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“Today we will embark on a dangerous but amazing journey!” John said to the group of men he had gathered. John was an explorer, and loved going on many dangerous adventures, and often he wrote about them. He had brown hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in an explorer outfit, beige short sleeve button shirt with many different pockets, and beige shorts, also with many pockets. He also wore black shoes.

“Where are we going to go?” one of the men asked. “To the center of the Bermuda Triangle!” John replied. The men murmured amongst themselves. “You’re mad!” cried one of them. “You know as well as all of us that any electric device fails when you get even close to the border of it! We could never get to the center in a ship, plane, jet, anything!” another called. “Ah, but that is here you are wrong!” John said happily “we will take an old fashioned ship, one made of wood with sails!”

The men fell silent, thinking for a moment than they started to murmur and nod again. Finally, they agreed.

Later that day they were getting on board a ship. The captain shouted orders to everyone, and soon they set out on a journey. For many days and nights they sailed, and the men were getting very tired and wanted to go home. They finally reached the triangle and as they neared the center there was a thump at the bottom of the boat. “We must have gone over a reef or something,” the captain said.

The men talked in agreement, but suddenly went silent when they heard what sounded like hiss. There was another thump, this time at the side of the ship. Another thump followed at the other side of the ship. The ship got tossed from side to side each hit getting harder and soon there was a sickening CRUNCH as a hole was smashed into the sides. A roar sounded out of the water and more crunches were heard, but not from the ship.

Another roar came from the water but it was higher pitched like a scream of agony. John stared into the water and watched as pieces of wood floated to the top from the bottom of the ship. Thee ship started to tip and it was over turned. The men screamed as they were thrown into the cold water. John closed his eyes tightly as he was thrown into the water. He took a deep breath and held it.

He opened his eyes when underwater. The first thing he noticed was that his eyes didn’t sting, the second was that he could see perfectly, it wasn’t foggy at all, but what amazed him most was what he saw. Their bodies were long and snake-like; they had huge fins that were spiny like those of a lionfish. Spikes lined their spines to the tail, which was tipped with a blue leaf-like spike. Dragons he thought. His mouth dropped open without his realizing, but for some reason he could breath. The water around him reddened, and he snapped out of his thoughts, becoming aware of a gash in his side. A dragon had struck his side with its tail. The dragon was coming back for another strike but he quickly moved before he was hit. He looked around and saw many men dead and many struggling for their lives.

John was suddenly seized by one of the dragons’ tails. It opened it huge jaws, ready to chomp down on him. Suddenly an eerie but beautiful sound echoed through the water. All of them, both men and dragon, froze and turned to where the sound came from. “Beautiful…” John whispered.

The creature, which was before them, was another dragon, but it was a different type. It was a silver-blue color and covered in fur with patches of scales here and there. It had a fox head with sharp antlers on its head. A fox tail swayed behind it and instead of the vicious claws and eyes the sea dragons had, it had fox paws and gentle glowing blue eyes, but it’s body was still long. It let out another cry, and the sea dragons let the men go and bowed their heads, despite the other dragon being much smaller.

The men took this chance to swim away. They broke the surface and looked around. They saw an island near by and swam towards it. They climbed onto the shore and collapsed, breathing heavily. “That was amazing!” John said as he got out of the water.

“No, it was terrible! My ship was destroyed! And by what? Some over grown snakes with fins and spikes!” the captain snapped. “How are we going to get home?!” one of the men cried. “I don’t know,” John said “but we’ll find a way, for now, let’s just make camp.” His side was still bleeding, but not as much because of all the dirt and salt in it. All the men gathered woof for a fire.

They couldn’t find any food, therefore, couldn’t eat. Hungry and frightened the men lay around the bonfire, mourning the deaths of the rest, until finally getting to sleep.

Half way through the night John could feel the remains of his shirt being torn off and then a sting in his side. He slowly woke and looked at a shadowy figure next to him working on his side. What he didn’t notice, at least at first, was that he was floating in the air. He just closed his eyes again, too tired to think straight. He suddenly became aware that there was no ground under him and gasped.

His eyes widened and he looked at the figure again, and was able to make out the face of a girl. She gave a yelp and darted into the trees. John hit the ground hard and sat up. He could see the big brown eyes of the girl as she looked through the leaves at him. He chuckled a bit and moved forward “come on… come on out, I’m not going to hurt you.

“I know you were trying to help me,” he said with a welcoming smile. She stared at him for a moment before slowly moving forward. She walked over to him and looked at him, than his side. She started to work on his side again. She bandaged it and gave a sweet smile.

The clouds shifted away from the moon, which was full, and light illuminated the island. He could now see the girl, and he gasped at what he saw. Long black hair fell down her back to her waist, with fox ears poking through her hair. She had light brown eyes that held innocence mixed with the slyness of a fox. She was dressed in a deerskin shirt and deer skin skirt with shorts underneath.

A foxtail curled and uncurled behind her, and large green wings folded around her shoulders. She smiled sweetly at him again, than looked to the sky. She looked about ten years old. A roar came from the forest, but it was no dragon, it sounded like a lion. Her fox ears flicked and she looked to the trees. She looked back to him than turned and darted back to the forest. John watched her, and smiled a bit “what a cute girl,” he whispered. He went back and lied down “and my side feels better already… wonder where she learned how to mend wounds,” he murmured and slowly drifted off again.

When morning came he slowly woke to someone shaking him. “John! It’s a Miracle! When we woke this morning there was a change of clothes for all of us, and plenty of food!” one of the men said. John smiled “it isn’t a miracle, we just got some help from a little fox,” he said. The man looked confused but shrugged it off and gave him some fish. John looked around as he ate and something caught his eye at the edge of the forest.

He stood and walked over, smiling at what he saw. A box full of water skins, and large folded up pieces of animal furs, with large bones next to the box for them to build tents. He picked the stuff up and walked over. “Look what else our little helper got us,” he said. The men stared at the box and bones then gathered around and each took a water skin.

They pulled out the furs and picked up the bones. “These bones are strong enough to break a rock,” said one of them “what could they have come from?” “And the furs have been sewn together with silver string the feels like hair,” said another. “Who would give us such gifts as these?” the captain whispered, he shook his head “set up the tents, we’ll give tent assignments later.” While they set up, John headed off into the forest after changing. “These are very comfortable… I have to find her so I can thank her,” he said to himself. “He looked at the sky through the trees. “This place is so beautiful…” he whispered. He stopped when he reached a crystal clear lake with a waterfall falling into it. “This must be where she got the water,” he said. He headed through the forest some more and stopped at a field, staring in amazement. In the field it stood, fur as pure as the fresh fallen snow with a silver mane and a single golden horn, a unicorn. He saw something lying next to it and grinned.

It was the fox girl, speaking with the unicorn. He silently made his way forward. The unicorn looked at him for a moment, than looked away and laid down, not seeming bothered by him at all. He continued over and sat next to the fox girl. She opened her eyes, and smiled at him, her tail wagging. “Hello miss fox,” he said “I never did get your name, how am I to thank you properly without your name? I am John.” She looked at him, staring silently before smiling and replying, “I’m Alora.” John smiled “what a beautiful name, and thanks for everything Alora.” Alora nodded “you are very welcome!” she said happily. “So why did you decide to come into the forest?” she asked. “I wanted to find you so I could thank you,” John said with a grin. “What?! You came all this way into the forest just to say thank you?!” she asked in surprise.

John laughed “yep!” he said. Alora giggled a bit “you are a strange human,” she said. John tilted his head “is that a bad thing? I hope not,” he said. “Of course it isn’t!” Alora replied with a grin. John smiled “I’m glad,” he said softly, closing his eyes and enjoying the sun.

The sun was setting in the sky. Alora didn’t realize at first but when she felt the air start to get cold she shot up. She looked at the rapidly setting sun it was now almost gone. “You have to get out of here now!” she said to John. He sat up and looked at her “but why?” he asked “and what about you?” “The forest is very dangerous at night, I can handle it, but a human can not!” Alora said. Her ears went up and she turned and darted into the trees. The forest air started to get ice cold, and he started to shake, not just from the cold, but also from fear. John got up and headed through the forest. He sped up when he heard a branch snap and an eerie sound.

His pace quickened even more when he saw a moving glow. A demon spirit cackled as it flew over his head, sending a chill up his spine as it grazed it. He saw more spirits around him and many flew at him as he dodged them. He could see the shadows moving and hear the haunting cries of the night beasts. Suddenly the ground sunk beneath one of his feet.

He tried to catch himself, but it was in vain, and he started rolling down a hill, stopping when he flew against something soft. He sighed with relief, glad that, that was over… or so he thought. He lifted his hand to get the hair out of his face and twigs out of his hair. As he lifted his arm, his elbow rubbed against fur, and a lot of it. He tensed and swallowed hard when he heard a deep breathing. Despite his better judgment, he slowly turned to look at what it was, and chocked back a scream.

Before him, covered in brown fur with a large brown and black mane was a lion, but not a normal sized lion, the creature before him was at least eight feet. It looked completely asleep, but was only half asleep; this was because of John flying into it. Slowly he backed up to go back up the hill. SNAP the sound cut through the air like a blade. A growl came from the lion as it opened its large amber eyes. It looked at John and growled even more. It lifted its head and got to its feet. It roared and John took off running. The lion shook the leaves and sticks off itself and charged after John. It leaped over him and landed in front of him. He turned to face John and smacked him against a tree with its massive paw. John slid to the ground groaning, and closed his eyes as the lion raised its paw to deliver the final blow. The blow never came; instead he heard a screech than a roar than a struggle and a loud thump. He hesitated a moment before slowly opening his eyes. He was surprised at what he saw. The lion was pinned against the ground by a half bird half fox creature. They appeared to be talking.

It could have been the glow of the spirits that were around, it could have been the hallucination brought on by hitting his head against the tree, or it could have been something entirely different. Whatever caused it, it amazed John. Alora lying on top of the lion in the bird fox creature, and inside the lion was a seventeen-year-old boy with lion ears, lion tail, lion eyes, and brown and black shaggy hair that represented a lion pain. After a little while the vision of the two faded. The beasts continued to talk, and the bird-fox now had a look of sorrow in its eyes.

It laid its head on the lion’s chest, it being smaller than the lion, and the lion gave a sigh, and put its paws around the creature as if hugging it, and licked its head. The creature smiled and got up off the lion then helped it up. The lion said one last thing to the creature and ran off. The creature turned and headed over to john, and what he found strange was the fact that he wasn’t afraid. He got up but cried in pain and fell again. He had sprained his ankle, and badly.

The creature screeched and jumped back at his cry. John chuckled a bit, even though it hurt his side to laugh right now. “I don’t think we are going to get back to camp if both of us are screaming,” he joked, giving a weak smile. The creature looked at him than walked over and gently picked him up in its beak. It went through the forest and to the shore where the men had set up tents.

They were gathered around a fire making some dinner. It hesitated a moment before heading forward. The men gulped and moved away from it as it approached. It stopped near the fire and put John next to it. It looked at the other men and snorted that turned and headed back to the forest. They stared at John for a while before moving before to help him.

“What was that thing?” one of the men asked. “I don’t exactly know… but I think we can trust her,” John replied. “That’s a her? How do you know?” another asked. “She was much too gentle to be a male,” John said simply. The captain had been watching with a smirk as the creature came.

“I bet a beast like that would make a fortune,” he said to himself “as would one of those dragons… I bet this entire forest is full of mysterious beasts…” a plan started to un-hatch, a terrible, greedy plan. He took out a radio, and was surprised to find it still worked. He turned it on and found a signal. “Base, come in base,” he said. “This is base, where are you Mortis?” a voice replied. “At the center of the Bermuda Triangle, my ship was destroyed and we are on an island at the center.

“I have found something that will make us a fortune,” the captain said. “What should we bring?” the voice asked. “A battle ship, and submarine loaded with missiles, you’ll need them,” Mortis replied. “But won’t the magnetic field take those down?” asked the voice. “Oh, believe me, it has nothing to do with the magnetic field.

“Also, bring tons of tranquilizers and anesthesia, we’ll need those as well,” he replied.

“Will anyone get in our way?”

“There is one, that I know of, there may be a few others who are loyal to him, but most of them just want money. In any case, I’ll take care of that, just get here, Mortis out.” He turned the radio off and lay down, slowly drifting off to sleep.

When morning came, John slowly woke to the sound of mournful cries down the shore a little ways. He stood and limped towards the sound, wondering what was going on. He stopped when he saw two sea dragons on shore. One was holding the other who was crying, trying to comfort it. He figured they were mates and the one crying was the female, for lying before them was what looked to be a dead baby dragon. His mind wandered to when he heard the other crunch on the ship, and he soon realized that those crunches must have been the breaking of the small creature’s bones.

He suddenly felt guilty, but also confused, why were they bringing it to shore? He saw the small dragon move a bit, it wasn’t dead! Alora ran out of the forest and over to them. “Oh my…” she said in almost a whisper. John slowly moved closer. The dragons looked at him and growled. “It’s okay, he’s a friend,” Alora said with a smile. She looked at them again “I can do my best, but I can’t promise anything,” she said softly.

The dragons nodded and said something that John couldn’t make out. Alora nodded “I will,” she said. The dragons nodded again and went back into the water. “What’s going on?” John asked, walking over to her. “This baby dragon got badly hurt, they thought they could take care of it, but nothing they did worked, so they brought him to me since I am the good healer, though I wish they had brought him to me right after it happened though,” she said.

She headed into the forest, and John followed behind her. “Anything I can do?” he asked. She thought for a moment and nodded. “You can gather some herbs for me, I’ll draw out the pictures for you,” she said. She stopped at the lake that he had seen the day before.

She placed the dragon at the side so the water was still on it. She pulled out some parchment and a piece of charcoal and started to draw something. She gave him the parchment with pictures of plants. “Find these herbs,” she replied. John nodded and headed off.

He wandered the forest, searching for the herbs. His gaze was on the ground and so did not pay attention to what was in front of him. He ran into someone then quickly jumped back and looked up from the ground. In front of him was a very tall boy standing at mere inch smaller at 6’1”. He had brown and black shaggy hair with amber eyes that John didn’t dare look into.

He was dressed in cloths made of some kind of animal skin. Lion ears stuck through his hair and a lion tail swayed behind him. The boy in the lion… he thought. The boy narrowed his eyes than grabbed him by the back of his shirt and lifted him up than carried him that way. John didn’t move or say anything, scared speechless because of the boy’s strength.

They got back to the lake, and the boy froze in his tracks. Alora was trying to get away from a pale boy about sixteen, who was holding her by the wrist. “Leave me alone Kier!” she snapped. “Now why would I want to do that?” Kier replied with a smirk. “Because if you don’t I’ll rip you to shreds!” the boy snapped.

Kier showed no fear, he just gave another smirk “oh, hello Tocho.” Tocho threw John aside and advanced toward him “I told you not to lay a finger on Alora!” he snapped. “Sorry, can’t keep that command, she is just too cute.” Kier said grabbing Alora’s chin. Alora growled and pulled back.

She continued growling as she moved over to John. Kier frowned a bit at her than glared at Tocho “I’ll be back,” he said and vanished. “What’s with him?” John asked. “His name is Kier; he’s the vampiric shadow prince. He’s been trying to get a hold of Alora for quite some time,” Tocho said. John cringed “ew, that boy’s like what? Sixteen? And he’s after a little girl? What a sick minded boy.”

Tocho stared at him for a moment before asking, “Just how old do you think Alora is?” “Um… she’s like ten or something… isn’t she?” John said. Tocho snorted before bursting into laughter. John blushed in embarrassment as he laughed. “You’re about five years off,” Tocho said. “What?! She’s fifteen?! But she’s so small!” John replied in astonishment.

Alora giggle a bit, wagging her tail. “Well of course I’m small! I’m part fox!” she said. John shook his head; he was still astonished but was soon back to normal.

A few days passed, and they had made the best of their stay on the island. John woke with a start as he heard a loud clunk of metal. He opened his eyes and they got wide as he caught sight of a giant battleship. He didn’t know what was going on, but he did know that it wasn’t god. He jumped to his feet and turned to run into the forest and warn them, but a net was shot at him, catching him.

He struggled, trying to get free. The captain walked over to him and smirked. “Mortis? Are you behind this?” John asked. “I am,” the captain said. “But why?!” John cried, “They gave us food, cloths, and shelter! Why are you turning on them?” “Because, those were nice deeds they did, but good deeds only count as payments for scouts, the real world runs on money, and these creatures will make us rich.

“You know, it’s not too late to join us…” the captain replied. John glared “I will never join you despicable people,” he growled. “Alora!” he shouted, “If you can hear me than get ready to fight! The captain is coming after you!” There was silence for a while before a roar and high-pitched howl erupted and the forest followed by many other sounds. John smirked “now they know what you are doing, now they will be ready,” he said. The captain growled at him. He raised his gun and smashed John over the head, knocking him out cold.

“You should have killed him before we got here,” a woman said, walking over. “Yeah… I never got the chance. Let’s just go get the creatures,” Mortis replied. The woman nodded. They headed into the forest, a few men pulling wagons of weapons and anesthesia. They moved with caution through the forest.

“It’s way too quiet,” the woman said. “They are hiding,” Mortis said “everyone, grab as many weapons and as much anesthesia as you can carry, we have to split up to find them.” They nodded and did as they were told. They split up into several different groups and headed off.

Alora rushed through the forest; one of the groups had spotted her and was now chasing her. She stopped when she reached a dead end at the side of a cliff and frowned. She spun around to face them. They smirked as they approached. “Hey, this one is kind of cute, we should keep her to ourselves, won’t be long till we can use her,” one of them said with a smirk. She whimpered, her ears lowered, she was too afraid to think of how to get away.

The man reached towards her but suddenly froze, his eyes widening. A blade came through his heart, and blood ran down his chest and was coming out of his mouth a bit. The blade was pulled out and he fell to the ground dead. Alora stared at the body for a moment before looking up to see who did it. Before her stood the pale black haired boy with an even grin on his lips.

“Kier!” she said, “For once in my life I’m happy to see you, but why is the shadow prince saving me?” “I can’t let them take you away, you’re my girl, only me, Tocho, and that good human are alowed to touch you,” Kier replied. He licked some of the blood from the sword and cringed “yep, that was a bad one,” he said. Alora cringed as she watched him “how many times have I told you not to do that in front of me?” she asked. Kier gave a playful smirk “too many times to count my dear, now, you better get to the shore, they have your human friend in a net,” he said. Alora nodded and ran off.

Kier turned to the other men who were in the group, they were slowly creeping away. “Who should I kill next? Oh, I suggest you don’t run or your death will be ten times as painful,” he said. They spun around and dropped to their knees, begging for their lives. Kier gave a cold sneer, raising his sword again “you humans are pathetic.”

Alora raced through the forest, heading for shore. As she ran she slowly began to change forms. Her arms became longer and feathers grew, turning her arms into wings. She became taller and her knees bent backwards and became covered in silver-blue fur, as did the rest of her body. Her feet became paws, her human head turned to a large fox head, and with a great leap she took flight.

She landed on the beach with a loud CRASH and let out an eerie but beautiful call. John stirred a bit that sound… I’ve heard it before he thought. The men guarding him from being helped raised their weapons and shot two tranquilizing darts at her. She gave a yelp of pain, but was not affected by it, or so it seemed. She grabbed one of them in her jaws, crushing his bones, than grabbed the other one and threw him into the water. He tried to get out, but with a scream of terror he was dragged under and killed by one of the sea dragons.

John shook in fear as she approached him, but as he looked into her glowing blue eyes, he knew it was Alora. She broke the net around him. “You have to help us… but you will have to kill other humans… can you do that?” she asked. John stared at her in shock. How could he ever kill his own kind? She looked up when she heard a roar of pain. “Think about it, but I have to help my followers!” she said.

She flapped her wings hard and flew up into the air. She flew off over the forest. John stayed where he was for a moment, before getting to his feet and running through the forest under her. He stopped when they got to the once beautiful flower field, staring in horror at what he saw. He saw many creatures of all sorts laying in the field either dead or dying.

He noticed that there were dark creatures and light creatures fighting the humans. Despite his horror, the scene filled him with amazement. Light and dark, night and day… they were complete opposites, enemies since the beginning of time, and yet they now fought together as one. He would do it, he would fight, and he would help. He heard a heavy breathing near him. “You… human,” a young man’s voice said. He turned and hurried over to the elf that was near him. “Yes?” he said softly. “I may not live, but you can still help us. Take my sword and my armor; we are about the same size. It will not be heavy, but you will have to get use to it for I know humans no longer use such things in combat,” the elf said.

John was surprised by the elf’s words “how did you know I wasn’t one of the bad humans?” he asked, “I’ve never met you… I didn’t even know there were elves here.” The elf smiled weakly “But I have seen you with the young Guardian. Please… you must help her…” John nodded and took his sword and armor and put it on, putting the sword on his belt. The elf gave another weak smile “take my bow and quiver as well,” he said. John nodded and did so “what is your name?” “Arion,” the elf replied.

John nodded and dragged the elf over to a tree, letting him lean against it. “Don’t die on us Arion,” he said. He turned and ran off to find the captain. He heard the pounding of hooves behind him. The unicorn he had seen on his first day on the island.

“Get on my back, it’ll be faster,” the unicorn said. “You can talk?!” he asked. “Only a few can understand me, now get on!” the unicorn said. John grabbed its mane and climbed onto its back. The unicorn bolted, they were rapidly coming into the fight.

He raised the sword and struck down some of the men. He couldn’t find the captain anywhere. He heard a lion roar in the forest. “That’s Tocho… head to where he is, I have a feeling he’s in trouble,” he said. The unicorn nodded and ran into the forest.

Tocho had many darts sticking out, as well as many injuries that were bleeding but he still put up a fight. The unicorn looked over his injuries and reared, giving a horrid neigh, it was angered by this sight. John almost fell off, but managed to stay on, tucking his knees tightly against the unicorn’s sides and still holding the mane. The men looked at him in fear as he shouted “prepare to die!” The unicorn charged forward, and the men took off running.

He rode after them but the unicorn stopped and turned around, going back to the giant lion. The lion sat, leaning against the tree. John walked over to him. “How you doing big guy?” he asked. Tocho snorted at him.

“Right, stupid question, sorry,” John said “anything I can do?” “Continue fighting, I’ll be-”Tocho roared in pain and fell to the ground. An arrow stuck out of his back. “Tocho!” cried Alora’s voice. The girl ran to her brother’s side and shook him. “Tocho? Tocho get up!” she said as she shook him.

Tocho didn’t respond. “Tocho… come on… wake up…” tears streaked her cheeks when he still didn’t respond. However her sorrow quickly turned to rage. She shook and backed away as she started to change. Spikes rose from her back, her nails grew into claws, and her skin turned as black as shadow and got a texture as it changed to scales.

Black bat-like wings burst out of her back; she got taller and went on four legs. Her head changed to a dragon-like head with extremely sharp horns. Her hands and feet were now sort of like talons. She had a long and thin tail with a crescent shaped blade on the tip. She let out a horrible sound and blasted the tree where the person who shot Tocho hid, blasting the person as well.

She turned and charged through the forest, taking down anything in her path. “Oh no… this isn’t good…” John heard another voice say. He turned to see a blood spotted Kier. “What happened to her?” John asked. “Alora is a guardian; guardians have six good forms, and two bad.

“Those two bad forms at random times. When she is greatly depressed the form of sadness takes over, and when she is full of rage, well…” he motioned to where she had charged off. “The form of anger takes over,” John finished. “Exactly… we have to calm her now before she destroys Enchantus!” Kier said. “I’ll help,” John said.

Kier nodded and they ran after her. She was in the field with a bunch of humans trying to take her down; however, they were losing badly. She blasted them and sliced them in half. John watched in horror as this happened. “Come one! We have to get closer!” Kier said, but John was frozen to the spot.

Kier growled and smacked him in the back of the head. He snapped out of it and looked at him. “I will have to handle Alora, you just have to kill the ones attacking her,” Kier said. John nodded, and they charged into the fight than took down the men. Kier ran ahead, taking the form of a black dragon. He tackled Alora and pinned her to the ground.

Alora struggled beneath him, clawing at his back and biting his shoulder. John continued to fight, surprised by his own agility and strength, he never knew he had such ability. Kier was shaking in pain from Alora’s clawing and biting, but he didn’t let her go. “Alora! Snap out of it! This I not what you want to be!” he shouted. Alora continued to fight him, but slowly started to calm down.

She soon lay still, but breathed heavily. John had gotten rid of the men and now he watched silently. He saw tears forming in the demonic creature’s eyes, and both Kier and Alora were switching back to normal. They were soon in their human forms again. Kier got off Alora and helped her sit up before pulling her into his arms and holding her close.

“I know you’re upset Alora… but you can’t let your anger consume you, you don’t want to be a demon,” he said softly to her. She sobbed against his chest “I was supposed to protect them… I was suppose to keep them all safe… how could I let this happen? How could I let the humans destroy this beautiful island?” she sobbed. “It’s not your fault Alora… you didn’t know,” Kier said. “Now isn’t this precious? One demon comforting another demon,” came a cruel voice than the person laughed coldly. “So which one should I take? Or should I just kill them both?” Mortis stepped forward out of the trees, a smirk on his face.

John spun around and glared “Alora is not a demon!” he snapped, charging forward with the sword. Mortis raised his gun and shot once, hitting John’s shoulder and making his drop the sword, then again, in the knee, making him drop to the ground on that knee. “Oh John,” Mortis said “you should have joined me while you could, because sadly I have to kill you now.” He raised the gun to fire a final shot but suddenly tensed. He dropped to the ground and looked down and saw a sword protruding from his chest. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he closed them, falling lip as the last bit of life left him. He dropped to the ground as the sword was pulled out of him, and behind him stood none other than the lion boy Tocho. “Tocho!” cried Alora as she ran over, throwing her arms around him. He hugged her back weakly “you ain’t getting rid of me that easy,” he said with a smile. His smile soon faded though, and was replaced with a pained look.

He fell to his knees and Alora saw that the Arrow was still in his back. She went behind him and grabbed the arrow “I’m sorry Tocho, this is going to hurt really badly,” she said. She tugged it a bit to loosen it than yanked it out. Tocho let out a yell which sounded more like a roar, than breathed heavily. Alora put her hands over the wound and started to heal it.

Tocho had already lost a lot of blood though. He lay there weakly, trying to think of what to do to save his life, he couldn’t die, not yet, he had to take care of Alora. He looked over at Kier. “Kier, I’m not ready to die yet, you are the only one who can help,” he said. Kier looked at him wide eyed “you mean…?” he said.

Tocho nodded “yes, I want you to turn me,” he replied. Kier nodded and moved forward. “Alora, take care of John while Kier takes care of me,” Tocho told Alora. She nodded and hurried over to John. She turned John away. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what does he mean by turn and take care of?” he asked.

He cried out in pain as she touched his shoulder. “Sorry… as for your question… Kier is a vampire; Tocho has lost too much blood for me to do anything, so only Kier can help,” Alora replied. John though about this for a moment before realizing what she meant “oh…” he said, putting his hand on the side of his neck as if he were the one being bitten. He heard Alora chuckle and looked at her in confusion. She held up a bloody bullet “you were so distracted you didn’t even realize I pulled it out,” she said.

She put her hand over the hole and started to heal it with her magic. He shivered a bit “it’s cold,” he said. “Yeah, healing magic usually is,” she said. She pulled his leg out straight making him tense even more. “This is a lot deeper… I’ll have to cut it open more.”

John didn’t like the sound of that, but he nodded, knowing it had to be done. Alora took out a knife and cut open the wound more. John cried in pain again and would have kicked, had Alora not been holding his leg. She waited for him to calm down before working the bullet out. When it was out she healed that wound too “there you go,” she said.

John looked at her; he could see that she was now rather weak, which answered a question that came to mind. “So I guess that’s why you didn’t just use magic to heal my side… it takes a lot of energy huh?” he said. Alora nodded “yeah,” she said. She looked up when Kier and Tocho came over. Tocho looked pale now, but they didn’t question it, they knew why.

John sighed a bit “this is all my fault,” he said softly “I shouldn’t have brought him here.” Tocho nodded “you’re right, it is your fault. Don’t be too hard on yourself though, you just wanted an adventure. Also, if you would have never come… we would have never gotten a human ally and great friend,” he smiled. “You should really get back home now though,” Alora said.

She took a pendent in the shape of a dragon out of her pocket, and held it out. “Just speak the place you want to go, and it will take you there… it will even bring you back to Enchantus if you want to come, you better visit us some time,” she said with a smile. John chuckled “I will, and I’ll bring gifts next time,” he said. “Well… good bye for now.” “Good bye!” the three of them replied. John smiled “take me home,” he said.

The pendent started to glow. Slowly he started to vanish and soon he was gone. Alora smiled a bit “I hope he comes back soon,” she said. Tocho smiled at her “come on, let’s take care of the dead, injured, and caged,” he said. Alora smiled and nodded and they got to work.

John came back many times, each time bringing a gift from his world. He became a good friend and ally of Enchantus. The elves taught him many things, and Arion, the elf who helped him, did survive the battle and became John’s main Teacher. As for the baby dragon, they did save it, and it became quite attached to him. Alora finally gave Kier a chance, and he always treated her well and never betrayed her, never hurt her, despite being a dark creature.

Tocho made the best of being a vampire, and the creatures of Enchantus willingly let him feed from them, including Alora. Enchantus was put back together after what happened, and life went back to normal. John never spoke or wrote of his adventure, like he had done his others, for he looked not for harm to fall again to Enchantus.