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// Chapter One 
// Story: Revelations: A dragon's tale 
// by jimbrony 
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	The trees swayed in the Everfree Forest and  the clouds rolled overhead as a young Timber Hoof made his way back to his tribe. He had gone out to get kindling and had gotten lost on his way back. He’d been wandering around trying to find his way back for the better half of an hour now and he was starting to get worried.
The clouds were beginning to look ominous while the sun was beginning its descent when he had gotten lost. He had always heard terrible stories around the campfire from Chief Red Heart about all the evil creatures that lurked in the Everfree during the night. His tribe tried to steer clear of setting up camp near the dark forest ever since Red Heart had died.
He had died defending the tribe from a manticore the last time they had gotten too close to the Everfree. The whole tribe mourned his death, but the one who took it the hardest was his son, Black Hoof. Black Hoof had became the new chief after Red Heart died and he had always tried his best, but ultimately his father’s death had leathered his heart.
The elder Flowing River had started walking away from the tribe at some point during the day. Black Hoof had run up to her and said, “Flowing River, where do you think you’re going?” She answered in her ancient sounding voice, “The Everfree” not even glancing towards the chief. 
“Why do you want to sleep near that forsaken forest tonight? Do you want to put us all in danger!?” he asked. Flowing River replied, “It is where we are supposed to be.” She stopped and looked towards the rest of the tribe and bellowed as loud as her worn voice would let her, “Follow!”.
The tribe started to follow the old bison while Black Hoof looked at them disapprovingly.
Once she got to the forest she simply laid down and waited for the rest of the tribe to catch up. “Why do you think we should sleep here tonight? Have you forgotten what has happened to Red Heart?” She slowly got up,  walked up to Black Hoof and slapped him as hard as she could across his snout and said quietly, “I’ll never forget what happened to him and how dare you for thinking otherwise!”
She collected herself and announced, “I feel a presence here that we’re supposed to be near and we will stay here until that presence is known.”
Black Hoof yelled, “That presence you’re feeling is your own stupidity! If we stay here tonight we will be torn to shreds!” He turned to the rest of the tribe and yelled, “Flowing River has become crazy in her old age. She says she “feels” we need to stay next to this infernal forest for the night, but its really her wanting to die because she can‘t handle her old age anymore.” 
Flowing River stepped in front of him and bellowed to the crowd, “I promise you no harm will come to any of us! I had a dream last night that if we stayed next to the Everfree we would find a great blessing.”
The tribe had looked uncertain and many of them still remembered very clearly what had happened the last time they got too close to the Everfree. Seeing the elder’s certainty though had put most of their minds at ease. Very rarely was Flowing River ever wrong about anything. 
The tribe had started setting up teepees immediately. Black Hoof seeing that he was defeated grumbled and pointed towards Timber Hoof and said, “Go get water from the nearby stream.”, but Flowing River countered him, “He must be the one to get kindling tonight.”
Black Hoof argued, “Why must you argue with everything I say!? It‘ll start raining soon, what good will a fire do?” “Why question the sun in the sky when it rises and sets? It is what it does and nothing more.” She answers looking towards Timber and simply saying, “Go.”
Now, hours later, Timber was treading warily through the forest, lost and wishing he could find a sign that he was on the right track back to the tribe. He wanted to start yelling through the forest for help, but he dare not make a sound. As a young colt he was told that this forest was overrun with terrifying predators called wolves.
He had never seen one, but he was told many horrific stories around the fire at night. How they were always in packs and meeting one almost always meant certain death for any bison that was alone. How their fur stood on end when they bared their sharp,  hide ripping teeth. How they made their eerie howls towards the moon at night.
Drip.
Timber Hoof looked to the sky at the black clouds.
Drip.
It had started to sprinkle and Timber still had no idea where he was. He was starting to get scared. He didn’t like storms, he didn’t like this forest, and he imagined he wouldn’t like wolves if came across one.
KA-BOOOM!
Lighting flashed and thunder rolled. It shook Timber to the bone. He started to canter in the direction he was facing. He continued on for what felt like hours, but was actually only a few minutes until he finally came to a clearing.
When he exited the forestation he looked around for any sign of his tribe. His tribe was no where to be found. For all he knew they could be on the other side of the forest. 
He looked towards the horizon and saw that the sun was starting to set. If he wasn’t going to find his way back tonight, then he had to find shelter. He made his way to the center of the clearing and started looking for anything he could possibly use for shelter.
His eye caught what looked like a worn path. He kept looking for a few more minutes, but the trail looked to be the only route that lead somewhere. He didn’t have many options with the sprinkling starting to turn into actual rain and the sun setting.
He started down the trail and followed it for a few minutes. He started to think what had treaded through this path so many times and if it was a safe idea to follow it. As he was thinking this he came to the end of the trail and found himself in front of a cave.
He definitely did not want to go in there. He didn’t have anything to make fire with and the darkness of the cave swallowed up the darkness of the dusk. He decided to go back and try to find a hollowed out tree trunk to stay the night.
ooooOOOOoooo.
Timber Hoof stopped dead in his tracks. He had never heard that sound before, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt what that was. The howl had made his blood run cold. It came from the forest and right then he decided what awaited him the cave couldn’t be worse than wolves.
He did a full 180 and galloped into the cave’s abyss. A sudden chill went down his spine and he started to have second thoughts. He could still see the mouth of the cave, but was far enough back for anything that wasn’t nocturnal could see him.
He untied the kindling he had had strapped on his back and laid down. He tried drifting off to sleep, but he felt that he was not alone. He listened for anything that sounded suspicious and couldn’t hear anything other than his breathing.
He thought of what he was going to do tomorrow to find his way back. He thought of what might live in this cave and how angry it would be to find an intruder. However, his thoughts finally settled. Exhaustion overtook him and he drifted off to sleep.
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A faint glow awoke Timber from his slumber. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a green glow further down the cave. He looked the way he came and only saw darkness. He felt around for his kindling and found that all of it was gone. 
He got up and thought about whether he should just lay down and go back to sleep or if he should go investigate the strange light.
He decided to take his chances to see what was causing the light, it couldn’t be that dangerous seeing as how he was still alive. Timber slowly made his way through the cave towards the green glow.
He came upon a cavern inside the cave big enough to fit his whole tribe. In the middle of the cavern was a ghastly green fire. He warily inched towards the fire until he was just a few feet away. 
Upon further inspection he realized that whatever made the fire was using the wood he had collected. He looked around for any sign of life, but found nothing. 
He laid down and stared into the magnificent fire. He started wondering if maybe one of his tribe mates had found him and had made a fire to keep him warm. Maybe they had gone back to the tribe to tell them they had found him. The fire felt nice against the cool air of the cave and Timber Hoof soon found himself drifting off back to sleep.
All of the sudden Timber Hoof heard steps coming down the entrance of the cave. It wasn’t the clop of hooves or the pad of paws, it didn’t sound like anything he had heard before. He rose up and moved to the other side of the fire and awaited whatever it was to emerge.
The sound kept getting louder as it came closer. He stared into the abyss not daring to look away from what might emerge. Finally he could make out the outline of a figure in the darkness as it neared the cavern. It was… tall. Two bison standing on top of each other would have still been shorter than this creature.
Finally the creature made its way into the light and Timber Hoof froze. In front of him was a creature he had never seen before. It was standing upright on two feet with two arms and hands at his side, razor sharp talons on all of its fingers and toes. He had to be over 35 hands tall. He had black scales that glimmered in the fire’s light. He had two massive wings folded on his back. His eyes had looked gentle, but had the pupils like that of a snake.
As the creature neared his mouth opened and sounds started to come out. It sounded like he was trying to talk in some deep booming voice, but Timber Hoof couldn’t understand any of the words. The language it was speaking, if it was speaking a language at all, sounded clipped and foreign.
Timber raised a hoof to stop the creature from talking. The creature stopped talking and smiled, flashing his razor sharp teeth. Timber seeing this became nervous, wondering what exactly teeth like those could do to him. “I… I can’t understand you.” Timber warily said.
The beast reared his head and let out what Timber thought was a hearty laugh. He then looked down at Timber Hoof with a face of mirth and said “I’m sorry Timmy. I forgot the bison had a different language from what I’ve grown accustomed to.” Timber’s blood ran cold when the creature had used his nickname only his friends called him. 
How did such a ferocious looking creature know who he was? Why was a creature that was clearly a predator talking to a potential meal like a friend? “What are you?” Timber asked. The creature sat down on the ground cross-legged, still towering over Timber. “I’m a dragon, one of the first and the last I’m afraid.” The creature said.
“I’ve never heard of such thing. Where did you come from?” Timber asked. “Why from this cave of course.” Said the dragon like it was an obvious answer. “No, before that.” Timber said. The dragon got a serious expression on his face and said, “There was no “before that” for me.” 
“So you lived here your whole life?” “No”, said the dragon, “I’ve lived many long years in many different places.” 
Silence fell over them for a few seconds and Timber asked, “Did you make this fire?” “Yes I did! Do you like it?” said the dragon. “I do like the warmth, but how did you get it to be that color?” asked Timber. “Well, that’s just the color of my fire.” stated the dragon.
Timber Hoof gave the dragon a look like he was retarded. The dragon seeing the look chuckled and said, “Here, let me show you.” He then reared back his head, opened his mouth and let out a stream of hot green flame for several seconds before closing his mouth and looking back at timber hoof smiling.
Timber’s mouth was hanging open dumbfounded. “Well, what do you think?” asked the dragon. “That was amazing!” exclaimed Timber. “Can other dragons do that too?” “Yes, but different dragons are going to have different colors for their fire. Also, some fire is simply good for burning things, and other fire is more… useful.”
“Useful how?” asked Timber. “Well some dragon’s fire can heal wounds, teleport certain objects, let two different beings see each other, so on and so forth.”
“Can your fire do anything special?” asked Timber. The dragon sighed, “Yes it can, but I’m not about to get into what my fire does. It obviously burns things and can keep you warm. That’s all you need to know.”
Timber Hoof looked down at the ground and said, “You seem nice enough. You look like you could eat me fairly easy, but you haven’t yet. I know a creature like you probably has more important things to do than to talk to colts like me. So please tell me why you’re here?”
The dragon put on a smile on his face, but for some reason his eyes looked sad. “I’m here to make sure you deliver a gift for me.” “I can do that for you I think, but why not just give it to me now and I’ll be on my way.” The dragon became very solemn and said, “It’s not here yet, you’ll know when you see it. Plus I’ve got an old friend that doesn’t want this particular gift to make it to your tribe.”
This made Timber suspicious and he asked, “Will my tribe even want this gift?” The dragon looked down at the ground, not daring to look Timber in the eyes and said, “For now, yes.”
Silence filled the cavern for a couple minutes before Timber began, “So how long do we have to wa-”
There was a faint buzzing sound like a bee next to Timber’s ear, but instead of next to his ear, it felt like it was all around him. A strong torrent of wind came through the cave and a loud explosion was heard at the mouth of the cave. 
The dragon stood up in front of the fire, blocking the cave entrance from the young colt. A shout was heard from the mouth of the cave and a purple blur moved into the cave as fast as lightning. It impacted the dragon sending him sprawling on the ground. 
The purple blur finally became visible. It was another creature that Timber Hoof had never seen before. The creature was lavender with a mane and tail of dark purple with a light purple and pink stripe running through them. It had brand on its flank that looked like one large star surrounded by five smaller stars. It stood on four legs and would be a good six hands taller than a full grown Bison. This creature also had magnificent wings splayed out at its sides. On top of its head was a long horn that had white sparks coming from the tip. Its eyes were pure white and she was shouting at Timber Hoof in the same language. 
This creature looked far more intimidating than the dragon had and Timber was confused and terrified. The creature stopped yelling and its face had a pleading look. It started walking towards Timber talking slower, its voice sounded like three voices coming out of one mouth, but it sounded like it was pleading.
It stopped and said one word and tears started to slowly run down its face. The creature repeated this word. Again and it stomped its front hooves. A few more times and it started bucking while screaming that one word. The beast stops moving altogether and just stands there head hung low, tears falling from its face to the ground.
The green fire suddenly grows and a white light is seen in the middle. The light blinds Timber with its intensity to where he has to look away. The light starts to dim until it vanishes completely. The fire returns to its original size and in the middle of it is a large jet black stone that glimmers like a precious jewel.
The dragon yells, “Grab it now!” Timber Hoof hesitates, he wants to grab the stone, but he doesn’t want to get burned. The lavender creature makes a horrible screeching sound and its horn glows bright white. Timber jumps towards the stone and wraps his forelegs around it holding on for dear life. He lands in the fire and he feels warm, but no pain. It feels like he’s in a hot spring, it almost feels relaxing. 
The lavender creature charges for Timber, its horn lowered towards his windpipe. It gets one hand away before the creature is stopped by a black hand grasping onto its horn, his other hand sinking its claws into the creature’s side. The dragon growls at the lavender being in that weird language and green fire erupts from his maw. It surrounds the lavender creature as it screams bloody murder in the same language. It envelops all of the creature and begins to spread to the dragon.
The dragon looks back to Timber and says with tear filled eyes, “Goodbye Timmy.” The rest of the fire envelopes him and both beasts begin to glow bright white, and just as suddenly vanishes along with both of the beings that were there before. 
Timber lays in the fire stunned with what his last hour has wrought upon him. He feels exhausted and lets his head fall against the wood still burning. He passes out not even caring he’s lying in the middle of a green fire.