The Runaway Rebels- Book 1

Chapter Seven: Shapeshifter

As the yellow light faded, Pandora, Dawn and I all let out gasps of amazement as where, a second ago Ace had stood there now stood a huge black Dragon with shimmering yellow markings and yellow eyes that held in them, the same mischievous sparkle as Ace's own eyes.

The Dragon roared majestically, lifting up her head and darting forwards, Cerberus mirroring her.

The two collided in a burst of noise, and a raging fight began.

The Dragon struck first, scratching Cerberus' left head across the nose, drawing crimson blood as she did.

After blocking a retaliatory attack from the hound, the Dragon hit Cerberus' right head with a burst of bright yellow flames.

However, that crucial moment of distraction allowed Cerberus to strike several blows, leaving long scratches across the Dragon's face, prompting an enraged roar to spill out of her jaws. 

Hitting back, the Dragon butted her head right into Cerberus' middle head grabbing the other two heads as she did and shoving all three into each other, leaving the Hound thoroughly dazed. 

Then, as the Dragon puffed jets of yellow smoke out from each nostril, pawing the ground with a glint of mischief still in her eyes, Cerberus reached out a paw past her, up, I quickly realised, right towards me.

Instinctively, I shut my eyes against the huge black paw which had been merely centimetres from my face, waiting for the impact to come. But instead, I heard a tumultuous roar from the Dragon, and, plucking up the courage to open my eyes, I looked down to see the Dragon's clawed fist curled around Cerberus' mighty paw, so tightly it looked as though the bones in his paw might break. 

Then, I followed the great Hound's eyes to the bright eyes of the Dragon, which had changed dramatically now. 

The eyes that had once been filled with a bright cheerful glow tinted with a touch of mischief, were now blazing with a pure, bright fury, and fixed warningly on the now fearful eyes of the three headed Hellhound in front of her. Keeping her gaze locked on him, the Dragon dragged his paw back down to his level, not relinquishing her tight grip on it until it was right back on the ground. 

Scrambling, Cerberus made one last ditch attempt at an attack, the middle head opening his jaws and aiming to bite the Dragon's front leg which, to the surprise of the Hound, quickly shot out, along with its counterpart, and grabbed the head's mouth, pulling his jaws even further apart then letting them snap back down with a crash, leaving the Hound stumbling backwards in shock.

It was then, finally, that Cerberus fell back, whining and whimpering, looking at the large Dragon, who gave a last roar of warning, and ran out of the corridor under the Dragon's scathing eyes. 

As Dawn helped up a shaken Pandora, the Dragon disappeared in a wisp of yellow smoke, much less bright and impressive than the burst of yellow light from which she had emerged, and, in her place, lay an extremely pale Ace, unconscious on the floor. 

"Ace!" yelled Dawn, shocked. 

But, by that time, Pandora was already kneeling by Ace's side, pulling a tiny bottle of a shining white liquid out of her boot frantically. Dawn knelt down on the other side of the sleeping Immortal, looking at the bottle which Pandora was examining carefully.

 "What are you doing?" The Goddess of Light asked Pandora, who nodded at the bottle, as if she'd just confirmed something, and then removed the cork of the bottle, talking speedily as she did, 

"I'm doing what Ace told me to do if this ever happened." 

"If what ever happened?" asked Dawn, feeling more confused than she had been in her entire life.