Chapter 14

To Dragon's Peak

Spyro stood on the balcony of the treehouse, his mind still on Cynder and where she might be. It was still hard for him to think of where she might have been taken.

But his best guess was that she'd been imprisoned by Vathek. He hoped it was the right guess; he also hoped it didn't turn out like last time.

It was right at that moment he heard the flapping of wings. He saw Whirlwind coming towards him. Her face was alive with both glee and excitement, although she was not smiling.

"Spyro, Stealth Elf's back!" she said. "And she has a whole lot of good news, from what I've been told, and something that might scare you a little."

Spyro flew off behind her. "What do you mean, scare me?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she said. "But that's what Stealth Elf told me. I'm scared already just hearing that. What about you?"

Spyro didn't answer. He just wanted to know what had happened and what was about to happen.

When they arrived there near the Core, they found Stealth Elf in the healing tent getting a wound on her side patched up by Cali. A whole group of Elves were near her. The oldest-looking one was the one Spyro took to be the leader.

"What happened?" Spyro asked her.

"I'll explain it," she said. "These are the Elves from my part of the Life Realm. There are over 100, just so you know. And this is their leader." The older Elf nodded at Spyro. "And she is also my mother."

Spyro saw Whirlwind's eyes widen, but he wasn't too surprised. He only smiled at her.

"I'm glad I've finally met you, young one," Stealth Elf's mother said. "My daughter has told me much about you. And I am sorry that you cannot find your mate, but I am sure that we will find her soon." She smiled brightly at him.

"Thank you," Spyro said. He turned back to Stealth Elf. "So I guess that means you received no information about Cynder while you were there?"

"Unfortunately, no. But I did find something out that might be very crucial to this upcoming battle," she told him.

"What's the whole story?" Whirlwind asked.

"When I was near my home, I found some soldiers who were talking of us. They said that we had 8 strong members," she started explaining. "They mentioned you, Sunburn, Whirlwind, Camo, and me. And then they also mentioned Hex and how she nearly vanquished the monster known as the Dark Master. I don't know what to believe when it comes to that. And then there was the one last name they spoke of. And I can't believe what they said, adding her name with 'worst of all.'"

"Who was it?" Whirlwind asked, although she could already see who it might be.

"They said Cynder's name after saying 'worst of all,' and that's something that I just couldn't take! Cynder's so nice, and yet they were talking about her as if she was nothing!"

Spyro couldn't speak for a minute or two. But then he recovered and started again. "Well, let's get to that later," he said. "How did it all go when you arrived in your village? Did the soldiers get there before you could?"

"No. When I arrived, I had time to speak with my mother before one of the villagers yelled out that the soldiers had arrived. But when they did, they brought enhanced soldiers along with them. I was able to stop those they sent at me, although I did get this wound. One of them clawed me as I got out of the way, unfortunately."

"Did something happen after that?" Sunburn asked, coming up from behind Spyro and Whirlwind. Sonic Boom was with him, as was Camo, who took his place by Whirlwind.

"Yes," Stealth Elf said. "After the enhanced soldiers were dead, a few of the soldiers who weren't too scared of me came and played a recording. You're really not going to like this one. It was a recording of Kaos; he's joined forces with Vathek, and will remain with him during the battle. The recording told us of that, and then he said that if we manage to defeat him, he has something else in store for us. When he finished, there was this terrible roaring sound, as if a monster was with him."

Spyro didn't know what to make of the last part. A roaring noise that seemed to belong to a monster? None of it made any sense to him.

"How is that possible?" Sunburn exclaimed. "There's no way that's possible! How could Kaos have a monster with him, other than Vathek? We need to learn more? Is there someone we can send after Vathek or send out to find Kaos and see what they might be able to tell us?"

"No," Spyro told him sternly. "We can't do that. If we do that, then there is a very possible chance that they won't be able to escape, and we'll be one valuable member short. I need to make sure that we have every member of our team. Has the Underworld come just yet?"

"No," Hex answered. "But I talked to them earlier. They'll be coming up tomorrow. And then on Wednesday, we'll be there in Dragon's Peak, fighting against Vathek and Kaos."

"Yes, but we need to be there by tomorrow to be ready for the armies opposing us. We need to protect Ramses from his half-brother. Do you all understand me?" Spyro looked around at the Skylanders who had gathered and the Elves. They nodded. "Good. I'm going back to my treehouse to prepare. If you need me, just come there, okay? Tell the others of what's happening and what will be happening!"

As he left, Sonic Boom felt tears coming to her eyes, realizing who the roar had belonged to. She felt worse than ever now. She'd failed.

She'd allowed Cynder to leave and be corrupted by Kaos, and now he was planning something with her. She just hoped none of the others would have to deal with it

I'm so sorry, Cyn, she thought. When I find you, and after I return you to normal, I hope you'll forgive me for what I did.

She looked over her shoulder and saw that Whirlwind and Camo were staring at her with mystified expressions on their faces. She could tell that they were wondering why she was about to cry. But she couldn't tell them. It wouldn't help either them or her.

"Is something wrong?" Camo asked.

"Yeah, are you okay?" Whirlwind said. "If you're thinking about us having not found Cynder yet, then don't worry; we will find her soon, I'm sure. If you ask me, Kaos probably kidnapped her and drugged her. As terrible as it makes me feel just to think of that, it's my best guess. But we will find her. Neither you, Spyro, or anyone else needs to worry."

"I know," Sonic Boom said quietly. "I just need to be alone for a little while. It's hard for me to think of her being gone."

"I know what you mean," Camo replied. "She's a great friend."

Sonic Boom smiled through her veil of coming tears and then flew off, leaving Camo and Whirlwind there to wonder.

Meanwhile Spyro was looking at his armor. He would be needing it for the battle. He'd laid it all out. But next to it was Cynder's. He couldn't take his mind off her. It was too hard to imagine his mate being gone from him. As long as it didn't turn out last time, though, that was all that mattered.

Trying not to fully think of the last time, he returned to putting his armor in a satchel, which he would bring with him to Dragon's Peak.

Hearing the sounds of someone landing on his balcony, he turned around to see Sunburn.

"Sunburn, what is it?" he asked.

"You might want to see this," he said. "It's not something normal, let me warn you."

Spyro picked up the satchel and flew out of the treehouse, Sunburn next to him. When they arrived at the Core, Spyro realized a whole army of skeletons and other Undead soldiers were coming towards them. Spyro didn't know what to do.

"Don't worry," he heard Whirlwind say from behind. He turned around to look at her. "They're the Undead soldiers Sunburn and I got to help us in the battle. They deserve it, if you ask me, especially after that mayor was killed."

Spyro nodded, understanding it more now.

When the largest of the skeletons appeared, Spyro guessed he was their leader.

"Hello," Spyro greeted.

"Hello," the skeleton replied back in a deep, manly voice. "My name is Spike. I am the leader of this army, and I have heard much of the Skylanders. Are you their leader?"

"Yes," Spyro said. "I am glad you are here. I have heard about what happened down in the Underworld. I am very sorry about that."

"Let us not speak of that," Spike said. "Let us join together instead and fight against our enemy. When is that we leave?"

"We're planning on leaving tomorrow, although it might be best today, just to be safe," Spyro explained. He realized some of the Skylanders around him had shocked expressions. "It's best to do this so Vathek does not come too close to Ramses before we arrive. And with Kaos involved now, it's much more dangerous, unfortunately. But we do have an army, just as they do, and Ramses will give us more soldiers to fight on our side. We need to do this, and we need to do it now! The fate of Dragon's Peak is in the balance! If we don't stop Vathek and Kaos now, we might as well kiss the freedom and peace here in Skylands goodbye!"

The other Skylanders realized he was right.

"Now, let's get over there, and when we arrive, we need to see what more we can do for the inhabitants and the soldiers. Are we missing anyone?"

Gill Grunt stepped up. "We were missing some, but they just arrived by boat, truth be told," he said. He pointed over to the beach, where hundreds of the Gillmen were standing.

Spyro realized his mouth was hanging open. He quickly closed it. "Okay, go and get them up here. I need to speak one last time, and when that's over, we're going on our way!" he commanded.

Gill Grunt did as he was told, and less than five minutes later, the Gillmen stood there, watching Spyro intently, some of them with expressionless faces and some with faces full of emotion.

"Okay!" Spyro yelled out, letting everyone in his midst know he was talking. "We are ready to leave, but first, I need all those who belong to another Realm to be with their leader! To clear it up, Skylanders will be with me, the Arkeyans with Omega, the Gillmen with your leader, the Underworld with yours, and so on. When we arrive at Dragon's Peak, we will join with Ramses' army, and by then we should be the largest army of warriors I've ever seen."

The Core of Light suddenly released a blast of energy at a large tree not far from it. A portal appeared, and Spyro knew it would take them to Dragon's Peak.

Cali was the one who'd activated the Core to make the portal. She was coming with them, while Hugo and Flynn would be staying behind.

Spyro knew he hadn't told most of them that he believed Cynder was gone, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to allow them to know, although he realized had noticed her absence.

Finding her was something Spyro wanted more than peace for Dragon's Peak. He wanted her back more than he wanted to stop Vathek and Kaos.

He and the Skylanders went through the portal, followed by the other armies from the other Realms.

Spyro found himself next to Sunburn on his right and Whirlwind on his left. Whirlwind smiled at Spyro, as she too knew how much he wanted Cynder. The smile was to assure him that they'd find her soon.

As they exited the portal, Spyro allowed his jaw to drop this time. He admired the beauty of the Realm, although he realized that soon it would all be ravaged by war, by fire and blood.

Trying to keep that fact out of his mind, Spyro and the others continued on towards the castle, where they would wait until the battle.