by Julia
Thirty-three thousand roam the lands of the west.
They gallop and frolic with their own lands to roam…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | Fiala wandered along miserably. She ignored the birdsong and even the wildflowers. Afternoon came all too quickly…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | Finally they reached the alpine meadows of the Kaialarnii mountains. Now it was only a matter of finding a herd of the Nightmares…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | Not really to Fiala’s surprise, Professor Neron proved to be extremely adept at storming up and down the rolling hills on their way to the Kaialarnii mountains, and talking all the way…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | After a lengthy and heated discussion involving a lot of yelling between Jan and Professor Neron (who had a very large lung capacity, it seemed)…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | Fiala studied the professor carefully. He seemed to be nothing more than a cheerful old dotard, but she saw in the shrewd blue eyes keen intelligence, and heard the hidden sharpness in his voice…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | The next morning, their trip to the academy began. The innkeeper was all too happy to tell them of it’s location, and the five of them were soon on their way. They left Ava at the stables for safety’s sake…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | The cream-colored stones making up the wall were of an impossible size; gigantic squares that must have been the size of a small house, and weighing who knew how much. The wall was so high the people standing on the top seemed to Fiala’s eyes to be miniscule dolls…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | Fiala rose the next morning to the sound of talking. The men were sitting around a campfire cooking breakfast. She studied the party…

by Findabhair Blacksgote | The five of them marched out of the village in the still of pre-dawn. They had decided the less people knew about Ava the better. Fiala had quickly corrected the others on the Nightmare’s identity, to much rolling of eyes on the part of the men…