Author info: This is a continuation of my first chapter battle among the clouds. In this story we last saw our heroes spotting a ferrous dragon. Sam, Kelly, Vincent and Paula are my own characters in the story. I hope to have many more chapters after this one. I am still new at this writing business so please go easy on me.

Chapter 2: Chase

The four field mice were running for their lives, trying to escape the ferrous beast. This beast was unlike anything they had ever seen before, it had wickedly sharp teeth, claws and even strange sails on its back which looked similar to those of their bat brethren. Kelly the mouse tended to be quite brave, yet she foolishly put the others in danger. She was the youngest grey mouse of their family, seeking out adventure at every turn. Vincent was the oldest and wisest of his siblings, as such it fell upon him to keep them safe. Whenever the group was in trouble, Vincent would come up with a good idea to get them out of their sticky situation. Yet it was quite frustrating to Vincent that Kelly and Sam would rarely listen to him, thinking they knew better than he did.

Paula was slightly younger than Vincent but she was the one that normally went out to help her mother collect berries and herbs. Her mother has been teaching her how to create medicine from herbs and berries, this is very valuable skill to learn when one is living in the wild. The fruits that she would find would come in handy as a food source for their family and if there was more then they could eat, they would store it away for later. Sam's age was somewhere in between Kelly and Paula's. He enjoyed having fun just like Kelly but he would question whether the things that they would be doing were quite safe. Sometimes he would follow her lead, other times it would take a little more to convince him to join in.

Their small forest home was in a fallen tree that had been knocked over in a previous wind storm a few years back. They had found this new tree a few months back after they had to abandon their previous home do to a forest fire. All of their food that they had stored was completely destroyed when the tree burned to the ground. This new tree seemed to suite their family quite well and upon moving in they began to decorate with whatever they had left that hadn't been destroyed in the fire. The tree was surrounded by tall grasses which hid them from view making it harder for predators to find them. Life in the forest was quite tough when you are a small mouse, and the beast that was chasing them now was no exception.

"Everyone scatter!" Vincent shouted. "This beast can't chase all of us."

The other mice acknowledged Vincent's command and began to take off in different directions, in hope to maximize their chances. Cynder growled in frustration as the mice scattered in all directions to escape. Great that is going to make hunting them down more difficult. She thought. Now which one of them should I follow?

Cynder decided to chase the smallest mouse of the group, because she figured it would be the easiest one of them to catch. It was kind of hard for Cynder to run since she still wasn't fully healed from the power of those life giving rocks.

While Kelly was running, she began to hear footsteps loud ones coming from behind her. She turned her head to glance behind and sure enough the large beast from before was following her. Why did it have to pick me? She thought. Well at least the beast can't chase after my siblings now.

Kelly began to cry out hoping that her brothers and sister could hear. "Help, help, help!"

The other mice heard the cry for help but still continued to run.

That is my sister. Vincent thought. She must be in trouble. I can't rush over to help her, otherwise I would be slashed by that beast.

"Oh no Kelly is in trouble!" Paula squeaked. "At least I will be safe, but she won't. Oh I wish there was something I could do to help her."

Sam was the closest mouse to Kelly upon scattering, he had taken a route up the middle to escape the beast's eye.

Just a little bit further and then I will be safe. Sam thought as he ran hoping to get to the safe grassy area of their home. Then he heard his sister's scream and that changed his whole plan of escaping. "No I can't leave her to face the beast alone, she is too young to die that way."

Sam turned around and began to head in the direction of Kelly's scream, forsaking his own safety at hand to go and help his baby sister. "I am coming sis please hold on. I am coming."

Meanwhile back in the forest where Kelly was. She continued to be pursued by this injured beast, which continued to gain some distance on her.

"Help me, someone please! Help!" Kelly cried again trying to reach anyone around to help her.

"Cry out as much as you like mouse, for soon you will be my dinner." Cynder laughed. She was so affected by Spyro's loss that she didn't care about anything else but food.

Vincent finally arrives at the grass line exhausted from exhausted from his run. He collapses to the ground, falling face forward. "I made it, I finally made it."

The other mouse Paula was still running but was beginning to slow down. She heard her sister's scream but still she continued on, racing to reach the grass line. Sam heard the scream again and began to sweat a little bit. Suddenly he began to see something come into view and quickly ducked into a grassy bush. Turning his head around he could see the tail of the beast heading towards the east. She must be heading that way. he thought.

As the female mouse continued to run, she eventually hit a dead end after turning towards the left. Kelly begins to whimper in fear as she began to backup into a wall. "Please beast spare me, I am too young to die! Please don't eat me!"

The dragon Cynder approached the trapped mouse and smiled quite evilly. "I am more then a beast my little rodent, I am a dragon. Right now my tasty treat, you will make such a delicious meal."

Kelly cringed in panic at the dragon's words and began to scrunch up into a small ball. "Why me? Why are you doing this? I just want to go home."

Sam followed the beast until it stopped, his eyes were filled with horror as he saw his little sister backed into a corner by the beast.

Oh no! Sam thought. I got to do something to help her but what? After some amount of time he began to hear the beast speak. A dragon? What is one doing here? Sam asked himself and then out of the corner of his eye he spotted that the dragon's tail was on the ground.

"Why, why foolish mouse?" Cynder laughed as she picked up the mouse by the tail. "Quite simply cause I am hungry. Now little one I will give you a new home, inside my tummy that is. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"Nooooooooooooooo!" Squealed Kelly as she dangled helplessly in the air.

Sam crawled across the mighty dragon's tail as quickly as he possibly could to rescue his sister Kelly. The urgency of his sister's voice driving him forward. The dragon Cynder smiles at the mouse as she brings her closer to her mouth. "Now my little morsel it is time for you to die."

She then dangles the poor mouse over her open mouth waiting to release her. Kelly closes her eyes as tears begin to form. "This can't be the end, this can't!"

While this was going on Sam eventually reaches the dragon's wings and rushes over to one of them. Opening his teeth as wide as they can go, he prays hard for this to work and then bites into the dragon's already injured wing.

Meanwhile back at the tall grasses Vincent waits patiently for the others to show up. Suddenly he senses movement from the grass and he starts to get into a fighting position. However he soon sees that it is another mouse. "Oh thank god it is you Paula. For a minute there I thought you were the beast."

Paula looks at him with a smile on her lips. "Well if I was the beast you would be dead already."

"I guess you are right about that. That creature is so huge." Vincent replied.

"Yeah by the way have you seen Sam yet?" asked Paula.

Vincent shakes his head. "No I haven't. Have you seen Sam?"

"Neither have I. I hope nothing has happened to him." Paula replied worriedly.

Suddenly a large piercing yell echo's through the forest, Vincent looks like he is about to jump out of his fur. "What the heck was that?"

"I don't know but what creature made that cry, but it was certainly not a mouse." Paula let out a sigh of relief.

"I agree well whatever it is, it will probably be dead pretty soon." Vincent somberly replied.

Back in the woods where Sam, Kelly and Cynder are, Sam had just bit into Cynder's wing causing her to howl in pain. Cynder reluctantly releases Kelly who falls to the floor. Sam begins to yell down to Kelly. "Kelly run now! Run!"

Kelly just sits where she had landed. "Run? But, but what about you?"

"I will be fine now, run I will hold this dragon as long as I can. Now just go!" Sam spoke in haste.

"Owwww." Cynder cried out in pain and then turned her head around to see a mouse biting into her wing. "Why you little worm! I am going to make you pay for that!"

Kelly ran as quickly as her legs could carry her. She had to get away, to warn the others about the dragon. Sam smiled happily as he saw his sister disappear and continued to buy his sister precious time. He knew that there was really no way to stop this dragon on his own, but still he fought on. The dragon began to shake trying to throw Sam off her back. "Get off pest!"

"Never!" Sam shrieked as he continued to bite into the wing, but he began to feel his grip slipping.

Cynder was finally able to shake the mouse free and using one of her paws she hit with enough force to knock Sam out. "That is one out of the way, now for the other one."

Kelly continued to run through the forest nearly tripping over roots and limbs in her haste to flee. "Got to keep up, just got to."

Cynder picked up the unconscious mouse Sam and held him tight in her wings as she began to smell for the other mouse. "Lets see, no she is not this way, nor that way either. Wait the smell is coming from this direction."

Cynder then went off in search of the mouse, heading in a slight northeast direction.

Kelly continued to run away from the beast, Sam had bought her enough time to get a good head start. The pounding of her scared heart was echoing through her ears, and she only stopped a few times to check to see if the dragon was still following her. So far the dragon was no where to be seen, this gave her a chance to rest her tired body and to plan her next move. "Should I head up to the grass to meet with my other siblings?" Kelly asked herself and then realized. "That could work, but what if the beast shows up? If I did that then it would be four mice lost instead of just two."

At the grass line the two mice Paula and Vincent continued to wait for their siblings, first minutes then a half-hour after that a hour and still the others didn't show up. As the time progressed the two mice began to get quite worried. Why hadn't they show up yet? Had they lost the trail? Had they been eaten by the beast? These questions were on their mind, but they didn't decide to voice their worry. "You don't suppose that Sam went back to save his sister? Do you?" asked Paula.

Vincent raised an eyebrow as if that was the most ridiculous thing that could have happened. "That would be crazy, he would more likely lose his life than wined up saving hers."

Paula let out a sigh as if reading the other mouse's mind. "Vince that is exactly the sort of thing, he would try to do. He cares very much about Kelly our baby sister."

Vincent who would normally have a lot of ideas on their situation stood strangely silent.

"Vincent what are we going to do?" Paula spoke.

"I don't know Paula for once in my life, I honestly don't know." Vincent sighed as he kicked his feet in anger at the tall grass.

Paula was quite surprised, this was not really like Vincent at all. "Vince you can't give up now. I know it is hard, but you are normally the one that gets us of these situations by your bright ideas."

Vincent somberly looked at her. "It just seems so hopeless now. What can we do against a beast like that?"

"Hey, hey don't think that way Vincent, there is still hope." Paula frowned seeing him act this way.

Paula then starts to ponder the situation at hand and soon comes up with a plan. "I got it. We could get some warrior mice and they could tie the beast up in a net."

Vincent listens to Paula's plan and ponders it for a while. "Say you know what that just might be crazy enough to work. Thanks, Paula."

"Your welcome Vincent, maybe we should bring some potioners just to be safe." Paula said.

"That's a good idea too, so I am going to go this way and you can go the other way so we can reach more mice in a shorter period of time." Vincent replied and then headed off to the left.

Paula nodded and headed to the right to fetch more mice to help them.

Cynder continued to prowl the forest, searching for a sign of that missing mouse. That other mouse had ruined her plans for making the mouse her dinner. She growled in frustration for being so careless. Though the healing rocks had given her more energy, she was still pretty weak. Her wings were in a state of disrepair from an earlier fight. However, she was carrying the unconscious mouse Sam, with her and she began to smile. Cynder finally stopped at a clearing and began to search around for Kelly's smell.

Kelly felt tired after running for some time now, and decided to rest her feet. It was a relatively nice place with a small lake and many walnuts littering the forest floor. She scooped up several of the walnuts and proceeded to eat them. She was really grateful for this nice meal. The water was also very refreshing and cool. If she wanted to stay ahead of the beast, Kelly knew that she had to run right away. Her body unfortunately had other plans and refused to cooperate. So she had to sit down and wait for the time to pass, for her to continue on her journey home.

Cynder began to notice several different smells, some were antelope, others were caribou or other animals, but no mouse. She then decided to change directions to see if that might help. She peered through the trees and bushes, hoping to find the mouse, but she wasn't there. She growled in frustration that such a small creature had eluded her. Cynder then began to pick up two different scents, that of water and of a mouse. A grin crossed Cynder's face, she had finally found her scent again and began to head off in a slight northeast direction.

Kelly was unaware that Cynder was on the move. She went over to the stream to bathe her tired feet. Her feet were happy to have the nice cool water flow over them after a long winded chase. "Ahh this is so soothing, maybe I should tell the others about this place." She smiled in delight. Her feet splashed in the cool water, as she pleasantly thought of her forest home. Near the lake grew a small forest of mushrooms, which the young mouse girl would have loved to eat, but she didn't know if these mushrooms were poisonous or not. Suddenly she began to sense movement and didn't register it at first thinking that she had been hearing things until she saw the dragon's head appear out of a bush. "EEEEEP!" Kelly squeaked in alarm and then ran off quickly.

Walking up quite stealthily, Cynder was able to approach the same lake that Kelly, the mouse was at. Cynder was able to see the small mouse's feet dangling in a stream of water. All too easy! Cynder thought as she snuck up on the mouse. Cynder was able to get closer and closer until a branch snapped. Cynder noticed that the mouse was getting away so she pounced on it.

Kelly continued to run until she hit a black wall causing her to fall flat. She wondered where that black wall had come from, as it was not there before. Suddenly she began to feel herself pulled into the air by her tail and she began to struggle. She then heard the words that no mouse wanted to hear after she was lifted high enough to see the dragon's green eyes. "Hello Dinner."