Cryo the dragon, Scaley Scout

Prologue:
Part 1

In the last book, Cryo and his mother, Tide, had finally returned after being kidnapped and on the run from their captors in a forest for about a month. He had a dream on the night of his return, with the bugs from back on Earth. In the dream, he just woke up from a major incident. He had been bandaged up and was being escorted to a hidden facility to stay safe. When Cryo asked what had happened to him, he was informed that they had been attacked by the armored dragons, who were after Cryo. Cryo, despite his previous leg injury from his dreams, managed to thwart an attempt to take him captive, while also saving the lives of several of the bug warriors looking over him. After learning of the events, Cryo decided to go back to sleep, while the ship transported him to his new location.

As he woke up, he would be properly greeted back by his friend, Cameron. Tide (Cryo’s mother) had just made breakfest for the two of them. After eating a healthy meal, they played a board game and Ty came in to check on them and see if either wanted to take a break. Cryo decided he needed one, and began to head outside with Ty.

As they walked, Ty mentioned the kidnappings and that he shouldn’t have trusted someone. Thinking a bit, Cryo rembered a name that came out a bit as they made their escape through the forest. Mick… After asking Ty, he confirmed that Mick was indeed the one who had been the mastermind behind the kidnapping. He apprently was the same commander who was responsible for the original operation to move Cryo to the research facility. While he show’d little interest in Cryo at first, due to his behavior at the time. But that changed after Cryo began to repair tech. He had apprently wanted Cryo to build weapons and advanced technology for war efforts. He also wanted to have Cryo trained in combat so he could also be a valuable military asset. When the people at the base refused, he had convinced his own unit to kidnap both him and his mother for their own nefarious efforts. After hearing this, Ty asked how Cryo managed to pull through such a bad situation. He gave his story as Cryo as they went outside.

After telling his story, they both headed back inside, and decided to watch a movie. After the movie though, Tide mentioned something about her homeworld. Curious, Cryo asked Tide about the home world of the dragons. Hearing the story was an eye opener for the little dragon. While Cryo was pretty nervous, but Tide reminded Cryo that it they have a wonderful home here now, and what happens back there doesn’t matter.

Cryo decided to repair some items after hearing the story. His first item would be a computer with a malfunctioning hard drive. While getting a replacement, his eye wandered to a drawer that contained a prototype hard drive made and programmed from scratch by Cryo. After mulling it over for a bit, he decided to test it on his clients computer, hoping it would work much better then before. He began to test it a bit after installing it. Things were running smoothly. But as he began to test the computer, some strange happenstances seemed to happen. There were a few bugs with the computer, which it was able to fix by itself. Cryo didn’t intend to program this in. After testing it for a bit, Cryo began to think that the computer seemed to now be thinking on its own…

It didn’t take him long to realize that he had accidentally programmed a very smart ai that now was running in his clients machine. Very concerned now, he began to ask the computer some “personal,” questions with the hope it wasn’t a mad ai. It’s responses seemed genuine and seemed to not hold any ill will towards dragons or humans. It even disconnected itself from the main base security and main servers to give Cryo a sense of safety. While Cryo was very worried something might go VERY wrong, he decided he would look more into this later. After this tense conversation he decided that he needed to listen to some calming work music to calm himself. But before he could turn the radio on, it turned on by itself, and the ai asked if he wanted to listen to music. Cryo realized it must have uploaded itself into Cryo’s other items. While really tense now, he was able to continue working as the radio played its tune.

After working for awile, he decided to take another nap. He would end up back on Earth again, in s personal living quarters for himself, though his leg was still broken. After eating something, Zeke and Stinger Spider came in to check and discuss with Cryo some things. Cryo continued to inform his friends of his life on Cyriss. They then started to discuss a strange happenstance with what was apparently a set of cloths with BIZARRE qualities that was believed that Cryo wore that were discovered close to where he had impacted the ground. They then began to discuss with Cryo some occurrences that had happened since he had been here. The dragons who attempted to take him were now trying to not only find him, but a group of other young dragons, who had been rescued by their bug forces. But more importantly, they wanted Cryo himself to be better trained in combat to form a dragon fighting force to combat them. He would be the commander in charge of them, as his previous experiences would prove invaluable to their efforts. He agreed to the proposal, and decided that he wanted to go back to sleep. As he closed his eyes again however, he would have one last vision.

The black dragon from one of his first dreams about Earth, Servant, would contact Cryo again. It was here that Cryo learned that Servant is actually his Dad! He had been the one giving Cryo these dreams, as Black lunar dragons have a limited ability to see the future, but for some reason, he couldn’t see any further after this moment. As the vision ended, he told Cryo that he would continue to watch over him and guide him on the right path, while looking forward on the day he could look upon his son himself.

Part 2

After waking up, Cryo decided to ask his mother more about his dad. She told him that his dad, Servant, was sent along with other dragons in his squad to watch over the portal project for the dragon race during the intense war. However, his dad had fell in love with Tide, and began to act a bit strangely around her. After being called to command, when he returned, he began to act very irrationally around her and began to argue commonly with his commanding officer. One night, he approached Tide with news. They were going to “commission,” her into the war, and if they didn’t leave, they would come for her and her portal project. Tide realized he truly cared about her, so they made daring plan to escape together, while also destroying the portal project and all the data. But she decided to download the data and put it on another drive, in the event it might come useful later…

After a while, the two dragons were able to find a group of dragons willing to take them in and help them try to stop the war and the evil creatures responsible from it. But eventually, they realized the futility of the efforts, and decided on a different plan to escape. Using special meteors, they would transfer their body and souls into them and launch themselves deep into space, hoping to land elsewhere in the universe where they could bond with kind and pure hearted lifeforms and hopefully eventually reform their own bodies and find a world where they can eventually live peacefully with the species of that world. But Tide of course, made her own plans. With Cryo ready to be born pretty soon, she needed to keep him protected and safe, so she decided to try one last time to build a portal, but this one being designed to travel into VERY deep space, where she could hopefully find a home amongst the stars to take care of her child. Servant though, had doubts it would work, so he decided to instead transfer himself into a meteor like others. But before he left the one he loved most, he promised that some way, he would find a way to see Tide again… Hearing the story about his dad made Cryo feel happy that his dad had been a hero to his mother.

As Tide finished her story, it was time for Cryo to eat. But it was here, Cryo would be told terrible news. Tomorrow would be his seventh birthday… Being reminded of his birthday coming tomorrow made him sad, as it was the day he had been taken from his adopted parents. She told them they had a big surprise waiting for him, but it didn’t seem to cheer him up at all. Knowing the sensitivity of the project, Cryo, Tide, and Cameron decided to try to go outside to cheer Cryo up.

Outside however, as they were playing catch with each other, Cryo was given an interesting proposition by Tide and Cameron. One of the people working at the research base was responsible for a program called the explorers scouts, a continent wide organization that taught survival skills and teamwork, did fun outdoor activities such as camping, earned badges to show off your prowess in the program, and had fun with your peers. Tide and Cameron thought that Cryo would be a perfect fit for the program, since he was able to survive with Tide out in the wild with the limited resources at his disposal. While concerned that his kidnappers might make another attempt to take him, he decided that he should be safe. since the ones responsible for his kidnapping had been forced to flee the base after the incident, and it would be difficult for them to know when he would be outside the base on trips. He agreed to join and continued to play for a bit.

They eventually went back inside to watch a movie. As he started to get the movie ready, his tv immediately reacted. Cryo realized that If he told the others about his ai creation, he might get in trouble, since it at one point was connected to most of the security and main servers, and there in no telling how they would take it if they knew that Cryo had accidently programmed a very smart ai. Thinking quickly, he was able to convince Cameron that he simply upgrade his items programming. But he knew he’d have to talk to his new “ai buddy…” later about not being so obviously sentient.

After taking a little bit of time preparing for his party tomorrow, he decided to go to bed early. He would have a very strange dream however… He dreamed that he was in a dark room, with a giant birthday cake in front of him. A strangely familiar voice called out to him to make a wish. But Cryo didn’t believe in wishes, and tried to leave the room from a darkened door. The door wouldn’t open though. As the voice called to him, he knew he wouldn’t be able to leave unless he made a wish and blew out the candles on the cake. So he climbed the wooden staircase to the top, and blew out the candles, making the same wish he always made on his birthday. He wished to see his adopted family again…

But after candles were extinguished. They begen to light up brightly and then shot up into the air one by one, detonating and releasing a beautiful array of fireworks. As Cryo watched the spectacle above, Cryo’s body became very weak. He collapsed to the ground, unable to move himself. But then something picked him up carefully and began to carry him away. He opened the door to another room with a white haze. Cryo’s eyesight couldn’t make sense of who the figure was, as his eyesight had become hazy. He could only see it as a dark silhouette. He brought him over to a table, where an array of items had been folded up neatly on it. It began to unwrap each strange object one by one. The items seemed to be a very warm shirt, a strange scarf, and a blanket, which he carefully wrapped Cryo in. It then seemed to place Cryo on a very soft bed, and turned on an item that played very soothing music. As Cryo’s mind succumbed to the strange spell, he heard one last set of words from the figure. “Happy birthday, little brother.”

Part 3:

When he woke up the next mourning, he realized he was alone. He was going to head out, but his ai buddy seemed to be trying VERY hard to keep him in the room. Feeling very suspicious, he quickly headed for the door, before Tide came in. She told Cryo that she was the one who convinced his ai buddy to try to keep him in the room. While concerned that Tide knows about it, she promised to not tell the others. She then told Cryo that she needed him to stay in his room for awhile until they’re ready for his party. He agreed, and then she told him that there was some cloths for him to wear for the party, that he’ll need to put on before the party. She then left the room, leaving Cryo to need to decide what to do before then.

He decided to work on a eat and work on a few repairs. After washing his hands after the fact, he found a note on the door that told him they were just about ready, and that they wanted him to change into the cloths they made for his party. After taking out the cloths, he quickly realized that the cloths themselves were almost exactly identical to the ones he wore on his first birthday. Nearly crying, he quickly took in some deep breaths and reminded himself that it was just for today. He quickly put them on and took a look in the mirror. As he looked however, he began to realize something strange. The cloths he was wearing were made with the same formula that his adopted family used to make his own cloths with… After mulling it over for a bit, he decided that the researchers had simply figured out how to make them themselves. With his cloths on, he decided to listen to some music on the radio while he waits for his mother to pick him up.

As he listened to music, his ai buddy began to notice quickly Cryo’s stress and anxiety. It asked Cryo if he could tell it about what happened on his birthday. While Cryo was confused as to how it didn’t know, it told Cryo that their is more to learn from an experience then to read a simple document. It wanted to get a better idea from Cryo himself as to what had happened. While concerned that the ai would get the wrong idea about the people at the base if he told them, he reminded Cryo that it would not form a wrong opinions on one experience. It was also not connected to the base’s security, except for a single camera in the room. With these words, Cryo decided that it might be therapeutic to tell his story.

Cryo started by telling of what happened before the day of the party. About how his “big brother,” was running late. About how he left the house to find him, despite his adopted parents, warning him not to wander away from the house. About how he saw his brother being bullied and how he sprayed them down with a powerful gush of water. And about what happened after they got home. The ai asked a bunch of questions about what Cryo was like a hatchling, which Cryo thought to be amusing as he talked about it. Then, Cryo talked about the next day, and the party itself. Cryo told simply the plans of going deep into the forest by a lake to have a picnic. But then he told him what happened when they showed up…

But the ai pressed for more detials about the party, reminding Cryo that he seemed to be focusing on the more negative aspects of what happened. It wanted to hear what some of the fun things he did during it. Cryo, then began to think and then began to tell him the parts he thought was fun.

One thing brought up however, was his adopted fathers clothing formula. Cryo mentioned to it that the cloths he was currently wearing were made from the same type of materials, look, and qualities of the cloths his adopted family made for him. Cryo mentioned that they probably just figured out how to make them, the ai told the little dragon an oddity with the situation.

The people at the research base DID try to copy his adopted fathers clothing creations, but were not able to even come close to what he managed to create, thanks to a set of research documents it had downloaded pertaining to his creator. When Cryo mentioned that maybe that somehow listened to a news program or something, the ai mentioned that there is NO program that had ever discovered a way to make cloths like with Greg. Confused as to how they managed to make them, he continued on with his story.

He recounted the many fun things at his party. The trip with a view of the beautiful forests from the long drive. Playing hide and seek and flying for the first time. Playing catch with his big brother. About his big birthday feast. He also told his ai buddy about the… concerning dream he had after needing a nap after his meal. His ai was quite dismayed that his dream went so bad, even commenting a few times that the excessive behavior of the armored dragons in his dreams were overblown to the point where the dragons in his dreams were heathens. After that, he finally would get a chance to swim, before everything turned on itself.

After the telling his story the ai reminded his dragon buddy that his first birthday wasn’t a complete loss. He reminded his creator that he was able to remember some really happy moments in it. But more importantly, he reminded him that he shouldn’t dwell on the past. It was best for him to leave the past where it was and nover give up hope that he’ll see his family again one day. Hearing these words, Cryo realized his ai friend was right. He spent his life remebering that dreadful day, he never tried to focus on the good things that happened. And he realized that his ai buddy was right, in saying that he shouldn’t give up hope on seeing them again. Renewed with a sense of happiness, he heard his mothers voice from behind him. They were ready for his birthday.

They walked together down the hall. Tide immediately noticed that Cryo didn’t seem to be very tense. Curious, she asked Cryo if he was ok? He told her that he was fine and that today’s party would be fun. Seeing this strange turn of events of what was supposed to be a very hard day, she began to wonder what had happened beforehand. She decided to ask later.

Part 4

As they headed to the field, they saw a VERY large crowd of people from the research center had gathered for todays party. Tide told him however, that it was not his main surprise. She gestured Cryo to sit down with her on a picnic blanket. She gave Cryo a couple of white chocolate treats to help keep him a little busy while they both waited for his surprise. Cryo was surprised as he had only recently learned this recipe from having his dreams about Earth. He had written it down and placed it on his desk not too long after he had woken up from it. As he continued to nibble on the treat, he would be shocked when someone very special would come from behind and tap him on the shoulder…

His big brother, Noble, had come to see the little dragon, long with his adopted parents, Greg and Suzy. Even better news, they were allowed to stay with them at the research base to help care for the young dragon. With tears in his eyes and his heart lit bright, Cryo, his mother, and his old family went to the field to discuss what had been going on since they last parted ways. After a while, it was time for the little dragon to have his cake. He realized that the one thing he’s always wished for had already come true and didn’t know for what he could wish for. But after a bit, he began to realize he had just one other wish. With the thoughts of the future, he wished that when THEY arrive, that everyone he loves would be safe.

After that, it was time to open his gifts. His first gift would be from his adopted family. When he opened it, it seemed to be a very strange scarf. But Noble told him it wasn’t a scarf, but actually and bandanna. He felt around the material, and realized it was far softer then anything he had before. And it smelled very relaxing and clean. His big brother, helped tie it behind his neck. Cryo immediately felt very relaxed from its comforting scent and incredibly soft fabrics. But strangely, Cryo thought that just for a single moment, it seemed to glow a bit… Very happy from his gift, he thanked his family for it. He would get many other gifts from the other party goers, upgrade parts for his items in his room, tons of different fabric items like cloths and blankets made from Greg’s special design, even a computer. Yet despite all of this, Cryo knew that somehow, that bandanna was FAR more special then everything else, but he couldn’t understand why he felt that way…

After opening his gifts, night was beginning to come around, and he was beginning to get very tired from partying most of the day. Noble carried his “baby brother,” back to his room, while the party goers carried Cryo’s large gift stack with them back to his room. After setting it on the work bench, they wished Cryo good night and left one at a time, Noble changed Cryo out of his party cloths and into some comfortable night cloths to sleep in. Cryo looked back towards his bandanna and could smell the pleasant aroma coming from it.

But when Cryo mentioned it to his Noble, he told Cryo that Greg had discovered a way to create an even better set of fabrics and made that very special bandanna. When Cryo asked about it, Noble told him he used a flo lily, a plant that is considered impossible to transport or keep alive out of its natural habitat. Curious as to how Greg managed to get one, let alone use one in creating it, he asked his big brother. But he didn’t know how Greg managed to transport it either.

It was here that Greg came in and informed Cryo that his scales were the key. Greg told the story to Cryo on how and why he made his special cloths, using his grinded scales, soulfire petals, and waterproof fabrics to design them. But more importantly, he told that a few days before he was informed about Cryo’s bithday plans, they went to the lake where they last saw the little dragon to remember him. It was here Noble found the flo Lily attached to one of Cryo’s scales in the lake and brought it to Greg. But the thing is, the flo lily did not wilt and die when removed. It had survived despite being out of the water. Something about Cryo’s scale gave it life. He then transported to his house to study this further. The day after though, they would told that they could finally be with Cryo again, and there was a big party to celebrate his birthday. The people at the research base would tell Greg their plans for the party, while greg would give them the secret on how they made Cryo’s cloths, so that he they could be made by different people at the research base as presents for Cryo.

But at that night, as he slept, he would have a dream… It seems that Cryo’s father, Servant, had contacted Greg. He told Greg he had a VERY special item in his possession. Something that can be used to make a VERY special gift for the little dragon. A Bandanna… Servant gave Greg a set of instructions on how to correctly use the flo Lily to make it. Before he left, he told Greg that he wanted Greg to let Cryo know that he wished him a happy birthday…

After hearing his bedtime story, Cryo thought that there might be more to the bandanna then simply comfort. Tired though, he decided that he would look into this more later. He then went to sleep with the radio playing its soothing musical spell on Cryo’s hazy mind…

Ch 1

Starter Scout

A small bus hovers its antigravity jets across the ground as it goes across the road through the large forest. It eventually turns off of the paved road off towards a dirt path that headed deep into the forest canopy. The small bus goes deep in for a little over an hour, until it finally makes it to its destination. The area was pretty open, yet the forest canopy above still shielded most of the ground below from the sun, with a few splotches of light shining onto the ground. The bus’s engines began to calm as it slowly lowered itself to the ground. It’s engines then fell silent as it powered down. A few moments later, a side door slid open. A large figure stepped out. He had smooth black hair, white skin, brown eyes, and looked pretty strong. Wearing a scouts uniform with a cap and gloves, decorated with a bunch of badges, the figure put his hands at his sides and looked around the site a bit. He turned back towards the open door of the bus, and called in. “Alright scouts. Come on out and line up.” One by one, a bunch of kids in scout uniforms came out and began to line up side by side. The scout leader began to pace in front of them a bit to get a look at each of them. He realized that one of the scouts, wasn’t outside the bus yet…

The scout leader headed towards the bus again and stuck his head inside the door. “Come on. The coast is clear, bud. You can come out…” A head poked itself up from the side window. It looked around outside the window itself a bit to get an better look at the outside. It grabbed his backpack and slung it over its back. It then got out of its seat and headed towards the door to the bus. It began to go down the steps towards the outside of the bus. Cryo stepped outside the bus, wearing a scouts uniform and a cap, green finger less gloves, green toe less socks, and his favorite bandanna wrapped around his neck. He also had a medium sized green backpack on his back, with some of his important camping items and belongings he decided to bring with him to camp.

“Alright, Cryo. Stand in line with the other kids,” said the figure to Cryo. “Yes, Scoutmaster Kyle,” Cryo replied back. He gave a smile and a quick scout salute and walked over to sit in the line with the others. Kyle paced a bit in front of the line of scouts and stood a little ways in front of the line. “Atten…tion!” The scouts quickly began to stand straight up and salute. Cryo quickly saluted and smiled, as the scoutmaster looked upon his juniors. “Very good, my troop. Very good. Now. I’d like to welcome all of you to the wilds of Shepard’s forest. You juniors ready for some time in the wilds. “Yes, Scoutmaster!” each of the kids called out. Kevin smiled and nodded his head. “Very good, my young scouts. Very good. Now… hands down everyone.” Each of the scouts slowly put their hands to their sides, with Cryo placing his paw on the ground. Kyle began to head towards the his most recent recruit into his troop. He looked down upon him with his hands on his hips. The young recruit looked up and made eye contact.

“Well junior scout Cryo… What’s it feel like being back in the wilds again?” “Feels good to be outside again, scoutmaster!” said Cryo. Kyle turned his head to face the other scouts. “Everyone remembers, right? Our little junior scout here was taken. Kidnapped right in our own homes by a group of corrupt personnel who wanted to abuse our junior here. Force him and his mother to build for them. But, with a little ingenuity, and bit of cleverness, he managed to escape from his restraints, force their escape aircraft to land, make a call for help, despite being in the enemies grasps, and escape through the forest…” Cryo turned his head to face the others. He could see some of them looking towards the little dragon, with a slight look of concern. He thought they also were breathing a little more slowly. Kyle then began to turn towards the scout next to Cryo, making eye contact. He then turned to the scout next to him. “Cameron… How long was our little junior lost?” “Almost an entire month, scoutmaster,” Cameron said back. Kyle nodded. “That’s right Cameron. Nearly a month, alone with his mother in Geyser forest. Only 350 miles close to the upper hemisphere of Cyriss, where its always cold. No food. No water. No supplies. Nothing. All the while being hunted by their adversaries.” The other scouts seemed to dip their heads a bit. Kyle looked back at Cryo. He placed his hand on Cryo’s shoulder and nodded, then looked back to the other scouts. “Yet, despite all odds, he’s here with us. He was able to return safely home. Quite a little survivor our little junior is.” Kyle then paced forward and turned back to face his troop. “I’m expecting quite a bit from you on this trip, Cryo. Don’t let us down. Understand?” “Yes scoutmaster!” Cryo replied back. “Excellent everyone. Now scouts. What’s our motto?” “Explorers scouts survive and thrive! Explorer’s scouts will never die! Explorer’s scouts work as a team! Explorer’s scouts are never mean! Explorer’s scouts can’t be beat. Explorer’s scouts wont face defeat!” The young recruits shouted aloud.

“Excellent. Let’s get started with the basics everyone. Now. The first thing were going to do today, is split up everyone into several groups. Each of you will have to get along and work together to succeed here. Your success here will all depend on everyone’s ability to work together. You might even walk away with some nice badges for your uniform…” Cryo looked at his scout uniform made by Greg. He looked toward the only badge he currently had, the Beginner’s badge, earned by memorizing and reciting the entire scouts motto. He smiled at the thought of getting his uniform more “decorated.” “You’ll all be paired in groups of 3. Alright everyone. Now then… Group 1 will be Steven, Chris, and Cameron. Group 2 will be Daniel, Darrel, and Noble. Group 3 will be Johnson, Mason, and Reed. And our final group is Praydeth, John, and Cryo.” Cryo looked back at Noble and Cameron. While disappointed that he wouldn’t be grouped with his friend or big brother, he understood why his scoutmaster didn’t pair them with him. “Now then everyone. Why don’t you go around with your groups and chat for a bit to get to know each other. Remember to grab your backpacks.” “Yes scoutmaster!” they all yelled.

Ch 2

Interesting Introduction

Each of the kids began to disembark to each of their groups. Cryo watched as his friend and brother looked back at Cryo as they walked away to chat with their groups. He could see a disappointed look on both faces. “Kyle wants me to be able to work with the others. Make new friends. It would probably be too easy to work with people I already know very well,” thought Cryo. Cryo turned towards John, who had short black hair under his cap, white skin with red splotches throughout it, and brown eyes. He then turned to Praydeth, who had long brown hair under his cap, white skin, and brown eyes, with a brown birth mark covering a bit around his left eye. “Hey. Come one Cryo. Let’s talk over there.” said John. Cryo saw he was pointing toward a large group of trees towards the back of the campsite. Nervous a bit, he nodded. “Alright,” Let’s go… um… partners…” said Praydeth. Cryo looked towards Preydeth and could see he seemed a bit… nervous.” “Alright. Let’s go, guys.” Cryo said.

They walked over towards the back and stood together in a triangle to talk to each other. Cryo has been with the scouts for a few weeks now and had a bit of time to get used to being in a scout troop and in front of the others. He always saw the other kids staring at him as he went about doing his duties. But he knew that he was quite different from the others, so it was to be expected. He knows some of the scouts from school. But some of them he didn’t. “I didn’t expect scoutmaster to pair me with you, Cryo.” said John. “Is there a problem with that?” asked Cryo, a bit concerned. “No! No! Don’t get the wrong idea, Cryo… It’s just…” John paused for a moment. “It’s just that… well… it feels weird a bit, being paired with you after your whole ordeal…” A thought began to appear in his mind. “…and after how we’ve treated you…” “Don’t worry about that guys. I’m home again. I’m fine. Don’t need to worry about me.” “Well… alright then. So…” “So what?” “How did you do it Cryo?” “How did I do it?” “Yea. How did you manage to get out of that mess?” “I… think its a story best told by a campfire. I’m sure everyone here wants to know, including the scoutmaster…” John gave a sigh. “Well… alright then.”

Cryo noticed that Praydeth hasn’t said much since they began talking to each other, he was a little ways away sitting against a tree trunk, with his hands clasped together and his head held down. “Hey Praydeth. You haven’t talked yet. You ok?” asked Cryo. Praydeth began to scratch his clasped hands a bit. “I’m… fine. I’m fine…” Cryo began to think a bit. He began to slowly creep a little closer. Preydeth began to scratch a little faster. Cryo laid himself down to him a little ways away. Cryo spoke in a calming, low voice. “Hey… I can understand if your nervous… I’d be nervous too if I was in your shoes. I promise I won’t bite. We’ll be a great team. I know it.” Praydeth stopped scratching his hands and looked up a bit. While still a bit nervous, Cryo could see just the faintest smile come up. Cryo gave a small smile back, and backed up a bit. John walked over.

“So… I know you… fix things, Cryo.” “Yes I do.” “Do you… get paid an allowance for it?” “Oh no. I do it because I like it.” “You… like fixing things?” “That’s right. I don’t really have much of a need to buy things. Most of the stuff in my room is custom built or modified by me, with a little help with some of the other engineers back home. Mostly with spare parts. Stuff that isn’t, mostly come from holidays. And also… well… it’s not like I could go out in the public anyway, considering I’m… a dragon.” They both looked at each other. “Do you think you could… build like… computers and gaming consoles and such?” “Maybe. But there’s still a lot I need to learn about programming. Maybe one day. But not right now.” Cryo gave a smile and they both smiled back. “So… what type of items do you typically fix?” asked John.

Ch 3

Rope Ready

After about 10 minutes of discussion, the scoutmaster yelled again. “Atten…tion! Come back scouts! Line up in your groups!” Each of the groups began to line up side by side a little ways from each other, quickly picking up their hands for the scouts salute. “Alright. Good everyone. Hands down.” Each of the kids lowered their hands down one by one. “Now then. I hope everyone gave a nice introduction to each other. You will be working with your team for the 3 days we’re camping here. If you can’t work together. You’ll never succeed here.” He then took out a small rope and showed it to his scout troop.

“Now then scouts. The first thing we’re going to do, is to learn to tie a “campers tie.” This is what we will be using later to put up our tents. Now then. Everyone take out one of your ropes.” Each of them put their backpacks on the ground and took out a rope. Cryo took a look at it for a second. He began to get a little nervous. “Ugh… Looking at this kinda makes me remember being strapped to a bed…” he thought. He took in a couple of deep breaths and shook his head. He looked back to Kyle. “Alright everyone. Watch carefully.” Kyle began to tie the rope, carefully threading and weaving the rope as he made the knot. Soon enough, the rope was coiled and tied with a loop on top and coiled tightly around the lower part. Cryo watched carefully and smiled. “Alright scouts. Let’s see you all try it.” Each of the scouts began to try to tie the knot. Cryo began to quickly tie the knot, making sure his trimmed talons didn’t cut the rope.

“I’m done, scoutmaster Kyle,” Cryo said. “Really?” The other scouts halted and looked back at the young dragon. “Yes. Come take a look.” He walked over to Cryo, who held the rope forward. He took it out of Cryo’s hands and observed it. “Very good, Cryo. Not many junior scouts can get this right first time.” “This isn’t the first time I’ve tied this knot, scoutmaster.” “It… isn’t?” “No scoutmaster.” Kyle scratched his chin a bit. “And where shall I ask did YOU learn to tie this?” “I watched the show, Will in the Wilderness, Scoutmaster.” Kyle looked at Cryo with a slightly surprised look. “You watched a survival show?” “Yes scoutmaster. I learned it from there. I actually took interest and decided to try to do it myself. It took me quite a lot of tries to be honest. I think a couple of the times, I almost bound my own paws together. But eventually, I got it right. The knot was very useful when I was out in the wilderness with my mother to make shelters and carry certain supplies, like my fishing net.” Kyle chuckled a bit and smiled at the junior. “Well scouts. It seems our junior here has a bit of experience. Seems like our little “survivor,” here managed to learn a very valuable skill from just watching TV and putting in a little practice.” Cryo looked at the other scouts, and could see them smiling at the young dragon. He smiled back. “Alright scouts. Why don’t you get back to tying the knot?”

Ch 4

Rules and Regulations

A little bit later, it was time to move to a new activity. “Alright scouts. Come with me this way please.” Each of the scouts began to follow Kyle within their groups. Cryo saw his scoutmaster was carrying a small bag. They went a little ways down the path forward to what appeared to be a set of wires and pulleys tied together tightly against the trees and stairs heading high up towards several platforms within the trees. Cryo looked towards them and felt a bit thrilled. “This activity looks pretty interesting. I wonder what it is? This kind of gets me pumped!” he thought.

“Alright scouts form a line around here with your groups.” Each group began to line up near a staircase that lead up to the trees. Kyle turned forward in front of them on the staircase and patted the rim a few times. Kyle placed the bag next to the staircase and faced his troop. “Now scouts. Some of you might be familiar with what has been set up here. Chris. What has been set up here?” Kyle asked. “This is a set of zip lines, scoutmaster,” Chris replied. “That’s right scouts. Zip lining. As I mentioned before the trip, our camp grounds here are a “personal,” area on the trip for the scouts at home. This area has several thing and items built around it just for our trips here. There are several different activities set up around here. This one is zip lining.” “Zip lining, huh. I remember Cameron telling me about this,” thought Cryo. “Now then everyone. Why don’t I go over the basics on how this works,” said Kyle.

Kyle went towards very large metal locker near the steps leading up into the trees and platforms next to the zipline. He took a key out of his pocket and placed it into the keyhole. He gave it a quick turn and took the key out. Grabbing the handle to the far left, he pulled it and opened the locker. In it seemed to be a bunch of vests, with a 2 straps. One with a clip on top of it. The other seeming to be a strange handle connected to the clip. “These are your safety vests, scouts. You’ll need to wear these to stay safe while zip lining. Now then everyone. Watch and listen carefully…” He walked over to a wire attached to the set of trees in the back. He then turned back to face his scouts.

“Now then everyone. The first thing we do, before we jump off, is to put on the vest of course. That’s self explanatory. Kyle put the vest on and zipped it up. “Zip it up ALL the way. Then, once the vest is on, we’ll need to clamp it to the wires above tightly. Now. Here’s how you open it.” He began to open the cylindrical clamp by pressing a metal button of the front and back ends of the clamp. The clamp opened up and he continued with his lesson. “Now then after you open it up. You’ll need to attach it to the wire above. A potential mistake a junior makes here, is putting the clamp in the opposite direction. You need to be facing forward when doing this or you could potentially get really hurt. Take a look here.” He pointed at the clip, which had a small arrow engraved into the metal. “This arrow here, points to the front. When your zip lining, this arrow should be facing FORWARD, rather then backwards when you attach it.” The scoutmaster began to take the clip and maneuver it over the wire. “When its in the right direction, all you have to do to lock it in place, is to maneuver this metal part over the rest of the mechanism. Watch here.” He closed the cylindrical locking mechanism over the wire and locked it into place. “There we go. Does anyone have any questions?” Cryo thought for a moment, then raised his hand.

“You have a question, Junior?” “Yes scoutmaster.” “What’s your question, Cryo.” “Well. I… noticed the vests in the lockers are… well… non dragon based. Will I be able to participate in this activity?” “You’d think we’d forget about our little junior scout here?” Kyle stepped off the staircase and unzipped the bag at the bottom. He reached in, and pulled out a small vest, in Cryo’s size and body shape. Strangely, it seemed to have a second handle on it, connected to both the strap and the vest. “Here is your vest, junior. I made this myself. Greg’s special clothing designs are quite adaptive to make even equipment like this.” Cryo smiled and gave a nod. “One thing Cryo. I’ll need to give you some “special,” instructions for this, since your body and size is different from everyone else here. We’ll need to do things a bit differently.” “Yes scoutmaster,” replied Cryo. “Now then everyone. Here are basics and rules of zip lining. First off. Very important. Everyone go ONE AT A TIME. No scouts should be going down on the same zip line at the same time. Second. Do not fall off the railing. That’s self explanatory. Third. The brake…”

Kyle took the vest and pointed it at the handle attached to the clip on the vest. “This my friend, is your brake handle. This is important. We have set up signs on the trees as you travel down them. They will be placed in specific areas across from the wires around here. They look like this.” Kyle walked up towards a tree with a sign on it. The sign was an orange square with a black border that seemed to show black silhouette of someone riding the zip line and holding onto the handle. The word “Break!” written on it. “This sign is posted on ALL sections of the zip line. When you pass the sign, this is absolutely important. Pull the handle!” Kyle pulled the handle down. Cryo looked toward the clamp and saw it seemed the it seemed to have tightened down on it. “This will slow you down as you make it down to the other side. Going full speed to the other end of the zip line could get you hurt pretty bad. It also could break the wire and have you fall flat onto the forest floor. It is absolutely important that you break after passing this sign. Does everyone understand?” “Yes scoutmaster Kyle,” the other scouts said in unison. “Good. Now then. Your group is free to go ahead after all 3 of you make it to your platform. The groups will go in order. Now then. Everyone put on your vests. Make sure to zip up tight.” Each of the scouts began to zip up their vests. Cryo looked at the rather thick black vest for a bit. He put his arms through the sleeves and zipped the vest all the way to the top. “There we go. This should be good.” He felt the soft fabrics within the thick vest. He gave a rather strong tug to test its strength and scratched them a bit with his trimmed talons. Not a single strand came off, nor did it have a single tear. “Greg’s fabrics never disappoints,” thought Cryo.

Ch 5

Zip and Zoom

Each of the groups began to head up the steps towards the first zip line. Cryo’s group began to head towards the back. “So… Who wants to go first?” asked John. “You guys can go first.” said Cryo. “You nervous about going first, Cryo?” “Oh no, guys. I thought you guys would rather not have to wait for me. Scoutmaster told me I’ll have to handle things a bit differently.” They both nodded and continued up the large wooden staircase.

Soon the scouts came to the first wire. Each person lined up and looked towards the other side. Cryo saw the first one was a bit short. He could see where the break sign further on the path. “A warm up wire I suppose. Something to get the newer scouts like me a better understanding of zip lining,” he thought. “Alright. Which one of you 3 wants to go first? “I’ll go first, scoutmaster,” said Cameron. “Ahh, Cameron. Good. This is your second time doing this, correct?” Kyle asked. “Yes scoutmaster.” “Good.” He looked toward his junior scout and gave a smile. “Cameron. Why don’t you show your friend what zip lining is like. Come forward Cryo.” “Am I cutting in line?” Cryo asked. “Oh no. Just want to give you a taste of what you’ll be doing.” “Well… Alright then scoutmaster.” Cryo positioned himself to look through the wooden railing on the platform. “Alright Cameron. Now show us what how set up your vest on the wire.” “Yes scoutmaster.”

Cameron grabbed the metal clamp on the vest and pressed down hard on the metal buttons. The cylindrical lock released. Cameron observed with careful consideration and reached up towards the wire. Cryo began to get a little nervous. “Is this really safe?” Cryo began to wonder. Cameron secured the clip onto the wire, with the arrow pointed ahead on the wire. He began to grip the break in his hand. He then looked back towards his scoutmaster. “I’m ready, scoutmaster,” said Cameron. “Good. Now. On the count of three, I want you to jump forward off the ledge with your legs up. Ready.” Cryo gulped and began to get really nervous. “1… 2…. 3! Jump!”

Cameron jumped forward off the ledge and as the wire began to bounce up and down. Cryo looked ahead as he zoomed quickly down the wire, concerned he might not make it to the end.” Cameron then passed the break sign and immediately pulled the break on the equipment. Cryo heard a loud screech as the break began to work, which he then plugged his ears. He continued looking ahead. “He’s not going to make it. He’s not going to make it!” thought Cryo. He began to quickly debate if he should try to fly ahead and catch up to see if he could help. Kyle realized that Cryo had began to sweat and seemingly panic. “Cryo. Relax. He’ll make it.” Cryo turned back to his scoutmaster and began to try to breath slowly to calm himself as he looked ahead. As the breaks continued to screech, Cameron began to slow down much more quickly. Cryo’s concern began to fade. Soon Cameron had come to a slow and easy pace and arrived at the next platform, safe and sound. “Phew…” thought Cryo. “See junior. There’s nothing to worry about here. You and everyone here will be fine. Just remember what I tell you and everything will be all right. Let’s get our next scout on the wire.”

So time passed as each scout one by one zipped from the first wire to the next. Soon enough. It was group 4s turn. Cryo looked at the wire again as his partner, John, began to prepare himself to go on the wire. “You… go pretty fast moving down the zipline… It might be faster then me flying around… I’m getting pretty nervous…” thought Cryo. Soon John lifted his feet and began to quickly go down the zipline. Now it was Preydeth’s turn. He began to attach the clamp to the wire, when Cryo seemed to notice something strange with his vest. “Umm… Prey…?” Cryo tried to say, but Preydeth immediately lifted his legs and began zooming down the wire. Cryo immediately went over the side to of the platform to watch him. “His vest wasn’t zipped up all the way!” Cryo thought. But soon he made it to the other side, and Preydeth and John looked back at where Cryo was standing on the platform. “Phew… He made it. But…” Cryo looked at the wire and back at his own vest. “Gulp… It’s my turn now.”

Ch 6

Light Leap

Cryo turned back towards his scoutmaster. He could tell his little junior scout was nervous. “You ready, junior?” “Yea… I’m… ready…” Cryo said “Now this is a big leap from what you’ve done in scouts before, Cryo. It takes a lot of courage to jump from this high up and trusting a single wire and a handle to pull you safely to the end. But, you’re brave, right my junior scout?” Cryo thought for a moment. “You’ve been in some pretty rough spots before. Don’t tell me a little bit of speed and wires will scare you enough to not make a leap. Don’t you fly for fun?” “Y-yes scoutmaster.” “Then what is this little challenge for you. You can do it.” “Yea… Your right. Alright then. So… What do you need me to do?” “Now then Cryo. I’ll need you to jump up and grab the wire to pull it down a bit. Once down, clamp this on the same way I showed you earlier. The strap from the clamp is longer then the other scouts, so your going to be suspended a bit more downward.” “That doesn’t make me feel much better,” Cryo thought.” “Now when you jump, you’ll be suspended with your tail facing back and your body facing forward and your upper and mid body feeling the tug from the vest. Make sure you HANG ON to the break with your right paw and your left paw should be gripping this handle second handle right here to keep you facing forward as you go down. Keep a firm pull on it so you don’t start spinning around. Got it?” Cryo gulped again. But then he took in a deep breath and relaxed himself a bit. “Yes scoutmaster. I… think I’m ready.” “Good. One more thing. When you make it to the end, you’ll be suspended from the wire. It might be a good idea to have your partners help detach you and take you down from the wire. Now. Get yourself ready to leap. “Al..Alright scoutmaster.” Cryo made a leap and gripped the wire and pulled it down to his level. Checking for the arrow on the clamp he found it and looked straight down the wires path. He then looked back to the wire and placed the clamp on it and locked it correctly in place. He now stared down the path ahead. He took a quick look down and gulped again. He then looked back to his scoutmaster. “This is nerve wracking. But… I need to do this… I can’t back down now.” He slowly closed his eyes and took in a couple of deep breaths again. He slowly opened them and looked forward. “I’m… ready scoutmaster.” “Alright. Ready in 1” Cryo gripped the brake and the straightening handle on his vest. “2…” Cryo began to hunch himself back, getting ready to leap. “3! Jump!”

Cryo leaped forward and immediately began to travel fast down the wire. His heart began to beat really fast. “I REALLY AM going fast! Cryo thought. As he looked ahead, he saw his partners on the other side. They shouted. “Pull the brake! Pull the break!” Cryo’s eyes shot up and he realized the adrenaline rush had made him miss the sign. Thinking quickly, he tugged on the break handle as hard as he could and began to slow down. He was still going pretty fast and it was getting close to the end of the wire. “Come on. Slow down. SLOW DOWN!” Cryo said. Finally, Cryo began to see his speed die down quickly and made it to the other side of the wire. He hit the end of the wire with a slight swing forward, but soon he stable. Cryo thought for a minute and smiled. “That was AWESOME.” he thought. “You ok, Cryo?” asked John. He began to help detach Cryo from the zip line. “Yea. I’m fine. That was exciting!” “Just keep in mind the sign next time Cryo. You could have been hurt.” “Sorry guys. I’ll be much more mindful on the next one.” “Alright. Let’s go. The next one is quite a bit longer.” “Don’t worry guys. I’ll be ready this time.”

They made their way across the platform to the next wire. It seemed to be twice as long as the last. “Well. I’m probably going to get some speed on this one. He began to get a tiny bit nervous. But he then smiled. “Guess I’m going to be speeding through this one!” he thought. John quickly went down the wire all the way to the other side. He turned towards Preydeth who was about to clamp himself to the wire, when Cryo remembered something. “Hey Preydeth. You haven’t zipped up all the way.” “Umm… Don’t worry Cryo… I’ll… I’ll be fine.” He locked himself onto the clamp. “You probably should zip up nonetheless, Preydeth.” Preydeth looked towards Cryo. “Well… The zipper… seems to be broken on mine.” “Broken?” “Yea. Right here.” Preydeth pointed towards the area. Cryo could see the zipper had indeed been bent and damaged somehow.” “It may be best to go back to the scoutmaster then. I’m sure he can give you another vest.” “D…Don’t worry. I’m going to be fine.” “Preydeth… I don’t think thats a good…” but as Cryo said that, Preydeth had already jumped and was traveling down the wire quickly. Cryo leaned over the side watching him intently. Cryo looked concerned and began to pull the wire quickly down and the began to clamp himself on. But as he looked forward, he saw something was wrong. The zipper on Preydeth’s jacket had began to break apart as he went down the line. Cryo’s eyes shot up. “Preydeth!” Cryo said.

Ch 7

Crash Course

Thinking quickly, Cryo leaped as hard as he could off the zipline toward Preydeth, whose zipper had almost fully given out. Not long after, his zipper gave out and he began to fall to the forest floor. Thinking fast, Cryo, looked up towards where his strap was connected to the zip line. He quickly covered his talons in a layer of ice and slashed the strap, which then began to make him fall as well. Picking his wings up, he began to fly at high speed towards Preydeth as he fell, as the other campers watched in disbelief. As Preydeth was closing into the forest floor something strange began to happen around Cryo. It seemed everything was… slowing down… The world seemed to be going in slow motion, Even Preydeth seemed to be falling so slowly now… Confused, he disregarded it as there was something more important happening.

As Cryo continued to move forward with his wings, Preydeth was close to hitting the ground. Cryo leaned forward quickly, and managed to catch Preydeth with his back talons, before he hit the hard forest floor. “Gotcha!” said Cryo. But he saw he was still going pretty fast forward. Thinking fast, he began to try to slow himself down by spreading his body and wings out. He began to slow down but was still rushing forward and would soon hit the forest floor hard!

Thinking quickly, he decided to do something bold. “Ugh… this is going to really hurt.” thought Cryo. Taking in a deep breath he quickly swung Preydeth up and caught him around the waist with his upper paws, he then turned himself facing his back towards the ground. “Hang on Preydeth! This is going to be a rough landing!” Cryo said. They both soon collided with the forest floor, with Cryo landing directly on his back and Preydeth’s fall cushioned by Cryo’s body. “AGHH.” said Cryo. In just a split second after, Cryo then pushed Preydeth forward and he hit the ground softly. He turned back to Cryo. “CRYO!” he yelled. He saw Cryo toss and tumble over and over and over again as he rolled across the ground. He soon came to a stop, a little ways away from the crash site. Cryo tried to pick himself up, but was hurting all over. “Hurts… so much…” he thought. His mind began to get foggy. His eyes began to lose focus. He felt he was drifting off… “Oh my god. Cryo! Are you ok?! Cryo!” said a voice. He thought he could see the others rushing towards him, but soon, he couldn’t stay conscious, and began to fade into darkness.

Ch 8

Afterlife or Afterthought?

Cryo slowly opened his eyes. He saw he was somewhere… strange. Cryo looked around and saw nothing. All around him was a black void. “What’s going on? Am I… blind?” He began to pick himself up, and realized he wasn’t in pain. More importantly, he could move around. “Strange… I remember falling hard on the ground… But I feel fine right now. I can’t see anything though. I guess I’ll have to feel my way around to see where I might be.” Cryo began to try to slowly walk around, carefully placing his paw around the dark area. He began to see a strange happenstance just up ahead, as he saw a light coming towards him. “That light… what is?…” The light began to take shape around the entire area, creating a scene.

Cryo now saw he was looking at what seemed to be a temple, with ornate dragons along the entrance. Some looked like Ferrin dragons when they swam in water. Around the area seemed to be a magnificent city made of stone and marble buildings, combining a bit with some interesting technology and metal panels. “A… dragon temple?…” Cryo thought. Cryo began to think the fall put him in worse shape then he expected. “Please tell me I’m not…” Suddenly a very soft feminine voice called to him. “Walk inside. We have something for you.” “Who are you? Did I…?” “You have not expired. Please head in. We have something important for you.” “Well… if that’s the case.” Cryo walked into the temple to look around.

He saw magnificent marble statues that appeared to be of great dragons. “This place looks pretty neat I must say. I wonder who all of them are? They look pretty strong and cool.” He kept walking while admiring the architecture towards the center room. This room was a large octagon. The walls painted with magnificent works of art with and a dragon statue next to it. Gemstones adorned certain parts like eyes, armor, and more. He saw the works of art seemingly showing what appeared to be some type of story, each one different. He began to walk around the entire room to get a better look at each of the wall paintings.

The first on the bottom left seemed to tell of a green dragon. This dragon had seemed to participated in a battle against a massive beast, who seemed to had attempted to take control of the world. This dragon had taken his troops and headed into the final battle, where the creature was defeated with a heavy blow from the green dragon.

The next artwork seemed to be about a yellow dragon, who seemed to had taken in and protected a group of young dragons who were being hunted by some unknown entity shrouded in a dark aura. It seemed these kid dragons had some type of importance, and the yellow dragon had nearly given its life to defeat their pursuers and save them from a fire. There seemed to be hints and traces of different technology shown in the picture, making Cryo think he might have had some type of skills in engineering. The last picture shown that the green dragon from the previous picture seemed to have found and taken in the yellow dragon in and nursed it back to health, in which the two then fell in love with each other soon after.

The next artwork showed what appeared to be an argument between a dragon with a seemingly dark aura and an silver dragon. Then, the silver dragon looks at what appeared to be orders to track down and capture another black lunar dragon. The silver dragon had went along with it at first, but then it was injured by a group of other dragons and left to die. But then a white dragon seemed to had found him on the field and saved his life. The white dragon took the injured dragon in and nursed him back to health. It appeared quite some time had passed after, and his injuries had mostly healed. He was going to try to contact his unit to tell them he was still alive. When they arrived however, the white dragon apparently had info on the missing lunar dragon. When she refused to talk, his unit was ordered to fire on her, including the silver dragon. But the silver dragon managed to convince most of his unit to turn against this dark dragon commander, and escape with the others in tow, including the white dragon, to find the black dragon they were sent to hunt, who they knew could help them now that they were fugitives as well.

The next artwork showed what appeared to be a red dragon and a ferrin dragon working together to evacuate a settlement under attack by some sort of green creatures with darkness coming off of them. They seemed to have fought an entire army of them together serving as a distraction while the city was being evacuated. The next part showed them defeating some strange spellcaster that seemed to be covered with a black shadow. They then seemed to be seen helping rebuild a settlement after together, embracing each other and having a single child. A ferrin dragon…

The upper right wall showed another dragon duo again, but this one seemed… strange… The picture seemed familiar, along with the statues. It showed at first a lunar dragon and a ferrin dragon working on some type of project together. It then seemed to show them embracing each other and conspiring to escape a group of other dragons. “This story seems… familiar. What is this exactly?” Looking further down, it showed the dragons eventually joining a dragon on some type of advanced spaceship and attempting to fight back against dragons who seemed to have some type of dark aura around them. Strangely, it almost looked like in some of the art that the dragons were attempting to somehow remove the dark aura coming from them. It eventually went through a sequence where the ferrin dragon seemed to be saying goodbye to the lunar dragon, who seemed to be encasing himself in some type of crystal. It then showed the ferrin dragon seemingly building and stepping through a blue portal to somewhere else, with an egg in tow… She seemed to had been found by something that looked familiar.

“Wait… are those… humans in this? He kept looking at the art. The “humans,” in the art seemed to take her in, but later the ferrin dragon seemingly stopping a tidal wave and a storm with a flash of light that would have destroyed an entire city. Cryo was immediately reminded of what happened with his mother. “This… Is this… Mom and dads story?”

Cryo turned to the last picture on the bottom right. It showed a small blue dragon, hatching from an egg on what appeared to be a yellow substance. It showed a group of vehicles chasing the young dragon, in which the young dragon seemingly stopped those people using his abilities at a young age. Cryo’s eyes shot up. “This… This is… me!” As he looked upon the painting, it seemingly detailed very important parts of his life. His relocation. His swim trip. His time in the forest and escaping his pursuers with his mother. It seemed to be telling his story. “How is this…? What is this place?” He saw that the story seemed to stop, right at his recent birthday. But the story seemed to be only a small part of the wall. There was a large portion of the entire wall, not painted at all. There didn’t seem to be a statue of him either. “…Am I… important?” Cryo stepped away and took in a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

Above the room were magnificent stained glass works of dragons of many different types. Below, right in the very center of the room, seemed to be some type of alter. The alter seemed to be a large rectangular marble podium decorated with what appeared to be dragons carved out on the 4 edges. There were also gemstones, aligned in strangely, the pattern of a flo lily on the longer sides of the alter. There seemed to be a headrest made of a cushiony, blue speckled mass. Cyro didn’t know what it really was though. There was a array of different colored crystals lining on poles surrounding the alter. There was a red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white crystal on poles. As he continued to observe the room, the voice called to him again.

“Lay yourself down on your back on the alter of awakening. “Umm… Why? What’s going to happen?” “There is only so much time to explain. Please… Lay yourself flat onto the alter.” “Um… Ok then?” Cryo began to climb onto the alter and began to maneuver himself on his back, on the stony alter. He laid his head on the blue substance and clasped his hands together towards his belly for a bit. “I must say. This cold, hard, stony marble doesn’t really feel good to lay down on. Though this strange blue thing feels pretty warm and rather soft for my head. Similar to a pillow. But what is all of this for?” He began to take a couple of deep breaths and then began to relax his paws down forward and flat on the alter. But suddenly, right as his paws touched down on the alter, the blue substance suddenly formed around Cryo’s wrists and lower ankles, pinning him to the alter! “What in the world!? What’s going on! Let me go!”

Ch 9

Ritual Refresh

Cryo began to try to struggle to try break the substance, twisting and turning himself as he tried to wiggle free. “Relax little dragon…” the voice called out. “Relax? Are you kidding me?! What are you doing to me!?” “For this process to work, we can’t have you moving around. Please relax.” Maybe I would if I KNEW what was happening! What’s going on?!” “Your special item, attached around your neck…” “What? My bandanna?” “It carries something very special in it. A very unique and rare item. Only a few have ever been found. That special item can give you new abilities. It can make you strong. It needs to be on you for this ritual to work… Please take a deep breath… Calm yourself… and settle down…” Cryo, still a little hesitant on the situation, gave out a sigh. “Well… Alright I suppose. I hope this isn’t a trick…” he thought. He began to take in several deep breaths, and began to relax and and stay still while strapped to the alter. “Alright. I’m… ready,” he said.

“Good. We’re ready to begin the dragon ritual. The Birthright Bond ritual, to give something special from beyond the stars. Something our little descendant, Cryo will need for the future.” the voice said. “Descendant? The future?” questioned Cryo. “Now little Cryo. Just relax and hold still. This may frighten you a bit at first, but try to stay calm and let the crystals work. This will only take a little bit of time. We’ll be here for you to support the process.”

Cryo began to get more nervous, but took in another deep breath. “Let it rip, I suppose…” “Begin the ritual.” The crystals on the poles began to light up brightly in vivid colors matching the crystals, with what seemed to be an aura of energy beginning to focus around them.” Cryo maneuvered his eyes to get a look at the light show going on with the crystals. “Just relax Cryo. Just relax… Everything is fine. Relax…” he thought to himself. He took in another deep breath. The crystals began to turn on their own an point down toward the alter, right at Cryo. “Just relax Cryo. Just relax…” he thought. “Be still Cryo. Your doing well. Just take a deep breath and let the crystals do the work.” the voice called again. The crystals began to focus the aura, into the pointed bit at the tip. “Gulp. I… I can’t look!” “Cryo closed his eyes tightly, bracing for whatever would come next. Then the beams began to light up brightly toward the tip one last time, and all 6 beams shot, straight at Cryo’s neck with a loud booming sound. “Here it comes!” he thought.

The beams travelled from the above and in a flash, connected to their energy, right on Cryo’s bandanna. Cryo, closed his eyes as hard as he could for a few moments, thinking he’d be in great pain. But something felt off about what was going on. “Huh?” He slowly opened his eyes, and saw the beams sending a continuous stream of energy through, right at his bandanna. He realized the beams were not causing him pain at all. The beams strangely felt warm for some reason and he felt the warmth going through his entire body, right from the entry point with his bandanna lighting up as the process continued. It felt like the energy itself was blanketing his body like an actual blanket, trying to give him some comfort. “This is… odd. This isn’t nearly as bad as I expected. This feels… a little comfy strangely…”

“Very good Cryo. Just relax for a little while. The crystals will send their energy through your special item and into you body. It’ll be done and you will be released in just 10 minutes. We are here for you as the process continues.” “10 minutes, huh. I suppose this won’t be that bad.” He began to take in some deep breaths as the energy continued to funnel into him. Cryo began to think of something. “I’ll be here for 10 more minutes… I wonder if whoever is talking to me would be willing to answer some questions?”

Ch 10

Quality Questions

“Um… Excuse me?” said Cryo “Yes, little one?” the voice called back. “Am I allowed to, well… ask questions while this is going on? I’m just, a little curious about a few things. I would like really like some answers as to what is going on, and perhaps a few other things… It would help me through this process.” “We can help answer your questions. Please ask away.”

“Ok then. Umm. First of all, what exactly… is this place?” “This place is the gathering place for creatures with strong bonds. A place of new beginnings. A place called, the temple of Riis.” The temple of Riis?” “Yes. This is a temple within the dragon world. Its a home for an entire family of dragons, who have done great acts and have a large lineage of heroic and powerful dragons. “A lineage of dragons, huh? Could this be Mom or dads home on the dragon world?” Cryo thought. “It doesn’t seem like a place for a home dwelling. “This temple has a living area further in from the alter. Unfortunately, there won’t be a chance for you to come see it, little Cryo. I’m sorry.” “Oh. That’s alright. Um…” He began to think again about something else.

“If this is a home for members of my family and ancestors, does that mean I’m really on the dragon homeworld? How did I get here if I was on Cyriss? And my adopted parents and mother… Do they know I’m here? I don’t want them to worry about my disappearance.” “This is a manifestation of your families ancestral home inside your head.” “Its.. a dream? Does that mean everything happening here is not real?” “The ritual being performed here, while in your head, is being performed by a group of powerful dragons who used a great amount of their own will and power to connect each of their minds together and yours and send all the spirits, including yours, to your ancestral home with the goal to attempt to draw the powers of each other to perform the ritual.” “I… don’t really understand what you mean.” “While this may be a dream, the ritual being performed here is nonetheless, real.” “Well… I suppose that shortens it…” Cryo took in another deep breath, as energy continued to pour into him. He began to feel a little tired for some reason, but began to shake it off.

“Umm alright then, so… I’m really still back on Cyriss? “Yes. While your spirit is here, your body remains on Cyriss.” “Do… you have any idea of what my condition is back on Cyriss. I kinda… had to use my body as a cushion to save someone. I know the crash was pretty bad. I’m… worried that I might be hurt really bad. I’m not sure if you know. I’m on a “camping trip,” and people there are probably worried sick about me right now.”

“We are aware of your heroic action taken back on your home. Relax. While your roughed up pretty bad, you’ve suffered no broken bones, and your more serious injuries are being treated even as we speak.” “Really?” “Yes. Your human caretakers fabrics had protected you quite a bit from the fall.” “Wait… Really?” “Yes. The fabrics themselves had taken most of the exertion from the crash. The fabrics cushioned most of the fall and protected your body from suffering far worse injuries. While the concept of clothing seems a bit strange to us, we’ve seen through you only a handful of advantages of it. I have to wonder myself how Dragons never thought of using fabrics to keep warm and stay comfortable in, create items to help sleep comfily at night, make it easier to carry smaller items, and with your human caretaker’s particular skills, protect your body from a very hard impacts. “I never knew Greg’s fabrics could do that…” “Yes. This is something we ourselves didn’t expect.” Cryo began to feel a little stiff from laying on the alter from the position he was laying in, but he shook his head and took in a deep breath. He then had one more question.

Ch 11

Forever Family

“Um… ok then. Um… who exactly are you?” “This question is better resolved in person, rather then in your head. Look toward the hallway towards the front.” “Huh?”

Cryo maneuvered his head slowly, careful not to move his neck too much to face the direction of the entrance. He saw that a rather large group of figures were coming down the long hallway. “Huh? Who are…? Cryo continued to watch as the figures walked forward. As they closed in, he could see that they seemed to be other dragons, of many different types. “Huh? Dragons?” Cryo continued to watch as they approached the alter, stopping a little ways away. One of the water dragons came close to the alter, and gave a smile at him.

“We’re your family, Cryo. My name is Wave. I’m your grandmother.” “Gr…Grandma?” “That’s right my little grandson.” Cryo recognized her voice as the one speaking to him before. She smiled again and then stepped back. She began to face the other dragons.

“These dragons over here are all of your relatives who still survived the cosmic horror that took our home. The red Ignis dragon here is your grandfather, Inferno.” Wave said. “Hello there, my young grandson. It’s nice to finally get a better look at my brave little nipper.” said Inferno. He smiled at Cryo, stroked his head a few times, and stepped back. The green dragon stepped forward.

“My name is Quake, Cryo. I’m your uncle. I’m an Eras dragon, who can manipulate the ground, earth, and life energies of the planet. I’ve been waiting so long to meet the most recent member of our family.” He chuckled a bit and rubbed Cryo’s belly a bit. He stepped back and the yellow dragon stepped forward and began to speak.

“My name is Lightan, my little nephew. I’m a yellow Zape dragon. I’m your aunt, and have the powers of electricity and the clouds above. I see my little ferrin dragon nephew has been quite a heroic little fighter, even at such a young age,” She smiled at Cryo and rubbed a bit under his chin. She then stepped back, as the silver dragon began to step forward and began to speak.

“My name is Steelstrike, my little guardian child. I’m your godfather. I’m a metalmix dragon with scales of hard metals. My abilities come from absorbing metals around myself to increase my defenses or to manipulate light energy from suns to shoot power beams from within. I’m pretty sharp, both in scales and personality, but I’m still very protective to people I love. I’m a very good friend of your father and mother. They said that if anything happened to them, me and my lover could take care of you in your time of need. We’re still very much part of this wonderful family.” He lifted his metal claw up and began to seemingly flatten the edge on it. He began to stoke Cryo’s arm up and down a bit, before stepping away. The last white dragon stepped forward now, and began to speak.

“My name is Tornado. I’m a white Windsor dragon. You can probably guess my abilities rely on wind and movement. I’m your godmother. I must say my little guardian child. You seem to get yourself into quite a bit of trouble. But you always make it out safely. Nothing makes me and your uncle happier then seeing you happy and safe. We’ll always be watching over you.” She began to flap her wings a bit, and Cryo began to feel a bit of warmer air cloaking his body a bit more, which made him a bit more comfy. She began to step away. “There’s one more dragon here Cryo. Someone you know quite well…”

The dragons began create an opening between their groups, as a large lunar dragon began to walk close to the alter as well. “Your father. Servant.” Tornado said as Servant stepped close to the alter. “D… dad is here too?” thought Cryo. “Ahh my precious boy. Still a brave little fighter and hero, even to this day. It’s quite fun to watch over my precious son as he grows. Quite the clever boy, like his ol dad.” He gave a small chuckle and both him Tornado stepped away. “This is… my family… From beyond the stars itself.” Cryo felt comfort knowing that many of his loved ones had managed to survive the disaster in his home world. Servant began to speak.

“You have questions my son. We’re more then willing to answer them. The process will be done soon enough, and you’ll have a part of all of us in you.” “Huh? What do you mean?” Servant smiled at his young son and began to hover close to the side alter. He looked down to face his son and meet eye contact. “Do you know what these crystals are, my son?” “Actually… That IS one question on my mind, dad…” “My boy… These crystals, are a part of us.” “They’re… a part of all of you?” “That’s right my son. Each of these crystals, have a piece of us in them. They are funneling gifts from each of us to your body. Powers each of us wish to give, to you. To strengthen you for the unknowns coming into the future. To make you something far more then what you are now. More then any other dragon known. And to help us watch over you and keep you safe, in even the darkest of moments. As long as these pieces of us circulate through you, we’ll always be with you, no matter how far apart we are.” “That’s… deep,” thought Cryo. He began to tear up for a second, but quickly sucked it back in took a deep breath in and out. He smiled at his dad, and he smiled back.

“We’ll never leave you Cryo. Nothing will separate us from you. This ritual is a gift from all of us to you.” The other dragons began to surround the entire alter, sat themselves down to watch it as it happened. Cryo could strangely feel all of their warm feelings and positive energy circulating in his body from the crystals. “Now, my son. Do you have any other questions for us?” “Actually… Yes. I do dad.” “What is your next question?”

Ch 12

Bandanna Bond

“Well… It’s just… my bandanna. This item… You told Greg how to make it, correct?” “That’s right, my son.” “Well… What exactly… is it? You wouldn’t have Greg just make this for me as a birthday gift. I know that there is something really special about this. How… did you even know what was needed for the bandanna to… well… work correctly? Greg needed quite a lot of strange ingredients to make it, including my own Saliva and the flo Lily. What is this bandanna really?”

“Ahh… Quite observant my son. Your instincts are quite spot on. That bandanna you could say… was an experiment.” “An… experiment?” “That’s right. You might not realize this my son, but flo Lilly flowers are… quite special to dragons. I suppose you might be thinking your home planet is not the only one they grow on. Well… Your correct my son! They are quite ancient and legendary back on the dragon home world. Like on your world, there are only so many that have ever been found. Typically in times of crisis for the dragon race, at least on our planet. These particular plants don’t just grow in water, my son. They can grow in a multitude of environments and in different places. Even on lava! These plants have a particularly strange effect on dragons.”

“Strange effect?” “That’s right, my boy. Ingesting one was said to make a dragon much stronger, faster, and more capable of using abilities. It’s been even said that ingesting one could give you remarkable abilities beyond that of a normal dragon. But… there was one particular problem.” Servant opened up his paw, and saw that he seemed to have a flo Lilly in it.”

“The effects were only temporary. Granted… the effects lasted more then a few years, but the energies eventually dissipated. Dragons had for some time had tried to find a way to allow the flo Lilly to permanently give powers. But the main problem was, dragons couldn’t find a way to essentially keep the flo Lilly from being fully digested eventually. And of course very few have ever been found. But then… you and your human caretakers introduced us some rather “interesting,” ideas with fabrics.”

Servant clasped his paws together with the flo Lilly between them. “Your human caretaker had made what they called, cloths for you, from your dragon scales and an ingenious formula of what apparently was a cloths cleaner or whatever it was called and another little plant. The result was… far more interesting then any dragon could have expected.” Servant began to spread his paws out a bit. As he did, it seemed that a cyan dragon shirt was now extended and held between his paws. “These cloths had quite a strange set of effects on you. Keeping your body temperature properly regulated, keeping away dirt, grime, and precipitation, serving as an emergency cushion during falls, and offering a bit of protection from attackers. The dragon species would have done anything for a technological marvel like this.”

Servant then took the shirt in his large right paw. He made a rounded grip his large left paw and began to seemingly slowly push the shirt through the opening. “Then your original human caretaker finds a flo Lilly… Coincidence? No… I don’t exactly think so.” Servant then opened his left paw, and now there seemed to be nothing in it. “I always believed that dragons who find a flo Lilly, were chosen by the lily itself. Deemed worthy to harness its power. When he found it… I knew that he found it for you. And then, an idea began to take shape in my mind…”

Servant took his right paw and tapped it a few times on top with one of his left talons. He then turned his wrist and opened it up, revealing a lit birthday candle, standing up in his hand. “You did ask about the strange array of items needed to properly make that bandanna. The truth is that ingesting the flo lily on its own is not enough. These type of ingredients are needed to be mixed together and ingested to make it work. Transporting them also requires a dragon scale. The ingredients needed is different for each type of dragon, but nonetheless, the process would be successful. But with you and his fabrics, I wondered… Instead of ingesting it, would it be possible to try a different route for the flo Lilly. Perhaps, maybe the need to eat the silly thing might not necessarily the best way to harness its power. Could adapting the original process to these simple fabrics eliminate the need to ingest it, therefore eliminating the problem of digesting it entirely?”

Servant then closed his eyes and maneuvered his paws in a pinching position close to one another. Concentrating, something appeared between his hands. Cryo realized it looked like his bandanna! “And so… I contacted your caretaker, as I knew about his invite to your celebration coming up. I guided him to create the item. Though I had to decide quite quickly what would be the right type of item that would be easy to carry and wear around. Something you’d always want to wear.

Then I remembered a certain type of theater performance I watched on this world a few times. I saw you had watched few movies based on the concept yourself. I believe they call it, Westerns? Granted… On this world, they were reenacted in both plays and movies by the sentient species here based on their research of ancient Earth and its mythology. I found it rather silly how very old earth seemed to work in the deep past. Barbaric society, I suppose, but that’s beside the point, I thought that type of scarf those types of humans wore would be the best way to keep it close to you. Not to mention it being a good source of comfort and warmth. Then, I watched and waited for that very special day, where you’d receive it, with high hopes. And sure enough…”

Servant dissipated the bandanna in a wave of energy and then placed his paws back on the ground. “The results were perfect. The item did indeed allow you to harness the strange effects of the flo Lilly. This success is quite a bit huge, my son. As long as you keep that very important gift close to you, you’ll always have the powers given by the flo Lilly. It’ll never run dry, or lose its powers.” Servant smiled back at his son, and Cryo gave a smile back.

But then, the sounds of energy quickly began to wane, Cryo looked back up at the Crystals, and saw the beams coming off them thinning out. Soon the energy beams were gone. “Well, my son… The process is complete.” The substance holding Cryo down had quickly retreated back into the alter. Cryo began to lean up and roll himself around. He shook his entire body a few times. He lifted up and looked at his paws for a second. “I… don’t feel much different right now, dad.” “It will take some time before our gifts will be awakened in you. Be patient, my boy.” Cryo smiled at his dad and then a light began to envelop around him. “Wha… What’s going on?” “It’s time for you to return home, my son.” “What? But wait. I really haven’t got a chance to get to talk to all of you! There’s so much I want to know about all of you!” “Perhaps one day, we can share our lives with you. But for now, you have your own life to get back into. Goodbye, Cryo.” “Wait dad! Wait! No!” Then a flash of light overtook Cryo. “Dad?! Dad!”

Ch 13

Returned to Reality

Cryo’s eyes began to slowly open. He felt a bit dizzy and could not focus his eyes for a bit. “Ugh… I don’t feel too good,” Cryo thought. As he blinked a few more times, he thought he could hear a voice. “Cryo… Cryo… Can you hear me…? Cryo…” “Huh who’s… Ugh. Where…? His eyes finally began to focus. He could see someone hovering over him.

“Cryo. Can you hear me?!” “Huh. Oh… John. Hi. Ugh… I can hear you.” “Cryo! Thank goodness. Your finally awake!” “Where… am I?” “Your in your tent, buddy. Everyone has been worried sick about you!” “Ugh…” Cryo turned his head around a bit and could see the red frames of his tent. He saw the entrance at the farthest side of the tent. Cryo tried to get up, but felt quite a bit of pain around his body. “Easy buddy. Easy… You shouldn’t try to move too much right now.” “Note taken…”

“How long have I been out?” asked Cryo. “About zero five hundred hours.” “5 hours, huh?” Cryo looked towards his body and saw that he was wrapped up tightly in his scouts blanket, which was green like his uniform and showed a large symbol of the scouts on its front. He saw he was in his sleeping bag as well. “I see Noble and Cameron must have been here. They both know I huddle up tightly when I sleep,” Cryo thought. “Hang on Cryo. Stay here for a bit while I go tell the scoutmaster your finally awake.” “Ugh. Alright. I’ll… be here.” John quickly left the tent as Cryo watched. “I wonder how bad my injuries are?” he thought. Cryo began to maneuver the blanket off of him a bit. He began to see that his body had been bandaged around the lower waist, chest, back, and around all 4 of his limbs. Thankfully, he saw he wasn’t in a splint. “I’m bandaged up quite a bit. He felt around his head a bit, and felt that the top of his head had also been bandaged up. “At least my grandmother was right about no broken bones. That would have been a quick end to this trip.” He gave a sigh and huddled himself up again. “Everyone at home’s not going to like hearing about this…” Cryo began to huddle himself tightly again in his blanket.

Cryo waited for a few minutes, taking in some deep breaths. He then started to hear rustling towards the entrance of his large tent, and saw that the scoutmaster coming in. He looked towards Cryo. “Thank goodness, junior. You alright?” “Yes scoutmaster. I’m… fine.” “That was quite a nasty fall my young scout. I’m glad your awake though.” He walked over to Cryo and sat himself next to Cryo’s bed. “That was quite a stunt you pulled, junior. It takes a true scout to put yourself in harms way to save another. Your incredibly brave, Junior.” “Hehe… Thank you scoutmaster…”

“How do you feel?” “Pretty beat up I suppose.” “Well… Don’t worry. You’ll be back at home tomorrow mourning.” “Huh… I’m… leaving?” “Yes. Your not in any condition to continue with the camping trip. A transport will arrive tomorrow to take you to the hospital wing to rest up and get you back into shape.” “That’s… disappointing.” “I know junior. I know. You’ve been really looking forward to this trip. But you’ll more likely be bed ridden for all 3 days that were here. It’s best if you go back home.” “I… understand.” Cryo gave a sigh, and nodded. “Yes… Just rest tightly, junior.” He began to leave the tent., but then he stopped a few feet away from the entrance. “Oh… I almost forgot to tell you.” He faced towards Cryo. “Your bravery won’t go unnoticed Cryo. There will be a very special badge waiting for you when you are better.” “Really?” “Yes. The golden heart. This badge is given only to those who willingly risk their own lives in the service of others. You will be given this badge when your better. I plan to honor you in front of the others back home. You should be honored, Junior.” Cryo smiled back at his scoutmaster. “Thank you.” “Yes. Now rest easy now. Save your strength. It’ll be a long ride home tomorrow.”

Ch 14

Feeling Foolish

A couple more hours passed and as the sun began to set. Cryo was listening to some music with a rectangular radio next to his bed. “Ahh… It’s nice the scoutmaster allowed me to borrow his radio to listen to some nice soft rock while I rest. I wish I had completed my experimental portable radio for the outdoors before the trip. It would have nice to test it with an actual outdoor experience,” he thought. He began to turn the volume down a bit and picked up his backpack. He began to very carefully open it, trying to move as little as possible. He rummaged around a bit, and and pulled out his favorite author’s large visual novel series, Dragons Against the Darkness. He was about to open the book from where he last left off reading it, when he began to hear rustling from the entrance and saw someone entering the tent. “Cr… Cryo… You ok?…” “Huh? Oh Preydeth. I’m fine, bud. Don’t worry about me..” Cryo set the book on the lap of his bed and began to sit back a bit. “I’m… glad your… ok. I… thought you might be hungry. So… I brought you some jerky.” “I could use a nice bit of meat right now. Thanks. Come on over.”

Preydeth began to slowly walk over. He seemed to be very nervous and couldn’t bring himself to look at Cryo directly. He sat himself besides Cryo’s bed. He took out a piece of jerky out of his backpack, and held it towards Cryo’s mouth. “Here… umm… partner. E… eat up. “Cryo slowly maneuvered himself forward out of his blanket, and took a small bite of the jerky. “Mmm. Good stuff.” “Y… Yea Cryo.” Cryo took another bite, and then looked back at Preydeth, who still seemed to be facing away from him. “He must feel bad for what happened to me.” Cryo then began to turn to Preydeth.

“Preydeth… Don’t feel so bad about what happened. Things like this happen. I promise you, I’ll be fine.” “But. It’s… all my fault. I… should have listened to you. And now… Your being sent home. I…” Preydeth gave out a sigh “I… should have been the one to get hurt. Not you.” “I’d do it again if I had to. So what if I got a little hurt over a fall. I’m tough. I’ve probably been in worse situations before.” “Still… I… I shouldn’t… you deserve better.” “Preydeth…” Preydeth left a couple pieces of jerky on Cryo’s bed, and began to walk out. “Preydeth… Don’t leave… Don’t beat yourself up over this. I’m not mad at you. I promise.” “Even now, I… all I do is hurt you. I already carry the weight from before. I… I’m sorry…”

He left the tent through the entrance. Cryo gave a sigh… “He’ll beat himself up over the entire trip if this continues. I have to do something. But what?” Cryo closed his eyes for a bit, but then he could hear some type of crackling outside his tent. He got an idea. “I did promise a campfire story, right? Why not? Maybe telling my experience might make him realize I’ve been through some really rough situations and this fall is nothing compared to it…” “Cryo began to try and pick himself up. He felt pain all over him. “Ugh… Come on Cryo. Come on. Get passed the pain. You can do it.” Cryo took in a deep breath, and began to walk towards the entrance. “Hurts… But… have to keep going.” Cryo gritted his fangs, and kept walking towards the exit of the tent. He pulled the zipper and limped out, to see the other campers sitting around a fire. The scoutmaster immediately noticed his junior out of his tent.

“Cryo! What are you doing?! You need to be resting tonight!” The other scouts turned back at their injured friend with a look of great concern. “I… promised my squad mates that I’d tell them what happened to me when I was kidnapped by a fire. Please… Ugh… allow me to tell my story.” All of the scouts looked back at the scoutmaster. “Your in no condition to be out here right now. Please Cryo. Let me help you back to your bed.” The scoutmaster began to stand up to walk over, but Cryo began to step forward again. “Please scoutmaster. Please! I beg of you. Preydeth should know,” “Preydeth?” “Yes. Just… allow me to tell it. Just this once. I promise… I’ll be fine.” “Scoutmaster. I can take Cryo. He can sit on my lap in his blanket while he tells us his story. It’s what Cryo wants,” said Cameron.

Kyle turned towards Cryo, who was breathing heavily as he stood. “Please scoutmaster… Just this once…” “Alright Cryo. I suppose Cameron can take care of you. Cameron?” “Yes scoutmaster. I’ll get Cryo’s blanket and get him comfy.” Cameron quickly rushed into the tent to get Cryo’s blanket. He quickly came back out and wrapped Cryo up. “Alright scoutmaster, I think Cryo’s ready.” “Good. Come on Junior. Everyone’s dying to hear your success in the wilds. “Thank you…scoutmaster.”

Ch 15

Campsite Creature

Everyone huddled by the fire as Cameron came over and sat down on wooden log seat. He sat Cryo carefully on his lap forward, in front of everyone else. “Alright. Where to begin…” Cryo said. He thought about it for a moment, then he smiled.

“So there I was… in my room, ready to start the day. I remembered right as I woke up that 2 days ago, there was an attempt to kidnap me on the open ocean during my first trip outside the base. The experience left me paralyzed from head to toe, as one of the kidnappers had stuck a nasty dart in my back right leg, leaving me bed ridden the next day after I was rescued.” Cryo could feel the tension of the other campers as he paused for a second. “I shook off the experience, and decided that I should put on a nice silver jacket that day, as it was a little chilly outside and in my room. It was 9:45 A.M, and I realized that my, umm… caretakers were not in the room. This was strange, as they always were in my room by 9:00 A.M. So I decided to go tell them myself that I had awakened. So I crept towards the door, and began to turn the knob slowly, to find…” Cryo paused for a moment.

“That my caretakers were right there about to open the door themselves. I was about to go on with my day, but they then told me, that there was a special surprise for me that day. And so they led me outside of my comfy room, towards the medical building. But when I walked in… I saw something strange seemed to be going on within area.” Cryo paused again.

“There seemed to be a large amount of medical personal in the building that day. Much more then I usually see when I needed a checkup. I realized immediately that something was out of place… But I disregarded it, and headed towards the elevator in the far back of the facility. Towards the more secure areas of the medical wing. The door shut on the elevator and went down. This was however, strange as well, for they seemed to be leading to a part of the hospital that I’ve never been to before. And when the elevator opened, things became even weirder.” Cryo could hear the breaths of the other campers increasing in frequency.

“I saw a long, claustrophobic hallway, leading down to what appeared to be a security checkpoint. Heavily guarded by a large metal door, looked after by a small group of security personal. My caretakers had to have their items scanned before they would let us through. My tensions began to raise quite quickly. I started to get… suspicious. And I began to get a bit… paranoid. Why did they lead me hear? Why? What were their plans? But, I stood my ground, and headed through the door, passed security checkpoint, to something even weirder. I thought I’d find a vault filled with dangerous chemicals or diseases being researched. But I did not find that. What was inside instead…” Cryo paused again.

“Was a simple little room. Instead of chrome walls and a drain on the ground to protect against spillage and toxic messes, I found myself in a calming room with a relaxing set of walls painted in a manner similar to my room. And single light lit the room from above. But in the back, was a large bed… There seemed to be something under the covers. And on a small drawer next to the bed, was a 2 sets of one of my favorite meals, chillin tenders…” Cryo took in a deep breath.

“What was going on, I wondered? But then my caretakers told me… to approach the bed to see what was in it. I began to think to myself… Is this a trick? Are they trying to get me away from the door to lock me inside this tiny room forever… having nothing but a bed for comfort for the rest of my life. A precaution to prevent another attempt to kidnap me? I thought to try to make a run out the back towards the elevator. But… I knew that I’d get in big trouble if I tried to leave now… I had to make a choice. So…” Cryo saw the other campers were breathing quite fast now.

“So I steeled my courage, and walked towards the bed boldly. I knew this might be the last time I see the light of the sun, but continued forward to find…” Cryo smiled at the other campers, who he could see there looks of concern at what would happen next. “My mother… Nestled in the bed. You might not know this, but my mother had been in a… umm… deep sleep for almost 7 years. It happened not long before I hatched. She had saved an entire city of people and stopped a massive storm that would have pulverized an entire city. But she fell asleep after that. And here she was in the bed, finally awake, and happy to see me. I nestled her head against mine, and my caretakers left me to spend some quality time with my loving mother.” Cryo looked towards the other campers, who each seemed to breath a sigh of relief, and were smiling at the heartwarming moment. “So time passed, eating and talking with my mother, learning a few things about dragons and hearing how happy she finally to meet me herself. But as the conversation went on, trouble was brewing, right outside the door…” Cryo could hear them begin breathing faster again.

“My mother realized something was going on outside. I had suspected nothing at the time. And suddenly, she exclaimed to me, “Freeze the door Cryo!”” Cryo could hear a few of the campers gasping at the change of events. “I didn’t understand what was going on, but I obliged with my mom, and darted to the door and froze it with a big stream of ice from my gaping maw! Whoosh!…” Cryo breathed a small stream of ice on the ground. “And I froze the door, preventing it from opening! I asked my mother why I should do that. But then… I heard something outside. I leaned my head against a non frozen part of the door, and I heard… a conversation going on outside. They seemed to be REALLY wanting to get in. They tried to convince me to open the door, but me and mom knew something was up. But those bad guys decided that they weren’t going to leave, and so…” Cryo saw the faces of the campers seemed to be tense now.

“And so they decided to BLOW THE DOOR UP WITH EXPLOSIVES to get in!” The camping crew let out a gasp! “With little time, I hid under the bed and covered my eyes with my wings and my ears with my talons. My mother was able to create a wall of ice to block the shrapnel of the explosive. And now the timer was counting down. 5…4…3…2..1! KABOOM! The door was blow forward and smacked the wall, leaving a massive dent into it, and now, they came swarming in!”

“They were in black military gear and had some tranquilizer guns with the same nasty darts as before! They used a flashbang to try to disorientate us, but we were prepared. Using my wit I rolled to the left from under the bed. In a surprise attack, I blew a stream of ice, encapsulating a couple of the nasty folk. They tried to shoot me with their tranquilizer guns, but I created a wall of ice to take cover behind. So they decided to try and beat me and mom with shock strikers. But, as one swiped at my head, I quickly ducked and rolled to the right, and tripped him down with a quick swipe of my wings!” Cryo maneuvered his out of his blanket wing and made a sweeping motion with it in the air. “Another tried to quick jab at me. But I jumped in the air to dodge it, and with a flap of my wings and a fist full of ice,” Cryo covered his left paw with ice. He maneuvered it out of the blanket. “I smacked him a good one, right upside his head!” Cryo swung his paw in a sweeping motion which the campers looked in awe. “But now, another one of them tried to smack me right from behind. But with a quick roll forward, a shot a big gush of water at the assailant. WHOOSH!” Cryo released a small steam of water from his mouth at the ground. “I knocked him for a loop, and sent him crashing right in to his frozen friends in the back. The ice shattered and sent all of them flying towards the entrance, sending all of them in a daze!”

“Wait. Are they dead?” asked John. “Haha. No Dragon ice works differently then what you’d normally see. Shattering someone in ice only releases them from the ice. Its a painful and shocking feeling, but it doesn’t literally shatter them to pieces.” “Really? Why is that?” “I think mom told me that it works due to something called Cryogenic freezing. I don’t have the best understanding of it right now, but it basically just encapsulates creatures and things without causing permanent harm or damage to them. Mom told me dragon ice can be used to put something to sleep for a very long time.” “That’s interesting. I didn’t know that’s how your freeze abilities worked, Junior,” said the scoutmaster. “Yea. Thankfully too. I don’t know how I’d feel about legitimately… um… ending some ones story, so to speak.” Cryo looked at his scoutmaster and nodded.

“Anyway. Those bad guys were REALLY mad now. They began to surround me.” Cryo felt like he could feel the ever increasing tensions of the other campers at the site. “But I was ready to fight all of them off by myself. But then, to my shock, he pulled out his ace in the hole…” Cryo thought he could hear the sounds of gulping from the other campers. “It turns out these guys had a back up plan in case they ran into trouble. The leader of the group pulled out a remote detonator!” Cryo heard several gasps. “They told me that they would blow up and bury EVERYONE in the building, if me and mom didn’t cooperate with them!” Cryo saw the look of extreme concern at all the other campers.

“With no other options, and many lives at stake, I knew there was nothing I could do. Me and mom surrendered to them. They brought in heavy duty medical strap beds for really unbalanced psychiatric patients at the clinic. They grabbed me and slammed me hard right on it! Mom too!” Cryo lifted his paw up and then dropped it towards the ground. The campers seemed really tense now. “They pinned our limbs down to those medical bed with those nasty straps. They muzzled the both of us, and walked out, right into security. But they had placed bombs on OUR beds, too, willing to blow up EVERYONE who tried to stop them now.” Cryo could hear the other campers gasping again. Cryo saw many of them had become really tense at the devolving situation in the story. “With these bombs, they carted us away to a medical ship in the hanger, and flew away with us in tow. It seems they had won.”

Cryo began to yawn. His eyes were starting to become really heavy. It seems he was starting to get really tired from telling his story. “Hey guys… I think thats enough for now. Cryos starting to really doze off. He needs rest,” said Cameron. Cryo could hear moans of everyone from leaving the story off at such a cliffhanger. “I agree. It’s about 9:00 P.M.. Our little junior will need to be ready to be taken back home tomorrow. I know all of you are probably REALLY anxious from hearing such a story. But I think its time to call it a night.” Cryo gave out another yawn. “Yea… sorry guys. I… really need some rest. I’ll… tell you the rest maybe when you guys are home. Have a good night everyone…” “Yea… You too Cryo…” said the other campers. “Alright. Let’s get you back in your sleeping bag.” Cameron carried Cryo slowly back to the tent and nestled him very carefully in his sleeping bag. “Goodnight, my very brave friend. Sleep well… Even after hearing the story again, I still can’t believe you went through all that,” said Cameron. Cryo yawned again. “Goodnight…” John and Preydeth looked at Cryo one more time in their own sleeping bags, as Cryo’s mind began to quickly drift off and fall into a deep slumber.

Ch 16

News at Nine

Cryo slowly opened his eyes. He gave out a yawn. His vision seemed blurry for some reason. He heard a low ringing in his ears. He shook his head and blinked a few times. “Oof… Still don’t feel good…” Cryo thought. As his eyes began to focus, he saw he was back in his tent. Naptunes was playing through his ears. “Huh. I didn’t turn on naptunes last night. I guess the scoutmaster turned on Naptunes at some point to keep me asleep. I don’t think the others really like sleeping music like me.” Cryo began to maneuver his right paw out of his blanket to switch the radio off.

“Funny dream last night. I guess I’ve played a little too much capsule creatures lately. I can’t imagine my actual reaction if I actually somehow transformed into one of them. Especially a Froza… Then again. I suppose… I’ve woken up in some weird situations before… technically.” Cryo chuckled a few times. He looked around and saw that John and Preydeth were not in the tent. “Hmm… Neither of them are here. I wonder what time it is?” Cryo thought. He yawned again. “I better let the others know I’m awake.”

Cryo lifted his head up and turned it towards the entrance to the tent. “Scoutmaster? Scoutmaster! I’m awake!” “Oh! I hear you Junior! Hang on for a second! I’ll get to you in a bit.” “Alright Scoutmaster!” Cryo set his head back down, and took in a deep breath. “I… suppose this is it for my trip. It’s disappointing that I have to leave due to my injuries. But… trying these activities with my current condition probably wouldn’t be wise. Sigh… I suppose it’s fine though. Better safe then sorry. I just hope Preydeth doesn’t beat himself up due to what happened. Its not helping him or me…” He huddled himself a bit more tightly in his blanket.

A few minutes after, the scoutmaster came into the tent. “You feeling ok, Junior?” “Yes scoutmaster.” “What time is it scoutmaster?” “10:00 A.M.” “Ahh… I slept in about an hour late.” “Yes. I wanted you to get some more rest, so I didn’t want you to awaken. I’m surprised your up, considering your injuries. I was hoping you’d stay asleep a little longer.” “Why?” “Your ride home will not be here for another hour. I didn’t want you stuck in your tent doing nothing but leaving you to your thoughts.” “I’m sorry, scoutmaster.” Kyle walked over to Cryo’s bed and sat next to him. He began to rub Cryo’s back a bit. “Is Preydeth alright? I… know he’s feeling pretty bad about what happened. I hoped my story last night might help.” “Oh… Um… Cryo. He’s… going home with you. John too…”

“What! Going home with me!?” “Yes…” “But… Why!?” “Preydeth… He wants to make sure you get to the medical staff at home. He… seems to be thinking about quitting the scouts.” “Quitting the scouts!” “Yes. He feels responsible for what happened. I’m not sure why. But he feels he needs to get you home to get better. I tried to convince him to stay. But he’s made up his mind. “But what about John? Why does he want to leave?” “He wants to see if he could convince him on the trip home for him to stay in the scouts. Its unfortunate to see so many campers leaving, but I don’t think they’ll change their minds at this point.” “Ugh… Things have gone a lot worse. I didn’t think my teammates here would want to leave with me.” “Yes… In any case junior. We need to get you home. You need rest in a good environment. I’ve already arranged for the other campers to go with you.” The scoutmaster began to head towards the entrance to the tent. “Just rest up for now, Junior. We’ll get you back home to speed safely.” “Yea… Thanks Scoutmaster.” “Good. Be safe and well, my little junior scout.”

He left the tent, leaving Cryo alone to think.” “Ugh… Things are far worse then I thought. As if I didn’t have enough bad news. Can this get any worse?” Cryo gave out a sigh. “I should take time during the long drive home to try to convince him not to quit. He shouldn’t do this for me. I’m not angry at him. Maybe if he sees that, he’ll reconsider. In any case, All I can do now is wait for the medical vehicle to arrive.” Cryo gave out a sigh, and laid his head down. “Let’s hope nothing else goes wrong.”

Ch 17

Scared Stiff

An hour passed as Cryo waited patiently in the tent. He had been reading in the tent for awhile, when Cryo could hear the low whirr of the emergency hover transport somewhere outside. “Sigh… I guess… this is it. Time to go home. Ugh… I don’t know how I’m going to explain all this to mom and the others. I hope they haven’t been informed already…”

Cryo listened to the outside to hear equipment being unloaded. “That sounds like a medical bed… with straps,” he thought. Cryo began to dip his eyes down a bit, and breathed a little faster. He closed his eyes and took in a couple of deep breaths and shook his head a few times. “Get a grip, Cryo. Get a grip… Its probably just a standard one. Just two straps to keep me stable on the bed…” He slowly opened his eyes and continued listening. He could a squeaky wheel approaching the tent. He could hear it behind the tent at first, then in front. He then began to hear someone coming in.

“Junior? You ok in there?” “Yes, scoutmaster.” “Ahh good.” The scoutmaster stepped in hovered over him. “Your ride has arrived, Cryo.” “I realized it. I could hear the sounds of the medical vehicle outside.” “Yes… In any case, let me call them in to pick you up.” He stood back up and headed back to the entrance. “Alright. Bring in the bed. I’ll help get him on. Cryo watched as 2 medics in uniforms came in. Cryo recognized them. “Oh. Hi Nancy. Hi Darrel. I… didn’t expect you two to come here.” “Well… I’m your primary physician, Cryo. When I heard the news, I couldn’t just stand there and wait for you to arrive at home. I thought it would be better if I came myself.” “Its been a while since I had last seen you, Darrel. Your looking well. He approached Cryo and began to stroke his back a little bit. Cryo looked at him and could see a bit of his shaved brown hair under the medical cap and his brown eyes, and dark skin. He smiled at him. “Since your here, does this mean you finally passed the exams and became a physician at the base, like your mom?” “Oh no. I’m still in training, buddy. Mom thought bringing me on the trip would be a good way to learn how transport and treat patients who are being transported home. “Haha. I guess thats one way to learn. I know I’ll be in good hands with the both of you here. I’ll probably be fixed up by the time I’m home!” Cryo said. Each of them gave a chuckle.

“Alright, bring in the stretcher, Kyle.” “Alright Nancy. Here it comes,” Kyle said. Kyle brought in a medical stretcher. Cryo recognized that it seemed to be a new type. It looked like that it dipped inward a bit. “Is that a… new medical bed?” Cryo asked. “Yes. We’ll have to lay you on your back during the trip. The bedding is curved inward a bit, to give some of your back scales a little more room and comfort.” said Nancy. Nancy folded the wheels in to lower it flat on the ground. “Alright. Let’s get you on, junior,” said Kyle “Alright… Uh… Thanks scoutmaster.”

Nancy and Darrel Carefully picked up Cryo and placed him on his back back on the stretcher. “Alright. Let’s strap him on.” said Nancy. “Umm… Uh… Will my arms be… strapped down?” Cryo asked. “No. Your arms will be allowed to move freely. Though I suggest that you don’t try to move them too much until we get home.” “Uh huh… Um thanks? Heh heh…” They placed the straps on around his lower waist and around his upper body, under his armpits. Cryo began to get nervous.

“Is something wrong, Cryo?” “Oh! Um… No. Nothing is wrong. I’m uhh… perfectly fine.” “Are you sure?” “Yes… I am.” “Well Alright. Let’s get the wheels up. Darrel?” “Got it, Mom. They began to unfold the wheels under the stretcher. They lifted it up and placed the wheels on the ground. Cryo began to sweat a bit. “Hmm… Cryo. Are you hot? It’s not that warm out this mourning.” asked Darrel. “Oh! um… yea. I feel a little bit hot. Hehe.” “Do you think Cryo might be running a fever Mom?” “Perhaps. We’ll take his temperature in the vehicle. Let’s roll him out.” “Alright. Relax junior.” said Kyle. He turned towards Nancy. “I’ll pack up his gear and bring it to you to the vehicle once its ready to go.” “Thank you Kyle. Alright. Let’s head towards the medical vehicle,” said Nancy. “Yea… Let’s head out.” said Cryo.

They began to wheel Cryo towards the medical vehicle. Cryo saw a large, bulky, medical transport with its hover jets turned off on the ground. It was red around the side and hood of the vehicle. The was strips of blue bending across the from left side and going all the way right. Cryo saw the large symbol of the medical vehicle. A heart bandaged up across the center. Cryo started to whimper a bit as the began to swing around the back. He shook his head and took in a deep breath. “Cryo?… Are you sure your ok? Is something wrong?” N… No! Nothing is wrong! I promise you… I’m fine!” They both could see that Cryo seemed to be very anxious. Nancy and Darrel looked at each other. “Well… Alright Cryo. Just relax. Don’t worry. We’ll get you home ok. I promise.” Cryo didn’t reply back.

They opened the back of the vehicle. Cryo could see both his camp mates were in. “Cryo. You… ready to go home?” asked Preydeth. Cryo didn’t give an answer. He looked down towards his waist and clasped his paws together on his belly and began to scratch them a bit. “Cryo?” “”Don’t worry guys. I’m…” Cryo took in a dep breath. “I’m fine.” The both of them could see something was wrong with the junior scout. They looked at each other and back at Cryo. “Alright. Move out of the way, you two.” They moved away from the center and to the sides of the vehicle. Cryo closed his eyes lifted the stretcher up into the vehicle, and strapped it in place in the vehicle. “Alright. It’s time to go guys.” Darrel and Nancy closed the back of the vehicle and the engines began to start up. The medical transport begins to hover off the ground and began to head out. “Be brave, junior.” said Kyle as he stepped over to the other campers. The engines began to light up on the vehicle, and soon began to move off towards home.”

Ch 18

Scared and Scarred

The van travelled down the dirt road for a short amount of time. It soon picked up on the main roads and continued on. In the back of the vehicle, Nancy was preparing to attach a heart rate monitor to Cryo’s chest, while John and Preydeth looked on. “Alright. Hold still Cryo. This will only take a second.” she said. “Y… Yea, Nancy,” Cryo replied back.

She attached it to Cryo’s chest, and he looked forward, with his eyes narrowed down. “Alright. Should turn on in a… huh?” She saw that his heart rate had gone up quite a bit.” “Cryo. Your heart rates 148. Your heart rates a bit fast right now.” she said. “I’ll… be fine, I’m sure. Its just a little high. I’m sure its nothing…” Nancy began to rub Cryo’s arm a bit. “You seem a bit nervous Cryo. Is something wrong?” “Its nothing. I promise.” She looked at Cryo. “Something is wrong with him. His behavior has been a little strange, even before we put him on the stretcher.” She gave a smile at him. “Lets check your temperature.”

She grabbed a electronic thermometer and began to hover it over him. “Open your mouth, Cryo, and put the tip under your tongue.” “Al…Alright.” Cryo slowly and nervously opened his mouth, with his tongue extended up a little bit. “Alright Cryo, Just keep this under your tongue and relax.” “Alright…” She placed the thermometer under his tongue and he slowly closed his maw. After a few moments, she took it out. “Hmm… 69.4*F. A little higher then your normal temperature.” “What’s his normal temperature?” asked Preydeth. “Its typically 68*F,” said Nancy. Preydeth nodded. “I’m… running a fever?” asked Cryo “Hmm… So it seems. Just a low one though. Here. I’ll get a dragon cold pad for your head.” “Ok. Um… Thank you I suppose. I didn’t think you’d uh… bring one…” She began to open a small medical refrigerator in the back. “You should know by now I always will come prepared for any situation for you Cryo.” She walked back over and lifted Cryo’s head from the pillow. She began to carefully place the dragon cold pad onto Cryo’s head and placed the strap on. “There. The cold should give you some nice relief.” “Th… Thank you.” “Alright. Just rest up Cryo. We’ll be home soon enough.”

About an hour passed. Cryo had began to get a bit fidgety in the bed. “You ok, Cryo.” “Ye… Yea. Just, trying to get a bit more com… comfy.” But not long after he closed his eyes, and began to twist a bit more awkwardly in the medical bed.” “Cryo? What’s going on? Your very restless right now. “I’m sorry… I’m fine! I promise. I I…”

Preydeth looked over Cryo. He lifted lifted Cryo’s paw up and held his hand. “Cryo. Look at me…” Cryo looked towards Preydeth. “I know what going on… He’s restless because he’s terrified…” he said. “Terrified?” asked Darrel. “Yes just look at him. Look at how he seems to be struggling on the bed. Like a trapped animal…” “Trapped… animal?” said John. “Yes. At first I though his reactions were just being upset because of what… what pain I caused him.” “What do you mean Preydeth?” asked Nancy. “Cryo’s in this condition because of me. He saved me from a fall. A fall that could have been completely avoided if I had just listened to him.” He began to stroke Cryo’s arm a bit.”

“But his reactions right now don’t follow anger. It shows fear. Like his own mind is struggling to grasp his own more feral instincts and reality. And so I asked myself… What could he be so afraid of right now. And then… I remembered something the night before. Do you remember, John?” “A couple things happened that night. You going to be more specific.” “That night, Cryo told us a story. Despite being injured and hurt, he willingly came out of his tent to share a bad part of his life. When I thought of the story, I began to piece everything together.”

He began to rub Cryo’s belly a bit. “He was kidnapped. Right in front of everyone in the hospital building. He was slammed onto his back and strapped to a bed. Muzzled so he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move. Can anyone here actually imagine what would be going through some ones mind like Cryo was forced to. And they even used one of the medical vehicles to escape. And now there is something strapped around Cryo’s head. But more specifically, right under his neck. Piece this all together and look at Cryo now.” They all looked at Cryo. “This type of experience leaves scars. Right now… He’s being transported in a medical vehicle, strapped to a bed, with something making it a little harder to speak. Doesn’t anyone here think that he’s reliving what happened? He’s reliving some of the worst moments of what happened.” Preydeth clasped his hand around Cryo’s palm, showing his support. “While the situation is not quite the same, its similar enough where his mind is reacting very negatively. He’s terrified, and feels like he’s going through that awful mess all over again.

“I see… What you say makes complete sense,” said Nancy. She came over to Cryo, and began to rub his head a bit. She thought she could see a small tear in his eyes. She began to rub his belly. “I don’t think anyone here can imagine what he went through. To be reminded like this…” said Nancy. “Cryo needs support right now. He has to be reminded, that he’s not being kidnapped. He’s not being taken hostage. He needs to know that everything will be fine. And we have to reaffirm that he’ll never be put through something that horrible again,” said Preydeth. They looked at each other and nodded. They positioned themselves across different sides of the bed. They began to stroke him in different parts of the body. Preydeth pulled Cryo’s paw a little ways away from his heart. “Your brave. Braver then anyone I know. You can pull through this. I know it. Look at us, not where you are. We’re here for you.” Preydeth nodded, and Cryo gave a small smile and nodded back. “Th… Thank you everyone.” “Hey Cryo… You never told us the rest of your story… Why don’t you tell it to us while going home. I want to hear how such a brave and noble dragon like yourself and your loving mother managed to outsmart and outwit a whole group of bad characters who wanted to terrorize and abuse a loving friend, and make it safely home, back to everyone who loves you.” Cryo smiled at Preydeth. “Ok. Well… After we were taken aboard the medical ship, I…”

Cryo continued to share his tale with his new friends. As he told his story, they stroked him in different parts to comfort him. They always kept themselves into his field of view, working together to keep him calm and keep him hydrated. After a little over an hour, Cryo began to get very sleepy. “Hey, Nancy. Cryo’s looking tired. I think we should try to help him sleep,” said John. “Yes. A little bit of sleep should help him,” replied Nancy “Yawn… Your not going to sedate me, are you?” “Oh no, Cryo. I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Let’s just get you comfy. We should be home in about another hour.” She smiled at Cryo and got his scouts blanket and placed it over his medical bed. Cryo began to get a bit nervous again.

“Cryo… Look at me,” said Preydeth. Cryo turned toward him. “Remember. The blanket here is not meant to hide the straps. It’s meant to keep you warm and comfy. To be able to rest peacefully in. Just keep looking at me. Stay calm.” He took in a deep breath as he began to relax himself. He smiled back. John fluffed his pillow a bit, and his eyes began to droop. “There we go. Hey, Nancy. Is that a radio over there? He sleeps to soothing music, right?” asked John. “Yes he does.” replied Nancy. She looked back at Cryo, who’s eyes seemed to be drooping down. “Here you go, Cryo.” She began to fiddle around with the radio a bit. A voice came over the radio. “Hello, fellow snoozers. This next song inspires dreams of the cosmos. of sailing through the void and explore the universe and the many mysteries surrounding it. The song is called, Galaxy Gateway.” A soft, orchestral medley began to play and ring into Cryo’s ears. “Focus on the music, Cryo. Let this music help lull your tired body and mind to sleep. Slowly close your eyes, and listen. Your mind will drift off soon after,” said Preydeth. Cryo nodded to Preydeth. He slowly closed his eyes, as the tune began to work its magic on Cryo’s hazy mind. His mind fogged up, and fell under the music’s deep spell. “Rest easy, my very brave friend.”

Ch 19

Rest and Relax

Cryo’s head felt fuzzy, as his eyes slowly opened up. He felt something very comfortable huddled around his sore body. Wh… Where?” As his eyes began to focus, he could see he was in a small room. He yawned for a bit. He saw the couple long lights beaming down around the room. The ceiling was white, and the walls were a calming blue, all round. He saw that there was a window also pouring light to the left of the room. Outside, he saw a familiar architecture. A vast complex for research and the military spread below, with a couple of shrubs and plants dotted around the outside in a few places. “I know where I am now. This is… home. I’m… back home.” He smiled and looked around the room some more.

He saw to the right, was the entrance, attached toward the far back right corner of the room. It was a standard wooden door with the medical symbol was painted on. “I’m clearly in the medical building. Hmm…” Cryo looked towards his bed, and saw he was very carefully nestled in a bed with what seemed to be a new quilt on it. He looked at it, and saw what appeared to be a picture of him resting in a warm dark blue bed with a green dragon cold pad on his head, and a thermometer in his mouth. The words “Get well soon, Little Dragon,” were stitched under the picture on the blanket. The bed itself was quite different from his hay bed. He saw it seemed to be similar to a bed a human would sleep in, but the bedding itself seemed a bit… different. “This blanket is new. I think it was personally made for me for my hospital stay. It feels like its trying to tighten a bit around my body. Cushion me against itself more, yet its not restricting my movement. It also feels a little cooler. And the bedding below seems to be doing something similar. Its not enough to make me too chilly. I do like to huddle up tightly in beds. Interesting.”

He pulled the blanket up a bit, to see his body. He saw his body had its bandages changed, with a few places parts of his body also having medical gauze. “I’m hurting a bit still. But it looks like they done a good job treating my wounds.” He turned towards his upper right arm, and saw a small bit of medical gauze and a bandage wrapped around the area. “It looks like they did sedate me at some point. That part of the arm is usually where an iv goes in.” Towards his close right, and saw something he didn’t expect. He seemed to find what appeared to be gifts for him. Boxes and bags with encouragement to get well soon. “What are these? Are these… presents for me? But why? My birthday was only 4 weeks ago.” He peaked to the entrance of the room. “Well. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek at one.”

He grabbed a bag from the pile. “Hmm… Theres a card inside. From… Preydeth?” Cryo carefully opened the card to look inside. “Dear Cryo. I hope your well. You’ve been asleep since we first arrived. I hoped whatever dream appeared in your head while out, was something happy. Not something that you’d rather forget. Your special. You’ve been through a lot. Rest is the only thing you need now. Don’t let old scars bring your down. Remember that you made it back. That’s all that matters. Please recover soon. I hope to see you at some point when your awake. Enjoy the present I got you. I hope you can find time to use these to help heal some old wounds while your new ones get treated. Thank you. I hope to see you back in the scouts soon. From Preydeth.”

Cryo smiled and nodded. “He’s not quitting after all.” Cryo reached inside the bag. He began to rummage his hand a bit until he seemed to find something inside. He began to pull it out. He looked at what appeared to be a chew toy, in the shape of a blue ball. “A… chew toy? I haven’t chewed on anything since I stopped chewing on my pacifier.” He looked a the tag. It read “Stress ball.” “Stress ball. It’s… a ball to help with stress? But… how does it work. Do I chew on it?” He looked at the tag again. “Squeeze this tiny ball in your hand. Do it as many times as you need to help deal with stress and anxiety. Continue to squeeze to help calm yourself down.” “Huh… I… squeeze it in my paw?” He took the ball in his talons and began to squeeze it. The ball began to flatten and spread out as he began to spread it in his paw. He let go of his grip, and the ball reformed into its round, spherical shape. “This… seems like a strange way to deal with stress. I do like the rather smooth and fabric like texture the ball has, but I don’t understand how it deals with issues like this.” He placed it to the side of his bed. “Hmm… I think there is something else in here.”

He rummaged around the bag and took out what seemed to be a cube with 9 different colored squares on each side of it. The squares seemed to be connected to each other, yet were also split off from each other. He began to fiddle with it a bit, and saw that the squares could be twisted to change which sides the colored squares were on. “This is an odd toy… What is it?” “That’s a puzzle twist cube, Cryo, said a familiar voice. “Huh?”

Ch 20

Future For Friends

Cryo turned his head toward the entrance. He saw Preydeth in the doorway, with Cryo’s mother standing close behind. Oh! Preydeth! And… Mom. Uh oh…” Preydeth came in, wearing a cyan shirt and blue jeans, while Tide was wearing a dark blue sweater. They walked over and Tide sat down next to Cryo near the bed, while Preydeth pulled a chair over and sat down. “You like that toy Cryo?” “Its… interesting. But I don’t know exactly know what its for.” “The goal is to twist the cube is to twist the segments on it enough so that every side of the cube has only one type of color on it. Its a simple puzzle game, yet it can take a ton of time to figure out if you can’t figure out how to align the colors together,” Preydeth said. “That sounds pretty neat.”

“Cryo, honey?” said Tide. “Gulp…” Cryo looked at his mother, with a slightly concerned look on his face. “How are you feeling?” Tide asked. “Umm… I’m a little, er… stiff in bed. Maybe a few places hurt a bit. But… I’m fine I suppose.” She smiled and nodded at him. “Your… friend told me what happened?” Cryo’s eyes shot up.

“Wait Mom! Wait! Please! It was only a little mistake! I know I’m pretty beat up, but…” “Relax, my little boy. I’m not too upset at what happened.” “Umm… You aren’t?” She nodded at him. “Yes… A pretty bad accident did happen and someone close to me got hurt in the process. But… everyone makes mistakes. Besides, he told me what happened on the ride back.” “Oh… yea.” Cryo began to sit up a bit in his bed. He looked towards his mother with a slightly worried expression. “I’m sorry mom. I…” “Don’t be. We both went through that horrible ordeal. We both probably have scars that will remain for a while. But… that’s what family and friends are for, right?” She gave Cryo small kiss on the forehead. “Your friend helped you though a very difficult situation. He may have had been responsible for you being hurt in the first place, but he didn’t leave your side when you really needed help.” Cryo looked at Preydeth and gave a smile.

“The items I gave you are good for dealing with these types of issues. The stress ball can help ease you when feeling anxious and stressed, and the puzzle cube can help distract your mind and focus on something else if you get into a similar situation in the future.” “That actually sounds… good. Thank you Preydeth.” “Your welcome. Nancy says you shouldn’t have to be in the hospital long. You wounds are healing rather quickly. You should be out in less then 2 weeks.” “Thats good news.” “In any case honey. We’ll be here for you if you need anything else.” “Thank you.” Cryo looked at the puzzle cube and began to twist it a couple times. “This puzzle is a bit more complex then I thought. It’s going to take some practice and thinking.” he thought.

“By the way, Cryo. How did you move so fast?” asked Preydeth. “Huh. What do you mean?” I talked to the scoutmaster. He said that as I was falling, you suddenly picked up speed. In fact, you were so fast, you almost could not be seen.” “Wait! Really?! “Yes. How did you do it?” “Umm…” Cryo looked at his bandanna, who had been carefully placed next to his other scouts cloths on a table in the upper left corner of the room. “Umm… Maybe I… just got lucky?” “Lucky?” “I don’t really know what happened. I’m sorry.” “That’s alright. Maybe it will be revealed in time.” Preydeth stood up. “You hungry, Cryo? The cafeteria menu has chillin tenders today.” “Umm… Yea. I could use some.” “Ok. Come on Tide. Let’s get Cryo some food.” “Can you give me a moment alone with my son. I’ll come with you in a second.” “Ok Tide. I’ll see you in a bit.” He walked out of the room and closed the door to wait outside. Tide looked at Cryo with a slightly concerned look on her face.

“Cryo… Are you keeping secrets?” she asked. “Um… secrets?” Cryo replied. She nodded. “That ability wasn’t you going quickly, was it? That was time slowing down…” “Huh? Time slowing down!?” she nodded. “That’s not normal for a Ferrin dragon, even with the flo lily. That’s something a well trained Zape dragon is capable of…” She looked at the back table. “And that bandanna…”

She walked over and took another look at it. She picked it up and took it over to Cryo. She then carefully tied it around his neck. They both could see it glow for a second. “How in the world was Greg able to find a flo lily. And more importantly, know how to transport and use it in a way that prevents its power from degrading. This is bigger then you or me could possibly know, Cryo.” She began to feel the soft fabrics of it a bit. “I think there’s far more to this bandanna then I know. Cryo… Is there anything you want to tell me? Is there something your hiding?”

Cryo thought of it for a moment. “N… No mom. I… I don’t understand it either. Maybe… Maybe theres a reason for all of this happening.” Tide gave a sigh and began to walk out. “The last thing I want to think about is a reason for my son to have a flo lily’s power, especially one that may never expire.” She nodded. She began to walk towards the door. “Perhaps in time, we might discover the purpose. Though to be honest, honey. I’m afraid of what the answer might end up being.” She gave one last look at her son and gave a smile. “Rest easy honey. I’ll be back soon.” She walked out the door and left.

“Mom’s suspicious. There’s no telling how she would react if I tell her what’s been going on. This is dangerous to think about. I’m going to have to be more careful of what I do from here on out.” He looked back at the puzzle cube and began twisting it around again.

New abilities:

Time Twist: Slows down time while allowing Cryo to move at a normal speed while slowed.

New Likes

The Explorers scouts

His new friends, Preydeth and John

Ziplining

His extended family

New Dislikes

Crashes

Friends feeling guilty

His mothers suspicion

Being in situations similar to when he was kidnapped