Roar of Dragons

[Greyson – 11 years]

Finn's already left with his family for winter break, while Cody and I remain behind. His anxiety and upset is really overwhelming, but I don't want to move further away from him. We're sitting on a bench outside of the academy right now while we wait for his parents to arrive.

As much as Cody wants to go home to spend time with his family for the holidays, he lives on the other side of the country from both of his best friends. I understand how he feels, too, just a little. Not as much with Finn, but I don't want to not hang out with Cody for a whole month. We have a lot of fun and I love showing him the stuff I build and he likes listening to me talk about them, even if he doesn't understand it.

Though Cody seems to be really upset about going home right now. Other kids are playing in the snow while they wait for their rides, or hanging out inside. Cody's just sitting on a bench instead of joining them, like he usually would.

Well, I'm just sitting here, too, but that's because no one I want to play with is playing. It's allowing me to focus fully on my feelings about not getting to hang out with Cody and Finn for a whole month. Also about my present to him for the Festival of Frost. I really hope he likes it.

As for the rest of my attention, it's divided between the next robot I'm going to build, a remote-controlled car I want to build (designed to use mini-explosions to propel itself through the air), and the mega-computer's next upgrade.

"Cody?" I say as I spot his parents in their rental car.

"Yeah?" He looks over, still swinging his legs back and forth a little like he has the whole time we've been sitting here.

"I was thinking that maybe," I say. "If you and your parents are okay with it, I could teleport over to your place once or twice during break. You can show me your stuff and around town, and I can show you my next robot and remote-controlled car."

As I say that, the anxiety and upset in Cody's mind lessens a little and excitement and happiness fills in a little.

"That'd be awesome!" He says. "Do you think your dads would let you, though?"

"They let me teleport all over the country for festivals and fairs for holidays," I say. "If they don't want me to teleport to a friend's house so we can hang out during a break, then they don't get to be my dads!"

There is no way I'd let them be my dads if they don't let me hang out with a friend just because he's on the other side of the country from us. Distance means nothing to a teleporter with a mana pool as large as mine. I can go there after lunch and still be back in time for dinner.

"But I'll have to see what days I'm available," I add. "And how I'm feeling on those days. The dads or Cal might have something planned, and I might not always feel up to socializing. And if I'm in the flow for something on the mega-computer, I might not want to break it. But I'll see if I can come to your place and hang out, alright?"

"Okay!" He bounces a little. "Oh! I think I see my parents!"

"That's them," I nod. "Have a safe flight!"

"Thanks!" Cody hops up from the bench, grabs his suitcase, and heads over to the curb to wait for his parents.

Once they're gone, I let the supervising instructor know that I'm leaving, then I teleport to the workshop. Xander's not here even though he didn't do his morning academics class, which is disappointing. I know he said he was going to be setting up for today's party, but I was still hoping he'd be here.

Since the most awesome person in the entire world isn't here, I should fix myself lunch and work on the mega computer a little.

Before I can do that, however, my phone pings with a text from Cal.

[Most Awesomest Brother]: Are you joining us for lunch? Papa's busting out the grill.

I do a double-check of the weather. There's a light snow going on right now. Or very light snow, by Xander's standards. That doesn't necessarily mean people won't grill, however. The dads sometimes grill even in the cold, even in the snow. Last year, we had three feet of snow built up at one point thanks to a few snow storms.

Once the deck was cleared off, Papa grilled steaks! If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have cleaned it off instead of letting the Cals handle it on their own.

If Papa's grilling today, then I want to go home and eat lunch with them. At the same time, however, I did just sit through four hours of tough exams and ten minutes of Cody's anxiety and upset. I need quiet time to focus before I return home.

What should I do?

I text Xander to see what he's doing for lunch. His response is a picture of a massive steak that's already half-eaten. There are also mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and a salad.

That's not very fair. It looks so amazing, and I want a bite. I want all of it.

I text Cal to ask him what Papa's grilling.

[Most Awesomest Brother]: Burgers! Travis's helping peel the potatoes for the fries. We need to know if you're joining us so we know how much to make.

Burgers aren't steak, but they're close enough, so I teleport home. Cal and Travis are in the kitchen, Travis washing potatoes while Cal is… probably in the middle of getting out the things he'll need. Papa's in here, too, making the patties to take outside, while Kale's standing outside of the kitchen but looking in, probably watching Cal.

"Jeez!" Cal exclaims. "Startle us, why don't you?"

"I'm going to get my laundry in the washer," I tell him. "Then go for quiet time in my room, okay?"

"Okay," he chuckles. "I'll let you know when lunch is ready."

I do exactly what I said and half an hour later, I'm called out of my room for lunch. The burgers turn out to have been grilled with barbecue sauce for added flavor, and they taste amazing. Not as good as some of the ones at the Barbecue With a Dragon, but still amazing.

"Thanks for lunch," I tell Papa, Cal, and Travis. "I'm gonna head back to the workshop now. Oh! Travis! I could use a tester again. I think my AR game's almost done and want to see if the tweaks improved things."

"Take Henry with you," Dad tells me.

"I can't do that."

"He promises to listen to all of the rules this time," Dad gives Henry a firm look, and Henry looks down to his lap. "He knows not to go into other people's spaces without permission, whether it's a room or a work station."

"Yeah, well, I don't trust him," I say. "He doesn't care about other people's spaces. At all. He just goes in when he wants, and that's even when it's a stranger's. And he did it to Xander."

"And he was thoroughly scolded for violating space," Dad tells me. "And knows to respect it from now on and to get permission before going into someone's space. He won't do it again."

"Of course he won't," I say. "If you're referring to attempting to enter Xander's space. Even if I wanted to bring him to the workshop, which I don't, I couldn't. He pissed off Xander with that enough that Xander put up a Henry ward. That's why I said I can't do that, not that I don't want to. The ward just straight-up prevents Henry from passing through, and even teleportation won't work for him to get in. And I don't even know how to sense the ward or where Xander anchored it, so it's not like I can study it and find a workaround. I only even know about it because he let me know that he put it on. And that if Henry attempts to go through it in any form, he'll have his senses flipped for ten times as long.

"I'm glad the one he put on his home isn't that bad," I add. "He put a Greyson ward on it so that I can't enter. Discovered it when I tried dropping off some cookies for him and just bounced right off. When I tried walking through, it was like attempting to walk through an invisible wall. I had to go the guard at the gate and ask if they could give him the cookies.

"And Henry," I say. "Should be glad that Xander didn't put on his very clearly marked zone a ward of the likes he put for those who attempt to enter the workshop's grounds via teleportation without permission. He sometimes forgets to key me in when doing that and I have to remind him to. I've found myself facing a leviathan, falling into lava, floating in space-"

"Doing what?" Dad, Papa, and Cal all ask at the same time.

"Well, okay, so it was really still a part of the atmosphere," I say. "It was a bit past the Karman line, so still in teleportation range. Only several dozen miles, and I can teleport thousands easily. Though that did startle me."

"Why is Xander putting such dangerous protections on the workshop?" Dad asks.

"Oh, most teleporters would never encounter that," I say. "There are few who would even dare to teleport to our workshop, even if they knew its location. Nearly who can can teleport would just bounce off of the wards. The more dangerous stuff is basically a game Grandfather Adrian is playing with Xander. Xander has to try and close up holes and errors in his ward with the goal of keeping Grandfather Adrian out. But then Xander sometimes forgets to key me in after updating them and I try to work around the wards and find myself neck-deep in boiling hot mud. None of the stuff is actually dangerous to me, except maybe that particular leviathan. I could teleport away in time, though, so it wasn't an issue.

"But that's not the point," I say. "The point is that Henry is fortunate Xander's not being malicious, just pissed. And it's quite literally impossible for me to bring Henry there. I lack the ability to bypass Xander's wards. So even if I wanted to bring the trespasser back, I can't."

"I was bored there, too," Henry mumbles.

"You know," Cal chuckles. "If this had been last year, you'd have been panicking because of the visit to Santa in the mall."

Cal made it a tradition that we'd go there after lunch on the last day of school for the semester. We'd give the Santa there our letter with our present requests, and somehow, Henry actually managed to get a few of the things on his.

"Not last year," Henry says. "I was already not sure about Santa then. But maybe the year before. But I know he's not real now."

"He's real," I say. "I've broken into his workshop a few times to steal ice cores, before Xander helped me with the super-heating issue with the mega-computer. Now that it's fixed, I don't need to do that anymore."

"You really need to learn the difference between dreams and reality," Henry says. "Santa is just parents. Or someone else buying stuff for families which can't afford it."

"No, it's Santa," I tell him. "Most of the ones you see at stores and events and stuff are really his elves in disguise. They accept the letters so they can pass them on to him, for any last-minute additions to what he'll be giving them."

I look at Cal.

"And we always go at one," I tell him. "So the plan was just to go to the workshop until quarter 'til, then come back for the mall visit. I'll try to handle the crowd better this time."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

A holiday crowd at the mall is a lot worse than festivals and fairs. I don't like going for it, but it's a family tradition Cal started so I don't feel good if I miss it.

"Alright," Cal says. "And you can leave if you get overwhelmed and need to calm down."

"It amazes me that you go when you claim you're on the Naughty List," Kale says.

"I don't go to give the elves a letter of present requests," I tell him. "I go because it's a family tradition Cal started. All of my presents on the first day of the Festival of Frost come from family, none from Santa, so I know that giving the elves a list is useless. So? Travis? You wanna come with me to test the game? I think I fixed that part you were having issues with."

Travis looks at Dad and Papa, and I can feel how unsure he's feeling. Since Henry isn't able to go, he's not sure if they'll let him.

"As long as you're back in time to go to the mall," Dad says. "That's okay."

"Okay!" I say. "Come on, Travis! Let's get ready to go!"

Travis and I get ready to go and I teleport us to the workshop, then head straight to my workstation. As I near it, I notice a box in the spot I designated for Xander to leave me stuff, so that he doesn't have to try and figure out where is safe.

All of it is safe, I don't mind him putting stuff on my desk. Xander doesn't like that, though, so I had to make a spot just for that. He even has a shelf outside of his space for me to leave things on.

"What's that?" Travis asks as I pick it up.

"Something from Xander," I open the box and find three pairs of earplugs with a letter in it.

Greyson,

I made these. They're enchanted earplugs and each color has a different purpose, and they're superior to the ones currently on the market. Red ones will block out all sound, the blue ones block out any sound which isn't the human voice, and the green ones block out loud sounds. They work extremely well. I made them because you said you weren't sure how you'd handle the visit to the mall with your brothers. They should hopefully help with at least the noise level.

Oh! That's awesome! I knew he had some of his own, but they didn't work for him right and he has to constantly make adjustments to them. I've tried using earplugs like these before, but I didn't like the way they feel. But if Xander's okay with it, then I might be able to handle them, too.

There's no way he'd be willing to give me something which makes him uncomfortable to use. I don't think.

I pull out the red earplugs and put them into my ears and find that… I can't feel them at all. Not from my ears, that is. Normally, anything being in or on my ears really bothers me, but this doesn't bother me at all.

Well, they do bother me a little because I know they're there, but I think they're something I can get used to. How did he design them to feel like this? It really doesn't feel like there's anything in my ears.

No wonder he's okay with using them now.

"These are awesome," I pull them out of my ears and stick them back into the box. "I think they'll help me with the noise at the mall. Okay! Lemme get the game uploaded to the system, Travis, then you can test it!"

"Okay," he says. "How long will it take?"

"Just a few minutes!" I answer. "There are brownies in that box, if you want a snack while you wait!"

[Sig – 13 years]

Xander's gym isn't decorated and doesn't have any activities set up, but when we enter the main rec room, we find it very well decorated. There's his Christmas tree, of course, but also mini ones with snow on the centers of the tables in the dining room portion of it. Dark blue tablecloths cover all of the tables, with silver snowflakes around their edges. Fake snow surrounds the mini trees in a light layer, and there are a few small ceramic snowmen hanging out around the trees as well.

Garland and blue and green lights are hung up around each of the room's zones, and the shelves and tables in them have various decorations, too. There's a ring of beanbag chairs and regular chairs in one part, which is a bit interesting. Has Xander decided to include musical chairs in the games?

Xander's not in the room when we arrive, but the boys from Autumn Realm are.

Not just them, but their parents and siblings, too. Xander's Christmas party does allow for that, which is pretty cool. It's not just one of his regular parties, but meant to serve as an event for our families as well.

Not everyone from their families are here, but most came with at least one parent, and Carter's older brother is here as well. Aunt Rachel drove me here and came in with us, and Niko's parents are bringing him over as well. All of the dads are here, too, including Isaac's mom and Jake's parents.

"Hey, guys!" I say. "You're already here?"

"We came as soon as exams finished," Tate tells me. "Arrived a couple of hours ago and helped Xander finish setting things up."

"He taking a nap?" I ask.

"Yeah," Carter answers. "Same deal as last time – said to wake him when you arrive. You can put the presents down over there."

Carter gestures to a row of rectangular tables, where gift bags and small presents are already set down. There's a divider down the middle of it, with the gifts for the exchange on the right and the ones for specific people on the left.

Well, I call it a divider, but it's really just a bunch of caramels.

"Let's go put our stuff away!" I tell the others.

Carter comes with me to put my things in our room (since I can't enter without someone else if Xander's in there). When we enter, Xander's still asleep, snuggled up with Mr. Leviathan, though Trenton's sitting on the nightstand. As seems to be the new norm for Xander, he's not just sleeping on his side, he's got his left arm over his blanket rather than under. As usual, he's also in his wolfkin form.

His tail is flicking a little under the blanket, so I'm going to assume he's doing something making him happy. Probably eating food.

"Oh, hi, Trenton," Carter greets the bear. "Didn't see you there when I put my stuff in earlier!"

"He was watching the pool," Xander responds, though probably still asleep. "That's why I went in there before coming in here for my nap. And chocolate should not interrupt me when I'm eating. Go away."

"Why was Trenton watching the pool?" I ask.

"Chocolate cupcakes have no business asking that."

"Aren't I a devil's food cupcake with strawberry frosting and a strawberry slice on top?"

"That's just being more specific," Xander huffs. "Go away."

"That's S.G.," Carter tells him. "And I'm Carter. You wanted me to wake you when he got here."

"I'm awake."

"You're asleep and in the dream plane," Carter says. "That's dream food you're eating."

Xander goes quiet for a few moments, then sighs in disappointment.

"And it was so good, too…" he mumbles before opening his eyes. "Hi, Sig."

"Hey, Xander!" I say. "Have a good sleep?"

"Yeah," he yawns, showing off those very sharp canines of his wolfkin form. "It's time for the party?"

"Yup!" I answer.

"Okay," he says. "Could you turn around?"

"Sure?" Why does he want me to do that?

While Xander does whatever it is he's doing, I unpack some of the stuff from my backpack, including the snow leopard plushy I got at the zoo during the summer. I also check out the drawer on my nightstand, which has been restocked.

Then I check out the goody bag which was sitting on the bed before I moved it. There are a few caramels, a cookie, a little sticker book, and a mini-stocking with my name on the white part at the top.

"Can I look over again?" I ask Xander after finishing off the cookie.

"Yeah," Xander answers, and I look over to see that he's changed out of his sleepwear.

Now, he's wearing dark blue jeans and a dark green long-sleeved shirt, though the shirt has the MountainStorm Gear logo on the left breast. It's not an athletic long-sleeve, though, just a regular one. He's also got his socks on (black), and Trenton in his arms.

Aaaaah. That's why he wanted me to turn around – so he could change! He must be really uncomfortable right now if he didn't even want me looking anywhere near him for that. It's usually not a problem anymore. At least, not for after a nap or sleepover.

I guess maybe because he knows there's going to be a lot more people here today, he's on edge a little?

"Looking good!" I give him two thumbs up.

"T-thanks," his face reddens. "You look good, too. How was the cookie?"

"Awesome!" I answer.

The three of us head back to the main room, where others have arrived and gathered. The other kids who are staying overnight are putting their things away, while the adults and kids who haven't been here before are looking around the room.

It takes a little bit for everyone to arrive, but we're all here and ready for the party to begin at its designated start time. Having over thirty regular invitees, plus family members, present really makes the room crowded. Yet there's still plenty of space.

Everyone who can take on wolfkin form has done so, and Xander's turned me into a snow leopardkin. Someone's little brother (I don't know who, but the kid is about five) is really enjoying trying to grab my tail, and I'm having fun moving it away from him.

"Can I please have everyone's attention?" Xander's voice reaches me from… wherever he's at.

He's talking a little bit more quietly than normal, but I can still hear him and it sounds like he's talking from my left. I look in that direction and find everyone else doing the same.

Directional sound magic? I think that's how he would have done it, by using sound magic to send his voice to everyone, but make it seem like it came from where he's at, rather than putting his voice directly into our ears.

"Thanks," Xander says. "Um… okay, so before we begin, y'all can get snacks if you want. The tables over there have them. Dinner will get put out at about six, but you can fill up before then if you want.

"Once everyone's gotten their snacks," he continues. "We'll begin the gift games. Only minors are allowed to participate. That's just mostly 'cause there are so many of us, adding in the adults will make it take a lot longer. That was on the invites. So minors, once you've gotten your snacks, sit in the circle. Um… I dunno if there are enough seats for all of the minors, so if there ain't, we can get more. Mom said some of you might share beanbag chairs, though, so maybe there are."

I go to the snacks station and start filling a plate with snacks. Chips, meatballs, crackers, meats, cheeses, and more. Oddly, there are no little wieners with barbecue sauce, which I thought was a staple at parties for the Festival of Frost. There are pigs in a blanket, but that's not quite the same.

Once my plate is as full as it can get, I go to the circle to sit beside Xander's beanbag. It's dark green and has Trenton sitting on it, while Xander, his mom, Carter, and a couple of the other adults are moving the presents for the exchange into the middle of the circle.

Should I have offered to help? Xander didn't say he wanted help, though, and they've got plenty of people moving them. With everyone moving around, one more might get in the way.

"Xander, want some help?" I ask as he puts another batch on the ground.

"I've got enough," he responds. "And you've got food. Go ahead and eat."

"Okay!"

It takes a few minutes for everyone to get settled, the adults sitting or standing outside of the circle, except for a couple who have their really small kids on their laps. Uncle Aurum's here with Solaris in their human forms, and he's got Solaris sitting on the beanbag beside him. The kid's bigger than he was before… but I guess that's because he's aging faster than a human while in his real form.

Grandpa Blaze is here, too, and he's watching from Berry's branches. Berry, it seems, decided to attend the party in his real form. A gap in the seats for the circle was made for him to stand in. Or is he sitting?

I can't tell.

A lot of the couples are sharing beanbags, like Connor and Jake, Sam and Isaac, Luke and Tyler, Ethan and Macy, Thomas and Amelia, Tessa and Ian, and a few others. Seph looks really uncomfortable sharing a beanbag with Bridget, and I didn't even know they were together.

When did that happen? It must be really new, because his face is bright red and he's fidgeting a lot.

"Okay, everyone," Xander says once we're all seated. "There are enough gifts for us to play three rounds."

"Exactly enough?" Alec asks.

"I had extras prepared in advance," Xander says. "To make up the difference in case we didn't have enough for full rounds. Everyone was supposed to bring at least one, but Dad said some might bring more than one. And I wanted to make sure we didn't have any extras, so I prepared more just in case. And that was right, because we needed eight more to make a full round, so eight people would've been excluded from the final round if I hadn't done that. Now, we don't have to exclude anyone. Referring to the participates, of course. Not the adults, who are excluded because they're adults and including them would just make things take longer. They're here to chaperone and supervise and watch and stuff, anyway. Well, and they can participate in some of the other stuff… but it's this they're not participating in and-"

"Xander," Ms. Katie gently says. "It's okay, we understand. Why don't you go ahead and start?"

"Okay," Xander nods, then looks back to us. "Everyone picks out a present from the middle. Then we'll play a game. But not that stupid left-left-left-right-whatever game. That one has a predictable end. You just see which has more, left or right, and then how many more of it there are than the other, and the present's gonna end up that many to that side from where it begins. So we ain't gonna do that. I'll say what's next once we've all got them."

We're sent to grab our presents in groups of five, so that it's quick but not crowded. Once we all have them, Xander thinks for several long moments, then a clipboard begins floating in front of him, a piece of paper with the directions for the game on it.

"Oh, right," he says as the clipboard floats down a little. "Okay. There are fifty-seven participants, so I'll do fifty-three."

A bowl appears in front of him, folded-up strips of green and red paper within. Then, it moves to in front of me, his left.

"Everyone," he says. "Draw one piece of paper out of that. Pass it to the left."

I draw a slip out, then pass the bowl to my left. Once it's made its way all the way around, Xander pulls out the last slip of paper with his telekinesis. Did he only teleport fifty-three of the slips that were in the bowl? There's no way he expected this exact number, and he did say he was going to do fifty-three.

"Your slip," Xander says. "Has a number from one through ten. We'll go to the left. Read off your number, and I'll tell you how to pick who to swap with. Oh, but it isn't the same every time for the same number, so don't assume that because someone before you has the same number, you'll be picking the same way. Sig, you go first."

"I have a four!" I say.

"Four…" Xander looks at his clipboard. "Okay. Trade presents with someone wearing something blue.""

I pick Alec for that, since he's wearing a blue hoodie. As the game goes on, we quickly realize that the same numbers pick from the same style of choice. Xander has a list for each number, and that list is themed to something. He just picks the top thing from the list which someone hasn't done yet.

If someone has a four, like me, then their choice is related to something they're wearing. Someone wearing something blue, or in a short-sleeved shirt, or winter-themed, and such. Sixes have it based on a body feature – blue eyes, or brown hair, or something like that. One of them is even "healthy enough to have six-pack abs", which makes his mom groan and smack her head while those of us who know about Xander's firm belief that having abs means someone's healthy laugh.

She's probably thinking that she and Mr. Caldwell should have gone through Xander's list before the party. I know I'm glad they didn't, because it's more fun this way.