I woke to the site of the clear blue sky rushing past and my hair sweeping in front of my face and into my mouth. I spit a few light green strands out of my mouth in disgust. I tried to get up, but my hands were still encased in rock. I looked around to get a better bearing of where I was. I was on top of a large leather saucer, it was curved up at the sides, presumably to keep people from falling off. There were no harnesses or seats anywhere in site to hold people in place so it seemed as though the upturned sides were the only prevention. Seated across from me was the group of people who had kidnapped me. Lilith, the girl with the fire-looking hair was seated directly across from me with her eyes closed and her arms folded. To her left was Julian, the boy in the white coat, he seemed to be tinkering with some sort of metal sphere that had gears protruding from all sides. Finally, to her right was the girl with the golden eyes, who's name I hadn't gotten, she was peering over the side of the saucer, her hands out waving them to and fro.

"Hey" I called over to Julian. He lifted his head up slightly, still much more interested in his sphere "What do you want?" He said very dismissively. "Can you take these off of me" I waved my covered hands around wildly. He looked up and walked over "I do suppose you can't really go anywhere now" he tapped the rocks and I watched in amazement as they turned completely to dust. "Hey, thanks f..." I looked up, but he had already returned to his sphere. I sighed and then walked over to the edge of the leather saucer, falling backwards as I peered over the side. I could see the fluffy white clouds rushing past below us, meaning we were thousands of miles in the air.

I quickly ran over to Julian "How are we so high up?!" I exclaimed frantically. "Umm, cause dragons can fly, duh..." He said it so off-handedly like being on top of a dragon was an everyday occurrence. "Did you say dragon?!" I shouted loudly, causing Lilith to wake up. She stormed over me and grabbed my ear "What are you doing up and about?" I winced from the pain, attempting to remove her hand from my ear. "Lilith, where is he gonna go?" He said, pulling a screwdriver out of his left pocket and turning one of the gears on the sphere. Lilith release my ear and sighed "Fair point, but after what he did back there caution is something we need to exercise."

She went back to where she had been sleeping and sat back down, closing her eyes once more. I walked over cautiously and poked her in the arm, causing her to open one eye and glare at me "What..." Her tone was deadly, like newly sharpened knives. "Well, since I have no idea what's happening and I can't really go anywhere right now, I was hoping you could help fill me in." She sighed and said "Fine, sit down, this is gonna be a lot to explain." I obliged and sat down crossing my legs and resting hands in my lap.

"So first off, where are we going?" The question that was burning most prevalently in my mind right now. "Well, we're going to the seventh of the ten apprentice camps, formally known as Omnius." I nodded in acknowledgement. "And why exactly do I have to go there?" I said, shrugging. "Well, as displayed by the color of your blood and what you did against the Ser Wolf, it is positive that you are an apprentice. It would be very dangerous for one of us to live out in the mortal realm for very long." I cocked my head slightly "Why is that" I expected her to shout at me for asking all these questions that she seemed to think I should know, but instead she responded in a very calm and even slightly concerned tone "If you were to stay in the mortal realm for too long, things like that wolf would constantly be attacking you, and considering the fact that you don't even know how you defeated that thing, you would die pretty quickly." I knew she was right, there was no way I could do that again.

"You keep saying 'mortal realm', what do you mean by that?" She gave me another sympathetic look "Well, the world that we are from..." She gestured to the others to her left and right "...is known at the World of essence. The world in which you were living is known as the mortal realm, due to its lack of magic and essence." This made sense, but it just raised another question "Wait, what is essence?" She waved her hand around, gesturing to everything "Essence is a mystical energy that allows us to do extraordinary things and it exists everywhere, even in the mortal world."

I stood up and began pacing "Why can't I see it?" Lilith stood up as well, stretching her arms out "Well actually you should be able to with that eye of yours." I touched my hand to my left eye which was no longer giving off the golden glow "Is that what those weird auras of color I saw in you guys and the monster were?" I said gesturing to the group "Precisely, I actually think your other eye may have some special qualities to it as well, but I'll explain that to you once we get on the ground. You might wanna hold on to something."

Before I could say anything, the beast lurched downward, I barely got to one of the handholds dotted about the inside of the saddle before I was almost thrown off into the ground below. I shouted over the roar of the wind "So, is that camp you spoke of below us?" I received no response, as all the other people were preoccupied, Julian somehow still tinkering with his sphere and the golden-eyed girl had her hands in the air like she was on a roller coaster.

We passed through the clouds, my vision going completely white briefly before refocusing as I looked over the side, I was completely astonished by what I saw. Below us was a gigantic camp separated by mountains on one side and buried deep inside of a massive forest. Humongous green trees stretched for miles into the distance with only a small gap at the front of the camp.

The camp itself was comprised of two circular areas, the bigger one was towards the back of the camp, with the smaller one being at the front near the entrance. In the larger circle stood a massive pavilion almost as big as the coliseum, dotted around it was a circle of fourteen cabins, each about the size of a small apartment complex and each differently decorated. In the smaller circle was another large structure, this one very much a coliseum, having a big open ring in the center. Across from it was a large shed-like building with a red roof. Other than the cabins, the buildings looked quite old, built with somewhat Greek-like architecture, lots of columns and cracked marble.

As we got closer to the ground, I was able to make out a third section to the camp located in the space between the two circles. Inside were hundreds of people of varying ages, races, and skill. They seemed to be training, some fighting with all manner of weapons, and some creating ornate circles and casting magic. However, they all had one thing in common, each and every person had a colorful aura radiating from them, just like the three apprentices sitting with me on the saddle. I still had no idea how to make whatever was doing this stop, my vision was constantly flooded with glowing colors emanating from everything.

I would have asked what was happening, but the roar of the wind overpowered my voice, so I simply decided to wait until we landed. At the rate we were descending I doubted that would be very long. We were only about 100 feet off the ground when suddenly we stopped falling and flattened out, the force nearly ripped my arm off, but I was able to keep my grip on the handle. We slowed to a near halt a little bit away from the large pavilion and then dropped to the ground, kicking up loose dirt and dust.

The golden-eyed girl stood up first, her hair was sticking out in every possible angle, she tried smoothing it all down, but it didn't really help. She coughed up some dust and smiled "Well, this has been fun guys, but I should be getting back to my cabin, it was nice meeting you Avien, my name's Caroline by the way" I just sat there and awkwardly waved as she jumped off the dragon and headed towards one of the cabins to the left.

She was closely followed by Julian who pocket his odd sphere and stood up. "Yeah, whatever she said, I have some Ser essence to mess with" He headed off in the opposite direction, tossing the jar of dark liquid up and down as he went. Finally, Lilith stood up and walked over to me "Come on, let's go" She led me to the other side of the saddle and jumped off, landing smoothly on the ground.

Now that I was off, I could finally get a good look at the dragon. It had magnificent crimson scales all across its body. Folded at its side were two wings the size of a minivan and just as red as its scales. On top of its head were two massive white horns, each was curled twice making it look like the world's smallest corkscrew. It looked at me and its eyes narrowed, scarlet flames flared from its nostrils, clearly it didn't like me.

"Her name is Amelia" Lilith said walking over to the dragon's head and petting her nose. "She says she doesn't like our scent" she said shrugging. "What's wrong with my smell" I sniffed all over my body, trying to find what was wrong. "She says you smell like..." Before she could finish her thought a boy came running up to us shouting "Lilith, Lilith, Lilith, you're finally back!" He stopped abruptly in front of her, a crazy grin on his face.

Standing before us was one of the most interesting people I had ever seen. He had frizzy black hair held back only by a rainbow-colored bandana around his forehead. He had skin the color of chocolate, he was covered in scrapes, burns and what looked like oil. One of his eyes was a normal dark brown color, the other however, was lime green with a very wide pupil and thin lines radiating from the center, almost like a sun. He had a messy white tee-shirt and army vest littered with pocket, on his bottom he had on jeans that seemed to have been singed at the feet and it was all topped off by a toolbelt with every manner of wrench, hammer, saw, and nail that he could fit. He looked like the textbook definition of a mechanic, like he spent all day trying to find new ways to injure himself.

"How did the new saddle work? Any troubles?" He spoke as energetically as he acted, constantly fidgeting with the straps on his vest and belt. "No there was no trouble at all, Julian said it was a bit uncomfortable, but he complains about everything so it's alright." She shrugged, dismissing the thought. "Yeah, I probably could have used a bit more comfortable of a material, but it may have compromised the sturdiness of the saddle..." He mused, zoning out slightly, until he noticed me.

He whispered to Lilith "Who is this guy?" Gesturing to me. "This guy has ears, and he does not like to be talked about as though he isn't here" I huffed, mildly annoyed at his disregard of my presence. "His name is Avien, he's another apprentice we found on the mission. He was the person who took down the wolf" she still seemed mildly annoyed about the ordeal on the street. "Ah, makes sense, what camp is he from?" The boy began eying me up and down. "That's the thing... he knows nothing about this world" Lilith gestured to everything around her. "That's a bit odd, did he hit his head or something?" He said sarcastically "Nothing that we know of. He's perfectly healthy"

The boy raises his hand, signaling for us to wait a moment as he fishes around in his tool belt, looking for something. After some rummaging he pulls out a strange looking pair of goggles, they have gold, octagonal rims and instead of lenses that seemed to have some weird shimmering crystal which was radiating an aura similar to the golden-eyed girl, Caroline. After cleaning off the lenses, he fixed the goggles on his head and tightened the strap. He looked up towards me and backed up so fast he nearly fell over. "What the hell!"

Lilith looked at him, confused "What is it Viktor?" concern creeping into her voice. He slowly removed the glasses, his eyes wide, he was shaking from head to toe as if he'd seen a ghost. He pointed his finger at me "You shouldn't exist..." I narrowed my eyes "I'm sorry, what's that supposed to mean?" I said quite annoyed by the remark. "W-W-Wait, how old are you?" His mouth was quivering as he spoke. "I'm 16 why..." I was confused by the question, but from his one I figured it best to answer. "Viktor, what is it?!" Lilith was far more concerned, as Viktor fell to the ground muttering indistinguishable phrases.

"He's a direct descendant!" He pointed his shaking finger at me accusatively. Lilith immediately stopped petting the dragon and glared angrily at me and then at Viktor. "How is that possible, are you sure?" Still shaken he tried to straighten himself "Of course, his aura looks just like Erith's, there's no faking that!" He continued mumbling to himself frantically.

Lilith turned back to me, gave me a once over and turned back to Viktor "Where is Erith, we need her, NOW!" He was jolted up by the shouting, he tried to collect himself and then pointed towards the large pavilion "She's in the guild hall" Before I could say anything, Lilith yanked my wrist and dragged me towards the building, Viktor quickly followed suit, clearly he wanted to know what was happening as much as I did.