Roar of Dragons

[Luke – 13 years]

"Hey, Luke!" One of my classmates waves to me. "See you tomorrow!"

The military put out a video containing some of the clips from Friday's operation on Sunday… for some reason I don't know and can't figure out. It shows each of the three families' members doing their thing, and included me going semi-lightning god-mode on the beasts.

I'm glad my combat uniform was designed for both looks and utility. It's the first actually-public showing of me assisting the military. The better I look in it, the better it is for my appearances.

The video being live for three days now has given it time to spread and be seen by a lot of people. My classmates have really been talking with me ever since. Their friendliness is no doubt partially because they're afraid of what'll happen if I get angry at them, but also partially because they want in with the kid who's definitely above them.

Not that they didn't already, but there was a distance between us. Now, they want to close that distance because I'm just that good. It's like how all the mage families wanted an in with Xander at the barbecue, only they got stonewalled because Xander's Xander.

At least my classmates are just being more friendly now. That makes me happy, even if I'll have to filter them to know who's genuine, which will be few. The more friends, the merrier, but not everyone is nice.

Not that I'm unhappy with having four friends, but I'd like to have a lot of them.

"See you," I wave as I hop onto my hoverboard.

Seph, Cyrus, Parker, and I leave the academy's ground and begin making our way to Seph's place. Even though it's Wednesday, we're heading there for our after-school hangout. Today is the first of the three days of final exams for the semester, so we're out early as there are only two exams each day.

We're taking turns hosting the post-exams hangout, and Seph is today, Cyrus is tomorrow, and I'm Friday. Mine being Friday is because it'll make it easier for us to head over to Xander's party after. Parker doesn't get a turn to host for that, but we'll be hanging out there on Saturday, after the party's over, so it's close enough.

Bridget joins us on our way to Seph's place – she's begun hanging out with us after school quite a lot. She hung out with her girl friends yesterday, but is joining us for each of the post-exams hangouts.

When we reach Seph's house, Ms. Lee's waiting with cookies, sandwiches, and hot cocoa. She's doing a good job of hiding that she's anxious, but I can tell she's a little pale and shaky. Seph warned us before our hangout on Monday that she's aware of just how powerful and influential we all are.

The video ruined me hiding it from her, and now she's once again doubting herself and her home for hosting us.

"Hi, Ms. Lee," I greet her. "How're the chickens? Seph said they were being weird this morning."

"They're on edge for some reason," she says. "It's been a few days now, so I think it's just winter in a new place."

"We're halfway through December," I say. "Wouldn't they have already gotten used to it?"

"Maybe," she says. "We think it's because we're a little further south. They're used to it being colder at this time."

That makes sense.

"They haven't come down with something, have they?" Parker asks. "That could affect the quality and safety of their eggs and meat."

"Our vet was here earlier," Ms. Lee tells him. "She says they're healthy, just on edge about something."

"You have your own vet?" I ask.

"No, dork," Seph snorts and rolls his eyes. "But it's easier for vets for farm animals to go out for calls than have everyone bring their animals in. Cats? Dogs? Easy enough since they're small. But handling a bull in their office? It's better to go out and visit it and see if it actually needs to go to the office. That's rare. And with chickens, well, they fit into that category despite their size. So farm vets make house calls. She sees a lot of families and farms, not just ours."

"Ah."

"Want me to look into it?" Cyrus asks. "Bridge and I don't know chicken behavior that well, but we can see if there's something going on your vet wouldn't have noticed. If there's a magic beast hanging out nearby or something."

"I couldn't ask that of you," Ms. Lee shakes her head.

"It's no issue," Bridget smiles at her. "We regularly check around the boundary for our own property, and Seph's one of our friends. If there's something going on which could hurt him, we'd rather know and help out than out."

Ms. Lee is still hesitant.

"Think of it this way," I tell Ms. Lee. "Excluding Lumaria Kings, half of the region's most powerful kids are offering to check for wolves and coyotes completely free just because they like you and your son and want to make sure you and your chickens are safe."

"Luke," Parker says. "I think that's what the problem is."

"Ms. Lee," Bridget says. "If we were someone from your church, would our offer be a problem?"

"Well, no-"

"Then that's settled!" Bridget says. "Come on, guys! Let's go check for coyotes!"

I grab a cookie as we leave and munch on it on the way out. The truth is, the three of us can already tell what creatures are around, with me having a bigger range than them. The Sunfangs can sense heat, while I have my sense for electricity.

Though the Sunfangs can only sense heat. They can't see in infrared like Carter. Their range is a lot larger than his, though, so it's technically superior.

Now that I think about it, does that mean that the magical people like dragons were avoiding going near people like us? None of us knew they existed until they began revealing themselves, yet we would have sensed them even if they were invisible or something.

Either that, or they can mask themselves even from senses like ours.

"Thanks," Seph says. "We were gonna ask someone from church if it kept going until Sunday, but the chickens've been so stressed, I was thinking of calling Mr. Fuller or someone sooner and asking."

"We weren't going to let it keep going," Bridget smiles at him, and Seph's face turns red. "There are some coyotes not far from here which might be the source of the stress."

"Coyotes?" Seph asks. "I know we've got 'em in the area, but are you sure? We haven't even gotten to the chickens yet."

"Yeah," I answer after swallowing my bite of cookie. "They can sense their heat, and I can sense their electrical signals. Though I'm guessing you two focused on that sense, to feel them from the house?"

"Yeah," Cyrus answers, his voice as quiet as usual. "Checked as soon as we got here, since it's been bothering Seph. Am guessing you started looking at what you were sensing, too? To see if any of them could be the culprit."

"Yeah," I answer. "Couldn't tell for sure what they were, other than canines. You're sure they're coyotes?"

"Too small to be wolves," Bridget answers. "So they're most likely coyotes. And they're also drawing near."

"What?" Seph looks alarmed. "We gotta hurry, or they chickens-"

"They're not that near," I tell him. "And if they do come after your chickens, well… my lightning's faster than them. At least, unless they're some sort of lightning magic variant. Then it's iffy, depending on their strength."

"Probably not," Cyrus quietly says. "No lightning magic coyotes are known to be in the area. If not ordinary ones, then they'll likely have earth, air, or force magics, with a small chance of fire magic. I'm not feeling extra heat from them, so we can rule out fire magics."

"Their size is too slim for earth magic," Bridget adds. "Those ones are closer to wolves in size, or larger if they're well-fed. And they're a little bulkier as well. So either these are ordinary coyotes, or ones with air or force magics. The ones with air magics can use that to speed themselves up, but we're fast enough that we'll make it to the chickens before the coyotes do."

Seph doesn't relax too much, but he does relax a little.

We reach the part of the yard with the chickens and look into the woods behind it. As we watch for the coyotes, I suddenly sense a new form right in the chickens' run. Cyrus, Bridget, and I all turn to look at the sudden arrival and find the teleporting twins there. Except I'm not sensing them – they've figured out how to mask themselves from electrical energies.

What I and the other twins are sensing is the rooster they brought with them. It's easily five times the size of a regular chicken and has brown, red, and orange feathers. He looks quite confident in himself, and stares straight out at the woods.

"What do you think?" The twins ask him. "Like this spot?"

The rooster looks around, then at them, then nods.

"Awesome!" They say, then look over. "Hello!"

"Oh!" One of them says. "Hello again, Luke! We figured out how to hide from electricity senses!"

"I noticed," I say. "What are you doing?"

"Finding a new home for Meteor!" They answer in unison.

"And which one is which?" I ask.

"I'm Nolan," one says.

"I'm Colton!" The other answers.

"And Meteor is… the rooster?"

"Yep!" They answer in unison.

"You know them?" Seph asks.

"Sort of," I answer. "They're cousins of Xander's, and helped out at that big Rift Incident a couple of months ago. Invisible. They consider themselves ninja and teleport everywhere while masking their presence."

"Well, not everywhere," Colton says. "Xander put up a ward on his workshop to keep us out, so now we can't look at the stuff Greyson makes anymore. And we can't teleport to his house, either. He's got a ward for that, too!"

Anyone with half a brain would know not to sneak into Xander's house. They were really brave to try that.

"He doesn't like people entering without permission," I say.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Yeah, we know," Nolan says. "It's a shame about the workshop. Greyson's got lots of cool things! But Xander warded it since it's got secret stuff now."

"Can we get back to Meteor?" Seph asks. "Why did you put the big daddy of all roosters in my chicken pen?"

"He needs a new home!" They answer.

"We found him a few weeks ago," Colton tells us. "And took him home! Mom and Dad let us raise chickens, but Meteor makes them uncomfortable."

"I'm uncomfortable," Seph says. "He looks like he'll eat me for breakfast!"

"He's really friendly!" The ninja twins respond.

"Coyotes!" Bridget announces.

We all look at the trio of coyotes eyeing us from the tree line on the other side of the fence. Judging by the bluish hue to their brown and grey coats, they're ones with force magics.

"I'll handle them," Bridget says.

Meteor jumps a little and squawks, flapping his wings once. That startles all of us, then the sound of a high whistling catches my attention. We all look at the source to see… dozens of small meteors falling down. Head-sized rocks falling from the sky, fire burning around them.

Magical meteors…

They slam into the coyotes, which attempt to escape them but are too slow. Within seconds, there's just the charred, battered remains of the trio of chicken-eaters.

"Did-did the rooster just conjure meteors?" Seph is pale.

"What?" Colton asks. "You think we named him 'Meteor' for no reason?"

"Pssh!" Nolan says. "Nah! We named him that 'cause he can make 'em! It makes our parents nervous that he's gonna burn the house down or something, but he just uses it to fight against predators!"

"I've never heard of a creature like that," Cyrus quietly says. "Did you breed him?"

"No," Nolan answers. "We found him in the woods, fighting off a pack of wolves! Meteor: seven, wolves: zero! But like we said, our parents aren't comfortable with him, since he's really powerful, too. Well, it's mostly Mom. Dad can kind of handle him. So they said we could keep him there until we found a new home for him!"

"So we've been bringing him to lots of places!" Colton tells us. "A bunch of different chicken pens and runs and yards and farms and stuff! He didn't like any of them, not even the farms with big spaces for him to wander! But it looks like he likes here, so we've found him a new home!"

I don't think that's how that works.

"H-how much mana does he have?" Seph asks.

"About half a million!" The twins answer. "We're gonna go let Mom and Dad know we found him a new home! Bye!"

"Wait!" Seph begins, but the twins are already gone.

"On the downside," I say. "You've now got a mega chicken to feed, in addition to the regular ones."

"What's the bright side?" He asks. "That's dangerous!"

"You now have a rooster who'll make sure no predators ever steal your chickens."

"But it-"

"Seph," Bridget says, her brother already beside the remains of the coyotes. "Even powerful magic chickens are just birds, at the end of the day. He won't cause you problems when it comes to grabbing eggs or butchering the others. Admittedly, he's a lot stronger than other magic chickens, but it should still be the same. What little I do know about magic chickens is that they'll defend their flock against anyone not their owner, and this include things which might prey upon them, such as wolves and coyotes."

"The boys from the Autumn Realm all have magic chickens," I say. "We can ask them for advice about yours this weekend. A couple of days should be fine. If he does cause problems, just text Xander. I'm sure he'd be willing to come and have a talk with Meteor."

"Cy?" Bridget asks. "How're they?"

"Useless," Cyrus begins incinerating what remains of the remains. "Meteor did a good job of obliterating them."

"Okay," she says, then looks at Seph. "We can't sense anything else nearby which could be the problem, and it seems like your chickens are happy now, too."

They've all left their coop and are surrounding the big one, snuggling up against him. Is he warm? Fire magics is a necessity for magical meteors, so it's not implausible that he puts out a little extra heat as well.

"Well… I guess," Seph deflates.

"Let's go let your mom know the coyotes are taken care of and you've got a new guardian rooster," I tell him.

Ms. Lee initially asks us if we could please ask someone who knows magic chickens to come out and see about their new rooster, but we convince her that it's okay to wait until the weekend. I have to admit that I understand their concern, but there are fewer than ten people on Earth who can handle Meteor's magical abilities. At least, as far as I'm aware on the human/mostly-human side of things.

And he does seem like a pretty chill bird, judging by how he was just hanging out after taking out the coyotes. I doubt the ninja twins would just dump a dangerous beast on people, too. They're definitely a bit odd, but I don't get any malicious vibes from them.

Meteor being chill is probably what made them want him. Does he come in a lightning variant?

[Xander – 13 years]

Now that the religious session for tonight's Youth Group meeting is over, it's time for everyone to play and stuff before dinner. Since the holiday begins next week, there isn't a meeting for the next several weeks. That makes today their holiday party, and they're doing extra for it.

Pizza was ordered, and they have cookies and cake and ice cream all to match the Festival of Frost. Lots of peppermint, some chocolate, and then snowmen, Santa, and reindeer designs, among others. After dinner is a gift exchange.

A two-part one. The first is the Secret Santa, which is just that everyone attending today was given someone else's name, and they were supposed to get them a gift no more than $10. Names were drawn from a bowl.

After the Secret Santa gifts are exchanged will be the gift swap game. The maximum value allowed for those gifts was also $10. Anyone who wasn't able to afford them was allowed to let Ms. Kimberly know, and she'd help them out.

There are also holiday gift bags for everyone, and Ms. Kimberly assured me that there wouldn't be any chocolate in the one for me.

Before the pizza arrives, everyone's allowed to do activities like normal, and most of the kids do a craft activity the chaperones set up. Ornaments for trees. I pick out a green one and decorate it with snowflakes and a snow dragon, using paint and glitter (and some magic, to ensure the glitter doesn't come off and get everywhere).

"How does this look?" I show it to Austin once I finish.

"That looks cool!" He answers. "Are you gonna put it on the tree in the foyer? Or the rec room?"

"I was gonna ask Dad about the foyer," I tell him. "But maybe my bedroom? I moved the one from Sig to there."

So that it's not visible to guests, because a lot of Dad's guests are stupid rich people who think that sort of thing is stupid and need to get better brains. The ornaments Sig made aren't high-quality, but they're still nice and I think they look good.

This ornament should be fine for the foyer. Dad said Sig's was fine in there and he didn't mind, but I didn't want people being mean to him because of me so I moved it.

"Not to the rec room?" He asks.

"I wouldn't see it as much," I say. "So I put it in my room instead. Now, I see it a lot."

"Ah," he says. "Okay! How's mine look?"

Austin decorated his ornament with small, cut pieces of tissue paper, using a glue-and-water mix to seal them onto it. The pieces are in reds and oranges and yellows.

"Um… fire-themed?" I answer.

"I know you don't like those colors," he chuckles. "I think it looks cool, though!"

"You didn't put your name on it."

We were told to put our names on our ornaments, so that there's a guarantee of no mix-ups. My name's on the bottom of mine, in silver marker.

"Oh! Right!"

Austin finds a spot to write his name on his own, and does so in black permanent marker.

"Dinner's here," I set my ornament down and get up from my seat, Trenton moving from the chair he was sitting on to my right shoulder. "I'm gonna go help them bring it in."

"I'll help, too!" Austin walks with me over to where Ms. Kimberly and Mr. Blake are receiving tonight's dinner order. "We'll help!"

I help every week I'm here, so I'm sure the adults knew that's why I came over. And it'd be weird if Austin came over for this but didn't help, so they probably already assumed that.

After we bring the food to the rec hall, everyone's allowed to get theirs. Most of the youth put into the donation basket their donations to help cover the costs (I do, too), and we start eating. Dinner is the same as it usually is, though a lot of the others are talking about their family's plans for the holidays. Many of them are leaving to visit family sometime next week and won't be back until after the start of the year.

I won't be streaming at all during the break, I don't think, and most of the members of my SMP probably won't be on during it, either.

"What about you?" Austin asks. "Are you going anywhere for the holidays?"

"Um… Dad's parents are gonna stay with us starting on the twenty-fourth and going through the twenty-eighth," I say. "So arriving the day before the festival, and leaving the day after."

There's another plan, but I'm not allowed to say it because it's a surprise to my friends. Dad told me already so that I don't get overwhelmed when it's suddenly announced.

"Oh," I add. "But I'm gonna be busy from Monday to Wednesday of next week. So we can't hang out on those days, if that's what you were wanting. I'll be busy doing stuff."

"Aww, man!" He says. "I was gonna ask about that! We were gonna go sledding Tuesday! One of our classmates lives on a farm with a big hill that's perfect for it, and invited us over! How about Thursday or Friday? Would you be free then?"

"Would your classmate be okay with me coming over?" I ask. "If we ain't met, he might not like me."

"Nash asked and he said yes!" Austin tells me. "So it's fine!"

"Oh," I say. "You shouldn't reschedule 'cause of me, though."

"It's not rescheduling!" He says. "We'll still go on Tuesday – but we can go again! We usually sled at his place once or twice a week when there's enough snow for it, once the break hits and up until around March or so, when there stops being snow."

"Oh."

I think about it. Sledding doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy doing. It's just another one of those things I know other kids do and enjoy, but I don't know why they enjoy it.

"Um… I don't think I'd like sledding," I tell him. "But I do want to hang out with y'all again before the festival, other than for my party."

"Okay!" He says. "Let us know when you know you'll be free to hang out! Oh! And we are still on for hanging out at the festival, right?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I've got your festival present at home. And the others', too. They're all in their bags, and I have cards on them. Dad said I can give them out early, but you're not supposed to open them until the third day of the festival. So I was trying to decide if I should give them to you at the party, or closer to the festival, or on the third day…"

It's hard to decide.

"If you give it to me early," he says. "I'll put it under the tree and not open it until the third day! That's how I always do it, since not all of my friends will be around for it. We give them early, but open them on the right day. Well, I do. I don't know if they all do, too."

"Okay," I say. "If you give me mine early, I won't open it until at least the third day of the festival."

It's very important to follow that, because that's how the festival is supposed to be.

"Okay, everyone!" Ms. Kimberly calls out. "Time for the Secret Santa! Let's grab our gifts and chairs and form a circle! The one for the exchange goes in the middle, the Secret Santa, you keep until it's your turn to give it out!"

After we follow Ms. Kimberly's directions, the adults sitting in the circle as well, Ms. Kimberly starts the first round. The person she drew the name for was one of the high schoolers, and she gives him his bag from her. When he opens it, it's a pair of bags of beef jerky and a box of chocolate.

"Oh, nice!" He says. "Thanks!"

We go clockwise for giving out our Secret Santa presents, which means I'm going to be last because I'm sitting to Ms. Kimberly's right. My Secret Santa turns out to be one of the high schoolers, who I haven't spoken with much. The bag smells delicious.

"I know you can probably already smell it," she chuckles. "And I hope you enjoy it! They were fun to make!"

I pull out the tissue paper, then the small, rectangular boxes inside. Each one has seven cookies inside, standing up with a slight lean to fit them in. They're marshmallow cream cookies, some with a hint of vanilla, others with a hint of peppermint.

"You didn't have to try them now," she tells me as she sits back down.

"That's just how Xander is!" Austin laughs. "If he's gifted food, he's gotta take a bite to know if it's good or not. Though considering you're chewing slowly, that means it's good, right?"

I nod.

"That's great!" The girl who gave me the bag says. "I wasn't sure if you'd like them or not and didn't know what else to get, so I'm glad you like them!"

The gifts continue being given out, then it's my turn. I'm Nash's Secret Santa, so I get up to give him the bag. He's sitting on the other side of Austin, so I can do that quickly. Even if he doesn't come to most of the Youth Group stuff, he came this week for the party and was Marty's Secret Santa.

"Oh, cool," Nash says as he pulls out the mug. "Did you make this yourself?"

It has his name on it, along with nine reindeer.

"Kind of," I answer. "I bought the mug, but then painted it and used magic to fix it into the glaze, so that it won't come off."

"It's really nice," he tells me. "I love it! Thanks!"

"You're welcome."

Now that the Secret Santa exchange is done, it's time for the regular one. For this one, we all draw a number from a bowl, then pick out a gift from the center in that order. After, everyone is allowed to exchange gifts if they want.

The one I pick out from the pile when it's my turn is a bunch of stickers, and I trade that to one of the high schoolers, who got lemon cookies. I would've picked that on my turn, except it had already been grabbed before then. I'm also really glad he was willing to trade.

The rest of Youth Group is spent playing games, talking, and eating desserts and snacks. Before I leave, the girl who was my Secret Santa also gives me the recipe she used, which she says took her some tweaking to make and she doesn't mind if I make any further adjustments when I make them.

"See you Friday!" Austin says as we leave.

"Bye!" I wave one of Trenton's paws to him. "I'll try to remember to let you know about next week."

"Okay!" He waves. "See you!"

He gets into his parent's car, and I get into Dad's SUV.

"How'd it go?" Dad asks.

"I had fun," I tell him. "Austin invited me to hang out next week, too. Originally for Tuesday, but I let him know I had plans, so he invited me to hang out on Thursday or Friday instead. I haven't committed yet because I don't know, but I'll try to know by the end of the weekend. Also, we made ornaments. Can I put mine on the tree in the foyer?"

"Sure," he chuckles. "How'd the gift exchange go?"

"I got cookies," I tell him. "And the girl who gave them to me also gave me the recipe she came up with for them. Nathan told me later that she loves baking and wants to be a baker. She's definitely good at it, so I hope she does well as one. I think she's also the one who made the lemon cookies for the gift exchange game. During that…"