It was a beautiful day in the Dragon Realms and it was no different in the Artisans home world, making it a perfect start to a fun filled day for one young purple dragon.
Spyro ran across the grassy plains, racing for fun when he noticed something that made him stop. There was something moving about in the bushes, nearby. Curiosity overtaking him, Spyro moved in closer to see what was making the bush shake. Slowly edging closer, the purple dragon gulped nervously as the shaking of the bush intensified and then out bursts...
"Baaaa!"
"Aaaaahhhh!" Spyro screamed in terror and ran away, leaving the bush and the sheep behind. As he fled in fear, Spyro glanced back for a moment when he then ran into something, stopping him in his track, looking up, he soon found he had run into the Artisan leader Nestor.
"Calm down, Spyro," the dragon leader said kindly to the startled dragon, "it was nothing more than just a sheep, nothing to be afraid of."
Looking back behind him, Spyro watched as the sheep that had frightened him bound away, leaving the purple dragon feeling foolish as he turned back to face Nestor.
"S-sorry Nestor, it's j-just that… I was…"
Nestor gave a quiet sigh as Spyro timidly fumbled to explain,
"It's alright Spyro, I understand." the dragon elder said, reassuringly to him,
Nestor gave another small sigh; he was quite concerned about Spyro.
He remembered when the little dragon had first hatched, Spyro had been the most curious and adventurous hatchling he had seen, but then a few months later, Nestor had decided to take some of the baby dragons to the Magic Crafters world to show them some of the wondrous things that dragons of that world made. The baby dragons had looked at the new world around them with awe and fascination, which may have been why he had thought it was okay to talk with the Magic Crafter Elder, however he had failed to notice that Spyro had wondered off.
By the time Nestor had noticed Spyro was missing, the little baby dragon had ended up in the Alpine Ridge. Searching through the land, Nestor almost feared the worst when he had heard the baby dragon's scream of terror from a nearby cave. Entering the cave, he found Spyro, surrounded by a group of blue robed figures.
Thieves were not uncommon in the Dragon Realms, a number of them were constantly sneaking in and trying to steal gems or even dragon eggs, but they are usually no more than an annoying nuisance, easily chased off, without a problem. However this particular group of thieves were different. Their robes were ragged and dirty as if they haven't been washed in days; they also appeared a lot more sinister and mean looking than the thieves that usual sneak into the Dragon worlds.
"Well, well, look what we have here boys. A baby dragon." The largest of the thieves said, his mouth twisted into a large grin.
"What should we do with him?" asked a thief wearing a particle ragged set of robes.
"I heard there's this sorceress that would pay big gems for some baby dragon wings… not attached to the dragon of course." One of the thieves said with a twisted grin, pulling out a knife and advanced on the purple dragon.
Spyro screamed in terror as he tried to back away from the thieves, but one of the thieves grabbed him by the tail and pulled him back towards the group.
"Hold him down. Keep him still so can cut the wings off!" The thief holding the knife ordered the others as he held the knife up ready to cut.
Reacting at once, Nestor lunged forward with a roar. At this the thieves froze and stared in alarmed as they finally noticed the full grown dragon which was now charging at them. Letting the small dragon they held captive, the thieves tried to run but Nestor was on them before they could get far.
Horns smacking against the thieves, sending them flying back. The thieves got hurriedly to their feet and stared back at Nestor in fright,
"L-l-let's get out of here!" the thieves' leader stuttered, running as fast as he could, followed by the others. Once all the thieves had left. Nestor went to check on Spyro. The purple dragon was curled in a ball, shivering.
Spyro had not been hurt, but from that day on, he had been frightened and scared of nearly everything.
Nestor shook his head as his thoughts returned to the now and he looked into the timid purple dragon looking back up at him.
"Come with me Spyro" Nestor finally spoke, a kind smile on his lips, "there's something I think you will really like." He then turned and began to walk the way he had come, Spyro carefully following him. After a short walk the two soon arrived at a clearing near the Artisans waterfall. As they drew nearer, Spyro saw a number of dragons gathered together, working on setting something up.
"What are they doing Nestor?" Spyro asked, puzzled by what was going on.
"It's the Dragon News Network Spyro." Nestor answered, giving the small dragon a friendly smile, "They're going to be doing a special news segment here in the Artisain worlds, Astor had been asked to answer a number of questions as well as say a few worlds about the Dragon worlds."
"Hey Spyro!" a voice called out to the purple dragon. Looking round, Spyro saw Sparx the dragonfly, his best friend, flying over to them.
"Did you come to watch the broadcast too?" Sparx buzzed excitedly.
"Sure." Spyro replied and soon the two friends were off, running and chasing after each other. Nestor chuckled watching the two. Spending time with Sparx was one of the few things in which Spyro was not scared or nervous about and it did Nestor's heart good, watching the two friends play. Turning his head back over towards the working dragons and watched as they started filming.
"And we're live in three..two… one." Bob, the dragon in charge of the interview, said and with a snap of the marker board, the filming began, "ok we're rolling." And Astor gave a small start.
"Oh, it's been peaceful here in the five worlds… or was it six worlds…" Astor babbled the last bit, the elderly dragon's memory being a bit fuzzy, "for dragon age. We now have twelve thousand treasure… or is it fourteen thousand?"
"What about Guh-nasty Guh-norc?" the Bob asked, saying the name so that the gs were sounded, "now, I understand he has a magic spell that can turn gems into warriors for his cause."
Astor paused at the mention of the name, not sure what to say about the creature that the name belongs to.
Gnasty Gnorc, the big green creature with the bad attitude of an orc and the short temper of a gnome to match. Gnasty had caused problems for the dragon worlds from his dangerous attempts at magic and his interest in staring at the dragons' treasure of gems before he was exiled to the most remote world in the dragon worlds.
Before Astor could reply, Lindar, a tall, broad blue dragon stepped between the two,
"I'll answer that question" he spoke, "Gnasty Gnore is a simple creature. He's been locked away in a remote world and is no threat… and besides, he is ugly."
Meanwhile. far from the five dragon ruled worlds, there was a sixth world.
Gloomy, desolate, the sixth dragon world, once it was known as the Dragon Junk Yard, but that was when it was the dragons' world, now it is Gnasty's world and had since been changed to reflect its new lord and master. It was here, in the heart of the Gnorc Gnexus, that Gnasty Gnorc watched the Dragon worlds through the use of a mixture of what could be salvaged from what the dragons left behind when they used the world as a dumping ground for their trash and magic. And unfortunately for the dragons, it was at this moment Gnasty was watching the Dragon News Network's broadcast special.
The green skinned brute watched with a bored sneer on his face, until they began to talk about him.
"Simple?!" Gnasty Gnorc spoke out loud, his eyes narrowed in anger as he continued to echo the Dragon's words about him, "No threat? UGLY!? That does it!" he yelled, stamping his foot in anger and raising his club up above his head. This was the last straw. Gnasty had been content to leave the dragons alone for the time being, but after those remarks, he wasn't going to let it slide. He had planned to deal with dragons sooner or later, which was why, in the time he took dabbled with magic he found not only the spell to turn gems into warriors for his growing army, but he had also found a spell that can trap all the dragons in crystals and he was going to use it now.
Across the Dragon worlds, the dragons were continuing with their daily lives, unaware of the terrible fate about to befall them.
In the Artisan Home world, Spyro sat on a nearby grassy patch, Sparx buzzing alongside him while Nestor argued with Lindar about what he had said; something about not provoking people, but Spyro was more interested in watching the butterflies that fluttered around, being chased by Sparx when they drew near them. Spyro chuckled as he watched, butterflies were probably the only thing he was not afraid, if only thanks to Sparx. As he followed the buzzing dragonfly path through the sky, Spyro frowned.
He thought he had seen something in the sky.
Turning his head over towards Nestor and Lindar, the purple dragon wondered if he should say something to the two elders, but then shook his head, thinking that he had just imagined it and resumed looking at the butterflies. As he watched, he soon began to realize that the thing he saw earlier seemed to be getting closer.
"N-Nestor," Spyro called over to the green elder, getting his attention, "there's something up there in the sky." The little dragon pointed over to the approaching thing.
Nestor and Lindar both looked at the thing in the sky. Realizing what it was, Nestor's eyes widened in horrified realisation.
"Oh no…" the words escaped from his lips as the things in the sky, now recognisable as a series of blue beams of light heading towards them. Turning to Spyro and Sparx, he opened his mouth and yelled to the small dragon,
"Spyro! Sparx! Run!"
Not needing to be told twice, Spyro quickly scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, only slowing down to turn his head to look back at Nestor and Lindar as the two are struck by the beams and as the light faded, the two had been turned into crystalized statues.
"Nestor!" Spyro yelled in panic and terror, seeing what had happened to the kind, understanding dragon that had been like a mentor to him, but before he could say or do anything else, another series of bright lights rained down from the sky and on to the gems of the dragons' treasure. The gems hit by the second spell quickly began to transform, becoming Gnorcs. Seeing this suddenly appearing army of monstrous looking creatures, Spyro, his fear rising, looked in wide eyed horror before doing the only thing that come to his mind. He ran.
With all the dragons trapped, the Gnorcs continued their march on the Dragon worlds unhindered. Taking the gems to create more of them, the dragons' treasure soon quickly began to dwindled into nothing, what gems that had not been turned into warriors to serve Gnasty where locked up in chests and scattered all over the many worlds.
"HA! How easy those overgrown scale bags have been beaten by their betters." gloated Toasty as he strode through the Artisan Homeworld. He smirked triumphantly as he looked around at the frozen dragons in their crystal prisons; giddy with joy. He was so glad that Gnasty Gnorc had made him the minion in charge of the dragon realm he and the gnorcs he was in charge of conquered, but it was seeing the dragons trapped and defeated that was what he really wanted.
"Not so high and mighty now, are you?" Toasty mocked, the smile of the jack o lantern that was his head, going wider, "you dragons always thought you had this great and wonderful , well now look at you. Trapped in crystal forever and nothing will save you. No longer will you mess with me or any other…"
"Errm, Boss?" Toasty turned to see several of the Gnorcs under his command gathered in a cowering group in front of him.
"What are you lot doing here?" he snapped angrily, "You're supposed to be out there doing the jobs I gave you!"
"B-b-but boss, we're sure we saw s-something moving around out there." One of the smaller gnorcs blethered. Toasty sighed in frustration, as much as he enjoyed being in charge of one of the dragon worlds, it annoyed him that half of the gnorc forces under his control turned out to be complete cowards.
"You fools jump at the sight of your own shadows, the only thing out there are sheep and statues." The scarecrow like villain said, "Now get back out there and gather the rest of the gems for Gnasty Gnorc or I'll send you to him as gems!" the gnocs fled, fearing for their lives if they incur Toasty's wrath, as the green creatures disappeared from sight, Toasty turned to face the large stone dragon head that held the portal to the area that he had picked as his stronghold.
"Still…" he said to himself, "even if there is anyone other than the Gnorcs out there, once I close this portal, they won't be able to get anyway near it unless they can reach on of the exit portals in the one of the other areas here, all thanks to a handy little spell." And with a dark chuckle, Toasty walked through the portal before the stone dragon head closed its mouth, sealing itself as the spell took effect.
The gnorcs continued to swarm over the Dragon Realms, stealing gems from the dragons' treasure and storing them in chests ready to be sent to their master. All seemed to be lost for the Dragon worlds or so it seemed. Maybe Gnasty Gnorc overestimated the reach of the spell or maybe it was luck, or perhaps it was just fate, but in the Artisan homeworld, an unlikely savoir remained untouched by the spell.
From his hiding place, Spyro slowly crept out into the open and into adventure.
