Mystia, Jenna [web based ebook reader txt] 📗

quickly. Dawn jumped off without the aid of the griffin’s wing and looked over at Raven and Cobalt, blinking the stinging dryness out of her eyes. Ben was leaning up against Cobalt, breathing hard and laughing. Dawn thought she could see a smile on Cobalt’s face.
As the four of them looked around, Dawn realized for the first time that they were surrounded by people. She was able to recognize some elves, two small people that she was pretty sure were dwarves, centaurs, two unicorns—one a blackish color that looked blue in the sunlight and the other bay—a few griffins, and even a dragon, she thought—it was too far away for her to tell for sure. She didn’t recognize the rest.

It was like a convention for creatures that she didn’t know existed. She smiled at them until she realized that not one of them was smiling back.
“Make way!” shouted Cobalt. He sounded angry. “We need to get to the castle!” It was eerily quiet as the creatures in the direction of the castle parted to make a sort of walkway for them to walk through. Cobalt led the way with Raven following close behind. Dawn climbed up Amethyst’s back and they all walked forward. For some reason, to Dawn it felt like a death march.

Dawn looked ahead and saw what must have been the castle. It was medieval-looking and made out of some kind of light golden rock. It towered above the rest of the island, glittering in the sun.

Once the four of them were past the congregation of creatures, Dawn looked around and saw that they were in a village. There were many small cottages scattered everywhere—maybe a hundred—that appeared to be made of wood and straw. The only creatures that were not in the group that had greeted them were smaller ones like squirrels and chipmunks. They were running around and gathering nuts off of the ground and from the oak trees, and they looked happy enough.

Aside from the inhabitants, the island seemed pretty cheerful for the most part. Rays of sunlight streamed down right to the ground in every direction and sparkled off of the huge waves coming in on the shore, but it wasn’t hot. The misty mountains in the distance were the only part of this place that looked dark and hazy.

They reached the castle within minutes. Cobalt reached out and banged on the door with one paw. It opened a crack and grey light streamed out, as did the sound of many voices all chattering at once.
In the doorway stood a female centaur. She had streaming black hair that came down to her waist in silky waves. The horse half of her was black. Her nut-shaped eyes were dark brown and her face was flawless.

“This is Khara,” said Raven. “She is our best archer when it comes to battles, and she is one of my most loyal subjects.” The centaur woman nodded and bowed, although she looked like she didn’t know what they were saying.

“Whorshim, orae siera,” said Khara.

“She says ‘Welcome, young warrior,’” Raven translated. “She does not know your language fluently, only some.”

“Oh—tell her I said thank you,” said Dawn, puzzling over why she had just been called a “young warrior.”
“Kvingwe,” said Raven, turning to Khara. “Ule oha kvingwe.” The centaur stepped aside and opened the door wider so that the griffins and their riders could get through. They stepped inside the castle.
Dawn looked around at the room. The walls were built of gold marble; the floor was earthy but clean. There was no furniture or decoration except for a dining table with a few chairs around it.

The five of them were not the only ones in the room. There was also a mother and baby leopard (which was hopping around and batting at his mother’s flicking tail) and about twenty elves, among them a boy with dark, wide eyes and a powerful build despite his skinniness.

“Rylan!” Ben said, showing the first signs of enthusiasm since Dawn had met him. He rushed to him. The two of them each held out a fist, which they locked together. In turn they kissed their intertwined hands. “You are back!” He turned to Dawn and the griffins. “Rylan is my twin brother,” he explained. “He was one of people sending word about Athianase’s upcoming attack…and lived.”
There was a low chatter in the room as they all gave him their word of appreciation.

All except for Dawn, who had no idea who or what Athianase even was. The mother leopard saw the confused expression on her face and motioned for her to have a seat at the table. A fraction of the elves were also sitting, watching her with stern expressions. The ones sitting closest to her moved away just enough to be noticed.

Do I smell? Dawn wondered vaguely. She couldn’t remember if she’d used deodorant that morning, but she was pretty sure she did.

“Did no one tell you?” she asked. “Why you’re here?”

Dawn could only shake her head, smiling uncertainly.

“It is serious,” said the elderly elf sitting across from her. She had graying hair and dark, narrowed eyes. The smile slipped right off of Dawn’s face. “Chloe will tell you,” she said, waving her hand as if she herself couldn’t be bothered.

“Well,” said Chloe—the leopard—sitting down and looking up at Dawn, “It starts with that pool of water you drink from. You only see it if you touch a griffin or a dragon or you are one. Cobalt told you that, yes?” She looked over at Dawn, who nodded. She closed her eyes for a second and then opened them again. “He fought against us in battle. By coindence,” (Dawn guessed she meant coincidence) “after the war he landed in the clearing where the pool was. He drink the water and then fly to his own island—and directly over ours. He is now planning attack. We have to defeat him, and you are chosen to help us. Will you fight with us?”

“What? No! I don’t want to fight in a battle! Who said I would?”

“You misunderstand. You must only join a council of representatives, no fight, although you may be good fighter with training.”

“What good can I do in a council? I’m thirteen.”

“You were first person Amethyst saw. Is you destiny to be here. We need a human’s…” She looked at Cobalt. “What is the word?”

“Perspective,” Cobalt pronounced.

“We need human’s perspective. There is also a certain…Cobalt, what kind of spell?”

“Ancient,” said Cobalt with a smile.

“There is ancient spell that can be made if one of every kind of creature is present, one that will help us defeat Athianase.”

“But…why should I?” She knew how it sounded, but she was trying to enjoy her summer vacation, not help win a war.

Cobalt’s eyes narrowed. “We thought you might say something like that. That is why we all agreed to give you one wish if you do.”

Dawn’s eyes widened. A wish? That’s something I could really use! She thought, eyes darting from one creature to another. “You can do that?”

“We’re not your normal mainlanders, Dawn,” said Amethyst.

That was for sure. They were all holding their breaths and waiting for her decision. The one exception was the baby leopard, who was still batting at his mother’s tail, which she was flicking around. “I’ve never fought before,” she admitted, “or been on a council. I don’t think I would be much help to you. I don’t think I could do it, even for a wish.”

“We will help,” said the unicorn, sounding as though his nerves were being severely tested. “We are not asking if you can. We are asking you if you will.”

“Can’t someone else help?” Dawn asked.

“It is your destiny,” said Cobalt, repeating Chloe’s words. “Not someone else. Besides, do you think we would go to all that trouble to bring you here from the mainland just so you could disappoint us?”

“Um…no,” Dawn said, looking down at her gold tennis shoes.

“Well?” Chloe’s eyes were round and sparkly. Even her son stopped playing long enough to give Dawn a wide-eyed look.

The word seemed to hang in the air.

Dawn took a deep breath and puffed out her chest. She let it out and looked Cobalt straight in the eye. “Yes. I will be on your council.”


CHAPTER 4
DECISION

Amethyst and Dawn stepped out of the castle into the blinding mid-afternoon light. “I’m glad you agreed,” Amethyst breathed in relief. “We have been so anxious about this, and now the attack is closer than ever.” She looked at Dawn out of the corner of her eye.

They were suddenly flocked by creatures shouting at them. Dawn looked around, confused. How had they all gotten there so fast?

Amethyst thumped the ground with her foot and their meaningless chatter ceased. The crowd parted so that a wide walkway was formed. The ground began to rumble. Dawn’s stomach buzzed. She gasped as she saw that a dragon was emerging from the crowd. She had only heard of dragons—she had never dreamed that they were real. The one she was looking at now was a muddy brown with green, cat-like eyes and smoke wafting out of its nostrils. The spikes on its back and neck jutted out like evil-looking cactus thorns. Its body reminded her of that of a horse, and its neck was long. The end of its tail was curved to a point. Dawn sure didn’t want to be hit with that.

“We have only one question for the human,” he grumbled in a voice that shook the little puddle of water near them, saying the word “human” as if he was referring to something disgusting. “Did you agree to fight in our battle?” His eyes narrowed to menacing little points.

The human has a name, and she’s not actually going to fight, she thought, but she wasn’t about to correct him. “Yes,” she answered timidly.

“Good choice. I would hate to see the consequences of rejection.” Dawn was a little confused by that last part, but the way the dragon flicked his tail toward her ever so subtly, she was pretty sure he meant that bad things would happen to her if she turned them down.

The dragon snorted out a large plume of smoke and walked away, the ground shaking in his wake. The other creatures followed him back to their village.

Amethyst and Dawn walked side by side until they reached the beach where the sand was slimy with water that had ebbed not too long ago. Dawn’s shoes started to sink. She took them off, along with her socks, and dug her toes in. After a moment’s silence Dawn asked what had been on her mind since she had been greeted not-so-warmly. “Why do they hate me?”

It was a minute before Amethyst answered, and at first Dawn thought she was going to push the question aside, as she had done many times already. “Humans…well, I said before, they aren’t much liked.” She hadn’t said that before, exactly, but Dawn didn’t mention it.

“But why?”

“A few reasons. Humans have pros—pres—persecute—yes, I think that’s the one—us for many centuries. The dragons were the firsts. It was long ago the first human killed a dragon, and no one thought much of it. Then it became symbol of the honor to a human male, to kill dragon. Before