Mental Oddity

As the balloons flew over the Dream Weaver's world, the five dragons could see that more of Gnasty's old minions had taken over here as well. Gnomes ran about all over, shooting things with magic cannons and such. It was a chaotic sight and one the Dream Weavers, if they weren't all crystallized, wouldn't have been able to concentrate in. The two balloons floated over to the outlet of land where Amos the balloonist was standing with his balloon. When they started to land, Amos looked up, surprised at the arrival of two more balloons.

"Ahoy there!" he yelled in greeting. When they landed and five dragons jumped off, he recognized one as the purple dragon that'd visited there so many years ago. Once the dragons were on the ground, both balloons stayed as if they knew they'd be needed.

"Hello Amos," Spyro replied to his greeting. "We're here to find out what's happening to the Dragon Realms. Do you have any idea what's wrong?"

"I don't think I'll be of much help, Spyro. But if you look around, maybe you'll find someone who is." He glanced at the four dragons he didn't recognize. "And who might these fine young dragons be?"

"Oh, this is Fuchsia form Artisans, Cinder form Peace Keepers, Stella from Magic Crafters, and that's Shade from Beast Makers. We've sorta run into each other along the way and formed a group."

Amos nodded to each of the strangers.

"Very nice to meet you all. But you'd probably better be on your way, so I'll wish you luck. And be careful, you never know what you'll find in these parts. If you need transportation, I'll be right here."

"Thanks. And we will," Spyro said for the group, and then the five turned and started off down the stairs and into the Dream Weavers world.

As they walked, they looked around for anyone who might give them some help, but the only ones they found were gnomes and fools. As for the gnomes, they tried to stay out of sight of these, just in case they happened to be more powerful than they appeared to be. Spyro highly disliked avoiding them and not fighting as if they were cowards, but he had to think of his and his friend's safety. So he swallowed his urge to attack and restrained himself, though he did this with clenched teeth and a twitching tail.

Cinder wasn't that happy about it either, but it didn't bother him quite as much as it did Spyro. As for Stella, she was a peace-loving dragon and preferred not to fight, and Fuchsia was just her usual curious self, taking in everything around her. Shade just didn't care at all, or at least he appeared to not be caring. In fact, he was almost amused at Spyro's predicament, though none of the others could tell because he made sure to walk well behind them.

They walked and walked, ducking behind castle walls every now and then to avoid being seen by a gnome, and then they'd walk some more. Finally, Spyro decided to stop and rest because his, and everyone else's feet were tired. Cinder slowly walked over to Spyro, who was sitting by a tree and plopped down next to him. Stella went and sat on the edge of a nearby pool, gazing into it and Fuchsia stood where she stopped, staring into the distance, deep in thought. Shade sat in the shadow of a castle wall, several feet away.

"Spyro," Cinder said, "I don't think we're going to find anyone. We should just leave."

Spyro looked up from staring at the ground with a sigh.

"Yea…" He was cut off by a strange chanting noise.

Stella lifted her head suddenly, hearing the sound as well.

"What is…" Cinder was about to say.

"Shh!" Fuchsia shushed him, breaking her train of thought.

They all listened quietly, even Shade, who'd heard only a faint version of the sound.

"It's coming from over there," Stella pointed to a nearby corner of a castle.

Slowly Spyro stood up and crept over to the corner, closely followed by Stella, Fuchsia, and Cinder, and a little way behind, Shade. Carefully they peered around the corner. There in front of them, only a few feet away, was a blue dragon about their age. The light green ridges down her spine were similar to Stella's as they were long and acted like hair, but they were all thinner and curved backward instead of one acting like bangs. On top of her nose was a spike like Cinder's, only a bit bigger.

She had her eyes closed and was sitting in an odd criss-cross position, chanting. Around her were gnomes who appeared to be sleeping. Curious, Spyro wandered out from behind the corner and walked over to the blue dragon. He didn't think she was dangerous, so he sat down near her. From this view, he got the picture. This was a Dream Weaver and she'd put the gnomes to sleep with her chanting. She was probably meddling with their dreams now. He cleared his throat to get the dragon's attention.

She opened her eyes so suddenly that it made Spyro jump. The gnomes remained asleep, and the blue dragon looked to see who'd interrupted her.

"Who are you?" she asked the purple dragon in front of her.

He gave her a bewildered expression.

"You don't know who I am?" he asked.

She studied him and then an expression of recognition flashed over her face.

"OH! I know you! You're that hero dragon who's saved the world like three times. Spyro, right?"

He nodded.

"Well, what do you want?"

"I was hoping you could tell us what's going on around here."

The blue dragon looked at him, blinked a few times, and crossed her eyes trying to see who the 'us' Spyro was talking about was. Then she straightened her vision and stared at him as if he were weird.

"Why do you refer to yourself in third person?"

Spyro looked confused.

"What? OH!" Craning his neck around, he looked at the corner of the castle. "You guys, come over here."

The other four walked out from behind the corner and stood behind Spyro, studying the strange blue dragon.

"And who might you all be?" she asked as if she didn't make the connection that they were the 'us' Spyro had referred to.

Spyro cocked an eye ridge and shook his head.

"These are my friends. We're trying to find out what's wrong with the Dragon Realms."

"What are you all called?" the blue dragon said, practically ignoring Spyro.

"I'm Cinder from Peace Keepers, that's Fuchsia from Artisans, this is Stella from Magic Crafters, and that's Shade from Beast Makers," Cinder said.

Shade had been glaring at Spyro for referring to him as his 'friend' and gave the blue dragon only a glance.

"What's your name?" Cinder asked.

Spyro looked annoyed.

"I'm Dawn the Dream Weaver and my dragonfly is Shiver," she pointed to a blue dragonfly hovering by her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, especially so interesting a group as yourselves. Trying to find out what's wrong with the Dragon Realms you say?" she said, turning to Spyro.

"Yes!" Spyro said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh! Have you looked at the stars lately? They've been doing odd things like not being in their normal patterns." She mentioned, looking up at the sky even though it was daylight and she wouldn't be able to see any stars.

Spyro sighed in frustration.

"No, I can't say I have, but what about the Dragon Realms. Do you know anything about them?"

Dawn looked back to Spyro with an expression like she'd just heard him mention the Dragon Realms.

"Oh, them? No, I don't believe so. I'm dreadfully sorry I couldn't help."

Spyro shook his head again, managing to control his temper.

"That's alright. Thanks anyway. I guess we'll be going then."

"So soon? But you just now came."

Spyro's tail twitched in agitation.

"We're on a quest to find out what's going on in the Dragon Realms, remember?"

Dawn looked surprised. "Oh really? How fun!"

Before Spyro could blow up, Cinder shoved him aside.

"I have an idea! Why don't you come with us, Dawn?"

Dawn looked delighted and Spyro looked flabbergasted.

"Really? You wish me to come?" Dawn said excitedly.

"Sure. The more the merrier, right Spyro?"

Cinder looked at Spyro, who had turned a darker shade of purple and was glaring at him. Cinder read his expression.

"Oh, come on, Spyro? Can we keep her, pleeeease?" he begged. He was starting to like Dawn because she was funny and she was the first person he'd met who was stupider than he was.

Stella and Fuchsia were just watching the whole scene, trying not to laugh, while Shade was rolling his eyes, thinking that all of them were idiots. Dawn didn't seem to mind, or she didn't notice being talked about as if she were a pet.

"Yes, can we keep her, Hero of Purple? She won't be any trouble, I promise," she said.

Spyro was startled. Now who was referring to themselves in the third person? And what was with that 'Hero of Purple' bit? He eyed both Dawn and Cinder suspiciously. After a few more minutes of the two's insistent begging, Spyro turned back to his normal shade of purple and sighed with defeat.

"Oh, all right," he agreed, though somewhat reluctantly.

"Yay! This'll be fun," Cinder said and leaned close to Spyro, "Don't worry pal. I'll keep her out of your scales."

Spyro nodded his approval.

"Good," he said, then faced the rest of the group. "Ok. I don't think we're going to find anything else here, so let's leave. I'm not absolutely sure where to go from here, but it's no use staying. I suppose we could go back to the Artisans world. From there we can go to Dragon Shores and use the portal there to go to Avalar. Hopefully, Hunter will be there. He might know something."

"What about Gnasty's World? Have you been there yet?" Dawn asked.

"No. But no one's gone there since I defeated Gnasty, so there's no point," Spyro replied.

"You know, it might actually be a good idea to go there Spyro," said Fuchsia.

"No. I want to find Hunter," Spyro stated somewhat stubbornly.

No one argued since he was their leader. Not even waiting to see if everyone was following, Spyro started towards Amos the balloonist. Once they all got there, he turned around to arrange riding partners.

"Thankfully there are three balloons. Cinder, you and Dawn ride one balloon. Shade and Fuchsia will go in another balloon. Stella, you'll ride with me on the third."

Stella felt her stomach do a flip of excitement and nervousness at getting to ride with Spyro. Somehow, she managed to keep her feelings contained though. Everyone then jumped onto his or her balloons and they all started to rise. Amos waved to them, not saying a word, but silently wishing them good luck. Together the balloons flew off back towards the Artisans home.