Hello all! Worker 72 asked me a very good question, so I thought that to clear things up that I would answer the question before this chapter. When Huntsgirl ordered the Shadow Creature to bring her information on the whereabouts of the unicorn, that specific knowledge was all it told her. She does not know about Jake being the American Dragon. I tried to make this fanfiction be its own episode placed between The Ski Trip and The Hunted, so she won't find out that he is the AmDrag in my story. And by the way, I changed the conversation between Huntsgirl and the Shadow Creature (located at the end of Chapter 7). I didn't change it too much, but I hope that it's understandable now. On to Chapter 9! Yea!

Chapter 9

Fu Dog sat up in the chair he was sitting in. He thought he heard something pound against the back wall. He looked around the room at the sleeping faces of the magical creatures. No one seemed as though he or she heard anything, but Fu felt that something was wrong. He rose from his seat and silently made his way to the closet to grab a baseball bat. Then, he tiptoed to the back door and cautiously opened it. He peeked his head out and looked around. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, yet he still had a bad feeling in his stomach. Fu was about to close the door when a garbage can lid clattered to the ground making an awful noise on his left. He carefully began to walk over in the direction of the disturbance. The shadows behind the shop seemed intensified by Fu's rapidly growing fear of what he would find behind the garbage can. His eyes nervously darted back and forth and his heartbeat increased at a measurable rate. He held the bat in both paws and raised it above his head while he inched closer.

Fu stood just before the garbage can for several minutes unable to go through with his decision to take care of the situation until finally, courage surged through his body and he flung himself forward. He felt the bat come in contact with the creature and heard it groan in pain. Fu caught a glimpse of the outline of what the creature looked like as it was dark and couldn't make out much more than that. It resembled some sort of weird black blob with strange membrane-covered limbs that were attached to its back. It looked up at the dog with glowing red eyes. Fu raised the bat again.

"Please Fu…" it said in a weak and pleading tone. Fu immediately stopped; not only because the creature knew his name, but also for the fact that the voice seemed extremely familiar to him.

"Stay there," Fu ordered as he ran inside the shop for a flashlight. It took him a little while to actually find one, but as soon as he did he made his way back out to the alley. As the light shone on the creature, Fu kicked himself. There, hunched against the wall, was—

"Jake! What on earth? What happened?" Fu asked, concerned. He helped Jake up from the ground and half-carried half-walked him into the shop.

"I was attacked," Jake began.

"Attacked?" Fu repeated loudly in an alarmed voice. A couple of the creatures stirred. He motioned for Jake to follow him to the front of the shop so as not to disturb them.

"What do you mean 'attacked'? Who attacked you?" Fu asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the slumbering guests. Jake told him of his encounter with the Shadow Creature and about the growing suspicion in his stomach that Nic was in trouble.

"So when I woke up, I called upon my dragon wings to get here as fast as possible, and I also called upon my dragon eyes so I could see in the dark," Jake continued. "I was already weak because of the creature, and I'm not exactly sure what happened, but all of the sudden I felt myself hit the wall and I blacked out. The next thing I remember was waking up to you hitting me with a baseball bat." Fu looked at him sheepishly.

"Yeah…sorry about that, Kid. I thought you were some weird type of evil creature. Where did I hit you, anyway?" Jake showed him the large bruise that was developing on his left leg. Fu grimaced.

"So, where is Nic?" Jake asked

"He's at your house," said Fu. "And come to think of it, that's where you should be too. Do you know what time it is?" Jake shook his head. "It's midnight, Jake. Your mom is going to be furious."

"Awe man!" groaned Jake. He thought of what his mother would do to him if he was caught and he shuddered. "Can't I stay here? You can tell her that we were doing something that will help us with the phoenix or something. Please Fu?" Fu shook his head. Jake mustered a pathetic looking face and said downheartedly, "Well, I guess I should head out now then. It'll take me a while with my sore leg and all." He glanced over at his guardian. The dog had on a guilty appearance. Bingo, thought Jake.

"Oh alright, but this is the last time I'm covering for you, Kid," Fu said. Jake grabbed a spare blanket from the closet and positioned himself on the floor next to his guardian and was asleep in minutes.

Jake awoke the next morning to find himself alone in the back room. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as he lazily made his way to the front of the shop. There, he saw Fu with the same five little magical creatures he was with the day before. They were sitting around the table again and Fu was discussing the rules of Backgammon. Jake shook his head while a smirk played across his lips. He checked his watch for the time and his heart jumped in his throat. It was a half past 11:00!

"Fu! Why didn't you wake me up?" Jake asked, exasperated.

"Hey I tried, but you were dead to the world. The Twins"—he gestured to Lydia and Devlin—"even jumped up and down on ya, and you still wouldn't budge!" Fu replied. Then, he turned back to the kids and continued to explain the game.

"Awe man! I'm gonna be in so much trouble," Jake said as he sprinted out of the door and raced to school.

XXXXX

Rose glanced over at Nic and smiled. He had been following her to all her classes instead of Jake since Jake didn't show up at his first class. Rose didn't mind, of course, because 1) Nic was really the unicorn so she could keep an eye on him at all times, and 2) she had to admit that he was really cute. However, seeing as she was spending a lot more time with him, she began to realize that it was getting harder for her to think about destroying him. She was going through a major mental battle about the whole situation. Maybe I should just let him go, she thought. He's so smart and charming and funny and sweet. Those are hard qualities to find in a guy that is so completely hot. She glanced over at him again. This time though, he caught her gaze and flashed her a dazzling smile. She blushed and turned her head back to her teacher.

Then, after a moment of daydreaming she thought, Wait a second! What am I saying? He's nothing but that stupid unicorn from the grove and that's all he'll ever be. Besides, Huntsmaster is dying, and I can't let that happen when I can stop it so easily. He's like family and the only person who has ever really cared for me. I have to save him! When the bell rang signaling the beginning of their lunch period, Rose had finally made up her mind. She walked out of the classroom with Nic following closely behind.

"Hey, Rose! Listen, why don't we skip the rest of these boring classes and head to your place to hang out?" Nic suggested smoothly. She looked intently into his sparkling honey brown eyes. Normally she would have said 'no' to skipping school, but there was something about him that made her agree without thinking.

"Sure. Let's go."

XXXXX

Jake sprinted through the door of Millard Middle School. He rushed to the class he would have been in before lunch, but he was too late. He was only half way there when the bell rang for lunch to begin. The doors of the classrooms slammed open as kids gladly made their way out. He looked around frantically for any sign of Nic or Rose.

"Yo, Jakey! Over here!" yelled a familiar voice from behind him. He turned to see Trixie being swallowed up by the horde of students. Jake eventually made his way over to her, but it took a while.

"'Bout time. So, I was tellin' Spud here that we should probly go to your gramp's shop and see if you was there, cos I already called your house and didn't get an answer," she said.

"Yeah, and then I told her that I didn't see why we had to go so far when you were just down the hall," Spud added. Trixie rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, we were gonna tell you that your boy Nic just left school with Rose," she continued.

"Awe man! I told him to stay away from her! His time as a human is almost up!" Jake groaned.

XXXXX

Nic and Rose walked hand-in-hand as she led him to her uncle's apartment. She pulled out her key from her bag, unlocked the door and slipped through. He followed her until she came to a stop outside a comfortable looking living room. They sat down on a yellowish colored couch. The air felt tense as they sat there unsure of what to do or talk about. Finally, Rose spoke.

"Do you want anything to drink?" she asked.

"Oh uh, sure. What do you have?"

"Umm… I don't know. Let me go check," she said as she left the room for the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door, looked around, grabbed a couple of sodas, and made her way back to the living room.

"I found some sodas," she offered.

"Soda's good," he said. Actually, Nic hasn't ever drunk anything like soda, so when he opened his and took a sip, he spit it out immediately.

"Yuck! What is that?" Nic asked, disgusted.

"It's just a lemon-lime soda," she told him, disgusted as well because he sprayed his saliva all over the coffee table. Then suddenly, his skin began to glow and was swiftly changing to a gleaming white. Rose's eyes glittered with anticipation.

"Um… Nic? Why is your skin turning a bright white? I mean, I know your last name is 'White' and all, but seriously, what's with your skin?" she asked him, trying to make it seem like she didn't know anything about his true identity.

"Wha—?" he began as he looked down at his arm. His eyes grew wide and he muttered, "Oh no! The potion's wearing off!"

"Excuse me? What did you say?" Rose asked pretending to be confused.

"Uh, nothing. I have to go," he said as he hastily made his way to the door. As he reached for the door knob, he watched in horror as his hand quickly formed into a glistening golden hoof. He felt his fur grow rapidly on all parts of his body and heard the distinguishing sound of cloth being torn. The hair on his head changed to a more distinct golden color and grew much longer while a golden tail found its way out of his ripped blue jeans. His face elongated and a rising bump on his forehead grew into a gleaming, unmistakable unicorn horn. The entire transformation took mere minutes and Rose finally gazed upon the missing unicorn from the secret grove. He slowly turned his head to face a very pleased looking blonde.

"I really don't like the look of that smile," Nic said. Suddenly, Rose frowned, and her eyebrows furrowed together.

"I didn't know unicorns could talk," she wondered aloud. "No matter. You won't be able to for long." Nic gulped as a devious smile played upon her lips. She dug in her back pocket for something, and as she yanked it out threateningly, Nic winced. In her hand was… a cell phone? She dialed a number and held the phone to her ear. As she waited for the line to be picked up, she tapped her foot impatiently. Only about several seconds passed by before Nic heard her say…

"This is Huntsgirl. Plans have changed. Get here now." Then, she put the phone back in her pocket and faced Nic with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

XXXXX

Jake flew as fast as he could to where Rose's uncle's apartment was, but he couldn't find a window that wasn't covered by blinds. Where are they? he asked himself. Finally, he found a clear window, but what he saw through it made his scales tingle. In the room were Nic the unicorn and a smirking Huntsgirl. She was binding him with magical chains so he couldn't escape. Jake burst through the window without thinking.

"American Dragon!" Huntsgirl yelled. "How did you find me here?"

"Instinct, Baby. Instinct," he replied. "One of the many gifts the AmDrag has."

"What a coincidence. I have a gift for you. A meeting with an old friend!" she replied laughing as a shadow thrust the dragon out of the window.

"You again!" Jake whined.

"What'ssss the matter? Don't you enjoy the few precioussss momentssss we sssspend together? I know I do," hissed the Shadow Creature. He laughed maniacally as he took Jake far away from Huntsgirl and Nic.

XXXXX

Huntsgirl sneered at the struggling unicorn. He was gagged and bound to the floor on his side. Both of them were before Huntsmaster as well as some select members from the Huntsclan. Huntsmaster was giving out orders for the Huntsclan while Huntsgirl was given the opportunity to sit comfortably and observe. Then, one of the members was chosen to kill the unicorn before the horn was removed. Huntsgirl didn't want Nic to die and wanted to say something to save his life, but she knew it would cause chaos within the Clan and Huntsmaster himself. She watched helplessly as a huge knife was sharpened. He walked over to a wide-eyed and fearful Nic. She held her breath and looked away as he raised the blade.

"Wait!" cried Huntsmaster. Huntsgirl exhaled and glanced at Huntsmaster hopefully. "I want it alive. I want to make sure the creature suffers when I cut off its horn." He had one of the members help him off the couch, and he staggered to the terrified unicorn.

"Hand me the weapon," he ordered. "And hold it down." The weapon was what looked like a giant metal nail file. He placed the side on Nic's forehead and Nic began to tremble violently. Huntsgirl couldn't watch anymore. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from the scene. What she heard next was enough to make one nauseous. The file made a sickening noise as it went back and forth, but it was nothing compared to the screams that Nic cried out of utmost pain. She was forced to listen to the whole ordeal. Huntsgirl's eyes shone with tears, but she quickly blinked them away. She couldn't show weakness being this close to the other Huntsclan members and especially this close to Huntsmaster himself.

Once the horn was removed, she noticed the outcome of the horrific deed take effect instantaneously. Nic's glistening white coat faded to a dull light grey. His golden hooves turned black while his golden hair was now a dirty straw blonde. He gave a mournful 'neigh' as his ability to talk was also gone. Then, he was forced to get up as the Huntsclan members took him out of the room. Huntsgirl stayed behind to help Huntsmaster climb back onto his couch to rest.

"Take this," he said. She seized the horn from Huntsmaster's outstretched hand and carried it to the table where it was to be finely crushed. It was as hard as steel, but Huntsgirl perceived that it would be difficult to compress. She had a magical machine imported from one of their trading posts. It looked like a juicer that she had seen on TV once, but this machine was a little bigger and could crush anything that was deposited into it. She put the horn in the machine and waited patiently for it to be crushed. It didn't take very long and soon she was pouring the fine powder-like substance into a bowl. Then, Huntsgirl unwrapped Huntsmaster's bandages and sprinkled most of the powder directly on his wound. She watched as the powdered horn healed his injury and also restored the crazed vigor in Huntsmaster's eyes. He stretched for quite a long while and then turned his attention to Huntsgirl.

"You did very well, Thorn. I will trust you with more missions after this," he said. She beamed under her mask. "However, you are still not officially a member yet."

"Yes, I am hoping to change that very soon," she replied.

"Good. Now, come with me. We need to get everything ready to finally obtain the last ingredient." He grinned evilly and his eyes shone with a mad glint.

Okay, so there wasn't that much action, but it was still pretty good, don't you think? It's my favorite chapter so far and also my longest by far (2,814 words!). I hope you had fun reading it 'cause I had fun writing it.

Anyway, I shan't update if you don't review!