Still don't own.

"So, explain something to me," Max spoke up as she followed Lao Shi. The dogs had hung back and were whispering about who-knows-what. Iggy had disappeared a while ago; probably changed his mind and decided to fly with the others.

"Yes?" The old man didn't even glance at her.

"If there are magical creatures in every place on earth, why doesn't anybody ever figure it out? I'd think that somebody would notice 20-something unicorns in central park, or dragons flying around the city!"

"Did you suspect Jake of being magical? What most people blame on mice, brownies are many times the real culprit. The gnome who runs the subway uses a costume that makes even magical beings oblivious to his real nature. We all have our ways of blending in, but people sometimes do occasionally see through them. But those people are so few, they are either marked as crazy, or they are called greatly imaginative authors or artists. Jake's teacher was one of the former. He was thrown out of his university because he constantly raved about the creatures he saw."

"Well, why don't you tell humans that you are real? It would keep them from labeling each other insane over the subject," Max pointed out. Lao Shi stopped.

"Do you like the publicity you obtain when humans learn of you?"

"No…" she admitted.

"Did you appreciate growing up in a cage? Did you enjoy the tests and experiments the scientist did to you?"

"No!" Where was he going with this?

"Do you like being treated like a freak, a monster?"

"OF COURSE NOT!"

"So why do you suggest we allow them to do so to us?" Lao Shi looked her in the eye. Max bowed her head in shamed realization.

"You are not responsible for how you were made, or what they put you through. But do not expect others to volunteer the hardships you have endured." Jake's Dragon Master briskly continued forward. "Many humans imagine magical creatures as awesome beings, and think that 'if dragons and unicorns were real' they would love to meet us. But once they find out they we are real, their perspective completely changes. Suddenly, they decide that we are either monsters, freaks, or magnificent things that should be studied. They don't understand that we have feelings; they don't understand that, just because we have diverse abilities, it doesn't mean we are any different from them—it doesn't mean that we are unintelligent." He sighed, "Humans classify everything around them as lower in some way. Some people are uglier than they are; others are not as smart. The football players make it a point to show off how much weaker everyone else is compared to themselves; the students whose parents have a lot of money often look down their noses at people who have to work hard for a living. So many humans need to learn humility, but none of them recognize it."

"Aren't you saying you are better than the humans by pointing out their flaws? Doesn't that show that you also lack humility?" Max wasn't trying to label the old man as a hypocrite. She was just trying to understand.

"To say that I am humble would be proof that I am not. I know my faults and try to correct them. Some point out the shortcomings in others to draw attention away from their own imperfections, but that was not my intention. I was attempting to explain why we don't show ourselves to humans. They see us as different, and would label us as inferior for it. We live in disguise for the same reason that you hide your wings." Lao Shi fell silent once more as they exited the park and strode along the sidewalk. He would occasionally nod in a business-like manner to a few people, and Max wondered if they were also magical beings.

She itched to know how the Flock was getting along. How much further was it? Hopefully, not much.