Dragon Shifter

The Deadly Truth

"Firefly!" Runa screamed, but there was no response. Runa turned around and growled. "What did you do to my dragon?!" "Runa, come on, you know I would never hurt a dragon" I said as I saw the anger in her eyes. "I'm gonna kill you!" Runa yelled as she threw herself at me.

I tumbled down a hill with Runa on top of me. We reached the bottom and was quickly thrown against a tree. "Runa! Please stop!" Autumn called from the top of the hill. "What did you do to her?!" Runa demanded. "Nothing! I just followed the recipe" I insisted. Runa scowled and pulled out an axe. "Tell me how to help her!" Runa growled. I gulped as the axe got closer to my throat. I heard growling and suddenly purple and violet spines landed in the ground between me and Runa. I looked up and saw Firefly. Runa turned around then rushed forwards and hugged her dragon. "Firefly! I thought I had lost you!" Runa cried happily. Firefly purred and rubbed her head against Runa's cheek. Runa turned to me. "Sorry about all that. I just... I was so scared that I had lost her" Runa told me with a shaky sigh. "If you're going to stay, you're going to need to trust me!" I told her sternly. Runa was quiet as she thought for a moment. Then she nodded. "I can do that" she said, holding out a hand. "Good" I said as I took her hand and shook it.

"What now?" Autumn asked as we reached our little campsite. "We need to get back to Hole Island. It's not safe here, Gunnar knows that we are" I said. "So what's the plan?" Autumn asked. "We will swim back to Hole Island. You two can ride me so it's less work for your dragons. We will go underwater to mask our scent" I said. Eclipse and Firefly nodded and took to the air. I put the papers back into the little black box and handed it the Runa. "Keep a hold of that" I told her and she nodded. I shifted into a Thunderdrum then Autumn and Runa climbed onto my back. I lifted into the air and joined the two Razorwhips. "How are you feeling?" I asked Firefly. "Much better. Thank you for all the help" Firefly said. "No problem. How are you two with swimming?" I asked. "Alright" both dragons replied. "Try and stay underwater as much as possible so they can't track our scent" I said as we neared the waves. Both dragons nodded and we dived underwater. I glided easily through the water, being a water dragon may have helped with that. I surfaced every so often to let the girls catch their breath then I continued underwater.

Finally we reached Hole Island. I broke the surface and flew into the tunnels. I reached the ledge with our cave and let the girls slide off of my back before shifting into my human self. Firefly and Eclipse landed next to us and shook the water off their scales. "How was the ride?" I asked. "Awesome!" Both girls told me. I grinned happily and we went inside the cave. We lit a little fire and began cooking fish over it. "So what now?" Runa asked as she handed me the black box. "I'm going to go back to the hunters base. I still need to find Fireball and reunite him with Kai" I told them. "Well, you don't need to, you could just come with us" Autumn pointed out. I smiled, but shook my head. "I made a promise and I'm going to keep it. I already decided long ago that I was going to stop these hunters. I just needed to make sure that both of you were safe. Now that Gunnar has the idea of flying the Singetails it won't be long before he does. The hunters are a bigger danger than I expected. I need to stop them!" I explained. "That's fair enough, right Autumn?" Runa said as she nudged Autumn with her elbow. Autumn sighed, but nodded her head. "I won't be long, I promise. And who knows, maybe this will help" I said as I placed the black box next to Autumn.

The flames of the fire grew higher as Runa added some more branches to it. I noticed that the bracelet on Autumn's wrist was glowing in the reflection of the flames. Firefly walked over to Autumn and sniffed the bracelet. "What did you find girl?" Runa asked as she pulled Firefly's face away from Autumn. "Wow that's a pretty bracelet!" Runa said as she examined it. "Thanks. My birth father left it to me for my seventh birthday" Autumn replied. "He left me one too, before he left us" I added. I looked at the bracelet on Autumns wrist. It was green and had little silver leaves dangling off of it. On the biggest leaf, glowing in the light of the flames, were the initials G.R. My eyes rolled over to the little black box which sat next to Autumn. On the lid of box, in green writing, were the letters G.R. I immediately looked down at the bracelet which hung from my belt. I lifted the biggest leaf and indeed, there was writing G.R. My heart thumped so loud in my chest I was sure the hunters could hear it from their base. "I know that look. What is it?" Autumn asked. I lifted my head and looked Autumn in the eyes. "Gunnar Rockblossom is our birth father!" I said with a gulp.