Marc and Ethan discover they are magic dragon riders for two funny, exciting Chinese King Dragons, Ping and Yu. They all go on adventures to save the world from flood and drought caused by climate change brought about by the evil Treasure Dragon. Yes, the adventures are exciting and sometimes scary - occasionally very scary. But the dragons are fun loving (underneath that naughty exterior) and very caring and so are the boys. More importantly, this story is about how Marc and Ethan and their two king dragons grow to love one another and learn they will do anything to help each other out in tricky situations. There are floods and there is drought and Marc and Ethan are fed up with having to play indoors... - what's happening to the weather? In this world, rainfall is usually managed by the Lung-Wang (watery Chinese king dragons to you and me). But the Lung-Wang have been captured by the fearsome Treasure Dragon and his slippery snakes and put in horrible steel cages under the mountains. So they can't do what they have to. Only four king dragons have escaped the horrific Treasure Dragon's grasp; brothers, Ping and Yu and their mother, Mai, and father, Li. These feisty dragons have to save their friends and family but alone they don't have the power. They know that king dragons' magic increases greatly with dragon riders and they need to find at least two riders - quickly. But the last known dragon riders died 100 years ago so it all seems hopeless... That is until the dragons find Marc and Ethan, two young cousins who are half Chinese and half not. And the cousins know absolutely nothing about dragons, being dragon riders and Chinese life in general. They don't seem very promising dragon riders at all. But Ping goes to find the two boys anyway and persuades them to train to become dragon riders for himself and his brother Yu. This series has four stories about exciting (and sometimes very scary) adventures of Ping and Yu, the king dragons, their dragon riders and all their friends and family as they go about saving the Lung-Wang from the fearsome Treasure Dragon and bring the weather back to normal. . In this first story Pearl Magic, Ping and Yu train Marc and Ethan to become dragon riders so they can be given the magic of the pearl and the pearl's dragon rider powers. It's not easy; the boys have to learn kung fu and to fight with swords, they have to learn how to deal with the young dragons teasing and they have to learn how to work hard and overcome some very scary obstacles. They nearly give up several times but the lure of magic and the fun they have with their mischievous dragons is too great to give up.