Stolen Truth

8

Dove had finally agreed to come with us to search for the prince. She eventually gave in and said yes after much nagging from me and Bunny (who was not very impressed that Dove might miss out because of her). After she said yes, Dove and I rushed over to wear Viper was sat and told her the good news.

"Good decision," Viper said, "The meeting is at dinner in two days."

"Is it here?" I asked, "In the open?"

"No, it will be in the council tent," Viper said, "Now go, Bear is leading a special training session today."

Dove and I raced to the training area, our excitement fuelling us. They weren't going to be able to train us enough for when we leave, but I understand that we couldn't afford any more time to train, we had to beat the blanks.

Bear held a bag in his hand and was talking to the others when we found them, he smiled at us both as we reached the clearing, "You two are going to enjoy this one," he said.

"Why?" Dove asked.

"Because we get to fight as dragons," Bear announced, earning excited gasps from me, Owl and Dove. The others were older than us and far less enthusiastic, so I assumed they had done something similar to this before.

"Does everyone here know how to turn?" Bear asked, and everyone nodded in response. "Good, I want you all to turn now and on my word we're going to race to the valley in between the mountains and the woods."

"Wouldn't it be safer to do this at night?" Owl asked, and the others murmured in agreement.

"Normally, yes. But there hasn't been a single blank in that area for months now, plus it's almost nightfall anyway."

"Are you ready?" Beat asked once we had all changed form.

"Ready," we all said in unison.

"Go!" Bear yelled, and we all shot off at top speed.

Much to my surprise, I was second form the front by the time we were halfway there, and Fox was just ahead of me. I put all of my effort into speeding up and eventually, I was neck and neck with her. The valley was just in my line of sight and as I tried to concentrate on moving faster in the last bit, it felt almost like the air was pushing me forwards and ahead of Fox, meaning I won the race.

I did say before that I'm not a violent person (are dark ones even people?), that is true, but I am highly competitive, I will do anything to win. We used to have running races when I was younger and in the camps, I made sure I won every one. I trained hard so I never lost a fight and I let my hatred for the dark ones fuel me. It was harder, now that I didn't have that hatred, I don't hate the blanks like I did the dark ones and it's hard to find the will to do something when it feels like there's nothing I can get from it. Still, the thrill of winning is amazing and although it isn't quite the same, I think I'll always make sure to win, just for that feeling.

"Congratulations!" Bear said, causing me to jump, I still hadn't gotten used to the whole 'speaking in your head' thing.

"Thanks," I said (?) – thought – hoping I didn't sound too proud of myself.

"You're fast for someone who's so new to all of this," Bear praised.

"I think I had a little help from Dove," I admitted, remembering the push of air in the last stretch of the race.

"No you didn't?" Dove's voice entered my head, everyone must be able to hear each other when we turn.

"But I felt a push of air," I insisted.

"It wasn't me," Dove said, "Maybe you just got lucky and caught the wind?"

"Maybe," Bear wondered, blocking the rest of whatever else he was thinking from us. I decided to leave it at that and Bear began instructing us on how to fight in this form. What we originally thought was going to be fighting each other as dragons turned out to be something a little different.