Dragon tales, dragon tales, it’s almost time for dragon tales. Did you think we had a happily ever after? What? With a couple of kids holding a magic dragon scale and crossing dimensions? You’re quite the optimist aren’t you?
It took a while, maybe two years since we had started going to dragon land, before some scary men in suits arrived. We didn’t know what was going on but we had a strange feeling, so we hid the dragon scale in the fire pit under a bunch of ash.
The men turned the house upside down all the while holding some device in their hand while staying close to where we usually went to say our wish and go to dragon land. It was scary, Emmy held me tight and our parents held us both close.
After the house was searched and we had even pulled our pockets inside out to prove we didn’t have anything they apologized for the disturbance and left. Our house was still a disaster, as if a tornado had just run through it. But mom and dad told us everything would be okay.
Later that night I heard them arguing for the first time in a long time. Mom was asking where ‘it’ was. Dad kept saying he didn’t know. Mom said she knew they were here for that thing and they needed to give it to them so nothing else would happen.
I stopped listening about them and went to find the scale we had hidden. I grabbed it and Emmy and we jumped to dragon land to explain to our dragon friends what happened and just be there instead of home for a little bit.
Seven years after that, Enrique went missing, his parents too. We didn’t know what happened but Emmy said the teacher told the class that they had to go back to their home country of Columbia. Now I know better.
Another five years after that, fourteen total for those of you math wizzes keeping track, the men in suits came back once more. This time they weren’t so nice. They asked where the scale was and mom dad and Emmy all acted dumb saying they didn’t know what they were talking about.
Mom had been searching but we always kept it hidden. I’d heard enough stories, enough declassified documents. I knew that if they got a hold of it then our friends would suffer some horrible fates. Little did I know it was bound to happen anyway.
The men in suits, I couldn’t tell if they were fbi, cia, or some other organization, well they were good. I mean really good, one look at me and they could tell I knew something. Without warning a group of armed men swarmed in and surrounded us.
One of the men gave them orders, “take them all except the boy” and he waved his hand in the air.
There was shouting, so much shouting. The armed men shouting at my family, my mom yelling something incoherent, my dad yelling at the men to leave us alone, and Emmy shouting to not let the men hurt them. I knew what she meant.
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The man who gave the order stepped to me and looked down as I was still on my knees as my whole family had been, “you know something boy,” he said emotionless, “it’s really nothing personal, I’m just doing my job. But you need to find that scale. We have your family and we will keep them safe. But our protection only runs so far.”
“Protection?” I spat, “yeah, take them hostage I’m sure that’s a great way to keep them safe.”
He squatted down to get to my level, “Max, do you really think the US government is the only government looking for this scale?”
I blinked, “well yeah, I mean who else even knows it exists?”
He laughed, just a little chuckle, “everyone, the Chinese, the Russians, Germany, North Korea, Japan, you name it. Every time that scale was used a fluctuation of energy on a massive scale was broadcast across the globe. They’d have to be blind not to have seen it.”
“B-but,” I tried, attempting to wrap my head around what he said, “you took Enrique.”
“We’re protecting the guy and his family,” he said, “the Colombian government sent spies over to grab them because they noticed he would come over here almost every time that thing went off. We nabbed him only hours before they got to his house. The deportation was a cover.”
“Am I supposed to just believe you?” I asked my mind reeling from all the information, “what about all the covert operations you’ve done on us citizens? How am I supposed to believe you’re here to protect me and not to use me?”
His face stayed neutral as he stood back up, “you aren’t.” He said flatly, “you’re just supposed to listen. Get us a dragon scale by tomorrow or much worth things might happen to your family than being take out of their house.”
With that he strode out of the house closing the door behind him. I stayed on the floor listening for ten minutes until I was sure nobody was still here. I got up and looked out the window. No more cars, not more people. I ran to my room to grab the scale from the loose floorboard. When it’s down it’s flush with the ground and you can’t tell it’s loose.
I was just bored on day picking at the floor and this board came up and there was a space just big enough for the scale so I’d been hiding it here ever since. I grabbed the scale and without going anywhere else started the chant, the same thing my sister and I had been saying almost every day for fourteen years.
“I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a world apart.” I said faster than usual.
The world around me swirled and blended together, this part always made me feel a little nauseous. Soon enough a wide and brightly colored world appeared around me, or more accurately I appeared in it.
The first one I saw was the big loves me oaf of a dragon, Ord. “Ord!” I called as I ran up to him.
“Max!” He exclaimed happily, “where’s Emmy?”
“They took her Ord” I huffed, “they took her, and Enrique, and my parents. They took them all, they said worse might happen if I don’t get them a dragon scale. I don’t know what to do, they might come to hurt you, they might-“
Ord held up a hand, “Max, calm down” over the last fourteen years ha had grown, he was no longer the coward he used to be when I was young, “you just need a scale right?”
He reached under one arm and with a hard yank and a wince of pain, he handed me a blue scale. It had a little bit of flesh on the end it was stuck into him, but only a tiny bit. There was also a little blood, I noticed a small red stream run down his side.
“Ord, no,” I said aghast, “I’m so sorry, I never wanted you to hurt yourself for us.”
He put one of his great big blue clawed hands on my shoulder, “it’s only a flesh wound, besides, Doctor Booboogone can fix this up in a flash.” He said with a small grin.
“You can grow back scales?” I asked shocked. I had always assumed they couldn’t.
“It might take ten years or so but yeah, a scale here or there won’t hurt a thing.” He said proudly, the blood reaching his knee, “though I may need to go get this patched up sooner rather than later.”
He gestured for me to hop on his back, so I did. We took off into the air flying toward the old doctors cabin with my head swirling, trying to figure out what to do next. All I knew was that for the foreseeable future, I needed to do what the men in black asked.