Braving the Flames

Chapter 1: The Change

Leyla needed some time to herself, she had been with the others so much that she needed some alone time. Not that she minded spending time with other people, it's just that she hadn't been by herself in a while. She was walking in the forest thinking to herself.

The sun hadn't even risen when she left. The sun was just peeking over the Horizon right now. It had rained last night so it was really dewy out. There was fog all over. It wasn't that bad that she couldn't see but just enough so if she tried to look far she wouldn't be able to. Leyla had her small satchel that had her pencil and dragon diary. Normally she would be a bit tired for waking up this early even though she is a morning person but she went to bed early so that she could be back in time for a little bit of breakfast and training. It wouldn't be fair if she skipped training and everyone else had to do it. Leyla listened to the birds chirping happily and the small crunch the grass made when she walked on top of it.

She suddenly saw a small pond in the distance, though it was still hard to see. She carefully walked over to the pond. She bent down and touched the water gently. It scent small ripples through the water. Some people don't pay attention to the little things and miss out on a lot, like seeing the beauty in smaller things. An example is like just now, the water, how it can be so... graceful. People take water for granted, if we didn't have so much of it people would die. If there's a lot of something, most people take it for granted.

She stood back and looked at her reflection. Her hair was in its normal braid. Her eyes shone the normal green they always are. She had on her usual outfit and her face had a kind smile. Then she saw something behind her. It looked to be in the shape of a dragon.

Leyla stared at the strange shape for a few more moments before stepping back and deciding that she should start heading back.

As she backtracked through the woods, a strange sound in the distance made her stop in her tracks. The sound came again and Leyla's heart dropped to her stomach.

It was the distress cry of a dragon calling for help.

Leyla quickened her pace and started sprinting through the forest, heading in the direction of the Roost. As she got closer and closer to the village, Leyla sprinted as fast as she could to the training yard where she new the others would be waiting for her.

But upon arriving to said training area, Leyla halted in her tracks when she saw that only Summer and Aggro were there. Blinking in both confusion and surprise, she turned to face Summer with a questioning look on her face.

"Hey Sum, do you know where the others are?" She asked the water dragon as she trotted over to join them.

"They went to help rescue Elbone from whatever trouble he got himself into this time," the fastfin replied with an amused look on her face.

Leyla held back an amused laugh as she turned her gaze upon the clear blue sky. "While they're busy with that, maybe we can go and check out that distress cry I heard in the woods." She said while jumping on Summer's saddle as she and Aggro took to the skies.

Leyla jumped off Summer's saddle and turned to face her friend.

"Summer, could you go distract the hunters while Aggro and I free the baby dragon," Leyla told the water dragon who nodded.

"I'm H2-on it Ley!" She replied, taking to the sky and flying towards the dragon hunter's ship.

Leyla and Aggro were trying to free a baby deadly nadder from a net without hurting her while Summer distracted the ones who captured her.

"It's okay," Leyla said as she tried to untangle the net, while it was too close to the baby for aggro to burn off without hurting the baby. "We'll have you out soon. What's your name?"

"My name is Storm, it's nice to meet you." The nadder said. "My mom is Cloudcatcher."

"That's a nice name," Aggro said with a kind smile. "Don't worry Storm, you'll be together again soon."

"Get away from my daughter you crooks!" A voice yelled out causing them to look up and see an adult Deadly Nadder.

"Hey look! There she is now!" Aggro said before frowning. "Why does she look so mad at us?"

Leyla looked up before paling when she remembered what she said. "She thinks we are the ones that used the net on Storm."

"Let's go!" Aggro said, forcing Leyla on her back and dodging the nadder spikes sent after them as they flew around the area. "We were just trying to help Storm get out of the net!"

"Lies!" Cloudcatcher growled angrily, launching another volley, grinning when Aggro and Leyla screamed in pain when the last spike went through Leyla's arm and pinned it into Aggro's front leg. She was about to continue when she heard a voice from the nearby woods.

"Leyla! Aggro! Hurry up and save the baby nadder, the dragon hunters are on their way!" Summer said, flying out and seeing their arms. "Leyla! Aggro!"

With that she flew up to them and looked at the spike. "Oh no! This isn't good!" Summer muttered under her breath with an uneasy frown forming on her face.

"Wait, so you mean to tell me that they really were just trying to help Storm?" Cloudcatcher asked Summer with a mix of guilt and panic crossing her face.

"Yeah they were," Summer told her while trying to figure out how to heal them. "The plan was that they would rescue the baby nadder while I distracted the dragon hunters. But they figured it out and are now on their way here."

It was then that the hunters came out of the woods carrying nets and other weapons used to trap dragons.

"More dragons! Hurry up and catch them before they free the baby dragon!" One of them said, causing Cloudcatcher to send spikes at them before using her fire breath when they dodged, burning them in fire.

She then caught Leyla and Aggro when they started falling down toward the rushing water below.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for any of this to happen!" Cloudcatcher said as she took off into the sky with the others following close behind. "I honestly thought that they were the ones who's caught my baby, I lashed out in anger and for that I am truly sorry. Please follow me, I have a moon flower in my nest. It's the only thing that can save them now."

After using her spikes to carefully free Storm, Cloudcatcher carried Aggro and Leyla to her nest while Storm and Summer followed. When there, Cloudcatcher carefully removed the spike before using the moon flower powder to treat the injury in them both.

"Their they are safe now good thing I had the last Moonflower in this part of the world." Cloudcatcher said before turning to Summer. "But with their blood mixing in the injury due to it going through the human and into the dragon, combined with the effects of Moonflower both of them will change."

"Change how?" Summer asked as Aggro and Leyla began to glow. "What the heck is happening to them?"

"They will gain the ability to change between dragon and human at will," Cloudcatcher began to explain as Summer watched Leyla become a fire fury that looked like Aggro with tints of yellow on her wings and horns and her tail had a fire streak on it. Her eyes were brown and her wings were red with pale orange fire-shaped patterns under them. Aggro became a human that looks like Leyla with brown eyes and red and orange clothes instead of purple and green.