Fu's ears twitched towards the front area when he heard the telltale jingle of the bell. Lifting his head from the couch, he raised a brow. That couldn't be Lao Shi. He was going to be gone for an hour at least, and it had only been fifteen minutes. Before Fu had time to consider who it was, he heard Jake call for him, "Yo, Fu! You here?"
Hopping off the couch, the shar pei made his way through the curtains while saying, "Yeah, I'm here. The old man went out for-" The dog's sentence came to an abrupt stop when his eyes landed on the fourth, unfamiliar face among the group. He seemed to freeze up with this look of horrified shock on his features, and the group was sure he was white as a sheet underneath his grey fur.
"It's alright, mate," Nigel held up his normal hand and made magic flicker around it. "I'm the one who helped Long with Maximinus a little while ago."
"Ah! The wizard kid!" Fu's face lit up with realization and his tense body relaxed. "Phew, that's a relief. I thought I messed up big time for a second there," he wiped his brow of invisible sweat and chuckled nervously. "You probably already put two and two together, but I'm Fu Dog, the American Dragon's animal guardian."
"Nigel Thrall," he introduced himself with a smile. "And it's sorcerer if you don't mind."
"So what brings you kids here?" he asked, sweeping his gaze across the whole group. "Last I checked, it wasn't even noon."
"Oh, classes got canceled because Brock's being arrested," Spud answered nonchalantly as if he hadn't just dropped a bombshell on the magical guardian.
The dog's eyes went wide once more and he began to sputter, unable to pull together the right words. "Kid, I told you to get him fired, not arrested!" he exclaimed.
Jake held up his hands in a defensive display, "Hey, don't blame me! He's the one who put us in a cage and brought us up on stage." Fu's look became even more bewildered as a result of the out-of-context information he was just given. "Look, I'll tell you the whole thing later. Right now, we've got something a little more urgent," the teen gestured towards Nigel.
Before Fu could rebut the young dragon, Nigel withdrew his hand from his pocket and held it down where the dog could get a good look at it. The shar pei shifted gears and turned his interest towards the dragon paw the teen was presenting to him, intrigue written on his face. "Nigel was trying to get a sample of the Brockium and some of it got on him," Jake continued.
"Oh, speaking of…" Nigel used his free hand to pull the vial from his pocket and handed it off to the dog. "I think you'll make better use of this." The dog took another moment to study the flask of compounds like he'd gain some important information from it.
"You said that stuff forced you into your dragon form?" Fu glanced at Jake, who nodded in response. He returned his attention to the dragon claw. "I'd say this is an open and shut case, but I can't be so sure. I'd need to study this bad boy-" he held up the vial "-before I could say for sure."
"Any idea how long that would take?" Jake asked.
The shar pei took a moment to think, "I dunno. A few hours at least."
"C'mon, Fu!" the young dragon urged with a pleading expression. "There's gotta be another way. We just need to know if Nigel's actually a dragon or not." It wasn't just for peace of mind. If he was one and his powers had become active, he'd need to be taught how to control them for his own safety and to preserve the secret that was the magical world.
"Isn't there some sort of magical DNA test you can do or something?" Spud spoke up.
"Actually, yeah," the shar pei's face brightened, much to the surprise of the other four in the room. "Follow me." The dog put the vial in his mouth before dropping on all fours to lead the group to the back.
Once in the back, Fu set the vial on the desk for later and then went about gathering things from around the shop. "There's actually a little spell I can whip up that will show us anyone's family tree," he began to explain as he dragged a small pot out into the middle of the room. "If we've got a DNA sample, that is, which shouldn't be a problem." Fu began dumping various ingredients into the cauldron, sometimes pausing to stir it before adding something else. Finally, he came back over to Nigel, grabbed his right hand, and, without warning, plucked an ivory scale off the back of it, making Jake wince sympathetically. He'd only had a scale plucked a couple of times before, but those few times were more than enough.
"Ow!" the young sorcerer pulled his hand away, rubbing the stinging spot on the back of his hand. "You couldn't have warned me?" he sent a harsh look towards the magical guardian, who didn't even notice it as he was already making his way over to the desk.
"I coulda, but the anticipation just makes it worse," he shrugged his shoulders, opening one of the drawers to retrieve what looked like a crystal ball with a very distinctive dragon base. The key difference was that it was an empty glass ball, not crystal. "Besides, you know what they say: Scales tell tales," he chuckled as he unscrewed the glass ball from the dragon base only to stop when he saw the unamused stare the young sorcerer was giving him. "Yeesh, tough crowd," he frowned some before going back to his work. He dipped the glass ball, which had a hole where it connected with the stand, and dipped it down into the cauldron. Once full, he screwed it back on, making sure it was on tight. Finally, he took the scale and inserted it into the Chinese dragon's mouth, which promptly clamped down to keep it in place.
With everything prepared, he turned back to the group, who'd been silently watching with interest. "Alright, this oughtta show us your family tree," he tapped the top, causing the ball to light up with a gentle glow. "If there are dragons in there, they should show up here." Fu hoisted the ball up onto the desk, gesturing them over. "Just swipe your finger across the ball to move through your relatives, tap to zoom in, and do a pinching motion outwards to see the whole picture," he instructed as Nigel stepped up to the device.
He nodded, immediately jumping straight to Fu's third suggestion. The swirling liquid inside cleared to a misty blue and the image of a literal tree appeared within. On the leaves were the faces of people, some of which had a second image depicting them with cloaks around their shoulders. Unable to help their curiosity, the other three peered over the sorcerer's shoulders, glancing at a few faces.
The sorcerer began scanning over the leaves, looking for any evidence of a dragon. If his mother and father were seen with their cloaks, then surely it would also depict a dragon as, well, a dragon. After glancing through the leaves for a few moments, one caught his eye. Tapping it, the ball focused on the leaf, zooming in enough that his image could be seen better. It was a man, dressed like he belonged in one of those documentaries about the roaring twenties, and directly beside his image was that of a dragon.
Nigel stared at the image with wide eyes, utterly stunned for a few moments, and the other three behind him looked surprised as well. "I don't believe it," he finally muttered. "But I don't understand," he shook his head, visibly perplexed. "Shouldn't everyone on my father's side have these powers?"
Fu stepped a little closer to get a better view, humming as he studied the image. "Looks like the last dragon to be in your family tree was all the way back in the early nineteen hundreds." He reached up and zoomed the image out to look at the rest of the tree. "Seems like the dragon blood just got diluted with time," he supplied, gesturing to the line of wizards and witches that followed after the dragon. "I guess it got to the point where people in your family stopped inheriting powers - at least ones that are active, anyway."
"And the Brockium must have made them manifest," Jake added with growing realization.
"Bingo!" the shar pei exclaimed. "Which means I should look over it ASAP," he turned curious eyes on the vial. "It must be some pretty potent stuff if it can drag out dormant dragon powers. And speaking of, you might want to show him-" Fu pointed at Nigel "-the basics so nothing bad happens."
Jake nodded in agreement. He had already begun thinking about that. Gramps was away, and if he was honest, he didn't want to leave Nigel to his grandfather's mercy. They might be rivals and they might've just had a magical campaign war a week and a half ago, but he wasn't that cruel. "Oh, one more thing. What's with the webbing?" he gestured towards the sorcerer's scaly paw.
"Oh, that? It just means he's a Wyvern," the shar pei answered nonchalantly, earning a few befuddled looks from the other occupants.
"I thought Nigel was a dragon, not a Wyvern," Spud frowned in confusion.
"A Wyvern is a type of dragon," Fu informed. "They're a lot like the standard dragon, but their wings take the place of their front legs. They technically also have arms, but they can't have wings and arms at the same time."
"You're telling me I won't have any arms when I transform?" Nigel repeated with an astonished look. Sure, he'd have them when he was human and it sounded like he'd have them part of the time as a dragon, but it would still be an adjustment, especially since it was second nature to wave his hand to cast a spell.
The dog nodded. "What can I say? Fate's a cruel mistress."
"Alright, that'll make teaching you to fly a bit tricky, but I should still be able to walk you through transforming," Jake turned to the other teen with a determined look.
"Not in here, you aren't!" Fu cut in abruptly. "Wyverns have got wingspans like you wouldn't believe! And one new to their powers?" the dog grimaced at the thought. "This place would be a wreck in five minutes, tops."
"I'm not a child, you know," the sorcerer crossed his arms and sent the magical guardian a look, his ego a tad bruised by his presumptions.
"No, but you are an inexperienced dragon," he replied pointedly. "And inexperienced dragons tend to be a little clumsy when they first transform. So please, for my sake, go do this somewhere else." Though the dog was pleading with them, his expression was stern. He was not about to have Lao Shi come back to a wrecked shop and catch an earful for it. Before Jake could reply, the shar pei turned and hopped up on the stool next to his desk, already grabbing the vial to inspect it.
"And where does he expect us to go?" Trixie asked with her hands on her hips. "We can't just do this out in the open."
"Don't worry. I think I know a good place," the young dragon replied vaguely.
Like I said in the last note, I haven't quite got the next part written up yet fully. I'm a bit stuck, so I don't know exactly when the next part will come out. That being said, thanks for reading this far!