I was woken up very early in the morning by a rumbling outside the tent where I slept with Aros, Kindle, Rex and Rellian. Too early. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as i stood up, and stumbled outside, almost tripping over my own feet with every sleepy step I took. I was just beginning to wonder if there were any assassins in the guilds when I bumped into someone and went bonkers as I fell on my back. I looked up with what should have been a 'watch-out-it's-still-early-and-I'm- grumpy' look, but it disappeared when I saw the person I bumped into, who grabbed my hands and gently pulled me up. 

"Well, good morning to you too, thunderclouds," said Aros with his thickly accented morning voice.

"What are you doing here, up so early? I woke up because of your rumbling around," I replied half-jokingly, half-accusingly. He shrugged his shoulders and made an 'I-have-no-idea' face, which made me laugh. He quickly put his finger - a little roughly - on my lips and then pulled me by the wrist, running to the other side of the clearing. There, we had a laughing fit together when we were sure we'd wake no one up. As our laughing died out, I only now noticed that the leaves of the trees at the edge of the glade had the colors of the sunrise: orange, yellow, purple, light pink, ... A gentle breeze was flowing. It was strange: all the guilds were here, but when I looked around, I saw that we were practically the only ones outside. 

"Look at this," said Aros, pointing to the horizon. The view was breathtaking. My mouth fell open in surprise, and Aros, whose shoulders shook with laughter, gently pushed it shut with his hand. There we stood. Me and an inhabitant of another planet, on the edge of a flying island. I was sickly nervous about tonight, because that was when the meeting took place. And a few days after that, the Moon Ball. 

"Hey...you don't need to worry. I trust you, the other guilds will do the same. It's going to be a fun week. And-"

He was interrupted by a loud yawning Kindle who came stumbling out of our tent, followed by Rexus and Rellian. Speaking of Rellian, he looked more tired every day, but nobody really seemed to notice. Coughing, the blonde dragon breeder came walking towards us as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, trying to hide the black spit with which he'd been struggling the last few days. "Are you having breakfast with us three?"

...

Sunset. Time for the meeting. Aros and I had spent the whole morning hanging around in Moon Valley and in the afternoon, I introduced my dragon to Zelda, while preparing the valley for the monthly ball. I walked towards a small cave with the guilds, above which five ledges protruded. The guild leaders were already sitting on those ledges, which were provided with some kind of chairs carved out of stone, under which the banners of the guilds, each with their own symbol, swayed gently in the wind. I saw Mali from The Blue Guild, the leader of The Brown Guild who I saw talking to Aros, Aros himself, and the other leaders. We crowded together on the lawn and sat down on the ground, except for a few guild members, while I took a closer look at the guild leaders. The Brown Guild Leader was, as I said, tall, and composed mainly of muscle. He had black hair that was tied back in a bun. A scar ran across his nose. He looked older than most of the Ecrians I had seen so far. Mali, the blue guild leader, wore the same kind of outfit as at our first encounter, but with a smaller fur collar, and her shoulder plates were edged with small spikes. Next to her, in the middle, sat Aros, now wearing beige shorts and a whitish-blue shirt, which was already dirty, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Leaning forward, he rested his chin on his hand and listened to the conversation between Mali and the brown guild leader. Next to him, I saw the leader of the Red Guild. She looked like a popular high-school girl, with her wavy light pink hair, long eyelashes, and big blue eyes, with which she blinked too much. She was clearly trying to get Aros' attention, but he was clearly not interested. They are rivals, I reminded myself. The yellow guild leader was a young adult with ginger hair tied back into a ponytail, and he had a stubbly beard. Apparently the brown Guild Leader was not the oldest member after all.

I looked up when the leader of the Yellow Guild stood up, whereby I saw three scars, caused by claws, running down the side of his face. He began to speak, and his voice was deep and heavy: "Good evening, Guilds of Ecra!", he began loudly, and everyone became dead silent. 

"For those who do not know me yet: I am Ref, leader of the Guild Of The Yellow Dragon." 

He interrupted his speech when everyone applauded, which had been started by the yellow guild commander, who was sitting under the ledge with the other second-in-commands. 

"The hunt is going well. We haven't had any problems with the Vortexiae since their last attack on our camp." 

A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of those monsters, but Ref didn't give a hoot. There was no change of emotions in his eyes at all. 

"We also have three new Dragon Riders with us today: Vega, Xaevus and Ryan."

Three young Yellow Guild members stood up, and I saw how Aros' face cleared up when he saw his little sister standing among them. A light brown Desert Dragon sitting in one of the large trees scratched loudly when he heard the name of his mistress. A purple and a blue dragon followed his example as the other two boys stood beside her. The other guilds clapped their hands and shouted congratulations to the new Dragon Riders. Ref nodded and sat back down. This time, the leader of the red guild stood up, twirling one of her pink locks around her finger. This time there was no clapping.          

"You all can tell that I am not Lydia. My sister was unable to participate in the meeting this month, she fell ill." 

Incredulous muttering rose from the crowd, and I saw the commander of the red guild whisper something in Kindles ear. 

"What illness exactly?", shouted Cole, the leader of the builders of our guild. the huddle muttered in agreement, but was interrupted by the "leader" of the red guild; 

"That's none of your business." 

Again, the commander of her guild rolled her eyes. 

"Other than that, I have nothing to say. Next."

Thus each leader reported, and Aros finally stood up as the last. 

"Esteemed Ecrians! Today the history of my guild changes. A new member altered us all! I am now pleased to present Nena to you. She was found by Kindle near Eastborne and has proven her loyalty to us! Please stand up, greenie!" 

Aros pointed at me and I nervously stood up. Surprised mutterings rose up, and I saw the brown guild commander spit on the ground as he stood up too, raising his voice at the crowd; 

"those dirty greens really have a people fetish or something. First that Victor guy and now a bloody girl. Do you find that attractive, Aros? Does that make you weak inside? Or do you feel something else then? because it was the same with the first one too!!!" 

The challenger looked up mockingly at Aros, who was frozen in his tracks, clearly trying to hold back a comeback.

Rellian shot straight up from the group of dragon breeders and stuck a finger out at the Brown guild's Second; 

"Is that jealousy I hear Wayne? You can also just ask for tips on how to score someone if you're that desperate." 

Rexus put a hand on his friends' shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. The brown guild leader stood up angrily; 

"Stop this immediately! Wayne, apologize! I will not tolerate this behavior." 

There was a clearly non-meaningful sorry from the commander, and the meeting was concluded. I listened to the whispers of my fellow members as we walked back towards the glade; 

"Since when has Rellian been so flammable? He's been acting so strange lately..."

I gulped when I heard the conversation and quickly trotted away.

...

The kick-off of the moon ball was finally given after days of preparations. The whole island was cheerfully decorated; Fairy-lights, flags and garlands were hung everywhere in the merrily colored trees, and the central large fire pit was lit. Along the edge of the dance floor, fountains gurgled, colored by various spotlights. A band of guild members played Celtic-sounding dance music, and the guilds' cooks had prepared a huge buffet. I was standing at one of the tables with Zelda and a few other new friends having a foreign drink of some kind, chatting about who we definitely wanted to dance with this evening. I muttered flattered thank-yous in between at the compliments on my dress and merrily decorated hair, occasionally taking a sip from my cup.

"May I have this dance?"

I turned around, and I saw Aros with his hand stretched out towards me requestingly, his shirt loosely unbuttoned around his neck. It looked like he tried taming his messy, sandy hair for once, which, as cute as it looked, had not been a successful attempt. At that point, the band was just stirring up a fiercer dance number, Rellian enthusiastically strumming his guitar, and it made me happy to see that he was seemingly doing a bit better for once. I laughed loudly when Zelda grabbed Aros' hand, mimickingly moving her eyebrows up and down in a playful manner.

"Sure!", she said flirtingly, and as she dragged him to the dancefloor, the leader turned his head towards me as he mouthed that he'd be back. 

I spent the rest of the night laughing, dancing, singing and eating with Aros. I took a breather to sit back and take it all in from beneath one of the rainbow-colored trees at the edge of the whole party scene while the leader was going around to say hi to everyone, as he was one of the most known and admired Ecrians present. 

After hours of playing, the band finally took a break, and I watched as they wiped sweat from their foreheads with pieces of cloth. Rellian laughed at something another band member of the yellow guild had said, before he -to my alarm- burst into a coughing fit. When the others, obviously worried, said something about it, he shrugged it off, his bad mood clearly resurfacing for a few seconds. Then, he searched around the field after taking a swig from his cup, finally locking his eyes with mine after letting his gaze linger around for a bit. To my surprise, he said a quick goodbye, which I couldn't hear from where I was standing, and then he started walking towards me, straight across the dance floor, right past the buffet, clearly shooing away attention-seeking girls here and there.

When he was close enough, I could finally see how much he had changed over the last few days: his eyes looked slumped because of dark bags under his eyes, and his pale face practically flared in the moonlight. His veins in his neck also looked darker, but thankfully not quite dim enough to be noticeable to someone who had no idea he was ill.

"I know it looks bad...the infection is developing quicker than I anticipated... ", he mumbled before I could say anything, tilting his head close to me so no one would happen to overhear.He made an attempt to dispel the uneasy atmosphere between us; "Would you like to dance? with me?"I nodded and gave him a weak smile that he quickly returned as I took his hand, and we headed out onto the dance floor. Meanwhile, the band had started playing back without him, and a slow song drifted across the moor. Rellian put one hand on my hip, and continued to hold my own with the other as we spun around on the temporarily constructed wooden floor. It felt like we wear floating.

When the song died out again after a few minutes, we strolled back to the cover of the trees, where we sat down on a bench a little secluded from the rest. 

"Thank you. For spending time with me."

I looked up, a little confused, at the boy I had by now begun to see as a close friend. 

"I really haven't been a friendly person the past few days. I had no reason to be like that, and I truly feel ashamed for my behavior. I'm really sorry."

His ever-so-slightly supercilious voice cracked, and I placed my hand comfortingly on his. 

Up until now, he had always turned his gaze to the ground, but now he was looking straight at me, tears gleaming in his deep blue eyes. 

"This dance may have been my last ever. And there was no one I would rather have shared it with, Zig."

I also felt a tear roll down my face as I heard the nickname, and a piece of my heart seemed to slowly begin rotting away. 

"Don't say that, why are you saying such a thing? You're going to be able to survive this, we're going to get through this without the others even having to know...", I uttered stressed, my voice breaking with each word.

The piece of my heart rotted away even faster when he put on a small, fake smile, and wiped away my tears with his hand. 

"What are you doing, what are you doing, I should be comforting you, not the other way around, I-"

I burst into sobs as Rellian wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, keeping my shaking shoulders as still as possible as I let out my frustration with my fists on his chest. I felt how he, as I slowly calmed down, fastened a necklace around my neck, next to my green draxite-amulet. I looked down at my chest and saw a small tube hanging from it.

"I want you to open it. When I'm gone."

Before I could say anything, he pressed a kiss to my forehead, then walked away to our tents.