Word Count: 27,903

There is a potentially triggering bit at the end of this for SI, please be safe!
“Dio, this is Mycah” Chenyo said as Mycah ran towards them, her hood down and her hair flowing behind her. “Mycah, this is Dio.” They exchanged awkward nods and stood in silence; “you are both Chosen Ones, which is rare but I’m sure we’ll work it out.” Mycah looked up at him, her amber eyes bright;
“Can I shift yet?” she begged. He nodded and laughed, ducking under her as she flew over his head. Dio watched her looking shocked,
“I didn’t know she was a shifter,” he said mostly disgusted.
“Ah, but she isn’t. She’s a Dragon Master Apprentice as are you. You aren’t Shifters, Mages and Teles anymore.” He spoke softly and placed his hand on Dio’s shoulder. “You will be expected to get along and wear the red and green robes as being a Dragon Master Apprentice requires. Until we reach the Centre you can simply wear them over your current robes, but once we arrive you will be expected to wear them.” Dio’s lip wrinkled in disgust but he nodded all the same. He walked away from Chenyo and clambered up a tree, using the rubber soles of his shoes to help him grip; he sat on a branch and began to sing a soft melody. As he sang, Chenyo felt the familiar vibration of magic rippling through the air, the words seemed to echo as flowers blossomed around him and leaves moved in a the still air. Mycah dropped down seemingly from nowhere and landed as a human; she tilted her head as listened. She added her voice to it and soon the melody grew into a beautiful, twisting and lilting song; the magic was intense and lulled the surrounding nature into a trance. The trees began to sway gently in time to the beat of the music; Mycah’s light voice added yet another layer to the music and a deep thrumming vibrated through the listeners. Dio whistled a short high pitched tune and they watched as several small but brightly coloured hummingbirds flitted around them. They sung on for a minutes more before stopping as quickly as they had started; the silence seemed eternal until the clapping started from the audience which had gathered. It seemed that the music had stopped them from registering the different magic that had emitted from Mycah as she had shifted. They flicked a few coins in the air towards them which they caught nimbly and handed them to Chenyo who put them into his coin purse to save for later. He called to them and they entered the house, Dio would be sharing with Mycah and himself. They settled in the room for the night, Mycah pulled her red and green robe off to reveal her bright white one; she shook her head back and forth, her hair whipping around her head.

Chenyo was sitting at his desk, it was mid afternoon and strangely quiet; he couldn’t hear the usual screaming of the Chosen Ones who seemed to fight constantly. He stood and listened, waiting to see if it was just a lull in the noise. Hearing nothing, he strode from his office and made his way to the Dojo; as he rounded a corner he saw the three of them on the green. Mycah was teaching Sorrel to fight better with his sword against Dio; he watched them for a moment, Mycah showed him the movement slowly, then quicker and finally against Dio. He watched Sorrel repeat it multiple times before getting it right.
“What do we have here then?” Chenyo asked with a smile.
“Mycah’s teaching me how to fight better,” Sorrel said cheerily.
“And Dio is teaching me to Dream Weave and Sorrel is teaching me to write.” She added with a grin, her samurai loose by her side.
“Mycah is helping me to improve my Elemental skills and shifting abilities.” Dio said softly, his sword aloft and pointed towards Sorrel.
“Oh, she’s helping me with shifting stuff too,” Sorrel added quickly. “I forgot about that!”
“Ah, it’s good to see you finally working together, instead of wrestling with each other.” He went to turn away before looking back, “oh, I assume you are ready for the Ritual tonight?” They nodded quickly, not looking back to him. “I will meet you and the dragons out here just after the sun has gone down.” He walked away leaving them to their various studies.
They continued to help Sorrel with his fighting for a while until he became so bruised and sore he whined every time one of them came near him.
“Dio, can we do some Dream work now?” Mycah asked, sheathing her sword.
“Of course, where would you like to begin?” Dio asked doing the same with his and placing it gently beside the rock he was resting on.
“Well, with the Rebels, we need them to tell us something before we can Watch, right?” She asked dropping to sit cross legged on the green.
“That’s right,” Dio said. Mycah cast a look at Sorrel then back to Dio who nodded with a sly smile.
“Hey, Sorrel. When was the first time you did magic?” Mycah asked him as she leant back and propped herself up with her elbows.
“The first time? I was three or four I think. I read my father, Rohyr’s mind and relayed what he said in his voice.” He looked up from the writing he was doing, “why?”
“Just curious,” Dio said simply, his eyes made contact with Mycah’s briefly as she muttered a quick spell of sorts to make Sorrel sleep. His eyes snapped shut and he rocked forwards dangerously, Dio caught his shoulders and pushed him backwards to lay flat on the floor, the quill still in his hand.
“Now what?” Mycah asked as she scooted closer.
“Close your mind and enter his mind. Slowly.” He said sitting on the other side of the now sleeping Sorrel. Mycah closed her eyes and very tentatively reached her mind out and brushed against Sorrel’s dozing mind. She felt it twitch at the touch and concentrated on slowly encasing it with her own mind before pushing a small tendril through; the effort it took to move her mind so slowly made her begin to perspire. Finally she managed to enter his mind without him waking up,
“What now?” she said through gritted teeth.
“Locate the memory he told you about, it’ll be near to the surface. Follow the thought processes and it will lead you to it.” His voice sounded distant but it was still clear. She linked her mind to his thoughts and quickly and easily rolled through until she found what she was looking for; Dio had been right it was very near to the surface. She looked into the memory and it played through; her eyes opened and glazed over as she watched. Once it had finished she pulled out of his mind and watched his eyes flutter and wake up, he looked up at them blankly for a moment.
“That was you.” He stated with a scowl, “can you warn me next time?!” he sat up quickly.
“You lied,” Mycah said with a grin.
“I-what? No I didn’t.” He frowned and moved backwards a little.
“I just watched it, you were lying.” She stated, “you were five and you relayed your mother’s voice.” Sorrel simply grunted and went back to his writing. “Dio, can I weave?”
“Sure” he said. This time he muttered the words to make Sorrel sleep; he’d anticipated it and spun around to stop him but was too slow, mid way through the turn he fell asleep and toppled forwards. Mycah shoved herself forwards to catch his face before he mushed it into the floor; instead he crushed her hands. With a yelp she freed herself and massaged her hands as she entered his mind just as slowly as before.
“How do I weave?” she asked slowly concentrating on what she was doing.
“You need to implant a thought into his mind which means you need to go deep into his mind, then you need to bring it forwards to the forefront of his mind and he will do the rest.” She nodded carefully and pushed deeper into his mind, she started a little too fast and felt his brain recoil and start to probe back angrily. “Don’t move Mycah,” Dio said. “It needs time to settle back down,” she stayed still and waited until it stopped moving and started again much slower. As she reached much deeper in the thought process she felt a lot closer to his magic and frowned slightly; carefully she planted a thought there. She attached herself to it and pulled it forwards as she left his mind; leaving it at the front she exited his thoughts and retreated to her own.
“Ugh, doing that for too long makes my head ache,” she said clutching her temple. Mycah woke him with a murmured word and he jerked awake looking confused. He looked up blankly and simply said “Chicken.” Dio snorted and burst out laughing and rolled over clutching his side. Mycah started to giggle and the look of confusion on Sorrel’s face; slowly he put two and two together and made four.
“You!” he said pointing a finger at Mycah, he paused. “Chicken? Really? That is all you could come up with?”
“It’s really difficult to concentrate when you have to move so slowly you know” she retorted. He grumbled at her and gave her the evil eye.
“Do you want to do some writing now?” He asked seriously, she whined and flumped down beside him.
“Might as well,” she said. “It’s not like we’ve got a lot of time before the sun goes below.” She took a quill and paper from him and sighed heavily. “I hate writing.” She stated but begun anyway; she slowly copied the letters he had following the markers carefully and precisely. Her tongue poked out the corner of her mouth as she concentrated; behind her Dio practiced some swordsmanship against an invisible opponent. Just before the sun disappeared Mycah pulled herself up and waited for Sorrel and Dio to get up too before running to their quarters and changing into the red and green hooded robes. As they changed they called for their dragons who had been playing in the lake; they flew back to the Dragon Centre and landed heavily outside just as the Chosen One’s came out of their quarters. They each ran to greet their dragons, whose thrumming greeting vibrating into the ground beneath them; Raffy dug his talons into the soft earth stretched his neck, his jaw open wide as he yawned. They watched the sun set over the horizon and saw the green flash as the sun disappeared; with a smile they turned to each other and their eyes met. Raffy’s blue eyes locked with Mycah’s and she reached up to touch his face; her hands ran across the ridges and scales that made up his face.
“You are becoming a big dragon, Raffy.” She said softly to him, he nudged her hand with his snout and rubbed against it like a very large cat. She smiled and pressed her face to his, closing her eyes she sighed deeply, revelling in his warmth. She pulled her head away from him and sat down between his front legs; she leant against one of them and looked up at him. He twisted his long neck down to her height and breathed warm air on her face and down her robe.
“Hey, Raffy?” she said quietly.
“Yes, little one?” was his deep reply.
“I love you, you know that? You’re my first ever “pet” except you’re not a pet because you’re my best friend.” Her arm was wrapped around his leg as she spoke, she could feel the fast beat of his fiery heart against her head.
“I love you too, little one. Are you looking forward to the Ritual?” he said softly.
“I can’t wait to be bonded even closer with you,” she smiled warmly, she craned her neck to peer around his leg and saw Dio was sitting with Loki similarly to her and Sorrel was sitting with Red’s head by his legs. She smiled and listened to the sounds of the forest; the gentle trilling of the birds and the long echoing calls of the prey for the big hunters as they warned one another of the hidden hunter. They sat as a group in silence until the moon was high above them; Chenyo and four of the other Dragon Masters rounded the Main Building and walked slowly towards them. They stood and pulled up their hoods up; when Chenyo came before them he greeted them quietly and motioned for them to follow him. They slotted into place behind him but in front of the other Dragon Masters; the dragons pulled themselves up and stayed behind the group. As they walked around the Main Building they saw a large fire pit had been built with a raised platform around the outside. Mycah and Raffy moved to stand on a section of rock to the left of the pit, Sorrel and Red placed themselves central and Dio and Loki moved to the right hand side. The robed Dragon Masters kept their hoods up and positioned themselves around the ring; Chenyo removed his hood and the Chosen Ones followed.
“Welcome.” He began, his voice shattering the silence. “The Red Moon is now high in the sky and it is time for the Ritual to begin.” He looked at each of them in turn. “I will call you each forward to begin with and then we shall proceed together. The Red Moon Ritual is a complex process and requires you each to make a sacrifice. But first,” he turned to Mycah. “Mycah, would you join me please.” She carefully stepped down and made her way over to Chenyo, he extended a hand and helped her onto the platform. She knelt down in front of him and lowered his head; he pulled a long ornately decorate athame from his robe. The bright steel was imprinted with three twisting dragon forms which were wrapped around the blade and up over the hilt; the heads of the dragons met at the top of the hilt and were touching a large pure white, perfectly spherical diamond. The Red Moon cast a strange light on the athame making it look as though the dragons were dancing across the blade. Mycah reached up and took the athame from Chenyo and turned to the fire pit; she extended her hand over it and ran the blade across her palm. The blood that welled at the wound she tipped into the pit and a bright blue and amber flamed shot up into the air before dissipating. Mycah returned to stand beside Raffy, taking the offered piece of cloth from another Dragon Master; she wound it tightly around her palm to stem the bleeding and stood quietly. Sorrel stepped down next and repeated the process, he winced in pain as the sharp athame slid through his palm; when his blood added with Mycah’s the blue and amber flame rocketed skyward closely followed by a red and gold flame. He too accepted the cloth which he tied quickly around his palm; he stepped back up and stood beside Red who looked a deep crimson in the red light from the moon. Finally, Dio stepped forwards and repeated the process, the blue, amber and red flames shot followed by a pure black flame that rippled in the light. He too took the cloth and stood back beside Loki, the very tip of his tail twitching in anticipation. Chenyo raised both arms and brought them together with the athame held between them, he flicked it forwards and it landed in the centre of the fire pit. He and the other Dragon Masters began to chant a series of long and complicated spells which spiralled around the fire pit. With a sudden bang, the athame burst into flames, they were over ten foot high and the colours of each dragon.
“Now, the sacrifice.” Chenyo said, his voice muffled by the crackling of the flames. “You must each step forwards and give yourself to the fire. Dragons you are not to help you must withdraw from each other’s minds or the process will not work. There is to be no magic used to protect you from the flames.” Mycah, Sorrel and Dio exchanged a look as they realised what they would have to do.