\n Sean landed his jet on Chris' patio, then set the engine for cooldown and unlocked the doors.

\n "How long do you think it will be until they all get here?" Dave asked as they all got out.

\n Chris glanced back to the southeast and shrugged.  "Not too long, I'd think.  Sean, you said you kept the one that was farthest forward in sight until we got into Montana, right?"

\n Sean came around to the other side of the jet, feeling his way along the body panels in the dark.  "Yeah, they can't be more than a few minutes behind us.  We should probably head up there to meet them, don't you think?"

\n Chris started to walk towards the house.  "I need to see to a few things first, then we'll head up."  He walked into the foyer and flicked on the patio and indoor lights, then opened the box for his security system: as expected, it still wasn't working, but he adjusted the settings anyway.  Once that was done, he opened a cabinet under the kitchen counter and removed a wire repair kit for the system.  He made sure everything he needed was inside, then walked back out.

\n "I've got everything I need," he said, and Sean moved to get back into his vehicle, which was now back in the shape of a car, but Chris pointed at the garage.  "We'll take my truck out.  It's more suited for the terrain, anyway."

\n Chris put his repair kit in the truck's bed, then got into the driver's seat; on the other side of the truck, Sean got into the back seat, leaving the front passenger seat for Dave, who was taller.  Once they were all buckled in, Chris drove the truck out onto the roads and off his property.  Dave wiped his forehead with a hand and glanced at the auto-drive button on the dashboard, but to his relief Chris didn't reach for it, and after a few minutes of driving, Chris turned onto a dirt road that led back onto his property.

\n "Oh, this could be the problem right here," Chris said, coming to a stop when he saw the fallen tree on the path ahead.  He stopped the truck and turned it off.  "I'll be right back; I have to fix this or my security system won't work."  He took his repair kit from the truck's bed, located the two broken ends of the wire, and got to work.

\n It only took a few minutes, but he felt an odd gust of wind as he walked back to the truck, the wire fixed; a dragon had just flown overhead, he was sure of it.  He quickened his pace, put the repair kit away and jumped in.  "A dragon's here," he said, starting the truck again.  He swerved around the fallen tree, then tore off down the path as fast as the truck could safely go.

\n It was still hard to make it up the mountainside to the cave, and the truck wasn't even able to make it all the way there.  It ran out of room to maneuver before they reached the ledge outside the cave, so they had to get out and finish the trip on foot--Dave took the opportunity to retrieve the sensor he had left there a couple of weeks previously while Chris pulled a lamp out from beneath the back seat of the truck.

\n Chris flicked on the lamp and help it up when they reached the cave, throwing deep shadows all over its interior--though he wouldn't need the lamp much longer; there was already light building to the east, and the sun would rise soon.  The three of them walked into the cave, Chris holding the lamp up high.

\n They heard a growl almost as soon as they were inside.  "You have ten seconds to turn around and leave this cave before I kill you," a voice said.

\n Chris held the lamp out towards the back of the cave.  "That you, Orasin?"

\n There was a pause.  "Chris?  Who's with you?  I don't recognize them."

\n "They're friends, Orasin.  You can come out, it's safe."

\n "Orasin's a couple of minutes behind me," the dragon said, walking out of the shadows of the deeper chambers of the cave.  Dave unconsciously took a step backward at the sight of the dragon towering over them, and it chuckled.  "Whoever they are, they aren't much used to seeing my kind."

\n Chris peered at the dragon for a moment, then lowered the lamp.  "No, they aren't, ah...  Krain.  Dave, Sean, meet Krain.  Krain, the one on my left is Dave, and on my right is Sean."

\n "Nice to meet you," Krain said, dipping his head to get a good look at the three of them with one large, amber eye, and he sniffed at the two new humans before raising his head back up again.  "You three are going to want to get out of the way; I can see a group of four on their way in."

\n Chris hurried over to one of the cave walls, Dave and Sean trailing behind.  They were just in time; as soon as they reached the wall, a tremendous blast of wind tore through the cave as four dragons all landed at once, barely managing to fit in the landing area together.  Once they had all settled, they walked inside to clear the ledge for another group of dragons.  After a few minutes, most of the cave had filled up again, just two dragons unaccounted for.

\n Chris started to walk around the cave, looking up at each of the returned dragons.  "Who's still not here?" he asked.  "Did anyone see a couple of dragons go missing?"

\n "I saw Nesleh and Lemnir fall behind," one dragon called to him.  "Nesleh's old, and Lemnir's fat.  Of course they'd take a little extra time to get here."

\n "Molthan, is that any way to talk about your legend-keeper?  I thought at your age you'd be more respectful of your elders."

\n Molthan growled down at Chris.  "If I had asked for a lecture, I would have gotten it from my father, not you.  Where is Vallen, anyway?  Has anyone seen him, or Aithsa?"

\n "Or Carnoc?" Krain added before anyone could answer.

\n "They didn't make it out," Chris said.  "We couldn't get to them in time."

\n "Out of where?" one of the other dragons asked.  "Chris, can you tell us what's going on here?"

\n "Yes, please," Nesleh said, walking into the cave with Lemnir trailing behind him.  Lemnir flopped down on his belly barely inside the cave, panting and worn out after the flight.

\n "You're all here, except the three who just got mentioned?"

\n "There are twenty-one of us, if that's what you mean," a dragon said.

\n "All right.  Dave, Sean, come over here."  Dave and Sean walked slowly out to the center of the circle of dragons, Dave glancing nervously at all the dragons around him.  Sean, however, stared openly up at them, mouth slightly open.  Just look at them all! he thought to himself.  Ever since he had first changed form, he had always wondered if dragons really had existed, and...  Well, now he was surrounded by them.  It was like he was living in a dream; he had to keep himself from reaching out and touching the dragons as he walked past them to make sure they weren't just an illusion, and the smell of all of them--sort of like musty old leather, he thought--seemed already to be permanently fixed in his mind.

\n "Now," Chris continued once the other two men had reached him, "you want to know what happened?  You were all ambushed right here, in this cave, almost a week ago.  A group of humans came in here and captured you all."

\n There were growls of shock and outrage from the circle of dragons.  "Why didn't you stop them?" Molthan demanded.

\n "My security system was broken by a fallen tree.  I had no idea they were on my property until Dave here," Chris flicked a thumb in his direction, "came and told me what was going on.  By then, unfortunately, it was too late to keep the man who captured you all from transporting you away, but Dave, this other man, Sean, and myself managed to follow him and free... well, most of you."

\n "What about the other three?"

\n "Aithsa, Vallen and Carnoc are still imprisoned, and they've been sold.  Well, technically you've all been sold, but the people who bought you aren't here to claim their purchases."

\n "What do you mean, sold?" Krain asked.  "How do you sell a living, breathing, thinking creature?"

\n Chris paused, unsure, and Dave stepped forward.  "Jim intended to auction you all off to various zoos.  He claimed that it was for your own safety, because you'd be protected wherever you ended up, but...  Well, it seemed to me he was doing it more for the money than the benefits.  I should have stopped him then, but at that point we had no idea you dragons were intelligent.  If I had already known that, I would have stopped him, but I didn't find out until I came and talked to Chris."

\n "Not intelligent?" one dragon scoffed.  "We're certainly smarter than you humans!"

\n "Typical greedy human," said another.

\n Nesleh snarled for silence.  "You say you could have stopped this... Jim?  Are you in some position to have power over him?"

\n Dave sighed and looked at the ground.  "You probably won't be happy to hear this, but Jim's my older brother."

\n None of the dragons responded right away, and Nesleh spoke before they could.  "It can be hard to confront an elder sibling, I'm sure.  At least you came to help once you knew the truth."

\n "What about that third human, there?" Lemnir asked; he had finally caught his breath and joined the circle.  "Who's he?"

\n "My name's Sean Nelson.  I'm a mutant, Class Six, and my mutation...  Well, I can turn into a dragon."

\n "Not just any dragon," Chris added.  "I don't know how, but his dragon form is that of a blood warrior."

\n Nesleh gave him an odd look.  "Are you sure?"

\n Chris nodded.  "Vidac's bolt and everything.  Saw him use it myself."

\n "But that doesn't..." Nesleh trailed off.

\n "Make any sense, I know.  I was considering..."

\n "I don't really think it's important how I ended up with the form I have," Sean interrupted.  "Yes, I can turn into a dragon, yes, the form is apparently that of a blood warrior--whatever that is--and no, we have no idea why.  Can we move on?"

\n "Did you help with the rescue effort?" a dragon asked.

\n "I drew some of the guards off so Chris and Dave could incapacitate the rest and free you without interference."

\n "He's been helpful," Chris confirmed.  "But he's also right; we need to concentrate on what's important.  First, it is not safe for the clan to stay here.  The humans found this cave before."

\n "What do you expect us to do, just dig out another one?" one dragon said.  "It took our ancestors most of a decade to carve our home out of the mountainside, and you want us to just go somewhere else?"

\n "But you can't stay!  I expect provincial police will be coming to my property with a search warrant within a few hours, and I'll have to let them come up and look around the cave.  You must go somewhere else, at least for a day or two."

\n "Where?  There aren't any other caves nearby, and even if there was one there's no way it would be large enough to hold us all, even for one day.  There's nowhere for us to go."

\n "Caves aren't the only answer," Nesleh said.  "A secluded valley, perhaps, or maybe inside a large building, if we could get access somehow."

\n "You won't get very far without getting seen," Dave pointed outside.  "It's almost dawn."

\n Chris smiled as an idea came to him.  "Don't have to go far.  All of you can fly to the forest down the slope from the ruins, land on the road and get under the trees, as far as you can.  You'll still be on my property so you most likely won't have people stumbling across you, and the treetops should hide you from anyone looking around from a plane or helicopter, as long as you don't knock any trees down."

\n "Cowering in a forest," a dragon snorted.  "There's a great plan."

\n Nesleh growled.  "If you have any better ideas, tell us."

\n "Wait, Chris, what about leaving?" another dragon said.  "We were supposed to start our flight north last week, so shouldn't we just leave?"

\n "I'd have to contact my man on the border again, but can't you wait until we track down the rest of the clan?  It would be best if we could send you all across at once."

\n "How do you plan to do that?  Are you just going to head back down to wherever we just flew from and free the other three like you freed us?"

\n "No, we can't do that; they'll be under much heavier guard now that they know there are people trying to get them out.  I think we'll have to wait until they've been introduced to their zoo environments."

\n "How long would that take?"

\n Chris glanced at Dave.  "How long do you think it will be until then?"

\n "If they rushed, a week and a half to two weeks, depending on the location, how elaborate they make each dragon's habitat and a bunch of other stuff.  And then, of course, the dragon would have to be introduced to the new environment, and only after some time alone would the general public be allowed to see it in its habitat...  Two weeks, at least."

\n "You want us to delay for two weeks?"   Lemnir shook his head.  "We can't wait that long."

\n "Says who?" Molthan interrupted.  "I don't want to leave for the dragoness' clan without my father and my brother."

\n "They can be sent along after us once they're freed."  Lemnir looked down at Chris.  "Couldn't they?"

\n "This contact of mine can't be opening up the border every other day, you know, or his superiors would notice, and this pass-through has to be well-coordinated or you'll just be spotted and caught again by a Canadian border patrol.  It will be easier if you just wait here until you're all ready to make the flight."

\n "All without leaving your property?  Do you expect to feed the entire clan off your herds for two whole weeks?"

\n "Wouldn't it be more than two weeks?" Sean asked.  "It's two weeks just to wait for the dragons to be accessible.  After that comes travel time to and from these zoos, and planning, and all three of these dragons will be in a different situation...  It could be closer to a month, all together."

\n "Maybe you should leave," Chris said.

\n "No, we're going to stay," Nesleh said.  "It'll be risky, but we'll have to stay, and we'll have to keep on hunting as carefully as we can.  If we've done it this way for hundreds of years, we can do it for another few weeks."

\n "Who made you elder?" a dragon demanded.  "I still say we should leave now!"

\n Nesleh snarled and stood, flaring his wings out aggressively.  "And what would you do, duel me over it?  Like it or not, I'm the oldest dragon in this clan, and if Vallen's not here to govern us then it's only natural for me to act in his stead."

\n The other dragon faltered; Nesleh was larger than he was.  "Well, couldn't we at least vote on it, if we don't have an elder to choose for us?"

\n "Fine."  Nesleh looked around the circle of dragons.  "Wings up if you want to wait for Carnoc, Vallen and Aithsa before leaving."  After a short pause, twelve dragons raised their wings.  "There's your answer, then.  We're staying."  Nesleh sat back down.

\n "All right, then," Chris said.  "You all hurry down into the forest and hide for the day.  Then once it's dark again send someone to my house: if the patio lights are on, then that dragon should talk to me, and if not, then that dragon should stay away from my house because it's not safe yet.  Okay?"

\n "I still don't like this plan," one dragon growled.

\n "Hopefully it will only be for one day," Nesleh said.  "I doubt they'd search our cave twice if it was empty the first time."

\n Chris nodded.  "He's right, just for today unless something really bizarre happens.  You should hurry up and get to where you need to go; it's almost dawn."

\n "What about Aithsa, and Vallen and Carnoc?" Orasin spoke up.  "If they broke free and came back to an empty cave..."

\n "None of them can escape on their own," Dave said, "but I can stay in contact with my brother.  He probably doesn't know that I was involved in freeing you all, and I should be able to find out anything he plans to do before he does it.  But Chris, we'll need your help to free the other dragons, and you can't help us if you're staying here."

\n "You're right," Chris said.  After thinking about it for a little while, he decided, "I'll have to call my parents and ask them to come up and watch the farm.  I'm sure they'd be glad for the chance to visit, anyway, and Karen and Tessa will be able to come back up with them.  I'll come back here once I know where Aithsa, Carnoc and Vallen have been taken, and we'll go from there, but you can send someone down to the patio like you usually do if you want."

\n "All right. We'll probably have someone stay awake during the day to keep watch, just in case, so you can always drive up here during the day if you have to.  Come on, everyone, let's get out of here."

\n The three humans watched the dragons leave, then once the clan was gone they went back to Chris' truck.

\n "I'm going to head home," Sean said.  "I'm sure to have a lot of work waiting for me; seems like there are more new mutants every day now."

\n "All right.  I'll call you once the dragons have decided what we're going to do next, and we'll go from there.  Same for you, Dave?"

\n "Yeah...  I need to get back to work, or I'll run out of vacation time before we can finish freeing them.  But I'll talk to my brother, and let you know which dragon's going where."

\n "Right."  They all climbed back into Chris' truck for the drive back down the mountain.
\n  

\n
\n The police came and went without finding any of the dragons, though nervousness still made it a tough day for Chris.  Then he had to wait for almost a week before Dave called back with the information, and said would be another full week before any of the dragons would be accessible.  During that time, Chris' parents drove up with the twins and moved into the guest room, helping Chris to take care of the twins and the farming duties.  But when Chris got the information from Dave, he went up to the cave that very night.

\n "Evening, Chris," Lemnir said when Chris walked up onto the ledge.  "You hear back from those other humans yet?"

\n Chris nodded.  "That's why I'm here.  Is the rest of the clan inside?"

\n "Nobody's left that I noticed, but you know me, someone might have gotten up before me and left right away.  Still, though, I doubt it."

\n "Well, come inside.  We have things to discuss."

\n It only took a minute or two for the rest of the clan to gather.  "Dave called me earlier today," Chris announced to them.  "All three of the dragons will have their habitats opened on the same day, a week from tomorrow, and after that we'll be able to work towards freeing them.  Aithsa is at the San Diego Zoo, Vallen is in St. Louis, and Carnoc is at Disney World in Orlando.  Since they're all going to become available on the same day, I can't figure out which one we should pursue first.  What do all of you think?"

\n "Aithsa's closest, isn't he?" Lemnir said.  "And closest would be easiest, to start, because he's so small."

\n "He's not a priority," Nesleh said.  "He's young; he'll be able to adapt until we can get to him.  No, you have to free Carnoc first, Chris."

\n "Why him?" Molthan asked.  "Vallen's clan elder, so we need to get him back as quickly as we can."

\n "No, we don't.  The clan has run just as smoothly as it ever has with me in his place; Vallen can wait.  Carnoc must be freed first."

\n "And why's that?" another dragon put in.  "Because he's your son?  If you want to be acting elder, Nesleh, then you have to act in the clan's best interests.  Just because he's your son doesn't make freeing him of the most importance to the clan."

\n "It's not about me!  Carnoc's a warrior.  He has to be rescued as soon as possible, or who knows what could happen."

\n "Right," the other dragon said.  "You're just using your new authority to get what you want!  You want to delay Vallen's release as long as you can so you can keep your power!"

\n "That's enough!" Nesleh roared.  In the silence that followed, he stood and walked over to the other dragon, teeth bared.  He looked him right in the eye and growled again, then said, "use your head for once, Ureth.  Think: Carnoc is a blood warrior.  You know what his temper's like, and as much as I admire his ability to control himself, I can't pretend that he hasn't been having trouble with it recently.  If he loses his temper and does something to the humans holding him captive, it could be disastrous for all of us.  Could you imagine what the humans would think of us if Carnoc lost control and killed one of them?  They could easily decide to hunt down and kill us all!  Carnoc must be freed first.  Now do you think I'm right, or are you still willing to challenge me because you think this power has gone to my head?"

\n After a moment's pause, Ureth closed his eyes and lowered his head to the ground.  Nesleh snorted and touched his paw to the other dragon's neck, then returned to his place in the circle.  "That's probably the best order for you to go in, Chris.  Carnoc first, then Vallen, then Aithsa.  But remember, these other humans aren't going to be blind to your intentions; once you've freed two dragons, or maybe just one of them, your task is going to get a lot harder.  Be careful out there."

\n "I'll do my best, Nesleh.  Remember, I'll have some help."

\n "All right.  Good luck, and hopefully we'll see you and our missing clan members soon."

\n Chris nodded.  "Thanks.  Is there anything you want me to tell my parents for you?"

\n "No, we should be fine for tonight, and if I think of anything I'll fly down myself."

\n "Okay, then.  See you later."