The Introduction of the Cy-Rangers

What Dragons and Hawks Need Chipmunks For

Dale tried to break free from the yellow claw of the flying creature that was holding him very tightly as they kept on ascending further into the sky. He tried to wriggle his way out, but the claw was just too strong. And this flying monster was so enormous that he still couldn't guess what the creature that was holding him could be let alone work out what it actually was. And that was before they ascended so high in the sky that they got covered in grey clouds. Since he had no more ideas, Dale felt like giving up and let this flying beast take him where it was going to take him. Somewhere with food, Dale hoped as his tummy growled again.

"Dale! Are you there?"

Dale's eyes brightened up when he could hear Chip's voice. It was faint but he was glad to hear it all the same.

"Dale! Can you hear me?"

His voice was getting louder and nearer.

"Yes, Chip!" Dale yelled. "I can hear you! Where are you?"

"Below you, Dale!"

Dale looked up.

"I said 'below you', not 'above you', doofus!"

Dale looked down and saw that he could see a claw holding Chip. It was exactly like the one he himself was trapped in except for it being red instead of yellow. He still couldn't see the rest of the creature because only Chip and the claw he was trapped in was above the clouds. Dale thought the rest of the body must be hiding in the clouds. He tried to work out why, but he couldn't.

"What did I tell you, Chip?" Dale asked. "What did I –"

"Don't start right now, Dale!" Chip snapped. "Being grabbed by monsters high in the sky is never a good time to start at all!"

"Well, is it a good time to ask how Clarice's chestnut pizza was?"

"NO, NOT RIGHT NOW!" Chip snapped.

Dale sighed. He tried his very hardest not to think about Clarice's chestnut pizza or any food at all to stop his tummy growling, but he kept failing. He was just so hungry that he couldn't care where the claw was taking him to and where the other claw was taking Chip to, unless it was somewhere that contained food. And water. He had focused so much on how hungry he was that he completely forgot how thirsty he was.

It wasn't very long before Dale saw something in the distance that was something else beside the clouds and the sky. From what he could make out, it looked like a giant building made of rocks on top of a giant mountain around the clouds. The closer he got to it, the more right he was and he saw that the building looked very ancient.

Dale looked down to see that Chip and only the claw of the creature that was holding him was still above the clouds. "Chip, where do you think we are?"

Chip looked ahead. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like this, but it looks like one of the ancient wonders of the world."

"Like what?"

Chip knew that Dale was never very good with ancient history or anything to do with history at all. He always thought the Ancient Egyptian pyramids were built during World War Two.

When they got close enough to this mysterious building, the chipmucks were thrown to the smooth rocky surface around it. Then they got up and turned to face their kidnappers.

"What have you brought us here for?" Chip demanded.

"Yeah! What's the big idea?" Dale demanded.

Then they were in shock when they saw who their kidnappers were – a pair of two flying dragons. Two giant fire-breathing dragons who looked identical except the skin colour. One was red and the other was yellow.

"My, my. What have we here?"

The chipmunks turned around to see a figure wearing a dark brown cloak and hood approaching them. It was followed by three more dragons: a green one, a blue one and an orange one. Then the chipmucks saw all dragons bowing before the figure.

"Lady Annie of the Skies," said the red dragon. "I fear that we were only able to bring you two volunteers today."

"Volunteers for what?" Chip asked.

"Shut up, you!" yelled the red dragon, as he pushed the chipmuck down. "And bow before the Lady Annie of the Skies!"

"Hey, let him go!" Dale yelled, as he charged for the red dragon. Then he got pushed down by the yellow dragon.

"That goes for you, too, rodent! Bow before the Lady Annie!"

The hooded figure approached the chipmunks and took the hood off. They were shocked when they saw an angry-looking hawk.

"Hmm," she said as she took a closer look at the prisoners. "I prefer bigger creatures, but these little rats are better than nothing."

"We're not rats!" Chip snapped. "We're chipmunks!" Then he got lifted by the red dragon, who started to squeeze him very tightly.

"You do not ever answer back to the Lady Annie!" the dragon roared. "Do you understand? Never ever!" Then he started to glow dark blue and felt like he was being squeezed.

Dale turned to see that Annie was holding her wings out and they were glowing dark blue. Was she making him do that?

"If you hurt these volunteers ever again, I will do so much more worse than this. Understand?"

After Annie's wings stopped glowing and she put them down, the red stopped glowing and panted. "My sincere apologies, my lady," he said.

"They must be in completely unharmed condition for tomorrow."

"Why, lady?" Dale asked. "What's so special about tomorrow?"

"Oh, I'm not going to spoil the surprise, little rat," she replied. "You'll have to find out tomorrow." Then she turned to the dragons. "Take them to the dungeon."

As the dragons picked the chipmucks and started to take them to the dungeon, Annie heard some loud rumbling. "And get them something to eat."

"Oh, goody!" Dale cried. "About time too."

"Give them some of that leftover porridge from this morning," Annie said.

"The one that's full of wigs in it?" asked the yellow dragon.

"No problem, my lady," the dragons said together. Then they laughed ignoring the chipmunks' disgusted faces.

In fact, Dale was so grossed out by the sound of that that, for the first time since the morning that he lost his entire appetite.