Prologue

"Where is Ignitus?" Cyril yelled as the temple floor beneath them shook. Both dragons knew it was Terrador's doing, knew that it was his final most desperate attack.

"He's taken the purple dragon egg!" Volteer yelled back, but his voice was lost in the aftershock, and it took all his remaining strength just to stay standing. Cyril, however, wasn't so lucky. The blue went sliding across the floor, talons clicking as they attempted to find purchase. The ground gave another heave and he was airborne. With a sickening crunch, he slammed into a stone pillar and slid, slowly, to the floor.

"Cyril!" Volteer yelled getting to his feet. He ran to his fellow Guardian and found the impact had knocked him unconscious and shattered one of his pale icy wings in the process. "This is bad, horrific, atrocious," the yellow dragon mumbled to himself, taking a couple steps backwards.

With out warning, the sound of a far off explosion shattered through sanctum. An eerie silence filled the air and Volteer looked around in panic. Time stopped as a distance doom…doom… doom… echoed heavily. The beat of the war drums settled and time started again. Fires hissed angrily and stones that had stubbornly held their place for centuries gave their last wailing cries as they shattered, cracked, and finally crumbled.

"The inner gates, they've fallen," he muttered softly. The knowledge stewed in him bitterly and he took a couple of steps forward in purpose, but stopped and turned. "I need to at least need to try and attempt to accomplish something, sorry old friend," he apologized to Cyril's unmoving form before turning deeper into the temple. He ran past the multitudes of doors and corridors that turned the temple into a labyrinth, only stopping once he reached the egg sanctuary. There he found Ignitus and the purple dragon egg gone. Quickly, he scanned the room and saw that none of the other eggs had been moved or taken. 'I have to devise a way to rescue more of them,' he thought and, without hesitation, went around and started collecting all the eggs he could. Another frightful explosion rocked the sanctuary and the hinges of the grotto door threatened to fall apart.

"Unfathomable, how could they have breached the inner sanctum so fast?" Volteer muttered and looked down at the eggs he had collected. A crimson red, a midnight blue, a starlight yellow, a pale iced hue, and a shaded forest green all sparkled back at him. He wished he had time to save more of them, but then again, he wished he had time to do so much more.

He ran to the center of the chamber and unhooked the lock on the dais with his claw. A small hole appeared, slowly expanding, and he hastily stuffed the eggs inside and locked the dais back in place. Slowly the hole began to close as another crack thundered throughout the room. Ruble fell in large clumps from the ceiling and a few nests shattered under the impacts, pitiful squishing sounds emitting from them as their lives faded. Volteer turned and raked a claw against the top of the dais and, with bitter satisfaction, saw his mark. Ignitus would find it, would know what it ment.

The door gave a final shattering crunch and buckled under the force of the apes behind it. Volteer turned and with a trumpeting roar challenged them. "I will not allow you to defile this sacred place!" he yelled in fury. Apes swarmed, unafraid, into the chamber, fully clad in elemental resistant armor. 'So that's how Terrador lost,' Volteer thought as he gave another bone rattling roar. The armor made no difference to him anyway. His electric breath was useless with all the eggs around; he didn't dare hit them.

Volteer ran forward into the tide of furry bodies, trying to take down as many flea-bitten mongrels with him as he could. As he slashed fangs, claws, and tail, he hoped that his last act wouldn't be in vain.

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Ignitus flew through the night air silently as he made his way back to the temple. Thoughts of the purple egg's fate flashed through his mind; none of them positive. The wind shifted as he flew and the acidic scent of smoke hit him before he even came in sight of the temple and his heart fell even deeper.

Ignitus landed at the temple's entrance and quickly ran inside, fears becoming a reality. The temple was battle scared and the once beautiful shrines praising the gods stood ruined. One by one, he went through all the rooms, hoping desperately to find some signs of his friends, of his fellow Guardians. None were a comfort, all he found were the lone apes trying to loot and pillage any treasure they could. Mercilessly, he killed them all.

Ignitus made his closer way to the egg sanctuary, heart racing. As he got to the entrance, there was a giant mound of rubble blocking half the archway. Carefully he picked his was over the debris and squeezed his way inside. Once in, he turned and saw that the rubble had been what was left of the sanctuary's door. Panic surged through him and he ran forward. He saw what was left of the Grotto and quickly sunk to his knees. Crushed eggs were strewn about and a streak of blood splashed the floor where somebody had fallen. Parts of the ceiling had cascaded inward and all the nests defiled.

Ignitus lifted his head and gave a deep, mournful cry, echoing from the back of his throat. He dropped his head in misery, and a flash of light caught the corner of his eye. He looked up. In the middle, on the dais, a mark barely stood out against the dazzling blue. A claw mark blazoned with electricity. "Volteer," he whispered getting to his feet. Slowly, he walked forward, praying his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He got closer and saw that Volteer's mark was truly there, a bit faint but there. In a few hours it would be nothing more then a slash but to Ignitus it was the answer to his prayers.

He slipped a claw into the dais's lock and waited with anticipation as the hole slowly expanded. First he caught a simmer of red, a sparkle of yellow, of green, until finally all the eggs stood bared out before him. Five eggs flashed in the torch light and Ignitus's spirit soared.

The dragon race would live on.