The Crystal Dragon Series Collection

by Katie Cherry

“And you wouldn’t have to do it alone,” Pearl adds. “We might be able to find others to help you, but you may be on your own for the most part. …You don’t have to decide today, but it would be best if you two decided together, and that’s obviously easier if you are both in the same realm,” she adds with a little humor. “As you two decide, we will go and talk to Thaddeus to make the necessary arrangements for your travel home.”

  With that, they stand and start to leave. I look over at Nathan. I know what I want to do, but I won’t make the decision for him. He smiles at me, and I can read in his smile, as well as the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, his answer. I smile back, already excited for the adventures we will have while looking for my little brother.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Heading Home

  I bolt upright in bed, screaming. I am covered in sweat from head to toe and shaking. I put my head in my hands and focus on taking deep breaths. It’s alright… it was just another nightmare… it’s not real… And yet it was so vivid and realistic… I can still hear the wicked cackling of Patrick and feel his hands grabbing hold of me once again, preparing to lock me up forever and torture me over and over again…

  I shudder and stand, swaying. I quickly make my way out of the room, tears streaming down my face between my hands, dripping off my chin and onto my neck, where it traces a small, thin line past my collarbone and into my shirt. I continue to sob quietly as I open the door to my favorite part of the house- the balcony.

  I stumble toward the chair next to the edge and collapse into it, my face still buried in my hands. Just as I hoped, the chilly early-winter air helps me to begin to forget about the nightmare. My hot, fevered skin cools and I can see my breath in the crisp, cold air. I slowly pull my hands from my face and look up. The sky around me is filled with the first snow of the year. The big, soft, and perfectly white flakes dance around me, landing on my nose, eyelashes, and lips. I blink them off of my eyes and catch them on my tongue.

  A small smile begins to lift my lips. I have always loved snow; been enchanted by it. As the flakes swirl around me, my skin feels cold to the touch, but I don’t care or even notice. I slowly begin to join the snowflakes as they dance as soon I am twirling around the balcony in my silky white pajamas, my wet hair sticking to my scalp and neck, a broad grin on my lips.

  When I stop, I have to sit down because I am too tired and dizzy. I laugh a happy, stress-free laugh for the first time in more than a year. It feels so good I do it again, listening to it echo off the mountains. By now, the warmth from my skin has melted the snow on me and I am once again soaked. My body finally realizes how cold it is and suddenly I have goosebumps and begin shivering. I wring out my hair and start towards the door when it swings open, revealing the figure of my best friend.

  “Crystal?” Nathan begins disbelievingly as he steps forward into the coating of snow on the balcony. His eyes trace the path in the snow caused by my dancing. “What are you doing out here? Are you insane?” he asks jokingly, blinking as the snow lands on his eyelashes. A light coating of snow highlights his brown hair, making it sparkle from the light coming from the hallway behind him.

  I smile. “Maybe. That depends on how you look at it,” I laugh. “After all, you came out here as well, did you not?”

  He can’t help but smile back. “Alright, fine. You caught me red-handed. I am a crazy sleepwalker who likes to freeze to death,” he mocks me. “I’m out here because I couldn’t sleep, actually.”

  “Ah,” I respond. “I know how that is. I was just about to go back inside, as a matter of fact. It’s a little chilly out here,” I say sarcastically. He steps forward and takes one of my hands, withdrawing it almost instantly. Eyebrows furrowed, he then puts his hands on my bare arms. They are so warm compared to my frozen skin that I’m a bit startled.

  “Wow!” he exclaims. “How long were you out here? Your skin is like ice!”

  “I don’t know,” I contemplate, turning to look at the horizon. The sun is almost coming up. “Over an hour?”

  “What?! You’re going to get hypothermia or something!” I let him guide me inside, back into the warmth. He runs and grabs me a towel from the swimming room and wraps it around my shoulders. My face feels warmer than usual, and for a moment I am concerned that I really have caught something, but then I realize that I’m just blushing. Wait… blushing? Why am I blushing? I’ve spent a long time with Nathan and know him really well… why do I suddenly feel different when he does the same things for me that he always would? He hasn’t changed… so how have I? I shake it off and force the blush to disappear, a talent a learned a while back. This is different than encountering a random cute boy at school, however. I don’t know what happened to me over the past little while, but I am acting differently, and I don’t like it.

  We get hot chocolate from the kitchen and sip it slowly while sitting on the couch, side by side. I feel the blush starting to come on again, but I make it fade away, stuffing my emotions deep inside to sort out later. Now I feel calm and at peace as well as safe, just as I always have with Nathan. I start to wonder if the blush was all just a figment of my imagination.

  I don’t really want to go back to bed, and Nathan doesn’t seem to want to either, so we decide to make the most of our last day on Zilferia together. Without disturbing our Familiars or anyone else in the house, we quickly get dressed and head out into the snow. Nathan holds an umbrella that we both huddle under as we walk through the gently drifting snow. We head toward the woods, not to find anything, but simply to walk.

  As we make tracks through the deepening snow, we don’t know where we’re going, and we don’t exactly care. We just walk, enjoying being alone together in the soft silence; in the peace we missed for almost the entire time of being in Zilferia. After walking for a while, I pick a tree and climb, Nathan following right behind me. We go as high as we dare, then turn and look out over the clean white landscape. The sky slowly transfers from gray to blue, almost too slowly for us to notice it. Not long after, the sun is peeking over the mountains, the sky above us a bright, nearly cloudless, blue. The snow slowly stops falling and we watch as the sun slides into the sky, boldly shining over the land made new. The sunlight sparkles and shines on the snow, but it is still cold enough that it doesn’t start melting yet.

  After a while, we climb back down and continue walking around. I stop as I hear something coming towards us and warily watch as a large bush in front of us rustles as a large, powerful liger steps out to meet us. I had no idea they had ligers on Zilferia; I figured making a tiger-lion was something unique to Second Earth. Apparently not.

  The liger turns to face us, snarling. I don’t move, just lock eyes with it, even though generally you shouldn’t since wild animals take that as a challenge. I stare it down for a few tense moments. Finally, it lowers its head to me slightly and continues on its way. Nathan stares at me, amazed. I’m surprised as well. I thought that being able to befriend animals was one of my Gifts, which were all taken by Patrick and his Dragon Hunters.

  After walking around for a little longer, we decide to head back to the Dragon castle since my parents are probably up by now. When we get back, no one is awake yet except the servants, who mostly ignore us and continue with their business. One takes our coats, boots, and umbrella. We sneak into the living room, where we sit down on a couch just before Alexander and Pearl come down.

  Thaddeus joins us for breakfast, which is a grand farewell feast that is so large Nathan and I just sample everything and I get really full really fast. I notice that Thaddeus has a surprisingly large appetite as he downs dish after dish, even continuing after Nathan and I have to stop.

  After breakfast, we head out with our Familiars, my parents, and Thaddeus. We don’t know exactly what we’ll do with them once we get home, but we can’t just leave them here, so we are taking them with us. It has started snowing again, but it’s pretty light and there aren’t many clouds in the sky. We head toward the woods. After we get in a ways, T
haddeus stops before a large bush and turns around.

  I’m surprised to see tears in his eyes as he says, “Crystal, my little niece, and Nathan, I will miss you both. You are both brilliant, kind, and caring, and have been great examples to me. Thank you for teaching me to be young again.” He says, then steps away, filled with emotion. I’m surprised by this since he seemed almost not human because of how smart he was- he was never wrong and he never really talked about anything that didn’t pertain to the task at hand- which was keeping us alive through the Games.

  Now Pearl comes up to us. She gives me a hug and whispers in my ear that she loves me. I swallow, forcing the tears down before they start to flow. She then puts her hands on my shoulders and tells me that I am always welcome to come home and stay for any length of time. She extends the same invitation to Nathan, saying that he should include himself with the Dragon family and he will be welcome at their house at any time and for any reason.

  Alexander then comes up, clearing his throat. He finally gets out that he loves us and will let us make our own decisions although he would rather we be a family now, but he loves us anyway. He has basically adopted Nathan into the family, as has Pearl. When all the goodbyes are finished, Thaddeus tells us that he will give us word about our first realm to search for Rex through the watches, but that it won’t be for a while so we can have some time to rest at home.

  “Oh, and remember, it isn’t winter yet in your dimensions; we froze time there, so it will be exactly as you left it. Alright? So have fun back in your old homes for a few months; recuperate and enjoy yourself. …Goodbye,” he chokes out, walking away.

  Nathan turns to me and smiles. “See you in a few months, then?”

  “Right,” I say. We give each other a quick hug and then, with one last wave of farewell, Nathan walks through the portal, with Greg riding proudly on his shoulder. Swallowing, I stride forward and walk through as well, calling one last goodbye to my parents and great-uncle.

  Once again, there is a flash of light and I feel like I am being tickled, before the sudden feeling of being punched in the gut. When I stand and look around, I don’t find shimmering whiteness like I had when I came to Zilferia. This time, it’s a gleaming silver. There isn’t music from the trees in Zilferia, but the sound of wind through normal trees- no music, no singing, just rustling leaves and the call of birds. I suddenly feel incredibly homesick and am anxious to get there as soon as possible. I can tell I’ve almost arrived when I double over once again as something invisible seems to punch me. When I look up, I see the thugs that had escorted me to the portal to Zilferia. I stand and suddenly remember how one of them had shoved me into the portal.

  Without warning, I lunge toward the man and shove him into the wall, which is no longer a portal. He slams into it harder than I expected. I glance down at myself and realize that I’m a lot tougher than I was before I left, despite my time in the Dragon Hunter’s castle and the hospital. My arms are actually quite muscular, as are my legs. I strip off my coat and jacket I had on, leaving just a blue t-shirt. I put my hands on my hips and stare threateningly at the other thugs as the first one slowly pulls himself off the ground, glancing at Nora as she hovers beside me.

  “Well? You punks need to take me home now, remember?” I glance up at the sky and see the moon- precisely the same as the night I left it. I lead the thugs back inside the building and find Kiki still asleep at the table. I slip my hand into her jacket pocket and sure enough, there’s my old cell phone and car keys that I had tucked into her pocket as I was leaving for Zilferia. I put it in my jeans pocket and pick her up. She continues to sleep thanks to the sandwich Vlad gave her before we left.

  Wow, this all seems to have happened so long ago… yet nothing has changed. This will take some getting used to, I decide as we walk toward the vans. The thugs cower behind me. They were frightened of me even before Zilferia, and they are quite terrified now. I smirk a little. Serves them right. We pass the form of ‘Black Eye,’ as I called the thug who suffocated me so long ago and I can’t help but smile at my handiwork. He’s still knocked out, after all this time.

  I hop into the passenger side of the white van, Kiki on my lap. I tell him to drive me back to the park where they kidnapped me, and step on it. The man gulps, but holds his ground. “Where’s Vlad?” he demands. “I take orders from him, not you. “Where is he?”

  I’m surprised. I hadn’t thought that any of these thugs would have had an ounce of loyalty- or courage, for that matter. “Vlad stayed in Zilferia,” I reply. “He told me to tell you to take me home, and then just continue on with your lives. You are released of duty once I get home.”

  “Ah,” the man says, putting the key in the ignition. “Then I will drive,” he declares and starts heading back the way we came… or so I assume, since I was out cold for most of the ride the first time.

  Two hours later, we finally reach the park that seemed to have started it all; the change of my entire life and countenance, as well as my strength and experiences. I have grown so much in the past eight months or so that I don’t know if my own… ‘family’ will recognize me. I mean, almost dying multiple times changes a person.

  Once Kiki and I are out of the van, the guy takes off at top speed, apparently anxious to resume his life from before he met Vlad. I smile a little, for that is exactly my plan as well- resume my former life. At least, for now.

  When we get home, the sun is just starting to come up. I take Kiki upstairs and tuck her into bed, hoping that when she wakes, she’ll just assume it was a weird dream she had that we were kidnapped. Then I head to my own bed, finally tired from waking up so early that morning in Zilferia and dancing in the snow. Nora perches on the post of my bed nearest to my head. I feel comforted having her here with me. I fall asleep remembering the friendships I had forged in Zilferia, a smile on my face and feeling thankful for that particular chapter in my life. My last thought is, When ‘mom and dad’ come home, they’ll sure have some explaining to do… I always knew I didn’t quite fit in here. I know they love me, but… I fall asleep even as I’m thinking about what the future may bring.

  <<>>

  Nathan grits his teeth as he goes through the portal, once again feeling as though he was suffocating. Once it fades, however, he opens his eyes and realizes that he’s not surrounded by shimmering white this time around, but a glistening black. He doesn’t hear the song of the Zilferian trees either, but the screech of metal on metal instead. It grates on his ears, but luckily doesn’t last long.

  He pops out of the portal back on top of the old building where he first met Vlad. Nathan looks around the pre-dawn landscape and breathes in the smell of smoke that permeates the area. Ah, finally. Back home, where I belong. Good old Tanguay… wow, I’ve missed this place. He climbs down and meets the thugs that beat him up the first day he was there. His lip curls with disgust and he can barely keep himself from beating them up. At least they have the decency of mind to be surprised and afraid that he’s back, having survived everything Zilferia had thrown at him. They realize that this means Nathan is stronger than them. It helps that Greg hisses angrily at them as well, he supposes.

  He grins, glad at their fear. “Let’s go,” he says, walking straight through the group. They silently make way for him, then slowly follow, their footsteps cautious. He climbs into one of the vans and has one of the thugs drive him back to where they left his backpack and bike all those months ago. After he hops out, they take off as fast as they can, tires squealing until they launch into the air and rejoin the flow of traffic overhead. Nathan smirks and puts his backpack on. He feels the weight of his clarinet in it; a pressure that he hadn’t felt in so long, the once familiar feel of it was now awkward and strange to him.

  Nathan climbs onto his bike and begins making his way home, stress that he never realized he had been carrying gradually melting away. Finally, I’m home. He’s relieved to be back where he belongs, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t already looking forward t
o the adventures he’ll have in the future with Crystal ‘Shay’ Dragon while searching for her brother in all the known realms.

  Epilogue

  The War Begins

  A dragon’s roar echoes through the dark forest as it burns, sending black smoke hurdling towards the already darkened sky. The fire brightens as it greedily devours the trees surrounding the wounded dragon, revealing the dark crimson blood leaking down its side as it wavers, struggling to stay on its feet and continue fighting. The purple beast snaps at the small black figures darting around it, but it is too slow, and for its efforts it gets nothing but another swipe across its muzzle from a sword.

  The dragon’s dark eyes reflect the fire as the flames of anger and fury erupt in them. The dragon stops holding back, attacking with all its might- no matter what the consequences might be for itself. It charges at the nearest man in black and kills him as well as the man next to him. The dragon then charges at yet another man while roaring at the sky, calling for help. None comes. The dragon must fight alone, for the other dragons that were fighting with the first have been separated and are each fighting desperate battles of their own.

  The dragons, known for their wisdom and power, are losing this battle against the evil humans. They are even being slaughtered by the dozens.

  Finally, a loud trumpeting call echoes through the woods, calling a retreat for all those dragons who can still flee. The group flaps weakly away from the burning section of the forest, leaving with less than half of the group they began with. The leader of these dragons, a large black dragon, snorts angrily and flames flicker from his nostrils.

  We should have won this fight- easily! He rants to himself. This is just humiliating. We are stronger than those puny humans- and we always have been! …It’s all Gale the Gold’s fault. He put me in charge of these weakling purple dragons. They can’t fight! He should have let me lead the black dragons into battle! We would have been the ones slaughtering the humans rather than the other way around! This isn’t right! He continues ranting and raving as they retreat back to the volcano they named Dragon Mountain. When they finally arrive, more than half of the survivors faint as soon as they touch down, exhausted. The black dragon stalks away from them, into the mountain, leaving them to be taken care of by the green dragons that had been waiting there from the direction of Gale the Gold.