Dragon Land: Two Dragon Brothers # 1: The Beginning
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“Hi, Indigowings,” Waveripple said.
“We were about to go into the cave without you,” Indigowings told him.
“I forgot that we were supposed to meet here today. Sorry,” Waveripple said.
“Let's just go in now before it gets too late,” Emeraldeyes said.
Emeraldeyes hurried into the cave, followed by Indigowings and then Waveripple. They soon came to the first branch of the cave, which was a left tunnel. The three of them walked into it.
The tunnel was medium-length and dead-ended.
“Oh great, a dead end,” Indigowings said. “Now there is only one cave left to explore.”
The three hatchlings exited the cave they were exploring and walked into the last one. It was just a long, straight tunnel with no other tunnels branching off it, unlike the other cave they had been exploring.
The tunnel led through a few small, empty caverns before it finally reached a larger cavern.
This cavern had stalagmites and stalactites, like most of the other caverns they had been in. Other than its size, the only difference this cavern had from the others was that, at its other end, two tunnels led out of it, instead of just one.
“Which tunnel do you think we should take?” Indigowings asked, after looking down both tunnels.
“It doesn't matter to me,” Emeraldeyes replied. “They both look almost exactly the same.”
“Then let's take the left tunnel,” Waveripple suggested.
“Okay,” Indigowings agreed, entering it. Waveripple came next, followed by Emeraldeyes.
This tunnel was much shorter than the one they had been following before. Just a few hundred feet down, they reached a medium-sized cavern. The cavern had three tunnels to pick from at its end. They could see that the right tunnel ended after just a few feet, but the center and left tunnels were too long for them to see if they were dead ends.
They walked into the center tunnel, Waveripple leading this time. At the end of the tunnel was a huge cavern, with several stalactites and stalagmites. It also had gold-lined walls, and a small, familiar-looking stream flowing from one wall to the other, probably passing through more caverns on the other sides of the walls. There were no more tunnels at the end of this cavern to go through.
Indigowings and Emeraldeyes turned to leave, but Waveripple walked up to the stream and jumped into it, sending water flying out at them.
“Hey!” Emeraldeyes complained. “That's cold!”
Waveripple did not think that the water was cold, but he was used to being in water at different temperatures, so maybe it would feel cold to Emeraldeyes.
Indigowings had not been splashed when Waveripple jumped into the stream, because he was farther back. “Let's go explore one of the other tunnels,” he said.
“Not yet,” Waveripple said. “We are always walking through all the tunnels and caverns, exploring them, but we hardly ever stay in them for a while. And I like the stream in this one.”
Indigowings did not leave the cavern, but he stayed near the exit.
“Well, don't be splashing us if you want us to stay here, Waveripple,” Emeraldeyes said.
Waveripple shrugged. “There's nothing wrong with getting wet,” he said.
Emeraldeyes grinned slyly and said, “Well, then, you shouldn't mind this!” As she spoke she put her right wing into the water and splashed a small wave of water at Waveripple. Most of it hit him in the face.
Waveripple splashed a lot more water back at her than he had the first time, and some of it hit Indigowings, who then came over to join in the splash fight.
After a few minutes, Indigowings left to go back to the entrance of the tunnel they had come from.
“Come on. Let's keep exploring this cave,” Indigowings said.
“Okay,” Emeraldeyes said, walking over to him.
Waveripple sent one last splash in their direction, and then walked over to join them.
Indigowings led the way back towards the cavern they had come from. “Now we can go in the left tunnel,” he said, walking into it.
Emeraldeyes and Waveripple followed him. At the end of the tunnel was a small cavern, with five tunnels branching off it. Two of the tunnels were dead ends, so the hatchlings did not go in them
Waveripple went up to the center tunnel and was about to start walking through it when he heard a rumbling sound. He froze, trying to figure out what it was.
Emeraldeyes looked around for the cause of the sound, too, but Indigowings seemed to recognize it. His glowing eyes glanced around at all the tunnels, looking terrified.
The rumbling intensified until it was not just a noise. The ground started shaking as if it were a living thing that was shivering. Then the shaking got rougher, and a few stalactites fell down from the ceiling. The three hatchlings jumped back to the edges of the cavern to avoid them.
There was a cracking sound, and then rocks started falling down from the walls and ceiling of the cave. They tumbled down and blocked off a few of the exits, including the one the hatchlings had come through.
Just as suddenly as it had started, the ground stopped shaking. A few last rocks fell down; then everything was still and quiet.
“What just happened?” Waveripple asked, staring at the rocks and stalactites that had fallen.
“An earthquake,” Indigowings replied, seeming a bit surprised that Waveripple did not know.
Emeraldeyes ran over to the pile of rocks that was blocking the tunnel they had come through. She started trying to move them away, but most of them were too big for her.
“We won't be able to move all the rocks,” Indigowings said. “There are too many of them. We have to try going down one of the unblocked tunnels.”
Waveripple looked at the tunnels leading out of the cavern. One of them was a dead end. Two tunnels were too deep to tell, and the rest were blocked off by rocks.
“Which one do you think we should pick?” Waveripple asked.
Emeraldeyes came over to examine the tunnels but did not say anything.
“They both seem the same,” Indigowings said. “We can go down one, and if it's a dead end we can come back to the other one.” He walked down the tunnel closest to him, the one on the right. Waveripple and Emeraldeyes followed him.
The tunnel went on for a long time. Or maybe it just seemed long to Waveripple, because this tunnel could be leading deeper and deeper into the cave, instead of being an exit from it.
After half an hour of walking through the tunnel, the dragons came to a dead end.
“Oh no,” Indigowings groaned. Waveripple saw his yellow eyes darting around, looking in all directions, even up, as if he thought a branch in the tunnel would suddenly appear if he looked closely enough. He did not find anything, so he turned around to head back.
Emeraldeyes and Waveripple also turned around and started walking back, now in the front.
Waveripple worried that the other tunnel would also be a dead end. What would they do then? He supposed they could try to move the rocks that were blocking the tunnel they came from. But what if Indigowings was right, and they were not able to move them?
Eventually they arrived back at the cavern, and started walking through the other tunnel.
This one was much shorter, and luckily did not lead to a dead end. Three tunnels branched off it. One of them was right next to the tunnel they had come out of. Another was at the opposite end of the cavern, and the last one was on the right side of the cavern.
The dragons walked through the tunnel at the opposite end of the cavern. They soon came to a turn, where they could go either right or left. Waveripple heard a sound coming from the right tunnel, so he walked down it.
When they had walked a bit farther, Waveripple could make out what the noise was–moving water. It was probably another part of the stream that they had found before.
At the end of the tunnel was a cavern–the most beautiful cavern Waveripple had ever seen in a cave. The stream that they had heard flowed through it, and the w
alls were lined with crystals and gold. There was a hole in the ceiling, through which they could tell that it was already night. At the other side of the cavern was a huge pile of rocks, which seemed to be blocking another tunnel.
Emeraldeyes flew up to the hole in the ceiling. She was small enough to fit through it, but the other two were not. Waveripple and Indigowings could not have gotten up there anyway, since they could not fly.
Emeraldeyes came back down. “I didn't recognize the area outside,” she told them. “I think we went deeper into this cave than we thought.”
“Let's go back through the tunnel,” Indigowings said. “We can take the left tunnel, which will now be the forward tunnel. If it doesn't lead to an exit, you can go back here and through the hole in the ceiling to get help, Emeraldeyes.”
“Okay,” Emeraldeyes agreed reluctantly, looking back at the exit. Waveripple wondered if she wanted to leave for help now, or if she just did not want to leave them at all. After all, even if she did bring more dragons, those dragons might not be able to get to them.
The hatchlings went back down the tunnel until they came to a branch leading left, the one they had come from. They kept going forward through the tunnel. Waveripple noticed that this tunnel had gold lining the walls, but he was not paying much attention to it. They soon reached another cavern.
The cavern also had gold lining the walls. Waveripple recognized it–it was the same cavern that they had found the day before, when they were not lost in the cave. The two caves must have been connected by the tunnel that they had not taken the day before. This cavern's exits were not blocked off, so they now knew which direction to go in to get out of the cave.
After a few more hours, the dragons found the tunnel that led to the exit in the cave that they had used to enter it the previous day. They ran out joyfully, glad to have found a way out.
By this time, it was already a few hours into the night, almost midnight. An owl hooted nearby, and an eerie howling broke out from the distance.
~~~
An earthquake woke Whiteswirl up in the late evening. The trembling was weak where he was, and seemed to be coming from deeper in the cave. He saw that Redclaws had also been awakened by the noise and faint trembling.
The earthquake ended soon, but Whiteswirl did not go back to sleep. It was too close to night.
When it finally became dark, Whiteswirl walked into the tunnel that led to his cavern, wanting to make sure that the earthquake had not damaged it.
Whiteswirl suddenly came to the end of the tunnel, which was not where it was supposed to be. There was a huge pile of rocks in front of him, blocking him from his cavern. The whole cavern could be filled up with rocks for all he knew, but he still had to try to move the rocks in front of him.
Most of the rocks were too heavy for him, but Whiteswirl did not give up. When he loosened and removed the smaller rocks, some of the larger ones also tumbled down.
A few hours later, Whiteswirl had a lot of rocks strewn around on the ground near him, but he was still not able to get into his cavern. He refused to give up, continuing to pull and push rocks out of the pile.
Hours later, he had made a gap at the top of the pile. Looking through it, he could see that his cavern was undamaged and unchanged, except for one thing. The earthquake had partially broken one of the cave walls, revealing an extra tunnel leading out of the cavern. It was exactly where Whiteswirl had calculated it to be. Whiteswirl was excited about this new tunnel. He would be able to explore more of the cave, and maybe Redclaws would want to come here, now that there were two exits from the cavern.
Whiteswirl hurriedly moved more of the rocks out of his way. By the time the night was ending, he had moved the top half of the rocks away. They were now all over the ground, but not blocking him from going back. Next night he would be able to move the last few rocks that were blocking him from his cavern.
Whiteswirl decided to go to sleep there, by the collapsed entrance to his cavern, instead of at the first cavern by the cave's exit. Unlike Redclaws, he was not afraid of dragons ambushing him there, especially since he knew that Redclaws would sleep in their original cavern. No dragon could get past her.
CHAPTER TEN: UNEXPLORED PLACES
Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes hurried back to their homes. As soon as Emeraldeyes was in sight of her oak tree, the other two said goodbye to her and rushed back to Indigowings's cave.
Indigowings was completely relaxed in the dark, since he was always out at night, but he knew that the other two hatchlings had to sleep, and their parents would be worried about them.
After arriving at Indigowings's cave, Waveripple and Indigowings said goodbye and Waveripple ran back in the direction of the lake. He heard rustling sounds, and an owl's hoot that sounded as if it were asking, “Who?” Waveripple went faster, spooked by the unusual sounds.
When he got back to the lake, Waveripple saw that neither of his parents were there. They must have gone looking for him.
Waveripple scanned the meadow, trying to see if they were nearby. He did not see them, so he started walking back towards the forest to see if they were looking for him there.
“Mom? Dad?” he called repeatedly as he walked, hoping they would hear him.
Waveripple heard faint shouting in the distance, and then the wingflaps of swiftly-flying dragons. He knew that his parents had heard him.
Splashsail and Flowerwater flew down and landed beside him. “Where have you been?” Splashsail asked.
“We were looking all over for you, Waveripple,” Flowerwater said. “You were supposed to come back before nightfall, and several hours have passed since then.”
“I was with Indigowings and Emeraldeyes, in the caves that we found,” Waveripple answered. “There was an earthquake, and the tunnel that we had come from was blocked off. We had to find another way out of the cave, but it took a while.”
“You were inside a cave when there was an earthquake, and the exit got blocked off?” Flowerwater asked, looking shocked. “You aren't allowed to go in the caves anymore,” she said after about two seconds. “It's too dangerous. You could have been trapped with all the exits blocked off. You could have died.”
Splashsail nodded. “Don't go into the caves anymore,” he said, agreeing with Flowerwater.
Waveripple also nodded. “I don't even want to go in them anymore,” he said. Exploring the cave had been fun and exciting, but it was too closed in. He had not minded it much at first, but when the earthquake had blocked off their exit, he realized that he very much preferred the open spaces of the lake and its surrounding meadow. Even the forest was better than the caves.
“Good,” Flowerwater said. She seemed relieved that Waveripple did not want to go back in the caves, knowing now that he would not try to sneak back there anyway.
“It's time to go back to the lake, to go to sleep,” Splashsail said, looking at the moon, which was in the middle of the sky. “And remember not to go into any cave, Waveripple.”
“I won't,” Waveripple said. He followed Splashsail back to the lake. Flowerwater walked behind him, as if she was afraid for him to be out of her sight.
Waveripple fell asleep soon after they got back, and was too exhausted to have any dreams.
The next morning, Waveripple decided to stay at the lake longer than he had the previous day, and to only leave the lake in the late evening. He dove into the lake to hunt for fish, and was able to catch one small silver fish. After eating it, he went over to his parents to ask them if they wanted to hunt with him.
“Can we hunt now?” he asked.
“Of course,” Flowerwater replied, smiling. She seemed glad that Waveripple wanted to be hunting in the lake instead of running off exploring the forest as he usually did.
Splashsail, Flowerwater, and Waveripple swam out to the spot they most often hunted in. They managed to catch seven fish, four of which were small. Two of the fish they caught were medium-sized, and the last one was a large gray fish.
“I'm going to go visit Indigowings now,” Waveripple announced in the early evening.
“Okay,” Splashsail said. “Remember to come home before nightfall.”
Waveripple nodded.
“And don't go into any cave,” Flowerwater said.
“Don't worry; I won't,” Waveripple reassured her again.
Waveripple headed into the forest to Indigowings's cave. Indigowings was inside, and Waveripple guessed that he had woken up recently.
“Hi, Indigowings,” Waveripple said.
“Hi, Waveripple,” Indigowings replied. “Do you want to continue exploring the caves?” He sounded only half-interested in that idea.
“After the earthquake?” Waveripple asked, surprised. “Of course I don't want to go back. And I'm not allowed to, anyway.”
“Well, it's not very likely that there would be another earthquake today,” Indigowings said. “But we can do something else if you want to.”
“Okay,” Waveripple said. “Let's go get Emeraldeyes, to see if she has any ideas about what we could do.”
“We can see if she's there,” Indigowings said, “but she told me yesterday that she would be hunting a lot today, so she might not be in her tree.”
“Let's go find out, then,” Waveripple said, and started walking towards Emeraldeyes's home. Indigowings followed him.
Emeraldeyes was not at her tree when they arrived.
“She'll probably be back soon,” Indigowings said. “What do you want to do in the meantime, or do you just want to wait for her?”
“We already explored a lot of the forest around here,” Waveripple replied. “So we should probably just wait for her here, unless you can think of something else to do.”
“Let's see...” Indigowings said. “Oh! I know! We could try flying. I haven't tried that for weeks; we might be able to now.”
“Yeah,” Waveripple agreed excitedly. “I almost forgot all about that!”
“And now would be the perfect chance to practice, since Emeraldeyes is not here.”
“We should probably go to a meadow, where there will be more room to spread our wings,” Waveripple said, looking around at all the trees surrounding them.