A silver flash swept through the undergrowth, running on all fours at the speed of a jaguar. It passed through the trees easily, slipping through much like a snake. Iron wings were opened slightly, guiding its form as it ran. To anyone looking overhead it would seem as if a silver light struck the forest. To anyone on the ground it was gone to fast to even register.

It found its way up a mountainside, leaping from rock to rock as easily as a mountain goat. It had slowed down now, and its form was visible now. A dragon, or what could be seen as a dragon. It had the same shape and structure. Four legs, a tail, a pair of wings and horns, and yellow scales winding from its sharp talons to cover its underbelly and sides. But there was something different about this dragon that would make you look twice. What could only be described as iron covered its back and stretched along its wings creating a beautiful silver sheen that seemed to be almost mirror like. The metal covered its tail and wound up its neck, covering only the top of its body much like a shell.

It flared its wings in the last jump to the top of the mountain, screeching to a stop on sharper then normal talons. It was about the size of a large horse, suggesting a rather young age. Maybe five or six. A teenager in dragon years. Its slim figure suggested it was female, with thin wings and a narrow tail.

She turned and looked over the valley she had just run through with a small sigh. It was a beautiful sight. A long lush forest stretched into the distance, full of many animals that made excellent prey for dragons. Towards the middle was a large lake that made quite a lovely bathing place. Mountains surrounded either side, protecting the inhabitants from the outside influence of humans and their despicable ways. A paradise.

A rustle of movement caught her attention and she turned to see two red dragons burst forth from the forest. They ran side by side, eager to beat the other to the top where the metallic dragoness was waiting. She could only grin at the two males' competitiveness. One suddenly lashed out with his tail, catching the others legs and tripping him up. A laugh followed as the red dragon bounded up beside the female.

"You boys are impossible," said the female with a small chuckle.

"Say's you," snorted the male with a flick of his tail, "Your like the fastest on four legs, though in the air I reckon I could catch up."

He flared his wings just to make his point. The dragoness rolled her eyes, knowing only to well how superior in the air she was. Her speed on the ground was nothing compared to the speed in the sky.

"Silver could you bight him for me!" yelled the other male with a growl as he pulled himself from where he had been stuck between two rocks.

He was the biggest of the three, and in Silver's opinion the dumbest. While he was nearly impossible to defeat in an all out fight, brawn and fire were the only things he used to attack. Never speed or cunning, something that she prided herself on.

The other red dragon had heard the threat and jumped backwards before Silver had a chance to grab at him. She only grinned sweetly at her brother and turned towards the other one that slowly crawled up the side of the mountain.

"Stop being a hatchling Blaze," Silver called, "Get up here before Dad gets here."

Blaze snorted with annoyance and pulled himself up to the small plateau where Silver and his brother were. He shook himself and checked his wings and scales for any scuff marks. To his annoyance a small amount of dirt had smudged across his usually ruby red scales. He glared at his brother.

"You're going to pay for that Raize," he said.

Raize only grinned cheekily. He was the troublemaker of the lot, always tricking their parents and other dragons. Occasionally he got into huge trouble with other dragons, and only his rank as the leader's son got him out off being kicked from the valley. He was now under watch and was forbidden to leave the cave unless told, like now.

A chuckle sounded from behind them, causing the young dragons to spin around with surprise.

"You three are amusing to watch sometimes," said a large dragon, revealing himself from a dark cave struck into the mountain.

"Dad! Raize tripped me up!" said Blaze with a snort, "Punish him!"

The large dragon laughed. He wasn't red like the two males, but rather took on his daughter's appearance. He had yellow scales up his underbelly and a metallic shell stretched across his back and wings. He was thicker then Silver however, and obviously was more strength then speed.

"There was never a rule that said I couldn't," stated Raize, though he shuffled slightly away from his far larger father.

"He's right," said the father, "It was never part of the rules."

Blaze's wings dropped with disbelief.

"However I would prefer if you didn't pull off a stunt like that again Raize. It is unsportsmanlike," he said.

Blaze grinned and Raize looked away with a snort. Silver watched without making a sound. Males were so confusing sometimes. With a small snort of amusement herself she turned to her father.

"Where's mother?" she asked.

"Hunting, she should be back any time now," was the reply.

Silver sighed, she had wanted to join her. Hunting was something she excelled at, from the air anyway. Her shining shell always gave her away from the ground, but she was slowly learning how to hide it. One of the skills her father was teaching her was the ability to darken the metal shell and make it almost completely black. It wasn't exactly camouflaged but it stopped the shell from shining whenever light found it.

Metallic dragons had a number of different abilities, most of which Silver was still struggling to gain a hold of. Her father continued to encourage her, saying that she would get it right eventually but she was finding it extremely frustrating. Her brothers were fire dragons and only had to worry about one thing. Fire. It was simple and easy, and yet her abilities were so much more complicated, even if they were more powerful.

"There she is!" said the father with a grin, looking towards a red dragoness flying towards them in the sky, "Welcome back Scarlet, love. What have you got for us today?"

The red dragoness landed with a small thud on the plateau. She wasn't quite as big as her mate, but still double the size of her oldest hatchling. She was a fire dragon with a great temper when annoyed but a loving heart that would do anything to keep her mate and hatchlings safe. Silver and Scarlet were as close as mother and daughter could be, being the only females in a primarily male family.

Scarlet dropped a rather large pig in front of her hatchlings. Raize immediately dug in while Blaze nodded his thanks before following his brother into the meal. Silver let them eat first. She wasn't feeling extremely hungry and she wanted to catch her own food a bit later, when she went to see Liam, the only human who lived in dragon valley. The occasional tourist came through to see the dragon society for themselves, but other then that human interaction was nearly non-existent.

"Silver, are you not hungry?" asked Scarlet with slight worry for her daughter.

She shook her head, "No, I'll go hunting later. Let the boys eat first."

Scarlet sighed and padded over to her. She sat by her and looked into the distance.

"May I ask what you are thinking about?" she said.

Silver hesitated. While the valley was a dragon paradise that she loved with all her heart and wouldn't trade for anything else, she longed to see the human world. Here they were so protected by the mountains and there abilities that she hadn't had the opportunity to see for herself what humans were really like. From the stories she had been told they seemed horrible, but the few tourists that had arrived here, and from her experience with Liam, they didn't seem all to bad.

"Hey mom, do you mind if I go flying just for a bit," she asked.

"Not at all. Just don't cross the mountains, or bother Liam. He's busy at the moment," Scarlet replied.

Silver smiled before turning her back to her family and taking off into the air with a few flaps of her silver wings. Once the wind caught her she soared up higher and smiled. Flying was amazing. In her mind it was the greatest thing about being a dragon. She could go without anything as long as she still could fly. She turned in the air, moving her tail a little to guide herself and tilting her wings. It was also amazingly silent up there. The only sound being the wind, and then there was the view. Standing on top of mountains was fine, but flying above them was even greater. She felt as if she could see everything, and when she got high enough she could even see a slight slant as the earth circled around.

"Silver, fancy meeting you up here," said an all to familiar voice.

Her peace broken she growled slightly and looked at the culprit dragon. He flew upside down under her, a yellow dragon. His name came to Silver's head, Zepos. He was an increasingly annoying lightning dragon, about a year older then her, who was constantly butting in at times when she wanted to just be alone. She was pretty sure Zepos had fallen head over heals with her, not that she was surprised. She wasn't vain but being the only female, available, metal dragon she had quite a number of males vying for her attention. Zepos was especially annoying because he tried so much harder to gain her attention then the other males. Most of the time she had to resist the temptation to coat his face in metal.

"What do you want?" she half growled at him.

Zepos grinned and flipped into the air to fly along side her, "Nothing much, just wondering what you were doing up here. All alone."

"Trying to get away from everyone," she said, giving him a sideways glance.

"That's sweet of you. Trying to fly off by yourself... just to be with me," Zepos hummed contently.

She growled slightly, annoyed at his behaviour. He seemed to never give up. She pulled herself into a steep dive, angling down towards the trees below. Zepos grunted in surprise, before diving down to follow her. She levelled out just above the trees, sighing when Zepos levelled of with her.

"So... I was wondering if you wanted to join us in a couple of days. A couple of friends and I are planning a day at the lake. It would be great to have you join us, just for some fun," He angled himself so he was flying upside-down again, showing off.

"No," she said.

"Oh, why not?" asked Zepos.

"Because I don't want to," was her simple reply.

"Yes you do," he said cheekily.

He jabbed her hind leg with his tail causing her to snarl angrily, "Leave me alone Zepos. I'm not in the mood for your antics today."

The electric dragon snorted, "Fine. See you around."

Silver just sighed in reply, and he flew off. She rounded off as she came to a mountain, landing on a large stone pillar that poked from the ground. She sat down on her haunches and sighed, looking at the wall of mountains that barred her way. It was so tempting just to take off into the air and fly over them, towards the human lands, but she couldn't do that. Not without suffering the wrath of her parents as well as their disappointment. She formed the end of her tail into a small blade and sliced off a piece of rock from the pillar. One day, when she was old enough, she would go, but until then, she was trapped in the valley.

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Hey guys! Another story. I started writing this because it refused to get out of my head :) This one will probably be slowly updated, because I'm working on getting another book published, but I'll update occasionally. 

If you haven't read my book 'A Modern Day Dragon' its related to this one. A prequel to this planned trilogy if you will. So if you want to find out some back story read it, but it doesn't matter to much if you don't.

See Ya!

Pennator^^