Chapter 5

"Wake up, boy!" Bob hollered. A wad of paper bounced off of Ray's forehead. Ray opened his eyes, shaking the sleep out of his head.

He scanned the room. His boss, Bob, was staring him down. Bob was a big guy, his nick name being Big Bob. Usually you had to be to run a chop shop. He was so bald, you could shine a flashlight on his head and it would reflect on the ceiling. Big and muscular, his goatee made sure you knew he was a biker.

Ray arose from the break room couch. "Sorry, Bob," Ray thought of an excuse. "What's wrong with you, Ray?" Bob yelled. Bob didn't mean to yell, he just always sounded like he was screaming at the top of his lungs whenever he spoke.

"I don't know," Ray sat back down. "I'm just real tired. I was up all night studying for my trigonometry test last night."

"Triggawhatsit now?" Bob inquired.

"Uh, never mind," Ray yawned.

"That's why I stopped goin da' school when I was your age," Bob puffed out his chest proudly. "And look at me now! Ray, if you wanna be as successful as me, you should think about dropping out and starting a business."

Ray held back some laughter, as he could tell Bob was completely serious.

"No thanks, Bob. I think I'm gonna stick with it."

"That's a shame, I think you could pull up a chop shop almost as good as mine," He laughed.

Bob sat down in a folding chair across from Ray. "Listen Ray, I can tell you're tired. Tell you what, I've got Jimmy and Garrett here this afternoon, you can take the rest of the day off."

"Thanks, Bob," Ray said. He took his helmet and backpack out of his locker and headed towards the door.

"Just don't go fallin' asleep on the interstate, okay?" Bob called as Ray left.

Ray checked his phone. It was 4 o'clock. Firedrake and Sorrel had been on his mind all day. What if he returned home and they were gone? What if they had been discovered somehow?

"Nah, who would be at my house?" Ray thought to himself and he walked towards his motorcycle. He was still a bit paranoid about Officer Sir, but Ray was told he was going to be discharged and sent to rehab.

After a familiar ride home, minus the rush hour, Ray finally reached his house. He drove up the long driveway, and drove back to his garage, a bit anxious.

He pushed his garage door opener. Slowly, the garage door opened. Ray gave a sigh of relief. Firedrake awoke slowly, and let out a yawn. He stretched, and put his head up, hitting it on the ceiling. Ray parked his motorcycle, and removed his helmet.

"Hey, were you sleeping?" Ray asked. Firedrake looked at his splinted wing and then at Ray. "Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned that I'm nocturnal."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Ray replied. "I'll park my motorcycle outside from now on."

Ray sat down on a box and yawned. "Where's Sorrel?"

Firedrake yawned. "I don't know, I haven't seen her all day."

"That can't be good," Ray muttered. "I'm going to go inside, are you going back to sleep?" Ray asked.

"No, I couldn't sleep now at the moment," Firedrake responded.

"Okay then, I'll be right back," Ray slipped out the door and walked into the kitchen. Drawers were open, bits of food were scattered around, just as Ray had seen in the living room earlier that day. Ray opened his fridge, it was a mess. Half of his food was gone, and the other half was half eaten or spilled.

Astonished, he went back to the living room. The TV was on, doors were opened, and water was running in the bathroom sink.

"What the hell?" Ray gasped.

His house was a complete mess. Living on his own most of the time, it was hard to keep it clean with no one to tell him to.

Ray glanced at the couch. There Sorrel was, sleeping yet again.

He felt angry, but was too tired to do anything about it. He dropped his backpack in his room, and came back downstairs to the garage. He decided he'd have to deal with the mess later.

"So, I thought maybe after spending a day in here alone, you'd get pretty bored, Firedrake," Ray said, sitting down on the same box.

"Yeah," Firedrake replied. "Thanks, it gets kind of lonely in here."

Ray looked around the garage. He had so many questions to ask, but where to start?

"So," he looked at his shoes. "Where are you from?"

Firedrake thought for a moment. "I used to live in a rather wet area of Europe," he said. "But then because some humans threatened to flood our valley, we had to move to the tallest mountain range in the world."

"The Himalayas?" Ray asked. Firedrake nodded. "Wait, we? So there's more of you?"

"Oh yes," Firedrake said. "But the Dragon population has dwindled so much over the past few hundred years, I wasn't born yet, but my kind were almost hunted to extinction by humans that wore suits of armor."

"That was more than five hundred years ago," Ray said. "So Dragons have been in hiding since then?"

"That's right." Ray gave Firedrake a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Firedrake."

"I am too," He replied.

"Well, why did you come all the way out here?"

Firedrake looked puzzled. "Out here?"

Ray paused. "You mean, you don't know where you are?"

"Nope," Firedrake said, looking a bit worried.

"Hold on, I'll be right back." Ray got up and ran to his room, unpinning his world map of the wall and rolling it up. He returned to the garage and spread the map on the floor.

"Okay, so this is the Himalayas," Ray put his finger on the map where the Himalayas were. "And this is where we are now." Ray traced his finger all the way to Georgia in the United States. Firedrake watched closely, not recognizing most shapes of land on the map, but some looked familiar. He recalled the Rat's map, and then Ben, whom he thought of often.

"The Himalayas are thousands of miles away. You must fly fast," Ray said.

Firedrake felt in shock. "Er, what?" He cried. Distressed, Firedrake stood up, making sure not to bump his head on the low ceiling. "How is that even possible?"

"You mean, you didn't mean to come here?"

"No!" Firedrake exclaimed. "I don't know how I got all the way out here, it was only one night!"

"Calm down," Ray said. "I'm sure there's a logical-"

"What's going on in here?" Sorrel growled, poking her head out from the doorway. "Oh, another map. Wonderful."

Firedrake explained the situation to Sorrel, who reacted in quite the same way.

"Calm down you two, and tell me what happened," Ray cooed.

"Okay, I remember we were flying over the mountains," Firedrake said. "And then there was this incredible windstorm. It spun me around so fast everything was a blur."

"After he stopped mindlessly being tossed by the wind," Sorrel continued. "There weren't any mountains below us anymore. It was a bunch of trees!" She quivered.

"I don't know what to say about that. The only thing that could travel that far and that fast in one night is a plane. When I saw you flying across the sky, you looked like you were disorientated," Ray stated.

"I wish I could tell you why you're here, but I just don't know."

The three sat quietly, Firedrake and Sorrel in complete shock.

"How are we going to get home?" Sorrel said at last.

"Ben would know what to do."

"Ben? Is that another dragon?" Ray asked.

Firedrake and Sorrel exchanged glances, and then they told Ray a story. It was a story of boy named Ben, who was much younger than Ray at the time, although it had been a few years. They had found Ben as an orphan in London, and then Ben helped them get to the Rim of Heaven. They had a run in with Mountain Dwarves, a Djinn, and a Sea Serpent. Not to mention, the evil Nettlebrand. It took about an hour to tell Ray the whole story, and Ray's jaw dropped the entire time. They were careful to leave out a few details, still not sure if they could trust Ray completely.

Speechless, Ray looked up at Firedrake. "That sounded like an awesome adventure."

"It was," Sorrel replied. "A bit too many surprises for my taste, but it was fun. It was for our survival, though."

"That's right," Firedrake added. "There's just one more thing. After Ben left, I told him I'd visit him. I assume he lives in England with the Greenblooms now, but they haven't contacted us since we parted ways."

"Oh," Ray sighed. Ray thought for a moment, and then had an idea. "What if I was able to find him for you?"

"What?" Firedrake gasped.

"You could do something like that?" Sorrel said. "But isn't he on the other side of the world from here?"

"Sure," Ray replied. "It's not hard, just as long as he or that Professor Greenbloom guy or Ben is listed anywhere on the internet." Ray fished his laptop out of his backpack and opened it up, letting out a yawn. Even though all the excitement, he was still exhausted.

He started up his laptop, the Apple logo on the back and the screen coming to life. "I remember that," Sorrel said, watching the blue screen turn into his desktop. "It's a, uh-" "A computer," Ray answered.

His computer finished starting up, and now the Dragon was bending over his shoulder, watching as Ray pulled up Google.

"Okay, so what's this guy's name?" Ray asked. "Ben Greenbloom?"

Firedrake nodded. "Yes, try that."

Ray typed in "Ben Greenbloom." Several results came up, there was one for Facebook, a popular social networking site. He clicked on the Facebook link, his access to it was limited, but there was a profile picture. It was a boy who looked about the same age as Ray, but with long, black hair and chiseled features.

"Is that him?" Ray zoomed in on the photo.

Firedrake was speechless. "That's him!"

"Is it really that easy to find anyone on the face of the Earth?" Sorrel asked.

"Sometimes, you just have to know their full name and a few other things," Ray flipped his hair out of his face.

"Okay, his phone number's not listed," Ray said as he friend requested Ben. He added a note to his request.

"Hey Ben, you don't know me, and I'm not sure if I have the right person. Does the name Firedrake mean anything to you?"

"Now, we just have to wait and see if he replies to me," Ray declared.

"Well, how long could that take?" Sorrel questioned.

"I don't know, he's in a different time zone, and some people don't log onto Facebook too often. We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'll see if I can find anything on the Professor. What's his first name?"

Sorrel paused and looked at Firedrake. "Do you remember his first name? I remember his wife calling him something, but what?"

"I can't remember," Firedrake said. "We always just called him the professor."

"Let's hope we have the right Ben, then," said Ray. "Listen, I'm exhausted and I didn't get too much sleep last night." Ray closed his laptop and headed to the door. "Oh and Sorrel, stop eating all my food. My house is in a mess, and I don't have enough time to clean that up."

Ray walked away, and he heard Firedrake's firm voice. "You did what?"

He felt a certain satisfaction knowing Sorrel was getting scolded by Firedrake.