Hello guys and girls and whoever/whatever else reads this story, now this chapter is long overdue, partially because of the fact that this is the chapter which sets the events in motion for the following parts of the story, so I had to make sure I had the rest of it planned out for the future chapters and partially because of the shear length of the chapter, now I've actually cut a large chunk out of this chapter, it was originally meant to include some of what will appear in the next chapter, but I figured you guys had waited far too long already, so I cut that bit out and instead it will be in the next chapter.

Chapter 5: Every journey begins with a single step

three young dragons made their way slowly along a twisting woodland path. two of them were male and female fire dragons with red and pink scales respectively, the other dragon was different, he had dark purple, almost black scales and purple eyes . "how much further is it to this cave, and shouldn't we have told everyone where we're going?" the purple scaled dragon asked his two companions, "not too much further, and don't worry, we'll be back long before anyone realises we're gone" the dragoness reassured him. The trio battled through the thick forest for what felt like hours before they eventually reached their destination. The cave mouth consisted of a large opening flanked either side by bushes and trees, the cave itself extended back into the hillside where the dragons now stood, where light could not penetrate.

**Ember's POV**

This was it, we were finally about to explore this cave, part of me feared what kind of terrible creatures could be lurking in the darkness, but any fear I had was overwhelmed by my excitement, besides I wasn't alone, Spyro and Flame were with me and nothing could possibly harm the three of us, could it? I was snapped out of my thoughts by Spyro's voice "It looks pretty dark in there, how are we going to see?" He asked. "Good question, that's why I brought these" Flame replied, dropping the three bundles of sticks that he had been carrying up here out of his mouth, I had been meaning to ask him why he had brought them but it looked like he was going to tell us anyway. "Now Ember, when I pick this up I want you to set fire to the end of it." Flame picked up one of the bundles of wood in his mouth and pointed the other end of it towards me, I took a deep breath in and carefully let out a small, gentle flame which successfully set fire to flame's bundle of sticks, I now realised what it was that we were using them for. I picked up one of the other two and lit it using Flame's already lit one, Spyro quickly followed suit. "Okay, so who's going first?" I asked, "I will" Spyro piped up, he stepped into the mouth of the cave and I followed closely behind him, with Flame closely behind me.

The light from our torches danced across the lichen covered walls and reflected off droplets of water dripping down from the roof of the cave and forming in puddles on the floor. So far it seemed a very drab and dreary place, hardly the stuff of tales and tongues, still I was excited to be going on out on an adventure with my friends, my mind wandered to imagining the sort of treasure we would find, a long lost horde of gold perhaps, or maybe a stash of precious jewels, or perhaps even a long lost city brimming with treasure. I was snapped out of my daydreams when I heard a loud cracking noise, I was wondering where it had come from when suddenly the ground beneath Spyro gave way and I watched, horrified as he fell into the yawning darkness. I rushed over to the hole as fast as I could, looking down I saw Spyro sprawled on the floor of another tunnel which seemed to run perpendicular to the one we were in and was about 8 or 9 foot below us, a pretty long way for a young dragon to fall, the torch he had been holding was still lit and had rolled a few inches away from where he had landed, the hole he had fallen through was of course wide enough for a young dragon to slip through but there defiantly wasn't enough room to fly back up out of there. I was worried that Spyro might be seriously hurt until he started groaning and slowly got back to his paws. "Are you alright?" I called down, worried about his well being, "yea... a bit sore, but I can't really complain" he joked, well at least that meant he was ok, "well it doesn't look like I can get out the way I came in, see if you can get down here by continuing down the way we were going before, I'll stay right here and wait for you" Spyro called back, I didn't want to leave my brother, but his reasoning was sound, if we had any hope of reaching him then it was down the way we were originally going. after walking for a little while longer, the tunnel suddenly opened up into a vast cavern, filled with stalactites and stalagmites, some of which reached from the ceiling to the floor, the room was filled with the sound of running water and the screeching of the many bats which hung from the ceiling and flew around the room, a stream wound its' way through the cavern from one corner to the other, twisting between the stalagmites. The scene was quite beautiful, but something was bothering me, perhaps it was the fact that my brother was alone in some unknown part of this or some other cave, perhaps it was the unsettling sounds of the bats or perhaps it was the flickering shadows that were cast around the room by our torches, I tapped Flame on the shoulder, "what is it Ember?" he asked, "I...I don't like it in here, I feel like we're being watched" I said, Flame chuckled at this and pointed at the ceiling "of course we're being watched, there's all those bats up there" he joked, I swore I could hit him, "No, I don't mean them, it feels like there's something darker watching us, something terrifying, watching, waiting, just out of sight" I confided "oh come on Ember, you're just being paranoid, now let's explore the rest of this cave and find Spyro" Flame said, moving off again, I followed but at a much quicker pace than before, I couldn't escape the feeling that something was following us. I quickly turned around and found two shining red eyes staring back at me, I didn't have time to scream.

**Spyro's POV**

Whilst waiting for Ember and Flame to find me, I looked around the immediate vicinity of where I fell, the tunnel extended as far as I could see in either direction, the walls were filled with moss and several cracks, one of which was wide enough for me to slip into, I had decided to investigate this crack further when I heard something scurry around inside it, my belly grumbled, I felt hungry and something told me that whatever had made that noise was a perfect source of food. Dropping the torch, I poked my snout into the crack, my sharp eyes spotted a flash of movement to my left, a quick snap and it was all over, I dragged my snout back out to see what I had caught, a sizeable cave rat, a perfect snack, I opened my mouth wide and swallowed it in one gulp. After that meal I decided that I would lie down and get some rest whilst I waited for Flame and Ember, when I felt the ground vibrating under my feet, something big was coming down the tunnel and it certainly was too big to be Ember and Flame. Looking around I found the nearest place to hide, the large crevice I had been investigating before, I quickly put out the flaming torch before I ducked into it and dragged my tail inside. Moments later, a large shape moved through the darkness outside of the crack, two smaller shapes hung loosely from its mouth, shapes that resembled...Dragon's, Ember and Flame, they must have been captured by whatever this creature was. I needed to rescue them, but how? this creature had managed to take both Ember and Flame down together, both of whom were larger and more skilled than I was, plus I was alone, but I knew I at least had to try something, I wasn't about to leave without them.

I waited till the creature was out of earshot, then I quietly slipped out of my hiding place and back into the tunnel. I cautiously followed the large creature, just in case there were any more of them around. I was amazed at how quickly my eyes had become used to the darkness, I could see every little detail on the walls as well as if I was still holding the torch, although I didn't know too much about the world, this entire tunnel looked too perfectly shaped to be natural. My suspicions of the tunnel were proved correct when I happened across the entrance to a much smaller tunnel leading off to the side which looked easily big enough for me, Flame or Ember to walk through, with any luck this could provide a convenient escape route once I had rescued my friends. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, the tunnel narrowed into an entrance way, light came from the other side. Trying to be as quiet as I could and sticking to the shadows, I made my way over to the entrance and peered beyond. The tunnel opened up into a cavern, the light came from a fire lit amongst a pile of twigs and logs, bones, some of which still had dried meat or blood on them were collected up into large pile near the fire, even more were scattered across the floor, I spotted Flame and Ember tied up against two large boulders on the opposite side of the fire. The creature that had captured them lay off to one side, from my angle it looked at least twice the size of me and looked sort of like a dragon without wings, I couldn't see its head from where I was, but its spine covered tail and body were frightening enough, luckily the creature seemed to be asleep, I hear its slow, steady breathing from where I stood. This entire rescue might just be easier than I thought, if I could just get across the room without waking the creature up, then I would be able to rescue my friends and get out of here before it even noticed they were gone.

I stealthily picked my way across the cavern, trying to make as little noise as possible whilst avoiding the bones that littered the floor, a couple of times, the large creature grunted in its sleep and became restless, each time I stopped perfectly still, worried that it would wake up. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity I made it over to Flame and Ember. "Okay, I'm going to get you out of here, just try not to make a sound" I whispered as I cut through Ember's restraints before moving onto Flame. After I had freed them, we made our way back across the room, it was all going perfectly until one of us trod on a bone, snapping it and sending a noise like a thunderclap echoing around the cavern and down the tunnel, the creature suddenly jumped up and turned to face us, the creature's head too was similar to a dragon's except its lower jaw was split into two parts. The creature fixed its red eyes onto us and let out a challenging roar, I could only assume that it wasn't very happy about its food trying to escape, well now we were for it, our only hope was to dash back through the tunnel and hope we were faster than the creature, that is unless...I looked up at the roof of the cavern, located just above the creature's head was a formation stalactites, if I could somehow knock them down, then it might distract the creature and allow us to get away. I took a deep breath, instead of a large ball of fire however, a black fog poured from my mouth, filling up the room and leaking out into the tunnel, the creature roared in frustration at its sudden loss of vision, "what's going on?" Flame asked to my left, despite everyone else's loss of vision, I could see perfectly, this would be so cool, if we weren't in a life or death situation that is. "Flame, Ember, take my wings, I know the way out" I said, leading them over to the tunnel entrance, dodging round one of the legs and narrowly ducking under the swinging tail of the creature which was wildly thrashing about, trying to hit us.

Eventually, we burst out into the tunnel and continued running, a few seconds later a roar followed by a crash told us that the creature also found the exit, it could probably run further through these tunnels than we could and would soon catch up, unless. We neared the place where I had seen the smaller tunnel, I steered over to the side the tunnel was on and skidded to a halt as soon as we reached it, "why are we stopping?" Ember asked, "now I know you guys might think I'm crazy, but I think we can get out this way, and the creature won't be able to follow us" I explained, "Well, I think it's worth a try, what about you Ember?" Flame said, "well, if it's a choice between this and that creature, there's more future in the latter" Ember replied. As the sound of the creature got louder, we all scooted inside the tunnel, we watched as the creature thundered past before continuing off down the tunnel which started sloping upwards. After a while of crawling along the shaft, we reached a large circular room, the walls of which were ornately carved but looked in disrepair, vines and creepers snaked along some of the more broken sections and twisted through cracks in between the stones, they were fed by light pouring in from a hole in the roof of the room. in the centre of the room was a broken stone alter with some sort of object lying on it, I walked over to it to investigate further, the object in question was a shinning silver metal with large glowing blue gem set into the centre of it. I decided to take a closer look at this strange thing, but as soon as I reached out to touch it, the object flipped up into the air, small chains flew out of the object and twisted round my neck, attaching themselves together at the back, I noticed that the part around the crystal had morphed itself as well, it was now shaped like a dragon curled up around the crystal.

"Wow, nice amulet, now let's find a way out of here before that thing comes back" Flame commented, walking over and inspecting it closely before heading off and looking around the room for another exit, I looked up at the ceiling more closely, I could see cracks radiating out from the hole that was already there, "hey, do you two think you could blast the roof down? It seems weak around that hole" I asked, well, we might was well give it a go, shield yourself Ember replied, I shielded my face with my wings as Flame and Ember took in a deep breath, just in case a stray bit of rock came in my direction. I felt the heat when Flame and Ember unleashed their attack, I felt the shockwaves as the twin balls of fire struck home, there was a load crashing noise and dust swirled around me, once the dust cleared I removed my wings to find myself facing a large pile of rubble, Flame and Ember now stood on either side of me, I looked up to find that half the roof had collapsed inwards, bathing the room in warmth and light from the sun which hung directly overhead. Each of us looked at each other and instinctively knew what the others were thinking, we scrambled over the rubble, each of us trying to be the first to get out of this tunnel, I was gaining on Flame who was in the lead when he purposefully dislodged some rubble which came crashing down towards me, I narrowly dodged it and a yelp from behind told me that it had almost hit Ember too, finally I scrambled over the edge of the pile of rubble and almost crashed into Flame who had stopped dead. Me and Ember stepped round flame to find ourselves at the edge of a large very steep slope dropping down into the trees below, "well, now what do we do?" I asked, I was out of ideas and there was no way we could go down that slope without hurting ourselves, "do any of you two know how to fly?" Ember asked, both me and Flame shook our heads, "well, I guess now is as good a time as any to learn" Ember said, extending her wings and giving them a quick flap, "you can't be serious?" I asked, "Trust me, she is" Flame retorted. I slowly extended my wings, feeling the wind catch against them, I flapped them a couple of times, once I made sure everything seemed ok, I joined the others as they leapt off the edge.

I felt myself falling, part of me was yelling at myself for being so crazy as the ground rushed up to meet me, I quickly unfurled my wings and instinctively angled them slightly, a strong breeze hit my wings, lifting me upwards, I looked to the left and right of me and found Ember and Flame flying right beside me, "woohooo, we're actually flying" Ember yelled with excitement as we flew up through the clouds, it certainly was peaceful up here, I closed my eyes, feeling the air rushing against my face but was interrupted when Flame spoke up "yea, but how do we land?".

POV end

The dragon village was a hive of activity, dragons rushed this way and that carrying tables, barrels and plates, the centre of the village had been cleared and instead tables had been placed in a horseshoe shape. Astor watched over the preparations from in front of Tyron's store occasionally telling the other dragons where to place the various items or else telling them to be careful with his masterwork crockery, An earth dragon, almost as old as he was walked up to him, "hey Tyron, any sign of them?" Astor asked, "not yet" Tyron replied, but he was interrupted by a crashing sound and the sight of a few of the thinner trees located outside of the village falling down, "you know, I think that might just be them now" Tyron finished.

Well, that's chapter 5 up now, which puts this story pretty much in line with my other stories as far as progress is concerned, anyway, find out what the village is preparing for in the next chapter and don't forget to like/subscribe and leave a review. this is xXShadowTheWolfXx Signing off