Chapter 2

Jade carefully rolled out of his bed groaning in pain.

He didn't know where his glasses were.

He did his best not to look in him mirror until he located them and shoved them on his face.

There, he thought.

Jade slowly walked over to his dresser and looked at himself.

He was badly bruised from last night.

His tinted lens blocked his eyes from view, but he could see the mess he was. His shaggy black hair fell over his lenses, his pale skin shone in the dark.

But his left cheek had a bluish bruise on it and his chin had a scratch.

His fingers flew up to his neck and it tingled painfully.

He swallowed.

His neck was turning blue almost purple, and he could clearly see the fingerprints there.

His fingers twitched with need to fix his pain, to get rid of it but he stopped himself and lowered his hand.

It hurt to breathe.

It hurt to swallow.

He could still feel the man's hands around his neck from the night before. He wished his “Uncle” or whoever he was would stop flying into rages.

Jade sighed and slipped on his ratty grey jacket. He carefully tiptoed out of his room and carefully slide down the stairs railing so the steps would not creak under him. He soundlessly dropped to the floor in a crouch and listened.

He could hear his “Uncles” loud snoring from his room and breathed a sigh of relief.

Walking into the kitchen he pulled a baggie of bacon out of the little drawer in the fridge he hid food inside his “Uncle” had yet to discover. He merrily skipped out the door with the bacon and went up the apartment buildings steps to the rooftop. He looked behind him before pulling out the only spare key the place had. He had stolen it when the owner had not been looking and he was too lazy to get a new one made.

The keys jingled and he opened the door.

He could hear his dragon cooing softly as he woke up from the sounds Jade made.

“Ryuu….Ryuu? Come here buddy!”

He could see the faint green tinted aura before the dragon emerged from the tarp tent Jade had created for him to sleep in.

His soft green aura flared at the sight of his master. He bounded towards Jade and sat in front of him, his tail swishing as docile as a dogs. Jade couldn't help but grin as he pulled out strips of old bacon for his dragon to eat.

When he finished Ryuu cooed for more, and Jade's heart broke from the sound.

“Im sorry buddy that's all I could steal for today, we can go fish later in the river for more for you ok?”

Ryuu’s tail swished softly and his snout came up to Jades shaggy hair to blow hot breath on his head. Hesitantly Jade brought his hand to Ryuu’s head to stroke his face, the dragons green aura grew to a jade green, the color of his master eyes. The color that he took on from Jades magic that saved his life.

Jade sighed as he recalled that day a year ago.

He had just been walking home from school and had heard some laughter from an alley. Before he could react several boys streamed out of the side of a building laughing hysterically.

Jade felt something in his stomach turn sour even though he didn't understand why.

As he turned into the alley after the boys left he saw the reason.

A young white dragon barely a few days old was ripped apart on the dirty concrete.

He felt like vomiting and before he knew what he was doing his hand had reached out without his consent to stroke the mangled body.

A flash of green flared, then suddenly his ears popped and he was facefirst on the dirty ground.

NASTY! his entire mind shrieked.

Purrrrrrrrrrrrr?

Huh? Jade thought in confusion.

He looked up from where he was laying to meet eyes to eye with a tiny glowing dragon barely the size of a kitten.

He nearly passed out after that.

He figured out quickly, that the dragon must have accidently crossed the kingdoms border and got lost here. They were very close to the border afterall. The tiny creature might of been safe in the wild over there but here? At that size and with how humans are towards anything remotely magical? HAH! Fat chance.

After that incident the dragon followed Jade around like he was his parent and Jade couldn't help but fall in love with the tiny glowing animal.

Jade crawled into the tent and pulled his laptop out from it's case.

Launching the game Elda Magic, he logged into his character and into his guilds discord channel.

The Kingstongue language his guilds mates spoke greeted him.

“Jade! Vids! Hoges graty vonu?”

(Jade! Hey! You want to raid?)

Jade grinned.

“ Vids, yhu out ey vonu!”

(Hey, of course I want to raid!)

Jade was part of the Kingdoms Esport league, the only problem was that he wasn't a Kingdoms citizen. Because he was close to the border he was able to get a signal and one day stumbled upon a Kingdoms server by accident. He ended up getting scouted and joined a guild on the server. The games owner paid his guild to be top and to make videos of their raids for advertising. He got a nice sum of cash, but had issues with converting the money to his country's currency. He had to convert it online before he could even use it. Which was a pain but no one in his town would hire him, so he had to find some way to make money.

But the reason he could speak the Kingstongue was because of his school. They had a small chapter during history where they had talked about their language. It had gotten him interested so he used the power of the internet to learn it.

Ryuu curled up behind him and kept him warm as he healed his team in the latest dungeon.

A damage was almost fatality injured, Jade pressed 1 and watched as his teammates health filled back up.

Jades character rolled out of harm's way from an add that spawned.

The entire group took raid wide damage from the troll boss.

Time for his ultimate.

7, his character let out a green mist that spread towards everyone in his group.

He pressed 8, a flash of light and everyone's health was back up to 100%.

Jade grinned and made his character jump out of the way from an attack.

“Greaaa! Y! Trug! Rea crau!”

(Runnn! Out! Of! The red!)

Jade dodge the red stuff bubbling on the ground and healed someone who got damage by it.

It took 2 hours for the raid group to kill the Troll King Sergouge and by then Jades legs had gone numb while his mouth had dried from all the talking. He licked his lips while the group discussed handing out loot evenly. He got new gems for his boots to increase his movement speed and spellcasting.

“Hey Jade?” His guildmaster Ranydom spoke to him in Kingstongue.

Jade focused his attention on him and sat up.

“Yes?” He replied in the same manner.

“Are you finally going to come to a guild meetup?”

Jade winced.

“I have mentioned that it is hard for me to get to the capital right?”

“Multiple times.” Everyone in the raid group chimed in.

“We can fly you out here you know, you are out in the countryside right?”

Jade wanted to ask if it was by plane or magic they wanted to use.

“We want you to participate in the competition this year, we seriously need you to go.”

Jade winced.

“I uh…. can try I suppose, but I am not 100% certain if I can get there.”

“You need a map or something?” Yurt, another guildmate joked.

“Um… maybe?” He literally had no idea where the Kingdoms capital was.

A few people laughed at this.

“See what you can do, the tournament is in a few days.”

He left the discord channel and went to check on his characters farm.

He made his character pull herbs for potion making to sell for money while he went over his options. He could try to create the border, but the magic field didn't allow any non-magical beings to cross.

Well….. I… might be able to cross though… he thought.

He posted some of the herbs he gathered on the auction house and made the rest into mana potions to use.

He looked at Ryuu fast asleep behind him.

He shut down his game, and put his things away. He stood up and stretched while Ryuu stirred.

Ryuu padded over towards the edge of the building and waited as Jade climbed onto his back. Jade straddled Ryuu awkwardly and he flapped his wings. They gently glided down into the woods behind the building and Jade did his best not to fall off.

Ryuu landed by the riverside and Jade slid off of him. The dragon bounded out into the water and started snapping at fish. Jade sat on a rock and watched his dragon hunt.

I could at least try to cross the border, it's not like anyone would notice I was gone.

“Uncle” would not notice either, he only seems to remember my existence when he sees me. Then I get hit, Jade thought.

Jades hand went up to his throat.

It is summer vacation as well, no school.

Jade pursed his lips before they turned into a grin.