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Description
Russty's Flying School for Dragons, Book 6 - The littlest Aeronauts

Artwork: Bart meets Achilleos

Character Achilleos belongs to Character DM belongs to

Guests and his character Shylah

Guests

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4

I wiped off the eggs then cleaned up my mess, apologizing to Bart if I had scared him.

“Are you kidding, that was a Cool DERP face from you, Uncle Rex!” he said. Before I could think of it I was laughing along as I invited him to sit on the couch. He was amazing, red with yellow scutes and black mane, with green highlights in his hair, a plushie of Jake Long come Alive!

Sensei Matsui had been outside meditating but entering the room he got a surprise! I pointed a thumb to Bart saying “His idea!” then the whole sequence again for Terry, then our host.

“You mean to say he transformed while nobody heard it!?” Terry asked. A short debate on this was broken by Bart saying- “There was no pain, I took the scale with me to bed after taking it out of the back pack. It must have crushed inside of my pocket... I woke up this way.” We all fell silent, transformation while sleeping....grateful for that but odd, nonetheless.

Knowing that he could not be trained to fly in 2 hours, we agreed to keep the plan, Bart would ride in my backpack like he would have as human. Now he was appreciating a dragon ride as we set course. High over the bay, Sensei Matsui pulled away to set course back to Japan, we were 5 for 5 now, plus a call to Shiro at the Castle assured him that we were not going to see any new gold scales for six months, at the next equinox.

We waved to him wishing a good , safe journey. As he pulled out of sight, Bart was looking down at his battleship former home below, he had a lot of change in his life in the past five days with the prospect of only more to come but he was smiling and enjoying himself in the morning air.

As we reached the halfway mark I noticed that I was not tiring even though carrying most of the pack stuff with our young dragon. I had to ask “Bart, are you in any way - levitating yourself?” Could he do that already, by reading up on it?

“Yes Uncle Rex, I didn’t want to tire you out,” he said.

“Thank You, Bart- really appreciate that,” I replied.

Terry looked at me out the corner of his view, smiling a bit.

As we approached dusk, I noticed that Bart was weighing normally then heard a soft snoring from the pack. We turned into the approach for the field. Keying the Mic, I spoke an incantation of modern aeronautics “Belton tower, this is RFS zero- one, requesting landing on dragonport.”

“RFS zero - one, this is Belton Unicom, approach pattern delta, winds 285 at 10, altimeter three zero zero four, cleared for dragonport.”

I set the radio for the lighting control channel and keyed three times turning on the lights to show the square behind the office. Strictly speaking I didn’t need any lights there but procedure is procedure while humans need to see us to avoid bumping into each other or us.

As we stepped off the pad I tapped the mic twice dousing the lights. Terry helped me with the pack and passenger within, still sleeping. I mouthed silently the word “Goodnight”, he did same as we sought our rooms.

Turning on the lights inside my room, I was surprised to see a childs bed there placed in a series of room dividers from Shoji Screens. Bart sleepily crawled out of the pack as I made up the bed, he crawled in and I tucked him in before padding quietly out.

KABOOM!!!! the ground shook as I looked to my clock, Yup - 6:30 AM, more steel for the buildings, I expected to hear the other sounds of the busy airport construction, as I rolled over to start procrastinating wakeup.

BOOOOOOOM!!! again with plaster chips raining down on the bed, then the sound filtering in of an Air Raid siren!! That sound that always accompanied death from the sky. My eyes flicked open, my haste made me forget I was still in eastern form also that levitation had to be gentle as I shot to the ceiling then fell back onto the bed, leaving two horn holes up there.

I ran to Bart’s room to see him looking sleepily from under the sheets.

“Stay here, don’t move,” I said, followed by “You’re safe in here” My first lie as a ‘dad’. as I ran outside just in time to see two x47 drones peel off over the field, having put another Maverick AGM into the new hangars, which were now just blazing ruin. I recalled the night as the first flying school burned to dust, now, again... how many workers were in those hangars? I angered, with red haze encroaching my view. This was the future?

NO! calm, calm... Bart should not see that happen to me. In fact I didn’t know what dragon rage would be in eastern form....must stay Calm, Calm... Two F-16’s jumped the drones dispatching both. Calm...

Omega was sending us a housewarming gift message. Calm....

The realization that there could be more incoming clawed at me, so ran back in and put Bart up on my shoulders then flew out the door, bound for the raid shelters. Skimming the ground, barrelled inside the concrete dugout through a baffle series of walls designed to deflect strafing before entering the main room.

Bart climbed down but huddled next to me, he must be getting some fear vibes from me or the room. Terry came over to plop down next to us, getting a hug from Bart.

Who do we have here? I asked the two younger Dragons in one corner.

“Arakod and Shylah,” came the reply with smiles, followed by “Dispute with your neighbors?” from Arakod referring to the din outside. Terry nodded along with me. I hoped they would stay to teach here, but they would be perfectly justified in leaving at the first opportunity. Bart walked over to them hugging both.

DM ducked indoors to sit across from us, he too could be reconsidering his new assignment.

“DM, where did you come from?” I asked. He replied that he had arrived from the other side of the field, There was good news, all of the contractors were safe, the alert had given them time to vacate before the hangars were targeted. First good news of the day, completely blanking the fact that 20 million in hangars were smoldering out there. Buildings can be replaced, though...builders cannot.

The siren began once more as Shylah cried “Please, not again...” Terry explained that the second one was for announcing “All Clear”.

We walked to the office and started the computer, soon having the conference system up. Achilleos was there enroute between schools with the General on one of the windows.

“Rex! Terry! Are you alright? How about your new staff, are all of you OK? We just heard of an attack on you!

“We are, everyone is OK, “ as they clustered in front of the cameras, Bart sitting down at my side up on the table. Achilleos calmed down noticably seeing everyone gathered.

“What happened, Sergeant ?... Your SITREP” asked the General with a hushed voice.

“Sir, Omega arrived at dawn with a pair of tactical drones. The 2 new hangars are gone but that’s all. Fighters from Luke destroyed both drones about 10 minutes ago. School still intact and ready, Sir.” I replied.

“I’m Sending you some help while holding your class arrival until late afternoon, Gentlemen.” The general said as we nodded. I would have felt better if it was off until tomorrow, but we’ll take what we can get.

“Was your project with Sensei Matsui successful?” asked Achilleos.

“It was, Yes.” I noted

“Good, Now......Who is that with you?” He continued.

“Achilleos, meet Bart, Bart- please say hello to Achilleos.” I said. Bart waved to the screen and said “Hi, Uncle Achilleos.”

He smiled back, saying “Hello, young one.” as everyone was gathered, and amused - both here or virtual, I gave a quick story on Bart, about why he was with us.

“I’ll expedite his tests as the sample arrives at DRC. Until then, he will be in your charge, Rex.” He said, my nod in return.

The network to the other schools came up with alerts for all, we were under the gun again.

The conference closed. I noted to everyone that the class would proceed, with just the slight delay.

We began a long chat with introductions and ideas from everyone there. we really just had to kill some time until the students were here. At the Noon hour, the radio- set for the Belton control tower began clearing arrivals, one after the other.

“EagleGuard 1 you are cleared to land.
EagleGuard 2, 3, 4 you are cleared in behind 1. Approach plan Epsilon.
EagleGuard 5 and 6, you are cleared for dragonpad, immediate
Winds 200 at 12., Altimeter 3007, Belton Unicom, out.”

The skies and building began to rumble, shadows in the sunlight.

“Stiletto 2-4 your group, cleared to land behind Eagleguard, Belton Unicom, out”

“This place is gonna be like LAX in a few minutes,” Terry noted.

I placed Bart up on my shoulders as we all filed outside. Within a few minutes, four giant Galaxy class transports landed and taxiied to the regular terminal followed by two Ospreys right in front of us on the dragon side of the field. Finally a group of F-22’s finished up the last of the parking spaces.

The loading doors of the first Osprey swung open, familiar muzzles soon made their way over to us.

I began- “Bart, Shylah, Arakod, and DM, I would like you to meet Lieutenant Buster, Major Firefang with Sergeants Jero, Enerin, and Margh.” A group greet, shaking claws with a final note of “Hi Uncle Buster...”

Description
Russty's Flying School for Dragons, Book 6 - The littlest Aeronauts

Artwork: Bart meets Achilleos

Character Achilleos belongs to Character DM belongs to

Guests and his character Shylah

Guests

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4

I wiped off the eggs then cleaned up my mess, apologizing to Bart if I had scared him.

“Are you kidding, that was a Cool DERP face from you, Uncle Rex!” he said. Before I could think of it I was laughing along as I invited him to sit on the couch. He was amazing, red with yellow scutes and black mane, with green highlights in his hair, a plushie of Jake Long come Alive!

Sensei Matsui had been outside meditating but entering the room he got a surprise! I pointed a thumb to Bart saying “His idea!” then the whole sequence again for Terry, then our host.

“You mean to say he transformed while nobody heard it!?” Terry asked. A short debate on this was broken by Bart saying- “There was no pain, I took the scale with me to bed after taking it out of the back pack. It must have crushed inside of my pocket... I woke up this way.” We all fell silent, transformation while sleeping....grateful for that but odd, nonetheless.

Knowing that he could not be trained to fly in 2 hours, we agreed to keep the plan, Bart would ride in my backpack like he would have as human. Now he was appreciating a dragon ride as we set course. High over the bay, Sensei Matsui pulled away to set course back to Japan, we were 5 for 5 now, plus a call to Shiro at the Castle assured him that we were not going to see any new gold scales for six months, at the next equinox.

We waved to him wishing a good , safe journey. As he pulled out of sight, Bart was looking down at his battleship former home below, he had a lot of change in his life in the past five days with the prospect of only more to come but he was smiling and enjoying himself in the morning air.

As we reached the halfway mark I noticed that I was not tiring even though carrying most of the pack stuff with our young dragon. I had to ask “Bart, are you in any way - levitating yourself?” Could he do that already, by reading up on it?

“Yes Uncle Rex, I didn’t want to tire you out,” he said.

“Thank You, Bart- really appreciate that,” I replied.

Terry looked at me out the corner of his view, smiling a bit.

As we approached dusk, I noticed that Bart was weighing normally then heard a soft snoring from the pack. We turned into the approach for the field. Keying the Mic, I spoke an incantation of modern aeronautics “Belton tower, this is RFS zero- one, requesting landing on dragonport.”

“RFS zero - one, this is Belton Unicom, approach pattern delta, winds 285 at 10, altimeter three zero zero four, cleared for dragonport.”

I set the radio for the lighting control channel and keyed three times turning on the lights to show the square behind the office. Strictly speaking I didn’t need any lights there but procedure is procedure while humans need to see us to avoid bumping into each other or us.

As we stepped off the pad I tapped the mic twice dousing the lights. Terry helped me with the pack and passenger within, still sleeping. I mouthed silently the word “Goodnight”, he did same as we sought our rooms.

Turning on the lights inside my room, I was surprised to see a childs bed there placed in a series of room dividers from Shoji Screens. Bart sleepily crawled out of the pack as I made up the bed, he crawled in and I tucked him in before padding quietly out.

KABOOM!!!! the ground shook as I looked to my clock, Yup - 6:30 AM, more steel for the buildings, I expected to hear the other sounds of the busy airport construction, as I rolled over to start procrastinating wakeup.

BOOOOOOOM!!! again with plaster chips raining down on the bed, then the sound filtering in of an Air Raid siren!! That sound that always accompanied death from the sky. My eyes flicked open, my haste made me forget I was still in eastern form also that levitation had to be gentle as I shot to the ceiling then fell back onto the bed, leaving two horn holes up there.

I ran to Bart’s room to see him looking sleepily from under the sheets.

“Stay here, don’t move,” I said, followed by “You’re safe in here” My first lie as a ‘dad’. as I ran outside just in time to see two x47 drones peel off over the field, having put another Maverick AGM into the new hangars, which were now just blazing ruin. I recalled the night as the first flying school burned to dust, now, again... how many workers were in those hangars? I angered, with red haze encroaching my view. This was the future?

NO! calm, calm... Bart should not see that happen to me. In fact I didn’t know what dragon rage would be in eastern form....must stay Calm, Calm... Two F-16’s jumped the drones dispatching both. Calm...

Omega was sending us a housewarming gift message. Calm....

The realization that there could be more incoming clawed at me, so ran back in and put Bart up on my shoulders then flew out the door, bound for the raid shelters. Skimming the ground, barrelled inside the concrete dugout through a baffle series of walls designed to deflect strafing before entering the main room.

Bart climbed down but huddled next to me, he must be getting some fear vibes from me or the room. Terry came over to plop down next to us, getting a hug from Bart.

Who do we have here? I asked the two younger Dragons in one corner.

“Arakod and Shylah,” came the reply with smiles, followed by “Dispute with your neighbors?” from Arakod referring to the din outside. Terry nodded along with me. I hoped they would stay to teach here, but they would be perfectly justified in leaving at the first opportunity. Bart walked over to them hugging both.

DM ducked indoors to sit across from us, he too could be reconsidering his new assignment.

“DM, where did you come from?” I asked. He replied that he had arrived from the other side of the field, There was good news, all of the contractors were safe, the alert had given them time to vacate before the hangars were targeted. First good news of the day, completely blanking the fact that 20 million in hangars were smoldering out there. Buildings can be replaced, though...builders cannot.

The siren began once more as Shylah cried “Please, not again...” Terry explained that the second one was for announcing “All Clear”.

We walked to the office and started the computer, soon having the conference system up. Achilleos was there enroute between schools with the General on one of the windows.

“Rex! Terry! Are you alright? How about your new staff, are all of you OK? We just heard of an attack on you!

“We are, everyone is OK, “ as they clustered in front of the cameras, Bart sitting down at my side up on the table. Achilleos calmed down noticably seeing everyone gathered.

“What happened, Sergeant ?... Your SITREP” asked the General with a hushed voice.

“Sir, Omega arrived at dawn with a pair of tactical drones. The 2 new hangars are gone but that’s all. Fighters from Luke destroyed both drones about 10 minutes ago. School still intact and ready, Sir.” I replied.

“I’m Sending you some help while holding your class arrival until late afternoon, Gentlemen.” The general said as we nodded. I would have felt better if it was off until tomorrow, but we’ll take what we can get.

“Was your project with Sensei Matsui successful?” asked Achilleos.

“It was, Yes.” I noted

“Good, Now......Who is that with you?” He continued.

“Achilleos, meet Bart, Bart- please say hello to Achilleos.” I said. Bart waved to the screen and said “Hi, Uncle Achilleos.”

He smiled back, saying “Hello, young one.” as everyone was gathered, and amused - both here or virtual, I gave a quick story on Bart, about why he was with us.

“I’ll expedite his tests as the sample arrives at DRC. Until then, he will be in your charge, Rex.” He said, my nod in return.

The network to the other schools came up with alerts for all, we were under the gun again.

The conference closed. I noted to everyone that the class would proceed, with just the slight delay.

We began a long chat with introductions and ideas from everyone there. we really just had to kill some time until the students were here. At the Noon hour, the radio- set for the Belton control tower began clearing arrivals, one after the other.

“EagleGuard 1 you are cleared to land.
EagleGuard 2, 3, 4 you are cleared in behind 1. Approach plan Epsilon.
EagleGuard 5 and 6, you are cleared for dragonpad, immediate
Winds 200 at 12., Altimeter 3007, Belton Unicom, out.”

The skies and building began to rumble, shadows in the sunlight.

“Stiletto 2-4 your group, cleared to land behind Eagleguard, Belton Unicom, out”

“This place is gonna be like LAX in a few minutes,” Terry noted.

I placed Bart up on my shoulders as we all filed outside. Within a few minutes, four giant Galaxy class transports landed and taxiied to the regular terminal followed by two Ospreys right in front of us on the dragon side of the field. Finally a group of F-22’s finished up the last of the parking spaces.

The loading doors of the first Osprey swung open, familiar muzzles soon made their way over to us.

I began- “Bart, Shylah, Arakod, and DM, I would like you to meet Lieutenant Buster, Major Firefang with Sergeants Jero, Enerin, and Margh.” A group greet, shaking claws with a final note of “Hi Uncle Buster...”