The Red Dragon - Yogscast

The Red Dragon

Prologue
It never hit me how dangerous this world was. I thought I understood the world, a little Arbor here, a little Terra here and that was the world. That was what I thought, until yesterday. At the Spring Festival everything I believed had died along with the others. I didn't want to see those eyes again. The way the stared at me; I was lost in its gaze and I probably would have been lost to it if it wasn't for Rythian. I hope everyone is okay. There are barely any of us now. We split up at that moment, and that was our doom.
It might even be the doom of the world...
~~~
It was the day of the Spring Festival; a day of the year that many loved to come to, just for the atmosphere. The festival lasts a full week but only the first say is given the name Spring. The festival is a celebration of the world's season rotation. Each day celebrated a different part of the cycle or even just a small aspect of it; but that was changed each year depending on the council. Either way it was to be an exciting week for YogVille, even people from the surrounding villages and towns would cross the valleys to be at the festival.

Hatfilms were but a few who made that journey to see their friends and spend a week getting drunk and partying. But before that could happen, Trott had to do some work in Yogville. Being a renowned engineer it was common for him to travel between the neighbouring towns. Luckily where he had to work was just around the corner from the festival so Smiffy and Ross didn't mind going with him to work.

After 10minutes Trott stood up from the machine that the Rail Brothers had asked him to fix. Ross and Smiffy had sat on a small wall watching the small man aid Strippin and Bejin fix the new carts, which took resources from the mines.
"There, all finished," Trott called as he whipped his forehead. He turned to Benji and Strippin. "It should work perfectly now."
Benji jumped for joy. "Thanks so much Trott. This should save us working for the next week." Trott chuckled, anything the brothers would do for some time off. After building a company from scratch in only a few years it was no wonder they needed a break.
"Come on," Smiffy called jumping down from the wall. "Let's get some of Duncan's mead before it goes."
"I agree," Stripping tapped Smiff on the back and they headed off to the main square. Trott and Benji laughed following close behind. Ross sat on the wall getting down and waling after his friends. He stopped before turning the corner and looked back at the machine Trott had built. He then turned the corner and wished he had stayed closer to his friends as he looked upon the masses of people. Where had they gone?

~~~
Lewis took a sip of his coffee as he sat in the Captive Creeper with his laptop in front of him. Even though it was his day off he still had to work. Since Lord Ridge was out of town it was up to him to make sure things went according to plan. It had been a stressful morning sorting out everything for the street performances but now he could take a break and relax.
BEEP! BEEP!
Or so he thought... Lewis looked at his laptop and saw an incoming message from Stampy back at Yoglabs. Lewis sighed and answered the call.
"Stampy, how's Squid doing?" Lewis asked. Squid had woken up that morning with the flu so Stampy stayed behind to take care of him.
"He's doing fine," Stampy said with a smaller smile than usual. Lewis frowned as he watched Stampy gulp before speaking. "There's something wrong with the detector." Stampy's eyes looked away from Lewis and onto another monitor. "There is a large flux area close by, just to the south of you." He paused. "It's off the charts."
Lewis sighed and smiled back at the young man. "That's probably due to the fireworks we tested this morning." Lewis gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry friend, I'll handle it."
Stampy didn't look convinced but nodded in agreement and terminated the call. Lewis took a sip of his coffee. Well, they had set off some fireworks this morning to entertain the children but that wouldn't have caused much flux, but then again they did have two powerful mages' and an apprentice in the area, so that could have caused the machine to go wild.
~~~
Stampy sighed and leaned back in his chair. Maybe he was just analysing the data too much. He rubbed his eyes and looked to Squid sat next to him. Even with the flu Squid still wanted to do work, when he said work, he meant play video games. Stampy shrugged and returned back to his computer.
~~~
Ross couldn't find any of the people he had originally been with. Instead he had found Martyn, Toby and Hannah near a tree at the back of the crowd. Finally people he knew.
"Hey, Ross!" Martyn called and waved him over.
"How's it going?" Ross called as he stood in front of them. They all smiled at him.
"It's going good," Martyn smiled and climbed half way up the tree with ease. Ross watched him with a slightly confused look. Toby then climbed up after him and Ross turned to Hannah, who just shrugged.
"What are you doing?" He asked watching them. Toby lost his footing slightly, making Martyn laugh and Hannah, who covered her face.
"We're trying to get a better view of the parade." Ross looked up further into the tree to see Kaeyi sitting on one of the higher branches. Ross smiled and shook his head. He should have guessed she would be around too. "Where are Trott and Smiffy?" She asked as she lowered herself out of the tree to talk to him.
"No sure," he answered and did a quick look around to try and find them. "I guess they're somewhere with Strippin and Benji looking for mead." Kaeyi laughed at his comment.
"Sounds about right," She giggled and lowered herself out of the tree. She brushed herself off and made sure her hair was neat before walking over to Hannah and whispering something into her ear. Hannah replied with a nod and turned to Ross.
"Could you do me a favour and wait here with these two till Lewis comes?" Hannah asked. Ross nodded, it would give him time to have a catch up with Martyn and Toby, and he hadn't seen them in so long. "You two stay here," Hannah called up into the tree before leaving with Kaeyi to do their business.
~~~
Rythian stood at the far end of the town where the parade would end. Zoeya and Teep had wanted ice-cream and so he was stuck there waiting. But that's not what got at Rythian. Something felt wrong today. Something in the air told him that something was going to go wrong, but what? He wished he could shake this feeling.
"Rythian?" Rythian turned and saw Smiffy standing next to him looking curious. He smiled at Rythian, "You okay? Why are you out here on your own?"
Rythian gave a small smile in return, although Smiffy couldn't see it due to the mask. Smiffy was a mage from the next town over and whenever he came to see them he always had a new trick or spell to show off. Rythian turned away from Smiffy and looked down the valley at the square.
"Something's off," Rythian spoke softly. Smiffy looked down the valley the same as Rythian but all he saw was a few red faces as they tried to climb up the hill to the shops and others were having fun at the festival. Nothing strange about that. Maybe it was a Rythian thing; to think small things going wrong was a big problem. Rythian turned back to him. "Where are the other two?"
Smiffy pointed behind him into the ice-cream shop where Stippin, Bejin and Trott were talking to Zoeya and Teep. "Trott's in there," Smiffy lowered his arm and looked at the crowds again. "We lost Ross a while back."
Rythian went to speak when a loud bang was heard causing the two to jump. Both looked around and saw the people cheering. The parade was starting! Both smiled as a group of children ran past them and towards the parade area. Rythian shrugged and watched the crowd.
~~~
Lewis walked through the crowd looking for Hannah. He hadn't found anyone yet, where had they said they would meet up? Lewis spotted Ross looking up into a tree not too far away. What was he doing? As he got closer he noticed that Ross was watching people in the tree. Lewis smiled as he saw Martyn and Toby laughing in the tree.
"Hello there friends," he called out and stood next to Ross.
"Hi," Martyn called as he helped Toby on to the same branch as him. The younger boy seemed to struggle with steadying himself.
"Good day," Ross said as he flinched as if he was about to catch one of them fall out of the tree and it was no wonder. Toby had lost his footing and with a little yelp he grabbed onto one of the branches to steady himself. "Hannah will be back soon."
"Thanks," Lewis answered and turned to watch the parade. He could relax for a little till Hannah got there.
~~~
The computer was going crazy and screaming. Stampy ran from the break room where Squid had set up camp, towards his computer. The computer beeped loudly as Stampy tried to work out what was wrong. He couldn't understand it, and then he remembered the flux incident this morning.
"Shit!"
~~~
The wind picked up a little causing a nice breeze as he watched the parade. He watched the dancers dance and he laughed as he watched the children get in their way. To the left he could see the top of the band stand where Sparkles*, Parv, Korgie and Leo where stood playing. Lewis was enjoying himself. His phone began to ring and he moved away from the others to answer it.
Ross watched Lewis from the corner of his eye. Even though he was enjoying the parade but his curiosity was spiked with Lewis.
"What is it Stampy?" Lewis asked, "Stampy calm down... What are you talking about?" Ross' full attention was now drawn on Lewis. "Stampy I explained that earlier... Stampy!" What was going on? Lewis had mentioned earlier why Stampy wasn't there but it couldn't have been that bad could it? Ross was about to walk over to Lewis when a large breeze hit him. He shivered. "Stampy that's impossible..." Don't say that, Ross though. "Stampy I-"
"LEWIS!"