Chapter 10: Looking Back

"It's away from home when you realize the true meaning of a parent's love and family."

- Unknown

From above, the Dry Canyon looked like a gigantic fissure in the earth, a hideous wound cutting across lush fields and jade forests for miles and miles on end. A dark thread of blue slinked through its twists and turns, around gargantuan boulders shining crimson under the sun, rocks that looked more like it belonged in a volcano than a canyon.

Dragons used to flight would never discover the hidden treasure of the Dry Canyon. From below, the walls glowed like a prism of gray, of orange and red. Closer to the bottom, soft sand replaced the rocks and gravel, broken only by the occasional cluster of Spirit Gems. Its arid desert-like terrain contrasted the verdant forest atop the rim. Beneath the dipping sun, it became a window, illumining into a memory Joshua didn't expect to be still fresh.

"Psst! Hey! Hey! Look at me. Come, look at me!"

"OH MY GOD! Dad, what the f*ck are you doing?"

"Oh, c'mon. Don't let your mom hear you—

"Eeeeeeeek!"

"Speak of the devil."

Joshua knew his mother the moment she walked into sight. Her white, youthful hands cupped her face, and her brown eyes were so dilated he thought they would pop. "Jeff! Get away from there!"

Jefferson Renalia grinned as he whipped a plastic expandable stick from Jesus knew where. The telltale shape of a camera was affixed to one end. And, the daredevil that he was, he courted fate as he raised the selfie stick high into the air, where he hoped to catch an unforgettable photograph of himself, where the ground spread out far behind him. It would only take one misstep—one little stumble—for Joshua's father to fall 800 feet down the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Click.

His mother tramped and clomped in place, squealing fearfully every second Jeff ignored her. "Honey, please, please, please, just-get-back here already!"

The playful father stuck a tongue at his wife and beckoned his eldest son forward. He pointed to another outcropping, just five feet away. "Son," he said. "Go over there and take a photo of me sitting down on the ledge."

"What."

"You heard me. Get your phone and take a shot."

Joshua groaned. "Dad, if you keep fooling around like this, we won't have enough time to walk down to Skeleton Point. This is our last day in the States. I want to—

"Joshua. We won't have many overlooks like this on the way down."

"But—

"Don't worry about it!" Jefferson crouched and took a seat on the ledge, feet dangling far above the yawning pit. He moved far too fast for comfort, from the way his mother screamed, even Joshua thought he slipped. "You realize we're missing 90% of the Grand Canyon? South Kaibab's just one trail out of 30 plus."

"Dad, I know, but I—

"Just do it."

Joshua sighed.

"Son, look at it this way: the sooner you do it…" Joshua's father, a well-built man with skin as brown as the earth, gestured at his mother. "The sooner you can get Erika to stop screaming."

The window slammed shut, startling Joshua Renalia out of his brief trip into the recent past. He stared down to the right, where he saw the shape of a giant lizard rubbing against his shin like a cat. A warm, scaly, and odd-looking cat of gold with misshapen horns on its head.

He gawped at the cat-goat-ram…thingamajig with an astonished expression, and it was not until he got a good look at the only wing curled up on its right flank and heard her unsullied voice that he finally remembered.

And when he remembered, he blushed from embarrassment. That was the last time he would blank out like that. Never again!

"Y… yes?"

"You've been staring up the canyon for five minutes," Kilat uttered. She tilted her head. "Why? There's nothing up there but rocks." She pouted and strolled around for a second before motioning towards the open valley spread out before them. "There's nothing here but rocks! What's so amazing about this place?"

Joshua resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the child's comment. What's so amazing, she asked. He smirked at the thought of answering her. Time to flex some game lore.

"Have you heard of the Destroyer? During the war four years ago?"

"I only know the Purple Dragon of Legend ended the war and killed the Dark Master," the dragoness replied. "I never learned the details. They didn't know anything else." And by they, Joshua figured, she meant the three adolescent dragons she met at her home village.

He barked a laugh. "Luckily for you, I happen to know plenty."

Kilat hummed. "That 'camera' thing again, huh?"

"Yup."

The way her lips curved left and right on her muzzle revealed volumes about her thoughts. Either Kilat was just as bad at concealing emotions as Joshua was, or she only freely expressed herself to those she had grown comfortable with. (Joshua's ego voted for the former straight out.) "One day I'd like to make a camera," she said, her words intoned with an unusual zeal.

Was she humoring him? Or was that doubt he heard there?

"One day," he indulged her. Whatever. It's not like I'm lying. Joshua knew he'd instantly regain his credibility the second Kilat audited this information with the Guardians. "Okay! So the Dark Master—

She opened her mouth.

Joshua cut her off. "That's Malefor. You following?" Then he went on, "He started this whole war in the first place so he could cleanse the world. Burn it clean of all life and start again from the beginning, with him manning the helm."

"Umm… 'Manning the helm'?"

Damn. Even though they both conversed in English, the human had completely forgotten she didn't know even the simplest of Earth's idioms. "It means 'in control'."

"Oh. You should've just said so"

"Sorry. I keep forgetting you're not human either," Joshua apologized.

Kilat laughed. He loved hearing her laugh. It never failed to pull him away from his own thoughts and disappointments. "You and me both," she added.

"So Malefor used his magic to summon this massive golem, the size of a mountain"—and he spread his arms wide, exaggerating the movements for emphasis—"and had it literally walk across the world, leaving behind a wall of fire so hot even a fire dragon can't take it."

"Really?"

"Really."

"But if it was just walking all over the world, wouldn't that take days?"

"Not for the Destroyer," Joshua educated. "It moved fast for a giant. Unimaginably fast. Once it sunk into the distance on one side, it'll come back up again from the other in less than a day. There's no way the dragons could keep up with it."

Kilat's ears went rapt with attention. Her cobalt eyes did not even blink as much. The dragoness was hooked, whether she knew it or not. "So how did the Purple Dragon stop the Destroyer? I know he did it. He did end the war. I remember seeing the land break up in chunks four years ago and then get pulled back together."

Joshua didn't even get to reply when the dragoness took a step towards him. "How did he do it? Do you know how, Joshua? Do you know, do you know?"

Man, she's adorable, even if she's sometimes too much to handle.

"Hehe, yes, I do." Joshua Renalia bent down and scooped the child in his hands. Kilat's underbelly flinched at his touch, but otherwise offered no resistance at all. He brought her to his chest and leaned back a little. Like a cat she brandished her claws and gripped his stained shirt, her only wing folded along her back. With one arm supporting the dragoness, Joshua's free arm gestured at the Dry Canyon spreading out before them. A hilltop overlooking the massive rise and fall of the earth. "Sp—the Purple Dragon and his friends decided to intercept the Destroyer close to the finish line—

"Errrrrr…"

"Close to the end of the circle," he elucidated. "And stop it right before it could complete its journey." A finger was thrust towards the broken dam, which looked so much farther than Warfang did before they descended the canyon. "They broke that dam and flooded this canyon under so much water it couldn't move, giving them the opportunity to break the Destroyer down piece by piece.

"That's why the dam's all messed up when you squint at it."

He pointed at the few enormous, unnaturally red boulders strewn around the Dry Canyon. "That's why those big rocks are there." At the atypical pits and indentations scattered across the canyon floor. "That's why the ground also looks like that."

Kilat gasped in awe.

"You're standing in history, Kilat. Also, it's only been four years, so I don't think the rest of Warfang knows about this yet."

"Wow. That is amazing."

"Besides," he added, looking down at her with a smile. "The canyon's beautiful to look at, too. It reminds me of my family back home."

Kilat's childish curiosity shoved her in this direction in an instant. "Really? Did you live near something like this?"

"No," he answered. He stroked her only wing and set her down before his arm started shaking uncontrollably. God, she's heavy! "But there's a canyon every human's heard of, and it's about just as big as this one. We call it the Grand Canyon. It's in a coun—a land we call the United States of America, and it's so beautiful hundreds of people visit it every year no matter how far away they lived."

The dragoness easily picked up the implications. "And your family… they visited this 'Grand Canyon'?"

"Yeah. My dad, my mom, my younger brother and sister… we went there about… about a few months ago during my summer break. Spent about three days exploring the place." Joshua spoke with a tone of nostalgia and bliss, though he still recalled how much he abhorred, how much he detested every single minute they spent trekking down the trails, stupidly braving past the final viewpoints in each one that separated the casual hiker from the hardcore mountaineer.

"How long did it take you all to get there? It sounds like it's far—really far from your home."

"Actually," the teenager chuckled, his guard so relaxed he didn't realize what he was saying until the words formed and had gone out long after he missed the opportunity to stop them from going out. "From where I lived, it's roughly 19 hours by flight to the nearest international airport."

She looked up at him. The child's maw popped open in a most dumbfounded expression. She was utterly speechless.

"What?" Joshua asked. "Did I say something wrong?"

Still silent. Still processing.

"Uhm… Kilat? I haven't really said—

"Hoo-mans can fly?"

The young man chastised himself for the slip. Goddammit, Joshua. He had to stop loosening up every time he bonded with his new friend like this. Why did he do this? This was the second time he slipped today! WHY? It couldn't be hard to internalize—to register the fact he was in a different world, with a different set of rules, with a people whose culture was so foreign, whose circumstances were so different, that they could not possibly comprehend the mastery over which humanity manipulated the world in the 21st century. She's a talking dragon, for Christ's sake!

God, he had no choice but to fess up to this one. "Uhhhh, yes? Again, it's human."

Kilat shook herself from her stupor. Her eyes darted up at him. Joshua watched her snout move up and down, eyes tracking every contour of his body. "Hoo-mans can FLY?"

He groaned as the dragoness circled him, sniffing his body like a dog. "You know what, Kilat, I'm going to shut up and enjoy the view until you—HEY!" Then she copied a cat and vaulted up his back. He arched as he felt her talons sink through his shirt, ascending him until she sat precariously on his shoulder. Her weight put him in a terrible posture, and Joshua was starting to get frustrated at how comfortable she was with him, how she blatantly used him however and whenever she wanted. "Tch. Next time please warn me before you do something like that!" Jesus Christ, she was such a chi—

And Joshua mentally slapped himself for the thought. For a moment there he'd completely forgotten Kilat was a child.

"A—h-ho—but—b-b-but you don't have wings," Kilat poked at him, sniffed at his temple thrice. Her prehensile tail swished across his back. "Ancestors! How can you fly if you don't have wings?"

Her innocent question led to a long discussion. That conversation alone sapped out of Joshua Renalia all the high he felt upon seeing the Dry Canyon and its impressive expanse from the bottom-up, recalling that family trip to the Grand Canyon, and how it felt as if it took place ages ago. His attempt to satiate the child began with a talk about airplanes, only to spawn a topic on what little he knew about its invention, about its construction, and about its operation.

What was he, a walking Wikipedia? He didn't know everything! He tried to stamp—to drill this indisputable reality into Kilat's head, but her questions kept coming, again and again and again. And when he mentioned how airplanes ran on electric power the girl suddenly realized how important her Element was to modern human society she veered straight into the practical applications of electricity.

Damn it all. Her interrogation was nuts. Long after the sun had gone down, by the time they found a tall hill in the middle of the canyon, a short walk up from the river, and set a suitable campsite with a large pile of plucked grass and leaves for a bed and a small fire pit, Joshua Renalia's patience had finally run thin and he exploded on the young dragoness.

"Shut up already!" Joshua screamed at her. "Just stop! Goddammit, STOP!"

Kilat flinched, maw shutting in an instant. She backpedaled and curled into herself, afraid of the human's outburst and his pent-up rage. The look on her face was pitiful, but Joshua refused to let her get away at pissing him off with all her incessant questions just because she made an irresistibly cute face.

"I don't know everything!" He kept yelling. "I don't know how a cellphone works. I don't know how we convert fire, water, and wind into electricity, or how we used all our knowledge to put a man on a moon! I wish I have all the answers you want, Kilat, but I only know what my species accomplished. Jesus Christ, don't expect me to tell you exactly how we did it because I just don't f*cking know all this shit BECAUSE I'M ONLY HUMAN!

He gestured to the four skewers by the fire, which held up a couple of wild rabbits Kilat hunted herself and some wild carrots and tomatoes Joshua scrummaged from the surrounding wilderness. "So shut up and eat. We got a long climb ahead of us tomorrow. Okay?"

The look on Kilat's muzzle told him the dragoness could not—did not comprehend his last four words, yet in spite of her blankness she was still too shocked to coherently answer, let alone say something.

"Okay?"

Kilat recoiled from the sound—the irked cadence in his voice. "…O-o, okay," she stuttered. The child got on all fours and strolled away from him. She went to the other side of the campfire and settled there, taking two of the four skewers in her mouth and, one by one, setting them beside her.

As she heartily devoured the roasted rabbit and did her best in eating the unusual vegetables, the golden electric dragon refused to look in Joshua's direction even once. The human felt a little guilty, snapping at the child as he did. But she had it coming, he told himself. He had tried to tell her many times to stop, and it took one loud screaming session to finally put an end to this annoying, childish bullshit.

Had Lani ever disciplined Kilat before? Had her foster parents, if she had any at all, ever attempted to rein in her nonstop curiosity, even for her own sake?

Joshua Renalia stood up after chewing through a rabbit leg. The meat was soft, easy to eat. It also had a slightly slick texture to it, but otherwise its taste was excellent. Almost like chicken, he believed. He never had rabbit meat before, but there was always a first time for everything, right?

He walked past the dragoness—not once did she speak or dare to glance in her direction as they ate their dinner for the night. Her life pulse flashed as he passed, contracting and expanding uncontrollably as much as she shivered in his wake. He almost imagined sobs coming out of her muzzle. Joshua wondered if she was afraid to see him blow up at her again, maybe even hurt her. As he knelt in front of the river and drank the water, he wondered why she might think he'd do that now, after saving her life. After helping each other.

After becoming friends.

But then again, Kilat was a child and had the mentality of one, and at times Joshua found himself wishing she had Spyro's self-restraint.

He shot another glance at Kilat when he returned to their meager campsite. She suddenly curled in on herself, as if she had been watching him make his way back up here. Her tail wrapped itself around her. Protectively.

Joshua sighed. "Kilat…"

She remained still.

She pretended not to hear.

Joshua sighed again and made his way to the other side of the fire, trying to get comfortable on his makeshift bed of grass and leaves. It wasn't as good as a foam mattress, but it was better than nothing.

The human teenager was alone when his eyes finally shut and he drifted to a dreamless sleep. When he woke, not only was he still alone, but the dragoness had also vanished without a trace. Strangely enough he found an indent the size of a small dog next to him, and his nose registered the fresh smell of Kilat's rancid breath wafting in from his sticky face. Amazing how the child maintained this one promise to him, notwithstanding his outburst.

He rose to his feet. "Kilat?" Joshua was still too tired—too sleepy to tap into his unknown Element and seek out the dragoness's life force. "Kilat?" he raised his voice. "Where are you?"

He raised his voice some more. "Where are you? Kilat!"

F*ck, don't tell me she ran away! Increasingly alert, increasingly worried for her safety, Joshua Renalia felt the grogginess fade away. He ran towards the trail they saw leading to the other side of the Dry Canyon, twin emeralds scouring the distance for a golden, one-winged dragon. "KILAT!"

If she was out there, she had definitely gone beyond the range of his power.

Joshua started at once to sprint along the trail, sensing all the green Spirit Gems he could break along the way and sustain one massive sprint to the bottom of the cliff without losing any stamina.

Wait a minute. He stopped himself at the last minute and checked the other side of the camp, towards the river. Joshua needed to do one last check. He made his way towards the camp. "Kilat—

Thank the Lord he detected the pulse of life slowly ascending the hill. He rushed to the other trail and sent his gaze down, startling the yellow dragon right about to make that last step up the rocky path. Her cobalt eyes did not make eye contact with him, but Joshua Renalia didn't notice. He fell to his knees. "Wheeew. I thought you ran off on me," he said. "I… I was really worried."

Until now Kilat did not speak. "Look, just stay with me, all right? I promise, whatever happens, I won't hurt you. I'll never hurt you. Understand?"

The dragoness merely nodded, and the tension in the air never went away. Kilat remained subdued throughout the rest of the day, throughout the rest of the trek. Just like before, she ascended the path a few paces away ahead of the stranded teenager. However, the dragoness did not skip and hop with that familiar, bubbly spring in her step, and neither did she pepper him with questions, let alone utter a single word.

If she ever spoke, it was only to say she was tired, she was hungry, she was thirsty, she found another XP Spirit Gem within reach for them to destroy and absorb, or she acknowledged Joshua's hourly complaint about his dying legs and the need for a Mana Gem.

This cycle did not let up for two straight days. Joshua Renalia had done nothing about it, believing Kilat would come around or at least understand why he did what he did. Not until they finally camped in the Autumn Plains, where the full gamut of Warfang's eastern walls was in sight, towering high above the sky, much, much higher than a corporate skyscraper back on Earth, did the boy make his move.

Had his eyes been skyward when they arrived in the Plains, he might have known Spyro the Dragon himself was in sight. A distant, bright purple speck in the sky, dancing in the air with a black dragoness the human would recognize immediately. Instead the young man ignored the skyline visible from their overlooking hill or, when night set in, the orange flickers in the distant buildings.

Joshua reached for Kilat before she could amble away from him and his makeshift bed of grass clutched hard. "Stay," he said.

Kilat ignored him and walked on. She froze still the second he added the word "please" to his request.

She flinched—she jumped from shock when he wrapped his hands around the child and brought her closer to him. "Look, about what happened the other night… Kilat, you've got lots of energy, and I know you'd love to frolic around without worrying about anything.

Joshua hugged the dragoness. He was glad she did not struggle or stiffen. "I know you have lots of questions about the world—about my species. I'm okay with all those. But there's a limit to how much I can take, you know? Even if I don't usually mind it. I'm, I'm sorry I shouted at you. I'm really sorry, but it was just too much, I was getting exasperated, and I didn't know what to do—

He stopped when he heard her mumble. "…again…"

"What?"

"Don't do that again," she said. "You scared me. I thought, I thought you were…" the child started to cry. "I thought you were gonna…"

He caressed her head. His fingers traced the curvature of her horns and ran down her back, stroking her only wing and what remained of the other. "Don't get me wrong. I was angry at you," Joshua confessed. "I'm only human. It's natural for—

She still did not look in his direction. "What do you mean by 'you're only hoo-man'? I don't understand…"

"Sorry, it's a saying in my culture. It means I have flaws. I have limits. It means I'm not perfect, and you shouldn't think I am. But for all the flaws I have, it doesn't mean I'm ever going to hurt you, or abandon you."

As Joshua spoke, out of his sight a thin smile started making its way to her muzzle. Kilat began to relax, her apprehension ebbing away.

The human chuckled. "Kilat, you keep forgetting, I'm not one of those stupid apes. I do care about you."

A few seconds passed. Time lapsed enough to concern Joshua and he pondered if what he said was getting through to her when the dragoness slowly—finally—turned her snout towards him. "I do, don't I?" she replied, nuzzling his chest. "I… I'm sorry. This, this was the first time someone else scolded me, other than Lani, and, a-a-and, I've never seen you like that before. I know you care, Joshua—it's why I stayed. But… uhm..."

Joshua understood what she struggled to convey to him here. "I get it. Don't worry about it," he acknowledged. He needed to steer this conversation somewhere else. "Kilat, didn't you have foster parents to take care of you?"

"No. Lani and I were adopted communally."

"That means nothing to me. Sorry."

"Oh. It just means everyone takes turns taking care of us. The two of us went to another family every few weeks."

He blinked. "Seriously?"

"That's how Mungo Volpe works. Everyone pitches in. Everyone does their fair share for the village. It's simple, and it's been that way for generations. Some families tried to whip me in shape before, but I never had someone really raise their voice at me, like you. At Lani, maybe. But not me."

"He's older than you," Joshua said. "And he's more responsible over you than any of the families you stayed with. Obviously it fell on him to keep you in line."

Silence settled down once again, but unlike the past couple of nights, the silence no longer felt as oppressive, but rather, inviting and congenial. Joshua Renalia still paid no attention to the walls of Warfang, even the famed City of Dragons now stood a day's walk away from their campsite. He pulled his gaze up, staring at the skies above. He gazed past the twin moons, gazed at the black-lit canopy of stars above him, and—

"You still awake?" Kilat's voice yanked him away from her thoughts.

The boy grunted.

"I've been wondering…"

He dreaded another Q&A session, so soon after they 'kissed and made up', figuratively speaking. "Wondering what?" he indulged her, and prepared for the worst.

But his preparations proved unnecessary, for Joshua underestimated the dragoness's maturity. "Why did you help me?"

"Kilat, I didn't want you to die—

"No," she rejoined. "That's not what I meant."

"Then…?"

"Why did you want to help us? Explodon. Lani. Me. Why us? We're dragons. You look like an ape. We would've attacked you first no matter what you did."

Joshua shifted in his spot and looked down at the dragoness. The child rested her jaw on his chest, and under the moonlight, he could see her staring right at him, with her curious, cobalt eyes. It revealed her desire to know, and a mere glance was enough to inform the teen how much thought she had put into this. Was this another reason behind her silence?

.

.

He was too embarrassed to say it. "It's a stupid reason."

"What is it?" she said. "Can you tell me?"

He groaned. He had hoped it didn't come to this. "Promise me you won't laugh."

Kilat licked his face. "Promise."

Yuck. He almost forgot about that. "And promise me you won't clean my face tonight."

She licked his face again, a little slower this time. Deliberately. "I have your neck!"

The f*ck is with her strange phrases? One day I'm going to ask her about these…

"But you'll have to make up for it in the morning" she went on. "Dirty snouts lead to nasty problems beyond any doubts, mom once said. Deal?"

Joshua cocked an eyebrow at that. How broad! It covered everything from dental issues to social rejection. Some mother, he thought. A shame she's long dead.

Reluctantly, "…Deal."

"So what is it?" Kilat shook from anticipation. Her talons clutched his shirt tight, ripping another small hole in the fabric.

"It's, uhm…"

It sounded so childish, and for a teenager like him to admit that, Joshua truly thought so. None of his friends in high school shared the same interest. "Err…"

"Yes? Yes?" she pressured him. "C'mon!"

"…I like dragons."

She blinked, out of surprise. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"You, like dragons."

"That's what I just said."

Her muzzle held a bewildered mien. "And that's enough for you to want to risk your life and help us—help me back there?"

Joshua grimaced. The light from the dying campfire couldn't possibly reveal the blush forming on his cheeks, but he still turned away out of embarrassment. Ahh, old cultural habits die hard. "See, it's stupid, right?"

The child almost broke into laughter, suppressing it at the last second. It came out as a snort. "It definitely is. But you don't see me complaining about it!" For obvious reasons, she probably added in her head. "What do hoo-mans think of dragons, anyway?"

"Depends on who you ask. Some people think you're all evil, dangerous, and greedy. Some people hold you all in high regard, wise beyond all measure, and should be sought out for advice on anything. And again, it's human."

"What do you think?"

He shrugged. "I never cared," he said. "Where I come from, dragons don't exist. They're considered mythical. No such thing. So, I never believed in either one."

Kilat mused. "No dragons in your part of the world, huh? Huh, I wonder why everyone calls this the 'Dragon Realms' then?"

"I don't know."

The dragoness surprisingly did not ADHD off into this other question and kept going. "So what do you think now?" she asked. "Of dragons?"

Joshua regarded her. It was a loaded question. It didn't take much for him to figure out how curious Kilat was if she had changed any of his perceptions about dragons. Joshua knew for a fact the child did, but by how much, he didn't know yet. She was the only one he knew and the former gamer wasn't keen on being biased about it. "Sorry, but you'll have to let me think on it first; I do have something to ask you though."

"Awwww! Can't you answer that one fiiiirst?"

"Not unless you want a half-assed answer."

She huffed. "Pfffft. Fine." And with a dull voice, "What's your question?"

"I've been wondering about this too, but…" the teenager cocked his head towards the gargantuan walled city in the distance. "We're almost at Warfang. Just another day or two and we're there! How do you feel about that? Are you excited?"

Kilat conveyed her feelings perfectly when she yawned in front of his face and assaulted him with that foul combination of Clorox and halitosis. "I was, but after Lani, Explodon, Rockclaw, and Glacia died, it doesn't feel so important anymore. Like there's no point to it." She sighed. "I don't even know if I'll find anything about my family in there."

Joshua Renalia responded by tightening his embrace. The child did not show any signs of discomfort. In fact, she seemed to relish the attention. "What about you?" the Electric dragoness asked. "Are you excited?

"Scared, actually."

She gave him a look. "Scared, why?"

"You said it yourself. I look like an Ape, and the Apes were the ones who carried out Malefor's will long before the Orcs and Grublins came in. I don't know if the residents are going to flip seeing me at the gates." He shivered at the thought. "I'm even more scared of meeting the Guardians. They're bound to be more careful, after Ignitus had kinda fallen four years ago, even though... well, that's pretty much it."

Joshua regretted saying Ignitus' name as soon as it flew out. He caught himself right before he gave Kilat one massive spoiler for the dragons here, especially for certain… related parties. He did not know if Spyro was supposed to know his surrogate father still lived, literally watching him from afar. But he did know the Electric dragoness using him as a pillow had one flappy mouth he'd never trust with something so sensitive.

Thank God she didn't catch his trailing voice. "Who's Ignitus?"

"The previous Fire Guardian," Joshua retorted curtly. "He died protecting the Purple Dragon when he entered the Burning Lands through the Belt of Fire to directly confront the Dark Master."

"Oh."

Oh, indeed. Joshua Renalia also felt apprehensive at the prospect of meeting his heroes in the scales for the first time. Certainly Spyro and Cynder were his heroes. Beloved characters of the Spyro fandom. But after how the Dragon Realms nearly killed him, how often reality enjoyed showing how unreliable—how incomplete his command over Spyro lore was, he did not want to come into this with preconceived expectations.

Would Spyro attack him on sight, too? Or would he be more like himself in A New Beginning and The Eternal Night, a kindhearted dragon who saw the best in others and wanted to help others for its own sake?

"I also don't know," Joshua added, knowing Kilat would appreciate the transparency he's showing to her, "if the Guardians can find a solution to my problem and help me go home."

"Go hoooome?" the dragoness whined, incredulous. "But we just met! You can't leave so soon. Won't you just stay with me?"

He replied, "Of course I will! But this is just for future reference. I don't plan on staying in Warfang forever, you know. My family must be worried sick about me. They don't even know I'm here!" He choked. "They might even think I'm dead…"

"I… I understand…" Her next words were soft. "You, think I can come with you and meet them? Your family? Will they like me?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there—

"Huh?"

Joshua sighed. He'd have to start getting used to the strange phrases and idioms here in this place if he had any hopes of making any friends other than Spyro, Cynder, or Sparx. "I mean, we'll worry about that when it comes. I don't expect to find a way back home just one week after getting there. It's not realistic.

He suppressed a yawn. Joshua didn't want to expose the dragoness to his bad breath now. He had to teach her by example. "What I am expecting, though, is maybe I can finally get some help figuring out my Element. I know for sure I'll make giant leaps and bounds with Volteer's help."

The human cut off Kilat as she opened her maw to speak. "That's the Electric Guardian, if you were going to ask. He'll probably be the one teaching you about your Element." If he did get around to it, that was. "He's one of the most curious and science-minded dragons in the Temple, but it's shameful how he has this tendency to annoy everyone with the way he never shuts up."

"Sort of like me?"

He laughed. "Worse than you! You'll see when you meet him."

Kilat hummed. "If he can help me master Electricity, I'll manage. Because one day, when I'm much better with it, you and I are going to start making all the amazing things your species can make."

"It'll be very hard, Kilat. I know what most of them do, but I don't know how they work."

She winked. "Yup, I know that. You've told me many times." The dragoness yawned again. Her voice slowed down, and even as she grew sluggish, Kilat still had enough energy to snuggle up against Joshua's body. "But if we pull it off… I know for sure, you'll be very hap… py…"

Out like a light.

Joshua yawned like she did, but unlike her, he stayed awake, pondering. Ruminating.

Happy, she said.

Would it really? If he was truly stranded here in the Dragon Realms, destined to live here for a long—a very long time before he finally found a way home, would something that reminded him of home, of the time he lost, of the time he spent away from his family, from his life on Earth… would that make him happy?

Joshua hugged the young Kilat like a boy would a puppy, or a plush doll. A warm, scaly, and leathery doll. The teenager brought his green eyes to the night sky once more. Where was Earth among the stars? He pondered. Was he still in the Milky Way galaxy? Or was he in a different universe altogether? How was the family doing without him? What about his girlfriend? His buddies in class 2G?

After spending a few days trying to survive in a video game world, the appeal didn't seem as strong as it used to be. Sure, he was still excited to meet Spyro and Cynder. In fact, the gamer in him was all up for it. But befriending other dragons? Other races? For some reason, he couldn't find the excitement anymore, no matter how much he tried to instigate it or tell himself how lucky he was to even be here.

Good Lord, if Joshua's younger brother was here, if he knew his thoughts right at this moment, he would be livid. He loved the Spyro series as much as the teenager did (to the chagrin of his mother, ha!), and Joshua knew without a doubt the kid would never want to go home again. He would be like Peter Pan, refusing to grow up and accept responsibility for as long as he could.

But the Dragon Realms never operated like Never Land. The Dragon Realms… was as real as Earth was, and it terrified Joshua Renalia. It scared him so much. It made him realize what was important in his life back home. There was no escaping responsibility. There was no escape from it.

It would be too cruel of the Lord Almighty if this turned out to be a one-way ticket. The mere idea forced a single tear out of his eye. "I miss you guys," Joshua professed. "I… I don't know why, or how, I'm in the Dragon Realms, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not being there. I'll find my way home. I promise." He looked at the sleeping dragon on top of him... and couldn't resist kissing her forehead. A small smile formed on the little girl's muzzle and unconsciously she nuzzled his hands. "But I'm not leaving you alone either, Kilat. I'll think of something. You all have my word."

Were they all looking for him? Or have they given up already, and left him for dead?

These thoughts scared him the most. They never left Joshua Renalia as he slipped away into deep, comfortable slumber.

Author's notes:

Originally, this chapter was supposed to be full of bonding and world-building.

Joshua was supposed to talk in detail about some more human technology here, and originally, he never got frustrated with her and entertained her questioning as much as she could. Kilat would always shift to a different conversation when he could no longer answer, stopping only when she herself was satiated or was distracted by something else. The scene with first camp was supposed to be Joshua's (and the readers') first exposure to Aldozira, the City of Apes. The outline even had a small little scene detailing their ascent up the Dry Canyon.

Unfortunately, a lot of changes had to be made because I am on a tight schedule here, and I did say I was going to end the "Wilderness" arc in this chapter. So, there goes Joshua yelling at her and Kilat not knowing how to respond to this new experience—I needed these for a time skip, but it also worked in some more bonding between the two anyway.

I'll find a way to put in the other things I wanted to throw in here eventually.

Either way, this chapter finally concludes the "Survival" arc and officially kicks the story off into the "Gates of Warfang" arc, where Joshua and Kilat finally arrive at the Gates and, of course, meet our favorite purple dragon, his mate we all came to love as fans, and one annoying dragonfly. :P I'm looking forward to writing that, but for now, I will be going on a hiatus 'til mid-June to study for an exam. This story has been distracting me for far, far too long.

Of course, unlike most human-turned-dragon and humans-in-the-dragon-realms stories, Joshua lived a decent, good life before he found himself in the Dragon Realms. No angsty, teenage problems. No bullying issues. No girlfriend issues. No parental issues. It's completely normal, and I am surprised at how much that one change truly affects how the character views his situation, being stuck in a foreign world. A video game world, but a foreign world nonetheless.