Chapter 1

Characters appearing in the first couple of chapters:

Madailein Kavanagh (Maddy)

Former Earth Witch, Dragon Queen, Irish, 5’-6’’ tall, 135 pounds, 38DD-24-37, 46 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user

Al

Maddy’s Familiar, a large Manx cat, 16 inches long, white with large black spots, stumpy one inch tail, weighs about 16 pounds

Kennith Sweeney (Ken)

Ley Line Wizard, male Dragon, Maddy’s husband, 6’-0’’ tall, 175 pounds, 49 years old, brown hair and dark eyes, still very handsome

Alva

Kenneth’s Familiar, a large female cat, gray with black and white stripes, she has a long tail

Mandara

Maddy’s Sword, called the Spirit Eater, enchanted and able to cancel Magic spells, can change sizes with its mistress, speaks in her mind, but doesn’t always obey her

Dallas Kavanagh

Maddy and Ken’s first daughter, Doreen’s twin, 5’-7’’ tall, 130 pounds, 36D-24-36, 21 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user, a Light Blue color in her Dragon form

Doreen Kavanagh

Maddy and Ken’s second daughter, Dallas’s twin, 5’-7’’ tall, 130 pounds, 36D-24-36, 21 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user, a Light Blue color in her Dragon form

Bee

Dallas’s Familiar, a large female cat, part Manx, gray with white stripes, she has a medium length tail

Bess

Doreen’s Familiar, a large female cat, part Manx, gray with black stripes, she has a long tail

Craig Sweeney

Maddy and Ken’s son, 5’-11’’ tall, 160 pounds, 19 years old, dark brown hair, dark eyes, very handsome, a Red color in his Dragon form

Bill

Craig’s Familiar, a very large Manx cat, black with several white spots, a stumpy one inch long tail

Barchanaus

Male Light Blue Dragon, Leader of the Light Blue Dragon Clan, the Dragon that created Al and Alma

The Guardian

Safe Keeper of the Books, about 5’-6’’ tall, neither young or old, very long blond hair, deep blue eyes

Aleshia

Dallas and Doreen’s friend, a very pretty girl, 5’-6’’ tall, 125 pounds, 34C-22-34, 20 years old, blond hair, blue eyes, Witch student

“My twin sister and I grew up in our mother’s house. It was the same house that her mother and grandmother had owned. It is located on the land that her great grandparents had purchased early in the twentieth century. Two very strong Ley Lines crossed under the house. Back when her grandparents bought the land, it had been way, way out in the country. Now, it isn’t so far out in the country.

“The house is of brick construction. They used actual bricks to build the walls of the house, which are over 12 inches thick and most are closer to 15 inches thick. There is real plaster on the walls inside the house and not wallboard like newer houses. It sits on 10 acres of land. There are wards around the property, the house, and their vehicles. There is also the Nesting ward around most of the property, but it only appears if a male Dragon arrives to keep him out.

“Oh yes, my name is Dallas, and my twin sister is Doreen for any of you that don’t know us. She is the silent type while I am the talkative one. For the first two years of our lives, it was just Doreen and me along with our parents and their Familiars, Al and Alva. Alva had kittens a month or so after we were born. There were two females and a male,” I told those listening to us before continuing.

“Shortly after we were two years old, mother had another baby ... a boy child. She had told us at our birthday party that she would soon be going into the hospital to have a baby. We didn’t think it would be a boy though. He was named Craig.

“It was also around this time that Alva’s two daughters, Bee and Bess, became our Familiars. Mother created them in the large parlor. Doreen and I were never allowed to go in there by ourselves until we were much older. We were also not allowed to watch her turn them into Familiars. In fact, our dad had taken us to work that morning, so we wouldn’t be there when they were created. The spells used were much too strong for us or anyone else to even hear them. When we returned home for lunch, mother presented me with Bee as my Familiar, and Doreen received Bess as her Familiar. The male kitten, Bill, would be our brother Craig’s Familiar, when he was old enough to have one.

“From what mother told us much later, it had been easy to turn Alva’s kittens into Familiars since both of their parents were Familiars. From what she said, it had been much harder for Barchanaus, the Leader of the Light Blue Clan, to turn Al and Alva into Familiars than it had been for her to turn their kittens into Familiars.

“Now we had Familiars of our own, but they were just as strict with us as their parents, Al and Alva, had been. They had all watched us a lot while mother was busy at our security company, Dragon Security, or with her duties as the Dragon Queen. Bee and Bess were a lot more mature at two years of age than Doreen and I were.

“When we were three years old, mother started teaching us about gardening and how to raise our own herbs. She took us out to her garden and showed us how to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and care for the plants. She also gave each of us a small area of the garden of our own. Each day, we would rush out to see if the plants had grown any. It seemed like a very slow process, but eventually, we had plants of our own to take care of.

“This was also when mother told us that we were Witches and Dragon Princesses. She started reading us stories about Human Dragon Princesses and Good Witches. We loved hearing the stories and listened enthralled time after time. It wasn’t until we were much older that we learned that she had changed the Fairy tales so we would enjoy them and pretend that we were the ones in the stories. We were very disappointed to learn that Witches and Dragons were usually portrayed as the bad guys or the heavies in those Fairy tales. Of course by then, we had other things to keep us busy.

“We started home school before we were five, and had learned to read by the time we were six. At six years of age, mother started teaching us how to be Witches. We had seen her prepare charms and amulets when we were younger, but she had never allowed us to help her. Now, she began teaching us the traditional way that Witches made charms and amulets using the herbs that we had grown in our gardens. We also started studying her old college textbooks on Witchcraft. Over the next four years we became very proficient at the things that traditional Witches do using herbs and spells.

“Also during this time when we were eight years old, our parents took us girls to the Nesting Site in Stone Mountain. We would transfer there with them and all of our Familiars. Our parents would then transform into their Dragon forms, and mother would open the Nesting Site. We would all transfer up to the Site and enter it. My sister and I were greatly impressed with the Nesting Site and all of its treasures. There were also the many pictures on the walls that Mother had restored to their original colors and beauty using Ley Line Magic.

“Our brother, Craig, who was six at the time, was also allowed to come with us. He had started studying Magic with Father by then. However, he and Father needed one of us females to get them through the Nesting ward that surrounded the Site. We all visited it many times over the following years to explore it and to learn about Dragon history.

“Doreen and I had finished all of Mother’s college Witch textbooks and were quite accomplished Witches by the time we were ten years old. This was when she started us on the first of the six Books of Ley Line Magic. We were in our study room that first evening with the first Book, when the Guardian of the Books appeared in the room startling us.

“She appeared just as Mother had described her to us. She was a woman about 5’-6’’ tall but neither young nor old looking. She had long blond hair and deep blue eyes. She was dressed in a flowing white gown with a red jacket over part of it.

“‘Take your time studying the books. You are not as old or experienced as your mother was when she began her study of the Books. Ask her or your father, if you have any questions concerning what is in the Books. Know that you WILL be Dragons once you finish them,’ she informed us before vanishing. We immediately went to inform mother of her visit.

“‘Mama ... mama, the Guardian of the Books was here to see us just a minute ago,’ I told her excitedly, as we ran into her bedroom with our Familiars.

“‘That’s very interesting. I only saw her in dreams until I was ready to start on Book 6. What did she tell you?’ Mother asked.

“She said to take our time studying the Books, as we aren’t as old or as experienced as you were when you started on the Books,” Doreen told mother, surprising me and our Familiars, as she is usually the quiet one. I had to assume that she had been greatly impressed by the Guardian when she appeared. Mother also seemed surprised by Doreen’s statement.

“‘That sounds like good advice. You don’t have all day to study the Books like I did. You have your regular school work and other things to do each day. An hour or so at night should be sufficient for studying the Books. What else did the Guardian say?’ Mother asked.

“‘She said to ask you or Dad if we have any questions, and that we would be Dragons when we finished the Books,’ I told her with a big grin.

“‘Yes, you will be full fledged Dragons when you finish the Books, but you will still have a lot to learn including learning how to fly,’ Mother told us, but had another question.

“‘What did the Guardian look like when she appeared to you?’

“‘She looked just like you described her,’ Doreen said, speaking right up. ‘She was about your height, but we couldn’t guess her age. She had deep blue eyes and was wearing a flowing white gown with a short red jacket over it. Her long blond hair was loose but mostly behind her head,’ Doreen told Mother but with her eyes closed, like she could still see her.

“‘Yes, that is a very good description of the Guardian. She often rearranges her hair, but she seems to wear the same type of clothes most of the time,’ Mother agreed. We didn’t know it then, but it would be a long time before we would see the Guardian again.

“Over the next six years, we studied the Books averaging one Book a year. Of course, some of the Books were shorter, and we finished them quicker than the other longer Books, like Book 3 and Book 6. Book 5 was not a fun Book, but we persevered through it. It taught us a lot of nasty things to look out for and how to counter them.

“We had no qualms about starting Book 6 despite the warning on the first page. However, the Guardian did not appear when we turned past the first page, as she had for our mother. She didn’t appear until we had finished the 6th Book.

“‘You are Dragons now, but you still have a lot to learn,’ she told us and vanished following that, leaving us with no idea of what we still needed to learn. We were 16 when we finished the last Book, but hadn’t changed into our Dragon form yet. Mother had been an actual Dragon long before she even started on Book 6. Doreen and I hadn’t had that experience yet,” Dallas told those in the circle listening to her. They were a collection of Witch and Magic students attending Georgia State just as she and Doreen were.