(unedited)

"This is too big. This is too big. How do you drive this thing?"

Chase sighed. "I thought you had your driver's license?" He jumped into the backseat and buckled up in a padded high chair. "Mama used to say that this truck is the safest car to drive in." He buckled himself in, throwing his things in the back. The trunk was already stuffed with Walmart bags and Chase's single suitcase.

"I don't feel safe. I don't feel safe at all," Remington's voice wavered as he looked for the key hole.

I grunted, trying to open the door. Ari was standing behind me, staring at everything with round eyes. I knew he was wavering where he stood but I hoped he could stay put just a moment longer...

Chase saw my struggle through the tinted window. "Pull harder!" He coached.

"I am... pulling..." I managed between grit teeth, yanking my whole body back and steeling my worn tennis shoes against the rocky ground. An ugly, manly sound grumbled from deep within from exertion.

Then I heard a click and the door popped open, my built up momentum sending me crashing to the ground for the second time in an hour. I groaned and relaxed on the leaves, giving up. Then I saw Ari's concern as he awkwardly staggered his legs, apparently trying to achieve the crouching position. "No I'm fine Ari, it's alright," I called, raising my hands. Ari didn't seem too convinced. He lowered himself carefully before leaning forwards and flopping on top of me.

Over my squeaky yell of surprise, I heard Chase howling with laughter. And Remy's "Are you okay?"

I shot a killer glare at Chase and ignored Remington as I slowly sat up with a grunt. Ari put his hands to the ground, slowly supporting himself. It seemed almost like a machine process to watch him carefully lean back to sit on his butt, all the while staring at me. "It's alright it's alright," I sighed, stifling my rage so that Ari wouldn't bite Chase's hand off (which would actually be a little amusing right now). I got to my feet and helped Ari up. Ari smiled a little at me before looking beyond me to glare at Chase as well.

Chase giggled. "It's a big truck. You gotta use some muscle to open the door."

And he was right. This was not just your average Toyota. This was a big black Ford Excursion, whose diesel growl thrummed the whole vehicle. Ari looked as alarmed as I felt as I helped him get inside. His eyes scanned the truck for any signs of a stalker dragon. Chase laughed harder from his high chair. "You gringos have never been around a real truck, have you?"

"Haw haw," I said, really wishing I could punch him. I buckled Ari in before plopping beside him and buckling myself in. I really hoped this thing wasn't this loud the whole time. With my luck, I'd probably get a killer headache.

It roared to life as Remington pressed the gas pedal, jerking forwards aggressively and making everyone except the cackling imp yelp. "I got this!" Remington yelled back, aggressively turning the wheel hand-over-hand to make it out the driveway. Ari clung onto me so tight that I thought I was going to lose circulation in my arm. The truck inched forwards, growling at every timid push to the pedal.

"Do not fear the Beast!" Chase crowed, trying and failing to sound masculine with his Mickey Mouse voice. "You must conquer it! Feel its power!" He raised his hands as if summoning some tribal god from his high chair.

"Stop being so dramatic," I snapped, holding Ari's head in my arms. I was stroking his hair fervently in an attempt to calm him down. He was hyperventilating already and the trip of a lifetime hadn't even started.

Remington didn't look much better. He slowly made it onto the road before picking up speed, the growl of the truck thrumming under our butts. "I've never driven something this big." He licked his lips nervously.

A few times I heard him curse as he almost bumped into other cars, and I could almost see his knuckle bones peeking through his skin as he gripped the steering wheel, but once we reached a steady pace, we all started to relax. Ari even pulled back from my grip slowly, and I gave a slow sigh. Chase was already busy on Minecraft. "I'm making a bunch of booby traps in my castle." He informed us, poking at the screen.

"Good for you," I said dryly, running a hand through my curly hair.

"Bad." Ari spoke for the first time in front of Chase. He prodded Chase with a finger. "Bad bad bad!" He growled, just like I had done to him this morning.

"Geez man, it's only for a game. Why? You've been planning to infiltrate it?" Chase snorted. "Not happening." He looked at Ari casually before going back to poking at his screen, this time having it tilted away from Ari's vision.

Ari looked at me, still pointing at him. "Bad! Bad bad fuh-ish. Fu-ish! Bad!"

"Ouch! Chill, dude." Chase flinched at another poke from Ari.

I shook my head, stifling a sigh. "He's not a fish. He's a boy. Buh-o-ey." I pronounced slowly.

"Buuu-eee, bad fuh-ish!" He repeated, his eyebrows low in determination. "Karra, Rrremee, Arrri, no bad fuh-issh!" He folded his arms after his statement and leaned back in his chair, giving the angry eyebrows.

Remington chuckled. "I don't think he's happy Chase joined the group."

"Yeah what's wrong with him?" Chase said, which got on my nerves. He was already gnawing at an Airhead. "He's... he's not normal," he said slowly.

Ari seemed to know that he was getting insulted. "Bad fuh-ish Arri muh-eet!" He bared his fangs at the boy, who returned the favor, baring his teeth right back at him.

"Hey hey!" It was hardly thirty minutes into the drive and already I wanted to chuck Chase out of a moving vehicle. "Chase, if you don't want to be nice to Ari, I'm going to leave you at an old diner that doesn't have wifi!"

"It isn't my fault he's loco en la cavesa, chica," He turned away from Ari to continue making his stupid trap that held blocky, flailing sheep captive.

"And no Spanish either!" I snapped.

"Kara," Remington said soothingly.

I know. I needed to cool my temper. I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly, imagining myself grabbing the iPad and throwing it out the window. Ah. I let out my breath, calming down a little.

"Hey!" Chase's scream made me jolt out of my happy place. I opened my eyes to find myself face-to-face with a herd of ugly sheep. The iPad? "Give it back, chiflada!"

"No." Ari growled back, holding the iPad farther across my vision.

"Fine." Chase said in a deadly tone. There was a click as he unlocked his seat belt. Then he launched himself at Ari.

"Stop!" I screamed, suddenly finding myself squished against the door. Between Ari and I, the iPad was squished to my side and before Chase could bite onto Ari's arm, I pushed his head back with the palm of my hand, snatched the iPad from Ari, and offered it to him.

"Thank you, vaca," he said sweetly before hopping back into his car seat, buckling back up, and turning back on the device. As if nothing had happened.

Ari turned and looked at me with confusion. I sighed, realizing I had to be real careful about what I thought. Although Rider school had taught that dragons and humans usually were able to communicate properly at a month or two, I'm sure he'd already found out how to read my mind, and was probably wondering why I changed my mind. I sighed and put my head against his shoulder. "We shouldn't always do what we want to." I murmured, trying to reach into his mind.

"You should expect headaches," the crackly voice of Mrs. Becker came into my mind. "They're going to be trying to talk to you. When you try to talk back, reach for that fuzzy feeling in the back of your mind and push your idea into it. It'll take a while for it to work, so expect a lot of headaches."

Headaches. Right, Mrs. Becker. Maybe that's why earlier this morning... I closed my eyes and gave a steadying breath, trying to do that very thing as I rested my head on his shoulder. I could smell his surprisingly calming spicy dragon scent and feel the odd beats of his double hearts. A headache bloomed in the back of my head, but still I strained. I knew I could- I was almost there. I could talk to him! Ari grimaced and took a shaky breath, causing me to pull back mentally. Okay, maybe not. Man, that sucks.

"Hey," Remy said softly from the front seat. He reached over and rifled through the grocery bags. "I got something for you and Ari. I hope you'll like it." He pulled out a long black leather suit- skintight and imbued with wind resistant supplex that would keep me warm at high altitudes. Or at least it was supposed to. As I ran my fingers over it, I could tell it was the cheap yet comfortable, probably with fake supplex, but let's be real. It was pajamas. I shook my head and smiled once I spotted the badge on the shoulder.

The dragon Rider badge. I had memorized the different types. There were five ranks of dragon Riders- The R1 Private being the lowest. They had badges of swamp dragons, which are pretty useless dumb creatures with branch-like antlers that took up most the badge, and the angular dragon head was depicted in profile position.

The R2 rank's badge was an Alaskan ice dragon roaring, which were medium-large beasts with cunning, and yet had little magic and no special breath. Mostly wyverns were in this rank, as well as the larger sea wyrms and the intelligent wingless dragons.

R3 Ranks were the physically powerful heavyweights. The American wyvern was depicted in flight, seen from above with wings spread. The very badge I was supposed to be wearing right now. The huge beast depicted in the badge weren't known especially for their smarts, unless directed by their Rider. They were also tricky to hatch. They liked being wild I suppose. Fire dragons from the northwest also belong in this group, as well as many other dragons large enough to bulldoze buildings.

R4 Ranks had highly magical and intelligent dragons from small to medium size, like shadow dragons, sun dragons, light dragons, and Quetzcoatl dragons. These were very rare, and you could only get a dragon of this kind if you were a General in the Military to begin with. A shadow dragon was on this badge, curled up in a ball almost playfully, with a mane of blue smoke and feathery blue tail, beautiful stripes zigzagging its haunches. I thought this one was the most beautiful.

And finally there's the R5 Rank. This is so rare... we don't even have one at the moment. These dragons could literally control the elements and heal their Riders at several times the rate any other Rider can heal. They say that you could cut off the leg of one of these Riders and it'd grow back in just five minutes. Gross... but pretty cool at the same time. Last one that existed as general over the entire Rider forces was a fire elemental. But he sort of... fell off the grid at some point. The R5 rank doesn't even have a badge.

And the badge on the suit that Remy gave me? It had a Mcdonald's neon yellow dragon with a slender neck, buggy eyes and thin face like a seahorse. Fuzzy, slightly misshapen wings were spread, and splotched with a nauseating array of colors. Oh great. A flower dragon. Basically so stupid they couldn't bond with humans. The most you'd get from them is a little friend to perch on your shoulder and feed spoonfuls of sugar to. I tried not to make a face. I was going to take that badge off as soon as possible. "Thanks Remy.." I said softly, touched by how thoughtful he could be. I ran my hand down the torso of the shirt, seeing all the straps hanging off it meant to strap the Rider onto the saddle. These were obviously weak, probably would break at Ari's first barrel roll. And there was some unnecessary straps as well. I could tell whoever had done this hadn't really done their homework. But the fabric felt great to the touch, which was a huge plus.

And.... here I am going on and on about dragon Rider stuff. Sorry about my nerdiness.

Then I realized Remy was flicking constant glances in the rearview mirror at me, trying to see my reaction. I felt terrible when I realized I'd been frowning. "This is perfect Remy," I said with more conviction. "Thank you."

Ari sniffed at it, his expression confused. Then he hesitantly smiled at my tone of voice. I flashed a small smile at him. "I'm going to wear this to stay warm when... well if we'll ever fly," my voice got smaller and smaller as the sentence wore on.

Ari frowned, looking thoughtful.

I realized he might not know what I was saying and for some reason I persisted on, pointing to the suit that was probably intended for Halloween. Then I put up against my chest. "I'm going to wear this..." Then I pointed at him, dropping the suit to press the sides of my hands together, my thumbs side by side. I twisted my wrists so it would make a dumb looking flapping motion, swerving my hands through the air like I've seen dragons accomplish so many times. "If you"-then I remembered that Chase was still in the truck with us-"When we'll fly."

"Seriously? Those are pajamas." Chase spoke up. "You must be desperate. They look stupid."

I saw Remy flinch a little bit and my expression tightened. "Shut up Chase, it looks great." I fisted my hands to fight the urge to slap the back of his head.

"Grrrate," Ari agreed frostily.

"You're weird," Chase snapped, going back to his iPad.

I inhaled sharply to tell him off then I just looked away, gritting my teeth. Ari gently took the Rider onesies away from me and looked at them before rubbing his face on it.

"Oh I think Ari might steal it from you," Remington joked, giving me an encouraging smile before turning on the radio, scrolling through the stations before stopping on a Rihanna song. I forced myself to relax, looking at Ari with a small smile.

The road seemed to go on forever. In about an hour Ari had passed out again and was pretty much squishing me under his weight. As we neared the city, Chase began navigating my brother. "There's swoopers coming in from all over. I hope they don't know anything." Chase murmured, eyes fixed on his screen. "Okay, one up ahead. Take the first exit you can. We have to get away from this area." He took a sip of his juice box.

I slowly looked outside. "This is..." I peered at the city up ahead. "This is close to that Ivy League Rider school"- Remington let out a yelp as he spotted a dragon swooping over the cars.

"Hmm that's not on the app," Chase frowned deeply.

"That's because they are probably training on learning how to fly." I smiled, looking out the window. "They're students."

As Remington looked for an exit, I watched the Rocky Mountain Dragon outside play.

He couldn't have been more than three years old, his body still awkward looking with those big paws and long legs. Stubby horns revealed that it was a young male, as well as the growing crest. Its jaws lolled open as it panted after managing a barrel roll. A young man was seated upon him, rubbing his back in encouragement. All I could make out about him was his athletic built accented by the tight Rider suit and his flaxen blonde hair that seemed to glow in the midafternoon sun. I could just make out a grin on his expression before the dragon swooped to the side, tilting his wings. "Wow," I whispered, one hand to the window as I felt wistfulness pull on my heart. Maybe one day that would be me with Ari.

I thought about the boy and his dragon for the whole rest of the ride. Ari woke a few hours later, but then just 'secretly' watched the movie Chase was watching-which was Lord of the Rings. Every so often, Chase made a remark about the movie and Ari would shake his head in disagreement, since everything Chase said naturally had to be wrong.

I was looking around for hotels. My whole body was sore from being in this truck all day and I was ready to hit the sack. Remington found one before I did. "Alright we're going to call it a day," he said, pulling into a motel 6. "Get your stuff together."

Obediently, I grabbed some clothes for Ari and I, while Chase pulled his iPad charger off the truck and pulled out his little suitcase. Ari wiggled in excitement and I unstrapped him, helping him out of the truck. "My puh-reshouss," he purred before giggling in amusement, wobbling on his long legs.

"You're a goof," I said, laughing as I walked inside behind Remington and Chase, who flashed weirded out looks at us. I stuck out my tongue at him.

Remington pulled out his credit card and paid for a room tiredly before leading us down the hall to the elevator. Once we were all inside he punched in the floor second to the top- the 9th floor. Ari was laughing hard about how darn funny he thought he was by whispering 'my puh-reshouss' into my ear. I poked his side, trying to shut him up, but it only made him laugh harder.

"He is so weird," Chase said for the millionth time today once the door open and we all piled out. Remington told us "910," as we walked down a hall that's geometric patterns along the walls and floor made me feel a bit off balance. Chase was the first to find it and stood by the door for Remington to blandly poke the room card into the slot, pulling it out fast.

"Well here we are," Remington mumbled, opening the door to a room containing a dining table and two couches facing a widescreen TV to our left. An island separated the kitchen from the TV area, and I smiled at the sight of a fridge and microwave. Maybe I could make popcorn... tomorrow. I was too pooped today.

"I call the kitchen," Chase said, already plugging in his iPad as if it hadn't been on 100% 2 seconds ago. "I'll sleep on the couch." He started poking around on his iPad, sliding onto the wooden chair. Does this kid ever sleep? You know what, I didn't even care.

"I'll take care of this joker," Remington said, pulling Ari away from me. "Noo... puh-reshious," Ari pouted, looking towards me but he couldn't help but start cracking up again and looking to Remington to see if he thought it was half as funny as he did. Remington smiled wanly and shook his head. "Goodnight Kara," he called, guiding Ari to a room with twin beds inside. "You have the master bedroom all to yourself."

"Thanks," I called. "Goodnight, Gollum," I said to Ari. "Night, Remington." I pulled my Walmart bags close to me with a smile before heading towards the bedroom.

"Seriously. What's up with Ari. He acts like he's two," Chase mumbled, head resting in hand as he poked at the screen with the other.

"Are you seriously going to make fun of him if he's slow?" I hissed at him.

He looked up at me. "He's not normal." He said dully.

"And neither are you, yellow-eyes. Goodnight," I said frostily, closing the door to my bedroom behind me but not before I heard him call "not normal!" Ugh! I wish I could duct tape his mouth shut! I ruminated on that thought as I grabbed my Rider PJs and got them on, mumbling to myself before plopping into bed. Ah... I sank into the memory foam like I was on a cloud. This was heaven... I wiggled into the cool sheets before succumbing to blissful sleep.

3:26 a.m

The rigid, glowing blue numbers burned into my retinas as I stared at them blankly. Why was I suddenly awakened? I didn't need to go relieve myself... but I felt uneasy. Had there been a bad dream? A noise?

My breathing slowed considerably as to not interfere with my hearing as I strained to figure out what was going on.

Never before had I so sharply realized my new superhuman senses than now. Over the blaring thrum of the air conditioning, I could hear the cat (that wasn't supposed to be here) meowing in the room above, a person opening the fridge in another suite on our floor, and someone watching Supernatural (I could tell because I could hear Dean's deep voice growling out "Sam!") on the floor below. I could hear Remington breathing in his own room. But what I could also make out was hissing.... In the "family" room. My heart felt as if it would stop just so I could hear better. I slowly leaned forwards in my bed, my eyes narrowing as they fixated on my door.

"Bad fissshh...."

Ari. He wasn't sounding happy. But he had pronounced "bad" right. Good boy.

Ok. So.... He was picking a fight with Chase. No big deal. I could break it up... I slowly swung my legs over the bed, my toes barely touching the carpet before I could hear Chase's voice raising sharply. "You give that back- Monstruo!"

"Bad bad!" Ari growled in return and there was the sound of something smacking into the wall- and it sounded a bit too heavy to be the iPad. My eyes narrowed.

"Okay!" Chase was panting heavy. "I can play dirty too." His voice degenerated into a raspy snarl, similar to that of a dog's as it lunges. I heard the scrabble of claws on the tile, the sensation of tiny needles sinking into my shoulder.

At this point I was running to the door. Throwing it open, my eyes groped in the darkness as Ari's cry turned to an all out roar. In the living room, I saw a flash of movement, and semi-translucent webs glowing dimly from the filtered light from the windows.

My pulse swelled in my throat as my veins became charged with adrenaline. Those webs... they had to be... my fingers patted all over the wall anxiously. Where was.... The switch? It had to be around here somewhere!

Meanwhile the fighting was getting more intense. Chase mimicked Ari, growling at him and I felt my body tingle with mirrored pains- bite marks to my chest, arms and fingers. Why would he be biting him? I was going to kick his butt once I found the darn thing....

Yip!

The webbed substance moved too fast for the stupid kid, sending him straight into the wall. The sharp sound of surprise that followed made me cringe.

"Alright, what's going on here!?" Remington snapped crossly, and with a quick click, shed light on the situation. "What the...." All color drained from his face.

"Bad fisshh," Ari tried to explain, closing his eyes and ducking his head at the onslaught of bright light. I blinked, trying to adjust, but something was definitely off. His arms... they were misshapen. Wait... that's not quite the word.

His elbows were curled back at a strange angle, up and away from his body as he leaned over, while his hands somehow still rested on the floor in front of him. His thumb, fore, and middle fingers were tipped with talons, while the other-three?- were elongated and curved behind him in a sharp angle towards the ceiling. Webs folded between the fingers, and between the start of his wrist to his biceps. His whole arm had turned various shades of purple-ish blue, transitioning smoothly from his skin color to flashy scales ornamenting his long 'fingers' as well as the tips of his new... wings.

"Now you messed everything up-stupid dragon!" Chase's desperately angry voice brought our attention to the recovered...creature desperately typing at the iPad with his.... Hand?

Instead of a little boy there was a puppy about the size of a grown cat, with long ears like a Bobcat, perked forwards, brilliant yellow eyes accented by tearstains similar to a cheetah's, and incredibly spiky fur. So spiky the puppy seemed half porcupine.

But it was his tail that seemed the most bizarre. Curling around his adorably puppy paws, it ended in an eerily-humanoid hand that was frustratedly pressing a forefinger to an app repeatedly. "The iPad-it just crashed!" Puppy-Chase barked.

"Ch-Chase," Remington stammered, pale as a ghost.

"You don't understand!" Chase looked up at him, tiny fangs bared. "He was just outside! Now I don't know if he's still out- "

His words were cut off once a huge red snout exploded the windows, horns catching on the curtains before the mouth, showing off enormous white teeth as a roar sent my brother and I reeling to our knees.

46/29*F2