Weekly Goals #11: The Goals

Hello, Readers! *waves*
Okay, so last time's goals were kind of a flop, and this week is Christmas so it's gonna be a little crazy, so I'm going to set some easier goals and try to get them done if I have the time.
1. Get Christmas shopping done! I haven't even really started on it yet! We are kind of waiting for a check to come so we can go do it. So, if the check does come, then we can get it all done, but if not, we can at least buy some little cheap things until it does come if we need to. Either way, we need to get it done!
2. Get things ready for Christmas! We need to figure out what we are doing and get all of the stuff we need ready to go! We only have one week left! :)
3. Send those two missionary letters! I really REALLY need to send them! So, I'll write them today, and get them sent out tomorrow so they might have a chance of making it to them before Christmas. If not, at least it will be soon after.
And that's all I'm gonna do this week! I would like to get some writing done as well, but I'm not going to set that as a goal, since I'm not sure how much time I will really have this week, and I kind of want to relax and enjoy the holiday. Well, hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and gets everything they want! I'll probably post a Christmas post on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day. Somewhere around there. Have a great week! :)

Weekly Goals #10: Wrap-up

Yes, I know, this is a week delayed! I got so busy with other things I just didn't even have the time to post last week, so I decided to just wait another week and take a week off of the goals. Well, I pretty much took both weeks off actually...I kinda failed at the goal thing this week lol Pretty much the only goal I did was the Christmas Cookies when my friend came down to visit. I didn't even look for my piano books or write the missionary letters. *guilty* I did write a little on my story, but I've been in kind of a lazy funk lately and haven't really wanted to do much on it. I did, however, make my mom's Christmas present. I'll post pics after I get some taken, it's so cute! I also have been reading my book this week, and I got a new game so I've been playing that. How could I resist a How to Train Your Dragon game? It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I couldn't wait so I got it early lol I bought Matt an Orson Scott Card book that he hadn't read yet, and let him have it early too since I got one early. He loves it. haha Anyway, back to business. So I didn't do so well on the goals this week, and this next week's Christmas, so I might not get much done then either, but I'll set a couple of easier goals and try to find time for them.

Weekly Goals #10: The Goals

Woot! Into double digits! The big 1-0! I'm getting a late start on this week, so I made some goals that I could accomplish in the time that I have. :)

1. Write 4,000 words. Pretty simple. I need to keep myself writing, and hopefully will do more than that, but since I only have part of the week left, and I'm having a friend come for a couple of days this week, I will probably be a little distracted. So I'll set my goal there and see how it plays out.
2. We finally tore everything out of the closet last week and reorganized it all, and I didn't see my piano books anywhere back there! :( So, this week, I need to search the rest of the apartment and try to find my books. I'll make it my second goal this week to at least search for my books, and hopefully I will find them! I really need/miss them!
3. Write/Send off two missionary letters to my friends Elder Scott Crowther and Sister Shantel Tavoian. I need to get myself to keep up on writing them, because I know how much letters mean to them, especially when they don't receive many others!
4. I'll also add one more goal this week because it should be happening while my friend is here anyway: Bake/Decorate Christmas Cookies! It was always tradition in our house to make and decorate cookies every year during the Christmas season, and I want to keep it up! So, while my friend is here, we are going to do it together, since Matt is a bum and doesn't want to help me :P lol. I'll post pics with the wrap-up.
Also, Sunday is my birthday! We probably won't have much money to even do anything for it or even really get me anything else, but I already got a bunch of books and I don't mind just spending it at home relaxing with my husband. Not sure if I want to invite a few of our friends over to watch a movie or something that night or not, but maybe I'll post an extra post Sunday with how it goes. Alright, those are the goals! Wish me luck! And make sure you are starting/keeping up on your own goals! They are so important! ;)

Weekly Goals #9: Wrap-up

Week 9's results!
 1. The first goal was to write 8,000 words, but I didn't quite hit that I don't think. I can't remember the exact number of words that I had before I started writing this week...Should probably keep better track of that...Oh well lol I think I wrote around 5 or 6 thousand this week though, so not bad all in all. It seems like it's moving so much slower lately! I write on it like all day and I end up getting like two pages done instead of the 10 I was getting before. I think it's because it's taking more research time and careful calculations now. It's turning into an awesome story! :)
2. My second goal was to write in my journal every night! And I actually did all but like two nights! I need to really force myself to sit down and do it because I want my kids to be able to have my journal to read in the future once I've passed.
3. The last goal was to get some reading done in preparation for all the books coming to me in the mail. I finished the book I was reading, Brandon Mull's Beyonders (which was really good btw!), and started on Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck (loving it so far!). I received all but one of my books that I ordered, so I've been just swimming in awesome books! :)
Well, all in all, a pretty successful week, I'd say! I know I'm really late posting these this week, so I'll quickly get up next week's goals and get going on them ASAP!

Weekly Goals #9: The Goals

Again, sorry for posting a little late! But Happy Monday! (If that's even possible really...lol) Had a great weekend, and now ready to start some new goals! So, here are this week's goals:
1. Of course, my book. I need to get going on it again, but I'm still coming out of the holiday lethargy, so I'll set my goal a little lower but not too much lower this time: 8,000 words. I know I can do this, I just gotta get myself motivated again!
2. I said forever ago that I was going to start writing in my journal again...yeah...never happened. So, I'm setting one of my goals to write in my journal every night this week, even if it's just a sentence or two! I really need to do it!
3. Do some reading! I finally just got the third book in the Tiger's Curse series ("Tiger's Voyage"), so I am really excited to start it! I'm also going to be getting a buttload of books here in a couple of weeks, or should be anyway, so I need to get some reading done so I will be ready for them! I'm still in the middle of reading a book called "Beyonders" by Brandon Mull, so I need to finish it and get started on the next. Got lots of books to read in the next while! :)
Let's get those goals set and on the road! Let's DO this! ;P

Weekly Goals #8: Wrapup

I'm running a little late posting these because I completely forgot yesterday! Oops! Better late than never, though, right? ;) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours went fairly well! It was a little stressful doing all the cooking trying to get it all ready for a bunch of other people at our small apartment with not enough counter space, but it turned out really good!
Anyway, I have been kind of lazy this week and haven't gotten much done on my book...only about 3,000 or so words, so didn't quite hit my mark, but I am going to chalk that up to the holiday laziness. Let's go with that haha. The second goal went really well! I've been better about not complaining and about counting my blessings, even if it was just for this week. I really had an enjoyable week for the most part, but I think I'm ready to start back up in full swing in my goal setting! I love the feeling of accomplishment! So there is the wrapup of last week's goals, and next week's will be posted shortly. Keep an eye out! ;)

Weekly Goals #8: The Goals

"Let's get down to business..."

1. Last week, I WAY overshot my writing goal for 2000 words so I'm gonna set this week's goal at 10,000 words at least. It's gonna be awesome! lol I didn't do the National Novel Writing Month, but I did start my story pretty much about the same time. Like a couple of days after it started. So, I'm kind of wanting to push myself to complete the 50,000 word goal for the challenge, even if I don't sign up. I don't really want to do the challenge formally, but I do want to push myself to get it done. So hopefully I can get enough words done by then! It will probably be close!

2. So, in light of Thanksgiving being this week, I want to do something to go with the holiday. Every time I am complaining about something and I catch myself, I want to think of a blessing in my life. I really want to try to redirect my complaining thoughts and words to remembering things I'm thankful for. 

3. I'm not going to do a third goal this week. Since it's a holiday week, I want to just focus on those two goals and enjoy the rest of the time. :)

And there you have it! Week 8's goals! Keep up on those goals! ;)

Weekly Goals #7: Wrap-up

I made it! Week 7 is done! And it was a success!

The first goal was a HUGE success! My goal was to get 2000 words at least done on my book, and I got over ten thousand words done!! I am now at 16,468 words! I really worked hard all week. Apparently, 2000 words is really easy to do in a week...haha I had no idea how much i would be able to get done, but I've  enthusiastically dove in and worked really hard! The second goal was to figure out our finances, and we pretty much have that mostly figured out. I probably should have set a more solid one, but oh well, this works for now. I'll have to work out a more solid one later. The third one was to figure out Christmas presents, and that is mostly done! There are still a couple of people we need to figure out what to get for them, but we figured out a lot of it! So goals turned out well! 

For those new readers of my weekly goals and as a reminder for old readers, set those goals! Even simple goals can make all the difference! It really makes me feel good that I accomplish something during the week, and if I don't meet the goals, it gives me motivation to make sure I get them done the next time! I truly believe setting goals is important and will help us achieve our potential. So press on, fellow goal achievers! Next week's goals to follow.

Weekly Goals #7: The Goals

This week's goals!

1. I am going to try to really focus on my story this week, since I didn't get much done last week. There is another book that just came out recently that I have a hold placed on at the library and am just waiting for it to be my turn, so if it comes to me during this week, I might become a little bit of a hermit again for a while, but barring that, I should be able to get quite a bit done! I'll shoot for another 2000 words because I don't know how much I will be able to get done.

2. The second thing I really need to work on is a budget. I just need to try making a little more of a solid budget and figure out our plans for the next while. We kind of have one now, but I need to do some tweaking and solidifying. Budgets are important!

3. Christmas is right around the corner! We need to figure out who we are giving gifts to and what we are giving them. This kind of goes along with the budget goal, because then I can figure out how much we can spend on presents. It seems like we usually wait until the last minute to get things and I kind of don't want to do that this year. So need to figure that out! :)

Well, those are the goals that I want to focus on this week! The second and third ones aren't terribly hard ones because I want to make sure I have time to work on my story this week. See you next week!

Weekly Goals #6: Wrap-up

This week was a little hit and miss, so I didn't do as well as I had hoped. However, I didn't completely flop either haha. The first goal was to dig in my closet and find my piano books. I didn't get this done sadly, but I am gonna shoot for getting back in there tomorrow. The second goal was to write 2000 words. This one I didn't quite hit either, but I didn't take into account that the book Inheritance came out at the beginning of the week, meaning I was going to pretty much become a hermit for the next few days. All else was abandoned so that I could read the epicness that was the last book in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon books). Then, once I finished the book, I came back to work on my story and found that my free trial of Microsoft Office had ended! Meaning I couldn't do anything but view documents in Word! That was very frustrating, but I now have it back and am about to delve into that again. So, I don't think I got another 2000 words written this week, but I did get about half of it probably so at least I got some before I went into hermit stage. As for the third goal, we talked a bit about Thanksgiving and have tentative plans to stay here and just invite a couple of people to join us. If our plans don't change, I have also figured out what we would be having. So got about half the goals done this week despite my reclusive state most of the week haha. Next week's goals soon to come!

Weekly Goals #6: The Goals

Last week was successful, so here we go again!

1. I REALLY need to find my bag with all of my piano books in it because I think I would play the piano more if I could find more than two of the books. I think it is buried back in our closet, so I want to get back in there sometime this week to see if I can find them.
2. It's going to be difficult to set goals for my story now because I'm not sure how much I can get written in a week. I think I'll set a goal to write at least 2,000 words this week, though, and see how it goes from there.
3. For a holiday related goal, I want to figure out what we are doing for Thanksgiving, and plan out what food to make and how much to make (depending on if we are staying here or going somewhere else for dinner). I just want to get it all planned out instead of waiting until the last minute.

Okay, well there are this next week's goals! We will see how they go! :) Oh, and don't forget, I have another blog for my story (Heart of a Dragon), so make sure you go check it out as well! There are sneak peeks and info about it on there! I need some followers of that blog so click "Follow" please! ;)

 http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/

Weekly Goals #5: Wrap-up

End of the fifth week of my goal setting! I survived! And I actually did really well this week! :)

1. I completely finished the story-line! I even started the actual story writing too! I've got about ten ish pages typed. I may go back and add or change a few things, but I'll probably wait until a little later to decide if I want to do that. So, goal #1 was a success this time!
2. Write/send another missionary letter: Completed! Got a letter all written this weekend and stuck it in the mail this morning so should be picked up sometime today to send out. I feel good I didn't wait quite as long to write back this time haha. Also, I told my missionary friend about my goal setting and he sent me some quotes and thoughts about the importance of setting goals! I'll post a quote he gave me at the bottom of this.
3. Before I finished my story-line, I did get quite a bit of reading done. Once I finished my story-line, I didn't get quite as much done because I've been working on writing more. At the moment, I'm reading a book called Bitterwood by James Maxey, and it's actually pretty good! It's about this society where dragons are the predominant species, and they use humans as slaves and pets. The character Bant Bitterwood is this legendary dragon hunter who kills the King's son, so the King wants revenge and begins sending out searches for him and then decides he wants to exterminate all of the humans in his land, but many of the dragons fight against it because they are fond of the humans. So it's a pretty epic book, and very well written.

So, the goals went well this week! I love when I complete my goals, it makes me feel productive haha. I will post this next week's goals in a little bit! As promised, here is one of the quotes my friend Elder Scott Crowther gave me about goal setting:

"There is a quote in Preach My Gospel p 146 that comes from Elder Ballard of the 12. It says, 'I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.' I can promise, just as Elder Ballard, that goal setting will help us reach our full potential as Children of God, even our Loving Father in Heaven."

So I encourage you to set those goals! It can be publicly in a blog as I am doing (works better to motivate me haha) or personally in a journal, it doesn't matter how you do it. Just do what works best for you!

Weekly Goals #5: The Goals

This week I need to work extra hard to accomplish more on my goals! Since I didn't finish last week's goals, I might try something else for a week, and come back to those ones the next time around. I might just need a break and to set some different goals to get me encouraged again. So, for this week:

1. Kind of an overlap - Finish out the ending of my story. I didn't get it finished because it's taking a little longer than I thought to get it done. I may not be able to finish it completely this week either, but I'll set my goal there so I will work hard.

2. Write another missionary letter! I sent out one a while ago to one of my friends, and another one recently to another friend, and I just got a reply from the first one. So, I want to make sure I get a reply sent out quicker this time!

3. Get some reading done! I didn't really do much reading this week, and I want to make sure I am keeping up on that, because it helps me stay inspired and encouraged to write on my own story. Right now, I am reading a book called Bitterwood, and I'm reading it at the same time as my husband so that we can discuss it together. He keeps getting ahead of me because he reads faster than me and has more time to read than I do usually. So I need to get some reading done so I can stay caught up! haha

Okay! Those are this next week's goals! We will see how they go! Hopefully better than last time haha. Make sure you shoot on over to my other blog and check it out too! I'll be posting something on it in just a bit! And please click "Follow" so I know people are reading it, and don't be afraid to comment too! Helps me stay encouraged ;)

 http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/

Weekly Goals #4: Wrap-up

One more week down! I really didn't do so hot on the goals this week though...In fact, I pretty much failed this week. But hey, at least I survived the week, right? I really didn't do much on reading scriptures like I wanted. :\ As for the piano? Again, didn't really do much lol. BUT...I have been working on my story. Figuring out the ending is proving to be a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be, so I didn't finish, but I have been working on it pretty much all week. So some progress was made, even though a lot of the time was spent imagining the epicness that will be the battles at the end. Can't wait to write that part haha. Anyway, so I really didn't do very well on the goals this week, which means I have to step up my game for this next week. Next week's goals to follow.

Weekly Goals #4: The Goals

So, I'm a little slow getting these posted, but late is better than never right? haha Anyway, here are this next week's goals:
1. Overlap from last week - Read the scriptures at least once for ten minutes a day. I pretty much failed this one last week, so let's try this again and see if I can do better, hm?
2. Well, I've got all the colors of the dragons finished for my story, so now setting a goal for it will be more difficult, but how about I try to finish out the last of the story? I don't know if I will have time to completely finish it, but that's where I'll set the goal at and go from there haha.
3. We went to a concert Saturday night for Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, and Daniel Beck, and it made me want to practice my piano skills more! I'm REALLY slacking off in that department as well, so this week I want to work on practicing on my keyboard a bit. I just need to get my fingers on that keyboard, even if it's just once haha.
Well, that's it for now! Might post again on the blog this week sometime, but if not, until next weekend!

Weekly Goals #3: Wrap-up

Okay, so this week, I didn't do so well on my goals! I did finally finish the colors of the dragons for my story line though! Hooray! I pretty much bombed on the scripture reading one, so I might have to try that one again this week...haha. I didn't do much in the art department either really, except I did carve a couple of pumpkins and design the templates for them and everything (with help from the internet of course), so I'll post pics of those. I wish I had done more though! It's hard when I have such limited art supplies at the moment though, so maybe I can get some more supplies in the future and do a little more. I hope you all had a good week!  Another post to follow with this next week's goals!

Weekly Goals #3: The Goals

Okay! This week I should be able to get more done but we will see how it goes! So, without further ado...this week's goals!

#1: Overlap of one of last week's goals - Finishing the colors of the dragons in my storyline. Made it close, but still gotta finish them up! I would like to get the ending of the story figured all out too, but we will see how the last of the dragons go, and go from there.

#2: This week, I'm going to go a little more on the spiritual side and read my scriptures at least once every day for at least ten min each day. I've REALLY slacked off in this area, and it's time I kicked my butt back into gear and got going on that again.
#3: Last night, I was talking to a couple of friends and decided I really need to do more arts and crafts things again! So this week I want to try to do at least one art project, even if it's just drawing a dragon or something. I'll post pics at the end of the week of what I get done!

So, there are this next week's goals. Let's hope I can keep pushing myself to get things done and be more productive, yes? Until next time! Also, please go check out my other blog for more info on my story. I should be putting up another post on there with a more in-depth update. And remember to click "Follow" too, so I know people are actually interested in hearing about it!

http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/

Weekly Goals #2: Wrap-up

Once again I'm a little late posting because this week I've had SO much to do! I have been working both the raspberry picking and working at Lee's almost every day this week! (Mon-Fri for Raspberries and Mon-Sat for the Bakery). So It's been a looong week! However, it was fairly successful with my goals!
I did really well on not saying "I hate people." I caught myself starting to say it quite a few times and even Matt helped catch me when I would say it, so it worked out pretty well. I'll continue to try to not say it while I work on more goals this week.
As for finishing the colors of the dragons for my storyline...well, didn't quite finish them, BUT...I DID get a few other kinks in the beginning of the storyline mostly figured out and the Blue Dragons' part completely finished and already have the idea for the Gold's part so just have to type it up and then get the Red's done. As I near the end of the dragon colors, it gets harder and harder to come up with something for them. So, didn't quite finish this goal yet, but I did have very limited time this week and got a lot done for the time I did have. I'll just stretch it out a little longer and overlap it with this next weeks goals.
I'm really enjoying setting goals for myself so I am almost forced to get some things done to better myself and to keep this story rolling, so for now I'm going to continue to do it. Hope I don't bore you with it all! If I do, oh well, you'll live. :P haha Hope everyone had a great week, and I'll post next week's goals in a little bit!

Weekly Goals #2: The Goals

Okay! Week #1 was a success so now it's time for Week #2! I'm a little late posting these goals because I've been pretty busy, but here they are now!
For the first goal, I want to do everything I can to avoid using the phrase "I hate people"...I say it way too much and I should be better haha So, for this week I'm going to refrain from using that phrase and from the negative thoughts that accompany it as much as I can. It's going to be tough because there are a lot of people that do things that make me mad, but we will see how this goes!
The second goal for this week has to do with my story again. I find that when I have a goal to get something done on it, I push harder to do it. So for this week I'm going to say I want to go ahead and finish the last of the dragon colors in my story-line. It's a little more than last time so I can build up slowly to get more and more done each week. Gotta push myself or it will never get done!
A review of my progress on these goals will be posted at the end of the week!
Wish Me Luck!

Weekly Goals #1: Wrap-up

Success! I was able to complete both goals this week! Wrote a long letter to Elder Scott Crowther and sent it out. It felt good to vent out a bunch of my problems and thoughts, knowing he will read it and write back to me, because he is so good at that. I'm glad I finally got that sent out and I hope he got it.

I also figured out the Brass Dragons' part in my storyline! I finished the White Dragons' part, and figured out the Brass, and even have an idea for the next color, which are the Blues. I still have to work on that part and get it typed up, but mostly I think I've got that figured out. So exciting!

Feels good to reach the goals I set for myself! Makes it feel like I at least accomplish a couple of things in a week. :)

New Blog For My Story!

Just created a new and separate blog just for my story updates so it's easier to keep track! Go check it out! http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/

Weekly Goals #1: The Goals

Okay, as I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to start setting one or two goals for myself every week. Some will take longer and overlap into other weeks, while others will be shorter. Anyway, for this week I'm going to write/send a letter to at least one missionary on their mission, if not two. I've put it off for too long, so I need to get some sent out. The other goal for this week is to figure out at least the next color of dragon's part in my storyline. I'll hope for more, but at least one is my goal. The next color of dragon I have to figure out (after I quickly wrap up a couple of things for the White Dragon's part) is the Brass Dragons. Okay, well here goes nothing! I'll post again probably in about a week as to how it all went!

Piece By Piece, The Masterpiece Forms

The story is coming along! A bit slowly at the moment because I'm lazy and haven't wanted to sit down to focus on it for a while, but it's still slowly coming together. I have just had a lot of stress keeping me from focusing on anything else lately. Hopefully that will soon change. I decided I want to make a bigger map with more land I think. Not sure if I will just shrink all of the things I have on the map now so there is more space in between everything or if I will just add more pieces of land around it, but I'm definitely going to have to change it a little. I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately and watching Netflix and both have given me more ideas for things to happen in my story. My plan is to get the map finished and work more on the plot and make a step by step plan for how I want things to happen and be revealed. Then after that its developing my characters and their characteristics. I'm pretty excited for that part. I have been going through all the music on my computer and separating them into playlists based on the emotion I get from the songs so that when I'm writing a sad part I can put on the sad playlist and not suddenly have an action song come on. Listening to the right music really sucks me in and I can write better and with more emotion to convey to my readers. Usually if the music has words tho, it's harder for me to concentrate so I try to stick to instrumentals, especially Epic Music. Hope to have more info for another update soon because that means I actually got some work done on it! ;)

New Story Idea Progress

The storyline for my book is really coming along! I'm getting more and more excited every day. My husband is so good and listens to me when I need to bounce ideas off of him and gives me really good feedback, which is great because it sparks new ideas. I'm adding more layers to the plot all the time, carefully crafting this story layer by layer.

The last few days I've actually been working on the map of the land in the story. I'm not gonna lie, I sat and stared at the blank page having NO idea even where to start. I tried to find some map generators after a while to see if I could get SOMETHING to start with, but I ended up just looking through a bunch of different map examples and just decided to just draw a shape and add some mountains and figure out the rest from there...and it worked! My only problem now is that I'm just drawing on small notebook pages so things are a little crammed in there so I'm going to have to get some bigger paper or just tape a few together or something. The map will really help with moving the storyline along because I'll kind of know where the characters are going and what stands in their way. I will also be able to figure out what I want to add to the map if I want something in the story that's not where it should be on the map.

This story is going to be pretty awesome. There will be a lot of action, magic, power, all sorts of characters, mythical creatures, drama, and plenty of adventure. And of course, Dragons. :D

Short Dragon Story

Flames streamed past Solana's face as she threw her back against a large rock. Where was he? She took a deep breath and leaned carefully around the corner of the rock, squinting through the smoke and steam. Two blood red eyes glared angrily at her through the smoke. She spotted her bow laying a few feet away where she had dropped it in her scramble for cover. Her arrows were still strapped onto her back. Solana peered back into the smoke. The eyes were gone. Where had it gone? She scanned the area, even looking over her shoulder just to be sure it wasn't behind her about to swipe her up in its vicious claws. The only other place it could be was in the - A screech finished her thought.

She looked up and saw it turning toward her, beating two colossal wings hard as it sped straight for her. She had never seen such a magnificent yet terrifying sight in her entire life. The dragon was a brilliant red, with horns and spikes all over its scaled body. It's eyes glowed a fierce red and smoke streamed from its nostrils as it prepared to spume more ferocious flames from its terrible maws. The dragon's snout and claws were slick with fresh blood from its meal that had been interrupted by an arrow that bounced off its sturdy neck.

Solana reacted quickly, diving for her dropped bow. Too late, she realized that she didn't have enough time to get behind any rocks to survive the blast of fire already coming from the dragons mouth. She covered her face with her arms, bracing against what she knew would be the end of her.

Suddenly, someone bellowed a war cry and two shadows passed over her closed eyes. Could it be him? She heard a whoosh and felt the heat of the flames, but nothing like she expected. She opened her eyes. The flames seemed to be bouncing off of an invisible bubble that surrounded her. A man in dark blue robes stood in front of her with his hands stretched out in front of him, focusing on creating a force field around Solana, himself, and a man clad in heavy armor with a large round shield and a sharpened double-edged sword in his hands. The mage's brow was furrowed in concentration, pushing the flames around the three of them.

"Theron! Zeke!" Solana cried in relief.

"Sorry it took so long Solana! Healing my arm took longer than we thought," called Theron over his shoulder to her. The dragon had knocked Theron aside when one of Solana's arrows had pierced the membrane of one of it wings, angering it to the point where it didn't care to really go after anyone other than her. Theron had slammed into a jagged rock, snapping his sword arm. Zeke, the mage, had been hiding nearby, preparing a thunderbolt to hurl at the dragon, but stopped to pull Theron to safety and heal his arm, otherwise he would be useless. Solana had been forced to just focus on staying alive until they came to help.

The flames stopped as the dragon flew over their heads. It screeched in anger when it saw that not only were the other two back, but they had kept Solana from burning to a crisp. The dragon landed heavily not too far away, deciding to try a new tactic. Zeke hurled an energy sphere at the dragon, hitting it in the same wing the arrow had pierced. It shrieked in agony. Theron was already sprinting at full speed toward it, so it lashed out at him with its tail. He narrowly dodged it and slashed at the dragons leg, drawing blood. Not a critical hit, but it still caused the dragon pain. A small burst of flames came out of the dragon's mouth as it shrieked angrily and swiped at Theron with its claws again. He buffeted the blow with his shield. Solana quickly notched an arrow and drew back the bow, aiming for the dragon's eye. She let it go and watched it barely miss its target, bouncing off of the dragon's cheek. That got its attention.

Forgetting Theron, who was quickly climbing up onto a ledge of rocks, the dragon turned back to Solana. Once Theron was on the ledge, Solana shot another arrow, this time hitting her mark and piercing one of its eyes. The dragon screamed, thrashing its head against the rocks around it, trying to knock the arrow free. Flames were being released everywhere in the dragon's anger. Theron dropped his shield and leaped onto the back of its neck as it swung by the ledge he was on.

This particular dragon's weak spot was just behind its head where the head and neck met. Zeke had determined that before they had interrupted its meal. Theron raised his sword and plunged it deep into the weak spot. The dragon screamed again, but this time it was cut short. One final burst of flames spewed from its mouth, and it collapsed heavily to the ground, with Theron still clinging tightly to its neck. When the smoke and dust settled, they could see the dragon on the ground, unmoving. Theron climbed over its outstretched neck, panting heavily.

When Theron limped over, the three of them looked at each other and began to laugh and cheer. The dragon that had tormented their city for so long was finally dead! They could finally return home for a well earned rest, for their long, arduous journey had come to an end.