Okay, so I've figured it out. Every time I promise to get something up quickly, something happens and it doesn't get on here for weeks. So, I'm really sorry that I haven't posted this until now, and I'm really sorry for how much I apologize. Also, I promise not to make promises in my posts again anytime soon. Okay, so that's a little exaggerated, but I at least will stop promising to get the next bit up soon and hopefully it will happen anyways. :) (See my logic?) DREAM ON READERS- I would have posted some chapters from Dream On this week, but I have hit a bit of writers block. I know what I want to do with the story, but I need some ideas for nightmares. So, I need your help. If you want to, please give me any ideas you want for the story, and especially for the nightmares. HELP! :) THIEVES READERS- These two chapters are not my best, but I think they are important. Still, I am toying with the idea of making them one chapter, but I am not sure how to do this without losing the emphasis on the last few words in chapter 9. So, any ideas? Also please let me know what you think, and please feel free to correct any grammar, spelling, or other errors in my writing. Thanks! ************************************************************* Chapter 10 As soon as her feet touched the saddle on the beast’s back, Jovlin knew she had made a mistake. Her feet hit hard, and sent her forward, onto the dragon’s neck and deep into its fur. This caused her to gasp for breath, and make the mistake of inhaling the dragon’s smell. It was beautiful, too beautiful, and it made her dizzy. The smell clouded her thinking, causing her to simply cling to the fur in her hands, instead of moving herself back into the saddle. If she had been given time to regain her senses, Jovlin might have been able to collect herself further and also strap herself in, but she did not receive that moment of time. Instead, the dragon suddenly took off at breathtaking speed, throwing Jovlin’s grip from the dragon and tossing her like a rag into the air. She reached out quickly to grab something and stop herself, but Jovlin was unable to grab anything. She reached out at the dragon as she fell through the open air, watching the pink dragon disappear. Then she spread her arms out and rolled over in midair, hoping to, by some chance, land on one of the other dragons darting through the sky. The wind beat against her, pounding her as gravity threw her mercilessly towards the ground below. Jovlin closed her eyes, resigning herself to her doom, condemning herself for her stupid trust of a dumb beast. She had almost sunk into her misery, flying towards the ground, when the dumb beast that she had just thrown all of her trust upon, only to let it slip away, snatched her up in its paw. She breathed a sigh of relief, only to be tossed back into the air. Once more, Jovlin cursed herself for trusting the dragon. She began to fall again, but then found herself landing perfectly in the saddle on the dragon’s back. Her feat slipped easily on either side, and through the straps seemingly designed to tie her in. Jovlin quickly fastened all of the straps, hoping to keep herself from falling off again. She only barely had enough time to get comfortable and breathe another sigh of relief before the dragon sped off again. Gripping the fur in front of her, Jovlin held her breathe, closed her eyes, and prayed that she would make it to the dragon’s destination. After several minutes the dragon began to slow until the beating of its wings made a gently humming noise as they steadily beat up and down. Jovlin stayed glued to the dragon, not daring to open her eyes, gradually becoming aware of the dragons steady, but heavy, breaths. The breaths were so gentle, and so soothing, that Jovlin felt willing to open her eyes. When she looked down, past the dragon’s wings, Jovlin saw only clouds. They were yellow, and reflected the sun. The beauty of the clouds would have been more stunning if they had indeed been clouds. Jovlin did not realize that what she was looking upon was the desert until she saw a stand of trees floating past beneath her. This was the desert of death. Of course, this was not the most imaginative name for a desert. Perhaps “desert of heat” or “desert of the sun” would have fit just as well, perhaps there were more imaginative titles that could have been given, but the name was still Desert of Death. There was story that was passed down from generation to generation of how the desert was given its name. As it goes, it was the time of the great fleeing and all was chaos. When the people of earth found their way to Arandrei, they were starving and desperate to set their feet on solid ground. Ships landed all over the planet, but most had flown together, and landed in the most beautiful site they could find so quickly. The fuel used for their ships, however, was toxic and slowly began to kill the plants. Humans and animals alike rushed to gather food and took too much. What little they had left untouched withered away, either poisoned by the ships or destroyed by winter. When the fog from the peoples’ swift and chaotic landing had settled, there was nothing living left on the wide expanse of the planet that became known as the Desert of Death. All was dead in it, and all that entered it died. Jovlin looked back from the desert to the dragon. They had stopped moving and now hung floating in the air. Gazing at the dragon in front of her, its beautiful pink fur seeming to glow in the sunlight, Jovlin wondered if it had a name. “What are you called?” she asked aloud. The dragon looked back at her, and then nodded its head at her. Jovlin didn’t quite understand what it meant, so she shook her head and started to look back at the desert. Instead of continuing its flight, the dragon shook its head harder, raising a loud clanging noise from the leash that held the saddle around the dragon’s neck. Looking closer, Jovlin discovered a golden engraved plate hanging from the buckle on the leash. The name on it was Mayli. “Mayli” Jovlin said, “What a beautiful name for a beautiful creature. Mayli, could you please take me to where the other dragon with a rider was headed?” Mayli nodded her head and barely gave Jovlin a second to react before speeding off into the sky once more.