Chapter 11

Iseras and Cynder came flying back to the temple after yet another day of fruitless searching for Malefor's "seed". "You know sister" "Yeah, I know I'm your sister." "Oh ha ha very funny. Anyways, I'm beginning to think Malefor's seed doesn't exist. He probably wanted us to find that chamber and distract us." "I don't believe that!" "Well everyone has their opinions, but we've been looking for two weeks; without success." They landed at the Temple and walked in to find Spyro already eating dinner. "You know you're going to get fat if you keep on eating like that." Spyro yelped in surprise and fell out of his chair. Iseras and Cynder collapsed on to the floor laughing hysterically. "It's not funny guys!" They picked themselves up off of the floor and Iseras and Cynder got their dinners and sat down to eat. "So Spyro, any success?" Spyro just shook his head. "Yeah, we didn't either." The rest of the meal passed in silence before they got up and went to bed.

When Spyro touched his door to his room, he received a very nasty shock! Cynder, whose tail was intertwined with Spyro's, also got shocked and when they looked around, the saw Iseras laughing at them. "That was priceless!" Spyro shot a fireball at Iseras, who dodged it, and the chase began. The trio ran throughout the Temple, Iseras laughing and Spyro and Cynder intending to beat him to a pulp. The chase continued for four hours before Spyro and Cynder collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep. Iseras made his way back to his room and fell asleep as well.

The next morning, Spyro retaliated by cooling the door to the dining hall to the point of near-freezing. When Iseras touched the door however, he became a Popsicle! Cynder pushed the now-frozen Iseras into the dining hall, where Spyro began laughing hysterically at Iseras's shocked expression. Cynder slapped Spyro over the head. "Thaw him out." Before Spyro could breathe flames on him, Iseras burst into flames and thawed himself out. "N-n-n-no-o-o-ot-t-t-t c-c-c-co-o-o-ol-l-l-l." stuttered Iseras, who was shivering uncontrollably. They ate breakfast and set out to search for Malefor's seed again.

Cynder was flying just above the trees when she saw what she thought was an ape darting away. She landed and investigated. At first she found nothing, but she caught a glint out of the corner of her eye. When she investigated, she saw a small Dark Gem lying on the ground. She immediately smashed it with her tail blade. Pieces went flying everywhere and she grinned and walked away, unknowing that she absorbed the Dark Gem's energy. She began to retake her evil form and effectively became corrupted again.

Iseras entered a clearing where he saw an ape disappear. He looked around, but looked up alarmed when Cynder came crashing through the trees. "Jesus Cynder, you scared the shit out of me! Why are you in your Dark Form?" Cynder didn't answer him but instead just licked her chops. "My, my you look tasty." Cynder's voice was different and that's when Iseras noticed that Cynder was bigger than she was supposed to be. "Cynder, what are doing?" Iseras leapt back when Cynder tried to bite at him. Iseras touched ground and launched himself at Cynder.

Spyro was walking along when he felt sudden alarm. He looked around and when he saw nothing, used his Light element to see the area around him. His eyes snapped open when he felt a familiar darkness. "Oh no! Cynder!" Spyro made a mad dash for where he sensed Cynder.

There was a tangle of fists, claws, feet and wings as Iseras and Cynder tumbled over each other. Cynder trying to bite his neck, Iseras trying to get on top. The settled with Iseras having a hand on Cynder's chest. His hand glowed a dark purple and Cynder cried out as Iseras pulled the Dark Gem's corruptive influence out of Cynder and into himself. Iseras's darkness assimilated the corruptive darkness into itself and nullified the corruption. Cynder shrank down to her normal size and opened her eyes. When she saw Iseras, he was on top of her, with his hand on her chest. "Cy-Cynder! Th-this isn't what it looks like." stammered Iseras, who was blushing madly. "I'll give you a ten second head-start." Iseras bolted off of Cynder and ran like a bat out of Hell away from her. Cynder tore after him, intending to some serious harm to him.

Iseras stopped when he saw Spyro. Spyro stopped as well, no longer sensing the Darkness. "What happened brother?" Iseras was in his True Form and looked ready to make a break for it. "Well, Cynder is back to normal and I've got to get the hell out of here!" Iseras booked it for the forest line when Cynder came bursting out of the trees. They disappeared into the forest and shortly after he heard "Ow! Ow! Claws sharp! Stop! Ow! Ow! Hey, I'm not a chew toy!" Cynder came out of the forest, with her claws bloodied and mouth dripping blood. Iseras came limping out shortly after, covered in mostly small cuts and minor bites, but had a gash along his left foreleg. "Well, I'm going to have a new scar. Whoa, when did you get bitten Spyro?" Iseras motioned to the scar on his neck. "Oh, that's a mating bite." "It looks like you two got a little too excited in bed." said Iseras, earning him another small slash from Cynder. "You've tortured me enough Cynder!" They returned to the Temple, where the Guardians made a very disgruntled Iseras report to the medical room to treat those injuries. After he returned, Spyro and Cynder laughed upon seeing Iseras with a bandage covering his left foreleg. But they quit when Iseras looked straight at them. On his right eye…was a crescent moon shaped scar. "When did you get that?" "Many years ago. It made me blind in my right eye." Spyro and Cynder, as well as the Guardians were shocked that he hid the scar for so long. Cynder shook off the shock and reported about the gem that she destroyed. "Sounds like Malefor is also looking for this seed." "Would it have looked something like this?" Iseras revealed a small Dark Gem. "Yes!" Iseras moved it to the center of the room for everybody to look at. When they approached the gem, it started glowing. Everyone stepped back and the gem stopped glowing.

That night, Spyro couldn't sleep. He decided to take a late night flight to make him sleepy. Several hours later, Iseras woke up. He could feel that something was wrong. He awoke Cynder and they went outside the Temple. All of a sudden a dark shape dropped in front of them. Cynder and Iseras got into a fighting stance and Iseras growled "Show yourself." The shape moved into the moonlight to reveal…Spyro! "Br-brother!" "Sp-Spyro!" They exclaimed. When Iseras looked inside Dark Spyro, he saw what they had been looking for. He saw Malefor's Seed.

To be continued…