Five years is a long hiatus from writing and reading stories on this website. If I were to compare the changes from five years ago till now, it seems like there's more activity now. As far as my old stories goes, they're gone as I would like a fresh start to things.

With that out of the way let's get started.

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the Spyro franchise aside from my own characters.

It's been 3 years since Spyro and Cynder defeated Malefor and returned the world to an era of peace. Evil still loomed but it was the usual bandits, assassins, cons and whatever else you could think of. As the world was being rebuild, creatures of all kinds that had been hiding during the war was starting to come back out.

Our story begins in a city to the far north called Heimskr. Heimskr was an underground city housing mostly orphaned dragons, this being dragons who's eggs were abandoned or given away by parents who couldn't take care of them. These dragons were taken care of by overseers until the day they turned 18. Some dragons made it, but most of them turned to a life of crime, it wasn't exactly an easy life being an orphan. Not that the overseers were evil, they just didn't give much care to dragons that didn't do well in school, or if they just flat out didn't like you.

Two of these dragons who recently turned 18 is Dusk and Novis. Dusk is a shadow dragon with black scales, a black underbelly, silver wing membrane and three horns with two curving backwards. Novis is a fire dragon with red scales, a yellow underbelly, an orange wing membrane and two horns shaped like a mountain goat.

Dusk and Novis were in the training room exchanging combat techniques. Dusk had performed a move with his shadow element that had caused the training dummy to crumble into dust.

"Not bad Dusk, I can't believe where you get all that power from, you could probably teach the overseers a thing or two." Novis said, as he oberserved the crumbling target dummy.

"I think they're more looking forward to me leaving so they can claim they're the best at what they do." Dusk responded rather coldly.

"Look on the bright side we can get out of here tomorrow morning." Novis responded cheerfully, his excitement was through the roof.

Dusk nodded in response, he too was looking forward to leaving, although he had no clue where to go.

Novis had decided he was leaving for Scorched City in the south. A merchant had visited them one day and told some interesting and wild stories about the place.

"If you still haven't decided you should come with me, we can double team Scorched City and become the strongest students at the temple." Novis suggested, secretly praying that Dusk would love the idea.

Dusk simply shook his head. "We've talked about this before, I just can't see myself working in some temple honing my skills, or worse, getting tied down to some dragoness. I need to be free from all that."

Novis lowered his head in disappointment, but he still wanted what was best for his only friend in the world.

They moved outside to watch the snow falling, soon this would be a rare sight so they decided to take in the view one last time.

"I've heard the world outside is dangerous, I hope we're equipped to dealing with the dangers it has to offer. In a way it's exciting." Novis said.

Dusk nodded, sharing his excitement.

Day turned to night and they both moved to the mess hall to get some food, something that could turn out to be their last meal together.

"Attention please!" A dragoness yelled, it was the head overseer. "I will read out the following names of the dragons who will be leaving tomorrow morning."

She yelled out name after name, it seemed like there was no end to it, she would usually follow it with a positive or a negative comment depending on whether or not she liked the dragon.

"Novis, you will probably not make something of yourself." Dusk sneered at her comment. Novis simply lowered his head in disappointment. "I guess my effort hasn't been good enough." Novis said. Dusk patted his friend on the back reassuring him he was good enough.

"Dusk, finally we're getting rid of your annoying attitude, please try to not kill the first one you see." The comment winning a lot of roaring laughter.

"I would love to beat the snot out of her." Dusk snarled. Novis trying to calm down his friend, assuring him that doing so would be a bad idea.

Dusk and Novis went to bed after dinner so they could leave early in the morning. That night Novis prayed that he would make it to Scorched City, and maybe one day find his parents. Dusk went to sleep without a care, not worrying about what was about to happen and what to expect.

Night turned to early morning and Dusk and Novis were up early rushing to the exit hoping to leave as soon as possible. When they came outside they saw several other dragons talking amongst one another, and others flying away.

"I guess we weren't the only ones who had the idea of leaving early." Novis said to Dusk, who nodded in response. They looked at each other one last time, nodded, and flew away in each their directions. Novis heading south-west, and Dusk heading south-east. This was the beginning of Dusk's adventure, one that would take him many places and fighting many strong foes.

Dusk flew for 3 days ignoring every village he saw along the way. He wasn't sure where he was going, but something felt right about the direction he was headed. He stopped at a river near a grove to get some water.

"I wonder where I am, I've flown pretty far these past few days." Dusk wondered to himself.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a twig snap and looked behind him. Looking behind him he saw a couple of cheetahs and moles, all wearing iron plating and equipped with short swords.

"Look boys, fresh meat." One of the cheetahs said.

"All we need to do now is capture him, find his parents and demand a large ransom." Another cheetah said.

Dusk looked at them and smiled. "That's pretty funny I'll give you that. I have no issues with you so I suggest you leave now."

"Leave? Sure, why don't I drop you all my gems and coins while I'm at it?" The cheetah responded.

"Actually that would be very nice of you if you did." Dusk responded with a grin.

"Oh a smart mouth we have here. I'll be sure to send your parents one of your horns after we're done with you." The cheetah responded coldly. They got into a combat stance, meanwhile Dusk just stood there eyeing them.

The staring contest kept going for some time until one of the moles broke the silence.

"Maybe we're the ones making a mistake here, I mean he's not even trembling or begging for his life."

"You idiot, if you're all too scared to attack I'll just prove to you right here and now why I'm the best." One of the cheetahs snarled at the mole.

The cheetah charged forward raising his sword in the air. Dusk kept staring and smiling not getting into a combat stance. The cheetah got ready to slash his sword against the young dragon, but in one quick move Dusk had penetrated his armor with his claw. He threw the cheetah to the ground stepping on his throat effectively ending the young cheetah's life.

The rest of the group stood there wide-eyed staring at what was now the remains of their former ally.

"R-R-R-R-Run!" One of the moles yelled. The whole group followed, they jumped into the grove, disappearing from Dusk's view.

"I wonder, if they were here to kidnap me, what would keep them from holding others captive?" Dusk wondered, looking at his bloodied claw. Deciding that the best course of action would probably be to save those who were captured, if there were any, and in turn get rid of some bad guys.

"Time to see what these bad guys have got." Dusk said to himself as he headed into the grove.

And that's it for the first chapter. I know I rushed some of the parts in this story, this is not going to be a theme though so don't worry about that. Feel free to R&R and I'll see you guys next time.

Keijt Kotchenski