Chapter 3

Belkio gasped. His heart sank. His stomach knotted up. And worse of all, he was speechless. But none of those helped the terrible fact known to the red dragon; he was found out! Centare eyed the bushes in which Belkio hid with amusement. His voice rumbled to Belkio's ears as trouble, "I know you're in there, it's no use hiding. And don't feel ashamed for what you did. In fact," The black dragon continued, "You've helped me to make a very difficult decision." The other dragons nodded, except the purple one, who looked confused. "And now, you can come out." Centare added with amusement. Belkio shivered. He tried to control his nervousness, but to no avail. For a moment Belkio considered launching into the air and flying away as fast as he possibly could. But Centare would certainly catch up or track him down. He had no choice but to step out and reveal himself. Belkio took a big breath and crashed into the clearing. And there he stood amidst a great hero, the one and only Centare, the 'Great Escapee' from his Iop torturers. And Canto, the x-Red Male, mate to the former Red Female Reepo. Except for the common young purple and the dazzling yellow dragon of which both Belkio knew no name, he was surrounded by celebrities. Now Canto stepped forward at a nod from Centare and looked Belkio over from his long scaly tail to the tips of his agile wings. "Yes." he murmured to himself. "Yes, he is good." Canto straightened up and reported his findings, whatever they might be. Belkio shivered uncontrollably, and the purple cocked his head sympathetically. Canto now spoke, "I have looked him over for signs of weakness and strength, and find it promising. However," Canto's eyes burned into Belkio's and he shivered harder, "He is too, um, anxious, if I may say so myself." He ended lamely. Cenare traded Canto's burning eyes for his own, but surprisingly instead of shivering even harder- if that was possible - it gave Belkio new strength and confidence. With one last shudder, Belkio forced himself to sit up straight and look more 'promising'. Centare turned back to Canto and whispered something out of range of Belkio's hearing. Canto looked hurt, but Centare didn't seem to notice. "Then it's decided." He swung his head towards the purple for a few moments, as if to verify that this was what he wanted. The young purple shifted uncomfortably, even though Centare only studied him for a couple of seconds. Centare jumped onto Scale Rock, the newly found rock that could finally be used as an addressing spot. "Now, we have agreed on one thing only, that the youngsters shall only be 'human' for a week. But in order to have them human for even a second, they must visit the Cloud King Brostiff. Therefore, I have sent my servant Clug to the Alfean Mountains, to tell him of their arrival. But before any of us goes to Stormflight Peak, we must all agree. Does anyone agree?" A hushed silence fell upon the glade, the only sound the wind rustling through the trees. Belkio's mind was spinning. What were they talking about? What was a human? And what did he have to do with anything? After a minute, the yellow raised her tail and said, "I, for one, agree that this is the right thing to do. If we don't do something, who knows what could happen?" Her speech worked like a spark on a hay bale, and soon Canto was chattering about what good this would do to the reds, followed by a smart remark from the yellow dragon about how this would do good for all the dragons, not just reds. Then Centare was whisked into the conversation by a question from the yellow, whom Belkio had discovered was named Nestria. They argued and questioned each other for about half an hour, until Belkio was ready to fall asleep on the spot. The purple had scooted over to him during the time and whispered quietly to him, "If they talk much longer, their mouths will fall off in exhaustion." Belkio murmered back, "Yes, if their ears don't do so first." The purple continued, "Anyway, my name's Jerru. I'm the son of Dimplo, and he sent me here to help out the elder's with their crazy plan. But so far," he guestured to the talking dragons, "The only thing they've done is killed their mouths." Belkio added, "And ears. And what plan is that?" which launched a big tale of what Jerru and Belkio were supposed to do, ending in Belkio's jaws dropping wide open. A human!