~ Rose's POV ~

In the sand dragon's palace, in one of the hallways, Smolder had been walking when he lost his footing and heavily leaned against the wall. As he slid down it, his tail barb clicked against the stone floor. Rose, who had been trailing behind him, froze. Was he having a stroke? But she knew dragons didn't just get those, or fall like that, even in old age. Besides, he wasn't old. Rose didn't know exactly how old Smolder was, but she had seen a few old dragons, and he didn't look like one.

She ran to him, and after determining that he was only sleeping, grabbed one of the scrolls he had been carrying and continued down the hallway. She would go get the Tough Dragon's attention. Maybe she could help. Rose entered a small room with a table in the middle, and the stone walls were almost completely covered by tapestries.

In the corner, she found the dragoness fast asleep on her pile of pillows. Her two necklaces were half buried, but the red-winged one seemed to glow in the half-light of the room. Part of her body was on the floor, like she had suddenly fallen asleep, like Smolder had in the hallway.

The scrolls clattered to the floor.

Rose ran.

She was beginning to panic. Every dragon she came upon was sleeping, like in a trance. It reminded her of the Old Earth story... what was it... Snoozing Beauty? Something like that.
She knew that fairy godmothers didn't exist. But in this world, she knew magic was real. She had watched a necklace - the winged necklace that the Tough Dragon now wore - burn a sand dragon. That sand dragon had looked a lot like Smolder because of her black diamond pattern on her scales, but that dragon's eyes were like pools of dark ink. Rose thought back to that day.

After the small gold dragonet had given the winged necklace to the Tough Dragon, the one with the inky eyes had snatched it out of her talons. She immediately started to shake, like she was in immense pain, but still held on to the stolen necklace. A flash of lightning, and the inky-eyed dragon had exploded into dust. After that, all that was left of the inky-eyed dragoness had been a small pile on the floor, and even that was later scattered in the wind.

There were legends of dragons who had infinite power. Rose knew that that winged necklace was created by one, because if that thing wasn't magic, she didn't know what was. Among humans, these dragons were feared like nothing else, as they could destroy entire worlds with a single word.

Maybe a Mage had made this happen. Maybe not.

But whatever had happened to Smolder, she swore that she would reverse it.