One night, while Jillian was asleep, she was awoken by something. It was a whisper, like someone right next to her.

"The darkness... is coming."

Jillian immediately opened her eyes and jerked up. She looked around again, thinking that voice would return. It didn't. She laid her head back down in her pillow and tried to go back to sleep. Maybe she had imagined that voice. It was one of those awkward moments when you were dreaming, and all of a sudden, you woke up with the last few seconds of the dream fresh in your head.

But still, why was it so clear? Jillian wasn't one whose dreams made any kind of sense. Normally she would hear random phrases that would make no sense. She simply shut her eyes and rolled over in bed to try and get back to sleep.

~ ~ ~

The next morning, Jillian went to have a little girl's day out with one of her friends. Maybe prepare a little for a soirée later on, but that was up to everyone else's schedule. She went to pick up her friend Shawna from around her house.

"Hey Jill." Shawna said, moving her reddish hair aside as she sat down in the driver's seat.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Jillian asked her friend.

"I got some Kohl's cash. Want to go Clearance diving?"

"You know me better than anyone else." Jillian said.

Shawna reached for the car radio and pressed the button. Immediately, the sound of her mom's talk radio blared through, as Shawna turned it down. Jillian would have batted Shawna's hand away, were it not for the fact that she had just started driving. Shawna was good, after all.

"You know that radio doesn't work." Jillian said as she drove through the neighbourhood towards the Kohl's department store.

"It works just fine." Shawna said, "See? It's picking up NPR."

"No, the radio picks up nothing but crap 24/7." Jillian murmured.

"You say that about every radio program." Shawna said, "If you had that Sirius radio in your car you could pick up the comedy networks."

Before Jillian could say anything, the radio seemed to go silent for a second. A voice seemed to whisper loudly through the radio.

"The darkness is coming."

The radio was silent for a moment, before starting up again with pretentious newscasters stating their opinions about modern politics. Shawna and Jillian momentarily stared at the radio, thinking something might have been wrong. Jillian was feeling a sense of déjà vu - that as just like that voice in her dream.

Both of them were snapped back to reality by a car horn from behind them. Jillian had been at a stop sign when the radio had suddenly glitched, and a car had been behind them. Jillian pressed down on the gas and drove off.

"Wow... what was that?" Shawna asked.

"Some kind of viral marketing thing?" Jillian asked, "Remember that book series, The Dark is Rising? Are they like trying to make another movie about that?"

"I thought that movie tanked though." Shawna said, "Maybe it's something else."

~ ~ ~

"Say, how does this hoodie look?" Jillian asked.

She held up a grey hoodie with a few narrow darker grey stripes running across it. Shawna looked up from a nearby shelf with camo pants.

"Hm..." Shawna looked over it, "Seems kind of generic."

"How about this one then?" Jillian slipped the jacket back on the rack, and grabbed a similar one with neon green stripes.

"Neon green? Eeeew." Shawna said.

"Red?" Jillian asked, pulling out one with light red stripes."

"That'll do it." Shawna said.

"Good. There's a black camo one but I think you have enough camo already." Jillian said to Shawna.

"Hey, I do not." Shawna responded, "I like this stuff." She put her hands on her waist a little angrily. Jillian simply laughed to her self.

"Well this should look good with a tee-shirt." Jillian looked over the jacket again, "Good for those like, 55 degree days we've been having."

Shawna opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by that voice from the radio and in the morning.

"The darkness... is... coming."

Shawna and Jillian blinked. They immediately looked at each other, nonverbally asking themselves if they heard that too, and answering themselves as well. They simply looked around, noticing another confused looking customer. Maybe they had heard that voice as well. And if it was anything like what Jillian had experienced, this wasn't the first they heard a dismembered voice warn about some impending darkness.

"Okay, this is getting way out of hand." Shawna said.

"No freaking kidding." Jillian responded, "This has to be some kind of viral marketing thing."

~ ~ ~

Later that day, Jillian was in front of the mirror in her washroom. She had put on her new grey jacket, wearing a nice tee shirt underneath it. It had a small outline graphic of a dragon, something that she knew a few of her friends would love.

Indeed, Jillian liked the look. Sure, it was technically a male's jacket and shirt, but she didn't care. Some of the more interesting clothing could be found in the men's section anyways. (Except for plaid, which seemed to be making a comeback.) She noticed a cowlick on the top of her head, probably from when she put the hood over her short hair earlier. She pulled a hairbrush out of the drawer and started combing it, before she heard something very familiar.

"The darkness is coming."

Jillian stopped dead in her tracks. She simply looked forward at the mirror. Her eyes narrowed just a tad. She thought she saw something... then her eyes went towards the doorway. She made out a figure, something rather human. But it wasn't a simple intruder - the figure was covered entirely in a dark blue cloak, completely obscuring any form of facial features. The robe was also a little too large to show any hands. At first, Jillian thought the creature was some kind of visual hallucination.

She stared at the creature for several more minutes. It didn't move, simply standing there. Finally, Jillian turned around and held the hairbrush right at the figure, as if it was some kind of weapon to threaten it with.

The phantom-like figure didn't move at all. Jillian got closer, holding the hairbrush up a little higher. She was about to smack it right down onto the person's head, when she heard the voice again, this time saying something different.

"Don't."

Jillian reached out to the hooded figure in front of her, to pull it back. This could have been a terrible prank.

"Don't." The figure said again.

"Alright who are you." Jillian said, "Make it fast - this hairbrush can hurt."

"You are the first to listen." The figure whispered loudly. "I come bearing a warning. The Darkness is coming."

"You said that already!" Jillian said.

"No. If you permit... let me show you what may happen."

"If you flash me, I got to warn you I can kick you." Jillian threatened.

"Don't." The figure repeated.

"So what is that warning." Jillian said, "Because I can give you a warning - I can knock you out with this hairbrush."

"I bring a message of things to come. Let me show you what future this world may experience... look at the mirror."

Jillian turned around, but she made sure to sidestep. Wishing she had something like a knife to threaten the phantom with, she instead held the hairbrush in her other hand, looking at the mirror. Who else would have been stupid enough to try something when she could see them in the mirror?

Much to her surprise, she noticed a few things different in the mirror. It seemed to change, showing the room in a much darker light. (Or simply lack thereof). Jillian raised an eyeridge, keeping an eye on the cloaked figure, before taking a look over at the mirror. The vision seemed to change, displaying the outside.

At first, Jillian couldn't tell just what it was, until she recognized a few ruins. A piece of a sign that read "SILVER MI" laid hanging over a doorway, the rest of the building having vanished. An abandoned sedan stood quietly on the road next to it. The plantlife nearby seemed... almost eldritch. Like there was something wrong with them. Finally, she noticed a figure patrolling through the streets.

She nearly gasped when she made out just what it was. It looked to be some kind of a skeleton. Not a hyperrealistic skeleton, like in those internet campfire ghost stories she had read over the past few years. (Creepypastas) It turned around, its eyes glowing a bit, as if looking for something. The image in front of her changed.

Jillian was able to make out a few figures. They were people, dressed like soldiers. Yet she couldn't see their eyes, they were covered up by goggles - dark goggles. They seemed almost like ski-goggles, Jillian wanted to say. Then, she noticed some more figures walking up to them. They didn't look human in the least bit... antennae seemed to move around, and the figures appeared almost sectioned. Jillian bit her lip after seeing a large compound eye seeming to glow a bit red. Those were ants!

"The dark soldiers. Some retained their human appearance. Others were twisted... some became darkened shadows of themselves. That's what happened to everyone. Almost everyone."

The scene was replaced with something else. Humans again, but these ones looked normal. They seemed to be women, though for some reason, Jillian wanted to say that they looked like witches. Several other humans were nearby, some in chains. Chains of inky darkness. They were being brought before something. Jillian hoped that it wasn't going to be some kind of a death camp. But no, she thought back to what the phantom described as the 'dark soldiers'.

Jillian suddenly found herself staring at the reflection of the washroom. The phantom still had not moved, simply holding a covered hand up towards the mirror. (At least... Jillian hoped it was a hand.) She looked at the phantom.

"I cannot show you where they are going. They are going to the Master's Voice himself. If I showed you, I fear he would have seen my scrying... and pulled you in."

"Then what? Would I turn into an... ant? Or a skeleton? Or worse?"

"Maybe... maybe not. The Dark Master's trusted ones, the Vanguard, they all have the ability to turn whoever they slay into the shadows that the master commands. I myself used to be a human, just like you. But then... I was incinerated by a dark creature, a phoenix that walked like a dragon. I awoke as this... a creature made to serve the Master. I obeyed, thinking I had no choice. But soon, I realized... I could escape. I called for help, and found myself here... but in doing so, I fear that I may have doomed this world. It was through the portals that the Dark Master discovered my home... and it is through them that you will be discovered as well."

"This is... great." Jillian said, "So you have just doomed us all. Tell me why I should not bring this down on your head and then look for something heavier to castigate you with."

"Because... maybe there is a way. A way to keep this world safe, to keep the master from coming. But it can't be done on this side... it can only be done in the master's original world. So I was told by the other person, when I fled to the Master's world."

"What other person? Can you please like... not talk like I am actually on the same mental wavelength and frequency as you are? All I can gather is that there are multiple worlds. This one, the one that was taken over, and the one where this 'master' lives. If I am to stop the Master... it can only be in their world, huh?"

"That is where... the world of magic is. My transformation from a human into this... shadowed one has given me certain abilities. Within some humans is a Spark. It's that Spark that will not let you be transformed by simply standing in the presence of the Dark Master or his minions. I can even see it myself... you have one. But only the original world of the Master can nurture it. Turn it into something that can fight the Master."

"Good, I was wanting to go somewhere else." Jillian mumbled quietly.

"You are the first to answer my call... if that other one, the Portal Master can contact you, you will be taken to the place. I must search for more to answer the call... but surely, I can get some kind of awareness, before the Master emerges here, too."

"That was sarcasm!" Jillian almost snapped, "For all I know you are some kind of acid reflux nightmare brought from that outlandish Thai food I ate for dinner."

Before the phantom could respond, Jillian brought her hairbrush right to the front of the hood and pulled it back. However, she didn't get it completely back, just enough to see the face. She paused, holding up the creature's hood. She could see a skull - a human skull. In place of eyes were faint yellow lights. Smoke seemed to rise from the blackened skull, before dissipating a bit. It as just like the shadow that she had seen in the mirror.

Jillian pulled the brush away, holding back a scream. The phantom wasn't kidding - it was one of those creatures. She took another step, grabbing the brush with another hand. Jillian trembled, keeping both eyes on the phantom.

"I tried to warn you." The phantom said, "This... is what awaits you."

"You're me from the future now?!" Jillian asked.

"No... at least... not that I know of. I can barely remember who I was as a human... my memories were taken by the Master..."

"Well I this is real... then tell me what I have to do." Jillian said.

"The portal... is close." Suddenly, the phantom gasped and brought his hands to his head. "N-No... his voice... even here... Whoever you are... please..."

"How close?" Jillian asked.

"Y-You will know..." The figure said, as it backed out of the doorway, into the hall. Jillian followed the creature out, as he seemed to melt into the rug. Jillian turned on the hallway lights, and just like that, he was gone.

"...I'm going crazy." She murmured out loud, "Hey, if there's some portal out there, show me where this Master is from."

~ ~ ~

The next thing Jillian knew, she had her head braced up by her fist. She must have somehow fallen asleep at her desk. Jillian opened her eyes and suddenly noticed something a tad odd.

She didn't seem to be sitting at a desk at all. Instead, she saw some kind of a rocky wall in front of her. Jillian blinked a few times, sitting up straight. This had to have been some kind of a waking dream. Most unusually, she still had her hoodie on, and she didn't like wearing it unnecessarily in the house.

Jillian looked around a little more at this rocky wall. She gently scratched her cheek, feeling her nails scraping against her skin, rather than the numbness that accompanied a dream. She gently scratched a little harder, only to feel the same mild irritation.

"Okay, what is this..." Jillian asked, standing up. Fortunately for her, the cave was tall enough to accommodate her. In fact, she didn't even notice that she was in some kind of a cave until she looked to her left, seeing a mouth that opened up into daytime.

This definitely wasn't normal at all. Rather than a landscape or mountains, Jillian simply saw clouds. Breaking out of a cloud though was something that looked a bit like a mountain. But then she noticed something wrong. It was inverted, getting narrower as it got closer to the ground.

Jillian's eyes followed the strange physics-defying mountain down to the ground, only to lose it in a cloud. Jillian looked towards the ground she was on. Strange, it seemed to end somewhere, like there was a ledge. She took several steps towards the 'end, thinking that there might have been a cliff nearby.

And she fell right to the ground. She pushed herself away towards the cave again, shivering. Jillian couldn't even see the ground when she looked over the ledge. All she saw was a long, long way down. So far that she couldn't even make out any details of the ground.

"What kind of Skylander are you, who's afraid of heights?"

The voice seemed to come from above. Jillian slowly tilted her head up. There was another ledge above her, with some kind of green-skinned human looking down. But she noticed that the green person had rather large pointed ears. An elf, she deduced. There seemed to be a bit of a twinkle in his eyes.

"Uh... What?" Jillian asked.

"Yeah, a Skylander!"

Jillian stood up and turned around, but not before making sure that there was enough space in between her and oblivion.

"You must be mistaken - what's a Skylander?"

"If you're not a Skylander, then who are you?" The elf asked.

"Uh... well can you tell me where I am, first? No wait... the Skylands, huh?"

"Of course!" The elf said.

Jillian looked around for something to climb up on. Fortunately for her, there was some kind of a trail that seemed to curve around the edge of the island. It was plenty wide enough for her to walk on. Even then, she kept herself close to the earth wall. As she hugged the wall, Jillian felt something odd in her pocket. It didn't feel like the normal square of her phone - it felt smaller.

She reached into her pocket, feeling a few spherical objects. Grabbing them, Jillian pulled the out of her pocket, looking over these strange objects. They seemed to glint a bit in the sunlight, just like a marble did if you stared at it.

That's it, they looked like glass marbles, she thought. There were three marbles total. One of the marbles was a bright red colour, almost orange. The second was purple, and the third seemed to be a light brown one. Strange, as she looked over the red marble again, she saw something breaking up its rather glassy looking "glow".

It was a pattern. Jillian squinted to get a better look at it, before making out a small white flame inside the glass orb. She looked over at the purple one, spotting something that looked like a white spark. Wondering what pattern was inside the brown one, Jillian made out what looked to be some kind of a mountain.

"Odd... who stole my pho-" Jillian suddenly remembered what she had been doing before that strange encounter in the hallway.

She had put her phone on the desk and hooked it up to her computer to be charged. And now she was in the middle of the Skylands with absolutely no way to call home. With her right hand, Jillian smacked herself for feeling so stupid. As she moved, she felt an object moving against her thigh. That was her wallet, and inside her pocket, next to her wallet, were her car keys. Sure enough her car wasn't anywhere nearby.

"Why didn't I bring my phone with me... I bet I'd probably not get any reception up here..."

"Hey! Miss, you coming up?"

Jillian immediately placed the marbles into her left pocket and looked up at the rest of the island.

"Err, yeah! I just got a bit lost."

"How do you get lost it's a straight trail up..."

"I've never been here!" Jillian said, walking up the path. The incline eventually brought her up to what she assumed was the rest of the mountain peak. The elf was waiting for her right there.

He looked over Jillian's clothes with a rather confused look. Jillian likewise noticed that the elf seemed to be dressed in some kind of a tunic, like he had walked out of a renaissance fair of some kind. The two made eye contact and started chuckling nervously, realizing what they were doing.

"So where am I? The Skylands?"

"You're near the village. Come on, let me take you to it!"

The elf walked off in the distance. Jillian half expected for there to be some kind of a forest, but the trees seemed a little sparse. As she followed the elf, she even heard a few "Baa"ing noises. Jillian noticed a few sheep that were grazing around the fields.

"Interesting... shepherd elves..." Jillian said, "Never thought I'd see the day."

"This way!" The elf called again.

Jillian walked towards the elf's voice, eventually making out some buildings. They didn't look too complex, almost like some kind of a medieval village. The only semblance of roads was a path of permanently compacted soil and some juts in the ground where wagons traveled. Several more green-skinned elves walked out of their houses (or from their fields) as Jillian walked in.

Then again, she couldn't exactly blame them for staring. She was wearing a hooded jacket, a black shirt with a dragon on it (which may have meant something to people wearing simple clothes like tunics) and denim jeans. Not only that, she didn't have blue hair or green skin.

"I don't suppose you have an elder in your village, one who might like... know more about this land than I do?" Jillian asked.

~ ~ ~

Indeed, Jillian was brought right into what seeed to be a larger house. At first she was expecting for the elven elder to be some kind of man with a long beard. Instead, it was a woman with white hair.

"Oh, a human. I don't see many of your kind here." The elder said.

"She asked to see you uh... I don't think I got your name."

"Jillian." Jillian answered the elf next to her.

"Jillian here walked out of the cave on the edge of the island - and she didn't know where she was."

"Just that I was in the Skylands. I don't suppose you can tell me something?" Jillian asked the elder.

"Most definitely. Sit down, it may take a little bit."

Rather than some kind of a cloth on the ground, the elder actually had what looked to be a table in the house. Thankfully, Jillian and the elves were all around the same size, so she didn't need to squeeze into the chair at all.

"So... what are the Skylands?" Jillian asked the village elder.

"Well, it's where we live. We live on the green isles, islands where our sheep can graze, and where we can find forests that provide everything we need. We're a simple people."

"Wonder if there's an isle of wonder nearby..." Jillian murmured.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing." Jillian said, "I just heard of some other land of the green isles, but it was different. But err... how high up are we on the mountains?"

"Mountains?" The elder asked. The other elf looked just as confused at Jillian.

"Wait a second... you don't mean to tell me that the islands are floating in the sky, right?"

"They are." The elder said.

"Wait, how is that possible?!"

"Magic flows through everything. Surely you know that, right?"

"Oh. I see... so... are these magic too?" Jillian took out the marbles from her pocket and placed them on the table.

Both elves looked over the marbles. Jillian flicked one of them over to the elder, who picked it up and examined it closely. She stood up and brought it to a window, presumably to look over the little design that was inscribed within the marble.

"Oh!" The elder said, "This stone has a symbol for the Earth element."

"Four classical elements? No wait, five, right?" Jillian asked, trying not to sound stupid.

"Actually, in the Skylands, we have eight elements. This one here is of the Earth element, the element that controls the rocks that make up our lands. That red one must be the fire element, which controls fire as you can guess."

"This one is magic." The elf said, having picked up the purple marble to look over it.

"That's one of the most important elements in Skylands - it's magic that flows through every island in the Skylands."

"Alright," Jillian said, "So what are the other five? I assume air and water are two of them."

"You are correct. Air is the wind, and the air we breathe, while water is-"

"I know what those are. Err! Go ahead!" Jillian said, a little embarrassed.

"There is the element of Tech, which represents the machines in some parts of the Skylands. There is the Life element, which are all the plants. Then finally, there is the Undead element, or shadow, if you prefer to call it."

"So... they're all opposing each other, huh?" Jillian said.

"If you have these three stones, there must be a reason."

"So... do you have some prophecy about some chosen one who comes from another world and gathers all the eight elemental stones or whatever?" Jillian asked.

Both the elves just looked at Jillian.

"...What, I think that's how these things go, right?"

"I've never heard of anything like that." The elder said, "Maybe these stones are what allow you to use your magic. Some wizards use crystals."

"Hm... I wonder what they do then." Jillian said, as the elder handed the earth marble back to Jillian. The younger elf collected the other two marbles and handed them back to the human.

"You surely must remember. Unless you have been stricken with amnesia."

"Usually that happens to chosen ones." Jillian shrugged.

All of a sudden, the door to the elder's house opened up. Jillian and the other elf's heads snapped around to the doorway. Standing in the doorway was another elf, propping himself up against the frame.

"Drow! Chompies! They're coming to the village!" He gasped.

"What?" The elder said, "What do they want?"

"I don't know! They must be serving Kaos!"

~ ~ ~

Rather than hide with everyone else, Jillian walked out with the elder. Some of the elves took gardening tools to defend themselves, while a few had actual weapons. Soon enough, she noticed some pale blue-skinned elves, with glowing white eyes. Accompanying them looked to be some other small creature, something she couldn't recognize.

Those must have been chompies. One of the elves told Jillian to hide with all the children, but she told them that these 'Drow' probably wanted her. With any luck, whoever the commander would be would probably know something about her in relation to the Skylands. This always happened.

"What do you want here?" One of the bow-wielding elves said to the group of chompies and drow.

One of the drow stepped forward. Jillian deduced that whoever this drow was, she (or he) must have been some kind of spellcaster. The elf had a rather large looking steepled hat, with an elaborate pattern in the front.

"I simply came to warn you of your impending doom. Give yourself over to the Master and you'll be spared." The drow caster said.

"Not a chance - what, does Kaos call himself the master now?" One of the elves said, holding a rake out at the drow and the chompies.

The drow didn't respond, instead looking around at the crowd. Just as Jillian expected, the drow's head stopped upon seeing the human. She beckoned for Jillian to come closer.

"Don't," The elder said, "They probably want you."

"That's the idea." Jillian whispered back, "Maybe if I like... invoke fire, then I can ignite these drow and save the village."

The elves parted, as Jillian walked over to the Drow witch. She kept her left hand in her pocket, thinking about which order she had placed the fire marble in there. The robed witch looked over the human.

"Interesting..." The drow said. Some of the other drows murmured upon getting a closer look at Jillian.

"So let me guess, I'm a Skylander, right? And you want me?" Jillian asked.

"A Skylander huh? Well who are you?" The drow asked.

"You probably know already." Jillian said.

"I've never seen a Skylander look like you before! Tell me your name."

Jillian motioned for the elves to back up with her right hand. Her hand plunged into her pocket; pulling out the very first marble she could get her fingers on. It was the red marble, the marble of fire. Jillian held the marble in her thumb and forefingers, letting it glint in the sunlight. The drow and the chompies looked at the marble, curiously.

"Jillian, master of the... marbles? Uh... burn in righteous fire!" Jillian nervously shouted.

The marble shined a bright orange, engulfing Jillian in the aura. Jillian jumped a little, before being shaken with an odd feeling. For some reason, Jillian felt rather hot - like she was lit on fire. And yet she didn't burn at all. The glow seemed to transfer to her body, along with the heat. Jillian could have sworn that there was steam arising from her own body. And yet she wasn't feeling like she was getting burned at all - like she should have.

Jillian's skin felt surprisingly itchy - like instead the heat was giving her a rash. She looked down at her glowing arm. While it should have been glowing too brightly for her, she could make out something happening on her skin. It looked to be like someone had taken a marker and started drawing a pattern of scales on her skin. She poked it with her other hand, only to feel strangely smooth scaly skin.

"The hell?!" Jillian noticed the scaly pattern spread all the way across her arm, which started to turn the same colour as the glow around her - reddish orange.

Instinctively, she spread the fingers on her left hand. Were some of her fingers merging? Jillian's eyes widened, yet for some reason she seemed rather intrigued at this. More and more by the second, her fingers looked to resemble something more of a scaly paw than a standard hand. Black claws even emerged from the tips of her fingers - or could they still be called that?

Her left arm was by this point completely covered in scales. She felt an itching at her right hand; instinctively bringing her clawed hand over to scratch it. Ouch! That was a bad idea. It looked almost like she had torn her skin a little bit when she scratched it - revealing reddish orange scales underneath. Just like with her left hand, her right hand grew claws; fingers merging in appropriate places, giving her a scaly paw neatly mirroring her other hand.

The itching started to spread to her chest. Jillian didn't want to remove her clothes - even though some of those Drow might have appreciated if she flashed them in more ways than one. However, she looked down anyways. Most surprisingly, she didn't see her clothes. But she didn't seem to have anything to show anyways. Well that was somewhat of a relief.

But wait a second, how come her front side started to turn yellow? It seemed to shine almost, just like the scales covering her arms. Parallel lines ran down her front, the small scratching of these lines going all the way up her neck. Jillian instinctively pawed at her breasts, only to find none, only extremely smooth and somewhat sensitive skin. Her back and sides itched massively, as scales started to run across her body, all the way to her thighs.

"Scutes?!" She asked.

Then came the wings. First she thought she felt a squirming sensation around her back - and then she felt muscles burning (and bulging) around her chest, where her breasts used to be, crisscrossing all the way down her front side. Then came the sound of something emerging from her back. It sounded almost like blades being unsheathed, except unusually organic. She felt herself flapping these new batlike wings - almost already feeling control over them despite having never had them before this strange transformation.

Jillian flapped them a few times, before feeling herself losing her balance. She started to fall forward, pelvis cracking a little bit, along with her spine. Her shoes vanished completely - toes digging into the ground. They seemed to merge, just like some of her fingers did, and elongate. Claws dug into the ground. Secretly Jillian hoped that they wouldn't dig too deep and break the island into pieces.

The changing girl fell to all fours, her front claws digging into the ground a little bit. She still felt a little off-balanced, until there was a pulling sensation around her rear. Jillian could immediately imagine it - her tail. It brushed against the ground, swishing left, right, slapping the ground, even reaching behind her and rubbing her back a little bit, before going limp - completely under her control now.

The world seemed to get a little smaller for a second - no wait, her neck was just elongating. Of course, she needed to get a good view. She felt her field of vision changing just a tad, as her eyesockets moved a little bit further away from each other, but still facing forward, fortuately. Jillian clenched her lips a little bit, as her hair burned away, leaving nothing but a scaly head and a pair of horns in place. She flapped her wings just a little bit more, curling her tail.

Jillian spotted a void in her vision, orange, just like the rest of her scale colours. Her muzzle must have been triangular or spade-shaped - she couldn't tell which. Instinctively she knew just what was happening, as a few small spikes emerged from her... cheeks?

Finally, she felt something around her front arms - legs? Jillian stopped to see a pair of blue greaves around them. Upon closer inspection, she noticed something familiar. The purple marble had attached itself to her gauntlet. She turned around to her right, spotting the red and the brown marbles attached. The red marble seemed to be glowing, even moreso than it naturally did in the sun. She now noticed that she wasn't holding the marble anymore - then again, she found out where it went.

"What the- She turned into a dragon! Chompies! Stop her!" The drow witch shouted.

Jillian immediately snapped back to reality. Several of these critters with the giant mouths started getting closer to her. At first, Jillian took a few steps back, but then something kicked in. She was a dragon! These things should be child's play.

Jillian opened her mouth and let loose a stream of flame. The chompies immediately walked into the conflagration and started to run. Funny enough, a few of them even ran towards the drow. The dark elves scattered, as the chompies burned away. A few of them even lit on fire.

"Haha! YES!" Jillian shouted, running after some of the drow lancers. "That's right, BURN!"

She noticed that her legs weren't touching the ground. Her wings were actually flapping. And she was gliding after them. A drow noticed the dragon flying towards her, and grabbed his lance.

Jillian flapped her wings a bit harder, gaining some altitude. Somehow, she knew how to maneuver a little bit in the sky. With a smile, she dive-bombed the lancer from the side, knocking him of balance. Shame that the edge wasn't close, she could have thrown the lancer off of it.

The dragon landed right on top of the drow, as a ring of flame surrounded her. She eyed the flame wreath curiously, as another drow neared her. As soon as he got too close to the ring of fire, it seemed to intensify into a wall of flame. Jillian smiled, suddenly remembering a memetic song from the years.

"You will not move when flame wreath is cast, or your raid blows up!" Jillian laughed, pouncing on another drow, summoning another flame wreath. The drow held as still as possible, before Jillian headbutted him into the flames.

She flapped her wings, diving through the flame ring again. The dragon looked around for any more drow or chompies who had survived her wrath. Suddenly, she felt something smack her in the chest, knocking her off balance.

Jillian fell down onto her back. She scrambled a bit in the air, before realizing she could simply roll over. Getting back onto her feet, she looked over at the direction of that thing that had hit her. It was that drow witch, the one in charge. She seemed to be charging something else up.

The red and orange dragon charged, but she jumped to the side. Thankfully just in time, a skull appeared from the dark elf's hands, flying right towards the dragon. That must have been what hit her earlier. Before the drow could respond, Jillian got even closer to the drow, jumping in front of her again.

"Any last words?" Jillian asked, smoke emerging from her nostrils.

The drow looked down at Jillian's front legs. Before she could say anything, Jillian incinerated the drow sorceress where she stood. Once the flames died down, the dragoness looked around the village. The elves had left all the fighting to her, just as she thought.

Some of them looked at her, a little surprised. One of the elves started to clap. The rest of the elves joined in. A smile spread across Jillian's face, as she walked over to the elves. She must have been some kind of a hero.

"Well, I did it! I saved you all!" Jillian said, "I'm a good dragon, don't worry."

"I'll be... you really are a skylander. I didn't think any of them existed." The elder stepped forth.

"So are the Skylanders dragons?" Jillian asked, looking down at the greaves on her front legs.

"No, not all of them. They can even be elves, like us!" one of the elves said.

Another elf holding a bow struck a pose, before saying, "Let the flames begin" In some kind of ambiguous accent.

"Even drow! Fright Rider is a good one!" Another elf said.

"Well..." Jillian looked over herself, "This is going to be... quite interesting. I can't wait to see the look on my friend's face when I show them this."