//------------------------------//
// Prelude: Exploration 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Spike found that after he and his siblings filled their bellies, as siblings was the word he heard the larger dragons use when talking about him, Spyro, and Ember, they started to explore the strange and unfamiliar area that they were in, which the larger dragons seemed to be okay with. From what he and his siblings could tell there were strange stone structures that wrapped around the area they were in, why he had no idea and he was sure that neither his brother or his sister knew the reason why it was that way, so they decided to continue moving so they could see what else was near them. The three of them noticed that there were some odd banners near the various tunnels, something else they didn't understand the importance of, and a number of bushes rested around them as well, some being short, like half the size of one of the larger dragons, while some were tall, just a little bit taller than the dragons they had seen earlier. They even found a much smaller walled structure inside the area that they were in, one that the larger dragons were standing near as they discussed whatever it was they were talking about, but from the looks of it they weren't going to be able to see what was being walled off, so they turned their attention to something else.

It quickly dawned on them that the older dragons were letting them do whatever they wanted, for the most part, so Spyro headed down one of the tunnels that was near them and followed it, with both Spike and Ember following him, but after a few moments of walking they came to a stop as they realized that the tunnel lead to a chamber that had no other way to get into it, meaning all they could do was turn around and go back the way they came. As they walked out of the tunnel they noticed that they had missed something what was attached to the stone structure that surrounded them, and that was the odd stone structures, like the one the older dragons had walked out of, that seemed to be attached to the structure that surrounded them. There was also a larger structure that was above the area the older dragons had been in, which had to be important as well, though for now the trio glanced at each other and headed through the other tunnel, the one that was opposite of the one they had explored first, while their dragonflies followed after them. While they had no idea what the dragonflies were supposed to do, other than follow them around while they explored the area, one of the larger dragons had told them that he'd tell them everything they needed to know in due time, so they focused on being happy that they had friends watching over all three of them as they reached the end of the tunnel.

The new area seemed to be a larger version of the area they had been in before, without the majority of the odd stone structures they had seen, though there was one that looked like a tower and it had an opening that they could pass through if they wanted, where they spotted something moving inside the large stone tower, but before they could get too close to it the dragonflies flew in front of their faces and stopped them. From what Spyro, Spike, and Ember were seeing their new companions knew that they weren't ready for whatever was inside the tower and were stopping them from going inside, to avoid getting hurt, so the trio glanced at each other and nodded their heads, as they figured that the three dragonflies had been given to them for a reason and that they shouldn't annoy their elders just yet. As such the trio went back to exploring the area around the tower, finding stone structures that they assumed were arches along the way, but for the most part all they really found was grass and nothing else, so they decided to head back to the area they had first encountered each other in, as they figured that their elders might be done talking and would have something for them to do for the rest of the day. When they returned to where the larger dragons were standing, however, they discovered that they were still talking about whatever they had been talking about earlier, which meant that they wouldn't be interested in keeping their attention on something else, before Spyro spotted the tunnel the larger dragons had come through when he and his siblings had climbed up to where the food was kept.

Instead of returning to where the larger dragons were standing, and doing nothing with their time, Spyro headed towards the tunnel and found a decent sized chamber waiting in front of him, though as his siblings joined him, since they didn't want to be left with the larger dragons and be bored by their conversation, he spotted another opening, one that revealed an odd looking table that had small red carpets on it, different colored stone than what was around them, and a pointed symbol that was surrounded by a golden centerpiece. What really caught Spyro's interest, among everything he was seeing, was the fact that the symbol was glowing and was a gathering point of some sort of energy, though while Spike and Ember were still staring at it, and were trying to figure out what they were looking at, he decided to take action and see what was so special about this object. Spike and Ember barely had time to react as Spyro climbed onto the strange object and touched what was in the middle of it, where he was pulled into what they assumed was a whirlwind or something and vanished before their eyes, causing the two of them to be concerned for their brother. Talon and Cinder must have experienced this sort of thing before, since they weren't as shocked as the pair was and seemed to be buzzing at them in an attempt to calm them down, but instead of doing that both Spike and Ember rushed to where they had last seen Spyro and focused on the middle of the object.

Of course they failed to realize that, in their rush to get to where Spyro had been, they also touched the part of the strange object that their brother had touched before his disappearance, which resulted in them and their dragonflies being snatched by whatever power had caused their brother to vanish, before the world around them disappeared.

When Spike and Ember opened their eyes they found that they were laying in front of what appeared to be an intricate stone structure that resembled an arch, though while the lower portion of the sides seemed to be made out of stone the rest of it appeared to have been crafted from another material, possibly the same golden centerpiece for the odd table they had seen their brother touch before his disappearance. What was interesting about this object was that there was a light blue gemstone in the center of it's top, with some markings to show how important it was, while at the same time the area in the center of the object seemed to ripple, showing them the sky from the area they had been in, as the sky of the area they were in now was different, meaning they had been taking somewhere else. Just thinking about that made them turn around and stare at the vast space that was around them, as it was far larger than the area they had been in before touching the strange object, and they were surprised by what they were seeing, as they had at least four different paths to choose from, where one looked like it went into a small maze of some kind, an interesting waterfall, a few stone structures that appeared to be going from a small size to a taller size, and who knew what else. That did remind them that the first thing they needed to do, instead of running around enjoying the sights, was figure out where their brother had wandered off to so they could find him, and then, when they were back together again, they could explore this area without having to worry about searching for someone.

What neither of them were expecting was to turn around and nearly run right into Spyro, who was standing near where they had landed, which made sense when they thought about it since he might have known that they would have come looking for him, but he smiled at them as all three of them, and their dragonflies, headed off to see what they could find in this new area they were in.

The first thing they did was approach the three different sized stone pillars, mostly because they were curious to see if they could climb them or jump on top of them to get a better view of the area that they were in, but what they discovered was that, at their current height, they could barely get on top of the first pillar, and that was only possible because they helped each other up, like they did earlier when they wanted some food. Still, they pulled each other up onto the first of the pillars and glanced around the area that was around them, as they were curious about the area that they had found themselves in and were curious as to where they should go next, since there were so many paths for them to explore and so much for them to see. What they did first was climb off the pillar they had climbed up and walked over to one of the walkways that would allow them to look over the area they were in, before turning and heading down the stone bridge that let them come to a stop on a stone platform that allowed them to look out over the area, though while they did that they noticed that there was grass growing on the walkways and bridge as well, connecting to the grass that was in front of the stone structure they had come from, but why it was like that they had no idea. After staring at the grass for a few seconds Spyro turned around and headed back the way they came, only to turn to his right and head down the other stone walkway that connected to the bridge, where Spike and Ember followed after him as they approached the area with the flowing water.

When it became clear that Spyro wanted to see the water, and maybe do something other than stare at it, Sparx, Talon, and Cinder flew in front of their friends again and beckoned for them to move away from the waterfall, showing that they wanted Spyro and his siblings to be safe, though the trio simply made the same gestures they had made the last time Sparx had stopped them and moved away from where Spyro had been taking them.

Since seeing what was so special about the water was a failure, as Spyro had been hoping to see why there was a reason behind the five oddly placed stones in front of what appeared to be a solid wall, he decided that the best course of action was to let either Spike or Ember choose where to go next, as most of his decisions had ended in failure. Ember shook her head and nudged their brother for a moment, where Spike was surprised by what they were doing, but that was before he smiled and headed off to the maze that seemed to be made out of either a large single bush or multiple large bushes. From a distance it looked like it would be fun to explore the maze and figure out what it was hiding, as it seemed to be of a decent size and there didn't appear to be much of a chance of them getting lost, but as they entered the maze Spike was disappointed by what he found, as it was just a simple ring with a central clearing, and they discovered another strange stone structure, like the one they came out of, sitting in the maze, just opposite of where they entered. Once they determined that there wasn't anything interesting inside the maze, other than the structure, the trio left the maze and Spike headed into the opening that was near it, which was a tunnel that brought them to a square shaped room, before they noticed the path leading downwards, where they walked down it and stepped out onto a wooden dock.

There wasn't much for them to see, other that the vast amount of water that was in front of them, though off in the distance the trio was able to make out a slowly disappearing figure, of what they had no idea, but judging from how slow it was moving it wasn't a dragon, so it had to be one of the larger dragons' allies.

As it appeared that Spyro's ideas hadn't really accomplished much, and Spike had no luck with the maze or the tunnel they had seen, they decided that it was Ember's turn to take the lead, even though there were only two more places for them to check out, another tunnel and an area that was just beyond the structure they had come from. Instead of heading to the other area, and checking it out first, Ember decided to investigate the other tunnel and headed over to it, causing her brothers to follow after her as their dragonflies flew overhead, indicating that they were also interested about the place that was their new home. The tunnel had a small twist in it, nothing too major, though when they walked out of it they discovered that there were three towers in front of them, though while the one in the middle was the tallest the ones to it's right and left seemed to be of the same size, even if they were smaller than the middle one, but what stopped them from investigating the towers was the vortex that was inside the base of the central tower, just like the one that Sparx and the others had stopped them from investigating in the other area. As such Ember decided not to bother investigating this area any further, not until their dragonflies believed that they were ready for such a thing, and headed back through the tunnel, before heading over to the opening that they had seen so they could figure out what else this area had.

What they discovered in the other open area was a massive stone structure that was in the shape of a dragon's head, which all three of them were confused by, since they had no idea why such a thing would be sitting here, though they were distracted by a large dragon that was sitting on the ground in front of the massive structure, who had orange colored scales and had a red hat of some kind on his head, along with a red collar and something that rested in it's hands.

"Hm? Is someone there?" the dragon asked, it's voice identifying that it was male as well, though that was when he stopped whatever he was doing and turned his head to look in their direction, which was when he smiled at them, even though he was a little surprised by what he was seeing, "Well now, isn't this quite the surprise? Three hatchlings and their dragonflies, wandering around the Artisans homeworld without any supervision. Come little ones, you can sit in front of me while I practice with my lute, because I have a new melody that I have been working on for the last few days and it should allow you three to relax before you continue your adventure."

Spyro tilted his head for a moment, as he was curious as to what the dragon was talking about, before deciding that the noise he had been making, which he and his siblings had only caught the tail end of when they arrived in this area, had been nice and that he'd like to hear more of it. As such he walked around to the area that the dragon was talking about and took a seat in front of him, though both Spike and Ember quickly followed his movements, where they sat down near him and focused on the large dragon that was in front of them, while their dragonflies sat nearby so they could rest their wings and watch what was going to happen next. The dragon smiled as he picked up his instrument, the lute as he called it, and started to move his right hand over it, showing the trio that, despite having sharp claws like the rest of their kind, he wasn't ruining the strings and was producing a nice melody at the same time, where he focused on what he was playing so he could show them how skilled he was at this. As he played he found the three hatchlings waving their heads back and forth, almost in tune with the melody, and watched as they nodded off one by one, before the dragonflies dozed off as well, which was interesting to him, since that wasn't supposed to happen as well.

In the end he simply shrugged as he paused for a moment, to make sure the trio and their companions were comfy, before sitting back down and continuing the melody that he had been playing, figuring that this was the best time to complete the melody before he did anything else.





Nestor found that an hour had passed while he was talking to the other Leaders, planning out some of the future visits to the other homeworlds so they could teach Spyro, Spike, and Ember about the other types of dragons and maybe see if they could make any friends among the dragons that were living on the other lands. Of course they wouldn't be able do much right now, since it would be some time before the trio was ready to visit the domains of the other Leaders, but he found that it never hurt to have a few plans in place, and both Cosmos and Lateef agreed with him. All four of them also agreed that, at some point in the future, they would have to construct some sort of building for the trio to stay in, since all Artisans dragons lived in their own place and customized them to their liking, so that way they didn't have to sleep in the courtyard all the time. Of course Nestor and some of the other Artisans dragons would be doing the building, since that was part of what some of them did for both themselves and the dragons of the other lands, and they would need to make sure it was large enough for three fully grown dragons by the time they were done with it, so he guessed that it would take them six months to build it, maybe eight, once they had a good idea of what Spyro, Spike, and Ember were into. Each of the homes that the Artisans lived in was a reflection of themselves, once they found the type of art that they were fascinated in, or at least the interior was that way, since the exterior of the buildings shared a similar theme with each other, leaving symbols to be added to the doors to indicate who lived in which house.

In the end, however, Nestor and his fellow Leaders came up with a decent schedule that would allow them to make sure Spyro, Spike, and Ember had a decent knowledge of the other four homeworlds, since they would know a lot about Artisans, due to it being their home, and learn the basic skills they would need for the future... though once everything was said and done, however, that was the moment that Nestor noticed that they were missing the hatchlings that they had been talking about for the last hour.

"Um, guys... where did the hatchlings go?" Nestor asked, because he was sure that one of them had been keeping their eyes on the trio, at least when they were in the area, but from the looks on Titan and Bruno's faces they had no idea where the hatchlings had wandered off to, while Cosmos and Lateef glanced around for a few seconds.

In that moment he, Titan, Bruno, and Lateef freaked out and started looking around the entirety of Stone Hill, where they searched high and low, just in case the trio had managed to learn how to glide in such a short period of time, while Cosmos remained at the area they had been standing in and focused his mind on something that would help them figure out where the trio had wandered off to. Nestor was perfectly fine with Cosmos doing that, as he might be able to pinpoint where Spike and Ember were, especially when one considered how they had arrived in this area in the first place, so they left their friend alone as they continued to search the area around them. What he and the others discovered, however, wasn't very good, as from what they could tell none of the hatchlings were in any of the chambers that were around the courtyard Spyro's egg had hatched in, and where Spike and Ember arrived when that happened, none of them were hiding in the well, though they would have noticed that since they were near it, and none of them were wandering around the upper area of the walls, which was covered in grass and had a number of magical stone constructs that acted as force fields, keeping the area safe from any attackers, even if there weren't any at the moment.

With the entire area of Stone Hill checked out, and none of them seeing any sign of the hatchlings at all, Nestor and the others returned to where Cosmos was standing, as at this point they knew the trio had to be somewhere in the land that the Artisans dragons called home, but where they had no idea.

"Cosmos, do you have any idea where the hatchlings went?" Titan asked, because at this point, after searching all over Stone Hill and finding nothing, he and the other Leaders were in agreement that the hatchlings must have used the exit portal, the whirlwind they had used to follow Bruno back to the docks, to leave the area they were in, so they were hoping that the Magic Crafters Leader had an idea as to where the trio went.

"They aren't far from the Stone Hill portal," Cosmos replied, though after he said that, and the Leaders smiled as they heard the news, he headed over to the building that the hatchlings had gone through and accessed the exit portal, where he and the other Leaders, who followed after him once they realized what he was doing, disappeared from where they were standing and headed to their destination.

A few moments later they stepped out of the portal that would take them back to Stone Hill and looked at the area that they were in now, though instead of spreading out and searching the area around them, like Titan would have done if he was alone, Cosmos shifted his head and headed to the small area that was to the north of them. Nestor and the others glanced at each other for a moment, as the area that Cosmos was heading towards contained the massive dragon head that would take someone to Nevin's castle, which was located on a cliff that overlooked a lake and the sky was set in a constant state of twilight. Nestor knew that Nevin was a painter, one of the most skilled painters in the Artisans lands, and the castle that he called home helped him make his art, though he didn't keep all of the paintings he made to himself, as some of them could be found in some of the other homeworlds, showing everyone how skilled he was. The fact that Cosmos felt that the hatchlings were this way made him wonder if the portal to Nevin's castle was open, which was when the dragon's head opened up and revealed the portal it contained, because if it was lowered than that meant that Nevin wanted to be left alone for now. It only took the five of them a minute or two to reach the area that Cosmos was leading them towards, where they discovered that the portal to Nevin's castle was blocked off at the moment, due to the head being in the down position, which meant that the hatchlings had to be near them.

That was when Nestor noticed that Spyro, Spike, and Ember were sleeping near each other again, and their new dragonfly companions were dozed off near them, before he noticed a familiar dragon that was playing on his lute, no doubt using a tune that had caused the hatchlings to fall asleep.

"I was not expecting to see you outside the entrance of Nevin's castle, Thomas." Nestor said, causing the dragon in question to stop playing his lute for a few seconds and turn towards them, though at the same time it appeared that the tune stopping didn't bother the hatchlings or their new companions, which was good news.

"Well, I was seeking inspiration and figured this would be a good place, since it gives Nevin assistance in making those paintings of his." the dragon, Thomas, replied, though at the same time he lifted his hand away from the lute and returned his instrument to the pouch he usually carried it in, indicating that he was done playing for now, before turning to face Nestor and the other Leaders, "Though I could have sworn you said that there was only one egg delivered during the festival, a purple egg to be exact, as I was surprised to see two purple hatchlings and a blue hatchling approach me, along with their dragonflies."

"The fairies did deliver a single egg to us, along with the promise that the next Year of the Dragon Festival was going to be much better than this year's was," Nestor stated, but he couldn't fault Thomas for voicing his thoughts, as he and the other Leaders, save for Bruno, had told the other dragons that they watched over about the arrival of Spike and Ember, though even as he said that Cosmos, Lateef, and Titan picked up the hatchlings while Bruno picked up the dragonflies, so they could be taken back to Stone Hill, "however, we were not ready for the magical explosion that occurred near Spyro's egg yesterday, one that didn't even damage the courtyard we left the egg in, and when we rushed to investigate it we found both Spike and Ember laying near him. Since we had two more hatchlings than we originally thought we would, and that both they and Spyro see each other as siblings, Bruno went back to his homeworld and brought two more dragonflies with him, so Sparx wouldn't have to watch over all three of them. Though I do have a question, how were you able to make them fall asleep?"

"Is that so? Well, it will be interesting to see what the three of them do in the future." Thomas said, though at the same time he decided that, since it was clear that the Leaders had everything under control, that he'd talk with Nestor again when he had time, and wasn't having to focus on the hatchlings, and excused himself as he headed over to the nearby waterfall, as he wasn't having much luck in using the massive dragon head for inspiration, before he paused for a moment and turned back to look at Nestor, "Oh, and the answer to your question is that my lute was enchanted by the Magic Crafters, so I could help hatchlings fall asleep if something was keeping them up."

Nestor nodded his head as Thomas turned around and continued walking, though he knew that Thomas wanted to speak with him and the other Artisans dragons, so they could be made aware of the new hatchlings that had joined the one they had been waiting for, and he couldn't blame him for thinking about that, as it was something he intended to do as soon as Spyro, Spike, Ember, and their dragonflies were tended to. Once Thomas had cleared the area Nestor and his fellow Leaders headed back to the Stone Hill portal, carefully carrying the three little dragons that must have had an exciting time exploring the area they were in, before reaching their destination and walking through it, allowing them to return to the courtyard the hatchlings had hatched in. It didn't take the five of them long to return the trio to how they had been laying earlier, when they were sleeping, and knew that it would be some time before any of them woke up, so they left Sparx, Talon, and Cinder near the trio and returned to the room before the exit portal, so they could continue their conversation without waking any of them. There were a few more things he and the other Leaders needed to discuss, before his friends returned to their domains and told the other dragons about Spyro and his siblings, which would excite many of the dragons in their lands in the process, even if a few might be worried about the arrival of a second purple dragon, something he wasn't worried about.

He was sure that Spyro, Spike, and Ember would be the greatest champions he and the rest of their kind could have asked for, to face whatever enemies might threaten them in the future, but for now he and the other Leaders were going to let them have fun and grow before they did any sort of training.