Spyro entered the forest with a feeling of uncertainty in the air. Everything was quiet as death itself. Not even a small rabbit looking for a snack was there. Suddenly, a twig snapped. Spyro darted his eyes in that direction. Nothing was there. The shadows of the trees were swaying the gentle, yet silent breeze. With a pause, he continued forward. As he passed under a low branch, another noise was heard and some snow fell from the branches.

"Boo!"

"WAAAGH!" Spyro screamed, falling backwards. A large-eyed faun had dropped from the branch above and startled him. Her long brown hair was swaying in the gentle breeze. She was fairly pretty, probably in her teenage years.

"Did I scare you?" she asked, bending down to look him in the eye.

"Get away from me you little… annoyance!" Spyro screamed into her face, angered that he was surprised over nothing.

"Hey you little jerk, I helped you out!" she screamed back at him in a louder than necessary voice. Spyro remembered her voice from somewhere… the jail cell! She was the one who set him free.

"Thanks for the assistance to my friends, but you should've left me to rot. I am the enemy in this war after all, now you have to flee the soldiers as well." He mumbled with no concern.

"Sounds like an adventure!" she said with a smile.

"If you say so…" he said, beginning back down the path. She doesn't understand war at all! He thought, it's all a game to her, isn't it? Some children grew up in sheltered, rich families that only spoke of war as more money out of their pockets. His feet in the snow crunched loudly. Wait; is there an echo here? He turned around to see that she was following him. "Why are you still here?" he asked.

"I thought that we were both running away, and there's strength in numbers, and I already helped you out once…" she blushed and looked to the ground.

"I won't be of any use to you, that's why I left my friends, I'm dead weight with no emotion." He replied.

"Aww, not for long! You can get those gems back from the nasty Sorceress! I'll help you." She said with an even brighter smile.

"My friends already offered that, but I shot them down. You can't just say something and do it. It's too hard of work." Spyro said, his lifeless eyes staring into her bright happy ones.

"But I already have one of them with me!" she said, pulling it out of her coat pocket. It was a sparking purple shard that shined with the greatest of might Spyro had ever seen.

"But- how did you- why did you…?" Spyro's head spun. A mysterious hyper young girl frees him from prison, tells him the way to go, and gives back confiscated items? She really did know nothing of war. "We're on opposite sides! Why would you do that? Now you have nowhere to flee at all. The dragons are against the fauns of Avalar, and the Forgotten Realms and Avalar despise the dragons. Now your only hopes are to head into the unknown, or to another dimension…" he trailed off because she wasn't listening to him. Instead, she was trying some weird spell.

"Dark forces of the underworld's might, give him back his gem so he can fight!" she said, making weird hand motions with the gem.

"What kind of spell is that?" Spyro asked.

"A made up one." She said with a giggle.

"But that's not going to- why the hell would you think that- forget it." He said. Coming towards the gem, he looked at it. His life was divided into twelve actual concrete objects. It was hard for his mind to grasp the fact that anything as complicated could happen, but he shook away the confusing thoughts.

"I got it!" she said. The young faun bent down and held it in the general area where his heart would be. It shined even brighter, and then faded away.

"Where'd it go?" Spyro asked in alarm. He frantically spun around in circles, pushing up snow; he even checked her sleeves to see if she was playing a trick.

"I did it! I knew I could, but you didn't believe me." The faun said. "It's back inside of you now. You're one twelfth of being back to normal."

"I am?" he asked. To tell the truth, he did feel a bit different. "Thanks, erm…"

"Elora. Elora the faun of Avalar, pleased to meet you." She said, doing a curtsy with her long winter coat.

"What are you doing here?" Spyro asked, giving her a perplexed look.

"Two members of our family were killed, so we moved around, my father played his cards right and got us a place to stay. I stay at the castle in my own private quarters. Its sorta nice, but I don't like being a pretend princess, and I don't like living under that same roof with somebody who hates other people because what their relatives did a long time ago, I mean, it's not like they're still alive and in charge. But why can't you just give the land back to us, everything would stop." Elora said.

"We can't do that because you'd think we're weak and attack us and take more of our land that we had from the start." Spyro replied.

"No we wouldn't!" she said, sounding horrified "We'd be happy and leave you guys alone for giving us our freedom back!"

"Yeah, were you taught to be a soldier in school?" he snapped back at her.

"No! But my dad says- huh? A soldier?" she asked.

"Yup, our army is so desperate for men because you're killing so many of us!"

"I'm not killing anyone you horrible little jerk!" Elora said through tears, running away. Spyro stood there in shock at what just happened. He met a girl who freed him and helped him regain his soul. He explained his side on the war, she got offended, then ran away crying.

"Elora?" he asked the shining afternoon sun. No reply. Sheesh, was I really that harsh? He thought to himself. A surge of guilt swept over him, remembering that she was now a rebel and could be subject to the death penalty. With a sigh, he headed off in the direction she ran. Life not being a real dragon was going to be tough.

The hours rolled on and the sun began to set. Spyro actually heard footsteps when he called her name out a couple times, so he assumed she was still upset and running away. Finally, he grew tired of running around and shouted,

"Alright Elora, you win! I'll just stop caring about you and leave." He began to stomp his feet in place, then more quietly to simulate the sound of walking away. A soft whimpering was heard from behind a tree. "Found you!" he shouted, rushing over before she had a chance to get away.

"What do you want? You're so mean Spyro!" she screamed.

"Do you even remember what you're crying about?" He asked in amazement that she could stay mad that long.

"Ummm, nope!" she said, brushing away the tears and smiling again.

"Oh my friggin' god, you can not be serious." Spyro said, trying not to strangle Elora. With a sigh, he backed down. The last thing he needed was for Elora to run away again. They were in this together, at least now they were. "Well, I guess we'll need to find a place to stay for the night. That clearing over there looks nice."

"Then when we get up in the morning, we can try and find some more of your gems!" she said with a smile.

"It might not be as easy as that…" he mumbled.

"But we can try! And that's what matters most!" she said, walking over to sit under a tree around the clearing.

"Right. G'night Elora." Spyro said, lying next to her.

"Night Spyro." She said smiling.

The lake was dark and gloomy, everything pale and colorless with no life anywhere in sight. The fog had cleared and Spyro could see the now ruined lake. No life anywhere, everyone was gone and the pond was murky and dark. The sun was still clouded over, but Spyro had hope. The fog had cleared to show him what is there, a reminder of what could be there, and he had faith in trying harder the next day…