Chapter 12: the return of Darkcynder
Every head in the clearing turned to Darkcynder, and she stopped clapping. Walking over to the wagon, she paused and turned to the apes. Pointing at Spyro, she spoke to them with authority.
"Seize him." The apes instantaneously obeyed, and advanced too fast for the now tired purple dragon to react. Cuffing his arms and legs, they bound him in chains and hit him with a club from behind. Spyro hit the ground almost lifelessly as he was knocked out from the blow.
A short while later…
Spyro slowly opened his eyes, still dazed from the blow to his head that had earlier made him lose conciseness. Sitting up, he found to no surprise that he remained bound in a number of chains. As he shook his head, Darkcynder walked over to within a few yards of him and stopped.
"Raise him." She ordered, and the apes brought Spyro to his feet. As she muttered a spell, Spyro was surrounded by a red and purple glow. The dragon could feel it trying to materialise inside him, and roared. The light flickered, before dispersing into thin air. Darkcynder tried twice more, but her spell could not break the barrier of Spyro's will.
Taking out a silver knife from beneath her left wing, she pressed it to her enemy's throat.
"I'll kill you, don't be under the illusion that I won't." she threatened, fire in her eyes.
"Don't lie to me, Darkcynder. I know for a fact that if you didn't need me for something, I would already be dead." He replied, with dazed confidence.
"If you do not succumb to my spell, you are of no use to me anyway. If you value your pathetic existence, you will give in…" she said, retracting the knife and repeating the spell.
Spyro growled, unblinking, and the light once more dispersed. Darkcynder once more advanced and held the knife to the purple dragon's throat.
"Any last words?" she asked, her voice filled with malice.
Spyro smiled. "Yes, actually. I knew you were bluffing."
The dark dragoness lowered the knife from her adversary's neck. "Enough of this fuckshit. Tie his chains to a couple of trees." The apes did so. Darkcynder walked over to the wagon and hauled Cynder out of it. Holding her in a neck lock from behind, she pressed her knife to the black dragoness' chest. Spyro struggled, but could not break his chains.
"Do we understand each other now?" she asked, a smile spreading across her face.
"Fuck you." Spyro growled.
Darkcynder once again cast the spell, and Spyro finally succumbed. As he allowed the energies to penetrate his chest unchallenged, he felt a shift in his very anatomy. Voices pulsed through his head as he entered a state of complete confusion.
"Right then, lets go and get all of you off to the pirate fleet…" said Darkcynder, throwing Cynder back onto the wagon.
As Spyro was being unchained from the trees by the apes, the voices grew louder and reality faded from his vision. The purple dragon collapsed into the dirt, unconscious…