The forest was awfully quiet and cozy. Small rays of light crossed through the tree's tops and feeble warm breezes flew between rocks and trees. Rainbow-colored butterflies flew from flower to flower, birds singing at the distance and insects chirping happily. 

How could that amazing paradise be banned for everyone? How could it even be part of trial? Bartant's soul was suddenly filled with doubts towards his mission. He was feeling at ease in that tranquil peaceful place. As time passed inside of the forest, he felt more and more relaxed, and slowly started to walk deeper and deeper to the forest heart. As he walked deeper, more colorful creatures began to appear. Blue-lighted lynx, diamond glowing wolves, jade and emerald foxes, flowers emanated powerful but delicious aromas, the light was at perfect temperature and intensity, all colors became more vivid and intense, everything was enhanced. Bartant's soul kept questioning everything he has ever known to be true. Was it a dream? Was he really in the so called Forest of Doom, how could such ignorance exist within the walls of Sanctaria. 

After wandering for about an hour, he suddenly started to wonder where his friends were. He had not met any of the other Dragons taking the trial. Did they already leave the forest? Were they left behind? How could he miss everyone if there were one single entrance and one single path? Slowly he was snapping out of his trance, and with it, colors became less vivid, and the warm cozy feeling started to disappear. Was someone tricking him? Was that the test to be surpassed at the forest? Maybe the ideal world was just an illusion after all... And while he kept trying to understand all these events, the forest was changing. It became more and more a grey gloomy forest, such as one would expect of a forbidden place. The more he reasoned, the more the fancy forest was dying to leave room to the true face of the forest. Finally, the cozy veil was torn apart and the true forest appeared upon his eyes. Dead roots, rotten odor and dark rivers and a mysterious bridge with a dark background.

Bartant realized someone was with him. He could not see it, but he could feel his presence.

"Who is there?"  - shouted Bartant with all his strenght.

Silence.

"Show yourself" - he shouted again.

Silence again. He quickly grabbed his knife and was prepared for what could be his first encounter. And as he stand there in a defensive position, a blueish glowing entity appeared before him. It had a blurry shape, hard to distinguish who or what it was.

"Leave now while you can young Dragon. The forest has no friends" - said the spirit in a very cryptic voice.

"I shall not. I will fulfill my dream. I will not let a measly forest stop me." - replied Bartant bravely.

"The forest does not care about who enters, nor does he respect wishes and dreams. But if you insist heed my advise young Dragon: beware of what seems and what is not. The light of friendship shall be the guide" - said the spirit in a more clear voice.

"Wait... what do you ...." - Bartant started to ask when the spirit dissapeared - "... mean?"

Bartant cursed inside his mind. Just what I needed, more riddles he though. But it was not a time to dwell on possibilities, it was a time for action. He sheathed his knife into his belt and crossed the bridge. He quickly dashed through the narrow path just to find a small glade in the forest. And there he saw many of his Dragon companions. They were fighting, fiercely against many unpleasant enemies such as bloody wolves, evil gigantic butterflies, and venomous spiders. Without hesitation, he quickly dives in to help his friends. He quickly unfolded his knife, dodged a venom spit from a spider, dashed under the spider until its tail and quickly jumped into its back and stabbed it to death. But as soon as he was able to kill the spider, two wolves surrounded him. The wolves did not rush to attack him like the spider did, but rather started walking in circles, analyzing him. Bartant sat in a meditation position to try and tempt the wolves to attack him. One of the wolves became impatient and jumped towards him with his fierce mouth open and his teeth dribbling. And when the wolf was about to bite Bartant's face he chanted

Fuga

And he dissipated before the wolf. He stopped his attacked confused and started looking around him with no luck, and suddenly a voice was heard in the air:

Reprobi

And Bartant appeared above the wolf and quickly stabbed him to death. Shortly the second wolf became berserk and quickly jumped to kill him. But Bartant was highly trained in combat and was prepared for it, and so he chanted:

Ictos

And quickly dissipated to the side of the wolf and slashed his throat in a glimpse. But not everyone was as gifted as Bartant in combat. He started to see friends getting bitten, poisoned and cut. He felt powerless to help them all. He thought they would die there alone in this cursed forest. But as they started to collapse, a light protected them. It was the spirit he met before. Was he sent by the King? Was he some kind of guardian angel? Or was he abducting them all? Was he working for the forest? How could he know which side the spirit has taken? 

After all enemies were killed only 5 dragons remained. They grouped together and kept moving towards the heart of the forest. There had to be a way to stop the enemies and get past to the next step of the trial.

They kept going through the narrow paths until they could walk no more. A big river, with a fierce current and cascade at the end was before them. None of them was able to fly. They were stuck. But they were lucky. Between the 5 of them, one was a Tilkraos, a very intelligent sub-race, his name was Kyazi. Kyazi was the son of one of the greatest alchemist of the whole Dragon race and was given several honor mentions because of his contributions to the stability and prosperity of the Empire. Kyazi quickly instructed all remaining dragons to fetch him strong vines and trees so that he could build a bridge. When everything was brought together, Kyazi quickly built the structure and used a potion to tighten up every part together. Bartant was an extremely gifted warrior, but in everything else he lacked imagination.

"Amazing Kyazi! But how are we going to use that? We can't land it to the other side, it's too big and heavy, even for the 5 of us" - he asked in a very respectful tone.

Kyazi just smiled, dropped on his knees, draw a circle and a star, put a rock in the middle of the star and chanted:

Dicitur Potentia: Amicus Lapis 

The earth started to rumble. An earthquake? A foe was approaching? The floor started to break into rocks, and the rocks were rolling together, forming a single rock mass with the shape of a human. A Golem was born out of his incantation. The Golem easily took the bridge on his arms and raised it above his head and walk towards the river, and there he stood immovable to the strong current. All of them screamed with joy and quickly moved to the other side.

But happiness lasted very little. As soon as they crossed a new fierce enemy appeared. It was nothing like the spiders or the wolves, it was a myth beast everyone read at school books. A goat's body, snake's tail and the head of a lion, the deadly Chimera. Another Dragon, a very young Gahrun named Vestri, son of the 4th Flame Army Commander Gwurt, was extremely proud of his family heritage and couldn't resist attacking the Chimera all by himself. He quickly dashed directly to its heart, but the Chimera was fast enough to try and claw him. Vestri knew he could not dodge in time so he closed his eyes awaiting the worst result possible, his demise. Then he felt like he was floating, was he dead already? And then he felt his body thudding the floor.  He opened his eyes only to find out he was alive. He was covered with a magic shield, and when he turned his eyes to the side, he saw Kyazi chanting. The Chimera also noted the same thing, and it knew he couldn't chant and defend himself at the same time, so it quickly jumped towards him. Bartant couldn't allow that to happen so he had to do it again:

Ictos ..... Obsidio 

He dashed and used his knife as a shield against the Chimera's tail sting attack. He then jumped against the beast and they fought jumping, clawing, blocking and stabbing with no end. The fight was intense, and Bartant was getting tired. The Chimera was indeed strong. While he was entertaining the Chimera, Kyazi talked to Vestri with a strategy to defeat the Chimera. Vestri nodded. Kyazi dropped to his knees again and draw a star and a moon and shouted with all his strenght:

Lucis Magicae: Armis Clara  .....  Radium

Vestri was filled with a glowing light, as strong as any armor, and his body started to float, and he flew full speed at the Chimera and shouted:

"Bartant ...... JUMP.  IGNIS SAGITTA"

Vestri's body was filled with fire and like an arrow, he stabbed through the Chimera's body. The beast was defeated and they all felt relieved. And just as they though everything was coming to an end, darkness quickly spread through the forest until there was nothing else to see.

"Trapped forever you shall remain"  - a mysterious voice could be heard in the distance.

Kyazi tried all the spells he knew, but nothing could dispel that thick darkness. Vestri also tried to create a torch with his fire skills, but it was not enough. A different kind of power was needed, the kind of power they did not possess. And then Bartant remember the Spirit's words the light of friendship shall be the guide. Could it be that they all needed to join their skills? But he had no magic to make light, he only knew how to fight, and his skills were learned to combat. How could he help his friends? Hidden in his mind, a memory from his childhood flashed into his mind. His mother was a powerful sorceress and taught him the most important lesson: 

"True power is not measured in destruction, but rather on life given"

 Could they breed life inside of that darkness? It was worth the try, and so Bartant asked Kyazi if he could protect anything with the light armor and he nodded and then asked Vestri if he could warm without burning, and he nodded also. And so the friendship give their best:

Siliqua Fides - chanted Bartant

Lucis Magicae: Armis Clara - chanted Kyazi

Lumen - chanted Vestri