Yes, I thought, the dragon could probably help us. She seemed sincere enough earlier, and it’s not like we can’t kill her if she tries anything funny.

“We’re keeping her!” I declared in a loud voice. Max gave me a funny look and opened his mouth to protest, but quickly clammed up with a glare from Amber. She nodded encouragingly at me as a show of agreement.

The dragon, who had been eavesdropping on our conversation, eagerly perked her head up.

Bending down to look at the dragon, I asked, “How would you like to join us? We’re trying to find your boss and to save my friend. I know I’m asking you to betray your boss or whatever you call her, but I’m assuming you don’t have a good history with the Dragon Duchess. Do you want to lend a hand?”

“Yes!” The dragon exclaimed. “That’s a great idea! I’m sick and tired of being looked down upon by all the other dragons because I’m smaller and weaker than them.” Looking at the skeptical expression on Max’s face, she added, “I’ll help in battle, too! I know everything the evil Dragon Duchess is up to. I’ll tell you all that I know while we keep moving. I’ll be as much help as I possibly can! I promise. I won’t be useless! I’ll do everything to help

Wow, she was talking like she had been on our side from the start. I thought dragons were supposed to be loyal. Did I watch too many children’s movies or was this particular one just an opportunist?

Finally, Max gave a hesitant nod, helped along by the glares Amber and I shot him. “Fine. We’ll keep her,” he finally muttered. “I’m still keeping an eye on her just in case, though. We don’t want her getting too confident about herself, now do we?”

Amber rolled her eyes. I joined her.

After taking a closer look at our new ally, she seemed completely harmless despite the way she almost made us all into ice sculptures.

“But if the evil Dragon Duchess knows that I joined you, she will definitely have me killed,” the dragon hung its head. “She already hates me enough.”

At Max’s unimpressed look, she squeaked and hurriedly made amends for her mistake, bopping her head up and down so violently I was surprised she wasn’t getting whiplash.

“I mean, who cares if she kills me? She already called me a failure. No one would care if I died or betrayed her! I hate her too! It’ll be easier for you to help your friend if I’m helping you out. Ah, I wish I had friends to protect. That is, if she doesn’t send all her evil warriors after me. I’m not sure I can escape the wrath of an entire battalion. I’m going off on a tangent, aren’t I? Anyway, please let me join your team!”

Amber bent down next to me and looked at the dragon kindly, “It's okay, we’ll protect you now that you’re one of us,” she murmured with great warmth in her voice. “I’m Amber, that sullen boy over there goes by Max, and the other girl’s name is Mackie Jade. Also, why don’t we give you a name?”

“Nice to meet you, Amber, Max, and Mackie Jade!” The little dragon's eyes lit up immediately. “To be fair, I already have a - actually, nevermind. It’s the least I could allow since you’re sparing me!”

“Wait, what kind of logic-” I began, but Amber probably already thought of three thousand names. Frankly, the manic glint in her eyes was terrifying, but I could see where her excitement was stemming from. We were naming our very own dragon.

“Okay,” Amber said, “ How about Lilyheart?” The dragon, newly christened as Lilyheart (which by the way, I was completely against that name), nodded happily while Max and I groaned at the stupidity of the name. Of all the names Amber could pick, why couldn’t she pick something cooler or more normal?

“Great, now that’s decided!” Amber clapped her hands together in triumph. “By the way, you’re large enough to fit all three of us on your back, right? Would you mind giving us a ride over to New York City? That’s where we were planning to go,” she told Lilyheart.

“No can do,” the little dragon replied, “unless you guys know some form of invisibility magic. I don’t suppose that a dragon with riders in the middle of New York City is normal, right? People might think that we’re evil or something. New York City is a place, right?” She added, a claw thoughtfully tapping her chin. “Is it evil?”

“No, silly! It’s a big city, with people! It’s definitely not evil at all! The only thing we should worry about is how we are going to get there,” Amber grinned, mischief underlined with warmth.

“What do you mean it’s not evil at all? Stop lying to her,” I muttered, but neither Lilyheart nor Amber seemed to hear.

The Dragon Duchess must have done horrendous things. She had left Lilyheart so confused about the world. Lilyheart shouldn’t be that old, even for a dragon, but yet she automatically assumes that everything is evil. Has she ever even met someone who was nice to her aside from us (barring the deathmatch, of course)?

Amber and Max must have also realized that Lilyheart had been through terrible experiences.

While Lilyheart fiddled with her armor, I gestured to her and stuck out my tongue. Keep our conversations in a merry tone, I signaled.

Amber nodded, and gently bent down to sit with Lilyheart. “We’ll think of something. Don’t worry.” This received a happy yelp from the tiny dragon.

I call it a yelp, but it really sounded more like a roar. Apparently, dragons didn’t have inside voices. As I watched the crows that had been startled out of their nests flee the forest, I wondered how we were going to manage stealth missions now that we had one extremely loud dragon with us.

Max rolled his eyes and forced a smile at the dragon.

“Thanks! I’ll make sure not to do anything evil!” Lilyheart laughed before her expression turned serious. “Also, would you guys mind moving this tree trunk off of me? I might be a bit trapped.”

“Oh no, we completely forgot! Sorry, we’ll get you standing on your own feet right now!” Amber gasped as she scrambled on top of the dragon. “Come on, guys! Help me shove this thing off our new friend!”

Reluctantly, Max climbed on Lilyheart as I forcefully pulled him up. With a few heaves and a strange spell from Amber, we managed to transfer the fallen tree trunk to the ground. Relishing the return of her freedom, Lilyheart stretched her wings and pranced around to jumpstart the blood circulation in her legs.

The entire earth also pranced underneath her.

I smiled at the happy dragon and turned my attention back to the problem at hand.

How were we going to get to New York City? The Dragon Duchess probably knew most of the potential methods of transportation we could use, which was how she managed to stop our bus so quickly. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was prepared for us to come flying in on Lilyheart.

I sighed.

In that case, what were we left with? Lilyheart was small for a dragon, but huge for a human. That concern also went for everyone in New York City. Even if her size wasn’t the problem, a blue dragon flying over a city is at least somewhat irregular, even in New Yorker terms where you could literally walk down a street covered in blood and no one would bat an eye.

If we rode into a densely populated city on a dragon, practically everything that can breathe and see would notice. There was no way to turn her into a human to help blend in, was there?

“Why don’t we call Minh-ity Ding-ity for some advice?” I suggested. “We are not in trouble so she does not have to help us.”

That brought everyone to a consensus, though Amber stared at me in awe.

An invisible wind slithered down my suddenly cold back.

Minh was going to kill me for using that nickname, wasn’t she?

“Who is Minh?” Lilyheart asked confusedly. “Is it evil?”

Leaving Amber to explain to Lilyheart about Minh, I pulled out my phone and texted Minh:

Hey Minh! We got off the bus… fairly safely… and now we have a dragon! Wanna help us somehow fly through New York without causing a third world war?

Within seconds, Minh texted back:

Your explanation went from 1 to 100 real quick. Take only 1 drop, k?

My eyebrows raised.

What. I typed back furiously. There was no reply.

“I got left on read!” I cheered sarcastically.

All of a sudden, a potion exploded onto my hands in a burst of green smoke, making me fall, and slam into Max, who crashed, hard, into Amber, who then smashed into Lilyheart.

“Dude!” Max, Amber and Lilyheart yelled.

“Oh, be quiet,” I said, turning red, “we got the… the potion.”

I held up the bottle that Minh had sent to inspect its contents. Inside was a happy-looking, yellow-colored liquid that mildly resembled cough medicine.

Max let out a contemptuous snort.

“Hey, Max, I think I forgot to introduce you to my FIST!” I punched him in the arm.

“Ow, that hurt! How dare you wound me so!” He faked a dramatic faint.

Amber slapped his arm next.

As the two engaged in a battle of slaps, I turned to our dragon.

“Here,” I uncorked the bottle and gave the potion to Lilyheart.

“Thanks,” she responded as she clutched the small bottle in one claw. She tipped her chin back and slowly tipped the bottle towards her mouth to lick a single drop of yellow liquid that fell from the tip.

Sparkles appeared.

Um, is this supposed to happen?” Amber asked, stunned.

I shrugged at her. “Minh didn’t tell me anything.”

The sparkles crowded around Lilyheart as her form became shorter and shorter.

Although Lilyheart herself shrunk, her armor did not. Soon we could only see her armor which shielded the rest of her body from view.

“Um, guys?” Strangely, Lilyheart’s little voice sounded more human now. “Mackie Jade, can you hand me some human clothes?? Please hurry?”

“Oh... okay,” I said as I hesitantly pulled a sweater and a pair of shorts out of my backpack and tossed them over the large dragon armor.

“Thanks!”

Then a few seconds later, an adorable little girl stepped out from behind wearing my pink and blue sweater and my shorts.

She had long, frosty blue hair that hung down her shoulders, piercing crystal blue eyes that were similar to mine, and a little button nose and freckles. The short girl looked to be approximately eight years old.

Aside from the cuteness overload, she had... bright blue skin.

“Apparently Minh has no idea of what disguise means,” Max snorted. Amber slugged him in the same spot where I had punched him before, making him wince in pain.

“We’re going to New York, no one will care. Lots of people dye and paint their skin there, trust me,” I told him reassuringly.

Lilyheart was confused. “Do I look evil?”

“I think you look adorable,” Amber patted Lilyheart on the head.

The dragon-turned-human beamed, causing my friend to break out into a wide smile.

Max muttered something bitterly under his breath.

“What’s that?” I grinned, thankful for my hearing. “Are you jealous? Oooooooo-”

He turned a spectacular red. “What? I didn’t say anything! Shoo!” His arms flailed in front of me.

I grinned at him, unrepentant. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“A-ahem,” Max continued, still flustered. “If she’s a human, how is she supposed to fly us to New York?”

“She doesn’t,” Amber said, completely clueless of us but clearly thoughtful of the situation at hand. “What Minh was telling us, is probably to abandon the idea completely. We’ll need some other transportation.”

“Well, there’s a big old bus right next to us,” I pointed out. “One sec…” I dug into my backpack, searching for the only thing that could help us.

“Ah, yes. The Glowing Dragon Academy’s Magical Spellbook of Fun!” I yelped, half crying inside at the completely un-fun classes.

Finding the page of repairing spells, I cried out whatever gibberish written there with my greatest passion.

Silence. Nothing happened.

“What a lame spe-” Max started.

The bus reformed. The crushed engine seemed to be repairing itself. Bent metal unfolded and creaked loudly. The bus grew in size as its damage was undone, piece by piece. Soon, the bus was as good as new.

“See, Max! It’s fixed now. My magic works too!” I beamed.

“Says the person who doesn’t know her power.” Max smirked. “If only you were educated, right?”

That rubbed me the wrong way.

“It’s unfortunate that you had to live with zero knowledge of magic for most of your childhood. Did your parents not tell you anything?” He continued.

My eyebrows instantly furrowed.

Max backed up under my deathly glare. “Uh, I’m sorry?” He held up his hands. “I was just teasing! I didn’t mean anything by it. Haha.”

I stared at him with a frown, unimpressed.

Amber snorted and muttered something under her breath.

Max’s smile wilted under my gaze. “Really, I’m sorry. Let’s pretend that didn’t happen. I, uh, know I can be a little insensitive at times, but I’m trying to fix that.”

And I’m just taking the pain while you learn, right? I thought bitterly.

A searing headache was starting to bloom in the side of my head.

“Um, let’s just keep going…?” Human Lilyheart worriedly suggested.

I was filling and refilling my lungs with air, although my vision was blurring. Jeez, Mackie… Calm down… it’s not like you haven’t heard these things before.

“Mackie?!” Amber yelled frantically.

My head went light. My hands tingled uncomfortably and my ears were ringing.

“M-mackie? Hey, I’m really sorry. I genuinely am.” Max stammered.

I looked down. For the first time, I noticed floating rocks.

And the water.

And the big pieces of earth floating around me.

They formed a huge crescent-shaped symbol. The water coalesced into orbs and spread outside the huge symbols. They cast a strange light upon the symbol and sparked ominously, before the orbs fell apart.

I felt a sudden panic in my chest-

Something snapped into me and I fell. The world went black.

I couldn’t stop the mysterious tears from slipping down my face.