Sitting on a large round table, Fugeo the Retac dragon, guardian of the fire dragons was reading some letters while he was waiting for his guests. He was hoping to gain their help regarding a problem the guardians have in one of the regions. The guardians would have handled it by themselves… if it weren't for the fine little problem that here are elements working which required a special kind of response. A response only his guests could provide once they arrived.

He heard a knock on the door and called "Yeah?"

A young dragoness of light blue color with a black stomach came in and bowed in front of Fugeo "Guardian Fugeo. Your guests have arrived."

"Thank you Frostflower. Please bring them in." nodded Fugeo and was beginning to be curious about how his guests look like… as dragons.

He originally has contacted the two he knew the longest but they were already caught up with a greater problem, so they asked two of their friends to come to their stead.

While he knew the mentioned friends, it was only by a brief introduction in a party he participated. Not to mention it was on a different world… so he doesn't know how the two humans look like as dragons.

Frostflower came soon back with two dragons following her: A female light grey dragon with a light blue back muster with purple crest on the head and hips. Her head sports two large horns and four smaller ones at the lower back area. Her wing membrane were light blue like the muster of her body. As well the top of the head with a few white spots on the front. The underbelly was a light color he couldn't identify and the tail had six spikes. Around her neck was a black collar with light purple gems.

The other was a black male with golden stomach, thought his wins were sporting a white membrane. On the tail end is a white ball hold by black horns and spikes. On his head were four horns and small spikes on the side while sporting blond hair which went down to his back.

"Kuran. Faith. It is a pleasure to see you again." Stated Fugeo and gave a respectful bow towards his guest "Please. Take place" and gestured to two prepared seats next to him.

"Thank you Guardian Fugeo" replied the male dragon, Kuran. "We are honored to be your guests."

"You are welcome." replied the fire dragon. "Thought I am sure, the two of you already figured out, that I didn't ask for Keybearer to come, just to enjoy their time."

"Yes, it is something we already figured out" admits Faith "And since you asked for keybearers, we also assume your problem involve heartless.

"That's indeed the case" admits the fire dragon and showed them a map "The heartless, for some reason, are concentrated here… Earthwood Forest. Used to be a prominent holiday resort. Hot springs, massages, swimming, sun bathing and whatever you could wish for. But then the heartless happened. And that isn't the only odd thing."

"Aside from concentrating on a spot that isn't even close to the keyhole, not to mention it was sealed by Sora quite some time ago, here is another thing you cannot make sense about them?" asks Faith curiosity.

"Yeah… they are only attacking Earth Dragons and take their scales. They don't even bother to try to turn anybody to a heartless. They just get the scales and leave. From the reports I get the only few ones who became heartless were more or less those trying to stop them or were hit by accident."

"That is indeed strange" muttered Kuran. Turning to Fugeo he wondered "Does Dragon Scales have any use for anybody?"

"Aside being our natural shield? Not many. Once the scales go off a dragon, be it by forcefully removed or simply falling out for being too old, it loses many properties. Most uses I know about are making different kind of arts with fallen out scales, thought earth dragon scales are very common. Because they change the scale coat of their body the most"

"The most?"

"Yeah… after reaching a certain age, we dragons have rarely a scale that is older than a year… and by earth dragons it is even half a year."

"So whoever needs so many scales could just go and collect?" wondered Kuran "Then why bothering attacking Earth Dragons?"

"That is the odd thing. We store old scales in certain places and everybody is free to take some."

"is here any other use, that needs them… well… fresher?" suggested Faith

"The only other option is barely used due on how inefficient it is" explains the dragon "And even more tasty ones."

"Which is?" wondered Kuran

"Dragon scales can be used to… well… enhance scale growth. Sometimes young dragons don't grow their scales properly and are given medicine." Explained Fugeo "But the amount of scales you need for it is ridicules. For example to treat this issue for a dragon of my size, I need all the scales of all dragons that is of my size. For ONE treatment. And before you ask: It doesn't matter your element. All dragon scales can be used for this."

"I can see why you said it is rarely used and inefficient." Agreed Faith "So… any other explanation why one could need so many earth dragon scales?"

"Nothing that would make sense in these quantities." Countered Fugeo with a shaking head "No matter who is doing that, I am far from being able to see the reason. Also the other guardians are at loss."

"Speaking of which: Where are they?" wondered Faith "We were told here are four with you one of them."

"Terrador was one of the victims and is recovering, while Volteer and Cyril are holding the grounds. And I was asked to get contact with you. And if you ask about Spyro and Cynder… they are helping as well, while their daughter with my family."

"I see…" stated Kuran "Then we should get move so we can find the answers of these attacks soon."

"Yeah. We have a two days trip in front of us. Even by flying." Explained Fugeo "We make a stop in an inn halfway the trip."

"Too bad I never had been there before" stated Kuran "Else my dark corridor would have brought us there in an instant."

"Yeah… would have helped us big time" agreed Faith "Well… I need wing hours anyway."

"Yeah… same here. Had been a while since I had wings" admits Kuran with a chuckle.

Shaking his head Fugeo guided them outside the temple… he never understood the humor of those coming outside this world. Then he added to them "Before I forget… we will meet two of my friends on the way. The cheetah Snowhair, and the Rhino warrior Roark."

"From the name I take Snowhair has white fur?" asks Kuran "Sounds quite oblivious for me."

"She has." chuckles Fugeo while spreading his wings and gave a few flaps to warm up "And she is a good archer. While Roark is always in heavy armor and swings a large war axe."

"These two sounds very interesting" chuckles Faith while flapping her wings as well.

"They are" and they began to take off. Fugeo took the lead of the flight and guides them to the direction of their place of operation. While Fugeo was very comfortable with flying, thought Kuran, while having experience didn't do it for quite a while and had some trouble to fly a straight line. Familiar could be said about Faith. So they spend the entire flight. Thought with the time the two normally non-dragons got better and had quite a stable flight.

Around noon Fugeo descends with the other two following suit and while they were landing, Fugeo asks "Why are we landing?"

"We are going to hunt a beat to fill our stomachs. I am sure you two are hungry." Stated the fire dragon "Any of you having hunting experience?"

"Not really." Shock Faith "And I wouldn't trust anything that comes from Kuran. He is the worst cook I know. I would even dare to say the worst of the universe."

"Come on Faith! I only send a village to hospital with sandwiches, killed a restaurant with friendly zombies with noodles and pasta, created a breakfast that wanted to conquer the universe, summoned the essence of all evil by baking cake and burned down a kitchen by putting milk into cereals."

Fugeo laughs weakly at this "I hunt and prepare the meal…" and went off while Kuran and Faith prepared the fire place to prepare the meal. It didn't take long until Fugeo returned with three rabbits. Faith helped Fugeo taking the fur off under his instructions and the innards to dig it up. Then they hung the three rabbits over the fire.

They waited for the rabbits to be ready before they began to eat the three rabbits.

Once they finished, Fugeo cleaned his lips "It was a good small meal. Don't you agree?"

"For a dragon I bet it is" agreed Kuran "Better than anything I could make myself."

"Which isn't hard" laughed Faith "But true: For my first meal as dragon it was quite a nice snack."

"Very well. Then we should take off now. We still have quite a trip." Mused Fugeo.

The two others agreed and they spread with the fire guardian the wings and began to fly towards the inn that the dragon had mentioned. They had a hearty meal there and slept in three rooms… mostly because the inns made a rule of dragons not sleeping in one room… in the night it tends to be loud for various reasons. Exceptions were hatchlings.

On the next day they took off early after a small breakfast and also took something with them so they don't have to hunt or cook at lunch. The first half of the day and lunch were without any great incidents. However… as they flew in the afternoon, they had to avoid fire balls from heartless. And flying forms of heartless moved toward the three dragons.

The battle in the air was short but they were forced to the ground, where they were welcomed by ground heartless. The fight was short as it weren't that many. But Fugeo looks worried "This isn't good… so far off the resort…"

"I take the heartless were normally within the resort, contained in some way?" asks Faith.

"Yeah…" confirmed the fire dragon "And this is what worries me. How many heartless are there that such a group could get out without anybody stopping them? Or how much are they pressing since we evacuated every earth dragon we could find."

"That isn't surprising" muttered Kuran "But I doubt here would have been a way to contain them without scarifying any dragons."

"Yeah… and the scales we had on hand are about to be used up, if they weren't already." Explains Fugeo "We had the stores opened up to give them to the heartless, slowing them down that way. But they take them in larger amounts then we thought. "

"You completely underestimated them." Groaned Faith "At least you called for help as soon as possible."

"I agree… we should now move as fast as possible to reach the resort, rest up and then find the source of the heartless."

"I agree." Nodded Fugeo and they took flight. They soon reached a very large forest, indicating they reach the borders of Earthwood Forest. Kuran noticed that many of these trees were made of earth or stone and asks Fugeo "Why is this Forest called Earthwood?"

"As you can see are many trees made of stone and earth, something that is unique for this forest. Nobody knows why they are growing that way. We only know they do. Thought they provide the best stones for building. Once a year, twelve trees are chosen to be taken and used for new buildings."

"Why only twelve?" wondered Kuran

"Because only twelve new trees start to grow each yeah. We don't want to destroy the forest, instead try to preserve it." Stated Fugeo "Up there is an old castle. Stonewood Creed. One of the oldest still standing buildings outside of Warfang. And one of the few that survived Malefor. Also it serves as our headquarters here."

"So we are reaching our place of stay." Guessed Kuran. And they reach the castle. They land there but they saw nobody… except for a single dragon red dragon. Moving towards the three, the dragon bowed "We were expecting you Guardian Fugeo. I assume the dragons with you are the ones we were expecting?"

"Yes they were." Stated Fugeo "Where are the others?"

"The headquarters were relocated at the eastern border of the battlefield." Explains the dragon "I am here to inform you. In fact all camps are now closer to react faster to attacks."

"East border? So they try to break through Earthfang."

"Earthfang?" asks Kuran

"Ah yes, you aren't from here" chuckles Fugeo "Here are five great dragon towns… Warfang, Seafang, Thunderclaw, Fireclaw and of course Earthfang."

"I take the five towns have an own mix of dragons… Warfang is the most varied while the other four has a dominated amount of one type?" deadpans Kuran "IT would just be perfect that we are close to the largest amount of earth dragons of this world to our current problem."

Fugeo laughed weakly "Well… Terrador would properly confirm it… me for my part was only in Warfang and Seafang regularly. The other towns… I never had been there."

"And evacuating the town isn't done why?" asks Faith "Because knowing what is going on, I would have moved the earth dragons anywhere with only small groups in one place."

"Trying to evacuate Earthfang is like trying to try to remove every earthworm within a forest." Spoke the fire dragon that had been awaiting the group "Because every earth dragon makes an own cave in the massive underground tunnel system under the town. It would be impossible for us to find everyone or get them out in time."

Kuran and Faith just stared at this information and looked at each other, barely believing what they are hearing. It has been some kind of joke.

"We should move… now" sighs Kuran "But you should think about restructuring the town."

"Believe me… we tried" deadpans Fugeo "But in this case Earth dragons have stone heads."

The four then took off and the dragon began to guide the guardian and the two dragon turned keybearers over the way, which gave them a view to the resort and the dragons eyes nearly budged. The entire place were filled by heartless who were just caring around different things but didn't even bother to try to intercept the four.

Kuran raised his head to Fugeo "Looks we could drop a surprise attack here."

"Only if you can convince Cyril to play along" stated Fugeo "He is very… difficult since I told him off about his distrust and hate he harbored at me."

"Because he blames you for the death of his mate?"

"Yeah… despite everybody knowing what was going on back then. That he doesn't like the fact I am the mate of his daughter is also not helping."

"Doesn't sound like he is eager to get over his loss. If he makes troubles I have a word with him." Countered Faith

"Thanks" smiles Fugeo and they began to reach set of tents of various sizes with a few very large ones.

"Is this it?" asks Faith

"Indeed!" told their guide and they land on the ground, just aside the camp. From there they were welcomed by some guards who lead them to the largest tent, which contained a round table that had a map of the region on it. And a blue dragon awaits there.

"Cyril" mused Fugeo "WE are here now… what the situation is?"

"You too your sweet time Fugeo! You should have been back two days ago!" growled the ice dragon "Then thing s would be much easier!"

"Now that is ridiculous!" countered Fugeo "We both know that it takes two days to get here alone! Not to mention they had to come to this world first. I call it lucky that I was only gone for six days! It could have been much longer if things went different. Now the situation, please."

Cyril just grunts "I will be happy to have your head when your two guests fail… anyway! A few days ago the creatures tried to move larger groups towards Earthfang, more than before, so we were forced to move our main defenses to this side. Thought due the pressure we moved more than we would have liked and now here are holes in other sectors."

"That explains why we fought some of them on the way here" said Faith "What else can you tell?"

"And where is Volteer?" added Fugeo

"Volteer is right now aiding one of the other camps we set up until reinforcement is coming. We are losing ground here." Explains Cyril "We have to get them away soon, or we cannot hold the town… and I bet you already know that we cannot evacuate it."

"We are aware of it" nodded Kuran "On the way here, we noticed the heartless WITHIN the resort aren't even bothering to try an attack on us."

"Yes we noticed it as well for any non-earth dragon but since we lack the forces we didn't bother to try to strike at the heart, as we don't know who leads these bastards" stated Cyril "So unless you can summon an army to our aid, I fear here is nothing we can do."

"If you give me some time I can help you" explains Kuran "I have some contacts which would allow you to worry less about the heartless."

"Really?" asks Cyril "how?"

"Let's say… we discovered a natural enemy to the heartless" chuckles the darkness user "I send some of them in and after some time, the situation should ease up enough that we should be able to move a move."

"Would these natural enemies attack us as well?" asks Fugeo worried since it is the first time he heard about this.

"Only if you are expressing enough darkness that could make you a target" said Kuran "But in this case, if you know thing or two of using Darkness, you can actually tame them. I think Cynder could pull that off."

"Speaking of which: Where is she and Spyro?"

"They hold the western and north lines" answered Cyril "The pressures there are the most intensives after here the east. South is largely ignored but doesn't surprise me much, since nobody would life there. At least no earth dragons."

"Why is that?"

"Because of the plants down there. Earth dragons in general are allergic to these. Even to the polls so they don't even dare to try and get close. There are some villages with different kinds of animals and some dragons but like mentioned: No earth dragons."

"Then that's the perfect spot for the pressure we start" mused Kuran "I go down there and send the Dark Predators out. They should be able to surprise the heartless with their sudden appearance and if they act like any other time I send them off, some heartless will fight and some will flight."

"That would indeed ease things up" agreed Cyril resultantly

"A side effect thought will be that they will integrate into the natural environment. But since they feed of darkness, it would just keep the natural amount of heartless lower than ever." Added Kuran carefully "In this case we just win."

"I would say we prepare a small expedition, to send the two at the southern lines and given them a few days to seed out their Predators." Suggested Fugeo.

"After these few days, we can return here much faster and help to hold the lines until we can move in and strike" added Faith "And then it is just a matter of time before your heartless problem is under control."

Cyril just sat on the ground, staring at the map and sighs loudly "As much as I hate it… but you have a point here. I agree on this plan. BUT you have to wait until we get response from Volteer and Terrador, as they have to decide on this plan as well due their position as Guardians."

"And this could take how long?" asks Kuran

"One or two days."

"Guess then we should get a tent for the time being and help out fighting." Sighs Kuran "Anyway, thanks for hearing us out."

"I have a tent prepared for you" said Fugeo "Just meet me here later and I guide you to it."

"Could you try to place it a bit… outside?" asked Faith

Fugeo chuckles loudly as he get why she is asking and nods "OF course."

"Thank you." Told Kuran and the two dragons moved out.

Once they are out of hearing reach, Fugeo looks at Cyril "You surprise me. I really would have through you would start a fight here and now."

"Fugeo… as much I don't like it: I have to admit that we are in a situation where I am forced to listen to your experience. Especially when Spyro is backing you up. Without a real way to deal with these beasts on our own, I cannot risk to get on the bad side of our only help."

Nodding the fire dragon replied "I understand. Thank you for being considerate this time. I make sure the two have their tent prepared. And send massages to Volteer and Terrador. How is Terrador thought?"

"He is recovering. While being strong enough to walk again, he isn't allowed to leave until at least a basic layer of scales have regrown… and that means at least two more weeks out of the commission."

"We should have stopped him… we knew that these monsters are after earth dragon scales for a reason. That was one of the few points we ever agreed on. Terrador should have stayed away from here."

"After what Ignitus did way back in the crisis, Terrador is at odds with himself despite knowing that our old friend is now holding a new position. I think he needed that to at least have an idea how Ignitus felt before his apparent demise."

"I hope he doesn't adept to pull something more dangerous." Stated Fugeo "I rely a lot to his opinion and wisdom."

"And not of your two other fellow guardians?" asks Cyril with a hostile voice.

"Cyril… we fight way too often and refuse give me advice." Countered Fugeo "Here is too much between us as it could work healthy… once we overcome that, it might to come to that. And Volteer… it isn't a secret that I just have trouble dealing with his non-stop talking with adding any thesaurus to any word he is speaking."

Cyril laughs "Had to admit! I doubt that here is anybody who could stand this for long if we don't stop him always." Then he shook his head "Perhaps once this is over, we might get to a better standing."

"That is something, Daimond, I and our children are really wishing for quite a time." Said Fugeo "I get my work done and move to the front lines."

Cyril nodded, taking what Fugeo is indicating. Once the fire dragon left, the Guardian wondered "Was I wrong all along?"

Outside the camp were Kuran and Faith led towards the fighting grounds. Given it is just a fly of several minutes; it upsets the two to a degree that the fighting is that close to their camp. Thought they are relieved to hear that for some reasons heartless attacks are only during the daytime… here was never a night attack. Which of course is at the same time puzzling… what kind of person is controlling the heartless that they show this irritating pattern?

Thought they didn't had much time to think about it, as suddenly a bunch of Heartless appeared. Shadows, Darkballs, Soldiers…

Then Kuran jumped aside as a fire ball flew at him. And he saw Red Nocturnes, Blue Rhapsody and Yellow Operas.

Also in an corner he saw Power- and Bouncywilds. All in all only weak types of Heartless. But what makes the troubles was the clear fact that they were so many. The dragons were forced to use many field covering attacks, causing them to tire out easily. Faith and Kuran looked at each other before they rushed in. Faith jumped at a bunch of the heartless and stroke with her front paws several times while biting hard one some down with her snout, before her keyblade would flash into existence to slice some of the heartless.

Kuran on the other hand took an aerial approach. He flew up and created several dark weapons and either threw them or let them fall upon the heartless and each of the dark weapons which were around a group of heartless explode, damaging or outright wipe out the Heartless in close proximity.

A larger shadow appeared and swipes against a few of the dragons. Faith saw an opportunity, called for her husband and flaps her wings a few times to get off the ground. She reaches the heartless head, grabbed the antenna of the big heartless before she roared loudly and pulled as much she could, throwing the heartless over her body. As the heartless flew, Kuran got close and slams into the large body, crashing the two down on a set of attacking heartless before the dragon turned keybearer jumped off and a large blade impacts with the heartless, destroying it before the weapon explode and took every heartless in the near with it.

The masses grow and Kuran looks at Faith. She nodded and rushes forward to deal with more heartless as Kuran flew back to behind the rows. As he landed asked one of the dragons "Tired already?"

"No! Preparing something!" stated Kuran, bracing himself before he leaks darkness, sending it through a small dark corridor towards a certain spot. Two dark beings noticed the trail which were sending through the corridor and began to follow it, followed by others of their kind which got a whiff of the trail as well.

Next to Kuran two dark corridors opened. Some of the dragons looked in surprise, even more as two dark creatures stomped out. They could be classified as a sort of dragon. Thought odd shaped. They had two strong legs, small, really tiny arms. They had a bend over walking style with triangle formed heads and glowing yellow eyes with a long strong tail. From the back two wings are spreading. The membrane at triangle holes between the bones. The two dragon like creatures gave out a roar and a set of these dark corridors opened along the ground and in the sky and more of these dragon like creatures appear before they rushes forward.

The dragons noticed them and feared the worst as they were getting pinched by two sides from heartless… only to look confused as the dragon like heartless passed the real dragons and attacked the other heartless. Crushing, smashing even consuming the dark creatures and more appeared in the middle of the fields.

The dragons were confused, even Fugeo and Cyril as they arrived had a look that demands an explanation of this sudden... turns of events?

Moving towards the two Dragon Guardians Kuran chuckles weakly "Well… due the amount of heartless I had… to call the Dark Predators earlier."

"You mean, these creatures are the Dark Predators? And you let them at the front line?" asks Cyril in disbelieve but as he saw the still existing size of the Heartless size he muttered "Given this is the largest attack yet, I have no right to complain."

"Your mate doesn't seem to have a breath attack" quipped Fugeo as he watches Faith using her claws, tail and fangs to deal with the heartless, not even try to bother to use an breath move against their dark opponents."

"To be fair, neither her or me got the chance to actually find out if we could perform them." Stated the darkness user "We just go with what we have experience with. And in other worlds we have been different animals and we can use the experience from there."

"I would like to see some of these other forms you had." Mused Fugeo, looking at the battlefield "Uhm… I think we should change tactics and mobilize everything we have at hand right now and charge in."

"I can see why" told Cyril "Now the heartless are busy with their own natural enemy, we could break in, deal more damage, as well pushing towards their leader and deal with it."

"I think it is a him or her" shot Kuran in "After all, we are looking at a behavior that isn't really normal for heartless. At least if a heartless is leading them. What you see here is that an actual living and breathing being is in charge."

"You have a point here" nodded Fugeo and sweat drops "And… I fear the judgment of Volteer and Terrador is no longer a matter."

"Sorry!" sweat drops the dark keybearer.

"Hmph! He had no choice here! Now let's join in before this young ones and his mate are taking all the glory" stated Cyril and rushes over.

Fugeo and Kuran just looked odd at each other for a moment before they simply shrugged and rushes after him.

Faith just knocked a heartless back as a couple of spears took care of those which were too close to her own comfort and she looked at her husband "Decided to join in once more?"

"Had to deal with two leaders" laughed Kuran while he flew down, does a salto before slamming his tail end into a dark ball, sending it directly towards a pair of Dark Predators… who aren't wasting time and went consuming the dark creature.

Over the time the wave of heartless shrank down as they were destroyed by dragon or Dark Predator or those whose instincts caused them to run from the Dark Predators.

Said heartless hunters then either left the scene through dark corridors as they saw that their silver plate is getting empty or run towards the resort due their senses telling them in this direction is more prey.

Organizing the mess Fugeo and Cyril send those who are too tired for continued fight back at the camp, together with some guards, while ensuring that they can move in to join the clashes which will happen soon. The two draconic leaders are aware that, if they let the dark predator were left alone, they would deal with the heartless plague… but at this point they would simply push the heartless simply into the other direction and who knows what their leader would do. So they went to a preemptive strike to ensure they would at least get the leader. A dragon is already send to the other side to prepare for the pressed heartless, as well a warning towards Cynder with a note from Kuran how to prevent her being attacked by dark predators. This info had to be spread across the dark dragons in general to prevent attacks or hunts.

During this little chaos, Faith went to the two dragons and suggests "How about Kuran and I are going to the resort self, drop a few predators and engage their leader? That way you would gain time to move and of course the one behind it wouldn't run."

Fugeo looked at Cyril "Given their experience and the already busted plans… give it a run?"

"Given the way everything went currently, I say we just run along and hope for the best." Stated Cyril with a shaking head "I am getting old."

"Wait with the retirement until we dealt with this crises and the aftermath" chuckles the fire dragon.

"I won't leave you alone in the guardians as long I breath" countered the ice dragon.

Faith looked at Kuran who just shrugged… he was the wrong guy t ask. Riku knows Fugeo way better.

Later on Faith, Kuran and their… pet Dark Predators are flying high in the air. Their course was clear towards the center of the resort and as they reaches the location, they glances down, seeing that the clam situation they had seen by their first flight was gone by now. The heartless were running around, trying to get back in order while they heard a shouting… and after turning a few rounds they saw the source of the shouting: A mouse who had cut scales on his body.

…

…

…

Moment! Where is the lizard I had planned for this?

"Tied up in my home! I am the dragon here! I am! Earth Dragon! I need these scales to be a full grown earth dragon!" laughed the mouse.

Kuran and Faith looked at each other and together with the dark predators they pulled out the script of this story; one of the dark predators even put a set of glasses on his face. The other notes "I didn't know you wear glasses."

"Only when I am reading." He stated as a matter of fact "Right… it is supposed to be a lizard. And now we have a mouse."

Well… we are in the middle of work and who knows where our actual villain is so… we run with it and save him later?

Kuran shrugs "Works for me."

"Wait!" called a heartless "You mean we listened to the wrong guy? We were supposed to work for a crazy lizard and not a crazy mouse?"

Yes. Why do you ask?

"We aren't paid for this!" called the heartless "Come guys! Let's go! Before we get eaten and/or killed due plot reasons!"

And all the heartless disappeared.

"No fair!" called one of the dark predators "I wanted my next nice meal!"

Complain to this mouse for high jacking my plot!

The mouse gulped and made a few steps back "I just remember that I... uhm... are scheduled with… with… DNAmy! Yes DNAmy for… my gene therapy!" and starts running… only to be followed by two dragons and two dark predators.

Well… due the turn of events, let's see some other mouse about their opinion. At least until the mouse is captured. … Now that I think of it… I was already wondering why only earth dragon scales were taken, and not like planned the scales of every dragon. Well! I have to store this revengeful lizard for some other time.

The first is a world's greatest secret agent in white:

"I am ashamed to know that one of my kind is thinking he needs to be a fire breathing lizard to be great! Look at me! I am a mouse myself and managed to be the worlds greatest secret agent!"

"But what about the others who claims that? Like Jeopardy Mouse?" asked a mole next to him

"Not now Penfold!"

The next is a detective in one of the many Londons in this universe. (Stopped counting after the 68 London while trying to make a map of this KH Universe… stopped after 568 worlds) and his doctor title wearing assistant.

The detective sat on the couch and mused "While I have to see him first for a full opinion, I suspect that some event in his past caused him to be illusion that he need to become one of the largest predators in the known universe to have some sort of self worth. Thought I am a bit troubled to understand why the earth element."

"I was an army doctor" told his assistant "I didn't study physiologic. Was it even already invented here?"

The next is a friend of a prominent princess.

"That is a scandal! One of our kind causing troubles just because he cannot accept what he is! I am a pride mouse and stick to that!"

Didn't you try to pose as human once?

"Hey! I learned my lesson and it is questionable if this is even canon as this was just leftover from a cancelled show."

And last we have a prominent super star, king and keybearer in one being.

"Gosh!" said the mouse with a shaking head "While I have seen my fair share of people who followed the wrong path, regardless their species, I never thought to run into one who believes to be a dragon and controls heartless by sheer madness."

I would have shown an interview of the family, but they either shut up, run away or threw themselves at the next available predator… so we have no material.

Anyway. The married/mated keybearer couple manages to capture this little animal and brought it back to the guardians.

They were staring in disbelieve at the sight of a mouse being the source of their troubles. In fact if anybody were to look into their heads right now, they would see how spammed the gears were right now.

Does anybody have a hammer?

Sometime later (And a few broken hammers later) the mouse were brought to a prison far away next to a white rat that wears a red cape

"I AM AN HAMSTER YOU IMBICLE!" shouts the offended being.

Jeez! Why is this guy always interrupting me when I talk about him?

Back to the script. Due the fact the threat was over, the dragons went into Earthfang and have a small celebration. During these celebrations Kuran and Faith were snuggling together a lot and the female giggled as she felt her lover pressing against her back with his wrong paws wrapped around her neck. Turning her head they shared a deep kiss and once they broke it, Faith grinned "What do you think? Should we test out a bit more?"

"You know… I just wanted to ask the same!" the dragon chuckles and the two began to head towards the quarters.

The following days Faith and Kuran were helping out with cleaning up the mess that the heartless and the mouse caused before they and the guardians returned to Warfang.

The four dragons thanked the keybearers thought they agreed to… not reveal every detail about it. Who knows how the public reacts if they knew that all the trouble comes from a little mouse.

Once the two were gone, Fugeo was heading home and as he opens the door he were tackled by his two children. Laughing the dragon played a little with the twins and then he nuzzles with his own mate, Daimond

"Hello Fugeo. I assume everything is done now?"

"Yeah!" he chuckles and nuzzles her "And I missed you a lot… especially after… what happened after the battles."

"Oh?" asked Daimond "What did happen?"

"The two keybearers… they had quite some nights afterwards. All could hear it." And then he licks her snout before whispering into her ear "And the female, Faith, has shown traces of beginning on the first evening here…"

"Oh… is the mighty fire dragon looking to have another egg?" smirked Daimond in a whisper to not get the children attention… that were tolling in the garden now as they found their parents antics not worth their attention.

"Perhaps?" he grinned "They will after all have one more offspring as well."

"Later perhaps! Right now you catch up with your children and me" taunted Daimond and moves out, swaying her tail a little. Followed by a fire guardian who found no reason to disagree or complain to the suggestion. Instead looking forward to spend time with his kids.

…

…

Wait! Aren't here two more characters supposed to be here? Where are they?

"Come on Roark!" groaned a white cheetah in blue clothes "We are already three weeks late! What should Fugeo think that we are that late already in helping out?"

"Pah! He will understand! After all we fought against many monsters during the trip! Didn't know that Stonewood Forest had so many monster!" told a Rhino with a very large war axe and heavy armor.

"Because we were in the cursed woods!" groaned the cheetah "And I told you this at least ten times now! And this also marks the last time I let you have the map!"

"You complain more than Fugeo ever did Snowhair!"

"Oh shut up!" groans Snowhair while looking at the map… trying to find some sort of waypoint from their current location… somewhere in the middle of… The Pride Lands?

… Guess I have to mail someone about that later.