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  “You should probably get up if that’s the case. I’d hate to see how that turns out if you’re lying down.”

  “Right, right,” Manny said as he righted himself and floated back into the air, still trembling. He looked like he could puke at any moment, and he burped loudly. “Just give me a sec.”

  Samara turned her head toward the sky, her beak still casting the illusion of a smile. “The wind is beautiful tonight, isn’t it?” she asked. “It’s been so warm here that I didn’t think we were ever going to get a nice, breezy night. Perfect night to stretch my wings. I’m glad you both came.”

  Alex hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Samara’s wings. As she spoke, the griffin stretched and flexed them in the same way some people gesture with their hands when they talk. It was elegant and transfixing; Alex felt as if the griffin were telling a story with each flourish of her feathered appendages.

  Samara ruffled her feathers as she knelt and turned her right wing to Alex. “While Manny is getting his bearings, why not hop on?”

  Alex’s heart had jumped into her throat. Was she already heading to the air, even before she got to ride a dragon? This was the best decision she’d ever made. “You mean, we’re going to fly?” she asked.

  “Oh, goodness, no, little one. I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t get your hopes up. I don’t take humans into the air, especially humans who still have to go through their training. I mean no disrespect. You were no doubt an amazing rider in Middang3ard VR; otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.”

  “So, how come you don’t let humans ride you?”

  “Well, just not any human. Riding a griffin takes a purity of heart that the average human doesn’t have, at least when we’re in the air, but you will get to ride on my back for a quick sprint. I warn you, though; I refuse to have reins placed on me. You’re going to have to hold on very tight. Climb aboard and let’s get going.”

  Alex was disappointed and instantly felt silly about it. She was about to ride a griffin to her new dragonriding training program, and she was feeling slighted by not being able to ride the griffin into the sky? Now that’s being childish, Alex thought.

  Alex climbed onto the griffin, using its wing as a ladder, trying not to hold onto it too tightly or pull out any feathers. The griffin chuckled as it watched Alex struggle to get aboard. It was a wholesome laugh that reminded her of her father’s.

  Already, Alex could tell the difference between VR and the real Middang3ard, if that was in fact where she was. Hardly any of the dragons or magical creatures in-game ever spoke, and those that did lacked the personality of Samara. Alex hadn’t even thought about the fact that she was talking to a living, breathing creature. It just seemed natural that Samara would speak.

  Once Alex and Manny were both on Samara’s back, the griffin took off. Alex wracked her brain to try to understand how Manny was holding on without legs or feet but she grabbed Samara’s fur as tight as she could.

  Samara bounded through the darkness. She was faster than anything Alex had ever ridden, in-game or out. When Alex was younger, her parents had taken her to an amusement park. She couldn’t get enough of the rollercoasters, and she hadn’t thought she’d ever ride anything that fast again in her life.

  Alex was wrong. She was barely able to maintain her grip as the wind beat against her face and pulled tears from her eyes that she tried to beat back by blinking. When she looked at Manny, she could see several of his eyes were closed, and he still looked sick to his stomach.

  Up ahead, there were thousands of lights. Their destination looked like it had a landing pad. There were crystal structures that reflected and refracted the lights, so it appeared as if there were solid rainbows coming out of the ground.

  The buildings ahead reached toward the night sky, stretching and curving as if they were made of water. It was the most beautiful thing Alex had ever seen. If she strained her eyes, she thought she could see people walking through different parts of the crystals.

  The closer they got to the Wasp’s Nest, the more details she could make out. There were crystal bridges between many of the columns. She couldn’t quite see through the building, but she could see shadows moving around in the rainbow structure.

  Samara ran up to a bridge that stretched over a crystal-clear moat. The water smelled divine, and Alex wished she could have slipped in for a swim. There was a chilly breeze, sure, but Alex had always been a fan of cold night-swims.

  Past the bridge, Samara stopped at the gates of the Wasp’s Nest. There was something regal about the way they stretched up, almost like a drawbridge. Alex felt like she was walking into a medieval play of some sort, a heroine atop her magical griffin.

  There were two guards at the gate and seeing them completely pulled Alex out of the medieval fantasy. Each was human and heavily armored. Their vests looked like Kevlar, and their helmets had holographic visors.

  Rifles were slung over their shoulders. They were not the sort Alex had heard described before. These reminded her of something out of a science fiction movie. Tubes and wiring were incorporated along the rifles’ steel barrels and synthetic grips.

  One of the guards lowered his gun when he saw Samara. The other didn’t bother but grew noticeably more relaxed. “Oh, it’s just you,” the first guard said. “I didn’t know you were going out for the night.”

  Samara spread her wings and leaned slightly to the side, so one of her wings touched the ground. Alex took this as a sign that she was supposed to get off Samara’s back. “I was picking up our latest resident, the new human dragonrider.” The way Samara said “human” revealed to Alex that her species was what was causing the stir, not that she was a great VR rider.

  The guard on the left stood up a little straighter and pushed his visor up. He peered at Alex with steely blue eyes. “A human. We must be desperate if we’re recruiting humans.”

  “Nothing of the sort. Myrddin has merely been trying to add to the roster. We can’t be overprepared for the Dark One. Underestimating him might be what causes us to lose this war, and we’ve already lost so much.”

  The guard nodded as he reached toward the gate. The crystals in front of him contorted and stretched to form a panel. He typed in a code, and the panel dissolved back into the wall. The double gates of the Wasp’s Nest opened, and a nearly blinding light shot out.

  Samara led the way and Alex followed, trying not to stare at the armed guards. She’d been expecting something a little more like the game Middang3ard, not a military thriller.

  What she saw once she was inside the Wasp’s Nest was even more surprising.

  The gates opened into what at first looked like a lobby. Upon closer inspection, it seemed the room was some kind of information hub. The walls were sweeping Victorian architecture, with crystal columns stretching to the domed ceiling

  People were walking through the large room, hardly noticing each other. Everyone seemed extremely busy. I wonder what’s going on? Alex thought.

  As Alex watched the people and sped up to catch Samara, she noticed almost no one around them was human. Most were elves, but there were also dwarves she wanted to stop and stare at. It was almost impossible to tell the male dwarves from the females. Both had ludicrously long and thick beards, and all wore heavy leather studded armor that contrasted with the sweeping robes of the elves.

  Alex looked around, letting her eyes drink in everything they could. Samara stopped and looked back at Alex, smiling with her eyes. “First time seeing anything other than a human, right?” the griffin asked.

  Alex turned back to the griffin, hardly able to contain the joy on her face. “Yeah, no kidding!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know…I didn’t know there were so many of them!”

  “I would have thought you would have been more surprised to see a majestic griffin than an elf or a dwarf. I am, in fact, a beast of legend.”

  Alex was preparing to apologize until she saw that Samara was still smiling. It had been a joke, but that didn’t mean Alex couldn’t exp
lain herself. “I was surprised when I saw you,” Alex began. “But you’re so different from everything else. I almost can’t believe you’re real.”

  Samara winked at Alex. “Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said as she turned away. “Come. We don’t want to keep Myrddin waiting. He wanted to speak to you in person after you arrived.”

  “Is Myrddin always here?”

  “No, rarely, actually. Most of his talents are useful in other places. I and a handful of others run the Wasp’s Nest. It would be a mistake to expect Myrddin to be here. There is too much for him to do; too much for all of us to do.”

  Samara guided Alex and Manny through the throng of elves, dwarves, and halflings walking around the crystal lobby. They passed a desk where a beautiful elvish woman with long, flowing silver hair was helping a disgruntled gnome who was standing on the desk, gesticulating wildly.

  Alex was glad to see people behaved ridiculously, regardless of their races. She continued to follow Samara through the throng, and they paid her no attention despite her open-mouthed gawking.

  Samara turned left at the end of the room, and a crystal hallway seemed to appear out of nowhere. As Alex walked, she looked at the ceiling. Even though she was still seeing through Manny’s eyes and there wasn’t much color, she could make out different hues shimmering above.

  If there was anything like walking through a rainbow, this was it.

  As they continued down the hall, Alex noticed there were doors on either side of her. She couldn’t see through any of the crystal doors, but she could see shadows and figures moving behind them. It gave the impression that the Wasp’s Nest was alive.

  She understood where they’d gotten the name since the whole place felt like a giant hive. She shuddered, thinking of the mountain hive she’d braved in Middang3ard to get here. This was considerably better. “Nest” was a much more appealing moniker than “hive.”

  Samara stopped in front of an elevator at the end of the hallway and reached toward its doors. A panel pushed out of the crystal, and Samara pressed her talon to the pad. The pad binged loudly, and the doors of the elevator opened.

  When the three stepped in, Alex was surprised to find that the elevator was so roomy. It didn’t look like there was going to be enough space at first, but now she was certain they could have fit in another griffin if they’d needed to.

  The elevator descended with a whoosh right after the doors glided closed. She looked at Manny, who had been bizarrely quiet. When she saw his face, she knew why. The Beholder looked ready to puke again and was slumped against the wall, only a few of his eyes open.

  Alex leaned over to Samara and whispered, “Do you think he’s going to be okay?”

  Samara gave Manny an accusatory look. “Oh, yes, he’ll be fine eventually,” she assured Alex. “Beholders have trouble traveling through realms in ways they’re unaccustomed to. Magic is their preference, and technology tends to make them…well, you can see how Manny looks for yourself. He’s being a baby about it, as usual.”

  One of Manny’s eyes whirled and glared at Samara. “I’m not being a baby,” he grunted. “I just don’t have as robust a constitution as you. Most of my insides are just gunk and organs. I don’t even have a bone structure to help deal with all that gravity, so thank you for your sympathy.”

  Samara leaned over and nipped the back of Alex’s ear lightly. “I just like to give him a hard time,” she whispered. “He’s always so proper, but when he’s sick, he’s like a little kid.”

  The elevator came to an abrupt stop and the doors slid open. Samara stepped out and motioned with her head for the rest of them to follow.

  The lower section of the Wasp’s Nest had a completely different look to it. Everything was still made of crystal, but it was no longer clear. The walls were black, and there were far fewer people milling about. Most of what Alex could see was split into offices. There was a loud hum coming from above.

  When Alex looked up, she saw dozens of people zooming around on what appeared to be hoverboards. She couldn’t get a good look, but she knew technology like that didn’t exist on Earth yet.

  Hoverboards might have been a huge surprise to Alex, but she was starting to put things together. It would only make sense that Myrddin and his task force didn’t only rely on magic. They would have to use technology as well. It would be ignorant not to.

  Samara guided Alex and Manny down some stairs to the front desk where a ruddy-faced gnome was sitting. He looked up from a pile of paperwork, barely able to see over it. He grunted as he jumped off of his chair and climbed onto the desk, where he stood beside the pile of paper. “It’s good to see you,” Samara brayed.

  The gnome crossed his arms and leaned against the pile, nearly knocking it over and falling off the desk before catching himself. “It’s nice to see you too, Sam,” he exclaimed. “This the new kid Myrddin got his undies all bunched up over?”

  “There are more polite ways to say that.”

  The gnome shrugged and pointed at a room on the left. “Waiting for you in there,” he said. “I’ll forward the paperwork to you.” The gnome pointed at the pile of paper. “I ain’t going looking through that right now.”

  The gnome jumped off the desk and returned to his chair, where he reached as high as he could, snatched a piece of paper off of the pile, and got back to his work. Samara held her head up high as she walked away from the gnome in the direction of Myrddin’s office.

  As Alex followed, she noticed that the room she was in was changing slightly before her eyes. The crystal walls were stretching and rearranging themselves. They flexed as if they were considering the needs of those passing by. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

  Samara finally reached Myrddin’s office. There was a modest door with an even more modest plaque that read Director. Samara knocked on the door and Myrddin’s voice from within said, “Come in.”

  The door opened of its own accord. Alex noticed that this door seemed much less modest as it stretched, nearly too quickly or too perfectly to be seen, to accommodate Samara.

  Manny followed Samara, and the door became the same size as Manny’s body. Alex went last.

  Myrddin’s office could best be described as books in need of more space. Every corner of every wall was covered in shelves, which in turn were covered in books. Alex assumed Myrddin was sitting at a table. If not, he’d managed to find a way to float books perfectly still in front of himself for decoration.

  Myrddin looked up from a large, ancient-looking tome and smiled when he saw Alex. He closed the tome, and a puff of dust shot up from its pages. “Oh, it’s good to see you’ve finally made it. I was starting to get worried about you three,” Myrddin said as he waved his hands.

  The books on the table flipped upright and zoomed across the room to their proper places in the bookshelves. As the rest of the books started to dance around and move, Alex saw chairs next to the door. When she got a chance, she took a seat.

  Alex shifted slightly as Myrddin watched her. “This place is beautiful,” she exclaimed. “What exactly is it?”

  Myrddin looked around at the crystal room as it seemed to breathe. “The Wasp’s Nest?” he asked. “Oh, a little creation of mine—a perfect balance of magic and technology developed specifically for breeding dragons and housing our riders. One of my greatest inventions.”

  “I didn’t know you used so much technology.”

  Myrddin nodded as he scratched his beard. “Yes, a common mistake. Authors have seeded Earth with tales to make accepting the fantastical more palatable, but few people have picked up on our work in science fiction as well. James Cameron was one of my leading agents. There were many avenues we had to go down to prepare folk for the coming of the Dark One.”

  “What exactly is the Dark One?”

  “All the horrors from every story you’ve ever heard wrapped up in one very dark and evil package.”

  Myrddin waved his hand again, and everything in the room vanished. Instead, Alex was floatin
g in space above Earth. There was a massive meteor shooting toward them. “I don’t know how yet, but this is the Dark One’s doing. We need to intercept it, hence…”

  The darkness of space broke apart, as did the crystals of the room. Everything warped and changed around Alex. When the crystal reset, she was standing in a large room. A dragon was strapped to something like a chair before her. Elvish scientists were attaching cannons to the dragon’s shoulders and installing technical modifications on its body.

  The dragon looked very annoyed.

  Alex took a step back as she gasped in awe. A real dragon, right in front of her. She could smell the sulfur coming from its nostrils.

  The dragon turned its eyes to Alex and sighed loudly, emitting a blast of heat as one of the elvish scientists tried to wave away the beast’s breath.

  Alex stared at the dragon. It was so beautiful she almost couldn’t speak. “That’s…that’s what I’m going to be riding?” she asked.

  Myrddin walked over to Alex and patted her on the shoulder. “Eventually. We still need to get you trained.”

  Alex’s brain snapped back to the practicalities. “What about my eyesight?” she asked.

  “I’m working on it. Trust me, we can’t have you on top of a dragon with Manny sitting behind you.”

  “Well, what do I do until then?”

  “We start your training immediately. Samara, take Alex to get suited up.”

  Chapter Four

  Samara led Alex down a series of changing crystal hallways while Manny slunk behind them, still fighting his nausea. Alex was enamored of the changing crystals and didn’t notice the griffin had stopped walking. As Alex continued forward, she bumped into Samara’s raised wing. “Oh, sorry,” she muttered.

  Samara smiled with her knowing eyes and chuckled. “It’s okay. Everyone is enchanted by the Nest their first day. But here you are, ready to be fitted.” Two doors ahead whipped open, and Alex jumped at the sight of what was behind them.