Dragon Land: Two Dragon Brothers # 1: The Beginning

by Elizabeth Westphal

  Waveripple waited for nearly an hour before he heard Indigowings's footsteps. He held as still as he could and hoped Indigowings would not notice him.

  Suddenly, Indigowings poked his head into the log. “I found you, Waveripple,” he said. “That was a very obvious hiding place. When your scent trail ended, the log was the only hiding spot nearby.”

  Indigowings moved his head back out of the hole in the log so that Waveripple could get out. After climbing out of the tree, Waveripple asked, “Did you find Emeraldeyes yet?”

  “Nope,” Indigowings replied. “I'm still looking for her. She's hiding in a very good spot. I spent a lot of time trying to find her.”

  Waveripple nodded and followed Indigowings to watch him look for Emeraldeyes, and see if he could spot her first.

  Indigowings led the way through the forest. Soon Waveripple noticed that he could smell Emeraldeyes's scent. The scent trail led to a group of pine trees, and then disappeared. Indigowings walked around slowly, trying to pick up the trail again.

  Waveripple looked up to see if Emeraldeyes was in one of the trees, but he could not see her. He looked in all the other nearby trees, too, but she was not in any of them. He looked down at the ground by the pine trees, and saw more branches there than he thought would naturally be under a tree.

  Waveripple glanced at the other nearby pine trees to see if there were as many branches under them. There were not. Then he noticed that one of the excess branches had a leaf attached to it. It was obviously not a pine branch. Waveripple guessed that Emeraldeyes had found a hollow by the base of one of the trees, partially hidden among the roots, and had hidden there, after dragging branches around the area to make it into a better hiding spot.

  Waveripple started looking around in other directions in case he was right, because he did not want to give Emeraldeyes's hiding place away. He walked around, pretending to still be looking for her.

  Indigowings came back then, and Waveripple thought that he had been staring at the ground by the pine trees too long. But Indigowings just looked up into the branches of the trees, and then kept walking. “Where could she be?” he muttered.

  A few minutes later, Indigowings looked at the ground by the pine trees. He must have also noticed that there were a lot of extra branches around their bases, because he started pushing the branches aside.

  Emeraldeyes really was hiding behind them. She was in a little hole in the ground, with a small mound of dirt around her. She had probably had to make the hole deeper to be able to fit in it.

  “That was a good hiding spot,” Indigowings said. “I didn't even notice you at first.”

  “Yeah, you just kept passing by,” Emeraldeyes said, smiling teasingly. “I started wondering if you were ever going to find me.”

  Indigowings rolled his eyes.

  Waveripple looked around, noticing that it was already starting to get dark. He had not noticed that they had been playing hide and seek so long.

  “I have to go back to the lake now,” Waveripple said. “It's getting dark, and it takes a while to walk back.”

  “Okay,” Indigowings said. “Bye. Come back tomorrow to keep playing hide and seek.”

  “I will,” Waveripple said. “It was fun. Bye Indigowings and Emeraldeyes!”

  “Bye,” Emeraldeyes said.

  Waveripple started walking back to the lake, noting that neither of the other hatchlings was going back to their homes. He arrived just before nightfall, a little bit earlier than he usually did. He had not wanted to be out later and then maybe not come back before night, like he had yesterday because of the cave-in.

  Flowerwater and Splashsail were pleased, and a bit surprised, that he had come back earlier than usual. The three of them ate the large fish that they had leftover from their last hunt, and soon after fell asleep by the lake.

  ~~~

  It took a few hours for Whiteswirl to be able to move enough rocks from the pile so that he could get into the cavern. He did not take any more rocks out after that, but just went straight into it.

  Whiteswirl's cavern was almost exactly the same as before. The beautiful stream still ran through it, and the gold and crystals were still in the walls. None of the stalactites had fallen. The moon, now full, still shone through the hole in the roof, lighting the cavern and enhancing its beauty.

  There was only one difference–the extra tunnel leading out of it that Whiteswirl had seen the previous night. Whiteswirl walked up to it, but froze when he noticed a few strange, but faint, scents. There were three distinct dragon hatchling scents. He recognized all of them–one was a Dusk, like the one he had seen in the other cave he had found, another was an Amphibian, like the three he had seen by the lake, and the last was a Dwarf. He recognized the last scent because Redclaws had once hunted a Dwarf for him. It had had enough blood for him then, but now one would not be big enough to be a whole meal.

  Whiteswirl could tell that the dragons had not been in here this night, and he knew that they had not been there for most of the previous night. He would have heard or smelled them when he was removing the rocks. These dragons must have been there in the evening before the last night.

  Since the hatchlings were gone, Whiteswirl decided to walk through the tunnel to see where it would lead. He walked through many different tunnels that night, and was able to explore about half of the cave, although it was difficult to judge the size of the cave without going through all the tunnels.

  Whiteswirl found a few more exits from the cave. He also found a lot of caverns, but none were as beautiful as his.

  When there was about an hour left in the night, Whiteswirl went back to his cavern. He spent the rest of the night there, and then went back to the cavern at the entrance as it got lighter. Redclaws was there, already sleeping since the sun was beginning to rise.

  Redclaws woke up when Whiteswirl approached her. An unrecognizable expression flashed across her face, and then was gone. She looked almost... concerned, but also resigned. Then the look disappeared, and she put her head back down, quickly falling asleep again.

  Whiteswirl also lay down and soon fell asleep.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: FIGHTS

  Waveripple walked into the forest to visit Indigowings and Emeraldeyes the next evening. When he neared Indigowings's cave, he heard two voices coming out of it. He recognized Indigowings's voice as one of them, but he did not know who the other dragon was. It sounded like an adult male dragon, but the voice did not sound familiar.

  Waveripple walked up to the cave curiously. The two dragons stopped talking almost immediately. Maybe they had heard him. He went to the cave entrance and saw Indigowings inside, along with a dragon he had never seen before. He was a large gray dragon, bigger than Indigowings. Besides female Vampires, there was only one kind of dragon that was gray–Storm dragons. The Storm had bright green eyes that were almost glowing.

  Both dragons looked at Waveripple.

  “Hi Waveripple,” Indigowings said in his usual friendly tone, but the Storm just stared at him. “This is Stormcloud,” Indigowings said. “Stormcloud, this is one of my friends, Waveripple.”

  “Hello,” Stormcloud said in a not entirely friendly voice.

  “Hi,” Waveripple answered, a bit quietly because of Stormcloud's attitude.

  “I have to go now,” Stormcloud said to Indigowings. He walked the few feet to get out of the cave and flew off.

  “What's going on?” Waveripple asked Indigowings. “Why was Stormcloud acting like that?”

  Indigowings shrugged. “Stormcloud usually acts like that around dragons he doesn't know. And he can hardly bear to not be up in the air for any length of time.”

  “So Stormcloud just came here to visit?” Waveripple asked.

  “Yeah, basically,” Indigowings replied. “He also said that he found another missing dragon–a Lizard. And that there was Vampire scent around the area. But that was several miles away from here. He tried to track the Vampire, but it must have flown away. He's asking so
me other adult dragons to help him find it.”

  “It would be good if they were able to get rid of it,” Waveripple agreed. “What other dragons are helping him?”

  “So far, just one other dragon–a Forest,” Indigowings replied. “But, more than likely, the other dragons that he's asking to help will also agree. He's going to ask a Tiger and a Wind.”

  “Do you think they would be able to win against the Vampire if they found it?” Waveripple asked. He knew that it would be four dragons against one if they met the Vampire, but he still wondered if they would be able to kill it. Vampires killed hundreds of other dragons during their lives, so they would be excellent fighters.

  “Probably,” Indigowings said. “Especially since Stormcloud can control the weather.”

  “Well, I hope they'll be able to kill it,” Waveripple said.

  A few minutes later, Waveripple heard the flapping wings of an approaching dragon. He did not think it was Stormcloud, because these wingflaps were much softer. He looked out of the cave and saw Emeraldeyes flying towards them.

  Emeraldeyes landed just outside the cave. “Hi, Indigowings and Waveripple,” she said.

  “Hi Emeraldeyes,” they answered.

  “It was taking longer than usual for you to come to the oak tree, so I decided to come here instead,” Emeraldeyes said. Seeing the looks on their faces, Emeraldeyes paused and asked worriedly, “What happened?”

  “Another Lizard dragon was killed,” Indigowings told her, and then explained everything that was happening.

  “That will be really dangerous,” Emeraldeyes said. “I hope Stormcloud and the others succeed, and none of them get killed.” After a pause, she asked, “Anyway, what do you two want to do today?”

  “Let's play hide and seek again,” Indigowings suggested. “Only, to make it more interesting, we could try to do it without following each other's scents.”

  “But then we would have to hide much closer, so that it would not be impossible to find each other,” Emeraldeyes said. “Then there would be fewer places to hide in, and it would be just the same interesting as before, not more.”

  “But it would be more interesting,” Waveripple said. “Because this time we're in a different part of the forest than before.”

  “We could also make it more interesting in another way,” Indigowings said. “One of us could pretend to be the Vampire that Stormcloud and the others are trying to find, and the other two could be the ones trying to find him. Then it would be funner, because it wouldn't just be one of us trying to find the others. The one playing for the Vampire could ambush the others, too.”

  “Yeah, we should do that,” Waveripple said excitedly. “It sounds funner than normal hide and seek.”

  “It does sound interesting,” Emeraldeyes said. “But how would we do the battles when we find each other? Actual play-fights could get too rough.”

  “We could carry pine cones around,” Indigowings suggested. “Then we could throw them at each other in the battles, pretending that they were fireballs. The dragons not playing for the Vampire could be dead if they were hit two times, and the one playing for the Vampire could be killed with four hits, to make it fairer.”

  “Yeah, we should do that,” Waveripple said again. This was sounding funner the more they planned it out.

  Emeraldeyes shook her head. “You are both bigger than me, and can carry a lot more pine cones at a time. So how about if the Vampire needs to be hit six times before it dies?”

  “Okay, we can do that,” Indigowings said.

  “Yeah, we can do it that way. It seems fun,” Waveripple said.

  “Okay,” Indigowings said. “Then do either of you want to play for the Vampire first?”

  “It doesn't matter to me,” Emeraldeyes said.

  “I can be the Vampire, then,” Waveripple said. “Unless you wanted to, Indigowings?”

  “No, it doesn't matter to me,” Indigowings replied.

  “Then I'll go out somewhere in the forest and gather pine cones. After you two have gotten enough for yourselves you can come and try to find me.”

  “Okay,” Emeraldeyes said, and Indigowings nodded.

  Waveripple started walking away, and heard the other dragons whispering together, making a plan. He picked up as many pine cones as he could carry in his mouth, and put them down on his back, holding them between his wings to stop them from falling. After gathering as many as he could carry on his back and in his mouth, Waveripple started looking for a hiding and ambushing spot.

  Waveripple decided to try to find a tree with low, close-growing branches, so that he could climb it and drop his pine cones down on Indigowings and Emeraldeyes when they came. The pine trees had the lowest branches, so he looked for one with branches low enough for him to walk onto. The branches could have been higher if he was not holding pine cones, but he thought he would drop them if he tried to get onto a branch that was more than a few feet off the ground.

  Soon Waveripple found a large rock underneath a pine tree. The tree itself did not have low branches, but if he climbed on the rock, he would be able to climb onto the lowest branch. He put the pine cones that were in his mouth on top of the rock and climbed up. He picked back up his pine cones once he was on top, and walked onto the first tree branch.

  Waveripple wobbled and almost fell off the branch. It was not very thick, so he had a hard time balancing on it. He grabbed it with his feet and dug into the branch with his claws so that he would not fall off.

  Then he waited for Indigowings and Emeraldeyes to find him. They would be following his scent trail, which would disappear at the bottom of the rock. They would not expect him to be up in the tree, but they might think he had climbed on the rock and then jumped off on the other side so that they would lose his scent. While they were looking around, wondering where he was, he would drop the pine cones on top of them.

  About ten minutes later, Waveripple heard footsteps, but of only one dragon. It would not make sense for them to split up, because there was only one of him for them to find, and they would be easier to defeat if they were separated. Waveripple wondered why they were not together, but before he could think of an explanation, the dragon came close enough for him to see who it was.

  Indigowings walked out from behind some trees that had been blocking him from Waveripple's view. He had his head lowered to the ground, following Waveripple's scent.

  Waveripple held very still so that Indigowings would not hear him and look up. Indigowings reached the bottom of the rock and looked around, trying to see if there was a hiding spot nearby that Waveripple could be in.

  When Indigowings took two steps closer to the tree, Waveripple dropped all the pine cones he was holding in his mouth. Most of them landed right on Indigowings's back. Indigowings jumped back in surprise and then looked up at Waveripple. More than two pine cones had hit him, so he dramatically fell down and closed his eyes, pretending to be dead.

  Waveripple grinned. He had gotten Indigowings so easily. He wondered where Emeraldeyes was, but only for a few seconds, because then he heard wingflaps coming from above him. He looked up and saw Emeraldeyes diving down at top speed, not even spreading her wings to slow herself.

  Emeraldeyes pelted Waveripple with the three pine cones she was holding, all of which hit him. Waveripple jumped out of the tree just as Emeraldeyes spread her wings, stopping herself from crashing into the ground. She picked up a few of the pine cones that Waveripple had thrown at Indigowings, and started throwing them back at him.

  Waveripple dodged the first pine cone she threw, and then kicked one of his own through the air, hitting Emeraldeyes on the wing.

  Emeraldeyes threw another pine cone at him, and he was not fast enough to dodge it this time. He threw the last pine cone that he was holding at her, but missed.

  Emeraldeyes picked up the pine cone and threw it back at him, hitting one of his legs before he could move it out of the way.

  Waveripple picked up the pine cone and threw it
back at Emeraldeyes. She was not able to dodge it, and pretended to fall down, dead. Then Emeraldeyes and Indigowings both got back up.

  “That was fun,” Emeraldeyes said. “But I think that next time the dragon playing for the Vampire should only have to be hit five times for him to get killed. It was almost impossible to win when we only had to be hit twice.”

  “We can change it to five,” Waveripple agreed.

  “I hardly got to do anything at all,” Indigowings complained. “That wasn't a very good strategy, Emeraldeyes.”

  “Actually, it was,” she argued. “If I hadn't been flying above you, Waveripple probably would have gotten us both. And one of us had to be tracking him.”

  “Whatever,” Indigowings said. “Let's play it again. This time I'll be the Vampire.”

  “Okay,” Emeraldeyes said. “Go get your pine cones and find a place to hide. We'll come to find you in a few minutes.”

  As soon as Indigowings was out of earshot, Emeraldeyes started telling Waveripple what she thought they should do. “I can track Indigowings this time, while you watch from a distance. If I see him, I'll pretend that I don't, so that he will think he can surprise us, but really I'll be getting ready to throw my pine cones at him. If you notice Indigowings before I do, come towards me so that we can start throwing pine cones at him.”

  “Okay, we can do that,” Waveripple agreed. “But I'm going to be just about a hundred feet away from you at the most.”

  Emeraldeyes nodded. “Let's go find him.”

  Waveripple and Emeraldeyes gathered up as many pine cones as they could carry. Then Emeraldeyes started following Indigowings's scent trail, while Waveripple followed her from behind and to her right. After a few minutes, Emeraldeyes stopped walking. She looked around, trying to spot Indigowings. Most of the trees around her were average-sized pines, but there were a few large oaks growing close together that he could be hiding behind.

  Waveripple crept silently closer to Emeraldeyes, ready to spring out and start throwing pine cones at Indigowings.

  Suddenly, Indigowings jumped out from behind one of the oak trees, throwing at least ten pine cones at Emeraldeyes. Because he was throwing so many at a time, his aim was off, and only one pine cone actually hit Emeraldeyes.