The Dragon

After Star and The Keeper agree on calling the two changed fairies Dragon Fairies, Tink and Periwinkle try to adjust to their new bodies. While Star finds it curious how they still need pixie dust to allow them to fly, he resumes working on his projects as their abdomens begin to swell already.

Months pass by as the pregnant fairies birth their eggs with it being Vidia's turn to lay six large eggs even bigger than Tink's were, though it is nearly halfway to winter by the time Periwinkle and Tinkerbell finally lay their eggs.

Utterly exhausted and sweaty from all the pushing and screaming, Tink huffs and puffs, saying in between pants, "Please...tell me...that was the last one."

It takes four nurses to carry the ostrich-sized egg to the infirmary to be cleaned off as the head nurse dabs her forehead with a dry cloth, saying, "Yes it was, Tinkerbell. That was the seventh and final egg, I am greatly impressed with how well you did given that they are as big as ostrich eggs."

The only response she has for the head nurse is, "Wonderful." before falling asleep instantly as she starts to snore when the afterbirth comes out, not rousing Tink from her slumber at all.

Standing in a structure built for their size, Star sits beside their seven eggs with a proud smile as he caresses them affectionately while humming a gentle tune, saying, "I can't wait for the day that you all hatch and reveal what we created this time..."

When the time comes for the eggs to hatch, most of the creatures that come out of Tink's eggs so far are on four legs, having four claws on each foot. Perhaps the most interesting creatures he has seen yet as they have some sort of feather-like antennae at the top of their heads instead of horns like their parents, though having a thin row of spines down their backs within a thin membrane. Covered in tiny round c-shaped scales with four, blade-like wings beside their spines, he notices that each translucent wing has a pattern to it with each one different from the other except for a couple pairs of twins.

While he and Dewey record the new discovery, another of Tink's eggs hatch, though this time, it is a female Dragon Fairy with light tan skin, green scales, silver claws, and wings just like her mother with two black horns protruding from the back of her head amidst her silverish lavender hair. When the young female stretches her arms out above her head, she lets out a soft yawn and lets herself fall onto her side to go back to sleep, saying, "So sleepy...".

Dewey's wide eyes are enraptured by the birth of the new fairy, furiously writing down notes, saying, "Absolutely remarkable, they are the same size as a regular, newly born fairy, and they can talk as soon as they hatch!"

When the last egg hatches, it is another female Dragon Fairy with black scales and red claws with a pair of curled, black horns sticking out the back of her head amidst a full head of auburn hair as she rises up on her spindly legs and toddles over toward her mother, holding her arms up and grabbing for her, saying, "So hungry."

Happy tears stream from Tink's face as she picks up her daughter with both hands and cradles her against her chest, turning away from the others in the room while pulling down the top of her dress so that she can breastfeed her. Lifting her head to look at her mate, she smiles and says, "Aren't our children so beautiful?"

Nuzzling his snout against her forehead, he rumbles happily in his chest, saying, "They are very beautiful, would you wish to have another clutch soon?"

When her child latches on at last, she giggles and says, "Perhaps in a year or two, I do have to help the others prepare to bring winter to some parts of the world, you know."

With a smirk, Star nods and asks, "So what would you like to name these two?"

Thinking it over for a moment, she then looks at the one suckling and says, "This one here, I'm thinking Seeker." then turns to look at the sleeping one and giggles, saying, "And her, how about Cosmo?"

Approving both names, he says, "I like them both." Letting her focus on the other children around her, Star turns to Dewey and asks, "So Dewey, what are we thinking about for naming the new species of fairy?"

Tapping his cheek curiously, he then says, "How about Fae Dragon?"

Unable to offer anything better, he smiles and nods, saying, "That is better than anything I can come up with presently." Reminded that Peri's eggs should be hatching soon, he makes his way out, saying, "I will go see if your sister's clutch is hatching yet."

Amused by his fatherly nature coming out, Tink chuckles, saying, "They will hatch when they are ready to hatch, don't rush them." Remembering how many there are, she huffs and says, "I can't believe she laid one more than me."

Raising an eyebrow at that, Star chuckles and says, "Competitive are we? Perhaps we could try to see if you can give birth to a large clutch then, if I recall correctly...there are thirteen eggs to one of those."

Her eyes go wide at hearing that, blinking in disbelief, saying, "Oh my poor stomach!"

With a smile, he says, "Don't worry, you can get it back to normal with lots of exercise, take Vidia for example..." when something lands around his nose.

Holding his mouth closed, Vidia looks back at Star's face, saying, "Not another word of how I looked after my birth, mister or I will sew your mouth shut!"

Letting her have the win, he chuckles through his nose and enjoys the view up her skirt as she is wearing nothing underneath, thinking, 'There's the poptop we all love.'

Just then another voice enters his mind, saying, 'I wouldn't let Vidia hear you say that, but would you get in here already? My eggs are starting to hatch.'

Shocked to hear Peri's voice in his head, he shakes the surprise off his face, saying, 'I forgot that you both can use telepathy after the bond was forged. I'm on my way.'

Spring comes again as Star manages to melt all the gold and silver into small ingots when he gets back to heating and crafting the sturdy silver-like metal into long bars with his fire and his own claws. When he runs out of the material, he returns to the tunnel to use his spell to search for more.

By the time he has finished his second prototype, he presents it to Queen Clarion, saying, "Your Majesty, my second prototype may resemble a large birdcage, but it is a bit different from one because it locks from the inside." Turning to a tired-looking Vidia, he grins and says, "Throughout the year, the cage is normally kept closed to prevent birds from making it their home. However, when a scout sounds the alarm after spotting a hawk, another scout closest to the safety cage will hurry over to slide the door open and stand watch over it until the safe capacity is reached. However, if a hawk should attack the cage, the scout will close the door and secure it so that the fairies inside are safe. For safety reasons, no fairy should be outside of the third ring as a hawk's talons might be able to reach that far. Allow me to demonstrate..."

Standing at the top of the pixie dust tree, he turns his gaze to Nyx, saying, "If you would, Nyx."

The scout fairy nods and dashes over to the closed cage, standing by the door and reaches her hand between the bars to grab the handle. Raising the handle and sliding it over, she releases it and pulls her hand out before sliding the door open. Moving inside the cage, she waits for the signal for the next part, saying, "Ready."

Star looks at the Queen and asks, "If you would please step inside, Your Majesty."

Turning to the cage with a curious look on her face, she heads over to the open door and notices that the outermost area is painted red with the rest of the inside area painted white, saying, "The white is the safe zone, correct?" When she hears Star give her confirmation that it is, she enters the cage and stands at the center of the area then waits for the demonstration to continue.

Turning back to Vidia, he smirks and calls out, "VIDIA, HAWK! GET TO THE CAGE!"

Startled awake at hearing that, she shouts, "AAHH! and zips over to the cage and dashes inside, folding her wings down and standing next to the queen when the door slides shut and is secured by Nyx, calming down enough to whine, "Why am I the unfortunate fairy to have the dust scared out of her!?"

Ignoring her, he chuckles and says, "If you would do your part now, Fawn."

Smiling widely, she claps, saying, "I'm glad to get to show off all my hard work training her!" then puts two fingers to her lips and blows a distinct whistle, which results in a shrill cry coming from a nearby tree.

Wrapping her arms around the queen, Vidia asks, "Fawn...what did you do now?"

Smiling innocently, she giggles and says, "Oh nothing much, I just trained Aimee for this presentation is all." and hears a flapping of wings approaching.

Blinking her eyes in confusion, she then starts to suspect she did something dangerous and says, "Did you train a hawk to chase fairies?!"

Shaking her head, she says, "Nope...I trained a Falcon to attack the cage."

Star watches as the fairies dart away to cover with Vidia fainting and falling against the queen while a blur of motion zips past and strikes the cage with a series of skrees and squawks, observing the falcon hop and climb all over the sides of the cage to try to get inside it. A long minute passes as he nods to Fawn saying, "Thanks Fawn, that will be all. You can send her back to where she came form now."

Nodding her head, she pulls out a short whistle and blows a couple sharp notes on it to get Aimee's attention, causing the falcon to leave the cage and land in front of her. Flying up to be eye-level with her, she lays her head against the falcon's and holds her close with her palms, saying, "Thank you for helping me with this Aimee, Falcons are much easier to handle than a hawk after all. You can go back to the Ravine now to be with your love."

As the falcon leaves and heads for her home, he spreads his wings and rises above the tree tops to ensure she is gone for real. When she is out of sight, he lands again and says, "She's back home, Nyx, you can open the cage door now."

Letting out a sigh of relief, she grabs the handle and moves it over. Once it is far enough, she releases it and slides the door open saying, "That rocking will take a bit of getting used to."

When Nyx helps an unconscious Vidia and a queasy Queen Clarion out of the cage, the fairy queen groans, saying, "Be sure to add places for fairies to hold on to before I approve of it. That rocking really gets to a fairy."

Nodding with a smile on his face at another successful test, Star says, "I will begin making the changes at once, how many of these cages should I make?"

Not trusting her wings, she walks on her two feet, saying, "I will try to have an answer to you by morning, Star, for now, I must rest until my stomach settles."

Receiving an order for twenty more cages, Star gets to work right away. One morning, weeks later, a strange metallic squeaking reaches his ears when he hears horns echo from outside his cave. Jumping into action at the hawk alarm, he leaves his cave in a rush and heads towards the pixie dust tree.

Spotting three hawks chasing fairies in a peculiar formation, two catch their targets and start flying off while the third has trouble catching theirs. His anger rises as a menacing growl rises from his throat, making him flap harder to catch up to the one still chasing the fairy he recognizes as Nyx.

Nyx darts between branches and glances behind her to see the hawk about to catch her with its talons, until Star slams into the bird's side and tears away at the neck in a vicious manner. She is about to throw up at the sight, but she notices just then that there are no entrails or blood, just a strange liquid that spills from the creature, causing her to ask, "What on earth is this thing?"

Star sniffs the creature and picks up a scent he's nearly forgotten, causing him to bare his teeth and snarl, saying, "I should have recognized their stench sooner, those wretched bipeds have stumbled upon this haven. Their presence anywhere near my territory will not be tolerated." Putting no thought toward his present size, he takes off after the other two once he destroys the magic crystal powering the creation.

Not wanting to be left behind, Nyx races after him and finds a spot behind a couple spikes, saying, "LET'S GO GET MY TWO GIRLS BACK, THOSE BASTARDS SNATCHED MY BABIES WHILE I WAS TEACHING THEM SOME TECHNIQUES!"

Snarling darkly, he chases the magically operated creatures through a portal, saying, "I intend to make them pay for their actions."

Closing her eyes as he darts through the shimmering portal, she finds herself amidst a desert stretching as far as the eye can see, asking, "What was that, and where did we go?"

Recognizing the desert from the gnarled trees growing upon it, he growls, saying, "That was a magic portal, and we are currently flying over a place called Unforgiving Desert, which happens to be where I failed to save my sister..."

Her eyes go wide as she looks around to see a beast leap up out of the sand at one of the passing hawks, but is far too high for it to reach, causing her to say, "You mean to say that we are-"

Closing the distance as he feels himself getting bigger, Star says, "Yes. We are flying through the skies of the world I once called 'home'. That portal must have had a protective barrier of some kind because I am returning to my original size, when I catch those creations, you grab your children and head back through the portal...I have unfinished business with the vermin of this world."

Nyx nods her head and watches as he effortlessly closes the distance and bites down on one of the creature's necks, causing it to release its prisoner as the silver-haired fairy hovers in the air, trembling violently from the experience. Kicking off from her place, she races to her daughter and wraps her arms around her, shaking her into focus on her, saying, "Look at me Dart, mommy's here. I need you to stick close to me as we go after your father."

Catching up to the last creation as it makes a bee-line somewhere, he uses a swipe of his claws to rip the creature's head right off and release the fairy in its grasp. Turning his head around, he sees Nyx grab her other daughter's hand and turn around to make for the portal, banking around so that he can ensure they make it back safely.

After seeing them through the portal safely he turns around and heads in the direction the creatures were heading, rumbling, "The last thing you will ever learn is to never earn a dragon's fury..."

Ordering her daughters to return home right away, she heads back towards the portal, saying, "I'm going to accompany your father and try to keep him from doing anything rash, tell the others that we'll be back as soon as we can." Once through the portal, she hurries to grab one of Star's tail spikes, barely managing to hold on as she starts crawling towards his head.

Flying for several long minutes, he eventually passes over a once-lush forest full of life, now filled only with trees dying of thirst as pillars of smoke rise into the sky on the horizon. Making note of the town's location, he adjusts his angle to survey the rest of the planet's surface and flies higher into the air.

Finally managing to reach his head, she clings to one of the spikes and shouts, "Was this world like this before?"

Sighing, he looks at the once-grassy lands ahead, saying, "No...it didn't. It was much like your world, rich and full of life, with birds singing their happy tunes. But now...everything that my eye sees on the horizon looks like it is suffering or dying."

Traveling to the various areas around the planet, he pays one final visit to where the dragon's ruled. Arriving only to find the caldera filled with the skeletons of his fellow dragons, his eyes tear up as guilt threatens to overtake him. Taking in the sight of the skeletons dumped into piles and piles all over in the caldera like waste, a sob is torn from his throat as he realizes that he is to blame for all of this, saying with a pained sniff, "This is all...my fault. I am to blame for my entire species going extinct and the planet dying..."

As she feels him land at the rim of the caldera overlooking the numerous skeletons of dead dragons, Nyx makes her way around to his face and lands on his snout, lying down and attempting to hug his snout, saying, "No, you're not. I don't know the specifics of what happened, but all of what we have seen can not fall on your shoulders alone. There must be many others at fault here for letting things get this bad here, but I am sure there is something that can be done to rescue it before it's too late."

Her words cause him to think on everything he knows, eventually recalling a legend his father once told him, saying, "Well...there might be. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think I remember my dad singing about a legend from a very long time ago. I wonder if I remember everything correctly." Clearing his voice before attempting to sing, he then says, "There was an ancient tale, from very long ago. From before even dragon rule...there was this female dragon barely left alive. With no friends to help her, she knew that she would perish. A passing thought did she relish, so with her dying breathe...she sang a plea to the one residing beneath. Many quiet moments passed until she heard an answer, and received a second chance to savor."

Blinking in confusion, Nyx tries to understand it and says, "Uh...what?"

Chuckling, Star says, "You see, there's this legend we have about a dragon residing deep within the planet that never wakes, and if your desire is strong enough to gain his attention, your wish shall be granted."

Skeptical of the legend, she then says, "I'm not big into fairy tales, no pun intended, but what do you think about that legend's claim?"

Considering how to answer a question he hasn't been asked before, it takes him a moment to come up with an answer, saying, "Well...I haven't really given it much thought before, and don't really believe in what I can't see, feel, smell, or taste."

Pushing herself upright and onto her knees, Nyx raises an eyebrow and puts her hands on her hips, saying, "Well, why don't you think on that for a while as we find where those strange hawk contraptions came from and stop them for good."

Nodding gently, Star says, "Very well, I can agree on that at least. Find a spot and hang on tightly so you don't go flying off."

Returning to where the town was at, Nyx spots a strange tower ahead of them, saying, "Something doesn't look right with that structure there."

Getting the same feeling, he uses his spell and links Nyx to it as well, saying, "Let's do a little investigating."

They circle high above the town out of sight as Nyx gasps and says, "For some reason I'm seeing traces of pixie dust in that tower."

Sharpening his focus, he recognizes at least a dozen fairies held within the upper part of the tower when he picks up a smell he recognizes, drawing an angry snarl from his throat, saying in a barely contained roar, "I smell Ro in there along with twelve others, these cretins are going to burn in hellfire for taking them!"

Not having a chance to respond as she is forced to hold on for her life when he dives down out of the sky, letting out a deafening roar of rage. As her hair whips behind her in the wind, she pries one eye open to see a bright blue glow coming from under Star's head as he pulls up from his dive.

Planning his attacks very carefully so as not to hit the tower, Star unleashes a wave of blue fire upon the city's outer limits and engulfing everything in fire, bellowing, "LOOK INTO THE BRIGHTNESS OF MY FLAME AND SCREAM IN TERROR!" Turning back around to continue his attack on the remaining quarters, bellowing, "WRITHE IN A BLUE FLASH AND BURN TO NOTHING, BEGONE...WORMS!"

As Nyx speechlessly watches the city being engulfed in flames, the screams of terror rise up to her and cause tears to stream from her eyes, silently thinking, 'No more...Please make it stop.'

A bright beam of light streaks just in front of Star's nose, startling him into stopping for a moment and turning his attention back to the top of the tower. Noticing a massive golden orb sparkling with yellow sparkles, he shrieks in outrage, screaming, "HOW DARE THEY STEAL FROM OUR FRIENDS TO CREATE SUCH A VILE THING!! HOW MANY DIED TO MAKE THAT POSSIBLE?! NO MATTER, I SHALL DESTROY IT AND ERASE IT FROM EXISTENCE."

Looking at the glittering orb, she gasps and stomps on his head, shouting, "Don't destroy it, we can take that back and change it back into the dust that it once was!"

Growling softly, he concedes to her request and decides to take the entire tower. Pulling himself upright, he hits the side of the tower and wraps his claws around the upper and lower parts of it. The bottom of the tower crumbles away and starts falling towards the ground, until he flaps his wings hard and quickly to get away.

Flying a safe distance away, Star sets the tower down in the grassy plains, using his spell to see inside the tower, shouting, "To the wretched bipeds within this tower, use anymore magic or try to escape with the prisoners and you shall die a most gruesome and slow death once I find you again!"

Fearing for their lives, a few young female elves scamper out with rags for clothing, then point up at the dragon's damaged horn with horrified expressions, mumbling, "It's him...the Dragon Reaper of Raelordiel!"

A taller, well-dressed elf with flowing blonde hair rushes out of the tower and aims a golden staff at the dragon's head, shouting, "FOOL! With our first prototype, your head shall make a marvelous trophy!"

The females cower together as the dragon lunges forth and grabs the noble between his front teeth, causing the powerful staff to drop from his hand as they watch him get tossed into the air and caught in its mouth. When they hear the crunching of bones, two of them puke all over the ground in front of them while one of them pisses themselves in terror, screaming, "Please don't eat us, we're not well!"

Spitting the remains into the distance like something nasty he just tasted, he uses his magic to examine the young elven girls. Once he figures out what they have, he huffs, saying, "How unfortunate...you all have syphilis, and I am not in the mood to heal you."

Desperate to survive, the tallest one prostrates herself, saying, "Nor would we beg you to, oh great one, all we wish is for our lives to be spared!"

Ignoring the urge to preen at the praise, he huffs in annoyance, saying, "So you shall, but go nowhere until I have secured what I came for." Turning his attention to the fairy on his head, he says, "Nyx, enter the tower and search for the others that are trapped inside while I remove this wretched orb."

Nodding, she leaves her spot on his head and races towards the tall tower, weaving her way up a long, winding staircase, saying, "Ugh, spirals are so annoying."

Star claws away at the top of the tower to get at the orb that attacked him, eventually able to wrap his teeth around it and wrench it free. Setting it on the ground, he then grabs the staff with his tail and sets it beside the orb, turning to the female elves, saying, "Were there any other items made from golden yellow magic dust?! Answer honestly and I might heal you."

Without missing a beat, the youngest and shortest elf speaks up, saying, "NO milord, just those two I swear. It took the scientists ages to finish that orb and staff."

Sensing no falsehood in their words, Star sighs with relief, saying, "Very well, I shall heal you all then for being so forthcoming with that information."

Making her way out of the tower with the others in tow, Nyx finally leaves the tower, looking over at Rosetta, saying, "Look who came on a personal mission of his to rescue you all."

Not caring that her dress is in tatters, Rosetta gasps and cries out happily, saying, "Well bust my bonnet, Star, you're back to your old elf again!" then runs up to him and hops up on one of his claws, saying, "Well my oh my didn't you get bigger, set me on top of that head of yours you big lug!"

Chuckling with happy tears trickling from his eyes, he lifts his claw up to his nose and watches the itty bitty fairy climb on and run up to his forehead, saying, "Once we get back home, we will fix your wings, alright girls?"

When the others are helped up onto his nose, Nyx crosses her arms and walks up his snout, saying, "Even though they were roughly treated, none of the captured fairies died. However, I did recover a few bags of stolen dust along with a bag of blue dust that went missing."

Star turns his eyes to the elves and huffs, saying, "What would you fairies like to do with these survivors?"

Hearing his question, they all speak quietly to themselves, when Rosetta eventually steps forward with her hands clasped in front of her, saying, "After talking about it, we think that it would be best to leave them here although these elven girls did take care of us."

Blinking in acknowledgement, he says, "Very well, find a comfortable position and hang on to a spike, we're going for a short ride to my old stomping grounds."

Hurrying to a spike, Nyx asks, "You're going to do that, aren't you?"

Smirking, he picks up the orb and staff, saying, "Maybe." When they arrive at the caldera, he hums in a low tone and wonders what to say, eventually making a choice as he sings, "Oh mighty and ancient dragon slumbering deep below, my heart and soul are burdened from my past actions. I make this earnest plea to save this world from its woe, for I am the one who began this wicked infection. Hear my words and start a cycle of retribution to help life regrow!"

A chuckle echoes up from deep underground and surrounds the group as the deep croaking voice calls out, "I hear ya youngun, but I ain't no ancient dragon, alright?" He then examine the world around him and says, "Well, well, things have certainly gone to hell in a hand basket didn't they?" Sensing the dragon's guilt at feeling responsible, the wise-old spirit says, "Don't be too hard on yerself, all ya have control of are the choices that ya have to make, so learn from yer mistakes and grow wiser. I was getting bored of watching all of this peaceful nature anyhow, perhaps I'll come up with something new to entertain myself for the next few million years, heh heheh!"

Confused, he looks at the ground, asking, "What are you saying old one?"

Groaning with exasperation, he says, "That's the problem with some of you younguns, ya just don't understand the advice I offer at times. What I'm sayin' is that ya shouldn't let yourself dwell too much on negative emotions, that is a one-way trip to a life of misery, which is no way for us eternals to experience the wondrous thing called life. When it comes to your emotions, grieve or cry when you need to, and even throw a tantrum if you need to, but don't let yourself be dragged down by those negative emotions for longer than is necessary or you will miss out on what life has to offer you." Realizing that he is prattling on, he groans in annoyance, saying, "Ah just listen to how I'm prattling on, you all best skedaddle before my big show starts! Time for me to work my magic and remake the world up top again!"

Turning around and preparing to fly away, Star says, "Thank you for the advice wise one, I will remember what you said."

Chuckling, the old spirit says, "Stop living in the past, youngun, the present is far more entertaining and the future is just plain chaotic! Now scoot along so I can start remodeling." Talking to himself, he asks, "Hmm...now should I go with a freeze first, or fire? Ehh...I did freeze first last time, so let's go with an epic fire and brimstone approach. Time to kick some long-forgotten volcanoes into action...heheheheh...I know just the one to wake up first."

Not wasting another moment, he takes off into the sky, hearing the old voice cackle and shout, "WAKE UP FATSO, IT'S TIME TO RISE AND SHINE!" hearing a distant rumbling, which causes him to turn to see what it is.

A peak slowly starts to climb into the sky, getting higher and higher as Rosetta wrings her hands while holding on with her arms and legs, saying, "Uhm...would you all be upset if I suggested we go back for those elven girls?"

When the girls shake their heads no, Nyx sees something sticking up, saying, "What is that thing over there, Star? It's not like any stone or tree I've seen before."

Star turns his head to see what she noticed and half chuckles, saying, "Ah, that is just the piece of horn that was shot off just before I came to your world."

Thinking for a moment, she then asks, "Why don't you swing over pick it up to take it back with us?"

Thinking about it for a moment, he says, "What would I use it for, a giant doorstop?"

Frowning, she thumps her foot on his head, saying, "Of course not, but you could have something to serve as a memento of what brought you to us, and all the good times we had together?"

Considering what she said, he concedes to her request and heads over to the piece of horn, snagging it with a free claw without having to land and making his way to where they left the elven girls at. Once they find the group huddled together a few hundred yards away from the tower, he sighs and asks, "Did they decide to try to live inside that tower, or did they get distracted by the rising mountain?"

Nyx sighs and says, "Probably a bit of both as they seem to be quite the curious sort from what Ro and the others told me."

Watching the distant mountain get taller by the minute, the elven girls scream with fright when they hear something land really close to them. Turning around to see the dragon from before, they prostrate themselves on the ground as the oldest says, "Have we angered you somehow, great one?"

Being worshiped rubs Star the wrong way already and will get old quickly, causing him to say, "I am no divine entity, just a powerful dragon that will be around long after your great-great grandchildren's bones are turned to dust until I fall in battle. So if you must show some respect, please just call me Lord Star or Lord Reaper. It has come to our attention that this world will be undergoing a great upheaval, which will result in all life on the planet being destroyed and reborn. The fairies have decided to offer you all a chance at life in another world, if you accept their gracious offer...know this. I do plan on making regular visits to their world, so I suggest that you all find a way to use your magic to live with the forest instead of clearing vast areas for timber and farm ground as other bipeds do. Your ancestors of the long past did this, so I expect you all to learn to do the same." He is about to continue when an eruption is heard, making him cut himself short, saying, "More will be explained when we arrive, so climb into my mouth and stay near the front. If you must relieve yourselves, do it now because I will not tolerate being treated as a latrine."

Without further delay, they all get up and run to the far side of a few scattered bushes. With a stream nearby, they rush over to it to clean themselves off while putting their tattered rags back on, bowing their heads to the dragon, saying, "Thank you for your benevolence, Lord Star."

Liking that much better, he lowers his head to the ground and opens his mouth for the girls to climb in. Once the last elf climbs in, he closes his mouth most of the way while letting some light shine in through his lips, tilting his head forward a bit, saying through his partially closed mouth, "If you need something to hold on to, grab hold of my tongue so you don't slip down my throat accidentally." Feeling their hands grasp his tongue, he then takes off back towards the portal.

Other mountains start to form in the distance as the first one begins spewing massive amounts of ash into the air when the portal comes into sight as Nyx coughs from the stench, saying, "There's the portal...(cough)...but how will you get through it, you're too big."

Smirking, he doesn't answer to keep most of the falling ash out of his mouth, using a magic spell to take hold of the portal and make it wide enough for him to pass through. Once it is large enough, he stops and flies through it. Making his way to an open area near the pixie dust tree, he lands on the ground gently while setting the orb and the staff down. Letting the fairies off next, he then sets his head down onto the ground and opens his mouth to let the elves out while releasing his hold on his horn when the vision of all the skeletons left behind on that world flashes through his mind. Thinking of the children he has raised so far, he sighs and waits for the last elf to get out before lifting his head, saying, "There is one more thing that I must get from back there, I will be right back. Be sure that you all stay right here unless there's a hawk attack, okay?"

Once they nod their heads, Nyx watches while he heads towards the portal, saying with a sigh, "Alright, but please be careful and come back in one piece."

After entering the portal, he races towards where the skeletons of his kin lay. Having to weave around to dodge falling rock, he feels a chunk strike his back, saying, "It's a good thing that I can't feel these strikes, or that might have hurt." A bigger flaming rock glances off the side of his head, making him say, "I guess it is really coming down now, I better be quick with finding an intact skeleton."

It takes him half an hour to find a solitary skeleton, landing beside it and scanning it with his spell, saying with a slight smirk, "So this is where your body wound up Sulfur Hide, I hope you don't mind...but I will be taking your remains with me on a little trip." Acting quickly as he hears a massive eruption nearby, he channels one of his spells to transform the whole skeleton into a square block of obsidian. Collecting the block between his two front claws, he sees movement ahead of him and looks up to watch as a massive chunk of landmass flips up into the air and lands on its backside. A violent tremor rocks the ground under him as he blinks, saying, "Uh...definitely time to go now."

Rosetta hops from foot to foot worriedly as more black ash continues to come out of the open portal, saying, "Come on, come on. What is taking him so long!"

Watching the portal, Nyx nervously clenches her spear in both hands, seeing the other side of the portal glow bright reddish orange for a moment before something shoots out of the black cloud of ash. Coughing is heard moments later when Star comes flying out of the portal, causing her to sigh in relief, saying, "He's alright..."

With molten rock starting to cool on his back, Star collapses the portal behind him and lands before them, turning to Nyx, saying, "Nyx, gather the water and wind fairies as fast as you can, have the wind fairies absorb the ash clouds before they can start spreading ash everywhere. Once you have them do that, have the water talent fairies start putting out fires caused by any molten rock I brought through on my way out of the portal."

As Nyx darts off to go get the other fairies, Rosetta approaches Star as he lies down on the ground coughing up some kind of black fluid, asking, "Are you alright, darlin'?"

Spitting out more fluid to clean out his lungs, he coughs roughly again, saying, "I will be fine, this is just my way of removing the ash I breathed in, and volcanic ash is a type of stone after all."