After the long, tiring trek over the rough landscape, Cyril was regretting admitting his age. If he hadn't, he would be back home with Flaima...but because he had, he had saved the majority of a shrine to his ancestors and befriended an intelligent (if slightly arrogant) electric dragon. Said electric dragon was currently grating Cyril's last nerve.

"Fierce," Nyxi challenged.

"Ruthless," Volteer replied.

"Hmm...many."

"Myriad."

"Friendly."

"Congenial."

"Uh, thin."

"Emaciated."

"Loving."

"Compassionate."

"Lazy."

"Languid."

"Innocent."

"Naïve."

"Corpse."

"Carrion."

"Oh I give up!" Nyxi huffed. Cyril sighed.

Finally! he thought. The two had been playing the Living Thesaurus game for at least an hour. Nyxi would say a word, and Volteer had ten seconds to think of a synonym. He had only been stumped on one word: silent. Oh the irony.

"Welcome to Warfang!" boomed the scout. "Stay close to me," he ordered, striding up to the main gates ofthe city and confidently stomping the ground three times. Immediately, the doors swung open. As Cyril strode in, he gawked at the sight. Even Volteer was rendered speechless; no easy feat.

The city was huge.

Dragons and moles raced about the streets, going in and out of buildings, chatting nonchalantly. Cyril sensed Nyxi and Volteer subconsciously sliding closer to Iysilia, but he found himself so captivated by the scene that he didn't dare turn away. Then he started to notice a suspicious ripple making its way through the crowd. Through much concentration, he found it aimed at a particular dragon.

"A black dragon!"

"What's she doing here?"

"Did she get mixed up and come to the wrong base?"

"Is the scout that recruited her colorblind?"

"Dark creatures like that don't belong in our city," this comment belonged to a young fire dragon, speaking quite loudly. Nyxi's posture slumped, her face glowing with a reddish hue as she pressed herself into Iysilia's side. The ice dragoness gave her a reassuring brush with her muzzle, and Volteer walked closely on her other side to shield her from the crowd. Cyril leaped from the convoy of recruits and raced over to the fire dragon. The crowd drew back, and his friends froze in shock.

"Don't speak from your tail," Cyril growled.

"Oh yeah? Who are you to judge?"

"Oh, I'm just the dragon who's about to kick your sorry face from here to Munitions Forge," Cyril spat. The fire dragon narrowed his eyes.

"I'd like to see you try," he challenged. Cyril snarled and swung a paw, testing his enemy's strength. The other dragon leaped backwards and swung his tail around. Cyril sprang into the air, hovering. The fire dragon stared at him in shock.

"What's wrongs, Sparkles? Can't find your wings?" Cyril taunted. The dragon snarled.

"It's Ignitus," he growled, running forward and hurling himself into the sky. His wings flapped clumsily and his fangs gritted with effort, but he brought himself to a noisy, wobbly hover in front of Cyril. His eyes were filled with fear and uncertainty.

"Come on, Sparkles," Cyril growled, swooping in and veering up at the last second to show how excellent his flying skills were—Iysilia had taught him a lot. Cyril shot towards the clouds like a rocket, hearing Ignitus' clumsy attempts to follow him. Once they were at a fairly high elevation, Cyril shot a well-aimed ice bullet at Ignitus' head. The other dragon didn't even have time to dodge, and cried out in pain before surging at Cyril, fire spewing from his jaws. Cyril soared higher and higher, through the clouds and out of sight of the ground. When he began to run out of oxygen, he turned to see that below him, Ignitus had a very different problem; the cold temperatures were icing his wings and stopping his flames. Seeing his opportunity, Cyril tucked his wings to his sides and plunged down, thrusting out his claws to viciously seize Ignitus without slowing. Ignitus clawed at him, but Cyril ignored the pain and continued his plunge. It had barely been thirty seconds when he broke through the clouds and the ground came into view, astonished faces staring up at what probably appeared to be a cold comet. Cyril was almost instantly within a hundred feet of the ground. Time seemed to slow.

"Cyril! Pull up! Pull up!" Iysilia shrieked. Cyril kept getting closer.

"Cyril!" came Nyxi's wail.

"Your wings! Extend your wings!" Volteer bellowed, rearing onto his hind legs. Cyril blinked away tears from the wind. Ten feet! He hurled Ignitus at a diagonal angle and snapped out his wings. One flap, two...and he was flying! His claws barely scraped the ground and he was back in the air! He flew over and landed gracefully beside his friends, put a wing protectively over Nyxi, and turned to the gaping crowd.

"Anyone messes with her, you mess with me," he snarled. The crowd stayed in a circle around Ignitus, who was slowly clambering to his paws. Cyril fired an ice bullet at his chest, and the young dragon dropped. Iysilia put her muzzle to Cyril's ear.

"We'd best go before we lose sight of the others," she whispered before padding off in the direction of the other recruits. Cyril stalked after her, snarling, his wing still draped over Nyxi. Volteer hurried to walk on the black dragoness' other side, shielding her from the mystified crowd.

"Families! Families together!" an earth dragon at the Fortress was bellowing. Cyril stumbled.

"I've got this," Iysilia said reassuringly. She padded straight up to the earth dragon.

"Who are you?"

"Iysilia of Silverclaw. I'm here with my younger siblings," she told him. The earth dragon inspected the still angry Cyril, proud Volteer, and embarrassed Nyxi.

"Top level, twentieth room on the right. Go ahead," he growled. Iysilia dipped her head in thanks and led the young dragons out to the flight corridor, an empty vertical corridor used to change levels.

"Remember what I taught you. And stay close," she ordered, launching herself into empty space and flaring out her huge wings. Cyril was swift to follow, and he heard his friends behind him. He was surprised to find the dead air hard to navigate. "Cyril, don't try to glide. Hover for a moment, all of you," Iysilia ordered. The young dragons brought themselves into hovers. "Good. Now use more powerful wingstrokes; up until your wingtips touch, down until your wingtips touch. You'll start to ascend. This is the best way to use the flight corridor. Some dragons spiral around the edges, but it's dizzying and tedious. If you master this, you have it. And watch out for dragons diving to lower levels; if thy hit you, you're going down," Iysilia told them. Cyril brought his wings so far up that they hurt, and thrust down with a powerful downstroke. This he repeated until he was rising straight up. Looking down, he saw Nyxi and Volteer doing the same below him, and when he looked up, he almost got hit with Iysilia's wings. As he glanced around, he noticed curious faces staring from the portals; young dragons older than Cyril were usually carried up the flight corridor. And, of course, there was Nyxi. Cyril kept alert for any suspicious or malicious conversation, but heard only curiosity. He dealt with this all throughout the surprisingly long ascent, but upon reaching the portal they were to go through, the companions found it blocked.

"Let us through!" Cyril snarled.

"The black dragon does not pass," snarled an adult electric dragon, "unless she passes The Test."

"What's The Test?" Iysilia asked warily.

"FCBP; Flying, Combat, and Breath Proficiency."

"And what does she have to do?" Cyril asked.

"Oh it's quite simple really; she has to retrieve a lead statue before Statyc, face Frizzle in claw to claw combat, and Coale in breath combat. Ready?"

"No!" Nyxi squealed.

"Go!" the electric dragon hurled a small lead statuette into the abyss. Quick as a flash, a lithe young electric dragoness was plunging down after it. With a gulp, Nyxi folded her wings any gave chase. Cyril launched down as well, quickly catching up with Nyxi.

"Think like an arrow," he suggested. Nyxi stiffened, making her body longer, and shot down. Cyril followed and watched as she soared past Statyc. The statue was a foot away from hitting the ground when Nyxi's front claws flashed out and seized it just as her wings flared out and beat rapidly as she rightened herself. Statyc's wings shot out as she tried to catch herself, but kept plummeting. With a cry, she closed her eyes for impact, but Nyxi's back claws seized her tail. Statyc's nose nearly touched the ground as Nyxi strained to pull her up, and Cyril swooped in to grab Statyc's shoulders with his forepaws.

"Let go, Nyxi," he ordered. Nyxi obliged, and Cyril bore Statyc back up to the others. As soon as the electric dragon who had challenged Nyxi saw, he snarled.

"Foul play!" he accused.

"They saved me. My wings gave out, but they caught me," Statyc corrected. Nyxi flung the lead statue at the dragons while Cyril gently set Statyc down.

"Fine. Frizzle, take her down," the dragon ordered. A muscular young adult ice dragon lumbered forward. "No breath powers, no assistance. Fight!"

Frizzle reared up and swung a powerful paw, which Nyxi dodged. She then darted in and thwacked his neck with her tail blade, causing Frizzle to roar as blood trickled from his throat. He leaped into the air and hovered in front of Nyxi before swinging his own tail around. Nyxi seized it in her mouth, and Frizzle bellowed in pain as he snapped at her. She dropped before impact, and the dragon bit his own tail. Then, as Nyxi swooped in for another attack, a powerful blow from a forepaw sent her shooting up. Cyril was about to go after her, but Iysilia held him back. Frizzle turned with a gloating expression...then he suddenly wasn't there. Nyxi had plunged down as fast as she could and struck his left wing, causing the dragon to tumble down the flight corridor while Nyxi clawed at his belly. He tried to bite her, but she flared out her wings and swung her tail at his right wing. Frizzle screamed as he fell towards the ground far below, and Nyxi rose to glare at the electric dragon challenger, who had a stupefied expression across his muzzle for a moment before shaking it off and replacing it with a smug smirk. Clearly, he was confident that Nyxi would fail the last portion of the test.

"Are we done yet?" Nyxi asked, her wings sagging slightly. Cyril could see the effort she was putting into staying aloft.

"Not quite. You still have to face Coale. Blast to blast, whoever wins decides your fate," the electric dragon snarled. Cyril and Nyxi both gulped; blast to blast meant that Nyxi's attack would be battling for dominance directly against Coale's, and if she lost, the explosion could cost her her life.

"Are you ready, little one?" rumbled a voice. The young dragons slid aside to reveal an adult fire dragon, standing at the edge of the stone ledge. Nyxi wobbled, and Cyril had to admit that his throat got a little dry. There was no way that Nyxi could defeat this dragon! But she was already drawing in breath, pushing out her chest.

"I am," she declared boldly. Coale smiled sadly.

"Brave warrior," he said, "let us begin."

With that, he expelled a burst of fire so powerful that Cyril felt as if he would melt. Nyxi used her shadow breath to fight the flames, holding her own as she spewed darkness from her mouth. The collision point, bulging as it spat shards of flame and shadow, stayed stubbornly close to Nyxi until about five minutes into the contest. Before this point, everything had been quite constant, but now it was changing. Coale's eyes widened slightly in shock as his fire started to tremble while Nyxi's shadow persisted, pushing forward slowly. Finally, finally, Nyxi won.

"Well...alright. We'll let you in this time, but don't you think we're letting our guard down!" the dragons cleared a path. Cyril sighed with relief, but he knew that the real trial had only just begun.

Who else can totally see Ignitus being called Sparkles? XD