Year of the Dragon
Chapter 1
Jun and her friends were in class one afternoon. Angela Baker was doing a lecture on different countries, and different cultures.
"It important to learn about the different countries that share this planet and the people who live on them," she said. "So for your next assignment, you're each going to get a pen pal from a different country. You'll write to them each day and learn what you can about their country." Angela pulled out five files. "In these files are the names and contact information of someone who's agreed to be a pen pal." She beckoned her students forward and passed out a file to each of them. Once each student had their pen pal, the class was dismissed.
The teens headed into the woods to check on their dragons. They came to the silver cabin to find the door propped open. They went through to the back yard where they found Edelweiss and the dragons sunning themselves on the back patio. Edelweiss was sitting in a porch swing reading a garden magazine. The dragons all sat up and greeted their riders.
"Hey Edel," Tom said.
"Good afternoon," Edelweiss said. "How was class?"
"It was interesting, we all got pen pals from different countries," said D'Angelo, holding up his file.
"That sounds fun," said Edelweiss.
"What country to you come from exactly?" Alex asked her.
"I don't really come from any country," said Edelweiss. "At least not one humans are familiar with. I can't really tell you guys about it because my queen and the dragons that live there don't want humans knowing anything about it, so it's not really my secret to tell." Then she placed her magazine down and sat up. "So who are these pen pals you have?" The riders all sat next to their respective dragons and opened their files.
"Cool, I go a girl from Austria," said Tom. "She likes to go mountain climbing and camping."
"I got a boy from Australia," said Alex. "Sounds like he really loves the beach."
"I got some chick from Mexico," said Eugene. "Whoa, she's a bull rider."
"Mine is a collage student from Canada," said D'Angelo. "he's studying to be a marine biologist." Finally Jun opened her file. It had a photo of a Chinese girl about her age. She had a round face and short black hair, wearing a red t shirt.
"Oooh, I got a girl from Shanghai China," Jun said. "She plays the violin, and she's into magical creatures like me."
"Have you been to these countries Edel?" D'Angelo asked.
"I've been to most of them," said Edelweiss. "I've never been to Austria, which is a shame because my flower is famous there. I've been to the other countries quite a few times, but I stay away from populated areas."
"So you've never been to a big city?" Tom asked. Edelweiss shook her head.
"Big cities are harder for me to get used to than a small place like this," she said. "They have too many people, and I don't like being seen by strangers." She ran a her fingers along the scales on her left arm.
"Well, after we take the dragons for a ride we should get started on talking to these pen pals," said D'Angelo.
The riders saddle up their dragons, mounted up, and took off. During their flight, Alex was already talking to her pen pal on her tablet. They all talked about what their pen pals would be like. Jun was excited to talk to another girl who was into magical creatures. She wondered to herself if she could tell her pen pal about the dragons. She decided to get to know the girl first, before telling her any big secrets. Soon the riders landed their dragons back at the sliver cabin. They unsaddled them and the dragons went back to sunning themselves.
Jun entered her dome sometime later. Her mother wasn't home and the place was quiet. Jun went to her room and sat at her computer. She logged onto it and followed the instructions in the file. She typed in the girl's contact info and began to write:
'Hello, my name is Jun Wong and I'm your new pen pal. I'm currently living at a research facility on the edge of the Kullersen Fissure. I have four friends named Tom, Alex, D'Angelo, and Edelweiss, and one annoying older brother Eugene. Your file mentioned that you're into magical creatures, same as me. Which one is your favorite? I'd say mine's dragons.'
Jun hit send and waited for a reply. She read her favorite book on mythical creatures to pass the time. She glanced up after every page, but so far nothing. But then just as Jun was really getting into the book, her computer dinged. She jumped up and ran over to read the reply:
'Hi Jun, it's nice to meet you I'm Yi. I live in Shanghai China with my mom and Nai Nai. My father passed away a while ago. I have no siblings but have two good friends: Ping and Jin, and they feel like brothers to me sometimes. I love magical creatures, I don't think I could possibly pick a favorite. But if I had to pick just one, it would be the Yeti. But dragons are pretty great too, though I've never met one. Sounds like we're going to be great pen pals. Hopefully we can meet in person one day.'
Jun read the reply twice. She was just itching to tell her new pen pal about the dragons. She knew dragons were highly venerated in China. But she decided to wait a while, and learn more about Yi. So Jun wrote back, just telling about her home and her friends. She wrote as much about Edelweiss as she could with out saying she was part dragon. Just saying that Edelweiss loved dragons a lot, and traveled the world on her yacht. Jun also wrote her point of view about the Yeti. She sent the message then browsed the internet for a while. She didn't get a reply the rest of the day.
A few days later after class; the riders went to the silver cabin. They were discussing their pen pals. Both Tom and Jun had told their pen pals about Edelweiss.
"I wish I could tell Yi that Edelweiss is part dragon, and can turn into a dragon," said Jun.
"You can't, she asked us to keep her dragon form a secret," said Tom. "You'll have to ask her first." Jun sighed.
They soon reached the cabin and went through to the back patio. The dragons were all out sunning themselves. Edelweiss was washing the windows of the brand new helicopter she'd recently bought. It was mostly windows, except for its tail. Edelweiss looked up as the riders approached.
"Hey guys," she said.
"Man I'm glad it's the weekend," said D'Angelo, patting Plowhorn. Edelweiss finished cleaning the helicopter's windows and settled herself down in her porch swing.
"What exactly do you do all day while we're at school?" Alex asked Edelweiss.
"Different things," said Edelweiss. "I ride around the area on Black Widow, unless she's out hunting. On those days I just cook, clean, water my flowers, or just read something."
"I thought Black Widow hunted at night," said Tom.
"She does," said Edelweiss. "My dragons tend to spend about a week straight out hunting." Then she stretched her limbs. "So you still talking to pen pals?"
"Yeah, mine has such a big ego," Eugene grumbled. "She goes on and on about the trophies she's won."
"Mine had a friend attacked by a shark, almost bit him in half," said Alex with a shutter. "Remind me to never go in the ocean."
"My pen pal is writing his thesis on sharks," said D'Angelo. "He doesn't write back much so he can have time to write it."
"Sharks don't really understand surfing I think," said Edelweiss. "Especially if they're young and have never seen a human on a surf board before. To them surfers are basically UFOs."
"That makes perfect sense," said Tom. "We humans often see things that we don't understand right away, like these dragons." He patted Thunder on the head. "I told my pen pal about you Edel, and how you've been to the top of Mt. Everest. She said that she hopes to at least see Mt. Everest even if she doesn't climb it. She really likes your name too."
"It is quite a sight," Edelweiss said. "The view from the top is very pretty on a clear day, but I don't think it's worth risking your life over."
"You said you've been to Mt. Everest several times," said Jun. "But you've never seen a Yeti."
"No I haven't," said Edelweiss. "I know they're out there though, along with all the other creatures of myth. We don't bother them and they don't bother us."
"My pen pal said one of her favorite mythical creatures is the Yeti," said Jun. Then she looked Edelweiss in the eye. "Can I tell her about your dragon form? We both have a passion for mythical creatures, including dragons."
"No," Edelweiss said firmly, her eyes were hard. "I don't want the whole world knowing about that."
"Oh come on, you know how the Chinese feel about dragons," said Jun. "Especially ones that you look like."
"I also know how they feel about the color white," Edelweiss said. "It's the color of death for them. They might see me as a bad omen, the answer's still no." She got up and went back to washing the windows of her helicopter.
Later that evening; Jun sat at her computer. She stared at the chat room on the screen for a few minutes. Then she started typing:
'Hey Yi; I'm wondering, how good are you at keeping secrets? My friends and I have a pretty big one, that we don't want the wrong people finding out about it. But I'm sure you'd be interested in it.'
Jun sent the message. She waited for a reply. All the while she looked up information on Shanghai, learning all she could about the city. A few minuets later she got a reply.
'Hi Jun; I'm pretty good at keeping secrets. My friends and I have a pretty big secret ourselves. We too don't want the wrong people know about ours. So I understand where your coming from.'
Jun beamed. She wondered if Yi's secret had to do with dragons as well, or something similar. She thought carefully about her response before she started typing again.
'Ok, so our secret is that the Kullersen Fissure leads to an underground world of dragons, yeah real dragons. Tom discovered his dragon, Thunder, shortly after he and his mom arrived at ICARIS. That lead to each of my friends finding dragons of our own. My dragon is a two headed dragon, I call him Wu and Wei. We met our friend Edelweiss Dragonborn shortly afterwards. She's lived with dragons her whole life and can actually communicate with them. There's some other stuff about her, but she asked me to not tell. She's really shy around people. Hopefully someday she'll let me tell you about it all.'
Jun jumped when she heard a knock on the door. She spun around in her chair as her mom entered her room, all business as usual.
"Jun, it's almost time for dinner," she said. "What are you doing on that computer?"
"I'm just talking to my pen pal," said Jun. The computer dinged as another message came through. "I'll be right there." Dr. Wong nodded in approval, then left. Jun turned back to the computer and read Yi's reply.
'Wow, real dragons! That sounds amazing. Your friend Edelweiss sounds pretty great too. I hope I can meet your dragons someday. Anyway our big secret is that we help magical creatures, with anything they need help with. We've helped quite a few so far. Hey, maybe you can come out and visit Shanghai for a while. Any story I tell you on here wouldn't do our adventures justice. It has to be seen to be fully understood. My mom would love to have you, I've already asked her. Ask your parents then answer back.'
Jun's eyes went wide. The idea of visiting Shanghai and seeing real magical creatures sounded like the adventure of a lifetime, much like riding a dragon. She got up from her desk and headed to dinner. She picked at the salad on her plate.
"Hey mom, Yi's invited me to visit her in Shanghai for a time," she said. "Can I go?" Dr. Wong looked up at her.
"Shanghai is very far away you know," she said. "And it would be awfully expensive. Every dime we make here goes into recourses to keep us alive and fully functioning." Jun's face fell.
"Well, Edelweiss does have that new state of the art helicopter that can fly over a thousand miles," said Eugene with his mouth full. Jun looked hopeful again.
"That is true, we helped her order it," Dr. Wong agreed. She took a bite of salad as she thought it over. "All right Jun. If you can talk Edelweiss into taking you, then you can go. But only for two weeks, you still have school." Jun jumped up in excitement.
"Thank you!" She exclaimed. "I'll go ask her right now."
"No, sit down and eat your dinner," said Dr. Wong firmly. "You can ask her tomorrow." Jun obeyed. She spend the rest of the night going over how she was going to convince Edelweiss to fly her to Shanghai.