And that's where the drama begins and Max defends his friendship by...who else?

Chapter 15: Discovered!

Max had no idea what he's gonna do now that this is being found out almost immediately and Blaze looked at them and asked, "Do you know these guys?"

"Yeah. These are my family and friends." Max replied.

"Which one?" asked Blaze.

"Well...these are my parents; my adopted dad, adopted stepmom, my cousins and my brothers and everyone else are from the Jade Palace. Guys, this is Blaze...my best friend." Max replied.

Mako walked over to the dragon and he came closer to him, which made Blaze a little nervous because he didn't know what's he gonna do, but the minute Mako touched his paw very gently, he suddenly felt calm towards him and Mako looked at Max for a second and he said, "How did you know this guy?'

"Well...we've met in this cave about...2 weeks ago while I was playing hide and seek with my brothers and I guess we split in different places in the forest to find places to hide and I wasn't gonna go to the usual spots where Logan would easily find me...so I went to the cave loking for a few places to hide until I heard someome roar out of nowhere. So I went to investigate and that's where I met and found Blaze. I could tell he was in pain, but there was just a little thorn on his paw so I took it out for him and the rest is history." Max replied.

Blaze looked at the others and at Mako and he showed him the bandaged paw to prove that it's all true and he said, "If it wasn't for Max, it could've went a lot worse."

"Always the one with a selfless act of duty." Logan sneered.

"Now, boys...don't hold it against Max that he did the right thing." Reiko said, very sternly.

Samurai went towards Max and said, "Why didn't you tell us then?"

"Well...I was kinda worried that you guys might judge him and give out the wrong idea about Blaze." Max answered.

That surprised most of the family members and Musaki asked, "What would make you think that? You saving his life and all, there's really no way to harbor any negative thoughts about it."

"I kinda kept our friendship a secret because sometimes...I was afraid that you guys might say dragons and tigers can't be friends." Max added.

"And you're right. They shouldn't be, but your foolish selflessness got in the way!" Tigress spat out.

Blaze didn't take that very lightly and he crawled towards her and said, "You can't talk to Max like that!"

"How do we know you're not a killer?" Tigress shot back.

Max did not like what Tigress just said to him and he walked towards her, defending Blaze and he said, "That's enough! Take it back."

"No!"

"Take back what you said!" Max growled.

"He's a menace, Max! You shouldn't trust him!" Tigress snarled.

Max could tell that this was typical of Tigress to criticize someone so harshly and he said, "You don't know him like I know him. He's the best friend I've ever had and I'm not willing to listen to anything you say about him because they're not true."

"Are you calling me a liar, little cub?" asked Tigress, gritting her teeth.

Soon enough, Samurai got in the middle of it and he said, "Let's end this before someone gets hurt. The last thing we need is a repeat of Tigress trying to harm Max after an accident at the village."

Tigress grew increasingly frustrated over that and asked, "Why do you keep bringing it up?!"

Max had no desire to fight her back anyway and he walks over to Blaze and said, "I'm so sorry about what Tigress said. She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"How are you still around him?!" Tigress screamed.

"Silent!" Mako shouted.

Tigress froze for a second after being told to be silent by Mako and her fist tightened up quickly and had every mind to punch Mako in the face and she said, "You don't tell me to be silent!"

"Watch how you talk to my husband, missy." Reiko said, very sternly with her finger wagging at her.

Logan can tell that this is what happens when one of them talks back to their stepmom and he muttered, "She gave Tigress the finger."

"The finger wag. She means business." Sage muttered.

Mantis hopped onto Tigress' shoulder and he said, "Back down now, please. The last thing you want is to have a slapfight with someone's mom."

"She has no right to talk to me that way, Mantis." Tigress growled.

"Just like you have no right to talk about Max and his new buddy?" asked Po, quite suddenly.

Everyone looked up at Po after uttering what he just said and Tigress turned to Po and couldn't believe that he defended Max and his dragon friend and she asked, "Say that again?"

"Listen, Tigress...if Max is cool with the dragon, we should do the same. You can't talk smack about strangers like that and they're both kids. Can we at least let Max explain why he didn't tell any of us?" asked Po.

Although visibly seething, Tigress felt that Po had a valid point as to why he didn't tell everyone else yet and she turned to him while still growling at him and said, "You have a quick second to come up with an explanation as to why I should not put you in your early grave."

"That's fighting words, you cowardly bully!" Blaze exclaimed.

"Blaze! Let me handle it." Max stated.

Blaze was obviously very angry at Tigress making a threatening statement to his friend, but he doesn't want to make a scene in front of everyone and he turned to Max and said, "All right. But don't think I'm gonna hold back because I'm gonna kick this tiger's butt!"

What's happening? You wanna know what happens afterwards? The next chapter will explain all.

Voice of Max: Ben Diskin

Voice of Blaze: (also) Ben Diskin

Voice of Mako: Kyle Hebert

Voice of Logan: Mikey Kelley

Voice of Reiko: Tress MacNeille

Voice of Samurai: Jason Marsden

Voice of Musaki: Samuel Vincent

Voice of Tigress: Kari Wahlgren

Voice of Sage: Josh Keaton

Voice of Mantis: Max Koch

Voice of Po: Mick Wingert