Chapter 7: Meeting Pyro

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire, the Legend of Spyro or Team Fortress 2. I just love all three of them so much that I couldn't resist writing all about them.

Cynder was awoken by the rhythmic crashing of waves against the shore. The recent happenings came back to her with surprising clarity; Farsight, the second prophecy and the fact that she'd been washed into the sea.

She opened her eyes groggily and then shut them promptly, momentarily blinded by the harsh glare of the setting sun. She tilted her head away and tried to get up. She couldn't.

She glanced down at the heavy iron shackles encircling her forearms and legs and around at the Ape soldiers and Dreadwings around her. She cursed. They must've caught up with her while she'd been out cold.

She lashed her bladed tail in frustration, managing to strike a soldier in the boot. The Ape yelped and fell back, clutching his foot and swearing. Another two soldiers dragged him out of her reach before she was able to do any more permanent damage.

Another Ape grasped her roughly by her horns and yanked her head back, staying carefully out of reach of her tailblade. His bulk and finely-wrought plate armour told Cynder he was at least a squadron leader if not a full-fledged commander and not a foe to be underestimated. "Listen, you blasted dragon," he growled. "I lost a lot of good Apes tracking you down through that storm. My orders are to take you back to King Gaul alive but if you try anything, even look at one of my Apes wrong, and I'll be the first one to put a sword through you. You got that?"

Cynder chuckled cynically. "I bet you wouldn't be talking so tough if I didn't have these chains on," she said mockingly. "Is the big, strong Ape so afraid of the little dragon?"

The Ape struck her across the face with a hard backhand slap. "Shut up, traitor," he snarled. "I'm not falling for that. Do I look stupid?" To his soldiers, he said, "Lash her to a Dreadwing. If she tries anything funny, drop her into the ocean. It'll be fun to see how well a dragon swims when she's clapped in irons."

As the Apes seized her and began dragging her, she spat, "How many?"

"What did you say?" the Ape Commander growled, turning.

"How many Apes did you lose?" Cynder asked with a cruel smirk. She glanced around. "If the numbers here are any indication, I'd say at least twenty."

"How dare you," the Commander snapped. "You filthy bloody traitor." He walked up to her, fist raised to strike her again. The blow came like a sledgehammer and Cynder was knocked sideways, in a daze.

"You know," the Commander continued. "King Gaul only said to bring you back alive. You reckon beaten within an inch of your life counts?"

Cynder didn't bother answering. She just glared defiantly back at him, challenging him to try. The large Ape's fist went up. And she didn't even flinch.

But the blow never came.

"Huh?" the Ape grunted, glancing over his shoulder at the gloved hand that had caught his arm. The next thing Cynder knew, there was a long-handled axe sticking out of his shoulder! Had someone somehow come to rescue her? Had Spyro followed her? Even more strangely, what would he be doing with an axe?!

The Ape bellowed in pain and stumbled away, clutching at his wounded shoulder and Cynder got a better look at his attacker. It wasn't Spyro. It wasn't even a dragon. Instead it was the strangest thing she'd seen all her life. And in a life full of strange happenings, that was quite something.

It looked like an Ape in that it had two arms, two legs and a head but stood a full head shorter than the massive Ape Commander and was covered from head to toe in some kind of baggy crimson bodysuit. Its face was obscured by a black, bug-eyed mask that ended in some kind of metal snout and it wore a bulky yellow cylinder on its back. In one of its gloved hands it held the axe that had been used to wound the Commander and in the other it clutched a strange long-barrelled thing that vaguely reminded Cynder of the industrial chimneys of the Dark Master's weapons forges.

"What the hell?" the Ape Commander swore. "Blasted human mongrel! Kill it! Hack it to bits! Make it suffer!"

So that's what a human looks like, Cynder realised as all ten Ape soldiers rushed at him, blades and spears raised and war-cries issuing forth. Her heart sank. Well it wasn't Spyro but at least it was a distraction. She quickly began trying to slip free of the manacles.

In response to the charging, roaring Apes, the human simply tilted his head to one side quizzically almost as if amused.

What's he doing, Cynder wondered. He'll be killed! "Run, you fool!" she shouted at the human.

The human waved at her merrily, not making a sound. It casually put away its axe and hefted the pipe-thing so that it was levelled at the oncoming Apes like a spear.

Cynder wanted to look away. The brave, foolish human. Apes weren't the best warriors in the world but hardly anyone could fight outnumbered ten-to-one. He won't even know what hit him, Cynder thought. At least he'll die happy. Which is more than I can say for myself, she decided, still stuck in the shackles. When they were done with him, they'll come right back for her. Her chances of escape had just gone from slim to nil.

The Apes closed in for the kill. To his credit, the human didn't even look away from his inevitable doom.

All of a sudden, the pipe thing coughed and sputtered momentarily and sparks flew out from its barrel. Then, a vast jet of flaming fuel blasted forth from the pipe, engulfing the Apes in a firestorm.

Arrogance turned to horror as the Apes, so sure of their victory, were suddenly inundated in a sea of flames. Their charge came to a literal screeching halt as they ran in all directions, screaming and swatting at the flames in a desperate attempt to put them out. The Dreadwings saw the danger and immediately tried to take off.

But the human was merciless and he hefted the firebreather to spray the entire area with blazing fuel. The Dreadwings were doused with burning liquid as they tried to make a run for it while the Apes vainly tried to escape as the flames rose higher and higher. The human kept up a constant stream of flaming fuel, leaving his victims in a virtual inferno. Then, with horrifying finality, they expired, their charred, blackened carcasses falling to the ground like so many limp puppets.

The Ape Commander stood speechless for a moment, staring in disbelief as ten fully-armed and armoured Apes and their mounts quite literally went up in flames. Then, he made a dash for his own Dreadwing a few feet away.

The human pulled out a short-barrelled device and lined up the Dreadwing in his sights. There was a loud crack like a miniature thunderclap and suddenly the Dreadwing's wing was perforated with dozens of small holes. The Dreadwing screeched as the human fired again and again, ripping its wings to bloody, torn shreds in seconds.

Finally, the human finished off the Dreadwing with a shot to the head and its lifeless corpse fell over. He wasted no time in catching up to the Commander and dousing him in burning liquid from his firebreather. Against any other blow, the Commander's armour might've saved him from harm. But against the human's firebreather, it just ensured a slow, lingering death as he was cooked inside his armour. And still the human kept the fire on him.

With a piercing shriek, the burning body finally fell and the human turned to face Cynder. Having just witnessed the Apes' cruel deaths, Cynder was now officially terrified. She tried to back away as the human advanced on her, firebreather at the ready.

I never thought it would end like this, Cynder thought. Any other death seemed pleasant in comparison. Sorry, Farsight. Looks like you were wrong about that Second Prophecy. She shut her eyes and looked away as the human raised his axe.

There was a 'woosh' sound and the chains fell away. She opened one eye, wondering what had just happened and was just in time to see the human cutting away the chains around her ankles.

She barely had time to wonder what was going on when the human tackled her with a hug.

"What the-" she breathed as his inhumanly strong grip briefly cut off the flow of air to her lungs. She coughed and sputtered for a bit until the human let go of her, his bug-eyed mask meeting her gaze.

"Who are you?" Cynder asked, rubbing her sore neck. Silly question, she decided. He probably didn't even speak the same language. Instead of trying to ask anything else, she tried to reach out to his mind like Ignitus had taught her.

She recoiled almost instantly, her own head spinning. The human's mind was a mess-comparable to a roiling storm of thoughts and dreams. He was completely, unerringly, unequivocally insane. Through his madness, only one name had been clear enough to decipher.

"Pyro," she said. "Is that your name?"

The human nodded happily, his head bobbing up and down.

"Well Pyro it is then," Cynder remarked. He may be mad but at least he's on my side, she thought.

It had gotten dark by now and the only light came from the still-burning carcasses on the beach. Pyro was already making himself comfortable by one of the fires, warming his gloved hands.

I guess I'll just call it a day then, Cynder thought. She glanced at the rainforest further inland. Plenty of time to explore it tomorrow morning. And so she lay down by the fire, warming herself in its heat and trying to ignore the fact that it was made up of burning Ape corpses.

Author's Note:

Enter the Pyro. As you might've guessed, Pyro's going to be Cynder's travelling companion from here on out. He's not a normal kind of scavenger as evidenced by his unnaturally friendly tendencies towards Cynder and he's far from being the good guy. But at least he's not the bad guy either. For those of you who don't know, Pyro's from a video game called Team Fortress 2 which I used to play. If you want to find out more, I'd recommend checking out 'Meet the Pyro' on YouTube to find out what the world looks like from his eyes/goggles. And don't worry, I've got a perfectly believable explanation of how he got to Pyrrhia XDXDXD

So tell me how you found this chapter! It's been a part I've been itching to write for a while now as it levels the playing field somewhat. I mean, since Malefor's getting an undead Kestrel, isn't it only fair to give Cynder an ally of her own (even if he is a bit of a pyromaniac)? And see you soon for the next part XDXDXD

MCZ-That's a plausible explanation. But there may be more to it XD As for Kestrel, we'll certainly see. I might be publishing some more in-depth work about her soon XD

Jayfeathers-Oh please not Whirlpool… If he somehow managed to survive the electric eel treatment, I might even have Pyro set him on fire or something… Don't worry, either way, Whirlpool is as good as dead! XD