"Run where?" I demanded, partially exasperated, and partially hyped for the fight to come.

If I had taken time to think, I would have known this was leading up to a boss fight. Zombies didn't appear out of nowhere. There was always a patient zero. Using videogame logic – and this seemed to be a world that ran using video game rules – patient zero was the boss monster.

Dragon. Whatever.

"You want to lead that back to the village?" I demanded, gesturing to the living bone nightmare which was crawling out of the crypt.

"It might not chase us as long as we get out of his territory," Sienna said.

Jane remained silent as she stared at the emerging bone dragon. The big stone slab which had covered the crypt was now cracked in half. One portion had fallen to the ground with an earth-shaking thump. The dragon was so big that it was having trouble fully climbing out without shoving the other half of the slab over.

That bought us a few extra seconds and begged the question... how the heck did it get into the crypt in the first place?

I would have to ask it. Personally.

"Great, then it'll just camp out here and re-raise those bunnies all over again," I snapped. "I've seen Game of Thrones. I know how Night Kings work."

"Game of... what?" Jane asked weakly, but she wasn't arguing with my excellent logic, either.

Jane and Sienna exchanged a look.

Then Jane bit her lip and said, "Harmony has a point. We could return with help from the village, but the bone dragon might have reraised its minions by then – or found more along the way. That's if it doesn't chase us down before we get there. And if we do ask for help, you know who will be the first to volunteer."

"Creepy Todd?" I guessed.

Jane nodded. "They will insist on taking all the glory for themselves, and I'll be damned before I let that happen."

Ohh. A low-key curse word. Jane really didn't like Todd.

Sienna sighed at her friend and then nodded.

Spine stiff, Jane turned to me. "We'll fight with you, but Ferdinand and Tiberius have already used their special attacks. When will Tiberius's attack reset?"

I glanced down at my little fennec dragon. There wasn't a health bar or anything.

"Ferdinand has a few more minutes," Sienna reported.

"You can tell that?" I asked even as I concentrated on Tiberius.

My question was answered when his sheet popped up into view.

Fennec Dragon “Tiberius”

Tier: 1

Level: 3

Tier 1 Special Attack: Fire Tornado

Current SA Recharge Time: 2.04 Minutes… 2.03 Minutes… 2.02 Minutes…

Stamina 47/100

"His stamina is pretty low, but he can do another fire tornado in a few minutes."

"I knew I should have brought along dragon treats," Jane muttered under her breath.

I made a mental note to ask about that later.

Meanwhile, there was a terrible grind of stone against stone as the bone dragon shoved free. It had nearly shouldered its way out now. And, as I had worried, some of the bunnies which had been taken out – the mostly whole ones which I hadn't looted – were starting to revive. Bones cracked as they stood up and reset popped joins. Some looked very sad indeed, like a stiff breeze could knock them over. But they were mobile. And if they were mobile, they were dangerous.

"Do you have a plan?" Sienna asked.

I nodded and decided now was the time to bring out the ace up my sleeve. I reached into my pocket and brought out the gold crystal.

"Yup. I'm going to tame this bitch and make it mine. Then, if Todd comes after me I'll kick his ass."

"Where did you get that?" Sienna asked.

Jane's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Is that a gold crystal?"

I was saved by answering by a thud. The second half of the stone finally fell free, and the bone dragon emerged.

It was like a skeleton brought to life. A vague, dark outline delineated where there would normally be things like scales and flesh... but mostly, I saw bones. There was something... wrong in the construction of the bone dragon. Other than it shouldn't exist without skin and organs and such. Like I was looking into a transparent object and only seeing the inner frame. This was a living, breathing dragon... but for some reason, it was all invisible except for the skeleton. Oh, and two glowing points in the skull where there should have been eyes.

Ten out of ten on the creepy scale. This thing would be perfect for Halloween parties.

Did I even want a bone dragon? Or bond it using my gold crystal? Sure, it was high up on the scale, but it was still a basic crystal. I wouldn't get any bone dragon abilities.

But none of that would matter if I were dead.

I glanced down at Tiberius who stood stolidly at my side. The way he held himself, barrel chest thrust out and his front paws turned inward like a bulldog reminded me a bit of a sturdy tank.

My gaze flicked up to Commadore who flew overhead, able to swoop down and deal a good bit of damage with his sharp claws before flying back up out of danger. Meanwhile, there was Ferdinand... the deceptive wildcard who looked like a duck but was as scary as any goose. And if you'd ever been chased by a goose, you knew that was some scary shit.

"Oh my god,' I muttered. "Tank, damage dealer, rogue."

"What?" Jane asked.

At that moment, the bone dragon turned its skull toward us, opened its jaws to expose – of course – glowing bone-white teeth, and roared.

Weirdly, even its tongue was the same bright purple as its eyes.

Time to fight.

"Tiber, you get up close and distract it. Try to encircle it in your special attack as soon as you can. Commodore, swoop down on it. Aim for the eyes – or eyeholes, I guess. Ferdinand, your job is to keep the re-risen bunnies off us." I turned to the girls. "Jane, Sienna... we're going to distract this thing. We'll throw stones at it, yell at it, do whatever we can to keep it off our dragons, and take off hit points if we can."

"Hit... what?" Jane looked half amazed at my sudden plan and half alarmed that she didn't know what the hell I was saying.

I shook my head. "We're going to distract it from eating our dragons while they do the damage."

"Watch out for its breath," Sienna said. "They taught us about bone dragons in school. If you have any injury – even a scratch – and it gets in contact with its breath, it'll start to fester. The higher level bone dragons have auras that will do the same."

"Well, if its lame-ass minions are anything to go by, this isn't a higher level dragon," I said adding quietly, "I hope."

The bone dragon stood on the remains of the crypt and roared into the sky. A purple haze flowed out of its skull-mouth. It wasn't just doing that to look cool. (Though it did.)

... That would be the breath Sienna had been talking about.

Unfortunately, the gas didn't dissipate. It sank to the ground and wherever it touched the grass, the blades wilted.

It was easy to guess that the longer we waited, the thicker and more potent the gas was going to be.

"Let's go!" I yelled and suited action to words by bravely hobbling forward.

Of course, everybody else, even Ferdinand, was faster than me.

My friends and their dragons easily leaped over or squeezed through the waist-high wrought iron fence that bordered the graveyard. Meanwhile, I had to go around to use the gate.

The dragons got to the enemy first and got to work. Commodore opened with a screech that didn't sound too far off from a red tail hawk's as he dived for the bone dragon's head, all his sharp talons extended.

The bone dragon roared and cut off its breath o' doom to snap at him.

Tiberius took the distraction to rush in and... head butt the bone dragon at full speed. A for effort.

Interestingly enough, the weird dark outline of the bone dragon seemed solid. Tiberius had hit it right in the diaphragm and I heard the bone dragon's "Oomph".

As I got closer, I realized what bothered me about the thing. The dragon was semi-transparent, and I was seeing its bones, but it was able to hide the organs and flesh.

Gross... and also, why?

I didn't get an answer because the deadly purple haze was having an effect. Not on Tiberius – not yet – but on the other life in the graveyard.

Mice, rats, and voles – or at least the tiny monster equivalents – were burring their way out of the soil along with a few other horned rabbits.

I got the impression that the bone dragon had parked his ass over the bunny warren and was using the bunnies as fodder. The healthy bunnies must have escaped, but the ones that were injured succumbed to the gas.

And all of the newly risen creatures came right at us.

Ferdinand waddled onto the field of battle. He stopped and took a deep breath. whipping his head back.

"Tiber! Get out of the way!" I yelled.

Tiberius had just dodged a strike from the bone dragon's talons and had been bunching up for another physical attack. At my words he instantly jumped back, looking half-confused.

But following my orders had put him out of the blast radius. Mostly.

Ferdinand honked again. The rodents and raised monsters disintegrated. Even the bone dragon staggered back so shocked that its illusion fell away. Instead of a living skeleton, I saw a white dragon the color of, you guessed it, bone. Fully fleshed out, it had kind of a cute, chubby face blinking at us in shock.

Then the semi-transparent bone illusion reasserted itself and the bone dragon roared in fury.

Tiberius meanwhile had been caught with a glancing blow from the blast and tumbled over and over. Coming to a stop, he shook his head, one paw coming up to bat at his right ear.

"Are you okay?" I asked, but Tiberius either ignored me or didn't hear me at all. He used the new distance between himself and the bone dragon to charge up into a quick run – he was beginning his fire tornado.

But he was knocked off his game. And as he circled the bone dragon, he wasn't as fast as he had been before. Worse, the purple decay gas was growing thicker on the ground, strengthened by the bone's dragon's roars.

Was Tiberius injured enough for it to take effect?

Tiberius staggered once or twice, shaking his head, seeming dazed. The line of flames that came off his feet looked feeble.

That's when Commodore swooped down from the sky with another screech and clapped his wings together. A blast of ferocious wind kicked up, knocking the gas away. In an instant, all the gas the bone dragon had poured in was dissipated and the fresh air gave Tiberius's flames life.

Tiberius hiccupped a sound that sounded like a dragon version of 'Thanks!' and resumed encircling the other dragon in flame. His stamina, though, was dipping low.

The bone dragon slammed a claw down, missing him by an inch.

"Oh, no you don't!" Scooping up a rock the size of my fist, I threw. My leg sucked but there was nothing wrong with my arms.

If I could get close enough, I could use the crystal on it. Or maybe just add more fuel to the fire with my pepper spray.

And that's the moment things started to fall apart.

I think my plan might have worked if the dragons hadn't just been fighting the battle with the undead bunnies. All three seemed to hit the stamina wall at the same time.

The boost to Tiberius’s flames died as soon as the blast of wind cut off. Commodore lost altitude as exhaustion from his special attack took over.

The bone dragon whipped its head around and snapped at him. Only the house dragon's aerobatic abilities and a swiftly thrown rock from Jane kept him from snatching the little dragon out of the air.

Meanwhile, Tiberius’s stamina had bottomed out. The flames from the half-formed tornado started to gutter and die.

To my horror, the bone dragon kept his cool and blew out another gust of gas. The purple haze started to smoother the remaining flames.

"Tiber! Get out of there!" I yelled as the bone dragon advanced on him.

The bone dragon looked fresh while everyone was flagging.

I should have listened to the other girls. Should have gone to the town for help.

Then I remembered the gold crystal.

I rushed – okay – limped, forward at top hobbling speed.

"Go!" I yelled to Jane and Sienna. "Get your dragons out of here!"

"Harmony!" Sienna looked like she wanted to stop me but was forced to turn back to help Ferdinand who was being rushed by squeaking undead mice monsters, instead.

I didn't blame her for that. I had been a part of this world for only a couple of days, and I already knew that to tamers, bonded dragons came first. People, second.

I rushed forward, bringing the gold crystal to bear...

Only to be slapped to the side by the bone tail.

And yes, it had been roughly like being hit with a flesh, blood, and scale mallet. Not bone. Definitely an illusion. That was one question solved.

I felt myself sailing through the air and hit so hard that my breath whooshed out of me.

As I inhaled, I took in a good portion of the dragon's gas, too.

My lungs burned and I coughed which didn't help at all because that made me inhale more.

I heard a yell in the back of my mind – it sounded like my name was being called. Not with my own voice, but someone else's...

I sat up. Nothing felt broken, by my hands were empty. Shit. Where did the gold crystal go?

No way to find it. The purple haze covered everything...

Tiberius squeaked out a warning. I looked up to see the bone dragon advancing on me. It's bony jaw wide...

The bone dragon was about to exhale, surrounding me with gas. And I knew that it would be enough to kill me, and my undead corpse would be his...

... Only to be hit upside the head by a green and brown streak from above.

Its head snapped to the side and it actually stagged in place, reeling.

For a second, I thought that Commadore had saved my life.

But Commodore didn't have that color pattern. This house dragon was more green than brown.

In the next second, with a soap bubble pop, the house dragon turned into a being of roaring flame.

It took the shape of the Phoenix Dragon.

I had just been saved by the mimic.