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Anomaly detected. Unknown energy fluctuations.

The draconic technician working for the budding Draconis Industries International glanced up from his work, a look of curiosity on his muzzle. The dragon was a strange green on green. His belly was a lighter shade with several more strips running down his back alongside a small crest.

“An anomaly?” the technician muttered to himself, scooting over to his second computer. “Where?”

He tapped away at a couple keys, triangulating on the power fluctuation even as it began to fade out. His knees twitched with nervous energy as he silently willed the computer to work faster.

The machine chimed as if found what it was looking for. The dragon frowned at the screen.

“There’s nothing there.”

Deciding that his superiors should be notified, he dumped the information to his personal tablet and strode into the DII Information Center. Dragons and humans, technicians like him, sat at their consoles and monitors as they maintained the numberless systems and sensors built into the primary DII headquarters where Draconis himself, and his siblings, ran their modernized and technological company. The amount of information and data delivered here rivalled that of the Pentagon.

Hunting through the rather spacious area, he easily found who he sought: a dragoness many times his senior, said to be older than even Draconis. Her scales were lavender and nearly the same color as her milkywhite underbelly. Her name was Emera, and she was second only to Draconis and his siblings.

The technician found her up on the command podium where she could hear and see all. She spoke with one of the other technicians adamantly. The green dragon waited at a respectful distance for her to finish, the stations of the most senior technicians not a couple steps away.

Emera finished with the current technician, sending it away and motioning the dragon over. “Problem technician Hendrick?”

How she managed to memorize everyone’s names, Hendrik would never know.

“I thought you needed to see this Ma’am.” Hendrik handed over the tablet to Emera’s waiting claws. She studied it a moment, eyeridges rising as she spotted what Hendrik had seen. Suddenly, she offered it back to the technician.

“Take this to Draconis,” she ordered.

“Ma’am?” Hendrik asked, confused. He hesitantly grasped the device.

“You and I both see the problem with this, right?” Emera asked rhetorically. “It’s not my decision on what we do about it.” She gave Hendrik a hard stare, and he felt himself folding under the dragoness’s gaze. “Take this to Draconis,” she repeated.

Hendrik found himself heading towards Draconis’s sanctum a few minutes later, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. The owners of DII lived within a small series of rooms during their stays on the grounds.

In the meantime, Hendrik marveled at the lack of security. There’d been only one guard herding him into this hallway and a handful of cameras along the walls. The technician at least expected a full squad of those secret undercover operatives some of the other technicians whispered about. They said there were several teams of the most deadly soldiers in the world somewhere within the facility, though nobody had seen them.

A door waited for him at the end of the hall. A plain wood door, though he suspected the interior was lined with metal. It looked, and probably was, no different from the doors to the Information Center. Was Draconis crazy or just humble?

There was an intercom next to the door. That seemed even odder. Hendrik pressed the call button and said, “Hello? Technician Hendrik, here to see Draconis... Emera sent me.”

The Green stepped back for a moment, expecting a guard or security personnel to answer and open the door. Instead, an unfamiliar voice, feminine, replied over the intercom. “He’s in. The door’s unlocked.”
Hendrik held his tablet a little tighter to his chest and opened the door. A small suite waited on the other side, complete with wood floors, carpets, tables, and a series of TV’s and monitors strewn about the room. A blue dragoness with golden scutes sat at one of the computers. She was relatively small, but quite striking. Hendrik assumed her to be a secretary for Draconis. It only made sense.

“He’s in the back,” the dragoness said, not looking up from her work. She pointed towards one of the doorways before ignoring Hendrik completely. The technician shrugged to himself and stepped into the next room.

The sight that met him was the oddest yet.

The room was the size of a small living room, and looked the part. A television mounted on one wall played the local news channel while the two dragons sat on a couch opposite of it. One dragon was green like Hendrik, but with silver scutes and darker green membranes. He was unmistakable: Drake Draconis, brother of Draco Draconis. Drake had his talons up on the coffee table, and seemed to be asleep.

Sitting beside Drake was none other than Draco Draconis, owner and creator of Draconis Industries International. His deep red scales fit perfectly with his golden mane, crest, and tailblade, and contrasted beautifully with his blue wing membranes. Twin golden tattoos wrapped themselves around either arm. A televised interview with Draco had reporters saying that if there ever was a handsome dragon, it’d be him.

Draconis glanced over from the news, spotting Hendrik in the doorway. “Technician,” Draconis said, his tones less gravelly than most dragons. “What can I do for you?”

“Emera sent me to bring this to your attention,” Hendrik said, holding out the tablet.

“Alright.” Draconis stood up, and Hendrik realized just how tall the dragon was. Being above average in height, Draconis had a good halffoot on the smaller Green. His already intimidating aspect was added to.

The red and gold dragon received the proffered tablet from the technician. Draconis studied the images and data, and eyeridge rising as Emera’s and Hendrik’s had as he deciphered the anomaly.

“So...” Draconis began, staring hard at the data. “You’re telling me that, out in the middle of nowhere in the United States, there’s a hidden nuclear reactor that nobody knows about, that ran for a period of fifteen minutes only, or there was an underground nuclear explosion that registered the smallest of fallout? That, or there was a glitch with our orbital surveyors and they picked up on something that wasn’t there?”

“Yes,” Hendrik replied, feeling stupid for bringing something so trivial to his superior’s attention. Draconis must have caught the look in his eyes.

“Don’t look so sheepish,” Draconis chuckled, handing the tablet back. “You did your job correctly. We ask for you to monitor our orbital surveyors and you did just that. My sister and I might seem a little intimidating, but don’t let that stop you if something needs doing.” Draconis jerked a thumb over his shoulder, a grin on his muzzle. “My brother on the other hand...”

Hendrik did chuckle at that. Draconis put a reassuring claw on the technician's shoulder.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, technician. You may go back to your station, but have Emera send me the data, okay?”

“Yes, sir!” Hendrik nodded, and made to leave. He’d tell the other technicians what happened in the cafeteria, not that they’d believe that he met two owners of DII. Drake and Draco Draconis? They’d ask. What about Brad Pitt and Taylor Swift?

After Hendrik left, Draconis stepped into the next room where his sister worked. She hadn't moved from her chair.

“I like him,” Draconis said, indicating the door. The dragoness couldn’t see where he was pointing, but she knew him well enough to know already.

“You say that about every dragon you rescue,” she replied smoothly. Her attention never wavered from the screen.

“Come on, Sapphire, lighten up!” Draconis goaded. “You get so tense. Why don’t you ever take a break?”

Sapphira finally turned and glared at her brother, catching the subtle pun he’d secreted into his words. “I can’t take a break and you know it!” she snapped. “I practically run this company dayin and dayout. It’s bad enough that you spend your time fooling with toys, but our brother hasn’t the luxury to sit on his tail all day.” Draconis was grinning. “And that wasn’t funny,” she added.

“You know it was,” Draconis shot back.

Sapphira made a face and turned back to the computer. “So what are you going to do about it?”

The red and gold dragon frowned at the sudden change of subject. He also frowned at the thought that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do, seeing as he had the assets to do what needed to be done in most situations. This puzzle would require a bit more effort to solve than normal. Draconis didn’t like that.

“I need more information,” Draconis supplied. “If we saw something like this, and it wasn’t a glitch, then the government picked up on it too. There’ll be reports somewhere.”

“You’re going to wait and see if it happens again?”

“That’s the plan!”

“And if it does happen again?” Sapphira put to her brother.

“We send someone in.” Draconis replied. He started for the door to the rest of the

complex. “I’m going to take a closer look at the data and see what Emera thinks. I should probably notify some of our friends as well.” Draconis stopped halfway out the door as if a switch had been flipped. A wing twitched, and he turned back to his sister, an embarrassed expression on his muzzle. “What was the name of that technician?”

Sapphira just shook her head and laughed.

“Yo! Draconis, what’s up?” Zorath asked.

“Do you remember that anomaly I told you about? The one that didn’t make any sense?” The red and gold dragon was speaking hurriedly, and that bothered Zorath more than he cared to admit.

“Yes. What about it?”

“It’s shown up again on a different surveyor in the exact same place. The impulse is weak so it’s probably underground or shielded, whatever it is, but there’s definitely something there.”

Draconis thought he could hear Zorath frown on the other end of the line. There was a scraping sound as if Zorath was shifting in his seat. Draconis’s siblings heard it too. They were sitting at computers beside their brother within their series of suites. Both had headsets patched into the call, though they weren’t going to speak. Zorath was Draconis’s Supreme Chancellor, and so it was his responsibility to inform him.

“Do you think the government found it?” Zorath asked.

“They must have picked it up if we did. I don’t think they’ve looked into it yet, but they’re going to this time, if not the next. I'm assuming that they’ll do it soon too.”

There was a pause. The dragons’ light breathing could be heard. Sapphira and Drake glanced at their brother, who seemed to listen for Zorath’s response with baited breath. When he opened his mouth to continue, his voice was low. “Should we bring the Council into this?” Draconis asked.

“No!” Zorath’s growl was firm. “The Council doesn’t need to be involved, not yet anyway; too highprofile. We do need to jump on this though.” There was a clicking sound as Zorath dug through his computer’s systems, searching for something.

“What do we do then?” Draconis asked. “My options are limited, but I could probably get someone on the ground in the near vicinity. Anymore would look suspicious.”

“The dragon who owns the property, is that really what he looks like?”

“Supposedly,” Draconis pulled up the file and read off it. “Mruzo Darth’fulamee; 23 years old; male dragon; formerly human; works as a freelancing web designer. He doesn’t seem to have any real interests in social networks or activities of any kind. All that we found were memberships to the local book store and grocery store, couple credit cards, and a Bachelor’s degree. Overall, he seems to be quite a recluse.

“That could work in our favor,” Zorath mused. “Why don’t we have our good Doctor make a house call? He’d love to study a dragon with those... features, and he could look into our anomaly without much suspicion being aroused.”

“I’ll contact him then. I have a feeling that we don’t have much time.”

“If you keep saying that you’ll end up jinxing us,” Zorath chuckled. He sighed and suddenly and returned to a more serious note.

“Keep me updated on this and let me know what the Doctor finds.”

“You got it, Draconis out.” “Zorath out.”

The headset clipped, signalling the end of the call. Draconis pulled the device off and found his siblings waiting expectantly. They knew what Draconis needed to do.

“Well?” Sapphira said. “Go make the call. The phone’s over there.” She pointed at the desk behind them. “Do it quick. You’ve got work to do.”

“I love you too, Blue,” Draconis replied snidely, knowing she hated the nickname. His sister only huffed and blotted him out with her work. Drake was less bothered as Draco got up from his chair.

“Tell the doc’ I said ‘hi.’” Drake told his brother, grinning cheekily and giving Sapphira a sly wink before also returning to his computer.

Draconis gave a brief snort of amusement at his siblings before heading for the phone. All three of them may seem completely different and Draconis and Drake may tease their sister for being so uptight, but they meant well. Nobody could run a company like they could, and the Draconis family was renowned even amongst the more secluded of draconic clans.

Draco picked up the cellphone. It was ordinary, unencrypted, and untampered with. He was calling the doctor after all, and therefore had to go through the hospital.

The Doctor’s personal secretary picked up the call after two rings. Draconis was impressed. “Hello, this is Dr. Arcflame’s office, how may I help you?”

“This is Draco Draconis. I’d like to speak with Torkos.”

“Sorry, sir, but Dr. Arcflame is occupied at the moment. Is there anything you’d like me to tell him?”

“Tell him to call me back at this number. I’ve got someone I’d think he’d like to meet.”

Two days later a purple dragon was flying towards Draconis’s anomaly site, entertaining himself by watching his shadow float across the ground below. His name was Dr. Torkos Arcflame, said to be the greatest draconic doctor in the world. His hospital in Idaho was the most frequented hospital in the United States. Frequented by dragons that is. He spent nearly all his time there, healing dragons in both body and soul. Sometimes, however, he left his precious hospital for various reasons. One of those was to study other dragons.

His friend, Draconis, had called him two days before, informing him of a rather interesting dragon and a problem in the local area. Torkos loved to study and record the seemingly infinite variations amongst other dragons. Differences in appearance were much more prominent amongst dragons than humans, making it that much more interesting for the dragondoc. Torkos himself was considered a rare breed: a volcanic dragon. His scales were a deep purple like obsidian, his Vplated underbelly a dark grey and a forest of horns coupled with a partial beak of fused teeth and three chin horns. Torkos’s eyes were an unnervingly solidgold, reflecting his volatile temper. The Doctor was intimidating in the extreme, more than most. This was somehow offset by his more charismatic personality.

Draconis sent him because the red and gold dragon knew Torkos would get it done. He’d find out, one way or another, what was going on... and he’d study the strange dragon too, as a bonus.

Torkos spotted the house he was looking for and angled towards it, feeling the wind tugging at his clothes. Many dragons went without clothing, especially the larger Quad dragons of twenty to forty feet in length, but it was still looked upon as inappropriate by most. Due to the high number of dragons in Idaho, more than any other state, state law allowed dragons to be without clothing.

Wing membranes swelled and pulled taut as Torkos angled in and landed heavily upon the driveway. The house was effectively out of the way, the area around it lightly wooded. Two stories tall, Torkos could see how a somewhat modest home with a bit of property could appeal to a dragon wishing to be left alone.

He padded up to the door, his talons clicking on the wood porch, and knocked. Torkos waited for a few moments and knocked again, a little harder this time. There was still no reply. The dragon frowned and finally tried the doorbell, his sensitive hearing picking up the chime as it echoed through the house.

That appeared to have worked as Torkos heard the heavier footsteps of a dragon on wood. The door was unlocked and opened. Torkos got his first look at this Mruzo Darth’fulamee, and Torkos nearly killed him for it.

Mruzo Darth’fulamee was taller than Torkos, but that was no surprise. He was 7’7” while the average for dragons was a little over eight feet. Mruzo was on the lower end of that scale. His hide of scales were a dark black, his underbelly a deeper purple like Torkos’s scales. His wings looked like a starfield had been consumed by the membrane. Twin ridges of faded purple and black worked down his back to the dragon’s tail.

This was all striking, but not extraordinary by draconic standards. It was Mruzo’s muzzle that shocked Torkos.

Where any dragon’s muzzle had an upper and lower jaw, filled with sharp teeth and set off by the oversized canines, Mruzo’s muzzle was broken into four mandibles, the interiors filled with needlelike teeth. the mandibles were plated on the outer portion, and completely separated. There was no membrane to hold them together. his skull overlapped only the base of the mandibles, with flattened slits for nostrils, eyes that were wider than Torkos expected, and three, low crests that swept out from the back of his skull like the twin ridges on his back.

“Dr. Arcflame!” Mruzo said, a slight warble in his tone as all four mandibles moved in different directions. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Torkos forced down the urge to reach for the sidearm concealed underneath his shirt and smiled warmly. “It’s three o’clock, yes?”

“Yeah... but I wasn’t expecting...” Mruzo motioned with a claw. “You.”
“I prefer not to send an underling to do this. I trust only myself when making house calls.” “Well then... um.” Mruzo clicked his mandibles together like someone steepled his

fingers. Torkos found the habit curious and had to pry his eyes off the dragon’s different anatomy as Mruzo continued. “You’re welcome to come in.”

“Thank you.”

Torkos stepped in and took a glance around. The entrance room was more spartan compared to most homes. There was some furniture, a rug between a couple chairs, a small bookcase, but not much else. The Doctor was glad, for less space meant less room for a dragon’s tail. Torkos’s exceedingly long tail had a habit of knocking things over if he didn’t constantly mind it, so he was happy.

“Would you like something to drink?” Mruzo asked politely as he padded towards what Torkos assumed to be the kitchen.

“Ah, tea. Jasmine if you have any.” Torkos played his part as house guest. It was one of the few games he liked, politics being his least favorite. The recluse of a dragon seemed to be remembering how to play his own part.

“I don’t have any Jasmine,” Mruzo was saying as Torkos walked in and took a seat at the counter. “I have lemon, green tea, and some other ones here.” The dragon dug around in the cabinets.

“Lemon will do fine, thank you.”

While Mruzo got the tea ready, Torkos couldn’t help but study the dragon out of the corner of his eye.

All four of Mruzo’s mandibles moved separately. The dragon muttered to himself quietly, probably to ignore the fact that a doctor of Torkos’s stature was in his house. He looked completely normal from the side unless his jaws were separated. And the name: Mruzo Darth’fulamee. Torkos could very well guess where the name originated from, and how most people would assume the draconic origins behind it instead of the truth.

The hot tea was soon placed before the Doctor, who took a slight sip of the scalding liquid and tried not to make a face. Boiling liquid did nothing to him, being almost completely fireproof both inside and out, but lemon was not his favorite flavor.

Mruzo slid into the seat opposite of Torkos and took a drink of his own tea. His mandibles closed around the cup as he tilted his head back, and Torkos was extremely curious as of how the dragon drank or ate seemingly without a tongue or lips. The dragon saw Torkos staring and lowered his cup.

“I’m sorry,” Mruzo said suddenly. “Does that bother you?” He indicated his mandibles. “Most people feel awkward or even disgusted seeing me eat or drink.”

“Not at all,” Torkos was quick in saying, feeling sorry for the dragon who’d must have had a hard time in public because of his mandibles despite the acceptance of dragons. “Do you mind if I look at them?”

Mruzo shrugged. “I guess not.”

“Stay seated and tilt your head back, then. I won’t do anything but look, I promise.”

The strange dragon did as he was told and Torkos stepped to Mruzo’s side to look. “Could you open your mandibles please?”

Torkos studied the dragon’s face as he did so, noting the bunching of muscle at the base of the mandibles as they pulled apart. The interior of the mandibles were lined with sharp teeth, leading to a gaping slit of a mouth Torkos never noticed before. A small, forked purple tongue rested in that mouth, barely extending past the near nonexistent lips that ringed the mouth. The teeth within were more like a normal dragon’s; two standing rows of them on both the top and bottom to bite and grind. The mouth itself was set further into Mruzo’s skull than a human’s, and seemed to be shorter in length because of this. The mandibles were to hold food as his mouth chewed and swallowed.

“Your orbicularis oris seems to have been split into four parts instead of two to control the movement of your mandibles and surround your mouth. The movement of your lips then affect the movement of your mandibles. It seems the temporalis and masseter are where they should be...” Torkos shifted his head to look at the side of Mruzo’s maw. “Please open and close your mouth a couple times for me.”

Mruzo did so and left them open as Torkos frowned at what he saw.

“The buccinator is where it’d normally be, but it seems to have been widened and enlarged to cover more of the interior jaw.”

Torkos pulled back, leaving Mruzo free to sit up while giving the Doctor a critical eye. “Meaning?”

Torkos shrugged. “Meaning despite having four mandibles, your bite will be as strong, if not stronger, than an average dragon.”

“Stronger than an average dragon?” Mruzo muttered to himself. “Cool!”

Torkos slid back into his seat opposite of Mruzo and took a pull of his tea. He motioned to the odd dragon with a claw. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you become a dragon?”

Mruzo looked surprised at the question, from what Torkos could tell anyway. For most changed dragons, their transformation from human to dragon was a touchy subject. There were two primary methods to become a dragon, and both were risky in their own ways. One could leave the newly changed dragon nothing more than an animal, and the other could leave nothing more than a steaming pile of meat behind. Those with the money or influence great enough to attempt to become a dragon for the superficial benefits it provided often had their entire lives stripped away from them. Torkos himself had originally been human and overcame those challenges to fully embrace his draconic self. It seemed Mruzo had too.

“Don’t you know already?” Mruzo asked. “I thought they wrote that stuff down. Confidential analysis and all that stuff, yeah?”

“Yes, and I read the report, but I have a hard time believing it,” Torkos replied. “‘Stepped on the stone while walking through the wooded area of your property.' Truly? You and I both know that the Hierarchy hid those stones where few people could find them. They’re often found hidden within caves or inhospitable marshes and swamps, up until they were seeded within society that is. So where did you find it?”

Torkos’s cold dissection of Mruzo’s story left him taken aback. He had no option but to come forward with the truth.

“I found it on my property in a decently sized cave,” Mruzo admitted, relatively unashamed. “I believe a dragon originally lived there.”

“Did you realize what it was?” Torkos asked, sipping at his tea.

“I did."

“And you didn’t inform the authorities until after you crushed it?”

“Yes.” Mruzo tilted his head back, looking down the length of his mandibles at the Doctor. “I knew what the law is, but I also knew what life as a dragon would be like. It wouldn’t have been much different from the one I lived before, so I crushed it.”

Torkos sighed. He’d dealt with cases like this before. People always thought that being a dragon would be the answer to everything: superior strength; superior senses of smell, sight, and hearing; tough scales; the ability to fly; an extra appendage that acted as a third hand. Torkos had heard all the reasons, but no fool stopped to think about the consequences, and there were too many. Torkos had more than a few come rolling in his hospital doors. Becoming a dragon wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but a majority of the public still hadn’t realized that yet.

“I want to see where the stone was,” Torkos declared.

That stopped Mruzo midsip.

“Uh...” Mruzo put his cup down. “Why?”

“You said a dragon used to live there. I could tell what type of dragon it was if there’s anything left. That, and I’m curious.”
“I...” Mruzo licked his lips, that purple tongue flicking out between the mandibles. “I don’t think I can find it again.”
Torkos caught onto Mruzo’s sudden change, and it wasn’t the warble. “There’s something there, isn’t there?” Torkos leaned forward, golden eyes narrowed. Any confidence Mruzo had evaporated. “There’s something there and you’re hiding it.”

“How would you know?” Mruzo snapped, trying to be bold and only partially succeeding.

“I have friends in high places,” Torkos admitted. “And right now, I’m the only dragon who can help you. The government probably knows about it, and they’re not going to be as forgiving as I will be if you tell me what’s there.”

Mruzo seemed to contemplate Torkos’s offer. The purple dragon pushed his point.

“Look, Mruzo. I’m the Doctor, and I’m looking out for you here. I believe everything you’ve said so far, but this can and will be out of your league if you don’t tell me what’s there. If you don’t, I’ll find out or myself.” Torkos leaned back, arms folded across his chest, and waited for the young dragon’s answer.

“I’ll show you,” Mruzo said. “Follow me.”
The two dragons exited out the back door, their tea forgotten.

Mruzo led Torkos down a small, unkempt dirt path that led a decent distance into his property. Sunlight streamed down between the trees in disorganized patches, blinding the dragons one moment and leaving them blinking spots from their vision the next. The quiet rustling of leaves and sounds of indigenous creatures followed the two dragons. Several times a small bird or squirrel crossed the dragons’ path, their jerky, paranoid motions catching the dragons’ enhanced eyes. They then disappeared back into the underbrush.

“I found him a few weeks ago,” Mruzo said suddenly, after they had been walking in silence for several minutes. “He’d been wandering through here when I found him, and I hid him in the cave I told you about.”

“Who’s he?” Torkos asked.

“You’ll see,” Mruzo replied cryptically.

The doctor frowned at the lack of information. He trusted Mruzo enough to follow him

he wasn’t lying about that but Torkos wasn’t going unprepared. His claw strayed to the butt of his concealed sidearm, and all his senses were on edge. Mruzo didn’t notice.

A bend in that path appeared. Torkos fully expected to follow it, but Mruzo continued following the path’s original direction. Soon, the two dragons were crunching through underbrush and dead leaves as Mruzo led them deeper into the woods.

Torkos glimpsed the hillside they’d been heading towards during the whole march. Between the trunks, he spotted a small cavern opening that was clearly not natural. Mruzo had been leading him to this, whatever it was. Torkos loosened his sidearm in its holster as they approached the cave’s entrance.

Mruzo stopped at the threshold and glanced at the Doctor. “I warn you, don’t make any sudden moves when we go in. He’s skittish, in a way.

“I’ve dealt with plenty of skittish dragons,” Torkos replied, nodding his understanding.

“You’ve never met one like this,” Mruzo retorted. Torkos doubted that, but something about the whole situation made those words ring true.

The odd dragon led the way. the roof of the cave was a good fifteen feet up, and soon began to open up once they passed the threshold. As the cave widened, the darkness closed in on them. soon, torkos could only see a few feet ahead, and he kept an eye on the floor as it sloped downwards. Mruzo did the same, the two moving forward warily.

Dull light filtered in from the entrance, and soon disappeared as they passed a corner. The floor leveled out. Torkos could tell they were in a cavernous space. Mruzo stopped, and Torkos did the same next to him. He could barely make out the dragon beside him in the gloom.

“He knows we’re here,” Mruzo said.

Twin points of light appeared before them. Eyes, Torkos realized. They were a solid red and lacked a pupil. There was no feeling a normal eye conveyed. Nothing living belonged to them. There was a clanking and grinding sound, like metal running over metal. A puff of cinders were exhaled, providing brief illumination of a face that was never alive.

“Good God,” Torkos breathed.

Mruzo picked up something sitting by the entrance. He flicked on a small hiking lamp, and the dragon before Torkos was lit in its full glory.

The dragon’s back reached almost to the ceiling as it reclined against the far wall. This dragon, however, was built of metal instead of flesh, hydraulic instead of muscle. Red eyes managed to glower from within a steel skull. The dragon’s maw was a tunnel of sharpened blades that would cut through flesh and bone with ease. Segmented armor plates, made up of alien metals that shined with a dark luster, overlapped to the tip of the dragon’s tail as it rasped over the floor. The machine even had wings. They were huge, black canvases nestled close to its body, the bone struts made of silvery metal. Torkos wondered if the dragon could actually fly.

“You have brought someone else,” the dragon growled. Its mouth moved without the need to do so, and its words, extruded by a dispassionate vox, were loaded with a thinly veiled threat. “Who is this?”

“Predaking,” Mruzo nodded with his mandibles. “This is Dr. Torkos Arcflame. He’s knowledgable when it comes to dragons, and he can help us.”

“Help us with what?” Predaking snapped. Light flared in his nostrils. “My systems are almost fully functional. No mortal may stand against me.” Predaking’s head closed with Torkos, who managed to stand his ground beneath the glare of those blank red lights. “So tell me, flesh, ”Predaking spat the word like a curse. “ How can you help me?”

Torkos knew he could do little. This dragon, this... Predaking, was like nothing Torkos had ever faced before. He knew his sidearm, and most conventional weapons, would be useless against it. He handled flesh and bones. He knew flesh and bones. Machine and metal were beyond Torkos, however. Where his knowledge failed, his personality would have to do.

“There are people coming,” Torkos said, speaking to both Mruzo and Predaking. “They’re coming because of whatever form of radiation you're throwing off has alerted them. They don’t know it yet, but once they find you, they’ll do whatever they can to capture and study

you.” Predaking growled at that, a low burst of static from his voz. “I have friends who can take care of you. We can repair your systems, cater to your every need, and grant you a purpose.” Torkos glanced at Mruzo. “Both of you.”

Predaking growled. Torkos heard one of his metallic claws come down, talons digging into the rock. Mruzo seemed to consider Torkos’s words.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Mruzo admitted. “But how do we stop whoever it is from finding him?” The dragon pointed at Predaking.

Torkos regarded the metal dragon, who glared back in return. He noted the harsh light sputtering in the metal dragon’s nostrils. “How are you powered, Predaking?”

“My core is built around a reactor,” Predaking told them. “It is functioning at 100% efficiency. The radiation it’s giving off will not be enough to kill flesh like you. You have no need to worry.”

“That radiation is exactly the problem,” Torkos growled, wondering how a machine like Predaking could be so illogical. “You need to powerdown your systems, at least to the point where you no longer emit radiation. That’s how they’re tracking you!”

Predaking snarled, static grating against the dragons’ ears, forcing Mruzo to cover the side of his head. The light in his nostrils dimmed, however, and he confirmed this a moment later.

“Auxiliary systems off; reactor efficiency at 60%; no extraneous emissions detected.”

“Good, now we have to get you out of here. There’s a safe place nearby where we can take care of you. You’ll have to head there on foot, keep your reactor at minimum efficiency, and avoid anyone you come across. I’ll let them know you’re coming, and we’ll get our best to fix you. Understood?”

“Understood,” the metal dragon snapped. Torkos gave Predaking the coordinates, ones Torkos had been forced to memorize. The location was hidden, and only someone who knew of it could find it. Hopefully, Predaking could reach it without a hitch.

“What about me,” Mruzo asked, mandibles tapping together. “Do I go with him?” “You’re coming with me,” Torkos said. “We have someone to meet.”

Mruzo led Torkos back to his house, leaving Predaking to make his way to the coordinates Torkos provided on his own. Almost fortyfive minutes had passed since the first two left the house. The tea had gone cold.

“Who’s going to be here?” Mruzo asked as they stepped in the door. There was concern secreted in the warble, and Torkos had to remind himself that the young dragon was barely into his twenties and was now part of Torkos’s conspiracy, brought on by his finding of Predaking. That meant Mruzo was his responsibility, and he felt it keenly.

“The FBI most likely,” Torkos replied. “Twice now Predaking’s radiation has been detected, and they’ve ignored it so far. My friends sent me after the second detection. The FBI won’t make the same mistake a third time. They’re bound to send someone to investigate, and our job is to put on a show for them to make sure they don’t find anything.”

“Can they find anything?”

“Most definitely should Predaking have stayed.” Torkos sat down at the table again and took a sip from his tea. Mruzo was too agitated to sit. “Empty these out and refill them,” Torkos

ordered, indicating their tea. “It’s gotta look like I only just got here. we don’t want them getting any more suspicious than they will be.”

“They’ll notice that?” Mruzo asked incredulously. He grabbed their cups and moved to the sink.

“You have a lot to learn, my young friend,” Torkos replied with a wan smile. “They’re trained to notice everything. They do their job well, but that doesn’t help us here.” Torkos stood up from the table, making a point to push in the chairs. “Now, I must make a couple phone calls to tell my friends not to kill Predaking and to inform them of the situation here.”

“They can’t kill Predaking...” Mruzo drawled, then hesitated. “Can they?”

“Quite probably.”

“But he’s a machine!” Mruzo protested, his mandibles accenting the “ch,” causing them

to click together. “A giant dragon one at that.”

“We have a Rob,” Torkos said, grinning to himself.

“What?”

Torkos chuckled and shook his head. “Nothing, just a joke in poor taste.” He left it at that.

Ten minutes later Mruzo spotted a black sedan pull into his driveway. The windows were tinted so even his impressive eyesight could not see the driver. There were no discernable markings on the car, and it pulled up right to the edge of the house, close as possible to the front door without auspiciously blocking it. Torkos had guessed right. the government had showed up.

Mruzo backed away from his front door and went to put the teabags in. It had to look authentic that Torkos had only just arrived. The Doctor was in the bathroom making encrypted phone calls, the contents of which Mruzo didn’t know. The tea was placed on the table, sidebyside as though nobody had touched them yet. Mruzo knew his part, he just hoped the new arrivals would dance to the Doctor’s tune.

There was a knock at the door, more purposeful, but less forceful than the Doctor’s an hour before. Mruzo went to get it, and the game began.

Opening the door revealed two men in suits, looking overtly formal in the warmer weather. Both men had earbeads, and both did not seem surprised by Mruzo’s appearance. That was the proof, for even Torkos had been moderately surprised by Mruzo’s mandibles.

“Uh...” Mruzo began, “can I help you?”

“Mruzo Darth’fulamee?” the first one on the left asked, as if there was any doubt to who he was.

“Yes?”

“We’re with the FBI.” The first man flashed a badge. “We’re investigating suspicious activity in the area.” The man gestured inside. “May we come in?”

“Of course, of course.”

The agents followed Mruzo in as he stepped back, looking and feeling slightly sheepish at their sudden arrival. The first man had his eyes firmly fixed on the odd dragon, while the second, who had yet to speak, scanned the room and entrances.

“We’re here because it was reported that someone or something is here on your property,” the first man said without preamble. “Have you seen anything odd or suspicious in the area recently?”

Mruzo frowned, partly for the act and partly because of the information they were withholding, according to Torkos. “No, nothing’s really happened and I haven’t seen anything,” he lied, “but there is”

A toilet flushed down the hall. All three looked in that direction. A sink ran for a couple moments, stopped, then a door opened and closed. Torkos appeared and approached down the hall. It was clear where he’d been, and his appearance only succeeded in putting the agents on the back foot, which was its entire purpose.

Torkos stopped. “Mruzo,” he said, sounding surprised through his thick draconic accent. “I didn’t know others were going to be here.”

“I didn’t” Mruzo stuttered.

“We’re with the FBI,” the first man said again. “We heard there was suspicious activity in the area and are investigating. Dragon’s were spotted. I’m guessing that was you, Doctor?”

Mruzo blinked at the sudden change in story.

“It might’ve been me,” Torkos replied, scratching his chin horns. “I informed Mruzo and the local hospital that I would be in town. Perhaps a neighbor saw something?” Torkos was giving them an excuse to leave. One that they gladly took.

“If you see anything then please inform the authorities,” the first said. “We’ll be in the area for a while. Good day.” The agents got back in their car and left.

Torkos and Mruzo didn’t waste time watching them leave.

“How’d you know it’d work?” Mruzo asked once they left. He’d gone back to the kitchen to grab his tea and was sipping it while watching Torkos with guarded eyes. Torkos hadn't bothered to grab his tea. He didn’t like lemon.

“I’ve had a couple close runins with their type,” Torkos replied as if such a feat meant nothing at all. “They don’t like me because they can’t touch me. As the most effective and wellknown draconic doctor in the world, there is very little they can do. I’m sure there’s dirt on me from somewhere, but it’s not enough for anything. Half the time the information is something they want to keep a secret too.” Mruzo noticed the Doctor said this with only the slightest bravado, more of a fact than a boast.

“So, are you really going to take me to your friends?”
Torkos grinned toothily. “Only after we stop by Kaiser. I wasn’t lying about that.”

Five hours later and a hundred miles away, in a completely different state, Mruzo found himself anxious. Evening was well underway, already casting a blanket over the sky as the sun set. Torkos had taken Mruzo to the hospital as he said and took all kinds of scans and tests on Mruzo, building an extensive file to know more about the odd dragon than Mruzo knew himself. Now the Doctor was leading him deep into a cave so wellhidden and obscure of location he doubted he could find it again.

“So... is Predaking here?” Mruzo asked tentatively, his claws clicking with every step on the rawstone floor. The entire tunnel was darkening with the failing light outside, but Torkos assured him that it wouldn’t be a problem.

“If he did what I told him, then yes,” the Doctor replied from ahead. Mruzo could only make out the silhouette of the dragon.

They walked in silence for a minute. Mruzo thought it was one minute too long to leave him thinking.

“Who going to decide what your clan does with me?”

Torkos chuckled. “We’re not going to kill you if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Mruzo muttered. Light in the tunnel was quickly fadingto near pitch black. Mruzo could see a warm light ahead.
“You’ll see when we meet him. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll have a large influence in the decision.”
Suddenly the entire tunnel was filled with light. Mruzo stepped out into the glare. His

mandibles fell open at what he saw.
A giant cavern, so huge the size almost belied belief, rose above him. The walls were

nearly a thousand feet in diameter, and Mruzo couldn’t understand how someone could excavate this mountain within a mountain without the whole cave coming down on top of them. Fires burned in alcoves along the walls, creating a warm glow and making the cavern rather stuffy. A giant stage light hanging down from the ceiling on several thick cables accentuated the lighting of the space.

Dragons walked here. A dozen or so bipeds were clustered together in this massive cavern, utterly dwarfed by the room’s dimensions. They looked deadly, as each carried some form of weapon in capable claws. Mruzo was afraid that, without Torkos, they’d tear him to shreds.

Predaking was there, comforting Mruzo slightly. The big metal dragon crouched down against one wall, head low like a cornered animal, ready to snap at its attacker. None of the room’s occupants were particularly threatening to the machine, but he was weary nevertheless.

It wasn’t the bipeds he was worried about however.

A giant mass of gold reared up opposite of Predaking. The dragon was so large that Mruzo’s brain had trouble taking in the full size of it. His mandibles fell slack. Predaking was large in his own right at a little over a hundred feet long, but this dragon was over twice that, making Predaking look insignificant in comparison to the gold dragon’s radiance.

“I see you spotted the largest dragon in the world,” Torkos commented, making his way towards the cluster of bipeds.

“He is?” Mruzo couldn’t help but ask, blinking up at the dragon that easily loomed over them. The gold beast had eyes only for Predaking, but they were nonhostile, curious more than anything.

“Yes. Rob’s a big guy. He also likes his alcohol at least five years old.”

Mruzo whipped his gaze back to Torkos, who was laughing at his own joke, but didn’t have time to say anything as they reached the dragons.

“Dr. Arcflame,” one dragon said. It was a green western dragon with an eastern’s whiskers and a bright white underbelly. It also bowed its head in admission to the Doctor.

“Hello Sorien,” Torkos replied. His voice caused the other dragons to notice him.

“Torkos,” a tall black dragon growled, arms crossed over a barrel of a chest. “What have you brought in this time, besides a mechanical beast?”

“A little something special, Tai,” Torkos replied, smirking.

“Very funny, Torkos,” a voice said, silencing the others. “We still need to talk about Darth’fulamee and his friend.” The speaker was a dragon of average height, but much more terrifying in appearance than the rest. His scales were a bloody red and midnight black. Multiple horns lined the top of his head, from his egghorn to the ring of spines around his neck. Wings pierced with ruby red crystal nodes that pulsed with the dragon’s heartbeat sat snug against the dragon’s back.

This was the dragon that would decide Mruzo’s fate.

“Zorath,” Torkos said smoothly. “I really don’t think there’s much to discuss. They know of us.”

“That’s true,” the red and black dragon agreed. “There is something I’d like to ask you about, however. Send the boy to see his friend.”

The Doctor nodded to Mruzo and cocked his head towards Predaking. The message was clear. Mruzo was not supposed to hear this. He gladly stepped out of the group of threatening dragons and tried his best to calm himself as he padded towards Predaking. The big dragon looked relieved to see him.

“You made it,” Mruzo said, planting himself against a giant metal claw. The whole event was draining to Mruzo. Predaking did not seem to care.

“Obviously,” came the dispassionate reply.

“Did anything happen along the way?”

“No.”

Mruzo nodded, unsurprised. He watched as Torkos, Zorath, and the attendant dragons

conversed amongst themselves of Mruzo’s and Predaking’s fates. The giant gold dragon had lowered his head to hear, showing how truly outmatched in size everyone was compared to him. His head was larger than all the bipeds combined.

“Have they done anything to you?” Mruzo asked. “Talked to you at all?”

“They’ve only watched me,” Predaking growled. Mruzo knew the robotic dragon was literal in the extreme. If he said they’ve only watched him, then they’ve only watched him.

Two dragons broke off from the group and closed on Mruzo and Predaking. Torkos and Zorath were approaching with an air of finality that suggested that a decision had been achieved.

Predaking growled above Mruzo, static issuing from his vox. The two did not look threatened.

“Mruzo, Predaking,” Torkos began upon reaching them. “It has been decided that you two will be formally inducted to the Dragon Shadow Council by your own choice. Should you choose to do so, you shall be joining the most powerful and influential human and draconic force in the world.”

Mruzo heard a stilted tone in the Doctor’s voice. The words came off by wrote of tradition or a rite of passage. It managed to surprise him.

“If we don’t accept?” Mruzo challenged lightly.

“Then we will wipe your memory and dismantle Predaking,” Zorath said bluntly. The metal dragon snarled but did not move.

“We really don’t like doing that,” Torkos added.

Not sure if they were telling the truth or not, Mruzo thought over everything Torkos had offered them, how he had practically saved both him and Predaking, and now granted them a once in a lifetime offer. It was a hard and sudden decision. Mruzo Darth’fulamee made his.

He nodded.

“I’ll join your Council if Predaking decides to join too. I wouldn’t want to lose him.”

The robotic dragon spat something, the meaning lost in static, until he uttered a singleword: “Fine.”
“Good!” Torkos said, visibly brightening. Even Zorath cracked a smile. His sharp teeth turned it into a leer. “You already have your role in the Council.” “What’s that?” Mruzo asked.

“Taking care of Predaking,” Zorath replied.

Mruzo couldn’t help but grin and put a reassuring claw on Predaking’s massive metallic paw. The dragon only cocked his head in reply. Mruzo knew he was satisfied.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Anomaly detected. Unknown energy fluctuations.

The draconic technician working for the budding Draconis Industries International glanced up from his work, a look of curiosity on his muzzle. The dragon was a strange green on green. His belly was a lighter shade with several more strips running down his back alongside a small crest.

“An anomaly?” the technician muttered to himself, scooting over to his second computer. “Where?”

He tapped away at a couple keys, triangulating on the power fluctuation even as it began to fade out. His knees twitched with nervous energy as he silently willed the computer to work faster.

The machine chimed as if found what it was looking for. The dragon frowned at the screen.

“There’s nothing there.”

Deciding that his superiors should be notified, he dumped the information to his personal tablet and strode into the DII Information Center. Dragons and humans, technicians like him, sat at their consoles and monitors as they maintained the numberless systems and sensors built into the primary DII headquarters where Draconis himself, and his siblings, ran their modernized and technological company. The amount of information and data delivered here rivalled that of the Pentagon.

Hunting through the rather spacious area, he easily found who he sought: a dragoness many times his senior, said to be older than even Draconis. Her scales were lavender and nearly the same color as her milkywhite underbelly. Her name was Emera, and she was second only to Draconis and his siblings.

The technician found her up on the command podium where she could hear and see all. She spoke with one of the other technicians adamantly. The green dragon waited at a respectful distance for her to finish, the stations of the most senior technicians not a couple steps away.

Emera finished with the current technician, sending it away and motioning the dragon over. “Problem technician Hendrick?”

How she managed to memorize everyone’s names, Hendrik would never know.

“I thought you needed to see this Ma’am.” Hendrik handed over the tablet to Emera’s waiting claws. She studied it a moment, eyeridges rising as she spotted what Hendrik had seen. Suddenly, she offered it back to the technician.

“Take this to Draconis,” she ordered.

“Ma’am?” Hendrik asked, confused. He hesitantly grasped the device.

“You and I both see the problem with this, right?” Emera asked rhetorically. “It’s not my decision on what we do about it.” She gave Hendrik a hard stare, and he felt himself folding under the dragoness’s gaze. “Take this to Draconis,” she repeated.

Hendrik found himself heading towards Draconis’s sanctum a few minutes later, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. The owners of DII lived within a small series of rooms during their stays on the grounds.

In the meantime, Hendrik marveled at the lack of security. There’d been only one guard herding him into this hallway and a handful of cameras along the walls. The technician at least expected a full squad of those secret undercover operatives some of the other technicians whispered about. They said there were several teams of the most deadly soldiers in the world somewhere within the facility, though nobody had seen them.

A door waited for him at the end of the hall. A plain wood door, though he suspected the interior was lined with metal. It looked, and probably was, no different from the doors to the Information Center. Was Draconis crazy or just humble?

There was an intercom next to the door. That seemed even odder. Hendrik pressed the call button and said, “Hello? Technician Hendrik, here to see Draconis... Emera sent me.”

The Green stepped back for a moment, expecting a guard or security personnel to answer and open the door. Instead, an unfamiliar voice, feminine, replied over the intercom. “He’s in. The door’s unlocked.”
Hendrik held his tablet a little tighter to his chest and opened the door. A small suite waited on the other side, complete with wood floors, carpets, tables, and a series of TV’s and monitors strewn about the room. A blue dragoness with golden scutes sat at one of the computers. She was relatively small, but quite striking. Hendrik assumed her to be a secretary for Draconis. It only made sense.

“He’s in the back,” the dragoness said, not looking up from her work. She pointed towards one of the doorways before ignoring Hendrik completely. The technician shrugged to himself and stepped into the next room.

The sight that met him was the oddest yet.

The room was the size of a small living room, and looked the part. A television mounted on one wall played the local news channel while the two dragons sat on a couch opposite of it. One dragon was green like Hendrik, but with silver scutes and darker green membranes. He was unmistakable: Drake Draconis, brother of Draco Draconis. Drake had his talons up on the coffee table, and seemed to be asleep.

Sitting beside Drake was none other than Draco Draconis, owner and creator of Draconis Industries International. His deep red scales fit perfectly with his golden mane, crest, and tailblade, and contrasted beautifully with his blue wing membranes. Twin golden tattoos wrapped themselves around either arm. A televised interview with Draco had reporters saying that if there ever was a handsome dragon, it’d be him.

Draconis glanced over from the news, spotting Hendrik in the doorway. “Technician,” Draconis said, his tones less gravelly than most dragons. “What can I do for you?”

“Emera sent me to bring this to your attention,” Hendrik said, holding out the tablet.

“Alright.” Draconis stood up, and Hendrik realized just how tall the dragon was. Being above average in height, Draconis had a good halffoot on the smaller Green. His already intimidating aspect was added to.

The red and gold dragon received the proffered tablet from the technician. Draconis studied the images and data, and eyeridge rising as Emera’s and Hendrik’s had as he deciphered the anomaly.

“So...” Draconis began, staring hard at the data. “You’re telling me that, out in the middle of nowhere in the United States, there’s a hidden nuclear reactor that nobody knows about, that ran for a period of fifteen minutes only, or there was an underground nuclear explosion that registered the smallest of fallout? That, or there was a glitch with our orbital surveyors and they picked up on something that wasn’t there?”

“Yes,” Hendrik replied, feeling stupid for bringing something so trivial to his superior’s attention. Draconis must have caught the look in his eyes.

“Don’t look so sheepish,” Draconis chuckled, handing the tablet back. “You did your job correctly. We ask for you to monitor our orbital surveyors and you did just that. My sister and I might seem a little intimidating, but don’t let that stop you if something needs doing.” Draconis jerked a thumb over his shoulder, a grin on his muzzle. “My brother on the other hand...”

Hendrik did chuckle at that. Draconis put a reassuring claw on the technician's shoulder.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, technician. You may go back to your station, but have Emera send me the data, okay?”

“Yes, sir!” Hendrik nodded, and made to leave. He’d tell the other technicians what happened in the cafeteria, not that they’d believe that he met two owners of DII. Drake and Draco Draconis? They’d ask. What about Brad Pitt and Taylor Swift?

After Hendrik left, Draconis stepped into the next room where his sister worked. She hadn't moved from her chair.

“I like him,” Draconis said, indicating the door. The dragoness couldn’t see where he was pointing, but she knew him well enough to know already.

“You say that about every dragon you rescue,” she replied smoothly. Her attention never wavered from the screen.

“Come on, Sapphire, lighten up!” Draconis goaded. “You get so tense. Why don’t you ever take a break?”

Sapphira finally turned and glared at her brother, catching the subtle pun he’d secreted into his words. “I can’t take a break and you know it!” she snapped. “I practically run this company dayin and dayout. It’s bad enough that you spend your time fooling with toys, but our brother hasn’t the luxury to sit on his tail all day.” Draconis was grinning. “And that wasn’t funny,” she added.

“You know it was,” Draconis shot back.

Sapphira made a face and turned back to the computer. “So what are you going to do about it?”

The red and gold dragon frowned at the sudden change of subject. He also frowned at the thought that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do, seeing as he had the assets to do what needed to be done in most situations. This puzzle would require a bit more effort to solve than normal. Draconis didn’t like that.

“I need more information,” Draconis supplied. “If we saw something like this, and it wasn’t a glitch, then the government picked up on it too. There’ll be reports somewhere.”

“You’re going to wait and see if it happens again?”

“That’s the plan!”

“And if it does happen again?” Sapphira put to her brother.

“We send someone in.” Draconis replied. He started for the door to the rest of the

complex. “I’m going to take a closer look at the data and see what Emera thinks. I should probably notify some of our friends as well.” Draconis stopped halfway out the door as if a switch had been flipped. A wing twitched, and he turned back to his sister, an embarrassed expression on his muzzle. “What was the name of that technician?”

Sapphira just shook her head and laughed.

“Yo! Draconis, what’s up?” Zorath asked.

“Do you remember that anomaly I told you about? The one that didn’t make any sense?” The red and gold dragon was speaking hurriedly, and that bothered Zorath more than he cared to admit.

“Yes. What about it?”

“It’s shown up again on a different surveyor in the exact same place. The impulse is weak so it’s probably underground or shielded, whatever it is, but there’s definitely something there.”

Draconis thought he could hear Zorath frown on the other end of the line. There was a scraping sound as if Zorath was shifting in his seat. Draconis’s siblings heard it too. They were sitting at computers beside their brother within their series of suites. Both had headsets patched into the call, though they weren’t going to speak. Zorath was Draconis’s Supreme Chancellor, and so it was his responsibility to inform him.

“Do you think the government found it?” Zorath asked.

“They must have picked it up if we did. I don’t think they’ve looked into it yet, but they’re going to this time, if not the next. I'm assuming that they’ll do it soon too.”

There was a pause. The dragons’ light breathing could be heard. Sapphira and Drake glanced at their brother, who seemed to listen for Zorath’s response with baited breath. When he opened his mouth to continue, his voice was low. “Should we bring the Council into this?” Draconis asked.

“No!” Zorath’s growl was firm. “The Council doesn’t need to be involved, not yet anyway; too highprofile. We do need to jump on this though.” There was a clicking sound as Zorath dug through his computer’s systems, searching for something.

“What do we do then?” Draconis asked. “My options are limited, but I could probably get someone on the ground in the near vicinity. Anymore would look suspicious.”

“The dragon who owns the property, is that really what he looks like?”

“Supposedly,” Draconis pulled up the file and read off it. “Mruzo Darth’fulamee; 23 years old; male dragon; formerly human; works as a freelancing web designer. He doesn’t seem to have any real interests in social networks or activities of any kind. All that we found were memberships to the local book store and grocery store, couple credit cards, and a Bachelor’s degree. Overall, he seems to be quite a recluse.

“That could work in our favor,” Zorath mused. “Why don’t we have our good Doctor make a house call? He’d love to study a dragon with those... features, and he could look into our anomaly without much suspicion being aroused.”

“I’ll contact him then. I have a feeling that we don’t have much time.”

“If you keep saying that you’ll end up jinxing us,” Zorath chuckled. He sighed and suddenly and returned to a more serious note.

“Keep me updated on this and let me know what the Doctor finds.”

“You got it, Draconis out.” “Zorath out.”

The headset clipped, signalling the end of the call. Draconis pulled the device off and found his siblings waiting expectantly. They knew what Draconis needed to do.

“Well?” Sapphira said. “Go make the call. The phone’s over there.” She pointed at the desk behind them. “Do it quick. You’ve got work to do.”

“I love you too, Blue,” Draconis replied snidely, knowing she hated the nickname. His sister only huffed and blotted him out with her work. Drake was less bothered as Draco got up from his chair.

“Tell the doc’ I said ‘hi.’” Drake told his brother, grinning cheekily and giving Sapphira a sly wink before also returning to his computer.

Draconis gave a brief snort of amusement at his siblings before heading for the phone. All three of them may seem completely different and Draconis and Drake may tease their sister for being so uptight, but they meant well. Nobody could run a company like they could, and the Draconis family was renowned even amongst the more secluded of draconic clans.

Draco picked up the cellphone. It was ordinary, unencrypted, and untampered with. He was calling the doctor after all, and therefore had to go through the hospital.

The Doctor’s personal secretary picked up the call after two rings. Draconis was impressed. “Hello, this is Dr. Arcflame’s office, how may I help you?”

“This is Draco Draconis. I’d like to speak with Torkos.”

“Sorry, sir, but Dr. Arcflame is occupied at the moment. Is there anything you’d like me to tell him?”

“Tell him to call me back at this number. I’ve got someone I’d think he’d like to meet.”

Two days later a purple dragon was flying towards Draconis’s anomaly site, entertaining himself by watching his shadow float across the ground below. His name was Dr. Torkos Arcflame, said to be the greatest draconic doctor in the world. His hospital in Idaho was the most frequented hospital in the United States. Frequented by dragons that is. He spent nearly all his time there, healing dragons in both body and soul. Sometimes, however, he left his precious hospital for various reasons. One of those was to study other dragons.

His friend, Draconis, had called him two days before, informing him of a rather interesting dragon and a problem in the local area. Torkos loved to study and record the seemingly infinite variations amongst other dragons. Differences in appearance were much more prominent amongst dragons than humans, making it that much more interesting for the dragondoc. Torkos himself was considered a rare breed: a volcanic dragon. His scales were a deep purple like obsidian, his Vplated underbelly a dark grey and a forest of horns coupled with a partial beak of fused teeth and three chin horns. Torkos’s eyes were an unnervingly solidgold, reflecting his volatile temper. The Doctor was intimidating in the extreme, more than most. This was somehow offset by his more charismatic personality.

Draconis sent him because the red and gold dragon knew Torkos would get it done. He’d find out, one way or another, what was going on... and he’d study the strange dragon too, as a bonus.

Torkos spotted the house he was looking for and angled towards it, feeling the wind tugging at his clothes. Many dragons went without clothing, especially the larger Quad dragons of twenty to forty feet in length, but it was still looked upon as inappropriate by most. Due to the high number of dragons in Idaho, more than any other state, state law allowed dragons to be without clothing.

Wing membranes swelled and pulled taut as Torkos angled in and landed heavily upon the driveway. The house was effectively out of the way, the area around it lightly wooded. Two stories tall, Torkos could see how a somewhat modest home with a bit of property could appeal to a dragon wishing to be left alone.

He padded up to the door, his talons clicking on the wood porch, and knocked. Torkos waited for a few moments and knocked again, a little harder this time. There was still no reply. The dragon frowned and finally tried the doorbell, his sensitive hearing picking up the chime as it echoed through the house.

That appeared to have worked as Torkos heard the heavier footsteps of a dragon on wood. The door was unlocked and opened. Torkos got his first look at this Mruzo Darth’fulamee, and Torkos nearly killed him for it.

Mruzo Darth’fulamee was taller than Torkos, but that was no surprise. He was 7’7” while the average for dragons was a little over eight feet. Mruzo was on the lower end of that scale. His hide of scales were a dark black, his underbelly a deeper purple like Torkos’s scales. His wings looked like a starfield had been consumed by the membrane. Twin ridges of faded purple and black worked down his back to the dragon’s tail.

This was all striking, but not extraordinary by draconic standards. It was Mruzo’s muzzle that shocked Torkos.

Where any dragon’s muzzle had an upper and lower jaw, filled with sharp teeth and set off by the oversized canines, Mruzo’s muzzle was broken into four mandibles, the interiors filled with needlelike teeth. the mandibles were plated on the outer portion, and completely separated. There was no membrane to hold them together. his skull overlapped only the base of the mandibles, with flattened slits for nostrils, eyes that were wider than Torkos expected, and three, low crests that swept out from the back of his skull like the twin ridges on his back.

“Dr. Arcflame!” Mruzo said, a slight warble in his tone as all four mandibles moved in different directions. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Torkos forced down the urge to reach for the sidearm concealed underneath his shirt and smiled warmly. “It’s three o’clock, yes?”

“Yeah... but I wasn’t expecting...” Mruzo motioned with a claw. “You.”
“I prefer not to send an underling to do this. I trust only myself when making house calls.” “Well then... um.” Mruzo clicked his mandibles together like someone steepled his

fingers. Torkos found the habit curious and had to pry his eyes off the dragon’s different anatomy as Mruzo continued. “You’re welcome to come in.”

“Thank you.”

Torkos stepped in and took a glance around. The entrance room was more spartan compared to most homes. There was some furniture, a rug between a couple chairs, a small bookcase, but not much else. The Doctor was glad, for less space meant less room for a dragon’s tail. Torkos’s exceedingly long tail had a habit of knocking things over if he didn’t constantly mind it, so he was happy.

“Would you like something to drink?” Mruzo asked politely as he padded towards what Torkos assumed to be the kitchen.

“Ah, tea. Jasmine if you have any.” Torkos played his part as house guest. It was one of the few games he liked, politics being his least favorite. The recluse of a dragon seemed to be remembering how to play his own part.

“I don’t have any Jasmine,” Mruzo was saying as Torkos walked in and took a seat at the counter. “I have lemon, green tea, and some other ones here.” The dragon dug around in the cabinets.

“Lemon will do fine, thank you.”

While Mruzo got the tea ready, Torkos couldn’t help but study the dragon out of the corner of his eye.

All four of Mruzo’s mandibles moved separately. The dragon muttered to himself quietly, probably to ignore the fact that a doctor of Torkos’s stature was in his house. He looked completely normal from the side unless his jaws were separated. And the name: Mruzo Darth’fulamee. Torkos could very well guess where the name originated from, and how most people would assume the draconic origins behind it instead of the truth.

The hot tea was soon placed before the Doctor, who took a slight sip of the scalding liquid and tried not to make a face. Boiling liquid did nothing to him, being almost completely fireproof both inside and out, but lemon was not his favorite flavor.

Mruzo slid into the seat opposite of Torkos and took a drink of his own tea. His mandibles closed around the cup as he tilted his head back, and Torkos was extremely curious as of how the dragon drank or ate seemingly without a tongue or lips. The dragon saw Torkos staring and lowered his cup.

“I’m sorry,” Mruzo said suddenly. “Does that bother you?” He indicated his mandibles. “Most people feel awkward or even disgusted seeing me eat or drink.”

“Not at all,” Torkos was quick in saying, feeling sorry for the dragon who’d must have had a hard time in public because of his mandibles despite the acceptance of dragons. “Do you mind if I look at them?”

Mruzo shrugged. “I guess not.”

“Stay seated and tilt your head back, then. I won’t do anything but look, I promise.”

The strange dragon did as he was told and Torkos stepped to Mruzo’s side to look. “Could you open your mandibles please?”

Torkos studied the dragon’s face as he did so, noting the bunching of muscle at the base of the mandibles as they pulled apart. The interior of the mandibles were lined with sharp teeth, leading to a gaping slit of a mouth Torkos never noticed before. A small, forked purple tongue rested in that mouth, barely extending past the near nonexistent lips that ringed the mouth. The teeth within were more like a normal dragon’s; two standing rows of them on both the top and bottom to bite and grind. The mouth itself was set further into Mruzo’s skull than a human’s, and seemed to be shorter in length because of this. The mandibles were to hold food as his mouth chewed and swallowed.

“Your orbicularis oris seems to have been split into four parts instead of two to control the movement of your mandibles and surround your mouth. The movement of your lips then affect the movement of your mandibles. It seems the temporalis and masseter are where they should be...” Torkos shifted his head to look at the side of Mruzo’s maw. “Please open and close your mouth a couple times for me.”

Mruzo did so and left them open as Torkos frowned at what he saw.

“The buccinator is where it’d normally be, but it seems to have been widened and enlarged to cover more of the interior jaw.”

Torkos pulled back, leaving Mruzo free to sit up while giving the Doctor a critical eye. “Meaning?”

Torkos shrugged. “Meaning despite having four mandibles, your bite will be as strong, if not stronger, than an average dragon.”

“Stronger than an average dragon?” Mruzo muttered to himself. “Cool!”

Torkos slid back into his seat opposite of Mruzo and took a pull of his tea. He motioned to the odd dragon with a claw. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you become a dragon?”

Mruzo looked surprised at the question, from what Torkos could tell anyway. For most changed dragons, their transformation from human to dragon was a touchy subject. There were two primary methods to become a dragon, and both were risky in their own ways. One could leave the newly changed dragon nothing more than an animal, and the other could leave nothing more than a steaming pile of meat behind. Those with the money or influence great enough to attempt to become a dragon for the superficial benefits it provided often had their entire lives stripped away from them. Torkos himself had originally been human and overcame those challenges to fully embrace his draconic self. It seemed Mruzo had too.

“Don’t you know already?” Mruzo asked. “I thought they wrote that stuff down. Confidential analysis and all that stuff, yeah?”

“Yes, and I read the report, but I have a hard time believing it,” Torkos replied. “‘Stepped on the stone while walking through the wooded area of your property.' Truly? You and I both know that the Hierarchy hid those stones where few people could find them. They’re often found hidden within caves or inhospitable marshes and swamps, up until they were seeded within society that is. So where did you find it?”

Torkos’s cold dissection of Mruzo’s story left him taken aback. He had no option but to come forward with the truth.

“I found it on my property in a decently sized cave,” Mruzo admitted, relatively unashamed. “I believe a dragon originally lived there.”

“Did you realize what it was?” Torkos asked, sipping at his tea.

“I did."

“And you didn’t inform the authorities until after you crushed it?”

“Yes.” Mruzo tilted his head back, looking down the length of his mandibles at the Doctor. “I knew what the law is, but I also knew what life as a dragon would be like. It wouldn’t have been much different from the one I lived before, so I crushed it.”

Torkos sighed. He’d dealt with cases like this before. People always thought that being a dragon would be the answer to everything: superior strength; superior senses of smell, sight, and hearing; tough scales; the ability to fly; an extra appendage that acted as a third hand. Torkos had heard all the reasons, but no fool stopped to think about the consequences, and there were too many. Torkos had more than a few come rolling in his hospital doors. Becoming a dragon wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but a majority of the public still hadn’t realized that yet.

“I want to see where the stone was,” Torkos declared.

That stopped Mruzo midsip.

“Uh...” Mruzo put his cup down. “Why?”

“You said a dragon used to live there. I could tell what type of dragon it was if there’s anything left. That, and I’m curious.”
“I...” Mruzo licked his lips, that purple tongue flicking out between the mandibles. “I don’t think I can find it again.”
Torkos caught onto Mruzo’s sudden change, and it wasn’t the warble. “There’s something there, isn’t there?” Torkos leaned forward, golden eyes narrowed. Any confidence Mruzo had evaporated. “There’s something there and you’re hiding it.”

“How would you know?” Mruzo snapped, trying to be bold and only partially succeeding.

“I have friends in high places,” Torkos admitted. “And right now, I’m the only dragon who can help you. The government probably knows about it, and they’re not going to be as forgiving as I will be if you tell me what’s there.”

Mruzo seemed to contemplate Torkos’s offer. The purple dragon pushed his point.

“Look, Mruzo. I’m the Doctor, and I’m looking out for you here. I believe everything you’ve said so far, but this can and will be out of your league if you don’t tell me what’s there. If you don’t, I’ll find out or myself.” Torkos leaned back, arms folded across his chest, and waited for the young dragon’s answer.

“I’ll show you,” Mruzo said. “Follow me.”
The two dragons exited out the back door, their tea forgotten.

Mruzo led Torkos down a small, unkempt dirt path that led a decent distance into his property. Sunlight streamed down between the trees in disorganized patches, blinding the dragons one moment and leaving them blinking spots from their vision the next. The quiet rustling of leaves and sounds of indigenous creatures followed the two dragons. Several times a small bird or squirrel crossed the dragons’ path, their jerky, paranoid motions catching the dragons’ enhanced eyes. They then disappeared back into the underbrush.

“I found him a few weeks ago,” Mruzo said suddenly, after they had been walking in silence for several minutes. “He’d been wandering through here when I found him, and I hid him in the cave I told you about.”

“Who’s he?” Torkos asked.

“You’ll see,” Mruzo replied cryptically.

The doctor frowned at the lack of information. He trusted Mruzo enough to follow him

he wasn’t lying about that but Torkos wasn’t going unprepared. His claw strayed to the butt of his concealed sidearm, and all his senses were on edge. Mruzo didn’t notice.

A bend in that path appeared. Torkos fully expected to follow it, but Mruzo continued following the path’s original direction. Soon, the two dragons were crunching through underbrush and dead leaves as Mruzo led them deeper into the woods.

Torkos glimpsed the hillside they’d been heading towards during the whole march. Between the trunks, he spotted a small cavern opening that was clearly not natural. Mruzo had been leading him to this, whatever it was. Torkos loosened his sidearm in its holster as they approached the cave’s entrance.

Mruzo stopped at the threshold and glanced at the Doctor. “I warn you, don’t make any sudden moves when we go in. He’s skittish, in a way.

“I’ve dealt with plenty of skittish dragons,” Torkos replied, nodding his understanding.

“You’ve never met one like this,” Mruzo retorted. Torkos doubted that, but something about the whole situation made those words ring true.

The odd dragon led the way. the roof of the cave was a good fifteen feet up, and soon began to open up once they passed the threshold. As the cave widened, the darkness closed in on them. soon, torkos could only see a few feet ahead, and he kept an eye on the floor as it sloped downwards. Mruzo did the same, the two moving forward warily.

Dull light filtered in from the entrance, and soon disappeared as they passed a corner. The floor leveled out. Torkos could tell they were in a cavernous space. Mruzo stopped, and Torkos did the same next to him. He could barely make out the dragon beside him in the gloom.

“He knows we’re here,” Mruzo said.

Twin points of light appeared before them. Eyes, Torkos realized. They were a solid red and lacked a pupil. There was no feeling a normal eye conveyed. Nothing living belonged to them. There was a clanking and grinding sound, like metal running over metal. A puff of cinders were exhaled, providing brief illumination of a face that was never alive.

“Good God,” Torkos breathed.

Mruzo picked up something sitting by the entrance. He flicked on a small hiking lamp, and the dragon before Torkos was lit in its full glory.

The dragon’s back reached almost to the ceiling as it reclined against the far wall. This dragon, however, was built of metal instead of flesh, hydraulic instead of muscle. Red eyes managed to glower from within a steel skull. The dragon’s maw was a tunnel of sharpened blades that would cut through flesh and bone with ease. Segmented armor plates, made up of alien metals that shined with a dark luster, overlapped to the tip of the dragon’s tail as it rasped over the floor. The machine even had wings. They were huge, black canvases nestled close to its body, the bone struts made of silvery metal. Torkos wondered if the dragon could actually fly.

“You have brought someone else,” the dragon growled. Its mouth moved without the need to do so, and its words, extruded by a dispassionate vox, were loaded with a thinly veiled threat. “Who is this?”

“Predaking,” Mruzo nodded with his mandibles. “This is Dr. Torkos Arcflame. He’s knowledgable when it comes to dragons, and he can help us.”

“Help us with what?” Predaking snapped. Light flared in his nostrils. “My systems are almost fully functional. No mortal may stand against me.” Predaking’s head closed with Torkos, who managed to stand his ground beneath the glare of those blank red lights. “So tell me, flesh, ”Predaking spat the word like a curse. “ How can you help me?”

Torkos knew he could do little. This dragon, this... Predaking, was like nothing Torkos had ever faced before. He knew his sidearm, and most conventional weapons, would be useless against it. He handled flesh and bones. He knew flesh and bones. Machine and metal were beyond Torkos, however. Where his knowledge failed, his personality would have to do.

“There are people coming,” Torkos said, speaking to both Mruzo and Predaking. “They’re coming because of whatever form of radiation you're throwing off has alerted them. They don’t know it yet, but once they find you, they’ll do whatever they can to capture and study

you.” Predaking growled at that, a low burst of static from his voz. “I have friends who can take care of you. We can repair your systems, cater to your every need, and grant you a purpose.” Torkos glanced at Mruzo. “Both of you.”

Predaking growled. Torkos heard one of his metallic claws come down, talons digging into the rock. Mruzo seemed to consider Torkos’s words.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Mruzo admitted. “But how do we stop whoever it is from finding him?” The dragon pointed at Predaking.

Torkos regarded the metal dragon, who glared back in return. He noted the harsh light sputtering in the metal dragon’s nostrils. “How are you powered, Predaking?”

“My core is built around a reactor,” Predaking told them. “It is functioning at 100% efficiency. The radiation it’s giving off will not be enough to kill flesh like you. You have no need to worry.”

“That radiation is exactly the problem,” Torkos growled, wondering how a machine like Predaking could be so illogical. “You need to powerdown your systems, at least to the point where you no longer emit radiation. That’s how they’re tracking you!”

Predaking snarled, static grating against the dragons’ ears, forcing Mruzo to cover the side of his head. The light in his nostrils dimmed, however, and he confirmed this a moment later.

“Auxiliary systems off; reactor efficiency at 60%; no extraneous emissions detected.”

“Good, now we have to get you out of here. There’s a safe place nearby where we can take care of you. You’ll have to head there on foot, keep your reactor at minimum efficiency, and avoid anyone you come across. I’ll let them know you’re coming, and we’ll get our best to fix you. Understood?”

“Understood,” the metal dragon snapped. Torkos gave Predaking the coordinates, ones Torkos had been forced to memorize. The location was hidden, and only someone who knew of it could find it. Hopefully, Predaking could reach it without a hitch.

“What about me,” Mruzo asked, mandibles tapping together. “Do I go with him?” “You’re coming with me,” Torkos said. “We have someone to meet.”

Mruzo led Torkos back to his house, leaving Predaking to make his way to the coordinates Torkos provided on his own. Almost fortyfive minutes had passed since the first two left the house. The tea had gone cold.

“Who’s going to be here?” Mruzo asked as they stepped in the door. There was concern secreted in the warble, and Torkos had to remind himself that the young dragon was barely into his twenties and was now part of Torkos’s conspiracy, brought on by his finding of Predaking. That meant Mruzo was his responsibility, and he felt it keenly.

“The FBI most likely,” Torkos replied. “Twice now Predaking’s radiation has been detected, and they’ve ignored it so far. My friends sent me after the second detection. The FBI won’t make the same mistake a third time. They’re bound to send someone to investigate, and our job is to put on a show for them to make sure they don’t find anything.”

“Can they find anything?”

“Most definitely should Predaking have stayed.” Torkos sat down at the table again and took a sip from his tea. Mruzo was too agitated to sit. “Empty these out and refill them,” Torkos

ordered, indicating their tea. “It’s gotta look like I only just got here. we don’t want them getting any more suspicious than they will be.”

“They’ll notice that?” Mruzo asked incredulously. He grabbed their cups and moved to the sink.

“You have a lot to learn, my young friend,” Torkos replied with a wan smile. “They’re trained to notice everything. They do their job well, but that doesn’t help us here.” Torkos stood up from the table, making a point to push in the chairs. “Now, I must make a couple phone calls to tell my friends not to kill Predaking and to inform them of the situation here.”

“They can’t kill Predaking...” Mruzo drawled, then hesitated. “Can they?”

“Quite probably.”

“But he’s a machine!” Mruzo protested, his mandibles accenting the “ch,” causing them

to click together. “A giant dragon one at that.”

“We have a Rob,” Torkos said, grinning to himself.

“What?”

Torkos chuckled and shook his head. “Nothing, just a joke in poor taste.” He left it at that.

Ten minutes later Mruzo spotted a black sedan pull into his driveway. The windows were tinted so even his impressive eyesight could not see the driver. There were no discernable markings on the car, and it pulled up right to the edge of the house, close as possible to the front door without auspiciously blocking it. Torkos had guessed right. the government had showed up.

Mruzo backed away from his front door and went to put the teabags in. It had to look authentic that Torkos had only just arrived. The Doctor was in the bathroom making encrypted phone calls, the contents of which Mruzo didn’t know. The tea was placed on the table, sidebyside as though nobody had touched them yet. Mruzo knew his part, he just hoped the new arrivals would dance to the Doctor’s tune.

There was a knock at the door, more purposeful, but less forceful than the Doctor’s an hour before. Mruzo went to get it, and the game began.

Opening the door revealed two men in suits, looking overtly formal in the warmer weather. Both men had earbeads, and both did not seem surprised by Mruzo’s appearance. That was the proof, for even Torkos had been moderately surprised by Mruzo’s mandibles.

“Uh...” Mruzo began, “can I help you?”

“Mruzo Darth’fulamee?” the first one on the left asked, as if there was any doubt to who he was.

“Yes?”

“We’re with the FBI.” The first man flashed a badge. “We’re investigating suspicious activity in the area.” The man gestured inside. “May we come in?”

“Of course, of course.”

The agents followed Mruzo in as he stepped back, looking and feeling slightly sheepish at their sudden arrival. The first man had his eyes firmly fixed on the odd dragon, while the second, who had yet to speak, scanned the room and entrances.

“We’re here because it was reported that someone or something is here on your property,” the first man said without preamble. “Have you seen anything odd or suspicious in the area recently?”

Mruzo frowned, partly for the act and partly because of the information they were withholding, according to Torkos. “No, nothing’s really happened and I haven’t seen anything,” he lied, “but there is”

A toilet flushed down the hall. All three looked in that direction. A sink ran for a couple moments, stopped, then a door opened and closed. Torkos appeared and approached down the hall. It was clear where he’d been, and his appearance only succeeded in putting the agents on the back foot, which was its entire purpose.

Torkos stopped. “Mruzo,” he said, sounding surprised through his thick draconic accent. “I didn’t know others were going to be here.”

“I didn’t” Mruzo stuttered.

“We’re with the FBI,” the first man said again. “We heard there was suspicious activity in the area and are investigating. Dragon’s were spotted. I’m guessing that was you, Doctor?”

Mruzo blinked at the sudden change in story.

“It might’ve been me,” Torkos replied, scratching his chin horns. “I informed Mruzo and the local hospital that I would be in town. Perhaps a neighbor saw something?” Torkos was giving them an excuse to leave. One that they gladly took.

“If you see anything then please inform the authorities,” the first said. “We’ll be in the area for a while. Good day.” The agents got back in their car and left.

Torkos and Mruzo didn’t waste time watching them leave.

“How’d you know it’d work?” Mruzo asked once they left. He’d gone back to the kitchen to grab his tea and was sipping it while watching Torkos with guarded eyes. Torkos hadn't bothered to grab his tea. He didn’t like lemon.

“I’ve had a couple close runins with their type,” Torkos replied as if such a feat meant nothing at all. “They don’t like me because they can’t touch me. As the most effective and wellknown draconic doctor in the world, there is very little they can do. I’m sure there’s dirt on me from somewhere, but it’s not enough for anything. Half the time the information is something they want to keep a secret too.” Mruzo noticed the Doctor said this with only the slightest bravado, more of a fact than a boast.

“So, are you really going to take me to your friends?”
Torkos grinned toothily. “Only after we stop by Kaiser. I wasn’t lying about that.”

Five hours later and a hundred miles away, in a completely different state, Mruzo found himself anxious. Evening was well underway, already casting a blanket over the sky as the sun set. Torkos had taken Mruzo to the hospital as he said and took all kinds of scans and tests on Mruzo, building an extensive file to know more about the odd dragon than Mruzo knew himself. Now the Doctor was leading him deep into a cave so wellhidden and obscure of location he doubted he could find it again.

“So... is Predaking here?” Mruzo asked tentatively, his claws clicking with every step on the rawstone floor. The entire tunnel was darkening with the failing light outside, but Torkos assured him that it wouldn’t be a problem.

“If he did what I told him, then yes,” the Doctor replied from ahead. Mruzo could only make out the silhouette of the dragon.

They walked in silence for a minute. Mruzo thought it was one minute too long to leave him thinking.

“Who going to decide what your clan does with me?”

Torkos chuckled. “We’re not going to kill you if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Mruzo muttered. Light in the tunnel was quickly fadingto near pitch black. Mruzo could see a warm light ahead.
“You’ll see when we meet him. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll have a large influence in the decision.”
Suddenly the entire tunnel was filled with light. Mruzo stepped out into the glare. His

mandibles fell open at what he saw.
A giant cavern, so huge the size almost belied belief, rose above him. The walls were

nearly a thousand feet in diameter, and Mruzo couldn’t understand how someone could excavate this mountain within a mountain without the whole cave coming down on top of them. Fires burned in alcoves along the walls, creating a warm glow and making the cavern rather stuffy. A giant stage light hanging down from the ceiling on several thick cables accentuated the lighting of the space.

Dragons walked here. A dozen or so bipeds were clustered together in this massive cavern, utterly dwarfed by the room’s dimensions. They looked deadly, as each carried some form of weapon in capable claws. Mruzo was afraid that, without Torkos, they’d tear him to shreds.

Predaking was there, comforting Mruzo slightly. The big metal dragon crouched down against one wall, head low like a cornered animal, ready to snap at its attacker. None of the room’s occupants were particularly threatening to the machine, but he was weary nevertheless.

It wasn’t the bipeds he was worried about however.

A giant mass of gold reared up opposite of Predaking. The dragon was so large that Mruzo’s brain had trouble taking in the full size of it. His mandibles fell slack. Predaking was large in his own right at a little over a hundred feet long, but this dragon was over twice that, making Predaking look insignificant in comparison to the gold dragon’s radiance.

“I see you spotted the largest dragon in the world,” Torkos commented, making his way towards the cluster of bipeds.

“He is?” Mruzo couldn’t help but ask, blinking up at the dragon that easily loomed over them. The gold beast had eyes only for Predaking, but they were nonhostile, curious more than anything.

“Yes. Rob’s a big guy. He also likes his alcohol at least five years old.”

Mruzo whipped his gaze back to Torkos, who was laughing at his own joke, but didn’t have time to say anything as they reached the dragons.

“Dr. Arcflame,” one dragon said. It was a green western dragon with an eastern’s whiskers and a bright white underbelly. It also bowed its head in admission to the Doctor.

“Hello Sorien,” Torkos replied. His voice caused the other dragons to notice him.

“Torkos,” a tall black dragon growled, arms crossed over a barrel of a chest. “What have you brought in this time, besides a mechanical beast?”

“A little something special, Tai,” Torkos replied, smirking.

“Very funny, Torkos,” a voice said, silencing the others. “We still need to talk about Darth’fulamee and his friend.” The speaker was a dragon of average height, but much more terrifying in appearance than the rest. His scales were a bloody red and midnight black. Multiple horns lined the top of his head, from his egghorn to the ring of spines around his neck. Wings pierced with ruby red crystal nodes that pulsed with the dragon’s heartbeat sat snug against the dragon’s back.

This was the dragon that would decide Mruzo’s fate.

“Zorath,” Torkos said smoothly. “I really don’t think there’s much to discuss. They know of us.”

“That’s true,” the red and black dragon agreed. “There is something I’d like to ask you about, however. Send the boy to see his friend.”

The Doctor nodded to Mruzo and cocked his head towards Predaking. The message was clear. Mruzo was not supposed to hear this. He gladly stepped out of the group of threatening dragons and tried his best to calm himself as he padded towards Predaking. The big dragon looked relieved to see him.

“You made it,” Mruzo said, planting himself against a giant metal claw. The whole event was draining to Mruzo. Predaking did not seem to care.

“Obviously,” came the dispassionate reply.

“Did anything happen along the way?”

“No.”

Mruzo nodded, unsurprised. He watched as Torkos, Zorath, and the attendant dragons

conversed amongst themselves of Mruzo’s and Predaking’s fates. The giant gold dragon had lowered his head to hear, showing how truly outmatched in size everyone was compared to him. His head was larger than all the bipeds combined.

“Have they done anything to you?” Mruzo asked. “Talked to you at all?”

“They’ve only watched me,” Predaking growled. Mruzo knew the robotic dragon was literal in the extreme. If he said they’ve only watched him, then they’ve only watched him.

Two dragons broke off from the group and closed on Mruzo and Predaking. Torkos and Zorath were approaching with an air of finality that suggested that a decision had been achieved.

Predaking growled above Mruzo, static issuing from his vox. The two did not look threatened.

“Mruzo, Predaking,” Torkos began upon reaching them. “It has been decided that you two will be formally inducted to the Dragon Shadow Council by your own choice. Should you choose to do so, you shall be joining the most powerful and influential human and draconic force in the world.”

Mruzo heard a stilted tone in the Doctor’s voice. The words came off by wrote of tradition or a rite of passage. It managed to surprise him.

“If we don’t accept?” Mruzo challenged lightly.

“Then we will wipe your memory and dismantle Predaking,” Zorath said bluntly. The metal dragon snarled but did not move.

“We really don’t like doing that,” Torkos added.

Not sure if they were telling the truth or not, Mruzo thought over everything Torkos had offered them, how he had practically saved both him and Predaking, and now granted them a once in a lifetime offer. It was a hard and sudden decision. Mruzo Darth’fulamee made his.

He nodded.

“I’ll join your Council if Predaking decides to join too. I wouldn’t want to lose him.”

The robotic dragon spat something, the meaning lost in static, until he uttered a singleword: “Fine.”
“Good!” Torkos said, visibly brightening. Even Zorath cracked a smile. His sharp teeth turned it into a leer. “You already have your role in the Council.” “What’s that?” Mruzo asked.

“Taking care of Predaking,” Zorath replied.

Mruzo couldn’t help but grin and put a reassuring claw on Predaking’s massive metallic paw. The dragon only cocked his head in reply. Mruzo knew he was satisfied.