It was a rainy sunday evening Emmy had just finished her night shift at the new Dracos restaurant. She felt like her legs where going to collapse on themselves, but at least it was over, and her off day was tomorrow so she had that to look forward to. Emmy changed into her pajamas, microwaved a tv dinner, plopped down on her couch and turned on the T.V. hopefully there was something good on. She picked up her phone to check the time, it was 12:00 am exactly. ''I'm gonna have to turn in soon" she thought to herself. "I can't afford to doze off in class again, if I miss anymore of the lesson I'll definitely fail the next exam." Emmy had a lot on her plate these days between going to school for her doctorate's degree and her part time job at Dracos, she hardly had enough time to relax.
Emmy went to set an alarm for her morning classes, just then her phone started to ring. "Hello?" she said "Hello Emmy? It's me Max." "Oh hey Max! What's up?" "Nothing much." Max replied, "I just wanted to see if you were busy on Monday?" "Well I've got my classes in the morning but other than that I'm off work Why? Did you need me for something?" "I just wanted to know if you could stop by mom and dad's old place,with me."
"Mom and dad's old house? What do you want to go all the way out there for?" Questioned Emmy "There's something I need to get. What do you say sis wanna go for as ride with me?, It'll be an adventure." "Well alright be ready at 2:00 that's when my class ends." "Aw thanks Em. I knew I could count on you, talk to you." The cell phone beeped and Emmy's apartment was quiet once again. It was very suspicious.
Max popping up out of the blue like this, and asking to go back to their childhood home. The two hadn't spoken in over a year. Ever since Max lost his job at the gas station for giving out free pumps to friends he would always come to Emmy and ask for money, it would have been fine if it were just once or twice, but for months Max would keep asking for larger and larger amounts of money apparently he was working on some sort of project, no doubt it was one of his many get rich quick schemes. When they blew up in his face it would always come out of Emmy's pocket;he never paid her back. When it started to cut in on Emmy's budget she finally cut him off, they stopped talking after that. Emmy thought about calling Max back and cancelling. It was going to be a long awkward car ride and she didn't want to deal with the stress. "Come on Emmy. This is your brother you're talking about." She reprimanded herself. "Now's a good a time as any to at least try to patch things up. After all you don't want things to be like this forever do you?" Emmy put all negative thoughts out of her mind and went to bed, tomorrow was going to be a long day.
As Emmy had anticipated the car ride was extremely uncomfortable. The siblings sat in dead silence the entire time, save for the wind whipping in their ears from the window, and sound of the engine reving up. "Well, this isn't going how I thought it would" Emmy thought "I'll just try to make polite conversation. Anything is better than this." So Emmy opened her mouth to speak but just as she did Max spoke instead. "Listen sis, I just want you to know that I'm sorry about everything. I know that I've put you and the family through a lot and I want to make it right."
Emmy was speechless, Max certainly did cause her and their mom and dad a lot of grief. What with dropping out of college half way through, being in between jobs all the time, and all the money that he borrowed and never returned. But it didn't feel right to rub salt in the wound, what had happened, had happened; it was in the past now and Max was apologising so Emmy decided comfort Max rather than confront him on all his misdeeds. "Aw Max it's alright I know you've made some mistakes, but hey what's been done has been done. You know I don't hold anything against you." " Yeah but I hold it against myself." said Max looking defeated "There's no doubt about it, I shouldn't have done all the things I did. But I think I can make it better, as long as we can get back to the old house." "What's in there that you need so badly anyway?" Asked Emmy " Something that'll hopefully turn my life around." Emmy backed up into the driveway, other than the boarded up windows not much had changed about the old place. As she looked at the building a flood of memories came back to her. She recalled playing in the sprinklers in the summer, building snowmen in the winter, and jumping into crisp leaves in the fall. That all seemed so far away; life was so much different now, it seemed as if time had just slipped away. "You still with me Em?" asked Max poking his sister on the shoulder. "Just reminiscing Max." said Emmy "I understand this place really takes me back. But now we've got work to do, let's go." With that Max marched right the crimson stairs and to the door, he yanked off the two boards and busted down the door with his shoulder.
"Follow me." Max said Emmy was flabbergasted, Max had just smashed down the door to their childhood home with relative ease. Whatever Max wanted from that house he was determined to get it. "You coming Em?" shouted Max out the door from the inside. "Yeah, I'll be right there." said Emmy as she scurreyed into the old house. The inside of the place was much different. It was more run down, and raggety looking. There was dust and worn out sheets everywhere. It was kind of creepy, but Emmy carried on and followed her brother up stairs to their old play room. When Emmy arrived Max was frantically looking for something. He picked up the table, and chairs, pulled back the bookshelf, and nearly snatched up the carpet. "Max, did you have me drive you all the way out here just so you could find some old toys?" Emmy teased
"This is way more valuable than toys sis. In fact if I find this thing I could both be a millionaire." Max relied barely taking his eyes away from his desperate search. "Is that what we're here for Max? Another one of your scams!" scolded Emmy "It's not a scam! That is it won't have to be if I can find it." "Find what? Max!" demanded Emmy " The dragon scale!" yelled Max "What?!" hollered Emmy beside herself with confusion and frustration "You mean the tell me you had me driving for five hours just so you could look for some sort of imaginary artifact?!" "I knew you wouldn't believe me." said Max dejectedly "That's because there's nothing to believe. Dragon land was just a game we made up when we were kids." "Max you can't keep doing this, not only have you wasted my time, but you've wasted your own time that you could've been spending looking for a job!" Max looked up for a second to give Emmy a mean side glance but soon returned to his searching without a word. "Look Max I want to help you but if you keep on casing easy money like, this instead of buckling down and trying to get yourself an education, then you're just digging a ditch for yourself come on, let's get out of here." "I'm not going anywhere, not without that scale." Max spat back. "Well if you're not leaving then I am! This is ridiculous! Sooner or later you're going to have to grow up Max! Even if there was a Dragon scale do you honestly expect something that priceless to just up and reveal itself?" Just then an almost blinding glow shined through out the entire room, it came from the drawer next to the window. "Of course the drawer how could I have missed it." Said Max with a relieved tone in his voice.
Emmy was in awe, she couldn't speak, she couldn't move, all she could do was sit and watch as Max took out the dragon scale from the tiny golden chest it was hidden in. "There!" Said Max "Now do you believe me?" "Oh boy, I could sell this baby for billions maybe trillions." Emmy snapped herself out of her trance. " Max be careful with that thing! You don't know what it can do!" warned Emmy "Correction I know exactly what it's going to do, make me rich!" Just then Max noticed a little inscription on the top of the inside of the chest "Look at the writing on the box, hey what do you say sis, wanna read it just for laughs?" asked Max. "No way am I going anywhere near that thing! It could be dangerous!" shouted Emmy "Suit yourself, let's see it says, I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons, in a land apart." Just as soon as he said it the dragons on the wall paper flew around the room engulfing Max in the middle, "Max, NO!" cried Emmy she ran into the circle and grabbed the scale. Soon after the brother and sister woke up in the middle of a what looked like a library only it seemed to be in some sort of tree. "Where are we Emmy?" said Max his voice shaking "I...I don't know" replied Emmy who was also very uneasy. As soon as Emmy had answered the duo heard the sound of very loud stomping and it was coming toward them. They looked behind them and sure enough there was a large scaly creature gaining on them. "RUN!" Emmy screamed. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, Emmy's eyes darted across the room hopelessly trying to find an exit. But then the creature flew over their heads and landed right in front of them.
Max and Emmy held on to each other for dear life, the creature opened up its mouth, only instead of rows of razor sharp teeth greeting them with the intent of devouring them alive a familiar voice came out. "Max, Emmy! Oh thank goodness you came." The two got up the courage to open their eyes and much to the surprise and relief of both of them of both of them creature was not eating them. "W..who..ww...What are you?!" asked Emmy still trembling from the shock. "Why Emmy don't you recognise me? It's me Cassie." "Cassie? My old imaginary friend?" asked Emmy now very curious. " Friends yes, Imaginary not so much, at least I was real last time I checked." Emmy walked closer, she looked deep into the pink dragon's baby blue eyes, it was all coming back to her, now she remembered. "Cassie, it's you it's really you!" Emmy greeted her old friend who was now a hulking 10 ft tall adult dragon with a loving embrace. Max soon joined in, "I missed you Cass." Said Emmy fighting back tears, "Yeah it's been forever." Agreed Max "I'm happy to see the both of you too, but now we haven't got time to waste." said Cassie as her face soon hardened into a more serious expression. "What's wrong?" asked Emmy "I'll explain on the way, follow me." Emmy and Max did as they were told and trailed behind the dragon into a long dark hallway with shelves filled with with books. "We are all in very real danger." said Cassie as she rummaged through a stack of books. "What danger?" asked Emmy "There is an evil force, that has been unleashed." said Cassie Max gulped "What kind of evil force?" "It's called the darkness, there's a book on it I know it's here somewhere." Emmy looked to her right, and there was a large golden brown book the said "Dragon Land's records of myths and monsters" "Cassie is this it?" asked Emmy "Yes thank you Emmy." Cassie opened the book and when she turned to a certain page a hologram a man in a suit of jet black armour appeared.
"Who is that?" inquired Max "This is The Shadow Knight, he lives in the soul kingdom, and he is the one who has unleashed the darkness upon dragon land. He said if we don't declare him ruler of Dragon land in three days time he will use the darkness to destroy everything and everyone." said Cassie in a very gravelly voice "What is The Darkness?" asked Emmy "The Darkness is like a wind only it's color is black as night. It can devour anything in its path." "Since it's been uncovered The Shadow knight has set out to make examples of anyone who opposes him. The Giant, of Nod, Mungus ,Q..Quetzal." Cassie looked to the ground and her eyes swelled up with tears.
"You mean Quetzal's... gone." asked Emmy "Yes, Quetzal found out the secret to defeating The Shadow Knight, after he did the shadow night sent the darkness to devour him." "This was all that was left." Cassie reached into her pouch and took out Quetzal's dragon badge. "Quetzal knew that only a human being could go through the barrier around the soul kingdom and that only a human could defeat the shadow knight." "Why only a human?" said Emmy "Humans have heavier souls than dragons do. It helps you go through the walls" "Ouch" remarked Max "You two are dragon land's only hope, will you help us?" Max and Emmy looked at each other. "Um..excuse us for just one second" said Emmy "Of course take your time."