The Betrayal

By Zach Shipley

Table of contents

Table of Contents

Prologue ….. ..Page 1

Chapter One The discovery….Page 3

Chapter Two…...Page 7

Chapter Three ….Page 19

Chapter Four ….. Page 28

Prologue

But then all hell broke loose.

The battle was a long and bloody fight. Vampires, dragons, and zombies were falling like flies. Dragons breathing whatever element the controlled down upon the zombies, wiping out dozens of ranks but to no avail. Dragons that didn't have wings fought on the ground raking the zombies into ribbons or breathing whatever element they controlled upon them. Vampires fought with swords, maces, daggers, axes -and the ones not skilled enough in close-combat- bows. They lopped off arms, heads, and legs. Arrow jutted out of zombies in various areas.

For every zombie that was killed it seemed like four took its place, ready to avenge its fallen comrade. Even with this many outnumbering them, the dragons and vampires fought on. None of them retreated, none shook with fear, and none had any thoughts except to kill all the zombies or die trying to rid the world of this scourge.

After several hours of fighting the zombies, they showed the first sign of what looked like fear. Then one after another they started running for their undead lives.

At this the vampires and dragons looked at each other in confusion. Then after a few seconds cheers erupted from the throats of vampires and dragons alike. Some of the dragons let loose a barrage of fire/ice/water/air/lava/earth into the air in the excitement. Then as the last zombie ran out of sight the vampires and dragons turned to see what they ran from.

When they saw what the zombies ran from, many of the assembled warriors gasped at what they saw. Some of them whooped and cheered at what they saw. Some of the dragons roared with sheer pleasure at the sight. and many more kneeled down in respect.

Chapter One The Discovery

1 year ago

"Zach!" a voice called from downstairs. "Zach! Come down, Honey, or you'll be late for your first day of school."

I groaned as I had to pull myself out of my bed. "I'm coming, Mom!" I yelled as she called me again. As I pulled on my clothes I noticed, not for the first time, the small scales that started at the beginning of my back and ran all the way down my back.

I noticed these scales a few months ago, but haven't told anyone about them yet. Not till I understood it myself. After I pulled on my shoes I ran downstairs to eat some pancakes my mother had made.

"So are you excited for your first day of school?" my mom asked, clearly excited herself.

"Not really." I mumbled over the pancakes I was shoving into my mouth.

"Zach, you're going to love high school!" my mom said with an excited squeak. "You get to go to football games, dances, and if you want you can even join a club!"

Once I finished my breakfast I said good-bye to my mom and headed off to my first day of high school.

During lunch I heard what sounded like someone screaming. At first I thought I imagined it for it was very faint. But when the noise persisted, I started to follow it. As I drew nearer I could tell that it was a man's voice. From his voice, he was clearly terrified. As I rounded a bend I came face to face with a snarling wolf. But this wasn't your average wolf. This wolf was at least fifty feet tall at the shoulders. As I stood there the wolf started to speak to me.

"I have been waiting for you." It said. "My master has told me to kill you before you come to your powers!"

"Who's you master!?" I asked in a surprisingly strong voice. "What do you mean powers? I'm only human."

The monster laughed at this. "Foolish Dramun, you are much more than just a human, Zach."

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"Foolish dramun!" it yelled again. "I know everything about you! For that is how I tracked you, not to mention you have the stench of a Dramun."

The wolf howled as he started to charge me before I could ask it anything else. As it charged me my legs where frozen in fear. As the wolf drew nearer to me it seemed as if time slowed down just to play with my fears.

Just as it seemed that he was about to bite down on me and end it all, something close to a miracle happened. Out of a series of reflexes I threw my hands up to block the wolf's deadly bite and somehow managing it.

Then barely realizing what I was doing, I started running up the wolf's left foreleg, intent on taking out his eyes. The wolf realized what I was trying to do and started trying to shake me off.

As I got on to his back I noticed that the elevation was getting steeper. I looked down to the ground and could see the wolf raising both front legs into the air.

A spilt second later I realized what his intent was: to fall on his back and crush me. I charged towards the wolf's head. I stumbled along the way and started falling down the wolf's back. I grabbed on to some of the wolf's fur and started climbing back up.

When I finally reached the wolf's giant head I held onto one of his ears and punched him as hard as I could. I didn't expect it to do any good, but I heard a sickening crack as my fist went into the wolf's skull.

I held on to the wolf as he plummeted to the ground already dead before he hit the ground. I jumped off and walked over to his mouth. With an effort I tore out one of his canine tooth the length of a crowbar.

"I could make a sword out of this." I muttered to myself.

After the adrenalin left my system I started to feel weak. I also started to feel an unbelievable amount of pain in my arms. I looked down at my arms to see them completely maimed.

But then under my astonished gaze my skin started to heal! They healed till there was nothing but three thick, long scars going down my arms.

As I stared at my arms, the man that was screaming ran over to me with a look close to worship.

"What?" I asked, not sure why he was staring at me.

"You flew and fire went around your fist when you punched the wolf!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." I said, extremely confused at the statements he was saying.

Once I got back home I had a rough time hiding my scars from my mom. She kept asking me why I was covering my arms. I kept saying because I was cold, but I don't think she completely believed me.

When it was time for bed I stayed up for about two hours studying my arms wondering how it could have healed so quickly.

After a couple more hours trying another futile attempt to figure out why I had a thin line of scales going down my back I fell into a dreamless sleep.

I woke up with a start. I looked around to see that nothing was wrong, only the sounds of the TV as my brother watched a show. As I walked down the stairs I could hear my brother muttering to himself. I don't know why but I started to creep silently down the stairs. When I got to the room my brother was in I risked a peek over.

What I saw was confusing. I just saw my brother sitting there as if he hadn't been muttering to himself. I couldn't understand it, I've figured out that if the scales on my back start tingling it means danger, but as far as I could tell I didn't see any danger.

I went back to bed and fell back to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow

Chapter Two

I woke up in a cave with a bed and a rug with a picture of some guy on it. After a second I realized that I was floating in mid-air. I'm dreaming, I thought.

A man was laying in the bed and work up to the sound of the door opening. He turned his head at the sound of his door opening. Who came in was a woman he knew quite well. What she brought with her was a tray filled with his favorite foods and drinks and on the side some blood.

The woman that walked in was of a slight build, but could take something out that was twice her size. She had dark brown hair and she had an aura of calm around her.

"How are you doing, Josh?" she asked him when she saw that he was awake.

Josh sighed, "Tired as usual. Thanks, Deborah." He added as she handed him the plate full of food.

"Same dream?" Deborah asked.

"Same dream." Josh confirmed. "I don't know why but these dreams all seem to have a connection to each other."

"Which one was it this time?" Deborah asked already guessing the answer.

"It's the one that dragons and vampires ban together to fight an undead army and the dragons and vampires are getting wiped out by the dozens… Mind you they were doing major damage to the undead army as well. Then for no reason that I can see, the army fled, sheer terror on their undead faces. Then my dream form turned to what they were looking at and I then escaped the dream world only to be pulled back as if it wanted to show me more." Josh paused as he said this.

Deborah waited patiently for him to continue, knowing too well that you can't make him talk till he's ready to speak.

"But then I heard the vampires and dragons cheering! I didn't get it and I couldn't figure why they were cheering. And while I was trying to figure it out I woke up."

Deborah looked at Josh remembering the time he changed her into a vampire. Back then he looked like he could take on the whole world and come back unscathed. Back then he was wearing his black armor and slung across his back was a shining silver shield and a dagger and sword sheathed on his belt.

Now he looked as if he was a million years old. He had wrinkles under his eyes and he was always half asleep. He'd fall asleep only to scream himself back to the waking world, leaving the other vampires to wonder what he was screaming about.

The vampire kings discuss his dreams everyday that they could. They were very disturbed about the general's words.

"Have the vampkings been discussing my dreams of late?" Josh asked eager to talk about other things than tell her the details of his dream.

"Yes. It's the only thing they talk about these days. They have claimed that they won't take any other concerns till they have solved the mystery of your dreams."

Josh frowned at this. "I must go to them and ask them to drop the matter of my dreams." Josh made an attempt to rise only to have Deborah put a hand on him ever so light but enough force to tell him that she wouldn't let him get up.

"I shall tell them." she said. "You need to rest and try to get the strength you lost from your lack of sleep." And at that Deborah got up and left the room, leaving Josh no room to protest.

Josh sighed. As he lay in his bed he heard the door open up slowly, barley making a sound. A figure stepped in that he would know from a mile away.

"Hey, Sora," Josh said tiredly, "what are you doing here?"

Sora was below average height, but only her closest friends and family would challenge her. She had dark blue hair and silver eyes. She had several keys around her neck and wrists that she had collected over the years.

"I came to check up on you." Sora said. "Wanted to make sure you were ok."

"I'm fine." Josh said. He got up from the bed and started heading for the door. Before he got even half way to the door he heard something moving at what it no doubt thought was stealth, towards the door.

At Josh's sudden stop, Sora whispered in his ear, "What's wrong?"

Josh answered with his mouth barely moving, "I heard someone outside. They are taking great care not to be heard so this someone most likely doesn't belong here."

Josh started to creep up to the door. When he was close to the door he started to reach for the door. A thousand things were going through his mind. Who was behind the door? He thought. Will they try to kill me?

His hand closed around the door knob and he started to turn it. Then, before he could even get the door a quarter of the way open, something or someone, slammed full on into the door.

Before Josh could react the attacker stabbed his left shoulder with a sword. Josh, groaning in pain, grabbed the sword and with his free hand ripped the sword free from the attacker's hand.

The attacker was the height of a human, but couldn't know for sure if it was human for every part of it was covered from head to toe.

Once Josh got the sword out of his attacker's hands he went for his attacker's right hand intent on grabbing the axe he wielded. But the attacker learned from the last attack he had made and swiftly moved his arm out of the way and came up with his dagger. Josh just had enough time to bring his sword up to block the deadly strike before it went through his right eye and into his brain.

The attacker then proceeded to strike down with his axe. As the axe came in for the kill, Josh heard the attacker groan in pain. As he did this he dropped the axe harmlessly to the ground. Josh risked a glance to his left and saw that Sora had broken the attacker's hand and arm in several places.

The attacker looked at both of them and then decided it wasn't worth dying to take them out. So, he turned around and fled not bothering with stealth anymore.

After the shock of being attacked in their own haven, Sora saw that Josh had a nasty looking wound on his side.

"Come on," Sora said, "we need to get that checked out. Don't want it getting infected."

As they walked down towards the infirmary, they passed Deborah.

"What happened?!" Deborah asked worriedly.

"We were attacked. I don't know who it was." Sora said as Deborah started to ask.

Deborah followed Sora and Josh to the infirmary. As they walked Sora filled Deborah in on what happened to them. Deborah listened to her intently and didn't interrupt till Sora finished.

Once Sora fell silent Deborah was quiet for a long time. Eventually Deborah said, "I must speak to the oracle about this unnerving news."

When they got to the infirmary Deborah bid farewell to her friends and started the journey to the oracle. After three days of traveling Deborah finally arrived at a forest that was always covered in darkness.

As Deborah entered the forest she could hear moans and squeals coming from deeper in the woods. As she proceeded deeper into its depths Deborah could hear rustling from the trees above her and in the bushes beside her. But she knew none would dare attack a vampire here for all here but the oracle and her partner feared her.

As she was walking towards the middle of the forest to the oracles house Deborah started to hear a low menacing voice coming from behind her.

As Deborah turned around she saw a demon twice her size standing a couple of distance away from her. As she stared at it, it started to move towards her, one meaningful step after another.

This demon was like no other Deborah has seen. It had horns on the side of its head. One side of its head was scorched. The other side had three long scars going down his face to his neck.

His body wasn't much to look at either. His chest had the symbol of the damned. He had thousands of scars running down his arms and chest, most likely from fellow demons or the many mutants that lived in this forest.

Once it was nearly in arms reach he suddenly charged her. Deborah had only seconds to react to this sudden attack. As she dodged the demons charge he was able to nick her arm with his horn getting a glancing blow, but enough to get blood to start flowing.

As the demon was turning Deborah flung herself onto the demon giving her ample time to take out her katana, but as soon as she got her sword out the demon grabbed her and flung her into a tree, knocking the wind out of her lungs leaving her gasping for air.

Somehow Deborah was able to hold onto her sword. As she got up the demon was already starting for another charge. Deborah knew she had no time to get up so instead she pushed against the tree and away from the charging demon.

The demon, not being able to react fast enough to her sudden evasion, slammed full on into the tree, his horns getting stuck in the trunk of the tree. Deborah saw this as an opening for an attack. As she charged him the demon was able to free himself and slam Deborah to the side of the road with the back of his hand, breaking her left shoulder as she fell. As she was trying to get up the demon walked quickly to her learning from the last time he charged her.

Before Deborah could get all the way up the demon had picked her up by the neck forcing Deborah to breath in shallow breathes causing her to be unable to think clearly. She knew she could take only a few more seconds of this before her vision started to fail her. Then as a final last attempt to free herself, she stabbed his arm.

The demon bellowed in agony as he yanked the sword out and tossed it aside. Now Deborah could feel his hands tightening around her neck forcing any air coming in to be forced back out of her body.

As it looked like the demon was going to kill her right there a sudden blur of black flew past Deborah's peripheral vision. As the black blur hit the demon his grip on Deborah loosened enough to let her bring in a lung full of rich life saving oxygen. Once Deborah was able to see properly again she noticed the shape of the blur was wolf-like in shape.

Before the demon was able to react to the sudden attack the blur was on him within the span of a single heartbeat. The demon had the look of pure terror on his face as the wolf now standing on top of him tried to go for his throat. The demon however did not let the terror overrule him.

Before the wolf could get to his neck the demon threw his arms up to keep the wolf from getting to his neck. Deborah knew she had to do something. She looked around desperately; finally her eyes rested on her sword were the demon had thrown it.

Deborah sprinted to the sword, quickly picked it up and sprinted to the demon. Before the demon could even look in her direction she slammed the sword deep into his head ending it quickly.

As both Deborah and the wolf panted heavily, the wolf started to transform. In a few seconds the wolf had turned into a boy of around sixten years old.

"Robert?" Deborah asked in surprise.

"The one and only." He replied with a smile.

"How did you know I was under attack?"

"I didn't know. I was just passing through and I heard what sounded like fighting."

After that neither of them said a word on the way to the oracles house. Once they got to the oracles house Robert just waltzed right in. Deborah hung back unsure if she should just walk into the house like Robert did.

Before she could decide the oracle walked out firmly holding on to Robert.

"Hello, Oracle." Deborah said, bowing.

The Oracle had long blonde hair and brown eyes. On her back she had a pair of wings the size of an arm. She wore a long white dress with black ribbons tried around the waist and shoulders. On those ribbons were small little bells that jingled as she walked.

"Please Oracle is so formal, call me Shannon." She said with a smile.

"Very well, Shannon. I have come to ask about what we should do about the attempt on one of our people's life."

"Ah, yes I believe it was Josh that was attacked, no?"

Deborah nodded, "It was."

"As I thought, now listen carefully. You need to travel to a town called Orange. It's only a couple day's travel from here."

Deborah looked questioningly at Shannon.

"Why would I go to this town called Orange? How will going there help me solve anything?"

"You will see if you choose to go there." Shannon said and then transformed into an owl and left her with Robert.

Chapter Three

The next night I had an urge to go outside and explore the town at night after seeing what I saw in my dreams. Knowing I wasn't allowed outside after my bed time I snuck out through my window.

As I wandered the streets wondering why I had the urge to be out here, I felt a strange feeling in my whole body. As I now wondered on what this feeling could be everything around me started to grow smaller.

I realized that my surroundings weren't getting smaller, but that I was growing. I looked down at my arms and noticed that my arms were starting to sprout scales. It started out slow, but after a few seconds they started growing faster and faster spreading down my arms. I took off my shirt and sure enough, scales were spreading to my chest as well.

As I returned my gaze to my arms I found that they were transforming now. My fingernails started growing into what could only be described as claws. Then my hands started changing into paws and I was forced to bend over and place my paws on the ground.

Then I felt a sudden pain just under my shoulder blades. And when I thought it was all over my body started to convulse and then I stood there as if nothing happened.

As I looked around I noticed that I was a least three stories taller than any of the other houses in the neighborhood. Then, I saw a girl that looked my age staring up at me in shock and amazement. When saw the girl I willed myself to become a human again. I was about to give up when I noticed that I was shrinking. When I was a human again, the girl walked up to me.

"You must be what the Oracle was talking about." She muttered more to herself than to me.

"The what?" I asked, confused

"Never mind." She said quickly. "I'm Deborah by the way."

"Hi, Deborah, I'm Zach. Why are you out so late?"

"I could ask you the same question." Deborah replied. As I was about say good bye I heard footsteps rushing towards us. I turned around to ask Deborah, but I saw that she was already heading towards the sound.

I sprinted to catch up to her. I turned a bend and saw a male of about twenty and about six two. Deborah had him in a death grip, which was clearly an unnecessary precaution.

"Deborah, let him go." I said slowly, but calmly.

"Zach, this man could be dangerous!" Deborah hissed.

"He isn't a threat. For all we know he was on his way home. Isn't that right?" I asked the man. The man wisely nodded.

Deborah reluctantly let the man go. Instantly after he was released he sprinted away as fast as a speeding bullet.

As Deborah and I started walking, I noticed she kept looking at me awkwardly.

Then she said, "Hey, I know we just met, but can you do me a favor?"

"Um, that depends on the favor." I said, uncertainly, "What kind of favor?"

Deborah shifted from foot to foot, clearly uneasy. "Well, you see, my friend was attacked by someone and another friend said to come here and find you. She said you would come with me."

"And why would I do that?" Before I finished speaking Deborah pulled out a very familiar item.

"Where did you get this?"

"I told you a friend said you'd come with me."

In my hand I held a picture of my dad and me when I was just a baby.

"So," Deborah asked, "when do you want to leave?"

"Let me just go get my sword."

"Your sword?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later."

When we got to my house I quickly, but silently, went up the stairs and into my room. As I was grabbing my sword I also grabbed a backpack and stuffed it with useful goodies. As I was turning to leave I saw a figure in the door way.

"Mom? What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She said.

"Uh, Mom we need to talk." I paused, not sure how to continue.

My mom laughed at my awkwardness and said, "I know what you're going to say."

"You do?" I ask, shocked.

"Yes, I've known it for years. Your Farther wanted me to tell you years ago, but I thought you weren't ready."

"Ready for what?"

"To control your powers. You see, as you may have experienced already, you have a special ability to change your form into a dragon. You're Dad believed you were ready at the beginning of middle school, but I disagreed.

But now, I see I was wrong. You have been able to change into a dragon much sooner than I would have thought."

"Does that mean Jon is one, too?"

"I-I don't know." Mom stammered.

"Well does dad know?" I persist.

"No, he doesn't know." She said quickly.

There was a sudden crash and Deborah yelled for me to hurry up. I looked at my mom with worried eyes.

"Go ahead." She said.

I raced downstairs and through the door to see the man I let live marching towards us with a group of shuffling humans behind him. I stared at him as he approached us.

"Surrender to the Dark Lord or be crushed by his unholy might!" The man called tauntingly.

"Who is this Dark Lord he speaks of, Deborah?" I asked, a little amused over the man's sudden courage.

"I don't know. Maybe he is just trying to intimidate us into surrendering."

As he inched towards us I started seeing the men and women behind the man. To my horror I realized that they had pieces of flesh missing. Then the wind changed direction and I got a good, tear jerking sniff of these disgusting humans.

"There's something not right about those humans behind him." I said, trying to resist the urge to vomit.

"I sense it too. They don't move quite right for a human being. I'm also quite sure that your kind doesn't have pieces of your flesh missing." Deborah responded.

"What do you mean my kind?" I asked suspiciously. "I'm pretty sure you're a human as well."

Before Deborah could respond to that, the group had caught up to us.

"This is your last time to surrender, humans. If you do not you shall be turned into my friends back here." He said, not unkindly.

"What exactly are your friends? They don't seem normal and they certainly smell disgusting." I said, trying to keep him talking for long enough to form some kind of plan.

"Why they are zombies, of course. The Dark Lord is quite the powerful necromancer. Already thousands of other humans are falling and rising as zombies." He said, giving us a crooked smile.

At that the zombie minions shuffled towards us. I gripped my sword tighter and not believing they were zombie's stabbed one of them in the chest.

It staggered back and then came towards me as if nothing had happened. I grabbed my sword, barley dodging its hand from whacking me in the head.

As I yanked my sword from the zombie I kicked him, sending him flying into a zombie behind him. I whirled around to see a zombie coming up behind Deborah. I yelled for her to watch out.

With inhuman speed she turned around and sliced the zombie's head clean off. She looked at me and I could now see her rows of fangs. I stood there stunned, forgetting everything that was around me. This girl was a wannabe vampire! I thought, that must mean that these people are not really zombies.

I turned around as a zombie jumped me, trying to bite me. I kicked it off and stabbed it in the head. I turned to see another one coming towards me and I sliced its head off.

I looked around but the man that had sent the zombies after us was gone. I looked around at the ten or so zombies lying on the floor.

I went inside to tell my brother that I was leaving. I called him and looked in every room, but I couldn't find him.

"Mom, where is Jon?" I asked, a little concerned.

"He left for one of his football games." She said.

I left my house and walked up to Deborah. I nodded and she started walking north towards the mountains. As we walked the sun started rising and people started waking up and getting ready for the day. Deborah kept glancing at the sun nervously as the shadows started fading away.

We made it to the woods just before the sun caught up to us. Deborah made a visible sigh of relief.

"Hey, Deborah. I've been meaning to ask you something about that fight against those "zombies"." I said not believing they were really zombies that had attacked us.

"Don't make any mistake, Zach, those are real zombies like in the horror movies. The only thing that makes them scarier is that they don't all shuffle. When they see you most will start running towards you at a good ten miles per hour." Deborah warned. "So what did you want to ask me about?"

"Well, this might just be in my head, but when you were fighting those zombies you had what I best can describe as claws and fangs. Please tell me what I saw was my imagination," I said, starting to get freaked out. I have seen a lot of strange things I didn't understand lately.

"I knew I would have to tell you what I am one of these days. I am what you humans call a vampire. Our race has been here to protect the human race. We only ask in return that you let us take a little of your blood to keep us alive. Your kind as well, the mighty dragons, have also been tasked with this responsibility." Deborah explained to me.

"Let's say I believe all of this, you're saying that humans are protected by vampires and dragons? Do the dragons and vampires get along?" I asked, not believing.

"For generations Dragons and Vampires have protected humans' side-by-side, but lately dragons have been fighting for the way we should protect humans. I'm afraid that through this fighting that we have neglected your kind, for it seems that some necromancer has been able to raise zombies to fight for him. If we don't fight back soon, I'm afraid that we are all doomed."

Chapter Four

We walked to the mountains the rest of the way in silence. Deborah went to part of the wall and pushed a piece of it in. The wall went up to reveal a cavern. As we walked into the mountain a huge, black dragon came up to meet us.

"Hello, Dramun." He rumbled. "It must be a sign that a Dramun has been delivered to us at such a dire time indeed."

I starred in shock at the enormous dragon standing in front of me. "Why is everyone calling me a Dramun? What is a Dramun?" I asked respectfully.

"You really don't know?" He asked in shock. I shook my head no. "Then your father hasn't told you yet. I will let him explain to you in more details about what you are. But what I will say is that you are the child of a human and a dragon."

"Do you know where my father is?" I asked hopefully. I have never seen my farther because he left the day that I was born.

"I do know where you father is. He is here. I can take you to him if you want." He said.

"I would be very grateful if you were to take me to him." I said gratefully.

Deborah, the dragon, and I walked down a tunnel that seemed to go on forever when we finally reached an entrance with leaves draping over it.

"Your father is in there." The dragon said.

"Thank you." I said. I looked at Deborah and she nodded her understanding. I walked into the entrance alone.

"Father?" I called, walking deeper into the enormous cavern.

"Son, it has been a long time since I have seen you." A tall, lean man walks into view. He was bald and muscular.

He walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulders. He looked me up and down, nodding in approval of what he saw.

"You have changed since the last time I saw you." My father said with a smile spreading on his face.

"Father, I-I thought you were a dragon." I said, stupidly.

My father laughed and said, "Yes, son, I am a dragon. I am capable of changing my shape at will. I figured you would be more comfortable if I appeared to you as a human when we met for the first time.

I want you to get to know this place. Make yourself at home. I have a feeling your gonna be here for awhile." My father said with a smile.

As I turned to walk out of the cave, my father called, "Tell Deborah to take you to see Sora and Josh."

When I got out of the cave I saw Deborah waiting patiently for me. I let her know that my dad wanted me to meet someone named Sora and Josh.

"I know these two vampires." Deborah said as we walked down dozens of hallways. "It's strange that he wants you to meet them."

"Why is that?" I ask.

"He would only have someone, even his own child, see them if something major was going to happen. The last time he had someone see them the war against our rival clan started less than a week later."

"Who is your rival clan?" I ask curiously.

"They are called vrykolakas. They are like us but they see humans as a food source only. We see humans as much more than that. They have the potential to become the greatest society in the world."

"So why did they attack your clan?" I asked trying to take everything being thrown at me.

"That's something you will need to ask Vampgeneral Josh. Here we are."

We stopped at a door in the middle of the wall. Deborah knocked on the door and a voice called from behind it. "Come in!"

As we walked into the room, I looked around the rather small room. It was a pretty modest room. There was a bed to one side with a dresser and a rug with a vampire baring its fangs on it. The walls were smoothed out and a lamp hung from the ceiling.

Sitting on two chairs at the far end of the room were two humans in a heated discussion about something.

One of them threw up their hands and walked over to Deborah and me.

"Deborah, who is this Dramun?" the man asked annoyed.

"This is Zach. His father requested that he came and met you. Zach, I would like for you to meet Vampgeneral Josh. He is the most successful general in centuries."

"So, Dramun, your father is the great Scott the Conqueror?" Josh said doubtfully.

"Well my dad is Scott. But I've just learned he's a dragon. Why is he called the conqueror?" I asked curiously.

"Because he paved the way for humans to be able to settle throughout the lands." The girl said from where she sat.

"He was alive when humans where first born?" I asked, shocked.

"Oh yes, he was about two hundred years old by the time humans came to be. I'm Sora by the way; it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Sora." I said.

"Why did Dragon Lord Scott want u to come meet me, Dramun?" Josh asked, annoyed.

"First off, my name is Zach." I said in a low voice. "Secondly, he told me to ask you why vrykolakas attacked your clan."

Josh stared at me for a few seconds before saying, "The Vrykolakas are vampires like us except they believe that humans are only good for a food source. They wanted to eliminate us because they believed we were weak. We protect the humans from everything that humans believe are myths. They got the jump on us by taking the tunnels we use to move around the earth during the daylight. We believed they didn't know about them and we payed heavily for our mistake. We were able to push them back but not without taking heavy casualties."

"And he still blames himself for all the lives that were lost that day." Someone said from behind me.

I turned around to see a girl that had medium black hair and average height. She wore a white shirt and black leather pants. She wore black leather boots with a knife holder on the sides. Slung across her back was a bow and quiver.

"Josh, who is this?" the girl asked curiously.

"Alicia, this is Zach. He recently discovered that he was a Dramun."

"A Dramun you say? Alicia asked. "Looks like there's more of us then I thought."

"You're also what they call a Dramun?" I asked with amazement.

"Yes. I've known since I was seven. Tell me, when did you find out?"

"About two days ago." I said sheepishly.

"Ah so you're a newbie." Alicia stated smiling. "I'll you some of the basics you need to know later if you want."

"Sure, thanks. So why does he blame himself for what happened?" I asked.

"Because he thinks he should have saw it coming." Sora scoffed.

"I should have." Josh protested.

"You can't know every possible thing that can happen," Sora said.

I left the room as Josh and Sora argue about the past and walk down the corridors with Alicia.

"So what's it like to be a Dragun?" I asked Alicia.

"It's pretty cool to be able to turn into a dragon whenever I want to." Alicia said.

"How can you turn into a dragon?" I asked curiously.

"Haven't you changed into a dragon already?"

"Ya, but I didn't do it voluntarily."

"Well, it' really easy." Alicia said. "All you have to do is think about becoming a dragon and you'll change. Course the newer you are the harder it will be at first."

"Really? I only have to think about changing and I will? Can I try it now?" I asked, eager to begin transforming.

"Not here, we don't know how big you'll get. This cave is made for any size dragon and will grow if a bigger dragon enters but it's safer to do it outsider so the cave has more time to react."

"The cave is alive?" I asked in disbelief.

Alicia laughed at me and said, "Course it isn't, the high king dragon infused the cave with magic to grow in size to comfortably fit any dragon without visibly growing from the outside."

When we got outside we walked a little bit away from the cave and Alicia started to transform. She grew to about the size of a house.

"OK now it's your turn," Alicia boomed to me.

I concentrated on becoming a dragon. At first nothing happened, but after a few seconds I started to feel a sensation in my arms. I looked down at my arms to see that they were transforming again. After a few minutes I towered over Alicia, standing two stories tall.

Alicia stared up at me in shock, "Wow, I have never seen a Dramun be able to transform into a dragon that was so huge."

"Why can't Dramuns transform very big?" I asked.

"I don't know. Maybe cause we are part human we can't grow as big as a regular dragon." Alicia said.

At that Alicia changed back to a human and yelled up to me to try changing back into a human.

I concentrated and sooner than last time I was back to my usual human self.

"We need to hurry back." Alicia said.

"What? Why? I'm not quite done practicing for today."

"It's getting dark. We need to get to get out of here. We're vulnerable while we are turning."

"Why are you so worried?" I asked turning back into a human again. "What's out there that could hurt a Dramun?"

As if to answer my question a snarl came from the edge of the forest. Then stalking out came a wolf that I recognized from my school.

"Hello Dramuns. What a rare sight to see two in one place. My brethren and I are going to have a great feast tonight." It said in a low snarl.

"Your brethren?" I said puzzled.

"Oh, yes, I'm not alone out here this time Zach," It sneered.

At that four more wolves stalked out of the trees.