Paul knew the moment he woke that something was wrong—very, very wrong. He looked up at the glittering rock surface and blinked. He should have been looking up at the ceiling of a symbiot created tent, or at the very least, the canopy of the massive branches and leaves of the surrounding forest. Sitting up, he cautiously looked around before rising to his feet.

He rotated in a tight circle, examining his surroundings. Brightly colored mushrooms in many hues greeted his stunned eyes. If waking to find himself in a cave surrounded by a mushroom forest wasn’t shocking enough, the fact that the mushrooms were ten times as tall as he was made him reach down to pinch his arm to make sure he wasn’t still dreaming.

A flash of pain confirmed what he dreaded—this was real. He looked around, spying the other men still asleep. What concerned him the most was what was missing.

“Morah,” Paul called softly, searching the area for his tiny daughter.

He spied something shimmering on the ground where he had awakened. Retracing his steps, he bent down and picked up the half-buried gold coin. Turning it over in the palm of his hand, he noticed that on one side was the picture of a man and on the other side that of a beautiful wood fairy. Disbelief warred with reality.

He looked up and turned when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. Zoran was staring at him with a confused frown. Paul pocketed the coin and motioned Zoran to wake the others. He silently walked over to Vox and Viper where they lay sleeping. Kneeling on one knee between them, he shook each man.

“Wake up. We’ve got trouble,” Paul quietly instructed.

Vox and Viper immediately came awake and rolled until they were crouching next to him. Their expressions were alert and wary at the same time. Viper shifted into his black tiger form.

“Where the hell are we?” Vox hissed, studying the surrounding terrain.

Paul shook his head. “I don’t know, but the kids and our symbiots aren’t here,” he said in a grim voice.

“Spread out and search the immediate area,” Zoran ordered.

Paul rose to his feet and silently moved out among the mushrooms. He noticed that Vox had shifted into his leopard form, also. Reaching inside himself, he touched his dragon. Shock ran through him when he discovered his dragon was still sleeping.

Wake up. I could use a little assistance, Paul ordered.

A vision of his dragon raising his head, sniffing, and lying back down came to him. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think the damn thing was about to go back to sleep. He issued another silent order to help.

It the Goddesses. All your fault, his dragon replied with a yawn.

All my fault? How in the hell is this my fault?! Paul growled, pausing under a large mushroom.

“Paul!” Zoran suddenly hissed.

“Dragon’s balls! Not again,” Creon groaned.

“Ariel is going to kill me,” Mandra muttered.

Cree turned and glared over at Paul. “Ariel?! Melina is going to castrate Calo and me. We swore that we wouldn’t lose Hope again!” he snapped.

The sound of his dragon snickering told Paul that the other dragons had come to the same conclusion—the Goddesses were up to their usual mischief, and they were all on another adventure. However, that still didn’t tell him if the kids were safe or where in the hell they were! A little forewarning would have come in handy.

Dragonlings have symbiots and each other. They fine, his dragon replied with glee.

“Well, do you know where in the hell we are?” he demanded out loud to his dragon, putting his hands on his hips in frustration.

Vox shifted into his two-legged form and turned to glare at him. “How in the hell are we supposed to know if you don’t?” Vox snapped, walking toward him.

Viper shifted as well. Paul warily watched as all the men gathered around him. Kelan and Trelon didn’t say anything—they didn’t have to. They were the only two who didn’t look as if they wanted to string him up.

“What do you two think is so amusing?” Ha’ven asked, crossing his arms and looking at the two men with a glare and a raised eyebrow.

Kelan shook his head. “I’m just glad the women aren’t here. We’d never live this down if they were,” he chuckled.

A reluctant smile of amusement pulled at the corner of Ha’ven’s lips. Paul lifted his hand and ran it over the back of his neck. An image of Morian’s beautiful face flashed through his mind, and he shook his head.

Yes, I can see her laughing as well, he thought in resignation to his dragon, who happened to be enjoying this far too much for his liking.

* * *

Paul looked up when he saw Cree and Calo reappear from out of the mushroom forest. They had left an hour before to do a short reconnaissance of the area. Both men had streaks of red, blue, yellow, and orange on their hair and clothing.

“We don’t recognize any of this,” Cree said with a shake of his head.

“We did find a trail through the mushrooms leading that way. I’ve never seen anything like this on Valdier,” Calo replied.

Paul’s eyes paused on Mandra. The man looked like he wanted to say something but wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it. At this point, Paul decided that spitting out any possible scenarios was the optimal choice. It wouldn’t be that difficult to eliminate them from the list.

“What is it, Mandra?” Paul prodded.

Mandra looked over at the mushroom forest behind Cree and Calo before he turned his uneasy glance on Paul.

“This place looks a lot like the one Ariel told us about. The one you mentioned in your story, but that is impossible,” he said with a shake of his head.

Zoran frowned. “Well, it is obvious we are not on Valdier. Where else could we be?” he asked.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m of the opinion that not being on Valdier is the least of our worries. Am I the only one who has noticed that we are surrounded by giant mushrooms?” Ha’ven queried.

“So, what? We’ve seen lots of unusual plant life on other planets before,” Vox said, running his hand down the stem of the mushroom he was standing beside.

Ha’ven turned and looked at Vox with a raised eyebrow. “Have you seen anything like this before? Personally, I’ve never seen a mushroom that was larger than my fist on any planet that I’ve been on. Have you?” he inquired.

Vox warily looked around the forest of mushrooms and shook his head. “No, not a mushroom,” he agreed.

“So, what are we supposed to do, oh, mighty teller of tales?” Viper sarcastically asked Paul. “If Vox and I don’t find our sons, Riley and Tina are going to be the least of our concerns,” he added, glancing at his brother with a pained expression before turning back to look at Paul.

“Oh, Goddess. If Riley doesn’t kill me, Pearl will. And, I promise you, she’ll enjoy prolonging it,” Vox groaned, lifting his hands and running them over his face.

Viper nodded. “Pearl and Tina both will have my head. Plus, I have to find Leo. I swear that boy isn’t safe to leave on his own. If he isn’t trying to eat everything, he is disappearing,” he warned with a shake of his head.

“Have any of you tried to connect with them through your symbiots?” Ha’ven asked.

Paul briefly closed his eyes at the stunned silence. Of course they hadn’t. That would have been the logical thing to do. Shaking his head, he ignored Ha’ven, Vox, and Viper’s loud sighs of exasperation when he and the rest of the dragon warriors touched the thin links of gold around their wrists.

He immediately got a brief flash of Morah, her eyes blazing with determination, her little chin lifted in the air, and she was sitting on Crash who was in the shape of a unicorn. He’d seen that look one too many times when he’d tried to convince her to do something she didn’t want to do—like wearing pants instead of a princess dress to go camping. A rueful smile curved his lips. He looked around at the other men and saw the same expression. It looked as if the kids were preparing for another adventure.

“Ha’ven, can you do your teleport thing to the kids?” Creon asked, turning to look at his friend.

Ha’ven shook his head. “I already tried. I don’t know if it is the cave, something the Goddesses did, or my uncomfortable feeling that things seem much larger than they should, but I appear to have limited abilities at the moment,” he reluctantly shared.

“Wow!” Kelan muttered with a soft whistle.

Vox and Viper suddenly hissed and turned. Paul watched the two Sarafin warriors shift into their cat forms in the blink of an eye. He connected with his dragon, but all it was doing was purring with delight.

“What is it?” Paul asked, searching the mushroom forest for anything that could have caused the brothers to go on alert.

Zoran, Kelan, and Trelon were standing next to each other with their heads tilted back and their eyes closed. Each was emitting a soft rumbling that sounded suspiciously like his dragon did. Rubbing his chest, Paul couldn’t figure out what was going on.

He looked over at Creon who had shifted to his dragon form. The difference between Creon’s dragon with his tail up in the air and an almost devilish gleam in his eyes compared to the uneasy hissing of Vox and Viper added to his confusion. Only Mandra looked wary.

“Mandra, what is it?” Paul asked again.

Ha’ven took a step closer to Mandra and nodded. Paul could feel the Curizan’s unease building as well. The man’s hands flexed as if he was testing the energy around them.

“I’d like to know as well, if you don’t mind sharing,” Ha’ven said, hearing movement through the mushrooms.

Mandra’s wary eyes remained locked on the direction of the sound that was growing closer. Paul saw the huge warrior swallow.

Suddenly a monstrous brown and white furry creature with beady black eyes, a matching nose, and two very long, sharp teeth rose above the mushrooms in front of them, and they all stumbled back several steps.

“Tasiers!” Mandra muttered, stumbling back and grabbing for Zoran and Kelan.

Paul’s eyes widened, and he stared in horror at the massive creature eyeing them. Tasiers! This was the tiny fur-ball that the dragons thought tasted like chocolate? He realized that Ha’ven was right, that something else was very, very wrong at the same time as Ha’ven, Vox, and Viper did.

“Run!” Mandra yelled, turning with his brothers when a half dozen more Tasiers appeared behind the first one.