"Ugh, come on, are we gonna leave or just stand around?" I grumble. "Cause I'm skipping my job at the festival for this."  Honestly, the only reason I'm in this is because Lizzy bribed me.

"You think it's easy planning a journey through monster-infested territory?" Lizzy snaps back.

"Well I-" I start, but the guy with the earth dragon and flannel shirt holds up his hands.  I think Lizzy introduced him as Zachary.

"Can we please not fight?" he asks. "But I do think it would be a good idea to leave sooner rather than later."

Lizzy grins. "Alright everyone, you ready?" 

Five voices reply, almost in unison. "Yes!"  And so we start down the path that winds through the rolling hills surrounding the village.  The sky is a beautiful rainbow of reds and golds, shedding the soft glow of sunset.  I wish I could paint it, but instead I'm leaving on a trip to who-knows-where with a bunch of strangers.  Not my idea of a peaceful night, but at least I'm getting something from it.  Plus actual friends, maybe.  So I breathe in the cool, earthy air and smile.

Lizzy's POV

"Ok, now we need to take the right path." I said, as we stopped at a fork in the road.

"Yeah, but which one?" Zachary said.

"She means the right hand side." Bradley said.

We all walked that way, but were stopped by a Giant Spider, but it was sleeping, but Bradley and I knew that these Spiders had super-sharp hearing, so the only way to get around it was to defeat it.

"Relax, I got this." Bradley said, tapping the spider.

It opened it's 100 eyes and hissed.

Bradley lept on it and rode it like a bucking bronco.

"Now's your chance!!" He shouted.

We all ran around it as it threw Bradley off of it's back.

CLIFFHANGER!!!

Britannia's POV:

I told him to let me ride it. I mean, come on. My parents are both biologists, and he's, like, the desendant of a Shadow Dragon! It's his fault he got that cut. They all sided with him. Ugh. I wish they trusted me more. As we continue walking, I talk to Lizzy.

"You know my parents are biologists, right?", I ask her.

"Just stop. That argument is over."

"He didn't need to get that cut! I could have helped!"

"Or, you could have set the spider on fire."

How does she look so calm?! When I get mad, my face turns red and my hair gets messy. Some things I'll never know. 

AHHHHHH!!! Sorry if I haven't posted in a few days.

~Bradley~

"Owww, that hurts." I said, holding my head.

I had just allowed everyone else to pass a Giant Spider, and I rode it, right until it threw, and I mean SLING-SHOT me into the air, causing me to fall hard on the ground and get that cut.

"Wait, maybe I can tame it. Giant Spiders can run at 100 miles per hour." Lizzy said, walking towards the spider.

"Oh, good grief, LIZZY!!!!!" I shouted.

We all ran to her, and we found her making a water sculpture, trying to hypnotize the Spider.

"Good, good Spider, don't eat me, watch the water flow, watch the water..." Lizzy said.

Instantly, the Giant Spider's eyes turned green, showing that it was tamed.

"Yes! C'mon, guys, let's hop on!" I said, jumping onto the spider.

We all rode on the spider, with our dragons flying above us.

Fun fact about Giant Spiders, once one of them is tamed, the other Spiders don't attack you!

Anyway, we got to the edge of the island and hopped off the Spider. Lizzy patted it's head and we looked out on the horizon.

Wlep, I've officially ridden a giant spider.  I guess I can chack that off my bucket list.  We're at the edge of the island, and the dark water stretches out to the horizon.  Grey clouds gather overhead with an ominous rumble of thunder.  "How will we cross this?" Britannia asks.  She still seems frusturated about what happened earlier, when Bradley got hurt.

"Let's ride our dragons!" Zahra suggests. "They can stilll fly."

I climb onto Flame's back, and everyone else does the same with their dragons, exept Bradley.  He just shapeshifts into a sleek, midnight black Shadow Dragon.  I can't help but smile when I notice Zahra's deep red dragon and remember that she has a fire one too.  Our dragons kick up sand as we take off into the cloudy sky.  

The air is cold and damp, like we're flying in a cloud.  Suddenly a bolt of white-hot lightning streaks across the sky, and thunder crashes like cymbals.  "Sonia!" Zachary exclaims.

"That wasn't me," she says in a small voice.  Another bolt of lightning tears through the sky, this time close enough to make me feel the sizzle of electricity.  Rain pours down on us in torrents.  Flame zigzags through the air.  I know he doesn't like the water.  He swerves, and I feel myself slipping off his slick back.  I try to grab back on, but my hand slips and my heart fills with terror as I fall through the air.  Dragon-Bradley sees me and dives.  He grabs my shirt in his claws and pulls me back up onto my dragon.  "Thanks so much," I tell him shakily.  

"No problem," he responds. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah.  Flame just doesn't like getting wet."

"Agreed," Zahra says. "We need to find somewhere to wait this storm out."

Our dragons dive down so we're close to the waves.  Lizzy points to a small island in the distance, surrounded by others "How about there?"

Soon we land on the island's shore.  Thunder still rumbles overhead, and the wind whips my hair around.  I notice there's a cave near where we landed, and as I walk towards it, I can hear a strange, ghostly song.  "Lizzy," I ask. "Why did we land on this island?"

"I... I dunno, actually," she says. "I felt like it was calling us to it."

I shiver as the storm gets wilder and the song louder.  And then someone screams.

In the spirit of Emekitty, CLIFFHANGER!!! 

C'mon ya'll let's keep this going!

"Did you hear that?" Max asks nervously.

"Yeah, duh," I say. "It was kind of hard to miss." 

"Maybe we should find another island to shelter on," Britannia suggests, glancing warily at the cave from which the scream seems to have come.

"No," Max argues. "We should at least try to find out who it was who screamed."

"Are you crazy?" Britannia says. "You're suggesting that we walk straight into a creepy cave where someone seems to be getting tortured?"

"It's the right thing to do," Max says righteously.

I scan the horizon. The water is choppy and harsh in the storm, and it seems to be empty for miles around. The rain is pouring down even harder now, and my fire dragon, Flare, is shivering.

"We don't have a choice," I say. "Prolonged exposure to rain can hurt fire dragons. We have to get in the cave."

The group finally agrees, and we make our way cautiously towards the entrance of the cave. Cautiously, that is, until the sky decides to pelt us with hail the size of strawberries. Then we run.

The inside of the cave is dark and damp, but warmer than the open island. I squeeze the water out of my curly hair and look around. Stalagmites and stalactites cling to the ceiling and floor, and a strange ghostly music is echoing around the chamber. It's kind of beautiful, really. I set down my bag so that I can listen more carefully. It sounds like a thousand whispering voices...I just want to listen to it forever...

A droplet of water falls onto my head from the ceiling, bringing me back to my senses. I look around and notice in a panic that everyone else seems mesmerized, too. They're all staring towards the back of the cave, their eyes unblinking. Oh, no. I've heard of this kind of thing happening before. And it isn't good.