Chapter 2
About two weeks have passed, and Quintessence stuck to her word, gathering food for Chip and her herself, leaving the other supplies to Aropia and Flame. "We need more supplies, Aropia, if we are to last the rest of the week." Flame stated.
"There is a small town due West." Quintessence said, overhearing their conversation. Everyone looked towards her. "What? I've studied maps." She said in defense.
"Nerd." Chip snickered to himself. Quin slapped him with her wing. "Hey!" He shouted.
"Then that's where we're going," Aropia said. "Come on!" It took the rest of the day of renavigating because of the new terrain of the world, but near the end, they spotted the city's lights as the sun fell.
"Awwww! The sun is going to bed, which means I have to go to bed!" Chip said, defeated. They set up camp for the night, and as Quintessence put Chip to bed, Aropia caught Flame gazing upon her. Flame saw her in the moonlight and with the fire's glow off her scales, Aropia made a marvelous sight to behold. Her red scales highlighted with black, and orange scattered along her body. Her jewelry contrasted, even more, having blue sapphires and diamonds, which highlighted her blue eyes, which Flame thought popped out like a flower in a field of grass.
"Flame?" Aropia said, waving her arm in front of her trying to catch his attention. Flame snapped out of it.
"S-sorry. I was thinking about something. Good night Aropia." He said as he rolled up and dozed off. He was extremely mad at himself for telling Aropia of the stories he heard of the Purple Dragon when he was younger. That drove her down the path of her love for Spyro. He developed a hatred for Spyro. Aropia settled herself down and started dozing off. But right as everyone had fallen asleep, Quintessence stayed up a little while longer. She was pondering on if she could find the Purple Dragon by warping to him if he was still alive. Granted, she never met him, so she would never be able to. Maybe she could artificially locate his spirit?
The next day, they packed their supplies, and Aropia was still hopeful of their search. Yet, of course, they needed to find the village first. They flew west. "This is in the opposite direction we need to search!"
"The Day of Dawn celebration is not far off. We should return soon anyway to resupply and for shelter on the way back." Flame said.
"Well, despite maybe not finding him this trip, we're gonna find Spyro, even if it takes the rest of our lives!" Aropia stated.
"What?" Chip asked.
"Uh, I'll take a pass on that-" Quintessence said.
"Oh no. We'll look in every crevice, under every rock in this world!" Aropia stated.
"You can do that!?" Chip exclaimed.
"It's a figure of speech," Quin said.
"I'm being serious," Aropia stated.
"Hey! There's the town!" Flame stated. Flame started flying down.
"You think Spyro is down there?" Chip asked.
"Probably not. Why would a legendary hero stay in this buffeted town?" Aropia stated.
"So high and mighty stay in high and mighty places?". Chip inquired.
"Yep." Aropia leaned towards Quintessence as they flew down. "I like your brother. He's smart." She said.
"Oh, thank you. He's annoying the rest of the time though." Quin said. Aropia giggled. Over the past two weeks, Aropia has become close friends with Quintessence, seeing as she was the only other dragoness her age willing to be friendly towards her. She started opening up, and they treated each other's as equals, mostly.
They walked into an alley, and they saw that the town wasn't as deserted as they had thought. A whole marketplace stood in this alley, but they made out one individual to be unique above everyone else. The street was packed with moles and Wyverns. "Here. We'll meet back outside at the entrance after we have everything we need.". Quintessence said. They all agreed, and Quintessence and Chip split from Aropia and Flame. As Quintessence walked down one of the alleyways, a disagreement caught her ear. She looked over and saw a dirty looking dragon standing in front of a clerk. This is the first time she's seen another dragon in the past two weeks.
"But it was two gold pieces a few days ago! I came and checked every day for the past two weeks! I just got the second gold piece of my pay today! Why does the fish cost three today?" The male asked.
"Sorry. It's three gold for the fish." The Cheetah said from behind the counter.
The dragon sighed. "Can I pay you the rest next week?"
"Sorry, store rules."
"I need that fish! It's for medicine!" The male shouted. "Please, I'll pay you back next time I see you. My best friend is dying! I've already worked for this for two weeks!" he stated. But the Cheetah shook his head.
"Look here kid, I wanna help, I really do. But it's gonna cost ya." The young dragon looked down in defeat.
"It's on me." Quintessence said. As she dropped a gold piece on the counter. The dragon looked at her, and then back at the clerk.
"You know it's a gold piece you're giv'n him, right?" The store clerk said.
"I know. But he said it was for medicine, so he needs it more than I do."
"Alright." The clerk said as he took the money that Quintessence and the young dragon put on the table, and handed the male dragon the fish. The male dragon took out a small leather pouch, full of water. He placed the fish inside.
He took it and looked towards Quintessence. The male was younger than her by the looks of it, and the cloak he wore covered most of his scales. His tail was showing, but the dragon was covered in so much dirt and grass stains that covered his original scale color, but the dirt made it look like a red scaled dragon with golden, greenish horns. Yet his most definitive trait was his eye color. They were the definition of purple, and she never saw any purple in any eyes of any dragon she'd ever seen. She felt his essence radiating, the strongest and most pure she'd ever felt as if he just stood there with the strength of one hundred dragons. Stronger than the Guardians themselves in the same room combined!
"You do know the fish is dead, right?" The shopkeeper said.
"It's not dead." The male said. He put his talons in the water, and a faint glow was given off, but it was so faint that it wasn't seen in broad daylight. A moment later, the belly up fish flipped and started squirming around the pouch.
Chip looked at the fish. "Whoa…" he stated
The shopkeeper and Quintessence stared in shock. "I have to go now.". He took off in a hurry.
"Wait…" Quintessence started to say
She took flight after him, Chip following his sister, but once the dragon turned behind a cloud, she whipped around the cloud to find him gone. Now how did a dragon that young disappear like that?
"Quin! What's wrong?" Aropia asked, coming up into the sky with her. "I saw someone take off and, well, you flew after it. What was that?"
"Where did he… but… where… I just met another dragon."
"You did!?" Aropia asked.
"Yeah, but he was young. Younger than I, but…"
"He!? *Gasp*"
"No, no purple scales as far as I could tell. But he was perhaps your age Aropia." Quintessence stated.
"Did you invite him to Warfang?" Flame asked, flying up, Chip still flying around the clouds in search of their mysterious new comrade.
"Sorry, I…"
"Come on! We can't show up to the Day of Dawn celebration without at least another!" Flame shouted.
"If he is my age, he must have parents out here. We're nearly the last of our generation that survived." Aropia stated.
"Yeah, I guess," Quin said.
"Well, we'll camp here and wait for him to come back! Then we'll say 'heeeeellooooo!'" Chip exclaimed. He did a loopy loop and looked back at the group. "What?"
Our stranger pushed aside a four-ton boulder and entered the cave it concealed. He walked in and took the cloak off, and then gems along the walls started to glow as he walked passed them. He walked all the way to the back of the cave, to where a pool existed. The young male slowly got in and started scrubbing at his scales. He put the fish into the water, and it started swimming in the pool and consuming the dirt that was being scrubbed away. Rays of sunlight sneaked through the hidden windows, which were concealed by the masterful framework done and the shadow touched (enchanted with the shadow element) soil that sat comfortably in the frame. The young male went under water, and took the fish and stroked the underside, causing it to expand and release a chemical into the water. The young male froze the water around the fish, scaring the fish away, but it froze the substance he needed. He took hold of it and left the pool. He dried himself and quickly built a stone bowl. He put the Frozen chemical in the bowl and blasted it with fire. It melted to a boil, to which the young male started putting in the other ingredients he bought at the market today with the extra pay he received for the extra housing buildings he built, making the broth edible. He took the bowl to the back of the cave, to which a young dragoness slept.
"Psst. Cynder. Cyyynnnddder." The young male said, nudging her awake.
She woke, exhausted. "Hmm?"
"Here, drink." The male said, and she drank. Once she was done, the young male placed the bowl back into the ground. He went to his room and grabbed a blanket. He placed it over Cynder, and she stopped shivering. The male made a rocky chair from the ground, and lay there, watching Cynder where she was sleeping. Oh how much he wanted to comfort her more.
"Mfm. Spyro." Cynder whispered as she smiled. She fell back asleep as she snuggled up against Spyro's blanket that he had brought her. Spyro looked up and stared at her.
"I pray this works."
