Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the idea of Yoshis, Yoshi Dragons, etc.

 

Kristen dropped to the ground on the grassy plains. They were out of the caves and away from the army but now what? Kristen didn’t want to go home and find out what had happened to her friends and family. Now that Kristen thought about it, she had heard from a traveling Yoshi that the army destroyed villages. All to find ONE Yoshi. It enraged Kristen. Cory looked down at her and then back up at the dark cloudy sky. Kristen no longer had the energy to walk. She lay down at Cory’s feet and closed her eyes.

 

“Can I please sleep?” asked Kristen. Cory nodded. He gave a sigh and sat next to the cave entrance. He watched as Kristen closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Cory followed suit and soon drifted off to sleep too...

 

---

 

            Kristen woke up to hear a screech off in the distance. Her eyes popped open. She looked up to see what looked like a western type dragon with long batwings soared over her. Kristen immediately ran towards the cave. She lugged a sleepy Cory into the cave as the dragon passed over them. ‘What was that?’ thought Kristen to herself as the dragon flew off into the distance.

 

            “Eh? What’s going on?” asked the now wide awake Cory. He got up to his feet and stepped out to see the dragon far off in the distance. “Whoa!” said Cory. “Never seen a dragon before. I thought they were myths...” said Cory. He was baffled as to how a dragon could be real. He thought he was seeing things or at least it was a dream. But no, it was all real.

 

            “Come on, let’s keep walking. We need someplace to stay. I’m getting hungry too.” said Kristen. Cory nodded and together they began to trek through the country side.

 

            They didn’t see anything for over two hours. But they eventually came upon an encampment. It looked as if the camp had been set up years ago. Everything in it from the tents to the fire wood looked rotted. But the fire in the center of the small camp said something else. Cory and Kristen entered the camp and looked around.

 

Kristen gasped at what she saw. There were half decaying Yoshis there! Kristen stepped back. Cory narrowed his eyes and looked around. Something wasn’t right about this. Who would make a camp fire in the middle of all this death? Cory knew that wasn’t something most people or Yoshis would do. He led Kristen out of the camp. Kristen gratefully left and sat down on the grass. Cory went back to inspect the camp.

 

Kristen sighed and began humming a tune to help ease the memory of the decaying child Yoshi she had found. Kristen stopped humming and stared up at the starry sky. It was now cloudless out. Kristen then became aware of a humming behind her. She looked behind her to see a small purple Yoshi with light purple spikes with her eyes closed skipping towards the encampment. Kristen stared at her. She looked about the same size and, judging from what skin had been left on the corpse, the identical color of the dead Yoshi at the camp. Kristen knew there were probably others in the camp but didn’t have the heart to look. Kristen hoped that this Yoshi wasn’t related to the dead one...

 

“Hey there! Never saw you before. Did you just arrive at the camp?” asked the Yoshi, oblivious to the fact everything in the camp looked centuries old. Kristen shook her head sadly. The purple Yoshi looked at her confusedly and at the camp. She gasped.

 

“The dragon found us...” said the Yoshi, her voice beginning to shake. Kristen winced. What a downer for someone to come to what was probably their only family to see it... decayed to the ground? That would mean the dragon knew death magic... Assuming it was the dragon in the first place.

 

The Yoshi fell to the ground, tears streaming from her purple eyes. The Yoshi cried and rocked back and forth on her heels. Kristen looked at her sympathetically before looking back to see Cory returning. Cory arrived next to Kristen and looked from the Yoshi back to Kristen.

 

“What happened?” asked Cory. Kristen shrugged.

 

“Apparently this child was a part of the camp. What have you been doing?” asked Kristen. Cory sighed.

 

“I gathered all the dead. It’s a terrible bloody mess there. Some of them aren’t decayed but have claw marks all over their bodies. Looks as if they’ve been fighting.” said Cory.

 

“I heard from the child that she said something about a dragon doing this.” said Kristen. Cory looked up her for a moment before his red eyes became unfocussed and distant for a few minutes.

 

“There is an old Yoshi legend about a dragon. Too bad I forget how it goes...” said Cory. Cory had heard many legends from the village he had been raised in. Though one day when he was out exploring the caves, he came back to find his village looked as if it had aged centuries. He also found that all the bodies were either decayed (the majority) or some bore deep scratches all over there body. It was just like what had happened there and both had happened over the course of a week. Cory had been devastated that he had lost his parents. Even he had cried for them for hours straight. Cory eventually took to the caves and eventually became lost in them. He had ended up in a section of the cave miles away from where he had started, eating from the strange melon patches that grew in the caves.

 

The purple Yoshi cried herself to sleep a half hour later. Kristen felt very sorry for the Yoshi. To take her mind of the Yoshi, Kristen looked up at the story sky and re-lived moments with her family. She knew she probably would never see them again. This realization brought tears to Kristen’s purple eyes and down Kristen’s face as she thought about them while the purple Yoshi slept.

 

Cory paced back and forth around them. They still needed food. Cory sighed and eventually sat down a few minutes later. He looked at the stars through his red eyes. Would anything ever be the same?

 

---

 

            Morning came. Kristen and Cory had stayed up the most of the night thinking. Kristen sighed and stood up. They needed to move somewhere not too open. Kristen knew something should be done about that Shadow Dragon but could they actually do anything about it? Kristen decided that they had better at least try and destroy that dragon. Last night, Cory had told Kristen the destruction caused by what Cory believed was the same dragon. Cory now wanted to destroy that dragon. Cory had had no one he had really cared about save for his parents but he still wanted revenge. Kristen wanted to go with Cory. She had no where else to really go. She knew it may be tough, but she was ready.

 

            Cory walked up to the little purple Yoshi and smiled. He shook her awake. The Yoshi muttered something and opened her eyes. “You’re not dad!” she exclaimed and backed away in fear. She saw Kristen and ran over to her.

 

            “I’m not gonna hurt you.” said Cory exasperatedly. Cory shook his head and moved over to Kristen and the purple Yoshi.

 

            “He won’t hurt you.” said Kristen. At her words, the purple Yoshi relaxed and walked in front of Kristen. Cory smiled at her in an attempt to get her to trust him more.

 

            “My name is Hoshi. What’s yours?” asked the little purple Yoshi, Hoshi. Cory sighed and introduced himself as did Kristen. Kristen was happy that Hoshi seemed okay now. Hoshi looked over Kristen’s shoulder and over at the dead camp. Tears came to Hoshi’s eyes.

 

            “Oh no... We better get going.” said Cory. Cory picked up the now crying Hoshi and began walked foreword, past the camp. Kristen followed behind after picking up her crystal wand. Kristen took one last look at the camp before moving on without looking back.

 

They continued on mostly in silence. Hoshi’s sobs soon dyed off and she went into a calmer mood. She still looked sad but relatively better then when they had first started their trek. Still, for as far as they all could see, grassland was all they could see. Though, there was a change in the grassland. It was now becoming steep hills.

 

As they climbed up a particularly large hill, Kristen took note of what looked kinda like a large eastern type dragon with a Yoshi-like head. Kristen held her wand out in front of her but the remembered what the dragon she had seen last night looked like. The Yoshi Dragon flew down to the tip of the hill and looked them over. He could see they were beginning to tire.

 

“Need a lift?” asked the light green Yoshi Dragon in a low voice. Kristen nodded nervously. “Then hop on.” replied the dragon. Cory shrugged and hopped onto the dragon’s back with Hoshi in his arms. Kristen followed suit. With everyone aboard, the Yoshi Dragon floated off the ground and into the air.

 

“So... where too?” asked the dragon. Kristen had eaten and drank some last night from a melon patch that oddly grew in the cave but she was still hungry and thirsty. Kristen shook her head and looked over at Cory who appeared in deep thought.

 

“Have you seen a black dragon around?” asked Cory.

 

“Why yes I have. Why?” asked the Yoshi Dragon.

 

“Can you please take us to it.” asked Cory. Silence fell over them as the dragon began flying south, over the hills.

 

As morning turned to afternoon and as the hills turned to mountains, Kristen stayed silent and looked at the scenery passing fast below them. Soon they were flying over the mountain tops. Hoshi and Kristen watched the mountains below them. They were slightly fearful they may fall off. The mountains were high and snow covered but the heat from the dragon kept the Yoshis from feeling the cold as much.

 

The mountains soon disappeared and a jungle replaced it. Kristen became aware of the dragon lowering to the ground. Soon, the dragon was circling a clearing in the jungle, lowering slowly to the ground. Soon the dragon came to a complete stop on the ground.

 

“Thanks for the lift!” said Hoshi excitedly, her earlier sadness seemed replaced by eagerness. Kristen and Hoshi hopped off. Cory snapped out of his thoughts and hopped off as well. He sighed and watched as the dragon closed its eyes.

 

“Call me if you need another lift.” said the Yoshi Dragon in its same deep voice. Cory nodded and began heading into the jungle. Kristen and Hoshi trailed behind him.