There is an absolutely gorgeous and adorable artwork I commissioned from an artist, based off this chapter. You can find a link to it on my profile! Please take a look!
"C'mon, Cynder! You're never going to catch me at that rate!" Came a young male's voice, echoing through the air with jubilance.
"Does your small mind even comprehend how screwed you are?" Retorted a young female, voice filled with focused irritation. "Malefor was nothing compared to what I'll do to you!"
Like two birds chasing each other in a kind of aerial dance, Cynder dogged after Spyro, the two of them nothing but blurred shadows sailing through the air. Spyro dashed through trees, missed incoming boulders and branches by a split second and took dramatic sudden turns mid-flight, but nothing could shake Cynder off. The black dragon stayed hot on his tail, her eyes fixated on his movements like a hawk after its prey.
"Last warning. Stop now and your queen may show you mercy, dragon boy!" Cynder called, effortlessly dodging a mossy stone even at her blinding speed.
"Flirting won't get you anywhere, Cynder!" Spyro taunted, taking a sharp turn into a grove of trees.
The towering Dragon Temple rapidly faded into the distance as the two dragons approached the opposite end of the valley. While Spyro maintained the lead for now, it was a diminishing one. What Cynder lacked in power, she made up for in agility. Nothing was wasted in her movements, and with every obstacle dodged, she grew closer and closer to her prey.
"You doing okay back there Cyn-whhaaa!"
Spyro's mocking was cut short by a sharp gust of wind slamming into his body from behind. He was nearly thrown into a tree trunk, and after recovering, he glanced back to find Cynder sneering evilly - eyes lite with a white light.
"Wait, was that a wind blast!?" Spyro shouted, unsure how he felt about dodging obstacles as well as attacks from behind.
"Whoops. Your butt just looks so cute from back here." Cynder said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Thought I'd use it for target practice."
With a powerful roar, another transparent blast of air shot from Cynder's gaping mouth, hurtling towards Spyro.
"And to think we were cuddling not even fifteen minutes ago!" Spyro yelled, dodging pressure blasts of air through a series of impressive aerobatics.
"A true dragoness knows when to be affectionate, and when to show her boyfriend when he's being a brat." Cynder stated, firing off a more concentrated blast. "Guess it just goes to show that you really know how to pick em', huh, hero?"
His cockiness having been knocked out of him, Spyro made a desperate roll in mid-air, watching the potent blast of air soar right by his wing. This was bad. Cynder was serious, now. If he didn't watch himself, he was going to get blasted into a tree or rock - and that would be the least of his problems. It was time for evasive action.
Spyro took a steep upwards turn, and darted out through the top of the trees, out into the open sky. Cynder's dark form followed suit, legs close to her body to cut through the air as effectively as possible. Just as Spyro reached a plateau in his ascent and began to change direction, Cynder fired off another blast of air. Not enough time to dodge it, Spyro instinctively curled his wings together as a shield, bracing himself for the impact.
"Wrong move, Spyro." Cynder muttered under her breath. The hazy spear of wind collided with the male dragon, and sent him spiraling helplessly through the sky. Cynder wasted no time - she shot forwards and tackled the purple dragon before he could regain his bearings. Together, the two of them plummeted rapidly towards the open grass fields below.
With a muffled thud, Spyro's back collided with the ground - acting as a cushion for Cynder, who made sure to immobilize her prey with her weight the moment he landed.
"Checkmate." Cynder said conclusively, standing proud on Spyro's chest.
"Ack! Damn it, that hurts..." Spyro winced, his back giving him a painful throb. With one eye closed in pain, he gazed up at the female dragon with a defeated expression - his front legs curled, his wings flat against the soft reflective grass. Something about being pinned by the feisty, relentless black dragon made him forget all about his back throbbing, and instead, gave him a stream of butterflies in his stomach. Whether it was Cynder's Fear Aura ability or just his excited anticipation, he couldn't tell.
"And now..." Cynder began, teasing the fallen dragon with a sharp claw beneath his chin. "You're right where I want you."
"You know, when you're not ten times your normal size and trying to kill me in the name of the Dark Master...you're really cute when you're on the hunt." Spyro chuckled, eyeing the claw tickling his chin.
"'Flirting won't get you anywhere'." Cynder mimicked, laying herself on the pinned dragon's chest. Her front claws laid just under Spyro's neck, her face now only inches from his. Spyro could feel his cheeks flushing red, as Cynder's bright emerald eyes locked into his.
"So...what are you going to do, now?" Spyro asked, his anticipation hinging on the question.
"Well, first, I'm gonna watch you squirm uncomfortably and blush up a storm, like you're doing right now." The black dragon said slyly.
Spyro became even more flustered. He could feel traces of sweat brewing just underneath his scales.
"Secondly, I'm going to make you pay." She said calmly, tail twitching behind her.
"Make me pay?" Spyro repeated.
"That's right. All I wanted to do was sleep in with you today and take it easy, but as usual you can't sit still." Cynder explained. "So, I'm going to force all that energy right out of you."
"But I-w-whoa! He-y, w-what are you doing?"
Spyro's body gave a little twitch, as Cynder's claw made a stroking motion along his golden chest.
"Oh, not to mention you went and started pressing buttons you ought not to by opening that big mouth of yours." The dragoness continued, drawing circles on Spyro's underbelly with one claw.
"H-Hey now! T-this is getting into t-torture territory!" Spyro chocked out, trying and failing to push the female off of him.
"And now here we are, with you suffering the consequences at my complete mercy." Cynder finished, taking great pleasure in watching Spyro try his best not to laugh.
"T-To be fair, all I was t-trying t-to do was get you m-motivated for a good c-chase!" Spyro said, his composure dwindling.
"Yeah? And how's that working out for you?" Cynder asked sarcastically, slowly dragging a claw down the purple dragon's left side.
"Great, actually!" Spyro said, a lot louder than he meant to. "I h-had a lot of fun! And I k-know you did too!"
"I guess that's true." Cynder admitted. "Kinda having fun right now too, not gonna lie."
"Y-You were r-right, by the way!" Spyro managed, more laughter than words coming from him now. "C-clearly you've suc-ceed-ed where Male-for c-couldn't!"
"And thousands of ape solders, not to mention my evil form." Cynder added. "'The Purple Dragon of Legend, brought down by simple tickling'. Oh, just wait till I tell Sparx and the Elders. You won't hear the end of it."
Feeling content in her vengeance - at least for now - Cynder finally let up. She withdrew from Spyro's chest and let the emasculated young dragon breath again.
As Spyro sat up and began to shake the blades of grass from his wings- not to mention begin to regain his composure - a sudden realization came over his face.
"Sparx..." he began. "I wonder how he and everyone else are doing, actually."
"You told them we needed some time to ourselves after getting back, didn't you?" Cynder said, sitting regally and reaching an itch on her wing. "It's only been a couple days since then. They can't be missing us that much, yet."
"True, but it wouldn't hurt to drop by, would it? While we're out and about as it is." Spyro reasoned.
Cynder eyed the purple dragon for a few moments, then smirked.
"Yeah, I guess that's fine. You can give Sparx assurance that I haven't eat you within the past forty-eight hours, and I can tell him I put the world's hero into total submission with just one claw."
"You'd better not," Spyro chuckled, flapping his wings and taking to the air once more. "Because you're right, he'd never let me hear the end of it."
"That's the idea!" Cynder jeered, suddenly taking off from the ground with a powerful wing beat and making a heading in the direction of the Dragon City - Warfang.
"H-hey! Get back here! I'm serious!" Spyro called after her, picking up speed and following in suit. "Sparx doesn't need to know!"
