Ch. 12: Snakes
"Umm…wasn't Blink supposed to be here yesterday? Where could he have gone now?" asked Flame.
"Wait, you mean that mole with the crystals in his backpack?" asked Spyro.
"Yeah, that guy. He said he would meet us here in Stone Hill but I haven't seen him since we left" said Flame.
"Well, do you want to go look for him?" asked Spyro.
"Yes. I do want to go look for him" said Flame, almost mockingly. Flame took to the sky and started to fly out of the town. Spyro and Cynder leaped into the sky after him. Below was more stone, though not too far away the stone started to get replaced with dirt. There were moles in the distance gathering crystals from deep underground. He started to get closer to the ground not far away from some moles. Spyro and Cynder followed suit and landed on the ground. Flame walked up to one of the moles.
"Hey, would you happen to know where Blink is?" asked Flame.
"Sorry. I don't know where he is at the moment" said the mole. Flame walked up to another mole and asked the same question.
"Sorry. I don't know anybody named Blink" said the other mole.
Flame started to question whether or not they would find Blink anytime soon.
Spyro asked another mole if they had seen Blink or not.
"Why don't you ask his uncle?" asked the mole.
"Wait, do you know where he is?" asked Spyro
"Yes. Just go to the other side of the city. He should be up on the surface now…" said the mole.
"Thank you very much" said Spyro. Flame and Cynder heard this and flew to the other side of Stone Hill. They flew close to the ground riding on the wind gusts. Flame spotted what appeared to be an older mole with a little bit of grey hair and a lab suit in the distance.
"I think that's him" said Flame. The 3 dragons flew and landed nearby the mole.
"…And assuming that the 476 tons of crystal underneath the ground is consumed at .002912 tons per day, then it should last us… about 448 years" said the old looking mole. Nobody was around the mole except the 3 dragons.
"Who are you talking to?" asked Flame. The mole jumped and turned around. He was holding a clipboard and a pencil, things that dragons rarely saw.
"Ah! Who's there?" asked the mole.
"It's me, Flame" said Flame.
"And is that the legendary purple dragon, Spyro?" asked the mole.
"Yes" was all that Spyro said. "And what is your name?"
"You can just call me the professor" said the professor.
"Are you the uncle of Blink?" asked Cynder.
"Why yes I am. Are you looking for him?" asked the professor.
"Yes. He said he would meet us here a day ago, but we haven't seen him yet" said Flame. The Professor tapped the ground a few times until digging was heard. Blink emerged from the ground.
"What is it, uncle?" asked Blink.
"These 3 dragons were looking for you" replied the professor.
"Oh hey guys" said Blink.
"Oh hey? Why didn't you come to Stone Hill like you said?" asked Flame, angry at Blink.
"I was just helping my Uncle with some crystals. Besides, Rock said he wanted some crystals for a feast, so I was getting some" said Blink.
"Crystals? Why would he want crystals for the feast? I thought we ate food at feasts, not crystals" asked Cynder.
"I don't know why. He wouldn't tell me" replied Blink. Flame was still a bit upset.
"Couldn't you have told me that you were looking for crystals?" asked Flame.
"Well I didn't get here until it was dark and you guys were nowhere in the town" said Blink.
"Oh. Ok" said Flame, calming down a little.
"Well we found Blink now. What are we going to do?" asked Spyro.
"I don't know. What do you want to do?" asked Flame. "We could go to the market for a little, or we can just wait for the feast to start."
"Who knows, maybe they'll start it early" said Spyro, thinking about meat.
"Alright then, let's go to the feast" said Cynder. She was starving too, but tried not to show it.
The 3 dragons flew for the plaza, leaving Blink behind on the ground with his uncle. When they got there, stone plates were already set on the table and the elderly dragons started to come to the table.
"Wow. They are starting early" said Flame. The 3 dragons flew to the middle of the table on the right side. Rock was patiently sitting there, looking like he was almost expecting the feast to start. The 3 dragons landed nearby Rock.
"Is it going to start soon?" asked Spyro.
"Yes. I think you're going to enjoy what we have in store for you at the end" said Rock.
Spyro looked confused, not knowing what Rock was talking about. Spyro and Cynder sat to the left and right of Rock, while Flame sat next to Spyro. They started waiting for the feast to start. More elderly dragons started to take a seat at the table. Later, younger dragons started to come to the table, until the table started to get pretty crowded. Ember came out of the elder's building when the table was almost full.
"Ember, what were you doing in there? What took you so long?" asked Flame.
"Nothing. I was just doing something for Spyro" replied Ember.
"Spyro?" asked Flame. Ember was silent after that, though it looked like she was holding something in her left paw.
Perhaps half an hour later, or what seemed like an eternity to Spyro, Rock started to speak to everybody at the table once dragons stopped coming to the table.
"Everyone, if I may have your attention, please" said Rock. He waited for all the dragons to stop talking. "This is a very special event in the history of Stone Hill. This is an important event in the Forgotten Realms. Never has a purple dragon come to our Realms, never has the Dark Master fallen, until now. This may be the only time that a purple dragon comes to Stone Hill. The coming of Spyro marks a new era of peace, growth, and love." Rock stopped for a moment. "Spyro has chosen to go back to the Dragon Realms because there are unfinished matters that he must attend to, but while he is here, why don't we show our appreciation?" Meat suddenly appeared in front of everyone's plates. "To Spyro!" screamed Rock.
"To Spyro!" said all the other dragons at the table, including Cynder, Flame and Ember. The dragons started to feast on the meat that was in front of them. The meat, which included rat, squirrel, chicken, pig, cow and deer, was all cooked, probably by some fire dragons in the town. Spyro started to chow down on the meat in front of him, which was a larger amount than a lot of the other dragons' amount.
"This meat is so…delectable" said Spyro.
"This is some of the best meat that I've ever eaten!" exclaimed Flame.
"It's so juicy…and tender" said Cynder.
"Well I'm glad that you like it, Spyro" said Rock.
The feast continued for a while until each and every dragon had their fill of meat. By the end of the feast, most of the food was gone from the plates on the table.
"I have a little surprise for you, Spyro, before you go" said Rock, after everyone had finished eating. A huge pile of green, red and blue crystals appeared before Spyro, a few feet tall. "Use it, Spyro. You are going to need it for the journey across the ocean."
Spyro was speechless. "You didn't have to do this"
"But I did. It's not every day that someone saves the world. I wish I could do more, but I can only do so much" said Rock, with a smile on his face. Spyro broke down the crystals and began to absorb them. Every blue crystal that he absorbed made him feel like he was more powerful than before. Spyro saved one green crystal, however.
"Ohh. I think I ate too much" said Cynder.
"I'm stuffed. I can't have another bite" said Flame.
"Who was it that was talking about controlling themselves?" asked Spyro. Many dragons started to get up and introduce themselves to Spyro and thanked him for all that he had done. In fact, every dragon at the table thanked Spyro before leaving the plaza. Any leftover food and the stone plates disappeared and the stone table started to go down and the stone chair started to rise up from the ground. Once again the ground started to shake and continued to shake until the stone table was level with the rest of the plaza.
"Do you want to go to the market and look at what's available? Before you leave…" asked Flame.
"Sure. Why do you think I saved this green crystal?" asked Spyro. The 4 dragons walked over to the marketplace which slowly started to fill back with merchants. There was a wide variety of items on sale at the market, though a lot of it was food, which both Spyro and Cynder did not need or want to buy. Flame started to wander around the outer part of the market, because the middle and center was mostly food. He walked past some necklaces, stones, bracelets, sticks and even some clothes. Flame stopped when he spotted some head armor that was a deep red. Spyro noticed that he had stopped walking and looked at what was on sale. He looked at the armor that Flame was looking at. It was armor for the head.
"Do you want that, Flame?" asked Spyro.
"Yes, I'd love to have that armor" replied Flame. "Wait, what are you thinking of doing?"
But before he could stop him, Spyro asked the merchant if he would sell the armor for the green crystal.
"That will be more than enough for me. I don't even know if I could charge the legendary purple dragon" said the merchant, who was a bear with some odd foreign clothing on.
"Please, take it." Spyro handed over the crystal to the bear who grabbed the crystal quickly and put it into a bag beside himself. A clink was heard when the crystal fell into the bag. "This is a gift for my friend, Flame."
"Really? You don't have to do this, Spyro" said Flame.
"But I want to. Besides, you were kind enough to show us the way to Stone Hill" said Spyro.
Flame grabbed the armor and placed it on top of his head. It was almost a perfect fit, maybe just a tad too big, but Flame loved it.
"Oh thank you very much, Spyro!" exclaimed Flame. He got into a fighting stance and breathed out some flames high into the air. Spyro smiled. Even Cynder smiled seeing Flame so happy. Ember walked around looking at all the jewelry that was on sale. Spyro and Cynder continued around the market, which had some more jewelry, armor and some metal objects that the sellers called "swords". Spyro spotted some silver armor that he admired.
"May I please have that piece of armor?" asked Spyro. A mole came up from the darkness beneath the tent.
"Sure. Consider it my treat for the legendary purple dragon" said the mole. Some other dragons in the marketplace saw Spyro at the merchant and started to buy armor from the mole. "Thank you Spyro" whispered the mole.
Spyro put on the armor, which turned out to be a perfect fit.
"You look pretty handsome in that armor" said Cynder.
"You think so? I really like it already" said Spyro.
Cynder spotted something green in another nearby tent. It looked very similar to something she had seen before. She walked a little closer to the green objects. Inside a small case were two green snakes resting upon a cushion. Cynder gasped.
"What's up, Cynder?" asked Spyro. Spyro walked next to Cynder and noticed the green snakes that she was looking at. "How is that possible? There are more of those?"
"Yes, there are. But they are very rare. Only a few exist in this world, and I, Moneybags, possess one of them" said Moneybags, a bear wearing some fancy black clothes with a tie and a bag in his right hand.
"Where did you get that?" asked Spyro.
"Some dark black dragon gave them to me asking that I protect them, but I want to see how much I can get for them" said Moneybags.
"Some dark black dragon?" asked Spyro.
"Yeah. He wouldn't tell me his name, but he told me that it would be worth my time if I did protect them. But that was 7 years ago. I don't think he will ever be coming back" said Moneybags.
"Come on, Spyro. I don't want to hang around here anymore" said Cynder, overwhelmed with all the memories of having the snake chain on her earlier.
Spyro was confused about what this could possibly mean. 'Did Malefor make multiple snake chains? Who is this dark black dragon? Why did he want to give them to Moneybags, 7 years ago?'