"Pen," she demanded. He held out a pen which she took, and, taking a deep breath scrawled her name at the bottom of the paper.

Eryn Stormn

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"Great!" The man said, smiling, "now let's take you to meet your companions!"

Eryn drew back, frowning, companions? There was no mention of companions in the contract, or was there? Nope, absolutely not, there was no way she would work with others. That wasn't in the job description, "Wait, what? I heard you say companions, but I work alone."

"No, you heard right, you will be working with two other very accomplished people. You can't seriously think you can take on a dragon by yourself, I didn't take you as someone for suicidal bravery,"

"I wasn't planing on fighting that dragon! I was just going to sneak in and get the sword, I'm not an idiot!" Eryn was now not only annoyed that this man was doubting her, she was also furious at the thought of working in a team.

"Well now you have back up on the way there and more support while you are there," The man said as if he hadn't a care in the world.

"And on the way back?"

The man said nothing.

"I'm not going to going with a bunch of random people who are going to mess everything up!" Eryn practically shouted, brown eyes flashing with anger.

"Actually you are and you don't have a choice, the contract you signed is binding," The man patted the contract for good measure. Eryn banged her fist on the table in frustration, but the man just smiled. It was more of a ha-ha you should have read the whole contract smile than a warm reassuring smile too. Way to add insult to injury.

Eryn narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, "Nothing in that paper said that I would be working with anyone else," she said, her voice like ice.

"Yes but you very clearly read that you agree to all terms and conditions that would be available on request,"

"You have got to be kidding me," Eryn groused, "No one ever reads those,"

"My lawyers won't care about that,"

Eryn rolled her eyes, "Fine, you got me," she said, sounding extremely exasperated.

"Very good," he replied, smirking. That smirk was really getting on her nerves.

"Where are these other people anyway?" Eryn wondered, resigning herself to a very miserable, very social and very long journey.

"Right this way," The man, who's name Eryn still didn't know, lead her out of the room, down a corridor and into another room. This room was well lit with a large window looking onto a lush garden filled with beautiful flowers. The walls were hung with exquisite tapestries of dragons. Of course it had to dragons, thought Eryn, it wouldn't have worked for this guy to have a creepy obsessions with cute, harmless, little kittens. No, he had to pick a dangerous, terrifying, big, extinct creature to have a weird obsession with.

In the room there was large purple lounge chair and matching sofa, and in the center was a short coffee table made out of the same rich mahogany as the front door. The only wall not covered in dragon memorabilia was lined with books.

Relaxing in the lounge chair was a young man who looked to be about Eryn's age. He had caramel colored skin. His eyes were a startling shade of blue, similar to the color of sapphires but a slight shade darker. His posture was completely at ease, and confident, and seemed to have made himself at home. His dark hair was cut short and messily stuck up in all different directions, seeming to defy gravity. He wore a blue tunic/robe thing that signified he was a wizard. Eryn guessed that he could be good looking if he did something with his hair, but he seemed a bit stuck up and boring with that lazy smirk on his face. Eryn scowled at him, not that that was anything to be surprised about.

Seated on the sofa was a girl, also about Eryn's age. She had a slightly upturned nose, a dusting of freckles and rosy cheeks. She was slim, on the short side and dressed in a short, sleeveless green tunic and darker green leggings. Her most noticeable feature by far was her just-above-shoulder length, wavy hair that was a electric shade of lincoln green. Her bangs came to a stop just above her large, piercing eyes that were a shade darker green than her hair and a few shades less neon. Her ears came to a slight point at the ends. She has got to be part nymph, or at least descended from one, Eryn thought. Nymphs were nature spirits who inhabited trees or rivers. They were not immortal, although they could live hundreds of years. Their life span was tied to that of their tree or river. Nymphs were uncommon and only lived in the deepest parts of forests, rarely seen by humans. It was unusual, but not unheard of for humans and nymphs to have children together. These children often had a gift for nature magic or could talk to animals. They would normally live twice as long as a human, although it depended on how closely descended they were to a nymph. Eryn thought that the girl on the sofa could probably be the granddaughter of a nymph. It might be useful to have someone with nature magic... Just maybe... Eryn thought.

"Eryn, meet your two companions, Sephris," he gestured to the green haired girl, "and Rollin," he nodded at the boy. "Sephris, Rollin, this is Eryn. I will go make sure that all of your travel packs are ready to go,"

The man left, shutting the door silently behind him. Eryn fidgeted in the awkward silence that followed his departure.

"Soooooo..." Sephris said, trying to break the uneasy quiet. "I... uhhhhh... like your shirt, Eryn,"

"Thanks," Eryn smiled, she liked her shirt too. It was black, but so were all her clothes, and made of a light, flowy material. It was mainly loose, but was pulled in at her waste and elbows. "I like your hair,"

"Thanks," Sephris replied. "I thi-"

"I think that fashion is great and all, but maybe we could talk about something more interesting and relevant," Rollin cut in, sounding bored.

"Oh, I'm sorry that our conversation isn't entertaining enough for you. What would it please you for us to talk about? Then again you really shouldn't be talking." Eryn snapped, dramatically glancing at his robe with a pained expression.

Rollin returned her glare with a look of cool indifference. "I just thought that since were leaving tomorrow it might a good idea to know what we're going to do, but by all means share your fashion tips with me,"

"Tomorrow!" Eryn exclaimed, "But that's so soon!"

"Didn't you think to ask basic questions like when we're leaving? Do you even know where we are going?" Rollin asked.

Eryn just made a face, and didn't bother answering.

"We're going to an island, about a two week journey from here," Sephris said, trying smooth the tension but failing miserably.

Still glaring at Rollin she said, "Oh joy. A ship." Then she added under her breath, "I hope he drowns."

"I heard that."