The Legend of Wither: The Rise of Nobody

by The Wandering King

Twenty years have passed since the fall of the Dark Master, Malefor. Now it's time for a new generation to take up the teachings the elders have to offer, but when the son of Spyro and Cynder turns out different than expected, a new discovery is made.

13. Chapter 12-Mysterious Intervention

Chapter 12- Mysterious Intervention

"You mind telling us what you're doing here?"

Spyro and Cynder had seen their students on the roof when they descended from above to face Arragor. They were now in the plaza scolding them for disobeying their order to stay in the arena. "We just wanted to observe our enemy to learn from him for future reference," explained Wither.

"Ah, and you had no intention of joining the fight if it got rough, did you?" asked Cynder with apparent sarcasm.

Wither tried to defend himself and his friends for coming so close to the danger. "I don't think—"

"That's right," said Spyro, cutting him off. "You don't think. You put yourself and all your friends in danger, and what's more, you did it by doing something we specifically told you not to do. We'll talk about this later, but right now, we need to go speak with Yarrow." The elders began to walk toward the ancient's home, but when Wither didn't follow, Spyro turned around and said, "You're not exempt from this meeting. All of you come on. You need to be present for this."

Wither followed with his friends from a distance. When he judged that his parents were out of earshot, he turned to Renna. "Do you think I was wrong?"

She maneuvered herself beside him and turned to look him in the eyes. "You just wanted to help. There's nothing wrong with that. And besides, we were at a safe distance. There's no way he could have seen us from where we were. I think they're just upset because you didn't follow their orders as both your parents and your elders. They might think you have a little problem with authority, but I know you would have followed the order under less serious circumstances."

"But that's just the thing. The circumstances were serious. Isn't that when we're supposed to follow our superiors' orders the most?"

Just then, Elleca popped up on his other side to answer his question. She got close so she could whisper it to him, drawing his attention away from Renna. "Hard times are when orders are least followed. If your parents tell you to go to sleep, or go to school, or eat your mushrooms, you do it. It's no big deal. But when lives are at stake and your intuition tells you to do the opposite of what you're told, you're faced with a dilemma. Rules are made to be broken. You just have to break them when you know it's right."

Wither took this into consideration and nodded with a smile. He picked up the pace and left them in his wake. Psy ran up beside Wither now, and Roxy took the other side. "It's weird isn't it?" asked Roxy.

"What is?"

"Roxy and I were talking, and we think it's strange how it's the middle of the day, and there's not a soul outside," said Psy.

Wither took a look around and noticed the level of activity for the first time since breakfast. In contrast to the overzealous mood earlier that day, there was now truly nobody outside save them and the elders. Usually, there were dragons of all ages and elements going to and fro about the city. There were even occasional visitors from the other races with business in Warfang, but now it appeared as though the population was down to eighteen, eight children and ten elders, one of which was carried between two others.

Valorie had not woken up after passing out due to her extensive injuries. Cyril and Terrador were supporting her weight between them. Her condition was part of the reason why everyone was going to see Yarrow in person. The mental link was still up, but the buzz had all but disappeared. Everyone was hiding out and staying quiet. Red crystals weren't enough for Valorie. She was too badly damaged for that. She needed the healing powers of a life dragon to fix her.

When they got to the ancient's home, the group made its way through the garden to the pavilion at its center. Where once there was a fair sized building with a roof covering a wide open space, there was now a tangle of twisted vines wrapping around each other. These vines were covered in thorns to create an intimidating wall that sealed off the entire pavilion, blocking it from view and concealing the ancient inside it.

As they approached it, large vines as thick as an elder's tail burst out of the ground and danced about in the air in front of them. An impressively colored flower opened up nearby and the stamen inside it leaned toward them, twitching as though they were feeling the air for a target to touch. Then another plant revealed itself. It was the strangest thing Wither had ever seen in his life. Only the top of it was visible, the rest was underground. It was large and bulbous at the base, but narrowed at the top. It leaned forward like the flower off to the side and opened up, but instead of stamen, there was an eye inside.

Spyro looked into the eye and said, "It's us. Let us in." The eye closed up and ducked back underground. All of the other hostile plants receded, and the vines slid back a bit to reveal an opening in the thorn wall. One by one, the dragons stepped through the arching opening into the dome protecting Yarrow from the outside world. The inside was even more impressive than the outside. Roots ran across the floor from the wall all around the circle, leading to the center of the room. They twisted together to form a wooden dais upon which sat the ancient of Warfang. Vines ran across the ceiling like the roots below and wound around each other to form a giant column dipping down from the center of the roof, down on the figure frozen in place on the dais. The vines wrapped all around Yarrow, half holding him up, half resting him on the altar of roots. All around, the roots and vines glowed a faint, pale green, which grew brighter toward the center of the construct, and there, in the heart of it all, was Yarrow.

His head looked as though it would have been dipping low, were it not being held up by vines, which somehow wove under his neck without choking him. His wings were half open, held loosely by the vines, which also cradled his tail, keeping it from falling off the top tier of the four layered dais. His eyes were closed, and he glowed brightly like a bioluminescent creature of the night, providing most of the light in the darkness of the sunlight suppressing dome.

Spyro motioned to Cyril and Terrador then turned back to Yarrow. "Yarrow, Wind Master Valorie was badly injured during the defense of Warfang today. Can you help her?"

Cyril and Terrador gently set Valorie down on the bottom tier of the altar and backed up. Yarrow's eyes shot open. They glowed brighter than all else in the room, acting as two glorious beacons in the center of the dome. They peered down at the broken dragoness resting beneath him on the altar of life. The roots at the base twitched and broke away from the structure they formed to wrap around her form. The top of the dais began to glow brightly for a moment before the light traveled down the tiers to the bottom level and into Valorie before disappearing. The roots then released her, assuming the shape of the altar again and then became still once more.

Yarrow's eyes drooped until they were half open. He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. As he did so, the plants all around rose slightly, then fell back into place. He opened his mouth to speak, and as he did so, it sounded like his voice came from everywhere. It came from him, but it was also in the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. It sounded like a thousand people speaking as one, which caused more than one dragon to shiver in awe. "Tell us what happened," the voices whispered and echoed for a moment. The plants vibrated lightly as Yarrow spoke.

Volteer took a step forward, looking up at the ancient. "Excuse me . . . us?"

Yarrow sighed again, closing his eyes. When he opened them again he said, "Sorry. In this state of symbiosis, we are one. You, me, the plants. Excuse the slip of my tongue. Tell me what happened."

Spyro took over again, explaining everything. He started with Wither's strange behavior in the arena and told of the frightening things he had done. He told of how Malefor had supposedly been resurrected by Arragor and possessed Wither. Then he gave an account of everything that happened up to the point of Arragor's escape with Obsidius.

Silence filled the room after he was finished as everyone took in the whole story. After a moment of thought, Yarrow replied, "This is most troubling. There are so many questions that we need answers to. The ones that appear most important are the ones concerning the Dark Master's ability to use Wither's element. He obviously made that armor for Arragor, but what I don't understand is where the power comes from and how it negates Wither's powers. The nature of the Void, as we understand it so far, is that it is nothing. It is everywhere and it is nowhere. It does not exist and yet it affects us in extraordinary ways when those who can control it are present. How can so much power arise from nothing? It breaks all the laws of reality. Arragor was so strong, but his strength is clearly that which the Void has to offer if it came from dark crystals. Granted, he used the power in ways Wither never has, but it couldn't have been anything else or it would have been drained away by the armor. This brings us to yet another question. Why didn't anyone feel the draining effects of the crystal armor? The answers to these questions are probably very complicated and difficult to find, but we need them. The fact of the matter is we don't know enough about the Void. It is a key factor in this war, and we must do our best to obtain any and all knowledge on the subject. As for the abduction of Obsidius, where are his parents?"

"We told them we would get him back safe and sound and that they needed to go home and wait for the all clear signal," replied Noh.

"That is probably best. Arragor and Obsidius were friends as I recall. My guess is that Arragor has recruited him to work for Malefor. This is bad. If we have two of those crystal enhanced younglings attack us at the same time, we'll be hard pressed to repulse the assault. We have to be on the alert and be ready for them when they attack again. Next time no holding back. If we're swift and merciless, we just might quell this opposition before it grows out of control."

At this, Spire limped forward, still hurt from Cynder's fury, but able to move. "Yarrow, he's my son—"

"He's chosen his path, now he must follow it. There is no turning back to retrace your steps in life, but if Arragor is lucky, he will find his way back onto the right path again. Until then, no one is to hold out when against him or anyone with him in battle. Understood?"

Everyone nodded at the command. On the dais, Valorie groaned and opened her eyes halfway. Yarrow looked down and said, "Don't move, Valorie. The bones in your left wing have been pulverized, the ones in your right, fractured. Your fore left leg and rear right leg have been broken in several places. Your tail has been bent, and you have a hairline fracture in your skull. I have saved you from a coma by curing your concussion, and I saved you from shock. Your wounds are devastating and would normally never heal on their own, but I have imbued you with a sizable amount of power, which will quickly mend your wounds. However, you are currently in terrible shape and must not move. You are to stay here with me for the next few days while I fix you."

Valorie shook while she looked up at Yarrow, then laid her head back down and fell asleep. A few vines came away from Yarrow and tucked themselves under her head to keep it off the hard roots. Yarrow nodded as she wordlessly obeyed his orders to rest then looked back to Spire. "You appear to be hurt as well. Shall I take a look?"

Spire shuffled a bit in place. "Come now, Spire," said Yarrow." You forget that I can hear your thoughts and see your memories of what happened. "It could be worse than you realize. I'm surprised that you are still standing after taking the force from a full on Convexity blast. It is the greatest power we know."

The vines dropped from the ceiling to examine Spire, spreading out across his back and burrowing under the scales ever so slightly. Yarrow's eyes widened. "You have several broken disks in your neck and some internal bleeding. How you walked here, I will never know. Lie down on the dais. You will be joining Valorie for the rest of the day."

Spire did as he was told, allowing the roots and vines to wrap around him and give him strength. As he began to heal, Yarrow turned to the rest of the group. "So this is the plan as of now. Continue the preparations as before, continue to teach these young ones, but put more focus on Wither's power, stay on the lookout for Arragor and Obsidius, and look to your superiors for guidance." He looked at the children when he said this last part.

"I see that you hold Wither's decisions in high regard," he said as he peered into their minds. "In some cases, you would be willing to forsake the orders of your elders for Wither's. In some ways, this is good. You have selected a strong and competent leader, and the correct one according to the Chronicler's prophecy. However, wisdom and experience outweigh raw power. You need to respect your elder's orders to a certain degree. We don't give them lightly.

"Wither, I understand why you disobeyed your parents' orders, but I must ask you to use more caution when considering such action in the future. Use your best judgment. If you see that something is wrong with an order and you know in your heart that the best course of action is to go against it, then you won't regret the results, but if you are uncertain as to how to act, then just listen. We elders are not perfect, but we will not often lead you astray."

Wither nodded to show that he understood. His parents nodded too, and he knew that this conversation was over. Yarrow looked down at his patients with his glowing green eyes and said, "I must meditate now. Talking like this and keeping the connection strong is a difficult task. Go back to work now everyone. We still have much to do." With that, Yarrow closed his eyes again and went limp in the arms of the vines.

The vines parted behind everyone, and they all left the dome and the three dragons within. The thorn wall closed up again, and the hostile guard plants started to come alive with more activity again. The all clear signal was given out, and the elders went back to their duties overseeing and helping with the preparations. Spyro and Cynder led the children back to the arena to continue with the day's lessons.

On their way, Spyro and Cynder split the group into two sections. One would work with Spyro, and the other would work with Cynder. Wither, Psy, Renna, and Elleca would go with Spyro while Tera, Vera, Sora, and Roxy went with Cynder. "Great. I'm the only guy in my group," mumbled Roxy, which earned him a whack on the head with Elleca's tail.

Wither saw Renna and Elleca break off from the group a bit and begin to whisper to each other off to the side and tried to hear what they were saying. Due to the looks on their faces, it would have proved to be an interesting conversation, but he was too far away. Then he remembered something he had read in one of the library books. It said that people hear things when they vibrate. These vibrations were carried through the air as, it too, vibrated. When the vibrations reached the eardrum of a living creature, that's when sound was heard. The only problem was that over longer distances, the vibrations lost their intensity and became too soft to hear. So, Wither thought, all he'd have to do is make the vibrations of their voices closer to his ear. He knew how to do this, but it worked both ways, so he had to be careful not to make too much noise. He imagined the twenty or so feet between them was nothing like he normally did when shifting, but this time he only made a thin stream of nothingness. It ran between them like an invisible wire about an inch in diameter, and it moved with them to match their pace. When it was close enough, the vibrations of their voices traveled through the air, but also shot through the wire of nothing as if Wither were holding his ear directly to their mouths.

"—ine, so back off." That was Renna.

"You're just jealous of my talent."

"As if. I have lots of power. And what's that got to do with it anyway?"

"So you're not afraid of a little competition?"

"Not from you. You have the wrong type of personality."

"And what's wrong with my personality?"

"You're too abrasive. There's nothing feminine about you."

Up until this point, Wither had assumed they were talking about who the better fighter was, but now he wasn't so sure. He knew he shouldn't listen anymore, so he held his mouth up to the invisible strand and whispered, "Ladies, no reason to fight."

Both girls jumped about a foot in the air and looked over at him with wide eyes filled with astonishment. This confused him, so he gave them an uneasy smile and waved a paw to make the thin line between them shimmer. "Hello," he said putting his mouth next to it. Once they understood what he had done, they immediately hid their faces and started to stumble along, trying not to look at him. Though he was young, Wither had learned at an early age from whispers from his dad that of all the mysteries the world had to offer, dragonesses were the greatest of them all. He didn't pretend to understand their behavior and instead told them, "We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves in these hard times. Not unless it's sparring. What were you fighting about anyway? I came in mid conversation."

Both dragons displayed looks of profound relief, which confused him further. Then Renna spoke. "It was nothing."

"Oh, my favorite subject. What about it?"

Renna scowled at his joke and said, "Just girl stuff."

"Didn't your parents ever teach you that eavesdropping is rude?" asked Elleca as she puffed up her scales.

"Mm no, we didn't," said Spyro.

"He was never very stealthy as a pre-awakened youngling, and we never really thought he would be able to eavesdrop," added Cynder. "But now that you mention it, things have changed a bit." She turned to her son with a slight smile and said, "Wither, it's rude to eavesdrop. Especially when it's on two girls that made an obvious attempt to talk out of your earshot." Cynder winked at the two young dragonesses, which forced the scales around their faces to take on the color of a fear dragon.

Elleca began to ask, "How did you—"

"A mother sees, knows, and hears everything. Especially when it's about her child," said Cynder with another wink. Then she turned around and kept walking.

Now Wither was completely lost. They had acted so weird. Renna, Elleca, his mother. Dragonesses. "You're right dad. Sometimes I don't get them at all."

Spyro's eyes widened, and he turned around to shush his son, but it was too late. Cynder had already clipped him in the back of his head with her wing. It was just a warning cuff. "What?" he asked in playful dismay. She merely gave him a look, and the rest was history. Wither had always thought it was a special kind of magic. Every time she gave him that look, he fell silent, and just like that, the conversation was over, and the problem was resolved.

Then he stopped walking and shifted. He popped up next to Psy and bopped him of the back of the head. "Tag! You're it!" Then he shifted away. Psy stood there for a moment, baffled by his sudden 'it' status. Then he smirked and let out a huge cloud of shadows. It enveloped Tera and Vera, which made them complain about zero visibility.

"Tag! You're it!" said Psy in victory.

"Hey," said Tera.

Spyro and Cynder turned around and looked at Wither. Spyro's eyes asked, 'Did you have to?' However, he said nothing to him, and instead, turned to the whole group. As he said, "Come on. No horse play. We have work to do," Tera tried to chase Sora. She was too quick for the red menace, but when shot by a blast from Tera's maw, she was frozen in fear, unable to move.

"Tag! You're it!"

Spyro blew a puff of smoke and was about to shout when Cynder tugged on his shoulder and whispered to him. The anger left his eyes and was replaced by an analytical look of observation. He watched as Sora blew a huge gale into Renna's wings to knock her over and tag her. Then Renna blinded Elleca to tag her, who then paralyzed Vera to catch her. Spyro smiled and turned to Cynder to nod in approval. Then he shouted, "Hey!" Everyone stopped running around and turned to Spyro with their tails between their legs. Once he had their attention, he dropped the serious act and allowed himself a smile. The students relaxed a bit when they saw this and waited to hear what he had to say. "After observing your game, Cynder and I feel that it's a good way for you to practice your fighting skills. You have some creative ways to catch each other. If you can apply these skills to an actual fight, then I suppose we can allow you to play tag for your training today. Thank you for the interesting idea, Wither, but tomorrow we start back on our schedule again."

The rest of the day was spent running around the arena trying to not be 'it.' Spyro and Cynder just watched and enjoyed the game, making note of how well each student did. Elleca was extremely fast and almost never caught. Only through elemental trickery was anyone able to catch her. Roxy, on the other hand, was slow and often an easy target. His large body was strong and muscular, but not exactly built for speed. He avoided many tags by making flimsy walls just thick enough to stop a young dragon from breaking through. Hiding behind them, he ran away so that by the time his attacker ran around, he was already too far away to bother with.

Sora was surprisingly fast. As a wind dragon, she was nimble like a cat. Her sleek, slender form was astoundingly aerodynamic and allowed her to not only run, but fly much faster than most of her peers. Not many young dragons could fly too well, but Sora was a natural and often used the advantage to hover well out of reach.

Tera and Vera were about as average as it got between the group. They weren't the fastest among their friends, but could run a bit longer than most. Their elemental prowess was also impressive though not altogether outstanding. Due to these things, Spyro and Cynder determined that they were the most well rounded among the group. They had nothing special that defined them like Elleca's speed, Sora's flight, Roxy's strength, and Renna's, Psy's, and Wither's powers. Rather, they seemed to be second best at everything, making them the standard for everyone to go by. The only special skill they could boast was their connection to each other, which prevented them from trying to tag each other. They always knew what the other was thinking and so catching one another would prove almost impossible. Psy and Renna were on the same level in their game of tag just below Elleca. They were difficult to catch and even more so to escape from. Psy used his shadows to blind his foes and Renna blinded hers with an overdose of light.

The only one that was better than Elleca was Wither. For all of Elleca's unparalleled speed, it was no match for his shifting ability. Every time someone tried to catch him, he shifted to the other side of the arena. He maintained this strategy, hanging out at the edge of the circle and disappearing to the other end several hundred feet across the way. This irked his friends a bit, and they tried to plot against him, attacking him all at once with their combined forces. Nothing stopped him from making his getaway through the nothingness that connected his current position to his destination.

After several hours of play, everyone was getting tired, and no one had tagged Wither yet. They all met in the center of the arena in a huddle and made a quick plan, which Wither tried to listen in on, but failed since the plan was made too quickly. Elleca held out her paw and Roxy tagged her. She faced Wither and took a deep breath. She eyed him, calculating and estimating. After a moment, she began to walk toward him at a normal pace. He became suspicious and prepared to shift, but she wasn't running, so he still had plenty of time to get away. When she was about twenty feet away she stopped, sensing that Wither was uncomfortable with the distance and ready to shift. She eyed him again and took in several deep breaths, holding them for a few seconds, and then letting them out slowly. When she was calm and collected, she hunkered down low to the ground, leaving her hind end in the air. Her tail whipped around expectantly and she said, "New record, right here, right now."

Then she burst forward like an arrow. Wither yelped in surprise and quickly shifted to the other end of the arena just as she was about five feet away. He started to laugh in triumph as he emerged from thin air, but was instantly thrown to the ground by a large object that collided with him from behind. When he landed on the ground, it was still on top of him, and it shouted, "Tag! You're it!"

Wither turned his head and looked up to see Elleca beaming with pride, standing on top of her elusive victim. She had been so fast he hadn't had time to close the nothingness. "You're too slow. You shouldn't have let me get so close. I jumped right through your nothing stream, and might I say, what a rush. I can see why you love shifting so much."

Then she brought her head closer as if to whisper something to him, but Spyro said, "You can get off him now, Elleca." She appeared slightly ruffled at this, but quickly recovered and let Wither up.

Spyro and Cynder had climbed down out of the stands now and were making their way over to the children in the arena. They both appeared pleased, and Spyro told Cynder she could make the comments on performance. "Well done, well done everyone. That was most enjoyable and enlightening to watch. It gave Spyro and me the opportunity to evaluate your skills even further. To help motivate you in the days to come, we have decided to rank you in terms of performance. We'll start you all off based on what we have gleaned from our battles and your game today. Everything shall stay the same as before. Roxy, you're at the bottom. You're quite skilled, but you're among the best of the best here. Work hard and you might see yourself ascend in rank. Vera, you're next, then you, Tera. It was a close match between the two of you. You're very similar, and ranking you was difficult. Next is Sora, and then Psy. Second and third place are also exceedingly difficult to judge, but after a while of discussing it, we believe that Elleca should take third and Renna gets second, leaving our very own son, Wither, with number one, by a long shot."

Renna winked at Wither and held up a paw with two digits raised, while Elleca smoldered in her own silent envy at taking third beneath Renna. Psy wrapped his tail around Sora's and drew her close to him, saying, "Ah yes, middle of the road. Best place to be, really. Not too low to have more expected of us and not too high to have high expectations placed on us. Can you say easy street?"

"Don't forget we split you into groups," warned Spyro. "Starting tomorrow, you're at the bottom of your group, Psy, and Sora is at the top of hers. There will be no 'middle of the road,' and your very best effort is expected out of all of you."

Psy let go of Sora and twirled a claw in a circle in the air unenthusiastically groaning, "Yay," causing Sora to hide a rare, but quiet giggle with a paw at his silliness.

"Tomorrow is a big day everyone, so go home and get some rest. Today was all about evaluation. Tomorrow is when the actual training begins. You're all free to go now. Bye."

All the young dragons walked home, saying their goodbyes. When they were gone, Wither looked up at his parents and said, "Oh, this day."

"I know what you mean, Wither," said Spyro in a worried tone. "The world is ready for war. The first battle was today, here in our very own city. We've been thinking, and since Arragor can pop up pretty much anywhere like you, maybe you should sleep in our room again."

"But I haven't slept with you since I was six."

Cynder thought about this for a moment then replied, "We know, but you should at least do it tonight since he might come back while we're asleep. If he doesn't come during the night, then you can sleep in your room again if you want to, but for tonight, it's probably best to be extra cautious."

Wither thought about it. It would be weird. He was twelve now. If anyone knew he slept with his parents again, they would think he was a loser, but he knew his parents wouldn't tell anyone, so he agreed, and together they shifted up to his parents' room. He didn't come in here often and felt out of place. The room was massive, much larger than his. The ceiling was a good thirty feet from the floor and was flecked with spots of gold that sparkled slightly as he moved. The floor was a swirled mass of purple and black. Marble, he believed they had called it, but interior décor was never his thing. There were torches lining the walls, several bookshelves, two large windows at the back wall and a mirror that was often used by his mother. There were also many artifacts pressed up against the sides of the room such as maps of the world, scrolls that were sealed to contain powerful spells used by those who controlled different magic than that which dragons wielded, a strange cylindrical device said to be used for stargazing, glass orbs resting in sockets in the floor lining the room, and a myriad of other fascinating objects. A mountain of pillows even larger than his were piled in the center of the room next to a table a few feet away with another smaller glass orb and several books on top of it.

Once he finished looking around, he noticed that his parents were walking back toward the doorway. They stopped on either side of it and placed their paws on the two glass orbs beside the doorway. Cynder's turned bright green and Spyro's shone orange. They began going around the room, skipping every other orb and charging them in a sequence. Spyro did orange, yellow, blue, dark green, and then back to orange. Cynder did light green, black, red, white, and then back to light green. They made their way around the room and met in the back of the room opposite of the doorway. Then they passed each other and began charging all the orbs the other had skipped. Once they charged all the orbs, the room flashed quickly and was normal again. The orbs glowed in their sockets, cycling through the eight different elements before starting over again. "There. That should protect us from anything and everything," said Spyro.

"But not nothing," said Wither with skepticism in his voice.

"We have you for that," said Cynder. "We'll handle everything and you can deal with any nothing problems that may occur. If our defenses fail, it's up to you to take us to the Void, but don't worry. This is merely precautionary. I doubt we'll have anything to worry about."

"What about this orb? You didn't light it." Wither pointed to the small orb on the table.

Spyro smiled and let out a tiny jolt of electricity, lighting up the desk with bright, yellow light. "That one's just a fancy lantern to read by at night."

Wither moved a few of the cushions and climbed on top to reach the top of the table. "What's this?" he asked curiously, reaching for an open book to pull it closer.

Cynder pulled it away and put it on one of the shelves as high as it could go. "You're not really old enough to read that one," she said nervously, grinning at Spyro whose eyes widened at the thought of his son looking at the pages of the book they had been exploring the night before. Before the book was shelved, Wither caught a glimpse of a male dragon caressing a female on the cover. He decided not to think about it too much.

His parents settled down in the cushions as Wither made his own separate bed by the table. "So what all are we doing tomorrow?" asked the inquisitive youngster.

"You'll find out tomorrow with everyone else," said Spyro.

"Aw, come on. I don't get a little heads up?"

"Just because we're your parents doesn't mean you get any special treatment," said Cynder. "If anyone got special treatment, you're the one who needs it the least."

"No fair."

"Life's not fair," replied his mother in an amused tone. She and Spyro watched their son as he turned in place, making several circles before finally lying down on his own makeshift bed.

After a quick exchange of looks between them, Spyro placed a paw on Cynder's and said, "Wither, about what happened earlier today. . ."

Their son immediately froze, his muscles visibly clenching as the words struck him. Casting his gaze to the side, he asked, "What about it?"

Spyro chose his next words with care, slowly forming the question that plagued both his and Cynder's minds. "How much do you remember about that?"

"All of it."

"Okay. We want you to know that we don't blame you for what you did. You weren't in control of your own body or emotions. I think it's time we've apologized for keeping you shut up in this house for so long. In the end, it did more harm than good."

Wither let out a long sigh and said, "You don't have to apologize. I'm not really mad at you for that—"

Cynder held up a paw for silence. "Wither, you can't hide your feelings anymore. We know they're there. Malefor's possessions don't imbue you with hatred. He takes what darkness has already gathered in one's heart and brings it to the surface, amplifies it, and uses it to his advantage. You wouldn't have said those things if you didn't feel that way deep down inside."

Wither kneaded his claws on the cushion in front of him before whispering, "I try not to care. I really do."

Spyro leaned forward and said, "You're such a strong dragon, Wither. You have a good heart. I think you got these things from us, but that doesn't mean we didn't hurt you, and it doesn't mean you're not allowed to feel sad, or upset, or even angry. We accept that we made a mistake by keeping you from the world for so long, and we really are sorry.

"The thing is, Yarrow advised against it. We should have listened to him. He's far older than us and, therefore, much wiser. He told us we could consult him for anything concerning childrearing, seeing as we are so young ourselves. As you know, birthing season among dragons only rolls around once every one hundred years like clockwork, and every dragon egg hatches on the same day. However, it has been proven that in times of crisis, if the dragon population dwindles too low, the magic in our blood recognizes the need to repopulate and gives our bodies the go ahead to create the next generation early. Normally, your mother and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to have a child for another sixty-five years, but this generation was an exception due to the fact that Malefor embarked on a genocide of the dragon race.

"The elders told us when everyone felt the change come over us that we were probably too young to have a child, but we did it anyway because we were so eager to start a family of our own, and we didn't want to have to wait for another hundred years."

Wither shook his head and said, "But the cheetahs and moles have children when they're your age. Why's that any different?"

Cynder looked down and said, "That was our reasoning at the time, too, but you have to put it into perspective. Moles and cheetahs only live about a twelfth of the time we do. Having you at the age we did would be like them having a kid at the age of two or so if they were physically capable of doing so. At that age, they're nowhere near ready for a child."

"But we mature at the same rate as they do. Even faster at the beginning, actually."

"That's true, but dragons are meant to have children no earlier than the age of a hundred. That's why nature normally makes it that way. The point is, while we don't regret having you for a second, we think maybe we are a bit too young to be raising you the best we can without listening to our elders. We're sorry for any and all of the mistakes we've made with you, but we want you to know that we will always love you. From now on, we'll listen more to what Yarrow has to say. We need the advice."

The corners of Wither's eyes were glistening at the end of this speech. He gave a little sniff and rubbed the moisture away with a paw before nodding and saying, "If that's the case, then of course I forgive you. I had no idea. It feels so good to finally have a good reason not to feel bitter anymore. Thanks mom and dad. You have my thanks for apologizing, and for what it's worth, I love you, too. I'm sorry I almost made you kill dad, mom."

Giving her son a sad smile, Cynder replied, "That's okay. It really wasn't your fault. We know you wouldn't have done that on your own. Now get some sleep. You'll need all your strength for tomorrow." Cynder laid her head down on Spyro's paws, and he laid his across her neck.

Wither put out the little lantern on the table by sucking the power out, leaving them in the soft glow of the defense orbs. "Good night." The three fell asleep and lay undisturbed for the rest of the night.

When they woke the next day, they went to the roof for breakfast. Spyro incinerated Wither's last breakfast, which he had failed to finish in his haste to get to class. Cynder blew the ashes off the roof with a gust of wind that sent them cascading down into the street. Spyro then thawed out some food he kept frozen, and the three feasted on it until they were full. The rest was frozen again, and Wither shifted them to the arena as per his parents' request. Renna and Sora were already there, talking to pass the time. When the three appeared in the center of the arena, they both got up and left the stands to talk with the new arrivals.

"Hey," said Renna in greeting. "No one else is here yet. They should be showing up any moment now. Oh look, there's Tera and Vera now." Everyone looked and saw that the twins were heading through one of the arena's entrances.

"We still have about ten minutes before class starts," said Cynder.

"Hey everyone," said Tera.

"Ready for today?" asked Vera.

"What are we doing today?" whispered Renna to Wither.

"Heck if I know. They won't tell me anything. Something about not favoring their son in the classroom," he said, raising his eyebrows at them. They said nothing in return.

After another minute, Psy joined them and said his hellos to everyone. The last to show up were Roxy and Elleca, who were less than a minute shy of being late. "Glad you could join us," said Spyro.

"She takes forev—hey!" Roxy took a wing to the face. Elleca managed to pass it off as early morning stretching and even threw in a yawn for good measure.

"Well, now that we're all here, let's get started," said Cynder. "In case you can't remember, Roxy, Tera, Vera, and Sora are with me. Everyone else goes with Spyro. All right, everyone in my group, follow me." Cynder led her group over to one side of the arena and Spyro took his to the other side, leaving plenty of space between the two groups.

When they were settled, Spyro said, "Well, Cynder's grouping them into pairs, but I don't think that will work with this group. The three of you," he said, pointing at Renna, Elleca, and Psy, "Are going to fight him." Wither looked at the claw pointed at him, then dropped his gaze to his friends and grinned. They looked a little dismayed at the notion of having to fight Wither. Seeing this, Spyro said, "It's either him or me."

They thought about it and decided that another fight with the legendary Purple Dragon minus four helpers would be rough. "Wither it is," said Psy. Spyro laughed and backed up toward the stands.

When he told them to begin, all three of them tried to blast Wither with their elements, only to watch the wasted energy go right through him. He stood still for a moment, pondering his strategy. After a few seconds, he decided on Psy and began to drain him through mere thought alone. Psy began to wobble, his knees buckling under his suddenly very heavy body. "Psst, Wither. Hey, Wither."

Elleca was whispering to him from off to the side, making quite a distraction. This coupled with the fact that draining someone through thought required quite a bit of focus began to weigh heavily on his mind. On top of this, his nonexistent state taxed his mind enough to send it over the edge. He tried to do too much at once and lost control. Several things happened. Wither stopped draining Psy, turned existent, and turned to Elleca. "What?" The next thing that happened taught him a lesson he would never forget. As he turned toward Elleca, he turned away from Renna. By the time he had his back to her, she could see that he was no longer transparent. She took the opportunity to blast the vulnerable and distracted dragon in the back with an intense beam of light. However, she was so afraid that he would notice his vulnerability and she would lose her chance to get a hit on him, that in her haste, she forgot to hold back.

It didn't just burn his scales. It gave him instant, extreme sunburn. He screamed and fell to the ground, both shocked by the pain and the fact that he had been hit. Everyone in the arena stopped what they were doing and looked at him in surprise. Tera and Vera were in mid strike, watching him curl up in pain. After a moment of holding tears in, he stood up stiffly and turned to look at Renna. She backed up a step, but was unable to avoid what happened next.

Wither opened his maw and let out a billowing mass of black clouds, allowing the nothingness to roll over her and completely engulf her tiny frame. It washed over her in an instant. The wave of nothing only lasted for a few seconds before Wither felt a sharp pain in his head and blacked out.

When he came to, his mother was holding a red crystal to his head. She didn't look too pleased. "Are you all right?"

Wither got up, but his head still throbbed, and his back felt like it was on fire. He saw his friends staring at him and he asked, "What happened?"

They didn't say anything, which unsettled him. He turned and saw his dad leaning over Renna. He had a combination of large red and green crystals clustered all around her and was channeling their energy into her. She was frightening to look at. She too had passed out, but for different reasons. The bright luster in her scales was completely gone. They still had their color, but she was pale and looked terribly sick. After a moment, she came around, too. Spyro asked her if she was feeling well, to which she shook her head weakly. He looked up at Cynder, a worried look on his face. Then he turned his gaze down to Wither, and it adopted a different look. A mixture of anger and disappointment marred his face as he said, "Too much, Wither. Too much."

Wither gulped and looked back at Renna. He felt as sick as she looked. "I'm so sorry. I just meant to—" Cynder placed her paw on his shoulder to get his attention and shook her head.

After several minutes, Renna was able to stand, though she was shaky. "Are you okay?" asked Spyro.

"I-I'm f-f-fine," she stuttered as she shivered in place.

"Are you sure?" She nodded again. "You know, while Wither should have had a little more self-control than that, you did earn that. You're just lucky I was able to hit him in the head with that rock before he could drain you away completely. You struck too strongly, and he acted out of anger. You're both at fault for this incident, so you will not be punished if you apologize to each other."

Wither jumped at the opportunity to make amends. "Renna, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be so strong with my attack. I was just in a lot of pain. I can't believe I actually almost—I didn't know I could—" He started crying at the thought of what he had almost done and surely would have carried out had his father not prevented it. It didn't matter that it was an accident to him. No, he hadn't meant to try to end her life, and everyone knew that, but he almost did it. It was just too close for him to bear.

Renna smiled weakly and hobbled over to Wither, almost falling once or twice. Spyro tried to help her, but she pushed him away and made the trip on her own. When she got there, she was so tired she had to lean on him for support. "It's okay, Wither. I forgive you. It was my fault anyway." She paused to catch her breath. "I tried to win the fight by getting in a good hit while you were vulnerable. How many opportunities would we have gotten to do that again?" She took a few more breaths and sat down, a bit more stable now. "I'm sorry, Wither. I shouldn't have used my full force on you. I need to save it for Arragor. You've saved me from him several times. I know you like me and I care about you too, so it would be foolish to let this get between us."

Wither whispered in his anguish, "I didn't mean to—"

"Shh, I know you didn't. It's okay. Just don't do it again, all right?" She weakly punched him in the shoulder and started laughing.

This made Wither laugh a little, too, and he wiped the tears from his eyes. "Well, even though what I did was worse, I forgive you for what you did, too. I wish I could give you your energy back."

"Can't you?"

"Hey. You know? I think I can. The Void works both ways doesn't it? Although I haven't really tested that very much." Wither closed his eyes and felt for the power in the Void. He was confused, however, when he couldn't find it. "Huh, that's weird. I thought I could do it. I remember taking a stone and a crystal back out of the Void before." He tried to pull one of the green crystals he had absorbed out of the Void, but it didn't come. He opened his eyes and his mouth fell open. "I don't feel anything I've ever put in there. I don't understand, I could do it before, I just didn't try it that much."

"That's odd," said Spyro. "I will tell Yarrow about this, but for now, we should all get back to work."

"Wait," everyone stopped and turned to Wither. He looked at his friends and said, "You must think I'm a terrible dragon—"

"Oh, stop," interrupted Psy. "Everyone makes mistakes. You don't have to apologize to us. We wouldn't be very loyal friends if we didn't forgive you for your first one. Besides, if Renna can forgive you so easily, we have no business to not do so ourselves. Am I right?" Everyone smiled at Wither and nodded. "There you have it. Now come on. Let's finish what we started. I almost had you."

"I had you at your knees."

"That's not how I remember it. We'll have to have a do over. Only this time, let's dim it down to sparring strength, okay?"

Everyone went back to their places. Wither knew that all was well again and looked at Renna with another apologetic smile. She flashed a smile at him, too, showing off her dazzling teeth.

"Five minutes in and you two are already trying to kill each other," said Spyro. "Do be more careful, and Wither, I want to comment on what happened during the fight. Yarrow told you not to be overconfident. Now you see what happens when you are? We've found your weakness, it seems. When fighting one dragon, no matter how powerful or experienced they are, you're probably going to win every time, but when faced by only a few of your peers, you try too much at once and lose control. Stay focused and don't let anything distract you in a fight. As for the rest of you, remember now that Wither isn't untouchable. If you do your best, you might distract him and get him. No offense to you son, but he's not very strong physically. If you can get a hit on him, it does quite a bit of damage. The hard part is actually getting a hit on him. Try to surround him and attack from all sides. Your job is to distract Wither and make him vulnerable." He turned and looked at Wither now. "You job is to not let them do that. Your strength lies within your power. If you let them take that away, even for a moment, you have nothing."

"Uh, well—"

"Oh Wither, you know what I mean. Now get ready, get set, go."

For the next three days, their training commenced. They fought each other, learned from their mistakes, improved on their weaknesses, and learned new elemental attacks to practice. It was on the third day after Arragor's attack when Spyro and Cynder told their students to take a break. A meal was hunted down and brought to them for lunch. After the meal, Spyro and Cynder told their students to take a break while they checked up on everyone else's progress on the defenses. The pair took to the skies and flew off to the edge of Warfang.

The group left the arena to walk and talk for a while. They were all pleased with how much they had improved over the past few days. They felt a bit more experienced despite only having three days so far. Elleca walked beside Wither and asked, "So what do you do in your spare time?"

Wither snorted out a quick laugh and asked, "What spare time? We start training when we wake up, then finish and go to bed."

"Wow, you must go to bed pretty early. I stay up another two hours or so before going to bed."

"Doing what?"

"I don't know. Just talking to Roxy I guess."

"Oh, am I so boring?" asked Roxy in irritation.

Elleca ignored him and kept talking to Wither. "So you just eat, sleep, and train? Isn't that boring?"

"No, I spend my whole day with all my friends. I don't know about you, but that sounds good to me."

"I agree with Wither on that one," said Renna.

Wither nodded, saying, "See? Renna gets it. We should just enjoy our training and think of it like playing when we're sparring. Besides, we need the training for when we get attacked." Just as he finished saying this, he felt a strange feeling course through his entire being. He stopped and looked off in the direction where he sensed the feeling was coming from. Something about it felt familiar. There was a faint hint of it in the air the day Arragor attacked. His eyes widened as he suddenly realized what he was somehow able to feel. Before anyone could notice his odd behavior, a low boom echoed through the city and the mental link began to buzz with activity.

"Speak of the devil," said Psy as they looked all around. They were in an empty street away from the commotion, but sounds could be heard all around them.

"Wither!"

"Dad?"

"Listen to me! Arragor's back and he's brought Obsidius with him. They're both wearing that special armor, so stay away from them, but I want you and your friends to spy on them since you probably will anyway. See if you can figure out what they want. They appear to be searching for something."

"Will do. Watch them, stay hidden. Got it." The link died down and Wither turned to his friends to say, "Guys, let's go."

He didn't have to say it twice. In a second, everyone was packed around him. They passed through the Void and came out on Wither's roof where they could get a good vantage point and assess where the intruders were. He heard another boom and saw a dust cloud rise up into the air. After a quick rest, he took them there and sat down to catch another break after moving that many dragons. His friends looked over the edge of the roof and saw Arragor and Obsidius searching the crowd of fleeing dragons. The occasional hero tried to stand up to them, but was either blown away by Arragor's flick of the wrist or pulverized by a powerful sonic roar that escaped Obsidius's maw.

Arragor looked up and saw some of the elders descending from the sky. He turned to Obsidius and said, "Come on. We have to find him. Quickly!"

Vera whispered over her shoulder, "They're looking for someone."

Wither relayed this information to his parents. After a pause, he heard his mother reply, "Perhaps they're going after one of their friends. Arragor took Obsidius. Why not one of the other two?"

"That seems most likely," said Spyro. "Follow them, but don't engage them. If we can't get there before they find who they're looking for, try to attack them from a distance without exposing yourselves. We can't let them take any more recruits. We'll be there in just a minute."

"There he is," said Arragor in the street below. He lifted a paw and made a motion like he was drawing something in. Through the crowd flew a yellow dragon that was shouting and jerking around in midair in an attempt to escape the invisible force that carried him. It was Xath. "Hold still you idiot. We're not going to hurt you. We're friends, remember?"

Xath calmed down and was set down beside Arragor. "That's better. Now, I have a proposition for you."

Just then, Cyril shot ice shards down on the duo. Obsidius protected Arragor by blasting away the attack and the attackers with sonic roars powered by his armor, while Arragor talked to Xath.

"We have no choice," said Wither. "My parents will be here any second. Let's keep them from taking Xath. Go."

Fearing that elemental attacks at this distance would harm innocent people, the eight young dragons leapt off the small two story building and landed on the three below. Sora and Wither dragged Xath away while the others got in several surprise attacks. Roxy pounded on Obsidius's armor repeatedly with all of his might, busting the crystal helmet, while Psy blinded him so that he could keep at it. Renna blinded Arragor and Tera and Vera went to work on him as well. However, despite their strength and the advantage of having the element of surprise, Arragor spread his wings and let out a roar, releasing a rippling pulse that blew the attackers against the nearby buildings. Once free, Obsidius let out another ear busting roar, although it seemed less powerful this time, to keep the closing elders at bay.

Arragor seemed furious. "That armor is sacred!" He lifted Wither up with his paw movements and pounded him down on the ground, face up. There was nothing he could do while pinned to the ground. He tried to shift, but before he could, Obsidius raised one of his paws toward Wither. The armor sent forth a surge of strange energy that filled him up. With all the energy coursing through his body, Wither couldn't drain it from himself fast enough to work up enough nothing to shift.

Arragor held everyone in place so that they could watch. "This ends now! No more running away. You're dead." As if in slow motion, Wither watched as Arragor charged at him. His claws were extended and then sheathed in glowing crimson energy from his armor. Wither tried to shout, but was too frightened. He could only watch as Arragor leapt up into the air and soared toward him, moving in for the kill. Wither heard many people screaming and shouting in protest, but nothing could stop Arragor now.

Then the impossible happened. Arragor stopped. He didn't stop trying to kill Wither, but he did stop, in midair, actually. The surge of energy from Obsidius stopped, too. It dissipated from Wither's body as he drained it away. He got up, no longer pinned to the ground and inspected Arragor's body, frozen in midair, posed for the kill. Then he realized that it was unnaturally quiet. There was no sound coming from anywhere. Not a word was spoken, not a footfall sounded, the wind wasn't even blowing through the streets anymore.

He walked through the street and looked around. Arragor wasn't the only one who had stopped. Everyone was frozen in place. It was as if the entire world had stopped turning. He saw the elders in the sky, firing waves of fury down to crush Arragor. He saw all of his friends yelling out to the empty spot he had been pinned to. Renna was actually crying. Down the street, he saw his mother and father covered in darkness, their white eyes drilling into Arragor with pure unbridled hatred. All around, it was as if time had stopped, except for Wither. "What is this?" he asked himself in dazed wonder.

"A second chance," said a voice that sounded older than time itself.

Wither spun around, looking for the source of the voice, but saw nothing. "Who's there? What's going on?"

"I'm not your babysitter. Don't make me do this again. I normally leave everything well enough alone, but there's something special about you. I couldn't just let a holy son of N-Vor die at the paws of a power hungry traitor, flaunting around with your gift, and sporting the name of one of the most wretched beings to ever defile the land we call home."

The voice sounded profoundly old, definitely from an ancient, and it was female, too. "Who are you? And what do you mean, 'holy son of N-Vor?'"

"Don't you worry about who I am. You'll find out in time, though I do hate visitors. As for your origins, you wouldn't know now, would you? Everyone seems to have forgotten over the millennia."

"I don't understand. I'm the son of Spyro the legendary Purple Dragon and Cynder the fabled Black Dragon."

"Well, of course you are you dolt. I didn't mean literally. This is why I never talk to anyone. It's always questions, questions, questions. No one understands my meaning anymore. I have to explain every other word that comes out of my mouth." A slight pause followed these words before the voice continued in a calmer, almost dreamy sounding tone. "I have waited so long for you to come. There were times when I almost believed you never would, but here you are. You're smaller than I expected."

"Gee, thanks. Where are you?"

The voice suddenly switched back to its almost angry and huffy tone again, saying, "Haven't you been listening boy? I said later. This is one of the reasons why I hate interfering. Too many questions. Now prepare yourself. You only get a few seconds."

"A few seconds of what?"

Suddenly, the world exploded with noise and movement again. Arragor struck the ground where Wither had been, tearing huge gashes in the stone. The elders' fury waves struck the ground behind Arragor, knocking him tail over head with the shockwave. Everyone jumped in surprise as Wither instantly popped from the ground to the building where Renna was pinned. All of his friends were released when Arragor was knocked into the air and stared in confusion at Wither. Spyro and Cynder returned to normal once they saw that their son wasn't about to die like they had thought.

While everyone was distracted, Arragor and Obsidius worked together to quickly build up the energy to form a rift. They both ran through it with Xath and closed it behind them.

Everyone stood in place, looking at the spot where they disappeared. Then out of the silence, "What just happened?" Wither turned to look at Psy. He tried to answer his question, but just ended up shaking his head in confusion. He gave Psy a look that said he knew little more than everyone else. Then he was tackled by a sobbing Renna that wouldn't for the life of her let go of him.