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As each of them finished their meals, they stood themselves at the cave entrance, prepared for the trip. Ryukan looked around at his family and thought about how wonderful they all are together, now if only Mother were here. "Alright kids, let's be on our way," Father prompted. With that he ran to the ledge and jumped instantly spreading his wings so he could turn and watch them follow. The smaller red drake got in a position to run, but his brother started before him and it was only to be one at a time. He sprinted to the edge, jumped and hovered there next to Father rather impatiently. After he had jumped Ryukan just looked back at his sisters and said smiling, "Dragoness beauties first."

They both suddenly tried their best to look dainty and dignified. "Of course, why would it be otherwise?" stated Corbala in the best high-class accent she could muster. One at a time they both ran to the edge and did the same as Father. Ryu looked upon those four, then at the end of the ledge and bound forth. As soon as he stepped out of the cave he knew the weather was fantastic for what he was about to do.

Reaching the edge, he jumped, allowing himself to fall. Wind whipped at his face as it tried knocking him off course as he fell like a stone, peering at the jagged rocks at the bottom of this seven hundred meter drop. Ten... nine... eight..., mentally counting the seconds as he fell. Seven... six... five... four..., he prepared for the end. Three... two... "ONE!" He shouted barely even hearing himself. His wings snapped open and he struggled to bring himself out of the daring nose-dive. The drake pulled up what seemed a mere foot before striking against the rocks, breathing a sigh of relief as that was his first time actually pulling it off.

Father had come down after him probably thinking that he was going to fail in his stunt. The last time he had attempted this he had broken his right arm, opposite leg and wing, had gashes on his back and chest, and dislocated his tail in two places. Because he had done the stunt his father refused to heal him with magic, instead forcing him to deal with all of the pain on his own. Though even with sustaining all those injuries he still forced himself to push through the pain and practice my sword, magic, and potion skills.

"Ryukankistinyal, what were you thinking?!" Father screamed as he closed in on me. "What in Draco, made you want to try doing that now? You could have been harmed again or worse, you could have died, Ryukan, died!"

"I know Father, but I did not. I believe that Draco was just telling me that I was not yet ready on that last attempt," speaking the opinion that Ryu had since that incident.

"By causing you so much pain, I should not think so. I do not think that...."

"Father," Ryukan interrupted, "was it not you who told us that we must work hard to succeed in anything."

"Yes I did," he sighed glancing up at the sun, "we have not the time to speak about this right now. I must get all of you to that station and then get to work as headmaster of the school, so let us leave now." Father said in a demanding sort of way. Turning around he began to lead the way since he is the only one who knows exactly where they need to be in Draco's Valley Gorge.

Ryukan flew behind him occasionally looking at the ground below. They may live in a mountain range but they have quite a large lush valley. As Ryu looked at the valley below, he could point out several different types of trees; oak, white oak, ash, maple, goblin wood, etc. Some herd of deer caught his eye and he lifted his gaze to Father, catching him mentally marking their position.

As they rounded a mountain we came in view of the gorge. This land mark is a five and a half mile deep, mile and a half wide crevice that stretches over eleven miles or more of land. In this place is where we go every few years to be placed into our classes, as all draconic students who live in the range do. The gorge is also where many dangers live and older dragons, along with other creatures, go to prove their worth.

Father looked back at the kids for the hundredth time, just to make sure they were all fine and returned his gaze to the gorge. He stopped and spiraled down to land just before the edge, "children, we must go low in this thing today. Please do as you have been taught, Takil, Ryu, and place invisibility and defense spells upon yourselves while I do the same to your sisters." He asked of us. Ryukan strained a little to pull off the spells but managed. After he finished with the girls, he turned around to see how we were coming along. "Takil, place the spells upon yourself before you get yourself in any more trouble than you are already." He commanded.

"Why Father? Come now, I do believe I already know what we will be facing down there as we have all been deep in there before. What now makes it any different now than it was then?" Takil asked.

"It does not matter how far you have gone down in that gorge. I am your Father, I am here to protect and teach you, and I am asking you to place those spells upon yourself so that I can fulfill both. Though I shall ask, how far did you go down?"

"Oh I went down about a mile. But what does that matter? It is not like we are going deeper than that, is it?" Takil retorted.

"Actually son, we are going deeper than that, and the deeper you go the more dangerous it gets. Now, please do not argue with me any longer, and cast the spells. You are about ten seconds away from me punishing you right here and now, so I think I shall give you count to ten." He threatened and began counting.

Takil remained unmoved as he just stared at Father with defiance as he continued his count. As Father reached the end Ryu looked at Takil and said, "Takil just cast the spells, it is not that hard. Why do you continue to refuse Father?"

"Because I cannot cast those spells Ryukan!" Takil shouted as he spun at him. "There, now ya know why, because I cannot cast the spells, are ya happy."

"And might I inquire as to why you cannot, Takil?" Father asked already a little more frustrated.

Takil suddenly looked surprised. "They are too powerful for me to cast," Takil said guiltily.

Father became furious, but in a calm tone he said, "You, Takil, are this close," he held up his finger and thumb less than an inch apart, "from me punishing you right here, right now. I cannot at this time as we have very little time. But I assure you we will be having a good, long talk later on. As of now, son, you are grounded until further notice. You are not to leave your dorm for anything more than to attend your classes, eat, or if I call you down to my office, is that understood?" Father commanded.

"But Father, what...?" Takil began.

"Is that understood, Takil?" Father interrupted.

"But, Father...."

"I shall only ask once more. If this is about you getting in contact with friends, son, that too is out of the question. You will be confined to your room until further notice. No visitors other than your roommates, me or another teacher. Now, one more time, is that understood?"

"Yes Father." Takil said reluctantly.

"Oh," Jestiliin blurted, "I think I see Mother." They all looked to where she pointed and sure enough, mother was heading straight for them. Mother has nice black scales with a gold streak running up her back from the tail to the base of her neck to wrap around in a natural necklace. She stands at about thirty-four feet tall, wingspan almost thirty-two feet in length and twelve feet in width. She is wearing a long tunic today as usual.

As she gets close to Takil she says, "Where is your father?" Takil points and she, landing, walks over and kisses Father. "Tranir, I love you." She says as she pulls away.

"Gractile, there are some things that I found out about this morning that you may wish to hear?" When Father said that, Takils' eyes grew to the size of boulders.

"Why of course." She placed her ear next him and he began to tell her of what had transpired this morning. Her eyes grew wider with every moment that passed. When they were done, she looked at Takil, walked over to him and said, "Is there any more Draconisean in your possession at all son? I would suggest that at this point you do not lie to me. I care not so much for your grades as much as I do you playing with an ingredient that dangerous."

Takil was hesitant to answer. "No Mother, I do not have any more."

"Tranir, honey, do you still have the pound?" She asked not taking her eyes off Takil. Father came over and handed it to her. When Takil saw the bag, his eyes became slightly dilated and his mouth salivated. "No, do not hand it to me," she said seeing that, "I have seen all I need. I do believe that Takil here has been using the ingredient directly." The rest of the family all turned and stared at Takil in awe. Using Draconisean directly is extremely dangerous as it can and will kill you. Draconisean is an ingredient that you use to make potions more powerful than their regular, ten times so, but you have to get it just right or the potion will kill its drinker. Draconisean taken directly will become addictive and slowly kill you from the inside.

"Son, I do think that I will be going through you room with a fine toothed comb and be having your Father check everywhere around the school for anymore of this ingredient." She turns to Father, "I do believe that your alchemy professor will be glad to have something like that in his possession, and make sure to check all of the students for some, he may try to hide it with them. Oh, and I do not think that your punishment is enough, hon. While he is grounded, you should have him come up to your office every morning to do some exercise as well."

"It shall be done, now let us be on our way, we are now running late." With that he leapt into the air and dove into the gorge. Mother place some spells on Takil before following, the rest of them following soon after.

As they descended deeper, it became darker and harder to see. Mother cast an opaque ghost lite that provided just enough light to see where she was. After a few minutes of descending, Ryukan began to cast his own ghost lite, but Father grabbed his wrist and leaned in to his ear, "No son, one is enough." He whispered so softly Ryu almost didn't catch it. The deeper the family went the more they heard that they couldn't see. The dragon heard a yowl to his left and felt something brush against his wing. Recoiling from the contact, he found that it was only Corbala, she never even noticed.

Suddenly, he saw something move in front of them blocking out the ghost lite. The figure looked strangely like a dragon, but the red drake was not about to let his guard down. The sound of one of his sisters' whimpering and muttering to her gave him no sense of comfort. The ghost lite came back into view but gave little assurance. The sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath startled them all. The kids all got some sort of weapon at the ready while the adults readied spells. Ryu strained his hearing and listened intently for any sign of movement, knowing that the flapping behind him was his family. Then there was a grunt and the swish of a sword in a downward arch toward him.