Chapter 7

Belkio stared at Brostiff, who was nearly twice as big as Centare and was carrying a staff of rock with a hard ball of ice on the end. Mist encircled the ice ball, causing it to glow with a mysterious blue light. On the stone part of the staff elaborate designs were carved onto it, one of them the sign of the Cloud King's Castle; a wolf raising it's head and howling into a blizzard, with snowflake designs encircling it. Brostiff himself was also powerful looking, his scales icy blue (not bright blue but the color of blue ice, like blue mixed with white; a sort of light blue) and his razor sharp claws extended as long as Belkio's head. His eyes had a powerful gleam about them, as if he knew now things that Belkio would not know in his entire life. Belkio had made it all the way up through a blizzard, he had befriended a purple, and he had Centare, of all dragons, for his trainer. Yet this topped all, Belkio thought. This topped all. Jerru stirred, mumbling something about cold feet, and flittered an eye open. "Oh, hi Brostiff."he muttered, still dazed from his drag through the raging blizzard. All at once, he leaped to his feet in an attempt to salute, slipped on the icy floor, and fell backwards out the gargantuan door into a drift of snow. He raised his head and saluted the surprised Brostiff with a shaky hand covered in frost. Brostiff lifted a bellow throughout the castle, "Frant, come here and give the poor fellow a drink of Freshberry juice, and turn the defroster on, we have guests!" The last was said in exasperation with his blue servant, who speedily hurried in with a cup of steaming Freshberry juice and a hand to help Jerru up. The young purple dragon was clearly embarrassed, his normally violet cheeks glowing a pale scaly pink. Once he was inside again, the frozen door slammed shut, and it's icicle lock clicked. "Now, we are all ready to hear the news you bring, eh, Centare?" Centare nodded seriously, and launched into the tale of the sighting of these "human" creatures, it ending by how Centare was going to train their dragon spies himself. Brostiff listened, intrigued, until Centare finished. He shook his head solemnly, and declared in a deep, low tone, "But, Centare, we must not wait to train them. We must not waste more precious time. Remember what happened last time we waited?" Centare notably froze, and he narrowed his eyes darkly. A growl rumbled deep in his throat, and smoke steamed out of his nostrils. Belkio shook to see him like this, a torrent of fury and grief. "I remember." he growled, his face grim, his mind wandering in a secret place of darkness, pain, and guilt. "I remember." Then he was himself again, and replied, "Of course, my friend, of course. We will send them out immediately.  But what are their orders?" Brostiff swerved his massive head around towards Jerru and Belkio, and instructed them, "Watch. Just simply watch, and report to us everything and anything that happens, especially if it is important or unusual." Belkio found his voice enough to say, "Yes, your Majesty." Brostiff grunted. "Don't start with all that 'Your Majesty' rubbish. Just call me Brostiff." Jerru's eyes visibly widened, and Belkio felt as Jerru looked. "O-ok, Brostiff." Belkio murmured, stumbling over the words in his astonishment. Brostiff nodded, obviously satisfied. "Good, now we know each other, let's get down to business."

Chapter 6

Belkio gasped for breath as the icy wind knocked the air out of his lungs. He had not known the snow up here was any colder than down there, but obviously there was a huge difference in temperature. Centare seemed not to notice though, at least not as much. Jerru, on the other hand, had fallen way behind and was shivering uncontrollably. For five minutes they flew through the blinding snow, working themselves- slowly but steadily- up the mountain. Centare was squinting into the snow, muttering to nobody in particular, "WHERE is it? It HAS to be here SOMEWHERE. WHERE is that castle? WHERE?" he ended his complaints with a mighty roar that echoed through the snow and was lost among the falling whiteness. For an hour they struggled helplessly against the fierce winds that pushed them and shoved them every which way, the cold biting their noses and freezing their wings so that they couldn't even feel them, and for a moment, Belkio thought in horror that maybe he wasn't even flying at all! Even Centare looked beaten, but was still peering among the snowflakes as they whizzed by at top speed. All of a sudden, Jerru gave a excited roar, and stretched his neck, pointing to the left. Belkio and Centare stared where Jerru had pointed. But Belkio couldn't see anything but the snow. Then he did see it. It was a blue dragon, gliding through the storm as if it were a sunny day. Belkio gaped at him, then closed his mouth, realising it was rude- and his saliva was freezing. The blue dragon motioned to them to follow him, and started off into the blizzard. Jerru however, was so cold and tired he sunk down into the snow and closed his eyes. "Jerru! You'll freeze to death!"Belkio cried. Centare snapped his head around. "He is too tired to move." he survied carefully. "We will have to carry him." Belkio nudged his shoulder under his friend, and lifted him up with Centare. Then they follwed the blue dragon.
*** Belkio's heart fluttered with relief when he finally saw the castle. It was grand, made out of clouds with a banner of the cloud king fluttering on top of a turret, and a huge misty moat made of fog. Centare and Belkio dropped Jerru at the door and waited as their escort knocked a code on the huge ice door. Then the ice slid up and there, inside, was the biggest, the grandest, the most powerful dragon he ever saw. "Come inside. I've been waiting for you." Brostiff rumbled.

Chapter 5

Belkio gaped up at the humongous peak up above him. He couldn't believe such a huge mountain was for real. Sure, he'd heard the stories of it, 'As tall as 100 Iops' the stories said, but those were just stories, right? Now as Belkio stared at the famous Stormflight Peak, he really pondered if he should be doing this. I can just back out. I will! I will as soon as... no. Belkio would rather drown than disappoint the Cloud King and his friend Centare. So, he followed his friend and 'spy trainer' up and into the misty surrounding of Stormflight Peak. "Now stay together and don't wander off. So far Brostiff has managed to keep it from being as stormy as usual, but you never know when his spell might wear off." Brostiff can control the weather?! Belkio was incredulous. Anyone as powerful to control the weather was powerful enough to do almost anything, in Belkio's opinion. Jerru seemed to be having the same feeling, for when they exchanged glances his amber eyes were widened in surprise. Jerru whispered in his ear,"I sure wouldn't want to get him angry." Belkio nodded, still in awe. The three dragons circled around the peak until they were halfway to the top. "This is taking forever. My wings ache and I'm hungry." Jerru complained to no one in particular. Belkio nodded, although his wings did not ache, he was hungry too. Centare grumbled something under his breath as snow started to fall. "Hurry! The spell is worn off and it could become a blizzard in just a few minutes." He whisked past, and Jerru struggled to catch up with him, but even in the snow Belkio caught up with the black without straining his wings too hard. "I wish I had your wings Belkio. It'd help." Jerru managed to puff. Belkio slowed down to wait for him, but Centare dragged him on. "We MUST get there before it starts snowing- blast it!" Centare bellowed as more snowflakes began pouring down. Within a minute it was a blizzard, as Centare had predicted it might. "Jerru! Where are you?" Belkio cried into the snow. "H-here. I'm fine. J-just out of b-breath." Belkio waited, and Centare did this time too. Jerru appeared out of the snow falling below and joined them. "Can we please take a b-break?" He asked Centare, gasping. Centare hesitated, then replied, "No, we must keep moving. We'll take a break once we're inside Brostiff's castle." The castle! The thought gave Belkio new strength, and apparently did so to Jerru also. "Okay, if you say so." said Jerru. So the three dragons, side by side, braced against the storm and disappeared into the clouds above.

Chapter 4

Belkio lay in his nest, staring up at the night sky. He couldn't believe it! What had he gotten into? After the elders had finely stopped talking, they sent Belkio and Jerru off to bed, ordering them to come back the next night. But Belkio couldn't sleep. Who could, when you knew the next day you'd be among alien creatures? It wasn't until the sun was well in the sky before Belkio fell asleep. In his dream the humans danced around him with sharp stones ready to pierce his scales. But even in his dream Belkio knew how hard it would be for them to actually pierce his tough scales. He struggled in his sleep for a while, then relaxed into a deep slumber. *** Belkio stretched, clawing his favorite tree by accident. He scowled, and lifted it back upright. Belkio had a feeling this wasn't going to be a good night. Well he'd best be getting off to Dragons Glade, or he'd be late. He scrambled to his feet, stretched once more, and began his short flight to Dragons Glade. A few minutes later, when he was quite close to Dragons Glade, he heard a faint roar of greeting. Belkio squinted, and just barely made out the shape of Jerru flying towards the Glade also. How the heck did he hear my wing beats all the way across the sky? Belkio pondered. As he got closer, he saw it wasn't Jerru after all, but his father, Dimplo. Belkio nodded hello and dived into the glade, a little too fast, because he crashed into the ground. Dimplo came in after him, and muttered something under his breath that sounded like "Clumsy mumble mumble mumble shouldn't be
mumble mumble." They then sat in silence, the sound of Bright Fawn woods and their impatient breathing was the only thing to hear, well to Belkio anyway. But he'd bet a whole feast of nuts and berries (which was the dragons' diet at that time) that Dimplo was listening to his heartbeat, the worms wiggling in the ground, and who knows what else. Dimplo was the 'listener', the dragon with the best hearing ever. Yet Jerru had admitted that he himself didn't have that good ears, for a purple anyway. He was better at sight. After a minute or two, Nestria and Centare appeared, and timidly following them was Jerru. They waited a good five minutes before the last dragon, Canto, appeared. He looked apologetic, and admitted that he had slept longer than he had expected. After they had all settled down, Centare started it by announcing, "I have arranged a meeting with Brostiff today, and we must hurry in order to keep the time expected. Also you young spies must have some training first, before you go about your spy business at Twisting Creek. So I have made time for me to be your trainer." Belkio's heart leaped. Centare was to be his trainer?! This was absurd! Yet it was exciting at the same time... "So we must hurry. Come now young ones, we must fly swiftly. Brostiff will be waiting for us." Belkio immediently leaped to his feet, not wanting to disapoint Brostiff and Centare. Jerru must have felt the same way, because he was up in the sky before Belkio was on his feet. Belkio raced after him, with Centare swiftly following. Belkio quickly caught up with Jerru, and even had to slow down in order to avoid passing him. Even though Jerru was just as old as himself, Belkio was a red and thus a better flier. Centare caught up, and took the lead, steering them in the right direction. As they glided though misty clouds and across clear skys, Belkio engaged in conversation with Jerru. Belkio discovered that Jerru was quite like him; he loved the look of Burning Star lake, liked to take swims in it on hot days, and sometimes had trouble sleeping at night. As they chattered away, Centare studied the clouds up at the mountain peaks. He rumbled with please. Brostiff had managed to keep them from being blizzerd clouds, which would have been very hard to get through without being either swept away, or lost. As they got closer, the gossip stopped, and the two new found friends stared up at the mountain known as Stormflight Peak.