Author's note- Here we go, the big one-O. This is gonna be a more peaceful chapter, kinda thought you needed a break from all the excitement, for now..... Oh and thanks for the reviews guys! Lookin forward to more. Ok, lets do this.

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Chapter 10, Celebration

It is nearing dark, the sun just on the horizon casting an ominous orange-red glow across the sky. Warfang is bustling. Shops are set up for the occasion, bright colored banners on every building. Each with an imprint of a dragon on it. Many shops held all kinds of rich, beautiful objects. Jewelry, rings, colorful rocks and crystals, the works.

Rayde started to stir in his bed, due to a knocking on the door. Rayde woke as he heard a familiar voice, "Hey Rayde, Terrador sent me to wake you up. Come on! You missing out on the celebration!" Rayde slowly got up and walked to the door, he opened it to find Sparx buzzing in the doorway.

"It's about time you got up," Sparx said, "You've been out for hours, someone brought up some clothes for you to change into." He said as he pointed at a small pile of clothes on the floor.

Rayde, still drowsy replied, "Ya...just let me wake up a bit, and I'll be out in a minute, kay?" Sparx nodded as Rayde picked up his clothes and returned to his room. I still can't remember anything. Rayde thought. Who can help me? Who will help me? Rayde started to change, putting his armor on the bed. His new clothes were fairly festive, but normal. The shirt was a medium sleeve, bright red color. His pants were a faded blue type of jeans. He also got some new shoes, which were good running shoes.

As soon as Rayde was finished, he looked out the window. He noticed everything going on, all the people celebrating, children playing in the streets, feline and mole alike. Bright, festive colors lining the buildings, merchants bartering with customers. So peaceful, do I even want to know who I am? Maybe it would be better if I didn't know. Although, living under a dark mystery is hardly what I could call a peaceful existence. Rayde thought.

A sudden banging on the door caught Rayde's attention. "Come on lets get going, it shouldn't take you that long to get some freaking clothes on!" Sparx complained at the door. As Rayde opened the door saying, "Impatient huh? Are you always like this?" Rayde said.

Sparx replied, "What? Just wondering why it takes you so long to get dressed." Rayde said after him, "Sorry, I was just.....thinking." Sparx's noticed a hint of sorrow in his voice and thought, Uh-oh, did I say something wrong? Sparx then said, "Gahh! It's OK, didn't really mean to bug ya, I just wanted to get to the celebration before everything good to eat is gone." Rayde laughed at this and said, "Then go on ahead, I can take it from here." Sparx smiled and thanked him as he buzzed off out a window.

Rayde started to walk down the staircase, passing people as he did, each one giving him a strange stare. Rayde started to notice this and thought, What, have they never seen someone that looks like me before? Rayde got down to the front door.

As Rayde opened the main door to get out, he noticed Spyro and Cynder waiting outside for him. Cynder looked up at him smiling and said, "We thought that we should go with you. You know, show you around town so you don't get lost, at least until you get used to the place." Rayde smiled and nodded saying, "Ya, the last thing I want right now is to get lost here, judging by what I saw from my window, it would take me hours to get back to my room." Spyro chuckled and said, "Then lets get going, we have a lot to show you before the fireworks in about 3 hours." The other two nodded and set off.

Spyro and Cynder haven't seen so many colors and activity going on so much in their lives. So many people, so much activity, so many happy faces, it made Spyro glad to know that things were normal for the time being.

For about two hours Spyro and Cynder explained to Rayde what was what. Rayde, most of the time, just listened. He also didn't seem too bothered by the awkward stares he would get by the felines and moles.

Eventually, Rayde noticed a strange stand that had a few different colored crystals. He walked towards it and was greeted by the merchant, "Ah, good evening. It seems you have an eye for gems I see, take a look and see what you like." Rayde couldn't put his finger on it, but one particular gem seemed very familiar; a light green gem about the size of a golf ball.

Rayde asked the merchant, "Do you mind if I take a look at that one.." pointing to the light green gem. The merchant eyed him and said, "Sure, just don't walk off with it, it took me 7 years to get that one."

Rayde reached for it. As soon as his hand touched it, he felt a sudden jolt of pain shoot through his head. Rayde gripped his head and groaned. Rayde saw a brief flash of a sword, a sword with two blades on one side of the hilt.

When the pain stopped, Rayde was gripping the side of the stand. The merchant, alarmed by his reaction asked, "Hey, you okay?" Rayde only shook his head and said, "Yeah, just...a headache." The merchant stared at him for a long time, as if not believing his excuse, "You sure? You just gripped you head all of a sudden as soon as you touched it." the merchant said. Rayde only replied, "I told you, I'll be fine." and he left there.

Spyro and Cynder caught up with him. Spyro started to ask, "What was that all about?" Rayde stopped and said, "I don't really know, I touched the gem and I saw a sword flash through my mind. Lets worry about it later, we still have much to see." Spyro and Cynder stared at him with concern, "I told you, I will be fine, lets just continue." Rayde repeated.

After a few minutes of walking, Rayde noticed there was a sparing match with wooden swords. "Lets check this out." Rayde said as he started to walk over to it, Spyro and Cynder close behind him. As they got closer, they noticed that two felines were sparing with each other. One of them was a deep orange color, wearing festive clothes. The other was a dark gray color, he wore a type of cloth battle armor.

The gray feline was obviously the more experienced, he only seemed to be playing with the other, sidestepping every lunge, leaning back every slash. After a while, the orange feline tried to feign by first doing a horizontal slash, then a vertical slash. The gray feline only blocked, and using a turning move, knocked the sword right out of the others hand. He held the sword to his neck, the orange feline sighed and said, "I yield."

There was a cheer through the crowd, as well as clapping. The gray feline raised his arms challengingly and declared, "Is there no one else who would like to challenge me? I am the greatest traveling swordsman in the land! Would anyone like another go? I have a large bag of cash here for the one who beats me, 1000 gold coins! That could buy you a very nice house with that kind of money, and still have much left over to pay your kids through school!" The gray feline brandished his sword and declared, "If you can beat me, the great Mist, you can have these coins! Someone, Anyone?"

Rayde got a wild idea, "I will!" he shouted. Everyone looked at him with surprise. Mist looked at him and said, "And we have a challenger, whats your name my good sir?" Rayde replied over the whole crowd, "My name is Rayde, and I would like to challenge you to a sparing match!"

Mist laughed and said, "I like your spirit, come on up here!" Rayde turned back to Spyro and Cynder and said, "If I am to learn swordplay, this would be a good chance to practice what I know." Before Spyro could stop him, Rayde bounded up onto the stage.

Mist pointed over towards a counter that had many types of wooden swords on it, "Choose you weapon." he said to Rayde. Rayde looked over the swords for a while, and decided on a sword about 4-5 feet long, and a 1 foot long hilt, a longsword. Mist started to explain the rules, "Whoever can disarm his opponent first will be the winner, no head strikes, or below the belt." Rayde nodded in agreement.

They shook hands and prepared to start. Mist held his sword straight out in front of him, his other hand holding his opposite shoulder. Rayde held his sword down my his side, ready for what was to come. "Begin!" Mist shouted.

Mist struck fast and quick, first trying to catch Rayde in the shoulder. Rayde blocked it with a simple sidestep. Mist then retaliated with a lunge, which Rayde blocked with a simple flick of his sword. Swordplay seemed to come second nature to Rayde, it seemed so easy, but challenging. Rayde slashed towards Mist's side, which he stopped with his sword. For a moment, they were held at that position, neither gaining ground for the moment.

Rayde then turned his sword so it was facing the other direction, then pushed as hard as he could. This sent Mist turning to the right. Rayde then used the hilt of the sword to bash Mist directly in the chest, stunning him for a moment, enough time for Rayde to finish it. Rayde then struck at Mist's wrist, not breaking it, but making him drop it. Rayde grabbed it out of the air, and put one of then to Mist's neck.

Mist had a stunned look on his face, the crowd was dead silent. After a long moment, Mist groaned, "Grrrr....I yield, you have bested me, take your prize and be proud, Rayde." The crowd erupted into cheers, and claps, Spyro and Cynder joining in the frenzy. Mist grabbed Rayde on the shoulder and said, "In all my days no one has beaten me. I accept defeat but I have to ask, what are you? You are not Feline, Dragon, and definitely not Mole."

Rayde only chuckled and said, "I wish I knew that myself. I have yet to find who I am, but I will find the answer." Mist nodded respectfully saying, "Then I wish you luck on your quest. A man may wish to hide his past, but then he erases who he really is. Even if your past is dark, you can change yourself by actions before you remember your past."

Rayde pondered this for a moment, Mist's words echoing in his mind. After a moment Rayde said, "You have given me a good reason to keep searching, and I will, be sure of that." And with the large bag of coins in hand, Rayde left.

As they continued to walk, Rayde started to think to himself, two odd things about me tonight. First with the weird gem, then me being good at swordplay. There is obviously much more to me than most people think. Rayde's trail of thought was interrupted by his stomach growling. Rayde turned back to Spyro and Cynder laughing, "I need to get some food, I am bloody starving." Spyro and Cynder only smiled, and Cynder said, "Well, you should of gotten some food before you got out here."

Rayde replied back humorously, "I would have, but if I didn't have a buzzing alarm clock I would be stuffed now." Spyro laughed and said, "You're talking about Sparx aren't you?" Rayde only nodded as he walked up to a food counter. Using the money he won, he bought a mutton. Rayde stopped and sat on a bench to enjoy his meal, watching a group of kids playing catch with a ball. When he finished, he threw the bone into the trash and looked for Spyro and Cynder.

Rayde found them at a jewelry counter, Cynder looking at a set of rings. Once they noticed him, Spyro said, "Well, the fireworks are going to start here soon, and we aren't very far from our house. Would you like to join us Rayde?" Rayde replied, "Of course, only if I won't be any trouble..." Cynder interrupted him by saying, "It's no trouble at all, we have a great view of where the fireworks are going to be set off." Rayde nodded and said, "If you say so."

When they arrived at Spyro and Cynder's house, the fireworks were just starting. "Hurry, lets get to the balcony." Spyro said with anticipation. When they reached the balcony, the first set of fireworks just went off. Covering the sky with a red light as they burst revealing their patterns. "Now that is cool." Rayde said.

Over the next hour, fireworks lit up the sky; covering the sky with red, blue, yellow, green, white, and many other colors. Rayde managed to find his way onto the roof, while Spyro and Cynder sat on the balcony, enjoying each others affection. Rayde was lying flat on his back on the slanted roof, drifting in and out of sleep, until finally passing into his deep slumber.

Spyro looked up at Rayde and noticed him asleep. "He's out." He said. Cynder rested her head on his and said, "Well, a lot has happened tonight, I can understand totally. Remember how long we slept after we beat Malefor? Some people thought we were dead." Spyro and Cynder chuckled humorously and watched the remainder of the fireworks.

When it was over, Spyro and Cynder went back into their house, falling asleep almost as quickly as Rayde did.

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Meanwhile at the Mountain of Malefor:

Drome was watching his army from his balcony outside his door. They were preparing to leave tomorrow morning, arriving at Warfang at sunset.

"The pieces are moving into place, tomorrow will determine who will have the upper hand." Drome said to himself. He continued to watch his army prepare for the coming conflict.

"Although they may not even need to fight at all." Drome said laughing to himself.

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Aaaaaand........ RAH SON YAH! Okay, so that wasn't as peacful as I said it would be, but hey, this cut down the story by about 2 chapters, sooooo. I hope you liked it, this is my longest chapter yet. Reviews would be nice, and I plan on getting to the next chapter sometime next week. Until then, peace out!