Aurin stared at the ceiling of his room. He must have slept for only five hours, but the sun was rising and the Minakai of the ranch weren’t going to take care of themselves. He forced himself to sit up and held his head in his hands for a moment before climbing out of bed and then heading to the bathroom to wash his face.

“I just want to sleep,” he laughed to himself when he returned to his room.

The smell of bacon and eggs was wafting through the house which meant that Kyle was already awake and cooking breakfast. Aurin got dressed and headed downstairs to the kitchen where Kyle was sitting at the table and wolfing down his food.

“Morning,” said Kyle, only pausing his eating briefly.

“Morning,” replied Aurin, grabbing a plate for himself and eating up.

The two ate in silence, both exhausted from returning home so late from the Palace Royale. They had walked Luna home first before returning to the ranch and then spent another hour marvelling over the Roche Fruit that Aurin had won. If they were more sensible, they would have gone straight to bed and discussed it this morning, but they were too caught up in the lingering thrill of the tournament.

“You do the shovelling, I’ll do the feeds,” said Kyle, finishing his breakfast and pouring tea for both him and Aurin.

“No problem,” said Aurin.

“No complaints about shovelling dung? You must still be riding high from yesterday.”

“I’m not one to complain about petty details,” said Aurin, making Kyle laugh.

“Alright,” said the rancher with a shrug. “Drink up and we’ll get to work. It would be good to finish up before Luna shows up.”

“True. I’m sure she’ll be running for the incubator to see what’s in that egg of hers.”

The two finished their tea and headed out to the ranch for their respective chores. Aurin worked his way around the different pens and enclosures and by seven o’clock, he reached the one where his own Minakai were kept. They were all very enthusiastic about seeing him, but most of them were also confused as to why a Petalcub had been dropped into their pen in the middle of the night and Snippet had about tripled in size.

“Team,” said Aurin, addressing them. “I’d like you to meet the latest addition to our gang, Petalcub. Shamtile and Chopchop, you both have met him already, so you’re in charge of getting him properly acquainted with everyone else.”

Spikruption immediately walked up to him and sniffed the little wolf cub before snorting and blowing a small puff of smoke out of his nostrils. The smaller Minakai of the team—Arium, Sunny and Microbot—all bounced around enthusiastically, glad to have another monster of their own size to replace the recently evolved Snippet. They would outnumber the large Minakai one day, they were sure of it.

Desparee meanwhile stood with his hand on Chopchop’s shoulder and wept loudly. He was lamenting the loss of his tiny friend Snippet, not taking into account that he had simply changed forms.

“Pull yourself together, Desparee,” said Aurin before turning to Sunny. “Thank you for taking care of all the Minakai when they arrived back here, Sunny. Everyone is looking fit and healthy again.”

The egg-like Minakai squealed with excitement and flipped over in the air with a big smile on her face. Shamtile ran over to her and threw her into the air in celebration and she then slowly drifted back down to the ground and hopped around while making a giggling noise.

All of the Minakai were in good spirits except for a rather grumpy Spikruption. Aurin had deduced that he was irked to have been left behind while Shamtile, Chopchop and Gorunze had all got to enjoy themselves battling all day yesterday.

“If there’s another one, I’ll bring you,” said Aurin. “Otherwise, I’ll take you into the tower on my next run, alright? There’s only seven months to go until the next Hazelton tournament and we’re going to come out on top this time. Each and every one of you will receive dedicated training to build on your strengths and get rid of all your weaknesses. We’re going to rise to the top.”

Aurin returned to cleaning up the pens and before he knew it, it was nine o’clock. He was sure it didn’t used to take him this long before he considered how the ranch had grown since he arrived. There had been a small scaling back of the number of Minakai kept here after Sagittarius and Libra had burned it down, but everything had picked up since and there were more Minakai here than ever.

“I’m here!” called Luna loudly as she wandered down the ranch path with Innogon clinging to her back and her monster egg in her arms.

Aurin was certain that he had seen Innogon earlier while cleaning up, so Luna must have summoned him to her home only to carry him all the way back here. It seemed strange, but perhaps with Zodiac being around again she didn’t want to risk walking here alone even in daylight.

“The usual spot,” called Kyle, nodding towards his house.

Luna left the egg with Innogon and dashed into the house to retrieve the incubator. Innogon could not carry the egg easily with his stubby arms, so he rolled it on its side all the way to the entrance to the enclosures. Aurin and Kyle walked over to the little drake who greeted them with a big smile.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it,” said Luna, almost tripping down the wooden steps before righting herself and running towards the group.

“Bets?” asked Aurin. “I’m going with…water elemental.”

“Earth elemental,” said Kyle.

“Lightning elemental,” said Luna as she pressed the button and activated the incubator.

The familiar forcefield spread across the egg and within seconds, a brown glow encompassed it too. Once the egg had vanished, the silhouette of a small reptile remained. For a brief second, Aurin thought it was going to be a Shamtile, but it was stockier than the masked reptile. The brown glow faded and a brown dragon with amber eyes was left behind. It had sharp claws and a short tail. On hits head was a large spike that swept over its head and two smaller spikes beside it.

“Kyle was right,” said Aurin, looking at the dragon. Much like Innogon, it was wingless. “Is it a Bakugon?”

“He is,” said Kyle. “He can evolve into a Grakadon just like Tobias’s.”

Luna squealed with excitement and tried to pick up the little dragon, but he was much heavier than she expected. She glanced at Innogon, who was staring curiously at his earth elemental counterpart. He approached cautiously and held out a hand to Bakugon.

“How’s he going to react?” Luna muttered to Aurin.

Bakugon wandered forward and held out a hand to Innogon too with a big smile on his face. The pair hit each other’s hands playfully and started hopping around on the grass.

“Oh, that’s good,” said Luna sounding relieved.

“Did you think they would become rivals?” asked Aurin.

“Wait until they both evolve and can really tear each other apart,” said Kyle, leaving Luna uncertain if he was joking or not.

Shamtile wandered over to see what all the commotion was about and saw Innogon playing with another earth elemental. He waved his arms furiously, jealous at his friend having seemingly replaced him. He hung his head in despair and wandered back into his enclosure.

“What next?” Aurin asked Kyle.

“That’s it for now, we can finally relax,” replied the rancher.

“Good,” said Aurin, falling back onto the ground and closing his eyes.

No more than five seconds had passed before there was a loud beating in the sky and Aurin bolted upright. He feared they were about to be attacked by Zodiac, so paranoid he was at this point. He saw a large brown dragon descending towards them and on its back was a man.

“Is that…Tobias?” Luna asked.

Aurin climbed to his feet to get a clearer look as the large Grakadon landed close by. It was indeed Tobias. The Bretonian national champion jumped off his dragon’s back and wandered over to them, giving a courteous nod as he did so.

“Hello, all,” said Tobias merrily.

Everyone greeted him back, but it was evident by the look on their faces that they had no idea why he was here.

“It’s been a long time, Tobias,” said Kyle, shaking the reigning champion’s hand.

“You never mentioned that you two knew each other,” remarked Luna.

“We battled once many years ago when I was still a rookie tamer,” said Tobias.

“I’m surprised you even remember,” chuckled Kyle. “I was just a rookie myself back then.”

“What are you doing here?” Aurin blurted out, making Kyle shoot him a dirty look.

Tobias laughed. “I’m here because of you, would you believe? A little dragonling told me you won Lord Kensington’s battle royale that he hosted at his palace.”

“Who told you that?”

“Lord Kensington did,” said Tobias. “He told me before that he was planning on hosting it and I asked him to keep me posted on how everything played out. I wasn’t too surprised to hear you did well, but to win? That was quite the achievement. Congratulations, Aurin.”

“Thank you,” said Aurin, humbled by the praise of the national champion. “I thought maybe Clarke mentioned it to you.”

“Clarke didn’t even tell me he was going to participate. To hear that it was the pair of you that took out each of his Minakai shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. After meeting in the Battle Underground, I knew you both had potential, but Clarke is incredibly battle-hardened. Did he use his Arusom?”

“He has an Arusom too?” asked Luna in surprise.

“That answers that,” said Tobias.

“He was holding back?” asked Luna.

“I suspect it was less about holding back, more about wanting to play on a more level playing field.”

“Isn’t that holding back?” asked Aurin.

Tobias hesitated before answering. “Yes, I suppose it is,” he said with a chuckle. “Anyway, you asked why I came here today.”

“Yes,” said Aurin.

“I came to ask you if you would like to spend a month training with me in the mountains. I’m in need of a training partner and I like to work with people who I haven’t trained with before and have a lot of potential.”

Aurin, Luna and Kyle’s jaws all dropped. Luna gave Aurin a nudge in the ribs while nodding her head.

“I would like that very much,” said Aurin, suddenly starstruck. “You’re sure you want me to come and train with you?”

“I wouldn’t have flown all this way if I wasn’t,” said Tobias. “I would suggest that you bring the summoning stones for all of your Minakai. How many do you have?”

“Thirteen,” said Aurin.

“Ah, very good,” said Tobias. “That’s five more than what you showed at the national championships over the summer.”

“When do we leave?” asked Aurin.

“In half an hour,” said Tobias. “I’ll give you a chance to pack and say your goodbyes. I would suggest flying on the back of your Skrow because you’ll have a hard time keeping up with my Grakadon on the ground.”

Aurin stood there stunned by how fast everything was happening.

“Hurry up,” said Luna, giving him a push towards Kyle’s house.

“Right,” said Aurin.

He ran into the house and started to throw a bunch of clothes together. He wasn’t sure how much he would be able to wash when he was there so he packed more than he probably needed. He looked down at the wooden box containing the Roche Fruit that was barely visible under his bed. He summoned Shamtile to his side and gave the small Minakai careful instructions. Within a few minutes he ran outside to where Luna, Kyle and Tobias were standing talking.

“I’m ready,” said Aurin, holding out his hand and using Skrow’s yellow summoning stone to draw the black bird from his enclosure.

“Don’t let your Minakai get hammered too hard,” said Kyle, shaking Aurin’s hand.

“I’ll make Tobias work hard for a win,” said Aurin with a smile.

“I’ll have plenty of chores lined up for you when you get back.”

Luna threw her arms around Aurin and hugged him tightly. “What am I supposed to do for a month?” she asked, her voice quivering as reality started to set in for her.

Aurin kissed her on the cheek. “It’ll be alright,” he said. “If I can’t get to a phone, I’ll send messages through my Minakai, alright?”

“Alright,” she said, squeezing hard.

Luna released him and Aurin climbed atop Skrow’s back, who wobbled slightly and let out a squawk upon realising that he had to play vehicle for the journey. Tobias climbed onto his Grakadon’s back and took to the skies. With a last wave at Luna and Kyle, Aurin and Skrow followed. He was not sure what was in store for him, but he was going to give it his all and come back stronger than ever before.