Shadows Burning

Darkness shivered. She still remembered the creepy voice.

"And you have all heard these words?" Midnight Calling asked.  The girls nodded.  "Then I see two options." she continued.  "Either the spirits have chosen you for a special task and the Us will do all it can to support you on this journey.  Or you are under a curse.  Dancing's mysterious infection is not a good sign.  If this is the case, I'm afraid I must banish you so the rest of the us may not be harmed."

"No.." Shadow said, horrified. "Please don't banish us."

Banished from the Us? Ribbon couldn't imagine such a thing. "How do you figure out which it is?" she asked nervously.

"How could it be a curse?" Raindrop interrupted.  "It say we were heroes who would save the us." 

"Prophecies are not always what they seem," Midnight Calling replied.  "It may have been sent by a demon, who will twist the truth in unimaginable ways."

Ribbon shivered, thinking of the man-dragon, which could easily be some sort of demon.

"Let me consult with Daylight Wandering, girls." Midgnight said. Her voice didn't sound encouraging. "You can sit here and relax. When we make our decision, whatever it is, it will be secret from the rest of the tribe, and we will let you know."

They all watched silently as Midnight left. She couldn't seriously expect them to relax while she and Daylight Wandering discussed whether or not to throw them out of the Us.

Raindrop sat, her heart sinking.  The words of the prophecy flew through her head.  "of the Us, yet not of the Us"  she knew what the leaders' answer would be before they bothe entered the room. 

Midnight and Daylight stood before them, no expression. At last, Midnight spoke.

"We have discussed this, and we have decided that it would be safest to treat this "prophecy" as a curse." She looked them each in the eye. "You have one hour to gather your things and leave. Do not ever come back. If you do, or if you fail to leave, we will  to treat you as we would an outsider."

Raindrop felt strangely calm.  in one hour she would be leaving her whole life behind.  "But... what about Dancing?" 

Midnight Calling took a deep breath.  "Your dragon is unfit to travel.  She is very sick and in a lot of pain.  But she may carry the curse, and we can't risk her infection spreading to the other dragons.  I'm afraid she will have to be executed."

"No..."Raindrop breathed.  Her eyes widened, gaining a wild look.  she screamed.  "DANCING!" 

Ribbon burst into tears. She couldn't help it - she was short on sleep from her nightmares and it was just all too much.

Shadow felt tears welling behing her eyelids, threatening to spill over any moment. She tried to hold them back, tried to be strong. She put her arms around Raindrop, trying to comfort her. "Raindrop," She whispered in her friend's ear. "If we go soon, maybe we can rescue Dancing!"

Raindrop nodded and left the house without a word. 

Shadow packed her things at the tower. She glanced around at all her friends. "So, are we going to rescue Dancing?"

Raindrop grab her bags and then ripped the sheets off their beds and tied some of them together.  "Let's go"

(I should go too.)

(Okay, bye. I'll go too.)

Shadow climbed out the window down Raindrop's makeshift rope, being as silent as she could. She crept over to the dragon clearing. She the loud, slow breathing of sleeping dragons, and as she walked through them looking for Dancing, she saw a few pairs of huge glowing eyes watching her.

"This has to be a dream." Darkness said. "Or a really bad prank. But as long as we are here, I say we raid the medicine cabinets to see if we can find an antidote for Dancing."

(Darkness, there probably wouldn't be medicin cabinets. Even if we assumed that there were, don't you think that the Us healers would have tried everything they could to cure Dancing anyway?)

"We can't cure her. But can your dragons carry her?  If we tie ropes to their saddles they can share the weight.  Dancing's small.  They can do it, can't they?"