Mystia by Jenna (korean ebook reader TXT) 📕

PROLOGUE
STRIKE


Amethyst couldn’t see anything through the flurry of wings as the battle that blurred before her eyes went on and on around her. No sound could be heard but clanging armor and the screeching of the wounded.
The griffin felt a stinging pain in her right foreleg. Not stopping to look down, she roared and reared up on her hind legs, beating her enormous wings ferociously. Then she let herself fall back down. Her front paws crashed to the ground with a force that sent the pebbles around her trembling.
Her left paw had landed on a furry body. Looking down she saw that it was a werewolf, and one of its teeth was stuck in her leg. The little beast was now lying dead on the ground, crushed beneath her claws. Her eyes narrowed as she looked around for any other little werewolves that decided to be so stupid as to try to wound her. At the moment, there were none. Good choice, she thought.

“Amethyst!” someone screamed. “Look out!” Amethyst didn’t stop to look around and see why the warning had been shouted. She rose straight up into the sky so fast that it made her head swim. From here she saw the danger. A dragon at least twice her size had been about to land on her—to crush her. He growled and cut through the sky, straight toward her. His eyes glittered with hatred. Amethyst snarled and rammed the dragon head on, throwing him backwards. She spiraled higher into the air.

The dragon wasn’t discouraged. He roared, sending a ball of fire that was almost as big as Amethyst’s own eight feet tall straight for her. She dove downward in the blink of an eye to get away from it. As it was, the fur on the tip of her tail was singed off. Athianase is attacking me! her thoughts screamed. Athianase was the most vicious dragon alive. Pure evil.

“Cobalt!” she roared to her king on the battlegrounds below. Cobalt understood. He closed his eyes for an instant and ever so subtly raised one paw into the air, the motion growing into a wave of energy that reached her in less than a second. Amethyst heard his voice in her head, speaking in a language she didn’t understand, and felt some of his power surging through her own body. She felt it seeping down into her limbs, then into her claws. Amethyst didn’t hesitate. She hurled herself straight toward Athianase and sliced through his stomach with her now lethal claws, injecting an icy fluid into his body. He fell to the ground with a low, rumbling growl, red scales shining in the moonlight. Everyone scattered beneath him.
“Retreat!” Cobalt shouted. “Athianase won’t stay unconscious for long!” While the others in their little army flew in a frenzy back to their island of Mystia, Amethyst and Cobalt stayed back.

“Your majesty,” said Amethyst, “why not just kill him now, while he’s vulnerable?”

“Because I’m showing him the kindness he has never shown me. And if he attacks again…well, next time there will be no mercy.”

Athianase woke up minutes later and looked around. The battlegrounds were deserted. The Mystians were gone—out of his grasp. He roared in scorching fury toward the night-darkened sky. “Someday, Cobalt,” he growled, standing up, “Someday I will find your home…and I will destroy you.”

* * *

The dragon flew off in search of some water to drink and somewhere to rest for the night, until he could once again prepare his army to attack. He looked down and spotted an inconspicuous clearing in the middle of a thick forest. He flew down into it, his wings stirring up a small dust devil as he touched down. Maybe there will be water here, he thought. He looked around and saw the moon’s reflection shimmering on the surface of a small pool. He walked over and dipped his head in, slurping up the clear, cold water. Hearing the low growl of another creature, he flew off to find another forest to rest in. I am not yet ready for another battle, he thought, thinking that the creature might be a spy for the Mystians.

He hadn’t flown for long when he realized he was over the ocean. Squinting into the early sunrise he saw that there was a low, solid wall of green in the distance. His eyes narrowed and he snarled, flying toward it. It wasn’t long before he reached the island. Could it be? he thought, looking down. He let out an particularly loud screeching roar, sending smoke rising from his nostrils. It was Cobalt’s island. He snorted to get the smoke out of his nose and flew off to gather his minions and prepare for battle.


CHAPTER 1
RESCUE


“When’s your mom gonna be back?” Dawn asked Kaely.

Kaely’s mother, a woman who would live outdoors if she could, had taken Kaely and Kaely’s three best friends on this camping trip to celebrate the beginning of summer and the end of seventh grade. Krysta was new and they still didn’t know her quite as well, but they were all already close.

After pounding the last stake into the ground Dawn was fairly certain she was done putting up the tent, but it still didn’t look quite right…

“Soon, probably. She’s just getting firewood.”

“What’s wrong with your tent?” Krysta asked, glancing over at the sagging, unidentifiable structure Dawn had managed to put up.

“I don’t know. I need Diana’s help.” After hearing the words “Mrs. Richardson” one too many times, Kaely’s mom had gotten fed up and insisted that the girls call her Diana for the remainder of the trip.

“Let me try.” Kaely grabbed the instructions off the ground and started reading. “Now I know why you couldn’t figure it out. You don’t know Spanish.”

Dawn grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the cooler and a bag of potato chips from the picnic table. “Turn it over.”

“Oh.” After a minute she said, “Come help me. I’ll tell you what to do.” She pointed. “Here, first of all take that stake out and pull that corner a little more to your left…”

Dawn held her soda and chip bag out to Krysta, who was standing nearby and watching. “Could you hold this for a minute?”

Krysta nodded and said, grinning, “Hand it over, ya fatty.”

Kaely and Aubri turned sharply and stared. The four of them all said plenty of things to each other that would be insulting to anyone else, because they could. They were best friends, after all. But both Aubri and Kaely knew that there was one thing you never, ever said to Dawn: that she was fat. They had met each other in fourth grade when she had been skinny and athletic and could eat nothing but candy and stay that way. Now it was different. It wasn’t that she had a serious problem; it was just that she was self-conscious. Her weight wasn’t something to be brought up casually.

No one spoke for awhile. Finally Dawn broke the silence. “Um…I think I’m gonna go take a walk.” She got to her feet and started toward the woods.

“Dawn, you know I was kidding, right?”

She didn’t turn around.

Dawn felt her throat closing in. How could she call me that? She knows how it is…I don’t care if she was kidding…She kicked a rock by the trail as hard as she could. It hit a tree with a crack and a few of the tree’s residents took flight. She could feel her throat closing in. She eats more than I do, but she never gains any weight.

As she walked on her anger began to leave her and she was alone with the peace and serenity of the forest. She sat down on a bench by the trail and watched the sun through the trees as it began to set, shimmering like a mirage. It was only then that she realized how long she’d been gone. She reached into her pocket for her phone to check the time and realized she had left it at the campsite.

The sun was setting faster now. She got up to leave, pulling her jacket tighter around her. The air was starting to chill.

As she walked along she came to a fork in the trail. Through her anger she’d forgotten to remember which path she had taken. With a deep breath she started down the left trail. Please let this be the right one. Then she came to another fork. And another one. And then she knew it was taking too long. Somewhere she had chosen the wrong path. She went back. On the way she passed a parking lot but no people, and there wasn’t a single campsite in sight. All she could see in any direction were evergreen trees, drinking in the last small bit of warmth the sun had to offer before nightfall descended.

Her throat tightened again, but she swallowed it away as best as she could and inhaled deeply. Now is not the time to cry. She tossed her short, dark hair out of her face, but the fierce wind sent it swirling right back. She wished it would stop blowing so hard, because for one thing it was making it seem much colder than it was, and for another the sound of it whistling through branches and the whisper of leaves was making it hard to hear anything else.

By then only a sliver of the sun was visible and long shadows started to creep over the ground. Dawn had never been alone in the woods after dark before. Now that it was about to happen, she decided that it wasn’t exactly the ideal way for a thirteen year old girl to spend her summer vacation.

Somewhere an owl hooted. Dawn jumped, startled, and with a sigh continued her seemingly pointless hike.
Through her fear she began to grow drowsy. The sky was a sheet of black paper. It was a cloudy night, and not even the moon was out.

A twig snapped behind her, jerking her awake. It sounded like someone stepping on a twig. There they are! Dawn thought giddily. She spun around at lightning speed, expecting to see her friends. What she saw was not someone she recognized.

It was a monster.

* * *

Dawn wanted to scream. She needed to. But she was afraid to even breathe for fear that the shaggy creature would pounce. She stood there, frozen to the spot and shivering.

For a moment the two of them simply stood there, staring at each other. It was long enough for Dawn to conclude that it must be a wolf, or something related to a wolf. Its bright violet eyes were locked on her. Then the moment passed and the creature uttered a savage snarl, revealing a row of dazzlingly white teeth that sparkled in the moonlight. What really stood out were the two long, needle-sharp fangs