[AUTHOR'S NOTE: SO THE STORY IS PROGRESSING AT A FASTER RATE THAN I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT IT WOULD, SO I NEED SOME INPUT, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO SLOW THINGS DOWN AND TRY TO DRAG THIS OUT A LITTLE LONGER (PLEASE NOTE THIS WON'T BE MY ONLY AMERICAN DRAGON STORY, THERE WILL BE OTHERS AFTER IT) OR ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CURRENT RATE OF PROGRESSION AND WANT ME TO JUST KEEP IT THE WAY IT IS, OR WOULD YOU LIKE TO ME TO SPEED THIS UP AND GET ON TO THE NEXT STORY (I HAVE SOME IDEAS FOR THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS I CAN JUST CUT OUT TO FINISH THE STORY SOONER) ALSO WHAT ABOUT CHAPTER LENGTH. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE LONGER CHAPTERS, SHORTER CHAPTERS, OR KEEP THE CHAPTERS THEIR CURRENT AVERAGE LENGTH.]

After his brief dragon lesson, Jake made his way back to the shop with his grandfather, eager to get back to searching for Rose. When they entered, the entire shop stank of goblin belches and sweaty gym socks.

"Man Fu," Jake complained, waving his hand in front of his nose, "what are you doing in here."

"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to whip up something you can use to find your girlfriend." Fu answered him. "Still going to need a lot more time though, it should be ready by tomorrow."

"But Fu! We need to find Rose now!" Jake told him.

"This is the only choice we got kid, unless your willing to wait for a krylock to show up." Fu responded.

"Come on Fu, there has to be something you can do to finish sooner." Jake insisted.

"Sorry, I'm afraid there are no shortcuts on this one. We just have to wait. Why don't you go out and see if you can find anything on your own, or better yet, just stop and take a breath, you're getting way too stressed out over this." Fu said, trying to get Jake out of his hair.

"Fine," Jake said, as he walked out.

/


Jake sat at the skate park with Trixie and Spud.

"I just don't know guys, there has to be something I can do." Jake said.

"Did Rose bring her phone with her?" Spud asked curiously.

"Yeah, I think so. Why?" Jake responded.

Spud reached into his bag and pulled out his laptop. "Well, if Rose has her cellphone, I can tap into the provider's towers and start bouncing signals off them to triangulate her position, and if her phone has GPS, it will tell us exactly where she is."

"Well what are you waiting for, let's try it." Jake said eagerly.

"Now, Rose's phone is on a provider in Hong Kong, so there aren't any nearby towers we can directly use, but we can transfer it through international communication routes, it won't give us an accurate location, but it will at least narrow down our search area." Spud said has he continued to work. "Got it! Rose is somewhere on Staten Island."

"Well come on!" Jake said, "Let's go!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Trixie started, "Hold up a minute Jakie, even with a narrowed down area, Staten Island is still too big to try and search without any of Fu's magic mumbo-jumbo."

"Come on Trixie!" Jake pleaded, "If the three of us start now, we can have a good amount of the island searched before the sun goes down."

"No way Jake!" Trixie argued, "I've got better things to do with my Saturday than going on a wild goose hunt for your girlfriend."

"Trixie please! Rose could be in serious danger." Jake countered, "I really need your help here."

Trixie thought about it reluctantly, "Oh alright, but you owe me big time Jake, you hear?"

"Yeah, yeah, totally. Now let's get going." Jake said.


The three made their way to Staten Island, dragon style. They landed on a rooftop to discuss their plan, as Jake laid out a map of the island.

"Ok, We need to find anything that can give us a clue to where Rose is. Spud, you stay here and see if you can get a better lock on that phone's position. I'll fly overhead and see what I can see. Trixie, you start searching on the ground, if you find anything, send me and Spud a shout out, and we will all meet up there and start searching the nearby area. Got it?"

"Totally bro." Spud answered, as he gave Jake a thumbs up.

/


They spent the next several hours searching the island. They had a large area to cover, with a small chance of finding anything. The only thing they knew for certain, is that Rose's phone was somewhere on the island, and Staten Island was a big place to try and find one phone. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, which was in haystack, which was in another haystack.

After hours of fruitless effort, Spud was the first one to catch a break. "Guys!" he shouted over the radios Jake had given them. "I've got a tighter lock on the phone, it is somewhere in Long Pond Park, near the southern part of the island!"

"Got it." Jake answered, "We're on our way."