"Urk…" Spyro groaned, clutching his head. He shook his head, and got back up on his feet. What stood before him gave him quite a shock. Also clutching his head was a red dragon, approximately the same size as himself, a long, round snout, yellow wings and ridges, a yellow underside, big, red eyes, and tall, beige horns.

"Aah!" the red dragon shouted, surprised.

"Aah!" Spyro shouted, equally surprised.

"Woah! Sorry, you surprised me there…" the red dragon said, his tone friendly. "Say, I haven't seen you before. What're you doing around here?"

"I should be asking you the same question." Spyro said, astonished. He had always been told that he and Cynder were the last of their generation. To see another dragon was quite a surprise!

"Oh! Well, once Malefor and all his troops left the valley, me and the other dragons…" the red dragon began to say, but Spyro cut him off.

"Others?" Spyro asked. "You mean there are more dragons?"

"Umm, yeah." The dragon continued. "Like I was saying, once the valley was free, we figured it was free to go down into it. I mean, this place sure seems a lot nicer than the places we were before. While I was exploring, I found this place, and decided to have a look around."

Spyro was very confused.

"Wait, you said there were more dragons." he said.

"Yeah. There's Volta and Surgio, they're both electric dragons, brother and sister. There's Gaia, an earth dragoness, and Cyprin, an ice dragon." the red dragon listed off. "There's Ember…" his voice softened at her name. "She's a fire dragoness. Oh yeah, and there's Blaze. He a fire dragon, and he kind of keeps watch over us all. And, of course, there's me. I'm Flame!"

"I'm Spyro." Spyro said, extending a forepaw. Flame reached out and shook it.

"So, I've never seen a purple dragon before." Flame noted. "What element are you?"

"Er, that's kind of a long story." Spyro said.

"Well, we don't have a long time." Flame said. "Blaze wanted me back before sundown, and it's already dark!"

"Flame, I have to stay here." Spyro said. "I'm looking for something important."

"Well, if you want to stick around, at least let me show you these cool scrolls I found." Flame said, walking back into the room through the doorway. Spyro followed. The room was small and sparse, containing only a bed and shelves crammed with scrolls, many of which were laying on the floor.

"Hey!" Spyro said, annoyed. "You can't just go through Ignitus' belongings like this!"

"Oh, but you can?" Flame retorted. "And who's Ignitus?"

"Never mind…" Spyro grumbled.

"Aha. Here it is." Flame said, nudging one of the many scrolls on the floor over to Spyro. He picked it up, reading the title.

"'The Art of Mating'?" Spyro read. "What is this?"

"What does it sound like, numbskull?" Flame chuckled. "Open it. Go on!" Spyro carefully unraveled the scroll. His eyes widened in shock at the contents of the thin paper scroll before him.

There were pictures of dragons, looking slightly older than Spyro, on the scroll. But, they all seemed to be doing…What was it that they were doing? Each picture contained either two dragons doing…peculiar things to one another, or, in a few, dragons and dragonesses doing things just as peculiar to themselves. Text below each picture seemed to explain exactly what the drawings were. He wanted to turn away from the pictures, but his eyes seemed to be forced to scan the entire scroll. They seemed to be most drawn to the largest picture, in the middle of the scroll. A male dragon was lying atop a female dragon, their bodies locked together in a perfect union, passionately kissing one another. Spyro could feel his heart race, and he felt the now-familiar pressure at the base of his tail, but he closed the scroll before matters could get any worse.

"Neat, huh?" Flame said, eyeing the other scrolls he had laid out.

"Neat?" Spyro said, shocked. "That was…that was…" He was at a loss for words.

"Here's some more like that one." Flame said, offering two more scrolls to Spyro.

"I…I think I'm all set…for now, at least." Spyro stammered.

"Well, come on, let's head back to the campsite." Flame said, heading out of the room. "It's not far from here. We might be able to make it back before Blaze notices I'm late, if we're lucky."

"Um, thanks for the offer, Flame." Spyro said. "But I've got places to go." The thought of returning to Cynder was heavy in his mind.

"What?" Flame exclaimed. "You're going to go flying, alone, when it's this dark out? Come on, you can stay a night, can't you?" Spyro had never liked flying in the dark, and he would need rest to make it all the way back to the city.

"Alright." Spyro said. "Take me back to the campsite."

The two dragons took off into the night, flying down towards the southern end of the valley.

"So tell me, Flame." Spyro said, pulling up alongside the red dragon. "Where were you and the other dragons before Malefor's defeat?"

"We were in the Great Southern Forest." Flame said. "It's quite a ways south of here, and Malefor's troops never bothered to go through there. We were really the only things living there, aside from frogweed and fire beetles."

At the foot of the valley wall, the two dragons spotted a fire burning in a clearing in the grass.

"That's the site." Flame said. The two landed, right beside the fire. Out from under the shadows of a tree, a great figure appeared, walking towards the two dragons.

"Flame, you're late." the figure's voice boomed. "And what did you bring back this time? It had better not be…" As it walked closer, the fire's light revealed it. It was a great, tall, red dragon, looking extremely similar to Ignitus, aside from its yellow, less prominent ridges, taller horns, and slimmer stature.

"So, the purple dragon lives…" the larger dragon gasped, bowing its head.

"Are you Blaze?" Spyro asked.

"Yes, yes I am. Thank you, young dragon, for freeing us all from Malefor's constant threat." Blaze said.

"Well, it wasn't just me, but…" Spyro began, but was cut off by another voice, further away.

"What?" the voice asked. "Who's there? Whose voice is that?"

"Woah, is someone there?" another asked. From across the field, five figures made their way to the fire.

"Spyro, this is Gaia." Flame said, pointing to the slender green dragoness that approached first. "That's Volta and Surgio." he said, pointing towards the yellow dragoness chasing the yellow dragon towards the fire. "And there's Cyprin." he said, pointing at the slim, pale blue dragon following the others.

"Woah, a purple dragon!" Surgio exclaimed. "What element--"

"--Are you?" Volta completed her brother's sentence.

"The purple dragon is a very special dragon." Blaze said. "It appears only once every ten generations, and has the ability to wield all four elements."

"Neat!" Gaia said.

"Very neat indeed, Gaia." Blaze chuckled. "This young dragon was the one who defeated Malefor."

Flame's mind, however, was on a different matter.

"Where's Ember?" he asked, sounding worried. The other dragons and dragonesses merely shrugged.

"Right here." A voice said, right behind Flame. He whipped his head around see her, as did Spyro. Spyro was shocked to see the very pink dragon he had seen in his dream the night before, almost scared to see her. She shoved Flame out of her way, and walked over to Spyro.

"So, you're the purple dragon…" she said seductively, her tail running across his hind leg. "Such a handsome dragon, at any rate…" she chuckled lightly.

"Ember, that's quite enough." Blaze ordered, the pink dragoness walking away, her head down. "I'm sure Spyro is very tired from traveling all the way from…Where was it that you came here from?"

"Warfang, the Dragon City." Spyro said. "Or, what's left of it, anyways."

"I'm surprised to hear it's still standing at all." Blaze said. "And what are you doing out here, then?"

"I...err…" Spyro stammered. "I got lost, on my way to Avalar."

"Hmm." The large red dragon said, Spyro hoping he didn't see through his lie. "Well, you're more than welcome to stay here tonight, and then I suppose we should all head back to Warfang. I haven't seen that place for decades now!"

"Well, I'm sure the Guardians will be surprised to see that there are other dragons left in the world." Spyro said.

"The Dragon Guardians?" Blaze exclaimed. "They're still alive?"

"All but one, I'm afraid." Spyro said, his head down. "Ignitus died, bringing me and Cynder through the Ring of Fire."

"Oh." Blaze muttered, his head low with sadness as well. "I always knew my brother would die protecting others…"

"Your brother?" Spyro asked, surprised.

"Yes. Ignitus and I were brothers." the red dragon said. "Wait, did you say Cynder?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?" Spyro said, curious.

"You mean Cynder, the Dark Master's most loyal servant, the black terror of the skies, the monster that drove me and the hatchlings out of this valley and into those awful forests? My brother died for that Cynder?"

Spyro was full of rage at the way Blaze talked about Cynder.

"Don't you talk about Cynder that way!" he shouted. "It wasn't her fault she did those things, the Dark Master was using her! She's a hero now, and I couldn't have defeated Malefor without her!"

"Alright, give it a rest." Blaze said. "For your sake, I won't talk about Cynder anymore." He yawned. "Especially when it's this late. Everyone, let's all get some rest." The young dragons and dragonesses walked off to the trees.

"Wait, Blaze, we didn't tell you what we found." Flame said, catching up with the larger dragon.

"Yeah. We found the Dragon Temple, laying in the field a ways up the valley from here!" Spyro said.

"What? The whole Dragon Temple?" Blaze asked, in disbelief. "It's intact?"

"Mostly." Spyro said.

"Well, we'll have to investigate, and tell the Guardians, of course." Blaze said, yawning again. "But, for now, let's go to sleep, alright?"

"Spyro, you can share a tree with me, if you like…" Ember said, sneaking up behind Spyro.

"Umm, no thanks, Ember, I think I'm all set." he assured her.

"Fine, have it your way." She said, walking off. "I'll leave the invitation open, though…"

"What is with her?" Spyro asked Flame, who seemed to be in a trance at what just happened.

"Huh? Oh, Ember? She must just be coming on to you." Flame said. Under his breath, he grumbled. "I wish she'd be that way around me…"

The two young dragons walked off into the field.

"Come on, Spyro, we'll sleep underneath the same tree. I still want you to read those other scrolls I took." Flame said, revealing the three scrolls he had been carrying, hiding from Blaze.

"You stole them?" Spyro asked.

"Umm, yeah. You didn't get to read them, so I took them with me!" Flame said, passing them to Spyro. "I'm gonna catch some sleep, but you go and have yourself a jolly good time, alright?" Flame curled up on a mat of soft grass underneath the tree. Spyro laid the three scrolls out on the ground on the other side of the tree. One, titled, 'The Body of A Dragon', contained pictures of a male dragon's anatomy. Spyro didn't spend much time looking at that scroll, but he paid special attention to the scroll titled, 'The Body of A Dragoness'. He studied that scroll, reading whatever he could underneath the soft moonlight.

Eventually, Spyro became tired, and rolled up the scrolls and went to sleep. The thought of the large picture on 'The Art of Mating' lingered in his mind, only instead of the two dragons in the picture, it was himself and Cynder…Not knowing what to make of that, Spyro drifted off to sleep, experiencing a dream unlike any other he had experienced.

In a cave at the bottom of one of the many foothills surrounding Mount Malefor, Cynder lay curled up on the ground, sleeping. She had only flown so far into the night before she and Sparx grew tired. The golden dragonfly perched on one of her horns, her dreams were filled with Spyro. I will find him, she told herself. She had to. If she couldn't find Spyro, there was no reason to go on. She loved him.


Ohoho...big old chapter, and I think I'm liking writing big...

I'm not good at writing smut, so bear with me through the vagueness and euphemisms, please.

Anyways, thanks to everyone for reading, and please review!

--L/M