Earlier that same day, the Zealot walked into the grand church of the Relconem religion in Warfang. Despite the dry, old wooden supports that lined the floor giving it an ancient look and feel to it, it was well kept up. Not a single spot was left unclean, every speck of dust was removed, and any and every that was out of place was quickly put back. Architecturally, the place looked rather nice, with stained glass lining the walls with images of holy being, most of which depicted their ancestors and other holy relics of the past, yet none of them really concerned the Zealot at the moment.
He was here to find someone far more important than this old building, that being the man who ran it all. The one who orchestrated any and every event, the one who was the figurehead in any meeting in regard to the laws the Relconem religion to a part of, the dragon whose sole purpose in life was to keep the holiness of this city alive and healthy. The Head Zealot Umbra.
Despite his holy stature, in truth Umbra cared little about the workings of the religion, as to him there were far more greater things in life, such as serving his own master, and what better way than to commandeer an entire religion? The Zealot walked into his office without any hassle from anyone in the building. No one knew who he was other that Umbra, and he wished to keep it that way. Thankfully for him, Umbra had his ways of making people forget if something got loose.
Umbra noticed this small Zealot walk into his office and granted him a smile, unaware of who it was exactly. "How can I help you young one?" he asked trying not to sound demeaning to the young dragon.
The Zealot didn't seem too pleased with this greeting and took off his mask to show who Umbra was talking to and upon seeing who it was, Umbra merely bowed. "My apologies, my young master, I didn't realize who it was." He said, sounding as confident as ever, like he always did. "How may I help you today?" he asked lifting his head back up.
"I need you to add a name to the records. There are two girls who are starting to get closer than need be, and now Ignitus is going to be coming by to check up on such information.
Umbra seemed rather delighted to hear that, or at least that is what the Zealot could tell as he watched the thunder dragon chuckle. "It seems like you might be a little over your head young master. I wouldn't worry about a thing, I shall take care of everything personally. You just sit back and wait."
Something about how Umbra phrased this made the Zealot feel belittled but didn't question this any further. It wasn't too long after the they heard Ignitus calling for Umbra, who let him in, but the moment the red dragon walked inside, Umbra struck him with a powerful Thunder attack. Ignitus' body shook as the electricity coursed through his body till he couldn't take the pain any longer and passed out.
"There, see? Problem solved." Umbra said feeling rather pleased with his work. He turned back to his desk and continued to work on the paperwork he has been given. Almost dismissively he called out to the Zealot. "Why don't you take him down to your hide out and keep him there. I'll have someone help you bring him down there." The Zealot hardly enjoyed the way he was being treated, but it was by the order of his father to keep the dragon in front of him safe and in power.
They had to wait a moment before help showed up and dragged Ignitus down into the cellar, which the Zealot took it from there. Opening up a hatch in the basement, he dumped Ignitus down the whole before jumping down with him.
Umbra waited till he knew that the young master was nowhere close by before pulling out a crystal ball similar to the one the Zealot carried around. After a small chant, the image of Malefor appeared on the orb and once again Umbra bowed his head. "My master. I bring some troubling news. I hate to report this, but I worry that your son might be slipping on his duties. He nearly was caught today, but I took care of it."
Hearing this did not sit well with Malefor. "I see… Set him on the right path then. I sent him to Warfang so that he can learn the cruelties that place brings and become my heir once I'm gone. If he is showing signs of betrayal, then you are to fix it." Umbra bowed his head once more.
"I will require some of your men in that case if you wouldn't mind Master."
"I'll give you the help of one of my men, but don't waste this help like my son has. Just make sure this is taken are of before it grows more."
"Very well master, I shall be sure personally that it is done, but I must ask. What if your son continues to get distracted?" Malefor only huffed, annoyed that he would bother wasting his time in asking such a thing. "Should we make him loyal?"
"If he indeed has thoughts of treason, then he is of no further use to us and should be dealt with accordingly." Malefor said with a deadly tone to his voice. Umbra lifted his head back up and carried a smile upon his face.
"I shall keep an eye closely on him Master. You have my word."
The following morning was a dreadful one for Ember. Her father had not come home last night and had left her worrying. She knew that there was a Recolem building not too far from their home and had figured that he would be back in about an hour or so. Now it was the following morning, and when she checked his room, it was empty. There were no signs showing that he came home at all. She wanted to believe that he had to leave for work early or somehow his work had something to do with his absence, but she couldn't help but think something happened.
There was a knock on the front door and Ember was quick to reach it, hoping that news of her father would be waiting for her. Opening the door, she found a young mole standing before her, and smile upon his face. "Might Ignitus be present?" the mole asked.
Ember sighed, feeling a crushing sadness fill her as she shook her head. "I'm sorry he is not here at the moment."
The mole nodded his head before looking through the bag that he had strapped around his neck and pulled out a few letters. "Well when he does come back please give these to him if you don't mind."
If he comes back, Ember thought to herself, silently taking the envelops and politely waving the mole goodbye before closing the door behind her. She walked into their kitchen and tossed the letters onto the table before taking a seat. Glancing out through one of the windows that held a good view of the city beyond.
"Where are you, Dad?"
It was now a few hours into the morning and hundreds of young dragons were making their way towards whatever educational building they were going to. That is all but Cynder, who was standing in the middle of the street where she and Ember would meet up at. Glancing back and forth trying to find Ember, Cynder became worried. It was not like her to miss school, and on days where she grew sick she would always request someone to give Cynder the message that she would not be attending school that day. No one had come, and it started to worry Cynder even more.
Maybe the Zealot got to her?! Cynder thought as she started to panic a little. But she quickly shook her head, knowing not to jump to conclusion like that until she had more proof. Cynder sighed and figured that Ember had forgotten to send a messenger to her, or that he or she got lost along the way. "Looks like I'm walking by myself today." Cynder mumbled under her breath.
"Hey, Cynder, wait up!" Spyro called when he spotted her. Cynder turned her head around and watched as the red dragon walked over to her, a cheerful smiled present on his face.
"Oh, hey Spyro." Cynder greeted as he reached her. "You haven't seen Ember today have you?" she asked, hoping that somehow, he knew where she was.
Unfortunately, he didn't. "I'm afraid not." Spyro replied with a shake of his head. "Why is something the matter?"
"Normally, Ember would meet me here and we would walk together to school, or she would send me a messenger if she were sick and I would just pick up her homework. I have not seen or heard from her for a while now." Cynder answered. Spyro could tell from the look she was giving him, that she was worried about her friend.
"Well if you want I could look for her after class." Spyro offered, hoping to cheer her up.
This didn't quite please Cynder as much as he hoped it would as shown when she said, "Why can't you help me look for her now?"
"Because school is a very important thing for young dragons such as us. And besides I'm sure Ember has just overslept or something." Spyro said. There was something very cheeky about the way he said this
Cynder let out another sigh. She had not thought of that possibility, and with all of the events that have been happening the past few days, she knew that it could be a strain on one's mind at times. "I suppose you might be right." she said as she turned to face the direction of her school.
Spyro smiled, glad to see that Cynder wasn't worrying less about her friend. "If you would like I can walk with you to school" he offered.
Cynder raised a brow as she glanced at the red dragon beside her. She wondered why he was being so friendly all of a sudden. She shrugged though, figuring it was better to walk with someone you kind of know rather than walking alone. "Sure, why not?"
The two walked in silence. Not because there was nothing to talk about, but because they didn't know what to talk about. What is there to talk about? Cynder thought to herself. They didn't share anything in common as far as she knew, and she knew little about him. She sighed inwardly, wondering how Ember could make friends so easily. While Spyro and Cynder walked, another group walked up from behind them.
"Hey, did you guys hear about the Recolem church that caught fire last night?" asked one of the dragons behind them said. Despite the fact that it was eavesdropping, Cynder couldn't help herself but listen to what they had to say.
"Did I hear about it? I saw the thing burning last night with my own eyes!" said another member of the other group.
"You did not." a third member said in disbelief. "You get scared of the tiniest of flames. So, I don't think you would stick around a burning building."
"But it's true, you have to believe me!" the second one bellowed. Cynder figured that there was no point in listening to them anymore, so she tried to tune them out. One thing that bothered her a lot was the fact that a Recolem building was set on fire on the same day, Spyro, Ember, and herself went to speak with the Zealot. There was no way it could be a coincidence. Still she couldn't help but worry that something happened to Ember due to what they did.
"Spyro did you hear what that other group was talking about?" Cynder asked the red dragon, hoping to get some insight on this matter.
Spyro nodded his head. "Yeah, I have, though I wouldn't worry about it too much. It was on the other side of town, and they ended up putting it out rather quickly."
"How do you know that?" Cynder questioned as she tilted her head in confusion.
Spyro was quick to answer. "I also saw the whole thing going on? As far as I'm aware it was an accident, probably caused by a Fire dragon." Cynder froze as she thought about the possibilities of Ember being trapped and burned to death in that building. Spyro seemed to have noticed Cynder's slightly panicked look
"I'm pretty sure that Ember wasn't in it. I mean it was on the other side of town" Hearing this did make her feel a little better, though she couldn't help but wonder what Spyro could have been doing last night on the opposite of town. Before she could ask though, they heard a bell, signaling people to hurry up. Not wanting to be late, they both started to run.
"Ugh." he started remembering what class he had this morning now that he was inside the building. It was a History class, and even though he shared that class with Cynder, Cyril didn't do anything to make it any more interesting to learn. "I sometimes wonder why we need to learn history."
Cynder smirked, finding his complaint to be rather amusing. "Yeah, Cyril's lectures are some of the worst, aren't they?"
Spyro nodded his head in response, mumbled some words under his breath. Cynder didn't catch what he said, but she figured it was something to do with his dislike of the class. She also remembered what Ember told her a while back about making friends. She sighed once more and figured she should try to be friends with the fire dragon beside her.
"You know Spyro, we can ditch the class if you really want." Cynder said, figuring that they could try bonding a little if he were to say yes. Spyro was rather shocked that Cynder made such an offer. He figured that this was a once in a lifetime offer so he saw no reason to reject her offer.
"What might you have in mind?" Spyro questioned, interested to hear her plan.
Cynder remained quiet as she silently motioned him to follow her. He did, and he found himself behind the school shortly after. Before he could ask her why they were back there, Cynder grabbed some planks of wood that were nailed together and moved them aside, revealing a hole in the stone wall. Spyro was about to question why no authority here has not found out about this, but before he could, Cynder grabbed one of his arms with her tail and pulled him as she walked through the hole, dragging him along her.
On the other side of the hole, Spyro found himself in a dark alleyway in-between two small buildings that were behind the school. They both stood there in the dark, letting the cool chill air in the shaded place cool them off.
"How come no one has found out about that hole?" Spyro questioned as he gazed over to Cynder who was rather hard to see with her black scales. He could hardly even see her shrug her shoulders before started to run off, pulling him along with her. "Ow, hey wait, Cynder!" Spyro bellowed as he tried to stay upright as she tugged on his arm.
"What?" she asked as she finally stopped. She was confused as to why he is not moving faster.
Spyro took a moment to remove his arm from her grasp before talking. "Where are you taking me?"
Cynder only shrugged. "Do we need to go somewhere specific?" she questioned.
"No, but I figured you were when you started to pull me." Spyro pointed out. Cynder only shook her head.
"I just wanted you to get a move on." Cynder replied before noting how cold her tail was. "Spyro do you have bad blood flow to your arms?"
Spyro was confused as to why she was asking but answered her question anyway. "No, why do you ask?"
"Your arm is very cold and stiff for some reason."
This time Spyro shrugged. "I don't know, maybe you're just imagining things."
"Yeah maybe." Cynder mumbled before shrugging it off. "Regardless, now that we have the rest of the day off, is there anything in particular you wanted to do?" she asked as she started to calmly walk.
"You don't have a plan yourself?" Spyro asked as he walked beside her. Cynder just shook her head.
"Nope, I'm just going with the flow. Kind of the reason why I asked you." she said with a hint of playfulness and sarcasm to her tone of voice. Spyro took a moment to think about it and even stopped walking for a second. "Is everything alright?" Cynder asked as she noticed her companion stopped moving.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that... all my life I have been given orders, and I did what I was told... You're the first person to ask what I wanted to do." Spyro said rather in disbelieve at the situation he was in.
Cynder was surprised and confused as to what he just told her. "What kind of household did you live in?"
Spyro's face felt like it was on fire as it brightened up with a red blush. "It wasn't all that bad." he said trying to defend himself.
"Right." Cynder said as she shook her head and chuckled to herself. "Anyway, Mr. Strict childhood, what do you do for fun?"
"Well..." Spyro had to pause once again as he thought of what he did to pass the time. "I normally end up sparring with... someone to pass the time."
Cynder nodded her head again as she thought about having a playful fight with the red dragon beside her. It would let her get an idea how well of a fighter he was. Not only that but, she figured that on one hand she could test her might and prove that she can take care of herself, not that it was ever questioned that she couldn't. On the other hand, she could say no and do something else.
Spyro seemed to read her mind as he asked "Hey you want to spare a bit? I'd love to see what your father had taught you." Cynder thought about it for a moment before agreeing, figuring it could be a bit of fun. "Cool, might there be some place where you would like to fight?" Spyro asked as he grinned with delight.
"Hmmm." Cynder took a moment to think about a place that was nice and open, and it didn't take long for her to think of one. "Well there is the park on the other side of town." Cynder suggested. "It's nice and open but it does have trees everywhere." she explained.
"That's fine, they can be used as obstacles. It can make it slightly more challenging for the both of us." Spyro said still grinning.
Cynder nodded and spread her wings and took off, followed by Spyro. As the two flew over the city Cynder found herself glancing behind her at Spyro several times, each time she did he was lagging farther and farther behind.
"Is everything alright?" she asked him, wondering why he was flying so slowly.
"Um, yeah... I'm just not in a rush is all." Spyro replied slightly nervous. Cynder only shrugged, seeing no reason to question him further. When they did reach their destination they both landed just outside the park. As they did Spyro said "Hey can we take moment to rest?"
Cynder was very confused. "Why? We barely flew."
"Yeah I know but uh... I want us both to be at full strength for when we fight." Spyro proclaimed, hoping that Cynder would not question this any further.
Cynder found this reason questionable.
Still she figured that if he was planning something else, she would deal with it then.
"Alright we can take five." she said before sitting down. Spyro sat down opposite to her, and the stayed silent the entire time. Just as Cynder hear something rustling in the treetops nearby Spyro stood up saying:
"Ok I'm ready."
Before Cynder could say anything Spyro had already started to walk into the park. She stood up herself and followed behind him. They walked a bit before coming to a somewhat open area. It still had several trees all over the place, but there was enough room in the area to at least fly around a tiny bit without crashing into a tree. "This seems like a good place." Cynder said.
Spyro nodded his head as he walked to one side of the place. "You ready?" he called out.
Cynder looked at him slightly confused. "You might want to take that necklace off." she said taking about the black gem that hung around Spyro's neck. "I don't want to break it or anything."
"It's fine Cynder, don't worry about it." Spyro replied. Cynder shrugged her shoulders before getting ready.
Cynder was not one to wait. She immediately launched herself at Spyro, claws outstretched and mouth open in a snarl. Spyro simply batted her out of the air with a heavy paw. If only she hadn't planned on that. That hit was harder than what she had expected. As she hit the ground, she rolled forward, now facing Spyro' completely exposed flank. Her paws reached forward and slammed into them, giving Spyro a jolt as he leapt away with a small yelp of surprise. As he turned around, Cynder leapt at him again, hoping to get him to instinctively smack her out of the air again.
Spyro didn't fall for it. He quickly lifted his forelegs off the ground and balanced on his hind legs for a few seconds. When Cynder was closer, he dropped, slamming his paws into her shoulder and forcing her to the ground with a loud thump.
Cynder felt her breath leave her as Spyro held her shoulder down and pinned her. The dragoness struggled underneath him, then tilted her head forward and jabbed it forward. The tips of her horns stabbed into Spyro's chest, causing he purple to move back in shock. Cynder quickly shimmied back and away from Spyro, circling him.
"You're fast." Spyro said to her.
"You're strong." Cynder replied as they circled. "But guess what? Like you said, I'm fast." The dragoness made a lunge for Spyro. The red dragon dropped his stance and readied to swipe her out of the air, but Cynder had never attacked. She had stalled just a few seconds, allowing Spyro to prepare too early for her attack. She was already at his side again, launching and slamming her paws against his side.
She was then surprised as he quickly twisted around, swing his head around and slamming it, horns first, into her own head. She was sent rolling, her head pounding as a headache began to appear.
"How did you…?" Cynder tried to ask.
"I have a good reaction time." Spyro answered her. Cynder growled, then bolted at him from the ground, leaping at him a time second and spreading her wings with a flap to gain the extra height. Spyro reared up to bat at her in the sky, but she leaned back and folded her wings. As she fell, her legs kicked out, slamming into Spyro's chest and neck.
And right into his medallion.
"I told you, you should have taken that off." Cynder said proudly as she rolled to her feet and turned to face him. Spyro didn't answer as he quickly stood up and placed a paw against the gem around his neck. He didn't feel any holes in it, which was a relief to him. As he pulled his paw away he noticed that several small shards fell onto the ground, turning into dust as it hit the dirt.
"Are you alright?" Cynder asked, as she noticed the worried look on Spyro's face.
Spyro remained silent for a few moments. Cynder wasn't sure if he was stunned, baffled, or just found something on his paw to be interesting, but either way something was holding his attention as he was deep in thought. She had to wait just a little bit long before the red dragon replied to her question.
"Yeah I'm fine, I just have to leave right away." The read male said as he turned to leave
"What, ditching me already?" Cynder asked rather annoyed by his sudden need of departure.
Spyro shook his head. "No, it's not like that Cynder. Look, I just need you to trust me on this. I really must go." And before Cynder could question him further, Spyro spread his wings and flew off. Cynder was very confused as to what he was doing or what was going on. In fact, she was thinking so hard as to what might be wrong with Spyro that she failed to notice a young Zealot creep down from the trees and run in the direction Spyro flew off to.
Once again, I hope that I didn't keep you guys waiting to long for this chapter. Some rather interesting things happened here though. Why did Spyro Leave when the gem around his neck started to crack? What importance does that have to the story? What happened to Ignitus? Is he dead? I can't say, but these questions and more will be answered in later chapters. Once again, I would love to thank my co-author HKGhost for writing the battles in this chapter, and I want all of you who review this chapter to thank him as well. He has been such a great help with this story and I know for a fact that it would not be as good if it were not for his help.