George soldiers’ hiding in that maze,” she continued, smiling down at me. “All hunting you. All looking to kill you. Welcome to phase two of your training, hatchling. I want you to go in there and survive as long as you can.”

I stared into the room, trying to catch glimpses of my attackers, these “soldiers” of St. George. I couldn’t see anything, but I was quite certain they could see me and were probably watching us right now.

“How long is long enough?” I asked quietly.

“Until I say so.”

Of course. With a sigh, I began walking toward the maze, but Scary Talon Lady’s voice stopped me before I took three steps.

“What do you think you’re doing, hatchling?”

Annoyed, I turned back, wondering what I’d done wrong this time.

“I’m doing what you told me to. Go into maze, get shot at, survive.

Isn’t that what you want?”

My instructor gave me a blatant look of disgust and shook her head. “You’re not taking this seriously. If you are trapped in a ware-house with a team of well trained, heavily armed St. George soldiers, do you really think you are going to survive as a human?”

I stared at her, frowning, before I got what she was really saying.

“You…you mean I can do this in my real form?”

She rolled her eyes. “I do hope your brother catches on faster than you. It would be a shame to lose you both to stupidity.”

“Yes!” I whispered, clenching my fist. I barely heard the insult. I could finally be a dragon without breaking the rules. That almost made this whole crazy exercise worth it.

My trainer snapped her fingers and pointed to a large stack of crates in the corner.

“If you are concerned about modesty, or your clothes, you may change over there,” she ordered in a flat voice. “Though you are eventually going to have to get over that. There will be no time to find a bathroom if you are being chased by snipers in helicopters.”

I hurried over and ducked behind the boxes then shrugged out of my clothes as fast as I could. My body rippled as the dragon burst free again, wings brushing against the wooden crates as they unfurled for the second time that morning. It was still liberating, still completely freeing, even after a whole night of flying around.

My talons clicked over the concrete as I stalked back to the maze, feeling comfortable and confident in my dragon skin. Even Scary Talon Lady didn’t look quite so scary anymore, though she eyed my dragon self with as much bored disdain as she did my human self.

“Hold still,” she ordered, and pressed something into my ear hole, right behind my horns. I snorted and reared back, shaking my head, and she cuffed me under the chin. “Stop that. It’s just an ear bud.

It will allow me to communicate with you in the maze, and to hear everything that is going on around you. So stop twitching.”

I curled my lip, trying not to think about it, even though it was uncomfortable. My trainer didn’t notice. “On my signal,” she continued, pulling out her phone, “you have two minutes to find a good position and prepare for the hunt. If you are shot, you are ‘dead.’

Which means you have two minutes to find another position before the hunt starts again, and I add another fifteen minutes to the overall game. How long we are here depends on how long you survive, understand?”

Crap. That meant I just would have to avoid getting shot. No way I was staying here all afternoon, not with Garret waiting for me. Dragon or no, I’d promised him a surf lesson, and I still wanted to see him. “Yes,” I answered.

“I will be observing your progress from up top,” she continued, “so do not think you can lie about being killed. We will stay here all day if that is what it takes until I am satisfied.”

Double crap. How long I would have to stay alive before this unappeasable woman was “satisfied”? Probably much longer than I thought.

“Two minutes,” Scary Talon Lady reminded me. “Starting…now.”

I spun, claws raking over the cement, and bounded into the maze.

I didn’t see any soldiers as I wove my way through the endless corridors, peeking around crates to make sure the aisles were empty. Everything remained very quiet, save for my breathing, and the click of my talons on the cement. As I crept farther into the room, no one shot at me, nothing moved in the shadows, no footsteps shuffled over the ground. Where were these so-called soldiers, anyway? Maybe this was an elaborate hoax my trainer had cooked up, to make me paranoid. Maybe there was no one here at all…Something small and oval dropped into the corridor from above, bounced once with a metallic click, and came to rest near my claws.

As I stared in confusion, there was a sudden deafening hiss, and white smoke erupted from the tiny object, spewing everywhere. I backed away, squinting, but the smoke had completely filled the aisle and I couldn’t see where I was going.

Shots erupted overhead, and several blows struck me from all sides.

As the smoke cleared, I looked up to see six humans standing atop the aisle, three on either side. They wore heavy tactical gear and ski masks, and carried large, very real looking guns in their hands. My whole body was covered in red paint, dripping down my scales and spattering to the concrete. I cringed as the realization hit. I’d stood no chance against them. I’d walked right into their ambush, and if these were real St. George soldiers, I’d be blown to bits.

“And, you’re dead,” buzzed a familiar voice in my ear, as the figures slipped away and vanished as quickly as they had appeared. “A very dismal start, I’m afraid. Let us hope you can turn this around, or we will be here all day. Two minutes!”