The Dragon Breeders
Episode 1: The Race
On mysterious islands in the sky there were dragons. Not just one or two kinds of them, but more than a hundred different varieties, and they all lived together in harmony with a special group of humans. Some dragons were of the types that most people know: dragons that breathe fire, or water dragons like the kind that are well-known in China.
The humans that lived on the dragon islands called themselves breeders. They took care of the dragons, and they grew funny kinds of dragon foods like Blushrooms and Pumpermelons. They were also in charge of getting the dragons to breed. The leader of the humans was called Master Areef; he was the oldest and wisest of all of the dragon breeders. People said he was ninety four years old!
There were also young dragon breeders, like Baru. Baru was only eleven years old. He was growing up in a normal human family on regular Earth, when Master Areef and his helper, Madame Samara, came to visit him. They told him, You have the magical power of the dragon breeder. We will ask your parents for permission so you can leave your regular school and come to the sky islands with us to learn dragon breeding."
Baru's parents said yes, so he left his regular school and moved to the sky islands to learn dragon breeding instead of things like math and reading. At first he thought it would be easy - but Madam Samara told him that actually he would have to learn a lot of things about math, magic farming, and dragon biology in order to become a good dragon breeder.
Up in the sky islands Baru learned a lot very quickly. He learned, first of all, about the basic dragon types: Plant, Fire, Cold, Earth, Lightning, Water, Air,and Metal (though in the first few weeks he did not actually get to see any metal dragons). He also learned some of the basic dragon hybrids, - the flower dragon (hybrid of plant and fire), the lava dragon (hybrid of fire and earth), and the tree dragon (hybrid of plant and earth). Baru found the Flower dragons to be particularly beautiful, with their strange scales that looked like petals. Flower dragons were also, Baru found, very friendly. Baru also looked in wonder at the frightening Lava dragons, which only ate burning coals and lived in habitats of black rock and lava that had to be shipped especially from volcanic mountains down on earth. And of course there were the massive tree dragons, which when they stood could often be mistaken for actual trees. Baru had a very strong curiosity about dragons, and wanted to know more and more. He dreamed every night of dragons he had never seen, but that every human boy knew about - the great sun and solstice dragons, and the rarest of all, the rainbow dragon.
"Master Areef, when will I learn about the epic dragons? And when will I get to see a rainbow dragon?"
"In time, young master. You must be patient. First you must master all of the basic skills of the dragon breeder. And you must learn dragon racing, since that is really the way we keep these dragon islands going."
Indeed, dragon racing was a very big part of life in the sky islands. Race days were the only time regular human beings were allowed to come to the islands, and it cost a lot of money for them to see the dragons race; they had to come to the sky islands on special balloon buses. The humans also liked to bet that a certain favorite dragon would win or lose a given race.
While most people think that dragons can fly, most of the dragons in the sky islands could only fly just a little bit - just a few feet above their habitats. They preferred to glide along close to the ground, and they could do this quite is how the human dragon breeders had come up with the idea of doing dragon races. At first the dragons were confused when they were trained to move on the dragon track. But once they did a few races they started to like it.
Each race had certain properties that made them suitable for particular dragons, and most races had a combination of properties, which meant you had to know a lot about dragon hybrids to guess which dragon might win. Lightning and air races, Baru learned, were often won by the speedy sonic dragons - which made a deafening sound when they raced.
There were big dragon races every Saturday. For the first few weeks Baru didn't get to see the races. Master Areef told him he needed time to adjust to being in dragon breeder school.
Dragon breeder school was pretty small – there were only about thirty kids and they were mostly teenagers. Baru was the youngest. There were no grades and no regular classrooms. Every day, the senior breeders would take some students with them to work with dragons or in the magic dragon food farms, and every day the kids would learn something new about breeding, raising, and racing dragons.
The older teenagers were put in charge of caring for dragons all by themselves. One senior boy, called Lucky, even looked after metal dragons! Some others, Alisa and Gruff, looked after strange-looking lightning hybrids, like the very weird looking Cactus Dragon.
While Baru was the only kid in dragon school who was eleven years old, there were two twelve year olds, Chameli and Kronio. They were twins and they both had bright red hair. Chameli was a girl and Kronio was a boy. They were Baru's only friends in dragon school.
On the third week Baru was in the dragon school, Master Areef took the three kids to a plant habitat, and showed them a Moss dragon.
"See that Moss dragon? His name is Fungus. I want the three of you to start taking care of him. Do you know what he likes to eat?"
"Yes I know!" said Chameli. "Moss dragons like to eat Zazzberries, and sometimes Blushrooms!"
"That's right," said Master Areef. "What about the rules for handling him? Is he safe to be around humans?"
None of the kids knew exactly what the rules were for Moss dragons. But Baru said, "Well, he looks pretty safe to me."
"He is pretty safe," said Master Areef. "You're allowed to take him out of his habitat as long as you keep him on a dragon leash. You can even bring him to races, though we don't actually put this little guy in the races very often."
"Can we bring him to the dragon races tomorrow?" asked Kronio.
"I don't see why not," said Master Areef. "Just remember, though, he has to stay on his dragon leash."
The next day was Saturday, the day of the big dragon races. Baru and his two friends were sitting in the front row of the stadium with their new dragon friend Fungus, the Moss dragon. For the first few races they were eating popcorn and cheering for all the speedy dragons in the race. Dragon racing, they all agreed, was the most exciting thing ever!
Then, during the third race, which was a metal hybrid race, Baru suddenly noticed that Fungus was missing. Kronio was holding the leash, but Fungus wasn't attached to it anymore
"Where did Fungus go?" Baru said. Both Kronio and Chameli were surprised. They couldn't find fungus anywhere.
"Master Areef is going to kill me!" said Kronio. He was upset. "Maybe we didn't tie the leash the right way."
Then suddenly they noticed that Fungus was on the dragon race track, just as the race was going to start. The metal dragons were big and looked mean – Forge dragons and Mine dragons, and others that Baru didn't reecognize. They looked dangerous to a small Moss dragon like Fungus!
Then the race started, and the metal hybrids jumped out over the metal parts of the race. With all of the noise and the dust, the kids lost sight of Fungus. They were worried something might happen to their dragon! Kronio and Chameli were going to look near the the other end of the track, and Baru went to the starting line.
For a while Baru couldn't see anything, but then he saw a small green thing moving on the track itself. It was Fungus, but he looked injured! He had scratches on the side of his neck and his leg looked injured. Baru jumped over the fence and ran out onto the track to try and rescue him.
Baru was sad to see Fungus hurt, but he sat down with Fungus and put his hands on his back to comfort him. "There, there, boy. You'll be all right. Don't be scared."
Fungus looked at him and whimpered. He looked scared. Then Master Areef and Madame Samara ran out of the stands and onto the track. They helped Baru move Fungus to safety.
"Master Areef, I'm sorry we lost Fungus and let him go onto the dragon track."
Master Areef said, "Baru, it's all right. I think Fungus will be ok – though it's lucky you ran onto the track to help him or we might have started another race and he might have gotten more hurt. But now you know that taking care of dragons isn't easy! It takes a lot of work and attention. I hope you'll remember the lesson you learned today."
"I will, Master Areef," said Baru.