As the milky white light of the portal faded, all the brown haired young human saw was darkness.
It was a deep darkness, and the pressure of the sheer absence of light was suffocating. It was as if the black void was trying to caress him and instead, ended up crushing him under it's thoughtless love.
The human looked down at himself, noticing that he could not see his own body. Or, in a much more terrifying chain of thought, he no longer had a body. Even though he felt that he was being squeezed harshly, he saw no body that could have felt the pressure.
As his lungs began to move quickly in panic, the human noticed that breathing was not as easy as before. The pressure was indeed suffocating, as it felt like his lungs were being prevented from taking in large amounts of air. It was not painful, simply uncomfortable and worrying.
He quickly looked around the black void he found himself in, searching for any sign of the light and the sister he had by his side just moments ago. Or was it ages? Months? Days? His mind was already beginning to give way to the panic and things became hard to understand and comprehend.
He looked deep into the abyss, and it looked back. Literally.
An eye opened in the darkness, it's catlike slitted pupil staring at him with a crimson iris to encase it. Then another eye open behind it, joining the other in staring at the human. Then a third, in front of the first eye, opened and looked deeply at the human. They stared for a length of time the human could no longer comprehend, blinking not on unison, but as individuals and in random, but lengthy intervals.
Whatever possessed the eyes began to stir, and the young man was helpless as the feeling of rushing water moved past him. The abyss shifted and the light of a sun chained by an eclipse revealed itself, with the strange figure blocking it quickly moving out of sight.
The shifting of the now brightened abyss caused the young man to look downward in a mixture of curiosity and fear. And what he saw was maddening
A creature, in the vaguest of shapes resembling a dragon, lurked in the abyss beneath the young man, it's three huge crimson eyes boring into the human's soul as it's body began to move and contort. The body of the beast bore two insanely large wings, one of which having been the film that blotted out the light of the eclipse just moments ago.
The body also bore appendages that no living creature would find a use for, with tendrils sprouting from it's back and other places that should not have had any sort of limb. The mouth of the creature was like a maw of huge, building sized blades that looked ready to kill and maim whenever the thing wanted. The eyes of the creature remained locked with the human that interested it, and blinked quickly in order to fully observe the tiny young man.
Meanwhile, the human the creature observed began to panic. He was already having trouble breathing, and now a being straight out of a lovecraftian novel was looking at him like a snack. The poor teen's mind began to race, with the pivotal goal being to escape the predicament he was in.
The creature moved once more, with it's mouth beginning to open as it slowly drew itself upward. The young man began to desperately try to swim away as he saw that the fangs of the entity were much larger up close and personal.
Everything went black once more as the creature's maw snapped around the teen's defenseless, non-existent body.
-Transition-
The day was bright and sunny, with the sun shining down onto the Dragon Realms and blessing them with warmth and light. The wind was gentle, warm and filled with the pollen and seeds of the start of spring. Animals were going about their business with what seemed to be happiness in their every movement.
Two dragons allowed the gentle winds to carry them, floating quickly yet smoothly through the air. A purple dragon with electric yellow horns glided comfortably in the air, his also purple eyes scanning for a stray sheep on the field they flew over. Next to him, a black colored dragoness glided just as comfortably, but her attention was more focused on the gentle flight.
"Hey Spyro, how long have we been flying?"
"Umm..."
The black dragoness, named Cynder, let out a sigh. She had wanted this day to be a more lazy day, but unfortunately lunch is a very important meal according to her stomach.
"Yeah, can we land? Riding on this thing is making me-"
Sparx attempted to speak from Spyro's shoulder, but the movement sickness quickly silenced him. Cynder couldn't help but feel smug as the small dragonfly had trouble keeping his lunch down. It was payback for all the snark he gave her.
Cynder allowed her wings to relax a bit as they rode the wind, her mettalic horns making a whistling sound as they cut through the wind. Her tail blade made the same sort of noise as it dragged leisurely behind her. Spyro continued to scan the fields they were flying over. A forest sat to their left, with a small set of ruins hiding away under the foliage.
The clouds floated past rather quickly above them, moving faster than they could catch. The clouds were moving ahead of them, signalling the direction of the wind. A few birds occasionally passed by, including a crow that harassed Sparx at one point. The flight overall was just a soothing trip across the sky. Not for Sparx who was much more used to the ground being directly below him.
Then, as they looked down at the the field they were softly flying over, the sound of an explosion caught their ears. In fact, they saw said explosion out of the corner of their eye.
Both dragons quickly turned their heads to see, watching as the ruins that were hidden in the forest shook and a large dome structure collapsed inward, leaving a huge hole in the roof of the building. The trees visibly shook as the shockwave ripped through them, carrying the wave as it moved closer and closer-
"Turn right and hold on!"
Spyro quickly shouted as he practically dove to the direction he said to follow. Cynder immediately did the same, allowing her wings to fold a bit in order to move faster. The wind began to howl as the shockwave caught up to them and both dragons closed their eyes and braced for the worst.
Then, only a wave of wind hit their bodies. It pushed them slightly off course, but it didn't send them spiraling into the Earth like they had expected it to. Spyro looked around, watching as the grass around the field was whipped and pulled by the shockwave before stilling.
Spyro fanned out his wings, quickly bringing his movement to a stop. Cynder soon joined him, her attitude having gone from boredom to curiosity.
"What was that?"
She asked as they began to hover in the air, their wings beating gently despite their altitude. The wind seemed to keep them from descending downward without too much effort. Spyro looked towards the ruins that had been in the forest, finding that the dome structure now had an even larger hole in the ceiling and the buildings around it were beginning to collapse.
"I don't know."
"Great, first I have flight sickness and now we have to check out the big kaboom in the distance?"
Sparx complained, making Cynder roll her eyes. Spyro was already quite used to his adopted brother's sarcasm and arguing. His purple eyes looked at the blast site warily, noting that the explosion lacked any sort of fire or leftover blazes in the forest around the ruins. Instead, trees had just been stripped of their leaves and a few weaker dead trees had toppled over.
"I think we should go check it out, just in case. Who knows if somebody was in there when it happened."
Cynder glanced at her friend. She had already expected him to say something like that. He was too good natured to ignore it. She didn't mind as she had been living with him ever since Malefor's defeat. She found it was part of his charm. Plus, curiosity was already begging her to go and investigate anyway.
"For once, I agree with you."
Cynder said after a moment of thought. Sparx proceeded to throw his arms into the air and groan.
"Oh great! I guess I can't just have you guys drop me off home, huh?"
"Come on, Sparx. It'll be fun."
"Oh yeah. That's totally how I would describe our last adventure."
-Transition-
Sasha groaned as her body and mind tried to process exactly what had happened. The landing had been very rough, judging from the aches and pains that were lingering in her joints. Her head felt like it had been hit full force by a baseball and somehow only suffered external damage. In other words, life was pain right about now.
The human allowed her body to guide itself, automatically placing her hands under her body in order to lift herself from the ground. But before she tried to get up, she moved her head and opened her eyes. At first, she flinched from the bright light that invaded her retinas before blinking and allowing the surrounding area to come into view.
They seemed to have landed in a small, dome shaped building built with the same white stone that the portal arch had been made of. A giant hole had been opened in the ceiling of the dome and looked to have also collapsed a part of the wall as well. A large stand with a basin sitting on top of it sat in the middle of the room, mirroring her brother's mention of a bird bath perfectly.
Sasha looked over, beholding her brother laying face first on the white stone floor. His backpack had been thrown off his left shoulder and sagged onto the floor, but other than that he looked to be relatively okay. Sasha scanned the rest of the room, noticing that she had dropped the gun on the way through the portal and it had landed near the basin bowl while her duffel bag had landed almost directly beside her.
The young woman groaned as she pushed off the floor, her body practically screaming that her muscles were still too weak to perform the action. Yet, her limbs obeyed as she slowly lifted herself from the floor, crawling slightly over to the basin bowl and using the edge of it to help her legs stand. Sasha stood still for a moment, feeling the strength in her muscles slowly but surely return.
She was slow to lean down and pick up the revolver where it had landed, as her muscles were still yelling at her with every action she took. The weapon didn't seem to have suffered damage beyond a few scratches in the barrel. She slipped the pistol into her back pocket after switching the safety back on.
She then moved over to her brother, who was still very much passed out on the ground. She prodded his side with her shoe for a moment, trying to draw a reaction from her brown haired sibling. The young man gave a groan as Sasha shoved the tip of her shoe into his ribcage, her action having been less than gentle than she intended.
"C'mon sleepy head, it's time to wake up and smell the fresh air."
Sasha said loudly as her brother shifted in his place on the floor. With a very loud groan, he did the same thing as she had a few minutes ago and placed his hands under his body before pushing upward, lifting his poor self from the floor.
"But everything hurts. Why does everything hurt?"
He asked pleadingly as he slowly stood up, using the basin as a hand-hold in the same way his sister had. His other hand went to resting on his knee and his posture remained bent forward. His stomach was not happy with the interdimensional travel they had just participated in. Sasha watched as her brother sucked in some air for comfort before turning her attention to the blue sky she could see past the giant hole in the dome building.
The sky looked to be the same as it had been earlier. A bright, blue sky with a few wispy clouds moving swiftly across the atmosphere. She could also see trees beyond the hole in the wall, along with a few more white colored buildings around the one they were in.
"Alright, so where the hell are we?"
Sasha asked absentmindedly as she slowly processed the situation. Against all logic and obeying only the slipperiest of rules, the magic of the portal had indeed sent them somewhere other than their home on Earth. Or perhaps the portal had sent to some deserted island yet to be found on the map?
"Don't know. Hey Sis? Did I have this tattoo before we went through the portal?"
Sasha raised an eyebrow before looking over at her brother, who was in turn staring at his right hand. The limb was still white knuckling the edge of the basin and on the back of his hand was a completely new feature. A tattoo of a symbol that neither she or her brother had ever seen before was now emblazoned onto his hand, consisting of a cross laid on top of another, significantly more intricate pattern. The symbol seemed to be made of regular ink, but the tattoo was far darker than normal ink made markings. It was almost pitch black in color.
"No. You did not have a tattoo before we went through the portal."
"Oh, okay. That's uh, just great."
Her brother stated nervously as he redirected his attention elsewhere. He was not a person with anxiety. Or at least, he didn't have anxiety before they stepped through the portal and he gained some strange alien brand on his body. Sasha stared at her brother as he slowly corrected his posture, the nausea having faded with time and some deep breaths.
Sasha pushed her worry for her sibling to the back of her mind and focused on the task at hand. Where exactly had they landed? The sky looked to be the same as it had been in their world, assuming they had been sent to another world entirely. The air seemed perfectly breathable and lacked any sort of taste or color.
She looked around at the building they were in, noting that the architecture was exactly the same as the portal they had walked into.
Meanwhile, her brother managed to stand fully on his own, the shock from having his atoms transported somewhere else through unknown means having faded almost completely. He turned on his heel, spotting the same kind of arch they had used earlier built into the white stone wall of the room. The portal was inactive though, bearing only a blank white wall behind the arch. He turned around once more, noticing that the entire room had intricate carvings that mirrored the ones on the portal arch.
Sasha watched as her brother walked forward, stopping at the large hole in the wall and ceiling. He looked through the gap with curiosity, planting his hand on the broken edge of the wall to keep himself stable while he stretched his head outside of the building. It seemed that they had been transported to an entire set of the ruins, proven by the white stone buildings that looked to have suffered the wear and tear of time along with becoming a basis for various plant life to grow.
"Any idea where we are?"
Sasha called out as she fixed the position of her duffel bag on her shoulder. Her brother looked about the area one more time before shaking his head; an action that his sister failed to see.
"No big differences so far."
He responded before backing away from the large fissure in the wall. He calmly reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, staring at the state of the device for a second. It seemed that it had survived the portal just fine, save for a small hairline crack across the screen that the young man was sure wasn't there before. He pressed the button at the side of the phone and watched as the screen lit up. The time read that it was around two thirty in the afternoon, almost two hours after they had stepped through the portal.
Sasha joined her brother at the large hole in the wall, crossing her arms and watching as he fiddled with the device he was so attached to. The young man pressed the icon for Google Maps, beholding as the phone only showed only a spinning circle. They watched the circle spin for nearly eight minutes, with the time ticking by painfully with each second.
Sasha watched as her brother frowned and quickly pressed the home button before clicking the phone screen off and shoving the device back into his pocket.
"Looks like we don't have a map to work with."
He stated bitterly as he looked up at the azure sky. The wispy clouds passed by lazily, unaware of the angry look that the human was giving them. Sasha reached into her front pocket and withdrew the compass she had brought with her, watching as the needle pointing towards North spun for a second before settling on pointing behind the two. She turned to her left, facing her brother while she watched the needle settle once more. It still pointed behind them, meaning that North was still North in this place.
Sasha pocketed the compass again as she let out a sigh. She was still processing all of this, to be completely honest. First, they had discovered a building on their Grandfather's lands that they hadn't seen before. Then, they were attacked by a creature that defied all logic and operated supposedly on magic. And then after that, they activated a portal to another place and willingly stepped through it. Now they were most likely stranded in this strange world with only around four days worth of supplies.
"Hey Sis?"
The voice of her brother pulled her out of her thoughts, drawing her stare towards him. He proceeded to point up into the sky at two strange figures in the distance, flying towards the building they were in. Sasha squinted before readjusting her glasses, trying to see the two figures better. Unfortunately, she still couldn't make out exactly what the figures were.
But one thing was for sure. They definitely didn't look like birds.
-Transition-
"Spyro? What are those?"
Sparx asked as he held onto Spyro's shoulder for dear life. Their flying speed was well above what he could achieve himself, making it fairly easy to get flight sickness when riding with the dragons. But the dragonfly was more worried about the two strange creatures standing in the large hole in the building they were flying towards.
"I don't know..."
Spyro answered with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Cynder narrowed her gaze, looking at the two figures a little bit more deeply. She had learned a good amount of things from her reading sessions in the Dragon Temple and for some reason, these two creatures reminded her of the time before she left the Temple. The two dragons continued to fly towards the ruined building, their eyes never leaving the figures in the distance.
As they grew closer, the figures slowly became easier to make out. They looked to be similar to the cheetah tribes that Hunter belonged to, and at the same time related to the apes they had been enlisted into Malefor's Dark Armies. The two dragons slowed their flight as they drew closer, trying to get a better look at the creatures. Sparx continued to be nervous and Cynder was still trying to recall exactly where she had seen creatures like the ones they were watching.
As the dragons drew close enough to see the creatures fully, they began to hover near the ruined building. One of the creatures lifted an arm and began to wave at the dragons, drawing even more interest from the three.
"Uh, guys? It's waving at us."
Sparx stated. Cynder rolled her eyes as Spyro stared intently at the creatures. Only one of them was waving and the other looked to be simply watching in the same way they the three were watching the creatures. Cynder's expression shifted to frustration as she tried to think of why she felt familiar with the creatures. No matter how much she tried to recall where she had seen them, she couldn't seem to pull it out of her memory.
The creature that was waving eventually stopped the action, looking over at the other creature and making a few noises with their mouth. It was easy to tell that the creatures spoke the same language that Spyro, Cynder and Sparx did. They could make out a few syllables and words from the distance they were at, but they couldn't decipher the entire sentence.
Then something clicked in Cynder's head.
"Those are humans!"
-Transition-
The young man sighed as he stopped waving down the two figures. By now, they had easily figured out that they were dragons. It was plain to see, simply because of the familiarity of the dragon in myths, legends and fiction. And it was not hard to come to the conclusion, as the creatures flying in the air had all the same traits as a typical European dragon. He looked over to Sasha, who was simply observing the hovering dragons with interest.
"So do you think they can talk?"
He said sarcastically before turning back towards the dragons. One of the dragons then proceeded to shout something at the other in surprise, making the brown haired teen's eyes widen. Sasha proceeded to stare at her brother with a deadpan look.
"Yes. Yes I think they can talk."
"Yeah, it's kind of obvious now, isn't it?"
The two humans trained their eyes on the dragons, who looked to be having a conversation in the air. The language they spoke was exactly the same as English, which unnerved Sasha slightly. Even the young man was surprised, as he had expected the denizens of another world to speak a completely different language. Sasha held onto the strap of her duffel bag tightly as they watched the two dragons speak.
-Transition-
"Humans? As in the weird ape things that lived over four thousand years ago?"
Sparx asked with an edge of suspicion and disbelief. Cynder ignored the fact that Sparx even knew about what Humans were in the first place, since the dragonfly couldn't even pick up a book, let alone turn a page without becoming bored. Spyro stared at the supposed Humans more intently, trying to see what Cynder saw.
"Well, what else could they be? Unless they're horribly mutated, shaved Cheetahs."
"I think Hunter would take offense to that."
As Cynder and Sparx argued further, Spyro found himself interested in the strange creatures. They looked back at him in curiosity and what he assumed to be intelligence. Admittedly, he didn't know much about the things that Cynder had studied during her time at the Dragon Temple, but the rare desire to learn more was flaring up in his chest.
Then, one of the purple dragon's stupid yet forward thinking ideas came to his mind.
"Hey Cynder? Why don't we just talk to them?"
Both the black dragoness and the golden dragonfly paused their argument to look at Spyro with a combination of surprise and disbelief. Sure, Spyro came up with a lot of crazy and ridiculous ideas, but this time the answer felt obvious. All three had heard at least partially what the supposed Human had said to it's companion and came to the conclusion that it spoke the same language they did, but neither Sparx nor Cynder had allowed the thought to hit them.
The two sat silent for a moment, making Spyro frown in slight embarrassment. There were moments when he had said something so stupid that the two couldn't help but be dumbfounded. He hoped that this wasn't one of those moments.
"Spyro, I don't want to say that your idea is stupid-"
Cynder said, to the despair of Spyro who had genuinely thought his idea wasn't that far out of the left field. That was before Sparx proceeded to jump into the middle of Cynder's sentence with an angry shout.
"I do! Your idea is stupid!"
Cynder levelled a glare at the dragonfly, who caved within moments and settled for pouting angrily on Spyro's shoulder. The black dragoness stared at Sparx for a moment before continuing her small speech.
"But this is one of those moments where your idea is pretty crazy, but I think it can work."
Spyro smiled in relief. He was glad that his thought wasn't out of the question. Cynder was often the voice of reason, so when she was the one to side with him it made Spyro feel a warm, proud feeling. Sparx on the other hand was simply scared of things he hadn't encountered before, so he often complained when something went out if his comfort zone. That zone was admittedly very small.
Spyro looked over at the Humans, who seemed to be very patient in waiting for the trio's reaction. They stood quietly, fumbling with the strangely colored bags that they were carrying with them. Cynder also followed her companion's look, staring at the creatures with an equal amount of curiosity.
"Well, I guess we shouldn't keep them waiting."
-Transition-
The two teen's stood quietly as the dragons carried on their conversation. Sasha stared at the interaction quietly, her arms crossed and her expression now bored. Her brother seemed to still be at least slightly entertained by the situation, his brown eyes looking intently and the ghost of a smile pulling upwards on the edges of his mouth.
Sasha sighed as she uncrossed her arms and lifted her glasses off her face. She looked at the pair of spectacles with disappointment as she spotted a few tiny, almost unnoticeable cracks in her beloved sight enhancers. The cracks weren't large enough to bother her while she had them on, but it did bother her to know that the tiny damage to the glass would make them easier to break later on.
She blew some hot air onto the glasses before cleaning them on her shirt, looking upwards at the dragons as she did so. The figures of the flying creatures were no longer recognizable, thanks to the absence of her glasses. All she could see was a pair of rough blurry shapes with added color.
She slipped her glasses back on just as the dragons began to fly the rest of the distance towards the building the two humans were standing in. Her brother watched with visibly growing excitement. He shifted his weight onto his other foot at least twice before crossing his arms. Sasha sent a teasing smile his way before slipping her hand around the strap of her bag.
As she dragons finally flew into speaking distance, Sasha sent a friendly wave towards them. The bright people dragon looked to smile in response before the two slowed their flight and began hovering nearing the hole in the building.
"Hello there!"
Sasha greeted as warmly as she could. Better to start off on the right foot and give a good impression rather than come off as hostile. The dragons seemed to respond well, as the darker colored dragon smiled before responding.
"Hello! Would you two happen to be humans?"
Her brother sent a glance her way as Sasha nodded slightly, running her hand gently across the strap on her bag. She wasn't good with small talk, and it would be better if her brother was explaining the situation. He was far better as describing events than she was.
"We're human, yes."
"Okay. We didn't really know for sure. Where did you guys come from?"
The black dragon asked. The voice of the darker colored dragon led the two teens to believe that it was female, but they didn't want to make assumptions just yet.
"We got here through a portal. We're not from this world originally."
Sasha allowed her brother to continue the talk for her. Once again, she found herself dwelling on the fact that science wasn't exactly explaining things for her at this point. Speaking with dragons of all things made their pridacament painfully surreal.
The two dragons looked at each other for a moment, their eyes flashing with what looked to be realisation.
"That's probably where that explosion came from..."
The black dragon said, their eyebrow like facial features bunching up on their forehead. Sasha's brother raised an eyebrow as he heard the mumbling from the dragon.
"What explosion?"
"Oh, sorry. There was a huge explosion from these ruins a few minutes ago. We came to check it out."
The purple dragon answered. This one had a gentle and male oriented voice, their more muscular body making the assumption just a little more plausible. The young brown haired man nodded as the explanation sank it. It would explain the soreness and the recoil from traveling through the portal.
"Would you mind if we came down and talked some more? Humans haven't been seen here in a long time, and answers are looking really nice right about now."
The black dragon said, their voice carrying the slightest edge of sarcasm. Sasha frowned as her brother sent a teasing grin of his own at her. It seemed that Sasha had a rival when it came to sass.
"We don't mind at all."