Blue Fury

There weren't always Dragons in the Valley. Humans, sure. Elves, probably. The Orcs and Goblins were definitely more recent immigrants. But Dragons? None had lived here until the Flamespinner family moved in last summer. And now...I have to coach Caden Windspinner.

Uh…perhaps I should back up... you're probably very confused; don't worry about it. Humanity in general was very confused in the summer of 2012, when what scientists had assumed was volcanic activity in Italy turned out to actually be a subterranean battle.

Apparently, a lot of our fairy tales were loosely rooted in reality...Orcs, Goblins, Elves, Dragons…all very real. Hundreds of years ago, they went to ground, literally, when they realized they wouldn't be able to peacefully coexist with humans. And really, who can blame them? Have you MET us?

Anyway, the Elves led these folks more or less, and took to calling themselves “The Hidden”. Within the dark depths of the Earth, they established these underground colonies that are honestly pretty dope to see. As the most human-looking and skilled in some minor magic, the Elves were also involved in all kinds of subterfuge and infiltration work, sneaking in among us and making sure the secret was kept.

Everything was going rather swimmingly, until the status quo was violently flipped upside down. Apparently, around the mid-1940s, serpents, spiders, and scorpions came from the even darker depths of the Earth to begin harassing the dwellings of the Hidden.

You're probably thinking they should have just called an exterminator, right? But I seriously doubt the Orkin dude wants smoke with an intelligent spider the size of an elephant, or a scorpion about the size of a car with a tail that not only injects, but can actually project a fair distance. Oh, and it's not regular scorpion venom...its straight up acid. They have no teeth, you see, and the acid helps turn prey into a meal they can slurp up. The serpents...well... you've probably seen 'Anaconda'? Most of the snakes in the ranks of the Crawlers were that size, but with the delightful addition of being venomous as well.

So now the Hidden have to fight for their lives with one hand and hide from us with the other. Honestly, if it wasn't for the Dragons among them, the war would have most likely been lost. See, the Elves and Orcs are about average human size, with speed and strength, respectively, setting them apart from us. The Goblins are shorter, on average, by about a foot, but they're quite bouncy and excellent climbers. None of the three are any firmer or more durable than us human, which means brawling with massive spiders and snakes and scorpions doesn't always go well.

Dragons, however… the average male Dragon warrior is a head taller than Shaq, covered in diamond-hard scales, strong enough to casually punch through brick, and fast enough to make Usain Bolt look…well…human. No wings, though: Dragons actually found the notion of the flying dragons in our stories quite entertaining. Oh, and every Dragon has an affinity with one of three major elements: fire, water, or wind. A phalanx of Dragons can take out a horde of Crawlers as long as they handle the acid-spewing scorpions first.

Problem is, there are thousands of Orcs & Goblins, hundreds of Elves, but only a few dozen Dragons left. Furthermore, not every Dragon is a warrior either; between low birth rates and the war, their numbers are dwindling. Thankfully, they and the other Hidden managed to stem the tide, pushing the Crawlers back to their various spawn-holes more than once. It was actually one of these pitched battles that tore down the veil between worlds; a Queen-scorpion led a horde in a brazen charge against a Hidden stronghold, one nestled beneath the Stromboli volcano. Of all the Crawlers, a Queen-scorpion is probably the last one you want to see on a battle-field, or anywhere, come to think of it. They’re near-sentient and their armor flat-out can’t be pierced except with the sharpest of Elven blades. Throw in the fact that they’re about the length of two school buses and you’ve got yourself a problem when they deign to leave their nesting caves and enter a fight.

The Orcs and Elves were nearly overrun, and the surface tunnels they defended would have been “open for business”, until four Dragons arrived. An Elf captain gambled and made the call for the Dragons to unleash their full power; the results could be, passably, blamed on the volcano. It didn't go quite to plan: the Queen-scorpion was roasted but the tumultuous racket didn't measure up to the usual volcanic activity. Some enterprising scientists from Naples made the journey, poked around, stumbled down a hole, interrupted the post-battle clean-up, and boom. Gigantic culture shock, world-wide.

By the way, my name is Anthony Walker; 100% human African-American male. From Detroit, to be exact. Not that such specifics matter much these days. It's humans & our not-so-fairy tale allies against those damned Crawlers. You would probably have expected xenophobia to run wild across the world. Humans don’t have a great track record of dealing with those that don’t look like them, after all. And you’d be right; there was a very loud, very rude portion of humanity that had no desire to welcome The Hidden into society with open arms. But as it turns out, a much larger portion of humanity has either severe arachnophobia, severe ophidiophobia, or some combination of the two. Confronted with nightmares of the size of the Crawlers, teaming up with the Hidden became a no-brainer to world leaders.

Fellowship was further solidified by great body-camera captures of a Swedish soldier being pulled to his feet by an Orc, as an Elf helped a bleeding Nigerian away from the frontlines. Nothing like some good old bonding over war to convince humanity that you’re on their level. There’s actually a statue of the Orc helping the Swede to his feet in front of the U.N. now. It’s alongside the depiction of a U.S. Marine shaking hands with a Dragon warrior, and a Chinese soldier carrying two goblin children to safety. The integration was…surprisingly swift. Not all that smooth…but swift. Which leads us back to me.

Like I said, Anthony Walker. 29 years old, married, no kids, yet. I live in Hill Valley, California. Nice, picturesque suburb, a little way from San Diego, surrounded by hills. I played football in school back in The D, at Cass Tech and then Wayne State, and put in a few years in the NFL, bouncing around a few teams. Now, I teach at a vocational school for young adults, but I can’t seem to get off the field completely. I coach youth flag football in the evenings. And I say, with pride, that my Purple Raiders mirror the best of our society: we're the most integrated team in the Valley League. The Hidden kids are allowed to play things like flag football, where their physical strength or speed advantage is nullified by not having to be tackled, or doing the tackling themselves. I have 13 kids; seven Humans, one Elf, three Orcs, two Goblins, and now, a Dragon. Which still blows my mind, because the rarity of young Dragons is a well-known fact. And suddenly a family of Dragons, a very prominent one, it seems, moves to our little town and I win the lottery to get to coach one of their children, Caden Flamespinner.

He’s 15 summers out of the egg, by their count, but he carries himself like a late elementary-school age kid a lot of the time. Gets along real well with the other kids, especially the Hidden children. It seems his dad, Adon Flamespinner, is something of a war hero, and most of the Hidden borderline worship him. He apparently has three Queen-scorpions and a spider Clutch-Mother under his belt. I get the sneaking suspicion the family moved here to get away from the noise, as it were. Adon is a real humble guy, for a war-hardened, 8-foot, 300-poound, fire-throwing mass of muscles, armored scales, teeth, and fangs. And the big fellow can dress. Always an impeccable 3-piece suit that never clashes with his blue scales. I think I've seen him wear his people's traditional robes maybe twice all season? And he's at every game, without fail. Physically imposing when he approaches the stands and takes a seat to watch his boy, until you go up to him and the nicest voice, most genteel voice ever says, “Greetings and good afternoon!” He seems to know his own power, and doesn’t celebrate too loudly when his kid, or the team, does well. Which is now more and more frequent, I can note with no small amount of smug satisfaction.

My Purple Raiders: the Humans Devin Smith, Jevon Franklin, Alex Hall, Mindy Khan, Shao Lee, Jordan Pierre, Kyle Greene, & T.J. Tucker, the Elf Elagost, the Goblin twins Nuk & Nok, the Orcs Nash’in, Hun’tin, & Blay’der, and our Dragon Caden, are the fastest and probably the smartest team in the league. It’s probably not fair to take such great pride in coaching kids to be cerebral football players, but hey…I’m a cornerback by trade, and I’m gonna coach my kids up properly. I teach them how to take angles on the ball-carriers; none of that simple ‘run after the kid with the ball and hope you get his flag’. We run slightly more sophisticated plays than the average flag football team; real routes, trick plays, a lot of read-option. I teach Elagost, Caden, and T.J., our three main quarterbacks, how to go through their reads a little quicker, how to take advantage of their team-mates skills and abilities.

For example, the Goblin twins, Nuk and Nok, are short, but oh, so shifty. It’s like having two clones of Dante Hall out there…gotta work on their hands though. The Orcs’ stamina is relentless; those kids can play two full games and still climb all over the jungle gym afterwards with no problem…those are the guys you throw to at the end of the game when everyone else is gassed. The best hands are Caden, Jordan and Kyle…those boys can catch anything. Elagost, once I taught him the game, nay, the ART of football, became my coach on the field. He helps make adjustments on defense and on offense, he can always pinpoint the best point to attack the defense. Caden…man, Caden is fun to coach. He plays with so much fire and joy…combined with his speed and his arm-strength, having him under center or in the gun is some of the most exciting youth football you’ll ever see. Mindy is flat-out the fastest kid on our team: the whippings she puts on some of the boys in pre-game races are magnificent, and more than once, she’s had to be taken out of the game after a couple possessions, because she simply slipped behind the defense and sprinted down the field before anyone knew she was gone. Easy touchdowns. In fact, in a bit of rather transparent fairness, I actually keep Mindy, Elagost, Caden, Devin, and the twins on snap-counts on offense. And they are almost NEVER all on the field at once, except on defense. Once any one of those kids starts moving with the ball, it’s almost impossible to get their flags off their waists. They’re just that good. I really lucked out with my roster this year.

“Nice pull, Mindy!” I shouted, clapping. She gamely handed the flag back to the boy she’d marked down and accepted high-fives from T.J. and Kyle as the defense re-set. I had two of my favorite people by my side. My wife, Jackie, and my ‘assistant coach’ for this game, Kyle’s dad, and my best friend, Corey Greene. We played college ball together and got drafted to the same team. He balled out, I didn’t exactly do the same and got moved after two years. But that’s my boy, and the fact that he was a franchise player for San Diego may have played a role in my decision to keep renewing my lease even after they traded me. Corey nodded in approval as Kyle shouted a question to Elagost, who confirmed the coverage with a nod, leaving Kyle to run and switch assignments with Nuk. Or was it Nok? I squinted. No..the mohawk is Nok. Nuk has the single braid. Definitely Nuk. Identical twins are a trip in any race, I decided. “Nice shift, Kyle! Good job, El!” I noted. Kyle swallowed his pleased smile and focused on the kid across from him; Elagost sent me a sharp nod of acknowledgement even as he crept up to spy the quarterback.

Caden bounced up and down the sideline, a ball of competitive energy. “Let’s get that stop, Raiders!” he yelled. His team-mates did just that: Elagost tipped the desperate pass that was a result of his pressure, and Jordan caught it against his chest. The run-back appeared ill-fated as two kids converged on Jordan, but he shouted, “Kyle!” A flick of his wrist and Kyle snagged the ball out of the air with his finger-tips. “Good catch, nephew! Whoooo!” Jackie screamed. “House! House!” Corey yelled, leaping into the air beside me. His son did, in fact, take it to the house. A kick from Shao and we were up 35-7 in the third. Jackie looked at her watch. “Alright, baby…I got a conference call. See you in a few hours?” “Absolutely,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I love you,” she said, picking up her handbag. “Yo se,” I replied in my limited Spanish, eyes going back to the field. She grinned and left me with a smack to the bottom, causing chuckles from more than one parent and scandalized looks from the others.

A red zone fumble on the ensuing possession allowed me to put Caden, T.J., and Alex back in the game, calling back Mindy, Nuk, and Nok. “Last drive, Caden…we’re taking our foot off the gas,” I muttered, knowing the young Dragon’s sharp hearing caught the comment. He nodded and ran out to the field. He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Elagost for a moment to confer, then he called the huddle. “El’s coming for your job, coach,” Corey snarked. “Smart leaders delegate,” I fired back with a grin. I heard a slight, rumbling chuckle from behind us…Adon Windspinner seemed to have heard us from the stands.

Caden came to the line, yelled out the count, and took the snap from Hun’tin. He dropped back and scanned the field. I know for a fact he saw Kyle about to get open for the back-breaking score. He opted instead to flick it short to Alex, who got his flag pulled after a short pick up. Caden turned and looked at me, second-guessing his decision. I gave him a thumbs up…if he wanted to start running the clock now, instead of going for the glory with his final drive, I wasn’t going to stop him. Sportsmanship is something I love to see from my kids. El handed Alex his flag and tapped him on the head with a nod, making the blonde kid beam. Hun’tin ran for two short gains before Blay’der ran out of bounds for seemingly no reason, and I caught a look and a head-nod of thanks from the opposing coach. I gave him a subtle salute in return; he grinned, then resumed encouraging his team. Caden gave the folks one last show…taking a shotgun snap, running around for a bit waving at receivers, then taking off for a beautiful 30-yard scramble, looking like a blue bolt of lightning, to get us down to the goalline. Two consecutive Alex runs, and I sent Shao out for the kick, leaving Corey to loudly pretend we didn’t know what down it was. None of my kids said a word. Next series, Caden, Mindy, Kyle, Nuk, & Nok were sitting on the bench, flags off as a statement as the victory feeling set in.

I’ll say it again; I REALLY lucked out with my roster this year. I get the feeling the neighborhood districts will be ‘randomly redrawn’ in the offseason to spread the talent around, so I’ll have to make sure the kids enjoy the ride.

Which is why the Purple Raiders have currently taken over the event room at Mario’s Pizzeria & Game Corner. I managed to convince the parents to allow this post-game team-building exercise. There was some minor grumbling, but the wins piling up, and the kids’ insistence once I mentioned words like ‘pizza’ and ‘video games’, probably helped sway folks. I conscripted the twins’ mom Kahla, T.J.’s dad Carter, Shao’s uncle Li, Corey, and Adon Flamespinner himself as chaperones. If anyone had even the slightest issue with the noise the kids were making, I’m sure they kept it to themselves when they peeked in the party area and myself and Corey sitting on the tables, saw Li and Carter at the jukebox, looking over the Beach Boys discography, party lights bouncing off their San Diego PD badges, and saw a She-Goblin and a Dragon warrior standing at the ball-pit watching as kids did flips into the pool of plastic globes. Yeah, the kids are just fine, Karen; move along.

“Dad! Look!” Only three kids right now could say that, and since two of the dads in question were a cop and a warrior, their heads whipped around. Caden was the one calling out, and we all watched in interest as he leaped off the highest possible platform, tucked in for a somersault, then intentionally belly-flopped into the ball pit to laughter from his team-mates. He emerged grinning, his fangs on display. Bless the hearts of kids, they weren’t put off by the sight at all. This wasn’t an apex-predator or killing machine; this was their friend. The notion made me wish the older humans on the planet could see this moment. Corey resumed telling me about the picket signs outside the stadium at his last home game.

“The White Hats were there, again. It was a peaceful protest and they weren’t obstructing the ticketing gates, so stadium security didn’t exactly have cause to move them from the area. It just sucks, Ant. Pushing for the Hidden to be sent back underground, or interred in camps. People are sick.” He watched Kyle and Nuk teaming up on a fighting game, laying waste to the Foot Clan as two of the Ninja Turtles. “Look at this. One of my son’s best friends is a Goblin. Nuk is the nicest kid I’ve ever had in my house. Doesn’t get all wide-eyed at everything, doesn’t just sit in front of the trophy case or entertainment center, super polite, compliments Maria’s cooking…” I snorted, and was rewarded with a punch to the arm. The less said about Maria Cortez-Greene’s cooking attempts, the better. “Leave her alone. You got the one that can cook, fine. I got the love of my life, though,” Corey said, a dopey smile emerging on his face. I grinned. “My bad, bro…yes, Maria’s great for you, specially since you can cook yourself. Partners have to sync up...I can’t cook anything beyond pasta. Hence, Jacqueline Cortez-Walker.” “Mmhmm,” Corey said absently. “Man, what are the odds of two college roomies ending up dating gorgeous twins and thus actually becoming brother-in-laws?” “Eh, bout the same odds as the less talented one being a league star while the guy that carried him through college ends up teaching GED courses and coaching elementary school kids,” I said airily, taking a sip of my pop. Which I nearly spit out when Corey elbowed me in the stomach. His ensuing laughter mixed with that of the kids, and I had to smile myself. This…this moment was something that gave me peace. Life was good, I said to myself.

So it’s only natural that two hours later, in the middle of an unusually loud thunderstorm, curled up on the couch with Jackie (watching the umpteenth movie of that franchise that went from street races to saving the world with as many explosions as possible), I heard a pounding on my door. Exchanging a confused look with my wife, I untangled myself from her and stood, shouting, “Who is it?” The answer was another pounding. I slowed in my stride to the door. Maybe it was the Detroit in me, or the Inglewood in Jackie, but we were both suddenly tense. No one had called or texted to say they were on the way, they didn’t ring the doorbell, and there were no car lights outside. I shot a look at Jackie, who was suddenly leaning around the corner with one arm hidden. She nodded at me, and I knew she had my back. “Te amo,” I mouthed. “I know,” she whispered with a smirk. I looked out the peep-hole…whoever was out there was either hunched over, or very short…too short, in fact...

I opened the door and a fist that had been raised to knock a third time went through the empty air and the figure tumbled in at the loss of balance. I heard a whimpered: “Coach…” Then the kid simply collapsed to the floor. Jackie had her pistol halfway up before we both recognized our guest. And the fact that he was bleeding. Jackie let out a gasp and set the gun down, running towards me as I kneeled next to him. “Baby, do something!” she said. The kid’s eyes were closed, and he was bleeding from his arm and torso. I looked at the blood, at a complete loss. Not because I didn’t know you had to put pressure on a wound or something. No, I was stunned because I legitimately couldn’t think of anything that could actually cut Caden Flamespinner.

To be continued….