Chace Ogden and the Cobalt Dragon Read online

  "Woah," he said as Raven put her palm to the wall, leaving a magical imprint, "is that like the marks you left that Chace and Maps saw in the Magical Realm? I can see it now."

  “Yea, just like that,” Maps said, grinning as she patted his back. I smiled as I noticed how excited she was for him. “Now that that’s taken care of, all we need to do is steal your earring back, and you'll be even more helpful!”

  "What do you mean, steal it?" he said, eyes wide. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he added, his head slowly, "I just got ungrounded, and I'd rather not let it happen again. She'll definitely notice if the earring disappears."

  Maps rolled her eyes. “Sorry, but I’m just not that concerned about you getting grounded when the fate of the world is on the line.”

  “Ah, so clearly, you haven’t met my mom.”

  “We’re going to face a dragon. No,” she said, holding up a hand to stop Taz, who looked ready to argue some more. “We're going to do it, so let’s get a move on. We need every edge we can get,” Maps said, beckoning for us to follow as she walked towards the door.

  “I agree with Maps but wait here a moment, I have another idea that’ll help keep your mother from finding out,” Twee Twyla said, walking out of the room.

  She walked back into the room after several minutes with a medium-sized hoop earring held up between her fingers.

  “Watch this,” she said, rubbing the fingers of her other hand over the earring. It slowly shifted at her touch, becoming more and more malleable until it looked like it was the texture of Play-doh. It seemed so much like a magic trick that I found myself trying to think of a way she could be faking it. She squeezed the hoop by the sides, and it collapsed into a line before molding it into a bar shape that mirrored Taz’s earring perfectly. “Do you think the color and size are right?” she said, holding it up and tapping it once, seemingly re-solidifying the metal.

  “Yeah,” Taz said, mouth agape.

  “That was sweet!” Maps said, grabbing it and rolling it around in her hand, “it looks so perfect.”

  “Nice,” Raven said, “I doubt she’ll be able to tell the difference.”

  “I still think it’s a bad idea, how are we going to get into her room to actually get the earring?” Taz said.

  “If you can keep her distracted, I’ll handle making the switch,” Maps said, pocketing the replica, “I can be pretty sneaky.”

  "I'll help Maps with that," I said, "but we should avoid bringing too many people inside, or she might notice."

  Raven asked, “Can you think of a way to distract her, Taz?”

  “Uhh, she always freaks out when I come home all messy,” Taz said, rubbing his chin and looking pensive.

  “That should be easy enough,” Maps said, chortling as she grabbed a handful of dirt from a potted plant in the corner of the room and rubbed it on Taz’s shirt. I found myself laughing along as Maps grabbed another handful of dirt and rubbed that on Taz’s shirt as well. It felt good to laugh, but mostly it felt good to forget all the crazy stuff going on.

  “Hey, you better clean that up, girlie!” Twee Twyla shouted, doing her best to disguise her own giggles as she grabbed some dirt and lobbed it at a chuckling Taz.

  Only Raven didn't get in on the fun. The smile slid from my face as we locked gazes, and the ice reformed around my heart.

  She was doing this because she had to. This was her job.

  No.

  Her duty.

  But I shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that things were okay between us.

  They weren't. And I worried things might never be the same again.

  With that sobering thought, I brought the fun to a halt.

  “He’s dirty enough. Let’s go get his earring. We’ve got a dragon to capture.”

  Chapter 4

  “Remember the plan,” Maps said to our ragtag crew as the back of Taz’s house came into view through the trees. We'd decided it wasn't safe to teleport back to the street, so we'd approached the house from behind. "We just need you to keep her occupied for a minute or so, and we'll sneak into her room to replace the earring. Then Chace can teleport us back to Raven and Twee Twyla.”

  Had I ever seen the interior of Taz’s mom’s room before, I could’ve transported us there, but I hadn’t. So, with no visual reference, we were stuck using old fashioned sneakery for our way in.

  Taz gulped and nodded, looking down at his dirty clothes. “It’s in a jewelry box in the top drawer of her dresser,” he said, pausing momentarily before adding, “please don’t get me caught, guys.” He looked more nervous than when we’d seen the Dragon in the Magical Realm. I stifled a laugh, thinking of how nice Taz’s mom had always been to me.

  She was hardly some monster, but he knew her better than I did, so I vowed to be careful.

  “I have something that could help a bit,” Twee Twyla said, waving her hand at us. “I put a magical shield on the bottom of your shoes, it should dampen your footsteps to some degree.”

  “Thanks,” I said, jumping up and down to test how much the sound was actually reduced. I hoped it made Taz feel a little better as I strained my ears to hear any sound of my shielded feet striking the hard pavement.

  “I feel like I can still hear a little...”

  Raven rolled her eyes at Taz, who was still shaking. “Stop stalling. We’ll wait here, don’t take too long.”

  I nodded, and Maps, Taz, and I continued the rest of the short walk to the front of Taz’s house. “There’s nothing to worry about,” I murmured, “we’ll be in and out.”

  When we turned the corner to the front, he put a finger to his lips and pointed to his kitchen window on the right side of the house. I squinted and saw his mom cooking through it. We crept through the yard, circling around to the left.

  “I’ll head inside and go straight to the kitchen. Remember to wait at least ten seconds or so before following after me,” he whispered as we approached the door.

  “Got it,” I said, flashing him a grin and giving him a light shove toward the door.

  He took a deep breath before opening the door and quickly shuffling inside. Taz left the door open behind him, as planned. I counted to ten mentally as I watched him take a left and head toward the kitchen.

  “Now,” I whispered and stepped inside.

  I waved for Maps to follow me, cringing as I heard a loud gasp followed by a screech of, “Taz! What on earth did you do?” from the other room. I closed the door softly as Taz’s mom ripped into him. I crept slowly past the door on my right, which led to the living room and kitchen, leading Maps down the hallway ahead as we silently made our way to Taz’s mom’s room.

  I pointed to a door at the end of the hall and led Maps toward it quickly, not having to worry much about noise with how loudly Taz’s mom was yelling. When we got inside her room, we immediately spotted a massive dresser against the right side of the room.

  Maps shut the door. Then she shuffled up to the dresser and opened the top drawer. Inside was a small jewelry box. I reached to pull the box open, but nothing happened.

  “It’s locked,” I whispered, nerves setting in and feeling like a lead brick in the depths of my stomach. Taz hadn't mentioned a lock. I could've just blasted it open, but a broken lock on the jewelry box would give away our secret mission. Instead, I put my palm toward it, trying in vain to use magic to unlock it, imagining my magic filling the hole and turning like a key.

  “Massive fail,” Maps whispered, shoving me to the side.

  She dove a hand into her mass of dark curls and pulled out a bobby pin. Then, she went to work on the box, gently slipping the pin into the keyhole and jiggling it around, her face a mask of concentration. She was clearly well-practiced, and it took her less than half a minute to open the lock. When it popped open, I sighed with relief only to stop short as I noticed that the hollering in the other room had ceased, and all was eerily quiet.

  “Hurry, she could be on her way here for all we know,” I said in a hushed to
ne.

  Maps took Taz’s shiny bar earring from the center of the box and pocketed it as she pulled the replacement from her other pocket. She carefully put the fake where the magical earring had been a moment earlier. As she shut the box, we heard Taz yelling.

  "Mom, um, so what's for dinner tonight?" Our ears perked up, and Maps scrambled to put the pin back in and relock the box. That was our signal that Taz’s mom wasn’t distracted anymore.

  “Why are you always thinking two meals ahead? I’m making chili, so be sure you’re home by 6:00 to eat,” she yelled back, her voice getting closer with every word.

  I reached out to grab Maps’ hand just as footfalls sounded from the hallway. We only had seconds before we were caught.

  “Wait,” Maps hissed, still fiddling with the lock. A soft click sounded at right as the doorknob began to turn. Maps shoved the drawer shut quickly, with an audible click. I did my best to focus my mind on the place we’d left Twee Twyla and Raven a few minutes earlier.

  “What was that noise?” Taz’s mom muttered as she opened the door.

  I pinched my eyes closed and concentrated harder, my pulse pounding so loud, I could hear it beating in my ears.

  Please work.

  “Why are you cringing like that?” Raven said.

  I let out a sigh of relief as I let my eyes flicker open and saw Twee Twyla, Raven, and Maps standing directly in front of me.

  “Way to scare the crap out of me,” Maps said, punching my arm.

  I turned to Twee Twyla and Raven, "We made the swap, but it was locked, and we had to cut it crazy close. Taz’s mom was opening the door when we got out of the room,” I explained, pulling out my phone to send a quick text to Taz.

  Success! Meet us outside when you can.

  Twee Twyla laughed, “how did you unlock it?”

  "I tried to open it with my magic, but I couldn't pull it off without breaking the lock, so Maps picked it. It was awesome, she did it super-fast."

  "It was no big deal. My parents got me a lockpicking set a few years back, and I practice in between games sometimes," Maps said with a modest shrug.

  Raven rolled her eyes, “Brilliant. So, where's Taz?”

  Just as she said it, my phone vibrated with a text back. Be out in a minute.

  “He’s on his way out.”

  Twee Twyla clapped her hands, and I felt slightly shorter as the magic muffling spell under our feet disappeared.

  "We can head out as soon as he gets back," she said, pulling out an oversized phone that was clearly one of her own creations. She tapped away at it for a bit before continuing, "Looks like the Dragon is still in the Sahara. It's flying over Egypt right now. One of my sources sent me a picture less than an hour ago that you can use to take us there."

  I noticed Taz walking toward us wearing clean clothes. His bow was slung over his shoulder. He shot us a sheepish grin.

  “Hey, how’d it go?” I asked.

  "Not too bad. My mom ripped into me over the dirty clothes, but I lived through it. So long as you guys got the earring, I'm good..." Taz said, flicking a glance from me to Maps.

  She pulled the earring from her pocket and handed it to Taz with a grin. "Of course. Chace cut it about as close as he could've, but we got it."

  “To be fair, Taz’s mom sounded about as furious as Klugg. It was hard not to panic.”

  Even Raven’s lips twitched at that, and a warm feeling coursed through me.

  Taz’s gaze locked on the earring, and he grabbed it from Maps with a squeal of glee. Without hesitation, he shoved it into his now-healing earhole, cringing as it re-opened the piercing. Still, his pained grimace turned to a grin once it was in. "I can already feel the difference. I've missed this thing. I can't wait to take a shot!"

  “So, Taz, now that you’ve got back your magical aim, your job will be to aim for critical areas on the Dragon so it can’t put all its focus on Chace and Raven,” Twee Twyla said.

  He nodded gravely. “I’ll do my best.”

  “We should be good to go, then,” I said, cracking my knuckles, “do you have that picture?”

  Twee Twyla took her oversized phone back out and handed it to me. A picture of a small oasis in a vast desert landscape was on the screen. I reached out to grab Raven's hand with my free hand, and, after a moment's hesitation, she took it. Then, I held out the pinky of my phone hand out for Taz to grab. “Everyone get in a circle.”

  The encounter that we'd had with the Dragon in the Magical Realm came back to me, reminding me of the enormity of what we were trying to do. The Myth Squad was about to fight a Dragon. I felt that lead brick in my stomach again. I took a deep breath.

  It took a second to psyche myself up to pull the trigger. I had to remember that this was for the good of the world and the people in it. Even if most people couldn’t see magic and had no idea the danger they were in if me and my friends didn’t get this creature back where it belonged, their lives were in grave danger. The Myth Squad was capable of anything, so long as we were together.

  I took a deep, shuddering breath and clasped Raven's hand tighter.

  “Ready...set...let’s go.”

  Chapter 5

  Though there was no Dragon in sight yet, I could feel an eerie and cold presence. The second we appeared, its presence stood out in sharp contrast to the dry heat of the desert.

  It was coming from directly in front of us, and it couldn't have been very far.

  “I can feel him,” I said, pointing to the sand dunes ahead of us and beginning my march through the hot sand. “The dragon.”

  “Take it easy, boy. Before we run in there guns blazing, I have one last trick up my sleeve," Twee Twyla said. She then reached into her sleeve and pulling out a vial of purple liquid, handing it to me.

  “I assume it’s some kind of potion? What does it do?” I said, looking through it at the hot desert sun. The violet elixir blocked the sunlight out completely.

  “I still don’t think you have enough control over your magic to teleport something as big as a Dragon. This should help with that. It won't make you any stronger, but it makes using magic more intuitive. Raven's control is precise enough that I don’t think it would be of any use to her, but I brought enough for you and for Maps. I’ll give hers to her if someone needs healing.”

  I nodded, trying not to smile at Raven, who had raised her head proudly at Twee Twyla’s praise. I pulled the cork out of the vial and sniffed the potion. It smelled like a mix of flowers and Taz’s BO after gym class, which made for an unfortunate combination. “This reeks,” I mumbled.

  A sudden thought hit me, and I gaped at Twee Twyla. “Wait...so why didn’t you give me one of those when I went to save Raven instead of hooking me up with Seth and risking my heart?” I asked, grimacing, and pinching my nostrils shut.

  “This kind of stuff doesn’t grow on trees, you know. I just got my hands on these!" Twee Twyla shot back with a sniff. "And it wouldn’t have been enough to help in that situation regardless. You needed the incredible power the Thriple has to offer. If I'm honest, I don't think the potion will be enough to give you an edge on this Dragon, either, but it was your idea to fight him,” Twee Twyla said with a thin smile.

  I shrugged, we’d done the “impossible” before, and I was determined to do it again.

  “Thanks. I’m grateful for whatever help it gives us.”

  Then, I drank the purple liquid without another word, draining it in a single swig. Luckily for me, it tasted better than it smelled and went down with relative ease. If the Thriple had made me feel like my power was overflowing, I now felt like my power was perfectly contained. I could almost feel the tingle of it on the surface of my skin. It was as if my reserves had been pulled to the surface from deep inside.

  “Ready,” I said, my confidence swelling with the magically assisted feeling of control.

  The group nodded and followed my lead straight forward, where I could still sense the Dragon’s presence. Our trek over the dunes lasted less than
fifteen minutes. Trudging through the fine sand made my legs feel worse than if we’d walked miles. By the time I felt us getting close enough to feel that suffocating, magical dread that came along with the Dragon, I felt like my legs needed a week-long rest.

  A minute later, my newfound purple-liquid induced confidence turned to dust as the Dragon came into view. Its massive frame was stretched out as it lounged in the desert sand. The sand that it had displaced by landing was piled high on either side of it.

  The thing was the size of a building.

  How silly I had been to think that a little boost to my magical control would be enough to help us. I couldn’t help but think that even if I’d had another dose of the Thriple, it’d be futile.

  Taz slowed to a stop as he noticed the rest of us gawking and pulled on his magic-tek glasses.

  “Jeepers creepers, that thing is huge,” Taz gasped after a few seconds.

  I forced my feet to keep walking forward. “We got this,” I said, trying to convince myself as much as the others. A good leader had to lead from the front and, if they really thought of me that way, it would ruin our whole group’s confidence to show how scared I was.

  The Dragon didn't even notice us until we were a football field away, further eroding my confidence. Dragons could sense magic too, and mine was barely even on its radar where we'd felt its presence from further than a mile.

  “It’s now or never. We can still back out,” Twee Twyla said softly.

  I considered it for a long moment but then shook my head. I knew I could protect my team and get us out of there fast if need be. We had to at least try. Best case, we'd pull out a long-shot win and save the world. Worst case, we'd get to see exactly how powerful this beast was.

  “All right then,” Twee Twyla murmured, lifting her hands and forming barriers around each of us as the Dragon pushed itself lazily to its feet. Sand flowed like water away from its massive body. I heard my team gasp in surprise as it rose to its full height.

  “Going in,” Raven called. She charged forward, following our plan to have her fight the creature at close range while Taz fired from a distance. The idea was that Raven and Taz would distract the Dragon enough with their attacks for me to slip in close and try to transport it back to the Magical Realm. It was a plan I now regretted. I would have to be near perfect to keep my team safe. Then again, second-guessing myself was only going to make that harder. I used every ounce of my energy to focus on Raven. I was ready to pull her from the fight the moment there was even a hint of trouble.