I WISH I could come with you. I always wanted to see a dragon fly.

I sighed, crossing through the automatic doors of the local 24-hour grocer. In one hand, I held a plastic bag filled with about six dollars' worth of ripe mangoes, and in the other, I held my phone awkwardly (upside-down) to try and catch enough signal to hear Madi's voice on other end of the line – here's a hint, service was complete crap so it wasn't easy.

"I'll try to go out again on Sunday," I replied and shifted the mangoes into my backpack – carefully so they wouldn't be crushed under the ten pounds of literature text book. "If you can get away, you should come with us. – Just don't bring NShadow, okay? Selphon likes to chew on things he isn't familiar with and I don't know how he'll react to dogs."

I didn't catch any of that. What about NShadow?

I sighed and yelled "We'll talk again tomorrow!" about a half dozen times before Madi finally got the point and ended call.

The night was a cold one as I high tailed it back to my house. The weather had settled into a comfortable cliché autumn evening – the kind of evening that made running through wet grass very uncomfortable, and walking slowly with a heavy backpack almost unbearable.

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu tug at the strings in my chest as I crossed the street in front of my house. I paused for the longest moment, and made a point to analyze both directions before sprinting across the walkway as fast as my legs would carry me. It happened all the time – usually late at night when the streets were quiet and I was walking home alone. My heart would race a little faster, my eyes dart a little quicker. It was all just a subtle reminder of what I could have lost – one of my uncles died in a hit and run accident when I was only a kid.

He didn't have a dragon to save him.

I suppose I was lucky in that way.

After that, it was only a short distance from the street to my house. The windows were dark, and I honestly wasn't surprised. My sister wasn't much of a night owl and my parents always worked late, so usually I was the only one actively using the place on a Friday evening.

The cold mixed with sweat from running caused my glasses to go foggy as I fumbled with my housekeys and let myself inside. I didn't even bother with the lights after locking the front door, instead opting to running up the stairs in the dark, wiping down my glasses with the hem of my shirt as I climbed. It took another couple moments of groping with my keys, but finally I was able to unlock my bedroom door and ease myself inside without stubbing anything important.

I glanced around curiously in search for Selphon as the lights flickered on to reveal a messy room – the sad thing was that I wasn't sure if my dragon did it or if that was how it was when I left the house that morning. At first glance the place looked empty – much to my relief (it took a rather long time to teach him to hide until I he was sure that I was the only one entering: from what I can tell, dragons weren't raised with much reason to fear humans). But as I closed the door and turned the lock, a quick movement flashed from the underside of my bed.

I moved my gaze to the bed, but there was nothing there. I turned around carefully only to find Selphon's maw less than an inch from my knee cap. "Whoa!" I yelped and stumbled backwards into the door.

The creature clicked in concern and lifted one his ear frills. Obviously, something about my behavior concerned him. "Don't sneak up on me like that," I scolded in a low voice.

Usually he at least pretended to listen when I spoke to him, but this time he appeared completely preoccupied, eyes focused on my bag with the intensity of a band nerd who had just gotten their instrument stolen for the last time.

"Ohhh." I smiled knowingly as the pieces clicked into understanding.

"I know what you want." He followed me like a hawk as I light stepped across the room. His eyes never wavered from the bag as I slid it from my shoulders and slowly dropped it down onto my sheetless mattress. Selphon snapped his small jaws at me in irritation when I took my time pulling the zipper. "This is payback for setting me on fire this morning," I muttered with a smirk.

Selphon snorted lowly and puffed a small cloud of hot air in my direction.

I took a step back and raised my hands in surrender (that only seemed to agitate him more. Score one for apposable thumbs). "Okay, okay. I understand a threat when I see one."

I laughed and tossed one of the mangoes across the room. Selphon let out a high-pitched squeak and pounced on the green and red fruit with the fever of an excited child. His dark wings beat at the air excitedly, revealing a set of streaked white markings on their underside. Selphon grasped the mango between his front legs and tore into it feverishly, squirting juice all over the carpet. In the time it took me to pull the rest of the mangos out the bag, only the pit was left standing from its battle with the beast and Selphon was braying for seconds.

"Not yet," I stated and moved over to the window, careful not to turn my back to him else he would steal the fruit himself (yes, I know from experience). It was strange because my bedroom had one of those windows you only find in story books, the type without bug screens that opened by sliding up all the way so you could climb out of them and sneak into the night. I even had a door that locked – shows how much my family believed I wouldn't turn into a party animal, eh? Band nerds are too busy doing fancy walking for crap like that.

I slid the window up before grabbing the drawstring bag I had received during a university tour and throwing about five of the mangos inside. Then I turned and gestured to the window. "Come on, we're going to the park," I told Selphon.

Selphon appeared a little confused at first, like he was wondering what the window had to do with him and his late-night snack. A moment passed and after much studying he seemed to realize that we were going out to have some fun and he instantly bounded across the room heavily. I cringed at large amounts of noise and glanced toward my door. If this kept up, my sister would come around asking what was up, and it was unlikely she would buy the breakdancing excuse again.

Fortunately, Selphon was out the room and through the window before that even became a problem.

I quickly flicked off the lights, grabbed a jacket from the foot of my bed, and followed him out, leaving the window cracked open so that we could get back in after an hour or two. Selphon was already perched ready and waiting on the roof by the time I heaved myself off the extension onto the main top of the house.

"Ready?" I asked.

Selphon chirped and his orange eyes were bright with excitement.

"Okay, then meet you on the ground."

A/N

Let's see. Well this was just half the chapter, building up to something here. Not much to ask. How are you liking things so far?