Screaming all around was the first thing that she heard. As she looked to her left and right, there were some familiar faces; Cathy, Alice, and Luke and quite a few unfamiliar ones as well. Each one of them were using their own unique specialties to turn the tide of the battle in our favor. Luke was using waves of flames to keep the enemies back. Cathy was giving strategic advice based on things she had noticed in her visions. Alice was commanding an entire fleet of wolves, directing them to enclose the enemy from both sides. And flying above in the sky, was the baby dragon that they had rescued earlier that day. Although, the dragon has grown considerably at this point. She was no longer a baby as she spewed acid on the soldiers beneath her. In her head she hears the words, “We can do this. We will win!” and she immediately knew that the voice belonged to the dragon, her dragon. 

Waking up, Hallie realized that the dragon was curled up in her arms. She got up as gently and quietly as she could and reached into the pack to find something for breakfast. Before long, her dragon woke up as well and after wobbling over, laid down on Hallie’s lap. “You did great. I didn’t think that you would be able to walk already.” Hallie said encouragingly, while breaking off a piece of jerky for the dragon. She watched as the dragon ate it greedily. 

“Can you speak to me, little one? I heard you in my dream.” Hallie whispered softly so that she did not wake Luke. 

  “I can.” replied a soft voice in her head.

“What is your name?”

“I do not have one. I was supposed to be given my name after 2 weeks, but my mother had already been gone at that point. ”

“Well then, I suppose we will have to give you one. Let’s see. What about Amber? It is a beautiful gemstone that matches the color of your eyes. And it seems fitting as the forest that I found you in was full of amber colors.”

“I like it. My name will be amber.”

“Amber? How old are you? You look like a baby, but you speak as though you were much older?

“My body is almost a month old now. My spirit is much older though. In common dragon tradition, dragons spend their first two weeks absorbing their spirit. Few dragons accomplish this, but those who do are filled with knowledge from a multitude of ancient ancestors. This spirit is what allows me to easily communicate with you telepathically and it is the thing that will eventually bond us.”

“That is really cool. The only problem is now I have to convince Luke to let you stay.”

“You have to convince me of what now?”

“I had a dream, a vision actually, I think. The dragon and I were bonded and we were all fighting with the help of a huge army. I only saw a small part of the battle. But we seemed to be doing pretty well. I didn’t recognize all of the people on our team, so I assume that they are people that I have yet to meet. But, anyway. I can’t get rid of Amber. She is mine. I don’t mind taking care of her and doing all of the work. She will still be small for quite a while so I don’t think that we have too much to worry about.”

“You don’t have to convince me of anything. Cathy can’t get out here and the borders there are on lockdown. They thought I would return home so soon after everything. The one thing I am missing right now though is Pine.”

“You could probably go back and get him. They are really only after me. I could distract them while you run in. It might work.”

“It’s not worth it, Hallie. I’m not too worried though. Pine always finds a way to come to me. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him soon enough.”

“Okay, so what is the plan now?”

“To get as far away from the Capital as possible. We should eat and get ready for a long day of travel.”

The two of them ate in silence and packed up their gear before heading out the town. They made decent progress and managed to reach the outskirts of the next town by nightfall. They decided to sleep in a shallow cave in the rocks near the base of the mountain. By dawn, they once again packed up their things and began to travel. They continued traveling at this pace for the next week, traveling from open field and forests to mountainous, rocky terrain. By this time Amber was able to walk much better than before and had even taken a few small flights. She was by no means an expert, but she was improving every day.