A/N: Sorry about the last chapter if it upset any of you. Don't worry. If any of you want to see more terrible things happen to Cynder in the future then keep reading. She'll get what's coming to her. But without further ado, here's Chapter 7!
VII - One True Fear
We must have been walking for more than an hour, it was dark outside and the more nightly critters were romping throughout Nytogo Forest. We weren't quite sure what turns to take or what paths to travel, but at least we had Narzel. He was just so magically gifted, being able to heal all physical wounds, make a light in his paws, even float without wings! It was truly amazing to see it. We strode out towards the end of the path we were on and Satoshi sighed.
"Okay… This must be the place… The map is not very descriptive nor is it about to properly show the location we need to travel towards." Satoshi pulled the map closer to his face, tilted it left and right, just did all sorts of things to try and make sense of it.
"Wait wait wait…. Shhhhhh… Do you hear that?" Narzel pointed out, nudging his head towards the right. I blinked a couple times and leaned my head that way, flicking my tail. Coming faintly from the right side of the dead end path there was this sort of soft murmuring. Of course, I wasn't too sure of who or what it was, but it must have been important! "I think the shrine is over there…"
I rubbed my chin a bit with two of my claws before nodding in agreement. "Then we mustn't lose any time, let's go!" I told the two. Satoshi put the map back into my backpack and nodded, leading the way.
It wasn't long before we came across the shrine. It stood tall amongst the trees, breaking the canopy with its roof, even towering about it as well. I wasn't sure if it could get any taller, it might have been as tall as some of the buildings in Warfang for all I knew. I looked between the both of them and we all took a step forward, yet Narzel and Satoshi were both stopped immediately. Not by a force field or anything, but actually stopped, like as if they were trapped in time almost. I looked around myself, spotting that mostly everything had stopped. The grass on the ground gently swaying in the breeze, the sound of the breeze, the rustling of the bushes and tree leaves. Everything...stopped… I took a survey of the shrine, looking up and down it for any sort of cause to this. I looked more towards the bottom now and what I saw gave me a sudden shudder through my body.
"Spyro…?" I questioned, and the dragon before me turned around. "What...what are you doing here…?"
"Isn't it obvious…? I'm here for the shard." He spoke out so strongly, in a more angered tone than anything.
"I...I never expected to see you here… how did you get here? Or how did you know to come here?" I stepped closer to him, coming near face to face with the purple dragon.
"The guardians made a map pinpointing the next two locations for the shards. We are still unsure of where the next two are… we think they are somewhere in Dante's Freezer." He looked away from me and sat down. I did the same and looked over him.
"I… See you have better control over your Dragon Time." All he did was nod. "...Is there something you need to talk about Spyro…?"
"Yes… in fact…" He looked back over to me. "Cynder… I know who you preferred more. I know all about it… I know what you enjoy… what you don't… I know it all… I… I know too much now…" That same tone he spoke with early slowly faded into a warbled, upset tone. "Cynder… how could you… I know that was five years ago but… it doesn't make up for that fact… you had the hots for another dragon… The least you could have was tell me that you didn't like me anymore!"
"Spyro that was five years ago… how could you still be upset about that…?"
"How could I not be?!" He stood up, tears starting to stream down his cheeks. "How do you think I felt watching my most favorite dragoness in the whole world get it with another?! How would you have felt if it was me on top of another female?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't-"
"It's too late for sorry!" He got up, stomping his forepaw on the ground angrily. "For god's sake, I loved you Cynder! You even told me that you loved me! Fucking hell!"
"Spyro I jus-" He was just so filled with anger at this point there was no reasoning with him.
"SAVE IT! You are nothing but a lying cheat, that's all you are! I tried to give you a chance… I really did… but you wouldn't accept my kindness for you… I tried to help… and you denied it…" He turned and looked over to the shrine again. "It's too late for anything now Cynder… as far as we're concerned… I never met you in my life… from as far as I know… you are just another Black Dragon for me to defeat…"
"Spyro…" I reached my paw out to him, but he snatched the shard piece from the pedestal and looked back to me.
"Goodbye… Cynder…" He took off to the sky soon after. Before he left I could see the tears in his eyes, the burning hate they had in them for me and for what I have done to him. I wanted to make up. But it was too late for that. Maybe there was still a way… but it seemed much more to be first before earning his trust back. And that'll be a challenge... Spyro's dragon time was still in effect. I was sitting there in the silence, waiting for it to be over.
"Lords save me… I'm such an asshole…" I told myself over and over, plopping onto the ground and tearing up, bawling my eyes out at this point. "I'm sorry Spyro… for everything, I've done… I'll make everything better… I promise…" I wiped my eyes and looked up to the sky, soon time had returned to normal and Satoshi and Narzel came running past me to the shrine before seeing that I was on the ground in front of the shrine.
"Cynder…?" Narzel looked at me, concerned greatly.
"The Crystal Shard is gone… lets just… return home…"
Me, Satoshi, and Narzel carried ourselves home, exhausted from our latest endeavors and sighed gently. The two carrying me seemed pretty upset about something, to say the least. I was too upset myself though to ask about anything.
"Cynder… is something bothering you…?" Narzel asked, looking over my shoulder a bit.
"No… It's nothing Narzel…" I sighed and looked away a bit. We soon found ourselves back at Satoshi's place. I opened the sliding door and strode in, looking around a small bit, and finding my seat on one of the pillows on the ground, sighing gently to myself once more. "So… the Crystal Shard from Howaito has been taken… Where were the other two shards again?"
"Oh, the other two? Those are found in Bundinn við ís. We'd go with you but we are bound to this land, we can't leave it for any reason whatsoever." Narzel looked down, then away, whining gently as he floated up to me and nuzzled my cheek. "Both of us will miss you!" Narzel and Satoshi had only known me for about 2 days now and they are already going to miss me? They must've really enjoyed my company then.
"Oh, guys… I'll miss you too... " I sat down on my haunches firmly and spread open my forelegs for a hug, to which they both pulled in to. We hugged for a few minutes longer before releasing it. I sighed gently and swayed my tail gently, looking at the both of them before spreading my wing. "I best be going now before it gets way too late to do anything!" I say as I stood up and looked over the two of them, then sighed gently and made my way to the door. I looked back at them, waved my wing at them in one last parting before pushing the door open, spreading my wings wide and hopping out the door. From what I've heard, Bundinn við ís is in the north. So that's where I was heading. On this whole flight, I had so much to do think about and look over in my mind. Putting myself in some sort of autoflight mode as I sighed and began to nap. Hopefully, I was on the right course.
Hours later
I wake up in a shock, freezing cold. No amount of scales on my body could stop this sheer cold I was feeling. I pulled my head up from the snowy ground I was laying on, and I gently stood up, shaking off my body of the snow that was collecting on it. "H-holy fuck why is...is it so cold…? This is worse than Dante's F...Freezer…" I shake my head quickly and look around, shivering in my place. "G-God damn… How does anything live ou-out here…?!" I whine out as I start on my way back, looking around for some sort of cave or shelter I could use for warmth before I keel over in the snow and die. Panicked now at this point I continue my search, looking everywhere before finally spotting an opening in the snow on the ground. I rush to it and crawl my way into it, luckily fitting within the hole quite well. It was like a series of tunnels and channels leading further down underground, clearly closer to the warmth of the world. With my valiant effort to get warm, I finally find a large chamber of sorts. Really big actually as I find myself falling down into it and landing flat on my back. I groan out a small bit before staring up at the ceiling, finding it to be much farther up than I thought.
"Who are you?" I heard someone say and I quickly turn my head to find myself face to face with yet another dragon. Though this one was very different. They had a feminine look clearly and I only assumed female, and I stood up, dusting myself off. This dragon had wings for arms! And a very curvy body, possibly for better aerodynamic capability.
"I'm Cynder, a dragon from the west in the Dragonlands."
"Oh! So a non-native." She held out her paw and I grabbed it, shaking a bit. "I'm Lief, a Wyvern! Pleased to meet you."
A Wyvern? Yet another new dragon I was unfamiliar with. "Well, it's nice to meet a friendly face."
"No kidding… I'm one of the few wyverns here you can consider friendly. Most of my kind are aggressive and very deadly, my brother had been killed by another, but they say it's just the law of nature around here."
"I see… That is a bit… Concerning. By the way, where am I exactly?" I asked as I sat on my haunches.
"Oh! You're in Bundinn við ís, the land bound by ice!" The wyvern smiled, and I smiled back, great! I was in the right place.
