• “Come on, catch up already!” I shouted.
    We had been walking for ages now, and I wasn’t tired at all. Unfortunately, my hiking partner wasn’t so lucky. Travis had been ahead of me at first, but soon enough he had fallen far behind. He had told me on many of our hikes that I was born in the trees and was related to a feline of some sort. He would go on about my excellent agility and balance for hours if you let him. I decided to stop and let him catch up, again.
    I stopped and began to take in the scenery with my hazel eyes. All around me were various trees, few of which I could name. Small bushes and briars littered the forest floor, which made walking through it worse seeing as it was already close to sunset. I noticed that there was a drop off ahead of me. From what I could see, there were many huge rocks coming out from it. A cave, I thought.
    I took one glance behind me to see where Travis was. He was still some ways away from where I stood. I decided that he could catch up with me later. I took off for the ledge. At the very edge, I jumped. It was as I had suspected, large boulders were sticking out from the ledge, and a good thing they were. I landed roughly on one of them, skinning my knee as I came down hard on its surface. I cursed myself under my breath for not wearing pants. My black shorts never did seem to do any good when I was in the woods. When I thought about, neither did my red t-shirt. But on the bright side, I thought, I’m wearing sneakers!
    I laughed softly at my own little joke. I crept slowly to the edge of the rock and peered over the side. The sight was unbelievable. It was the biggest cave I had ever seen. More large rocks, like the one I was on, formed the outside of it. Everything that I could see of the bottom rocks and just inside the cave, was scorched. Blackened by a very strong fire by the looks of it. I was about to jump down, when I realized that the cave had to be at least forty-feet tall. I carefully swung down onto a lower rock and descended in that way. When I was at the bottom, I turned to face the mouth of the cave head-on. The inside was pitch black.
    “Thanks for waiting!” I heard Travis call from above me. I heard him making an awful racket as he looked for an easier way down. It was one thing to not be able to keep up, but another not to be able to keep quiet. After all the time he takes to reach me, he can’t stay quiet, I thought to myself. I stood there for a few minutes, waiting on him. Eventually he reached me, after falling and stumbling, but he reached me. As he did I felt something move. It was like the whole ground was shaking. It seemed to come from in front of us.
    “What is it you’ve found now?” Travis asked. His blue eyes shone with happiness. I never understood how he could be so happy all the time. A soft breeze suddenly came blowing past us, making our dark brown hair sway slightly. “Finally some wind!” my brother exclaimed. “Its about time, its way to hot today.”
    “Shush!” I said hurriedly. Even though he was two years older than I, he was terrible at sensing things. The wind had come from the cave, not the forest.
    Suddenly the ground began to shake violently, and the air stopped. Quickly, I grabbed Travis’s arm and pulled him down. Then I too dropped to the ground. I closed my eyes tight as the wind returned, stronger. It nearly blew us away, but it stopped as suddenly as it had come. A loud crashing noise sounded behind us, I could tell that many trees had fallen. Then the ground shook again with a great force.
    I took one look behind us and gasped, only to silently scold myself for doing so immediately afterwards. What I saw, towering above us, made me think I was dreaming. There stood a dragon. It was huge, about thirty-feet tall, with huge wings that must have been folded very close to its body, so as not to cause more damage. All of its great many scales were solid black. None of them had a single shine to it, as I thought a dragons scales might have. A tail with a dark grey dagger like spike on the end of it was wrapped lazily around its body, as it was sitting. On its head were two twisting horns and a row of spikes ran down its immense spine. But its eyes were different. The rest of it seemed to be terrifying in a way, but its eyes told of something else. Its great big eyes were a deep purple color, and they seemed to be saying something. Something of surprise, or so I thought.
    Goodness child, your mind could wake the dead and yet you tell him to hush.
    I gasped again. It was the dragon talking, I knew it must have been. Its talk had startled me, and it seemed to echo inside my head.
    Well go on child, think what you would say.
    I looked at my brother, he had gotten up and his jaw was almost touching the ground. He wasn’t breathing. I turned and sat on my knees. Then I reached over and slapped him on the back, “Breathe idiot.” He sucked in air and began breathing again. But he kept his mouth open. Quietly and as calmly as I could, I turned my head towards the dragon. W-Why are you even talking to us? And what is it with the mind talk?
    Your brother can’t hear us, although I can make myself be heard aloud if you would like. I just find this simpler. The dragon’s voice was smooth, yet mysterious. I didn’t know why, but I felt calm talking to it. It went on. I’m a boy child, stop calling me an it. Anyways, of course you feel calm. You were born to talk to dragons. You’re a shape shifter girl. It has been said that you would come one day.
    Shock was all I felt at that moment. For one I was talking to a dragon. I pinched my arm just to be sure. Yep, it was real. Second, the dragon said I was a shape shifter, something I had only dreamed about. And third, this dragon said I was born for this, meaning I must be in some prophecy or something. I knew that prophecy’s were usually very nice for who it was talking about, of course after they did something heroic.
    Good gosh child! Can you never stop that? You think very loudly. Well I suppose that’s good for what’s to come next.
    Next? I thought. What could possibly happen next?
    Why training of course! The dragon’s voice sounded in my head. Well a council with the others first, then training.
    Others? There’s more of you? By now Travis had come to his senses and was looking my new friend over. I knew he must have been confused because he couldn’t hear us.
    Yes, come child we must be moving along now.
    Oh boy, I thought, not to myself anymore.