Kwai kwai everyone! I like the reactions that you readers had towards the last chapter. I tried to make it very sad and depressing and I'm glad I got such strong reactions. I will give you all fair warning; this will only be the beginning of Tamhigan's new hardships. They say there is light at the end of the tunnel and Tamhigan's dark tunnel is longer than most would be able to handle. I also wanted to say that me and fellow author, GD12, are working on a story together. His story is called "The legend of Spyro: The Forsworn." You guys should check that shit out because it's good. Anyway, remember to leave a review or send a PM my way!

Chapter 3: Advancement in Technology

Tamhigan woke up from his sleep because he felt something applying pressure to his chest. He slowly opened his eyes to see Flambian and Spirit hopping on his chest and laughing as they did so. He raised an eyebrow at them and they stopped jumping with a few chuckles.

"Daddy told us to wake you up because he wants to see you." the young ice dragoness cheerfully answered his unasked question.

"He's waiting for you in the basement." her brother added with a small smile.

The post-apocalyptic dragon nodded in understanding and the two children hopped off his chest. Once they were off of him, he stood up and performed a quick stretch to pop his bones back into place. The kids left as he did this so they could play together and the black dragon looked outside via the window after he finished with his morning stretching.

He had a clear view of the sun rising over the horizon and it made the grassy fields look very nice. The scarred dragon assumed that he slept all day yesterday and through the night. He was just happy that he got a full night of sleep without any nightmares or flashbacks for once.

Tamhigan remembered what the kids said and quickly put on his sling with his gas mask still clipped onto it. Before he did anything, he made sure to unclip his gas mask and place it over his face. He then walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs. He noticed that Frost was making breakfast for everyone, but chose to ignore it for now. Instead, he approached the door leading to the basement and opened it. He climbed down the stairs and looked around the area he was now in.

He was in a decently sized room that had stone walls and a bright wooden floor. The room was well lit with scented candles that made the room smell like roses. There was a large table to the side that was covered with tools and scraps of metal. Next to the table was a weapon wrack that had a few swords and maces resting on it. Lastly, there were a few muskets hanging on the walls, which surprised Tamhigan because he thought this Realm didn't have the technology for guns.

The black dragon was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of someone walking up to him. He turned to look to the left of him to see Zach standing there with a kind smile.

"Sup Tamhigan. How'd you sleep?" the fire dragon asked curiously as he led the younger dragon over to the table with the tools.

"Fine." the masked dragon answered simply as he looked over all the tools and noticed a wooden box in the middle of the table

"Wanna see what's inside?" the larger dragon questioned with a small smirk.

Tamhigan nodded at the question and Zach slowly opened the wooden box. The post-apocalyptic dragon was somewhat confused with what was inside. It was what looked like a paw that was made completely out of steel that had a shiny gray surface. The claws had a serrated edge on the curved side and the side that would be touching the ground was flat.

"Hold up your front right leg." the fire dragon ordered with a smile.

The black dragon was still confused, but did as instructed and raised his right foreleg up. Zach gently took the metal paw out of the box and pressed the ankle edge against Tamhigan's stump. The scarred dragon winced a little when he felt some sharp edges dig into the burn scars, but he didn't pull away. Zach used one of the tools to tighten the steel plates around the sump until none of the burn scars were visible and it was locked into place.

He grabbed a small slab on the back end of the paw and opened up a little slot that was empty. He then reached into the box again and pulled out a small, red life gem that glowed lightly with power. The fire dragon placed the gem into the slot before he slid it closed.

"Move your paw." Zach instructed as he pulled his own paws away and watched his creation.

Tamhigan just got more confused, but he thought about moving the paw is if it was real. He actually gasped when the metal paw's talons slowly clenched and unclenched, just like how he willed it to. He raised his new biomechanical paw above his face as he moved each individual talon with wide eyes behind his mask.

"Say hello to the Steel Claws. It's a prototype that I made and the first of its kind." Zach commented with a smile and he puffed his chest out in pride.

"It's… amazing…" the masked dragon replied honestly as he lowered his paw and heard the steel click against the floor. "How…?" he asked with total astonishment in his deep voice.

"Back when I lived in a settlement called Blizzard; I spent a lot of time building weapons for the military there. I even went in service for a few years. I'm retired now, but I still build weapons and sell them to militaries from all the way back home to Warfang. I work down here so the kids aren't able to touch the stuff I build. I saw that you were missing a paw and I spent the whole night last night building that for you." Zach explained with a warm smile. "It's also free of charge. You don't have to pay me anything." he added quickly.

Tamhigan was rather impressed with the older dragon's skills. Back on Earth, he taught himself how to build homemade weapon attachments for guns, so he could somewhat relate. He then felt himself thinking more and more of his hell hole of a world.

"So, are you gonna leave today?" Zach asked suddenly, bringing his guest out of his thoughts.

"I was planning on leaving now." the post-apocalyptic dragon confirmed with a small nod, knowing the adult dragon wouldn't like his answer.

"Don't you want to have breakfast before you go?" the fire dragon asked with a sad frown.

"No." the scarred answered as he shook his head.

"Well, let's go tell the rest of my family then." Zach sighed before he walked up the stairs.

Tamhigan followed close behind and his metal claws clicked whenever he took a step with the biomechanical paw. They made their way into the kitchen, where the rest of Zach's family had already started breakfast.

"There you two are. I hope you're hungry." Frost commented as she looked up at them with a warm smile.

"Actually… Tamhigan just told me that he's leaving." her mate informed them all.

"Aaawww…" the two children whined sadly.

"I know, I know, but he has to do what he thinks is necessary." Zach defended as he rested his mighty paw on the black dragon's shoulder.

"Would you like some food to go?" the ice dragoness asked their guest as she stood up.

Tamhigan didn't want to trouble her and almost said no, but he nodded for some reason. Frost nodded back before she got some bread and meat together. She made a few sandwiches and put them in a bag made out of gray cloth and she clipped the bag to his sling for him.

The post-apocalyptic dragon nodded in thanks and the ice dragoness smiled lightly. She noticed that he had a metal paw now and immediately determined that her mate made it for him.

"Where are you goin?" Spirit asked as she looked up at the heavily scarred dragon.

"The Temple." he answered quietly.

The two children frowned as they quickly stood up and hugged him. Tamhigan was taken aback by this, but he slowly hugged them back with his dark green wings, making the parents smile. The kids soon pulled away and the masked dragon walked towards the door.

"Goodbye, Tamhigan. May the Ancestors watch over you." Zach praised as his family watched the black scaled hero open the front door.

The scarred dragon stopped dead in his tracks from this and looked over his shoulder at them all.

"The Ancestors are gonna sit this one out." he told them before he walked out and shut the door behind him.


Tamhigan has been traveling for a few hours now with little rest. He knew that he was exiting the Awan Plains because he noticed more and more trees and he was now in a full blown forest. He traveled for a long period of time and rested only once to eat one of the sandwiches that Frost made for him.

The former human had spent much of his time without rest back on Earth, so this journey didn't really bother him that much. He realized that this was taking much longer than needed and he realized that he had wings. Cursing his forgetfulness, he took flight with a mighty flap of the wings and flew over the forest.

He took in the sights as he flew and noticed that the geography of the area hasn't changed much. He saw the giant mushrooms of the swamps in the distance and flew straight for them, knowing that the Temple was within the swamps.

It didn't take long for the gas mask dragon to reach the swamps and he searched around the area. The tall mushrooms blacked out most of the ground, but the Temple could be spotted in the distance. Wanting to get there quickly, he flew over to it as fast as he could and he reached the ancient structure within a few minutes.

The Temple itself looked old as ever, but many new things could be noticed as well. It looked like the large building got an extension sometime within the last three-hundred years and the Temple as a whole looked well maintained. Many young students could be seen doing their daily activities or simply heading to their next class. Another new feature was that there were now cheetah guards stationed here and there. There weren't many of them, but they were each armed with a flintlock pistol.

Tamhigan landed near the Temple's front doors and everyone stopped to stare at him. He felt uncomfortable with all the eyes on him and even a few of the guards eyed him.

"Is that… Tamhigan… THE Tamhigan?" one of the students asked suddenly with wide eyes that were filled with amazement.

Almost as soon as that student said that, everyone started mumbling amongst themselves. Some of them were excited that such a great hero has supposedly returned from the dead, yet others were more skeptical.

"Is it true? Are you Tamhigan?" a young poison dragoness asked with a hopeful tone of voice.

The masked dragon didn't answer immediately and carefully eyed everyone in the area, taking in each of their features. He saw dragons of every element and even a few dragons that had fins instead of horns or wings. He finally looked back at the young poison dragoness once he had enough looking.

"Yes." he answered quietly with his head down.

Everyone's eyes widened and everyone bowed their heads in respect. Tamhigan tilted his head to the side, confused by this strange action. Once everyone raised their heads again, one of the cheetahs stepped forward.

"I recommend you go see the Guardians. They're gonna want to speak with you." he suggested with a stern nod.

After he said that, everyone cleared a path that led to the Temple doors. Tamhigan hated… no, despised all the attention, but walked down the new path regardless. Some of the students thanked him or said how great he was as he passed them, but he completely ignored them and didn't' even acknowledge them at all.

He entered the Temple and resorted to memory in order to find the Pool of Visions room despite the fancier looking halls and refurnished floor tiles. Everyone he passed went wide eyed when they saw him, but they were also ignored. Every shocked expression just reminded him of how alone he actually was and how he had no one living who actually cared about him anymore.

The traumatized dragon approached the door that led to the Pool of Visions room and knocked three times with his right paw. The biomechanical paw made his knocks even louder than normal and he waited patiently for a response as all the students behind him stared. His frown deepened behind his gas mask as he heard the dragons behind him mumbling about him and his eye twitched when one of the girls mentioned that she wanted to mate with him. He's always hated sex and would rather die than take part in it. Not after what happened when he was just a child. Just the memory alone sent shivers up his spine and he shook his head to clear his mind before he could experience another flashback.

"Enter." a deep male voice ordered from the other side of the door.

Tamhigan did as told and entered the Pool of Visions room, making sure to shut the door behind him. There were eight adult dragons standing around the Pool and he assumed that they were the new Guardians. They each turned to regard him, but they immediately recognized him and about half of them bore shocked expressions.

"By the Ancestors! Are you Tamhigan?" the fire dragon who possessed the deep voice from earlier asked with amazement.

"Yes." the masked dragon answered with a quiet grown, making it clear that he didn't want any praise or special treatment.

"Forgive us if we offended you. We just thought you were killed three centuries ago." the wind dragoness apologized.

"Allow me to introduce us. My name is… Rädsla. The fire dragon is Brand, the ice dragoness is Snö, Jord is the earth dragon, the electric dragon is Stöt, the wind dragoness is Vind, Mörker is the shadow dragon, and Orm is the poison dragoness. We are the Guardians." the fear dragon greeted with a wolfish grin.

Snö had a curvy body and dark blue scales. Both her underbelly and wing membranes were light blue as well as her eyes. She possessed tow white horns that poked straight up like spikes. Her white tail ended with a tailblade in the shape of an icicle. She seemed to be the youngest Guardian out of them all.

Stöt had golden colored scales with yellow colored eyes. He had a yellow-orange underbelly and wing membranes as well as a lighting shaped tailblade. Six horns were resting on his head and they were also in the shape of lightning bolts.

Vind possessed a very smooth and curvy body that had light gray scales. Her eyes were also gray and her underbelly and wing membranes were white. She had three curved horns with the middle horn resting on the top of her head her tailblade resembled a spike.

Orm on the other hand, had a slightly slim body with dark green scales. Her underbelly was a shade of black and her wing membranes were lime green. Her eye color was green like her scales and her tailblade resembled a medical needle. On her head were two ram horns and a spike jutting out of the top of her head.

Brand was a more muscular fire dragon with red scales and eyes. His underbelly was yellow and his wing membranes were orange in color. He possessed two yellow horns that curbed back and two tailblade that were side by side each other.

Jord was a very overweight dragon with dark green eyes. The scales on his hide were brown in color. His underbelly and wing membranes were like his eyes, dark green. On his head were two ram horns that were a lighter shade of brown and his tailblade resembled a double edged hammer.

Mörker was black dragon with an average build. His underbelly was gray and his wing membranes were blood red. Contrasting with the rest of his body, his eyes were bright gold in color. He had four gray horns on his head that somewhat spiraled. Also, his gray tailblade resembled a hook.

Lastly, Rädsla was a skinny fear dragon with dark red scales. Both his underbelly and wing membranes were pitch black and even his eye color was black. His four horns were black and they had a slight curve to them. The end of his tail had a cross shaped tailblade and he had a black sling going over his shoulder and to his side. There was a black bag strapped to his side that seemed like it contained an item, but Tamhigan didn't really care about what could be inside it.

"So, how did you survive? How is it that you're here with us now?" Jord asked with honest curiosity.

Tamhigan sighed heavily. He didn't want to talk, but he knew he had no choice at the moment.

"I didn't die… I was stuck in a time crystal and just recently escaped." the masked dragon explained quietly, hoping his answer would satisfy them enough to drop the subject.

"I'm sure we all have questions, but I can tell you're not the talking type and you came for a reason." Mörker spoke as he looked over Tamhigan, as if studying him.

"I came to visit my loved ones' graves." the post-apocalyptic dragon informed them all.

"Ah, yes. There is a cemetery down the path behind the school. I'll lead you to it." Rädsla offered as he stepped forward.

Tamhigan didn't' like the Fear Guardian's constant smirk, but he ignored it for now and nodded. The Guardian nodded back and looked over his shoulder at the others.

"I'll return shortly. Stay out of my office as usual." he told them as he opened the door for Tamhigan.

The other Guardians nodded in understanding and the temporary duo walked out of the Pool of Visions room, making sure to shut the door behind them.

'I can't believe I'm actually meeting the great Tamhigan. I'll have to show him how much I appreciate his efforts against the damned Dark Master. Oh yes… you'll make an excellent test subject.' Rädsla thought sadistically in his head as he led the black dragon down the hall and outside.