Ralem thankfully remembered how to get to Alroy’s little house. He let Aidan down before knocking on the door twice.

            Alroy answered the door, his cheeks almost as red as his hair in merriment. “Ralem! Broot yer nephew t’ah join de party, eh?”

            Ralem’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

            Aidan skirted around the warrior before stopping in the center of the hallway. “Uh…Is Jaydon okay?”

            Ralem pushed the warrior aside. Then his jaw slacked. “Stay here,” he ordered to Aidan. Then he charged into the kitchen.

            Jaydon was sitting on the table, laughing hysterically (something he had never done before). His laugh was almost identical to Ralem’s crazy laugh- a girly high pitch hyena-on-helium sound that didn’t match his body. As Ralem watched, he took another swig of a sloppy mug, spilling it all over his face. Newly formed horns curled from his wavy black hair and a smaller set peeked from where his ears used to be. Two apples were impaled on the ebony horns, and Cahal smashed yet another one on, laughing raucously. Jaydon shook his horns and burped up a flame that nearly set the kitchen cabinets on fire.

Drake was wringing his hands nervously, trying to take away Jaydon’s mug, but Jaydon hissed at him and he shrunk away. “Uh, I think you should stop now,” Drake pleaded, “That is definitely one too many!”

            Then Jaydon saw Ralem and his eyes widened. “Ralem! I missed you so much!” He nearly tackled Ralem to the ground, squeezing almost all the air out of him. With a triumphant smile, he proceeded to lick Ralem’s arm with a forked tongue. “I love you so so so so much!” Jaydon purred, tilting his head so that his horns rubbed Ralem’s head affectionately. Ralem felt the apple juice drip into his hair.

            Cahal laughed harder.

            Ralem glared at them. “Why would you humiliate him like this?”

            Cahal wiped tears from his eyes. “We didn’t know he’d have such a reaction to Dracofructus. You have to admit, though, it’s really funny!”

            Ralem looked at the dragon who was now purring madly, begging for him to scratch his chin. Cat-like green eyes flickered in drunken joy, his thoughts consisting of only three words; I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

            “This is not funny!” Ralem said with such passion that Cahal almost stopped laughing. “He’s too young to be trashed like this! I can’t believe you would do this to him!”

            “Ralem, let’s go flying,” Jaydon purred, “Come on! It will be fun!” He started running for the front door.

            Ralem caught him by the horns before he could reach the door. Jaydon stopped and turned to face him. “How about we go to the bedroom instead? I’ll scratch your chin if you do.” He shot a meaningful glance at Alroy, who led Ralem and Aidan grudgingly into a room in the attic. Ralem almost dragged Jaydon by one horn to the bedroom, instructing a shocked Aidan to wait outside the door, before throwing his dragon roughly inside. Jaydon’s knees hit the wooden floor with a loud bang and he whimpered, crawling to the water basin on the other side of the room. “I don’t feel so good,” he moaned, before he vomited in the vase.

            When he was done, he leaned exhaustedly against the wall, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

            “Jaydon, you really disappointed me,” Ralem whispered sharply, “I can’t believe you would let them do that to you. Didn’t God give you common sense? Don’t you remember what happened last time?  You’re a representation of me, Jaydon.”  He started pacing. “And now Aidan’s seen you like that and what kind of impression do you think that that will leave on him?”

            Jaydon hid his face in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he said, which was very hard for him to say. “I’m not going to do that ever again.”

            Ralem crouched beside him, helping to take the apples off his horns. “Good.”

            Jaydon sniffled, “I’m so embarrassed.”

            “I know,” Ralem said, “I think they spiked your Dracofructus. I think this is our cue to leave. If they don’t respect you, they don’t respect me and I don’t think they will respect their agreement. Let’s sneak out with Aidan,” he had been walking towards the door the whole time he had said this, and now he creaked the door open to confer the news to Aidan. But standing there was Alroy and Cahal, flanking the boy. When they saw Ralem they took a step forwards.

            “Listen. I’m sorry aboot trickin’ yer dragon int’ah drinkin’ too much. We didn’t nu e’d ‘av sich a reacshun ter it. We jist wanted ter 'av a craic wi' our fire brah'der.Let’s shake on it, Rider to Rider.” He extended a hand.

            Ralem studied his face. He seemed to be earnest about it. Cautiously, he took Alroy’s hand and shook it. Both of their grips were like iron, as if testing each other out. Then Alroy stopped shaking and retrieved a blanket from Cahal, “’Ere’s an extra blanket. I’ll see yeh in th’morning?”

            “Yes,” Ralem smiled tightly, taking the blanket from him.

            Alroy clapped a hand on his shoulder before he could retreat. “Are we on gran' terms 'ere?” he said, looking Ralem straight in the eye.

            “Yes. Thanks for all your help.” Then Ralem pulled Aidan in and closed the door.

            Jaydon was in the corner, his wings hiding his face. “Is he okay?” Aidan asked, concerned.

            “He’s fine, but he made a big mistake,” then, to Jaydon’s utter embarrassment Ralem went on to give a big lecture about drinking. “What you probably don’t know is that your grandfather, my dad, was a big drinker,” Ralem said, “And that’s what killed him. I don’t have a father because of beer. And that’s why I promised myself that I would never become a drunkard. Because you know what beer does to you?”

            “What?” Aidan said, his wide eyes solemn.

            “It messes with your brain and makes you think you can do things that you can’t. It makes you do stupid stuff, like what Jaydon was doing over there.”

            “I wasn’t drinking beer,” Jaydon mumbled.

            “No. But you were drinking Dracofructus, which you know does bad stuff to you,” Ralem reprimanded. He turned back to Aidan, “And that’s why you should never drink either, even if all your friends do. Because not only does it hurt you, but it hurts others.” After a few more minutes of a repetitive (slightly annoying) speech about the negative outcomes of drinking, Ralem let them go. He unrolled the sheets to start making the small feather bed in the corner of the room and a bundle of cloth tumbled out. He picked it up and shook it out to find a leather vest and a baggy, long-sleeve shirt with a jagged hole running down most of the back. Ralem smiled. “Ha, Jaydon. Now I can get a shirt on you.”

            Jaydon grunted.

            “Hey guys, sorry about that,” a voice said, startling Ralem so much that he found his fist an inch from Drake’s face. Jaydon was also immediately up and ready for combat, his fangs bared and talons unsheathed.

            “Don’t shoot! Hold your fire!” Drake squeaked, cross-eyed at the fist poised over his crooked nose.

            Ralem sighed and let his hand fall back to his side. “Don’t sneak up on a man like that, Drake.”

            “Sorry, but that’s kind of like my job- you know- to sneak up on people. It’s good to know I still got it in me. But you two take everything way too seriously.”

            Ralem snorted and got back to making the bed.

            “Well anyway,” Drake went on. “I just wanted to tell you that Alroy may seem a little rough, but he really is a nice guy. Granted, they like to drink. But that’s only their culture and besides, it’s pretty much impossible for Alroy to get drunk. I remember when I caught Alroy feeding a baby fire dragon beer in a baby bottle. He was fifteen then. That was about a little over a century ago. I was a very young vampire then, I had just ran away from my clan. He was a good friend during that time. One of the few people that I didn’t dare take blood from in that little town. But anyway, he didn’t really want to hurt Jaydon’s pride or anything. You can trust them, really.”

            Ralem bit his lip. “I don’t know if I’ll ever trust them. But thanks for telling me that.”

            “Well I’m going to go keep watch on a tree outside. If you need me, just holler, okay?” Drake said, before he slipped behind the door and disappeared.

            At that moment Ralem felt bad for being so harsh on him. Even though he was annoying, Drake was a good friend, someone who had a lot more to him than it seemed. He sighed and settled on the bed. “Jaydon, you okay on the floor?” he called as Aidan got under the sheets.

            “No. My human body gets stiff when I lay on the floor,” Jaydon replied, hopping on the bed.

            Ralem sighed. “This is going to be way too cramped then.”

            “No. Believe me, you want me. There’s bed bugs.”

            “What!” Aidan and Ralem rocketed out of the sheets.

            Jaydon chuckled before spreading his wings over the mattress for them to lay on. “I have a feeling they won’t like my blood. Go ahead, lay down.”

            “Just a second.  I got to do something.” Ralem walked to the small window facing the small park across the street. He rolled up the window a notch and hollered out to the darkness. “Drake!”

            In a count of three, Drake popped into the room, nearly scaring Ralem to death. “Yes?” he said breathlessly, hovering an inch from his face.

            “Drake, hey. I know I’ve been too hard on you lately and you really have done a lot for us. So… if you want, you can sleep in my hair.”

            “YES!” Drake screamed, before plopping into Ralem’s hair and snuggling tight. “I usually don’t sleep now, but your hair is like paradise!”

            Ralem still felt a little uncomfortable about having a vampire in his hair, but he sucked it up and curled up in his dragon’s leathery wings, throwing a soft blanket around him and Aidan. Jaydon cleared his throat. “You forgot something.”

            “What?”

            “You said you would scratch my chin if I went to the bedroom. You have to keep your word,” Jaydon said smugly.

            Ralem rolled his eyes but reached over Aidan and scratched the dragon’s chin. Soon Jaydon’s purr thrummed through the little enclosure, a huge smile about cracking his face in half. Aidan giggled, “He reminds me of this cat we have in town. It purrs if we scratch its chin. But this is just… weird!”

            “What’s weird about it?” Jaydon purred, “It feels so good!”  One pair of his horns had disappeared, the other was noticeably smaller.

            “Uncle Ralem, I’m hungry,” Aidan said in a small voice.

            Ralem felt even worse now. Can I do anything right? He thought.

            “Oh don’t worry,” Jaydon said, “I stuffed a whole chicken up here for later. You can have it.”

            “Eww, no thanks,” Aidan said.

            “It’s cooked,” Jaydon said. He lifted his wings and pointed to the corner of the room, where a still-steaming chicken lay, untouched.

            After Aidan ate, they all went to bed. Except for Ralem and Jaydon, who stayed up talking. Nobody would have known; they were still, their eyes closed and their breathing steady. But they talked until one in the morning. Jaydon was so easy to talk to. And he didn’t butt in much to say something. Ralem poured out his heart to his dragon and Jaydon was there to listen. Then, finally Ralem asked what Jaydon thought about something and found he was starting to get tired. I think I’m going to go to sleep. Good night.

            Good night. I love you, Jaydon said, and they soon drifted off.

            It was storming. Sarah and Aren were huddled next to their mother like little chicks, their eyes large and watery. Rain pounded on the windows, lightning rattling the house. A flash completely illuminated the small town and the pale face of his mother. Ralem knew she was being brave for her children. A dark figure, probably a large dog, was looking out the window.

            “Ralem, Ralem honey,” his mother reached out a hand and Ralem took it. He realized that his little hand was dwarfed by his mother’s slender one. Somehow, this was a little strange, he wasn’t sure why.

            “Yes, ma,” he said, his voice shaky and high.

            “We’re going to be okay, honey. Don’t cry, we’re going to be fine. God is with us, remember? What’s the verse I just taught you?”

            “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go,” he replied, flinching as another lightning bolt rent the sky with gold.

            “There you go,” his mother smiled weakly, “Now, right now you are the man of the house. You have to do something for us, okay? Can you do it?”

            Ralem nodded, his little fists balled.

            “Go to our storage room and gather our supplies, okay? Remember? And come straight back, okay?”

            “Yes ma’am,” Ralem said.

            He felt something scaly nudge his hand. He almost jumped in shock when he saw a little green dragon. He almost didn’t recognize him. The dragon was about the size of a pony, with slanted green eyes, curly horns, and an almost teenagerish quality to his gangly legs, big head, and large paws. “I’ll go with you,” he whispered.

            The window rattled as rain blasted into the glass panes. Outside, they could see a tree being yanked up into the ashen sky, before becoming lost to view. Tiles from the roofs spun like mad ravens, called into the air by a black beast of a hurricane which was steadily approaching on the skyline.

            Ralem felt his breath catch in his throat. “Stay with me,” he said to Jaydon, curling his arm around Jaydon’s jawline. Cautiously they walked out of the room into the hallway. On the far end was where Ralem knew the supplies were. BAM! A window to his left exploded and Jaydon snapped forward, using his body as a shield from the hail of glass. Most of the shards fell off his scaly side, but one dug its jagged head into Ralem’s arm. Ralem bit his lip to stop himself from crying out, his fumbling fingers digging it out before throwing it, now scarlet, on the floor.

            “Ralem!” he heard his mother cry out, her voice strangled.

            “I’m fine!” Ralem lied, watching blood stream from his cut.

            “Are you okay?” Jaydon whispered.

            I’m the man of the house. I’m okay, Ralem reminded himself. “I’m fine. Just… keep going.” This time he stayed behind Jaydon as they trotted through the remaining stretch of hallway. The wind screamed through the open window, the terrifying sound of a building storm thundering through the house. It seemed to thrum through Ralem’s whole body like the rattling breathing of the dying earth itself. His heart fluttered like a dying bird in his chest and he almost lost his balance. He put a hand on Jaydon’s side, trying to steady himself. Jaydon stopped, his legs splayed, letting his Rider get his bearings.

            “Jaydon, can’t you stop this?” Ralem said, surprised by his own voice. It was high and shaky, like he was a little boy. He cleared his throat and tried to harden his voice, “Can you?”

            “I… I can’t,” Jaydon said, his tone also lighter. “My powers are weaker right now. I tried, I really did.”

            Together they surged forward, that door in sight. The old oak one that hid what they needed. Ralem grabbed the knob, his sweaty hands betraying him as he struggled to open it. His breath caught in his throat. The wind shrieked, a hint of demonic laughter taunting in his ears. “I can’t, I can’t open it!”

            “Stand back,” Jaydon ordered. When Ralem stepped aside, Jaydon charged at the door, head lowered like a bull. BASH! The door fell off its hinges and thudded to the ground. Jaydon stepped over the debris into the small closet. It was stuffed with dry food and other little remedies Ralem’s mother was known to use. The supplies… what were the supplies? He almost stumbled over himself, sifting through the things on the shelf. Suddenly he paused. Who was that boy he had just seen in the mirror? He froze. The boy froze too. Jaydon, there’s a kid in here! Ralem said, walking slowly towards the boy. The boy walked slowly towards him. He looked a little like Aidan, but with larger green eyes and shoulder-length black hair. His face was smudged and dirty, his clothes old and ripped. He looked to be about eleven.

            There’s no boy in here, Jaydon replied. It’s just you and me.

            Ralem pointed, “But- but that’s. Oh no. That’s me.” His face paled. He turned around slowly, terror flashing across his face. “Jaydon, I remember this! This isn’t real- this isn’t even a dream.”

            Jaydon’s eyes were like saucers, “This is a memory!”

            At that moment they saw a blur movement, like a flash of black on velvet. Ralem screamed like a girl. “Jaydon! This is like the dream I had when they were tracking me in that barn! They’re inside my head right now!”

            Jaydon scanned the darkness nervously, backpedaling towards the door. If they know where we are, they could kill us while we sleep! He said frantically.

            Ralem hopped on his dragon. “Run!”

            Jaydon scrambled around, his talons scraping the floor. He burst out of the storage area and sped down the hallway they had come from. The wind was even more fierce now, two more windows had blown up while only one hung strong nearest the door.  Jaydon didn’t even slow down. He lowered his head, hitting the door horns-on. It exploded into a million pieces and he burst in, bringing the wind with him. Ralem’s family had made a little shelter out of an overturned table and a couple chairs. They screamed, but Jaydon ignored him, searching for an escape route. Nothing. He pranced in place, waiting for orders.

            “Be strong and courageous,” Ralem repeated to himself. He felt suddenly like a real little kid, with no idea what to do. He looked back to find something, black as sin, crawling like a shadow down the hallway. Jaydon skidded to the side like a frightened horse, his nose puffing smoke. “What are you doing?” Ralem screamed, “RUN!”

            Jaydon tossed his head and backed up to the wall. “I can’t! Going outside in that wind would be suicide!”

            The cat opened its mouth, its fangs shining in the pitch blackness. “You’ll be dead before you wake, little dragon,” it hissed, jumping to a standing position, its muscular back brushing the ceiling. Its bulk took up most of the door frame as it ducked in, unsheathing its massive talons from its paws. Then it started laughing, a spine-chilling sound that sent shivers up Ralem’s spine. This was a cat of a kind they had never dealt with before. Ralem knew this one was of a more dangerous kind. After all, it had broken into his memories on its first try and was tracking his whereabouts this very second.

            But it was not alone. Behind it, another cat materialized, as jet black as the first. He noticed something glittering on both of their biceps, a tattoo with a strange symbol on it; something like a crescent moon sliced in half. Both were massive, more bulky than the ones Ralem was used to, yet their black fur seem to ripple into the shadows themselves, making them seem almost invisible if they weren’t showing their fangs in laughter. One of them nodded to his family, huddled in the corner. “So this is your family, young Rider.”

            “Don’t you dare touch them!” Jaydon roared.

            “Once upon a time there was a land called Irya. It was a beautiful place, with rolling hills, magical forests, and the most spectacular waterfalls you could ever imagine-”

            The cats paused to look at him, the expression on their faces reading Has he gone mad?

            “Rider, what are you doing? They could kill us and you’re telling us a story?” Jaydon said.

            Shh, I’m trying something out. Ralem cleared his throat before continuing, “And in that land, there was a teeny tiny little cottage, smack in the middle of two rivers. In fact, if the man living there wanted to go anywhere, he’d have to cross the river on his little boat he had named Fontana. He was a lonely man, really. He had lost his wife twenty years ago and had no children to his name. This story starts when he was staring out the window at the twin streams, wondering how to quench his loneliness.”

            As he talked, the scenery started to change. The roar of the storm subsided, walls slumping like sand into the ground, Ralem’s family disappearing into the wind. A beautiful hill country rose up all around them, then the cottage, building itself out of nothing. Suddenly they found themselves in the cottage with the two cats and a man looking out the window, aged but strong and healthy looking with an impressive beard and deep blue eyes. “When he heard a sound. Was it meowing? He turned around to find two cute black kittens, as tiny as my fist and as cute as a button.”

            The cats screamed as they shrunk smaller and smaller until they were like little fluffy puffballs on the floor. The old man turned around with a smile. “And he grabbed those little kittens and hugged them real tight.” The cats gave evil glares at him while they were being hugged.

            Jaydon snorted. “Seriously? You call that a story? Let me have a try.” He cleared his throat. “Except the man actually wanted to kill the cats so he killed them. The end.” The man got out his crossbow from under the table and pointed it at the kitten’s faces.

            “That’s not a good ending! Too short. How about this. The man decided not to kill them, for it would waste arrows. Instead he decided to give them to the next person who would come to visit him.”

            Jaydon laughed. “That person wasn’t actually a person. It was a werewolf! It took the cats from him and ate them. The end.” A bushy looking guy popped out of nowhere and took the kittens by the tail, dangling them over his mouth. The kittens mewled pathetically, trying to scratch his face.

            “No, wait wait wait. I got a good idea. How about the werewolf decided that he would only bite off their tails, then throw the rest in the river?” Ralem said. The werewolf bit off one of the cats tails. It screamed like a banshee, wiggling hard in its grasp.

            “No. That’s too nice. How about we have the werewolf breathe fire and roast them slowly then throw them into the river?” Fire erupted from the werewolf’s maw, singing the cats.

            “Ooh, I’ve got an even better one. A huge beaver dam breaks and it floods the whole cabin?”

            “Then the cats get swallowed by a whale-”

            “Then the whale burps them up into a school of piranhas!”

            “Then they get run over by a herd of antelope-”

            Ralem watched from Jaydon’s back as a herd of antelope surged out of nowhere and trampled the wet, spitting kittens. “Wait- that didn’t even make sense. Antelope?”

            “Well yours didn’t make sense either. Piranhas?”

            “WE WILL KILL YOU!” a squeaky voice screeched from below.

            Ralem cupped an ear, “Oh, you want more? How about Greek fire. You know- the stuff that burns on water? I’m sure that will be fun.”

            Jaydon smiled maliciously. “A whole army of Greeks surrounded the cats. Then they poured Greek fire all over them. The end.”

            Ralem patted his dragon’s neck affectionately, “I’m so proud of your story making skills.”

            “Actually, this is probably the best story I’ve ever made,” Jaydon beamed, watching the cats burn. “It makes me feel so happy inside.”

            “You know, I doubt they’ll ever come into our mind again. In fact, we’ll be ready if they do. We’re going to have so much fun.”

(I know this was kind of  silly, but I wrote this part for my little cousin, who apparently thought it was hilarious. So bear with me :)