Chapter 2 What Lies Beneath

It took longer than I thought it would to climb down the hole but eventually we made it to the bottom. I pulled out an unlit torch from my bag and lit it. It was more than just a hole. It looked to be connected to a cave.

"I'm not sure about this," Ange said nervously. "If you're scared then climb back up and wait with the dragons" I told her as I began to walk. There wasn't much to see. Mostly just a bunch of rock. But I was curious to see where the cave ended. Even if it was just a dead end. It was almost as if something was pulling me.

Suddenly the cave began to shake. "Ahhh" Ange yelled as she crouched down covering her head. "It must be more unstable then I thought" I said aloud, then continued to walk.

That was when I came to the end. "Wow" I said as I stared in amazement. It was a large open area with water and somehow even trees, and surrounding those trees was something even more amazing. "Are those what I think they are? '' Eddy said, appearing next to me. "I think so" I told him.

"But they don't look anything like what we heard," I added. "What do we do?" Ange asked. I was silent for a moment. "Stay here" I told them as I began to climb down the small cliff.

Once I made it to the bottom I began to carefully walk around, making sure not to touch any eggs. They were definitely dragon eggs. I thought as I gave them a closer look. "Sera look!" I heard my brother yell when a large red dragon appeared. it was staring directly at me, and it looked angry. I slowly backed up and as I did it walked closer to me.

When I finally hit the cliff wall the dragon was directly in front of me. It began to sniff me and as it sniffed my face I turned my head away from it and closed my eyes. Then it used its leg and pushed me down.

Now laying on the ground we just stared at each other. But the malice I once saw in its eyes had turned into curiosity. "Flare" I said and it tilted its head. I slowly reached my hand up and when I did the dragon slowly touched my hand with its nose.

That was when I heard an unfamiliar sound. The sound of cracking. I quickly turned my head to see every single one of the hundreds, Maybe , even thousands of the different colored and different size eggs Crack and slowly begin to hatch.

The dragon walked over to me giving me room to stand back up. Then something I thought I'd never happened. Baby dragons flooded the cave. I quickly climbed back up the cliff as I did my brother reached out his hand and pulled me up as I got close to the top.

"What does this mean?" eddy asked. "What do we do?" Asked Ange. The baby dragons didn't fly any higher than the cliff almost as if they couldn't yet. "I don't know" I told them. What in the world made hundreds maybe thousands of Dragons hatch from their eggs all at once. Why were there so many when just yesterday the fact that there were three was a shock. Why were they underground and what did it have to do with a sinkhole?

"We should go and tell mother, maybe she'll know what to do," Ange said. "I don't think she will," Sera said. "And if we leave how do we know that the dragons won't somehow follow us?" I asked them. "Then what should we do?" Asked eddy. I was silent for a moment. That was a good question. I let out a sigh.

"Ange go tell mother what we found eddy and I will stay here for now" I told her. "What will you do if they try to get past you?" Ange asked. "Stop them as best we can with a magic barrier" I told her. She gave me a nod and began to head back down the tunnel.

The baby dragons slowly began to fly higher and higher. "I think we're gonna need that barrier faster than we thought, '' Eddy said. "Why did they hatch?" I asked myself. "What?" Eddy questioned. "Great grandmother told us that dragons tend to hatch either just before they are meant to come in contact with their heart, or when their egg comes in contact with their heart like Drazyn did for mother or storm and blizzard did for me" I told him. "So why did they hatch, now all at once when we discover them?" I asked turning to him.

"Maybe your their heart?" Eddy said, confused. "There's no way," I told him. "It has to be something else... some other reason" I said as I stared down at them. If someone else had discovered them, who knows what might have happened. This many dragons in the wrong hands could be disastrous. My mother only had 2 dragons and she was able to take control of the continent and even destroy a kingdom overseas.

"Sera the dragons" eddy said as they slowly made their way closer to us. "Let's put up the barrier" I told him. We put our hands up. Magic began to circle around us as we concentrated on what we wanted. "Barrier" we said at the same time, creating an invisible barrier in front of us.

"Make sure it's there" I told him as I kept my concentration on the barrier. As long as one of us was focused on it it would stay up. Eddy walked over to it and knocked on it, then gave me a nod. "How long do we have to do this?" Eddy asked. "Until mother gets here and decides what to do with them" I replied.

It would take her some time to get here. I could only hope that Eddy and I would be able to hold out until then.

TO BE CONTINUED