6,245 A.S. Mid Spring
Visions and feelings tossed about my mind. Blood curling screams of humans and dragons alike. The blistering, burning heat searing into my flesh. The smell of death and decay assaulting my nostrils.
   It was all too much. I couldn't break free of the despair that surrounded me, threatening to pull me under into the black void of pain and suffering.
   "Hang on Vis." I heard a voice whisper out in the darkness.
   I tried with all my might to latch onto Ila's sweet voice. She was my way of getting out of this netherworld. My tether to the real world.
   "Vis, hang on for me, please. Please don't leave me. Please." Ila's voice broke as she spoke, clearly suffering from my sudden unconsciousness.
   Using what little strength I had left, I grabbed ahold of her voice and allowed it to haul me out of whatever netherworld I was just in.
   I gasped, opening my eyes as I drew in deep breaths as if they were my last.
    When I had satisfied my need for air, I looked at Ila to see a shocked yet joyous look on her face.
   Then I was enveloped in her arms, hugging me so tight that I felt like I would never breath again.
   "Thank goodness the fruit saved you. You weren't breathing for five minutes." Ila said, electrifying me to my core at what she just said.
   Pulling out of her embrace, I looked her in the eyes, wondering for answers that I hoped she had.
   "I—I was dead?" My voice cracked as I asked her.
   Ila looked down, and nodded. "When you collapsed, you started seizing. You and Lycaena both. Then you two just suddenly stopped seizing. I thought you recovered, but neither of you were breathing. But I managed to save you both with the Life Giver's fruit." Ila looked up at me, her eyes brimming with tears as her arms wrapped around me once more. "Vis, I thought I lost you for good." She whispered in my ear.
   "I'm sorry you had to go through that," I whispered back.
   Ila pulled back, a smile on her face.
   Picking up a rag she wiped something semi-dry off my forehead.
   Reaching up, my hand came away with crimson blood staining my hand.
   "Ila, why did Lycaena and I collapse?"
   "It is unknown to me and Ila." Lycaena answered for Ila.
   "It's so good to hear your voice again old friend." I responded back.
   "Yours too."
   "Like what Lycaena said," Ila started, finishing wiping off the blood on my face, "I don't know. One minute you were fine, the next you both were screaming in pain and on the ground seizing before you both stopped breathing."
   I wondered how this had happened. It was something I wondered about for many years. It wasn't until recently in my elderly life that I came to know the answer.
"That's very strange. It just doesn't make any—," I was interrupted by the shaking up the earth as something stirred beneath our feet.
"Ila...," I reached out for her hand as the ground exploded beneath us, sending, Ila, Lycaena, and I dozens of feet away from each other.
My head pounded in pain with mine and Lycaena's injuries.
Just as I slowly started to recover, a horrible hissing noise filled the air.
I cringed in pain, covering my ears, attempting to block out the high pitched noise like someone running a sword slowly across a piece of slate.
Then I saw it. The most horrible and demonic thing I have ever seen, even worse than the horrors and atrocities I would see during the Rider War of Alagaesia.
The thing was enormous with a black body oozing with slimy tentacles and a mouth armed with rows of razor sharp teeth of varying sizes. Four blood-red eyes searched the ground before landing on something it found interesting.
I looked to see what it was, coming to realization that I would be too late to stop the thing. The Wyrm, as my grandfather had put it.
The Wyrm wrapped its oozy tentacle around Ila.
"Ila...no." I muttered to her.
She looked at me one last time with those lively garnet green eyes.
"I love you." She mouthed that was followed by a agonized scream as the life started fading from her eyes and appearance. Her ethereal form turning more realistic as she became paler and paler.
I wanted to get up and save her but my body refused to respond from all the pain I was inflicted to in this last half an hour alone.
I could only watch, tears rolling down my face as Ila's screams became weaker and weaker.
When Ila's lifeless body hit the ground, I screamed her name over and over again, begging her to wake up.
I only succeeded in drawing the Wyrm's attention onto myself. But I didn't care. All I cared about was Ila.
As the Wyrm approached, I laid there, hoping for death so I could be with Ila once more.
The Wyrm reached down to grab me and do the same to me as Ila but before its slimy tentacles could wrap around me, I was airborne, clutched gently in Lycaena's talons.
The Wyrm hissed in outrage as we escaped from it. Yet not all of us escaped with our lives.
I wished we could go back for Ila's body, although I knew it was too dangerous. The Wyrm would kill Lycaena and I in the same way. We had to stop it. To kill it before it killed anyone else.
   "Lycaena, we have to kill it. For Ila. We have to kill the Wyrm."

6,245 A.S. Mid Summer
I awoke what seemed like only hours later yet I knew from my fatigue and weakness it had to be much longer than a few hours. Days even.
   My eyes fluttered open to find my parents, Oak, Fiercedawn, and Lycaena sleeping in the room I was in. All of them in vigilance watch of waiting for me to awaken.
Along with my awakening did I awaken Lycaena too.
The beautiful brown BeetleWing lifted up her head to look me in the eyes with her stunning amber-brown eyes.
   "Lycaena, how—,"
"You should save your strength." She interrupted. "You were out for a long time. We didn't even know if you were going to wake up."
   "How long was I out?" I still asked.
   Lycaena didn't say anything for a long time, only looking down at her claws as she clenched the wood tightly as if fighting were going on inside of her.
   Finally, Lycaena answered. "Roughly about three months. It's a miracle you even lasted that long."
   The shock of her answer hit her like a SeaWing's tail to the stomach, making her want to throw up, knowing that in the three months she had been sleeping, Ila's body had been wasting away to scavengers, weather, and many other factors. Ila never even had a proper funeral. No one to say goodbye to her or to wish a safe passage to the world of the afterlife. I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for her. I would be wasting away next to her three months now too. Just a pile of bones for scavengers to chew on until my bones sunk into the ground, never to be seen again.
   "I know you feel horrible for not being able to go back for Ila's body but—,"
   "Ila deserved a better death than that!" I roared at Lycaena, unable to take the pain and regret of Ila's death anymore. "She's dead because of me. If only I hadn't gotten so obsessed with that stupid Wyrm than none of this would have happened. I would still be training and Ila would be alive. I may not have met her but at least she would have been safe. Safe—safe from me."
   Lycaena only listened to my rant, not interrupting the whole time as I vented to her about how everything would be different if I hadn't heard of the Wyrm.
"Viserra, even if you hadn't heard of the Wyrm it still would have escaped somehow. And the weakening shield around the old Rider Base still would have led to Ila's death. What is meant to happen will always happen one way or another. It's just the way fate works." Lycaena said deeply, understanding the philosophy of what was meant to happen would always happened somehow, one way or another, very clearly.
I closed my eyes, reluctantly accepting that what she had said was true. One way or another Ila would have died, the Wyrm would have escaped, and I would have heard about it and probably have to fight it as well.
Then it hit me like I was struck with lighting.
I sat up so fast that Lycaena literally jumped straight over to my bed to help me in any way or form as I fell down on back again from the pain, groaning from my own stupidity.
My sudden burst of energy apparently awoke my parents and their bonded dragons as well.
"Viserra, sweetheart, you're awake!" My mother exclaimed rushing over to my side to cup my face in her hands tightly like she thought she would never see me again.
My father didn't rush over like my mother, but was more clam and reserved like he usually was.
"I'm glad you're finally awake, my little flower, but we really need to talk about the whole running away situation." My father said to my disappointment.
   "Raegel," Mother hissed, "she doesn't have to answer any questions right now. Give her some time to rest and recuperate. She's been asleep for nearly three months. She needs some time to recover her strength."
   "Very well, but I still want a very good explanation from you, Viserra. You had Dellingr tearing apart all of the Beor Mountains for you. The same with the rest of Alagaesia. We didn't know where you went and I expect some answers a week from now." My father said in his serious voice meaning he was actually really upset and somewhat angry on the inside. It was side of him she never really liked. "Now I have to go tell the leader of the Pyrrhian-Pantalan Riders you're awake so he too can have a recount of your little excursion beyond Alagaesia." My father said, and left the room with Oak along without another word.
   I knew I had disappointed him when he trusted me to behave for Dellingr while he and Mother were busy fulfilling their Rider duties. It was going to be so hard to replace his trust in me now that I've lost it, probably for good.
"Viserra, I know you think your father is mad at you but you're wrong," my mother said gently, laying her hand on mind. "He's just cares about you a lot and wants a good life for you. Please understand that. Now try to get some more sleep." My mother told me, kissing me on the forehead, and leaving.
As soon as she was gone, I exchanged a look with Lycaena.
"The will Wyrm die, and we will be the ones to do it."

6,245 A.S. Late Summer
For a month I had done nothing but try to rebuild my strength back up to its original peak, in which I succeeded only by sacrificing a few nights of sleep here and there.
   During that month I had spend plenty of time with Lycaena in devising a plan to destroy the Wyrm once and for all. We had no ideas yet on how to kill the demon that killed the love of my life. My everything. But I swore we would never give up until the Wyrm was nothing but a memory in the distant past of death. An inescapable prison none had ever escaped and never would, not even that demonic creature of the netherworld.
Today I would be meeting with the leader of the Pyrrhian-Pantalan Riders to explain to him all that I had seen during my short trip to the Ancient Lands.
   "Viserra, let's go," I heard my mother call from the kitchen.
   "Okay," I replied to her, finishing pulling on my boots.
   Lycaena and I met my parents outside of treehouse at its base.
   "Are you ready?" My father asked. He wasn't quite as upset as he was a month ago now that he knew the truth. In fact, he felt as if it were his fault for letting me stumble across his father's old journal. The one I still had that I didn't tell him about. He was definitely going to kill me for that.
   I nodded.
The six of us left our home in Silthrim, and headed for the base of operations that was considered the capital for the elves living amongst the Pyrrhian-Pantalan Riders.
   We passed several Riders, dragons, elves, and elf-human hybrids that looked a lot like my father, not entirely elf nor human. Something in between.
   I also looked similar but with less pointed ears and fair features. I took on more of the human side instead, my elf ancestry being reflected in my abilities mostly, making me faster, stronger, and far more sensitive with my senses than the average human Rider.
   Soon reaching the base of operations, I quickly prepared my presentation for the Head Rider of my order.
   "Are you including Ila and your relationship with her?" Lycaena asked.
   I thought for a moment before answering.
   "No. They don't need to know about Ila. They only want to know about the Old Lands, and that's exactly what I'll tell them about." I told her, determined to get back to finish was Ila and I started at any cost.
   "I'm assuming this means you're not mentioning the Wyrm either, are you?"
"No. My fault, my responsibility. Ila died because of me and now I must correct my mistake by killing the Wyrm for good."
   "The we will kill the Wyrm together. For Ila."
   I looked at her, astonished by her willingness to follow me on my mad path when she was never as close to Ila as I was. In fact, Lycaena used to hate Ila due to me spending more time with Ila than her.
"I wanted some attention too. But you always spent so much time with Ila that I felt like you forgotten about me." Lycaena admitted.
"I would never forget about you. Just like how I would never forget about Ila. You both are apart of me. Parts of me that will stick with me to the end of my days." I told her.
   Lycaena appreciated my response, promising to cherish my words as well.
   Soon, after following the twisting forest halls, we arrived at the spacious office of the leader of the Pyrrhian-Pantalan Riders.
   A middle aged man, successor of the previous lead Rider a decade ago, sat at a desk with his large DriftWing resting behind him. He was currently writing something down on a piece of parchment.
   "Please, take a seat." He said without looking up at us. His voice had a gruff yet soft sound it, making hims seem like a scary but gentle man.
  We did as he instructed, waiting for him to finish writing down whatever. But he never did finish, instead he just jumped right into a conversation while multitasking.
   "So, from what I've heard—Viserra, is it?—is that you've been to our old home, the Old Lands, correct?"
   "Yes," I responded
   "Don't forget 'sir'."
   "Sir. Yes sir." I hastily said, trying to sound confident and not stupid. However, it seemed I was already doing a good job at that by the way the lead Rider was chuckling.
   "There is no need to call me 'sir', Viserra." He told me, looking up with his grey eyes. "Just talk to me like you would any other person. I enjoy getting to know who people truly are and not trying to impress me with all their fancy talk and other stuff."
   Out of the corner of my eye I saw my parents exchange a worried look as if they were afraid I would talk to the lead Rider like I would any other person, which was usually pretty rudely.
   If only they knew how much I had changed from the girl they used to know.
   "It is true." I started, weaving the lie I had concocted during my month of preparation for my presentation. "I got curious and decided to go explore the Old Lands and see if they were as horrible as everyone said they were."
   "And you were okay with this?" He asked Lycaena, his grey gaze moving to her.
   "Yes. I knew my Rider would be perfectly safe with me."
   "But that didn't turn out to be the case, did it. From what I heard is that you two came back injured with Viserra being unconscious for nearly two months, am I right?"
   "Yes." Lycaena and I both responded.
   "Then I hope this has put an end to your little curiosity hunt of the Old Lands. From now on you will speak of your trip to no one. I'll be sending a scouting group to determine what is left our old home and if it is still survivable." He said to my disappointment.
   It would be nearly impossible to sneak back out there with a scouting group going out as soon as sometime this week. And the Wyrm was still out there. I had to find a way to stop him from sending anyone out there for their own safety and my revenge.
   "Sir," I said, catching his attention as he discussed matters with my parents, "it's far too dangerous out there for young Riders and dragons like us."
   "I'm glad you agree—,"
   "But it's also too dangerous for anyone else to go back out there too. The sky is dark all day, ash rains from the sky, red rivers of fire flow across the shattered earth. It's not hospitable for anyone to travel through. We didn't even make it to the original continents, if they still even exist."
   "So what are you implying then? That I just leave our people here to overstay our welcome from Alagaesia. If you recall, there are fourteen dragon tribes that live here and barely get along with any of the local life. If our land is new once again, we need to get back to it before a war between the dragons ensues and drags the Riders into it. Viserra, you need to be honest with me. Is our home survivable or not?" He asked, looking at me hopefully with his grey eyes.
   I had to clear every ounce of emotion out of my eyes and face to bring forth the honest, gloomy and fearful aspect I was looking for to convince him otherwise of our home's ability to supper life once more.
   "No. It's not. Like I said earlier, there's no way any thick could survive. We barely survived. It's the reason we came back injured in the first place."
   The lead Rider almost didn't seem convinced at first but eventually reality set in and he accepted what I had told him.
   "Very well. Thank you for your time and answers Viserra. You all may go." He dismissed, returning back to his writing.
   I gladly fully got up, enthusiastic on the inside that I had convinced him not to send anyone to the Old Lands.

When we returned home, I found a letter on my desk in my room.
"Where did that come from?" Lycaena asked.
"I don't know but there's only one way to find out." I responded opening up the letter.

   Dear Viserra and Lycaena,
I know of your search for answers about killing the Wyrm. I have some for you. Meet me where it all began three nights from now.
                                                         —A

   "What do you think it means? And where did this all begin?" I asked Lycaena.
"I don't know—," Lycaena began when I interrupted her by hastily dropping the smoking letter as it caught fire.
   No! I screamed mentally, not daring to alert my parents.
   I tried to put the letter out, magic and not, but no matter how much I tried I just couldn't put it out.
   "There goes out only lead. Great now how are we going to find out where to meet this person."
   "I don't know. But that letter catching fire suddenly just doesn't make sense. There was clearly magic involved with its destruction like that. As if trying to cover tracts or something like that."
   "Maybe." I said, moving to clean up the place grey ashes.
As soon as my hands touched the ashes, they crumpled into something smaller and finer. Soft pale sandy colored dirt slipped between my fingers, receding back to the floor. What I noticed was even more bizarre was how the sand landed in five small piles with three nearly touching and two touching a little bit away from the three. The piles somewhat looked familiar to me but I couldn't place where I had seen it before.
"Hey, don't they look a lot like those three mountain in the middle of that desert?" Lycaena asked.
I gasped aloud, astounded by what Lycaena had just uncovered.
I grasped her head in my hands, touching my forehead to hers.
"Lycaena, you genius. You just figured out where we are going."

The trip to the Hadarac Desert was short but still treacherous one due to the extreme heat during the day and more hospitable at night.
We arrived at the three mountains where the mysterious and brief correspondent of ours mostly likely would be at.
As we approached the mountains, I saw the remnants of bones, eggs shells, and scales. I remembered that some Alagaesia dragons lived out in the desert, surging almost as well as SandWings, with SandWings being more capable to survive longer without food and water.
Then a lone figure caught my eye.
"There." I instructed Lycaena to where the dark haired women awaited.
As soon as we landed, she turned around to face us with her~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
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P.S. This ending was intended. I don't want to reveal who "A" is just yet. They may make an appearance as a background story in Dragon Riders: Rising Again or Dragon Riders: Downfall(the next book).