Jade woke up to the sounds of an earthquake. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, laying his pillow on top of his head. Then, remembering he could play with his friends (Who were all, admittedly, girls) today, he leaped out of bed and got ready for the day. Cheerfully, he went down the stairs and found his father wasn’t there, like usual. His father usually spent time together with all the other men during the day.

Jade walked down the deserted street. Where was everybody? There was no other sound except for that ominous rumbling….he should check his friends’ houses, just to be sure. Walking up the small hill, Jade poked his head through Pyrite’s window.

“Helloooo?” he called.

No voices answered. There were no sounds of cooking or eating either. Jade glanced up at the second story of Pyrite’s house and mapped a way up. Slowly, he scaled the wall. Peeking through the window to Pyrite’s room, he saw it was empty and hopped down. He checked Sapphire’s house, but that was empty too.

Jade climbed the wall of Turquoise’s house, which was taller than the rest. He balanced on a ledge close to her window and peeked in. He didn’t find Turquoise, but her weird twin brother Alex was sitting absentmindedly on his bed, muttering and leaning over something—a map? Jade hurriedly ducked down. He didn’t want to be mean, but he wanted to avoid talking to Alex. He didn’t know what it was with that kid, but something about him seemed off. Jade hopped back down to the ground.

Jade sat down next to his house and thought for a moment, torn. Now was his chance to explore the Caves, like he’d always wanted to, but that meant leaving Pyrite and the others behind. But now’s your chance! His brain shouted, but he knew there was always the possibility Pyrite would come back and they could have this adventure together.

Deep down, though, Jade thought he could sense that Pyrite wasn’t coming back. Plus, wouldn’t it look heroic if he came out of the cave tunnels, with millions of tales about his adventures? He could tell everybody how he saved a CrystalDragon village from CaveDragons, or how he bravely fought swarms of Vampire Bats. Finally, mustering his courage, Jade walked inside of his house and slipped on his sword strap.

He’d never used this sword before, but his dad had told him it was from his ancestors long ago. It was oddly made—the blade was of a strange black metal, and the blue hilt had a green eye in the middle of it that looked suspiciously dragonlike.

When Jade rotated the sword, he could have sworn the eye followed him. He shook his head and rotated it again, this time keeping his eye on the hilt. Nothing happened, and Jade shook it off as a hallucination. He might have discarded the sword for another one at that point, but the thing gave him a strange feeling of reassurance.

Jade walked out of his house, fully ready. He walked over to the nearest cave tunnel and took a deep breath before plunging into the darkness.

**************

Jade crept down the dark, stony tunnel. So far, there had been no dangerous encounters with anything, or forks along the way. His footsteps were muffled by his expertly made boots, so that there was silence throughout the dank corridor.

Jade found himself longing for a CrystalDragon. Their crystals could glow and light up the way. But he hadn’t bonded with one yet, not to say he hadn’t tried. Every CrystalDragon he tried to bond with ended up with someone else.

Lost in thought, Jade didn’t hear the CaveDragons until their gravely voices were too close. Instead of hiding properly, Jade had to roll behind a boulder and hope his gray jacket would camouflage him.

Tramp-click-tramp-tramp-tramp-click. The CaveDragons came around the corner. Jade realized that had he tried to fight them, he would’ve lost, seeing these were bigger and more ferocious looking than him. He listened to their conversation using his ability to talk to dragons, something he’d kept hidden from his friends.

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“Boulder, what would happen if we raided that fleshbag-CrystalDragon infected city?” growled a young, male voice.

“Then we would start another war. I’ve told you this before, Stalactite. The CrystalDragons said: the fleshbag villages are not in the War of Terrarestria. They have almost no clue what’s going on, and apparently fleshbag foods are outlawed so long as the CrystalDragons are on the StealthDragons’ side. However, if I were to stumble across one now, I would eat it, because it was in my way. Get it?” rumbled an older male voice.

“Alright, alright, I get— sniff. Sniff snort. Do you smell fleshbag?”

“Sniff. Indeed, I do, Stalactite. Nice nose.” The CaveDragons proceeded to scour the area. Jade hurried slid farther behind the boulder, trying to hid himself, and felt nothing. Twisting so Jade could see behind him, Jade realized there was a hole there— a hole small enough so that only a human could squeeze through. Jade hurriedly squished through the opening and popped out to the other side, where a bright light blinded him. Jade had to squint to see what was going on. He backed up and the light became more bearable, but still amazingly painful. Slowly, he grew accustomed to the light and approached the cave opening. This hadn’t been what he was planning, but going back meant facing the CaveDragons, which he felt he wasn’t ready to do. Still, he hesitated at the edge before finally emerged from the hole.

Jade was amazed at all the sights and smells. To the North (or what he suspected was North, he couldn’t quite tell) there were towering, jagged, snow-capped peaks. At the base of them were green, sticklike things that swayed in the chilly breeze. Trees that could fit the humungous cave opening through them grew in small clusters, towering above Jade and ending as tiny pinpricks way up in the sky.

Looking behind him, Jade shuddered and looked horrorstruck at the sight that lay before him: Stony hills and small mountains as far as the eye could see. Small holes dotted the ground, but very little life could be seen in the barren wasteland. By Emerald’s name, that was creepy!

A huge, foaming river ran between Jade and the stone-land. He turned back around and explored the land in front of him.

The lush land in front of Jade was soft. Reaching down, he plucked one of the stick-like green things and realized this must be grass—a weird plant he had once read about. It was everywhere, in quantities no creature could ever count.

Jade hiked up the side of the mountain and shivered. Even though he had grown up in the caves, the mountains were frigid. Jade did not notice that something was watching him, an invisible figure flitting from tree to tree.

Jade entered a small cave and looked around. Small tunnels branched out of a big “room.” A small pile of gold and jewels was in the middle of the room, but he paid no attention to it—he had seen plenty jewels in the caves back home.

Walking into one of the tunnels, Jade found that there was still a little bit of light that was far down. He was about to continue moving when he stopped. Something had just landed right in front of him; something big. Jade heard a low growl but stood his ground. He had found a dragon.

Sure enough, a dragon much bigger than him flickered into existence. Flipping through his mind, Jade realized this was either a WindDragon, a PhantomDragon, or a StealthDragon. However, judging by its colors (White and blue with hints of gray) it was a WindDragon. He took one step back.

“Flee, little fleshbag,” he hissed, baring his fangs, “you are no match for me.” And he swiped what would’ve been a lethal strike had Jade not been lifted off his feet into midair. Surprised, Jade could do nothing but watch as if in slow motion the big WindDragon clawed the air and then looked up, a murderous glare on his face. But with a swoosh Jade was gone and he could see nothing but walls.

Suddenly, Jade crash-landed and tumbled over a grass-covered hill. He heard breathing behind him, and he whipped around to discover yet another WindDragon. By Emerald’s name, why do I keep landing myself in the clutches of dragons? Jade wondered, cautiously taking a step back to see if his adversary would notice.

“Please don’t go,” the dragon said. “I want to know who you are and why you don’t seem to be from around here. I’m CloudWing, in case you were wondering. And don’t mind that other dragon, he’s just a toad sniffer. Oh, my, here I go, talking to something that can’t understand me.” The dragon surveyed Jade with wide, sky-blue eyes. And the dragon grinned. It was weird looking to Jade, but obviously none other than a toothy grin.

“My name is Jade, and I’m from the caves, and I’m fourteen. I have no idea where I am or how I could’ve wound myself up in this position.” Jade said, surprising CloudWing.

“Welcome to the WindDragon territory,” the dragon answered, once he recovered, with a little bitterness in his voice. “Home of me.”

Jade felt taken aback. Why did he hate his home?

“What’s your story?” he asked and felt for once like he might’ve made a new friend.