HOLD ON! YFWE, Kaleb did NOT steal your M&M's. Right, Kaleb?

Kaleb: Well...

Grrrrrr...KALEB! Ugh. YFWE, you'll get your bag of M&M's in a minute. For now, here's the next chapter...

Fight ensues between ar and Kaleb over bag of M&M's, sometimes spilling some over the floor.


Chap 7

"Get off me!" yelled Kaleb, for the assailant had tackled Kaleb to the ground and was trying to tie him up.

"G, get off him," Jake asked, "He just wants us to help him. I'm guessing he just didn't know how to ask." At this, Grandpa (G) did so, but not without leaving Kaleb helpless in a rope binding.

Apparently, Grandpa had finally finished "setting the table," and had wondered where Jake wandered off to. When Mrs. Long told him that Kaleb had shown up and that Jake was showing him around the house, Grandpa immediately went searching for them. Once he saw Jake's locked door, he figured out that Kaleb had to have been searching out Jake for something. So, after making sure no one else was around, he transformed into a dragon, unlocked the door magically (a tool of the trade he picked up), and pummeled in.

"Are you sure that's all he wants?" Grandpa asked, skeptical that his own grandson would listen to someone who hid before making his claims.

"I was just about to find out until you came barging in, G!" Jake explained.

"Do you even know if he's trustworthy?" Grandpa asked.

The two Longs continued at this banter for some minutes while Kaleb, silently, "dragoned up," cut his bindings, and transformed to human again.

"Look," Jake finished exasperatingly, "If you don't believe me, talk to him yourself."

They turned to look at him, and only Grandpa was really surprised that Kaleb was free from the rope.

"Hullo," Kaleb said. "I take it you are Lao Shi, Jake's grandfather."

"That…that would be me, yes," Grandpa replied, shaken by how easily Kaleb broke the rope, but then took some thought and remembered the argument with Jake. "So, I take it you are a new dragon to these parts?"

"Yes, I am," Kaleb answered.

"May I see your form?" Grandpa asked.

In answer, Kaleb transformed.

"Ahhhhh. Now, why have you come asking for our help?" (Grandpa)

"Well," Kaleb began, "it started by the time I started 6th grade. I had loved to go out at night to fly as a dragon. Of course, no one saw me as I flew above the clouds and I always got back before midnight so that I got some sleep. However, as time went on, I started going through some stressful days. Some days, if I had some energy left, I'd be able to do a short flight and then sleep. Most days, however, I wasn't even able to make dragon form. The times I have, however, showed the distinct bladed tail and horns you saw."

"So, the horns and blade started when you started tohave stressful days?" Jake asked.

"I suppose." Kaleb concluded. "But, there's something else that's bothering me. Memory blanks on some of the nights where I know I didn't fly."

"What do you mean, 'you know you didn't fly?'" Grandpa asked.

(Kaleb) "Well, I have a counter on my window to show how many times something goes through it. Big things mind, not like flies. And on some nights, the counter shows that I have gone on a flight for those nights. The thing is that I don't remember them!"

"Well," Grandpa theorized, "then your problem is this: you are a renegade."

"Renegade?" Jake and Kaleb asked at the same time. "What's a renegade?"


Finally! Kaleb, OUT OF HERE!

Kaleb: yes master (mousey voice) tears out of room "like there's no tomorrow"

Reviews please! Thank you! Oh, and, YFWE, here are your M&M's. Sorry about spilling them.