A second Dragon Booster fanfic! Don't worry, I didn't abandoned The Leader of the Pack!

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Booster!

Enjoy!

Pack Up For The Trip

Early in the morning before the sun rose, Artha was in the kitchen, reaching into the refrigerator to gather a few water bottles, the jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread and a few other things to pack into his cooler. Beside the dinning table were his other backpack, stuffed with extra clothes, his toothbrush and toothpaste, a sleeping bag, a flashlight and couple other things that will be needed where he and his brother will be going. Lance was sitting at the dinning table, his wide eyes focused on playing his favorite vidd-game, Battle-Ground Dragon. A couple roaring sounds could be heard, but they weren't loud. Lance had to keep down the volume to prevent having their dad wake up.

"Why are we going camping, Artha?" Lance asked lazily again since yesterday afternoon, his eyes barely looking away from the bright, green screen in front of him.

"Because Dad said we had to go out more often," Artha replied, followed by a tired yawn as he carefully packed a jar of grape jelly into the cooler,"And to get off the vidd-games, too."

"Are Kitt and Parm coming, too?" Lance asked.

"Yep," Artha answered as he opened up a cabinet and pulled out a bag of marshmellows.

"Are Down City crews coming?" the little brother asked again.

"Just the leader of each crew...maybe they'll bring another person from their team to come with us," Artha replied as he closed the lid of the cooler and hauled it to the front door.

"And why are we bringing Moordryd and Cain?" Lance asked, curious of why they would even think about having them come along.

"So they won't cause any trouble in the city," Artha said as he walked back into the kitchen get the lantern.

"And are the dragons coming, too?" Lance asked one more.

"Yes, Lance, the dragons are coming with us. Now turn off the game," the older brother said as he struggled to put on his large backpack, having one strap around his left shoulder while his other arm was reaching for the other strap.

"Awww, scales!" Lance said, looking into the screen as he move the handle quickly. Artha walked up to him and pressed the off button, turning off the game. "Hey!" Lance complained as he glared at Artha.

"C'mon, lets get Beau and Frachun ready. The others will be here in a few minutes!"

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"Okay Beau, you think you can mag the cooler?" Artha asked his dragon as he pushed the heavy cooler in front him.

Beau nodded happily as gold-colored mag energy formed around his body, sending out a stream at the cooler. The cooler glowed as Beau magged it onto his back. Beau smiled, his teeth showing.

"Thanks, boy!" Artha said as he turned around to find Kitt and Wyldfyr standing at the entrance of Beau's stable along with Parm, Cyrano, and the others who were coming were behind her.

"There you are, Stable Boy!" Kitt said, her hands placed on her hips.

"We've been waiting for you at the entrance of your father's stable for nearly two hours!" Parm added as Cyrano walked up beside Kitt and Wyldfyr.

"What?! You guys waited that long?!" Artha exclaimed.

"Just kidding! Are you and Lance ready to go?" Kitt asked him.

"Yeah, let's get going!" he said as he and Lance mounted their dragons and walked out of Beau's stable.

Lance looked around to find his friend Spratt and his own dragon Bumpyr. "Hey, Spratt!" he greeted.

"Hey, Lance!" Spratt replied his and Lance's dragons walked up to each other, enough for them to bump their fists together in a friendly hello.

"I can't believe you guys talked me into going camping with all of you!!" Vociferous complained for the millionth time. He felt as if he had better things to do than sleeping outdoors. He wished Spynn was here to keep him company, but apparently she was too busy to come. The only one he brought with him was his dragon, Swavvy, who was still tired from waking up early. And he disliked hanging around with the other crews just as much as Vociferous.

Beside him was Marianis, who whacked him on the head with her fighting staff, telling him to be quiet. Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet to lessen the blow. "Stop complaining, Vociferous! Camping should be a good excerise for you!" she said as she gave him a stern look. She brought her dragon, Poseidos, and her partner Dorsull, along with his dragon, Highdyve. Marianis thought it was a good idea to bring the fastest racer in her crew, seeing that he liked adventures... and fishing.

Vociferous rolled his eyes at her, pretty much ignoring her. Can't believe I'm camping with these guys! Guess I'll have some fun scaring them at least...

"Get a little fired up, Vo!" Pyrrah said as she shook the Voice of the Dragon leader's shoulder playfully. She and her brother, Sparkk were already excited to go camping. Their dragons, Phorrj and Ferno were wide awake as well. It seemed that they were the only crew to be heated up this time of day.

Next to Pyrrah was Phistus, who somehow snucked into sleeping again. He was leaning against the back of Brutaris's saddle, snoring fairly loudly and drooling, too. Brutaris was still on his feet, eyes drooping and almost falling asleep.

"Wakey, wakey, Phisty!" giggled Chute as she reached out her finger to poke his cheek persistantly. She and Turbulance were just as active as the Dragon Flares. "You're not suppose to sleep until we get into our sleeping bags, which should be in like...eighteen hours!"

Turbulance grinned as she rose up onto her hind legs and place her front ones onto Brutaris's left side, who's massive body supported her. The Sky-class dragon reached out her muzzle to Phistus's face and gave him big, wet licks on his cheek.

Chute laughed,"Good one, girl!"

"Haha! Phistus got dragon kisses!" Lance laughed as he pointed out at the Grip of the Dragon leader. Everyone laughed as well.

"Ewwww!" Kitt giggled. At least she wasn't being given dragon kisses at the moment.

Phistus startled awake as he touched his left cheek, only to find it coated with a slimey substance. "Ugh!!" Phistus was disgusted as looked indignantly at Chute.

Chute looked back innocently, giving him a sweet smile."What? That wasn't me!" she laughed. Turbulance quickly looked away, still grinning mischeviously.

Phistus sighed and rolled his eyes before turning to Artha. "You ready to get going?"

"Yeah! But where's Wulph, Ferryt and Khatah? And Kawake and Shaynn?" Artha asked him as looked at the gathered group,"And Moordryd and Cain?"

Phistus yawned."We'll be picking them on our way to the campsite..." The Grip of the Dragon leader was about to fall asleep, eyes getting droopy by the second. Chute poked his cheek again to ensure awareness for the rest of day. Phistus lazily tried to swat her hand, but she pulled away to then watch him swatting the air. She laughed again.

"Okay...but where's Stewardd?" Artha asked as he looked around once more.

Parm shrugged,"We haven't seen him yet..."

"Oh! Oh wait!" a hasty voice called out from behind the gathered group,"We're here!"

The group turned their heads around to find a rather small, light green, bipedal dragon running in towards them, carrying a small, pointed eared fellow wearing a mess of gears and strange attires on. The larger dragons made way as the smaller dragon passed them. It only appeared to as big as Fracshun, though it seemed slightly taller.

Vociferous covered his mouth, trying to hold back a laugh. What is that?!

Pyrrah clasped her hands together joyfully, her mouth was ajar as she watched the little dragon passed Phorrj. "What a cuuute, little dragon!!"

Sparkk rolled his eyes at her and shook his head.

"Thank you!" said the light green dragon's rider, "His name is Gunny."

"Hey, Stewardd! I was wondering where you were!" Artha greeted Gunny's rider.

"Ah, sorry...Gunny got distracted on the way..." Stewardd replied as Gunny made angry clicks at him.

"Don't worry about it," Artha said before looking at others,"Now that most of us is here, let's go pick up the rest of the guys and we can begin camping!"

"Finally!!" Vociferous bursted out loud. Again, Marianis whacked him on the head with her fighting staff.

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The remaining riders and dragons were waiting outside the Dragon Eyes compound, occupiying themselves by talking to one another and playing simple games.

"I thought you didn't like camping, Wulph," Khatah asked the Army of the Dragon leader. He and Shock-Ra were sort of bored of waiting for the others to arrive with Artha and Lance, their noble stances were fading away a bit.

"Huh? Who told you that?" Wulph asked him. He actually enjoyed some parts of camping. It provided excerise and offered some good relaxation, as Khatah said, something that he needed. Ferryt and their dragons tagged along with him, as they liked camping, too.

"Ferryt," Khatah replied.

Wulph turned to his partner with a commanding look upon his face. Ferryt merely gave him a nevous smile.

Kawake and Shaynn were arm-wrestling one another, one testing the other's strength. Kawake would usually win, his bulking muscles even seemed to surpass the size of Phistus's slightly. Like their riders, Rumbyll and Persyst would engage in their own contests. Usually, the game would be "Who can shake the earth the loudest?".

"You've got stronger, Shaynn!" Kawake complimented as tried to take down his younger brother's arm down.

"Been excerising my arms to beat you, bro!" Shaynn replied, his arm pushing foward to bring down Kawake's arm.

A few yards away, Cain was complaining to Moordryd."Why are we camping with them? I thought you hated camping..." Cain said lazily. Coershun was sleeping from underneath him. The dragon had somehow learned to sleep while standing on his legs, something that made Decepshun snicker.

"I do hate camping!" Moordryd snapped at him,"The only reason we tagged along was because if we stayed here, that Connor Penn would have Down City Security watching over us while Stable Brat and his friends are away, thinking that we would cause trouble around Dragon City..."

"Is that the only reason?" Cain asked.

Moordryd smirked as he reached into his vest to pull out a black controller, the gear that summoned Wraith dragons. "Let's have some fun with the others..."

Cain grinned as Artha and the other riders and dragons arrived. Moordryd quickly hid the Wraith control gear into his vest.

"There you are, Penn!" Wulph greeted,"We've been waiting for the rest of you."

"Well, now we're here! You guys ready?" Artha asked.

Khatah, Wulph, and Ferryt nodded as Kawake and Shaynn gave him thumbs up in a yes.

"Let's just get going!" Moordryd said rather rudely as he and Decepshun walked passed Artha and Beau.

"Well, good morning to you, too..." Artha muttered.

"Don't worry about him," Chute said reassuringly,"He's probably just grumpy from waking up early, like ol' Phisty!"

Artha smiled at her as he and others headed into the streets of Dragon City. The sky was now a mild indigo with a white, fading moon moving slowly across the dark complexion. The streets were empty and only the voices of the group and stamping of the dragons' feet could be heard for now.

"By the way, Artha...Have you ever been outside the cities before?" Chute asked him.

"Umm...no...at least, I don't remember..." Artha answered. He wondered what it was like beyond the cities. The skyscrapers of Dragon City were so tall that you couldn't see the sky that much and there were so many of them for nearly miles. Not a trace of forests could be seen from behind them.

"You haven't? Oh, you're going to love it!" she said excitedly.