Lost in Skylands: Sparx's Story

"You know, it's kind of ironic," Spyro said, as he and his best friend Sparx walked along the beach at Dragon Shores, "We always used to want a vacation, but something would always pop up. Ripto, the Sorceress, Red, you know?"

Sparx nodded in agreement. They could never catch a break, back then.

"But now? I just would like some action. All we have to do is patrol the lands. It's been what, five years? Can't Ripto find a way out of that parallel dimension we sent him to? Can't some Rynoc be tired of being told what to do, and rebel? Can't some dragon randomly turn evil and try to enslave and destroy the world at the same time?" The dragon slumped down. "It's boring. And soon enough, it will be my twentieth hatchday and I'll have to trade you for the ability to stand upright. It's not fair!"

For a dragon's twentieth hatchday, there was a sacred ritual that marked the dragon as finally ready to grow into an adult. No dragon younger was ever allowed to know what happened then, and certainly no dragonfly. All they knew was that the dragonfly disappeared on that day, and the dragon no longer stood on all fours. Sparx had been dreading that day his whole life. He was curious what would happen, but was certain that whatever it was, he wouldn't like it.

Spyro's hatchday was in only a week. He was supposed to be getting prepared, but much like his dragonfly, he wasn't looking forward to it and was looking for any excuse not to go. Today, the pair was heading to Avalar, to visit Elora one last time before Spyro became an adult. They flew through the portal to Winter Tundra, leaving the Dragon's land behind them.

Winter Tundra hadn't changed much from when they were last here, just about a month ago. This was where the boring political stuff happened between the three Realms: The Dragon Realms, Avalar, and the Forgotten Worlds. The huge castle was, on those days, guarded by the three Realms best fighters. Spyro happened to be at the top of all three lists. Today, the castle was empty. The only one here was the ever-present Moneybags and his servants. Spyro decided to use the outside portal to get to Summer Forest, where he was meeting up with Elora. He and Sparx quickly hopped onto that platform and teleported to the much warmer homeworld.

Sparx always was amazed by Avalar's use of technology. Normally, in order for portals to work, a sufficient number of dragons had to be present. Avalar got away with having no dragons by using another source of power: the orbs. Using these, the Avalarnians were able to not only have working portals all over the place, but homeworld transport as well, by magical platforms that worked a lot like the portals themselves. Spyro never thought about it much, and his dragonfly always assumed it was because ever since he had been given the Shadowstone, his presence alone was enough to make all but the farthest reaching portals work. And he was never really interested in those subjects anyway. He just needed to know how to defend the place, not how it worked.

But today he was going to spend entirely with Elora. He need not worry about how anything works, or what he has to do to defend the castle. He just needed to be able to spend one of his last days as a child with the nicest girl he had ever met, and leave the rest of his worries behind.

Sparx needed to make sure not to look too worried himself, since he had no distraction. The dragons may be changed after the ritual, but they still exist. Sparx was - selfishly, he thought - worried about himself. Would he be dead in a week? He was always wary about the ways the older dragons looked at him, and once he realized how close this day was, he always stayed by his friend's side, keeping a firm hold on the bond that allowed dragonflies to protect their dragon.

They weren't even to the bridge that led to the lake when Spyro abruptly disappeared.

Sparx looked all around. Spyro had just vanished. He couldn't even feel his presence anymore. It was as if his best friend had ceased to exist. Panic rose in the little dragonfly as he darted all over the place, trying to find some trace of where his friend went.

Could someone have kidnapped him? Impossible! The way dragonfly magic worked, if a dragon was caught, so was the dragonfly, unless the dragonfly willed that it would go separately. But Sparx had done no such thing. The only thing he could think of was that the ritual had begun early. But why? Did the older dragons really not want Spyro to see Elora? Did Elora know something?

That was the only lead Sparx could think of, so he flew over to the castle as fast as his wings could carry him.

He summoned a bubble around him and zoomed through the water. The underwater entrance was open today, since Elora was expecting Spyro. He entered into the dungeon, only to remember that this place had those stupid doors that opened and closed in a way that no matter what, you had to hit at least two of the buttons. Spyro would have no problem, but Sparx wasn't strong enough to press them.

"Elora! Zoe! Somebody!" He buzzed. He pressed himself to the wooden door, trying to hear. He heard someone, but just barely. There was no way they could have heard him.

Frustrated, he got back into his bubble and back outside. Shouldn't there be some other way in? There had to be. Well, there was above. Since Spyro had never been able to fly besides in specific places, Sparx had never actually been above the castle. It was worth a shot; there might be an open window or something.

What Sparx had forgotten about was that there was a courtyard. He raced into it, only to find out there was glass above it. Inside, Sparx could see Hunter pacing around the portal to Aquaria Towers. He was clearly perplexed and a bit angry about something.

"Hunter!" Sparx buzzed, pounding on the glass. Hunter didn't seem to notice though. There had to be something else he could do. He was just too small for anyone to see. Maybe if he got something bigger, someone would look up and wonder what it's doing there. There weren't many things light enough he could pick up. Maybe a leaf? Those were all over the place. Maybe if he flew in a weird enough pattern, he'd be noticed.

He raced back to the forest area, grabbed a leaf and flew back. He had to be careful to make sure it wouldn't fly out of his hands. Once at the courtyard, he flew in swirls, zig-zags, any way he could think of. Finally, the cheetah looked up.

"Hunter!" Sparx buzzed as loud as he could, waving the leaf back and forth. Hunter said something, but Sparx couldn't hear it. What could he do? He raced back and forth before noticing that the cheetah was pointing toward the dungeon where all those years ago he and Spyro had defeated Ripto's first minion: Crush.

He flew over the entrance to the dungeon. There was a skylight here, and fortunately for him, something had broken it recently. It was still a tight squeeze through broken glass, but he managed to get inside safely.