Fugitive

New Allies

(Not very heavily edited, sorry...)
The huge dragon landed at the bottom of a steep hill, and I craned my neck to peer around, eyes straining in the dark. We were in a thick pine forest, with a lake reflecting the moonlight in front of the cabin. Rissa squealed with excitement at seemingly nothing and began nuzzling my jeans. She was certainly hyper. Paige picked me up with one hand and slid off the dragon's massive back, although there was a huge drop. She landed on the ground, somehow without injury, and promptly dropped me.
"Oof!" I gasped as I flopped on the dirt, Rissa wriggling excitedly.
"Welcome to the base. Get up, we're going inside." Paige had a hand on her hip, watching the cabin with a thoughtful expression. I clambered up, eager to see the 'others' Paige had told me about. The massive dragon, whose name I'd forgotten, turned and stomped off into the night, and we were left alone.
"Baaaai!" Rissa called after Paige's dragon, waving a fin. Paige snorted and headed towards the cabin. I followed, trying to keep up with her long strides. I was bursting with questions, but had a feeling she wouldn't answer anything. As we reached the door, I had a brief thought of vicious dragons prowling around the supposed 'base' and decided to be careful and stick with Paige. She opened the door, and lead the way in...

We were in a small, barely lit kitchen, with counters messily lined with dirty dishes and a large round table on a faded tile floor. A hallway to my left stretched out, with several doors in the walls, and I immediately noticed two people sitting at the table. The first person was a young, muscular man with a thick jaw and mop of dark greyish brown hair. The second person was Minho from the Maze Runner. Seriously. Or VanossGaming(not that I knew much about it). He was a muscular, Asian teen with spiky black hair, and the two were playing cards.
"Paige!" The first man said, waving one arm. "How'd the mission turn out?"
"Um...as you can see, Shan, something...uh, happened." Paige made very obvious gestures towards me.
"Hey, kid! What's your name?" The guy who I think was named Shan.
"Er, Jordan."
"And what's your name?" He asked. I was confused for a second, until Rissa giggled and said, "R-ruhissa!" Shan smiled.
"I, uh, don't know if she can understand you." I frowned, trying not to be awkward and failing miserably.
"Of course she can! Dragons are highly intelligent, even the young ones. My name's Mack, by the way. This is Shan." The Minho-looking guy, Mack, explained to me. Paige turned and walked down the hallway, muttering something about alligators, I think.
"Did she just say alligators?" I asked, feeling a bit stupid. Shan laughed. Mack smiled and replied,
"I think she was talking about Allison. Although I'd rather deal with an alligator than Allison and her dragon!"
I decided I didn't want to meet this person.
"Oh, wait, so you all have...dragons? Um, Mack, where's your dragon?" I was a bit interested.
"My dragon? Well, he's right here!" Mack smiled, and pointed one finger towards Shan, who beamed and waved at me.
I stared at him. Shan didn't exactly look like a dragon, but he beckoned for me to sit at the table and began explaining.
"Dragons with riders can assume human form when they're experienced enough. I'm actually a Tibetan Mountain Dragon. Mack hatched my egg when he was 11, and named me Shan. It's Chinese for 'mountain', which gives you a slight idea of how big my real form is. Rissa will probably be able to turn human in a year or two."
I stared at Rissa and Shan. Shan was a dragon? I was talking to a dragon? Rissa would turn human? I wondered how to comprehend this. I was sort of tired, and was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dragons. Maybe I was asleep back at the orphanage.
"Is...wait...wha?" Is all I managed. Shan sympathetically placed a hand on my shoulder, and I tensed up slightly.
"This is a lot to take in, I understand. Maybe you should get to sleep, and can deal with everything in the morning. Sound good?" I stared at the oven clock. It was 9:13.
"Um...it's kind of early, isn't it?" Mack blinked and looked at the clock.
"Oh. Um, right. How old are you again?" The teen apologized.
"12." I replied. Shan scratched his head thoughtfully, then threw a couple cards onto the table.
"Aw man, Shan. You suck," Mack groaned, picking up several cards from the pile. "Well, do you still want to see your room? We have a spare bedroom you could stay in." I nodded, trying to stop Rissa from squirming out of my arms.
"But can Rissa get some food first?" I asked. Shan nodded, got up, and grabbed a container of lunch meat out of the fridge. Rissa eagerly tucked into the ham slices, while Mack lead me down the hall to the left. There were several doors along the hallway, and I could hear Katy Perry music blasting from behind one of them as we passed it. We turned a corner, and I heard muffled yells coming from the door at the end of the hall.
"Um, here." Mack opened a door to my left and led me in, flicking on the light. There was a plain bed there, with thick baby blue blankets, and a dusty wooden dresser. I sat on the bed and patted it, wondering how long they were planning on having me.
"I know it's a bit bare, but we can shop for books and posters and stuff tomorrow. And clothes. You'll be fine sleeping in those?" He gestured towards my dark blue hoodie and jeans.
"Uh, sure, but...when can I go home?" It sounded as if I was expected to stay a long time. Mack winced.
"Um...well...now that you have a dragon, the government qualifies you as a high class threat. So...you can visit home, I guess, in a while, but...you can't stay for long. Your parents can know about Rissa if you trust them, but no one can know."
The floor seemed to drop out from under me.
"I...I have no parents. I live at an orphanage. Wait, so now I'm some sort of fugitive?"
"Er...in a way, yes."
I stared at the floor. I was a criminal now? Government enemy number one-Jordan Ryder!
"J-jorrin!" I looked up to see Rissa flopping into the room in that bouncy way she had. She unsuccessfully tried to jump onto the bed, but only ended up falling back on her little blue rump. Mack picked her up and placed her on the bed, where she waddled over and placed an orange fin on my knee. "Jorrin o...okay?"
I stared down at her big orange eyes and smiled. "Yeah, Rissa. I'm alright." She smiled and squealed, a burst of hammy breath wafting into my face. Mack sat down next to me.
"She probably sensed you were upset," he said, with an awkward cough. It was clear I was not happy. "Anyways, you know what species she is?" I shook my head.
He frowned at Rissa, and she puffed up her spine frill right back at him. He chuckled, then shrugged.
"I have no idea what species she is. I'll ask the others when they meet her. But she's a pretty little cutie." Rissa gurgled cheerfully, and began scooting around the bed.
"Alright," Mack announced, clapping his hands. "You want to be left alone? Maybe go to sleep or something?" I nodded. He smiled and pointed to the hall. "The bathroom's around the corner, last door on the left. The first one we walked by on our way here. Holler if you need anything, okay?"
"Sure." I replied, and he walked out. I headed to the bathroom, which had a big mirror, about a million hair products, several different multicoloured toothbrushes, and a shower that had white curtains with little blue fish on it. After doing my business, I headed to my room, closed the door, and flopped down on my bed. Flicking off the light, I threw my hoodie and shoes off, then crawled under the covers and laid there. Rissa wriggled over beside me, and I stared at her. This...this was real. I sighed and rolled over. And despite all the worries, crazy events, and bad news, I fell asleep fairly quickly.