(Please tell me if this is confusing in any way o-o)

I don’t know how long I sat there, frozen as I tried to comprehend what had just happened to me.

How long has that creep been following me around? Forever? The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I thought of something watching my every move. Then I remembered in the cave, when my shadow had tried to take off the wristband. That wasn’t my shadow.. that had to be him! What had he been doing? If he was trying to help me, why was he trying to get me kicked out? What if it was my own shadow that had a conscious? I would be like Peter Pan. I felt a shiver worm down my spine.

Then it occurred to me to ask Caedmon, who said he’d been playing with the ‘bad shadow.’ I looked around, before patting around for him. “Caedmon?” I said, surprised when my voice came out as a hoarse whisper. No answer. “Caedmon!” I hissed, my heart catching in my throat. Once again, my heart began to throb inside me, my blood pounding in my brain. What if..

Suddenly the door flew open and a bunch of kids walked in. Their combat boots crunched on the floor inches from mine as they spoke excitedly. Something about going to town. But I didn’t listen as I looked through the jungle of combat boots trying to spot my tiny little dragon.

“Hey,” I heard a familiar voice before someone crouched and I found myself staring at Merman, his glowing copper eyes a startling contrast to his dark skin. “Hey Justin,” he said, concern pinching his features. “You doing alright man? What are you doing under there?” He held out a hand.

I stared at it for a moment before taking it, my breath releasing shakily as he pulled me out of there. “I.. well…” I didn’t even know what to say. If I told him the truth it would sound crazy. “Been a long day.” I said finally. A few of the other cadets looked at me strangely and said “Hey Justin”,  “Why were you under the sink?” or “You okay?”. But I ignored them, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

His copper eyes scanned my expression for a moment before he nodded slowly. “General Landin chewed you out pretty bad huh?”

I nodded slowly.

“But.. you get to stay right?” He asked quickly, his lips pursing.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. The others who were watching us drifted off to do their business or wash their hands, all duly ignored by me.

“No wristband?” He looked down at my wrists.

“Nope,” I replied, rubbing where the wristband would have been.

He exhaled. “Good. Let’s go to lunch. Heard we’re having pizza and cheese sticks,” he said with a big grin, before pausing and looking at my neck. “Hey, where’s Caedmon?”

I sucked in a breath. “I don’t know, I was trying to find him. “ I admitted, the worry evident in my voice.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him,” Merman said firmly, like the good friend that he was. “Maybe he already smelled the pizza and was on his way?” He guessed.

“Maybe,” I mumbled, slowly walking out of the bathroom, doubting that pizza would be on his mind at the moment.

“Hey Justin, he’ll come back to you. He always takes little hikes every once in a while. You just gotta trust him,” Merman said, adjusting his collar.

Yeah. Trust him. When there’s a shadow guy on the loose that’s been playing with my dragon like some sort of creep. Exactly what I was thinking.

But when we opened the door to the cafeteria, we were met by a whole barricade of overturned tables, where a bunch of gold-eyed Riders were huddled together, ducking their heads into safety. Merman and I shared a glance before looking at the huddled bunch. “What’s going on?” we whispered at the same time.

“Get down!” Brandon hissed at me from behind a brunette with pigtails. This had to be the first time I had ever seen his chubby face pale in distress.

“What?” I asked when a ball of fire came flying towards me. I let out a squeak before dropping dead to the ground. Merman was a bit late, and ducked down just in time for it to splat against the door, lava dribbling down the door and leaving a dark red splotch. Merman looked completely shocked as he sank to his knees, looking at me with slightly singed eyebrows.

“Okay. What. Is going. On.” I said from gritted teeth. “Are we under attack? Why aren’t the alarms on?” I whispered hoarsely as a sand dragon curled up underneath me, shaking, his spines shivering under my belly.

“No-“ Brandon began before one of the sand dragons cried. “Shock!” And everyone scooted away from the metal supports to the tables. Well.. everyone except for me. Lightning arced up the table leg and raced up my back which was pressed to it. Me and the poor little dragon beneath me gaped like a fish before the shock was gone, releasing us from its grip. I could swear in that moment my heart had stopped.

“Justin? You okay?” Merman’s voice asked in concern as I continued to gape like a fish, curled up on the floor. I could barely feel his warm hand pressing cautiously to my back. “Should I get help?”

I recovered enough to gasp. “Fine… what’s.. going on?” I wheezed.

“The others are having a war with the sand dragons for eating all the pizza,” Merman whispered before covering his ears as a wyvern’s screech filled the air.

My eyes widened in horror as I heard the unearthly noise piercing through my skull. I quickly covered my ears, sighing in relief when it took the sharp edge out of the shriek. “Oh gosh.. they WHAT?” I whispered when the scream died off.

“They ate all the pizza,” Merman said. “So all we have for lunch is the breadsticks.”

My eyes widened and he nodded grimly as if agreeing to what I was thinking. So that’s where they got their pizza all this time.

To my left I saw a faint sparkle and when I turned to look, I saw a breadstick forming in Brandon’s hand before he started nibbling it nervously. Now that was cool.

“For the pizza!” I heard a war cry from the other side of cafeteria. This. Was. War. A small horde of kids raced out, some with fire in their hands, others with fists of steel raised. A girl with lightning arcing up her arms extended a hand, palm facing towards us and I jerked away from the metal supports before they would buzz with electricity.

“We’ve got to stop this,” I said grimly to Merman who nodded. We felt totally legit, like Men in Black, only we were warring against angry dragon riders and not aliens. “On a count of three.” I whispered. “One.. two.. three!” With that, we both stood up. “Stop right now!” Merman yelled and his skin flushed a bright yellow.

“Stop-“ I started to agree before I saw him turn yellow out of the corner of my eye. “Merman!?” I squeaked.

Everyone else seemed to have the same idea. They slowed to a stop, their knives and forks they had been waving with their war cry slowly lowering as they saw him.

“Guys. I know this isn’t right,” Merman said, bumble bee yellow arms folded. I noticed that there was orange spots over his eyebrows as I just stared at him open-mouthed. The gills on his neck flared as he spoke. “We all want our pizza, I get it. But how is beating up the sand dragon Riders going to help get us our pizza back?”

“We don’t have it because they ate it all,” a metal Rider growled, pointing a shiny silver finger at Brandon and his buddies in accusation.

“True. But what’s done is done.” I finally was able to speak up.

“And we can’t take it back, so instead of beating the pulp out of them,” Merman said. “How about we give Pizza Hut a call? I heard they just started delivering pizza by helicopter.”

This seemed to calm most people down. “Yeah let’s do that,” one of the guys said. “But make the sand dragons pay.”

The sand dragon riders looked between each other and nodded solemnly. “We’ve got some dough between us. Let’s do it,” Brandon spoke for them. I couldn’t help but wonder where they got the dough from. But then again, it wasn’t my business. 

There was a great cheer in the cafeteria and Merman and I shared a grin. We had defused the bomb. Heck, we were like heroes! I raised a hand to give him a high five but he shook his head. “Not yet.” He said before making a concentrated expression as the yellow drained from his skin to be replaced by his dark skin tone. “I’m pretty poisonous in that form.” He explained at my shocked expression.

I chuckled a little. “Alright. Air five then?” I asked and he chuckled and shook his head before we air fived, making a sizzling sound with our mouths.

I saw a familiar shockingly-white girl and looked over to see Avery walking over to us, her arms folded and a smirk on her  face. “Nice job back there.” She said. “Looks like we’ll be having pizza after all.”

“Yeah,” I laughed a little and realized I was smiling stupidly at her and immediately stopped.

She smirked at my smile and gave a faint bob of her head. “How did things go with the General this morning?” she asked.

I suddenly froze when she mentioned this. “I..” I remembered what I told Merman earlier today. “He chewed me out pretty bad.. but it’s alright now.” I said as I squeezed between the table barricades.

She looked behind me with narrowed eyes, like she was looking for or at something. I turned back to see what she was looking for. “What?” There was nothing there but my own shadow. That and a half eaten breadstick.

She blinked slowly, shaking her head as if trying to convince herself of something. “Oh.. nothing. Just.. faded out.” She mumbled.

Before I could look back again at my shadow, there was a high pitched roar. It sounded like Jason Derulo trying to create the dinosaur special effects for Jurassic World. Trying. I knew who it was without even looking. “What in the name of Pete is going on here?” General Landin’s booming voice soon followed. “Who is responsible for this?”

At his presence, everyone saluted quickly, standing at attention. “We are, sir!” Most of the people present called out.

Landin’s lips twisted in distaste. He walked to the middle of the cafeteria, between the two barricades and stood there, his faded yellow eyes glaring at all of us. Mardu the dragon trotted after him, standing behind him in all his invisible brilliance. His wings trailed with ribbons of light as he shifted them, his beautiful feathery crest raised in aggravation. Yet no one was looking at the beautiful dragon, for no one could. Somehow, I felt a little bad for the light dragon at the moment.

I had become so lost in my thoughts I didn’t realize Landin was lecturing us, and that he had already said for us to be ‘at ease.’ I quickly lowered my hand, embarrassed.

Landin paced in front of us, spewing about how we were the worst group of cadets he trained yet, how we were going to be destined for shoveling snow, and how we needed to get our heads on straight. Then he went on to the punishments and threats category and I sort of faded out again.

Where was Caedmon? A shiver went down my spine. How could I have forgotten that I was looking for him? My face felt like a heated blanket for a second and sweat droplets shone on my skin. Caedmon!? I yelled in my mind. Where are you!?

Tried to catch bad shadow.

I was so surprised at his response I almost jumped before looking around self-consciously to see if anyone caught me hopping in place. He didn’t hurt you right? Did you find him? Where are you? I asked in quick succession.

In your shadow.

I froze. What? He’d been there the whole time? Chasing the shadow critter? Slowly I turned around, to find a little shadow dragon plopped on the ground, looking up at me with the biggest puppy eyes. I could tell he was trying to apologize for not catching the big bad wolf. I quickly swept him up in my arms, holding him close to me as I stared at the subtle shape of my own shadow.

Maybe it was just my eyes messing with me as the shadow seemed to blur and flicker underneath me, flickering like a bad hologram. I inhaled shakily, holding Caedmon so close to my chest his purple eyes bugged.

“Justin?” Avery’s voice startled me so much I felt like I could have jumped out of my skin. I whirled around to find we were nose to nose, her yellow eyes narrowed slightly.

I felt a sharp sting as I was slapped and I stumbled back, dumbfounded.

“What’s wrong with you?” Avery demanded, one brow arched like a Nike sign. “Are you okay?”

I realized I must of bumped into her. “Yeah- just.. I-it was-I thought-“ I stuttered.

She looked angry at me but I could see a smirk tugging at her soft pink lips. A wavy strand of  blonde hair fell into her face. “Going for a kiss, huh?” She teased.

That caught me so off guard all I could do was stare at her for a moment as she leaned forwards and pressed a finger to my parted lips. “Not so fast, shadow boy. Just because I’ve been training with you doesn’t mean that I like you. A girl has to have her standards.”

I tried to sputter that I was not trying to make a move on her before it dawned on me. I had just been friendzoned. Caedmon grumbled and suddenly seemed to weigh a hundred pounds. I felt his scaly arms wrap tighter around my neck as he peered back at Avery with narrowed eyes. All that could come out of my fumbling lips was. “H-hey.”

She laughed a little more and shook her head. “Turn any more red and you’ll turn into a pepperoni, pizza boy.”

How could this woman be any more confusing? I peeked down at my shadow, but it was back to normal. Maybe it was just my brain playing tricks on me… Then I looked back at Avery with a relieved sigh. “Are you flirting with me?” I decided to tease back.

For a response, I got a whack to the back of the head. “What makes you think that?” she snapped as I groaned and rubbed the back of my head. “I wouldn’t flirt with.. with you.”  

But I could tell by the way she got more defensive and her cute eyebrows pinched, this was far from over. “You just did.” I said cheekily, folding my arms. Caedmon looked between us with a light peep, bobbing his head. I think he was laughing, but I tried not to concentrate on the little bugger.

Around us, the guilty crowd picked up half eaten breadsticks glumly. I could spot some sand dragons grabbing the fallen breadsticks and scampering off with them before the cleaning crew could pick them up. My wandering gaze went back to Avery who looked like she was about to slap me again. She grabbed me by the front of my sweatshirt once I was looking at her and pulled me close, just like she did on my first day here. “Don’t think I can’t beat the crap out of you, Justin.” She said with grit teeth.

Her breath smelled like mint.

That’s all I could think about as I looked at her yellow eyes as they turned a beautiful glowing amber.

Then she shook me like a ragdoll, making Caedmon hiss at her and paw at her hand. “You listening?”

Oh right. She’d been talking. “Not really.” I admitted with a cheesy smile.

She gave a huff. In a flash I found myself on my knees, her arm around my neck, and her firm biceps digging into the side of my head. Caedmon was grabbing her jeans and tugging, his front paws off the ground as he tried to pull her away, growling as low as a baby dragon possibly could. Avery’s minty breath was huffing in my ear as she flexed, my eyes bugging when I started to feel my air being cut off. Oh great.. I’d really done it this time.

I heard a thrumming noise. Maybe it was my blood ramming against my skull. But maybe it was… “Pizza!” I squeaked.

Just as soon as I said that, there was answering cries of “Pizza!” as another student peered out the window.

Immediately Avery let go of me and joined the kids as they rushed for the door. “Idiots, how is the guy going to get in here with you all crammed in front of the door? Make room!” She barked.

I rubbed my neck and tried to catch my breath as Caedmon hopped on my shoulder, his heavy weight surprising me as I slowly stood up. He nuzzled my cheek, growling angrily about Avery.

His growls were soon drowned out by screams of terror.

My heart froze within me as my mind raced to every possible horrible reason the screams filled the hall as I rushed through the crowd.

An anguished voice cried out. “Our pizza!” As several girls covered their mouths with their hands. Terrifying whumping wailed over the agonized yells of the hungry cadets. “What’s going on!” I screamed, clawing my way through the crowd. Caedmon clung onto my shoulder so tight his little claws dug into my shoulder, his tail wrapping around my neck as he made a nervous chitter. I stumbled over a fat sand dragon and lurched forwards before my hands met the steel of the door handles and I looked up to find a sight that made a squeak escape my lips.

Caedmon’s paws pressed to the window and his breath puffed tiny clouds of moisture onto the glass as he watched the delivery helicopter being snapped up in the jaws of Mrs. Geier’s enormous icy dragon. The tail was crunched in the dragon’s icy maw, the rotors still flying from where her teeth had broken them like toothpicks.

I watched in horror, thinking of all the pizzas at stake here. The kids all seemed to hold their breath as General Landin marched to her, yelling.

I realized how bad this looked. An unauthorized helicopter trying to land on a freaking dragon rider camp. “Someone needs to go out there and tell him that it’s a friendly!” I yelled back at the crowd. “Or our pizza is Frosty’s dinner!”

The crowd looked at each other before I saw this huge guy with steely grey eyes brush past me. “I’ll go.” He said, opening the door and a sweep of cold Alaskan air pressed the rest of us back as Mr. Colossus stomped out to brave the wrath of both Landin and the Alaskan air. Goosebumps rose on my pale skin as I shrank back into the warmth of the crowd, my eyes peeled on the scene.

Lots of hollering ensued, by both sides. I was amazed at this brave metal Rider, who would risk his own butt for pizza. But I guess when you’re out here in the wilderness, fresh Pizza Hut is a luxury we don’t usually enjoy.

Finally the enormous ice dragon slowly lowered the helicopter and as soon as she did a small man in a puffy seal-skin jacket jumped out and started running for the hills before he was knocked flat on his back by the business end of the dragoness’ icy tail. He fell into the snow with a small poof, not that anyone cared about him, the poor fellow.

Everyone’s eyes were on the metal Rider as he opened the door and pulled out seven boxes of pizza, holding them up for us to see.

The cadet’s cheers almost blew my ears off. Caedmon shrunk into the shadows to escape the mob as they laughed, high-fived, and clapped. A few girls looked like they were about to cry.

But just as quickly, everyone realized if he dawdled out there any longer, the pizza would get cold. Avery was the first to open the door and yell. “Get inside- the pizza is going to get cold!” Her call was echoed by a chorus of other’s encouraging chants.

The slick metal Rider nodded and started racing towards the door. A gorgeous, big chested silver dragon followed, grabbing the landing skids in his teeth and dragging the entire helicopter after him. I gaped at the metal dragon, not even noticing as the metalhead walked in with a triumphant grin, girls basically falling all over him and the boys clambering for the pizza.

His dragon was incredible. About the size of an ox, it had large, curved spines jutting from its back like scimitars, its horns were ridged like antlers, and its tail was spaded in the shape of a scorpions tail. Bright neon blue dripped down it’s heaving side, it’s bulging muscle rippling under those wicked scales. Now that was a dragon.

Caedmon growled in my ear as the dragon finally stopped and backed away, allowing the kids to grab more pizza boxes from the raided helicopter. I tilted my head, smiling a little at him. “You jealous, big boy?”

He bit my ear in response. In my head I suddenly had a picture of a Caedmon on steroids. Even his toes bulged with muscle, and he had a thick neck like a bull, adorned with the most craziest horns I had ever seen. His wings, when they spread, covered the whole sky in darkness as he gave a low, distinctly evil chuckle.

I raised a brow. “I’m sorry buddy, but I don’t think you’re going to be Cade the Incredibly Evil Lord of Doom and Destruction anytime soon.” I said as I walked back to the tables to grab a pizza for myself.

Caedmon huffed and glared at me, his nose crinkling in a snarl.

“But one thing you are getting is too heavy,” I grunted, feeling like he had gained five pounds in the last day. “I’m not going to be carrying you much longer.” I said, setting him down gently on a table before grabbing a slice of pizza.

He decided to use this time to pose for me. He stretched his body out, his front legs straight under him and his chest puffed out, his neck curved only slightly. He half spread his wings as his back legs splayed behind him. When I looked closely I could see that he seemed to be starting to thin slightly. He was either just stretching or he seemed to be gaining a slightly greyhound look. “Wow, Cade,” I whispered, running a finger down his neck, before frowning when I felt weird little ridges. I rubbed it a bit more before peering down to find little tufts of purple were beginning to bloom on his back. My finger followed it all the way down to his tail, where the purple tufts seemed to be on both sides. They were so small I would miss them if I hadn’t been squinting. “What’s going on here, buddy?” I murmured, rubbing his tail between my fingers.

He grinned, soaking in my attention like the ham he was. He thought I missed that he was posing like Spyro, but I didn’t. “See? I like Spy-rrro,” he said proudly.

“No, you’re not exactly purple,” I said, chuckling a bit. “You’re even better than Spyro. You’re even better than Spyro. You’re Cade the Shade, maybe not the Evil Overlord as you imagine yourself in the future.” I said, chuckling as I remembered the beefy image.

Caedmon purred under my praise and arched his back into my touch, his tail wiggling in delight.

I smiled and grabbed my pizza, chewing on it as I looked around. Merman was waving at me from another table and I paused when I saw him. He pointed to his pizza with a Colgate-white grin before giving me the thumbs up. I smiled back, returning the thumbs up and taking another bite before my attention was taken by the red face of General Landin. His dark brows were just about a unibrow on his forehead, his golden eyes shaded by their mighty connection. He seemed almost impressed as he looked around, seeing how we had managed to order one hundred thirty three pizzas, concerned that we had managed to give coordinates to this ‘top secret base’, and ticked off that we had nearly blown the bases’ cover, all wrapped up in one expression.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I saw him, sneaking back to Merman so I would be out of view.

Merman raised his pizza in salute as I walked closer. “You came Just-in time,” he joked.

I rolled my eyes. “That is the stupidest joke I’ve ever heard, I Em-mit,” I shot back.

He blinked. “That..” he sputtered, but before he could finish we saw Wolverine hop onto one of the tables and scream out. “WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!” His whiskers seemed to quiver with rage.

Everyone looked at each other. A guy with the most insane blue eyes looked over at us, his mouth moving like he was going to say anything but he was nudged by one of his comrades and shut up.

The silence was amazing. No one spoke up, not even Jonathan. Everyone just silently munched their pizza.

Caedmon and I shared a nod of triumph before I high-fived Merman under the table. Wolverine looked over us all, his eyes narrowed as not one spoke up. Here we were, united under the flag of peace, all for pizza-hood. The days events seemed to almost fade from memory as I looked at all my brothers and sisters in arms. We were on one team.

Finally General Landin saw that he was getting nothing from us and he exhaled.

“You realize the mess you’ve made? Now we have to go to Pizza Hut and wipe some minds,” Mardu spoke up, a bit childishly as he shuffled his wings from behind Landin.

General Landin nodded, and I swear he too seemed a bit prideful at the way we were united like this. “I don’t want so much as a crumb in this place after an hour,” he said instead of congratulating us.  “If anything like this happens again, you all are going to be cleaning Geier’s dragoness at four in the morning.” He barked.

“Yes sir!” We all called back smartly. Nobody was too keen on doing that at four in the morning.

With that, Landin marched out with Mardu, intent on wiping some minds of a certain lost helicopter, leaving us to enjoy our pizza party.