A/N: Hello everyone, Immortal Drake and I am alive, home internet's been out for about a week at least, and now I have an opportunity to upload. Anway, here's the next chapter of MIA, hope you all like it.

Disclaimer: See Prologue. And without further ado, please read, review, and enjoy!

The A-10 came to a quick landing some feet from the two dragons, his Combat Mode deactivating. Upon contact with the ground he remembered he didn't have wheels anymore and quickly trotted as his engines powered down and his wings folded.

Now that he was no longer in Combat Mode, his cannon retracted to its former position, his missile doors closing, and his bomb racks withdrawing into his body, the panels hiding their existence once more.

Coming to a stop after a slightly embarrassing slip in some liquefied ape, the A-10 took a look at his new compatriots.

The red dragon was slightly smaller than the A-10, standing a half-head shorter and being nearly half his size in bulk. The dragon had yellow horns which curved upward from his head, and his underbelly was a similar bright yellow, his wing arms a similar bright yellow with the fingers, the membranes were red like his scales. The other dragon also had yellow spikes that seemed to run down his head and to his back. Judging by the dragon's physique the A-10 guessed he was looking at a male.

The red dragon seemed to be trying to protect the pink dragon, who the A-10 guessed was female by her slighter musculature. She not only had pink scales, but also a purple row of spikes similar to the red's ran down her own head. The A-10 could see a pale underbelly whenever she tried to peek around her friend, as well as pale horns of a similar color that curled rather oddly, and a gold necklace that had a ruby in the shape of a heart on a pendant around her neck. Her blue eyes looked at him with more curiosity than fear.

"Just who or what are you," the red dragon demanded of the A-10, confirming his guess that the red dragon was indeed male.

"I would think I'm the one who saved your lives," the A-10 replied.

"Why, just so you could rob us instead," the red dragon retorted angrily.

Resisting a newfound urge to smack himself in the face, the A-10 answered, "Then why would I go through the trouble of killing those apes or whatever they were, why not let them kill you and then just kill them?"

"He has a point Flame," the pink dragon, or dragoness he guessed the term was, piped up from her spot behind her companion.

"Ember," the red dragon, Flame, snapped back, shushing the dragoness, who immediately went back to hiding behind him.

The A-10 snorted, getting the red's attention, "That's no way to talk to a girl, all I want is to ask some questions," he stated.

Seeming slightly ashamed at being chastised, the red dragon answered, "What is it you want to know?"

"First, I want to know where I am, and how I got here, second, I want to know what it's going to take to get back home," the A-10 rattled off in quick succession.

"You're in the South Avalar Forest, a few minutes away from the fringe, south of Warfang," Ember answered, surprising both males as she came out from behind Flame, seeming nonplussed by the dragon before her. "As to how you got here, could you give us some details?" she continued.

The A-10 was now at a loss, could he trust them with his story, it certainly didn't sound believable if he thought about it. He decided a half-truth was the way to go, "Back home, my country was fighting a war, and I was separated from my—partner," he said hesitantly, "We were sent to investigate a strange anomaly, we tried to get it to respond, and it sucked me in, I don't know what happened after that."

"So, you're a soldier?" Flame asked, to a nod from the A-10.

"What's your name?" Ember asked after.

Again at a loss, the A-10 found that he had not thought up a name for himself, thinking back, he figured it out, "Templar," he responded.

"Templar?" Flame responded, raising an eye ridge.

"That's rather, strange," Ember said slowly. The A-10, now self-dubbed Templar, was happy, it was his call sign before he became a dragon, and it seemed fitting now.

"It was an ancient order of knights that protected others back home," Templar explained.

"Wow, cool," Ember said, Flame nodded in agreement.

"Now comes the question, what are you two doing out here?" Templar asked the two dragons before him.

"We were actually heading to Warfang when those lousy apes jumped us, thinking to rob us or kidnap us for ransom," Flame explained.

"If you hadn't come when you did, I don't want to think about what could have happened," Ember said with a small shudder.

"Why were you going to Warfang," Templar asked them.

"Training," Flame explained, "The Guardians are accepting students at the Temple since the war was over a few weeks ago."

"Then why walk when you can obviously fly," Templar questioned.

"I wanted to see the forest, I heard it was one of the most beautiful places in the world," Ember admitted sheepishly.

"Mind if I go with you, the Guardians sound like they might know what happened to me," Templar asked. Flame looked at Ember; the two shared a conversation of glances that Templar couldn't read.

"Sure you can come with us, we'll be glad for the company," Ember said cheerfully. Flame nodded in agreement. With that said, the trio walked off towards the north, avoiding the scene of carnage that remained of the apes.

Upon leaving the fringe of the forest, Templar immediately activated the zoom function on his cameras, focusing in on the North. He did notice the edge of a stone wall up ahead, but a hill blocked his vision from the ground. He would have flown upward to get a better look, but he didn't want to leave the two dragons alone.

During their walk, Templar had learned that Flame and Ember had come from the same village, and had grown up as best friends. Their parents weren't as well off as some, but they were able to provide for their children and make sure they grew up right as far as Templar could see. It was a pooling of their parents' resources that got them the supplies they needed to attend the Temple's academy, and it was waiting for them there. It didn't make sense to Templar until it was explained to him that while tuition was free, the money from the supplies went into maintaining the city itself. It was also then that Templar learned that the dragons used common gems as currency, and that they also used special crystals to power their abilities.

After cresting the hill that had blocked his view earlier, Templar got a full look at Warfang. It was much more impressive than anything on Earth could have possibly been. The stone wall towered over the surrounding landscape, and the buildings that could be seen over it comprised the most beautiful stone towers that the plane-turned-dragon had ever seen.

"Impressive huh," Flame asked, drawing Templar out of his reverie.

"Yeah, it's amazing," he replied.

As they got closer, Templar decided to do a weapons check, and it seemed that with a thought, he got a display of his current loadout:

GAU-8: 1,350/1,350

Sidewinder: 4/4

Maverick: 4/4

LDGP mk82: 2/2

'That makes no sense, I expended at least 50 rounds from the cannon and one of my Mavericks,' he thought in confusion, 'it must be the magic they told me about,' he concluded.

He only came out of his reverie when he noticed they had come under the walls, the sun in its place overhead had been eclipsed by the wall. The gates themselves were nearly as big as the walls, and made of what looked like solid wood with metal bands riveted in place. In reflex Templar analyzed the gate and determined that even in his current state he could probably blow it open on his own.

"Halt," called out a voice, and Templar turned to see an armored dragon gliding down towards them from the wall. The dragon's armor glinted like steel, with grey plates covering his neck and chest, as well as the rest of his torso as Templar could see, as well as his legs and tail. The helmet however did not cover the dragon's face, revealing his scales to be a dull brown color, and his eyes to be the color of amber, with four horns the color of steel like his armor spread like a frill behind his head.

The trio stopped as the dragon landed in front of them, "State your names and business," he said.

"I'm Flame, this is Ember and Templar," Flame explained, "We're here for training at the Temple."

The sentry's face betrayed his suspicion, glancing between the three dragons for what seemed like an uncomfortably long time, until finally he relented, "Alright, don't cause any trouble," he said, the statement mostly pointed towards Templar.

At that, the sentry called for the gates to be opened, the great constructs swinging outward with a groan. At a motion from Flame, the trio walked into Warfang's lowest level.

Templar was awed at the bustle of the city around them, dragons of various colors and ages went about their day whether it was haggling with street vendors or simply talking with friends. He even spotted what looked like anthropomorphic moles and felines walking and doing business among the dragons. "Come on, the Temple is in the center of the city, near the spires," Flame said as he ushered them out of the marketplace.

Even as the trio walked through the streets towards the Temple, Templar's cameras remained on a swivel, taking in as many sights as possible.

A sound from an alley drew his attention, and he stopped and turned his head towards it. "What is it Templar," Ember asked.

"I don't know," he replied, another sound from it raised his curiosity, it sounded like a scuffle, "I'm going to check it out," he said.

With that, the other two waited while the A-10 walked into the alley. It was slightly dim in there, with random pieces of trash scattered about, which was not unlike the streets in the lowest level he had seen. The two buildings on either side also towered over the alley, looking like they prevented any dragons from flying.

Another crash sounded from farther down in the alley, and Templar picked up his pace. What he found was three green dragons; one was about his height with dark green scales and two big black horns that curled from the back of his skull around parallel to his muzzle, another was half a head shorter than Templar with lime green scales and eight small tan horns that framed their head, and another that seemed even in height with the second with scales of a medium green and four earth brown horns, two bigger and extending from the back of their skull while the other two were smaller and lower down, nearly parallel with their jaw. Templar couldn't make out any other details as the other three were facing something near the wall of the alley, and their bigger compatriot blocked a lot of the scene.

"We told you what would happen if you came into our territory again whelp," said one of the green dragons, his voice said with anger, and what sounded like eagerness, Templar didn't like the sound of it. There was what sounded like frightened muttering, but this was drowned out by malicious laughter and the three dragons closed in on their target.

This was when Templar decided to intervene, revving his engines and baring his teeth, the sound much louder and deeper than a regular growl.

This got the attention of the three apparent bullies. The trio turned to face Templar, the light reflecting off of his metal hide. The larger dragon was on Templar's right, the lime green dragon directly in front, and the medium green dragon to Templar's left. "What do we have here," the middle dragon said, revealed to have a white underbelly with his lime scales, and a pair of eyes the same color as his scales glinted with malicious cunning.

"Looks like some fresh meat to me," drawled the bigger dragon of the three, his eyes as black as ink; however they were blank in expression, his face similarly flat. His underbelly was revealed to be an earthy brown.

"Fresh meat, yeah," snickered the other dragon, his own tan eyes flicking back and forth around the alley. His underbelly was a deep green like pine needles.

"You shouldn't have come here newbie, this is our territory," the middle dragon, likely the leader, said to Templar, an unfriendly smile crossing his face.

"My business is my own, who else is back there," Templar snapped, his own face becoming a mask of irritation.

"Doesn't matter, we'll get to her when we're done with you," the third dragon rattled out before his leader glared at him before turning back to the A-10. At that moment, Templar saw a head poke out from behind a small pile of trash behind the bullies, covered in white scales, but he was unable to determine more details as whoever it was pulled their head back just as quickly.

"I'd like to see you try," Templar challenged. At this the bully to his left snarled and rushed him. Templar made no move to defend himself as the other dragon reached him, his paw clenched into a fist.

Clang

The other dragon's fist connected with Templar's head, and Templar's head snapped to the side, but otherwise was unharmed, not even a dent to show for it.

"Ow owowowow," the dragon exclaimed as he shook his paw to get rid of the pain, hobbling backward on three legs.

"What, get him," the leader said, turning to his bigger comrade and motioning him to attack. The dark green dragon nodded slowly and lumbered forward.

Templar charged as well, his feet making clank noises as they met the ground.

The two dragons met with a thunk, their paws coming forward and grabbing the other's, resulting in a wrestling match, both combatants trying to overpower each other.

To Templar's surprise, the other dragon was matching him in strength. He revved his engines again, the turbofans escalating to a roar that resounded from the alley. With the extra force, Templar was able to push his opponent forward, his claws scraping long scratches into the stone surface of the alley. Pushing him back a few feet, Templar pushed upward with his back legs and lifted the green dragon into the air.

Shutting down his engines, Templar twisted his opponent so that he landed on the other dragon. All of the air was knocked out of him with a loud, "Oof."

Stepping off of his opponent, Templar faced the leader, who was putting on a brave face while the A-10 could see his legs shaking.

"What are you," the leader half-snarled half-asked.

"Your worst nightmare," Templar answered flatly, deciding to activate his cannon, the barrels sliding into position and arming with a cli-clack.

"You're on your own Faust," the lime-green dragon yelped, turning and fleeing down the opposite way of the alley.

Faust, apparently the leader, snarled again, "This isn't over, for either of you," he growled to Templar, sending a glare behind the trash pile before running after his comrade.

Templar let the dark green dragon up, the bully fleeing after his friends, and the A-10 decided to look behind the trash pile for what the bullies were after.

What he saw made him immediately deactivate his cannon. It was a dragoness covered in white scales that shimmered like snow, just shorter than Ember by an inch or two. She had a light grey underbelly and five horns that pointed in five different directions behind her head that were a dark grey color, her claws the same color as her horns. Her tail tapered to a long whip-like end, and when Templar looked at her face he could see her staring fearfully back out of ice-blue orbs.

Relaxing his stance, Templar tried to reassure her, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," he said.

"O—okay," she said hesitantly, her quiet voice barely audible. A noise from behind Templar made him spin around to face it, only to be surprised to see Flame and Ember running into the alley with a sentry dragon behind them.

"Templar, are you alright," Ember called out as the group reached him.

"We heard a strange noise and thought you were in trouble," Flame explained, coming to a halt beside Ember.

"I'm fine, and it was some thugs trying to hurt her," Templar said with a motion to the strange dragoness.

"Are you alright miss," the sentry asked the dragoness.

"Y—yes, I'm alright," she stammered again.

"And where is your home," the sentry questioned.

"I'm being trained at the Temple," she answered.

"We're heading that way, we can take her there, if you don't mind," Ember said to the sentry and then to the strange dragoness.

The white dragoness paused and looked between the trio, first to Ember, then Flame, and then resting on Templar. "Um, sure, I'll go with you," she said finally.

"Alright, we'll be on our way then," Flame said to the sentry, the group leaving the alley and returning to their journey to the Temple.

A/N: Well, another chapter done, and have a Merry Christmas! See you all next time!