Fire Dragon Academy Preview
Content
1
FIRE DRAGON ACADEMY By Griffin Kutler Dodd
For Dalgo, my inspiration. *** To Ima and Abba, who encouraged me to begin writing and Zack who kept me going!
Copyright 2012 Illustrations by: Rachel Foote
2
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Attic…………….... 4
Chapter 2: The Duels……………. 14
Chapter 3: Trapped……………..... 23
First 3 chapters preview!!
3
THE ATTIC
N
eo could hardly sleep. Tomorrow was his
birthday! He was turning 10. He was having a sleep over with his best friend, Mel. He wondered what he was getting. A laptop, iPod, or maybe an iPad. couldn’t wait to find out! him to the attic. Neo
Since he couldn’t
sleep, he woke Mel up and told him to follow “What are we looking for?” asked Mel, since they usually hunted for strange and weird objects, which they almost always found. “Strange things have been happening to me since I was eight,” said Neo. “At 8, I could knock people back just with my hands, and this
4
year, I have been able to disarm people by waving my hands at them. Just the other day, my mom was wearing a shirt that said Fire Dragon Academy, and I think that if we find a trunk or some objects that say Fire Dragon Academy, then we will be one step closer to solving the case of my magic-type abilities.” “Ok, lets go!” said Mel. Quietly they snuck through the house and into the garage where they climbed the ladder into the attic. crates blocking their path. “On the count of three, push.” said Mel. “One, two, three!” They both dashed toward the mountain of brown crates, but it was no use. The crates were too heavy to push. “Can you wave your When they were up in the attic, they found a wall of
5
hands at the crates and make them fly back?” asked Mel. “I think I can,” replied Neo. When Neo focused hard and waved his hands, instead of just knocking the crates back, they exploded and wood landed everywhere. “Watch out!” shouted Mel. They both ducked, and soon the explosion was over. They ran past the broken slivers of wood all over the floor (from the sharp exploded parts of the crates), and hunted for something that said Fire Dragon Academy. Fire Dragon Academy. Then, they both saw a gleam. They saw gold. They both ran toward the gleam. gold. When they found the gleam, it was only a small piece of They found shrunken heads and old clothing, but nothing that said
6
They hunted for a few more minutes, and were about to give up, but Neo saw a trunk they missed in the corner and ran toward it. When they got there, they saw the trunk had Fire Dragon Academy carved on the top. They tried to open it, but it was locked. It had a key lock, so they couldn’t open it. Then, Mel had a brilliant idea. “You can blast the lock like you did the crates,” said Mel. Neo focused hard on the lock, waved his hands, and then watched the lock go flying in the air and land on one of the unbroken boards. They both tried to lift the trunk lid again but it was too heavy. Then, Neo waved his hands at the trunk and focused on knocking it back. When he closed his eyes and opened them again, he saw the trunk lid, open. “Way to go!” said Mel.
7
They saw a few interesting objects, a stick with sparks coming out of it, a broom that looked like it could fly, and a box which Neo slowly opened. When he looked in the box, he saw a green and blue spiral and got sucked in with Mel. They landed in front of a really tall building. When they looked up, they saw a sign that said “Fire Dragon Academy,” and giant doors. They saw handles nowhere, so Neo tried to knock the doors open, and even tried to blow them up, but nothing worked. “I think I can blast a hole in the wall,” said Neo. So they ran to the other side of the academy, and Neo blasted a hole in the wall and they walked in. There were jars full of what looked like blood and eyes, and a bunch of boxes piled up on one side of the room. Then, they both saw a flash of red light and they were stuck to the wall.
8
“Who are you!” shouted a man. “Neo Ryse,” I shouted. Mel.” “Do you work for Lord Dalgo?” the man asked, “Forget it, I’ll use truth serum on you.” And he put this strange liquid in our mouths and asked again “Do you work for Lord Dalgo?” “No!” we both said. Then the man said “I am so sorry. Lord Dalgo and his men often appear at the school causing problems and I thought you worked for him.” “My name is Reggie Faithful,” said the tall man with a scarred face said. “Who is Lord Dalgo?” asked Neo. “Lord Dalgo is an evil wizard who wants to take over Fire Dragon Academy, and use the power of its students’ magic.” answered Reggie.
9
“And this is my friend
“The Fire Dragon Academy can use your help to stop him, Neo. You need training, and a wizard duel is a good way to practice magic.” “I don’t know magic,” said Mel. “No matter, I have trainer wands,” replied Reggie. “And you will need a real wand Neo. I have a collection of them over by the wall. Pick the box that stands out to you – it will contain the wand. And Mel, I have a few by the boxes. Anyway, if you guys are confused right now, I can explain.” “Can you explain,” asked Neo? “Ok, let me start at the beginning.” Reggie said. “Fire Dragon Academy teaches magic to young wizards, where they learn magical ways. When they are 11, they leave the academy and do magic on their own in the wizard world. The wizard world is where you are right now. probably came through a magic box.
10
You Every
wizard gets a magic box, a pilsu, when they turn 10, and they use it to travel between the two worlds. Since you probably don’t have another pilsu, you can use mine. Neo, cast any spell in the pilsu to make the portal go to the right place, and jump in. The wizard world is a world where everyone uses magic. Mel, you get a training wand because you aren’t a wizard. It has magic inside it. Neo, you get a real wand because you have magic inside you. wizard. He wants the Fire Dragon Academy so he can make it a training place for himself. and use his or her power. Anyway, I was expecting you Neo,” said Reggie. “I just didn’t know when.” And, he wants to kill every wizard in the wizard world Lord Dalgo is the ultimate bad
11
“How did you know I was coming?” asked Neo. “I have a magic crystal ball that sees the future,” said Reggie. “My crystal ball tells me that you will have a battle with Lord Dalgo. magic and train for the upcoming battle. Here, let me free you both so we can have a wizard duel. wands.” Reggie waved his wand in the air and Neo and Mel fell from the wall. Neo went over to the wall and chose the case that was bright yellow, and he opened it. He saw a brown wand inside that had squiggles all over and a carved handle. He picked the wand up and a bright light was emitted from it and all the other wand cases exploded and the wands from the exploded cases magically flew back to the wall where the different color cases were rebuilt with different It will start when you have your I suggested a wizard duel so you can practice
12
colors. Mel chose from the trainer wands and selected a red one with spirals on it. “One, two, three, wizard duel,” shouted Reggie.
13
!
!
!
THE DUELS
T
he wizard duel started out with Reggie
blasting a red burst of light at Mel, who launched a force field and deflected the spell. Reggie dived to avoid Mel’s force field when Neo blew up the crates and trapped Reggie with the shattered pieces. Reggie shot a green beam of light at the shattered pieces making an escape hole. Neo heard Reggie say “Hocus pocus try to focus, halt now or go pow” when he froze Mel, so Neo said the spell Reggie said under his breath and froze Reggie. Then, Mel and Reggie unfroze and congratulated Neo. Reggie now explained that he fended off Mel first since his force field could make any spell backfire. “How did we know all those spells?” Mel and Neo asked at the same time. “I placed a charm on you when I let you off the wall. The charm that gives you the ability to cast
14
hundreds of basic spells will wear off in a few minutes. You both did great, especially since it was your first wizard duel.” Reggie explained. “Neo, how did you know how to freeze me?” Reggie asked. “I heard you mumble it when you froze Mel.” Neo said. “Oh.” Reggie said. Then, they heard something. Reggie opened the office door to try to figure out what was going on and Neo and Mel saw a rainbow of colors and energy zipping through the air. Reggie’s heart was racing when he stepped outside and saw Lord Dalgo, so he quickly ran back into the office and used a levitating charm to move everything in front of the door and used a spell to magically lock the door.
15
“Neo and Mel, you have to get out of here. You are not ready to battle Lord Dalgo.” “I want to help,” said Neo. “If you want to help, you should cast a force field. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away.” Then, Reggie waived his wand and everything magically moved away from the door with a great swish and the door unlocked and flung open. Neo said “Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away” and a powerful force field came out of Neo’s wand and flooded out the door. With a flick of his wand, Reggie closed the door, and all the furniture flew back in front of the door and the force field stopped. Explosions could be heard followed by screams. They knew instantly that Lord Dalgo
16
was ready to pounce on them like a cat hunting a mouse. They didn’t dare open the door. “What do we do now?” Neo asked as he quivered in pure shock and fear. “I really don’t know what you can do here, but you might want to go back home so your parents don’t worry. Five minutes in the wizard world is an hour in the real world. You left last night, and so in the real world it is 7 A.M. What time are you supposed to leave your room?” “7:15.” said Neo. “Then you two better go, now.” “Ok!” Neo and Mel both shouted because they were already across the room. “Wait!” shouted Reggie. the portal. It was too late though, because they had already jumped into
17
Reggie was going to remind Neo to cast a spell into the pilsu, but they had jumped in. They would end up in the Alchemy for Wizards and Witches class that he sometimes taught. Reggie ran over to the pilsu and leaped in after them. They couldn’t be seen by anyone, so he had to be quick to get them home. When Reggie landed in the Alchemy class, he saw the classroom destroyed, with Neo and Mel standing at the head of the room. Instantly, he knew during the class, Lord Dalgo must have attacked the classroom because of the broken glass on the floor, the same glass they stored potions in. The class must have tried to fend off Lord Dalgo and his followers with potions. “Neo and Mel, you are lucky that no one saw you. with potions.” You would have been toast. Everyone would have attacked you
18
“How come potions, and how come we are here?” asked Neo. “This is Alchemy class, and you are here because you forgot to cast a spell into the pilsu. This is where I set it to go because I sometimes teach this class when the regular teacher is ill.” “Sorry, I forgot to cast a spell into the pilsu.” Neo said. “It’s ok; just hop back in and make sure to cast your spell so you two can go home! You have to go right now. It is 7:10. I will stay to make sure that everyone from the Alchemy class is safe.” So they ran to the pilsu and Neo cast the freezing spell in the box, which then made the box start spinning faster and Neo and Mel were sucked in, in the nick of time. It was 7:14. They climbed down the attic ladder and ran back to Neo’s room to change into pajamas.
19
They headed to the living room, where they sat on the brown leather couch and watched cartoons until it was 8:30. Then, with Neo’s parents, they opened his birthday presents. The first present was from Mel and it was a lego set, which he loved. The second gift was from Neo’s grandparents; an iPad. Neo was so excited he almost passed out. He had always wanted an iPad! He was confused because he didn’t get a present from his parents; instead they said it was breakfast time. After breakfast, Neo’s mom and dad took Neo and Mel to the attic to get his gift. Neo’s mom and dad were shocked when they saw all of the exploded boxes. Neo shouted, “I have a mission to do, and I will stop at nothing to do it.” He carefully ran over to the trunk and with his mind, knocked it open. Neo and Mel jumped in
20
and closed the box top behind them, accidentally snagging an old t-shirt pulling the key to the lock with it. Back through the portal, they raced back to Fire Dragon Academy and entered through the big hole they had made earlier. waiting for them. “Guys, time to learn some important spells. First is the blackout spell. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, don’t fight me with all your might or go out like a light. Next is the drowning spell, which creates a massive amount of water. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, go to the deep sea or look at me. Last spell I will teach you is the fire spell. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, play this game or be surrounded by flame. We should have another wizard duel. I will…” Reggie didn’t get to finish because the door to
21
Reggie was
his office burst open and one of Lord Dalgo’s followers came in. They all ran for cover, and Neo cast the full body bind spell, which he cast because he was scared, at the follower, and it worked. Reggie stepped in and cast the fire spell at the follower who instantly burnt up while Mel cast the water spell, also freaking out, and put out the fire quickly and covered the entrance with water.
!
!
!
!
22
!
!
!
!
TRAPPED
! O
nce the follower was dead, they
decided they had to take action. They almost didn’t make it, so they decided they had to help Reggie protect his office. They first all cast the force field spell, together they chanted Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away - the three force fields joined to create a giant protection field that spread to every corner of the office. “What do we do now?” asked Neo.
“Jump in the pilsu again, no need to cast a spell, the portal is already open.” Reggie said. Neo and Mel jumped into the box. They thought they would land home, but they didn’t. They hit
23
the closed trunk top and got pushed back into Reggie’s office.
“Why are you still here?” Reggie asked. “We hit the closed trunk top and got pushed back to your office.” Neo said. “Did you close the trunk top when you jumped in the portal at home, because it would be closed forever.” asked Reggie. “Yes, we did.” Neo answered. “Well, the only way to get home is to use Lord Dalgo’s wand to open a portal because it is a more powerful portal since he is a dark wizard which makes his wand stronger. find his pilsu and cast a spell in it. Then, using Lord Dalgo’s wand, blast the trunk lid open. You have to find Lord Dalgo’s pilsu because that is the only portal his wand
24
You need to
will work in. The only way to get Lord Dalgo’s wand is to steal it or defeat him.” Reggie said. “And if you are going to fight Lord Dalgo, you will need even more training. I have a training room I can take you to. We should spend time in the training room in order to practice the spells, make potions, and come up with weapons combining all of magic’s power in order to defeat Lord Dalgo.” Reggie waved his wand and then tapped it on the floor and a secret passageway opened up. They all stepped inside. The room was very dark, and using all the dim light that filtered into the room, they looked around. They saw a ton off glass containers with all sorts of things in them, and there was a glass door to the left with a bunch of crates. “That room to the left is the training room. The crates are to explode, burn, and just plain destroy in every way.” Reggie explained. “The jars contain potion ingredients.
25
Ahead is the enchanting chamber. It has many books with magic spells, and enchanting wands and objects that will make your enchantments stronger. We will go to the potion lab first, which is just past the potion ingredients.” Reggie led them to the potion lab, where he pulled a sheet of paper out of a blue folder hiding under the potion lab table. read the paper, he looked confused. It said “The Exploding Potion. Ingredients: 5 eyes of newts, 2 hairs of a Choctowian, 15 bones of a skeleton, and 2 hairs of a unicorn.” “What is a Choctowian?” Neo asked at the same time as Mel. “A Choctowian is a type of wizard world chicken that has hair instead of feathers. It has 3 eyes and triangle feet. It is super vicious and fast. Good thing I have a ton of Choctowian hairs. You just need to find the bottles as part of
26
When Neo
your training.
To make it harder, each bottle
only contains one of the object.” Reggie said. Neo and Mel started immediately, not wasting any time. The 5 eyes of newts were easy to find, they found all 5 within a minute. They were so easy to find because there was bright yellow labels on them, so all they had to do was run to a yellow label and it was an eye of newt.
27
The other ingredients were very hard to find. The unicorn hairs were behind countless bottles, and so were the bones. The hardest to find were the hairs of a Choctowian, and they almost gave up. They started heading towards Reggie to tell him that they gave up finding the hairs of a Choctowian, when Mel tripped on something. “What was that?” asked Mel. “You tripped on a glass bottle,” answered Neo. When they looked at the label, they jumped with joy. It was a hair of a Choctowian. They looked around where Mel tripped and saw another glass bottle. Choctowian! It was another hair of a They ran over to Reggie and
handed him all of the bottles. “Good job guys!” said Reggie. “Now, it is time to mix the potion. potion.”
28
Come with me over to the
cauldron, and I will show you how to mix this
Reggie led them over by the wall and he snapped his fingers. A table with a cauldron “Now, open all the appeared out of nowhere.
bottles and set them on the table.” So, Neo and Mel opened all of the bottles and set them on the table. “First, put in 1 bone, crushed up. So with a lot of Crush it up by hand.” the cauldron.
squeezing, they crushed the bone and put it in “Next, put in all the eyes of the So newts and the rest of the bones, whole.”
Neo and Mel dumped all of the eyes and bones into the cauldron. “Now, put the unicorn hairs in the cauldron and mix.” After they dumped the hairs in, they mixed it with a spoon sitting on the table also. “Last, put the Choctowian hairs and some water and mix. Go over to the potion ingredients and look for blue labels. That is water.” Neo and Mel ran over to the potion ingredients and got a bottle of
29
water and ran back. They then added the hairs then the water and mixed. made exploding noises. The potion turned Then, it “Use some of your green and red and started bubbling.
glass bottles and bottle the potion. Be careful, if it touches you, you can say goodbye to skin. Use the spoon.” When Mel picked up the “Was that spoon, it immediately disappeared.
part of the training too?” asked Mel in an annoyed tone. “Yes, it was,” answered Reggie. “Spoons are in the training room. Go get one.” “Fine!” answered Neo. Mel and Neo sprinted to the training lab. When they opened the glass door, they heard explosions. “Duck!” shouted Neo, but it was too late. Part of the ceiling exploded, separating Neo and Mel. As Neo was digging his way towards Mel, someone attacked him. Neo didn’t know what
30
to do. He shouted “Hocus pocus try to focus, halt now or go pow” and froze the enemy. Neo ran over to the enemy and examined him. It was another of Lord Dalgo’s followers. Neo could tell because he was dressed in black with a long flowing robe. “Help!” Mel shouted. Mel was being attacked by the same person who had attacked Neo minutes earlier. “He must of unfroze,” thought Neo. “Hocus pocus try to focus, play this game or be surrounded by flame” shouted Neo. The fire did the trick. The follower burned up, then Neo shouted “Hocus pocus try to focus, go to the deep sea or look at me” and put out the fire. “Thanks a lot!” said Mel. “No problem.”
replied Neo. “Now, time to find those spoons.” After a few minutes of searching, they found the spoons, hiding under some crates. They ran back to Reggie and told him that they had killed
31
one of Lord Dalgo’s followers. got a spoon,” answered Mel. complete.” Said Reggie.
“Great job!”
Reggie said. “Did you get a spoon?” “Yes, we “Now, bottle the potion very carefully and it will be almost “Almost complete?” asked Neo. “What do you mean?” “I mean that after you bottle the potion, you will have to cast a magic spell.” Neo and Mel bottled without getting potion on them and capped the bottles. “Here is the spell.” Reggie said. “Say: Hocus pocus try to focus mix this right or you’ll feel the bite!” “Hocus pocus try to focus mix this NOW or you’ll feel the bite!” Repeated Neo and Mel.
“Guys, you said it wrong.”
32
Shouted Reggie, but it was too late.
The
potions exploded and everyone took cover. Once they were a safe distance away from the potions, Reggie said “You said now, that meant explode as soon as you were done.” “Oh.” said Neo. “That is why they exploded.” “Thankfully, you didn’t bottle all of it, so you still have more. Bottle the rest and then cast the spell again. Just don’t say now.” Reggie said. Mel bottled it while Neo mumbled the spell. “Complete.” said Neo and Mel at the same time. “Now, go to the training lab and try one out each. After all, you have 50 of them. You use them by opening the top and tossing a little bit of the liquid. For much more powerful results, throw the potion at your target and the whole glass bottle will smash, taking out more potion and creating a super powerful explosions. This method is good for long range and short range
33
because it can go farther and is more accurate and can be used in rapid fire.” Neo went first and Mel after Neo into the training lab. “Lets go to opposite sides of the crate volcano and smash our potion on top of the crates to practice aim and see how much of it explodes.” Neo shouted over the noise of Reggie repairing over in the potion lab. “One, two, shoot!” shouted Mel. They both react within a second, throwing their potions to the top of the crates, where they exploded with such force that all of the crates exploded and so did the ceiling, making it rain crate and ceiling pieces. “Wow!” shouted Neo. “We will have to get Reggie to repair this mess.” They ran to Reggie at lightning speed. “Reggie!” said Neo after he got his breath back.
34
“Can you repair the training room? Everything kind of fell apart.” “Sure!” replied Reggie. “I was kind of expecting you to ask that. As you can see, the Exploding Potion is super strong. It is so strong because you added Eyes of Newts, which will make any potion’s effects 50X stronger.” Reggie then waved his wand in the air and they all teleported into the training lab. “How did you teleport us here?” asked Mel as Reggie was repairing the training lab. As soon as Reggie finished repairing, he explained. “I used a complex teleporting spell that only works short range. I didn’t want to tire you two out again, so as a special treat I thought I would teleport us here. Now, the only thing left to do in the training lab is to enchant your wands. Every wizard has a strong suit in magic, and that is what you will enchant your wand with. I
35
need to find out what Neo’s strong suit is and tell you what you have to say to enchant your wand. Mel, since you are not a wizard and are only using a training wand you will have to sit this one out! I will use all of my magic, and what you defeat me with is your special strength. The wizard duel began with Neo knocking Reggie up against the wall with a beam of white light. Next, with a flash, Reggie was stunned. Neo had cast a spell that froze him. In a few minutes the spell wore off. “Wow!” Reggie commented. spells! “You have very strong battle “Cool!” said That is your strong suit.”
Neo. “That is really epic. What is your strong suit Reggie?” asked Neo. “My strong suit is elemental spells,” answered Reggie. “Neo, follow me. enchanting chamber. We are going to the I will take Mel with us.”
The enchanting chamber was a huge, red
36
chamber with a bookshelf smack in the middle. The room was warm and humid. When they approached the bookshelf, the books fluttered in the air and the bookshelf transformed into a table. In the middle of the table, a slot about the size of their wands appeared. “Neo and Mel, this is the enchanting chamber. Another part of the training for Neo will be to find a book with his strong suit in it, find the correct spell, and put your wand in the slot and chant the magic words you find in the book.” “This is going to take forever!” groaned Mel. “Your hint is: Look where it started and where it ended.” whispered Reggie. “What does that mean?” started to ask Mel, but Reggie was already gone. “I think I know what it means.” Neo said. “We started at the potion lab and our last stop was here. I am thinking we only have to look at the books in the enchanting chamber and potion lab sections. We can eliminate looking at the
37
training lab books. Mel, you find all of the potion books and I will find all of the training lab books.” “Ok,” replied Mel. After Mel agreed, they split up. “I found something!” Shouted Neo. They both
ran to the table, where Neo presented the book. Neo’s book titled Battleus Contratus flipped open and all the words on that page disappeared except for two. It read; PAGE 219 So Neo flipped to page 219 and it read PAGE 9 When Neo got to page 9, the enchanting spelled appeared. Neo took out his wand and placed it into the slot in the table. Nervously he chanted at the top of his lungs;
38
“Hocus Pocus try to foucs, Neo look here or you’ll disappear. That’ll battle for your life!” All of a sudden, Neo’s wand began to glow. “Wow!” said Neo. Suddenly, the air began to move and a dark figure appeared. Neo’s wand tip lit up and he was pulled toward the figure. The figure started flying, and so did Neo and Mel. After a few minutes, the mysterious figure stopped flying, and quickly Neo and Mel fell to the ground. The figure came blasting towards Neo and Mel. They quickly took action, Mel made a huge force field while Neo froze the
39
mysterious figure mid-air.
The figure fell right
onto Mel’s force field and got shocked! Luckily Mel’s force field wasn’t very strong and the figure was only temporarily shocked.
MORE TO COME SHORTLY!!!
!
!
!
40
APPENDIX of SPELLS
Force Field - Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away. Freeze - Hocus pocus try to focus, halt now or go pow Blackout - Hocus pocus try to focus, don’t fight me with all your might or go out like a light Drowning - Hocus pocus try to focus, go to the deep sea or look at me Fire - Hocus pocus try to focus, play this game or be surrounded by flame
41
About the Author
Fire Dragon Academy is Griffin Kutler Dodd's first novel. He wrote it during NaNoWriMo 2012 when he was eightyears-old. Griffin is home schooled and during his free time likes to rock climb, play Magic the Gathering, and Skype with friends. He also loves to program on his laptop and read magic and fantasy books.
42
FIRE DRAGON ACADEMY By Griffin Kutler Dodd
For Dalgo, my inspiration. *** To Ima and Abba, who encouraged me to begin writing and Zack who kept me going!
Copyright 2012 Illustrations by: Rachel Foote
2
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Attic…………….... 4
Chapter 2: The Duels……………. 14
Chapter 3: Trapped……………..... 23
First 3 chapters preview!!
3
THE ATTIC
N
eo could hardly sleep. Tomorrow was his
birthday! He was turning 10. He was having a sleep over with his best friend, Mel. He wondered what he was getting. A laptop, iPod, or maybe an iPad. couldn’t wait to find out! him to the attic. Neo
Since he couldn’t
sleep, he woke Mel up and told him to follow “What are we looking for?” asked Mel, since they usually hunted for strange and weird objects, which they almost always found. “Strange things have been happening to me since I was eight,” said Neo. “At 8, I could knock people back just with my hands, and this
4
year, I have been able to disarm people by waving my hands at them. Just the other day, my mom was wearing a shirt that said Fire Dragon Academy, and I think that if we find a trunk or some objects that say Fire Dragon Academy, then we will be one step closer to solving the case of my magic-type abilities.” “Ok, lets go!” said Mel. Quietly they snuck through the house and into the garage where they climbed the ladder into the attic. crates blocking their path. “On the count of three, push.” said Mel. “One, two, three!” They both dashed toward the mountain of brown crates, but it was no use. The crates were too heavy to push. “Can you wave your When they were up in the attic, they found a wall of
5
hands at the crates and make them fly back?” asked Mel. “I think I can,” replied Neo. When Neo focused hard and waved his hands, instead of just knocking the crates back, they exploded and wood landed everywhere. “Watch out!” shouted Mel. They both ducked, and soon the explosion was over. They ran past the broken slivers of wood all over the floor (from the sharp exploded parts of the crates), and hunted for something that said Fire Dragon Academy. Fire Dragon Academy. Then, they both saw a gleam. They saw gold. They both ran toward the gleam. gold. When they found the gleam, it was only a small piece of They found shrunken heads and old clothing, but nothing that said
6
They hunted for a few more minutes, and were about to give up, but Neo saw a trunk they missed in the corner and ran toward it. When they got there, they saw the trunk had Fire Dragon Academy carved on the top. They tried to open it, but it was locked. It had a key lock, so they couldn’t open it. Then, Mel had a brilliant idea. “You can blast the lock like you did the crates,” said Mel. Neo focused hard on the lock, waved his hands, and then watched the lock go flying in the air and land on one of the unbroken boards. They both tried to lift the trunk lid again but it was too heavy. Then, Neo waved his hands at the trunk and focused on knocking it back. When he closed his eyes and opened them again, he saw the trunk lid, open. “Way to go!” said Mel.
7
They saw a few interesting objects, a stick with sparks coming out of it, a broom that looked like it could fly, and a box which Neo slowly opened. When he looked in the box, he saw a green and blue spiral and got sucked in with Mel. They landed in front of a really tall building. When they looked up, they saw a sign that said “Fire Dragon Academy,” and giant doors. They saw handles nowhere, so Neo tried to knock the doors open, and even tried to blow them up, but nothing worked. “I think I can blast a hole in the wall,” said Neo. So they ran to the other side of the academy, and Neo blasted a hole in the wall and they walked in. There were jars full of what looked like blood and eyes, and a bunch of boxes piled up on one side of the room. Then, they both saw a flash of red light and they were stuck to the wall.
8
“Who are you!” shouted a man. “Neo Ryse,” I shouted. Mel.” “Do you work for Lord Dalgo?” the man asked, “Forget it, I’ll use truth serum on you.” And he put this strange liquid in our mouths and asked again “Do you work for Lord Dalgo?” “No!” we both said. Then the man said “I am so sorry. Lord Dalgo and his men often appear at the school causing problems and I thought you worked for him.” “My name is Reggie Faithful,” said the tall man with a scarred face said. “Who is Lord Dalgo?” asked Neo. “Lord Dalgo is an evil wizard who wants to take over Fire Dragon Academy, and use the power of its students’ magic.” answered Reggie.
9
“And this is my friend
“The Fire Dragon Academy can use your help to stop him, Neo. You need training, and a wizard duel is a good way to practice magic.” “I don’t know magic,” said Mel. “No matter, I have trainer wands,” replied Reggie. “And you will need a real wand Neo. I have a collection of them over by the wall. Pick the box that stands out to you – it will contain the wand. And Mel, I have a few by the boxes. Anyway, if you guys are confused right now, I can explain.” “Can you explain,” asked Neo? “Ok, let me start at the beginning.” Reggie said. “Fire Dragon Academy teaches magic to young wizards, where they learn magical ways. When they are 11, they leave the academy and do magic on their own in the wizard world. The wizard world is where you are right now. probably came through a magic box.
10
You Every
wizard gets a magic box, a pilsu, when they turn 10, and they use it to travel between the two worlds. Since you probably don’t have another pilsu, you can use mine. Neo, cast any spell in the pilsu to make the portal go to the right place, and jump in. The wizard world is a world where everyone uses magic. Mel, you get a training wand because you aren’t a wizard. It has magic inside it. Neo, you get a real wand because you have magic inside you. wizard. He wants the Fire Dragon Academy so he can make it a training place for himself. and use his or her power. Anyway, I was expecting you Neo,” said Reggie. “I just didn’t know when.” And, he wants to kill every wizard in the wizard world Lord Dalgo is the ultimate bad
11
“How did you know I was coming?” asked Neo. “I have a magic crystal ball that sees the future,” said Reggie. “My crystal ball tells me that you will have a battle with Lord Dalgo. magic and train for the upcoming battle. Here, let me free you both so we can have a wizard duel. wands.” Reggie waved his wand in the air and Neo and Mel fell from the wall. Neo went over to the wall and chose the case that was bright yellow, and he opened it. He saw a brown wand inside that had squiggles all over and a carved handle. He picked the wand up and a bright light was emitted from it and all the other wand cases exploded and the wands from the exploded cases magically flew back to the wall where the different color cases were rebuilt with different It will start when you have your I suggested a wizard duel so you can practice
12
colors. Mel chose from the trainer wands and selected a red one with spirals on it. “One, two, three, wizard duel,” shouted Reggie.
13
!
!
!
THE DUELS
T
he wizard duel started out with Reggie
blasting a red burst of light at Mel, who launched a force field and deflected the spell. Reggie dived to avoid Mel’s force field when Neo blew up the crates and trapped Reggie with the shattered pieces. Reggie shot a green beam of light at the shattered pieces making an escape hole. Neo heard Reggie say “Hocus pocus try to focus, halt now or go pow” when he froze Mel, so Neo said the spell Reggie said under his breath and froze Reggie. Then, Mel and Reggie unfroze and congratulated Neo. Reggie now explained that he fended off Mel first since his force field could make any spell backfire. “How did we know all those spells?” Mel and Neo asked at the same time. “I placed a charm on you when I let you off the wall. The charm that gives you the ability to cast
14
hundreds of basic spells will wear off in a few minutes. You both did great, especially since it was your first wizard duel.” Reggie explained. “Neo, how did you know how to freeze me?” Reggie asked. “I heard you mumble it when you froze Mel.” Neo said. “Oh.” Reggie said. Then, they heard something. Reggie opened the office door to try to figure out what was going on and Neo and Mel saw a rainbow of colors and energy zipping through the air. Reggie’s heart was racing when he stepped outside and saw Lord Dalgo, so he quickly ran back into the office and used a levitating charm to move everything in front of the door and used a spell to magically lock the door.
15
“Neo and Mel, you have to get out of here. You are not ready to battle Lord Dalgo.” “I want to help,” said Neo. “If you want to help, you should cast a force field. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away.” Then, Reggie waived his wand and everything magically moved away from the door with a great swish and the door unlocked and flung open. Neo said “Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away” and a powerful force field came out of Neo’s wand and flooded out the door. With a flick of his wand, Reggie closed the door, and all the furniture flew back in front of the door and the force field stopped. Explosions could be heard followed by screams. They knew instantly that Lord Dalgo
16
was ready to pounce on them like a cat hunting a mouse. They didn’t dare open the door. “What do we do now?” Neo asked as he quivered in pure shock and fear. “I really don’t know what you can do here, but you might want to go back home so your parents don’t worry. Five minutes in the wizard world is an hour in the real world. You left last night, and so in the real world it is 7 A.M. What time are you supposed to leave your room?” “7:15.” said Neo. “Then you two better go, now.” “Ok!” Neo and Mel both shouted because they were already across the room. “Wait!” shouted Reggie. the portal. It was too late though, because they had already jumped into
17
Reggie was going to remind Neo to cast a spell into the pilsu, but they had jumped in. They would end up in the Alchemy for Wizards and Witches class that he sometimes taught. Reggie ran over to the pilsu and leaped in after them. They couldn’t be seen by anyone, so he had to be quick to get them home. When Reggie landed in the Alchemy class, he saw the classroom destroyed, with Neo and Mel standing at the head of the room. Instantly, he knew during the class, Lord Dalgo must have attacked the classroom because of the broken glass on the floor, the same glass they stored potions in. The class must have tried to fend off Lord Dalgo and his followers with potions. “Neo and Mel, you are lucky that no one saw you. with potions.” You would have been toast. Everyone would have attacked you
18
“How come potions, and how come we are here?” asked Neo. “This is Alchemy class, and you are here because you forgot to cast a spell into the pilsu. This is where I set it to go because I sometimes teach this class when the regular teacher is ill.” “Sorry, I forgot to cast a spell into the pilsu.” Neo said. “It’s ok; just hop back in and make sure to cast your spell so you two can go home! You have to go right now. It is 7:10. I will stay to make sure that everyone from the Alchemy class is safe.” So they ran to the pilsu and Neo cast the freezing spell in the box, which then made the box start spinning faster and Neo and Mel were sucked in, in the nick of time. It was 7:14. They climbed down the attic ladder and ran back to Neo’s room to change into pajamas.
19
They headed to the living room, where they sat on the brown leather couch and watched cartoons until it was 8:30. Then, with Neo’s parents, they opened his birthday presents. The first present was from Mel and it was a lego set, which he loved. The second gift was from Neo’s grandparents; an iPad. Neo was so excited he almost passed out. He had always wanted an iPad! He was confused because he didn’t get a present from his parents; instead they said it was breakfast time. After breakfast, Neo’s mom and dad took Neo and Mel to the attic to get his gift. Neo’s mom and dad were shocked when they saw all of the exploded boxes. Neo shouted, “I have a mission to do, and I will stop at nothing to do it.” He carefully ran over to the trunk and with his mind, knocked it open. Neo and Mel jumped in
20
and closed the box top behind them, accidentally snagging an old t-shirt pulling the key to the lock with it. Back through the portal, they raced back to Fire Dragon Academy and entered through the big hole they had made earlier. waiting for them. “Guys, time to learn some important spells. First is the blackout spell. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, don’t fight me with all your might or go out like a light. Next is the drowning spell, which creates a massive amount of water. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, go to the deep sea or look at me. Last spell I will teach you is the fire spell. Just say Hocus pocus try to focus, play this game or be surrounded by flame. We should have another wizard duel. I will…” Reggie didn’t get to finish because the door to
21
Reggie was
his office burst open and one of Lord Dalgo’s followers came in. They all ran for cover, and Neo cast the full body bind spell, which he cast because he was scared, at the follower, and it worked. Reggie stepped in and cast the fire spell at the follower who instantly burnt up while Mel cast the water spell, also freaking out, and put out the fire quickly and covered the entrance with water.
!
!
!
!
22
!
!
!
!
TRAPPED
! O
nce the follower was dead, they
decided they had to take action. They almost didn’t make it, so they decided they had to help Reggie protect his office. They first all cast the force field spell, together they chanted Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away - the three force fields joined to create a giant protection field that spread to every corner of the office. “What do we do now?” asked Neo.
“Jump in the pilsu again, no need to cast a spell, the portal is already open.” Reggie said. Neo and Mel jumped into the box. They thought they would land home, but they didn’t. They hit
23
the closed trunk top and got pushed back into Reggie’s office.
“Why are you still here?” Reggie asked. “We hit the closed trunk top and got pushed back to your office.” Neo said. “Did you close the trunk top when you jumped in the portal at home, because it would be closed forever.” asked Reggie. “Yes, we did.” Neo answered. “Well, the only way to get home is to use Lord Dalgo’s wand to open a portal because it is a more powerful portal since he is a dark wizard which makes his wand stronger. find his pilsu and cast a spell in it. Then, using Lord Dalgo’s wand, blast the trunk lid open. You have to find Lord Dalgo’s pilsu because that is the only portal his wand
24
You need to
will work in. The only way to get Lord Dalgo’s wand is to steal it or defeat him.” Reggie said. “And if you are going to fight Lord Dalgo, you will need even more training. I have a training room I can take you to. We should spend time in the training room in order to practice the spells, make potions, and come up with weapons combining all of magic’s power in order to defeat Lord Dalgo.” Reggie waved his wand and then tapped it on the floor and a secret passageway opened up. They all stepped inside. The room was very dark, and using all the dim light that filtered into the room, they looked around. They saw a ton off glass containers with all sorts of things in them, and there was a glass door to the left with a bunch of crates. “That room to the left is the training room. The crates are to explode, burn, and just plain destroy in every way.” Reggie explained. “The jars contain potion ingredients.
25
Ahead is the enchanting chamber. It has many books with magic spells, and enchanting wands and objects that will make your enchantments stronger. We will go to the potion lab first, which is just past the potion ingredients.” Reggie led them to the potion lab, where he pulled a sheet of paper out of a blue folder hiding under the potion lab table. read the paper, he looked confused. It said “The Exploding Potion. Ingredients: 5 eyes of newts, 2 hairs of a Choctowian, 15 bones of a skeleton, and 2 hairs of a unicorn.” “What is a Choctowian?” Neo asked at the same time as Mel. “A Choctowian is a type of wizard world chicken that has hair instead of feathers. It has 3 eyes and triangle feet. It is super vicious and fast. Good thing I have a ton of Choctowian hairs. You just need to find the bottles as part of
26
When Neo
your training.
To make it harder, each bottle
only contains one of the object.” Reggie said. Neo and Mel started immediately, not wasting any time. The 5 eyes of newts were easy to find, they found all 5 within a minute. They were so easy to find because there was bright yellow labels on them, so all they had to do was run to a yellow label and it was an eye of newt.
27
The other ingredients were very hard to find. The unicorn hairs were behind countless bottles, and so were the bones. The hardest to find were the hairs of a Choctowian, and they almost gave up. They started heading towards Reggie to tell him that they gave up finding the hairs of a Choctowian, when Mel tripped on something. “What was that?” asked Mel. “You tripped on a glass bottle,” answered Neo. When they looked at the label, they jumped with joy. It was a hair of a Choctowian. They looked around where Mel tripped and saw another glass bottle. Choctowian! It was another hair of a They ran over to Reggie and
handed him all of the bottles. “Good job guys!” said Reggie. “Now, it is time to mix the potion. potion.”
28
Come with me over to the
cauldron, and I will show you how to mix this
Reggie led them over by the wall and he snapped his fingers. A table with a cauldron “Now, open all the appeared out of nowhere.
bottles and set them on the table.” So, Neo and Mel opened all of the bottles and set them on the table. “First, put in 1 bone, crushed up. So with a lot of Crush it up by hand.” the cauldron.
squeezing, they crushed the bone and put it in “Next, put in all the eyes of the So newts and the rest of the bones, whole.”
Neo and Mel dumped all of the eyes and bones into the cauldron. “Now, put the unicorn hairs in the cauldron and mix.” After they dumped the hairs in, they mixed it with a spoon sitting on the table also. “Last, put the Choctowian hairs and some water and mix. Go over to the potion ingredients and look for blue labels. That is water.” Neo and Mel ran over to the potion ingredients and got a bottle of
29
water and ran back. They then added the hairs then the water and mixed. made exploding noises. The potion turned Then, it “Use some of your green and red and started bubbling.
glass bottles and bottle the potion. Be careful, if it touches you, you can say goodbye to skin. Use the spoon.” When Mel picked up the “Was that spoon, it immediately disappeared.
part of the training too?” asked Mel in an annoyed tone. “Yes, it was,” answered Reggie. “Spoons are in the training room. Go get one.” “Fine!” answered Neo. Mel and Neo sprinted to the training lab. When they opened the glass door, they heard explosions. “Duck!” shouted Neo, but it was too late. Part of the ceiling exploded, separating Neo and Mel. As Neo was digging his way towards Mel, someone attacked him. Neo didn’t know what
30
to do. He shouted “Hocus pocus try to focus, halt now or go pow” and froze the enemy. Neo ran over to the enemy and examined him. It was another of Lord Dalgo’s followers. Neo could tell because he was dressed in black with a long flowing robe. “Help!” Mel shouted. Mel was being attacked by the same person who had attacked Neo minutes earlier. “He must of unfroze,” thought Neo. “Hocus pocus try to focus, play this game or be surrounded by flame” shouted Neo. The fire did the trick. The follower burned up, then Neo shouted “Hocus pocus try to focus, go to the deep sea or look at me” and put out the fire. “Thanks a lot!” said Mel. “No problem.”
replied Neo. “Now, time to find those spoons.” After a few minutes of searching, they found the spoons, hiding under some crates. They ran back to Reggie and told him that they had killed
31
one of Lord Dalgo’s followers. got a spoon,” answered Mel. complete.” Said Reggie.
“Great job!”
Reggie said. “Did you get a spoon?” “Yes, we “Now, bottle the potion very carefully and it will be almost “Almost complete?” asked Neo. “What do you mean?” “I mean that after you bottle the potion, you will have to cast a magic spell.” Neo and Mel bottled without getting potion on them and capped the bottles. “Here is the spell.” Reggie said. “Say: Hocus pocus try to focus mix this right or you’ll feel the bite!” “Hocus pocus try to focus mix this NOW or you’ll feel the bite!” Repeated Neo and Mel.
“Guys, you said it wrong.”
32
Shouted Reggie, but it was too late.
The
potions exploded and everyone took cover. Once they were a safe distance away from the potions, Reggie said “You said now, that meant explode as soon as you were done.” “Oh.” said Neo. “That is why they exploded.” “Thankfully, you didn’t bottle all of it, so you still have more. Bottle the rest and then cast the spell again. Just don’t say now.” Reggie said. Mel bottled it while Neo mumbled the spell. “Complete.” said Neo and Mel at the same time. “Now, go to the training lab and try one out each. After all, you have 50 of them. You use them by opening the top and tossing a little bit of the liquid. For much more powerful results, throw the potion at your target and the whole glass bottle will smash, taking out more potion and creating a super powerful explosions. This method is good for long range and short range
33
because it can go farther and is more accurate and can be used in rapid fire.” Neo went first and Mel after Neo into the training lab. “Lets go to opposite sides of the crate volcano and smash our potion on top of the crates to practice aim and see how much of it explodes.” Neo shouted over the noise of Reggie repairing over in the potion lab. “One, two, shoot!” shouted Mel. They both react within a second, throwing their potions to the top of the crates, where they exploded with such force that all of the crates exploded and so did the ceiling, making it rain crate and ceiling pieces. “Wow!” shouted Neo. “We will have to get Reggie to repair this mess.” They ran to Reggie at lightning speed. “Reggie!” said Neo after he got his breath back.
34
“Can you repair the training room? Everything kind of fell apart.” “Sure!” replied Reggie. “I was kind of expecting you to ask that. As you can see, the Exploding Potion is super strong. It is so strong because you added Eyes of Newts, which will make any potion’s effects 50X stronger.” Reggie then waved his wand in the air and they all teleported into the training lab. “How did you teleport us here?” asked Mel as Reggie was repairing the training lab. As soon as Reggie finished repairing, he explained. “I used a complex teleporting spell that only works short range. I didn’t want to tire you two out again, so as a special treat I thought I would teleport us here. Now, the only thing left to do in the training lab is to enchant your wands. Every wizard has a strong suit in magic, and that is what you will enchant your wand with. I
35
need to find out what Neo’s strong suit is and tell you what you have to say to enchant your wand. Mel, since you are not a wizard and are only using a training wand you will have to sit this one out! I will use all of my magic, and what you defeat me with is your special strength. The wizard duel began with Neo knocking Reggie up against the wall with a beam of white light. Next, with a flash, Reggie was stunned. Neo had cast a spell that froze him. In a few minutes the spell wore off. “Wow!” Reggie commented. spells! “You have very strong battle “Cool!” said That is your strong suit.”
Neo. “That is really epic. What is your strong suit Reggie?” asked Neo. “My strong suit is elemental spells,” answered Reggie. “Neo, follow me. enchanting chamber. We are going to the I will take Mel with us.”
The enchanting chamber was a huge, red
36
chamber with a bookshelf smack in the middle. The room was warm and humid. When they approached the bookshelf, the books fluttered in the air and the bookshelf transformed into a table. In the middle of the table, a slot about the size of their wands appeared. “Neo and Mel, this is the enchanting chamber. Another part of the training for Neo will be to find a book with his strong suit in it, find the correct spell, and put your wand in the slot and chant the magic words you find in the book.” “This is going to take forever!” groaned Mel. “Your hint is: Look where it started and where it ended.” whispered Reggie. “What does that mean?” started to ask Mel, but Reggie was already gone. “I think I know what it means.” Neo said. “We started at the potion lab and our last stop was here. I am thinking we only have to look at the books in the enchanting chamber and potion lab sections. We can eliminate looking at the
37
training lab books. Mel, you find all of the potion books and I will find all of the training lab books.” “Ok,” replied Mel. After Mel agreed, they split up. “I found something!” Shouted Neo. They both
ran to the table, where Neo presented the book. Neo’s book titled Battleus Contratus flipped open and all the words on that page disappeared except for two. It read; PAGE 219 So Neo flipped to page 219 and it read PAGE 9 When Neo got to page 9, the enchanting spelled appeared. Neo took out his wand and placed it into the slot in the table. Nervously he chanted at the top of his lungs;
38
“Hocus Pocus try to foucs, Neo look here or you’ll disappear. That’ll battle for your life!” All of a sudden, Neo’s wand began to glow. “Wow!” said Neo. Suddenly, the air began to move and a dark figure appeared. Neo’s wand tip lit up and he was pulled toward the figure. The figure started flying, and so did Neo and Mel. After a few minutes, the mysterious figure stopped flying, and quickly Neo and Mel fell to the ground. The figure came blasting towards Neo and Mel. They quickly took action, Mel made a huge force field while Neo froze the
39
mysterious figure mid-air.
The figure fell right
onto Mel’s force field and got shocked! Luckily Mel’s force field wasn’t very strong and the figure was only temporarily shocked.
MORE TO COME SHORTLY!!!
!
!
!
40
APPENDIX of SPELLS
Force Field - Hocus pocus try to focus, seal without a delay and throw the key away. Freeze - Hocus pocus try to focus, halt now or go pow Blackout - Hocus pocus try to focus, don’t fight me with all your might or go out like a light Drowning - Hocus pocus try to focus, go to the deep sea or look at me Fire - Hocus pocus try to focus, play this game or be surrounded by flame
41
About the Author
Fire Dragon Academy is Griffin Kutler Dodd's first novel. He wrote it during NaNoWriMo 2012 when he was eightyears-old. Griffin is home schooled and during his free time likes to rock climb, play Magic the Gathering, and Skype with friends. He also loves to program on his laptop and read magic and fantasy books.
42
