For quite a few days, we traveled through the dense woods, always on the run from Archie, never knowing when he could strike again. We all got to know each other more personally. I found out that Harper was really good with a switchblade. She had a younger sister who had passed away a few months ago, and Harper blamed herself for her sister’s, Cyrene’s, death. After that Harper fell silent and didn’t really tell me much more about herself.

     Hearne wielded double swords, and he was quite powerful with them, but he was very modest about it. He strived to be more like his father, who had once been a specialized hunter in combat. Hearne pushed himself every day during training, whether it be just hacking vines in the woods or slicing pop up dummies, he would give it his all. 

     One day, as we were trudging along a rocky path, I sprinted to catch up with Althea at the front of the group. 

     “Hey Althea, how are you holding up?” I asked. She looked deep in concentration and thought, and didn’t answer at first. 

     “Oh. I am fine, what about thee?” She answered.

     “This path is a little rough, but I’m doing okay.” We walked a little farther in silence. “Hey Althea, what happened that night that Archie appeared? That mist seemed to be in your head or something. You’re sure you’re fine?” I asked, concerned.

     “Estienne, I- I haven’t been honest. I should’ve told thee what’s been going on.” She paused for a moment, looking up at the sky, which was starting to turn dark. “The reason I am immortal is because… it’s because of Archie. We were fighting some wild giants, working together in perfect harmony. At the time, me and Archie were kind of together. We knew we liked each other, we just had more important things to take care of. And I didn’t want to be awkward in front of his sister, Lillith. Anyways, we were fighting, like I told thee. Suddenly, I heard the screams of Lillith, and I looked upwards, seeing a boulder heading straight for my face. Archie released a burst of darkness, I guess he had already been dabbling in the dark magic, and I got hit with the darkness right before the boulder struck me. But it didn’t squish me like a bug. As soon as it hit me, it shattered into a million little pebbles. Archie had given me immortality, but at a cost. We were now connected through our powers. That’s how he could see into my mind. It was like he was reaching into my memories like a photo book, looking through and taking out the pictures, or memories, that he wanted. He saw the vision I had of thee, and now he knows everything. I am afraid he will come for thee, and try to destroy thee before thou can become a threat,” Althea finished.  

     “I don’t even know how to respond to that information,” I mused. “But why did he turn to the ‘dark side’? I still don’t fully understand that.”
    “It offered him power that regular sorcery could not give him. Terrible things happen when people become greedy for power. Take Emperor Delqa for example. You took history lessons in the sorcerer’s lands, didn’t you?” 

     “Yeah. Didn’t Emperor Delqa become so obsessed with building temples and statues and stuff to himself that he ended up killing his family in a moment of rage?” I asked, recalling my history lessons with Ms. Jemmiline.

     “Yes, he did. And he never recovered from it. He went insane. Back to Archie, that sort of thing started happening to him. He became moodier, and obsessed with finding the lost civilizations so that he could rule them all. I started to notice and tried to talk to him about it. He got really defensive, and every time I would try to talk to him, he would shut down. After a while, he influenced his sister to join him, and they disappeared one night, and I hardly saw them again.” Althea seemed to relive the moment, but then realized it, and turned her face back into a statue again. 

     “Althea, I’m so sorry. I-” I never got to finish my sentence, because all of a sudden Harper shouted:
    “Hey guys! Check it out! I think we found the village of the humans!” We were on the top of a cliff, which led into a deep valley. It seemed to stretch on for miles, and in the valley was a bustling marble city filled with humans. Technically, I am a human, but I have gained powers through my ancestors who learned magic, and it just became a part of their DNA.
    “Woah. The humans are living luxuriously!” Jarvis exclaimed.
    “Maybe not super luxuriously,” I pointed at a section a little farther away. “Look! Some of the buildings over there have been smashed or burned. I wonder what’s going on…” I murmured. Suddenly, there was a deafening roar. A tremendous navy blue dragon with silver eyes stepped out of the forest. It’s talons were razor sharp, and when it roared, I could see it’s glimmering teeth, which sent a shiver down my spine.
    “What in the blazes is that thing doing here? I thought all the dragons went extinct hundreds of years ago!” Althea exclaimed, her mouth gaping open.
    “I guess not all of them,” I said in disbelief. Here, standing in front of me, was a sixty foot dragon. The humans screamed in terror, and started a stampede. There were cries from women, children, and even the men were begging for something to save them. “We’ve got to help them!” I screamed over the noise.
    “How? It’s six of us against a dragon! There is no way we could-” 

     “Actually, there are more like twenty six of us,” A voice from behind us cut Jarvis off. We all turned, and standing behind us, bows at the ready, was a group of elves. Real living elves! The one who spoke looked around ancient times old, with wrinkled skin and wise old eyes filled with compassion. “Elves! At the ready! Bows up and- fire!” The leader commanded. Twenty flaming arrows shot into the air, most of them hitting the dragon straight on.
    The dragon screeched in pain, and stepped on a young man, incapacitating his lower half. Then the dragon blew flames onto him, and as the man was screaming from the flames eating away at his flesh, the dragon pierced into him with his golden teeth and swallowed the man. 

     “Ooh! That was nasty! But it’s alright, Philip Andrews was a jerk anyways. He deserved it.” A group of three humans who had managed to escape the town and climb the rocks appeared next to us.
    “Umm… who are you?” Harper questioned.

     “Well, I’m Josse, and this is Amethyst and Eamon.” Josse introduced himself, and pointed at the other two humans. Amethyst had a light brown bun that was slightly singed, and Eamon had dark skin and a look that said: “Ooh, you wanna take me down? Alright, come and try!” But in a joking manner, because he was very skinny, and I doubt he could have pinned down a kitten.
    “We have to save our town!” Amethyst exclaimed. She seemed to be the only one in the group genuinely concerned that their city was burning to ashes.
    “She’s right. Come on Evony and Fausta, let’s smoke this dragon!” A boy from the elf group who looked to be around eighteen (or maybe older, it was hard to tell because he was very tall) with blonde hair swept back and chocolate brown eyes filled with determination stepped forward.
    “Cavan, that’s a terrible idea. If we just rush in there, there are multiple ways for us to get killed very quickly. We need a plan-”
    “Yes, we need a plan, but we don’t have much time to map out everything Fausta. We need to do something- and fast.” A girl with frizzy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail stepped forward and cut Fausta off. She looked me, Jarvis, and Althea over, although mostly looking up, because she was quite short, probably just a couple inches over five feet.. “You three look like sorcerers. Am I correct, or have my ancient history studies failed me?” 

     “Have our clothes really not changed much in that long?... Umm, yes we are,” I said, looking over my robes, which apparently were ancient fashion. 

     “Okay. You rush in first, and cast a stunning spell, or something to slow the dragon down, assuming you can do that kind of magic. Cavan will come with you just in case something bad happens. Then we’ll come in and capture the dragon, and take it back to a habitat where we can protect it, since it is an endangered animal and should be protected at all costs,” The girl ordered.

     “There are multiple things that could go wrong with this plan…” I muttered, before reluctantly agreeing. “Okay, let’s go… Cavan?”
    “Yup! Come on, we’ve got a dragon to catch!” Cavan exclaimed enthusiastically. I didn’t think highly of this guy. He seemed kind of reckless and a do before you think type of person.
    “Well, what is thou waiting for? We must hurry! And Artemas, come with us, you must have at least a bit of sorcery training left in that small brain of yours.” Althea demanded. She looked Cavan over with obvious distaste, then she started down the valley with the rest of us following.

     “Artemas, do you remember learning a stun spell?” I asked him.

     “Yeah, kind of… I’ll try my best. It’s been awhile since I’ve done much magic except the aiming spell.”
    “Okay, well, get all that training back into your head because we need to get that dragon!” I muttered. 

     “Alright, everyone, on three. One… two… three!” Althea ordered us. We all, except Cavan, lifted our hands and channelled as much magic for a stun spell as we could. I was grinding my teeth and digging deeper into the ground with my feet to get a good footing. Even though we all tried our best, the dragon only seemed more annoyed than anything. Then I remembered what Jarvis was good at.

     “Jarvis! Your wave-length powers! Could you stun the dragon with some electric waves or something?” I yelled out to him over the yells and roars of the dragon. His face lit up like a lightbulb, registering what I was saying. He turned to the nearest power plant, which was a couple hundred yards away, and summoned all of its power, and sent it flying to the dragon. It hit the dragon and the dragon collapsed, finally asleep. I just hoped we didn’t damage it permanently. 

     The elves swooped in in a matter of minutes, and started to tie it up in a net so they could transport it with a flying machine one of their inventors had come up with. 

     “You annihilated that dragon! Amazing job… uh, what’s your name?” Cavan asked.

     “Estienne,” I replied blankly.

     “Great job Estienne!” He reached out for a high-five, and I high-fived him back instinctively. It felt good to be praised. All my teachers and parents ever did back at the sorcerers land was criticize me. For once, it felt good to be recognized for hard work. I then snapped back into reality, and realized that Cavan was also congratulating Jarvis as well, who looked very dazed. I had a sort of new-found respect for Cavan. I supposed he wouldn’t be half bad after all.
    I noticed Jarvis starting to faint right before he collapsed. I rushed to his side and caught him so he wouldn’t hit his head on the rocks and split his skull open. I eased him to the ground, then poured some water on him to refresh him. Jarvis had been working to find his specialized powers, and recently he had discovered that he was good with waves. Not like ocean waves, although he could still be good with that, more like radio waves, light waves, brain waves, electric waves, all the invisible stuff. That was the most power I’d seen him ever channel, and it must have sapped his strength drastically.

     I could hear the elves shouting in the distance, giving orders to latch the hook onto the net that contained the dragon, when suddenly there was a shout of fear. I whirled around to see a dark mist consuming the dragon. It looked exactly like Archie’s dark magic!
    A burst of adrenaline or my magic kicked in, sending me flying over to where the dragon was. I heard a voice of evil laughter, but it wasn’t a man’s voice, it was a woman’s. Floating on the dark mist was a twenty something woman with long auburn hair and dark robes. She looked almost identical to Archie, except for the fact that she was a girl. It must be Lillth!
    She regarded the elves, then said, “Thanks for doing the dirty work for us. And Estienne, hero of the lands-” She paused and stared directly at me with an evil smirk on her face, “I’ll see you soon, and expect some… surprises.” She whisked around and disappeared in the black smoke, her words echoing off the valley. 

     “How did you lose a dragon?” An elf, Fausta I think her name was, came running up behind us. “And who on earth was that lady? We had a plan, and yet it still seemed to fail. We’d been tracking that dragon for months, trying to bring it back home, and bam! Some weird witch lady comes up and snatchs the dragon up for herself,” Fausta started ranting while the rest of us stood around awkwardly, not really sure what to do.
    “It’s okay, she does this sometimes. Just wait a few moments until she recomposes herself. She’s been trying to work on the ranting, but it can come up at stressful times like this,” Cavan leaned over and whispered to me.

     “Okay… well, thanks,” I replied. 

     “And of course- Wait. Oh no. I’ve started it again, haven’t I?” Fausta looked at Cavan and Evony, and they nodded. “I’m so sorry. It’s just a bad habit. So, now what?” Fausta asked in exasperation. I looked over the three new elves, wondering…
    “Hey, Fausta, what kind of things do elves do?” I asked, a thought forming in my head.

     “Well, I specialize in architecture, and I help build up camps quickly. Evony is amazing with a bow, which is something most elves do, and Cavan just likes to build gadgets and contraptions. He helped design the transporter for the dragon.” Fausta explained.
    “Impressive. You all have really useful skills, and…” I looked at Althea, and she seemed to understand what I was thinking, and gave me a slight nod. “Well, this is going to sound completely nuts, but what if you joined us? That lady that stole the dragon, well, she has an older brother who is also evil and is trying to take over the lands. We’re trying to stop them, but we can’t do it on our own, and you guys have amazing skills that could help us out, so…”
    “Aww yeah, I’m in!” Cavan shouted enthusiastically.
    “Cavan, no. I’m sorry Estienne, it’s an amazing offer, but we just couldn’t. It would be dangerous-”
    “More dangerous than tracking a dragon for multiple months and trying to capture it? Than all the other hunts we’ve been on? Then that one time where we confronted a werewolf? Fausta, we have plenty of experience, and it sounds amazing. We get to fight bad guys, save the whole world and hang out with these seemingly cool people from what I’ve seen. Why not? Father Ailwi is always telling us to explore and take chances, gain more experience and be the best elves we can be, especially if it means helping others.” Evony put a hand on Fausta’s shoulder and looked at her.

     “Fine. I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this, but fine. You’re right. Let’s just check with Father Ailwi and then we’ll see.” Fausta caved, and Evony and Cavan high fived.
    “You have good judgement in spotting talented people,” Althea whispered to me, a twinkle of admiration in her eye. Was she complimenting me? I guess she did have a bit of a soft side after all.

    After we went to see Father Ailwi, and he gave his word of blessing to the elves, we set off into the woods and made camp for the night. We now had three extra tents set up since we were housing so many people now. Jarvis had woken up from his six hour nap and looked much better, but still a bit weary from the events from earlier. After he had recovered his strength, we were ready to find Archie and Lillith, and save the world.