Chapter 7
Reunion
Rose searched what remained of the electronics store, but her fears were confirmed. Jake, Lao Shi, and Fu dog were gone. Rose growled, her claws tearing through the wall where the Huntsclan symbol had been burned in place. Voris, who looked up at Rose from his wrist mirror, "Now, Rose, let's not act to hasty. Maybe we should go find Kryos. He can help you find Jake."
Rose shook her head, "No, I don't need Kryos's help. What I do need, however, is someone to take care of Seven and her eggs, at least for a while."
"Oh, and who are you going to get to do that, Jake's family?"
Rose smiled, looking down at Voris, "That is actually a very good suggestion, but not Jake's entire family. His mother wouldn't agree and Jake's father doesn't even know the magical world exists. Hmmm…the only problem is that Haley is probably still in school."
With Voris shouting his objections Rose turned, spreading her wings before taking out the shops back door. She flew up into the air, circling a few times as she got her bearings before flying off towards Haley's school. She had walked with Jake after school one day, and they swung by the elementary school to pick Haley up.
As Rose neared the school, she could hear the sounds of kids playing outside and clashing metal. Rose stopped on the roof of a nearby skyscraper, and looked down at the playground of Haley's school. What Rose saw made her laugh out loud. The playground was filled with actors, stages, stalls. Haley's school was hosting a medieval fair for several schools in the area. What better place to hide then in the time period of knights, lords, and dragons.
Rose took flight again, gently gliding down to the street level. She ducked into an alley, hiding behind a few garbage hands. Voris was shaking his head, whispering up to Rose, "This isn't going to work, you're going to be discovered."
"I will be if you don't shut up." Rose snapped back as she moved out of the alley. She stepped into the school yard, looking around a bit as some kids came up. A few tense moments passed before one of the kids asked, "Are you a real dragon?"
Rose breathed a sigh of the relief as the kids continued to bombard her with questions. Voris continued to grumble inside his mirror, but Rose just covered him up with her free hand and began to answer the kid's questions. Rose soon began to walk through the medieval fair, her eyes skimming the crowd as she tried to act like just another actor. Rose then saw on of the real actors, a man in a peasant's outfit, ran up and said, "There you are. The temp agency said you would be here an hour ago. Oh well, you came in costume and your just in time for the fight."
Rose opened her mouth to contradict the actor, but before she could say a word he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her to the center of the fair. There, in a large roped of area, a knight in bright silver armor was waving at the crowd. The peasant actor pushed Rose into the performance area, quickly running off in another direction as the knight turned.
"Ah Ha, there be the foul beast. Have at you dragon, for my sword shall strike with lethal accuracy." Rose swallowed, watching as the knight pulled out his sword. Her eyes wandered around the crowd when she caught sight of Haley, who was watching the whole thing with little interest. Rose bit her bottom lip, how was she going to talk to Haley with Sir Over-Act-A-Lot pointing a sword at her neck."
The Knight moved forward, lowering his voice down to a whisper as he said, "You're late, but at least you're here. Listen, here is how it goes, you growl, we fight, I make the lethal blow, you fall down, you act like your dead, and we do it again in thirty minutes."
Rose rolled her eyes, quickly whispering back, "Yeah, that's how these things usually end, don't they."
The knight actor nodded, "Yeah, that's how it's always supposed to go. By the way, that is a very convincing costume."
Rose smiled, "Well, let's just say I am very attached to it." With that the knight charged forward, swinging his sword around as Rose dodged the blows. Rose lead the knight actor around the performance ring, letting him land a few strikes and faking her injuries until she finally got over to where Haley was standing.
Rose glanced back, reviewing her very quick and dirty plan before making her move. With a quick turn Rose grabbed Haley up, pulling her out of the crowd as fir began to like at her lips. With the crowd cheering her on, Rose let a stream of fire out of her mouth. The fire consumed her and Haley, Rose's transportation spell taking effect. When the fire disappeared they were gone, the spell's magic taking them to the fake castle on one side of the ring.
The castle was just a pair of plywood backdrops hooked together, but it was more then enough for the medieval fair. Rose and Haley appeared between the two pieces of plywood. Haley pulled herself away from Rose, quickly shifting to her small, pink dragon form as she said, "I don't know who you are, but you just put yourself in a world of hurt."
"Haley, calm down, it's me, Rose."
"Rose!" Haley said as she stared at the green scaled dragon in front of her, "How can you be a dragon, you're a member of the Huntsclan."
Rose shook her head, "No, I was a member of the Huntsclan, and that isn't important right now. I was just at your grandfather's shop. He, Jake, and Fu Dog are gone, and the shop is destroyed. I think the Huntsclan attacked the shop, but I don't know why."
"My dragon master would know", Haley said with a smile, "she and my grandfather have been working together to try and find the Huntsclan's lair here in New York."
"That's wonderful Haley, where does she live?"
Haley shook her head, changing back into her human form, "Oh no, my dragon master told me to never send anyone to see her unless I am right at their side. Let's just finish this little show, and then meet me in the alley."
Rose nodded, taking a firm hold on Haley's shoulders as she moved her out into the small door in the castle backdrop. The knight turned, holding his sword as he called out, "There you are. How dare you take a captive from such innocent youths? Release her, and I'll make your death quick and painless."
Rose growled, going along with the knight's performance as she let Haley go. Rose then charged forward, fighting with the knight for a few more minutes before finally letting the Knight make the final blow. The knight faked a stab at Rose's heart, and she fell over and acted like she was dead. A few peasant actors quickly ran up, picking Rose up off the field as the Knight actor finished his performance.
Once Rose was safely out of sight, she quickly got up and moved back out into the crowd of the Medieval Festival. After a few minutes of navigating the mass of elementary level kids, Rose mad it to the alley where Haley was waiting, flitting about in her pink dragon form. Haley quickly flew up, waving to Rose as she said, "Come on, my dragon master is Sun Park. She teaches at Jake's school, but I should be able to get her attention."
Rose took flight after Haley, making their way across the city. As Rose waited a few blocks away, Haley flew down to the school and changed into her human form. She walked up to the doors, stepping inside as she walked towards the office. Haley put on her cutes smile, gently tapping on the office secretaries desk, "Excuse me."
The secretary looked away from her computer, eyeing Haley before asking, "What can I do for you little girl."
"If you please, I need to speak with Sun Park, it is a very urgent matter."
The secretary shrugged, gently picking up her phone as she pressed a series of numbers. The secretary handed the phone's headset to Haley before turning back to her computer. Haley listened to the ring for a few times, and then smiled when she heard a familiar voice said, "Hello, this is Ms. Park speaking."
"Ms. Park, this is your student, your other student. I just heard that something bad happened at Lao Shi's shop, and that the H of the hunter was left on the wall."
Sun Park froze, placing her hand on the phone receiver as she looked over her home economics class. Her eyes locked with Jake's, who was currently trying to control a quickly growing pile of dough with Trixie and Spud. As the dough grew larger and larger, Jake called out, "Spud, how much yeast did you put in this thing? "
"Well, the instructions said one cup, but I couldn't find one. So, I just used a glass." Jake and Trixie yelled at Spud as the mass of dough began to flow onto the floor.
Sun turned back to the phone, moving the phone back to her mouth, "I'll grab Jake and be down at the office in a few minutes. Oh, and Haley, I'll need you to do something to distract Principle Rotwood so Jake and I can get out." Haley then listened as her dragon master told her what to do.
Haley left the office a few moments later, getting out of the school before running around the corner of the building. She then changed into her dragon form, flying up to a window on the second floor. Through the glass she could see Rotwood sitting at his desk, writing down something. Haley smiled, gently knocking on the window.
Rotwood paused a second, groaning as he turned around, "Stupid hooligans, how many times must I tell them that my window is no target for their tiny rocks." Rotwood then caught sight of Haley, who waved and smiled widely. Rotwood jumped so much his chair toppled over, sending him and his desk crashing to the floor. When Rotwood finally got back up, Haley had darted out of sight.
Rotwood had now called all the office secretaries into his office, ranting as he pointed to a window. With Rotwood's yelling as cover, Sun and Jake snuck out of the school and met Haley outside. All three shifted to their dragon forms, and flew up to where Rose was waiting.
Sun and Jake landed on the roof of the skyscraper a few moments after Haley, both looking at the strange, dark green, dragon with a long braid of blonde hair. Sun over at Haley, who was hovering nearby as she asked, "Haley, who is this?"
Haley scratched the back of her head, "Well…its."
"Rose…" Sun and Haley turned, amazed in what they had just heard Jake say. He was moving forward, a look of amazement and shock on his face. The green dragon smiled, nodding her head as she said, "Yeah Jake, it's me."
"But how…Why?"
"We don't have time for that right now. I went your grandfather's shop, and it was destroyed. He and Fu Dog were gone, and it the shop was trashed."
Sun's eyes widened as she moved forward, gently pushing Jake out of the way, "Rose, did you see any of the crystal skulls in Lao Shi's shop."
Rose shook her head, "No, I looked everywhere for some clues about what had happened and never saw the skulls."
"But that means…"
Sun rose growled, looking away from Rose and back at Jake and Haley, "That the huntsclan has all thirteen of the crystal skulls. I doubt the Huntsclan will wait to use the skulls and destroy all magical creatures, but the ritual can only be performed at sunset in the open ground. That means that the huntsclan will probably be trying to perform the ritual somewhere in central park. We only have a few hours to prepare ourselves to take back Lao Shi, Fu Dog, and at least on of the crystal skulls."
Jake nodded, "Yeah, let's go to grandpa's shop. Fu Dog always kept a few magical spells handy incase of emergency, maybe a few are still there."
Sun and Haley nodded, all three of them taking flight towards Lao Shi's shop. Rose stayed on the roof a second, glancing over at the empire state building. She still had one more day to meet with Kryos before the fourth of July. With that last thought in mind, Rose spread her wings and went after Jake, Haley, and Sun.
The four dragons reached Lao Shi's shop in a few minutes. They then went about searching the shops back room, finding a few of Fu dogs more powerful spells tucked under a floorboard. Before long, the sun was nearing the western horizon. Jake, Sun, and Rose took flight, heading for central park while Haley stayed behind to keep an eye on the mother hydra and her eggs.
In central park ten platoons of huntsclan warriors kept careful guard as the sky began to turn ablaze with color. In the center of a large expanse of grass, hidden away from the prying eyes of the city, the Huntsmaster stood with a smile hidden under his dragon skull mask. Around him, set on thirteen solid gold pedestals, were the Aztec skulls. Several feet away Lao Shi was tied to a tree with Phoenix hair rope.
"You will not get away with this." Lao Shi snapped as he struggled against the rope.
"Save your breath dragon, you're going to need it soon." The Huntsmaster replied as he gently cracked open a spell book made of gold and silver. He turned a few of the thick metal pages, his eyes skimming the ancient Aztec text as the sun drew closer and closer to sunset.