Dragons: Rescue Riders

Go, Leyla, go!

These rescue vines Hannahr made for our saddles work great.

Glad I don't have to use those. Just watching you practice makes me dizzy.

You think rescuing an egg is good? Wait till you see me rescue an Elbone.

I thought that was supposed to be Chief Duggard.

No. Definitely Elbone.

See? He's screaming.

Oh, right. Very lifelike.

Watch and learn, everyone. Hi-yah!

Whoa!

I got him.

- You forgot Elbone. - I know.

Dak, maybe next time you should use your arms to get more balance.

Hey, I just got a little tangled up, that's all.

Don't worry, Ley, I can rescue vine as well as anyone with my eyes closed.

Doing it with your eyes open sure didn't work too well.

Whoa!

- Yes! - Well, you got part of him.

Dak, maybe we should call it a day. I'm getting sort of hungry.

Are you just saying that to keep me from hurting myself more?

Yeah, I'm good with that. Let's head home, Rescue Riders.

Quite a big shipment today.

Shields, blankets, lanterns,

and one giant mysterious crate addressed to the Rescue Riders.

Phew. Nothing for me to worry about.

Where is that stowaway?

You there! Did you see anybody just come off this ship?

Me? No, I didn't see anybody come off that ship. Honest.

- Excuse me, Dockworker. - That's Chief Dockworker to you.

I mean, Chief Dock-ard... Duggard. No, no, Chief Duggard.

Of course.

Now that I get a better look at that handsome, chiefly beard, it's so obvious.

Why, thank you. Heh. Fish oil. Gives it extra sheen.

And smell.

Fantastic, isn't it? So, what can I do for you, lad?

My name's Axel. I'm looking for a Magnus Finke?

Oh, you're in luck, because we have one.

- And where might I find him? - Wherever there's trouble, usually.

He's my uncle.

Let me finish. By trouble, I meant not trouble?

Oh, just take the north path out of town. You can't miss his place.

And with just a few small modifications,

an automatic sheep shearing machine becomes an automatic hay baler.

Come on, you gangling jangle of busted bolts.

Work! Work like I designed you to!

- Excuse me. Are you Magnus Finke? - If you're an unhappy customer,

or someone I owe money to, the answer is no. Someone else, maybe.

Don't worry, uncle. It's me, your favorite nephew, Axel Finke.

Axel? I haven't seen you since you were a much smaller and smellier infant.

Why are you here?

"Dear third cousin Magnus... Mm-hm. Eleventh relative we've tried. Ahh.

Hoping a genius like you could help him." Well, they got the genius part right.

Wait, me? Take care of you?

- Oh, I'm far too busy. - That's what I told them.

An amazing inventor like you doesn't have the time to deal with me.

He's too busy changing the world.

So very true. You're smarter than you look.

But I have enough trouble with the children on this island,

what with those pesky Rescue Riders flapping around.

Did you say Rescue Riders? There was a crate addressed to them on the ship.

A crate? What kind of crate?

Oh, a large crate.

Some might say huge.

What could be in there? Raw materials? Supplies? Tools?

Probably all of the above and more.

I wonder if they could be getting into the inventing game?

But that's my game. What are those pint-sized pests up to?

If only you had some way of finding out.

A young person, maybe, who could fit in with the Rescue Riders.

Gain their trust. Learn their secrets.

Axel, my boy, your Uncle Magnus has a job for you.

- Where did it come from? - I don't know.

All Chief Duggard said was it came on a ship this morning and was addressed to us.

I wonder what's inside. Ooh! I hope it's a rock.

I hope it's a new hay bed. Those baby Slobber Smelters ruined my last one.

Only one way to find out what's in there.

- It is a rock. - Burple, that's a dragon egg.

It is a dragon egg!

A very large dragon egg.

- Who would send this to us? - A Viking on a nearby island.

He found it on the beach, heard about us, and thought we'd know what to do with it.

- How'd you figure all that out? - I read the note.

This is exciting. An egg this size and color could be lots of different species.

A Whooping Whifflewing, Gigantic Grumplumper,

even a Roaming Ramblefang.

What I do know is it will be hatching soon.

Was that written on the note, too?

No, but the egg feels very warm and the shell is starting to thin.

- You learn something new every day, Burp. - See something new, too.

- Uh... Hello. - I've heard about the Rescue Riders,

but I don't know if I really believed it until now.

You really all live here together? And can talk to each other?

That's right. I'm Leyla, and this is my brother Dak.

- Hey. - I'm Axel.

That's Winger, Summer, Cutter, Aggro, and Burple.

It's gotta be amazing having your own pet dragons.

All the places you can go, no one can tell you what to do,

not to mention how much gold people would pay you to fly them around.

Hands off the spikes.

I would love to buy one from you. Does the small red one cost less?

He did not just say that, did he?

Um, buy one? That's not really how it works.

We don't own these dragons or use them to get gold.

We're all one big family.

Phew!

What a relief. That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

I was just testing you with all that "buy a dragon" stuff.

Hey, is a new dragon gonna hatch out of this egg?

Yeah, and very soon. It just came in on a ship for us this morning.

So, that's what was in the crate.

An egg this large will probably hatch a pretty big dragon, huh?

Big enough to ride?

Well, it will be a baby, but, yeah,

some infant dragons do immediately take to the air.

Okay, I think it's time for me to be honest about why I'm really here.

I'm here to join the Rescue Riders.

- Did he just say what I think he said? - I think so.

Unless you think he said something else.

You want to join the Rescue Riders?

Oh, yes, I love dragons.

Gee, we never thought about anybody wanting to join us.

- We're gonna have to talk about this. - That's okay.

I'll just find a cold, damp cave to sleep in till you decide.

You don't have a place to live?

Hang on a second.

We're not really letting him join the team, are we?

All that buying a dragon stuff...

If he doesn't have anywhere else to go, we can't just let him leave.

Sure we can. Aggro, you're on my side here, right?

- I agree with Dak and Leyla. - See? I knew Aggro would... Wait, what?

You guys took me in after I basically fire blasted all of you.

Tugging on a spike and calling me little doesn't really seem so bad.

He could be a trainee.

Another set of hands around here

wouldn't be such a bad thing for a little while, right?

As long as they're not pulling on my spikes.

It's settled. Welcome to the Roost, Rescue Rider trainee Axel.

Thank you. You won't regret this.

Shouldn't be long now. Who wants to take the first shift watching it?

Why don't you let me watch the egg tonight? I am the new guy, after all.

Works for me.

We'll be right inside. Wake us if it starts to hatch.

You coming, Cutter?

You know, I think I feel like taking a shift watching the egg, too.

Watching Axel, you mean.

Something about this just doesn't smell right.

That might be me. I back-burped a little while ago.

Not really what he meant, Burp.

Cutter will take the first shift with you, Axel.

Oh. He is? Wonderful.

Hey, I'm really sorry about the whole spike thing earlier.

But I only tugged on your spike because I think they're amazing.

Can you do anything cool with them?

Just one target? I guess that's sort of cool.

Eh. Kind of cool.

Getting there.

Very cool.

So, spikes are your thing, not being fast like Winger?

Sorry. Didn't mean to offend you. I'm sure you're sort of fast.

Hey, that looks very fast, and very tiring.

You don't have a fire blast, do you?

Wow.

Aw. Did all that showing off wear you out?

Now to get to work.

- Help, help! - Rescue Riders, let's move!

- Something terrible has happened. - The egg, it's gone.

- Huh? What? - I don't understand. What happened?

I wish I knew.