I  was looking up at the pink sky, standing on what we cald The Peek. When I say we, I mean us, dragons. Humans called it Hell Mountain, which made no sense because this place was like heaven. The highest peek was above a waterfall, above clouds, where you could see the sun when the people at the bottom wouldn't. It was covered with Unreachable flowers. It was called like that because it would only grow here, on The Peek. An old tradition would say to go up here, pick up a flower and give it to your beloved one, to be able to marry him or her. It was sunset. I held out my blue wings out, to get the most sun possible, so that my scales would almost shine. My tribe lived here, on the mountain. The moutain didn't have any specified name. We 'd call it the Fire kingdom, since dragons of the South all lived here. Almost all. Some of them decided to join other species, since we can change into any animal or human. Each dragon has a special physic, even if they change into an animal. The dragons of the North are the  Sky dragons, and live in the Sky Kingdom. I opened my eyes again, and realized it was night time. I jumped off The Peek, gliding into the clouds. It took at least 20 minutes till I found the kingdom . Even though it was huge. I had a very bad sense of orientation. I was expected at a meeting about... oh yeah, about war. I predict that I will be totally useless, but most dragons beleive that the future queen needed to learn the strategies to be able to fight the Sky dragons, who declared war to us centeries ago. I came towards the palace. The only way in was a balcony, a floor underneath the council room. There was no door to enter the palace by the balcony, which helped me a lot, because I could almost feel the flames of Severe when she sees I was late. The place was terribly silencious. I could hear my the scales of my four paws on echo on the cold stone. Suddenly, voices came up from the corridor. I jumped up, grabbing the chandelier, and froze. It was dark, but I recognised the grey scales of Severe, and the royal blue scales of the king, Royal.

" Your daughter," Severe spat out, " will one day be queen and-"

"And you'll be there to support her." Royal finished up for her. Severe snapped her snout shut. "She's not ready to challenge Starlight yet. Starlight is very strong." Royal continued. To be queen, the queen's daughter may challenge her mother, and to the one who wins is alowed to be queen. To win, you must kill the other dragon. My father was right, I am so not ready for this. 

" Still. She must be there for the council. And she better be." And this took me out of my day dreaming. The council! I was not not trying to be quiet anymore. I was running until I was out of breath. Damn! I thought. Where are the stairs again? I rushed through the corridors, bouncing against the night cleaners.

"Sorry!" I shouted without even looking back. The council room! I thought, delighted. I ran in, and discoverd a douzen of eyes watching me.

Oops... I heard Starlights voice echo through me. Stand straight, head up, and walk calmly, one paw in front of the other. I could have been the perfect pretty princess if I wouldnt be out of breath. I felt ridiculous, trying to act royal when I was huffing and puffing my lungs out. I sat at the circular stone table, next to my brother Hurricane. He grinned at me as I sat next to him. His scales were blue like our fathers, and his eyes were white like our mothers. He was handsome. He hatched a year before me.

" Good morning my future late queen." He said with a humourous voice.

"Remember I will actually be queen but you not. And that was not funny." I said, not smiling at all. 

"You sure about that?" He said, tickiling me with his tale, trying to make me laugh.

"S-stop that!"  I said trying to not laugh. I suddenly smashed his tail under my paw. I was strong, like our mother, but I tryed not to break his tail, so that I wouldn't have to explain to my parents why I did that. His smile broke into a grimace.

"Oooooooow..." he said quietly, to not atract the attention of the other dragons, who were talking and murmering and shooting glances at me. I looked around the room. The tapestry around the room were beautifull. They represented the king and queens of the kingdom. A blue dragon with saphires for the eyes, and a black one with diamonds for eyes. I had no idea were my red-as-blood eyes came from. At least I knew were my scales came from: they were black with reflections of purple-blue. Some say I will be the beautifullest queen of the history of dragons, north and south included. I said that was too much,  but I thought about it again when they told me the queens of the north dragons had all been red with red eyes. Some of the citizens said my red eyes was a sign of desolation and destruction since the dragons of the south were green, blue, black and purple while the dragons of the north were red, orange and gold. There is a prophecy that says that the white dragon will restore peace beetween the tribes. I wish that would be true. 

" The queen Starlight and the king Royal!" I woke up from my day dreaming again. The dragons flapped their wings in sign of respect.

" I have the honnor to present to the council our dragonnets, Hurricane," flap of wings, " and the future queen Ruby." I loved this name. Queen Ruby. I smiled. Wings flapped again. The dragons settled down around the table, and the discussion  began. I did not listen at all. What I loved less was the term dragonets. I mean, I was 10.  Thats old for a dragon. Well, kinda old. Dragons were mature ealier than humans. Yes, I had studied them a lot. Compared to other dragons, who thought they were just pathetic little creature, I thought they were absolutely fascinating. I once thought about joining them for a bit. But my royalty soon caught up with the dreams. 

"Princess Ruby?" I felt Hurricanes Shake me awake. I jumped up, and shoot him a murderous look. But he did not smile, he only looked into my eyes, before looking behind me. I turned my head around before asking almost mechanically:

"Sorry, what was the question again?" I felt my brother sigh of despair.

" Could you tell us if your present for the kingdom would finnally be any use for war, because that would be the time to." For your hatch day, you receive presents but must also give one to your kingdom. Why they asked if it could help for war? I'll explain: long ago, an unknown dragon from another world ( we believe, because he would not tell us where he was from, in case we would send him back there.) came and asked for mercy. He said other dragons would hunt him down because of  what he cald animus power. You can guess what happend next: he had children, and they got the 'animus genes'. He died, and all he left was his powers and some paintings of him. He was a black dragon with what seemed to be a stars under his wings. He was the only dragon that ever came from this place. He is the gran-gran-gran-father of Starlight. She would says the genes would have been passed on, without ever showing up until now. We studied it for a bit, and discoverd I could enchant anything to do anything. But it came with a price: each time I would enchant something, the powers would take a bite of my soul. But the council did not care. They'd expect me to enchant a powerfull weapon, to kill every and each dragon from the north. I had two possible answers: number on, " Each time I use my powers, I lose a bit of my soul. So GET YOURSELF ANOTHER ANIMUS DRAGON!"

Second answer:

" I'm working on it." The whole council let out a sigh, which made my mothers look black. 

" Alright," Royal said, " You are dismissed. I would like to see you all at morning. Exept you two." He said looking at  me and my brother.

 We walked down the corridor, side by side. 

" How was I? " I asked Hurricane.

"Next time, be a bit more absent and you'll be perfect. Don't even react when someone calls you"

" Why do you think father suddenly decided to include us in the council and all the political stuff?" I said, ignoring his silly answer.

"He might think that now is the time to teach that to us. Or he felt something."

"You think he got... new visions?" My father was a seer. He had visions. And I inherited this too, even if I didn't get it a lot. I had to admit, it was painfull for my head, but I was able to see future important events, like some deaths that could change everything, so that I could change it.

"Might be." He answerd.

" Anyway," I started, trying to turn the discussion another way. " I will not go to this bore-to-death council."

"And how are you going to do that?" He said with a cheeky smile.

"I am going to royaly say ' no. '" He laughed.

"I don't think father is going to let this happen." 

"And mother?" His smile disapeard.

"I guess she wont encourage you, to not see her final hour come closer." Dragons could sometimes feel other live creatures feelings. It's like another feeling would grow next to yours. Right now I could feel that my brother was in pain, because one day will come when either his sister or mother would kill each other for power only.

" Hey," I said softly." It's alright, this will only happen in a douzen of years only. I am not ready to be queen at all." He turned his head to look at me. I could see his eyes were full of tears, ready to escape his eyes in any second.

"Good night." We rubbed our heads together and he entered his room. At this moment I had no idea that what was going to happen next was going to change my life forever.

 Screamings came up my ears. Explotions flashed before my eyes. Dragons were swimmings in pools of blood all around me, some of them drowning. A scream came up from behind me, almost coverd by the gluglues of blood. I turned around. A red mass was lying on the ground, blood coming from every inch of his body. His scales had been ripped off his skin, letting his body agonising. He could not heal quickly enough, and if he could, he would be too exposed to any scratch, making him bleed to death. I suddenly fell. Blood enveloped me entirely. I felt like that poor dragon, now to heavy from the thick liquid, not being able to get out of there. Not being able to scream for help. Blood filled my lungs, and my vision got darker and darker. A thought filled every inch of my mind. I am now dead.

My eyes opened up again. I was in my room. The sky was lightly lighted up. I was laying on the floor. I could hardly breath. It took all my energy to only get one sip of air, like a fish out of water. I started to crawl , struggling to get to the window. I looked outside, and sighed of relief when I saw everything was normal.

"Ruby?!" My brother rushed in the room, kneeling beside me, letting a claw run down my neck. " I heard you scream, you were calling for help, screaming of agony and, and... dont tell me that was a vision?!" 

" To be honest, I dont know. But i'm fine, alright."

" Alright then, we can go. NOW!" He said in an emergency. He ran around me, pushing me outside.

" Wait, what?!" I screamed flying after him as he passed in front of me.

"Dragons of the North are attacking. Ruby, they want you dead. They want every member of the royal family dead. So that they can rule of the Kingdom of Fire. They will be here any second now. I have to pro-" BOOOOM!! I looked out the window, and saw that one of our cliffs has been shortend up a few meters, stones crashing on the ground. Then I saw blue and green dragons escaping by hundreds out of houses, and out of the castle. We ran down the hall, rushing to the balcony were I had landed last night, looking down at the masacre. Red and golden dragons in silver armours were appearing where the cliff broke, gliding above the mass of dragons, killing any dragons in the way, normal citizens and guards without distinction. And there came the suthern army, where the northern one apeared. Blues and Reds started fighting. Very soon, blood started to color the gardens, stones and courts, painting a whole new world . Bodies were falling from the sky, but with new dragons arriving, there was no chance for the mass to get smaller: for three dead dragons, five new dragons arrived. It took a moment for me to realize that a small group of red and gold and silver dragons was detached from the growing mess, giving looks everywere. They were looking for the royal family to slay. There were looking for us. Rage and fear mingled through me. How did they dare come here to slay us, the royal family, and innocent citizens? How did they dare come for a kingdom thats not theirs?!

But wait...

Wasn't that exactly what we were going to do? I suddenly felt heavier. But I didn't have time to go to the tip of that thought, because Hurricane was already pushing me back into the castle.

"Wait?! No! And if its what you think, I don't care about my royalty! We must help them! WILL YOU STOP PUSHING ME?!" I screamed as I tryed to fight him to fly off the balcony. I was strong, but it was harder to pass without hurting than blocking.

" Your royalty, is more important than anything else. Your kingdom will need a queen if the original one dies. A queen to rule a kingdom."

He was right. He was hopelessly right. I followed him, feeling powerless.

 I had passed my childhoods playing outside, and I had no idea where we were going. In fact, the castle was not big for use, but actually that if you were being hunted, you could hide to wait. But if the king and queen were dead, the army would have the whole time to search us, and there would be no one to save me nor my brother. We continued for what seemed to be ages,turning left, right, and when I thought my brother was mad, he stopped in front of a stone brick wall. He put his talons on the wall, sliding both of them in beetween the cracks, murmuring inaudible words. Suddenly, his claws fell into a crack that semmed deeper than the others. He started moving his talons in a specific way. After a moment, I saw his eyes light up. He took his claws out, and the wall started to move. Making impossible waves. And right under my unbeleived eyes, some bricks got smaller, and smaller... Until an arched passage appeard. 

"Come on. Quickly." Hurricane said. Once in, the passage closed again, as if nothing had happend. The passage was shaped into an arch. It was low and thin, making it impossible to walk by two or fly. You hardly walk without touching the walls. As far as I could see, there were no curves. There were small fires lit up in holes in the walls. My brother smiled when he saw the amazement on my face.

" Impressive, huh?" He said proudly, as if he made it himself. But that was strictly impossible, since the wall was enchanted, and he was not an animus.

" The wall is enchanted! Who made it? " I asked.

"The one who gave you your power. Our ancestor. As a present for the kings and queens mercy. Now lets hurry." He said, hurrying in front of me. We walked quietly for what seemed like two kilometers, until we arrived in front of a wall, with a two lines of symbols on it. Only dragons could read it. It said:

Go deep down to the abysses of  the lagoon,

And finds the path up to the moon.

" Huh? That doesnt make any sense." I said. There was a lagoon in the Fire kingdom, it was beautifull. But the lagoon had nothing to do with the moon... in my mind, it was only to make a stupid rime. Hurricane smiled.

"Its a riddle." He said. He then took a deep breath, and blowed the dust off the wall.  The symbols disapears in waves.

"But how does that link to the lagoon?" I asked, puzzled.

"Only dragons who have gone into the depths lagoon know the answer." He looked at me, and my head seemed to not have changed. He sighed. "There is a stone in the very deepths of the lagoon, with wind represented on it." I nodded, slowly understanding. New symbols apeard on the wall:

Light up the darkest night,

To stretch your wings and reach sunlight.

This time, he didn't even look at me, as if I wasted enough time. He spat out a flame, that went straight to the the wall, like absorbed. The same scenario happend again, and new symbols appeard:

Now go deep into your heart, looking for fierceness,

To not end your destiny here, you must be brave and fearless.

"Stand back." Hurricane told me. I took three steps back and so did he. He took a deep breath, and roared at the top of his lungs. The wall sank into the ground. We entered a wide but short cave. 

                                                                   ➰➰➰

I knew where we were: it was a small cave, not very far from the castle. We used to play here when we were dragonnets. We stepped forwards, and he carefully peeked outside, letting swearings out.

"What? " I asked, imagining all possible answers. 

" I did not think the war would even spread until here." He winced of horrror. I took a step forward, looking at the scene that I didn't even dare imagine. Dragons fighting, steping on a pool of bodies. They must have been, what, seven hundred fighting over what used to be a plain? The fight seemed to be equal, so the balance could fall at any moments, any way.

" Alright," Hurricane said, his voice shaking, " At three, run. And dont even think about flying. We'll then be an easy target. " My head was boiling with thoughts, I could barly hear him. What if we dont succeed? What will happen to the kingdom?  I could hardly breath just imagining the answer. One. What if father and mother were already dead? How would this be usefull? If mother dies, will I be a good queen? Two. I saw red soldiers die by arrows, falling in poodles of blood.

"NOW!" 

I then started running, not even looking were my brother was. Don't look around. Don't look around. Screams ripped the air. Tears streamed on my face. I couldn't stop myself of looking around me. How could they kill each other? When I was walking around the castle, I could easily imagin myself leading this kind of a war. Fighting the Northern dragons, to grow my kingdom up. But right in the action, I could throw up just thinking about it. We weren't straight in between the dragons fighting, but a a few meters outside the main fight. I looked to my side, seeing reflection of the sun on my brothers blue scales. The sky was blue. I could stop thinking that it it sould be a perfect day to fly in the sky, but that we probalbly wont be able to do that ever again. Hurricane narrowed his eyes at me when he saw I was looking at him.

" Look straight forward!" He yelled at me. We will soon be a quarter of the battle field. Suddenly, a shadow fell on my body, and an orange dragon jumped on me, yelling. Time slowed down, like it was my final hour. I was staring at him, seing his bloody scales broken in smaller pieces, with his skin open. Its not his falt. I thought with pity. He's only a soldier, obeying to orders. His claws were now only a meter from me, getting closer and closer. All of a sudden, a blast of flames envoloped him. He screamed of agony. 

" I know what your thinking," said my brother from behind me." But remember your kingdom needs you." I quickly nodded. My kingdom needs me. I echoed in my head. Two soldiers appeard in front of me, their red and orange body full of blood, trying to catch their breaths.

" Errr... " I started. " What if we talked? You know, instead of killing each other?" They looked at each other, puzzled. 

"Well, you princess Ruby, no? 'cause 'en we meant to kill ya."  Started the orange one, comming closer to me.

"Haven't you ever dream of peace? " I continued, trying to get the idea of killing me out of the conversation." I mean, I never wanted our tribe to fight. So, if you dont kill me, I could ensure that both our tribes are in peace, and you could live happy, with your friends, your family." I did not think it sould be possible, but they actually stoped. 

I looked in their eyes, and saw they had more hope then agressiveness in their eyes. 

" I wish that could be possible. " the red one said, looking down at his talons. " But we have orders, and if you dont die, we will. They started to walk towards me again, showing teths and growling. In a quick movement, Hurricane smashed his tail on the orange ones' head. Before the other dragon could react, my fangs sank into his right front talon.

" Sorry! " I screamed to him. We started running again.

" DONT  EXCUSE YOURESLF! He was going to KILL YOU!" My brother yelled at me in anoyment, as if we were playing snowball fight. 

" Did you know they wish for peace?" I asked.

"Probably more than half of the dragons here want find it stupid to fight when we could find a pacific way to sort things out." He answred back. If I become queen, I' ll be the one to find a way to have peace. I thought proudly.

Only one more quarter of the battle field. My lungs were on fire. Suddenly, a skinny, golden dragon wearing no armour apeard in front of me. He was tall, and his scaled were pale and dry, as if he had died and lived again.  I could see his bones through a translucent skin. Blood dripped from his teeth, like he drank  the blood of his last victime. The truth then came to me: 

I am the next one.

He started to walk towards me, talons first, like sizing my neck. 

"The highest price for the highest blood!" He said in a crocked, avid voice. I started to panick. I tryed to passed him, but he was impressivly fast. He's mad.

" Oh ho no, you' re not goin anywhere."  He got a dagger above his head, and in a quick movement, sank it straight into my left wings membrane, and into the ground. I screamed of agony. A small river of blood started to stream down my wing. I screamed again, trying hard to move. But it was painfull, and the dagger was deep into the ground. My screams warned Hurricane, but he was bothered by two full grown Northern dragons, that were a head taller than him. 

He had no chance.

And me neither.

Tears mingled with blood. Our kingdom had no chance. Their heir will soon be dead, and our worst ennemy was going to take control, not sparring any problematic lives. 

I thought about my life goals. The things I was living for. I wanted to be queen, of course. But I also wanted to meet and learn about humans. All the studying has become useless. The worst thing I could think about was not even that my kingdom will fall in our enemies talons. No.

I haven't meet love. What a pity was I. Thinking about that when I was finnaly face to face with death. My eyes opened again. He jumped on me, all claws out. Suddenly, an unexpected shadow stood between me and my murderer. A tall, blue scaled dragon.

 The strangers fangs sank into Royals heart.

Father.

                                                                          ➰➰➰

His body collapsed on the ground. 

"No! No..." I started to cry and scream hystericly, ravaged by sadness. But the dagger was still into my wing, blocking me on the ground. The golden dragon stood behind the lifeless body of Royal. I suddenly wanted to rip his smile off his face with my own claws.

I only realized half of the pain when the dagger got ripped out of my wing. The rest was covered by fear, sadness, and what seemed to be madness. Hurricane seemed to have got rid of the dragons, all bloody and exausted. I jumped off the ground, roaring madly, getting a grap on my fathers murderers neck. It was so strong his neck broke before I could strangled him. Once I was sure he was dead, I kneeled before my father, in front of my brother. His chest was rising weakly.

" He's still breathing..." I whisper, my voice shaking.

"Not for much longer. Can you save him?" He was obviously talking about my animus powers. I set my shaking hands above his wounds, thinking heal. I closed my eyes. I could see a tapestry, rich and beautiful, ripped with claw scratch. This is what I must repair. Come on, heal.

A talon layed itself on mine. I opened my eyes. 

" Don't." Royal said." Use your powers to save a life more important than mine: yours." I felt hope and fear mingle through me. How could that be? Were my powers that quick? Obviously not. But I must save him!

" But-" I started. But he was not looking at me anymore. He turned his head to look at Hurricane.

" Oh, my son. I am so proud of you. Dont try to be like me. Be yourself. Follow your dreams. " My brother stood straighter. 

" Yes, father." The only thing to betray his posture were tears streaming on his scales. He turned his head again, looking at me. My heart beat grow quicker as he talked.

" My dearest Ruby, when the time will come, you'll be a great queen." His voice grew weaker:" But you must first follow your heart. You have a gift, use it wisely." He sighed. His eyes reflected his words.

" Father, I am so sorry." I whispered. My throat felt so tight. I was such in pain I could not feel how Royal was feeling.

" Dont be," He whispered back. " Dont be."  Sadness broke my soul appart. His eyes closed shut. 

And he  never opened them again.