Chapter II
Missing
Spyro opened his eyes as the blinding white light faded. He saw the rest of the Skylanders doing the same.
"Everyone alright?" he called out to the Skylanders.
They all answered back yes, which pleased Spyro much. Then a thought came to mind.
"Alright, are there any casualties?" he asked.
"No," said Hugo, watching from above. "There aren't any soldiers, either."
Spyro looked around; Hugo was right: There were no soldiers around. And Kaos wasn't there either.
"Alright," he continued. "Line up, all elements. Captains, be in front of the line. Elements will all be in separate lines."
The Skylanders lined up, captains in front of the lines. Spyro began to inspect, but then a voice called him out of it.
"Spyro!" said the voice of Hex, a dark witch of the Undead element and one of the only Skylanders Cynder was able to trust completely.
"What?" asked Spyro, listening intently. He turned around and saw the Undead element's line. Someone was missing.
"Where's Cynder?" asked Spyro, now in fear.
"I don't-" Hex began, but she was cut off by Stealth Elf.
"Spyro, it's all my fault!" Stealth Elf cried.
"What do you mean?" demanded Spyro.
It a was a moment before she answered.
"I was nursing her injuries, and when the light came, I couldn't see her, and when the bright light vanished, she wasn't there, so I thought she had woken and limped away," she explained.
Spyro felt hot tears in his eyes: He was one of the few who trusted Cynder and another thing was that he was truly in love with the black dragoness.
"We need to find her," he said finally.
"How are we going to find her, Spyro?" asked Stealth Elf. "She could be anywhere in Skylands!"
Spyro's heart sank: She was right; Cynder could be anywhere in Skylands.
"Well, how's about the captains go to the main realms and the others check the smaller realms?" Hex suggested.
"Yeah, we should do that!" said Spyro. "And Hex, until we find Cynder, you'll be the captain of the Undead element."
"Fine," she told Spyro, a sad note in her voice.
Spyro knew that, of all the Skylanders, only eight trusted her: Spyro, Gill Grunt, Trigger Happy, Stealth Elf, Hex, Ghost Roaster, Chop Chop, Sonic Boom and Sunburn.
Sunburn, Spyro, Sonic Boom Stealth Elf, Gill Grunt and Trigger Happy were the only non-Undead element Skylanders to trust Cynder.
"Where do we go first, Spyro?" asked Hex.
"I'd say that we should try Shattered Island first, then go to the Underworld," Spyro announced to them.
"That sounds good," said Stealth Elf. "But why Shattered Island, Spyro?"
"That's the first place we ever met," Spyro told the captains. "When she was evil."
"What happened there?" inquired Hex.
"Well, she chased me all around the world, trying to do me in for the Dark Master, who Hex and me know to be the king of the Undead."
"And who's that?" questioned Stealth Elf.
"Malefor," whispered Hex, barely loud enough for the captains to hear it.
"That's right," said Spyro. "Malefor was his name, the Dark Master's. You see, when Cynder was just an egg, Malefor sent his forces to steal an egg so that he could corrupt a hatchling.
"While another dragon took my egg to safety among dragons in the Artisan realm, Cynder's egg was snatched-" Spyro was cut off his narrative by a gasp from Stealth Elf and Hex- "and the Dark Master corrupted her with his dark, poisonous powers.
"I went to Shattered Island to see if I could find anything about my heritage and Cynder's, who I had just heard about, and she ambushed me there, threatening to kill me if I didn't give in to join forces with her and Malefor."
Stealth Elf and Hex gave another gasp at this.
"I refused," Spyro continued, "and so there was a chase. She chased me all around the island, trying to kill me by biting my neck.
"Soon enough, I was able to end the chase by shooting a fireball at her. She fell back and I decided to try and follow her to wherever she was going next. After Shattered Island came a realm known as Concurrent Skies.
"We fought at her fortress there in Concurrent Skies. I won, but she was able to escape and then I followed her to a realm outside of Skylands known as Convexity, where I found her with Malefor himself.
"I fought her and she fought back, too, but much more brutally than I. Malefor just stood there, taunting as we fought, so I decided to try and make a move at the so-called Dark Master.
"The evil Cynder knew what I was doing, and so she dashed straight at me, claws outstretched, her teeth bared. I evaded and then spit fire and charged right at her at the same time, causing her to fly right into a pile of rocks.
"There was a flash of purple light, and she turned back to normal, though she was badly hurt. She was now the same size as me. I was now mad at Malefor for doing this, for corrupting a small dragoness to do his bidding. But when I turned around, he was gone. He had escaped after Cynder was returned to normal.
"Afterwards, I took her back to Shattered Island and the natives there nursed her back to health."
"Afterwards, Eon chose me and Cynder to be in the ranks of the Skylanders, her in the Undead ranks and me in the Magic ranks. Since then, everything's been okay, at least, until now."
After a few moments of silence, Hex broke it by saying:
"Spyro, I don't believe you know my backstory?"
"I can't say that I do," admitted Spyro.
"Well," she narrated, "before I was chosen to be in the ranks of the Undead, Malefor hunted me and tried to learn the secrets of my powers, but I refused, so he confronted me in the Underworld and we battled, but he lost and my powers terribly wounded him. He retreated back into the deepest part of the Underworld and I never saw him again."
Spyro was in pure awe at Hex's backstory.
"So what do we do now, go to Shattered Island?" asked Sunburn, captain of the Fire element.
"First, we have to ask Flynn if he can fly all eight of us to Shattered Island," Spyro told the other seven elemental captains.
As the other captains agreed and made their way to where Flynn was, Spyro stopped Hex and Stealth Elf.
"What is it, Spyro?" asked Stealth Elf.
"You guys don't know just how much Cynder means to me," said Spyro. "When I saw her fly into the rocks, it reminded me of when she was evil, something I've never wanted to think about again after the battle. Guys, I don't think I can keep going on with this."
"Then don't, Spyro," comforted Hex. "Only think of positive thoughts, Spyro, not bad thoughts."
Spyro smiled a little, then walked over to Flynn the balloonist.
"Hey, Flynn," greeted Spyro. "Do you have any balloons that can carry eight?"
"Yeah," answered Flynn. "I do. Yeah, I know I have to bring you to Shattered Island, and I also know of the whole Cynder thing, what with her being kidnapped and all that stuff."
"So you want to take us there now, Flynn?"
It was a couple of minutes before Flynn realized what Spyro had just said, as he was eyeing Cali.
"Huh?" he finally asked. "Oh yeah, let's go now. Hop aboard, captains! Next stop, Shattered Island!"
