"...I am your father."
Even though Kyle had figured it out, he could not believe what he was hearing. This dragon--purple scales, vermillion hair, long body, short legs and arms--was his FATHER?!
Getting up from the cave floor, Kyle approached the dragon. He reached out touched its face, and instantly felt that he did indeed have a connection with the dragon. Looking into the dragon's orange eyes, Kyle recognized that they were exactly like his father Abraham's eyes. This meant that the dragon was indeed Abraham, Kyle and Diana's father, in the form of a dragon!
"But, if you really are Dad," Kyle said, "what happened to you?"
"I never finished that story," Abraham explained. "That jewel is the one that was used by those five dragons years ago. And there was a reason they were never seen again."
"I thought they were killed," Diana interrupted. "We were told that the dragons were never seen again after making a wish and the jewel glowed."
"That is what they wanted everyone to think," Abraham continued. "They had been able to transform themselves into humans and back again in order to be a part of both worlds, but apparently some dragon found out what at least one of them was doing, and began to spread rumors among the others. Since most dragons were fearful of or hated humans, they began to search for those who were trying to keep our worlds connected. The five in the story were among them, and they realized that as long as they existed, they would be gone before long. They came to this cave in order to escape the persecution, but they could tell that they were being followed from a distance. So they made a wish that they would be able to hide from the other dragons until the persecutions ended, and that this cave would remain undisturbed and hidden completely until then."
"But if you know all this...," Tyler began.
"...and if the dragons faked their deaths...," Rachel continued.
"...and if they would change back at the end of the...," Justin added.
"...and our dads all suddenly disappeared or left...," Luke added.
"...then is it possible that...," Matthew added.
"Are all of you our fathers?" Leo asked the other four dragons.
The five dragons all nodded together in agreement. The twelve teens were all looking at their own fathers--in the forms of dragons! The purple dragon was Abraham, father of Kyle and Diana; the blue dragon was Michael, father of Luke and Matthew; the white dragon was John, father of Rachel, Tyler, and Peter; the yellow dragon was Joseph, father of Dustin and Justin; and the red dragon was Gabriel, father of Leo, Ethan, and Scott. [In the last chapter, "Gabriel" and "Michael" were supposed to be Leo and Matthew.]
"OMG!" Rachel exclaimed.
"Our dads are DRAGONS?!" Luke shouted.
"This is incredible!" Tyler shouted.
It took a while for the teens to calm down, with their giant reptilian fathers telling them to do so as they held their children's shoulders. After everyone was calm and sitting down on the cave floor, Diana asked her father another question.
"Is that why none of you ever told any of us about your life before us, your families, any of it?"
"Yes, Diana," Abraham replied. "We all thought it would be best if no one knew about who we used to be--not even your mothers, or any of you. We hid it all in order to keep you safe."
"If any of the other dragons knew that we had faked our deaths, they would have hunted down us and anyone connected to us," Michael added.
"And if they found out that we had bred with humans," Gabriel added, "they would have killed us all for sure."
"Wait," Kyle interrupted. "So if you're really dragons, and all our moms are humans, then the twelve of us are some kind of hybrids?"
"Yes," Joseph answered.
"Does that mean we have dragon powers and forms like you?" Kyle asked.