Flavia dropped on her bed she had returned to her house earlier than usual. After Julian saw her markings Fawn and she decided it would be safest for the young Rider to be dropped on her house and for Fawn to return to Dragon Mountain (no training the newbies). This would sadly mean that Flavia wouldn't be able to see Fawn for a while and that was horrible because of their bond. A bond that was both wonderful and very inconvenient at times, especially when they tried to hide things from one another. It couldn't help they are both teenagers with hormones.

Groaning Flavia fell from her bed landing on her hands, thanks to her training. She walked to her working desk to start on the homework she got that day. Biting her lip, she started to solve the dreadful math homework.

Math should be forbidden. She glared at the difficult problem, Or at least Algebra should be illegal. She erased her procedure, Why do you hate me math?!

"Flavia!"

Bless you!

"Coming!"

She dropped her pencil after one last deadly glare at the problem. She ran down the stairs and to the kitchen. Her mother was cleaning the counter her face held a mask of concentration as she continued to rub an imaginary smudge.

"You called?"

"I need you to wash the dishes," she continued to scrub the non-existing smudge.

Math or dishes.

Flavia couldn't believe she was actually having a debate about this. Slowly her eyes landed on the pile of plates and decided that two-three hours of torturous numbers, letters, words, and un-understandable steps were better. Again, she couldn't believe she had a debate between the two tasks.

"I have homework to do."

"English? Science?" Her mother finally looks up and identical brown eyes met, "You can do the dishes."

"Math."

"Fine," her mother shushed her away, "go on. Your dad and I don't want you to lose your 81 average."

"I won't!" She called as she raced up the stairs, "It's a miracle I'm even passing this final semester."

She looked at the Algebra 1 book on her desk, her notebook, pencil, ruler and every other weapon needed to fight the equations. Cracking her knuckles, she took out her computer, plugged in her earphones and chose a mix recommended on Youtube. With a determined look, she began the dreadful battle between herself, a powerful Rider, and math, an even more powerful being.

Four hours later Flavia slammed her mechanical pencil on her desk as she checked the last answer on the back of her book. After going through various websites, ice cream breaks (bless her powers), video breaks and a few pictures from her friends she finally finished. With a content sigh, she moved everything that was for math into a corner on her desk and opened her drive to finish the one question she didn't finish in lunch.

Yes, she was the kind of student who advanced her homework during lunch for fun. Sue her.

Science, bless you for being so easy to understand. Flavia grinned as she began to type out the CER for her class, 'It's not my fault that my previous schools taught me things ahead of this one.' Her mind was quiet as she got no response from Fawn of any kind.

She hated the distance limit for their mind-links.

"Done! I can join them now."

Turning in her last homework Flavia closed her computer and ran down the stairs after changing into more comfortable clothing for climbing, running and jumping. She waved her mother goodbye and left the house without hearing her mother's response. She made her way to the park that led to a forest if you knew your way and within that forest was an amazing place that only Riders knew of.

Dodging children, parents, and pets she ducked under a tree branch and the park was long behind her. Looking around she breathed in the air around her before tying her jacket around her waist. She let her markings show to the eyes of the sun, forest, and animals. They were beautiful, a true masterpiece she was born with, but at that time they weren't noticeable until she first laid eyes on Fawn.

It was in this same forest.

She had wandered off from her parents as they were complaining about Riders and their dragons. They didn't see her disappear into the dense trees that surrounded the back of the park. She had been ten at that time. The memory was fresh in her mind; she wasn't scared of being lost. She felt content because something or someone was drawing her in, she needed to find out why.

Then she saw them.

The striking pair of ocean blue eyes staring at her from the trees.

It was a staring contest.

Predator and prey then.

Now, predator and predator.

Dragon and Rider.

The connection was almost instant. Her arms and backs had begun to glow the same color of the dragon's scales. And the markings she saw every now and then adorned her arms and her whole back. Simple curves, circles, and lines that began on her arms, and joined together on her back to form a dragon that slowly disappeared as it got closer to her tail. The markings represented their powers.

Flavia stared at her arms tracing the markings before staring at the branch she first saw Fawn on. Without a second thought, she began to climb the tree until she was on that very branch. Whooping she jumps from one branch to the next as she neared the densest part of the forest before dropping back down to the grassy floor. Her brown eyes held a glint of mischief as her markings began to glow like so many years ago and the trees in front of her parted just as the glowing faded.

Laughter, cheering and chattering filled her ears as she entered through the parted trees as they began to close behind her until no sign of their movement was shown. Flavia grinned at the sight of the other Riders and the special humans that filled the secret area. Sadly, it wasn't big enough to hold any of the extremely big dragons, and only average and small dragons some with and without their Riders could be found. It was a haven for her kind and their friends. It was founded by a Rider who had been running from riderphobes (rider haters/ones who feared Riders) many years ago. It was shown that there were many places like this all over the world and when a Rider couldn't go to their respective Dragon Mountains they could go here; the dragon (if too big) could hide outside the area among the dense forest.

This was their haven and it was named accordingly.

There were five in total; Haven North, Haven South, Haven West, Haven East, and Haven Central.

She looked around and her eyes landed on a glowing rock her smile faltered at the sight of the fading light. Quickly she went up the stone and noticed that the Haven South's glow was gone, her eyes widened in fright it had only been a week since Haven East disappeared, and only a month since Haven West went down. It didn't help that she knew Riders from the South and if their Haven was gone then there was a chance they were gone, but there was also the chance they were safe in their Dragon Mountain.

"They are getting closer," she looked over at the person that spoke. "I'm Bailey. Rider."

"Flavia," she turned to look at the now gone light, "how long?"

"Until they find the others?" Bailey bends down next to her. Flavia noticed that her hair was a pixie cut, it made her look like a boy but her eyes were female, so were other features of her body even if they weren't as noticeable. "I'm gender fluid."

"I didn't-"

"You didn't have to," she or he grinned at her. "I'm male right now."

"Cool," Flavia gave him a smile. "About the other Havens."

"Nobody is sure when the rest are going to be found." His voice was grim, "All we have to do is hope that they don't."

"Hoping hasn't done us much good."

"Flavia!"

She turned around to see Nalia running towards her. She had changed from the outfit she had worn at school, and instead had shorts, sneakers and a tank top on. Flavia turned to say goodbye to Bailey but he was gone.

"It's just us now." Nalia smiled trying her long red hair in a ponytail, "Tell me what happened between you and Julian."

"I knew you didn't believe me," Flavia sighed as she sat down on the ground, "he saw them."

Nalia froze, "What?"

"When I fell on top of him. My sleeve must have pulled up or something because he saw my markings." She gestured to the currently black marks, "He said he would keep it a secret if he saw Fawn. That's what he told me when I left."

"No wonder you couldn't tell me the truth with the others."

"Yeah."

"Why are there so many here today?"

"It's an announcement probably," Flavia commented, "I come here every day and sometimes I come just when there is an announcement."

"Why not send an invitation?"

"And risk humans to find them?" Flavia shook her head, "We can't risk it. If some Riders aren't present we ask the dragons and Riders with powerful mind links to spread the message. You know only some humans are allowed here and that's because of their unique abilities."

Nalia grinned at the words. She was one of the very, very few humans who could see the markings of a Rider no matter what. That's how she first became friends with Flavia. It had been a week before she met Fawn and her marks appeared permanently. Nalia had gone up to her to comment about her pretty markings and Flavia tried to lie.

Even at the young age of ten, she knew what the markings meant. She wasn't stupid, she had the sneaky suspicious of being the very thing her parents hated and taught her and her brother to hate when she began to see black marks at the age of seven. She was smart enough to not tell her parents since they would decide to send her away to make her 'normal' again. Flavia knew better and kept quiet and began to only wear long sleeve shirts, and if she needed to wear a short sleeve she would wear a jacket over it.

She also learned how to use makeup early for the times her mother insisted on her wearing short sleeves with no jacket. She learned that some markings she could make disappear for a while but others she needed to cover with makeup. It was a dreadful task but she did what was she needed to not be sent away to one of the camps. It was actually one of the days her mother insisted on short sleeves that she met Nalia.

Her parents had dragged her to a pool party that was being thrown for the whole neighborhood, her brother was off on another party. While her mother packed Flavia's swimsuit, which the young girl wasn't going to wear. She already had difficulty hiding the markings on her arms, it was going to be impossible to do so for the ones on her back. Yes, her markings weren't as visible as they were now but they would occasionally darken until they were the blackest of blacks. Sometimes that lasted for a second and other time it could last for an entire day.

However, Nalia could see them no matter what.

It had been a fright when Nalia first came up to her to comment on the markings. Flavia couldn't deny them because the second she tried a few markings on her right arm began to darken. Nalia pulled her inside one of the bathrooms and locked the door the second her eyes saw that the marks were darkening.

It couldn't be denied.

Flavia remembered very well that she began to beg Nalia to stay quiet. She hated begging. Nalia simply laughed at her begging and told her she would stay quiet; she knew how to spot a Rider because her grandfather had been one. It was that day that Flavia learned of A-Humans. Humans who could see Rider markings no matter how they were covered, even if they weren't fully formed yet.

They became fast friends after that.

Nalia was also the first person to meet Fawn and she was the only person who knew about her that wasn't a Rider, until Julian.

"Riders. Dragons. A-Humans."

Everyone stopped talking and turned to face the one who spoke Flavia grinned at seeing who it was. Drake stood on the tallest rock that was in front of the large lake. His black hair didn't move from the small breeze and she noticed the slight black glow from his arms. He was using his power over the wind to stop it from messing up his hair.

"As you might know a fellow Rider has been sent to the Converting Camps."

Murmurs echoed through the area but nobody spoke up.

"He is the fifth one this month, they are getting closer." His voice held sorrow, "It's only a matter of time before another Rider is found."

Agreement echoed through the Central Haven.

"As many of you noticed Haven South, West and East have been... discovered." Before anyone could start to panic Drake raised his hand getting rid of any air for them to speak. "Please, let me finish. Since the three Havens have been found we can only be ready for when they find Haven North and this one. It was confirmed by a dragon, whose Rider been capture, Riders are being taken to a Converting Camp, the dragons..."

No more words needed to be said as the little dragons who are yet to find their Riders hid behind other Riders or dragons. They were killing off the dragons and in turn, it would eventually kill their Riders. It was their bond that tied their lives together. If, not when, if a dragon died the Rider would start to get sick until they died and if a Rider died the dragon would die instantly. If what they were saying about killing dragons were true then either humans were very oblivious and not paid attention, didn't care if Riders died or they wanted Riders and dragons to die.

Flavia had a feeling it was the later even if it wasn't done with this knowledge.

No sound broke the silence that fell upon them but it didn't last long. Screams and yells followed it as sirens began to echo around them. Flavia was frozen in a frenzy of scared Riders, dragons and A-Humans alike began to run in every direction. She felt her arm being grabbed and pulled towards the trees but everything seemed a blur as she saw Riders get captured by the police and the dragons who didn't escape get caged.

Suddenly she was at the edge of the forest and Nalia was trying to tug her jacket on. Flavia reacted and helped her friend before leaving the park with the many rushing citizens. They blended into the crowd with ease and they parted ways. Flavia wasn't sure what happened until she got home and found her parents drinking champagne.

They were celebrating.

She turned to look at the TV.

It hadn't been a nightmare.

Haven Central had been found, only Haven North remained.

But it was no longer a case of 'If Haven North is going to be found'.

It was a case of 'When Haven North is going to be found'.

There was no use for hope. Not anymore.

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~Dani