Hey guys, I'm back. I'm sorry that it has taken much longer than expected to get this chapter finished (I was hoping to complete at least one or two chapters for each of my stories in the time it has taken to write this, my excuse is that at several points in the chapter I couldn't figure out what to write but I have tried to make this chapter as detailed as possible, enjoy.

Chapter6: A welcome to remember

Tyron and Astor approached the area where the disturbance had occurred, the two old dragons pushed through the undergrowth and found themselves in what looked like the wake of a tornado, fallen trees, disturbed leaves and broken branches littered the floor and there lying in a heap in the middle of all the carnage were the three dragons they had been looking for. There was a load groan from in amongst the pile and Spyro spoke up "whoever's got their butt in my face please get off" "get your tail off me" Flame said, "what's this in my mouth?" Ember asked, "that's my wing" Spyro roared with annoyance. The two older dragons looked on as the three younger dragons laughed, bickered and tussled amongst themselves, each one trying to free him/herself from the pile, that is until they noticed Tyron and Astor watching them, they immediately untangled themselves and faced the two older dragons. "And where might I ask, have you been?" Astor asked, the three dragons looked from one to the other sheepishly, wondering if they should tell them where they went or make something up, "we went exploring just outside the village" Ember said, "how on earth did you cause such a mess?" Tyron asked, motioning to the debris littered around them. "We had a go at flying which was easy enough...Until we tried to land." Spyro explained, "well that certainly explains it, are you three alright?" Astor asked, "Yea, we're fine" Ember replied. "Good, then let's get you cleaned up, then we'll take you home.

The three young dragons were expecting to be taken back to the village, instead Tyron and Astor lead them towards the lake that lay just a little to the west of the village, the lake itself was located in a quiet and undisturbed clearing in the forest, surrounded by various forms of vegetation. The three young dragons looked around the clearing in amazement, none of them had ever seen anywhere as beautiful, serene and peaceful as the place in which they now stood, the young dragons all rushed down and leapt into the water, splashing about and playing, whilst they were busy cleaning themselves, Astor sat down beside Tyron who was lying on a large boulder observing the three younger dragons, "ahh, the energy of youth, I remember when the two of us could afford the time and the energy to mess around as they do, do you remember that?" Astor said blissfully, "yes, and I remember how you always got us into trouble" Tyron retorted, drawing a chuckle from Astor, "Listen, I had best be heading back to the village and finish off the preparations, once these youngsters are finished, take them to Ruthenia to get them spruced up before bringing them back to the village" Astor instructed before getting up and leaving.

a short while after Astor left, Tyron called Spyro, Ember and Flame over to him, the three shook themselves dry, stretching out their wings and letting the water runoff them before proceeding to follow Tyron who took them back down the way they had come, however, just before they reached the clearing, Tyron led the three young dragons down a path that had previously been hidden when they had come down the opposite way. The path snaked around for a while so that Spyro could no longer tell in which direction the village lay before climbing up towards a large area of forest that had been cleared, in the middle of the clearing stood a large, evenly shaped mound of earth, Spyro certainly hadn't seen anything like it and wondered if Flame or Ember had been up here before. Tryon lead Spyro, Flame and Ember round to the other side of the mound, Spyro noticed a fairly large circular door had been cut into the mound and two statues of dragons stood guard either side of the entrance. Spyro could no longer contain his curiosity, "what is this place and why are we up here instead of back at the village? Spyro asked, "this here is the house of the lore-keeper of our village, Ruthenia is responsible for guarding and adding to the written history and knowledge of our village and as for why we're here, she of course adds to the knowledge of the village and everyone in it and I think that you should meet with her" Tyron answered, Spyro was wondering why that would be of any importance, however they had already reached the door and Tyron brought is paw up and knocked. The group waited for a while before a tall, thin dragoness answered, Spyro likened her dark green scales to the grass that covered the mound, he suspected that she was an Earth dragon, her eyes seemed a little oversized, a least to Spyro, though they seemed warm and welcoming. "Ah Tyron, it's you, tell me, what brings you up here just before the feast?" The dragoness asked, "well, I brought these three dragons up here in order to get them, spruced up before the feast" Tyron replied, stepping aside so that Ruthenia could see the three young dragons. She looked first to Flame, then Ember and finally Spyro felt her glare as she looked him up and down, "my goodness what happened to you, you look like you were chucked into a pit full of Drohakka, no, no, no, this won't do at all, we can't have you going to a feast like that", "I...I don't know anything about a feast" Spyro said, Ruthenia huffed in annoyance and glared at Tyron "trust Astor and his right wing dragon to not tell you anything, you might as well come in then" she replied, stepping aside and allowing the group inside where they found themselves in tall but thin passageway with just enough room for two dragons to squeeze past each other, the floor of the passageway was coated in smooth stone, similar in colour to Spyro's horns and underbelly, the walls were made up of earth and reinforced with more of the same rock that paved the floor, multiple glowing plants and fungi sprouted from the walls of the passageway sending blue and green lights dancing around the tunnel. The tunnel itself sloped downwards and curved around, going deeper and deeper into the ground until finally it levelled out into a large hallway with other rooms and passageways leading off, most of the rooms contained shelves of books and scrolls, whilst others contained more plants and fungi arranged in neat rows with others hanging down in baskets suspended from the ceiling. The lighting in the hallway and the other rooms coming off from it was very different from the lighting in the passage they had just come out of, suspended from the ceiling of the hallway and the other rooms were several metal and glass cages which the three younger dragons were fascinated to find out contained many fireflies which were the source of the light.

"Shira, Shira, where's that blasted cheetah got to" Ruthenia called, the sound of something dropping could be heard in one of the rooms and a midsized dark brown furred creature walking on two paws which Spyro assumed must be a cheetah emerged from within. "You called my lady?" the golden brown furred cheetah asked, "yes, we've got a big task ahead of us in getting these young dragons ready for the feast, go and get every claw sharpener and every drop of scale polish in the hill, quickly, go" Ruthenia instructed as the cheetah ran off down one of the hallways and came back carrying two crates in her arms which were filled with sweet smelling bottles and various metal instruments. Shira immediately set to work on Spyro, dusting off his scales with a brush and applying an oil that smelled a bit like honey, "good, don't skimp on that scale polish, I want his scales to shine like the moon so everyone can see him" Ruthenia ordered, Spyro wasn't too sure on the everyone seeing him part, he was perfectly fine just blending in . After she had finished, Shira pulled out a metal file and began filling each of Spyro's claws down to a sharper point. Whilst Shira was busy, Ruthenia bombarded Spyro with questions, asking him about his family and his life before joining the village, however Spyro could just shake his head and reply that he didn't know, he was after all still no closer to finding any more clues about his past, suddenly, Ruthenia crossed her forelegs over and peered down at Spyro "I must say, I like the colour of your scales, you would be a shadow dragon if I'm still fit to judge dragons", Spyro nodded, "I remember my mother mentioning something about Shadow dragons whilst in the egg, but I'm not really sure what that means", "that's interesting, we haven't seen any Shadow dragons in this village for many years, apparently they are now quite rare and some even thought them extinct. You say you don't know much about yourself or what it means to be a shadow dragon? tell you what, I think I should have some scrolls on shadow dragons around here somewhere, come up tomorrow and I'll see if I can find them, I'll also help teach you to read if you can't already" Ruthenia offered

Once she had finished with Spyro, Shira began working on Flame and Ember, it didn't take her as long to finish each of them as it had to do Spyro, "ah, our young dragons finally look presentable, go and fetch a mirror plate" Ruthenia said in a satisfied tone as Shira hurried back off down one of the tunnels and came back carrying a sheet of silver that was half as big as she was, she held it up in front of the three young dragons, Spyro looked into mirror and was amazed at the reflection that was staring back at him, his horns that had previously been dull sparkled like the plate that was held up in front of him, his scales too stood out and she had painted a crimson coloured stripe over each side of his face which made him both menacing and in a way, cute. She had also trimmed his scales in places so that they looked even.

So it was three proud young dragons that followed Ruthenia, Tyron and Shira back down towards the village. When they entered the main square of the village, Spyro had never imagined such a gathering or that the village could be transformed so drastically. The centre of the village had been cleared and tables had been arranged in a horseshoe shape with the oval end facing Tyron's store, the tables overflowed with food including whole carcases of deer and Hog, stings of lanterns were expertly woven between the buildings and crisscrossed the square. At the oval end of the table sat Astor with the other dragons sat seemingly in order of age with the oldest near Astor and the youngest at the bottom end, all of whome were busy chatting and laughing, some turned their heads and noticed the three as they walked in, but most were too busy to notice. Flame and Ember went and sat down at a free spot beside several other young dragons and Spyro made to follow them but was stopped by Tyron, "Not this time Spyro, this feast is for you which means you have the honour of sitting at the head of the table". To say Spyro was shocked was an understatement, he was amazed that they would go through all this trouble for him and he must have shown it because Tyron laughed "It's traditional to welcome every new dragon to the village with such a feast and it has been too long since the last one". Spyro went over and sat at the empty place beside Astor. After a while Astor stood up "can I have your attention, right I think that everybody's here, however before the celebrations begin, I would like to take this time to make an introduction, stand up Spyro for I must say you are looking fine tonight" Astor said as Spyro hesitantly stood up and tried to look as proud and confident as possible, but it was hard with all the other dragons staring at him, he heard a few whisper to each other, "most if not all of you may have seen Spyro around the village, but for those that don't know, he was found wounded, unconscious and alone outside the village by Flame and Ember, he has since been taken in by Jothanna, I expect you all to welcome him with open arms and I daren't keep you longer, enjoy the feast".

The rest of the evening went like a blur to Spyro, he ate and drank, met and spoke to so many dragons that he wondered whether or not he would remember them all, eventually he found himself curled back up on his fur rug staring up at the stars, he truly liked it here and whilst he wondered how he had ended up here in the first place and wished and hoped that his biological mother was still alive and well somewhere, he knew he had a family, friends and a home, here he had everything he would ever need. Finally the dark depths of restful sleep consumed him.

Well I'm going to end it there, I was planning to make this chapter longer, but you guys, girls or whoever/whatever else reads my stories have waited long enough, besides, I can always move that part to later on in the story. see you all next time. this is xXShadowTheWolfXx Signing off