Chapter Ten: Grasping Terror

"Mom… I'm scared; I don't want to do this anymore." Skyro said as his heart raced with fear, his eyes dancing around the darkened room in hopes to find his mother among the darkened room. The room was laced in total darkness which amplified every sound that Cynder caused in the room.

"Mommy…?" Skyro shuddered, noticing that Cynder wouldn't answer as he heard loud, ominous footsteps which sounded muffled creep closer towards him. They sounded muffled and dry as if they sounded muffled and heavy, not fitting Cynder's criteria as Skyro's legs began to tremble with fear as the footsteps stopped suddenly as if they were right in front of his face. Suddenly, without any type of warning at all, a muffled scream from a female bellowed to the far right corner of the room. The scream was short but agonizing to hear, filled with pain and fear as Skyro's heat began to race faster than when the lights in the room vanished before his eyes.

Whispers then flickered around the room in short intervals, to feint to identify what the voices were saying and too scared to even think about what they might be saying as Skyro's stomach felt as though it didn't even exist anymore. His chest felt heavy to him, his heart raced with fear and adrenaline as he instinctively backed himself into the wall. Giggles of children then wisped their way into the room for a brief moment which seemed to last for minutes. Skyro's heart was now filled with absolute terror as tears began to build up in his eyes, not knowing what to do. He felt powerless as he clung for dear life on the wall, soon finding the door as he grasped ahold of the handle and tried desperately to open the door, noticing that the door was locked. Then, all grew silent like death.

"Please… I'm scared…" Skyro whispered as he did not want to make any more noise than what he wanted to. Then, the sound of chains dragging along the floor echoed through the room very softly. Then, a voice called softly to Skyro as though it was an unstoppable force which he couldn't free himself from.

"Skyro-o-o-o-o…," It called very faintly to him, seemingly begging him to step deeper into the darkness as Skyro obeyed for some strange reason. "Come closer… I want to show you something." The voice giggled away as he continued onward. He could hear his heart throb inside of his chest as he stepped further into the darkness, not knowing what to expect as he soon stopped when the vice stopped calling his name. He soon realized that there was no turning back now, he was in the center of the room surrounded by strange voices and sounds which all possessed a sinister yet horrific aura in them all. Snarling which simulated the Roamers which haunted the world outside, moans of dying victims of torture, and a sound of dripping liquid which rang in Skyro's head which sounded like blood to him. He couldn't bare it anymore, it was driving him insane.

"Nonononono… this is too much, please go away." Skyro thought as he stood trembling, not knowing what to do. He relinquished himself of all of his power to before a fire breath attack to illuminate the room before he entered… he was helpless. Tears ran down his face as he heard a distant howl to his front surface, then grew louder as it seemed to charge right at him. Then, the blood red colored eyes and face surface in front of him. Cynder unleashed a Fear powered howl in front of Skyro, causing him to scream and stumble away with fear, trying to escape the monstrosity which was his mother who crept slowly towards him. Blood ran down from her eyes and across her teeth as she slowly moved closer to her son, sending wave after wave of fear into his soul. She was then among him as he stood curled by the door in complete horror, waiting for the final result to happen.

Before Cynder had a chance to do anything, she whipped her wings out, causing all of the torches to be lit once more, returning everything back to normal.

"Skyro, its ok now, your safe," Cynder said as she held her son in her arms, allowing him to cry and cling to her for safety. "Now you know not to underestimate the power of fear… bestow it on your enemy's mind right and you will be in power of the conflict. People cower under fear just as quickly as they would under power."

"H-h-how can you harness such horror… what did you do to me to make me hear all of those sounds which controlled me?" Skyro sputtered as he was still taking in all of what happened to him.

"The power of fear can mimic sounds and other voices and other things if used right," Cynder said as her son looked up to her, noticed that there was no blood on her face at all. "And can cause others to see things which do not exist. Fear is the ultimate power in the darkness, do you understand?" Skyro nodded as he cried in his mother's arms, not wanting to close his eyes, because he would see the darkened images once more if he did.

"Can we please leave this place for the day; I don't want to stay down here anymore." Skyro pleaded as Cynder nodded her head and unlocked the door leading out of the room. "We'll continue this lesson tonight if you would like, you have the power to learn the ways of the shadows as well." Skyro didn't speak as he walked out form the room and up the stair swiftly to try and leave the horror-filled place.

"Maybe… I don't know yet." Skyro said, noticing that his heart was still beating fast, not wanting to slow down as his mother met him by his side and opened the door or him to leave.

"Hey Skyro, do you want to walk around the city, I don't hear the army forces fighting anymore and I heard the main gates shut a few minutes ago." Smoke said as Skyro looked up to his mother who was already nodding her head yes.

"I want you two back inside before sundown today, I'll go get Flare and tell her you two are heading out." Cynder said as she headed up the spiraling staircase. Skyro's heart was still racing from his experience down below, trembling a little bit from what his mind had undergone in just a matter of minutes.

"Hey, are you ok," Smoke asked as Skyro shot back into reality. "You look like you seen a ghost."

"Yeah I'm fine, just that my punishment was also a lesson," Skyro said as he took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'll tell you guys about it later. Where are we headed today?"

"Just around I suppose," Smoke said as he and Skyro waited patiently for Flare if she was coming. "I'm curious about this place; I've never been to a city like this before. I've only been to a place called, I believe it was Everglades."

"I don't think ive been there before, maybe sometime soon." Skyro said as he looked up the stairs and saw Flame approaching rather swiftly. "Hey Flare, did my mom tell you we as going to walk around the city?"

"Yeah she told me, we have to be back by sundown though." Flare said as the three began to walk out from the Dragon Temple. The doors leading outside then opened up and let in Slair, Tomias, Fearador, and Scarlet who saw the three coming.

"Hey look who it is, half pint!" Tomias said as Slair chuckled to his friend's insult.

"Where you guys headed?" Slair asked as Smoke took a small step in front of Skyro and Flare.

"Out to see the city." Smoke said as Slair shot a look towards him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was talking to you, was I looking at you when I spoke?" Slair said as Smoke sneered at his remark.

"You asked where we were going," Smoke said as he turned towards Slair, getting a bit angry at his presence. "Which means you asked us all the same question. Are you trying to start trouble with me stupid?"

"Are you threatening me you little brat," Slair shot back, causing more tension in the room than there already was. "I'm bigger than you and tougher than you and cooler than you, do you really think it's a good idea to step up to me?" Smoke bared his teeth in anger as did Slair.

"Knock it off, the both of you." Scarlet said, breaking the tension between the two.

"Whatever, you can stay here with these three chumps until you want to hang out with cool kids." Slair scoffed and soon walked away with his two goons, leaving Scarlet with the three friends.

"If I wanted to hang out with jerks I would have already become a jerk," Scarlet said as she approached the three. "Sorry about him, I try not to hang around him if I can."

"Why hang around him period, he's a jerk." Skyro said as he and Flare stepped out from behind Smoke.

"Because his father saved my mother and me from a rock fall which blocked our cave entrance," Scarlet said as Smoke settled down a bit, but was still pretty angry at Slair's attitude. "We were stuck in there for about a day or two until his father managed to get help to pull us out."

"I see what you mean, would you like to hang out with us for the day, we're gonna walk around the city and check out the sights here." Skyro offered, actually hoping she would come along. The three had played together before and did not mind Scarlet's company at all; she was actually a very nice character to be around.

"Yeah sure, not much left to do today anyway," Scarlet said, walking up next to Smoke as the four walked out into the warm sun. "Judging by how you were acting, you don't like Slair all that much do you?"

"Not really, he's a bully," Smoke said as the four walked down the nicely cut flight of steps town to the city square. "He'll get what he has coming to him sooner or later if he keeps messing with Skyro."

"I don't fight all that well," Skyro said as Smoke looked over to him with a confused look. "My father said I was too young to worry about such a thing… is that a bad thing?"

"It kind of is and isn't at the same time." Flare said who walked next to Skyro, allowing the two boys to be next to each other.

"She's right, but your dad knows best, he'll show you some moves someday," Smoke said as Skyro managed to smile a little bit. "But in the meantime, would you like to learn some from me just to get you by?"

"Um, yeah sure, that sounds cool." Skyro said, a bit excited and a bit nervous to Smoke's proposal.

"He's nervous isn't he?" Scarlet joked, causing Skyro to blush a little bit.

"Relax, I won't hit you hard!" Smoke said while winking towards Skyro, chuckling at Skyro's personality.

"If you're not careful, I might have to show you some of MY moves." Skyro said as he slugged Smoke in the arm, chuckling after Smoke hit him back.

"Uh-oh, sounds like we got ourselves a fight." Flare said, looking over to Scarlet with a smile which she returned.

"I got my gold on Smoke!" Scarlet said as Skyro tried to shoot her a look of confusion but failed because he had too big of a smile spread across his face.

"I don't know Scarlet, Skyro might do something stupid, I got my gold on Skyro!" Flare had to push Skyro around a bit, she loved to pick on him and tease him and she thought it was funny to see him laugh. Every once in a while, Skyro would gasp while trying to catch his breath after laughing so hard, much like what he was doing right now.

"I'm going to bust a gut if you two don't stop." Skyro snorted, laughing with Smoke who was also doubled over laughing.

"Stop the march," Hunter commanded as Spyro finished off a Dragon Roamer. "I think we've finished off all of them in this area, I'll send out the report to the other groups tonight, for now we'll take a break here!"

"Ugh, revolting," Spyro muttered under his breath while wiping his mouth after his grapple attack on the Dragon Roamer. "I'll be happy when all of you things are gone… and if I remember not to do that move again." The dragon had been infected for a long time due to the massive amount of decomposing areas around the limbs, torso, and neck. Spyro almost lost his stomach when her saw a maggot crawl from the left forearm of the dragon.

"Not too bad for a first day out on the hunt," Hunter said when Spyro joined him back at the group. "How are you doing my friend?"

"Disgusting creatures, almost lost my lunch on that last one," Skyro said as he looked around the camp of troops. "How many have we lost so far and how far out are we away from Warfang?"

"We've actually made some fairly good ground in a short amount of time," Hunter said as he showed Spyro the map of the terrain. "We've already passed the line where we would have gone through Avalar, so it shouldn't be long until we reach the Dam. As far as I know of, we haven't lost anybody yet… though that doesn't go for the rest of the groups though."

"Yeah I know," Spyro said as he looked around the opening in the thin woods. "It should be but another day or so to reach the Dam if we continue throughout the night correct?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Hunter said as he studied the map closely. "It's strange, I thought there would be more infected around here, probably moved over to the southwestern regions of this area. Or maybe survivors over the years managed to thin out most of them."

"That sounds logical," Spyro sat down on the ground to relax a bit, stretching his arms out to try and pop his stiff shoulders. "I wouldn't rule out the possibility that some of them got out of their regional shackles and perished how Bianca described."

"It has been a long wait, eight years in fact, but out timing probably couldn't have been better," Hunter said as he folded up the map and placed it back in his satchel. "This seems like a perfect time to finally attack. I think we can actually be done in a matter of a few days than anticipated."

"I hope so, Cynder and I need a vacation and Skyro needs to be put through schooling in Warfang," Spyro said as he stood back up from the ground. "Kind of hard to have class when th teachers are out fighting deranged zombies." Spyro and Hunter had to chuckled a little bit for Spyro's corny joke, though it was the truth. Eight years with no schooling for any younger pupils meant that learning would have to be pushed on the young ones extremely hard in their final few years in school.

"Whatever happens, we'll be ok." Hunter said as Spyro nodded his head in agreement.

"I know we'll be," Spyro placed his hand on Hunter's shoulder. "We've been through a whole lot worse. We should move out now."

"Yeah your right, everybody move out!" Hunter called, making every soldier in the group stand back on their feet and continue the march towards the Dam.

"How are we coming along?" Draikor asked as the mole finished preparations on the last Droid among the assembly line.

"This is the last of my materials," the Mole stated as he looked up to Draikor. "How do you plan on cloning these things? I was never to for sure about that part of the plan."

"I do not know either," Draikor stated, scratching his chin at the newly built Dragonroid. "How many are there total?"

"You have enough to take control over all of the main lands," the Mole said as he fixed his glasses on his nose. "And you have enough in reserves to take over all of the islands surrounding the main lands."

"Excellent, now about your payment," Draikor said as he now glared at the Mole. "What shall we do about that?"

"I never wanted to help any evil figure dominate this world," the Mole said as he walked over to his work bench and grabbed a small veil full of red liquid. "Leave me be at the beach if that is all you request."

"You may go now, thank you for your services, you may go now." Draikor said, watching as the old Mole walked out from the facility doors whom was met at the door by Nemphis. The young dragon walked by the Mole and right up to his father without even giving the Mole a second look.

"Where is he going?" Nemphis asked as Draikor turned to his Droid army.

"His services are no longer required," Draikor said, smiling at the monstrosities of machinery. "He's turning in his life for his hard work. He build weaponry which will aid me rather well, I wouldn't doubt he probably feels terrible being held against his will to work throughout the nights and giving me this map which will envelope my power over the world indefinitely."

"Shall I head out towards the island now?" Nemphis asked as his father handed him the map of the island.

"Yes my son, I will await to see you soon." Draikor said as he turned back to gaze at his newly acquired artillery.