Chapter 2
Soon, they had gone through the portal to the Mystic Shadows. They had to hurry because the portal wasn't completely finished. A minute later, they were tossed onto a place where the sky was red and black clouds covered the sky. All the plants were black and etiolated. There were weeds everywhere.
Only in a very far distance did they see a patch of green and blue skies. But that was very far away. It could have been a mistake anyway.
"Psssssst! Over here!" a voice cried.
"Who's there?" Spyro whispered.
"It's me, Charisma! I'm in the bushes on the left!"
They turned to see the shadow of a dragon.
"Follow me to a brighter area. Trust me."
he voice was so sweet and so melodic that they knew it was the right dragon. They followed her shadow to an area they never noticed before. They stood in front of a wall of a cliff, and after Charisma made sure the coast was clear, she murmured some words that were barely audible. All of a sudden, the cave entrance was revealed. Beyond the cave was a beautiful, butterfly filled, field. It looked exactly the opposite of what Spyro and Sparx had seen before. Once they were inside, the entrance automatically closed, and they were finally able to see Charisma.
Thor told them she was beautiful, but not what-they-saw beautiful! Her coat was a beautiful shade of yellow. She had a beauty that was much like her mother's and walked with a grace that no other could have. Spyro was speechless. He was in shock. He was just staring at her and his emotions were turning into Jell-O, not to mention his brain. He was falling in love, big time.
Sparx, on the other hand, had no effect on her beauty. He was paying more attention to the butterflies. To him, Charisma was just a dragon. He thought of her as a friend, a buddy, su (his) amigo. But he knew what was going on with his friend. He's the only one, besides Spyro's family, of course, who could tell what Spyro's feelings were, and he could definitely tell now.
"Spyro!" Sparx whispered. "Say something and stop acting like a ding-dong!"
"What do I say to a Princess?" Spyro whispered back.
"Introduce yourself, tell where you're from, I don't know! I never did this! Do what you did with that Prince turtle dude when we saved Avalar," Sparx suggested.
"Okay," Spyro said. He turned to Charisma. "Hello, your majesty," he said bowing. "I am Spyro the Dragon and this is my buddy, Sparx the Dragonfly. We have come to help you regain Mystic Shadows. What shall we do first?"
"Well, you already know the problem and my name," Charisma said. "So, you can just call me Charisma instead of 'your majesty.' If you are wondering why this area is beautiful and the outside is not, it's because I have kept this very well hidden and they don't really care much about this part of the world anyway. Sooner or later they will send someone flying over here but, like I said, it is very well disguised. If they ever flew over here, they'll just see what you saw on the other side. I have used all my knowledge about cloaking, and that's a lot. That is why it's working well. Now you must be tired. Night falls quickly nowadays, even over here."
"Sparx," she continued, "I heard you love butterflies, so I collected as many as I could find in the short amount of time during the invasion. Luckily, most of them were already here. This is my secret hiding place, by the way. It's not really much of a secret anymore, now." She paused, trying to think of something to say. "Oh, and sometimes the nights get colder than usual so I have already made some shelter over there behind those trees," she pointed with her head in that direction. "It's not much, but it will do." She turned to Spyro. " Spyro, I don't know what you eat, but I hope you like fruits and vegetables. I even got a supply just for you as a welcoming gift."
It was getting darker by the minute and the moon and stars started to shine, so they did not see Spyro blush slightly. Charisma was also starting to like Spyro, but she had more thoughts on her mind than romance. There was a long moment of silence as they watch the night unfold before them.
"We'd better get to bed now," Sparx said, breaking the silence. "We have to get up bright and early tomorrow, right guys?"
"Right," Spyro and Charisma said at the same time.
They started to head down to their makeshift shelter.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the cliff wall, Brutus, the leader of the Black Unicorns, Rex, the leader of the Black Dragons, and Ripto, an evil wizard, were consulting on what to do first.
"I propose we kill them all!" Ripto cried.
"What's the fun in that? I say we throw them off the edge of the valley!" Rex exclaimed.
"What's the point in that action?" Brutus pointed out. "They would just land on earth. I proclaim we make them our slaves and work them really hard!"
"Dad! Dad!" a voice behind them cried.
"What is it Devlin?" Rex asked.
"We just found out that a dragon is missing!" Devlin exclaimed.
"What?!" they all roared.
"It seems that Queen Diamond and King Azurite's daughter was not counted. Only 499 out of 500 dragons were counted," he informed them. "When shall we start searching, Dad?"
"We shall start tomorrow at dawn!" he exclaimed.
"What are we going to do with her?" Devlin asked while the others were discussing the plans for the search.
"What son?" Rex asked distractedly.
"What are we going to do with her?" he repeated.
"Why don't you marry her?" Brutus said deviously with an evil gleam in his eye. "That way, we can get a good start on totally ruling this dumb place."
"Now why would you want Devlin to marry her when she's a good dragon and we're bad dragons and unicorns?" Rex asked.
"And an evil wizard," Ripto added.
"So we can truly conquer Mystic Shadows," Devlin said, catching on with the plan. "I would be heir to Azurite's throne and when he dies, I'll be king! I could make these dragons slaves and call up you guys to help me. Besides, she might call some help soon."
"That's a really good plan, Devlin," Ripto said, "but how are we going to find her in this big place? She could be anywhere!"
"Why don't we ask Melvelle? I'm sure that witch could figure out something," Rex said.
"Did someone mention my name?" a voice asked behind them with some evil laughs.
Melvelle was a black cat that used to be a sorceress. During one of her spells, she spilled some Chemical X all over herself. She was then transformed into a black cat. She still continued to cast evil spells everywhere. She had worked with the Black Unicorns before she had met Ripto and the Black Dragons. She is now helping them carry out their plan to conquer Mystic Shadows. When someone asks her for help, she usually answers with a twist and seldom gives direct answers.
"Ah, Melvelle. How good to see you! We were just wondering where we could find Charisma. Do you think you could help us?" Rex asked.
"Maybe. Maybe not. I can tell you that she is in the place you do not care to look at. She is very tricky and can easily fool you. The clue I give you now is that she can be right under your nose. If you move to that certain place, of course."
"Hmmmmm," they said together.
With a puff of smoke, she disappeared.