Jin POV:
Today we were leaving to Australia. I had been woken up by Elizabeth, who told me to wake up Eric. Apparently, he wouldn't get as mad at me for waking him up, as he would if it were anybody else. I walked up to where he was sleeping under Gopurk, greeting the dragon, and ducking under his wing to wake up Eric. 

I crouched next to him, and shook his shoulder.

"Eric, you need to wake up." As expected, he kept on sleeping.

Shaking him harder, and raising my voice I said "Eric, please. You need to wake up."

"Oh, ok. But only because I know that you'll throw water on me if I don't." He mumbled, not fully awake.

"Good. Now get ready."

When were all ready, we mounted our dragons and took off, angling south, towards Australia. I talked mostly with Eric, sharing different opinions about sports. We both wanted to make it to the Olympics, and I really had a lot of fun talking about past years in different sports.

I was super excited for Tokyo 2020, because I had the opportunity to  go, since last year I had been elected to be on the national team. I only hoped that the Dragon Riders wouldn't interfere with it. Both were extremely important to me, and I didn't want to loose one opportunity because of the other. Eric was also old enough to compete, and I would really enjoy if both of us could go together. I think that Valerie or Raven had once mentioned that their friend, Anne, also wanted to compete in Equestrian Eventing. She was still too young, but was aiming for the 2024 Olympics, hopefully after doing well in the World Equestrian Games. It really would be nice to know more people other than my teammates.

I was also curious about how the newest Rider would be. So far, the Riders had had a variety of likes, including many different sports like judo, horseback riding, track, ice skating and archery. There were also many different hobbies like reading, designing buildings, drawing, and geochaching. Would they practice a sport? What would they do in their free time?

Valerie and Raven came over, along with Elizabeth.

"So Eric, what other things do you enjoy, other than being Oliver Wood level obsessive about track?" Elizabeth asked.

"I like listening to music. I don't play any instrument, but I kind of wish I could. I tried once, and completely failed. I'd rather stick to sports."

"Interesting. What are your favorite songs?"

Watching the exchange between them, I realized that Eric really liked Elizabeth. His eyes shone when she talked to him.

"Avicci is one of my favorite artists, but Coldplay and Imagine Dragons are also cool."

"I also like Coldplay, my favorite song is Viva la Vida."

"No kidding, I also love it!" Valerie interjected.

"I like it too, but I like Paradise more."

I smiled, and turned to Flojmi, letting them talk about music.

"Do you miss China, Jin?" My red and golden dragon asked.

"Yes. I do sometimes. My friends, my family..." I trailed off.

"Don't worry. It's perfectly normal to miss them, and besides, with all the technology there is now a days, in sure that you'll be able to contact your family." He comforted me.

"You're right. Besides, if I hadn't come, none of us would have met our new friends. I love them back home, but none of them really understood my dedication to the sport I do like Eric does."

"True. But now I'm wondering if it was such a good idea introducing you two. You'll probably drive everyone crazy with your obsession for getting to the Olympics."

"Hey!" I protested.

"It's true, little one."

"Humf."

After many long hours of flying, I saw Sydney in the distance. I could see the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. We landed a little away from the city, dismounted, and our dragons took off to go find a place to sleep. We had decided to stay in a hotel today, because of all the hours we had spent flying.

I opened my eyes, and stretched. Where am I? I thought. Then I remembered. Me and the other Riders were in Sydney. The dragons had said that there was another Rider in the area. We had arrived at nine last night, and all of us were 'dragon lagged', as we liked to call it, considering we weren't traveling in a jet, but on dragonback.

"Morning Flojmi. How did you sleep?"

"Morning Jin. Fine thanks, you?"

"Good. I'm not completely recovered from dragon lag, but I'm ok."

"Ok well, us dragons are going to hunt first, and then we're going to start looking. Tell us if you find anything."

"Ok. I'll go see you later, and we can go flying just the two of us."

I got out of bed, took a refreshing shower, put on some comfortable clothes and tennis shoes for waking, something I was sure I would be doing a lot of today. Hans and Eric were just waking up, and I shouted at them to hurry up. Predictably, Eric didn't care, but Hans rushed to be ready fast enough. I'm sure he was excited to get a closer look at the Opera House. The young German Rider was as obsessed about architecture as me and Eric were about the Olympics, and it made me smile to see his enthusiasm.

After breakfast we went to explore the city. I wasn't Hans, but it was beautiful. We walked along the harbor, looking out for anything unusual. The light reflected beautifully off the waves, and there were many tourists taking pictures and enjoying the landscape.

"Do you see that girl over there?" Natalia asked. "The one with red hair and a camera. Doesn't her aura feel different?"

I focused, and found out that she was right. She felt more powerful than the people around her, but less than Valerie and Raven. I had noticed that it was the same for the rest of us Riders. For some reason Valerie and Raven had a more powerful aura than the rest of us, but I couldn't figure out why.

"Yes."

We were debating how to tell her, when she came up to us herself.

"I was talking to Topaz, and he said that he had met nine other dragons like him, and that they told him that their Riders were looking for me. It can only be you, your aura is way more powerful than everyone else's."

"Yes, it is us. What is your name?" Said Natalia, reaching the quickest.

"Trixie Johnson, and you are?"

"I'm Natalia Covelho, and these are Valerie Jackson, Raven Sabbatini, Hans Schneider, Elizabeth Mellark, Jin Wang, Diana Ivanov and Eric Wilson."

"Nice to meet you. You're all from different nationalities, hoe is it to travel the world? What places have you seen? Who have you met?" She said excitedly. She was talking so fast, that I could hardly understand her.

"Woah, calm down Trixie. I also get really excited when going to new places, specially because of the architecture, have you been to the Opera House? Anyway, if you calm down we can tell you. Besides, if you come with us you'll get to experience it yourself, and we'll have plenty of time to discuss it." Hans said. I could tell that they would be really good friends.

"Wait, did you say go with you, as in leave Australia?" She asked nervously.

"Yes. Valerie and Raven have a place we can train back in Canada. I think that eventually we'll build a hall or something."

"Oh." She sighed sadly. "I don't want to leave my family and friends, but I really do want to train as a Rider. I haven't been able to do much on my own."

"Don't worry, we have time to talk about it. Why don't you take us to meet Topaz then?" I asked. "You know, all of us miss our family and friends too. But when we get to Canada you can contact them, the thing is that we can't do it on the move."

"Ok. Come on."

Eventually we were able to convince Trixie to come. I say we, but it was actually mostly Hans and Natalia. They had become her closest friends, and I was glad to see the young Rider happy.

Hi guys, sorry for the long wait, but I was kind of uninspired. Mostly it was thanks to FantasybkLover that I was able to upload it faster than I thought it would take. I'll try to have a new chapter of Into the Books on Friday. Remember to vote, comment and review.

~Valerie.

Ps: Thank you so much for 400 reads. We're almost halfway to the 1k mark!