Mirroring my story on deviantART here, finally. The first few chapters remain untouched, to remind myself of how much my writing style has evolved over the past 4 years. So, apologies in advance if the writing seems off. It gets much better later on.

That aside, let's peek in on what Spyro is up to...

Spyro: Dawn of Light

Part 1, Chapter 1

"Stand still ugly purple lizard! STAND STILL!"

Hollering laughter filled the garden where Spyro and Gnasty Gnorc were once again duking it out. Spyro fell to the ground, pounding the grass with his paw and turning red in the face as he laughed. Had Gnasty been smarter, he might've used this chance to club Spyro, but he just stood there wondering what was so funny.

"So-ho So I'm ugly now?!" Spyro laughed. "Who's the one that broke the garden mirror when he passed it?"

The lumbering green Gnorc roared and threw his club at Spyro, and the purple dragon jumped to the side and spat a fireball at the hideous green giant, and then finally beat him with a solid skull-bash.

"I'll be back and I will KILL you!" Gnasty yelled, and fell over and disappeared in a puff of small sparks and smoke. The gems he'd been carrying appeared on the ground, and Spyro whistled a little tune to himself as he picked them up and they vanished on contact with his scales.

"Well, got nothing to do now," he said to himself, and strolled out of the garden. Stopping by the bottom, untouched half of the mirror he looked at himself and sighed. Purple scales, gold fin-scales running from his forehead down along his neck and back, gold curving horns, and small red wings appeared in the reflective surface as he neared it. His shiny silvery claws glinted faintly in the grass, and the gold scales along his underbelly glittered with a very faint metal sheen. Both claws and underbelly were a bit dirty from catching the ground every time he charged and from rolling on the ground. At twelve years old, he was almost a teenager and was starting to lose the hatchling features he used to love but now cringed at. Dragonesses still called him "cute" when they saw him, but that was about the only compliment he ever got aside from the sporadic and sometimes half-hearted praise for defeating would-be enemies. Most of the time dragons looked at him oddly for his purple color, and as he scanned himself in the mirror he grunted at the memories...he was an orphan, a freak... He stretched his wings and flapped them a little...they were too small to carry his weight in true flight right now, all he could do with them was glide.

He turned around and was about to head back through the holes in the hedge walls of the maze that his brawl with the ugly gnorc had created, when something made a sound behind him and he jumped to the side as an ape swung a mace at him as it fell from a high jump. Not really giving it much thought Spyro opened his mouth and roasted the ape with a yawn, and when it vanished he collected the gems it dropped and headed out. "Geez those things are ugly," he thought to himself. "Gnorcs, rhynocs, apes...where the heck do they all come from?"

Spyro walked out of the garden into the ancient ruins of the surrounding castle. Long ago this area had been a vast dragon kingdom, and Spyro sighed with longing as he looked at the weathered statues standing guard over the courtyard. The old times had sounded so much better than now...Back then everyone had lived in relative peace in beautiful dwellings. Now, the Dragon Settlements, the town not too far off, was a collection of caverns and ruined houses fixed up for dragons to dwell in, and friendships were hard to establish in this day and age...especially for those considered "outcasts". Spyro looked at a statue and groaned. "Bet you didn't hafta live in a cave away from everyone else..." Spyro's home was an isolated pocket in a hill he'd found for himself when his caretakers left him on his own. "Might as well go back...got nothing else to do."

There was a loud yell nearby and the next thing Spyro knew a Gnorc had fallen on him. With a grunt he pushed it off and whipped it with his tail, and the ugly thing yelled and fell over, disappearing in a puff of small gems.

"HEY!" Spyro looked up sharply and saw a small black dragoness on the wall above him. "That was my kill!"

"Should watch where you aim them," Spyro growled, shaking himself off. "Geez that hurt..."

The dragoness flew down and quickly gathered the gems. Spyro recognized her...Cynder. Another orphan just a few days younger than himself. She was an oddity like himself - she had black scales, a rare color for dragons; she had two small spikes on the backsides of her cheekbones; and she had blade-like extensions on her wing-joints and at the end of her tail. She turned and glared at him, anger shining in her green eyes. "It took me forever to get him where I could finish him off, thanks a lot."

"Not my fault you threw it onto me!"

"You were in the way!"

"And how was I supposed to know you'd be fighting it here?"

"Oh whatever, I'm leaving." With that she turned around, whipping his shoulder with her tail and scampering off. Spyro stared after her and sighed. She was pretty, but she treated him the way everyone else did. His wings sagged as he stared at the ground.

"It's not fair..." He really wanted a friend but no one wanted to associate with him simply because he was purple. "Why'd I hafta be such a weird color?" He looked over his paws, wishing he were a nice shade of green or something strong like red, not an in-between color like purple. Shaking his head he released the gems he had and counted them. "Hmmm...well, it might be enough..." He collected them again and headed off for the Settlement.

in the center of the Settlement was an area simply called The Market, emphasis on "The". Merchants from all the other realms gathered there to hawk their wares. Most of what they had to offer was food, jewellery or various odds and ends like blankets, bedding supplies and various decorations. Spyro needed a new blanket for the coming winter months, the one he had had served him well for eight years but over the past few months it was falling apart left and right. He walked through the gates, ignoring the odd looks from the guards, and headed into town. Left and right others would point at him or give him odd looks, but he just ignored them all and continued on his way. After a short debate with the dealer, Spyro bought himself a thick blanket, and it disappeared on contact with his scales. Thanking the merchant and getting the typical grunt he got from everyone, he started on his way out and bumped right into Cynder as she avoided a cart being rolled past them. She shoved him off of herself and glared at him.

"Oh great, you again?"

"Hey, watch it!" someone shouted, shoving Cynder out of the way. She tripped and fell over onto Spyro.

"You okay?" he asked, helping her back onto her feet and ushering her away from the main walkway.

"Couldn't be better," she growled, shaking her wings.

"Why are you here? I thought your home was out of town."

"I came to get myself a new blanket."

Spyro's eyes widened. "Oh..." He looked back over at the merchant. "I just bought his last one."

Cynder groaned and looked at the ground. "Great...just great." She got up to walk away.

"Cynder, wait," Spyro said, and she turned to see him holding the blanket he'd gotten. "Here."

She stepped back. "No, you bought it, it's yours."

"And I'm giving it to you, you need it."

Cynder stood there, undecided, but finally sat on her haunches and took it from him. "Ummm...thanks...but, what're you gonna do?"

"I'll manage." She stared at him, unsure of what to think, and finally walked away. Spyro watched her disappear into the crowd, but as he turned to go home he caught sight of a dark-clad ape atop the buildings, watching Cynder. Spyro looked back down through the crowd and saw her take a side-road, and his eyes snapped back up as the ape followed her. "This can't be good," he said, and went to follow them, keeping a distance so neither Cynder nor her tracker saw him. He kept his firebreath charged in case he needed to use a long-range attack to protect her, and slipped along the road, keeping the ape in his sight the best he could.

Cynder left the Settlement, but was in no way any safer - the surrounding road was lined with trees and rocks, perfect hiding places, and to Spyro's anger he saw more apes and a few gnorcs lying in wait. His mind quickly raced and he dropped a gem and ran up to her, carrying it in his mouth. She looked at him in surprise.

"Spyro?"

"Ou rop is ack ere," he mumbled, and set the gem down. "You dropped this back there."

"Uhhh...okay..."

"You're being followed," he whispered. "C'mon." She followed him down the road, and behind them she heard someone talking angrily. She pretended to trip on a stone and chanced a glance back as if looking for what she'd tripped on, and saw apes in the trees and gnorcs behind the rocks.

"Spyro...we're being surrounded..."

"Good," he said, and she looked at him in surprise to see a grin on his face. "I've been wanting a good fight for a while."

They continued walking to the end of the road, and just as he'd expected the apes and gnorcs jumped out and blocked their way, surrounding them. Cynder pressed against Spyro nervously, but Spyro was staring down the armor-clad gnorc standing right in front of them.

"So, Spyro, we meet again."

"Can't you think of something more climactic than that? Seriously, that was lame."

The gnorc yelled and swung its sword at Spyro, but Spyro ducked under it, pushing Cynder out of harm's way. She rolled to the side and watched as Spyro and the gnorc fought. At a signal from the leader all the others rushed in on the two dragons. Cynder jumped up and held them off with a good blast of fire, and she whipped around and lashed a survivor with her tail. To her surprise she saw a frozen gnorc right behind her, and behind it Spyro was freezing and ape with his breath. She shrieked as he released an explosive fireball, knocking the gnorcs and apes backwards and giving himself and Cynder an advantage. Left and right jewels flew all over...as Cynder stepped back to avoid a vicious swipe from an ape's claws she stepped right into Spyro's tail swing and she yelled in pain and fell over. Spyro quickly looked at her, froze her attackers, and went into a flurry of melee attacks, slashing at his enemies with his claws and tail. They backed away from him and ran off, and Spyro stood there panting. Cynder tried to stand up but she couldn't put any weight on her back leg without feeling a shooting pain.

"Ow..."

"You okay? I'm so sorry..."

She gave Spyro a small smile. "No, it's not your fault, it happens in fights." She looked off into the distance with a sad sigh. "But I can't get home with this..."

He sighed nervously and she looked at him as he stared off over the hills. "You...uhhh...welll..."

"What?"

He rubbed his neck, avoiding looking at her. "I could, uh...I could carry you home on my back or something...or you could lean on me for support..."

"You mean your home?"

His eyes widened. "Well that is closer, but I meant your home when I said 'home'."

"How much closer?"

He looked off to the west and she followed his line of sight. "You can kinda see it from here, that pillar way off there is about halfway."

She squinted and saw a tall pillar in the distance. "Oh that pillar..."

"You, uhh, wanna go to your place or mine? You could rest at my cave and I can go get the healer..." He suddenly shouted in surprise when she flung herself onto his back.

"Well then let's go!"

Spyro stood there, shocked at this sudden openness from her, but he quickly adjusted to her weight and walked off with a small grin, carrying her on his back.