~Backstage~
Viper: Hey guys, wassup. I'm just here to tell you that the poll I posted yesterday, is now officially over.
Spyro: Over? Already?
Viper: Yeah, and don't be surprised;I clearly stated that when I get about 5-10 voters and there is a clear winner, I'll end it.
Cynder: Ok...so who won then?
Yxme: It's obvious isn't it?
Viper: Master M, if you would open the envelope for me.
Master M: Okay then. *grabs envelope and opens it* and the winning category is...Spyro the Dragon!
Spyro Characters: YEY!
Viper: So with that said and done, time for the disclaimers; Fira & Demex, it's your turn.
Fira: Viperwatcher owns nothing except his characters.
Demex: Other canon characters are owned by their respective companies.
Viper: To people who don't like the story, just don't read it.
Chapter 21
Favor
Demex and Fira made their way through the empty halls of the Temple and eventually ended up at the doors of the Dining Hall. It slid opened, and they saw that Spyro, Cynder and Delnok were there, along with Malefor, all of which were seated on chairs, talking with one another.
"So, what's on the agenda today?" asked Demex he and Fira arrived at the Dining Hall.
"Well…I need the five of you to help us." answered Malefor when the two sat at the chair.
"How?" asked Delnok.
"By helping us get the new dragons to their rooms." replied Malefor.
"How do we do that?" asked Spyro.
"Well…" he said as he took five pieces of parchment. He gave one to each of them. Demex looked at the paper and saw the letter 'D' written on it.
"What are these for?" asked Cynder.
"Those are the 'sections' in which you will take the group designated there. For example, Delnok here will take the dragons assigned to section A, to section A. Got it?" everyone nodded.
"When do we start?" asked Fira.
"Later, after breakfast; that's the designated time when the new students will arrive." answered Malefor.
"How many exactly are arriving?" asked Demex curiously.
"I can't answer that exactly, but all I can say is, it'll be a full house." answered Malefor excitedly.
"Full house?" asked Demex.
"He means that the entire Temple will be full to the brim." answered Cynder in monotone.
"Wow…is it possible to know, what made them all sign up?" asked Demex.
"Well, one, they don't have many options; most of the Dragon Temples are still being rebuilt. Two, it's because of the inhabitants of this Temple are, per se, famous." explained Spyro.
"We're famous, since when?" asked Demex.
"Well, we're famous for who we are, me the Ex-terror of the skies; Spyro, the purple savior; Malefor, infamous for being the Dark Master, but became more famous when he changed to good. The guardians are famous... for being guardians. You three are famous for what you did." explained Cynder.
"What did we do exactly?" asked Delnok curiously.
"Delnok, you're story's the same with Malefor." answered Spyro. Delnok sighed.
"You two are famous for greatly helping on the Dark Dragon problem." said Cynder.
"Really, I didn't know that." said Demex. Malefor grinned.
"We're an interesting band of dragons, aren't we?" he asked.
"I couldn't agree more." said Fira.
"Well, we best hurry, we've to assemble at the front gate in a few hours." said Malefor.
* * * * *
The seven dragons stood at the front gate as they waited for the newcomers to arrive. Demex felt fidgety. This was his first time of meeting a large crowd of dragons. He didn't know what to expect. The concept of the unexpected made him feel uneasy. It made him pace around slightly, then sat, then pace again, then repeat. Cynder noticed his uneasiness.
"Demex, calm down, you're making a fool of yourself." said Cynder teasingly. Demex sighed.
"It's just that I'm not good with crowds." he explained to her. Cynder nodded.
"Look, there they are!" said Delnok, pointing to the sky.
Demex look to where he pointed and squinted. First, he noticed nothing; then a small speck of yellow appeared in the sky, next to a speck of green. It was Volteer and Terrador. Following behind them, was a huge crowd of dragons, of different colors and sizes. It reminded Demex of the rainbow since there were different shades of colors from red to blue.
The group slowly descended from the sky and landed gently on the open field before them. Demex was somehow hit with a sense of déjà vu as he watched them land. He remembered the first time arriving at the temple. He crash landed. He smiled to himself as the memory faded back into his mind.
"Is this all of them?" asked Cyril to Volteer when he came close.
"Yes, and all of them are tired and hungry from the long journey. It's best we get them to their rooms and serve lunch." answered Volteer in his ever so fast tongue.
"Okay, I'll inform the moles to begin serving the meals." said Cyril and he walked back inside.
"How many are they?" asked Malefor to Demex as the crowd of dragons approached them. He counted them one by one and after mentally checking it twice he answered.
"There are… twenty one dragons." ((Chapter 21= 21 dragons; what the heck…)) answered Demex. Malefor nodded.
"Greetings!" greeted Malefor when they came close. Every head turned to him and Demex noticed a few of them cower. "Welcome to your second home." All of them nodded in acknowledgement and Malefor continued.
"Please place all your personal belongings in your room, in which my assistants here will gladly take you there. Off you go." said Malefor and he went inside.
"Okay, who's assigned here to Section A?" asked Delnok. A few dragons raised their paws.
"Follow me please." he said then turned around. "See you later then." he said before he left. The dragons followed him inside.
* * * * *
The rest of the day was quite boring for Demex. After taking the dragons to their rooms, they were left with nothing to do. Finding nothing to do, Demex walked to the garden and lay down, underneath a tree. He sighed as he rested his head and looked up at the sky. His mind was completely blank as he closed his eyes and let himself rest.
"Excuse me." said a voice. Demex opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around and saw that the voice came from a yellow dragoness.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Are you Demex?" she asked him.
"Yes, I Am." he replied.
"The guardians are looking for you. Says it's urgent. Best hurry; they are at the sitting room." said the dragoness.
"Thank you." he replied and began walking back to the Temple.
Demex entered through the door and walked down the halls. He passed by a couple of green dragons and dragonesses that were following Terrador as they were to begin their session in training. He turned right on the hall and knocked on the Guardians Room.
"Come in." came Malefor's voice. Demex turned the doorknob and let himself in. He looked to his right and saw Malefor sitting on a chair and was signing a scroll. Volteer was at his yellow pillow, reading a book.
"You said you were looking for me?" asked Demex.
"Yes I was. Tell me Demex, are you busy?" he asked his son. An odd question but nevertheless Demex answered.
"No, I am currently not." he replied.
"Can we request a favor from you." said Malefor.
"Sure, I am bored anyway, what is it?" answered Demex.
"Okay, Volteer, he's all yours." said Malefor as he returned back to his papers. Volteer looked up and laid the book he was reading down.
"Demex, come over here please." requested Volteer. Demex obeyed. Volteer stood up and grabbed a scroll from one of the bookshelves. He opened it and laid it down the table before the two of them. Demex examined it and recognized it as the map of Avalar.
"Earlier, while we were journeying from Warfang," he pointed Warfang on the map. "To the Dragon Temple." he located the Dragon Temple on the map. "We passed by the Portal Caverns." he pointed to an area a few inches down from Warfang and the Dragon Temple.
"Do you know what the Portal Caverns are?" asked Volteer. Demex shook his head.
"It is a cavern in Avalar where our ancestors created Portal Doorways that lead to other places; hence the name. It is no longer used now since the magic that made it work back then had worn off. It is also a gem hotspot. As we passed by it, I created an Electromagnetic Pulse and fired at It." said Volteer.
"Why?" asked Demex.
"Because, gems react to EMP's; if hit, they will release an EMP of their own and fire back; that is why electric dragons are the best gem miners." said Volteer a little smugly.
"So…what do you want me to do?" asked Demex.
"Because the EMP I fired, returned back to me. Since we were already in a prior engagement, I couldn't go down and check it out myself. I need you, to check it out for me if there are really gems there or not, because sometimes, minerals in the rock react as well to the EMP. Thus creating a false signal; report back to me as soon as you found the answer." explained Volteer.
"Are the Portal Caverns far away from here?" asked Demex.
"Not that far, you can do a round trip in around two hours. One hour to, one hour back." answered Volteer.
"Okay then, I'll be back in two hours." said Demex as he headed to towards door.
"Demex wait!" said Volteer.
"What is it?" asked Demex.
"Don't. Touch. Anything there. Portal Magic is quite unpredictable and might have come back; meaning, a few portal doorways there might be active, so be careful where you place your paw. You might activate it and who knows where you'll get teleported." said Volteer seriously.
"I'll heed the advice." said Demex and he left.
* * * * *
Demex took off a few moments later and was now airborne. Volteer was accurate; it took him about one hour to find the said location and land. Demex looked at the entrance with awe. It was a huge archway that was partially hidden by huge trees. The cave walls looked old and were covered in moss; a sure fact that no one was here for a long time. The entrance was dark but was lit with glowing stones that lay scattered to the side. As he walked under the archway, he felt like he had seen it before; like in a photograph or something.
Demex carefully walked as he entered the Cavern. He froze in place as a cold breeze swept by him. It made him shiver, but naturally, him being an ice dragon, he quickly adapted. It was hard to see where he was going since the only source of light was the glowing stones but nevertheless, he didn't get lost.
Eventually he ended up walking under a large archway that opened up into a spacious room. He walked to the center and looked to his left and right and saw these odd looking rock formations that jutted out from the ground. It reminded him of something; a doorframe. He went up to one and examined it, heeding Volteer's advice to not touch anything. He looked around and his hopes rose up, as he found the things he was looking for. There, jutting out from the side, were red, blue, and green rocks of gems, shining faintly.
"Wow, there are gems here." he said as he walked up to them and examined it. After a few moments of scrutiny, he walked back to the center and was about to leave when something caught his attention. Something was shining on top of what seemed like a raised rock formation near the 'rock' doorframes. Curios he walked up to it and touched it with his paw.
"Hmm…it's just water." he said as he looked up. Sure enough, there was dripping water from the ceiling. He turned his head back down when all of a sudden something lit up before him.
"Uh-oh." he said as he started backing away from the 'rock' doorframe. He slipped as his footing walked over to a puddle, making him land on his butt. The Portal Doorway then began to hiss and crackle to life.
"Oh no…" he said as he stood up. He looked at it with horror when all of a sudden he felt a 'sucking' force begin to pull him towards it. A force so strong it generated a howling wind effect. It was like a wind tunnel in there. He tried to run but the 'sucking' pulled him equally harder. He was so focused on trying to escape that he forgot to dodge a rock that was flying towards him, caused by the 'sucking' force. It hit him in the head, dead on, so hard that it knocked him out cold.
* * * * *
He took a deep sigh as he stood up from his desk and turned off the desk light. He grabbed his backpack and headed out the door. The cold wind greeted him along with the darkness; the stars were out and were shining brightly against the dark backdrop. He looked to his left and saw the ruins; the ruins they had recently excavated. The entrance was quite visible under the strong spotlights that surrounded it. They had just only begun exploring it and they had already found a lot of interesting things inside. He continued walking to his car and fiddled with his back pocket to get the car keys.
He removed his wallet as this was where he placed it. He opened it up and stopped for a moment as he stared at the photograph that was inside. It was a photograph of him…and Demex. His wife was the one who took the photograph. He felt his insides ache as he stared at the picture.
"Demex…where can you be?" he asked himself.
After a few moments of silence, he closed the wallet with a heavy heart. Now was not the time to break down again.
He now began opening the pockets inside his wallet to look for his car keys. They weren't there. He stopped for a moment as he tried to remember where he left them. He snapped his fingers as soon as the memory came back to him. He turned around and headed back to the office cabin they had, as he remembered that he left the keys in his desk drawer.
"Finally." he said as he opened the drawer and took out the keys. He was about to leave when,
BOOM
The ground started shaking violently, as the lighting on the spotlights outside began flickering. His items on the desk became cluttered as the shaking continued on. He ducked under his desk, instinctively, as to protect himself from the earthquake. After a few moments, it stopped and he crawled out.
"What the heck!?" he said as he ran outside and checked on the dig site. He asked the first person his saw about what happened.
"Roy, what happened?" he asked as he came towards his colleague.
"I don't know Max, must've been an earthquake." answered Roy.
The two stopped abruptly when they heard someone shout.
"HELP!" shouted a voice that came from the ruin.
"C'mon lets check it out." said Max as he walked to a stand at the side and grabbed a torch (flashlight). By now, his fellow colleagues were piling out from the office cabins and we're checking on everyone, wanting to know what happened and if they were alright.
Max went inside but Roy was forced to not follow as he tried to stop them from entering the ruin, to avoid more casualties, if they were any. Max carefully, but swiftly, ran down the light bulb-lit walkways of the ruin as he followed the sound of the voice. He turned around the corner, and there, at the side, his colleague's leg was stuck under a pile of rock that had caved in.
"My leg." he said to grit teeth as he struggled to remove his leg. Max immediately went to his side and began removing the rocks. After a few moments of manual labor, his colleagues, bloody but otherwise fine leg, was removed.
"Thanks, I owe you one." said his colleague and began limping out of the ruin. Max nodded and ran the other way. He needed to check on the massive chamber, at the end of the walkway, to make sure if no one else was trapped.
"Is anyone in here!?" he shouted and waited for a response. What he got was a groan. "I'm coming." he said as he ran down the ledge and followed the voice. He eventually found the source of the voice, and pointed his torch at it. What he found shocked him. In front of him was a person lying on the ground, apparently unconscious. He ran to his side and checked for a pulse. He was still alive but barely. His head was bleeding profusely and had to be stopped ASAP.
"Don't worry, everything's going… to be…" he trailed as he tipped the body over to see the face.
* * * * *
Roy ran down the walkway as fast as he could. It had been a few minutes now and Max still hasn't come out. They were beginning to worry; he, his fellow colleagues and the ambulances that had begun to arrive.
"Max! Max, where are you!?" he shouted as he ran.
"I'm here." said Max's voice from the main chamber.
He walked under the entrance and saw Max kneeling over a body, whom was wearing…a cobalt-blue T-shirt? What? Archaeologists don't wear T-shirts.
"Is he hurt? C'mon I'll help you carry him." said Roy, ignoring the question in his head, as he walked over to Max. After a few heavy lifts later, they carried the unconscious body out.
"Who is he? I don't recognize him." said Roy as he stared at the body. He recognized the person as a fifteen year old. What was a teenager doing in there?
"Don't you recognize him?" asked Max almost excitedly. Roy shook his head.
"It's him. It's my son. It's Demex." he answered his own question with joy in his voice.
Author's Notes: To all of my readers:
I just want to say, THANK YOU. Thank you because of the reception that you gave, The Blue Dragon. Honestly speaking, when I was typing this Fan Fic, the thought of getting this far, never crossed my mind. This story, FOR A FACT, was actually planned by me to reach up to about 15 chapters only. But look at it now; it's the 21th chapter...and I'm not showing any signs of stopping. Yes, this story isn't over; far from it. And besides, a few people haven't made their cameo appearances yet. You know who you are. *wink*
Please take some time to R&R.