Dragon Land: Two Dragon Brothers # 1: The Beginning

by Elizabeth Westphal

  “Oh,” Waveripple said. “They look like they're about to fall.”

  Waveripple kept glancing up as they crossed the cavern, but Emeraldeyes relaxed more and only looked up occasionally.

  At the end of the cavern, the tunnel they had been following continued. But it was smaller now, with room for only one hatchling to go through at a time. Indigowings entered it first. Waveripple followed him, and Emeraldeyes came in last.

  It was so dark in the tunnel that Waveripple could not see Indigowings, even though he was right in front of him.

  Waveripple was worried that he might accidentally crash into him.

  The tunnel went on for a long time, and Waveripple could not see if they were almost at its end, because Indigowings was blocking his view. This tunnel twisted and turned a lot more often than the other tunnels they had walked through, but so far there were no other tunnels branching off it.

  This tunnel was the longest one they had gone through. Waveripple would have thought that they were very deep into the cave, but it twisted back on itself so much that there might actually have been only a few feet of rock separating them from the forest.

  After a few more yards, the tunnel led to another cavern. This cavern was more than twice the size of the last one, and had two tunnels leading out of it on the other side. There were only a few stalactites hanging from its roof. There were also a few stalagmites in the cavern, and two columns.

  Now that they were in a cavern instead of walking through a tunnel, Waveripple stopped and looked around. He saw Emeraldeyes standing next to him, but he could not see Indigowings anywhere.

  “Indigowings! Where are you?” Waveripple called.

  “I'm right here,” Indigowings's voice came from a few feet away, making Waveripple jump. Waveripple could see Indigowings's yellow eyes, glowing in the dark, but he could not see any other part of him.

  “Why can I only see your eyes?” Waveripple asked. “I can see Emeraldeyes, but I can't see you.”

  Indigowings and Emeraldeyes started laughing.

  “What?” Waveripple asked.

  “Of course we can't see him, Waveripple,” Emerladeyes said, trying to stop herself from laughing. “He's a Dusk. Dusks change colors in the dark to match the darkness.”

  “Oh. Really?” Waveripple asked, feeling slightly embarrassed. No one had ever told him that before. “That's cool. Why don't you ever change color in the light, Indigowings?”

  “I don't know,” Indigowings said. “It isn't voluntary. And it only works at night, or in dark places like this cave.”

  Emeraldeyes walked past Indigowings to go closer to one of the walls of the cavern. “Look at this!” she exclaimed.

  Indigowings and Waveripple rushed over to see what it was. Gold thinly lined the wall that Emeraldeyes was staring at. Waveripple checked the other walls and saw that they had gold on them, too.

  “It's pretty,” Emeraldeyes said.

  “Yeah, it is,” Waveripple agreed. “I wonder if there is any more of it in those tunnels.” He pointed to the two up ahead.

  “Let's go see,” Emeraldeyes said, walking quickly into the tunnel on the right. “There's none in here,” she announced. “Maybe there is some in the other tunnel...” She came out of the first tunnel and went into the one on the left instead.

  “There's more here!” she said excitedly.

  Indigowings entered that tunnel to look, but Waveripple lingered behind.

  “I thought we were only going to take straight forward and right tunnels,” he reminded them.

  Indigowings backed out of the tunnel, followed by Emeraldeyes.

  “Right,” Emeraldeyes said. “I was just seeing if it had gold; I was not planning to actually take that tunnel.” She walked into the right tunnel, and Indigowings went in after her.

  Waveripple entered it last. This tunnel was more spacious than the last one they had been in, with enough room for the three hatchlings to walk side by side.

  After a few hundred feet, they came to a dead end, with no other tunnels to go into. They were about to turn back when Waveripple stopped. He had heard a familiar sound coming from the dead end. It was the sound of moving water.

  “Listen,” he told the other two hatchlings. “I can hear water on the other side of the dead end.”

  Indigowings and Emeraldeyes stepped closer to the wall so that they could hear better.

  “I hear it, too,” Emeraldeyes said.

  “I wonder how thick this wall is,” Indigowings said. “Maybe this isn't really a dead end, but just a cave-in. The tunnel might continue on the other side.”

  “If we could breathe fire,” Emeraldeyes said, “we could melt the rock and see what is on the other side.” She looked thoughtful, probably wondering if she would be able to breathe fire on it, since she was almost an adult dragon.

  Indigowings shook his head. “That's not a good idea,” he said. “Some caves have stuff in the walls that explodes if it is burned.”

  “We can just go back and take the other tunnel,” Waveripple said.

  “Okay,” Emeraldeyes agreed. “We're not likely to get lost by taking just one left tunnel.”

  The three dragons turned around and walked back out of the tunnel, and then entered the left tunnel.

  It was a small tunnel with room for only one hatchling to walk through it at a time. Waveripple went first this time, then Indigowings, and last Emeraldeyes. That tunnel also dead-ended after a few hundred yards.

  “Let's go back out of this cave,” Indigowings said. “Then we can explore it again, taking left turns this time.”

  “Okay,” Waveripple said. “And after that we can explore the last cave.”

  The hatchlings eventually finished retracing their path to get out of the cave. By the time they got out, it was already starting to get dark.

  Indigowings, now fully visible again, did not seem to notice that it was almost night. He started walking back into the cave to explore the other tunnels, but paused when he noticed that Emeraldeyes and Waveripple were not following him.

  “Don't you want to keep exploring the cave?” he asked confusedly.

  “It's getting dark already,” Emeraldeyes explained. “I don't think we have enough time to keep exploring before it gets too dark.”

  “And it's a few miles to get back to the lake, so it will be even darker by then,” Waveripple added.

  Indigowings sighed. “We can keep exploring tomorrow, then. Unless you're not interested anymore.”

  “Of course I'm still interested,” Emeraldeyes said.

  “Yeah,” Waveripple agreed. “Exploring the cave was fun, but it really is getting too dark now.”

  The dragons walked back to the tree where Emeraldeyes lived, because it was the closest of their homes.

  “See you tomorrow,” Indigowings said to Emeraldeyes. “We can meet by the caves to keep exploring them.”

  Emeraldeyes nodded. After they said goodbye to Emeraldeyes, Indigowings and Waveripple walked back through the forest until they reached Indigowings's cave.

  “Bye, Waveripple,” Indigowings said.

  “Bye, Indigowings,” Waveripple replied. Then he walked back towards the lake.

  By the time he arrived, it was almost nightfall. He told his parents about the cave that they had been exploring, and that he was going to go back to keep exploring it the next day.

  “Be careful in the cave,” Flowerwater told him. “Pay attention what directions you take so that you don't get lost.”

  “We were,” Waveripple replied. “Emeraldeyes suggested that we only take forward tunnels and tunnels that led right if there was no forward tunnel. That way it was practically impossible to get lost.”

  “That's a good idea,” Flowerwater said.

  “Don't stay in the cave too long,” Splashsail said. “It's easy to loose track of time when you can't see how much light there is.”

  Waveripple nodded. “We weren't exploring the cave for too long. We can just come out every now
and then to make sure it's not too dark.”

  Soon after, the Amphibians settled in by the lake and fell asleep.

  Waveripple dreamed that he was walking through a cave that had gold lining the walls, and stalagmites growing up from the floor. He could hear moving water in the background. But then he looked up and saw stalactites hanging loosely from the ceiling. The ground shook, and the stalactites all started falling down, about to crush him....

  Waveripple woke up, gasping. It was still night, and he was safely by the edge of the lake, not in an inescapable cave. He soon calmed down and fell asleep again, having a more peaceful dream this time.

  ~~~

  The next night, Whiteswirl decided to go to the cavern he had found before.

  Whiteswirl walked over to Redclaws. “Do you want to see the cavern I found at the end of one of these tunnels?” he asked her.

  “Yeah, I can see it,” Redclaws agreed disinterestedly.

  Whiteswirl walked through the long tunnel with Redclaws following him. She did not say anything, but he thought that she did not like the confinement or the length of the tunnel.

  After a while, they came to the cavern that Whiteswirl had found the previous night. The moon was a bit fuller this night, lighting the cavern better. It looked just as beautiful as it had the last time, with gold and jewels lining the walls and sparkling in the moonlight. The stalagmites and stalactites were dotted around the cavern, decorating it nicely. But the little stream trickling through the center of the cavern was the most beautiful to Whiteswirl. It flowed through the cave slowly and sinuously, and it was well-lit by the moonlight.

  “It is a bit pretty,” Redclaws admitted. But she only stayed there for a short time before turning around and heading back down the tunnel.

  Whiteswirl knew that Redclaws probably did not like that the only way out was the way they had come in. If anyone found their cave while they were in this cavern, they could trap them inside it.

  Whiteswirl walked around the edges of the cavern, wishing there was another tunnel leading out of it. Maybe then Redclaws would have stayed longer, and would come back more often.

  Whiteswirl heard the faint echoing of his footsteps as he paced around the cavern. At one point, the echo was weaker than at the other parts.

  Whiteswirl paused, and then roared so that he could hear the echo. The rock wall sounded hollow. He pushed on it, but he knew that he would not be able to do any damage to it. And if there was not really anything on the other side, breaking it would ruin part of his beautiful cavern.

  Whiteswirl stopped pacing and stared around at the cavern wonderingly. He gazed at the stream for a particularly long time. Then he slowly walked up to it, and placed one of his feet inside.

  The water was cool, but felt good anyway. Whiteswirl stepped in completely, shivering a bit from the cold. He liked the way the water felt as it flowed around his feet and legs. He waded in deeper until he was in the middle of the little stream, which came up to his belly.

  Whiteswirl bent his legs until the water was up to his neck, and stood like that for a little while, feeling the water flow around him. But it was too cold to stay there long, so he soon stepped out, shaking off the water.

  Whiteswirl stayed in his little cavern for a long time. It was a peaceful place, far away from other dragons, who would try to kill him if they could. The cave was so beautiful and serene that it seemed like an automatic peace zone, a place where no one could harm anyone else. He felt like he would not have to worry about anything, whether it was finding dragons to hunt or being attacked, as long as he stayed there.

  Only when the sun had started rising above the horizon did Whiteswirl leave the cavern, heading back to Redclaws, so that she would know that nothing had happened to him–not that she cared, he thought–and because the sun would shine through the hole in the ceiling, just as the moon did at night. He would not be able to sleep with a bright light shining into his cavern, which would be made even more unbearable by the reflective objects in the cave.

  CHAPTER NINE: COLLAPSE

  The next day, Waveripple went hunting for fish with his parents, like he did every day. After they had caught a few fish, he thought about what to do while waiting for the evening. He decided to go back to the pond that he had found with Indigowings before, and chase the frogs and turtles around. Of course he could do that, plus chasing fish, here at the lake, but he was at the lake every day and wanted to play in a new body of water.

  After he had told his parents where he was going, Waveripple walked into the forest to find the pond. He did not remember exactly where it was, but he knew that it was near Emeraldeyes's tree.

  When he arrived at the oak tree, Waveripple looked around at the forest, trying to remember which direction they had gone in.

  “Hi Waveripple!” Emeraldeyes's voice called down to him from the tree.

  Waveripple looked up, startled. He had not known that she was up there. “Hi, Emeraldeyes,” he answered.

  Emeraldeyes flew down from the tree and landed next to him. “What are you doing here?” she asked curiously. “You usually only come in the forest when Indigowings is awake.”

  “Yeah, but I got bored at the lake,” Waveripple replied. “Indigowings and I had found a pond somewhere nearby, so I was going back to it, but I don't remember where it is. Do you know of any ponds nearby?”

  Emeraldeyes thought for a minute. “It depends on what you mean by nearby,” she answered. “I know of one pond a few miles away. Do you want me to show it to you, so you can see if it's the right one?”

  “Yeah,” Waveripple said. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” Emeraldeyes said. “The pond is this way.” She flew off through the trees, and Waveripple followed her.

  Emeraldeyes flew below the tree level, where Waveripple could still see her. She moved faster when she was flying, but did not crash into any trees. Waverippple had to almost run to keep up with her.

  After a while, they reached an opening in the trees. In the clearing was a pond, but not the same one that Waveripple had found before. This one was much larger, and even had a small stream trickling into it.

  “Is this the pond you were talking about?” Emeraldeyes asked him.

  “No, but this one is much better,” Waveripple replied. “Thanks for showing it to me.”

  “You're welcome,” Emeraldeyes said.

  Waveripple waded into the pond. The water felt different from the water in the lake. The lake's water was usually moving around, blown by the wind, but this water was moving much more. The stream was constantly providing more water to the pond, moving the water around. Waveripple wondered why the pond had not overflowed by now.

  “Well, I'm going back to the oak tree now,” Emeraldeyes said. “I'm going to go hunting with my parents soon.”

  “Okay. Bye!” Waveripple said.

  “Bye,” Emeraldeyes answered. Then she turned and flew back into the trees.

  Waveripple went deeper into the pond, trying to find a spot that was too deep for him to touch the bottom. The middle of the pond was the only area deep enough to cover his head.

  He dove under the water to see what kinds of animals lived in the pond. He saw a few frogs and turtles swimming quickly away from him. There were also a few small fish, mostly minnows. The biggest fish here would only be medium-sized compared to the fish back at the lake.

  Waveripple chased the fish around for a little while before he had an idea. He could swim upstream to see where the little stream came from. That would be funner than just chasing fish around in the pond, after all.

  Waveripple surfaced and swam towards the perimeter of the pond, where he could put his feet down and walk. He waded over to the stream and started heading through it upstream. It was less deep than he had expected, so he did not even need to swim. The water was high enough to cover his back, but not his head, so it would be hard to swim even if he wanted to.The stream led into the forest in a different direction than the one Waveripple had co
me from. He kept walking up the stream as it wound through the forest, wondering when, or if, he would reach its beginning.

  After half an hour of walking upstream through the forest, the stream went into another, smaller clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a small pond, which the stream was flowing out of. Past the pond, the stream continued, heading into the forest again.

  Waveripple kept following the stream as it went in and out of the forest, going through clearings along the way, some of which had little ponds in them.

  After another hour, the stream led into one final clearing. The clearing did not have very many trees in it because it was at the base of a steep cliff. The stream was coming out of the cliff's base. Waveripple thought the cliff looked familiar, like the one they had found the caves in, but he was not certain. He could not see any caves here, but they might be on one of the other sides of the cliff.

  Waveripple walked up the stream all the way to the base of the cliff. There was no air space where the water joined the cave. Waveripple ducked under the water to find out if he could see, through the water, a cave in the cliff. He saw a lot of bubbles from the water flowing towards his face, but he could not see through it into the cliff, so he did not know if the stream came out of a cave.

  Waveripple considered going underneath the cliff to find out, but decided not to do it then because it would probably take too long. He wanted to be back at Indigowings's cave by the time he woke up. And for all Waveripple knew, there might not even be a cave on the other side.

  Waveripple turned around and headed back downstream. When he finally arrived back at the pond Emeraldeyes had shown him, another hour had gone by. It was already evening, so he went to Indigowings's cave.

  Indigowings's cave was empty, so Waveripple walked around in the forest for a while. Then he remembered that they were supposed to meet each other at the caves they were exploring yesterday; that was why Indigowings was not here.

  Waveripple walked all the way to the caves they had found before, where he saw Indigowings and Emeraldeyes waiting for him.

  “Finally,” Indigowings muttered. Then he said louder, “Hi Waveripple!”