[Ty's POV]

Eighth grade had ended. Summer had arrived. The excited screams of kids who were released from school could probably be heard for miles. My friends and I were the same way as everyone else. As soon as the final bell rang in through school, we sprinted out the door, through the hallways, and into the streets along with a stream of our classmates. We laughed as we walked to our homes, most of us taking the long route back so we could talk longer.

The conversation we were having wasn't anything exciting. It was mainly about how glad we were that we finally got out of our prison of a middle school, and what everyone is doing this summer, which in almost everybody's case was unknown. The only person who knew what they were doing this summer was me, and I was not happy about it.

"So wait," Martin interrupted me in the middle of my rant. "You're spending the entire summer at a camp? All alone?"

"Yes, Martin, that's what I've been complaining about for the past five minutes," I said.

"Jeez, that's rough. And your mom's making you do this?"

I nodded. "She hates me, so she went searching for an all-summer-long camp. It's up in the northern part of New York, and it has a technology ban. It's going to absolutely suck."

We all spent the next ten minutes ranting about how dumb the summer camp I was being forced to go to was going to be, and when we met up with Jerome and Husky, I explained the situation to them, then they started ranting along with us. By the time we arrived at my house, we were all having one big complaining party. Even Jason was complaining with us, and he never complained about anything. Needless to say, we weren't in as good of a mood as we were a half an hour before.

As I started walking up the pathway to my house, Jerome called out, "Hey Ty! When are you leaving?"

"In two weeks."

"We'll plan something fun then," Jason said. "Just so you have a little bit of fun before you leave."

I smiled back at my friends. "Sounds good. Meet you guys in the forest tomorrow?"

A chorus of yeahs came from the group, and I walked into my house to find an unpleasant sight. My brother, Caleb, and the twins, Kylee and Jamie, were sitting on the couch watching TV with my mom. Caleb looked at me with an evil smirk on his face. "Hey Ty. How's it going, little brother?"

"What are you doing here?" I hissed

"School's out for us too, idiot," Kylee said. "Believe it or not, college students get a break too."

"Great," I muttered. "Now I'm almost glad I'm going to that stupid summer camp."

My mom turned and glared at me. "Tyler, first off, that is no way to greet your siblings. Second, you had better start sounding more grateful for the opportunity to go to that camp. It isn't cheap. I'm being very generous sending you there."

"Well, maybe I don't want to go, Huh?!" I snapped. "Have you ever thought of that before?! You know what? No. You haven't. Because the only reason you signed me up for this camp was to get rid of me for the summer and punish me by not letting me see my friends. I wouldn't exactly call that generous."

She then stood up and gave me a hearty slap. "That is no way to talk to your mother! Go to your room right now, and come back out when you're ready to apologize. If this happens again you won't be leaving this house until camp rolls around."

I glared at her and started walking to my room. "You know, I don't get why you hate me so much," I called back. "If you ever want to tell me why, I'd love to know." I made sure to slam the door extra hard when I got to the end of the hallway.

Flopping down on my bed and taking off my now signature headphones, I forced myself to fall asleep. I wasn't planning on going back downstairs for anything if it means apologizing to my mom. Dinner can just merge into an all-you-can-eat buffet with the guys tomorrow.

Sun bathed my little room once morning came. I groaned, rolled over, and covered my head with my pillow in response. It's the first day of summer vacation. Screw getting up. It's not like I'll have the opportunity to sleep in much longer anyways.

Unfortunately, more sleep was prevented by a loud banging on my door. "Hey! Dweeb!"

"What do you want, Caleb?" I groaned.

"One of your idiot friends is at the door, and he won't go away. Get up so we can get rid of him!"

I pushed myself off my bed and quickly threw on clothes and my headphones, glancing out the window in my hurry to see who was there. It was Ian, and it looked like Caleb was there making fun of him or something. I quickly ran downstairs to grab some breakfast, being stopped by Natalie along the way.

"Hey! Where are you going in such a hurry?" she asked. "And what happened last night? I got home and mom said that you were already asleep."

"I'm meeting my friends, and yeah, I went to sleep around five. It's no big deal. Really. Now, I've gotta go."

Before I could make my way around her, she stood in the middle of the doorway, blocking the entrance. "You and mom fought, didn't you?"

"Of course. Nothing abnormal. Now, I really need to go, and I'm starving, so…"

She mirrored my movements so I couldn't get in the kitchen. "Ty, can't you at least try to get along with her? It would make both of your lives so much easier."

"I have tried. You can see how that has worked out. I'm being sent away to this summer camp because of her. And I'm probably going to be grounded for the two weeks I am here for going out to see my friends and trying to have fun after fighting with her yesterday. I've just come to accept that. Now, seriously, Ian's waiting outside for me, and I don't want to subject him to the horror that is Caleb anymore."

Natalie sighed in defeat, and stepped aside. "Alright. Don't do anything too stupid today, okay?"

I nodded, grabbed a granola bar, then headed towards the front door to meet Ian. Caleb was, in fact, making fun of him when I got there. How petty. I interrupted Caleb right as he was saying something about Ian's glasses. "Hey Caleb? I thought you were twenty two. Why are you making fun of a fourteen year old? Don't you have better, adult things to do with your time? Oh wait, with the way you always act, there's no way you'd ever even be considered an adult. My bad."

He whipped his head around and glared at me. "Since when did you get all this confidence, Ty?"

"Since this morning. Now, excuse me." I pushed past him and dragged Ian away from the house.

"Jeez, how can you live with that?" he asked me as soon as he was sure we were out of earshot.

"It's been that way forever. I got used to it pretty quickly. We're going to Jerome and Husky's place, right?"

"Yep. Race you there." With that, he sprinted down the road, leaving me in the dust.

I smiled and ran after him. "Hey! You're a terrible friend!"

"No, I'm a great friend," he called to me, slowing down a bit so we were running side by side. "You need your daily workout to stay healthy. I'm motivating you to do so. See you there, slowpoke." He ran ahead again, but this time I was only a few feet behind him.

"You're not gonna win too easily, Ian!"

We got to the top of the hill by the forest in about twenty minutes (I won the race, by the way), and walked along the creek until we came to Jerome and Husky's little shack. There we saw all the guys were sitting in a circle, and in the center sat a platter of brownies.

My mouth started watering. "Are those Martin's mom's?" I asked.

Martin nodded and tossed me one. "She baked a huge order for some party yesterday, but the people never came to pick them up. I just stole one of the plates."

Mitch finished his brownie then let out a satisfied sigh. "I love having a friend who's mom owns a bakery." Everyone agreed as Ian and I sat down and took a few brownies for oursevles. As soon as I bit into it, it tasted like a chocolate factory exploded in my mouth. I'm not sure what Martin's mom does to make these, but she has some sort of special touch that makes baked goods absolutely amazing. Not five minutes later the entire plate was cleared of any remaining chocolate, and we all had smiles on our faces.

"Okay, now for the reason that we're actually here," Adam said, pulling us all out of our brownie-induced trance.

"Right. Ty," Jason turned to look at me, "that camp that you're going to, would it happen to be called Camp Sunlight?"

"Yeah, it is," I grunted. "It has the cheesiest name ever too. Camp Sunlight sounds like a made up camp from a Disney movie or something."

Everybody chuckled. Well, except for Jerome. "What's a Disney?"

"That's a conversation for another time, my friend," Mitch told him, patting his shoulder. "Anyways, go on Jason."

"Right. So, what if I told you we all went home, did a bit of research on this camp, and signed up?"

My eyes widened. "Wait, are you serious?"

They all nodded. "When you left, we all decided that we wouldn't be doing anything significant this summer, so we went home and looked up summer camps in New York. This was the only one up north, so we assumed it was the one and had our parents see if there were any spots left," Adam explained. "Apparently this camp is super big, and people from all over the country come to it, so there were still like, twenty spots left."

A wide smile spread across my face. "You guys are the best!"

"Hey, we couldn't leave our buddy alone all summer," Ian commented.

I looked over at Jerome and Husky, who had been sitting there quietly this entire time. "What about the animals over here? Are they gonna hide out in the forest there or something?"

Jerome shook his head. "We couldn't figure out a way to hide up there, get food, and see you guys without getting caught. It'd just be easier if we stayed behind."

"What about food and stuff?"

"You're worried about our food situation? Please. What do you think I did before I met you guys? We'll be fine." Jerome assured.

Husky chimed in, "And I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too illegal."

I looked around at my friends. "You know, maybe this camp thing won't be too bad."

The two weeks before camp dragged on and on. It didn't help that, just like I thought, I got grounded for leaving the house without asking my mom if I could beforehand. I mostly stayed in my room for that time, packing and waiting for the day to come.

When the day finally came, I had to endure the two hour car ride with my mom. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, maybe for her to insult me in some way the entire time, but the drive was surprisingly quiet. She never even acknowledged my presence. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this…

It didn't matter for too long, I guess. We arrived at the camp soon enough. I stepped out of the car with my duffle bag into a large green space with about twenty or so different log cabins arranged in two lines, ten on each side. At the end of the two cabin lines there was a huge lodge with a fire pit in front of it, and behind that a bright blue lake and a little beach. Behind the left line of cabins a dense forest with tall trees covered the rest of the land. In front of it all was a big wooden sign that read "Camp Sunlight" with a smiling sun in the corner. A group college age people, probably the counselors, were standing not too far from the entrance.

Once one of the male counselors spotted us, he whispered something to the rest of them, and they all walked to various places around the camp. He then walked up to my mom and me with a clipboard. "Hi," he said, looking at me with a cheery smile. "I'm Kevin."

"This is Tyler," my mom responded before I could answer.

Kevin glanced down at his clipboard. "Tyler...ah! Right! You're in cabin ten. It's the closest to the lake on the left side. Just drop your stuff off there and grab a bunk." He then turned to look at my mom. "Have you paid already, ma'am?"

She nodded. "And I have his health forms right here."

"Perfect! Just run those down to the lodge and then you're free to go." We walked side by side until I got to cabin ten, then my mom and I went our separate ways without a word.

The cabin was a good size. There were maybe twenty or so bunk beds squeezed into the room, and each bed had a dresser to go with it. A few small windows were scattered around the log room with rays of sun shining through them, lighting up the entire cabin. On the ceiling, fans spun around, filling the air with a cool breeze. Overall, it was pretty nice, but empty. All the bunks were vacant, waiting for the incoming campers. I was the only one there. Figures. Only my mom would drop me off at camp half an hour before check in starts.

I walked over to a bottom bunk in the back right corner and, having nothing else to do, started sorting all my stuff into the old wooden dresser at the foot of my bed. I hadn't brought a lot, mostly clothes, a couple of games, and of course my headphones. Yes, I know very well about the no technology rule at the camp, but I couldn't bare to leave them at home. If I had, it was very likely I wouldn't be getting them back, so I decided that I would just hide them the whole time. That was better than not having them at all. I was weird not having them on, though. I was so used to the weight that they put on my head that now it felt like I had just shaved all my hair off.

After I was done throwing all my stuff into the drawers and rolling out my sleeping bag on the bed, I sat and played with the two purple wristbands on my wrists. I haven't flipped them since I got them all those years ago, but just them being there made me feel like the Ender Dragon was going to pop up out of nowhere and turn me into Enderlox. Now that I think about it, ever since I was little Enderlox has been on my mind. Mainly why the Ender Dragon gave me the abilities. Why give a little kid all that power, then never tell him anything about it again? What would the point be? I looked down at the wristbands. Maybe the Dragon knew somehow I wouldn't flip the wristbands until some point when I was older, so it's just waiting to come out when do. Or maybe it realized that I wasn't using the power and moved on to the next person. Maybe these things don't work anymore. The human eyes on the bands stared back at me, almost taunting me. You'll never know if we work if you don't try anything they seemed to say. You'll have to try eventually. You have to know.

"Shut up," I mumbled to the fake voice I was giving the bands. However, it did have a point. I do want to know if they still work. If I still have supernatural powers, I deserve to know. I glanced around the room. It was still empty. I looked back down and shrugged. "Well, what do I have to lose?" I shoved my finger under the left band, and was about to flip it over when the door to the cabin swung open, and a boy my age with long black hair wearing a watermelon t-shirt and...old 3D glasses for some reason, burst into the cabin.

"Harv! Over here!" the boy called outside with a high pitched voice. He turned around and smiled at me, then walked over and flopped onto the bed across from mine. "Hi!"

I gave him a weird look. "Uh… hi."

"This is cabin ten, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool." He stuck out a hand. "I'm Bashur."

"Ty," I replied, shaking his hand awkwardly.

"You're here super early. Where'd you come from?"

"Uh…"

"That's not exactly the first thing you ask a guy, Bash," a new voice commented.

Both Bashur and I turned to look at the new person. I assume Bashur knew the guy, because he stuck his tongue out at him. "Whatever, Harvey. At least I'm trying to make friends."

Harvey rolled his eyes and looked at me. "Ignore Bashur. He's weird."

"You're weird."

"Anyways, I'm Harvey, incase you didn't know. We just arrived with all the people who flew in from other places."

I nodded. "I'm Ty. I'm here early because my mom didn't want me around any longer." The two of them laughed at my comment, and I laughed along. They don't need to know that's actually true.

I sat and talked to Harvey and Bashur (if that's even his real name. I may never know) for a little while. They told me that they (and by they, I mean Harvey who just brought Bashur along) won a competition and came here all the way from California. They also told stories about the weird people who also came from other places around the country. While they talked, I got a good grasp on their personalities. Bashur was way more outgoing and enthusiastic than Harvey, and he was also not afraid to tell embarrassing stories. Harvey was a bit more reserved, but he always was smiling. They both seemed like nice guys. Soon enough we talking and laughing like old friends, not even noticing the other boys coming one by one into the cabin.

Our conversations went on uninterrupted for a good hour or so, then someone decided to so rudely come into the cabin and tackle me with a pillow. And by someone, I mean Adam. "Ty! We have arrived!" he announced as I tried to push the pillow off my face so I could breathe.

When I finally escaped from feather-filled suffocation, I glared at him. "And you had to try to kill me to show that?!"

He smirked and shrugged. "What else do friends do?"

"Adam," Ian's mom voice called from the doorway. "It's not nice to suffocate your friends."

Adam frowned. "Aww… but mom…" The three of us laughed at the inside joke, but when my eyes trailed to Bashur and Harvey, I noticed that they were staring at various things around the room, being sure to avoid my friends and I. I should probably do something to stop this awkwardness.

"Adam, Ian, this is Harvey and Bashur," I introduced. "Harvey, Bashur, these are my friends Adam and Ian. We go to school together."

They all said hi, then we started up another conversation. It was a bit stiff for a while, but soon we were all talking like we had known each other forever. One by one, my other friends arrived and got involved in the group too. Achievement unlocked-new friends made. We sat around the bunks talking for a good hour as a whole group.

Bashur was in the middle of telling us the story of why he's wearing his old 3D glasses when a loud, "Hey campers!" interrupted him. We all looked up from our little friendship circle to see the counselor who had first welcomed me, Kevin, along with another guy I didn't recognize. They stood by the doorway and beckoned for us and the rest of the guys who were in the cabin to gather around them. There were about forty people crowded around them when we all got over there. Kevin and the other counselor, who he introduced as Steve, told us about the different activities that would be offered during our time here (like canoeing, crafts, swimming, typical camp stuff), and also laid some ground rules for our cabin. After the serious talk was done, we sat in a circle and played some icebreakers, went out to the campfire, met the other counselors, and then split off into our cabins again to do a group activity. For cabin ten, that was canoeing.

Now, I have never stepped foot into a boat before, and I hadn't been planning to anytime soon, thanks to my little problem with water. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out of it this time. As Kevin went around assigning us each a partner, I silently prayed that mine wouldn't be reckless like Adam or Mitch. Kevin approached me, and shoved me over towards Harvey. "You two are together," he told us. I glanced over at Harvey, who smiled back. I guess my situation could be worse. Harvey seems like a careful guy.

Two by two, everyone went over and grabbed one of the old metal canoes that the camp had. Harvey and I hopped in ours, then pushed ourselves until we could easily paddle through the water. I almost had a panic attack three different times while we were making our way out to the middle of the lake, and I had to be super careful not to splash myself, but other than that I guess it was pretty fun. We rowed around the calm blue lake, having a pleasant conversation, with the occasional interruption from someone messing with us by shoving out boat around. That gave me a scare, but soon it was over, and we were back on dry land.

The rest of the day consisted of dinner, an uneventful all-camp game of soccer, and campfire. At said campfire, the whole camp did the cheesy singalong thing that they always have the campers do in movies. After that, the campers younger than fourteen went back to their cabins to get ready for bed, while the older campers stayed around the fire, making s'mores, star gazing, and just hanging out. It was supposed to help people mingle, but really people just stayed with their cliques anyways. My friends and mainly stayed over by the fire, hoarding the s'more ingredients. At one point while we were having s'more eating contest (Mitch was winning with seven, but Martin wasn't far behind with six, and was in the middle of making his seventh) Harvey stopped in the middle of roasting a marshmallow and tapped me on the shoulder. "Ty, can you come over here for a sec?"

I nodded, shoved the rest of my s'more in my mouth, and followed him away from the fire. As soon as we were out of earshot of anyone else, Harvey asked, "So, what was your deal earlier today?"

"What do you mean?"

"When we were in the canoe, you seemed a little freaked out. Like, you flinched whenever you rowed, and when someone crashed into us, you looked like you were going to have a heart attack. Are you afraid of water or something?"

I felt an embarrassed blush rise up onto my cheeks. "...maybe."

Even though it was dark out, I could see a smirk on his face. "Wait, seriously?"

"I have a good reason," I snapped, getting all defensive.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

I realized too late that I dug myself into a hole, and everything I say will only dig me deeper. "I...uh...it...burnsmewhenItouchit."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No."

"And how long ago was it that you found out water burns you?"

"Uh...about eleven years ago…"

Harvey stifled a laugh. "Okay Ty, that's a little ridiculous. First off, you were, what, three years old? Three year olds have overactive imaginations. It's very possible that you imagined the whole thing. Second, have you touched water since you found out?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then how do you know it still burns you?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't reason my way out of this one. Even if I did want to tell him about my encounter with the Ender Dragon, that could have easily been a figment of my imagination too. I thought about that for a second. Could I have been fearing something my whole life that didn't even exist?

Harvey's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Look, sorry if I seem like I'm judging you. It just seems a little strange, you know?"

"No, no," I said to him. "You're probably right. It's kinda stupid that I've been believing that this whole time."

He patted me on my shoulder. "Well, that's all I wanted to say. Now let's go find out who won the contest, shall we?"

It had been hours since all the campers had gone back to their cabins and fell asleep. Everyone had slipped off to their own little dream land, except for me. I wish I could say that Adam's excessive snoring was the cause for my still being awake, but unfortunately it wasn't. I was too busy arguing with myself.

It was way too realistic. It happened. There's no way it didn't.

But it's not realistic. I mean, really, a dragon? Dragons don't even exist. And even if they did, why would it make you a half dragon hybrid thing? Seems pretty fake to me.

Yeah, but I was gone for a month. Where would I be if I wasn't with the dragon?

Someone may have kidnapped you. The last thing you saw before you collapsed was a man, wasn't it?

Yeah, but I also have the wristbands. Where would those have come from?

Well-

"Shut up," I mumble to the voices in my head, standing up and going over to my dresser. I pulled out my headphones from the back of it and threw them on, like they would help drown out the voices. "Why does this even matter?" The answer was obvious. Whether or not my experience with the Ender Dragon happened could change my entire life. I wanted, needed, to know if it happened. And there's only one way to do that.

I tiptoed my way to the front of the cabin and quietly slipped out the door. No one seemed to wake up inside, so I assumed I was safe. I then walked over to the woods and ran until I felt I was deep enough inside that no one could possibly see me. I sat down to catch my breath. "Do I really want to do this?" I asked myself. I glanced down at my wrists, already knowing that I wouldn't let myself turn back. Besides, wasn't I planning on doing this exact same thing earlier? I might as well finish what I started.

"Just do it quickly, Ty," I mumbled. "Rip off the band-aid." I flipped the wristband on my left wrist, then the other. After that I sat and waited. And waited. And waited some more. After about two minutes, nothing had happened.

"Huh," I said, a bit of relief in my voice. "I guess it was all just my imagination." I spoke too soon. As soon as I stood up to sneak back into the cabin, a familiar pain filled my body as I crumpled back down on the grass, tears spilling out of my eyes. It took all my willpower to not cry out in pain. When it finally faded into a dull throb, I tried my luck and stood up.

The first thing I noticed was that I could see everything in the forest as if it was day. Then I moved my hand to my back. I felt two wings sticking out from in between my shoulder blades. "It was real," I whispered.

"Welcome back, my friend."

A sense of dread shot through me. The voice sounded like a low growl, with no sense of humanity to be heard in it. I spun around, looking for a pair of glowing purple eyes.

"Oh, you won't actually see me. I'm just here to talk. Although, I feel like this will be a very one sided conversation. It won't take long, I promise. I know you need to get back to your camping activities."

I looked up at the sky uncomfortably. "Uh...I'm good. I'll just get going…"

"SIT DOWN!"

I plopped myself down on the ground and shut up.

"Good, good. First off, I feel I need to tell you why I gave you these abilities. You see, there is a kingdom that is in need of a ruler. I want to take it, but I have no way of getting to it. You are one of the rightful heirs to this kingdom, so what better way to take it then through you? The people will have a king of royal blood, and I will be able to use the land for my people. However, I'm afraid there are other powerful people who also want this kingdom for themselves, and they will stop at nothing to get it. The abilities you have are to help defend what is rightfully yours, and what is to be mine. Now-"

"Wait wait wait, hold up," I interrupted. "What do you mean I'm a 'rightful heir' to this kingdom? I'm the kid of a woman who hates me and a man who's dead. I'm not exactly royal. Besides, there aren't any real kingdoms left. How am I supposed to rule something that doesn't exist?"

"I'm afraid I don't have time to tell you everything. Even just talking through dimensions is exhausting."

"Dimensions? Wha-"

"LET ME FINISH! All you need to do is to become more familiar with your powers, and that kingdom will be ours. Understand?"

"Uh, can I ask a question?" I squeaked. "If you really wanted me to be powerful and such, why not talk to me sooner? Wouldn't it have been more useful to tell me what's going on when I was young so I could develop my 'abilities'?"

The Dragon's voice paused for a second. "I wanted to let you have your freedom, so when you encounter the others, you'll see I'm much more generous than they are."

"That doesn't make any-"

The Dragon cut me off. "I'm out of time. Goodbye, Deadlox. Until we meet again."

The forest went silent, and I was left alone. I sighed. "When I decided to see if I actually saw the dragon all those years ago, I wasn't expecting that much of an answer." I flipped both wristbands back over, and I was back to my normal self. I then headed back to cabin ten.

I walked in a trance, thinking about what the Dragon said. Me? A heir to a kingdom? That was laughable. Why would anyone use me to get a kingdom? And who were these "others"? Why were they so vicious? What did he mean he was talking across dimensions? Was this so called kingdom in another dimension? And why does he call me Deadlox?

My head spun while I walked, causing me to crash into a tree. "Ow…" It was a good thing the tree snapped me out of my daze, because I was about ten feet away from walking into camp. It would've been hard to explain why I was in the woods if someone had caught me. Oh, hi random counselor! Why was I in the woods at three in the morning? Well, you see, about a decade ago, I met this dragon who gave me dragon powers, and I wanted to see if it actually happened or if it was my imagination. Then the dragon talked to me from another dimension and told me that he was using me to take over this kingdom thing that I don't know about! So, can I go back to bed now?

I don't want to imagine how that would end.

I got back into cabin ten undetected, and slipped back into my bunk. I took off my headphones, which were now glowing a faint purple color instead of green, and rubbed my face. Too much happened way too quickly, and if what the Dragon said is true, this is just barely the beginning.

Although fatigue filled me, I knew I wouldn't be falling asleep any time soon.

(So...uh...five months. Wow. That's...pretty bad. I know that apologies probably mean nothing to you guys at this point, but I'm really, really sorry it's been so long, especially since I know how it feels to be waiting for so long to have a story updated. To be honest, I'm not even sure if anyone will still read this story...but I will finish it. I'm determined. I just need to get back into it is all. So...yeah. That's all I got. If anyone is still reading this, stay awesome :) ~Silver)