Chapter 14: the greatest honour of all
Upon the sunrise of the third day that Spyro, Cynder and Darkspyro had been imprisoned on the pirate fleet that Darkcynder had sold them to, an escort comprising of two humans unlocked the door to Spyro and Cynder's cell. Gesturing for the pair to come with them, they took the two dragons down the hall.
"So, how are you two doing?" asked one of the pirates.
The question caught Spyro off guard. "Oh… we're ok, aren't we Cyn?" replied Spyro, looking over to her. The black dragoness looked just as surprised.
The pirates picked up on this and laughed. "I'm sorry, your view of humans must be slightly tweaked though, I suppose. But I have to tell you now, we're only civilised beings, just like you are. Judging us simply by the fact that the only humans that you've met have been scouting parties is a bad thing to do."
"He's right," the other pirate butted in "For us, honour comes from arranged combat. It is considered noble beyond anything else to compete in the arena, especially in tournaments. The only interests of those who arrange these honourable events are that the winner of each one will receive as much appreciation and honour for competing as they deserve, so each combatant must be mighty enough to reward the others with a great victory if he is defeated by one of them. Not only this, but it is expressly against the rules of combat for humans to fight each other in such a tournament, so scouting parties have to go down from our ships onto the islands below in order to find these combatants. Such a pirate will be rewarded handsomely for going to such an effort to find these warriors."
At this point Spyro was actually beginning to understand why the pirates went to such lengths to find them, and so was Cynder.
"But what really matters," the first pirate continued "Is the fact that some pirates have become corrupt, and no longer care about the well being of such warriors, not taking care of them as they would another human but instead seeking them to capture, so they may take less time to take them back here and more time finding even more in the same way. The purpose of this, in their eyes, is purely to receive a greater number of rewards in a shorter space of time."
The dragons now realised why these pirates were so civilised and the others weren't. The others had been mercenaries.
"So how are you?" asked Cynder, now in a more social mood.
"We're fine, yeah. Might be competing in the arena ourselves soon, eh Jack?" the second human nodded in agreement. "Actually we just got promoted. We've got a team of fifteen apes each at our beck and call. But I've heard a lot about you two in the past four or five years, so when jack and I heard that someone had brought you in for the tournament, neither of us could resist applying to be your escorting team."
The four of them smiled at each other and laughed. As they came to the combatant entry area, the two pirates wished them luck. "Oh, and I'm Sam by the way, Samson Wyvernshedder. We have reserved seats between the cannons on the right side of the arena. Good luck!"
And with that, the pairs departed.