Chapter 31: Lost
Silver: Greetings all! Welcome to chapter-
A door knocking interrupts me.
Silver: I wonder who that could be?
Walks over to door and opens it to find an orange dragon standing in my doorway. I had to look down slightly to get a good look at him. The dragon had a silver colored underbelly and horns to match. He had little spikes running from his back all the way down to his tail blade.
Rift: Yo!
Silver: Who are you and what the heck are you doing here?
Rift: The name's Rift, don't wear it out. You wanted a beta reader?
Silver: Yeah…. I just didn't expect you to be….um how do I put this?
Rift: I know I'm a dragon, and dragons are magic.
Silver: Yes..yes they are. Well come on in then and let's get you settled.
Rift: I know you weren't expecting a dragon from the future to pop in.
Gestures for this...ahem...Rift to come in. He does so and immediately jumps onto the bed and flops down. I walked back over to my desk to get my laptop for him but right as my hands touch it I began to hear rapid typing. I turn around to see that Rift somehow has a laptop that I didn't see on him at all.
Silver: Where did you get that?
Rift: Magic.
Silver: Right.
Walks over to see that he is already editing the chapter.
Silver: I'm not going to ask. Well since you're here you get to do the disclaimers!
Rift: Sure! Silver doesn't own any of the Spyro characters or story, only his own OCs and storyline. I belong to some human that likes orange and dragons, Rifty Agon. If you don't like the story, then go eat your pity pie.
Silvus' POV:
The flight back to the temple was short and uneventful. Trak had nothing to say and neither did I. But I could not help but admire his armor that he wasn't wearing the first time I saw him. His armor was bronze colored with a dark green engraving of the symbol for earth in the center and engraved on the forepaw braces was a symbol unknown to me. Slowing down a bit, I got a short look at his back armor, it had several symbols I didn't understand. I was only taught a couple elemental symbols by Hadriel.
Maybe Gabriel will teach me the rest plus other symbols?
I flew closer to Trak to ask him what the symbol's meant on his forepaws. "They both mean messenger. Messenger armor is different from most but not everyone understands that we are messengers and not normal soldiers."
As the temple grew closer I still had one more question to voice out. "What's the difference between messenger armor and soldier's armor?" Trak happily answered.
"Well it is much lighter for quick movement. It's also made out of several different materials. My armor is engraved with several different earth spirit gems, that's why all these symbols are green. Another material is a special one. Varytita, an extremely rare metal. Only a little bit is used only for its special properties. It is added to the third material."
At this point we had landed and are walking through the courtyard of the electric side of the temple. Trak was walking slow, thankfully, or else I wouldn't have been able to keep pace. Most everyone forgets that hatchlings have rather short legs.
"What is the third material?" I asked my curiosity peaked. Trak turned and flashed me a small smile.
"That's why Varytita is so special. A small bit of it combined with any material can make it strong and light!" Trak said, then gesturing to his own armor. "Mine is made of bronze. Bronze used to make armor can be rather heavy. If Varytita wasn't used in this set of armor it would be a slight hindrance, but given materials that are heavy and not normally used for armor. Varytita is the key." Trak looked like he could talk about this for ages but we finally made back to the meeting room, and it seems that we were waited for.
In the room was Ignitus and Kafto, both the Fire Guardian and Messenger looked anxious. "Ah Trak good to see that you've arrived." Ignitus said.
Kafto and Trak gave each other a nod of acknowledgement. I myself gave Kafto a small smile for which he returned.
"What is going on Ignitus." Trak said his normal cheery tone turned serious.
"I have received a vision." Ignitus said, my eyes widened to this but Trak had no change in his serious look. "The shadow city of Schatten may be under attack within the year. The Guardians of shadow, poison, and fear need to be warned. Trak, you and Kafto will be going there to give the warning as well as keeping watch for any suspicious activity in the area. Remember Schatten is a united city, you will be welcome there." Both gave a nod of affirmation.
"When do we leave." Kafto said.
"The next dawn." Ignitus said, continuing before Trak and Kafto got up to leave. "Hold up." Ignitus said interrupting them. "Silvus will be accompanying until you pass by the Arcan River."
"Why?" I asked and looked at the Guardian quizzically. All of them, minus Trak, knew that I wanted to return to Shimmering Shores as soon as possible, why am I going with them?
"They are to escort you to the Arcan River. There you will begin your journey to Shimmering Shores." Ignitus said.
Oh. Right. I guess I missed that part.
"But why do I need an escort? It's not like I haven't traveled alone before." Not that I don't mind the company, I just want to know.
"You found out yourself Slivus, that it's no longer safe for dragons to travel on their own." Trak said, in total understanding of the situation.
"I..understand." I said.
"Good." Ignitus said. "Now all of you rest up." Every gave their respected bows and left the room.
Kafto and Trak split off in different directions perhaps to their rooms. I decided to go along with Kafto, interested in what his room looks like. We went around the circle surrounding the pool of visions room towards the fire end. No surprise there. We went down a side hallway, a couple set of stairs into a hallway with a couple spread out doors.
Kafto passed down a couple doors before stopping in front of one with the symbol for messenger and fire. He place his right paw on the symbol for messenger and the door opened. He gestured for me to go inside and I did so.
The room was rather empty. Save for a statue in the left wall with red and orange armor on it. To the right a pill of red and orange cushions dominated the wall. The back of the room contained a balcony with banners on either side of the doorway to the outside. Both banners were orange with different symbols for fire and messenger. Other unknown symbols were there as well.
But something I didn't notice before. The left wall had several pictures on it. Several different dragons with different elements dominated the entire wall, save the messenger armor.
There were fourteen pictures in total. I only recognized two of the dragons, Kafto and Trak. In the middle of all the pictures was a picture of all of them together.
Maybe these are the messengers, all of them. I voiced my question to Kafto.
"That was the first time all of us were together." Kafto replied, his voice lowering. "Now we're all spread out. Some of them are missing." Looking at him, Kafto was patting his cushions a bunch. Then, he walked over towards a small doorway to the right of the pile of cushions.
He opened it up and threw out a few more cushions to me. I took off my satchel and set it down next to my sleeping place. I stared at it for a few moments, then remembered I had something of his. I got Kafto's attention and then took out his family picture from the satchel.
Kafto stared at it for a few moments before collecting it from my paws. He muttered a thanks before setting it down on a desk in the left corner of the room that I seemed to miss. He walked out onto the balcony, to which I followed. His gaze was glued to the east to where the sun was setting. The view was absolutely amazing. The streaks of orange, purple, and pink clouds caused by the sun was amazing. To the west I saw cloudless sky with thousands of stars streaking across the sky, but instead of focusing on the stars I looked over at the sunset once again. We stayed on the balcony until the sun passed under the horizon. We were high enough to see over the wall.
"You never want to miss a sunset in Warfang." Kafto said. "The view is better on the roof." I could not help but continue staring at the eastern sky, even when Kafto went back inside. "Come on, we have a long day tomorrow."
The morning was calm and cool as ever. The Trek to the northern gate was as long as usual, but the long walk was worth it. The large gates was impressive, a red and orange energy seemed to flow through the middle. Another cool aspect was the large dragon head like thing at the top of the wall that turned out to be a cannon. Apparently, it went through each elemental village, every Guardian adding their own aspect to the cannon.
Warfang is well defended and I doubt it will ever fall.
As we walked towards the gate, Kafto gave some sort of signal to the mole operating the gate. The fiery energy dissipated and the gates opened as we approached. We were greeted with a view of the huge mountain in the distance, large green plains in-between.
Once we passed through the gates we began to fly north west. Kafto had explained our route on the way out, we were to pass the Mountain of Fire into the Valley of Avalar. We had to fly past the cheetah village and continue north until we hit the ocean, which just happens to be where the Arcan River meets the ocean, and that's where we'd part ways. It would take a week to get there.
The day after we left the Valley of Avalar, I wanted to know about Kafto's armor. The conversation was interesting.
"Hey Kafto what is your armor made of?" I asked as we flew over a large lake. He didn't take long to answer.
"Well, Trak already told you about his armor I'm guessing?" He said. I gave him a nod then stupidly realized that he was looking ahead and not at me.
"Yep!" I replied.
"Well everywhere you see symbols is embedded with fire gems, given to me by Ignitus when I began to train." Kafto said. "But most of my armor is made of gold. It was dyed orange and red in certain places."
As we flew I saw the symbol for ice on Kafto's back. I became curious to why the fire dragon would have an ice symbol. A few minutes of thinking brought me no where, but voicing my question might.
"Kafto?" I began. I didn't get a worded response but I knew he heard me. "Why do you have the symbol for ice on your back?" I asked curiously.
This time Kafto did look back at me and simply said. "Isn't it obvious." That left me confused for a few moment before the answer came to me. His sisters both their elements is ice.
Why am I so stupid?
The rest of the flight was silent. We landed in a clearing to make camp for the night. Kafto easily made a fire to keep us warm for the night. Though some of us had to keep watch while the others slept. Nothing came to attack us, accept for my curiosity to know what the symbols of Kafto's and Trak's armor meant.
The next morning I voiced my question. I only got one answer from either of them. Trak and Kafto both pointed to a symbol on each of their backs. They answered with; "Lost." I couldn't help but ask why. They didn't answer.
We were to arrive at the Arcan River by tomorrow. This was going to be the last night with all of us together. No major words were spoken, in fact, hardly any words were spoken at all.
Is this my fault? Is it all because I asked why they put the symbol for lost on their armor?
Soon enough, sleep overtook me and Kafto was to take the first watch. Because of how young I am, they wouldn't let me take watch, no matter how many times that I insisted I could. Still, that didn't change the fact that keeping watch was important in case ape patrols were roaming around.
Sleep was something we all needed. My dreamless sleep was interrupted when I was shaken awake by Trak, holding up a claw in a sign for me to be quiet.
Then he whispered to me. "Stay hidden."
I opened my mouth to ask why but a bright fiery explosion stopped me. Trak left me to and went towards the explosion.
I peaked over the tall grass to see fighting going on. Burnt apes bodies littered the ground. I looked up to see Trak and Kafto moving around quickly, twisting and turning their bodies to avoid apes swords. Each of one of their blows resulted in a kill. Neither one of them were harmed in anyway. Even if an ape got a lucky hit on either one of them in would bounce harmlessly off their armor.
Kafto quickly turned around and spat a fireball in the ape's face which left him running away screaming. Soon enough, there was one ape left. It looked angry with the two of them for killing all his comrades, but at the same time, he looked terrified. So instead he just ran away.
Trak and Kafto left their fighting stances and walked towards me. I was staring at them in awe. The way the moved and took out each ape without even looking tired at all amazed me.
Trak just smirked and showed me another one of his symbols. "This one means loud warrior."
That made me laugh and curious at the same time, but now wasn't the time for questions. Now was the time for sleep.
Once the sun was up, we were on our way. It didn't take long for us to find food before finally reaching the Arcan River. To our left was the ocean, and, according to my map, the direction in which Shimmering Shores is.
Trak shook my small paw and bit me goodbye. Kafto gave me a pat on the shoulder.
"It was good to meet you Silvus and I hope to see you again some day." He said, I returned the words.
One thing that I didn't think of. I spent all this time with Kafto and only now did the word friend come to mind.
Soon enough, the time came for me to make my flight across the ocean. Both of them wished me good luck. I gave them thanks and took off flying in the direction of the light island.
Another thing was said to me that I couldn't get out of my head. Just as I took off flying, I heard Kafto say one last thing. "You'll find out why lost is one of our symbols soon enough."
I could not figure out why he said that or what he meant. Maybe he'll time me the next time I see him. But for now, it was time to make my return to Shimmering Shores, a place that I can call home.
Silver: And here comes the end! Silvus will finally be reunited with Gabriel! I'd like to thank my beta reader! YAY first beta read chapter! Rifty Agon is his name, ya'll should check out his stories (Whispering) Especially his Bolt story.
Rift tackles him.
Rift: Nooooo!
Silver: Ahhhhhh! See you all next week!