Chapter Two

Humiliation

Ruby creaked her eyes open to find herself in an unfamiliar spot. She carefully looked around the room with her eyes, not even daring to show a sign of life within her. The room she was in was actually a cave. A small cave. She also seemed to be sleeping on some small bed her own size. Was it made just for her?

She finally forced herself to sit up to hear some voices just outside the cave. Then two things went through her head.

"Maybe I should hide?" She thought with a frown. "Or play dead."

Her final choice was to listen in on that little conversation just outside of the cave. Two dragons, one red and one purple, were speaking to each other about her. Even another dragonfly was with them but never made himself known.

"So what are you going to do with him?" Flame asked with sympathy, still a little mad about the incident from earlier.

"I'm not sure," Spyro replied. "He looked hurt though because he was red."

Sparx finally joined in with some comments of his own. A series of buzzes came from the golden dragonfly which made Flame look at Spyro with nothing but wonder. When Sparx finally finished he turned to Flame and translated on what Sparx had just told him.

"He said that he doesn't like the idea of some random dragonfly sleeping on his bed," Spyro interpreted. He added on, "But as soon as Sparx can get a look at the dragonfly then maybe we can get him to tell us on what happened."

Ruby huffed as the dragons called her a male dragonfly. But she thought she heard another dragonfly's buzzing so she made her way toward the cave's exit. The red dragonfly stopped and peeked around the corner to listen in on the trio to find out what they were going to do with her. She couldn't remember much of how she ended up in the position she was in. The last thing she remembered was trying to stop her partner from burning down a Christmas tree. She didn't even know if she succeeded.

"So when is he going to wake up?" Flame asked as he looked at the remains of the incident.

Again with the he. Ruby wondered if they could even tell the difference between a male and female dragonfly. She was about to show herself to tell those dragons that he was actually a she but she stopped thought before she acted.

"Could be anytime. I hope that he's friendly when he wakes up."

As soon as Spyro finished his sentence Ruby found herself tired of being called a he. So she bravely made her way outside the cave and toward the dragons in a fussy sort of mood.

"Whoa Spyro you sure told me," Flame said in a sarcastic tone.

The red dragonfly began buzzing some loud and choice words making Sparx having to listen in on what she had to say. He knew Spyro wouldn't be able to catch all of it. As soon as she finished Sparx turned to Spyro to tell him the news on what she said, leaving out a few details here and there.

"Oh," Spyro simply said with a mild chuckle. "So he is actually a she?"

Sparx confirmed it with a simple nod and said another sentence.

"And her name is Ruby?" Spyro continued in question, making sure he had it right. Sparx nodded turned to Ruby, who seemed to be lost in some sort of daze.

But Ruby was actually adoring Sparx to no end. There was something about the golden dragonfly which made him seem somehow cute. Maybe it was just because she hadn't seen another dragonfly for a good while now.

"Can you tell us what happened earlier?" Flame asked.

Ruby sighed as if she went through this a hundred time before. But she obeyed and slowly told the dragons that could understand her on how she ended up in the predicament she was in. Slowly but surely her story was told so Spyro repeated it all to Flame with the best of his might.

"She was with that green fur dragon that burned down our Christmas tree. She tried to stop him from burning it down but it seemed that he didn't notice that she was in front of him when he blew fire. So she was knocked out by the flames."

"Who was the dragon though?" Flame inquired, hoping that he could get some answers about this mysterious figure.

"She said his name was Mirelth."

"Never heard of him," Flame replied.

"Maybe one of the dragon elders can tell us about him?" Spyro suggested.

Flame grinned in agreement, "Yeah, let's ask Nestor!"

Spyro smiled as well, but he was smiling at something else. Ruby was looking like she was taking a liking toward Sparx for she was slowly making her way toward the golden dragonfly's side. It didn't take but a few more seconds for Ruby to be right beside Sparx.

"Sparx, can you keep an eye on Ruby?"

Sparx was about to object but Flame cut him off, "We'll only be gone for a second, come on Spyro."

And like that, Spyro followed Flame to find the tall green dragon Nestor, leaving Sparx by himself with his female friend.

A few minutes later

Nestor's cave was quite large but extra roomy. He had a small fire going in an empty corner of the cave for warmth with a couple of places to sit on a gray mat in front of it. There was one bookcase at one side of the cave and Nestor's large bed at the other. A large treasure chest was locked down tight in the other corner of the cave, Spyro guessed this was where he kept his gems.

"So have you ever heard of Mirelth?" Flame asked, finally breaking the ice on why the two small dragons were there.

Nestor was quiet for a good while. The fire crackled as Spyro looked at it wondering if he didn't even hear his friend. He was getting a little old after all.

"Mirelth," Nestor said. "I haven't heard that name in years."

"So you've heard of him?" Spyro asked,

Nestor watched the dancing fire a moment before answering, "Yes. But it was a long time ago and I thought he was gone forever. I never thought that he would come back."

"Come back?" Spyro questionably repeated.

"I guess it's time I've told someone about him. Even if one of them can be cocky."

"You talking about me?" Spyro smirked. "Because I have no idea what you are talking about."

Nestor gave a faceless expression as he began the story, "This dragon you saw is much older than you think. He is around my age. When Mirelth was born, he had a . . . characteristic that other dragons didn't have. Instead of scales, he was born with fur. No one knows how it happened. It saddens me to say that, because of his fur, he was made fun of, picked on, and pushed around." Nestor shook his head and continued, "His nickname was the dragon mop."

Spyro was about to crack up but managed to hold it in, "So how did he end up leaving?"

Nestor continued with slight hesitation, "The last we saw if Mirelth was during a flying test in the Sunny Flight portal. Everyone was doing fine and were passing the test, but Mirelth somehow ended up crashing into the water. Everyone laughed at him, but what made Mirelth the maddest was when they brought his nickname up saying that he really suited a mop."

Thirty Years Ago?

Sunny Flight Training

Mirelth flew just inches above the cold waters below, praying that he could finish the course in at least a descent time. He already flew through the smoke rings, the crystal arches, and just finished flaming the last barrel on the back of the train the circled around the small mountainous island of Sunny Flight. The last few things he needed to flame were the golden chests in the small cavern up ahead. Mirelth thought he could do this without any noticeable errors so he was pretty confident in his abilities.

As the green fur dragon approached the cavern, he spotted the first chest sitting on a ledge overlooking the river in the cavern. Mirelth flamed it and making it burn into shattered bits which were doused into the water below. Another chest was spotted on the right side of the walls, making Mirelth switch sides to get to it. When he was close enough, he let out his fire. Two down six to go.

Two more chests were spotted on the left and the right sides of the tunnel, so Mirelth took out the one on the left for he was more closer to it. As soon as he heard the chest fall into pieces, he switched sides just in time to catch the other one. There were only four more to go.

The tunnel Mirelth flew down opened up into a large, dome type cavern with an open ceiling for the sunlight, which never seemed to cease, giving the dragon plenty of light. Nearly every dragon was watching him from the open rooftop to watch the challenger finish the final remains of the course. A thin tall rock jutted out of the water in the middle of the cavern, making the fur dragon take note of it's existence. Around the cavern were the four remaining chest, evenly spaced out on their ledges on the rock walls. This was it. The last bit was right here, waiting for the newcomer to conquer it.

Mirelth leaned toward the right and flamed the first chest he saw. He circled around and spotted another chest, in which he took out with ease. The dragon continued on until he spotted the second to last chest, which he flamed just in the nick of time. Then as he continued on, he eyed the last chest just waiting for him. With a smile, he sped forward in confidence with victory right there in his grasp. With one last flame, he let it all out. The remaining chest was destroyed and the dragon could have screamed in his triumph.

He finished the course under the time limit making him more than overjoyed. He done something right. Finally! After all these years he had done something right!

But the embarrassment was only waiting to strike him where it hurt the most. The heart.

As Mirelth turned to exit the cave, he forgot about one thing. The stalagmite in the middle of the cavern. It was so sudden that the fur dragon didn't know what hit him as he collided against the rock. The next thing he knew, he was under the water with his breath knocked out of him. The dragon had failed and thought about just staying underwater until he passed out. But thoughts that the elders would look over that last bit went through his mind, urging him to emerge from his shivery bathe. But as soon as he surfaced, he was greeted with something else entirely.

All the dragons above him, mostly all his age, were laughing at him. Mirelth just floated there, wishing this wasn't all true. He finished the course, why were they laughing? It was like they didn't even care about his success.

Regardless of his mistakes, he still managed to fly up through the hole in the cave ceiling and landed in the best opening he could see.

Dripping wet, he still asked the tallest dragon, "So did I pass?"

But his question remained to be answered as all his classmates were laughing hysterically at his state. He looked down at his fur to see it all drooping down toward the rocky ground, dripping with the salty water.

"He looks like a giant green mop!" a dragon yelled out.

"Ha! He does!" another one replied.

"The elders could use him to clean up their floors!" someone laughed.

"Hey giant green mop! Can you walk through my cave? The flooring is kind of dirty!"

Everyone laughed at him, even the elders found it quite amusing. You could almost see the rage boiling up inside of him. He was about to scream into a rage but a low buzzing noise in his ear kept him from walking up to the nearest dragon and rip him to shreds. Mirelth looked over his shoulder to see a red colored dragonfly by the name of Ruby. But Ruby was looking at something else near a green dragon's shoulder in front of them. There was a golden dragonfly which didn't seem to agree with the other dragons. He was only shaking his head in disagreement before flying off, away from the crowd of dragons. Ruby wondered for a second on who that dragonfly was for this was the first time she saw him.

The testing continued for the remainder of the dragons. Mirelth never found out if he passed that test or not for the elders only told him to wait for the results like everyone else. But no one seemed to notice the fur dragon, breathing heavily in his wrath. The only one that stuck by him through thick and thin was his partner Ruby. But the dragonfly was concerned for both her partner, and the dragons that made fun of him. There was no telling what kind of plans were going through Mirelth's head. Plans of revenge, plans of humiliation. So Ruby suggested one idea that Mirelth seemed to like at the time. The plan was to run away.

Without another word, Mirelth disappeared that day. The elders grew worried about him as the days passed and even bothered to send search parties after him. But Mirelth was long gone and nowhere to be found, so eventually the search parties were called off. The elders assumed that the fur dragon was gone forever. But they assumed wrong.