Chapter 23: Taming the Beast

About 15 minutes after Diego had left Alythia was still stuck in her dome-like prison.

The red light that had surrounded her grew smaller and smaller as the minutes passed and by now the shadows were mere millimeters away from touching her.

She could also hear a commotion outside – it sounded like absolute chaos.

Alythia heard screams, howls of wind, and gigantic waves splashing against the buildings.

"No... Kai...." she whined while sinking to her knees.

But as she was about to cry a thought entered her mind – 'he comes when he is called...'

So the girl instantly shot up and yelled at the top of her lungs. "IZANA!!" however her voice choked as tears gushed out "...please....please save us..." she whimpered over and over again.

A few moments later the red light surrounding her began to pulsate.

It continued to grow with every pulse until it spread throughout the room and as soon as the pulsating light touched the shadows they instantly evaporated.

Alythia heard a familiar voice hum a song as the light returned to its original petite size and flew down to her. She held out her hands and the little light – which was now about the size of a golf ball – came to rest on top of her palm.

"You called child?" Izana's voice spread through the dark room.

Alythia smiled "what took you so long?"

"I am not at fault dear girl, it is you who took so long to call for me. But let us leave that there. The current situation is grave – we must make haste"

Alythia nodded.

The light flew up and spun around her several times and she instantly disappeared.

===================================

Meanwhile, Diego appeared on the roof of the main building as Karlyle and Blake were busy unloading the last of the bags from the car.

When Karlyle caught sight of the figure Diego seemed to be holding in his arms, the Dragon's self-restraint completely snapped.

Scales instantly spread throughout his skin as his body grew at an incredible speed.

Blake merely blinked three or four times before his friend had become utterly unrecognizable.

The prince stepped in front of Ray, who had been standing a few feet away, in an attempt to shield her.

Karlyle let out a terrifying growl as wings shot out of his overgrown back and his mouth morphed into something completely inhuman.

"Ray stand back" Blake cautioned "I'm going to try and pacify him for a time. Get to higher ground since I'll have to use water to keep him from flying..." he hesitated before adding "I trust you to get me back to normal afterwards"

Ray nodded her head and dashed to a nearby building as Blake's figure also grew and changed into something quite dreadful.

As Ray got to the rooftop of a different building a red light suddenly shown beside her and Alythia appeared.

"Ally!!" she screamed as she enveloped the girl in a tight hug "Thank goodness you're safe.... but then what is ----"

"That's a fake" Alythia cut her off.

She stared down at the school's square and saw a monstrous black Dragon fighting with a giant sea Serpent. The Dragon had a pale pink jewel imbedded in its chest.

"Kai...." she whispered before urgently turning her eyes to her friend "Where's Damien and Kloeye?"

"Damien took her home already; they left in a car quite awhile ago" Ray responded.

Alythia sighed in relief knowing that they were at least safe. She returned her eyes to the battle unfolding beneath them.

"RayRay use wind magic to shoot yourself to another roof – HURRY!!"

The girl instantly obeyed. She flung herself through the sky and landed safely on a roof a few buildings away.

Alythia took a deep breath.

She then proceeded to softly chant a spell and a beam of light shot from her hand. The light beam hit her target and the black beast turned his gaze towards her.

Ray followed her lead and also fired a beam at Blake.

The Serpent was the first to move and quickly slithered up the building Ray had landed on.

As Alythia glanced in Ray's direction, she suddenly felt a strong gush of wind as the Dragon flapped its wings and flew towards her.

It hovered above her for a brief moment, seeming somewhat confused, before picking her up with its claws and carrying her down to the ground.

After landing it brought the girl close to its face – as if examining her.

It then placed her down gently and Alythia stretched her hand out towards the beast.

"Kai it's me" she whispered "That other girl you saw was a fake. I'm the real one... Kai I'm not hurt see... it's alright"

The Dragon eyed her suspiciously before slowly stretching out its neck until her hand touched its snout.

The moment it felt the warmth emanating from the girl's hand the beast's eyes shut and it let out a soft groan.

Instantly the Dragon shrunk down.

Its wings and scales vanished as Karlyle's body returned to its human form.

As soon as he morphed back, his knees gave way and he fell to the ground. Alythia darted towards him, picking his head up and placing it on her lap.

She looked towards the building Ray had landed on and saw that the gigantic figure of the Serpent was also no longer visible.

Alythia let out a soft sigh and a flood of relief spread through her heart as she looked down at the boy's sleeping face.

But just then a hideous laugh rang throughout the school.

When she jerked her head up, she was reminded that Diego had still been standing on top of another building.

He held something that looked like a staff and pointed it towards them.

"HAH!! I see you were able to calm him girl!!" he yelled. "Too bad, guess I'll have to kill you both!!"

Alythia's eyes stretched wide as she saw what seemed like black lightning appear around the tip of the staff before it shot straight at them.

Suddenly, however, a large white figure moved in front of her.

The beast glanced over its shoulder just before the blast hit...

Its eyes were blue.

And then everything went black.