Chapter 5- Mystery of the Grimoire
When the group arrived at the temple, none of the guardians were there.
That is until they decided to check the library, and there found Flametta reading what seemed to be 2 books at the same time. Next to the books was laying a large plate filled with different appetizers.
The red dragoness quickly raiser her gaze from one of the books and saw the young dragons. She hurriedly picked up that book and shoved it into one of the shelves, before they noticed.
"Hello, young dragons. Back from Warfang already?", she asked with a smile.
"Hi, mom! We found something really interesting! Can you have a look at it?", Phoenia asked in excitement.
"Mom?", Lavender thought, puzzled, as she took out the book from beneath her wings.
"A grimoire?", Flametta asked, clearly surprised.
She put it on the desk in front of her and opened it. Her expressions became serious after she read the lines on the first page.
"Do you know what kind of grimoire it is?", Glacos asked.
"Not yet, but it's definitely not a dark grimoire. It still can be dangerous though. Did any of you open it or use it?", the red dragoness replied.
"Yes, we did. At first there were the lines you see here, and when we said we needed help, more lines just appeared there with a magic spell that helped us.", Lavender explained.
"Helped you with what?", Flametta inquired.
"We fell into some weird underground city. We were looking for a way out when we found that book.", Sparx explained.
Flametta raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask anymore about this.
She flipped the book to the second and third page. Her eyes widened. The others looked at her, puzzled because of her expression.
The red dragoness then flipped the pages of the book quickly, but her expression remained as surprised.
Giving up, she looked at the others. "This book is protected by an enchantment.", she said and showed them the book, then flipped the pages quickly. They were all blank.
"Are you sure that the book isn't just empty?", Orion asked.
"No. It's definitely a grimoire, according to what you said.", Flametta said as she closed the book and lay it on the table.
"This book must be very special if the author went through so much trouble just to hide its content...", she then said handing to to them.
"So what can we do about it?", Selarus asked.
"I think this will be a nice assignment for you. Try to break the spell yourself. Just be careful not to damage the book.", she said with a smile and handed the grimoire to Lavender.
"How are we going to be able to break the spell?", Ampira asked.
"Just look around the library. Written magic is one of the forms of magic used by dragons. You can easily find it in the books around here. When you find a spell you think will work try using it. Just be careful. Casting a wrong spell could mean troubles.", the red dragoness said as she got up, holding the book she was reading with her right front paw.
"Are you sure it's a good idea?", Cynder asked the female guardian.
"I have faith in you.", she responded with a smile. She balanced the appetizers on her wings and took the book, then walked out of the library.
"Let's research then. This is getting interesting.", Spyro said with a smile. The others nodded and they all started looking for books that might be helpful.
Lavender placed the grimoire in the middle of the library, so that if anyone found something they'll be able to test it.
Spyro, Cynder and Sparx went to a section of books called 'dispellers'.
"Undoing magic with magic. Pretty simple, no?", Cynder asked with a smile.
"I guess. Maybe even too simple.", Spyro laughed.
"So what book should we look for?", Sparx asked.
"Just pick one. It doesn't matter.", Cynder answered.
"Strange you're so into this, Sparx. Did something happen?", Spyro smiled at his adoptive brother.
"It's not like I have anything better to do.", the dragonfly shrugged and flew to the top case of books, then pulled out an old-looking gray book.
Just barely managing not to drop it, he flew down with it and then placed it on the floor.
Cynder opened the book and started scanning it for a useful spell, while Spyro looked for another book.
He quickly found a black, not-as-old one, and placed it next to the book Cynder and Sparx were reading, and started reading it, while listening to Cynder and Sparx.
"So how will we know the right spell when we see it?", the dragonfly asked.
"Well, the longer the spell is, usually it's stronger. So in this case we aren't looking for a spell that's too short, but not a spell that's too long either. Notice that next to the spell there's a description of it. We're also not looking for a spell that counters a transformation spell, or an elemental spell, for example.", Cynder explained.
Spyro smiled, happy to see that the two are finally getting along. He also used Cynder's tips when he searched for a decent spell.
Meanwhile, Phoenia, Glacos, Ampira and Orion were at another part of the library, looking for 'revealing' magic.
Ampira suggested that the text might be simply hidden, so all they needed to do was to reveal it.
Unlike Cynder, none of them had any knowledge of grimoires, so the group simply chose any book that looked interesting and went through it.
"Revealing hidden doors... Revealing seeds in the ground... Revealing dirt?", Phoenia said as she went through the spells. Some of them were particularly strange.
"I think I found something.", Orion said.
The others went to his side to see. "Reveal invisible ink. That's what we need, no?", the black dragon asked.
"Maybe... But it would be too simple, don't you think so?", Glacos replied.
"I think it's worth a try.", Ampira said with a smile. "Do you want to go test it, Orion?".
"Sure.", he said with a smile and the two walked away, leaving Phoenia and Glacos by themselves.
"Those two like each other. Don't you think so, Glacos?", Phoenia smiled.
"They're pretty close.", he agreed and resumed his searching for a spell along with the fire dragoness.
Lavender and Selarus set off as well, but had no good idea on what spell to look for, so they scanned all of the library's sections.
After a while, however, they grew bored of it, and stopped to think up another idea.
"Maybe there's some kind of clue in the book.", Selarus suggested.
"Flametta showed us the book. It was completely empty.", Lavender reminded him.
"I know, but... I just can't explain it. Come on!", he said and walked back to the book.
The purple dragoness shrugged and followed him.
A few moments later...
Selarus and Lavender walked over to where Lavender left the book, and found Orion and Ampira testing a spell they found, and that was supposed to make invisible ink turn visible.
"Hey guys. You're just in time.", Ampira smiled.
"Did you find something?", Selarus asked as he and Lavender walked towards the book.
"Ready? You should take a step back.", Orion said. He sounded excited.
"Mamuras daios illuno tonera!", he called, reading from the book he lay before him.
"It's doing something!", Lavender called happily, as the open grimoire started glowing, and then finally with a small 'poof', smoke suddenly appeared, covering the area.
The young dragons started coughing and waved their paws to get rid of the smoke, when it was suddenly blown away by a sudden gust of wind, coming out of Ampira's mouth.
"Huh? I can use wind again?", the yellow dragoness asked in surprise.
"It's about time we got used to this dimension.", Orion said with a smile, that vanished when he looked at the book. Ampira still seemed shocked, however.
"It didn't work...", the black dragon sighed.
The pages remained blank. The spell didn't seem to work at all.
"Oh well. Let's look for another spell.", Ampira said and rejoined Orion at reading their book.
"So what was your idea?", Lavender asked Selarus.
"There have be some clues here, I know it!", the green dragon said confidently and reached his front paw to the book in order to look for anything helpful and started flipping the pages. He then immediately withdrew his paw, however.
"What's wrong?", the purple dragoness inquired.
"The book is shaking!", Selarus replied, shocked.
Ampira and Orion now turned their attention to them as well.
"What happened?", Ampira asked.
"Look!", Orion exclaimed, turning the others' attention towards the book.
"Water?", Lavender asked quietly, as the transparent liquid started pouring from beneath the book, but not wetting it at all.
"It's warm!", Ampira called in surprise as she touched the water.
"The others have got to see it!", Selarus called as he dashed away to find them.
A few minutes later...
"I simply can't believe it...", was all Cynder could say.
The grimoire was still shaking and dripping warm water, although it seemed to be slowing down.
"Have you ever seen something like this, Cynder?", Glacos asked slowly.
The black dragoness slowly shook her head, not believing her own eyes as well.
"Listen, this might sound crazy, but I think that the book is crying.", Phoenia said quietly.
"How can a book be crying?", Sparx asked in astonishment.
"What if it's not a book at all? As you said, Cynder, we should expect anything.", Spyro asked.
"I have to admit that it sounded outrageous even to me before. But maybe it's true... Even if it is, that means it took some incredibly powerful spell to do that. At the least, the one who wrote the book for some reason made it alive. Or maybe he even took a living creature and turned it into a book. That's what I can understand from this.", Cynder replied.
"But still, why is it crying? Presuming that it is crying.", Ampira asked.
"Well, it started crying after I flipped some pages. Maybe I caused it?", Selarus asked.
"Try touching it again.", Glacos suggested.
Selarus did as the ice dragon said, and the book began shaking and shedding 'tears' at a fast pace again.
Cynder looked at the book, then started flipping pages backwards until she reached the second and third pages. Her eyes widened in utter shock.
"What is it?", Spyro immediately asked.
"Look for yourselves.", she replied and they did.
Instead of being blank, the two pages after the first one (which contained the warnings) had a single word written in each. The pages weren't even moist, like they were water-proof.
"So what happened here? I don't get it.", Sparx asked.
"It seems like when the book began 'crying', some of the protection wore off. But I wonder why there is only one word on each page.", Cynder said.
"But why was it crying only when Selarus touched it? Nothing like that happened when you, Lavender or Flametta did.", Orion asked.
"Dagretus?", Ampira said. She read the word on the second page.
"I thought it would do something.", the yellow dragoness explained, seeing that nothing has happened.
"Me too, actually. But if it's not what the words are for, then why did they appear?", Spyro questioned.
"I don't know about you, but I think this is ridiculous! Why would a weird word like that do anything?", Sparx demanded.
"Hey, Mer! Guess what day is it?", a voice suddenly asked. It sounded like a young male. The voice echoed in the room, even though it wasn't so loud.
Everyone looked around to find the source of it, when Phoenia called "It's coming from the book!". Everybody stared at the grimoire, which was now glowing brightly.
Another voice made a yawn. "I know, I know. First day of school, right? And would you please stop calling me like that already?". The voice sounded like a young male as well.
"Oh, you should be more cheerful! If I were you, I'd be so happy! After all, you are a purple dragon, aren't you? The whole city is going to expect a lot of you, even the Empress!", the first voice said again.
"Sometimes I wish I was just a normal dragon like you, Tem.", the second voice said with a sigh.
"I don't even have a single element! This is as normal as anyone can get... Trust me, being special is the best thing ever!", the first voice laughed.
"I guess so. But wouldn't it be nice to switch places for just one day?", Mer asked.
"Are you kidding me? I'd change places with you for my entire life if it was up to me!", Tem laughed again.
"Well, let's get going already. I doubt the guardians will be okay with it even if I am the one who's late for class.", Mer said with a nervous chuckle.
The voices suddenly stopped talking, and the room fell into silence.