So here is a new story which I had recently thought of and enjoyed writing. I will admit I am more excited for this one then heritage (even if it is an Alternate universe fanfic and as such has no ties with the actual story of TLOS) but I will let you decide which I should focus more on. On that note review fairly and politely I will disregard any aggressive reviews. I still want opinions though.
Please be respectful in your reviews and I will take your advice to heart.
Chapter 1: Unchained
The Black dragoness seethed with rage her emerald eyes were glaring at the ape standing defiantly in front of her. She could not attack him no matter how hard she tried as she was chained to the stone floor in the middle of the room. They were very diligent with this too. She had a collar on, anklets, and even one on her tail all held down by what seemed to be purple lightning that made up an elemental chain. Cynder hated wearing them; they were odd as they looked like they could have been jewelry if they were polished.
"You know you are just being hard on yourself beast." The ape stated. "Just submit."
Cynder snorted at his remark.
"Heh you will break soon and I will hand you to Gaul as a faithful servant soon." The ape laughed.
Cynder never said anything to her captors she just sat their plotting their deaths and waiting for the moment when they let their guard down while they unchained to take her to the arena. Two more apes entered the room, her escort. They removed the energy chains and then put an actual chain on the collar before dragging her to the arena.
Sixteen years of life and each of them spent helping others, what did I do to deserve this?
A very slight tremor shook the hall causing the apes too look around curiously. After a moment the apes resumed their forward pace when the left wall exploded and dust filled the air obscuring vision and three screams of pain followed. The dust cleared shortly afterward and Cynder noticed the six dragons were staring curiously at her midst the three dead apes.
Each one of them was her age and wore armor of varying types. The one closest to her wore gold armor that bore the marks of battle the chest plate linked to the back and left an opening for his orange wings and the golden spines on the dragons back the armor also covered the dragons belly, The armor did not go to the legs however and instead the dragons all wore bracers. The other dragons armors were similar to this one but they were silver. Also she noticed that the golden armored dragon had purple scales.
"Are you okay?" The purple dragon asked.
Cynder looked at him and gave a confident and aggravated look.
"Point me to the nearest group of apes and I will show you how fine I am." She growled. "I have six weeks of suffering to unleash on them."
"She looks like she needs some payback to me." One of the other dragons more specifically a red dragoness with a orange underbelly wearing a satchel over her armor stated. "Why don't we let her get it Spyro?"
The other dragons agreed. Cynder turned to them and inspected them. Among the first two was a male fire dragon he had the trademark crimson scales with a yellow under belly, a male ice dragon with ice coloured scales but oddly a white pattern that looked like wind currents danced around the icy scales and mixed with his white underbelly, a male earth dragon with green scales and a brown underbelly also a unlike the others his tail was like a battle axe instead of one blade and finishing off the group was a female electricity dragon her scales were a beautiful gold and he underbelly was white. They all seemed to form a team that had a close bond and worked together well without any others to support them. Cynder wondered how her presence would affect the group. They offered her confident smiles and she smiled back.
"Let's go find the leader then." Spyro stated. "Cut off the head and the body dies."
"Yeah!" The others cheered.
Cynder turned to find a way out.
"Wait don't you want to come?" Spyro asked.
"If your offering." Cynder chimed.
Cynder joined the group of six as they traveled though the hall. Cynder noticed that the dragons were already tearing though the place and stumbling upon her was a stroke of luck. The halls were strewn with bodies of apes all with various mortal wounds from melee or elements. Regardless survivors or missed apes appeared in the halls looking around at the bodies with confusion. One spotted the dragons and screeched in excitement. Spyro turned to the six dragons following him.
"Fira, Flame you two take the left." Spyro ordered getting nods from the two red dragons. "Spirit, Frost, Terrik you take the majority on the right." The Ice, electricity and earth dragons nodded.
"We have the middle show me what you can do." Spyro stated to Cynder.
"Then let's go." Cynder growled.
The dragons leaped into battle with the rowdy surviving apes that were disorganized and had made themselves easy targets. Cynder danced around her targets waiting for the perfect moment to strike but she also spread her focus to her surroundings, she was forced to fight in an arena for the last six weeks of her life every day for hours on end and as such he learned to adapt quickly and study opponent on the move. She noticed that many of her new companions had a similar philosophy but not as keenly developed which she assumed was due to always fighting as a team. The only one that defied this was Flame who just charged in forcing Fira to cover him from would be flankers. The other three were an effective team commonly over taking foes fighting them one each but striking each other's targets causing confusion among the apes. Spyro curiously seemed to stick close to Cynder following her lead as she fought. He is analysing how I fight. Cynder grappled with an ape and turned it around towards Spyro who unleashed a merciless strike across the throat with his claws. Spyro gave Cynder a grin before the two turned back to the rest of the apes. The massacre continued as a few more apes alerted by the pained screeching joined in on the fray like fodder.
The fight had ended soon and the dreary stone floors were now stained with blood. Ape bodies littered the hall and in the middle of this were the seven adolescent dragons. Blood coated claws and semi-satisfied semi-disgusted looks on their faces. Spyro motioned for the dragons to move forward and they continued down the hall. The prison was nearly deserted in terms of prisoners in fact there were no prisoners.
"This is odd the apes don't kill prisoners they torture them." Fira stated.
"Perhaps they cleaned house when they learned the dragon armies were approaching." Frost suggested.
"Nice to know you are using your brain for once." Spirit snorted.
"Buzz off princess." Frost countered.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Spirit snarled.
"Quit it you two now is not the time." Fira growled.
The two arguing dragons turned away from each other but Cynder gave them both a confused look before turning to Spyro.
"We should continue onwards." Spyro stated. "The sooner we kill the Warden the sooner we can get back to the temple."
"Agreed." Terrik stated rather bluntly.
Spyro led the group as they cautiously left the unburied mass grave of apes behind and continued through the prison the group stumbled upon a large room as the took a left. Inside the room were two black dragons laying on the ground in the middle of the room one male, one female. Most of the dragons gave confused looks but Cynder slowly approached them.
"M-mom, D-dad?" Cynder shakily asked as she approached.
There was no response. Cynder's mind brought up a thought. They are dead.
"No you can't be dead!" Cynder screamed as she stopped in front of her parents.
She nuzzled he mothers nose and began to cry.
"M-mom please." Cynder cried.
Cynder continued trying to rouse her parents. Spyro approached but gave Cynder some space while she let out her emotions. After a few moments Cynder stopped and finally acknowledged the fact that her parents were dead. She felt alone…so utterly alone. Scales rubbed up against her.
"They are not fully gone you know." Spyro soothed as he stepped in front of Cynder. "They live on in your heart and the memories you hold."
Cynder wiped away the tears with her paws and nodded. Her expression immediately changed from sorrow to anger.
"I want to hurt these apes." Cynder growled. "I want to watch their leader suffer for this injustice."
"Then let's not keep him waiting." Spyro stated. "Come on lets go find this bastard."
"There is no need to find him, I am right here." An armored ape stated as he entered the room along with eight others.
The dragon entered combat stance. The ape ahead of them was larger than most but not by much if compared to his guards who he only held a few inches over. There were 9 apes in total the warden and his entourage each looking overconfident and eager.
"Cynder is it." The Warden growled. "You are remarkable resilient compared to your parents."
"I had to learn quickly when you kept tossing me into that wretched arena." Cynder hissed.
"You should thank me you became stronger for it." The Warden countered. "Unlike your parents who continued to beg for their deaths as I tortured them."
Cynder bared her teeth and snarled.
"Such a shame." The Warden said in an obviously fabricated sympathetic voice.
"But don't worry." The Warden growled as he drew his sword. "I will send you too meet them."
The Warden motioned for his apes to attack the other dragons which they did in an eager disorganised charge. Cynder however found herself facing the warden. The warden charged forward and brought his sword down to decapitate Cynder but she rolled out of the war before leaping around him to access his back. She dug into his back causing him to yell in pain but the Warden reached behind him and grabbed Cynder before throwing her in front of himself. He prepared to finish her off when Spyro joined the fray having already killed his opponent. Spyro stabbed his tail into the Wardens exposed side causing an agonised howl. Cynder recovered and leaped at the Warden kicking him with her back paws. The Warden however managed to recover and keep himself upright.
"Pathetic." The Warden growled.
Spyro breathed a torrent of flames onto the Warden leaving the smell of burnt flesh in the air and the Warden wounded. Spyro turned to Cynder.
"He's your kill." Spyro stated.
Cynder merely went up to the Warden and slit his throat with her tail.
"You deserve a slower death be thankful I did not deliver." Cynder hissed.
Cynder then walked slowly over to her parent's corpses receiving sympathetic and saddened looks form the other dragons. She sniffled in sadness.
"I'm sorry I could not save you." Cynder whispered. "I was not strong enough. But I will get stronger if only so others don't have to suffer loss."
After a moment of silence Cynder turned towards the waiting dragons.
"You know the way out?" Cynder asked.
"Yeah when they captured us they brought us in the front door." Flame stated. "Once we had the chance we broke free and caused havoc."
"There will still be quite a few angry apes between us and freedom." Fira stated.
"Ha nothing we can't handle." Spirit chimed confidently.
"Yes us but what about you princess." Frost stated.
Spirit turned to him and smacked him on his head.
"Not here you jerk." Spirit snarled.
Spyro turned to the group.
"Enough." He barked. "There is a time and place for this but not here not now."
The dragons nodded at him and Spyro turned to Cynder.
"I think it is best if we hurry before reinforcements arrive." Spyro stated. "Are you going to come with us or find your own way out?"
Cynder thought about this for a moment before she answered.
"I will go with you." Cynder stated. "I have nowhere to go if I don't."
Spyro nodded.
"By the way the warden called you Cynder. Is that your name?" Spyro asked.
"Yes it is." Cynder answered. "And you are…Spyro?"
Spyro nodded.
"Can introductions wait until we are back in Warfang?" Fira asked.
"Sorry I guess it would be better." Spyro answered.
In a few moments the dragons were stalking carefully down the hallway careful to avoid any unwanted encounters.
"Oi!" Shouted a voice.
The dragons turned to see a group of apes looking at them.
"aren't those them dragons that we supposed to 'ave locked up." One ape said.
"Yep it's dem." Another replied.
"If dey not in a cell the dey be trying to escape." Yet another one growled.
"Ah shut up you dumb uneducated brutes." Shouted one who was pushing the others aside to get a look at the dragons.
This one wore armor much like the Warden which obviously spoke stature among the apes. He also had a gruff voice and we obviously more intelligent than the apes he was leading.
"Gut them." The leader Ape growled as he turned away and began walking off.
The other apes gave off howls of delight and charged forward. Flame acted first with a roar he lowered his head and charged forth ramming into and ape knocking him over where he then proceeded to maul the ape with his claws. Unfortunately well focusing on this single enemy and charging ahead of the rest of the group meant he had no support. Flame was smacked off the mortally wounded ape by a larger ape with a maul.
"Dats not smart of you." The ape growled. "I gunna smash you good."
The other dragon finally having reached the carnage now began to join in. Cynder leaped at the large maul wielding ape. She sank her teeth down into it's throat which caused it to screech in agony. It grabbed Cynder and threw her off. Flame turned to see Cynder recovering with a smirk which confused Flame until he noticed that the large ape was on the ground convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The other dragons danced between their dimwitted opponents who were being cut down by the more agile and skilled dragons. The fight did not last long and soon all apes had fallen.
"Beaten by hatchling." The last survivor gasped between pained breaths.
The ape was slipping in and out of consciousness but was on limited time and no threat to the dragons.
"Hatchlings." Fira huffed. "I'm sixteen."
"You really think an ape cares?" Terrik asked.
Fira frowned and shook her head before turning to the others who were gathered around Flame.
"How bad is it?" Fira asked with concern as she approached.
"His ribs are broken and it hurts when he breaths." Spyro answered as he turned towards her.
"I'm okay." Flame wheezed but pain was evident in his eyes and in the pained grunt he made when he finished talking.
"Just clam down, shut up and breathe slowly." Spirit soothed.
"We may have to carry him." Frost stated.
"Bad idea it would do more damage." Spyro answered. "We will need to at least get him into a more manageable state."
Fira reached into her satchel and pulled out a red gem.
"I am always prepared for Flame's stupidity." Fira said with a smile.
"Hey I resent…" Flame stopped and put a paw over his broken ribs.
"Move that paw so I can heal you dummy." Fira ordered.
Flame obeyed and moved his paw after which Fira place the red gem on it and held it there till it sunk into Flame's scales which caused him to produce an audible sigh. He stood up and made a heroic pose causing all the others to sigh except Cynder who giggle at the groups antics. This caught the attention of flame who blushed slightly with embarrassment but his red scales hid the blush well. Spyro then cleared his throat.
"I think it is best if we head out now." Spyro stated. "We can continue this after Flame sees a proper healer."
Flame snorted indignantly.
"Everyone get hurt once in a while Flame there is no need to be all high and mighty." Spirit snorted while Frost rolled his eyes.
Cynder noticed that Spyro had begun walking towards the exit of the dungeon so she padded over to him.
"Are they always like this?" Cynder asked.
Spyro snickered.
"Yes." He answered. "But don't worry if you stick around long enough you will get used to it."
Spyro gave Cynder a cheerful smile ad Cynder could not help but giggle. She had lost an important part of her life but these dragons would help her to move on, and for that she was grateful.