The Dragonstones Trilogy
Chapter 21

Sara loved visiting the Dragons Cave. Ever since she had discovered she could talk to the dragons despite their deaths, it had become one of her favorite things to do, second only to hanging out with James. Sara looked around, and realized that she was still in her human form. She quickly shifted into a dark green, venomous dragon.

A small red dragon named Smolder approached her. How has the search gone? He asked her. Dragons communicated with others through telepathy.

Not good. Sara said, sending the thought to Smolder. James is trying a different spell. I’m not even sure if it’s going to work, but it’s worth a try. Aevill had killed Sara’s parents, along with countless others over the years. Sara shuddered as she remembered the dream visions she had had. In one of them, she had watched children die because of Aevill.

Trying to get her mind off of that particular vision, Sara changed the subject. So, have you found out anything new about the Stone we’re looking for?

Smolder looked at her, his red eyes seeming to glow in the red light coming from the lava. The dragons know nothing more about the Stone than we have told you already, which is not much. If we did know, we would have told you long before now. You know how much all dragons wish to see Aevill dead.

Sara sat down on a nearby rock, large enough for her in her dragon form. She tried to think of better things to talk about with the dragons, but she kept coming back to the Stone they were searching for. Sara knew from past experiences that James could magically search for hours and still find nothing. She hoped the new spell would work better. James had seemed confident that it would.

Sara let her mind wander, settling on James. The dragons, sensing that she was lost in thought, flew or walked away, giving her time to think.

Sara had only recently realized that she had feelings for James, right as they had started searching for the Stone. Ever since then, she had kept her feelings to herself, and if the dragons suspected anything, they said nothing. Sara contented herself with the fact that this was just a teenage crush, that would go away easily. Then, she and James would still be friends, and nothing awkward would have happened.

James was the person who had first realized that Sara had magic, before even she did. He had introduced her to the cave, a magical place full of colorful glowing orbs and pools of water that showed the future, similar to the way Sara saw visions in her dreams at night.

Sara wasn’t sure how long she sat there, thinking about James, when suddenly she heard his voice. Sara! I found someone!

Sara quickly said Bye! To the dragons. She changed back into her human form, then touched a Dragon Stone. After the usual blue flash of light, she was back in the hotel room where she had left James. James was sitting on the bed and glowing slightly, proof that he was still singing at least one song in his head. James was a music magician, so there was no telling how many songs he could sing at once.

“Who did you find?” Sara asked, unable to keep the enthusiasm from her voice.

James shook his head. “I don’t really know. I only got the feeling that he knows a lot about magic, and would be able to help us, somehow.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Sara said. “How much energy did the spell use?”

“Not much,” James said as he studied the floor.

Sara didn’t believe it. She knew that all magic cost some energy. Sara looked at the clock. It had been several hours, enough to drain James of most of his energy. In the Dragon Cave, it had only felt like a few minutes, but time passed differently there than in the Land of the Living.

“How far away is he?” Sara asked.

“I forgot the name, but it’s not too far away,” James said. He hummed, and the place they needed to go to popped into her head.

“I can get us there,” James said, as if reading her thoughts. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Sara shook her head. “You’ve been using magic for hours. I want to fly anyway.”

“You sure?” James asked.

“Yes. If you don’t want to ride a dragon, you can just fly alongside me,” Sara said. She didn’t wait for a reply as she walked out of the hotel room. She and James didn’t need to worry about luggage, which was nice, in Sara’s opinion. James only needed to sing a song about what they needed, and it would appear. They didn’t know where the stuff came from, but neither wanted to find out, either.

As Sara climbed down the stairs to the lobby, she realized that James wasn’t following her. She only shrugged and quickened her pace. James knew quite a few transportation spells, and was already downstairs, waiting for her.

Just as Sara had suspected, he was. James looked up at Sara as she arrived. “Why didn’t you take the elevator?” he asked.

“I wanted some exercise,” Sara said.

“You’re going to be flying a lot today. Doesn’t that count?”

“That uses different muscles,” Sara said.

James shrugged and said, “Okay.” After glancing at his phone, he said, “It’s still pretty early. We’ll probably have time for you to fly us there, take a short break, then find this magician.”

He sang one of his transportation songs, and disappeared, appearing somewhere outside. Sara glanced around nervously, hoping no one had seen the bright orange glow. Regular humans couldn’t see magic. It was magicians she was worried about. There seemed to be none, but one could never be completely sure. Sara had been careless before, and paid dearly because of it. She hurried outside, and found a good place to change forms.

Sara shifted into a dragon, then looked around, searching for James. She didn’t see him. Sara was about to call James when he appeared in front of her. “I’m here,” he said. Sara didn’t know how James knew she was looking for him, but guessed that it was because of their bond, formed through magic.

As James climbed onto her back, Sara thought about the last trip to the cave she and James had gone on, only a couple months ago. Sara and James had gone on one of their trips to the cave, as they often did, but this time it was different.

Sara still wasn’t sure what exactly had happened, but they had gone farther into the cave than they had ever done before. After a series of weird and magical things happening, Sara and James ended up seeing the future, or what they assumed was the future.

Sara tried not to think about what she had seen. No matter what she did though, it still invaded her dreams. She couldn’t see where she was, but she was fighting Cole. He shot what looked like black fire, or shadow flames, at her. Sara dodged, and spun to see James behind her, facing Aevill. Black magic flew at him faster than Sara could register what she was seeing. The magic hit James, as she knew it would. Sara heard herself scream his name as James fell to the ground. Aevill looked at her, then smiled. Black tendrils flew toward her, and then the dream ended.

“Sara, you okay?” James asked. Sara jerked herself back to the present, nodded to James, and jumped into the air. She and James had realized that they had formed a connection shortly after they had started searching for the Stone. In fights against dark magicians, Sara had soon realized that she could sometimes hear James’s thoughts, and he hers. Sometimes they could sense the other's mood, too, but maybe that was just because they were such good friends. They had talked about it soon after they started hearing each others’ thoughts, and the only conclusion they could come to was that now they were connected, even more than they had been before.

This is exhausting. Sara heard James’s voice in her head, and she smiled. When they were flying, James used his magic to communicate with her through telepathy. Using magic for hours must have taken lots of James’s energy, and Sara was impressed he had any left at all.

You can rest if you want. I’ll make sure you don’t fall off. Sara told James.

“What?” James yelled over the wind, “I’m not tired.” Yes I am. Sara felt some momentary confusion at that. Why had James told her he was tired, then argued with her about it? She guessed that she had heard one of James’s thoughts again.

Sara turned to look at James. You’re tired. You said so yourself.

“Oh,” James said, sounding embarrassed. “I’ll stay awake for now, then.”

Sara tried to smile, until she realized she was in her dragon form. If you need to sleep any time, it’s okay if you do. Sara hoped that James would take her advice. Sure enough, she felt James slump on her back. With her dragon hearing, she could hear snores, even over the wind. James had less energy than he had thought.

A rogue gust of wind hit her in the face, and Sara had to dive down to avoid it. Strangely, the wind followed her. Sara didn’t ignore this sign. She knew what it meant. Dark magicians were somewhere nearby. While they had been out looking for the Stone, dark magicians had attacked them in the most unlikely of places. Sara had always thought of magic as a rare thing, dark magic being even more rare, but she had soon realized just how wrong she was.

Sara was too high off of the ground to see where the magician was. Above her, Sara saw a patch of clouds. Sara glanced back at the wind, getting blacker the closer it got to her and James. Sara hated to wake James up, but right now wasn’t really the time to consider his feelings. James! She yelled the thought, then turned and thrust it at James. James woke up immediately, sitting straight up, his eyes wide.

Make sure you can breathe. Was the only warning Sara gave him as she turned and flew into the clouds.

For Sara, being in the clouds wasn’t that bad. She was a dragon, so she didn’t feel the cold, and the mist tickled her scales, forming tiny droplets. James quickly sang a couple of songs, then didn’t seem bothered by the temperature or elevation.

James hummed a song, and his voice popped into Sara’s head. What happened? He asked.

Sara glanced around. There seemed to be no sign of the strange magical wind. I think a magician just tried to attack us.

Great. James sighed. I have some magic I can use to keep us up here when you get tired. he said.

Sara looked down at the ground, miles below her. No. I’ll keep going. We’re not too far from where we need to go anyway.

You sure? James asked.

Positive.

The rest of the trip, Sara made sure to hide in the clouds as much as possible. Although the moisture had seemed pleasant at first, Sara quickly realized that she did not prefer to fly through clouds, whenever she could. The moisture got in her eyes, blurring her vision, and freezing her wings, making it harder to fly.

Sara was relieved when she finally landed. She waited for James to climb off of her, then shifted back into a human. “Where are we?” she asked. Sara had known where they needed to go, but the name of the place had escaped her.

James shrugged. “Somewhere in Nebraska, I think.”

“So where’s this person?”

James sang what sounded like the song he used earlier, then pointed. What looked like a glowing orange string appeared in front of him. The string followed the road, then turned onto another street.

“Follow the magic,” he said. He started walking, humming under his breath. The orange light around him seemed to get brighter.

The magic didn’t follow the streets for long. It twisted and turned, and Sara found herself cutting across people’s properties more than once. After what seemed like the hundredth turn, Sara stopped paying attention to where the went. She followed James, and allowed her mind to wander.

James halted abruptly, and Sara narrowly missed crashing into him. Sara looked past James to see a small house. A large white cat lounged on a chair on the front porch. An elderly man stood with his back to them, leaning over what looked like a garden. Green stems with leaves shot out of the ground, but where the flowers would have been, were heads of small animals instead.

Every plant-animal was different, but each one had an animal head, surrounded by brightly colored petals. At the bottom of the petal part, the stem widened, and Sara assumed that was where the rest of the animal’s body was. Sara watched as the man carefully dug around a plant with a mouse in it, then placed it in a basket with other flower-animals.

“What are those?” Sara whispered to James.

“No idea,” he said back.

Hearing their voices, the man turned. Sara realized for the first time that the orange magic led straight to him. James quickly stopped humming, probably so the man wouldn’t see the spell. The man looked confused for a second, then smiled. “Can I help you?” he asked.

Sara glanced at James, hoping he would know what to say. James sang a quick song under his breath, then stopped as soon as the orange glow appeared. “Are you Mr. Thompson?” he said. Sara knew James didn’t need to ask. He was simply being polite.

Mr. Thompson seemed a bit surprised, but quickly recovered and nodded. “That’s me.” Various squeaks and chirps interrupted what he was going to say next. Mr. Thompson glanced down at the basket with the animal-flowers. “I need to take these inside. Want to come in?” he asked.

Sara and James nodded, then followed him into the house. Mr. Thompson disappeared into a nearby room, then emerged again, this time without a basket. “What can I help you with?” he asked, sitting in a recliner.

When James didn’t answer, Sara spoke. “We don’t want to take up too much of your time, but we are looking for a certain magic Stone. It’s a whitish color, and we were wondering if you’ve heard of it.”

Mr. Thompson thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Throughout my life I’ve heard of many different forms of magic, but I’ve never heard of this one. How do you know it even exists?”

Sara and James exchanged a glance. “We just know,” she said.

“Well,” Mr. Thompson said as he got off of his chair. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be much help, but take my advice. This magic stone you’re looking for, it’s probably going to be somewhere out in nature, assuming someone like you two hasn’t found it first. From what I’ve experienced, magic is strongest out in nature, away from humans and the like.” He paused as they heard various squeaks and crows coming from outside. “I’d better get back to gardening. The florauna have been acting strangely all day. Good luck finding that Stone,” he said as he walked out the door.

Sara waited until he was gone, then asked James, “Florauna?”

James shrugged. “It’s probably those plant animal things.”

“Have you ever seen any before?”

“Never, but I have a feeling that the closer we get to this Stone, the weirder things will get until suddenly we’re there.” James said.

“Hopefully it will all be over soon,” Sara said. Even as she said those words, Sara knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. Her life never was.

“Well, it’s not too late,” James said, breaking her train of thought. “I say that we find a hotel, take a break for the rest of the day and build up energy, and find out where we’re going next.”

“Sure,” Sara agreed. At least it was a plan. She had to admit, though, that after all the time they had been searching for this Stone, she had hoped that they would have found something by now. She had known that it wouldn’t be easy, but she had also hoped for the search to be just that.

“You ready to go?” James asked.

“Sure. I’m gonna go flying for a bit. Is it okay if I meet you there?” Sara didn’t need to worry about building up energy. Her magic consisted of changing into a dragon, and those talents. Even when she did need a little extra energy or magic, the dragons in the Dragon Cave were more than happy to help her out.

“See you there,” James said. He sang one of his transportation songs. Sara watched as the orange glow around him grew brighter and brighter, then dimmer as James faded out, and eventually disappeared completely. Sara walked of Mr. Thompson’s house, then looked around. The old man was back in the garden with the florauna, “gardening.” Other than him, Sara could see no one. Feeling somewhat safe, Sara shifted into a dragon. The sun was lower in the sky than it had been when they had arrived there, but it still was nowhere near close to setting.

Behind her, Sara heard a low whistle. She turned to see Mr. Thompson staring at her, squinting slightly because of the brightness of her scales. “Never seen that before,” he said. “I thought dragons were extinct.”

Sara looked at him. He was holding a florauna in his hand, this one a baby lizard. It reminded Sara of the younger dragons she had met in the Dragons Cave. “The dragons are supposed to be dead,” Mr. Thompson said again. Apparently seeing a dragon in real life was a shock for him.

Sara glanced up at the sky. She wanted as much flying time as possible. They are. She told him. Thanks again for your help. She said as she launched herself into the sky. Below on the ground, Sara heard someone shout, and she was pretty sure it was Mr. Thompson. She looked down to see his tiny figure waving on the ground below.

Sara flapped her wings harder, and flew higher into the sky. On a whim, she turned in midair and was blinded by the sun, which seemed so close that if she went any further she would burn up. Wind pounded into her from all directions, but it didn’t bother Sara. It only added to the challenge. As she flew whichever way she pleased, Sara allowed her mind to wander.

As it almost always did these days, it settled on James. Sara wondered if her crush on James had developed into something more, and if he cared about her as more than a friend. Sara quickly crashed that train of thought and grasped at something, anything else to think about. The weather was nice for flying, there was a squirrel on the ground hundreds of feet below her, her dragon eyes able to see it.

Sara finally found a safe topic to think about that would keep her occupied for more than two seconds. She thought about Aevill, and how she and James were trying to defeat him. Aevill was responsible for her own parents’ deaths, along with countless others. For years, Sara had been haunted by nightmares of her father dying at the hands of Drusk, the magician originally sent to kill her father, and later her, until he had died trying to end Sara’s life.

Later, Aevill somehow found out that she and James were looking for a way to end his magical reign. He had sent magicians to attack Sara and James. Those magicians were Cole, who was being forced against his will, and Drana, James’s sister, who was also controlled. Aevill possessed the Shadow Stones, magical objects powerful enough to control magicians with dark magic.

Drana had attacked Sara, and somewhere in that fight, managed to kill Sara’s mother as well. Sara closed her eyes, trying to block out the pain that consumed her as she thought about her mom, who had died right before she and James went out in search of the Shadow Stones. In a dream, Sara learned about the other Stone, which supposedly controlled light magic, and was what they were supposed to look for instead of the Shadow Stones.

At first, Sara had been a little unsure of the dream, and how true it was, but Sara had learned early on to trust her visions. The Dragon magic gave visions to her for a reason, and they ended up being really helpful every time she acted on them.

This was why she and James were wandering around the world, looking for anything that could even remotely resemble the Stone they were looking for. Sara had had a vision, and they were hoping that this Stone did truly exist.

Sara thought about all the places they had looked so far. They had searched many populated cities, but never once thought that the Stone could be out in nature. Sara could not see why she had James had never thought to look there before. What Mr. Thompson had said made sense. Magic originated in nature. It only made sense that the Stone would be out in nature, rather than in the middle of a crowded city.

James’s voice popped into her mind. Sara! Where are you? Sara could hear the strain in his voice.

I’m still out flying, why? Sara asked.

More of Aevill’s magicians found us. They’re different people than last time. They always are. Sara never liked being attacked by Aevill, but they had quickly gotten used to it while they were searching for the Stone. Aevill knew what they were doing, and was doing his best to stop them. Sara also had a sneaking suspicion that Aevill was looking for the Stone himself, hoping to get there first and stop Sara and James from finding it.

Sara started her descent. Okay. Show me where you are. Sara got a mental image as a reply. It was a hotel, not too far from where Sara was currently. The room James was in had a balcony. James must have had a quick escape in mind when he chose that place.

Sara dove toward the ground, the wind rushing past her at what used to be a terrifying speed. It took her almost no time to find the building, and flew to the room she guessed James to be in. I’m here. She told him.

There was silence on James’s end. Sara tried not to let that worry her. Sara looked around while she waited. She was in what looked like a smaller town, but not tiny. Sara’s wings started to burn, urging her to do anything but just hover there, waiting for James. She wanted to fly some more. Sara reigned in those thoughts. She wouldn’t leave James.

Sara waited another five minutes, then started worrying for real. James where are you? She asked.

James didn’t answer.

Sara closed her eyes, thinking of where James could possibly be. She almost fell out of the air when she started seeing something, not through her eyes, but through what could only be James’s. He was running, down what looked like the hotel hallway. He turned a corner, and Sara heard his rapid breathing. He looked around. Several people dressed all in black were right behind him.

Sara could feel James’s burning lungs, as if she were him. James sang a quick song, and reappeared several feet farther from them. James was running out of energy, he quickly sang another song, then Sara felt wind rushing past James. She could see the ground rapidly approaching him. Sara opened her eyes, and looked around. It took her only a moment to see James. He sang a flight song, but the orange aura around him sputtered, then grew dimmer. James was almost out of energy.

Sara didn’t try to think. She only acted. She twisted, then flew to James, whose magic was barely slowing his fall. Sara dove under him, then paused. James landed on her back with a thud. Ow! Sara said. James, next time you’re attacked, tell me!

Sara could feel James singing, but couldn’t hear what. James’s voice popped into her mind. Sorry. I was kind of busy.

Where do we go now? Sara asked.

I have no idea. I haven’t had time to do another searching spell.

Then I’ll just fly away from here and try to find someplace safe. Sara said.

You sure that’s a good idea? James asked.

It’s the only one I can think of. Which way should we go?

Let’s go...Sara turned to look where James was pointing. That way.

Sara shrugged, or would have had she been in her human form, and turned in the direction of where he was pointing. The sun dipped lower and lower in the sky, until it was no longer there, replaced by a blanket of darkness.

Sara looked around, scanning the ground for any sign of the dark magicians that had attacked James. Her vision took on the usual greenish tinge that always arrived when she used her eyes at night, in either form.

On her back, Sara felt James’s breathing slow, until she knew he was asleep. Sara wasn’t sure where exactly she was taking them, so she didn’t pay too much attention to her flying. Sara wondered why James hadn’t told her about the dark magicians chasing him. Sara had been waiting outside the wrong window, and she hadn’t even known.

Sara felt James’s breathing speed up, along with his pulse. Sara turned to see what was going on. He seemed to be having some sort of nightmare. Sara was ready to wake him when his eyes popped open. Instead of their usual bright blue, they were a bright green, the same shade as her venom. The scariest part about it was, his eyes were glowing. Sara knew he didn’t say it, but she heard a voice distinctly say, You can’t protect her.

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