The next chapter has arrived! This is probably one of my faster updates in a while… plus I really wanted to do this. This probably has to be one of my favorite chapter's I've written so far. I hope you enjoy it as much fun as I had thinking it up and writing it. Also, this story is about 2000 views! Thats a lot in my opinion, and I thank you all for favoriting, reviewing, following, and all the fun stuff.
One quick note: If you haven't found it yet, I've started a collection of One-shots that I'll write in the future. Title is "The Stories of All of Us." I recommend finding it and start reading it.
One more note: I update the coalition of one shots at random so don't be surprised if there isn't an update for months at a time.
Now enjoy the story :)
A long time ago...
"Malefor?" Spyro choked, astonished that his former enemy was standing right here before him.
"You do not need to worry, young dragon. I am the one who brought Malefor here," Ignitus said calmly and reassuringly.
"The Chronicler is right, Spyro; I am not here to harm you in any way. My only goal is to prepare you for what is going to happen in the future. If you'll follow me, I'm sure we can clear things up for you," Malefor said briskly before turning around and walked down a hallway. On the way out, Ignitus put the large book away but took a medium-sized one with him.
"You see Spyro, Cynder wasn't Malefor's first apprentice. He had one before her. In fact it was near the beginning of his turn to evil that he found this new assistant," Ignitus explained as Spyro trailed him through the hall. "This is not a story for me to tell, however. You will be better off hearing it first-hand."
Spyro followed Ignitus down a hallway until they came to a large, circular room. Portraits depicting various landscapes hung on the faded gray walls. The centerpiece of the room was a large, circular table made of rare marble. Cushions of various colors and shades were evenly distributed along the border of the table. Malefor was sitting on a large faded purple-and-gold cushion opposite the entrance, his claws tapping the table.
"I may be dead Spyro, but I don't like to be kept waiting." Malefor said, earning a nervous smile from the other purple dragon. Ignitus stepped through the doorframe with several scrolls and laid them out across the table. Two of them contained paintings; one depicted a seemingly younger Malefor, while the other was of an ice dragon he had never seen before.
"Who is this dragon?" Spyro asked, pointing to the ice dragon with one of his claws.
"That was my first apprentice, Spyro. He was also a very good friend of mine before my corruption." Malefor explained as he took a deep breath. "Take a seat Spyro. You're going to be here awhile." Spyro let his body fall onto the cushion directly across from Malefor.
"As you may know, I was taught all the Elements by the Guardians at the time. Ice was my first, followed by Fire, then Earth, and finally Electricity. I mastered them even faster than you did and learned the hybrid elements almost instantly."
"Hybrid elements?" Spyro asked, cocking his head to the right.
Malefor merely shook his head. "The Guardians haven't told you about them yet, I presume?"
Spyro nodded his head in acknowledgement, earning a sigh from the larger purple dragon. "You can ask them about it when we're done here, but for now I have a story to tell you." Malefor shifted his head to Ignitus. "Both of you." Ignitus raised a brow at his directness.
"I suppose the best place to start is the day before I was corrupted…"
"What do you mean, you're going to stop training me?" a slightly faded purple scaled dragon demanded in outrage at a blue-scaled dragon.
"We mean that you have gotten too strong for any of us to train you. I, along with the other guardians, believe that training you would only further your already severed connection to society," the Ice dragon explained calmly. "You spend all your time training with the primary and hybrid elements. That affair regarding your search for the descendants of the Shadow Guardian we had to… dispose of a couple hundred years back wasn't a light matter either." The purple dragon, roughly two-thirds the height of the Ice Guardian, slammed a paw in protest.
"Since you said I mastered all the elements, primary and hybrid, I thought I could go see if I could learn a new element. I even mastered Wind on my own!" the purple dragon raised his voice even higher, almost to the point of yelling. During the commotion a Fire Dragon barged into the room panting slightly.
"What's going on in here? I can hear you two venting from across the temple!" the dragon complained, closing the door behind him.
"Terrek is… what's the right word… upset that we are no longer going to train him."
"Upset is an understatement," Terrek sneered earning a glare from the Fire dragon.
"Watch your tongue!" the Fire dragon said sternly. Terrek let out a small growl then turned away and bustled out the door, slamming it shut. Black smoke poured out of his nostrils as he stomped his way down the steps into the front garden.
"Hey, Terrek!" a voice echoed throughout the garden. Terrek's head shot up and he looked around for the owner of the voice. To his right, a dragon with bright icy blue scales and a pair of bright-grey segmented horns descended to meet him.
"How'd it go with the Guardians?" the blue dragon asked Terrek, walking with him outside the gardens.
"Well, Drake, it could've gone better. They're refusing to train me now. They say I'm too powerful for them at this point," Terrek grumbled while smoke protruded from his nose. Drake huffed and smiled at the purple dragon.
"No one knows the extent of your abilities; maybe even you don't know yours," Drake said, re-assuring the dragon.
"So they're just going to cut me off like a grape on a vine? Not even a warning? It's outrageous!" Drake stood next to Terrek while he vented his anger.
"There's nothing you can do though. The Guardians' word is final," Drake said dismissively. Terrek let out a sigh and turned to the ice dragon.
"Hey Drake, can you meet me at the balcony of my room later tonight?"
Drake gave the purple dragon a curious gaze. "What for?"
"There's something I heard about a while back, but I was busy training and didn't have any time to check it out. I want you to come with me."
Drake thought about it for a second but remembered the curfew law established. "Won't we get in trouble for leaving though?"
Terrek let out a small laugh and patted his companion on his back. "I've snuck out plenty of times before. There's a path I've figured out that the guards almost never check out. We can go shortly after the sun sets." Terrek extended his wings and took off towards his home.
"You never change, buddy. I guess I'll see you in a few hours."
Several Hours Later
It shouldn't take this long for him to arrive, Terrek thought while he paced back and forth. He jumped on his large purple and gold bed, nearly knocking off an old wooden night stand in the process. Shelves and bookcases were neatly placed on the wall opposite his bed. A few torn scraps littered the ground, and the curtains were slightly torn from Terrek's "terrible twos."
Giving a low sigh, Terrek got up and leisurely walked towards the balcony. He was almost outside when he hit his face on something invisible, stopping him in his tracks.
"Ugh, glass, my mortal enemy," he said holding his snout with one paw and opening the balcony door with this other. Luckily he didn't run into the glass hard enough to draw blood, so he let go of the grip on his snout and stolled outside onto the balcony. His right flank was hit with a zephyr that warmed his insides. The sun was setting over the horizon and the celestial moons were slowly becoming visible with the retracting light.
Taking a deep breath¸Terrek turned his gaze to the stars above. Their glow appeared dimmer then it usually was, even in the moons. Shaking away the little ominous warning, Terrek noticed from the corner of his eyes that the dragon guards had started doing their rounds. One of the guards saw him sitting on his balcony and gave him a swift nod before continuing along.
Terrek continued to watch the guards doing their routine patrols for several minutes until he heard several muffled footsteps outside his door. Turning his head just enough to see his door out of the corner of his eye, he watched a certain ice dragon opening it and peeking his head in. A grin grew across the dragons face as he entered and closed the door with his tail.
"It's about time you came. I was starting to worry you got caught," Terrek said, getting up and closing the glass door, which bore an impression of Terrek's snout on it now, with his tail.
"It wasn't easy convincing my parents to let me go." Drake stretched out a few muscles in his legs and cooled the room slightly with an ice breath. "I told them I was staying at a friend's house tonight, but they wanted to know who it was. Once I said it was you they let me go immediately. They probably thought you might teach me a move or two." Drake shifted his gaze to Terrek after stretching his limbs. "Which probably wouldn't be that bad now that I think about it."
"I'll get back to you on that. But first, we need to gather a few supplies before we go." Terrek walked over to his bookshelves and pulled on a large tome, though the book didn't come out of the shelf. Terrek let go of it, and the shelf swung open, revealing a closet-like space. Rummaging through various objects on the ground, Terrek soon held two small satchels with his mouth.
"Crystals," Terrek said after putting the satchels on the table. He opened up one of them, showing Drake an assortment of red and green crystals. "Just in case." He closed the satchel and handed it to Drake, who immediately took it and strapped it to his upper torso. Terrek did the same thing with his, and they made their way to the balcony door.
"So, where exactly are we going?" Drake inquired.
"I'll walk out first and check to see if there are any guards out. When I drop down, do exactly as I do, and don't get too far behind." Terrek opened the glass door and peered outside. The nearest guard had already passed by the house, and Terrek took up the perch he specially made for watching everyone. He silently leapt down into a nearby bush and looked around for any guards. A rustling sound emanated behind him, the form of Drake soon appeared.
"You're not very good at this, are you?" Terrek whispered as Drake crept next to him.
"First time," replied Drake while crouching low, almost to the point of lying down. One guard passed them on unawares, and Terrek stealthily left the bush when the guard turned the corner. Drake followed, muffling his footsteps the best he could tailing the purple dragon as they weaved through the city undetected and eventually made it to the outskirts of town.
Terrek stood up straightly, stretching his muscles and popping various joints in his body. "Now that we're out of town we can fly at full speed." Terrek crouched low then sprung into the air, his wings catching the wind and taking him to air.
Roughly one hour later
"How much further is it?" Drake shouted over the wind while they flew over a large forest.
"We're here," Terrek pointed forward with one of his forepaws towards a mountain that was appearing over the horizon. It quickly swelled to full size and Terrek twisted his body to the right, beginning his descent. Drake swerved in closely, and they landed in front of a large cave.
"This the place?" Drake asked, peering inside the blackness of the cave. Terrek took several steps forward then ignited a branch next to him. He picked it up and walked into the cave.
"Well, that answers that question." Drake hurried to catch up to Terrek, his purple scales reflecting off the flames. Passing through the cave, the only source of light was Terrek's makeshift torch in his jaw. Several stalactites of various sizes silhouetted against the rocky wall, drops of water falling from the tips of the rocky formations onto the ground. Drake glanced to his right and made out a piece of wood imbedded in the wall.
"Terrek, look at this." Drake walked closer to the wood and noticed there was a gap between it and the rest of the wall. It was also pointed up.
Terrek approached with the torch and both of them got a better look at the wood. "Looks like a lever." Putting the torch down, Terrek stood on his hind legs and used his weight to pull the lever down. The lever emitted a high pitched squeal in defiance but Terrek continued to force it down. The lever gave in, and it glided down to the bottom giving and audible clicking sound.
The cave started trembling, and a few of the ceiling pillars fell to the ground, shattering into several pieces. A low hum was heard behind the wall and the wall seemed to back up slightly, causing the dragons to get into a defensive position. The wall split down the middle and slowly went in opposite directions revealing a brightly lit hallway.
"Ok, so if we see a lever in the wall, pull it. Noted." Terrek said to himself while he peered inside. The way to the right was collapsed with rubble while the left side was untainted with any sign of aging. Drake too gazed inside and also noticed the same thing.
"So we go left?" Drake asked poking around the caved in direction. "Unless you want to use your Earth abilities to open this way up?" Terrek shook his head and walked in the other direction.
"Wait for me!" Drake shouted dashing until he was next to the purple dragon. "Terrek, you ok? Something seems off about you." Terrek didn't address his icy friend but instead continued to walk down the hallway. They walked through several walkways and corridors and eventually made their way to a large central room.
The marble floor had a large floral pattern around it. A large purple beam gently hummed in the center of the room. The walls arched up to a dome room, a glass ceiling a few meters in diameter on the top. The beam shot straight through the glass and continued upwards to some unknown destination. Both dragons shot glances at each other then back at the beam. Terrek started walking towards the beam, mystified by it.
"Terrek, I don't think it's a good idea to do that!" Drake warned but the purple dragon didn't pay any attention to him as he stopped in front of the beam. After shooting a quick glance around the room, Terrek nonchalantly entered the glowing light.
"Terrek!" Drake shouted as he dashed towards the purple dragon in the beam. Drake lunged at Terrek, but a shockwave from the beam sent Drake crashing back into a wall. Several pieces of the wall, along with Drake, dismounted from the wall and came with a crash to the ground. The beam of light faded, revealing a fully grown purple dragon.
The dragon stood, noting the half-conscious Drake by the wall crowded by stones. "Looks like I didn't come alone apparently," the dragon said as he neared the ice dragon. Drake looked up through hazed eyes and saw the figure coming towards him.
"Who… who are you?" Drake asked slowly trying to get up. The larger purple dragon just laughed at him and used his tail to pin Drake down.
"I am Malefor, and you are now my new servant." Malefor stated as he placed a paw on Drake's forehead. Some of the darkness inside Malefor flowed through his paw and into the ice dragon. Drake's mouth gaped in an empty roar as his body slowly became shrouded in the blackness. Finally, the shriek found a voice as it echoed throughout the room, and Drake slowly became larger, his previously bright icy scales turning a dark blue. The darkness crept off of him and returned to Malefor while Drake rose to a standing position.
Drake bowed before Malefor. "Master, how may I help you?"
The great purple dragon chuckled. "The guardians will rue the day they denied me my elements."
"That place where I was corrupted today is known as the Well of Souls." Malefor finished. Spyro had sat attentively the entire time beside Ignitus.
"So Malefor, what did you and Drake do?" Spyro asked curiously. Malefor shifted nervously but decided to speak.
"We went back to the temple later that night and killed the Guardians present, all but the Earth Guardian. Drake was injured during the battle, so I took him to a lake and froze him in a time crystal, similar to what you did with your friends," Malefor explained while watching Ignitus for any reaction. "I believe he broke out of the crystal a few years before you were born Spyro and started recruiting dragons convincing them that I was going to 'save' them when I revived the Destroyer."
"So why didn't you try and take him back and have him free you?"
Ignitus answered before Malefor could. "Drake was born a year after Malefor was, and to bring Malefor back, one had to be born on the Year of the Dragon. Since only Cynder's egg was left after the raid, she was the only one capable other than you."
Malefor stood up and passed both Spyro and Ignitus. "Where are you going Malefor?" Spyro asked in wonder.
Malefor sighed. "The Ancestors are calling me back. Just know that Drake will be a tougher fight then Cynder ever could have been for you." Malefor faced forward and slowly faded from view as he walked forward. Suddenly nervous, Ignitus rose and moved to return to the Chronicler's Chamber.
"Spyro, I think our time here will be cut short." Ignitus said, panic present in his voice. He started slowly towards the hallways, speeding up gradually. Spyro ran up to Ignitus, trying to keep up with the late Fire Guardian.
"What's wrong, Ignitus?" Spyro asked while Ignitus grabbed a book from a pile near the hourglass. Quickly sitting down, he cracked open the book and flipped through the pages. Eventually making his way to the back page, Ignitus started skimming through it. Upon reading the last few pages Ignitus shifted his gaze back to Spyro.
"Spyro, you need to return to your world immediately." Ignitus stated as he began the return process.
"What's wrong, Ignitus?" Spyro asked worried about his answer.
"No time to tell you. You'll know once you're awake." Ignitus said replied. Spyro closed his eyes and felt his senses return gradually.
Back to back cliffhangers? This is odd, even for me… Oh well. Guess there's always next chapter…
One quick note: Credit for the name Terrek goes to Jjays98. I personally suck at names so go him :)
