Dragon's Keeper (Book 1 in the Dragon Hunters Trilogy)

Chapter 1: First Contact

First Contact

The day started out like any other, boring and completely uneventful.  My classes were a snooze and I had trouble keeping my eyes open long enough to get out of the building.  It was the last day and no one really cared if we did stuff or not.  Most of the students had already left given Finals had been the week before.  I wasn’t really sure why I went to class with all the other late bloomers, but given there wasn’t anything better to do at home I figured there was no real reason not to.  I stumbled out of the brick jail I had called home for the past eight months and had just enough strength to open my mom’s car door and fall flat on my face in the back seat.

“Rough day?”  She asked as she glanced at me in the rear view mirror.

I didn’t even move my head as I used my leg to close the door behind me, “What do you think?”

I imagined her shrug as I closed my eyes with my nose in the worn leather, “Just thought I’d ask.”

I sat like that the entire way home, but just as I felt us slowing to make a turn, there was a thunderous roar and the sound of an explosion.  I jolted into an upright position and plastered my face against the driver side passenger window, not believing what I was seeing as a massive fireball engulfed the small house directly to our left.  Mom slammed on the brakes and I slid into the back of her seat, grunting as the force knocked the wind out of me.  I saw something massive thrashing about in the flames and without even thinking I opened the door and ran towards the house, ignoring my mother’s call as I lifted my hands to shield myself from the heat.

Whatever was in the flames was not happy, given that it continued to make those terrifying roars as I caught the glint of giant bronze scales flashing in the flames.  I heard the thrum of chopper blades and looked up as three fully armed Apaches and three Blackhawks came to a stop over the burning building.  The Apaches dropped what seemed to be small bombs, and I watched as they hit the burning building, exploding in frozen cracks as what I assumed to be liquid nitrogen covered the building.  The fires instantly went out and my eyes widened as I spotted what had been making all of the roars.  Half buried in the rubble of the home was the near-frozen form of a dragon, with its wings stiffly trying to curl back against its body as it bared its fangs at the helicopters.  Part of me knew that going near this thing would be suicide, but as the Blackhawks dropped magnetized nets over the entire building, I made my choice and ran towards the rubble as they began to reel in the nets, with the dragon inside.

Now I know what you’re thinking.  Why in the world would a high school student risk his life foolishly and run straight towards the most terrifying creature anyone had ever seen?  Well, to put it simply, I was fed up with my life.  Nothing interesting ever happened and I was always looking for something to spike my adrenaline.  I’d broken more bones in my first eighteen years of life than both of my parents had in their entire lives, and it just wasn’t enough.  I craved the thrill of life-threatening experiences, and from where I was now there was no way I could ever be satisfied.  The moment I had seen the building go up in flames I knew there was something exciting just waiting for me, and as I forced my way through the metal net material, I knew that no matter what, I was going to see where these people were taking this dragon, and join their group.

I heard my mother screaming my name and I glanced through a small gap in the rubble as we flew into the air, and I spotted her reaching out with her arm towards me with an agonizing expression.  It broke my heart to see her like that, but nothing in my life had ever been good enough.  They had loved me and cared for me even when I nearly killed myself over and over, but that part of my life was over.  I turned away and got comfortable as we flew off to who knew where, knowing that from this moment on, my life was going to kick into a higher gear.