Chapter 37: Water Dragons and Secrets
Rift stood proudly and smug.
Rift: Look at your beta reader, now back at me. Now back to your beta reader, now back to me. He isn't me, but he could write like me. I'm typing with my tail, eating chocolates in the desert, listening to Bohemian Rhapsody as I provide heat to the ice dragons. Look down, now up. You're now on a boat, with the man your beta reader could write like if he switched to Pest Spice!
Silver: What are you doing?
Rift: I got us a sponsor, but they required me to do that little skit.
Silver: We don't need a sponsor. This isn't the type of thing you sponsor for.
Rift hands Silver a stack of money.
Silver: Fine by me.
Rift: Silver doesn't own any Spyro characters or storyline, only his OCs and story. I am owned by a hooman, Rifty Agon. If you don't like the story, find something else to hate on like how everyone dies in Game of Thrones.
Silvus' POV:
I was instructed to meet with Vrochi and his Messenger on the mainland, the closest beach to Shimmering Shores. The ocean city of Water Mount was on the other side of the mainland. Gabriel informed me that it was too risky to travel along the land with apes now roaming the land, hunting dragons.
So here I was, sitting on a sandy beach. It was midafternoon on a clear day. I was waiting for the Water Guardian and Messenger to arrived. Apparently, they were to swim all the way here just to meet with me. I didn't understand why Gabriel wanted me to meet any of the Guardians before I became a Messenger, I was still five years away from completing my training. But here I was.
They weren't flying as far as I knew, they were swimming here. All I knew about water dragons was they are exceptional swimmers, though they can still fly as well as any dragon. Gabriel really hadn't taught me about water dragons yet.
Speaking of water dragons, where was Vrochi? I've been waiting here for at least an hour and the Guardian still wasn't here. I'd be surprised if he even showed up at all from what Gabriel told me about him. Once I become a Messenger, I'm going straight to Ignitus about this one.
I pawed at the sand, watching the waves come up to my forepaws every now and then. The ocean was clear and I could see several rocks near where I stood. Then, something further out began to move. It was underneath the surface of the water and it was heading straight for me. I could see three blobs. Two were the same size, about the size of Kafto except bigger, then there was a third blob. It was rather small and around my size.
I stood up once I spotted the three blobs. I couldn't help but guess that was who I was waiting for. But why is there a third? I thought only two were coming here. Once three blobs, now shaped as dragons, got close enough, each one of them jumped out the water, sending water everywhere. Thankfully, not on me.
One by one, they all landed in front of me, one had dark blue Messenger armor on. I gave a slight bow in greeting, instructed by Gabriel. "Greetings Vrochi Guardian of Water." I said to the bigger of the three. I expected to it to be Vrochi, and thankfully, I was right.
"Speak only when spoken to, hatchling." His voice was smooth, not exactly deep, but not high either. He had a bit of a sneer when he spoke. "Tell me, nature dragon, where is Gabriel and his Messenger." He said messenger like it was a disgrace. Already, I felt like burying his head in the sand.
Keep it together Silvus, he is a Guardian.
"Excuse me sir?" I began. "I am Master Gabriel's Messenger in training." I said sitting down on my hunches while holding my head high. The other two dragons with him, from what I could tell, were dragonesses. The younger one had a light blue outline of water drops along her forepaws. She was dark blue with an aqua underbelly, her horns were about as long as mine except they looked like they were curving toward her body.
"You may call me Master, not sir." He almost sounded insulted that I called him sir. "I didn't know Gabriel allowed Messengers of a different element. How...peculiar. Where is the old white dragon, hatchling?" He didn't even ask my name.
"He sent me here, Master Gabriel cannot leave his island." I said. The other dragoness looked at me since I said I was a Messenger in training. Maybe she is seeing if I'm Messenger material.
"I presume Master Gabriel is training you well?" The Water Messenger asked and I nodded my head. "And you can handle-"
"Did I say you could talk, Kryma?" The edge made obvious in his voice. Kryma didn't look happy by this, and in fact, neither did I.
"No Master Vrochi, you did not." She said, her voice had a tinge of anger in it. When she talked normally, her voice was soft and kind, like a cool ocean breeze.
"That is correct." He said before turning to say something to me, but was interrupted.
"But Master Vrochi, it is my job as a fully trained messenger to question the trainee." She said.
"I do not care for your evaluations Kryma, now do not disobey me again!" Vrochi shouted, turning to look down at Kryam, trying to scare her with his size and anger. I didn't even see a hint of fear in her eyes.
"With all do respect Master Vrochi, but according to Master Gabriel, this is why I was brought along. You are only here to meet him." She stood up to the Guardian. Vrochi looked taken aback by this, then he looked extremely angered by her.
"We will finish this at WaterMount." His voice straining in anger. "Do your evaluations." Vrochi said before storming off down the beach.
Kryma let out a sigh of relief and no longer looked like she wanted to strangle someone. "Sorry you had to see that, what did you say your name was?" She asked, going back to her calm tone and soft voice.
"Silvus, it is a pleasure to meet a fellow Messenger." I said giving a small bow.
"Ah." She said holding up a claw. "You aren't a Messenger just yet Silvus. Now, are you able to handle the training that Master Gabriel is giving you?" I gave a nod. "How are you with your nature element so far?"
At that, I gave a laugh and scratched the back of my head. "Actually I'm a ice dragon."
Kryma looked surprised, as did the little hatchling beside her. "That sure is rare, but no matter, Master Gabriel can copy any element despite their color. Now, I have no need to repeat my question."
"It is well, but I have a question for you." I said. She inclined her head to show that she is listening. "How do you know of Master Gabriel's power?" I asked.
Kryma looked hesitant to tell me, but the hatchling nudged her and whispered tell him. "I became a messenger during the time of the Guardian proceeding Vrochi." I noticed she didn't say Master Vrochi, obviously not all water dragons wanted him as Guardian. "Delfini was her name, well was her name, but she used to tell me stories. You see, she was trained by him."
What does she mean by used to be? I voiced my question.
"I shouldn't say, she wouldn't want me to." Kryma shook her head. "Now then, why-"
"Was it Susan?" I interrupted. Kryma froze. So it is true. But if Kryam knew, then Gabriel is bound to know as well, but why didn't he tell me?
"How did you-" Kryam began before she was rudely interrupted by Vrochi.
"We are leaving." He said heading straight for the water, then with a flap of his wings he jumped up and dived straight into the water.
"It was nice to meet you Silvus, tell Master Gabriel that you are Messenger material and that he made a good first choice." Kryma said while shaking my paw.
"It was nice to meet you too Kryma, have a safe trip back to WaterMount." I said and Kryma gave a nod in thanks before she turned and walked back towards the water.
The hatchling that came with them, for whatever reason unknown to me, was sitting in the water, staring at me. I turned my head to meet her gaze. Her eyes were hazel. She gave a smile and I kindly returned it.
"Come on Kardia!" Kryma called before repeating what Vrochi did only a minute before.
Kardia immediately stood up and followed Kryma. "Coming mom!" She said in a high pitched voice.
Wait, Kryma is her mother? No wonder they look so alike, minus the light green underbelly and the light blue eyes.
"Bye Silvus." Kardia called before repeating for the last time what Vrochi performed.
According to the outside world, the sun was going down. But of course, in Shimmering Shores. The absence of the sun did not allow me to know the current time. Gabriel may the only one who could tell the time on this island. Speaking of Gabriel, I need to talk to him.
He is keeping things from me. Things about my family, I want to know why.
The first place I looked for the old dragon was the map room. Strangely, he wasn't in there like he normally was. I've rarely seen him anywhere else, except when he was training me. I searched almost the entire temple, everywhere that he trained me. I almost had never seen him outside the temple so I didn't even think to look there.
I checked nearly every elemental floor and reached the twelfth floor, which happened to be the top floor and the light floor. The floor was bright with a large hallway that had a center area that splits off in four ways. There also seemed to be little half spherical slots on the floor near the corners of each room. At the ends of each hall was a large hole, when I went over to one of them, I couldn't go outside. I ran straight into an invisible wall or something.
Lining the halls were several doorways, one of these possibly leading to Gabriel's bedroom. I went to open one of them to search of the Light Dragon, when the whole place...flashed. Like someone turned the light off then back on again. That caused me to freeze in place, only for a moment.
I turned to open another door, the same thing occurred. I repeated the process in that part of the hall until I found a door that did not flash. I opened it, inside was just a white room, nothing was in there….except a small white ball. I approached it cautiously. Once I reached it, I poked it with a claw and nothing happened. The small white ball was about the size of my paw. I picked it up in my maw. The room turned from white to black causing me to almost swallow the ball.
I left the room quickly and returned to the center hall, to where I saw the slots. Maybe…. I dropped the ball in one of the slots and it fit perfectly. I took a glance at each of the other three corners, they each had the same slot. It's a puzzle, but why? To where?
I repeated the process of finding the room that didn't cause the entire hall to flash, retrieving the little white ball, and placing it in a slot; until I finally completed this task, once I did nothing happened. I was confused, what now? I questioned myself if I did anything wrong until I took a closer look at the white balls. They seemed to be the same color as the crystal's that opened the doors at Warfang. Just maybe…..
I went to each of the balls and breathed a little ice on each of them. That caused the whole room to rumble. I looked up to see that a part of the ceiling was moving, it slid away revealing another floor. Once the rumbling stopped I spread my wings to fly up there, to explore the one place that Gabriel never showed me, but I never got the chance.
The room grew colder as an ice spiral staircase was formed all the up through the hole. I guess whatever element is contained in the crystal's that's what forms the stairs. Wait then how can light create a solid staircase then.
Instead of dwelling more on my thoughts, I went up through the staircase into a large open room with the tip of the mountain seemingly protruding from where I stood. Several pillars were holding it up. I went farther out, only to see Gabriel atop a platform made of light. He was looking at several other lights surrounding the tip top of the mountain.
There were thirteen colors surrounding it. My only guess was that they were the elements, all of them. But why were at the top of the mountain I didn't get the chance to dwell on that question when Gabriel spotted me.
With a flap of his wings, he glided down to the ground and landed in front of me. "What are you doing up here Silvus?" He said, not sounding happy.
"I was looking for you Master Gabriel." I said, still respecting the light dragon enough to refer him as master, even though I was still rather angry with him. He opened his maw to ask why but didn't get the chance to voice the question before I growled."You knew. You knew that my mother was the Water Guardian, Delfini."
Gabriel didn't look all to surprised by the anger in my voice. "Yes, I did know. I trained her. I saw the resemblance the first time I saw you." He muttered something under his breath that I couldn't make out. Though did sound much like, that's partly why I took you in. "But was only confirmed when you told me that Void was your Uncle."
"Why didn't you tell me!" My voice rising.
"To teach you a lesson young dragon." He said simply, which caused me to be all the more angry.
"A lesson! This is my family we are talking about and you used it to teach me a lesson! What possible lesson would that be!" I asked, well pacing back and forth in front of the old white dragon.
"A lesson of withholding information." Despite my lingering attitude, Gabriel sounded surprisingly calm, but that didn't make me any less surprised from his answer. "You need to be taught when it is a good time to withhold information in certain circumstances. This is an example of when it is not a good idea to hold information. You need to be taught when it is a good idea when to hold information and when to not."
I clenched my paw in anger, driving my claws into the palm of my paw, which wasn't a good idea on my part. "What is an example of when you should withhold information?" I asked through clenched teeth.
"When you know for sure that it will cause a similar reaction that you are having right now." He replied, causing me to suddenly drop my anger and realize what he meant. I looked at my paw and saw that it was bleeding. "You need to learn to control your emotions, Silvus, or else they will get the best of you and cause you to make rash decisions. Holding grudges will only hinder you, Revenge will not allow you any gain."
I let out a sigh and sat flat on my belly, looking up at the wise gaze of Gabriel. He gave a heartwarming smile, similar to the smile that my mother used to give me whenever I had an injury of some sort. "I'm sorry that I broke like that Gabriel. I will...try to control my anger."
His smile only grew and he picked me up with a strong paw. "You cannot try, you must do. Now, you've had a rough day, there is another Guardian I want to teach you about."
I gave him a small smile as he guided me back toward the steps. I took one last curious look at the lights surrounding the tip of the mountain before it was no longer visible. One day, I will ask him what that is, just not right now. What little anger I had left, still there, just dormant.
The human and orange dragon walked into the house. Silver had taken Rift grocery shopping, allowing him to spend some of the money they received from the sponsor.
Silver: Alright, where is the leftover money?
Rift: I don't got any...
Silver: What did you do with it, we bought like two things!
Rift hops up on the couch.
Rift: I ordered something.
Silver: Oh, and what would that be?
The doorbell rang, interrupting the conversation. Silver sighed answered the door, revealing a delivery man holding up a pen and clipboard.
Delivery Guy: Hi, I got one hundred bottles of Fireball Whiskey for a Mr. Riften Agon?
Silver's jaw dropped as Rift hopped off the couch and took the clipboard and signed it.
Rift: Thank you!
The guy nods and walks away.
Rift: You okay Silver? You're not looking too good.
Silver walked away.
Rift: See everyone next week! Leave some feedback, it'll help Silver find a way to get all his money back….maybe…