After an incident at his previous school, Zane’s mom agreed to let him be homeschooled for a year. However, that year is completed, and Zane must start at a new private school the next day. Zane doesn’t want to go back to school because other students ridicule and bully him because of his disability. (One of Zane’s legs is shorter than the other, and he walks with a cane.) Zane’s mom insists on his return to mainstream school life because she is concerned about his isolation. The family lives in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico, and there are no other kids his age. As a back-to-school present, Zane’s mom gives him a cane with the head of a dragon, and although Zane thinks the cane is cool, he thinks, “Nothing, not even this warrior dragon cane, was going to make my being the new kid any easier” (6).

That night, Zane can’t sleep, so he takes his dog out for a walk near the inactive volcano in the backyard, where he discovers an enormous set of footprints that suddenly just ends. A plane comes out of nowhere, flying low, and Zane sees a giant demon in the pilot’s chair before the plane crashes into

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