Hey all, this is the prologue and first chapter of my first Legend of Spyro Fanfic.

Spyro is not mine, although Jaxamar and Maya are.

Prologue

The quake that had started a few minutes before finally rumbled to an end and Sparx uncovered his head, looking around.

"Is it… over?" he asked after a long moment.

Another moment's pause.

"It would seem so," Terrador said slowly, shifting in the semi-darkness. Sparx felt a moment's embarrassment; he was the main source of light currently, and that meant everyone was crowded near him.

"I'll go look," the young dragonfly said after a few minutes, already moving towards the entrance.

Sparx slowly emerged out of the small tunnel, squinting due to the brightness. Then his eyes widened, astounded.

It was beautiful; everything was back into place, and the rising sun was lending the entire scene a sense of beauty beyond normal.

"Come on out, everyone!" he called, "It's incredible! They did it! They did it! Wahoo!"

A few moments later, the thumping of an adult dragon's footsteps came from the entrance, and the three Guardians emerged, closely followed by Prowlus, Hunter, Mason, and a number of others. By now, Sparx was performing a victory dance in midair, laughing in joy.

"They really did do it," Terrador said, wonder in his voice, as he surveyed the lands; it was as if the war had never happened. The Burned Lands, however, were no longer "lands" per-say. Instead, a beautifully shimmering lake was around the mountain the Temple had been hovering over. The Floating Islands that Malefore had created had seemingly re-formed into a beautiful structure at the top, including some of the ruins that had been atop the Destroyer (how those had come loose from that monstrosity was a mystery to Terrador), while the Temple itself was no where in sight; likely it had been returned to its proper place on the island just off the coast.

"At long last… we are free," Volteer said, his voice unusually solemn… and he didn't continue with the series of words that would have otherwise blasted out of his mouth faster than could be understood.

"Yes…" Terrador said, allowing a tear to slide down his cheek, for his mate, who had fallen seventeen years ago… a year before Spyro was born.

"You've done incredibly well, young dragons," he murmured, "I hope you can return soon… to enjoy the fruits of your victory."

Ignitus, the new Chronicler, studied the books in front of him. Spyro and Cynder's books had both abruptly stopped, and had yet to pick up again, despite their quite obvious lack in the book of deaths. The other two were similar, although Ignitus hadn't brought them out in front of the previous Chronicler.

The subject matter of one of the two books, the one bound in raven-coloured cloth and trimmed in brilliant blue, was one Jaxamar, Ignitus' young nephew. The other book, white trimmed in purple, was on a dragoness called Maya of Southern Skies. Southern Skies, as Ignitus had learned, was a quaint little dragon village in the tropics, far from Malefor's sight. Just as he and Furnblaze had hoped Northlance would be beyond his reach. When Ryliss had conceived the egg that would hatch to become Jaxamar, Furnblaze had been beyond ecstatic, but also deeply concerned; although it was traditional for a dragon's egg to hatch in the Grotto during the Year of the Dragon, they had decided that it was just too risky to put absolutely all their eggs into one basket. Thus, they had gone to Northlance, a small settlement inhabited mainly by Drayklings, a strange race of serpentine, furred creatures. And, for a time, it had escaped the notice of the dark armies; a small number of young dragons were conceived and born there to refugees of the war.

Jaxamar had grown to fourteen before war was suddenly thrust upon him again. Having effectively blockaded Warfang, Malefor had turned his sights to any dragon settlement that he was aware of… Northlance was among the first to fall, although how Malefor had learned that dragons now lived there was a mystery. How Maya had gotten there was also a mystery; she hadn't travelled there normally, and the books themselves seemed to hold no clue.

It was when Malefor had attacked that Jaxamar's true power had been unleashed; his very soul was powerful enough to manifest as Soulfire… and not the simple corona that had become all too alarmingly rare these days. Instead, his Soulfire had manifested as a roaring sphere of sapphire flame, the sheer power of it burning away the attack that had triggered the powerful emotion that had caused him to loose this power in the first place.

Ignitus paused, and took a deep breath, manifesting his own Soulfire so that the corona rippled around him. It was precisely this same ability that had allowed him to shield Spyro and Cynder from the all-consuming flames of the Belt of Fire.

"Good luck all of you… and be careful."

Chapter 1

Cynder slowly uncovered her face, and opened her eyes.

"Spyro, did you-?"

Spyro nodded, breathing heavily.

"Y-yeah. The world… is safe."

He sat on his haunches, gasping for oxygen.

"I hope you never have reason to exert yourself like that again," Cynder murmured, before being interrupted by a gurgle. She blinked, looking at Spyro, and then blushed as her own stomach complained about being empty.

"I'll go get us food," she said after a moment, "That cave, Spyro, we can shelter there while you build your strength back up."

"Thank you, Cynder," Spyro mumbled, dragging himself to his feet and plodding over to the cave. He glanced at her, and his eyes softened before he stepped inside.

Cynder had quickly picked up the trail of a deer herd, and was slipping from shadow to shadow, trying to pick out which one she wanted as her prey.

A flash of white pulled her attention, but it was gone before she could get a closer look.

Cynder slipped closer to the herd, staying upwind so that her scent would not disturb the deer. A particularly fat buck caught her attention, and she slid through the shadows, becoming a part of them and sliding across the ground as a puddle of darkened earth.

She came to a stop as part of the buck's shadow, beneath its neck…

A blast of sound accompanied her emergence from the shadows, slashing her target's jugular wide open, as another fat buck similar to the one she had picked suddenly went flying; its neck was suddenly at an unnatural angle.

The herd bolted, leaving behind the two bucks.

Cynder turned to look at the other buck, the one she hadn't killed. Bloodless, clean, and swift. A beautifully-executed kill.

"Nearly blew your kill there, sorry," a voice said, and Cynder turned to look. It was a white dragoness with purple markings and lavender eyes, with silky, straight purple hair.

"Y-you're-." Cynder spluttered, unable to believe what she was seeing; the dragoness was roughly the same size as she was, and similarly built.

"I'm Maya of Southern Skies," the unfamiliar dragoness said gently, her eyes concerned, "are you all right?"

"F-fine," Cynder replied, "Just shocked… We thought every egg at the Grotto was destroyed. I'm stunned you're alive."

"It's because I wasn't born at the Grotto," Maya explained, "Southern Skies is a village in the tropics, far from here. Malefor never found it… at least, I hope."

"Maya, I heard your attack, so I-… Who's this?"

The speaker was a raven-scaled dragon with a spray of violently blue hair. Shimmering emerald-green eyes sparkled inquisitively beneath his fringe.

"My name is Cynder," the black dragoness admitted slowly, "I'm hunting for a friend of mine, who has exhausted himself."

"Cynder… wait a minute, you're Cynder, Terror of the Skies," the raven male asked slowly, "She who abandoned the Dark Master?"

"Aba-? How did you know about that?" Cynder asked, confused.

"It takes less than a year for rumours to reach even Northlance," the raven dragon explained, "It just seemed too unbelievable to be false, you know?"

Cynder blinked, then relaxed.

"I'm used to my reputation being a problem," she murmured, "I never expected a good thing to be said about me."

"Heh, well… Anyway, my name's Jaxamar," the raven male explained, "Are you staying in a cave?"

"Yeah, it's not too far from here."

Jaxamar nodded, "Come on, Maya, let's help get these to that cave. I hope you don't mind, but we need somewhere to stay the night… Maya can't handle the cold too well."

Cynder found herself smiling; this raven-scaled dragon put her at ease despite everything she had gone through; his presence and unusually deep voice were calming.

"Not at all," Cynder said, "Carrying these might be awkward…"

"I've hauled heavier," Jaxamar said, waving a wing carelessly, "Come on, let's get moving."

Spyro was asleep when they walked in. Jaxamar didn't enter straight away; he stayed outside to clean the carcasses.

"I suspected your friend would be Spyro," Maya stated, studying Spyro, "Is he really as powerful as they say?"

"Even more so," Cynder replied, remembering the times when he had displayed his immense power; when he had defeated her, when he had protected her and Sparx using his time powers… and finally in the core when he had manipulated the planet's essence to repair it, making it as if Malefor's final campaign had never occurred.

Maya nodded, frowning slightly.

"Hey," Jaxamar called, coming inside with the two, now skinned and gutted carcasses, "Maya and I need to get to Warfang, but we've gotten slightly lost. Do you two have any idea where to head?"

"Avalar," Cynder replied, "There's a secret path in the valley that leads straight to Warfang. That reminds me, we need to head there ourselves."

"I'll go gather firewood. Come on, Cynder," Maya said suddenly, rushing out.

"H-hey!"

The black dragoness scrambled to follow, leaving a bewildered Jaxamar standing next to the sleeping Spyro.

"What was that about?"

"Why'd you bring me out here?" Cynder asked, as Maya gathered a bundle of sticks and lashed it together with something; it looked like silk.

"I… well," Maya mumbled, her ear-fins drooping in embarrassment, "I kinda… have a crush on Jax. You aren't going to move in on him, are you?"

"Hardly," Cynder said, smiling, "My heart is already accounted for."

Maya smiled, "At least we can be friends, then. Since I ended up in Northlance, I haven't really had the chance to make any real friends."

"How'd you start crushing on Jax?" Cynder asked.

"You might think this is silly, but he was the first dragon I saw when I woke up after nearly freezing to death. Plus he's always been so kind to me. He's the one who helped me unlock my 'Fury Element'. A little ironic because he only unlocked his during the fall of Northlance."

"You're both multi-element dragons?" Cynder, asked, surprised.

"Well, yes. Neither of us is as powerful as Spyro, of course, but both Jax and I have a total of five elements. I have Sonic, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and my Fury Element is called 'Positive'. Jaxamar has Firce, Ice, Shadow, Light, and Soulfire as his Fury Element."

"S-Soulfire?" Cynder spluttered, stunned, "He can wield that as a FuryElement?"

Maya just looked blank.

Cynder stared at her for a moment, before explaining.

"Maya, the Soulfire is a very rare ability to do with a person's very essence, their soul, as the name suggests," she told her, "There are two basic stages of wielding it; a simple corona, which magnifies a person's capabilities greatly, and an actual pale bluish-white flame which has a variety of uses. For Jaxamar to manifest it as a Fury Element means he's unleashed an entirely new level of it… he's gone beyond normal limits. A soul that's so powerful when he's still so young…"

She trailed off, then continued, "The Soulfire grows with the person's soul, growing as they do as a person. Someone who previously couldn't utilise it at all, might suddenly manifest the corona, and someone who could previously only use the corona might manifest a flame.

"Jaxamar, on the other hand, has to manifest it as an inferno when he utilises it as his Fury Element. This is beyond anything I've ever heard about or seen… although I'm not really qualified; I've only seen one person manifest a corona, and even then I'm not sure if that's actually what I saw."

"Jaxamar's flames… they weren't pale, they were sapphire!" Maya gasped, absolutely stunned by what this meant. Cynder's eyes widened, shocked.

"Impossible," she murmured, "He can match Spyro's most powerful Convexity abilities using Soulfire? There is one thing you should know, Maya," she added, deciding to explain so that Maya wouldn't be too frightened, "Soulfire will not harm those the person cares about… You were within the flames when they were unleashed, weren't you?"

Maya nodded slowly, remembering it.

"He cares about me?"

"He might see you as a sister, or a friend, or maybe as someone he genuinely loves enough to become mates. But whatever way, it didn't harm you, and it probably never will," Cynder finished, as Maya blinked slowly, her lavender eyes slightly clouded.

"How did you learn about this?" She asked after a long moment.

"Not through my own choice," Cynder grumbled, "I think Malefor shoved it into my head when I was still his slave."

"Oh… We'd better get back to the boys, don't you think?"

"Yeah, we've got enough wood."