Night Rider- Tyunning

Welcome to the club

Soobin made his signature chili for lunch. He promised Taehyun it was the best anywhere in the country. It got served with Soobin's homemade sourdough bread.

Taehyun was no chili expert but he wouldnt mind this being his death row meal. Soobin even opted the toast the bread with white cheddar on top as a birthday special.

Beomgyu turned the TV on to cartoon network. Scooby Doo Zombie Island was playing and he yelled "I love this movie! Taehyun have you seen it before?"

Taehyun told him he hadnt so Beomgyu dragged both of their bowls of chili to the couch so they could watch it together.

Soobin went outside and opened the giant shed they used to store dead animals for the dragons. Kai waited patiently for his food.

Sara flew off long ago to hunt for herself. Her favorite thing to eat was a big brown bear but she often settled for the fish in big lakes because it was just easier. She would dive in and boil a concentrated area then wait for the dead fish to float to the top. It was like an all you can eat buffet.

Kai hunted but he was terrible at it. He got lucky if he even caught a rabbit. The baby dragon was only about 6 months old. Dragons didnt start hunting on their own until they reached 1 so Kai was doing his best in the mean time to copy mamma when the shed was empty.

Soobin grabbed the hind legs of a large hare and threw it upwards. Kai flew up to catch it but missed. It ended up bouncing off of his snoot. Kai settled back down on the ground and sniffed around for his lunch. He found it and almost swallowed the hare whole. Soobin walked up to the little dragon and began to rub his head. "Youre so cute. When we go back to school, you gotta hunt with mamma though. We will be too busy to hunt for you."

Kai tilted his head to the side.

"Even Taehyun. He needs to go to school too."

Kai got sad. His eyes looked down into the snow and he lay his head on the ground. Soobin threw him a squirrel to cheer him up. "Thats not gonna work when youre older you know!"

The baby dragon did a happy dance and went back to playing in the snow. Soobin opened a hatch in the shed to let down the wooden staircase. He crawled up into the attic and dug through some storage boxes, searching for a saddle. Most of them were too worn out to work. Taehyun needed a newer one. Preferrably oversized so Kai could grow into it. None of them looked right.

Soobin grabbed the 2 biggest ones he could find and brought them into the house. He cut them in half with a box cutter and began stitching them together. One half was black, the other was brown. Beomgyu took a break from watching the movie to help Soobin stitch the rest of the dragon leather pieces to it. They made sure to leave gaps down the middle for Kai's scales.

Taehyun asked if he could paint it when they were finished. Beomgyu said yes but warned it would probably wear off by spring. He didnt care. He really wanted it to feel like it was his.

The front part was painted to look like flames. Reds, oranges and yellows swirled in shapeless forms.

The middle was painted to look like the pine forest covered in snow. Dark browns for the wood. Dark green for the pine needles and white fluffed in throughout.

The last third was painted to look like the sea. Taehyun had never seen a sea in person before he imagined a light blue base with small white dots to represent foam and light reflecting off of the water.

To finish it off, he waited until the panels dried then painted the letters K.A.I, split into the three sections on the very bottom in black.

Beomgyu came up behind him and said "it looks perfect."

Taehyun took a few extra seconds to stare at his work before agreeing.

Beomgyu picked it up and told Taehyun he was going to glaze it so it would last longer.

Soobin came back with some groceries and went "wow! That looks great! Make sure to glaze it. Itll last longer."

Beomgyu greeted him with a kiss. "Already on it. Might want to tell him the expectations when school starts."

"Ah! Right! Taehyun help me put this stuff away please."

Beomgyu left to glaze it outside. Taehyun could see Kai checking it out. Those purple eyes kept darting back and forth while sniffing different sections. Beomgyu tried shooing him away but the baby's curiosity was more powerful. He pet Kai and let him finish examining until the dragon got bored.

Taehyun did the best he could to help Soobin but he quickly realized he was better off just sitting still. Like Beomgyu, Soobin had a specific system for the kitchen that had to be followed. If the system wasnt followed, it was wrong.

When he was done, he sat down across from Taehyun at the dining table and offered him a grape juice. "So I know this isnt what youre used to, but when school starts you can only ride your dragon at night."

Taehyun took a sip of his juice. "How come? I thought they couldnt be seen unless they wanted to."

"Two reasons. First being that you still can be seen. Its harder to see a human floating through the air in the dark for obvious reasons. If you are seen, people usually just assume it's a hallucination or maybe some kind of bird. Planes and drones are also the most active during the daylight."

Taehyun nodded and took another sip of his juice.

"The second reason is because Kai is a baby. He hasnt developed all of his abilities yet, including the one that does make him invisible. That ability doesnt kick in until he hits 1."

"So every time we flew, someone could have seen us?"

Soobin nodded as he took a sip of his juice. "The blizzard for us was kind of a gift. Everyone left this place. There's no one around. We could fly whenever we wanted. Didnt have to wait until night. The dragons could fly whenever they wanted."

"What do they do during the day when people are here then?"

"Hunt in the forest or in the lakes. If there's a storm they love to ride it. So do you understand now? This isnt just to protect our dragons. It protects us too."

"I understand."

Soobin held up his box of grape juice and waited to for Taehyun to do the same. They clinked boxes and finished the last of the contents inside. "Welcome to being a night rider! You'll never want to live any other way."