"Momma!"
Dew started in surprise as a young, high-pitched voice called loudly to her.
"Shiro-chan!" she called back as she recognized the white streak racing across the field to meet her.
Shiro-chan was a small, white dragon, barely two months old. Like most dragons his age, Shiro-chan's current name was only a temporary one. (When young dragons reach full maturity at two and a half years old, they discover what type – or element – of dragon they are and at that time they change their name to match. Until then, they are given temporary names that match their appearance at the time of their birth. Shiro-chan was pure white when he was born, hence his name.)
Dew gasped in shock as Shiro-chan collided with her stomach, knocking the breath out of her.
"Sorry!" he said and then without waiting for a reply and barely stopping for breath, he started bouncing up and down, shrieking, "Momma, momma, guess what, guess what I just found out?"
"What?" Dew asked, having finally gotten her breath back.
"Nii-sama's coming to visit! He's coming to visit, momma! Isn't that great?"
'Nii-sama' was another dragon by the name of Iceshard. He was an ice-type dragon whom Shiro-chan idolized. He thought of Iceshard as a big brother (which is why he called him nii-sama.)
"'Shard's coming to visit? Is 'Crystal coming too? (Icecrystal was Iceshard's twin sister.)
"No, 'Crystal's busy today….something about the Gnorcs making trouble again. You know how they are though. She'll have it squared away in no time. She may even have time to stop by before Nii-sama goes home."
"Ah, ok. So when's he getting here?"
"Right now" replied a male voice from behind her. Startled, she jumped and spun around to lock eyes with a dragon a little bit bigger than herself. His hide was a pale icy blue and his eyes, claws, and the insides of his ears were a darker shade of icy blue. His wing membranes and belly were a dazzling silver that flashed in the bright sun and his appearance was topped off by a growth of ice shards at the tip of his tail. Attempting to regain her composure, she scolded him.
"Don't sneak up on people like that! You just about scared me out of my hide!"
"I wasn't sneaking up on you," he replied with a grin, "you just weren't paying attention. It's not my fault you startle so easily."
Dew glowered at him and then turned her back on him.
"Momma, is it alright if I get my art project to show Nii-sama?" Shiro-chan asked Dew quickly. "Last time he was here I told him I was working on something extra special for a friend and he said he'd like to give me some input on it."
"Sure, go ahead sweetie. 'Shard and I'll be right here."
As Shiro-chan scampered off to find his project, Iceshard leaned over and muttered in an undertone, "Ok, Dew, here's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while, why does Shiro-chan call you momma? I mean, you're not really his mother, are you? You're not even old enough to clutch yet."
"Well, his parents died before he hatched. I was the only one around when he finally broke shell and since I was the first thing he saw when he was born, naturally he thought I was his mother."
"Are you ever going to tell him what happened? About his real parents, I mean? He's already two months old; I think he's old enough to take it."
"Oh, he already knows."
"He does?"
"Yes, I told him about it last week in fact."
"And you still have him call you momma?"
"No, I told him that he could call me Dew, but he asked if he could continue to call me momma. I told him I had no objection to it and that if calling me momma ever became uncomfortable for him, he could feel free to call me Dew. That way he understands that I'm fine with him calling me either name and whichever means of address he uses is entirely up to him."
At that moment Shiro-chan came bounding back up to them with a big bag clutched firmly in his jaws. As Iceshard and Shiro-chan began to discuss the project in earnest, Dew wandered a little way away. As she walked, she thought she heard a slight growling noise. She stopped to listen, pricking up her ears, trying to discover where the sound was coming from. As she turned her head to the side, a gray shape erupted out of the bushes on her other side and shot toward her, leaping on her. She only had time to realize that it appeared to be made out of stone and had fiery eyes when something pulled it off her. Just when she thought she was going to be okay after all, another such creature came running toward her barking. Barking? Then she realized what these creatures were. They were those ugly brutish dogs that Spyro had told her about. The ones that had been guarding Toasty – the boss of the Artisan world – when he had had to save the Dragon Realm a few years back.
Dew couldn't remember that time very well; she was barely out of her egg when all the trouble started and the Dragon Elders had whisked all the hatchlings off to safety. All save for Spyro, that is. Though he had been barely a week older than Dew at the time, he had managed to save everyone. But why, then, were these ugly beasts here now?
Remembering what Spyro had told her about how to deal with these creatures, she concentrated hard and breathed a small stream of fire at the monster that was now bearing down upon her. The flame hit the grayish creature squarely in the face singeing its whole body black like soot. This seemed to enrage the creature even more and it flew at her with murder in its eyes. Dew hadn't had proper time to recover from the unaccustomed effort of breathing fire yet and she was unable to dodge as the dog leaped on her. Before it could squash her flat, however, an icy blue shape rammed the dog and sent it flying. Dew saw the dog hit the ground and disappear with a pop to be replaced by a blue gem. Before she could recover herself, however, the icy blue thing that had knocked the dog away from her suddenly landed right next to her, scaring her for the second time that day. She was about to flay Iceshard for doing that when she realized that the claws on the paws before her were not blue, like Iceshard's, but green. Just as she realized this, an excited female voice started scolding her.
"Dewdrop! Why didn't you tell me you could breathe fire? I could've used your help back there! There were hundreds of them and you know that the most effective means of dealing with those things is fire! How can you even breathe fire anyway? I thought you were a water-type dragon?"
As she had guessed, the dragon that was addressing her was Icecrystal.
"I am" Dew interrupted, "but you know that I have some small amount of fire element in me same as I know that you have a small amount of earth element in you. And don't call me Dewdrop!" Dew added as an afterthought. "I hate that name."
"Sorry, Dew."
Dew glanced up at Icecrystal and saw a dragon that looked like a smaller, more petite version of Iceshard. They would have been very nearly identical, except for the fact that while Iceshard's eyes and claws were blue, Icecrystal's eyes and claws were a deep forest green.
Dew struggled to her feet as Icecrystal looked on with concern on her face.
"Are you okay? You don't look so great."
"I'm still recovering. It's hard to breathe pure fire since my dominant element is water. It takes a lot of effort."
"You're lucky you can use your passive element at all. I can't use mine."
"Hey, what happened over here?" came a voice from a little way off. Iceshard and Shiro-chan came hurrying over with looks of concern on their faces. "We thought we heard fighting over here."
"You did" said Icecrystal indicating the blue gem still lying on the ground.
"What, the Gnorcs? They were here?" Iceshard exclaimed in amazement. "Who finished it off?"
"'Crystal…"
"Dew…"
Each said the other's name at the exact same moment, then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Eventually, Icecrystal said, "Dew got the first blow on it."
"But 'Crystal finished it off!" Dew added hastily.
"You should take the gem, though, since you got the first blow. You would've been the one to finish it off too if that fire hadn't drained your energy. Besides, I got the gem from the other one."
With that settled, Iceshard walked over to his sister and they held a brief, whispered conference. When they parted, it was with the announcement that it was time for them to go home. Shiro-chan was disappointed that he couldn't talk with Iceshard more, but he was promised that they would meet again the next day.
The next day, Dew, Shiro-chan, Iceshard, and Icecrystal met at the portal to Tree Tops.
"I've heard that the Gnorcs are using the high tree forts to congregate and plan meetings," Icecrystal announced when they were all together.
"Huh," Iceshard snorted derisively. "Gnorcs planning anything without their leader seems a little far fetched."
"Maybe he's back with them…" muttered Shiro-chan anxiously.
"Nonsense!" Iceshard reassured him, quickly. "Spyro defeated Gnasty Gnorc ages ago. We all know that Spyro recovered all the treasure that Gnasty had stolen, and that could only have happened if Gnasty was defeated for good."
"Then how could his underlings be holding secret meetings without him?" Dew asked. "Everyone knows Gnorc minions aren't intelligent enough to do anything on their own."
"They aren't intelligent at all…" Iceshard muttered in an undertone. Shiro-chan giggled.
"Well, there's only one way to find out," said Dew. "Let's go to Tree Tops."
"Hold it, we're missing someone." Icecrystal said quickly.
"Who?"
"Us" said a voice.
From around the other side of the portal there came two more dragons. One was a bright yellow female dragon with yellow-orange wing edges, ears, and belly; bright blue eyes and claws; and a lighting bolt shape on the tip of her tail. This was Volt. She had hatched the same day as Dew, and the two of them had been best friends since. The other dragon was a green male. He had brown wing edges, brown ears, a brown belly, and a brown mark around his left eye that gave him the appearance of having a permanent black eye. This dragon was Pebble, and he and Dew had a sort of love-hate relationship (he had a crush on her, which he expressed by making fun of her and she hated him with a passion.)
"What is that thing doing here?" Dew asked in disgust, indicating Pebble.
"I'm here to make sure you don't screw anything up," Pebble replied with a sneer.
"Please, children," Volt intervened. "Can we get on with the mission? Pebble and I have been traveling all over the Dragon Realms recently and we've both seen signs that suggest the Gnorcs might have found themselves a new leader."
There were gasps from everyone in the group (save for Volt and Pebble.) After the frantic whispers had died down, Volt went on.
"We've discovered that the Gnorcs have been using Tree Tops as a base since the dragons that usually live there have gone to the Magic Crafters world to participate in the annual art competition. You know how the dragons from the Artisans, Magic Crafters, and Beast Makers worlds just love to show each other up. Anyway, Pebble, 'Crystal, 'Shard, and I were discussing it the other day and we figured that since all the adults are too busy with their competition to notice what's going on, we could go stop them ourselves."
"What about Spyro, though?" asked Shiro-chan. "Shouldn't he be the one to do it? I mean, he was the one who defeated them last time, right? Why can't he do it again?"
"Shiro-chan," said Pebble patronizingly, "Spyro isn't an option this time. He's in Avalar right now, remember? That fawn, Elora I think her name was, and that cheetah, Hunter sent us word that he was helping rid their world of that…what's-his-face…Ripto. Spyro's busy. We'll just have to do it without him."
"All right then," said Dew. "Let's go, then."
Five young dragons with a hatchling following along behind walked through the portal to a world at the tops of trees that were several thousand miles high to face an unknown danger and hopefully conquer it.
Dew woke with a start and looked around her. She was lying in the grass on one of the floating islands of the Dream Weavers world. What was she doing there?
"Momma!"
Dew started in surprise as a young, high-pitched voice called loudly to her.
"Shiro-chan!" she called back as she recognized the white streak racing across the field to meet her.
Dew gasped in shock as Shiro-chan collided with her stomach, knocking the breath out of her.
"Sorry!" he said and then without waiting for a reply and barely stopping for breath, he started bouncing up and down, shrieking, "Momma, momma, guess what, guess what I just found out?"
"What?" Dew asked, smiling to herself as she struggled to regain her breath. Today was going to be a wonderful day full of adventure. She could just feel it.