With high school finished for the summer, Nick looks forward to visiting his aunt and uncle in New Jersey. What awaits him is a heat wave like no other - and the last two Greywings on the planet. Nick has an innate ability to train horses but will he be able
to translate his amazing skill to these teenage dragons?
The steaming soup of mid-summer heats up tempers and tests resolve as Nick vies with fellow trainers, Keith and Maxie, for mastery over their new charges. The dragons, Nikita and Michael, typical teenagers themselves, have other ideas.
Nick treads a torturous path through a minefield of competing demands: the expectations of his aunt and uncle, recalcitrant horses, the Academy’s female students and the overwhelming egos of Nikita and Michael. One small mistake erupts into a conflagration that hurls everyone into a race against time and the overwhelming forces of nature.
to translate his amazing skill to these teenage dragons?
The steaming soup of mid-summer heats up tempers and tests resolve as Nick vies with fellow trainers, Keith and Maxie, for mastery over their new charges. The dragons, Nikita and Michael, typical teenagers themselves, have other ideas.
Nick treads a torturous path through a minefield of competing demands: the expectations of his aunt and uncle, recalcitrant horses, the Academy’s female students and the overwhelming egos of Nikita and Michael. One small mistake erupts into a conflagration that hurls everyone into a race against time and the overwhelming forces of nature.
A Book Review of Dragon Academy via Video
DRAGON ACADEMY
Chapter One: Wrangling Dragons
Nick swiped at his brow. Spring in the Spring Mountains of Nevada, a misnomer if there ever was one. The atmosphere shimmered on broil, desert and rock and sand danced in swirls of muted tans and beige, indistinct. Nick thought it’s like looking through a glass of water, nothing is still, it all bleeds together.
“Can I have the binoculars, Hon?”
“Oh, yeah, here Mom.”
“It’s still smoking.” Nick’s mother chuckled. “What in the world were they thinking?”
Nick glanced at the sky, shielding his eyes against the intense glare. “Are they heading into the cave yet?” His mom nodded no. “Kind of odd they’d stay out this long.”
“All the better for us.” Berit reached for her digital camera. “Let me snap a few more shots, then we’ll head back. The department chair wants a word this afternoon. These pics will help convince him.”
“Do you think they’ll fund you?”
“Partially. We’ll see. I’ve got the proposal in front of the right people.”
Nick reached for the binoculars as Berit fiddled with her camera. He sighed with contentment, “Greywings. The last ones.” He glanced sideways at his mother.
“Uh, Mom? You might want to take the lens cap off.”
**********************
Controlled chaos. Anne Grace waved off her personal assistant as she shuffled through a stack of papers. Her guest approached cautiously, clearly intimidated by the cameras, but set at ease when CNN’s best and brightest flashed her thousand watt smile. She nodded at the three, two, …
“Good morning, Dr. Wilton, thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us about your experiences with what is being called the find of the century?”
“Yes Ma’am. As you know, my team … from the BLM, that’s the Bureau of Land Management - we’re tasked with managing over two hundred and sixty-four million acres of public land, of which nearly one-hundred-sixty million involves livestock grazing.”
“Livestock?”
“Uh, yes. The terms and conditions set forth by the BLM permits and leases determine forage and seasonal access to those areas.”
“And exactly how does this tie in with your astounding discovery?” Anne Grace waved to her technician and mouthed run the footage. “Dr. Wilton, can you describe what we are looking at on the monitor, please?”
“Uh, that is the entrance to the cavern that serves as the primary den for a pod of Greywing dragons.”
“Something assumed to be extinct, am I correct?”
“Yes, until about nine months ago, when we received reports from Three Bars Ranch that UFOs had been seen circling over an area less than twenty miles west of Las Vegas.”
“And were these supposed sightings investigated?”
“The military sent a team and determined that the alleged UFOs were indeed large animals resembling dragons. We, that is, my team, from the BLM were dispatched to investigate and confirm the sighting. Since that time we have been carefully monitoring the pod’s activities.”
“And what is happening here? Can you tell us what we’re looking at, sir?”
“Um, that’s what’s left of our vehicle.”
“What’s left.”
“One of the dragons took exception to our close proximity and …”
“Tom, can you freeze-frame that, please?” Anne Grace turned to her guest. “Please tell our audience exactly what happened.”
***************
“Dietrich! Komm hier, bitte.” AnnaLise yelled down the hallway. “Dietrich?”
“Liebchen?” Dietrich lounged in his favorite recliner, one of his long legs flung over the tattered arm. “I’m in the den.”
AnnaLise barreled into the small alcove off the main sitting room, her boots clacking loudly on the worn oak flooring. She skidded to a halt and stared with a small smile at her disheveled husband. Usually well-groomed, no matter the time of day or circumstance, Dietrich had lately taken on a decidedly casual dress code - his version of a mid-life crisis.
“We have a – how do you say – a situation, a problem.”
“What now, my love?” Dietrich glanced up from his book to admire the Amazon who had, twenty years before, consented to share with him a life and a passion for all things equine. She never failed to enthrall him. At nearly six-feet tall she towered over his modest five-nine frame, strong and sturdy, a force of nature.
“They cannot do this thing. Nein. It is wrong. The last of them. They will round them up. No one will want them. Oh, Dietrich. We must to do something, please.”
“Round what up, Liebchen?”
“The Greywings. The last pod of dragons in this country. The Bureau of Land Management, those filthy bureaucrats, they have pronounced the death sentence.”
“How? I do not understand. Calm down and tell me this thing.” Dietrich unfolded himself from the chair with fluid grace. “Come, bitte. Sit with me on the couch. I cannot help if I do not understand.” Dietrich grasped AnnaLise’s hand and pulled her to the sitting room. Agitated, she jounced on the balls of her feet, still sputtering.
“Sit. Take a breath, just like before the test. Halt at X, salute the judge, proceed at walk to C.” Dietrich mimicked the training level test one maneuver – the most basic of the dressage tests. His lean form moved along the imaginary line toward his wife. He grinned as she visibly collected herself. His Anna was ever the high-maintenance type, a strong counterpoint to his generally placid nature, as he deftly handled a stable full of twitchy female equestrians.
Dietrich’s legendary skills as a horseman brought a stream of young riders to learn and compete under his expert tutelage. And with his good humor, wise counsel, and ability to listen without judgment, he brought order and calm to every training session.
“Sit, Dietrich. I’m fine.” AnnaLise wriggled against the plush cushion, making room for Dietrich to slide against her. She curled into his arms, her body still vibrating from excitement and anger. “I watched the television, the news, the local woman who looks like our student, Jessica. I like that announcer not so much.” AnnaLise’s English faltered as her anxiety level ramped up. She fumbled for the words as Dietrich calmly wrapped her in his arms, pulling her head to his shoulder.
“Shush, dearest. The news. What was on the news that has you in such a tizzy?”
“The dragons. The Greywings. Last year the BLM found the location of the last known pod. There were fourteen of them left at that time. Do you remember?”
“I think so. Didn’t we watch a show about that on the National Geographic Channel?”
“Ja, we did. So they sent scientists to observe. They set up cameras for remote viewing, even in the cave, with that strange green light thing to see with in the dark.”
“Night vision, dearest.”
“Hmm, oh yes. Anyway, the dragons, they ate the cameras so all the scientists could see was the gastrointestinal tract, and that was when the problems started.”
“Their stomachs? Cameras in their bellies? And this is a problem, how?”
“Worms, Dietrich. A parasite load so deadly, it was killing them. Like that poor gelding we rescued. Do you remember that one? It took us nearly a year to nurse him back to health.”
“I didn’t know dragons had a parasite problem. Worms? That should be simple. Why do they not give them that anti-parasitic medication - Ivermectin? If it works for dogs and horses, it should work on dragons as well.”
“This is the thing. They cannot get close enough to them. The BLM sent in a team to hide the Ivermectin paste in rabbit carcasses near the cave entrance. But they were found out. The head female dragon barbecued their SUV and all their scientific equipment. The man, a Dr. Wilton, has second degree burns on his back and legs. They had to walk twelve miles to the nearest main road.”
Dietrich snorted. “What part of fire-breathing, nine-hundred-pound reptiles with wings did they not understand? Did they think they were dealing with a herd of horses?”
“Foolish. I know. But the point is … it didn’t work. The parasites, the worms, the infection, it killed four of the young ones by the end of the year. Then three more died in the spring. A family camping in the mountains found the bones and the wings in that section west of Las Vegas.”
“In the Spring Mountains?”
AnnaLise nodded, thinking hard. “I am not so familiar with the area, only the city. But I think they said it was near Red Rock Canyon. The BLM manages that natural conservation area, so of course, when someone discovered the dragons, those idiots immediately took over. They know nothing of dragons. They treat them like a herd of mustangs.”
“Ja, that would be a mistake. One we learned from when the Bundestag sent troops to annihilate the last of the Grün Feuerdrachen, the green fire-dragons in Bavaria. A terrible thing, that. A shame we must all bear to this day.”
AnnaLise sat up with a jerk, her fists kneading her chin in consternation. Dietrich patted her back absently, his fingers drumming a worried refrain. With a sharp intake of breath, he jumped to his feet and circled the couch excitedly.
“My sister-in-law. Berit. She will help.”
“Your idiot sister-in-law, the one who chaired that Symposium about dragons and their applications for the military and companion animal markets? That sister-in-law?”
Dietrich cringed. He knew Berit was a bit deranged, with that he had no quarrel. She’d given up her promising career on Germany’s open jumper squad to marry his brother, Rolf, and then had migrated with the entire family to Las Vegas to take a position as Adjunct Professor in Large, Dangerous Animals with Anger Management Issues at UNLV. Surely she would already be on top of this situation and have a plan in place.
“Um, that one, Ja. Now, before you go off the deep end, she is one of the few in this country with an understanding of dragon behavior.”
“Understanding? Are you as crazy as that woman? She wants dragons to be the next big thing as companion animals.”
“Well, that was a small mistake. Nicholas recovered after only a few weeks.”
“She gave her own son, your nephew, a genuine, fire-breathing Lindwurm. The skin grafts took weeks to heal. You call that a mistake?”
“Nick didn’t mind. The boy is tough as nails. Besides, he was the one who talked her into it. That boy has the gift. I wonder what he could do if we brought him here to study with us. Have you seen him ride? He is a natural.”
“Dietrich! Pay attention. Dragons. Do not get that woman involved. She will have them rounded up and penned in her back pasture …” AnnaLise wrinkled her brow and sighed. What in the world was she thinking? Of course, the woman would be involved.
“Call her, Dietrich. Find out how many she has. I think, as they say … Houston, we have the problem.”
“…‘a’ problem, dear. Houston we have a problem.”
Dietrich whistled happily as he flipped his cell phone open and hit number one on speed dial. He wandered into the kitchen waiting for Berit to pick up. She was not so good with technology, despite Nick’s patient tutorials with his scatter-brained mother.
“Hello. Von Freund here.”
“Berit, it’s me, Dietrich.”
“Dietrich. I was just thinking about you. Oh, I have the news for you. So exciting. You will not believe …”
Dietrich grinned. He would most certainly believe. “Berit, my darling, with you? I believe. How many do you have and how can we help?”
“Five, that’s all we found. Oh Dietrich, these are the last Greywings on the planet. Not enough to form a true breeding population, at least not yet. We need to study them, to analyze the DNA, to find some way to save them.”
“Berit, how are you containing them? Surely they will fly away, nein?”
“Nein, Dietrich. We clipped their wings, they are land-bound, for months I am hoping. No one knows how long it will take for the membrane to regenerate; but until it does, they will stay in my indoor ring.”
“Uh, Berit? Your indoor ring is aluminum frame with polyvinyl windows. They breathe fire at fifteen-hundred-degrees centigrade – enough to melt glass. How is it you do not have a puddle of metal and plastic?”
“Well, they did melt the polyvinyl – and the stink was dreadful – but Nick and I lined the walls with fire retardant material from Area 51. Something special they had in a warehouse. Very kind, the military. Very interested.”
“Hmm, I’m sure they are. So exactly what do you have, dearest?”
“Oh, this is the exciting part. We secured the last potential breeding pair, perhaps only two or three hundred years old, very young still. The female might be a bit older. I forgot to wear my special bandanna that the colonel gave me so when I tried to look at her teeth, she sort of …”
“Sort of what?” Now Dietrich was alarmed.
“Um, my hair?”
“Your hair? Your beautiful hair? Oh, Berit, when will you learn to be more careful?”
“It will grow back. Besides, it was worth it. She has the most exquisite incisors. Pearl-colored, almost iridescent. Anyway, the male is quite handsome, though I do not believe he has ever, shall we say, had a relationship with a female.”
“And you know this how?” He was almost afraid to ask, even more afraid of the answer.
“Um, he is missing some of the necessary bits. But they will grow back. Not to worry. You know how the females are. Very alpha. Best to use respect when the male first approaches a femme. The young ones do not know this thing. That is why the birthrate is so low. Regeneration takes time.”
Now Dietrich was feeling more than uncomfortable; and, at the same time, relieved that he wasn’t a dragon. “So, a breeding pair. Does that mean you have young ones?”
Berit’s screech of joy had Dietrich yanking the phone from his ear.
“Three! One is a female, a teenager, only five hundred pounds and about the size of my Arabian mare. There is one male, a little younger, about the same size. The smallest one we cannot tell yet. The infant can be only fifty years old or so – too soon to know. The teenaged male has the small crest and those lovely streaks of black along the snout.”
“Berit, that is all very nice, but what in the world do you plan to do with five dragons? How will you feed them?”
“Nick is out trapping rabbits this morning. The University gave us a grant to begin a small breeding venture at those barracks south of the main campus. The Chair of the Department for Small, Useless, and Obnoxious Nocturnal Rodents gave us a starter crate of hamsters.” She sighed. “They didn’t pass the maze test and were slowly starving to death.”
Dietrich heard Berit tapping a fingernail against the phone, cataloging her assets.
She continued, her mirth barely contained. “Even better, the Biology Department chipped in with a few white rats that had higher IQs than the department vice-chairman. Their loyal graduate students have followed them, as they couldn’t bear to lose potential thesis advisors. So that gives us plenty of pairs of hands.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question, Berit. What are you going to do with that many dragons?”
Dietrich could almost feel the sigh reverberate through the cell phone. Berit held back a long moment, then whispered, “I gave the breeding pair to Area 51 for further study. They have that underground facility with the UFO. It’s already fire-proofed plus they’ve got the glass enclosure from the movie Independence Day – the one the President didn’t shoot the windows out of. I will keep the infant as my department will give me just enough resources to fund this venture. But the teenagers? I don’t know, Dietrich. I don’t suppose …”
“All right, Berit. I will do this thing. But you must do something in return for me.”
“What? Anything.”
“Send me Nick for the rest of the summer. He can help me with the dragons, and I can begin his education in dressage. That boy rides like a cowboy. It is time for some refinements, nein?”
“I will ask him. But I think we both know the answer. And thank you from the bottom of my heart. Nick needs a father. Ever since Rolf died, he has been floundering, with a great sadness that I cannot touch. He adores you. This will be a good thing. I feel it.”
“Ich liebe dich. Take care. I will get back to you once we have prepared the stables.”
“Dietrich. Don’t worry about transportation. The military has constructed a special tractor trailer lined with firebrick. I think they even installed a fire suppressant system. I will borrow that for their trip back east. Imagine … two genuine Greywing, fire-breathing dragons living in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.”
“Hmm, imagine that. Ciao, bella.” Dietrich snapped the cell phone closed and turned to find AnnaLise dancing a jig around the kitchen table.