First chapter of crossover fic is done. Second is in progress. Looking forward to posting it, but like I said, I'll wait until around October when it's most appropriate. Maybe September, depending on how much I can finish.

Chapter 7

The Tunnel

The next morning, Madeline was awoken by the sun shining through her window. Upon opening her eyes, she regained the excitement she had from the night before. It was finally time to tell her mom her latest discovery.

The child swiftly jumped out of bed, got dressed, and ran downstairs to the kitchen, where Mrs. Porter was fixing breakfast.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" she hugged her mother's legs and hopped up and down.

"Madeline! Settle down! Your breakfast will be ready in a minute."

"I'll eat later! I've got something to show you that can't wait a minute longer! Something fantastical! So, c'mon! C'mon!" she zoomed past the table where Marcus was eating, accidentally spilling his cereal.

"Hey!"

Mrs. Porter picked the cereal box off the floor. "Goodness, what's gotten into her? And what did she mean by 'something fantastical'?"

Marcus got down on all fours and started to scoop some cornflakes back into his bowl. Cookie came over and licked some up.

"It's that dragon, Mom!" Marcus insisted. "It has to be! I told you Madeline had a real, live dragon in our backyard! I bet it escaped from that cave on the beach and followed her home and she's been trying to hide it ever since!"

Mrs. Porter moved Cookie out of the way and confiscated Marcus's bowl. "That's ridiculous, Marcus. Even if Madeline did find a dragon in that cave, she would have said something about it. And anyway, how can you hide something as obvious as a dragon?"

Madeline opened the back door of the house and ran out to the backyard.

"Hey guys!" she called. "Come on out! It's time!"

But there was no answer.

"…Guys?" she said again.

Still nothing.

Madeline shrugged, figuring the two-headed reptile was still asleep. She went over to the shed and opened the door.

"Devon! Cornwall! Rise and shine!"

But the shed was completely empty. No Devon and Cornwall in sight.

Hm…Madeline thought. I know! Maybe they decided to sleep in the garage!

The young girl rushed to the front of the house and immediately opened the garage door. But all she saw inside was the family car. Assuming they were just hiding, Madeline entered the garage to get a more in-depth look.

"Hello? Guys? Are you in here? C'mon, this isn't funny! Guys?"

Madeline was very worried now.

Huh? Where are they?

She went back to the backyard to do a thorough search there. She checked every single bush that was big enough to accommodate a big, purple lizard, but the only thing she managed to find that was even close to that was a purple-spotted gecko.

From the looks of it, Devon and Cornwall had disappeared completely. Madeline was very confused and at the same time, sad. Why would they just up and leave without even telling her? Did something happen to them? Where did they go? Would they come back? How was she supposed to find them again?

Madeline slumped to the ground. She almost wanted to cry. Devon and Cornwall were the greatest friends she ever had…and now they were gone. And she didn't even get to say goodbye.

Madeline thought about going to look for them outside of her house, but she didn't have the first clue of where to look. For all she knew, they could have gone back to Dragon Country, a place she didn't even know how to get to. The only other place she could see Devon and Cornwall going to was the cave on the beach.

Wait a minute…the cave…

Mrs. Porter came outside. "Okay, Madeline. What's this fantastical thing that's got you so excited?"

She noticed her daughter hunched over the grass.

"Madeline? Sweetie, what's wrong?"

Madeline turned to look at her mother. "Huh? Oh. Nothing."

Mrs. Porter kneeled down next to Madeline. "But…wasn't there something you wanted to show me?"

"Oh yeah…uh…you missed it."

"What?"

Madeline quickly changed the subject. "Uh…hey, Mom? Do you think maybe we could go to the beach today?"

"Huh? I thought you didn't like the beach?"

"Yeah, well…that was before I saw something there that changed how I feel about it. So…can we go?"

Mrs. Porter smirked. "By any chance, is that 'fantastical thing' you wanted to show me going to be there?"

"Maybe. We won't know until we get there, right?"

Mrs. Porter laughed a little. "I guess so. All right, honey. We'll go in a little bit."

"Um. Also, can you call CJ's mom and ask if he can come, too?"

Madeline watched as her mother went back in the house.

"I'll see what I can do."

Once she was alone again, Madeline looked up at the sky worriedly. She prayed that Devon and Cornwall would be in the cave she found them in. She didn't know what she would do if they weren't. But whether or not they returned to her home, she didn't care. All she wanted at this point was to know the reason why they left.

Thankfully, CJ's mom was perfectly fine with CJ joining the family at the beach, which meant Madeline wouldn't have to face the spooky cave alone this time. Of course, she wouldn't care if she did have to go by herself, because any fears she had before were outweighed by the fear of never seeing Devon and Cornwall again.

When the group arrived at the beach, Madeline and CJ's mothers immediately started conversing while Tiffany laid a towel on the sand and rubbed lotion on her arms. Marcus watched her intently and Cookie just chased a butterfly in circles. With everyone else distracted, Madeline led CJ over to the cave where she first met the dragon pair.

"So, you don't know where they went?" CJ asked his friend. "They didn't tell you?"

"Nope." Madeline shook her head.

"Wow. And you think they're hiding out in this cave?"

"I don't know. But I have to at least look. I'm worried about them. They seemed a little off before I went to bed last night. Like…they were hiding something…"

"What was the last thing you said to them?"

"Not much. Just that I wanted them to meet my mom."

"Hm…" CJ thought for a moment. "Could be that they're just shy."

"But that doesn't explain why they left without telling me."

"Yeah…well, maybe they felt homesick."

"I doubt it. They didn't have many nice things to say about Dragon Country. This cave, either."

"So, why would they go back here if they didn't like it?"

Madeline sighed, grabbing a flashlight from the backseat of the Porters' minivan. "I don't know…but it's the only place I can think of that they would know how to get to. Look, we're already here, so it won't hurt to look, right? C'mon, follow me. We'll start with the spot where I first saw them."

CJ nodded and then the two best friends entered the cave, huddling close together so they wouldn't get separated.

"See anything yet?" Madeline asked.

"Just a bunch of rocks and dirt…" CJ answered. "…Hey, wait! Is that a pair of wings I see on the wall?"

Madeline looked to where CJ was pointing and shined her flashlight on the spot.

SKREE!

The thing with wings swooped down, revealing itself to be a bat.

"Eek!" the kids ducked as it flew over them.

"Wow…this place is creepy…" CJ shuddered. "Do we really have to go further?"

"C'mon, CJ! We can do this!" Madeline insisted. "Besides, after learning dragons exist, stuff like bats isn't all that scary anymore."

At that point, CJ decided to let Madeline lead the way while he reluctantly walked behind her. Eventually, the two of them had walked all the way to the end of the cave where the big rock Devon and Cornwall had hidden behind when Madeline found them was.

"Look! There it is!" she said.

"What? All I see is a rock."

"It's the exact same rock the dragons used as a hiding place when I came in. C'mere! Let's get a closer look!"

Madeline and CJ cautiously approached the big rock.

"Hello? Devon? Cornwall? Are you in here?"

CJ poked his head around the rock. "Nope. Nothing but a big hole in the wall."

"Wait…a hole?"

Madeline too peered behind the rock and discovered that there was indeed a huge hole. Huge enough, in fact, for a sizable two-headed dragon to fit through. Madeline shined her flashlight and found that it was actually a tunnel.

"Check it out! A secret passageway!"

"But where's it go to?" CJ wondered.

Madeline got onto her knees and climbed in. "There's only one way to find out. C'mon!"

And so, the kids began to crawl through the tunnel, curious to see where it would lead. They didn't expect it to be so long, however, as it felt like it took them an hour to make it to the end. But eventually, they saw another opening in the wall, leading to a way out. Upon stepping outside, the two of them were overcome by a thick fog and the smell of smoke. While it was difficult to see much, they could just make out several huge caverns. They could also feel something sticky on their feet and they looked down to find they had stepped on a giant egg filled with a strange, slimy goo.

"Whoa…what is this place?" CJ inquired.

Madeline's eyes widened. "CJ? I have a feeling we're not in Destin anymore…"

The children jumped as they heard a roar in the distance. There was no doubt about it now. They were in…Dragon Country.

In retrospect, I probably could have combined this with Chapter 8, but my OCD brain wanted there to be exactly 10 chapters in the prologue. And just as a reminder, all of this so far has been a prologue, meaning I don't plan to end it once Chapter 10 is up. Every chapter after is going to be episodic, each one following a separate storyline (unless I make multiple parts). It will be similar to how "Meeting Grojband" was structured, except instead of you guys requesting ideas, I'll be putting up polls with my own ideas and having you guys vote on them. Whichever one receives the highest vote will be the next chapter I do. I may even write up multiple chapters so that no matter which idea wins, I'll be prepared. Of course, if the polls don't get any votes, then I might just stop writing this altogether. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that as I can see this fic is getting a decent amount of views, even if no reviews are coming with them. So if you are an avid reader of this story and would like to see it continue, please tell me. If you don't want to leave a review, at the very least, vote on the polls when the time comes. That's all I need to know that people aren't just reading this, but also support it.

That's all for now. See you later!