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We waited, not knowing whether to flee in an attempt to escape and fight it tired when it caught up, or make our stand now. I kept my senses trained on the distant horizon and sat next to Darrius.

He looked to me for comfort, his face showing his fear. He no longer looked three years older and his puerile terror of the unknown was taking hold of him. He threw his arms around me, seeking refuge from the weight of the impending battle. 'I'm scared Drake. What are we gonna do?' I looked around at the others and none of them seemed really concerned about the situation at the moment, like they believed it to be farther off than we thought.

'I don't know Dar, I don't know. But there's nothing to be afraid of, Silver and Locke and I are going to protect you. Don't worry.' I held his head against my shoulder as he shivered.

'I can feel them Drake.' He pointed into the distance. 'There's another dragon, and there's a little girl and a man. I don't know who they are from this distance, but they're fighting a huge earth dragon and not doing too well.' His thoughts became frantic. 'They need our help Drake! We've go to go.'

I nodded and stood up, the fox still clinging to me in fear. "Time to move out guys. There's someone over there with a little girl fighting a particularly large earth dragon, and we're going to help. Silver, you and Locke are going on Star. I'll be right behind you with Darrius."

The twins climbed onto Star and she launched into the air.

I held tightly onto the fox in my arms and gave a mighty leap towards a tree. I pounced up to another branch even higher up on the next tree. Then I leapt out of this tree top and kicked off of another large pine tree, shooting myself out into the air above the lake. I spread my wings and banked out of the downdraft overtop the water. Once my flight stabilized I allowed Darrius to enjoy himself in his first few moments of unrestrained flight before I climbed higher in the air and worked at getting to the scene of the battle quickly. I caught up to Star and Darrius waved at the two wolves on her back.

We soon arrived above the fight scene and we dove towards the earth dragon. The other dragon that Darrius had sensed was another gold but it was at least twice the size of Star.

'Locke, how good are you with a blade?'

'Proficient enough.'

'Then take Kaldien from me for protection. I'm going to see if I can't rescue the girl.' I had Darrius pull the golden blade from its sheath and hand it to Locke. 'Good luck, my friend!'

I dove sharper than before and hurtled toward the ground at an alarming rate. I gradually eased out of the dive and leveled out just above the rolling hills.

The fox in my arms pointed to my left and I made a wide sweeping turn and spotted a small creature in between two small hills at the peak of my curve. I made a shallow descent and landed at the top of the one hill and ran down the other side.

Darrius leapt out of my arms as soon as he saw that she was a fox and stopped abruptly beside her. 'Drake, let me handle this.'

The she-fox looked very skittish at the moment and her legs were shaking. Darrius extended one hand slowly and spoke soothing words in Runic. "Marzón, orlü arno nírsané. Yenhro mír." The young she-fox stopped shaking and walked cautiously over to Darrius. He held out his arms to her and she ran to him and threw her arms around him.

'Good job Dar. How is she?'

He looked at me over her shoulder. 'She's pretty traumatized but physically she's without injury. She just needs to be around others for a while. She was abandoned outside the earth dragon's lair and this other Rider came to her rescue by drawing off the beast.'

I felt some new presence approaching and looked up quickly to behold Wolfe diving towards us. He landed next to me. 'Just in time I see. Come on we gotta get out of here. They're driving the creature back this way. Hurry!'

I began running and scooped up the two foxes in my arms. I continued, using my momentum to carry myself up Wolfe's foreleg and into the junction between his shoulder blades. I let Darrius situate himself in front of me but kept the vixen in the crook of my elbow as she covered her face with her large bushy tail. I smiled warmly at her while holding her steady as Wolfe launched into the air. Continuing to gain altitude, he circled back around the hills so as to avoid the chaos of the other two dragons pushing the beast back to its lair.

I was curious to hear where Wolfe had been and why he had so suddenly shown up here, so I asked him.

'Well Drake, I was enjoying my rest when I got hungry. Knowing that my shining Star would have my head if I went to find her to get some for me, I went hunting on my own. I successfully caught a few young deer, but as I was finishing them off I heard Silver call out to me. I came as quick as I could and she gave me the basics of what was going on and who was who. I'm guessing that this little fox boy is Darrius? He seems very small for his age.'

I shrugged. 'I guess you're right. It never really crossed my mind with all that's happened in the past few days.'

I looked back to the battle and saw the two golden dragons returning from the hills, flying low to the ground and headed back to the lake. Wolfe turned to follow suit but was caught by a strong gust of wind that was accompanied by an intensifying of the already falling rain. Wolfe struggled to stay level, but the gust was too strong and sent him tumbling backwards. Darrius was able to hold on but I couldn't, having only the use of one arm. I was thrown violently off and began spiraling down to the ground with the vixen whimpering softly.

I snapped open my wings and lifted out of the dive, closer to the ground than I liked. I breathed a sigh of relief as I took on a little altitude to calm my nerves and saw the little fox peeking over her fluffy tail. I gave her a soft grin and spoke to her, introducing myself. "Hello there. My name's Drake. What's yours?"

Instead of an answer, she buried her head in the fur on my shoulder, sobbing quietly. Puzzled, I held her closer and sped up my flight.

I quickly arrived at the opposite side of the crystal clear water and landed silently on the sand circling the body of water. I turned to look back over the expanse and saw Wolfe skimming over the lake towards us.

He gracefully set himself down on the shore next to me and Darrius climbed off his back.

I set my small fox down on the sand and she immediately ran and hid herself behind Darrius.

Silver and Locke joined us on the beach and smiled at the little vixen.

Darrius turned around and crouched down beside her, whispering words of comfort to her in Runic. She answered with a small whimper and a snippet of the same language. He took her hand and led her over to me. She stood in front of me and blushed, then quickly said, "Thank you sir."

I chuckled softly and knelt to look her in the eye. She gripped her tail in both hands as I replied. "Just call me Drake. What should I call you?"

She shuffled her feet. "I don't know. I wasn't given a name." She looked down at the ground beneath her foot paws.

Silver gasped at that and she exclaimed, "That's awful. Didn't your parents name you?"

The small canid shook her head as tears sprung to her eyes. "They didn't even look at me! I barely ate and they never spoke a single word to me!" she screamed through her sobbing. I wrapped her up in my arms and held her to my chest. She looked at me and said with a sniffle, "I don't even know why my family abandoned me. I never found out why in thirteen years. One day, I woke up and I was laying outside of that big monster's cave." She put her head against my neck and broke into another fit of sobs, her body wracked by tremors. I tried to calm her as I walked over to my dragon and sat down. I tried to shield the girl from the cold rain with my body, but could not. Wolfe came over and lay down next to Star and they extended their wings across the gap between them, creating a veritable tent out of their flight membranes. The other three rushed underneath this shelter and huddled around me and the neglected fox.

Her tears stopped flowing as she looked around the circle that had formed. Silver leaned in close and whispered to her, "Shh, it's okay. We wouldn't do that to you. How about we give you a name?"

She nodded slowly her tail going back into her paws.

Darrius was the first to speak, "What do you think of Relin?"

She nodded again, a small hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "That's a pretty name. Thank you." She hopped out of my arms and gave him a big hug.

Silver and I laughed but Locke just crawled over into a small corner and looked out at the rain.

Concerned for my love's twin, I followed him and laid a hand on his shoulder. I cautiously touched his mind, not wanting to invade his privacy.

He wearily accepted the touch and I asked, 'Are you okay?'

He shook his head. 'I'm still getting over the loss of my entire family. This little vixen reminds me of Dera, my little sister. She was so young and sweet, but now she's gone.' A solitary tear rolled down the rugged fox-wolf's cheek. He turned his gaze to me and smiled. 'Thank you for caring for my sister. It was the sense of her love that allowed me to find her. Without you, I probably would have died as well.'

I smiled back and motioned back at the group. 'Come on, we should join them. Relin was just abandoned and we should be there for her. If you feel that way again, just talk to Star. She's very sensitive and I think she is fond of you. She'd be glad to help.'

We made our way back to the group where Relin was explaining with exaggerated hand motions how she was saved from the evil earth dragon.

Darrius looked at me and waved me over to him excitedly. I moved closer to him and pulled him into my lap. "What's up Dar?"

"The guy on the other dragon, the one who saved Relin; it was Skiadem! We should go and try to find him. He couldn't have gotten far; his dragon, Ilethia, flew off in a different direction." He tugged on my hand and we both slipped out of the shelter and into the rain drenched forest.

He raised his nose in the air and sniffed. "Damn, I can't get his scent. I'll see if I can track him with my mind." He paused and I felt him reaching out with his mind into the woods. "He yelped as something grabbed his thoughts in a vice grip and wouldn't let go.

I picked him up and ran into the forest, tracking the source of the attack.

I quickly stumbled upon a feline at the location where Darrius attacker was supposed to be. I guessed that this cat was the source and pulled out my chain blade.

"Put it away Shalür. I didn't realize that it was you who sought my presence. My apologies, young one." His voice came from behind me and I turned to see the cat behind me. I looked forward again and there was no one there. I spun to face him and felt Darrius relax in my arms. He sighed and opened his eyes.

The cat suddenly smiled, and then he wasn't a cat anymore. He had swiftly morphed himself into a fox then put a paw on Darrius's head. "Hey little guy. I remember you. Your Crystal's younger brother, right?"

Darrius nodded, a smile forming on his lips. "Yeah I am. How's it going Skiadem?"

The larger fox shook his head. "I don't go by that name anymore; I haven't for almost eight years now. I've been known as Shadow ever since your sister found me three years ago. Still don't know why I was called that.... Anyway, I'll see you around. I have somewhere I have to go at the moment, but I'll come by and see you again soon, okay Darrius?"

He nodded. "Okay. Bye Shadow!"

The strange creature turned and disappeared into the forest, leaving me confused.

Darrius jumped out of my arms and said, "Isn't he cool?"

I slowly agreed. "He sure is something else."

We ran back to the dragons, careful not to lose our footing in the wet underbrush.

When we arrived, we found Relin asleep in Locke's arms and Silver resting with her head on his shoulder. When he saw us he put a finger to his lips, indicating the sleeping vixen. 'She just fell asleep. She really wore herself out telling us her story. Would you believe that she's thirteen years old?'

I blinked and looked at Darrius, who shrugged. 'Actually, yeah, I'd believe that. Darrius is too, you know.' I sat down next to Locke as he wrapped his soft-feathered wing around Relin. Darrius yawned and came over to me, curling up beside me. I picked him up and held the little canid to my chest as he surrendered his mind to sleep.

Silver looked at him and reached over to give him a pat on his head, causing him to smile in his sleep. Silver laid her head back on her twin's shoulder and fell into a fitful slumber.

Just before I too let my weariness take me, I glimpsed Locke looking lovingly at his sister and Relin, a single tear tracing a path down his cheek as he smiled.