Chapter One
The unicorn’s hooves thundered across the ground. His blue tail swished in the breeze, and his silver horn glittered in the sunlight. As he ran through the forest, he dodged many dead animals, saying a prayer of peace for each of them as he galloped pass. He soon came across a cave, and quickly ran into it, sheltering behind a boulder. He heard the footsteps stop, and held his breath. They started to fade away, and he let out his breath. “Phew,” he said, his voice crackly from dehydration. “That was a close one.”
As he laid down on the stone floor, he thought over the situation. Should he go out and look for food, but risk being caught, or should he stay hungry but keep himself safe?
His ears twitched up to listen for any kind of noise, but heard nothing. He carefully rolled the boulder to the side and stepped into the open. After wandering around and exploring for a bit, he came across a crescent fruit tree and stopped to gather some into the makeshift basket strapped to his back. Soon, he found a stream and lapped the water up hungrily. On his way back to the cave, he spotted a piece of paper fluttering amongst the grass. He picked it up with his hoof and read it. Maximillian did a double take as he saw his “name” and picture, glaring up at him from the page. He jumped in shock and quickly tucked the paper away into his basket and hurried back to his cave.
Once he was back inside and the boulder was back in place, he cautiously pulled out the slip of paper and one of the crescent fruit he had gathered. While munching on the delicious fruit (he hadn’t eaten for days) he started to wonder about the phoenix and the dragon on the list, and what they were doing right now.
Chapter Two
The phoenix crawled across the ground, making sure not to harm any of the insects that lived in the tall yellow grass. She jumped at the the sound of a flower rustling. Every time she heard a beetle buzz or some sort noise, she startled. They’re not following you, she assured herself.
Her mission was to get as far away from her home as possible. It wasn’t easy, especially after being chased for much of her journey. She was exhausted and just wanted to lay down and rest, but she couldn’t. She was determined to find a place of shelter with a steady food and water source she could stay before night fell. The journey was also hard for her because she had never been to that part of Aromandia before.
She was glad she was almost at the forest, the only place not desolate and destroyed by humans. Destroyed houses, barren wastelands, and smoke rising from huge factories was now what made up her once beautiful home. Even now, she longed for the daisies and crocuses that used to sprinkle the land wherever you went. She sighed. She was only 10 years old and still a baby, but she missed the 8 years of her life before disaster and destruction had erupted.
She realized she had stopped to think. “Snap out of it!” a bug whispered in her ear, and finally she started to crawl towards the forest. After one hour, she reached the forest. There, she found a hole in the base of an oak tree with a clear stream and crescent fruit trees nearby. She settled in with a pillow of moss and a blanket of leaves, and fell asleep even before darkness engulfed the land.
Chapter Three
The dragon’s wings flapped as he propelled himself over a dreary government building. He wasn’t a very big dragon, so the humans always mistook him for a large government plane, he was headed to the Werradith Wood, the only shelter left for animals that was hidden from the humans. He had been furious when the humans had destroyed the only home he’d ever had, and he wanted revenge, but he knew that it was too dangerous. After all, he was one of the only animals left that the humans hadn’t caught yet, as he had seen on their “wanted animals” list that they seemed to leave strewn everywhere. How careless they were. The dragon’s nostrils started to smoke as the usually did when he got angry. Humans didn’t have the right to change my and my friend’s names for one, he thought. My name is Lenador, not Dragon 605!
The thoughts kept swarming his head until he thought he would fall over. “Focus”. He said to himself. Finally, he started to see the tops of trees come over the horizon and he flapped his wings faster to make sure he wasn’t noticed. Lenador reached into a pocket in his hide and retrieved a piece of burnt pumpernickel bread and started to eat it. It was the only food he’d had access to and was starting to get tired of it. A little while later he reached the forest and landed in the thick, hidden branches of a redwood. He would find better food tomorrow, but for now, he had to rest.
Chapter Four
You might be wondering reader, why everything in Maximillian’s, Ash’s, and Lenador’s world has been destroyed by humans. It all started with the Battle of the Four Corners. Two years ago, the migration of the Noxu occured. The Noxu were a group of other worldly beings that wanted to invade Earth. They were selfish and hurtful creatures and would do whatever they had to gain power and territory. Meanwhile, humans had been trying to save their world’s environment for years, yet none of their attempts to save their planet had worked.
People grew competitive with showing off how amazing their inventions were to save the planet. Even if they didn’t realize, they were hurting their environment while trying to help it. Innocent animals started being used to do all the work for the humans. Humans kept getting hungrier and hungrier for power, and couldn’t stop absorbing it. The grew greedy and unfair and power soon swallowed up any morals they had left. Then, on the first new moon on the summer solstice. After two years of preparation, the Noxu invaded. Chaos broke out as the humans rushed to put the imprisoned animals into their positions. A group of men armed with whips herded the phoenixes to catapult giant boulders smothered in dragon’s flame into the enemy side.
Another whipman pushed the unicorns into position to charge into the Noxu’s ranks, and lined up a select few whose blood would be given to the generals to make them immortal. A chainman dragged a group of dragons in shackles to incinerate the enemy. Finally, humans rode into battle on the backs of centaurs. On the side of the Noxu, the Kizerian came to help. They were awful creatures with long greasy hair, with bones tied in. They wore blood as face paint and their only clothes were a a ripped cape tied around their waists. Another ally came to the Noxu – the Morath had arrived. They were brutal creatures who ate humans for lunch. But the power of these forces were not enough for the humans. The brutal training of the animals had made them invincible, for they were afraid of being punished by their masters. In the end, the Noxu surrendered.