Page 37 of Riding My Dragons

”I understand,” I said.“A friend of mine and I have to go and meet our other friend who’s trying to get Jenna back.Maybe we can all get together at the place where we’re headed.”

And I told him the location where Cade had been sent.Callaway listened.Then he said, “That’s near where I had in mind to meet.Yes, we’ll all meet up there, and see what we can do about helping my niece.And maybe keeping someone from using the contents of that data box.”

”It’s really that dangerous?” I asked.

”This,” said Callaway, “could be the most dangerous thing in the world right now.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.And Byron, standing nearby and listening, likewise didn’t care for how I looked, reacting to it.

Jenna’s uncle and I ended the call.I pocketed Jenna’s phone.Then I told Byron what I learned from Mr. Callaway.

The next natural question hung in the air for a moment.Byron put the words to it.He said, “You’re wondering if we can trust this human, aren’t you?”

“We’re going to have to trust him,” I replied.“Time’s running out for Cade and Jenna.Meeting up with Neal Callaway may be the only way to get her back.And Jenna said her uncle is in the Intercross.We don’t have any way to help her if she’s really in trouble, but they might.”

”There’s nothing else to do, is there?” Byron said solemnly.

”Damn,” I said.“You know, I started out just wanting to show Jenna a good time.There she was, this young human girl, pretty but shy.All I wanted to do was have her enjoy me, and maybe help her open up her life a little. That’s all I was trying to do at first.And somewhere in there, I don’t knowwhen, something happened.I didn’t see it until it happened, but there it was.She got under my scales, Byron.”

“She has that effect,” he agreed.“I think she’s done that to all three of us.We weren’t looking for it and she wasn’t trying, but…she got us.We got her and she got us right back.Effortlessly.”

“Now we’ve got to get her out of this,” I said.“We’ve just got to.”

“We will,” said Byron with a hand on my shoulder.“We couldn’t live with anything else.”

CHAPTER 18

Jenna

Everyone I could see out the window was a dragon.

There was one big window in the locked room where I woke up, and it didn’t look out onto any place outdoors.Instead, the view outside was of a huge, vast, cavernous underground space.It was lit by large floating globes whose glow must have been from the Ambience, and by Ambience light posts and torches and fire pits along the cavern floor.It was enormous enough to contain a whole village—and that’s exactly what it held.There was a community in this cavern, carved into the walls and constructed into the stone at the bottom of it, where I could see homes, apartments, shops, parks, walkways and streets, recreation areas, what looked like a school, even a couple of artificial lakes.Vehicles skimmed along the roadways or glided through the air the same as they would do in a town on the surface.It was incredible.And everywhere were Scalers in dragon form, going here and there about their business, some flying and some on foot, and some just resting and basking.I looked hard to see whether there were any humans, or Scalers in human shape, and couldn’t find any.It was some underground village of the dragons.I had never seen anything like it.

More than that, though, it seemed as if there were a celebration going on out there.Glowing balloons floated all over the place, and what looked like balls of light went flying and looping along like overgrown fireflies, leaving trails of glittering particles behind them.In the parks, bands were playing; and dragon people were dancing, an almost comical sight.From my vantage point over the cavern floor, throughthe window of wherever I was, I could make out sounds of dragon voices singing and laughing.Well, okay, I thought, this is Reconciliation Week; it makes sense for people to be celebrating.But where exactly is this and what am I doing here?

I felt a twinge on my neck and touched the spot where I suddenly remembered being stuck with some kind of claw-like dart, and my fascination turned to a sharp, piercing fright.As mysterious as it was to find myself here, the last moments I could recall before waking up in this place were terrifying.My thoughts had just melted away before I blacked out.I’d been drugged!Drugged, and brought to some place I didn’t recognize!I looked at my inner surroundings.I was in a bedroom.There was a comfortable bed where I’d woken up, and there were nice furnishings—a table, chairs, a dresser, a sofa, a closet, a bed where I’d woken up and a nightstand beside it—like you would find in a hotel suite.Wherever this was, it was livable and cozy enough.But the door was locked, and I couldn’t get out.

In a place like this, I could have been a guest.But I was obviously not a guest, but a captive.Someone’s captive—but whose?

From outside the window, voices rose up from dragons flying nearby.I turned in that direction and watched them flapping past, and heard them calling out, “Happy Reaffirmation!”

At this, I wrinkled my brow.This week was supposed to be Reconciliation.But I had distinctly heard them calling out something else.What was “Reaffirmation?”

No sooner did the question cross my mind than I heard a click at the door.Gasping in surprise and a pang of fear of the unknown, I whirled around to see the door opening—and through it, a large, dark reptilian figure stepping inside.

He was a big, black-scaled dragon man; bigger than Elliot was when he morphed.The light in the room shone and glistened on his scales the way the light would play on a big, black snake right after he’d shed his skin.He had patterns of blue and gold lacing over his scales.He was dressed only in dark fabric leggings and leather boots, and a sleeveless top that fastened around his neck and his lower back.He was the most muscular figure of a Scaler that I’d ever seen.If he’d been a wrestler like Elliot, he would have been an intimidating opponent.

My visitor’s huge, leathery, black wings flexed slightly as he closed the door behind him and looked at me with golden eyes.He made no threatening gesture, just stepped calmly into the room and fixed those eyes on me.In a deep, rasping voice that was typical of male Scalers, the black dragon man said my name.“Jenna Callaway.I hope you’re well.Are you hungry?Thirsty?I can have anything you need brought to you.”

Surprised at my courage in speaking up, I said, “You can ‘bring’ me some answers, if you want, to what I’m doing here and what this place is.And who you are.”

He exhaled heavily, his breathing mixed with a reptile hiss, and made a nodding gesture with the horned dragon head on his long dragon neck.“Of course, you’re confused and frightened under the circumstances of your being here.I am called Nidaag.Think of me as your host.”

”My ‘host’?I was at school, and someone drugged me and carried me off.‘Confused and frightened’?What would you expect?Who are you?What do you want with me?”

”Not to harm you, if that’s what you’re thinking,” said Nidaag.Gesturing past me to the window, he said, “This is Reptos, a habitation of dragons.Humans may visit here, but it is a home only to the family of scales, horns, and wings—my kind.”

I glanced back at the view of Reptos but didn’t want to turn my back on this Nidaag completely.I wondered aloud, “An underground city of Scalers?”I looked back at him.“Nidaag?That’s your name?Your real name?Really?”

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