Isaac had always envied Selim the ability to fall asleep easily. He himself would fidget and squirm all night until he was tangled in a web of sheets. Now, he grinned to himself as his twin gave a faint snore, one spiny brow twitching.
Noiselessly he slipped out of the room they shared and slunk down the corridor to the Chameleon's main cockpit. He slowed as he passed the darkened entrance to Scar's sleeping pod. Even a cursory glance told him it was empty. Scar was still out hunting but he could be back any moment. Isaac knew he would have to hurry.
Quickly he crossed to the desk and touched the controls. The console purred into life and the display lit up, characters pouring down the screen like glowing, red tears. Isaac knew the hunter's written language well enough now; the result of hours spent sitting at these controls with Lex or Scar and asking them question after question after question. Asking until they'd had enough and sent him off to play or to sleep. Ever since the day he had first come to live on the Chameleon, Isaac had been driven to understand how the ship worked. To his childish eyes, the shuttle seemed magical; it could fly faster than a thought and trick your eyes to become invisible. Until he came on board the Chameleon, Isaac had grown up on a platform in the middle of the sea, confined to just a few rooms. The ship had expanded his horizons instantly- not just new rooms, but whole new worlds, so many he couldn't even imagine. That - Isaac thought - was real magic.
As he grew, his insatiable thirst for knowledge grew too. It expanded to include anything technological he could get his hands on; transmitters, masks, weapons. Even his parent's wristcoms had been the subject of his 'investigations'... that is, until he had been discovered. Then both of them had a very serious talk with him about the dangers of tinkering with explosives.
Nevertheless, understanding the Chameleon remained his chief preoccupation, his first love. All of these months he had been separated from his mother and his sister, technology had been his main distraction and solace. Not that he needed secrecy for that: "Scar wouldn't stop me learning how to fix or fly the ship," He thought, scowling fiercely to himself "He's happy for me to learn anything that makes me able to look out for myself, more of a warrior!"
No, that was not the reason he had to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night.
All these stolen hours he'd been trying to contact someone, using the Chameleon's coms system to send a message … and just lately there never seemed to be enough time. In the past, Scar would not have returned until both boys were asleep except on those occasions when he took them with him. Ordinarily, he would have been out on the hunt all night. Just lately though, Scar had started coming back from the hunt early. It wasn't every night, but it was often enough to make Isaac wonder if maybe he suspected something. That wasn't good, because Isaac knew that what he was trying to do would surely make Scar angry.
His eyes kept flicking across to the communication alert while his claws skittered over the buttons. He was channel hopping, trying to get in touch with the Dragonfly, sending the same message on any and all frequencies he could, using the hunter's console. Hoping it would somehow find its way to his Mother.
Most adults would say that what Isaac was trying to do was impossible: sending message after message out into the endless blackness, like grains of sand in the ocean, hoping that one of them found its way to that tiny ship. Luckily, Isaac didn't know it was impossible. All he knew was that the hunter's communication system worked across many channels and he just hoped that if he tried enough of them that he would find her. The sound of clicking filled the cockpit as his talons flew across the controls, chasing the impossible.
The bloody glow of night-time lighting filled the hallway of the Dragonfly. Spyro slid out of her sleeping pod and crept down the hallway. She had to be sneaky, like the hard meat (she knew all about them from Mei'Savir). Now she imagined herself as a kainde amede as she prowled down the corridor, sometimes dropping on all fours, spreading out her claws on the metal floor panels. Mei'Varsi would surely be asleep by now. Spyro could hear the soft sound of breathing coming from her mother's bedroom, sniffed dismissively and carried on down the hall, into the cockpit.
She liked the idea of being awake at night, of roaming around without anyone telling you what to do. The best fun would have been to go ranging around a forest, like a true hunter. "But Mei'Varsi has made the ship take off," She thought, seeing stars through the view-screen "Probably so I cannot escape again." Grumbling to herself, she clambered up and threw herself down in the pilot's chair, small feet dangling off the edge of the too-large seat. "Mei'Varsi does not understand," She thought "A hunter needs to be free, not sent to bed like an infant!"
She sat looking sulkily at the cosmos, swinging her feet, kicking them out angrily one after the other at the empty air. After a while, she gave a yawn and her head started to droop. She was curled up in the pilot's chair with her head resting on the padded arm, when she heard a noise. Muzzily, she lifted her head up off the cushion and stared around crossly, thinking it must be her mother and feeling foolish for being caught napping. Then she realised it was not a voice but a beeping noise that had woken her. A red light flashed, telling her it was coming from the console. Spyro leaned over from the chair, stretching out her talon as far as she could, and pressed the button.
A crackly voice said "Mom?"
Spyro stared as the viewscreen lit up with a giant, grainy picture of Isaac's face.
"Isaac?" She gave a shocked squeak "Isaac, is that really you?"
"Mom? I don't know if you can hear me." Her brother said through the hiss of static, "It's me, Isaac."
"I can hear you!" Spyro nearly shouted, then stopped and dropped her voice to a whisper as she remembered her mother was asleep in the next room "I can hear you!" She hissed, but Isaac seemed like he wasn't listening (which was typical of her big brother, she thought).
"If you can hear me, that means my message got through." He said "I don't know where you are Mom but I miss you. Selim does too. We have been hunting... something called the Avissa. Scar brought us to this planet but … um…. I don't know the name of it."
"Mei'Savir?" Spyro started.
"I told him we want to go back to you but he won't listen." Isaac shook his head "I sent co-ordinates with this message Mom. I just want us to be together again."
"Is Mei'Savir with you?" Spyro was leaning on the console now "I want to see him!"
"Please come and find us." Isaac glanced behind him nervously, "I...I miss you guys."
"Isaac, I'm here too!" Spyro was standing up in the pilot seat now, waving her arms "Isaac, please!"
"I love you." Isaac's voice trembled and he dragged his fist across his face. Then he turned, as if something happened off-screen Spyro couldn't see.
The screen went black.