a cross out of the sticks and rubbed them together. “And it should start to smoke.” He rubbed them as fast as he could and he produced smoke but it was a long way from a fire.

“No, that’s not how you do it,” Claire said, “You have to create a spark with two rocks.” She picked up two rocks from around the would be campfire and started hitting them together. Gwen watched both of them on the ground; one rubbing sticks and the other hitting rocks, trying to out do each other.

“You know what an easier way would be?” Gwen said, smirking, after a few minutes of the scene. “If we just ask the dragons to light the fire for us.” Claire and Izzy stopped in mid act, and then got up casually dusting themselves off.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Claire said. Izzy agreed heartily.

“Hey,” She called to them. The red one, which Izzy was riding, perked up. “Can you give us a light?”…


After the fire was set and everybody was warm, they all finally could relax. Everyone sat around the fire, talking and eating bread.

“You know what,” Gwen said, after taking a huge bite of her piece. “I think we should give the dragons names.”

“Yeah, we should,” Izzy, said, grooming an invisible beard, “I think I’ll name mine Ignatius. He’s red, He’s got the whole fire thing going on, and he’s the best-”

“I’m going to name mine Eron,” Claire interrupted before Izzy could go on a stint, “after the guardian angel. My mother used to tell me about him all the time. Eron is the strongest guardian of them all, just like my dragon.”

“Some guardian he is,” Izzy said, “look at how Earth turned out.”

“You need to be quiet,” Claire said coldly, “My mother was from Earth and I would appreciate it if you would stop ragging on it.”

Izzy put his hands up in a sign of peace. “Alright, geez.”

“What about your dragon Gwen?” Izzy said changing the subject back.

“I think I’ll name my dragon,” she paused, “Jade, because she’s green.”

“Hm, okay.” Izzy said, chewing off a piece of bread.

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing, I just thought you would be more creative with your name,” Izzy said trying to act causal, “that’s all.”

“Well I like the name,” Claire stated.

“You would.”

“What-“

“Alright,” Gwen said strongly, “I think it’s time for us to go to sleep. I’ll put out the fire.”

The two muttered defiantly but the tiredness from the journey got a hold of them and they lied down. Gwen threw some dirt onto the fire and it fizzled out. She lied down. As she was falling asleep she heard Claire, who was lying next to her, let out a small whimper. She wanted to say something but sleep over took her.


“Gwen…Gwen, are you awake?” she heard a voice whisper. She opened her eyes to see Izzy looking at her. Claire was still fast asleep.

“No, but what do you want?”

“Oh, well, I just wanted to tell you that the moons are full and we have a perfect view of them.” He said, smiling, turning back up to look at them.

Gwen propped herself up to look at them as well. It was a breathtaking sight. The moons were in a circle around the sky and they looked about five times bigger. The stars twinkled beautifully by the billions and there was not a cloud in sight. Gwen had this overwhelming feeling of peace she gets every time she looks up at the sky.

“Wow,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said and sighed afterward. He sat up and turned to look at Gwen. “Gwen, it’s been extremely hard for you guys after losing your parents-“

“Who said I lost my parents?” Gwen said, defiantly staring at him, “We don’t know what happened to them.”

“Oh well I thought-“

“Well, you thought wrong,” she said, raising her voice.

“Gwen, they said themselves in the letter that you would probably never see them again-“

“I don’t care about what some letter says!” Gwen said, slamming her hand on the ground. “All I know is that they are alive and I am going to find them! And if you don’t realize that, then- then you can just leave like them.”

Her voice started to crack and she burst into tears. Izzy immediately scooted up next to her and put his arms around her. She cried into his shoulder.

“It’s alright Gwen,” Izzy whispered, petting the top of her head. Gwen continued to sob uncontrollably.

“We will find them,” he said, “and the person who did this, okay? We’ll find them.”


Gwen was standing the edge of town, on a dark night. Five moons glowed brightly in the sky. But all around her was destruction and chaos. Buildings were set a flame and trees burnt to a crisp. No one seemed to have survived. She walked around in horror at her precious home being destroyed by fire. As she reached the middle of town, she saw a figure standing there. He was wearing a dark robe, with the hood draped over his head. As she got closer the more unsettled she became until she was standing directly behind him. He turned around slowly and she could not see his face; only two glowing blue eyes…

Gwen woke up in a state and only just stopped herself from screaming. She looked around to see Izzy asleep next to her and Claire on the other side. It was still dark out.

‘Maybe it was just a dream.’ She thought, although she didn’t believe that for a moment. She got up and hurriedly searched her bag for the News Book. She opened it and there was nothing on the front page about a fire.

‘Maybe it hasn’t happened yet and I can warn them.’ She briefly looked at Izzy and Claire sleeping. ‘They’ll be alright.’ She thought and walked over to where Jade was sleeping.

“Jade,” Gwen said quietly and the dragon looked up at her, “we have to go back to town fast.” The dragon got up quickly and was ready to go. Gwen put the saddle back on her and jumped on. Jade as softly as she could, walked into the forest.

When they were sufficiently out of earshot, Jade ran with impressive speed into the rest wilderness.