(So sorry for slow update you all hope this long one will make up for it a little!)

All the lights were dead at the beautiful log cabin. It was, after all, almost midnight. The only light other than the moon I could spot was a dim glow from where I suspected Zach was watching anime or something. I wondered if he got his manga books back. But when Blaize parked around back, I spotted one light was on, right over the mahogany door, illuminating a small circle of light around the entrance. A few feet beside it was a long wooden bench, upon which a scarecrow with a drooping cowboy hat rested. Kind of creepy.

I stood up, grabbing a few of my bags before hopping off, the dry grass crunching under my new Vans. I started trudging towards the door, my breath coming out in cool puffs of mist. It was freezing, and I was dreaming of my nice comfy bed. My joints almost creaked with every step. I'd been sitting in the back of that pickup for a few hours, and I hadn't moved much in that entire time. I was surprised I could move at all.

I was almost scared stiff when Blaize walked past me carrying the rest of my bags. He made absolutely no sound. He was almost like a ghost.

"Thanks!" I said haltingly, waddling behind him.

"You better be thanking him."

At that sound, I jumped and went flying back onto my butt, gasping. "H-hey! Who said that?" I heard a loud crack and really hoped it wasn't my stolen iMac.

The 'scarecrow's' hat tilted upwards, the light making a halo around the rim. But underneath, the face was still shrouded in darkness. At the moment I wasn't even thinking of using my darkness vision because I was sort of just staring at him blankly. "You know, I entrusted you with something that meant a whole lot to me. I let you hold in your hands the full force of a Hellbeast, who not only drove you hours there and back, but gave you instructions by which you could make it back alive." Bright red flames flickered in the darkness, but they seemed to suck in light rather than release it, because his face was still a pitch black. "I thought you had half a brain to at least respect him." He lurched to his feet, dwarfing me, his broad shoulders blocking out the stars.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "I didn't mean to-"

He crouched down beside me. "You do something like that again, and I'll let him teach you to respect him himself."

Then he was gone.

I gasped, alone in the darkness. It seemed like he was still there, watching me from somewhere. My eyes scanned the scary, scraggly hands of the fir trees and I made a run for it, plastic bags slapping my hips.

When I finally made it to the room, I sighed and dropped all my bags on the floor before plopping on the bed tiredly. There was a grunt and I realized I had flopped on top of poor Caed. "Oh! Sorry buddy." I flopped on my side, trying desperately to see if he was alright. But he just yawned and set his head back under his wings. I sighed and curled around him, stroking his spine. I wondered what his day was like here at home? I passed out without even taking off my clothes, the coldness chased away by the warmth of my tiny dragon.

b

CRASH!

I was propelled from a fast action thriller dream of escaping the maniacal Joker on my trusty steed- a giant Pteradactyl. "Wuh!" I panted, expecting to hear that terrible giggle of a serial killer clown.

Instead, I saw the mountains from my large windows, which flooded my room with light (but luckily reaching my face or I'd have tomato cheeks). I exhaled in relief before turning towards the noise. Caedmon was perched on the nightstand, patting a small vase with two drooping flowers towards the edge of the cabinet. He looked bored to death. "Hey!" I said sharply.

He pulled his paw away before breaking into a fanged smile. "Good morrin!" he said as loudly as he could, his tail wiggling in excitement. The last picture frame on the nightstand went teetering off the edge.

"Woah!" I reached out and snagged it with my ninja skills. "Good morning to you too, buddy. But you've got to be more careful." I turned it over to see the picture.

A young boy was painted on it, in the same watercolor I'd seen in Darius' book of dragons. By the look of the dusty clothes barely hanging on to his slim frame, this was from a long, long time ago. He wasn't wearing any shoes, and his clothes were ripped and patched with darker pieces of cloth. But my eyes were drawn to the splash of bright color- his big green eyes and the huge smile on his face as a small dragon the same color as his eyes nuzzled his cheek affectionately. The dragon sure was cute. I'd never seen any dragon like it, although its color would suggest it be a forest dragon or a European dragon neither of those had that vibrant color and twin set of ivory horns. 

But when my eyes turned back to gaze at the boy, I couldn't help but think of myself. Scrawny, not too well off, and with a cute little dragon on our shoulders. He had the same big eyes I had when I was that age. My thumb drifted across the picture, and I couldn't help but think why this picture was here- framed in the bedroom. Who was this kid? I bet he had quite a story, if he was real at all that is.

Dang... I'd done it again. Got lost in my own head. And Caedmon had been yapping the whole time about what fun he had yesterday, not realizing I wasn't listening to him.

"This is his house." I twisted in the sheets at Toucan Sam's voice.

"Will you stop doing that!?"

"Sorry." He shifted his clawed little birdy toes on the lamp's rim and quickly began preening himself.

I pulled the pouting Caedmon onto my lap, trying to ignore him because I was angry that he had snuck up on me. I stroked the dragon, who was grinning up at me waiting to hear my reaction to his ignored tale. After a moment my curiosity was killing me and I burst out with the question. "So this boy.. this is his house?" I didn't believe it for a second. This guy had to be hundreds of years old if he were still alive. Caedmon frowned, realizing I hadn't been listening to him.

He clacked his big beak. "Yes, this is his summer vacation house."

"Oh?" I said, remembering what Blaize said yesterday. "So this is Blaize's brother?" I pointed to the green dragon, which I doubted looked anything like him.

The toucan bobbed his head jerkily.

It was summer. So... "Where-"

Caedmon bit my finger. "I tell story!" He complained.

"Hey, no biting," I said sharply, pointing at him.

He bit that finger too.

"Hey!" I smacked his head. Then he started to cry. I could tell it was so fake, but it still worked. I held him in my arms, stroking his side. "I'm sorry little guy.. Hey I'll listen to your stories. Go ahead and tell me." I made a mental note to ask more about the boy in the picture later.

Caed fake cried for another minute, probably to make me feel extra bad for smacking him. I barely resisted the urge to flick his nose. Finally he gave on last sniffle before filling my mind with some of his favorite memories from yesterday. He went swimming! He caught a snowshoe hare! He took a ride on Terral's back! He played hide-and-go seek with the other dragons! I include the exclamation points for a reason. Everything about these memories, every single little memory was one of excitement and high adventure. It was like when you were a little kid scrambling through the Mcdonald's playground tunnels. Giggling nonstop, heart hammering in your little chest as you crawled around exploring new grimy tunnels before you knew what germs were is what I'd best explain Caed's excitement.

I smiled and stroked his spine. "I'm glad you had a good time, buddy." I leaned forwards and kissed his nose.

"Food is ready," the toucan said. "Darius said to remind you that you are continuing your training today." Uh oh. Was he mad at me still? And if he was, would he go harder on me? "And if you do well, you may be able to see your friends at S-11 very soon-"

"Wait-what?" I cried, but he had vanished. Stupid toucan! I could never get a straight answer out of that punk! I was so annoyed that I threw a pillow at where he had disappeared. "Riley!"

------

Luckily, when I went downstairs I found that Darius didn't seem to be ticked at me as he and his girlfriend fed each other pancakes (yuck!).  Blaize looked like he wanted to murder me with a spork as he sat in the living room on the couch, his frosty glare making me slink out of eyesight.

 Zach was at the kitchen table, a jealous Terral behind him. As soon as we had entered, Caedmon had made a dash to him and nearly bowled the chair over. Luckily it had rocked itself back to all four legs, and Zach had just laughed it off, giving the ham lots of petting for the dragon to soak up. Jesse had made a nasty healthy sort of shake and was slurping it up beside him while Alasie stared at him in disgust, pausing in braiding her dark hair. I wet my lips, the question burning in my mind before I finally burst out with. "Darius?"

"Yes?" Darius stopped, his fork halfway to Aly's mouth. Aly glared at me like 'this better be good'.

I felt even more nervous. I almost said 'nothing' but I forced the words out. "So.... I might get to go back to S-11?" I asked.

Maybe I didn't word that right, because everyone but Zach was staring at me. I could see Riley hiding his beak with a wing behind Darius. Darius looked down before his eyes burst into blue flame when his gaze hardened on me. "After all this... you'd want to return to S-11?" He asked in a measured voice. 

Aly handed over a twenty to Alasie, who looked smug and disdainful at the same time. She smirked over at me.

"No- no- just..."

Don't say to see your friends. It will ruin your chances of going there ever. Tell them to spy. My spirit animal told me.

"To spy. You know... see what they're up to..." –Darius' eyebrows lifted- "And... give you intel." I said, hoping I didn't sound too much like I was trying to cover something up.

Everyone gave a collective sigh. Darius stared at me, his flame eyes seeming to probe my very soul. I bit my lip, my shoulders bunching. The urge to pull down my hood over my face almost overwhelmed me. 

Caedmon sang. "Juzzin an Cade de Shade- de-tek-ifs!"

I thought he hated that nickname, but I smiled when he said that. Even Alasie giggled at Caedmon's little song. I felt the tension in the room melt. "Of course," Darius said finally. "You're going to be a great help. But we have to make you invisible to Mardu for you to be a good spy. The worst thing would be for you to be discovered or caught. We have no way to get you out of there."

I gulped before nodding. "Uh how're we gonna do that?"

He held up a finger. "That's what I'm going to train you today. As soon as you master it, you'll be able to go and spy for us."

So that's what Riley meant.

------------

"Uh.... How is this going to help me not be seen by Mardu?" I said, panting as I witnessed the fire elemental elf drag out a boxy sort of machine, the cord of which dragged behind.

He acted as if he hadn't heard me. "Let's see how fast you can turn to shadow," he looked up at me, his bulging balls of muscle in his arms relaxing. "The problem I've noticed with you is that you're so concerned with being lost to the shadow world, you plant yourself to simply shadow walking. That can be a fatal mistake." 

"Uh... well shadow world feels and looks like being sucked into a tornado," I said. "So I'm not sure how that would exactly help me be a spy or anything."

I watched with fascination as veins bulged out over taught muscle when he pulled the machine onto its side. Did he take steroids? I wasn't sure. The machine made a disturbing cracking sort of sound when it landed, skidding forwards a few inches. I cringed, imagining how expensive this machine must be. Protruding from the box-shaped base, there were four long cylinders all spread like the petals of a flower. They pointed loosely towards me, and when I squinted I saw metal outlines inside simular to an old plane propeller. What on earth was this thing?

Darius seemed to read my thoughts. "This is a spotlight. 4,000 watt. It can be seen for several miles. A light dragon of Mardu's strength can reach that, albiet for a short amount of time. So for the time being, we'll call this Mardu." He patted the machine proudly.

"Woah woah hold up," I said, holding up my hands. "I wear these gloves for a reason. They keep me from getting burned. You know why? Because light friggin BURNS ME!" What I meant to be an indignant yell turned out to actually sounded like a whimper.

"But you're not wearing those gloves right now, are you," Darius' eyes glinted yellow in the sun, darker flecks of red swarming around his pupil, making him seem more like a dragon than Blaize was. He smirked.

I looked down at my hands. He was right. I wasn't wearing gloves. Or my new Captain America hoodie either. I looked down further, seeing my pale, embarrassingly skinny legs were bare to the world. When had I gotten changed? The more I tried to think, the fuzzier it got. I gave up, my eyes flitting back to Darius. A deep huffing breath escaped me. I knew that without the protection, I would be killed by a blast of light like this. "Helping me by killing me? You're never going to find S-11 without my help."

My tactic didn't work because he was still pulling the extension cord towards it. "You're stronger than you think. "If you let yourself go with the current of the shadow, this won't hurt a bit." He had both cord in plug-in in his huge hands. "Let the shadows take care of you. Ready? One."

"Um, no." I backed up until my back was pressed to the brick wall behind me. Was he faking me out? Was this payback for leaving Blaize in an alternative culture centered retail store that smelled like cotton candy? "Darius, I'm really sorry about yesterday, honest."

"Two." The cords drifted closer. Darius' smile widened to unnatural levels.

Darius!" I yelled. "Don't do this! I swear I'm sorry! Plea-he-heeassee.." The last part came out of me in an ugly screaming cry. I could hear the frenzied drum-beat in my ears of my racing heart. My life flashed before my eyes right as the cords were connected and something much brighter was burning my eyeballs off.

I jumped into the shadows, hurling myself at the brick wall. I was screaming, but the sound never reached my ears. The shadows shrunk from the light, leaving my shadow-my essence- me there to take the beating.

I can't describe what it felt like. I don't think people would know what a shadow would feel when exposed to the raw power of light. But I realized that I'd rather be fried as a human than to be in this void. I flopped out of my shadow, my forehead crunching on the concrete. The light's burn was lost to me, even as my skin scorched and bubbled with angry red boils.

 All I knew was soon I was going to die, and the sooner the better.

Vaguely, in the corner of my delirious and dimming mind, I could hear voices. My subconscious guessed that they were angels coming to take me. They were arguing. One sounded defensive as the other snapped at it in snarling tones. I heard my name. Then everything went white.

"Ready?"

I opened my eyes as I heard Darius' question. He was crouching there, the cords like dead snakes in his meaty hands. He was looking at me like he hadn't just deep fried me seconds ago. Or had he? Had I imagined it? I looked down at my white fingers, which weren't thick and swollen a pulsing red. Huh. Must have imagined it.

"One."

But the pain... I knew that for certain this was going to be bad. I don't know if I had acquired skills in seeing the future, but I knew that what I had imagined would become reality in a few seconds. "Wait! I can't do this!"

Darius paused. "You can't?"

"I can't!" I yelled back, relieved that I finally got through to him. "This will kill me Darius."

"Yeah. It could," Darius agreed. "Or you could escape."

I looked at the four cylinders of despair. There was nowhere I could run that would get me out of their reach fast enough. "H-how? It would fry even my shadow!" I panted heavily.

"Not if you'd let your shadow go- let it escape. The shadow world is like a river- constantly changing course. It can grow and shrink in a millisecond. It can race away from light just as fast as it can grow from absence of it. You can harness this. It can be frightening at first, but you've got to take the jump." He tilted his head before pulling the cords closer. "Two."

Without further ado, I jumped into the shadows. I could feel the shadows around me, pulling and pushing at me, pulsing like the heartbeat of a living beast. It was like I was standing on the first step into the pool. Yeah, I was in the shadows but I wasn't in that deep. I was in my own shadow, a turtle in his shell. Should I take the dive into the deep end and end my ties to the world?

"Three."

Absolutely.

I jumped into the pool, allowing myself to become fluid. A part of it. It was oddly relaxing as well as terrifying.

The light blasted into my vision, and I was swept up easily in the tide of retreating shadow. As true shadow, I felt no pain at the nuclear bomb of light. I couldn't be hurt, I realized. I could only be chased. 

"Well done." Darius' voice broke through my gasp of amazement. Fuzzy blue filled my vision, reminding me of when I had fallen off my bike and hit my head so hard I could only stare at the sky for a few minutes. I had the same dull headache as well. I squinted and shapes slowly began to come in focus. White... oval shaped... sparks of white red. That was probably a face. But even before I could decipher who it was, something more alarming came to my attention. My head was sandwiched between two large hands, the thumb of which were pressed into my cheeks. I could feel the sharp tip of the nail almost breaking the skin. My face scrunched up. "Uh!"

"Ease up on him."

I blinked hard, the grip on my head loosening. Suddenly everything sharpened and I found I was staring into Blaize's eyes, the mismatched irises veiled by a wreath of red flame. Wha..? He pulled his hands off my head as soon as I opened my eyes, and now he made a peace sign.

"How many fingers is he holding up?" Darius asked from behind the dragon.

I rubbed my cheeks, trying to shake off that dull pressure. "Wait.. what just happened? I was.."

"How many fingers."

"Two." I groaned, shaking my head. A laugh escaped me as I saw Darius was holding a very angry Caed, who was aggressively chewing on one of Darius' small braids.

Darius didn't seem to have noticed. "You did it," he congratulated me with a warm smile, drool dripping from his hair. "I knew you had it in you."

"N-wait! What happened? Did I pass out?" I asked, slowly getting to my feet and realizing just how shaky I felt.

"Blaize hypnotized you- creating a scenario in which we could teach you without the possibility of you getting seriously harmed. Your mind will remember the skills, so it is efficient."

I frowned, trying to think of it. I could remember my success, but not much more. And when I tried to think about it, it only got fuzzier to my mind. Caedmon was plopped into my lap, and the first thing he did was dig his muzzle into my chest, his claws clinging to my Cap hoodie. I winced as I felt how sharp his claws were now. "Juzzin, I bite him?" he asked, looking over at Darius with a glare. Blaize stalked off, obviously not wanting to be in my company a minute more than he was supposed to be.

I watched Darius as he walked over to the front porch where a cooler full of lemonade was. "Well that's no reason to bite him in his Norse booty," I chuckled, rubbing his back. Caed stared at me until Darius returned, giving me a glass. I gratefully took it, looking up at him, waiting to hear what he had planned next.

"The next part I want you to be taught by Caed." Darius said. "No one can teach you how to control the shadow current better than him. Practice until you're pretty confident, then I'll test you tomorrow. Hopefully you'll be ready by then, because we're working on a crunched schedule."

"Why's that?" I asked, sipping the lemonade.

"Because Mardu had infiltrated our base. Aly's not sure if he managed to see our plans, and I'm not sure if he saw you. But in any case, the base's borders and magic will be up. He may even be expecting you." Darius said, his jaw a bit clenched. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." He quickly dismissed himself, heading back inside. I stared at him as he strode inside. Something was telling me something was up, and it wasn't just heightened security. I looked to Caed.

"He scaredy," Caed said solemnly.

"Scared?" I echoed. My dragon nodded. Something that scared the big bad Darius had to be something huge. I shivered a little at the thought. "You know what is scaring him?"

Caedmon shook his head. "No."

"Okay..." I sighed, wrapping an arm around him, the wind rustling the leaves the only sound for a moment. An eagle's cry pierced the crisp air and I suddenly remembered what we were supposed to be doing. "Hey buddy how about teaching me?" I asked and he nodded, jumping off the picnic table. I set my drink down and followed the hopping dragon towards the shadow of the rustic house. We ran straight into the wall like Harry Potter at the train station. But instead of getting off in front of Hogwarts express we became Flat Stanleys surrounded by a strange current chock full of whirlpools and waterfalls. Caedmon hung onto me but for once he didn't pull me anywhere. He just let us drift. When you scared, the shadows don't listen to you. Shadow only listen when they know who's boss.

Like a boss. Got it. I tried to quell the sense of alarm in my chest as scenery passed by my vision in quick succession. Earth-sky-tree-bed-Alasie drawing a.. wait what was that? Before I could concentrate, it was gone.

No! Keep focused!

Thanks. Now it's even more impossible for me to accomplish it. Suddenly I felt a flash of pain tremor through my shadow self. What was that!? I thought, panicked. I tried to claw my way out of the shadow current.

Me. Caedmon said grumpily. Stop thinking you can't do nuffin. You can do it. Concentrate. Tell shadow who's boss.

I'm boss, I thought, feeling the shadow's pull send me hurtling along in a roller coaster of motion. Wait, what do I tell the shadows to do?

Tell it to send you to somewhere.But don't think of the place- think of somethin' in the place. Think of how the shadow shape. If it a person you think of them really strong. People really easy. Try people first. He decided.

People. What person should I think of? I decided to go for Jesse. I thought of him really hard. Not much over five foot, with that huge Mohawk. Super built, with those cool tattoos on his leg. I had spotted them this morning at breakfast. It was his dragon tattoo, but his was the only one that took shape of a real thing. It was a snarling tribal wolf made out of silver, fangs bared and ears pinned-

I felt another twinge of pain. Focus! Focus! Caedmon berated me. Focus on Jesse-not tattoo.

Caedmon was not going to go easy on me evidently. I focused really hard on Jesse. Slowly I felt the shadow world's pull go to an almost halt. It was working!

Now don't just think- demand! Tell them to take you there! No no for answer!

I wasn't sure how to do that, but I thought really hard trying to demand it. Take me to Jesse take me to Jesse, I thought over and over.

Push off! Go!

At his prodding, I pushed off, which felt kind of like when you reach the bottom of the pool and then jump off the concrete to propel yourself to the surface. I felt the shadows move around me, propelling me onward, before pushing me out. I panted once I reformed lungs, flopping out and tripping over a weight. I ended up flat on my face.

"Are you alright?" Jesse's voice called. I looked up to find he was in plank position but was quickly scrambling to his feet.

Caedmon trotted over beside me and licked my cheek proudly. I smiled and patted his head as I sat up, looking at Jesse. "Yeah, I'm just fine."

Jesse was wearing a muscle T and Nike basketball shorts. His inanimate black tattoos roamed down his arms. I could spot a tiger and a snake at first glance. His tan skin gleamed with sweat, and a cool towel was draped around his thick neck. "Crazy how you can just pop out of nowhere. You scared me good." He said, offering a hand.

I took the sweaty hand and stood up. "Yeah. Where is this place?" I almost wiped my hand on my sweatpants but thought better of it. 

"Oh I found it myself. It's a little workout room. Even has a little cage for a boxing match," he chuckled, looking over at it. "This place has everything."

"It really does," I said, looking around at the little workout room. A large black punching bag was hung next to me, and a strange sort of exercise table was next to that. On the walls large pictures hung, each advertising something to do with war. Many of them were a bit frayed, even yellowed with age. 

Jesse saw me looking at them. "This goes through each war in American history. This guy's even got an advertisement for men to join the Revolutionary war!" He grinned as he pointed to one of the smaller ones on the edge. It was a snake that looked like it was chopped up in pieces. Above it, in bold was 'UNITE OR DIE'.

"Well, that's quite a way to get you to join their cause," I chuckled a little, kind of disturbed.

"I wonder if they're real," Jesse murmured. "Maybe he's a collector or something." 

"You know him?" I asked.

"No, I don't know who owns this house." Jesse gave a dismissive shrug. "But I hope we don't have to leave it anytime soon." He grunted, lifting two large weights from the rack on the wall. His muscles flexed as he began doing lunges with them in hand.

I was getting tired just watching him. Caedmon reminded me that we had things to do by biting and tugging at my sweatpants. "See you later, Jesse." I said, wanting to escape before he asked if I wanted to join him.

"You too, Justin," he huffed, staring shamelessly at an advertisement with an attractive blonde lady emblazoned on it.

I followed Caed into the shadows. Good, but not too good. You need to go in his shadow, not just near him. Shadows stop moving when you in his shadow.

Alright, who should I try to get to next? I wondered, half to myself and half to him.

Terral. Terral easy. Caed suggested. I could tell he really liked Terral because of the blast they had together yesterday.

I thought of the dragon; his horse sized body and long, slender neck. His cool, twisted horns and his deer ears. His long, graceful legs. I sought out his special essence, kind of like I had with Jesse. I don't know where I got the idea from, but it was working. The shadows were slowly moving, changing before I jumped off, allowing it to gain momentum. Finally it stopped and I jumped out, fully expecting to see an ice dragon in front of me, but I staggered a few paced in front of me to be met by the guard rails of the front porch. The ice dragon was nowhere to be seen. "What? I don't understand, I thought that it was working!" I panted, looking down as Caedmon crawled out.

Caed shrugged his wings. "Terral mustabeen out if forest." He said, pointing to the forest with a little paw. "No shadow cuh-neck-tink us to it, so it stop here."

"Oh... I get it," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "So...how did I get all the way to Anchorage that one night when I was in the infirmary? When I shadow traveled in my sleep?"

"That cuz it was night. Night we can go anywhere."

I whistled and shook my head. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" I imagined if I knew this before. I could explore the whole S-11 base by night and no one would know. Well, maybe not because I had that tracking device in me. But still.

"You never ask," he giggled and nuzzled my leg.

"You little bugger," I crouched and grabbed his front paws. "What other secrets are you hiding from me?" I picked up his front paws so that he was standing on his hind legs. Raising a brow, I stared into those violet eyes of his.

He only giggled harder when I grabbed his paws and he wiggled his lithe black body. His head head shook, twisting away fake-bashfully. I could tell I wasn't getting any reply from him so I put one of his paws on my knee so I could poke his belly. "Come on, spit it out."

He squeaked before his jaws opened in a louder laugh, needle sharp white teeth gleaming. The little bugger was enjoying this attention from me. I poked his belly again, which only made him collapse on his side from laughing too much.

"What's it gonna take to get a straight answer from you?" I said, poking both sides of his rib cage with my index fingers. He tried to push away my hands with his paws. I smirked before digging my head into his smooth little belly, laughing as I felt his hind legs bunny kick me gently. His front paws latched onto my cheeks, but I could tell his sharp talons were sheathed. He squealed in laughter when I blew a raspberry onto his waxy scales.

Finally his limbs went limp as he tried to get his breath back from all his laughing. Plopping back on my butt, I smiled breathlessly down at my little partner. "How did you get so big so fast?" I managed finally, looking at those big paws of his. They were about the same size as the palms of my hands.

He put a paw to his puffed out chest. "I big.. an' strong," he said breathily. "Eat lotsa chicken. Like Popi."

"Pop-eye?" I chuckled. "Pop-eye ate spinach, bud."

He frowned and wiggled. "B-but Zak say Popi eat chicken!" He protested.

"Okay, Pop-eye ate chicken," I shook my head. "We need to get back to practicing." Maybe if I'm good enough tomorrow, we'll be able to go to S-11 and see our old friends, I added in my mind.

Caedmon nodded seriously and rolled over.

With that in mind, we practiced long and hard. Caedmon didn't let my ADD mind wander with vigilance- which was admittedly annoying at the moment but I'm pretty sure would save my butt one day. If I had an ADD dragon I think we'd both be chasing squirrels in China right now. The little dragon taught me how to locate people by their essence (kind of like following scent is for a bloodhound I guess) and how to change the current of the shadow world to my liking. I'm pretty sure we scared everyone to death. When I popped up in Aly's shadow, she didn't even notice because she was busy texting. When I emerged from Zach's shadow on the other hand, the blind boy twisted around with force of a great typhoon, the pen he had been holding raised as a weapon. He would have impaled it in my neck if I hadn't disappeared hurriedly.

Here's a note that could save your life: Just because a guy's blind does not mean it's safe to try to sneak up on him.

We stopped at dinner time, because the second we smelled pizza, we crawled out from under the kitchen table. "Pizza?" I said hopefully.

Aly screamed when she saw me move under the table and she scrambled back so hard her chair tipped over. Zach screamed because she did. Jesse yelled, I saw him lunge for something, I wasn't going to wait to find out what it was. I scrambled out from under the table, my hands up. I should've said 'it's okay guys it's just me,' but all that came out was "Uh-uh..."

Aly glared at me from the floor and Jesse used the knife clenched in his hands to innocently cut his mozzarella stick. Alasie rolled her eyes at me, doing a rude sign in my general direction. I think she was still a bit angry about when I scared her into having punk rock eye shadow while she was putting on makeup.

"What happened?" Poor Zach asked in a whisper, sitting straight up at attention.

"Justin just popped out of nowhere and scared the girls," Darius said with a hint of pride, and he winked at me as he put the pizza gently down on the table before going to help his girlfriend up.

"Oh. Hi Justin," Zach said. "Where've you been?"

He was looking towards Blaize and I didn't want to embarrass him so I walked over in that direction before talking. "I've been practicing shadow travelling with Caedmon."

"Oh yeah?" Zach grinned as Caedmon hopped himself onto Zach's chair again to get some attention. The problem was, he was getting a bit too big for that sort of thing. Zach only laughed as he pet him before the dragon was forced to jump off.

I grabbed myself two pieces of the pizza, which looked absolutely delicious. I didn't realize just how hungry I was until now. I was practically drooling. I sat down with everyone, and just as soon as I took a big bite, Darius asked "So how did practice go?"

I held up a finger, chewing hard before swallowing forcefully. "It went well, I think. I've gotten a lot better."

"Well, we'll see tomorrow," Darius said, and somehow his cool tone chilled me. At school I never really sweated about tests because I didn't care if I flunked or not. But if I passed this baby... I could see my friends again- maybe even tomorrow!

My mind churned with what I'd say to each of them. Would I tell Emmit the secret about S-11? Talk about seeing a real Wolf to Song? Show Avery how Caed could fly now? I had so much to tell them! To warn them, to show off. What had they been doing at S-11? Had they missed me? Did they think I was dead? What if one of them had been sent to the wolves?

No. No I wouldn't think about that.

That night Caed went out to see the stars, where there was a meteor shower going on, but I stayed inside, on my bed. Staring at the ceiling as my mind spun and spun with ideas.

When it came to the point that I thought I was going to spend the whole night without a wink of sleep, I suddenly started to hear a low, thrumming noise.

My mind shut up as I strained to hear it. Again, the sound escalated before releasing with a soft gust.

After another minute, I confirmed it. It was breathing. In my room. "C-Caed?" I called out softly. Figures- a shadow elemental scared of the dark.

No reply.

The light switch seemed a million miles away, but I made a dash for it, flicking it on and looking around wildly. The room was empty. I looked under the curtains of the window seat, kicked the laundry basket. I grabbed a coat hanger and used it to open the closet, my heart bursting in my chest. It creaked open to reveal a few coats I had bought (and stole) as well as my assortment of shoes but it was barren of life.

Then what could be making that terrible sound? What was breathing in my room- spying on me? Chills ran down my spine and I looked around for a weapon, anything to use. I gave up and just swung my coat hanger around. "H-hey I know you're in here." I managed.

Just like in the horror movies, the bad guy didn't exactly answer.

"I've got mad skills. You don't want to mess with me." I said, with a voice the size of a three year old girl's. I crept closer to the bed before my eyebrows furrowed as something shiny reflected the light from the ceiling fan. I crouched and let out a groan. Flopped under the bed was Caedmon, who was snoring his fool head off. When I groaned, he finally woke and his purple eyes slanted in a sleepy glare before his head flopped back to the hardwood floor.

And that's how I met the monster under my bed.

(Last part is partially a true story. My cat scared the jeebies out of me by snoring under my bed last night XD)