Cryo the dragon, Frozen Frontier

Prologue

In the last book, Cryo the dragon went on his first camping trip in the explorers scouts! It would take place in deep in a forest in a outdoor compound made specifically for campsite activities and games. His day started with being split into individual groups by the scoutmaster of the base, Kyle. He was placed in a group with two other campers named Preydeth and John. After the introduction, they went to their first activity. Ziplining!

While nervous at first at the activity, Cryo was able to make the leap and zip fast the first pully (With a zipline jacket made specifically for his body, with Gregs fabric designs). Confident in his first jump, he was ready for more adrenaline through zipping through the trees! But before his next jump, he noticed that Preydeth’s jacket seemed to not be all the way zipped up. Apparently, it was broken. Cryo tried to warn Preydeth that its dangerous to jump with the jacket the way it was, but he continued on anyway. But of course, disaster would strike…

During the next jump, the jacket gave away and Preydeth began falling to the ground at high speed. Thinking fast, Cryo quickly jumped from the railing with his zipline attached and rode down. Then he cut the cable to his jacket with his talons. Using the momentum from the zipline and his wings, he managed to catch Preydeth before he could fall flat (and strangely, during the situation, time itself seemed to slow down while Cryo was flying… But they were close to the ground and still going at high speed. In a desperate attempt to protect his partner, he used his own body to cushion the fall for Preydeth, and would push him forward right as they hit the ground. Cryo rolled forward on the forest floor, sustaining heavy injuries and soon falling unconscious…

He would open his eyes in darkness, confused as to where he ended up. As he tried to feel around to see where he might be, a light appeared over and began to take over the scene and bring forth see something he didn’t expect to see, a large dragon temple. He began to wonder of the fall had caused him to meet his end, but a soft voice began to call over the distance to the young dragon. It informed him that he had not been lost from the fall, and that there was something she wanted to give to Cryo. So Cryo headed into the temple

The temple contained different statues of magnificent dragons and also walls painted with what seemed to be stories of dragons pulling heroic acts. In the center though, was a strange alter, decorated with what seemed to be a flo lilly… The voice called to Cryo to lay on the alter on his back, which he obliged… But soon enough though, a substance would spring forth from the alter and cover his wrists and ankles, pinning him to the altar! While afraid of what was about to happen, the voice called to the young dragon to relax and this was necessary to receive the gift in question. While concerned at what could happen next, he obliged and began to settle down.

Different colored energy crystals attached to the alter began to power up and send different elemental energies towards Cryo’s bandanna, which would then funnel into his body. It was while this “Birthright Bond,” ritual was going on, that Cryo would learn a great deal of things. He learned that the place he was in was a temple on the dragon home world dedicated to Cryo’s entire family. He learned that his spirit was sent to this place in order to perform the ritual, while Cryo’s physical body, though injured quite a bit, was resting peacefully on Cyriss.

But one of the most important things he’d learn is that his entire family had come to oversee the ritual! They approached the alter and introduced themselves to the young dragon. There was Wave, a blue ferrin dragon and Cryo’s grandmother, Inferno, the red ignis dragon and Cryo’s grandfather, Quake, a green eras dragon and Cryo’s uncle, Lightan, a yellow Zape dragon and Cryo’s aunt, Steelstrike, a silver metalmix dragon and Cryo’s godfather, Tornado, a white windsor dragon and Cryo’s godmother, and of course, his father himself, Servant, the black lunar dragon. Each would watch the ritual take place and offer the young dragon support as the process continued.

It was here that the ritual being performed here would allow Cryo access to powers each of the dragons had and would be vital for his future. It was also here that Servant explained the purpose of the flo Lily and why he wanted Greg to make the bandanna. Flo Lilly’s were special to dragons and gave great power and new abilities to dragons who ingested them. But the effects would not last forever, and that dragons have searched for a way to prevent the loss of power for generations of flow Lily’s. But, Servant, when he learned that Greg had found a flo lilly, decided to try a little “experiment,” to see if creating a clothing piece using a flo lilly would allow the wearer to permanently keep it power. It seemed that his experiment paid off, and Cryo’s special bandanna would permanently carry the flow lily’s power as long as he kept it close to him.

After revealing this to Cryo, the ritual concluded, and Cryo had to go back to his physical body, despite wanting to know more about his family. Not long after, he would wake up back on Cyriss, in his tent, in his bed. After letting the scoutmaster know he was conscious again, he told Cryo that he would need to be sent back home, as his injuries would most likely keep him bed ridden for the rest of the trip anyway. Better resting at home then in the wilds. But due to his brave, heroic act, he would be awarded a special badge for putting himself in harms way in the defense of others, and would be honored as such.

Later on, Preydeth would come into the tent to check on Cryo. He had taken what happened to Cryo pretty hard, and felt responsible for what happened to him. He told Cryo that he might quit the scouts, despite Cryo’s protests and would be going home with home. John too. Cryo wanted to try to help Preydeth to see that he’s suffered far worse situations before, so despite his injuries, he wandered out of his tent and begged his scoutmaster to allow him to tell the story of the kidnapping attempt at the medical center. Despite a little hesitation from the scoutmaster Kyle, he was able to convince him to allow him to tell his story. He told everything that happened right before they made their escape plans, before he began to get very tired. He would have to tell the rest of his story another time to the other scouts…

Next afternoon, the medical vehicle with Nancy and her son, who is being trained in medical, arrived to pick up Cryo and bring him and the others back home. But something strange began to happen to Cryo as they were heading home. Cryo was very nervous, fidgety, and beginning to act a bit irrationally. It was here that Preydeth connected the dots, and realized Cryo wasn’t mad at him, but the situation he was in was similar to what happened with his kidnapping. He was strapped to a bed, being transported with a medical vehicle, and had something around his snout that in this case, made it harder to talk (a dragon cold pad, as he had ran a bit of a fever from the excitement…). John, Preydeth, Nancy, and Darrel would work together to calm him down and remind him that he’s not going through that mess again. Eventually, they were able to help him calm down, and Cryo would tell the rest of his story to his squadmates before sleeping for the rest of the trip.

He woke up in the hospital wing later, and realized that Preydeth and the others left a few gifts for Cryo to help him deal with these problems in the future. Preydeth and Tide would come in to check on Cryo and see if he was ready to have some lunch. He agreed that he could use some food. But before they left, Tide wanted some alone time with her son to discuss an important matter… Preydeth agreed and left to wait outside for a bit.

It was here that Tide believed that something else was going on with Cryo. Something he was not telling her… Cryo knew if he told her about the coming invasion, it could really cause a panic at home to everyone, and possibly make Tide consider trying to leave. It was also here that Tide grew suspicious and worried about the fact that Cryo has a flo lily in a personal item that will never run out of power, and it worries what this could entail in the future. Cryo tells her he doesn’t really know what is going on, not wanting to cause a panic in the base, and she leaves. After she leaves, Cryo thinks that he needs to be far more careful with what he does from now on to keep Tide from knowing what could be a disaster coming for him and her.

Ch 1

Classroom Crew

“And so with complex algebra with 3 variables, there can be 1, 2, infinite, or no answers to the question. It will be up to you to figure out what those answers are, by using the methods discussed today,” said the teacher of the class. She looked upon the students, seeing looks of confusion, frustration, unaware, and inattentive students. All except for one…

Cryo was sitting down at a slightly larger desk with a wider chair raised a bit more towards it and writing on a piece of paper, jogging down the notes and attentively listening to the lesson. He was wearing his bandanna and a green sweater with the image of him flying through the sky high above the clouds on the back, and on the front of the sweater, was the words, “Flying Freely Through the day,” in white letters on the front. The teacher turned toward him. “Cryo… If I’m not mistaken… you have a bit of experience for algebraic equations, correct?” Cryo picked up his head and placed his pencil on his desk and clasped his paws together.

“Yes, Mr. Miles. I’ve used some algebraic equations when I programmed some of my own built personal items and tech.” “Good. Can you come up to the board and solve this problem completely, and tell us how many answers we have on this equation?” Miles asked. Cryo looked at the board at the problem. He began to walk over a study it a bit. 2x^2-16x+32=0. He thought for a moment. “The answer to the problem is 2(x-4). There is a total of 1 solution to the problem.” “Excellent. Very good Cryo. And how did you figure this problem out?” “Well, first, you can see each of these numbers can be divided by 2 due to the 2 in front of the first exponent. So you place the 2 outside of the paratheses, which then becomes 2(x^2 -8x +16). With the equation shortened, you now can try to figure out what numbers can match. To figure out the numbers, you need to find a multiple of 16 that when added together, match the middle number. In this case, -8. With this in mind, you can figure out the the multiple is -4, as -4 * -4 =16, and then -4 – 4 = -8. This means that the solution to the problem is -4 and there is only 1 solution to this problem. If you plug in these numbers for x, you’ll discover that the solution is indeed, (x=-4).” The classroom looked at Cryo at the board. He saw that some of them seemed to have paid a bit more attention to his explanation this time and were writing notes. “Well done Cryo. Please sit down again at your seat.” “Thank you, Mr. Miles.” Cryo walked back to his desk and sat down back in his seat.

Suddenly, the school bell rang, and everyone turned their heads toward it. Cryo could hear some of the students breathing a sigh of relief. “Alright class… We’re done for this week. We’ll practice a bit more on this before we’ll give out homework for this lesson. Anyway… Have a good weekend, class. See you Tuesday at 2:45 P.M.” Cryo began to quickly pack up his book bag and began to head out of the class, with many of the other kids walking with him.

“Man… How do you get so good at these subjects, Cryo?” asked Terrance, a white skinned, rather tall boy from class with brown hair and red splotches on his skin. “I kind of had learning programming to thank for that… I used it for a lot of the custom tech in my room I forged with the help of others engineers here. Especially a… special drive…” Cryo replied. “Is there anything you don’t know?” asked Preydeth. “Oh theres plenty of things I still don’t know… There no one in existence that knows everything.” Cryo replied. “Are you going to tutor again for this semester, Cryo?” asked John. “Of course. I might be in 5th grade now, but I’m always willing to help others who want my help, even if it takes time away from myself.” He smiled at everyone, and everyone smiled back at him. “Anyway guys, I need to get back home for a bit. I’m sure mom wants to hear what I’ve been up to today.” “Alright. See you later, Cryo!” He began to head in the direction the building he is housed in. He turned back for a minute and smiled and waved at everyone else as he walked. Cameron and Noble continued walking with him.

“Man… I think your the most popular kid in school right now, Cryo. Everyone always seems to want to talk and be with you. To think not that long ago, everyone was… well… I guess a bit more ruder to you,” said Cameron. “Well… The teachers last semester asked me to start tutoring with the others at home, and I think everyone I helped pass the classes I tutored that semester. I’ve also seen work pile up a bit last year, with many of the kids last year wanting me to repair their electronic items. Some also asked me to upgrade them with some of my own devices…” “Yea. I guess both would contribute to that…” said Noble.” “I suppose.”

The three were close the building to where each of the living quarters were located in. He opened the door and they headed in. Cryo began to pick his head up a bit and looked and them. “Are either of you going to come with me back to my room in the building?” “Not immediately. Dad wants me to come home for a bit. I’ll see you a bit after though, maybe by 5:00,” said Cameron. Cryo turned his head to Noble. “What about you, big brother?” “I have to do a few things in our home as well. But me and mom and dad will come later to see you,” said Noble. “Ahh… I see… I guess… I’ll be by myself for a bit…” Cryo shrugged. “Hey… We promise we’ll come a bit later Cryo.” Cryo gave a sigh and a nod.” “Alright. I guess I’ll see you both later.” “Alright. Bye Cryo!” said Cameron. “Bye baby brother. I’ll see you and your mother a bit later today!” said Noble. They both began to head in the direction of their homes within the building and Cryo gave a sigh, a headed forward to do the same. After walking through the facility for a bit, he saw the entrance to his room, with very large square door in front of it. He knocked on the door a few times. “Mom… Mom! It’s me! I’m back from school!” A camera turned above the door turned took look directly at him. A voice came from an intercom on the door. “Oh Hi, my little Cryo. Hang on… I’ll unlock the security door.” Cryo stepped back from door a bit, and a few mechanical locks began to disengage on the door. Soon enough, the locks were disengaged and the door began to creak open. He soon saw Tide, as the door fully opened. “Hello my son. It’s nice to see you back home from school. How was your day at school, my little blue boy?”

Ch 2

Home and Homework

“Oh. It was fine mom,” said Cryo. “That’s good. Here. Come inside. I’m sure your probably a little hungry from the long day. I can make you a nice sandwich,” said Tide, as she smiled at her precious son.” Cryo smiled and smacked his chops a bit. “Alright. Thanks mom!” Cryo stepped into the room and headed towards his work bench. He placed it on the table and unzipped it and pulled out a couple papers. “Alright… lets see if I can get my homework for school done…” he thought. He smiled and began to look at his papers. He looked at his first one, for science.

“Alright… Read chapter 3 for chemistry… Answer the questions at the end of the chapter…” He thought to himself. He began to open his science book and read the chapter… He continued to read for a bit, when Tide came over to him. “He son… What type of sandwich to you want?” she whispered to Cryo, trying to interrupt him the least bit possible. “Umm… how about a sliced chillin sandwich,” “Do you need any other ingredients on it, or just the meat?” “Umm… How about white ched, green leaf (similar to lettace but a light yellow/green color), red rounds (similar to tomato, but a more darker red color), and some midster sauce.” “Alright son… I’ll leave you back to your work…” She headed to the fridge to begin making Cryo’s sandwich. Cryo patted his belly a few times and continued to read.

After a bit of time, he finished reading the chapter and answered the questions in the textbook. As he was about to get to the homework for his next class, he heard Tide come over with his sandwich. “Here you go son. Enjoy,” she whispered. Cryo smiled at her and gave her a small kiss on her cheek. She smiled back at him and headed away. Cryo took out his English book out of his backpack and began to look over the next assignment while happily munching on his sandwich.

Some time passed, and Cryo had finished his sandwich and his homework for the weekend. He patted his belly in satisfaction and began to place all his school items in his schoolbag. He then gave out a small yawn. “I’ve been working for a while now. I think I should take a long nap for a bit. I’m sure the others will be here by the time I’m awake again,” he thought to himself. He smiled and began to head toward his bed. Tide noticed he was heading towards his bed began to head towards him. “You going to take a nap, my baby boy?” asked Tide. “Yea… I’m a bit sleepy after filling my belly with food and my head with knowledge…” “Alright. Would you like for me to tuck you in?” Cryo thought for a moment. He then smiled and nodded. “Yea. You can tuck me in, mom.”

“Alright, son. Let me get you out of that sweater and into a shirt.” Cryo nodded and held his hands forward. and Tide carefully took off Cryo’s sweater. She then patted his head a few times and smiled. He gave out another yawn and sat down on the ground. Tide then rummaged a bit in his dresser and pulled out a shirt with an image of him in a tuxedo and shades swinging from a grappling hook and seemingly escaping a exploding building behind him. On the back was an image of him sleeping and with a thought bubble of him arresting a criminal in said outfit with the words “Snoozing to be a secret agent, Cryo the dragon,” on the top near the neckline. “Alright son. Hold your paws forward.” Cryo nodded and held his paws out and Tide lowered the shirt over Cryo’s head. Cryo gave out a comforting sigh as he felt the soft fabrics enveloping him. Tide smiled and picked up the blanket from Cryo’s bed.

She then picked up Cryo with 1 arm and carefully wrapped his blanket tightly around him and then placed him gently on his hay bed with his head on a pillow and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “There you go, my son. Do you want to listen to some nap tunes?” “Yes mom.” The radio overheard the reply and spoke up. “Turning on naptunes. Have a good nap, creator.” A soothing synthesizer flowed from the radio and began to work itself on Cryo’s mind. Tide nodded and began to shut off the lights and turn the blinds in the room so it could be dark. “Sleep well, my baby boy. I’ll leave you for a bit so you can rest.” Tide picked up a book and headed toward the door to his room and unlocked it. She stepped out and silently shut the door. Cryo yawned one more time as the music began to work its spell and put Cryo into a deep, deep sleep…

Ch 3

Transformed and Terrorized

Cryo’s eyes opened up slowly. He felt a cold chill enveloping him. As his eyes began to focus, he thought he could see… snow. He picked his head up, and realized the ground was cold and wet. He shook his head, and realized that indeed, he was outside in the snow. “What in the world? Snow. In autumn?” he thought to himself. He picked himself up, and looked at the horizons ahead. It was dark out, the sky covered in darkness and a low fog over the horizons. Despite the fog, Cryo could strangely see through it just fine. The scene nonetheless gave a rather ominous feeling as Cryo looked forward.

“How did I end up here? Hmm… I do feel a little cold right now, but… it strangely doesn’t feel all that bad right now. I usually hate being out in the snow with no clothing to keep me warm in. Strange…” He was about to walk forward, when he noticed something peculiar going on with him… He looked at his paw, and saw that his scales were not Cyan right then and there. He took a closer look, and saw his paw was as white as snow. When he looked at his talons, they were covered in ice and it looked like there was snow circulating around them, like if the was a pocket of wind being generated from it. “What in the world?”

Cryo took a look at his belly next. His belly scales and turned into a light grey. He turned his head to look at his back and wings next. He saw that his wings had grey linings and seemed to be almost transparent. He saw that his rigid scales across his back also seemed to have snow circulating around them and seemed a bit sharper then before. His tail also seemed to be a bit shorter and smaller. “I’m… transformed? But… Why? I’ve never transformed during the winter season before.”

As he looked ahead, he saw through the fog what seemed to be an small lake. He headed towards it to take a look at his reflection. He looked over the water, and saw that his head’s shape had also transformed. It seemed to be a bit more rounded and more condensed. The shape much more smoother and white like the rest of his body. He looked closer, and saw that there seemed to be a small layer of ice over his yellow eyes, almost like glasses, except it didn’t seem to make it harder for him to see. His horn had been covered in ice as well, with snow circulating around it.

“This is… strange… I look… so much more different like this… Is this… an effect of a flo lily, or… do all Ferrin dragons transform into this?” He began to back away from the lake. As he backed away, he began to hear something strange. It sounded like… hover jets… “Huh… Is there a ship near…” Suddenly, a blast came from out of nowhere and launched Cryo a bit away!” “AGHH!” he yelled. He landed hard on the snow. As his head span for a bit, he suddenly felt someone grab him! “Wait… What the!”

He was then slammed on his belly back into the snow. “Oof!” As he tried to pick himself up, someone began to pin him down in the white snow. “Hey! Whats going on!? Let me go!” Cryo’s assailant then maneuvered Cryo’s arms behind his back and began to tie them with a wire! Cryo tried to struggle away, but he wasn’t able to shake him off before his arms were bound. “There we go… Now then…” said the assailant. His voice sounded familiar, but Cryo couldn’t quite remember where he heard it before. Cryo turned his head, and saw what appeared to be a human in thick black military gear and a black mask covering his face. Cryo wasn’t going to let this be easy for his assailant, so he began to take in a deep breath to try to freeze his assailant, before he felt someone grab his snout and began to wrestle it to the ground. “Mmph! Mmph!” Cryo saw what appeared to be another assailant holding his snout shut. He tried again to struggle free, but soon another assailant pulled out a metal wire and tied it around his snout. “He’s muzzled, sir,” the assailant said to the leader. “Good, now for his lower legs.” The assailants grabbed Cryo’s back legs and began to work together to keep Cryo pinned down and bind his legs together. Soon enough, his ankles had been bound, and Cryo couldn’t move.” The three assailants chuckled at the young dragon, who was now trying to struggle out of his bonds.

“You have been such a nuisance to us for such a long time, you little brat… But… now we finally have you… RIGHT where we want you. Now… Let’s take you to your new home…” Cryo began to hear an airship approach, and saw it come into view, close to them. It landed on the ground, and a back door opened up on the ship. The assailants began to carry Cryo away. “No! NO!” Cryo thought. He continued to try to struggle to break free, but soon enough, his assialants had him loaded into the ship, and the door began to close. They placed him into the corner of the cargo hold on the cold metal ground. Cryo felt a jolt as the ship began to take off again.

“Alright little dragon… I think you should take a nice long nap before we get to your new home.” The main assailant took a needle out of his pocket. Cryo’s eyes shot up! “Oh no… Don’t you dare… Don’t you DARE!” thought Cryo. One of the assailants came over and held Cryo down in place, as the main assailant began to kneel down and hover over Cryo. Cryo looked at the needle again, and could see the tip of it glistening. “Have a nice, long nap, Cryo…” “No! NO! DON’T YOU DO IT!” thought Cryo. The assailant quickly thrust the needle into Cryo’s back! “AGHHHH!” Cryo yelped. Cryo gritted his teeth and began to breath very heavily from the pain of the needle. But soon, Cryo’s mind began to become foggy. “N… No… Ugh… No…” Cryo desperately tried to keep himself conscious, but soon he felt his body become numb, and his mind quickly succumbed to the dark… “Have a nice nap, Cryo the dragon…” he heard as the sedative forced his mind into submission…”

Ch 4

Foresight Flight

Cryo tossed and turned and then quickly opened his eyes! He began to take a look around where he was! He realized he was… back in his own room at home. He breathed a sigh of relief as he began to slow his breathing and calm himself down. “That was… a really crazy dream…” Cryo thought. He pushed his back legs out of his blanket, and then his front, and then turned himself belly first on the bed, then lifted himself up. He unwrapped the blanket from around his body and placed it back on his bed. “Ugh… what time is it?” he thought. He looked at the clock, and it read 4:30 P.M. “Hmm… It’s nearly 5:00. Cameron said he’ll probably be here by 5:00,” he thought. Cryo headed to turn the lights on in his room and open the blinds, letting the bright sun in. As he looked over towards the mountains, he began to think back to his dream. “Ugh… That was a pretty bad situation I was in during that dream. I wonder of those assailants were the same ones who… Ugh… I hope not. I’ve not had any troubles with them since we got home after that whole ordeal.” He shook his head a few times and continued to view the vast expanse outside his window. He thought about the dream again, this time, curious at his transformation in the dream.

“That dream… My body had changed in it… My scales turned white. There was ice coated on several parts of my body. And there seemed to be snow circulating around different parts of my body as well. It looked pretty neat to be honest… For some reason in the dream, I didn’t feel like as cold as I would usually feel on an icy winter day. Could the fact I had transformed had something to do with it? Or maybe its just because of it was a dream? Hmm… It’s strange to think about. I’ve never seen this transformation before. I wonder what triggered it? I mean… when I was a hatchling, I remember the first time I hit the water at the lake. I transformed there, for the first time. I didn’t really know about it until after I came back to the surface of the water. I actually liked how I look. I know that to transform in those conditions, I have to be submerged into a larger body of water. It’s why I never transform when taking a bath. But in this case, what caused me to transform into a white dragon like that.” He scratched under his chin a few times. “Perhaps I’ll ask mom about it later.” Cryo looked at the clock again, and saw it was 4:45 P.M. “Hmm… You know what… I think I could use some fly time right now. I’ll just leave a note for mom that I decided to fly for a bit outside if she comes back before then. I should be back by the time Cameron comes in.”

Cryo took off his sleeping shirt and placed it into the laundry hamper. He went towards the table and found his sweater from earlier neatly folded up on the table. He quickly slipped himself into it and then headed towards his work bench. He took out a piece of paper and a pencil from his backpack. He began to write his note to Tide.
“Dear Mom. I’ve woken up from my nap and decided to fly outside for a bit before the others come to see me. Will be back by 5:00 P.M.

Love, Cryo.”

Cryo then took the note and placed it on the table in the center of the room. “Alright. That should be good enough. Now. Let’s get outside and soar around for a bit,” thought Cryo. He headed out towards the door and opened it, and headed out through the hallways and to the outside. Cryo took in a deep breath and gave out a relaxed sigh. He saw many people outside walking around the area. “Alright… Time to soar through the big blue sky!” he said. He began to hunch down a bit. Then with a mighty leap, he began to spread his wings and fly around the complex. He flew across many of the buildings seeing many people below him. Some of them saw Cryo and waved to him. Cryo smiled and waved back at them. “Ahh… It’s such a nice day out. A little cold, but perfect weather to fly. Ahh… I feel so free being able to fly around here. And…” But then, Cryo thought he could hear the sound of hover jets nearby. “Huh… I didn’t think there was people being trained to pilot ships today…” thought Cryo. But strangely, he thought he could start to hear it coming towards him… It started to get louder and closer every second. “Huh something strange is goin…”

Suddenly he felt something envelope his entire body and begin dragging him away at high speed! “What in the world! What’s going on here!” he exclaimed. He could hear people yelling below him and could feel a large amount of wind blowing at him. He looked at himself, and saw he seemed to have been caught in what appeared to be a black net! “Huh… Am I in…” All of a sudden, he felt something stick, right into his back right leg.” “AGH! What in the…” He looked at his leg, and saw what appeared to be a dart, sticking in it. His eyes shot up! “Oh no… Please tell me this isn’t…” Cryo’s mind began to get fuzzy. His eyes began to lose focus. His body began to lose all feeling throughout it. “No… No… This isn’t…” He gave out a yawn. He felt the net beginning to rise up as he tried desperately to stay conscious. He looked up, and saw the net being pulled up towards the fleeing ship, into a compartment opened up on the bottom. As he watched, he felt everything fade to total darkness. “No… No… not… again…”

Ch 5

Cruel Captors

Cryo’s eyes slowly opened up. His head felt fuzzy, and his body felt a bit numb. He shook his head a few times as he was trying to wake up from his daze. “Ugh… Where am I… What… happened?” As his eyes began to focus he saw what appeared to be tiny bars made of a metallic blue metal in front of him. “Wait. What?” He tried to move his front paws, but found they seemed to be… stuck behind his back for some reason. As he tried to move them, he began to realize his wrists had been bound behind his back! His eyes shot up! “Mmpph… Mmpph!” He tried to speak, but then quickly realized there seemed to be a wire over his snout, muzzling him! He began to breath faster as he tried to maneuver his back legs. But they had appeared to have been bound as well! He turned his head to look at his back paws, and saw that there was a wire around where the ankles were, binding them together! His heart began to sink… “Oh no… Those are… cyantrinian wires…” he thought. He felt something a bit large around his neck. He maneuvered his eyes down and saw that he seemed to have a rather big and bulky collar around his neck. He realized quickly what it was for… He looked around the area he was in, and saw that the area he was in seemed to be very small and confined. It reminded Cryo of what a pet carrier would look like on the inside. But it seemed the bars and framework were also made of cyantrinian metal. “Oh… This can’t be good…” he thought. Cryo suddenly hear footsteps coming closer from the outside of his cell. Someone came into his view. Cryo’s heart sank, as he saw the ruffian in black military gear and a mask. Two more appeared behind him, carrying some tranquilizer guns. He realized all too well what has happened…

“So your finally awake, little guy…” Cryo’s eyes showed clear frustration at his captors. “You have caused us FAR more trouble then we ever could have imagined! It took us a great deal to take you again… You know that? So many resources and so much planning… All to take you… You… A real pain in the neck and an asset FAR to valuable to allow to slip away again,” the masked man said. Cryo thought for a moment, and realized all too well who was talking to him. “Commander Mick… I should have recognized that voice right as you spoke up the first time… Ugh…” he thought. “You know… You should realize that your wasting your talents… being just a simple pet to a bunch of curious scientists… You can achieve FAR more then you could imagine, if you had just made it easy for us the first time. Instead… You forced our ship down, escaped our care, INVITED those stupid military boys on the chase to find you, and then had the nerve, to return to those blatant idiots while we had to go on the run. Such an absolute waste. Why do you think we want you so bad? Do you even realize what you could create with such a sharp mind and a such a degree of technical skill for revolutionary technology. I simply don’t understand why you want to be a pet, instead of someone who ACTUALLY MATTERS,” his captor chastised him.

Cryo gave a snort at his captor. “The people back home always treated me FAR BETTER then you and the others ever will. You don’t care about me… You just want to use me for your own greedy ambitions…” Cryo thought. Mick continued…

“You really don’t get it… Cryo… I’m trying to help you become more then you could possibly imagine… Imagine what you could create if you just… had come with us. Imagine what you could create with a little bit more technical skill and knowledge. We could have easily supplied you with EVERYTHING you could EVER want or need. Any piece of technology. Any living quarters you wanted. Anything you could ever want or imagine… could have been easily given to you, if you just understood us.” Cryo began to clench his bound paws tightly in anger. “I’m not some warmonger or a greedy illicit tech dealer,” he thought. Mick began to step back from Cryo’s pen and shrugged.

“But… I suppose we’ll just have to take FAR more extensive measures to help you understand… You’ll will be given QUITE a few reasons to work with us in time. We’ll just have to enforce enough punishment onto you until your ready to understand what we’re trying to do. You’ll eventually realize that we’re only trying to help you, little dragon… You’ll learn to work with us willingly, soon enough. It would have been nice, to have your mother here as well… But having you should be more then good enough…” Cryo gritted his teeth in anger. “You can punish me all you want… I promise you… I’ll NEVER willingly work with you. And I can guarantee, you’ll NEVER touch mom! Not as long as I’m still breathing!” Cryo thought. Mick patted the top of Cryo’s container a few times and chuckled a bit. “We’ll arrive at your new “work station,” in just a couple of hours. I suggest you get ready to work…” Mick and the others stepped away, and Cryo heard the sound of footsteps leaving the area, along with the sound of a door closing. “I have to get out of here…” Cryo thought.

A bit of time passed as the ship continued to head to its destination. Cryo desperately tried to cut the cyantrinian wires binding his wrists with his talons. His wrists felt a stinging pain as Cryo’s talons scratched against the bindings and against his wrists.. “Urg… My wrists hurt… I’ve been clawing at these stupid wires for a while now… Sigh… I don’t even know if I’m even making any progress in cutting them… There’s no telling how much time I have left before they arrive at their base of operations. If I can’t get out of this mess beforehand… Urg…” He began to breath more heavily, and gritted his teeth in pain.

“Ugh… I hate this stupid heavy collar… It’s the exact same one they used to block the gps signals on the last attempt to kidnap me. As long as this stupid thing is on, the people back home won’t be able to find me… I… I just have to keep trying… There’s nothing else I can do now…” He gave a sigh and continued to try to claw at the bindings. As he continued though, he felt the ship jump up. He was jumped up a bit in his pen. The ship then began to stutter a bit… “Huh… The ships experiencing a little turbulence. What’s going on? Did we fly into a storm?” Cryo decided to dismiss it and kept trying to cut his bindings. Cryo began to hear a few, banging noises coming from outside the ship. While curious, he continued on.

Suddenly, a warning light began to light on the ship, and a siren began to be heard! “Wait a minute… What in the world is going on with the ship…?” Cryo heard a loud bang and heard the sound of what appeared to metal peeling away from the ship.” “That… sounds bad… What is going…” All of a sudden, Cryo could hear the wall of the ship break off, and he felt a HUGE rush of wind pouring into his pen! He felt his pen lift up in the air!” “AGHHH!!!” he thought!

Cryo’s pen began to enter freefall and Cryo tumbled all across the pen as it began falling towards the ground! “AHHHHH!!!” After a bit of time, Cryo felt the container hit the ground! “OOF!” Cryo felt pain all over his body from the nasty fall. His breathing slowed… He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.” “Ugh… Pain… All over… Can’t… Can’t stay awake. Urg…” As his eyes began to slip into the dark, he thought he could see someone in a heavy coat heading directly towards from the front of his pen. As his eyes faded to black, he heard a voice calling to him… “Oh my god… Are you ok little guy!?”

Ch 6

Dragon or Dog?

“Ughh… Urf… I don’t… What happened…?” Cryo thought as his eyes were closed. He felt pain in several parts of his body. “Urg… Am I… still alive?” he thought. He felt something around his body as he tried to wake up from his daze. As his head spun a bit, he thought he could hear something… whimpering… “Wait… Is someone… crying,” he thought. As he laid there, he thought he could feel something a bit warm, wet, and sloppy start stroking across his face.” “Hey… What? What’s going on? Hey… stop that!” he said.

He began to open his eyes, and saw a large, white, furry face, not to far away from his, licking Cryo with its small tongue. He jumped back a bit in surprise of the creature. It was sitting calmly on the ground, and looked at him with its tongue hanging out, wagging its long, white bushy tail up behind its back. “What in the…” said Cryo. He looked at it, and realized the creature was a rather small wolfy (basically a dog from cyriss that had underwent evolutionary change). “A… Wolfy? What in the world?” he said. Cryo saw it had snow white fur. It also had a grey streak across its back that ended towards the top of its head. Its paws on the bottom were also grey. It had floppy ears with a streak of grey on the bottom, and a bit of an elongated snout.

“Umm… Hi… there… Who… are you?” said Cryo. The wolfy whimpered a bit again and approached Cryo and began licking his face again. “Hey. Easy… Easy, little guy. I’m alright. I’m alright!” Cryo said. It stepped away from Cryo again and began to leave the room, up a staircase that bended at the bottom and headed up behind a wall connected at the left corner of the room. Cryo took in a couple of deep breaths, trying to piece together what happened and where he was.

“Ok… How… did I get here? And… where exactly is here?” he said. Cryo looked at himself, and saw a quilt over him. It seemed hand knitted and was a dark purple color. It felt pretty comfy and very warm across his back. He maneuvered his front paws from outside of the blanket and looked at them “Hmm… I don’t seem to be tied up here… That’s at least… good… Though… my paws and arms seemed to be bandaged up quite a bit, especially around my wrists… Hmm…” He looked at the bed he seemed to be in, and it looked to be a large, brown pillow with a small green blanket on top of it as well. Cryo sat up and pulled the blanket down to look at his body.

He saw that he seemed to have been bandaged up in many parts of his entire body. White strips wrapped all over him in several parts. He also saw that he seemed to not be wearing his sweater or bandanna either, which made him wonder where they could be. He also saw that he was still wearing the nasty collar from before. He gave a sigh, knowing he probably couldn’t take it off without the key… “Stupid collar… At least it looks like someone has been treating my injuries from… whatever happened with the ship…” Cryo then began to look around the room to get a better idea of where he could be.

The room had white walls and ceiling, and there was a fireplace next to him on the right, with logs burning within it. There was a pleasant scent wafting across the room, seemingly coming from the fireplace. The scent relaxed Cryo a bit. Cryo began to believe that the homeowners might have put in scented logs in the fireplace. He looked to the left of him. He saw a couple of long beige sofa’s with a small table with what appeared to be newspapers stacked on top of it. Across from the sofa’s was a medium sized and rather bulky television on a dark brown wooden shelf. There appeared to be chip drive movie cases on the shelves inside of it. On the furthest part of the right wall seemed to be a basket with several blankets folded up neatly inside of them. There was a door in the back that seemed to lead to a laundry room within the house. On the wall to the right of Cryo seemed to be a bunch of pictures, though from his view, he couldn’t see them very well. Cryo looked at the floor, and saw grey carpeting throughout the entire room. He looked towards the only window in the room, which was near the roof of the room connected to the upper left wall. Cryo looked closely through it. The sun was beaming in, but Cryo could see snow falling outside. Cryo began to believe he might be actually in a basement within the dwelling.

“Hmm… This house seems… pretty comfy. But… who owns it? I… hope it doesn’t belong to Mick’s crew…” Cryo thought. He tried to move forward off his bed, but began to feel pain across his body. “Urg… Hurts to move…” He began to maneuver back into a comfortable laying position. He gave a sigh, pulled the blanket over him, and settled down. “Well… I guess wherever I am… I’m going to be… stuck here… for who knows how long…” he thought. He began to lay down again. After a few moments… he began to hear something on the staircase again. He saw the wolfy appear again, carrying a bone in its mouth. Cryo watched the wolfy as he made his slow trot over, and then placed the bone on Cryo’s bed. It sat down next to him. Cryo looked at the bed, and then at the wolfy again. “Ummm… Thanks… But… I don’t chew on bones. In fact, I don’t really chew at all anymore. Not since I gave up my pacifier…” Cryo said. The wolfy whimpered again and laid in front of him. Cryo looked at it and smiled… “Oh… You’ve been… worried about me?” Cryo heard it whimper again. “Hey… Don’t worry about me, little guy. I might be a little beat up right now, but I’m… perfectly fine. I’m just glad I’m not in some dark facility being beaten by some really bad men who want my technological skills for themselves. Though… I really don’t know where I am at all to be honest…”

The wolfy whimpered a bit more. It sat up and began to huddle himself next to Cryo. It laid down next to him and began to cuddle with the dragon. Cryo looked at it collar, and saw the name “Lily,” on it. “So your name is Lily, huh?” asked Cryo. It began to breath more slowly and whimper. Cryo smiled and began to stroke the wolfy’s back slowly and carefully, making sure his talons didn’t accidently scratch it. “Well… It’s nice to meet you, Lily. I see your a girl wolfy. I must say… I’ve… never seen a wolfy in person before. I think that all the wolfy’s back at home are trained to be tracking dangerous criminals or search and rescue. But you… You seem like the type that lives a calm life. A pet wolfy. I must admit. Your pretty cute.” Cryo smiled and the wolfy wagged his tail a bit. “I’m Cryo, little guy. Cryo the dragon.” Cryo gave a sigh and another smile. The wolfy began to sit up and began to bark in a rather high pitched voice.

“Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!” it barked. Cryo knew that the wolfy was calling to someone else in the house. Cryo then could hear somebody coming down the steps from the upstairs. Then, someone came into view. A light skinned individual with brown hair and eyes, wearing glasses, and a black sweater and bulky brown pants. “Oh good. Your finally awake. You ok, little… dragon?”

Ch 7

Introduction and Interactions

Cryo backed up on his bed a bit, a little nervous at the human’s intentions. It approached the little dragon, and leaned down. He began to stroke his back slowly. “You really had us worried little guy… Though… I don’t think anyone would have expected a mythological creature to drop from the sky…” Cryo took in a couple of deep breaths and tried to relax himself. “Who… Who are you, mister?” Cryo asked. The man stopped stroking Cryo’s back, and gave a curious look at him. “You… You can… talk?” he asked. “Ye… Yes… I speak in human tongue. Its… my first language… I’ve also studied a few other human languages.” Curious at the dragon, he sat down on the floor next to Cryo.

“Do you… Do you have a name, little dragon?” Cryo breathed a bit more slowly and looked at the man. “My name is… Cryo… Cryo the dragon…” He looked at Cryo and nodded. “Cryo, huh? My name is Eli. Eli Erinson.” “Eli, huh… It’s… nice to meet you Eli.” Eli petted the dragon a few more times. Cryo began to wonder something else. “Is there… anyone else here?” Cryo asked. Eli nodded. “Why yes. I live with my wife, Arianna Erinson and my 5 year old son, Seth. We have been caring for you since you’ve arrived.” “And… what part of the world am I in right now?” “Your in the town of Winterfell, located in the Frigid region of the continent of Heracles (Hu- Re – Clues). Cryo thought for a moment.

“The Heracles continent? That’s on the same continent as home. Still governed by the same government. But much further north. Much… Much… Farther… I’ve apparently landed within the frigid region… If I remember correctly, it snows nearly all year long in this part… I’m… not the biggest fan of snow… unless I’m bundled up quite extensively in a nice warm coat and socks and gloves…” Cryo thought.

He patted Cryo on the back a few times and stood up. “Are you… hungry, Cryo?” Cryo could hear his stomach growl real loud. He nodded to Eli. “Ye… Yeah… I’m really hungry.” Eli smiled and nodded at the dragon… “Well, then. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised You’ve been out for 2 days…” Cryo’s eyes shot up! “T… Two days!” “Yes that’s right… Hang on for a second, Cryo… I’ll get you something nice to eat…” Eli began to head upstairs to get something. Lily began lay on her side, next to Cryo. Cryo looked at her and began to stoke her side. He began to think…

“I’ve been unconscious for 2 days? That’s… not a good sign… What happened to me in those 2 days… Hmm… Well… I’m sure if I ask, Eli will be… willing to tell me. I don’t think he’s part of Mick’s group… He seems… nice.” Cryo thought. Cryo gave a sigh, and settled down on the bed. Not long after, Eli came down with two bowls in his hand. Dog bowls… He placed them both in front of Cryo, with a bunch of small brown chunks in one. Water in the other. Cryo began to think about what it was. Then he looked at Lily, who sat up and seemed to be licking her chops. He then had an idea of what it was…

“Umm… Is this… dog food… Eli?” Cryo asked. “Well… yea Cryo… It’s fish based. I’m sure you’ll like it.” Cryo gave a small sigh. “I… I eat normal human food. I… uhh… am not a Wolfy…” he said. “Sorry, Cryo… But… I don’t think its wise to possibly give you food that could get you sick… I… I don’t know what type of foods your body can’t digest…” Cryo gave a sigh… “Sigh… My body can digest food just fine… I don’t have the same limitations as a Wolfy,” he thought. Cryo realized he probably shouldn’t refuse food. He begrudgingly pulled the bowl towards him and began to eat, with disdain. “Ugh… I don’t really like this stuff… But this type of food is better then no food at all… Besides… I need to know what’s been happening since I’ve been out…” He continued to eat it for a bit, while Eli watched. “There we go… Not so bad, huh?” he asked. Cryo gave a sigh as he continued to eat. He looked towards Eli.

“Umm… Eli?” “Yes, Cryo?” “Can you… tell me what’s been happening to me since I’ve been unconscious. I’m… really curious as to how I ended up here?” Eli looked at him with a smile and nodded. “Why of course I can little guy. But first, I need you to get you a pill from upstairs. Can you wait for a second?” Cryo smiled and nodded. “Yeah. I can wait for a few minutes.” “Good. Hold on little guy.” Eli headed upstairs and Lily began to follow him. Cryo continued to eat.

Not long, Eli came in with a spoon in his hand, that seemed to have Nut Spread on it (similar to peanut butter, but it is instead made with several types of different nuts and is darker in color). Cryo gave another sigh and realized what it was for. “He still thinks I’m a wolfy… This is one method used to get a wolfy to take medication…” Cryo thought. He sat on the floor next to Cryo and held the spoon out in front of him. “Alright. Have this delicious nut spread, Cryo. “Sigh… Yes Eli…” Eli held the spoon in front of Cryo and Cryo opened his mouth and closed it around the spoon. Eli pulled it away and Cryo swallowed it, pill in all. It was at least a little better for him, as he liked nut paste sandwiches at home, but he didn’t like the fact it was there just for the pill…

“There we go, Cryo. That should help ease some of your pain…” Cryo nodded and gave a sigh. Ye… Yea… Thanks Eli. Now then… Can you tell me how I ended up here?” Cryo asked. “Eli began to stoke Cryo’s back again and looked at him. “Alright Cryo. Here’s what happened…”

Ch 8

Teamwork in Town

“Two days ago… There was an… incident with a ship flying over the city.” “An… incident?” “Yes. A ship flying over the mountain had been flying very low for some reason over the town. It… apparently had hit and knocked over a rock formation on the far outskirts of town.” “It… hit something?” “Yes… It’s what eyewitness reports witnessed. As it flew over the town, it… well… It began to… kind of… fall apart…” Cryo’s eyes shot up in shock. “Oh no! Please tell me no one was… hurt by a plane crash!?” Cryo exclaimed. “Woah, woah! Relax Cryo. Relax… No one was hurt thankfully…” Cryo breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s… very reassuring,” Cryo said.

“Yes… Anyway… The ships erratic behavior caused a great deal of contention when it began to fly over the town with pieces of it falling off. But one of those pieces… Apparently had something… strange inside of it… And the piece in question… landed right in the middle of a park. At the time, there was many people hiding inside a nearby park building to protect us from the debris. When the ship had passed, and we emerged. I was… the first one to find a rather strange… pet container that seemed to be… different from what I’ve ever seen before.” Cryo began to breath a bit more heavily… “When I approached the carrier, and looked inside… I found something I never expected to find… Something I didn’t even believe existed… A little blue dragon… Injured and unconscious. Pretty soon others saw you inside, and it shocked the entire town…”

Cryo’s heart began to sink… “W… Wait… The… whole town knows about me…?” “Yes, Cryo. Everyone in town knows about you…” Cryo closed his eyes and gave a sigh… “This… This could attract a WHOLE lot of attention to me… Attention I’d rather not have, especially if they broadcasted it on the news… I… don’t like the thought of what this could entail…” he thought.

“Anyway, we saw that you had been… bound and muzzled inside of it. We could tell that you seem to be treated pretty cruelly. Your cage… seemed to be made entirely out of cyantrinian metals… Your bindings as well… We had no idea why that was… Maybe it was because wherever they were taking you was quite cold. Considering the ship was traveling north over it, it might be possible… It also seems the lock to open the cage was a digital number keypad. We knew whoever put you in there wanted to absolutely make sure you wouldn’t be able to get out.” Cryo became nervous at the thought of such measures being taken against him…

“Everyone there realized quickly that you were still breathing, but was pretty injured… We had to get you out quickly, to treat your wounds. Me and several bystanders in the park picked up you kennel and loaded you into my car and took you to the police station in town to see if they could find a way to open up the kennel and get you out to have your wounds treated. Thankfully, since the kennel was made of cyantrainian, they were able to melt the metal off of the front of the kennel with a few blow torches.” “I’d think that take awhile though. It’s hard to melt metal…” “Not cyantran. Cyantran might be very resistant to cold, but its VERY easy to melt when introduced to extreme heat or fire.” Cryo scratched under his chin a few times at this… “Hmm… I didn’t know that cyantran had a low heat tolerance… Interesting to think about I suppose. Then again, I really never learned at school about cyantrinian metal in school. I haven’t had a chance to take earth science yet…”

“Anyway… After the police melted the bars of your pen, you were immediately rushed to a pet hospital on the south side of town.” “A… pet hospital?” “That’s right. A whole bunch of the people in town actually waited for hours to hear if you’d survive.” “R… Really?” “That’s right… Everyone in town was worried about you, and hoped that you’d make it through, especially after hearing a “special news story,” on the tv…” Cryo’s heart sank again… “A… special news story…?” “That’s right. It concerned the downed ship… “What… did it say…?”

The ship was found about 500 kilometers north, about an hour after your kennel was discovered. It was found abandoned in the snow. When authorities went inside to see if the crew survived… they found that no one was there.” “No one was… there?” “Yes. It seems the entire crew had fled the downed ship… But when the black box as found… We heard a… rather startling message that came from it… concerning you…” Cryo began to breath very heavily at that comment.

“The message confirmed that you were kidnapped from somewhere far away. It’s not clear who or where they kidnapped you from. They also couldn’t figure out what they wanted with you. But it was confirmed that their plans for you were going to be… beyond cruel and sadistic… “Wh… What did they want to do to me, Eli?” “I don’t think you’d want to know…” Cryo gulped at the comment.

“As the news feed went on, everyone in town was terrified at the thought that you’d succumb to your injuries. Or they might come for you again. And the entire town began going up in arms. Everyone wanted to do anything they could to save your life, and keep you protected from further harm. It was then agreed and called upon by everyone in town, to keep your location secret, as the authorities and even the mayor agreed that the perpetrators could return for you. When everyone saw you rolled out of the clinic with news that you would survive, everyone in town was absolutely ecstatic. But you needed someone to take you in and watch your recovery. I… I took it upon myself to see to you getting better. I… brought you home with me and have been tending to you ever since…” Cryo smiled a bit at the thought.

“But… who’s to say many of the others in town didn’t try to help you. Many of the businesses in town have donated supplies and items to help your recovery. One really sweet thing that happened was a blanket we curled you in had ripped apart as you were being moved to the clinic. The people in town knew you needed something stronger to keep you warm and not rip apart at your scales. When this was learned, a bunch of the seamstresses and designers in town came together to create that blanket your curled in now.” Cryo looked at the blanket again… “Th… This blanket?” “That’s right. Many of the shops set aside their funding for their businesses to order some very strong fabrics to mold a blanket into so you could rest peacefully in.” Cryo felt the material around the blanket again. “Well… This does feel just like the blankets and cloths I had before at home before… well… getting my cloths and blankets upgraded again with Greg’s fabrics,” Cryo thought. Cryo then remembered something.

“Umm… Speaking of fabrics… I… came here in a bandanna and a… sweater I believe. Do you happen… to know where they are by any chance?” he asked. “Oh… Those are currently being looked at by the several fabric designers in town…” Cryo’s eyes shot up! “W… Wait? What are they doing with them!?” “Oh relax, Cryo. The people in town noticed that those items had some really… nice qualities to them. In fact, the items you came in with seem much different then any other fabric items before! They were incredibly strong. We know that. Not even a single strand came off when you fell from the ship. And the fabrics felt nicer then anything anyone in town has ever felt. Especially the bandanna. They were going to find out what they were made from so that they could supply you with much better fabrics while you stay in town and we figure out what we can do with you.

“I… I can tell you what exactly their made from! Just… Please give them back to me… They are… incredibly important… Especially my bandanna… I… I REALLY can’t afford to lose that. I need them back! Please!” “Calm down little guy. Your items are perfectly safe. I promise. But if you know what their made of, then maybe I can arrange to get them back for you.” “Al… Alright then… Just one thing though… The sweaters fabrics can be replicated… But not the bandanna’s.” “Why not? “The bandanna’s materials contains an item so rare, and so hard to transport, its… probably literally going to be impossible to find or make.” “What item?” “A… flo Lily…” Eli’s eyes shot up. “A… flo Lily!” “Yes… I know its sound impossible, but it’s… it’s true. I swear!” He scratched under his chin a few times. “How… How did you even manage to get one?” “Its… a story for another time I believe…” Eli gave a sigh and nodded. “Al… Alright… Anyway… What materials are in the sweater. “Listen carefully. Some of this might sound… outlandish… But I swear this is absolutely true. I swear on my life…”

So Cryo informed Eli of the materials and methods used to make fabric items like Greg. He… listened for the entire period as Cryo explained. “…and after the mixture is made of soulfire petals, fabric softener, and my ground up dragon scales, you need to mix it in with the fabrics, and then the mixture will mix into the fabrics and then give them a very lustrous feel, become VERY resistant to any sort of damage, and also protect against most weather elements.” “I… see…” Cryo began to yawn and realized he felt tired after this long conversation. “Well… I… hope you can get my precious items back soon, Eli… I… really want my precious bandanna back.” “I’ll… uhh… I’ll see what I can do, Cryo.” “Th… Thank you…” “Do you… Do you need anything else, Cryo?” “No thank you… I’m really tired. I could… use some sleep. I think I’m going to take a long nap, if you don’t mind.” “Alright, Cryo. Get some rest little buddy. I’ll leave you to your rest.” “Alright. Thanks. Umm… Any chance there is a radio I can use to listen to some… soothing music to help me sleep?” “Oh… I’m sorry Cryo. I don’t have one available for you right now.” “Oh… That’s disappointing. Well… I’m sure I’ll be fine without it. Anyway. I guess… I’ll see you… maybe later today, Eli.” “Alright… Have a good rest, Cryo.” Cryo began to huddle himself tightly in his blanket. After resting for a bit, he began to sleep peacefully. Eli began to head towards the upstairs. “Man… This dragon sure has an imagination… Its going to probably be difficult to figure out what the materials actually are for those cloths.”

Ch 9

Coldest Climate

So a bit of time passed. Cryo… got to know the family as he was recovering… Arianna was a middle aged women with red, curly hair, blue eyes, and rosy skin. She found Cryo’s ability to talk to be, a bit strange to her. She usually felt a little nervous around Cryo. Cryo consistently tried to open himself up to her, but she always got nervous when Cryo would try. It felt a bit bad that he seemed to be different enough to be considered weird talking to him.

Seth was a very young kid. He was… very curious with a talking dragon in the house. There were times where Cryo couldn’t take a nap with him asking so many questions about him. Cryo also had to typically play “fetch…” with Seth many times of the day, even when he was still supposed to be bedridden… It become quite hard to get some peace and quiet sometimes…

But the worst part of his situation, is that the entire town seemed to treat him like a dog… He had to go out on breaks in a harness and a leash. He was only given pet food for meals and couldn’t join the family for dinner at the table… He instead had to eat downstairs in the basement. He wouldn’t be allowed to take baths without someone present to wash him themselves. Things were becoming difficult for Cryo, and unfortunately, the plane crash had knocked out communications in the town, so he couldn’t call home and inform them where he was located. And the people within the town were trying to find a way to melt the cyantranian collar without possibly hurting Cryo, but still couldn’t figure out an effective way. And he still didn’t have his sweater or precious bandanna back. He knew that the people must not have believed him and were trying to figure out themselves, which he knew they wouldn’t be able to. Things were becoming quite bad for Cryo, and he started slipping into depression, feeling very homesick, wishing badly to go home.

But one day, he was outside on a walk, on a leash and a harness. It was a snowy day, and quite cold out without his sweater. He continued on though… He’s about halfway through the walk when one of the family friends, Clarence began to talk to them. “Hey Eli. How’s Cryo been lately…” said “I don’t think he’s been feeling well, Clarence… He doesn’t seem to move around the house too much… I might take him to the vet, later.” Eli replied. “Sigh… I don’t move around the house much because I’m not getting enough sleep… Eli kept me up from my nap yesterday again… He’s a… good kid… I know… But I need some alone time… I… can’t play fetch all day and I can’t keep answering all these questions…” Cryo thought. “That’s unfortunate. I hope the little guy feels better. It’s a shame to see such a cool creature not feeling well.” Cryo gave another sigh.

“So… did you get your car working Eli?” “No… Van still seems to not be turning on.” Cryo turned his head toward Eli in interest. “That’s unfortunate. Your going to have to take the taxi service again?” “I… think I’ll have to… I don’t have a choice. I don’t currently have enough cash to send it to the shop to get serviced. But… calling a taxi service from Wayfinder is expensive too. I’m not sure what else I could do though.” “Sorry to hear that mate. Hope things get better for you. Cryo’s probably quite a handful for you to take care of, isn’t that right, little guy.” “Sigh… Yes Clarence… I imagine I’m quite a difficult little… creature to care for…” Clarence smiled at Cryo and looked towards Eli. “Well… I’ll leave you to walk the little guy. I’m sure he still needs his break. Don’t you?” “Yes… Clarence…” Alright… See you Eli, See you Cryo. “Bye Clarence!” “Bye Clarence…” Clarence walked away, and they continued on their walk.

Night soon fell on the town and it was time for everyone to go to bed. Cryo was on his bed and was about to turn in for the night… But as he huddled in his blanket, he began to think about his walk earlier. About something he heard… “Hmmm… Eli’s… family hover van… It’s… broken…” Cryo started to get up from his bed. “I… suppose I might be able to… fix it… I’m familiar with the parts and items within vehicles like this. But… they… haven’t really been treating me well… No one has…Not since I’ve… been in town…” Then he remember something else. “The communications tower in town still hasn’t been fixed, either… I… think they have it rebuilt, but something went wrong with electrical and they couldn’t figure out what it was, either…” He began to head towards the staircase. He gave a sigh. “They haven’t treated me well… but… I’ll look into it myself. Eli’s van… The communications tower… And I think I know exactly where I can find the necessary parts to possibly fix them… A legal way to get them…” Cryo nodded and began to head out towards the door.

They thought that Cryo didn’t know how to unlock doors, but he clearly could. He unlocked the door to the basement and opened it. He then shut the door and relocked it. “This should make them believe I’m still down there in case they wake up for some reason…” He looked around the kitchen, and saw the light red walls across the room. There was a medium dinner table to the left of the room, with 6 regular wooden chairs with a white cushion on the front and on the seat of it. To the right was the kitchen, where a large metal stove, dishwasher, and many cabinets and drawers were lined up against the right and back wall of the area. To the front right, was a plain white refrigerator and freezer. He crept through the kitchen and through the small white hallways of the house to the family room in the front. There was a medium sized flat screen tv and a group of 3 large red sofa’s sitting side by side each other at different angles and facing the tv. There was also a large, thick black cabinet with glass doors, and plenty of chip drive movie cases and video games. In this room, was the keys to the house, which were hanging near the exit. He crept over and quickly swiped the keys and unlocked the door to the house. “I better be REALLY careful not to lose these…” thought Cryo. He slowly unlocked the front door and locked it behind him and stepped outside into the dark cold.

As he did, Cryo realized that his body had began to transform. He saw himself transforming the way he was in the dream. And… he no longer felt cold… “Hmm… This is the first time I’ve transformed like this since I’ve first had my dream.” He looked at the thermometer next to the door to his house. Reading -3`F. “Perhaps the transformation is caused by extremely cold temperatures or environments. I must say… I really blend in with the snow. It should really help me sneak around town. If anyone saw me out, there’d be an uproar. And… I actually feel very warm right now… Like my internal body heat has somehow adapted to the cold… This… This is actually going to make it much easier and bearable to handle the repairs on the communications tower.”

Cryo began to hear a crackling noise coming from somewhere near him. He looked around for a bit, but could find nothing… But as he looked around, he heard the crackling noise beginning to get a bit louder, and realized that it was coming from under his head… He maneuvered his eyes down slowly… and saw something he never expected…

The cyantrinian collar around his neck, was becoming frozen! The crackling noise was the ice beginning to form across the entire collar. Soon, the collar was completely frozen around Cryo’s neck. “The… collar… is frozen? But… how is that possible? This metal is EXTREMELY resistant to cold and water!” He began to think for a bit, then smiled. “The collar is resistant to cold… but not immune… No metal is. Every metal has a heat and cold tolerance, and it seems… its reached its limit on what it could do. Hmm… I wonder…”

He began to grip his paws around the collar, and began to pull. He could hear even more crackling noises as he pulled. “Come on… Come on…” he thought. He continued to pull harder and harder. The crackling noises was growing louder as he continued to pull! “Come on! Come on!” Suddenly, the collar shattered into pieces and fell to the ground! Its frozen shards spread all over! “Yes! Finally! The collar is completely destroyed! My family should be able to track me now!” He nodded his head in satisfaction, but then remembered why he came out in the first place. He nodded to himself.

Cryo smiled and began to flap his wings and fly, which seemed to not be affected by the strong winds blowing tonight. It was almost as if there was no wind at all. And even more strangely, it didn’t even make a sound when he flapped them… “Alright. Let’s start with the communications tower…” Cryo began to fly toward the tower, located to the east end of town with a goal and a new form.”

Ch 10

Surprising Start

Eli woke up in his room in his house. Ready to start a new day. He stretched his arms out wide. He and Arianna put on their cloths and headed downstairs to wake up Cryo for his morning walk. “Cryo! Time for your first brake of the day!” But when he looked to Cryo’s bed, he wasn’t there.” What in the… Where the heck is Cryo!?” he yelled! Arianna began to look around, then Seth. “M…Momma… What happened to little Cryo?” “Darn it… He must have somehow gotten out!” “Quick! Let’s get in the car and head to the police! They’ll be able to find him! They all began to rush upstairs out of the basement, into the kitchen to head out towards the garage! But as they got closer to the door, they could hear Lily whimpering…” “Eli… Is that Lily?” Arianna said He listened for a bit. “Ye… Yeah… It is.” They found her scratching at the door and whimpering a bit. “Lily… What’s wrong, girl?” She looked towards her family and gave out a couple of high pitched barks. “Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!” The three looked towards the garage door. “Eli… Is there… something in the garage?” asked Arianna. “I… I don’t know.” The three looked at each other. “Come on… Let’s see what’s going on.” They headed to the garage door, a Eli pressed his ear against the door to see if he could hear something. Eli heard what appeared to be… a wrench… turning a nut. He became nervous at what could be inside. “Shh… Be quiet everyone.” Eli whispered. He slowly opened the door, and as he did, Lily rushed in! “Lily! No! Come…!” “But as he was about to continue, they heard a voice inside. “Oh. Hello Lily. Could you hang on a bit. I’m working here…” a voice inside said. They immediately recognized that voice. It was Cryo! They rushed through the door and looked around. They looked towards their van, and saw its hood was up… And they saw Cryo, on top of a small stepladder, messing with something under the hood of the car…”

“What in the world! Cryo! What are you doing in here! What the heck are you doing with my van! And… what happened to the collar?!” “Oh. Hey Eli. Sorry. Could you give me a second… I’m almost done.” “What? Almost done!? What do you mean!?” “Cryo screwed in a few more bolts on the top of the engine and patted his paws together a few times. Eli saw there was grease stains on many parts of Cryo’s body. “There we go… That should do it!” “What?!” “Oh. Since your here, Eli. Could you do me a favor?” “What?” “Could you try to start your van for me, Eli? I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything?” “S… Start the van?” “Yeah. I took time last night to fix your van and the towns communication tower.” “What! You went outside on your own!?” “Yeah. I can take care of myself. Besides… the town has been without comms for weeks. Thankfully I was able to figure out the problems quickly and was able to get it working.”

“Wait… The… comms are working?” “Of course. Check your mobile phone and call someone. I took the time to call home to test if I got it right, and sure enough, I was able to get ahold of mom and the rest of my loved ones back at Military Research Institution Omega. I’ve informed them of my location. Unfortunately, it seems when they attacked it to take me, they… decided to destroy the runway at home. Thankfully no one was caught during the attack. But it’s going to be awhile before they can get a ship in to pick me up and take me home. They have to get a new air vehicle sent in that can resist very cold weather. The runway has to also be rebuilt so ships can take off. They estimated a couple months… I’m going to be very behind in school once I get back… But… hopefully I can catch up, by the time a rescue ship comes in.” Arianna decided to take her phone out of her pocket. There was a signal on it… She typed Clarence’s number, and soon enough…”

“Hello?” said Clarence. Her eyes showed disbelief. “Cl… Clarence,” “Hey Arianna! How you doing this morning! Looks like the comms tower is finally fixed!” “Umm… Clarence…” “What?” “Apparently Cryo fixed our communications tower…” “Wait! What in the world! How is that possible?” “Oh it’s simple Clarence. The comms tower was not getting its power started because of a mix of faulty wires and weak power source. I replaced both with the necessary parts and a custom made power core of my own design.” “Wait? What? A custom power core?!” “That’s right. The junkyard has plenty of parts in good condition that could be used to fix it and make a proper power core. No one really understands the value of what junkyards can hold. It isn’t all junk in there. There are plenty parts that are in perfect condition to fix and create all sorts of items. You just have to know what to look for.”

There was a short moment of static on the phone. “Umm if you don’t mind, Clarence. I need Eli to test and see if his van is working. Could you hold on for a second…” “Ummm…” “Thanks buddy. Eli. If you don’t mind. Could you get your keys?” “Umm… S… Sure C… Cryo…” Eli awkwardly walked into the house and grabbed his keys by the exit. He reentered the garage and opened his van door and shut it. “Oh wait Eli. Hold on for a second.” Cryo headed to the side of the garage and pushed the button to open the garage door. It slowly opened as Eli looked in disbelief. He didn’t realize Cryo knew how to open the garage door. “Ok… It’s safe now Eli. No need to worry about hover monoxide filling the garage. Now. If you would…” Eli slowly nodded, and turned on the keys to his van… And sure enough, in less then a second… the van started up.”

“Ahh! Perfect! There you go, Eli! No need to call wayfinder any longer for rides to work. Now… If you all don’t mind… I’ve been up doing repairs all night. I really could use a bit of sleep. I know it might be hard for you to let me get some sleep in, Seth. But if you could at least give me just a couple hours before I play fetch with you, I would greatly appreciate it. Anyways… Have a good day everyone.” He then opened the door to the house and stepped inside and closed it behind him, leaving everyone dumbfounded to what just happened. “Eli… I think we should call the mayor…” said Clarence.

Ch 11

Miss Mayor

4 days had passed since they woke up to find Cryo repairing their van. In that time, Eli had contacted the mayor and informed them of what had occurred during the night. Eli and the others would then be asked to come to city hall to discuss what had happened. After giving the story of what happened, they went to look at security footage near the comm tower to see if Cryo really had fixed the tower. Sure enough, they saw him working on repairs for a pretty good amount of the night. While transformed, they knew it was clearly the little dragon working on the tower. They were able to figure out which phone Cryo used to call home to inform them of his location. The mayor had a meeting with Cryo’s caregivers back at Research Base Omega with a vid comms app on his computer. They would talk to them for quite some time, including Cryo’s mother, Tide. They learned a great deal about him, his life at home, his duties, interests, and many different things. There was a small town meeting in town, showcasing all of what they learned. They knew that some changes need to be made, and made fast. So planning began for everyone in the town…

Eli and Arianna woke up early that mourning and got dressed quickly. They headed downstairs out of their room and into the kitchen, standing in front of the door to the basement. “Alright… Things seem to be set… You ready Arianna?” asked Eli. “Yes… Hopefully the mayor can keep him preoccupied while we get ready here.” she replied back. “He’s been sleeping quite a bit lately…” “Well… He did stay up all night to work on our van and the comms tower. He was probably exhausted by the time he finally turned in.” “Yes… In any case… The mayor said she has a couple things planned to try to give him a good day Hopefully… it’ll be enough.” “Well… I hope she knows what she’s doing… I don’t want to ruin his surprise…” “Right… In any case, let’s get him into our van…” They both nodded to each other and opened the door to the basement and headed in. They stepped down the staircase and into the basement, where they saw Cryo, huddled up VERY tightly in his pet bed. They began to pat him on the back a few times…

“Cryo… Cryo… Wake up… Come on, little guy.” Eli said. Not too long after, Lily rushed down the basement staircase and began to lick Cryo’s face a bit. Cryo’s eyes slowly opened up. “Easy, Lily! Easy. I’m up, ok?” She whimpered a few times and sat on the ground. He gave out a yawn and looked at them… “Oh… Hello guys… Is it already time for my morning break?” “Umm… No, Cryo… We… need you to come with us…” “Oh. Where are we going? To the vet again?” “N… No… We… are going to be very busy today and we can’t keep watch over you. We… are taking you to the mayors house. She’s agreed to watch you today.” “Oh. Really?” “Yes… Now come on. Let’s get you into the van.” “Ok.” Cryo picked himself up and lifted his back paws out of the back of the blanket. Then his front paws. Then he lifted himself up and pulled his blanket off of him, and onto the bed. He gave out another yawn. “Alright… Let’s go,” Cryo said. “Alright. Follow us little guy.” They headed up the staircase and through the kitchen and into the garage. They loaded Cryo into the back of the van. “Huh… I’m usually in my pet carrier when I’m being taken somewhere,” Cryo said. “Oh… I… don’t think you’ll need it this time. I’m… sure you’ll be alright riding in the back.” “Well… Ok then.” So they opened the garage door, turned on the van, and headed off.

They headed off through the snowy town and towards the mayor’s home, near the back of town. Cryo looked out the window as they drove. He watched many of the residents in town go about. Strangely, everyone seemed to always pay attention and look at him as they continued to drive through town. Soon enough, they made it to the mayor’s residence. A bit of a big house, sitting on top of a large hill upward at the edge of town. They drove up a metal gate at the house and rolled the windows of the car down. There seemed to be a camera on top of the entrance gate, and was turned straight at Cryo… Eli rolled the window to his van down, and pressed a button on the side of a panel. Cryo heard a voice come out of a speaker on it.

“Hello? Who is this?” said a soft male voice. “It’s Eli and Arianna. Cryo’s caretakers. We’re… here to drop off Cryo for the day.” “Oh! Eli! Excellent! Welcome to the grand estate of Nia Niles. Please come in. I’ll inform the mistress of your arrival…” “Thank you.” The gates opened up slowly and they headed up the long driveway up the hill to the house. They soon arrived of the rather large doors of the estate, and stopped right in front of the door. “Alright, Cryo. Let’s get you inside.” Eli stepped out of his car and opened the door to where Cryo was sitting. Cryo looked at Eli.

“Umm… Don’t I need a leash?” he asked. “Oh… No… I… don’t think you’ll need to be escorted in. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” “Well… Ok then Eli.” Cryo got up from his seat and stepped out onto the snowy ground below. Eli motioned Cryo to walk with him to the front of the house, and as they approached the large doors to the dwelling, immediately opened up. Cryo saw middle aged women, with light skin, long brown hair, red lipstick, blue eyes, and wearing a nice black sweater and brown pants. “Hello, Nia. Nice to see you again,” said Eli. “Yes. It’s very nice to see you too Eli.” She looked at Cryo and gave a nice smile. “Ahh. Little Cryo… I’m glad to see you. I remember when I first laid eyes on you when you were trapped in that nasty pen. To think someone would be cruel enough to bind you like that… I’m quite excited to look after you, today,” she said. “Umm… Alright.” Cryo began to walk forward towards her and looked up. She smiled at him. “I’m Nia. I’m the mayor of town. I’ve… was watching your recovery for quite some time. It’s nice to see you able to walk again. “Th… Thanks. I suppose.” She nodded at him and patted his head a few times. “Why don’t we head inside, Cryo. I understand you don’t like the cold too much…” “Alright then.” Cryo began to step into the house with Nia. “Cryo. Please be on your best behavior while under Nia’s care. I don’t want to come to hear you gave the mayor of our city a hard time. “Ugh… Yes Eli. I promise I’ll behave.” “Good. Have a good time, Cryo.”

Eli began to step back to his van. He opened the door and stepped in. He waved to Cryo one more time, which he waved back. He soon drove off. Nia closed the doors to the house. Cryo looked around the entrance to the house.

The room was pretty well decorated, with a large, red sprawling carpet across the ground towards the center heading towards a large staircase going up. The upper floor seemed to circle all around this room, with many entrances to rooms on top. There was also a bunch of rooms on the bottom floor. There was a vase with a flower pattern standing tall on a small table on the right with a picture next to it of what seemed to be Nia’s family. The walls had blue wallpaper with a texture of a bunch of rectangles stacked on top of one another. The ceiling was colored a lighter blue and there was a large, magnificent glass chandelier hanging above. Cryo thought the room looked pretty nice. Nicer then any other place he’s been in before.

“Alright, Cryo. You want some nice breakfast?” Nia asked. Cryo’s stomach growled a bit. “Umm… Yea… I… guess I’m a little hungry.” “Good. Why don’t you come into the dining room. My family is already waiting for breakfast in there. They are very excited to be able to meet you themselves. Why don’t we head in and we’ll eat together.” “Well… Alright then.” She nodded and motioned Cryo to come with her. Cryo followed her into the dining room.

The dining room was quite large as well. There was a very large table in the center of the room, with many, many chairs surrounding it. The wallpaper was grey and had a texture of flora and fauna all across the entire room. There were several large window beaming in from the left of the room, with red curtains aligning them. To the right was the entrance of a large kitchen, the ground with black and white checkerboard tiles and the walls a plain white. There were many different kitchen devices in it, aligning the back walls. There seemed to be several cooks already inside cooking meals.

“Alright, Cryo. Let’s go to the table, little guy. You can sit next to my daughter,” said Nia. “The… table? Don’t… Don’t I have to eat from a bowl on the ground?” Cryo asked. “Oh there is no need for that. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Cryo smiled a bit. “Well… Alright then.” She led Cryo over to the table and pulled out a seat for him. He climbed on it, and sat down. It was a bit awkward for him, as the seat wasn’t made to account for his size or physiology like back at home, but he was able to settle down on it. “There we go,” Nia said. She smiled at Cryo and turned toward the two others sitting down. “Cryo. This is my husband, Wake. He’s works as Ceo at a jump ship corporation. He’s very kind and has been wanting to see our special resident of the town for awhile.” Nia said. Cryo turned his head to look at Wake. He was a rather tall, dark man, who was wearing a fancy black suit and tie. He had very short black hair, brown eyes, and looked at Cryo with a big grin.

“Hello Cryo. I hope you’ll feel welcomed, being here today,” said Wake. “Um… Hi Wake. It’s nice to meet you too,” Cryo replied. Nia turned her head to her daughter, sitting next to the little dragon. Cryo looked at her as well. She looked pretty young, had long black hair, brown eyes, white skin, and had a big smile as she looked at him. She was wearing a sweater with a flower on it and blue jeans.

“This is my daughter, Sara. Sara… Why don’t you introduce yourself to our guest, here…” “Hi, blue buddy! I’m Sara! Your so much cuter in person! I’ve really wanted to see you for so long!” Cryo smiled and waved to her from her seat. “Hi Sara. It’s nice to meet you too.” She petted Cryo on the head a few times from her seat. And Cryo smiled at her again. “Alright Cryo. Breakfast should be ready soon.”

Ch 12

Breakfast Buddy

Soon enough, the butler of the house came in and placed a plate at each seat. Then, a bunch of cooks carrying plates with a large steel dome on top of them. The other workers in the house began to take a seat at the table. They each looked at the little dragon as they sat down. One of the cooks began to take the domes off the first dish.

It seemed to have scrambled chillin eggs, mixed with a bit of cheese, sausage, and some spices from the looks of it. “Hmm… The eggs seems to have a bit more additives to it then what I usually have at home. I wonder how much different it will taste…” Cryo thought. The next dish he uncovered seemed to have many different strips of bacon with the smell wafting across Cryo’s nose. He licked his chaps. It’s been awhile since he’s had any bacon, let alone pork products. The next dish seemed to be toast, but it seemed a bit… greasier. He thought he could see a bit of eggs on the plate as well. “Hmm… That toast seems to have something poured over it. Or… cooked with it? Interesting…” Cryo thought with curiosity. Then final dish uncovered seemed to be hashed taters (hash browns) , but spun in with different ingredients, like cut pieces of the roundyin (basically onions grown in the soil of the world, that is very round and grey), some tater chunks, and some herbs and spices. “I’ve never seen hashed taters made in this format before. Seems a bit… fancier perhaps? Looks like a couple different ingredients in it. Hmm…” Cryo thought again. “Alright everyone. Bon apatite.” said the cook. “Alright. Let’s get started everyone.”

They began to take the each of the plates one by one and passing it around the table. Cryo watched as they went around. “A lot of food here. Then again… Looks like a lot of people will be dining here. I have to wonder if it’ll taste a bit different then what I have at home…” Cryo thought. Soon enough, the first plate arrived at Cryo’s seat. “Go ahead Cryo… Take the plate and take as many scrambled eggs as you want.” “Umm… Alright.” Cryo carefully took the plate and took his fork and began to scrape a bit of the scrambled eggs off. He began to pass the plate to Sara, when Nia noticed something…

“Cryo… You didn’t take too much scrambled eggs… Did you eat before you came here? Or… do you not like them?” Cryo pulled back the plate and looked at Nia. “Well… I like scrambled eggs… But… I know I need to share with everyone else. I don’t want to be greedy and take too much, when I know others may want seconds,” Cryo said. Nia smiled at him. “Oh, nonsense! Take as much as you want! Your our very special guest today. It’s the least we can do for you.” Cryo thought for a moment. “Well… ok then…” Cryo took the plate again and scraped a bit more. Not too much more then what he took earlier though. Nia began to think. “Cryo must not be too much of an eater… I’d think a dragon would need plenty of food to grow. I saw his mother. She was quite large when I got a chance to speak with her. Or maybe… maybe he’s still concerned with sharing… Well… I suppose I shouldn’t try to overfeed him anyway. They told me he’s pretty active during the day… No need to make him lethargic and have him end up taking a nap right at the start of the day,” she thought. They continued to pass the plates of food down, which each resident taking food off and placing on their plate. Soon enough, everyone had what they desired on their plate. They each began eat from their plate.

Cryo decided to try each item one by one. He took a bite of the eggs first. It tasted a bit cheesy, with the sausage giving a bit of a sweet flavor. He smiled as he swallowed it down. He then took a bite of the bacon. It had a dry flavor, with a hint of spiciness as he chewed it up. He smiled again at the taste. He then lifted up the toast and took one big bite, which gave a soft crunch as he did. He could taste a bit of egg on it as well on it, which the combined flavors gave a sweetened and dry flavor from both items. He smiled again at the dish. He finally took a bite of the hashed taters. There was a rather sour flavor from the roundyins and fried bits, while the chunks of tato gave a smooth, sweet flavor in the mouth. Cryo nodded in agreement and gulped it down and patted his belly a few times. He continued to eat. Nia looked at him while he ate.

“How do you like your food, Cryo? Did my cooks do a good job?” asked Nia. “Umm… Yeah! Yeah they did! This stuff is better then what me and mom make at home!” Nia smiled at Cryo and nodded. “That’s good. I… understand you’ve had some eating troubles lately…” Cryo thought for a moment. “I… shouldn’t complain about what I get with Eli… He’s actually sharing food at the table with me, instead of me getting dog food all the time. Although I’m not allowed to sit at the table yet… Nonetheless, I shouldn’t say something bad about him. He’s doing his best to care for me.” Cryo looked at Nia. “Umm… Its… not that bad back with Eli. He… feeds me enough.” “Well I hope so. He took it upon himself to watch over you. I’d hoped he be doing well in that regard…” Umm… Ye… Yeah he is. Don’t… worry about it.” Wake turned his head to Cryo.

“So… I heard you repaired our radio tower a few nights ago…” Wake said. “Yeah. I did. Sorry if I might have worried anyone about me being out by myself. I… know that I’m not supposed to be, considering… Mick might still be out there somewhere…” “Oh. Don’t worry about that. I’m just highly impressed your were able to fix it so well. I saw the new power core you installed in it. Did you make it yourself? “Why… Yes I did, Wake. Yes I did.” “Is it also true you used parts from the junkyard to make it as well to fix the wires?”

“Yes. I’m going to be honest… Junkyards are absolutely great places to get machine parts. Many people think that when a machine is thrown away, its inner parts are all broken or inferior. People need to keep in mind. There are situations where a piece of technology from the junkyard might not be all that old when moved into it. And not all pieces of metal or wires might be broken, rusted, or inferior when something is thrown away. As long as you know what your looking for, you can find relatively good parts in very good condition to fix things. My brother, Noble, used to go to the junkyard at my previous home on the mountains before I was… erm… relocated to the military research center to be studied and cared for. He’d take home pieces of technology from the junkyard of all kinds. Phones, Toasters, microwaves, you name it. He’d bring them home and take them apart at home to get a better understanding of how they work. He’d allow me to watch him and he’d explain to me what each part does and how it works. “Really? That’s quite interesting.” “Yeah… He helped me become very good at repairing technology. My knowledge only grew after I began studying blueprints of different tech from home. I began to make items of my own.” “Really? What have you made, Cryo?”

“Well… I’ve made a clock/radio in the shape of a dragon egg sitting on a nest, and another radio in the shape of a beach ball in my bedroom. I’ve also created my own tv in the shape of a purple gemstone, and I’ve made different types of assistive technology for upgrading and improving different types of electronic items. And before you ask… yes… I also understand how to forge and smith metal and supplementary items. I learned that from many willing engineers at the base. I’ve upgraded a few of my own personal items at home through spare metals from a junkyard located in the city.”

Everyone at the table was impressed at the seemingly talented little dragon eating breakfast with them. “Well, Cryo… That’s very nice that your so talented. I might come to you for city projects while your still with us,” said Nia. “Oh. I’d be glad to help or advise. It’s the least I can do since your city has kept me safe since I was kidnapped.”

“Yes… Hopefully you’ll be home before they make another attempt at you. The whole police force is on alert since you first dropped out of the sky. Anyone who seems… dangerous will most likely be taken in. They’ll be hard pressed to get close to you with everyone looking out for them. We at least have your sketch of what your caretaker, Greg, showed you of what Mick looked like. Everyone in town knows what that traitor looks like.” “Yeah… I just hope he doesn’t become desperate to try to find and get me. I’ve… seen how far he’ll go at times. He’s… extremely dangerous. He’s no joke. Ugh… I still wonder how they managed to hit a rock formation while flying… It seems…. weird that their pilot would somehow miss it and knock it over… I mean… I… guess I’m pretty lucky that happened, considering I ended up being jettisoned out of their escape craft and taken in by an entire city willing to protect… well… I guess something they’ve never expected to see. But… I was pretty badly injured from the fall. Knocked unconscious for 2 days and then bedridden for about another week.” “Yes… Anyway. Hopefully our police will be able to keep them at bay… I don’t want you to feel unsafe in our city. Your very special here. No one would like to see you worried.” “Yeah. Thanks Nia.”

The family continued to eat and soon enough, everyone was filled. Everyone went back to work while Nia and Wake began to walk Cryo out of the room. “Alright then, Cryo. Is there something you’d like to do for now?” asked Nia. “Actually… I think it’s about time for the show, Capsule creatures to be airing today… It usually airs at about 10:00 A.M. on the tv. Is there a place we can watch tv?” “Of course. Follow us to our family room, little guy.” Nia and Wake got up and began to head towards Cryo. Cryo jumped down from his seat at the table and headed towards them. They motioned Cryo to head towards a door to a hallway connected to the front of the room. Cryo nodded and the three began to head their way over, while Sara was watching the little dragon trot away very intently…

Ch 13

Theater Time

They walked Cryo through the house to their living room. Cryo saw the hallways were pretty large and decorated with different paintings and photos of the family. The walls through were a light navy blue, and the floor was made up of wood, with many rectangles stacked on top of one another. After a bit of walking, they made it to a rather large, sprawling room in the house. The room walls were painted light grey, and the floors was red carpet. There was a large array of large bookshelves lining both sides of the room, with a large , sliding ladder attached to them. There were a couple of large windows in the room with red drapes aligning the sides of the windows and a white drape covering the window itself. On the right wall, was quite a large, stone fireplace, a two logs inside of it, ready to be lit up to warm up the room. In the very front of the room, was where the main attraction was. There was a very large screen attached to the front wall. Below it seemed to be a large, wooden cabinet with many, many chip drive movies filling it. There was also a couple of gaming systems on top of the cabinet. Cryo looked up, and saw a projector on the roof. A bit of ways away from the room was 3 vivid red sofas. There was one very long one while two much smaller ones on each side of the long one.

“This seems interesting… I’ve never seen a tv system like this before,” Cryo said. “This is a home theater system, Cryo,” said Wake. “A… home theater system?” “Yes. You’ve ever been to a movie theater before?” asked Nia. “Well… No… Keep in mind. I’m a dragon… I don’t really… have a chance to go to public places… It’s not safe for me to be out in the public normally…” “Ahh… excuse me, Cryo. I forgot about that detail.” said Nia. Wake patted Cryo on the head a few times. “You saw the projector above, right?” “Umm… Yea. I normally see those in school at home.” “Well… You may not realize it, but you can watch tv and movies on a projector.” “Really?” “Why yes, Cryo. This room is made with the goal to make it… similar to how a movie theater shows movies.” “Wow. Ok then.” “The room has surround sound speakers to give the sounds on the tv more… lifelike qualities. Also, the walls of the room are made to bounce sound around the room. Its kind of like… experiencing the movie as if you were there. We also have 3d here glasses that can allow you to watch certain movies to imitate the effect of… how should I say this… as if you could feel the characters and items in the movie going towards you and pulling away, I guess…” “That’s… rather interesting. I’m familiar with 3d models in a video game… But… movies giving an experience of actually being inside the movie I guess. Sounds pretty sweet actually.” They both smiled at Cryo and patted him on the shoulder a few times.

“Alright… Me and Wake will be a little busy with our own work for a bit, so we’ll have to leave you for a bit… I will put on a fire for you and we’ll leave you to watch a bit of tv, ok?” “Ok. Thank you.” “Alright. That’s a good boy. Hang on for a second…” said Wake. He headed towards the fireplace and pulled a lighter inside a basket nearby it. He turned on the lighter, and maneuvered it carefully towards the logs. After holding it on the logs for a few seconds, the log began to burn with a blue flame. He did the same with the second log. The burning logs began to waft a scent around the room. It smelled of the relaxing Mountain Froz tree, which relaxed Cryo. Wake stepped back towards the entrance of the room and faced the little dragon with Nia standing beside him.

“Alright. Be good for a bit and watch tv. If you need anything, ring this bell in the room, right here,” Nia said as she smiled at Cryo. She pointed to a bell, connected to the side of the room, with a pull string on the bottom. “This will have one of our workers in the house come and you’ll simply need to tell them what you would like, ok?” “Umm… ok then.” “Alright. Good. Have a good time in here Cryo.” They both left the room and closed the door behind them. Cryo nodded and looked forward. He saw the remote for the projector on top of the shelf below the screen. He picked up the remote and headed the long sofa to sit down. “Hmm… Considering the projector, I probably have to point at it, rather then the screen to turn it on and use the remote,” Cryo thought. He looked at the remote and pointed it at the projector. Turning it on, he saw projector beginning to spin up. Not too long after, an image appeared on the screen. Cryo smiled and quickly turned the channel to watch the Capsule Creatures cartoon.

Ch 14

Family Fun…

Cryo watched the cartoon for a while on the tv. He was quite impressed by the sound system in the room. “Man… This sound system sounds incredible, especially with the battles on the screen. It’s too bad I can’t try the 3d glasses with the show. I don’t think its compatible with the 3d glasses. Oh well… Maybe I can try a movie later with the glasses,” he thought. He watched it for a bit, when he could swear he could hear the door to the room open. He slowly turned his head to see who it was, and saw Sara, peaking into the room.

“Oh. Hi Sara.” Cryo said. “H…Hi! Cryo your name is, right?” she asked. “Yes. My name is Cryo. Cryo the dragon.” she looked endearingly at Cryo. “Can I… come in and sit with you?” “Well… Sure. I don’t see why not.” She gave a big smile and strolled over to long sofa and sat next to him. She began petting his back a bit. “You really are a cute little blue buddy!” she said. “Well… I suppose that just comes with being a dragon, perhaps.” She smiled at him as he continued to watch tv.

The tv program ended a bit after, and Cryo began to switch the channel to something else. “Hmm… With Sara in here, I shouldn’t turn on any programs that are… well… not age appropriate, like Will in the Wilds. Hmm… What else could be on that would work?” He thought. He thought for a moment, and decided to pick up a movie instead to watch on the big screen. “Umm… Sara? Could you give me a minute to pick a chip drive for the… projector I guess? I’d like to watch a movie…” “Oh… Ok then…” “It’s just going to be a minute for me to get it. I’ll sit back down with you after. Just hang on…” Cryo got out of his seat and went to look at the movies in the cases. He decided found the dragon tamer movie pack on the case, and decided to watch it. “This shouldn’t be that bad for her. I’m sure she’s watched it plenty of times before,” he thought. He smiled and nodded.

He looked at the projector. “Hmm… the chip drive system must be directly connected to the projector. It’s pretty high up. Guess I can fly up and put it in.” Cryo began to lean down and with a leap, began to fly in the room towards the projector. Sara smiled in awe at the him, her eyes lit up like a light. He quickly found the projector’s movie chip drive reader and opened it up, He put the chip into it and it slid into the projector. Cryo smiled and flipped in the air and flew back to the sofa and sat down next to Sara. She began petting him almost immediately. “There we go. Now then. Let’s watch the movie.” Cryo said. Cryo was able to figure out what input movies were on on the projector and began to play the movie.

Sara and Cryo continued to watch for a bit. She seemed to enjoy the movie a whole lot. She began to slow down petting Cryo, with a bit of a solemn look on her face. She turned towards the young dragon.

“Hey. Umm… Cr…Cryo?” “Yeah, Sara?” “What’s… What’s your home like?” “What’s my home like? You mean with Eli?” “N…No. Your REAL home. It’s a bit in the more southern part of the continent, right?” “Well… Yeah… but…” “Who takes care of you?” “Well… A lot of people actually take care of me, to be honest…” “R… Really?” “Yeah… I think you can expect that, considering I’m… well… a dragon. “Who are they?”

“Well… There’s my mother, Tide of course. Then there is the ones, who adopted me when… mom got….ill “I… ill? “Yes… She… fell into a… deep sleep, that lasted a whole 6 years of my life…” Oh my goodness! 6 years without your mama!?” Yeah… But it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I was cared for by a family that took me and mom in when we first arrived. There was Greg, my adopted father, my adopted mother, Suzy, and… my big brother, Noble. “Was it… nice for you?” “Oh. It was perfect! It didn’t matter if I was of a different species. They raised me until… my first birthday… “What happened?”

“Umm… I don’t think that’s a good topic to talk about.” “Are they… gone?” “Oh! No! No! Not like that… Um… I was… relocated.” “Re…located?” “Ye… Yeah… I was taken to a new home in Research base Omega. There… Um… I guess you could say… I… gained new… caretakers there…” “New… caretakers? You mean a new family?” “Umm… Kind of like that. I was raised at the base by two scientists named Ty and Gerald. They… would see to it that I’d… be able to live happily at home, grow, and be able to go to school. “They have school for dragons?” “Umm… Not… Necessarily. I was put into a makeshift school taught at the base itself. There’s actually a ton of families living at the base, so… I was basically mixed into it.” “Ok… What happened to your original family?”

“Oh! Umm… They… couldn’t come to the base for awhile” “Why not?” “Umm… There were complications with the transition…” “What complications?” “Umm… Uh… They… just weren’t allowed to be inside. It’s… a bit hard to explain. The only thing that really matters is that they… had to leave me for awhile” “Oh… I’m so sorry, Cryo…” “Oh! Don’t worry! It’s alright now! Really! They were invited last year on my 7th birthday to the base to live. Now I… basically have them, the scientist’s, and my mother all watching and taking care of me.” “Oh… That’s… amazing, Cryo…” Cryo noticed she seemed a bit down at the comment for some reason. She looked at the little dragon again.

“Are there other dragons at your home other then you and your momma? “There aren’t any other dragons at home. In fact, there aren’t any more dragons on Cyriss other then us.” “Really? Why?” “The rest of my species… well… is… somewhere else completely. Farther away then I can probably imagine.” “How far away do you mean?” “Well… It’s… a complicated topic…” “Why is that?” “Well… You could actually call me and mom… well… aliens in a way.” “Woah… Aliens!?” “Yes… Me and mom’s origins come from… off world… It isn’t the happiest of tales either.” “Why is that?” “Well… The truth is…” Cryo took in a deep breath and then out. “We were from a world that was… under siege from an unknown… shapeshifting alien species that… took advantage, manipulated, and used my race for their own ends… And… It turned out bad… Really… REALLY… bad… “Wh… What happened?” Cryo took in a deep breath in, and then out. “They were enslaved… by them…” “ENSLAVED!” “Sigh… yes… It’s probably not a good topic to discuss with you. I was… still in my dragon egg then. Mom… Made a portal that sent us to this planet… To escape their clutches… It… saved our lives, but my dad… He… He had to take a different path…” “Do… you think your daddy… is alright?” Cryo smiled at her. “Oh. I firmly believe dad is alright right now. He’s… probably watching over me right now!” “Really?” “Y…Yeah! He’s… a very strong dragon. I… I know I’ll have a chance to meet him in person one day.” “Really? How do you know? “Umm… It’s just a feeling I get. But its a feeling I’m absolutely sure is true.” Cryo smiled at her. She smiled at him, but then began to frown and turn her head forward.

“I… I don’t really have a chance to see mommy and daddy much… They… They are usually busy… All day… All night. With daddy’s business, and mommy’s mayor position, I… I never get any chance to play with either of them… They just… leave me with the house’s… nanny and butler’s to learn and be taken care of… “Oh… I’m… sorry to hear that Sara. I can… understand that feeling… I had to wait 6 years to even get to know my own mother, after she spent so long being sick…” Sara gave a sigh and slowly continued petting his back a bit. Cryo looked at her. “You… know… Maybe… Maybe I can play with you while I’m here?” “R… Really!” “But of course, Sara. You don’t get much time to spend with your parents. Maybe… Maybe I can spend a bit of time with you instead!” “You… You really mean it!” “Yes. I promise!” “Sara smiled at Cryo and picked him up from the seat. “Great! Why don’t we come to my room to play! “Ok! Lead the way Sara!” “Alright, come one my little blue baby!” She headed towards the door and began to head out towards the hallway towards her room.

Ch 15

Blue Baby Boy

After walking a bit through the hallways, they made it to her room in the house. She closed and locked the door as they stepped in. Cryo looked around the room for a bit. He saw the room had a pink wallpaper decorated with hearts. There was a bed with pink blankets on the left wall, with a dresser with a white lamp towards the left side of the bed and a bookshelf with different storybooks on the right side. The ceiling head a rather large wooden fan on it, with the ceiling painted a light red. To the front left corner of the room was a desk with a circular mirror on top and a couple of cosmetics set out on top of it. On the right corner was a large wooden closet, which Cryo believed there was probably many cloths in it. On the front wall were a couple of large windows with pink curtains and what seemed to be a medium sized cradle, on the wall, which Cryo thought it might be for playing with dolls and such. To the left side of the cradles were a couple of shelves lined with different toys. On the right side, was a small tv area with a large pink tv on a pink cabinet, with different chip drive cases for shows and kids movies under it. The ground was a pink was a light pink carpet, with really soft materials, and a rug in the center with a large heart. Cryo wondered what she would want to play with him. He’s never played with a young girl before…

“Umm… So… What do you want to do, Sara?” Cryo asked. “Hang on for a second, little baby… Let me get something in my closet…” she replied. She set Cryo down on the floor near her closet, and she began to slide the door to the left. She began to rummage around inside. “Huh… I wonder what she needs in her closet?” Cryo looked towards the toy shelves. “All the toys are over there, right?” He looked back at her. After a bit, she seemed to find what she wanted. “Ahh… Here’s what I need for my little boy!” she said. She pulled out a large, soft, plastic container with something inside of it. Cryo looked at the label, and thought realized it said “Exotic pet training pants…” “Wait a minute…” he thought. “Alright, my little baby. Time to change you!”

“Umm… Wait a minute, Sara! What… What do I need that for?! What… Uh… Game are we playing?!” “We’re playing house! I’m the mommy. And you are my little baby!” Cryo’s eyes shot up! “Wha… Wha… Wait a minute, Sara. I… I don’t need training pants! I’m… I’m housebroken!” “Now now, my little boy… We still need to worry about possible “accidents,” you might have.. Come on over so I can change you!” “Uh oh…” She began to approach the little dragon! “Umm… Uhh…” He looked at the door and remembered she locked it… “It’s… going to be real hard to get out with the door locked…” He began to look for a place to hide in the room. He saw that under the bed could work, being pretty large and low to the ground. Cryo immediately bolted for it and slid under! He began to breath very hard as she came close to the bed. “Come on, baby! Come on out!” “Sara! Really! I’m not a hatchling anymore!” “Come one, Cryo… Please! I… I…” She gave out a sigh… “I’m so lonely…” Cryo felt the words hit him hard… He looked at the container of training pants again from under the bed… He gave out a sigh, and decided that he’d… swallow his pride as deep down as possible… and came out from under the bed slowly…

“Al… Alright Sara… I’ll… play along… On 1 condition…” “What is that?” “You must NEVER EVER tell ANYONE about this! If you promise this… I’ll… I’ll be your… baby dragon…” “R…REALLY!” “Yes… I’ll… let you put training pants on me… and… I’ll act like a hatchling… for you. Even… sigh… having “accidents,” all the time…” “She smiled at Cryo, and he gave a nervous smile back at her. “That’s a good baby boy. Lay on the ground on your back so I can change you.” “Yes… Momma…” She picked up Cryo and placed him on the center of the room on his back. He took in several deep breaths as he prepared for the worst… “Alright… Try not to squirm too much, little baby.”

She began to take some baby powder and lightly shake the container over Cryo’s crotch. Then he lifted his legs up and began to powder under his bottom and tail. “I can smell the powder from here… Smells… a bit strong, honestly…” She stopped and rubbed his belly a few times. “Alright… Now let’s finish up with changing you… little baby!” She began to maneuver the training pants through a hole in the center, meant to go around an animals long tail. She pulled it all the way up and lifted Cryo’s legs again so she could maneuver it under his bottom. She smiled at him and pulled the front over Cryo’s crotch and then pulled the flaps and attached it to the front of the training pants. “There we go. All changed! Does that feel a little better, my baby?” Cryo gave a small sigh and nodded. He spun himself forward to his legs. He looked at his training pants, and saw it was mostly pink with three large red hearts on the front and back of them. “Umm… Ye… Yeah, Momma… I… feel more “protected,” in them…”

“That’s a good boy… Now… Why don’t I get your binky.” “My… binky?” “That’s right. Hang on.” She went to the cradle in the room, and pulled out a pacifier from it. She leaned down to Cryo’s level, and smiled at him. “Open up, Cryo… This will help with those nasty fangs growing in you wittle mouth.” Cryo gave another sigh and nodded. He opened his mouth slowly and she placed the pacifier in his mouth…” “There we go. That bet that feels nice in your mouth, right.” Cryo slowly nodded his head. “I haven’t chewed on one of these in forever… I’m… too old for this… but…” he thought. He chewed on it a bit and saw the wide smile on Sara’s face. Strangely… her smile began to calm him down a bit.

“Alright, little guy. Why don’t you sit down over here, and I’ll turn on a nice educational program on the tv for you to watch. He took the pacifier out of his mouth to talk to her. “An educational program? Like… Biology, math, science, or other school subjects?” “A bit like that, little baby. But these programs are for little guys your age!” “M… My age?” “That’s right. Come over here, and I’ll get you settled in.”

She picked Cryo up and began to carry him over to where the tv was. He placed him on the chair gently on his back, leaning back against the chair. She then attached a clip on the chair around his waist, and tightened it just a bit. He knew this is meant to keep a young child in the seat. He knew he’d have to stay snug in the seat and watch the show. Cryo begrudgingly put the pacifier back in his mouth and chewed to satisfy her. She smiled at him and grabbed the remote for the tv, and turned it on. “Now then… Which program on tykes tv would be a good option for you to watch and learn…” She turned on an app on the tv and began to fiddle around with it. “Looks like she using the TvTime app to look for a show for me to watch. She’s looking for a show from the Tyke’s Tv channel. Hmm… Tykes… Tv? I’ve heard that’s a channel for very young kids… Is there capsule creatures on it? Hmm… Probably not… I’m not sure what constitutes a learning program for young humans or… dragons…” Cryo thought.

After a while, she found something that he’d like. “Ahh! I know… If I remember correctly, my baby wants to make machines! I’m sure this program will be perfect for him!” She turned it on and Cryo looked towards the tv to watch it. “The programs called, Monster truck Masters?” Cryo asked. “That’s right. This is very popular with little boys like yourselves. You’ll love this, I promise!” “Al… Alright…” Cryo began to lay back in the seat and gave a sigh… “It probably won’t be that exciting… I’m… probably too old to watch it.” Suzy came over to Cryo’s seat and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. As he looked at her, he could see such a bright and happy smile again. He began to feel… a little more relaxed and calm. He looked back at the tv.

“You know… Maybe this tv program might not be too bad. I’m sure I can watch it.” Cryo thought. “Now you stay here for a bit, My blue baby. Momma will get some nice milk from a bottle for you to drink. Ok?” He looked at her and smiled. “Yes, momma. I could use a bit of milky for my tummy.” She smiled at him again, and Cryo gave a big smile back.” “Stay here, and don’t get into trouble.” She opened the door and headed out. Cryo began to relax in the seat, and watched the program.

A bit of time passed as he watched. He strangely didn’t feel all that bad watching it. “This program is… interesting… to say the least. Living, sentient monster trucks and human mechanic working together and learning. I can see how it’s called a learning tv program for young kids. It attempts to teach it the basics of things like math or science, and combines them into quite wacky scenarios. It also tries to add the watcher as a… helper in the show. I’m surprised Noble didn’t turn this on for me when I was a hatchling. Or the scientists at Firebase Omega. Then again… I… grew up with capsule creatures for the most part that is until I branched out and watched things of a bit higher age rating quite quickly by the time I was in third grade in school. Things that talked about history, machines, survival skills, science and biology, among other subjects. And of course, I still watch capsule creatures.” He patted his belly a few times and began to hear the door open behind him. He saw Sara come in, bottle in hand.

“Cryo. I’m here, little baby. Ready for some milk?” Cryo looked back and saw her smiling at him. He smiled back and relaxed. “Um. Yeah momma! I’m ready for some milky!” She smiled at him and came over to his seat. She released the clip around him and picked him up and began to cradle him in her arms. “Alright… I’m just going to need to take your binky out of your mouth for a bit, little baby. Ok?” He nodded. She took the binky out of his mouth and began to position the bottle close to his mouth. “Alright. Open up. It’s feeding time.” Cryo looked at her and saw the smile again. He relaxed and opened his mouth slowly. She slowly maneuvered the bottle close to his mouth and he began to slowly drink from it. “There we go… little baby… Keep drinking your milk and you’ll be big and strong one day.” He nodded gently and continued to drink from it for some time. Soon it was gone and she was satisfied with her work. “There we go. Now. I know your probably a little gassy after being fed. Just hang on and let momma burp you, ok?” Cryo nodded slowly. “Alright, here goes…” she said.

She began to hold Cryo over her shoulder and lightly tap his back a bit. “Come on, little baby. Let it all out.” Cryo could see the smile again in the mirror as she tried to burp him. He smiled and made himself burp a few times. After a while of being burped, Sara was satisfied she got enough of it out.” “There we go… I bet you feel much better without all that gas, huh?” “Ye… Yeah, momma. I feel much better.” That’s good. Now… Just relax for a bit, little baby. Why don’t we play peek a boo! “Umm… Ok, Mama!” She placed Cryo on the ground in front of her on his back. She covered her face with her hands. Then she quickly opened up her hands and showed her face! “Peek a Boo!” Cryo saw the smile again, and smiled as well. He laughed for Sara. They continued to play for awhile, before she decided to read a nice picture book with him. He was very relaxed at this point, knowing he was doing nice something for someone he knew was special.

Some time passed as Cryo and Sara played “house,” together. Soon enough, it was about 11:30 A.M. She had just changed his training pants after an “accident.” Sara decided someone needed some relaxing sleep. “Alright, Cryo. I think its time for your first nap of the day.” “My… first nap?” “That’s right. Your very young and need plenty of sleep to grow.” Cryo thought for a moment, and realized he was becoming a bit tired. “Yeah, momma… I’m… ready for a nice long nappy…” “That’s good. Come here and I’ll tuck you in, turn on a lullaby, and rock you to sleep.” She picked up and cradled Cryo in her arms and gently and calmly rubbed his back as she took him over to the cradle. The cradle had a nice, purple blanket with a hearts pattern and red sheets inside. She pulled the covers down and then placed him in. She then pulled the covers over Cryo and smiled at him again. She then took his pacifier in her hand and toward it in front of Cryo. “Alright… Open up, little baby. I know you want you Mr. Binks while you sleep.” Cryo smiled and nodded his head. He opened up his mouth, and Sara gently put it in. He clamped his maw around it, and smiled again. “Alright… Just let me…”

As she was about to say something, Nia began to step into the room. “Sara. Is Cryo in here. I heard from the butler…” As she was about to continue, she saw Cryo in the cradle. Her eyes lit up. “S…Sara! What did you…?” She quickly came in and pulled the covers down a bit. She saw Cryo in training pants. “Oh my goodness! Cryo! I’m… I’m so sorry about this! I..!.” Cryo quickly let go of his binky! “Whoa! Whoa! Nia! Relax! I’m fine!” “Wha… What…” Cryo looked at Sara. “Umm… Momma? Could you… give me and… uh… grandma a few minutes in the room by ourselves? You can… rock me to sleep after I’m done talking to her.” “Oh… Ok, my baby boy. Have fun with Grandma!” Sara left the room to wait outside. Cryo looked at Nia. “Hey… I know you probably might be upset at Sara for this… but she’s lonely.” “L… Lonely?” “Yes… You and Wake are so busy, that she never gets to spend time with either of you. Only the servants in the house. I know I look a bit ridiculous right now, But… I think I really helped her out of that loneliness. I… I know what it feels like to be alone. I know it all too well…”

Nia looked away for a second and the back at Cryo. “But… Is it really ok for her to do this to you?” “I’m fine with it. She sees me as family now. She wants to take care of me. I saw how happy it made her. And honestly… it made me happy. Let her have her fun for now. She needs family now. And… maybe I can at least fill the hole in her heart a bit by being her baby. Don’t worry about me. I promise I’ll be fine being like this for the time being.” Cryo smiled and nodded at her. She gave a smile back and stood up. “Well… If your really sure about this.” “I’m absolutely sure! Now… It’s supposed to be my naptime right now. I know I’ll be a cranky little dragon if momma doesn’t put me to sleep for the afternoon. You might want to let her get on that, don’t you think?” She smiled at Cryo. “Yeah. I’m sure your right. I’ll call Sara back in to rock you to sleep. Have a good nap, Cryo.” Cryo gave a yawn. “Goodnight, Grandma…” Cryo put the pacifier back into his mouth and winked at her and began to wait for Sara to come back in the room. Nia left the room. After a few moments, Sara came back in. “Alright… Let’s get you ready to sleep.” She turned on a radio, located on the bookshelf near her bed. She tuned it to a radio station Cryo is familiar with. Naptunes. She began to slowly rock the cradle as musical melody worked itself on Cryo’s hazy mind. He soon fell into a deep, deep slumber…

Ch 16

Cryo’s Corner

So the day passed as Cryo and Sara played, “house,” all day. Soon enough, the day was about to end, and Eli would pick up the dragon to take back home. He quickly pulled up to the house being allowed to enter the grounds by security. Eli honked the horn to allow the residents inside know that he had arrived. Soon. The front door to the house opened with Cryo stepping out, as his regular self. No training pants this time. The residents in the house, including Sara, came out with him. “Alright, Cryo… I guess… Your going back home…” said Sara with a frown. “Hey… I know Sara. I know… It’s… going to be a little sad without my momma taking care of me,” Cryo said. “Do you… think you might come back one day?” “Well… That’s up to Grandma… Not me.” Nia looked at Cryo. “You know… Cryo… Maybe… Maybe we could… work something out with Eli to maybe spend some… family days in the house with you and Sara. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind that, right?” Cryo smiled and looked at her. “Yea… I’m sure Eli might need a babysitter again at some point. Who would be better to take care of me then momma?” Cryo and Sara smiled at each other and nodded. Eli stepped out of his car and opened the side door for Cryo. “Alright, Cryo. Time to go home. I hope your day with the mayor wasn’t too boring…” Eli said. Cryo jumped into the car and smiled at him. “No… I wouldn’t consider it really boring honestly. I had my fill and I’m ready to go home though. “Well. I’m at least glad you had fun…” Yea. I’m pretty tired though…” “Well that’s good. We have something special to tell you and show you at home.” “Really?” “Yes. Now. Wave goodbye to everyone!” Cryo turned his head towards the others and waved. They waved back at him and smiled. They soon pulled out of the driveway and began to head home.

Cryo looked out the window of the vehicle as they continued to drive home looking at the many bright lights throughout the city as snow fell around them. “The city is quite beautiful at night. I really haven’t got a chance to see all the lights from the buildings and lamps shining through the snow. It’s quite… relaxing to watch.” He gave out another yawn and began to settle down in the seat. Soon enough, the little dragon was back to his caretakers home. Eli stepped out and pulled the van’s door open and Cryo stepped out onto the snow. “Alright… Let’s go inside, Cryo. Everyone is waiting for you in your room.” “My room? You mean the basement, right?” “You’ll see…” Cryo was curious at the strange comment, but shrugged it off and headed inside. They entered through the front door and stepped down narrow hallway, with white walls and a wooden floor. After a few steps through, they entered the kitchen.

As they began to head towards the basement door though, Cryo saw that the door, seemed to have some additions to it. It seemed to be the dragon’s head, made of brass, and attached to the door. And above the door, there were the words “Cryo’s bedroom,” hanging on the door. “Huh? Why does the basement say my name on it, Eli?” “You’ll see…” Cryo looked at the decoration again. “Hmm… That’s a nice decoration on the door of the basement, Eli. Where did you buy that?” “Oh. Someone… made that for you, Cryo.” “Really? Who?” “It was Raphael who gave us this.” “Ralphy? Isn’t he police commissioner for the town?” “That’s right. You might not know this, but Raphael has a bit of skills in smithing. Something I believe your also familiar with, right?” “Well… Yea… I’ve… made a few “interesting items,” for myself. Though… I… didn’t think you really… knew about that.” “Well, yes Cryo… I… believe there needed to be some changes made around here. Many of the others in town agreed with that…” “R… Really?” “Yes… Why don’t you come on down to see a few we’ve already set up for you.” “Well… Alright then.” Eli opened the door and they both stepped in and began to step down the soft, carpeted staircase into the basement.

As they arrived near the bottom, Cryo saw Arianna and Seth waiting for them. They both smiled at him. “Hey there, bro!” said Seth. “Bro?” Cryo thought to himself. “Was the mayor’s house fun today, Cryo?” Cryo thought for a moment, and thought about Sara. He remembered how much happier she was “taking care of his special needs,” he gave a pleasant smile to Arianna. “Oh yes. I had plenty of fun today,” he replied. “That’s good. Come on down and take a look at your new bedroom, Cryo.” Cryo tilted his head a bit in confusion. “M…My new… bedroom?” “Yes. Come and take a look.” They gestured Cryo to head down and take a look. He slowly trotted down and turned his head forward as he made it to the bottom. As he did his eyes lit up!

The basement seems to have been completely changed since he had been at the mayor’s house! In the left corner of the room, was a rather large and long bed, with the covers on it with a large blue dragon’s head looking like him on the front covers with its neck moving across and off the blanket, with a deep, black background. Cryo moved over to the bed and felt the material. It felt just like the ones that used Greg’s special trick at fabrics at home. It seemed to be a bit thicker then what Cryo had at home. He rubbed his head against the bed a few times and it felt very warm. He pulled the covers of the bed down, and saw it had sheets of dark navy blue. The fabrics felt fantastic! “This… is like a human bed… but… It’s… a bed for a dragon like me. I… slept in a hay bed back home, but… I think I could defiantly curl myself pretty tightly in this. This feels… incredible!”

A bit closer to the staircase was a brand new closet with a wooden door, and a large blue dresser. Cryo opened the closet and saw a long line of what appeared to be different sets of winter cloths. Cloths made for a dragon. He felt the material, and like the bed, it seemed to be made of greg’s fabrics. Cryo knew that the dresser must also have cloths for him to wear. He smiled as he nuzzled his head against the fabrics and then he turned his head towards the right of the bed and headed down to take a closer look at that side of the room.

There was a new tv installed in the room, and the entire system seemed to be installed all across the right wall! It was pretty large and seemed to be one of the best models on the market currently. It was aligned perpendicular on the opposite wall as the bed. Under it seemed to be a rather large black cabinet with reenforced glass doors covering the merchandise within them. It had a bunch of chip drive movies, shows, and even video games! Some of them were his favorite show and movies he watched back at home. Others seem to be movies he wasn’t familiar with, but seemed to have dragons as characters in them. Some of the games also weren’t chip drives though, but instead, some older, more bulkier cartridges from consoles made quite a bit of years earlier. He looked on top of the shelf, and saw that there were several gaming consoles on top, with not only new generation gaming hardware on top, but also some really old and classic gaming hardware. “These are supposed to be some of the best gaming systems on the market! And these old consoles… These games and consoles are VERY expensive and hard to find! How… How did they manage to get these?! I… I’ve only played just a few of these classic titles by downloading them on my consoles arcade at home. This is…”

He looked at the setup of the tv area a bit more, and could recognize a sound system similar to the one at the mayors house. “Is this… set up as a surround sound system?” Cryo asked. “That’s right, Cryo. Your tv will sound very realistic when your watching a movie or playing a game. And that’s not all…” said Arianna. She headed towards the tv and turned it on. The tv’s graphics looked incredible and almost completely lifelike. “This is a 3d tv Cryo.” Arianna said as she tapped the top of the tv a few times. “A 3d tv?” “That’s right. Your familiar with this system?” “A… little bit actually. The mayor’s tv at her house was set up as a 3d system if I remember correctly. But… I… didn’t really have a chance to try out the 3d feature…” “Well… You just use these 3d glasses over here in this drawer. She pulled out the drawer and pulled out a set of glasses from it and a rather long tv remote. From closer inspection, it seemed there was some advanced tech integrated into them. “All you need to do to activate the 3d mode is to toggle on this controller over here. The tv will immediately change to 3d mode and will turn on any 3d glasses currently being worn. It can also be turned off at any time you want as well. Just press the 3d button.” She pressed the 3d button, and Cryo could see the tv seemed a bit grainy for it model for some reason. She came over and handed a set of glasses to him. “Try it.” He nodded and put them on. He saw that when he did, the graphics of the tv really did look like they were pulled from his view into the world around him. “This is amazing!” Cryo turned his head to the right again to look at the next wall.

He saw two rather large bookcases on the wall. He saw that the bookcase on the left contained a whole bunch of different graphic novels. Some of the stories and series he recognized. Others seemed to be from authors he’s not familiar with, but like with the movies, had dragons as characters in the story. The bookcase the right, seemed to contain a whole bunch of different board games of all kinds. Many he recognized and others he didn’t. Some were not to complex to play. Some looked like they had a ton of of parts in them. Cryo thought that reading the novels and playing the many different board games would be really fun! “I… I don’t…” “Hold on Cryo… There’s one last thing we’ve installed in the house for you. We… moved our laundry room to somewhere else in the house. Why don’t you take a peek inside and see what we changed it into…” said Eli. C

Cryo slowly nodded his head and headed to the door, he slowly opened it up and peaked inside. It was very dark inside. He found the pulley for the lamp above in the room. He pulled it, and the room lit up. And Cryo’s eyes lit up again.

In the room, seemed to be a lot like his “work station,” back at home. There was a large work bench inside the house connected to the front wall. There was a set of power tools, gizmos, and gadgets, in a large container on the workbench. To the right wall of the room, seemed to be a rather large red parts drawer. He looked in a couple, and saw parts had already been moved inside! “He looked to the left of the room, and saw a recycling ben to dispose of the scraps and pieces, a blacksmith’s furnace, and smelting pen, “This… This is… a work station…” Cryo said. “That’s right, Cryo. We… understand now you like to… build things. We made arrangements with the people who run the junkyard. They’ll arrive once a week to deliver different machine parts and pieces of technology that are in good condition directly to this house. You’ll… be able to work on your own projects and plans, just like at home…

Cryo stepped out of the room in disbelief. “So… Do you like this, Cryo?” asked Arianna Cryo looked at them and gave a big smile and nodded. “Ye… Yea… I really do! But… how did you afford all of this. And… why would you… do this for me?” “We… talked to your mother and caretaker at firebase Omega… And… we learned an awful lot from them about you. We… We knew we’ve been treating you horribly since you’ve arrived. Everyone in town knows it. And… all of us came together… to… create this for you… A home away from home. When your loved ones back home can finally arrive to pick you up and take you home, they’ll see that we’ve… been able to give you what you need to be happy. Everything here was donated to you so we’d be able to help you through this, together!” “They… They gave all of this to me?” “Yes. As an apology and as hope that you’ll be happy to be with us, until your ready to go home.”

Cryo began to tear up a little, and the family gave the little dragon a nice hug. “Your with us now. If those nasty boys with Mick try to take you again… they’ll find the whole town stopping at nothing to track them down and bring you home safe again. We’ll stop at nothing to protect you,” said Eli. “Th…Thank You.” “Your welcome. Now… I’m sure your sleepy after your long day at home. Why don’t we get you into some pajama’s for the night. I… understand you really like to curl up and like very warm cloths to sleep in,” said Arianna as she patted Cryo’s head a few times.

She headed for Cryo’s drawer and took out a set of pajamas. It was a simplistic design, with a red shirt and interestingly… a pair of red pants. Cryo could see a button on the back and a hole for his tail to go through. “I see. I pull these up and then I clip this button on the back to secure it around my tail. This is going to be the first time my bottom will be covered up during the night. I… never tried any type of pants before.” Cryo thought. “Alright, Cryo. Let’s get you ready for bed.” She help Cryo change into the pajamas and them carried him to his bed. As she was about to tuck her into bed, she realized she almost forgot to give Cryo something very important.” “Cryo… I almost forgot. I don’t think you want to sleep without this again.” Arianna took something out of her pocket. Cryo’s eyes lit up immediately. “M…My… bandanna!” “That’s right. Here. Let’ me get this around your neck.” She quickly tied the bandanna around his neck. Cryo could immediately smell the pleasant aroma… A vast river of purified water flowing through vast spring. “Even after so long, it still smells so nice…” Cryo said. Arianna smiled at Cryo again, and tucked him into bed. The bandanna began to glow, just for a few seconds, before dying down again. Arianna didn’t seem to notice. She rubbed Cryo’s head a few more times and then turned off the lamp in the room to next to his bed on a small wooden cabinet.

“Alright… Before I turn on naptunes, Cryo, there’s one last thing I should tell you.” “What, Arianna?” “Tomorrow will be your first day of school with us.” “S… School?” “That’s right. We were able to get in contact with your teachers for the semester back at home, and we should be able to integrate you into our school. While you might be about 2 weeks behind… they should be able to add your previous work at home and add it to your grade, and add the work you missed while you’ve been with us. We have you enrolled in genrally the same classes as you had back at home. You’ll be able to continue your education.” “That’s… good.” “Anyway. School is at 9:00. We’ll wake you up an hour beforehand to have breakfast. Ok?” “Alright. That sounds fine.” “Good. Goodnight, Cryo…” Arianna began to fiddle with a clock/radio next to Cryo’s lamp. Soon enough, the naptunes channel dj began to speak on the speaker.

“Greetings, fellow snoozers. This next song is inspired by a dream of the vast cosmos, where debris of broken parts and junk floating in the abyss of space cause a melody of wonderment and curiosity of what these items may have been a part of before making it here. Now playing… Junkyard of the cosmos.”

The radio began to play a very soft and majestic piano and synthesizer that quickly would take over Cryo’s hazy mind and begin to make him drift. As the soft fabrics from his pajama’s and his began to press against his body quite tightly, he feel into one of the deepest slumbers of his life. After a little while though, a voice begins to play over the radio tune.

“Creator? Creator? Can you hear me?” The radio could hear the sound of snoring in the background… “Oh… He’s… asleep. I’ll wait until tomorrow to contact him. It took me a great deal of effort to find this radio, but I’m sure this is the right place… Preparing for tomorrow…”

New transformations or abilities

Winter Whiteout Form

Cryo’s body will change when exposed to EXTREMELY cold environments. Some powers have been revealed, but more will be revealed in time…

Chilled Camouflage: His body is cold enough to where objects and such touching it can become frozen. His body also blends in very well with snow and ice, allowing him to hide out or avoid detection better.

Windless Wings: Cryo’s flight abilities will not be hindered at all while flying. They are also silent as they flap, giving even greater stealth ability in cold temperatures.

New Known Likes

Wolfies, Like Lily.

The many new friends and residents in the town

His current caretakers

Young Humans

New known dislikes:

Cyantrinian Metals and devices

Being treated like a dog

Swallowing his pride (he is more accepting of it with Sara though. He wants her to feel happy, as he knows what its like to be really lonely)

Having to be separated from his loved ones back home for a period of time