Chapter 2 (those three words…)
Spyro woke to the warm morning light filtering through the treetops. It had being a two days since he and Cynder had stopped the Dark Master and saved the world. Slowly opening his eyes, to come face to face with Cynder, she was still asleep and he didn't want to wake her. Instead he watched as she slowly inhaled and exhaled. Edging closer to Cynder, Spyro began to drift back into his world of dreams. As the morning sun slowly rose to an early afternoon heat, Cynder woke from her deep sleep. Startled by Spyro's warm breath on her face she moved away, waking Spyro.
Spyro yawned widely before flashing a smile at Cynder. Cynder meekly smiling back, as Spyro sat up and examined the rising sun. Regretting waking Spyro, Cynder moved up to talk to him. His thoughts were back when he had saved the world, when Cynder had said those three words that changed everything. "I love you" Did she mean it? Did I imagine it? Do I love her? "We should go back to the Dragon City." Startled by Cynder's voice, Spyro jumped. She didn't seem to notice so he agreed and they set off for Warfang.
During the flight Cynder and Spyro were both silent, consumed in their own minds. Neither would admit it but they were both thinking about what Cynder had said. Cynder's thoughts were travelling nearly as fast as she was. 'Did he hear what I said? Did I mean it? Does he love me? What happens if he doesn't? What happens now? Do I ask him? Do I wait? "Cynder," said Spyro, "Yes Spyro." Looking up at Spyro, Cynder noticed that he was stuck for words. "Can we set down over there? I… I need a rest." Surprised at Spyro for tiring so quickly, Cynder agreed. As they landed in a small clearing, both dragons became un-nerved, Cynder at Spyro's unusual behaviour, and Spyro because he needed to know something. "Cynder, there is something I wanted to ask you." Suddenly Cynder realized why Spyro wanted to come down. "Spyro…" started Cynder, they caught each others eyes and at that moment they knew. Spyro moved up to Cynder and put his head next to hers. "Cynder… I love you to." With that he gave her a little kiss on the cheek, and both dragons blushed.
When the Dragon City came into view it was clear that it had taken a beating from the last battle, great pillars of smoke still rose from the city. Spyro and Cynder moved down from their normal flying height, down to just above the ground. This way they wouldn't be seen by anything in the city that could do them harm until they were close enough to return fire. The two dragons skilfully dodged and skimmed around the many obstacles in their way. Landing behind the remnants of siege engine in front of the main gate to the city, Cynder started to whisper as soon as her feet touched the ground. "Which way?" Spyro paused before answering, "We should take the left passage, it isn't very well known so if there is… anything, inside the city. We can take them by surprise." Cynder looked off to her left, the city's outer wall stretched off into the distance, remnants of the last battle still littered the ground. "Okay, lets go." She whispered, before dashing off to the cover of the wall. As the two dragons dashed quickly to the cover of the wall, a pair of eyes glittered from inside of the city.
"Hurry up," Spyro looked over his shoulder at the black dragon lagging behind him, "you need to open the gate from the inside." As Cynder reached the heavy metal gate, she disappeared into the shadows. Spyro wasn't concerned at all. Staring into the gloom in the entrance Spyro caught sight of the black dragon pushing on the lever to open the door. With a 'Clunk' the door opened. Spyro moved into the darkness of the passage way, Cynder appeared beside him. "Do you feel it?" asked Cynder. "Yes. I feel it. But I don't see it"
"Should we go to the other entrance?" whispered Cynder, "No," Spyro whispered back "they'll know and just go to the other entrance before we get through. We'll have to push forward through here." Seeing the logic in this Cynder started to edge towards the side of the tunnel, Spyro did the same on the other side. And slowly the two dragons moved towards the other end of the tunnel. When they were so far in that they couldn't use the light from the entrance to guide them, Spyro used his fire breath. From here on in there was no point hiding along the walls, so they moved in to the centre. After a few minutes of light Spyro had to rest, and that was when the creatures moved. Spyro and Cynder were outnumbered two to thirteen, although they wouldn't find out until after the attack. In the pitch blackness the creatures had the advantage, and with Spyro so tired from lighting the tunnel he wasn't in much of a condition to fight. But that didn't deter the dragons, Cynder managed to knock down five of the attackers before being caught, and Spyro got two. But in the confinements of the tunnel they didn't have much of a chance. With their legs tied together and their wings chained to their bodies the dragons were dragged out of the tunnel into the city.
In the light the dragons could see their captors, two orks and four grublins. One of the grublins was limping badly and the orks had several cuts on their arms. But the pain from the wounds was suppressed by the happiness of capturing the two dragons that had long destroyed their ranks. Cynder was bleeding badly from a wound on her neck and was slipping in and out of consciousness. Spyro's wing had being torn and was bleeding, but not to badly. As the two dragons were dragged ever deeper into the city the mood of their captors changed, realising that they had caught the dragons and that there wasn't anyone around to stop them cheered them up significantly. From the rooftops a dark hooded figure was darting quickly towards the group.
From the inside of the city the damage didn't look as bad, the pillars of smoke seen from outside the city were hidden from view by the tall buildings lining the roads and many of the inner buildings were in good condition. But the city had an empty felling that couldn't be shrugged off.
Looking across at Cynder, Spyro realised that she would need attention. The wound on her neck had opened up and now, instead of the trail of blood droplets there was a trail of blood. When they turned the next corner, they were confronted with a huge blaze, both sides of the street were burning, and in the middle was a huge piece of rock. The grublins stoped. But the orks continued to drag them closer to the raging inferno. A sudden realisation occurred to Spyro, and he started to struggle. He didn't want to be burned alive! The ork stopped, and held Spyro down. "Throw da black un in first. I'm gonna need your help wit dis un" Said the ork holding Spyro. The one dragging Cynder started to laugh, as he raised Cynder above his head ready to throw her in. A deafening mechanical 'Crack' suddenly echoed through the burning street. Looking up, Spyro saw the ork holding Cynder fall backwards, Cynder fell back with him. The other ork looked up to and cried out in pain at seeing its friend dead. It looked down at Spyro, its eyes full of hatred. A second deafening 'Crack' and the remaining ork's head exploded. Spyro grunted in pain as the orks body fell on top of him and he lost consciousness.
A dark figure jumped from the roof top, landing next to Spyro. Not even taking a second look at the unconsciousness purple dragon, it went straight to Cynder, lifting her up onto its shoulder. The dark figured moved back to Spyro and dragging him out from under the ork and around the corner, out of the way of the fire. Cutting the ropes binding the purple dragon's paws together before sprinting back to its hiding spot, knowing that it didn't have much time to save the black dragon.
Spyro woke several hours later, he wasn't aware of the small puddle of blood that had form around his wing. When he did open his eyes and saw the small puddle of blood, he didn't know what it was. After a few minutes of pondering about the pool of red he noticed that he couldn't move his wings, and then it all slowly started to come back. And, like a note been struck, he remembered Cynder. He leapt out of his drowsiness and bolted out the door the chains binding his wings to his body still clung tight around his chest. He came to a street and he saw a trail of blood leading around the corner. He ran towards it. It lead to the fire, having died out during the night, all that was left was blackened shells of buildings. Not even taking a second look at the side of the street he ran towards were he saw Cynder last. Rubble from the buildings littered the street, some of which was covering the spot were Cynder had been. Spyro desperately clawed at the rumble, the chain around his wings hindered his movements greatly, but he got down to the blackened pavement. And she wasn't there. Spyro panicked. Trying to convince himself that Cynder was okay, and look for a sign of were she had gone took him several minutes. He fell to the ground and covered his eyes with his paws, and started crying.
The tears continued for nearly an hour, before a dark shape moved from atop the roof near Spyro. It landed close to Spyro so that he could hear the soft thud. Spyro looked up at the dark figure through his teary eyes. Not needed any further convincing that this was the dragon that Cynder wanted, the figure moved towards the crying purple dragon called Spyro. Kneeling down a few meters from the dragon the figure waited, waited until the sniffles of the small dragon stopped, before relaying the message, "Spyro. If you want to see your love then follow me" the distinctly female voice had a slight accent that Spyro had never heard before, but he didn't notice in the slightest. He was up and ready to go in the flash of an eye. The figure raised her eyebrows. But got up and started sprinting back towards the location she had hid the black dragoness.
Struggling to keep up with the dark figure Spyro panted heavily. He had managed to get the chain off, freeing his wings but they were pretty torn so he ran instead. He caught up to the figure again before she sprinted off around a corner. Bolting around the corner Spyro saw the main temple of the city, and the figure sprinting up the steps, three at a time. By the time he had reached the top he had lost her again. The main doors to the temple stood ajar, so Spyro walked in. From the corner of his eyes he saw the figure dart around the far corner. He sprinted across the temple, and swung around the corner. He stopped at the entrance to a corridor. He could feel a slight breeze coming through the corridor and on the wind was Cynder's scent. Spyro sprinted down the corridor, his nose leading him through it. He finally stopped at the second last door, he moved to open the door. It was locked, he tried to see what element was needed to open the door but in the darkness he could see anything.
Foot steps from the end of the corridor made Spyro look up from his huddled position. It was the female that he was following. When she was half way down the corridor a strange red light suddenly appeared from her hand, blinding Spyro. Spyro closed his eyes trying to protect them from the light. It was getting closer soon it was right above him. A small 'click' and then the door Spyro was resting on opened. He tumbled into the dully lit room. The red light suddenly went out, leaving the room pitch black. A smaller light ignited in the middle of the room, it slowly got brighter until the room was pleasantly lit. Opening his eyes Spyro could make out the outline of the dark figure in the middle of the room blowing out a small flame. She looked at Spyro, before moving to the far side were, on a small bed, a black dragoness lay in rest.