THE LEGEND OF SPYRO: GALE OF DARKNESS
CHAPTER 1- PEACE AT LAST
The alarm clock buzzed annoyingly as Spyro searched for it in the darkness of his cave.
"Uggh...shut up shut up!" he said slapping the top of it hoping to hit the snooze button before he breaks it altogether.
'Why did I let Austin give me this thing...' he thought finally getting it to shut off.
Spyro got up from his fancy new bed Austin had gotten him; no longer a bed of leaves, but a bed of wood, metal, and what he could only guess are clouds on that soft thing in between on which he slept. it was huge compared to his small size, but that meant a different sleeping spot every night. Of course, Austin had planned on building Spyro an actual house to live in, he decided to decline, and keep his cave. The bed was forced on him in a sense, because Austin felt indebted to him and the rest of his allies. Looking back on it now, he was glad he took it. He could not however say the same about that damn noise maker next to it. He walked to the entrance of his cave, looking out into the world at sunrise.
"Well I guess that thing is good for something..." he said admiring the beauty of a spring morning.
It had been two months since Draganta and Austin had been released from the medical wing, and it was safe to say that all were enjoying the peace that followed, a rare event for them indeed. Draganta had found his wife, and was spending time with her in dragon shores, while the rest of them were back around the dragon village, spending there days as they wished.
Spyro was now 15 years old, and he was not yet fully grown, but was beginning to lose the high pitched voice and smaller build of his childhood, as was his girlfriend Ember.
He thanked the Ancestors every day for her...she was the best thing to ever happen to him. She knew what to say, and when to say it, the perfect choice of words to lift him up when he felt down about almost anything.
Spyro took a step outside and stretched his wings, arms, and legs while letting out a yawn, sounding almost like a roar.
Today was another training day...he dreaded them most of the time. Exhausting work, relentless exercises, and endless sparring matches, all came together to take up most of his free time.
"There is no way its monday already..." he said taking flight toward the temple, which was a short glide over the trees from his cave.
Spyro landed at the temple steps and found the elders waiting for him like always, with unamused, but somehow rested looks on their faces. How they managed to get up that early still amazed him. They hurried him inside and he was thrust into the training room once again.
After what could only be called a slaughter of the stuffed straw dummies, the elders decided that sparring was the next order of the day.
The professor had rigged up a special group of floor tiles that allowed you to fight at full power and contact without causing real harm, and, since Austin was a frequent sparring partner of Spyro's, he invented a machine that evened the odds a little in Spyro's favor. The machine changed Austin back and forth from his human form, to a dragon form.
Austin walked into the training room and stepped onto the transformation platform. Ignitus activated it, and a metal ring above his head slowly descended, changing him as it went, from human to dragon.
His normally brown hair was now just two yellow horns, with yellow spikes running between them to his tail, which was spear shaped like Spyro's. His normally lightly tanned skin was now gold scales, reflecting dully in the light, while his stomach was ocean blue, as were his eyes.
"Alright Spyro, ready to dance?" he asked stepping out of the machine and onto into the sparring arena, having already gotten at least a little used to fighting as a dragon, but not much else.
"Whenever you are." Spyro said taking a fighting stance.
Austin breathed a small bit of fire into his hands and slapped them together.
"Lets do this thing."
Austin made the first move by flying at Spyro, attempting to spear him. He missed crashed to the side of the ring.
"You'll have to do better than that!" Spyro laughed
"Dont worry, I've still got something in my bag of tricks!" Austin swung his tail out fast and caught Spyro in the chest, making him stumble backwards a few steps. He took this opportunity and blew a fireball at Spyro.
Thinking quickly, Spyro saw it coming, and batted it back with his tail, hitting Austin squarely, sending him to the mat.
"Here I come!" Spyro shouted jumping into the air bringing his back foot toward Austins chest.
"It wont be that easy!" Austin grabbed his leg and threw him into the ground beside him. From there they began to wrestle, until Spyro managed to pin Austin to the ground.
"Ok, ok, you win! I give!" he said
Recognizing the winner, the elders ended the match.
"Thats enough boys, the fight is over, Spyro is the winner." Terrador said as Austin stepped into the machine to change him back to a human.
"Good fight Spyro." Austin said stepping out of it back in his human form and walking outside of the temple with him
"You're not as bad as you look." Spyro said jokingly
"Ha ha, so you've got jokes huh?"
"I do what I can...so what are you doing today?" Spyro asked
"I'm gonna see if I can get an estimate on how much the gems that are just laying around here are worth back in my realm. Need anything?"
"Nothing that I can think of...you bringing back pizza? "
"Of course."
"Then I'll see you when you get back." Spyro said as Ignitus called for him from the temple steps, signaling the end of his break.
"Alright well, looks like I gotta go...duty calls... What are they even training me for? I mean, I've kicked every bad guys but that has ever has the wrecklessness to try and fight me."
"I dont know bro, I'm new to this place, maybe they know something that you dont." Austin said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a red gem, and using the portal jumper the professor gave him for inter realm travel, disappeared in a white flash.
Spyro drug himself back up the temple steps and was about to enter when he heard something familiar.
"Spyro!"
It was Ember. He smiled and turned around, seeing her coming up the steps to meet him.
"Having fun?" she asked hugging him.
"Ugh...not as fun as it looks." Spyro complained
"Well I'll tell you what...when you get done...we'll go out. Sound good?" she asked sweetly
he could only smile back and say
"Yeah...that sounds good."
Spyro walked back into the temple and Ignitus didnt wait until Spyro was in the door to begin the criticism and verbal lashing that aggravated him so, and this wasn't the first time this has happened.
"Spyro you take too long on your breaks, five minutes means five minutes."
Spyro gritted his teeth and held his tongue, as he passed Ignitus without a response, just a low growl.
"What was that Spyro?" he asked, hearing it.
"Nothing." he said through gritted teeth
"Hmm...then if it was truly nothing, you wouldnt mind a few more hours of element work would you?"
Spyro felt the anger build inside him, but again, gritted his teeth and held his tongue.
"No sir." he said just as angrily
After hours of torching, freezing, shocking, and burying straw dummies and captured frogweeds, Igntius finally allowed him to stop.
"Thats enough element for today Spyro, an hour more of close quarters and you are dissmissed."
That was the straw that broke the dragons back.
"What?! You said I could leave after I was done with this!" Spyro shouted, unable to keep quiet any longer.
"You will not raise your voice to me like that Spyro! Unless you want to stay here and work until I get tired."
"Thats completely unfair! Why the hell do you and the other elders keep doing this to me?!" he yelled, narrowing his eyes
But to Spyro's surprise, Ignitus didnt yell back. He simply sighed and looked down.
Spyro's angry expression faded as he felt remorseful for yelling at his only fatherly figure, and apparently saying something particularly painful for Ignitus to think about.
"I'm-I'm sorry Ignitus...I've just been so stressed out with all this training I..." he tried to continue but Ignitus spoke up.
"Would you like to see why the other elders and myself are so hard on you?" he asked calmly
Spyro was unsure of what he meant, but obediently nodded.
"Come with me Spyro, I'll show you why you train so hard."
Spyro followed Ignitus to the pool of visions and stopped next to him. Spyro put his front claws on the edge of the pool so he could see into it like Ignitus could.
"This is what we once were Spyro, we were a proud race, with a wise, unified elder council." he said as the vision pool showed them a parade of dragons marching down a crowded village street, with all kinds of dragons waving and cheering them as they marched passed. the parade stretched down the path and around the corner, with nothing but the strongest, biggest dragons Spyro had ever seen. he recognized one of them to be Ignitus. the parade was past a large, grand looking castle.
"What is this?" Spyro asked curiously
"this was Grand Dragon City. all dragons lived here Spyro...until he came..." Ignitus said softly as the vision pool shifted and showed the peaceful he had seen in chaos and flames as dragons fought and died in the streets against what looked like armor wearing apes.
"The city was destroyed that night, and the surviving dragons fled into hiding." he said as the pool returned to its normal green color.
"Come Spyro, there is one more thing I must show you."
They walked out of the vision room and he followed Ignitus to a door, and on that door, was carved a large dragon with its wings spread, holding an egg in its claws, breathing fire onto invaders trying to take it. Under it on a scroll were written the words 'Behind this door, lies the future of our race.'
Ignitus pushed the door open to reveal a room that was very large. In the center of the room, were about two dozen eggs of various colors and sizes.
"Are these...?"
"Yes Spyro...these are dragon eggs. After the Great War, our numbers dwindled. For a long time, it was not safe for dragons to walk outside of their settlements. You were once in this room Spyro. Your parents fought valiantly to protect you and they entrusted you to me. I hid you in this room on that night...the night of the long knives. Many dragons died that night, and these eggs, are all we have left. In this room, rests the future of the dragon race."
Spyro was in awe of the beauty of the room, the gold walls, and jewel encrusted columns.
"Why havent they hatched yet?" Spyro asked
"They were all laid at the same time you were. However after you were born, we placed a spell over them, not letting them hatch until we were sure we had the food, shelter and time to raise them as proper dragons. We knew you were the dragon of prophecy, so we needed you to hatch so we could start your training."
Ignitus closed the door and locked it, then turned to Spyro as they walked
"There is a great evil out there Spyro...one that will stop at nothing to destroy those eggs, and us. Thats why we train you...to defend your unborn brothers and sisters."
Spyro nodded, having gone away with a better understanding of why the elders push him the way they do.
Ignitus walked him to the temple doors and he stopped at the top of the steps.
"Remember what you saw today Spyro...when you question your commitment, you put their lives at risk."
He nodded with a renewed sense of pride as he walked away from the temple in the darkness, more sore than he had ever been before.
As he was walking past the temple he smelled something that he recognized immediately.
"Pizza...Austins back!" he said to himself happily trotting with a renewed sense of vigor toward Austins house, coming through the door hurriedly.
"Spyro! What up?" Austin asked sitting on his couch watching t.v. something was different about him though, he was wearing strange new clothes, shoes, and there were bags with different names on them scattered about the living room.
"Not much, so I guess that gem was worth a lot huh?" Spyro asked sitting down next to him and attacking two slices of pizza at the same time.
"Slow down bro, dont choke." Austin said with a slight laugh.
"Pizza is the best thing humans have ever done..." Spyro said with his mouth full.
"Yeah its definitely in the top ten...so how was training?"
"Eh...tiring as always. "
"I think if you fought with me in my realm, you are prepared for anything...but I'm new to fighting without guns, so one day you need to show me how to fight like you. I'm tired of losing!"
"One day I will, but beating you at sparring is the most fun I get to have every day." Spyro said smugly
"Ok buddy. One day, I'll win, and when that day comes, and oh yes, it will come, it will be you looking up from the mat at me! Mwahaha!"
"I think you've had too much caffeine, because you're talking crazy." Spyro laughed
He saw a small slip of paper on the coffee table in front of him, he picked it up and realized it was a receipt, a rather long one.
"Wow...how much was that gem worth again?"
"500,000."
"And you bought all this stuff with it?"
"Sure did, with 100,000 left over. Got some new shades, shoes, and some killer shirts...and this 70 inch plasma T.V. All in all, a good day." Austin said grabbing another slice.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, I have a date with Ember tonight! I've got to run, see you tomorrow Austin!" Spyro said as he dashed out the door.
"See ya Spyro!" he called out to his closing front door.
He flew toward the clearing where Ember lived, and landed at the mouth of her cave.
"Ember? Ready to go?" Spyro called from outside.
"Almost..." she said from a different part of the cave, too dark for spyro to see her.
Ember appeared out of the shadows and every one of her pink scales glistened in the moonlight.
In preparation for this date, she had washed, then polished every scale she could reach, sharpened her horns, and claws, and rubbed the sweetest smelling flowers she could find all over herself.
'I hope he notices...' she thought kissing him lightly on the cheek.
"Wow...Ember you look amazing...and you smell great too!" Spyro said happily as they walked outside her cave.
"Ember you didnt have to do all this for me..." he said still admiring her beauty.
"Oh dont worry Spyro...it didnt take me very long..." she said
'It took me four...hours...' she thought grabbing her loves arm and walking to wherever the trail they were on took them.
That's what she loved about Spyro's dates...sometimes they were complex and planned out, other times they were simple and romantic. Either way, she was just glad to be in the company of her hero, her friend, and her lover.
They walked to a high hilltop overlooking the entire dragon village, a spot Ember had never been to before, and she was taken aback by the incredible view of the village below and the stars above.
"Spyro its beautiful up here!" she gasped
"I thought you might like it."
"Look at all the lights down there..."
"Yeah, thats the temple, looks like the Ignitus is working late...and thats Austins house, he probably fell asleep with that TV thing on again... but those lights aren't anything compared to these." He said lifting Embers chin up to gaze at the billions of stars lighting up the sky, as the center of their galaxy glowed ever so faintly in the sky.
"But then again, not even those lights compare to the ones in your eyes..." Spyro said as Ember melted into his lips, sharing a kiss for an unknown amount of time.
They lay on the hilltop underneath the stars, Spyro letting everything Ignitus showed him sink in, weighing heavily on his mind when he heard a distant rumble of thunder. He noticed clouds gathering around mount Malefor, thundering and swirling seemingly around a single spot on the mountain top.
"Looks like its going to rain soon...we better go." Spyro said after about an hour of talking with Ember. This is what most of their dates consisted of. She knew he was beat after training, and she was lucky that he stays awake through them, so she doesnt mind. As long as she's in his arms, all had to be right with the universe.
But that was far from the truth.
