Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro.

"And so the brave knight killed the terrifying fire-breathing dragon, freed the princess from his castle he had been holding her captive inside and took her back to his kingdom, where they were married and lived happily ever after."

Spyro flung the book he'd just finished reading onto the ground. With an angry breath, he blew some flames onto it, setting it alight.

"That's the worst story I've ever read! Worse than the one Hunter tried to write about his life! What dork out there thinks we dragons hold princesses hostage and deserve to be killed?"

"Too many to count, dude," said Sparx. "There's tons of these kinds of stories out there! And they all end the same way for the dragons!"

"Well I'm not gonna stand for this! It's time someone out there wrote these stories as they should be; with a more realistic portrayal of dragons!"

Grabbing a pen and a pile of paper, Spyro began to write his own take on the classic fairy tale plot...

Once upon a time, there was a little purple dragon named Spyro. He lived in the Artisans world with many other dragons, as well as his best pal, a dragonfly named Sparx.

Everybody loved Spyro. He was brave. He was heroic. He was capable of toasting bad guys with one blast of his fiery breath! That's why everyone turned to him to save the day.

One day, Spyro and Sparx were having a well-deserved rest in the sunshine when one of the elder dragons approached them.

"Spyro!" he cried worriedly. "Wake up! There's trouble brewing!"

Spyro opened his eyes sleepily.

"A princess has been kidnapped by an evil villian! She is being held prisoner in the castle of Avalar! It's up to you to rescue her!"

"Why me?" Spyro looked up at the elder dragon with a worried look. "There's no way I can stop this villain. I'm just a small, young dragon!"

"No way!" Sparx put in. "It's only you who can stop this fiend, Spyro! There isn't any other dragon out there as brave and tough as you! The princess is depending on you! If you don't rescue her, no one will!"

Spyro looked at his best buddy. He knew Sparx was right. There wasn't a single hero out there whose stranger and fearlessness (as well as modesty) matched his. He was the only one who could rescue the princess. This evil villain would meet his match once he met him.

"C'mon, Sparx!" Spyro exclaimed, getting up and racing away. "Let's go toast that fiend's butt!"

So Spyro and Sparx spent days travelling all the way from Artisans to Avalar. There never stopped to rest or shelter from the weathers they faced. Along the way, they collected many gems which they found on their travels, taking each one with them.

"Well, here we are!" Spyro announced when they arrived in Avalar. "Now where's the castle?"

It was right in front of them. The little hero and his sidekick looked towards the majestic building. They knew the villain they had to face off would be inside somewhere with the princess.

"Let's go in!" Spyro said, stepping forward.

"Ah ah ah! Not so fast, boys!"

Spyro and Sparx stopped. They saw that the drawbridge which crossed the moat and led into the castle was shut. In front of them stood a fat bear carrying a jewellery bag. It was one of the villain's employees - Mr Moneybags.

"You must be Spyro, the brave heroic dragon who everyone talks about and admires?" he enquired. "I take it you've come here to rescue the princess?"

Spyro said nothing.

"Well, her kidnapper has entrusted me to make sure that you set no foot in this castle where he is holding her...although I would be willing to 'accidently' lower the drawbridge for..." Moneybags coughed, then smiled slimily. "...a small fee?"

Spyro glared. He knew Moneybags wanted to take all the gems he'd gathered from him. Unwilling to meet his deal, he lowered his head and charged at him. He knocked into the greedy bear as hard as he could with his horns, causing him to fall with a cry into the alligator-infested moat.

"No way!" Spyro smiled. "I ain't giving you one bit of my treasure!"

Proving he was too cool to use a drawbridge, Spyro flapped his wings and flew across the moat, followed closely by Sparx. He soared up towards the tallest tower, entering through the window - before he let out a gasp.

"You?!"

There was the princess - and in her presense was the one who had kidnapped her.

It was none other than Spyro's sworn enemy; the evil sorcerer called Ripto.

"Dragon!"

"Hey, Shorty! Care to release that princess or am I gonna have to roast ya?!"

"I won't have any pesky purple pest foil my plans!" Ripto pointed at Spyro with one of his little arms as he turned to his two bumbling sidekicks. "Crush! Gulp! Destroy him!"

Crush and Gulp began chasing Spyro around the tower. Fortunately, Spyro was too quick for the pair, so he managed to avoid being caught by them. It was about two minutes before he managed to trick them into bumping into each other, knocking each other out.

"Noooo! You fools!" Ripto jumped up and down in rage on his tiny little legs before he whipped out his magic staff. "I'll destroy you myself, dragon!"

There was a lot of intense fighting which involved spells and fiery being flung. Unfortunately, there can be no details in case any kids are reading this. Let's just say that when Ripto was delivering a stupid climatic speech that he thought made himself sound epic, Spyro managed to blast him with his fiery breath out through the window.

With a loud yell, Ripto plummeted from the tower before landing with a splash in the moat, where they alligators had a nice crispy meal to go with Moneybags.

"Oh, thank you, Spyro!" The princess beamed as she hugged him. "I'm so thankful you saved me! You're the best hero there ever was - and the best dragon, too!"

Spyro smiled bashfully as he changed from red to purple. He couldn't help feeling humble as always.

When Spyro and Sparx returned to Artisans, everyone held a big party for the little dragon who had saved the day again. He remained ever awesome and modest as he continued to torch other bad guys who couldn't beat him. And he lived happily ever after.

"There! Much better!" Spyro grinned when he finished reading aloud the story he'd just written. "Isn't that a huge improvement, Sparx?! A more realistic portrayal of dragons in these kinds of stories!"

Sparx stared at Spyro as he digested what he'd listened to him reading aloud. There were plenty of things in the story that he wanted to point out were completely wrong. As they would take up a list even longer than the story, however, he decided to keep his thoughts simple.

"Stick to defeating bad guys in real life, Spyro," he suggested. "Don't quit your day job for writing stories."

The end.