Chapter 10: Just Hanging Out

Dylan's House- 4:01 PM

The drive home was uneventful, thankfully we didn't have any more grublins to deal with along the way. In all honesty, I should have known better than to think that the school day would have gone by without issue. Not with Malefor around. At least this time we have a good excuse for leaving this time.

I pulled us up into the driveway and we got out. Of course naturally the guardians were waiting for us. "About time you all returned, I thought your mother said you got out of school at 2:00?" Terrador questioned. "Yeah, the school didn't take too kindly to us ditching Friday, so we had to stay after." I explained. "Yeah until Malefor sent grublins after us!" Zack added.

"You were attacked?" Terrador questioned. "Yeah, but we were able to take them down." I explained. Terrador looked quite pleased by this. "And you said training you four was pointless." Terrador said. Well it didn't hurt that the grublins were about as smart as the asphalt they were made out of I don't think anyone would have had too much trouble with them.

It didn't take long for Terrador to rope us all back into training, however, me and Erin had another thing we needed to catch up on.

We found Cynder who had apparently been practicing her moves on a tree while we were at school. The tree was basically a few more claw swipes away from tumbling over. "Hey Cynder." I greeted. "Oh hey Amber, Erin." Cynder said. "So... you know how you're gonna ask Spyro out yet?" I asked getting straight to the point.

I guess she hadn't been giving it much thought as she was caught completely off guard by this question. "I... I don't know, we have so many bigger things going on with Malefor right now, I don't know if it's the right time." Cynder said, while yes the end of the world was a big deal, I couldn't shake the feeling that Cynder was just using it as an excuse.

"Besides, we need to focus, and relationship drama is not something we need right now." Cynder added. Yeah she was dodging it, it was practically written on her face. "She's dodging it." Erin stated. "Totally." I agreed with her. "I am not!" Cynder insisted. "How is it you can muster up the courage to face Malefor, but talking to a guy you like is too much for you?" I asked. "I don't know! I want to! Really I do! But... I just... can't." Cynder explained.

This was almost reaching bad romantic comedy levels of sad. Spyro seemed like a nice of enough guy I doubt his reaction would be that bad. But apparently Cynder thought differently. I didn't want to outright force her to tell him, but if she wasn't pushed she probably would never do it.

"Well if you don't do it soon, someone else will." Erin warned. "I know! I know you're trying to help, but I don't think I'm ready." Cynder said. "It's alright Cynder, just as long as you get to it eventually.." I said. I could tell she wanted us to back off and I didn't blame her for that.

You know, Amber and Erin had been hanging around with Cynder allot lately. I had no clue why, Cynder herself had been acting really weird lately. Did this have something to do with what Cynder told Dylan? I hope this wasn't going to be a problem when we faced Malefor. But for some reason that wasn't the only reason this upset me. I thought me and Cynder grew close during the last time we were fighting Malefor. "Dylan... I'm starting to worry about Cynder... she's been talking with Amber and Erin allot lately." I asked. "What she's not allowed to socialize?" Dylan replied jokingly. "You know what I mean!" I snapped. Dylan got a bit uncomfortable, I know he promised Cynder he wouldn't tell me, but what could she possibly be hiding from me? And why? "I'd tell you Spyro, but I think it's better you hear it from her and not me." Dylan said. What was that supposed to mean? I was so done with this mystery!

I began to walk over to her. "Uhh dude? What are you doing?" Dylan asked. "I'm done with this little mystery! I wanna know what's going on!" I stated, it didn't take long for me to close the distance between me and Cynder.

"Spyro! Uh... what's up?" Cynder asked clearly uncomfortable. "What's going on with you?! You've been avoiding me since we beat Malefor the first time, you have Dylan keeping secrets from me, and I bet Amber and Erin are doing the same thing too! What's going on?! I thought we were friends? I thought you trusted me?!" I said, I was causing quite a scene as we had the attention of everyone in the backyard.

"Spyro... please I don't-" Cynder stammered. "Cynder! You and I went through a whole war together, you can trust me with anything! Please stop hiding things from me and just tell me what's bothering you!" I demanded. Cynder paused for a moment, I almost asked again but she finally answered

"Spyro... I... I..." She struggled. "You what?" I asked. "Spyro do you remember what I said to you before you put the dragon realms back together?" She asked. "Not exactly, I didn't hear anything, my attention was kinda on other things." I admitted.

Cynder paused again, as if debating whether or not she actually wanted to tell me what she had on her mind. She looked right at me with those emerald eyes of hers. "I said "I love you"." Cynder confessed.

She... loves... me? ME? Really? I didn't know what to think! I felt stupid for never noticing it before, all this time I thought she hated me or something. But it was the exact opposite. "I knew I shouldn't have told you! How could I possibly think you'd love me back?! The great purple dragon show love for one of Malefor's former generals..." Cynder said breaking down.

"No Cynder... I'm kinda glad you did, I've already told you your past doesn't matter to me. I... I never really noticed it before now but, I think I feel the same way about you." I admitted.

"Well... I didn't see this coming." I heard Zack comment. Amber then elbowed him. "Ow! What?!" Zack whined. "You really mean that?" Cynder asked. "There's no other dragoness in the realms I'd rather be with." I told her. We nuzzled each other lovingly after that.

"Aww... isn't this touching." Sparx commented. "Don't ruin it." I said without even looking at him. The others then applauded, clearly happy for the both of us. I'm sure my fangirls will be disappointed when I returned home, but I didn't really care, I had my life partner, and that was enough for me.

"You two want some alone time?" Dylan asked jokingly. Me and Cynder chuckled nervously, both our cheeks red with embarrassment. "Ahem, while I am happy for you two, we mustn't forget we have a battle to prepare for." Terrador pointed out. "Oh come on dude, let them have their moment." Dylan chastized him.

We went back to training after that, but of course my mind was on other things naturally. "You know, I get why you didn't want to tell me Dylan. It was better for me to hear it from her." I said as we sparred. "Now if only I could find me own girl." Dylan laughed. "You will, I'm sure of it." I told him. Dylan was a good friend, a bit snarky and sarcastic sometimes but he was still there for you when you needed someone to talk to.

"Now hopefully we can waste Malefor so you two can have more time together." Dylan said, "There are more reasons than that Dylan." I pointed out. "Yeah I know." Dylan replied.

After our training Dylan suggested we have something called a "bonfire". Essentially all of us hanging out around a fire. It was nice to have downtime before we faced Malefor, a last chance to just talk and stuff.

Dylan's mother had brought out things to make something called a "smore", apparently they were little sandwich things made of graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallows, of course I had never seen any of these things before now, but apparently they were popular with the people of this world.

I can't remember the last time we had smores, I think it was when me and my parents went camping when I was eight. I have to admit, it was great to just hang out for once instead of panicking about Malefor nonstop. The dragons seemed perplexed about the idea of smores, not too hard to understand, I doubt they had any of the ingredients back were they where from. It seemed that Dragons however weren't strictly carnivores like you'd think. Since they had no objections to having any.

The image of dragons roasting marshmallows was definitely goofy there was no doubt about that, but hey, you never really did get to see dragons in downtime so everything that wasn't expositing or burning things down was bound to look odd to most people. "Volteer you might want to take it out of the fire now, it's starting to burn." Mom said. "Oh my!" Volteer said jerking the stick from the flame, the marshmallow a fireball on a stick at this point, Volteer hilariously trying to blow it out.

Volteer's marshmallow was nothing more than a mass of burnt charcoals at this point. "Somehow I don't think it's supposed to look like that..." Volteer said. Cyril laughing, it seemed the universe didn't like that as his marshmallow fell right into the burn pit. "Well it appears as though my little treat is in better condition than Cyril's" Volteer said with a small giggle. "Oh shut up..." Cyril said getting a new one.

I meanwhile had better luck and actually managed to make a smore. "So that's a smore?" Spyro asked. "Yeah, wanna try it?" I offered, he was hesitant at first but he took a bite, ate the whole thing in one chomp. He chewed for a while but he seemed to enjoy it. "They're a bit sticky though.." Spyro said, his mouth a mess of marshmallow goo. I couldn't hold back from laughing. Apparently Cynder couldn't hold back her own laughter either. "I'm glad you two find this funny." Spyro said after managing to swallow the thing.

"This is nice. Just being able to relax for once." Cynder commented. "Yeah, it is." Spyro replied. "Sucks we might not even be alive by the end of tomorrow though." I admitted. "Don't think like that, we'll be fine." Spyro said. "I hope so." I said roasting another marshmallow.

"Uhh Zack, not to worry you or anything, but it seems your trousers have caught fire." Volteer said, Zack looked to see his jeans had indeed caught fire. He instantly started spazzing out, squealing like a girl the whole time. "Oh for ancestors sake hold still!" Cyril said before hitting the flames with his ice breath putting the fire out. "There, now do try to stop flailing around like an idiot!" Cyril said. "Aw man... my jeans are ruined. Mom's gonna kill me." Zack complained.

Just then Amber plopped right next to me. "I guess you figured me and Erin knew about Cynders little crush huh?" She asked. "Yeah... I'm glad it turned out good for them." I said. "She was so nervous about telling him I thought she was gonna puke." Amber said, there's an image, thanks Amber. "I've never had luck with boys myself. I had a boyfriend once but we broke up pretty bad." Amber admitted. "How bad?" I asked. "Text message bad." Amber said. That's pretty bad.

"Jerk didn't even have to stones to break it off with me in person." Amber commented. "I've struck out with so many girls it's almost became a professional sport." I admitted, yeah my love life was pretty pathetic to say the least. "Me, I'm just hoping for Mr. Right to come along and take me off my feet." Amber said as she stoked the fire.

You know I never really noticed how beautiful Amber's eyes where before, maybe the flames reflecting in them had something to do with that, but who knows. "You okay Dylan? You're staring." Amber asked. "Y...yeah I'm fine." I stammered.

The rest of the night went pretty well, I actually had some of the most fun I had in a long time, just hanging out with friends and talking... I almost wished it wouldn't end. But like all good things it did eventually...

Meanwhile...

I looked upon the fort again, tomorrow would be the day I would enact my plan. I knew Spyro and his little friends would come to stop me, my grublins failing to eliminate them, but I expected that. It frustrated me how stubbornly Spyro refused to accept his true destiny despite all the evidence around him. After all I'm still here, despite his best efforts to stop me.

And then there was the human, Dylan Foutler, how he managed to break my control puzzled me. He was a weak creature, how could he resist my magic? Or could he? Perhaps I hadn't used enough, we would see tomorrow that was certain...

But whatever may happen tomorrow, I would come out the victor, this world would be cleansed, and then the dragon realms shall follow the same fate...

A/N- Oh were in for a brawl next chapter I promise you that! And I promise you it will not disappoint.