Spyro: Dawn of Light

Part 1, Chapter 2


Spyro grunted under Cynder's weight but forced his legs to keep moving as he carried her. She wasn't very heavy at all, but he'd gone a little too hard in that fight and now his limbs were hurting. Cynder had her head on his, between his horns, staring at nothing as her mind wandered. They'd passed the pillar Spyro had indicated but were still a distance from his cave.

"You okay?" Cynder asked, feeling Spyro stumble a bit.

"Yeah...yeah I'm fine..."

"You sound exhausted...why don't you stop?"

Spyro didn't reply, but after a while he stopped and Cynder slid off his back, hissing a bit as her injured leg hit the ground. He stretched with a long groan and yawned, looking at the sky. "Wow...the afternoon's flying pretty fast..."

They sat there in silence, Cynder letting Spyro recover from the fight and from carrying her...but the silence was killing both of them. Spyro sighed, and Cynder looked up at him curiously. "Something wrong?"

"No...not really, just thinking back."

"To what?"

He looked off in the distance. "We're sitting pretty much where I had my first defeat...Gnasty Gnorc was going to attack the Settlements, and I thought I could take him on..."

"How old were you?"

"Six..."

Instead of laughing like he'd expected her to, she stared at him, a searching look on her face. "I think I remember that..." She looked at the ground, trying to remember.

"I was pretty badly beaten...I was surprised the healer heard about it and got here so fast."

Cynder gasped. "It was me! I saw you get beaten and I ran to get the healer!"

They just stared at each other, and Spyro nervously ran his paw on his neck. "Well...uh, thanks...kinda late for it..."

Spyro whipped around as he heard something nearby. Cynder stood up in alarm. "Spyro?"

"Something's nearby...c'mon, let's get going." He lay down this time, letting her get onto his back, and carried her again, his pace more of a jog than the slow walking he'd been doing. Spyro felt like they were being followed, but when he caught sight of the purple-flowered tree he was aiming for the presence fell back and he fell into walking again.

"You live in a tree?" Cynder asked, confused. Spyro just shook his head with a grin and headed over the small hill in front of them. From the top, Cynder saw that the tree was seated on a small, steep hill by a small stream. Spyro headed down to the hill and walked around, coming to a large entrance in the side of the hill. It was big enough that Spyro could walk straight in, even with Cynder on his back, and in he went. The tunnel was inclined, leading down well below ground level, and when they came to the cavern Cynder gasped slightly. Spyro, over the years, had decorated the small cave with various things he'd collected over the years - colorful bits of armor from defeated enemies, broken glass shards, unwanted scraps...and to top it off he had some glow-stones hanging from the roots poking through the ceiling, and the light was caught in all the little knick-knacks and gave the cave a peaceful, glittering appearance. At the far end was his bed, nothing more than a large "bean-bag" stuffed with moss and heather, but it looked very soft and pillowy. Spyro headed over to his bed and Cynder slipped off his back onto it, rolling onto her side so her injured leg was out of the way.

"You hungry?" he asked when she was comfortable.

"Very, actually..."

"Wait here." He ran off, leaving Cynder alone in his cave. She stared after him, and her eyes slowly wandered over his cave, marveling at how carefully he'd placed all the bits and pieces so they reflected the light just right from the walls or from the roots not holding glow-stones. She looked down at his pillow under her shoulder...it was worn, like hers, but hers were pretty badly torn from her restless nights because of the spikes on her cheekbones. Remembering her home, she produced the blanket Spyro had bought and given to her...

Spyro came back with a prepared sheep and two frogs to find Cynder asleep, her new blanket over her. She yawned and opened her eyes when she heard crackling and smelled a twinge of smoke.

"Spyro?" she yawned, sitting up. She started when she saw a crackling fire in the center of the cave, with Spyro watching it. "Spyro, what about the smoke?"

"The cave ventilates itself, I made sure of that before I moved in."

The smell of the cooking meat was driving Cynder crazy, and Spyro laughed as her stomach growled loudly. She groaned loudly as her leg throbbed. "Not to nag but is it done yet?"

"Almost..." Spyro brought over some sheep and some frog legs for her and she ate, watching him out of the corners of her eyes as he ate the remainder. He finished rather quickly and held back a burp as he turned to her. "I'm gonna go see about finding the healer."

Cynder's eyes fell and she sighed. "Spyro, forget it...we're outcasts, remember? Last time I went to find him he wouldn't even so much as look at me."

"Well I'm gonna try anyway. I'm not letting you suffer because of ignorance." He walked out resolutely and she watched him.

"Is he always like this?"

-

Cynder yawned and stretched, snapping awake with a yelp when her leg hit a rock by the edge of the bean-bag. Tears rolled down her face and she bit her lip as sharp pains shot through her leg. "Why me? Why'd I hafta be the one that got hurt?" She thought back to the battle and scowled. "Of course...klutzo purple wasn't watching what he was doing."

She heard faint footsteps, and into the cavern came Spyro, followed by a disgruntled dark-cyan dragon wearing a robe of sorts loaded with pockets bearing an assortment of leaves and small pouches of powder. He snorted and rolled his eyes.

"How'd I know...another one." Spyro glared at him behind his back but the old dragon stood over the bed and inspected Cynder's leg. She whimpered in pain as he felt her muscles and bones, but after a while he took out a few leaves and turned to Spyro. "Get me a bowl or something to put these in."

Spyro got a bowl and pushed it along the floor to him, and the healer took it without a word. "Y'know, a simple 'thanks' goes a long way."

"That's no way to speak to your elders," the healer growled, more because he didn't want to admit Spyro was right. Spyro just rolled his eyes and watched as the healer ground the leaves. He held his paw over the bowl and water appeared in it, and he swirled the bowl around. Taking out a bag of powder and continuing the swirling he mixed in an entire pouch, and when it was pretty well mixed together he set it down. "Just drink this, don't overdo it but try to drink as much as you can."

"Thanks," Cynder said, but the healer left with a grunt. "Jerk...didn't even say what was wrong..."

Spyro sighed and shook his head. "Well, least you have a cure now."

"No thanks to you..."

Spyro stared at her. "Huh?"

"If you'd been watching what you were doing I wouldn't be like this!"

"Hey, it was an accident! And you said yourself, 'it happens in fights'!"

"Yeah but if you weren't so focused on fighting you would've seen me behind you!"

"Well the fact is I didn't! And I'm sorry I didn't! It's in the past anyway, why even bother arguing about it?"

"Still your fault," she grumbled, leaning over on his bed to the bowl of water and taking a drink.

"If you weren't injured I'd have you leave if you're gonna be so ungrateful. I'm giving you my bed and food, if you don't want it I'll take you home."

She sideglanced at him angrily and wiped her mouth on her paw, laying her head on his pillow so she was looking away. Inside, Spyro was hurt by her sudden change of demeanor...or was she always like this? Was that niceness before now just a suck-up?