Thank you ever so much for being so patient. 

DAY 3

Kate was thrilled. Yes, sitting on a dragon’s back was most uncomfortable, and yes, she was shaking from cold and fear of falling off, but she was still thrilled. Kate, Will and Curio had all met up an hour or so ago, and decided to fly over the snowy wasteland to see what they could see. Curio apparently could not turn from human to dragon and back again, and the “dragons can’t talk” factor was a little frustrating at times. When Curio had soared out of the sky to land by Will and Kate earlier, at first they were startled, but their surprise quickly wore off. Will had decided to name the dragon Curio, short for “Curious Dragon,” because of the curious look in Curio’s eyes. The were soon zooming through the air at dragon speed; Will holding Curio’s broad, strong neck, and Kate relying on her legs to keep her from falling. 

“There! Look!” Will’s sudden shout made Kate jolt, and she wrapped her legs tighter around Curio, careful to avoid her flapping wings. Stretching to look over Will’s head, which stood a bit taller than her own, she could just make out the tall, rocky, snow-covered peak of a mountain.

“Almost there Curio! Could you go a little faster?” Kate said impatiently. 

“Maybe we could find a cave or something to spend the night it; we’ll take a look,” but Curio had other ideas and Will’s sentence ended in a “Whoa!” As Curio plunged towards the glimmering white ground.

“No! Stop!” Kate screamed, the words tearing out of her mouth, and the brisk wind filling it again. The were now falling uncontrollably towards a few black shapes against the contrasting surroundings. Will jumped off, or fell off, Kate couldn’t tell, seconds before Curio landed, or rather tumbled into the snow. The impact of the crash allowed Kate to fly. Even if it was for just a millisecond, and rather painful, as the end of the millisecond involved falling head first into the snow. At least she had managed to pull on a boot and a jacket before she was portaled to this crazy world. Kate suddenly realized that she couldn’t breath, and, frantically, she tried to dig herself out, but only managed to get which way was up and which was down confused. Panicked and breathless, she kicked furiously, and felt her boots make contact with something. Finally, a hand dug away the snow over her head, and Kate sat up, taking deep breaths and shivering. Two concerned-looking girls were standing over her, one blonde and the other brunette. The blonde girl looked rather pale. 

“You just kicked me in the face really hard,” Will said in between gasps. 

“I wasn’t about to let you pull me out by my feet! Besides, I didn’t kick you that hard. I barely kicked you,” Kate retorted.

“That is an understatement if I ever heard one,” Will returned. 

“It’s Decepmyth that’s doing it,” I serious-sounding voice commented. 

“Wha?” Kate whirled to face a boy placidly staring with large black eyes from under the brim of a fedora. 

“It gives everyone powers, special abilities, or magic items, stuff of that sort,” the fedora-clad boy informed her. 

“So the power is in me boots,” Kate said incredulously. Curio, apparently uninjured by her tumble, began sniffing the mysterious boots. 

“I’m Elizabeth, and this is...” The brunette girl looked at the blonde girl uncertainly.

“Brookeira,” she said, smiling slightly, and though her smile was friendly, it also had an air of coldness, and her eyes were a startling eyes blue, like pure ice. Curio’s eyes were a fiery orange red, Will’s eyes were also blue, Elizabeth’s eyes were grey-blue, Kate’s eyes were hazel, and sparkling with adventure.You can tell a lot of things about a person by their eyes. 

“John F. Q.” the boy said, and no one except himself knew the color of his eyes, which he preferred to be a secret. 

“I’m Will, this is Kate, and the dragon is Curio.” 

“Welcome to... um... Drepmyth,” Elizabeth smiled.

“Decepmyth,” John corrected. Everyone looked at the sky, as if suddenly realizing that with darkness, comes danger. 

“We’d better go. Follow me,” John F. Q. walked, almost gliding, across the snow. The others suddenly noticed that he had a black cape flowing from behind him.

Wren was irritated. Since the arrival of Ace, Silvery Ink, Volcano, Masked Piester and Booksy Owly, things had gotten... louder. It was MP’s fault. Well, half of it was MP’s fault, and the other half was Volcano’s fault. Maybe one percent of it was Ace’s fault. “It” of course, referred to the giant snowball/pie/flame fight now taking place inside of the cave. Wren was ready to sleep, after all, the whole “transported into Decepmyth” thing had taken place rather late at night, or night in the real world, and everyone was tired. Except, apparently, Volcano and Masked Piester. Squeak was thinking similar thoughts as he played with a rubber rat which no one knows where it came from. 

“Hey, where’s Rose Bud?” Someone asked.

“Huh?” Wren and Squeak asked at almost the same time. 

“Rose bud,” Cloudy Dweller repeated. 

“No idea,” Squeak answered, dragging his rat around by the tail.

“I’m sorry Cloudy, I don’t know either,” Wren replied. 

“Maybe she went deeper into the cave. Let’s go look,” Cloudy Dweller suggested. 

“Sure,” Squeak said, squishing the rubber rat in his hands. Wren nodded, and all three started towards the shadows of the cavern. Indigo, who decided not to join the snowball fight for fear she might accidentally freeze someone, followed. Maple had grown weary of the fight, and when she saw Indigo, Wren, Squeak and Cloudy starting off to explore the cavern and hunt for Rose Bud, she came along too. Shadow Dragon noticed Maple leave, and soon she was following, and, in a strange, mismatched procession, the others followed in one by ones and two by twos. Masked Piester and Volcano brought up the rear, pelting each other with snowballs and burning pies. 

“Rose bud?” Cloudy called, begining to get worried. Oblivious to the nervousness slowly creeping throughout the group, Volcano threw a flaming pie at Indigo. Indigo whirled around and froze the pie before it could harm her. 

“Fiya!” Volcano screamed, tossing more burning pies, happily supplied by MP. Indigo turned each one to chunks of ice until she was suddenly pushed from behind. Ice flew from her hand, and suddenly, she was looking at the startled face of Somebody, except something was wrong. She wasn’t moving, she was staring with cool, glassy eyes of ice Indigo’s face.