Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Chapter Four
“AAAAAAAAARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”
The scream woke Reeku with a start, and he rushed from his bed to Zain’s side to find him on his back, leaning against the wall, his eyes wide with terror.
‘What’s wrong?!’ Reeku’s eyes darted across the room to see what had startled Zain, but he seemed to be staring at the air above his chest Apparently, Zain saw something that Reeku could not.
“What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong’!?” Zain spat shortly, losing his eloquence. “There’s a dragon on me! Get it off!” For a moment, Reeku considered that Zain had gone mad. There was clearly nothing on top of Zain, but still he stared at the spot of air as if it would bite him at any moment. Then, as Zain recoiled, a wet streak worked its way up his cheek.
“Ah! It licked me!” Zain swatted crazily about himself, trying to get the unseen offender off of him. Reeku could not see how he could help his friend, and stood awkwardly off to the side, feeling a bit useless. Undisturbed, Riley lay peacefully in his bed, pretending to be asleep with an amused smile on his face. Reeku enlisted his assistance.
“What is it, me lad?” asked Riley, still acting aloof.
‘Well, um, I don’t really know… but there’s something invisible on Zain, I think,’ thought Reeku, finding himself at a lack of information. ‘I think he said it was a dragon…’ Riley smiled and stood up, in no hurry to aid Zain.
“Well, I’ll see what I can do. Hey, boyo?” Riley called to Zain. Zain stilled and stood up, walking slowly toward Riley, his frightened eyes staring now at his shoulder, which he was tilted away from. He mouthed the words ‘help me’ repeatedly, which gave him the appearance of a devilish, black-haired Reeku.
Through Zain’s eyes, the ferocious, though small, snake-like, dragon had jet black scales. Its thin eyes glowed red in the dark, along with its sharp glittering white teeth. Its delicate wings were jagged, spiked, and not unlike Zain’s. Riley calmly held out an arm, and whistled softly.
The dragonet cocked its head to one side at the noise, and then molded its face into something remarkably like a grin. Zain’s wings twitched nervously when it jumped happily from his shoulder to Riley’s. It scurried about his clothes like an excited puppy, and then perched on the upper part of his arm like a twisted parrot. Riley looked completely at ease.
“Zain, I’d like to introduce a little lovable creature known as Fuoco,” said Riley, nuzzling the tiny dragon. Reeku stared blankly in utter confusion. A loud voice filled Riley and Zain’s heads.
‘What the heck is going on!? There’s nothing there!’ Reeku exclaimed. But he soon was eating his own thoughts when the invisible creature jumped onto his head, looking curiously at its reflection in his goggles. Reeku was so surprised that he almost cried a swear word out loud. Instead, it was telepathically transmitted to Riley, who gave him a ‘you-shouldn’t-say-those-kinds-of-things’ look.
Zain laughed, realizing this is how he must have appeared. Now that he got a second, farther away look at the dragonet, he actually thought that it looked cute inspecting the mirror dragon in the goggles.
Reeku could now tell that it was real, and began to see its blurred outline.
‘Maybe you can only see it if you believe it’s there, like the door downstairs,’ thought Reeku. Riley nodded.
“Good guess, lad. In fact, this little trouble-maker’s where I got the idea from.” He took Fuoco off of Reeku’s head, and Reeku sighed in relief. Fuoco tried to jump out of Riley’s hands to get back to the shiny goggles, making Reeku back away. Riley just laughed. “He won’t hurtcha, lad!”
Just then, Riley released the dragon into the air, and it flew around the room at a dizzying speed, showing off to its three fans. Zain drew his wings in close again. Why couldn’t he fly like that? I’m such a coward, he thought angrily. Reeku looked at him, puzzled. He had heard Zain, but didn’t know what he meant by it. Riley’s energetic voice cut through the silence.
“Well, we can’ just sit around here. Come on lads, we’re burnin’ moonlight.” Riley opened the door and headed down the stairs, which molded to fit his size, more than enough for the two young boys to follow.
Zain tried to leave Fuoco in the room, but it kept landing on his shoulder. Eventually, he gave in, thinking that he already had dragon wings, so a dragonet wouldn’t add or take away much from his appearance. It squeaked happily when Zain took it down the steps with him.
Riley and Reeku had already exited the stairway, and when Zain opened the door again, he was overwhelmed by the sea of eyes staring at him from the other side. He thought he was turning into a mouse. He felt himself shrinking smaller and smaller under the pressure of the eyes. If Riley hadn’t distracted them, Zain would have run back up the stairs.
“Gents, if I could ‘ave yer attention, please.” All eyes turned to Riley, and the crushing weight was lifted off of Zain. “Seein’ as we ‘ave a new member, I think we should all introduce ourselves to ‘im.” Riley bowed low. “Riley Jameson, Prince.” Everyone else snapped into order, and bowed the same way.
One by one, they rattled off their first names in a military fashion. Riley was the only one to give his last name; perhaps they withheld them so that people could have lives outside of the Shadows as well. Renaldo, Mateo, Mercedes, Firoso. Some people even had aliases, such as Maschera, the disguise master, Arma, the weapons specialist, and Sentinella, the young scout.
The same older ones that had made Riley angry earlier were hesitant to give their names, but gave in with a dirty look from their Prince. Zain wouldn’t have cared if they stayed away from him; they seemed extremely dishonest, even for thieves. When they spoke, he marked their names. He would make sure they were dealt with.
‘At ease, gents. Tonight’s free time, so you can all get to know young Mr. Zain.’ At this, several things happened at once. The dishonest Shadows disappeared, probably into another room. Riley sat down in a lavish black throne, watching Zain with laughter in his eyes. A few of the younger Shadow members crowded around Zain; their dirty faces grinning broadly. Among them were the ones called Maschera and Sentinella. Two young maroon eyes peeked at him from behind Maschera’s mask.
“Why’s yer name Zain? It doesno sound Italian. Where you from?” asked Maschera. It was no surprise that he was a disguise master, even so young, for he mimicked Riley’s voice perfectly. Zain was so confused that he shot a glance at Riley, who was in stitches and in danger of falling off his thrown. Reeku was at his side miming outrageous laughter. Zain was almost sure that Maschera himself had an amused grin on under his mask.
Just as Reeku had done yesterday, the youngest members were inspecting Zain’s wings with whispers of wonderment. Zain spread them, his full wingspan over 6 feet and still growing. This made his small audience stare in awe. He wondered how they would react if they knew he couldn’t fly. Sure enough, they were curious.
“That’s impressive, kid,” said Sentinella, the oldest in the group at 14. He had scruffy brown hair, and very dark eyes. “But from the structure of your muscles, I can tell you don’t fly much. Why is that?” Zain wished for once that scouts weren’t so perceptive.
“Well, actually, I can’t fly… yet,” he added quickly.
“Why not?” said a young punk kid with blue/black hair.
“Um… I’m afraid of heights,” Zain admitted sullenly.

chapter 4! hurray!