Madz: Chapter 1

“Come on Madz!” Kathy complained. “You can’t be serious. Going to go find Irine yourself? That’s almost suicide! You nearly lost to her once, remember?”

Madz slightly winced at her last comment. Ever since that day, she wanted to become stronger. How do you lose to a Dragon Keeper and not her dragons? Losing wasn’t an option anymore. She wanted to be alone anyways. She didn’t want her friends to get hurt while she avenged her defeat.

“I’ll be fine. Trust me. Besides, today’s you and Tony’s anniversary. I don’t want to get in the way of your plans” she explained.

Kathy pouted. “We don’t have any plans… Besides, Tony’s doing stuff today. And I’m bored! You’re not going to keep me here cooped up with Mitch are you?”

“I’m here too you know…” Mitch grumbled silently. He eyed a few girls who were leaving the bakery, giggling as they munched on cookies.

“I know when you’re here or not Mitch. I just don’t want to watch you hit on girls who are clearly too old for you” Kathy said.

“Oh yeah? Like who?”

“I don’t know… Maybe THOSE GIRLS THAT JUST LEFT?”  She said.

“So what? At least I would make time for my girlfriend if it was our anniversary!”

Kathy’s face flushed. “Shut up!”

“Make me!”

Madz stood up. “Guys!” she yelled.

The siblings looked up at Madz, now embarrassed by their past behavior. They sat back down quietly, not making direct eye contact.

“You don’t have to always argue. And Mitch, that last comment wasn’t necessary. You don’t think your sister already feels bad about her boyfriend?” she scolded.

He slumped slightly in his seat. “Sorry…” he mumbled, clearly not sincere with his apology.

“Can you make him apologize better? That was terrible” Kathy asked.

“Don’t push it, Kath…” Madz warned.

“Right. Sorry…”

They were all silent for a moment once more. Mitch chewed slowly on his muffin. Kathy kept rereading the menu on their table. Madz, despite her hate for socializing, finally broke the silence.

“So… I’ll be leaving in about a half hour. I have to start getting supplies.” She stands and takes her wallet out, laying the amount that her coffee cost. “Now if you’ll excuse me…” She begins to leave the bakery, adjusting her gloves as she does.

“Wait!” Mitch called after her.

She turned around and looks up at him, slightly irritated because she was ready for adventure. “What, Mitch?”

He grins. “You’ll at least give me a goodbye kiss if you don’t return, right?”

Madz glares at him, trying hard not to slap that stupid grin off his face. Instead, she, ever so politely, slams the door on his face. She walks away, happy with her decision.

“Is that a yes?” he asks yelling through the door.

Madz made her way to her shack that she made when she was living on the streets. Technically, she still did, but it has a mailbox now, so that makes it an official residency. She shut the door behind her, and began to pack all of her necessities into a leather bag. A water canteen, some rations, an extra ponytail holder (Hey, you never know when humidity can be unbearable. Hair on your neck doesn’t make your body any cooler!), a survival knife, and a few tranquilizer darts. After that, she made her way to her weapons closet. What would she need to slay a few dozen dragons? Well, a battle-axe for one. Maybe a flare or two, to distract them. She grabbed her quiver of arrows and placed it over her shoulders as she grabbed the bow. Madz grabbed her favorite sword, Saturn, and placed it on her bed. She looks for anything else she needed. Rope! Of course!

“Now where did I put that rope?” Madz wondered aloud. She wasn’t the most organized person around.

She looked on her bed, under it, in her closet, on top of it. Nowhere. She even checked in the fridge! Where hadn’t she checked? The bathroom!

“I’ll grab it on my way out of the shower. I have a good 15 minutes to spare” she said.

Madz closed her blinds, knowing Mitch sometimes wandered around there because he “happened to be in the area”. She took off her jacket and began to remove her white shirt. She looked in her dresser drawer to find another shirt and bra. Madz grabbed the two things she was looking for and continued to look for a towel. Even though she took a shower yesterday, she couldn’t remember where she placed it. Eventually, she found it, on her desk with a ton of diagrams of Veverka.

“How the heck did it get here? You know what? Whatever…” she muttered to herself.

She walked into the bathroom and striped herself from the waist down. As she did this, she turned on the water with a free hand. When she finished, Madz adjusted the temperature to her liking and stepped in.

Now, as an adventurer, Madz never really had time to enjoy a shower. Hers were rather short and sweet, only enough time to wash her body and shampoo her hair and rinse it. Conditioner? Please. It’s not necessary, so why do it? When she was younger, she was always near water. Whether she was at the river chatting with Kathy and Sapphire, or she was giving a local dog, Anchovy, a bath, she always loved it. But those days were gone. All she had now were these “showers”. After scrubbing her body, Madz shampooed her hair with some shampoo Kathy had suggested. “It’ll make your hair look great! Plus, you’ll actually smell like something!” she told her. Now, Madz didn’t know if that was a insult, or compliment, but she decided to use it anyway. As she applied it, she felt her scalp tingle. She didn’t mind it at first, but after a while it got unbearable. It was like dragon acid. She threw her hair under the warm water and rinsed it out quickly. “How does Kath do it?” she asked aloud. She left the shower quickly, ready to go find Irine. She wraps the towel around her waist and leaves the steamy bathroom.

CLICK.

Madz turns around to see what that noise was. A young man with blonde hair sat on her bed, with his phone in his hand pointing it at her.

…Mitch.

“MITCH?!” Madz placed a hand over her breasts out of instinct. “WHY THE HECK ARE YOU IN HERE?!” She yelled.

Mitch shrugged. “Well, I saw your blinds were closed, so I figured you were gone. But then I heard water running and though that maybe someone was drowning you or something. But then you walked out and, I was trying to take a selfie but the camera was facing the wrong way, and you conveniently walked in where the camera was” he explained as if he had planned this the whole time, which he probably did.

“Bull.” Madz said flatly walking over to him, thinking what she would say to the police when they found him dead on the floor. “I’m going to kill you pervert!” she yelled.

“No you won’t.” he showed her his phone and she froze. The text read, “Who would you like to send this picture to?”

Her face turned white. “You wouldn’t.”

He smirked. “I would. I won’t though, if you take me.”

“No. You’d die!”

“Hmmm, I wonder who’d like to see this. Tony? Or maybe Brad?” Mitch wondered aloud.

“OKAY! YOU CAN GO HAPPY? NOW DELETE IT!”

He shook his head. “Not until the adventure is over!”

Madz clenched her fist. “You perverted slimeball…”

“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out!”

She groaned. “Get out and let me get dressed.”

He bowed. “Your wish is my command” He gets up and leaves quietly, shutting the door behind him.

Madz threw herself onto her bed. This was going to be a long journey…

-

“What now Mitch?” Madz yelled through the door. This was at least his 5 time knocking in a row. She only got her underwear on.

“I just wanted to take another picture! This one’s kinda blurry!” he said.

Madz’s face flushed. “No! And give you more ammunition to blackmail me?! No thanks!”

“It’s not for blackmail, it’s for me! Duh!”

She face palmed herself. This kid is seriously too straightforward… “NO!” she yelled.

“Fine. I’ll just ask later…” he grumbled.

Madz finally got herself dressed in her usual attire. She brought a few extra things along with her because of Mitch precautions. Like pepper spray, a leash, and her trusty brass knuckles in case of any funny business.

Mitch eyed her a couple times over. “You’re going to wear that? I mean it’s cute, but it doesn’t show any of your amazing figure. Why not a tank top instead of that t-shirt? Speaking of shirts, will we be going through any rivers? Because maybe you should bring a swimsuit. A bikini preferably. It’s hot here you know…”

She looked at him, dumbfounded. How the heck could Kathy be related to this swine? And Billy looks up to him? That’ll give her two restraining orders to fill out… “What I’m wearing is fine. You?” She looked him over. Mitch wore a gray t shirt, with navy blue shorts with a pair of flip-flops. Defiantly not Dragon slaying material. “You’re going to need to change”

“Why? I think I look good.” He used the window to look at his reflection. “Do you think by any chance that we’ll pass by any attractive women along the way?” He combs his hand through his hair, and checks if there’s anything in his teeth.

“Go change into some sneakers at least. I don’t want to hear you complain that your feet hurt not even a quarter through the forest” Madz said.

“Whatever.” Mitch wandered off towards his house, and as he did, he walked over towards a girl with large breasts and flirted. The girl was way out of his league, but she did enjoy his compliments.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up the owner to a strip club…” she said to herself. By now, it was almost afternoon, so if it were just herself, It would take maybe two hours to get there. But now that Mitch is in her party, the time would at least double. Goody… She went inside to go find him a weapon small enough for him to not slice off some girls head by accident.

She opened up her weapon closet, and found a number of weapons, none of them which Mitch would’ve been familiar with. The best thing she could find him was a slingshot she made a few years back when she was so hungry, she made it to kill a few birds. It was that day she learned that you really can kill two birds with one stone.

“AHHH!” Before she could get up, she was lifted off of the ground, and flipped around with force. Mitch floated below her. “Miss me?” He asked. He set her down on the bed. “Sorry about that. I just wanted to test out how much stronger I’ve become since I last tried to pick you up. And I must say, that was some Improvement!” he bragged aloud.

As much as Madz wanted to punch him, she couldn’t help but be impressed. To be that stealthy and strong would come in handy for her mission. Maybe he wasn’t so helpless after all. She looked at his clothes again. At least he listened. He put on sneakers like she had requested.

“You listened to me?” she asked, slightly bewildered.

Mitch rolled his eyes. “Well, duh, I don’t want any foot aches. They’ll hurt for days. And my mom will take me to a doctor, and I’ll get examined, and if my mom whines enough about it, I’ll end up getting foot surgery, and I hate getting-“

Madz held her hand up for him to stop. “I get it. Now let’s get going. This way” he follows her as she walks down a well-worn path.

She normally went this way when she was hunting for dragons. She handed a map to Mitch. She pointed at a small blob near a river. “We’ll meet here if you get lost” she explained.

He raised his eyebrows, but took the map. How do you know that you won’t get lost instead?” he asked.

“Unlike you, I know my way around something besides the girls locker room”

“Touché…”

After some time, they were well into the rainforest. Birds cawed noisily above. Mitch groaned almost through the whole thing.

“How much longer until we get there?” he whined.

“For the 6th time Mitch, a few hours” she said through a sip of water.

“Can I please have some?” he asked. He drank the last of his water a while ago.

“No. You asked to come? You face the consequences” she explains.

“I still have that picture, ya know. I’m just being nice and asking for a sip of water. I could ask for other things…” he said looking at her chest with a creepy glimmer in his eyes.

Out of instinct, she uses her jacket to cover herself up. She had completely forgotten about the picture by now. But now that he brought it up, she gladly gave him her canteen. He took a long, slow sip from it.

“Ahhh. That was refreshing. Thanks” he said returning it.

She snatched it from him. “Slime ball…” She muttered quietly.

They wandered until they came to a lake. “Oh boy…” Madz said.

“What? Afraid of getting a little wet?” he asked.

“Huh? No! It’s just that-” She was interrupted by a giggle.

“Hi there!” said a voice.

A beautiful young woman with a fishtail bobbed up and down in the water. Her brown and teal shoulder length hair shimmered in the afternoon sunlight. She wore a strapless bikini top that was made out of dragon scales. The bikini was obviously for smaller breasts, because it just covered her nipples. Her tail was made out of gray and teal scales. Mitch noticed her first.

“Well, hello there” he said walking up to the lake. “What brings you here?” he asked.

The mermaid twisted her hair with her finger. “I live here, obviously! What about you?”

“Well, I’m here with a friend, but that’s not important. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m-”

The mermaid cut him off. “Wait! Don’t tell me! You’re Mitch from the populated side of Veverka! Blonde? Blue eyed? Hot?” She giggled.

He looked confused.” H-how did you know that?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh! Sapphire told me!” she explained. The blue siren floated next to her.

“Hi Mitch!” Sapphire beamed.

He did his best to look natural. “Hey Sapphire. Why are you here?”

“Oh, I’m just here with my friend, Jade. She’s blind!” she says nonchalantly.

“Really?” He asked. “Blind AND hot? Now you won’t judge me by your looks!”

Jade giggled. “Oh, Sapphire told me how you look, silly! You’re cute enough, just not my type. But I’m not a siren. I’m just a mermaid. I won’t eat you!” she explained.

“Then what do you eat?” he asked.

“Oh! I eat girls! And I sense one nearby. Where is she?” Jade said licking her lips.

Madz gulped. “Can we leave now? She isn’t afraid to come up onto land…” Madz piped up.

Jade gasped. “Is that my little Maddie I hear? Where are you sweet pea?”

Mitch looked disappointed. “So she’s a-“

“Lesbian? Yep!” Sapphire finished. “I should be leaving! Bye!” She plunged back under the water and swam back up the stream.

“Maddie, I know you’re here somewhere, babe!” Jade said coming closer to land.

“That’s not my name! And I’m not your babe!” Madz said, slowly walking away from the stream. “Mitch! I’m ready to leave when you are!”

Mitch didn’t hear her, he was too busy daydreaming on what could’ve been between him and Jade. Swimming with her, eating with her, making out with her, fondling her breasts, and… Well, that was really it. Mermaids didn’t have genitalia.

“MITCH! LEAVING! NOW!” Madz yelled.

“Don’t leave me here again, Maddie! I’m so lonely without you here! I love you so much!” Jade yelled. Now her body was on shore.

He finally snapped out of his daze. “Huh? Oh, right… Bye Jade. We’ll see you on the way back…” He sighed. He didn’t even have time to flirt with Sapphire. “Coming, Madz…”

But Madz was already down the path, thinking about other routes to take on the way back.