Cody's feet dragged out of the building, the giant doors slamming shut behind him. For a moment he leaned back, Eon's disappointed frown engraved in memory. For a moment his pupils wandered back to the handle, and his hand reached but an inch for it. Instead, it went to his pocket, and from it came the Portal of Power, wisps of light from its core.
He sympathized with Eon's veteran tales, but he still stood a literal world apart from any of these issues no matter who argued. Yet Cody remained sullen, the glow weakening as his fingers loosened around the rock. Every crack and crevice his hand ran across in the stone railing became another crack in his resolve. And with second thoughts peeking through his feet dragged again stopping him halfway down the steps.
Was it okay leaving things this way?
"Yo, yo, yo!"
The boy blinked from his stupor. Spyro dropped, or teleported as far as anyone could tell, by his side. The dragon's extended wings cast a shadow large enough to block the midday sun and snare Cody. His tail caught Cody for real when he'd stumbled and flipped over the metal rail.
The dragon rotated around twirling him back into place in a cheery mood. He was a balloon of cheer letting out whoops and laughter bounding on busts of wing beats from one spot to the next. With a breath he perched on the railing laid back, his head upheld on a hand, looking suave with a debonair smile.
"You're looking lost, and that's saying something," the dragon joked.
"Oh, um… sorry."
"Is that your favorite word or something?" he chuckled. "I'm thinking you and old Eon had a heck of a chat in there."
Cody stuffed the stone into his other pocket. "Yeah… he, um, h-he said he wanted me to be a student at this school. But I… I said no."
Spyro leapt from the railing and circled the boy, slithering and flowing, staying in place for only a second. He set himself to be as elusive yet clear as that little voice in the kid's head talking sense. "Ooh, yeah. You dodged a bullet there, kiddo," he hummed looking at the open blue around them, his eyes rolling like airborne rockets from stray islands with too-familiar buildings. "Just take a look. Whole school as far as anyone can tell. Looks aside, this place doesn't have much along the lines of stuff to do, and yes, I'm including class. It's for the best you're heading home, if you ask me."
Cody blinked. "Wait, are you sure?"
"What, you think we're keeping you locked up here? Trust me, that'd only be if you got enrolled," the dragon chuckled. When Cody sighed and turned he closed in with an arm on his shoulder, a hand to the chest, and an entire body that exuded sympathy. Going the extra mile, he tilted his head trying to match that angelic glow Stealth Elf utilized to draw the boy towards her hand into Master Eon's.
"Hey, chill. Elfy said it herself: everybody here is ready to give you the capes off their backs if you need them. And right now, it's as obvious as my dashing good looks what you need is to beat a trail back to your world." He gave the boy a wink.
"Yeah," Cody muttered.
"Yeah, am I right? I'm right, I usually am. You're nervous, you want to go home, so you can go home. I told you I'd get you home and mission accomplished. You've had a nice break from life, but the comforts of wherever you're from are calling. Just give it a few shakes and think 'there's no place like home.'"
His claws braced onto Cody tight as if to anchor him to reality. They tingled and shook enough to send an earthquake of vibration into the boy's small frame. Eavesdropping never aligned on whatever level with him as the dragon leaned more towards the epic tale of his own life. But trials in such stories often led to happy endings and the truth he'd gotten there with the quiet boy he'd found hit him hard. Spyro felt sure he and Cody were both seeing a golden godsend to that world unknown, a key to freedom, in that runic stone in his hands.
"Right. So, uh… just fire up that little night-light of yours and we'll say, 'happy trails…'" he leaned in whispering, a single talon reaching for the embedded stone. It hummed with a faint glow from its core, its magic stirring.
"Not so fast, hotshot!"
The two jolted at the gruff voice of the scowling Eruptor with his stubs at his hips right to their side. Their stares snapped up at the pop and fall of green mist and leaves from the tree where Stealth Elf was kneeling and dropped to the lava golem's side. Spyro's smiling mask went dry and cracked as the two approached no doubt feeling smug at knocking the wind from his wings.
"Elf, Big E," he greeted with exposed jaws and claws near crushing Cody's shoulder bones. "Nice of you two to join the party. For the record… how much did you hear?"
"Just enough," Eruptor crossed his arms.
"That's what I was afraid of," his talon withered.
"And we're thinking you shouldn't be so quick to take a rain check on signing up with us, Cody," Stealth Elf reassured leaned on the lava creature's arm. "Skylander Academy's got a ton of stuff you won't want to miss."
Cody glanced back and Spyro risked a hair of a second switching back to the face-freezing beam to inspire any last-minute confidence in him. The boy glanced between him and the gem and even back to the other two giving Spyro faith his role as the boy's rock had won him the conscience tug-of-war between the three. Eon's wardens, his fellow cadets, had pulled him by the leash enough times under the guise of camaraderie for him to work his way past all their tactics.
But he went wide-eyed and teeth grinding when Cody took that hope and the Portal and buried them into his pocket. The cell doors slid in and life beyond the walls became as far away as it had ever been. The dragon's claw reached to grab his wrist and keep the precious gem out but twitched his talons and buried them at his side.
"I don't know…" Cody mumbled in his common-growing unsure tone. "To tell the truth, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the magic and Portals and everything. And I can give a good hundred reasons I couldn't do this whole 'hero' thing. If I signed up as a student, I wouldn't even know where to start."
Eruptor snagged the boy away leaving Spyro to fall on hard binding stone. "Is that what you're worried over? Come on, buddy, there's a volcano's worth of cool stuff here. For starters, there's Weapons Class, Supercharger Training, the Enemy Simulation Tests, Skyball, Elements 101, studying wild beasts-"
Cody had gone pale. "B-beasts? Weapons? E-E-Enemy S-Simulation?"
"Nice one, Eruptor," Spyro deadpanned grinning. "When did you want to mention the super dangerous stuff?"
Eruptor blinked, seeing Cody going stiff as a wood plank. "Oh, whoops…"
"I-I mean…" Cody gulped slouching. "I don't know. Superchargers, Elements, and all those other things? Now I'm even more lost…"
"Yeah, thanks for the road map, Eruptor," Stealth Elf huffed and turned to Cody. "Look, everybody starts somewhere. Unless you're Mr. Star Student over here, then you're just perfect from the get-go." Spyro gave the ninja girl a wink to which she shook her head groaning.
"Normal school is tough enough," Cody sighed. "And I haven't been there in years."
"And yeah, things will be tough here too, well I mean, expect them to be," she rested a hand on his shoulder shooing the dragon away. "But that doesn't mean you can't do it. There's no point in quitting before you've even tried. Just give things a chance and you may surprise yourself with what you like and what you can do."
"Exactly what I was saying!"
The eager dragon leapt up perching on Cody's shoulders, hunching and clasping the boy's sides again. Cody teetered off balance while he made a mental sprint for ideas. "Cool stuff! Lots of it! In fact, why don't I give you the full Skylander Academy experience as your personal guide?"
"Seriously?" Cody blinked.
"Seriously?" Stealth Elf and Eruptor's tones had that deep undertone of doubt.
"Yep," Spyro pushed his charm to the utmost. "Can't go making big decisions on the fly! Why not give our humble little hero school the full run before choosing? And don't you worry, I'll be busting out every stop on this tour, right up to the Academy anthem!"
"B-but you said… I don't-"
"Time's a-wasting," the dragon forward-shoved him along the remaining steps around the building. "So much to see, so much time to see it. By the time we're done, it'll impress you as much as it does me!"
Cody disappeared behind the building and out of the reach of the other's trapping influence, to Spyro's relief. He'd stopped flapping in the second he'd turned around to meet Stealth Elf's cynical stare from out of a cloud of smoke. He shut his wings and arms behind his back with a near-visible halo appearing above his head out of belief she could smell fear and falsehood. "Okay. What are you up to this time?"
"I'm up to giving the kid a tour. Didn't you hear how ecstatic I was?"
"Sure we did," Eruptor stomped forward. "That's kinda why we're worried."
They were persistent, if nothing else, getting good in reading between the lines. But he knew how to keep the game going.
"You wound me and my integrity, sir," he mock-gasped. "Is it a crime to want to offer a helping hand to someone or encourage a potential student? Ah, such a pity when a Skylander falls from the light. Slap the cuffs on me and take me away."
"Far, far away, right?" Stealth Elf popped an inch from his snout pressing fingers into his scales. The violation of space forced him back to perch on the railing. "I'm sure you'd love that."
"I'm the star student-slash-bad boy. I'm every color of complex under the psycho-rainbow."
"Drop the cute act. This is another try at a daring escape, isn't it?" She slapped a palm to the face groaning. "For crying out loud, Spyro! This is a school, not Cloudcracker Prison!"
"Ease up, will you? I've been with the kid the longest. Is it any stretch of the imagination to say he trusts me?" Spyro faced her shrugging. "And need I remind you, and apparently I need to, I've been here since I hatched, meaning I know this place like the back of my claw. If there's anyone who should give out tours, it's me."
Stealth Elf was perceptive as a ninja-that stink eye was giving him could shred any lies to pieces. Spyro kept confident though, on the count his argument was logical by no stretch of the truth and it was just in his nature. As expected, she sighed in defeat. "… Fine. You're sure you don't want a few hands extra, though? You know, to give him the full Academy experience?"
"Yeah," Eruptor added flexing his stubs for quotes. "Wouldn't want the kid to miss whatever could help make that 'big decision.'"
The dragon rounded the corner with a lighthearted scoff and a chuckle on the air. "Please, as if I need anybody's help. Especially with a tour. Just show the kid a few classrooms and stuff, wham! Tour done. No problem!"
Spyro flapped away focused on the two until they vanished behind the building. He gave a talon up when their glares went deeper. But by the time they were out of sight, he snorted away his joyful facade dropping to the ground massaging his cheeks.
He had to remind himself fortune was blowing breezes behind him, the cards in the game had fallen in his favor even without his intervening. The only thing Cody was searching for since the moment he arrived were exit signs and so was bound to side with anyone who'd send him on his way with a gentle nudge. Matters of the wild blue yonder aside, someone who screamed and ran at the first sign of villains couldn't cut it as a Skylander, magic or not. Rather than saddle the kid with the hero life, it was better to let him go free.
"If he still wants to leave at the end, guess that's that," he called out on foot. At the end of the grassy walkway by a small tower was Cody huddled atop a large root. He morphed and pushed his fangs into his best smile once more.
"Even if he has to bring a passenger along for the ride…"
The shadows of the entrance drew back exposing Kaos's beaten face, deepening the beastly scowl and bruises he now sported. He trudged inside hunched with his fists crackling with black lightning. Whatever sum of boasting he made for his powers, the defeat handed to him was an unpleasant slap to the face. Glumshanks was several steps behind as he reached the center of the room and stood there quivering, earning apprehensiveness from the loyal troll.
"Well, sir," Glumshanks noted pressing his nails together. "Your mother was adamant in wanting us to leave the castle for the day. I think we can both agree today was beyond any doubt eventful, so… "
"Silence, you idiot!"
Kaos continued to quiver, fingers twitching with exposed veins. "It is my destiny as the greatest Dark Portal Master in existence to be the scourge of the Skylands. Yet I was defeated, nay, humiliated by a random, uppity cadet and his fledgling Portal Master! It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair!"
The shrieks of the wicked Portal Master crashed upon the room as he dropped to the floor in a childish tantrum. He pounded his fists and flailed his legs with the icy stone floor bruising his toes and hands. He rolled on the ground back and forth, his screams morphing into cries and unintelligible words. Glumshanks plugged his ears staring with a grimace of pity and shook his head wandering over towards the table.
"Utter injustice from those heroes-in-training sir, but there's always the promise of tomorrow for evil and mayhem." The troll released a finger and wiped off the excess earwax trudging to the table and scooping a set of scrolls. "Best to make the most of this by tackling your list of practice spells.
Kaos sniffled with a wheezing breath. "Don't insult me! Those spells are for three-year-olds!"
"Might be an adequate challenge for you then…"
The evil child snapped up and was at Glumshanks' front in a heartbeat with a finger to his warty jaw. "I'm not sure I understand your comment there, Glumshanks. Were you trying to say 'please, Master Kaos? Please tie me to the roof with a metal rod through my gullet and use me as a lightning rod?'"
"Why not? We're well past using it for any reasonable purpose…"
Kaos shoved the troll off the table and paced away into circles back at the room's center. Emulating the visage of a true villain, he gave his chin a stroke. "How am I meant to bring darkness and destruction to the Skylands at this rate? My servants were worthless-present company included-dispatched with a near sneeze by that smart-aleck dragon. Also, as if things weren't unfortunate enough, I can sense the potential of my powers dwindling away. Years of study and practice and mere parlor tricks is the limit of my magic? It's nowhere near enough…"
"Look at it this way, sir." Glumshanks stood and dusted himself. "I hear magic energy orbs make for excellent Skyball substitutes."
"Kaos!"
"M-mother?" Kaos shrieked. He ruffled his robes back into a decent-enough quality and pulled the neck to hide his purple welts.
The footsteps of the evil empress made no sound as she near-floated into the room. Her long-fingered hands clasped together casting her displeased gaze onto him as he squeaked. "Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for," she froze at her son's beaten animal-reminiscent form. He only looked away trying to shroud his face with his robe's neck. "Well, I guess that answers my question. For once I'm in a good mood coming into this sorry dump, which I never thought was even possible."
"Well, mother. I'm glad my getting trounced by a Skylander served such a worthwhile purpose…"
"A single Skylander did this? Yeah, I am up on Cloud Nine," Kaossandra brought her hands to her chest. He steeped with poise to descend over him as she always did. "But I'll laugh at your incompetency later. I'm here to tell you I'm leaving the castle for a spell. I have a list of errands to attend to for today."
"Your errands again," her child muttered. "Mother, you never tell me what these supposed errands are."
"And that is because it's my business so keep your snout out of it," Kaossandra scolded. "As always when I am away you are not to enter my Me-Ditation Chamber so don't go getting ideas in that depraved little mind of yours." He'd flinched and fell back watching his mother make for the door with as much haste as regality allowed. She stopped at Glumshanks's side, speaking without looking.
"Make sure he stays put this time."
"As you wish, madam," the troll muttered with the same indirect manner.
Kaossandra slammed the door and light and air in the room returned for Kaos. Without his mother and her disapproval to bring a painful death to his ambitions, the evil child leapt to his feet. The weed of a smile spreading across his face turned terrifying at full length. "Glumshanks, I have a brilliant idea!"
The troll sighed. "And if I could wager a guess to what, I'd say it was sneaking into your mother's chambers in the castle? Then find her book of dark magic to take revenge on the Skylanders?"
"How did you guess?" Kaos stood disturbed.
"Just a shot in the dark…"
"Well, you're wrong! That wasn't my plan… just, fifty percent of it," Kaos dusted his robes and ascended the steps. "As great a satisfaction it would be to wipe those do-gooder Skylanders out of existence by myself, it has come to my attention I need a little extra oomph. I want them to know utmost despair and humiliation. I need an elite team of associates, and I know just the pack of miscreants for the job."
He craned his head across the way, past his scribbled scrolls and dirtied blackboards hung a series of wanted posters with imaginary radiance. Figures of grotesque beings, wicked-looking and deformed with a convenient ominous lightning beneath their forms. A werewolf, a pepper-headed chef, decrepit men, and a woman with a golden complexion in the largest portrait in the center. A boyish twinkle of admiration shined in the eye of the wicked child, grinning a bone-popping grin.
"The Doom Raiders, sir?" Glumshanks asked with an actual tone of voice.
"Don't they scream wickedness, Glummy?" The evil child took his table cluttered with sculptures of the same people and dusted them on the shelf. He picked from the floor and embraced clippings of reports of their various misdeeds, from grand larceny to destruction of property, shivering with notoriety. "I have followed their evil careers from the beginning. It was my dream to walk in their various-sized and shaped footsteps! And now is the perfect chance to meet them!"
"A boy with a dream. Adorable, I suppose, even if it's you. But sir, don't you think-"
Kaos picked him from the ground with his magic and through the door, into the depths of his mother's massive castle.
There was a reason his little my-first-lair hung in the shadow of that grandiose palace with its pillars and angular ceilings lost into an endless void. Every individual speck remained pristine and stainless like gems illuminated by the flaming sconces lining the halls. Their trespassing footsteps as silent as they made them cracked upon the floor shattering the silence. The violet light that poured in exposed his slouching shadow shoving it into the dark so cover the shameful stain. His mother's condescending gaze embedded itself into every brick or dim wisp in the flaming sconces lining the halls.
Yet he carried himself with greater pride. He had yearned to instill the same fear in innocent souls the Doom Raiders did when the hapless and weak spoke their names, even while imprisoned. He paced those gloomy halls as a conqueror, closer to that dream than ever, taking his first steps towards ultimate dominion.
Even though he did so with the irksome troll at his side nagging him to no end.
"Need I remind you sir, that the Doom Raiders are among the most, a generous number of people have testified, the most dangerous villains the Skylands has ever known?"
"Yes, Glummy. Don't they sound wonderful?"
"Well, they might have once. Prominent members of our world's society until they took a turn for the worse and turned to terrorizing people and spreading mayhem," the troll sighed. "Years of fear-mongering just got the lot of them one-way tickets to the most secure cell in Cloudcracker Prison."
"Indeed, the best of the best for the worst of the worst."
Glumshanks jumped before him. "So then, sir, if I may be so bold. How do you plan on getting, quote, 'the worst of the worst' to play the roles of supporting actors to yourself?"
The troll's small burst of boldness had gotten him a pull by the ear to Kaos's face. "Oh, Glumshanks, my dear, feeble-minded Glumshanks, how little you understand the code of villainy. It's simple. The Doom Raiders will be my loyal servants and follow my every order because, well, I'm not giving them a choice!"
"Is that a fact?"
"Must I explain everything!?" Kaos raised the troll via dark magic and swung his entire body in emphasis. "If they don't serve me, I don't free them. But if they pledge their undying loyalty and gratitude and follow my every whim no matter how trivial, then I show them mercy and they're free as birds. Vicious, bloodthirsty, wicked birds of prey that will peck at the eyes of any Sky-loser I point them towards!"
Glumshanks dropped to the ground released from his master's magical hold. "Genius, sir. And I suppose you've considered this but, ah… in the obscene, unexpected scenario they try to double-cross you? No doubt you've done your research, but I believe it best to remind you they weren't locked up in the Skylands' most secure jail for littering and jaywalking."
"All deliciously evil in their own right, I might add."
"You should know, since they're the best you've pulled off…"
Kaos kept his back turned, denying the troll to see the cogs in his head spinning for a solution. "Well… there will be misgivings in the aftermath but I suppose I'll have no choice to destroy them."
"Right… classic fallback."
His servant troll was concocting nonsense scenarios, the evil child determined, his genius passing for prophecy. All villains shared the common goal of spreading misery and remaking the world to satisfy their ambition. And even the most deplorable recognized concepts of gratitude and the toiled efforts of a determined soul wising to plunge the Skylands into his namesake of a state. Or at least one with greater power. The noble heroes of this world had gorged themselves on the times of peace and evil crushed underfoot and now was the perfect time to change the tides.
Endless flights of stairs later, as designed to repel him as Kaos thought, they arrived at a chamber at the top of the tower. Onate markings resembling locks and hideous faces parallel to the ominous gargoyles on either side adorned the massive door. The evil child shivered through his robes, an unnatural mist of force seeping through the stone. It triggered the dark magic that soon went wild and blasted the doors wide.
From the ceiling above rays poured into the room, pushing back the shadows into reverence at the sides. The only thing of note was the pedestal in the center, and atop it, a heavy tome encrusted with violet crystal. Taking it in his hands, silent, demonic whispers fluttered into his ears, and power flooded into his twitching digits.
"This is it, Glummy…" he whispered smiling. "This will make it all possible."
"Sir, allow me to make my case once again. It's not too late to go back to the room and study. Or perhaps enjoy a nice jigsaw puzzle or make collages with your article collections."
"Silence! I'm in the middle of a dramatic moment!"
The book lifted itself from his hands into the air and he levitated after, almost pulled by strings of fate. Black sparkling streams swirled around them both intoxicating the air with a haze of malevolence. The storm flooding into and all around his body contained a force beyond his wildest imaginings, tantalizing him to his deeper yearnings of deity-level actions. All sense of the world faded in his maddened cackle as the symbol on his forehead set the room alight in an infinite violet glow.
Contrary to his expectation coming out of that sweeping light, Kaos found himself with his troll servant next to him in a cramped rock cell. He blinked away near euphoria holding onto iron bars and gaping. Lost in the light he remembered crashing doors, the screams of guards, zapping, leading up to the slide of iron bars in his face. His manic grin lost its steam sending the fuel to his twitching eye.
Glumshanks slapped his head beside him giving a tired sigh. "Yep, you are a miracle worker…"
Well, good news, the next chapter's here! A little earlier than expected if I might add.
I don't know if it was my best but I'll take my wonderings and apply them to the next chapter. I normally have this problem anyway, but I'm glad that thanks to some recent purchases it's not as bad as it could have been. I am trying to focus more on the story itself than the writing individually, since I see other stories on this site and the writing is so poetic and full. But I keep having to remind myself even pro writers have these little issues and it's just down to a matter of style.
I think I've made the decision to put this story on hold for a little while once it gets to chapter 10 and by then I'll make my big announcement in regards to this. I'm sorry if this is disappointing to hear but I have other stories and I want to get back to those. There's still good stuff to come in the next three chapters so be sure to stick around for that.
Onto the reviews:
Bookwriter94: Something tragic did happen to Cody, which will be clarified more as the story goes on. He will get out of his shell but he and his soon-to-be-buddies have a long way to go. After all, change doesn't happen instantly. Character arcs can be tricky because the trick is to pull off a subtle evolution. But friendship is the key to this change, and you will see it in both Cody and Spyro.
MYTHICBOY: Here's the next chapter. Thankfully you didn't have to wait another month!
desmond bot: No worries. It's not that your comment was confusing. It just pertains to things that I can't answer right now for various reasons. But stick around and see what happens.
snake screamer: Thanks for your support and the PM suggestion. Spyro isn't keen on keeping Cody around mostly because he doesn't want to stick around himself. Right now Spyro is at a point where he doesn't think he needs friends, as he's stated here. But like Cody, he will come around.
rocker77889: Thanks for the PM. I'm glad I sort of nailed Cody's portrayal this time – you mentioned him as shy and reserved at one point, which technically is true, but I was more going for withdrawn as part of his personality. The way Cody is, he distances himself from people, it the last to speak up and the first to finish speaking. But I'm still glad I'm nailing everyone else. And the ball is starting to roll now in terms of plot so as I said, things will start speeding up in these next chapters.
That's about it. Not much else to say except again, stick around for the announcement. Things have been going well so I'm feeling confident. As always, review, favorite, follow. Until next time.