(I just want to say- THANK YOU FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS READ AND COMMENTED I would not have continued this story without you!!!)

That night I had the craziest dream.

It started off horrible. I was back at one of my foster parent's houses- the weird guy who collected dead animals. I was sitting in the dirt, crying over my bloody knee I had received for falling down a small hill. I remembered this like it was yesterday- Mr, Willet's face as he rocked in his stupid rocking chair. "Justin," he had said. "You got to get up."

"But it hurts," I blubbered, pointing to my battle scar.

He had sighed. "Justin, you got to suck it up and be a man. Like your father was, you want to be like your father right?"

"I don't know who my father is!" I wailed. "I hate him!"

He had leaned forwards so fast I had sucked wind. The burn of his hand against my cheek momentarily shocked me into silence. "Your father was one of the greatest soldiers this country ever had- don't you dare disrespect him..." the rest of his words faded as I found myself in a dark room, the lights flickering. It seemed like someone had shot out half the lights with a machine gun- bullet holes speckled the bland white walls. Before me, someone sat in a chair, spotlight directed on his body and a bag over his head. I crept closer, feeling my heart thud heavily on my ribcage. My fingers reached out for the bag. Who was it? Could it be...?

"You're not ready for that yet," a voice said, smooth as silk. I turned around, peering into the darkness but this time my vision failed me. My hands were shaking as I asked. "Who's there?"

I saw a flash of black- like a glitch on a video game before it disappeared. "You know who I am."

I gulped and stepped back. "What-what are you?"

Something slid out of the shadows. A beautiful creature- rippling with muscle yet lean and elegant. A beautiful, angular head snaked towards me as violet eyes lit up the darkness in a purple hue. "It's me, Justin."

I almost choked. "Kay... Caedmon?"

He nodded his head. "Justin we don't have much time. You are going to wake up soon."

"Who's... Who's under the bag?" I asked, looking back at the other guy.

"That's not for you to know," Caedmon said softly. The surroundings changed into a long hallway, this one brightly lit. Caedmon walked in front of me, his blue and black spade tail flicking behind him. "We are more powerful than you think," he said softly. "You and I are going to do many things, maybe even save a lot of lives." He stopped so suddenly that I bumped into him. "But are we on the right side?"

Suddenly the hallway melted into a scene, then another, then another, flashing like fireworks in my mind's eye. I choked, my heart ramming against my chest as if it wanted to escape. Stumbling backwards my raw voice rose like bile, "Caedmon, make it stop!"

And it did.

I found myself kneeling in a sea of wreckage, my hands on Caedmon's slender snout as a single tear splashed onto his obsidian scales. His wing, half-erected as he lay in the carnage, was shredded, gaping wounds gleaming a thick red in the burning sun. "Caedmon?" My voice was shaking.

He gazed up at me with those big purple eyes. "You control our destinies, Saelfien. It's up to you to decide. It doesn't have to end this way."

"GET UP! YOU BIG LUGS GET YOUR WHINEY BUTTS UP! COME ON GET MOVING! LAST ONE OUT OF BED MEETS MR. HAPPY! GO GO GO!" Blasts of bullhorn voices make me shoot out of bed so fast my forehead hits the bunk over me. Oh crap were they going to kill me? Caedmon starts crying as he tries to crawl up my shirt, his ears pulled back in fear.

As I hop to my feet I can tell he's not the only one. A few other kids younger than me are crying as the yells intensify. I think one of them even peed his pants.

Even though I don't go that far, I still feel woozy from a combination of getting up too fast and my frenzied heart. I frantically looked around, my bluish vision pulling up our military-style bunk beds and all the kids haphazardly lined up at attention. The other figures paced around yelling. I squinted and my vision sharpened somehow. These were no generals freaking the crap out of the kids- they were just some other recruits only a rank above us!

Suddenly the door slams open and a blast of freaking LIGHTNING blasts through the entire room, clinging to the ceiling and almost blowing up all the lightbulbs. I fall back in bed as a metallic smell fills the air and Caedmon throws his head back and bawls.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHEESE IS GOING ON HERE!"

The voice is enough to even stun Caedmon into silence. Guess who? Avery.

The troublemakers freeze, one looks like he's going to start crying himself at the murderous look on Avery's face. "We were just having a laugh with the freshies, Avery, ma'am," one stuttered. I barely kept back a laugh as she stormed to them, a large golden head ducking out of the doorway.

"Just a laugh, huh? At FOUR IN THE MORNING?" She yelled, grabbing the leaders by the front of their shirts. "Guess someone's going to be talking to Mr. Happy. For four whole hours!" She snarled.

They stumbled out after her as she dragged them out by the cuffs. Man that girl was physical. "Everyone- BACK TO SLEEP!" She ordered before slamming the door.

Caedmon whimpered, looking up at me with super big eyes like 'what just happened?' I shrugged at him as I slowly got back to bed along with the others. "I don't know buddy," I whispered as he curled up into a tiny ball in the crook of my arm.

It took us both a while to get the adrenaline out of our veins and go to actual sleep but when we did it seemed only a second later when the real General was barking at us to get up.

I followed Merman into breakfast since Tyler had already left. The more I talked to him the more I liked him. Turns out he didn't apply for this either. His dream was to become an Olympic swimmer but the government had other plans. "I don't regret anything," he told me. "As long as I have my little Larissa. She's everything to me now."

I nodded, realizing I felt the same way. Suddenly I hear a tiny meep and look down to find the little light dragon. Caedmon looks down, his ears perked. "Mee-eep?" She just seemed to nod at us before trotting off smugly. "Wow buddy, she's more mature than you!" I laughed and rubbed his horns as he squeaked angrily.

"Who-"

"Oh sorry it was a little light dragon. Tyler's. Apparently I can see them." I shrugged and kept on walking, keeping my eyes peeled for Tyler, who couldn't be that far behind. "So what do you think about this morning?"

"What about this morning?"

"What?" I sputtered. "Those guys came in yelling.."

"I can sleep through anything," he laughed, "so what happened?"

I filled him in as we walked into the busy mess hall. Dustin and Song waved to us across the room and I smiled as I got my breakfast- some gross oatmeal and peaches- before sitting down with my new friends. Caedmon wasn't feeling as sociable and hid behind my hand, nipping me to hand feed him. I rolled my eyes at him before giving him an orange which he seemed to think was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. Juice dribbled down his chin as he chowed down like a ferocious little predator, digging into the flesh of the rare game of the elusive orange!

"Uh Justin?"

"Oh yeah heh sorry I really think that's great." I said, my cheeks burning. I did this a lot- get lost in a mental narrative and totally fade out. I realized I had been staring at him for a whole minute and turned back to my friends who were looking at me like I had suddenly turned into an Avatar.

"We were talking about the chores schedule today," Brandon said, mid chew on his pizza. Where did he get his pizza anyway? The black market? Maybe I didn't want to know.

Dustin whistled. "You better check out the chore list, dude. Avery has got you all over the place."

I groaned.

"Hey you're not the only one," Merman slapped my back. "Us freshies always get the house work. We'll get there." He handed me a list and his finger slid down the boxes to rest beside our names. "Hey we meet up to wash the third rank- the Calvary's dragons- good thing it's not the Fourth rank or Avery's dragon would be there."

Song stood up, taking one more sip of her orange juice. "We better clear off guys. See you at lunch!"

I was amazed at how fast everyone could disappear, leaving me to stare at the chores list. My stomach went to the floor. First on my list was sweep the whole grand entrance, then feed the pigs and give them water then I had to wash the 'Calvary's' dragons with Merman- all before eleven! I trudged out like a zombie, staring at the list, before a tiny black paw settled on top of my hand and a cheerful face peered up at me. "Meep!" He declared and I smiled. "You can help buddy."

I soon regretted saying that.

The whole time I was sweeping he attacked the broom like it was a dangerous creature he needed to protect me from. It was funny at first when he bunched up his hind legs and thrust his butt into the air, his fanned tail sweeping back and forth before he pounced and started to bunny kick the straw strands of my broom. But after a while I was running out of time and he was just kicking the dirt everywhere and I was forced to put him in timeout into my pocket.

The grand room was huge and everyone that came in with their clomping combat boots left a trail of dark earth that I had to sweep up. By the end of the hour I was feeling like Cinderella and Caedmon had chewed a hole in my pocket and found the old lemonhead I hid in there a year ago and swallowed it whole. Finally I looked at the clock and found it was time to feed he pigs and shoved the broom back in the closet where I had found it, walking out with a sigh just as a small group of second ranks trotted in, making me cringe with their muddy tracks. They should totally make a law about boots in the house.

A couple of other 'freshies' were already in the barn when I walked in. Most of them had their tiny dragons around their necks or frolicking around their feet as they gave the cows hay and hooked up hoses. I recognized a few from the training yesterday along with Rihanna, who was bossing the others around in her obnoxious accent. Not that I have a thing against Aussies but this girl was LOUD. Her little dragon sat proudly on her shoulder like a parrot on a pirate, overseeing everything. “Meep meep,” it instructed another hatchling sternly.

“Justin,” she shouted when she saw me. “You’re two minutes late. Now you have to clean the sheep pen and get the pigs food and water before half past nine.”

I looked at the sheet. “Uh… I’m pretty sure it says your supposed to clean the sheep pen.”

Suddenly it seemed like all noises faded and I could see people turn to look at us with wide eyes. Caedmon puffed himself up and glared at the fat forest dragon. She raised an eyebrow at me and with a flick of her wrist a dagger whistled an inch from my ear. “You sure you want to go there, shadow boy?” she said in a deadly voice.

A minute later I was in the sheep pen hustling. And did you know how bad sheep smell? Bad! A lone goat head butted me in the butt and sent me sprawling into a pile of you-know-poo. “Crap!” I moaned, fervently trying to swipe it off and glared daggers at the Billy Goat which Meee-eehed at me like it was laughing. I grabbed the pitchfork and chased after it roaring a battle cry before I saw General Landin leaning on the fence talking to the gym teacher. When they glanced at me I smiled widely and patted the goat, real nice-like like we were best buddies, my pitchfork hiding behind my back. But the second they turned back to their conversation the goat jerked his head and nailed me in the crotch.

I hate that goat, I thought as a strange whine rose from my throat, crouching in the mud.

I could hear the other kids snickering at me from the barn and poor Caedmon trying to walk over to me and falling into a muddy puddle with a light squeak. When I felt like I could talk without sounding like Mickey Mouse I slowly got to my feet and walked over to him, scooping him, thrashing, out of the puddle. “Meep meep?” he asked urgently, patting my nose with a muddy hand and leaving a small paw print. “Yeah I’m fine,” I groaned, realizing I still had pigs to feed and I literally smelled like crap. This day wasn’t working out for me…

Merman was waiting for me outside the dragon barn when I was finally finished. Several dragons ranging from a crystal white to a dark red were standing patiently, waiting for their bath. Emmit was holding a pressure washer in one hand, a bottle of scale cleaner in the other. When he saw me, he burst out laughing. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my murderous expression or because of my muddy clothes. “Woah Justin, don’t kill me with that glare,” he managed, “What happened to you? Did old Bob get to you? You look like you need a bath more than these dragons do.”

I shrugged, trying to retain my dignity. “When Caedmon gets bigger can he eat it?”

He laughed at the thought. “That’s General Landin’s pet. You’ll have to run it by him. Get over here, the dragons aren’t in a waiting mood.”

I set complaining Caedmon on a small table before grabbing a pressure washer. These dragons were twice the size of horses- way too big to be scrubbing with our hands. Instead we dripped the scale shine onto the jet of water, letting the water do the job for us. I had no trouble until I reached the white dragon. When I started spraying Merman almost tackled me. “Dude- be careful! Frostys need hot water or the water will freeze them solid!”

“Stupid boy,” The frosty growled at me. Then I realized it was a guy. It was so beautiful I thought he was a pretty girl. I backed off, my hands up in surrender. “Sorry!”

            Merman turned up the heat. “Try it again. Frostybreath is the last one and we’re free to go to lunch or…” he trailed off.

            “Or what?” I looked at him to find he was staring off into the distance. I followed his gaze over to a few fire Riders laughing and joking around. Merman realized I noticed and looked away. “Might want to keep your head down, Shadow Boy.” He said, uncharacteristically rough.

            “Uh why?” I asked, grabbing Caedmon as he tried to chase a wayward cat.

            “Listen there’s something you should know about this place. There’s some things you just don’t want to get caught up in, so don’t go snooping around, okay?”

            You know what that sounded like to me? ‘Go snooping around because something cool is going on’. But I nodded like the little angel I am. “Okay whatever. Let’s go to lunch.”

            We ate hot dog- with Brandon eating pizza again. Seriously, where does this guy get the pizza? This time we sat as far from the metalheads who were huddled on their table with fire riders and a few zaps. I shrugged them off- at this point I could care less.

            After lunch we had three hours of free time. Turns out they have a plasma 75 inch TV downstairs and it was our turn to use it! We played Battlefield, then Call of Duty- both of which I admit I sucked at because I shamefully never played before. We just didn’t have this kind of stuff with the foster parents I had which were usually either rednecks with a collection of squirrel pelts or blue collared gun freaks. As we played the game (Song was beating us all by a long shot she reached 42 on Halo!) Caedmon watched the screen-rapt like this was the coolest thing he had ever seen. His eyes were huge and glassy, watching our every move. But when Song blew up a building he meeped loudly and scurried into my lap to curl up into a tiny black ball. Right when I tried to comfort him I got shot in the back.

            “Hey!” I yelled as the screen became tinged with Red.

            “Hey!” Another voice barked, this one sending Caedmon reeling off my lap as I lurched forwards. “Get off your bums- it’s time for training!

            Great.

            Today, fortunately wasn’t strength training. We did do a few laps and push ups but it wasn’t near as hard as yesterday was for us. Today we were learning how to assemble and disassemble a satellite. It wasn’t too hard since we had a manual. Halfway through one kid’s dragon ate a bolt though and the poor kid tried to retrieve the bolt back. He ended up shaking the poor dragon so many times it burped it up along with its green breakfast.

            The metalheads and Zaps finished right before I did. It seemed like most of the fires had no clue what they were doing along with the rest of them. When the freaky gym teacher inspected mine, pushed a few buttons, and received the signal I was given the thumbs up and immediately got down to business taking it back down. After that I was thankfully free to go and Merman shot me a jealous look as I walked out smugly with Caedmon sitting proudly on my shoulder.

            When I walked through the halls with all the sternfaced Generals and their dragons, I wondered why everyone had been so tight today. What was there to hide? Caedmon meeped  in my ear and I imagined his little voice saying. “Let’s find out!” I grinned at him. “That’s what I’m talking about buddy- wait, you see that?” he turned to look at my finger as I pointed at the glowing light dragon walk down the hall opposite of me, his head snaking to and fro as if he were looking for something. Going into stealth mode, I slipped against the wall to peek over the corner. Caedmon walked over my head to peek too. “Meep,” he said softly into my ear.

            “I know,” I whispered. “But what for?”

            “Me-eh-ep,” he replied in a low voice as the dragon opened a door and paused, his head cocked like he was listening. Then he was gone.

            “What the heck was that about?” I muttered. "Guess it's time for detective Justin and his infamous partner, Cade the Shade."

Caedmon bit my ear.

"What? You don't like it?" I asked as I crept down the hall. I actually thought it was a great name. "Come on Cade- let's get to the bottom of this." He nodded at me, comically serious before turning violet eyes towards the hallway I've never been down before. "Meep," he said, matter-of-factly.

I followed his lead, creeping down the hall and hiding dramatically behind a coke machine, automatically looking at the security cameras and listening for trouble. I could hear something faint... I peeked my head around the coke dispenser and heard a light creak as a blonde kid opened the door. I could see by his eyes that he was a Zap. His glowing eyes searched back and forth before he decided the coast was clear and tiptoed across the floor. He looked around shiftily and I pressed myself to the shadows behind the coke machine willing myself to be invisible.

He quickly punched in the button with the ice cold Mountain Dew emblazoned on the front and I could hear his breathing quicken as he shoved some quarters in. Wow this guy really wanted his Dew...

Finally I heard the machine grumble and click as it pulled out the drink. Caedmon pranced around on my shoulder, shoving his head against the side of the machine to listen to it. He looked at me with amazed eyes and I could just imagine him saying- "I found it Justin! The super secret awesome thing!"

Suddenly the guy looked at me as he fished out his soda and I stiffened, Caedmon freezing on my shoulder.

Then his eyes drifted down the hall like he never saw me and he crept back to the small door that looked like a storage closet. He slowly closed the door behind him and I heard a click. Locked.

I frowned, digging into my pocket. Ugh- I couldn't find my trusty hairpin anywhere! I must have dropped it somewhere. I moaned. How could a boy like me be seen without my hairpin?

"Meep!" Caedmon said urgently, stomping on my shoulder with a stubby paw.

"Gotcha," I whispered, creeping across the floor before reaching the round handle of the door that was apparently locked from the inside and tried to turn it slowly. Nope.

Caedmon trotted down my arm like a little black chameleon and stuck his tail in the keyhole. He stuck a tiny violet tongue out in concentration as he twisted it. Click! The door eased open. I stared at him amazement as he puffed out his chest like a general with one too many badges. I laughed silently and scratched his chin. "Good job buddy," I whispered, easing the door open and sliding in, closing the door behind me.

It was pitch black in here but somehow the lack of light made me feel even more comfortable. It looked like a pretty average storage closet- complete with mops and chemicals and everything- just a bit smaller than my old bedroom.

The floor buzzed under me and I knew it had to be one of two options. Either: they had some loudspeakers booming some heavy bass song or a action packed movie of option two: a mob of people were singing "we will rock you" with a bunch of trashcan lids. I looked around, my bluish vision taking everything in. Caedmon jumped off my arm to investigate, sniffing and pawing the floor. I looked in the other direction before I heard an excited "meep!"

I ran over to the shining purple eyes as he hopped on the rug excitedly. Ah a rug. Oldest trick in the book! And I could see the dust moved- it was clear several people had been here. I pulled chubby little detective into my pocket before slowly pulling aside the ratty red carpet and finding a wooden trap door. I pulled the handle and slipped in.

What I found astounded me.

A whole crowd of teenagers were gathered around a makeshift cage for cage fighting. They were screaming, yelling, and jumping. And at least a couple people had a bad case of BO. I grimaced at the sight before I saw who was in the cage. A humongous buff guy stood there, laughing. With every laugh his chest muscles jiggled. This guy looked like he took fricking steroids! His muscles bulged, veins looked like they were going to pop out, and I was sure I was looking at a rare species of ten pack! And he was leaning over none other than my new partner Tyler! Tyler looked like a little twig compared to the huge guy!

Caedmon meeped in fear from my pocket as I surged through the crowd, trying to get to the cage. "Gi-Gantor!" The chant- over and over again almost leaves me def as I struggled to get through. "Tyler!" I yelled.

"Get out of here," a big fire rider grunts, pushing at me with a meaty arm.

I ignore him as I take my first good look at my new friend. Blood dripped from his lips and down his chin and he looked like he was going to pass out. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat as he struggled to stand. He needed help- fast. "I'm going to get help!" I yelled before I exhale quickly as some punk jerks me forwards. His broccoli breath washes over me as he snarls. "You want to get pounded?"

Just then, Tyler shoots a beam of light from his hands like freaking Iron Man and lights the guys pants up like the Fourth of July. He squealed like a baby pig and dropped me to the ground.

"It's a squealer!" Someone yelled, but instead of looking at the squealing fire rider trying to spank himself free of the flame, they were looking at me.

Uh oh.