Chapter Eleven: Touching Down

"So we're actually going to do this?" Skyro said as he squared up with Smoke, not really sure what to do next.

"Yep, I don't think anybody comes here anyway, just you and me now," Smoke said with a smile as he checked over the building once more. "Come to think of it, I don't even know where we are to begin with."

"I think this is us to be an orphanage," Scarlet said as her and Flare watched the boys about ready to fight. "I've lived here for about two years and I think I've heard somebody talk about it."

"We're only going to need a few minute anyway; we all know how this is going to end." Smoke said with a smile as he lowered his head.

"Yeah, me walking away winning," Skyro said, sticking his tongue out while lowering his head as well. "Or it will end with me balling my eyes out while pleading for mercy."

"So intimidating Skyro," Flare shouted out, causing Skyro to turn around with a somewhat annoyed expression. "Maybe if you try wetting yourself you'll scare him."

"Hah, hah, hah, very funny," Skyro smirked as he looked back to Smoke. "Anyway, back to you."

Smoke had vanished seemingly vanished into thin air. Scanning the room frantically, he was nowhere to be found.

"What do you know, it worked," Smoke said, causing Skyro to spin around to only watch Smoke tackle him to the ground. "See what happens when you let your guard down? Stay focused." Smoke then stepped off of Skyro and backed away a few feet to allow him to stand back up.

"Got it, so anything else?" Skyro asked as he refused to look away from Smoke now, not wanting to take another sucker his from him again.

"Alright, watch this," Smoke said, moving towards Skyro with a quick burst of speed. "Brace yourself, this may hurt." Smoke then wrapped his arms tightly around Skyro's waist and lifted his up off the ground and pushed him away, causing Skyro to hit and slide across the floor with a thud. Skyro then stood back up quickly.

"Nice, what else is there to learn?" Skyro said as he brushed himself off, walking back towards Smoke.

"I want to see what you can do," Smoke said as he ran towards Skyro. "Now come on, show me what you got!"

"Alright, you're on!" Skyro yelled, adrenaline suddenly rushing to his brain, fueling his will to go against Smoke's assault. Both dragons then rammed their heads together, gritting in pain as they pushed against one another, trying to overpower each other. A wild idea then ran through Skyro's mind. In a quick motion, Skyro tripped Smoke's front legs with his right arm, making him stumble to the floor.

"That was pretty cool," Smoke said as he slowly and cautiously stood up again, smiling as he leered up towards Skyro. "Look out behind you!" Skyro's attention was distracted, giving Smoke enough time to whip his tail around and trip Skyro up as well, taking him completely off of his feet in one swift motion.

"Yeah… I fell for that one," Skyros aid as he saw Smoke leap towards him. "That isn't all I have though." Skyro them kicked both of his rear feet into Smoke's stomach, clearly knocking the wind out of him as he landed a few feet away from Skyro, coughing while trying to catch his breath.

"Ok, that hurt." Smoke said as Skyro rushed over to his side.

"Oh geez, are you alright, I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" Skyro comforted as he helped Smoke up to his feet.

"Yeah it just gives me an excuse to do this." Smoke then punched Skyro square in the stomach, catching the young dragon off guard as Smoke then pushed Skyro to the ground.

"Ouch… ok you win." Skyro wheezed, being aided by Smoke who helped him off the floor. Scarlet and Flare joined the two as well.

"Not too bad buddy," Smoke said as Skyro managed to regain himself. "Maybe we'll do this again sometime, what do you think?"

Skyro chuckled a little bit before answering as he said, "Yeah, I think we can sometime." Skyro and Smoke then laughed it off as Flare and Scarlet cut between the two dragon's

"Sorry Skyro, I think you lost." Scarlet said as she and Flare agreed.

"He had his moments, but Smoke clearly won."

"Always," Smoke taunted as the four turned to leave. "I'm getting a little bit hungry, shall we all grab a bite to eat?"

"Sounds good, I'm for it." Skyro said as the four left the warehouse together.

Flare and Scarlet left the warehouse first before Skyro and Smoke left, giving Smoke time and privacy to look back and whisper to Skyro, "I didn't hurt you to bad did I?"

"Not really," Skyro said as he smiled. "It just gives me an excuse to knock some sense into you later." Skyro winked as they laughed and chased after Flare and Scarlet.

"Touching down onto foreign soil, allow me to haunt your grounds in my wake," Nemphis said, landing among the coast of the island which hid the treasure which his father had requested him to retrieve. "This place it huge, this might take me awhile to find what he is looking for." The island was dead quiet, no voice to be heard. Remains of what use to be giant idols dotted the beach and outer reaches of the dense forest signaled that there was once inhabitants who lived there before. Nemphis stuck his nose to the air and breathed in deeply, taking in every scent which his nose would allow, no scent of warm blood anywhere.

"Let me guide you through there, it will save us time which your father doesn't have," Zpharah said in Nemphis' mind, taking over his body. "I'll enhance your senses, this'll allow you to smell, see, hear, feel, and taste things which normal blooded beings cannot know."

Nemphis closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, focusing on what seemed to be the smell of a being's breath and said, "I smell something… something very feint and bitter."

"Open your eyes and tell me what you see." Zpharah whispered in the back of Nemphis' mind. Opening his eyes slowly, the young dragon saw different shades of grey and black, all highlighting the area around him. The next and most prominent thing he was a very thin, misty looking red aura leading into the forest.

"Is that what I smell?" Nemphis asked, knowing that Zpharah was doing al of this to aid him.

"It is, it is the very essence of life itself, or to put it simply it is the energy from another living being," Zpharah said as Nemphis bean to head into the forest. "It is the basically the tail of energy being excreted by another being. Very weak to track with my abilities, but it is effective when tracking a single odor which you smelt."

"It smelled like someone breathing," Nemphis said, passing more idols which looked as though they guarded the forest. "A bitter smelling odor, very hard to forget once I smelt it… Now I'm starting to smell more than just one odor. Sweat, flesh, and blood. I think there is more than one being here."

"What can you hear?" Zpharah asked, knowing full well what Nemphis was hearing."

"Deep, volcanic pounding heart's at work," Nemphis said as he stopped and took in more of the signals which were being taken in by his senses. "Heavy breathing, aged it seems, heavy feet dragging among the ground, not shuffling along as if they were in a hurry. Voices… very low and inaudible, but someone is defiantly talking… We're getting close now." A large boulder stood in front of Nemphis, blocking his path from continuing onward.

"How close?" Zpharah asked, giggling with insanity as Nemphis allowed a sickening smile full of power and chaos spread across his face.

"Behind this rock," Nemphis roared as he opened his mouth and allowed a power black of demonic energy rip from his mouth and ram into the boulder, disintegrating it into smaller stones and rubble. "Well look what we have here." Three Orcs turned around in surprise and met eye-to-eye with Nemphis.

"What is thy name?" The obvious larger Orc boomed, looking down at Nemphis who stood fearlessly in place.

"I've come here looking for an ancient artifact which resides here on this isolated rock," Nemphis said as the three looked at each other in shock. "Give me what I request or perish."

"Kill them all, you're going to anyway." Zpharah said in Nemphis' mind, not noticing that the corners or his mouth were curled into a wicked looking smile.

"I know, I just want to see how stupid they are." Nemphis thought, allowing his vision to return to normal.

"We have no idea what you are talking about young dragon," the shortest Orc said who stood somewhat behind the medium and largest Orcs. "Leave this island now before we are forced to use deadly force."

"You should fear me for who I am, it would be wise if you were to follow my demands." Nemphis said as he took one more step closer.

"You dare threaten us," the medium size Orc said, taking a step closer to Nemphis. 'We have been the Guardians of this island for many years, we implore you to leave now."

"I'm not leaving here without that tablet." Nemphis said, gritting his teeth at the Orcs who looked a bit puzzled at first.

"The Tablet of Demise has been sealed away for thousands of years, relocated many times to make sure that it was never found, how did you hear of its presence?" The smallest Orc said, shocked as he watched Nemphis hold out the map which showed its location.

"You were too stupid to destroy any evidence of the Tablet's existence such as this map, it was too easy finding it," Nemphis said as he blew fire at the map, burning it within seconds as he stood dominantly towards the Orcs. "I won't ask you pieces of scum again, where it the Tablet?"

"You'll have to go through us to find it." The larger Orc said, causing Nemphis to laugh hysterically, continuing to remain in one place.

"Is that… a challenge," Nemphis asked as he allowed Zpharah to take over his body, shrouding himself in a cloak of demonic darkness. "I'm going to enjoy killing you three. You may have served here on this island longer than the inhabitants, but this is where you meet your end, your time is up."