Chapter Six – A Brutal Awakening

They sneaked out of their house and they tiptoed to their barn, where they peeked in; Ellard first, then Jorn and then Tillie, and suddenly Ellard froze with a mixture of horror and shock on his face. As Jorn looked, he seemed to lock his eyes onto the horrific sight. There, in the other side of the barn, they could see their crops, and also the Tangata Manu and their mother, on the end of a sword.

Jorn had presence of spirit to put his hands over Tillie’s mouth when a suppressed scream could be heard leaving her throat, while Jorn’s own anger was boiling with the raw need to revenge his mother.

Ellard pulled them both back off the Tangata Manu’s view and put his finger over his mouth as if to say, “Shhhhh”, and pointed at the smallest of the Tangata Manu, which was sniffing around and slowly stepping towards them. Ellard touched Jorn’s arm to contain him and murmured: “No Jorn, not now! Let’s creep out. It’s the only thing we can do.” And soon they were zooming as fast as they could, dragging Tillie that seemed to be in a zombie and unresponsive state of mind.

They finally found a little hide-out in the woods, where they dropped to their knees, helpless and crying. “What are we gonna do? Who will help us? It was my fault! I brought Antaris to our home!” cried Ellard. “It’s not your fault Ellard, you didn’t know, it’s their fault, those Tangata Manu did this, not you…” sobbed Tillie.

Suddenly, Ellard was standing up, his face pale and confused. “What? Who said that?”

Jorn and Tillie stared at him trying to understand what was going on.

“We have to go! Now! They are coming! They know where we are; we have to get out of here now!” Ellard warned as he started sprinting away, pushing Jorn and Tillie with him.

“How… who… how do you know?” asked Tillie anxiously.

“Antaris, he, I… I can hear him… I think he is talking inside my head…”

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To the Chapter Five

Chapter Five – Tillie’s point of view

“Jorn, I agree with Ellard.” – Tillie said as Jorn packed a few provisions for the fight. He pulled a cruel looking double-blade from his sword drawe and ran his finger down the edge of the blade.

“A true beauty.” – He said as Tillie looked, mouth opened with astonishment.

Just then Ellard burst in through the door. – “The Tangata Manu are preparing for an assault right on us. We get to get out of here, now!”

“Ellard, I’ve been thinking about your idea to go to England. I say it’s much too late for any other plan. It’s time to put your plan to explore the world in practice. Wait, where’s Antaris? – Jorn asked.

“Right here!” – Ellard said as he dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a barely 8 inch sapphire dragon which – neither of them knew it- would save the entire world along with Elard by his side.

Again Tillie was amazed; though Jorn was expressionless. “Jorn, now that’s what I call a beauty!!” – she said, almost screaming with happiness, a smile creeping along her face.

“Jorn? Ummmm, Uh…”

“What is it, Ellard?”

“Well, um, what do dragons eat?” – a shy smile across his face.

“Look a his teeth and you’ll know” – Jorn said, stifling a giggle.

So Ellard did what he was told, and what he got? A nasty bite! Jorn couldn’t hold it any longer and went crazy with his laughter. Ellard flinched.

“I think I found what they eat… meat! But not my finger little one!”

Recovering a bit, Jorn said: “Alright, let’s get out of here! I’ll hold them of; you two go sneak behind them and and launch a surprise attack to slow’em down. That way we can get away quicker and go further in to the forest and the mountain range!”

“No, we need to talk this through if we are really leaving” – pondered Tillie. “We need food…”

“I’ll hunt. And I know some of the plants as well!” – assured Ellard.

“Right, we need also shelter.” – She continued.

“No problem, there’s always wood, water will be no problem, we just need some fabric to protect ourselves. We can do this, we can’t stay here any more… as Jorn said, it’s too late for any other plan. It’s time to embrace our fate.” – spoke Ellard as a true leader.

“Wow!” – Tillie breathed in, clapped her hands and said: “Alright, let’s do this”. And they stepped out to face their future.

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To the Chapter Four
To the Chapter Six

Chapter Four – Tangata Manu

“You’re leaving?” – Asked Jorn for the third time, looking quizzical after Ellard had told him about his plans – crazy plans from Jorn’s point of view – fly off to England when Antaris, Ellard’s baby dragon, was big and old enough to take into the blue sky.

“For the last time – YES!” – Ellard shouted, but after seconds he seemed to recover. – “Just imagine! Only the three of us free to explore the world as we know it!”

“Wait! You said three. Who’s the third?” – Asked Jorn again, this time looking doubtful and suspicious.

Ellard took no time to think. – “Tillie, of course! She is – ”

“We’re taking Tillie along with us?” – Shouted Jorn. He thought bringing Tillie anywhere was a bad idea. It doesn’t matter if she was the oldest between them, she was, after all, a girl.

“Of course! She’s all brains! I’m the hunter and a good thief, and you are a warrior, strong and logical. It’ll be a blast, trust me.” – Ellard insisted.

It’d take more time to persuade Jorn to let Tillie come with them, but their discussion was suddenly interrupted.

Whiz! A black arrow zoomed past them.

“Tangata Manu! Get inside Ellard, and do it quickly!” – shouted Jorn as a flock of arrows headed from the enemies straight to them. They got inside just in time for an arrow go half way through the door.

“Who are Tangata Manu?”

“Tangata Manu are a group of half-hawk, half-human beasts who steal dragon hatchlings for them and their master. They are vicious and deceitful and sly, and they’ll do anything to get a hatched baby dragon, and in this case, yours.”

“Then we’ve got to get out of here now!”

“It’s no use. We are trapped. If we want to get along safely with your dragon, we need to kill them. Or you can just give your baby dragon up to them. Your choice.” – Replied Jorn.

“Your choice… your choice…” – The words still rang in Ellard’s head as his brother prepared himself to fight, the words pondering on his thoughts.

“Your choice…”

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To the Chapter Three
To the Chapter Five

Chapter Three – Hatching

When Jorn said he had never seen such a stone in his life, Ellard finished his lunch and went straight to his room and slumped down on his bed, leaving the stone by his windowsill. Ellard was tired and it was not long for him to be in a dreamless sleep.

Living in a small rural area, Ellard’s mother, Annora, had a relatively calm life as a farmer and every day she trundled down to the cows, sheep, horses and chickens to see if they were all right or not. Then she would go and tender crops and water them, planting new ones if others died; sometimes hack down weeds, and finally pick seasoning such as thyme and rosemary for lunch and supper. Little she knew her bucolic routine was about to change thoroughly.

Crack! Thump! Ellard woke up in a instant, realizing the stone was clearly not a stone, but an egg, and the top of the egg lay there, on the windowsill. Out of the egg came a strange, small, winged beast as blue as the egg. Impressed with the creature at his hands, he just then realized the once sapphire egg was now a smouldered pale white egg and as squishy as a mushroom.

Astonished, he took the small life back to his brother, Jorn, who immediately shrieked: “Dragon!” in horror and fell back on his chair and thumped his hind on the floor. “You brought doom to us, Ellard!”

“No, this dragon, as you called, can’t be bad! It’s so beautiful, and small, and harmless! Look at it! How it can be doom? It just hatched right now in my room!”

Ellard couldn’t control his laughter, how could Jorn be afraid of such tiny thing?

Suddenly, a gust of freezing wind flew inside as Tillie came in with two white rabbits for supper, wondering what this commotion was about, but in reality just caring about when dinner would be ready. She was famished.

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To the Chapter Two
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Chapter Two – The Egg

Meanwhile, other wars were spreading around the globe very quickly.

Inside the Black Forest, near Titisee lake, a female dragon about to lay an egg, was dragged in the middle of the battle and was hurt in the process, fell and tumbled down. In the deep of the Forest, as far as she could go to protect her spring, the egg came out. It was a deep sapphire blue, with several white spots with a red dot in the middle of each spot. It had a darkish blue tinted on the tip. Suddenly the wind blew hard and knocked the egg over and it rolled down the hill, leaving the lifeless dragon alone.

Near there, a small boy called Ellard was hunting a group of four red deer. With his bow, some arrows and a carved hunting knife, he shot two down and threw his knife at another. The other escaped in a blurred frenzy of dust as the deer sped away through a small clearing. The mist was replaced by a sunflower that folded backwards to reveal a polished blue stone to a curious Ellard. As a nine-year-old from a small village, he didn’t know about dragons, and for him, that stone was just that, an ordinary stone, but so beautiful that he decided to take it home with him. After all, his older brother Jorn was a stone collector and expert, he knew all different types of rocks in the whole region and he certainly knew which rock that was.

Tillie, Ellard’s older sister was waiting at the door. “It’s time to eat, Ellard!” She shouted as the noon sun shone on Ellard when he staggered into view, surprised at how long he was there, entranced by the alluring stone and just now realising how heavy it was.

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To the Chapter One
To the Chapter Three