Chapter 1

These are strange times. The economy sucks to the point that it's almost a depression but in reality it's only a deep recession. We, the U.S. has a black or at least a half black president that is strutting around acting like he knows what he's doing. Too bad he wants to nationalize industry, especially the fuel companies and now he's declared that everyone must be some kind of union member.

Seventy percent of the Earth's population wants to make glass out of the entire Middle East and the religious zealots that live there. The next twenty percent want to find a place where they can hide and the last ten percent are the zealots who wish to kill the other ninety percent.

The idiots that were preaching global warming are now hunting for a way to get warm as the global temperature is now a whole two degrees colder than ever before. The glaciers are getting larger in some areas but still melting in others. The funny thing though is the ice shelf at the North Pole is now much larger on the side away from Alaska.

Good ole' Alaska. The governor there, a crazy lady with bigger balls than almost the entire congress put together, decided to drill for oil on federal land whether they allowed it or not. Well duh, Scary Sarah struck oil all right. The wells up there are gushing out so much oil, even the two new pipelines can't keep up with it. They keep trying to cap off the well but can't. Now instead of a big valley, they have a huge lake of oil. It'll take even the U.S. to use up all the oil.

As all this craziness was happening something really strange happened. A guy from Corpus Christi, Texas was diving around one of the older oil platforms and found some unique creatures. They were pink, glowed in the dark and seemed to be friendly. They followed him a little ways up as he slowly went up from the two hundred feet that he had been at. They only came up about a hundred feet then they all swam away from him.

Well he went back down two days later and encountered the little pink critters again. This time he brought a powerful light so he could see them better than the dull illumination of their glow. When he switched on the light, all of them scattered immediately. He left the light on and they began coming closer to it until they were in the light, near him.

Surprise, they looked like miniature dragons. You know, the dragons that cartoon artist draw all the time. The difference was, these little ones didn't have the pointed ridges down their back and tail. They did have the sharp features of the dragon head and face though. The diver had brought an underwater camera with him and took several pictures, knowing that he would need proof of what he was seeing.

This time as he began ascending again, going up very slowly to keep from getting the bends, the little guys kept following him all the way to the surface. When his head came out of the water, eight little dragon heads appeared around him. They were looking all around quickly. Spinning in circles then "pop" they all disappeared back into the water.

Wow, pink glow-in-the-dark miniature dragons. Now, how do you tell the world what you have discovered? If people believe him will they hurry to dive down there and disrupt the creatures? Would they harm the little guys?

It was a dilemma that the guy from Corpus Christi, Texas had to figure out before he went public with his find.

The man's name was Charles Johnson. Some people called him Chuck. His occupation was a diver for oil companies. He wasn't employed by any one of them but sub-contracted to all of them. Chuck was one of the best when it came to underwater welding. Platforms were always needing someone to go down to ridiculous depths to replace a large piece of steel on a structure. Most of the time Chuck could do it by himself but sometimes he had to have help. He usually used a lady who was an expert diver but was also big and strong. Even though moving a two-ton piece of steel around under water is fairly easy when it is suspended, Chuck often needed a hand to get the piece in place so he could weld it.

Chuck's helper was Susan Francis Unice (please note the lack of an E as in Eunice) with a last name of Nardelli. Or as Chuck would commonly and fondly called her, "Fun." If Chuck called her Francis she was usually pissed off at him for a week. He could call her Susan or Sue or Fran or Franny but never Francis. She would answer to Unice or a "Hey Nardelli" but never Francis. That's how she became "Fun" to Chuck.

Anyway, Chuck decided to tell Fun about the little pink dragons and see if she might want to go see them.

"Hey Fun, want to go diving. I want to show you something way down deep. Here, look at these pictures that I took, you won't believe it." Chuck handed the small storage device to Fun so she could plug it into her PC.

The first picture was the surprised looking face of a pink dragon. "Where did you take this, Toys-R-Us?"

"Keep looking lady. And then you tell me where I took them."

Fun began flipping through the pictures until she had looked at all fifty of them. The location had to be some where near the old platform base the two had worked on several times so it was easy to know where the pictures were taken. The bright light Chuck had used was able to light an area out to about twenty feet.

"What in the hell are those things? Are you playing a joke on me? Did you take some toys down there to take these pictures?"

"I know you don't believe me but you have to come down with me to see these things. They're not aggressive and seem to be curious about me too. If you're over that runny nose you had, let's go down this afternoon, Okay?"

"I'm fine; I've had two little jobs inspecting yacht bottoms. I haven't been down deep for a couple of weeks so we'll have to get some nitrox tanks (enriched oxygen) if we're going to stay down long. Let me get my equipment and my camera. I'll bring my light too. Do you still have your really bright lamp that fit on your head gear?"

"Thanks for coming with me Fun, you're not going to believe it until you see them. So far I haven't touched them but they keep getting closer to me. I hope they're still there when we go down."

The two friends loaded up Fun's gear then went to the dive supply for the special deep dive air. Chuck said he was stocking up as he filled four more bottles with the mixture needed to go deep.

Chuck had an old thirty-five foot cabin cruiser that he had converted to a dive boat. He also used it as his office and home. It was nice below deck but not very big. It didn't matter because Chuck was just Chuck. He didn't socialize that much and his best friend and sort of girlfriend, Fun, had a small cottage on one of the Padre Islands older communities far from the tourists that flock there.

The friends took the boat out to the dormant oil platform. The oil company had shut these this one down for a while. They had shut it down for a hurricane that was supposed to hit and decided to keep the wells shut down for a while. Since the Alaskan oil was so plentiful, it was too expensive to reopen the platform right now. It was anticipated though that the U.S. would begin selling oil to China and India soon so the platform would probably reopen before long.

They tied off on two platform trusses so the boat would stay stable and not float into the steel beam. As the two put on their suits and gear Chuck said, "Let's take the extra tanks down to about a hundred feet or so and put them in a net. That way if we stay down too long we can get them on the way up. When you see these things, you're going to want to do more that look and surface, trust me."

They loaded up with their lights, cameras and a net with two more tanks then eased into the water from the platform off the rear of the boat. They slowly descended until Chuck motioned that he was going to tie the net to the truss they were using as a guide to go down.

They both had the small high intensity head lamps on as they went down. All of a sudden at about a hundred and forty feet, little pink dragons came swimming by. They darted around the two drivers until a large group of them were behind Chuck. They were peaking out from behind him at Fun.

Susan Francis Unice Nardelli almost drowned right there. She was so surprised she blew her mouthpiece out of her mouth and began swallowing seawater. Fun was experienced enough to quickly recover, forcing the seawater out of her mouth then reinserting her mouthpiece. It took her several breaths to become stable again then she reached out to Chuck.

"Bam!" Four of the little critters swam out from behind Chuck and butted their heads into Fun's stomach forcing her away from him.

Chuck began waving his arms and reached for Fun. He brought her to him in an embrace. He was hugging her to him as she recovered from being struck so hard.

The little pink critters began swimming in circles around the two until they all clustered near the two divers heads, staring at them. One of the pink dragons kept darting down then coming back to the group. Finally after doing that for over ten times, Chuck and Fun descended too, going all the way to the bottom.

All of the little pink dragons were swimming back and forth while the two divers arranged their big lights so they could take pictures. First Fun took several pictures of the little fellows when they would stop. Chuck however had his digital video camera taking pictures of the dragons swimming around.

Just as he was panning toward one of the platform anchors, a larger shape flashed by. It appeared to be yellow and about twice the size of the pink things. Chuck held his camera still and kept it pointed in the same direction.

A group of little pink dragons darted out of the light beam then came back into view slowly. They looked as if they were herding three of the larger yellow,,,,,,,,, dragons? Yep, they were a bright yellow dragon that were about three foot tall or long. These had rounded bumps on their back and tail. As the group came closer to the divers, you could see that the yellow dragons were afraid. They were cautious and hesitant as they came nearer and nearer to the divers.

Almost as if to show the yellow dragon there was nothing to fear, one of the little pink dragons swam up and sat on Chucks shoulder. Another one swam a little slower up to Fun and sat on her shoulder. Then about a dozen of the little pink critters clustered around the two divers as the yellow ones tried to define what Chuck and Fun were.

Chuck's wrist band began buzzing. It was time for the two divers to begin to surface. The depth would require over thirty minutes to reach the surface so they turned off the big lights and began to slowly ascend, stopping every twenty to twenty-five feet to equalize. By the time they reached the net with the fresh tanks, Fun's wristband had a flashing red light indicating she was on reserve on her tank.

They pulled out the first tank and hooked it up for Fun then they repeated the process with a tank for Chuck. The little pink dragons were still clustered around them and swam in and out of the net opening and now rubbing on the two divers continuously. The larger yellow dragons were still following but were about five to ten feet away. Thirty minutes later the two divers slowly surfaced and put their gear up on the big platform on the aft of the boat. When they had done this the little pink dragons were doing their spinning around routine again, looking everywhere.

The yellow dragons stuck their heads above water and began looking around frantically. They were still afraid of the divers but were following the pink ones. Fun took off her flippers and flopped them onto the platform then pulled the ladder down and began climbing up onto the platform. As soon as she turned and sat on the platform, a little pink dragon seemingly flew from the water and sat next to Fun. Several other pink dragons then burst from the water and landed on several places on the boat. A yellow dragon flew from the water and landed on the boat about ten feet from the stern then slowly walked toward the group at the rear.

Now that you could see the dragons in daylight, you could see small wings on their backs. The yellow guys had bigger wings. Fun now had a small pink dragon sitting on her lap. It was staring at Fun as if trying to talk to her. The dragon used its tail to balance itself and leaned back on the tail and rear legs so it would sit up. The little critter had front paws that only had four claws that resembled fingers. One of the claws was like a thumb and the other three were like fingers. As if to prove what the divers were thinking, the little dragon began touching the gear still hanging from Fun's neck.

Chuck jumped from being goosed in the rear. Since he was still in the water watching what was happening with Fun, one of the yellow dragons had come up behind him and butted him in the butt. When Chuck spun around, the bigger yellow dragon almost looked like he had a smile on his face. Thinking that perhaps the dragon wanted to play, Chuck pulled his flippers off and tossed them into the back of the boat. Once he had climbed up on the platform, he took off his tanks and weight belt and stowed them in the back of the boat. He took Fun's equipment and put them there as well.

Chuck dug around in his big equipment locker and came out with a big ball that was about eight inches around. It actually was a float but it looked like a ball. Chuck held it out so the yellow dragon could see the ball then threw it about thirty feet out from the boat.

Instantly the yellow dragon skimmed across the water to intercept the ball. Once it reached the ball, it didn't know what to do with it. Chuck began calling, "Bring it here, bring it back to me," gesturing to the yellow dragon. While the bigger dragon was trying to figure out what to do, a little pink dragon darted out to the ball, scooped it up and brought it to Chuck, hovering in front of him holding the ball.

Chuck gently took the ball noticing that the yellow dragon was up near the boat again. He tossed the ball out a little ways again but this time the yellow dragon came out of the water, intercepted the ball and instantly flew back in front of Chuck with it. When Chuck took the ball the dragon flew around Chuck two or three times then gently settled on his shoulder.

Chuck staggered from the weight. This may have been a little dragon, only three feet tall but damn, he was heavy.

Fun said, "What are we going to do with them. They seem to like being with us."

"I don't know but look out there, Isn't that a larger bright orange dragon head sticking out of the water?"

"Holy smokes Chuck look at all of the yellow dragons sitting in the water now. There must be hundreds of them."

"I know Fun; there must be several hundred pink ones too. Wow! Would you look at that?" Chuck pointed where several more orange heads were appearing above the water.

A couple of pink dragons flew out to the orange ones and it looked like they were having a conversation then they slowly led the bigger orange dragons toward the boat. One of the Orange dragons popped from the water and soared into the air a hundred or so feet up in the air then swooped down near Fun and Chuck to land on the water. It was very disconcerting as they could sit on top of the water as if they were on a platform. Actually their wings were keeping them at exactly that level.

Fun got up, pulled the ladder up then climbed into the boat. "What are we going to do with our new friends? Who's going to believe us? What will the scientist do? Will they want to dissect one of them?"

"I don't know Franny, this is more than I can handle," Chuck said as he sat on the gunwale of the boat.

The large orange dragon flew up and settled on the side of the boat near Chuck. You could see that it was about five feet tall. The ridges on its back and tale were sharper than the yellow dragons. The eyes on the orange dragon near Chuck appeared to be a beautiful brown and looked at him very expressively.

A pink dragon was now on the gunwale next to Chuck sitting up on its back legs with its tail balancing him. The critter leaned forward and flicked his tongue at Chuck's hand.

Fun said, "Careful there, he's tasting you I think."

After the tongue had touched my hand a couple of times, it stuck his nose onto my skin then bounced his nose up the neoprene arm of my suit. The big orange dragon was edging closer so I thought he wanted to smell me and taste me too. When I stuck my hand out to him, his eyes got real big and he opened his mouth, making a low screech. The part that got my attention was the flame that came from his mouth. My hand wasn't burned but I did feel the heat.

About a dozen pink dragons buzzed the big orange one that belched fire at me. They buzzed and bumped him until they made him jump into the water. Once the orange dragon was in the water or rather sitting on top of it, the little pink guys were hovering in front of me as if in a protective mode.

"You have some buddies Chuck. how about that, a genuine fire breathing dragon."

"I don't think he was being mean, I think I startled him and scared the fire out of him."

Fun said, "I didn't see what you did, I was too interested in that giant thing sticking its head out of the water over there." She was pointing out now over a sea of pink, yellow and orange dragons that appeared to be sitting on the water.

"Oh shit, I wonder if that's big brother or Momma." I asked looking at the huge head looking at us."

The head slowly came out of the water revealing a big bright lime green neck then a bright lime green body with big wings and a long, long tail. The dragon must be fifty foot from nose to the tip of its tale and probably was about twenty-five feet tall. As it rose from the water, there was a large purple dragon sitting on the tale of the big one. It looked to be about nine or ten foot tall.

Once up on the water in what again looked like a sitting position, several more purple heads popped up around where the green dragon was. A bunch of small pink dragons flew around the huge green dragon and some flew around some of the bright purple dragons. Until it looked like they were convinced to come closer. All of them edged closer and closer until the boat was surrounded by pink, yellow, orange, and purple dragons with a giant green one leaning down to stare at Fun and I.

"Don't make any rapid moves. If the five foot orange one can shoot flames out of its mouth when it's startled, I don't want to know what the green one can do."

Fun, who never, ever said a cuss word, said, "No shit!"

I went to one of the storage lockers and brought out a couple of lawn chairs. I opened both of them and Fun sat in one while I went below to grab a couple of cold beers. When I brought them up, a very large, very bright purple dragon was trying to sit in the other chair.

"Umm, hey Barney, that's my chair. You can fly and land where ever you want so how about hovering over there," pointing at the rear of the boat.

The purple dragon actually acted like he could understand me and settled on the rear railing.

Fun and I popped the tops of our beers and took a drink. We both exclaimed a satisfying ahhh feeling the cold brew go down. Several little pink dragons came flying up to us flicking their tongues out to see what we had. As soon as their noses or tongues got a scent of the beer, they wrinkled their noses and flew away.

Fun said, "At least the beer is safe for right now."

All of them were just staring at us. The different sizes were strange but were definitely distinguishable. Fun and I carried on a conversation for at least a half hour until she said, "I'm hungry. How about a sandwich? Do you think these guys will understand eating?"

"I don't know Franny, but I'm hungry too. Let's have a sandwich and another beer. We'll go in soon and go out for dinner."

While Fun was in the tiny galley on the boat, I noticed that the various dragons would dive into the water, be gone a while then pop back up to stare at the boat. The purple guys made a bigger splash than the others but I noticed they did the disappearing act then reappeared a little later. The more you looked at them the more you realized that they were all just enough different to tell them apart.

Fun said from behind me, "Turn around and look toward the front of the boat."

When I turned around to look, I was so startled I fell out of the chair. A dozen little pink dragons and a couple of yellow ones pulled me up and held me up standing as I gawked at about six more huge bright green dragons. They were all right in front of the boat, sitting on the water, leaning over to get a look at Fun and me.

Fun was laughing at me for having been so startled. "I would think that you would be used to these guys by now. What are six more big ones when there are probably a thousand pink, yellow, orange and purple ones around us right now?"

One of the yellow dragons who had been holding me held my arm up and flew beneath it so my arm was actually over its back. Fun said, "I think that one likes you. I think my best friend is the Barney looking guy here."

Fun ended the conversation by saying, "Here, take your sandwich and beer. I'm starved."

When I took my sandwich I instinctively took a big bite. A large tongue shot out of the big green dragons mouth and smacked my hand. I didn't drop the sandwich or spit out the bite but began chewing. The big green one in front of me appeared to understand and grunted a few times. Several pink, yellow, orange and purple dragons dove into the water. As I was taking my second bite, about two dozen dragons of different colors burst from the water. They were all carrying various types of seaweed. They appeared to be sharing it with the others and all of them that had a bite of seaweed in the mouth, chewed it up and swallowed.

Then the most startling thing of the day happened. The big green dragon nearest us behind the boat made a grunting noise. It wasn't very loud but the more the dragon worked its mouth, the louder it became. Finally it sounded like, "We eat too." A purple Barney dragon swooped up to Fun and I and repeated it, "We eat too." Very understandable. Fun and I both looked at the Orange dragons and they just grunted. The Yellow ones had a low pitched squeak and the pink ones had a chattering squeak that sounded sometimes excited and sometimes like laughter.

Fun asked, "Now what do we do with these guys?"

Our bright green monster leaned toward us and said, "We learn from you, teach us. Tell me about you. Let us learn from you."