Chapter 7 (Tracks)
The storm was finally over and the moon shone down into the cave. The night passed and turned into day, finally some signs of life came from the cave. A few spiders crawled in the light, trying to warm up in the sun's heat. Deeper in the cave, some rodents came out from the small holes in the still soaked dirt. They began their daily routines, getting out into the sun and searching for food. Some of the sunlight was reflected by some purple scales. A small twitch caused a tiny movement in the tail. Just after that, a paw moved ever so slightly, just barely noticeable. But the rodents still noticed this and move further away from the dragon. They didn't want to be close when he woke up.
Another hour passed before another tiny movement occurred. This time the eyelids moved slightly. Spyro partially opened his eyes; he wasn't able to see much. His head pounded and his vision was blurred. "Cynder…" he mumbled. He turned around to face Cynder. She was lying on the ground as well, exhausted from the last night. "Cynder, please wake up" Spyro moved his paw over to Cynder and pulled himself closer to her. He could see that she was breathing, when he tried to listen, he could hear it as well. She was still alive, just sleeping. He noticed that the bag they had stored gems in had been opened and was located not too far from them. With an effort, he pulled himself over there. His paw reached the inside and poured to contents on the ground. He was surprised of what was left; only two red gems remained. Then he managed to remember what they had fought against last night. He grabbed two green gems. The energy floated around inside the gems, he could feel it. He concentrated about this energy, absorbing what he could from one of the gems. He could feel the flow of energy from the gem into his body. The gem dissolved into nothing as soon as the energy had been absorbed, freeing Spyro from the iron grip the fatigue had on him.
He got on his paws and walked back to Cynder. He knew she had somehow saved him, he could tell that much. The dragging marks on the ground and the small puddle of blood told him just how badly injured he had been. He followed the drops of blood on the ground and got out of the cave. The area was totally different in sunlight, now everything shined and reflected light. He looked over the swamp, in the distance he could see the mountain they had climbed a day ago. He looked over to the left. His mouth opened in astonishment, he could hardly believe what he saw. The monster from the last night had almost dissolved completely; large chunks of black and white chunks were spread out. Some parts had a green, nasty tint to it. Spyro guessed that this had to be Cynder's work, her poison often lead to such discoloring. Even though the monster wasn't whole, Spyro still couldn't believe just how big this thing was.
Meanwhile, Cynder woke up. She reached out her paws to where she had places Spyro during the night. When she couldn't find him, she opened her eyes. He was nowhere in the cave, so she got up on her paws. She noticed the red and green gem that Spyro had left behind. She grabbed the green one and absorbed the energy and got up on her paws, then walked out of the cave. She saw Spyro stand there, looking out on the horizon. "Spyro!" she said, happy to see him. He turned around and smiled. "Good morning!" he said. "I thought you wanted to sleep a little bit longer, so I tried to not wake you up." "I wouldn't mind if you woke me up. I think I've been sleeping for far too long now." she said. "By the way, how are you feeling?" "I think I'm okay, thanks to you, Cynder." Cynder smiled back. "I'd say we're even now, don't you think?" Spyro nodded. "It's a great thing that we watch each other's backs. Well, I noticed that you used many of the gems. I… I can't think of what would happen if you didn't…" Spyro looked down into the ground; his eyes began to water a little bit. "Spyro, what's in the past remains there. The most important is that we're both okay. Let us focus on what's ahead rather than what we have gone trough." "Yeah, you're right… We should keep heading north; we won't find any food or more equipment here."
~Seven hours ago~
As the rain grew heavier and the wind more powerful, the creature realized that continuing would be too dangerous. A quick look around told the creature that there were three possible locations for setting up a camp. One was the rocks near the edge of the forest, though it didn't give much protection against the rain. The trees would provide an excellent location to avoid the dangerous creatures and monsters that lurked around, but the wind and rain would meet about no resistance. The last option was a tiny cave. Minimal amount of wind and rain would get in there, but it would be a dangerous place. The decision was made; the cave. Silently the creature slid inside the shadows of the cave, readying the sword and tried to rest.
A loud screech was heard through the night. The sword was drawn in an instant, ready to be used on any threat. Just half a minute later, a massive roar tore through the storm. The creature was up on its legs in less than three seconds. "En edustor…" it said with a dark voice. Judging by the voice, it had to be a male. He turned his head in the direction the sound came from, or at least what it sounded like. The wind distorted every sound so it was close to impossible to precisely estimate where the sound came from.
The creature realized that he would not be safe where he was if an edustor would come to him. He remembered an encounter with those monsters in his earlier days, many, many years ago. He had lost one of his companions during that attack. The rest of the group had barely survived, and those who did, never fully recovered. Another cry sent the creature back to the present time. He grabbed his weapons and ran further into the forest. The edustor would never enter a forest, due to its sheer size. It lived only on the plains and swamps, but it happened that it would cross forests when it was cornered. Only rumors of stories of creatures the edustor was afraid of had been heard. No one had ever been able to see such foul, monstrous creatures and live to tell the tale. He ran for an hour, before coming to a halt. The rain had begun to decline and the wind decreased in strength. He didn't hear more from the edustor, so he returned to the swamp, hoping that the dragon tracks hadn't vanished in the storm. Before he got far, he decided to set up a new camp. It was late and he was tired, so he looked for a campsite. He found one, this time in a tree. The branches grew up and above the tree, forming a perfect ceiling. He quickly fell asleep.
~Present time~
The creature had woken up half an hour ago, quickly moving towards the swamp. The night had been silent for many hours, so he didn't worry about large monsters at the minute. As he ran along, he picked up some fruits. No need to run on an empty stomach. He reached the swamp again. As he searched for the tracks, he used the time to rest for a minute or two. He searched some more, but to his disappointment, he found no tracks. Disappointed, he kicked the ground and went to the right along the swamp's edge. He looked down on the ground; suddenly he was back on track! The two dragons had walked here and walked over a small section of the swamp. The tracks were barely visible, so he had to concentrate hard to follow them.
…
Spyro and Cynder had already climbed the hill. From there they could see the temple they were heading for. "We could fly from here, or we could walk. What do you think?" asked Spyro. "I'd say we walk. We might be able to find some food and some more equipment. We lost almost everything this night." Cynder replied. 'We could have lost our lives too…' she thought for herself, thinking back to that night. "I guess you're right. So the ground it is!" said Spyro. They walked down the hill and into the forest that lied in front of them.
A low, rumbling noise was heard. Cynder looked over at Spyro with a puzzled look on her face. "Was that you?" she asked. "I guess so…" said Spyro. "I haven't eaten since we left the camp yesterday." "It sounds like some serious starvation going on there. We should find some food so we don't starve to death."
Spyro and Cynder decided to split up so they would be able to find food faster. The forest around them crawled with life, but most of the animals around were too quick or too good at hiding themselves. Other were obviously poisonous, those were brightly colored and was really visible against the brown ground. Then Spyro spotted something. "Ha! You won't be running away." he said. He approached his prey, one step at a time. He picked up the red, orange and oval fruit. 'I never thought I'd 'see you again.' Spyro thought. He had found one of his favorite foods from his younger days, when he still lived with the dragonflies he called his family. Old memories came back as he chewed on the fruit. One time he and Sparx had gone out in the swamp he grew up in, searching for those fruits. He remembered Sparx complaining all the way, saying something like "We'll never be able to find those fruits, we don't even know where to look." and "Do we even know what those fruits looks like?" Right after that one fruit fell down for the tree it grew from and hit Sparx head on, pushing him down into the mud. Spyro quickly moved the fruit from Sparx where he lied in the mud. "Mommy, we're home…" he mumbled. Spyro couldn't resist laughing; he never thought he'd see this.
A branch snapping to his left brought him back to the present days. A movement in the bush caught his attention. He could hear that this was something dangerous. The creature hiding behind that bush snarled silently, just so Spyro barely heard it. Spyro took a cautious step towards the bush, trying to see what he stood up against. He had this eerily feeling, something had to be wrong. Trusting his instincts, he took a few steps backwards. The creature jumped out from behind its cover and hid behind another bush. All Spyro saw was a black line, amazed by the speed of this foe. "Cynder!" he yelled, trying to get her over there so he wouldn't be alone. The creature moved again and jumped behind another bush, still not revealing its body. Spyro walked sideways around the bush, hoping to catch a glimpse of it. He still felt that something was horribly wrong. 'Where is she?' he though. "Cynder, get over here, fast!" he yelled again. The dense forest seemed to close in on Spyro; the vegetation almost crawled towards him. The creature finally revealed itself. It had about the same size as Spyro, just black and without wings. Along its back, seven long and stiff spikes pointed straight out. The four legs were long and filled with large, powerful muscles, capable of launching the body at dangerously high speeds towards a target. All four feet ended in five, long, sharp and bright gray claws, capable of tearing up scales and skin with almost no effort at all.
But the creature only stood there, looking at Spyro. At first Spyro wondered why it did that, something like this was quite unusual. Then he remembered something, a tactic the apes used against him three years ago, when he fought to free Volteer, the Electric Guardian from Dante's Freezer. One ape got his attention, while two other sneaked up behind him. Spyro's eerie feeling proved to be correct; he never saw it coming, the creature jumped on his back from behind. He could feel the sharp claws ripping into his back and the long teeth sinking into his muscles. His legs failed him as the creature went for his neck, trying to end him right away.
Author's note:
I'm sorry for not updating yesterday, I had a writer's block. I'll try to keep up the pace, but I'm a little busy with other things, especially the game I'm creating. I'll try to have an update ready by Monday, but can't promise anything.
Please review :D
This chapter has been rewritten due to heavy blood and gore.
