A lot of people weren't happy with my decision of having Cynder help Aaron escape the prison in the last chapter. I want to address a few of those comments. If you don't care about the why behind the what, or you agree with my plotline, or are simply too lazy to read this A/N, then you can continue to the story, because this A/N will be slightly lengthier, so hold tight.
Firstly, a guest was sceptical because given Cynder's past with the apes, she would probably have been the least accepting of Aaron. I do understand that, and while writing it, I was having a little argument in my head for that scene. Because it makes sense, and also knowing Cynder's personality, she would be one to want to rip out Aaron's throat. But here's the thing I figured out. Given Cynder's past, she would know exactly what an ape would be, by appearance, personality, etc. She was sceptical at the start, but she would have come to realise that Aaron actually wasn't an ape, since everything he did during the interrogation scene was definitely not something an ape would do. Mainly the fact that Aaron didn't try to attack the dragons at all, and was okay with a little conflict from Cyril and Volteer. Plus, she got a second chance from Spyro, and was judged by everyone who saw her after she was rescued from her corruption. She figured she didn't want that for Aaron. She didn't want to make the mistake of judging Aaron like the many dragons that judged her. I feel like this particular point is turning into a ramble, and I think I've proved my point, so I'll go onto the next point.
Next, 'pyrodragon58' had five very sceptical comments about the story, all of which make plenty of sense. I want to address each one of them, because they're kind of important. The first two points they made, were 'human getting trapped in different dimension' and 'human gets attacked by good guys because he looks like an enemy' are kind of overused, but what is original these days? The first one doesn't really have a rebuttal, so I'm going to leave that, but the second one does have an explanation. The 'good guys' in this story won't really seem like the good guys in it. I think Cynder's affiliation with Aaron is quite clear, and the others' will be decided later, but there will be a bit of conflict and splitting up within the characters of the story. The third point was 'human gets a main character who resents his species to feel pity for him'. There is a big explanation for this, which was mainly explained in the paragraph above. But it was also Cynder's own choice. Aaron didn't get Cynder to feel pity for him. She felt pity for him among her own accord, given her past experiences with being judged wrongly. She felt that Aaron didn't really need that, especially since he was knew to the Dragon Realms. The fourth point that was made was 'main character helps him escape and cause tension between good guys'. I felt a bit of betrayal makes a good tension. Another reason why I made the character that helped Aaron escape the prison be Cynder. She will be accused, but other than that, I didn't really see another way to get tension between the dragons, as I wanted tensions between everyone in this story; humans, dragons, cheetahs (which will be introduced later in the story), and some other animal species that will appear later on. The fifth point was 'next chapter, the human befriends every single good guy even though he looks like an enemy'. That will not happen any time soon. It may happen, I'm slightly unsure how I want to end this story at the moment, but there will be a lot of conflict between everyone in this story. Near the end, it will happen, but it will only happen due to… certain, slightly gruesome circumstances. That's all I'm giving away.
And finally, 'adlashawn' PMed me, and I've already answered their question, but it was an important one that I'm sure a few people may have been annoyed about, and I want to address it in public. They asked whether Aaron would get dark powers or something similar, as I've made him sound so weak at the moment, and they didn't think that Aaron should deserve to be treated how the dragons have treated him so far. Firstly, Aaron has been accused of being an ape. That's the main reason why Aaron's been treated like crap in this story. Second of all, I feel the whole 'human gets dark powers' or 'human turns into dragon' plotline is very overused. I wanted to do something a bit different. So yes, compared to the dragons, Aaron will be very weak. I will give him a weapon later on, but in terms of magical powers like the dragons, he will have none. I just wanted to try something different. If you want a good 'human gets dark powers' or 'human turns into dragon' story, I'd recommend Aimless by 'The Silent Insomniac' or the Obsidian series by 'BirmanDragon'. But this story will not have anything to do with those themes.
In conclusion, I understand if you don't like my decisions with my plot. I've read many stories where I don't like the plot and that I would've like to see it go in a different direction, but after reading them to the end, I actually do end up enjoying. I've even read stories I don't like, period. If you don't like my story, you are allowed to not like it, and you are allowed to stop reading it if you don't like it. You don't have to read this if you don't want to. But I really do hope that you are all enjoying it.
Enough of the ramble, onto the story. Fillers always seem really boring after action sequences…
Groaning, Aaron pulled himself out of the mucky brown water, climbing up onto the shore on the other side of the prison tower, where he was sure no dragons would be able to see him. The walls of Warfang were just a few metres in front of him, and he realised that the prison was at the edge of the large city. The large wall of the Dragon City loomed twenty metres tall, turning Aaron into a puny figure. Aaron sat down, whipping off his bag, which was dripping wet, like he was. He grabbed a small tuft of grass that was sprouting out of the rough ground, wiping his hands clean as he then opened his bag, grabbed out his phone and pressed the on button. Aaron breathed a sigh of relief when he realised it was working, surprisingly, then scoffed as he realised he should have figured it out when he touched the phone; it was bone dry. Aaron shut the phone off once again, putting it in his bag and whipping it back around his shoulder as it settled on his back.
Aaron looked around. Warfang was massive, which wasn't surprising, given the size of lots of the massive cities on Earth, and the increased size scale with the dragons. He knew he'd be able to find a safe place to sleep, hopefully one that was a lot softer than his prison cell. But he knew one thing, and that was that he wanted to get as far away from the prison as he could. So, with nothing but the moonlight as a light source, Aaron trudged around the edges of Warfang, trying to keep as close to the large wall as possible. He didn't want to go anywhere near the middle, as that place was swarming with dragons in the day, and if he ended up sleeping in, which he most likely would as the moon was well past completely straight, signifying that it was past midnight. Aaron walked for several minutes, finding a nice spot with soft sand and a little bit of soft, silky grass to lie down in. Aaron sat down, took off his bag and grabbed a muesli bar, eating half of it and putting the half-filled wrapper back in his lunchbox. He zipped his bag shut and laid down against the grass and soft sand, curling the grass up like a small pillow and pulling his bag over him to keep him warm, as well as keeping him hidden from view from any dragons who liked going out on night-flights or whatever, as his clothes were brightly coloured.
Sighing as he was able to sink into the silky grass and the soft sand, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. Aaron dreamt of his teenager years once again, coming home from school bruised and battered after a fight with the bullies. He had a delicious snack of cookies-and-cream flavoured ice-cream and walked into the special 'gaming room' that he had in his house. This was what he looked forward to every day. In his dream, Aaron could tell that it was a Tuesday. He had no chores to do on Tuesdays back when he was a teen, and that meant that after he had changed out of his school uniform and had a snack, he was ready to turn on his PlayStation 2 and play a game. At this point in time, The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night had just recently came out, and Aaron was super excited to play it. So he loaded up the game and pressed Load Game, selecting his save file as he was ready to fight Gaul, the final boss of the second game of the series. Aaron smiled as the loading screen disappeared, but, all of a sudden, something went wrong. The screen went black, and super unsettling ambient music started playing. Two blinding white eyes appeared on screen, giving the teenage Aaron a fright. A silhouette could be made as dark purple energy swirled around the figure, creating a visible shape of a dragon that looked much like Spyro. The once gold horns and underbelly were a dark bronze colour, and a menacing snarl had etched its way across Spyro's snout. A warped voice spoke, and, oddly, there were no subtitles at the bottom of the screen, meaning Aaron had to figure out what the voice was saying himself.
"You traitor! You brought her back on the wrong side! It's all your fault, ape!"
The silhouette burst out of the television screen as a pitch black dragon enveloped in shadow with a dark purple aura of dark energy leapt towards Aaron, letting out a loud roar. The dragon's jaws rushed in front of Aaron's face. The last thing Aaron saw was the dragon's red teeth.
Aaron woke up with a shocked gasp, trying to hold his scream in as to not draw attention to himself. He looked up in the sky to see that the sun was just beginning to rise. Aaron groaned, rubbing his eyes as he tried to get the scary image out of his mind. The black dragon he saw was in fact Dark Spyro, and he knew that the boss fight with Gaul was where Dark Spyro was introduced, but what was with the odd image of Dark Spyro on the screen? And it seemed like Dark Spyro was talking to him right there and then, breaking the fourth wall. It was almost like Dark Spyro knew that Aaron was in the Dragon Realms and that everyone saw him as an ape, including Spyro himself. The dream didn't make any sense to Aaron, although it was extremely frightening.
Wiping the sweat off his face, Aaron extended his arms out and stretched, a yawn escaping from his mouth. He grabbed his bag and opened it, pulling out his lunchbox and taking out the half-eaten muesli bar from several hours earlier, eating the rest of it and remembering to put the wrapper back in his bag after what happened in Pyra's cave. He zipped up his bag and put it on his back, but he didn't stand up. He was too tired. Aaron had barely gotten four hours of sleep. On a normal day, he would have tried to roll over and get back to sleep, but in a world filled with dragons that were utterly terrified of him and that would attempt to kill him the first chance they got, Aaron had to be awake from sunrise until the sun set. Or even still, late into the night. He would possibly have to stay awake all night and sleep in the day. This meant that Aaron was going to be very sleep deprived, and if a sensitive nerve was touched he would snap at any moment, which would not be good for him. So he needed to learn to control his temper, because he was going to be very sleep deprived for a long time.
Suddenly a thought came to his mind. Should I leave Warfang? It'll be better for me, and better for everyone else. I'll be safe, and the dragons don't have to worry about me. Aaron thought, hating the thought but agreeing with it anyway. Goodbye, Cynder. Thanks for helping me last night. I don't know why you did, but thank you.
Looking up at the massive wall of Warfang and sighing, Aaron began to climb up it. The stone bricks stuck out enough for Aaron to get a good footing as he climbed up. He had almost reached the top before he was stopped by a voice.
"Where do you think you're going?"
It was unmistakeably Cynder. Her voice was too iconic for Aaron to forget, and Aaron groaned and turned around, looking down at Cynder. "I have to go." he said. "I'm not safe here, nor am I welcome here. The dragons won't have to worry about me if I leave. Everyone will be happy."
"You won't." Cynder said. "You don't know how to survive out there."
"I'm sure I'll figure out something, Cynder. But I haven't been happy since I realised that all the dragons here thought I was an ape, and… and I didn't feel welcome. At first even you rejected me. Spyro rejected me. That hit me hard." Aaron explained. "You and Spyro were my heroes. Spyro especially. And to find you two speaking bitterly about me and rejecting me, thinking I wasn't who I was… that… that wasn't too easy to take in. So that's why I'm going. I'm going so I don't have to bother about that feeling, and so you dragons don't have to worry about me. It's for everyone's good."
With that, Aaron turned and climbed over the wall. Cynder looked up, watching as Aaron disappeared over the top of the wall, sighing sadly. Aaron could hear this from the other side of the wall that he climbed carefully down. He landed in the silky green grass, looking back up at the walls of Warfang and wiping a tear from his eye as he whirled around and ran as fast as he could in the direction of the forest he came in. I need to get back home. Aaron thought. I must get home.
Aaron sprinted into the forest, looking around for the well that he had resurfaced in. He looked around frantically as he tried retracing his steps, but after several minutes, he got lost, the large amount of trees clouding his vision of everything. Even Warfang was gone from his view. At least I can't see Warfang anymore. Aaron thought, wiping sweat off his forehead.
Aaron groaned, knowing he had to go somewhere. He began to trudge slowly onwards, only walking in one direction, while looking in every direction he could to find something. On the one occasion, he stumbled across a rabbit. He would have chased after it to get it for food, but he was too tired, and the rabbit bounced off, filled with energy. Energy, Aaron realised with a groan, was something he was short on. He sat down, taking his bag off as he lay in the thick, silky green grass. Closing his eyes, Aaron fell asleep very quickly. Aaron didn't dream.
When he woke up, he noticed that it was extremely bright, like it was noon. Aaron smiled, knowing that he had gotten at least another two or three hours of sleep and grabbed his bag, whirling it onto his back as he stood up and trudged on in the forest.
Aaron was probably walking for an hour or so before he heard the sound of running water. His ears picked up the clean, pristine sound and a smile made its way across his face. Aaron ran towards the sound, almost tripping twice as he did so, the shoelaces on his left shoe coming undone as they caught beneath a rock, causing Aaron to trip a third time. About three minutes of running passed, and Aaron sighed as he came across a clearing, looking down into a large ditch that was lush and green that had rocks scattered about it, as well as a waterfall coming down from one side and creating a crystal blue lake at the bottom of it. Aaron gasped, climbing down into the ditch and running towards the water, before taking a sip and sighing as the water ran down his throat, dripping down his chin. He grabbed his water bottle out of his bag and emptied it on the grass, as the water was now old and hot. Aaron scooped up the fresh, clean water in his water bottle and closed it, putting it bag in his bag. It wasn't like he needed the water bottle, because he decided he would stay in the ditch until he grew hungry, where he would go looking for fruit or berries or something like that. It had a good place to sleep, and had good water.
Aaron sighed happily. He could actually live quite substantially in the Dragon Realms now that he was away from the main inhabitants which had their name in the name of the world they lived in. I still can't believe I had to leave like that. I don't know how hard that hit Cynder, but I had to. Aaron thought. I finally meet dragons, my favourite creature thanks to Spyro the Dragon, including Spyro and Cynder themselves, as well as the Guardians, and they all reject me. Cynder finally came around, and I didn't want to leave like I did.
Cynder still confuses me, though. What was her real motivation? Why did she help me? Should I try and be friendly to her if I see her again? Will she? I'm so confused…
Aaron let out a groan as he sat down on a rock, putting his head in his hands. What am I supposed to do now? he thought. I have no friends here. The dragons wouldn't accept me as a friend, and I'm too far away from any other inhabitant that can talk or live like a human.
A stick snapped, causing Aaron to jerk out of his position, his head looking around frantically. There was silence for a few seconds, and then, there it was again. The sound of a stick snapping. Followed by more silence. Aaron looked around, confused and panicking, wondering who had found him. There was a twang sound, and Aaron looked in the direction of the sound to let out a shout and duck as an arrow whizzed over his head. An arrow? What animals are archers here in the Dragon Realms…? Aaron thought, slowing down with realisation. Cheetahs.
So the cheetahs have been introduced. There will be plenty more of them, so it'll be something to look forward to. In the meantime, it's up to you to figure out who it is. It's probably very obvious who it could be. Anyway, I'll see you all next chapter. We'll be seeing a bit more of the dragons then.
