THE LEGEND OF SPYRO – VENTURE TO DRAGON REALM
Chapter 1: New Horizon
"Call the chief! He must see this…"
"That portal, I have never seen anything like this before!"
"Send the messenger to the Head Council and have them informed about this!"
"His head's bleeding, go get a medic, quickly!"
"Wait! He looks similar to them! Could he be…"
…
'騒々しい、暗い…ここはどこ？' (Sōzōshī, kurai… Koko wa doko? – It's noisy and dark … Where am I?)
Everything I saw was just complete darkness, yet I heard so many voices. When I paid close attention, I realized it was English. I was kind of doubting at first, but yes, it was English. Then, I had a feeling like my wrists were rubbing against something. I didn't have to wonder for long, suddenly, a cold and wet feeling ran through my face and into my eyes. I slowly regained consciousness and opened my eyes to see. I first felt a slight headache and drops of water rolled down my cheek. I saw three vague figures standing in front of me, one of them was holding a bucket. I tried to stand up, but I couldn't since my arms were tied into a wooden pole behind my back. The sunlight brought me back to my scene, I held a gasp as I saw three lynx-liked men, or so I thought.
The middle one seemed to be the oldest, my guess based on the length of his brows and beard. Despite those details, he still looked strong and energetic, I could tell by his eyes, the old would never have eyes that sharp. The guy standing next to his left side carried a lance while the opposite one had a sword on his waist. I thought I would call them "lancer" and "swordsman" for the time being.
Behind those three, there were more of them, about twenty, nearly half of them were children, both of them looked at me with curious feline eyes. They wore short brownish robe and pants, their fur colourvaried from orange to pale azure. There were several huts and cabins here and there, though not very organised. There were also wooden paling fences, which kind of reminded me of a village.
"Chief Fagus," the guy holding the bucket asked "what do you think of him?"
"I'd like to check him right away myself!" said the middle one.
He stepped towards me and started to examine me the way an animal did, which gave me goosebumps. After having sniffed, touched and observed, he stood up, seemed satisfied.
"How intriguing" he said, "he does have similar characteristics as they do. We'll keep him here and wait for the Council to decide this."
"Why don't we just get rid of him, chief? It's not worth keeping him!"
"Then what do think of the portal? Have you any idea what it was?"
The guard remained silent.
"All right, stranger", he said to me, "If you can talk, tell me your name and what species you are."
"I'm Hikari Minosuke, I'm a human" I tried to answer in their tongue. Luckily, I pronounced quite well.
"Hikari… and 'human'… I think heard this somewhere…"
He was about to continue when a series of tocsin resounded in the whole area, one after another.
"Dreadwings! There are six of them, all are carrying containers!"
"Those who cannot fight get to the shelter! The rest of you follow me!"
"What about him, chief?"
"Bring him with you!"
The chief left almost immediately after saying. They shrugged at each other, released me from the pole and led me through the back door and joined the fleeing villagers, still kept my arms tied. Not far away there was a big tree near the mountain base, and there was a trapdoor at the base of the tree. The guards waited for their people to get in first, then we entered and the door shut behind us.
It was dark, I stripped several times on the stone staircases. Finally, we reached the end of the tunnel and entered a wide hall supported with stone columns. On each column hung 4 lamps, there was even a small fountain here. Upon seeing me, the villagers started whispering, seemed to be unpleasant with my appearance. The guards let me sit between them, the atmosphere here was getting tenser by the second. Suddenly, a loud bang came from the dark corridor, the only entrance of this place. Everyone held their breath, staring at the entrance as the noise resounded wave by wave.
"How did they found us?" said the lancer, "And reinforcement hasn't come yet."
"You know what to do!" the other one replied, pointing at me, and they both nodded.
I didn't know what they meant by that, but I didn't have to wonder for long. The loudest clash stated that the door had been breached. The villagers, without a word, started to move to the furthest end of the room, away from the door and huddled together there. We could hear heavy footsteps, and when the intruders were near, the lancer grabbed me from behind andstepped forth with the swordsman.
The intruders came into our vision, I was kinda shocked to see their appearance. Ten baboons, one big, nine smalls. They only wore a loin-cloth with a piece of bone to keep it still. The big one also wore a leather garment on its back, it carried a mace and a wooden shield. Their characteristics weren't different much from those I knew, except their violet fur color and surprisingly thin limbs, which reminded me of trolls in occidental fantasy. That wasn't all, behind them crawled out a giant dark violet bat-liked beast with mane, whose size I estimated was about that of a tiger.
They stood blocking the only way out, the big one jerked its chin up and spoke with a thick tone: "Ur Master demands ye demise, so we've been hiding around to monitor your hideout! It's a pity since this is quite an easy job, so at least I'll let my henchmen have some fun before ending ye all here!"
"I don't think so!" the swordsman replied "If you take another step, your comrade will pay for it!"
He signaled the lancer to bring me up front and placed the sword's edge near my throat. So, they thought of me as one of them and used me as a bargain chip, very clever… The intruders stood speechlessly for a while, and to our surprise, they bursted into laughter: "Our comrade? Him!? Boy, you really know how to joke! I like you already!"
He pointed at us and ordered his men: "Just take care of them, then do whatever ye want with the rest!" Then he returned next to the bat and enjoyed the show.
The henchmen lunged at us. Realized that I had no value in this, the lynx-men threw me aside and engaged. The lynx-men had speed, height, and advantageous weapons like lance and sword, while the baboons were short, quick and outnumbered them. The baboons' tactic was obvious, feline relatives weren't good in long fight, so they tried to wear them out first before dealing the finishing blow.
Lying on the ground as the fiery battle took place just several footsteps from me, I tried to crawl away from it. At that moment, my ears caught a familiar sound, I didn't know why it was familiar. The sobbing of a kid, calling for his mother: "Mom, I'm scared…", "It'll be alright, dear." Here and there, I heard clearer and clearer, whimpers, sobs, laments… They were hopelessly awaiting the inevitable fate to come. At that moment, I felt a jolt in my head, more precisely, an urge to fight, fight to survive, surviveto… protect. I remembered that those were what I had been told. When? I didn't know, and I didn't care. Right now, it was fight or die. Unable to use my arms, I still got my legs, I didn't learn martial art for nothing.
With great efforts, I tried to stand up, my head ached a bit, that flying pan must have hit me too hard. Suddenly, I heard a cry, a baboon had already plunged its dagger to the back shoulder of the swordsman lynx, forced him to knee down. His fellow lancer found a chance and impaled the lance through its body, knocked it off his enemies form a circle around them, ready to end the futile resistance.
To make things worse, a cub darted out from the crowd, shouting: "Father!" A baboon noticed him, it left its formation and leapt at the kid with its sharp claws. They weren't far from me, so, before it could harm the kid, I had already sprung into action. I quickly delivered a roundhouse kick and altered its course, caused it to lie flat on the ground.
That was a close call, and as I expected, my action drew their attention. I stood between the cub, still sitting there trembling as he just escaped death in a hair's breadth and the fighting group. This brought back memories, back in the day when I was a first-year student. One afternoon, my classmate got bullied at a corner of a building, and I was just passing by. That guy had always tried to make fun of me in class, quite an eyesore whenever I saw his face. But there was one thing I hate even more: bullies. No need to say much, I totally wrecked them. How nostalgic, but back to reality, this wasn't any fight I have involved nor experienced before, this was a fight at the cost of my life.
"心配しないで。ここを任せろ!" (Shinpai shinai de. Koko o makasero! – Don't worry, I'll take it from here!) I spoke to the kid.
I didn't expect him to understand, but he nodded and ran back to the crowd.
"Hmm, interesting", said their leader, "Now this is where the fun begins! Boys! Get him!"
Two of them and the one I kicked earlier approached me while the rest kept the lynxes at bay. I smirked as I confronted them. We stood facing each other, waiting for a moment to strike. I calculated the possible outcomes. Suddenly, I realized an opening. The injured one was weak, yet it stood far from the other two. Calculation completed.
The first one to strike won. I immediately sprinted through them and aimed for the injured one. With its height only a half compared to me, I could easily land a knee thrust directly to its chin, knocked it out cold. The other started attacking me, leaping around trying to distract me to find an open though their attacks lacked cooperation. I waited for a chance as I dodged and parried their attacks using my legs. Everyone was like holding their breath watching us fight.
One of them leapt at me but missed, the other one tried to do the same. As it was in midair, I spun and performed a tornado kick, sent it flying at the guards' direction and knocked down its comrade, thus opened a chance for retaliation. No sooner than I landed had the previous one come back to strike me with its dagger. Though I lost balance a bit due my inability to use my arms, I managed to pull back my leg to evade the dagger. I used the momentum to successfully land a back kick, pushing and slamming the back of its head against a pillar, thus concluded my battle. Didn't let time go to waste, I immediately came to the guards' aid. Together, we put the fight to an end with style.
Though witnessed the defeat of his subordinates, the leader's content look instead of a mournful or angry one really gave me the creeps even although I had somehow predicted that when he didn't join the fight.
"That was just the beginning!" it said with a smile toward me "Now, the main show!" It whistled at the bat, the creature slowly crawled to us with bearing fangs. It curled in order to launch a n attack, but suddenly stopped halfway. It raised the head, sniffed the air and growled at the entrance.
"They're here sooner than expected." the baboon mumbled, probably disappointed "I'll let you off the hook for now, chosen one. So long!"
It hopped on the bat, took out a bar and lit the filament.
"Dynamite!" yelled a guard.
Wait, that technology even existed here? With a grin, he threw the dynamite at our direction and disappeared into the dark corridor with the bat. Before it hit the ground, I had been fast enough to kick it away and ran back. The dynamite exploded behind me, I fell on ground but didn't suffered any injuries despite being the nearest to the explosion. I turned back and saw a large cloud of black smoke, so it was a smoke bomb, otherwise I was as sure as dead. I sat up, leaned myself on a pillar and let my dizzy head rest.
The exit was wide open, if possible, I could escape with ease. But thinking of the dangers out there, I hesitated. I asked myself whether this was a nightmare or a joke of fate, I wished it had been a nightmare so that I could wake up at any time. Yeah, maybe I imagined things, must've been the after effect of the pan. I chuckled at myself when thinking about it. But everything so far had proven otherwise, the itchy wrists were a particular example. Were Kōmyō and the others safe? Could there be any chance they were brought here, too? If so, where could they be? If not…
Suddenly, we heard rustlers echoed from the entrance. What would come next? Footsteps could be heard, and was getting louder, like they were in a hurry. A voice broke the tense silence: "Is everyone still alive?"
"It's chief Fagus!" cried the swordsman, "We're all fine!"
The chief came into sight, his expression full of both worries and relieves, behind him were some other warriors. He saw me sitting there, eyes half-closed. He ordered the warriors to bring me out. The air outside sure was reliving, and the light had softened a bit, it was afternoon already? They let me sit under the tree there. The villagers started to exit the basement. They all looked worried, probably about their family members. Murmurs kept on pouring into my ears, I could only shut my eyes tight and tried to ignore them. But then, a small, soft paw placed on my cheek, snapped me out of my thoughts. It was the kid. He came without me knowing, his brownish eyes wide opened as if they wanted to remember the lines of my face. A graceful smile bloomed on his face: "Th-thank you... for saving my father."
I nodded: "You're welcome!"
"Can I ask you something?" he said after a short hesitation.
"What is it?"
He put his mouth close to my ear and whispered: "Can you teach me those moves, please?"
His innocent request almost forced a chuckle out of me. But looking at his pleading look, I started losing will. 'くそ、そんな俺を見ないで！(kuso, sonna ore o minaide! - Damn, don't look at me like that!)' I thought, try to avoid those eyes. The kid just stood there, waiting for my answer. In the end, I gave in with a sigh: "Alright, but only after we get out of this mess!"
"Thank you, I'll wait until then!" and he ran to his mother.
What did I just do, made a promise that might never realize? How guilty I was. I felt a slight pain on my head. It was the chief, he was taking off the bandage on my head, of whose existence I then realized. As soon as the bandage was taken off, my head ached a little, but it was comfortable afterwards. They brought some water to wash my wound.
"Someone must've hit you very hard on the head" he said.
"This?" I pointed at the bump on my head, "大丈夫 (daijōbu – It's fine), it's just a little bit dizzy."
"That's what I have been concerning…" he paused a bit "I heard everything, Why did you help us?"
"Because it was the right thing to do." I answered without any hesitation.
"Alright," he nodded "I have to admit, me and my village are in debt to you. Thank you for looking after our back."
"It was nothing!"
"No, I mean it! By the way, someone wants to see you. But first, I'll release you, as a token of gratitude."
He ordered his guards to untie me. I rubbed my itchy wrists with several red marks on them, feeling good to be entered the village. It was a terrible site, none of the buildings were in one piece, black smoke formed into pillars rose and curled up in the sky. From a corner, I saw them carrying their injured comrades and those who had died to the open in front of the biggest cabin at the center of the village. I found this site had something familiar. I didn't know why, but it kinda gave my spine a chill.
"Well, he IS a human!"
A feminine voice spoke right behind me. I turned around and saw a big long pointy face with caramel eyes staring at me. Startled, I took a few steps back but lost balance and fell. That was when I got a chance to take a full view of the creature.
"D-d-dragon?" I stuttered.
Yes, a dragon. I estimated that she had to be twice my height, or maybe a little bit less, probably a medium-size dragon. She had sky blue scales, pale yellow wing membranes and underbelly, two long ivory horns which looked like thin branches of a dead tree, her tail had three diagonal crystal-liked spikes at the end. Her body was quite slim, but elegant. When she breathed, a thin, cool fog streamed out from her nostrils. Could this be the reason why I felt a cold on my back since she stood behind me, or was it from the creepy feeling I got earlier? Fagus seemed surprised: "You know her species?"
"Oh, you don't have to be so surprised like that!" she giggled "Our ancestors had coexisted with them for quite a long time before we left their realm."
Hearing that both gave me and the chief the shock. If dragons did coexist with humans, there had to be documents or evidences about their existence, but all we had was fantasies and fairytales. Dragons were inspirations and fabrications of human's imagination. The only "dragon" ever recorded in documents was the Komodo dragon.
"I know you're confusing." said the dragon "But right now, we should be more concerned about you. Do you remember how you got here?"
Before I could say athing, a smaller dragon approached us: "Miss Glaciah, I've returned from the scouting. None of them were spotted."
"Good job, Dash. Now, you can go help the villagers."
The young dragon with brilliant bright yellow scales and violet horns which sprouted backward in a zigzag form, violet underbelly and claws. He had a line of fin-like spikes which only stopped at the end of the nape and was about my height. He stared at me for a few seconds. Suddenly, he cheered excitedly and pinched my cheek: "Wow! A real human! He's so soft! I thought you were scary at first!"
"痛あぁぁぁい！おい！話せえ！ (Itaaaai! Oi! Hanasee! - Ouuch! Hey! Let go!)"
"Huh!? What are you saying?"
"Careful, Dash! He's injured!" said Fagus.
I couldn't take it any longer, he was going to tear my checks apart. I grabbed his wrist and started twisting, drove him lying on the ground with a thud. This time, it was his turn to cry, they had to separate us and held me still.
"So much for the injured…" Dash said as he got up.
"Just whose fault do you think it was, pulling my cheeks like that!?" I retorted.
"Oh, sorry. I just couldn't hold myself. It's my first time seeing a real human."
"Dash," Glaciah interrupted "I'm interrogating him."
"Yes, ma'am!" he turned around and went to aid with the injured, not without glancing at me one last time.
After he had gone, she asked me to continue, I told her all I knew. She seemed unease: "If what you said was true, then you might not get any chance to return."
'そんなこと!' (Sonna koto! –It can't be!) I whispered to myself. "But there has to be a way!"
"I'm sorry. Until we get back to the city, I can't do anything." She shook her head.
"Then," I asked one last question "do you know who can open it?"
"Even if I know, I won't allow you to get anywhere close to him! Please watch over him for me. I need to go over there for a bit." and she walked away.
I guessed wildly that she had someone in her mind, or a hypothesis about that 'him'. I sat down, just didn't want to believe what I'd heard. A moment later, I lifted my head and saw the swordsman from earlier. He came saying that he would look after me and that the guys watching me should see the chief. He gave me a gourd: "Here, you might be thirsty." I thanked him and started drinking. The fresh water cool and moistened my dried throat like rain fell on arid land.
"I heard you promised to teach my son your moves."
"Well, I couldn't refuse." I faintly grinned.
"You shouldn't promise something you couldn't do. Anyway, my name is Leo. I owe you my family's safety. I don't know how to repay you for this, but I'll let you into something." he looked around as if to make sure nobody was hearing us "They will hold anassembly to decide what to do with you. I wish I could help, but it's beyond my authority."
That didn't seem to bode well for me. But, to be honest, that news didn't bother me much. I had been treated as a prisoner from the beginning anyway. As long as I didn't plan anything stupid, I didn't have to worry. Despite that optimistic thought, I couldn't rid myself of this nervous feeling.
I then realized something, a chance just appeared right in front of me, how convenient. I started asking him about where we were, what was going on here and such. A good idea, but not without the risk of being rejected. Luck showed its favor to me when Leo told me briefly about the situation. His species was called the cheetahs of the Valley of Avalar, one of the most productive and abundant areas around. The inhabitants here had had a great relationship with the dragons for a long time. Now, they were at war with an army of apes, the baboons I saw earlier, called the Dark Army, led by a ferocious fighter, Gaul, known as King of the Apes. They followed orders from the Dark Master: to dominate the world. I thanked him, then he generously led me around the village. So, what I thought was a tribal conflict at first turned out to be a global-scaled war. I remembered that ape calling me "chosen one". Chosen for what, and why me? With the head full of thoughts, we bumped into Fagus, Glaciah and Dash.
"Looks like you were having a good sightseeing, eh, Hikari?" Fagus chuckled.
I nodded. He allowed the swordsman to dismiss, then he told me that he would escort me with Glaciah to Warfang, the Dragon City. It took us ten minutes to pack things up. I thought we were going to take a flight, but the chief led us to the base of mountain. We arrived at a big boulder with a paw print carved on it. There were flagstones imbedded around it.
Fagus came and press one of boulder shook a bit, then it rolled, revealed a tunnel.
"I will fly back to Warfang to prepare for your arrival." said Glaciah "I appoint you, Dash, to look after him."
"Yes, ma'am!" he replied with enthusiasm.
Glaciah expanded her wings, with several flaps, she launched into the sky.
Fagus whispered to me: "Don't do anything funny unless you want to be zapped by him!"
"Zapped? Sounds like electricity?"
"Correct! You're pretty clever!"
"How did know?"
"Just look at the color of their scales!"
And so, I learned another interesting information: dragons have many elements other than fire. The scales' colors indicated their elements. Dash's scales were yellow, his element was electricity. Glaciah's scales were sky blue, she also had chilling breath so she must be an ice dragon.
"Come! Let us make haste!" Fagus urged us.
We entered the tunnel, then the boulder rolled back to its place. A loud clack echoed throughout the tunnel showed us that the entrance was blocked, and again I found myself in the dark. To my surprise, the whole place started to light up, not by auto-lit torches like those in dungeons on TV shows and games, but by crystals. Yes, bunches of crystals on the ceiling, on the wall, with all kinds of colors. For the first time in my life I have ever witnessed such magnificent scene. If something like this were to exist in my world, I was sure the scientists would make the best out of them, life could be even more improved. Bioluminescent crystal, that was what I would call them. Dash threw his chest out: "Bet you haven't seen one like this, huh?"
"すごいですね！ (Sugoidesu ne! – Amazing!)"
"Um… I guess that's a compliment."
"ああ、ごめん！ (Aa, gomen! – Ah, sorry!) It's my native language! It means 'amazing'."
"Well, it is! The beauty of magic, a gift from our ancestors! You'll see more when we get to the city!"
"I don't think I am that honorable!"
"Ahem!" Fagus cut in "Save the chitchat, boys! It's a long way from here despite this passage being a shortcut. I suggest we take the waterway."
"Good idea!" said Dash.
About ten minutes walking, we came across an arch led to a stairway which went lower underground. We took this path and at the last staircase, we were on the bank of a subterranean river. There were less crystals here, but they still provided enough light for us. There was a rafttied onto a mass of stalagmites.
As Fagus was untying the rope, something caught my attention. There was a stalagmite next to where I was standing. At its base sprouted two crystal masses: one was as black as onyx, it generated weak silver light; the other one was dull grey and completely opaque so it didn't generate any light. Curious, I reached my hand and touched it. Suddenly, a masculine voice echoed loudly in my head, saying: "The light that guides light". Several cracks started to appear and ran down from the tips of the mass, it released many small light blobs which resembled fireflies. When I took a closer look, they were light spheres. One by one, they circled around me and at one moment, they both rose up high above, huddled around, then dispersed like a fireworks display that lit up the area and disappeared. I was really impressed with the lightshow, I glanced at the crystal and realized it had changed its color, glowing bright with a purple light.
"すごい…これが魔法だ！ (Kore ga mahō da! – So this is magic!)"
Fagus and Dash stood like being made of stone with their jaw dropping. I didn't understand their reaction, as if they haven't seen anything like this before.
"どうしたの？ (Dōshita no? – What's wrong?)"
"Hikari…" Dash said slowly "You touched the crystal, didn't you?"
I nodded in return. Dash approached the purple crystal, he grabbed one of its branches and snapped it from the mass. He asked Fagus to keep the shard in his cape in order not to scratch it, then we got onto the raft and set off for Warfang. Fagus steered while I and Dash get some rest. Finally, I can let my heavy head rest, but stream of thoughts flooded in as I close my eyes made me unable to sleep well.
We drifted through the curves of this subterranean river, the number of crystals slowly decreased. Another thought came into my head, which once again triggered my brain. Of all the colors, I haven't seen any crystal mass with purple tone until now, and it appeared in an unnatural way. About the voice I heard earlier, its logic was quite bizarre. How could light guide light when they were all light? That was funny, it really was. I took a peek on Dash, just like me, he was trying to take a nap. He turned and caught eyes with me. I intended to ask him about what had just happened but he turned away. I glanced at Fagus, he just shrugged.
We were near the exit, I could feel the slight smell of trees and flowers out raft exited the mountain and immediately joined the main river. The twilight sky was so magnificent, fluffy clouds floated lazily above us, the green grasses bath in the final rays while the critters raced through them to find their home. Far away to the horizon, the sun had already set, its dimming light was like setting the clouds on fire. Such panorama could ease even the most stirring soul. It should be about 5:30 I felt the eyelids became heavy. At least, I could take a nap to ease my mind for upcoming events.
"Here we are! Warfang City!" said Fagus.
I sat up, wondering how long I have fallen asleep. The sky had turned violet, yet I could still see the soft light on the horizon. In front of us, there was a wall. It was so long I couldn't estimate it, I could only imagine it as a mini Great Wall. As the sky got darker, the watchtowers started to light up a big fire on their drifted closer and closer. A giant archway with two massive gates blocked the entrance. As I said, the gates only blocked the entrance, their lower part beneath the surface was made of bars. On each gate, there was a golden alto-relievio of a sitting dragon on side view with a fore paw raised up and leveled with the chest, they faced each other symmetrically, a hugedisc placed between the gates indicated a lock. There were also two watchtowers on each riverside, they were ornamented with vine-liked patterns.
When we got close enough, something lit up on the tower to our left and moved like signaling us to get to the left, Fagus followed the moving light and steered the raft to the riverbank. As I just set my foot onto the land, a bunch of shining spearhead pointed at my face. I jumped back, readied to deal with whatever thrown at me, but Fagus and Dash had already stood in between.
"Oh, it's Dash! Lower your weapons, guys!"
"Mr. Logan," said Dash "I and chief Fagus of the Savannian are here to escort a human by Miss Glaciah's order!"
"So the report was true. May I see him?"
Torches were lit, I could see them clearly now. Those who pointed their spears at me were moles. There was no doubt, their dark brownish velvety fur, big forepaws, long conical snout with two protruding upper central incisors and tiny nostrils, they used goggles to aid their poor vision, which was quite fascinating, and they were just a little higher than my knee. They wore blackmetallic plateswith leather cushions, a simple medieval armor set.
After the formality was done, we went inside the watchtower to enter the city. I wondered, what could possibly be waiting for me behind this wall. My heart raced with both anxiety and enthusiasm as we got pass the entrance led to Warfang.