Chapter 1: A new Friend

A long slender dragon climbed his way up a rocky path on the side of a large mountain. His claws grasped at the loose rock sending it tumbling down the steep path as he let go of them. He was used to climbing up this way to get to his cave, but sometimes he lost his footing. The young Chinese dragon tumbled backward with a gasp. A large snout came down keeping the little dragon from tumbling any farther. The young dragon looked up at his dark green father with a slightly embarrassed look in his blue eyes. It wasn't very often he fell. The light aqua green dragonet righted him self and continued his way up the steep path. The young dragon's branched horns were still small and his paws seemed too big for him. The dragon's underside was a grass green color and he had golden tufts of hair sprouting from his elbows heels and tail tip. He also had the beginnings of a small mane along the underside of his jaw. Two long, thin whiskers grew out from the young Chinese's snout with one on each side. His shoulder spikes hadn't grown in yet; he was the dragon equivalent of a human seven-year-old.

The little dragon's father on the other hand was massive. He was twenty feet tall at least. His horns were long with many branches and his golden mane was long. The older dragon was in his prime. He had found a mate about ten years ago and together they had their first clutch though it was only one egg. Chinese dragons don't breed often and they have few offspring which was one of the reasons they're so rare. The father dragon would protect his son with his life like any parent would do.

Soon the young light green dragon reached the mouth of the large cave. His pupils dilated to see better in the dim light. The father walked into the cave and was greeted by his mate. She was slightly smaller than the male with smaller horns and shorter mane. The female was a light blue color with a deep blue underside.

"I see the hunt didn't go well." She said.

"No. At least that last meal was big." The grownups began idle chit-chat which was boring to the young dragon. He was playfully batting a rock with is tail until a strange jolt of energy coursed though him. The little dragon yelped in surprise causing his parents to turn their heads.

"What's wrong Rali? Did you step on a sharp rock again?" His mother asked with slight concern.

"No it was this... I dunno shock I guess?" The little dragon wasn't sure about what happened and couldn't tell his parents much. Two adult dragons gave their son a puzzled look. When the energy shock came again Rali jumped and his body glowed for a few seconds. His parents were about to rush over to him when the glow came again this time blindingly causing the older dragons to shut their eyes. Rali was encased in a sphere of energy and with a crackling noise the sphere vanished leaving two bewildered parents behind.

"Rali? RALI?!" His mother called franticly, but her son was gone.

Rali didn't know it yet, but he was being transported to another world crossing from his universe to another.

A young purple dragon stepped though the portal to the Sunny Flight speedway. The speedway was a land where young dragons went to learn how to fly. The magic in the speedways was stronger than that of the normal lands allowing for easier flight. The purple dragon was a young teenager around fourteen (give or take a year) in human years. He was still a quadruped not yet ready to walk upright like most adults did though some chose to stay a quadruped throughout their whole lives. His wings were gold with red wing sails and his crest and spikes were a tan-gold color. His tan-brown horns were upright in a slight S shape. His name was Spyro. Even though he was young he was the hero of all. He had saved the Dragon Realms countless times from many villains and saved their neighboring planet Avalar once. Of course Spyro didn't save everyone alone, he had his best friend Sparx the dragonfly by his side. Sparx was a gold dragonfly with two small arms and horizontal, red stripes on his body. Sparx wasn't only Spyro's friend but also a magical shield of sorts. Whenever Spyro took a hard hit instead of getting badly injured Sparx would change colors, gold meant that he was at full strength, blue meant two hits left, green meant one hit left, but with the power of fairy magic Sparx gained an extra hit so Spyro could take four hard blows before his companion would disappear. The butterflies that came from fodder would restore Sparx when he ate them.

Since the Dragon Realms wasn't in any danger (that they knew of) Spyro tried to keep himself busy with beating his course records in speedways. He hoped that he could beat his old record in Sunny Flight. He was hearing about a young red dragon that was setting outrageously fast records in other speedways around the Dragon Realms and Spyro didn't want to be bested. The young purple dragon took a deep breath and glided towards the starting position. Sparx flew over to the time board to keep track of how Spyro did.

Spyro readied himself on the small starting platform carefully eyeing the targets he had to

hit. Let's see… If I could just swing past those barrel trains at just the right angle then I should be able to shave off at least half a second from my time. The purple dragon thought as soon as he pushed of the ground with his hind legs. Spyro leapt into the air and spread his small wings to take flight. With accuracy he took shallow turn to face the barrel trains so that they were heading at him face on. Within moments Spyro flew around the small railroad track torching the two barrels at a time that came on the trains. He then flew away from the tracks and made a sharp left to head towards the green glowing arches that circled the rock island the speedway course was built around. He kept as tight a turn around the island as he could without missing the arches. Just as the last arch shattered signifying that it had been passed through Spyro angled off toward the small gnorc planes that flew in a set pattern above the water. He used the same tactic like he did with the trains facing the planes head on. With quick bursts of flame the planes fell to the water in smoking debris. With all eight planes taken care of it was time for the last part of the course. Near where the trains had been there was a somewhat hidden cave inside the rock island with golden, shining treasure chests lined up on small platforms. Spyro flew into the cave torching the three chests that stood in the entrance tunnel to the open roofed cave. The cave itself was small and the bottom was filled with water. Four platforms stuck out the walls of the round cave with chests on them and there was a central rock formation with a chest on it too. Spyro circled the perimeter of the cave blasting the chests with his flame breath before smashing the central one. When the last chest shattered from Spyro's flame blast the timer stopped. Spyro flew out from the cave and back to the small outer island which the time board was on. The dragon landed lightly onto the stone panting from his flight.

"Well?" He asked anxious to know how well he did. He hoped that he beat his old time by at least a second if not more.

"Sorry Spyro but you missed by just a second." Sparx said shaking his golden head. He knew that being the best meant a lot to Spyro now that his speedway reputation was on the line. Spyro sat down still breathing hard. Once he caught his breath a slight frown grew on his face. He looked at the time board with growing frustration. He knew that it wouldn't matter how good he was if he could only go but so fast and right now he was already at his best. The purple dragon sighed. He looked back at the course that was resetting itself for the next run. The trains, arches, planes, and chests faded into sight until they were solid again.

Spyro was just about to turn and leave until something caught his eye. There was a bright flash from the small cave the chests were in; it wasn't normal.

"Did you see that?" Spyro asked his dragonfly friend.

"Yeah I did." Sparx said. Spyro stood up and leapt from the small rock island towards the cave with Sparx following cautiously behind. Spyro flew into the cave and landed on one of the small platforms. Spyro could sense that the magic in the immediate area had become extremely strong, it was almost overwhelming. An orb of light appeared and grew into an immensely bright sphere. Spyro shielded his eyes from the bright light with his wings. When Spyro looked after the light vanished there was a strange green creature sitting on top of the main rock formation. It was long and slender with draconic features. The creature looked around his bright blue eyes wide with fear. Soon the creature's eyes focused on the small purple dragon in front of him. The creature took a step back when Spyro began to approach. Seeing the creature's recoil Spyro stopped where he was and instead tried to talk to it.

"Uh… hi…. My name's Spyro." He said unsure if the creature would understand. The green creature looked at Spyro warily. The little purple dragon didn't seem dangerous, but still….

"Do… you… understand… me?" Spyro asked spacing his words. The creature nodded his head yes.

"What's your name then?" He asked. It took a moment but finally the creature answered.

"I-I'm Ralicamur." He said stuttering with slight fear. He had no idea what was going on or if he would ever see his parents again. Rali got a feeling that a lot was going to happen to him and it would have something to do with that purple thing with the little gold thing in front of him.

"Rali for short…." The young dragon finished.

"Where am I?" Rali asked. His tone was less shaky now that he knew he wasn't in immediate danger. "And what are you?"

"Well number one: you're in the Sunny Flight speedway. Number two: I'm a dragon. What are you?" Spyro said as he glanced at Sparx.

"I'm a dragon too."

"Well you're the strangest looking dragon I've ever seen." Spyro said starting to walk a little closer until he came to the edge of the platform he was on. He then sat down his tail lightly touching the treasure chest behind him.

"I could say the same thing about you. Your wings look strange and your head is big." Spyro growled at the comment though it was kinda true. Sparx snickered with a hand over his mouth trying to hold it in. Spyro glared daggers at the little dragonfly causing Sparx to shut up. Rali cocked his head at the two. Spyro had guessed by now that Rali was young, younger than him possibly by the tone of the green dragon's voice despite the fact that Rali was more than twice as tall as he was. Rali looked around at the glowing chests with fascination as they didn't have those back on Earth. Spyro watched with amusement as Rali investigated the chest by quickly poking it with a fore-claw. He then sniffed at the chest deciding that it didn't do anything else but glow.

"So where're you from Rali?" Spyro asked after a few more moments of watching the light green dragon. Rali turned his head to face Spyro again. Rali's eyes grew sad for a moment when he remembered that he was lost and his parents where no where to be found.

"China." He answered slowly. Spyro cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.

"China? I never heard of that place. Where is it?"

"Umm… somewhere in the eastern part of the Earth connected to Asia I think." This only made Spyro more confused. China? Asia? Earth? Where the heck were those? Spyro didn't even have a foggy idea. All he knew was is that it wasn't in the Dragon Realms.

"Well Rali welcome to the Dragon Realms." Spyro said looking at the green dragon. He knew that he would have to take Rali to the Artisan dragon elder.

"How is Rali going to get to the portal? I don't think he can fly as he doesn't have any wings." Sparx buzzed to the purple dragon. Spyro shrugged his shoulders as he didn't have a clue. Rali overheard the question.

"Actually I can fly, but not very well." Rali said. Spyro gave Rali a look of complete disbelief. First he comes from this strange land called China and he can fly. Can this dragon get any weirder?

"And how do you do that?" Spyro asked.

"You see us Chinese dragons fly by using magic since we don't have any wings." Spyro could understand that. The dragons in the Realms flew partially with magic themselves since their wings were too small to fly under their own power. Spyro stood up and turned around to face the entrance to the cave after telling Rali that he should follow and with a swift leap Spyro was airborne. The green dragon leapt off the central rock formation in the cave to follow Spyro out. He was surprised at how easy it was to fly here and he felt like he was swimming through the air. His tail waved lazily behind him making Rali seem like a serpent gliding through the air. Spyro glided swiftly in front of Rali and then disappeared into the portal in front of him. Rali stopped in mid-air looking at the strange thing. It was a rock arch with many carved symbols on it. The arch had a glowing green gem at the top. In side the arch was a picture of another world like a window. Cautiously Rali stuck a claw into it to find that nothing was going to hurt him. He gave a quick look around the speedway again before gliding into the image.