Tales of the Hidden Dragons.

Chapter Two: enemies and allies

Slowly opening his eyes, his head still pounded from the fierce blow he had taken. His vision blurred, Caldor tried to look around for who, or what, had taken him by surprise. He heard footsteps, someone was coming. Caldor felt a hand grab his horn, he grunted as his head was pulled up to face who was holding him. Caldor looked at what was holding him, a creature like no other he had ever seen before. The creature was a twisting combination of roots and rock, and had long, twig like arms and legs; it was fairly small, and its red eyes were dug into its head. Caldor could see that there was more than one, far more. He looked around as he was being held, seeing about fourteen more of the creatures, all gathered around a campsite.

After the creature had a good look at Caldor, it finally let go of him. It threw him to the ground, and walking off the join its companions. Caldor tried to get up, but only succeeded in being yanked back to the ground by something around his neck. Looking down, he saw that attached to his neck, was a long steel chain, which connected him to a post about two meters away from the camp. His spirits dampened, and only got worse as he noticed that his bag and map were also in the campsite. The creatures must have taken it while he was gone, then waited to see if anyone would return. Caldor felt like a fool, thinking that all was safe, he let his guard down, and now look where it has gotten him.

The creatures were now rummaging through the bag, looking at all his belonging, then tossing them aside as they realized they were just pieces of junk. The only thing they didn't touch, was his map, guessing that they must already know what it was, they couldn't be bothered looking at it. After tossing aside all his belongings, finding nothing worthwhile, they made a grunting noise, and carried on patrolling their site.

Seeing no chance of escape, Caldor dropped his head down between his legs. He could feel the dried blood on his face that had obviously came from the swing the creatures took at him in the grove. Suddenly, he looked at the sky, remembering that he had no idea what the time was. The sky was a pale red, meaning that the day was gone, and night was setting in. "Damn it, that's the whole day gone." He muttered to himself. "Not that it matters. My whole life is probably gone now." The grim thought played on his mind for the next few hours, where he just laid there waiting for whatever came next.

It was dark. Caldor had been watching the camp for the remainder of the day, watching as the creatures slowly fell asleep around the campfire. Only a few remained awake, no doubt to make sure he didn't try to escape during the night; not that it mattered. Caldor could find no way to break out of the camp without alerting any of the creatures awake, or asleep. So instead, he tried to fall asleep too.

Only a few minutes had passed before he heard it. Footsteps, but these were different. They were softer, taken with more care, and most importantly, they came from the bushes from the sides of the camp. He looked at the guards, seeing if they had noticed the sound too, but they hadn't. Just as he was thinking, an arrow shot out from bushes, and landed right into one of the creature chests. The shock and pain from the arrow caused the guard to growl and grunt in pain. Its companions had woken, startled by the noise; they jumped to their feet, grabbed their weapons, and started to search where the arrow had come from. Just then, more arrows were fired off, all finding their marks in the creatures. They fell one by one, rolling on the ground in pain, before finally dying. Only five creatures remained out of the original fifteen. Knowing that they were no match, they quickly jumped up into the air, and as they hit the ground, they burrowed into the earth.

Caldor sat there, frozen in shock at what just happened, unwilling to move from the shadows in case the newcomers decided to turn on him. After a few tense moments, the strangers stepped out from their hiding spots. There were six of them, all now standing in the middle of the camp. Caldor had a good look at them; they were tall, cloaked figures. In the light of the fire he saw that they had fur and tails; definitely nothing like the creatures that had captured him. Noting that the new arrivers were armed with long, wooden bows, Caldor remained in the dark, hoping that by some stroke of luck, they wouldn't see him. Unfortunately, they did.

Two of them started to walk over to where the dragon was chained. Knowing there was no escape, Caldor quickly got to his feet, ran back as far as the chain would allow, and then he turned and lowered his head, preparing for them to attack. He knew he had no hope of taking them out, the arrows would kill him before he could get anywhere near the newcomers. But nonetheless, he prepared anyway, he wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"Stand down friend, you have no need to fear us" One of them spoke.

Caldor didn't move, eyeing him down, looking for any deceit on his face.

"Please, we mean you no harm." He spoke again.

Caldor thought of what he should do. The strangers did just fight off his captors, but he had no way of knowing what these newcomers' intentions were. Seeing only one option before him, the dragon rose from his stance, deciding that it would be best to go along with the stranger's words… for now.

"Now tell us, what is your name?" The other one said.

Caldor hesitated, before finally answering. "My name is Caldor. What's yours?" He asked, trying to learn more about them.

"I am known as Hunter." Replied one of them. "And my name is Meadow." Said the other.

Caldor had just one more question on his mind. "What are you?" Hunter and Meadow looked at each other, then back again.

"We are known as cheetahs." Hunter answered.

"And that leads us up to the present day." Hunter had taken Caldor back to his village to explain what had happened during the past three years. It was a small village, made entirely of wooden huts and a tall tribal poll in the centre. The village was surrounded by a handcrafted log wall, about a head above the cheetah's height. Hunter had taken off his cowl when they had returned. The tall cheetah had golden and white fur, and bright green eyes, almost the same as Caldor's. "Malefor may be defeated, but remnants of his army still wander the lands."

"So, those things that attacked me were called grublins?" Caldor asked.

"Yes, the creatures that made up the majority of Malefor's dark army. They are creatures that show no sympathy for the weak, and still roam the lands praying on unlucky travelers, such as you." Hunter went on to explain. "Although the grublins no longer have a leader, they still fight against us. The dragon guardians and I have been trying to discover why they still have a will to fight, even when they no longer have Malefor's grasp controlling them."

"The dragon guardians? Who are they?" Caldor questioned, his curiosity sparked.

Hunter was surprised at how little the young dragon knew of his own race, but nonetheless, he continued. "The guardians are powerful dragons that are seen as the leaders of the dragon race, the wisest of them all. There is a guardian for each element, fire, ice, electricity, and earth, and each guardian's duty is to teach the next generation of dragons in the ways of the elements."

"Where are the guardians?" Caldor asked, more and more questions surging through his mind.

"They reside in the city of Warfang where-." Hunter was cut off before he could finish.

"Have you been to Warfang before?" Caldor interrupted.

"Yes, I ha-"

"What's it like there?"

"Please, one question at a time" Hunter exclaimed, a little annoyance in his voice.

"Oh, sorry. Continue, please." Caldor apologized; he wasn't trying to get on the cheetahs nerves, but it was probably best if he didn't ask any more questions.

"Where was I… oh yes, the city of Warfang, yes I have been there many times" He continued. "In fact, I was just about to head back there tomorrow, would you like to join me?" Hunter asked.

Caldor thought about the offer, if he had to travel with Hunter, the trip would take longer, as he would no longer be able to fly. However, if he went alone, he could be ambushed by more grublins. The cheetah would serve as valuable protection against any attack.

"Yes, I would, thank you." Caldor accepted the offer.

"Now then, you're sure you're okay? Nothing bruised or broken?" Hunter asked him.

"Nothing besides the scar on my face, but that'll heal over time." It was lucky that he was saved by the Cheetahs when he was; Who knows what else the grublins might have done to him.

"What about those?" Hunter questioned, inspecting the three red scar marks on left shoulder.

"I actually have no idea where I got those from, but I've had them for several years now." The marks had been there for as long as Caldor could remember. They had never hurt, yet never healed either, and what caused them is a complete mystery to him. "But don't worry, they don't hurt at all." The blue dragon finished, running his claws against the scars.

Hunter looked at with a great expression of concern for a few seconds, but quickly shrugged whatever he was thinking of aside.

"Well then, we have a long trip ahead of us tomorrow; let's get some sleep shall we." Hunter stood and started to walk off "Follow me, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."

Caldor followed Hunter with his map and bag, both recovered from the grublins campsite. The cheetah even made the effort to re-wrap all of Caldor's belongings back into a bag.

Hunter led the dragon over to one of the wooden huts. "This is where we you'll be sleeping tonight; we have a long trip ahead of us tomorrow, so get some rest." Hunter said, directing Caldor over to the hut. "I'll be back soon; I just have to check on the others." And with that, he walked off towards the other huts.

Caldor laid down his possessions on the side of the hut, and then dropped himself to the ground. The grass wasn't as soft as it was in the grove, but it was still comfortable. "What an eventful day this was." He thought to himself. "I may not have made it to Warfang, but at least I've been able to make some new comrades." It didn't take long for the dragon to fall asleep; his long, harsh day had him worn out. With one final yawn and blinking of his eyes, he fell sound asleep.

"Me? Scared? No way, it's just that I have a bad feeling." Caldor was having the same dream again, this time, concentrating to remember what happened.

"Caldor, we'll be fine, seriously what could possibly happen?" It was him? Caldor was one the two strangers in his dream. He sounded much younger though, about 10. No wonder he couldn't figure out who it was. Now all he had to do was figure out whom the other stranger was. He already knew that the person is a girl; this was obvious from her voice. She sounded about the same age as him too.

"Shh, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"There it is again, it sounded like… footsteps; coming from the bushes."

"What are you blabbering about, I don't hear a thing."

"If you would just be quiet for a second, you would."

"Humph."

"Shh, there it is again."

"Get them!" A new voice appeared.

"Aah, Caldor what are they."

"These must be the creatures the elders told us about; I knew we were being watched."

"Capture them, now, do NOT let them escape." The voice was coarse as he screeched the order.

"Quick, run!"

"Got it."

"Now!"

"Aah, what is this?"

"Good work boy's, we've got ourselves some dragons."

"The blue one, he's escaping, stop him!"

[DISCLAIMER] I do not own or hold any rights to the legend of Spyro. All characters (besides my own (e.g. Caldor)) respectfully belong to their rightful creators/owners.

(Well now. This story appears to be coming along quite well. I liked writing this chapter; it took me a lot of time to figure out how I was going to introduce Hunter, but I finally got there in the end. Well, better get started on the next one. Please read and review, thanks)