Spyro: The Next Generation
This is a disclaimer stating that I, Talon The Dragon do NOT own the rights to ANY characters used in the original or Legend of Spyro Series. However, I completely own Chios, Talon, Ariel, and Inferno. Twilight and Magnitus belong to Star Duster The Dragoness. Vento belongs to Vento the Dragon and Igneous belongs to Dardarax.
Chapter Nine
Talon's face twisted into a look of complete horror at the scene before him. On the cobblestone street lay hundreds of dead bodies. All of which being apes around one adult fire dragoness, who lay slain with a sword through her neck and the blood still was pouring out into the already large crimson puddle. The silver dragon felt like he was about to wretch from the smell of burning flesh as it reached his nose when another plea for help shook him out of his trance.
"Leave me alone! Help! Someone!" yelled a young voice and Talon recognized it instantly.
Igneous stood a few feet away with a group of five or six smelly apes surrounding him and pushing the frightened fire dragon into a corner. Talon knew he had to act fast if he were to save his apprentice. This was going to be a real test of his combat skills.
"What should we do with this one?" asked one of the apes to his companion, motioning to Igneous.
"I think that we should take him back to the camp and fry him for dinner" chuckled another ape, making Igneous's face show complete fear and horror at the ape's idea. This put Talon over the edge.
"How about you back the fuck away from him and take on someone your own size you pathetic asses!" yelled Talon, infuriated at the apes.
"Well, look at this boys, wez gotz ourselves some fresh meat. You seem pretty cocky whelp" said a third ape as all five turned to face Talon, who looked past them and at Igneous.
"Run! I'll deal with the bastards! Go and get to safety!" ordered Talon, making Igneous turn and run into a nearby alley and disappear from sight.
"Oh well, looks like can eat exotic dragon meat tonight boys!" said an ape, smiling.
"The only thing you will be eating is your own burnt corpses!" yelled Talon, getting angrier by the second.
"We will see about that, whelp" muttered the ape as he charged Talon blindly.
Talon smirked a bit as he ducked under the apes careless sword swing and slammed his tail into the ape's back, sending him face first into the side of a building. After seeing their comrade fall, the rest of the apes charged Talon all at once in anger, making the dragon's eyes as wide as saucers. Talon desperately tried to jump over the apes, but felt a sharp pain halfway over.
He landed hard on the cobblestone a few feet away from the recovering apes and placed a paw on his hind leg. Talon sucked in a startled gasp when he looked at his paw and saw that it was covered in blood. The silver dragon sat in shock fir a few moments, giving the apes time to recover from their initial attack. Remembering that he was still in a battle, Talon then looked up to see the apes turning around and preparing to charge him again.
Okay… that doesn't work thought the silver dragon as he stood back up. A twinge of pain shot through him from the wound in his leg, but Talon pushed the pain to the back of his mind and focused on his enemies. They all charged the injured dragon for a second time, only for the dragon to disappear right before their eyes.
"Where'd he go!" yelled an ape in frustration.
What just happened? thought Talon as he appeared in a cloud of black smoke behind the apes. I am going to have to talk to Ignitus later.
"There he is!" yelled an ape as the group turned around and charged the silver dragon.
Talon quickly got to his feet and dropped into his battle stance, waiting for the right time to pounce. When the apes were a few feet closer, Talon leapt at the larger center ape. He tilted his head and grabbed the surprised ape's neck with his razor sharp teeth, snapping its neck with a combination of his powerful jaws and the impact with the ground below.
Talon watched as the apes stared at their dead comrade in shock for a few seconds before trying to get the taste of blood out of his mouth. But his spitting and hacking only drew the attention back to him.
The apes all looked at Talon with hate filled glares as they ran at him again. This time though, when Talon jumped, he did a summersault in mid air and brought his tail blade down, decapitating the nearest ape and landing on his paws, facing his enemies again. Talon let out a loud feral snarl as the remaining three apes surrounded him on all sides.
Great… this is the last thing I needed to happen thought the silver dragon.
From the alleyway, Igneous watched in horror and amazement as his mentor fought off the group of apes that would have surly killed him. He was scared for Talon at first when they cut his leg but was surprised that it did not seem to hinder his fighting performance one bit. Igneous watched as Talon leapt at one of the three remaining apes and slashed out its throat, sending blood spraying on to the ground below as the ape clutched at its throat, trying to block off the blood from escaping.
Igneous then got a taste of Talon's elemental power as the silver dragon swiftly swung his body around and sent out two powerful fireballs. The strong attacks hit their targets and incinerated the remaining apes where they stood, leaving two black scorch marks on the ground. Seeing that is was safe, the smaller fire dragon walked out of hiding, but started to silently cry when he spotted his mother's dead corpse.
Talon turned around as he heard something walking behind him. He was about to launch another attack when he saw that it was Igneous and relaxed.
"Are you alright Igneous?" asked Talon with concern written all over his face.
"Yeah, I… I think so" he said between sniffles as he looked away from his mother's motionless corpse.
"At least you were with her until the end. That is the least you could have done for her" comforted Talon as he hid his sorrowful tear.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. But… I feel so alone and I'm scared that I will get killed to" said Igneous in almost a whisper as he broke out in a fit of sobs, pressing his head and neck into Talon's chest. All around them, the sounds of fighting could be heard.
"Shh… It's going to be alright. I'll protect you from anything that may want to hurt you. You're my apprentice, and my friend. I won't let anyone hurt you" said Talon in a comforting and soothing voice.
Talon wrapped his wing around the crying dragon and cradled him as if he were his own child. Igneous looked up at his mentor with his puffy red eyes from crying and gave a weak smile though his eyes showed great pain and remorse, causing Talon's heart to sink a bit.
Igneous placed his head back down on Talon's shoulder and tried to calm down. All of a sudden, Igneous heard a loud crack and fell to the ground as the dragon he was leaning on disappeared. The young fire dragon shook his head in confusion and looked around for his mentor.
His eyes grew wide as Talon lay motionless in the middle of the street with a large burn mark across his side and a hefty sized fire dragon standing over top of him with a triumphant smirk on his face. Igneous felt a large amount of anger and desperation fill his mind as he watched the scene unfold before him.
Then without thinking, the small fire dragon charged and ran, standing in between the fire dragon and his mentor.
"Aww, what do we have here? Little whelp is twying to protect his wittle friend?" asked the fire dragon in a mocking tone.
"Leave Master Talon alone!" yelled Igneous with a hint of fear in his voice.
"Master Talon? Oh… I get it… you must be the apprentice that the guardians assigned him" said the fire dragon with a smug look on his face.
"Igneous… get out… of here!" said Talon through pained breaths.
"Not until he leaves you alone!" yelled the small fire dragon as he took up a fighting stance in front of his mentor.
"Such a brave spirit for a small whelp. It looks like your mentor's determination has rubbed off-" Inferno was cut off as Igneous fired a weak fireball into the larger fire dragon's face.
"That's it" roared Inferno as he charged his paw with purple energy and swung it as the smaller fire dragon. Igneous let out a short yelp of pain as he was sent flying on to the side of the street. The small fire dragon landed on his side with a loud thud and slid for a few feet. When he stopped, his body lied there, unmoving.
No… Igneous thought Talon as he looked over at the young dragon's motionless body as tears filled his eyes.
"YOU BASTARD! I AM GOING TO RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!" screamed Talon as he shot up in a second and tackled the larger dragon.
Talon pinned Inferno beneath him and started pounding on his face with his fist. Inferno's body twitched with every punch. After struggling for a few moments, Inferno managed to get his hind legs under the silver dragon's stomach and with one powerful movement, kicked Talon off and on to the ground beside him.
Both dragons rose to their feet in a hurry and faced each other in their fighting stances. Talon let out a feral snarl as he stared to his larger opponent. Inferno wiped the blood from his mouth and glared daggers at the silver dragon in return to his snarl and charged up his attack.
Talon rolled to the left as a beam of convexity shot passed him and into the brown wall behind. In retaliation, the silver dragon shot a large blast of fire at Inferno, causing the dragon to roar in pain as the attack connected. Talon watched as Inferno charged another convexity attack and screamed in pain as he was thrown into a wall by a large beam of flaming convexity.
The silver dragon started to rise on shaky legs as Inferno walked up to him.
"Not so tough now, huh Talon" said the large fire dragon with a cocky tone.
"I'm not out of it yet" replied Talon as he wiped some blood from his lip.
Inferno's eyes grew wide as the bloodied and bruised silver dragon lifted off of the ground and started to glow a bright white light, blinding the fire dragon as he tried to run away from the coming attack.
As the fire dragon took to the air, Talon released his light fury, but directed it away from Igneous's body and right at Inferno. The fire dragon screamed in pain as he was engulfed by the blast, falling to the ground in a heap of scales.
Talon slowly drifted back down to the ground as he recovered from his attack. His vision started to blur around the edges while he stood in the middle of the street. After the light faded, a large grey dragon landed and lifted Inferno, yelling for every one of his soldiers to retreat out of the city.
After Talon was sure that the dragons were gone, he weakly walked over to Igneous's motionless body with his legs threatening to collapse at any second. He sat beside the small fire dragon and shook away his blurred vision to check over his apprentice's injured body.
Igneous had a large burn mark on his left flank and was bleeding from three large gashes along his side. To Talon's relief, the young dragon's side rose and fell with every quick breath that he took.
Using the last of his energy, Talon lifted his paw and placed it over Igneous. A brightly shining light engulfed the young fire dragon as Talon began to heal his body of all of his wounds. When the light faded, Talon walked over and lied down behind the young sleeping dragon and placed a wing over him, protecting him from the weather as the rain started to fall freely from the sky.
Talon rested his head on his paws, ignoring the pain of his own burn mark and closed his eyes, only to open them when he heard something approaching them. An ape charged out of an alleyway and tried to get a free kill, only to be incinerated on site by the annoyed fire dragon.
Talon gave one final look at his apprentice to make sure that no rain fell on his sleeping body and placed his head back on his paws, enjoying the cool rain as it washed the blood and dirt from his scales, cooling off his sore muscles and relaxing the dragon completely. Igneous and his friends were safe, and that was all that mattered.
X~X~X~X
Inferno paced back and forth in front of the grey dragon, seething with anger as he absorbed some red crystals to heal his wounds.
"I thought you said I was ready! That my power would overwhelm that lizard!" yelled the fire dragon as he glared at the grey dragon, who just shrugged.
"To be honest, I did not expect him to have a light ability. YOU told me that he just had strong elemental powers" replied the grey dragon in a calm voice.
"Well… err…" the fire dragon was speechless because he knew that the grey dragon was right.
"Now that I know what we are dealing with, I can train you to defeat that silver dragon and fifty others like him. All you need is a little motivation" said the grey dragon with a mischievous smile and walked into a cave near their position with Inferno in close follow.
X~X~X~X
Vento paced back and forth in front of Magnitus and Twilight uneasily inside the main hallway of the temple. As the seconds ticked by, the white dragon started to grow more and more impatient as he waited for his brother to return. Vento paused for a second to look out a window over the city and sighed when he did not see Talon.
After another ten minutes of waiting, the dragon couldn't take it anymore.
"Come on guys, we have to go find him! He should be back by now!" said Vento as he looked at his two friends with pleading eyes.
"I guess so" said Magnitus as he stood up.
"I hope he's alright" said the black dragoness as she walked up beside Vento.
The three dragons walked down the hallway and pushed open the large metal doors and down to the war torn streets of Warfang. The rain had stopped about two hours earlier so it was relatively dry. The whole city was in disarray as the cleanup effort began.
There were many bodies of apes being dragged towards the entrance of the city by the city workers, leaving a view that made the three dragons start worry even more for their friend. At almost every turn was at least one slain dragon lying in a pool of its own blood.
Twilight had to turn away for a particular scene as an old ice dragon lied in his own blood and his innards spread out a few feet from his stomach. His neck was sliced in the middle nearly clean through and his head lay a few yards down the street.
The black dragoness felt hot tears running down her face as she ran to catch up with her friends that were a few yards ahead of her. As they rounded another corner, Twilight was walking with her head down and did not realize that Vento and Magnitus stopped in front of her. She was about to complain to them when her eyes fell on the reason they stopped and fell silent.
Down the street, all of the young dragon's worst fears appeared. They all cautiously approached the injured silver dragon in disbelief and shock at the sight before him.
The silver dragon had a large gash on his hind leg with blood smeared and dried around it. A large burn mark spread across his side and ended at his hind leg. Talon's head rested upon his paws in a peaceful manner as if there was nothing wrong in the world.
At least it looks like his went peacefully thought Vento as he comforted a sobbing Twilight. As they walked closer, Vento started to feel tears well up in his eyes as the realization of the situation set in. The white dragon then noticed that his brother's wing was placed as if he was protecting something and walked over to Talon's body. He then reached over and lifted his wing. He gasped, catching everyone's attention as they walked over to see what startled Vento. Twilight started to sob again as she caught sight of the motionless form of Igneous.
After a few more minutes, the three dragons all decided to turn around and inform the guardians of what had happened when they all heard a slight roan from behind them. All three of them turned around to see the silver dragon lift his head, looking at all of the dragons with a confused stare.
"What are you guys looking at? It looks like you've all seen a ghost" said Talon as he chuckled to himself.
"You're… you're alive! We all thought you were dead!" yelled Twilight as she ran over and nuzzled her mate affectionately.
"Yeah… did you really think that a few stupid apes could take me down?" asked Talon in a fake cocky manner.
Talon then felt something move under his wing. He lifted it up to reveal Igneous, who was starting to stir from his long slumber. The silver dragon smiled warmly as Igneous looked up at him with tired eyes.
"How are you feeling?" asked Talon in a comforting tone.
"A my side in a bit sore… but I'm good" replied the smaller fire dragon with a reassuring smile.
"That is good to here. We should probably head back to the temple to let everyone know we are not among the casualties" said Talon as he stood up, grinding his teeth as sharp pains shot through his side and let.
"Master, you're hurt!" yelled Igneous with concern filling his voice.
"I'm fine Igneous. Don't worry about me" replied Talon calmly, speaking like the injuries did not hinder him at all. After today, Talon didn't mind being called 'Master' by Igneous, since that was his role after all.
The group of dragons began their journey back to the temple as they walked back up the street. About half way to their destination, the group was stopped by the three guardians as they all landed in front with a loud thud.
"There you are Talon! We were starting to fear for the worst when you did not return" said Terrador in a flustered voice.
"It is also a good decision, seeing that Igneous is standing here with us as well" added Cyril approvingly.
"I am sorry for not returning, but I had no energy left after healing Igneous so I stayed with him until he awakened to make sure there was no lingering enemies that would try and hurt him" said Talon with a warm smile as he looked down at the smaller fire dragon.
"Wait, did you just say that you healed him? You will have to show me this ability at a later time. Is that alright with you?" asked Volteer, intrigued by that notion of one dragon having the ability to heal others at will.
"No problem Master Volteer" replied Talon with a smile.
"Talon and Igneous please come with us. We have some important matters to attend to" stated Terrador, leading the two fire dragons away from the crowd.
Vento and the others stares followed the fire breathers until they were out of sight.
When they were gone, Cyril turned to the younger dragons with a stern look.
"Come along, we must start to rebuild our great city. If this attack was a sign, there will be more to come"
Little did Cyril know that his words would soon become a reality.
