II - Twilight on Dusk
I awoke in a sweaty pant this morning, feeling my body up with my paws. No cuts, bruises, or bite marks. Just another dream about that damned undead Spyro… Yet I knew he was alive… It was just after seeing him undead that one time was… more than enough to trigger these bad thoughts. I've also been thinking about what Neztal said… Destroy the shards to prevent this outcome. I shook my head a small bit and continued to take a few good looks around my chamber, inspecting more of the finer details for some time, thinking to myself, this will probably be one of the last times I'll be in here. It was morning still by the sounds of the birds outside my window. I sat up on my bed and sighed to myself, shaking my head a small bit. Oh boy… I thought to myself.
"Wakey Wakey, eggs and some slightly overcooked pancakes!" I turned my head as I watched Bläyz come waltzing into my room, rear end first, carrying a large plate full of food, which ironically continued the same eggs and slightly overcooked pancakes she spoke of. She trotted up to the side of my bed and set down the large plate. "Spyro has been talking to me and Adäh all morning about what we should do and what course of action we should take on this whole situation. He talked about splitting up to cover more ground." Bläyz sat down by my side and shook her head softly and a sigh. "I worry about this one, Cynder. This seems a little too dangerous for me…"
"Hey hey… It will be okay… We just have to hope for the best and keep pushing through, okay?" I gave my fuzzy friend a small pat the head. I had known Bläyz for about 5 years now. I met her up in Dante's Freezer, along with Adäh. They both come from the same sort of region, a region very far away. They...didn't initially speak the same language as we did. Me and Spyro had gone out for the usual rescue mission that the guardians sent us on in Dante's Freezer, it always seemed to be in Dante's Freezer. This time around though we found two dragons instead of the usual one. We were uncertain of where they came from as they were covered from nose to tail tip in fur. I had always pronounced their names wrong. They spell it with a weird accent above the 'a' in each of their names. They said it's just because of where they were from, Scandinavia apparently… Me and Spyro certainly never heard of it so we assumed they must have been from a distant world, which was accurate, to say the least, there was no Scandinavia in the Dragon Realm. We took these fuzzed up dragons to the Guardians and they spoke of how they got here exactly. It was all too complicated for me to follow but Spyro seemed to certainly get it at least. Bläyz was my shot at the two. After she learned to speak our language, which took a great deal of time, of course, she told me that Adäh was her brother, which made sense, as they looked nearly identical. I had plenty of questions to ask her after she learned near perfect draconic, but now was not the time for that.
"Say Cynder, where did you and Spyro first meet?" Bläyz asked, looking over at me as I took a bite of the slightly overcooked pancakes. "I've always wondered how you two dragons met."
"Well Bläyz, I first met Spyro on a battlefield. It was between me, and him. We, well he, was much younger, and me, well… I was surrounded under the control of the Dark Master Malefor. His original goal was to defeat and kill me, but...for some reason he didn't. He never truly told me why he saved me all the years ago, but I am still grateful for what he did. Nearly killed himself in doing so too…" I gave a small sigh and shook my head a tiny bit, then looked over to Bläyz once again who was sitting there, listening rather attentively.
"Wow... Adäh never usually did anything like that with me! Well...probably because I'm his sister, and because we haven't really been in much danger either. But either that's very nice of him!" Bläyz smiled and nodded her head. She was the more cheery, scaredy cat of the two of them, which was fine mostly because for one, they aren't really the toughest of duos out there, so one of them has to at least become the stronger sibling.
"Yeah, no kidding… Spyro tells me all sorts of things that make me start to think that he's in love with me. Which I am fine with but… maybe not in this situation, not now. We have too much at stake here to start putting emotions before everything else." I sigh and turn my head to the side a bit before Bläyz patted my back, singing calmingly to me in her native language. It was very pretty to listen to of course. After that short while, I was calm again, and my short little panic attack was gone. Thank goodness.
"Come on Cynder, we have to get going now, it's almost time!" Bläyz told me as she soon grabbed my wrist and pulled me up onto my four paws, then lead me out of my chamber. I barely had time to get ready, but I didn't have much to get ready with anyways.
We came to the now barren opening of the Dragon City Gate, there was no one around strangely to see us off or anything.
"Okay everyone, gather close!" Spyro trying to be the team captain as always, waved us over to see what exactly the game plan was. "Okay guys, today is the day. Are we all ready?" In unison, we all said yes, Spyro nodded and continued. "Alright, good. So, we are going to split up. Each of us going a separate route towards each of those locations we found on that map. I will go to Twilight Falls. Adäh, Bläyz, you two will go to Medivah Valley. Cynder, you will go to Duskdawn Coast. Once we find what we need, everyone meets up in the Timeless Plains, since that is in the middle of all our locations. Everyone knows where they are going and what they need to do? If so they good, break!" Spyro said with a swift nod, flick of his tail, and flap of his wings, he waved us off and quickly took to the sky. Adäh and Bläyz both came close and gave me a quick hug before sending themselves off to Medivah Valley.
"Be safe Cynder!" Adäh told me before they two of them took to the sky as well, leaving me alone near the gate. Just as I was about to take off in the direction towards Duskdawn Coast I felt that same drowsiness overcome my mind and it was quickly taking its effect on me.
"Ugh… Why...now…" I groaned out before flopping over suddenly onto my side.
-Welcome back...Cynder…-
It was Neztal again, but...why now? I soon reawakened in the Dawn Grasslands once more, and I looked around once more before shaking my head. I turned to my left, hoping to assume Neztal was there, and well, he was. "Why have you brought me back Neztal? Is there something you need to tell me?"
-Yes… I have called you back… Because you are not ready to take on the threat in Duskdawn Coast yet… We have to… Reawaken your dormant powers… First… We start with the most basic… your elemental power of Poison…-
"Okay but… how do we do that?" I asked him, so curious about how this will work.
-Here...- Neztal guided me towards the mirror pool once again, though this time he waved his paw over it, and the water began to disappear and soon in its place, a pool of acid. -To complete your unlock… you must submerge your body in this pool of acid. If you truly can harness the power of Poison once more then you should be able to come out unscathed… If not… Then we shall try again once you have healed…-
"W-wait a minute… Are you saying I could die in this?!" I was genuinely scared, thinking I could actually melt in that pool of acid! The thought of it ran through my head like a thousand dolphins breaching the ocean's surface.
-No… You will not die… but you will become severely damaged… And lose most of your skin, scales, and muscles… I can heal you no problem… Now… Let us… Begin…- I looked to Neztal, shaken and afraid, but he had trust in his eyes, and I had to trust for that. After all, he was the soul sent to protect me. I sighed and glanced into the menacing pool of bubbling acid before slowly stepping in.
"H-Holy… F-fuck… It burns…" For once in my life I cursed. And I wasn't ashamed of it. I was now basically an adult dragon now, ready for anything. I could feel the acid burning my scales, my skin, and leaking in through the holes where my claws sat in my paws. But there was no backing out now. I quickly laid flat in the acid and I felt my body falling into the suddenly deep pond. Every fiber of my being was in pain. The acid was so strong, so potent. It seeped into my nostrils and down my throat, burning the inside of my body. I could feel it working its way further into my body, almost as if by magic it was working its way deeper and deeper until it reached my core. When for a moment, I was for sure thinking I would die, I couldn't feel the pain anymore. My body seemed to glow in the dark green pond, and I was violently pushed up and out, where the pool turned shallow and back to its normal mirror pool style. I panted and gasped out for breath, laying there. My body had still taken severe damage nonetheless. I looked down to see most of my foreleg eaten away by the acid, nothing but the bone and tendons connecting them together. Same with my tail, a hind paw, and my left wing. I wasn't sure of it, but I swear I couldn't see out of my left eye anymore either. "G-gods above… That was more pain than I've ever felt before…"
-It is okay Cynder… You have survived the test… and now you can use the element of poison at will… Now I shall heal you… and let you be on your way…- Neztal nodded his head and gently laid his glowing paw on my seemingly broken, acid-eaten body, and I could feel my strength returning to me and my body being repaired with this weird magic I was unfamiliar with. After a few minutes I could feel my paws again, then my tail, and soon my wing. Even my full eyesight had returned. -Well done Cynder… It is time for you to go… I shall call you again when it is time…- And with that, Neztal disappeared, and so did the Dawn Grasslands. I found myself in the black void again, and suddenly, I woke up. I found myself laying on the ground near the main gate still. It was still a little past noon so that means not a lot of time passed luckily. I quickly got the energy to get up and I started to go towards my first destination, the Duskdawn Coast.
I soon approached the Duskdawn Coast, looking around for any sort of sign that would allow me to have a safe landing. I flew around the Coast for a good several minutes before spotting a small building near the rocky cliffside. I touched down on the soft sand and stepped toward the door. "Hello? Is anyone home? Helloooooooo?" I stepped up to the door and knocked on it softly, waiting for a few moments before looking over to a window to the left of the door. I took a peer in and I perked my head. The window was open and there was a bloodied dragon on the inside. I quickly dived through the window and made my way to the bloodied dragon on the ground. "Hello? Are you okay? Sir…?" Upon closer inspection, I saw that there was no chest rise or anything. I gently rolled the body over onto its back and what nearly made me throw up. Now I know I seem like a dragoness that should be used to this sort of thing, but I'm not. The dragon down by my feet had a gaping hole in his abdomen, most of his internal organs missing and his body seemed mostly just lifeless and heavily dull, his eyes were even whitened over. "Oh, dear gods... " I looked away and huffed out my breath before sighing gently.
I turned to go look along the rest of the shoreline before I felt something grab my tail. I quickly turned once again and I looked to see that same gutted dragon standing up, his paws wrapped around my tail just before the blade tip. I couldn't flick it around very well so there was no way I could get it free. I jerked my tail forward and to the side of me, seeing the horrid of an undead dragon go flying past me and out the window. I quickly ran outside to run but to my surprise, there were more than just the one. It seems they have been waiting for me. And here I am. Well...guess I am fighting for the first time in 3 years now. Here, we, go.