Fall In The Dark Lair

It was late and the younger hatchlings were getting tired. Cami let out a loud yawn and I said, "Ok, you little ones, it's time for you to sleep. Please crawl into your tunnels, way down deep and go to sleep now." They didn't really need to be reminded as the frightening noises we had been hearing at night had us all wary, but especially Cami the youngest of our group.

Antonis and I were Wyrmings now, young dragons that watch over hatchlings and we have our work cut out for us with Cami, Siris and & Jasper. Let me explain.
Cami is the youngest and smallest of the hatchlings. She is the slowest and the most easily frightened. Sometimes she tries to make up for it by acting brave and we all appreciate her efforts except Jasper, who constantly teases and tries to scare Cami. Jasper is the next oldest and he's a typical hatchling in that he's curious and always getting into trouble because of his curiosity. He and Cami are also very special because they're twins. It is very rare for two young dragons to share one egg, probably once in a million times this happens. They're special also because it's said that twins have magic powers and the powers can vary from dragon to dragon. We don't know if this is true because so far the two haven't done anything special and they seem to be just your average, ordinary dragon hatchlings. They do have one unusual feature though. On their chest, buried under one triangle shaped scale they each have a half of star shaped jewel. It's strange and we don't know what it means, maybe someday we will.

Siris is the next hatchling in line, he is very big for his age and very smart. He has incredible problem-solving abilities and helps us out a lot. All in all we do fairly well together and our strengths and weakness' are well balanced, we are a good team considering the fact that our parents are no where to be found and we've heard rumors that our father is dead and our mother is far away in a different lair. When we're older and we can fly we will search for her.

Now that Antonis and I are Wyrmings we don't need to sleep in the tunnels, we keep watch over the younger ones and sleep on the floor behind a big rock in one of the caves in the Dark Lair.
In the morning we all woke up about the same time and were excited because today we are going to explore some of the other caves in the Dark Lair. This is our home and we need to find out all about it. "Are we all ready to go?"' I said as everyone gathered around. "Antonis, where do you think we should start on our exploration today?". "I've been thinking that we need to track down that sound we hear at night to be prepared in case the creature comes looking for us. We have to know what we're dealing with," Antonis said. Cami started shuddering a little bit but put on a brave face and we headed out of our cave.

Antonis was in the lead and I was at the end of the line to keep an eye on the hatchlings, they had a habit of wondering off. We stepped into the forest where large trees blocked out most of the sun. It was a good thing because even though we weren't in direct sunlight our eyes still hurt a little. "Ouch, my eyes hurt", someone complained. You see, we lived in a dark cave and our eyes are larger than normal dragon eyes because they have adapted to the lack of light that is in our lair. "Don't worry", I said, "our eyes will adjust soon".

As soon as we could see, the hatchlings stared in amazement at the forest outside of the Dark Lair. They had never been outside before. "Wow", "cool" they murmured along with other words of surprise. "This place is so pretty", Cami said, "Why don't we live out here instead of in the dark cave?" she asked. "It may be pretty out here but it's not safe at all", I said. Just then I heard a terrified scream from the hatchlings. They were starring up into the sky.

What we saw was amazing and terrifying. "oh no", Cami sais quietly, her voice filled with fear. "Cool", said Jasper and we all turned to stare at him in disbelief. A huge winged creature was circling above but it was odd. It had the head of a dragon and the tail of a snake and a body with wings and two legs. It was probably 15 feet long and it's wingspan was that as well but the oddest thing was that it was a flying skeleton. It's bones were chalk white and it made a noise like none I'd heard. As it's wings flapped its' bones clanked together hitting one another. The noise was like stones falling down a mountain. Crunch, crack, crunch, crack, crunch, crack. "How does it fly without muscles?", I thought and why does Jasper think this is cool? "Oh, that's a Wyvern", he said.

We moved towards a dark hole so as not to be seen and Jasper continued, proud of himself and the knowledge he shared.

"Wyverns, while close relatives of the Dragon, have been argued as being not of the same order. They have been referred to as 'dragonets' because their generally small in stature and basically appear to be adolescent dragons when in fact their body parts are fundamentally different. The Wyvern has a distinctive two legged stance and their wings are true wings (derived from the forelimbs) like those of bats or birds. Sometimes these wings are depicted as "hands", such that a Wyvern can clasp each other when the wings are folded in front of them.

The Wyvern has eagle-like talons, a beak-like jaw that is essential in carrying food as well as a deadly barbed stinger at the tip of their tail. They live in caverns or similar protected lairs commonly found in forests and woods. The lairs can be identified by the debris of bones and valuables. These they gather, because like dragons, they are attracted to shiny objects and baubles. 'Dragonets' are far less discerning and their 'hoards' will contain as much rubbish as gold.

They are aggressive by nature, and attack anything in sight that might make a tasty snack. Broody females should never be approached when they are watching over their young."

We were all amazed at the near encyclopedic knowledge that Jasper had of Wyverns.
"How did you know that?", Antonis asked. "And more importantly, who told you this?", I wondered.
"Well...um... i..." Jasper stuttered. Siris jumped in "Jasper has a secret", "we promised not to tell on him Skylar", said Cami sheepishly. Antonis and I looked at each other and were frightened. Had the hatchlings had contact with someone else when we were gone? Were they in danger? We would soon find out everything. "Out with it!" Antonis and I demanded.

"Well...um...We had a visitor when you were gone." Jasper said.
"What?" Antonis and I said together.

"When you two were gone a very nice old dragon came into our cave in the Dark Lair. At first we all hid but the dragon seemed to know we were there and coxed us out. She said she knew our parents and that she was our grandmother. Her name is Ladona. She told us many stories of the dragon world but Cami and Siris didn't listen like I did. I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I didn't want you to be mad." said jasper.
Antonis and I thought for a moment, we had so many questions. But just then something happened to make us forget about our grandmother Ladona.

We had moved into the entrance of a cave we had never seen before and suddenly heard the noise that sounded familiar. It was the noise we heard at night, the rattling,scratchy noise was in the cave with us.
We were curious but cautious and moved forward, following the sound.
"Help me, pleeeese, somebody, help me." It sounded like the voice of a dragon but there was something very wrong.
"Wait!" Antonis warned, "this could be a trick."

I flew over the Dark Lair with interest, but a Bone Creature, a ghastly Wyvern to be exact, was falling down towards the trees. "Stupid thing, how did it even manage to fly in the first place?" I breathed Fire on it so that its wings smoldered, but did not burn. It screeched as it hit the ground with a loud CRACK! I knew, certainly, that it was not even dead.

I flew back over near where I had seen Skylar, dangerously close to the crossing the border into the Night Lair. I had also happened to overhear them speaking of their grandmother's name being Ladona. Ladona, Ladona, that sounds a lot like something I-- Oh, certainly it couldn't have been Ladon disguised? Trisha knew her ancestors and Dragon's (as well as the history of a many other creatures) history quite well. There had been a dragon, rather hydra really, that had a hundred heads and with those one hundred heads were a hundred different voices, and that it was now dead, and it had been mythology in the first place. Suppose, Ladon was still alive. I even shuddered at the thought. Ladon was almost worse than Wyverns, but Trisha hated Wyverns more. Hydras, she could somewhat bear, just because they were multi-headed dragons really, but Wyverns were like distant cousins, and for that matter distant, annoying cousins.

I flew down next to Skylar quietly, and said, "You know, you're really close to the border of the Dark Lair. Across this border is the Night Lair. And are you sure Ladona isn't just Ladon?" I expected Skylar to ask: "Who's Ladon?" Because almost no one, except the oldest and and most educated dragons knew that information, that had been passed down to them, and because Skylar's mother was somewhere out on a beach and their father was dead, they probably didn't know anything about Ladon, or other dragons believed to by 'mythology' or not even real in the first place.

Everyone was so happy to see Trisha, who always seemed to show up at the most needed times. All of the hatchlings looked at her in awe as Antonis and I moved to greet her, "Trisha! How wonderful to see you, what's this about Ladona?" I asked.

"Well, that sounds like Ladon, a hydra you probably wouldn't know about. It has one hundred heads, each one can speak a different voice. Very dangerous, and it's supposed to be dead, but you never know. Just wanted you to know. Now, might I ask why are you all why out here?"

"We're on an adventure, you know young dragons are very curious and we're attempting to find the source of this strange noise we hear at night" Antonis said. "Yes, Trisha, there's not much work left in our cave in the Dark Lair, i think we've found all of the jewels that were hidden there." I said. "We are out exploring the other cave entrances in the Dark Lair. We want to know everything we possibly can about our home."
Just then the source of the strange noise startled all of them. "Do you want to come with us too?"

"Yes. I..." A rustling in the nearby trees caught my interest and I whispered, "One moment..." I jumped into the trees and vanished from the wyrmings' and hatchlings' sight. I felt suddenly defensive, as if the shadows held a deeper evil that the hatchlings had always kept at bay. A quiet snickering and laughing that I was close enough to hear followed after a dreadful screech. "Heelp me!" More quiet laughing. Fire licked at my lips, as if eager to escape my jaws. As it grew close to make out a figure, the fire and anger in my eyes went down. I knew who it was. Rokda.

"Hello Rokda." "Haven't seen you in the longest time," Replied Rokda, my friend since we were young and he is a five-headed hydra. Now you may think befriending a hydra is strange, it is somewhat hard and all, but it has its benefits. "And your color has changed." He looked at my red scales with some interest. "I see you've lost 4 of your brains." I snorted. One of his heads appeared to snicker. Rokda smelled the air. "Why are you here?" I asked. "Ideal place for a hydra, the Dark Lair. Plenty of competition. Plus I smelled lunch." "Rokda!" I growled. " Not you of course! Hatchlings and Wyrmings." He took a step back. "Still... though hatchlings and wyrmings are my friends, so quit following them. Are you the noises they hear at night?"

Rokda smiled. "Hey, night's the best time for hunting, am I right?" "If you're that hungry, I'll go catch you something." Then I jumped up and flew up, gliding in search of anything I could find. I could only find, however, a few ravens, but that was enough. I landed back down and gave the ravens to Rokda. He nodded all five head in thanks, and began walking off. "See you around, sometime. Can't say I won't be watching those hatchlings closely though." With that I walked back to Skylar.

We all breathed a sigh of relief, knowing what the noise was that we heard at night. Although knowing it was a five headed hydra named Rokda was still scary. We should be safe though as long as we kept to our Dark Lair.
"Ok", I said, "I guess the question of the noise has been answered, we better head home." We all turned back and left the Night Lair.

There was a screech, similar to Rokda's but not quite. A Bone Creature Wyvern came from the shadows, its wings still smoking a bit. I snarled, and slowly inched forward, ready to spring into the air at any second.

We stepped back,, frightened at what we were seeing. Then, right before our eyes, the Wyvern snatched Cami. Cami looked stunned and then screamed "Noooooo!" Antonis and I ran toward the Wyvern along with Trisha. "'Trisha, can you help us?"

"Yes!" I shook slight shock from my head and quickly asked, "You know Bone Creatures can't physically eat anything, but they can kill."I hovered above the Wyvern, then swooped down and clawed at the wings. It flapped them, and, Cami still in the creature's jaws, flew after me. I flipped around mid-flight and slammed into the Wyvern with my tail. I wrapped it quickly around its neck as if to choke it, and lunged at the bone connecting its neck to the head. I yanked it out so hard it snapped in half. I roared in triumph as the skeleton clattered to the ground. Then I remembered Cami. I landed beside the dead Wyvern skeleton, which I breathed fire carefully on until the skeleton became no more than ashes in the wind. Luckily, the Wyvern hadn't injured her too badly because it had been focusing on me, and also lucky for her she was a Dark Dragon; she had more resistance to darkness. She shuddered a bit, for darkness makes you cold. I breathed flames carefully around her, making sure I controlled the fire enough so it would not touch her. Dark Dragons are not as immune to fire as Fire Dragons.

We all gathered around Cami, hoping that she was alright. Trisha carefully tended to her and slowly she came to, but was very weak. "What happened? she asked weakly. "Shh, shh, you're ok now", I said gently,hovering over her. "But what...?" she asked again. "That terrible Wyvern took you off the ground in it's jaws and ran into the forest with you." I told her. "Fortunately, Trisha was here to fight off the Wyvern and save you", Siris added. "Yeah, if she wasn't here I don't know what we would have done, I'm sorry but ... I think you would have been lost." said Jasper.
We all stayed with Cami until she could walk on her own and then slowly and quietly made it back to our cave in the Dark Lair. "I think it would be a good idea to keep closer to home until we're bigger", said Antonis thoughtfully. He cared for all of the hatchlings very much and it was his responsibility as the oldest, to keep everyone safe.
The others all agreed but the adventurous spirit in us all was so deep that I think we may have a difficult time keeping the hatchlings inside. Antonis and I could understand it wasn't safe to go outside but it might be hard to convince the hatchlings, even after Cami's close escape from the Wyvern.

"Well Goodbye. If you ever see Rokda at night, tell him Trisha sends her greetings." I nodded and jumped up, flapping my wings as I took off into the night sky that had taken place of day. I breathed fire into the air as I flew, lighting parts of the sky with it.

"Good bye dear friend", said Antonis . "Thank you once again for all of your help." Slylar shouted as Trisha flew away into the night sky. "Bye!!" said the three hatchlings in unison. "Please come to visit soon" Skylar said last of all, hoping that it wouldn't be a long time until Trisha visited again. Then Skylar said to Antonis, "It would be nice to see Hannah some day as well, maybe when we're big enough to fly we will meet her." With that the five laid down to sleep, dreaming of what they would do tomorrow.

I flew back, placing Hannah on the ground while my forefeet still remained in the air, and then landed on all fours. I smiled as I approached my friends.

I was abit surprised at the difference in territory. This was a somewhat gloomy place, and dead leaves were scattered everywhere. Fall was much different than spring in the Fire Lair. Feeling shy, I followed Trisha slowly.