An update! Le gasp! I know I’m a hypocrite, I say I hate it when people don’t update, but I don’t update myself. Forgive me? Anyway, enough of that.

“Ah… Um, okay. I need to get my grandpa now… I, uh, can’t feel my legs and… That cut looks pretty bad.” Jake was beginning to sway side to side, feeling woozy from blood loss. If he passed out here, he couldn’t help her or himself. Wiping the blood from his eyes again, Jake started to back away.

“Stay here. Stay. Do you understand?” Motioning to the ground as he turned away, Jake hoped that she was still there when he came back with help.

Limping as fast as he could into the trees, then climbing a tree and taking off, Jake flew off as fast as his wounds would allow him.

Gasping from the exertion of sprinting and flying across the city with his many wounds, Jake stopped to catch his breath in the shadow of a building. He knew he could have just walked to his grandpa’s shop in his human form, but his dragon form was much better for dealing with pain. If he changed now, he would probably pass out. His ankle was throbbing with sharp stabs and his body felt like one giant bruise. His head was swimming, and Jake knew that he had a concussion, at best.

Groaning, Jake looked around. He was so close to his grandpa’s! He could make it. He had to help the other dragon!

With a sudden burst of energy, Jake leaped over a fence and limped through the alley that led to his grandpa’s back door. Stopping at a dull red door, he jiggled the handle to break the lock, and fell inside.

“Jake!”

Who is that? Jake wondered, his vision was useless now, the only thing he could see was a blurry form above his own. As he writhed in pain from his awkward landing, he felt frantic hands on his muzzle and head.

“Jake what happened?!”

Ah, it was his grandpa! He could fix him. His grandpa could do anything.

“Jake, drink this!” Jake felt the rim of a glass bottle being pushed up against his mouth. But he couldn’t drink, he felt so nauseous…

“Jake.”

The suddenly calm voice of his grandpa pacified and terrified Jake all at the same time. Willing his paws to unclench, and his mouth to open, he swallowed what he assumed to be a pain reliever in one gulp.

“Good, Jake, good. Now listen to me, I need you turn into a human form now, alright?”

But it’ll hurt even worse… The potion was taking effect, the pain was lessening slightly, and his vision was clearing. Maybe now it’ll feel better. Jake concentrated, and his form began to morph back into a human.

Right then Jake knew he made a mistake. Never before had the transformation been so painful to him. The pain in his head, if possible, became ten times worse, his leg felt as if it were on fire.

His grandpa held him down as convulsions shook his body. He must have been hurt much worse than he originally thought. Blood was running down head in a little river, and blood loss was a given.

Jake felt another pair of hands, or rather paws, hold him down while checking his injuries.

Fu Dog…

As Jake’s grandpa looked him over the best he could, all the while giving instructions over his back to Fu Dog, Jake focused on stopping the unconscious movements his body made.

Fu Dog sprinted over from where he was quickly brewing up a potion, carrying a bowl of sickly-smelling purple ooze.

“His head is where he is hurt the most.“ Lao Shi murmured, the thin veneer of calm only slightly covered his wavering voice.

Fu Dog dumped the potion over Jake’s head. It filled his nostrils, and covered his eyes, and made his cuts sting.

“Ah!” Jake gave a start, then the potion seemed to disappear, seeping into Jake’s skin. The pain lessened, though only in his head.

Lao Shi grabbed Jake’s head and forced him to lay still.

“It won’t do any good if you move around before it’s all gone.”

Jake obeyed. Soon he could see again, but everything else ached. The pain in his ankle soon eclipsed the pain in his head.

“M-My ankle.” Jake managed to bite out.

He felt the cool sensation of something being poured on his leg soon after he said it, and he could feel the bones knitting back together. The shifting underneath his skin didn’t faze him though, this is what his entire body felt like when he changed into a dragon. The feeling actually comforted him.

The ooze disappeared altogether, signaling that Jake’s danger was over. He shifted, still hurting everywhere, but not the stabbing pains like before.

Jake sat up.

“What was that?” he asked, curious of how all of his injuries could be healed so fast.

Lao Shi sighed, Jake had given him a scare. “Special medicine designed for the human form of dragons. It only deals with broken bones and internal injuries though. Most of the rare ingredients were supplied by the forest pixies. It’s going to take a while to replace. Now we have to get something else for your cut. Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Only a couple hundred bruises.” Jake stood up, still shaking. He gently touched the cut that ran across the far left side of his face, just missing his eye. He was lucky.

“Jake, howdid you get like this?”

“There was this huge troll in the park. I’m not joking when I say it was easily the size of a giant. Maybe it was a giant-troll hybrid? Anyway, there was this dragon-”

Jake froze.

“Oh shit! The dragon! Gramps, we’ve got to hurry!”

Ignoring the residual pain in his body, Jake stood up and began searching for a container to pack the medicine in.

“What dragon? Kid, are you sure we got all of that nasty concussion you had?” Now Fu Dog was interested.

“We need some other medicine too, she’s got a big cut on her side. I heard all this noise in the park and when I got there, there was this girl fighting the troll. I helped, but she‘s still hurt. A torn wing too.” Jake was still rummaging around in the medicine cabinet.

“Did you recognize her?” Lao Shi asked.

“No, I don’t think I’ve seen her before. Not even at the Summit.”

“Interesting.”

“Gramps!” Jake was already at the door, small tub of potion in his hand and bandages in another. In a few more seconds a ragged looking red dragon was standing in his place.

Lao Shi grabbed some plaster and splints, just in case, and leapt out the door, close behind his grandson.

“I don’t see her.” Lao Shi didn’t doubt his grandson, but if her injuries were as bad as he said, she needed help soon.

“She’s here, don’t worry.” Jake was at the battleground, searching for the blood trail that would lead them to her.

Sniffing the air, Jake could finally smell. His nose was fixed and clean of blood. He winced.

Even a human could probably smell this. Everything reeked of sweat and troll and blood.

After a quick scan of the clearing, Jake found the blood trail. Motioning for his grandfather to follow, Jake took the lead.

They followed the trail until they reached the small clearing where Jake had been confronted by the blue dragon. Looking around, Jake swore under his breath. She wasn’t there.

Lao Shi looked on calmly as his grandson began to circle around, searching for a trail.

“Found a bunch of pressed down grass here. She must have rested. But where is she now?”

The Chinese Dragon also started to look around, wanting to see for himself this elusive dragon.

Jake huffed a breath of victory as he found a small trail of crushed grass and weeds. “Got something. This way.”

Though he was still aching from his injures, Jake followed the trail, making sure to be noisy. He didn’t want to scare her and have a repeat of last time. She scared him so bad he forgot about his wounds!

Jake limped through the trees, and found himself in yet another clearing. But in this clearing, a large pile of discarded concrete slabs with rebar sticking out sat smack in the middle. Large rocks that were most likely rejects from some sort of project also made up the pile, and the entire thing was covered in trailing weeds and ivy.

Of course, completely covered except for a small patch.

Curious, Jake carefully climbed the pile, making sure not to get tripped up by the rebar. The cool night air rustled by him as he sat near the exposed rock. The pulled-up weeds looked like they had been pulled down by someone climbing up.

Grinning to himself, he looked up. Just visible was a large hole in the pile, formed by intersecting slabs perched against each other. Vines hung across it, reminding Jake of those bead curtains his mom used to hang up around the house when doors were considered “uncool” with the modern moms.

Looking back at his grandpa still safely on the ground, Jake pointed to the hole. Lao Shi just nodded and started his way up.

Jake climbed up a bit more and paused in front of the cave. Brushing the vines aside, softly called to the blue dragon.

“Hello?”

A low growl was his only response.

“I brought a friend. We want to help.”

Jake saw light glint off feral eyes near the back of the cave. He was surprised by how far it went back.

“I’m coming in now…” Jake put on a false show of bravado as he crept into the cave. He didn’t know how she would react. Last time he’d done absolutely nothing and almost gotten his head taken off.

Teeth bared, tail lashing, and sounding incredibly pissed off, the blue dragon backed into the farthest corner of the cave.

“Hello.” Lao Shi poked his head into the cave. The blue dragon just stared, looking defeated now. Apparently she knew that she fighting wouldn’t fare well with her odds.

“Do you speak English?” Lao Shi asked, walking the rest of the way into the cave.

No response.

“Hablas espanol?” he asked, but got no response. He repeated this with several languages. Some of them Jake understood, like French or German. Some of them he had no idea what they were.

The female dragon seemed to know they weren’t there to hurt her, but she still seemed to be ticked off at them. Jake figured he would be too, if he was hurt and two guys wouldn’t leave him alone. And she obviously didn’t understand them. There was no recognition on her face at any language. The only thing she showed was irritation and mistrust.

After what seemed forever, Lao Shi paused and shook his head.

“I… don’t know.” he said, and turned to Jake.

“Know what?”

“She doesn’t recognize any language I know. And I don’t mean to brag, but I know quite a few.”

“She’s not even trying to talk to us.” Jake said softly, trying not to startle her.

The blue dragon seemed to know that they were talking about her, for she turned up her nose at them and sniffed, obviously peeved.

Jake smiled at her antics, temporarily forgetting the throbbing pain in his head. He yawned. It was a school night and he had spent the last few hours getting beat in to the ground. Plus, this cave was kind of crowded with three dragons crammed in. Wondering when this would be over, but still not wanting to leave, Jake decided to speed things up.

“We should probably heal her wounds.” He said, breaking his grandfather’s quiet observation of the blue dragon.

“Ah, yes.”

Lao Shi moved forward to inspect her wounds, apparently a little to fast for her, as she hissed and the fur running down her back stood straight up.

“Gramps…” Jake warned.

“I see, I see.” he replied, but still moved forward.

The female dragon seemed confused that Lao Shi was still moving for her, buts he seemed to make a mental shrug and just flexed her claws, letting the dull light shine off them.

“Do you have a human form?” Lao Shi asked kindly, stopping a few feet from her.

Her eyes narrowed. Now he was much too close. A low growl wound out from deep within the female’s chest.

“To heal you, we need you to be a human.” he continued.

After sitting there and getting no response, Lao Shi sighed and turned to Jake.

“Hold this, please.” as he handed the bandages to his grandson.

The cave was deathly silent as Lao Shi straightened up and turned back into a human, hoping that she would follow suit.

Which, in hindsight, was not the best idea.

His grandpa had always changed very quickly, and in less than a second a short man took the place of a regal dragon. The dragon, sensing an opportunity, dove for the exit. Now she would only have to deal with one dragon, not two.

Jake, sensing dnger, ducked and pulled his grandpa down with him. Jake felt his spines rustle when she jumped over them, nearly braining him in her rush to escape.

“Wait here Gramps, I’ll be back.” Jack muttered before jumping off into the night.

She didn’t get far, not really. It was very hard to run with injuries, Jake knew. She was limping, had a bunch of cuts, including the one on her side, and her wing was torn, preventing her from flying.

Still, it had taken a while to catch up to her, even with her limp.

Thinking your life is on the line is apparently a great motivator.

Jake had taken his time, staying close behind her, letting the dragon wear herself out. When he couldn’t stand the sound of her ragged gasping any more, he jumped forward with a burst a speed and blocked her path. She wasn’t expecting this and flew into him, knocking them both to the ground.

Jake groaned. He had landed on his tender foot. Looking over, he saw her motionless form on the ground.

A shock of dread ripped through Jake. He hadn’t been taking this as seriously as he should of… She was a person, no matter what. She couldn’t understand him and she couldn’t talk, apparently, but she was still a person. And now she was on the ground, not moving.

Really concerned now, and no longer goofing off, Jake crawled quickly to her side.

“Are you okay?” Jake breathed, heart pumping wildly.

He reached out a paw to her, when all of a sudden her eyes snapped open.

Opening her mouth and taking a deep breath, she exhaled forcibly and the next thing Jake knew, he was frozen to the ground.

Wow. I didn't know she could do that.

As the dragon picked herself off the ground and shook herself off, Jake knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

You like? All done with this chapter!

Ugh, I don’t feel well… But anyway, do you realize that this story is almost a year old? In a month, I think, this will be a year old! Huh. And I’m still not done with it. Twenty-some chapters and one unfinished re-write and I still have no idea how this story is going to end. Eh.

Anyway, I made a fictionpress account and made a story there. I’m not feeling a lot of love there, in fact, no one has every looked at my story. So what’d ya say? Go to my profile and go to the link? Perhaps review and tell me what you think?