The Messenger of Fire
Silver doesn't own any of the Spyro characters or story, only his own OCs and storyline. If you don't like the story then go eat it.
The room was tidy, nothing out of place. An armor stand stood mostly empty with the exception of a red helmet, the symbol for Fire and Messenger carved on it. To the right of the armor stand hung several different paintings and sketches of different dragons. Across from the wall of pictures was a desk, with a couple pieces of parchment atop it. The start of a letter was written on one of them, while a drawing of two dragons were on another. To the right of the desk stood a bookshelf with many different novels, history and elemental books. At the back corner of the room lay a pile of red and orange cushions right under window.
Opposite the door lay the entryway to the balcony. This part of Warfang was a lucky one. One of few places where the sunset could be seen near perfectly. Not too many of the tall buildings got in the way of the spectacular sight, but at the moment the sun was not setting, the dual moons were. The sun was rising at the opposite side of the city.
The owner of this room sat outside on the balcony, one paw folding over the other. Dark orange eyes looking over the Dragon City as it began to glow from the rising sun. His burgundy scales glowing in the sunlight, sending warmth throughout his body. His orange markings stood out the most, other than his heavily bandaged back.
The dragon's tail twitched every now and then at any given sound. Warfang was a busy city, especially in the mornings. Kafto let out a deep sigh as he saw dragons at the courtyards below, noticing some hatchlings. Two of them, he observed, was his little sister and her friend. Averting his gaze from them, he saw dragons flying from place to place. Going to where they were needed, whether to train for upcoming battles or just going to the battles themselves.
A loud knocking could be heard coming from Kafto's door. The fire drake barely twitched at the sound. A few seconds went by before the individual banged on his door again. With a grumble, Kafto slowly got onto his paws, then slowly made his way into his room and towards the door. He moved a bit faster as the knocking increased in volume and speed.
"Don't break the door please!" He yelled and the knocking ceased, which caused Kafto to stop in his tracks. "Who is it?"
"A friend and fellow Messenger!" Came a high pitched voice.
Kafto couldn't help but grin upon hearing the familiar voice he hadn't heard for at least six months. He opened the door immediately to reveal the small green dragon known as Silvus, Messenger in training for the Light Guardian, Gabriel.
"Not a Messenger yet." Kafto said with a grin.
"Yet." Silvus said, walking towards the fire drake.
The green dragon immediately hugged Kafto's leg, which didn't catch the other dragon by surprise, the pair hadn't seen each other in a long while. They may not be as close as he and Trak, but Kafto and Silvus had been through a lot with each other.
"How are you holding up?" Silvus asked as he broke the hug.
As Kafto answered, he directed both of them to his cushions in the corner of his room. "Well, good I suppose. I haven't been able to fly or do anything strenuous, but I'm able to walk. Ignitus couldn't bare to take away my title, so instead, I'm now the temple Messenger. Still the Messenger of Fire, but only locally." The fire drake was left staring out the at the city with a blank look.
Silvus could tell that this was bothering him greatly, and couldn't help but think what the fire drake was going through. One of the things that make him a dragon was flight, and he may not be able to fly anymore. Silvus tried to think of a way to change the subject and get Kafto to stop thinking about all this, but was beaten to it.
"So how's training with Gabriel?" Kafto asked, now looking at the green dragon.
"Brutal." Silvus answered immediately. "I go to sleep aching and I wake up aching." He said, rolling his shoulders.
Kafto let out a chuckle. "You'll get used to it. I don't know much about Gabriel, but I had to train under Ignitus and Terrador." The drake shook his head and placed a paw on it as if he was remembering something. "It was a nightmare. Trak and I wanted to give up at some points, but we made it through."
Silvus laughed a little. "That makes me wonder what Guardian training is like."
Both were left laughing at the thought, then it was silent for a little bit. It's an improvement. Silvus thought. Another thought came to mind, about Kafto's past. The green hatchling was a told a little bit about it, though he didn't know how the the Messenger of Fire became what he was. Another question came to Silvus' mind.
"Why did you and Trak train together?" He asked.
"Well." Kafto started. "Terrador happened to get his trainee when Ignitus did, so they decided to train us together. They have a long history."
"Speaking of history, how did you become the Messenger of Fire? Why did you leave Dante's Freezer?" Silvus asked.
Kafto stared outside for a few minutes before answering. "You know about the... prejudice certain dragon's have against each other based on their element, right?"
"I know of it."
"Ice and Fire despise each other for reasons that neither element knows, but since I was born a fire dragon in a village of mostly ice dragons." Kafto said making eye contact with Silvus briefly. "There were two other fire dragons in the village, my father and the blacksmith. Both of them were well known and respected, but I...never gained that respect."
Kafto let out a deep sigh. "The only Ice dragons that didn't hate me in the village was my mother, sister, and Cyril."
Silvus interrupted him at that last name. "Wait wait wait hold on. Cyril wasn't prejudice towards you? I find that hard to believe."
Kafto chuckled at that. "He's a stickler for tradition, but that doesn't make him prejudice, mostly. Now then, please don't interrupt."
Silvus give an embarrassed smile. "Sorry."
"Not a day went by that I wasn't made fun of, and sometimes beat up. Though there was one day that was different from the rest. My life turned around quickly after that."
Eight and half years ago
It would be a cold day for any other creature in Dante's Freezer, but not for the dragons here. The cold didn't effect most of the ice dragons while the remaining fire dragons had control over their body temperature. Today was different from most other days, there is a village meeting, which was a very rare occurrence.
So my father took all of us out of the house and we headed straight for the temple. There were my parents, Kafta and I, then my little six month hatchling sister, Snow. We were all silent on the way, except my parents, like they knew what was going on. I didn't bother asking, unless it was a chance for me to get out of here, which was very unlikely due to my parents.
It didn't take long for us to hear the crowd, then soon after, reach the courtyard. The place was covered in ice dragons, like the entire village was here. The entire village is here.
We happened to be at the very back of the crowd, no one seemed to be willing to let us in, the noise was too great for us to be heard. My parents were tall enough so they could see over the crowd, and snow was sitting on my mother's head, watching whatever was going on. I let out an annoyed sigh from not seeing anything but the backs of several ice dragons.
Kafta nudged me. "Let's get to some higher ground."
I gave a nod and spread my wings. I threw a glance over my shoulder at my parents. "We're going to get a better view."
My dad gave a nod of approval then returned his gaze to the temple. I then flew after Kafta. After a few flaps we landed at the top of a structure near the front of the crowd. Some ice dragons threw me a glance, then a glare. I paid no attention.
Once settling down atop the structure, we finally saw what all the commotion was about. At the front steps of the temple stood three dragons. Cyril was one of them, as well as a fire drake the same size as the Ice Guardian, then the third was about half of Cyril's size. The three were talking amongst themselves.
I let out a huff and slumped to the stony roof of the structure. Kafta calmly sat down next to me. She and I looked exactly the same, with the exception of scale color, but we had very different personalities. Normally, I was the quiet but also slightly temperamental one while she was the calm and collected type. We were pretty much opposites in every way.
"This is taking too long." I groaned.
"Be patience Kafto, this could be worth your time." Kafta said.
"Nothing is."
"Oh don't be like that."
I rolled my eyes at that. She knew why I act like this. Each day I was beaten up and bullied by ice dragons all over the village. I tried to be out of the house as little as possible, only going out for school and meeting with Cyril. Other than that, nothing was worth my time. This island isn't even worth my time or life.
I was about to give another response before the crowd suddenly went quiet. My eyes swept over the crowd to find the source of this disturbance, before noticing that Cyril had his wings spread towards the crowd, getting their attention. Then, the Ice Guardian gave a nod to the fire dragon beside him before stepping down, and the fire dragon stepped up then raised his wings to address the crowd.
"Greetings dragons of Frieren!" I was met with a strong but wise sounding voice. "I am the Guardian of Fire, Ignitus!" My eyes widened a little bit and each dragon in the crowd murmured to one another.
Ignitus patiently waited until the crowd was silent before speaking again. "I am here asking for your help! The Year of the Dragon draws closer and the Dark Armies grow in numbers! I am asking for those who are willing to protect the next generation of dragons and the hope that another Purple Dragon will be born!" Once again, the crowd whispered. Some sounded skeptical while others wanted to volunteer immediately. I wanted to as well, this looked like my chance to be finally rid of this place.
Cyril then walked next to Ignitus. "Those of you who do not wish to partake in this, leave immediately!" More than half of the crowd left the courtyard, it took several minutes to clear everyone out. There were only a few dragons remaining. Several dragons that I didn't know from my part of the village were there. Then, I saw my parents still remained. "Now the rest of you, come with us!" They gestured towards the entrance of the temple.
Kafta and I immediately got up and flew down to our parents as the made their way to the temple entrance. Both of us had grins on our faces, for different reasons. As soon as we landed, I matched their pace.
"So are we going to volunteer as a family?" I asked happily. My parents exchanged a glance, which left me worried. Mom moved on while dad and I stopped, as well as Kafta.
"You aren't volunteering." My dad said strictly.
I was immediately overcome by anger. "Why? You know I want to leave! You know what I go through day in and day out! So why! Why not let me volunteer?"
My father slammed his paw down, causing small flames to erupt from the point of impact. "Because you are not of age! Your mother and I are doing this, so we need you to watch over Snow!"
"But-" I tried.
"But nothing! My decision is final!" He said before turning around and heading straight for the temple, with Kafta following him. Leaving me dejected in the middle of the courtyard.
"Why is Kafta going?" I yelled at him when he was halfway to the temple.
He turned around and looked at Kafta, then at me. "She is going into the Dante's Freezer Defense Force." He said calmly. He turned for a moment, then added. "Now go home." Then, he stormed off. Kafta followed after throwing me an apologetic look.
I saw my dad and sister disappear into the temple. The remaining dragons in the courtyard were a few guards, Ignitus, and the third unknown dragon. With a depressed huff, I turned away and made my way towards my home with my head low.
What I didn't see was Ignitus nodding his head to me, directing the third dragon to follow me.
As I was walking home bitter thoughts clouded my mind. I hated my father, and I hated this island and everyone in it. No one treated me right and I hated them for it. All I wanted was to get off this ridiculous island.
All I was doing was staring at the ground with a scowl on my face, not paying attention to my surroundings, which proved to be a mistake. I bumped right into the side of a dragon, causing me to let out a small yelp and then falling onto my back. All I heard was laughter, I looked up to see my least favorite ice dragon, Blizz.
This dragon looked like any other ice dragon. Light blue scales, light purple underbelly, horns pointed straight back, and an oval tail spade. He and his gang of four were the worst of the worst, my most hated out of all the dragons on this forsaken island. His voice was the most annoying part of him. Always sounding cheerful and excited whenever he was around me, though I knew he just did that to annoy me, and I hated it.
"Well well well, look who it is! The reject!" He said in a happy tone, then he noticed my very unhappy look. "Is someone having daddy issues again, awww that's too bad." I got onto my paws, carefully watching Blizz to make sure he doesn't knock me over again, which he didn't.
I guess he's feeling generous today, too bad I don't want to have any of it.
"I'm not up for it today Blizz, just let me go home please." I say as I try to walk past him, but found that I was blocked. I looked around me to see that I was surrounded by his gang.
"Why? So you can mope around about not being able to go." He said with a smile. Crap, he heard my dad yelling. "You're too much of a weakling to go, you know your dad thinks it but doesn't say it. That's the real reason you can't go. Too much of a hatchling I suppose." He said, tracing a claw on my cheek, I didn't flinch from his icy cold touch. "You'll never live up to your father, which isn't saying much cuz he isn't much. I don't know why everyone likes him so much, but I can understand why everyone hates you. You have too much fire!" He said as he shoved me towards the ground.
I tried to get up, but was shoved by someone else. Each time I tried to get up, I was pushed down, every time this happened, the shoves became more forceful. All five of them said hateful things towards me, calling me a coward and several other things. I felt a weight on different parts of my body. My head, several places on my back, and my tail.
They're holding me down. I realized, I opened my eyes to see several ice dragons watching, then moving on without a care in the world. Help. I thought.
Suddenly, I felt cold breath on my body. They were going to freeze certain parts of my body. I felt the cold touch of ice on my scales, it was quite painful. I didn't allow even a grunt, I wouldn't let them have that pleasure. My mind went back to a lesson with my father and Cyril.
You can alter your inner body temperature but also the temperature of your scales. That becomes very useful if you are ever cased in ice. Calm yourself boy, then you can unlock this ability. Practice as much as you can. Both of them said similar things.
I began to slow my breath and calmed myself despite the cold pain of ice. I felt my scales heat up as my orange crests glow. It took a moment for the ice dragons to feel the burn. When they did, it wasn't pretty. Each of them let out a loud yelp and jumped backwards, trying to cool down their forearms and forepaws.
I groaned as the ice melted in momentary bliss, then stood up as the water ran down my scales. Though I may have stood there too long. I felt my body being thrown again, then held against something. My eyes saw the the blurry outline of Blizz raising his paw, then striking me across the cheek, leaving three bloody cuts. I hissed from the pain.
"You're a dead dragon! All you firey creatures can go back to hell!" He screeched in my face before raising his paw to strike again.
"Hey!" Someone yelled, someone female. All eyes turned towards the end of the street that I came from. There stood an ice dragoness. She had light blue scales with a grey underbelly. Her horns were very similar to Cyril's except shorter, as well as her spiked tail tip, with spikes surrounding it. Her eyes were light purple as well as her back fins. She had a very unhappy look on her face, but I don't think Blizz saw it.
He had a sly grin on his face. "Hey there beautiful! When I'm down with this sorry excuse for a dragon, why don't you and I go out for our dinner!" Blizz said raising his paw to strike me across the face again.
But before he could raise it, he found that his paw was frozen to the ground. He stared at it with wide eyes. He tried to move his other paws, but found that they were frozen too, then he realized that the ice was slowly rising up his leg to the rest of his body. Then Blizz began to do something I thought I'd never hear from him, he whimpered.
"You all are pitiful excuses for ice dragons, how about I show you a real ice dragon!" She yelled as the other four let go of me, causing me to fall on my underbelly, and tried to run.
The ice dragoness slammed her paws to the ground, covering the ground with a sheet of ice. When it reached the other four, they were immediately frozen except for their heads. The cold was too much for all of them. Their teeth chattered from it.
The dragoness then walked closer to us. I just laid there with my jaw dropped, this was a display of power that was only seen by Cyril and no other ice dragon.
"I am reporting all of you to Cyril, he'll teach you some manners." She growled, then the ice melted off their scales in a quick manner, as well as the other ice created by her. "Now get out of here." Each one of them ran off quickly.
She then turned towards me and offered me a paw. I was rather hesitant to take it, for someone else had faked caring once, it didn't end well for me. I took it, and she helped me to my paws.
"Are you okay?" She asked, anger gone, now only kindness and concern. I noded. "That was quite impressive, what you did with your scales. Where did you learn that?" She asked with very real curiosity.
I responded in the nicest tone I could muster, which wasn't a good one. "Learned from my father and harnessed by Cyril." I said simply.
The dragoness smiled. "You'd make a good Messenger."
"Anything to get me outta here." I said, and she nodded.
"Would you like me to escort you home?" She asked, and I nodded smiling.
The walk home was short and silent. We made it to my place in no time. As I opened the door to my house, I gave the dragoness my thanks and bid her farewell. She turned around towards the temple and began to walk away. I stared after her like I was forgetting something, then it came to me.
"Hey! I never got your name!" I yelled after her.
She turned around with a smile. "Eira, Messenger of Ice!" She said back, then walked away.
"She never asked for my name." I said to myself. Then with a shrug, I stepped inside.
The next day I was sitting in the living while Kafta was cleaning out the cuts on my cheek. We were also talking about yesterday.
Kafta let out a sigh as she worked. "This has to stop."
I shook my head, which earned me a light slap. "The only way for that to happen is for me to leave."
"But you can't leave." She said, which caused me to frown.
"Why not? There's nothing for me here." I said, which earned me another slap.
"Of course there is! Your family is here. Besides, I'm going to need help taking care of Snow once mom and dad leave." She said.
"You could easily do that on your own." I said.
Kafta finished cleaning and bandaging my cuts then patted me on the cheek, then just sat in front of me. "I could, if I wasn't apart of the DFDF."
"You were accepted?" I asked. I knew this was always a dream of hers to become a soldier. She always wanted to become the captain of the Defense Force. I was one of few that believed she could do it.
She nodded her head several times. "Sure was. I asked Cyril and he said yes." Kafta said, then after a brief pause. "Speaking of Cyril, he wants to see you this morning. I don't know why this early, but that's what he told me."
I let out a sigh. "Well might as well see what he wants."
Kafta gave me a brief hug before I got up. "Good luck with whatever it is."
"Thanks sis." I said before heading out.
I walked right out the door and immediately made my way towards the temple. My pace quickened every time I saw someone, I didn't want to be bothered this early.
With my fast pace, it didn't take long to reach the courtyard. I paused for a moment to catch my breath. I felt an urge to look to my right. When I did, I saw Blizz and his gang. They were staring at him with a fearful look in their eyes, Blizz looked at me with complete hatred. I smirked at the thought of what Cyril did to them. Some of his methods weren't the kindest.
I then started to walk towards the temple again. Once I reached the front entrance, the two guards at the front immediately stepped out of the way to let me through. Which confused me greatly, they were normally are quite rude to me. So I smirked as I walked passed them.
I walked straight towards the main meeting room, that's normally where he was. I paused outside the door and politely knocked. "Enter." Said Cyril from the inside.
I walked into the room to see Cyril sitting in the mostly empty meeting room that was usually filled with specifically set cushions. Sitting next to the Ice Guardian, was Eira. She was smiling at me and I couldn't help but smile back. Then, I looked at Cyril with curiosity.
"Why have you summoned me here Master Cyril?" I asked.
Cyril glances at Eira. "Eira here tells me that you would make a fine Fire Messenger. Any idea why that might be?" He asked in his fake curious tone.
"No Master Cyril." I said bowing my head slightly.
The Ice Guardian suddenly stood up. "Well, the Guardian Ignitus has been in need of a Messenger for the most irritating amount of time. He has been using my Messenger and I'm sick of it and I think she is too. Isn't that right Eira?"
"That's right Master Cyril." Eira said.
"Yes, yes, of course I am." He said quietly. "Now then boy, you can either accept this offer and be rid of each and every dragon on this island or you can stay and live out the rest of your life here."
I tried not to smile, he knew that I wanted this. But of course, there is more to it than that. "Of course I would accept the offer Master Cyril, but am I the right dragon for the job?"
"I believe you are, but it doesn't matter what I think, only what he thinks." He said, pointing behind me.
I turned my head to look behind me to see Ignitus standing right behind me, causing me to jump in surprise. I placed a paw on my chest to calm my beating heart. Ignitus gave a soft smile.
"From what you've told me about this dragon, Cyril, I believe he is the right dragon for the job." Ignitus said.
"What have you told him?" I asked, looking suspiciously at Cyril.
"You have spirit, and do what is right in the face of hatred."
One Week Later
Warfang was extravagant. That's all that really needed to be said about the place. Frieren was puny compared to this great city. So many dragons of different elements. So many tall buildings colored pale beige, so much different from all the light blue I see day in and day out. I was quite impressed with the architecture and the mechanics. The northern gate left me speechless. Ignitus told me the city was built by the moles. Who knew the little guys were so intelligent, and skillful.
The most impressive piece of architecture was the center of the city, where the temple of Warfang stood. One of the tallest and biggest buildings here. We approached it from the northern side, also known as the Courtyard of Fire. In the center of the circular courtyard was the symbol of fire.
As we walked into the courtyard, I noticed on either side lay paths that seemed to begin to curve around the temple. When I pointed them out to Ignitus he said, "They go all around the outside of the temple, leading to the other three courtyards."
I gave a nod as we continued towards the entryway of the temple. As we walked, I couldn't help but stare at all the dragons, moles, and some other two legged furry creature. Most all of them interacted with each other, despite what element or species they were. I was never told why Ice hated Fire so much, and never knew of a place where this hate didn't exist. It sure seemed that way as I observed two dragon walking together from place to place. One was a fire dragon while the other was ice.
My thoughts were cut off when Ignitus put his arm in front of me, bringing me to a halt. I was about to ask why we stopped, when he pointed a claw in the direction of two approaching earth dragons. One was about Ignitus' size while the other was more my age of sixteen. He had a clubbed spade and spiked tail. His scales were a dark green while his underbelly was dark brown. His eyes looked to be hazel and his horns were a similar shape and color to the larger earth dragon, except smaller.
"Ignitus!" The older one bellowed in a deep earth like voice.
"Terrador, my old friend!" Upon reaching us, Terrador touched his right wingtip to Ignitus'. Obviously they were old companions.
"How goes recruitment?" Asked Terrador.
"It goes well. Frieren had a few dragons to spare, while WaterMount had less." Ignitus said.
The large earth dragon let out a deep chuckle. "That is good, but wasn't what I meant." Terrador finally noticed me and smiled. "About time Ignitus. I bet Cyril wasn't happy with you always borrowing Eria."
"Ah yes, and I see you've got one as well, hmm?" Ignitus said, nodding towards the smaller earth dragon. Terrador is the Guardian of Earth! I realized.
"We have names y'know." The small earth dragon said with a smile. "And mine's Trak by the way." He said, holding a paw out towards me. "What's yours?"
I hesitantly took it. "Kafto."
Once Trak let go of my paw, he roughly patted my back, causing me to buckle a little. "Great to meet another fellow Messenger in training!"
"We aren't even training yet." I said quietly.
"We're going to be shortly!" He said happily, draping a wing across my back and dramatically pointing towards the temple. Then, he looked up towards the two Guardians. "Hey master Terrador, you and Master Ignitus should train us together!"
I looked at the Guardians expectedly. It wouldn't be that bad to be trained by two Guardians.
The two dragons exchanged looks, almost reading each other's mind. "Not a bad idea." They both said smirking.
Eight and half years later.
"Trak was the one who suggested it. After a few weeks of training, he regretted it wholeheartedly." Kafto said with a smirk. "Still, it was a bonding experience for all of us. Trak was always a jokester, nothing changed from then till now. Except I was changed greatly by them."
Then suddenly saddened by something, Kafto let out a sigh. "When I told Kafta I was leaving, she didn't take it well."
Silvus let out a small oh at that. "What about your parents?" He asked.
"Never told them, and neither did Kafta." Kafto said. "Ignitus came back for me after he took the volunteers away to the Dragon Temple. After that, we went straight for Warfang. Oh what a time that was, being to the mainland for the first time."
"So how was training with Trak?" Silvus asked right away.
"An interesting experience. The training sessions were brutal. Always there were intense tests of strengths from Terrador's side, then intellect from Ignitus. They combined each of their ways of training so that Trak and I were evenly matched with everything. I got to learn things from earth while Trak learned from fire, as well as our own elements of course. Either way, training was torture." Kafto said ending in laughter, causing Silvus to laugh along with him.
"We were sent out on missions during the later years of our training. Each time, one of us came back wounded." Kafto said with a wistful look. "When I was sent out alone, I found Dragon's Claw and quickly befriended Void. Each time I was sent out on a mission alone, I stopped by. I never got the chance to bring Trak there sadly."
"What about Kafta and Snow?" Silvus began. "Did you ever visit them?"
At this, Kafto frowned. As if he smelled something awful. "I did, a few years into my training. I visited, Kafta and I got into a huge fight." He looking to the ground. "The only good thing that came out of that was I got to know my little Snow better."
After that, both dragon were silent. They were comfortable with the silence. Until Silvus looked at his wall of sketches and paintings. He studied each and every one of them. Some were of him and different dragons. He recognized Trak and Kafto in one, and then Eira in another. At least, he thought it was her. Then at last he looked at the biggest picture of them all. Containing eleven dragons, each with their unique colored scales, all with smiles on their faces.
Kafto approached Silvus from behind with silent footsteps. Though Silvus knew that the Fire Messenger was behind him. "That was the last time all of us were together. Every single Messenger." Kafto let out a long sigh. "Some of them are dead now. We all knew each other really well so we were all hit hard."
"Some harder than most." Silvus commented.
Kafto place a paw on Silvus' shoulder. "Thank you for visiting this broken dragon."
"Even if you are broken, you are still the Messenger of Fire."
Kafto stared at himself in the group photo, at himself smiling and his family. A Messenger like all the others. That's all he was and believed he was. Without that identity, he was still that dragon from Dante's Freezer. Now that he's broken, he is no longer a Messenger. But no. That's not what defines a Messenger. It's more than just fighting, and silently saving lives. It's a representation, a role model for others to believe that there is more to their lives than just pain and loss, but purpose and redemption.
Even though he is broken, he is still and always will be, the Messenger of Fire.