Portals
Cynder clutched the red crystal in her forepaws, her wings flapped powerfully, carrying her toward the blue and white, star-shaped portal. As she passed through it into Convexity, as she flew toward the platform of volcanic rock and black metal that held the funnel-shaped portal of her master's prison, the elder dragon's whispery, echoing voice filled her ears. "Very good, Cynder, free me and you free Mizuki as well."
She had to open the portal not only for The Dark Master, but for Mizuki, so that the white dragon might stay with her, rule with her. The first time she'd seen Mizuki she'd been in the Valley of Avalar. Herself and the Assassin had just started winging in for an attack on a patrol of Cheetahs when a lean, long bodied, dragon transformed from a stream of ribbon-like emerald light. That white-skinned, bluish-white tufted dragon'd had multiple horns sweptback low on its head and enormous, jutting, sword-like teeth. Even though the other dragon didn't have wings its fish-like body still glided effortlessly through the air before those teeth impaled a dusty sapphire-furred cheetah whence it turned to gems. Before its tapered tail smacked into the three other Cheetahs with the crunching of numerous bones more green and red gems falling to the emerald grass.
The other dragon murmured, "Hmm, I've never seen a creature like that in my travels before." thus revealing themselves as a fellow dragoness.
Overjoyed to have finally found another so ruthless as her she'd introduced herself. Never in her life had she heard a name so beautiful as Mizuki nor had she met a dragon that matched her in strength.
Muffled by his thick mask the Assassin said something that sounded like, "Falcon fact Ma whooshy." The Assassin's Dreadwing let out a scream and she nearly clawed its drooling muzzle, those sound waves irritated her with their shrillness.
After she had absorbed the gems, she, Mizuki, and the Assassin had flown to her lair in Concurrent Skies. It had fascinated her that unlike any other dragon she'd ever met the strange dragoness didn't have a breath element that matched her scale colour - Mizuki had fire, not ice. How odd it'd been to have another dragon in the fortress instead of just the Apes, that she'd for once been able to show someone around. To have someone impart knowledge to her that there were other Realms beyond the Dragon Realms barred from them as they were by the magical air lock that was Convexity. According to Mizuki the only way to travel between Realms with the lock in place was the Path of the Yokai else wise known as the ribbon of light. Since there hadn't been another room built big enough for a fully grown dragon to sleep in comfortably, Mizuki had shared her giant snowy owl feather-lined nest. On the seventh day of her stay before she'd left Mizuki had demonstrated the strange ability to change her shape into that of a snow-white fox. No matter her form, one of Mizuki's eyes was always sky blue whilst the other was earthen brown.
Though months would pass between Mizuki's visitations it was always worth it. One particularly amusing time for her was when an Electric Leech had eaten Mizuki in fox form who had then shifted into her dragon form, ripping the leech apart in a shower of yellow guts and gems. There'd been more, of course, by that was by far the most amusing. She'd taught Mizuki how to read Dragon Runes and Mizuki in turn taught her how to read the language called Japanese. One time Mizuki had gifted her with a parchment sketch of them flying together over Silver Vale, it'd been the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. In order to keep the Apes from finding and destroying it she had hidden it in her rooms. More specifically, in a specially built alcove whose lock would only open when turned by the blade on her tail.
When she had taken Volteer's crystal to the Dark Master he had promised that freeing him would break Convexity's lock. Promised that he would allow Mizuki to rule Concurrent Skies with her. That promise was three crystals ago, Ignitus's crystal was the last thing blocking them from being together. Well, the crystal and that purple brat with the floating nightlight. She hardly believed it when Spyro beat her because if Spyro'd been the Assassin he probably would've left her to join the Dark Master in his prison, yet Spyro saved her from not only Convexity, but her corruption. No matter that she wanted to forget her past she couldn't bring herself to forget Mizuki. No, she dreamed about the other dragoness too much for that. The feelings that had started developing for Spyro made her feel guilty when she remembered the care that'd gone into the drawing or that Mizuki had likely spent the last six months fearing her dead. Such thoughts, of course, summoned the ones that she repressed the most - those she'd killed and or stolen from.
It'd led her to running away from Spyro, from the Dragon Temple, fighting her way back across the Dragon Realms to Concurrent Skies. She'd arrived at her former fortress to find the Assassin waiting for her. Though he'd been temporarily bewildered by her much smaller, age-appropriate, twelve-years old form the purple-armoured assassin had welcomed her back as if she'd never left. With trembling wings and paws she ascended to her rooms to try unlocking the alcove. It of course'd been built with her adult form in mind, not her smaller one. Therefore, she had to hover and slash her tail to fit the blade into the lock then twist it first to the right then left with one final right turn before the lock sprang open. Her relief was nearly palpable when the parchment was still intact, carefully, she rolled up the parchment and holding it in her forepaws tried to fly away.
She hadn't counted on the dog-like Skavengers to follow her. Briefly, she saw the Assassin escaping as the Skavengers' captain, Skabb, hit her with a wave of dark energy from his sword. Since her exposure to dark energy when barely hatched she'd had a long-standing weakness to it, which caused her to lose consciousness. When she regained it sometime later, she lay on a straw covered wooden floor and the giant, white-furred, scar-faced dog loomed over her.
Skabb held the drawing in his paws and the orange dragon-parrot-creature who stood on his shoulder let out a cackle. "Oh, poor, poor, Cynder how it must hurt to fall from being the Terror of the Skies to the lowliest of hatchlings. You know you made our job of finding contestants for the Fellmuth Arena so much easier than it otherwise would've been. So, we thank you for that, really we do, but now that our supplies are running low it is time for you to pay us back."
"I won't, I'll never fight for your amusement !"
The other dragon-parrot creature, the purple one, laughed as the orange one threatened Mizuki. "Ah, but you will or else the next time we spot your wingless friend flying around we'll catch her. After we catch her either we will force her to fight you or make you watch as we hand her unconscious form over to the Executioner. After all, she's so big that he wouldn't be likely to miss her neck on the first swing. Skabb, be good and rip the drawing in half."
Even though she hid her horror, fear, and dismay well it overwhelmed her when Skabb and the two creatures left. Creak-creak-creak-thunk went the wooden bars as they lowered into place and the pieces of parchment slowly drifted to the cell floor. If she wanted to keep Mizuki safe she would have to fight. In fact, the more she fought, the easier it would be to map out the ship and plot an escape attempt. As she curled around the parchment she smiled to herself, Mizuki would be safe and, eventually, they'd meet again.