An Alternate Dimension: The Language of Dawn

Chapter 2- Elaine

Elaine swooped from branch to branch, until she reached the huge treehouse that suspended safely from the branches. Xiaowan stood at the entrance with Izzy, both alert, ready to sound the alarm if there was any danger. Xiaowan spotted Elaine first.

"Hi!" Elaine greeted politely. Izzy immediately began telling her about the new characters she had made for her new book. Xiaowan sat next to her, feeling slightly bored, but determined not to show it, and added a few suggestions for her characters. She was still alert, listening for any suspicious sounds. Elaine also listened politely to Izzy's new characters. Both Xiaowan and Elaine noticed Izzy's inkstained claws from writing, and they felt excited for their friend, writing her first book.

Elaine was a dragonet of age 7.5 years, about a teenager for a dragon, Xiaowan was 8 and Izzy was also 7.5. Living inside the treehouse were Stephanie, 8 and Luna, 8.5. As for the boys, they had another treehouse, far bigger than this, and they had Levi- 8.5, Ethan- 9, Collin- 7.5, Callum- 10, David- 8, Calvin- 7, Edric- 7.5, Jonathan- 8.5, and Justin- 8.5, the leader of the small group. Zain had been the oldest, being 11, but curiosity had taken over him a month ago when he found his long lost siblings, and he decided to stay with them, fly around the world and learn new things.

The group, named The Shade of Flight, had been reluctant and sad to let him go, but they knew that he should be the one to choose his own future.

As Izzy told Elaine her plot for her new book, Luna poked her head out of the little hut perched neatly in the branches, and looked around warily, before spotting Elaine.

She breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed "Elaine! I'm so glad you got back here safe. It's quite dangerous out there, actually."

Elaine laughed a bit. "It will be fine Luna! I can take care of myself!"

Luna smiled. "I'm quite sure about that." The four girls walked back into the safety of the house, talons clicking on the wooden tiles. Stephanie was at the counter, counting the wood mice they had caught for lunch. When she heard the dragons coming back, she turned around with a shriek, and threw herself into Elaine's arms. Xiaowan joined the hug. The room led to five different corridors, ending in a small cabin which was the girl's private rooms. They had bunks set out, structures made of wood and leaves.

They crowded into Xiaowan's room and sat down. The Shade of Flight had several common things- they were lost, or on the run from angry dragons for who knows why. They were around the age of 8, and didn't have the chance to attend a school, although all the girls were quite well educated. Elaine remembered herself as a child, swooping from branch to branch, her parents laughing as they chased her. She remembered eating dinner with them around the campfire, and snuggling up under their protective wings. But they had been taken away by one of the dragon queens. She was forced to escape at quite a young age, and had found herself wandering the perilous territory of the Shade of Flight.

Trees loomed everywhere. But Stephanie had found her, wandering around in a lost kind of way. So she had taken Elaine back to the treehouse, where she had joined the Shade of Flight. And that was when she found out about her power. She was an animus. Which meant that she could enchant things to do stuff. But animus magic did have its limits. You couldn't bring back a dragon from the dead. You couldn't enchant something to control a dragon. Basically, you couldn't really do anything unless with good intentions. But it was still power, a rare and mystical gift, and she was proud of it.

Suddenly, loud screeches broke her daydream, branches snapping and the sound of fighting. She rushed back to the main room, and that was when Ethan poked his head around the door. He was covered in a few scratches.

"Come and help us!" he shouted. "We're under attack!"

=(^'.'^)=

Hi, I'm back! Anyway, this book is based off Wings of Fire, but different, and I kind of tweaked the definition of Animus Magic, because I think they are a bit OP.