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Chapter 8- A Dragonologist's Creed

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Spyro woke up form his sleep and slowly walked out of his makeshift den. There was a staircase near the far side of the room and he went over to it and slowly climbed it. Once he reached the top he was standing in the long broad hallway in which he had entered the day before.

"Good morning Spyro" came a voice from the other side of the room. It was Eldon.

"Do you have a phone? I want to call me friends to tell them I'm ok." Spyro asked.

"Yes you can use the one over there on the desk. After you're done with your call, meet us in the dining hall for a brunch." Eldon said and walked out of the room.

Spyro picked up the phone and dialed the number hunter had given him.

"Hello? Who is this?" said Hunter from the other line.

"It's me Spyro, I'm just calling to let you know that I'm ok and you don't need to worry about me." He said.

"Oh Spyro! Thank god your ok! Were have you been?" hunter replied.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that Hunter, I've been instructed to keep my location secret. I just want to tell you that I'll be fine and that I will hopefully meet you again in person soon." Spyro said.

"Spyro? You can't just disapp…." Hunter started to say but Spyro hung up the phone.

Spyro sat down awkwardly in a small table in a detailed and decorative dining room. The elders sat around the table as well and had already begun to eat from big plates that contained delicious smelling foods.

"Ah Spyro! Please help yourself!" Oldan said.

Spyro had to admit, he was very hungry and he ravenously wolfed down some pancakes and French toast.

"Alright, first things first we will discuss your training Spyro." Eldon exclaimed.

"I plan on having training sessions with one of us every night from 8:00 to 12:00, so you can fully enhance your abilities. Is that clear?"

"Crystal. I just have one question, am I allowed to go out?" Spyro asked.

"Of course, but you mustn't let anyone know who you are; go under a fake name if need be." Eldon answered.

"Alright, and one other question. Do you know of a place called Youtari desert?" Spyro asked.

"I'm afraid we don't get out much, we know of no such place. Maybe you should ask a resident." Forogon answered.

"Alright, I'm going out. I'll be back at 8:00 sharp!" Spyro said and left the table.

He quickly walked into the main hall to find his suitcase on one of the couches. A dragon elder must have gone to fetch it sometime last night. He dug around in it until he found what he was looking for. Ned the Dragonologist's card.

The apartment was dimly light and Ned was writing something down on a piece of old parchment when Spyro entered the room.

"Ah Spyro! Good to see you! How are things? Did you find your friends?" Ned asked eyes still on his work.

"Sort of, look I need your help and its serious business." Spyro said cutting right to the chase.

"How can I help you my dragon friend?" Ned said now taking his eyes off the piece of parchment.

"Do you know of a place called the Youtari desert?" Spyro asked.

"Of course! It's a big expanse of dry desert only a few miles away from the city. Some people know it as the Badlands." Ned explained.

"Most people think of it as a big dump with nothing significant about it at all. But I and a few of my colleagues think differently. We believe that it was once inhabited by an ancient dragon civilization!" Ned said.

"Really? That's interesting…" Spyro replied.

"Indeed…I've been meaning to take the research forward, but the desert is literally empty with no evidence to prove the theory…" Ned sighed.

"Well, I think I may be able to help you. Call your friends Ned, were going treasure hunting."

The wide dry expanse of land was exactly like that of his dream. Spyro had a feeling that Ned's research might be connected to the dragon that had contacted him in his dream. So maybe they could put both their knowledge together to find a trace of civilization and of his destiny.

Ned had brought two of his colleagues with him on the trip, their names were Jeb and Cid. They didn't talk much, but they sure did take a lot of notes. Ned seemed to do most of the talking.

"So erm…Spyro can you actually breathe fire?" Cid asked in a timid voice.

"Yes…" Spyro answered, obviously annoyed.

"Oh Cid stop it! Were not here to question the dragon…erm I mean Spyro, were here to find a lost civilization!" Ned exclaimed and pulled out a map of the area. It looked hand drawn, as if he had made it.

"Lets take a look over there by that rocky outcrop it looks like an ideal hiding spot for an ancient nest!" Ned said and scrambled across the dry ground. His friends followed and so did Spyro. They took at expensive looking equipment and started drilling hacking and taking samples of the rock. As if out of nowhere, Jeb produced a laptop and began to analyze the samples on the computer.

"It's just ordinary rock Ned…" Jeb said after analyzing a few samples.

"Well! Lets keep looking, there is some suspicious looking outcrops over there!" Ned said enthusiastically.

After the whole day of searching they found nothing and now it was sundown, 6:30 to be exact. He would have to go soon. Jeb and Cid began to pack up with long faces and Ned was trying to convince them to stay a little longer.

"This is an outrage! Come on! There is one spot over there we still haven't checked!" Ned exclaimed and finally they gave in and decided to do one last check in this place.

They began their routine once again, as if they had been trained specially to do so.

"Hey! I think I found something!" called Ned. The group huddled around to see.

It was hard to make out but faintly he could see the outline of a small trap door.

"I wonder if this trap door actually still works…" Ned said and stomped a foot heavily on it. There was a rumble and suddenly the ground around them began to crumble and fall inwards.

"Damn my curiosity!" Ned yelled before falling in the hole. His friends started yelling cuss words as they fell and Spyro just yelled out.

He was watching. He was waiting. He was thinking. The dark figure slowly crept out of his hiding place and looked at the huge gaping hole in the ground those fools had made.

"Now is the perfect time for an ambush…" it laughed.

"And after I kill Spyro, the dark lord will give me power, I'll be a king!" it chuckled. "King Darkvoid, I can already see it!" it said and withdrew back into the darkness.

Spyro slammed against cold rock and groaned. It hadn't been a long fall, but it still hurt.

"Is everyone ok?" Spyro asked.

"Yeah…were ok." Cid grumbled and got to his feet.

"Well where are we now?" Ned asked looking around. They were in some sort of old entrance to something. In front of them was what looked like and old withered gate.

"Ahh interesting! Look at these hieroglyphs! If only we had a decipher for it…" Jeb stuttered walking over to a gate.

Spyro gasped in astonishment, he could read the hieroglyphs even though he had never seen, or heard of them! He just had a strange urge of their meaning. Was this one of his new powers? Could be, he wasn't sure but he read the hieroglyphs out lout.

"Our guardian's eternal resting place…" Spyro read.

"What? You should have told me you could read these before!" Ned exclaimed.

"I kinda just found out myself. Anyways, maybe we should go through the gate." Spyro suggested.

"Alright, light a torch and let's proceed." Ned agreed and they began to slowly walk into the dark corridor.

It was dark and cold but eventually the small passageway opened up into an entire room with huge ceilings and drawings on the walls and floor. The torch revealed many other small trinkets that littered the floor and a large shape in the center of the room. It almost looked like a casket. Could this be the tomb of some great king?

"Wow! This is amazing! This is remarkable! With this much evidence and artifacts we can further revolutionize the field of ancient Dragonology! We'll be famous!" Ned yipped jumping happily around the room.

Suddenly Spyro heard something. Almost unnatural slithering footsteps across the stone floor. A familiar stench hung in the air, he couldn't quite remember were he had smelled it before. Then he remembered. It was the stench of the oozing black sludge emitted from the creature he had faced before. Was it here? Had it followed them? Spyro looked around him and braced himself for an attack.

The figure of Darkvoid appeared in the entrance of the room it laughed darkly.

"S-Spyro…what is that?" Ned stammered with a look of shock, his colleagues had the same look.

"Spyro, we meet again." Darkvoid exclaimed and charged at Spyro.