Dragon Rider Chronicles – The Hybrid’s Rising

                            Chapter IV


Nightblade pounced at a butterfly that was landed on a flower in the garden. He smiled at the fact that he caught the flying insect, or so he thought. He watched in disappointment as the prey he believed he had caught flew out from under him and off to another yard. What he didn’t know, at least yet, was that his paw had landed on a hornet that had been pollinating the flower beside the one the butterfly had been on. Nightblade began to walk away, back toward Theo and the others, but as soon as he started moving his right foreleg, a very sharp and extremely painful stinging sensation exploded in his right paw. He yelped loudly, picking his injured paw up, turning it palm side toward him. He found that the hornet had stung him fiercely, the stinger still stuck in his hand. The little dragon’s hand hurt very badly and it was starting to throb with pain. He ran crying and yelping down toward his father, who was still chatting with Shirley, Aaron, and Amber. Tears streaming down his infant snout, he nudged Theo in the leg.

“Hmm? Nightblade, what’s wrong?”

The hatchling just looked at him, eyes still very watery, holding his injured paw with the other. He seemed to understand what Theo was asking of him, so he showed his paw to him.

“Aww, did you hurt yourself? Let me see that paw.” Theo picked up the infant and looked at the swollen palm. “You got stung by a bee, huh? Let’s get that stinger out.”

Theo at first was hesitant to pull out the stinger, as he did not know how Nightblade would react. He knew for a fact that pulling out stingers was no walk in the park and he didn’t want to get bitten if the dragon became uneasy. He decided that it needed to come out, as the infant was very teary-eyed and was emitting noises that were the equivalent of crying, he guessed.

“Alright Nightblade, let’s get it out now. Grandma, do you have any tweezers in your purse?”

“I think so, let me check.” Shirley pulled her purse out from under the table. Digging through it, she found what Theo had asked for and handed the tweezers to him.

Uneasily Theo accepted them and prepared to get the painful stinger out of the dragon’s swollen, throbbing hand.

“This is going to hurt a little bit, Nightblade.” Theo knew the dragon couldn’t understand what he was saying and took the dragon’s palm. Nightblade didn’t put up a fight in letting Theo hold his injured paw, which relieved the teenager a bit. He located the stinger and tried to pull it out with the tweezers, causing the hatchling to growl a bit and emit more tears, but yet the baby still didn’t put up a fight. It was as if he knew Theo was trying to help him. Finally, after about two minutes of constant digging and pulling, the stinger was out. Theo breathed a sigh of relief, threw the stinger into the yard, and gave his dragon a hug.

“There, there, boy. It’s alright, the stinger’s gone now.”
The baby dragon looked at his hand and to his delight some of the pain was alleviated. It wasn’t all completely gone, but it wasn’t causing him to cry anymore. Nightblade licked the wound on his hand and curled up on Theo’s lap, drifting off into an afternoon nap.

“Wow, Theo. I can’t believe he didn’t snap his jaws down on you during that. It looked really painful!” Amber said, amazed at the fact that the infant dragon just sat there and let Theo rip a stinger out of his paw.

“I think he’s starting to really trust me. I know for a fact that even my cat wouldn’t let me do that, and I’ve had him for nearly ten years.”

“He knows who you are Theo—in his eyes you’re his father. He trusts you completely.” Shirley said at the same moment a navy blue car was pulling into Theo’s driveway.

“Who could that be—I’ve never seen that car before!” Theo got up, concerned.

Tuomas stepped out of the car door, not wearing Mexican attire this time. He had on a light blue t-shirt and jeans, as well as a pair of polarized sunglasses on his face. His real features could be seen now—the wrinkles of age drooping on his face and snow-white hair upon his head. A gold-chained necklace hung around his neck, it holding a silver pendant with an embossed “I” in the center of it, to represent “Iseman.” They all five watched as he approached the table.

“Theo.”

“Umm—hi. Who are you again?”

“I’m Tuomas Iseman, Theo. I’m a relative of yours, on your grandmother’s side of the family. I’m sure she’s told you about everything, right?”

Theo raised an eyebrow. “—Yeah. This just keeps getting stranger and stranger.”

“Theo, is that the man you told us about? The one who gave you the egg?” Aaron spoke up, he too trying to absorb everything that was being revealed.

Tuomas got a look of surprise and shock on his face when he looked before him and saw two other humans besides Theo and Shirley sitting there, and then a look of immediate concern came upon him.

“Theo, who are these other humans? Do they know about everything?”

“Yes sir, these are my best friends, Aaron Shaffer and Amber James. They’ve been with me through this whole thing so far—from that day you gave me the egg after band camp up until now.”

“Theo—you weren’t exactly supposed to tell anyone. Actias likes to keep itself secret from everyone on Earth, with the exception of the Iseman and Klingensmith families, of course.” He thought for a moment—Theo wouldn’t have known that. “It’s fine though, boy. You didn’t know.”

Theo blushed in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

Tuomas put up his hand in protest. “Don’t be. It’s fine, really—you two, Aaron and Amber—you can’t tell anyone else about this, alright? It can’t even be revealed to your parents; this is something that must stay between us five, alright?”

Both of them nodded simultaneously, afraid of what would happen if they said no or asked why they couldn’t tell anyone else. Aaron looked at the timid freshman he had met in Spanish II the previous school year and was utterly amazed to find out that he was a prophesized hero. He had honestly thought Theo to be one of the quietest and most out-of-the-way people he had ever met in his school career—and especially had that view of him on the first day of Theo’s freshman band camp, just a year ago now. The shy trumpet player had come up to find that he was the only one in the section from his grade, somewhat scared of those trumpeters older than him. He had barely said anything at all during the first few days of band camp that long year ago; his only real concern then being not to upset the band director as well as the other band members by not making too many mistakes. He had warmed up to the band as the year continued on, mainly around the end of the marching season. Theo and Aaron had not really talked much at all until about the second half of the second semester, when they were paired as partners for a group project.

Amber too looked at the friend she had made many, many years back when she and Theo were in fifth grade. She had just moved to the area back then, not knowing anyone in the school besides one girl she had befriended right away. It was this girl who had introduced her to Theo, and they became instant friends. She thought it was very interesting that he had been prophesized to be a great hero of another world she had no idea existed until about an hour or two ago. She had always thought Theo would go on to do great things, but never something as grand as this. She was delighted to be a friend of such a hero.   

Tuomas turned to Theo with a look of delight and what appeared to be a touch of mischief in his elderly bronze eyes. He couldn’t wait to get Theo to Actias—to bring it the hope it had so long craved for the past era. Since Heolstor’s takeover nearly one hundred thousand Actian years ago, the planet had been through countless wars and a great time of darkness and despair.

“—And now, Theo. It’s time for you to come with me to Actias and learn of your destiny in its fullest description possible. Are you packed?”

“What do you mean packed? I’m only going there to visit, aren’t I?”

“What? Of course not! Boy, you’re going to live there until this quest is completed! Weren’t you told?”

Shirley’s eyes widened; she had neglected to tell Theo that part. “I’m sorry, I must have forgotten to tell him.”

Theo looked shocked and worried. He was to live on a planet he knew nothing at all about? He was to just leave Earth like that? He was to be pulled away from his friends, his family, his high school, his life altogether? Theo uttered the only phrase he could at Tuomas’s statement.

“What the hell do you mean?!”

Tuomas sat down at the table with a look of worry on his elderly face and placed his hands on his head in immediate disgust. Shirley had told Theo absolutely nothing at all about his destiny or bloodline and now it had caused a serious problem. He couldn’t just take Theo to Actias, for his parents had no idea about it. His mother indeed knew of her son’s destiny—it was his father who needed educated on the entire subject.

Tuomas exhaled a long sigh. “—Alright, get his parents on the phone.”


Meanwhile, on Actias


Vulcan put on a white button-up dress shirt and red tie, along with a pair of black dress pants. He wanted to look formal for Theo’s arrival but at the same time casual enough for the teen to view him as a friend as well as a sensei. It was about then that he received a call on his cell phone, all the way from Earth. As he suspected, the caller ID read “Tuomas.” He at first wanted to chuck the phone against the wall because this had to be the third time Tuomas had called him today, but he put on a smile and answered the phone.

“Yes, Tuomas?”

“We’re going to be a bit later than I had first thought. It turns out Shirley didn’t tell him in advance that he’d be living on Actias, and I’m in the process of telling his parents.”

All Vulcan could do was laugh. He knew the subject wasn’t anything to laugh at, especially on Tuomas’s end, but the situation was amusing to him.

Tuomas sighed, annoyed. “You would laugh, Vulcan.”

He told Vulcan that he had to go and would be on Actias later in the day, after he had straightened the matter out with Theo’s parents. Vulcan gave one last chuckle and bid him goodbye, hanging up the phone. He smiled as he walked over to check his calendar for anything important events coming up that he might have forgotten about. He dropped his cell phone when he read the one important thing that he should have remembered about this day other than Theo’s arrival—his son’s return from his foreign exchange experience on Ai. He looked at the time on his watch—it was an hour yet until his son would be at the Capitus Actia airport. He grabbed his keys and ran down the stairs, into his car, and drove off to make it there in time.