Surprise and Shore Shock

Mai'ko

"So then I told him, 'That's no poodle, that's your bride!' " One of the faerie males was entertaining the small party inside the temple, sending them into a fit of laughter. I had decided that if anything was going to happen, at least I wouldn't have to face the enemy alone.

"I've got a better one!" One of the Marians spoke up. "You should've seen what they were doing at the temple down in Shade City this morning!"

"I heard— they activated Xoyto's disc by polishing it, right?" I interjected as I was reaching for the teapot. The conversation turned silent from there. "What?"

The Marian whom I interrupted spoke up again. "What trashmouth did you hear that from? That disc is likely to never be activated, if it can even do such a thing. I was down there just a few minutes before I headed for the whirlwind. It was polished, all right... but they needed it as a shiny surface. The electricity's out in the whole city, so they've been using candles to keep the temple lit. In any case, I was going to talk about the fact that they DID marry a pair of poodles together this morning!"

The group erupted in laughter again, but I stayed silent. Had I recieved bad information after all?

One of the faeries noticed my face. "Cheer up, Mai'ko;  it's a great day! The Anniversary of the Pause� no ADC activity in six years to the day! Not a raid, not a protest . . . not even a lynching! I thought you'd be beeming, all things considered. I mean, running the Draconian Temple and all . . .."

"It's not that. It's just . . .."

"Did I already miss the party?" I heard two feet hit the ground near the whirlwind. Half of the party winced, and one of the others winced, but only for an instant. "I know how everyone likes a good celebration."

So leave already, you ankh-tattooed hybrid. I made that mental note to myself as I looked over at her. I should have paid more attention to that tattoo earlier� the misinformer also had one. "Well, Cairo . . . good to see that our immoral dracophobe is willing to join us for today."

"That's immortal, not immoral. [I'm hoping that was just a slip...]" She quickly corrected me, taking a seat uncomfortably close to me. Then again, even being in the same room with her is uncomfortable.

I didn't even attempt to move away, as I did not want to appear as prejudiced as she was. "So� I'm surprised that you're here. I would've thought that the ADC wanted nothing to do with this place."

Clink!

Cairo had dropped her empty teacup when I said that. She quickly regained her composure, however. "[Well, that was uncalled for...] Mai'ko, your assumption that I'm here on ADC business is quite insulting. Why something now, after six years of nonactivity? Besides . . . I'm actually here to meet up with a long-time associate of mine."

"A dragon associate?"

"Quite. [As in, DUH!] [Shh!] We've had a long-distance relationship, and I was supposed to meet him here. I've known the dragon for a few years. Perhaps you've seen him? Answers to—"

Ching! Ching! Ching!

One of the faerie's spell orbs was bouncing up and down, making enough of a racket to halt the conversation. The offending object's owner quickly eeked out an apology. "Sorry . . . being paged . . . Nice seeing you, but I've got to go!" The others soon found their own reasons to leave rather quickly, and filed out after him into the whirlwind. Within one minute's time, the only two sentient creatures in the temple were myself and Cairo.

I glanced over at her, glaring at her ankh tattoo. "Long-distance relationship, my wand� what's the real story? And don't lie to me like your little faerie 'sister' did this morning."

Cairo stood up quickly, walking over to the oak doorway that sealed the temple from the rest of Draco Reaches. "Oh, you pretty much heard all of it. Worded in public-speak, of course. Now why is this door locked?"

I sneered, standing up as well. "You knowingly sent false information via one of your members about the disc. I had locked the door as a precaution. I should unlock it, now that I know the truth. The sooner we can get some adult dragons here to deal with you, the better . . .."

"Nothing is going to come here, and maybe I should make sure you can't unlock it . . .." Cairo grinned, moving her hands over the wood to cast a seal on it, effectively cancelling my previous seal. Underneath one of her hands was a small Marian wand, discreetly tucked out of sight so she would appear unarmed. "There. Sealed and coded. Let's see how those dragons handle scroll puzzles"

"You wouldn't dare! How exactly do you expect your 'associate' to reach you now?"

She smirked. "He will break it . . . I've watched him. He has quite the knack for getting where he wants to go."

Reena

We ran through the water, trying to catch up to the speeding dragonfly ahead. At least, I had identified it as a dragonfly . . . the problem was that dragonflies on the whole are a lot faster than dragons, which left us at a disadvantage.

He stopped on a beachhead at about half health. I decided that both of the Spyros should stay behind me for backup and I would confront the dragonfly, mostly because of the fact I could talk him down. If that didn't work, we'd beat him down.

The shoreline slipped under my feet as I walked over to the blue dragonfly. "Pardon me, sir . . . but were you aware that you were flying about 20 knots faster than the regulated limit for this particular altitu-"

WHACK!

"Eeeh!" He'd lashed out with his wings at me, knocking me to the ground and leaving me with an ugly cut across the left side of my face. I reached inside of my coat for a few moments, feeling around, glaring at the dragonfly. "You know, I might've let you fly away with just a warning if you hadn't attacked..."

"What difference does it make?" Her retorted.

"Oh . . . about this much."

ZIK!

"She carries a GUN on her?!" Spyro Prime shouted out to his alternate.

"A 'gun' requires bullets. This is one of my inventions� it's a LightCard." I spoke, holding up the playing-card-sized weapon. "I'd go on, but I don't want our now stunned dragonfly here to get away if I ramble." I glanced at the dragonfly, noting a small patch of blue under his top. This time, I couldn't mistake the blue for skin. My fingers clenched up around the LightCard, but I didn't fire.

"Reena?" Spyro walked up to me, using his staff to gain slightly better footing and to help me up. "You look like you saw a ghost."

"You could say that." I jerked my head over in the dragonfly's direction. "There's Blue Line Weave on him."

"So?" Spyro Prime jumped out the water and stood toward me as well."What's that have to do with anything?"

"Would you like to explain or should I?" I glanced over at Spyro.

"I'll do it." Spyro sighed a bit, then turned to Spyro Prime. "Prime� you ever had someone hate you so much they wanted to personally kill you?"

"On numerous occasions." He responded. "Being the one who ends up trying to overthrow said someone's dictatorship usually gets that response."

"Well, I meant BESIDES that . . .." Spyro muttered under his breath. "I meant like you're just trying to do something that shouldn't be a big deal� maybe just looking around an area for a few plants� and then you hear some noise coming from an area just out of your sight. Suddenly, this ferocious mob comes at you with whatever they can get their grubby little hands on, chases after you without giving you any chance of taking a rest, and finally, when you've got barely enough energy left to breathe air, they swarm all over you, beat you until your entire body is one big bruise� including your little pee slit, which they'll probably attack with extra zeal to castrate you�"

"What's 'castrate' mean?" He interjected. Spyro knocked him over with his staff, jumping on him and using the staff to pin him to the ground.

"Shut up! I'm trying to tell you something here, and you're asking me questions like I'm a damned dictionary!" he hissed. "Now, where was I . . .. Well, once they've finally put you through all of that torture, do they decide that you've had enough and then turn around to go home? Noooo . . ..Then they get out some ropes. They'll tie your limbs down so about the only thing you can do is just stand there� by now, you've gotten back enough energy to stand up for a few minutes� and then they get out this thing called a noose that has an adjustable loop held together by a slipknot. They usually put the long end over a thick tree branch, and they put the knotted part over your head and tighten it so you can just barely breathe. Then they'll make you stand on something, usually a box or maybe one of the others who's crawling about on all fours, and they tie the long part to the tree branch so that it doesn't move. Once the noose is securely tied on, they'll move the box away, so you're just left hanging there with the rope around your neck slowly cutting off your air and the flow of blood to your brain. You'll hang there for about twenty minutes until you finally die of the suffocation, because they'll botch the hanging on purpose. They'll still try to hurt you some more while you're dying, and Tahla knows what sort of things they might do your body after you're dead." Spyro growled, trying to make sure his 'student' understood what he was saying. "Has that ever happened to you before?! Have you ever seen it happen?! Did you even know something like that even existed?!"

"N-n-n-no! No! Of course not! That's never happened back in the Dragon Worlds! You probably made it up!" Spyro Prime scuttled backwards, trying to get out of his range. Spyro pounced on him again, holding his arms down into the sand, shuffling his staff to one side.

I decided to put away my LightCard. Almost as soon as I did that, the dragonfly regained consciouness and quickly swam off, trying to not get either of the Spyros' attention. I almost saw a quick blessing escape his lips for my letting him escape. I looked over at the two dragons again, trying to remain silent and not ruin this 'learning' experience.

"Guess what, Prime. I didn't make ANY of it up. People really do that . . . they'll do that to dragons. You say they don't do that in the Dragon Worlds? Well, this isn't the Dragon Worlds. This is the Shadow Lands, and around here, just being a dragon can be the reason they kill you." Spyro had calmed down some, now that he was finally making some progress.

"I still think you're lying � that's no reason to kill someone, just becuase they're a dragon!"

"Spyro Prime, he's . . . not lying." I managed to speak. "That is a reason. Not a fair reason, but it's their reason."

"I still don't think I understand." He replied.

"That's okay, for now." I explained. "Spyro, get off of him. That dragonfly we caught just escaped, and by now the library should be open. Maybe you'll be able to knock some sense into Spyro Prime if you're in an area where you won't be able to knock him senseless first."

Spyro grunted in agreement, and stood up. "C'mon, Prime . . . Let's go."

Spyro

I swam behind the others at half-speed, trying to comprehend what Shadow was telling me. People didn't do that . . . did they? And even if they did, what did that have to do with 'Blue Line Weave' on a dragonfly?

By the time we did reach the library, sure enough, the door was unlocked. Once we made our way inside, we looked around at the wide aisles between the rows of books. A reddish dragon with glasses much like the professor's stood off to one side, organizing the books. Something about her rang odd, but I dismissed it and decided to walk on ahead to where Dad and his alternate� the alternate was a little more wrinkled and banged up, but they looked about the same.

It took me a few minutes until I noticed that Shadow and Reena hadn't taken the same direction that I did. I walked back and saw that they were talking with the red dragon that I saw when I entered the library. Shadow was about to finish up his wuestion when he noticed me. "Where'd you go?"

"Further down the library. I missed the turn." I explained. I looked up at the red dragon again. Most of her didn't seem too familiar with me, except her horns . . . same shade of yellow as mine. I shrugged it off and turned to Shadow. "Well? where's the information we came for?"

"Mother's getting it just as soon as she checks to make sure the books we need are here." He responded. The red dragon and Reena went off to go find the books, leaving the two of us (and Sparx) alone in the aisle.

I nodded. "Sure. Who's Mother?"

"Oh, for . . ." He stopped himself before he went too far. "How can you NOT know who your mother is?"

"I might. Just tell me what a mother is and maybe I already know him." I responded quickly.

"Know HIM!? Oh, for . . . a mother isn't even a male! Don't you know anything?!"

I snarled. "Of course I do. You're just not asking me the right questions."

"Liar. Anyone who doesn't even know what a mother is must be the stupidest creature to walk the earth." He glared at me. For just a few moments, I remembered that Sparx was still just behind my left ear slit, flitting about silently. Waiting.

"Look; I don't know what a mother is. I know what a father is, but . . ." I shrugged. "Is there any similarity?"

He smirked. "Yeah. They're both parents. So you don't have a mother � big deal. You should at least know what one is and who yours was. Don't you even know that?" He spoke. I sneered slightly, taking a few deep breaths and flexing my fingers.

Sparx spoke up. "Don't let him pull your mind like that. He's just trying to get a repsonse out of you � not to mention he's by no means as good of a fighter as you are. You'll kill him!"

I smirked at Shadow. "Actually, there is ONE thing I know that you might be interested in . . ." I dropped down to all fours and walked over to him so that his face was level with mine.

"Oh? What's that?" He looked at me, and I breathed out a fairly impressive shot of flame at point blank range. He roared, and within five seconds I could hear the others running. I quickly ran out of the library, and dove into the water. I swam as far as I could for a secluded alcove. A small cave that was small enough to let me in, but not an adult. I surfaced inside of the alcove, and just sat on the sand, curling up and trying to think.

Sparx frowned at me. "Well, that's a great way to start off a relationship. Now what? And what was that one thing you thought he might like to know?"

"The fact that I probably could still do more damage to him than vice versa . . .." I explained, and then sighed. "I can't believe I did that . . .."

"I can't believe it either. Now what? Are you just going to hide here?"

"Why not? Shadow's probably got half of the dragons here already looking for me . . . I'm safe here. Besides, I need time to think."

Sparx sighed, and then landed learby on an old shell. "About what?"

"Everything."