Chapter 2: Elation in the Evening Lake

As the whirligig takes Spyro through the slowly changing skies towards his next destination, Shina and on occasion Alex tell the dragon and his little flying friend what they were doing here. Spyro just nodded his head throughout, paying attention just enough to get the gist of their goals, though he was pretty flabbergasted by how energetic the girl was in particular. When they were done, Shina smiled and said nonchalantly "And that's how we met ya!"

"Uh…huh?" Spyro's brows were raised as he spoke in a rather dazed manner, and he exchanged a glance with Sparx as the dragonfly at least clearly buzzed the words "I don't know" while shrugging his wings.

"I know it's a lot to swallow, especially since Shina went a LITTLE too fast…" Alex took a moment to glare at an awkwardly giggling Shina before looking back and continuing "But the thing is-"

"Don't worry about it, I just don't really know what this 'Cosmos Drive' is. But I'm glad to have some more assistance with the Dragon Eggs."

"Got a real collect-a-thon on your case here dontcha Spyro? We're more than happy to help considering we've do-" Alex widened his eyes and then quickly took a hand to Shina's mouth to muffle her voice, and she keeps speaking even while turning her head to watch as Alex put a finger to his lips to give her the hint.

Thankfully Spyro didn't notice all that and said "Oh, and keep an eye out for any Gems when we get to Evening Lake. Experience has taught me they are always important for later."

While the dragon then took a moment to look out towards the sunset brown clouded sky that formed in the distance, Shina and Alex glided a bit away from the whirligig so they could speak quietly to each other. Alex at first gave a wide-eyed, peeved glare at Shina for a few seconds until she asked in a puzzled tone "Is something the matter?"

"You can't just CASUALLY tell someone we've seen them in fictional media."

"Why not?" Shina pondered with a finger raised to her lips and a purposely ditzy look in her eyes. Alex floated upright and folded his arms together before responding with his eyes shut "Well how would you feel if someone had played your life experiences before they even happened?"

"That'd be cooool!" Shina unhesitantly said while pumping her fists against her chest and a sparkle forming in her eyes, which caused Alex to grimace and tell her while still trying his hardest to keep his voice down "No it's not! It's very weird and unnerving!"

"Come to think about it, maybe someone out there plays video games based on the Elemental Overlo-"

"No! STOP!" Alex didn't restrain himself this time as he swung both his arms out in one swift motion, and thus Spyro looked over and asked "What's up you two?"

"Nothing, nothing! Hehehe!" Shina said while waving her hands around, and Spyro just shrugged it off and looked back ahead. Alex then lowered his body and continued gliding forward beside Shina, murmuring with his eyes closed "I'm adding a new rule…Don't EVER bring that idea up again." With a slight scowl at the thought, Alex shivered while Shina held a hand to her lips and quietly chuckled.

"Didn't you tell Mario the truth?" She asked in a humored tone, and Alex glanced aside with a slight bit of embarrassment on his face before stuttering "I-I was young and foolish! Besides, Mario and Spyro are two completely different people!"

"Oh, please! Spyro's such a carefree guy…Do you REALLY think he'd question his existence? That he'd break down bawling on the floor? Or that he'd just WRITHE in pain for hours on end?" Shina turned and flew on her backside, letting her hair drape down as she rested the back of a hand atop her forehead and used a rather playful tone of voice.

"Oh cut it out…I'm more annoyed that we're bothering to help Spyro considering we KNOW he'll complete this journey alive. The Cosmos Drive isn't here anyways." After that was said Shina flipped herself so she was pointing her body straight at Alex, her arms resting under her chin before she replied "Ya say that, and yet Spike nearly ended Spyro's game. That aura's really suspicious I'm telling ya, and I get the feeling it'll show up again. If we leave him alone, Spyro-"

"Shina, I hope you haven't forgotten why we're traveling the universe. You need the Cosmos Drive to stop Gravitus. Didn't YOU tell me that there's no time to waste?" Alex brandishes a finger at Shina, touching her nose while speaking in an irritated manner. Shina gently pushes down on Alex's hand with her own and replied in a firm manner "I haven't forgotten anything, but…It won't take long to help Spyro out, and can ya really say you'd feel right hoping that he won't run into trouble again?"

"Ghhh…No, I wouldn't. But we can't make a habit out of this, otherwise we're just burning our time away." Alex bluntly said while lightly gritting his teeth as Shina grinned his way and chuckled.

"Well how about this? We just got here, so there's nothing suggesting we won't find a clue somewhere, right? If we spent two days here and found something, then that'd definitely be worth it." Shina rationalized, and begrudgingly Alex folded his arms and mumbled "Well…At least you HAVE given it some thought."

"Finally, we made it!" Spyro suddenly commented with relief in his voice as the whirligig descended towards a much bigger floating island that had a series of yellow-topped brown mountains around it's edge and a clean stone castle half-submerged in a luscious lake. Alex and Shina dropped their conversation and stared at the island, setting foot on it at the same time as Spyro's whirligig. The dragon then stepped onto the grass and looked towards the sky, noticing a rainbow streak zipping back and forth as it approached him.

"Aaaaand right on cue." Spyro said with little joy, though he then flinched and glanced back as he heard a "thump!", noticing that Shina has thrown herself and Alex onto the ground behind the whirligig. However their efforts to hide from the presence were being foiled by Shina's longer legs sticking out, though she didn't know that as she laid atop Alex's back.

"W-What are you…?!" Alex's face was red as his chin ate dirt and Shina's breasts were pressed against his back, with her putting a hand to his mouth to keep him quiet as the rainbow streak landed on the ground in front of Spyro, and with a flash of light a person wearing a long-sleeved violet hooded cloak appears from the magic rainbow. They had vanilla fur and blue eyes with a slight bit of blonde hair sticking out from the top of their head, and a bunny-like nose. Right away, she started in on Spyro.

"Listen to me dragon…Spyro…this is serious now. The Sorceress is planning a trap and if she catches you…believe me, you don't want to know what she's going to do." Spyro simply rolled his eyes even as the strange girl was sounding a slight bit desperate, and after a sigh she rubbed her forehead and continued "Look, I promise to take good care of the rest of the eggs. I mean it…J-Just take Hunter with you and go back home or else…I-I can't even say it, just go! And your outsider friends should heed this warning as well!"

The strange girl then vanished in a magical flash of colored lights after getting rather vocal at the end, and Shina pushed herself back onto her feet and said while scratching the side of her face "Heh, guess she noticed us after all." Alex quickly stood up and after pulling the dirt off his face he glared into Shina's eyes with a frazzled blush in his cheeks before he walked past her and faced Spyro, who had turned around at that moment.

"Well, you two ready to get searching?" He said nonchalantly, leading to Alex standing in front of him and saying to keep up the act "You don't look worried at all."

"That Sorceress' apprentice has been nothing but empty threats this journey. Wasn't scared the other two times, not going to be scared now." When Spyro was done Sparx buzzed a little to the left of his face, and he replied "We'll tell Hunter later. Hey, if you two see a cheetah walking around, pass on that HORRIBLE warning to him" his voiced oozed with sarcasm at the end and he even chuckled a little after. He was then ready to go into the lake nearby, but Shina suddenly rushed in front of him and raised a hand up.

"Wait a second Mr. Spyro! Shouldn't you tell us what we're doing first?" Shina then folded her arms behind herself and eagerly awaited the dragon's directions. Alex bluntly pointed out right after as he stayed behind Spyro "Get Gems and Eggs, that's not that hard to memorize, Shina."

"But HOW are we going to do it? There's three of us here ya know." Shina cracked a grin, and Spyro sat his hind legs down and commented as he glanced back and forth at them "Well we can cover a lot of ground, so I guess just clear out this place before going into any portals you find. Can't split Sparx up between the three of us though, so you'll have to carry any gems back to him."

Sparx flew right up to Shina and smiled clearly, buzzing out a few words merrily, and while Shina smiled and patted him on the head twice she said nervously "I-I'm sorry Spyro, I'm not fluent in dragonfly."

"Oh no worries, he's saying he wants to help any way he can. You can rely on him, guaranteed." Spyro then received a "thank you" buzz from his friend as he flew back to his side, and the dragon commented right after as he stood back on all legs "Ready now? I'm itching to torch some more Rhynocs."

"Yeah I'm good. Lets go swimming!" Shina suddenly did a 180 and ran to the edge of the lake, leaping right off and diving headfirst into the water as Alex widened his eyes and thought "What the helium?! …This censoring is going to get to me by the time this is done, I swear…" He ran up to the lake while Spyro just dived right in himself, though at least his behavior was sane in doing so. Alex could see Shina floating upright in the middle of the water due to how clear it was, but she waved up and then opened her mouth.

"Come on Alex, jump in!" Her voice was heard with only a little disruption and only a few bubbles came out of her mouth. Alex let out a quiet "Wha…?" and then looked at the surface of the water, finding the idea of what Shina was doing rather suspect. He slowly moved his right foot off the ground and tapped the surface of the water to release a ripple, but then he pulled back and felt his heart racing a little.

"How can this…BEEEEEE?!" He's suddenly shocked when Shina rises to the water's surface and gently tugs on his lower leg to make him tip over and fall face first into the lake. Shina fell backwards into the water, lightly kicking her legs to keep a slow descent while Alex's limbs were extended rather messily at first, the impact with the water's surface having dazed his mind and vision. The first thing he saw was Shina in front of him with a playful grin and her hair spread about, and she wiggled some fingers towards herself before turning around and kicking her legs to glide through the water.

"Woo-hoo!" Shina said while somersaulting twice through the water, leading to her back leaning against the side of the castle as she hovers upside-down, though she just giggles playfully and readjusts herself with a turn while Alex continues to float in place, his eyes wide with shock yet his vision of the area as clear as could be. He held his hands in front of him and felt some resistance moving, but everything else about this situation defied all he knew about swimming underwater.

"T-This doesn't make sense…" Alex said, and then he realized his clothes weren't a burden on him in the water. He wasn't the least bit dampened, and neither was Shina. Shina then swam over to him and put his hands together between her own, looking him in the eyes and saying with a bright smile "It's magical, isn't it amazing?! Come on, lets go go go!" Shina lets go, and having quickly adjusted to the magic water she goes swimming away to start collecting stuff. Alex sighs and scratches the side of his head, then chooses to get a move on as well. Underneath one of the castle's arched bridges, Spyro paddles a bit in place while Sparx buzzes a few words to him.

"I agree Sparx, you'd think they'd never gone swimming before." Spyro said in a humored manner before he continued to swim through the lake in search of gems, which his companion picked up rather quickly and had sent away through magic.

Though he was still adjusting to this strange water, Alex had enough of a grip on the situation to start making his way around the lake, though he had accidentally lost sight of Shina. "It's not a big area…Where the hubbub did…she…" Alex floated in place, folded his arms together, and after a bit of finger tapping he let out an incredible sigh. Then he went on ahead and saw a portal surrounded by a temple-like arch attached to a wall. When he approached it some thick golden text appeared with a slight curve, telling Alex that this was the way to a place called Frozen Altars.

He ignored entering that for now and swam out of the water, crawling onto a small pyramid made of giant square stones and shaking himself until realizing he doesn't need to. Then he looks to the left and sees a detached castle tower, thinking to himself "I hope I'm remembering this right…" before he leaped up onto the ledge of the tower and noticed a few gems and a Dragon Egg in his sight. He picked up the gems telepathically and approached the egg, which caused it to suddenly start shaking and after a few seconds it hatched.

A baby dragon pops out similar to the one seen after Spike's defeat, but it had a nice little bow pink bow and a mint-green color to it. Right away, the little dragon stood up on it's hind legs and did a cartwheel to the left, holding it's claws out and panting a bit. Alex stared at the baby dragon until the magic rings teleported it away, his expression stoic the whole time. "Well that's one down, four to go…" Alex let out a sigh and then turned around, leaping off the tower and back into the water, where he immediately saw Spyro charging his way into the side of one of the castle's walls.

The part of the wall blows up and rocks go scattering behind him as he enters a hidden chamber, finding a few gems and another Dragon Egg. Alex catches up to the dragon by the time the egg has hatched and been sent off. When Spyro turns around and prepares to swim his way out, he accidentally rams right into Alex's gut, and after he lets out a gasp of air and is pushed back in recoil the boy gives Spyro a dull glance.

"Sorry about that. Any lucky with the Eggs?" Spyro inquired after a sincere but embarrassed apology as Sparx took the Gems Alex had picked up so far.

"I found one…Say, have you seen Shina anywhere?" Alex asked while gesturing out, and Spyro shook his head in response. Alex then clenches his fist and murmured "Yeah, alright…Guess I'll keep looking." He quickly turned around and swam off, with Spyro not making any comments before he continued on his search. Alex glanced back to make sure Spyro was on the right track, and the fact he went for a stone ladder above the surface meant he was.

"Hrmm…" He then decided to head into a tunnel that had red-white striped poles with working sparklers on the top of them. At that point, Alex closed his eyes and grimaced while his head started to hurt, and he slowly swam through until he ended up finding Shina near the end of the tunnel in front of another portal to a place called Fireworks Factory. The arch around the portal shared the aesthetics of the castle but cast an orange light into the tunnel. At the moment, she had an orb of aura with some gems contained within it, but she was also just floating in front of that portal.

"There you are…Have you found any Eggs around here yet?" Instead of getting a direct answer from her, Alex watches as Shina tenses up and then turns sideways, a sparkle in her eyes as she swiftly pointed at the portal and exclaimed "Can we please go there right now?!"

"Oh for crispy's sake…! Shina, we need to go where Spyro goes, you JUST pointed that out!" Alex said while rubbing his aching forehead. Shina turned himself the rest of the way and clenched her fists tightly, a wide smile on her face.

"ButFireworksFactoryisthebest!Atmosphere,music,thingstodo,it'salljustso-"

"SHINA, FOCUS!" Whether it was from his headache, the magic of this world, or Shina's enthusiastic rambling, Alex finally let his temper loose with enough force to make the water around him bubble. Shina froze with a half-effort smile, giving her ally a chance to calm down a bit before asking gently "Aren't you a little excited?" Alex just growled and tapped his fingers on his arms in a steady rhythm.

"Maybe you'll feel nostalgic when we go there. I guess we can get back to finding things. Come on!" After that chipper remark Shina swam past Alex and exited the tunnel, and he turned around and with a slight scowl he quickly went after her to make sure he didn't lose her again. She ended up pausing in the middle of the lake and looking around, noticing a sunken ship with a portal attached to the side of it and a fairy-tale like tower with another portal on it.

"Looks like Spyro cleaned up around here. I better make sure though…" Shina then looked towards the right and swam towards a passage in front of the tower portal, while Alex paused in the spot she was just at and panted a bit, thinking to himself as he raised a hand against his chin "W-Why am I getting tired already? Something really fishy is going on here…"

While he was thinking about that, Alex failed to notice the big wide cartoonish whale swimming behind him, and by the time it opened it's mouth and began to suck Alex in he was too late to turn around and react. The whale had a goofy smile on it's face and let out a bellow of glee right as Shina swam back into the area and saw what had happened. She couldn't help but chuckle even as she approached the whale and flicked her right hand out, creating a feather made of aura and wiggling it against the bottom of the creature's mouth.

"Come on big guy, let my friend out. He'd be too spicy to digest anyways! Heh!" Shina kept tickling the whale as it let out a bellowing guffaw and bubbles spewed from it's mouth, eventually leading to it being open enough for Alex to shoot right out of the beast with a Dragon Egg wrapped under his right arm. Shina then dispelled the feather and backed off safely with Alex, who then held the egg out beside himself as it hatched into a brown baby dragon that instantly started doing a handstand on Alex's arm until it was carried away by magic.

"There's Jonah, at least…" Alex said dryly, and Shina's chuckle after just made him glare at her with a look more frustrated than he appeared to be before. Thankfully he wouldn't be that way for long as Spyro dove into the water and swam next to them, and Sparx picked up the gems from Shina's aura orb.

"Zoe told me we got all the eggs here, but there's still a few gems left." Spyro commented, indicating he got the egg at the top of the castle. Shina laid a hand on her chin and asked "We haven't checked the underwater castle tunnel, have we?"

"Don't think so. And there's a certain SOMEONE we haven't run across yet, huh Sparx?" Spyro sighed as Sparx let out an irritated buzz, and the two of them decided to head for the tunnel with the traveling duo keeping up with them. The tunnel led to a secret cavern within the castle's inside, but besides the few remaining gems there was one other intriguing sight. Trapped in a giant gold bird cage is a large muscular beast with curved horns, a docile demeanor and a crystal club in his right hand. His captor is a portly standing bear with a fancy brooch worn tuxedo, a monocle in front of his right green eye and a bag with a "gem" on it held in his right hand.

Spyro instantly rolled his eyes as he approached the bear, whose eyes lit up and a smile crossed his goofy face as he began to say in a rather affable tone "Ah Spyro! You appear to have brought a couple of new customers with you! I would be glad to…ahem…'help' them with their money when I'm done with you. You see, the Sorceress has given me a real prize here today, I heard it took two dozen rhynocs to lock up this dimwitted furball. So if you wish to have your own personal yeti, then you're going to cough up some…mmm…hefty riches."

The yeti in question glared at the bear halfway through his selling pitch, and Shina stepped back and quietly said "Oh Moneybags, you silly ol' bear." Spyro then said with only a degree of resistance "Alright Moneybags, how much do you want this time?"

"Spyro my boy, since you are such a valued customer around these parts, I'd be willing to give you this yeti for the low, low price of…1000 gems!" The moment Moneybags said that, he was met with the glow and tip of Alex's sword, giving him a miniature heart attack while Spyro looked up in surprise. "G-Goodness gracious!" Moneybags exclaimed while Alex glared at him fiercely.

"Release the yeti for free or I'll free that bag of money from your hand." As Alex gave the ultimatum with no levity in his voice, Moneybag's legs started trembling and the monocle lowered on his face. What stopped Alex from going through is Shina laying a hand on his arm and gently lowering it, and she slowly shook her head with her eyes shut and said "Ah ah ah, no assaulting the con artist." Alex gave her a look of 'you can't be serious' immediately after.

"Yeah, relax a bit. You'll probably get to see something funny in a moment. Sparx, go ahead and give him the gems." Spyro then gestured his head towards the bear as he eases up once Alex dispels his sword, and he opens his bag up so Sparx and send 1000 gems into it via magic. With a chuckle Moneybags said "Where ARE you getting all this money? Heheh, surely it's not just lying on the ground, is it? …Err, is it? Ahh, what do I care, it's mine now!"

Even for his scheming nature, Moneybags was a bear of his word and once he closed the bag he clapped his hands a couple times and the cage around the yeti vanished in a puff of magic. Behind where the yeti stood, the crystal-stone arch opened a portal to a new location. The first thing the beast did with his freedom was stretch his arms up high and let out a serene groan of relief.

"Ah, the first rejuvenating breath…of freedom!" The yeti spoke in a surprisingly wise sounding tone, and he immediately looked to the four who allowed his release and said "With the humility of a wounded sparrow, I genuflect my noble delivery!" He bowed his free arm against his chest, while Spyro raised a brow and didn't quite know how to respond.

"Uhhh…It was no big deal dude." Was the best he could come up with. Then Moneybags let out a cough, trying to direct the attention of everyone towards him, but the yeti had only an angry glare to give to the bear.

"Why yes…After all, it was I who let you out!" Moneybags tried to approach the yeti with his bag opened up slightly, and the yeti's glare became wide-eyed and he held nothing back as he bluntly said "Why you BRAZEN, AVARICIOUS, DUPLICITOUS, LARCENOUS, URSINE!"

Sensing the hostility as the yeti slowly pulled back on his club, Moneybags stepped back and waved his arms out while stuttering "N-Now wait just a second here…!" For the next few seconds, the yeti took his club and bashed the ever loving bejeebers out of Moneybags, shaking the castle while Spyro, Shina and Alex let out a few pained but somewhat satisfied grimaces as the bear groaned in pain. The yeti paused for a moment as stars circle above Moneybags' head and inquired "One more, perhaps?"

"At LEAST." The group said in unison with enthusiasm, and after winding up his swing a little the yeti smacked Moneybags hard in the rear to send him flying against the wall above the water. The bear was stuck there until he slid and squeaked his way down into the water, though everyone focused back on the yeti as he approached Spyro and said merrily "PLEASE do afford me the sublime honor of enjoying your visitation in the nearest future."

"Yeah…sure…" Spyro said, still having no idea how to respond to the yeti's quaint manner of speaking even as he went through the portal…Without giving his name to the group. Once Spyro realized that, he said to Sparx "For a polite yeti, he sure forgot to tell us who he even was." Sparx then flew near the portal and buzzed as text appeared in front of it that said 'Bentley's Outpost'.

"Huh, guess that answers that."

Shina then stepped in front of Spyro and said "I'll go through this portal and see what gems and Eggs I can find. You and Alex can search one of the other portals!" Her sudden idea to split-up was not known by Alex, who vocally stated "H-Hey!"

"Alright cool! We'll cover way more ground then!"

"Sweet! Good luck Alex, I'll catch up with you both later!" Shina pumped her fists and then backflipped into the portal before Alex could say anything, leaving him frozen with his hand held out and his mouth agape. Spyro turned around and said "Lets check out that 'Lost Fleet' portal. Can always trust sunken ships to have lots of gems."

"Uhhh…riiight, sure thing" Alex said while slowly rubbing the back of his head and glancing away from Spyro until the dragon charges right into the water behind him. Alex takes one glance towards the portal and says "…Just remember Alex, you're learning from her." He then took one sigh and turned to follow Spyro to the sunken ship where the portal to their next destination lied.

Next Time: The Yeti's Home