Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Booster or the Deltora book series. I also do not own Storm Hawks. I only own my own characters. They are below.
Ryfen (In other words, me(: In this story, I, the author, am Ryfen. I am a Felisar, a humanoid being with the head of a cat, clawed fingers and toes, a mane of hair, coats of fur and a tail. In my case, I have brown fur with gold tips when in the sun and a blonde mane. It's braided with leather. My clothes are a simple shirt and calf length pants, both dark red. The symbol of my racing crew, a red serpent head, is on the right sleeve. My eyes are green, and I have a pair of thin framed gasses with narrow lenses. The frames are red. My tail is striped with black. I am 22, considered teenage for Felisars.
Fyredash: My white draconium, sky class racing dragon. My dragon is built slimly, with long, graceful legs. Fyredash's main body is white. His paws are tipped with pale yellow claws. His paws are a dark blue. Above the front paws, Fyredash has dark, purplish red stripes. His underbelly and the bottom of his neck are dark blue. His eyes are yellow, and lined with dark blue. Long, purplish red, thin ears trail from the sides of his head. His head is smooth and serpentine. Firedash's head, neck, back and some of his tail have a flame pattern adorning them. A grayish blue nose horn that's about three inches long is on his nose, between the nostrils. Fyredash's tail is long and thin, and has no decoration besides color. The sign of my racing crew, the Flaming Serpents, is on his shoulders. It is a serpent head enclosed in a circle. The sign is crimson colored.
Cali: Cali is my second in command and best friend. She is also a Felisar and wears the same outfit as me, except it's dark blue. As a member of my crew, she has my crew sign on her sleeve. Her eyes are light blue. She has a brown mane. She is 19. 13-26 is teenage for Felisars, since the average lifespan is 120 years.
Redstreak: Cali's dragon. He is a bipedal red draconium magma class, but has a touch of psi class attitude. He has flared ears that are as long as Wyldfyr's. His body is marked like Beau's, except the markings are dark red. Redstreak's eyes are green, and bordered in dark red. The sign of my racing crew is by his hind legs.
Edna: Edna is a female Merb, considered unique because Merbs are naturally frightened of anything dangerous like dragon racing. Merbs are from Storm Hawks. They aren't native to Deltora, but to the continent east of it, Atmos. They are generally humanoid, but have long, pointed ears sticking from the backs of their heads, near the top. A Merb's head is vaguely cat shaped. Their hands are four fingered, and a Merb's feet are three toed. Edna's skin is white, and her eyes are amber. Edna's hair is black and tied in a long ponytail down to her waist. Her narrow, pointed ears come from the back of her head, and one has a gold ring in it. She wears a loose brown shirt and pants. As a member of my crew, she has the Flaming Serpents sign on her sleeve. Edna is 20, but 13-26 is teenage in Merbian years.
Dashyr: Edna's dragon. Edna found Dashyr's egg on Atmos when she was seven. She raised him in secret and left Atmos to race in Deltora as soon as she could, bringing Dashyr. He is a black draconium psi class dragon, but he's nicer than most psi class dragons. Dashyr's head is black, his eyes neon blue. The top of his body is purple, and his underside is blue. This includes his back legs and underneath his tail. Dashyr's tail has a finlike crest on both sides of his tail tip. A green line runs from his brow to the tip of Dashyr's ear. Another green line runs down his neck, side and tail on both his right and left flanks. His hind paws are also green. Dashyr has the sign of my racing crew on his shoulder.
My POV shows when the story is being told from my view. Edna's POV shows when she is telling the story, and Cali's POV shows when she is telling the story. No pov is when the story is being told in third person.
Lightning flashed in the stormy sky above the Deltoran city Ta-Thoros. Rain poured down in buckets, soaking the forest canopy. The hard packed dirt roads through the huge Forest of Secrets usually never got muddy, but tonight was more than a little of a exception. The roads were a complete mess, and getting worse. The city of Ta-Thoros lay in a huge expanse of trees, a few miles inland from a raging ocean. The crescent moon shaped island, Voya Nui, could barely be made out in the raging storm. The shining metal of the Silver Bridge flashed blindingly every time a lightning bolt came near. The towering, modern buildings of Ta-Thoros reflected the jagged lightning bolts. In the middle of the city, the huge Elagryn Tower loomed.
A ring of tree covered suburban towns surrounded the outskirts of the city. In one of these many towns, some suspicious shadows flitted through the trees, houses and buildings. They were all riding draconium dragons. The large creatures were padding along silently, attracting no attention. They passed a few houses that all sat on the shore of a medium sized lake. Then they turned a corner onto a street sloping down a hill. They then passed was a large building resembling a house. Tennis courts lay before it, and several boat racks were seen on one side of the building. The people and their dragons were past the place in a blink. They continued down the street, passing a canal before speeding up into a trot. The dragons quietly ran up the hill in a stealthy motion. They approached a line of houses. The leader of the group, astride a red draconium psi class dragon, said quietly, "this be the home of one of our targets." He signaled to move in.
Inside one of the two garages of the three story house, a female blue draconium dragon opened a green eye. The magma class dragon slowly stood up, hissing faintly. Then a hole was blown in the garage door, and green trapping gear was fired at the dragon. She roared, awakening the sleeping inhabitants of the house and everyone nearby.
A tall, strong looking Felisar burst in, but found that the dragon and her captors were already gone. He left in a panic to organize a search for the blue draconium magma class, Vierna.
Much further down Deltora's coastline, another group of people and dragons were also conducting a theft. They were approaching the capital of Deltora itself, the mighty city of Del.
The capital sat a few miles away from the ocean. Separating the ocean and the city was a rising incline of land, a tall cliff at least 150 feet high. The waves, raging and frothing in the storm, slammed against the cliff, rocking the ships by the harbor, their rigging clattering and tangling.
The dark band of draconium dragons and thieving humanoids trudged up the sloped road leading up the city, fighting through the mud, the waves savagely slapping at the cliff to their left. Spray soon enough had drenched them, and mud covered the dragon's feet and legs, but the dragons nor riders paid heed.
They reached Del. The city's huge walls soared into the sky, sharply illuminated in each flash of lightning. The gates were also huge, and intimidating. On both sides of the door, on the top of the walls, two identical dragon heads were carved, protruding on strong, arching stone necks. The heads of the dragons were horned and frilled, the eyes narrowed fiercely against unwelcome visitors. Water poured over them, the erratic angles of the pounding rain resulting in water falling in steady streams from the open mouths of the stone dragon heads. Normally guards would be at the gates, but the storm was decidedly too dangerous. The huge metal doors were solidly bared against the raging weather.
The leader of the band strutted forward on his red draconium sonic class dragon. The bipedal dragon bared it's teeth and snarled at the gates just as thunder cracked again. His rider muttered under his breath, "Del, Deltora's capital. And home to some of the best dragon stables."
He lifted his eyes upward. Although his features were hidden by the weather and the night, he was clearly a Felisar.
Perfect, he thought. This storm is keeping even the guards and their dragons inside.
Smiling under his helmet, the Felisar gestured to his followers. Then he and his dragon ran over to the walls beside the gates. They all activated white grapple gear, which shot up and latched onto the top of the wall before the wind could blow the gear away. Then the dragons braced their feet against the wall and walked right up it. They got to the top of the wall and leaped to the ground, running through the city streets, still bieng poured on by the rain deluging between the buildings. The dragons and riders all skidded to a halt before a large set of stables, home to a wide array of racing dragons.
Then they split into groups. The dragons and riders wove like snakes through the huge complex, searching for a particular area. Then the two groups met up at just what they were trying to find-the area of the stables dedicated to breeding cross breed dragons.
"Here we go," the leader said quietly. he pointed to a stall were a very unique dragon lay sleeping-a black draconium magma class dragon. Not far from it, a second dragon, this one a green draconium sonic class, also slept.
But they were not destined to sleep for long. Roars sounded and trapping gear was fired. Then, like a stream of shadows, the thieves slipped out with their prizes, and were out of the city before security even reached the stables.
My POV (at the end of race)
"You are not beating me!" I shouted. Me and Fyredash picked up our pace, running up next to Arisa, a black haired, gray furred, brown eyed Felisar and her brown draconium sonic class dragon, Freelancyr. We were ahead of everyone else, approaching the final stretch.
Arisa smirked. My lifelong rival lashed at me with her blocking staff. I leaned sideways, then took out my own staff and tried to retaliate. But before I could, Arisa activated ramming gear and Freelancyr rammed directly into Fyredash, who roared and stumbled from the impact of the thicker built dragon's body. Arisa laughed and activated thruster gear, deactivating her ramming gear.
Why you scale-scrapping- furious, I activated Fyredash's thruster gear. We sped up, drawing nose to nose with Freelancyr. I activated my own ramming gear and Fyredash swung his head sideways, bashing Freelancyr's head with the gear. A large bruise now on the rival dragon's cheek and leaving him dazed, I used the distraction to have Fyredash slam into Freelancyr's side with the ramming gear, forcing Freelancyr right against the wall at the side of the track. I whipped my blocking staff into Arisa's chin. Head snapping backward, the leader of the Mud Eels racing crew could only focus on grabbing onto Freelancyr's saddle, pulling the handles back at the same time. Freelancyr mistakenly took that as a signal to stop. I activated my thruster gear again, and shot forward and away from Freelancyr, who was rearing confusedly. We shot across the finish line, Arisa recovering just in time to come in fourth while Kitt Wonn came in second, and Riza Greenfield third. Once across the finish line, Fyredash skidded to a halt, whipping his slender body sideways while I deactivated the thruster gear.
"Oh, yeah!" I whooped quietly, throwing my hands in the air and hearing the crowd cheer. I love the thrill of racing! I thought. "I love a close match, don't you, boy?" I added.
Fyredash grinned in agreement. He raored, adding to the crowd's cheer.
After the race, I met up with Cali and Edna, as well as their dragons Redstreak and Dashyr. We chatted animatedly as we rode our dragons down to a great Down City cafe, where we hoped to get lunch. We certainly had the money, since I had just won first place. In addition to that, Edna and Cali had both been racing on separate, nearby tracks. Edna had gotten first also, while Cali got second.
As we approached the cafe, Edna was wrapping up her recount of the race. "The guy I was tied with for first made a pretty bad error," she said, letting go of the saddle handles, she used her hands to mimic the race, while Dashyr continued to pad along next to Fyredash and Redstreak. "He tried to use his thruster gear to jump a obstacle. Now, that would have worked, but he didn't count on me mag jumping and whacking one of his thruster gears off with my blocking staff. He spun out of control and crashed. He wasn't hurt, but I got what I wanted," Edna moved one hand forward while she kept the other back, "and I used my thruster gear to shoot me and Dashyr right across the finish line."
Dashyr rumbled with pleasure, baring his teeth in a satisfied smile.
"Impressive," I said grinning and remembering the elation from earlier. "I won my race by giving Arisa and Freelancyr what was coming to them, then using thruster gear like you did."
Fyredash did the dragon version of a chuckle.
"Great job, you two," Cali said in a giddy tone, clapping her hands together. "Now we can combine our winnings to get a great and well deserved lunch." Restreak's eyes lit in anticipation and he liked his lips. The dragon quickened his pace.
"Clearly you got him excited, Cali," Edna said with a raised eyebrow.
"And she's gotten me even more hungry," I added enthusiastically.
When we got to the cafe, we all dismounted our dragons and went inside. We bought ourselves cheeseburgers (I love cheeseburgers in real life). The thing we liked best about eating here-the cafe sold steaks they cooked up for dragons, and at a reasonable price. We got one for Dashyr, another for Fyredash, and one more for Redstreak. We sat down at a table by the door. Our dragons began to eat just outside the window next to the door, by the table. A radio blabbed music from nearby. I nodded a little to the rythm, then began to devour my cheeseburger. I was done in a matter of minutes. I licked my lips while Cali and Edna finished theirs. We were just standing up to leave when the radio crackled and the music was briefly replaced by what sounded like a emergency transmission. Fyredash, Dashyr and Redstreak all moved their heads close to the window.
"This is a urgent request and warning. A series of dragon thefts have been occuring. The most recent ones happened a day ago. Two cross breed dragons were stolen from Avran Stables in Del, while a family in Ta-Thoros has reported that their dragon Vierna was stolen."
I stood bolt upright. "Vierna's the name of my family's dragon," I said in shock. My mind was beginning to fill with rage. Who did these people think they were, stealing dragons from wherever they wanted? Outside, Fyredash grunted in shock when he heard the news Vierna had been stolen, accidentally hitting his jaw on the windowsill. Edna glanced at him, then we all looked back at the radio when the person on the other end said, "if anyone hearing this transmission owns a cross breed dragon, keep as close as possible to him or her."
My anger about Vierna temporarily vanished from my mind as I realized something. "Who do we know with a cross breed dragon?" I asked.
Edna and Cali exchanged glances. Their eyes widened. "Riza!" Edna said. "Emerald is a cross breed dragon."
"We need to find the Penn racing crew," I said, running out the door and mounting Fyredash, while Edna and Cali mounted their dragons. "We need to make sure they heard about this, especially Riza."
Fyredash and I took off running toward Penn stables, my two crew members following. After riding for a hour, we arrived at the stables. Our dragons were panting, because they had run all out there. We dismounted our dragons and all of us(including dragons) began to root around for Riza or one of her fellow crew members.
Finally we found Riza in one of the stalls, rubbing down Emerald. They both looked like they had just been racing. Emerald, a white draconium psi class dragon, bore a mezmerizing pattern of green stripes. On both sides of him, two neon green stripes ran down his sides. All of the stripes ended halfway up his tail. Emerald's yellow eyes were lined with neon green also, and a arrow shape was on his forehead, also in neon green. All four paws were neon green too. Emerald's underside was a pale gray, and the star symbol of the Penn racing crew was on his shoulder. His ears were lined on top with purple, and he has gold rings in each ear. Riza has fur that is a darker shade of gray, and her hair is dark brown, and like her dragon, Riza has gold rings in each ear. She was wearing her usual green shirt and pants, and had the star symbol on the back of her shirt. She looked up when me and Fyredash approached her.
"Hi," she said, turning to face me. Emerald barked a greeting to Fyrdash. He returned the greeting in the same fashion.
"Riza, have you heard a emergency radio broadcast recently?" I asked her. "And where's.."
"Everyone else?" Riza finished, tossing her brown mane of hair. "Artha got called away on his Dragon Booster duties, and everyone else went with him. I wasn't able to pull out of the race I was in. I just got back from it. So no, I heard no radio broadcast."
"It's very important, especially for you," I told her, playing with some of the leather strips in my blond hair. "There are dragon thefts happening, and the main targets seem to be cross breed dragons. Like Emerald. He would be a valuable prize because psi class and white draconium are nearly impossible to combine in a dragon."
Riza took in a worried breath. She reached behind her and laid a hand on Emerald's flank as he snorted with worry. Her usual spirit ignited and she snarled, "if anyone tries to steal Emerald, I'll give them a beating they'll never forget."
"Just be-" I started to say. Then both me and Riza froze when we heard fighting.
That's it for now. I felt the unbearable urge to publish this, but I have another story going. This one probably won't be updated for a long time.