A fast, constant flow of memories and thoughts passed through the young dragon's head. He couldn't make out any of it; it was as if everything he had ever known had all blended together, leaving nothing more than a very confusing haziness.
There was one clear memory, though: a black dragoness with a golden-yellow underbelly lying in his paws. Her throat had a deep cut and the blood was streaming away from her. He was holding her as she tried to make out her final words. Her eyes tried to stay focused, but they started to become more and more hollow.
It was raining heavily, the dark clouds forming a thick black blanket over the sky. The only light that provided vision was that of the constant lightning, lighting up the skies with a fierce crackle.
The fatally injured dragoness struggled to talk, her lips moving back and forth. "M-Mirage, y-you must continue w-without me... Promise me...that you will end this..." Her voice was dry and quiet.
Tears streamed from his eyes and he felt a cold grasp reaching for his heart. "I promise... I'm so sorry..." He squeezed the dragoness's paw.
"Don't be... You did…everything you could... " She paused and coughed blood to the ground. "I'm proud of you... I know you can…do this." Her beautiful green eyes could be only partially seen, as her eyelids were half closed.
Mirage watched a final smile tug at her lips as her eyes closed and she fell limp in his paws. Sorrow washed over him, and he screwed his eyes shut tightly.
Waking up sweaty and disoriented, the shadow dragon panted, trying to make out his surroundings. There were beds set around him, some empty, some with other dragons lying on them. He had his own space in this weird place he had never been in – seemingly an infirmary.
He shook his head, trying to remember wherever he had been before he'd gotten there – well, more like trying to remember anything at all. Right now, it felt like everything he remembered of himself, or anything at all, was from that dream he'd had. Who was the dragoness in his dream? Who was he? Mirage seemed to be his name, and that was all he knew.
His eyes stared into nothingness as he was left struggling to understand his current situation. He was in an infirmary, but he didn't even know what city or village he was in. His mind was blank, excluding the dream or memory of a dragoness who'd died in his paws. He had promised her to end something, but he had no idea what it was.
He looked at himself, examining his own body, as even that was unfamiliar to him. He had deadly metallic blades on his wings and tail, and several scars on his body – the most outstanding ones crossed his snout. He had red patterns on his pitch-black wings.
Why have I been brought to an infirmary, and by whom...?
He felt restless just lying there in an unknown place, so he decided to go explore the building and the city around it. He realized that the infirmary staff would likely notice his absence sooner or later. Luckily, he found ink and paper on table on a corner of the room, which he used to leave a note. When finished, he quietly sneaked out of the door.
A mole passed in the hallway further away as he stepped out of the room he had been sleeping in, and he vanished into shadows in almost the blink of an eye. The nurse mole didn't see him and continued walking away. Mirage got out of his concealing shadows and paused for a moment.
Why had he hidden himself from a mole? And what intrigued him more was that he had done it so naturally that he hadn't even acknowledged doing it.
"Well, at least I'm good at staying out of sight, apparently," he stated to himself with a dry sneer.
Pushing the thought away, he continued on his way. At the end of the hallway, there was a compilation of signs. His eyes searched for the particular sign that said 'exit,' ignoring all the others. Finding his direction out, he followed the route the signs pointed him on. He reached the door and tried to push it open.
"Darn!" he cursed, realizing they must have locked it for the night, granting only people with keys free passage.
He didn't want to smash through it, either; he didn't even know if he had already caused some trouble in the city, or if he had just gotten there. In any case, he didn't want to give a bad impression of himself.
Sighing, he leaned forward, his forehead pressing on the glassy door. He had really wanted to explore the city. He certainly didn't want to stay lying on an infirmary bed. He felt way too restless for that.
Then, suddenly, something happened. Some instinct just kicked in, his body became a blur of black scales, and he slipped through the door like it hadn't been there in the first place.
He stared dumbly at the door before turning his gaze to his body as writhing shadows dissolved away from him. "Alright…" he mumbled, raising an eyebrow at his own actions.
How did I do that? I hardly remember how to control my element, but I still got through a door like it was nothing...
Mirage tried to focus, to dig up something from his mind that would give clues about his past. His mind wasn't all blank: miniscule fragments of distant memories were there. He could practically feel them there, but he couldn't bring them into focus. It was as if they were blocked from him – sealed away.
Huffing in irritation, he returned to his original task: exploring the city. From the street he was on at that moment, he couldn't see much more than a few small shops: one for armor, the second for jewellery, and the third for basic furniture.
Deciding it would take far too long to walk through the city, he took flight. He beat his wings to gain enough altitude to see the whole city. Once he oversaw the city, he realized how huge it was. The ocean of buildings stretched everywhere from where he was; high walls could be seen surrounding the buildings within, blocking unwanted access to the city.
A city this big... Is this the dragon capital?
Determined to find out, he turned his gaze to a big temple not so far away. Surely he would find his answer there, as it appeared to be the center of the city. Flapping his wings, he darted towards it.
Only the moons and occasional torches gave light to the quiet city. The horizon was just barely painted with the colors of the fading sun, so it couldn't have been long after the sun had set.
Mirage would have been practically invisible if the moonlight hadn't been so bright. His black scales glimmered faintly in the sky.
After a short flight, he reached the great temple, which stood out from the smaller buildings around it. It was probably for the leaders of the city and for official meetings.
Gliding down and circling the building, he noticed that it apparently had a large amount of rooms with balconies, which were uninhabited.
"Strange how there are so many rooms, yet so few of them actually in use. Has the amount of dragons living here gotten low?" he wondered aloud.
He descended in front of the main door and proceeded to walk in. Two moles were guarding the entrance, but they let him pass without a word. Maybe the moles knew him, or had at least heard of him?
The interior was quite neat; golden trims marked the pillars in the room, which was separated to smaller corridors around the lobby. Some small trees and flowers in the room added to its already nice atmosphere. There was an impressive painting on an open wall. It was a very detailed picture of the Dragon City, with a mole and a dragon standing side by side at the front.
Beneath the painting, he spotted a big notice-board filled with all kinds of news about a won war. What war? Curiously, Mirage strode closer and started going through all the news articles. There were dozens of them, but some stood out, which he picked to read.
'The war is over; Malefor has fallen!' one article stated, and Mirage paused for a while. That name was familiar; he had heard it somewhere before. He was sure of it. A faint spark of hatred connected with a fuzzy memory of that name.
Mirage cleared his thoughts and kept reading.
"Dragons unite! The population of Warfang about to rise?"
"The purple savior returns with Cynder and an unknown dragon!"
Warfang and the purple savior? Mirage tore the articles from the notice-board to study them better.
'The Earth Guardian, Terrador, revealed that the Guardians might be organizing search parties to inform the outlying regions about the recent defeat of Malefor. He suggested that the search parties would try to convince other dragon populations to move to our great Dragon City…'
The text went on, but Mirage had gotten the answer he wanted. Warfang. So, he was in the dragon capital.
He got the feeling that he'd been there before, in Warfang. He couldn't be absolutely sure, but the name 'Warfang,' the painting, and the temple felt relevant to something he should remember.
Shrugging, he started studying the article about this 'purple savior.'
'Just hours ago, Spyro returned with Cynder and an unknown shadow dragon. Not much detail is known about the final battle against Malefor, but the Guardians have revealed that, on their way home, Spyro and Cynder discovered another dragon of their age. It's remarkable that there are still other young dragons around, when so many were lost on the night of the raid…'
An unknown shadow dragon, huh? That could be me... This 'Spyro' will know, so I've only got to find him.
Mirage headed back out, but decided that he should wait until morning before trying to find the purple dragon.
The articles called him a hero, so he will likely be the center of attention for a while. I should have no trouble finding him, he thought with amusement.
He walked out of the front door, his eyes out of focus because of all the new information that now filled his mind. Even without his memories intact, the déjà-vu he had felt gave him hope of getting them back. Without memories, everything felt dull and empty – meaningless.
What could have happened to him to make him not remember anything? Endless theories and thoughts ran through his head, predicting a restless night. He couldn't shift his mind from the subject, but decided that he needed a place to stay for the night.
He beat his wings and flew towards the empty rooms in the temple. At least, he hoped that he wouldn't wake someone if it turned out the room was inhabited after all.
He fancied the thought of a room on the top floor, so that was what he went for. He descended soundlessly on the balcony and stepped in. The room was luxurious and decently sized. Admiring it, his gaze suddenly met something he had not expected to see.
Two dragons. Two young dragons, curled up together, sound asleep. Even in the dark, he could still tell their colors.
So, this is the purple dragon... For a hero, he certainly doesn't seem alert in the least. He looks like he could sleep through an ape attack, Mirage thought.
The purple dragon had turned on his back, each limb sprawled in different directions. Somehow, though, the black dragoness beside him had found a suitable position on the cushion, even with Spyro covering most of it.
The moment Mirage looked at Cynder, he realized she was similar to the dragoness in the dream he'd had. Come to think of it, his own body structure was comparable to both of theirs, and their horns were very much alike.
It wasn't anything out of the ordinary – shadow dragons could be very similar-looking – but, for a moment, Mirage couldn't stop thinking about the resemblance between them. After all, they did have very similar horns, the same element, and comparable body structure.
Cynder moved and hummed in her sleep, which startled him, disrupting his train of thought. He reacted quickly, backing up to the balcony as fast as he could without making a sound. When he reached it, he spared a glance over his shoulder and jumped off. He didn't dare to flap his wings, because of the noise it would make. Instead, he glided to another room's balcony, which was one floor down.
This time, he found no one in the room and let out a relieved sigh. The room itself was smaller, but it would do just fine for the night. His pulse was still higher than usual and his head was buzzing with thoughts and questions of his memory loss.
He didn't expect sleep to come easily that night, but he still settled down and made himself comfortable on a pile of blankets.
Morning seemed to come a lot faster than Cynder would have liked. She felt like she hadn't gotten enough sleep yet, or had slept restlessly. Her back was aching a little, too. She inwardly frowned, and opened her eyes.
She was only partly on the cushion now, and had twisted into a weird position to maintain even that. Spyro had conquered the cushion as his own, which had resulted in Cynder having a very hard time to hang onto it.
"Really, Spyro? I'll get you for that," Cynder said to herself, half amused, half annoyed. She stretched herself so that her back relaxed a bit and the ache faded.
The purple dragon hadn't had a problem sleeping, obviously. He was still covering nearly the entire bed of cushions with an innocent smile.
Cynder noticed that Sparx was still asleep as well, which didn't come as a surprise to her. She sat still for a minute, wondering how she would deal with the cushion conqueror. She wasn't particularly annoyed with him, but she wanted to give him a reminder that he wasn't the only one trying to find space on the bed.
Spyro's muzzle twitched a little and he rubbed it with his forepaw and settled again. This made Cynder smile. That smile turned into a more devious one when she thought of an idea of how to wake the purple dragon.
She grinned widely as she took a step closer to her companion and lowered her muzzle right beside his. She leaned as close as she could, then let out a weak fear scream directed right for Spyro.
He jumped instantly, even with his eyes still closed, and collided with the wall next to them. He had pulled the cushions with him and was now lying underneath them with only his hind legs and tail visible.
Cynder laughed shamelessly at her poor victim, who was now picking himself up.
"Good morning to you too," Spyro grunted. "What was that for?" He asked, not less than pleased.
"For pushing me off the cushions! I slept mostly on the ground while you were spread out all over it!" she replied with a faked glare of irritation.
Spyro was surprised by the retort, but smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."
Cynder chuckled; she had gotten just the reaction she wanted. "No need to be. I enjoyed my revenge."
Spyro opened his mouth to reply, but didn't get the chance. A loud groan sounded on the other side of the room.
"What's all the racket here? I was having the best dream in ages!" Sparx complained grumpily.
Apparently her fear scream hadn't even reached Sparx, because it had been directed at Spyro, or he really had been deep in the dream world, Cynder thought.
Spyro shook his head. "Never mind. Should we go and get some breakfast?"
His foster brother's mood changed from grumpy to giddy in a second. "You bet! I'm starved."
Cynder rolled her eyes. "Boys and their stomachs," she thought aloud.
The purple dragon and the dragonfly either didn't hear her or didn't pay any mind to it, as they only gestured for her to follow them.
They had walked down the corridors to the ground level and were stepping outside when Spyro stopped.
"What is it?" Cynder asked.
"I just realized I have no idea where I'm going," Spyro admitted.
Cynder would have chuckled at his expression, but realized that she didn't know either. They hadn't actually asked anyone the day before where the dining hall was.
Sparx had continued on his way and was looking back at them. "What's the hold up?"
"We just realized that we don't know where the dining hall is."
"Duh. That's why I'm here!" Sparx tapped his chest with a thumb. This drew two questioning frowns from the dragons. "What? You didn't think I spent yesterday without eating anything, did you?" Sparx asked and motioned with his hands.
Neither Spyro nor Cynder had expected Sparx to come in handy like this, but both just shrugged and told him to lead the way.
The walk was a bit slower than they would have liked. The dining hall was located in the most crowded part of Warfang, and others were going for breakfast as well. And since the two of them were the most well-known dragons in Warfang, they drew a lot of attention.
Spyro didn't notice how the expressions of the citizens changed when they looked at Cynder. She didn't say anything, but obviously many were still holding a grudge against her. It was to be expected, in her opinion, but she had to put effort into ignoring the looks she was receiving.
This made her uneasy, but, luckily, it didn't take them longer than twenty minutes to reach the hall. Most others had already found their seats and had food in front of them, so there wasn't a long queue.
When they reached the end of the queue, they had to decide between the smorgasbord – with all kinds of fruits, soups and other sorts of breakfast items – and ordering something specific.
They chose to take the normal breakfast table choice, because neither of them knew specifically what they would have liked to have. Sparx, on the other hand, apparently had his own goods available to him. The moles had actually made sure that the small dragonfly would have a large selection of foods for him.
That was a slight surprise for the dragons, but they shrugged it off and went on to grab their breakfast. Soon enough, they were seated around a small wooden table, small-talking and enjoying the food. Once finished, Spyro came up with a suggestion.
"Do you think we should go and find the Guardians? I'd like to catch up on what's going to be happening now that it's peace time."
"Mhmm. I was thinking of taking a walk around the city, but I agree with you; I'd also like that," Cynder replied thoughtfully.
Sparx silently agreed and followed them, only to go through the same scenario as with finding the dining hall, and ended up being the one to guide them to the Guardians.
All of the Guardians had their own office-like rooms in the same Temple where Spyro and Cynder were staying. Only, they could be found on the other side of the building, and different stairs had to be taken to reach them.
At the end of a certain corridor, a constant chattering could be heard, indicating that they were close. Rounding a corner, they found the Guardians gathered in one room, which was decorated how one would expect a Guardian's office to look. A big, strong, wooden desk was placed in front of a window, with piles of papers upon it. There were multiple bookshelves completely filled with books, some armor placed on their stands, and a few large maps covering the walls.
The room carried a comfortable, warm atmosphere, which they had expected, but what they had not expected to see was the black dragon in middle of it.
It was the very same dragon who had been unconscious since they'd found him, only now he appeared to be wide awake.
His eyes immediately spotted the purple dragon and his companions, and an intrigued smirk rose to his face. He, like every dragon in the realms, knew that purple dragons possessed amazing strength and power. Meeting one was exciting for him. While he didn't actually remember anything of his actions, or his life before, this was one of the things that he just knew.
Whatever Volteer had been rambling on about went unregistered for the shadow dragon and he motioned his head towards the door, causing the Guardians to turn around.
"Ah, good morning, Spyro, Cynder. I'm glad you could join us," Terrador greeted them, and then noticed how the trio of young dragons all exchanged eye-contact. "Go on, introduce each other."
Spyro carried on the order. "Nice to meet you. My name is Spyro, and this is Cynder and Sparx." He pointed with a paw and the two greeted the black dragon.
"The pleasure is mine. I am Mirage," he said with a lot more confidence than what he'd had during the night. He remembered just as little, but at least his own name sounded right to him now.
Having conversations with others also seemed to bring out his personality, which he found enjoyed. He didn't really know who he was, but the surfacing emotions spoke of pride and charisma.
"We're glad you could join us, Spyro and Cynder. You see, you need to fill Mirage in on some details about where you found him," Cyril announced.
Spyro arched a brow. Didn't he know where he'd been? He and Cynder shared a quick, puzzled look before settling down closer to the group.
Mirage didn't know whether the news he was about to hear would surface any memories or not, but he wanted know something to fill the blankness of his mind.
He drifted off for a few seconds, but shook it off when he realized that the purple dragon in front of him was waiting for him to elaborate on what he wanted to know.
"Anything you can tell me is useful, really," he said simply, shrugging.
Spyro and Cynder took it in turns to tell about their journey from the world's core to the surface. They tried to add every detail, but there weren't many. They both expected that the crystal they had found him in would be something he remembered, but Mirage only shook his head.
At this point, Sparx was growing a little tired of the situation and voiced a question with a hint of frustration. "None of this sounds familiar to you? Then what do you remember?"
Mirage only gave him an empty look and answered, "Nothing. Anything before last night is a mystery to me."
Everyone in the room gave him a stare and a moment of silence followed. Terrador was the one to break it. "You told us that you didn't know how you got to the city, but now you're telling us that you don't remember anything at all?" he asked with his deep voice, arching a brow.
It wasn't just the Earth Guardian; everyone seemed to be thinking the same question – Why?
"That's right. I don't even know for sure how old I am," Mirage replied with a serious glint in his eyes.
The Guardians shared glances, and Cyril continued. "That is rather unsettling. A dragon's memory cannot be completely erased by any sort of physical injury."
Mirage couldn't have known how he had lost his memory, but the Ice Guardian's words gave away the only option. None of the three young dragons had known this; they all shared the same uneasy look, but Mirage also felt a spark of anger.
Who could have done this to me? And why? He glared at the floor, hardly aware of the sympathetic looks he was getting from Cynder and Spyro. His talons scratched the stone floor hard and he stood up.
"I need some time alone. Thanks for filling me in, by the way," Mirage said and strode out of the room.
Again the room fell silent, and Cynder thought of some of her own theories for what could leave a dragon like that. Instantly, her thoughts fell somewhere where she didn't want them digging.
During her time under Malefor's control, she had been thinking clearly of reaching her goal of setting him free. But after Spyro had rescued her and broken the spell, everything had been left a little unclear to her. She remembered fragments of her time as the Dark Master's slave, but not in detail. She hadn't wanted to think about it in the first place, but the awful experience had messed with her head, so maybe something similar had happened to the other shadow dragon...
Spyro's voice brought her back to the present. "What do you think has happened to him?"
"Some rather odious, dire events, most presumably. To take away someone's memory, you'd need powerful dark magic. It just might be better for the young fellow not to remember such potentially traumatizing matters," Volteer answered, partially missing the usual exuberance in his voice.
"We can't tell for sure. We do not know where he is from, but probably nowhere near here. Every egg in the Temple was smashed on the night of the raid, except Spyro's and Cynder's. Not every dragon in the realms respected the tradition, though, which would indicate that he may be from some dragon population we haven't been in contact with," Cyril stated.
The conversation went on for some time, but before Spyro and Cynder left, the Guardians filled them in on a different subject.
"I'm sure you have noticed how our population in the city at the moment is not very large. Before the war broke out and Warfang, along with its surrounding areas, became the main area of the warfare, we sent almost every dragoness and youngling to find safety elsewhere. We also requested help from other dragon cities around the Realms [remove: to come join us], but some of them went missing," Terrador explained.
Spyro nodded. "So, do you need us for something? I would be happy to help out."
"Me too." Cynder smiled at her purple friend.
"We are glad that you are offering your help. We need to organize groups to try and find them, and possibly even new dragons for our city. We can't keep a city this big running for long if we lack the population," the Earth Guardian told them, grateful for their support.
"In any case, there is no need for us to discuss this further today. We shall arrange this tomorrow morning. You can have the rest of the day for yourselves," he concluded.
"Thanks, Terrador, we'll be here," Spyro replied and turned to leave with his companions.
They walked out of the Temple and decided to go on exploring the city. It was quite damaged after the Golem's rampage, but some places were left untouched. As they walked around, they noticed that some dragons, but mainly moles, had already begun reconstructing the broken buildings. A lot of work had to be done to restore the former glory of the city, but it would be restored in time.
Their walk was quite peaceful, despite the looks they were drawing. Sparx often waved to strangers, like he was the center of all attention. The only thing that the golden dragonfly complained about was the fact that his foster brother had just gotten to settle down in the city and was already looking for a new adventure.
Spyro wasn't completely back to his full strength yet, after the events that had recently taken place, but he brushed it off and didn't think much of it. He was quite full of positive energy after seeing the city being rebuilt, and everyone helping each other and not having to worry about their safety.
And, obviously, the black dragoness whose back was covered by his wing also brightened his mood. They had been walking like that for the most part, which didn't sit well with Sparx – and he made that quite clear with his expressions.
They were passing a large building, which had a majestic appearance with big marble columns decorating its entrance. They decided to check it out and were surprised to see that it was practically a huge training area. It had multiple rings where one could summon dummies of all sorts. Currently, only a few of them were in use, but different sorts of dummies were on display in the free areas. Apes, dragons, grublins, death hounds and dreadwings could be chosen for combat training.
Spyro watched someone summon a couple of death hounds and dreadwings, and a stream of images came flooding into his mind like a film. So many times he had crossed paths with those creatures during his earlier years, but it all felt like it had happened just yesterday. And, in reality, those times were not far off for he, Cynder or Sparx, as they had been frozen within the time crystal for three years.
The creatures were vicious and downright ugly, but his past adventures had left him with a lot of experience on how to deal with them. It seemed weird to see people training in the safety of dummy rings when he had learned most of his fighting skills in battle with the real creatures.
Cynder nudged his shoulder abruptly and pointed a talon to the ring furthest away from them. Mirage was engaged in combat with three medium-sized apes. His face was masked of emotion and his body posture didn't betray his thoughts, either.
For now, he was on the defensive , dodging the dummies' attacks and not retaliating back. His movements were efficient and nimble, even if his landings were a little hard after jumps.
Spyro and Cynder walked up next to the ring, a little fascinated to see how he'd fare against the opponents. Mirage caught sight of them from the corner of his eye, but pretended not to acknowledge them yet.
He didn't bother to dodge a swing of a club; he blocked it with his paw and smacked the ape in the face with his left wing. It grunted and staggered back. The two other apes closed in on him from behind, but he jumped away from them, performing a shadowy pirouette. He was showing off intentionally, while testing his capabilities.
Cynder took note of the move, intrigued to see another shadow dragon in action. Mirage felt a hint of pride surface, even if he hadn't really been even trying yet. He didn't know why, but he felt like he needed to impress his audience.
He dodged two sword-swings directed at his neck, ducking below them, and gave a hard smack with his tail to the face of one of his assailants. As it staggered back, he decided to cripple the other two.
Summoning his elemental attacks, he disappeared from sight, only to rise up directly under one of the unfortunate apes. He clawed the whole length of its body and immediately continued his attack toward the last unharmed one.
He decided to really test out his elemental strength, so he positioned the apes in a line. Two of the dummies were still sluggishly picking themselves up from the floor, so he brought the last one down by ramming his head under its chin.
He jumped away from them and started gathering up all the energy he could manage. He was preparing more than enough energy to end the training session, but he wanted to see how far he could go, while giving his audience a good show.
He was gathering energy for a fury, but it wasn't a normal shadow fury. He was going to unleash all of the energy in the form of a beam. He didn't even notice Spyro and Cynder backing away. When he was practically casting a dark glow from his body, he cracked his jaws open.
The beam looked like convexity, except for its black color. It completely disintegrated the apes, but it didn't stop there. The wave of energy bore into the wall of the hall and went straight through it. It hit the wall of the building behind it before Mirage even realized what was happening. He let the beam fade and was left to stare at the outcome.
He'd had no idea he was capable of such power. Shadow energy wasn't even that destructive, right? More than anything, he felt very stupid. This was most definitely not the outcome he had been going for.
He met Spyro's and Cynder's eyes for a moment and saw the wariness radiating from their expressions and postures.
What a way to make new acquaintances, Mirage thought to himself.
This took a long while for me to upload, but here it is! In case anyone is reading this.
A big thanks for Riverstyxx for proof-reading this one for me!