The Dragon Chronicles Solana COMPLETE Read online

  Solana called back.

  * * *

  It was such a peaceful night, that nothing could have prepared them what was to come the next morning.

  Perhaps it was Solana's heightened sense of danger, thanks to her improved magical capacity, but her eyes shot open the next morning. She had an overwhelming sense of dread, so much so that it brought tears to her eyes.

  She flipped her covers back and got out of bed, standing on shaky legs. She needed something—

  water—something, to shake this terrible feeling.

  That was when she heard it. It was faint, but that was only because of the barrier. She knew yelling when she heard it. And she knew it was right outside of their door.

  She did a quick detour. Instead of the kitchen, she walked straight to the window to see what all the commotion was about.

  She pushed the curtain aside a bit to peek out of the window. She was met with angry protesters, all chanting terrible things about them and burning stuffed dragons in the yard. Some of them threw trash

  and food at the house. The barrier stopped it before it could even get close, but it still felt as though it hit her in the face.

  "R-Rexajon!" she called frantically. She closed the curtain and stepped away from the window, her thoughts laced with hurt and confusion. Why were they receiving so much hate all of a sudden? What happened between the time they went to sleep and now?

  Rexajon walked to her room, but his attention was on the phone in his hand. “They hate us, and you're wondering why.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Do you have an answer?”

  “I set up a search alert for any time dragons are in the news, ever since that video,” Rexajon explained. “It's been blowing up since four this morning.”

  “What?”

  Rexajon handed her the phone to see. She watched news footage as it flipped from city to city, showing destroyed and charred buildings. Some of the cities were still ablaze. Solana watched in horror. New York. Boston. Memphis. Chicago... All of them were in flames. What were the chances they would all catch fire at the same time?

  Solana looked up at Rexajon. “So cities catch on fire and dragons are automatically to blame? This wasn't us.”

  “There are eye witness reports, Princess,” Rexajon said softly. “They all saw a lone dragon attack.

  Every city. Same description. The chances they're all making it up...”

  Solana sighed. “Slim to none,” she muttered, a soft growl of anger in her voice. “Of course. What other dragons are on Earth, and why don't I know about them?”

  “I don't know, Princess,” Rexajon said with a sigh. “We've been in hiding. There's no way we could have known every dragon that's come and gone. But, Princess...”

  Rexajon's phone buzzed with another alert in her hand. She looked down at it. “I'm listening,” she said.

  “We do know at least one more dragon on Earth.”

  Solana watched the newest video and she crushed the phone in anger. It sparked in her hand, and now she owed Rexajon a new phone, but she could not bring herself to care. "Kuri," she growled.

  "She's in Madison right now."

  “Hold on to me,” Rexajon said. “I'll teleport there.”

  Solana shook her head. “They need to see us,” she decided. “They need to know that we're all fighting on the same side. Evelyn did this. I know it. I don't know what she did to Kuri, but they need to know dragons are not the monsters Evelyn wants them to believe we are.”

  “What do you suggest, Princess?”

  “Madison is only a few miles away,” Solana said. She looked at the ceiling. “We'll take the scenic route.”

  In a flash, the barrier around the house fell away, much to the surprise of the protesters. Then, they were surprised again when two dragons crashed through the roof for all to see. The orange dragon gave a loud roar, they flew off together so quickly that they left a sonic boom in their wake.

  That was one way to make sure they saw them.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Solana and Rexajon rushed to Madison is record time. They stopped, taking a moment to survey the damage.

  People screamed, some in fear, some in pain. The smell of burning metal floated through the air. In the distance, a dragon was still flying, still mercilessly raining fire on everything in her path.

  “Kuri...,” Solana whispered in a mix of horror and disbelief. Kuri was a warrior, but she was the purest, kindest, most non-threatening person in history. In the fourteen years they lived together, she only transformed into a dragon once, and that was to save Solana when she dangled off the balcony after a game gone wrong when Solana was six.

  It hurt to see so many people hurt, so many people terrified and crying at Kuri's hand. It hurt that Evelyn did something like this and ruined Kuri's good name. “She's still Kuri,” Solana said. “We can reason with her.”

  “And if we can't?” Rexajon asked, glancing over at his princess.

  Solana hated that Rexajon asked that question. She hated that she immediately knew the answer.

  She hated that she had to vocalize it like it was even a possibility. "Then we take her down," she said softly, trying to keep emotion out of her voice. "Let's go."

  They flew into Kuri's path, hoping the sight of them would be enough to stop her. “Kuri, what are you doing?!” Solana cried. “You're hurting people!”

  Kuri stopped, looking both dragons over with a rabid growl. She roared and launched towards Rexajon first, going for his neck with a fiery bite.

  Solana kicked her away before she could reach him.

  Kuri let out an angered roar in response. She charged at Solana this time, tackling her and blowing

  fire into her face.

  Solana grunted as they fell backward, crushing the tops of building in their struggle. The fire did not hurt her, but it made it terribly hard to see.

  She gritted her teeth and delivered an uppercut to Kuri's head to stop the flames. She grunted and kicked Kuri towards a waiting Rexajon. He spun, hitting her with her tail and sending her to the ground with a loud crash.

  Solana launched herself back into the sky and looked down at her, praying they could get through to her before things got any worse. “Kuri! Stop it! It's me! Solana!”

  Kuri growled and blew fire again in anger, effectively catching the top of every building around her on fire and triggering new screams from the powerless citizens.

  Solana grimaced. They were stronger than Kuri, especially together. She knew that. She could keep this up for hours and simply tire her out, but one look around told her that the city would not survive such a fight. Another look around and she could see tanks in the distance slowly approaching the city.

  If they arrived before Solana could settle this, she knew it would not end well.

  She also knew she was handling this all wrong. She was subduing Kuri, albeit slowly, but people were still getting hurt in the process. The city was still being destroyed. No matter her intentions, it still looked like humans getting caught in the crossfires of a dragon fight.

  She lived on this Earth for most of her life. She wanted nothing more than to keep its people safe.

  She did not want this city to burn. She did not want any city to burn. She had to prove it with her actions.

  “Rexajon!” she shouted. “New plan! You're on damage control. I want the fires out and as many people as possible safe.”

  “But what about—!?”

  “That's an order!” she snapped.

  Rexajon's eyes widened at her sudden show of strength. He nodded and flew off to do what he could.

  Kuri let out a snarl and launched into the air to follow him.

  Solana growled and chased her. “Oh, no you don't!” she yelled. She easily caught up and grabbed Kuri's wings to pull her away.

  Kuri snarled again and flipped over to fight Solana face to face. Solana was unsure if it was anger or Evelyn's doing, but Kuri's attacks became stronger and faster throughout the
battle. She clawed at Solana violently, leaving the princess on the defensive.

  Copying Rexajon's move, she gave a spin and hit Solana down with her heavy tail. She grabbed Solana, crushing her wings under her powerful grip and drove her towards the ground.

  Solana looked backward and grunted, seeing the number of buildings and people in their path. She never used magic as a dragon before. She was unsure if she even could, but now would be a great time to find out.

  She closed her eyes, focusing her energy. “Come on, come on, come on,” she begged quickly.

  “Yeourtian!”

  She braced herself for impact but teleported with Kuri in tow in just the nick of time. It was exhausting—teleporting two full-size dragons had its drawbacks—but it was much better than the alternative.

  They reappeared high above the city, but Kuri's grip on Solana remained the same. She continued the same path, driving her quickly towards the ground.

  Solana looked backwards again to see they were still barreling towards the city. She winced. She knew at this rate and at this height, the pain from the impact was going to be terrible, but there was no way she could get around that. Kuri's grip was too strong to break free and still teleport in time, if necessary. Meanwhile, getting a high altitude was would give her enough time to check for people and

  teleport, so no one would get hurt in the process.

  She looked to her left. She just needed to get to the city outskirts, where the chances of landing on someone were much slimmer. “Yeourtian!” she teleported them again.

  Again, they appeared high in the sky, but this time, it was more left of where they were before. Kuri started their descent, but before they could get too far, Solana teleported them again. "Yeourtian!"

  Again, they reappeared in the air, more to the left of where they were previously. Almost there! She just needed to teleport once more to clear the city. Solana breathed heavily and inwardly wondered if she would have enough strength to fight if she did this.

  She looked back at the city of people counting on her to succeed. She looked at Rexajon, who was busily putting out fires and carrying as many people as he could to safety. She looked back up at Kuri, the person that needed her now more than ever. She thought of the entire kingdom waiting for her to come home stronger than ever and win. She did not have a choice. She was fighting for too many people to lose. Losing was not an option. Her only option was to muster up enough strength to do this spell, take this hit, and get up again. And so, she yelled again, “Yeourtian!”

  They disappeared and reappeared in the woods far from the city. Where no one would get hurt when Kuri power-drove her into the ground. Well, no one save her, at least. Gosh, this was going to really hurt.

  Kuri let out a roar as the ground finally approached. She slammed Solana into the ground so hard that the ground under them cracked. The trees around them flattened.

  Solana let out a scream as a burning pain traveling through her whole body from the impact. She looked at Kuri, pain etched on her face.

  Kuri snarled at her, her mouth getting dangerously close to her neck. Solana groaned, weak from so many teleportation spells and in pain. She tried to break free of Kuri's grip with no luck. “Come on, Kuri!”

  she sobbed. “It's me! Evelyn brainwashed you! You have to snap out of it! Look into my eyes!”

  To her surprise, Kuri did look into her eyes. However, she did not see Kuri in hers. Instead, amber eyes met purple. Evelyn's purple.

  Solana's brain worked at a million miles per second. “You're not being brainwashed,” she breathed.

  "You're being mind-controlled."

  "A beacon spell. Used for finding the magic source of a spell."

  “Or the author of a handwritten note.”

  “Then you added a teleportation spell for easy transport. How did you do that?”

  “Add -etwenim to the end of any tracking spell for teleportation. But it only works if you've been to the location before.”

  “Magical energy per mile. This spell will get me where I need to go.”

  Her heart raced. She knew what she had to do. The question now was, could it be done? Using all her strength, she kicked Kuri away and stood up again. She faltered a little, pain shooting through her with every movement.

  She would have to combine ancient Wizterian magic and Miranasian magic again and use more energy than she probably had to spare. She was certain of one thing: she could not teleport two dragons. Not again. Not this far.

  Kuri roared again and charged her.

  Solana only had a split second to react. She transformed back into her human form and dove underneath Kuri to avoid the attack.

  Like she planned, Kuri continued her charge, unable to catch the suddenly smaller target. Solana grabbed her tail, then focused all her magic. “Seidetwenim!” she yelled.

  Her magic glowed, illuminating her whole body, then spreading its glow to encompass Kuri. They disappeared in a flash.

  * * *

  Solana did not know that the spell would take her to the Amazon Rainforest.

  She did not know that Evelyn would stand steps away from the final orb, which was bulging out of a large tree.

  She did not know that combining Wizterian and Miranasian magic to travel almost 4000 miles with

  her dragon caretaker would exhaust her to the point that she could barely stand.

  She did not know how she was going to beat Evelyn while so exhausted and so injured without help.

  Yet, here she was.

  Evelyn chuckled. Solana did not know what was so funny. She was probably laughing at Solana's chances or the quickly coloring bruises on the back of her arm, (if she thought that was funny, she would think Solana's back was hilarious), but Solana could not find the energy to find the joke in the situation.

  “So I finally met the famous little princess of Wizteria,” Evelyn purred.

  This would be the part where Solana gave a snarky retort, but she could not find the power to do so.

  Evelyn seemed dissatisfied with her silence. She crossed her arm. “You should speak when someone's talking to you. All that time and Rexajon didn't teach you manners?”

  She wanted Solana to speak? Fine. “Shove it,” she managed between heavy breaths.

  Evelyn's eyes narrowed. “Rexajon has a mouthy little child bride, doesn't he?”

  “You don't know the half of it, lady,” Solana muttered. She took a step towards Evelyn. “Evelyn, listen...”

  As soon as she moved, Kuri pounced, tackling her hard to the ground. Evelyn smiled smugly. “The only thing better being a dragon,” she teased. “Being a dragon tamer. Well, that and crushing your dreams.”

  She smirked. “How did it feel to have the humans turn on you? How did it feel to have so many people hate you and your kind?”

  Solana grunted, trying to wiggle free of Kuri's grip. She had no luck. She was too weak to transform and too hurt to maneuver her way out of this situation. So, she decided to talk. "So what was the plan with that? Get humans to hate all dragons, then you swoop in as the hero that kills us?"

  Kuri growled and squeezed Solana a little tighter, triggering a wince from her.

  Evelyn skillfully used her magic to dislodge the orb from its resting place and bring it closer to her.

  “Leave her alive, will you?” she commanded Kuri. “I want to savor this.”

  Solana winced again under Kuri's weight. She looked at Evelyn with tired eyes. "Listen, Evelyn! I know you're hurt, but you have to understand—nothing is going on between Rexajon and me. This is all a misunderstanding!"

  Evelyn scoffed. “A misunderstanding,” she repeated. “A misunderstanding. You brat!”

  As the word brat, Kuri's grip got a little stronger, crushing Solana a bit. She let out a pained groan.

  It was already hard to breathe through the terrible humidity of the forest. Kuri's weight only made it worse.

  Evelyn walked closer to her so she could glare her. “You took everything from me. You
and Rexajon... He promised me the world—then tossed me aside for you. All because of some prophecy.

  All because of your daddy's little bribe.”

  “He didn't mean to hurt you,” Solana growled. “He never forgot about you. Even if he did, you can't blame me for something that happened when I was a child—!”

  "Shut up!" Evelyn snapped. She growled and returned to her previous spot, where Solana assumed she would comfortably watch Kuri crush her when everything was said and done. She pointed at Solana. "You deserve this. You deserve to have the fame and glory snatched from you. You deserve to be killed by your mother. But more than anything, you deserve to have your stupid little kingdom's prophecy shattered before your eyes. I heard on the news you were looking for these magic poles..."

  She looked directly at Solana's face and smiled the widest smirk Solana ever saw when she used her magic to shatter the orb. The orb broke like glass into thousands of little pieces. The forest groaned in response. Every tree in their vicinity browned and died in an instant.

  Evelyn smiled in satisfaction. “And with it, goes your kingdom. You lose. Where's your little prophecy to save you now?”

  But to Evelyn's surprise, Solana did not crumple in sorrow. She did not curse Evelyn's name and sob for her kingdom. Instead, she laughed. She gave a long, hearty laugh.

  Evelyn's smile faded with each passing second of Solana's amusement. She growled and used the same magic she used to levitate the orb to yank Solana out of Kuri's grasp and dangle her in the air.

  “What,” she growled between bared teeth, “is so funny?”

  "In all your quests for the magic to kill me—all that magic you studied, and you mean to tell me you never studied high school physics?" Solana laughed.

  Evelyn narrowed her eyes, trying to see where Solana was going with this.

  “The law of conservation of energy,” Solana said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Energy cannot be created or destroyed? Ring a bell?”

  Evelyn did not answer. Solana sighed and shook her head. “Let me spell it out for you,” she said. Her body glowed with power. An aura of orange surrounded Solana and overtook the purple force field that surrounded her until Evelyn's magic weakened and faded. “Magic is energy. You can't destroy it. I did not get my powers from that orb. That orb was the one thing suppressing my powers. When you destroyed it, you didn't destroy me or my magic—you destroyed the one thing holding me back.”