The Chosen One- Book One (Editing)

Chapter 22- Stones

Icetail inspected the white stone. She dusted it off and placed it in the center of her palm. The stone's carving glowed once again, and Icetail frowned before smashing it into a rock. "Why-" Scorchtail was cut off as Icetail scooped up the stone again. "So its relatively durable," she muttered to herself. "Let's see how it'll hold up to this." She breathed a stream of blue fire at the stone, which froze it instead of burning it. The dragon then smashed her fist into the piece of ice, shattering it. The ice shards skittered across the dirt, but the stone remained unscratched and unbroken. Instead, the carving glowed brighter. "Strange. I'm not too sure yet, but I think it reacts to mana. The more mana you use, the brighter it glows. It also seems to sense strong sources of mana as well. I think it's okay to bring along." Scorchtail objected. "How do you know if it's safe? What if it summons creatures?" Venoming nodded. "I remember we studied that during Magic Class. Stones that summon creatures are pretty common in the magic world. I still think we should leave it behind, just in case, Icetail." Icetail frowned. "Alright, how about we do this: we'll bring it along, but if we find another one, we drop it immediately. You also learned that creatures are able to view the world through the stones, and only through the stones if they are contained. If we find another one but keep this one in a bag, we'd know that they're watching us immediately." Steamblade nodded. "That seems like a good plan."

The adventurers immediately set off again in search of Flashscar. As they traveled, Silverfang thought, "She didn't really punish Frozenclaw and I after all..." When the path of long grasses finally ended, there was a small tunnel opening at the end. "Inspect the insides of this tunnel. It doesn't seem too long; I can see the ending already. But we should check for clues that Flashscar passed through here. It won't take long and it'll save us time later." Icetail said. Silverfang crouched on all fours and folded her wings neatly against her back. She then slid through the low opening, being careful not to scratch her wings or scales against the sharp rocks. For a second, Silverfang thought she saw another wisp of faint smoke, but it disappeared before she could confirm it. She slid over to the place where she saw it, and she found a single stone, almost exactly identical to the one from before. She recognized the rune on it. It meant the word 'spy'. "Shoot," Silverfang said. The stone lit up until it seemed to be burning. Silverfang quickly scrambled to her claws, but hit her head on the stone ceiling. "Ow..." she muttered, but recovered almost immediately and slid smoothly out of the cave, her claw clutching the stone. "Icetail!" she yelled. The dragon appeared almost immediately. "What happened?" Silverfang threw the stone onto the ground. "Drop it!" Icetail clawed through her bag until she found it and dropped the stone immediately. It rolled until it came in contact with the second stone, emitting a bright light. Silverfang shielded her eyes with a claw and covered her face with her arm. The light faded and in the stones' place stood a fifteen feet tall creature.

The beast had three heads with a single slitted eye on each and a sharp beak. It had the body of a full-grown dragon, equipped with rock-like wings and three long tails with a sharp stinger at the end. The creature's first head opened its beak and hissed, "So you've found us out, haven't you?" However, the creature didn't seem to be talking. Instead, it was like something was hiding inside it and speaking through it. " Icetail narrowed her eyes, crouching into an attack position. "You," she hissed through her teeth. "I thought I killed you several years ago." The second head cackled. "Kill me? I'm was almost invincible then! Now look what you've done to me- I have to host another body just to fight!" The first creature let out a menacing laugh. "That makes me angry." Icetail hissed, "Silverfang, don't use elemental attacks. They won't work against it." Silverfang nodded and summoned two clones who spread out around the creature. The first head laughed again and swept it's tails along the ground. In a flash, it had impaled both the clones and was heading for the real Silverfang. She darted just out of the creature's reach, narrowing missing Icetail's claw, which sliced clean through one of the three tails. Icetail moved at an amazing speed, darting from left to right and slashing at the creautre quickly. Silverfang leaped into battle, but midair, the creature's right foreclaw caught her wing. She spun and curled up to brace the impact, and slammed onto the creature's back. The second head snarled and clamped its beak around Silverfang's tail, dragging her into the air. Hanging upside-down, the dragon swung at her opponent's chest, missing by over a yard. The first head cackled as the creature's claw toyed with her, batting her from side to side. Silverfang took the chance and hooked her claws onto the creature's shoulder, clamping her jaws tightly onto it. She freed her tail from the beak and darted into the air, flying high above the creature's reach. She quickly flew down and pulled out her knife, stabbing the first head in it's eye. It screeched and the second head tried to bite Silverfang again, but she flew out of their reach.

Silverfang wondered where the rest of the group were. They should've noticed the commotion by now. Silverfang glanced quickly at the grasses near the clearing and saw her friends trying to get through a force field the creature must've set up. "Guys!" she yelled. "Don't waste your energy! The force field's too strong!" They understood and fell back, forming a circle around the force field. Silverfang spun at the last second as the creature's tail came close to impaling her. As it narrowly missed her wing, Silverfang saw that it was laced with gleaming poison. The next tail was heading toward her, so Silverfang folded her wings and dived toward the ground, where Icetail was facing off against the heads. It was confusing to keep track of all of the creature's parts, and Silverfang narrowly missed again the creature's hindclaw. She went into torpedo mode, folding her claws and her wings to keep her fall from harming herself too much. She clasped her claws around her pendant, which glowed brightly. Silverfang gasped as Serpentis leaped from her bag, landing in a perfect coil on the ground. In seconds, it had turned into a ten-foot long creature, who caught Silverfang neatly on it's head.