Chapter 12: Among The Ruins

I hadn't slept that good in so long, I guess fighting an evil mage and said mage making a complete heel turn took a lot out of you. Unfortunately dad had us up at the crack of dawn again for more training. I had shown dad that I had learned how to shoot a fireball in my fight with Bianca. A feat he was quite impressed with, it seemed both me and Lisa had mastered fire.

However there was one more thing dad wanted to show us. "Dwayne, Lisa, now that you've mastered both fire breath and the fire ball, it's time for you to learn how to do a fire fury." Dad said. Fire fury? Oh yeah! Those ultimate attack things from the games! I didn't think those were actually a part of the Legend of Spyro universe, just a game mechanic. But nope, they were real, and I was about to learn how to do one.

Me and Lisa stood back as dad demonstrated, he closed his eyes as the heat around him started to skyrocket as flames burst from the floor around him. Seeing an actual fury attack in person was quite the experience, when he finally unleashed it it was like a sonic boom, the flames burst from his body and covered quite a large blast radius. When it was all said and done dad kinda staggered a bit. "Guh... sorry, it's not as easy for me to do as it used to be." He said.

He then turned to me and Lisa. "A fury attack is a very powerful one, and should only ever be used when absolutely necessary. All you need to do is concentrate your inner flame into one large burst. It takes a lot of mana to do, so use it wisely." Dad said. Okay I got that, I was gonna blow myself sky high again wasn't I?

Lisa went first, she stepped a safe distance from me and dad. "Okay Lisa, now focus, concentrate your flame into one burst, it usually takes a while, but you'll know it when it comes." Dad said to her.

Lisa did as he asked, standing there, eyes closed, at first nothing seemed to happen, however with a small spark fire began to surround her, she slowly lifted into the air before suddenly she unleashed the fury attack, it wasn't as impressive as dad's, but it was her first fury so that was to be expected. "I did it!" Lisa said excitedly.

Dad gave her a proud smile. "Very good Lisa, it was a bit weak, but in time it should improve. Okay Dwayne, your turn." Dad said, oh boy, well if Lisa could get it on her first try, so could I right?

I walked a safe distance from dad and Lisa, and began to focus on my inner fire like dad had instructed. For a while I felt nothing, but soon I felt a sudden spike in heat around me, when it built up to a certain point I let it loose.

However, naturally I had to screw up somehow, as I suddenly felt a painful burn on my front right leg. I cried out as I flopped to the floor in horrible agony. "Dwayne!" Dad shouted before he and Lisa both rushed over to me. Man did I feel stupid right now, I just burned myself with my own fury. What epic fail.

"Dammit! I burned myself! How does that even work?!" I winced, feeling like the biggest idiot in the realms right now. Dad looked my injury over. "Don't feel too bad Dwayne, this happens sometimes when dragons try their furies for the first time." Dad said, it made me feel less stupid, but not by much. "I think you two deserve a break, Dwayne you should take this time to get some spirit gems to heal your burn." Dad said before he and Lisa walked off.

I tried to stand up but of course the burn on my leg made this extremely painful and I fell back down to the temple floor with a yelp. "Need help?" I heard said from behind me, I turned to see Bianca standing over me, clearly fighting back a laugh.

"I'm fine!" I insisted. I was still trying to get used to the idea of Bianca being a goodguy, it was bizarre to put it kindly. I tried to get up again but it only yielded the same result as before.

Bianca then grabbed my burnt leg. "Here, allow me." She said, before I could object she moved her hand over my burnt leg, it glowed green for a moment before suddenly my burns were healed.

I even looked it over to make sure, yeah she seriously just healed me. It was weird having healing magic used on you, it felt cold, like someone pouring water on your wound. "Uhh... thanks?" I said. Still not used to magic as a whole.

Bianca nodded. "Still getting used to me being on your side are we?" She asked me, how did she know that? Was she psychic? You know what, given all the weird crap I'd seen her pull it really wouldn't shock me. "To be honest I'm still getting used to it myself. For so long The Sorceress told me you dragons were the enemy, that they were the monsters and we were just putting them in their place, only now do I realize who the monster really was, and what horrible things I did to help her hurt your kind." She added, feeling quite guilty over the things she'd done.

I wanted to help her, but I had no clue how many "horrible" things she had done for The Sorceress up to this point. "Well, that's over now, and you're making up for it by helping us put her down for good." I told her, it was the best I could come up with.

Bianca sighed. "I want to believe you, but it's clear your father feels quite differently." She said.

I shook my head. "Dad's got a thing for holding grudges, hell he still doesn't really like the Guardians for what happened during the temple raid." I told her. It was kinda irritating how unwilling dad was to let go of things. He was kind and wise when he liked you, but cross him once and you're on his sh**list until the day you die. I bet that made him a lot of friends back in the east.

"I've noticed, but I really didn't help make his experience under The Sorceress' captivity any more pleasant in his defense." Bianca pointed out. Dammit Bianca! I'm trying to make you feel better! And you're not helping! "That said, I do appreciate you and Spyro convincing The Guardians to give me a second chance." She then said, patting my head as if I was a dog or something.

She then got up and walked away. And no sooner did she leave than I heard dad call my name. Like a good little dragon I ran his way, I soon found him and Lisa in the gardens, dad noticed my leg was a lot less burnt than he last saw it. "How many gems did you use?" Dad questioned.

"None, Bianca healed it." I said, naturally dad didn't like that answer, giving me a stern look like he just caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. "And you let her?! She could have cursed it for all you know! I don't want her using her magic on you Dwayne. Not even her healing magic. Is that understood?" Dad lectured me.

Dude it was just a healing spell! It's not like she preformed some horrible ritual or something! "It's fine dad, she really just healed it." I insisted. But dad was never one to admit he was wrong. "I don't care! I don't want her using magic on you! Is that clear?!" Dad snapped.

It was pointless to argue with him, dad was anything if not stubborn. "Yes dad..." I groaned, I had a bad feeling that little semi promise was going to bite me in the ass later. But I knew dad wasn't going to stop yelling at me until I complied. I swear, dad would make a great drill instructor.

He seemed satisfied with my response. "Now then, I called you here because I want to teach you and Lisa to fly." Dad said. F...fly? As in with the wings and the air and the lethally high heights? Well dragons did fly Dwayne, it was inevitable that dad would want to teach us. That didn't help my phobias any.

I didn't really have a fear of heights per say, I was just horrified at the concept of dying by falling from a great height. Although come to think of it they are basically the same thing really... "Dwayne are you alright? You look uneasy." Dad asked me.

"Y...yeah, I... I'm just not that big on heights." I confessed, how ironic is this? The dragon is afraid of heights. Isn't that the same as a seal being afraid of water?

Dad gave me a very dry look. "Well you'd best get over it Dwayne, because you're going to be doing a lot of it when we leave for the east." Dad said. Hold up! He was still insisting on us going to the east? Dude! Terrador basically said that it was a smoldering crater after Malefor rolled through it! I guess he'd have to see it for himself for him to get the point.

Dad then lead me and Lisa in search of a good take off point. But before we could find one we happened to run into Spyro, why the hell he was not only awake but at the temple this early in the morning was a mystery and a half. "Hey guys, what's going on?" Spyro asked.

"I'm going to teach Dwayne and Lisa to fly, then we're going to go see the eastern lands, Terrador insists they're in ruins, but I want to see it for myself." Dad explained, okay so even he knew the east was wrecked, but he still wanted to take us there! Wow...

Spyro then turned in another direction. "There's a balcony over this way we use for flight training, follow me." Spyro said. Okay Spyro you seriously aren't going to question why my dad was insisting on taking us to a ruined village? You're just going along with this? Okay...

Spyro led us to a high balcony overlooking the forest out back of Warfang. Dad looked it over, "Not bad, it'll do." He said as if trying hard not to seem impressed. He then turned to me and Lisa. "Flight is one of the many basic skills every dragon must learn at some point. Flying is in our genes, our instinct. You both have the secret to flight locked within your bodies, close your eyes, and clear your mind, the answers will come to you." Dad explained.

Why did everything dragons did revolve around "clearing your mind"? Stupid dragons must be the most badass dragons in the universe if everything seriously works that way. But again, he's the dragon here, so he'd know better than me. I did as he said, wiping my mind clean. Soon I felt myself being lifted into the air, I opened my eyes to see I had become airborne! Wow it was that easy? I guess dad was right, it really was instinct.

It felt bizarrely natural to fly, I seemed to instinctively know how to fly forward, turn, and slow down, bizarre. I flew around the forest area for a bit trying to get a feel for my wings, I then saw Spyro fly up next to me. "See? It's not so hard is it?" Spyro asked me.

You could say that, I'd say it was far easier than it should be. "It's so weird, it's like I'd been flying all my life." I said.

Spyro nodded. "Yeah, it's weird isn't it? I felt the same way the first time I flew." Okay so at least it wasn't just me that found this odd then.

"I don't know how I feel about going to the east, Terrador said there was basically nothing there anymore, I'm actually kinda scared to see how bad it really is." I said to Spyro, I actually would very much like to not go to the east, I don't know how I'd handle seeing what was supposed to be my homeland as a smoldering pile of rubble.

Spyro seemed to understand this. "Well your dad really wants to, I think it's only fair he gets to see what happened to his home. Who knows, maybe it isn't as bad as Terrador says it is?" Spyro suggested, yeah I sincerely doubted that Spyro. Why wouldn't Malefor burn the eastern territories down? He's the kind of evil bastard that would kick an already struggling dragon community while it was down. And he had made it very clear in the games that he hated dragonkind and wanted to "cleanse the earth" or something.

Me and Spyro joined dad and Lisa in the sky, "Okay, now that you two have gotten a feeling for your wings, it's time I took you two home." Dad said. Yeah, our home, or more accurately the smoldering pile of rubble that used to be our home.

"I think I should come to, in case you guys decide to stay, someone needs to inform the others if that's the case." Spyro said suddenly, I highly doubted that's why he really wanted to come, I think he really just wanted to see how bad the damage was for himself.

Dad seemed unsure though. "I don't know Spyro, us eastern dragons have been very distrustful of you westerners for years, I don't know how the others will react to you and I'd hate to see you get hurt if they get violent." Dad said.

However Spyro was undeterred. "I'll be fine Blaze, I can handle myself." he said, well yeah, you beat Malefor and saved the world, there would be cause for concern if you couldn't defend yourself. Dad reluctantly allowed Spyro to come with us and flew off to lead us back home to the east.

Me, Spyro, and Lisa flew a good distance behind dad as he lead us eastward. "Okay, why did you really want to come?" I asked him, not buying the story he told dad for a second.

Spyro sighed. "It was that obvious huh?" Spyro asked me to which me and Lisa both nodded. "I wanted to come because I don't know how bad the eastern territories are going to be, and I want to be there in case it's too much for you guys to handle. I mean, it was your homeland." Spyro explained. I noticed Spyro looked a bit guilty, like he somehow felt like whatever happened to the eastern territories was his fault.

Lisa seemed to pick up on this too. "Spyro are you okay?" She asked him.

Spyro paused for a moment, looking guiltily to the ground before responding. "I just can't help but feel like whatever happened to the eastern dragons was my fault. Malefor was laying waste to all those innocent dragons while me and Cynder were frozen solid. If I had stopped Malefor from being freed during the night of eternal darkness none of them would have gotten hurt." Spyro confessed.

Lisa gave him a sympathetic look. "It's not your fault Spyro, you had no way of knowing." Lisa said hoping to comfort the purple dragon. I got why Spyro felt the way he did, after all he was supposed to be the hero, the guy who stopped the evil dude from blowing things up, and he failed to do that when Malefor came back to ruin everyone's lives. But Lisa was right, there was nothing he could have done.

Spyro however clearly didn't see it that way. "It doesn't change the fact that the eastern dragons suffered and I didn't do anything to stop it." Spyro said sadly.

Later...

It took a painfully long time of flying but eventually dad swooped downward for a landing. That's when I realized something rather... important, I had no clue how to land, at all. Of course my instincts knew everything else about flying, but not the important part of being able to land! "Dwayne you're going in too fast! Slow down!" Spyro shouted at me.

But I wasn't able to heed his words as the ground rushed to make my acquaintance. However before I could splat onto the forest floor like a pancake something grabbed my tail, I craned my head back to see Spyro had managed to catch my tail before I became a permanent part of the eastern territories. "That... was too close." Spyro said, his speech a bit muffled since he had my tail in his mouth.

Spyro then put me down, Lisa landing a bit more gracefully than I did, although she did trip and fall. "I'm okay!" She said as she got up. We all then walked off to go find dad.

But when we did, we saw him standing, stiff as a board, and only when we got closer did we find out why.

The place was completely burnt and charred, nothing but dead trees and ashes. A few remains of what I assumed were once homes stood among the wreckage, it was a horrifying sight, this place was once my home, and now it was nothing but ashes, a macabre reminder of Malefor's campaign of destruction. Dad looked at the scene with pure horror in his eyes, his home was nothing but a shell of it's former self. Spyro approached him. "Blaze... I'm so sorry... maybe it's better we leave." Spyro said.

However dad shook his head. "I didn't want to believe him... I prayed that he was just exaggerating to get me to stay in Warfang... but I should have known better than to think Malefor would have spared my people from his wrath." Dad said, his eyes beginning to water. Me and Lisa just stayed silent, Lisa was horrified at what she was seeing, and so was I. I was beginning to think we were the only eastern dragons left.

"Blaze?! Is that you?!"

We all turned to see someone coming towards us, it was an eastern dragon I could tell by his horse-like dark purple mane. His underbelly shared the same color, his scales were an ice blue color, and his horns resembled translucent purple icicles. He had a tale blade that looked like it was also made of purple ice but it formed a sort of arrowhead or something. Dad lit up when he saw him approaching. "Tundra! You're alive!" Dad said as the two approached one another excitedly.

The western dragon, who I guess went by Tundra, seemed just as surprised and happy to see dad as dad was to see him. "And here I thought The Sorceress had killed you so many years ago." He said. Dad looked around. "Are there any others?" He asked. Tundra however grew a sad expression. "Not many, only about a dozen of us survived Malefor's attacks. And most of them have fallen ill due to our poor living conditions." Tundra explained.

Spyro then stepped forward. "Blaze, I think it might be a good idea if we take them back to Warfang, I know your people don't trust us western dragons, but anything has to be better than... this." Spyro said.

Dad clearly didn't like the idea, and was about to argue but Tundra stopped him. "No Blaze, the purple dragon is right. There's nothing left here anymore, we're low on food, we have no shelter, Malefor left us nothing here but a few charred remnants of what once was. I don't trust the western dragons anymore than you do, but we cannot go on like this. We have no choice but to unify the dragon races." Tundra said.

Dad looked around at all the ruins, he couldn't argue with him, not unless he was in serious denial. No one really could. "Where are the others? Can you take me to them?" Dad asked Tundra, Tundra sighed and led us to were the others were.

Apparently it wasn't far, as everyone was gathered in the forest surrounding the burnt village. And man, were they in a bad way, a lot of them were so skinny you could see their rib cages, others were pale as ghosts from sickness. It was a horrible sight to behold. And I thought dad looked bad when we found him, it was a miracle these people were still alive! "By the ancestors..." Dad said.

Tundra turned to face dad. "We can't keep going like this, if the western dragons are willing to accept us into their city, then we have to go, otherwise I fear we all may perish." Tundra said.

I chanced a look at Lisa, her eyes were watering, the sight of these dragons in such horrible condition was too much for her to bear. Dad noticed this, and made a decision. "Alright, we'll go to the west." He reluctantly agreed.

A/N- Well... looks like the eastern dragons weren't as healthy as Blaze was hoping... can our heroes get these wayward souls to Warfang?