Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its other incarnations.

Hey everyone I'm back, and I was surprised to get three reviews the first day! So I decided to get my tail in gear and write chapter 2 earlier than planned. Oh and a big thank you to yaoifanvane, Otaku Maiden, and Dario Argento Syndrome for their support and I will dedicate this chapter to them. Well, now that that's over, let's begin with the chapter two.

Curious Dragons

Chapter 2

After another two hours in several different shops, and all the while being followed by Cash, who offered his assistance, Ben and Max returned home tired and worn down more than usual. Because Ben had never gone with his grandfather on one of these quests, Max wanted Ben to have everything he needed to enjoy himself, as well as learn to survive on his own a little. As night fell upon the city, Ben walked into his room and went to the bottom of his closet, and picked up a small green painted wooden box. This was what he kept some of his most prized possessions in.

Ben reached to the very bottom of the box and pulled out a pendent his parents gave him when he was four. The pendent had ancient designs carved into it with the picture of the legendary black dragon. The black dragon was the most sought after dragon in the entire world; legend says that the black dragon was given the ability to shape shift into a human, and its fire was stronger than any other dragons. No one knew if the legend was true because black dragons were now extinct after many centuries of hunting them for their bones to make jewelry, weapons, and for sport.

Ben looked at the pendent and began to tear up as a painful memory tried to fight its way to the surface of Ben's mind; however the boy pushed it back and pulled the pendent over his head and let it hang from his neck. 'It's time I start facing my problems, and this damn pendent will be the first,' Ben thought as he felt the metal pendent beat his skin lightly. Placing the box back inside his closet, Ben went to bed early, knowing his grandfather loved getting an early start on these quests.

~~~~~~~~~~~Time Change~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as Ben predicted, Max was up early the next morning. He and Ben went over their supplies and equipment four times, making sure they had everything they needed. Once Max was satisfied, he and Ben pulled their packs on their backs and started off for the Plumbers Academy. Upon arriving at the school, Ben met the other founder of the Plumber's Academy, Evan Paradox, an ageless dragon rider, but he appeared to be in his late thirties. The time-walker, as some called him, smiled as he saw Max and Ben. "Ah, Maxwell, it's good to see you were able to make it this time, and I see you were able to talk young Benjamin into joining us this year," Paradox said with a smile. Max smiled, however he shook his head no. Paradox lifted one eyebrow in curiosity, just before Max explained.

"Ben volunteered to come this year. He said he wanted to keep me company, but I think he just wanted to get away from Cash." Max laughed as Ben's jaw dropped at the realization that his grandfather knew what was going on the entire time. Ben crossed his arms across his chest and mumble under his breath about sneaky old people, for which Max got a good laugh from. Paradox smiled and told the Tennysons that all the boys were waiting in the courtyard. Max nodded his head and told Ben to follow him. As the group of three made their way to the courtyard, Ben felt slightly nervous. He'd never been on one of these quests before, but from what he had been told, they were very dangerous.

After a moment or two, they reached the courtyard and soon were met with loud cheers from the students. As Ben stared out into the crowd of twenty or so students, he felt rather small compared to them. Most of the students were Ben's age, but many of them had been at the academy from a young age, so their bodies were well developed with muscle. Some of the guys noticed Ben and smiled or smirked at him. It only took that much attention to cause Ben to blush madly. Looking away from them, Ben asked his grandfather where he wanted Ben to put his bag. Max told him to place it with the other bags that belonged to the teachers and chaperones. Ben made his way towards the pile, but was soon stopped when his bag was taken from him.

The young brunette turned around to see someone's chest. Ben took a step back and looked up to see a handsome face with dazzling blue eyes. As Ben took a closer look, he notice the guy had long raven-colored hair with a long streak of white that went from the start to the back of his head. Once Ben had a full inspection, he was addressed by the older teen. "You must Benjamin, Max Tennyson's grandson." Ben became slightly ticked off after this guy referred to him as Max Tennyson's grandson, so he answered hotly, "Yeah, what of it?"

This seemed to excite the guy as he smiled at Ben. If there was one a quick way to get Ben in a good mood, it was to have a cute guy smile at him, which the guy who took his bag was. Ben smiled back before he continued. "It's nice to meet you Ben, your grandpa talks about you a lot. Oh and my name's Pierce. If you need anything while we're out on the quest, let me know."

Ben nodded his head as the guy placed his bag with the other chaperone bags and walked off towards his friends. The young brunette watched Pierce walk off and thought that he would really enjoy himself on this trip.

It took two hours until a hover-truck came and picked up everyone's equipment, and a few moments later a bus came and took them to the edge of the Talma woods. Once everyone was off the bus, they found their bags not too far from where they were dropped off. Max instructed everyone to grab their bags and follow him into the forest. Ben quickly scooped up his bag and ran over to his grandfather. Ben soon found another reason why he didn't want to become a dragon rider during the bus ride. The older students were a bunch horny, sex-deprived teens, and with Ben being fresh meat to them, most of the seniors flirted with him shamelessly.

As the group of rider trainees reached their third hour of walking in the hilly wilderness, Ben began to question if some of the guys had graduated by chance. A few of the trainees were complaining silently about how tired they were and getting hungry, and were sweating like they were running a marathon, while he barely broke a sweat through the hilly terrain of the forest. Ben shook his head and followed his grandfather up another hill, hopefully for the last time. The guy who was behind Ben was complaining the most and it was driving him insane. After another few minutes, Max told everyone they reached a good place to set up camp.

Once Ben got the chance to look around, he saw that his grandfather was right. Nearby the site was a river giving them access to water. Ben looked around and noticed the air was warm and moist, and with an adventurous grandfather always taking you on trips like this, Ben figured that there would be a hot spring nearby. He smiled as he set his pack down and began to take out his tent. As Ben started to take out a few pieces and put them together, the brunette heard a familiar voice calling his name. He turned around and noticed Pierce was running over to him. Ben smiled and waved at the other male as Pierce came to a stop right next to him.

"Hey Ben, do you want me to set up your tent for you?" Pierce asked hoping to get on Ben's good side. Ben stood up and looked at his tent. Ben knew how to put the thing up and honestly thought Pierce was sweet to ask. "Thanks Pierce but I've got it. I may not look it, but grandpa's taken me camping a lot and taught me a how to survive out here," Ben explained. Pierce seemed impressed with Ben's background so he left the young brunette to set up his tent.

After about ten minutes, Ben had his tent set up and was moving the last piece of equipment into the tent. The tent Ben had gotten was a magically enhanced luxury tent. These tents were enchanted to be much larger than they appeared to be. Inside the tent, it was about the size of a decent-sized bedroom. Ben had set it up with an Insta-Flex queen-sized air bed in the farthest corner of the room. Next to it was a small nightstand with his laptop and the two new books he bought. In front of the air bed was a dresser with two weeks' worth of clothes inside. For once, Ben was glad his grandmother was a powerful sorceress. The elderly woman had taught her loving husband a few spells like this to make his trips more comfortable and it always amazed Ben that his grandfather had learned such an incredible spell.

Once Ben was finished, he walked outside to see that everyone else was almost done unpacking. When Ben went to look for his grandfather, he found him near the tent that was being used as the kitchen. Ben grimaced as he thought of his grandfather's cooking. The food his grandfather cooked was edible and was very good; it was just the ingredients that made you want to never try the stuff. Ben quickly went over to the tent and greeted the students who were cooking lunch. When Ben checked his watch, he was surprised to see it was only 12:30.

When Max was done talking to the students, with some of them looking slightly green around the gills, he turned to Ben and smiled. "Hey Ben, did you finish setting up your tent already?"

Ben mimicked the smile and replied, "Yeah I finished. So where's the hot spring around here? Knowing you, you picked this place because there's one close by."

Max laughed as he pushed Ben away from the tent and walked off. He stopped when he noticed Ben wasn't walking with him. When he turned around, he saw Ben had stopped where he had pushed his grandson just a moment ago. Max made a hand motion for Ben to follow him and soon the two were off towards the hot springs. The two walked and talked about anything and everything they could think of. Max asked Ben about school, and Ben merely told him he was passing and hates most of his teachers. Max laughed and looked at his grandson. The young brunette looked more and more like his parents everyday and it hurt Max's heart to know he may not be there much longer to see the kind of man Ben would grow up to become.

Before Max could think anymore on that subject, a horn sounded. Max looked up in urgency and scanned the area. Ben moved closer to his grandfather knowing the meaning of that horn call. It was a warning that wild dragons had been seen and to be careful. The older man turned to Ben and told him, "Ben listen to me, get back to camp and tell Paradox to send the students out. These wild dragons aren't going to be here forever so it's best for the students to try and find them now before the dragons move again."

The brunette nodded his head and ran at full speed towards the camp. Max stayed behind and eyed the area closely. Just when Max was about to let his guard down, he heard the snapping of a twig behind him. The old man moved with a speed that a man his age shouldn't have, and pulled out a knife to face his foe. In the blink of an eye, Max's knife was knocked out his hand and was sent sailing into a nearby tree. As Max looked at the dragon before him, he stared in awe at the one who was before him.

Max had seen many dragons before, but the one before him was an extremely rare one, a golden dragon. The golden dragon was a dragon with golden scales covering its long slender form. Piercing ruby-red eyes stared back at Max, with a matching colored gem embedded in its head. On top of its head were two large dark gold horns going into the air, but then facing off towards the back of its body. Along its back was slightly blonde hair that flowed down the graceful creature's entire back until it reached its tail. The dragon also had four legs, the front pair of legs were centered where the dragon's neck and chest connected and the second pair were located closer to the creatures tail.

The ruby-eyed dragon somehow smirked at Max and began to speak. "It's nice to finally meet you Maxwell Tennyson, one of the four Master Dragon Riders."

Upon hearing the dragon speak his name, Max bowed before the dragon remembering it was customary to bow to the ruler of the dragons. Yes, a golden dragon ruled over all dragons; because there were no more black dragons, it was up to the golden dragons to keep the dragon world from falling apart.

The golden dragon smiled, in its own way and told Max to rise. Max then addressed the king of dragons quickly. "Your majesty, why have you left your home in the mountains? I was told you would only leave if there was some great threat."

The dragon sighed and began to explain to the dragon rider what was going on. "Maxwell Tennyson, everything back at the dragon palace is falling apart. There are dragons that wish to wipe out humanity for the loss of our children during the Dragon Rider War. These dragons have now organized themselves and are under the command of my brother Aggregor. He will wipe out as many humans as he can, and rule over the remaining ones as well as the dragons. I spoke against such a thing but they will no longer listen to my words. So to prepare you all for the upcoming war, I have brought as many young dragons who seek a partner dragon rider. Also I must tell you that there is now a black dragon in this world. He was born from my family, but he did not want to rule so he fled several months ago. If I know him well enough, he is somewhere around here. He may be in his human or dragon form. I'm never sure what's going on in my child's head, but nonetheless, if you can find him a suitable rider, you may be able to talk the other members of my court to help aid you in the fight.

Aggregor will not just get dragons to join him, but humans as well. He will promise them the world so he may gain the power over humans and dragons. This cannot happen, so please get your students and as many the other riders ready as you can."

When the dragon king was done, Max felt more depressed than before. 'Another war? You just got Paragon back on track from the last one. How will I explain all of this to King Victor Validus?' Max ranted inwardly. As if reading his mind, the dragon king looked at Max and spoke again. "I will accompany you and your students' back to Bellwood and explain things to your king. I know things have been hard for you humans after the war, just as it's been for us. I wish to recreate the bond we had years ago, so this is one reason why I help you now."

Max smiled and said, "Thank you, your majesty, but how will you get into town without people freaking out about a golden dragon?" The dragon king smiled as he closed his eyes and the gem on his forehead began to glow. The golden dragon's eyes began to glow from a fiery red colors to a cold onyx black. As his eyes began to change, the dragon king's body began to change as well. The long slender body of the golden dragon began to shrink in size. From his back, wings started to grow, though they were small at first, they grew into large wings. His golden scales began to turn dull and dark till they were a dark navy blue. The dragon's head and neck began to widen as the golden horns split and spread across his face.

When the king of dragon's metamorphosis ended, Max stared at a more common dragon, well more common than a golden dragon anyway. The king of dragons shook his new form a few times to get all the kinks out of his new body. When the dragon king looked at Max, the older man suddenly awoke from his trance. "Incredible, I didn't know golden dragons were capable of changing into other dragons." Max said still in awe.

The king laughed a bit before he asked, "Well, why else do you think they made the golden dragons the leaders of the other dragons?"

Max nodded his head in understanding and said, "So your majesty, have you decided on who's going to be your rider while you're in this form?"

"I'm already looking at my rider, Maxwell. You are the only human I trust to get on my back. You have proven time and time again that dragons were not tools of war, but beings that should be respected. So this is why you shall be my rider and I shall be your dragon."

Max was truly honored to hear those words so he accepted the king's decision. "Well then, your majesty, there will be two things we will have to work on."

"Oh, and what's that, Maxwell?" the dragon king asked as he turned his head to the side.

Max chuckled as he explained. "First off, you must call me Max, Maxwell is too formal for partners, and two, what can I call you other than your majesty?"

"You may call me Devlin."

Ben arrived to the camp within a few minutes and told Paradox what his grandfather told him. Paradox nodded his head, and then turned to face the campsite. "Alright boys! Max is giving you permission to go ahead and search out a dragon. Remember; you must prove to them that you are a worthy rider or they may burn you to a crisp. Normally, they will battle and if you can impress them, it will end quickly but never assume anything. Now move out!"

After a large cheer came from the group of students, they ran back to their tents. After that, they all began to run in different directions.

Ben watched and felt the excitement in the air. He was happy for the students but he was still worried about his grandfather. A moment later, Paradox placed his hand on Ben's shoulder. "Benjamin, Max will be fine. He's not going to leave you just yet. I know him too well to leave you alone."

The young brunette turned to face Paradox and smiled thankfully. He then told him he was going to his tent to take a nap.

It was half an hour later before Max returned to the camp with a Night Fury walking beside him. Paradox looked astonished to see the dragon with Max, but once his old friend explained to him what was happening, Paradox seemed to calm down some.

"Well this poses a problem. If this Aggregor does wish to rule over humans, then he will more than likely try to recruit the enemies of Paragon and the Dragon Riders. I don't have to tell you that even if a few of our enemies join Aggregor, we'll be in a great deal of trouble."

"Yes I know, but if we can get the prince of dragons to join us then our chances of surviving will increase," Max replied.

The transformed king sighed as he shook his head. "It's true, if my son does join us our chances of survival will improve, but he wants nothing to do with the upcoming war, and fled a few months ago."

Paradox shook his head; however he turned his head when he heard movement coming from a nearby tent. When he looked to see what was going on, he noticed Ben coming out. A moment later, Max noticed his grandson and called the boy over.

It took a few moments for Ben to come outside, but once he had completely woken up, he noticed the Night Fury and rushed over to it. "Grandpa, it's a Night Fury!" Ben shrieked in excitement. Max smiled since Ben had never really shown any excitement towards a dragon in many years. Then Max remembered that the Night Furies were always Ben's favorite type of dragon. The transformed golden dragon looked at Max confused as Ben hugged him and scratched his scales. However after a moment, it didn't bother him as much as he leaned into Ben's touch. For a dragon, scratching ones scales around the neck was very relaxing; well, more like a massage to a dragon.

After a few moments, Ben looked to his grandfather and asked, "So who's the lucky guy to get such a sweet dragon?"

Max chuckled and replied, "You're looking at him." Apparently Ben was confused by the answer, so Max pointed to himself. Much to Max surprise, Ben's good mood swiftly vanished.

"Grandpa what do you mean this is your dragon?" Ben asked as he stopped scratching the dragon king and glared towards his grandfather. Max laughed sheepishly knowing that this was going to set Ben off.

"Well Ben, when I had you run off, I found him; well honestly, he found me and said he brought others with him and he decided that I was fit to be his partner."

Ben quickly turned his glare to the dragon and pointed his finger at it. "You choose someone else this instant! My grandfather is not getting on another dragon as long as I live."

The dragon king looked at Ben and shivered slightly from the waves of anger coming off the petite brunette. Max quickly came to the dragon's aid and said with finality, "Ben you can't be mad at him for choosing me. Besides I accepted the invitation so what's done is done."

Ben quickly turned back to his grandfather with a hurt expression, which quickly turned back to a vivid glare. "FINE! If you wanna be a hero so bad go ahead, but don't expect me to watch." With that said Ben went back to his tent and quickly packed it up and left the campsite.

Paradox looked to Max confused and asked, "Shouldn't we go after him?"

Max sighed and shook his head no. "Ben just needs to adjust and accept that I'm still a dragon rider, dragon or no dragon."

Paradox nodded his head as a thought quickly popped into it. "Uh, Max, Devlin, isn't the forest filled with dragons waiting for a rider? Ben's not a rider and they will notice this right away."

Max reacted quickly as Paradox finished speaking. He turned to Devlin and asked, "Devlin, do you think you can tell the dragons you brought with you to leave Ben alone if they see him?"

Devlin nodded his head yes, but then stopped as he picked up a weak signal. "Well I can tell the dragons I brought, but my son, I cannot. He's been blocking all telepathic links I have with him so he can't be found. However, Kevin will more than likely avoid being seen by all humans especially with dragon riders in the area." Max began to relax at that thought, but one should never tempt fate.

Ben was a half hour walk away from the riders' campsite before he stopped and set up his tent again. The young Tennyson was still upset with his grandfather about him becoming an active rider again. Max retired from being an active rider ten years ago, and for Ben it was the best thing in the world. Sure he didn't like that Max was the headmaster of the Dragon Rider School, but at least he knew that his grandfather would come home every day. It was Ben's greatest fear that if his grandfather became an active rider again, he would go out on a mission and never return home. To Ben, his actions were justified, even though a part of him was being very childish.

It took a few minutes for Ben to calm down and once he did, he took out his new book and began to read it. While Ben was reading, something fell from the sky and landed nearby. The shock and sound of the object hitting the ground scared Ben half to death, but what worried him the most was waiting for him outside. Slowly but surely, Ben made his way to the opening of his tent and took a cautious look outside. As he walked outside, everything looked normal, but Ben knew from the vibrations he felt and the noise he heard, that something was out there. Ben took an attentive look up to the tree tops and found the diagonal stream of broken tree limbs. He followed the trail of broken tree limbs over a hill and was surprised by what he found.

Lying on the ground was a dragon with midnight black scales, a red flaming mane of hair, and dull golden horns. Ben looked over the fallen beast and noticed he was caught in an odd contraption. The weapon seemed to have three metal cables with an iron ball hanging from the end, extending from a triangular base. As Ben continued his observations, he found a large cut on the dragon's hind leg. Ben ran back to his tent and grabbed his first aid kit and rushed to help the injured dragon. Ben knelt next to the injured leg, and began to clean the wound, trying not to wake the unconscious dragon.

While Ben cleaned and bandaged the dragon's wound, the unconscious dragon slowly regained its senses. It felt the wound on its leg and the hands that were messing with it. However, the injured beast was too tired to fight off whoever was bothering him. After a few minutes, the dragon soon realized he was bound and started struggling. Ben quickly stepped back as the dragon struggled to get free from the capturing device. As Ben watched, he saw the binds starting to cut into the dragon's scales. He quickly ran over the dragon and told him to stop. The dragon instantly did as he was told, but not because he was told to. The reason why the dragon stopped was because of the voice that was wrapped in panic telling him to stop.

For the first time since he had woken up, the black dragon turned his ebony orbs to the young man who was trying to figure out a way to take the net off him. Ben turned to the dragon and smiled. "Hey there, I know you're scared, but you can't start struggling right now. This thing you're caught in is cutting into your scales and I don't want you getting infected so give me a few minutes and I'll try to remove it ok," Ben said in a begging voice. The dragon looked at Ben curiously but nonetheless nodded his head, allowing Ben to try and find the release switch. After several moments of looking the device over, Ben found its center and was able to activate the retract function.

Within a few short moments the binds were removed and Ben asked the dragon to hold still for awhile; he checked the wounds created from the steel cables. The dragon did as he was asked and laid still. Ben got to work, and bandaged the dragon. Just as Ben finished working on the black dragon, rustling could be heard from the distance. Ben began to panic and spoke to the dragon again. "Look, I know you're injured, but if you don't want to be tamed, you better get out of here now. I'll do what I can to stall them, but please hurry and get out of here!"

Even though the dragon could understand English very well, but with the young brunette talking so fast and in a panic state, he couldn't understand him all that well. However, he caught the scent of another human and figured the kid was warning him about him. Looking at the brunette one more time, he got up slowly and limped away from the area. Ben picked up all his things and ran back to his tent and put everything up. After that he grabbed his book and a fold up chair and went back outside. He sat down in the chair and opened his book. When footsteps reached Ben's ears, he took several breaths to try to calm his heartbeat.

Suddenly from behind the bushes came a tall figure. He looked around as if to search for something, but noticed the tent in front of him. Ben turned and looked at him and slightly faltered; before him was a six foot, muscular, African American male. Mentally the young Tennyson licked his lips and stared at the older teen. When the rider trainee looked towards the river, he noticed Ben and smiled at him. "Hey Ben, what are you doing out here?" the taller teen asked confused. Ben turned away from the trainee and started to pout.

Manny couldn't help but think Ben was cute, but he wanted to know what was up with the young brunette so he asked again. Ben huffed and explained to Manny what happened back at camp and even told Manny he knew he really didn't have a real reason to be upset. Manny nodded his head as he thought about it. Manny came from a family of dragon riders and when he was young, he and his mother worried about his dad all the time, so he understood what Ben meant about his fear of losing his grandpa.

"Ben, you've got a pretty good reason to be upset as far as I'm concerned. He would've scared me if you didn't get upset. With you getting upset, it showed that you care about your grandpa and you only want what's best, but you also have to remember that being a dragon rider is always going to be a part of him. You've got to understand that he feels that it's his duty to protect those he loves and the best way to do that is with all his knowledge on a dragon." Manny said soothingly.

Ben looked down at the ground and spoke soft with an "I know." Manny smiled and patted Ben on the back. Then he remembered why he came through this area in the first place. "Hey, Ben, have you seen a dragon in this area? I shot one down earlier and I know he fell over here."

Ben looked at him and lied, "Yeah I saw him, and he had a nasty cut on his leg. I treated his leg and when I went to check someplace else he released the net thing and snarled at me. I guess when he noticed I wasn't a rider, he left. I don't know what direction he went in though."

Manny looked a little upset about this info, but knew Ben was probably lucky to get away with a dragon just snarling at him. He gave Ben his thanks and ran off in the direction he found the dragon's tracks heading in.

Once Manny was gone, Ben let out a sigh of relief and finally got into his book. While Ben was reading, he never noticed the black dragon he saved was watching him from atop of a nearby hill. The young dragon was curious about the teen that had saved him, so he decided he'd follow the boy and get to know him a little better.

Okay everyone so how was this one? Pretty long for me, I know, but I thought this was a good lil treat for everyone. So let me know what you think. Well TTFN….