Sarina And the colored mask

by Shearkin

with help from Nemi the Nem
and professer parmon

Chapter one

10:00AM
It was any other day in dragon city, Artha was practicing with Kitt, Lance was cleaning the dragon stalls and complained the whole time, and Parmon was in the shed tinkering on some gear that Artha mangled on his last race when Conner walked in the stall he hade a worried look on his face. “Where is Artha?”
Lance eager for an excuse to stop cleaning exited the stall and walked to his father. “He is on the track with Kitt,” he called out.
Conner turned away and activated on his com link. He spoke authoritatively as soon as Artha’s face appeared, “Artha come home now this is an emergency."
“Why what is going on?” Artha asked not knowing why his father was so mad
Conner Replied to his son “I will tell you when you get hear.” then he went offline.
Kitt looked at Artha, and said “Wow he sounds in a hurry!”
Artha turned to her “Yeah I wonder what’s up? Come on boy lets go” he said to Beau so they turn around and head back to Penn stables.

When they got back Parmon and Lance were standing there and Conner was pacing the floor Artha walked to his dad and said “What’s going on what is the big emergency?”
Conner looked at his son and was relived to see him but he still was tense said to him “Come on it’s not safe to talk here.” He said putting his hand on Artha’s shoulder and looking around making sure that there was nobody else there and then headed to beau stall and hit the switch that opened the door to the temple And they all went down then he start’s to explain to them “I got word that someone is heading to the old temple of Lezmark, there is an ancient mask of Zorgon it has all the draconium colors.”
He said waving his arm and the vide screen came down showing a picture of the mask
“I think it must be Word Paynn.”
“All the colors?” Everyone said at the same time, the dragon’s hade surprised looked on there face as well,
“Even gold?” Artha asked not knowing that there was something that powerful existed and that hade gold draconium since you don’t see gold gear around very often ,
“Yes, it is very powerful they made it to train the dragons and since it hade all the colures every type of dragon would listen to what there master’s hade to say and it worked very well. Then when the dragon human war came someone took it and used it to make an army for the war ,sad to say that even the loyalist dragon’s turned from there owners. After the war hade ended the first Dragon Booster retrieved it and put it in the care of a crew all I know about them is that there draconium colors is Dark purple and they have been grading it ever since .” Conner explained to them.
“So then why do you need me?” Artha asked his father
“Well I am afraid that they may be gone and Word found out bout it and now he’s trying to get it. With this mask it would make things very easy for word to start a dragon human war or even get the dragon of legend.”
Conner said turning to beau who snarled at the thought of word Paynn controlling him and would use him to start a new dragon human war. “So I want you guy’s to go to the temple and see if I am right and to stop them. Here is the location, go through the back entrance.”
He said pressing a button on the map. And it lit up and then he passed to Artha who looked at the map then to the others. “We’re on it.” Everyone said together.

Earlier that Morning7:00 AM
“Mooredryd come to my citadel at once.” Mooredryd turned off his com link and turned to his partner in crime. “Let’s go Cain my father has a job for us.”
He said turning his dragon in the direction of the citadel and left .
When they got there Mooredryd went in side and found his father in his office (I’m not sure what you want to call that room that he is in all the time.) he found him Sitting on his dragon bone chair, tapping his fingers on the table .“Mooredryd do you remember the temple of Lezmark?” He says leaning in to the back of his chair and put his fingers together “It was the temple where the mask of Zorgon is held.”
“That is right I want you to go and get it and bring it to me and I don’t want you to leave with out it.”
“Don’t worry father I’ll get it.”
He says starting to turning around and he started to leave when his father stopped him for one more instruction “And one more thing Mooredryd, don’t leave any witnesses.”
“I know father.” He say turning and heading to the door and he muttered to him self.
“Don’t worry.”

oh note : when a dragon talk it will how up like this {// with what ever the dragon has to say //} and from here I will be switching from narrator to my new caractor sarina

Chapter 2

Penn crew 1:00
“Come on the map says we go this way and to my calculation the temple should be right behind this hill.” Parmon said Pointing to a large Mound of Dirt and rubble that was just a head of them.
“Why did we have to come?” Lance complained to Artha
“I guess dad thought that I would need you but I never do.” He said rubbing his finger nails on his racing coat
Kitt looked at him with a discussed face “What are you talking about? You always need us were a team and if you didn’t have us you would be in big trouble stable boy!!”
“Yeah if I weren’t around you would probably still be a wrath booster and in the shadow track at this moment. But still you could probably have done this on your own I wanted to play battle ground dragon.” Lance said agreeing with Kitt,
Artha Looked at them and sighed and said “well I guess you guys are right but it beat’s practicing and cleaning right?” he said to lance knowing he hated to clean and that he would agree with him on that
Lance “yeah I guess so… I m hungry can we stop and eat?”
Kitt looked at Lance “hear? This place is a dump!” She said looking around, there was junk every where.
Artha looked at lance then scanned the area for a good spot to stop and eat “How about… over there?” He said pointing at a clear spot.
“Ok.” Lance said in a hurry
So they went there and pulled candy bars out of there saddle bags and Dragon olla bars and ate there lunch

Mean while
Mooredryd and Cain were making there way thought the dump area “come on Cain just a little farther.” he said to his friend as they made there way past some crumbling pillar’s “but I am tiered we have been up all night staling dragon’s for your father and I’m hungry…. and what if that Drakkus is here to?” Cain said biting his nails looking both way’s being a scary cat like usual Mooredryd looked at Cain and shook his head and sighed
“There is it the entrances not far ahead. Well eat and give our dragons a break then we will go in come on.” He said pushing his controller forward urging Deception to go forward.

(Now to meet the new character she will narrate the stuff that goes on round her)
8:00 am
It’s probably a beautiful day outside and in Dragon City but I m not allowed to go out so I rolled over in my bed and grabbed my blankets and pulled them up over my head to try to go back to sleep, but just as soon as I did I felt something start to push me to wake me up “Torah stop leave me alone let me sleep!!”
I said in my grumble morning voice but you think a dragon like her would let me? Bam I hit the floor, I pull the blanket’s off my head to see the pain in the butt who pushed me off. I looked at her she moved her eyes back and forth Saying {//Who did that?//}
then shook her head and said {//Don’t look at me.//}

She has done that ever since she was able reach my bed and strong enough to push me off.
Me and her are the same age, when my parents found out about me they got and egg from there dragon’s and they gave her to me and now we are un-separable were like sister’s “Ok you big doff I will get you your breakfast then will you let me go back to sleep?”
She shook her head no.
I sighed “I guess your right, but why won’t you let me sleep? Nobody comes here anyway not since…” I didn’t want to talk about it and she already knew so it would have no point to talk to her about it. It happened years ago when I was 9 and like I said that was years ago now I am 15
“Well let’s get some breakfast, but first stop the bathroom.”
I said leaving my room, as soon as I got in the hall I took off running I knew that if I didn’t get to the bathroom first Torah wouldn’t let me shut the door can’t a girl have a little privacy? So I ran down the hall, I could hear her behind me and I made a sharp left turn got in and hit the button just in time. I went to the sink and bam, bam, bam,; and this is what happens if I get here first. She will bang her head on the door until I open it.
I tried giving her food first but she did the same thing she just likes to annoy me! I washed my face and opened the door. I had to doge my her big head, she didn’t realized that I opened the door and she fell in the bathroom and hit the floor, I just shook my head at her
“Now shall we get our breakfast?”
She jumped right to her feet, opened her mouth and let her long tongue hang out all Dragons seem to do that when you mention the word food. So we walked in the kitchen /dinning room, my parents dragon were all ready there and had there breakfast I looked at the vide screen there was nothing I shook my head and went to Torah feeder and
Pushed a button and her food came down. She was just about to dig in when,
“Don’t touch it.” She stopped and looked at me with here mouth opened about to start eating
“I have to put your supplements in it.” She shut her mouth and groaned “ I heard that.”
My parent’s dragon’s chuckled (they were her parent’s to).So I went to the cupboard to get her supplement the cupboard was packed with it and with every thing ales that you could imagine. “You need your supplement if you want to be in tip top shape.”
She let out a sigh and I walked over and putt 1cup of it in here food “You wont let me sleep you have to eat your supplement’s.” Pay back I said to my self walking back to the cupboard when she wrapped her tail around my leg and lifted me in to the air I didn’t see this coming so I didn’t have a chance to put the cover on the bottle and the powder fell on the floor I looked at her hanging up side down with my arms crossed holding the empty bottle.
“Put me down.”
I should have said that better because she dropped me in the pile of supplement I got up and looked at my self and tried to brush it off my P.J. but I was covered. She looked at me and smiled Laurence my dad’s dragon looked at Torah and shook his head but Shawnee my mom’s dragon she just laugh at me I must have looked funny .
“The next time you do that you will get it.” I said in my sternest voice I could do. I probably didn’t sound very threatening but a girl’s has to do something. So I started to head back to my room until Torah started to follow me “I’ am just going to go get change!” She looked at me and nodded then made her Dragon noise that meant {//ok//} and for once she let me get change in peace I got out of my pj and in to my close. I wore a dark purple t –shirt with my mom’s Blue racing vest she said she used to race before she meet my dad she would race with her foster family. and blue bell bottom jeans then I brushed my chocolate brown hair then pulled half of it into a pony tail. After that I went back to the kitchen, Torah just finished her breakfast and I started mine for me it was dragon hen egg’s and toast.

Chapter 3

10:00 am
I finished my breakfast and put the dishes in the sink and went to my Room and pulled out the old training book that my mom and dad left I had a lot of book’s on different subject’s like training ,dragon health ,dragon breed’s ,and a racing book that my grandpa gave me ect. . So I took the book and went to the training hall Torah was waiting there for me slapping here tail on the floor I put the book down and I pull out my blocking staff to prepare for the first hit. We practiced my blocking, mage jumps, jumps spin’s, flips, and dogging until we both popped out I had survived her every hit her hard hit! Practicing would be easer if I would have someone the same size and strength to practice with but that is kind of hard for me I don’t have any friend’s, I use to but now I don’t… I don’t think they even remember me. But hey I am ok I guess. I looked at my com link.
“Wow we spent an hour practicing let’s go get some thing to drink!” she went to her water trough and I got some cool aid and took a long cool sip
“Now if you’re up for we can get the saddle and go race Shawnee and Laurence?” She nodded her head we love to race but I have nobody to race no gear except a saddle and no real track I just race in the temple halls.
“Ok you go get your saddle and I will go get your parents.” I went to the kitchen where I last saw them “Hey do you...”
they weren’t there I went and looked every where’s except one room my parent’s that door hasn’t been opened since that night long ago so I went to the end of the hall and opened the door there was all there stuff but no dragon’s I walked in and went to my mom’s dresser there was box full of stuff that belonged to my parents a tear rolled down my cheek and I moved some papers and there was something in there that I never noticed before it was a amulet it was the same colure as our dragon’s dark purple draconium and it had the same symbol ( a cross )that was on there dragon’s heads I missed them so much I put it on and put it in my shirt and turned around to see Torah looking at me
“I can’t find them, maybe there was something that came up and they went to check it out.” I said as I went to the kitchen and looked at the vide screen but there was no sight of an intruder. “Come on maybe they went for a walk” the security system will only show up an intruder if they have a gear or saddle on and my parents dragon don’t have either so they wouldn’t show up on the vide screen.
“Come on let’s go.” I jumped on the saddle and put on my helmet and we rode off.
“Were should we look first the main floor or under ground?”
She made her dragon sound that said for me to look down {//look down//}
So I did there was there foot print’s there foot print’s “Good eye they went this way and down!” So we went and followed the foot prints they went all over the place left right the back up another ramp now they were on the main floor “Where do you think they were going?” I asked her trying to keep an eye for them,
{//I don’t know.//}she replied to me as we rounded a corner. We flowed the prints up and they turned right then we slide to stopped and I jumped off it was the back door I looked at the print’s that went out side I walked to the door and looked out there was nothing but junk, hill’s and trees I could smell the fresh air I haven’t smelled it for along time I just wanted to run out and enjoy my self but I knew I couldn’t I have a job to do. I looked at Torah, she had a look on her face that said it all she was in shock. “Umm they will be back, don’t worry.”
I didn’t know that but I had to tell here something she put here head down and a wave of sadness came over us there were like parent’s to me when my parent disappeared the took care of me it was hard at first cause I didn’t talk or understand dragon and they didn’t speak English but after awhile I started to catch on and I started to learn to speak dragon now I can do it naturally like English well not so much on speaking but I under stand 99.9% of the time. “Come on I am hungry lets get lunch.” Nothing no reaction to food that was a first for her .so I got on and went back to our place it wasn’t big but not small it was big enough for a mask keeper yes my parent’s protected the mask until the disappeared, from then on I took care of it well me and Torah , my parent’s dragon would stand by and be back up but nothing has happened since then so we just practiced I got off and she mage off the saddle and placed it on the rack, “Do you want your lunch the regular slop, dragon olla bar’s ,or the last candy bar? And if you want I wont put any supplement in it” she just groaned and flopped on the floor
“Come on just because your parent’s left doesn’t mean you can give up maybe they just went to look around.” She looked at me and turned around I couldn’t stand it I had tried every thing I could think of and still she wouldn’t listen to me “well at least you know that your parent’s are still alive.” I yelled at her and ran off to my room and flopped on my bed and cried on my pillow I didn’t like to yell at her but I couldn’t contain my self then I could feel her nudging me I turned to her and I wiped my tears .
“I m sorry girl I didn’t mean to scrape your scales.”
{//its ok I didn’t mean to be that way I never thought how you would feel and yeah at leased I know there still alive. //}She said trying to comfort me
“Well I forgive you.” I said rapping my arm’s around her neck
{// Me to. //}She said pressing her head ageneses my back
“Well should we get some lunch?” I said stepping back so I could see her face. Her face lit up
{//Yes definitely I am starving!!//}
“You’re always starving.” I laugh as we went to the kitchen I pushed the button and her feed came down then I went and started to get my lunch ready.
{//aren’t you forgetting something? //}she said twisting her head with a smile
“Not that I know of.” I tried to think of what she meant
{//my supplement’s you know I need them if I want to be in tip top shape. //} she laugh
“I thought you didn’t like your supplements.”
{//well to tell you the truth I love it! It tasted like a candy bar.//}her tong flopped out and she started to drool
“Ok you think that and no more fitting with me ok?”
{//Ok now put some in... hurry up//}
“Keep your scales on.” So I went to the cupboard and, and got the supplement and put some in her dish she is the strangest dragon I have ever seen. Then went and ate my lunch.12:55

Chapter 4

1:00
Penn crew
Narrator
“Well that was good.” Artha said as he leaned back into beau and put his hands behind his head,
Kitt looked at him and said “don’t get to comfortable stable boy we still have a job to do.”
Lance gobbling his food up said with a full mouth “yeah the faster we get this done the faster we can go home and play battle ground dragon.” He swallowed his last bite then throwing his arms up in the air acting as if he just won for beating Parmon at an eating race,
Artha turned to his brother “is that all you think about?”
Lance looked at Artha as if asked him if he was a girl “no I think about lot’ of stuff like eating and racing and…”
Parmon knowing that lances list could go on fore ever cut in “Lance is right I was working on that Gear and I would like to finish soon before your Race tomorrow.”
Artha looked at his brother and his friend then stood up “fine let’s go.”
he stretched and turned to beau “come on Beau time to get up we have a job to do and some people are in a rush.” He said looking at Lance and Parmon who sunk down where they were sitting,
they got on there dragon’s and went over the hill, when they got to the top they could see the front door Parmon pulled out his binocs and looked round,
“Oh no Mooredryd and Cain are there but they just pulling out there candy bar so we may have a chance to get in before they do come on”
But when he turned away from his binocs they weren’t there they hade taken off down the hill to the back of the temple when they got to the bottom the waited for Parmon out of sight of Mooredryd and Cain.
When Parmon got to them they creped to the back of the temple, Parmon looked at the map and said “The map say’s the door should be right there.” He said pointing at something not far a head of them And sure enough there it was
Artha smiled and looked at Parmon “good woke professor you did it.”
“yeah good work parmesan.” Kitt said teasing him,
Parmon shook his head and said “I told you it’s not parmesan it’s Parmon”
Artha looked at the door “well are we going in?”
Kitt turned to him “well of course we have a job to do stable boy.”
“you know the stable boy thing it‘s getting annoying today.” He said to her going in.

In the temple( sarina)
Alarms start to go off this has never happened since that night long ago we both stopped eating “Torah where’s the remote?” I said to her starting to panic
{//In your room.//}she said quickly
I jumped off the stool and ran down the hall to my room I looked around there it was on my head board on my bed I grabbed it and ran to the kitchen and hit one of the buttons that turned on the cameras it zoomed in so I could see who it was. There was 4 people one with a green bull class dragon, and a 2 legged red dragon ,a small blue ,white ,and yellow dragon ,and the last one was the same size as Torah but he was blue, red, and a strip of white separating the other two colors.
“Let’s go down there and see what they want.” I said to torah
{//yeah let use what we learned and make our parents proud.//}she said moving toward the saddle rack.
She was so over dramatic some times but then she can be so real. She mage the saddle on I put my helmet and we took off down the halls and we went under ground to were they were last saw them I flowed them from under gowned and I could here what they were saying through the vent’s Torah by accident hit a rock The bleu and red dragon heard Torah and he snarled, His rider (Artha) new his dragon was on to something and he asked him “what is it beau is there some one out there?”
his dragon shook his head yes looking around and listening .
Note to self: that dragon’s name is Beau,
“Well who ever it is well tack care of him then we will go to the mask room.” he said to his crew and his dragon
Well it is one thing to say that he was going to take care and call me a guy and that another thing to say that they were going to the mask room. I whispered to Torah trying not to be herd by them “let’s go and give them a piece of our mind and show them that they can’t have the mask!”
{//Right.//}she tried her best to whisper
So we took off running turning to get to the closeted up ramp to cut them off. We went up and then we were on the same level as them,
“Ok, there right beyond this corner on my count 3...2…1now.”
We jumped out and torah did her pose and made a lowed roar that she hade been practicing I shook my head to my self, the rider that I heard plotting pulled out his blocking staff and his dragon mage him in the air and took a whack at me but Torah mage me I flipped and twirled in the air and I hit him right off his dragon mage beam and in to the wall his dragon snarled at me saying
{//You leave him alone.//}
I don’t care what his dragon hade to say but I will do what ever it takes to keep the mask out of the wrong hands, now for my intro,
“I m Sarina the mask keeper leave now or do you want another taste?”
I said twirling my blocking staff then holding it in attack mode again,
“No I don’t need another taste I am good, but I am not leaving.” He said getting up and walking to his dragon “I am here to help you.”
“How do I know that? I said gripping the staff harder
He looked at the others they nodded then he reaches in his racing jacket and pulls out a amulet and puts it in his gauntlet then there was a big flash of light I hade to turned away the light was almost like a flash stick but it only happened once when I could see again he wasn’t the same he hade armor on and his dragon turned from red, blue, and white to black and gold I didn’t know if that should mean some thing so I asked,
“It isn’t Halloween, or is this supposes to mean some thing to me?”
he looked at me like I was crazy,
“Don’t you know? I am the Dragon Booster!”
“Dragon Booster?” that name ring’s a bell
“Yeah haven you heard of me?”
Dragon Booster I can remember reading some thing like that in one of my book’s
“Well kind of I thought it was just a story.”
“Oh err … well I see... well we are here to help you.”
He pulled out the amulet and attached back on to the main piece and turned back to the racer form and so did his dragon,
I don’t know if I should believe him but in the stories I read he saved the world so… I guess I will,
“I am so sorry about that I was just doing my job, come with me I will get you some ice to put on your face.”
Ok now I feel really dumb I hit the Dragon Booster on the side of the face I don’t feel like a hero I feel like a bad guy,
“Oh by the way my name is Artha Penn,”
“Mine is Sarina.”
“Yeah I think I can remember that.”
He said rubbing his cheek,
“so ah.. how come you have such a heard hit?” he asked trying to make conversation
as we started to move thought the maze, “I Practice with Torah she uses her tail and I use me blocking staff I have to keep in shape you know.” I said answering his question
“Yeah.”
“So …what are your names?”
I said looking over my solder to the other three riders
“I am Kitt, and this is Lance and Parmon.” Kitt said pointing to the others. Then we arrived to a spot I hit a button on the wall and the floor near the wall went down making a ramp,
“Well hear we are, go down here.”
“Down there?” Lance asked in a scared voice
“Yeah this is the under ground road it is faster than going thought the maze.”
I said to lance, I went ahead I could tell that Lance was scared,
“So are all of you family?”
Artha looked at them then back to me “Lance is my little bro and Kitt Won and Parmon Shawn there my best friend’s” he said smiling at them
‘Wow I wish I hade friends like them I can see that he trust them a lot’.
Note to self : find friend’s like them.

So we went up and arrived at the door.
“Well hear's home sweet home.”
“There is nothing there.” Artha said looking at what looked to be a wall
Torah mage me off and I went to the wall and pushed something that nobody would think that, that was a button and opened the door they all came in.

Chapter 5

Lance’s eyes opened wide “whoa Drac”
“Yup this is my home.” I said walking in on torah
“Do you live here alone?” Artha said looking around
“Well with Torah and my parents dragon lived here but today they disappear.”
“What about your parents?” lance asked me in a soft kind tone
“Umm I don’t really want to talk about it.” I said as I got off torah and went to the freezer and pulled out some ice and putt them in a little bag
{//Come on you should talk about it. //}She said in her stern kind dragon voice
“Well ok just don’t hit me if I miss some thing ok?”
I turned around to see them Artha leaned over to Kitt and whispered in here ear
“It’s either she hit me on the head really hared and I am seeing thing or she is crazy.”
Beau nudged him and mooned and grunted telling Artha to be nice,
“Ah beau I don’t speak dragon and don’t you dare use your tail.” He said to beau in a stern voice
[If Artha doesn’t think I can do it I will Tran slate it for him what beau say’s],
“He said for you to be nice.”
Artha turned back to me “what?”
Then beau monde and nodded his head,
“He said that, that is what he said.”
Parmon eye’s opened wide “amazing how do you do that?”
“Well I will tell you my story then if you have more questions I will answer them.”
“Ok” They said together and got comfortable,
“Well when I was 9 and my parents were still around we used to go places and visit, well after coming home one day we had just finished our supper and we were just sitting down in the family room when the security started going off, my parents looked at the vide screen the intruder was going thought the maze very fast so they told me to stay here and they took off. but being a kid me and torah followed them the under ground and made it to the mask room I was small at the time and I would go through the vent’s and would watched them there was 2 men and a boy who looked year older than me, my parent’s tried to reason with the man but he wanted the mask so first he used a mage blast’s to try to get them my mom avoided one of them but was hit by the next one..”

I had to stop and breath a lump formed in my throat and tear’s were starting to form behind my eye balls but I went on.
“ she was slammed into the wall and hit the floor and was not moving my dad turned to see if she was ok and he was caught off grad and was slammed in the wall beside my mom and they weren’t moving there dragons went to see if they were ok. So now there was nothing to stand in his way, so the man started to moved closer to the mask I had to do some thing so I opened the vent and went and stood in front of the mask he just laugh at me, it must have been a sight a 9 year old girl trying to stop 2 men and a boy but then Torah came and stood beside me, I felt better but still a little girl and a small dragon at the time wasn’t going to stop him he took another step forward and then my parent’s dragon came and stood next to me he looked amazed, the other man was about to go but he stopped him he turned around and left but before he left he said that he would be back one day I was so happy I had stopped them .” I stopped and looked at torah and she nodded as a tear ran down my face
“But my parent’s…. I went to there sides they didn’t move then my mom‘s dragon took me away but they left my parents and I haven’t seen them since then, so my parent dragon took care of me at first it was hard because I couldn’t speak or under stand dragon and they couldn’t speak English but after awhile I started to recognize some of the sounds that they made and I matched them up to what they were so then I asked them to teach me and well now I know how to under stand dragon. So…do you have any questions?”
“So how old are you?” Parmon asked as he sat up
“15 years for 6 years of my life I have no parent’s…… And how old re you guys?”
“Me and Kitt are 16, Lance is 10, and Parmon is 17.”Artha answered the question
, “So if you were 9 when you disappeared then how do you have clothes that fit you?”
“These were my mom old close.” I said pinching the bottom of my shirt and pulling it out then letting it go. I let out a sigh and let my head droop after thinking how they used to look on her,
“Do you miss them?” Lance asked trying to see my face
“Yeah, alot.”
“Well kind of the same thing happened to me and Artha but then we found out the mortise was our dad hey do you have a dragon priest some where? He gave Artha his gantlet” his voice started out calm and kind then it went to a hyper tone
“Well not that I know of.” I chuckled “But I did find this today.” I said while pulling out my amulet with the dark purple cross,
Then Artha saw mine and pulled out his it was the same but his had a gold star instead of a dark purple cross.

Chapter 6

“Where did you get that?” Artha asked he had an amazed expression on his face
“I found it in a box in my parent’s room why?”
“Well you see ...”
Then the alarm started to go off again,
“What’s that?” Artha asked looking around
“That is the Alarm some one else has entered the temple.”
I said as I ran to the kitchen [2 intruders in one day this can be good] they were coming from the front door.
“Torah where is the remote?”
There it was on the counter where I left it I picked it up and pushed the button and the cameras tried to zoom in but they were running thought the maze fast so they couldn’t get a good view on them ,
“It must be Moordryd and Cain come on let’s go.” Artha as he jumped on beau then took the star off the main piece held it in the air and then shouted
“Release the dragon”
And put it in his gauntlet with a flash of light he was the dragon booster,
“Follow me.” I said grabbing my little computer and jumping on Torah and we look off,
“You guys stay out of sight ok?” Artha said turned around to the others,
“Like always you will be in the light and us in the shadows.” Kitt grumbled
“Well what about Sarina?” Lance said turning to me
“Well she will have to stay out of the way with you guy’s.”
“Hey who is the mask keeper here, I have more of a right to be there than you do so if there is any one who will be in the dark it would be you but I am nicer than you so you can come along because you seem to know more about this Moordryd than me.” I said as I looked back at lance
“Moordryd has been stealing dragons for his father Word Paynn he makes them into his wrath dragon’s he has been trying to make a dragon human war and the mask would make things very easy for him. He has tried to steel beau many times because he is the dragon of legend he has an influence over all dragon’s and if he found out that I have him he would steel him so when your around him or Moordryd and I have the armor on call me dragon booster .”
“Got it. Turn here… Torah mage me” She mage me and I pushed the button and the ramp was made and we went under ground,
“Slow down…... Ok you guy’s go that way and you will find the mask chamber the floor is a very sturdy glass it’s tinted so we wont be able to see you, but you can see us .”
They went left and we went straight then Torah mage me again and I hit the button another button and we went up we went left and we were in the mask room I pulled out my computer and looked at it I could see too red dot’s retting closer,
“There almost here.” I said looking at Artha than at the screen I put it away I could hear them now coming down the hall I could feel Torah tense up ,we pulled out our blocking staff we were getting ready to do what ever it tacks to protect the mask if Word get it who know what will happen to the world. Then they came around the corner and stopped and looked at us, he looked very familiar
“Look it’s the dragon booster and…. It’s you.” a white haired guy
Artha looked at me I looked back at Moordryd I didn’t know what he was talking about then a picture came in to my mind that night long ago it was of that boy ,Moordryd he was the kid who was there when my parent’s disappeared.

Chapter 7

“It you!” I said squeezing the staff,
“You know him I thought you didn’t?” Artha asked turning to me
“Well I didn’t know his name but he is the one who was there when my parent’s disappeared.”
I glared at him,
“It is you.” He looked surprised looking over me seeing if I was real Torah looked at him and growl,
“You know her?” Cain asked with a confused look on his face
“Yeah a long time ago me and my father came here for the mask my father took out her parent’s but this weakling stood in his way and now she is still here.” Moordryd explaining to his friend
“Weakling who are you calling a weakling?” I asked him in a surprised voice and angry voice
“You!” he said pointing to me
“Me? Why are you calling me weakling?”
“Because you can’t take care of a little old mask by your self and you had to call up the dragon booster,” he said in a sarcastic voice,
I just wanted to mage off of torah and go and just hit him but I had to breath and calm down when I was growing up my parent’s dragon’ taught me to be calm and only fight when threatened or practicing and to never show your weakness, and in this case it was my weakness was parent’s disappearance and he knew it he was just waiting for me to blow my top and fight with hatred but when you do that you have no chance to win, so I must keep calm,
“No that’s not the case at all you see this afternoon just before you got here he came to because he heard that you were coming and he thought he would come and wait here with me because he wanted to say hello.”
“Hello Moordryd.” He said as he waved to him with a smile
Moordryd smile went away “Well now that you said hi to me dragon blunder you can leave.” He said in a deep evil voice
“Well I think I will stay since you were so nice to Me.” he said with a smile
To tell you the truth I liked having Artha and his friends around I don’t think I would have been able to do this on my own,
“Well since you insist on staying we will have to deal with the both of you.”
He said as they pulled out there blocking staff I looked at Artha and he looked back at me
“Get ready Torah.”
I whispered to here,
Moordryd “Now deception!”
then his dragon mage him off then he started to run towards us I looked at torah what was he crazy I could get him with my eye’s closed but I knew there had to be something up ,
“I will take on Paynn you keep your eye’s on Cain and Coershun.”
I looked at Cain who was sitting there on his dragon not knowing what to do, or was that just a cover up? That was another thing the dragon’s taught me is to never trust the color of a dragon’s scales like my mom’s dragon she had something in here blood lines that is very rear she has shape shifter so she could change shape or color and nobody would know, she got it from her mom so torah probably has it to, so I will keep my eye’s on Cain.
As I watched Artha and Moordryd fight and Beau was backing deception in a corner when I heard something coming I looked just in time to duck out of the way of some green trapping gear that Cain fired but Artha wasn’t so lucky ha was so caught up with Moordryd that he never noticed the one that was fired at him and was pined to the wall trying to get free then I looked at Cain just to see him fire another one at beau and now he was up on the wall’s , I looked at Moordryd and he smiled at me as he ran to the mask then I heard Cain fire another one at me this time I hit it back at him and now he was on the wall and out of my way ,
“Come on I have to get to Moordryd to stop him,”
Torah nodded and mage me as far as she could then I flipped and landed about 5 feet in front of him I pull my blocking staff and got ready, he stopped and burst out laughing what was so funny did he not think I could do it?
“You think you can stop me the great Moordryd Paynn, ha you maybe could convince my father to stop But I have a job to do.”
He said steeping forward I lowered my blocking staff I know with that small thinking he wouldn’t get any wears so I waited then he came charging then I raised my staff and hit him right into the wall ,
Cain looked at me then to Moordryd then said “Great a girl that is stronger and smarter than both of us.” banning his head into the wall behind him.
Moordryd shook his head and got up and charged at me again what did he not have enough? This time he had hatred in his eye’s he ran and jumped thinking that, that could stop me he ran and once again he met the wall,
“You have done pretty well for being on your own.” He said as he stood up again he looked at me and smile.
I must keep calm I looked to Torah she hadn’t heard she was trying to get Artha free with here tail and was trying to keep Deception and coershun away it’s hard enough with out them getting away so I was on my own now I must keep calm he knew how to get under my skin and he was trying so hard to get to me,
“So how has it been living alone for six years? It must be hard to do this all on your own”
Ok he is starting to get to me,
“So Moordryd how dose it feel to be beat twice by a girl?” that was a good come back and it made me feel better
Then his smile went away but then it came back so fast I didn’t know what to expect,
“I bet you weren’t expecting this.” He dropped his staff sent a mage pulse to me and through me in to the wall, where I hit some of the wall fell on the floor with me almost every bone in my body was throbbing my head hurt but I cant let him have the mask so I stood up grabbing my staff I knew how to do that ( mag pulse)the dragon’s taught me how to that but they said that I shouldn’t use it until know how to control it better,
“So you want another taste?”
“Where have I heard that before?” Artha said trying to escape from the trap gear
I smiled through all the pain at that,
“Wow you are really stupid to get back up.”
No I was smart but he just didn’t see it yet, as he got ready for the next and so did I.

Chapter 8

This time he did 2 mage pulses one from each hand I was ready for the first one he sent I jumped and did a summer salt in the air when I landed I didn’t have time to jump again and I was hit in to the wall once again the wall crumbled with me,
this time Torah saw and she pulled the trapping gear off Artha, who fell then got up fast and he went to Beau and took the gear off of him so he could help torah with Deception and Coershun,
“You not that bad kid,” He said chuckling, “To bad you were too stupid and got up.”
Ok I had enough with all my strength I had I got back up I felt like I was going to fall back down,
“My name is Sarina and I am not stupid you are the one who is stupid and has come here.” I said tacking a deep breath,
Torah looked at me and roared long and loud and then I had all the energy I needed I stepped forward and I looked at Moordryd , he looked surprised that I still had the energy to get up,
“Fine then if that is the way you want it then so be it.”
he put his hands out and looked to the sky then he glowed black I knew he was getting ready to do another one this time I must trust me senses and not my eye’s now he started to send mage beam’s one after the other I flipped and jumped dodging his every attempt to get me [I did not feel like seeing the wall again] I pulled out my staff ran up the wall on the side’s and got to where Moordryd was and hit him not as hard as before but hard enough to make him fall he shook out of it and yelled at me ,
“You stupid girl you never should have done that.”
He pulled out his blocking staff and took a wake but I pulled mine up and blocked it but then he flipped it out of my hands witch made me fall onto the floor then lifted his staff in the air and as about to bring it down on me when Artha grabbed the other end,
“Didn’t you mother tell you never to hit a girl?”
Then he wiped it around throwing Moordryd into the wall then he knelt down,
“Are you ok?” He said standing up and giving me a hand up,
“Yeah I think so.”
then Moordryd got up and came running now the fight was with them, I looked passed Moordryd I could see Kitt just out side the door way she had green trap gear I looked at Torah and nodded she smiled and went to Cain and got close to his face so he turned away thinking torah might try to do something to him then I nodded to Kitt who fired the trap gear and hit Deception and Coercion so now Beau and Torah could come and help us I nodded to Kitt and then she left so that she wouldn’t be seen around the Dragon Booster . Then our dragon’s came running Moordryd turned and had to jump out of there way,
Torah came and saw if I was ok, Moordryd turned to see his dragon pined to the wall then used his mage energy and started to take off the trap gear I looked at Artha and he took out his jack stick and hit Moordryd and he fell, He got up and turned to us then without warning I felt something hit us it was like a wall that hit us and we went flying into the wall and I blacked out. when I came to I tried to get up but I couldn’t move my left foot when I opened my eye’s there was a large pile of rock’s on my foot I tried to move some of the rock but they wouldn’t budge I looked to my left and there was Artha laying on the floor not moving.

Chapter 9

Picture flashed in my head of my parents laying on the floor in that same spot, and they were not moving.
then I looked at Moordryd he had the mask and was taking the trap gear off of Coercion, they had Beau with control gear he was probably going to bring him to his father, I looked to my right and there was Torah ling there she looked at me,
“Torah.” Whispered as I looked back at Moordryd making sure he didn’t hear me
“Come here and help me.”
She looked at Moordryd then to me she crawled a crossed the floor to me she must have gotten hurt , when she got to my side she pushed the rocks off of my foot,
“Thanks girl.”
She nodded slowly,
“Do you think you could get me over there?”
She nodded again so I grabbed the saddle and pulled my self on my foot hurt so I couldn’t put weight on it.
And we steered her to where Moordryd was,
“Ok mage me.”
And she did I got right up behind decption and started to pull the mask, I almost got it when, Cain turned around and saw me
“Look out Moordryd.” He yelled pointing at me
Moordryd turned round to see me pulling the mask out of his saddle bag,
“You just never give up do you?” He said stepping towards me,
I pulled out the mask and clutched in my arms,
“No I never give up because I will do what ever it takes to keep the mask safe.”
He looked at me with his evil eye’s I looked at torah we had to get out of there , she maged me back and placed me in the saddle .
so I steered her to the door and we took off we almost made it to the door then I herd behind me a crack then torah stopped I turned to see Moordryd had a energy drain whip on her and here energy was already down and with a energy drain whip she wouldn’t stand a chance I looked at her draconium levels and they were going down quickly and she started to go down slow and then she fell I looked at him he just smiled and shook his head and pulled the whip off of her and started to come to get the mask ,when torah jumped up smiled at him and took off in the maze this was a first for me I looked at her draconium energy and it was still down this was supposed to be imposable! I could see that she was very tiered but she kept on going pushing here self to her limits’ as I looked behind me I could see Moordryd coming up fast he was using red thruster gear that was something I didn’t have ,
“Come on torah let’s lose this jerk.”
{//yeah I won’t let any thing happen to you Sarina.//}
So she turned sharp I pulled out my little computer, to see where he was I couldn’t see him behind me so I pushed a button and it turned on I saw where he was he had a made a wrong turn so I put it away and went under gowned we went left, right and a another right and where Artha friend’s were I could see there were worried about Artha I was to,
“Kitt catch this, I will go get Artha.”
I tossed her the mask and I turned torah so quick she almost fell over, then we took off and went to the nearest ramp that Moordryd was far away from I hit the button and we went up and back to the Mask room I looked around Beau was gone I looked where Cain was and he was gone too Moordryd must have got him and his dragon down before he left I got down and limped over to where Artha was he moved he was still alive that was a relief he came too and looked around,
“Come on we have to get Beau from Moordryd and Cain.” He said trying to get up I could tell he was in pain,
“I will get him you go with Kitt and them.” I was no better than him but it was my fault Moordryd had him
, “No Beau is my responsibility you shouldn’t have to …”He let out a yell of pain,
“The Mask is my responsibility but you are helping me so I want to return the favor.”
He smiled at me then I helped him up it was hard since he was on the side of my hurt foot I almost fell over but I kept my balance, we went to torah and we got on, me in the front and him in the back and we took off I pulled out my computer back out and saw where they were they were almost out of the temple, that was probably why he made the wrong turn he went back to the mask room and went to get Cain and Beau!

Chapter 10

We went under gowned and we went as fast as we could to the next ramp the lead to the door if they took a left we could beat them to the entrance but if they went right we wouldn’t get there in time I looked t the computer there were at the turn and we weren’t even close the that ramp and torah was going as fast as she could go,
“You have to release the dragon and Torah can do any thing.” Artha said, it didn’t really make sense to me
Artha, “you have to believe and release the dragon, release the dragon.” He started to chant,
Could she? I never thought about that so I closed my eyes,
“Release the dragon, release the dragon, releases the dragon.”
I could fell torah get faster and faster I opened my eye’s to see every thing blur by me I looked at the computer we were almost there but going this fast how are we going to be able to opened the ramp? And I don’t know how to slow down,
“Artha how are we going to opened the gate?”
“I will handle that but I will need Torah’s help.”
“Ok tell me how.” I said I turned around to see and hear him better
“Will need to use some of here mage energy.”
“But she is almost out.”
“Trust me,” he said in a serious voice
“Ok do what you have to do.”
“Tells Torah to relax and let me find here mage energy stream.”
“I think she can her you.”
“Right.” he said rolling his eyes
Then I could tell torah relaxed and took deep breaths and Artha closed his eyes then they started to glow dark purple then he found here mage stream and used it to open the ramp without slowing down we made it to the entrance and torah came to a sliding stop she was exhausted steam came from here scales ,
“You did good girl.”
“No she did great.” He said smiling thru his mask
torah turned her head slightly then she putt her head down so that we could get off as soon as we did she twisted her head so that she could see her side I limped over and looked at her side I saw that she had hit the wall really hard and had scraped here scales I felt so bad for here I could feel her pain
“are you ok girl?” she nodded I could tell that was not what she was thinking though Then the gowned started to shake I almost fell over but Torah garbed me I pulled out my staff and leaned on it so that I wouldn’t fall over, it got worse and worse so the must be getting closer,
Artha looked at me “Get ready.” He said pulling out his staff he grabbed his side he looked in deep pain but he pulled him self together and standing up straight then they came around the corner and slid to stop,
“Well if it isn’t the dragon booster.”
Cain looked at him then at me “how did you get here before we did?”
“Give me back my dragon Paynn!” Artha said not paying any attention to what Cain said
“Well you know what you want and you know that my father wants this dragon and he is going to get It.” he said it was kind of confusing
“Not if I can help it.” I said moving closer to him to tell you the truth I did not know what I was doing I just had to do something,
“And what are you going to do bout it?” he asked chuckling to him self
Well I don’t know what I was going to do but I had to think of a plan fast I looked over head and rite over them was a tube that had Torah’s food in it I think but they weren’t right under it I had to get them closer I think I have a plan have a plan I looked at torah and she looked up then she knew what I was thinking first she mage me closer to Moordryd,
“This will be easy.” He said as I limped over closer to them.
First I had to get them where I was then I had to get Torah to break the pipe then I would run and get beau but the problem is getting the here where I was standing but how?

Chapter 11

“Moordryd are you afraid of losing to a girl?” I asked him
“No why would you think that?” he said seeming little confused
“Oh because you are just standing there not doing any thing to get away.”
Ok that was the worst excuse ever but I think I am getting to him
I could see him muttering something to his dragon then it maged him off and he walked towards me I lifted my staff and he pulled out his then Cain and his dragon followed him then Moordryd took a swing at me I jumped and landed on the wrong foot the pain traveled up my leg then he tried again but I just blocked it pushing back on his staff,
“Your parents were weak and so are you.” He said smiling
That did it, it’s one thing to call me names but my parent’s that was another thing I pulled my staff away and hit him he fell but then swung his staff and hit my foot I started to fall then he tripped me and I fell on my knees then he sprang to his feel and hit me in the back that did it for me I fell, I felt that he had broke something and all my energy was darning out of me, I started to cry I had failed my parent’s and now my new friend, I could sense Moordryd hovering over me,
“I guess I was right you’re weak.” He said walking away
Anger started to fill me but I had no strength to stand so I lay there. Then I started to here voices a familiar voice but who... its Lance he was speaking thought the helmet communicator,
“Sarina don’t give up I believe you can do this come on you have to get up please.” His voice pleaded but I had no energy to get up, “My dad once told me that there is a hero in all of us I believe you are a hero and I know you will make your parents proud.”
He was right I have a job to do even though I may fall or get hurt but I have to stop them I opened my eye to see deception pulling beau along I looked to see Artha sitting ageneses the wall with his arm on his side torah was trying to tend to him.
I have to do this so I started to stand I stopped for a moment the but kept going I had to stop them I didn’t want there to be a dragon human war so I stood up by now they were almost under the pipe so I limped over to beau and deception and started to take off the control gear,
“Beau don’t move I am here to help you.”
He turned his head to see me.
As they kept moving I tried to keep up with my limping, I moved up to the trap gear that they were using to hall him,
“Ok beau when I take off the trap gear I want you to start walking.” I said whispering to him he nodded so I new that he got what I meant so I went to the one on his right side and took it off and like on cue he started to walk so that it wouldn’t put strain on the trap gear on the left side, then Beau maged me up and over him to the other one I twisted it and it came off Beau stopped and sat me on his back I went to my COM link and tuned in Artha signal,
“Artha come in.”
“Who is this?” he asked
“It’s me Sarina tell torah to mage the pipe loose now!”
he turned to torah and told her she glowed dark purple then sent a mage burst and hit the pipe Moordryd and Cain looked up to see a pile of dragon sloop falling and they had no time to move and it fell on them now that was a funny sight they looked down on them self and tried to shake the dragon food off of them. Then they looked up at Torah she was laughing at him,
“Laugh it up dragon breathe you may still have the mask but I have the dragon of legend.” He started to do an evil laugh
I whistled and he turned around,
“I think you’re wrong.”
He had an evil look on his face and then took off,
“You haven’t heard the last of me Sarina.” He said looking back at us,
“Now that is a picture I would of liked to have Moordryd and Cain covered in sloop.” He said laughing.
Beau walked over to Artha I jumped off and once again landed on my bad foot,
“Ouch!” I said grabbing my foot now I just don’t have a hurt foot I have a sore back to,
“Let’s get you back to your place I will get Parmon to check your foot.” Artha said in a worried tone I don’t know why he’s in worse shape than me.
Torah came and bent down to let me on and we went to get the other’s when we got to the dome that they were in under the mask room Kitt saw Artha holding his side,
“Artha are you ok?” she said moving Wyldfyr Closer to Artha and Beau,
“Yeah I ok I was wearing the armor so it will probably be just a bruise but Sarina took a pretty bad hit, Parmon I want you to take a look at her foot.”
Ok now what a bad hit that is ‘Parmon can you take look at her foot?’ what dose he think I’m a glass doll? Kitt looked at me with a funny face that was like are you serious?
“Well let’s go.” He said turning beau towards my place and took off I just took it slow for torah she hasn’t had this much excitement for a long while and she was tiered just then lance pulled up beside me,
“Thanks I knew you could do it.” He smiled at me
“No problem I got a question for you how did you know that I was down and how did you find out how to contact me?”
“I went thought the vent’s and Parmon showed me how to tape in to tings like that.”
“Drake.” I said moving along
“So are you hurt that bad?” He looked at me waiting for me to answer his question,
and then Torah nodded her head to answer the question. But I m not that bad I mean yeah I hurt all over but still I am not that bad.

As we walked to my place we caught up with the others and we went though the lower half of the temple and we arrived to the ramp out side my place and I hit the button and the ramp came down and we went up I looked to my left to and that is where Artha was he looked at me and smiled then he pulled out his amulet and went back to racer mode then I looked to my right and that is where Kitt was ,and well she looked mad and then she turned away with here head in the air,
When we arrived at the door Torah mage me to the knob and I hit it and the door open and we went in, Torah walked in and mage me on one of the stools so that Parmon could look at my foot I could have got off her my self but she wouldn’t let me and I had to deal with it so I sat there and got comfortable. Kitt got off of her dragon and went and sat on the couch slumped over and crossed her arms then lance got off his dragon and went and sat next to her then Parmon and Artha got off at the same time Artha went to the wall and leaned on it while Parmon came and took a look at my foot.

Chapter 12

“Well I don’t think it’s broken just a really bad sprain.” He finished rapping up my foot and got he stood up,
“I didn’t know you knew first aid! When did you learn?” Kitt asked with a sum what surprised look on her face
“My mom and I went for the course at the same time.” He explained to her
I started to get up Parmon looked at me and said “you should keep off of that for a while and keep Ice on it to keep it from swelling.”
So I sat back down I want to know more about them and what they do for fun in dragon city,
“So what do you guys do in dragon city?” Well that didn’t come out how I planed but I think they got what I meant,
“Your looking at the best dragon racers in Dragon city!!” Lance said wrapping his arm around Kitt and point’s to Artha,
“So you guy race?!”
“Yeah I just love it, at first I didn’t think I would have done to good but now I m a pro!” He said with a smile and nodded,
“Yeah at first you were a total loser *ha-ha*” He fell on the floor laughing at Artha first race .Artha looked at him and shook his head,
“Yup that was a funny one.” Kitt said laughing,
“You should have seen it Sarina.” Lance said while gasping for air between laughs
“Yeah I guess it was a little funny.” Artha said starting to laugh and putting his finger’s together leaving a small space between them then he smiled at me Kitt saw that and went back to being mad,
“So what about you Kitt do you race?” I said trying to get her to talk to me,
“Yeah, Wyldfyr and me are the best racer out there.” She said pointing to her dragon. I stood up and pulled out my blocking staff then limped over to see her dragon when I got to her Wyldfyr put her head down and let me pet her,
“She is a beautiful dragon! Is she fast?”
“Well of course 2 legged dragon’s re faster than 4 and she is the fasted of them all.” She said smiling at her dragon but then she looked at me and went back to being mad she must not like me,
“How dose it fell to race?” I asked wanting to know more
“You mean you never raced before?” Artha asked with surprise on his face
“No my parent’s didn’t want me to.”

Flash back
We had arrived at my grand father’s stable I loved it there and to day was the day we came to visit. It was a very big place and it was beautiful place we went to the stables and that’s where we found my grand father looking at his practice arena,
“Grandpa!” I said running to him,
He turned around to see his grand daughter running as fast as she could with here dragon not far behind her when I got to him he lifted me in to the air and swung me around,
“There my favorite grand daughter!!” He said putting me back on the ground, “Do you want to see who’s racing today?” He said getting down on his knee to be eye level with me,
“Yes, yes!” I said jumping up and down,
“Well then come on.” He said tacking my hand and leading me to the rail where a dragon and his rider was racing round and around the practice track the dragon was going so fast I couldn’t tell who it was,
“Who is it?”
“That is Blazer.” He replied with a smile
“I thought you said he would never be able to race after his accident?!”
“Well he got better that stuff I told you to do for him the last time you were here, well after that he keep getting stronger and better and then the vet came and said he was well enough to race again.”
“Can I race torah?”
“Sure you can.”
That when my mom came to our side,
“No she can’t Dave she is……” She turns to me and smile,
“Umm why don’t you go and see Rita.”
Rita was my grand father’s old brood dragon she was his best she gave him egg’s every year when he first got her he wasn’t sure she would work out because he didn’t know her bone color but then when he breed her with and blue bone dragon when the egg hatched he was pure blue dragon and that happened with every breed of dragon when it would hatch it would be pure.
So I went to her stall witch was just around the corner I hit the switch that opened the door and went in she was at the back of the stall laying down when I walked in she looked at me and got up and walked over to greet me and nuzzled my hair it tickled. Then I looked to my left where there was a small crack in the wall where the light was coming in I walked over to it I could hear and see my parent’s and grand father fighting,
“Her cant race she is the chosen one you all know that!”
“Yes we know but cant the child have a little fun fore once she is cooped up in the temple all the time I figure she should be allowed to. And she is really good at it.”
“Well maybe she is but if she thinks that and hears that from other people she will want to do that when she gets older and that would mean not fulfilling her…”
Then Rita comes and nudges me to see if I have any treats and I gave her half of my candy bar.
End of flash back

Artha “Really wow my dad wanted me to be a racer but I didn’t want to.”
“Really I always wanted to race after they disappeared I started to race my parent’s dragon’s but me and torah always won I think they let me so it wasn’t fun.”
“Well you should come to dragon city with us and you could enter a race with us.”
“But I don’t have any gear.”
“Well you can borrow some from us.”
“well she‘s not using any of my gear!” Kitt said in a stern snappy voice
“Come on Kitt you have to be nice.”
“No she is right I wouldn’t want to break anyone’s gear and I can’t go I have to stay here so there would be no point.” I cut in I didn’t want a fight
“Well if you could come out one day you could use some of mine.” He said with a smile I smiled back to be kind,
“Thanks.”
Kitt saw and turned away,
Then I heard a noise something I never heard before I looked around to see Lance looking at his stomach,
“What’s wrong lance?”
“Nothing but I am hungry.”
“That’s no surprise.” Kitt muttered to her self in a sarcastic voice,
“Why don’t I make you guy’s some supper it’s not often that I have company so I make something special what do you think?”
“Yes!!” lance said jumping up
“That’s ok with me what a bout you guy’s?” he said looking to the other’s
“Sound’s good to me.” Parmon answered in a kind voice
Kitt “I thought you wanted to get home to play battle ground dragon Lance and you wanted to finish Arthas gear Parmon?” I don’t think she wants to stay but I guess it’s up to the group,
“Well I do want to tweak caliper and attached the….”
“Do you want to stay or not?” Artha cut in
“Why not I can do that later.”
“And I can play any time besides I m almost done and dad won’t buy me the new one until the stables are finished.” He said folding his arms,
“So it’s steeled then.” Artha said turning around to see me
“Ok I will start cooking!”
“We’ll help out to.” Artha said moving to the counter
“We will?” Kitt asked
“Yeah!!” Lance jumped

Now in dragon city

Dragon eyes
Moordryd and Cain made there way through the city trying not to be seen by the other racers it would think small of them if they saw him covered in dragon food. So they made there through the shadows to Moordryd compound when they arrived one of his men at the door approached him and was about to say something to him when Moordryd cut him off,
“Don’t ask” Moordryd said as he and Cain walked in
“No, Moordryd you have a message on your machine.”
Moordryd surprised to here that said “oh thanks”
So Moordryd and Cain went to there room’s and took a shower after that they went and bathed, bedded, and feed there dragon’s then they discussed there plan’s for tomorrow then Moordryd went to his room and went to his mane computer and checked his voice mail when he hit the button the screen turned on and his father came on screen,
“Moordryd when you get back bring the mask to me. And oh we have a visitor.” Then the screen turned off
Moordryd shook his head he knew he couldn’t go see his father now he didn’t have the mask and probably this “visitor” was this new wraith dragon and that could wait. Moordryd went to the kitchen and got something to eat when he was done eating he went to bed because he had a long day ahead of him and he was tiered from fitting with Sarina and the dragon booster.

Back at the temple
We just finished eating our supper (soup ) and now we were eating our desert fruit salad I took a bit of water melon then looked to see the dragons eating there lunch we had three feeder’s Torah’s, Shawnee, and Laurence so the dragon’s had to share Beau and fraction eat out of Laurence Cyrano since he is so big ate by him self at Shawnee and Wyldfyr and torah shared there’s they seemed to get along very well I only wish me and Kitt could get along to and I took another bite lance finished his and pushed his bowl in the center of the table,
“Well I m done.” He said leaning back in his chair and stretching his arm’s out and let out a big yawn,
“Me to, well I would hate to eat and run but we had better get back to peen stables it look’s to me someone had a long.” He said punching lance in the shoulder so they went to there dragon’s and got on and left.
Once again I was alone I went and picked up the dishes and put them in the sink .I sighed ‘I wonder if they will ever come back?’
I went to my room and pulled out my sketch pad and started to draw I wasn’t sure what it was it was an animal one I never see before any were, it was a beautiful creature not like a dragon it had hair down the side of the neck and the tail was the same with long wavy strand’s , you could ride it but not like a dragon you would have to ride on it’s back and you would steer it by putting something in it’s mouth I looked so beautiful but what would I call it? I would have to think about that later *yawn* it’s time for bed I got changed in to my pj’s well my mom’s old ones the top was white with all different color dragon’s and the bottom’s were gray with a red seam I went to the door ,
“Torah I m going to bed.” But first I went to the bath room.

Chapter 13

Penn crew
They had just arrived at Penn stables when Conner came out.
“Where have you been?” Conner asked his son in a stern, worried voice.
“Well, there was someone there, her name is Sarina and she lives there alone. She asked us to stay for supper.” Artha answered his father’s question.
“Oh, I see.” He turned to see Lance almost asleep on Frachsun.
“I want to talk to you dad...”
“After I put Lance to bed, then we can talk.” He said lifting Lance up off of Fracshun. He carried him into the stables.
Kitt still looked a little grumpy. She jumped off of Wyldfyr and followed them into the stables. Parmon and Artha went to the shed to wait for Conner.
“Why don’t you think he told me?” Artha asked in a curious voice.
“Told you what?” Parmon asked, still into his work.
“You saw Sarina’s amulet and dad said that there was only five. But now I find out there’s more ... he started to be more open with me after he told us he was Mortis, but now he’s still keeping secrets from me.” He said, folding his arms as he leaned onto Beau.
“Well maybe he didn’t know! Look.” He said pulling out his digital camera. He turned it on and flipped through the pictures until he got to the one he wanted. He took a wire and plugged it in the camera and plugged the other end in the vidd screen. Then a picture popped up with gold draconium markings and Artha’s face on half.
“What’s that?” He said pointing to the screen.
“It’s the picture I took at the temple when we met Drakkus.”
“Yeah I know. What about it?”
“Well, you see that big head there...” He said pointing at Artha’s head “That covers half of the screen, so who knows what it says behind there.”
“Well he would still know. He didn’t even see that, and he knew about the other colors and armor.”
“Well he did say that he didn’t know much about the crew.”
“Well, yeah, he did say that.”
“So don’t be so hard on him.” He said turning to the vidd screen.
“Don’t be so hard on whom?” Conner asked, walking in the shed.
“Oh, no one.” He said, thinking about what Parmon had said.
“So what did you want to talk to me about?”
“Well, Sarina was telling us about her life and she pulled out an amulet. It was a purple cross she didn’t know what it was.”
“Really? Well I didn’t know that. I’ll have to go to the dragon priests tomorrow to find out about this. But for now, I want you to go to bed. You have a long day tomorrow.” He said as he turned, then left.
“Well I should be getting to bed too.”
He said stretching out his arms and then left the shed to leave Parmon by himself to work on the gear. Artha creeped into the stables and walked past Kitt, who was still awake, but trying to get to sleep. He walked past Lance, who was sound asleep, and took his place next to Beau. He closed his eyes as Beau curled his neck around Artha and set his head in Artha’s lap and went to sleep.

Temple
After my bath I went to my room where Torah was settling in her bed. I stood there for a second. I could feel the air as it was starting to get cold. So I went to the closet and took out three soft, fuzzy blankets and laid them on my bed. I pulled up the rest and slipped in my bed and closed my eyes.
When I opened them I wasn’t in my room. I sat up and looked around the room I was in. It was huge. Big enough to fit a bed, a desk, a dresser and maybe about three dragons comfortably. On the wall there were dragons and racers information of different crews and a vidd screen.
I stood up and left the room. I looked around. There was no one. I went down a hall where there were more rooms, and as I kept walking I ended up in the kitchen /dining room. I went to the door that led out side and looked out. There was no sign of any dragons or riders. But I could see a stable, so I put on a coat that was hanging on the rack and went out to the stable. I walked across the yard, and when I got to the stable I opened the door and went in. It was like no other stable I hade ever seen before. Well, I hadn’t seen a lot of stables, but I’ve never seen one like this before. It was big. When you walked in, there was a hall. And down the hall there were doors that led to the dragon stalls at my grand father’s stable. All the doors were out side.
There were five stalls and on each end there was a small walkway. I went down one when I reached the end of the hall. It went big. I looked on the wall, there was a window and a ramp that led out into a ditch at the bottom. I walked down the hallway and looked in the stalls. In the first three stalls there were bull class dragons and in the next two there was a blue and a red dragon. The blue dragon looked at me and nodded her head for me to turn around, and I did so without knowing there was someone standing there. I couldn’t see who it was.
There was light behind him the man. He handed me a dragon shovel and in a kind voice asked me to clean the stalls. I turned to the blue dragon and she nodded her head again, but this time she pointed to a button. There was one at every window. I hit hers first. Then something opened and dragon manure fell into the little ditch, but where to put it? Then like magic, a purple and yellow two legged dragon came out with a cart attached to it. I started to clean the mess. I did the same to every stall. When I was finally finished, the dragon moved to the closed door and hit a button with it’s nose and it opened. She went out to dump it. I went to the tack room where all the dragon feed, brushes, brooms, and shovels were.
I placed it next to the rest and turned around to see Moordryd Paynn... and I woke up. It’s not that I’m scared of him, it’s well, I wasn’t expecting him. He startled me out of my dream. But that was ok. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to see the rest of that dream.
I looked at my com link.
“7:30.”
I said to myself and I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, but I couldn’t. So I got up and tried to be as quiet as possible. But that’s kind of hard since I had a limp in my step.
The air was cold, so I grabbed one of my fuzzy blankets and wrapped it around me. I made my way to the door, and when I got to the door I turned around and looked at Torah. She was sleeping on her back. She was a rough sleeper just like me, and I went out.

Chapter 14

Dragon Eyes
Moordryd woke up bright and early to get a start on this day. He went to Cain’s room to wake him up. When he opened the door, Cain was talking in his sleep.

“No, no, get away! Run, run!”

Moordryd had to dodge Cain’s flying arms. Then he grabbed him and shook him to wake him up.

“Help! The muhrota’s got me.” He said with his eyes wide open. Taking deep breaths he looked at himself, and then he had a relived look on his face.

“Come on you, yellow bellied newt. We have to get ready.” He said turning around and walking to the door.

“Why did we need to get up this early again?” Cain asked sitting up in his bed.

“Well, we have a race today and I just thought of a way to get rid of all my problems.” He said with a laugh.

“Why? What are you going to do?”

“First, we go to the race. Knowing the stable brats, they will be there too. While the stable brat and I are racing, I want you to kidnap the mini-brat. After the race, meet me at the outskirts of Dragon City. From there we will head to the temple of Lezmark...”

“Great plan up to now. But as soon as we enter the temple, she knows we’re there.”

“That’s why we will use this.” Moordryd held up a black gear.

“Black shadow gear?”

“Yes, black shadow gear! If I am correct, it will shield us so we don’t set off the alarm. And we can sneak in and out without being noticed.”

“Very clever, boss.”

“Yes, very clever, Cain, but we need to do all this without the stable brat finding out. Do you think you could do it?”

“Consider it done.” He said with a smile. Then they left for the gear room to get the black shadow gear and some other stuff that Moordryd could use at the track.

Penn Stables
Everyone was sitting, eating their breakfast when Conner walked in as Mortis. “I’m leaving to go visit the other dragon priests. Artha, I put you in charge of the stable, and don’t forget to watch Lance.”

“Hey, I won’t forget. I have nothing better to do today so it will be a breeze.”

“Don’t forget, stable boy, we have a race today.” Kitt said after taking another bite of her draconee-yum bar.

“Right, well, Parmon can watch him while me and Kitt race. Then after the race we will come home, okay dad?”

Conner stood there thinking. “Well ….okay, but you have to come home right after the race. You have work to do.” He said going to the dragon temple and disappeared.

“Well if we want to get to the race on time we should start getting ready.” She said as she stood up and walked over to Artha. As she grabbed his hand and pulled him up, she smiled at him and he smiled back.

“Artha, do you want to be alone with your girlfriend?” Lance said. He and Parmon snickered to themselves.

“Lance, she’s not my girlfriend.” He said as he turned to his brother, giving him an evil look. Lance, who was sitting next to Parmon, hid behind his older friend. Kitt just shook her head and walked away to the gear shed.

“Will he ever notice me?” She asked her faithful friend, Wyldfyr. Wyldfyr just looked at her rider and nodded, not knowing actually what would happen. But she knew she had to make her happy, and they walked off.

“Do you guys have to embarrass me?” Artha asked his friend and brother.

“It wasn’t me!” Parmon said, pointing to Lance.

“Well, you do like her right?”

“Well, yeah.” Artha said, not sure where Lance’s question was going.

“Well then, she’s your girlfriend.”

Parmon could feel a fight was going to happen, so he jumped in, “Artha, we should get ready for the race.” He said standing up and pulling him away from Lance, who looked like an angel pretending that he had done nothing.

As Parmon and Artha walked out of the stable, Artha asked Parmon, “What am I going to do with him?”

“You are going to do nothing. He’s just a kid, he was teasing you.”

“Yeah well, he is always scraping my scales. I wish he wouldn’t be around.”

“Be careful what you wish for.” Parmon said as he entered the shed.

Artha stopped, “what’s that supposed mean?”

Parmon, who was in the shed, said, “well...” but he was cut off by Kitt.

“Artha, can I use your spare level three red thruster?”

Artha, getting his mind back on the race, replied “yeah, okay. So what gear should I use at this race professor?”

Parmon stood there for a minute and pulled out his computer and started to press some buttons, then said, “well, there will be quick turns, so you will need blue turning gear. Umm, there will be a track cut, so white areo, and a few straight aways, so thruster. And on the mag racks we will have on hand green bashing and white repel.”

“Sounds good to me, professor.” Artha said, heading to the mag rack and searching for the gear he needed.

“Artha, let me do that and you go practice with Beau.” Lance said as he came in.

Artha heard his brother’s offer. Knowing Lance he never wants to work, so in suspicion he asked his brother why. “Well that’s nice of you, but why would you want to do work?”

“Because you need the practice. You stink at racing.” Lance said bursting out laughing.
This time Kitt could hardly stop her self from laughing.

“That does it.” Artha said jumping at Lance and was about to land on him when Beau magged Artha right out of thin air. He landed him in the saddle. Artha just shook his head and him and Beau left to the practice track with Kitt.

“Why can’t he leave me alone for once?” He said urging Beau to go forward.

“Don’t be so hard on the kid. One of these days, you won’t have him around and you will miss him.” Kitt said catching up with him.

“That will be the day.” Artha said, rolling his eyes.

“Come on stable boy, we have to practice.” She said pushing her controller forward and leaving Artha and Beau in the dust.

After their practice, they meet Lance and Parmon at the race track. “How did the practice go?” Parmon said, rolling one of the gear racks in the tent.

“It was a good warm up for me and Wyldfyr, what about you stable boy?” She said smiling at him. Artha just shook his head for his answer and they went to the Penn stables tent. They got their dragons ready for the race.

Dragon Eyes
Moordryd and Cain were standing at their crew tent, watching the Penn kids. “You were right boss, they’re right on time.” He said turning to Moordryd.

“Now you have to get in place and wait for the mini-brat to come into our trap.” He said as if he were grabbing something.

At the starting line
“All racers approach the starting line,” Race Marshal Budge came on the large vidd screen. “Welcome competitors to the fifth annual dragon tag competition.” Everyone applauded and cheered. “Sponsored by Sanchez Stables,” he continued. “Now for those who weren’t here last year, I will explain the game. Each competitor has a target at the back end of the ring and three mag balls attached to their saddles. They have to get three mag balls on their target first before the time runs out and with at least one mage ball left on their saddle. The point is to steal three balls first and have the most points. Well, I think that’s all you need to know. Now to meet our racers; first, I’m proud to introduce last year’s winner, Kitt Wong.” She stood up in her saddle and welcomed the cheers. “Our second place winner, Phistus.” He waved to the crowd. “Moordryd Paynn was the third place winner.” And he went on and on with the last years racers.

“And we have a new entry this year from Penn Stables, it’s the rising star Artha Penn.” Artha stood up and smiled as he waved to the crowd, then sat back down in his saddle and prepared for the gate to drop.

The track turned red, then yellow and then it turned green. The gate dropped and they were off down the small part of the track, scraping each other’s scales. Moordryd was keeping an eye on Artha before he entered the maze type arena. He hit a button and his vidd screen came up. “Cain, it’s time keep a close eye on that kid and when he leaves the care of the professor, you snatch him.”

“I already know that, boss.”

“Good, I was just making sure. I don’t want any complications!”

Back at the stand’s
Lance and Parmon were in the stands watching the race when Lance turned to Parmon.
“Parmon, I’m hungry, can I go get some draconee-yum bars?”

“What? Oh, okay, but be back soon. Don’t you want to see Artha get his first point?” He turned to see Lance was already gone. He shook his head and turned back to his binocs and watched the race.

Lance was gathering his bars when a young girl about his age, but little taller then him, came up to the counter. She had blue eyes and blond hair pulled back in a pony tail. She had a red t-shirt and a blue and purple racing jacket on. She went to buy a bar.

The vender looked at the girl and at the money that she had set on the counter and said, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you are two drakkles short.”

The girl picked up her money and started to walk away. Lance looked at one of the extra bars he had, then at the girl. “Here, you can have one of mine.” He said, throwing her a bar.

The girl caught it in her hand and turned to Lance. “Thanks, my name is Salina Bronzes.”

“I’m Lance Penn.” Her last name seemed familiar to him, like he heard it before. So he asked, “are you with one of the racers?”

The girl’s smile went away. “Umm, no. I got to go now, see you around.” And she ran off waving to him. He looked at her running off with her hair flowing in the breeze. He sighed, then snapped out of it.

“What was that?” He said to himself. *Is that what Artha feels when he looks at Kitt?* He shook himself out of his thoughts and picked up his bars, but looked back to where he last saw her. Then he ran into something. Lance looked up to see Cain.

Chapter 15

Lance looked at Cain. “Where are you taking me?”

“Just be quiet, mini-brat.”

As they went through the alleys, Lance’s comm-link started to beep. Cain looked at Lance and grabbed his arm and took off his comm-link. “No tricks now.” He said as he put it in his pocket.

Lance looked behind him in the dark alleys. “Artha, where are you?” he asked himself.

Back at the race track,
“Nice race, stable boy!”

“Why, thank you.” He said, using his sleeve to shine his trophy as Kitt and Artha walked through the side venders. They stopped and looked at what an artist was drawing. “Wow, that’s beautiful!” Artha said, looking over her shoulder.

The vender flipped the picture she was drawing over and turned around. She had shoulder length brown hair which was half straight and half curly. “Well thank you…are you Artha Penn?” she asked.

“Yeah! Did you see the race today?” Artha asked.

“I never miss it! Hey, can I do something for you? Can I draw you and your dragon?”

“Well, I have to go meet my friend and my brother.”

“It will only take a minute.”

“Well, okay.”

“Great! Just come over here, umm…stand like this…there we go.” She said, putting Artha in a pose holding his trophy. “Now your dragon, what’s his name?”

“His name is Beau.” Artha said, trying not to move.

“Okay Beau, you just stand behind Artha and turn your head this way. Okay, great!”
And she sat down and pulled out a page and started to sketch. About two minutes later Artha’s comm-link started to beep. He was about to answer it when….

“Don’t move, I’m almost done.”

So he stood still again. It kept beeping, but then it stopped and Kitt’s started to beep. “I’ll get this.” And she walked away and hit the button to answer it. The vidd screen came up and Parmon was on the other line. “What’s up, professor?”

“I can’t find Lance! Earlier today he went to go get some candy bars and he didn’t come back. I just figured he found Spratt and went with him somewhere. But when I found Spratt, he hadn’t seen him all day. I checked the track and no sight of him or Fracshun anywhere, and he’s not answering his comm-link.”

“Where do you think he is?” Kitt asked in a worried voice.

“I don’t know. I tried to call Artha, but he’s not answering his comm-link either.”

“He’s here, but he couldn’t.”

Artha, still standing, was curious who had called. “Kitt, who is it?”

“It’s Parmon.”

The Vender put down her pencil. “I’m finished.” She stood up and held the picture for Artha and Beau to see.

“Wow, that’s great! Thanks! What do I owe you?” He said, reaching into his pocket to find some money.

“You don’t owe me anything, I wanted to do this for you.”

“Well thanks!”

Kitt turned to Artha. “Artha, we have to go now. Lance is missing!”

Artha turned around so fast he almost fell over. “Lance is missing! I have to go, thanks.” He said to the vender as he jumped on Beau and turned down the lane.

“You’re welcome! I hope you find your brother and say hi to your dad for me!” She said waving to them as they rode off.

When they were out of sight she sat back down and pulled out the drawing that she was working on before. “If he look’s like that, she would probably look like this.” She said to herself as she picked up her pencil and added to the girl’s face she was drawing.

Artha and Kitt came round the corner and slid to a stop in front of Parmon. “Where’s Lance?” Artha asked Parmon as he jumped off of Beau.

“I don’t know.”

Kitt could see Artha was getting mad at Parmon and it wasn’t his fault, so she spoke up, “its okay, we’ll find Lance. Come on, let’s go look around the crew tent’s, maybe we will find something there.” She said walking Wyldfyr past Artha and Parmon.

“Come on, we have to find him. Dad will scale me if he find’s out about this.”

“Where do we start first?”

“Let’s start at the Dragon Eye tent. My guess is they have something to do with it.”

Kitt and Parmon looked at each other and then back at Artha and said, “right!”

Chapter 16

At the temple
Torah and I had eaten our breakfast. We would usually go and practice, but Parmon said that I had to stay off my foot for a while. So now I’m just sitting here at home, doing nothing.

This morning I played a trick on Torah before she got up. I put my pillow under my blankets, and I waited in the hall for her to wake up and try. I looked at the clock that was in my room. It said, ‘8:00, so Torah will be up soon.’ On cue she woke up and yawned, stretching out her front legs out in front of her and shaking. Then she walked over to the bed and started her usual routine. She started to push the pillow under the sheet and she stopped. Usually I would ask her to stop and let me sleep, but not today. ‘I’ (the pillow) didn’t say anything, so she pushed it off the bed and it didn’t move. I went and leaned on the door frame and I said, “what ‘cha doing?”

She looked at me, then at the pillow and blankets. She shook her head and walked over to me.

I knew today would be different, but I didn’t know how different as I sat on the couch, staring at the VIDDscreen. It was hooked up to Dragon City, so I could watch all the news was on it, weekly races and all that other junk. I never really watched it, but what am I supposed do?

While I watched the VIDDscreen, a news reporter came on, “welcome to Dragon City news. We’ll start our day with the drag reports,” she said shuffling through her papers. “Today was the fifth annual dragon tag competition sponsored by Sanchez Stables. This competition was held at the all city race track. If you missed it, here’s some shots we took earlier.”

It played a shot of the racers coming out of the starting gate and going into the maze. Then another shot of Phistus pinning Moordryd to the wall, then taking his mag ball and running to his target.

“And this is my favorite.” It was a shot of Kitt and Wyldfyr jumping over another racer and Kitt on a mag stream stealing a mag ball from another racer.

“Look, it’s Kitt.” I said, elbowing Torah. She looked at the screen and rolled her eyes and grunted. “What?” She looked at me and laid her head down. “Fine don’t talk to me.” I said, turning back to the VIDDscreen.

I started to flip through the channels, but nothing interested me until I saw a commerc for dragnola bars. Artha was eating one.

“Ha, ha Torah, look.” I said, pointing at the screen. Torah looked to see him and Beau fighting for one. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the couch. Torah chuckled and shook her head, then sat back on the floor. Then a DSC news report came on.

“Hello, I’m Captain Faier, and we at dragon city security interrupt this broadcast to bring you this breaking news. We have a new criminal in Dragon City, and he and his dragon are very dangerous. He calls himself the Shadow Booster...” Then they showed a clip of the Shadow Booster and his dragon. Captain Faier came back on as they minimized the picture, “if you ever see this man ,you are advised to keep away and call dragon city security and we will do what we can to get him off the streets. We apologize again to all the racers that we took to Precinct at the vortex race. And thanks to the Dragon Booster for solving this problem. That’s all for today, this is Captain Faier signing off.”

I turned off the VIDDscreen. I was fed up sitting around doing nothing all day. I turned to Torah. “Torah, how about we go outside for some fresh air?”

{//You’re supposed to keep off that foot of yours.//} She looked at me funny. {//I still can’t see how you can walk on one foot. I would think you have a hard enough time with two.//}

I shook my head, “it’s quite easy actually. And I wouldn’t be walking that much, I would be riding you.”

She shook her head and kind of laughed, {//okay fine. You get ready and I will get the saddle and stuff.//} She said walking off.

I picked up my blocking staff and limped down the hall to my room. I got dressed and put up my hair. It took me longer because, well, my back hurt. When I was finally done, I opened the door and Torah was there waiting. She lowered her head and let me mount. I put on my helmet and we took off down the hall and into the temple areas. We went down underground, headed to the back door and went outside. The sun was bright at first and we couldn’t see anything. But after awhile of just standing there, we could see it was a beautiful day out. The wind was blowing, it felt nice to be outside. Torah lowered her head and let me get off. I walked to a rock and took a seat.

“Isn’t this nice?” I said taking a deep breath. Torah looked at me.

{//Yup, it’s nice out here.//}

“I should have brought my drawing pad and stuff.”

Torah rolled her eyes then stopped. {//Did you bring the mine computer?//}

“No, I forgot all about it.” I said looking at her. She let out a sigh.

{//Fine, I will go get it...do you want me to bring your pad and stuff?//}

I never thought of that. “Sure thanks.” She was always so thoughtful.

I watched her run off and disappear into the temple. I leaned on the rock and looked at the sky as a crow-drag flew by. I looked to my left. There was a tree which was half my size, but it had grown so much.

Flash back
We were all together my parents and my grand father, he had brought a tree back with him from Dragon City for me.

“Well, where do you want to put it?” He asked me.

“I don’t know, where should I put it?” I wasn’t an expert on gardening, I liked to do it but I didn’t know how.

“Well you should put it in a nice sunny spot with lots of room for it to grow.” Then he put his hand in the dirt and pulled some out. “And it can’t be too rocky.”

I remember looking around for a good spot for it. I found one, which was about five feet from a rock. “Here,” I said, standing where I wanted to put the tree.

“Well that’s a good spot.” He said, picking up the tree in one hand and a shovel in the other. “Here, why don’t you do the honor.” He said, passing me a shovel. I looked at it and smiled and put it in the dirt and started to dig a hole. I dug it deep. “That’s good... now for the tree.” He picked it up and handed it to me. It was heavy, and back then it was bigger than me too.

And I sat it in the hole and started to push some of the dirt I took from the hole around the stump, covering the roots.

“I don’t know what you guys think, but this is her second talent.” My grandfather said as he stood and looked at my parents.

“No, that’s one of her many talents.” My dad, Roland, said as he bended down and looked at the tree.

“Yes, and one of them is drawing like her mother.” She said with a smile.

End of flash back

I sat on the rock, looking at the tree. I heard something like a dragon coming.

Chapter 17

I sat on the rock as the sound echoed in the hills. It was coming closer and closer as I picked up my blocking staff. I couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from, but I had to be ready. I was in no condition to fight, well, that’s what Torah and Artha thought. The sound got louder and louder. I was not going to be ready for this. I closed my eyes in fear as a dragon approached me. It walked up to me and nudged me.

{// Sarina, are you okay?//}

It was Torah, what a relief. I opened my eyes to see her holding the computer and my bag with my sketchbook and pencils in it. I picked up the computer and turned it on. Every thing looked okay, so I set it down and picked up my book and one of the pencils. I flipped to the picture I was drawing last night and added some shading and a saddle. It looked good, but what would I call it?

“Torah, what would you call that?” I said, turning the page around so that she could see it. She twisted her head looking at it.

{// Well, umm….what kind of dragon is that? //}

“It’s not a dragon. It’s some creature that has fur, not scales and …”

{// So it’s nothing that would live around here? And what is fur? //}

“Fur is like hair that is really short and it’s all over the body.”

{// Right, well how about ….wrangler? //}

“No, it doesn’t look like a wrangler.”

{// Okay then, what about a...a…a…chevron.//}

“What language are you speaking?”

{// I don’t know, I think it’s a cool name. //} She said with her cheesy smile. I just shook my head, crowdrag. {// Or how about, equus caballus //} She said, starting to laugh.

“Well thanks for being so nice.” Wait, if I’m correct, its’ a hardy, for-legged mammal and if you look that us it would come up as Horse. “Well thanks; I will call it a horse.”

{// A horse? I like equus caballus better. //}

“It’s the same thing, equus caballus is a for-legged mammal and if you look that us it would come up as Horse .”

{// I still like the name, equus caballus. //}

“Whatever.” I said, turning the paper back to me. I kept adding stuff to the horse.

Somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

Cain and Lance were waiting in one of the dark alleys when Moordryd and Deceshun pulled up.

“How’d the race go, Moordryd?” Cain asked his friend.

Moordryd looked at Cain. “The stable brat won.” He muttered in a low voice, hoping Lance wouldn’t hear him.

“Ha ha. You lost to my big brother.”

Moordryd looked at Lance and gave him an evil glare, then he smiled, “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you.”

Lance’s smile went away and he became a little scared. He wanted more than anything to have Artha come to him and save him.

“Come on, your brother will be probably be on his way to find you by now. Let’s move.”
Moordryd said, looking at Lance and then at Cain.

Lance looked back. “Please hurry!”

Back at the track.
Penn crew
“Well, no sign of him there.” Kitt said walking out of the Dragon Eye’s crew tent.

“I was sure that’s where we would find something.” Artha said as he sat down on the floor. “Now what?”

“Well, we could ask the people. I didn’t ask earlier. They may have seen something.” Parmon said, trying to cheer his friend up.

“Don’t worry Artha, we will find him soon!” Kitt said sitting beside him.

“I think I can ...h...elp.” Salina appeared from behind one of the crew tents.

Artha saw her and stood up. “You do? How?” He asked, eager to know what she knows.

“Well, I met Lance at the snack bar today and when I left I turned back. When I did I saw a man taking him away.”

“What did he look like?”

“He was dark and he had a dragon eye on his head. I followed them as far as I could through the alleys on my dragon. They were heading to the outskirts of town, so I came back. I figured someone would come looking for him. Well, I hoped anyway.”

“Can you show us the way?” Artha asked her.

“Yeah, I will do anything to help!” She turned and whistled and a large bipedal dragon came from one of the tents. He was yellow and purple.

“Is that your dragon?” Kitt asked her.

“Yeah, it was my brother’s dragon. His name is Comet,” she said while mounting.

Artha looked at the dragon. It looked so familiar. “What’s your last name?” Artha asked her.

“My last name is Bronze. Come on, we have to catch them before they leave the city.” She said, changing the subject. The rest of them mounted and they were off down the streets and alleys. Then she came to a stop. “This is where I last saw them.”

Artha jumped off Beau and looked at the ground. There were three sets of tracks. He looked at the direction they were heading in. “They were heading to the edge of the city, come on!” He said as Beau magged him, and they were off again following the tracks that were made by two Psi-class dragons and a blue class dragon. (Lance and Fracshun.)

Artha pushed his controller forward to increase Beau’s speed. After that, Kitt followed that example and Parmon and Cyrano used the thruster gear that Kitt gave them, leaving Comet and Salina behind.

“Come on, we have to catch up to them.” She leaned over to Comet. He shook his head and bent down so that his front legs touched the ground and he started to run on all fours and would catch up with the others. When they got close enough to the group he stood back up.

The dragon eyes
“Come on, stable brat.” Moordryd said, pulling Lance and Fracshun along.

Lance looked around. “Wait a minute,” he said to Fracshun, “this is the way to the temple of Lezmark.” He realized that this couldn’t be good. “What can we do Fracshun?”

Fracshun tilted his head up slightly to see Lance and made his noise that was like, I don’t know. Lance sat there thinking about what he could do. Hey, wouldn’t the alarm go off if they enter? His hope of being saved came back. He leaned over to Fracshun and started to whisper his plan.

Moordryd turned his head slightly and saw Lance leaning over and saying something to his dragon. “What are you doing?” He asked in suspicion.

Lance sat up. “I was just telling Fracshun that when Artha catches up, he will kick your but.”

Moordryd just looked at Lance. “He can’t catch what he can’t find.”

What if they’re not going to the temple? What if they’re going somewhere else? He thought. His fear came back. He missed Artha, Kitt and Parmon even more.

Chapter 18

As they rounded the corner, the Temple of Lezmark came in sight. Moordryd looked at Lance. “That is the Temple of Lezmark, the temple that holds the mask of Zorgon,” he said.

Moving closer to the entrance, Lance’s hopes were restored once again, but Moordryd and Cain must have something up their sleeves.

Temple

“Well, what do you think?” I said, turning the finished product around for her to see.

{//Well...it looks great! You are the best drawer I have ever seen. //}

“Aww thanks.” I loved her to death! I flipped my page and started to draw the big hunk of scales laying in front of me.

{// What are you doing? //} Torah asked, raising her head and looking at me suspiciously.

“Oh, I’m just starting a new sketch.” I said, not revealing to her what I was drawing. She lowered her head and sat it back on her paws. She is such a perfect poser and she doesn’t even know it. I started to add her markings when a drop of rain fell and hit my arm. I looked at Torah and she looked at the sky.

{// It looks like it’s going to rain. //}

“Really, I didn’t know that.” I said in a nice, sarcastic voice.

She looked at me and stood up. {// Come on, let’s go before you get soaked. //} She said, walking toward the door. She looked back to see me not moving. {//Aren’t you coming? //}

“In a minute.” I said, looking at the sky. Torah shook her head and went in the door to keep from getting wet. Just then it started to pour and I just sat there. It was cold, wet and fresh. The smell of rain and the feel of it, well, felt nice.

{// Come on, Sarina, you’re going to catch a cold. //}

I just ignored her and enjoyed myself.

{// Fine, if that’s the way you want it. //} She said. She stepped out and magged me on.

“Hey, I wanted to stay out there.” I said, looking back.

{//Well, I took you in because one; you will catch a cold, two; Parmon told me to take care of you and three; your drawings were getting wet.//}

I looked at her and then at my drawings. They were a little soggy. “Well thanks, I don’t want my drawings to get wet.”

{// Do you not care about yourself anymore? //}She asked in a stern voice.

I do, but I don’t like others worrying about me. She wouldn’t understand. Sometimes she does, but not this, so I just kept my thoughts to myself.

We went through the temple to our place. Torah magged me off and I went to my room and pulled out one of the racing books that my grandfather gave me.

Dragon Eyes
They were just outside the temple. Lance knew that if they went in there, Sarina would find out. Moordryd looked at Cain and they turned on their shadow gear. Moordryd magged an extra one on Fracshun and turned it on.

“Fracshun, what are we going to do? The gear might not set of the alarm with the shadow gear.” Fracshun made a noise that asked Lance, how come? “I think the gear creates a force field so that the alarm wouldn’t go off. I think...I wish Parmon was here, he would know.” Lance said, putting his head down in sadness. Lance looked at Moordryd and Cain.

Moordryd was whispering something to Cain. Cain nodded and took off down another route as Moordryd and Lance walked down another lane. There was no sign of Sarina any where, so she must not have found out.

Lance looked at Moordryd, then leaned over to Fracshun, “it’s time to put my plan into action.” He pulled his controller to the left and took off.

Down the lane, Moordryd saw and went after him, chasing him through the hallway.
Lance thought if he could get far enough way he could go down one of the ramps and find Sarina, but before he could Moordryd caught up. He took out his energy drain whip and hit Fracshun. “You’re not getting away from me,” he said, pulling it closer to him.

Fracshun’s energy was going down fast, so Fracshun would have to obey Moordryd, and that’s what happened. Moordryd pulled off the drain whip.
"Good, now no more tricks, stable brat.” He said, walking over to Lance and grabbing his arm and pulling him back to the main hall they were in before.

Lance looked at Fracshun and saw that he was weak, too weak for another escape.
Before he knew it, they were in the mask room. Decepshun magged Moordryd off, then Lance off and helped him to the wall so that Moordryd could sat a trap gear on him. Once Lance was stuck, Moordryd set two on Fracshun, and he went to the mask. “Finally, it’s mine!” He said, holding the mask in the air. Decepshun magged Moordryd and he sat there waiting for Cain.

Lance looked down at his comm-link and then looked at Moordryd, who wasn’t paying attention to him. He was looking at the mask. Lance moved his arm and hit the button with his other hand and turned it on. He tuned it into Sarina’s signal.

Sarina
Torah and I had just finished some lunch and I was blow drying the pictures when my comm-link started to beep. I looked at Torah and she looked back at me, confused. I hit one of the buttons and turned it on.

“Hello?” I said to the other person on the other line.

“Sarina, it’s me, Lance.” His voice was low as if he didn’t want to be heard.

“Lance, what’s up?”

“Moordryd has the mask and we’re in the mask room. I have no time to explain, but come and stop them and save me!” He said in a hurry.

I didn’t know what to say, how could they have gotten by the defenses? But I had to hurry if it was true. “I’m on my way. Wait, where’s Artha?”

“He doesn’t know. Moordryd and Cain kidnapped me.”

“Okay, I will try to call him, but come right away. Bye.” I jumped on Torah.

{// Sarina, what’s going on? //} She asked, turning to the door.

“There’s no time to explain, Moordryd has the mask.” She nodded and took off. I hit the button for the ramp to go down. I turned on my comm-link and dialed to Artha’s signal.

“Hello?”

Good, Artha was there. “Artha, it’s Sarina. Moordryd has Lance and the mask and they’re here in the temple.” Well, that’s right to the point.

“Okay, we’re on our way. Hold them off as much as possible,” and he was gone. By the time I was done we were at the next ramp. Torah once again magged me off. I pulled out my staff and hit the target. We went up and made a left then a right, then another left and we were in the mask room. “Put the mask down!” I said as Torah came to a sliding stop.

“Yeah.” Lance said, hanging from the trapping gear.

Moordryd turned and looked at me. “But how? How?” He was stunned and speechless.

“So you came back for the mask?” I said, looking at the mask in his hands. I looked at his dragon, she had black shadow gear on. “And I see you found a way to get past the alarm.” Yes, it’s gear, but like a force field that doesn’t set off the field.

“Yes and I’m leaving with it this time,” he said with a smile. He was looking at me. Or was it behind me? I closed my eyes and listened. I heard a dragon behind me and a trapping gear was fired. With my blocking staff still in hand, I turned in my saddle and hit it and smashed it. I looked at Cain. He smiled. Two against one, that sounds like a fair fight.

Chapter 19

I was surrounded and being backed into a corner. I needed a plan and fast. I looked at a pillar that was next to us, it was half broken from yesterday. “Torah,” I whispered, “hit the pillar with your tail.” She turned her head slightly and saw what I meant. She swung her body and hit the pillar with her tail, and it started to crack and wobble but then went still.

Moordryd looked at the pillar and said, “ha, you failed.” But just then, the pillar started to fall toward them. Moordryd and Cain backed up so it wouldn’t fall on them and Torah and I jumped to Lance’s rescue. I started to take off the gear when a small, round-shaped object fell in front of us.

“Oh no,” Lance said, flinching and closing his eyes. I looked at it closer. It was a disrupter blackout. I twisted my body and closed my eyes just in time. It blew up and smoke was everywhere. I started to cough and Torah moved out of the smoke and I looked around. Moordryd, Cain, and the mask, were gone. I went back to Lance and started to take the trapping gear off.

Dragon eyes“Smart plan, boss,” Cain said to Moordryd as they were rounding the corner. “Where are you going so fast?” They looked to see the Dragon Booster and the Penn Crew.

“Well, well, well. Look what we got here. It’s the Dragon Booboo and the Penn brats,” he said, folding his arms and sitting back in his saddle.

“Give me the mask, Paynn!” He said in a stern, commanding voice.

Moordryd was about to pull out his staff and go and attack, but Cain stopped him. “Boss, it’s on a timer. It will go off any minute.”

Moordryd looked at him and nodded. “Well fine, have it your way.” He said, tossing the Dragon Booster the mask and they took off, passed them and went out the door.

“That was easy,” Kitt said, looking back, then back at Artha.

“Yeah, too easy.” Artha said, looking at the mask.

“What is this place?” Salina asked, looking at the ceiling and at the wall.

“This is the temple of Lezmark, the temple that holds the mask of Zorgon.”

Salina looked at the mask and then at the rest of the crew. “Where’s Artha?”

They all looked at her and looked around. “I don’t know,” Kitt lied to their new friend.

Artha/Dragon Booster, changing the subject, said, “come on, let’s make sure that Lance is okay.” So they all moved through the maze until they got to the mask room and entered.

Lance and I were just leaving when Artha, Kitt, Parmon, and this girl walked in. Artha looked at me and threw me the mask. “I found this and I think it belongs to you.”

I smiled at him and Torah and I walked over to the pillar that holds the mask. I placed it on top, where it belonged.

“Well, we better get going,” Artha said, looking at Lance and the others.

Lance looked at me and twisted his head, “why is your little computer blinking?”

I looked at it and it was. I opened it up and there were little red dots all over the place. Then numbers started to come up. “0:60,” then a word came up, blow. I read it out loud. “0:59 blow?” I looked at them and they were as confused as I was.

“Fifty-nine seconds until it blows up!” Parmon blurted out. I looked at him, then at my computer. The count down was going fast. If he was right, there was forty seconds until she blows!

“Come on let’s get out of here!” I said, pushing my controller forward and we all took off. Artha and Kitt were out and going first. We started to go for the first door when the pillars started to blow. “The back door!” I said, turning Torah around and fast. Beau, Artha, Kitt and Wyldfyr passed me. I looked back to see Parmon and Cyrano coming up fast and the other girl was beside me. But Lance. Where was he?

Frachsun and he were far back. I pulled Torah’s controller back far, almost to a stop. I could hear the pillars behind me falling as I pulled up next to Lance. Fracshun was going as fast as he could and it wasn’t very fast.

“Moordryd drained Fracshun’s energy,” he said, almost crying. I looked at him, then at the pillars behind me. I pushed a button on my controller and Torah magged me on Fracshun and Lance onto her. “What?” he asked, looking at me confused.

“Torah, get him to safety!” Torah looked at me.

{//But ..?//}

“Now!” I said, almost crying myself. She looked at me, nodded and took off.

As I watched my best friend run off in to the distance, this phrase came in mind. Something Lance told me mixed with something my grandfather said, ‘there is a hero in us all. You must never give up, no matter how tough things may seem.’ I took a deep breath, “are you ready Fracshun?” I asked him as he was running and almost falling out of pure exhaustion.

{// Yeah, but ready for what?//} He asked.

I looked ahead. They were out of sight. I looked back and the pillars were falling really close now. “At the next ramp you have to mag me. It’s our only chance of getting out.”

{// Okay, but I don’t know how long I will last,//} he said, almost out of breath.

We rounded the corner and the pillars were almost falling on us. I looked to my left. There was a ramp. “Now!” I said. He sent a mag stream as far as he could. It was just far enough. I pulled out my staff and hit the trigger and we went down.

Outside the temple.

“We made it!” Kitt said, pulling Wyldfyr to a stop.

“Yeah,” Artha said, looking back where Lance and Torah were just coming out They stopped. “Where’s Sarina and Fracshun?”

Lance was almost in tears and Torah put her head down and looked back. “Fracshun...was really slow because Moordryd drained him of his energy…,” he said, taking a breath.
“So she took him and let me have Torah and….” He said in between sniffles.

Artha put things together in his mind on how things happened. “She’s gone,” he said in a sad, low voice. The rain was coming down harder than before as he turned Beau and started to leave. The rest looked at the entrance and turned their dragons too.

Chapter 20

Lance looked back once more, then Torah and he started to leave.

“Why the long faces? It looks like someone died.” I said as Frachsun and I walked out of the dust. Torah’s face lit up and so did Lance’s. As I got off, the others turned around and saw me and they came to see me.

“Sarina! You’re okay and FRACSHUN!” Lance said, running to see us. Torah came to great me and Lance ran past me and gave Frachsun a big hug!

“You’re okay!” Artha said as Beau magged him off. I looked at Kitt. She even looked somewhat happy too see me.

“Yeah...well Torah, I think we need to find a new place to live...come on, let’s see if there’s anything salvageable,” I said, moving to the door.

“But you can’t go in there. It’s not safe and it’s all blocked… right?” Parmon asked.

I turned to him, “the underground tunnels are fine in some spots.”

“Well, what are we waiting for then,” Artha said, moving to the door.

“You don’t have to come,” I said, stopping Torah in front of him.

“Well I owe you one for saving Lance and all of us,” he said, looking back to the others.

“Well okay then ...” I said, looking at the others. “Who are you?” I said, looking at the girl on her dragon.

“I’m Salina and this is Comet,” she said while patting her dragon on the head.

“Nice to meet you.” I said, moving Torah to the door and we entered. I looked back at Parmon. He was looking at the wall.

“It’s really not safe here.” He said in a worried voice.

I went to the wall and pushed a brick that opened the ramp and I went down, followed by Lance. Almost all the beam structures were still intact, but I wouldn’t be able to live here any more. My childhood home was destroyed in one fell swoop. I went by one of the halls that led to the mask room. “Hang on ,I want to see where the mask is,” I said, turning Torah down the lane.

It wasn’t long until I found the room .The tinted glass floor was smashed and rocks and walls were falling in. Frachsun and Lance walked over to my side and Lance got off and picked up a piece of something and handed it to me. I looked at it. It was a piece of the mask, it had been destroyed. “Well, I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” I said putting the piece in my pocket.

Parmon came and looked at the rubble. “Even if someone found all the piece’s, it would take the Magna Draconis to put it back together,” he said, turning back around. I followed Lance and him back to the main hall where I took the lead once again.

“Where’s the mask?” Artha asked me as I passed him.

“It’s in pieces,” I answered as I looked around at the wall. Some things looked different, but I could still find my way around easy. Left, right, and one more right. “Well, let’s see what happens,” I said, pressing the button. Torah stepped back for any rubble to fall, and some did. Some small pieces. “Well, I think it’s safe,” I said, going up the ramp.

There was not much room for Torah move when we got to the main floor, so I got off and squeezed between a fallen pillar and the wall so I could reach the switch to open the door. I stretched my arm as far as it would go and I was just able to reach it. The door opened and some of the stuff that was on the wall was on the floor, and things were knocked over. Some of the walls were cracked. It was sad. As I walked in the kitchen, it got worse.
Torah’s food pipe had burst and there was dragon food all over the floor. There was even more broken ceiling and walls. I got off Torah and went down the hall to my room. The door was shut and wouldn’t open. “Torah, can you help me?”

{//Sure, //} she said, stepping over a fallen pillar. She came to my side and pushed the door with her head until it opened. I stepped in.

Half of my stuff was on the floor. I went and picked up my books, drawing supplies, some clothes, and my fussy blankets. I put it in my pack and threw it to Torah and she caught it in her mouth. I moved through the halls and I limped over to the door and opened it. As I walked in, some of the walls were crumbling. This was a room that was not safe, so I quickly went to the dresser and took the box of stuff and a family picture that was there. I put it in the box.

I turned around. Torah was at one of the walls, it was the one that was falling. I set the box on the bed and walked over to her and looked at one of the cracks. There was a small room behind it. Torah started to break the some of the wall to get in, but the ceiling started to shake.

“Don’t touch it.” I said to her. She backed away and looked at the wall. There was a hole, but I was too big. I wouldn’t fit, but lance would. “Hey Lance, can you come here for a sec?” I called to him.

“Yeah?” he said, poking his head through the door.

“Do you think you could fit in there?” I asked, pointing to the hole in the wall.

“Yeah,” he said, coming to the wall. He got on his knees and crawled in. “Oh my. You should see this Sarina!”

“What is it?”

“Hang on I will take it out.” He said, crawling back through the hole. He stood up and handed me a gauntlet. On it there was something like a carving that was exactly like the amulet I found.

“Where did that come from?” Artha said, taking it from my hands and looking at it.

“It was in the wall, I don’t know how it got there.” Then the wall started to shake. “Let’s get out here!” I said, grabbing the box and jumping on Torah and they ran out the door and the wall fell. “Well, I think I got every thing,” I said, getting off and going to the cupboard and taking out a can and stuffing it in my bag.

“Well than let’s burn claws.” Artha said, getting on Beau and we left.

When we got out Artha turned to me, “so where are you going to live now?”

“Well I think I’m going to find my grandfather. He will probably let me stay with him.”

“Where does he live?”

“I can’t remember, but I will find him. How many stables are there in Dragon City anyway?”

“A lot...well where are you going to stay until you find him?”

“Well I haven’t thought of that yet ... but I do have some darkles, so maybe I can stay somewhere.” I said, trying to think of how much I had left.

“You can stay with us!” Lance said with a big smile on his face.

“Well I don’t want to intrude...”

“Aww no, we would be happy to help you!” Artha said, cutting me off.

“Well if it’s no trouble.”

“No it’s none at all. Come on, we had better get home. Dad’s probably worried sick about us.” He said looking at Lance and the others.

I looked back and Salina was gone. She must have took off. “She’s one slippery character,” I said, moving Torah’s controller forward.

When we got to Dragon City, I looked around. Things have changed a lot! By this time Artha was his regular self, and the rain had stopped. We passed some street venders and food carts. “Wow, this place is amazing!”

“Aww, it’s not that great.” Artha said, moving past a dragon and rider. We rounded a corner. “Now Sun City, that is the place to live!”

“I’ve never been there. I’ve only been to Dragon City…where are we going?” I asked, following him. I looked around. People were looking at Torah and me strangely.

“To Penn Stables, my home,” he said, looking back then at the people. They saw him and went back to their work, pretending that they weren’t looking at anything. He shook his head and looked forward again. As we kept walking, things became quiet. When we arrived at Penn Stables, the house was burnt and some of the stuff was broken, but it was nice.

In the Stable Where Conner Was

Conner was pacing the floor, wondering where his sons were, when they came through the gate. There were five people coming through. Artha, Kitt, Parmon, Lance and someone else. It was a girl. He squinted his eyes to see who the new face was. ‘Lilly?’ he thought, but it couldn’t be.

Then the girl came into the light.

Torah and I followed Artha in the stable yard where a man came and greeted Artha with, well, not a smile on.

“Artha where were you?” he said to him in a stern, worried voice.

“Uh, we had a problem at the track. Moordryd kidnapped Lance and took him to the temple of Lezmark….” But before Artha could finish, Conner looked at him, as if he wasn’t supposed to talk about it around other people. “Oh Dad, I want you to meet Sarina, she lived in the temple.”

Conner looked over to me. “Nice to meet you, I’m Conner Penn, owner of Penn Stables, Artha and Lance’s father. What brings you to Dragon City?” He asked in a kind voice.

“Well after Moordryd left, he blew up the temple and it’s not safe to live there anymore. So I thought I would come and find my grandfather, but I don’t know where to start looking. So Artha suggested for me to stay here, if that’s okay with you?” I said, getting off Torah.

He looked at me as if he already knew me and smiled. “Of course you can, stay as long as you have to…we will have to make some new living arrangements though.” And he walked away to another door, we all followed him. He hit a button and the door opened to a large room. It was dusty, there were cobwebs, old boxes, some gear racks, a desk, empty barrels ….a little dirty, but it looked like it would be home for now.

“This is where the girls will sleep, yes Kitt, you and Sarina will be sharing this room together. There’s not much room in Beau’s stall now, so you will be sharing this room and no butts about it.”

Kitt looked stunned, like she didn’t know what to say and she stormed off with Wyldfyr not far behind.

“Lance and Artha, you will clean this room for our guest and Kitt.”

“But Dad,” Lance complained.

Artha was about to say the same thing when Parmon came running in. “I got a reading from Dragon City Security. There is a crime in progress, you have to go!”

“Well, have fun cleaning, Lance. I have to do my duty,” he said with a chuckle.

“Not so fast, Artha. You will have to clean when you get back.” Conner said, stopping him.

“Common, let’s go.” Artha said to Kitt and Parmon.

Conner walked away and came back with a broom for Lance. “There, you can start cleaning until Artha gets back,” and he left again.

“Well then, it’s just you and me Lance,” I said, picking up the broom that was handed to him. “Here, you can dust the walls and shelves and I will help, then we can sweep.” I said, leaning the broom on the wall and picking up some cloth. I handed one to him and I went to the highest shelves and started to dust it off. Lance went to the desk and dusted it off. Once that was done we started to sweep.

Somewhere in Dragon City

“Put the dragon back where you found them, Paynn!” Dragon Booster said, holding his jakk-stick.

“How did you escape?” Moordryd asked, stunned to see him standing before him.

“That’s for me to know and you never to find out!”

“Fine then, you want me to leave I will, but you won’t be happy when my friend comes along!” And Cain, the dragons and he left without a fight.

“Well that was easy, and if I know better, the Shadow Booster will arrive soon,” Parmon said through his helmet communicator.

“Yeah, let’s put these dragons back before he gets here. Kitt come get them,” he said, changing signals from Parmon to hers.

Up on the roof top

Kitt was thinking about staying in the same room as Sarina, thinking how good Artha and Sarina got along, and how her friend, her love, would be taken away from her. She never noticed that Artha was talking to her until….

“Kitt!” Parmon shouted at her.

She quickly snapped out of that thought and back to her job. “Yeah, what’s up?” She said, focusing on Artha.

“I need you to come and get these dragons out of here before the Shadow Booster shows up.”

“Got it,” she said, turning Wyldfyr around and they sped off to go help Artha. When she got down, Artha had them ready for her, and she was just about to leave with them when….

“Look what we have here, the Dragon Booster and Kitt Wonn.” He said, pushing forward on his controller, making his dragon jump off the roof of the building to the ground. “What is the stable brat going to think when he sees you two together?”

Kitt and Dragon Booster looked at each other and smiled. “I’m just helping,” she said, trying to cover up.

“Right!” Artha /Dragon Booster said.

Kitt looked at him then grabbed the dragons and took off. Shadow Booster was about to follow her when Dragon Booster stepped in his way.

“I don’t think so.”

“Fine, have it your way,” Shadow Booster said. Stepping back, he looked to the sky and put his hands back. He started to glow.

Dragon Booster saw and knew what would come from that, so he did the same. Shadow Booster fired a mag-blast and so did Artha. They collided, causing them to explode. Artha thought, well this will be going nowhere…this happens all the time. I throw one at him, he throws one at me, it never seems to end and he always seems to get better…why don’t I… Artha looked around before Shadow Booster had a chance to throw another mag-blast at him….than he saw it.

Chapter 21

He saw a old support beam that the Dragon City construction had been working on to take down, and he looked down at Beau. He had the same idea. He fired a mag-bolt that hit the beam. As it started to fall, the Shadow Booster looked up at it and jumped back right into a pile of garbage. While he was trying to get up, the Dragon Booster sent a mag-blast at him, and the Shadow Booster was flung back into the building and fell to the ground. Decepshun looked at the Dragon Booster, ran to her rider’s side, magged him in the saddle and sped off.

“Well done, Artha!” Parmon said, coming out of the shadows followed by Kitt with the dragons.

“We had better put them back before their owners find that they’re missing.” Kitt said, moving them to the foot pads.

Just then, Dragon City Security came. “We’ll take it from here,” Captain Faier said, coming through the other security officers. “Thank you again, Dragon Booster.”

“Ah, it’s not a problem. Just doing my duty.”

“Well we must be going, right Parm?” Kitt said, elbowing him.

“Ah, right. See you later.” He said as he followed Kitt out of the alley.

“So you’ll make sure that they will get to owners?” he said, looking at the dragons.

“Yes, you can leave. Thanks again.”

“No problem I have to go.” He said with a smile and waved. Then they were off. Beau mag-jumped over a building and they were out of sight of the Dragon City Security.

“Well, that was fun,” Kitt said, approaching Artha, who landed in the alley.

“Slick moves there, Artha!” Parmon came from behind her.

“Well thank you!” he said in a proud voice. “Well let’s go home. Sarina is probably waiting for us.” He said, taking the amulet out of the gauntlet. Kitt shook her head and followed Artha out of the alley.

In some other alley
Decepshun had finally stopped running and Moordryd had come to. He sat up in his saddle and put his hand on his head, then Cain came out of the shadows.

“Are you okay, Moordryd?” He asked in a concerned voice.

“I’m fine Cain!” He said angrily, and then he reached down and took out the amulet and he went back to normal. “Father’s not going to be to pleased,” he said to himself. No mask ...ahh I thought I would bring him some dragons so he wouldn’t be as mad with me...but now...I come back with nothing. He shook his head. “Come on, Cain. My father wants to see us now.”

Cain shook his head, thinking of what Word was going to say when he found out what had happened.

Penn crew
Artha, Kitt and Parmon were almost home when Artha remembered what Sarina found at the temple, and that Conner had gone to see the dragon priest and that he might have some answers for him. “Come on, guys, we have to get home now!”

Kitt looked at him with a surprised look on her face. That’s right, he wants to get home quick to see Sarina. She thought to herself. Her face started to burn with anger. She decided to be as slow as possible. Maybe by the time she would get to the stable, Sarina would be asleep. She wouldn't have to talk to her, so she pulled back on her controller.

Wyldfyr turned her head up slightly to see Kitt. She was confused. Usually Kitt would ask her to go fast, but never to go slower than a regular walk. She knew there was something wrong, but Kitt couldn’t understand her even if she tried. Kitt would never understand. She shook her head {// Wait, I know someone who could help! But it will have to wait. //}

Kitt looked ahead as Artha and Parmon got further and further away. Kitt shook her head. Why am I so afraid of losing Artha…he’s not even mine, she sighed.

“Kitt, are you coming?” Artha’s voice was low since he was so far away.

“Coming!” She shouted back. Well, he noticed. I can’t keep going slow now. So she pushed her controller forward, asking Wyldfyr to catch up. When she got to their side, Artha was talking to Parmon about their next race. Kitt shook her head.

“Kitt, what were you doing back there?” Artha asked curiously.

“Umm….well…,” she tried to think of a new excuse. She looked around and saw Artha’s extra thruster gear. “I was looking at a new thruster gear…you know I would like to have my own level 4 instead of borrowing yours all the time…” she smiled, hoping they would fall for her excuse.

“Oh…okay…did you see one you liked?”

“No, everything there was too expensive!”

“Oh okay. Well, in the meantime you can still use my spare.” He smiled at her, the smile that made her melt inside.

After a while of listening to Parmon blabber on, they made it to Penn Stables. It was dark, so the stable lights were on.

Conner came out of the house. “Where were you guys?” He asked, approaching them.

Artha jumped off of Beau. “After we dealt with Moordryd, the Shadow Booster showed up,” he grumbled.

“Oh well…Lance has been cleaning the stall, you can go help him, now that you’re back.” He smiled and walked back in.

“Oh great more work.” He rolled his eyes. “Come on Beau, you want some supper?”
Beau opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang out and shook his head yes.

“I take that as a yes!” Kitt smiled.

“Yeah ...okay then, let’s get some food!” And Beau and he walked off to the stables. Kitt jumped off of Wyldfyr and followed Artha to the stables to feed Wyldfyr.

Wyldfyr, Beau and she went in the stable and waited for Artha to come with a barrel of food for them.

“What do you think Beau? Does Artha like Sarina?” Kitt said, walking over to him.

Beau didn’t know what to say, yes or no. {// I think he likes her, yes. But not the way Kitt thinks.//}

{//Yeah, she is really worried, but I don’t see why. //} Wyldfyr said, shaking her head.

{// Humans are so confusing!//} Beau said with a laugh.

{// Yeah, but you still got to love them! //} She said with a smile.

{// Yeah, //} he said, smiling at her, then he sniffed the air. {// I smell Artha coming!//} He said, letting his tongue hang out.

In came Artha, rolling a barrel of high quality dragon food. “For working dragons.” Kitt moved over to help Artha roll in the food as he was having a hard time with the extra large barrel. When it got to the trough, they stood it up and took off the cover. “Do you think we could have a little help boy?” Artha said, looking at Beau. Beau nodded and magged the barrel and poured the food in the dish for him and Wyldfyr.

“Thanks Beau!” Kitt said, petting Wyldfyr. Beau nodded and Wyldfyr and he moved to the trough to eat.

“Well, you can do what you like, but I have to go clean.” He said.

“I’ll stay here to keep out of the way.”

“Okay. I’ll come and get you two when we are done.” And he left Kitt alone with only the sound of Beau and Wyldfyr eating their supper. She shook her head and went to her saddle bag and pulled out a candy bar for her supper. It wasn’t much, but it was something. She took a bite and turned to the dragons.

“What do you think of Sarina?”

Beau and Wyldfyr pulled their heads out of the feed trough and looked at each other.
{// Why does she ask these questions when she can’t understand us? //} Beau asked Wyldfyr.

{// She’s worried that Sarina might steal Artha away from her.//}

Beau just looked at her. {// Females are so weird.//} And he kept eating.

Wyldfyr looked at him stunned, and took her tail and whacked him on the back of the head.

{//Ouch…what was that for?//} He rubbed his head with his tail.

{// Females aren’t that complicated. Not like males. //}

{// Whatever.//} He said, going back to the food.

Kitt just looked at them strangely and shook her head and yawned. She had a long day racing, Dragon Booster stuff , etc, etc. She was exhausted. “Well, when you’re done eating, you can come join me.” She said, leaving Wyldfyr and Beau to finish their supper.

When she got to the other stall, Artha and Conner were talking outside the door. They were in deep conversation and she didn’t want to bother them, so she walked around them.

When she got in, the stall had been cleaned spotless. The cobwebs were gone, the boxes were gone, the barrels were gone…everything was gone except for the desk and a chair. The desk was large, but where it was it didn’t take up much room. As Kitt examined it closer, there was stuff on half of it. A picture, an old, tin can with pencils, some papers, and a jar with some drakkals…but half was empty. Lance was on the floor showing Sarina how to play battle ground dragon when he turned over and saw Kitt. He stood up, handing Sarina the game and ran over to Kitt.

“We left half of the desk for you to put whatever you want on it!” He said proudly.

She looked around the room. “You cleaned this all on your own?”

“Yeah, with some help form Sarina.” He turned around to see her fiddling with one of the controllers. “So, what do you want to put there?” He said, dragging her to the desk.

She looked at the desk and picked up Sarina’s family picture. The glass in the frame was broken, and the kid in the picture looked happy with her family. Kitt shook her head and put the picture down. “I don’t have anything to put here.” She said sadly.

Lance looked up at her and saw a tear roll down her face. She didn’t know it, but Wyldfyr had finished eating and had seen Kitt’s reaction. She laid down and magged Kitt and took her beside her. Beau was also there and saw that Kitt was sad. He magged Lance out of there incase Lance said anything stupid.

Sarina looked over, stood up and went to Torah’s side. She pulled out one of her blankets and sat one on the floor and pulled the other on top. She looked over to see that Kitt had fallen asleep without a word.

“Torah,” she said in a whisper, “take this to Kitt.” She said, taking her third blanket and handing it to Torah. “But don’t wake her.”

{//I will try not to .//} Torah said, taking it from Sarina’s hands. She quietly walked over to Kitt and dropped the blanket. It slowly landed on top of Kitt, so Torah turned around and went back to Sarina’s side.

“Good job, girl.” Torah nodded and laid her head down and closed her eyes. Sarina looked at Kitt once more before closing her eyes and falling asleep.

In the other stall

Lance was sleeping quietly next to Fracshun and Parmon was laying on the floor, listening to Artha and Conner’s conversation.

“So, what did the dragon priests say?”

“They said that the dark purple draconium dragons and their riders helped the original Dragon Booster. There were many in their crew, but a few had the Shearkin battle armor. The other crew members created gear to help stop the war, and they say that after the dragon human war had ended, the armor was lost...or the ones who had it went into hiding.”

“If they had armor, why did they hide? Wouldn’t the people want protectors?”

“Well, the people thought the Dragon Booster was good enough, so they chased them out or they got rid of the armor and hid. All but the ones that were guarding the mask. If they were the ones that had the armor…other than that they didn’t have much more on them …oh, and some of the dark purple dragons had the capability to change shape and color …they don’t know if those ones are still around, but I thought you would like to know that.”

“So the…Shearkins had many armors?”

“More than one person had the armor...like there’s only one gold Dragon Booster armor and amulet...but they had many.”

“Oh…but was their armor as powerful as the gold?”

“No, that’s why there was so many. They couldn’t stand alone, they wouldn’t stand a chance. You had better get to bed, you never know how many times you may have to get up tonight.”

“Yeah …too bad there wasn’t that many of Dragon Boosters.” He said, mocking his Dad. “Than I wouldn’t have to get up so much during the night.” He lay down next to Beau and went to sleep.

At Word’s citadel

Moordryd and Cain had arrived and made their way to Word’s control room. Word was sitting in his dragon bone chair, smiling happily.

Moordryd saw this and looked at Cain, worried.

“Did you get the mask?” Word asked Moordryd, still smiling.

“No father.” Moordryd dropped his head, and waited for his father to scold him, telling him how awful he had done.

“Okay, that’s fine.”

Moordryd picked up his head and looked at his father strangely. “What…” he started to say, but his father cut him off.

“I would like you to meet our guest,” he said, giving a hand gesture to a dark, shadowed corner. Moordryd and Cain looked closely to the corner. Out stepped a tall girl. She had long, black hair and tall, black boots. She also had dark, red pants. Half her shirt was red and the other was black. She wore a red necklace, and she wore the Dragon Eye symbol over her heart. “Hello Moordryd.” She said in sneaky, sexy voice.

“Moordryd, do you remember your cousin, Justine?” She smiled a devilish smile.

“A...we...well, you have grown.” He was speechless. He had not see her since his mom left.

“And you haven’t changed a bit,” she chuckled.

“She will be staying with us and helping you with the work you keep messing up.” Word said, trying to keep a smile on his face.

“I can’t wait to help you stop the Dragon Booster.” She let out a devilish laugh and they all joined in.

The End