Jake sat at his bedroom window that night confused, and frustrated. He had her, he was so close, and then, it all just vanished without a trace, like arrows in the darkness. He wasn't sure what went wrong. No one was. He couldn't help but think he had missed something. The thought nagged at his mind. There was something there, something in plain sight, yet somehow he missed it. He wasn't sure what it was, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, everything looked pretty normal.

His grandfather's words echoed through his mind.

"Remember young dragon, You will not always be able to rely on your eyes. As the American Dragon, you will face situations where not everything is as it seems."

It was getting late, but Jake jumped up and started heading out the window. He has going to check the area where the trail ended again. There had to be something he missed. People don't just vanish into thin air. Actually there are multiple magical ways they could, but Jake doubted that was the case.

Jake changed into his dragon form and started flying across the night sky, heading towards Long Pond Park on Staten Island. He was going to be spending a lot of time there by the looks of it.


Jake found the spot relatively easy. He changed back to his human form as he landed. He started surveying the area carefully. Looking carefully for anything that even gave the slightest hint that it didn't belong there. The park was even quieter at night. Away from the noise of the big city, the daytime had been pretty quiet for being in New York, but the night, it was almost like there was nothing within a hundred miles of here. No matter how long Jake stared, he couldn't see anything that looked like it might contain a secret of some sort.

Gramps's voice made its way into Jake's head, "Your eyes cannot be trusted."

Jake shut his eyes, "Nose of the Dragon." Jake said, as his face morphed.

Jake took several deep breaths in, using his stronger dragon nose to try and detect anything that didn't feel like it was in the environment naturally. Something that stood out against all the other overwhelming smells of the forest.

"Identify the exact scent of what you are searching for, and not be distracted by similar scents in your environment." Gramp's voice sprang through his mind.

Jake focused as much as he could but it was no use, nothing in the environment smelled abnormal.

"Ear of the Dragon." Jake said, hoping to have better luck with the sounds.

Even with his enhanced dragon hearing, the forest was still silent. Not even the sound of a leaf dropping could be heard. All was peaceful.

Jake's frustration grew even stronger. There had to be something here, but there wasn't. No matter how deeply he examined the area, there was nothing there. Not one thing Jake could use to figure out where Rose went.

Jake's frustration turned into rage. As he let out a scream of anger, he morphed back into his dragon form and sucker punched a nearby rock with all of his strength, shattering it, and sending a large crashing sound echoing through the entire forest.


Rose sat there tied to her chair, drifting off. She was starting to break down mentally. The days she'd been here, she hasn't seen or heard anything. It was starting to get to her, she was slowly going insane. She hasn't seen any form of light, just darkness. She hasn't heard a single noise that she didn't make, but then suddenly that changed. She heard a loud crash from not too far away.

"Hello?" she shouted with a hoarse voice, "Is anyone there? Can you hear me? I need help! Please help me!"


Jake stood there panting. The rock was huge, and shattering it took quite a bit of strength. After the sound of the rock breaking ended, the forest was silent again, but then it wasn't. Jake thought he heard a voice fairly close. He listened in with his dragon ears, focusing hard to try hear it, not sure if it was real or if it was his imagination. He hold absolutely still and put all his attention on listening, and then he heard it.

"Someone help me! Please! Help me!"