"Dad went out to get the milk," Ollie said, poking their head into the living room.

Iara shrugged, scrolling on her phone. "Alright. Is he going to come back this time, or is he gone for a week again?"

Ollie shrugged, flopping down on the beanbag across from Iara. She was texting one of her friends, and every so often, she was laugh at something they said.

"He said he'd try not to get caught up in adventure work again, but no promises," Ollie sighed.

"Ah. Well, that's unfortunate."

Ollie fidgeted with their curly hair for a moment, before jumping up to peer outside the window. It was a flat glass pane that covered the entire wall of their living room in the apartment. They were on the thirty-seventh floor of the apartment complex, and Ollie could see the rest of the grimy city from outside.

The concrete walls were all a dirty grey, and the sky matched. The only color amongst the enormous blocky buildings were a few spots of graffiti down on the street. Ollie frowned, squinting at the entrance to a subway system. They had school.

---

A few minutes later, Ollie was down at the entrance of the subway, heading down. Their school wasn't too far away, but they still had to take the subway.

Ollie hated it. The brown-ish green walks evoked the feeling of mold, and there probably was some there. Flickering lights and echoing rumbles of trains added to the mildly disgusting feeling, and Ollie wanted to spend as little time in the subway as possible. They'd forever be jealous of the neighbouring city's futuristic floating train rails, but this was what they were stuck with.

School, as always, was boring.

---

A couple days later, Ollie was walking down the street, when they got a text alert from their phone. Huh. Ollie never got text alerts unless it was their parents, since they didn't have friends. Rather sad, but it was the truth.

Ollie checked their phone. Dad had texted them.

Look up, the text message said.

Ollie looked up, and barely ducked in time as a colorful blur swooped down above her head.

"What–" Ollie began, and then words failed.

A massive, rainbow, dragon beat its enormous wings against the stale air, sending up a gust of wind.

"Hey Ollie!"

Ollie looked over. Their dad sat on the back of the dragon, grinning an enormous smile.

---

Ollie burst into the apartment, where Iara was cooking dinner.

"Iara!"

"What?"

"Dad didn't get the milk, but he did get a dragon!"

Iara almost scorched herself on the pan. "WHAT?!"

---

Aaaaaand, end scene! :D 

"Do I look like I care?" The old man shouted, spraying spit all over Kit. 

"Yeah! We only take good dragons. Not this piece of junk." The other man said. 

"Besides, who wants a milk dragon?" The same guy said, and all the other men started laughing.

"B-but he is very strong! I've trained him a lot!" I sputtered, tears flowing down my eyes. 

One of the men walked over to a huge dragon outfitted with futuristic armor. "Think training a lot does anything nowadays? Get a dragon with cool armor, then we might let you join the club." 

I stood there for a second, my lip trembling. I then turned around, grabbed my dragon Dairy, and ran back home. The other men were all laughing at me.

When I finally reached my backyard, I started grabbing stuff and throwing them at the wall. "Why can't I have gotten a good dragon?" 

I looked down, and Dairy looked sort of sad.

"What do you want?" I yelled, and rushed inside. 

Dad was already home, and he was at the table reading a book and drinking lemongrass tea. "Hello Kit." He said in his smooth voice, without looking up from the book. He looked up at me, and sighed. 

"Still trying to get in that club of idiots? Well, the competion is tomorrow."

I sat down, and put my head down on the table. "I'm not going to the competion. My dragon is terrible, and I'll just embarrass myself."

Dad chuckled. "You should join the competition. I think you'll be surprised."

I rolled my eyes, and went up to go to sleep. 

The next morning, I got all dressed up, and put some leather armor on Dairy. It was the most I could afford. Dad had left a note saying he was gone, so Dairy and I trotted into town. 

The competition, for the most part, was pretty boring. It was just two dragons fighting while their trainers cheered on, and I just sat there twiddling my thumbs. It was always the jalepeno dragon that would win, as pretty much everyone had one. Jalepeno dragons had no none weakness, so they were very strong. 

But during one battle, the jalepeno dragon got out of control and started attacking the judges. Even the trainer couldn't control it. Just then, I thought of something. Whenever you eat something spicy, what cools it down? Milk!

"Dairy, go!" I yelled, pointing my finger at the jalepeno dragon. Dairy growled, then rushed off at the jalepeno dragon at high speed. Before they could react, Dairy shot a powerful spray of milk right into the dragons chest. The jalepeno dragon collapsed on the floor, knocked out and dosed in milk. 

Everyone, including the club I tryed to join, looked down at the knocked out dragon, then to Dairy, then to me. Immediatly, the judges announced I won, and they handed me a huge golden trophy, a bag of money, and some equipment. 

Some of the most prestigous club leaders ran over and started asking if I'd like to join their club. 

I looked down at Dairy, and smiled. "I'll think about it. Dairy and I might go indiependent." 

They all looked frozen with a complete look of terror on their faces. 

I grinned, and Dairy and I headed back. Next competition will be fun. 

The scientist tips a vial of luminecsent, stretchy orange liquid into the basin in the center of the room. It flashes golden in the light before swirling and mixing into the translucent liquid filling the basin, and if you look close enough, there is a dull grey oval floating under the harsh lighting of the lab. An egg. It stays still and silent, much to the dismay of the scientist.

He clenches his hands into fists in frustration. He flicks his wrist, and a hologram pops up. He spreads out the information in front of him, including winding strands of DNA. 

"I must be missing something..." the scientist murmers to himself. He can't help feeling the heavy sense of dread that years of work could hit a dead end. He knows that if this doesn't work now, then there's no way he'll be allowed to stay here, in his lab. Not that the lab is too fancy, with the mess that he keeps ignoring. Holograms are strewn everywhere and his breakfast, a mostly eaten bowl of cereal, is still sitting on the edge of a shelf next to the basin. He can't bring himself to clean. It doesn't matter anyway; his project was the only reason he was allowed these resources. And he had failed.

The egg floated, mocking him.

He slumps down in his chair, defeated. The sudden movement knocks against the shelf, and the cereal bowl tips over the edge. Gasping, he lunges to catch it, but the milk has already spilled into the liquid in the basin, fogging it all up. 

Before his panic can properly set it, a loud cracking sound echoes through the air. He freezes in shock. 

And then, a glistening baby dragon bursts up through the murky liquid. 

Judging:

1st place:

RAINBOW RIOT!! Everything dissolved well into the story, and I liked the idea you came up with.

You'll judge the next Connection Challenge 

Second Place:

A tie between Silver Crystal and Lazerbat. Silver Crystal wrote a pretty good combination focused on the three words. Lazerbat came up with something very interesting, written well, but it felt a little too weird.

Nice Job, Everyone.