Kindred Spirits: How Luna Met Krazoa

Kindred Spirits
How Luna Met Krazoa
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Far beneath the beauty of the Sun City, pass the race tracks of Mid-City, all the way down past Down City, there is a zone most people forget about.

The Slums.

The Slums was the worst part of Dragon City. Where crime ran amok and Dragon City Security had all but abandoned the place. It was even worse than Squire’s End. Definitely not the place to raise a family. Unfortunately, kids can be found here, though not in a suitable living situation. In the Slums, there’s hardly a good life if you’re a kid. You could be born into a family who unknowingly or knowingly beats you on a daily basis. You could be orphaned and homeless. Or you could be sold to various crime syndicates. From drug trafficking to prostitution, it was absolute hell.

There was one child who was slightly lucky. She was five years old, scrawny, pale, and had silver hair and maroon eyes. She was dressed in a tattered lavender shirt and pants. She had no shoes on her dirty feet as she walked down the streets of the Slums in search of food. Why isn’t she home, you ask? Well, her mother was busy with a client.

Trisha Macbeth worked three different jobs in order to provide for herself and her daughter, Luna, after her lover abandoned her when she announced that she was pregnant. In the morning, she works as street cleaner. In the afternoon, she’s a construction worker. But her night job was her most profitable: prostitution. While she hated the world’s oldest profession, Trisha knew that you need to do what you can to live in the Slums. However, Trisha also made arrangements to keep her child safe. Among them was for Luna to leave the house for an hour while Trisha “got to work.”

But even at 5, Luna knew what her mother was doing. And she hated it. She hated the Slums more than she hated anything. Well, except for the man who sired her. That man was given the honor of a special, deeper hatred brewed by Luna. The greatest hatred anyone could conceive. She never knew who he was nor did she care. All she knew what that if she ever met the man, she would deliver a pain far worse than what he did to her mother.

Luna sighed as she sat on the sidewalk across from the one place that was the most vivacious in the Slums: the Slums-City Racetrack. Ever since she could remember, Luna had a love for dragons, much like the majority of the city. And in the Slums, the best non-criminal work was racing in the track.

But even the track had a limit when it came to rules. Still, winning the races at the Top 3 was enough for the winners to make it out of the Slums and up towards the upper levels of Dragon City. Though Luna often wondered what laid below the very city, even lower than the Slums. She heard many tales from an ancient ground-level city void of human life to many forms of an underworld.

Luna sighed as she continued her walk, wishing she had a dragon of her own. One who would not only be fast enough for her to enter (and possibly win) races, but also a friend to call her own. Children on the streets were scarce and for a good reason. Even in the day the Slums were a danger.
Suddenly, the sound of tumbling trashcans came from a nearby alleyway.  Luna gulped, thinking it might be one of the local gangs. Yet…her curiosity got the best of her. Carefully, she crept to the corner of a building and peaked around. What she saw widened her maroon eyes.

It was a dragon.

From its body shape, it was a Psi-Class dragon, the more preferred dragon in the lower districts. It had dark violet and dark magenta scales on top and blue underscales below. It had a couple of open scratches and wounds all over its body, the most noticeable being the notches on each ear. Luna’s heart froze in shock. This dragon had recently been in a fight and was looking worse for wear.

Abandoning common sense, Luna carefully approached the dragon. The dragon snarled before noticing the newcomer was a pup. Holding up her hands, Luna made an attempt to calm the dragon.

“I-It’s ok. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

The dragon was hesitant, but allowed the child to touch it. As soon as she was able to touch it, Luna began to examine the dragon. She found the worse wounds on the neck, shoulder, tail, and side.
This was very bad. Unless they got some help, the dragon would bleed out. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any place in the Slums that could care for a wounded dragon. Not without a price, that is. But Luna did know of this one place. It was up in Mid-City. Normally, citizens would take the walkways to get to one part of the city to another. But in times of emergency, there was an express elevator that could take them to Mid-City in time.

But there was a problem. One of the most powerful crime families in the Slums guard the elevator door for the Slums. Unless you had some sort of payment, there was no way you could use the elevator. At least, alive and unscathed that is.

Yet, Luna was smart. Earlier that day, she made some smoke bombs in her home when her mother went to her day jobs. Thinking, Luna came up with an idea to get the dragon help. It was going to be risky, but it may also be their only chance. Looking up to the dragon, Luna spoke to the dragon.

“We need to get you to Mid-City. There’s an elevator that can help us cut time. But it’s guarded. I got some smoke bombs in my pocket, but we need to move.”

Weakening, the dragon didn’t argue as the girl climbed onto its back. It followed Luna’s directions until they reached the end of the fifth ally they took.

“Hold it! We’re here!” Luna whispered harshly.

The dragon strained its eyes and waited for said eyes to clear. Once they did, it caught sighed of a set of closed doors and four humans guarding it. Four nasty-looking humans, to be accurate. Quick, Luna pulled out the ping-pong-sized smoke bombs and a lighter from her pocket. The lighter was left behind by one of her mother’s clients.

“When I give the signal, run to the doors. Think you can do that?” She asked.

The dragon, despite getting tired, nodded. With the dragon’s approval, Luna lit the smoke bombs and tossed them into the opening. Almost immediately, the smoke bombs wore off and smoke covered the area.

Hearing the grunts and groans of the thugs, Luna patted the dragon’s neck and the pair ran straight ahead to the door. Once they were there, Luna slid off the dragon’s tail and reached to touch the button. Suddenly, a large hand grabbed Luna’s wrist and lifted her tiny body up into the air. Luna struggled to free herself, but found herself face to face with one of the thugs.

The thug smirked. “Well, well, well. What do we have here? A street rat that needs to learn her place?”

The dragon didn’t like what the human’s voice was implying and was quick to act.
Using its paw, the dragon smacked the thug into the wall and, using its mag energy, caught the girl before she fell hard to the ground. Despite her wrist aching, Luna turned to the dragon as she pressed the elevator button.

“Thank you. Now let’s go!”

Without another word, the pair hopped into the elevator and Luna quickly pressed the button for Mid-City and only breathed a sigh of relief when the elevator doors closed and the car was heading upward.

Neither Luna nor the dragon rode an elevator before. So the gravitation pressure agitated their bodies, especially their stomachs. Luna wondered how long it would be before she could throw up whatever remained in her stomach when the car came to a stop. Climbing back on the dragon, Luna covered her eyes as the elevator door opened. When her eyes adjusted to the light, Luna was amazed at the sight of Mid-City.

Instead of a dark, dirty, and dismal place like the Slums, Mid-City was bright, colorful, and cleaner. She saw people dressed in better clothing and the dragons were neither wild nor beaten up.

It was a wondrous sight for the 5 year-old.

Hearing the dragon she was on panting, Luna remembered why she was in Mid-City in the first place.

“Come on. Let’s find those stables.”

Without another word save for directions, the pair were off.

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Hours later, Luna was waking up from a very comfortable sleep on a soft couch. They reached the stables, Penn Stables, a while ago and the owner was with several healers, attending to the dragon’s needs. Luna was told to wait inside the house while the dragon was being tended to. With the excitement they went through, both dragon and human fell asleep once they reached their destinations.

Luna was envious of the lifestyle the people of Mid-City had. Having been used to sleep on a lumpy mattress on the floor with a single blanket, the child never knew such comfort or that sleep could be a good thing. Now her wish for a better life for her and her mother grew stronger.
The sound of an opening door caught Luna’s attention. Turning around, she saw the red-bearded owner approaching her with a smile.

“Your dragon’s going to be ok. The doctors closed the deep wounds and cleaned up the lesser wounds. He’s very lucky to have you.”

While Luna was happy to hear that and was surprised to hear that the dragon she met was a male, she spoke up.

“He’s not my dragon. Nobody but the major families own dragons in the Slums. I just found him in an alley and knew he needed help.”

This caught the man by surprise. This brave, bright girl was from the Slums? More ever, how did they get from the Slums to Mid-City in such a short while? When he asked her about how she got the dragon from the Slums to Mid-City, the girl was hesitant at first. She was often told to be wary of strangers. Yet, something in her told her that this man was alright.

And so she regaled him with the tale of what had transpired. She told him about how she came across the dragon, the trek to the elevator, smoke-bombing the thugs guarding it, to when they arrived at the stables. Each moment, the stable master found himself more intrigued. Once Luna was finished, the stable master spoke.

“That’s quite a tale, little one. You have courage.”

A faint tint of red appeared on Luna’s cheeks, causing her to look to the floor.

“Well, I just couldn’t let him bleed out.”

It was then the stable master proposed something.

“How would you, for a reward, like to keep him?”

The question caused Luna’s eyes to widen with both excitement and confusion. While it was true that she’d love to have a dragon, there was a small problem.

“I…I can’t. I want to. Really! But me and my mom barely make enough money to feed us and keep the house. How can we keep a dragon when we can’t feed it?”

That was indeed a predicament. The stable master had heard about how hard it was to live in the Slums and thought it would be best if the child could have her own dragon. That way, she could race and make more money when she was older. Yet, dragon’s got to eat. The stable master thought for a moment before he finally came up with an idea.

“How about this, then? Your friend can stay here. He’s only five, so he’s still fairly young. And I can also teach you how to ride a dragon. But for him to stay and for your lessons, you’ll need to help him earn his keep.”

This caused Luna to raise an eyebrow.

“How?”

“You can come here every day and do some odd jobs around here. Clean the stables, feed the dragons, pick up deliveries, and so on. I’ll even pay you an honest wage and you can keep your dragon.”

That was enough to sell Luna. Money and her own dragon in the same sentence. It was enough to give Luna her answer.

“You got a deal, mister. I’ll have to talk to my mom, though.”

The stable master gave a kindly smile before nodding.

“That’s alright. I would have to speak to your mother about this anyway. But we can discuss that later. I only have one question left.”

“And that is?” Luna asked.

The stable master led the girl out to the stables, right to the pen where the Psi-Class dragon was.
“What are you going to name him?”

Luna put in some thought as she approached the fallen dragon. He “purred” happily as she stroke his head. She let out a giggle as the dragon gave a content smile as she continued to pet him. The dragon mystified her in a way that she could not describe. Almost as if his spirit was resonating with her own.

That was when Luna got an idea. Ever since she could remember, Luna always heard stories about special spirits from her mother. Trisha would tell her daughter about how these spirits unified the planet and were able to keep as much peace as possible. At least, outside human interference. Trisha had a name for these spirits and after seeing the spirit of the dragon before her, Luna had her answer.

“Krazoa. His name will be Krazoa.”

And so, Luna became a stable girl after her mother gave permission. Each day, she would perform her duties and hung out with the dragons and the stable master. Mostly with Krazoa. There was hardly a day where the pair weren’t together and soon became so inseparable that Krazoa was allowed to stay in the Slums with Luna and Trisha.

And after five years of lessons and work, Luna and Krazoa entered the Slum City Races and began their journey as Champions of the Slums and as treasure hunters. It would be another six years before they would be approached by a man who sought to add them to the infamous Dragon Eye Crew.

But that is another story…