He always walked down the unnamed street when he wanted to be alone, which was often. He liked it because no one ever walked on it except him. When people came to the entrance of the street, they always walked past it like it was not there.

It was unnaturally cold for a summer day. He walked down the unknown street that was naturally empty. When he came to the end, he was surprised to see someone on the street. He felt kind of disappointed because the street was supposed to be his special street. The person was a strange man in a patterned robe that looked as if it was almost transparent. It looked like mist surrounding him.

He  reached forward to try to feel the mist. It felt warm and kind of sticky.

“Joseph,” the man whispered.

“How do you know my name?” Joseph asked

“I know many great things, that is why I am here.”

Joseph felt like the man was playing him. “Is this some kind of prank?” he asked the man.

The man looked deeply offended. Joseph tried to change the conversation by adding, “Your robe is very mystical.”

“Thanks, it is from the finest unicorn skin, and the patterns are sewn with the reddest dragon hair,” the man replied. Before Joseph could open his mouth, the man said slowly, “Go home. Sleep. And I will show you.”

Joseph was about to ask the man about how he could trust him, but when he turned around, the man was not there. Joseph was awestruck. He decided to follow the man’s instructions to go home and sleep.

It was a small house that was bright blue and pleasant. Once he entered the house, he could see his little twin sisters, Olivia and Sophia, running away from his mom who was trying to catch them for the bath. His mom waved to Joseph and gave him a “talk to you later” look. Joseph stomped up to his messy room like always, with ripped pictures on the worn, blue walls. He slowly lay on his bed and prepared to sleep. It was hard to fall asleep because he could hear his little sisters screaming. Finally he felt kind of drowsy, and his eyelids drooped.

Joseph thought about the strange man and how creepy he was to just sit there and say his name. Before he knew it, he was asleep. All of a sudden, a vision appeared in his mind. It looked like a dragon but different than he imagined. Instead of it being all red, it was four colors: red, green, orange, and blue. It looked slippery like an eel. It was furry on the top of its head. Its eyes were small with a greenish-blueish pupil. Its wings were see-through and had fire around them. Next to the dragon, armored men were throwing spears at the dragon. The spears looked like toothpicks compared to the dragon.  

Then, all of a sudden, the strange man appeared in his dream. Of a sudden surprise, Joseph opened his eyes quickly. He sat up and gasped. In front him was the strange man sitting on his bed. Joseph opened his mouth to scream, but then the man moved his finger, and it seemed to mute Joseph.

“Screaming will not do any good,” said the man.

“Is it real?” Joseph asked the man.

“Mostly, but these days our fighters are not stupid enough to not know that it’s impossible to kill a dragon,” replied the man.

“Can you show me? Please?” Joseph asked eagerly.

“Didn’t you just see me mute you? Any way, I should introduce myself properly. My name is Wilson, and I am here to assign you on a quest.”

“A quest? But I can’t fight or do magic,” said Joseph.

“That’s why I’m going to teach you. Go to the unnamed street every day at 2:00p.m.”

Joseph could hear his mom stomping up the stairs to his room. Uh oh, he thought. He turned his head to alert Wislon, but when he looked back, Wilson was gone. His mom entered his room and sat on his dirty bed.

She looked at his shoes and said, “How many times did I tell you to take off your shoes in the house.”

His mom grabbed his shoes and walked out his room.

The next day, the sun shined so bright that Joseph could practically see it in his sleep. The sun filled on his whole face, and the immense heat burned him. Sudden anger filled Joseph. He was about to close the blinds when his body felt cool. He awoke to see blue flames covering his body. He screamed so loud, but in his head, so his mom and his sisters wouldn’t wake up. Wilson appeared behind him, but he showed not a look of surprise even if he still wasn’t used to it.

“So you see, you’re a natural,” Wilson whispered, and then he disappeared with a blink of the eye.

Joseph walked grumpily down the stairs and saw his mom preparing breakfast.

“Hi Joseph, I decided to make blueberry pancakes today.”

His mom put a of plate of pancakes in front of him and Joseph gobbled down every bit.

Joseph was about to leave the room when he said, “Mom, I’m going to meet a friend everyday at 2:00.”

“Okay, but always come back before 7:00 p.m.,” she replied.

Joseph decided to go to the library to study mythical creatures. He left a note for his mom and hopped on a bus. He got to the library and went into the fiction section. He ran his fingers on the worn out spines and found a giant book called Fantasy animals and people. Joseph read it for five hours and almost completed it. He had his head full of fantasy and decided to take a break. He looked down at his shiny, metal watch. It read 1:59 p.m. He didn’t notice how late it was. He left the book on the table and sprinted to a bus that drove to the unnamed street. He saw Wilson sitting at the end of the unnamed street.

Wilson first showed him the rules of magic. “First rule is that you don’t do magic without me unless you need it. Second, don’t play with magic.”

He went on and on finally and Joseph started doing basic magic. Joseph learned how to make balls of fire appear in his hands. For weeks, Joseph took lessons, and at the end, he became pretty advanced at magic and could control it well.

One day, when he went to his magic lesson, Wilson said that he was ready to go on the quest. Wilson snapped his finger, and a tattooed girl appeared. She looked older than Joseph and had piercing, black eyes.

“This is my partner?” she said in a rude voice.

“Now Taylor, is that really a nice thing to say? Joseph is pretty good at magic.”

She gave him a dirty look and turned her face up on him with her nose the highest. Joseph rolled his eyes back just to show that they were equal.

Breaking their rude moment, Wilson stated, “Your quest is to help the village called DragonTooth because an evil goblin stole a statue made from a special stone that keeps evil monsters and evil spirits away from the village. The goblin has a water dragon protecting the statue in the ocean of doom. Also, something you should be aware of is that the village is known for DragonTooth plants. They drip with venom, and if it goes in your body, you die almost instantly. The good thing about it is that when the venom touches a dragon, the dragon gets knocked out. You two are going to leave starting tomorrow and tell your parents that you are going camping.”

“But didn’t you say that it’s impossible to kill a dragon?” Joseph asked.

“So now you’re scared!” said Taylor in a smirk.

Wilson glared at Taylor but said, “You’re not going to kill the dragon. You’re going to knock it out.”

“Bu..” Joseph started, but Wilson cut him off  by saying,“Off you go. Oh, and meet me tomorrow. Same place.”

With a flick of his finger, Tayler disappeared, and Joseph found himself standing in a room with a fully packed suitcase. He ran down the stairs and told his mom that he was going camping with a friend for about a week. She frowned but then behind her, Wilson appeared and quietly snapped his fingers. Then he disappeared.

Joseph’s mom smiled and said, “That would be lovely.”

It was the day of the quest. Joseph said his goodbyes to his mom and his sisters. He ran to the unnamed street with his suitcase and saw that Taylor and Wilson were already there. Taylor was standing with a huge pink suitcase, and Wilson had a small worn out bag.

She rolled her eyes and muttered, “You’re late.”

Wilson put his hand out, and Taylor put her hand on his. Now they were all looking at him impatiently. He gave an asking look to Wilson, and he stared down at Taylor’s hand. Unsure of what to do, Joseph placed his hand on Taylor’s. Unexpectedly, Joseph found himself walking in the air. He reached out his hands and felt it pass a cloud. He looked under his feet. He could see his town, but it was getting smaller. He saw birds flying and cawing at the same time. He felt the wind hitting him hard.

“There. That’s the village,” Wilson said, pointing at a small village that was dark and gloomy, mostly destroyed and filled with black plants.

They landed on the ground and saw many villagers looking at them curiously. They were dressed in rags and had charcoal marks on their face.

“We came to bring the statue to you from the dragon,” Wilson said slowly.

One of them ran up to them and started pulling on Wilson’s robe, saying thank you again and again before backing away and faking a smile. Wilson directed Joseph and Taylor to a small, rusty house.For two days, they practiced for their big day. They did target practice by using magic instead of arrows. The day after that, they collected DragonTooth venom that knocked out dragons in big protection suits. It was the big day, and they had a bag full with a bottle of venom from the DragonTooth plant and a first aid kit that included aid for dragon burns or any other magic incidents. Wilson put flowers of DragonTooth plants without venom for luck. He also gave them a map to where the sea of doom was. Joseph and Taylor walked until Wilson was out of sight. Abruptly Taylor started to walk in the wrong direction.

“Where are you going?” Joseph asked her.

“I’m leaving you. A quest isn’t worth it, especially if you are going steal treasure that I hide,” she said.

“Treasure that you hide? What do you mean?” he asked.

“You see, you are going on a quest I don’t want anyone to go on,” she said, grinning.

She flicked her hand and turned into an ugly, foul smelling goblin.

“And since you now know my little secret, I shall destroy you.”

Fortunately Joseph had the bag. He reached for the bottle of venom and gripped it tight. Taylor/the goblin charged at Joseph but dodged and hide behind a rock. Taylor/the goblin was confused of where Joseph was hiding, and when her back was to Joseph, he squirted some venom on her. She instantly dropped. Joseph cautiously walked out from behind the rock to make sure if she was really knocked out. He tied her to the rock so when she woke up, she would be stuck. Then he looked in the first aid kit, and it had a creature repellant that took their magic away from them. He smeared some one Taylor/the goblin and put everything back in his bag. He held out the map and went in the direction of the sea of doom.

Finally, after one hour, he got to the sea. To his horror, in front of him lay a huge dragon. It looked at him and stood up. It was mostly greenish blue and had a huge horn on the top of its head. It was 30 feet and roared at him. Joseph looked in his bag for the venom. There was barely any of it left. The dragon sprayed fire at Joseph, but he used a shield spell and sprayed water in the dragon’s mouth. Now the dragon had no more fire to spray. The dragon looked confused when no fire came out when he opened his mouth. Joseph crept behind the dragon and sprayed the leftover venom and ran out of the way. The dragon gave a big shriek and fell with a loud thud, shaking the ground.

Joseph put a water shield spell on him so he could go under water safely. Joseph plunged into the icy water and could feel the goose bumps forming on his body.  The water was inhabited. He saw a small box and held it in his arms. He swam out of the water, gasping. He opened the small box, and inside, there was a small statue. He put it in his bag, surrounded in a safe spell.

The day he got to the village, it felt like he just had run a 1,000 mile marathon. Joseph almost passed out on the street. He was surrounded by the villagers. He gestured at his bag. One villager opened the bag and held the statue in the sun. The village filled with light. The black DragonTooth plants turned bright purple. The destroyed shops and houses turned to new houses and stores. Now Joseph could hear the birds chirping and water streaming. Shortly after, Wilson and Joseph left the village and appeared in the unnamed street.

“So what happened with Taylor?” Wilson asked.

Joseph told Wilson the whole quest and Taylor’s true identity. Smiling, Wilson disappeared with a poof. The only thing that still remained from the strange man was his glittering cloak.

Sixty years later…

Joseph sat at the end of the unnamed street. He was wearing a nearly invisible cloak with red patterns. He was waiting for a child to come walk down the unnamed street, eager to learn magic. Joseph looked down. His hands with wrinkles. He was an old man now. His green eyes glowed in the humid day. He was thinking of the strange man. Joseph was doing this for him. He looked out at the mostly uninhabited town. Then walking toward him, there was a small, redheaded girl. Joseph smiled with small wrinkles on his cheeks.