"We've been through this area!" Shaye yelled as Fly insisted on investigating a cave once more. The dragon didn't bother to acknowledge he had heard her, he just entered the cave.
     "Ah, here it is!" Fly stood on his back legs and gently touched a loose stone.
     "What are you doing?" Shaye demanded. Fly gestured for her to be quiet and looked inattentively at the wall. Suddenly, it moved. Behind it, a city almost as old as the ruins in the forest thrived, faeries and dragons alike flew through the air around the tall buildings.
     "Come, if there is a person you are looking for, someone in here will know the way," Fly said, spreading his wings and heading towards the city.
     "Fly!" Shaye protested, then begrudgingly followed the dragon. As she landed, Shaye heard astonished gasps and cries of fear. The city came to a stand still as all eyes turned to the girl with the wings of a hawk, the Earth Angel.
     "It's a trick!" a boy yelled. Shaye's gaze snapped towards him.
     "I am not a fake," Shaye hissed, sizing him up. He was a faerie, and could be Griffen's twin brother.
     "Calm down, Atry," Fly said calmly. "Come, I think you could be of help to us."
     Shaye and the fairy followed the dragon to a cave on the outskirts of the city, where no one would bother them.
     "Who are you?" Atry asked again, once they were in the privacy of the cave.
     "I am Shaye, the last of my people," Shaye said quietly. She was clutching Escalabour in her hand.
     "Aye, she is the last of the Earth Angels, somehow, they managed to get a tiny baby girl to Earth before they were destroyed," Fly nodded.
     "They must have gotten a boy there too!" Atry laughed. "She can't be over 20 years! The wars were centuries ago!"
     "No, I am the sole survivor," Shaye smiled, "and I am eight hundred and thirty seven this year."
     Atry looked astonished. "Impossible."
     "It is," Shaye insisted. "I am a great sorceress, and I should have risen to royalty and legendary among my people, I was the One, I was the one who was to lead them to glory, the warrior, the magical, only I was born seventeen years too late," Shaye finished bitterly. "Immortality has a great price to pay."
     "How do you know that?" Fly demanded suddenly.
     "I thirst for knowledge like a woman in the desert thirsts for water," Shaye said. "The library in the city, I was in there for the past week. The only place that felt right, I don't think anything could hurt me while I was in there."
     Fly looked closely at Shaye for a moment and shook his massive head. "You may have age, little one, but you still lack the sense that comes with it!"
     "If you're accusing-" Shaye started, but Atry jumped in with a look of amusement on his face.
     "Fly, we do not need to totally wipe her kind out of existence, and I don't think the Dragon Elders would find it amusing to find one of theirs had been killed by the last known surviving Earth Angel. Come now, weren't your kinds supposed to be allies?"
    "I came here looking for a faerie," Shaye said, giving Fly one last frown. "I'm being paid a large sum of money to find her and bring her home to her parents. Fly said you may be of service. If not, tell me so we might find someone who will help."
     "Really?" Atry said, raising his eyebrows. "Well, a farie, there's lots here."
     "Don't get smart," Shaye muttered as she pulled out a picture of Trish. "This is her, have you seen anyone that might possibly be her?"
     "Hm," Atry said, taking the picture, "no, I have not. But, then, if she was taken against her will, or for personal reasons of her own, she might not want to be seen and may be living on the outer reaches of the city and sending someone in on errands for her."
     "Maybe you do have some brains," Shaye said, taking the picture back.
     "You have no right!" Atry yelled, his face turning scarlet.
     "Don't I?" Shaye challenged.
     "I am the Crown Prince of Ghallad! You could be thrown in chains for uttering such a phrase!"
     "I don't bow to anyone anymore," Shaye hissed. "The last monarch I trusted dies centuries ago, and I don't trust faeries too easily. They have a tendency to get on my nerves, and when I get irritated, things happen to those who irritated me. Not pleasant things, either, sometimes, the poor soul is left wishing his parents never laid eyes on each other!"
    "Ungreatful-!"
     "Do not call me ungrateful!" Shaye yelled. "I will have you know that I am royalty! And I do not take any bullshit from anybody! I do not care who they are! If you are not going to help me like, go run crying to mummy and daddy that the big, mean girl called you a few names! I do not put up with weakness in anyone!" Atry sniffed in irritation, and sat down on the stone floor, glaring at Shaye. "Good, now, just don't annoy me, and we'll get along fine." With that, Shaye spun on her heel and left the cave, spreading her wings as she went.
     "Is she always like this, Fly?" Atry asked once Shaye was out of earshot.
     "I'm afraid so," Fly sighed. "She is stubborn, that one, but she is a good fighter and sorceress. She has been through a lot, and maybe has some rights to act the way she does. It was her, in fact, who told me that she had been trained as a warrior. Warriors do not get close to anyone."
     "I fear we may come to blows," Atry said sadly.
     Fly chuckled. "Shaye will  scream a bit, then she will storm out and maybe disappear for a few days."
     Atry sighed and shook his head. He had studied Earth Angels, but had never dreamed of meeting one face-to-face, especially one as stubborn as this one seemed to be.
     It was full dark before Shaye returned, looking somewhat calmer than when she had left. "The libraries here are amazing. I think there may be hope for these people yet, they do not seem as meek as the faeries on Earth."
     "Meek?" Atry wrinkled his nose. "We are all trained warriors, if only for five years, but we all know how to defend ourselves in case of war. And from Fly has told me, we do not send out other people to do out dirty work."
     Shaye nodded once, "good, then we may get along, Atry."
     The faerie's mouth worked wordlessly, like he couldn't comprehend what Shaye had said. She didn't see this show because she had turned away from Atry and headed to her small stone chamber. As soon as the door closed, Fly's deep laughter filled the cavern, vibrating off the stone walls and ceiling.
     "Yes, I think it will be interesting travelling with you two!" the dragon laughed. "An Earth Angel and a faerie prince, what a strange combination."
     "I did not yet say that I was going," Atry said, scowling at the closed door.
     "You think you have a choice?"
     "Yes!"
     Fly shook his head. "Atry, you, like Shaye, have much wisdom about many things, but there are also many things you do not understand yet, and possibly never will. One of these things is Shaye, she is not an ordinary woman, Atry, she is a proud Earth Angel who is determined to find this girl she is searching for, and yet try to find the history of her people. Both at the same time. She is stubborn, but has a head on her shoulders. You are coming with us, you only have a choice if you come willingly or if she must drag you by your ear."
     Atry let out a strangled scream, throwing his hands into the air in frustration before storming off to his own room. The dragon shook his great head again and sighed deeply. It would be a miracle if the two didn't kill each other before the task was finished, it would be a bigger miracle if both didn't run off, never to be seen again. Chuckling under his breath, Fly lay down on the stone floor of the cave and closed his eyes, he would need all the sleep he could get for the upcoming journey.
     Knowing the dragon was asleep, Shaye slipped out of her room and into Atry's, they needed to talk. "Atry!" Shaye hissed, poking the lump on the bed.
     "Lemme 'lone! It's not time to go, yet," Atry muttered, flinging a pillow at Shaye.
     "Wake up!" Shaye snapped, slapping his shoulder. Atry opened his eyes and saw the Earth Angel glaring down at him, her fists planted on her hips. "We need to talk before Fly decides it's time to leave. I'd rather be able to carry out a sane conversation with you than having to yell and scream the entire time."
     "Fine, fine," Atry sighed, sitting up. It was apparent he wouldn't be getting anymore sleep that night.
     "I want to know the history of the lost Majicks of your people," Shaye said, straddling a chair.
     "It's a long story-"
     "Tell it!"
     Atry sighed and sat up. "The lost Majicks have been lost since your people died out, eight hundred and thirty seven years ago. Some say they were destroyed so they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, some say they were stolen, others say they were sent with you, and some even speculate the reality of their existence. No one knows what all the powers lost are, and we can't even begin to guess. With your appearance, I'm going to assume that you know of the Lost Majicks, or of some similar, because there is no one who can travel through dimensions, that we know of. Many more are thought to be among the Lost Majicks, but no one is brave enough to dare say that it exists. Some are too terrible to even think of, and some are too far beyond imagination to even be dared to be dreamt of in the farthest reaches of the darkest dream.
     "Even the power it would take to travel from dimension to dimension is amazing, no one should be able to do it. You should have been killed in the attempt! There is not much else known, if there is, the Elders guard it with their lives and souls. They didn't even dare to believe that one of your kind survived."
     "But I did and I am here," Shaye said, frowning. "Do you know anything about weak sports in the fabric of time and space? No? I didn't think so. I know of a faerie who can track these places, he's made me several maps of these weak spots, or rips, if I may. I made my attempt at this trip from my own home, a place where the fabric is well and strong, but the place where the girl I seek was taken from is in a weak area. A person with a weaker ability can make the trip through a weaker area."
     "Maybe, maybe not, they would still have to be very strong to make the trip twice, and so fast, unless they were able to keep the porthole open, but that would take a coven! And a very powerful coven at that! How can you even be sure that she's here?"
     "I have a knack for ending up in the right place," Shaye smiled, giving Atry the feeling she wasn't telling the whole truth, if not a complete outright lie. "What happened after my people disappeared?"
     "War. Many people blamed the other for your disappearance, your people were an amazing species. You were warriors who kept us all safe, fine hunters and farmers who could somehow keep us all fed even though it should have been impossible, a hearty people who could survive anything Mother Nature threw at you at anytime, and amazingly wise. You knew things that shouldn't have been known for centuries if not millennia! One of your kind made all of our Elders from the beginning of time look like babes who shouldn't be out of the cradle. Though you are the first immortal that's been known of," Atry shook his head. "The forests where your people lived were abandoned after they disappeared, and they are things nightmares are made of now. It was said that once a little child could walk through those woods and not have a care in the world, now not even our finest soldiers will set foot in them. It's like there's something there that doesn't want us there, and we're all terrified of finding what it was that killed off your people."
     "No one knows what it was? Not even a vague idea?"
     "Not even a wisp of a memory," Atry sighed. Shaye frowned.
     "I was at the city ruins a few nights ago, nothing appeared odd or threatening until the seventh night there, a night with no moon. That's when I suddenly realized there was no life there, and hadn't been in centuries, or, at least any life that should have existed," Shaye shivered. "I was in the library, waiting for dawn so I could make my flight. Something hit the building and shook it on its foundations. That should have been impossible, the building is solid! But it did, and when I went to face it, there was nothing there, I couldn't sense anything or find a trace of anything being there! But yet, something caved in the stone doors, 'leave here, girl, there is nothing here for you anymore,' Nothing should have been able to do that!" Suddenly, something clicked in her mind. "Something new I was there. It wasn't there before, but it came and it knew what I am."
     "So, maybe it saw you fly in," Atry shrugged.
     "No! There is no living thing in those woods! I know. Something knew I still lived somewhere and knew I would return."
     "You can't prove that."
     "An Ancient by the name of Elaine died in the library, but there were no bones there, something had to have removed them, and in a scroll, she wrote of being found and fatally wounded. She died bearing the belief that she was the last one!" Shaye was now pacing the room excitedly. "Elaine wrote about a prophesy. People were leaving the old ways and becoming mortal, people were disappearing. It was a prophesy! They knew something would happen!"
     "Why didn't you tell Fly this?" Atry demanded, but Shaye ignored him.
     "There has to be descendants of my people somewhere on this planet. All I need to do is find them! But how? There are too many families here, and probably all of them are old lines," Shaye was talking to herself more than Atry now.
     "Wait, they became mortal? Shaye, that's impossible!"
     "No, no, no! Something changed them, something must have. Many times I've forgotten who I am along the way, and yet, I remain. I can't be that different. Atry! What do you know of family lines that may have begun around that time?"
     "None began, Shaye, but some appeared, saying they were from across the sea. You honestly don't think-"
     "Take me to them!"
     "Ok! Ok!" Atry said, standing. He had slept in his clothes. "It's daybreak, they should be awake. Are you going to Fly we're leaving?"
     "No," Shaye said. Atry had to run to catch up to her, and in the air, his filmy wings were no match for Shaye's.
     "There," Atry said, pointing to a large farmhouse. Shaye smiled sadly and landed out of sight behind some buildings. "This is the home of the Lonngate family."
     "Excuse me!" Shaye called to the farmer. "Are you a Longgate?"
     "Aye, what business is it of yours, lass?" the farmer asked.
     "I may be of relation to you, kind sir. Would you be as kind to tell me of your family history?"
     "We came from across the sea, that is all!" the farmer snapped. "Get off my land!"
     "Ah, you're hiding something," Shaye smiled, nodded. "Sir, your eyes deceive you, they still hold true to the race your family left generations ago."
     "What do you know about that, girl?"
     "So, it's true then?" Shaye pressed.
     "Aye, since you're so keen in it, it is!" the farmer snapped. "We came from the Earth Angels near nine hundred years ago, but I can't see how you'd know that."
     "A race long gone from this earth," Shaye sighed, shaking her head. "Any idea of what happened to them?"
     "I'm just a simple farmer, if my ancestors knew something, they took it to their graves," the farmer said sadly.
     "What's your name?"
     "John Longgate, lass."
     "Mm, I'm Shaye," Shaye nodded curtly. "You honestly don't have and inkling of who I am, do you?"
     "No, I don't, but your eyes look like you are also a descendant of that proud race."
     "Descendant," Shaye laughed. "Nay, John, I am something more than a descendant. I am one."
     "Impossible! Liar!" John roared. "How dare you-" His words cut off as Shaye spread her wings. Atry shook his head angrily, she shouldn't be letting people know what she was so readily.
     "I am Shaye, the long survivor of the Earth Angels, John Longgate. I was sent to Earth as a child and I am immortal. I was raised by a great wizard on Earth, he taught me all he knew and taught me how to fight. He's been dead nearly eight hundred years now, and I am eight hundred and thirty seven, I stopped aging at seventeen."
     "My God," John whispered. "The legends are true, against all odds, they're true."
     "Are there any others?"
     "No, they've all left, my Lady, or they've strayed so far from their roots, they have none of the Old Blood left, I am sorry."
     Shaye scowled a little at the reference to nobility. "So it's true we are near dead, then. Pah. Don't let your family forget who you were, who you are, and maybe we will be able to return to what we were one day."
     "Never, my Lady, never shall we forget." John Longgate bowed so low his body nearly bent in half. Shaye rolled her eyes and lifted into the air before he could straighten himself.
     "What the hell were you thinking, pulling that?" Atry demanded once they were well out of ear shot.
     "Restoring faith, my dear," Shaye smiled. "The only one's left. I should find the remaining families and lecture them until their blood remembers itself!"
     "No! No yelling! No restoring! Shaye, your simply being here has already probably started a war! There will be people out to kill you, and ones out to make you queen! You do not need to draw more attention to yourself!"
     "I won't be in the city much longer, Atry, I have a job to do," Shaye said coolly, "so you do not have to worry about me starting any wars or taking away the power from your precious people!"
     Atry watched as Shaye soared out of his sight and swore. Fly had told him she was stubborn and she had already disappeared for a week! Now that she knew that there was a family that sill carried her people’s blood, who knew where she was headed and when, or if, she would return. Shaking his head, Atry headed to the cave to tell Fly that Shaye had run off again.
 
 

     "Griffen!" Griffen mumbled into his pillow and pulled the covers over his head. "Wake up!"
     "Lemme 'lone, Shaye!" Suddenly, he sat straight up in bed. "Shaye! When... did you find here?"
     "No, but I found someone more annoying than you," Shaye smiled. "I also found some things you may find interesting. Get dressed, you're coming with me."
     "Wha? No! No way!"
     "Come on, Griffen, you're coming if I have to drag you in your boxers!"
     "Fine!" Griffen snapped. He got out of bed and dressed while Shaye threw some of his things into a backpack.
     "Here, this should be all you need. Hurry, I'm not sure how much time I have before that idiot Atry decides I'm not coming back and disappears on me or goes and does something stupid!"
     "Shaye, what are you going on about?" Griffen yawned. "You've been gone nearly two months and suddenly you appear spouting gibberish and drag me off!" Shaye shook her head and pulled Griffen out of the house. A silvery porthole was waiting under a great oak. Griffen started to panic, but Shaye simply held his arm and jumped.
 

     "Look what the cat dragged in," Shaye teased when Griffen woke up. They were in the caves Shaye had found herself in when she arrived. "Come now, was it that bad?"
     "I should have you skinned for that!" Griffen burst out. Shaye shrugged and looked out at the sky.
     "Well, get up, we have a long journey ahead of us. I don't know how much time we've lost already. You said I was gone nearly two months? It's barely been three weeks here, from what I know. Maybe the travelling takes longer than I think, but I doubt that it is possible. Perhaps arriving in this place does something?"
     "I'd still like to know where 'here' is," Griffen muttered, but he followed Shaye outside. He looked around nervously before following her into the air, though.
     "This is where I came from," Shaye was saying excitedly. "Those forests, that's where my people lived for centuries before they disappeared! There's a city there, though there shouldn't be, and there's something in that city. I don't know what, but I had an encounter with it. And there's still a family carrying on the blood line. Some people forgot who they were and became mortal, and then most disappeared forever or forgot who they are."
     "You have been busy with something," Griffen sighed. "But what about Trisha?"
     "It's all connected, somehow," Shaye said, frowning a little. "Atry says that the ability to dimension hop, like what we just did, should be impossible, no one should have the power to do so, and to keep a porthole open like whoever took Trisha must have, would take amazing amounts of power and probably kill whoever attempted it."
     "So, you think you're after someone who might have equal abilities?"
     "I don't know!" Shaye admitted. "I found some blood at the house, and it came from an immortal. Griff, I have no idea what I'm looking for, but I know I'm tied in with all this somehow!"
     "Calm down, Shaye! We'll sort this out. Now, tell me about this Atry you keep talking about."
     "He's a faerie, and could be your twin," Shaye sighed. "Though you're less annoying than he is by a long shot. And then there's Fly, a dragon."
     "Dragon! Shaye! What the hell is this place!"
     "My home," Shaye smiled weakly. "There's still lots I don't know about this place, but it feels like home. A city where faeries fly without fear of being seen, a city haunted my an ancient evil, dragons, and though I haven't been able to prove it yet and Fly refuses to tell me because he thinks I'll take off in search of them, centaurs and unicorns."
     "Lee, you have no idea what you've gotten us into, do you?"
     "None in the least."
     "Good, 'cause if you did, I'd run screaming out of fear something had possessed you!" Griffen laughed. "Another Shaye plot, jump in blindly and thrash until we find something."
     "It works and hasn't gotten you killed or seriously injured, yet," Shaye smiled. "I figured I could use you, since you have a knack for finding weak spots in the fabric, and I need someone from the world I know around."
     "You love me!" Griffen teased. "I knew it!"
     "Shut-up," Shaye muttered.
     The flight to the city only took two days' worth of travelling, since they weren't searching anything and Shaye didn't want to go back to the city so soon.
     "There!" Shaye said, spotting the caves. "Now, if only they haven't taken off on me!"
     "You didn't tell them you were leaving?"
     "No."
     "Shaye!" Griffen yelled. Shaye shook her head and landed by the cave mouth.
 "She returns," Fly smiled lazily from the cave. "And who is it you brought with you, Shaye? If I didn't know better, I would say it's your friend, Atry."
     "Griffen, someone I know," Shaye said curtly. She dragged Griffen past Fly and into the caves. "Atry!"
     "What?" Griffen stared as his double appeared from a smaller cave that looked to be a bedroom. "So, you returned. I don't know why I stayed! Three days I sat here wondering where you were and if there was a point of staying!"
     Shaye rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Atry, this is Griffen, the one who can detect weak spots in the fabric." Griffen nodded once and tried to surpress a laugh, at least Shaye was keeping them on their toes.
     "So you traveled again!" Atry yelled. "Have you no idea how dangerous that is? What if it's draining your power? What if next time you die or get trapped, then what?"
     "Calm down, Atry," Shaye suddenly smiled, and Griffen felt her grip tighten on his arm. "I used a porthole, this time." The other faerie turned bright red but before he could get a word out, Shaye pulled Griffen into another smaller cave and shut the heavy wooden door. "He thinks too highly of his knowledge."
     "He doesn't seem too happy with you."
     "He never is! I think he thinks he's supposed to protect me. Bah, I will protect him if anything!"
         "Hey, at least he hung around," Griffen pointed out.
 "I have a feeling Fly had a hand in that," Shaye smiled a little. "It's not that I don't trust him, it's like he doesn't trust me."
     "He has a lot to learn," Griffen said, straddling a chair. Shaye shook her head and lay down on the bed.
     "There's another room off this one, if you wish to sleep or go there. Stay here, for all I care, or go talk to Atry and Fly. I'm going to sleep."