Danger of the Shadows

The Gem

"Spirit? Are you ready?" an old imperial dragon whispered. Riptide waited nervously. She had just come of age, and was going to revise the wisdom of the gem with her brother, Demon, and another dragonet, Spirit. Spirit was a dark blue Fae with light blue blotches on her wings. Fae dragons are the smallest of all the dragons, but Spirit was unusually small. The special gemstone was a large, purple gem that showed you your future very quickly. It helps show you where you will be most useful and if you could be lucky enough to be in Light Clan. Spirit nodded and headed for the gem. She sighed and touched it with her claws. The gem burst into bright pink energy.

Spirit stared at the gem with wonder. It showed scenes of her future, and what she would grow to do and how she would act. Small dragons jumped around. An older version of Spirit jumped into battle. An old Spirit lay down, surrounded by sad dragons and closed her eyes. After a couple seconds, the gem blazed bright purple, and settled down the usual appearance, a dark purple gem. Spirit jumped back in both fear and excitement. The old imperial dragon stepped forward.

"Spirit, from the following vision from the gemstone, I hereby declare you as a dragon of Arcane Clan. Do you accept it?"

"Yes, I do," Spirit answered. Spirit then came back to where Riptide and Demon were, and sat down next to them. Ever since Riptide and Demon were hatched, Spirit had been their best friend. Now they were going to grow up together. "Good luck!" Spirit whispered to Riptide.

Riptide stood up and walked to the Gemstone. I can do it, I'll be fine! She touched the gem with her claws, and suddenly the gem glowed blue! Visions of the future came to her, from her first assignment as a full-grown dragon to her laying down with little dragon eggs under her tail. After a couple more images, the gemstone faded back to a purple tone. Riptide looked at the old imperial dragon and gulped.

"Young Riptide. From the following vision from the gemstone, I hereby declare you as a dragon of Water Clan. Do you accept?" Riptide looked at Spirit's disappointed expression. They wouldn't be in the same Clan! Riptide nodded and walked back to her friends. Spirit nodded and sighed. Demon looked up with pride.

"I'm next!" he told them. He walked up to the gem and looked at the old imperial dragon with determination. He touched the gem with his claws. Immediately, scenes of his future glowed violet above the stone. Adult Demon lunged into battle. He yelled determinedly at another dragon. He led an army of dragons behind him. Finally, a dragon leaped on him and he screamed in pain.

"I can see that you are strong, young banescale. From the following vision from the gemstone, I hereby declare you as a dragon of Shadow Clan. Do you accept?" the old imperial dragon recited. Riptide and Spirit gasped. Demon nodded and trotted happily back to his friends.

"Isn't that great?" he smiled.

"No, it's not great!" Spirit cried. "Shadow Clan is part of the Dark Flights! Arcane and Water are Bright Flights. We'll have to battle!"

"The battle is pointless. What are we even fighting for?" Demon growled, a hint of sadness in his red eyes.

"Finally," the old imperial shouted. "We have Caywa the imperial?" Riptide remembered her. Spirit hangs out with Caywa sometimes. Caywa is a dragon with purple galaxy patterns all over her scales. She has antlers sprouting from her head just like the old imperial dragon. Caywa also has small purple clumps of fur along her spine and her cheeks. Caywa crawled over to the gemstone. Riptide remembered how Caywa's wings were bent so she could not fly. This was a problem because imperials are used to flying high in the night sky.

"I'm ready," Caywa whispered. Spirit flew in circles in the air as encouragement. Caywa touched the stone with her claws and it burst into life again. Caywa watched in amazement as the stone showed her other dragons playing and laughing. Adult Caywa looked at the night sky and watched little dragons fly around. The gemstone lit up pink then faded back to its original color.

"Your wings are bent, young one, but you will fly. From the following vision from the gemstone, I hereby declare you as a dragon of Arcane Clan. Do you accept?" The old imperial dragon looked down on Caywa and smiled. Caywa nodded and bounded over to Spirit. Riptide felt happy for Spirit. She was with one of her best friends. But she felt a tang of sadness at the thought of not seeing Demon again. They were going to have to fight each other. But maybe there was still a hope of seeing Spirit. Arcane and Water were both part of the Bright Flights.

"Little dragons, go to your clans," the imperial dragon told them. "I might see you very soon."

"Wait! You never told us your name!" Spirit called.

"I am Yachin of Light Clan," he replied. He spread out his large wings and flew off. When he was gone, eleven dragons came out of the shadows. They looked very different from one another.

"We will take you home," all the dragons recited. "Come home." Riptide looked sadly at Demon. Demon glanced back and nodded. Spirit and Caywa bounded over to a large purple dragon. He had four sets of wings and a long tail. Riptide remembered from the stories she was told when she was younger that that dragon was The Arcanist, leader of the Arcane Clan. The Arcanist took Spirit and Caywa into a cave and disappeared. Demon flew into another cave with a black dragon with ink flowing out of her mouth. The Shadowbinder, Riptide thought. I'm in Water Clan so I need... The Tidelord. But he wasn't there. Where's the Tidelord? Riptide tried to ask Yachin, but he had already flown out of sight. As Riptide wondered what to do, a violet blue dragon, with a yellow underside and black spots, and sky blue wings appeared from a cave.

"Riptide," The dragon called. "I'm Nightshade, your mentor." When he saw Riptide's confused expression, he explained. "I know that you are expecting the Tidelord, but the Water Clan does things a little differently. Instead of the Tidelord, the new dragon gets assigned a mentor to help them in the clan, and the mentor is the dragon to receive the new dragonet."

Almost fully understanding, Riptide asked him one simple question, "Why can't the Tidelord be here?"

"Uh..." Nightshade struggled to reply. "Well, he lives deep underwater, and he is way too caught up in his work all the time, so we mentors guide the new dragons instead. That's all that I can say here, we will talk more when we're in Water Clan territory. "

Riptide didn't understand why Nightshade was so nervous. If the Tidelord was so busy, it made sense to have the mentor, even smart! But she cast it aside. Surely Nightshade would explain more later, in private.

They started on their journey to the Water Clan. Along the way, Riptide started to wonder about Demon, and how they got separated into two different clans. When eggs are made, they get sent to Earth Clan to grow up so baby dragons never know exactly who their parents are. But Riptide guessed that one parent was in Water Clan and one was in Shadow Clan. Because Demon was her brother.