Flame the dragon lay on his back, staring at the ceiling of his room. Candles and a roaring fire in the fireplace threw dancing shadows across his admittedly sparsely-decorated room. Two bookshelves stood side-by-side, with rather few thin books adorning them. Various knick-knacks and keepsakes filled in the gaps between the books, and gave the shelves a somewhat fuller appearance at first glance.
In the approximate middle of the room, a gigantic red plush cushion sat, freshly fluffed before the red dragon plopped down on it. A coffee table that served as a bedside nightstand sat to the side of the cushion. Most of the dragons that attended the dragon temple were allotted a meager budget for decorations and furniture for their rooms; the only furnishings that came standard with the dorm rooms were plain, utilitarian, wooden bookshelves and a glass-topped coffee table. The young dragons were free to add and replace any of the furnishings as they saw fit, in an effort to make them feel more comfortable when they were so far away from their homes, most of them for the first time.
A loud rapping at Flame's door caused him to start. The guest knocked four times-not six like Ember usually did. His heart sank slightly. "Come in," he called.
The door was pushed open, gliding silently on well-oiled hinges. Criton stood in the threshold, looking at him oddly. The silvery dragon walked calmly into Flame's room, closing the door behind him with his tail. Criton's milky-white eyes seemed to glow in the soft, flickering light.
"Hi, Criton. Did you need something?" Flame asked amicably, if a bit uncomfortably. The blind silver dragon was more of the quiet sort; during their entire time of their training at the dragon temple, the silvery dragon had spoken nary a word to anyone besides the Guardians, and even then he seemed to keep his answers as short and curt as possible.
Criton shifted his weight between his weight as he seemed to debate as to which words to use. "I assume that you heard about Terrador," he said after a moment of apparent deliberation. The words came haltingly and slowly, as though he didn't want to say them.
Flame's gaze dropped. "Yeah, I did. It's a real shame-he was probably one of the strongest of the Guardians… If the temple were to be attacked, I'm not so sure we would hold out."
The silvery dragon dropped his gaze to the floor. "I also hear that you and Ember are going to go looking for Spyro and Cynder," he blurted after a few moments of somewhat awkward silence between the two of them.
Flame shifted uncomfortably. "How did you find out about that?" He asked after a moment. "Nobody was supposed to know that we were leaving."
"Call it a lucky guess," Criton said with a small smirk, which was the first facial expression that he had made during his entire short visit to Flame's room.
Flame narrowed his eyes at the blind dragon. "Still. Why do you want to know? It's none of your business."
"Because I need to go with you," Criton said quickly in response to Flame's quickly rising ire. "I saw it. I need to go with you. I don't know why, but I'm supposed to."
Flame huffed something between a groan and a sigh. Spirit dragons were but a myth or rumor until recently; stories were told their intensely magical abilities and the bad luck that they leave behind in equal amounts-not all of it untrue. Criton was the first, and so far only, Spirit dragon to be enrolled in the Guardian training program. After a few weeks of testing and trials, it was found that Spirit dragons had no breath abilities to speak of; instead, they channeled their unique draconic magic through their paws, allowing them to manipulate their abilities much more directly. While the eight main types of Elemental dragons were better-suited for direct combat, Spirit dragons were more at home practicing medicine behind the lines. There were stories about a highly prolific Spirit dragon assassin, but nobody was sure how much of the stories were true and how much was false.
A Spirit dragon, it was found, used concentrated willpower to manipulate the flow of natural energy that permeated the world. Thus, they could theoretically use all four Light elements and one of the Dark elements: Fire, Electricity, Ice, Earth, and Wind. They also had very short-range telekinesis, and accomplished Spirit dragons had the utility of telepathy. One of their more lucrative abilities, however, was the fabled ability to sense the will of the Ancestors, although no one had ever proved that their sense was accurate.
Criton would be a valuable service to any expedition, particularly a potentially dangerous one. With another sigh, Flame gave a small nod of assent.
Criton bowed his head. "You have my thanks. When do we leave?"
"First thing tomorrow morning. But, Criton," Flame said as the silver dragon turned to leave, "You get to tell Ember that you're coming along."
Criton gulped.
~...~...~
Cynder the dragoness was never fond of making promises or swears. She knew that the universe seemed to be out to get her, thus making most promises un-keep-able, and she knew that it was entirely possible that she might not be around to keep the promise that she made.
But, just this once, Cynder swore to herself that she would thank every single one of the mole cooks back in Warfang. It had taken her nearly an hour to butcher and prepare the sheep that she had killed and brought back to the hilltop where she had put her purple friend, and she hadn't even tried to start to cook the meat. With a subconscious shudder, she considered eating the meat raw as she had when she had spent her time serving under the Dark Master. The amount of time that it took her to decide against eating the meat raw unnerved her slightly.
After the personal dilemma of deciding against raw meat, Cynder next had to face the dilemma of starting a fire. She had no breath abilities that could even think about starting a fire besides Convexity, and her personal purple campfire-starter was more or less comatose. She sighed forlornly as she resolved to fly down to the river that wound through the valley below in search of a flint that she could scrape against her tail blade with. Her stomach growled furiously in righteous indignation at the setback.
~...~...~
After the fall of Malefor, the dragon temple sent out a casting call of sorts to all of the known villages and cities that dragons were known to live in, looking for candidates for the vacant role of Fire Guardian. In addition, the remaining Guardians and a group of their trusted friends and advisors elected to start a school to raise young dragons to potentially become leaders of their respective communities and masters of their own elements. Eventually, a choice few would be selected as successors to the remaining Guardians.
Young dragons from across the globe flocked to the dragon temple of Warfang-many, many more than the Guardians and their advisors had anticipated. Determined to not turn a single candidate away, some of the moles and dragons living in Warfang volunteered to have their houses serve as dorms for some of the younger dragons.
Criton strolled down the streets of Warfang, nothing remotely close to a hurry in his step. The young dragon couple that had volunteered to share their house with him lived just on the inside of the wall, nearly a mile and a half from the entrance to the dragon temple-not that Criton minded. The walk back and forth every day gave him a chance to wake up and shake the sleep out of his eyes in the mornings and reflect on the information that he had learned over the course of the day in the evenings.
The blind silver dragon had no problem avoiding obstacles and navigating the winding city; his abilities as a Spirit dragon allowed him to feel where objects around him were located. Some of the other dragons and moles seemed to take pity on him, opening doors for him and even offering to help him eat, once. However, Criton assured them each time that he could get by just fine on his own, though they didn't always believe him.
Infinitis and Rayde didn't so much as stir when Criton walked in through the unlocked door. They both worked full-time on rebuilding the surrounding walls of Warfang during the day, so most of the time that they were at home was spent catching up on much-needed sleep, usually on the couch in the living room as they were now. Criton thought it best to not wake them-the three of them were very early risers, and they could chat in the morning. The silver dragon slinked up to his room, already mentally building a list of materials and accessories to take with him on his journey in the morning.
(A/N): Hey everybody! It's been a while-nearly four years, actually. Instead of re-rewriting this story, I figured I'd go ahead and try to breathe new life into this one. You might notice a little bit of a change in my writing style-after coming back and revisiting this story after so long, the sheer amount of improvement and progress that I've made is something that I can confidently take pride in.
Anyways, enough bragging. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I promise that my next update won't be four years from now. :) Cheers!