Author's Note:
Hello you, again I'd like to apologize for the rant last chapter, but I kinda had to get that off my chest. I don't like it when people try to tell others what they can and can't write.
Alright enough venting, let's start this badboy.
Chapter 2: Meet The Guardians
Unknown Location- 4:54 PM
Well wasn't this just great! I knew we should have just gone to the beach! Nothing bad ever happens at the beach! Now I'm a dragon, I have no idea where I am, and what's worse? I think it's starting to rain! Wait... yup... yup it's definitely raining. "Stupid Chronicler, stupid dragons, stupid rain!" I grumbled as I happened upon a puddle and looked at my reflection. I was a blue dragon, my dreadlocks looked more like icicles drooping from my head, I had a purplish underbelly and wing membrane. And two icicle horns jutting out of my head. "Man... This sucks." I said to myself as I slish sloshed through the wet grass.
However I stopped when I heard something in the distance...
"Hello?" I asked, hoping something friendly would reveal itself, but I knew better than that, I was never that lucky, ever. Suddenly out of the brush jumped what looked to be some kind of weird shadow things. They were featureless mounds of black mist with yellow eyes. "Come dragon... come join us..." It hissed as it circled me like a wolf. "Uhh... no thanks! I... I'm fine right here!" I said, no way something like this was trustworthy! It just screamed evil demon thing. "All will join us... do not resist." The shadow cooed. Okay this was getting creepy, I think I should leave now.
I tried to turn and run but the shadow instantly got in my way. "NO! You will join with me! We will become ONE!" The shadow hissed before darting right at me, I managed to jump out of the way and scurried to get away. "HELP! Someone!" I called out as I ran, hoping, praying, someone ANYONE would hear me. I don't know what this thing wanted with me, but I really didn't want to find out. I looked behind me to see that the shadow was still following me, bobbing and weaving between the trees in it's pursuit.
I kept trying to blow at it, hoping something that could stop this thing would come out but nothing came out but air. Suddenly I was grabbed and yanked into some kind of cave. A hand clasped over my muzzle to keep me from talking. The shadow slithered by, clearly unsure of where I was. It then moved on no doubt continuing it's search for me. The hand then let my snout go allowing me to breath again. "It's not wise to tempt fate young dragon." a raspy voice said, I turned to see who I was in this cave with.
I saw an anthropomorphic cheetah man, his fur was gray and slightly gnarled, his face wrinkled slightly with age. He wore a black hooded cape with green trim and a green metal buckle with some kind of paw print marking on it. A long staff clutched in his hand with some kind of crystal ball thing attached to the end. He stared at me, as if trying to see into my very soul.
"But then again, you aren't a real dragon, are you child?" He asked. Okay, I do remember the Chronicler saying I couldn't tell anyone I was human, and I haven't, so how the hell did this dude know I wasn't really a dragon? "Don't waste your breath trying to convince me, it is clear to anyone that you are not as you appear, the way you carry yourself, your unusual features, if you are trying to convince people you are a dragon you are doing a very poor job of it child." The cheetah said. Aw man, was I really that obvious?
"I guess there's no point in trying to convince you otherwise is there?" I asked, to which the elderly cheetah shook his head. "No... I'm not a real dragon, some dude named the Chronicler disguised me and my friends as dragons so we could stop something from wasting the purple dragon." I told him. The cheetah then cackled, a dry gnarled laugh that screamed "crazy old dude". "I feel that you're task and those shadows are not unrelated boy, and if that is the case, then the purple dragon, as well as you and your friends are doomed." the creepy old dude said. "Why's that?" I asked.
"I've seen many of those shadows my child, they search the woods for unfortunate travelers to posses. I've seen armies turned against one another by their influence, brothers killing brothers all to the whims of those shadows. They cannot be killed boy, I know, I've seen many fools try." The old dude continued. Oh great, evil unkillable shadow demons that posses people. I knew this was a bad idea! "Then what do I do?" I asked, not sure if I was gonna like the answer. "There's nothing you can do child, except await the inevitable." The old dude said. I think it would be best that I leave now... this dude was seriously creeping me out, he had that "creepy guy who stares at you on the subway" kind of vibe to him. I slowly backed away before turning tail and running. "Run all you like child! They will catch you soon enough!" The old dude called out as I ran.
Meanwhile...
Warfang- 4:57 PM
It took us a while to get to Warfang, the long trek made no better by the fact that it started raining on the way there, so me, Flame, and Ember were all sopping wet now. Warfang itself was pretty impressive, several large structures littered the city, each with an impressive design to them. It was as if I had just stepped into a fantasy movie. Various creatures roamed the streets, all trying to get out of the rain in some fashion. However there were some parts of the city that seemed to have seen better days, as some of them were in the process of being rebuilt.
Flame and Ember lead me to what they kept calling the "Dragon Temple", some kind of meeting place for dragons/ training ground thing, apparently some dudes calling themselves the "Dragon Guardians" hung out there, and Flame and Ember felt it necessary for me to have a meet up with them. It was apparently a requirement or something. I don't know how I felt about it, on one hand I kinda had to, according to Flame the Guardians are the governing body of Warfang so it made sense I'd have to check in with them first before settling in. On the other hand, I already knew I was an oddity among dragons, on the way here Flame had already taken several pot shots at me over my hair, I don't know how adult dragons would handle it. Not helped by the fact I could barely walk on my own...four feet. I doubted it would take a rocket scientist to figure out something about me didn't add up.
However what was I going to do? I couldn't tell Flame and Ember not to take me to the guardians, because that would make me sound really suspicious. So I kept my gob shut as we approached the Temple, which was of course the most obvious and detailed building in the city. Statues of two dragons stood at the entrance, standing tall and proud as they glistened in the rain. Flame opened the large doors with a push and we all funneled in. Flame and Ember both shook off the wet rain not unlike a dog would. Not wanting to seem suspicious I followed suit.
The inside of the temple was everything you'd expect, it was lit with several large torches, several multicolored banners littered the halls, each representing a different element if I was to hazard a guess. Flame and Ember then led me down the hall, the sounds of our claws scraping against the stone floor echoing through the halls. "The guardians should be around here somewhere." Flame said. "You sure it's okay for us to just barge in on the guys like this? I mean you did say they were the big wigs around here." I said. "Don't worry about it Matt, they aren't ones to get mad at you for dropping by. Especially when it means another dragon our age had survived the war." Flame said, uhh... why would someone my age die in a war? On second thought, I didn't want to know.
Suddenly another dragon came into view, a yellow one, he was pretty big too, he had two purplish-blue horns jutting out of his head, a bluish purple goatee on his chin, several smaller yellow horns protruding from his cheekbones, his wings resembled purple thunderbolts with light yellow wing membranes. He had a kind expression on his face as he saw us approaching. "Ah, hello Flame, Ember." He greeted before laying eyes on me. "And who is this young lad?" He asked. "M...Matt sir." I said nervously. "Matt eh? What an odd name for a dragon, but that is irrelevant isn't it?" the yellow dragon said with a small chuckle. "Me and Ember found him near the river, he tripped over himself trying to run away from us, it was hilarious." Flame said clearly trying to fight back a laugh.
"Dude shut up!" I hissed at him. "Now now, let's not fight young ones. Trust me there's more than enough of that happening here lately." The yellow dragon said with a tinge of despair. "What do you mean?" I asked. "My fellow guardians Cyril and Terrador have been at each other's throats since the end of the war. They can't agree with each other on how to run things in Ignitus' absence. And now Cyril claims some form of shadow creatures have been attacking people and it's all just a big mess." The yellow dragon explained. Why did I have a feeling this Cyril dude was right about those shadow demons and that they where why I was here?
"Volteer, what are you doing? We have a meeting!" I heard another, rather British voice call. In stepped another dragon, a blue one, he had an obvious ice motif going on, he had some kind of icicle goatee going on, a purplish underbelly, and other such things. "Flame and Ember had discovered a lone young dragon in the woods, I was simply explaining our situation to the boy." The yellow dragon, Volteer apparently, replied. The blue dragon then looked at me with an expression of skepticism on his face. "Rather odd looking dragon don't you think?" He asked Volteer. "Now Cyril, this boy is new here in Warfang, and doubtless he's had a rough time before getting here, there's no need to mock him." Volteer chastised the blue dragon who turned out to be that Cyril guy Volteer mentioned earlier. "We know nothing of this "dragon" Volteer! For all we know he could be possessed by one of those shadow creatures!" Cyril said. Oh boy, Cyril was starting a witch hunt, and it seemed I was first in line for the paranoia barbecue.
"CYRIL! That's quite a reckless accusation! We don't even know if these shadow creatures of yours even exist! Let alone have any right to start pointing claws!" Volteer objected, but Cyril wasn't listening, he just kept running his eyes up and down my body, looking for any sign he could of demonic possession. I kept half expecting him to whip out a cross and start an exorcism. "What is your name boy?" Cyril asked me. "Matt..." I said. "That's not even a dragon name! Do you need any more proof than that?!" Cyril blurted, yeah nice one Oliver, anything else you wanna do? Spin your head 360 degrees while chanting nonsense while you're at it? "You're going to need a lot more than an odd name to convince me Cyril." Volteer said bitterly. "I say we toss him out and be done with it! I don't trust him! His appearance, the way he carries himself, it doesn't sit well with me..." Cyril said. Okay now he was starting to piss me off. So my name was a bit different, I look a bit odd, and I had trouble walking on all fours! That doesn't mean I'm not really a dragon! Okay I'm not, but that was quite the leap there dude!
"F*** you man!" I blurted, the two elder dragons looked at me like I had just decapitated a puppy. I saw Cyril go from shocked to his core to royally pissed off in a millisecond, smooth move Oliver, cuss at the large f***off dragon, that'll end well dumbass. "How DARE you! We do not use that kind of language in the dragon temple!" Cyril scolded. I was terrified at this point, I had basically just shot myself right in the foot with that one. "Do you need any more evidence than this? He has no respect for the guardians or our ways! He has to be one of them!" Cyril accused. "Or he could have just grown up in hiding and doesn't know how to conduct himself in front of us Cyril!" Volteer argued. Well at least Volteer was still with me. "We'll ask Terrador and see what he thinks." Volteer suggested, Cyril snorting in annoyance before the two led me down the halls. I was so dead, I could tell just by the look on Cyril's face he wanted to turn me into a red smear on the wall. And I had no idea how this Terrador dude was gonna react to me.
My fears weren't helped when I finally did see Terrador, dude was HUGE, even by dragon standards. I think even his muscles had muscles! He had two large ram horns affixed to his head, a copper goatee and underbelly, several smaller green horns poking out his head, and to top it all off, dude had a goddamn mace for a tail! Yeah I was screwed. "Volteer, Cyril." Terrador greeted before seeing me. "And who is this?" He asked looking me over. "This is Matt, a young dragon Flame and Ember found in the woods, Cyril seems to be convinced that he's possessed by one of those shadow creatures he claims to have seen." Volteer explained. Terrador fixed his green eyes on me with a glare. To say I was petrified would be an understatement, dude took craps bigger than me! Oh god please don't let him side with Cyril! "I don't buy it." Terrador said, a wave of relief washing over me. "WHAT?!" Cyril blurted. "This dragon is no threat to us, look at him, he's terrified. I understand you have the city's best interest at heart Cyril, but I will not have you starting a witch hunt!" Terrador asserted. "I'm telling you Terrador he's one of them! He cussed at me! He looks nothing like any dragon I've seen! And he walks as if he's never stood on his own four feet before! How is that not suspicious?!" Cyril insisted.
"Look at him Cyril! If he was possessed, he would have attacked by now! You're way out of line Cyril! What has gotten into you?!" Terrador shouted, oh boy, looks like I was gonna get to witness one of those screaming matches Volteer mentioned before. "Ignitus would have heard me out!" Cyril replied. "Ignitus isn't here anymore!" Terrador snapped back. "Don't remind me!" Cyril growled. "And what do you suggest we do Cyril? Kill the poor child just to be sure? Listen to yourself! You're going to start a panic if you keep this up!" Terrador yelled. "I say we toss him out and be done with it! I know I'm right about this Terrador! I'm not going to risk those heathens killing innocent people because you're too much of a coward to do what needs to be done!" Cyril snapped. I saw Terrador grow extremely pissed when Cyril called him a coward. "How DARE you call me a coward! I'm just doing what Ignitus would want us to! I'm thinking rationally about this! You're suggesting we leave an innocent dragon to DIE in the cold! Have you gone mad?!" Terrador shouted, I looked to Volteer, who clearly was having no more of this. "ENOUGH!" He shouted, electricity sparking from his body catching the arguing dragon's attention. "Is this what has become of the great guardians?! Squabbling like hatchilngs?! This boy came to us cold, lost, and confused, and this is what he finds?! You two should be ashamed. I know Ignitus would be." Volteer snapped. "Cyril I know you mean well, but as you said we know nothing of this dragon, surely not enough to know he's possessed! And Terrador I know Ignitus put you in charge, but that doesn't mean you can push us around!" Volteer snarled before looking to me. "Come along Matt, I think you've seen enough of this." He said, motioning for me to come along with him.
So of course I did, I wanted to be as far away from Cyril as possible. Dude wanted to toss me out like garbage on the off chance I might have a demon in my brain! "I apologize for Cyril and Terrador's behavior Matt, if it makes you feel any better, I don't believe for a second you mean any harm to any of us. Although in the future you may want to watch your language, Cyril was never a fan of obscenities." Volteer explained. "I'm just glad he didn't flatten me on the spot." I replied. "Cyril isn't like that Matt, he may be a bit insufferable sometimes but he has a good heart. Even if at times he doesn't show it." Volteer said.
Suddenly some kind of anthropomorphic cheetah approached us, okay I know I should be weirded out by this, but at this point, a rainbow colored unicorn shooting fire out of it's ass wouldn't surprise me. "Guardian Volteer." The cheetah greeted. "May I ask what brings you to the temple?" Volteer asked. "Chief Prowlus has found two odd young dragons in the valley of Avalar, he requests that someone come to pick them up." The cheetah explained. Two odd dragons? How much are we willing to bet that they were two of my three friends? Hell I would bet one of them is Andy, dude's been known to piss people off without meaning to. "Really? Very well, I'll go and fetch them. Matt go see if you can find Flame and Ember, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to show you around." Volteer said before walking off with the cheetah. Yeah I'll do that...
Meanwhile...
Cheetah Village- 5:02 PM
"This is all your fault Andy." I grumbled, thanks to him we were stuck in a cheetah village, tied to a pole like dogs, waiting for a dragon to come pick us up. "Dude, chillax... it could be worse." Andy said. "HOW ANDY?! How could this POSSIBLY get any worse?! I can tell just by looking at him that that Prowlus guy wants to put our heads on pikes!" I snapped at him, Andy was such an airhead sometimes, he almost never admitted when things had gone sour! It was so infuriating, especially for someone as logical as me. "If you two do not silence yourselves, you will find out how much worse things can get!" Prowlus warned with a growl. I hate my life...
However then a cheetah walked in, a large yellow dragon following close behind. Oh thank god! Someone who doesn't want us dead! I hope... "Still unwilling to trust us dragons Prowlus?" The yellow dragon inquired. "I haven't forgotten what creature was responsible for what happened during the war Volteer." Prowlus snarled. Volteer looked us over. "Well I think you two have suffered enough." Volteer said to us before undoing our bindings. "Come along now, I'm sure chief Prowlus would like you two to be out of this village sooner rather than later." Volteer said leading us away.
"See Kate? I told ya we'd be cool." Andy pointed out. I just growled at him. "You two should have known better than to go gallivanting about the Valley of Avalar, chief Prowlus has been known to be the apprehensive type." Volteer said. "What?" Andy questioned. "He said it was a stupid idea for us to be running around the valley." I informed Andy. "Well I wouldn't put it so... harshly." Volteer stated. "You'll have to forgive my idiot, he's not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box." I told Volteer.
"Now young dragon, it isn't very polite to talk about your friends that way." Volteer lectured. "Screw polite! This idiot almost got us KILLED!" I blurted. "Oh my." Volteer said, clearly not expecting my outburst. "Dude... mega harsh." Andy said. "Shut up Andy... just shut up." I said. We continued our travels in silence after that... I didn't feel like talking to Andy right now, and I think Volteer was to terrified to talk to either of us after that. Suits me fine, I prefer silence.
Meanwhile...
Dragon Temple-5:05 PM
I was lost, didn't take me long did it? This Temple was freaking HUGE! And me a small little human turned dragon. I hadn't found hide nor hair of Flame, nor Ember, and thankfully hadn't crossed paths with Cyril... yet. I then stopped when I heard the faint sounds of someone hitting something soft, like a boxer working a heavy bag. Out of curiosity I moved towards the sounds, I stumbled upon some kind of training dojo, from HELL! There were several dummies moving ON THEIR OWN around the area, and Cyril thought I was demonic?! However in the middle, smashing the things one by one was a black dragoness. She had a pretty slender build, several small white horns surrounded her pointed head, she had a maroon underbelly, and had a silver choker around her neck, two silver wrist gauntlets, and even a silver band around her tail, which had a scythe like tailblade, oh she looked friendly. She then managed to finish off the last dummy before noticing I was gawking at her. "Can I help you?" She asked rather bitterly. "I... I'm sorry man, I was just passing by." I said, not wanting to get into a fight. Mostly because I could tell just by looking at her how easily she could kick my candy ass.
She approached me, "I've never seen you around here before. You have a name?" She asked me. "Matt." I said, praying she wouldn't go all "burn the witch!" on me like Cyril did. "I'm Cynder." She said plainly. "I'm kinda new around here, Flame and Ember found me in the woods and kinda dragged me here." I told Cynder. I saw her twitch when I mentioned Ember. "You and Ember have a problem?" I asked. "Well she's creepily stalking my best friend everywhere he goes so it's only natural that me and her have a "problem"." Cynder stated. Something told me there was a bit more to it than that... but it wasn't my problem so I wasn't going to pry.
"So... you know the purple dragon?" I asked. "You mean Spyro? Well yeah, we saved the world together." Cynder said as if it was no big deal. "Why are you so intimidated by me?" She asked out of the blue. "Wh... what makes you say that?" I asked nervously. "You're shaking." She said bluntly. "Sorry, I didn't exactly get a warm welcome from Cyril. Dude thinks I'm possessed or something." I explained. "That's not surprising, he was like that when Spyro brought me here after he... you know what never mind." Cynder explained. Okay, I may be about as good at reading girls as a twig on the ground, but even I could tell she was hiding something. "Hey Cynder." A voice called.
I turned to see who the newcomer was, he was a dragon about our age, he had a yellow mohawk thing on his head, two orange wings, a yellow underbelly, however his color is what struck me the most... he was purple.
"Oh hey Spyro." Cynder greeted. Yup this was Spyro, the dude I was supposed to keep from dying apparently. I was expecting him to be a bit more... impressive. To be honest he looked pretty average, well average in regards to dragons. "Who's your friend?" Spyro asked. "Oh Spyro this is Matt, Ember dragged him here from the forest." Cynder explained. I just stood there, gawking like an idiot at the purple dragon before me. I couldn't get over how unimpressive he looked, I thought the dude would be built like a monster truck, the most badass dragon you'd ever seen, only to find Joe Average. But then again, he could probably still kick my scrawny ass without breaking a sweat. "Uhh... you okay? You're staring." Spyro said. "Uh... yeah! I'm just... I thought the legendary purple dragon would be... bigger." I said hoping to god I didn't just piss him off. But instead he just laughed. "I get that a lot, but I promise you I'm a lot stronger than I look." Spyro said quite proudly. And with any luck I wouldn't be on the wrong end of that.
"Wow, that is the goofiest looking dragon I've ever seen in my life! What is up with that hair?" I heard a voice say, then I noticed something small and yellow circling my head. "Oh... this is my brother Sparx... you'll have to forgive him, he hasn't mastered the art of tact yet." Spyro explained. I stared at "Sparx" for a second, realizing he was a dragonfly. "Uhh... brother?" I questioned. "Foster brother." Spyro corrected. Okay that made a bit more sense, although I couldn't imagine how awkward that made family gatherings when one of then could easily crush grandpa by accidentally stepping on him.
"GUARDIANS! COME QUICK! I'VE FOUND SOMEONE!" A voice called from down the hall. Spyro and Cynder looked at each other before running off, me following close behind. When we arrived we found a Mole carrying an unconscious dragon, Cyril and Terrador looking him over. However I think I knew who this was, I recognize those dreads anywhere. "Dean?" I questioned, everyone looked at me. "You know this dragon Matt?" Terrador asked. "Yeah! He's my friend Dean." I explained. Cyril gave me a scowl, yeah I cold tell he trusted me about as much as a $2 bill. "I found him unconscious outside the city! Who knows how long the poor thing had been lying there." The mole explained. "Take him to the infirmary, we'll ask him what happened when he awakens." Terrador said, and with that the mole carried Dean off into said infirmary. All the while I was wondering what could have done that to him... or more importantly if he was alright. "You okay Matt?" Cynder asked. "Y..yeah... just worried about him is all." I told them. "He'll be fine Matt, a few Spirit Gems and he'll be good as new." Spyro reassured me. Spirit Gems? You know what? Forget it. As long as Dean was okay I wasn't gonna question it...
A/N- Hooray! Spyro FINALLY appears in this! And we have our villains to boot! Sort of...
