"The enemy will always cheat, Isla, you need to be prepared for anything."
Isla and her siblings have lived in a cave for as long as they can remember with no memory of how they got there or who they were before. They only remembered two things...
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Another picture from our holiday. It was the sunset on the last night. It was so beautiful and incredible!
A huge shadow blocks out the sun and every NightShade looks up in fear as Toryn, flanked by Serenity and Tanya, flies over. He lands on the edge of the arena, careful not to catch any of the sitting shifters with huge claws. Then, he roars again. The noise and force of it cause the ground to shake. The man before me looks at me with terror as Toryn jumps up and lands behind me again, letting out another roar. The ground shakes and the noise is defining. I am perhaps the same size as one of his teeth which really shows the true extent of my brother's size. He drags his forked tongue along his sharp teeth, his eyes glowing like fire. The NightShades are all too shocked or scared to move.
"We knew that there would be more than one group of NightShades in our lands. What better way to draw them all out than to stage a perfect opportunity for them to attack. One that they could not miss," I tell the leader. He is shaking with fear. "You want to know how you'll be executed? With fire."
"Attack!" the man shouts but it is too late. There is an odd silence. Then Toryn from behind me takes a deep breath and with a whistling sound, a wave of fire pours from his mouth. It surrounds me but does not burn me as I surround myself with ice. Toryn and I had worked for so long on weaving our elements together, on having them work together without destroying each other. Now we put it into action. I am momentarily blinded, seeing only flames. I hear Serenity and Tanya swooping around all the soldiers. Although they are smaller than Toryn, that does not make them any less dangerous. As the fire clears, I see the destruction my brother has left behind. A lot of NightShade bodies lay charred before us. Tanya and Serenity sweep in, grabbing onto those who still fight and tearing them in half. Tanya spits out a burst of incredibly intense wind, ripping five NightShades into pieces. Serenity, with flicks of her tail, sends deadly spikes flying off her body and into bodies of NightShades. More surround me and Toryn, aiming their deadly spells toward us. This time, I step out of the way and Toryn roars. His huge head sweeps as burning flames engulf the rest of the attackers. I look at my brother. His deep red and black scales that cover his huge muscular body. The long neck and body covered in deep red spikes. His two muscular legs have huge feet with curving powerful claws. The wings are huge and linked with, what in human form, are his arms. He is terrifying. The spikes make their way around his eyes and at the back of his head. They also go along his belly, protecting it from attacks from below. Though as we had learned, Dragon scales are almost impenetrable. Two huge horns sit on the top of Toryns head and his mouth is wide with lines of deadly sharp teeth. Tanya and Serenity fly next to him and he roars. The shifters have all been stunned into silence as I walk over to my brother. We had not told anyone but the other young royals of our plan. We had thought there would be more NightShades in our lands and had guessed that some of them couldn't resist attacking whilst all the most important shifters were here. So we came up with this idea and only spoke with them. They are the only ones we can trust seeing as they were only children when someone betrayed our parents and got all the dragons killed. As I look back at them now, they are the only ones who don't look surprised. I climb up onto Toryn's back, walking up his wing and sitting above his head. His movements are slow, unlike my sisters who are already flying around us. I look around at all the shifters with a smile. One of them, or maybe more than one here are traitors and we just ruined their plans. I look at my friends. Oliver nods back. They have it from here. Toryn lifts his huge wings and begins to take off. The force of his wings causes wind to blow over all the shifters and we lift into the sky.
I smile as the wind rushes through my hair. Flying on Toryn's back is slower than on the girls. His wings span widely as we glide above the clouds.
"How is it to stretch your wings?" I ask with a sad smile.
"Amazing," Toryn replies. It takes a few moments for me to realise that he, of course, did not speak those words. I ask another question.
"How was the shift?"
"Excruciating, my muscles were tearing themselves apart, my bones breaking. It was worse than when we were children," he tells me. I gulp.
"Thank you, for doing it," I tell him.
"I was happy to, it needed to be done. I think we've scared the traitor a little bit. It should have brought us more time too. Especially with the spell, we put around all of Shadow. It will take a while for the King to come up with a new plan."
"Yes, I hope that is the case," I sigh.
"Don't worry Isla," I smile.
"Toryn," I ask. "how are we talking right now?" I ask. There is silence for a few seconds.
"I don't know," Toryn says, his voice ringing in my mind.
"We'll worry about this later, for now, let's just enjoy flying," he lets out a roar of agreement as our sisters fly next us.
For the next few hours, we fly and play in the skies. For those few hours, we are free.
