To save you's from having to reach for a dictionary, 'idiosyncratic' means 'peculiar to the individual', or 'eccentric'.
Chapter 4 – The idiosyncratic Limista
The cave was wet with condensation, or water seeping out of the cave walls, Spyro couldn't tell. But there was a leafy vine, with red and purple flowers, covering the walls and roof of the cave, even though after a while, there was no sunlight to sustain them. But Spyro could see, at the very end of the tunnel, a faint glimmer of white light. The path itself was also lit up by large white crystals sticking out of the ground at intervals, holding gems. The glow of the crystals was reflected in the fine film of water that was still covering Spyro's and Cynder's scales, causing them to glitter like diamonds eerily, particularly in Cynder's case, where the white shiny light reflections contrasted sharply against the black scales.
Cynder slipped on the wet stone and crashed flat out on the ground, breaking a large pearly crystal that her head hit on her way down. Spyro turned around awkwardly in the small passage and walked back to Cynder.
"Are you ok?" he asked in a gentle voice.
"I'm okay, Spyro" she said, but her shaky voice betrayed her. "well, my knees hurt, and my chin hit that crystal there pretty hard, so I suppose it hurts a bit too."
"Chin? Don't you mean your beak?" Sparx said.
"Shh! C'mon Cynder, I'll help you up." Said Spyro.
He positioned himself besides Cynder, and pushed himself against her with his body, pushing her to her feet. It was hard work, as both of their hides were slippery with water. Cynder's scales tingled at the touch of Spyro's scales, as well as with her wings when Spyro's wings accidentally brushed ever so gently against them, and her brain was once again filled with wonderment at what her feelings at these weird moments meant.
"Great, we'll need those," murmured Spyro, moving away from Cynder to look at the plethora of different coloured gems that had scattered when Cynder broke the crystal. The three friends drew these into their bodies and kept walking. The sound of the pounding waves disappeared long before they walked cautiously into the room at the end of the tunnel.
They had walked into a large underground cavern. It had a low ceiling though, even lower than that of the cave path leading to it, and it was illuminated a blinding bright blue-white colour by all of the crystals that adorned the sides of the cavern. The walls here were covered in the flowering vine as well, except for a couple of cleared areas, where indistinct scratches had been etched into the rock. It looked like a feeble attempt at art, though it also looked like a series of indistinct scratches and lines. There were medium sized rocks scattered around the edges in between the crystals, and the bloody remains of a meal in the corner.
Squatting in the other corner, with her back to her, was a plump orange dragon, who was muttering away to something, or perhaps to herself. Spyro couldn't tell her age as he couldn't see her face. She had a double set of spikes running parallel down her back, one row on either side of her spine.
Sparx flew into the room behind the dragons and his eyes fell on the orange dragon in the corner. "Woah, first there was purple, red, yellow, blue and green and black, and now orange! You guys come in all colours of the rainbow, don't you's?"
She turned around, and now they could see her face better. She had a flatter face than most dragons, which along with her weight, gave the slight impression of her looking like a pig, were it not for the two short horns on top of her head bending forward and a small stub of a horn just behind and between her nostrils. Spyro guessed her age at around 19. Her face lit up at the sight of the two dragons and dragonfly, and she greeted them.
"Oh, hello! Sorry about that, I'm a bit deaf, you know. After a long time of being in here listening to nothing but yourself talking to these rocks, your ears kinda stop working. And these rocks don't say much back."
"Hey Limista, sorry to intrude. My name is Spyro…"
"Ah yes, I've heard of you! How do you do?"
"Fine, thanks. That's Sparx glittering over there…"
"Charming," Limista said grinning at Sparx, then she looked at Spyro, her eyes narrowing. "I'll say, what's that thing on the end of your tail?" she Limista, pointing a claw at Spyro's tail.
"Oh, that's just part of my tail… err…"
Limista harrumphed. "Looks like an icecream cone. An icecream cone not quite the same colour as a leaf that rusty reddish hue yet that we define as being an autumn leaf, but the colour of a golden leaf with the green chlorophyll sucked out of it, beginning to dry up and wither, cracks appearing near it's edges."
"Um, thanks for the details," said Spyro, waving his purple tail out of sight of Limista, and feeling uncomfortable at the attention she was now paying to his body details. "And this…" he continued, motioned his head at Cynder, his horns nearly scratching against the low roof, "is Cynder."
"You're the dark black dragon?"
Cynder looked like she was at a loss at how to respond, but answered.
"Yes… I was, but…"
"You need to go. You need to be finished" Limista said threateningly.
She approached Cynder with an air of silent anger about her. Cynder looked scared, but held her ground. Spyro jumped in front of Cynder, knees bent, ready for any potential fight. Instinct had kicked into him, and it warned him of a threat to Cynder.
"She isn't like that anymore, Limista." Spyro said in a low voice. "She has shed her past and proved herself to us beyond doubt that she is with us."
"Oh, well that's ok then!" she said brightly, as though nothing had happened. She turned to a smooth, dark rock in the corner of her cavern, and began to move her talons back and forth across the surface of this rock, as though sharpening them. Spyro and Sparx exchanged a look. How weird.
Spyro tried to think of something, a nice compliment, anything to break the ice. "Er, your talons look very long…"
"WHAT? I SPEND ALL MY WAKING HOURS SHARPENING THEM, AND ALL YOU'VE GOT TO SAY ABOUT THEM IS THAT THEY'RE LONG? ISTHAT'S THE FIRST AND ONLY THING YOU CAN SAY ABOUT THEM? HOW ABOUT SAYING HOW SHARP THEY ARE, HOW THEY COULD SLICE THROUGH YOUR HIDE WITH THE EFFORT OF A MERE SCRATCH? DO YOU KNOW JUST HOW MUCH SHARPENING IT TOOK ME TO GET IT LIKE THAT? AND DON'T EVEN INSINUATE THAT YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT SHARP TALONS!" Limista spat, her face contorted in fury.
"I didn't mean that, Limista." Spyro said in the same low voice he used before, completely and utterly bemused "I was going to say just that before you interrupted me.
"Oh, ok!" she said suddenly sounding sweet again, and returned to her stone that she was using to sharpen her claws.
"I've been stuck in this cave for so long that I've lost track of time. News is slow coming to me here. I've only really had these rocks to talk to," she motioned to a couple of rocks lying around the cavern, and Spyro and Sparx exchanged another look. "I've been hiding so that Malefor wouldn't find me and put my special powers to use for his own benefit. I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier Cynder, but Volteer and Cyril never said anything about you switching sides…"
Spyro was about to ask about Limista's power, but the mention of the Guardians drove that from his mind. "What? Cyril and Volteer? They were here? When?" Spyro asked eagerly.
"Oh, about two weeks ago. I believe that red one, Ignitus, sent them here to the mainland. They were looking for news on what was going on here. Oh, I had fun with them…" her face grinned evilly at this point.
"Well, if you find arguments with everyone you meet fun, then whatever." said Sparx.
Cynder said nothing, but just continued to sit in the corner awkwardly, swishing her tail nervously and trying to look as small as possible. She did not find this situation very comfortable, following Limista's outburst. Was this what everyone who didn't know any better thought of her now?
"It's just so dull hiding in here. These caves have no beauty, nothing compared to my real home, before those filthy apes ran it over. It's high set, and it's full of all these funny Konkas and Specromas and all sorts of animals. Would you like to hear about my home?
"Err, thanks, but no thanks." Spyro muttered. "But speaking of beauty, how did you get these flowering plants to survive in here? There's no sunlight for them."
"Ohh… that." Limista approached one of the vines on the cave wall, spread her wings wide and closed her eyes. Then the cave lit up with a green glow as threads of green light ran through the air between Limista's chest plates and the vine's trunk, connecting them. After a few seconds, the light threads faded, and all around them, scraping noises could be heard, as the vines twisted in place, sprouting new leaves, rejuvenating flowers, sending out new shoots across the cave wall.
"That is called bloom, it's a special technique of mine that lets me rejuvenate plants like these vines, and animals and things back to full health." she said, beaming. "I am a bloom dragon, you see, just as Ignitus is a fire dragon, Volteer is an electric dragon, and so on. But I am not a guardian myself, no siree."
"That's neat! Can you heal injuries doing that?" Spyro inquired.
"Sure I can."
"Could you restore my magical abilities?"
Limista glanced at Spyro with an appraising look, and finally said, motioning towards Cynder, "You wouldn't have been much use to your friend over there before if I fought you, would've ya?"
Spyro shook his head. "But I had to try."
She sighed, and walked up to stand before Spyro, closing her eyes as she did before, and spreading her wings wide open. Spyro felt a curious sensation on his chest, he couldn't tell if it was warm or cold, but it tickled slightly. The green threads appeared, connecting Spyro's and Limista's chests. Spyro then felt as though his body was filling up with something, and he spread his wings in sudden surprise, but he couldn't define what it was. The threads of light energy faded away, and Spyro turned to a rock lying nearby, and breathed flames on it.
"Woohoo!" Spyro exclaimed in joy. He glanced at his friends, Sparx was clapping, Cynder was smiling and looking proud of him. He turned back to Limista, and gave his gratitude.
"Thanks, Limista. You've no idea what that means to me."
"Oh, don't mention it. But you'd better apologise to that rock now. You've burnt it."
"Err, what?"
Spyro was confused once again. But he decided to drop it and ask another question.
"Can you teach me that technique?"
"No." Her answer was immediate and emphatic. "To teach you Bloom, to give it to you in addition to the myriad of other abilities that there are, as well as the ones you already have, would concentrate so much power into one dragon that I would be making the same mistakes that the Guardian dragons made with the Malefor, and therefore I refuse. Having said that though, you will probably discover it yourself eventually, being the purple thingy that you are."
Spyro changed tack, recognizing defeat when he saw it.
"Limista, why don't you come with us? You're in danger here, Malefor's guys will be coming in here soon, looking for you. They know your position."
Limista sighed again, and finally folded her wings up against her body. "Eh. I've known that for a while. They've already called in to say hi," she nodded at the bloody carcasses lying in the corner, "and I've made a meal out of them."
Cynder walked over to the carcass lying against the wall. "This was Milky the Hungry," she said, "he used to be based at Dante's Freezer."
"Funny you should know that, eh?" said Limista. She joined Cynder at her side and dragged a talon through the blood that puddled next to the carcass and sucked it. "Mmmm, that gravy tastes good"
"Err… excuse me?" said Cynder.
"Gravy. It's good."
"But…" Cynder was at a loss again, "but that's blood!"
"Nonsense. It tastes just like gravy."
"I don't understand… you know we've all got blood in us."
"Yeah, but I know what gravy tastes like, and this tastes like gravy, so it's gravy. Have you tried some?"
"No, but –"
"Have you tasted to see if it really is blood?"
"No, I don't need to, I know –" Cynder smiled, she was finding this amusing as well as ludicrous.
"Then how can you prove your point?" Limista retorted.
Cynder and Limista debated the point, while Sparx and Spyro looked at each other for a third time, shaking their heads in amusement. She really was a nutter.
When they had finished their debate (agreeing to disagree), Limista turned to Spyro and said "Anyway, I tell you what. I'll go back with you wherever you're going if you go and find a friend for me, and bring here here."
"What does he or she look like?"
"She! Well she's a Wind dragon, and has grey scales. She was formerly being held prisoner by Gaul, being tortured for information on the plans and movements of the other Dragons, particularly the Guardian dragons. Back then, some of the Guardians had just been killed off, but four remained. Zeph, yes that's her name, and to repeat myself, she was found in her hiding place, captured and tortured for information on the identity, location and plans of the remaining four Guardians, which she had met previously, I'll let her tell you the details. She conceded the relevant information, as she didn't have the willpower to resist the torturing, and that led to the capture of the Guardians for an eventual plan to sap their energy…" Spyro glanced at Cynder quickly while Limista talked, Cynder was looking at Limista with a sad expression, "and when the majority of the Apes were away fighting to capture the Guardians, she escaped through the Ape's weakened guard and has been in hiding ever since. I learned all this from parrots that have flown past my cave. They said she's hiding back in her old hiding place somewhere to the inland a bit, in a magical forest of sorts."
"That's… that's terrible, Limista."said Spyro, looking over at Cynder, who was frozen and not saying a word.
"It changed her. She used to be full of confidence and self-esteem, but now she is a shadow of her former self, although she still possesses elements of that happy nature about her."
"Right. We'll go see to her and bring her back here. You'll be here when we get back, right?"
"Sure as gold. I'd come but I need some time to pack," she motioned around the cavern, where there appeared to be very few personal possessions to pack, "and then I'll be waitin' here for ya!"
Limista escorted them through the slippery passageway to the cave entrance, where the sun blinded their eyes. The sight of the rocks at the entrance broken into fragments, however, seemed to move Limista.
"Nooo! You've destroyed my entrance! That took so long to m-make…" she became incoherent as she burst into tears.
Sparx flew over to Spyro's ear, and muttered "She's gone fruit-loop, being in that cave for so long with no-one to talk to but her rocks."
"I think she was always a bit nutty to begin with, Sparx."