Hey all, sorry I haven't been getting these out as fast as I would like to. My professors are making it more and more difficult to write. I only have maybe two or three more chapters to go though, so hopefully I'll get them out before Christmas. No guarantees though. :) They will be pretty long as well because they're jam-packed with action and maybe a cliffhanger here and there. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Thanks a million to:

Fletty

Worker72

CelloSolo2007

coolgirlc

Chapter 7

"Don't know what you trippin' for, Jakey," Trixie said after the bell rang for the class to end. "You barely even speak to Rose anymore ever since you found out who she really is."

"Yo, what are you talking about, Trix?" Jake asked, distracted. His attention was still placed on Nic and Rose, who were talking to each other not too far away.

"Oh puh-lease, Homeboy. You are obviously in denial. I can see your envy from a mile away, and let me tell you, green is not your best color," she said.

"I'm not jealous!" he said defensively as he stormed off in the opposite direction. Trixie put her hands on her hips.

"Mm-hmm, o' course you ain't." She turned to Spud, who was examining a piece of paper pinned to the bulletin board. "We've got a problem, Spud."

"Yeah, tell me about it," he said. "We're having 'Meatloaf Surprise' for lunch today." Trixie rolled her eyes.

"Boy, come on," she said in an irritated tone as she pulled him away from the board. As they passed Nic and Rose, Trixie heard something she definitely was not pleased about, because her eyes grew wide and her pace quickened in pursuit of Jake. When they met up with him in their next class, which was English, Trixie and Spud sat in the empty seats that were situated on either side of Jake. He pretended not to notice. Trixie looked around the classroom for Nic and found him seated in the back. Thankful that he was too far away from them to overhear what she was about to say, she turned towards Jake.

"Look, Jakey, I'm sorry," He nodded his head in recognition. She smiled weakly, and then took a deep breath to tell him the bad news. "Um… Jake? Listen, I just overheard Nic tell Rose that he'd like to go out with her sometime tomorrow." She noticed the tip of his pencil break off from him writing so hard. "But you know, you are going to have to tell him who she really is and soon. That may draw him away from her," she suggested helpfully. He thought about that for a moment and eventually began to feel a little better.

"Yeah, okay. Maybe it will," he agreed. "Thanks, Trix." He then put Nic and Rose out of his mind for the time being so he could focus more on his studies.

The rest of the day went as normal as any, and when three o'clock rolled around, they were all glad school was finally over. Nic and Jake left Trixie and Spud at the school as they began to walk to Grandpa's shop to see how Fu Dog was getting along.

Jake was the first one to walk through the back door (the front door was still locked since the shop was closed), and wore a slightly astonished expression at the scene before him.

Fu was wearing a green tinted see-through visor and held 5 playing cards in his paws. He was seated at a table with five young magical beings who had inhabited the grove, and they each were holding the same number of cards in their hands as Fu. There was also a small pile of candy in the middle of the table. None of them even noticed the boys come through the door.

"Uh, Fu? What's going on?" Jake asked.

Fu looked up from the table.

"Oh hey, kid," the Chinese Shar-Pei answered, and then turned his attention back to the table. "Alright, what do you guys got?" Fu asked.

"Nothing," sighed a small boy elf sitting across from Fu.

"I have a 10, a 4, a Q, a 7, an 8 and they all have pretty red hearts," squeaked a little fairy to Fu's right.

"That means you have a flush. Good job, Kara," said Fu. Kara gave him a big sparkling smile.

"I 'ave a fool 'ouse," said the young nymph to Fu's left as she set down her cards on the table.

"It's 'full house', Soleil," corrected a gnome sitting on the right side of Kara.

"Okay, meester 'Know-eet-all'. What do you 'ave?" Soleil asked him haughtily.

"A straight flush," he replied arrogantly. There were groans around the table and Soleil wrinkled her nose as she stuck out her tongue at him. "Well it looks like I won," he said as he reached for the candy.

"Not so fast, Laughn," said a small girl elf sitting to the left of Soleil. "In my own honor, Royal Flush; read 'em and weep!" she said with a huge smile. Laughn pushed his cards away and slouched in his chair with his arms crossed.

"Fantastique!" exclaimed Soleil.

"Yeah, way to be, Lydia!" Kara squeaked excitedly.

"Thank you, thank you," Lydia said as she reached for the candy and split it up between everyone.

"Fu! Are you teaching them Poker?" Jake asked incredulously.

"Uhhh……maybe?" Fu replied. Jake shook his head and looked around the room. Nic realized what Jake was searching for and voiced his question.

"Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"They're out trying to locate a safe place to reside in that's like the grove but is still in the city, and let me tell you, it ain't going so hot," said Fu.

"Ah, so you got stuck with babysitting, huh Fu?" said Jake.

"Yeah, but it wasn't all bad. I mean sure they fought a lot at first, but as soon as we started playing Poke—uh, this innocent card game, they didn't fight as much and actually were pretty fun to hang out with," he said. Then his voice became no more than a whisper as he added, "By the way, kid, perhaps you shouldn't mention this to your gramps. I'm not really allowed to play anymore since I got into trouble back in the 1970s. Ah goo-goo."

Jake left them to their game as he followed Nic out into the front of the store.

"Uh, Nic?" Jake began hesitantly as the door closed behind him.

"What?" he replied with a hint of annoyance. Jake clenched his teeth, but continued anyway.

"The girl you were hanging out with today, Rose?" he paused.

"Yeah? What about her? She's pretty cute—for a human," Nic said. Jake drew a hefty breath to calm his rising irritation.

"You should probably know that she is part of the Huntsclan, and the prime suspect for your attempted murder," Jake said. He was expecting disappointment, horror, sadness, anything but the arrogant smile he was now receiving.

"Yeah right, you just don't want me to go out with 'your girl'. Am I right? And don't try to deny it either; I've seen the way you look at her," he replied. Jake glared at him.

"If you don't want to believe me, then fine, but stay away from her or you will die," Jake said threateningly.

"I am going to go to her place tomorrow whether you like it or not. If she is who you say she is, then who cares, because I can take care of myself!" he shouted.

Jake couldn't believe the arrogance of this inept creature! Who did Nic think he was anyway? He grew so angry that he didn't care what happened to the stupid unicorn anymore. He stormed out of the shop and slammed the door. Jake was deep in thought as he walked further away from Grandpa's shop and more into the city.

He was thinking about Rose and her 'little' secret again. He still couldn't believe he had been so naive. All those times she had to disappear almost the same time he did whenever there was something magical going on, her sudden injuries in the same places he had inflicted upon Huntsgirl, her dragon birthmark… Jake sighed heavily. He wasn't exactly paying attention to where he was going, and he found himself facing a brick wall down an alley deep in the heart of the city. However, this sort of situation didn't bother Jake seeing as how it was still daylight and that he was the American Dragon. He turned around to back-track his steps.

Suddenly, he felt a cold shiver run up his spine. The alley became extremely dark to where Jake couldn't even see his hand which he held inches from his face.

"Eyes of the dragon," he whispered. His black eyes shone a fiery red as he looked around the vacant alley. An uneasy feeling burst in the pit of his stomach. He felt a presence behind him and quickly spun around, only to see nothing at all.

"Ssssurprisssse, boy," said a voice Jake recognized from yesterday. "Aren't you ssssuppossssed to be guarding ssssomething?" Evil, maniacal laughter erupted from all angles of the alley surrounding Jake in its creepy essence. Jake tried to shrug off the apprehensive feeling that was spreading from his stomach to the rest of his body. He had to try and play it cool. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"You back again, yo? What do you want this time?" Jake asked as his eyes searched for the creature. Finally, they settled on two glowing red eyes blocking the one way out of the alley—without flying, of course.

"Why, I jusssst wanted to get to know you a little better, that'ssss all," it hissed greasily. "I felt like we barely sssspoke at our lasssst meeting. Though, I am rather breath-taking, don't you think?" Once more the alley was filled with its laughter. Jake balled his hands into fists and clenched his jaw. He went through a mental battle with himself as he tried to decide what he should do. Part of him wanted to fight the creature even though he didn't do so well in their last encounter, but the other part of him was a little more logical as it reminded him that he didn't have the knowledge to defeat this creature yet. Finally, he decided to make a break for it, and he quickly transformed into his dragon façade.

"Well, sorry I won't be able to stay and chat, but I have more important things to do," he replied as he began to fly up and out of the alley. He looked behind him to notice that he wasn't being followed and turned around just in time to see the creature just five feet in front of him. Jake halted in mid-air.

"What the—?"

"Ah, ah, ah," it said. "You will tell me what I need to know." And with that Jake found himself in the clutches of the creature once again.

XXXXX

Huntsgirl was in the middle of training when her cell phone rang. She rushed to pick it up as she was expecting a very important phone call.

"Huntsgirl," she answered.

"I have the info you wanted. Meet me in the ssssame area assss before," said the voice on the other line.

Huntsgirl found herself back in the darkened room—only this time she didn't have to wait near as long. The minute she stepped through the door, she felt the familiar shiver down her back.

"Well?" she asked. "What do you have for me?"

"Do you know that when your breathing issss limited that memoriessss flash through your mind?"

"Yeah, so? What does this have to do with what I asked you?" she asked impatiently.

"I feed upon thosssse memoriessss; or rather the emotions that accompany such recollectionssss of great value, utter ssssorrow, or even immensssse anger of the victim," he hissed in a noticeably more irritated tone.

"Hmm…wow. That's fascinating," she replied sarcastically. "What's your point? I'm kind of in a hurry."

The creature hissed dangerously. "My point issss that I didn't have to dig very deeply to find that sssspecific information you assssked for. You will pose a great threat to yoursssself and your clan if you do anything to harm that unicorn."

"Spare me the lecture. Do you have my information or not?" she asked edgily. He glared at her with intense hatred, but relayed the information obediently.

"Excellent," she replied mischievously. "Most excellent."

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