K, I've, like, finished Chapter 2! YAY! Here's wat I've dun so far...
Chapter 2- The Arrivals
The little dragon sat on top of the intricately, beautifully weathered rock and howled at the coming dawn.
It was in those early hours- where everything has a darkish-gray tint to it, and the winter mist wreathes and sticks to you like cling film- that the slender reptile crawled from the crater.
He looked about nervously, and maybe a little guiltily, for he was sure something must have heard his bugle, a local animal, at least? But no, all was silent, eerily silent, for even Xamxaw, (with his limited knowledge of the planet Earth), knew that at least the birds should be stirring. Perhaps even they could sense the magic in the air, and were staying quiet in fear...
However, Xamxaw couldn’t afford to dawdle, any second now his pursuers could race out of that hole in the slightly damp, tightly-packed soil.
He was a fugitive from the One Decree, the only laws of the land, Nicoshaul, his homeland. He was one of the few dragonlings to have actually been born in Nicoshaul, other than of course the young king, whose wise regent was Xamxaw’s mother, and the 3 others being his best friend, a purply coloured male called Defaro and the twin girls Opasi and Grawsae, both a green hue, with odd faded pink markings. Not that you had to be near to notice or anything. Secretly, though, Xamxaw quite liked Opasi, but so did all the young males^. Her sister, however, was constantly following him and trilling on about eggs and the likes in his ear, and she was not exactly worshipped for her beauty. Her eyes were odd- yellow and blue- and the green of her scales was more accurately described as marshy, rather than lush, like Opasi’s scales.
The juvenile serpent had used one of the many warp tunnels that are dotted in most of the liveable planets of the local galaxies*. This was illegal. In fact, it was one of the worst crimes one could commit! It was in the One Decree that you could never, ever use any of these without verbal and written proof from the King’s regent, or in the most absolute emergency, like when Mirphos was exploding, and of course Xamxaw didn’t have the required permission, nor was there an emergency. Well, to him it was an emergency. The punishment for this was permanent exile, and the penalty would have been a lot harsher, were it not for the fact that (most) dragons don’t have an evil bone in their body. I suppose using a warp tunnel without authorization is like someone getting on a plane with a pistol, never actually hurting anyone, but with the potential to kill, and of course, everyone knows that’s a big no-no!
Xamxaw was here to search for his long-lost father. Jozopa was a SOK- seeker of knowledge- and when all the SOKs on Earth, Yulta and Dizmoz were recalled back to Nicoshaul for a massive, top-secret investigation, Jozopa and a few others had gone missing, and could no longer be contacted. There was a search party sent out, for they had all gone missing on the same continent, a place called...what was it again? Ah yes, Terra Australis Incognito! Oh, wait. Perhaps it was something else? That was what it used to be called. Curse those humans! They could never settle for one thing, it had to be changed constantly. Oh well, he had better things to think about.
A tear welled in Xamxaw’s eye. His mother was in extreme distress when she first heard the news, and even now, every morning she gets up early and stares out the cave entrance, not responding to anyone or anything. Then, for the rest of the day would go about her business, but only in body, not mind, before going to bed, where the little sleep she got was restless and dream-filled. So Xamxaw had finally given in; he couldn’t watch her like that! And even worse, she was the King’s regent, and so had to rule in his place until he matured, 27 years from now! A dragon couldn’t make clear-headed decisions while mourning, and Xamxaw was pretty sure that Jozopa was still alive, and he needed to find the truth.
There was a small plateau jutting out slightly over the precipice. Xamxaw stood on it, and glanced down at the dizzying drop that was sickening even for a dragon. Surrounding was a beautiful panoramic scene of wilderness; curving around, sheer cliff, to his left a tumbling, frothing waterfall, in the distance, a thin ravine with the tiniest trickle of a river running slowly through it, and of course, the bushland below and surrounding him on all sides.
He had lifted his wings in preparation for flight, when a whooshing echo came from the crater, a noise that sounded like air being released from a bottle of soft drink, but on a much larger scale.
Uh oh, thought Xamxaw, the Enforcers are here to get me! He darted for cover, cowering amongst the dew-soaked leaves and buds of some kind of flowering shrub. Too late he realised that the end of his long red tail was sticking out, and could be seen a kilometre away, thanks to its golden, feathery tip. It was only when a medium sized dragon was towering over him that he become conscious of it.
“Ya know, I could spot that luminous tail o’ yurs the very second I crawled out of that danged hole in the ground”, the purple dragon said contemptuously, “Ya really have to listen to ol’ Miss Kizphan’s lessons on concealment.”
Xamxaw relaxed. The dragon was his best friend Defaro! He felt stupid that he hadn’t guessed. Who else would speak to the regent’s son in such a manner?
“Defaro! What are you doing here? I thought you were an Enforcer,” he admitted sheepishly, “And speaking of Enforcers, aren’t they following you?”
Enforcers were dragons appointed to implement the One Decree, just like a human police officer.
The other dragon replied, “’Kay, Xam-dude, in answer to question number 1, lookin’ for you, and question 2, not exactly, but we’ve got something much more important to worry about! Graw...”
But Defaro never finished his sentence, because at that very second out of the void comes...Grawsae?
“Oh, there you both are! Defaro, I had to chase you here,” she scolded, “just to find out where Xamxaw was!”
And at Xamxaw’s name, her voice softened and she smiled, something that looks quite scary on a dragon, even when they’re being nice.
Defaro and Xamxaw groaned in sync. Now what were they going to do?
“And if you don’t take me with you, since you obviously are planning to go somewhere, then I will simply be forced to fly back and tell everyone where you’ve gone”, she said sweetly, but anyone could hear the menace in her words.
“Aww, great. Now she’s threatening us! What are we gonna do now?” muttered Defaro.
“I say we just let her tag along. What else are we supposed to do? As long as she promises not to be annoying, and lets us do what we want”, replied Xamxaw wearily.
“Grawsae, you can come, but...”, and Defaro told her what Xamxaw told him, “Xam-dude’s orders, ‘kay?”
She promised, so all that was left to do was decide what was to happen next. Xamxaw suggested that make a plan of all the things they already knew, and then decide what was to happen next, but Defaro, who always put action before thinking, want to move on to a human camp, to try and listen in on their conversations. Then, Grawsae made a very surprising statement.
“I brought transformation dust.”
Transformation dust was
“You what?!” exclaimed Defaro, while Xamxaw just gaped at her, jaws open, showing every single sharp, white tooth.
“But everyone knows you can only get transformation dust from a sylphie!” Xamxaw hoarsely gasped.
“Did you steal it from a sylphie’s cluster?” Defaro gasped, with a lot of awe and just a hint of new respect in his voice.
“Not exactly...” she confessed, “I actually got it from an oliot, which was very hard, and scary, ‘coz you know what an oliot can do when it’s angry. I had to offer it something really special, in return for a few of its supplies-
Xamxaw interrupted her, “How many of these ‘supplies’ to you have?”
“Weeell... other than the pouch of transformation dust, I have 2 invisibility bracelets and a packet of fire-enhancer gum. I only brought the invisibility bracelets, though. Sorry.
“That’s okay, I doubt that fire-enhancer would help us anyway”, Xamxaw said kindly, “now let’s start moving!”
“But...I haven’t finished my story!” protested Grawsae.
“Tell us on the way!”
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