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Chapter 1: The Island

"Your training begins now!" Hale declared, getting all ten recruits to stand to attention and stare at him. They were more than a little nervous, especially now they knew he was more than willing to just go and attack any of them on a whim. Skylar was the proof of that, even if the human didn't back down. Hale grinned at the way that his little show of force and authority had set them all on edge. They were wary of him. That was good. "Your first trial is to survive!"

Skylar tensed up instantly at that declaration, expecting the wolf to just start attacking them all one by one until he was either satisfied or they were all dead, but to his surprise, and slight fear, the wolf merely pressed his hands down against the floor just on the edge of the magic circle. The redhead shared a collective shiver with the rest of the recruits at the sadistic grin on Hale's face and looked around at where everyone was stood. They were all in the circle, even Kyle and Termal, who had moved closer when the wolf had barged in. All of the recruits stood loosely around the dead centre of the circle.

"Get out of the circle!" Skylar yelled drawing everyone's attention to the fact that the intricate and complex patterns of runes and lines had started glowing an ominous blue below them. 'We're not going to make it.' Skylar realised as everyone made a break for the outer edge of the circle aside from Shiro who drew his wings back. 'Is this it? Just like that?' The redhead thought as the glowing runes under his feet quickly brightened until it became blinding.

"What the hell!" Josh shouted as he felt like he was being lifted off of his feet before the human glared down at the grinning wolf that was doing this to them. "You bastard!" He screamed before the light became too intense for him to be seen.

Hale just grinned as a column of light formed between the two circles. Watching how the new recruits reacted to this was one of the things that he loved most about his job, seeing their cocky expressions turn to one of shock and fear when they realised that despite how special they may have thought themselves, they were completely helpless. Was Hale a little sadistic? Maybe, but he loved training the new recruits and he was the best at doing it, despite his rather questionable methods and exercises. The wolf watched the column closely as it began to shrink and warp until it became a large sphere of pure light that he knew held all ten of his fresh, naïve and adorable little recruits inside.

The sphere wavered for maybe a second before seemingly imploding with a loud pop, taking the recruits with it.

"You enjoy that far too much," a voice called out from behind Hale. The wolf didn't have to turn to know who it was, and even if he didn't know he wouldn't have moved. The sphere had wavered, just for a moment but it had definitely happened. The sphere would only waver if the collective magical energy that was being expelled inside of it exceeded the amount of magic of the one who had created it. "They might be too much for you, partner."

Hale just scoffed at that before standing up. The day some greenhorn recruits became too much for him to handle was the day that he retired and took up gardening to pass the time. Still, the wolf had to be honest with himself when he said that he was interested in this group, not only because one had the guts to stand up to him but also because of how they reacted.

The redhead, Skylar, couldn't have known what the circles were meant to do but he didn't have to. All it took was one glance at the way that Hale was pressing his hands to the circle to react and warn the others in time.

The wolf, Cayden. It had taken a fraction of a second for him to react and make his way to the outer edge of the circle, and the wolf's speed and acceleration from stationary were absolutely incredible.

The windragon, Shiro, had even tried to attack him, but couldn't get his magic gathered fast enough before he too was lifted off of his feet.

Every one of them that could use their magic freely tried to cover themselves in a magic field to prevent whatever the circles were meant to do. The older dragon, Termal, had even used his magic to shield the youngest of the group, Kyle, from harm. The kid was far too young in Hale's opinion, but he had his orders and he knew how to motivate his trainees, even ones as young as Kyle.

"They're a good bunch," Hale eventually admitted, a genuine smile on his muzzle. He couldn't help but chuckle and crack his knuckles in anticipation of what was to come, when they actually knew what they were doing. Hale shivered at the thought, but first, before anything, those ten had to survive the Island. "Hope none of them die."

"The good bunches never do." Hale turned to look at his partner, a human male with short brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a trench coat and pauldrons that were identical to the wolf's, but wore his coat closed with black breeches and fingerless gloves on each hand. "They'll survive on the island, quite easily I imagine. I'd be willing to bet on that." The human said walking over to the circle that was still glowing a dull blue.

"Wonder if they had a good landing?" Hale muttered, giving the circle one last glance before he shrugged, he really didn't care either way.

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"What the hell was that?" Josh asked, picking himself up off the floor and looking around. The other recruits were all scattered around as well, as if something had picked them up and just tossed them away. Looking up above him, Josh glared at the shining sphere of magic and realised that that was exactly what had happened.

"That landing could have gone better," Termal commented, rolling over onto his front and looking around at the others. Kyle instantly caught his attention, as the young boy was nursing a small graze on his knee where his trousers had been torn. "You okay, little one?"

"It hurts," Kyle whimpered, feeling tears start to creep at the edge of his vision as he wiped away the dirt and blood on his knee. The dragon pulled him close with a paw as he looked around where they were.

"I think it's safe to say that we aren't in Fortis anymore," Cayden commented as he picked himself up and looked around. They had been dumped onto a stone platform that had an identical magic circle carved into it. The platform, while raised off of the ground itself, was built in the bottom of what seemed like a wide crater. There was absolutely nothing growing in the crater but it was surrounded by a dark forest. "I don't recognise where we are either," the wolf said to everyone.

Skylar looked around the crater and then at everyone else. Not one looked seriously hurt; Ian had already walked over to Kyle and healed his small graze. The redhead took note of the ability and filed it away for later. If this was what he thought that it was, then they were going to learning a lot more about each other very quickly.

"Any of you recognise where we are?" Josh asked, getting all the Terran's to shake their heads.

"I don't even recognise the trees," Termal said looking around at the jungle's edge. It was all completely foreign to him, the trees, the sky, even the air seemed different to what he was used to.

"I've never seen any tree like that before." Michael agreed, but knew that he wasn't much of an expert on Terran geography, he had spent most of his last few years on Earth after all. Looking around again to make sure that no one was hurt Skylar clapped his hands together and drew everyone's attention to him.

"Okay, listen, we can't hang around here for long," the redhead declared, taking charge of the situation. They had no idea where they were, why they were there, they didn't have any supplies, the terrain was unknown and possible hostile, they had no weapons, no shelter, and the sun was going down. Wherever they were, they didn't know how cold it was going to get with night or how hot it could be during the day.

"Who put you in charge?" Adriana asked getting a couple of nods out of some of the other recruits.

"No one, and I'm not saying that I'm in charge. I'm just stating the obvious here. We have no idea where we are. We have no food, no water and a potentially hostile environment. We need to find a place to set up some kind of camp and decide what we're going to do," Skylar said shutting Adriana up after Michael gave a confirmation.

"He's right. Staying here is no good, and we need to know more about where we are and what we're dealing with," the gryphon said, looking up at the sky and clouds before giving Skylar a look. "You seem to have a few ideas Skylar, what do you propose?" Even though he had been thinking about it Skylar didn't like being put on the spot and took another second to look around and take a breath before turning back to the others.

"First we need a better idea of where we are, or at least what's around us, agreed?" When no-one said anything in disagreement Skylar turned back to Michael and pointed up in the air. "Michael, if you fly up there, you can tell us what's around and give me a better idea of what to do next."

"Okay," Michael said, walking a few paces away from Andriana before taking off. Everyone took note of how easily and how quickly he managed to get up into the air, especially the ones that could fly themselves. "Well, this isn't encouraging," the gryphon muttered to himself once he was high enough to have a view of the surrounding landscape. It was just jungle, all around them, a never ending jungle.

Michael frowned as he spun around again, not quite believing what he was seeing. He wasn't an expert on the geography of Sentala, but he knew for a fact that there wasn't a jungle of this size anywhere inside of their borders. Or anywhere near their borders for that matter. Putting those thoughts to one side, the gryphon focused on what he could see rather than what he wanted to see. They would just have to accept that for the time being they had no idea where they were.

After another few turns Michael gave up looking, and slowly began to descend back down to the group.

"Anything?" Ana asked looking to her mate hopefully. She was seriously out of her comfort zone; mountains, hills, cliffs and climbing those were the sort of natural environments that she was both familiar and experienced with, she knew next to nothing about jungles or forests. Skylar took one look at the gryphon's posture and had to hold off a sigh.

"The jungle goes on for miles, way too far for me to see the edge of it," Michael reported, having everyone's full attention. "The canopy is too thick for me to see through as well, so I can't even suggest a direction for us to go in. As far as I can tell from the canopy, the land around us is flat."

"That much jungle would put us outside of Sentala's border, would it not?" Termal asked looking to Cayden and Shiro, the latter being much more educated in the maps of their country. Shiro spoke up as he thought.

"The only recorded place with a jungle as large as the one you're describing would be the forests of Ragniron, but..."

"We are not in Ragniron," Cayden said with finality, "I've seen those trees and these don't even hold a torch to those gigantic things."

"What's Ragniron?" Ian asked, once again feeling out of his depth as he looked at the wolf. "My Sentalian geography consists of Fortis, and...well, that's about it."

"Better than mine," Ana mumbles, looking around the intimidating trees before fixing her gaze on the setting sun, that was something that she knew about at least. "You know, if this were Earth, I would say that we have maybe three hours of good light left."

"It's fine, I'm sure there's nothing bad out there," Ian muttered sarcastically, mostly to himself. "Nothing bad ever lives in uncharted jungles..."

"Ian, that's not helping." Kai whispered when the Terrans all turned to look at the muttering human. "Besides, if we stay together we'll be fine right?"

"We shouldn't go out into those trees at night, right?" Josh asks looking around the group having missed Ian's muttering. "I mean, that's like how every horror movie I've ever seen starts." Rolling her eyes at the question Adriana just shakes her head before looking back to Skylar who hadn't taken his eyes off of the surrounding tree line since Michael had come back down.

"What do you see?" Termal asked all of a sudden drawing everyone's attention to the redhead. Skylar frowned into the tree line; he didn't really see anything, and that was the problem here. They had nothing. They had confirmed that they no idea where they were, with no information about the terrain, no supplies and none about to present themselves, and no weapons other that the mismatched pieces of magic that they might know between them. Skylar was confident that his magic was good but he wasn't an idiot, he knew that in a real life or death situation that what he knew wasn't good enough. They. Had. Nothing.

"We should gather up some firewood," Skylar eventually said pointing around the crater at various points. "If we harvest some from those trees we can make perimeter fires and have one or two of us take guard shifts to make sure nothing sneaks up on us."

"Dragons don't need as much sleep as humans or other Terrans," Termal pointed out almost instantly, knowing that he could go at the very least a week without sleep. Humans could only go a couple of days, and most Terrans ranged in between that.

"I'm want to help as well." Kai said making a show of the fact that he could breath fire as he stood up. "I can help light the fires."

"I'm not usually one to bring people down or anything," Cayden interrupted looking at Skylar who had apparently been raised to temporary plan maker of the group. "But how are we going to get nearly enough wood for something like... what did you call them, perimeter fires? There's barely going to be enough loose wood lying around to make a fire big enough for us."

"We are in a jungle, Cayden," Shiro pointed out, as if it weren't obvious by this point. They were literally in a natural environment that was made of wood.

"And have you seen the size of those branches, we won't snap them!"

"We have two dragons, do you know how heavy they are?"

"Hey!"

"Sorry Kai, but my point is valid."

"Whoa," Ian interjected. "I'm not letting you put him on a branch that might suddenly collapse. What if he injures himself on the landing?"

"They won't break anyway!"

"So we should just sit here and do nothing?"

"Better that than have to carry a dragon around, who can't walk because of some hairbrained idea."

"You're just saying that because he'd be harder to screw with-"

"ENOUGH!" Cayden and Shiro quickly shut their muzzles when Skylar suddenly yelled at them. The redhead just looked between the arguing duo before he put his hands together and concentrated. In a matter of seconds small arcs of lightning were discharging between the palms of his hands and quickly began to take the shape of a small hatchet, which he threw into the wolf's paws. "There, use that," Skylar said, taking a deep breath before repeating the action, tossing another one to Shiro who sat down, looking a little pale.

"Okay... we'll.. erm, get some firewood," Cayden said with just a little unease as he walked out of the stone platform with Shiro at his side. "Anyone know he could do that?" the wolf asked when Michael and Kai joined them to keep a lookout for any potential threats.

"Creation magic," Michael clarified with a small smile on his beak. In this kind of situation it could come in very handy, but it was clearly quite draining. "A tracker buddy of mine used to use it from time to time. He never looked too good afterward either."

"Is that our bad?" Shiro asked once they reached the tree line. Up close it was far less intimidating and far more open under the canopy than they would have imagined. Despite their large height and overlapping tops the main trunks of the tree were quite well spread out, leaving plenty of room to walk through with relative ease. "I mean we were arguing over nothing really," the windragon admitted before he picked a low branch and started hacking away at it, while Michael and Kai started gathering some of the loose branches littering the jungle floor, one with more success than the other.

Back down on the platform, Termal walked over to Skylar who had suddenly taken to sitting down rather than standing.

"That was a little reckless," the dragon admonished, not missing the way that Skylar's breathing was slightly heavier than before. "With no food or water nearby, using magic like that was a bad idea."

"It shut them up and got them working towards a common goal," Skylar defended, swallowing a lump that was forming in his throat. He couldn't believe that he was so drained after just two creations. Back in Fortis he was able to do half a dozen before he felt the strain affecting him like it was now.

"Thinking like that is going to make them think that you're manipulating them."

"If it has even a chance of helping us survive, I don't care what they think of me," Skylar replied bluntly. Termal watched as the human got up and wandered off of the platform over towards the tree line, where the others were gathering wood. Sighing, the dragon looked for Kyle and was surprised to find him about to wander after Skylar.

"You," Mal said coming straight up behind the youngest of the group and scaring the life out of him, "are staying with me." The dragon bit into the back of Kyle shirt and used it to lift the ten year old onto his back. "Stay with me, okay?" Kyle just nodded and clung to Mal's neck while the dragon followed after Skylar.

"Guess we should all go help then, huh?" Josh said, more to himself than anyone else as he followed along after the dragon.

It didn't take long for the group to collect enough firewood between themselves for almost half a dozen small fires to be lit around the platform, along with one larger fire to be made at its centre.

"So, how long will these things last?" Cayden asked, twisting the magically created hatchet over in his paws. It wasn't quite normal, that much was obvious, from how easily it had been able to cut through the branches of various trees around the crater's perimeter. "I mean you made it with your magic, is it as long as you want it to last?"

"That's not how it works," Skylar said, taking the hatchet back and breaking it back down into magic for him to absorb. The redhead felt better immediately, but declined the second hatchet when Shiro made to give it back. "Making another would be too much of a hassle. Just keep it for now. As for your question; it's a magic construct. I don't control it, I just make it. It's as real as you or I, but it will decay...eventually."

"How long?" Michael asked, taking hold of the hatchet from Shiro to turn over. His friend hadn't been able to create anything for more than a few days at a time, and by that point they were close to decaying completely; the hatchets were extremely brittle.

"My record is roughly a week," Skylar said, making the gryphon's head snap up to stare at him. "They stay effective for about five days, though before that they start to crumble and snap. Even then I wouldn't use that for more than another day."

"So what else can you do?" Josh asked. He hadn't really been taught anything when he had gotten to Terra other than how to bring his magic out in the first place, he didn't know what to do with it. "And how come you seem to have so much more training with it than we do?" Looking to each other the other humans in the group minus Kyle who was still sat on Termal's back nodded. They hadn't been taught how to use their magic like Skylar.

"You were only there for a few weeks, I've been in Terra for about six months," Skylar explained before Michael interrupted him.

"We should really know what each of us can do, so that we can plan accordingly in case anything happens while we're out here."

"Why don't you go first then, and we will go around in a circle," Termal suggested to the group.

"Okay then," Michael says, looking around to make sure that he had everyone's attention. "I was a tracker before I applied for the sentinels, so I know how to hunt. I'm good with just about every bladed weapon in existence and my main magic type is water." He demonstrated by gathering a small orb of water from the surrounding air moisture in the palm of one of his hands. "I can only manipulate the water around me though, I can't create it. So if there isn't a large body of water anywhere around I'm a bit screwed."

"Can you find water?" Ana asks, staring at the orb with a small smile on her face as she poked it with her finger, watching the small ripples flow over the surface.

"I can, and I did try earlier," the gryphon says, pointing in a general southwards direction. "There is a freshwater lake roughly twelve miles that way, I was going to tell you all about it tomorrow when we were going to decide what to do."

"I think that it's pretty clear what we are going to do now then," Cayden said, getting a nod of approval from everyone in the group.

"Termal, Kai and Michael could fly ahead in the morning and scout out the terrain so we know what we're going to be walking across," Skylar says, more to himself than anyone else as he stares at the stone under his feet. "After that we could make an encampment around the lake or someplace close. There has to be wildlife in a place like this, so they'll have to water at some point, and if we don't recognise the plants in the area then we'll have to focus on hunting until we determine what we can and can't eat from the plant life."

"Does he know that he's talking to himself?" Cayden asks, before shrugging at his own question. "Not that his points don't make sense. I didn't recognise any of the plants up there when we were gathering wood. Did any of you?"

"No, not one." Michael shook his head, looking to Termal.

"I did not see anything familiar either." The dragon sighed, rather annoyed that he was not being as helpful as he would have liked in a situation like this.

"Not a thing," Shiro shook his head before staring at Skylar. "Hey, I can fly as well you know." Skylar just shrugged the comment off as he continued to mutter to himself before looking up.

"Wait, we got off the topic of conversation," he said pointing to Ana. "What exactly can you do?" Ana looked like she wanted to snap off a sharp remark but bit her tongue back.

"Magic wise I only have enough training to bring it forth, I can't do anything with it. I used to be a climber so I'm not weak, and I had a high endurance score from those tests back in Fortis." Nodding to himself Skylar turned to Josh next who just grinned and showed off his bicep.

"I'm a hulk," he laughed slapping his arm to make a show of it, but he quickly withered under Skylar's glare that clearly said 'is that it?' "My magic reserves are big but I only know how to bring it out, not how to use it for anything."

"I'm fast," Cayden bragged not missing a beat when the party turned to look at him. "I managed to run the hundred meters in seven point eight two seconds, the two hundred meters in sixteen point nine zero seconds and the four hundred meters in forty point one six seconds."

"Seriously?" Ian said, looking at Cayden with a look of amazement before sighing. "There goes my thing. I was going to say that I was quick, but compared to that..." He trailed off for a second before giving everyone a grin. "Well, in that case, I can do absolutely fuck all. I might be able to heal you, but I'm not entirely sure how I do it, so it's kind of a lottery."

"He healed me," Kai put in, not wanting to see his mate putting himself down. "I had a broken wing and Ian was able to fix it. I can heal people too."

"How well?" Michael asked, knowing that healers had the most varied collection of skills, some could heal just about anything in a few minutes while other could take hours to mend a broken bone.

"How do you mean?" Ian asked, confused. "I mean, I focused on it and he was fine after a few seconds." Michael took a second to blink at that. A broken bone in just a few seconds was nothing to scoff at, especially for someone who hadn't even been trained in how to use their magic properly.

"So that would make you one of the better healers I've come across," the gryphon admitted. "You don't know how to just will it to happen yet do you? What did you say? It's a lottery?"

"I think I only managed with Kai because...it was an emotional situation," Ian says, sounding like he doesn't want to get into the details. "I can't just do it whenever."

"Well, if we really need it, then there's a high chance of there being some serious emotion," Skylar comments before looking you over. "You look like a runner, what were your physicals like?"

"My speed was high, and I scored very well in the agility tests too. They only mentioned one other candidate who beat my scores by some huge margin." Ian narrowed his eyes at Cayden when he said that. "Endurance was okay, but strength...you can see that I'm kinda slim. Just barely passed."

"So you'll be a scout or something, that's no big deal," Josh said not letting Ian put himself down. Besides, the strength tests were brutal even for a guy like him.

"Yeah Ian, we'll be running together, so don't worry about it," Cayden laughed, grinning in the way only a wolf could. "So what about you Kai?"

"Mine were average for a dragon," Kai said, flexing his wings a little uncomfortably. He didn't like being called average.

"They're just initial tests," Ian told him, reaching up to nuzzle against the dragon, wanting to cheer him up. "The idea is we train to get better, right?"

"That's it exactly," Michael said before a thought came to him. "That's exactly what this is. Extreme survival training."

"Extreme training!" Josh seconded, looking around the quickly darkening jungle. "I swear I'm going to punch that bastard in the balls when we get back...if we get back."

"I think you'll have to join the queue on that one," Ian commented, flexing his hand.

"He'd probably flatten us in a second," Skylar muttered looking over the tree line again. "You know you all felt what he was doing to us in that sphere earlier, he was crushing us all."

"I must admit I have never felt so helpless," Termal commented, scratching at the stone under them with a paw. "But I believe I shall set him on fire when I next see him."

"We're getting a little off topic here, aren't we?" Ana asked shaking her head at the boys antics. She briefly wondered how long she would be able to stay sane with all this testosterone surrounding her, but put it to one side as she looked to Termal. "What can you do?"

"Well obviously I can breath fire, and my strength is also far above that of the average feral dragon. No offence intended brother." Kai looked back and forth when the older dragon directed that at him.

"Brother?"

"It's not literal Kai, all the feral dragons refer to each other like they are all brothers or sisters, it's just their way," Michael explained, getting a firm nod from Termal who nudged the smaller and younger dragon playfully.

"My magic reserves are extremely high but my aura is very weak, I am lower than average for a dragon," Termal sighed. It had always been a slight point of shame for him that his aura was so weak, but he was thankful that his actual brother had never been cruel enough to make fun of him for it. Though if he ever did Mal had threatened to throw a boulder at him.

"Isn't it odd for a dragon to have weak aura?" Cayden asked, supported by Shiro who was now paying rapt attention. His own family were a branch family of the feral dragons. You had to go back a few thousand years, but most of the general characteristics were the same. Every windragon was pretty much guaranteed to have high magic reserves from birth. Shiro was an exception but at the opposite end of the spectrum, his reserves were massive and his control was exceptional.

"It would seem that my magic has naturally been sapped to amplify my strength," Mal said. "I am able to lift and move far more than a dragon of my size should be able to." Skylar wondered for a moment exactly how strong the dragon actually was before shaking his head. Josh though just looked confused.

"Wait, what's the difference between your aura and your reserves?"

"That's hard to explain," Michael said drawing out each word as he tried to think of a way to say to explain it.

"The best way I've been able to think of it is like a torch." Skylar says, getting everyone's attention. "Think of your reverses like a battery and your aura the bulb."

"I get it," Ian nods, everyone turning to look at him now. "The bulb controls how powerful the beam of light is, right? And the battery determines how long the beam lasts. So, a weak aura and big reserves means less powerful magic, but it can be sustained for a long time."

"That sums it up nicely, a weak aura means weak magic. So if two people with different auras tried to use the same magic, the results would be different. One would be stronger than the other, reserves don't matter. Unless the magic is a high level obviously," Michael says before turning to Termal. "So you think that your aura is being weakened to sustain your strength? Like a passive magic?"

"Yes. Me and my brother are almost identical in our magic apart from our strength and aura."

"Stranger things have happened with magic," Cayden commented. It wasn't so far fetched when you thought about it. Skylar nodded and for a moment wondered if there was anyway for Termal to possibly limit or increase the amount of his aura that was diverted to maintain his massive strength but decided that it wasn't important at the moment and turned to look at Kyle. The ten year old flinched when everyone turned to look at him, and just curled in closer to Termal.

"Shiro?" Skylar asked, realising that it would be pointless to question Kyle while he was still terrified of them for some reason. Termal looked annoyed for a second before he glanced at his self appointed charge and discovered why the redhead didn't ask him.

"Well, my reserves are massive and I can use all of it freely," the young windragon started to explain, fiddling with his leather gloves for a moment. "My endurance scores aren't the best but I'm a very good flyer. Very agile, but my strength isn't exactly the best either."

"So what you're saying is that you are a magic powerhouse," Josh clarified, getting a nod from the windragon. Everyone took a moment to digest that before turning to Skylar.

"My reserves and aura are huge," the redhead said matter of factly. "I passed the endurance and physical tests easily. I have creation magic but I can only use it a few times before it exhausts me, and I can use basic lightning magic."

"Lightning?" Instead of answering, Skylar reached over to Shiro sat next to him, sparks of electricity flowing over his palm. The moment he actually touched the windragon all of Shiro's feathers stood up on end. Everyone managed to stay quiet for a few seconds before they all burst out laughing at Shiro.

"It's not very strong though, even when I try and focus it," Skylar said, almost cracking a smile at getting one over on Shiro for his grumpy comments earlier. Looking up into the sky Skylar frowned at how dark it was getting. "So, we should pick who's going to be on guard duty before trying to get..." Everyone stared at Cayden when his stomach seemed to roar at them.

"Sorry," the wolf mumbled, actually blushing bright enough for everyone to see through his fur.

"When was the last time everyone ate or drank?" Skylar suddenly asked. He had just assumed that they would all be alright for a day or two without water, seeing as he had been given a meal at Fortis before directed to go the the meeting area.

"We ate before we all met," Michael said pointing to himself and Ana.

"Same here," Josh said, termal just nodded to say that he had eaten before coming.

"Kyle?" Skylar asked as gently as he could, glad to see the scared ten year old nod back at him.

"I ate before we all met," Shiro said, when everyone turned back to Cayden the wolf just grinned nervously.

"I ate before we met as well," he admitted but still seemed to curl in on himself. "But I'm so hungry." Blinking at his behaviour Skylar wondered if this was going to be a thing, but decided that it wasn't important.

"Kai, Ian?"

"We'd actually only eaten a snack," Ian said, blushing a little. "We figured the Sentinel introduction meeting was gonna be a bit nicer than it was, so we were planning to go out into Fortis for a meal after."

"Well, that would be what would happen for normal introductions," Ana agreed, looking around at the group. Skylar almost smiled at her before something caught his attention.

"Well, we didn't sign up for nor.."

"IAN!" Skylar yelled, lunging for the other recruit as something very large came hurtling towards them, aiming right for the other human. Everyone else reacted just a second too late, as before anyone knew what was happening a vicious pair of fangs sunk into Ian's shoulder.

Things were a blur. Ian screamed out at the top of his lungs, knocked to the ground by the force hitting him as scales whirled around his body. Skylar's momentum carried him forwards and on top of the struggling human and his assailant, while Cayden had sprung to Ian's side far faster than the others. Their efforts were made pointless, however, as a powerful tail slammed into both of them, knocking the human and wolf away. In the time it had taken them to recover and the others to react, Ian, and the creature that had bitten him, had disappeared completely.

Hey hope you enjoyed the first actual chapter of my new series. I can't promise that i will always update this quickjly but i will try to get a chapter in a week if i can.

Please rate and leave a comment to let me know what you think, good or bad.

Thank you