A/N: Now for the time skip! I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter, so now, on to the second! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, & Shadow.

Dragon Spirit

Chapter 2

X*X(Tai's POV)X*X

X*X(3 Years Later)X*X

"Ready, Shadow?" I asked my friend.

"Yeah, whenever you are," the black dragon nodded. We had bidden my parents farewell, and had already left town. Everyone in the town had contributed in some way in preparing us for our journey, and we were now fully ready to go out and find the other person and their dragon.

Whoever the other dragon was, they had to be like Shadow, or else it would be difficult to find them. That would make it a little easier, according to Shadow. He could track them if he caught a scent of another dragon. Right now, though, he was in a horse form, seeing as he could shape-shift, and that way we could carry everything easier. Also, it would keep people from discovering what he really is. Yes, dragons are revered all over the world, except for some, but there are those who think of them as monsters. My partner and I mutually agreed that he would remain in different forms as we traveled so as to prevent himself from being discovered.

"Taichi?" he said, gaining my attention.

"Yes?"

"It's getting late, and I need to hunt and get some water," he told me, and I patted his neck gently.

"All right, we'll stop for the night once we find a river or something," I agreed, and he changed direction slightly, heading to some source of water. When we reached it, I climbed off of my friend's back, allowing him to shift back to his normal self.

"Ah, much better," he grinned.

"Good to know," I nodded. "Go ahead and go hunting while I set up camp. I'll even try to start the fire while you're gone."

"Okay, I won't be long," he replied, and slunk into the forest to hunt. Once he was gone, I began to pitch the tent, and then set up a fire pit, deciding against lighting the fire and opting instead to let Shadow light it. I fished out the pendant with the crest of friendship on it, as I had come to calling it, holding it up to look at it in the moonlight. It was such an interesting design, and I could see why it was for friendship. There was a faint glow to it, but it may have just been the moonlight.

Suddenly, it disappeared from my hand, and I looked about, alarmed. How the fuck did it just vanish from my hand?!

"What the—?" I started to say, but then I heard a snicker from nearby. "Who's there?!"

"Wow, you're pretty oblivious, ain't ya?" the voice chuckled. "Haven't you heard of the thieves that live here?"

"Don't toy with me!" I snapped, but then I spotted a pair of shadows in a tree leap away. "Get back here!"

"Catch me if you can!" he taunted. Glaring after him, I gave a shrill whistle, and then Shadow ran over to me in a hurry.

"What's wrong, Tai?" he asked.

"A thief just stole the necklace!" I cried out. The black dragon's eyes widened in horror.

"But your dad gave that to you!" he yelped.

"I know! Shadow, you need to go get it back!" I pleaded, and my friend bolted after the thieves. I waited as patiently as I could for him, but after a few minutes, I ended up running after them, especially when I heard shouts and snarls.

X*X(Matt's POV)X*X

"Damn, he's got something following us, and it's fast, maybe as fast as me," Night growled, and I glanced at him as we darted through the trees.

"What is it?" I asked, looking ahead again.

"I can't quite tell, not unless we hide and I get a good whiff of his scent," the silver dragon grumbled, and I nodded.

"Then we'll hide for a second until you figure out what it is," I decided.

"As you wish, Yamato," he nodded, and we dashed through a creek, hiding in the branches of a tall tree. The black creature that had been chasing us paused when he reached the base of the tree, circling around and sniffing. Night silently crept closer, sniffing as well, but quietly, and then his eyes widened in shock. He teleported back to the branch I was perched on, and hissed, "It's a dragon!"

"What? But…how?" I breathed. "I thought you were the only one?"

"Apparently not," my partner grumbled. "At any rate, we need to find that boy that was with that dragon down there."

"And how do you suppose we do that?" I demanded quietly.

"We'll backtrack to their campsite," he whispered simply. "Come on, I'll lead this time." And with that, Night flitted back to the campsite, and I was swift to follow. Unfortunately, the black dragon down below heard us, and raced after us on the ground with a snarl.

"Faster, Night! He spotted us!" I shouted, and he quickly shot an ice blast to slow down the dragon on the ground, and it worked, but only for a second.

"Get back here, thieves!" he bellowed after us. "That's an important pendant!"

"Shit," I hissed. "He's gaining on us!"

"I know that! Go on ahead, I'll hold him off!" Night ordered, and shot at the black dragon like a bullet. The one on the ground shrieked in surprise as he was tackled, and I ran on ahead, leaping along the branches with ease. It was when I finally made my way to the ground, though, that I ran into a bit of trouble. The brunette boy I had stolen the pendant from skidded to a stop in front of me, holding a katana blade firmly in his right hand.

"Easy, I don't want to fight," I assured him, holding my hands up in surrender and leaving my own katana blade in its sheath on my back. His chocolate brown eyes narrowed at me in suspicion.

"Why not? You obviously wanted to steal from me," he growled.

"I wanted to talk to you, that's all. And return this," I told him, holding out the pendant. He eyed me warily before snatching away and tucking it into his pocket.

"What did you want to talk about? And why return what you stole?" he demanded. I opened my mouth, about to reply, but then there was a bunch of snarls that alerted us both.

"Night!"

"Shadow!"

Our voices called the names at the same time, and after fixing me with a weird look, the brunette raced off to the source. Shrugging, I shot after him, and soon realized we were running side-by-side. I ignored that fact and used a small burst of speed to run ahead, making it to the pair of fighting dragons first. The brunette joined me right after, his eyes widening at the sight of Night and the other dragon fighting.

"Night! Stop!" I shouted, and he paused, glaring mildly at the other before returning to my side.

"Shadow, are you okay?" the brunette asked the black dragon as he check him over.

"I'm fine, Taichi," Shadow insisted. "A little sore, but okay."

"Oh, please, I barely hit you! You blocked me almost every time!" Night snorted. He then looked up at me with a little bit of worry. "You're not hurt, are you, Yamato?"

"No, I'm fine," I assured him.

"Okay, if you say so…" the silver dragon sighed.

"Night, you need to apologize, as do I," I told him.

"Fine…" he grumbled, and approached Shadow. "Sorry for attacking you, I was merely trying to protect Yamato." Shadow gave a slight grin.

"I accept your apology," the black dragon replied. "I know what you mean. I was trying to get back what Taichi's father had given him. It's very important to us."

"How so?" I asked, jumping in.

"First off, let's go back to the campsite, and then we'll talk," Shadow suggested.

"But, Shadow! What about—" Taichi started to say, but Shadow fixed him with a firm look.

"They may just be the ones," he said, and the brunette's demeanor changed entirely.

"I understand," he nodded, and we left to the campsite in silence. As we walked, however, Night opened his telepathic communication to me.

'What do you think they're talking about?' he wondered.

'No clue, but it may be worth our while to find out,' I thought back. 'After all, we're not being hostile to them, and vice versa, so it'll be worth it to find out what they're going on about.'

Night gave a mumbled sound of agreement, making Shadow glance back at us. My partner rolled his eyes in response, and Shadow looked back ahead. Once we reached the small campsite, the brunette and his dragon got a fire going and some rabbit cooking over the flames.

"So, where to start…" Taichi murmured.

"We could introduce ourselves properly," I suggested with a smirk. Holding out my hand to him, I said, "Yamato Ishida. Just call me Matt, though."

"Taichi Yamachi, but call me Tai," he replied, and shook my hand.

"I'm sorry about before," I apologized. "I've been a thief for three years so we could survive out here."

"It's okay," Tai nodded. "I think Shadow and I should explain now."

"Explain what?" Night questioned, hopping up and landing lightly on my shoulder.

"It's about two people and their dragon partners," Shadow began, climbing onto Tai's shoulder.

"My parents told me of a prophecy when I was younger, shortly after I had found Shadow. The prophecy spoke of two partnered pairs consisting of two humans and their dragon partners," Tai explained. "These four have to stop an evil force that's using darkness to try and disrupt the balance of the world and destroy it."

"And how does this involve us? I'm sure there's plenty of other people with dragons," I asked, quirking a brow at him.

"Actually, there's not," Shadow admitted. "We've looked into it, but there's no one else with a dragon. You're the only ones we've met."

"But…how? We've had nothing but trouble for the past three years, so why us?" Night wondered aloud.

"What do you mean?" Tai asked, his expression worried. He's already worried about us, yet he barely knows us. I might as well come clean…

"When I found Night, I brought him home and showed my parents, but they believe that silver dragons are a bad omen, so they tried to make me get rid of him," I began, sighing heavily as I sat down. Night wrapped his tail loosely around my other shoulder, nuzzling my neck soothingly. I gave him a small smile before continuing. "I refused to, so they kicked me out. I packed up what I could, and then we resorted to stealing from various places around different towns and cities, just trying to scrape by. Once we became master thieves, which took about a year, we moved here to the forest, making our home here and stealing from travelers that passed through. Over the past two years, we've accumulated quite a lot of money, and we sell some of the treasures that we steal, using that money to buy any goods we needed to survive, such as blankets, treats, and the like. My parents never came and looked for me, but it's not like I care. And that's our story." Tai and Shadow were quiet for a while, and then Tai crawled over and gave me a hug when Shadow and Night hopped off our shoulders.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, his breath tickling my ear. I shivered lightly from the sensation, feeling butterflies flutter in my stomach. Fortunately, the brunette mistook the action as me feeling cold, and he brought me closer to the fire.

"It's okay. I'm not bothered by my parents' decision, to be honest," I admitted. "I was planning on leaving when I turned 16 anyway, so the day just came sooner than planned."

"Still, I can't believe that," Tai muttered. Then he seemed to realize something. "So, where's your stuff? You said you have goods and money?"

"Yeah, we do. But who said we're going with you?" I smirked.

"What? But, we need to travel together! And I don't want to just leave you here!" the boy protested.

"I was just teasing you, man," I laughed, reaching over and ruffling his crazy hair. He pouted, making me snicker.

"So you'll be joining us?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, we will," Night nodded, and I mumbled agreement.

"Then in that case…" Tai pulled the pendant I had stolen from before out of his pocket and handed it to me.

"But it's yours. Why are you giving it to me?" I questioned, eyeing him curiously.

"My dad told me to give it to the other person with a dragon," he replied simply. "It means friendship, like how mine means courage." The brunette fished out a pendant I hadn't seen before from under his shirt and showed it to me. It resembled the sun, and it seemed to glow in response to being near me.

"Why's it glowing?" I wondered.

"No idea. Yours started glowing right before you stole it earlier," he shrugged. I flushed, slightly embarrassed about the incident, and rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. I genuinely felt bad now, which was odd. I never felt guilty about stealing before, so why now? Maybe because I actually had held a conversation with this guy instead of fleeing like I normally do. Yeah, that's probably all it is.

"Hey guys, the rabbits are fully cooked," Shadow announced, and Night stood to pull one out from the fire. "Aren't you gonna grab a second for Matt?" the black dragon asked his silver lookalike, but Night shook his head.

"We don't each much," I answered for my partner. "We usually share our food, but we eat more in the colder seasons. Kinda just to try and make sure we don't starve out here."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that with us," Tai assured us. "Shadow's a great hunter, and he'll keep us fed."

"Can't you hunt at all?" I smirked.

"Yes, but Shadow's faster at it," the brunette replied validly. He was right; our dragons are swift hunters, and they were probably the most dangerous predators out there. They had to be, though, or else they would be killed much too quickly. "So, Matt," Tai began around a mouthful of rabbit. "How much do you have stocked up?"

"Let's just say a lot for now," I answered, taking a bite of the rabbit Night had grabbed. At his skeptical look, I sighed. I need to be honest with him, or else we'll never get along. Yeah, I'm certainly suspicious, but the fact that he has Shadow kinda hits it home. "Okay, fine. Night and I have at least 13 grand saved up in our trove, plus some pretty decent supplies. We can stop by there in the morning and pick some of it up."

"Some? Why not as much as you can? Wouldn't you want to prevent someone from stealing it?" Tai asked, his expression puzzled.

"We cast spells on it for while we're gone, and then dismiss them while we're there," I informed him. "It's not too difficult. We'll go early in the morning, though, or else we may get caught. Night and I are known thieves, and we can't afford to be caught."

"Do you guys even get seen?" Shadow questioned curiously.

"No, but they know we exist. They don't know who we are or what we look like, they just know there are thieves in this forest," Night muttered.

"Then there shouldn't be any issues with you two coming to towns with us," the brunette declared. "If they don't know your names or what you look like, then it's okay."

"…Fine. Just don't risk your necks if people try and attack us for anything," I advised.

"What do you mean?" the black dragon asked.

"We've been to towns before and caused a little trouble here and there," Night smirked.

"What kind of trouble?" Tai tilted his head in confusion.

"Are we playing 20 questions here or something?" I chuckled. "Look, we've just pissed a few people off, mainly bar owners for getting in fights. Other men have tried to hit on me, but when we fight them off, we're the ones that get kicked out, not the pervs."

"That sucks," Shadow commented, finishing off his rabbit. Tai opened his mouth as if to say something, but his partner shut him up with a flick to the forehead. "We'll talk more in the morning. It's late, and we all need sleep."

"Not me. I'll keep watch," Night declared, and teleported up to a tree branch.

"Why—" Tai started to say, but shut up when Shadow glared at him. I cast the black dragon a grateful look before bidding the pair goodnight and climbing up the tree to join Night.

"Goodnight, partner," I whispered to him, scratching between his wings a little and making him purr slightly.

"Goodnight, Yamato," he murmured, and I leaned back against the trunk, closing my eyes and falling asleep.

A/N: And that's chapter 2! Let me know if you have any questions, k? Kay. R&R, peeps!