The Shapeshifter

Back at Dragon Cove

Three days after leaving Yuuri, David finds himself on a deserted island.

I was parched and my tongue felt like sandpaper as I hiked through the dense canopy of jungle in front of me. For the last three days I had been hiking in the jungle, living off strange fruits that were edible and tasty, and also berries. I had been drinking water that dripped from the leaves, and occasionally I had found a small lake of pure water to drink from. All sense of hygiene was gone when you were supposed to survive in a jungle. I had seen my friends also escape and they were dropped off one by one into the jungle by the Griffin. The Griffin would then fly back towards Yuuri and pick up another escaper.

None of us had talked after being dropped off the Griffin, none of us wanting to waste our energy on talking when we had to conserve as much energy as we could to survive in this jungle.

I pushed back the branches that threatened to swat my face, and I brushed back the bushes in front of me while seating away the mosquitoes that lived this dense into the jungle. I pulled back the bushes and gasped at the sight before me.

I stepped forward and gestured for everyone to do the same. Everyone except me and Luke stepped forward hesitantly, exchanging glances with each other as to say, Is David sure? Is this a trap?

I knew very well that this was not a trap, as I saw a familiar man who was sitting on a deck chair, sipping from a colorful cup filled with coconut juice, who also had khaki shorts on and also wore a rainbow colored hat and a I love Hawaii!!! shirt.

He turned to look at us, and I broke the awkward silence between us. "Professor Jason!" I yelled, then immediately regretted my decision as my throat felt like it was burning and I started to cough heavily. Professor Jason looked at me and smiled, then passed a coconut over to me, already with a long, blue, spirally straw sticking out of a small hole on the top. I received it with both hands and drank deeply, sighing with relief at the end, satisfied that I finally could satisfy my thrist. I gestured to my fellow friends, and said,"They all need a drink as well."

Professor Jason thrust them all coconuts, and we all sat there for quite a while sipping on our coconuts. Finally, professor Jason broke the silence. "What are you all doing here? With David and Luke?" At once everyone launched into a mash of explanations and questions, and after a few minutes of professor Jason asking everyone separately to explain, he had the whole story of the crazy things that had happened to us. "So, is Emily here? Seems to me like she was a good soul after all."

"She...She...couldn't save herself. She said she had to stay behind to help us the next time we faced Sirius. I doubt that she is alive now. The Gray would have saw her instruct us to ride on the Griffin, so maybe Sirius would have..." Alex explained, unable to continue.

Everyone looked so gloomy, like I was when I was grieving for Jessica, and I knew that Emily was a highly trusted member of their gang, the closest thing to a family when our families were all in the normal world, enjoying life, or perhaps worrying about us. I wondered when I could go home. Back to my father. Back to my normal life. Things weren't great back then, but they were even worse here. Now it was just like my normal life, like when Chip used to bully me. Except this 'Chip' could shapeshift, could eat anything living, and was much much meaner than Chip. I actually missed my normal life, which I thought I never would. Well, that's hard to say when you have not been transported to Mystica yet.

"Dragon Cove? There are dragons here? I'm scared of dragons." I heard Luke say, breaking my train of thought. I did know this was Dragon Cove though, when I was on the Griffin I could see the outline of a dragons head I the island, and I knew that it was Dragon Cove. I was not saying that Luke was stupid, but he must have noticed by some point that this was Dragon Cove. Thinking about Dragon Cove though, I had not seen any dragons at all on the Griffin, even though I had a birds eye view. It was like all the dragons had vanished. I had read about Dragon Cove in a book in the Mystica Institute before. I even remembered the precise words of the text. I thought back to what was written on that book.

Dragon Cove:

It was a place filled with dragons, where the dragons would come to in a dragon season, usually around where the jungle would spring beautiful shades of colors from flowers like morning glories. The dragons would come from all over Mystica to chat about their lives, to re-unite with family members. But what they mainly came here to do was to mate. It would be the mating season, and then the dragons would produce babies. If the dragon babies were successfully in egg form, then the dragons would go back after fall season, bringing their eggs along with them to hatch them at their respective islands on Mystica. Dragons were created to protect the islands of Mystica from enemies that were considered a threat, and one of the greatest threats were the Gray. They were said to be eliminated by a ten-dragon squad, even though right dragons died during the battle, nine of ten of the Gray members had died, though the last one was never to be found again, and he went by the name of Sirius. He was reported dead when dragons spotted his lifeless body on the shore of a distant island. He was said to have never been causing trouble ever again.

I had not actually remember the part about Sirius, but then professor Jason saved me by pulling out his own version of the information book.

I would be coming back for Sirius, stronger than ever, then my dream would truly come true.