Silver watched as the sun began to descend into the horizon, casting illuminated colours across the sky. The colours reflected eagerly off her shell casting her in an almost celestial light, and it annoyed her to no end. No doubt she would be visible from all ends of the valley in this sunset. With a slight growl she took off from her perch and flew into the sky, concentrating on trying to darken the shell as much as she could, to no avail.

Her stomach growled hungrily. Not having eaten was going to be a problem now. Her family had probably already finished with their meal, so she would have to hunt by herself, not that she minded hunting, but the revealing sun had caught her at its most prime time. If she was going to go hunting she would have to wait until she was less like a beacon in the sky.

An idea came to her and she tilted her wings, descending down towards a small wooden hut that camped on the edges of the lake. It was a rather simple building, with wooden logs stacked neatly side by side for walls and wooden slabs angling downwards for a roof. A simple door was built into the wall and glassless windows were pickpocketed around the house. A small metal chimney sprung from the top that had a trickle of smoke running from it. A large patio stretched out in front of the house, large enough to accommodate a dragon, which was also made from wood.

Silver came to a landing outside the patio and carefully padded underneath. As soon as she was out of the sun her back stopped glowing and she let loose a sigh of relief. The glare it created was more then she could handle, and it didn't help that it attracted quite a substantial amount of heat. Under the shade she could cool down easily.

As she walked up to the door of the house she couldn't help but notice a series of voices coming from inside. Interested she poked her head through one of the windows to see two humans chatting in front of a fire. Her sudden presence startled one, and it leapt up in quite a shock. She chuckled slightly as the other one turned to scold her.

"Silver? What are you doing here?" it said.

She smiled and rested her head on the windowsill, "Nothing. I was bored and mum told me not to come and bother you, so I decided to come and bother you."

"They can talk!?" exclaimed the other human in the room, staring at Silver in fascination.

"Of course we can. Liam said that in his blog... thing, So you should know," she turned her head to the other human, "You never told me we had a guest."

The other human, Liam, shrugged, "He only came in this morning. You were out so I didn't tell you."

Liam was a strange human, or at least that's what Silver's father had told her. He came to her shoulder in height and had long brown hair that flowed down his shoulders. He wore a plain grey T-shirt with a dragon on the front and long cargo pants. The picture of an extremely relaxed individual.

"Hmm," she said, and turned towards the new tourist, "What's your name?"

"Zach," said the human, still staring in wonder at the metal dragoness.

To Silver the two of them looked relatively the same, though Zach had starched blond hair while Liam's was a dark brown. He looked as if he was ready for adventure, with a strange looking bag sat beside his chair and a utility belt around his waist. If she didn't know better then she would think he was going caving. A human in a cave in these parts was a dead human.

She scoffed slightly at his attitude before turning to Liam once again, "Do you have anything spare I can eat. I'm hungry and its sundown. Prey can see me from a mile away."

"Why didn't you grab anything sooner?" asked Liam.

"Wasn't hungry," she smirked slightly.

Liam sighed and got up from where he had been sitting, "Just wait there, I'll be back in a moment."

Silver grinned and backed up from the window and sat on her haunches outside, waiting for Liam. The two of them were very good friends, and she was one of the only dragons that liked to spend time with him. A lot of younger dragons did like him and a lot of the older dragons avoided him like the plague. She understood them. They had lived their lives captured under humans and it wasn't until six years ago that they had broken free under her father's leadership, but in her mind it was time to move on. Forgive and forget.

It wasn't long before Liam opened the door. He had a bag thrown over his shoulder that looked quite heavy, for him anyway. With a grunt he hauled it in front of Silver's feet. The young dragon was instantly into it, tearing apart the bag to see what it had within. Venison, one of her favourite meals. She smiled and took a large bight.

"You owe me a deer," said Liam, "Skinned and gutted."

She gave him a smile and a nod, her maw covered in blood from the meal. She licked it clean before digging in once more, her hunger getting the better of her. As she ate Zach joined Liam on the patio, watching her with a slightly disgusted look on his face. She ignored him. Humans were even weirder in the way they ate.

Once she finished she got up and shook some of the blood of her muzzle, "Thanks Liam."

"Any time Silver. But remember you owe me a deer," he said.

She nodded and turned to fly off. She would need to clean herself off before she got home. She made her way to the lake and dived in quickly, getting rid of all the blood on her metal shell and scales. She made sure to keep a close lookout for Zepos, in case he wanted to join her. Luckily there were no other dragons at the river except for a large fire dragon who was lounging nearby.

After offering him a small nod of greeting she took to the air once again and flew back to her cave where her mother and father were waiting. They were probably wondering where she was, for they weren't supposed to be out after dark. Not that it stopped her, but she preferred to do it when they didn't know about it. She had plans for that night anyway, and didn't want her parents to be suspicious.

She landed lightly back at the cave and walked inside out of the glare of the sun. As soon as she got inside something tackled her from the side, causing her to squeak in fright. Laughing soon followed. She rolled to her feet and glared at Raize.

"Hey!" she said.

Raize was laughing so hard puffs of fire were shooting from his maw and his tail lashed around with amusement. With a growl she shot a glob of liquefied metal at the fire dragon's tail. It landed and froze solid instantly, trapping the tail still. Now it was Silver's turn to laugh.

"Let me go!" said Raize, trying desperately to pull his tail out from underneath its entrapment.

Silver stood there and watched him, ignoring he pleas of help. A smile had spread across her face. It wasn't often she got her brother into such a predicament. Eventually though her traitorous heart forced her to cut the metal loose with her tail and free her brother. Raize shook his tail out, making sure nothing was injured and glared at her. She only grinned.

"Serve's you right for sneaking up on me," she said.

Raize didn't have an answer for that and only rolled his eyes and turned to face back into the cave. It was a rather small cave for five dragons. It had a branch that lead to where her mother and father slept and another branch to where the three siblings slept. There were no stalagmites or stalactites in the cave for her father had broken them all down to create room for the family. It was still a bit cramped however. Sleeping with two male fire dragons was a little annoying for her, and she longed for her own space.

When she walked in she noticed that the rest of her family were in the centre chamber of the cave. Blaze was sitting by her mother, watching as the two of them walked in. He grinned at her and Raize, causing Silver to role her eyes in a gesture she had learnt from Liam. Blaze snorted lightly and turned back to where her father was sitting. She trotted up next to her mother with a small smile. Scarlet nodded a silent greeting to her daughter before turning her attention back to her mate.

"Aah, Silver. About time you got here. Listen up please, I've got something to tell you all," said her father, Elron.

Silver sat down, curious as to what her father wanted to say. Usually when he got them all together it was to discuss a new advantage for the dragons, or to be wary of an increasing number of humans passing close to the valley. The reason was something that she wasn't expecting at all.

"For over the past month dragons have been disappearing," said Elron, looking over them.

The siblings glanced at each other in surprise. Dragon's disappearing was a serious matter. There were so little of them as it was that whenever one left or died it was a great source of grief for the dragons. Silver had only ever seen one dragon die, and that was an older one who was quite a few hundred years old. She had died of a sickness that had plagued her body. There were dragons older, though no one knew the age of the oldest dragon. And now they were disappearing.

"How many have gone?" asked Scarlet anxiously.

"Three," replied Elron, "Maybe more. The first two I didn't pay much attention to because the occasional dragon does leave the mountains to find homes elsewhere... but three in one month is something that I find very suspicious. They are elder dragons to, ones that don't really have to much of a taste for adventure that younger ones have."

"Do you have any idea what has happened to them?" said Scarlet.

The large metal dragon shook his head, "No, though I am going to assume they have been taken or killed. I want you all to be on high alert. No going out after nightfall and be aware of any suspicious humans in the valley. Don't go anywhere by yourself, especially you Silver, not until we get on top of this problem. Do you here me?"

The two boys nodded their heads. They seemed worried enough but Silver was slightly annoyed. In her mind her father was being overly paranoid. So what if a few old dragons suddenly disappeared. Maybe they just fell asleep in their caves and just haven't woken up for a while. It wouldn't surprise her. Most older dragons were a bit boring and tiring. She didn't want a suspicious theory to stop her from going out on her own. Besides, she could look after herself, and she had plans for that very night.

"Dad, don't you think your being a bit paranoid?" she said.

"Maybe, but I'm not taking any chances," Elron said, "Not when it could mean the life of one of you three."

Silver snorted, "Come on, a few elder dragons disappeared. They probably went off together to look at the world. It's not the first time its happened. Besides, I could defeat a group of humans easily."

"I know, but elder dragons aren't usually ones to disappear, especially in groups, and if they are being taken then I have no doubt a younger dragon would easily fall as well," growled Elron, "Now, enough of this conversation. We'll talk more in the morning. I want you three off to the nests. You here me?"

The three of them nodded and turned to go into their part of the cave. The two boys raced into their area of the cave, and Silver followed quietly. She was slightly annoyed at this new predicament. She was sure her father was just being over protective. Even if elder dragons were being taken they had probably been taken by surprise, and she wasn't one to be taken by surprise, most of the time anyway. Besides, she had plans for that night and she wasn't going to let her father's stupid superstitions stop her.

With a snort she lay down in her iron nest. Something she had made herself and was very proud of. She laid her head against the cool surface of the nest and closed her eyes. She wanted to get some rest before she went out, even if it was just for a small time.

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Hey guys, new chapter. Vote if you enjoyed. Tell me what you think of the characters so far and what you would like to see. I'll make a consideration of any ideas :) Anyway, next chapter will be up soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^