Chapter I - The Journey
(Sup y'all! Back at it again with the next story. This is Spyro's side of the story, a POV switch. Now you'll see what Spyro has been up to throughout the past time while Cynder was out in different lands. And it will be from his perspective so things will be different in his eyes, so that's why the story may seem different in some parts where both him and Cynder are. This one may be longer for whatever reason, but with that being said, go ahead and enjoy, and tell me what you think about it if you git any comments or criticisms, it'll help me gauge the story better! This will also lead up to the Tragedy of the Dragons story I'll eventually get to. Now, without further ado, Spyro's Story!)
Well… There I was. All alone, sitting on the grass in the fields near Warfang's main gate. Tons of different problems went through my mind… where was Cynder? Was she okay after that whole undead attack she had gone through? She did sorta just… fly off without saying a word anyone. I mean sure after the fight I had with her it was hard not to be angry, but I've calmed down, and I wanted to confront her again but, how could I? She seemed lastingly mad at me. It was like I couldn't even stand face to face with her anymore. While still contemplating with myself, I hadn't noticed it, but Hunter had snuck up behind me and with a simple squat down next to me, he placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, Spyro… what's got you so down out here?" He asked, though with the initial touch I nearly jumped out of surprise.
"A-ah! Jeez… don't sneak up on me like that Hunter…" I turned my head away, only for a moment before turning back to the Cheetah. "Uh… Just what Cynder to me earlier. I know she's yelled at me before and been mad at me before, but we've always made up, but do you think that this time… she won't forgive me? She won't be coming back or...or worse? I can't stop thinking about it." My tail flicked uneasily along the grass under it, and my wings gave a few subtle flexes to stretch them before folding back up. "What do you think, Hunter?"
He just shook his head and rubbed my shoulder a bit. "Maybe you should just… let her go and cool off, both of you need to. Who knows, might be a few days or weeks but, I doubt she's left the Dragonlands." Hunter sort of did reassure me… there's no way she could've gone very far nor to anywhere else...Warfang was really the only civilization left after Malefor and all the business, she couldn't be far gone…
"Maybe you're right Hunter. I guess it is for the best that we stay away from each for the meantime." I lowered my head a bit. "I just hope she's alright." Hunter gave a short nod before standing himself back up and stretching.
"Well, don't dwell on it too long, dragon. Can't be letting your emotions get the best of you now." He said with a bit of a chuckle, then bounded back off into the city.
"Right…" I said a bit reluctantly. With Hunter now gone, though, I felt pretty darn lonely. No one there to talk with again, no one to lean on… the feeling was overwhelming me. Eventually, I just shook my head and stood right up, and trotted right on to the city again.
Warfang was busy as usual today, all dragons of all sorts of shapes and sizes milling the streets and perusing the shops. There were a few other figures around that weren't dragons, like the occasional mole or cheetah, maybe even a few foreigners I've never seen before, but for the most part, no one too frightening or threatening, luckily. It's the last thing I needed. I made my way to the Council building, trying not to bump into anyone as to avoid the interests of other dragons' wants to talk with me about recent events, each step was taken carefully, though eventually I came nose-to-door with the Council Building, and pushed it open. Upon entering, my eyes were immediately turned to Cyril, who was standing right out in the open, talking with one of the smaller visor dragons in the Council. I made my way over and within seconds, I was spotted by the Ice Guardian.
"Ah! Spyro! There you are. Come come! We may have a lead on the next shard." Well… that's certainly some good news! I followed Cyril to the main discussion room, where Volteer and Terrador were waiting, idly discussing the whereabouts of this new shard piece before they noticed me and Cyril trudge in.
"Right on time," Volteer spoke out, the visors closing the doors behind me and Cyril as we padded to our respective seats. "So, we believe that one of the Crystal Shards is now located in a far off, distant land to the west."
"We had absolutely no idea that another land beside the Dragonlands existed!" Cyril exclaimed, placing his paws on the big magical table. Because this intrigued us so much, we had the Head Visor do a bit of scrying for us, and what we had found was three other lands besides our own. As it turns out, the Dragonlands happen to be in the middle of this…" The Ice Guardian moved his paw around in the sand in the middle of the table, which changed the magical projection. It seems to be a zoomed out map of the entire world.
"For as long as we knew… the Dragonlands was the only continent. But we have been blind this whole time… The Dragonlands are in the very middle, as soon here. There seem to be 4 other continents around us with different types of dragons inhabiting them." Terrador pointed to the northernmost land. It had some small isles around it, clearly part of the continent as either independent little countries or simply uninhabited. "For what we can see, the northernmost land mass is covered in snow, nearly every inch of it. Though it is completely inhabited by four-limbed dragons… They call themselves as a species Wyverns. They are similar to us but, their wings are their arms." I gave a little tilt of my head. Really? Dragons with wings as their arms? That seems so… unnecessary and highly impractical. But I guess it just makes sense up there. After all, they must think of us as weird. I then noticed Terrador pointing to the write of the Dragonlands, a much more wooded area with one, super tall mountain. Reminds me of here… But, more peaceful and less murderous, malevolent purple dragons trying to explode the world. I saw Volteer straighten up a bit as it seemed it was his turn to speak.
"And this one here, it seems to be more Oriental. For what reason, we don't know, but there is clearly a theme going on here." He nodded a couple of times, Cyril using his left wing to point to the western landmass.
"This one is… something we have only imagined. Looking back through the records, our scribes could not find a fourth continent such as this one, it seems to be relatively new, though from what we can tell about it, it comes from the Abyssal realm, and it could only lead into trouble, trouble we don't want." The trio of Guardians winced a bit, then looked back to the young purple dragon. "But for now, that's not important, not until it makes itself important."
Terrador butted in, seeming to take control for the moment. "We still have yet to know anything about the southernmost continent, we will update you when we know more on it, but you Spyro, we need you to head over to the Oriental Continent, as there is a shard there. We have come to reason that the shard is used in some sort of shire that seems to grant the wishes of whoever enters the forest bravely and succeed. Though we advise you to be careful Spyro, the forest is also said to bring about the ghosts of those that are close to you. While they may only appear to be ghosts, they are very much capable of tearing into you without mercy or solace." My eyes widened a bit and I felt my stomach get a little unhappy with the mentioning of the forest. Ghosts? That seems...way too real.
"And how am I supposed to fight back?" I asked, a small worried look on my face.
"We don't know… We haven't gotten that bit of information yet… But now's not the time, Spyro. Please just hurry and go get that shard." I sighed a small bit and nodded my head. Yeah… I guess I'll find out on my own then. With a quick shake of my body, I stood up pridefully and smirked a bit, then nodded to the trio.
"I won't let you down! I am off!" And with that little boost to myself, I bounded out the door, taking long leaps to further increase my speed in distance, and before I knew it I was out of the Council Building and in the main square of Warfang, and just like that, I took off into the sky! I was completely ready to make still probably very long journey, and that I'd be sore and tired for the most part, but hey, now I was going on a journey of less threatening proportions! I was kind of alone this time. I mean, Sparx isn't here with me, and I was kinda just flying low over the grassy fields that surrounded Warfang. "Welp… And now I'm alone… Good job me." I said to myself, at least trying to break the silence. I was already desperate to make some sort of company for myself. Having a dragonfly that always made dumb remarks, funny jokes, and showed plenty of courageous cowardness was really all the company I needed. I felt like I didn't even need Cynder… She really only just nagged and complained a lot, but, I had to show her some sort of sympathy. After all, she's the only other black dragon I know, and well, I kind of know how that feels… I guess I do love her but, maybe it's just a huge mistake for me to be thinking like that.
While still deeply monologuing with myself I hadn't noticed how far east I had flown already, since well, I was now out in open skies above a vast ocean. I also forgot how fast I was traveling since I couldn't since my homelands anymore. Nothing but blue all around me. It was, very stunning to say the least but, still terrifying… I was alone. It sucked, it really did. I just hoped that the trip would end soon, cause with how fast I was traveling and with how far I was, my wings were starting to ache. Oh, dear lords the aching! I never knew my wings could hurt so darn much! I just wanted to fold them up and take a quick nosedive but, that would make me plummet straight into the watery depths below my purple form. I was hoping that there would be some sort of island or rocks sticking up out of the water. Too much of my dismay, there was just… water. And here I thought to myself, this was how I was going to go out after all these years. And who would be to? An evil purple dragon bent on destroying the world? Or maybe so large army of monsters and demons that could easily overpower me and tear me apart. Or, you know, just some cool way to go out. But I had to be water. Just when I was about to let the aching get to me, that's when I saw it! "Oh thank the Elders...I'm saved!" I exaggerated a bit there. Man, I was really starting to sound like Sparx there for a moment. I quickly tucked my wings and tilted myself upwards, letting my body lose the momentum it had, only to then plunge into a nose dive straight for the sandy shore of this small island. I got faster and faster as my body was pulled back to the ground by the world's gravity, and once I found myself into the danger zone of going too fast, I quickly pulled my body back up, and outstretched my front paws, digits spread out and my wings now opened up like wide sails, slowing my descent. I soon thought that it wouldn't be enough, that's when it hit me, literally. I sort of misjudged where I would land and my front claws dug into the sandy ground, soon followed by my hind claws, then my stomach and chest, until I finally stopped. Of course, though, my body was now kind of embedded into the sand. It was hard to tell where I was, considering there was a giant cloud of all these broken down particles now hanging in the air. With a few coughs and flap of the wings, I was able to clear the sand from my sight.
"Alrighty… Where am I exactly?" I looked around, glancing at everything mostly. I feel like I didn't even really have time to look as I suddenly felt a searing rushing through my back and into my wings. I cringed and flexed them out to their full length, holding still in hopes that they would at least loosen up just a bit. Bad idea, it made them hurt worse. I wriggled and squirmed until I was able to pull myself out of the sand, leaving a me-shaped hole in it until I started to move, kicking up and disturbing the sand which then re-filled the hole. "H-holy… Ow…" I whined, pulling myself under one of the two trees situated near the other end of the small little island, and I laid on my belly. "I never knew flying so fast could hurt so much.." I turned my head to the sky, wondering if I could see what time of day it was. My eyes widened a bit when I realized that it was almost turning into the sunset. When I had left Warfang and ultimately the Dragonlands it was certainly still in the morning. Well, I'm at least glad that I made some sort of progress but that didn't deter from the fact that I had no clue where I was. I looked around myself, making sure that I was truly alone when I used my claws to then start working the sand a bit.
"Well, it seems I can't fly for the moment but… I should be fine, right? Yeah!" I turned my head to the nonexistent company next to me, expecting some sort of remarking or comment about me being injured. Well so much for that. I sighed and laid my head on the sand between my forelegs and simply watched as the sky turned from a calm yellowish-orange, then from that
to twilight, then from twilight to dusk, then from dusk to night.
"So, me, what are you doing?"
"Oh you know, just gobbling over the loneliness I've ensued now."
"Then maybe you should fix that!"
"How?"
"Just… make yourself a friend!"
"Wow. Great."
I was talking to myself at this point. I've been alone before but, being with people you know, love, admire, and trust for so long gives you that sinking feeling of when they are gone or aren't around you for a certain amount of time, you'll go insane. You'll start to fill that void that they filled with each of their personality.
"Oh, who am I kidding… This is useless… Just shows how dependent I am on everyone. Oh, Elders help me…" I looked away from the water I was staring at and sighed.
"You know… I'm very much alone too." A voice suddenly called out. My head whipped back to see if there was someone standing there in the darkness, and much to my surprise there was. The dim moonlight was just enough for me to make out a figure in the darkness. "I understand how it feels." The voice that spoke… it had a feminine tone to it but, nothing of it sounded very pleasant. Maybe I was just imagining this, or I must be dreaming but, it was definitely real.
"Who...who are you?" I asked the figure stepped forward towards me, the frame in the darkness sliding over until I could better make out the form.
"Me? I'm uh…" The female seemed to stumble over her own thoughts for a bit as if either she forgot her name or maybe something else. "I'm Acklyztherohza."
"Ack...listhere..oza?" My mind could wrap around such a name. It seemed so unnatural but… I wasn't going to blame her. She seemed to even giggle at my attempt to pronounce her name.
"It's okay… you don't have to pronounce the whole thing. You can just call me Alzy for short." She nodded her head and smiled a small bit. Thank the Elders she had a shortened name…
"Well uh, you can call me Spyro." I nodded, spreading out my wings, only to then regret my choice and cringe at the seething pain that quickly followed suit. Ugh…
"Well, it's certainly nice to meet another out here." She spoke softly, giving a soft smile. "Oh! It must be rude of me to not show my face so openly…" And just after she had mentioned it, there was a bit of a little bright flash before it faded to a dim, soft yellow lighting. Mind you this flash wasn't blinding or anything, but something akin to what a dragon breathing fire would do. I could now see her face with much more detail. And… a little bulb hanging in front of her face. "There. Better. Now I can see yours too!" She gave a little chuckle before sitting down right in front of me, the little bulb dangling there, providing the soft mood in the air now. "So Spyro, what are you doing out here? I mean, this certainly doesn't look like some sort of place a dragon like yourself would be hanging out in."
"Well… I uh, I'm on a mission right now… and I just needed a short break." Pfft, yeah, a short, 8-hour break. I looked over her features a bit as there seemed to be a bit of a pause between the little chat we were having. She was clearly something else, a dragon unlikes others I've seen before. She looked more like a fish, but a… gulp… a very beautiful fish. Jeez, I never thought I'd call anyone that besides Cynder… I mean like, she had a great hide that was devoid of any sort of scales. It was clearly smooth and slippery, probably soft to the touch as well. It made me kind of jealous that a non-scaled dragon could have such fine looking skin. She had frills on either of her cheeks, one short one running down the middle of her throat to about the base of her neck, and a longer one that seemed to run down from the top of her head, down her spine, and all the way past the tip of her tail, almost like a sail of sorts. Alzy had gills on the sides of her neck, which were closed up for the moment so she could breathe out that wide nose of hers… Oh wow, she had a nose like a mole, well, a star-nosed mole. It was more pronounced, rounded out, and it had a spike sticking out the top of it. Upon looking down to her paws for a second I spotted a whole set of leather bracers that hugged her wrists and ankles tightly. There was no latching or buckling holding it together or holding them onto her. They were just, on. They had spikes on them too, probably just custom fit onto her. Finally, I could see that she had frills on the backs of her forelegs. Maybe that made her better at swimming? I soon sighed and looked back to her face after my little exploration of her body with my eyes, and when I looked back up to her, she had seemed to be doing the same.
"Well… You must have come from very far away to be tired…" She leaned in and patted my shoulder a bit. Alzy then sat back into her spot and yawned a bit, looking up at the sky. "Beautiful night, isn't it?" She smiled a bit, still idly looking up.
"Yeah…" I hummed, swishing my tail back and forth calmly until I was able to settle it back down. She's way nicer than Cynder normally is, maybe I can go ahead try to get along with her. After all, having some company for the rest of this journey would be great. I got up to readjust myself, then I laid out on my back to look up at the stars. This was very nice indeed. I just hope I'm not too far gone from home for too long… Homesickness sucks. Acklyz soon laid herself out next to me, and we simply now just watched the stars. She turned her light down, further softening the mood.
"Have you ever just...looked out into the nighttime sky and thought, this place could be better…" Her words came out so smoothly, like she had said the line multiple times, no stuttering or pausing, just one, perfect sentence. This made me think. Yeah, I did think about that a lot. I didn't really mind it, but I do agree with her, things could totally be better. Just as I was about to reply she continued talking, so I shut up before anything could come out. "It's just… This world isn't what I thought it could be like. The Elders could have tried so much harder to make this world better but… After the whole Malefor incident, everything has been torn out of perspective and everyone is still recovering from it. But…" She paused for a moment, turning to look me dead in the eyes, as serious as possible. "But… I believe I have the power to do that…" This one took me for a loop… What did she mean by that? "I know this might sound like a shocker but… I'm willing to reset everything, just to have a perfect life, so everyone can have a perfect life. But… in my sort of vision… you know?" That… sounded kind of ominous. I wanted to say something about it but I decided against it. "I really, really just want to make a world in my image where everything works… No one had any problems, everyone was happy… and where I'd finally be the queen of it…" She nodded her head a bit, smiling a bit.
"Gosh…" That was really all I could get out of my mind. I had no clue what I could say to her, then it struck me. "But… what about the people that like the world the way it is?" I had a hunch she didn't like that question, considering the amount of ugh that was strung across her scalie lips, not leaving room for any other emotion to show but visible disgust. Again, I decided to say nothing against her. "Well… let' just hope your Utopia works...yeah?" I found myself now running out of things to say once again, and so, just like that the topic dropped. But… she seemed so insistent to pick it back up like she needed someone to talk to her about it.
"Say Spyro, what would you do with power like that? The power and the will to create and destroy whole universes…" Acklyz turned to me, her face back to a neutral tone.
"I guess I would really just use it to change only small things… little things… I really don't think I'd ever need it to create a whole other universe for me better suit for others." That was the most honest answer I probably could have given her. She simply nodded her head, maybe only partially agreeing with me.
"Have you ever heard of the Time and Space dragons?" A brow perked on my face, and clearly, she took that as a sign of no. "Well… when I was a little hatchling," I was rather confused by this, when she was little? She couldn't be any much older then I was… we were the same height and everything! It just got me wondering and curious like I should have known about this, but no one ever told me. "there were these three dragons, each of them controlling one true aspect of the Universe, Time, Space, and Reality. Without one, the other two could not exist. Each one was important. All equal in power. Now… during my time in the deep sea, there was this adult dragon that was bent on accomplishing the same goal I have… he went on a journey to seek out the three dragons and gain each of their respective powers. Once he was so rightfully given the powers, then he used it for the good of the Deep Sea and made a much, much more suitable universe. Everything was going great and dragons were thriving all over, but, when he died, that's when things started to spiral. The dragon you know as Malefor was able to rise to power and well, nearly obliterate the planet for his own selfish needs. Now that he's gone and creatures all over are needing to rebuilding after the chaos. I feel like it is my duty to make a fresh start for us all… A purer one."
"That's… Wow." I really couldn't believe it. It was just all too much and all too real. Sure she could be making it up just to make a story but, that really got me thinking. So, would there be an infinite number of Universes being made if we just continue to hop between them like that? Surely it can't be healthy… and how long has this been going on for? "So… You really think that doing this would be for the good of everything… But… Don't you think that it could make the Universe itself shatter? Like, to the point where we end up nowhere?" This got Acklyz's attention, as she turned her head back toward me, and she seemed to once again disagree with me.
"Spyro, I can assure you nothing bad will happen…" She reached over and rubbed my cheek with one of her paws. Granted it was kind of unnecessary but… It was nice nonetheless. Leagues better than Cynder's paws too. After what had suddenly turned into an intimate stare down, she got up, shook her hide off of the sand and looked about. "So, purple boy. Where are you heading next?"
"Oh uhm… That way?" I tried pointing east.
"What's that way for you? Nothing but open ocean for miles and miles and miles. If you want to hit any dry land then you can head in that direction." She turned my whole body and foreleg to point actual east since my body itself was facing southwest.
"Oh! That way then. I was told by the Guardians to go and get a piece of the Crystal." I nodded my head a small bit, giving a few flaps of my wings. Well, they definitely felt better now.
"The Crystal..? What does it do?" Alzy had a bit of a head tilt going on.
"It grants the long desired wish of anyone who completes it. Only one wish per every 10000 years."
"Really now? That… Might be useful. What are you going to wish for?" She tilted her head the other way.
"I really don't know. Maybe I'll just let one of the others decide." After that we seemed to sit in silence for a long while, then she came back over to me, leaned in close, and gave me a small lick on the cheek. I...I wasn't sure why she did, but hey, I wasn't complaining!
"Well… Until next time then, Spyro." And with a turn of her body, she padded back across the sandy shore, and down into the depths of the water. I watched as the bioluminescence from her body slowly fade away into the deep dark waters of the ocean. And there I was, alone once more.
"Well… I guess now is...YAWWWWWNNNNN...better then any time to get some shut eye." I spoke to myself. . . . . . . . . Great, I was talking to myself again. This settles in fast it seems. I took my place under one of the palm trees further in on the island. Ugh… Unfortunately, the entire island was covered in sand, so there was no comfy spot of grass or moss I could sleep on. Just. SAND. I had shuffled and stirred throughout the night, probably making me shift around in the loose particles for a long while until I was sufficiently burrowed in, and I could feel myself finally drifting off into a deep, deep sleep. Finally…
I woke up pretty horrendously to some bits of sand seeping into my nose, making my head jerk up and my body freak out. My nostrils were all scratchy now and my sense of smell was heavily hindered for the moment. I quickly got up from my spot from the sand and made my way down to the calm sea water washing up on the shoreline. I took a deep breath and puffed out my cheeks, and dunked my head under the water, letting the sudden rush of the fluid to clean the sand out of my nose, and once that was through, I pulled my head away and looked around. Where was I exactly…? Oh right right. The middle of nowhere still. At this point, I looked back to the direction behind me, then back in front of me. Well… I guess I should continue on. I stretched out my wings and hummed a bit. Ahhh… Much better! I raised them a bit and lowered my body, then with a push down from my wings and a push up from my hind legs, I was off into the air once more.
Once I felt I was high enough I leveled myself out with the water and started to flap my wings, gaining speed as I went on, only to then turn it more into a glide, as it seemed I couldn't go any faster than I was. Every passing minute was really just filled with boredom, the same clear blue sky, and the same deep blue ocean beneath me. Though, at least I had plenty to think about now. Like Alzy. Gosh… Thinking about her made me feel all sorts of things that's only natural for a young dragon. Granted, I didn't really spend all that time with her but I got what I wanted. For now, at least, I could keep my mind focused on that damned fish dragon.
My mind must have been thinking too much as I momentarily forgot I was in the air, and the next thing I know I'm sudden smacking face first into probably one of the most solid trees I've seen in my life, made me stop completely and everything! I thought I'd maybe put a dent in the thing but, this tree was dense. I kind of sat there, splat against the tree, only to the fall off of it, and hit my back, sides, and stomach against a few branches, luckily slowing my fall, but also giving me a few wounds along the way. Ugh… At least my scales grow back quick… I found myself hitting the ground with a hard thud, and a throaty grunt left my throat. "Oh, sweet Elders that really...really hurt…" I laid there on the ground, steadying myself and relaxing for a moment, only to then pull myself up and off the ground with a subtle push off, and a stretching out of my body. I looked up to see what tree I had just assaulted with my own face before finding it rather, pretty to stare at. The leaves were all pink and so soft looking. The gentle breeze in the air seemed to tug a few of those pink leaves right off of their branches and float down towards the ground with a delicate motion. Jeez… Who knew staring at a tree could be so relaxing? I sat down and continued to stare at it, even finding one of those leaves landing on the tip of my snout. With utmost care, I plucked it away and held it between my digits, amazed at just soft it really was! It just didn't look soft, it was super soft! I then laid it on the ground and stood back up, shaking my head. As much as I wanted to stare at the tree, I didn't really have the right amount of time for such a thing. I was on a mission after all! Well...two. One, I would have to get those Crystal Shards, and two, I had to find Cynder. I still cared about her sure! It only makes sense to bring her back and well… be with her again. Ugh! Just so much going through my mind now it was hard to even think a single thought without it being overlapped by another then another, and another. What a world I live in… I sighed and continued on my way into the unknown forest in front of me, hopefully, that shard is here!