Have you ever wanted to live in a world with dragons and kingdoms or mages and knights? Well I do and let me tell you it's pretty scary! Here’s my story on how me and my friends became the heroes of my city.

“Hi Mrs. Baizel” 

“Hi Iris”. The smell of the different auroras in the air swirling around me as I run. The pastries smell delicious. 

“Hi Mr. Baker”

“Hi Iris, are you and Theo gonna come by today for some fresh bread” 

“Whose gonna say no to that, of course!” As I run to the BarStool I'm really starting to hope Theo is already there. MMM the smell of fresh dragon berries and a mix of sweet berry tea hit my face as fast as I opened the door to the BarStool. The smell tasted amazing! “Uh excuse me miss, sorry if i'm disturbing you, but would you like anything to drink”. 

Looking up at him, the waiter was maybe in his 20s, brown hair, eyes that would make any girl fall in love with him, and just seemed like he would be the type of guy with low self esteem issues; seems to be a likable person. 

“ I'm just waiting for a friend, he should be here any minute”.

 The waiter looks at me with almost disbelief in his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to try our dragon berries with whipped cream, they're specially handcrafted”.

I roll my eyes, please just go away.  Theo appears out of nowhere with sweat all over his face, he looks like he ran a marathon. Thank god he’s here, I was starting to get worried.

“Iris I found something worth pondering on and it may pay us big money and we can finally-”

“Woah, woah there cowboy, hold your horses. Okay now breathe and say it more slowly” 

Theo takes a breath and then looks at the piece of paper in his hands and looks at the waiter asking with his eyes to leave.

¨I´ll give you guys a few minutes¨

“Thanks.”

The waiter walks away while looking down at his hands.

“Just take a look at this please.” He hands me the crumbled piece of paper. 

“Wow. Are you sure you want to do this, this looks like a lot?”

“I know, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it”. 

Theo's eyes were sparkling with joy and pleasure, almost pleading with me to accept what I just took in.

“I don’t know Theo, don't you think that this could possibly get us killed!” 

“Yes and no, we can still survive this. Oh, come on, it's that once and a lifetime adventure that we are looking for. Oh come on Iris we have nothing waiting for us at home and why does it matter if we are gonna die.” 

I can feel my face go red with anger, the boiling sensation, and I can almost feel steam coming out of my ears.

“I’m about to strangle you.”

“What, why!”

 I start to furiously walk out of the BarStool. Theo grabs my arm before I could touch the handle to the door.

“You can’t just give up on your dream like that.”

“What dream? You're acting like I have one.” He doesn’t know anything about me or this dream that I have, the dream he thinks I still “believe” in, is his dream and nothing else. Theo’s eyes go from me to the ground, almost crying… such a crybaby. I storm out and Theo runs in front of me. 

“Theo I didn’t mean to yell at you, I'm sorry,” I scream. 

Theo turns around and looks at me with almost belief in his eyes and goes back to that crybaby face and runs, faster than I have ever seen him run before. Man, I've totally messed it up this time. I push open the door to the BarStool and order Theo’s favorite dragon berries with extra whipped cream. I start to walk out of the BarStool when a man about maybe 6,3 stops me. 

“You missy shouldn’t be here this late… time.. At night.” 

Great he’s wasted, totally what I wanted. 

“Sorry but  I come here all the time, so leave me alone, would ya?”  He grabs my wrist and tries to yank me towards him. ¨Umm excuse me mister, could you let me go please.¨ I look at him with pleading eyes, almost begging. The grip he had on my arm was getting tighter and tighter as I tried to struggle.

¨You are… that… orphan right.¨ 

Why do you want to know? Think Iris, think. What would Theo or Max do in this situation? 

¨Why do you want to know…who's asking?¨

¨Me, that's who.¨ 

Nice comeback, totally haven't heard that more than once. Theo where are you when I need you. I start to struggle more and his grip tightens so much more that it's turning my hand purple. Why isn't anyone doing anything and just sitting there staring at me, like they don´t know who I am. 

¨Mr. Fox help me please¨

¨Sorry Iris, I can't do much to help.¨

 I can feel my chest tightening, I feel like almost crying. Mr. Fox is just back behind the bar watching me with forgiving eyes. Traitor. 

¨Come with me ....¨ 

Theo please come help me, I need help, please. He starts to pull me out of the BarStool and dumps me into a cage.

 ¨be good… {hiccup}.¨ 

The rough, brittle feeling of the rope stuck in my mouth, rubbing my lips raw, my hands, sandpaper against the rope. Great, I'm stuck here, can´t talk, can't separate my hands. Okay, {gulp}… I got this… easy, right… somehow cut the rope and get out of the back of the carriage. The carriage started to move, each bump throwing me all around, a ball in a cage…

 ¨Hey Iris!¨ 

I wake up startled. It’s Max thank the lord. I give him a glare and proceed to try to tell him to get me out of here.

¨mmhhmm¨ Come on Max please help me, please.

¨Are you and Theo playing pretend or something? What's with the rope in your mouth?¨ He looks down at my hands and back up at my mouth and the cage that i'm in wondering what i'm doing in it.

¨uhh blink twice if you need help.¨ Blink blink. Come on Max, please believe me. ¨Okay, do you have any ideas where the keys are to your habitat?¨ Really, Max like I know where the keys are. I shrug.

¨Okay, that helps a lot, where did he go, if you know?¨

¨Mmmbahmm.¨ 

How does this help anything just untie me already and i'll tell you.

¨mm okay be right back, BarStool right?¨ How did you… how, I don't want to know. Max is always the weird type of kid, that is somewhat smart and somewhat weird and sometimes very stubborn, but he helps out a lot because he just knows things, which in some cases we just don’t ask how. 

“MMMMMMM.” I try to scream after him, to tell him not to go in there, to tell him he’s my last hope, my chance of getting to Theo, to tell him I'm sorry. Theo please save Max not me, he’s gonna die, he’s gonna be squished into many tiny pieces. I hear the door to the BarStool open with a creak and a big bang, a bunch of sccuring feet start towards me. Max is that you, or is it the giant. 

“Iris here take this, hurry, he’s coming.” I take the keys and hide them under my bum and pray the giant doesn’t notice them.

“Hey kid… {cough wheeze} … come back here with those!” The giant stops in front of me and glares at me like he’s trying his hardest to gain knowledge from my eyes, trying to look deep into my soul as I stare back at him. 

“Hey mr come and get me nah, nah, nah, nahhhhh!” The giant snorts and looks back at Max with tired, drowsy eyes. The giant starts to head towards the driver side of his vessel, not even worried that Max may have given me the keys, not even worried that Max could tell someone. I hear the vessel start up. Oh crap, oh crap. I start to struggle with the keys, moving to the side of the keyhole. Come on, come on. The keyhole seems so big but yet the key won’t fit, it's like the key is too small. 

“IRIS!” I know Max, I'm trying, I can hear him scream but it's now a whisper as blood rushes to my ears. 

“You're gonna {burp} like this…” Why am I gonna like this? Why am I the one to get kidnapped? The keys slip out of my grip and fall onto the road, I can see them as we keep driving away. Theo please help me… please. 

“Theo, if you come help me we can go on that adventure you were talking about.” I whisper the words, hoping he would somehow hear me. I look up to see Theo and Max running towards me screaming something I couldn’t make out. The vessel suddenly stops, the cage hits the back of the vessel and knocks me into the keyhole. “Ouch!” I start to hear some ruckus in the front of the truck. I start to feel a heartbeat beating faster and faster. My vision starts to blur. I squint back at where I thought I saw Theo and Max and they weren’t there. What the heck, am I starting to see things or something? I fall over. I start to hear a faint voice, whispering to me..

“Iris, are you okay?”

“Iris please wake up!” I open my eyes and look up, almost faint again. Theo and Max look at me expecting me to say something.

“Hi guys! Theo what happened?” 

“We took care of a guy that was basically kidnapping you, that's what happened.” Thanks Max for the sass.

“Iris, are you okay?” 

“I think so Theo, my head is throbbing really bad, but i'll be fine.” They both look at me with a lot of disbelief in their eyes. “What?” They just look at each other, then back at me.

“Umm, are you sure? You have some blood… umm right there.” I reach up and feel my head, when I take my hand away and look at it, I see my hand is almost covered with blood. Max rips a part of his sleeve off and hands it to me. “So what you said, is it true?” 

“What’s true?” 

“About coming on the adventure with me.”

“Well you saved me so I guess so.”

“Wait really!”

“But we have to get ready, if we are going to defeat a dragon.” Max looks at me.

“But how are we going to get there, it's impossible to get over the sea without drowning.”

“Max we’ll get there when we get there.” He looks at Theo and then back to me and nods. 

“Come on, Theo help me out of this cage please.” Theo holds out his hands for me and pulls me up. “Can we go home now?” 

“But we need to get ready to go defeat the dragon, before everyone else gets there before us!” Theo looks at me with eagerness in his eyes.

“We will. I want to make sure we get the right supplies. So you know, we don’t die immediately.” They both start laughing. “What?”

“Max, do you want to go to the BarStool after dropping off Iris?”

“Oh yeah Theo, I bought you some dragon berries, but I think it got crushed or dropped… I’m sorry!”

“It's fine, but thank you for thinking of me.” Theo smiles. His smile really lights up a room. 

Max looks at me. “What?”

“Nothing… nothing.”

“Tell me. The look you're giving me says you have something to say.”

“Fine. Why didn’t you fight back against that guy, he could have seriously hurt you.” 

“I tried, but I can only do so little and anyways he was huge!” I gesture my hands to make it look like he was 7 foot taller than I imagined. Max looks at me with disbelief.

“No he was not, we defeated him within two seconds, well it was probably easier since he was drunk… but we don’t talk about that part.” 

“Max, can we talk about this later? My head is killing me and I want to go to bed.” He looks at me and knod. I go to my bedroom and let the cardboard door shut behind me. Ugh my head is pounding so hard. I flop onto my stone cold bed and let out a sigh.

“Hey Iris, you up?” I feel cold hands touching my head as I stay hidden away from the world, wrapping what feels like a blanket on my head… a thin blanket. “I'm sorry, if I'm hurting you. There, have a good night's rest.”

 I walk into the BarStool and sit at a table.

“Hi my lady, would you like dragon berries with whipped cream and some tea?” I look up to see the same guy I encountered a few days ago. He smiles at me. Wow that is pure beauty at its finest isn’t it? 

“Umm… I would love that, thank you.” He looks at me and winks. Why is he winking at me, what did I do… WAIT WHAT! “W-wait, why did you wink at me?” I started to hysterically laugh at him. He stops dead in his tracks and glares at me.

“Just a nice gesture I guess… Why does it bug you, I can stop if you want me to?” 

I stop laughing at him and look dead into his eyes, hoping maybe I could see his soul. 

“What is something wrong with my face? Do I have something like food on it or something?”

 I stop looking into his soul and start laughing, he’s such an idiot. 

“Don’t worry there's nothing wrong with your face.”

 He looks at me and storms off. 

“IRIS!” 

I look behind me and see Theo and Max chasing after one another.

“What do you two want?” 

“Iris, Max is being mean.”

 Theo’s face was bright red and it looked like he ran a mile. Really this is what you two wanted to tell me.

“Really?”

 Theo looks at me and flinches away from Max. Max glares at Theo and stares him down. 

“You wanna see something really mean?”

 His mean look disappears and he quickly apologizes to Theo.

“Good.” 

“Here you go m`lady.” The waiter places the tea and the dragon berries in front of me and walks away. They look delicious.

“Iris, you didn’t have to order dragon berries for me.” He grabs a bit of the dragon berries off my plate and swallows it faster than I could say no.

“Take as much as you want.” 

He looks up at me and stops.

“Why are you in a bad mood, what's wrong?”
I glare at him and then take a sip of my tea.

“I don’t really know, to be honest, my head is thumping so hard.” I shrug. Theo looks at me and Max. He nods. Theo turns to Max as he starts to walk away. I just glare and look away.

“Max, you think Iris is fine?” Max hesitates, then answers .

“Theo how about we get out of here and hit Mr. Baker's place, the bread smelled amazing!” Theo looks back at me and winces. 

“Alright, but Iris after you're done here, please go back home to rest, you look awful.” I nod. Theo and Max take one last look at me and start to slowly walk away. My head is thumping so loud, I put my head down on the counter, sulking in my own pain.

“Are you good m`lady?” I look up. 

“Yeah, I should be fine, it's just a headache.” He looks at me with disbelief. “Okay fine. My head has been killing me for a while now. It just won’t go away.” He looks up at my head where the bandages once were.

“I might know who could help your headache.” He looks at me and then starts to write something down on a piece of paper, he hands it to me.

“Who’s this?” 

“She’s a mage, she owes me one anyways, so… just say you know me and she might treat you.” 

“Umm… Thanks but where can I find her?”

“She likes to hang out at the garden, you may find her there, if not come find me and I guess i’ll come help you find her.”

“Oh okay. Thanks again.”

“Mhm.” He leaves and leaves me to my lonely self to my dish.  I ate the rest of the Dragon berries and left quietly. I saw Theo and Max munching some pastries as I joined them.

“Ooo what's that you munching on?” Max looks up at me and starts to answer.

“Ooo what’s that you holding?” I glare at him.

“You answer my question first then I answer mine.” He thinks about it for a moment then glares at me.

“Okay fine, this is Mr.Baker's finest bread. Now you answer my question.”

“Nope.” I look at him sternly. He glares at me.

“You playing that card then aren’t ya.”

“You know it!” 

“Hey Theo, you think we should give Iris a piece of our mind for once?” He glances at Theo. Theo looks at Max and nods.

“Bring it!” They both looked at me, then they chowed down the last remaining pieces of their pastries and ran after me. We all raced back to the BarStool for our departcher.

Theo acts like he’s in awe and drooling as he says “You guys wanna stay and get some dragon berries and tea.”

“Not really.”

“Sorry Theo, I probably shouldn’t have ran back here anyways, cause my head is killing me.” I give a little chuckle. Theo looks at me pleading for me to stay. 

“Max you have to stay this time, I stayed last time.” Max glares at me and I could see something else in his eyes, it's like a red tint. Maybe I’m seeing things. “Max are you feeling okay?”

“I'm fine. Are you?” 

“I don’t know, I'm gonna head out. See you guys later.” I wave and leave, back to my house. I wonder if I could maybe go find that mage tonight, but I would like for someone to come with me, like Max or Theo… I don’t know, I'm just gonna wait till dusk and see how I feel. 

  I wake up startled, by fast paced footsteps running towards my door. I grab the nearest object and get ready to throw it at whoever comes through the door. “Iris!!” Theo shoves open the door and runs right to me. He looks up at me with a panicked look on his face.

“What, what's wrong?” 

“It's Max.” Theo looks at me panicking.

“Where is he at?” Theo starts to tell me everything that happened as I get my shoes and jacket on. He leads me to an alleyway, where a cardboard box is on top of an abandoned bench and lays there with Max. But Max looked different this time, this time he has a red, yellowish glow aurora around him. “Theo, how long has he been like this?” Theo looks at me and back at Max and down at the floor. “Theo tell me how long he has been out!” 

“After we left the BarStool last night we came back here and started to talk about us getting a house and things like that, and that was that. I… uhh… passed out so I don't really know what happened.” I look at him dumbfounded. I walk over to the bakery and ask Mr. Baker if he has a bucket or something to throw water in. 

“Uhh… I don’t know if I do, but let me check real fast.” He goes back behind a curtain which I'm guessing behind the curtain is where the baking supplies are. Man these pastries do look really good. Mr. Baker holds up the bucket for me to see and asks. “Would you like anything else?” He starts to chuckle. 

“Umm… how much is your bread?” 

“... You know what it's on the house today, how many pieces would you like?”

“Really! Umm… can I just have one piece of bread please.” He hands me the bucket and a piece of his famous bread. I run to the nearest water tap and start to pour water in the bucket. Once it was finally full I ran as fast as I could back to where Theo and Max were and poured the whole bucket of water on him. Max wakes up with a jolt and looks at me and Theo. 

“What… Why am I wet?” Theo hugs Max faster than I could say something. I smile. Max gives Theo back his hug and asks once more, “okay, okay Theo. But why am I soaking wet?” Max gives me a look and notices the bucket of water. “You didn’t… did you?” I give him an apoligected nod. 

“Max, you really freaked out Theo.” He glares at me and Theo and Max’s eyes both land on each other. Speaking of Max, I need to see if he’s alright.

“I’m sorry Theo, I must have been quite tired from last night.” Theo gives him a nod and doesn’t say anything. I look at both of them and ask… 

“Okay does this mean that both of you made up then?” They both look at me.

“Yeah I think we are good, right Max?” Max gives Theo a nod, then back at his hands. 

“Hey Theo can you get some dragon berry tea please?” Theo nods and heads to the BarStool. I give Max a concerned look.

“Hey Max, are you alright?”

“I don’t really know, I keep having nightmares, like intense nightmares. I don’t want to talk about it to be honest.” Max gets up and starts to walk away.

“Wait Max!” He turns around to face me.

“I didn’t know if you could accompany me to go see this mage?” He looks at me, like he’s asking questions about himself, about why I need to go see this mage, about everything that's happened to him so far.  

“Why do you need to go see this mage?” 

“Well someone told me, she could really help me.” 

“What if this so-called mage doesn’t help you, but hurts you worse than you already are?”

“Well that’s something I'm willing to take a risk on.” Max starts to say something but stops himself. 

“You… Uhhh… Think she could help me out too?” I look at him and down at his fingers, watching as he twiddles his thumbs and plays with his fingers. 

“You know what, sure.” I look around and wonder why Theo isn’t back yet. Max starts to walk off and he gestures for me to come with him.

“Hey Iris, why did you send Theo to the BarStool, I thought it was closed?”

“Oh it is, I just didn’t want Theo around to worry when I was asking you those questions.” 

“Fair enough.” Theo comes around the corner looking disappointed. 

“They were close, I'm sorry Iris.” I start to laugh

“Theo there’s nothing to be sorry about, thank you for going to get some for us.” He smiles. 

“Hey Iris, when would you like to go to her?”

“I wouldn’t mind sometime today, but it doesn’t matter when we go.” Theo gives us a confusing look. 

“Am I not catching up here or something?” Me and Max look at each other with worried looks. “Uhh is someone going to tell me something or are you just gonna keep looking at each other with those looks?”

“Do we tell him Max?”

“Sure.” He says that with a stern look.

 I look at Theo, “we were gonna go see a mage… To help out with my head and it's on our way to the castle I believe…” I start to stammer over my words, hesitating on each word. I look up at Theo with an apologetic face. He returns the look. But the look he’s giving me is more exciting than untrustworthy. His face lights up.

“We get to go see a mage!” He starts to jump up and down in excitement. Me and Theo look at each other. Max speaks up first.

“Yup.” 

Theo’s face reminded me of a toddler getting candy. Theo skips around Max, singing. 

“I’m gonna go see a mage. I’m gonna go see a mage…” Max starts to chuckle. Theo looks at him. “What are you laughing at?” He smiles. 

“You're so silly.” 

Max holds Theo’s head in his arms and gives him a nudgy. Theo cracks a smile and laughs. They really act like brothers. 

“I’m gonna go get some supplies and we can leave in about an hour maybe.” Theo and Max stop what they are doing and nod. “Theo, Max can you guys get the food and drinks together?” 

“Yeah I can!” Theo starts to jump up and down. Max nods.

“You wanna meet back here or at your house?” I turn to look at Max. 

‘We can meet back here. You guys should stop by Mr. Baker and buy some of his bread. Buy one for me too and then just bring it on the way back here.”    

“Alright, see you in a bit.”

I nod, as I walk away, I start to run down a list of things I need to get. I got to go to the blacksmith and then the potion shop to get heals. Then if I have time, I could stop by the BarStool to get a snack. The smell of gunpowder and metal burns my nose. I walk into the blacksmith. I scream “hello!” A bulky guy turns around and stares at me. 

“Ahh you must be here to pick up the thrasher,” he screams. 

 I look at him with uncertainty. He goes to pick up this big metal axe. The axe itself had to be twice my size. I start to stammer over my words.

“Umm no… that’s not… uhh what I was here for.” 

He looks at me and asks with suspicion,“so why are you here?” 

“I uhh didn’t know if I could buy a couple of weapons?” 

He looks me up, down and laughs. I look at him confused. 

“You wanna buy some weapons. You're so small and tiny. I bet you don’t even have an adventure, you just want to look cool, aren’t I right.”

 I glare at him. Sure you are, keep thinking that. I ignore him.

“Can I have three of your finest swords and two shields please.” 

  He looks at me like I told him a joke. 

“What adventure are you trying to go on?” 

“I’m going on a dragon hunt so I need these swords as fast as possible.” 

“You wouldn’t last a second.” He chuckles.

I'm really about to kick him, I’m gonna do it. 

“Would I?” 

I hear him mumbling under his breath and walking away. 

“When can I pick them up?” 

“In two hours”. 

“Alright see you then,” I screamed. I shut the door with a loud thud. It was so loud I jumped. The thing is I don’t think I've ever held a sword or at least ever fought with one. This adventure might be a bad idea after all. But I have one more place to visit and that's the potion shop. I open the door to the potion shop and the smell of different potions hits my face. 

“Oh HI welcome to my potion shop, my name is Luna, how may I help you on your adventure.”

 Luna was a fairy from a far away land. she had a mushroom hat on and smelled fantastic, it was like a gingerbread house, just being baked. 

“Hi Luna, I didn’t know if you could suggest some potions for my adventure?” 

“What type of adventure are you going on?”

“It’s like a goose chase but instead of a goose it's a dragon.”  

“Ohh, sounds very deadly.” I give her a nod.

“Well I suggest you take a couple of healing potions and how about a strength booster and speed booster.” Luna spreads the potions along the counter and shows them to me. “I forgot to ask, how many people are you taking?” 

“Three people I suppose.” 

“Okay, so how about two strength boosters and 3 speed boosters and a couple of heals. That would come out to be six shearlings.” 

I hand her the shearlings.

 “Alright here you go, I hope you come back to us and good luck on your adventure. “

 I give her a wave and walk out of the store. I see Theo and Max walk out of the armor store and I race up to them.

“Hey guys!” They both jump. “Did I scare ya?” Theo looks at me and gives a scaredy cat nod. 

“Iris I swear, I'm going to have to put a tracker on you.” I smile. 

“So did you guys get everything?” They both nod. Max looks at Theo.

“Theo, we forgot Mr. Baker’s bread and dragon berries.” Max licks his lips and looks at me like he's starving to death.

“Oh we did. Ehh it's fine we can get them here in a few.” 

I look at Max and it looks like he’s gonna throw a tantrum. 

“But guys I haven’t had breakfast yet and you know the saying, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

 I give in, “fine. The swords should be done when we get back too. I’m not going into that place without you guys.” Max runs off, he looks like a 3 year old who I just gave candy too. Theo taps me on the back and runs after Max. “Gosh 3 year olds am I right,” I mutter.  

When I enter the BarStool I see that Max and Theo are already at a table talking to the waiter. Mr. Fox was standing by the bar watching everyone eating and yelling at each other. He spots me in the crowd and gives me an apologetic nod, then walks back into his little hideout. Out of my sight. Out of everyone’s sight. 

“Iris over here!” 

Theo screams from across the room. I walk over to the bar and sit down. I glare down the bar, looking in every direction I possibly could. 

The waiter looks down at me and asks, “would you like anything to drink or eat?”

 I look up at him and politely ask, “can I just have a glass of water and just some strawberries please?”

 He starts to write down my order and then gives me a confused look. 

“You want plain water and plain raspberries?” 

“Yeah it just sounds good I guess.” I look over towards where Theo and Max are sitting and they are also giving me weird, worried looks. I shrug them off. The waiter looks at Theo and Max and starts to walk away.  

¨Iris are you sure you're okay?¨ I shrug.

 Now I think about it, my head hasn't been as bad as it was that past few days. I look over to Max and Theo and they are talking to each other with smiles on their faces. They're not even worried about what we're gonna face in the next few days. I'm totally freaking out. I keep trying to shrug off the thought of someone dying. I would want to die before anyone else. I shake my head, trying to forget the thought of someone dying. 

¨Hey Iris, when did the blacksmith say our swords are supposed to be done?¨

 I look over at Theo, he looks scared. So I guess I'm not the only one who's trying to put a brave face on. 

¨Uhh he said in two hours.¨ His face doesn't look convincing. 

¨Two hours for three swords and three shields.¨
¨Well I told him three swords and two shields, but yeah.¨ 

Theos ' face freezes and looks like he wants to argue with what I just said. 

¨What, I don't like shields or at least carrying one.¨ 

¨But what if you need cover?¨  I pat him on the shoulder and smile.

“That will be where you come in my friend. Anyways I'll be fine so you can stop worrying about me”.

Theos face goes from terrified to a mixture of confusion and anger. But he doesn't say anything. The waiter comes back to our table with our food and drinks. He hands Theo and Maxs food to them and then stops at me, with a look of disrespect and a mix of disbelief. 

¨I thought you were a good one, one that would never order something else then our famous Dragon berries. The nerve you have.¨ 

¨The nerve I have, you're the one serving it to me.¨ I look at him smiling. 

He doesn’t look too happy that I said that. 

“At least I'm not the one eating it.” He gives me a smile. 

I cave in, I start to laugh at him. He starts to walk towards the trash can with my plate of food and my drink and threatens to throw it away. “I will.”

“Then do it because then you’ll be going back to the kitchen and getting me another.” 

“Fine here.” 

He hands me my food and drink and walks away in sorrow, mumbling. I look over at Theo and Max and they have already eaten their food and is waiting for me to finish mine. 

“Hurry up Iris, some of us don’t have all day.”

 I give Max a look, that wasn’t like any type of look, this look was my most deadliest look… a glare. “Okay… take your time then.” I smile with my mouth full of raspberries. 

We walk out of the BarStool with our bellies full. I look up at the sun to see that it's only about 2. That was more than enough time for our armory to be finished. 

“So Iris, did you get any cool designs on our blades?” I shake my head. 

“I just got the basic swords. It would have cost more and more time, if I got designs on them,” and the blacksmith probably wouldn’t take me seriously. We push open the door to the blacksmith and the guy that was supposed to be making our weapons, is just sitting there, asleep. I tap him on the head. He wakes up with a jolt and looks at us. 

“Ahh the kids that thought they could go on a quest to defeat a dragon.” 

I roll my eyes. He starts to fidget with his fingers and a guy about our age comes out with a sword. He gestures the sword to me, so I give the kid a nod and take the sword. 

“Well you gonna try to see if you can actually hold a sword?”

 I hold it up just fine, it's just a little heavy. I hand it to Max and then he hands it to Theo to try. Theo failed miserably but Max did fine. The blacksmith nods and starts to write things down as if this was a test. 

“Okay so I think it's the hilt, that's causing you guys problems.” 

He hands us another sword to try. It was very lightweight and we all could swing/carry it with no problem. I hand him a stack of shearlings and he hands us our swords and shields. 

“Have fun on your deadly quest, if any of you guys break any of my swords, I'm gonna haunt you for the rest of your life.” 

I give him a smile and then a nervous nod. We all backed out of his store as fast as we could. I give out a big sigh and then I looked at my friends. They both looked like they were hyperventilating. I pat Max on the shoulder, he very slowly gives me a look. 

“You good?” He nods. 

We start to walk back to my home. Waiting for the next day. Hoping that we may survive tomorrow. Hoping that maybe we’ll get to come home. Hoping that we’ll get to see each other again. Everyone falls asleep but me. I can’t sleep at all. I get some clothes on and head outside for one last view of the village. I breathe in one big gulp of air and let it out slowly. My head throbs a bit as I do this. I ignore the pain and start to walk down towards the little creek that I met Theo and Max at. The creek was probably the best place to hang out when times got stressful. As I crossed over the fence and stumbled to the creek. The smell of it reminded me of times of throwing stones over the water to see the waves cross over one another or when Max was trying to get a fish and fell into the water. Good times. I sit down on a rock and stare into the water watching my reflection. All the fishes were nowhere to be seen, almost like there asleep. I laugh at my bad humor. I glance up at the moon to see what time it is, it's almost midnight. Just a few more hours and it’ll be time for war with that dragon, that filthy dragon. I sigh. I’m gonna miss this place. 

I wake up startled. Where am I? How’d I get here? I look around. I must have passed out last night. I must have been tired after all. I get up and start to walk back to my home. I stop dead in my tracks in front of my door, todays the day. I sigh and open up the door. I walk into where Max and Theo fell asleep last night, there still asleep… figures. I close the door and walk out heading for the BarStool. Kids are running around, zooming past me faster than I could count to three. I pull open the door to the BarStool greeted by the waiter that we always have. He gives me a nod and takes me to my usual seat, right in the corner of the bar. Away from all the commotion. 

He scratches the back of his head and asks politely, “you never been here this early, what's on your mind today, if you don’t mind me asking?”  

“Well today’s the day where me, Max, and Theo go up against a dragon so pretty nervous. Oh also, can I have the original please.” 

His face lights up with excitement, he nods and goes on his way. Finally left alone. He brings the berry tea to me and puts it down on the table. 

“You dragon berries should be done here shortly.” I nod. “So about this dragon adventure, when are you planning on going?”

“To be honest, I have zero idea. Probably whenever those bozos wake up.” 

“Are you gonna stop on your way there to see the mage?” I nod. 

“Yeah my head is starting to hurt again.” 

He stands up and looks towards Mr. Fox’s office. 

“Is something wrong?” 

He leans on my table and looks down at the table. He shrugs. “There was someone here looking for Mr.Fox and he didn’t look like the type of guy that's from around here.” 

I shrug. “It’s none of my business and anyways if he did get in trouble, he deserved it.” He shakes his head, he gradually stands up and goes back into the kitchen. 

“Here.” He hands me my meal and walks away. 

I finish faster than I ever did before. I pay and walk out of the BarStool. I head for my house, I open the door to see that Max and Theo are just waking up. 

“Hey sleepy heads. How was your sleep?” 

They both groan. Max looks at me groggy 

“Where have you been?”

“Just at the BarStool.” 

He looks at me with confusion, “why were you at the BarStool at… what time is it?” 

I look up at the sky, “it's like 10 in the morning.” 

He nods. “What time do you want to get ready to leave?” 

“Whenever you guys get up, we’ll leave.” 

“Alright.¨ 

Theo and Max get up and got dressed.We get all our supplies together and all our rations together. Then we head out towards the woods. 

The journey took us maybe about 4 days to even be able to see the castle. We had to stop at a village nearby to get a map and some more rations. They were some nice villagers. They told us that the mage we were looking for was kept in the castle. When we got close to the castle there were some magical creatures that I had never seen before. It was like lightning bugs but these bugs were almost like spiders, spiders that could fly and their butts would light up.  We even saw some enlarged giraffes, they were terrifying. Theo and Max did not like the walk as much as I did. We would sleep under rocks and really anywhere that could possibly keep us safe.

¨Hey Iris, do we have any more dragon berries, or any type of berries?¨ Theo looks up at me begging for me to say yes, begging for me to hand him the dragon berries and say this trips over. 

I shake my head, ¨sadly no we don't have any more dragon berries, but we do have these types of berries.¨ I hand him the unknown berries and he gobbles them up. ¨If you guys hear any type of water let me know cause we are out of water.¨

They both nod. 

We kept walking for what seemed like forever. For days and days. We barely slept. We started to really ration our food. Our water was out within the first few hours of us walking everytime we filled it up. We all were taking a hit when it came to sleep. I'm starting to regret waking up a little early when we were leaving the village. 

¨Iris, please can we stop for a bit, the castle is right there, let's just stop for a bit please. I´m dying.¨ 

We rested for what seemed like forever. I looked up at the sun and it looked like it was around noon, I'm guessing it's Friday… I could be wrong. Theo and Max look like they're so sleep deprived, heck we probably all look like that. 

¨If you guys want we can find a little space to take a nap before we go defeat this thing.¨ I point towards the castle.

Theo begs, ¨yes please, I can't think straight I'm so tired!¨ 

I look over at Max and it looks like he's already fast asleep. I clean a little space for me to sleep, I glance once more at Theo and Max and they're both fast asleep. I give a little chuckle and doze off. 

We were asleep till what looked like from the sun, till the evening. Once I woke everyone up, we started to walk towards the castle again. After maybe an hour we were at the castle gateways. 

¨Welp here it is, who's gonna walk in there first?¨ I look at Theo and then Max. 

They both point at me. 

I mumble, ¨thanks.¨ I walked into the castle doorways expecting some sort of jumpscare, but there was nothing. It was peaceful, quiet… too quiet. 

¨Hi there!¨ 

We all turned towards the doors of the castle and no one was there. I take a big deep breath and turn back where I was originally facing, slowly turning around, hoping no one would be there. I hear small footsteps and then someone laughing. 

¨You guys lost or something?¨ 

I look at Theo and Max, ¨is it just me or is someone talking?¨ 

Max and Theo went cold and it looked like they were staring past me. Oh god I'm about to die, there's someone behind me. I slowly turn around with my right hand on the hilt of my sword, getting ready to swing if needed too. 

¨Are you guys that scared?¨ 

Once I turned around, I took out my sword and pointed it towards the voice. 

¨Wooo, you could really kill someone with that.¨ 

The end of my sword starts to move away from the voice, like someone is pushing it up close. 

¨I'm up here you dimwits!¨ 

We all look up. It was a magical looking person. She almost didn't look real, like a fantasy. She flys down slowly, judging us from afar. 

¨Wow, I don't think I've ever seen someone so scared to see me. Umm Iris is it? You should check on your friends, they look like they just peed down their leg.¨ 

I look at her confused. How did she know my name, I don't think I told her. 

¨Well I can read minds that's why, just your mind is harder to read.¨ 

She walks up to me, almost like a sprint. She puts her finger to my head and everything goes pitch black. What the heck just happened. Is this my conscience? If it is why is everything pitch black. I suddenly jolt awake. 

¨Ahh good you're awake!¨ 

I try to go for my sword but it's not where it was. 

¨Don't worry, your sword is in a safe place.¨ 

¨What did you do to me?¨ I looked around for Theo or Max and they were nowhere to be seen. ¨ Where are my friends?¨ 

¨First, I just gave you a quick nap, you looked exhausted. Second, they are in a safe place.¨ 

¨Okay, thanks. What do you mean safe place?¨ 

She looks to my right and there's Theo and Max fast asleep, up against the wall. 

¨They won't be waking up anytime soon, will they?¨ 

She shakes her head. 

¨So since it's just us, who are you?¨

¨Well i'm glad you asked, my name is El, i'm a mage from the fairy kingdom. Well before they threw me out. Now introduce yourself.¨ 

I nod, ¨my name is Iris, as you read… I'm from a small village up north, well we all are.¨ I point at Theo and Max. ¨The person to the left is Theo and the other person is Max.¨ 

She nods, ¨nice to meet you. So why are you here exactly?¨ 

¨Umm we heard there was a dragon causing problems and we were gonna slay it.¨ 

She looks at me in almost disbelief and almost like she's now guarding herself. She looks more hesitant now. ¨Why… why do you want to slay it?¨ 

¨Well I guess for the village's safety and for the adventure, and anyways it'll be a cool story to tell my village when I come home.”  

El shakes her head, ¨you cant… you cant.¨ 

I look at her confused, ¨Why can't we try to slay it?¨ 

¨Cause it'll kill you, you guys are newbies, all you've done is beginners quest. I mean look at you, you guys have no meat on your bones, you guys are no nights and shining armor.¨ 

I roll my eyes, ¨thanks, you sound like a mom, I never had.¨ 

She then continues to insult me on every little thing, she could read or see. It was very hurtful to my ego. Max and Theo eventually woke up, well rested and everything. El showed us where the dragon was kept. 

“So this is where the beast sleeps, a very good spot if I do say so myself,” she whispers.  

“So if you're a mage and you're powerful… I would think. How come you haven’t defeated this thing?” I point to the dragon. 

“I don’t know, it just hasn’t been a priority I guess.” 

Max interrupts,  “So you're telling me, you could defeat this thing and save thousands of lives and you choose not to, am I right?” 

El shakes her head. Max puts his head in his hands and groans. 

“If she would have destroyed it, we would have not walked for many days. We could be at the village right now eating dragon berries.” Max was on the verge of strangling the mage. 

“Oh El, I didn’t know if you could help us.” 

El shakes her head but looks confused. “What do you need help with?” 

“I’ve been dealing with this headache and it won’t go away at all and Max had…this… reddish-orangish aurora around him one morning and I didn’t know if you could fix or tell us what’s wrong?” 

El shakes her head, then she looks dumbfounded. “First have you seen a doctor for that nasty headache, actually here take these pain meds, second come here Max.” 

She hands me the pain meds then touches Max's head, she starts to hum and mumble some words that I couldn’t recognize. Max’s eyes go red and you can hear him groaning with pain. In the next few minutes she was done and Max didn’t seem like Max anymore. 

“So Max, tell me how long have you known about this?” 

She is starting to sound like a therapist. Max looks down at his hands and back at us. 

“For a few months.”  

I look at him dumbfounded, “so hold on, hold on, you decided to keep this thing you have, that let me recall you didn’t know about and decided to keep that to yourself!” I was spitting these words out faster than a rapper could. I was boiling with anger. I felt the steam come out of my ears when I was done. 

“Okay are you done Iris?” 

I nod. El still looks like she’s examining Max, when all of a sudden the whole castle shakes. El looks at me. 

“Great job you dummy, you woke up the dragon.” 

I look at El and back at the breaking of the castle, the floor, the ceiling, the walls, everything that could break I was already looking at. The dragon’s head pops up out of nowhere and one of his eyes glances at us.

El looks at us very carefully, “okay no sudden movements.” 

She puts her hands up in front of us and a blue tint of a shield appears around us. 

“Okay, we're safe for like 2 seconds. Max put your hands to the floor and focus on your anger, everything and anything that's made you mad, pretend it's flowing through your hands.” 

Max does what she says and a blast of red liquid seeps through the cracks of the floor and breaks. We all jump through the hole. El gives Max a high five and congratulates him. The dragon looks through the hole Max just made and leaves. 

“Max, that was amazing!” Theo screamed. 

I look at Max and he looks dead, like he wants to sleep again. But he hasn’t said anything about it yet. Max looks at El, El places her finger up to his head again and I stop her. 

“Don’t you even think about knocking him out!” 

“Why what you gonna do about it, last time I remembered you don’t have any weapons on you.” 

“Do I?” I whip out my sword and everyone else's. “You need to hide them in a better spot.” 

El looks down at the weapons and submits defeat. “Fine you caught me, go slay this dragon.” 

“Nope, not just us, you're coming with us, if you like it or not.” 

Max grabs her wrist and Theo does as well and we all run as fast as we could to follow this dragon. Even though Max looked so dead inside we all had our hopes of coming home to a better future. Everything is gonna be just better. We ran till we started to see the dragon’s tail. It was long, blue, and silky, with a sharp edge on the end of it. 

“El can you teleport me onto his back or something?”  

She nods and the next thing I knew I was on the back of the dragon. El teleports herself and the others up as well. 

“Alright guys, we need to try to get to his heart!” I scream.  

The wind was so strong I was starting to have whiplash from it, I could barely talk my mouth was flailing open. Every word I said was washed away in the wind. Max says something that I couldn’t understand. He said it again, I motioned to my ear trying to tell him, I couldn’t hear anything he's trying to tell me. Theo notices this and looks like he's gonna give up. He looks at El. El sees this and does something with her hands and all the noise is gone. Theo notices this and says it once more, this time I could hear it plain as day.

“Just have El teleport one of us, by this beast's heart and one of us could slash it or something.” 

I look at El, “can you do that?” 

She nods, “yeah I can but it could cause one of you to die.” 

I look at everyone, “Max, Theo, thanks for being there for me when you did.” I motion to El to do it. I blank out for a second, the next few seconds was me figuring out where I was. I looked in front of me and there was this big red gooey object, it had purple veins going up to its neck bone… I'm guessing. I hear a scream and then a faint noise. 

El pops up beside me, “surprise.” 

I look at her confused, “why are you here!”

“Because you think your sword would be able to slash this thing.” She points to the heart. “Here.” 

She puts her finger on my sword and keeps it there. My sword gets lighter and I feel great, powerful. “Do it!” 

I hold the sword up above my head and piece the heart of the dragon as fast as I could. El teleports me out of the dragon as fast as she could. We appear back where we were originally by the gates of the castle. El smiles, 

“Great job, you guys really did good. If you guys didn’t run into me, you would all be dead within the first two seconds of being there.” 

“Well thank you.” Max and Theo shake her hand. I give her a nod. Max stops in his tracks. 

“Hey El, would you like to come with us, so you know, you don’t stay cooped up in this castle by yourself?” 

El thinks about it for a bit and then hesitantly answers, “if you guys want me too, I wouldn’t mind.” 

Max looks at us, me and Theo both give him a shrug. 

“But we don’t have enough rations for her and us.” Theo pulls out his book bag to show us that there’s barely any food in it. 

“I can show you guys a nearby village, I usually get my food from it.” 

We follow El to the local village and she walks into the market, talking to the people that worked there. We went around the store gathering supplies for our adventure back. It took us almost half as much time to get back to the village, with El’s help. We weren’t really greeted back home like we thought. It was just a normal day, in our village. But we did get respected much more than we did when we left. We did get greeted at the BarStool, mostly from the waiter. But in the end we all made it out alive and home safely.