Fall In The Dark Lair

"Say hello to my friends." I showed Hannah to Skylar and Antonis who were closer to the mouth of the cave.

Skylar & Antonis were so excited to see Trisha's friend and they rushed over to join them. The three hatchlings were more shy and stayed back. "Hello Hanna, it's so nice to meet you'" the two said. Then Skylar added, "Come little ones, it's safe. This is Hannah, Trisha's friend. The three came forward, "Hannah, this is Cami, Siris and Jasper". They all stared but quietly came forward. "Um, hi, hello, nice to meet you", they meekly said to the new guest.

"Hello." I shyly said, almost taking a few steps back towards Trisha. I looked at all the dark, black dragons that seemed so different from us Fire Dragons.

"Welcome to the Dark Lair," I said, "as you can see, it is pretty dark in here but we like it, it is our home."
Jasper came forth, a little less shy than the rest. He was the inquisitive one and so full of questions. "What does your home look like? Are there many dragons there? do you have any friends to play with?" he asked Hannah.

I looked at the hatchling that must have been Jasper. "No, not really. No other hatchlings. . . sadly. Sometimes Wyverns come flying past, we see a lot of them, all the more since it is spring, but no other dragons really. Our Lair is so much different than this. It is tropical with tons of trees. It doesn't look like a gloomy forest." It indeed did look as if the very shadows held an unknown darkness. "Must look like this, just because it's the Dark Lair." I whispered to myself.

"Our lair is cool and dark, it is true, but not always" said Antonis, "but it is comfortable for us and it holds riches beyond belief, come let me show you." They moved deeper into the cave and Antonis reached into the ground, uncovering some earth that lay on top of one of the treasures. Then he brought up a bright yellow jewel, about as big as a hatchling egg. It lit up the cave immediately, almost as if they had lit a fire in the lair. I continued, "You see, this is our great secret. Whenever we need light we simple uncover one of the many jewels we found here and the room lights up. However, we must block the entrance to the cave so at not to invite unwanted guests." With my words Antonis went over to the entrance and rolled a boulder over the entrance.

I looked around. "I've never really explored the Fire Lair. One time a mountain lion chased me. One time a Wyvern attacked Trisha."

"We like to explore our lair," Jasper said. "Yeah, there's not much else to do besides hunt for food and we think we dug up all of the jewels hidden here. Do you want to explore this cave with us ? I've always wanted to dig through this wall and see what's on the other side." I said to Hannah and Trisha. I pointed to a stone wall at the far left, it looked different than the other walls. It was made of stone but it was a different kind of stone, this stone was much smaller. One time when Jasper and Siris where playing around and one of them slammed into the wall it made a thumping noise like maybe it was hollow and a bit iof the stone fell to the floor.

"You want this wall open then?" I asked, but knew the answer. "Alright then, stand back." Fire flamed at my teeth and a strange red glow lit my nostrils. I shook my head, I won't really be needing fire. I a few steps back, and then ran into the wall with a loud THUD. I felt stupid, and quickly moved out of the way of falling rocks and the clouds of dust. Snorting, and shook my head, without thinking, breathed fire where all the dust was. The fire burned down what appeared to be a long tunnel, probably just an old passageway in this cave. Many times rocks built up in front of passageways.

"Wow,that's amazing!" I said. "Cool!" the hatchlings yelled. "A tunnel! Let's go check it out!" said Siris. We were so excited to think what was beyond the tunnel and why it was hidden to begin with and was happy that Hannah and Trisha were here to explore with us.

I followed the hatchlings, wondering too what might be at the end of the tunnel. All tunnels had to end.

I was last, following Hannah down the tunnel. I smelled the air, trying to see if there was anything unusual. There appeared to be nothing. Now that sight was ruled out, I had to trust mostly my hearing and smell. Trusting your touch didn't really help in a dark tunnel.

Slowly and cautiosly we walked down the tunnel, excited at the things we might find. "Wait!" Antonis said, "Wait here I'll be back quick!" "Where are you going?", I asked Antonis but he was already down the tunnel, out of ear shot. We all stood and waited in the tunnel, wondering what he was doing. "It's kind of scary when we're not moving, I don't know if I like this" said Siris, who was usually more brave than he was acting right now.
We were looking back toward our lair, waiting for Antonis and soon enough we saw the glow of one of the large gems we had found. Antonis was moving towards us with the bright gem in his mouth then he dropped it when he got closer. "Ok", he said, "let me lead the way since I have some light so that we can see better." "Good idea Antonis!" i said wondering why I didn't I think of that?

We resumed walking in the tunnel but now we could see and it was an interesting sight. The tunnel walls weren't stone or dirt but some kind of reflective material and the walls glimmered from the light of the gemstone. "Wow, this is cool" said Jasper. "I wonder what this strange material is?" Cami asked.

I heard a noise and it almost sounded like a flowing river. The air was breezy and made me think that this cave was not completely sealed and that their must be a hole somewhere. We moved forward and what we saw was beautiful.
The cave we walked into was astounding. The room was full of more treasure and riches than I could ever imagine. There were chests opened up and full of clear crystals and blue, red, green, purple gemstones. Any color you could imagine was there as a gemstone. Some were smooth as an egg and you could see through them to the other side. Some of them were red, a deep dark red the color of dragons blood and they were shaped like some kind if pointy object, maybe like a sword or something. There were pearls and ropes of jewels of many colors, it was all so spectacular. Jasper and Siris were grabbing the ropes of jewels and putting them around their heads as if they were decorations. They were laughing at how funny they looked. "Is it ok if we take some of these Skylar?, I mean, it doesn't look like anyone lives here?" "I don't know if that's a good idea, you two come over with the rest of us" I said so the young hatchlings stopped what they were doing and joined us.

We gathered together to stay safe and noticed a river and a deep iridescent pond. Cami moved closer to the pond and i had a bad feeling, didn't sea serpents live in caves with water? Cami moved closer to the pond and I held her back. "Don't go close to the water, we don't know what's inside that pond!" I said.

I now heavily depended on my smell, the scent of everything around me. The scent of the water, it smelled of salt, dead fish, and... dragon??? Growling uncertainly in my mind, I tried to think of... Oh. Ugh, the Dark Lair just attracts danger doesn't it? Well, Celilo isn't the safest place in the universe. That's why we dragons came here. But I had a really good guess at what was in that pond. Must have been a small underwater tunnel though, because Sea Dragons were huge. Almost bigger than me. A slight bubbling broke the surface. The heavy, dank salt smell filled the cave chamber. A head, somewhat decorated with fins in a V shape, snarled, surfacing and laying its head on the rocky cave ground. Its teeth were yellow, and its shiny blue-green scales were fish like. "It's a Sea Dragon! Get back the all of you." I roared at the Sea Dragon, exposing the red glow at my throat, a tell tale sign of a fire breather, a Fire Dragon. The Sea Dragon hissed, but it showed no signs of leaving. "Alright, you want to fight tough. Come out the water, coward!" I hissed, baring my teeth. It slowly crawled out, it had webbed spines tracing down its back.Flames licked at my teeth. Carefully, slowly, wait my friend fire. I thought, almost laughing in my mind. Talking to fire. I was crazy, but it made me feel better to talk to (possibly) the killer, burner, of many things.

We all stood back watching Trisha in anticipation. She would protect us so we felt safe.

It lowered its head, looking for a place to strike me. I couldn't wait any longer. My mouth was burning. I breathed fire, a huge river of it, at the Sea Dragon. When I finally stopped, mouth smoking and burning and cloud of black smoke filling the room like a heavy fog, the Sea Dragon was burnt most the way. It just shook its head and hissed, and I swore it said "I'll come back, just you wait!" My mouth burned so badly, I needed water now! Growling, I licked my lips. I was also hungry. . . I shook my head, I quickly left the cave to hunt. Leaving the hatchlings and wyrmings alone, I felt a slight pang of guilt. But fire always was going to have its disadvantages, as every Breath had its disadvantages.

We stared watching Trisha breathe fire at the Sea Serpent and burn it really badly. We were amazed at the heat of the fire and it's power. "Someday I'll be able to do that too." I thought enviously. I heard the Sea Serpent say "I'll be back" as he slipped back into the water, badly burnt and smelling horrible. I thought the same thing. I'll be back someday to explore the Cave of Treasures. I don't know why, but those jewels had us all fascinated and they held a strong power over us. I wasn't sure if it was just the beautiful, sparkling colors or if there was something magical inside of the gems. But right now we should probably leave in case it decided to come back sooner rather than later.

"Ok everyone, let's get out of here, I don't think it's safe to stay here." "Yeah, lets get out of here, this place is dangerous!" Cami said. "Yeah," the two hatchlings Siris and Jasper agreed. Antonis then said, "Good idea Skylar, just let me grab something I've had my eye on." He rushed over to one of the chests that was close by and took the long sword-thing made of a solid piece of a huge red jewel. He put the handle into his mouth and ushered the hatchlings out. Cami grabbed a giant pearl - it was almost as big as her and she comically rolled it along with her head toward the tunnel, following Antonis. Siris and Jasper were next, running as fast as they could with the jewels they had found earlier draped around their necks. Siris almost fell into the pond but I caught him just in time and pushed him towards the tunnel. I wanted something too and rushed to one of the chests closest to the entrance of the cave and just grabbed something, I didn't even see what it was, I just knew I had to have something of my own too. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hannah take something too and then heard the rushing of water; it sounded like something was rising from the pond again. "Oh no," I thought," it better not be that serpent again, I've had enough of him!" The noise was getting louder and louder, the sound of rushing water off of something rising from the water and I think Hannah and I made it to the tunnel just in time. "Run Hannah, run as fast as you can!!" I was the last one in line and I kept pushing everyone forward, "Keep going, we're not safe yet!" I shouted. We were well into the middle of the tunnel and then I felt safe, knowing that the Sea Serpent wasn't large enough to get in but I heard it cry out "No one takes my treasure and get's away with it! I'll get you little hatchlings, mark my words!" I shivered as I heard this and at the same time felt heat emanating from the thing I had taken from the Cave of Treasures.

"Owwww!", I yelled and stopped running. My mouth was burning as I spit the thing out of my mouth. Being the last one out I was alone now in the tunnel now and stared at the perfectly round stone. I could see it now clearly although I had no light because the black stone was glowing brighter and brighter and now turning clear. I stepped closer and gazed at it. Looking directly at it I was amazed. This was a special stone for sure because what I could see took my breath away. I had to somehow get it to the lair and show my brothers and sister and Trisha and Hannah. Slowly i touched it and it was just a little bit warm and turning quickly cooler. I placed it back in my mouth and starting running back to the lair.

I made it back to our lair and there everyone was, panting and talking excitedly about our adventure.
"Look at my treasure", said Cami excitedly but I was too distracted from the thing I had seen to pay much attention. Antonis was admiring the red sword and Jasper and Siris were busy untangeling the string of gems they had brought back. I just sat there, gazing at my black stone.
"Oh, that's a ... interesting stone you have there" said Cami. I could hear the pity in her voice for it was nothing like what everyone else had. It wasn't shiny and bright like the hatchlings treasures and it didn't do anything special, like Antonis' sword.
"I know it's not pretty but I think this stone is very special." I said and I knew the others could tell I was serious and they all gathered around. "Why do you say that?" Antonis asked me, curious as to why I thought it was special and maybe a little skeptical.
"Well, this is so strange, I almost don't believe it happened now," but I continued, "when I was running with it in the tunnel all of the sudden it became very hot and it was so hot I had to drop it. I watched as it stared to glow red, brighter and brighter and then it became clear, so clear I could see through it or I should say, into it." "Well, that is special," Antonis said. But I didn't think he thought it was special, even though it was a stone that changed color.
"No, that's not the thing that's special about it, it's what I saw when I looked inside of it that makes it so special." I said triumphantly, for I knew that it was a very special stone now, maybe even more special than a giant pearl, a ruby sword or a string of jewels.

"What did you see?" I asked curiously. I stepped closer, wondering if Trisha knew what it was.

"Well," I began, "Like I said it changed colors and was eventually clear ..." "Yes, yes, we know that" Antonis said. He was getting very impatient. "Ok, well, when I looked into the stone it was like another eye or something because I could see a beautiful dragon with markings like ours and she was running along the shore of the ocean about to fly and there was great fear in her eyes ..." I continued. "What do you mean Skylar? You mean you could actually see something inside the stone? I've never heard of anything like that," said Antonis, now convinced I had something special and magical in my possession. "What did you see next?" Jasper asked, voice full of wonder and starring intently at the stone. The others were mesmerized too. "Well, unfortunately that was all I saw before the stone turned black again, but, I really think it was a relative of ours because it looked like us." "Maybe it's our mother and the stone has let you see where she is" said Siris. "Or maybe it's a stone that tells the future and that was you that you saw."
"I really don't know what it was", I spoke slowly, thinking about it too. Maybe Trisha will be able to tell us what it is."

I looked at them all, eager to fly off and quench my thirst, but I knew I must wait. "Well, I don't know exactly what it is, but I don't think it tells the future as much as the present. But how could I tell? Either way, it may be your mother. You should stay here. Maybe I'll go looking once." I nodded, and took a few steps back slowly. When they had all turned back to look at the black stone-orb, I jumped back, and flew below the tree line which was dangerous because I could crash. Luckily, I hit no trees and escaped without any notice. I landed beside a shallow pond, dipped my muzzle in the water, and splashed about in the pond. I felt so different, as I lied down by the pond side and realized the different feeling was sleep. I needed sleep.