The sound of the waterfall drowned out their conversation. Mist spritzed over their faces as they cautiously neared. Blake pointed out a dry cliff, glancing at the others.
      "Prism, everyone else has a job. All you need to do is get Leiko up there. I prepared her this morning, she should know what to do from there." Blake ordered.
      "On the cliff... what are they planning?" Prism thought as he nodded.
      "That's pretty high, you should have warned me." He answered.
      "You can do it. We need to wait for you down here, so go." Blake ordered again.
      Shrugging, Prism took Leiko's hand. They strolled to the bottom of the cliff near the waterfall where Prism stopped. The baby blue book came out, his eyes scanning over the pages. Suddenly he tossed a rag into the air, reciting words they couldn't hear, and it floated down to the ground as a small rug.
      Prism stepped on the rug, then Leiko, and he said something else. It floated them straight to the top where they climbed off and he recalled his rag.
      "Not bad..." Blake thoughtfully pondered, "Bentora. Your turn."
      She darted off without warning leaving dust trailing her path. Prism peered over the edge as he tried to decipher the plan. Beside him Leiko pulled out a small canester of a black liquid.
      "Is that, oil?" Prism blinked.
      "Yeah. Bureiko mixed something in it too, then closed it. He said all I have to do is light this and move if something goes wrong." She pointed to a small piece of hemp, tugged through the cork into a tight squeeze.
      "He wants to blow the cliff up?" Prism hesitated. He heard screaming from below.
      "Hey! Hey! I know you're in there! Come out and play! Stupid dragon!" Bentora bellowed at the waterfall, "Stupid dragon! Stupid dragon!"
      Behind her he spotted Emeryl sneaking around to the other side of the pond.
      "What are they doing..." he felt his heart race. Emeryl hid next to the waterfall, staying still behind some rocks.
      The ground shivered under his hand. He backed to more stable ground as the giant red head boomed out of the waterfall.
      "Who dares to call me stupid?" it thundered, stepping into the pond. He was twice the size of even Ferris with two horns bent forwards instead of backwards and intense red eyes.
      Mischievously Bentora bent over, waggling her tail at him.
      "You!" he snarled. His gigantic mass waded into the pond. He breathed in deeply, nostrils flaring. Bentora took note of this and sprang onto some rocks as a burst of flames spewed out.
      Now Emeryl slipped out of hiding, kneeling over the rippling water and brushing his hair back. His fingertips touched the water. Naturally he remembered the words memorized from years before and chanted the memorized phrases. Ice drifted out covering the waves of the lake. The dragon felt a weak sensation covering the top of the water.
      Spinning his head he spotted the elf who continued. Underneath them the water hardened and froze, trapping the dragon's body in the lake. At this, Emeryl fainted.
      From the other side Eric charged out. Behind him Blake threw some sort of spell which sprinkled onto Eric. Eric pranced over the frozen lake as lightly as a feather, dashing past the tail of the frozen dragon into the waterfall.
      Bentora reappeared from the rocks. She spotted Emeryl lying halfway on the edge of the pond and halfway on the icy lake. Quickly she sprinted to his side but the dragon's head followed. Turning his neck painfully he took another deep breath.
      Tossing Emeryl over her shoulder she sprang into the lake. A flare of fire burst behind her. She tried to keep her balance on the ice but slipped and slid into the middle of the lake. Its tail whipped around shattering a patch of ice near them.
      "That's not suppose to happen, is it?" Prism glanced at Leiko.
      "I dunno." She held her cantene.
      A black ball of flame shot through the air. Smacking the dragon in the cheek it faded into nothingness as the dragon spun his head to see the drow elf preparing another spell. Another stream of fire trickled over the lake, melting another sizable portion of ice. Blake easily dodged but could tell the ice was cracking.
      "Bentora!" he shouted. She realized the dragon was distracted and headed the other way, slipping and sliding. Before she got far the tail whipped around and flung her and Emeryl into the air.
      "Bentora!" Blake called as he darted around the lake, only to be stalled by another stream of fire.
      "Found it!" Eric lunged out of the waterfall with gem in hand. More ice cracked as the dragon broke free. His giant red mass spun to find its new victim, Eric.
      "Eric, get off the ice!" Blake yelled.
      Obediently Eric headed towards Blake. The dragon cut him off, spewing a bout of fire in his way. Instinctively Eric drew the sword to block and the fire dissipated at its touch.
      As the flames dissipated into nothing a strange heat appeared in front of Eric with a red aura. In its place two dark purple eyes appeared with a muscular body and familiar shoulder length hair.
      "Alan?" Eric lowered the sword.
      "Give me the sword, get off the ice." Alan outstretched a hand.
      Looking to the sword, Eric passed it to Alan.
      "Go!" Alan ordered. Dazed, Eric nodded. It took him another moment to figure out what the order meant and he set his focus on reaching Blake.
      "How about facing me, dragon?" Alan challenged it.
      "Stupid dragon." Leiko hunted for a place to set the cantene.
      "Huh? But the dragon is under the waterfall, and you'd hit Alan!" Prism retorted.
      "The waterfall!" she ran away.
      "Wait, Leiko!" Prism gave chase.
      She searched for something to light the fuse with but found nothing by the time she reached the waterfall.
      "Leiko!" Prism called.
      Taking a deep breath she hurled the decanter by the waterfall. She took a second and screamed, "Zo!" A small black fireball shot out and hit the container.
      Sudden explosions threw her back into Prism. The edge of the waterfall crumbled as the bursts sent rocks flying. Underneath the heavy boulders crushed the dragon. Alan protectively danced out of the way with his sword. The dragon's head still reached out of the water and Alan landed on its nose. Right when he made to stab at it he felt a sudden chill. Without anymore fire and with icy water everywhere the sword cooled off quickly.
      "Eric!" he shouted to his brother as he and Blake moved from the shore. Peering up he spotted Alan tossing the sword underhandedly. Eric threw the gem carelessly at Blake. He made to catch the sword, then suddenly dodged its sharp blade as it pierced the ground next to him.
      "You're not as stupid as you look." Blake glowered at him.
      "But if I tried to catch it, it would have poked me." Eric shrugged. He yanked the sword out of the ground and sheathed it. Above Alan smiled faintly before he shimmered away.
      "Great deduction." Blake smirked.
      "Thanks. Where're Emeryl and Bentora?" he glanced around.
      "They got thrown that way. Let's go check." Blake revived his mad dash around the pond.
      Up above them Prism recreated the floating rug and hovered down to the side of the cliff with Leiko in arms. They reached the bottom as Blake darted past.
      "Where are they?" Prism shouted after him.
      "They flew this way!" he shouted back. A second later Eric soared by and Prism followed on his heels.
      The crunching of dry plants disturbed the silence. Lying on his back with his arms and legs flailed about, Emeryl was being overlooked by the white boy. Not much further Bentora lay stomach down, pressed against a rock.
      At Blake's approach the boy slid his hand away from Emeryl's cheek. With a small moan Emeryl opened his lime green eyes.
      "Maskini?" he whispered. The boy smiled at the sound of his name. At the blink of an eye, without any reason, he popped to his feet and glided away. A startled Emeryl sat up.
      "Don't rush yourself kid." Blake stepped up, replacing Maskini.
      "I'm cold." He shivered.
      "You're out of strength." Blake passed him to check on Bentora.
      "Emeryl! Bentora!" Eric dashed up, followed by Prism. At the sight of Emeryl on the ground Leiko snapped out of Prism's hands.
      "Emeryl!" she dropped beside him.
      "I'm ok. How's Bentora?" Emeryl asked. He stayed curled into a small ball to rid himself of the eerie cold.
      "A bit beat, she'll be fine." Prism sighed his relief, "You're all crazy. We need to head out before Aidan escapes. Do we have the gem?"
      Blake pulled it out of his belt, "Right here."
      "Good, hold onto that. And help me grab Bentora." Prism knelt and held Bentora on one side while Blake took care of the other. Carrying her with most of the weight on their shoulders they started out, diving straight back into the fields when they spotted a giant red dragon overshadowing them. It flew past, oblivious.
      "He must not have seen us..." Prism crawled back to his feet. Bentora groaned as she hit the ground again.
      "No time to explain, let's get her out of here." Prism shook his head as they retrieved Bentora.
      Not too far in the fields they spotted a young traveler by himself.
      "Excuse me?" Prism detached from the group, "Which way to Ephesus?"
      "That way." The traveler pointed nervously.
      "Thank you!" Prism nodded, leading the group away.