Today has been terrible. The last few days have been terrible. I'm not even sure how long it's been, but it's been terrible. Sure, we found the princess, but we also got captured like three times, BY THE SAME PEOPLE! Now I'm tied to the middle of a room and nobody is taking it well.

"If you hadn't dropped the ladder..." Lana starts again.

Lily starts to make a comeback but I interrupt her, "Not now! We're in extreme peril and you want to argue! Because it went so well last time," I can hear Lana scowl.

"So what's your plan?" she asks me.

"My plan is to escape," I say coolly.

"How?"

"How do you think?"

"I don't know!"

"That's the point! Nobody knows!" I yell.

"My sisters are still fine," Holly points out.

"They're not coming, Holly. Be realistic," Ally says sadly.

When Holly mentions her sisters I start to think.

"Leila never took away our...family talents," I point out.

"What could we do? Summon a torna—" Lily asks before rethinking what she was saying.

"Nari. Can you summon a tornado?" I ask. Since the Callas control the weather I figure she can do it.

"I'll try," she promises. She moves her hands a little—being tied up limits your ability to move—and a tornado forms. Below us.

"It's not gonna destroy the city, right?" I yell over the wind.

"It will," Nari says, realizing how stupid the idea was. She moves her hands again and the tornado disappears.

Tweet a random bird says in the silence.

"Tweet!" Lily says.

"Lily, you're not a bird," Jade says dryly, with a little bit of laughter mixed in.

"I'm talking to one."

"We can't understand what birds say, Lily."

"I can."

"Jade, Lily's job is helping animals, and she can talk to them, remember?" Ally reminds her.

"Oh. right."

"Tweet tweet tweet?" Lily says to the bird in birdese or whatever the fuck bird language is called.

"Tweet."

"Tweet tweetity tweet tweet."

"Tweets," the bird says before the two stop tweeting.

Lily turns to us and smiles.

"She's going to cut our ropes!" she whispers so the Savvys don't hear.

We do some quiet cheering and Lily tweets to the bird how to cut. A minute or so later, we're standing on the ground, looking up at the window.

"Out the window again?" I ask.

"Anyone got a family power or something that can help us?" Jade asks curiously, interested in seeing more magic.

"Out the window, I think," Nari says.

"Okay. Same plan as last time," I say as Nari and Jade run over to the window.

Nari picks up Holly while Jade picks me up and we're thrown out the window and onto cloud.

We stand up and I whisper yell, "Ready!" Lily and Lana fall out the window a few seconds later followed by Ally and Jade.

Nari flies out, propelled by some wind, before plopping herself down onto the cloud, "How could we have forgotten earlier about our little family talents!" she says. "I could have saved us!"

"I could've flown quickly away from the Savvys. Except, I would've probably run into a wall. And killed myself. Still haven't got the hang of my family's messenger powers." Holly says.

"Just don't bother. We were probably too panicked and scared," Jade says.

"Anyway, you can bring us down now," I say.

Nari nods and begins to move her hands around an imaginary sphere, creating wind.

"I wish I could. I just don't wanna risk it," Holly says.

Everyone, except possibly Jade, understands. We know that our little family powers or talents or whatever you want to call them, are difficult to control.

"What about Ivy?" Ally asks. "And Ginger? And Queen Evie?"

"We'll have to come back for them. I don't think we can get them now," Lily says. "Nari, just send us down."

Nari nods, and I feel myself lifted up into the air.

"This is safe, right?" Jade asks.

"It's safe as long as you don't move," Nari says reassuringly.

Jade gulps.

"Just send us down before the Savvys find out we're missing," Lana says impatiently.

Nari nods before everyone begins to float down to the ground. I begin to look into the distance, enjoying the view, but not before seeing a dark shape. I wait a few seconds for it to become clear and I panic.

"Dragon! They're coming!" I say to everyone while pointing at the figures, though I would have yelled if not for the fact Leila could possibly hear.

Everyone turns to where I'm pointing and they all look pretty scared. Except for Jade. She just faints. Again.

"What are we going to do?" Ally asks worriedly.

"I'll deal with them. I've seen worse," I say confidently.

When your job is training and handling mythical creatures, getting hurt doesn't seem bad at all, even when dragons are involved.

"You'll get burnt," Lily protests.

"You could die," Ally says.

"I know. But I know what I'm doing," I say, my mind made up.

"I'll send you over," Nari says, having given in by this point.

"B-But," Holly protests.

"But nothing. I'm going," I say before nodding to Nari.

She sends my breeze off towards the creatures and my friends continue downward. 

I watch the creatures get closer and closer to me, when I realize we're headed towards each other. I duck as the dragon breathes fire. I feel my hair and back get singed, but nothing too bad. As the dragon gets closer I jump on top of it. My aim's off a little so I grab one of its rhinoceros-like horns and pull myself up. 

Dusty and bruised and bloody all over, I grab both of the dragon's horns, pulling them in a u-turn shape. I hear a dragon behind me breathe in, about to breathe fire, and duck. 

I feel my hair burning away and immediately reach for my belt. I grab the vial of water and pour a small bit into the flames, putting them out. My hair is a little bit shorter, but no harm is done. I put the vial back and find that the dragon behind me doesn't seem very intent on allowing me to reroute them. She (female dragons don't have the horns) flies closer, grabbing me in her mouth. I hold onto the other dragon's horns, while the rest of me is pulled away. 

The male dragon bucks, kind of like a horse but in the air, and I'm forced to let go, or be torn in half. I kick at the dragon holding me and she opens her mouth, surprised. I fall out and search for water to fall in. Finding none, I try to aim my fall at the trees. I hit a tree and see only black.

-={+}=-

"You finally woke up!" a voice says.

"Juniper, be nice."

"But moooom," the voice—Juniper—says. I open my eyes a little and a blurry, yellowish-brownish thing appears. I close my eyes again and Juniper squeals excitedly.

"She opened her eyes!"

"Let her rest."

"I'm awake," I say weakly, opening my eyes again to a less blurry world.

"Hi! I'm Juniper!" the first voice says. That voice belongs to a dog that looks like Ginger. So why is its name Juniper?

"You're Ginger, though," I say, confused.

"That's my sister. I'm Juniper."

"Are you and Ginger sisters?"

"No. I'm male. I'M NOT A GIRL!"

"Sorry," I say, looking around.

"Where are we?"

"A cave on the outskirts of Veneficus, the capital," a second dog says.

"I know what the capital of Magicae is. I don't have fucking amnesia. Are you Ging—?"

"I'm Cinnamon," she says, interrupting my question, "Not Ginger. I'm Ginger's mother."

"I'm Clover! Ginger's sister," the last dog exclaims.

"W-What happened? I was on the dragon when..." my voice trails off and Clover nods.

"I saw you falling and flew up to get you—"

"You can fly?"

"Yes, we're the royal dogs. Anyway, I saw you hit the tree and once I got over there I saw you were unconscious. And a little bloody. I grabbed the back of your shirt in my mouth and slowly flew you down and into the cave. Mama stopped the bleeding and then a few minutes later you woke up," she explains.

"What about the dragon? And the other creatures?" I ask worriedly.

"I couldn't stop them. They were headed towards the palace though..." Clover says, her voice trailing off.

"Oh no. Leila. She must've recruited them or something. I've gotta warn the others and stop them," I say, walking out of the cave. Juniper grabs my arm in his mouth and drags me back.

"Rest. You need to heal," Juniper insists.

"But..."

"But nothing. Heal," Cinnamon demands.

"I have to warn them."

"Stay. Heal. Rest," Juniper is now pinning me to the ground.

"No," I say, pushing Juniper off of me and running out of the cave. I've got to warn them.