A crate exploded in little wooden chopsticks next to me. I pulled my head away from the explosion.

Gerard who was sitting next to me, was shooting with his pistol towards a man that was standing a few meters from us.

'Really Gerard you take me to the most lovely places. 'I told him sarcastically.

Gerard grinned while he ducked his head back after the wall we were hiding.

'I thought you were bored today.', he said to me.

'Not really. I could live this day with some boredom.'

Another explosion was felled against the wall and I felt that the mad man that was standing a bit away from us, gathering his power to launch another fireball.

I sighed and concentrated on my power. I felt it gathering between my fingers and I said a few word in faux Latin and felt it release the power I was holding.

The fireball the man was throwing at us vanished in mid air.

I heard the mad men stamp with his foot.

'It's mine. Give it back. 'The man yelled.

'Okay.' I said and gathered again some power and made a gestured with some words. A portal appeared behind the wall and the fireball flew out of it towards the man.

It landed on a shimmering field surrounding the man in an explosion.

'Mine, Mine.' The man yelled and began gathering his power again.

I gathered my power again, ready to block the next fireball. But he was more cleverer then I thought. I felt his power forming a portal behind us and I looked at it.

'Shit!'

'What?'Gerard said and looked at me.

'He is opening a portal to the Umbra.'

'Umbra?', Gerard asked.

'Spirit world. He is conjuring a spirit.'

'Is that bad?'

'That depends. Let's just hope he is not summoning a god or something. That would be very bad.' I said while readying more power. I was too late to try to block his spell so I was readying my power for the thing that was coming out of it.

'Jason?' Gerard asked. 'What do you mean by a god?'

'Last time I fought a marauder, it called Poseidon. He claimed he was Zeus and Poseidon should defend him from harm. The god killed him and then went looking for other victims.'

'You stopped him, didn't you?', Gerard said a bit nervously.

'No I escaped. And Poseidon made a tidal wave that swept a few islands under water. Luckily it where islands that had no human life on them.'

The portal grew a bit more is size. I heard Gerard readying his weapon while I was concentrating on what the marauder was summoning.

Then I heard a roar. And from the portal came the head of a very big reptile.

'Ooh shit!' I said. 'He conjured a dragon.'

The dragon reared his head to us and opened his mouth. The world around us began to burn.

This was not a good day.

The day began good.

I was just waking up with the smell of baked eggs hanging in my house.

I am a very bad morning person and too much stimulation in the morning will make me very grumpy.

The smell of baked eggs did not have that effect. It made me curious. Who was making eggs in my house?

Then I remembered I went out yesterday and picked up a nice women in a bar. Would se be so kind to bake me eggs for sex?

I rolled out of bed and grabbed a boxershort out of a draw and went to the kitchen.

In the kitchen was not standing a women baking eggs, but a man.

He was of medium height and dark blond hair. He had jeans with a black shirt on.

'Gerard.' I grumbled and sat down at the table in the kitchen.

'Morning bright eyes.', Gerard said cheery. It was to much cheer and I looked at him in disgust.

'Where is the girl?', I asked him while looking around.

'She was just slipping out of your house when I came in.', Gerard said while he walked to my coffee machine and poured a cup of coffee.

'Her name was Jeannette. She left her card on your desk.'

'Oh.'

'Yeah, I thought you didn't know her name anymore. But she looked very nice.', Gerard said and put the cup before me.

Blessed coffee. The oil to my motor. Without it I couldn't function in the morning.

I took a sip and felt the warmth of the liquid warming my insides. I sighed and looked at Gerard.

'She was very nice.' I said and took another sip.

Gerard smiled and turned to his baking.

Gerard is a policeman in Rotterdam. An inspector. He solves murders and such. He is also a very good friend of mine. He is of my age but is married to Janine and has a little daughter named Katy.

Gerard gives me sometimes information I need. He is one of the few people that now that I am a mage.

Yes you read it right, a mage. I am a mage. A person who can bend reality to his will and change it.

You probably do not know this but mage's exist. So do werewolves, vampires demons and other stuff you only heard in stories. Most of the "normal" people do not usually come in contact with the supernatural. If they are lucky.

Gerard is not lucky. He came in contact with a vampire while it was hunting for blood. Gerard was a student then, just as I was. But I was a mage from birth and knew of these things. So when it was trying to bite Gerard, I said it on flame. Since then we became friends.

'Sometimes I wonder how many you can get in one week.', Gerard asked while flipping the eggs in the pan.

'Fifteen. But that was unusual because it was with an orgy.'

Gerard looked at me surprisingly.

'When was that?', he asked curiously.

'Did you remember Micheal?', I asked him.

He nodded.

'He organized a party at his room once. I walked in while he and a group of men and women were having a naked party.' I said with a smile. 'It started from there.'

Gerard shook his head and began to put the eggs on a slice of bread.

'But you are not here for my sex life, I presume.' I said.

'No.' Gerard said and put a plate of bread and egg before me.

'We had word that a guy is doing some strange things in a warehouse near the docks. People claimed that he is using fireworks or something. The police investigated but came back with some weird stories.' Gerard sat down at the other end of the table and looked at me.

'So you think it is one of my people.' I said and took a bite from the bread. It was very nice.

'Yes so I thought you might want to take a look with me.'

I sighed and took another bite. I chewed for a few moments while thinking.

Gerard never came to me with stuff that wasn't real. And I did have an appointment, but that was in the afternoon.

'Fine. But if you could drop me somewhere when we finished with this problem of yours.'

Gerard smiled. 'No problem.'

'Okay. Let me eat, dress myself and then we can go.'

'No problem.' Gerard said and stood up.

A few minutes after, I had eaten and was dressed. I grabbed my keys and my wallet and also grabbed a pistol out of a chest near my bed. I might be a mage. But most things go down easier with some bullets in them.

We walked outside to the car when my phone chirped.

I took my phone in my hands and answered the call. 'yes?'

'Jason Gray', said a man.

'You are talking to him. Who are you?'

'The name is Kevin Smith. I got your number from Mi Long.' The man told me.

Mi Long was a friend of mine who helped me a few years ago when I was in a bit of trouble.

'Yes?'I said waiting for some more information.

'Mi Long told me to say to you that if you help me you and her would be even.'

Oh great. A request.

'Tell Mi Long it does not work that way. But I will talk to you about your problem, but not now.' I told Kevin over the phone. Gerard was looking at me from the other side of the car.

'That is fine. Can we meet in about an hour of two.' He asked me. He sounded relaxed.

'Okay that is fine by me. In two hours. Do you know Floor?' I asked him.

'Yes.'

I looked at my watch. 'Okay be at Floor at eleven o'clock. I will also be there.'

'Thank you.' Said Kevin. He sounded relieved. 'Until then.'

'Okay, bye.' I said and hanged up.

'Who was that.', asked Gerard.

'Don't know yet. But will see in about two hours. Seems it will be a busy day today.' I said joyfully and stepped into the car.

So that's how we got eye to eye with a dragon. We found the man who was living in the warehouse, and he was pretty upset about us visiting him. And now he was summoning a dragon to smite us.

I just called my shield in time when the fire was raging around us.

'Fucking hell.' Gerard screamed.

I was concentrating very hard to not let the shield fall. The dragon was breathing fire at us and the world around us began to burn.

'Burn them! Burn them hard.' Yelled the mad man hysterical behind us.

I couldn't do a frontal attack so I had to be smart. I focused my power while holding up the shield and with my left hand grabbed Gerard's arm.

'Sorry about this.' I said and released the spell. The world changed around us and we where standing near the car.

Gerard looked confused and began to puke his breakfast out of his mouth.

'Just breath. You get the hang of it in a few seconds.' I said and looked at the building we just left.

Flames were beginning to rise from the building.

'Nice.' I said and focused my power once more.

I looked at the rearview mirror and released the scrying spell upon it. An image from inside the building became clear in the mirror and I saw the dragon roaring more flames around himself.

Just as I suspected. The mage could summon the dragon but couldn't control it.

It was becoming more clear when I saw the mad man jumping up and down and screaming to the dragon to stop.

'What happened?' I heard Gerard asking behind me. He sounded a still a bit queasy.

'The mage is arguing with the dragon. I think he is going to lose.'

'And then what?'

'Then we go inside and send the dragon back.'

'That simple?' Gerard asked.

'Hopefully.' I said with forced cheer in my voice.

I saw in my mirror the man slamming his fist against the side of the dragon. Trying to get its attention.

'You shouldn't do that.' I mumbled.

'What?' Gerard asked.

'Nothing. Was just commenting on the behavior of our friend inside.'

When I finished that sentence I saw the dragon looking at the mad man and opening his jaw. Fire came out of it in big waves and engulfed the man. Clearly the dragon was not amused being summoned. And to make his point more clear he came down with his maw onto the flaming mage and ate him.

'Barbequed mage. Let's hope he does not want any deserts.' I said out loud and walked to the building.

'Want me to come?' Gerard asked. He sounded not to enthusiastic about it.

'Nah you stay with the car. I think I can handle this. Or you have a great ability of teleporting dragons?'I asked him with a grin on my face.

'Nope.' Gerard said. 'But you should hurry. It does not take much time to get the police here.'

'No problem.' I said and walked to the building.

I drew in my power and said something in Latin. A shield of blue energy formed around me and clung to me while I walked into the fire.

The flames were very hard trying to burn everything around me, but the heat did not touch me while I walked unto the dragon. I walked casually unto the dragon with my hands in my jeans pockets.

Sometimes I think I have a death wish.

The dragon was roaring and breathing some more fire. Such a drama queen.

'Excuse me' I said aloud, hoping the dragon could hear me above its own roaring.

The dragon roared again and swayed his neck up and down.

'Excuse me.' I yelled again, hoping it would hear me now.

It stopped roaring and looked at me. I felled it touching my mind and trying to get in.

I just opened my front thoughts while I slammed a wall between my thinking space and my inner most thoughts.

Most people have a lot of sections in their mind. Two of the most famous are the thinking part and your inner most thoughts. The first is just what you do most of the day. Thinking out loud while reading or thinking about something when you are doing stuff. The other one is mostly your persona. It's what makes you, you.

'Who are you?ยด I heard the dragon in my mind. It sounded a bit hollow.

Yeah I know a lot of jokes about that one. But let it lie for a moment.

'My name is Jason Gray. I am a mage. I could bring you back from whence you came.' I said aloud.

'Are you the one who summoned me?'It asked while his maw was hanging just in front of me.

'No. I have to say that the one you just ate was the one who summoned you.'

' And why would I believe that. I should just eat you.'

"You could but then how do will you go home. And let's be honest. Would I walked this casual unto you if I did something to you?'

The dragon was eyeing me up and down and looked around him. All the walls where now burning. And portions of the building was collapsing around us.

'Send me back.' it said.

'Okay.'

I focused my power. At first I opened my third eye. I needed to see how the man opened the portal so I could copy it. I wanted to send the dragon back from where it came. Some spirits could be upset when I just dump a dragon somewhere in the spirit world. I felled the resonance of the mad man's magic. I had to be quick because it was fading fast. Oh and I also was standing in an inferno and the building was beginning to collapse further.

I summoned my power and gathered it quickly in the spell I wanted. The portal appeared and the dragon looked at it.

'Thank you.' It said and stepped through the portal.