As she slowly drifted awake, Kryptonite stretched out on the rock she had fallen asleep in. She looked over at Rainbow. Rainbow was utterly zonked out, snoring loudly.

Kryptonite stood up and walked over to Rainbow. She crept quietly and carefully, not wanting to wake her.

“BOO!” She yelled in Rainbow’s ear.

“Yaaaa!” Rainbow yelled and immediately woke up. She sat up quickly, but Kryptonite had already taken several steps backward.

“Oh my gosh, you should have seen your face!” Kryptonite said.

“Aargh!” Rainbow said. “Kryptonite! Don’t do that!”

“Ok,” Kryptonite said, crossing her talons behind her wings. She snickered some more, then finally became serious. The pair stepped outside.

“What should we do next?” She asked. “We’re lost in the middle of the rainforest with no good way out.”

“We could fly?” Rainbow said, but the sky opened up and rain poured down. “Or not.”

“Yeah, I really do not want to fly in this weather,” Kryptonite said. “Come on. Let’s walk.”

Rainbow sighed and followed Kryptonite as she walked into the forest and out of the cave. The huge green expanse was filled with noise and silhouettes. At one point in the trek, a jaguar jumped in front of Kryptonite and Rainbow, turned, saw them, and then ran away.

The insets were a pain. For one thing, the huge spiders had spun equally gigantic webs across trees and practically everywhere else. The many flies and other flying insects were constantly buzzing around and flying into Kryptonite and Rainbow’s ears.

Soon enough, the rain finally stopped, so both dragons lifted off gratefully, glad to be rid of the bugs. As they flew, they saw that there were several of the rock spires they had seen the day before.

Rainbow swooped around in a small circle. “These mountains are all across the horizon,” she said.

“Weird,” Kryptonite said. She flapped harder, eager to leave the jungle. As both dragons flew, the wind slowly picked up, whipping around the flying pair.

“Ugh!” Rainbow said. “I hate this wind.”

“Yeah, me too,” Kryptonite said. She flew lower, to try and find cover beneath the canopy of trees. She ducked below the secondary layer to find a relatively open space underneath the trees.

Rainbow followed, and the pair moved on through the forest. The green light slowly brightened as the sun slowly climbed through the sky. At around noon, Rainbow slowed down.

“I need to rest,” she said. “Let’s land.”

“Ok,” Kryptonite said. She and Rainbow glided down through the trees and landed near a small stream. Rainbow ran over and flopped into the water, sighing in exhaustion.

Kryptonite sighed. She rolled her eyes at Rainbow and examined the forest around them. She noticed the water was running very quickly on a low slope, which meant somewhere up along the stream it became a much larger river.

“Rainbow!” she said, “Come over here!” She walked along the stream and saw it widening. Eventually, it was a massive river with several small islands in it.

Kryptonite scanned the river. The water was still moving at a faster pace than it should have been. She continued along and heard an odd sound. She picked up her pace and stumbled upon a cliff, very nearly falling off.

A huge and majestic waterfall streamed off the cliff and plunged into a lake below. There were colorful birds all over the place and the flowers were abundant. Rainbow came up behind her. Both dragons stood there, watching the beauty unfold around them.

Several butterflies landed on Rainbow, their wings folding and unfolding. She turned to look at them. When she took a step forwards to fly down, they exploded off of her in colorful bursts. Kryptonite followed Rainbow down to the banks.

When they landed, they saw many fish flickering in the pool. Rainbow bent down close and snapped several up in her jaws. She ate them hungrily, not even stopping to cook them at all.

Kryptonite caught several with a crawshaker and Rainbow cooked them through with her light beam. They quickly ate them before continuing on through the forest, following the river.

After a short while, the pair found themselves before another cliff. When they flew down again as they had before, they noticed three things. First, the cliff was huge, stretching down hundreds of feet. Second, they noticed that the water was shimmering with color, starting from about halfway down the waterfall. They found the third thing when they looked closer. Exactly where the water was turning strange colors was a cave.

“Should we go in?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know,” Kryptonite answered. “We probably should investigate.”

She flew around and dove through the cascading water. The water was surprisingly warm, as was the cave behind it. Kryptonite landed and quickly moved out of the way as Rainbow flew in.

They looked into the long tunnel that emanated a strange multicolored glow. Kryptonite stepped forward only to find a small river moving along the bottom of the cave that had a feeling of wrongness attached to it. When the water joined with the waterfall, the fall turned into a rainbow of colors.

Kryptonite continued on into the tunnel cautiously. The glow slowly brightened as the pair moved farther into the cave. Kryptonite stared at the stream, noticing something that had escaped her. The water was flowing towards the mouth of the cave even though it went downwards.

“This water is flowing upwards,” Kryptonite said. Rainbow looked down at it and gasped.

“Weird,” she said. She continued on. After several minutes, the long tunnel swerved in a tight curl and continued on in the opposite direction. This continued several more times before they came upon a cavern.

Inside the cavern, there was a floating crystal glimmering with bright colors. There was a pool of water below, and the crystal spun slowly, pulling water from the bottom and sending it flowing upwards.

“What the…” Rainbow said. “It’s almost like it’s altering gravity.”

“Yeah…” Kryptonite said. She grabbed a loose pebble and dropped it. When it came within a few feet of the crystal, it abruptly changed direction and flew upwards. It hit the ceiling of the tunnel and bounced to a stop like any other would, the only thing being it happened upside down.

Kryptonite looked down, trying to see what else was in the cavern. Rainbow stepped forward and flew down, avoiding the crystal to not end up upside down.

She landed on the thin rim that circled the lake. As Rainbow flew down to join her, Kryptonite peered into the water. It was crystal clear, with a thin stream of haziness running through it.

“Should we go in?” Rainbow asked.

“Sure,” Kryptonite said. She stepped into the water, shivering at the surprising cold. Rainbow followed. The two dragons dove into the water, swirling in the cold lake. There was an underwater tunnel that was studded with crystals. A strange mist floated off them and up out of the water.

As Kryptonite progressed through the tunnel, the mist swerved to avoid her body. It did the same with Rainbow. There was a strange light from above, so Kryptonite swam up to see it.

To her surprise, there was a gap above the tunnel that contained air and glowing crystals. Rainbow swam up as well. As they moved forwards through the water, the gap of air grew taller.

After a minute of swimming, they emerged onto another shore. The air was stale and the walls had a myriad of cobwebs covering them. A pale light seeped through the thin fibers.

“This place is creepy,” Rainbow said.

“It is.” Kryptonite agreed. She moved on into the creepy tunnel.

Kryptonite’s talon landed on a piece of the web, sending shivers throughout the whole network. The wobbling threads slowly stopped. Kryptonite eased her talon off of the web, trembling.

The further they progressed into the cave, the more webs they found on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Some threads whispered in the faint breeze created by the two dragons’ passage, while others dangled from the ceiling. After several more steps, Kryptonite noticed that the tunnel was sloping upward. Curious, she quickened her pace.

The tunnel opened up into a massive cavern filled with spiderwebs. Hundreds of them stretched between stalagmites, stalactites, and the ceiling with dazzling complexity while others stretched across the floor or dangled from above in long, glowing strands.

There was an unnerving feeling surrounding the cave. The glow from above illuminated most of the cavern, save beyond the glow. Across the cavern, there was another tunnel. Kryptonite shivered, staring at the numerous webs around them.

“What do we do now?” Rainbow whispered.

“We should get to that tunnel over there,” Kryptonite responded. She crept forwards, careful not to touch the webbing. The air was tense as the pair moved through the immense cavern.

Rainbow squeaked. Kryptonite turned around to see her talon pressed down on a line of the web. She lifted her talon, but the webbing stuck to it. She frantically tried to unstick it without sending large tremors throughout the cavern.

“Get it off, get it off!” She squealed. Kryptonite tried to help, but it ended up getting wound up around her talons too.

“Rainbow!” She said, “Stop moving!”

Rainbow stopped, breathing heavily.

“Let's move over there,” Kryptonite said. She nodded towards a spire of rock nearby. The pair moved backward, pulling the web with them. When they reached the rock, they turned around it so tension pulled on the web. With a small twang, the webbing peeled off their claws and zipped to its former position.

What Kryptonite had not anticipated was that the webbing would wobble back and forth violently, sending huge tremors throughout the cavern. The air filled with the sound of air moving around vibrating strings.

There was an ominous creeeeeaak. The room shuddered slightly. Then a more ominous sound permeated the air.  Click…  Click…  Click…  Then, there was a rustling sound from above. The hundreds of glowing strands fell from the ceiling.

In the darkness above, two gashes appeared, leaking light into the cavern. Then, on either side of those two, another two appeared. Then, four more came into view, in a small line below the first four. The air rumbled with a sound faintly reminiscent of breathing.

A huge shadowy shape descended from the ceiling. It spread two huge wings and landed heavily. It was a massive dragon, with a head twice as large as Kryptonite. Its whole body was covered in dark brown fur that glistened in the dim lighting and it had eight eyes that glowed gold. Kryptonite gazed up into their hypnotic depths.

It growled, and the sound reverberated throughout the cavern.

It focused its eight-eyed gaze upon Kryptonite and Rainbow. It snarled and then let out a roar so loud, Kryptonite and Rainbow slid backward several feet.