Skylanders: Sacrifice

Chapter 1

Aftermath

Cynder opened her eyes and looked around the room. She was at first scared, remembering the castle she had once been held captive in, but then she noticed that, instead of stone, the walls and floor were made of wood, and she was lying on a bed instead of on a cold, stone floor, and there was the absence of a chain around her neck.

She also noticed a purple dragon lying down in front of her. She smiled, knowing that she was safe as long as she was with the dragon she loved: Spyro.

Spyro turned over and smiled at the sight of Cynder. "Good morning," he whispered softly.

"Good morning," Cynder replied.

Four days, Cynder thought. It had been four days since she had been rescued from the clutches of the evil purple dragon known as the Dark Master in the strange realm known as Convexity.

It had all begun when the tiny tyrant Kaos came to the Ruins to extract revenge from the Skylanders because of his defeat the year before.

During that battle, Cynder had been knocked unconscious and then there was a bright flash of light minutes later. Once the light had faded, Spyro and the other Skylanders had realized that Cynder was missing.

From that point on, Spyro and a few of those that trusted Cynder went on a quest to find her. They began at Shattered Island, where two strangers had told Spyro of a large dragon taking Cynder into the Underworld, accompanied by Kaos and a creature that wore a read cloak. Spyro and a few others then ventured into the Underworld and found Kaos and the creature whom they nicknamed the Person in Red. Spyro had defeated Kaos, meanwhile learning that the strangers worked for the large dragon and had given him and the others false information about where Cynder was. Spyro's best friend, Sunburn, fought the Person in Red, along with Sonic Boom, a griffiness whom Sunburn loved, and Spyro's other friends, Trigger Happy and Gill Grunt.

The Person in Red, who later turned out to be only a skeleton, was disintegrated by Sunburn, but it came at the cost of Sonic Boom being injured by the Person in Red's sword.

After she recovered, Spyro set out along with them to Leviathan Lagoon, as Spyro had once saved a dragon guardian there after they were captured by Cynder three years before, back when she had been under the control of the Dark Master. Once there, they learned that the strangers were already there and were going to start a siege the next day. They participated in the siege and during the siege, one of the strangers was killed by the Skylanders' ally and trainer, Cali. Afterward, Spyro, Sunburn, and Sonic Boom raced to a part of Leviathan Lagoon known as the Shrine to stop the last stranger from performing a blood price on the Shrine, which would give him immortality. They were able to stop him, and that stranger was eaten by the Leviathan that roamed the waters of the lagoon.

Then Spyro, Sunburn, and Sonic Boom, along with a couple more of those who trusted Cynder (with the exception of Drobot, who did not trust her), flew toward an island that had a castle on it, which the final stranger had mentioned that it had Cynder, near the realm of Concurrent Skies, where Spyro had once fought her while she was under the Dark Master's corruption.

When they arrived there, they found the castle to be nothing but ruins, and Cynder was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, a portal opened, and Spyro and the others went inside.

What they found was a realm that had haunted Spyro's nightmares three years ago: Convexity.

They found the Dark Master himself on an altar with a portal-like thing that was giving him strength, and a large black dragoness that Spyro had wished to never see again…in that form. It was Cynder. Malefor (the Dark Master's true name) had corrupted her once again.

After a large and powerful battle, Spyro released a blast of energy that contained all of the elements he possessed that was strong enough to return Cynder to her normal form. Since the blast had stripped Spyro of most of his strength, Cynder defeated Malefor with a blast of her electricity which had destroyed him. And then Spyro, Cynder, and those that had accompanied Spyro flew back to the Ruins. A celebration was held for Cynder, and then that night, Spyro found Cynder sitting at the Core of Light. She expressed to him her feelings that when the sun came up, reality would set in, and all Cynder would be is a pawn in somebody else's plan. Spyro told her that that would never happen, and that he loved her, and since then, all had been well.

Cynder got up and put on her braces and choker that went on her legs and neck. She went over to the window that lead out of her and Spyro's treehouse.

"Hey, where are you going?" Spyro asked her.

"I'm going to go see Sonic Boom," Cynder answered. "She said yesterday that we can just hang out."

"All right," said Spyro. "But be careful, Cyn. I don't want you to be kidnapped or anything like that."

"You worry too much," she told him. "Let me have some fun, Spyro! I'll see ya later. Love you!"

She flew from the window over to Sunburn and Sonic Boom's treehouse. Spyro sighed; Cynder was back to her old cocky attitude she had had before she was kidnapped by Malefor. He was happy about that, but sometimes that cocky attitude got her into trouble.

As Cynder landed on Sonic Boom and Sunburn's window sill, Sonic Boom greeted her.

"Hey, Cyn, ready to go?" Of all the Skylanders, Sonic Boom was Cynder's best friend.

"Yeah, but what's Sunburn going to do while we're away?" Cynder asked.

"I'm probably going to ask Spyro if he wants to do something," Sunburn answered. He came out of one of the other rooms in the treehouse. "We're probably not going to go flying, but I think we should do something today."

"Why don't you go over to the lava pits?" Cynder suggested. "Those are always fun to see on days like this, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, we can always do that, but we can also go swimming, or, as long as Gill Grunt isn't with us, we can go fishing," Sunburn said.

"Exactly. So Sonic Boom, you ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go!" Both of them took off through the window. Sunburn watched them and just sighed.

He, too, was glad that Cynder was back to normal. Ever since they had rescued her from Malefor, she had always been a little different from the regular cocky attitude she had once sported. But that had come back as soon as the night after her rescue and then Cynder was back to normal.

Sunburn flew to Spyro and Cynder's treehouse. Spyro was sitting on the windowsill when Sunburn arrived.

"Hey, Sunburn," Spyro said as Sunburn landed on the windowsill right next to him. "Cynder and Sonic Boom just leave?"

"Yeah, and they both seemed very happy. It seems Cynder has her cocky attitude once again."

"Yeah, and that's something that I'm both happy and scared of," Spyro admitted.

"Why are you scared of it?" Sunburn asked him.

"Because that attitude could get her into trouble, you know?"

"Yeah, but with Sonic Boom nearby, then she probably won't. Ah, who am I kidding? They both have the same cocky attitude, and that may mean that they both will get into trouble. Maybe we should go find them and accompany-"

"No," Spyro said firmly, though he was laughing at Sunburn's joke. "I want them to enjoy their little trip. Knowing them, they probably don't want to get into trouble, especially after everything that has happened."

Spyro and Sunburn stood there in silence and both thought whether or not they should go and find Sonic Boom and Cynder.

They finally stopped and both decided to go down to the Core of Light to see if they could learn anything that had happened that day so far.

When they arrived, they both saw Cali and Hex talking to each other.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Spyro.

"It seems that we haven't heard anything from one of our trading partners," Cali answered. "We asked for a shipment of armor in case we have another battle here, but the shipment never came, and it was due yesterday."

"Maybe those who are coming with the shipment have experienced weather conditions and have fallen behind?" Sunburn suggested.

"No, that can't be it," Cali said. "Flynn went through those parts of Skylands yesterday and today and he said that there were no weather conditions. That must mean that they either were stopped and raided and destroyed by pirates or some others, or they just forgot about us, and I hope that only number two is real, because they could have families somewhere in Skylands, you know?"

Spyro and Sunburn nodded. "Maybe we can go over there and check again, just to be sure," suggested Spyro. "What do you say?"

"No, we need you here for right now," Cali told him. "As you know, we went into the Underworld and took Kaos out of the cavern you and Hex left him in." Spyro nodded. "Well, when we banished him back to the Outlands, he swore that he would return once again to extract his revenge."

"Really?" asked Sunburn. "That's a bit far-fetched, even for him."

"Yes, but he could try to come back and extract his revenge, you know? So that's why we ordered the armor. But until we get the armor or find out what happened to the ship, then we'll have to deal with what we have now. We should also be ready to prepare for battle if it does come to that. Do you understand?"

"I do," said Spyro.

"So do I," said Sunburn.

"Good. I hope that you both have a good rest of the day." Cali walked away.

"Why is she like that all of a sudden?" Sunburn asked.

"It's got something to do with Cynder's kidnapping," Hex answered. "She's even gone so far as to blame herself for the entire incident."

"But that's preposterous! If anybody should blame themselves, it should be me!" blurted Spyro.

"Well, Cali hasn't been right lately, even before the incident. She seemed tired and stressed months before it all happened. I wish I knew why."

"Maybe we can ask Stealth Elf? She's pretty much Cali's second-in-command when it comes to healing a person."

"I'll ask her tonight. But for now, I'm going to go see if Whirlwind needs help with anything. She asked me yesterday for some help with something, but I wasn't able to do much yesterday, as I was kind of helping Cali out."

"Okay," said Sunburn. "I think me and Spyro are going to go do something. Maybe we should bring Camo along with us, what do you think, Spyro?"

Spyro nodded. Hex went away. "What are we going to do?" he questioned.

"I think we should pay a visit to the Underworld. Remember how you left Kaos down there?" Spyro nodded. "We should go down there to see if he left anything that one of his army could use against us. After all, he probably has a whole army of skeletons and spiders down there."

"Yeah. We should go find Whirlwind and Camo now."

"What do you need?" asked a voice from behind. Camo entered Spyro and Sunburn's point of view.

"Do you want to come with us down into the Underworld to check for something?" Sunburn asked.

"Sure. I wouldn't mind that," Camo said. "Either way, I wanna talk to you guys."

They began making their way down to the beach where the gate to the Underworld was. Spyro looked over to Camo.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

"I wanna tell you that I really admire what you did when Cynder was taken away. Unlike some, you never gave up hope, and that amazes me."

Spyro felt embarrassed. "Erm…thanks. I just couldn't give up on her. I love her too much. If I had just let her die, then you wouldn't be seeing me around right now."

They stopped walking. They had reached the gates that led into the Underworld. Now they just needed T-Bone, who was the only one who could open up the gates without anything happening to them.

"So ya need me again?" asked a voice. T-Bone came into view. "I'll help in any way I can."

"Good, because we need to get in there," Sunburn told him.

"Why? Was somebody else kidnapped or something?" the skeleton inquired.

"No, no one was kidnapped. We just need to get in there," Spyro explained.

"Fine. I'll allow you. But make sure that you bring no spiders back with you. If you do, they'll just steal my bones."

He opened the gates, and Spyro, Sunburn, and Camo entered. The gates closed, leaving them in semi-darkness. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust.

"So where do we look?" asked Camo.

"Where me and Kaos last fought," Spyro answered. "It'd make the most sense."

"I guess you're right. Me and the others were battling the Person in Red at the time, so I wouldn't know," Sunburn said.

Spyro led them through a tunnel, and then through another. They had reached their destination.

"Here we are," Spyro announced.

Spyro looked around and didn't see anything, and then saw a black rectangle up on a pedastal.

Spyro went over to it and jumped up on it.

"What is it, Spyro?" asked Sunburn.

"You guys should come see this," Spyro told them.

They jumped up on the pedastal. They saw the black rectangle and realized that it was some sort of device.

"What is it?" Camo said.

Spyro saw a symbol on the device that looked a little like a map. He touched it carefully with his claw, and then a grid popped up.

The grid showed a map, and on the map were three red dots. One pointed to the Outlands, another pointed to where they were now, and another pointed to the forest just outside of the Ruins- exactly where Cynder and Sonic Boom were now. Spyro's eyes widened. This was a teleportation device. And there were three of them in Skylands.

"Oh crap," he whispered. "Come on, we have to go warn everyone!" As he ran back to the entrance, Sunburn and Camo followed after him.

As he ran, Spyro realized something: There was going to be another battle.