Chapter Two

It was a nice, bright, sunny day in Avalar. Spyro and Cynder had just come back from a long morning stroll through the Enchanted Forest and were making their way back to Avalar. Both dragons were content, enjoying the fresh air, the beauty of the forests and each other's company. They were laughing and sharing some memories of the past when they came upon a small village that was currently under construction by Moles, Cheetahs, and Fauns.

"Yo Spyro! Buddy!" Called a voice from somewhere in the village.

"Sparx!" Spyro greeted the voice.

Spyro and Cynder saw a small, golden dragonfly approaching them with a tall cheetah with a lot of gold fur mixed with white and ring spots scattered all over his body adorning a hooded coat.

"Spyro, bro, it's so good to see you again!" The golden dragonfly said to his big purple dragon brother.

"Good to see you again Sparx!"

The golden dragonfly, Sparx, hugged his brother's snout. Hunter; the cheetah, was only a few feet behind Sparx and was walking towards the dragons to greet them. He kneeled down so he could get more eye contact with them since he was bipedal and Spyro and Cynder were quadruped creatures.

"Welcome back. How was your walk today?"

"Quite well, Hunter," Cynder said. "We hunted down a couple of sheep for a late lunch and overall just enjoyed the fresh air."

"Yeah, those sheep were a good catch, eh Cynder?" Spyro asked.

"Were they ever? I thought I'd never get full! Then again, I thought I would never catch that black sheep. He was quite the feisty one!" Cynder laughed at the memory of trying to hunt down the black sheep from much earlier in the day.

Hunter spoke up, "Sounds like you two had a great day! I'm glad to see you two have made great progress since the last battle with Malefor. I know it's been some time now, but personally we all owe you two a debt of gratitude."

Indeed it had been some time since the final battle with Malefor, about five sequences (months) ago. Both Spyro and Cynder were at a loss for words. They usually felt this way every time somebody thanked them for saving the whole Dragon world. Obviously they knew that it was a pretty big deal saving the whole world in the face of pure evil. After a moment of being awestruck, they both finally found the ability to respond.

"You don't really need to thank us, Hunter-" Spyro got cut off by Sparx.

"Yes, but you need to thank me! I am the god of The Atlawa Tribe! Worship me!"

Spyro sighed, "Sparx…"

"Like Spyro was saying, you don't really need to thank us," Cynder broke in. "In fact, we owe you guys our gratitude. Without you, we never would have been able to defeat The Dark Master."

Before Hunter could answer, Sparx responded.

"Yeah you say that like it was easy for you. Don't forget, you tried to kill me and Spyro!" Sparx whimpered before cowering behind Spyro's horn, "You tried to eat me!"

Cynder only gave Sparx killing glare, and then suddenly roared out in absolute laughter.

"Sparx, you're too funny! Eat you? Hah!"

"As I was about to say…" Hunter started, "You're definitely right, Cynder! I see you've taken some lessons from Spyro. He certainly is a positive influence on you indeed."

Cynder and Spyro both blushed at each other and looked away. Sparx flew up beside Hunter's head and gave Cynder a dirty look for her earlier remark about him. Finally, Cynder grabbed Sparx and brought him closer with her left paw. He looked only more disapproving of her but she only giggled and said, "Sparx, you're just too cute for your own good."

All the while, Spyro seemed to be focusing his energy on something. He couldn't quite make out what it was he was sensing but definitely something was out of the ordinary.

"Hey, guys? Do you feel that?"

"Feel what Spyro?" Cynder asked

"I'm feeling something in the ground; it feels like soft tremors," Hunter said. He immediately warned the others who were still building homes in the new village of a possible quake. He barely got the words out of his mouth and those soft tremors became violent shakes all over the ground. Villagers became terrified and started screaming and running for cover. In the midst of the confusion, a rock formation suddenly shattered sending large stones in every direction. Hunter got hit by one and was knocked out, along with a few others. What most didn't happen to notice was a large Arch coming out from underground where the rock formation had imploded just seconds earlier. The violent shaking stopped but people were still scrambling, terrified of what had just happened.

"Guy, guys…" Spyro tried to get their attention but it was useless. No one was paying any attention. Suddenly Spyro roared and sent a bellowing tower of fire up into the sky! It certainly got the village's attention real quick!

"ENOUGH! Panicking won't do you any good!" He looked over Hunter who was unconscious and saw that he had a nasty gash on his forehead. "Medics, take Hunter to shelter immediately."

A couple of grey-coloured Fauns came and placed Hunter on a stretcher and carried him off to shelter. Cynder just stared at the Arch that came up out of the ground, absolutely dazzled at the colossal size of it. It had to be at least fifty-feet tall by twenty-five-feet wide, and the Arch itself seemed to be made of fairly non-descript materials like stone and some kind of metal-alloy but had strange markings all over it with a purple crystal up top. What really got everyone seeing this Arch was how there seemed to be a bright light coming from the inside area of it.

Cynder asked, "What is it?"

"I don't know. But whatever it is, it seems pretty powerful," Spyro answered.

The whole village including Spyro and Cynder didn't have to wonder for long what it was they were looking at though, as something came shooting out of the bright light. This thing hit the ground hard, rolled a little and gave off a grunting sound. Everyone looked on, perplexed, and then they suddenly realized that this 'something' was actually someone.

This unusual creature they were seeing started to move and get up on its two feet; it was a bipedal being of some sort. It wore rather ugly drab green fatigues and some kind of leather boots. What really got them was the fact that this being's body wasn't completely covered in fur or hair but had a golden-blonde mane of hair on top of its head. If the villagers didn't know better, they'd say this being was some sort of Faun lacking the Faun legs, tall pointy ears, and the facial features like the eyebrows. It began to speak to them, but none of the villagers understood a thing that it was trying to communicate. The only thing Spyro, Cynder, and the others gathered, was that clearly this bipedal being was male by the sound of his voice.

"Sorry, but who are you?" Spyro asked, knowing the being may not even understand what he was saying.

The being spoke again, but still in what seemed like absolute gibberish, then he proceeded to unstrap something from himself and raise his hands; presumably as a sign of peace. At least from what Sparx could gather anyways.

"Spyro, I think this guy means no harm to us," Sparx said.

"That thing he just laid on the ground seems to be an offensive looking object though," Cynder suggested to Spyro.

Spyro couldn't help but to agree. He went over slowly, so as not to disturb the being, and sniff it. The object seemed to be made of some kind of metal, but it wasn't a sword or some other kind of blade. Rather, it seems that it had some kind of body frame with a barrel on it, with some sort of drum object and a grip, with some other parts but Spyro was clueless as to what it could be.

Suddenly the tall being started to stumble a bit before starting to fall on his right side toward some Moles. The Moles barely had any time to escape his massive body frame before he hit the ground; the being was easily over six-feet tall. Other villagers went over and started investigating him and his backpack.

"Thank the ancestors he didn't hit his head on any rocks," Cynder piped up.

"Indeed," Spyro said before ordering the villagers to clear the way for medics. "All villagers who aren't medics move away from him. The medics need to have a clear area to put him on a stretcher and get him into shelter."

Sparx mumbled while chuckling, "The bigger they are. The harder they fall."

Spyro and Cynder both gave a dirty glare to Sparx.

"Crap! Did I just say that out loud?" he said as he covered his mouth. "You know what? I'm gonna go check up on Hunter!"

Sparx fluttered off to the shelter where Hunter was. As Spyro and Cynder watched Sparx fly off, both Dragons sat there in an awkward silence. Then Cynder decided to break the silence.

"That Sparx! I swear you need to have a talk with the parents about his mouth!"

"Cynder, don't get so worked up about him. He's been that way since I was only knee-high to him," he reassured Cynder.

"But sometimes he cracks a good one and makes everyone laugh and be happy. Then he goes off and says something really…really…" Cynder struggled to finish her sentence.

"Stupid?"

"Yes! Thank you! Sparx just knows how to tug at our heartstrings…and sometimes at our tempers," Cynder said; still flustered over Sparx' one-liner.

Spyro and Cynder looked on as the medic Fauns and Moles struggled to lift this tall and rather heavy being off to get treatment. One of the Moles came over towards Spyro and Cynder panting heavily.

"Excuse me, good sir…" the Mole inhaled a deep breath before continuing, "Would you be willing to assist us? We can't lift this guy worth a damn to save our lives!"

And indeed the Mole had spoken the truth. There must've been ten Moles assisting the two medic Fauns who were trying to carry away this monstrous beast of a being to shelter. Spyro and Cynder both trotted over to where the crowd of Moles was. Spyro noticed right away what major problem they were having.

"Did you guys think of removing his bag off his back?" Spyro asked.

He looked at the being on the stretcher wondering why nobody had thought of removing his backpack. He then shook his head and motioned for Cynder to grab the bag. Of course, she had to order away all the Moles first. After a few minutes of figuring out the clips securing the backpack, Cynder rolled it off the stretcher and grabbed it by the one handle with her maw and took flight as high as the heavy pack would allow her without gravity doing a toll on her body. Spyro got under the stretcher and helped the Fauns get the being to shelter.

Little did they realize what grand plans there was for this being. And little did they realize the evil forces that had also invaded their world.