Legend of Spyro: Series: Below Zero. (Shifting Fortunes trilogy.)

Book 2: Progression to Revelation.

Okay, this is the start of the second book in my six-book series Below Zero, and the sequel to Betrayal of Heroes. In case any of you forgot the setup of the series, here's a reminder. If you're new to this, it's best to read Betrayal of Heroes first, to prevent confusion, and this is how I'm setting out the books..

Legend of Spyro: Below Zero: Series.

Six books, eleven chapters in each. Split into two sort of trilogies.

Trilogy 1: Shifting Fortunes.

BOOK 1: BETRAYAL OF HEROES, BOOK 2: PROGRESSION TO REVELATION, BOOK 3: RECOVERY OF THE RETREATED.

Trilogy 2: Collaborative Glory.

BOOK 4: UNITED WE FALL, BOOK 5: DIVIDED WE STAND, and BOOK 6: TOGETHER WE CONQUER.

Also, before I start this, I want to share with you this brilliant quote:

Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it was reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant poop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it online just for the satisfaction. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to it in its own language. They're fans, but they're not the silent, couchbound consumers of media.

So, with the formalities over and done with:

PROGRESSION TO REVELATION

Chapter One: The Passage of Time.

Time: The continuing and unlimited progress of existance and events in the past, present, and future. (My answer whenever someone asks, 'What's the time?')

Where the valleys died, subsiding to a plain grassland at the last step of their range, a stream of water trickled weakly downwards, only to pool into a small pond at the very bottom of its slope. The trees swayed in the wind, the worn bark of a fallen tree trunk was a strangely comforting sight. The pond seemed still; fresh water, but devoid of much life in and around, and for a reason. Several reasons in fact, four of which were speeding towards the area as fast as they could, and creating quite a noise while they were at it.

"I told you! I told you!"

"That's not fair! You cheated and used your wings!"

"Come on! I might as well use my advantage!"

"He's right, Frae. In a fight, anything goes."

"Like this?"

"Hey! Now THAT's not fair!" An orange-brown dragon, about eight years of age, fell into the clearing around the pool, a black dragon on top of him. Her build was noticeably smaller than his, despite the fact that they were the same age. She had six small, hard too see, black horns, which could come in as a surprise advantage in a fight. His two were larger and brown, but blunter than hers. His eyes were a bright yellow, her irises a sparkling green. However, both irises, if examined closely, could be seen to have a slight rim of purple. Of the wing membranes, his were the yellow of his eyes, hers a sheen of silvery-grey.

When he rolled and landed on top of her, she squealed, immediately letting go. Both got to their feet, glaring playfully.

Behind the two, emerged a young dragoness, with scales a shade of cyan, never quite descernable whether blue or green. It seemed to shift from one second to the next. Her two horns were pure white, of an average size. She was of middling build, between the other two, and she was shaking her head at them.

"Brilliant. This started out as a race and ended as a fight."

The black dragoness just laughed, "Listron, come on, we're just playing. In fact," she said, sneaking a glance to the orangey dragon, "we could play with you as well."

Grinning, the small brawl forgotten, the two advanced on Listron, whose eyes lit up, even as she backed away. She called out in mock fear, "Nayit! Help!" The other two glanced around, momentarily wondering where the fourth of them was. But he was nowhere to be seen.

"Nayit?"

"Nayit!"

"Anything goes!" The cry came from above them, and a blur dropped onto the back of the orange dragon. A yell of victory came from the now stationary blur. "Got you that time, Tharusio!" The orange dragon attempted to roll to remove Nayit from his back, but the other dragon jumped when he felt the movement and landed on the floor. He stuck his tongue out. "Why are you rolling around in the dirt like that? I haven't beaten you yet, so are you rolling in preparation?"

The new dragon was relatively slender for a male. His horns, claws, and wing membranes were a light red. At first glance, his scales seemed to be white, but it would quickly become visible that that was not all there was to it. At the tail end of each individual scale, it steadily changed colour, becoming the same red as were his horns. The effect was more pronounced towards his tail end. His eyes were extremely unusual. Outwards from the pupil, they were white, then grew red, and, like all the rest, he sported the same purple rim around the irises, and from there on they were just white, creating a mysterious effect in all. He had five horns, four gracefully curving backwards, one shorter horn poking forwards above his eyes.

Tharusio, the orange, stood up, challenge and puzzlement on his face simultaneously. "Did you fly to get above me, or what?"

"Noticed the trees? Remember when we first used to come here, there were squirrels climbing them all the time. They left when we hunted them though."

The black dragoness nodded. "That was fun... But now, we hunt each other!"

Tharusio smirked playfully, "Squirrels were more of a challenge than you, Frae."

"Yes, because they climbed trees," Nayit said, speaking over joking growls from his sisters. "Since then, I'd been trying it myself whenever I could. It isn't too hard." Tharusio glanced up at the rather thin canopy of branches himself, before walking up to the nearest one.

Listron gasped. "Tharusio! What if you fall?!"

"I can glide now, can't I?"

Nayit sighed. "He won't stop, and we all know that, but be warned, Tharusio. You'll be lucky for a proper fall."

"What?"

Nayit just shrugged off the question. "You'll see..." Growling, Tharusio strode up to the nearest, a beech.

"Good luck Tharusio!" Frae called, the other two mumbling agreement.

Tharusio nodded, and put his claws to the tree. He tried to dig them in, but the tree was tough. He twisted his paws from left to right, trying to make a handhold, and barely scratched the surface. Anger flamed up at the tree, and he hit it as hard as he could, but still nothing happened.

He tried grasping the tree next, rearing up, wrapping his forelimbs around it and pulling, but to no avail. His claws slipped and slid over the surface. Growing yet more irritated, he went onto all fours again and lashed out for the tree.

His claws ripped off a tiny chunk of the tree, but just a sliver of bark would not get him up.

Irritated at himself, he turned to Nayit again. "How did you do that?!" But Nayit could't answer for a while, as both he and their sisters were chortling at the sight of Tharusio's struggles.

"I'll demonstrate," he finally struggled out, making his way up to a tree, likewise a beech. He glanced up it for a second and, satisfied, lurched onto his hind legs, resting his paws on the trunk. He shuffled forwards, took a long breath, and jumped up, wings folded.

He grasped fully around the trunk as much as he could with all four legs, trying to get a good grip. Once he was satisfied, his siblings watched in tense admiration as he shifted his paws little by little, gaining height as he progressed up the trunk.

He ignored the first branch he met, which was from the looks of it little more than a shoot, but when he reached the second, which was far thicker, he placed one paw, then, one by one, the others, onto the branch. He raised his head to the air, victoriously. "Easy!" he declared, lookng down at the others.

Listron stared, Frae cheered, but Tharusio looked puzzled. "How did you do that so much better than me? I'm bigger, and stronger. Is it in the technique?"

Nayit opened his mouth to answer, but a voice from above even him cut him off quickly and scathingly. "No, it's not to do with technique, nor strength, nor even skill. His was a victory due to observation."

The head of a dragonfly poked over a platform of wood, which was planted higher up in the branches. They all grinned up at him. "Hey uncle Sparx!"

Sparx smiled back and greeted them properly, before continuing. "As you can see, this is where I rest most of the time, but there has to be a way to get me up. Which is what Nayit saw. The cheetahs carved steps into this particular tree, to build the platform in the first place. He got up by holding them from the other side."

Tharusio grinned, but Nayit groaned. "Sparx! I was going to tell them that it was raw talent!"

"And would that have been the truth?"

"No, but Tharusio's reaction would be funny!"

"Oi!"

"See what I mean?"

"Never mind that, I want to climb this tree!"

"Frae! One dragon was enough, but any more would shake me off this thing!"

"How about we all go up?"

"Oh yeah, just because you think you can do it now, Tharusio. I vote he stays here, and we climb. After all, if Sparx is right, someone will have to catch him. Might as well be the one who can actually fly."

"I can glide, not fly, as you well know."

"Same difference."

"I agree with Nayit, someone has to catch Sparx."

"Hey! Listron!"

"I don't really mind, I just want to climb."

"That's two against one out of those who care, Tharusio. You're outvoted."

"Hey! Do I not get a say? I'm the one who could fall here!"

"Not really, you're the smallest, and we never get a say in-"

"Are you lot all tormenting your uncle?"

THAT stopped the discussion in its tracks.

The young dragons turned as Hunter and Meadow entered the clearing. Both carried bows, but Hunter had always been most proficient, and he was the one with a deer slung over his back. Meadow, on the other hand, had his usual pouch for fetching herbs that could be used for anything from medicine to flavourings, or even just tasted nice on their own. The healer had a grin on his face; the hunter a frown.

"Do you really think that he appreciates that sort of thing? Because I don't. In fact, he never has. Even as babies you ran rings round him-"

"Literally," giggled Frae.

"And your parents never liked it either. Where are they anyway?"

The youngsters chorused, "Hunting and patroling, so we can do what we want if we don't go too far."

But Tharusio added at the end, "Though patroling's useless. Nothing bad comes near us anyway."

Hunter frowned, "Have you ever considered that that's because they're patroling?"

Tharusio shrugged. "You've told us the stories of the Dark Master, but he's dead now, and these Ice dragon things seem pretty pathetic if they can't find us when we only ever go to ten different places."

"Tharusio, most people don't even live in two places. We change positions so much because the Ice dragons would notice if patrols of them kept vanishing from the same area."

"Why would their patrols be vanishing where we move to?" Tharusio questioned.

"Because we move there, Tharusio," Nayit said solemnly. "Haven't you noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

Nayit glanced to Frae and Listron, but they too shrugged. His eyes found Tharusio's again, and both pairs of eyes grew serious as he spoke.

"Noticed the way mum and dad clear everything we touch away when we leave a place, and when we come back next year things are slightly different. The way that, sometimes, they come home with blood on their claws and wounds on their flanks. The way the glance around all the time, alert for anything to happen."

Tharusio was speechless, but Frae managed to stutter, "What does it mean?"

Nayit's voice grew cold. "It means that they're putting themselves on the line, in order to keep us safe in seclusion."

"What!" Listron exclaimed. "But they might get hurt!"

"But you might get hurt, young ones," Meadow explained, kneeling down. He had always sympathized with them more than Hunter. "That's why they're away for so long. They're protecting us all. You understand? They love you, and don't want you to be hurt."

All together, the youngsters said, "We understand."

And Nayit sadly said, under his breath, "I always did."

Two weeks later, they headed off again; Sparx resting on Hunter's head, the others all walking. There was a cool breeze, as autumn had set in; around the horse chestnut treees, the spiky-shelled conkers were trodden on and thrown by the youngsters in abundance. Tharusio and Frae were the most involved, taking hits willingly and dealing them too, while Listron was more cautious, dodging anything that came her way. Comparitively, Nayit sought to isolate himself from the action, driving any attackers back with well-aimed shells as he backed off, wanting to speak to his parents. As he saw a stray shell hit Meadow, and the cheetah pick it up and throw it back, he seemed to have been forgotten, and he hurried onwards to catch up to Spyro and Cynder.

They were at the top of the next hill, side by side, staring into the distance. Nayit, feeling suddenly awkward, shuffled sideways before continuing straight on, to get his own view of the territory ahead.

There was a great plain, not grassland, in fact, it was clear of all grass and greenery for large areas. The first city Nayit had ever seen rose up from the ground there, at the base of a hill of large size. Massive walls surrounded buildings that seemed to be newly built, for simple purposes. Housing and fortification. Other buildings, decorated and glamorous, rose above them, but they were few and far between now. Dozens of dragons, all the same light blue colour, were assembled above the city and on its walls.

Beside Nayit, and unaware of his presence, Cynder said, "There must be a hundred there, and that's just the active watch. What could make their full numbers?"

Spyro slowly stated, "There should generally be four watches of equal size, so four hundred, possibly, though knowing Cyril he'll have them in three shifts, or even two, so a minimum of two hundred. Plus those he'll have patroling, so maybe twice that overall, at the minimum."

"Four to six hundred..."

Nayit had spoken without thinking of the fact that he wasn't supposed to be listening.

Both his parents turned towards him sharply. "Nayit!" Cynder exclaimed. "I thought you were playing with your siblings!"

"I wanted to ask you something."

"What?" Spyro inquired.

Nayit got straight to the point. "When will we learn our elements? When will you teach us them? You are heroes, you've fought monsters and saved the world. We are your children, and we don't have the first clue about any of that. I feel that I've been treated as not worth teaching about fighting, no matter how much I read or write under Meadow's tuition. He can't teach us to be dragons, but you're always out patroling. I know just how useful it is, believe you me, but I feel left out. Like I don't have a part in all this." He spread his wings wide towards the other dragons and the city, red rays of sun finding their ways through the membranes in a strange light before folding them again. "It's like I've got wings, but I can't fly. Which isn't just a metaphor, mum, dad; that's true too. I'm an earthbound reptile with no element and few life skills. I might as well be a newborn gecko."

He hadn't meant for all that to come out the way it did, but it happened. As Nayit stared, downcast, at his forepaws, he felt not like they'd scorned him, but he'd spurned them. And it was not a nice feeling.

He heard them quickly talking, one, then the other, but wasn't concentrating on hearing the words. He was just wondering what the punishment for eavesdropping, butting in on a conversation whilst stating the obvious, and complaining about the way he'd been raised was. Eventually, they came to a decision, as the conversation stopped, and Nayit looked up to see them with apologetic expressions on their faces.

"Nayit," Cynder began, "we're sorry. We did what we thought was best for you. But it turns out that we were restraining you all."

"I guess we're still new to this sort of thing," joked Spyro. "But if it's what you want, we'll talk to the others, and-"

But Nayit interrupted, "No, don't." With a sigh and a glance behind him, he said, "I think I'm the only one who can see it. They're perfectly content; I didn't know, but they hadn't even noticed the scratches you two pick up on your 'patrols' before I told them. And even that they act like they forget."

"That's the sort of thing you want to forget if you learn it," Cynder said, glancing at Spyro. "You're sure?"

Nayit nodded. "I've been watching, but they haven't."

"Then what do you want us to do?" she inquired.

Nayit licked his lips nervously, unsure about making the decision for his siblings. "Let them live as they are for now, in blissful ignorance, until either they start to see the forest for the trees or it's about time we actually grew up a bit."

His parents glanced to each other, and nodded solemnly. "When you're all around twelve, we'll start teaching you," Spyro said. "That was my age when I first learnt my elements." Nayit nodded.

"Until then, then, this never happened," the young dragon said, then he turned sharply, heading back to the lighthearted fight of the conkers.

Spyro and Cynder looked out to Warfang, then backed away from the sight, getting out of view of any observant watchers.

As the headed off, Spyro stopped to think. "What in the world did he mean when he said he knew exactly how useful the patrols were?"

It was a winter night when it had happened.

The four-year-olds were curled up, listening to Meadow tell them how their parents had saved the world. Outside, a blizzard raged, but their attentions were turned inwards, apart from Hunter, who vigilantly kept watch outside, and, though no-one noticed it, Nayit. Pretending to listen, though he already knew the story, he stared outwards from the corner of his eye. The swirling snow captivated him as the story captivated his siblings. Sometimes, strange forms would seem to appear in it, only to be knocked aside by others with the roar and the whistle of the wind.

It entranced him like nothing else.

As they reached the climax of the story, however, the reuniting of the world, and both Frae and Listron declared as loudly and cutely as possible, 'I'm gonna be a hero too,' which drew even Hunter's gaze and laugh, Nayit was even more lost in what he saw. Two more forms clashed outside, one darker than the other. Caught in the display of natural wonder, at the only time he wouldn't have been noticed, the white dragon tinted red walked out of the cave, gaze turned upwards.

But as he drew closer, the shapes didn't vanish, and became recognisable as dragons. The hatchling gasped at the sight, but the noise was carried away by the wind. He stumbled up to a rock on the edge of a steep cliff, to get a better look, and perched upon it, saw all.

One of the dragons was his father, and he was ferociously battling the other, keeping him away from the direction of the cave. And as Nayit looked on, his mother rocketed from above, taking another ice-blue dragon with her. He heard the faint echoes of an ear-peircing scream from below, then a thud, then nothing, and his mother hurtled back towards the battle his father was fighting.

Together, they quickly killed the dragon his father had fought, then flew off into the storm, leaving the corpse behind with the hatchling.

Nayit reached the dragon after some struggling through the thick snowfall and pawed at it weakly. It was cold, but so was the little not-quite-white dragon. However, the larger dragon had a deep cut in its neck.

Nayit nosed the dragon to get it to wake up, but soon realised that it wouldn't.

The young dragon didn't cry, for the tears froze almost before leaving. Instead, he closed the other dragon's eyes, and snuck back to his position near the entrance to the cave. As he had blended in quite well with the snow, his departure had gone unnoticed, and Meadow was now talking of the Golem.

Five minutes later, his parents returned.

They said it was uneventful, but he saw the fresh gashes on their scales.

Now, they were about twelve. Cramming into the winter cave was harder, but just as necessary. But of the children, still only Nayit knew just how necessary. The others had caught the odd glimpse from afar, but never up close, and they hadn't seen a corpse. Even from the age of four, it was something you didn't forget. That was only proof of the quality of their parents' defense systems.

All nine of the group were huddled around a smallish fire. Hunter, Meadow, Sparx nearest to the flame, Frae, Tharusio, Listron, Nayit, Spyro, and Cynder. The latter two reclined near the entrances, close enough to take part in conversation, yet near enough to the entrance that they could exit and fight quickly. The rest were arrayed randomly around the fire. There were no tales; they had all been told and retold long ago. There was just silence as the group stared either at the fire or into the swirling winds. There was a blizzard again.

All of a sudden, the three that were staring outside jerked their heads upwards. With a glance between them, Spyro and Cynder stood. Spyro said, "We'll just check the surroundings, if we're lucky there may be some prey close by. We should be back soon."

Everyone around the fire nodded, with one exception. As they turned to head into the howling wind, a voice sounded behind them; calm and serious.

"When are you going to stop babying us?" The couple froze and slowly turned, looking at the speaker.

Nayit lay directly behind the fire, casting an odd glow onto his scales. His claws-longer and sharper now than the claws of hatchlings-were crossed in front of him. His chin rested on the deadly, eerie-red weapons, as he stared through the flames at his parents. His eyes, suddenly unnerving, stared into them with an intense glare.

Knowing what was to come, yet with no idea what else to say, Spyro asked, "What?"

"One thousand, five hundred and twenty two days ago, you told me that you'd teach us what you know of our elements, as we deserve, when we were around twelve. Today, as I recall, we are almost exactly twelve and a half. And really, so you know, twelve was quite a small limit anyway. It's been years, as I believe I pointed out last time."

A series of protests and exclamations came from the other six of the cave's inhabitants, most particularly Sparx. But Spyro waved a paw for them to stop.

"I understand why some of you are maybe surprised at this, or didn't realise quite the truth of our parenting skills, though I shall probably never understand why Sparx of all people is yelling about disrespect to superiors. But anyway, Nayit is entirely right. We should have started teaching you four how to survive years ago. We're sorry."

"We figured on protecting the innocent. Keeping you away from the horrors we experienced... and the ones we experience now. Nayit's caught us out on the patrols thing, but we shouldn't have kept you in the dark. You don't deserve that, and we're sorry, as Spyro said." Cynder's tone was full of genuine regret. Both her head and that of her mate were bowed. Their audience looked on in silence.

Nothing happened for a minute, as Meadow, Hunter, Sparx, Listron, Frae, and Tharusio glanced from Spyro, to Cynder, to Nayit, not necessarily in that order. The redish-white dragon was staring into the flames. He had waited over a thousand days and counted every one, but it took a bit out of him to say what he had been thinking for so long.

Eventually, he worked up the courage to look around himself, meeting each of their gazes one by one. His siblings looked surprised, Listron the least and Frae the most, Sparx seemed to be struggling with something, Hunter appeared like he was reevaluating the young dragon, while Meadow looked like he expected no less.

His parents were still stationary. He lifted his head to speak to them, but Spyro spoke up first. "We've neglected training you so far, so I personally figure we'd better start making up for lost time. It'll help in your training that we can use all the elements; seeking professional help from someone of a different element isn't possible right now. However, the first step is to identify your elements. Arise and step forwards, so we can make an adequate evaluation." He smiled slightly. "Not that we don't have our guesses already, but it's best to be thorough."

All four of the young dragons rose to their paws and stood still in front of their parents, who cast critical gazes over them. "Okay, we'll start from the right," Cynder said. "Orangey scales usually hint at a Fire dragon, Tharusio, but the bright yellow of your wings and eyes is more indicative of an Electricity dragon. However, overall, I would say that Fire is your most likely element."

With a tilted head, Spyro said, "Nayit, you're a hard one to evaluate. Your thin body frame and your predominantly white scales make you being a Wind dragon a distinct possibility. However, I've never seen a true Fear dragon; your claws, wings, and secondary scale colour all suggest that this is a possibility, though how great I don't know."

Taking her turn, Cynder stated, "Listron, even your scale colour is predominantly unclear. Your build, however, suggests that you are likely an Ice dragoness; however, it is uncertain. You may in fact, be a Earth dragon, due to the partly green colours of cyan."

"Finally, Frae," Spyro continued. "Your current most likely element is Shadow, as far as I can see. More than that, I cannot tell."

"So," declared Cynder, "the ones with rarer elements will train with me, the others, with Spyro."

"When do we start?" asked Frae, glancing around her siblings.

"As soon as we can," Spyro answered, "so Nayit and Listron, come outside, where we shall train you as well as we can in these circumstances. Sorry Tharusio, Frae, but their most likely elements are less distinctive in a blizzard, and their colours the same. Hunter, Meadow, will you watch over the other two? Tell them of times you've seen their elements in action and so on." The cheetahs nodded, and the four dragons went outside, into the wind and snow.

Inside, after they had gone from earshot, Sparx sighed. "Why do I only ever find out about things last?"

So! I've been fairly ambiguous with their elemental capabilities, but here they are, Spyro and Cynder's children! Hope you like them! Now the question becomes; which elements do you guys think they should all be? And what did you think of the first chapter of Progression to Revelation?

I look forwards to your thoughts!