Runners Prologue
It was the end of the world, literally.
Rorick could feel the earth shaking beneath his feet as he ran deeper into the series of underground caverns. Every nerve in his body screamed for him to get out into open air, to turn back to the surface, but his mind knew better. Fires raged across the surface of the world, spewing from large cracks forming in the earth and threatening to devour anything in their path. If he had stayed on the surface, he would have died in seconds. At least underground, he could lengthen that time to minutes.
Taking a sharp right turn, Rorick delved into a tunnel taking him deeper underground. His earth element at least gave him a sense of direction in the otherwise pitch black environment, but the crumbling stone around him and the intense shaking of the earth made progress difficult. He didn't understand why he was running. He couldn't get away from the inevitable destruction of the planet. No one could.
Rumors had spread of the return of Spyro and Cynder and their quest to defeat Malefor, but it didn't seem to matter in the end. The destroyer had completed the ring of fire and the world now faced destruction on an unparalleled scale. No one could escape; the situation was hopeless.
Nevertheless, fear drove Rorick deeper underground. Through his panicked mind, subtle thoughts trickled through his head. He missed his family, or at least what might be left of it. At sixteen he had been left alone at home while both his parents went off to fight the war against Malefor. He hadn't seen them in a year. Now, all he wanted was to be close to them one more time before his life would reach its inevitable end. A single tear trickled down Rorick's face as he dodged more debris falling from the ceiling. He had been out in the wilderness by himself hunting when the ordeal had finally started, his finely tuned element giving him some warning before the massive spasms began to rock the planet. He had barely made it into a nearby cave before the outside world crumbled around him. Luckily for him, the cave seemed to be part of an extensive network, and fear had driven him down one of the tunnels in a desperate attempt for survival.
Turning yet another corner, Rorick was shocked to see dim firelight lighting the cave passage in front of him. Straining his legs, Rorick struggled to catch up to the light in front of him, heavier debris beginning to pelt his hard scales as the shaking around him intensified. If he was going to die, maybe he wouldn't die by himself.
Slowly, Rorick drew closer to the source of the light. Shaky details began to emerge in the eerie darkness of the tunnel. Two dragons hurried their way through the rubble in front of him, their only source of light a small touch one of the dragons carried in its mouth. A dark yellow dragon carried the torch while leading a slightly smaller red dragon behind him. Although Rorick couldn't determine finer details, he could tell the yellow dragon was a male from his fuller build and pronounced muscles; the red dragon following him was obviously female, her smaller form outlined by the slim curvature of her body.
Taking a few more bounding steps, Rorick closed the short distance between himself and the two other dragons. His heavy footsteps alerted them to his presence. Turning around, the yellow dragon looked at Rorick in shock through the light of the torch he carried in his mouth.
Rorick looked at both dragons quickly. "I don't mean to be rude or short on introductions, but we need to get somewhere safer." As if to emphasize his point, another layer of rocky debris showered down onto the small group of dragons.
The yellow dragon nodded in understanding before speaking through the wood in his mouth. "Come on, this way"
Rorick wordlessly followed the two dragons as they turned down the only passageway available to them. They quickly moved around the rubble in the dimly lit passageway, the lightning dragon's torch barely illuminating their passage. As he followed the dragon, Rorick tried to get a better view of his companions. He could only see brief flashes of the dragoness in front of him, and the torch silhouetted the yellow dragon leading them, so any glimpse of the dragons was short and cloudy. From their color alone, Rorick would guess the yellow dragon was a lighting dragon while the red dragoness held power over fire.
After what seemed like an eternity in the cataclysm around them, the yellow dragon walked the group into a larger cavern in the tunnel system. Rorick could immediately tell it was the end of the system as he looked at the circular enclosure around them. It seemed to be a bit of poetic justice… that an earth dragon like him would have his final resting place deep within the crust of the planet.
Walking around the circular cavern, the yellow dragon confirmed Rorick's assumption as he brought the torches light to bear on the walls of the cavern. They could go no deeper. This would be where they died.
The lightning dragon curled around the dragoness as they huddled down in the corner. Rorick could see his own fear reflected in their eyes. Walking over next to them, Rorick laid down at a respectful distance, resigning himself to his inevitable fate. The groaning of the planet around them seemed distant as they sat secluded in the room together.
Rorick looked over at the other dragons. "I know this is hardly time for introductions, but I'm Rorick."
The lightning dragon stuck his torch upright into a crevice in the ground before speaking. "I'm Krayt."
Beside him, the red dragoness picked her head up off the ground. Rorick could see the tears in her eyes and hear the fear in her voice. "I'm Aurora, I suppose it's nice to meet you, but I wish it could have been under better circumstances." As she finished, the red dragoness buried her head into the side of the male.
Rorick nodded in agreement before setting his head down on the ground. There really wasn't anything to talk about. Slowly, Rorick felt himself grow in tune with the world around him, each vibration in the earth seeming to send a message to the young earth dragon. He could feel his soul breaking like the world around him. The rumbling in the earth seemed intensified. Rorick could feel his teeth rattle from the immense strain on his body. As his body began to feel like it would shake itself apart, the shaking around him reached a climax. A brilliant wave of purple energy flashed through the room, briefly blinding Rorick while making him gasp at its immense power. He could feel the mass of pure energy surge through his body, making his muscles tense while awing him at its appearance. Almost as soon as it had appeared, the light was gone, headed towards the surface above their heads. All around them, the groaning in the earth seemed to fade away.
After a few moments of awe struck silence, Krayt broke the silence. "What was that?"
Rorick replied by shaking his head, a slight amount of excitement in his voice. He had picked up on something the others may not have. "I have no idea, but listen. Something's changed."
Instead of shaking itself apart, the ground seemed to groan as one entity. The others may not have noticed it, but he could barely sense their change in direction. He couldn't believe it, the earth seemed to be pulling itself back together.
Rorick let out a blissful laugh, startling the other two dragons in the room with him.
The lightning dragon looked at him in concern. "What?"
Rorick turned to him with a smile on his face. "I don't know what happened, or why, but the world… it seems to be pulling itself back together."
"What?" This time the question was more from shock than confusion.
Rorick smiled again. "Listen…"
Sure enough, all around them large thuds could be heard as pieces of the earth shifted back into a connection with each other. As time progressed, the thuds became fewer and father away as their section of the planed pieced itself together.
Aurora's voice broke the silence in the room once again. "They did it! I don't know how, but Spyro and Cynder must have done it!"
Rorick smiled inwardly to himself. As much as he had wanted to discredit the possibility of the two dragons saving the world when he heard the rumors of their return, he couldn't be happier for them.
"Wait." Krayt's voice carried a hint of fear as he spoke, removing the smile that had spread across Rorick's face. "Do you feel that?"
Rorick stood in silence for a moment. The rumbling around them had long ceased, and as an earth dragon, he would have been the most in tune with the sensations of the earth around him. However, as he was opening his mouth to answer, he started to feel sharp pricks of energy against the back of his neck.
All three dragons looked up to see a faint purple glow emanate from the ceiling above them. They all knew something was coming.
The purple wave passed through the room in the opposite direction, this time coming from the ceiling at moving towards the floor. Rorick knew that it was the force pulling the world back together. This time the wave seemed to move incredibly slowly, taking its time in dropping from the ceiling. As the wave inched closer, he could feel the immense amount of power radiating form the wave again, although this time, it seemed to have increased exponentially.
Rorick grit his teeth as the wave approached his head, the energy sending spikes of pain shooting through his skull. Looking to his side, he could see the other two dragons in the room curl into a tighter ball.
As the wave came closer, Rorick dropped to the ground, the pain radiating though his body becoming unbearable. He could barely make out the cries from the other two dragons as they too felt the effects of the wave.
Rorick let out a roar of anguish as the purple wave finally cam in contact with his body, sending a wave of sheer pain to every nerve. Unable to cope with the pain, Rorick could feel his conciseness slip away, leaving him in complete darkness as the wave of energy completed is slow trek back to the center of the planet.
He hated his job; especially at this time of night.
Every time his superiors detected the smallest anomaly in his area, he and his team would be tasked with investigating the area in question, whatever the time or conditions were. It seemed like a simple job, but after time and time again resulting in a search for nothing, he began to question the logic of his tasks.
The terrain constantly caused problems for him and his team. The thick forest restricted them to foot searches on the sometimes massive areas they were tasked with investigating, and with a ten man team, the task often took hours if not days. Thankfully, the area in question was relatively small this time - A small acre of land miles away from any form of civilization. It would only take them a few minutes to around an hour to cover. However, the inky blackness of the night and thick tree cover forced the team to search by low powered flashlights, making their task even more painstakingly slower than it needed to be.
Once the small shenanigan was over, they could return to their dull lives of waiting constantly, twenty-four seven, three hundred and sixty five days a year, for the next call from their superiors.
Working on the sly didn't help either. Their number one rule was to not let anyone know of their operation. Unmarked, inconspicuous vehicles would always take them to their destination, their gear held no patches or insignias to connect them to any organization, and they were always told to leave without a trace. He understood the need for such secrecy. Their organization was of a… unique… nature, but after time and time again of false alarms at the most ridicules times of the day, he couldn't help but wonder about the necessity of his job.
Regardless, he was here to do a job. And the faster he did it, the faster he could go home. Pulling out his GPS, he could see his squad had just reached the boundary of the search area. He reached for the working parts on his rifle; pulling them smoothly into position. He released the small latch and the mechanism shot forward with a loud 'click', feeding a round into the chamber. Shouldering his rifle, the man turned around to address his torch lit squad for the same, boring brief he had given numerous times before.
"Alright, you know the drill. Keep you weapons at the ready at all times. We search this area and report any unusual findings. If you find anything, call for support and we will report it. If we don't find anything… like we always do… we go home. Any questions?"
Not a single hand rose.
"I though so. Alright, spread out and search the area."
Without another word, his squad paired up and disappeared into the forest around him. He himself paired up with one of the newer members of his squad and shone his torch into the thick line of tree trunks and bushes. Slowly, He lowered the beam of light and started to walk around the outside boundary of the designated area.
One of his subordinate's thoughts shook him out of his musings.
"Sir, over here! You're not going to believe this!"
His interest perked, the man double-checked his weapon's to make sure the safety catch was off before racing through the forest towards the source of the call. Breaking through the brush, he could see two of his team members pointing their fire-arms and torches over three piles of colored scales ground. Three inhuman bodies.
"They're all alive sir." The solider reported back to his commander as he knelt over one of the bodies, though uncertainty laced his voice. "What are your orders?" They had all been trained. They all knew what their job entitled. But they had never expected to actually find something they were looking for.
Lying on the ground in front of him were three large dragons.
The discovery did not startle him. He had been long trained to familiarize himself with situations such as these. 'Expect the unexpected' they had always told him, and in a situation like this, that training finally seemed to pay off.
Pressing onto the black earpiece settled in his ear, he began a call back to his superiors. This was bigger than anything they had expected. His call was immediately picked up on the other side. Any call on such a frequency was restricted to matters of utmost importance, and any call was treated as a serious endeavor.
The rest of his team trickled into the small clearing as he began his conversation. He pointed at 3 three of his comrades and motioned them to move off into the direction of their vehicles. They nodded and broke out of the clearing at a light jog following their flashlight beams. All of them remained in silence as he spoke.
"Sir, you are not going to believe what we just found."
A/N This is a co-write between me and another author on DA. We work on it in tandem, but he doesn't have a FF profile so he has given me permission to post it under mine collectively. If you want to check out his profile or any of his works, his screen name is Spriggs272 on DeviantArt. Please comment and tell us what you think. I will pass on any comments to Spriggs as well
