CHAPTER 1

These are dark times; sorrow has fallen on every corner of thisonce beautiful world. The newest race of Dragon Warriors hasbeen born, and we, the only three dragons left in existence, arepowerless to stop them. Our sister of Dagenbrothe, still unhatched, is farfrom battle and short yet of a human to be her master. Our only hopenow delicately lies within the hands of a young boy. Yet still to a boy ofmiraculous power, that of which no human or dragon has ever possessed.His powers, however, are still developing, but the time is drawing nearfor his powers to come to him, nearer then he could ever imagine. Myname's Deltorn and I am one of the final dragons, although, I am thelast who comes from the Northern tribe, Kadenbrothe, the tribe of fire.Along with the new help of the prophesied one, and also with the helpof my two kin, Saphire from the Southern tribe, Asenbrothe, the tribeof water and ice, and Sparks from the Western tribe, Elescenbrothe, thetribe of air and electricity, we will defeat the Dragon Warriors and endtheir reign of tyranny forever!"

* * *

Just on the northern coast of Dragona, past the gleaming bayof Simeria, and below the monstrous cliff side of Teller's Ledge,there lived a boy by the name of Robert. He was a plain, ordinarysixteen year old boy who lived with his two parents by the namesof Arthur and Marylin Stevenson and ... the rest of his farm. Itwasn't the nicest in Algoosta; it didn't have big, fancy barns and hogpens. Quaintly, his farm was small, roughly six acres, some of whichwas sheep pens, but there was still plenty to do. He was always putin charge of the boring things; sweeping the floor of the kitchen,changing hay every day for the animals, and making sure therewere always five sheep in the pen. To him, his life was nothing butbasic. He didn't really have a plan for his life yet, and the chances ofhim actually making it somewhere in this world were slim to none.He couldn't do anything special; he couldn't even draw a circlecorrectly.

He was hardly athletic, though he could hit a baseball and kicka soccer ball, but he wasn't good enough for an actual sports team.He just couldn't find out what he was good at, he was talentless; hedidn't even have a girlfriend, someone he had hoped he would'vehad by then.

But what he did have was a view. His house was located justabove the beach, sitting on a rock ledge, overlooking the bay, andeven the ocean. It was a good spot, and not just because it helpedwhen the beach flooded, but because he always had a place to thinkand be by himself. The ledge was dotted with bushes baring flowersof all sorts of colors and fragrances. And perfect enough; two smallpalm trees were planted directly on the edge of it. They were justwide enough to place a hammock in between them, and Robert usedit many times when it was warm enough out. He just wished he hadsomeone to share it with.

His friends were great, and they loved coming over to visit, theshore was always warm and the water was filled with so much lifethat you'd never get unoccupied. His life just wasn't very unique, andhe really didn't have any way to change that. At least, he thought so,until he discovered a very important secret that changed the courseof his life, forever.

* * *

"Robert," yelled his mother, "Yorke's sitting here ready to go, areyou still sleeping?"

"Just a sec'," called back Robert.

Soon after Nathaniel beat his brother in the duel, he began toconstruct a town on the island, and eventually, over the decades, itactually turned into Algoosta. It had everything anyone would everneed. Of course, it had a schooling system, it had a few restaurants,a post office, a dock, and it had a couple of retail shops as well. Therewas a single gas station that always had cheap gas, which no one onthe island thought worse of. Life, too had replenished itself, givingAlgoosta a fresh scent, and a wonderfully colorful appearance. Aforest had even grown next to the town; it had been named after agreat leader of the old clan, Finnegan. Cliffs still dotted the outerrim of the island, and a reef littered the ocean floor surroundingthe island.

It was currently summer break at the Algoosta High Schooland Robert was enjoying all two months of it. He'd started hisfirst day off by just going to the pool with his two friends AJ andJackson. They had had races, contests, and almost all the funthat could be possessed in a single year. After that they didn'treally do anything except play games on Jackson's PlayStation.Unfortunately for Robert, he wasn't very good at these either, andthey always ended in him with the lowest score. But that wasn'treally his favorite part of summer vacation anyways. He loved tosee the clock strike three-fifteen and the class rush out the glassdoors and out of the school. In fact, once the crowd was so roughthat he accidentally bumped into his sister Samantha ... but ...that was before she died.

She had been in his class as well as AJ. Jackson had been inanother. She'd been walking home from school one day with himand she ran across a crosswalk and was hit by an oncoming truck.

Robert could still see it being replayed in his head day after day.The screams, the thoughts that must have been running in his head,it was almost too much for him. Little by little He remembered thedistinct scent of gasoline just as he was turning the corner onto thewalk, and he saw her whole body fly back a ways before coming toa sudden stop at the end of the block, she hadn't been moving. Heremembered his heart literally stopping for at least two seconds.Sounds and sights had become meaningless, distant; all he wasconscious of was his sisters limp body. He remembered the boilinghot tears that quickly consumed his face as he ran over to her side,to check if she was still alive. He recalled the sirens, and the lights asthe ambulance arrived and erupted men and women who tore himfrom her grasp, all the while he had cried, and struggled to her aid.But he also remembered the terrible part about the entire ordeal. Thefact that there was no one driving the vehicle ... well ... that was,no one ever came out of it to help, and no one ever found anyoneinside of the truck.

Robert had done all he could to help her, but by the time theambulance had arrived, he knew that she was near death's door. Theonly thing he really remembered also from that day was that twocloaked men had slowly been walking by, and one of them had asmall remote control cradled in his right arm. Arthur had rushed tothe hospital as soon as he received word of the accident, but cameback empty-handed, and with the worst of news.

"Come on Robert! Do I need to come up there?" yelled hismother again.

Robert suddenly awoke from his daydream.

"Hold on, I'm coming." "You'd better be," she mumbled back.

Robert quickly got up and looked over at his mirror. He flincheda little at his terrible bed head. His brown hair was all over andhis usually bright green eyes were now just a sickly olive color. Heturned his head and cracked it a bit, he yawned and then slowly butsurely got out of bed. He opened up his oak dresser and slipped ona dirty T-shirt, and hustled downstairs. His home also wasn't thefanciest. It looked like just about every other house in the area, butit was very small. He swung around the stairs and patted Yorke onthe head. Robert walked over to the coat rack to grab Yorke's leash,but it wasn't there. Robert turned around to see that the dog had itgrasped in his large wet mouth. Robert stroked his shinny goldenfur and then took the leash from his grasp.

"Hey Robert!" said Arthur from the kitchen, "come here asec'."

"Yeah?" responded Robert. He sat the leash down on the groundand strode into the kitchen. "Wha'dya need?"

"Do me a favor, and check out this story in the paper!" Arthurfolded up the newspaper and sat it on the counter for Robert to read.He looked at his mother, who, by now, had begun washing the dishesfor the day. He usually awoke to the same scene every morning. He'dwake up, find his dad reading the paper and sipping on his coffee,and his mother would be either eating breakfast as well or doingsome sort of house work. Robert was then put to work for the day,and when he was finished, he'd go and hang out with his friends.He got Saturdays to himself though. But his dad had never askedhim to read the paper too, Robert looked at the caption. He scannedover each word taking each phrase to memory and then he reread it.His eyes finished scanning and they jumped to the publisher of thearticle. Robert, confused, glanced up to see his father looking at him.

"So what do you think?" Arthur asked excitedly.

"We have a relative who works for the paper?" Robert lookedback at the picture still trying to figure it out.

"Really, sometimes I wonder if you're actually as smart as yourgrades suggest. Look at it closer. Can you see it yet?"

"No, what am I looking for?" He smiled as he said this, becausehe had a small idea of what his dad would mean, but he just couldn'tfind it.

"Here," Arthur picked up the paper and flapped it out. He slowlysat it down on the table as if it were a piece of tissue paper insteadand pointed to a long bolt of lightning coming from the main box."What if this was a tail and this ..." he pointed to another section"... was a head, here're the wings, and these are the feet." Arthursmiled and slapped his hand on top of the paper lying on the tabletop.

"A dragon?" sighed Robert sarcastically.

"Very good!" Arthur said back. "One from ..."

"Elescenbrothe."

"Now what do you think?"

"I think you've been reading out of that dragon book again!"

Arthur laughed a good hearty laugh. It was great when helaughed, it made Robert laugh too, he was just a little too tired thismorning though. The dragon book was a small book that had beenpassed down from generation to generation in his family. It simplycontained a detailed description and history of Dragona. Robert wasfamiliar with the legends, all it spoke of was dragons, and magic, andsome tree. None of it was real, he knew that. But it was interestingto see his dad taking it all to heart, as if he believed it were all real.But it was weird too; at times it seemed that the room grew thirtydegrees hotter than usual, or forty degrees cooler all in an instant.And last year when the storm came through and knocked out theirpower grid, Arthur had fixed up the entire neighborhood in less thana second, literally. There was even that one time where Robert wokeup early one morning and a new tree had grown in his backyard,overnight, it wasn't possible!

Arthur wiped his eyes clear of a tear and then spoke again.

"Maybe you should go and do your chores; otherwise yourmother'll get back at me later for keeping you." Robert nodded andthen hustled back over to Yorke.

Marilyn smiled at Robert as she waved him out the door. "Hurryup; you've got chores to do later." Robert laughed to himself as hepicked up the leash and strapped it onto Yorke's blue collar. He stoodup and opened the door. Robert looked at Yorke; the dog was lyingon the ground, sitting there whimpering. Robert had to walk him;his mother would not let him forget about it later if he didn't even getthe dog outside for a few minutes. He thought to himself a little bit,but then he realized something, his treats. Robert sat the leash downonce again and went to the closet where they kept Yorke's treats. Hegrabbed one and raced back to the open doorway where Yorke wasstill sitting. Finally Robert got him outside of the door. Confusingly,Yorke was scared of something, but what it was, Robert didn't know.So Yorke followed Robert out into the unknown.

They slowly passed all of Algoosta's famous landmarks; Teller'sCove, the place where the very first dragon was supposedly restinguntil he was called upon by the so called teller; and the FinneganForest, grown right on the edges of Algoosta. It was the largest forestin Dragona. They even went past Simeria itself, the biggest body ofwater until the ocean. Robert sometimes stopped here wonderingwhat more could be out there. Not many people left Algoosta, andno one ever came here that didn't already have a place to call theirown on the island.

Perhaps that would be where he would find his destiny, overthe tranquil waters of that sea, maybe there he could become free.He had his own spot for thinking. It was just on a large rock nextto the waters that Robert and Yorke sat on and stared out into thenothingness of the waves. The Sun usually casted its hot, refreshingrays on its surface, creating a warm, relaxing seat.

Unfortunately, today, it wasn't exactly the warmest of days; infact, fog was just beginning to roll down the cliff sides into the baywhere they sat. Robert and Yorke both watched as its spindly fingerslurched towards their legs and surrounded them in a dense thicket ofmist and cloud. Robert looked at the fog, and then at Yorke, slowlyshrinking to the ground in fright.

"Hey, how'd you like to go and visit AJ for a while? I'm sureAngel's there as well." Yorke turned his head to look at Robert. Hegave him a look of pure delight. "I'll take that as a yes," mumbledRobert.

Together they turned onto the path that led to AJ's house andbegan up the steep hill towards town.

As Robert walked with his friendly companion up the hill hegazed at the beautiful scenery that he had become quite accustomto within his few years. The usual smell of wild parsnips, daisies,and roses filled his nostrils while his eyes swept themselves over topthe vast, grey mountains that dotted the landscape. The path onwhich they were walking on was rocky, so when Robert noticed thatYorke began continuously tripping, Robert put it out of mind. Theycontinued up the trail until, finally, he tripped himself.

"Yorke, tripping the guy who's got the leash isn't exactly the bestidea." Yorke just sat there and stared at him, lolling his tongue outand panting like always. But Robert noticed something else, Yorkewas simply too far away to have tripped him, his attention was slowlyturned to the ground, to the spot where he tripped. He gasped inhorror, and then looked back over their trail. What he was lookingat, he was completely taken aback by. He was looking at a large five-toed footprint, which, to his complete surprise, resembled that of afire-breathing monster, a dragon.

CHAPTER 2

Robert took a swift, long glance all around him. He didn'texpect to see anyone, and of course he didn't, no one evertook this route this early in the morning. He droppedYorke's leash and squatted close to the ground. He ran his handsthrough the deep impression, the details were absolutely terrifying.Each scale appeared with such clarity and the size of them horriblycorrect for a dragon of Dragona. He pulled out his cell phone andfumblingly snapped a picture of the print onto his phone. He staredat the screen, Arthur might have been weird at times but Robertreally couldn't deny this.

Robert quickly swept some dirt onto the prints until theydisappeared completely in both directions. It was common sense tohim, he perfectly well knew that any sign of a dragon would sendAlgoosta running. After all, dragons were supposed to have died along time ago if they ever existed at all. Hunting was plentiful of theisland, but a six foot long, reptilian like head mounted on anyone'swall would make the perfect prize. Robert stood up and admiredhis handiwork,

"Come on Yorke, let's go."

* * *

Robert walked into Algoosta a half an hour later, Yorke at hisright side. The morning's events held a special thought in Robert'smind, and it sparked a small idea in his brain. Later on he'd haveto make it to the library for a certain book he found a few days ago.Together, Robert and Yorke passed the general store, the school, andeven the gas station. Scents and sounds littered the air, envelopingthem in their busy lifestyle. The fresh scent of a newly baked loaf ofbread wafted out from the small bakery that sat right on the cornerof one of Algoosta's many streets. Cars, vans, and trucks raced byas Robert came up to a crosswalk. He could just taste their acridodor that filled the atmosphere while town's folk were walking bydoing their ordinary duties like shopping, selling, and talking withfriends ... and speaking of friends ...