The Shadowfire: Ch. 1 The Hatchling

Cynder
Spyro and I were flying through the clouds and doing aerial stunts that brought us dangerously close to the ground.  We were having a great time frolicking and being just in each other’s presence.  It has been 5 years since we have defeated Malefor, and so far there has plenty of peace in the world.  After we saved the world we returned Warfang and told the guardians, and Sparx, about our endeavor.  When we told them about what happened to Ignitus all of them got teary eyed, and even Terrador had to leave the room before we went on so that he could calm down.  Afterward we continued our story with how we defeated Malefor, and when the story was completed we started making plans for the future.
We started planning on rebuilding Warfang with the help of the moles, and also when we were going to start bringing dragons back.  We decided that we would start bring the dragons back when Warfang was completed, and where we will find the dragons.  We sent a messenger to the dragons telling them that the war was over and Malefor was destroyed.  We also told them that we will let them know to return when we have finished the city.  The city should be done in about a month now, which I am really excited about.  We have helped as much as we can with the repairs, but by as much as we can I mean as much as we are allowed.
The moles don’t want us to help them since we saved them from Malefor.  They say that they are repaying a debt that cannot be repaid, and by rebuilding Warfang they say that it is a pleasure to help the dragons.
We go out playing every so often so as to get out of the moles’ ways, and plus we get rather bored.  It is one of those days when we are out playing today.
I flew up as far as I could go, and then I folded my wings and dove downward toward the ground.  I felt the air rushing around me as I rapidly grew closer to earth.  I felt my heart pumping with adrenaline as I was 20 feet, 15 feet, 10 feet off of the ground, and then I pulled up when I was barely 7 feet off of the ground.  As I went flying over the area with the momentum I got from the fall I saw out of the corner of my eye a blue flash, and then it seemed the sky got darker, yet it was still a pleasant blue.
I turned in the direction were I saw the flash and as I was flying I saw another flash of blue, and I homed in on the area and flapped my wings to pick up some more speed.  When I got to where I saw the flash I landed and looked around the area, but I saw nothing out of place.
“Hey, Cynder!  What are you doing over here?”  Spyro says as he lands on the hill behind me.  I guess I was too busy with figuring out what the blue flash was that I didn’t see him following me.
“It’s strange I thought I saw some type of energy around this area.”  I tell him.  I looked again at the area around me, and this time I see on the ground two pairs of footprints.  Both of which were smaller than Spyro’s and I’s tracks, so they must have been younger dragons.  One was bigger than the other which were only seen once where it was like the dragon landed from flying, but it didn’t take off again or even walk away from the spot.
The other set of prints were smaller than the others and it seemed that it was a hatchling’s footprints.  They seemed to walk off, but after a little while they disappeared into the grass where the hatchling seemed to be too light for his feet to leave any marks.  I followed the prints as far as I could and then tried to find its scent.  I failed in finding any scent of any kind, but as I took a step in the direction I thought that it went the world seemed to get slightly dimmer.
I wondered if whatever was causing the darkness was after the hatchling, so I opened my senses to darkness and I slowly followed where the source of the darkness was.  I felt some stone on my paws and I looked down to see that there was a series of flat rocks in the prairie with various holes and caves in the ground, and I wondered if something lived there, but my nose reassured me that only Spyro and I were there.
I looked by one of the smaller holes in the ground to see a small black and red hatchling sniffing around the area emitting small squeaks every so often.  I looked around the area again before I walked up to the hatchling to see that the darkness wasn’t coming from something near the hatchling, but it was actually coming from the hatchling.  I was dumbfounded at this as it was not normal to find a hatchling emitting darkness, and I wondered for a brief second if it had belonged to Malefor.  I shook my head at how ridiculous of a thought that was since he has been dead and gone for 5 years.
I started walking over to the hatchling with slow and cautious steps so that I wouldn’t scare him.  He emitted a loud squeak and suddenly looked over in our direction.  He backed up toward the edge of the whole and I heard a small growl come from him.  I would have laughed at it had I not been trying to get close to the little guy.  It suddenly got a whole lot darker and I heard Spyro gasp behind me as I did as well.  I couldn’t see the hatchling anymore and I was nervous about that.
“Spyro, I need you to breathe a fire ball so that I can see if the hatchling is still there.”  I told Spyro.
He nodded and blew a fire ball by where he saw the hatchling.  It landed right next to it, but the hatchling jumped in surprise and he fell into the hole he was standing in front of.
“Oh, no!”  I yelled in surprise as I ran forward with Spyro on my heels.
The darkness dissipated and I saw clearly enough to know where the hole was and I ran to the edge of the hole and looked down at the hatchling.  He was on his back and just flipping over on his stomach.  I saw him look around in confusion and he emitted a squeak in fear and suddenly the hole went dark.  I strained my eyes to see if I could see him, but then I focused on my fear element to figure out where he was and what he was doing.
I sensed that he was afraid of being trapped by two monsters.  He looked up and saw them.  I sensed that he was afraid of us, but it didn’t make sense.  He was afraid of something that was both us and not us.  He sensed that something within us wanted to harm him, so he emitted the darkness so that what was inside of us would not be able to hurt him.  Then with my vision the darkness slowly ebbed away making it easier to see him.  He looked exhausted and before my very eyes he fainted from using up so much energy.
“What happened to him?”  Spyro asked.
“He was trying to hide from us by using the darkness.  He was the one emitting the darkness.”  I told him.
“Why would he want to hide from us?”  He asked.
“It is because it is something within us that wants to hurt him.  He fears us...”  I drift off thinking about how people still feared me because of my past as Malefor’s slave.
“Well, we can deal with that later.  Right now we need to get him out of that hole and get him back to Warfang.”  Spyro says and he used his earth element to widen the hole so he could reach the hatchling.
I put the hatchling on Spyro’s back and he started flying for Warfang with me following behind him to make sure that the hatchling didn’t fall.  I looked at the hatchling as I flew and wondered what happened to the little dragon that made him end up all alone in the prairie.