Chapter 11: Scream
Vision hazy, Spyro continued his practically aimless walk through the woods near the building he was just in. He didn't know why he was walking this way, or where he was going, but he knew one thing for sure: he was searching for something, and desperately needed to find it.
If Spyro had been in his rational mind, he would have remembered that he had been poisoned not too long ago, and that this must be a manifestation of such an event, but alas, the poison was crippling to his sense of judgment, and so he was being forced to pointlessly walk, a slave to his own imagination. Eventually, Spyro came across the pond that he had visited the day before.
Spyro coincidentally found the haze over his mind lifted at that exact moment. 'What am I doing here?' thought the purple dragon to himself. Spyro began to fly up. When he saw the daycare, he headed in its direction.
At the daycare, Selene was searching by herself all around the facility for any sign of Spyro. For whatever reason, Lyra had left without any warning, and this was the slightest bit upsetting to the white dragoness. She had just begun to take flight when she noticed a purple shape approaching from the forest. She watched as it got closer, and recognized it as Spyro. Right before he was within twenty feet, Selene She rushed over to meet him.
"Where were you?" asked the white dragoness.
"I think I was sleepwalking under the effects of the poison... but I feel better now," the purple dragon replied.
Just then, Lyra stepped out of the building behind Spyro and Selene. "We're going to our café now. Are you guys coming?" she asked. Spyro nodded his head, while Selene sat, bewildered.
"Lyra, where were you? I checked the whole building, and no one was in there," she said. Lyra looked confused as well.
"I was in the main room putting the last of the toys away… you must have missed me," the green dragoness replied. Selene nodded her head in acceptance, and the trio started their walk to the café, but something else caught Selene's attention.
Something she was missing the whole time up until now. 'Strange how everything we ever want or need here seems to be somehow handed to us by fate, like Lyra running a daycare with open employment, and being so kind to complete strangers.' Selene found it even strange how she was just now considering this fact, and had been blind to it up until now.
'Something about this "city" is definitely off,' the white dragoness thought to herself. Was she being paranoid? Was all of this somehow all a matter of serendipity? Selene tried to believe that it was, but she knew, somehow in the back of her mind that another force was at play here. Something unseen…
When Spyro, Selene, and Lyra arrived at the café, the sun was just beginning to go down, and Selene took the place in. It was a small house that was right next to a pretty lake that was tinted a brilliant orange in the sunset. That orange color reminded Selene of something that she had forgotten.
"Hey Lyra, where did Amber go?" she asked. Lyra turned.
"I think she left before us. Probably because we were taking too long," she replied.
'But why didn't she give any warning?' Selene asked herself. The white dragoness's thoughts were interrupted when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.
A radiant orange dragoness was approaching the group from the walking alley. Something about Amber honestly made Selene feel a bit uneasy, and she tensed as the crimson dragoness approached.
"Hey everyone!" the Amber called out; "Sorry I'm late!"
"Amber!" Lyra called back as Amber came within conversation length.
"Where were you?" asked Lyra.
"I had to take care of a few things at the daycare that were overlooked for some reason," said Amber as she gave a surreptitious glance towards Selene. The white dragoness looked down, feeling a bit hurt at this remark, but she didn't say anything.
"But everything's been taken care of now," Amber reassured everyone. "Let's all have a drink, shall we?" she asked invitingly. Spyro, Lyra, and Selene followed the amber colored dragoness inside the cafe. Once inside, everyone ordered their drinks, and sat down.
"So what are your interests, Spyro?" asked Amber at the cafe table. Spyro shrugged. "Just overcoming myself and living life I guess," the purple dragon responded as he quietly ate his meal with low energy.
"That's really deep," volleyed Amber back to him.
'No... it really isn't,' Spyro thought to himself.
"I would expect so much from a dragon as magnanimous as you," she added with a coo. Spyro turned back to his plate in disgust, while Amber turned back to the group.
"Well, we'll have to buy groceries for the daycare soon because somebody left out the ground steaks," chattered the crimson dragoness, with an emphasis towards Selene, who shrank down even more in her seat, not wanting to even open her mouth.
Amber was being incredibly hurtful, and worst of all, it was all through something that couldn't be helped: the pointing out of Selene's own incompetence. Lyra took note of Selene's situation, and extended a comforting wing over her
"Don't worry, I put in the order to the butcher, and he will have them ready by the morning when we return to work," she consoled. The green dragoness leaned a bit closer to Selene. "And sorry for how Amber is acting. She gets incredibly competitive in the presence of an attractive male," she added with a snicker.
Selene smiled at Lyra, feeling better... but for whatever reason, her wing touch was like ice. Amber turned to Spyro again.
"So I'm sure we're all dying to know Spyro," started the crimson dragoness. "What qualities do you enjoy most in a dragoness?"
Spyro looked up at her cynically. "I like it when they don't obsess over me just to try to get my attention and do a blatantly bad job at hiding it."
Everyone at the table but Amber burst into uproarious laughter. Amber simply stared with a smirk.
"Good to know... good... to... know."
Review if you want to, as always, I love your feedback!
Edit: Early April: Chapter seem kind of short? I cleaned out all of the "weird" parts that put this at just over 4000 words. They were honestly completely irrelevant.
Anyways, the song for this chapter is Isobel by Bjork. It relates in many ways to all of the events in this chapter. I will see you guys in a while! Best wishes of course!