"The sun rises from the north and sets in the south. That is how our world is, and that is how it always will be. And everything the light touches belongs to the ancient family of the Cragal. Do you understand Lukas? . . . Lukas?" The elder dragon groaned. "where did that hatchling run off to now?"

It was past sunrise, the suns light barely reaching over the highest mountain, it was so tall that even from as far as the elder dragon was you could still see it. All the elder dragon could do was shake his head in disapproval and go back into his cave and wait for his young apprentice to return.

Yet this young apprentice wouldn't return until very late in the day. This apprentice, whose name is Lukas, had much planned for the day and didn't want to keep any dragon waiting. Lukas' scales were almost completely blond, except for his beige underbelly and white horns. His head horns weren't magnificent or very sharp, they only curved a bit up at the tip, but nothing special. He didn't have any special abilities either.

As Lukas flew over the trees and soared with the birds his heart began to fill with joy as he saw the great city in the distance. It completely surrounded the highest mountain and dragons flew in and out from almost every direction. Each dragon was different, all having different colors and abilities. There was a millennium's worth of art and history there. Don't even get Lukas started on the library. Before Elder Dragon Soren took young Lukas in the young hatchling would spend all of his time at that massive library.

Focus Lukas, you need to find everyone before lunch. Lukas reminded himself.

It took Lukas a little while to find a place to land, after all, there were so many dragons in the streets. He ended up landing at the library, the only place he didn't need to be. "Well, I might as well go in... no longer than five minutes though." He told himself.

Walking into the library Lukas was greeted by a giant marble statue with emerald eyes that stood in the middle of the building. It was so tall it needed space cut out for it on all four floors! Lukas had always appreciated this statue for many reasons. It's carving, what it represents, how you can respect it. But the history and the mystery is what he loved the most about it.

The dragon the statue was made after was said to be one of the first dragons to have magic items. A necklace that no one really knew much about. The one who weld it, Isa, was very secretive about its power and never let anyone else wear it. It was only until after she mysteriously vanished when dragons could finally see what the necklace did. Yet the necklace was already handed down to Isa's child, Benedict who also mysteriously vanished. The necklace also seemed to have vanished with her.

"I'd thought I'd find you here." A female voice whispered into Lukas' ear.

The young dragon froze like a goat and the voice did their best to hold back their laughter. "Sorry, I couldn't help it. Come on, the guys are waiting for us." The dragon said.

Lukas looked at the statue one more time before exiting the building where his three best friends stood waiting for him. There was Gill, a mostly dark brown dragon with many scars from doing stupid stunts for the group, his ability was fast healing. Aiden, he has black scales on the top of his head that ran all the way down his back to the tip of his tail, the rest of his scales was a light green, his ability being camouflage. Then there was Maya, her scales were light red, having no special ability.

"We had to come find you again Lukas. Are you trying to ditch us?" Aiden asked.

"I got sidetracked..." Lukas mumbled.

Aiden rolled his green eyes. "Clearly."

"Ocelots!" Gill suddenly shouted.

From Gills sudden hype he headbutted Aiden in the side, and soon the two were having a rumble right in front of the library. Lukas sighed from embarrassment, apologizing to the dragon trying to get into the library.

"Lukas, you don't have to apologize for everything Aiden and Gill do." Maya said, putting her claw on his shoulder. "they aren't going to change."

"Don't say that. They can change, I know they can! They'll mature eventually, they'll have to." Lukas said.

Maya let out a sad sigh. "You always try to see the best in others. I wish I could see Aiden and Gill as something other than what we are. Didn't we have a war because of this? A war between us and the Sphinx? We proved a point, didn't we? That we're better than this? That we're more than just violent reptiles?"

Lukas stared at his friend in surprise. It's not like Maya to go out on a tangent about dragon history. "How do you know all of that?"

"Well, I hang around you and listen to you talk about it so much that it's starting to rub off on me. It's not like our history is interesting and complex or anything." Maya joked.

The two laughed for a moment, Lukas didn't even notice Maya's tail starting to intertwine with his own tail. Though when he noticed he didn't pull away even though he could have. He should have pulled away. But he just let it happen, to be honest to him it felt nice.

Dragons tails only intertwined when the two were really close to each other. This wasn't the first time Maya tried to intertwine tails, but it was the first time Lukas let it happen. It started to make him question how he feels towards his friend. Was she even a friend? More than a friend? Lukas wasn't sure. But before he could go too deep into thought Maya untangled her tail and removed her claw from his shoulder.

Snapping out of thought Lukas saw Aiden, Gill, and Maya take to the skies. Lukas flapped his wings and followed his friends. He would not be back to Elder Soren before sundown.

~~~

The four friends have been planning this for months. They would sneak into the palace of the Cragal and look at the jewels locked away in its treasure room. It was something Aiden has been planning ever since their little group, the Ocelots, formed. They wouldn't steal anything, just look around and then leave. Or at least... that's what Lukas has been told.

The palace of the Cragal was at the very top of the mountain the great dragon city surrounded. So the dragons had to fly up past the clouds and even fly inside of clouds, to get up to the top hidden enough to not be seen. It was almost sundown, so most guards were probably blinded by the sun setting in the south.

The only way into the palace that wasn't guarded was through the roof. The only roof that wasn't completely stone was the glass dome in the middle of the palace. While Gill was cutting a hole through the glass dome Maya tried to convince Lukas to make her go instead. "Lukas let me go instead, you don't have to do this."

"Who's going to get Aiden out of trouble? I'll be back before you know it!" Lukas explained.

"Hey lovebirds, enough smooching. Lukas, it's time to go in." Aiden said.

Maya gave Aiden a sour look while Lukas gave his friend a nod. Gill managed to catch the glass before it fell into the building and handed it over to Maya. Aiden and Lukas flew into the building, clutching to the sacks that hung around their necks. Lukas found a map in the library of the palace, and Aiden said that he had art supplies so he could draw the jewels. That didn't explain why the sack was so big though.

It didn't take long for them to find the treasure room thanks to Lukas' mastery of the map. The two almost got caught multiple times, but the two were small compared to the adult dragons and found plenty of places to hide.

Soon the two stood in front of a giant door which Aiden wasted no time in opening the door and locking it once the two were inside. Lukas felt scared. Although the Cragal family was supposed to have died out a long time ago, it was almost as if he could feel the spirits in the room. The giant throne that stood in front of a stained glass window didn't help.

Yet Aiden was already looking through the jewels. Picking some up before going to pick up some other ones. But he dropped everything that he was holding when he saw what rested on top of the throne. A necklace that looked really similar to the one carved onto the Isa statue. As Aiden went over to the throne, Lukas stopped him. "Don't, we're here to look not touch."

"Oh come on, no one comes in here anyway! As long as you put it back we'll be fine. But if you insist, I'll just go look at those blaze rods over there." Aiden said.

As Aiden left to another side of the treasure room Lukas got a sudden urge. An urge to pick up the necklace. He looked over at Aiden who was closely investigating one of the rods in the room before picking up another one and compare the two. Well as long as I put it back... it must be alright... right?

Flying up to the top of the throne Lukas picked up the necklace. It didn't seem like anything special, to royalty standards. It was a little obsidian pendant with a black string. Flying back down and sitting on the throne Lukas put the necklace around his neck and it slithered into place.

Unlike the stories he's been told about the necklace doing awful things to you, Lukas felt fine. He was completely fine. But then he noticed Aiden filling his bag with jewels. "What are you doing!" Lukas shouted.

"Not so loud, someone might hear us!" Aiden said, whispering.

"Put it back! It doesn't belong to you! You'll get us in trouble!"

"Your one to talk, wearing that thing like it's yours. And we aren't even supposed to be in here. So I'm taking some... souvenirs."

"Aiden put them back!" Lukas demanded.

"Make me!" Aiden threatened.

With a puff of smoke coming out of Aiden's nostrils he pounced and tried to rip the necklace off of Lukas' neck. The two were completely unaware of all the noise they were making, knocking over anything that stood in their path. Including the giant throne with made a loud THUMP as it hit the floor.

Guards were already alerted and the two dragon boys stopped when they heard banging on the door. "Open up! In the name of the Cragals, I order you to open this door!"

Lukas froze like a goat, he was standing right in front of the glass window. The sun was setting and the window faced the south. Out of the corner of his eye, Lukas saw Aiden use his camouflage abilities to lurk in the shadows and safely hide amongst the pile of jewels.

What happened next seemed like a blur to Lukas. About four or five dragon guards burst in the door and saw Lukas in the room, his shadow making him look bigger than he actually is. One guard, probably threatened by the shadow, charged at Lukas.

Instead of pinning the small dragon down, Lukas was pushed so hard he broke the glass and was flung out the window. He fell all the way down the mountain to the city below... to his demise.