“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

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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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
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“Load the cannons” – Boomed the Colonel. Ca-chung! Ca-chung!
“Load. Aim. Fire”"

The noise of all sorts of weapons firing at the Himalayas filled the valley beneath them. It was a dark and musty dawn, with a few rays of sunlight peeping out of the eastern side of the mountain range.

And then, suddenly, the ground shook as a low but ear-piercing roar lingered in the air for several minutes, then siezed. A few seconds later, other roars and growls echoed throughout the valley. The Golden Dragon was calling for help and other dragons were coming to his aid!

“Take cover” – Shouted Colonel Cronk from under some snowy curved hills. A jet of blue and orange flame burst out of a dragon’s mouth and burned a few dozen soldiers.

“Maybe that’ll teach you to pick on someone your own size and power – wait, how am I forgetting – intelligence!” – He growled.

“Wait! You… you can talk?” – One of the soldiers spoke, stunned after the dragon doing the same thing, bringing a commotion amongst his peers. They were startled with their own stupidity when they realized they were not the only speakers in the face of the Earth.

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To the Preface
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There was once a dragon who lived in the south of the Himalayas. He was as beautiful as the diamonds covering his cave. His intelligence was amongst the highest of the Council of Dragons, a group of mixed dragons from throughout the world. These ‘warriors’ were praised around all planets, solar systems, galaxies, you name it – there will always be a dragon who recognizes them. They were mostly peaceful, although some were preparing for a war they call The War of The Dragons.

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To the Chapter One