Ironrock Village...
Everyone in the village was dead asleep until the folks near the entrance heard the footsteps and cry of a horse arriving. Some people got startled and went outside to see what happened, they saw one of the Gladsvil's horses as well as Devin riding it.
"DEVIN!" shouted his mother, who had just stepped out of her house.
He was tackled by his mother with a tight hug, "MY BABY!" she cried, "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN! I COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW! BUT I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE ALIVE!!!"
"What.... happened....?" Devin asked again.
Zach's dad and Grandpa ran out of the house.
"DEVIN!" his Grandpa shouted.
"Where were you?!?!" William asked concerned.
Devin didn't respond.... he seemed very out of it...
"Wings... scales..... the girl..." he mumbled.
"What are you saying?" William asked a bit frustrated.
"WILLIAM!!!!!" Cried Zack's mom, Rose.
"What's wrong?"
"Zach isn't in bed!!!!"
"WHAT?!?!
"I went up to his room to check on him.... he wasn't there....." Rose started to cry.
"Zach...." Devin mumbled, "Zack.... exchange.... deal.... girl... dragon..."
Devin passed out again.
William looked at the Northern Mountain...
"Oh no..."
The next morning during sunrise...
Zach started turning around and slowly waking up and jolted awake once he saw ShinRin at the foot of his bed
"Wake up sleepy head!" she chirped.
"Ok ok ok," said Zach, a bit annoyed, "I'm up".
"Obi wants to see you, she has your first assignment ready and everything".
"Ok, I'll go and just-"
"I have to go with you... The Mountain can be confusing and disorienting for humans. Only Dragons and Draconics know the right paths and tunnels".
"Oh," I answered, "Uh... alright then".
ShinRin grabbed Zach's hand and led him to the outside of her cavern into the big open area in the Mountain. It looked more stoning during the day than at night, with the waterfalls and vegetation in the Mountain, and all the insects and small creatures that crawled around.
WOOSH!!!
The Draconics, minus Obi, flew around in the Open area, Vatten, Shams and Noapte flew around while they quickly glanced down at Zach. Brann was just standing on a small rig, with his back against the rocks and his arms crossed, looking down at Zach, his face turning red in anger.
"OBI!!!" shouted ShinRin in a songful way.
A huge gust of wind came around, as Obi flew down and landed.
"Zachary," she said in a stern voice. She looked over at ShinRin, "You may go ShinRin".
She nodded and flew away.
"Now," she said, "Your task for today might be one that you know how to do... When Hooty told me about you and your cousin, she mentioned that you were both hunters. Rabbits are mostly your pray of choice".
"That's... correct," Zach answered.
"Well then..." she replied, "For the next week I need you to go and hunt FIFTY rabbits."
"FIFTY RABBITS?!?!" Zach asked in shock, "But that's IMPOSSIBLE- !!!"
"Are you questioning me?!"
"... no..."
"Alright then... fifty rabbits by the end of the week it is!"
"Alright... just hunt fifty rabbi-"
"I'm not done yet," Obi continued, "When you finished hunting the rabbits for the day, you have to clean my friend's caverns. It's an easy task. But there are some caverns that you're restricted to going in.... like the Dragon Den".
"Dragon Den...?"
"Is nothing you need to worry about..."
Obi lifted her arm, Magic and purple mist surrounded it, as a giant bolder moved out of the way leading to the outside.
"That's the bunny rabbit hill," she said, "Is two hills with a bunch of rabbit holes, after you finish hunting rabbits for the day you place them inside a small caver with a bunch of vines covering it... now..."
A crossbow appeared in Zach's arms, as well as some empty potato sacks.
"GO!"
Obi flew away before Zach could even ask anything. Zach looked outside as a rabbit stood there scratching his ear...
"Fifty rabbits..." he mumbled, "By the end of the week..."
Iron rock
"And then I was knocked out and... I was here..." Devin explained to his Grandpa, "I just... I just don't understand why Zach did that?"
"He wanted to..." he explained, "I warned him of what could happen... he still went because he felt responsible for putting you in that position..."
"I- I- I have to tell my mom, Aunt Rose... Uncle Bill"
"No, you can NOT! We can tell your mother later... but after what happened... during the "Earthquake" I don't think your uncle wants to hear you talk about dragon people".
"That's a fair point..."
"For now... just explain that you were kidnapped and Zach came back to take your place."
"That sounds a bit much".
"Well is more believable than to say Dragon people took him... I know people think that I'm crazy and they don't believe me. What chance do you think they'll take your word for it?"
Charles stood up from the bed.
"Let's go eat breakfast..." he said, "You must be hungry".
He and Devin headed out the door, in the Dinning room, Willow, William and Rose sat there.
"You're feeling better baby?" Willow asked.
"Ya, I'm alright...." Said Devin and sat down to eat oatmeal.
"Devin..." Rose began, "Do you know where Zach is...? Please tell us what happened"
Devin swallowed his food. "Uhm... well... the night of the Earthquake. Zach snuck towards my house and told me to get the horses out and accompany him to the mountain... he wanted to find out what that noise was.... once we were in the forest we found some... Uhm... Rogues... They captured me... Zach told them to let me go... they said that they would but they needed him to give them some things as well... I don't know what those things were. But he complied.... last night he returned.... even though they had the stuff, they said that they would let me go... if he took my place.... he agreed and so... they let me go... not before knocking me out and sending me off...."
"W---What....?" Rose teared up.
William sat there angrily, "I knew someone was taking people in that Mountain..."
"But why would Zach want to go there?" Rose asked Devin, teary-eyed.
"Honestly," he began, "I don't know. He did tell me that... Uncle Bill kicked Grandpa out of the house and he was gonna live with us... I don't know if... anything else happened that... might have caused him to want to leave..."
"I wish you WEREN'T my son..."
The words echoed in William's head, as he sat frozen in the chair.
"No...!" he thought, "...He wouldn't..."
"Is your fault..."
"...He couldn't have... wanted to go..."
"You did this..."
"...B-be-because of...me?...."
The Northern Mountain, Bunny Rabbit Hill.
Back in the Mountain, Zach lay down on the ground pointing the crossbow at a rabbit that was passing by.
SHOOT!!!
EEEK!!
The arrows flew threw the air, hitting a rather large brown rabbit.
"That's 10..." he mumbled to himself as he walked towards the rabbit and put it in the sack.
He picked the sack up one by one and carried them into the cavern that Obi told him to put them in... must be a lot of Dragons if you need fifty rabbits.
Once he finished, he put the crossbow inside that cavern as well and left, going into a cave that led to the inside of the mountain.
"... How am I supposed to find my way around this place?" he sighed.
WOOSH!!!
Something flew nearby making Zach jump a bit, at first he thought it was one of the Draconics. Once it landed on a twisted branch, he could see what it was... It was that weird blue, white, and purple owl he had seen last night with the Draconics.
"Oh... is you," he said.
The Owl's eyes glowed a bright yellow and let a big strong hoot.
HOOOOOOT!!!!
Yellow sparkles glowed around and Zach's eyes blink yellow for a second, then returned to their normal blue color.
"Hello Zachary," said Hooty.
Zach jolted in surprise
"YOU CAN TALK?!" he asked surprised.
"Not exactly," she answered, "Us animal guides have special things that we can do to protect our Keepers. Mine is Magic. Is nothing big, but I do what I can to keep my Obi safe. The spell I cast right now was so you were able to understand me."
"Oh...! So each animal guide has their own thing.... that's awesome!"
"Why thank you. Now, on to the matter at hand. Obi forgot to give you THIS."
She lifted one of her talents of the root, which was holding a round shiny object. Zach walked over to her and picked it up. It was some kind of compass, it was turquoise colored with gold. But what made it stand out was that it didn't have an N, W, E, or S. But symbols of fire, water, a flower, a moon, and a sun.
"This compass will help you find your way around the mountain," Hooty explained, "Each symbol represents each cavern."
"Oh thank you..." Zach thanked.
As he inspected the compass closer he noticed something else about it...
"Where's Obi- uhm- err- Obina's symbol?"
"Is not on there, because you can't go to her cavern," Hooty answered, "Obi is a bit of a loner. She prefers to keep to herself most of the time... She normally doesn't like it when I say stuff about her, but I can see you are a person of good heart".
"Kind of sounds like me a bit..." Zach thought.
"Failure"
"Well," she said flapping her wings, "I must go now, later Zachary".
Zach shacked away his thoughts.
"oh Uhm... You can just call me Zach," he said as she flew off.
Zach looked down at the Compass, and that is when the compass started glowing and sparkling in a bright yellow as it pointed to the sun symbol
"That must mean Shams' cavern," Zach told himself
He walked in the direction the compass was telling him to go until he found himself standing in front of a stone wall.
"What? Where-?"
Zach looked up, where he saw the entrance to a cavern, with some lights coming out. But the thing that made him nervous was that it was almost at the highest point of the Mountain.
"Surely you must be joking..." Zach joked, trying to make himself feel better, but he didn't, "How am I supposed to get up there?"
Suddenly, the stone wall started shaking and rumbling.
"What is happening?!?!?!?" he screamed.
That's when some stones started popping from the side of the Mountain in the shape of stairs leading up to Shams' cavern.
"sigh... You can do this," said Zach, giving himself a pep talk, "You can do this, just hug the stone wall and think of something that makes you happy... and whatever you do... Don't. Look. DOWN."
Zack put his whole body against the wall, looked straight, and took the first step. All while he was thinking of things that made him happy...
"Playing fetch with Max.... doing puzzles with his mom and Devin.... looking at the stars out his window... uhm what else- AHHH!?"
OOF!!!
Zach fell forward onto a sand-like rock. That's when he realized, he made it to the top.
He got up, cleaned himself, and took in the area. There was a lot of Sandstone around this cavern, some of them had carvings on them, a bunch of different lights everywhere, cacti, candles, there was a fireplace with a pot inside. And the highest point was a hay nest with gold inside. As well as an amazing view of the ocean.
"Wow," Zach sighed, "What a view".
That's when Zach noticed a tall shadow appearing behind him, way taller than him. He thought it might be Shams, once turned around he was face-to-face with a GIANT yellow snake, with Orange patterns, and some flaps on the side of the head with orange circles.
"Sssss sssss (Fresh meat)....." it hissed
"AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!" he screamed.
Zach had never seen a snake before, he'd heard of them but never thought they were that big.
The snake tilted its neck from side to side, seeming to prepare to launch at him. Zach backed away but ultimately found himself at a dead end. The snake prepared to attack until a figure appeared, and stood in front, separating him from the snake.
It was Shams.
"QUEEN!" she shouted, "NO! BAD!"
"Ssssssssssssssss (I thought you brought a meal)" it hissed
"He is not food! He's our bondsman".
"Sssss(slave)"
"Well yes, that too. But no! You can't eat him"
"I'm sorry?" Zach asked concerned.
"You have enough fish in your cave," Shams argued with the Snake.
"Ssssssssss!!! (I'm tired of eating FISH! I need REAL MEAT!!!)"
"Is either THAT," she said, "Or no food at all!"
HMPH
The snake slithered down into a small opening.
Shams looked at Zach, as he was trying to breathe. "I'm sorry about her," she said, "Queen hasn't eaten red meat in a while and gets a little.....EXCITED... when she sees something she can eat".
"Is alright..." I sighed, "If I only had to eat fish for my whole life I'd go crazy too..."
"I'm glad," she replied, "Well, for now, all you can do is clean up a little bit"
"Alright..." Zach answered. And did what he was told to... like a Bondsman.
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