1 Prologue

The large room was dark and cold, hopeless and numbing. Tiana Sweet stood in the centre of the room, a prisoner. She was not tied up or even harmed by her captors. What were they up to? She was still wearing her uniform from that morning, except now it was almost unrecognisable with the dirt and ash stains plus the rips along her long sleeves, shirt and skirt. Her balayage coloured hair was somehow still in its short ponytail and her half fringe was still hanging limp next to her left blue eye.

Sighing, Tiana leant on the wall directly next to her. "What are they up to...?" She found herself leaning against the corner just behind her. "What-?" she suddenly stood straighter with realisation. Since when was the room so small? Turning and squinting in the darkness, she saw the solid wall coming closer and closer to her. It was then that she realised that this was her captors' plan.

In a panic, she started frantically looking around the room for any kind of escape route, a tool, lever, button - something. There was nothing. She clawed at the walls, tried to climb them, slammed and beat her fists against the rock until her hands bled from the ragged surface and turned purple with bruises. By that time, the room was the size of a telephone box if not smaller. Anxiety built up and tears welled in her eyes as her life flashed before her eyes like that flipbook her teacher showed them that day.

She remembered her father leaving the house to fight for his country and never seeing him again, being dropped off for her first day of High School and meeting her best friend; Astrid - who would be sleeping right now, expecting to see Tiana the next day.

She felt the sharp rocks scratch her skin and her stomach began a gymnastics routine. She squeezed her eyes shut as if it'll stop the pain, but it only worsened.

She thought of her mother, cooking a meal for the two of them, of her brother, Tony, expecting to be picked up by his big sister after his sleepover tomorrow, of her teachers grading her tests and the entire of the Dragon race waiting for her to come back and defend them from this exact evil. She thought of Jayden, kissing her on the cliff-side while he taught her to dance like no one's watching, him smiling at Tiana, hugging her, singing to her until she slept, teasing her as they trained - for the first time, she realised, she loved him.

A head-ache brewed and her scalp bled, her bones and muscles tensed while readying for the inevitable death soon to come. Death. She was going to die. She wasn't exclaiming it sarcastically while doing her homework, not whining about it like when she babysat her little brother and his friends at the playground, not even when she was being told of the evil foes she was to defend all of dragon-kind from. No, she was going to actually die. It... scared Tiana. Forcing her to break the very first rule about being the Dragon Guardian: 'Never fear the inevitable.'

Tiana wheezed a shallow breath to control her ragged breathing while her entire body was being flattened. "This is it." Opening her eyes, she looked up, tears blurring her vision. "I'm sorry." She whispered her last words to everyone she knew and loved - Jayden, her mother, Tony, Astrid, her Teachers, even the boys and girls who treated her horribly at school, Yoffi, Tydu, everyone in Domuhale, her magic, her somehow sentient crown and the position as the Dragons' Guardian.

Her blue eyes dulled, she fell limp, and the walls stopped moving, victorious.