Mystic Dragon Cadets

Lullaby City was a dreary place with tall gothic buildings and indecisive weather. Their community is overflowing with beautiful and dark secrets. Becoming a legend is easy nowadays as Tegan, Sir North, and Vincent crouched on the roof of a rundown Bronx Cathedral.

This wasn't the first time she climbed a building and to her horror she fell off many. Sir North just finished aligning the iron tiles over the holes as Tegan and Vincent used their fire to weld the material together.

"Glad you two aren't scared of heights," Sir North said. "One time I had to wrestle a cadet off a skyscraper in New Orleans."

"Stuff like that don't really spook me," Vincent expressed with nervousness.

Vincent was a boy with brown hair, pale skin and green eyes. He was dressed in black plaid pants, red leather boots, and a red polo shirt with the school crest on it. The only thing that stood out was the black beanie and his Egyptian neckchain.

"When are you going on another exhibition?" Tegan held the iron tile in place as Vincent used fire to mend it.

"No idea. I could be drafted anytime," Sir North admitted. "You know I use to be a Professor at the Academy, it was pretty monotonous."

"No way!" Tegan gasped. "What happened?"

"I quit," Sir North sat on the ledge. I realized I enjoyed travelling the world more."

"I can relate," Vincent perked up. "Theres something I like too and thats technology. I use to hunt for old tech when I was younger and found some dope stuff."

Tegan looked up at the beautiful orange and indigo sky as tears blurred her vision. When a person is born with a dragon they’re practically destined to become a Mystic knight. She sometimes wish she was normal, at least that way she could have a proper relationship with her family and not tip-toe around them. Tegan covered her face with her hand as someone shouted.

Noise, there was noise everywhere.

A sea of people walked up and down the streets, looking like giants. She grabbed the hand of a woman, the lady was wearing a huge hat and black jumper.

"Excuse me!" Tegan begged. "I lost my parents, could you help me?"

The woman smiled politely. "Sorry, I'm in a hurry."

Tegan knew that look of passive aggression, some people had problems with Diors. She was old enough to understand and it was too late to hide Patches. How long did she sit on the sidewalk? Tegan rubbed the tears out of her eyes. How long has she been crying?

She hugged her knees and thats when she noticed a pair of sneakers beside her. Looming over her was a pretty teenage girl with beautiful dark skin, hazel eyes, afro puff hair, and wore kwanzaa clothes.

"Whats wrong?" she asked.

Tegan looked up at the girl. "I'm lost..."

"Let me help," she held out a hand. "Whats your name?"

“Tegan!”

Her eyes flew open as Vincent and Sir North gazed at her with a look a pure terror, she felt something nudge her back before realizing she was in a bush.

"Are you injured?" Sir North asked.

Tegan rolled off the bush and examined herself. "Nothing broken."

Vincent was silent.

30 minutes later, they joined the locals. The city was crowded as Tegan lit more firewood under a large pot of boiling water. It wasn't just one pot but several. They still had a working water system, but people liked to have emergency water just in case.

Dark sludge burned away in the contaminated water as Tegan reunited with Vincent and Sir North. She was happy to help with the local errands, but forgot how exhausting it can be.

"Were finally done!" Tegan cheered.

Vincent yawned. "I wonder what were having for supper tonight?"

"Sorry to be a buzzkill but we have one more errand," Sir North revealed.

"Ugh...fine," she said. "Where do we have to go?"

"Queens," Sir North explained. "I know your tired from flying all day, so were gonna take a boat."

Tegan followed Sir North and Vincent to a huge bridge, but the fact was it was broken. She was told that old New York had 21 bridges, but 10 was destroyed during an Omen attack reducing the number to 11.

Since then every wrecked bridge was given a nickname, some people called it the Phantom Bridge, The Ominous or The Vigil. There was a long trench as they walked down the brick staircase towards a dock where a person was waiting in a boat.

"Hola Jacques," Sir North greeted.

The sky was a beautiful orange and the water was disgustingly murky as they crossed, it reminded her of an oil rig explosion as dead birds floated on the surface. Jacques was a rugged Mexican man in a green hoodie black suspenders, and boots. He had two ores and on the front of the boat was a lantern.

"Such a tragedy," Jacques shook his head as he reattached the white gasmask that hung around his neck.

It took 11 minutes to reach the other side of the bridge, Queens is considered the countryside since there are no tall buildings and lots of land. They stopped at an old farm house where a woman sat on her porch.

"Hello Mrs. Balboa," Sir North greeted.

“SPLASH!” That was the first thing Tegan heard when she entered Mrs. Balboa's home. She realized the house was filled with water and when she looked up she saw that the ceiling had some cracks.

"It gets colder at night," Mrs. Balboa said softly as she rubbed her hands together.

"Dont worry Ma'am," Vincent explained.

She wasn't sure if he was trying to be professional or sincere, even though they were both Greenhorns this was the first time she went on an errand with Vincent. Cadets get chosen at random for daily chores and are sometimes put into teams of 3.

Sir North smiled. "I'll go and fix the yard while my cadets take care of your flooding problem."

"I have an idea," Tegan watched Sir North leave as Patches appeared. "But first, we need to open all the windows."

3 minutes later, steam floated through the house. Tegan and Vincent decided to split up as she shot fire out of her hands causing all the water to boil and evaporate. Asking the woman to wait on the porch was a good call.

Cadets are meant to protect and from the way Vincent interacted with Mrs. Balboa, he seems to be a kind person. She often wondered what life was like before the Omens.

"I sometimes wish my element was earth," Vincent announces suddenly. "Finding artifacts would be easier that way, but I didn't let that stop me."

"Now I'm curious to know your secret," Tegan rubbed her eyes as she walked across the dry wooden floor.

Vincent didn't look shy when he gave a big goofy grin. "Dowsing rods can locate material, water, and bodies. It's mostly used for paranormal stuff.”

She touched the jewelry in her hair. "How spooky.”

"Exactly!" Vincent shouted as he picked up a stack of iron tiles. "Um, are you okay? We were really worried when you collapsed on the Cathedral."

"Sorry about that," Tegan looked away. "I'm super fine, really."

"Awesome," said Vincent. "Guess were almost done, all we gotta do is fix the cracks."

Later that night, Tegan tossed and turned in bed as she listened to music. It was the CD her mom gave her. Blue Dandelion is an awesome band and she's been a faithful admirer ever since she was 11.

All their fans are called: Rawr. They still tour which surprised her, but she was grateful for the new music. When the song ended Tegan sighed and got out of bed. She snuck past her sleeping roommates to gaze out the window at the starry night.

Tegan noticed movement and thought it was an animal at first, but saw that it was actually Lisa. She wasn't that curious because she knew her friend was up to no good. The only problem was she couldn't fall back to sleep.

On a whim she decides to break curfew by leaping out the window. The night air was warm as Tegan followed Lisa through the woods. It wasn't hard keeping up since Diors could see in the dark. Where was Lisa going anyway?

Lisa looked around which made Tegan hide behind a bush as the Dust Devil Ninja disappeared over a small hill. She quickly jogged over and peeked out from behind a tree. Lisa wasn't alone as 8 other people greeted her by a lake. There was a campfire, grill, a radio, two coolers, and a giant rock.

"You were followed," a boy said.

Tegan made herself known. "Hey."

Lisa turned. "Tegan, is that you?"

"Yeah," she groaned and said sarcastically. "Is this a cult?"

"More like a party," Lisa laughed. "A pretty exclusive party. Greenhorns usually don't find out until their second year when they are Omegas."

"Is she a snitch?" asked a girl.

Oddly enough, Tegan recognized this girl. She was a Beta and her name was Melissa Haze. It's nearly impossible to remember every cadet at the Academy. Melissa had curly brown hair with blonde highlights, tan skin, and dark eyes.

Lisa looked at Melissa. "I hang out with Tegan, shes not like that."

Tegan raised her hands. "I'm not like that at all."

"Want some juice?" Lisa offered a red cup. "Were low on alcohol, apparently."

"Thanks," she took the cup of mango juice. "By the way, how were you able to get past the guards?"

"Oh that!" Lisa took out a small bottle. "My father's sleep drops, he has trouble sleeping."

Tegan hasn't known Lisa that long, but she was convinced that her fellow cadet was a fun mischief maker. She also wondered if being the Principal's daughter makes her able to get away with a lot of stuff.

"Hey Greenhorn, want a burger?" a boy said.

Tegan smiled. "Sure."

10 minutes later, she sat near the campfire eating a veggie burger. Music was softly playing as people talked and swimmed. Tegan heard whispering as a gust of wind picked her up and threw her into the lake, the water was cold.

When she emerged she heard people cheering as she made it back to land. It didn't take her long to dry off as fire engulfed her like a warm blanket. Patches enjoys swimming even though he's a fire dragon, and for some reason all dragons were plant eaters.

"Hey Tegan," Lisa gestured. "Over here."

She walked over to a large boulder where Lisa was. This was the first time she noticed the handprints on the rock.

"Its considered a great honor to have your name on the holy stone," Lisa jokingly encouraged and lifted up a paint bucket. "We accept you, one of us, one of us!"

Glancing around, Tegan dipped her hand into the paint and pressed her palm against the boulder.

"Your going to need this," Lisa handed her a pocket knife as a huge wall made of wind appeared.

Tegan carved her initials in the paint. "Whats that about?"

"So we don't get caught," Lisa turned the music up loud on the radio as everyone danced.