The Shattered Dawn
Chapter 4: One Who Shines in the Darkness
"Like starlight, a person's soul can be hidden by a seemingly endless storm- but never really extinguished. All it takes is one good wind to clear away the clouds, and the light will be revealed." Basilgarrad- Merlin's Dragon
"How is she?"
"Her wounds have mostly healed, although she will need to refrain from using her wings for a time."
Cyril was in the Warfangs infirmary with a mole attendant. It had been 2 days since a mole had come running into the Guardians meeting chamber and delivered her message. He, Terrador, and Volteer had imeadiatly flown to the outer wall and retrieved Spyro and Cynder and brought them to the infirmary. But when the moles could find nothing wrong with Spyro the guardians had him taken to the temple so that they could try magical means of healing him.
The magical ways of healing were less reliable than the medicines and sciences of the moles, but those had failed. So it was their last hope to use magic to find out what was wrong with and heal Spyro.
In the two days Cynder was in the infirmary she had not woken once. At least as the moles said with Cynder there was an obvious reason for her to be like she was, her body had been badly injured and to escape the pain and regain energy it had shut down everything that it could.
Cyril turned to ask the mole Cynder had woken since his last visit. But as he turned to ask he saw Cynder move.
Cyril quickly turned from Cynder and called the mole over to check on her. The mole came over and put a paw on Cynders forehead. The mole then turned and said to Cyril, "This is an improvement, she's dreaming"
Cynder was dreaming, she was dreaming of flying.
Cynder sighed with contentment; she was flying above the forest that circled Warfang. All traces of the war were gone, there weren't any paths cut through the forest to allow the dark armies to march through, and none of the trees were burned, by weapons of war or the ring of fire. The wildlife had also returned in abundance. She could spot deer, rabbits, squirrels and hundreds of birds.
She was content that all signs of the war had gone from this place. She turned and flew to Warfang, the damage of war was gone from the beautiful city, the towers and cathedrals were restored and the population had risen enough that there was someone traveling on every road in Warfang. The market was bustling; all signs of the war were gone from here as well. Cynder turned to land in the market but a sight brought her past to haunt her.
A young dragon was playing near his parents. They looked exactly alike a family she had killed during the war under the Dark Masters control. No, she would land in a quieter place. She turned and landed in a wide street.
No sooner than she landed a dragon turned and shouted "Hey you!" she turned and winced, this dragon she remembered too.
She had destroyed his home looking for Ignitus on a rumor she had heard, she had killed the occupants in a rage because Ignitus was nowhere to be found. She came out to find a young earth dragon starring in fear and confusion at his home and her. She had walked up to him and raked her claws across his face. Three long gashes appeared on his face the center scratch running across his eye and eyelid. She had turned and said, "Let that be a reminder for if you ever meet me or my master." She had then flown away.
The dragon in front of her looked exactly the same, even the scars remained around his eye. He was significantly bigger now though. The dragon looked down on her as she once looked down on him and angrily shouted, "You! You took away my family and destroyed my home! Leave this place servant of the darkness"
As he finished shouting he brought his paw up and slammed it into Cynder. She went flying into a wall and when she lifted her wings only to find that they had been punctured by earth missiles fired by her attacker, she tried to run but her legs refused to respond.
The earth dragon walked closer and began charging a massive earth missile. She tried to run again, but her legs still refused to move. Just as the earth dragon let the earth missile fly she felt a tugging sensation in her body, she turned her and closed her eyes in anticipation of the earth missile hitting. But the blow never came.
She opened her eyes to find that she was standing on a stone platform hovering in the air, she walked to the edge only to find that there was no ground below, just and oddly collared horizon. She looked into the horizon and saw another platform, but this one had a glow coming from it. She looked at her wings and found that they were healed. She opened her wings and flew over to the platform.
In the center of the platform was a pedestal that somewhat resembled the pool of visions. With this piece of information she figured out where she was. Spyro had attempted to explain this place to her on a few occasions; she was in the Chroniclers Dream world. Spyro had said that the Chronicler had talked to him and taught him when he stood on one of these pedestals.
She looked at the pedestal and thought, "Hey, if it worked for Spyro it should work for me" and stepped onto the pedestal. The second she stepped up onto the pedestal she heard a voice.
"Welcome Cynder, I called you at a good time it seems, you were having a troubled dream."
Cynder thought she had heard this voice before, it seemed so familiar, but it sounded just different enough that she couldn't place it, "Thank you for rescuing me from that Chronicler, but I deserve to suffer for what I've done."
"No, young dragon don't you think that way, you had no control then, that wasn't you. I can tell you are still discouraged, I will tell you why I called you, I am sorry but I will need to be quick I am new to this position and its powers I don't know how long will be able to hold this link, so I will get right to the point. To help you with your past, go to this location.
A rush of images flashed through Cynders head, starting at Warfangs main gate and ending at a small home in a damaged part of the city. "Now there is one more thing to aid you, go to Warfang Library and ask for "The Account of Valora" start on page 132. Goodbye for now Cynder, and good luck!"
Cynder awoke and saw white. She cover her eyes with her wings, the light was blinding. It was then she noticed that she was on a soft pillow, her wings uninjured and she recognized this place. She had seen a mole help another into a place like this, this was an infirmary.
She removed her wings from in front of her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was on a pillow, there were similar ones throughout the room, though hers was the only one occupied. There were three doors, one led outside, one appeared to be a storage closet and the last had a sign that said "Authorized Personnel Only" Her gaze shifted onto one of the windows facing the street, a dragon had just passed by, a few seconds later a mole carrying various construction equipment passed by. Cynder sighed she hoped that the city would be restored soon.
Suddenly a voice behind her said, "Ahh, you are finally awake." Cynder jumped and circled into a combat position in surprise, but gasped in pain as used her wings in the maneuver. The mole who had spoken to her had his paws raised to protect himself from the attack his body thought would come, but as he herd her gasp he lowered them and said, " Yikes, you startled me their Cynder, the wounds on your wings have closed but as I am guessing you now know are not fully healed. You should avoid using them for the next week or so as much as possible. Besides you wings how are you doing?"
Cynder lowered her wings and did a mental checkup. "Other than my wings my chest is a little sore but I feel normal otherwise."
The mole nodded and responded, "Good, good, the chest pain is understandable, you are still probably a little bruised from the arrow that hit there. You can leave in just a little bit if you wish, but there is someone who wishes to see you, and I have a bit of medicine for you. Let's take care of the medicine first shall we? Give me just a second to go get it." With that the mole rushed of.
Cynder stared amused at the mole as he rushed of, he was a very fast talker, he reminded her of Volteer. She then remembered the first thing the mole said they needed to do. Was the one who wanted to see her Spyro? Did the healers here manage to heal him?
The mole came back with a handful of an oddly colored powder. He came up to Cynder and told her "This might hurt a little bit but it will lessen the pain over the next few days and help your wounds heal faster. Oh I just realized I haven't told you my name I'm Dynos." He then began to gently apply the powder to her wings.
Cynder gasped in pain, Dynos had been right, this really did sting. But as her moved to apply the powder to her other wing a soothing sensation started on the wing he had just applied it to. Once Dynos was finish with the powder he walked over to a basin a washed the remaining powder off his paws. He turned to look at her and said, "I'm going to go tell your visitors that you are awake. When you are done talking with him you are free to go." Dynos then walked of and left her alone.
Cynder once again hoped that it was Spyro the mole was talking to, the healers here were the best she knew they must have been able to heal Spyro. Then she realized, Dynos had said visitors, not visitor. Who was coming?
The main doors opened and in came the Guardians. Cynder was momentarily, surprised but then realized that it made sense that the Guardians would want to see her, if Spyro wasn't with them that meant he was still unconscious. They still didn't know anything about what happened after Ignitus led them through the Belt of Fire.
Terrador came up to her and plainly said what she had expected, "Cynder we need you to tell us everything that happened after Ignitus led you and Spyro to the Belt of Fire"
Cynder braced herself and began telling her tale.
It had taken several hours but Cynder had finally finished recounting what had happened. The Guardians had remained silent until she had finished. Terrador then said, "Yours is a bittersweet tale Cynder. We have lost our guardian of fire and our leader. But let us not forget that you and Spyro defeated the Dark Master and saved the world from destruction. You are free to go Cynder. We Guardians have much to discuss. Cyril, Volteer. Go to the temple, we will discuss what to do next there." With that the three Guardians flew off to the temple, leaving Cynder to her thoughts.
After a few minutes Cynder decided to follow the Chroniclers advice and go to the building she saw in her vision. When she stepped out of the infirmary she was surprised to find that she was right outside of Warfangs main gate.
The trip went faster than Cynder expected. The building was in a part of the city that was rarely used, even before the war, so Cynder didn't run into many dragons, for which she was grateful. Her dream made her dread what would happen if she met someone who she had harmed or injured while under the Dark Masters control, she was sure she would, though her time under Malefors control was fuzzy she remembered countless acts of violence. And though she certainly wouldn't admit it, she was also afraid of being around other dragons, Spyro and the Guardians were the only dragons she knew.
At last she arrived in the house she had seen in her vision. It was a rather small two story home and was in a bad condition. It looked as if a decent gust of wind would blow it over. On the front next to the door was a bronze plaque. Cynder approached the plaque and rubbed her paw over it so that she could see the inscription underneath. It said,
"For valiantly aiding the Guardians in battle and dying to protect the eggs placed in their care. We Guardians swear to protect the eggs that you guarded, and will build a shelter in a hidden place to protect your eggs and those of others. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten" –In Memory of Shade and Airya
Cynder sighed; so many lives were lost in the war. And she was responsible for most of the death before the Dark Masters resurrection. She thought the Chronicler had said coming here would make her feel better, and the names sounded familiar, but thankfully it couldn't have been her, she was from the most recent clutch of dragon eggs, and those people had died protecting one. But hopefully whatever was inside the building was what the chronicler had sent her to find.
She sighed again, it was time to search the building. She would need to be careful, if she wasn't the entire structure could collapse around her.
She gently opened the door. As she stepped in two things became prevalent; a creature or creatures had ransacked the building, and the creature that did it was still in the building.
Cynder felt a dark energy rush past her and slam into the door, causing a small blast and slamming the door closed, shrouding the room in darkness.
Cynder thought to herself, "This isn't good, there a creature in here, most likely a solider of Malefor, who all lived in dark tunnels before they were recruited, trying to kill me while I still can't see." Cynder again felt dark energy and quickly rolled to the side. The blast missed her but the roll hurt her wings and she had rolled right into a wall.
The wall she had hit was crackling and was almost ready to give out. The weakened wall shifted down slightly causing pieces of the second floor to fall. She heard one of them hit something that grunted. "Good" she thought "that might throw off its aim"
Her eyes had partially adjusted to the light and she the figure of an ork with a slightly glowing mask. The color was red with many small pieces coming off of the main mask. "Great he's wearing a flame mask, unless I can suddenly use fire to overcharge it or somehow manage to trap him without magic I'm in big trouble."
The ork was tired of Cynder dodging his attacks and decided to try a different strategy. It fired a dark orb and then moved its aim and fired a regular crossbow bolt, Cynder sensed the orb jumped to the side to avoid the dark orb but she couldn't sense the bolt as it used no dark magic and was hit in the wing. The ork blasted a hole in the celling and jumped to the second floor.
"Ugh, ouch. I need to be more careful about protecting my wings, now where did that ugly monster go." She heard a scraping sound and jumped in a random direction. The ork had pushed a bookshelf through the hole in the floor. Cynder quickly used her shadow abilities to merge with the dark, but not before a book clipped her injured wing. She lost her focus and reappeared. The book had only clipped her but the pages of the book were a good thick quality so that dragon's talons couldn't easily rip them, the book had hit her where the moles arrow had torn away her wing, the area was still very tender and the pain momentarily stunned her.
The ork looked down from the hole and saw Cynder reappear. It quickly placed a special bolt into its crossbow.
The bolt was a special design and only given to orks of great skill. It drew the dark energy from the ork into the bolt, when fired it had enough power to punch through any dragons scales, it would then release all the energy in a blast that usually left no trace of the target. And since it's masters dark magic was linked to it could use the bolt whenever it wanted without harming itself.
As the bolt charged it felt the usual drain of energy, but any second his masters magic would begin flowing into him. The energy never came. The ork didn't know of Malefors defeat. It had been hiding in this home sense the golem had fallen. The bolt continued to drain energy and the ork was nearly dead "Just hang on" it thought but the bolt consumed too much power. It fell over dead but as it did the bolt reached full power and blasted through the ceiling. It had been designed to kill dragons, a flimsy ceiling was not enough to cause it to explode.
A few blocks away a mole baker left his apprentice to tend the shop while he went to get more flour from the mill. When he returned and entered his shop he found that there had been an explosion. He found his apprentice hiding under the table and demanded to be told what had happened.
The Apprentice responded, "I really don't know what happened. I just finished making preparing a few loaves of bread and put them in the oven. A few seconds later a dropped a bowl under this table and as I got down to retrieve it the oven just exploded!"
The mole then placed the flour on the table and sighed thinking, "Why did I take a former inventor as my apprentice, he is half blind and always caries around a bag of explosive powder, he must have put the powder in the loaves instead if flour." He then yelled at his apprentice "With your bad eyesight you must have put some of that powder in the bread thinking it was flour and look what you did!" The apprentice turned to complain but his master said "You'd better not complain for now your only punishment is that you're paying for the new oven. Now get over here and help me clear all this metal away." As they went about clearing away the oven wreckage neither of them noticed that one of the metal scraps was a crossbow bolt tip.
As the dust from the ceilings partial collapse disappeared, a beam of light shown down on a table. As Cynder looked down on the table she noticed a book that was in the center of the light shining down from the ceiling. The title of the book was "Ancient Prophesy's" Written by the elder, Thomas.
A.N.
The chapter was a little longer, but still a little small compared to my current goals. I was in an odd mood when I wrote about the incident at the bakers and debated removing it as I was reediting the chapters. But I decided to keep is both as it is a fun little bit and I am a little hesitant to remove much from my original design. The ending of this and the contents of the book may be controversial but I thought it was a good way to tie the old to the new.
Please leave a review and feel free to PM me if you have and questions or comments. I will to my very best to answer any questions. Until next time.
-May the storm guide you and give you strength, Wings of the Storm