Free Rise of Phoenix by Christina Ricardo

Chapter One
Air Attack!
    She felt the rush of wind against her face; the thrill in her stomach as they dove.
    Her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the reins and the beast climbed higher in the air. Rising, up above the forest canopy and rushing toward the vast white clouds towering high above them.
    Serafin struggled not to scream as she held on to the reins of the dactyl and Ash’s grip on her waist became stronger.
    “Pull him to the left!” Even though his face was close to her ear he was forced to shout against the wind.
    Serafin tried to control the dactyl but she was already pulling the reins so hard she doubted the beast would notice a further tug on the left.
    Ash reached forward and grabbed hold of her arm, forcing her to give the reins a sharp pull. The dactyl swerved left, pulling out of his climb. He opened his wings wide and gently glided along on the warm winds.
    Ash laughed. “That’s better,” he said, sounding slightly out of breath.
    She felt safe with Ash on the back. Even when he was in control she still felt nervous on the flying beast and she didn’t think she would ever be able to fly it without him. As she started to calm down, she began to enjoy the sensation of being in control. She just had to remember not to pull too hard on the reigns, just a slight tug to the left or right was all that was needed to give the dactyl direction. 
    As high as they were, Serafin could no longer see the distant grass plains they had travelled from, all that was below them was the deep and vast forest stretched out like an ocean of green, and, just up ahead of them, were the mountains of the north.
    She remembered travelling amongst those mountains every summer, as a child, she remembered all the little towns and villages they had stopped at, the beautiful views and the way the clouds could roll down into the valleys like thick cream down the side of a sponge, plunging everything into a dense and wet mist, sometimes for days on end. The mountains had been like a home to her then, but now, as she headed closer to them they seemed a foreign land.
    “You’re getting better!” said Ash, snapping her out of her thoughts and reminding her that she was supposed to be in control of the flying beast.
    “I have a good teacher!” she managed to shout back over the wind.
    Just at that moment the dactyl took a dive, so suddenly that Serafin couldn’t help but scream.
    “Pull up!” shouted Ash, “Pull up! Pull up!”
    He tried reaching forward for the reins but even he couldn’t get the dactyl to changes its course. Serafin noticed shadows dancing on the forest canopy and looked upwards.
    Suddenly she realized why the dactyl was diving. They were being followed.
    “ASH!” Serafin screamed. 
    He followed her gaze upwards and his face changed as he saw the three Guardians diving after them on the back of great, armored dactyls.
    She pulled hard on the reins, trying desperately to pull the dactyl out of his suicidal dive, but it refused to respond, plunging toward the ground ever faster. Just as it reached the tip of the forest canopy it pulled up, brushing its long, finger-like, talons along the sea of leaves, swerving left and right to avoid the arrows that started to rain down on them from the Guardians.
    Serafin was relieved, but frightened.  She knew that she couldn’t control the dactyl; whatever it was doing, it was doing so of its own accord.
    “We need to swap places!” she shouted.
    “What!?” Ash sounded terrified.
    “You have to take the reins!”
    “Fin! We’re in mid-air, we can’t just switch!”
    Despite the dactyl’s best efforts, the Guardians were catching up with them, fast.
    Serafin knew Ash was the better rider; she knew that as a trained guardian he had been riding dactyls for years.  There was no way they could outmaneuver three scouts while she was in control. She didn’t have time to debate.
    She forced the reins into Ash’s hands and slipped her feet out of the