The next day Jake waited nervously next to Rose's locker waiting for her to come to school. He knew what he was about to do was not only stupid, but downright selfish. But he was tired of not having a life and having to fight the girl he loved. He was going to take charge of his life. Finally he spotted her and took a deep breath. "Hey Rose. What's up girl?"
"Oh high Jake! I was hoping to talk to you today. You've been avoiding me lately and I was starting to wonder what I did. Look if it's about Brad you don't have to worry. There is nothing going on between me and him."
"That's great and all, but that wasn't the reason I stopped talking to you. Listen I've been thinking a lot lately and I really could use your help with a problem I have. Could you meet me in the park near where we made that snowman around five today?" Jake asked.
She smiled broadly at him. "Count on it. Oh there's the bell I got to go to class now. See you later." She yelled over her shoulder as she hurried to class. Jake smiled and pumped his fist. Step one was complete. Now it was time for step two. He would need to take the spell and the remaining ingredients from his Grampa shop. He could only hope that he would be able to sneak in and out undetected. He didn't feel like answering questions.
The day seemed to drag on and on. He couldn't stay focused on class at all. He fell asleep in Rootwood's class and dreamed about a life that wasn't filled with dragon lessons, saving the magical community, breaking engagements. Finally he would have his own life. In his dream he was just about to kiss Rose when someone shouted at him. "Mr. Long wake up!" Jake shot straight up and looked around. "What? What is it?"
"Mr. Long how many times must I remind you that sleeping is not allowed in my class? If I catch you using my classes to catch up your beauty rest you'll join me after school in detention!" Mr. Rootwood yelled at him rapping his desk with a ruler.
"Yes sir I understand." Jake muttered. For the rest of the period he stayed awake. Once he got out Trixie and Spud surrounded him. "Yo Jakey what's going on? You know that Rotwood is serious about detention." Trixie reminded him.
"Yeah dude. You can't get another one. That would upset your Gramps big time." Spud said.
"Back off you guys. So what if I fell asleep in class. Its not like I missed anything important. I just had an interesting daydream that's all. Now if you excuse me I've got to be going. I promised I meet Rose later."
"Tell me you didn't just say that. Jake Rose is your mortal enemy! Do you have a death wish or something? Nothing is going to stop her from taking that stick thingy and slicing you up like a piece of bread." Trixie told him.
"Dude she's right. I know that you must feel awful, but." Spud began.
"But nothing. Look guys forget I mentioned it. Just trust me. I'm just going to explain to Rose why we can't be friends anymore then I'm going to Gramps store for dragon lessons. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye." Jake said waving good-bye and heading to the shop.
Jake knew it would be impossible to sneak in through the front door so he paid a bunch of messenger fairies to deliver fake messages to Grampa and Fu so he could sneak in the back way. Tiptoeing silently into the back he quickly found the spell and tore it out of the book and stuffed in his bag along with several ingredients. Then he hurried out before anyone knew he was there. He only started to breath normally again when he was several blocks away.
"Yes! Success. I only hope that this spell works as well on me as it does on were creatures. Better hurry up if I want to meet Rose. Hopefully she'll be able to help me and know the answers to my questions." Jake whispered to himself as he hurried to the park.
He arrived just in time. Rose sat waiting for him at the bench. She waved energetically at him. "Jake! There you are. I'm so glad that we were able to meet. You promised that you would answer my questions remember?" she told him patiently.
"Yeah I will. Look can we take a walk? I have so much I need to tell you." Jake said. She stood up and they started to stroll along the walk holding hands. If he had any doubts they melted away with that. With renewed determination he led her to a sheltered grove and sat her down. "Rose before I tell you what's going on I need your word that no matter what I say or do you won't hurt me."
"Jake I don't understand. I could never harm you no matter what you do or say. Believe me were always going to friends no matter what happens between us." Rose assured him.
"You know all those times I had to bail on you? Or why I was so distant to you after the ski trip? This is my reason and the reason I know what your birthmark really means? Rose I know you're the Huntsgirl because I'm the American Dragon. Dragon Up!" Jake shouted letting the flames engulf him transforming him into his dragon self. He stood before Rose who was looking at him in disbelief. He then reverted to his human self. "Talk to me Rose. Please I need to know what you think and if you will help me become normal."
"Jake this is beyond normal! You and I are mortal enemies and your asking me to help you become normal? How is that even possible for someone like you? You're a dragon for crying out loud!" Rose shot angrily at him.
"Look I know it will be difficult and there might be unseen dangers and outcomes we may not like, but I am asking you no I'm begging for you to help me become a normal kid. I don't want to save the magical community, have dragon lessons, or fight you anymore. I want my own life. I have this spell for a potion that might do the trick. I admit it wasn't exactly designed for someone like me, but I think I can modify it. I just need your help in brewing it and getting the ingredients. Please Rose do this for me, for us." Jake said taking her hand in his. He looked at her with trust in his eyes.
"I could never say no to you. All right I'll do it. We can use the Huntsmaster spare lab to cook this thing undisturbed. I'll show you how to get in the back way. This is going to take a few days to do and were going to need a lot of ingredients so lets get started right now." Rose told him.
"Okay lets head to your house and see what we've got. From there will plan our next move. Hopefully by this time next week I'll be a new normal kid or as normal as can be once we figure out every variable to this problem." Jake hooted as they took off for the Hunts Lair.
They took a secret passageway from the sewers up into the building and came out from behind a large bookcase. The room was brightly light with earth tones. There were several vials, potion bottles, and spell books. The room had its own security and plenty of hiding spots incase they needed to hid. "Okay show me the spell and what you got. Yes I've heard of this one. Its very complicated and difficult to make but I'm positive we can do it together. Not to mention it was designed for a were person not a shape shifting dragon. I think I can rewrite it so that it will work on you, but your still going to need something to replace your dragon half. Have anything in mind?" Rose asked turning to face him.
"I've given it a lot of thought. Since your part magical because of your destiny and all why not use something of yours? I mean I'm already familiar with your tactics and you could train me. Besides we be closer. I be willing to do that for you." Jake told her as he began making a list of ingredients for the potion.
"Jake that's the sweetest thing anyone could say to me! All right I've modified the spell so that when your dragon half is replaced by my Huntsclan half it will continue to do your duties. But I still don't know the long-term effects. We can figure those out later. Right now we need to start cooking with what we have and you need to go shopping for more ingredients. Were out of powder unicorn horn, satyr hair, and kappa's scales. I'll start mixing the water and other liquids. See you in an hour." Rose said ushering him out.
Jake reached the Bazaar half an hour later and tried not to be seen by anyone he knew who could report to Grampa and Fu what he was up to. He bought some basic spell ingredients like eye of new and basic herbs from usual stalls. But for the more exotic plants and creature ingredients he asked shady dealers. All this time he kept having tiny amounts of doubt about what he was doing but he pushed it away thinking about what he wanted and what a normal well almost normal life would be like. So he pressed on.
Over the course of the next week Rose and Jake worked as often as they could on the potion. When they ran out of ingredients they would substitute something for it. If they had any questions Jake would casually question Eva, Fu, or Grampa feigning that he was only interested because it was such a rare potion. Finally after many obstacles and failures they managed to create an exact duplicate of the potion Eva had received. There was one ingredient still missing before it could be taken.
"Rose are you positive you want to do this? I mean in order for the potion to work I need something that shows you're a member of the Huntsclan and were taking a piece of skin from your birthmark." Jake said getting a little queasy at the sight of Rose holding a knife to her hand.
"Jake in life you sometimes have to make sacrifices. We've already gone this far and were intending to go farther. We already have the binding potion for Haley so she can't use her dragon powers and the memory erase potion for the Huntsmaster so we can explain you. All that's left is to do this. Don't worry its not going to hurt long." Rose assured him. Then she quickly cut a small chunk of skin off of her hand and threw it into cauldron before wrapping her injured hand in bandages.
The potion bubbled and made gurgling sounds as the final ingredient mixed with all the others. It changed from purple to dark green and for an instant you could see in the water a picture of Jake and the dragon joined before it turned into a picture of him as a Huntsboy. Finally it stopped bubbling. It was finished. Pouring the liquid into a glass Jake hesitated a moment. Did he truly want to do this? Did he want to give up his responsibilities as the American Dragon, his powers, all the cool adventures just so he could be with Rose and have an almost normal life once more? The answer was yes.
"Well here goes nothing." Jake told Rose before gulping down the whole concoction. When he was finished he began gagging horribly. That stuff tasted like a cross between toenails and three day old laundry. "Did it work?" he asked.
Suddenly he sank to the floor in agony. He started to breathe in short shallow breaths. His entire body felt like it was on fire. A huge lump began to form on his back. He screamed in pain as his dragon half burst out from his back and flew off towards the shop. He fell to the floor unconscious. Rose ran to him and shook him awake. "JAKE! Are you okay? Talk to me please are you in pain?"
"A little, but I'll be fine once my head stops spinning. I guess you were right when you guessed my dragon half would leave and go do my old duties. I feel strange Rose. I feel something growing inside of me to replace what I've lost but it's happening slowly. Ah!" he grimaced grabbing his right hand. Both watched in amazement as the mark of Huntsclan appeared on his palm and snaked over his wrist. "Oh man my mom's going to kill me if she thinks I got a tattoo!"
"Will just cover it with a bandage for now and maybe you could start to wear gloves to hide it. So we know the potion worked which is great. I think we should start your training tomorrow after school. Meet me on the roof of this building. Don't worry about your dragon lessons your other half will take care of that. Now you better get home." Rose told him helping him up and bandaging his hand.
"Thanks Rose for everything. You're the most loyal friend I've ever had. See you." Jake said hurrying out of the lab and heading home. He was pleased when he got there no one was around. He ran up to his room and fell asleep on his bed exhausted by today's activities. Tomorrow a new life would begin. Till then he let his the mark on his hand began to work its magic on him.