Hello again everybody time for a new Chapter I would say. XD

Chapter 3-Camping Upstate

The journey to upstate New York was fairly uneventful. They needed to leave immediately because it was never certain when exactly the Dark Dragon may have made an appearance. Jake had to go home and take some things. His parents understood that what he was doing was very important, so they did not try to stop him. Jake, Lao Shi and Fu dog all went up together With Fu Dog being carried on Jake's back.

After 2 hours flying they got to an abandoned mine and an old abandoned settlement right next to it. That was good for them as it meant that they had a place to stay as the long hours of the week passed by. They had to get settled in on the first day, but they also knew that they had to forge a battle plan for when the dark dragon showed up. They decided to do that the next day. To the north of the mine there was a forest, then lake Ontario which separated the US From Canada. "Maybe we can get the Canadian Dragon to help" Suggested Jake "I mean Canada is just a few mile north of here.

"Jake, the Canadian dragon lives all the way over in Vancouver, the other side of Canada." Lao Shi replied.

"Well can we defeat the dark dragon on our own? Even with a plan, last time we had a lot of help"

"We have to find away, but we will figure out a plan tomorrow."

Tomorrow came fast for Jake. Lao Shi got him up very early in order to sidcuss the plan for engagement.

"Jake we must know this area back to front. You got to the mines in the south, check each one out but be careful, they are old and could collapse. I will look to the north. We need to find some sort of good ambush point or somewhere where the Dark Dragon may try to come from."

"But won't he have all his corrupt minions with him?"

"Maybe but in any case we need the biggest advantage possible."

"OK" Sighed Jake he had little clue how he was supposed to defeat the dark dragon and his minions, but his Gramps acted like he had a trick or two up his sleeve, so Jake trusted him. Jake flew down to the mines, to the south of the abandoned settlement.

"Aww how boring mines" Jake said to himself

He flew down one shaft, only to find that it had already caved in down the bottom. So he flew back up again. He flew down the next shaft, it was still up though. 'Damn' Jake thought, 'I have to look through here now.' So Jake flew down the mine. It was very dark but he used his dragon eyesight so he could see a lot better. It was like a tunnel that twisted through. It also looked very rickety. From this, Jake was convinced that it was not a good place to wait so he began to fly out, quickly so that he could get the search over with and go to the next stage of planning. As he did so he carelessly knocked over a support pylon, made the mine start to cave in. Jake had to act first, the less stable spot in front of him began to cave in first, which meant that he had to jump back to avoid the rest of the rocks. He thought the rest of the mine would cave as well but to his luck it stopped. On the downside, it appeared that he was trapped in. There was no where to go but further into the mine.

Jake proceeded with a little more care down into the mines. Jake hoped there was another exit. The mines split into to ways. Jake had no idea which way to go. He held his breath and decided to go to the one that looked like it headed up. He flew for a couple of minutes and started to get worried. 'What if there are no other exits?' he thought to himself. He reached a point where the mines got even wider. He walked into what seemed like a room. He looked around the room. Something caught his eye. He stared at it then realised what it was, then he gasped.

INTERMISSION:

So what did Jake see?

Can you guess?

Was It A ghost?

Was it the Dark Dragon?

Was it whatever the miners were mining for?

Or was it A naked Obese Scotsman Scoffing Porridge?

I guess that's for me to know and you to find out

When I tell you right now

END INTERMISSION:

Jake looked at what he saw, in front of him was…. Nothing. That's the problem, there was nothing there, no mine, no earth no darkness, no light just nothing. Jake stared at this. He had never seen absolutely nothing before. Jake threw a rock into this 'nothingness.' It disintegrated into nothing. 'I have a feeling that I know why these mines have been abandoned' Jake thought to himself. He couldn't understand why there was absolutely nothing there but this nothingness seemed to block his path. So he started stepping back through the mine. He walked hurriedly away because the nothingness seemed to scare him. His mind could not seem to comprehend nothing. It was indescribable because if it had a description, it would be something. Jake got back to the fork in the mines. "I will try down here" he said to himself. Jake edged his way through this part of the mine. It seemed to get smaller and smaller and go down.

Eventually Jake reached some water. He had to swim through it to continue. Jake dived in. It wasn't far to the other end though and he made it with nothing bad happening. The bad news was on the other side.

Jake looked up and around, but saw nothing, not the same kind of nothing as before, but this time there was darkness and a dead end. Jake was really starting to panic now. "Awww man" he complained then he yelled out "DAMN!" and hit the wall. Some rocks fell out and Jake prepared himself for another collapse but to his luck, nothing collapsed. Jake looked around. From one of the little holes in the wall, light was coming through. Jake looked through this hole. He couldn't believe it. Another exit was right in front of him and the wall to it was thin. Jake easily broke through. "Ahh good old daylight" he commented as he walked back into the open. He heard a noise, which sounded like a small creature yelping. It came from over behind A pile of rocks. Jake flew to the top of the rocks and peered down, but kept himself hidden. He saw a man in Khaki and what looked like a cage. He put the cage into the back of a van, then called for another person behind the van. Jake let out a gasp as he saw the cage contained Pixies. The man in Khaki spoke with a psycho accent.

"Today, I am complete, I have completed my mission, well nearly. One pixie eludes me still, one pixie. I shall come back to the woods and capture it myself. My plan will then be complete."

Jake didn't like what he heard. "No one captures pixies on my watch", he said to himself as the pixie poacher got into the van. He was just about to go out and flame the hunter when suddenly A voice sounded behind him.

"Jake, where have you been, I've been looking all around for you."

Jake remembered that he had spent a while in that mine.

"Ahh sorry G, I got stuck."

"You must come back immediately, I wish to discuss my plan, did you get a good look at things?"

"Not really but.."

"Well we will just have to deal with what we've got" replied Lao Shi

"But Gramps, that guy getting away has stolen some Pixies"

"OK that must be dealt with"

"And he will be back tomorrow for one last one"

"He will be back tomorrow?"

"Uhh yes"

"Then it must be dealt with tomorrow, right now, we must discuss dark dragon tactics."

"But"

"What would you rather, a few pixies spend a night in captivity, or us being unprepared for the Dark Dragon and the world being in danger"

"Umm well it wouldn't take that long"

"We would have to stop his car first and he obviously isn't just going to pull over. We have to take these opportunities when they come to us, not on their turf. That is a rule of engagement."

"But, er Ok G I suppose."

They flew back to camp but Jake couldn't convince himself that they were doing the right thing. 'I suppose sometimes we have to make small sacrifices in order to prevent big consequences' He thought to himself. When they got back to the settlement, Lao Shi showed Jake what he found. It was a map of the entire mines area. Lao Shi started Telling Jake a large and complex plan

"Now see here there are 2 fields……………………"

Jake really couldn't be bothered to listen. He was sure that he could follow along with what his Grandpa was doing. He also figured that he was gone no matter what plan was made so he didn't feel much like listening.

"You got that Jake?"

"Uh yes sure why not?"

"Jake" Laos Shi said a little more menacingly

"No I swear I got it down to the last strand"

"Well I hope so."

The next day, Jake woke up to the sound of a car driving by outside the shack he was in. Jake couldn't remember what was going on for a second, then it hit him, The Pixie poacher was back. He snuck outside to see the van drive up to the forest, stop short of it, and two guys get out.

"Hah I wont bother to wake Gramps for this, I got it covered" Jake whispered. "Dragon UP"

From the back of their van the two guys pulled out a pixie hunting kit and the cage full of pixies. The man in Khaki looked at them for a second, put it back in the van and walked off into the woods in search of that evasive pixie. This was Jakes chance. He crept up to the van once they were gone. They locked the door, but it was little problem for Jake to get inside. The cage was right there. When they saw Jake, they cheered.

"Wassup guys, cha, fear no more the Amdrag is here"

"Hurray" they all shouted

Jake broke open the cage.

"Everybody needs to stay with me until the I get the hunter alright?"

They all agreed.

Back in the Woods, the hunter in Khaki checked his map. "Hey John" He called, "we are near the spot that I have calculated the Pixie to be hiding."

He looked around and reached a sort of pool with shallow water. "Finally I shall have my ways."

"Um but your motives make little sense"

"To you maybe, but I know if I gather their Pixie dust, with an atom composition of my own mixture, 5 Quarks, 12 Leptons and 6 Muons, I can Bestow magical properties onto anyone that I want."

"Where do you get your silly theories?"

"They are well founded. I found this book long ago in the Communist block, titled 'The Magestic Tome' signed a Bill. R. Snr. This had all these bizarre things in it. I was sure that they were real, but nobody else believed it, but now that the presence of mythical creatures is found to no longer be a myth, I am sure that these are correct as well."

"Whatever you say Calle."

"Halt. Look there, under that bush, do you see it, some sort of light?"

"Um yes but it could be anything"

"Well lets find out"

"Not While the AmDrag is here, you don't"

The sudden outburst shocked the two men, as suddenly Jake sprung out of the bushes he was hiding behind and moved in front of the bush.

"The game is up, why don't y'all pack it up and leave before I gat nasty"

John took a step back, he was white with fear. Calle, stared at Jake for a while then laughed. "Not a chance" He taunted back

Immediately he pulled out a tranquiliser gun and aimed it at Jake.

"Uh man if you got an angry dragon, first rule is you do not pull out a gun, you run like hell" John stammered.

"I must have my goddamn pixie dust, I have lost all in the quest for it. I shall not be interrupted."

Calle then noticed the free pixies. "Oh your in for it now" He yelled

'Too easy' Jake thought, 'I've faced a lot scarier guns held by a lot scarier people'

Calle got ready to fire.

"Here allow me to give you fire" Jake laughed as he blew a soft stream of fire. Calle caught on fire, then began running, yelling at the top of his voice. Eventually he dived into the pool of water. All the pixies started cheering. Calle knew he was beat. He quickly stumbled out of the water and ran through back through the woods.

"We thank you, American Dragon, for your service we would like to give you this vial of Pixie Dust"

"Aw gee, thanks guys, Just remember, you got a problem, just give the American Dragon a holler."

With that Jake departed back down to the settlement, back to a waiting Lao Shi and Fu dog.

The rest of that week was fairly uneventful. Jake, Gramps and Fu spent their time in training for the big moment. Laos Shi seemed to heal very well, and it seemed that when the day came, he was back to full health. What they didn't realise is that they made one clerical error.

The day arrived and Jake and Lao Shi went to their hiding spots which were discussed in their plan. Jake took a radio along just for while he waited and turned it on softly. He turned it to an upstate station. They were playing Tom Cochran's 'Life is a highway.'

"Aww man,"Jake complained. 80's music. He changed the channel to an NYC station. They were playing some R&B. "Yeah this is more like it" Jake cheered. Suddenly he heard static, then the station came back on, then once again turned into static. Jake shook the radio. Nothing happened. He turned it onto an upstate New York station. It was fine. He then tried another NYC station. Static.

"Aww man, we've lost contact with NYC on this crappy radio"

Jake turned it to another Upstate station and was shocked to hear them report that they had lost all contact with New York city. Jake flew with haste over to Lao Shi.

"G, whats going on in NYC?"

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone seems to have lost contact with New York City, all radio stations are down."

"That is very odd indeed. There is only one reason I can think of, but that would mean the prophesies were mistranslated. " He thought back to the papers, he thought about the one that told them that those mines were the place. He remembered that it had different handwriting. Then it hit him.

"Oh my Gosh, Jake get your things, we must leave immediately for New York. That last paper was a fake, we've been tricked, led out of New York. The Dark Dragon left the fake note. He has got a head start on us. Jake and gramps immediately flew back to the settlement, picked up their things and headed back to New York City.

End Chapter

Well this is the last of the chapters without much action, I kind of got bored writing this chapter, but now I shall start on the real thing, from here on in, its action.