Chapter Five:
	Egg Hunt!

	Everyone stared at the gasping earth dragon. The shock struck the group. The dragons posted more guards after the apes attacked years ago but the munants attacked in such numbers the guards had to fight to defend the temple. "The whole attack was nothing but a diversion!" he growled as he hung his head. 
	"We should go after them and get those eggs back," Spyro said turning to take flight.
	"Go where? We don't even know where they went," Terrador snapped. "The attack was well planned, quick and precise. They left no trail." he sighed. "They just...disappeared... We will have to wait until we know where they took the eggs." the guardians looked at each other sadly before walking away.
	"STOP!" Crimson piped. He hesitated for a moment as the guardians looked back at him before saying "I don't know where they are... but I think I know where they're going."
	"It's the best we got," Cyril said. "Do you think we should go for it?" The other guardians nodded.
	"Then let’s go!" Spyro said taking off into the air. One by one the other dragons followed. Crimson took the lead and used his blizzard wind to propel them faster. A large forest rushed in, the land was riddled by battle scars.
	“Isn’t this the forest where we found you?" Cynder asked.
"Yes and I'm thankful for that." Crimson looked at her. His eyes were filled with worry. "The alarm hasn't sounded. We're expected." The group heard a vicious roar from the forest below as hundreds of jagged spears arced up and rained down on the dragons. "Get behind me. NOW!" Crimson roared as he began to spin. His spiraling blizzard breeze deflected all the spears back at ground. He led the group down and saw over twenty unarmored munants with spears scattered on the ground. Two of them wore tightly woven cylindrical panniers. "The baskets..."
	"Yes, I know. Careful with those baskets. They might have the eggs," Terrador yelled as he crushed a munant with his club tail.
	Crimson bypassed most of the munants and headed straight for the ones carrying the baskets.  He jumped and opened his wings wide. He let his blizzard wind push him faster. Spinning around, he slashed at the munants' chests, cutting the straps of the panniers. His tail followed behind him, slashing the munants' throats. The other munants roared and fought harder as they heard the heavy baskets hit the ground. "They're not going to make this easy, are they?" he said driving his talons into any munant that tried to reclaim the panniers.
	Spyro froze a munant's feet to the ground as Cynder struck from above. She slashed wildly at the muntant’s face as Spyro rammed his head into its gut, sending it backward. It tried to get back up but it was incinerated by a bolt from Volteer as he flew by. Cyril flew much higher than the other dragons, releasing pillars of ice onto the ground.
...
	A black dragon ran for his life from the creatures that followed him. His wings were bound together, preventing him from flying. You can run all you want; it’ll be a good analysis of your endurance. But you cannot escape from me! A voice laughed in his head. His head pounded from the intensity of the voice and running. He turned sharply and hid in a hollow of a tree. He saw several feet rush past the hollow as the creatures screamed in the pleasure of the chase. When the screaming died down, he stuck his head out.  The creatures were nowhere to be seen. He walked out of the hollow and released an exhausted sigh. Ha, ha, ha, you proved my experiments need improving, but did you really think that little stunt would stop them. The voice said as the screaming got louder. The dragon’s eyes widened as he saw the creatures crashing through the forest, straight for him. He scurried away to avoid the creatures’ snatching hands. He was quickly gaining ground between him and the creatures. When the creatures hollering grew faint, he stopped to rest. He stood at the foot of a great cliff. So long as I haunt your memories, I will always be able to see you. You cannot hide. The voice said, annoyed that the dragon wasn’t playing along.
	“Then we’ll have to change that,”the dragon said, placing his paw on a large rock. The stone crawled up his leg before he placing it over his right eye. The mineral flowed over his face, hiding the mark around his eye. “I’m sorry, Tyrant.”He let out an agonizing roar as he began to strip away his memories.
...
	As vision returned to Crimson’s eyes, he saw the panniers were coated with stone plates and the baskets and himself were surrounded by a wall of flames. He flapped his wings, instantly putting out the fire. The battle seemed to be over. The six dragons regrouped around the baskets. The guardians’ wounds from the previous fight had reopened and they wore fresh one as well. They tore open the panniers and inside were ten eggs.
	“two are missing... Cyril, take the eggs back to the temple. Volteer, your with me. We’re going get those eggs back,”Terrador said firmly.
	“No, you will not,”Crimson said harshly. “You’re too big to come. I WILL take Spyro and Cynder with me but no one else. We’ll sneak in and take those eggs but I can’t do that with even one large dragon. Besides, if I know the munants, and I do, they will try to take the eggs your carrying with a large, more powerful group.”Terrador, wide eyed at the comment, just nodded. They split up, the guardians took the eggs back to the temple as Spyro, Cynder, and Crimson headed for darker skies at the other end of the forest.