Greetings, prospective readers! Welcome to my second Spyro the Dragon project! All right, ground rules, the dragons in this story are anthro, mostly because I find hands easier to work with. Oh, and this story is based upon The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Well, with that in mind, let's begin!

Chapter One: Monkey Business

"Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man."-Homer, The Odyssey

Rain poured all around the scene of a car accident. A young man in his early 20s was lying on the pavement, desperately clutching onto the last threads of his life, his outfit in tatters. Adrian Michaels had ended up like this when a freak bolt of lightning struck directly in front of his car, causing him to flip it over. If he hadn't been wearing his seat belt, he'd more than likely have been killed on impact. Although, his odds of survival still weren't so great, given that this was a road without many houses, although thankfully, it did see a fair amount of traffic.

Adrian let out a hopeful gasp at the sight of a dark robed figure walking towards him. "P-please! H-help me! Get me o-out of h-here! C-call an a-ambulance or some-something!" Adrian choked out.

The hooded figure walked up to Adrian and bent down in front of him. With what part of his mind wasn't completely consumed by excruciating pain, Adrian noticed that the hooded figure was an old man. Like, Ancient Egypt old.

"Your destiny awaits, young one," the old man said.

"Y-you mean I'm g-gonna die here?" choked Adrian.

The old man gave no indication that he had heard Adrian's question as he continued. "Every ten generations, a very special Purple Dragon is reincarnated, destined to become a hero and savior of his era. This is the Legend of Spyro. However, the Dark Master has heard these legends as well, and sought to destroy the Purple Dragon's egg before it hatched. Fortunately, he failed. But, after years of war and destruction, the Dragon Realms are beyond even the Purple Dragon's help. He cannot do it alone. He needs you."

"Is that so? W-well I'm kinda busy t-trying not to d-die, so stop spouting video g-ame lore and help me!" said Adrian, his voice raspy and harsh.

The old man, however, simply turned around and walked away. At almost the exact same moment, sirens could be heard in the distance as the police and medical personnel arrived. As Adrian was loaded into the back of an ambulance, no seemed to notice the hooded man as he held out his hand, which had an eerie glow to it, and muttered a few words in what sounded like an ancient language.

As the ambulance pulled away, the old man, known as the Chronicler, created a portal that would take him back to his home.

"May the Ancestors look after you. May they look after us all."

In A Swamp Somewhere Beyond The Dragon Realms...

"Hey… hey, wake up! Are you all right?"

What seemed to be a young man in his early 20s stirred at the sound of a voice. He had short black hair and wore a black overcoat with white designs and a black shirt with similar designs and what seemed to be a chain underneath, black pants with a belt, black leather boots, and a black eye patch over his right eye. He looked almost completely normal, apart from the fact that he had razor-sharp talons that looked as though they could cut through steel like butter, a long black skeletal tail, and a pair of jet-black dragon wings with red tips that were grafted seamlessly onto his back. When he opened his visible eye, it was blood red and black with a slit for a pupil.

Adrian Michaels couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on. One moment, he was lying on a gurney in the back of an ambulance after a terrible car accident, the next, he was lying in the mud of what seemed to be a swamp with an oddly familiar looking purple bipedal lizard creature with large horns and wings that looked as though they could easily support his weight clad in some kind of grass loincloth, looking down at him.

"You okay? I was playing hide-and-seek with my brother Sparx when I saw you lying there. I'm Spyro, by the way," the purple lizard, Spyro, said.

"Wait… Spyro? As in, Spyro the Dragon?" the young winged man asked as he started pulling himself up.

Spyro looked confused at this statement. "Uh… no. I'm a dragonfly. And who and what are you exactly?"

"Oh, my name's Adrian-" said the young man before he caught sight of his clawed hand. "What in the…?" he muttered, looking at his other hand, a rising panic starting to well up inside of him as he crawled on his hands and knees to get a look at his reflection.

His scream at what he saw there could easily have been heard for miles around, just as the jet of blue flame that flew out of his mouth could be seen for miles around, causing Spyro to jump back in fright.

"What happened to me?!" said Adrian, his voice growing deep and monstrous as he took a few deep breaths to calm himself back down again.

Cautiously, Spyro made his way back towards Adrian. "You, uh, you okay there, pal?" Spyro asked the creature.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, it's just… my kind doesn't usually have tails, or flame breath, or wings, or claws, so it's very disconcerting to wake up with them… especially in a world out of a video game…" Adrian added under his breath.

Spyro cocked his head in confusion. "What's a video game?" he asked.

"Never mind, it's not important," said Adrian as he pulled himself up to his full, towering, height. "So, you were playing hide and seek with your brother, you said?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, seeing as I have nothing better to do with my time outside of trying to find my way back to California from this place, mind if I join you?"

Spyro looked hesitant about having this complete stranger tag along with him. After a moment's thought, the purple lizard let out a reluctant sigh. "Sure, come along. What did you say your name was again?"

"Well, my real name's Adrian Michaels, but you know what? Why don't you call me Drakor."

Ten Minutes Later…

"So, your name's Drakor, and you don't usually look like a demon ripped right out of a nightmare?" said Sparx, who was a golden dragonfly who was flying backwards with his arms crossed through a dark cave.

"Yep."

"Uh-huh…" said Sparx, clearly not trusting Drakor. However, before he could say anything further, the dragonfly was captured in a lantern by what seemed to be a gang of ape soldiers that quickly retreated to an overhead ledge that neither Drakor nor Spyro could reach.

"Sparx!" cried Spyro, his shout getting the attention of what seemed like the leader of the ape soldiers.

"I thought all you guys was gone…" the ape said, glaring intently at Spyro.

"You miserable coward, let me go!" demanded Sparx.

The ape soldier merely glared at Sparx and chuckled. "Don't let them get away!" he yelled as a few of his underlings leaped back off the ledge and surrounded Drakor and Spyro.

"Hope you know how to fight," said Spyro as he took a brawler's stance.

Drakor shrugged before he took a similar stance. "Eh, I've gotten myself into a few scraps back home, so I'll be okay… I think."

"You think?" Spyro said, doing what would've been an eyebrow raise if he had eyebrows.

"Just shut up and fight."

With help from his newly-attained claws and despite taking a few solid shots, Drakor was able to beat a couple of the ape soldiers, who somehow vanished in flashes of light that left behind a few glowing red gems that were attracted to Drakor and Spyro as though by some sort of magnetism. As he absorbed them, Drakor could feel some of his injuries heel a little faster.

Okay, so red gems are heals. Noted, thought Drakor as he took down a few more of the soldiers.

On the ledge above, the leader of the ape soldiers lit a stick of dynamite and threw it. The resulting blast knocked Drakor's feet out from under him, causing him to hit his head on a rock, knocking him out cold.

As Spyro continued fighting, Sparx addressed his captor. "Let me out of here and fight me like a… thing… whatever you are! You pathetic wretch!"

This made the ape lose his temper completely. He jumped off the ledge and slammed the lantern Sparx was in on the ground. "I've had just about enough of you!" the ape bellowed as he raised his foot to stomp on Sparx.

Spyro caught sight of what was about to happen and felt a rising surge of panic and anger course through his veins. "Sparx! Noooooooooahhhhhhh!" he yelled. As he yelled, a powerful jet of flames was issued from his mouth, giving the ape an all-too-literal hot foot..

Sparx, for his part, couldn't believe his eyes. "Was- was that fire, dude?!" he cried out.

The ape leader growled in frustration. "Take care of 'em! I gotta report to Cynder!" he bellowed to his remaining troops before he hobbled off into the swamp.

With the aid of his newly-acquired fire breath, Spyro was able to defeat the remaining soldiers without too much trouble. Only when their extra-crispy, bleeding, and broken bodies vanished this time, they left green gems behind as well, which seemed to give Spyro energy to continue breathing fire.

Before long, the last of the ape soldiers disappeared, leaving only the unconscious Drakor, Sparx, and Spyro.

"Get me outta here, Spyro! I think my wings are singed!" demanded Sparx.

Spyro walked up to the lantern and broke it open with a swing of his tail. "You okay?" Spyro asked his friend.

"Okay?! You nearly torched me, dude!" said Sparx. "Wait… you breathed fire!"

A Short While Later…

Spyro, Sparx, and the now-conscious Drakor were at Spyro and Sparx's home in the swamp. Spyro and Sparx were explaining to their parents what had happened back in the swamp, while Drakor sat off to the side, listening intently and trying to figure out his next course of action.

"... so, I'm about ready to blow the top of that place and kick that guy's booty-" said Sparx, causing Drakor to snigger. "-when Spyro let loose with some serious flame, dude. No joke. Flames. From the mouth."

"I-I was just trying to help," stammered Spyro.

Sparx laughed. "Some help! You almost turned me into ashes, dude! Mom, Dad, you should've seen him! He came out breathing fire! Alright? I tell you, it was crazy."

Sparx's parents looked at each other, solem expressions on their face that Sparx read as disbelief.

"You don't believe me! Come on, Spyro, tell them!"

"It's true, Dad," said Spyro. "I just got real mad, opened my mouth, and woosh. Flame city."

"It's not that, Spyro, I believe you both," said Sparx's father. "It's just that… well, your mother and I knew this day would come."

"What day?" asked Spyro, confused.

"The day when we would have to tell you the truth. You see, Spyro, you're not actually a dragonfly. What you are, even we don't know," explained Sparx's father, causing Spyro to become even more confused.

"What do you mean?"

"We found your egg at the edge of the river. Apparently you had been sent away in order to avoid some sort of threat or danger. Or so we believe and hope," explained Sparx's mother, unable to voice the thought that her son may have actually been abandoned or unloved and left to die.

"Okay, whoever did that is an idiot. Throwing babies into rivers hardly ever ends well," said Drakor.

"So, you mean… I-I'm not your real son?" asked Spyro, feeling a little hurt.

"You are our real son, it's just that you came from somewhere else," explained Sparx's mother. "Far away, where wars rage on and on, and the innocent seem to always pay the price."

"Sounds an awful lot like Chicago," said Drakor, causing everyone to look at him funny. "What?"

The Following Evening…

Spyro and Drakor stood at the edge of the path leading out of the swamp. Spyro had decided to venture forth and find his home among the rest of his kind. Drakor had decided to tag along with Spyro, suggesting that perhaps he could find a way back home, or perhaps discover how and why he had been sent here and transformed in the way he had been.

Sparx, however, was not happy about this. "So, that's it, huh? Just leave Sparx behind at the old homestead? Not a care in the world, don't look back."

"This is your home, Sparx. I just found out that my home is out there somewhere. And I've gotta find it," explained Spyro.

"And my home is nowhere near here, and I've gotta find a way to get back to it, or at least why I was sent here like this," explained Drakor.

"Besides, we're not leaving you behind, we're just leaving you where you belong," said Spyro.

"I thought I belonged with you. Because I'm always with you. Guess I was wrong about a lot of things. You know what, I'm wrong, you're right," said Sparx before he flew off.

As Spyro watched his brother go, Sparx's father chuckled. "Don't worry about him, Spyro. You know how hotheaded he can be. You'll see him when you get back," he said, to which Spyro nodded solemnly. "Now, now, son, keep your head up, your nose clean, and use that new breath of yours wisely. Remember, all gifts come with a price."

Sparx's mother chuckled. "Don't listen to your father's preaching, Spyro. Just be yourself. It's all any of us can do," she said.

On that note, both Drakor and Spyro bid Sparx's parents farewell and set out along the path, in search of home.

And thus concludes Chapter One! It took quite a bit of work, but I'm sure I did a fairly decent job. Join us next time for the Fire Temple! In the meantime, be sure to fave, follow, and review, and I'll see you guys next time!