THE DRAKEN CHRONICLES

Book I: The Humble Beginning

Part One: Evolution

There were three beings in the cave. One was a human, dressed in a white shirt and dark blue pants. The other two were drakens. One, a female, was mostly brown, and had a white underbelly. The other was red, male, and had an odd black birthmark under his left eye.

The brown draken appeared to muse something over. "So, Pike, you made these... these..." she said, struggling for a word.

"Machines?" the human, Pike, added helpfully.

"That's what they are called? Okay. You made these mush-eens that can make animals smart, and brought them out here to see if they'd work? That makes sense, I think. And you tried it first, on my friend... um, Rag-nuh-rok, right?" This last she asked to the red draken.

"Yep. You pick things up pretty quickly for being so new to intelligence," Ragnarok responded with a grin.

"In-tell-ij-ens?" the brown draken, Amber, asked.

"Intelligence is a hard way to say 'being smart,'" Pike explained.

Amber nodded and continued. "So you tried it on Ragnarok, and it works. You took him to a place with lots of humans to show a certain group, but they didn't think it mattered?" She cocked her head curiously at them.

"That's right," Ragnarok replied. "Then I had an idea to come back and make you smarter too. After all, you're my friend, right?"

She smiled back at him. "Right." Ragnarok hadn't been joking when he had said that she had been new to being intelligent. It had been around a day since she had woken up after they brought her into this cave and made her smarter and able to talk. They had spent most of that time bringing her up to speed with her new intelligence and language. Like Ragnarok, she picked up on things quickly, and was soon speaking almost as well as Pike and Ragnarok. "I think it was a great idea too."

After a small pause, Pike stood up and said, "Look, you two are probably getting pretty restless after just sitting in here so long. Go on, go take a walk outside and get something to eat. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"That sounds like another good idea," Ragnarok replied with a wink. "C'mon Amber, let's go stretch our legs a bit."

"Um, okay. Why not?" She got to her feet a little shakily, and the two drakens padded out onto the expanses of the Great Plains.

It was dark out, except for the little points of white in the sky and a big glowing white circle. "Hey Ragnarok," Amber said, "what are those white things in the sky?"

"Um... I'm not sure. We'll have to go ask Pike, then." They lay down and watched and the lights in the sky, thinking. "Wow. It sure is new, being able to appreciate all this. And its even better having another draken to watch it with."

"Yeah," she replied, and it was quiet for a minute. Then she stood up. "Hey, follow me." Ragnarok cocked his head at her, and then got up to follow her. She walked back towards the cliff, but stopped short. She opened her wings and leapt up. Ragnarok followed suit, and they both flew to the top of the cliff.

The view was stunning to say the least. The sky seemed even bigger, and they could see the Plains too. The huge area was mostly grassland, with lots of grass and trees. The trees were clumped together in groups, but the groups weren't usually very close to each other.

Also, from up this high, they could see the animals of the plains. Some were still awake, but this late, the majority of them were asleep. The larger groups of animals were under the bigger groups of trees, and the two atop the cliff could see the sleeping forms of lots of drakens, too. The sight was pretty breathtaking, and it took a conscious effort for them to start again.

"Wow..." one of them whispered. They weren't sure who, but it also didn't seem to matter. Eventually, they stirred and flew back down to Pike.

"Hmm? Back already?" Pike asked.

"Yeah. It was a nice view though," Ragnarok replied. Then a thought struck him. "Hey Pike, I was wondering, how does your machine work?"

"Ah! Well, it inserts a retrovirus and then makes use of a catalyst to speed it up and alter your cellular structures and..." he trailed off as he noticed their blank stares. He could practically hear the whistling as it went over their heads. He cleared his throat and started again. "Um, put simply, it changes the way your brain and vocal cords work, which lets you learn things and actually speak."

"Uh, that version makes a bit more sense," Amber replied. "Do humans need to use these things too?"

"No, we're usually born with everything set up to be able to do this. And in the first few years of life, we've picked up enough to learn to speak without any technology."

"First few years? Why does it take you guys so long?" Ragnarok asked. "It took us less than a day."

"Well, from what I can tell, you two are full adults, so your bodies are done developing. All you really needed was the machine to make it so you could talk. With babies, however, their bodies aren't developed enough yet to be able to talk or even think very intelligently. So their bodies develop over time, and eventually they become able to talk and so on."

"Okay, that makes sense," Ragnarok responded, "But anyway, you've got us here, and all three of us are intelligent. So what're we going to do now?"

"I suppose we could just stay here and live the rest of our lives in peace, isolated from the rest of the world," Pike suggested with mock sincerity. Ragnarok just rolled his eyes, but Amber looked confused.

"He's joking about that," Ragnarok clarified for his friend. "We're still pretty young, and I don't think Pike is very old either, so we'd be here for a_really_ long time if we just waited for the rest of our lives."

"And it probably wouldn't be very exciting, with just the three of us," Pike added, grinning.

Amber looked at him and then said plainly, "If it'd be boring with just the three of us, why not make the rest of the drakens smarter too?"

Pike and Ragnarok both opened their mouths to respond, and then their mouths fell open as the suggestion hit home. They looked at each other, than at Amber. "What? Did I say something bad?" she asked, taken aback by their reactions.

"N-no, it's just that..." Ragnarok floundered, and looked to the more verbally skilled human for help.

"Um, that hadn't really occurred to us. Dear girl, do you know how monumental an effect that would on this world's culture? A whole new intelligent race! Why didn't I think of this before?"

"It seemed pretty obvious to me," Amber stated, slightly put off by their reactions.

"It would take a lot of work, but it could be done. What do you two think of it?" Pike asked.

"A whole race of intelligent drakens like us? Well, it would certainly give us something to do for a while," Ragnarok remarked. "I think it's a great idea. What do you say, Amber?"

"I think we ought to at least try it. Although, it really ought to have a name. It'll take even longer to do if we have to call it 'the way to make animals intelligent' every time," she suggested.

"Yeah, you're right," Ragnarok replied. "How about 'awakening'? Since Amber and I both got knocked out in the process and woke up being intelligent."

"That would fit," Pike mused. "Well, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We'd better get to it."

* * *

A few weeks later, and they were still working hard. They had Awakened a whole lot of drakens, with several more to go. After Awakening one, they'd teach him or her about the basic things they'd need to know about life on the Plains and then set them loose again. Once they'd gotten all of them, Pike would gather them all together and start teaching them in earnest, things like making shelter or cultivating foods and so on.

"Okay, you can go back to your friends now," Pike said to their most recently Awakened draken. She smiled and walked out of the cave. "And you three can go roam around for a little while and find our next subject," Pike instructed, and made little shooing gestures with his hands, grinning. The drakens obliged, leaving the cave to walk around before coming back to Pike with their next patient.

Most of the drakens had wandered back onto the Plains to take care of their friends. One of them, however, had decided to stay with Ragnarok and Amber to help with new arrivals. He was mostly a dark black, with red markings where his neck and chest met, across his face, around his ankles, and the end of his tail. He had a three spike crest, with the middle spike starting near the top of his head and curving down, and the outer ones starting near the bottom and curving up. Pike had named him Sabre, a fact he was currently questioning the others about. "So why did Pike name me Sabre?" he asked.

"I'm... not quite sure," Ragnarok admitted.

"We asked him about it when he named you. He said something about your markings looking like human 'armerr,' and Sabre was a 'wepunn' than went with the 'armurr' or something like that," Amber explained.

"Whatever that means," Ragnarok added.

Sabre looked at the red bands around his legs and the red portion at the end of his tail, since he couldn't look at the ones on his face. "'Armerr,' eh? Well, now I just need to figure out what that is." He grinned and looked off into the distance, then suddenly shifter his attention to something closer. "Hey, who's that?"

He pointed his head towards what had attracted his attention, and the others followed his gaze to another draken. She was light green, with a one-spike crest that curved upwards a little at the end. Also, she was a lot rounder underneath her body than they were. "I don't think I've seen her before. Have you, Amber?" Ragnarok asked.

Amber shook her head. "No. I think we ought to take her to Pike, though."

"Okay. I'll go tell Pike to get ready; you two lead her to the cave!" Sabre instructed, loping off toward Pike's cave.

"All right, let's get to work," Ragnarok remarked bemusedly. He and Amber walked up to the unknown female, Amber in the lead. She walked over and made soothing noises, motioning in the direction they wanted the draken to go. Ragnarok gently nudged the draken from behind. She gave them a confused look, but since they were other drakens and not threatening her, she walked in the direction they guided her, off to Pike's cave.

* * *

"Well, this is quite a specimen," Pike muttered to himself. Ragnarok and Amber had brought in the draken Sabre had told him about, and, oddly enough, she seemed to be pregnant! She looked warily at him, but he made reassuring noises and held out a hand. She sniffed at it, and he scratched her on the head, which she obviously enjoyed. He coaxed her up onto the table, though the other drakens had to help a bit, and she lay down with her legs off to one side. Pike tied her down, then attached the machine and activated it.

Her head jolted upright, and then slowly sank back down, her legs twitching a little bit, and she fell unconscious. The other three looked at him, then at the form on the table. "Hope she turns out okay," Sabre murmured.

"She'll be fine, just like everyone else has," Ragnarok responded. "Pike knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, but she's kinda different from the others. Did you see her belly?" Amber said.

"She'll be fine, don't worry," Pike interjected.

"You're probably right, Pike," Sabre agreed. "But why_is_ her belly like that?"

"It'll be easier to explain it to the three of you and her at the same time," Pike replied. "In the meantime, go run around while I take care of a few things in here." The drakens shared a look, and then shrugged and sauntered out of the cave, leaving Pike to his ponderings. What effect would Awakening the pregnant draken have on her child? In theory, it should Awaken the child too, and any other future offspring, but theory didn't always turn out to be reality. He'd have to watch this one carefully. He patted her flank and said, "Don't worry, Miss, you'll be safe."

* * *

Not too far from Pike's cave, the three drakens sat down together. Sabre spoke first. "Pike was acting kinda weird back there," he observed.

"Yeah, that's what it seemed like to me," Amber replied, then turned to Ragnarok. "You've known him the longest. Does he normally act like this?"

Ragnarok shook his head. "No, he doesn't. Maybe it has something to do with that other draken." Then he cocked his head as something struck him. "Or maybe it's just something that happens to humans once in a while," he added with a grin.

"Maybe..." Sabre replied, and then yawned. "Well, I'm tired, so I'm going to sleep." The other two agreed with this decision and decided to follow his example.

* * *

"Hey, Ragnarok."

He heard his name being called, and slowly opened his eyes. He noticed someone's tail twitching in front of his face, so he grabbed it in his mouth and playfully gnawed a bit. Oddly enough, someone seemed to be doing the same thing to his tail!

Pike chuckled. "You do realize that's your own tail you're chewing on, right?" he asked. Ragnarok woke up the rest of the way and identified the tail in his mouth as being connected to the rest of his body, let go, then made a curious noise at Pike.

"The draken you brought in is going to wake up soon. I figured you three would want to be there too," Pike answered

"Ah, okay," Ragnarok replied. He poked Sabre with his tail to wake him up, then woke Amber too. Together, the four walked back to the cave in time for the draken to wake up.

She possessed the usual and understandable confusion common to all drakens after they were Awakened. They went through the usual routine of explanations with her, and she was soon talking about as well as the rest of them.

"Seren. It sounds like a nice name. Thank you!" the newly named draken said warmly.

Sabre smiled back, and then turned to Pike. "Okay, now will you tell us? I think she'd like to know too," he remarked. Seren looked questioningly at Sabre, then at Pike, wondering what was going on.

Pike walked over to Seren, and then squatted down and patted her belly. "They were wondering why your tummy was so big. As far as I can tell, it's because you're pregnant."

"Pregnant?" chorused the various drakens.

"She's going to have a baby draken, and from the looks of it, she's going to have it soon," Pike explained. The drakens looked surprised, but then Seren nodded, understanding.

"Yes, I think you're right, and - ow!" she cried suddenly.

The other drakens whirled around. "Seren? What's wrong?" Amber exclaimed, worry obvious on her face.

"Ow... my stomach, it hurt all of a sudden," Seren answered.

"Uh oh..." Pike muttered. All four drakens gave him looks obviously requesting further information. "Soon might have been an understatement. She may be having the baby now."

Three stunned stares greeted this, along with one confirming nod. "Yes, that's what it feels like," Seren confirmed.

Ragnarok glanced at Seren with concern, then tugged on the end of Pike's jacket. "Hey, aren't human doctors supposed to be able to help with this sort of thing?"

"Sometimes, yes, but 'doctor' is also a title for people who get certain kinds of degrees," Pike explained distractedly, not bothering with the fact that the draken obviously had no idea what he was talking about. "Blast it, I'm a scientist, not a veterinarian.... All right," he said decisively, "sorry Seren, but we won't be able to help you much. Your instincts should pull you through, don't worry, and we'll still be here for you, if it makes you feel better."

Amber took her cue. "That's right. We'll be here to see you through this," she comforted, and Seren look gratefully at them, then winced from pain again.

Pike pulled Ragnarok and Sabre off to one side. "We can't help her much, but we'll do what we can, right?"

"Right!" came their emphatic replies.

"Okay then. Ragnarok, you go find a stick about as big around as one of your claws and break it so it's about as long as your paw, and then bring it back," Pike instructed.

"Right away!" Ragnarok replied, then rushed out to follow orders. Pike grabbed a nearby bucket and turned to Sabre.

"Go to the river and get some water," he said placing the bucket in front of the draken.

"Already gone," came Sabre's response, then he grabbed the handle in his mouth and rushed out towards the river.

Pike walked over to Amber and Seren and sat down with them until Sabre came back with the mostly full bucket. He set it down and joked, "Not bad for someone with no hands, eh?" but despite the wisecrack, he still looked genuinely concerned for their new friend.

Shortly after, Ragnarok came back with the stick and said, "Mrph gnnk mltlk." He then dropped it into Pike's hand and stood back.

Pike held the stick out to Seren. "Here, bite down on this," he said. "It'll help a little." She took it, and Pike grabbed a nearby rag to dip in the water and wipe her head with, to help keep her cooler. "Now pretty much all we can do is wait."

Soon they could see the first part of Seren's child, which happened to be the tail. "Uh oh," Pike muttered, "a breech."

"Breech?" Sabre asked.

"Normally babies are born headfirst, but in rare cases other parts can come out first, like the tail. That isn't usually a good thing, either."

"Yikes," Sabre muttered.

"Yes, but we can't really do anything about it. It's all up to Seren now," Pike stated.

Seren kept it up, and the baby came out further. Pike knelt down beside her and helped her get the baby all the way out. Once Seren had finally accomplished it, Pike took his first look at her child's face.

Both of them.

Pike stared blankly in shock for a second. Neither had horns, so they were female, and, other than the two heads, looked almost exactly like their mother. Pike shook off his surprise, though, and had Amber cut the umbilical cord. He knotted it, and then placed the newborns in front of their mother. "There you go, Seren. Good work, girl," he said, and patted her on the head. She looked exhausted, but satisfied, and then looked at her new children.

She looked fairly surprised. "Whatever I was expecting," she stated, "it wasn't this." Then she smiled warmly as the twins made little mewling yawns that no one there could help but find absolutely adorable and fell fast asleep. Their mother curled around them protectively and fell asleep too, a look of maternal pride on her face.

"Let's go outside, so we don't wake them," Pike suggested in a whisper. They all left the cave and walked around a corner, so as not to disturb Seren and the newborns.

The drakens appeared as stunned as Pike felt. "Her baby has two heads..." Ragnarok remarked.

"Yeah.... Seren was right; I wasn't expecting that," Sabre added. "But those two are pretty cute."

Amber smiled, "Really cute." She turned to Pike. "But... two heads?" she queried.

Pike cleared his throat. "That... usually doesn't happen, as you can guess. It's extremely rare among humans. Those two are 'conjoined twins,' two twins that, through chance and mishaps, got their bodies stuck together before being born. I've only heard of one or two cases like this one."

"Two little girls trapped in one body," remarked Ragnarok. "That's going to be a little odd for them."

"Well, life invariably ends up being odd, no matter who lives it. But yes, they probably will have it stranger than most," Pike agreed.

Ragnarok cocked his head, as if realizing something. "Y'know, when these two - three? - wake up, they're going to be starving. I'd better go catch something for them to eat."

With that, he loped off. Amber got up and called, "Hold on, I'll help you!" as she ran after him, leaving only Pike and Sabre.

"So baby drakens eat meat too?" Pike asked.

"From what I can remember, yes," Sabre replied, "although some of the things that grow on the trees were easier to get at." A little while later, they heard stirrings inside the cave. "C'mon, let's go see how they're doing."

It was Seren that was waking up, and she looked up at them as they entered. "Hi," she greeted, tail swishing contentedly. She then gazed at the sleeping form beside her.

"How are they doing?" Pike asked. "For that matter, how are you doing?"

Seren grinned. "The little ones are still asleep, but I am quite hungry."

"That's what we're here to fix," Ragnarok announced as he walked in with a large animal slung over his back, which he deposited in front of the new mother. "You've done the most to deserve this, so you can have first pick," he said, grinning.

Seren wasted little time in digging in, and had soon eaten her fill. "Thank you, Ragnarok," she said. "We ought to save some of this for the babies."

"Speaking of the chicks-" Pike broke off at the questioning looks.

"'Chicks'?" Sabre asked. "What's a 'chick'?"

Pike shook his head in exasperation, then explained. "Most kinds of baby animals can be called a different name than adults. For instance, a baby dog is called a puppy. The one that I think fits best for drakens is chick."

"Ah, so Seren just had a pair of chicks?" Sabre asked.

"Erm, more or less," Pike responded. "Anyway, Seren, I had been about to ask you: what will you name them? As the parent, it's your right."

"Really? All right...." She paused to think. "Oddly enough, while I was asleep, I thought about something that sounded like it might be good for their names. The one on the right is... Keera, and the left is Terra."

"Keera and Terra. They go nicely together," remarked Ragnarok. "Hey, I think they're waking up."

Keera was the first to wake up, her eyes slowly opening. She lifted up her head, and gave a happy squeak as she saw her mother. She tried to move towards Seren, but was held up short by the inactivity of the left half of her body. Fortunately, Terra had been awakened by Keera's squeak. The twins looked at each other, the Terra slowly pushed herself up with her foreleg as Keera did the same with her leg, and they managed to stand up for the first time.

Everyone was watching as they did this. "Wow," Amber commented. "To us, teamwork is a useful idea. For them, it'll be their way of life." A reverent group nod was the response.

Wobblingly, the chicks walked over to their mother's front. Seren smiled and nuzzled them warmly, and they nuzzled back. Then Keera gave another squeak, and Terra joined in. "I think they're hungry," Sabre remarked.

Seren nodded at him, then bit off a piece of her recent meal and set it in front of the twins, who squeaked happily and dug in hungrily. "They sure seem to squeak a lot," Ragnarok noted with a laugh.

Pike joined in, and then replied, "Yes, but with everything factored in, they should learn to speak in relatively short order."

Seren looked up from her offspring. "Oh? How long does it take humans?" she asked.

"Usually around a year or two," he replied, "but drakens mature much faster than humans do, so those two should be able to learn to speak faster as well. I can't really be sure, since this is the first time an intelligent draken has been born."

Ragnarok looked back at the twins, and then laughed. "Well, we've Awakened another draken, helped her through a birth, and seen the oddest pair of drakens ever. I wonder what we'll get to do tomorrow!"

* * *

Part Two: Journey

A few years passed. The rest of the drakens were Awakened, and Pike taught them. They were simple things, like reading and writing, predicting changes in the weather, and making shelters against the wind and the rain, but they enhanced life on the Great Plains. Keera and Terra grew up some, but were still little kids. They learned how to speak, read, and write, and even managed to work together and learn to fly. Ragnarok, Sabre, and Amber remained friends, of course, and the twins usually tagged along with them, especially "Uncle Ragnarok." We join the drakens, however, on one of the times that the twins had other things to do.

* * *

It hadn't been a very exciting day for a while now. Ragnarok, Amber, and Sabre had decided to go and explore more of the forest that bordered the Great Plains, and had managed to find a part that they hadn't seen before. Not only was the territory unfamiliar, but it also seemed to radiate some sort of energy that set them all a little on edge.

"I don't like the feeling I'm getting here..." Sabre murmured as they stood there looking around.

"Yeah. This place sure feels weird," Ragnarok replied. He swished his tail a bit and said, "Want to go find out why?" with a cocky grin.

Sabre and Amber shared a look. When Ragnarok got that gleam in his eye he'd go check it out whether they came or not. Amber sighed, then grinned. "I'm game. What about you, Sabre?" In fact, she was just as curious as Ragnarok.

Sabre rolled his eyes. "Oh fine, let's go." Together, they padded deeper into the forest.

The deeper they went, the more they noticed that something was definitely strange about the area. "Is it just me, or have we not seen any other animals here? I don't even smell anything," Sabre said.

Amber stopped and sniffed around a little. "You're right," she replied. "All I'm getting are some plant scents." Ragnarok nodded agreement. Draken senses are very keen, especially sight and smell, so the lack of animal scents was something to take seriously.

"Wonder what would make all the animals stay away from this place," Ragnarok mused.

"And why we're still here looking for it," Sabre muttered.

"Too bad we're in a forest. This'd go quicker if we could fly," Amber remarked.

"Yeah, it- what was that?" Ragnarok asked suddenly. From their expressions, he could tell they had heard what he had.

"Some sort of low humming, I think. It stopped really quickly," Sabre noted.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Sounds like it came from over here. C'mon!" Ragnarok said, and ran off in the direction the sound had come from, the other two close on his tail.

They pulled up short as they entered a small clearing. It seemed about four or five body lengths wide, without any trees in it, not even saplings, which was an odd thing in the middle of a forest. Amber took advantage of the open space to get a higher view of the area. "Hey, there's something in the middle. Come check it out!" she called to the other two.

Ragnarok and Sabre ran over as Amber landed. In the middle of the clearing, there was a circle made of some kind of metal about a body length wide, with lots of strange markings on it. On one part of the circle was a square with even more markings on it. "Weird," Ragnarok muttered. He carefully poked at the ground inside the ring, but nothing happened. "Wonder what this is...."

"I don't know. Maybe a human left it here," Amber suggested, and tried to move it. It stayed firmly where it was.

"Maybe the markings mean something," Sabre remarked, but the markings remained quite unintelligible. The drakens puzzled over it for a while more, then Sabre said, "Maybe Pike knows something about this." They agreed, but as they turned to leave, a random flick of someone's tail managed to hit inside the square part, causing the ring to hum again for a second.

Ragnarok paused in mid-stride, then turned around. "Um, okay. Who just did what?" he asked.

Amber replied, "I think my tail accidentally hit part of it." She emphasized this with a sweep of her longer-than-average tail.

Ragnarok grinned, and then turned back to the task at hand. He studied the circle, then cautiously poked at one of the markings on the square. The ring immediately began to hum, and some of the markings on the ring changed. "Well, we figured out how to make it hum at us," Sabre remarked with a grin.

Ragnarok grinned back and poked at another marking. The ring began to hum more insistently. "Uh, are we sure this is a good idea?" Amber asked warily.

"Well, what's the worst that can happen?" Ragnarok replied, then poked the bottom-most marking. The humming got louder, and a sudden flash of light made the already-tense drakens scatter for cover.

A second or two later, when nothing exploded, they peeked back out from behind the trees. The middle of the ring was glowing with a bluish-white light. They walked over to it. The middle of the ring didn't have ground in it any more. Now it looked like a small, glowing pond. "Wow. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before..." Ragnarok stated.

"What exactly is this?" Sabre asked.

Ragnarok shook his head. "No idea. Do you think we should go in?"

Amber picked up a rock in her mouth and tossed it into the ring. It vanished with scarcely a ripple. "It might not be a good idea," she said.

Ragnarok very carefully stuck the tip of a claw into it, then pulled it back out. "Well, it didn't hurt..." he observed. "Ah well. Let's try it out." And with that, he jumped in.

"Wait!" exclaimed Amber, then sighed and jumped in after him. Sabre looked around and followed them. Behind them, the humming slowly stopped, and the strange glow vanished.

* * *

Ragnarok fell through the middle of the ring... into the middle of the air? He hit the ground had before he could think to use his wings. He was in the process of getting back up when Sabre and Amber were dumped into the middle of his back, and it took them a minute or two to untangle themselves. Fortunately, nothing seemed broken, and they stood up without any further difficulties. "Well, that was exciting," Ragnarok said nonchalantly. Amber glared at him, then studied their surroundings.

They were in a clearing about four or five body lengths wide. There was another one of those weird rings in the middle, but the trees were a lot taller, so it couldn't be the same place. "Well, it looks like we wound up somewhere else," she said.

"Okay, so we just have to figure out where we are now," Sabre remarked.

"Step one would be to look around," Ragnarok stated. "I say we try this way." He pointed off in a random direction.

Amber gave a small laugh, then replied, "Sure, I guess one direction's as good as any other. Let's go." The group walked off into the forest.

Nothing much happened for a while. The forest wasn't very interesting. Eventually, though, they detected that they were coming back into areas that actually had animals in them, which brightened the eerie mood considerably.

Soon enough, they heard some voices. Two of them, both female, and they sounded fairly similar. "Are you sure it went this way?" "Yes, I am. Now let's get going, or it'll get away!" They heard footsteps leading away.

Ragnarok grinned at Amber and Sabre. "Well, at least someone lives here," he remarked.

The sounds of voices and footsteps suddenly paused. "Was that...?" "It couldn't be...." The footsteps resumed, but now running towards them.

"Um?" Ragnarok started, but he was suddenly tackled by a green streak.

"Uncle Ragnarok! It is you!" "Amber! Sabre! You're here too!"

"K-Keera? Terra?" Ragnarok stuttered. They were fully grown, but there no mistaking the form currently standing over him and nuzzling him affectionately. He rolled over and stood back up. "What happened to you two? You've... grown."

"What happened to us!" Terra exclaimed. "We should be asking you that!" Keera finished.

"I'm confused. What exactly is it that's going on?" Amber asked. Sabre and Ragnarok nodded emphatically.

Terra shook her head to clear it a bit, and said "A few years ago, you guys went exploring in the forest, remember?" They nodded, and Keera continued, "Well, you never came back. We couldn't find anything. We thought you guys were dead!"

"Never came back?" Sabre muttered. "We've only been gone...." Then it hit all three of them. "A few years ago?!" they exclaimed in unison.

Keera and Terra bobbed their heads. "Yeah, but you don't look a day older," Keera said. "In fact, we look almost as old as you are now!" her sister observed.

"Um, maybe Pike will be able to sort this all out," Ragnarok suggested. He was definitely out of his depth.

"Yeah!" The twins exclaimed. "I can't wait to see his face when you three show up," Keera added. "C'mon, let's go!"

* * *

The Plains looked pretty much the same as they used to. A big open grassland, with groups of trees scattered here and there across it, and a river flowing down through the cliffs that bordered it on one side. Also scattered around were the small huts that Pike had taught the drakens to make. They weren't much, but they kept you out of danger from bad weather, and that was the most the drakens really needed. "Pike is still living in the same old cave," Keera said.

"Well, that's good to know," Sabre muttered.

Soon enough, they came upon the cave in question. Inside, they could hear Pike talking to someone. Coincidentally enough, it sounded like it was Seren he was talking to. Keera and Terra walked up to them. "Hey Mom! Hey Pike! You'll never guess who we found!" At this point, Ragnarok, Sabre, and Amber walked in.

Keera had been right: their expressions were priceless. "Ragnarok? Amber? Sabre? Is that really you?" Pike asked incredulously. Seren just gaped, and the twins stood there trying not to burst out laughing.

Ragnarok grinned and said, "I'm not a mirage, if that's what you're asking." With that, the twins lost their struggle and fell over laughing.

Seren was at a complete and total loss for words, and Pike wasn't faring much better. "But... you vanished years ago. If you were still alive, you would have come back a long time ago!"

"We never were the type to take death lying down, eh guys?" Ragnarok quipped. Keera and Terra were still on the floor, both apparently having some trouble getting a breath in around the laughter, and Amber and Sabre were laughing as well.

Pike finally seemed to click his brain back together. "Well, if you weren't dead, what were you doing all this time?"

"A good question," Amber replied before Ragnarok got in another wisecrack, "and we were hoping you could help us answer it." The three quickly related what had happened to them either less than an hour or a few years ago.

"Well, what happened to you seems to be pretty obvious, other than the fact that it's fairly impossible," Pike remarked after considering it. "The simple way to put it is that the ring you found apparently transported you forward a few years in time. The complicated way would probably take a few days to explain.

"Impossible, huh? Well, when have we ever been anything other than an exception to the rules?" Ragnarok asked, eliciting a few more laughs.

"So we actually went forward in time?" Amber asked.

"That's what the evidence points to. The problem is, people proved time travel impossible long before I met you," Pike said.

"Well, you want to come see it?" Sabre asked.

"Yes, very much so," Pike said, standing up. "Let's get moving."

* * *

They led Pike back to the clearing. Once there, he crouched down next to the ring, studying the markings. "I don't know what language these markings are in, but they obviously mean something. How did you activate it?" he asked.

Ragnarok stepped forward. "I just poked at the markings inside the square," He explained, then poked at the square again. One of the markings lit up. "Whoa, it didn't do that last time. It just hummed until it turned on."

"Odd," Pike remarked. He pressed the glowing symbol, and a few others changed.

"Hey, weren't those the ones that changed before?" Amber noticed.

"Yeah, and I think they went back to the way they were before, too," Sabre added.

"So what was the last one you hit?" Pike asked Ragnarok.

Ragnarok scanned over the markings. "Uh... this one!" He jabbed it, the ring began humming, and the middle lit up.

"Whoa!" the twins exclaimed in unison. They walked over to it. "Uh... Keera, you try it," Terra said. Keera rolled her eyes, then stuck in a claw. "It feels weird," she remarked, and pulled it out.

Amber smiled. "Don't worry, you two. It's perfectly safe."

"Well, why don't we see where it goes?" Sabre suggested. He kicked in a very familiar rock. "After all, we came through fine last time."

"Yeah, just give me a few seconds to get out of the way this time!" Ragnarok said and dove in, the twins following quickly after him.

Amber shook her head, than turned to Pike. "Are you coming?" she asked as Sabre jumped in.

Pike shook his head. "No, I'll let you go have your adventures without me. It's much more relaxing back here," he replied.

"All right. Goodbye, then!" With that, she turned around and jumped into the ring. Pike looked on for a second or two more, then walked off, noticing that the portal shut off as he left the clearing.

* * *

Learning from experience, Ragnarok snapped his wings open as soon as he got through and flew off to one side. Sure enough, just as he got past, the twins dropped from the portal that had opened in midair, practically clipping his tail on the way down. He watched with some amusement as Sabre fell on them and Amber also kited out of the way. "Oof. Okay, where are we now?" Keera asked.

Ragnarok looked around and remarked, "I think the question is, 'when are we now'."

"Well then, let's go find out!" Amber said. They took off through the gap in the trees and flew toward the Plains.

"Wait a second," Ragnarok exclaimed in the middle of the flight. "Guys, land here!" He flew down though a small break in the trees, and the rest followed, a little confused.

"Okay, why did we land?" Sabre asked.

"I was just thinking that since the markings went back to the way they were, we went back to our original time," Ragnarok explained.

"Well then, what's the hold up? Shouldn't we go home so Pike and Seren don't get worried?" Amber asked.

"First off, we do have a few someones from another time with us," he replied, pointing a wing at the twins.

"Well, yeah," Keera agreed. "This would be strange to explain," Terra said.

"And remember when we talked to Pike? He didn't know what happened to us!" Ragnarok pointed out.

"So we obviously didn't go back to tell them anything," Sabre deduced, and Amber nodded agreement.

"Although..." the twins started, then trailed off.

"Although what?" Ragnarok inquired, but was interrupted by a double squeal of "Uncle Ragnarok!" He turned around, and was tackled by a green blur. This time, of course, the twins didn't knock him off his feet. "Hello Keera! Hello Terra!" he exclaimed.

"Hi!" they replied. Meanwhile, Keera and Terra smiled as the younger versions of themselves, from this time, tried to wrestle with Ragnarok.

"Wow. We were cute," Terra remarked with a smile, and Keera grinned and nodded.

"So what brings you girls out here?" Sabre asked them.

"Well, we saw you guys come out here," Keera said. "So we decided to come too!" Terra finished. Ragnarok laughed and flipped them into the air with his tail.

They rolled heads over tail a few times, then stopped in front of the older twins. They picked themselves up, then stopped and looked at the other pair. "Hey, who are you guys?" Keera asked.

"Us? We're just some friends from a ways away," the older Keera replied.

"You look like us. But you're older," young Terra remarked.

"Yeah, I guess we do," Terra agreed. "Listen, don't tell anyone about this, okay?" she continued. "We'd get in trouble if you did," Keera added.

"Okay!" The younger twins replied in unison.

"Hey, why don't you two run along for now. We've got stuff we need to do," Amber suggested.

"Okay. Bye, everyone!" the younger twins said, and scampered back toward the Plains.

Ragnarok chuckled, then turned to the twins. "So, what was it you were saying?"

"Well, a few years ago, we both had a weird dream," Terra said. "We met up with you three, and also someone who looked a lot like us, but older," Keera elaborated, grinning.

The other three stared for a second, then everyone burst out laughing. This eventually subdued, and they all sat there looking thoughtful. Sabre broke the silence first. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, we can go through time, right? Why not play with it for a bit?" Ragnarok suggested.

"I'm game!" "Me too!" agreed the twins

"Sure, why not?" Amber added with a grin.

Sabre grinned too. "Well, I guess I won't be able to talk you out of it this time either. Let's go."

They took off again, heading back toward the ring. Once there, they landed and stared at Ragnarok until he sighed and started poking the symbols again. "Out of curiosity, why is it always me that has to do this?" he asked.

"Well, you're the one that comes closest to knowing what he's doing," Amber replied.

"Plus, we don't want to risk any of our hides when something goes wrong," Sabre added, eliciting another group laugh.

Some symbols lit up, some changed, and the ring turned on again.

"Okay, you guys go first," Keera directed. "Yeah, we want to be at the top of the pile this time!" he sister added.

Ragnarok laughed and jumped in, first as usual, then everyone else followed him. Detecting no one else, the ring quietly shut itself off.

* * *

Nobody managed to land on anyone else this time, fortunately for all. "Wonder when we are now," Sabre mused.

They looked around. There were lots of trees, plants, and flowers around, and the forest echoed with cheerful noises.

"Uh... not sure what it is, but I'm getting a feeling that something isn't right here," Amber noted. The twins nodded agreement.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Ragnarok agreed. "Let's go ba-" he said as he turned to the ring. The ring wasn't there!

"Hoo boy," Sabre muttered. "This isn't good."

"Why isn't it here?" Keera asked. "Well," Terra replied, "we probably went back to before it was put here." "Oh," Keera remarked.

"Yeah, I agree with Sabre," Amber said. "This isn't good."

* * *

To Be Continued...