III - The First of Seven
They were surrounding me quickly, these...hollow husks of dragons, small and large alike. I wasn't sure what to do but keep up on my guard and hope for the best. They hissed at me, their voices raspy and hoarse. They clearly had no intention means of talking or negotiating. "God...damn it… Fine. If I have to fight… then I fucking will…" I spoke out the hissing horde of undead dragons. I readied my claws and my tail, getting into a fighting position before I stepped back a bit to give myself the distance I needed to ready myself. I looked over the undead, seeking out whichever ones would be either the weakest or strongest to go up against. Though knowing from the now recent dreams I've been having they could easily pin me and rip me apart. I had to be extremely careful.
The first of many came stumbling toward me and I flicked my tail forward, growling, daring it to come closer. Of course, they only had one objective and it was to kill me so there wasn't much for intimidation. The dragon pounced toward me and I quickly spot dodged out of the way, and quickly which gears as I quickly literally stabbed it in the head. I could hear every crunch and crack the weakened, rotting skull made when that blade on my tail tip penetrated it. I pulled my tail away and quickly cut the dragon's head in half, letting it fall dead to the floor next to me. That was the first time I ever really stabbed anything with my tail...and it was clearly very effective. As soon as the first one fell, three more started my way, all running at me now with hastened intent. I quickly dodged and rolled out of the way, slashing my claws at the scales of the undead as quick as I could. These fuckers clearly weren't slow in response time now that they knew what was up. I responded as quickly as I could to every move they made. After such a quick and swift end with these three, I had made work on their bodies. Cutten and slashed, rotting old blood oozing out from their bodies. My claws weren't enough to cut through their bones, but my tail sure was. I ran around their sides and kicked them into a giant clump as I quickly punctured my tail tip through their skulls, killing each one swiftly and with easy. They may have been strong but they didn't have much strategy to their fighting styles. What else am I suppose to expect from the undead horde though? Suddenly I found more and more approaching me, I could feel a sense of starting to be overwhelmed, so I took to the skies, but one of them grabbed my tail before I could get any further in the sky and I found myself quickly down on the ground again.
"H-hey! Let me go you damn necro dragon!" I thrashed and twisted as I felt the many paws and bones of the undead slash at my scales and puncture through the skin. Each one made me scream out in pain and thrash harder. I then stabbed one through the chest with my tail and swing it around like a club, knocking over a few which allowed me to escape now. I threw the one on my tail back into the hissing horde. My body was a mess now, cuts and slashes on my body, one of my wings was torn up a bit and I was bleeding heavily. I could barely stand up to these creatures… who knew that necrotic enemies would be so difficult.
"I am n-not….dying to you lot… not here… not now… not...ever!" I reeled my head back and growled, then opened my maw wide. I let out a spray of fizzing acid. It didn't burn me in the slightest, but unfortunately for those undead horrors, they didn't have the same perks as me. Their bodies started to crumble and melt under the intense spray of my acid. I stepped closer and closer as I could see that they were quickly melting and fizzing away. Once their hissing had ceased I closed my maw shut and licked away the last bit of my acid spray that rested on my lips. I sighed and sat down on the soft sat, holding my side.
"Fucking hell… where are these undead coming from…" I took a good look around before shaking my head. My eyes met the glint of something shiny amidst the hole in the sand where the necrotic dragons had been. I got up slowly to investigate. Upon the closer inspection of the hole, I noticed something that looked like a shard, that's when I realized it was a Crystal Shard. I quickly scrambled to grab it and held it in my paws. I could feel the intense power radiating off of its being, and it gave me shivers. As I held it in my paws I needed to figure out a place to put it. I looked about before sighing, and gently Lacking in a place to actually put the thing I had to stash it somewhere safe and well… it was most likely going to hurt. I used my tail to start slicing one of my own cuts open more carefully. I had to tough it out though and I did, I gently slid the glowing shard into my cut, wincing out gently. "Fucking hell… C...Come on…!" I felt the shard go its furthest into my bleeding wound and I quickly pulled my claw out, gasping and shuddering before shaking my head, it was done. I had the first shard out of seven. I just had to hope the others had much better luck then I did. I winced out in pain suddenly, feeling my injuries finally starting to take their toll on my body, and I felt very weak. The amount of blood I lost wasn't enough to kill me of course but it left me light headed and uneven on my four paws. I looked to the sky and took in a deep breath. My vision started to blur over and my body grew weaker and weaker, what happened next I was unsure of but I heard a faint whisper in my ear, telling me to simply...sleep… I fell to soft, sandy ground under me and passed out due to lack of blood in my system.
I soon woke up in a strange, dark room. I lifted my body up off of what seemed like some sort of bed and took a small look around. I gasped and winced, holding my gashed side, feeling it, though it seemed like it was bandaged and cared to. "W...where...where am I…?" I tried getting out of the strange bed before I was suddenly stopped by someone calling my name. It sounded awfully familiar. "Wha…? Who's there?" Out of the corner of my eye, I say a faint shadow moving out into the open, and I was more than relieved to see that Spyro was coming into vision, even with my slightly blurry sight. "Oh… Oh, Spyro…" I fell back onto my back and sighed out deeply, closing my eyes once more. "There...there were so many…"
"So many...of what?"
"Necro dragons… They...they surrounded me… and attacked me… I was able to fight off the horde but… Came out with injuries…" I looked over at him, laying flat on my back as I rubbed my bandaged side softly.
"Necro dragons..? That's… Very odd Cynder... But nonetheless, we are glad to see you alive. We found you in a pool of your own blood, you were barely breathing as well." Spyro sat next to me on the bed I rested and healed in all this time. "Me, Adäh, and Bläyz didn't run into any trouble like that. But...we did manage to find out the true locations of the Crystal Shards with all the same results so clearly, we have valid sources." He placed a paw on my side gently and I winced out. He pulled his paw away gently before resting it back on my side. We sat in silence for a good few minutes, he then turned to face me and he leaned his head down close to me, pressing his forehead against mine.
"I always knew you were such a sap..." I said with a slight tease in my weakened voice.
"I was extremely worried you know… I thought I was going to lose you… If I would have known...then I wouldn't have sent you in like that alone…" Spyro placed one of his forepaws onto mine and squeezed it softly, sighing gently to himself.
"No no, it's okay… I was able to hold my own quite well… the only thing I don't think I'll ever be getting back is my wing…" I flex it softly to show him the damage, most of the membrane that allowed me to fly with it was gone, and the actual finger parts of my wing were mostly bitten and clawed up finely. "I don't think I'll be growing it back…" I look away, whining gently to myself before shaking my head.
"Gosh, Cynder… I'm sorry I sent you there on your own…"
"No no, it's okay Spyro… Really it is… If anything it taught me how to fight again when I was for sure I had lost the ability to do so. I'm more than ready now!" I nod to Spyro and pat him on his paw gently that grasped my other one. I sighed out gently and relaxed back on the bed, looking around. I could see no one else in the room but myself and Spyro. "Say Spyro… Where are we exactly..?"
"The medical ward in the Council Building." He replied in a hushed voice.
"Ah… No wonder it's so barren…" I smirk a bit before relaxing, letting my energy restore itself. As I lay there, Spyro stayed by my side the whole time, though he stared off into the distance now, squeezing my paw once again. I could see the blank expression on his face, filled with worry and regret now. I took his in both of mine and stroked it calmly, murmuring out to me. "Don't worry about me, purple boy… I can take care of myself just fine... I promise." I smiled at him, and he turned his head back to look at me, smiling back gently. "Oh! I almost forgot." I looked around a bit, and swayed my tail, then moved over onto my stomach and slowly stood up. I slowly stepped off the bed and hobbled away for a couple moments. "Stay right there mister.." I said and he stared at me with a confused expression before nodding lightly.
"Uh yeah...okay?"
I had remembered where exactly I put the Crystal Shard. I dug my claw into my still open wound, thankfully not bleeding anymore but still horribly in pain. I hid that all behind the medical curtain. With a few pokes and a tug from my claw I felt the shard start moving out from my body, and before I knew it, it was out. It clattered to the floor, coated with my blood. I picked it up between two of my claws and licked it clean. Gods did it taste awful...but I didn't want to worry Spyro about where I hid it. I bandaged myself up once again after that fact and I hobbled back over to him. "Here you go, Spyro." I calmly said, trying my best to keep the composure I needed to look like an injured dragon. I handed him the sparkling shard, smiling slightly.
"Where did you find this?!" He seemed to be in shock.
"I found it while I was out in Duskdawn Coast. After I fought all those necro dragons one of them dropped this like some sort of boss loot or something."
"But where did you put it? We looked all over your body and we couldn't find anything remotely close to it!" Spyro was both equally excited and shocked for the fact that we -well more or so I- had gotten a Crystal Shard. He soon handed it back to me after getting a good look at it, to which I took it back. "We have to give this to the guardians right away!" Just before he was about to start leaping for the door I quickly yanked on his tail and drew him back to the bed, firmly sitting him down on it.
"No! No… we can't… we shouldn't…" I looked at him with worry in my eyes. "I don't think these crystal shards are worth it to give them to the guardians… they seem to hold some sort of ancient necromancer magic within them… I'm… certain we should hide them away…" I know it would go against myself entirely to say such but it was for the good of everyone it seemed. Neztal had to be right about this or I may be in deep shit now. I sighed and swayed my tail around with a bit of decency to it. "If… If they reform the Ætherial Crystal… Something bad is going to happen… And I don't think we can stop it… So please...don't tell the guardians about it…"
Spyro gave me a concerned look before shaking his head. "Whatever it may be you can't worry about it… It's not going to hurt you. You've got plenty who will take care of whatever is going to happen… Now please Cynder… Just give me the Crystal Shard and we can be done with all of this…" Spyro held out his paw as he demanded the Crystal Shard back. I couldn't bring it in me to give him the shard again, and at this moment I knew he couldn't believe me, and there was clearly nothing else I could do about it. I stared at him for a good few minutes before I shook my head and started to back away.
"No… No, I can't…"
"Cynder what's the matter with you? Just give me the shard!" He started to get that dominant part of him out and he stepped closer.
"Please… Forgive me Spyro…" I said as I suddenly curled my tail around and slashed one of his forelegs, I can't believe I had done it, but I did, and he quickly fell to his belly. While he was trying to recover I quickly ran out the door and took flight as best I could with my torn up wing. I was nearing the door to the exit of the Council Building as I started to hear my name being yelled at me from behind, and I turned to see Adäh, Bläyz, and Terrador chasing after me. I pull my wings in and flew through the air with near sonic speeds as I bolted past the open doors.
"Cynder stop at once! And hand over the shard!" I heard someone shout at me as I kept on running, my paws finally touching the ground. While still injured quite a bit it didn't phase me all that much as I wanted to escape now more than anything. I quickly found a place to hide amongst the large buildings in Warfang, panting and huffing deeply. I had to my distance now before I could fully escape Warfang.
"Ugh… there's no one I can trust now…" I looked around the alleyway I was stuck in and looked overhead, and there was a ton of dragons out in the skies now search for me most likely, as Warfang is never really this crowded at any time of the day. I didn't have much of a choice in trying to find a place to shove the Shard so I put it back in the cut I had on the side of my body. After that short pain endurance, I pulled myself together once again and spread open my wings. I had to wait for a second before I could take off high into the sky, as there were dragons and moles all over. When it seemed the skies and ground level were clearly I shot up into the sky like a dart and made haste towards the cloud level. I prayed that no one would see me and once I hit the cloud layer, I waited. No one came for me, and I let out a relieved sigh. "Thank the gods I made it out… Now to just stay above the cloud layer until I'm out of Warfang's view…" I spoke gently to myself as I started to fly towards my new destination… which I wasn't sure of, but it was somewhere to the southwest.