Cynder's Past
Prologue: A Link to the Past
A/N: A new story that I thought up that ties into the Evolve Saga (The Undying Flame, Starlight Dragons, Carrier of the Cosmos) but mainly ties in with The Undying Flame. This story connects Cynder to Avarian, her used to be lover, and to the dragoness's name she keeps referring to as her friend before she was killed.
The black dragoness was surrounded by the ocean from all sides, and was sinking even further into the water, she wouldn't last much longer in the water, but she didn't care, at least then she would be able to see her friend, and forget everything else about her life. Cynder was the Terror of the Skies, hated and feared by all, no one would love her, and she would die alone. The dragon she loved didn't love her back, and only wanted them to be friends. Her life began to flash before her very own eyes, and she closed her eyes, sighing one final underwater breath before sinking towards the bottom. It all changed when she felt lips touch hers, and being rushed to the surface almost immediately.
The light reminded her of the day she first hatched...
"Am I not meant to be alive?"
~Cynder
The Legend of Spyro: The Undying Flame, Chapter 15: Another Place to Forget
Chapter 1: Friends and Foes
"The egg! It's hatching"!
"Why now of all times"?
"Find Gaul! He must know"! Those were the only voices the young baby black dragoness heard whilist she came out of the protective shell she had been in for the beginning of her life. She pushed on the walls surrounding her before making cracks in the eggshell, and finally seeing the first signs of sunlight. She continued to push and push until the baby black dragoness finally broke the egg in half and finally touched the ground for the first time, her eyes half closed, since the light was too much for her to handle. She blinked several times before taking in the area around her; she was in a cave with other hatchlings waiting, or have already hatched. The first one to catch her sight was a white dragoness with a golden underbelly and blue eyes. The black dragoness went to her, confused about where she was.
"She's in here!" The black dragoness heard the sound of apes coming from the entrance to the cave, and to her surprise, a huge one was following behind the apes who came in. She stared at the ape, yellow, glowing eyes were staring into her turqouise eyes.
"G-Gaul?" She spoke with fear in her voice, she was scared of the ape in front of her, and so were the other hatchlings.
"Your first word is my name? Excellent work, Cynder," Gaul spoke, picking the dragoness up by the wings. Her name was Cynder, but did she want the name? Maybe, maybe not, but she would just shake it off and go with what her name was. The gargantuous ape took her straight for the leader of the dark army, Malefor, who had been imprisoned long before her egg was brought here. He dropped her in the area to let her look at her surroundings if only for awhile before being picked up again, and brought in front of a wall of aura that held the voice of a dragon.
"Gaul," The voice spoke, terrorizing Cynder's mind with its sound.
"My master, the dragoness has hatched, she will be of good use in this army won't she?" Gaul spoke back to the aura, which suddenly shined yellow eyes, giving the newborn baby dragoness something to fear even more. The eyes looked at her and examined every part of her, from head to tail.
"She is healthy, and will be a good addition to our armies. She will begin training first thing in the morning," The aura spoke again, looking straight at Gaul to signal his leaving with the dragoness.
"I will not let you down my liege," Gaul said, turning away immediately after finishing the sentence, and leaving with Cynder still held by her wings. She looked back at the aura wall, and noticed the eyes were looking back at her, it was the least to say that she was scared. He was planning something, and he needed her to help his plans unfold.
Gaul threw Cynder back into the nursery with all the other hatchlings after the talk with Malefor was over, and the least to say was that she was scared out of her mind at what the Dark Master looked like from what she had seen of him; just yellow piercing eyes held behind a dark, emanating wall. After she had been thrown in, she huddled into a corner with all the other baby hatchlings who were afraid as well as Cynder, when suddenly, as if on cue, another baby dragon egg hatched, revealing that of a red male dragon with ebony horns and a white underbelly. Gaul immediately picked him up and left with him, the baby dragon showing no fear for what lied ahead. After Gaul had left, all the hatchlings dispersed to random parts of the room, talking in fear about what was going to happen. Cynder immediately caught eye of the white dragoness she had seen earlier, and ran straight for her.
'Maybe she knows about what's going on around here!' Cynder thought as she continued to run, her first ten steps in the so-called nursery. She arrived towards her, getting used to walking on all four of her legs, since she was newly hatched and spent the beginning of her life cooped up in an egg.
"Hello, ummm... my name is Cynder," The black dragoness spoke, awkwardness and curiosity in her voice.
"I'm...I'm Brick," The white dragoness said, fear in her voice about the huge ape randomly coming in to take another egg from the nursery. Cynder was needless to say that she was confused about all the things that have just started from when she hatched, to now, which was nearly about five minutes ago.
"So... why does he do that?" Cynder asked Brick, who was confused about her question.
"Why does who do what?" The white dragoness questioned her.
"Why does Gaul take newborns like me and make them see the weird wall thing?" Cynder answered the question with another question.
"Gaul take us to see the Dark Master, Malefor, to be tested," Brick answered.
"But what for?"
"He takes a look at you and determines if you are good enough to be in his army or not."
"But why? Why can't he just get a nurse to do that for us?"
"It's not that simple Cynder, his eyes can sense the darkness inside of you, and the light."
"What happens if he finds light in us Brick?"
"He replaces it with triple training."
"Triple training?"
"Harsh, gruesome training where the host is open to multiple powers of darkness, there hasn't been one hatchling in here who hasn't survived it and its outcome."
"But what if you have too much light, and triple training can't do anything about it at all?" Cynder asked, taking in all of the information she had learned about the gruesome things the army does to all the hatchlings with light in them. Brick teared up at the question, and answered it with the truth,
"Then he has his army kill you". Cynder teared up at the question too, she was afraid of dying, and she didn't want to be in the army, the tiny black dragoness wanted a normal life, where she had a mother and a father she could love and respect until the time came for her to leave.
"It's also for the best to be cautious with the friends you make," Brick said, finally stopping her tears from falling anymore.
"Why's that?" Cynder asked, her tears had stopped falling as well.
"When you're in Malefor's army, you can't tell who's your friend, and who's your foe. I've only been here for several days, but his army is ruthless. They'll kill anyone who doesn't follow orders, and whoever gets snitched out," Brick warned her about the other hatchlings in the area. Cynder turned her gaze towards the other baby dragons and dragonesses.
"You can't tell them apart, so you have to start asking questions about who is who, and if they would snitch you out if you did something wrong," Brick finished before hearing the bells for training. Cynder knew her training would start the following sunrise, and she was terrified about what it was she was going to be learning about. As Cynder watched Brick leave the nursery to go train, she laid down, and fell asleep, into a dreamless, voidless sleep.
'I may have been here for only a few minutes, but now I want out!' The thought screamed through her tiny mind as she entered her deep sleep.