Chapter X

Questions and Answers

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

The Night of Eternal Darkness drew near, though to Malefor, the Dark Master, it couldn't come soon enough.

As he was trapped in Convexity, a nightmare realm bordering the Dark World where time didn't know what to do with itself, that night might as well be at the end of time.

On the upside, the duel between Cynder and that new purple upstart 'Spyro' had had an interesting side-effect:

It had been surprising that the young purple dragon had brought company in the form of another dragon, a dragonfly and a malformed Ape bearing weapons and armour far ahead of what he'd gifted King Gaul, but nowhere near as much as when a demon of the Outer Darkness had been attracted to the Ape-thing.

The surprises hadn't ended there either:

The fallout from Cynder's battle with the young Purple Dragon had made the demon flee back to whence it came and cast its victims out.

That in and of itself wasn't surprising.

Stranger things happened in Convexity.

What was keeping Malefor's attention was where the Purple Dragon's lost companions had wound up:

A realm very similar to the Dragon Realms, though as Malefor sifted through the remnants of dreams, he found sorrow, terror and pain.

The tell-tale signs of a Realm at war.

In his prison of milennia, Malefor smiled.

"By the Ancestors, if you're so dense you can't tell the difference between a male and a female, I don't need a scrying pool to see you're going to have a time of it finding a mate." Incandiasa said scornfully to the armoured almost-but-not-quite fire dragon hovering across from her as another came to hover beside and slightly behind him.

"My apologies again." The stranger said, sounding quite sincere. "Like I said, I mistook you for a dangerous renegade who killed most of my soldiers not two days ago." He added. "Though, now I see you up close, I can tell I was most certainly mistaken."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck in future then." Incandiasa replied. "If you would excuse me however, I've business of my own to attend to."
"Might I know where you're heading? I could use someone with your skills when I go to hunt the renegade I mentioned down." Gyrfalcon asked quickly.
"I don't even know where I am properly." Incandiasa admitted. "South west is really all I've decided on."
"Then perhaps we shall meet again." Gyrfalcon replied. "Farewell."

So saying, he wheeled about, his companion in tow and flew northward, leaving Incandiasa to head her own way.

Him and Cyril would get on well. She mused. I'd best put some distance between us in case he's got anything to do with Scarlet and she doesn't know how to take 'no' for an answer.

This resolution in mind, she angled south-west as she had indicated before setting off at rate that would've seen her from the Northern Wastes to the Dragon Temple in a day and still leave her fresh enough to fight an Ape raiding party.

The sun had set and Gull was pleasantly full of fish and fresh from a swim in the lake.

It didn't have the same texture as sea water, but compared to the creeks he'd had to make do with ever since they'd finished their last job for an old friend of Breeze's overseeing a trade between said SkyWing's squad and SeaWing smugglers, it had been bliss to actually swim for a change.

That said, he was uneasy.

He was staring at the object of his discomfort across the cave, curled up asleep while Breeze was curled up opposite him, though not so far away.

He'd volunteered to stand the first watch, but there was a conversation that needed to be had.

This in mind, he crept closer to Breeze and nudged her awake.

"We need to talk." He said in an undertone, motioning towards the cave entrance.

Breeze frowned, but padded after him as he took to the wing and glided towards the lake shore.

They'd survived so long by not taking chances they didn't have to and avoiding problems that were more trouble than they were worth.

So far, Inferno was doing very little but ringing alarm bells to Gull and yet Breeze seemed totally smitten.

He was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Why are we still with him?" He asked as Breeze landed behind him.

"Gull, really?" Breeze asked. "He'd be dead within a week on his own." She replied.

She yawned, giving him an almost reproachful look, the moonlight glinting off her scales as she stretched, claws cracking pebbles on the rocky shingle.

Gull winced internally. A sleep-deprived Breeze was not a pleasant Breeze.

"Alright, he's got the survival abilities of a hatchling." Gull conceded. "That doesn't change the fact he's a scarily competent fighter for no apparent reason, claims to have amnesia and that's not even mentioning the lightning or that random explosion this afternoon!" He hissed. He met Breeze's irritated look with a deadly serious one, tail lashing restlessly. "Something is very, very off with Inferno and you seem to be cutting him a lot of slack." He said. "We've been partners for a long time now." He said, flexing his wings. "But you seem to be breaking a few of your own rules here. I just want to know why we're putting ourselves at risk like this. As your friend, if not your partner." He sighed.

He always had trouble phrasing these sorts of questions with Breeze, but this was one instance where the effort was necessary.

Breeze sighed.

"I guess he reminds me a little bit like myself when I ran away from the Sky Kingdom." She said with a shrug. "Reckless, impulsive… Clueless, if I'm honest." She admitted, then held up a wing as Gull took a breath to ask another question. "However, as you pointed out, there's the whole lightning and random explosion thing to think about. I'm willing to bet that whatever is going on there ought to be worth the risk looking into." She said.

"What're you thinking?" Gull asked.

"I'm thinking, if Inferno has some weird power that lets him control lightning and that explosion had something to do with that power increasing, that if he can learn to control that power, he can be the muscle in our group."

"You want to recruit him?" Gull clarified, skepticism clear in his voice.

"Look, if it turns out he's too dangerous to be around, we make our excuses and bail the first chance we get. In the meantime, he needs help." She explained. "He's a quick study and he's actually pretty sharp as well." She added, though there was an odd note in her voice, like she was hiding something.

"But that's not the whole reason, is it?" Gull prompted.

Breeze lowered her head and hunched, her wings curling, but she didn't say anything.

"No." She said at last, reluctantly. "It's…personal." She said after a pause.

She turned away.

"That encounter with that other SkyWing? Gyrfalcon? That…has a lot to do with it."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Gull asked, taking a hesitant step towards her.

It was very unlike Breeze to let her guard down enough to be truly vulnerable.

Usually when she did, it was a ruse to gain an opening, but this time Gull knew it was genuine. He'd seen the act enough times to tell the difference.

"I…Abandoning him would be what my father would do. I'm not a merciless, power-hungry killer." She said quietly.

Gull nodded.

"You're not." He affirmed. "I mean, you've saved me how many times when you could've escaped yourself?" He asked rhetorically.

Breeze smiled faintly.

"Thanks Gull." She said softly. "Let's get back to the cave."

Okay, not my best work, but it was kind of getting to the point where I needed to tie this back to Legend of Spyro and Gull and Breeze needed some character development.

Thanks to Grey Noise for pointing out that Gull and Breeze really hadn't had their reasons for helping Inferno properly fleshed out.

On that note, thank you to:

Grey Noise, SepticEye and MinecraftZerneas for reviewing.

See you next time.