(Raym's POV)

     I saw Marcoal fighting 5 dragons.

  I tried to scream, but nothing came out. I ran to Marcoal, but I was going too slow. My hand reached out.

  "Marcoal!!" I tried to yell, but the last thing I saw was the swish of his fur-tipped tail, and the world went dark.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

  I woke with a start, my heart feeling like it was trying to lurch out of my chest. That was the 10th nightmare in a row. I searched the room quickly, but Marcoal was in his sleeping bed safely. He was cuddled up in the blanket, warming himself, with his wings tucked in.

  I chuckled quietly to myself. He's grown so much since the last time I saw him. I remember the time I took him in, too. It was raining, and it was so cold outside. I had a lit candle, and I was heading out to get my favorite rock I left outside.

  "Hello?" I squeaked at the lump of scales in front of me. It looked so cold. The lump turned to look at me, a miserable look on it. "Are you a really big lizard?" I asked the lump.

  It turned around, not bothering to look at me. I felt a drop of water fall right on top of my nose, and it was freezing.

  "Hi, um, if you're cold you can c-come inside. My mom baked cookies!"

I was 10 when that happened, and it's been 2 years now. I yawned, but I felt warm inside. I loved looking back on that memory. I wrapped myself up in the blanket and waited to be shrouded in darkness, but a rooster crowed and I fell out of bed.

  "Oh right... I have school." I said, my voice muffled in my soft grey blanket. 

_________________

  "Peyton, it was the strangest one yet." I told my best friend about the nightmare I had. We were walking down one of the long hallways to the Lunch Room, or 'Grub Room', which is what Peyton calls it. He shrugged. "Ya know it shouldn't mean anythin'. Most likely just some crazy thin' that forms in your head." He poked my forehead and rubbed the top of my head, messing up my black hair.

  "Alright, alright" I pushed his hand away, combing my hair back into place with my fingers. Peyton put his hands into his baggy pants pockets. "I just feel like something bad'll happen to him." Peyton and I passed a few more doors. Some drawings were plastered along the walls. 

  We pushed open the large doors that lead to the Grub Room. Crystals were hung from the ceiling by some rope, casting some light everywhere. Stone tables were set neatly into place, with Lilac and Ron in one of the smaller tables. Ron nodded to acknowledge us, and Natalie simply smiled like she usually did.

 Natalie had pure white hair, with some blue highlights at the end. She had a braid coming down from one side, and at the end of the braid was a silver ribbon to tie it off. She also always wore this scarf anywhere she went, even if it were scorching hot outside.

  Ron had glasses, and was the genius of the bunch. He carried around a notebook, but no one knows what's in it, except for maybe Lilac.

  "You guys getting any food?" Ron asked once we sat down, pushing his glasses into place.

"Nah, Mr. Worrywart here can't eat 'cause of some nightmare he's havin'," Peyton answered for me. "So I ain't gonna eat if he ain't eatin'."

  "Okay, okay, Peyton," Natalie spoke up. "Maybe if Raym told us what was bugging him, he'll eat." Peyton shut his mouth, letting me speak. Ron suddenly looked interested, since he was getting out his notebook.  

  I cleared my throat and tapped the stone with my fingers, not sure how to handle this question. "Uh, yeah. Like Peyton said, it was just some nightmare, no biggie."

"If it were no biggie you would be eating." Natalie reminded me gently.

  "Let's talk about this later." I said more snappier than I meant. Natalie looked at me for a moment, and left the subject alone. She never looked mad. Ever. She just started eating her food. Ron went back to writing in his notebook, and Peyton still wasn't talking.

  Not soon after, the Grub Lady (what Peyton calls her) pulled on a string that went up to the ceiling, and the Rotation Bell started to ring. We all got up, said our goodbyes, and went to our classes.

  Biology was probably the worse class, since we had to look into owl pellets. We put on our bear fur gloves and started to use our tools to figure out what the owl ate. Mine ate a shrew, Ron's ate a mouse, Peyton's ate a mole, and Natalie's ate another bird.

  I could tell Natalie wasn't enjoying this either, since she loved animals. She was literally the Animal Whisperer. Ron or Peyton probably enjoyed this the most. Ron loved learning stuff like this, and he kept on calling out boring facts about owls and mice while I was trying not to die from the horrible smell. Peyton kept saying,"Awesome!", "So cool" or "Sick!" when he found some bone or skull.

  When I was starting to get the hang of it, Lai threw his owl pellet at me, and I had to go home early, which is a silver lining. I walked home with some napkin dipped in honey on my face. As soon as I got home, my mom asked me if I was okay, kissed my forehead, and ran over to the cupboard for some honey jars.

  I went through the hallway to get to my room. Feeling the wooden floor under my feet made me feel happy for some reason. I opened my door, and had Marcoal crash into me happily. His tail wagged from side-to-side like a dog.

  He started to lick my face, and I started to push his head away playfully. "Marcoal," I scolded. "You can't lick my face, I have honey on it." 

  He made one of his most pathetic looks. I laughed; Marcoal knew all my weaknesses. I couldn't ever be angry with him for long. I reached out to pet the scaly ridge between his forehead and his left eye.

  Marcoal closed his big eyes and crooned with delight. The Dragon-Chimera mix arched his back and stretched his forelegs so that his talons moved down into a sitting position. He half opened his wings, shaking his sails into new folds as his wing tips brushed the hallway walls. Then he settled down again, twitching his long tail, the fur tip at the end slapping the floor gently as I continued my affectionate stroking.

  "I know you want to play," I tried to make my voice stern, just like how my mom scolds me,"But I have to put on some honey and rest first. The longer you keep me here, the more time you're taking from play time." I stopped scratching Marcoal and straightened up. "I'll come out as soon as I can, I promise."

  Marcoal gave a mournful chirrup and slunk back over to his own room. He padded around in a circle a couple of times like a dog would, and then settled in his bed. Then he curled up with his nose tucked under his tail and gave me a self-pitying look.

  I always wonder what dragons were thinking, but I shrugged it off and went to my room. I got into bed and waited for my mom to come with the honey, but a dove came to my window and started singing, so sleeping wasn't an option for me.

  "Shhh!!" I sat up, shushing the bird. I got out of my comfy bed and ran over to my candle, picked it up, and went over to the bird. I waved the candle stick in the air near the bird, hoping it would scare it away. The bird finally got the hint and flew away, it's pink talons dropping something behind.

  It was a neatly folded note from Natalie.

I picked it up.


__________
  Hi Rayme,

Are you ok? I was thinking if Marcoal was lonely, he could come over to play. Auralyn would love to have some company anyway.
_________

   As always, Natalie had a point. It was like she read my mind at times. I turned the paper over. I ran over to my drawer and tugged gently at the cool, smooth metal handle. Once it was opened, I rummaged through the mess of random items and finally pulled out a dulled pencil. Pushing the drawer back into place, I went back to Lilac's note and wrote:

________

Sure, i'll stay with him at your house for a bit too, if that's okay.

________

  I wasn't sure how I was supposed to send this without a bird, but I thought a dog would work just fine.

  "Mom?" I called.. "I'm gonna use Finny as a messenger, if that's alright?" 

"Sure sweetie, whatever makes you happy." My mom said, her head stuffed in our Jam and Juice cabinet.

 Opening the door, I ran over to Finny's pen. It looked like a pig pen, fenced, except larger so Finny could run around. He was a big dog, so mom knew he wouldn't appreciate being cooped up in a dog house.

  "Come here, Finny-boy," I called, making a tsk-tsk sound. "Yoohoo, Finny?"

A big dog came sprinting from the opposite side of the pen, his white and brown-speckled pelt being blown the other way he was running. The dog's paws thumped at a pace. Once Finny got to where I was standing, he sat down, panting.

  "Good boy, Finny," I scratched behind the dog's ear, and one of his hind-legs started to thump steadily on the grass, going faster and faster each time I stroked or scratched his favorite spot.

  "Finny, I need to to send this to Natalie, not the meadow, okay?" I took my hand away from his ear, which I could see he was disappointed about.

The dog's head tilted to the side. Finny slowly started to come near me, sniffed the paper, and slowly started to fit in into his mouth. I started to realize that Finny was drooling. I hoped he wouldn't smudge the words.

  "Remember, Lilac, not the meadow." Finny seemed like he finally understood what I was saying, and snorted. I opened the pen gate and Finny zoomed past me, going in the direction of Lilac's house. I went over to the door of my house, and sat down at the front. I decided that this was the best way to wait for Finny.

   After about 7 minutes, I saw Finny in the distance, carrying another piece of paper in his mouth. I waved to him, and patted the ground beside me, showing him to sit there.

  He wagged his tail and ran over to me, dropping the paper next to me. He laid down, and started to pant. Gently rubbing his back, I picked up the paper and started to read.

  It's fine with me. I'll be waiting at my house. My mom'll cook some food, too.    

 "Good job, Finny." I pet his head and lead him back to his pen. His tail drooped as he walked in. "Sorry bud, maybe tomorrow you can run around." I made sure that Finny had his water and food bowl all filled up, and walked out.

I pat the gate gently and walked out, closing it behind me. I went inside my house, grabbing a coat on the hanger on the way in.

  "Mom, I'm going to a friend's house," I said from around the corner. "Could you change Marcoal into his coat? It's going to get a little chilly later."

  "Sorry, I can't. Besides, it's your turn honey. I did it last time." My mom was scooping some honey into a wooden bowl. I groaned.

  "I might as well stuff him into a box," I muttered.

*   *  *    *     *   *   *  *    *  *

  I knocked on the door, Marcoal at my side. I decided not to dress him, since it took an hour just to get boots on him. But I liked when his scales weren't being hidden by some clothes. The colors just seem to calm me down.

  We saw the door handle turn, and Lilac's brother, Michael, came out. He had dirty-blonde, messy hair, but most of it was being covered by a beanie. His T-Shirt was black, and it had a white skull on it. Like Peyton, he was wearing baggy pants, but they were grey, not brown.

  "Uh, hey, Ronald." He said. He always got my name wrong.

"It's Rayme."

  "Oh, right. 'Sup Macaron." He looked at Marcoal. I covered my face with one of my hands.

"It's Marcoal-"

  "Right, right," Michael said. "Come in, dude."

Marcoal looked at me and I shrugged. We walked in with Michael, and I immediately smelt cookies. Natalie's mom came into view with a tray of cookies in her hands. She was a bit plump, but she was a really nice lady. She had a bun on, and swirls of white were mixing in with her light-brown hair.

  "Why, hello Rayme!" She smiled at me. "Would you like one?" She put the tray closer to my face, and a rush of heaven smell came into my nostrils.

  "Oh, maybe later." I said politely. "No, I insist. I baked these just for you, Rayme." I grinned at her and took one, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Michael roll his eyes. He walked away and made a "Psh" sound.

  Marcoal started growling. "Does your... Dog want one?"

"Oh, Mrs. Pinwheel, this is a Dragon-Chimera hybrid." I didn't understand why she still called Marcoal a dog. I told her he wasn't a dog a million times. She forgot stuff quickly though.

  "Oh my, a dragon? Those are hard to find you know. Lucky you." Natalie's mom looked into the distance. "My Natalie tells me stories about those legendary Dragons and Chimeras. She could tell you all about them right now. Go on and play with her, dear."

  "Alright. Thanks Mrs. Pinwheel." I walked toward Natalie's living room with Marcoal. I could tell he was excited about seeing Auralyn. I turned, heading towards the sound of Lilac's voice and Auralyn's chirrups.

  I finally found the right room. Lilac and Auralyn were sitting down on a tan rug, looking like they were playing cards. There were a bunch of cards scattered everywhere.

Mar chirruped with delight. Auralyn saw us standing in the hallway first, and ran over to me. She knocked me down and wagged her feathery tail.

  Marcoal watched us jealously. He hmmphed impatiently.

"Looks like someone's happy to see you." Lilac said. Auralyn got off and pounced on Marcoal, and they started playing.

  "Hey, uh, your mom told me you liked legendary animals?" I asked.

"Oh yeah! They're amazing!" She said, a twinkle in her eye. Looked like she loved talking about this.

  "Did you know that some people say Chimera's have wings? I don't think they do, though."

I can't believe she never told me about these things. She shared some facts about the creatures, and after told me her opinion. After a while, I got some opinions too, and she agreed with some. Next thing you knew, I was geeking out about some fantasy creatures. 

  I completely lost track of time and realized I was supposed to be home an hour ago.

"Oh good Pylon, i'm so sorry." She said. "I'll just get Aura and-" She stopped.

  "Natalie?" I said. "Natalie? What's wrong?"

"Th... They're gone." She pointed to the open door. Chocolate footprints lead out, and I guessed that Auralyn let Marcoal have sweets yet again.

  "Hey, no worries. They might just be eating cookies." Man, was I wrong.

We followed the footprints, but they kept on going. I stared in shock at what I saw. Chocolate footprints stopped at the front door that was open, and it was raining.

  Marcoal and Auralyn had run away.

________________________________


YUS FIRST CHAPTER. I just wanted to clarify that, yes, these people do not have iPods or phones, but they have pretty modern clothing or 'talk'. This is not the medieval times, but more like another galaxy or dimension. Also, Auralyn is pronounced OR-ă-LIN, not OR-ă-LINE. Well, I guess some people can call her OR-ă-LINE if they really want to. Also, if you see the name Lilac, that's Natalie. I decided to change her name last minute. (Why do I do this to myself ;^;)

  One more thing. Nicknames:

Marcoal: Mar

Auralyn: Aura or Lyn


-Snowy/Ykiboo