Chapter 2

-6 years later, Denver Colorado-

"Aaron…. Aaron!" a voice rang out. Aaron looked up from his desk to see his teacher in his face.

"Yes?" Aaron asked, shaking his head to get out of his dazed state.

"I asked you a question. What does Na stand for on the periodic table?" the teacher asked, apparently slightly agitated by this.

"It is Sodium." Aaron spoke, then leaned back in his seat, ducking his head down.

"Correct, but the next time I see you sleeping in class, you will get detention." The Teacher said, walking back up to the front of the class to continue his lecture. Aaron took up his pen and began to take notes again.

After class was over, the final bell rang. When Aaron walked over to his locker to put his books away, several senior guys came up to him, knocking the books out of his hand and shoving him into the locker.

"Hey Airhead! Give me your lunch money!" one of the bullies called out.

"Go away Rodney. I am really not in the mood." Aaron said, picking up his books and putting them in his open locker.

"Make me, Airhead!" the bully called out again, this time pushing him into the floor.

Aaron lost it and grabbed Rodney by his jacket, slamming him into the locker and pushed him to the ground with some unknown strength. Stunned by what had happened, Aaron shut his locker and darted out while Rodney was on the ground.

Aaron ran until he was out of sight of the school. He stopped to catch his breath and then realized where he had stopped: a place known for drug violence. He kept moving as several shady characters began to eye him. Just before he was out, a tall, lean man stepped in front of him with a knife.

"Give your wallet to me boy! No one has to get hurt!" the thief said, pointing the knife at Aaron as several other guys surrounded him too. Aaron threw his backpack at one guy and jumped over him as he was recovering. Aaron bolted down the alleyway, but didn't get far before the knife man caught up with him and blocked his way.

"Stupid kid!" the knife man said as he came at him. Aaron screamed out and tried to hold out his hands to block the blow, flailing his arms around. Soon, he heard the thief yell in pain and run. Aaron opened his eyes to see his hands all the way to his elbows were black and scaly skinned and his fingers had become ivory claws. Aaron just stared at them as they returned to normal, in disbelief at what he saw. After several minutes, he regained control, grabbed his backpack from the now empty alley and ran the rest of the 2 miles home.

"I'm a Freak…." Aaron thought to himself as he was nearing home. He stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked up the porch.

Derrill opened the door for him and Aaron slumped his way in, sitting on the couch as Derrill closed the door. He threw his backpack on the chair in the room

"Afternoon Champ. How was school?" Derrill asked as he smiled back, setting the bag on the ground and sitting in the chair. Aaron however remained silent.

"Aaron? What's wrong?" Derrill asked again, this time putting his arm around Aaron's neck.

"I'm a freak uncle…..I am a freak aren't I?" Aaron said, his eyes beginning to water up and several tears fell down his face.

"Of course you're not. Why would you say this?" Derrill said with a worried look on his face.

Aaron held out his hands and allowed them to morph into what he saw earlier.

"oh my…already that time?" Derrill thought as Aaron's hands returned to normal and saw Aaron sobbing slightly.

"Am I a freak uncle?" Aaron asked as tears continued streaming down his face.

"of course you aren't son…." Derrill said, showing Aaron his red scaled arms.

"Wait? You are one too?" Aaron spoke as he wiped the tears away.

"Yes…I should've told you this long ago, but you and I…. your Mom and Dad…we are what we call Drakos." Derrill said.

"Drakos?" Aaron said, still choking up a little from crying.

"Yes. We are Half Human, Half Dragon humanoids with special abilities. We are stronger than normal humans and we each have our own element. Mine is Fire. From how your arms changed, I'd say your element is darkness, the same as your parents."

"Is our whole family like this?" Aaron asked, taking a sip of water from his water bottle.

"Yes, although besides us, there is maybe 3-4 still alive out of 30-40 that used to be alive in our family. They are killing us off like flies." Derrill said as he itched his head.

"Who is Uncle? Who is trying to kill us?" Aaron asked.

"A rogue dragon and some creatures he has working for him. We don't know much yet, but we do know that a black dragon out there is slowly killing off Drakos one by one." Derrill said.

Just before Aaron was about to talk again, Derrill spotted something out of the corner of his eye coming up the street towards them fairly quickly.

"Aaron, let's go. Now! Follow me!" Derrill said, pulling Aaron up by the arm.

"What's happening Uncle?" Aaron asked, slight panic in his voice. He followed his uncle into his bedroom where he pulled out a large gun from his drawer and handed it to Aaron.

"What's going on Uncle?" Aaron asked, slowly taking the gun.

"I'll explain later. Run into your room, grab whatever money you have and meet me at the back door in 1 minute. Hurry!" Derrill said.

Aaron ran to get his money and a few other small items and met his uncle at the back door, holding the gun and trembling slightly.

"it'll be ok Aaron. Just follow me ok?" Derrill said.

Aaron nodded as Derrill opened the back door and morphed his hands. As they were making a mad dash for the gate, something silverfish in color and looking like a dog, leaped off the roof and knocked Derrill to the ground.

Aaron, Go!" Derrill shouted as he shoved his claws into the creature on top of him and ripped it down its body. The creature screeched out in pain and fell to the ground, dead. Him and Aaron ran and ran until they lost the other creature that had been following them.

"whew, we lo…" Derrill had no time to finish his sentence as 2 creatures the same color as the last one, but with super long claws swiped at Derrill's head.

"Uncle, look out!" Aaron cried out as Derrill ducked from the claw attacks.

"Run, Aaron Run!" Derrill said, pushing Aaron along a little as the 2nd set of claws missed him. Aaron and Derrill rounded a street corner that had a large brick house at the end of the street about ¼ mile down the road.

"Keep running as fast as you can towards the house!" Derrill said as he turned around and breathed several fire balls at the enemy.

As they slowly neared the home, Aaron lifted his head up and saw a glint of light and then one of the Aliens dropped dead, a hole in its head. One of the others however, kept running at them. Just then, a Drakos with light blue scaled feet slugged the alien, sending it flying into a tree.

"You alright Torch?" the Drakos asked, helping up Aaron who had tripped.

"Tundra. Thank goodness for your timing." Derrill said just as the alien recovered from being slammed into the tree.

"Torch, get him inside. I will finish this." Tundra said, raising his fists at the shrieking creature. The creature rushed at Torch, trying to catch him as he ran towards them. Tundra swung around, catching the Creature's arm and slammed his fist into the creature's stomach area, twisting his brass knuckles roughly. The creature cried out in pain, trying to swipe at Tundra. Tundra caught the swinging claw with his other fist and kneed the creature in the stomach and threw it to the ground, leaving a small impact crater. Tundra stood again in battle position as the Creature stood up and rushed him. In a quick flash of speed, the creature was on the ground dead, Slashed across the chest and neck. Tundra returned his scaled arms to normal. He then began to walk back to the house, carrying the Creature on his shoulders.

As Derrill and Aaron stopped on the porch to catch their breath, Aaron glanced over at someone who was putting away his sniper rifle. He looked to be around 6 feet tall in a T-shirt and jeans and was donning what he could swear was a WW II helmet. The person noticed him looking at him.

"Are the both of you ok?" The person said as he put away his sniper and closed the case it was encased in.

"yeah, we're ok. Thanks for helping us." Derrill said, smiling.

"not a problem." The person replied.

"What is your name, Sir?" Derrill asked with a curious look on his face.

"Jake. I got here about a few weeks ago." Jake replied.

"a pleasure to meet you Jake. This is my nephew Aaron Nightbringer." Derrill said, gesturing to Aaron next to him.

"um…Hi?" Aaron said nervously, not sure of what else to say and still in shock from what happened.

"my human name is Derrill. My dragon name is Torch. A pleasure to meet you." Derrill replied as Tundra walked through the front door with the creature's corpse.

"Same to you too. Come, let's go inside. It is too dangerous for us to be out here for too long." Jake replied, holding the door open.

Derrill and Aaron walked through the open door. Aaron looked around in amazement as many people/dragons were walking through the place. It looked like a palace, sporting stone walls with fireplaces for the walls. It even had the layout of a castle, stairs spiraling upwards to the upper floors. Aaron gazed at objects that seemed to be made of gold itself and torches of varying size lined the walls, sending a warm light and feeling into such a big place.

"Wow….this is cool….." Aaron commented, gazing at everything around as the door behind them closed shut and was locked with several large locks.

"Aaron, welcome to the Draconium order HQ for North America west. All the special cases like us from across the western USA are here." Derrill explained to him.

"Come. Let's get you 2 your sleeping quarters." Jake said, pointing to a desk where several people were standing.

"Wait here Aaron. I will go and get our room assignments." Derrill said, going off with Jake.

Aaron noticed a large doorway off to the side of the hall that no one was going into. Curious, he walked over to it and pushed it open slightly. He peered into the room and saw that it was full of Native American statues and items spread out in the room and over the walls. He then looked towards the back of the room and noticed a Dragon, a real live dragon, either resting or in deep meditation. The dragon was red in color with several dark red like stripes along the top of its neck. It had a mane running down its neck and back. Its belly scales were of a hot pink color.

"Aaron Nightbringer. Come closer…." the dragon spoke, not opening its eyes.

Aaron slowly walked up to the dragon, nervous of what was going to happen.

"we have been waiting for you, Aaron." The dragon spoke as it opened its illuminated eyes.

"Who are you?" Aaron asked nervously.

"I am Kiraga of the Lakota….." the Dragon replied, looking at Aaron as if it were gazing into his soul.

End of chapter 2