by Sarah Noffke
“Why is that?” Sophia asked.
“Well, because I know how much you like animals and they’re really mean to the ones they ride.”
“Dragons?” Sophia’s pulse beat wildly. “Are they riding dragons?”
“Big old lizards,” Rudolf stated. “They’re huge, have wings, blow fire from their mouths, and roar really loud.”
“So dragons?” Sophia repeated.
Rudolf sighed. “Honestly, I couldn’t say. I’m not a zoologist. All I know is that I sense these mean guys are going to keep making trouble in my city and I can’t have that. Not when I’m trying to sell the city to Asian businessmen. It makes me look like I don’t control this place. I think Mr. Matoshima will only buy that the giant flying lizards are a theatrical stunt for so long.”
“I have so many questions for you on a variety of subjects that you’ve just mentioned, but we’ll have to get to them later.”
“Oh, do you have parkour lessons to get to too?” Rudolf asked.
Sophia shook her head. “No, but the Dragon Elite will be there soon. Stay on alert and let me know if anything changes. We’re coming to defend your city for you.”
“Great! If you’re stopping by the store, will you bring me a bag of jelly beans? I always work up an appetite from my parkour practice.”
“No, but I’ll save your butt if it comes to that,” Sophia confidently affirmed while making for the hallway, intent on rounding up the others.
“You know, and here I thought we were friends.” Rudolf sounded offended. “All you can think about is my rear end and how nice it looks in slim fit jeans. If Serena finds out about this...”
Sophia shook her head. “We’ll be there within the hour, Ru. Stay inside and safe. Things might escalate fast if this is the Rogue Riders and we have to defend Las Vegas from their attacks again.”
“Sounds exciting. I’ll roast some popcorn and pull up a front-row seat by my penthouse windows. Try to keep the action on the east side of the Cosmopolitan next to the Bellagio.”
“Sure thing,” Sophia said and added, “See you soon, Rudolf-Mins.”
Chapter Forty-One
“Where the hell is Evan?” Sophia strode across the Expanse toward Mahkah and Wilder, and their dragons lined up behind them, Lunis landing gracefully.
They both shook their heads. “We haven’t seen him.”
“Neither have Mama Jamba or Hiker.” Sophia had questioned them as she suited up for what she expected to be a battle in Las Vegas. “Well, we’ll have to go without him.”
“He probably realized that the new dragonriders were already mastering skills he’s struggled with for a century and is crying in his bed,” Wilder remarked with a laugh.
“They’re doing quite well,” Mahkah affirmed in a serious tone.
“That joke fell as flat as your hair,” Lunis blithely needled Wilder.
Reflexively, Wilder’s hand went for his hair. “Hey, my hair isn’t flat. It has tons of body.”
“It looks fine.” Sophia strode up to her dragon.
“See there,” Wilder smugly retorted. “My girlfriend likes my hair.” Like a child and not a two-hundred-year-old dragonrider, he stuck his tongue out at the blue dragon.
“Real mature.” Sophia shook her head.
Wilder pointed at Lunis. “He started it. He’s jealous that I have a girlfriend who is so supportive.”
“Are you two going to do this again on this mission?” Sophia questioned, partly amused by Wilder’s and Lunis’ antics but hiding it.
“Probably,” Mahkah interjected.
“I’m not jealous. I don’t have a girlfriend,” Lunis stated. “Although I do know a female dragon who’d be mad if she heard me say that.”
“Good one.” Wilder laughed.
“It was also a good line the first time that Mitch Hedberg said it.” Sophia swung her leg over her dragon and prepared for takeoff. In the distance, the three new dragonriders watched them as they got ready to leave the Gullington.
“They know what they’re supposed to do while we’re gone?” Sophia indicated the three men.
Mahkah nodded. “Sharpen their swords. Sharpen their minds. Sharpen their skills.”
“Also, I’ve sent them on a hunt,” Wilder added while mounting his dragon, Simi.
“A hunt?” Sophia curiously questioned.
“To find their personalities,” Wilder answered with a sly grin.
She tilted her head and gave him a look that said, “Oh, come on. Give them a break.”
“He’s right,” Lunis stated. “Those three are about as dull as Simi and Tala and the other elders.”
Simi huffed and nobly put her head in the air. Tala, like her rider Mahkah, didn’t seem to care about the jab.
“They’re nervous,” Sophia defended and grabbed the reins. “Imagine how intimidating it has to be for them to join the ranks of the Dragon Elite.”
“I think we’re all in a position to do that,” Wilder argued. “Although none of us knew how to do it when dragons were thought to be extinct, or there hadn’t been a new rider in one hundred years or ever a female rider.”
“That’s true,” Mahkah stated from atop Tala while taking a position next to the other two dragons and riders. “If anyone should have been reserved, it would have been Sophia.”
Lunis laughed. “Fat chance of that ever happening.”
Sophia rolled her eyes. “I was respectful of the Dragon Elite’s traditions in the beginning. It’s not like I came in here flaunting my ways and ignoring the dragonriders’ ancient culture.”
“You introduced electricity and gadgets to the Castle,” Wilder argued.
“You let me sleep in your room even though Hiker was adamantly against it,” Lunis added.
“Also, you, Sophia,” Mahkah began, “went on missions although Hiker was against us intervening in the world’s affairs at that time.”
She shook her head at the stoic Native American. “Not you too? You’re not joining these Laffy Taffies, are you?”
“Just recalling the facts,” he stated simply.
“My point,” Sophia began with a great inflection on the words, “is that the new dragonriders will take some time to adjust. I’m sure in time, they’ll banter and joke along with the rest of us. They’re trying to assimilate into an old world that’s thought of hesitantly by the new world. It can’t be easy for them.”
Mahkah nodded. Wilder too.
Lunis, however, shook his head in the direction of the dragonriders watching them about to take off through the Barrier. “Learn some jokes, newbies! I want you to make me laugh, or I’m toasting you upon my return.”
Sophia shook her head at Lunis as the three dragons started forward in a rush, their wings effortlessly moving as they picked up speed before they launched into the air in unison, a beautifully choreographed dance.
Chapter Forty-Two
“I’ve got a blonde joke for y’all,” Lunis said through the howling wind as they soared through the air. They were gaining altitude as they rode toward the Barrier. Soon, there would only be the soft whistling of the clouds as they flew through them.
“I’m not a fan of those,” Sophia declared.
“Can we make them mousy brunette jokes?” Wilder offered.
Lunis shook his head. “That won’t work. We all know that blondes aren’t dumb, Sophia. They’re merely easy targets. I need you to be secure on these matters.”
“Cool,” Sophia replied. “After you tell your jokes, I have some about blue dragons.”
“About how they’re so ruggedly handsome and suave?” Lunis questioned.
“I’m not sure I’d see the joke there,” Mahkah offered, adding to the conversation when he was normally a listener.
“There is a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette—”
Sophia coughed loudly, cutting off Lunis’ joke.
“Oh, fine.” He sighed. “There’s a brilliant yet misunderstood blonde, a fiery redhead, and a meek brunette. Happy, now
? You’re ruining the joke.”
“Only making it fair.” Sophia smiled as she leaned forward, the chilly autumn air tangling her blonde hair and making her cheeks ruby red.
“Anyway, they’re trapped on an island, and the nearest shore is fifty miles away,” Lunis continued. “The weak redhead swims a few miles and drowns.”
“Seems about right,” Wilder scoffed.
Sophia giggled.
“The boring brunette drowns after ten miles,” Lunis stated. “But the blonde swims twenty-five miles, at which point, she’s exhausted so she turns and swims back.”
Wilder howled with laughter.
Mahkah smirked slightly.
Sophia said, “Ha-ha. Very funny.”
Lunis joined Wilder, laughing loudly, swallowing cold air. “Twenty-five miles! She could have kept going!”
“Did she make it back to the deserted island safely?” Wilder questioned.
“I think you’re missing the point of the joke.” Lunis shook his head.
The three dragons and their riders slipped through the Barrier and over the rolling hills of Scotland. They only had a brief moment to enjoy the way the terrain was absent of modern buildings and stretches of roads and industry before Sophia threw up a portal to Las Vegas in the distance.
They broke into formation, Sophia in the lead as they slipped through the portal and into a land much different from where they’d come from.
Las Vegas was the very opposite of Scotland with its concrete and skyscrapers and bright lights. Currently, it was much different than how Sophia had ever seen it with demon dragons and their riders on the ground, seeming to be attacking the locals and tourists.
Chapter Forty-Three
Sophia and the other Dragon Elite held their positions in the air, watching from high above instead of springing straight into action. It was difficult to determine what was going on below.
Sophia could see King Rudolf selling the visitor dragonriders as theatrical stunts. They sort of blended in with the huge Optimus Prime robot that the tourists were all lining up to get their photos with or the statue-like man on stilts who was doing a fantastic job of not laughing as a couple of guys mooned him.
However, she knew better than to think that the demon dragons and their riders on the ground were simply trying to entertain the public. There was something different in the way they interacted. There was an air of bullying about them, as though their show was for intimidation rather than amusement. It was because of that observation that Sophia knew that the demon dragonriders on the ground were the Rogue Riders.
She also recognized the redhead on the green dragon who she’d seen at the elfin island—the one Evan had run off a few times.
“Too bad Evan isn’t here,” Wilder said from beside Sophia as if he were in her thoughts. “I know he’s wanted to hand that guy’s butt to him ever since the last battle. His name is Nathaniel, and he’s the second in command.”
“To Versalee,” Mahkah added.
Wilder nodded. “His dragon is aligned with lightning.”
Sophia gulped. “Good to know. I wonder what Versalee’s dragon’s element is?”
Wilder shrugged. “I’m not sure, but it doesn’t look like she’s presently down there creating trouble.”
Only a few dragonriders were on the ground. By the way they flew, most were poorly trained. They rode their dragons like one pushes a lawnmower rather than how it should have been, like riding on a magic carpet—being one with it.
Rudolf would be relieved that the display was going on next to the Bellagio Hotel and Casino right next to the Cosmopolitan, where he held his court and had his primary residence at the top.
A couple of the dragonriders spiraled through the air, cutting through the water from the fountain display. Usually, that show at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino stole the attention of a few hundred tourists who paused to watch the spigots of water cascading in different directions in a beautiful dance of choreography.
However, the demon dragonriders were cutting through the water, throwing it onto the tourists, and interrupting the show with one of their own.
Another demon dragonrider approached Optimus Prime. The dragon’s wings were outstretched, and the rider held on as they neared the fake robot in an act of intimidation.
The other demon dragonriders, Nathaniel and his dragon included, sat in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard as though they’d decided to set up camp there. Behind them, cars were at a standstill from the blocked road. Drivers were getting out of their vehicles to view the strange sight of the two large dragons casually mock-fighting in the street.
They were seated but now and then, threw their claws through the air. The one attacked would duck and spit fire in the other’s direction, usually missing them but creating damage to the road.
Wilder glanced at Sophia, where the three of the Dragon Elite hovered out of sight—cloaked. “What do you say, boss?”
Sophia thought for a moment. In combat and in the field, she had the leadership role, and she didn’t take that lightly. Swallowing, she made a decision, hoping it was the right one.
“Let’s try the civil approach.” Sophia pointed at the Strip where the two demon dragons and their riders were causing the biggest disturbance. “We’ll try talking to them and working things out rationally.”
“And when they react like the monsters they are?” Wilder asked with a sideways grin.
“Then we boot them out of this city and show them their acts of disturbance aren’t welcome here or anywhere else,” Sophia answered with confidence.
Wilder nodded in confirmation. “We’ll keep doing it as long as it takes.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Sophia and Lunis dove toward Las Vegas Boulevard and removed the cloak from the three of them. She didn’t want to intimidate those on the ground into thinking they were getting ambushed by more rude and destructive dragonriders. However, she didn’t know how to communicate to the mortals that they were the peaceful solution-oriented society of dragonriders. She hoped that their demeanors did that for them since they were approaching with the intent of discussing things civilly and not fighting.
A blonde, a redhead, and a brunette dragon were lost in the desert, Lunis began in Sophia’s head.
She laughed, not having expected it to be joke time with everything they had going on. However, she really should’ve at this point.
It doesn’t help that you made them dragons, Sophia replied. I’m still offended that blondes are the butt of your jokes.
That’s a “you” problem, Lunis stated. Anyway, they find a lamp and a genie comes out and states he’ll grant each one a wish.
The ground was quickly approaching, and they’d gotten attention from those on the street, the Rogue Riders included.
The redhead wishes to go back home, Lunis continued. And just like that, the dragon is transported to the hovel where they live.
I like the details you add to these jokes, Sophia teased while steering Lunis to an open patch of road between the Rogue Riders and the cars, hoping to serve as a protective barrier. That was going to be tricky because there were so many people around that if a fight broke out, she worried that there would be a lot of collateral damage and innocent mortals harmed.
The brunette dragon wished to go home to be with her boring family, Lunis stated as though they were casually flying through the sky and not nearing what was increasingly looking like a very tense situation on the ground.
And the blonde dragon? Sophia had to ask, wanting the punch line before the drama started.
The blonde was suddenly lonely, Lunis answered. So she asked that her dragon friends join her.
Sophia groaned. That was bad, really bad.
So bad it was good, right?
Not really. Sophia landed her dragon exactly where she intended, putting a protective barrier between the line of cars at their back and the Rogue Riders. Wilder and Mahkah landed beside her, their faces full of confidence and protective edg
e.
It was time to talk, Sophia thought while facing off against Nathaniel on the ground, looking down at him from high atop her dragon.
Chapter Forty-Five
The redhead rolled his eyes and looked at the other demon dragonrider a few yards away. “Oh, look. The Boring Elite are here to bore us all to death with their holy agendas.”
Sophia narrowed her gaze. “We’re here to find out why you’re causing problems in Las Vegas. I got a call from the king of the fae. He doesn’t like that you’re creating a disturbance in his city.”
Nathaniel laughed and threw his hand up in the direction of the Cosmopolitan where King Rudolf no doubt watched from the safety of his penthouse. “Well, tell the little fairy to come down here and tell me to my face!”
“I think it’s better if we deal with this between each other, dragonriders to dragonriders.” Sophia watched as the crowd around them pushed back, apparently sensing the tension building. She didn’t want to fight the Rogue Riders. Not here or anywhere, but they hadn’t left her many choices on the matter in the past.
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Nathaniel said casually as his green dragon rose on his back legs and hooked his claws around the traffic light, bending it down using brute force as it made an awful screeching noise. The dragon broke the piece off, stuck it in his mouth, and began chewing on the end as a dog does with a bone.
Sophia cringed and tried to corral her anger. They were goading her. She couldn’t afford to react too quickly. There were too many innocent fae, mortals, and magicians around. She hadn’t noticed the latter until they started to pour through the crowd, pushing to the front. Whereas the mortals and fae appeared interested in the scene on the Strip, the magicians seemed downright angry, as if this was a personal encounter and they were ready to spring into action.
She sensed Wilder tense beside her as well. Mahkah stayed watching, nothing changing about his posture.