Chapter 6

"Speech"

"Native Dragon Tongue"

Upon reaching the nearby floating isle, Ravenwing landed and peered off the edge where he first saw the stone pillar in the first place. The structure was made of an ornate marble that had been colored to the shade of a aquamarine blue with white and yellow highlights along some of the carvings. The carvings on the pillar were in a language Ravenwing could not read, but they were framed in a structure similar to that of hieroglyphs with depictions of two legged creatures and what seemed to be dragons alike. Cocking his head to the side, Ravenwing looked along the pillar to where the base of the structure penetrated the ground beneath his paws and then slowly emerged a few hundred feet away next to what seemed to be a pile of stones next to it. 'Must've been an older town.' Ravenwing mused as he began to walk over to the stone structures. 'Poor saps probably never even stood a chance.' He continued as he reached where the edge of the pillar broke from the ground and the pile of stones beside him no longer obstructed a view at the remains of a small outpost like area that seemed to be partially encased in rocks and roots from plants that have been thrown free from when this chunk of land was thrown from the planet. The grey dragon ran a clawed hand along some of the more intact walls of a storage building as the wooden crates inside were reduced to ancient ashes or rotten wooden frames that once contained any number of items, though their contents have long since been emptied. With a long sigh, Ravenwing turned to where the outpost merged with a dirt and rock wall, noticing how some of the buildings seemed to be half inside the confines of the surface and halfway exposed. 'I wonder what caused this?' He thought as his claws ran along the edges of the rocks, finding that while erosion had taken it's toll on the formation the rocks had in fact purposefully been placed there. 'This was done with the intent to hide the scene.' Ravenwing mused a bit as he turned to a doorway of a building adjacent to the wall that was half engulfed.

He decided the best course of action was to walk within the room to examine its contents, maybe seeing if the wall extended inside like it did outside. To Ravenwing's surprise, as he pushed open the rusted metal and wooden door, the room was fully intact outside of some piles of dust being let in though the windows behind the rock wall. The inside of the room with lined with rows upon rows of shelves containing discarded weapons, crossbows, and even some rotten food supplies; but the items that caught the grey dragon's eyes more than anything were the scroll racks near the far edge of the room and what seemed to be a few tables that were used to barricade the second entrance to the room. Quickly making his way to one of the racks, Ravenwing took a deep breath and began to blow the dust free from some of the shelves of the rack he wanted to examine, causing a thick black cloud to form around him. The cloud quickly caused the dragon to cough vehemently for a few seconds as the cloud dissipated enough for him to breathe normally again.

Shaking his head some between minor coughs, Ravenwing gently grabbed a scroll in front of him, careful to not let his claws puncture the yellowing parchment as it began to break down with time. He set down the scroll on a still standing table and untied the string keeping the paper together. with the tension holding the scroll together unbound, the scroll rolled open upon the table, revealing it's contents to the grey dragon. Ravenwing blinked some in surprise when the scroll revealed a very faded map with X marks across what seemed to be various settlements. What seemed like a borderline was inscribed into the scroll as well as what seemed to be images of dragons in the form of a troop detachment. 'Are these like battle plans?' Ravenwing asked himself in his head as he turned back to the rack and grabbed another scroll, opening it up to reveal a similar picture though the line on the left side of the page seemed to be closer to the right this time. The same was true until the line on the page completely encircled a settlement with every other one that was notable was crossed out or not put into some of the maps.

Ravenwing rubbed a paw through the fur on the top of his head as he sighed deeply at the newest map he grabbed, noticing how tossed together it seemed and how the only seemingly town left on it was the one encircled by the line from the previous maps. 'Must've been desperate if this is what they threw together.' He thought as his vision was caught by an empty scroll rack that was almost knocked over, tilted on it side and half buried in dirt with a small gap of blackness behind the brown of the wooden shelving unit. With a cocked brow, Ravenwing padded over to investigate, his eyes widening in surprise when there was distinct colder breeze coming from the area behind the rack. Looking to the empty rack, Ravenwing sighed a small bit and tried to move the rack but to no avail. 'I guess who ever used to live here wont need this anymore right?' He thought to himself before blasting the rack with his fire breath and watched as the rack was incinerated by the white fire, leaving behind a few smoldering remains and ash.

Now fully revealed, a passage way stood out rather obviously in the grey walled room, the tunnel leading down a flight of stairs into a subterranean cavern with a blackened torch hanging on the wall to the right of the grey dragon. Stepping over the remains of the rack and lowing his neck some, Ravenwing entered the tunnel and grabbed the torch in his maw after lighting it with his fire. The white flame licked off the torch he held as he advanced deeper into the depths of the tunnel, a small white glow surrounding the area a small bit as the tunnel began to grow wider and taller. Soon it became tall enough to stand comfortably in with no obstruction to movement before reaching what seemed to be a sealed wall with a draconic carving in the center of it. The dragon on the carving, Ravenwing soon realized, was the same species as himself. It had a similar jaw line, tuffs of fur like hair across it's back as it seemed to preside with pride while reading a book. On the left and right walls were two lock like circular objects with holes on the top and bottom of each. 'Damn it's locked.' Ravenwing thought as he began to turn away, only for his tail to hit one of the holes and the blades slide in briefly with a small clang. Ravenwing paused and turned back to the locks on either side of the door and stuck his tail into the one on his right. 'I wonder...' He thought as he put it in and tried to twist when nothing happened initially. Nothing happened when twisting to the right but when Ravenwing twisted his tail to the left, the stone began to turn slowly as dust and debris fell from where the circular lock was as it turned. After turning it 90 degrees, Ravenwing felt the lock halt and not budge any more so he put his tail in the second lock and turned it until it was set in place as well.

A massive click filled the chamber as the wall with the ornate dragon on it began to slip away into the flood. The sound of huge stone gears and vines on pullies was all that was heard as the wall, which turned out to be a door, slid down to meant with the top of the pathway seamlessly. Ravenwing blinked some in surprise before smirking to himself in victory. 'Heh gotta hand it to who ever built this. They knew their stuff.' He mentally commented as his eyes adjusted to the new room in front of him. Ravenwing scanned the room, noticing various satchels, books, bookcases, and other items of seemingly importance such as golden statues of dragons. Each of the items was arranged hurriedly upon what seemed to be the dragon equivalent of school tables where each table had an area with various cloths and fabrics next to it as a form of bedding. Approaching one of the desks, Ravenwing opened some of the satchels to find it's contents empty. With a sigh, he decided to take the bag and pace it around his body just behind where the webbing of his wings reconnected with his torso. Smiling some in satisfaction, the dragon began to walk over to one of the book shelves and grabbed and old dusty book by it's spine.

The cover of the brown book had what seemed to be a few dragons fling in the sky above the borders on the gilded image that seemed to draw Ravenwing's eyes straight to it. gilded in a silvery red color were two dragons, one shaped similarly to Ignitus' build from what Ravenwing recalled and another shaped similar to his overall build. A wave of confusion spread over the dragon as he opened the cover and was greeted by the words, "The peace accords once upheld" in perfect english. 'What the hell does that mean?' Ravenwing thought with a raised brow as he turned the page of the book and began to read silently to himself the contents of the ancient record.

'A thousands of cycles ago, our kind and the dragons of the elements reached a pact of peace. A peace that would cause us to grow as a civilization, reign control of the realms free from the grips of the primordial forces that threatened to tear the world apart.' The book began as Ravenwing read aloud to himself. 'This is the recountance of that time. One where elementals and moon-borns lived without fear of each other. Unlike the current landscape that is torn by this despicable and unjust war that ravages the land.' Ravenwing continued, humming some in thought as he began to dig through the books contents, unaware of the passage of time around him, only relighting the torch as needed when it ran low.

-Line Break-

With Spyro and Cynder-

The two younger elemental dragons woke up to a loud yawn as the owner's back popped into place from their stretching. Spyro perked up to see Chyvo looking around the clearing confused by something before turning back to Spyro and Cynder with a huff. The pink dragoness growled something out in a questioning glance to the two elementals who cocked their heads some in confusion. "What do you think she wants Cynder?" Spyro asked looking to her.

"I don't know, why don't we wake up Ravenwing. He seems to be able to understand her." Cynder said fully opening her eyes as she scanned the area around them. "Wait a minute...where is he?" She asked as Chyvo walked up closer to them and seemed to growl a small bit, her teeth bared a small bit. Spyro and Cynder instantly took up defensive positions as Chyvo growled.

"I'm sure you wouldn't have anything to do with where our friend went?" He asked, trying to stay calm as Chyvo growled into his face. The three dragons stood in tense silence for a few minutes before Cynder perked up her head some when the wind changed, finding a small trace of Ravenwing's scent near the edge of the island. Chyvo soon picked it up too and stopped bearing her teeth at the two younger dragons, but instead straightened up and began to follow the trail. She gestured the two younger dragons to follow her before turning her head back to the edge of the island they awoken upon. Though when they reached the edge and looked out, all three dragons sat confused as they saw no where in particular the trail lead them. Instead all the trio saw in the distance was more white fog and some various landscapes in the distance but what they found odd is that the trail seemed to lead them into a place in the middle of open air with no visible trace of any substance outside of a small flicker of air waves as the lands raised and lowered slightly. "Well this lead us no where." Spyro said in dismay before Chyvo suddenly without warning opened her wings and took off into the sky, aiming for what seemed to Spyro and Cynder as open air with nothing of value in the blank space. They are about to call after Chyvo but watched in amazement as she seemed to vanish into thin air in a swirl of light.

"What the heck!" Cynder exclaimed in surprise as the two watched the scene with their mouths hanging open. Shaking their surprise off some Cynder turned to Spyro. "Should we go after her?" She asked with a raised brow. Spyro looked between her and the open air before sighing some.

"We might have to Cynder, but just stay close alright?" Spyro asked, earing a smirk from the black dragon next to him as she gave him a playful shove to which Spyro chuckled some and spread his wings. Cynder followed suit and the two dragons took off into the air and flew towards the area they saw Chyvo disappear. At first the two dragons didn't know what to expect as they approached where the pink dragon vanished, then suddenly visual distortions began to surround them. Pain shot all through their body as surges of white fire and blue electrical blasts hammered away at their frames as the sky gave way to reveal a floating isle that the two had no clue even existed. The two saw a faint speck of pink in the distance near where a collapsed stone pillar resided as well as noticed the scent trail of their friend resumed from where it seemed to be cut off. The two landed with a hard thud as they should off their injuries and winced some in pain as the tried to collect themselves back onto their paws again. Spyro was the first to stand up, nearly loosing his balance before regaining his footing again and shaking his body some. "Next time we watch a dragon vanish into thin air like that...let's agree collectively not to follow." He said with a pained voice while helping Cynder up.

"Agreed." Cynder replied, getting up on her paws and beginning to form a small limp. Spyro was about to comment on it but Cynder flicked her tail some to silence his concerns. "C'mon, let's go check to see where that pink dragon went." She said as she began to limp to the area the two dragons saw Chyvo enter with Spyro close behind. Cynder gritted her teeth with each step on her forepaw as a small trickle of red leaked out from small scratches and burns where the barrier's attack overwhelmed her scales. Spyro looked at her worried as he felt his own pained burns and cuts on his torso throb as they continued on, reaching where what seemed to be a stone pillar jutting out of the ground and meeting a base that has long since been turned to rubble.

Blinking some in surprise at the apparent age of the pillar, Spyro and Cynder surveyed the area with a small gape of their mouths at what they saw. Around the duo were completely wrecked and burned up stone buildings seeming to have fallen victim to an attack of some kind, though what ever happened the two could tell at least some earth dragons were involved. A small shudder ran up their spines as they continued into the scene. taking note of some weapons imbedded into some of the surrounding walls and area with a skeleton or two with a sword run though it. Cynder tried not to let loose a gasp or horror as one of the skeletons seemed to be a dragon with anatomy either of them had never seen before. The body was partially burred in the ground but most of it was exposed to the elements. The dragon was far larger than any other type they had ever seen, nearly two times bigger than the guardians. The corpse possessed no fore legs and seemed to instead use it's wings to walk as if they were a combination of flying appendages and legs to stand and rest upon. Part of it's ribcage was crushed by what seemed to be a heavy impact of some sort as a sword seemed to be driven though the skull of the dragon, silencing any cry it would've had in either fear, pain, or anger. "Wh-what happened here..." Spyro asked with a shaken voice as he looked to the outskirts of the area so see a few more dragon corpses as well as those belonging to moles and cheetah warriors full in armor clad and swords near their fallen bodies. Cynder gave a worried look to the landscape and then back to Spyro, leaning on his side some as the two stood and observed the field of the dead near the left edge of the settlement.

"I don't know Spyro, but maybe the Guardians might know." She suggested. "Afterall they should know how most of the history of the realms goes right?" She offered trying to pull Spyro back to his thoughts.

"Maybe." Spyro said with a pause before shaking his head free of his thoughts. "Let's go see if we can find Ravenwing and head out. I'd rather not stay in a place like...this." With a nod from Cynder, the pair turned back to following the now faded scent trail of Ravenwing, leading the two to a grand building seemingly half burred in a rock wall. Though again, what seemed to catch the pair's eyes as they entered the building was the lack of rocks inside and the fact the earth above and surrounding the building seemed to be purposefully placed as if to hide the entire scene of the battlefield. This only raised more questions for the two dragons before their thoughts were quickly snapped back to normal by a loud series of roaring from further within the building. As quickly as they could, the two raced towards the sound of the roaring, entering a tunnel like cavern in the wall before being greeted by a massive library like area at the end of the tunnel. Entering the room, the two were surprised to see Ravenwing and Chyvo in a very heated argument between them as the grey dragon looked up from an old book he seemed to have been reading. The two watched as the two larger dragons seemed to ramble before they nodded to each other and began to look around the room for themselves. Cynder was the one to investigate the school room like area of the room while Spyro seemed more interested in the shelves behind the arguing pair of dragons.

"Hey Spyro come check this out!" Cynder said drawing Spyro's attention from a few thick books he was about to grab and he turned to Cynder, quickly flying over to her.

"What's up Cynder?" He asked as he looked at the table where a golden statue of a dragon rested upon the table, broken in half seemingly and inside were some rolls of parchment that seemed to be tied in a note like fashion. They each began to pull one out before a growl was directed towards them from both Ravenwing and Chyvo to which they stopped before Ravenwing's eyes widened some as he realized what he did.

"Sorry guys, pinky here is yelling at me for wanting to take out some of the books to keep from here." Ravenwing replied as he turned back to Chyvo and the two began to go at each other again. The two sighed some and continued to pull out a piece of parchment each and slowly unrolled them to reveal they were written in a language neither could even begin to understand. They set the rolls next to each other gently, careful to not rip either paper as they examined the pieces of paper.

With Ravenwing and Chyvo-

"See, they aren't hurting anything now are they?" Ravenwing asked with a huff as he continued to attempt to put the books in his forepaws into the satchel on his torso.

"It doesn't matter! Their presence desecrates the purpose of the secrecy of this place Sky-Screecher!" Chyvo replied with an even angrier expression as pink flames flickered on her lips some.

"It's a fucking library! Not some holy ass church!" Ravenwing replied with a growl. "Plus I'm the only one who could unlock the damn room anyways! You should be thanking me now that you have access to such 'important lost records' or some other bullshit." He finished which caused Chyvo to look at him surprised and blink a bit.

"Why you..." She huffed a bit before sighing and shaking her head. "Fine you can take TWO books and a scroll. No more. This place needs to be as intact as possible." Chyvo replied, earning a nod from Ravenwing.

"Good. Then we'll be going then ok. I assume the edge of your territory isn't far?" Ravenwing asked a huff of amusement as he put the books in his forepaws in the satchel as well as a scroll that had found his fancy earlier in the night.

"Yes, it's on the edge of the floating isles where it meets back with solid ground. I have no idea why you continue to fly with those elementals as I have said before, but since you will be gone it will not be my problem any more." Chyvo replied as she rose back to full height after having to look down at Ravenwing some when addressing him. Ravenwing nodded and turned to Spyro and Cynder. "Just...if you do get the chance to. Set the record straight if you can." She added as Ravenwing. The grey dragon turned back briefly to face Chyvo and gave a small nod.

"We may not have to get along, but..." Ravenwing paused and took a deep breath. "I can at least try for you." He replied as he turned back to Spyro and Cynder who were still trying to read their respective pieces of parchment and getting no where.

"Hey we're about to head out. Sorry for the scare I gave you guys last night." He said sheepishly while looking away with a grin. Standing next to the smaller dragons and leaning over to see what they were reading.

"Well next time tell us where you're going." Cynder remarked, turning back to face him. Ravenwing chuckled a small bit and yawned some.

"It's not my fault I lost track of time. This place doesn't exactly have any windows." Ravenwing retorted with a roll of his eyes. "So what you two got there?"

"We found them in an old statue." Spyro said gesturing to the golden dragon statue that had been opened. "We don't know what they say though. Would you be willing to read them?" The purple dragon asked with a cocked brow to which Ravenwing blinked some in surprise as he glanced at the parchments on the table. 'Can they seriously not read these?' He asked himself. Blinking some he turned back to Spyro and Cynder and sighed.

"Not right now guys, don't want Ms. Cranky over there to get all bent out of shape again. I'll do it later though." He said taking the parchments and rolling them up. The grey dragon set them back inside his satchel before shaking himself free of any lingering dust particles that might've been in the air. "Anyways, you two ready to go? According to our 'guide' we should reach solid ground by the middle of the day." Spyro and Cynder nodded a bit and turned to the entrance of the room.

"Thanks for getting us through the mountains." Cynder called out to Chyvo, to which Ravenwing translated. Chyvo blinked some in surprise a bit as she looked towards Spyro and Cynder who both gave a small wave by to her with a smile across each of their faces.

"B-bye..." She replied as she watched the trio leave and the room became vacant of life outside of her. 'Those two are almost nothing like dam told me.' She thought with a huff as she returned to organizing the shelves with a small bit of hope in her face.

The torch-light of the room the trio were in faded away to reveal the now sun-illuminated main hall of the building. "Oh the joys of sunlight. how I've missed them so." Ravenwing said in a joking manner, causing Spyro and Cynder to cock a brow at him while he chuckled to himself. With a shake of his head, Ravenwing led Spyro and Cynder outside where they were met with the ruins of the forward outpost that the surrounding area seemed to be before it was brought to ruin. "You know, with the way those rocks are positioned. It gives the impression someone tried to hide this place." Ravenwing commented as he flicked his tail at the rock wall. Spyro turned to look at it briefly and shuttered some at the sight, deciding not to comment on it as Ravenwing shrugged a bit. 'There had to be a reason they tried to hide it...right?' Spyro thought to himself with a frown.

The three dragons soon took to the skies again, angling away from the platform and towards the horizon. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air the sky offered, Ravenwing easily flew past the edge of the island and turned back to see Spyro and Cynder frozen some in place which caused Ravenwing to be confused. "What's up with you two?" The grey dragon asked with a roll of his eyes. "Missing pinky already?" He added with a chuckle which caused the two younger dragons to shake their head.

"No..." Cynder replied, "There is just some sort of magical barrier here that hurt us when we crossed it." She answered with a hesitant sigh. Spyro nodded as Ravenwing rolled his eyes.

"Really? A magical barrier?" Ravenwing replied not believing the two drakes. "I didn't feel a thing." He said.

"Maybe you haven't crossed it yet." Spyro said with a defensive tone, earning a small eyeroll from Ravenwing.

"Look if you two got cold feet it's ok." Ravenwing replied. "There's no shame in it." He reassured them as they sighed and decided it would be better to show him and not try to explain. However, when Spyro and Cynder were flying past where the barrier should've been, instead they flew through open air. Blinking some in confusion, they turned around to find the island had vanished again from their vision before turning back to Ravenwing who wore a confused look on their face.

"We swear there was something there is morning. Now the entire island is gone." Cynder said earing a slow nod from Ravenwing who could still perfectly see the island un obstructed.

"Suuuuurrrrreeeee." He said in a confused voice, earning a huff from Spyro and Cynder. Shaking his head some, he gestured the two confused elemental dragons to follow him as the three took towards the horizon.

In the hours that followed, the three remained silent. Spyro and Cynder seemed to be lost in thought while Ravenwing was just simply enjoying the breeze flying offered with a small smile on his face. 'Flying never gets old.' He thought to himself.

"Hey Cynder." Spyro asked in a hushed voice to where Ravenwing couldn't hear him.

"Yes Spyro?" Cynder asked in a similar tone.

"I was just wondering...do you recall if Malefor ever used other dragons during the war?" Spyro asked to which Cynder looked down some and sighed. She nodded some a small bit.

"Yes, but it wasn't very many. I was the only one he seemed to trust with anything, putting me above them in the command order. But we never did anything like that to a settlement." She replied with a frown as memories of pained screams and cries from her victims filled her head again, causing her to shake her head sadly. "Plus I never seen a place like that before on any map. What ever happened was before that war." Spyro nodded a bit and turned his attention to Ravenwing. 'What is it he isn't telling us?' He wondered to himself a bit as he flapped his wings again to keep his speed steady.

The trio were broken free from their thoughts by the sounds of rushing water and a small cry from just ahead of them. Due to this, the three rocketed ahead and burst through the clouds to find a small raft floating to the edge of where the world chunk ended in a cliff face. Squinting some, the younger dragons saw three Cheetah occupants who were frantically trying to get the raft back under control as they fought the currents. Spyro and Cynder dived first, Ravenwing staying above for a split second as his eyes caught a glimpse of something massive swimming beneath the waves. 'Damn it. Back into danger again.' He thought as he dived down to join Spyro and Cynder.

Chapter End