Ch 1

Introduction

A very smart and powerful dragon with abilities of the ice and cold, and the water and frozen north. A foreigner from far away, past the limits of deep space, he now helps the people that have raised and adopted him and gave him a home. What is this one’s story?

His story begins a very long time before he was born. On his planet, there was constant war and strife, created from the desire of technology and abilities gifted from unknown alien lifeforms (they took the form of massive dragons, yet it is thought they may be able to shape shift to suit their needs). They gave technology to this world at first, that could cure diseases, biologically and technologically enhance, and make life on the planet generally easier.

However, as this technology was given, the ones in control of it became greedy and selfish, as if under someone else’s control… Eventually, their desires for more of it caused massive world wars all over the planet. Battle after battle between dragons and other species on the planet erupted all over. Each battle is more terrible and destructive. They refused to stop, attempting to conquer all.

What the others didn’t know is that these dragon leaders (and most of the soldiers) were somehow influenced by these aliens and controlled to kill and kill and kill, because these aliens worshiped war and treated it like a religion. They go from planet to planet to gather resources, take control of their strongest species with their powers to build up their armies, and conquer those planets. After many years of war, not much was left. Most of the other species were enslaved. What little free dragons left came up with a plan. They would use special stones to encapsulate their bodies and souls in, and launch it into the deepest parts of space, where hopefully they can bond with someone to discover signs of pure hearted life out in the stars and continue to try to live on elsewhere far away. The dragons hoped that they’ll be able to start anew with a kind and understanding species, where perhaps they’ll be able to restore their bodies fully with their help and work together for a brighter future.

There was one dragon however, that was going to try something very risky instead. She was a Ferrin (Fare-in) dragon named Tide (Ferrin dragons are a ice and water based breed. She has dark navy-blue scales, a Cyan belly and head, and dark cyan wings). Before this realization that these aliens were cruel and evil, she was working on a trans-dimensional portal, to be able to go anywhere in the world to fight the “enemy.” But now she found a different reason to make it. She had a child on the way, still nestled in a nice warm dragon egg. She knew if she transferred her body and soul into a meteor now, her child, still in its egg, would most likely suffer a terrible fate. No one could protect it, and there was nowhere to hide it. Nowhere for it to live. So, she came up with a plan to instead use it to warp another planet far away and put in a self-destruct on the portal so she couldn’t be followed through (while also wiping all data from the servers as well).

After gathering what she believed she needed for deep space warping, she had spent weeks upgrading it from its original design. Unfortunately, somehow, they found out about her portal, her location, and freedom from their control, so they sent a large force to capture the portal and her before she could go through. When she saw the large force coming to her lab, deep in the frozen frontier she knew she had to hurry. She never tested it, and now had to think of where to set the coordinates for the portal and set it very quickly. The portal could, however, detect signs of life over the reaches of extremely deep space. With it, it detected 3 planets in its range, extremely far away from this doomed world. Farther than any of their current ship models could reach. She quickly put her unborn child into a special backpack to carry it through. She needed to decide quickly where to go but the enemy dragons were now trying to melt the metal door to her lab with high intensity dragon fire to get through to the lab. It would take a few seconds to power the portal on, with the farthest planet taking a little bit more time due to its range. She chooses the farthest reaching planet anyway, with the hopes that her enemies would never be able to make it that far in space. Punching in the coordinates, she now had to wait for the portal to power up.

She looked back at the door. It was starting to get to a bright red, and the metal was starting to melt down. Thinking of what she could do to stall for time, she decided to try to cool down the door with her own Hydro Hurricane breath (a water-based dragon breath). The door started to cool off, but dragon forces behind the door realized quickly what was happening. They now fired their Flare Flashes (a dragon weapon that fires either a condensed beam of heat or a stronger single fire shot) at the door, and now the door was heating up extremely quickly now. Time was running out. But as she continued to try to cool down the door, the portal finally powered up. She realized though that if she would stop blowing her Hydro Hurricane Breath, the door to her lab would probably burst down almost immediately. But she knew there was no other option. She prepared to make a mad dash for the portal. “Ok…. 1… 2… 3! Tide thought as she stopped her breath and started her mad dash to the portal!

As she predicted, the door’s burst as a fire blew through the entire lab now. They saw her madly flying towards the portal! Immediately, one of the dragons attempted to stop her by firing a single shot at her. The shot managed to hit her straight in the lower back (luckily it missed her unborn child’s egg). She let out a pained groan as it connected straight with her lower spine. But as it did, she was flung directly through the portal to somewhere unknown, as the fire spread through her lab. Immediately, the power generator in the lab itself caught fire and began to heat up and overload. Within a few short moments, it blew up the entire building (instead of just her lab).

The trip sent Tide careening into a vast blue void, where space and time seemed to twist and turn as she fell through. Eventually after a little bit of time, a bright white light came into view before her. As she fell through, her vision turned to white as a flash of light consumed her.

The next thing Tide knew is that she landed flat on her stomach in an unfamiliar place, in a strange area between a forest and a more suburban area. The ground below her was as black as midnight and felt like rubble. She knew she made it through, and her unborn child hadn’t been harmed from the trip. But she couldn’t move her back legs and was in extreme pain. It was night out where she was, and she could barely see from the pain and darkness. She heard what sounded like a motor nearby. She saw a large, strange, unfamiliar moving ground-based vehicle coming toward her from the distance. It stopped, and a creature came out. She saw it running toward her. But her mind became foggy, and her eyes started to go dark. She slowly closed her eyes and thought this was it. Who would take care of her child now?

Ch 2

Warm Welcome

She woke up about 2 days later, within a strange building. There was a fireplace next to her, and she realized that there was a bed made of strange yellow plant bristles under her. It felt cozy, surprisingly to her. She realized quickly that someone had taken her in and helped her. She tried to look around, but her eyes were hazy, and she was still in pain. She realized that something was covering her body. As her eyes began to focus, she saw that she had been covered up with a long, soft, cozy piece of red fabric that seemingly covered her entire body all the way up to her neck. The design perplexed her, as its upper texture seemed to be a large line of square tiles with darker red borders around each one, seemingly stuck together. It felt warm and looked like there wasn’t a single piece of dirt or grime on it anywhere. She felt like the pain faded a bit with it on her. She lifted it up a bit to look at her body underneath, and there was a strange, very long white strip wrapped around her body from where she had been injured from the shot. She realized quickly it must be something to help with wound treatment. Feeling a little curious and confused as to what happened she began to look around the room itself. The room’s architecture was… strange. It was unlike any room she had ever seen in her home world, and it further perplexed her. Strangely, a sweetened scent wafted throughout the room, which even more strangely, seemed to be from the burning logs. The smell helped relax her further. Then something came in, through a wooden door in the back. She slowly turned her head to face the creature.

She realized the creature walking towards her was unlike anything she had seen before.  Yet… It seemed familiar to her for some reason. The creature had just plain white skin, black hair, 2 hands, two feet, no wings, very thin and not very long talons, and was somewhat smaller than her.and had fabrics covering its body in different places, which made her curious… Then… the creature spoke up. “You’re awake now.” The creature said. He stopped a few feet in front of her and began to kneel towards her. “You took quite a hit I must say. Hit by a Hover truck?” While she understood the creature’s speech due to the dragon’s cognitive abilities, she could not speak its language. She needed to know what was going on, and where her child was.

“Your spine took quite a hit, dragon. Luckily, my wife is a surgeon at the local hospital.” She was able to bandage you up and keep you stable. It looks like your body is healing it quite well, despite the extensive damage to the spine. Though there’s a chance right now you might be paralyzed from the waist down. Maybe permanently. But your spine seems to be doing a little better than when we first found you.” While concerned about being paralyzed towards her back legs for a bit, she quickly began to trust this strange creature. It was trying to heal her wounds, but she wondered what happened to her egg.

“I always thought you were just an old Earth mythological creature. I never expected that creatures like you actually exist,” said the creature. Tide looked at the creature. She needed to indicate somehow that she wanted to know where her child was. She saw a brown bird-like creature, with a large amount of feathers toward the left of the room, back in a small pen with glass windows, sitting in a small nest, with eggs under it. She pointed at its nest, and the creature realized immediately what she wanted. He also realized that she seemed to understand his speech.

“You want to know where your egg is, Dragon? It’s in our incubator. While I’m not sure what type of heat your child needs to develop in that egg, I tried to tune it to the best of my abilities for it. I believe it’s working. It’s a good thing I take care of chillins (evolved from chickens) as a hobby. Can you speak our language?” She shook her head. “I was a scientist once. I spent years researching biological lifeforms on this planet. But eventually, I just wanted a quieter life. I met my wife, Suzanne, and we have a child named Noble. Noble has been helping us treat you. We moved here to New Camia (Came-e-ah). It’s been more than 5000 years since our species left Earth and came here to this planet. We were greedy and selfish, not realizing how everything we had could be lost if we continued down a path to ruin. I always wondered what the Earth is like now since we left. No human, like us, has ever returned since. I wonder if it is even hospitable?”

A Human? These creatures have been told in countless dragon myths and legends for countless generations on her planet! This strange creature is a Human!? Quite a shock! That’s why she thought it looked familiar! She now wanted to know more about the planet. She looked around the room and saw a large object in the back. She realized that this was in the shape and likeness of a planet. She pointed to it. Seeing her point to this globe made him realize this dragon didn’t come from this planet. “Not from here, are you? This is a planet called Cyriss X12 (Sere-is Zen-12). This is a colony for us. Our home planet, Earth, was wrecked centuries ago from consistent warfare and the depletion of our resources.” Tide was immediately reminded of her own home world. “All of us humans left the Earth through space to be able to rebuild and learn from our past mistakes on other hospitable worlds. Since you’re not from this world, do you have a ship or something?” he asked. Tide shook her head again.

“No ship? I wonder how you got here, but I guess for now it’s not important. My name is Gregory Drake. You may call me Greg. My wife is Suzanne Drake. Call her Suzy. And of course, my son is named Noble Drake, whom I’m sure you’ll meet soon. Any chance you could tell me your name?” After thinking very hard for a couple moments to try to understand its language, she was able to mutter out the word “Tide…” “Well Tide, we’re going to try to get you through this. Maybe we can learn from each other when you feel better. I’ll get you what you need.”

Ch 3

Adaptive Answers

Time began to pass, and her spinal injury began to heal quite well. Greg noted that it seems Dragon’s healing abilities and immune system seemed to be more effective than any other creature on Cyriss. She would get to know the rest of his family

Suzy was a 32-year-old young lady with a rounded head, brown eyes, and curly red hair. Her skin was a darker tone then Greg’s. Her lips were usually a dark red and her head, body, and nose was a bit smaller and thinner than Greg’s. She would tend to Tide’s wounds while she was recovering with them.

Noble was a human child, apparently 10 years old. He had brown eyes, brown hair, a rounded head, and slightly lighter skin. He wore clothes like Greg’s, albeit smaller of course. He also sometimes wore something called a Blitzball hat, when going outside on very hot days. Tide enjoyed his presence and listening to him talk about their world and society as she was healing. She noticed that sometimes, while watching the strange box above the brick fireplace in their living room, apparently called the television, Suzy would take Noble’s hand and arm, and gently scratch up, down, and around Noble’s palm and arm. She noticed that Noble seemed to like it and looked relaxed whenever she did so. She wondered if this was something she could try for her own child, whenever it hatches.

2 months passed. Tide’s spinal injury had finally healed enough to allow her to walk properly. She began to try and join her caretakers in the activities the family participated in, so that she could learn more and be a part of their family. She began to like the interesting things of this world (she liked television quite a bit after watching a few movies with them).

They began trying to teach Tide to try and speak their language and read and write so maybe they could get to know her and her story better. Being the smart dragon she is, communication between them began to work out quite quickly. She began to have a basic understanding of human language, reading, and writing. Tide was also very willing to allow Gregory to study her more closely. Taking blood samples, x-rays, DNA tests, saliva samples, and patterns of sleep, all the while keeping her existence on the planet secret to prevent an uproar from happening and perhaps unfortunate involvement by the leaders from around the planet. His curiosity in this majestic dragon made him want to know everything he could about her. Maybe they could even be able to work together one day on steering this world in the right direction. They added a room to the house for her to stay in and moved the incubator into the room so she can watch the egg. It would not be long now before it hatches.

Tide eventually became fluent in Human language. Noble always wanted to ask her questions and liked to teach her to play more human activities, like board games and human sports. Greg’s research over her was becoming complete, and he was hoping she might be willing to come to a lab to meet other biologists. His discovery of her may be world changing. There, she might be able to tell her story and give them a description of where she came from and what happened to her that brought her here. But before then, he decided that he would like to know himself first. So, he approached her in her room at the house.

“Hey, Tide,” said Greg. “Yes Greg. I don’t think I ever had a chance to thank you for all you have done for me. I hope there is a way I can repay you one day.” “Can I ask you something?” “…You want to know where I came from…” “Yes. You are not of this world and did not reach here by ship. I would like to know your story. What planet are you from? What was it like? Why did you leave it? And how did you get here?

Tide was hesitant to tell her story, but it was the least she could do for them and their hospitality. She told them at dinner about the plight of her planet. How it was devastated by war and strife. Her species plan to escape. And her final stand to escape and to save her child. This hit both Suzy and Greg hard. They realized if this was revealed to the biologists, they may attempt to try to make her create another portal, and maybe invite in something wicked they shouldn’t… While Greg’s discovery would be huge, it may put Tide at risk, and possibly the world. He now needed to decide. He overheard on the TV of a tropical storm brewing over the ocean before he went to bed that night.

Ch 4

Strong Storm

About 2 days passed, and he decided that he would still show Tide to the biologists (and his research on her). They had packed their belongings the day before and were about to get in their Hover loader (a hovering van with a carrier crate on the back made for high capacity loads). But as they were getting ready to leave (with Tide and the dragon egg in the carrier), the sky quickly grew dark, and the wind picked up. “Odd, there was no mention of a storm today. Right?” said Suzy. As they looked around the sky, they began to see parts of the solar panels of their house breaking off. “What is… Oh no…” said Greg. “Ahhhhh! twister!” screamed Noble.

As they looked toward the horizon, they saw a massive wave of water quickly flowing through the town, and a large hurricane wrecking the houses, now on a collision course toward them! It seems that the storm from the previous report was more catastrophic then they believed, and came significantly faster than expected. Now there wasn’t enough time to get away. It seemed it was to be their end, whether to be crushed and drowned by flood water or to be ripped apart by massive winds! People were running as fast as they could to their vehicles to try and escape.

Tide saw the chaos from the back and realized there was only one option. She opens the back of the loader, and flies toward it, as the ones who gave her a home try to tell her to stop. As the disaster approached, she closed her eyes, and focused. And in that single moment, a bright energy enveloped her. The next thing the watchers knew, a bright light enveloped Tide and a flash overtook the entire storm and reduced the massive wave to small puddles over the town. The sky cleared and Greg and Suzy realized she had saved them and the entire town. But where was she now? They searched all over town, in their hover loader, and eventually found her, in a crater with a little bit of water filling it near the waterfront. She was still alive, but she wasn’t moving an inch…

They brought her quickly into their vehicle in the back. It seemed that the power surge to save them had left her in a comatose state. They didn’t know what to do. They drove to their house to decide what to do next. They could try to take her to the hospital or the biologists for treatment. But he now realized that after what she was able to do, there might be consequences for revealing her existence. The government may get involved, and there was no telling what they might do to her now. They may end up taking her away to be experimented on or even worse, dissected. And there was no way to tell how long she would remain unconscious… The people in this town clearly saw Tide as she wiped away the storm, and they may have already called someone. But as they thought of their options, they began to hear something in the back. They heard what appeared to be scratching and cracking. They checked the carrier attached to the back of the truck…

Ch 5

Scaly Situation

They saw a small creature. Scaly, small, cyan head and belly scales, and with a dark blue scale around the rest of the body, and a long tail, struggling to move around. They looked further towards the back and saw that the egg in the back wrapped in the blanket had cracked. They realized that Tide’s child had finally hatched, and it seemed to now be curiously investigating his surroundings and trying to move around. But it seemed it didn’t know exactly how to properly walk yet, so it was stumbling all over. It finally looked toward them and saw the three strangers in his view. It gave a small smile, but then it gave out a big yawn. It then laid itself down on his side and fell asleep.

“Now what,” the three wondered. They decided that the only option was to pack all of their belongings and go far away very quickly. No one in the town knew they were giving her shelter, and they needed to move quickly before any military or government officials came to find her and the newborn dragon. They quickly wrapped the now sleeping baby dragon in a soft blanket that was originally around the egg and hid him in the back seat of the hover loader, while putting Tide in the carrier attached to the back. They then started the van and started to leave the town.

They heard on their vehicle’s radio news about an unknown creature stopping the storm. News travels fast… It then talked about a group of military personnel that would be arriving soon to investigate the matter with no one allowed to go in or out of town until the investigation concluded. There was one main road into town, leading out towards the Resukin (Ray-sue-ken) mountains. It would be hard to get through a military blockade this way, but they knew they could not let them take these two. But how to sneak past them without alerting them…

Greg then had an idea! If they could get access to one of their Jetty Jeeps (a type of hovering jeep of course), they may be able to sneak past them without alerting the military around the area with their own car. He could lead his family through the blockade with the Jeep, telling them that they are important personnel needed to be escorted out. It was risky, but there was no choice. It had to be done…

It wasn’t long before the military personnel entered town. Sure enough, all around the center where the storm dissipated were Jetty Jeeps. They just needed to get one, but they needed to lure the military personnel away… As they were thinking, the blanket in the back seat began to move. Next, the little dragon’s head poked out of it, yawning, and looking around. He began to open and close his mouth a few times, with a small frown on his face. He then began to chew a bit on his left paw. He stopped not long after and faced forward.

He let out a small screech, as if wanting something. When they noticed the little dragon up, they tried to get him to stop. He let out another. By now, the military personnel had heard the screech and were walking over. What would they do now? But as they thought, the little dragon opened in for a big breath, looked toward the crater and then “SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH.” The little dragon wailed a loud, long screech, and it was strong enough to shatter glass through the front of the truck and throughout the area! But more importantly, it was loud and strong enough to cause everyone within the screeches path to be blasted into the ground and walls of nearby houses knocking them unconscious (not to mention causing their radio equipment to malfunction. Luckily, the family had narrowly been out of the way of it. Though their heads span a bit from the loud noise). “Hey! Look Dad!” shouted Noble. “This is our chance!” said Greg.

They looked back at the baby Dragon, who still seemed to be trying to tell them something. He started to try to chew on the blanket a bit. “I think it needs to chew on something, Dad. It might be teething already.” said Noble. “Do we by chance have something for him to chew on?” asked Suzy. “I do mommy!” Noble opened a small compartment below the window in the back seat, and took out a pacifier. “I bought a Binky with my allowance for when my little brother or sister would hatch. I know this isn’t meant for dragons, but…” The dragon began to breathe in a large breath again. “Quickly Noble! Put it in its maw!” said Greg. Noble quickly leaned over the seat and put the pacifier into the little dragon’s mouth. He chewed on it for a bit, and realized it felt like what the little reptile wanted. The little dragon smiled and retreated into the blanket to lay down.

“Let’s do this quickly,” said Greg. Greg immediately got out of the vehicle, attached the back compartment carrying Tide to the Jetty Jeep. Suzy carried the tiny dragon and put him in the back seat of the vehicle, nestled under a blanket. Greg also took one of the uniforms of the military officials here, along with some gas masks to hide their faces with. With the vehicle in tow now, they may hopefully now get past the checkpoint and escape with the little dragon hatchling and Tide.

So, the family drove through the town with the little dragon hidden under the blanket in the back and Tide. They made it to the checkpoint. Now hopefully they could convince the people there that they were soldiers. They drove up and rolled their window down as a checkpoint official approached. “What haul are you carrying exactly?” the soldier said as he looked at the carrier attached to the back. Greg had to think quickly. “Exotic unknown materials. I was called back to base with it by command. I’ve also been asked to escort these two out, who may have more info on the incident.” “I was not informed. I am going to have to clear this with command. Where is your id so we can confirm it with them?” Right as he asked though, the little dragon poked his head out of the blanket, pacifier still in mouth, curious as to who they were talking too. “Wait, what in the…” “Drive Greg!” yelled Suzy. He immediately stepped on the gas through the checkpoint ahead, and knew things were about to get serious…

Ch 6

Jetty Jeopardy

Only a little bit in, they were already being chased by two more Jetty jeeps behind them. “Stop! Pull over now!” they voiced on the intercoms of their vehicles. They started to close in, giving a few knocks on the back of the Jeep clearly as a warning. The little dragon didn’t take this lightly. Clearly annoyed by the bumping and loud noises as it tried to relax on the blanket, it laid the pacifier on the blanket and looked behind the vehicle toward the cars behind. He breathed in heavily, and then… whoosh! The little dragon blew off the back window with a breath of ice, and then let out another to freeze the road behind them. The vehicles swerved out of control and crashed into the trees aligning the side of the road.

However, it seemed their troubles were not over yet. A Z120 armored attack ship (a small single piloted hovering air vehicle looking like a jet) came into view overhead. “Pull over or we will disable your vehicle. The chance of escape seemed slim. However, the dragon once again poked his little head out, now very angry from once again being interrupted from his rest. He gave out a low growl and turned towards the back of the vehicle. Looking up, he let off a hydro hurricane straight at the ship. It hit the ship hard near the hover jets, causing all systems to simultaneously malfunction and shut down, forcing the ship to have to make an emergency landing down on the ground and allowing our crew to finally get into the deep forest within the mountains to finally get away, with their new little dragon in tow.

“Wow… What a wild ride! You okay little monster?” said Noble. The dragon was happily laying on the blanket, chewing on the pacifier. He looked up and gave a smile to them, pacifier still in mouth. “I can see you are a boy, baby brother,” said Noble “What should we call him?” asked Suzy “Let’s call him Cryo, Mom.” “Cryo. I like that name,” said Greg. Noble looked back at his new “baby brother,” who lifted his head up to lock eyes with Noble. “You’re so cute. We’re going to have so much fun together!” Cryo gave another smile and began to huddle himself in the blanket. “Come here, little brother. Sit with me!” Noble picked up Cryo and placed him on his lap. He then grabbed the blanket and then began to wrap Cryo up tightly like a baby in it. Cryo felt very comfy and smiled at Noble. He chewed on his pacifier a bit. Noble began to stroke his baby brothers back. He gave a relaxed sigh and another smile.

“Where can we go now?” asked Suzy. “Somewhere far away. We don’t want to be attracting trouble to this little guy or his mother. There is no telling when Tide will wake up. Until then, we’ll have to bring it upon ourselves to protect Cryo. We’ll have to go somewhere where we can hide them both. We’ll also have to get rid of this Jeep. There is no telling what they will do if they find them again.” said Greg.

The group traveled through the mountain. As they traveled through, they went over places they could go to not only be able to hide the dragons, but also to make sure that their own child, Noble, could also go to school now that they had to permanently leave their home. They eventually decided that they would head all the way along the mountain and head north, toward a bit colder and elevated part of the mountainside. They stopped in a small town on the way to ditch the jeep and buy a brand-new vehicle. After that, they headed on their way again. After several days of travel through the mountains, they found their destination, a town called Wayside. It was pretty far from their original home’s location, and was a small, pleasant town. During the trip, they had purchased a house there using the onboard computer system on their vehicle. Now that they had finally arrived, they could hopefully successfully take care of their new adopted child and keep him and his mother safe from harm. It was a comfy house near the entrance to a forest on the mountain, with a barn in the back, perfect to keep Cryo in until Tide gets better.

Ch 7

Cryo Kid

So, about a year passed. Tide still hadn’t woken up, but it was alright. Cryo was still pretty happy! Cryo slowly grew as the family did. He had been properly housebroken and was allowed in the house itself. They treated the little dragon as one of them. Sitting at the table to eat, taking baths, naps, playing with Noble. He was living a happy life. He never realized at the time he was a different species… There were plans to try to start getting him to learn to speak. It was getting close to Cryo’s first birthday, and they were planning to take him to a nice pond deep in the forest for a nice picnic and start teaching him to properly swim. He is a Ferrin dragon after all.

On the day before his birthday, Cryo was resting in the barn on a bed of hay next to his plain white crib, chewing on his pacifier, which was tied around his neck with a thin baby blue strap. It was about 2:00 p.m., so he knew Noble would be back from school soon. He decided to go to the front of the house to wait for him. Strangely. Noble was running a little late. Cryo remembered his “parents,” telling him to never wander away from the house and let someone else see him. He always wondered why it was so important that other people didn’t see him… He thought about it for a moment but decided to try to look for him. Noble’s school was along the path on the outskirts of the large forest, so he thought perhaps he could move through the trees along the forest to find him without being seen.

And so, he began to trot his way through the forest along the path to Noble’s school. He saw other people along the sidewalk outside the forest and wondered who they were. But he knew he had other things to worry about right now and continued on. After walking for a bit, he finally saw the large, red, bricky building that was Noble’s school. But as he began to get closer to it, he saw some commotion going on ahead. Curious, he continued. As he approached, he could see Noble ahead. But as he drew closer, he saw that Noble was getting beaten on by some nasty bullies at school. Cryo was not happy in the slightest.

He gave out a low growl, and approached the nasty group with an angry scowl, who failed to notice his presence. “Stupid kid. You should know better than to try to mess with us. You’re going to wish you gave us your little toy by the time we’re done!” said one of the ruffians. “Leave me alone! You aren’t taking my ZPS!” Noble yelled back! Cryo growled again and quickly released his pacifier out of his maw, let in a big breath, and WHOOSH, let out a big gush of water towards the ruffians!

“Give us that video game you stupid kid! Let g… AGHHHH!” The blast of water clocked those brutes and crashed them straight into the side of the building, knocking their head for quite a loop. “Huh? What was…?” said Noble. He looked back to see the now soaked bullies, and now towards the forest. He saw his “baby brother,” heading towards him. “Huh Cryo? What are you…?” Cryo let out a big smile and put his pacifier back in his mouth. Noble realized quickly what happened. “Come on! Quick! Back into the forest before someone sees you!” Noble picked up and rushed Cryo back into the forest. A teacher came outside to see what happened, and saw the soaked bullies, and then the Noble, carrying a strange creature into the forest…

He carried Cryo all the way back to the house. When he got home, his mother was cooking. “Noble, why are you so late to the house?” Noble replied “I’ll talk about it later Mom. Please let me take Cryo to my room for a bit please.” “Alright honey. Dinner will be ready in an hour and thirty minutes. I want you both there, okay?” “Yes mom.” Cryo nodded in agreement. They headed upstairs and Noble put Cryo on the nice gray carpeting within the room.

Cryo headed towards the back of the room, where a small set of metal cabinets with different machines from the junkyard inside each one. He smiled at the thought of learning from his big brother about machines today! He headed towards the front of the room. Noble looked out the window to see if anyone followed him home. After a few minutes of watching the outside, he looked back at Cryo, who had turned on the television in the room and was now watching the Capsule Creature’s cartoon while wagging his tail and chewing on his pacifier.

Ch 8

Trouble Time

“Cryo…” The dragon turned his head toward Noble, pacifier still in mouth. “You have to be more careful Cryo! Anyone could have seen you this afternoon!” Cryo started to tilt his head down, feeling he might be in trouble. “I know you were trying to protect me. I’m glad for that, but I can take care of myself. You don’t need to worry about me. You’re too important to risk yourself for me. I know you probably want to go out and see the world, but it’s too dangerous right now. You need to stay hidden. Stay safe.” Cryo gave a set of puppy dog eyes to Noble and left the room with his head held down. “Cryo… Where are you going?”

He traced Cryo back out into the barn. “Cryo, you in here?” asked Noble. Noble opened the barn door and looked around. He looked toward the back of the room, where he saw Cryo in his small playpen in the far back of the barn. Its walls were a bit high up and were navy blue with little holes on them that allow someone to see though from the sides. “Hmm… I guess my little brother thought he was in trouble and needed a “time out.” He must have climbed up the ladder to the top floor and then jumped from it to get inside. He has not learned to fly yet,” thought Noble. He approached the play pen.

“Cryo. You’re not in trouble. Come on out,” said Noble as he looked over the top of the play pen at the little troublemaker. Cryo turned his head toward Noble, shook his head, and then set it back down in his playpen. Noble tried to pick him up, but he just squirmed away. “…Do you just want some alone time right now, Cryo?” He nodded his head slowly. “Alright Cryo. I’ll leave you be. Just please at least let me take you out when dinner comes.” Noble left the barn. Cryo got up and went to the side of the play pen to look at his unconscious mother in the barn. He then put his pacifier back in his mouth and sat himself back down.

About 30 minutes passed. Cryo was looking outside his playpen towards his favorite toy (other than his pacifier), a stuffed white Wolfy plush. He put his pacifier into his mouth and began to chew on it again. Cryo then looked toward the back table near his crib. Sitting on it was a standard empty baby bottle, which he stared at for a few moments. He began to salivate a little in his mouth, clearly wanting some milk to drink. He gave a frown and went back to the center of the play pen. And laid himself down gently.

“Cryo. Are you ready for dinner?” said Noble. Cryo immediately perked up and turned towards the barn entrance, where he saw Noble. Noble approached the playpen. “Are you feeling a little better, buddy? Cryo gave out a smile and nodded, pacifier still in mouth. “Alright. Let’s get you out of there little monster.” Noble carefully wrapped his arms around Cryo and picked him up. “Alright Cryo, let me just get your bottle and we can go get dinner.” Cryo gave out a big smile now. “You’re so silly Cryo!” Noble went to the table and picked up Cryo’s bottle. They headed out of the barn and walked towards the house.

“Hey Cryo. After dinner, do you want to help me take apart a Z-phone? Maybe we can make our own phone one day.” Cryo nodded. Noble had a hobby of taking apart technology in order to figure out how it works. Maybe Noble wanted to become an engineer? Cryo always watched Noble and listened to him when he explained to him what each part does and how it works. He seemingly took an interest in it himself. “Great little buddy! You know Cryo, we have something special planned for you tomorrow.” Cryo tilted his head, seemingly curious. “There is a very special day happening tomorrow, and we have a surprise waiting for you.” Cryo let go of his pacifier, which now hung over his neck. “I know you probably want to know what it is, Cryo. But you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow. It’s going to be so fun!” Cryo gave out a small frown, but replaced it soon after with another smile. Noble opened the door to the house. “Alright buddy. Let’s go eat dinner. Mom made Cobs and Zurburgers (hamburgers made of a meat from a native species from the planet, Craw, a type of 4 legged mammal with a round head, large body, floppy ears, long tail, fur less, and colored black, brown, or red, with white skin all around the face regardless of color).

Ch 9

Dinner Dragon

So Noble began to leave the barn and started to bring Cryo to the kitchen. They passed a small hallway containing his parent’s bedroom and the family room in the house and entered the kitchen. The circular wooden table was already set with the food, and Cryo and Noble’s seats were already pulled out. Noble carried Cryo to his seat, which was a large circular chair that was raised closer to the table. He turned towards Greg. “Alright dad. Here’s Cryo’s bottle.” said Noble. He gave the bottle to Greg, who smiled at the both of them. “Thank you Noble. I bet our little boy wants some milk, don’t you,” said Greg. Cryo gave out a smile and a nod. Noble sat him down while Greg stood up and walked towards the fridge, and Cryo began to observe his food for a bit. He smacked his chops and salivated a bit on the food. He looked towards Greg, who had just filled Cryo’s bottle with milk, and placed it right where Cryo was sitting at the dinner table. He picked it up with both paws and took a small sip out of it. He gave a smile and sat it back down. He then turned his head and began to watch as Noble sat down at his seat next. “Alright. Let’s eat!” said Noble. The family began to eat dinner together.

After eating for a bit, Greg and Suzy looked at each other for a moment a few minutes in and they turned to Noble and Cryo. “Hey, Noble. We had a call from the school today.” said Suzy. Noble’s heart started to sink. “Yea mom…” said Noble. “We heard from your teacher about an… incident…” Noble’s heart sank even further. “How much about it…” “One of the teachers saw Larson and his friends trying to steal your ZPS (a portable gaming console) at school.” “Yes Mom… That’s what happened…” “It’s not just that Noble. The teacher that saw the fight was going to try to break it up. But when she came out, she saw that they got soaked by something, and that you were seen running away, carrying something into the forest ” “Uh oh…” thought Noble. “That wasn’t Cryo, was it? Larson doesn’t know exactly what happened, but the teacher was curious about what you were carrying and where that blast of water came from.” “…It was mom. But… He was only trying to help me. To protect me. He didn’t mean to cause any harm.”

The family looked at Cryo, who had stopped eating as well, looking glum. It seems he felt guilty again. “Cryo, honey. We know you were only trying to help your big brother, but it’s too risky to go out in public. I know you don’t understand why, but it is absolutely important that you stay hidden.” “Yes Cryo. I’m guessing you noticed that Noble was running late and you wanted to see where he was. But you’re too important to us. There… are people looking for you,” said Greg. Cryo picked his head up and looked at Greg with curiosity. “Your very special Cryo. Something never before seen in this world. And that makes you a target to others. Others who would try to take you away from us.” Cryo thought about it for a moment. He gave a worried look, gulped and began to shake a bit.

“We love you Cryo, and don’t want anything happening to you. We adopted you and raised you since your mother fell into that… deep slumber. She’ll awaken one day though, and when she does, we can maybe find a suitable place for you both to go to stay safe.” Cryo thought about it again, and began to make a small frown and dipped his head. “Oh I know you would never want to leave us Cryo. You’ve been with us before you had even hatched. But neither you or your mother can stay with us forever. It’s not safe. None of us would ever forgive ourselves if anything happened to you. But look on the bright side, Cryo. Just enjoy the time you get to spend with us now, rather than focusing on maybe leaving later. We love you very much Cryo. Just think of that.” said Suzy. Cyro lifted his head back up with a smile, and started eating again. “There we go. That’s better. Right Cryo? Now, back to dinner everyone. It’s going to be Cryo’s bedtime soon, so we’ll need to get ready before then” said Greg.

Soon the family ate dinner and Noble took Cryo to his room to take apart an old Z-phone while Greg and Suzy went to the barn to get Cryo ready for his own bedtime. “Do you think it’s still safe to keep Cryo here Greg? You heard what the teacher heard from those kids? He said that a “monster,” attacked him. He or his family may have taken this seriously. We may not be able to stay here any longer.” said Greg. “I know Greg. But, Noble has taken a liking to this small town. Cryo too. If we hit the road again like this, it might upset either one of them. Besides, this town is pretty far off from other outposts around the country. Away from most military areas.” said Suzy. “That may be the case, but I doubt the military has forgotten what happened in New Camia. They probably have detailed files on the incident. They may even have a mockup of our faces. We need to stay hidden. They may react to this incident if we don’t leave quickly. “…I know what you mean Greg. But, considering this was coming from a bully, what is the chance that people would actually believe him? People could easily think he fabricated this to make Noble look bad. His words are just as believable as the trolls from storybooks.” “Maybe, Suzy. Maybe. Let’s not talk about this right now. It’s Cryo’s first birthday tomorrow. I’ve got the cake. You got presents that he might like, right?” “Yes Greg.” “I hope Cryo will be able to enjoy it despite these setbacks today. The lake should be perfect for Cryo to start swimming in. Though, I’ve never trained a dragon to do something like that… Nonetheless, I hope he’ll like what we have planned.” “Me too Greg. Me too. Alright. Let’s get Cryo to bed.”

So the two went into Noble’s room and found Cryo intently watching Noble as he took apart the Z phone. “Cryo. Time for bed.” Cryo looked at Suzy and gave a big yawn. “Here Cryo, let me put this on you.” Cryo lifted his arms up as Suzy put a nice warm navy blue shirt on Cryo and a red scarf. “It’s going to be a little cold tonight Cryo. I know how much you like to keep warm.” Cryo then put his pacifier in his mouth. They picked up Cryo and took him into the barn. They wrapped up Cryo tightly like a baby in a nice blanket that Greg and Suzy made (Greg and Suzy had made a set of special cloths and blankets for Cryo to keep him warm during the day and night. He hates being cold, despite being an ice and water based dragon. Good thing considering Cryo’s needs. Cryo’s shirts and other clothing items have slits in the back so his wings could go through and extend out of them). They gently rubbed his head a bit and put him into his crib. After reading a chapter book to him for a bit, he fell asleep on his side. The others went to bed an hour later.

Ch 10

Birthday Boy

“Wake up Cryo! Wake up baby brother!” Cryo slowly opened his eyes and looked around for a bit. He saw Noble smiling and hovering over his crib. Cryo gave out a smile. He then gave a small yawn and extended his back legs outside of the blanket, then his front legs out the top. He rolled himself around belly first, and picked himself up, pacifier still in mouth. His blanket slid off of him as he moved.

“Hi buddy! Guess what today is?” Cryo gave out a confused look. Maybe it was Christmas? Cryo looked toward the open barn door to see if there was snow outside. He saw the ground outside was green and grassy. He looked back at Noble and shook his head. “It’s been one year since you hatched from your egg Cryo. It’s Earthian 15th (Earth-i-an, the 13 month on this planet taking place in the summer season, which lasts one month longer. This planet has 13 months instead of 12. This one was named in honor of Earth). You know what that means?” Cryo thought about it again, but shook his head.

“It’s your birthday silly! Guess you have never experienced a birthday party before, baby brother.” Cryo looked at Noble with a smile. Noble picked Cryo up and cradled him in his arms. “I guess I should tell you what a birthday is Cryo.” Cryo looked at Noble intently, pacifier still in mouth. “A birthday is a special day for us. It celebrates the day you were born. They are really fun! You get a big party, tons of presents and toys, play fun games, eat lots of food, and have fun!” Cryo seemed to like what he was hearing, and gave out another big smile. “Do we have plans for you, little brother! Come on, birthday boy! Mom and Dad are waiting for us inside!” After giving him a few rubs on the head, he started to walk out of the barn. He took him to the house and went inside.

He brought Cryo into the kitchen, where he could see several covered plates of different foods and consumables and several bright packages with bows and ribbons, which got Cryo really excited. “Hello, my little birthday boy! How’s my little Cryo today?” said Suzy. Cryo looked at Suzy with a smile and waved to her from Noble’s arms. Noble put Cryo on the ground gently, who then went over to one of the packages to look more closely. “Looks like Cryo is already getting into the spirit, huh.” said Greg. Cryo started messing with the ribbon a bit. “Cryo. Don’t mess with your presents just yet. We haven’t even started the party.” said Suzy. After hearing this, Cryo backed away from them and came towards Greg with a confused look on his face, as if trying to ask what these are?

“I think our friend here doesn’t realize those are for him. Everything inside those bright colored gifts are for you Cryo.” said Greg. Hearing these words, Cryo started to get happy feet for a bit. “Yes Cryo. But you can’t open them right now.” Cryo started to stop with his feet and looked up towards Greg. He sat himself back down like a dog showing obedience. “Don’t worry Cryo. You’ll be able to open them later. Right now, don’t mess with them. We have a very special day planned for you. Do you know where we’re going?” said Greg. Cryo thought about it but then shook his head.

“We are going to a lake in the forest a little ways away from our house, Cryo. We’re going to have a wonderful picnic there. Noble will help you learn how to swim in the lake. It’ll be fun Cryo!” Cryo gave a smile and turned in a circle. “Looks like he’s getting excited. Everyone ready to go?” said Greg. “Yes. I think we are Greg. Noble. Get Cryo a warm jacket and scarf and we’ll start loading everything into the car,” said Suzy. “Ok Mom.”

Noble picked up Cryo, who had started chewing on his pacifier again, and took him into the barn. He placed him down and took off his night shirt and scarf and gave him a newly made silver zip up jacket with a picture of a baby blue cartoon dragon on the back, looking similar to Cryo. Noble then went into the drawer to get another scarf. “Hey Cryo. I helped Dad create this new scarf for you!” Noble took out a nice, red scarf with the image of a classic fire breathing dragon on it. “You like it, Cryo? I thought it would be cool to wear on your special day. I know it’s not water based. But it should be fine right?” Cyro looked at it up close, but nodded his head with a smile. “Great birthday boy. Alright. Hold still.”

Noble wrapped the warm scarf around Cryo’s neck, while Cryo watched with his pacifier in his mouth. “There we go little buddy. Want to look in the mirror?” Cryo trotted his way to the mirror near his crib in order to look at himself. He turned himself in a circle to get a look at the entire thing. He thought he looked pretty adorable now, which he seemed to like a lot. “You like it, Cryo?” Cryo nodded with a smile and trotted back to Noble. “Alright. Let’s see if mom and dad are done.” He picked up and cradled Cryo in his arms. He was about to head out before he realized he forgot something.

“Oh right. I need to bring your blankie, little buddy. It’s going to be a little bit of a long drive, and I know you’ll want to be bundled up during it. Your bottle too. I’m sure you’ll need something nice to drink on the way.” He went back to his crib, and carefully maneuvered his hand and grabbed his favorite blanket. He then went to the cabinet next to his crib, and took his “hatchling,” bottle. He then headed out the barn door and back to their parents. Sure enough, Suzy and Greg had already loaded up the food and presents for Cryo’s big day. “Is our birthday boy ready?” said Suzy. “Looks like it. He looks nice in that silver jacket. I see Noble gave him his new scarf already,” said Greg. “Yea, I think he really likes it,” said Noble. “Did you remember to grab Cryo’s blanket and bottle, Noble?” asked Suzy. “Yes mom. It’s right here.” “Good. Now before we leave, I’m sure somebody wants something for the long trip. Hang on Cryo.”

Suzy began to head towards the car. She opened the side door and began to rummage around the car a bit. She pulled out a clear bottle of purified spring water and smiled. She walked back to Cryo and Noble. “Noble. Give me Cryo’s bottle.” “Alright. Here Mom.” Noble maneuvered his hand with Cryo’s bottle forward. Suzy took the bottle from Noble’s hand. “You’re fine with spring water on this trip, right Cryo? I know you’d probably rather have farm fresh milk, but it’ll probably spoil while riding in the car without something to keep it cold.” Cryo frowned for a second. But quickly replaced it with a bright smile and a nod. “That’s a good boy. Now just hold on for a second, my little boy.” Suzy opened the lid on his bottle and started to pour water into it up to the top. Cryo watched intently and began to salivate a bit in his mouth as she poured. Soon it was filled. She screwed on the lid and handed the bottle back to Noble. “Alright everyone. We’re ready to go. Let’s shove off.” Cryo put his pacifier back into his mouth and began to chew. The family packed everyone in the vehicle and went on their way.

Ch 11

Bottle and Binky

Cryo huddled in Noble’s lap with the blanket wrapped very tightly around his body, watching the outside as they drove. Not after too long, he turned around on his back to face Noble, still wrapped in the blanket. “Need something, little buddy?” asked Noble. Cryo nodded and released the pacifier from his mouth which slid under his blanket. Cryo looked down inside for a second and frowned. But quickly turned his head back up towards Noble. “And what does my adorable little brother need right now?” Cryo turned his head towards his bottle, sitting next to Noble. He began to move his head toward it and open and close his mandible towards it. “Aww… Does my little brother want some water? You thirsty little buddy?” Cryo looked towards Noble, smiled, and nodded. “Alright little buddy. I’ll feed you.”

Noble grabbed Cryo’s bottle and began to cradle Cryo in his arms. Cryo looked at the bottle again and began to drool on his blanket a tiny bit. “Alright, little buddy. Open up. Here it comes!” Cryo opened up his mandibles waiting in anticipation for some refreshing water. Noble gently maneuvered the bottle towards Cryo’s mandibles. Soon enough it was close enough for the tiny dragon to close his mandibles around the lid. He began to quickly drink from it, with a big smile across his face. He continued to drink from the bottle for a few moments. Suzy and Greg turned back and chuckled at the scene, before facing forward again. Cryo released his mandibles from it. He smacked his lips a few times and gave a relaxed sigh. “There we go, little brother. Was that enough for you?” asked Noble. Cryo nodded and began to sit back a bit.

“That’s a good boy. Do you want your binky again, little buddy.” Cryo nodded and smiled. “Alright. Hang on. Noble reached into Cryo’s blanket with it still wrapped around him. After rummaging a bit, he found the strap. He then used the strap to trace where the pacifier was under the blanket. He then lifted it up and then positioned it across from Cryo. “Open up, little nipper.” Cryo smiled and began to wag his tail a tiny bit under the blanket. He opened his maw slowly. Noble positioned the pacifier towards Cryo’s mouth. Cryo quickly caught the pacifier between his maw and smiled. He quickly began to chew on it very happily. “There we go, little binky buddy. Are you happy?” Everyone chuckled a bit, even Cryo, who began to maneuver his body to be watching outside again.” After about an hour and a half of driving through the mountains, they made it to the lake.

Ch 12

Bed and a Brake…

“Hey Cryo. We’re here!” said Noble. He looked toward Cryo, who was still huddled up in his blanket with his pacifier in his mouth. Cryo seemed to have started sawing logs from the long drive… “Hey mom? It looks like Cryo took a nap from the drive. Should I wake him?” “I had a feeling the long drive would put him to sleep. I suggest we let him sleep for now. I brought a portable crib we can put him in. For now, why don’t we take advantage of this and set up the picnic. By the time we’re done, he’ll probably awaken. Greg, help me set up the crib. Noble, start getting out Cryo’s presents,” said Suzy. The family immediately got to work. Greg and Suzy managed to set up Cryo’s portable crib and carefully placed him from the vehicle into the crib without waking the little dragon up. Noble set the packages out from the car on a picnic bench nearby. “Alright. We got Cryo in his crib. Presents are out. Now for the food.” said Suzy. “What food did we bring, Mom,” said Noble. “We brought Zurburgers and hot dogs to grill (pigs are one of the few species humans have brought to this planet that have not undergone any sort of biological change). We also have tayto crisps (chips made from a breed of potato grown from this world’s soil), baked zing beans, salad, and Gran Cobs (a new breed of corn that was green instead of yellow and the little dots were bigger). Let’s start cooking. Noble, watch Cryo. Take him out once he awakens.” “Ok, mom.”

So the family got to cooking. Noble kept a close eye on the little dragon while playing his ZPS. However, about 20 minutes in, the smell of fresh cooking began to weft along his snout. After sniffing a few times, he smacked his lips and his eyes began to slowly open up. Cryo gave out a yawn as he looked around, seeing that he was no longer in the car. He looked around the outside of the crib, and realized he was outside. “There you are, birthday boy. Did you have a nice nap?” Cryo looked up and saw Noble hovering above.” He seemed happy to see him, but then his expression quickly changed and started to stare with concerned eyes…

“…Need a break, buddy?” He nodded as he started to tap his back left paw a bit on the soft bedding inside. “Alright. Let’s get you out quick and go over there.” Noble picked Cryo up and took him over to the shrubbery nearby as the parents continued to cook food by the water on the nearby portable grill. The parents looked over to see Cryo and Noble walking away from the campsite a bit.

“Looks like Cryo’s finally awake. I expected him to be asleep longer.” said Greg. “I don’t think we had breakfast today. Cryo was probably hungry, and couldn’t resist the smell of food,” said Suzy. “We did want to hurry here. Away from the prying eyes of the people in town. Hopefully Noble can keep Cryo preoccupied while we’re cooking,” said Greg. “Oh I think he can.” “What are they doing right now?” “I think he’s giving Cryo a break.”

Ch 13

First Flight

Both Cryo and Noble wandered back to the campsite. “Alright little monster. What do you want to do first?” asked Noble. Cryo thought for a minute, and then covered his eyes with his wings. “You want to play hide and seek?” Cryo uncovered his eyes and nodded. “Alright. Since you’re the birthday boy you hide and I’ll seek. But remember Cryo. Don’t leave this area. Ok little brother?” Cryo nodded his head. “Alright. Get ready. 1. 2. 3.” Cryo quickly left the scene to try and find a place to hide nearby. He looked around a bit, and decided to try to hide behind a tree nearby. “19. 20! Ready or not Cryo. Here I come.” Noble looked around for a bit, looking for Cryo. As he searched, he saw a familiar dark blue tail poking out from behind one of the trees.” “Hmm… Now where could Cryo be? Maybe he’s near mom,” he said as he crept away. Cryo turned his head from behind the tree to see if the coast was clear. He started to slowly sneak away towards another set of trees. As he tried to creep behind a bush, he saw a familiar face waiting for him. “Got you now Cryo!” Cryo gave a surprised look and ran off. Noble of course, began to chase. Around and around the campsite they went, darting to and fro. Cryo gave it his best, but soon Noble came behind and tagged him. “Tag! You’re it Cryo!” Cryo gave out a smile and a laugh and went to a nearby tree to start counting.

He covered his eyes with his wings and counted the numbers in his head, and he went looking for Noble. Cryo sniffed around for a bit, trying to pick up on Noble’s scent to figure out where he went. Around and around the campsite he went. Eventually, he picked up the scent and started to follow to his location. Cryo crept slowly, as to not allow Noble to be aware he is following him. Dodging behind trees and bushes, hoping to catch his big brother by surprise. After tracking for a bit, he realized Noble was close. Cryo jumped into a nearby bush to try and scope out the scene. He observed the scenery around and saw his brother hiding near the lake, under a bench. He needed to get closer without alerting him.

Thinking for a bit, Cryo decided to try and sneak around him from the back, using the trees and shrubbery as cover. Jumping from bush to bush, tree to tree. He continued his approach. Soon enough he was getting close. Cryo prepared to lunge himself under the bench from the nearby bush. Noble heard the crackle of the shrub and realized Cryo was on to him. “You’re not going to catch me this time little brother!” said Noble. Cryo immediately dived under the table, but Noble reacted just in time and slid out right from under the bench and started running. Cryo soon gave chase! Noble was fast and Cryo couldn’t keep up. He needed another way to catch him. Cryo thought about it as he ran, and he decided to try something. As he chased Noble, Cryo clambered himself right onto a tree and started to climb it. He climbed high up into the tree, out of the sight of Noble. Noble looked back.

“Cryo? Did I lose him?” thought Noble. Cryo eyed Noble from a branch high above the tree. Cryo spread his wings out, braced himself, and leaped off. With his wings whipping in the wind, he glided all the way from the tree towards Noble. “I might have a chance to hide again. Wait wha!” Noble said as cryo wrapped his arms around Noble’s waist and back. Noble slipped forward a bit but quickly regained his footing. Noble turned his head to see the big smile on his baby brother who finally tagged him.”Cryo, you sneak. Where did you come from?” Cryo let go of Noble and pointed toward the branch on the tree where he climbed. As Noble turned back, he saw that Cryo had spread his wings again. “Cryo, did you fly?” Cryo looked at Noble with a smile and sat back down. “You’re full of all sorts of surprises today Cryo. Want to go another round?” Cryo thought about it, but then shook his head. “Well then little brother, What should we do now?” Cryo went towards the water, he looked at his reflection in it. He then dipped his hand in the water and swirled it around a bit. He turned back towards Noble. “Oh. You want to try and swim little buddy?” Cryo nodded his head. “Hmm… I’ll need to ask Mom first, Cryo.” Cryo nodded his head. The two brothers went to see their mom, who was still working with Greg, cooking the food.

Ch 14

Feeding Frenzy

“Mom,” said Noble. “Yes honey?” said Suzy “I think Cryo wants to try and swim.” “Swim? “But, we were planning to teach Cryo to swim after we eat. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to put him into the water until we’re ready to teach him. We still need to cook.” Cryo gave a pair of puppy dog eyes to Suzy. “Oh Cryo. Come on. Don’t give me that look. Can you please wait after we eat honey? I promise you we’ll help you swim after.” Cryo gave up on the look and gave a nod instead. “That’s a good boy. Lunch will be ready soon Cryo. Why don’t you play catch? I brought your strikeball mitt and a strikeball, Noble.” “Thanks mom. I wish they made strikeball mitts for Dragons.” So the two went off by the lake to play catch with each other.

“Phew… I was worried Cryo might try to jump in the lake anyway,” said Suzy. “Cryo’s a good boy, Suzy. I doubt he would try anything naughty like that.” answered Greg. He looked back at Cryo, with his pacifier in mouth, and a baseball in his paw, and felt peaceful.

20 minutes later, Suzy called the two brothers. “Hey boys. It’s time for lunch!” The two heard, and rushed over. “Smells good, Mom. You like it too, Cryo?” Cryo nodded his head and let go of his pacifier, which began to dangle from his neck.” “Alright boys. Time to chow down.” said Greg. The family sat at the picnic bench and began to chow down on the delicious food. Cryo scarfed down everything put in front of him. “Cryo is such a big eater. I remember when he had to eat mushy food. Good thing he got his baby fangs in quickly. Otherwise, he might have made a meal of our furniture.” said Greg. The family gave out a laugh. Even Cryo seemed to find that funny, and was giggling as he was sipping from his bottle.

“Alright birthday boy. Ready for your birthday cake?” asked Noble. Cryo gave a curious look of bewilderment. “Oh. That’s right, Cryo. I forgot you never had cake before.” Look at this Cryo!” Noble went over to the bench and brought back a medium sized cake in the shape of a blue dragon, complete with candles on top and black candy eyes. “Doesn’t this look like you? We special ordered this just for you.” Cryo took immediate interest in it. Noble placed it in front of him and Cryo started to sniff it. He began to open his mouth, ready to scarf it all down. “Cryo! Don’t scarf it down. You need to share with the rest of us. Just wait for a moment.” said Suzy. Hearing this, Cryo calmed down, and closed his mouth, now looking at it with anticipation.

“Alright, light the candles, Greg.” Greg took a lighter and lit the candles on the cake. “Alright ready everyone? Let’s sing happy birthday to Cryo,” said Noble. Everyone of course sang “Ohhhhhh. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Cryo… Happy birthday to you!” Cryo was giving a big smile, greatly enjoying the attention he was getting.

“Alright birthday boy. Blow out the candles!” said Noble. Cryo seemed confused. “Silly Cryo. Blow out the candles, and make a wish. If your wish is strong enough. It will come true! Then we can eat the cake together. Greg, get the picture ready with the camera. Noble, fill Cryo’s bottle with some water.” Cryo hearing the words “wish come true,” made him excited. He thought about it for a moment, and realized he had only one wish to make. Just one desire he had most of all. To be allowed to stay with his family forever… “You have your wish Cryo?” asked Noble. Cryo nodded. Alright Cryo, blow out the candles.” Cryo inhaled in a big breath and blew out a small stream of water, which extinguished the candles (luckily, the cake was only soaked a tiny bit and no one was in the water’s path). “Oh Cryo. You need to get a little better at controlling that… Oh well… Time for some cake! Greg… Cut the first piece for Cryo. A big one! You’re going to love it, Cryo. It’s chocolate cake!” said Suzy.

The family sat together and ate the delicious cake. Cryo enjoyed it a whole lot, scarfing down multiple pieces, one after another. All the while taking small breaks to drink from his bottle. “It’s clear Cryo really loves the taste of chocolate,” thought Greg. Soon enough, the entire cake was gone and the entire group was stuffed. “That was so good. Right little buddy?” said Noble. Cryo gave a small burp and a smile while rubbing his stomach. “Well Cryo. Ready to open your gifts?” He gave a large yawn instead. Looks like someone might have eaten a little too much… “Looks like Cryo is starting to doze off. Should we wait on the presents and instead put him down for a nap?” said Suzy. “I think we should. He might get a little antsy if he doesn’t get a nap after how much he ate. I’d fall asleep after eating THAT much,” said Greg. “Alright. I’ll tuck Cryo in,” said Suzy. “Does that mean we’re going to go soon, Mom?” “Oh no. Not yet. We still haven’t put this little boy in the water yet. And he also hasn’t opened his presents. He just needs a little snoozer time so he doesn’t get cranky. He’ll be awake soon enough. Alright. Come here Cryo. Let’s get you all snug.” Suzy lifted up Cryo and wrapped him up tightly in his favorite blanket and put him in the crib again. She headed to the car to pull the chapter book he read to him last night. She began to read to him, from where she left off the last time. It wasn’t long before his mind and eyes began to grow dark. He went out like a light very soon after.

Ch 15

Nasty Nightmare

Cryo opened his eyes, and saw he was in an unfamiliar place. He realized that he was not in a crib, but laying on the ground, on black bristles coming off from it. He looked around, and saw that he seemed to be in a destroyed town, with the sky a dark red with dark clouds covering the sky. Cryo looked around to find his parents, but did not see them anywhere. Cryo got up, and searched around the area for them, hoping that they were alright. He needed to find something. Something that could tell him where he is or where his family was. After looking for a bit, he came across a destroyed sign near a burnt forest. As he approached the broken sign, he began to think it looked familiar. He approached the sign which now read W…ide (Cryo had at least picked up a little bit on reading from story time at home). Where is this place called Wide, thought the little dragon. But as he thought about it, he realized what it was really supposed to say. The sign had a chunk missing that split it from the top, separating the letters. There was a reason it looked so familiar. It’s supposed to read Wayside! This is Cryo’s hometown! Starting to go into a panic, Cryo rushed to where his home was on the outskirts, desperate to find out if his family was alright!

He finally made it, and found his home completely destroyed! He approached the wreckage, hoping to find some clue to if his family made it out. But he could find none… He began to whimper and cry a bit as he searched. But as Cryo searched, he heard something strange. A soft whirring noise. At first, Cryo ignored it, thinking it was just in his head. But, it slowly became louder, and louder, and louder. Cryo’s ears started to ring from the noise, and realized quickly that this wasn’t just in his head. “So. Here is the little outcast that got away,” a distorted voice called from behind Cryo. Cryo slowly turned around, and saw a large red dragon armored from head to toe in a futuristic armor suit! “It took us quite a bit of time to find you and your pathetic mother. She caused us quite a bit of problems, when she destroyed our precious portal project. Cursed dragon is with the US now, and she’ll cooperate once we have YOU. She really thought she could hide you. Heh. Pathetic…” Cryo, hearing this, became mad, but quickly realized he could not fight this off. He knew he had to get away, and fast. He took off toward the burned out forest to try to lose him “So you’re going to try and run. That’s kind of cute… Alright. I’ll play “hide and seek,” with you kid. This is commander Javelin X of the Zerothenian army. Target entered the forest. Send in search and capture units.”

Cryo dashed his way through the forest, attempting to run as fast and as far as he could. Trying desperately to lose his pursuers. He passed along a seemingly endless amount of burned trees. After running for what seemed to be an eternity, he came to a stop near the log cabin, still intact. And the door was unlocked… Cryo went inside and locked the door behind him. He quickly darted his head all round the small cabin and began to move and quickly search all over with the hopes of finding somewhere to hide. After a bit, he decided to hide under a blanket on the bed there. Cryo kept hearing jets whirring, all over. Suddenly, things became silent. Not a single noise, except the intensity of Cryo’s breathing. Was it safe to check? Cryo decided to try and take a peek to see if anyone was there. Cryo slowly took his paw to lift up the blanket just a bit, and saw the creature from earlier staring at him up close to his face.

“Hello little troublemaker. It looks like I found you.” the creature said. Cryo tried to run again, but the creature quickly grabbed Cryo by the tail before he could and pinned him down. He then wrapped his arms around Cryo’s neck and waist and quickly lifted him up. Cryo struggled to break free from its grip but couldn’t make him let go. His heart began to race rapidly and he began to have trouble breathing from the way he was being held. He let out a terrified screech, desperately trying to loosen the fiends grip. Several other dragons in metal Armorsuits came inside. “Hold the kid down,” the commander said. 4 of the soldiers quickly gripped Cryo’s paws and held them together, along with his snout. “He’s ready to be a restrained commander,” one of the dragon’s said. “Now then.” The commander reached into a small compartment on his armorsuit with one arm while keeping the other arm around Cryo’s neck. began to take out a long strand of small metal wire. He slowly wrapped it around Cryo’s snout, muzzling him. Cryo tried to let out a scream, but couldn’t. “That should keep him from using his breath abilities. Now for his appendages.”

The other dragons took out 3 more wires and wrapped them around cryo’s limbs and around his wings to pin them down to his body. Cryo couldn’t move. “There we go, little one. Was that so hard? Those stupid humans put up a better fight than you. Your dumb dragon mother too. Too bad it wasn’t enough for them to prevent us from finding you. Your “humans,” will be joining you soon once we find out where they went,” the commander said. Cryo realized they were talking about his family. Cryo struggled and struggled as hard as he could to try and break free. “Still have some fight in you. How… amusing. You will soon learn who is in charge in due time. You’re going to find life with us so much more fulfilling than as a stupid pet to some rather notorious species. But I think it would be best to introduce you to our glorious leaders ourselves. Corporal. Wrap this around his eyes. Let’s make his new home a surprise,” The commander took out a piece of cloth, with the insignia of their army. “Yessssssss, commander.” Desperately , Cryo tried with all his might to struggle free of his bonds, and to try to blow off his muzzle with his water breath. But it was no use. “Now then little dragon.” The soldiers wrapped it around Cryo’s eyes. blinding him. Cryo tried to scream again, but not a sound came out. Everything flashed to white.

Ch 16

Swimming Serpent

Cryo tossed and turned and suddenly opened his eyes. He realized he was not where he was before. He realized quickly his vision wasn’t being blocked. He was back in the forest. But the trees weren’t reduced to ash and cinders. The trees and shrubs were still filled with greenery. And Cryo wasn’t in some prison cell somewhere far away, but in a small crib near the lake. Cryo realized it was just a horrible nightmare. It felt so real, but he guessed he had it from overeating. Cryo let out a sigh and closed his eyes for a few seconds, and started to breathe more slowly in order to calm himself down, letting his pacifier fall down to his neck. “Cryo. You ok little brother?” asked Noble. Cryo opened his eyes again and turned around in his Crib to see Noble, playing his ZPS on the nearby bench. “You were tossing and turning in your sleep a lot, little brother. You also made some weird noises. Did you have a nightmare?” Cryo picked himself up and went to the side of the crib toward Noble and gave a small nod with a frown going across his face. He then rubbed his eyes a bit and shook his entire body, seemingly trying to shake off the dream itself. “Oh Cryo. It was only a dream. Dream’s aren’t real Cryo. Nothing in that dream will ever happen. Come on. Let’s get you out of your crib.” Noble picked up Cryo, and placed him on the ground. Cryo put his pacifier back into his mouth.

“Need a small break Cryo?” He nodded. “Alright. Come with me, little muncher. So Cryo took his “break,” and headed back towards his adopted mother and father. “Hey Mom. Dad. Cyro’s awake.” “Oh good. Is my little one well rested?” Cryo wagged his scaly tail a bit. “Noble. Did he… You know?” “Yes mom.” “Alright. What should we do first, Greg? Should we have Cryo open his presents, or put him in the water to try to teach him to swim. “Well I say we should…”

As Greg was about to say something, Cryo immediately darted straight towards the water. “Huh, Cryo. Come back! We’re not ready for you to jump in yet!” But as the final words came out Cryo had already jumped into the air, and landed in the water, head first. “Cryo!” Suzy screamed. “Someone jump in and get him!” Noble immediately began as fast as he could, as bubbles floated to the water’s surface. “Here I come, little brother!” said Noble. Noble was about to dive in, when a familiar head popped up from the water, with strangely, a fin on his head. It seemed Ferrin dragons transform when they hit the water. “Huh. Cryo?” said Noble.” Cryo gave a wave from the water. It looks like he was fine.

“Little brother. You need to wait for us. We didn’t know you knew how to swim.” Cryo gave out a small frown. “Oh don’t worry about it, baby brother. Let’s just swim.” Noble jumped in and now the two brothers were happily swimming in the water together. “You look a bit different Cryo. Did you transform in the water?” He looked at Noble, smiled and nodded and began to dive down into the water, coming up just a few seconds later. Cryo was a little uncomfortable swimming, mostly due to the water being colder than what he usually bathes in. But, the little dragon was nonetheless having fun being able to stretch out his legs in an activity he already excels at.

“Interesting. I guess Ferrin dragons learn naturally to swim. It also seems that their bodies adapt to being in water. I can see only the head, but I imagine maybe his body has changed a bit as well.” said Greg. “I wonder why he never transformed when he was taking a bath. Tide never told us about this either. “We never had a chance to see Tide swim. For obvious reasons of course. Maybe she wanted to wait until she could actually show us herself. As for the baths… well… I’m not entirely sure about that. Maybe the transformation requires a certain type of water, or maybe it requires to be submerged in deeper water or surrounded in a larger body of water. It could even be something as simple as Cryo transforming himself with his mind to better suit the water. I might want to look at Cryo’s full transformation before we leave tonight.” They looked back towards the lake.

Another hour passed, and it was starting to get late. “We should probably leave soon Greg,” said Suzy. “Yes. It’s probably time for Cryo to open his gifts and head home. I’ll get the towels from the car. You get the boys out of the water” said Greg. “Cryo’s probably also going to be thirsty, so fill his bottle as well, Greg.” “Alright dear.” So Greg started to head for the car to get the towels and Cryo’s bottle.

Ch 17

Broken Birthday

But as he went toward the car, he thought he heard the sound of twigs breaking nearby. Greg looked around but saw nothing. He got back to what he was doing. Suddenly, he heard something drop nearby him. He looked around, and saw a small canister on the ground. “Huh, wha…” Suddenly, the canister emitted a quick flash of light, blinding Greg. “AGHHH,” he said. “Target suppressed. Moving in now.” a voice called out. Greg was quickly wrestled into the ground and binded with handcuffs. “As his eyes came to, he saw a figure dressed in black bulletproof armor standing above him. “What? Ugh…” “We’ve been looking for you for quite a while. Good thing that tip came in,” the figure said. “Oh no…” Suddenly a swarm of human foot soldiers came surrounding the lakeside area of the forest. “Oh my goodness!” screamed Suzy. Cryo and Noble were still in the lake at the time. Cryo was very confused as to what was going on. Why were there so many black creatures here (he didn’t realize they were humans). He turned toward Noble, hoping he could give an answer. “Cryo… Hide underwater. Quickly…” Cryo didn’t understand. “They’re here for you. You have to hide.” Cryo started to become scared. “Come on, Cryo. Quickly. Hide. Before they see you. “Cryo shook his head and looked at Noble, clearly concerned for his safety. “Don’t worry about us Cryo. We’ll… Be fine. But you can’t let them take you away. Please. Hide now. Before it’s too late…” Cryo looked at Noble, and gave a small nod, and slowly dived underwater. “Alright. Be safe, baby brother. Noble swam towards the shore to meet these oppressors, who had just come toward the lake with the command for him to come out.

“Campsite secured, commander.” “Good. Any sign of the strange creature?” the commander said. “Not yet. Scouts are sweeping the forest now.” Maybe this miserable lot knows. Why don’t we get them to tell us.” The commander crept towards Greg. “Gregory Drake. Former biologist turned unknown species trafficker. It took us a while to find you. Our drones got an aerial photograph when you left with a valuable unknown species. We’ve been trying to find you ever since. Nice little town you settled in.” Cryo popped his head out from the center of the lake a tiny bit to listen in, unseen by the other soldiers. “Not many “prying eyes,” to see what you brought back here with you. We found one of the strange creatures in your home. Seems she is in a coma. I have to wonder what you did to her? We’ve already secured her. We’re moving her to a high security hospital wing within our military base until we can properly study her without people like you trying to keep a creature like this for yourself. But that’s not the only one.” Greg looked upon the commander. “It was always said that dragons existed only in mythology. Yet, here we find one. And we know it was not alone. She had a child, didn’t she. I don’t claim to know how a mythological creature grows, but I’m VERY sure that they don’t grow that fast. You were seen last year driving off with a small one. Let’s make this simple. Tell us where the other one is. Do it, and we might let you go free. If not, you all will be coming with us. I don’t think you want that, especially on your young boy’s birthday so it seems.”

Cryo’s heart immediately sank, while the family replied with nothing. “Come on, you people. You’re not helping yourself or it. Do the right thing, and tell us.” They still made no reply. “Alright then.” The commander pulled out a shock striker (a kind of electrified nightstick). He then pressed it against Greg’s chest, giving him a nasty shock. “AGHHHHHH,” yelled Greg. Greg fell to the floor in pain. Cryo, hearing his scream, realized they would stop at nothing to find him. He thought about swimming towards the shore to fight them off. But there were too many of them, and Noble told him to stay hidden. Cryo started to panic, not knowing what to do. “What about you? Suzy, your name is? Don’t make this difficult. Where is the baby Dragon?” “He’s far away by now. You won’t find him,” she said. The commander, clearly agitated, slammed her with the shock striker across her side, knocking her down. Cyro, now hearing his adopted mother’s scream, realized they would attack Noble next.

The commander now turned towards Noble, squatting down to meet Noble face to face. “Hey little guy. It looks like you were having a fun birthday party. Look. We really don’t want to hurt any of you. But your family has an unknown biological lifeform. One that was originally thought to never exist. It changes many things in the history of humanity. We need it. It is scared, alone, and needs to be properly handled. It’s too dangerous to be out and about. We can keep it safe. Protected. Tell us where it went, and you can go about your party. Please. We don’t want to do this.” Noble looked and made eye contact with the commander with anger. “You bully! You’re not taking my baby brother away!” Noble yelled. “Baby brother? It’s a wild animal! It’s not human! I know you’re young and don’t understand the gravity of the situation, but you need to give us the dragon.” The commander increased the charge level of his strike shocker and pointed it towards Noble. “Tell us where that dragon is. Or else,” the commander said. “You’re not taking Cryo away!” Noble replied. “Alright young one. You asked for it. Make his parents watch this.” The commander prepared to beat Noble as his parents would helplessly watch.

Cryo, hearing this, broke his heart. He couldn’t fight all of them off without his family getting hurt. He knew he had just two options. He could hide in the water while his family is beaten there and taken to someplace far away. Or, he could reveal himself and give himself up, saving his family, but putting himself in danger. In either case, Cryo knew he probably would never see his adopted family again. Cryo knew the choice he had to make. Cryo began to swim towards the shore.

“Alright kid. This is your last chance. Tell me where the little dragon is, or you all will be sorry. “No!” “Very well then. “Time for your punishment!” Just as the commander was about to strike Noble, he heard something come out of the water. “Huh?” he said. Cryo emerged from the water, with his head hung low and a frown. His body began to revert to what it was before as he slowly walked forward. “Cryo! No! What are you doing!” yelled Noble. “Men! It’s the dragon! Get ready!” exclaimed the commander. They readied their tranquilizers and prepared to fire on him. Cryo approached the commander. He looked upon him and then laid on the ground in front of him, keeping his appendages together, as if saying to tie them.

“Sir. What is it doing?” said one of the soldiers. “…I think… it’s surrendering to us.” said another soldier. “Cryo. Please. Don’t do this. Not for us,” said Noble. But Cryo had already made up his mind. He couldn’t put them at risk just for himself. “Keep the guns on the dragon. You. Put a muzzle on it. Let’s get him ready to be shipped back to base.” “Yes, sir.” They slowly approached as Cryo kept his head down. “Take it easy, little creature. No sudden moves. Just relax.” He took out a muzzle and wrapped it around Cryo’s snout. They then wrapped a chain around Cryo’s neck and started to escort him out.

Ch 18

Grieving Goodbye

“Wait!” said Noble. “Can… I at least say goodbye to him.” The commander though about it for a minute. “Alright. You have a minute,” he said. “Cryo, your name is? Come on.” He walked Cryo over to his family, who had been released from their shackles. “Hey little buddy. It… looks like this is it, huh…” Cryo gave a small nod. “I never thought things were going to end up like this. I… won’t ever forget what you’ve done for us. Your the best baby brother someone like me could ever ask for.” said Noble. “Yes. I couldn’t have asked for a better creature to call my son. Your… mother would be happy to know how much you mean to us. But… I think you’ll be able to see her soon. They… have her with them. Perhaps… they may be able to wake her up… I wish things didn’t go like this. But… Know that we will always love you and remember you. No matter where you are,” said Suzy. “I can’t believe all of this happened on your birthday, of all things. I’m so sorry Cryo. I… hope that one day… we may be able to see each other again,” said Greg. “Wait. This party was for the dragon? Ah forget it,” the commander thought. “Alright. You 4 wrap it up,” the commander said.

“Goodbye Cryo. Please be safe. And, try to be happy.” Noble said. They gave a group hug around Cryo, who had begun to cry a bit. “Alright, come on dragon. I mean… Cryo…” the commander said as he started to lead Cryo away. “Hey there is something around the dragon’s neck,” said one of the soldiers. “What is it,” he said. “Let me check sir.” He saw Cryo’s binky around his neck. “It looks to be a pacifier.” “What. Throw it away.” The soldier ripped it from Cryo’s neck and threw it away from Cryo. Cryo attempted to get it back, but couldn’t and was dragged away and loaded into a heavy ground transport. “Alright, let’s get that jacket and scarf off of you,” said the commander. They took the clothing off and threw them to the side of the truck. “We’ll store these for now.” The last two items he had to remember his family were now taken away, and the transport revved its engine and drove away. “Cryo didn’t even get a chance to open his gifts,” said Suzy.

Cryo’s current known abilities:

Snow Stream: Ice based breath that can freeze and encapsulate creatures, materials, and objects.

Hydro hurricane: Spit out a stream of water at his foes.

Super Screech: A loud soundwave blast that can knock enemies away in the screech’s path and can also cause migrains if exposed long enough.

Likes:

His adopted family

His pacifier

His special clothing

Tv and children’s cartoons

Watching his brother take things apart

Sleep (Cryo takes 2 or 3 naps every day)

Eating and especially drinking milk and other fluids

His toys, like his wolfy plush

Hide and seek

Play time

The Outdoors

Being a good dragon

Dislikes:

Kidnappers

Goodbyes

Nightmares

Losing things he values

Being too cold or too hot

Loud or Obnoxious noises

His Moms condition

Guilt

Bullies or people who try to harm his loved ones