Cat Out of the Bag Read online

  “Are there any dragons?”

  “Not that I know of,” Serious said. “None that have called to me, anyway.”

  “I’ve been hearing this weird voice in my head, telling me ‘you’re a summoner.’ I had a dream about a dragon—it was like the dragon in the simulation. Was the simulated dragon the one calling me?”

  “Yes, the signature of the dragon was automatically interpreted by the software and magic that runs the simulation. It was able to replicate a scenario,” Avalon explained.

  “But Vex said that her simulation was different than her first ghost.”

  “She was being called by that little girl ghost, whom she eventually tamed. But the old man called her first.”

  “Are you ready, Mango?” Serious asked me.

  “Yep.” A shiver went down my spine. I honestly didn’t know if I was ready or if I ever would be. But I wasn’t going to say that. The only way to tame a dragon was to have a strong will. If I didn’t believe in myself, I would fail. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I just thought about Pappi and our people. It gave me all the strength I needed.

  Serious stood back and told me to give him some room. He called his dragon’s name and waved his hands in strange and mysterious ways until an ethereal beast curled around his arm. It slid off of his hand and landed on the ground, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a man.

  “Riz,” Serious commanded, “please open a portal to the dragon who calls Mango.”

  Riz twirled around me, sniffing my skin and purring in my ears.

  “I have it,” the dragon said. He waved his arms and clapped his talons, and before me appeared a black oval just like the one I’d stepped through to follow Serious and just like the one I’d stepped through in my dream. I shivered again and took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders. I nodded once, looked at Avalon, then at Serious. “Here goes nothing,” I said and stepped boldly through the portal.

  I came out on the other side, fully expecting to be inside a cavern, but I was in a dark forest at night. An owl hooted in the distance. The air was cold with a bite of winter, reminding me again that I had just left the desert.

  I hugged myself, rubbing my arms as I tried to get my bearings. I wondered where the heck I was. Three moons were bright overhead, and the stars spread across the heavens. I didn’t know what planet I was on or even what dimension I was in. I didn’t even know what timeline it was. I wondered whether Riz had sent me to the right place. I began carefully stepping through the forest, my fur puffing out and helping me adjust to the cold.

  I could see my breath in front of me, glistening in the bright moonlight. I shook my head, still confused. Then I caught a scent on the air. My nose tingled and twitched as I sniffed. I raised my eyebrows, recognizing the smell. It was my dragon. He’d said his name was Mythril in the simulation. I wanted to call for him, but I knew half the challenge would be to stay silent and hidden. If I could gather my strength before he could object, I could win the battle more quickly. I began to run through the forest, dodging through trees on silent feet. The scent grew stronger and stronger as I ran.

  A black shadow spread out overhead, blocking out the moonlight and the stars. I ducked and gasped. Looking up into the dark void of night, I realized that it was the body of the dragon I’d been sent to tame. The scent of his body was all around me. I shivered and backed against a tree. Skirting around the trunk, I tried to hide myself from view. The dragon swooped over the forest and disappeared above the treetops. I was breathing heavily, and my heartbeat slammed in my ears. I couldn’t waste any time and lunged forward, following the dragon through the forest. At the edge of the clearing, I saw him land in a meadow. His black body was a shadow in the night, blocking out the view of the trees on the other side. I crouched, gathering strength in my gut. I pulled on all of the will I had ever known. It pooled in my belly, growing bolder and stronger with each breath.

  “Did you think I didn’t sense you, little cat?” the beast purred from the meadow. His voice echoed inside my mind as he spoke in the crystal-clear air of night.

  I didn’t respond. It was going to be the battle of my life.

  He went down on all fours and began to pace through the meadow. I closed my eyes, knowing he was taunting me, that he was attempting to break my concentration and interfere with my will. I wouldn’t let that happen. I had to be stronger than the dragon. He was bigger than any building I’d ever seen in my life. He could have crushed me with his claws and eaten me in one bite. I continued to pull the strength from my gut, drawing on every resource in every fiber of my being. I saw myself in the moment I won the race and believed I’d won the grand prize. It was the crowning achievement of my life, and every step along the way was a testament to my will and determination. I gathered every moment, every skipped meal, every saved credit.

  The dragon puffed his breath, and stardust fell on a tree nearby. I cracked my eyes opened and smelled the scent of burning wood. Fear circled my brain, but I could not let it control me.

  “I know you’re in there, little cat,” the dragon purred. “I will not be tamed so easily.”

  When I could pull no more strength because every ounce was gathered, I stood and opened my palms. “But you called me. And I’ve come to tame you.”

  I let my will pour out from inside me and shoot across the meadow and into the body of the beast. He roared, rearing on his hind legs. He tried to blast stardust at me, but nothing came.

  I felt a wave of the dragon’s will bombard me, cool and hot at once, like star fire. The battle of a lifetime hit me full blast.

  Chapter 18

  A voice rang through the darkness. It startled me so much that I almost lost my hold on the dragon. Moonlight glinted off of something, and I made out the form of a young man darting through the forest. Energy blasted at me through the link to the dragon, and I had to pull every shred of my strength to hold on.

  “Let go,” the young man said. “This is my tame. I’ve been tracking this beast for days.”

  “He’s been calling me,” I growled, battling to maintain my hold.

  “That makes two of us.”

  “I have to tame this dragon!” I shouted. “Everything depends on it.”

  “I need a night dragon in my menagerie.”

  Energy crackled through the air and vibrated up my arms.

  “I can only be tamed by the strongest of summoners,” the dragon growled, as if enjoying the competition.

  “I was here first,” I yelled.

  “You haven’t tamed him yet. He’s fair game.” There was another rush of energy up my arm, and I gritted my teeth as I tried to maintain a hold.

  “Why are you doing this? I was sent here by Serious himself.”

  “I don’t belong to the League,” the man said. “I’m a free agent. I do whatever I want.”

  “I won’t let you take my dragon.”

  “You’re going to have to prove you’re strong enough to best him and me.”

  “Then that’s what I’ll do.” I growled through my teeth and pulled down my goggles. I lifted my other hand and forced my will out through my other palm.

  I thought about the day that we were forced out of Sho’kin Forest. I held Pappi’s hand as we walked away from our ancestral home. “We’ll be back someday, Pappi,” I’d said, looking over my shoulder.

  The strength of my resolve built up within me and burst out through my palms. Energy sparked all around. The intruder flew back out of the moonlight and into the forest, and the dragon howled as he shifted into an ethereal form then wafted through the moonlight toward my open palm. I had seen the form that Serious’s dragons took—like smoke and air. That is what the dragon looked like as it coiled around my arm and neck.

  “Well done, summoner,” he said before landing in front of me and coming to his full size in his solid form.

  “I am Mythril, a night dragon. And I am happy to serve.”

  “You gave me quite the battle,” I said, wiping the
sweat from my brow.

  “I would only be tamed by the strongest summoner. And you have proved your worth.”

  “I never would have believed it,” the man said, walking out of the shadows of the forest and into the glow of the triple moonlight.

  He was a Sho’kin, maybe a few years older than me.

  “Why would you do that?” I asked him. “That was so rude.”

  “Like the dragon said, he would only be tamed by the strongest summoner. And I had my doubts that a total novice would be up to the task of obtaining a night dragon. Perhaps a fledgling, but not someone like Mythril here.”

  “Charming me will do nothing, summoner. I have already been tamed by Mango,” Mythril said, shrinking back into his ethereal form and twirling around my arm. He rested his long black body around my neck, and I could feel the warm tingle of his ethereal breath on my ear.

  “I’m glad it was you. You were my favorite all along.”

  “Why were you calling him then?” I asked.

  “He did have a point about you being a novice.”

  “Thanks for the confidence,” I said.

  “Now that you have what you came for, I suppose I will leave empty-handed,” the man said.

  “Wait a minute,” I said as he began to leave.

  He turned back to me and raised his eyebrow.

  “Who are you, and why aren’t you in the League of Summoners?”

  “My name is Harry Harrison,” he said with a flourish. “And you are?”

  “I’m Mango Mew.” I saluted him with two fingers on my forehead. It was a common sign of mockery among the Sho’kin.

  He narrowed his eyes at me.

  “So why aren’t you part of the League?”

  “I never was much of a joiner,” he said. “And I don’t agree with everything the League stands for.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You will find out in due time, Mango,” Harry said, turning away and slipping between the trees into the darkness of the forest.

  Chapter 19

  “So, I hear dragons can open portals,” I said to Mythril as he glided around my arms and shoulders.

  “Where would you like to go?”

  “I suppose we have to go back to HQ, so Serious can open a portal with his time dragon.”

  “Very well,” Mythril said. “Stand back.”

  My newly tamed dragon whirled out of my arm and spun in front of me at a furious speed until a black void opened. He coiled back around my arm as I stepped toward the portal. A few days before, I never would have believed that I would be stepping through my third portal of the day, with a dragon on my arm. But my life had turned upside down since that first dream, and it felt, in a good way, as though I wasn’t even the same person anymore.

  I stepped through the portal and found myself standing in the warm glow of the fire in the library of the headquarters. I looked around and found a few pairs of eyes staring at me quizzically.

  Avalon stepped into the room and clapped her hands excitedly. “I thought I felt you return,” she said. “I see you succeeded.”

  “It was a challenge, but I prevailed.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Avalon said. “You will be a powerful summoner, I can tell. You are already well on your way.”

  I stepped toward her and out of earshot of the other summoners perusing the books in the library.

  “I had a bit of a problem with the taming,” I said, leaning close to her. I didn’t know why, but I trusted Avalon. Maybe it was because she had trained me to do magical things I never would have imagined being able to do. She had introduced me to my own gifts, and I wanted to confide in her. Plus, we shared an avatar.

  “What happened?” she asked, growing concerned.

  We slipped into a corner of the library, away from the other summoners. “There was a guy there, a Sho’kin boy named Harry Harrison. He tried to tame my dragon. Luckily, my will was stronger, and I won the battle. He told me he wasn’t a member of the League, and I wondered why.”

  “Ah. Harry. There’s a wild one for you,” she said in the most judgmental tone I’d ever heard her use.

  “What’s the story there?”

  “Harry was once a member of the League. I trained him myself. He was with us from the time he was a child. He’d lost his parents in the intergalactic war, so I suppose I can understand his ‘issues.’”

  “He’s not from Estoa?”

  “No, there are Sho’kin throughout the galaxy.”

  “I had no idea. Why isn’t he a member of the League anymore?”

  “He had a falling out with Serious over the time dragon.”

  “Did he try to steal that taming as well?”

  “Well, no. It didn’t go exactly like that.”

  “What happened?”

  “The time dragon called them both, you see. And since Serious is a senior member of the League, it was decided that he would tame the beast.”

  “Oh…” I wasn’t sure if that was fair. I’d never liked hierarchies—they reminded me of the Landlords and the Imperial Court lording themselves over everyone else. In my experience, the people at the top were never actually any better than the people at the bottom. It all had more to do with what everyone believed than anything else.

  “Harry was not happy with that. He said they should have a battle of wills to determine who would win. Serious forbade it and had Harry detained while he tamed the time dragon. Honestly, what does a child like Harry need a time dragon for? He could have used it unwisely. The council decided it was in much better hands with Serious. We all agreed.”

  “I see,” I muttered.

  “Don’t let that color your opinion of the League. I can already tell you don’t think it’s fair, and perhaps you’re right in some ways, but we have a sacred mission to protect the weak and vulnerable of the universe. And we cannot do that unless we have the greatest tools at our disposal.”

  “But Harry was a member of the League back then.”

  “Yes, but he wasn’t a council member. It makes a difference. And you see how he left us without a second thought after that decision?”

  “I don’t understand most of this stuff. I’m new here, so it’s not for me to judge.”

  Avalon gave me a concerned look, but it shifted quickly, and she patted me on the shoulder. “You are a good girl with a good heart, Mango. And if you bested the night dragon and Harry at once, you are quite strong—stronger than I even imagined. Let’s go find Serious and get you back home.”

  We climbed the stairs to Serious’s office and found him chatting with one of his dragons, who’d taken physical form. It was a small white dragon about the size of a large dog. It sat on the couch across from him. They both looked up at us when we entered the room. Serious stood, and the dragon went into ethereal form, disappearing into Serious’s palm.

  “Did you tame him?” Serious asked.

  I opened my palm and muttered Mythril’s name. He swirled out of my hand and coiled up my arm, draping over my shoulders like a black, purring shawl. His body glimmered in the lamplight, taking on the red and gold hues.

  “Well done,” Serious said, clapping, his shoulders squared and his chest out. “You have a bright future with the League, Mango.”

  “She had a run-in with another tamer,” Avalon said. “Two guesses who.”

  “I don’t need two guesses.”

  “Has this happened before?”

  “Ever since the time-dragon incident, he’s been at every dragon taming in the galaxy, even with the dark ones. He’s playing with fire, Avalon. We’re going to have to put an end to it.”

  “Are there rules against trying to tame a creature at the same time as someone else?” I asked.

  “Not exactly, but Harry is attempting to tame dark-aligned dragons. He’s interacting with the dark summoners and bringing unnecessary attention to our League.”

  “He isn’t with the League anymore,” Serious said.

  “That doesn’t matter to th
e dark ones. They want nothing more than to wipe us out of existence. We are all that stands between the universe and total domination by the dark forces.”

  “I hate to be a nuisance,” I said, “but I really do need to get home.”

  “Of course, Mango. None of this is your concern. You are an initiate, and you have your own path to take. Don’t let Harry’s arrogance influence your opinion of us. We are here to do good in the universe. It takes a lot of dedication to fight for peace, dedication I know you have,” Serious said.

  “I definitely want to help people in need,” I said, thinking of the battle I’d abruptly left in my own world.

  “Let’s get you home,” Serious said, summoning his time dragon.

  The blue-and-gold dragon swirled out of his arm and spun in a circle before me, opening another portal. I took a deep breath and looked from Serious to Avalon. I didn’t know what to say. They’d answered so many questions for me, but I had so many more.

  “Well, thank you for everything. I’m sure we’ll talk again soon. I have much more to learn.”

  “Please come back any time. We are always happy to help with anything you need.”

  “I will. Thank you.”

  I leaned in and gave Avalon a brief hug. I took Serious’s hand as he had mine when we’d first met. He shook it, and I smiled, feeling as though I’d learned a new custom from Earth world.

  “Take care, Mango,” Avalon said, clasping her hands over her heart. She handed me one of the wrist devices and told me to press the red button anytime I needed help.

  “Thank you.”

  I stepped through the portal. The ground shook under me, and my hover bike fell to the ground. I whirled around just as a hover ship full of Landlord-hired guns flew overhead, peppering the shanty village with laser fire.