A/N: IMPORTANT! Just a friendly reminder that if you continue forth without having read 'Dragon's Lore' you will be horribly confused. So you should read that story first, this story will still be here when you get done :)

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"I sense there's something in the wind

That seems like tragedy is at hand

And though I'd like to stand by him

Can't shake this feeling that I have

The worst is just around the bend

And does he notice my feelings for him?

And will he see how much he means to me?

I think it's not be…"

There was a lovely singing in her head—seductive almost.

She had never been able to sing that well and it didn't even sound like her voice. She concluded it certainly was not her voice and then she opened her eyes. A blurred, bright purple gaze stared back at her, concerned.

He sighed with more relief than she ever knew dragons to have. "You're awake. Good."

He sounded glad.

Maybe she was just dreaming. If her memory served her correctly, he wanted nothing more to do with her. She was more curious about the mysterious song she heard though. It rang familiar somehow…

"There…there… was singing in my head," she sat up slowly, seeing he was holding her. She pushed out of his grasp and felt reminiscence of pain in her back.

The landscape was blurred as well, but with abnormal colors. She saw the twisted roots of a nearby tree and followed the enormous trunk upward with her eyes, surprised to find no leaves but a giant mushroom head at the end. There were attractive men surrounding them…no…she shook her head to clear her vision. It only helped a little. They weren't men but the same dragon-youths she had come to know.

"Just the subsprites," Telonge offered from not too far away. They were all without shirts, only wearing breeches.

"The what?"

"Subsprites, a little phenomenon in the wind that goes through your head and sings your subconscious to your conscious."

She shook her head again at his nonsense, not understanding a word.

Then Alys noticed it was rather warm—hot—even. Where had the winter gone? Where was the snow and bitter chill? She couldn't remember what had happened.

The last thing she did remember was freeing Lianna from the dungeon.

As her vision cleared more and more, she was able to see more and more of her surroundings. The landscape was a mix of bright colors. The grass was a light yellow; the plants were either orange, purple, or red. The mushroom-trees were pink. It was very clear this was not the same land as before—maybe not even the same world.

Lianna approached her cautiously wearing a worried frown. Lianna had been wearing a heavy winter gown before but now she was stripped down to her underskirt and corset. She also had no shoes on. Alys gave her a questioning look.

"Come with me, I need to share a few words," she held out her hands for Alys to take and stand. The dragon-youths simply watched them as Lianna led her past a series of giant stones and smaller tree-like-pods, into a small clearing. There was a small stream of golden water that shimmered as it flowed past.

There were too many inquiries in Alys's mind on what was happening to actually ask one. Instead she watched the stream, hypnotized.

"Are you not boiling up in that gown?" Lianna asked when they were out of earshot from the fey, although Alys knew they all had keen hearing and were probably listening anyway. She stopped focusing on the golden water and thought about it. Perspiration was soaking her skin, and the gown was sticking to her body.

"Yes."

"You should probably take it off then."

"I don't have anything else to change into!"

"I didn't either, and I figure there isn't a soul around except the dragons so why be ashamed in our undergarments if there is no proper people around to judge?" Lianna answered most casually.

Alys blushed, she did have a point but she didn't like the thought of amused dragon-youths looking at her body. She grumbled, wiped the perspiration off her forehead and started to disrobe into her undergarments as well.

"I don't even know where we are!" she cried spinning around and pointing at the overhanging mushroom trees and the flowers as big as her head. "Where are we!?"

"Their home."

Alys faced Lianna, did she mean the Realm—that place the dragons talked of, and the place Selendrile told her he was going but she was not to follow? Impossible! Selendrile was there but yet she was there too. "How do you know?"

"Take a look around you, Alys. There is no place in our world that these things exist. Golden water, gigantic trees that have mushroom heads, flowers as big as your head? We faded with them here."

Alys gave Lianna a look that questioned her sanity, "What?"

Lianna sighed and squatted to the ground, using her finger to draw a picture in the orange dirt.

"You were so concerned with reaching Selendrile that you failed to notice he was about to be destroyed by Varisca—the sorceress of ages. You interfered, and blocked her power from harming him, and the only reason you survived was because of that blessing he gave you.

After you collapsed, Moshire attacked her and then all of us faded from our world into this place. Willyr said it had something to do with 'running out of time' but I still haven't figured out what he means."

She stood and Alys saw what she wrote in the dirt. Her index finger was tainted with orange dust. She had written a word.

Lathandrian

"I've heard that word before…" Alys squinted at it.

"What? Where? Do you know what it means?" Lianna took Alys by her shoulders and asked.

"Moshire said it. He said they had run out of time for it."

"Exactly the same thing Willyr spoke of. They were running out of time!"

Both ladies pondered what it could have meant. They knew it was no use asking one of the fey what it's true meaning was.

"Maybe it is an event, or holiday? Perhaps they had to return by a certain date and this is the day or event of Lathandrian?" Lianna racked her mind for guesses.

"Perhaps, but then what is so important that nothing is happening now that we are here?" Alys shrugged.

Something was nagging at the back of Alys's mind however, a question that needed a faster answer than the mystery of what 'Lathandrian' was.

"Lianna, how did I come to be here? Selendrile said I was not to follow him but yet I am here. How is it possible?"

"Well he couldn't just leave you there. You had been the recipient of a tirade of destruction magic, you weren't conscious, and when we all faded, he must have grabbed you and you faded with him as well." Lianna reasoned.

Alys bit her lip and tasted bitterness. He had told her not to follow, but yet he was the one that took her with him. Maybe he did have a use for her after all—or he did so because she had saved him once again and he was in her debt. She sighed.

"We should probably go back and see what happens next. They've been on edge since we arrived."

"What happened to the sorceress?"

"I don't know. Moshire leapt on her as a dragon, but he never ended her. In fact, I haven't seen him around since we appeared here. I only assume he faded as well." Lianna shrugged.

Alys did the same. Alys also removed her shoes, for the ground was soft and sandy, and felt good in between her toes. Although, the bottoms of her feet turned orange from the dirt. A bird flew overhead—the first living thing beside themselves they had seen. It made an agitated 'peeping' sound and landed right in the middle of the dragon-youth gathering. The ladies saw Aerend jump away from the small black bird with startlement. Lianna grabbed Alys's arm and prevented them from walking further. They crouched low and watched through purple-leaved bushes.

The tiny bird made more 'peeps' and then another landed beside it. Alys watched Selendrile's reaction to the birds, and it was one she never saw before—nervousness.

More of the little black birds landed around the first one, and they started hopping on each other—creating a tower of some sort—creating a shape. All the while they endlessly 'peeped.' The dragon-youths stayed away from the new mass the birds were creating, anticipating something.

Then the birds, their bodies, beaks, feathers—all disappeared to be replaced by the whole shape of a woman. She was tall and has the body shape of a human. She wore a black-feathered gown that trailed behind her, and though it was a hot temperature, she did not show any discomfort in that dress. Her hair was blonde though and her eyes were…not like anything Alys had ever seen.

"Your majesty," she stated coldly, aimed at Selendrile.

"Lallielle," he inclined his head with a charming smile. She was not impressed, and it was the first time Alys had ever seen a woman not melt away at his dazzling smile.

"It is no use to hide, for you are in his lands now and he wishes to speak with you. You shall return to the palace at once, where he will decide your fate for disobeying."

Selendrile lost his charm and he snarled, "AND what if we don't return? Will he get off his lazy ass, halt his madness carnival to track us down?!"

Lallielle wore a cool grin, "Nay, he will simply fade you there the way he plucked you from the mortal world and you will appear before him. You can't fight him, he owns you. He owns all of us."

She turned around and looked straight at the two mortal women in the bushes. Lianna gasped and Alys held her breath, hoping the strange lady hadn't seen them but her eyes were right on them.

She didn't look like she had seen them at least no acknowledgment crossed her face. Instead she closed her eyes and lifted her arms high. A hundred small black birds exploded from her form and flew away, leaving no trace of the woman behind.

Alys swallowed hard, not understanding what she was talking about to the dragons.

'He owns you. He owns all of us.'