Dragonshire (This is the original version, extremely different from the other one)

I woke up several hours later, my head aching. Neither of us had won, because neither of us had fallen out of the ring.
Dav'id? Is Shannon okay?,I asked.
Good! You're awake. Shannon's fine and I have another surprise for you, he replied.
Wait, what?
Shannon's okay.
How bad was she?
Not very, it was mainly the force of the impact that did it. Well anyway, I have a surprise for you.
Really, what?
I'm letting the girls stay. They may have failed but since they're your friends I'll let them stay.
Oh thank you! I could kiss you!
Be there in a second.
Funny.
I have another surprise for you.
What now?
This one I can't tell you or it won't be a surprise will it?
No, I suppose it won't. When do I get it?
Soon. Come down here in your old clothes from the village and I can take you to it right now.
Okay, I'll be down in a second.
Hurry up.
I hopped out of bed and scrambled into my old cotton dress and sandals. Why ever did he want me to wear this for the surprise? I guessed I'd just have to find out. I ran down the steps and found him wearing the man's shirt and breeches he'd worn when I first met him.
"Come on, I'll fly us there," said Dav'id once he'd seen me. He pulled me out of the palace and through the front gates. We went to our clearing, as I'd come to call it, and he went into the woods, reemerging as a dragon. I took the clothes from his mouth and he picked me up. We flew for only a few minutes before landing next to a forest.
"What are we doing here?" I asked him once he was in human form and dressed again. I had at first been amazed that there wasn't any wet spots in his shirt after having them in his mouth but had come to learn that it dried while flying.
"Your present's on the other side of these woods," he answered.
"What is it?"
"Don't you recognize these woods?"
I looked around me and examined everything carefully. Eventually I spotted something I did recognize. A large oak tree sat on the edge of the woods. I remembered Lacey and I sitting in the tree one afternoon, each of us on one branch. We had a picnic that day of Momma's apple pie and tarts, and even played with toys Poppa had made us. "Yes," I said, "I do remember this place. Why did you bring me here?"
"For your sister," he said, a large smile on his face.
I ran up and hugged him.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cried.
He unwrapped my arms from his neck and held my hands.
"Don't worry. Just go get your sister," he said.
"That's why you had me wear this, so we wouldn't be noticed if anyone looked out their windows. It is dusk but someone may still look. It would come as quite a shock to someone who thought me dead, but I won't be caught. Let's go!" I cried, and pulled him into the woods.

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A few minutes later we emerged on the other side of the woods. I looked around and memories came flooding back to me. Suddenly I began to remember my last few moments with Momma.
We had been in the kitchen when the plague had reached our town. The plague had been spreading throughout the kingdom and no one had thought it would reach our town. Mother had been kneading bread dough in the kitchen when it started, that was also when she taught me the egg riddle.
"Katie," she had asked, "Do you like riddles?"
I remember her voice being sweet as sugar, and she sounded like the morning birds when she sang. Her blonde curls made her bright blue eyes look radiant when she smiled.
"Yes Momma," a seven year old me had said.
"Well, I'll teach you a riddle my mother taught me when I was little," she said, "In marble walls as white as milk, lined with skin as soft as silk. Within a fountain crystal clear, a golden apple does appear. No doors are there to this stronghold, yet thieves break in and steal the gold. What is it?"
"I don't know," I replied.
"An egg!" she said, and held one up for me to see.
"That's a good one!"
She had smiled at me then, and I had smiled back. That had been the last time I ever saw her smile, for at that moment ten year old Lacey burst into the room.
"Something's wrong with Daddy!" Lacey had screamed. "He collapsed outside the barn, he was fine a second ago. Momma hurry, he doesn't look good!"
We had followed Lacey out to the barn and I stopped once I saw him. He was breaking out in a cold sweat and his eyes were closed. His face was white and when I touched him I drew back, feeling as though I had touched fire. We had gotten him in the house but he was dead by morning the next day.
That was when Momma got sick. That's when Lacey and I had had to learn to fend for ourselves. That's when I came to learn that you never realize just how much you love someone until they're gone. I remembered her last few moments.
"Girls, promise you won't forget me," Momma had said, laying in her bed. Lacey and I were on one side of the bed listening intently to Momma.
"You're not going to die Momma! You can't!" I had said, my eyes watering.
"We all know that's a lie."
"Don't say that!" Lacey had cried, tears falling onto the blanket as she cried.
Momma reached up to touch our faces and we held her hands there.
"Girls just promise me one thing. Don't ever think that you are alone, because I will always be with you in your hearts," Momma closed her eyes and said, her voice barely a whisper, "And never forget that I love you."
Then Momma closed her mouth and stopped breathing. She was dead. Lacey and I had just sat there, holding her hands to our faces. Tears were streaming down our cheeks.