____Chapter 38____

I led Jacob over to a dense patch of trees to keep him out of the way and hidden. Stay here no matter what. Your sister would kill me if you got hurt. This thing's powers are like Keven's but he would have never attacked us.

I was going to ask about that. You sure he just didn't know it was you?

I'm sure. If it was him, that would mean he got my message. I told him about you and not to worry. I also told him that we were here to find and save him.

But it…

No time for this. I'll be back, I said as I climbed to the top of the trees and started my flight toward the attacker. I got to a high altitude and started to glide down in wide circles. Once I found the nuisance, I locked my eyes on him slowly getting closer. It was pitch black and even with the best of night vision I could only see a dark mass on the ground. I finally landed still a few hundred yards away. I crept as quietly as I could toward the unknown.

I stepped on logs and bushes distributing my weight as to not give my position away to a super sense of touch. As I caught sight of a huge mass in front of me, our attacker turned to face me. It was pitch black. The moon wasn't out and the overcast skies blocked out all starlight. There was no light, yet fiery eyes flared in my direction. I could see nothing more than the glowing golden orbs as I froze in my steps. No face or body was visible in the blackness only the piercing eyes on a black canvas. Realizing I couldn't move I broke my main rule about thought speech. I invaded the mind of the attacker. This is simple enough but morally very wrong and I made a rule against it for my little group.

I drove my mind into every corner of the mystery figure's mind like a spear through flesh. It was a simple message. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHY DID YOU ATTACK US?!?!?!?!? The clouds thinned out for just a second, just enough for me to get a shape. However, that didn't help at all because there were rocks and fallen trees everywhere. These were plenty to obscure any shape or shadow I saw.

No reply came and I kept pushing through the mind looking for anything to identify the being in front of me. I was unable to find anything and I was blocked out of a lot of places in the figure's mind.

Fine. Don't tell me who you are. I would still like to know why you attacked my partner. I was trying a less intrusive approach.

Silence was the only answer of course.
I had no choice I finally just said, Tell me or I will FRY YOU!

A response came but it wasn't words. A simple snicker came over the link between our connected minds.

I know full well the extent of your powers. No rocks are going to save you from me! There is nothing funny here so TALK!

Who is this partner you speak of? I got a message and it was broken up so bad from distance that I only heard "save dragon cave. " I assumed there was someone to rescue and saving someone's life endows them to you for something big. Without my leader I needed some stuff to continue.

Message huh? You are just saying that because I just told my partner about it. You probably overheard. What is your real story and who is this leader. If there are rival dragons I want it know about it.

I will not speak his name. It isn't because of the risk, it is simply because I promised that I would not speak it until I found him. There were only three of us as far as I knew but evidently we aren't alone.

Your leader wouldn't by chance be named Mark, I said now having a good idea of who he was but wanting to make the scene dramatic.

H-How did you know.

Because, at this point I let out a little flame from my nostrils, It's me. The light from the flame lit my face and I was immediately tackled.

I was ready to fight but then I caught the look on his face. It was indeed Keven and he was as happy as can be. At this proximity (as he had me pinned to the ground and up against a huge tree which threatened to fall over at any second) I was able to catch that kind of detail.

I still want to know who this partner is, he said, finally letting me up.

____Chapter 39____

After that encounter we were both exhausted. We both quickly decided to walk over to see Jacob as humans. There were a few reasons for this. The first was the fact that we were tired, and as I have mentioned before, the dragon body takes a lot of energy to use. The second was the fact that I hadn't been human for any period of time and wanted to spend as much time in my normal state as possible. The third and best reason was that we wanted to sneak up on Jacob.

We walked in Jacob's general direction slowly getting closer and closer. I wasn't stupid, however, so we walked in circles, slowly edging closer and closer to Jacob. We circled around until we came up behind Jacob and to my surprise he was sound asleep. 'Oh Angelina will love to hear about this ha,' I thought to myself.

Taking the opportunity I decided to mess with him a bit before completely surprising him. I grabbed a couple rocks from a nearby piece of blasted earth and tossed one into the bushes toward the slumbering beast's right. The reaction was, to say the least, HILLARIOUS! Jacob jumped six feet in the air! I almost couldn't keep myself from laughing. I waited a few minutes and just as Jacob was about to lie down I threw another rock to his left. The reaction wasn't as good this time but he did suddenly look toward the noise. After throwing rocks in random places and getting lots of humorous reactions I grabbed my last rock and took aim, as this one wasn't going to be random. I chunked my last rock and it struck exactly where I wanted it to, right on top of Jacob's head.

I heard a deep growl as the, now, very awake dragon looked around frantically to find the source of the annoyance. "I told you to wait, not to sleep," I said, walking slowly out of the bushes.

I wasn't sleeping.

"Yea right! That first rock scared you half to death." Out walked Keven, being his cocky self; even to a dragon he had never met. Jacob just glared at the new person.

"Jacob this is Keven. Keven this is Jacob. The partner you wanted to know about,"

"Well, we have plenty of time to rest." What he actually meant was 'I'm going to rest'

"Works for me but Jacob here is all rested up I bet," I stated, still joking about the embarrassed green dragon.

"Well this seems as good a spot as any," Keven said as he sat down on a log.

"Yep" I said making my answers as short as possible (this annoys the mess out of Keven).

"Hey dude," Keven gestured to Jacob, "Why don't you come out of that dragon form? I'm sure it would be more comfortable."

I looked at Jacob and smirked. I had for gotten to tell Keven that Jacob wasn't a mutant freak like us but an actual dragon.

"I don't think that's going to work man." I finally said.

"Why not?"

"Jacob, you tell him."

I'm a REAL dragon

"Uh," Keven said, not really having any words for the occasion.

"Yeah, It shocked me too. But it wasn't this guy who I met first."

"You meant there are more?"

"Yeah, not sure how many but at least 4 others."

And he's in love with one of them. Jacob blurted out.

Laughter broke out, first from Keven, then from Jacob. I wasn't laughing at all.

"What's so funny?" I asked with a scowl on my face.

"Nothing" they both said simultaneously.

"It isn't 'nothing'. TELL ME!"

"Fine," Keven spoke through his laughter, "Jacob just told me just WHO the lucky girl is haha"

"Crap! Jacob, the last person who should know about this is HIM!"

Sorry, he replied, the thought calm and serious but his face still showing amusement. Served you right for throwing rocks at me.

"Fine, payback is done. Let's get moving. We have to get back to the base then to the lair."

"Okay" both of them said. (It scares me when people say the same thing at the same time like that. And they did it twice!)

____Chapter 40____

3rd person Joseph and Kyle

After giving Kyle a long speech about how stupid his actions had been, Joseph went over to a nearby lake for a little swim. He needed to relax before making the huge decision to attack, or leave the nearby-occupied towns alone. Honestly he didn't see the point. There was no proof that this kid was even there in the first place. He floated around pondering the pros and cons.

Just as the large, and now relaxed, dragon was about to exit the water, a patrol from a nearby town marched up to the lake. All he could do was sink and hope the patrol hadn't seen him and that they would leave before he had to surface.

The soldiers hadn't seen him but they had no plans to leave. Instead, they started unpacking and setting up camp. This wasn't good at all. Joseph had to come up to breathe. His only option would be to destroy the group as soon as he came up because they were sure to see him when he surfaced. He hated the idea of killing an intelligent being, but he had no choice.

Joseph sprang out of the water in a powerful burst, spraying the area in a deep red flame. This didn't cause death immediately, however, and the solders screamed and yelled. There was no way this wasn't going to give their position away. Nobody was going to survive, but his cover was blown.

They had to leave and fast. Kyle! In the air NOW!!! Keep low and follow me!

Gotcha! Kyle said not wasting any more time or breath.

The two dragons darted out of the area as fast as they could, keeping too low for anyone to see them through the trees. They flew in confusing paths until they were sure that no one was following them. Kyle saw a spot where they would be well hidden (as hidden as two enormous creatures can be), and they glided down. Once they touched down, they crouched low and were the stillest and quietest creatures on the planet.

Meanwhile Mark, Keven and Jacob were flying straight toward a disaster. A search party could easily ruin the plan of getting out undetected. They also couldn't go straight back to the lair as they couldn't risk the soldiers following them there. The incoming group had no clue just what was just a few miles ahead of them.

Is that Mark and Jacob? Kyle said pointing up at a blur he had seen out of the corner of his eye.

I don't know. Just keep low. And with the order to keep hidden, Kyle leaped up above the trees and hovered for a second. I told you to STAY DOWN. Joseph said Pulling Kyle out of the air by his tail.

Let go of me! It WAS them. They are flying right into an attack! We have to get them back here.

YOU have to get them back here. I am not risking my life for a human.

Fine but when your daughter hears about this… He didn't even finish his sentence before he sprang up and flew as fast as he could toward the soon to be doomed search party.

Kyle Finally caught up but just as he had done so, he spotted soldiers in the trees below. Turn around, keep really low, and follow me!!!

Without hesitation, Mark pulled a 180 and the other two followed. Mark didn't have to see who was speaking to him. He knew the voice to be Kyle's and he wouldn't yell without a very good reason. They then bolted back to the relative safety of a boulder field covered in dense brush. Now that we're back together, lets either get back to the lair or go find the others, I stated seriously.

As quickly as we had landed we were back in the air again (yes I changed the point of view. If you are an English teacher just get over it.)

We stayed low and flew fast. Whoever was following us, wouldn't be for long. You know, this is getting really old, I stated, obviously not content with the current situation.

You humans and your stubbornness; it's even worse when you add guns. Joseph said also not happy at all.

You can't blame the entire human race. I'm a perfect example of the fact that we aren't ALL evil. I said this, not wanting hate to get the better of the, no longer relaxed, dragon.

I guess but I have only known you for a few weeks. That is hardly enough time to make a sound judgment about someone's personality.

True, but you have nothing to worry about from me, I said swerving to dodge a tree that was slightly taller than the others around it.

The conversation ended as the taller trees became more frequent and we had to concentrate more on flying and less on talking. After evasive flying for more than three hours we finally lost the tail, almost losing our tails in the process.

____Chapter 41____

After many hours of flying, we finally made it to the lair. We hadn't gone inside before we had left to go get the two troublemakers. This time we did. I have seen the place and it amazed me, yet again, with its huge size. Keven hadn't seen it, though. His reaction was an open maw and wide-eyed speechlessness, as he walked through the main room.

You are all going to stay. The last search area is close and I can do it alone. I said not wanting Keven to go especially.

Are you sure about that? Joseph asked concerned about something. I could tell it was partially my safety but there was something else too.

Yeah sure, there will be three of us coming back anyway. That seemed to settle the other part of his worries. I still didn't know what that worry had been though.

Well Just be careful, Joseph finally said.

I will, I replied as I jumped out of the lair entrance and into the sky.

As I had mentioned, the search zone was very close and it only took a few minutes to find the entrance to the cave I had told Angelina about. Aside from a few helicopters that I easily 'lost', the flight was uneventful.

I walked into the cave and after a quick scan I found Angelina and Crystal to not be there. I wasn't all that worried though, as they were probably still out searching. There was some daylight still left.

I decided to go for a little relaxing swim in the large underground lake. I was tired of being a dragon (can you believe it?) and decided to take the swim in my natural, human form. Every time I try to stay in my human body for any real length of time, I end up having to travel, fight, or rescue someone. This, however, was a good time for me to relax and be me again.

After swimming a little while in the lake, I got out and walked over to a small pond, separated from the large body of water. I hadn't bathed in over a month and with nobody here and time on my side, this seemed like a good place to do it.  I washed my clothes as well as myself (Trust me. They REALLY needed it). The dark black water was actually a few degrees warmer than the lake due to the fact that it was a smaller body of water and therefore easier to keep warm.

It took forever to get several weeks worth of filth off of me. I felt refreshed as I climbed out onto the rock floor of the cave. I felt ten pounds lighter, and with all of the grime that was on me, I probably was. I wish I had brought a towel though. Instead I just stood by the wall until I was mostly dry. I started putting clothes back on and just as I had buttoned up my pants Angelina walked into the cave. I was caught off guard and then thought how awkward it would have been if she had walked in only a few seconds earlier.

"Ever heard of knocking!" I yelled, partially serious and partially joking.

Nope! We dragons aren't ashamed of our bodies.

"We aren't ashamed, we just have decency." I yelled back, completely joking now.

Well you are here so you must have found your friend.

"Keven is back at the lair. He thought it was hysterical that I was WITH a dragon."

We are kind of an odd couple.

"No, you are normal; I am the odd one here. You are a dragon, and I am a MUTANT FREAK human that can turn into a dragon."

Awe, it's okay. Don't even worry about it. It doesn't matter to me.

"Still," I said, and then didn't finish my sentence.

I want to meet this Keven kid. I'll give him a talking to for you.

"You can meet him but the talking to won't be necessary."

____Chapter 42____

Just then Crystal walked in. In the light, I could see how she got the name. Angelina nudged me out of my daydream and gave me a 'Don't look at her like that' look.

Am I interrupting something? Said Crystal as she stepped into the water of the underground lake.

"Maybe" I said at the same time as Angelina said No, only adding to the illusion that she had, in fact, interrupted something.

Sorry, she said and started to turn around to go back out of the cave.

"Don't worry about it. You weren't interrupting anything. Come on over." Crystal swam over with a look on her face that said 'well, if you insist.'

" I would have been here sooner but your father went and alerted a patrol of city guards and we had to get away without them seeing or following us."

Really. Whatever made him do such a thing? He is terrified of humans.

"No clue. I didn't get that part of the story. He was unwilling to tell me any more and he seemed very disturbed as if he had done something unforgivable."

We will never know. He is impossible to figure out.

"Something was seriously bothering him though."

Oh well.

I feel left out. I looked over to see a blue dragon coming out of the water. I had totally forgot that Crystal was there.

"Sorry. With so many patrols out I can't risk flying at night. And it is already dark. We are going to have to stay here for the night and leave in the morning."

My father will be so angry about it but you are right. The risk is too high.

"Why would your father be…?" I didn't finish the sentence because I figured it out. "Crystal is here to intervene if anything like that starts to happen ha."

Crystal looked at me funny. I'm not stupid. I would die getting between you two probably.

"Huh? Hey! I have SOME self control!"

Yeah but dragons don't, especially during that.

"I have only lost control of my dragon form twice and those were in times of extreme anger."

Imagine it in a time of extreme pleasure. That was her only reply.

"Good point. Oh well. Whatever happens, will just have to be then. I plan on staying human anyway."

Crystal's eyes opened a little more and a gleam formed then went away as if she were hiding something. "I saw that. What were you thinking?"

Nothing, she said, and thought about it again.  

"Seriously. I will keep you up all night if you don't tell me."

Oh she will have to tell you now. She can't go a full night with no sleep.

Fine I hear that some humans sleep with nothing on.

"Some do. I am not one of them though. I generally sleep in shorts. I don't wear a shirt though. That makes it too hot."

Awe darn. Angelina said in a mocking tone.

We all laughed and I took my shirt off and walked over to a semi comfortable spot to try and catch some Z's. As I walked away, I said, "And Crystal you might want to be careful about saying things like that. Angelina might get jealous."

Angelina just rolled her eyes, which I found hilarious because I had never seen a dragon rolling eyes before, and it looked funny.  I found the spot but I couldn't relax because Crystal was staring. "There are these things called cameras. They record images. I'm going to have to get you one so you don't have to stare at me."

She blushed (which turned her a light purple and was also funny.) "Remember, Angelina just might eat you in your sleep if you hit on me too much." I got another glare from Angelina and with that I closed my eyes. A couple minutes later I woke up. Something had bumped me and I almost went into attack mode. But I opened my eyes and all I saw were shiny red scales and my brain registered the fact that it was Angelina. I shifted a bit and went back to sleep. 'She always has to make things difficult,' I thought as I shifted just a little closer so that my arm was touching the surprisingly warm scales. I then went to sleep again.

Giggling awakened me. I opened my eyes and sure enough, there was Crystal holding back her laughter so much that I thought she just might pass out from the effort. I sat up and stretched. "What's so funny?"

You two make a great couple and at first you were just touching but you were just completely snuggled up to her.

I realized that I was closer, a lot closer, to Angelina and backed away just a little, blushing the whole time.

"Hey! The cave floor is cold and she happens to be warm." I used this as an excuse.

Oh wait till her father and brother hear about this. It is going to be hilarious.

"PLEASE don't do that. I am already on loose ground with her father and he was worried about what could happen. Nothing happened, that I know of anyway, but this would only prove his point."

Fine but her brother will find out. He will get a kick out of it. By the way I took plenty of mental pictures to show with the story.

'Why must women be so evil' I thought.

Just because, replied Crystal.

I moved and got dressed and told Crystal to go outside while I took another bath. Angelina was still fast asleep and I didn't want to wake her. I got in the water. About a minute later Angelina woke up. She looked around as if to figure out where we went. She saw me in the small pool and walked over. The water was dark so I wasn't worried about her being there at the moment. " Morning sleepyhead." I said smiling. "I thought you were the early riser. That is what Crystal said anyway."

Good morning back to you. I usually am but I decided to sleep in a little.

Then she said something that made me sort of uncomfortable. I hope you were plenty warm. It can get cold in caves sometimes.

I gave a wary giggle and just said, "Don't worry I was plenty warm." I gave an embarrassed smile and looked around nervously.

Good was her simple reply.

Could you go out and see Crystal please? I have to get some clothes on.

Hmm I don't know. I think I'll just stay here.

I hadn't thought about that. She just lay down right there. I couldn't get out now and my skin was starting to shrivel up from the water. I had to get her out. I tried everything from begging to trickery. I even asked her to just simply turn around for 10 seconds and if I wasn't quick enough she wouldn't have to stay turned around any longer (but I knew I was plenty quick enough). Nothing worked. But then I had a great idea. It was risky but it would have to do. I started transforming. I was turning into my dragon form to avoid coming out of the pool as a human. The only risk was that every time was different. Different things changed at different times and rates every single time. The pool wasn't that deep and I just hoped that I changed in a way that didn't reveal anything.

I was nervous through the whole thing and I felt my legs getting longer first. That was very bad. I sunk underwater to the bottom, only five feet under, and lay flat on the bottom hoping that it would be deep enough to buy time for the other parts of me to change. Lucky for me, it did. My tail formed just as I was inches from the surface. When I was fully dragon, I stood up all the way and said, Hah I win. The situation was still awkward but not as awkward as walking out nude would have been. I escorted Angelina outside then ran back in and moved a giant boulder in front of the entrance. I turned back into a human and got dressed. I went back to the dragon form again and moved the boulder away, walked out and then turned back into a human again.

"I'm sick of being a dragon at the moment. I'm going to have to ride on one of your backs."  

I'll carry you, Angelina quickly offered. I was a little worried and embarrassed but I climbed up her tail and onto her back and held onto her neck.

"I'm ready." I said. And with that, she launched herself into the air.

About halfway through the flight I was about to take a nap. Then Angelina spoke up. I'm sorry about this morning. I just got a little carried away.

"No kidding. But I accept your apology. It is still awkward though."

Yeah. Sorry.

"I guess I will just have to make things awkward for you. I will start by taking a nap." I hugged her neck, more to keep from falling off but also to make her uncomfortable. Then I put my head down and closed my eyes. I got as comfy as I could and slept like a baby the whole way.

I woke up when we landed. And I slid down off of the poor embarrassed red dragon. I wasn't done yet though. Not even close.