Call of the Ancestors
Chapter 20: To the Isle
Bright light.
The barriers were drawn away and the gate began to rise, revealing the bright light of day into the purple dragon's eyes. A roar echoed through the courtyard that graced his vision as the glare faded. An arena of a Fellmuth fortress.
"Not this again…" he mumbled under his breath.
He'd been here before, over a decade prior. Here he was again, just on the other side of the arena. These were not competitions that he enjoyed being a part of. The stands were blanketed with pirates, scoundrels, outlaws and all sorts of other undesirables. The Defenders had been under the impression that the Fellmuth and their arenas had been scattered to the wind with the stabilization missions that had been undertaken after the end of the Malefic War. Apparently they had missed one.
The roar of the crowds grew even higher as the Director stepped fully out into the light. He could make out some calls for "Blood!" and "Death to the Defenders!" among less savory language being tossed his way.
Some motion above Spyro, from what seemed to be the commander's observation box. A large Fellmuth dressed in rather ornate scoundrel's clothing stepped out and rose both of his hands, then quickly shoved them down. Another echo of applause deafened Spyro's ears from the gathered crowd. This had to be the initiation signal. Across from Spyro, two more large gates of wrought iron slowly opened with a metallic creaking. The Dragon made his way onto the large open space, his eyes fixated on the gates, from which his opponents would emerge.
An almost...eerie silence came from the far right gate. All the purple dragon could hear was the sound of large footfalls. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Slowly, a massive form of a towering creature came out from the shadows. A large, towering stone man. Two glowing eyes bore into Spyro's from across the yard. A Stone Colossus. From the other gate...red scales?
Miarko gave the man a wink, much to the bewilderment of the Director. Gasps and confusion arose from the crowd, this was clearly not on the fight itinerary for the day. What was initially confusion and shock began to become replaced by anger and aggression. Some of the pirates from the stands were jumping down from the ledge now, not seeing it sufficient to just spectate anymore.
The two warriors spared a look at each other, giving each other a quick smile, and sprinted into action. Spyro quickly stomped his forepaws down on the ground. An earth shockwave sent a tremor through the yard, straight in the direction of some of the scoundrels and the Stone Colossus. Several of the men were sent flying up into the air and then quickly landed back on the ground, some of them being knocked unconscious. Miarko had taken flight into the air around the yard, and was sending fireball after fireball into the crowds of rioting pirates. One of their tails caught on fire; the woman that had been ignited was sent screaming into the tunnels behind them. The Fire Captain grinned, and quickly turned his attention to the Colossus.
The towering stone construct took two slow swipes at the flying dragon, but the Captain was easily able to avoid these. However, his repeated attempts at firing elemental attacks at the stone man seemed to have no effect. Swearing under his breath, the young dragon landed near to Spyro and used his tail blade to whack a pirate in the chest, then quickly sent his claws across his throat, killing the scoundrel.
Turning to Spyro just after launching another fireball at the Colossus, he grimaced, "Any ideas, Director?"
Spyro backed up, then slammed his paws down again, seeking to send another destructive earth shockwave in the direction of the towering construct. The stone man staggered for a moment, but then kept approaching; the shockwaves seemed to have little effect.
The Director swore under his breath himself, quickly wracking his brain for any ideas of attacks that could harm a giant stone man. Without a moment lost, he snapped his claws together, an idea forming.
Turning to Miarko, he nodded, then motioned his head towards the stone giant, "Keep him off me for just a few more moments!"
Without any dissent or acknowledgement, the Fire Captain leapt into the air and began flying circles around the Colossus, sending useless flares at the creature to keep its vision occupied. It growled in anger at the almost gnat-like presence of the warrior and took more slow swipes at him, to no real harm.
Spyro closed his eyes, summoning a great deal of earth energy in his body. After just a few moments, he slammed his paws down on the ground with enough force to level mountains. The Earth around him began to rumble. The floor of the arena below the stone giant began to crumble and sent it falling to the ground. The force of the impact shattered part of its leg, then its chest, then its head. The glowing eyes quickly faded at the final impact and the construct was quickly left to the ground, motionless.
Miarko landed near to the Director and whistled, clearly impressed. Without any words exchanged between the two, they flew up to the platform where they'd seen the captain of the vessel.
He was not alone, though. As the two reached the ledge they found the Fellmuth, tossing something blue aside. Spyro recognised the unconscious form of Sethelis, having been knocked out completely. His eyes went back to the pirate captain, and saw that before she had been struck down Sethelis had managed to wound her target, judging by the seeping cuts and claw-marks the pirate now sported across his neck and upper shoulder. Evidently it had not been enough, since the Skav was still eager to fight. The pirate already held a sword in one hand, and seemingly with no other thought, quickly lashed out towards the two dragons. Miarko bolted to the captain's left, whilst Spyro took to the right. The enemy once again raised his sword, but there was a moment of hesitation. Fire crackled from the maw of the Fire captain, and Spyro made sure to capitalize on the indecisiveness of their opponent by shooting out a jolt of electricity, striking the held aloft blade, which in turn transmitted straight into the Captain's arm and effectively stunned the pirate in place, his muscles locking up mid-strike. The smell of burning fur filled the air, and became even more potent when Miarko let loose a fiery inferno. The flames made quick work of the canine's clothing, quickly reaching the swiftly burning layer of fur covering the pirate's body. Soon enough, there was a pungent stench of burnt meat. Once the captain dropped with a loud thud, the Director and Captain turned to their comrade.
"So, Miarko… When exactly did you get aboard?" Spyro asked as he proceeded to try and haul the unconscious Sethelis onto his back.
"Not...not long ago," the Captain replied with little interest, the man's eyes squarely focused on the unconscious form of his partner.
As the two made themselves ready to leave, spreading their wings and taking to the sky, they saw the fire slowly spreading across the wooden box and further out onto the spectator stands.
Once in the air Spyro took notice of the Captain's worry. "She is fine, surely." He tried reassuringly, making a mental note to bring this up later, both with the two of them when Sethelis were to wake up. And with Cynder.
The Fire Captain didn't respond, his eyes somewhere else. Something was haunting the man about the mission. Spyro chose not to respond, instead focusing his eyes on the horizon, towards the far away vision of the White Isle. The towering plume of smoke trailed behind them, another Malefic ruin going up in smoke.
The sun was setting upon the horizon, sending shades of orange across the lands. The three dragons had reached their final guaranteed rest before their journey would come to a close. Spyro looked to his left, and then his right. Coastline as far as his eyes could see. And in front of them? The ocean.
Sethelis had still not awoken from her unconscious state, and Miarko had offered to carry her for a while, giving the Purple dragon time to set up their camp.
"We better hope she wakes up soon, or this final part will become much harder," He told the Fire dragon, whom had put the third member of their little group down in one of their tents.
"We are going to fly longer and further than anything you two probably ever have done before. And the worst part is… Well," Spyro looked down, sighing, "I have to admit that we might face our deaths out there. I do not know for how long we will need to fly, nor if there will be any islands along the way where food and water will be enough to sustain all three of us." His gaze went up to meet the red dragon in front of him. "And if she doesn't come back to her senses soon we will have to use our red gem supply to just wake Sethelis up."
Miarko continued to stare down at the unconscious form of his partner. He was hiding his emotions well, but it was easy to see the concern in the man's eyes. It wasn't immediately clear to Spyro whether this was of professional concern...or personal. Either way, Miarko didn't respond, almost seeming as if he was in a trance.
"Miarko? Are you even listening to me?" Spyro snapped at Miarko, attempting to get the Captain's attention, a frown slowly creeping onto the Purple hero's face. "Captain!"
The Fire Dragon's eyes snapped up, and he cleared his throat, "Director, yes, I heard you. Going to kill ourselves flying across the ocean, got it."
Spyro sighed, "You do know that staring at her will not make her wake up quicker, so it might be better if you pay attention to what I am saying instead. Or helping me find some wood for a fire, that'd be good too," The Director suggested, motioning towards the sparse vegetation haphazardly growing across the rather barren land surrounding them. "Anything will do as long as it will last. I will keep an eye on her if that helps to reassure you."
Miarko responded with a light sigh, nodded, and picked himself up off the ground. He headed out across the shore, heading towards a more thick area of vegetation within a short walking distance.
Whilst the Captain was gone, Spyro rummaged through his own pack, picking up a simple small pouch, which suddenly seemed drawn towards the unconscious dragoness, glowing a vibrant red. Upon opening the bag, the healing gems floated from their hiding place and turned into magic, healing the unconscious Shadow.
"What was it Cynder and I told you two…?" Spyro murmured to himself, dropping the small pouch back into his pack.
He sat down onto his haunches, looking back out over the horizon again. He had to admit that it felt slightly unreal, the prospect of meeting Ignitus again. He had hardly believed it when he had been told the first time, nor did he fully believe it now, despite having traveled across massive distances even by flight standards, and soon potentially to his own death.
"This would not be the first time I chase dreams and visions, I suppose," He thought aloud, tucking his wings close to his body, "Let's just hope that you really are out there somewhere."
He ended his train of thought, looking back down to the unconscious dragoness. The red gems had done their part, but she still was bruised and, judging by how long she had been out, had probably taken some nasty blow to her head. Her breathing was steady, so with his limited knowledge of non-magical healing Spyro estimated that simply letting her rest would be for the best for now. He just hoped that she'd wake up sooner rather than later.
After some time alone with the still unconscious Seth, Spyro heard their friend returning. "Ah, got some firewood?"
The man nodded, retrieving some wood and small flammable scrap from his pack. He quickly knelt down and began working on setting up the items in a way that they would catch fire and persist for some time.
The Captain motioned with his head towards the Shadow and sighed, "Any progress since we left the fortress?"
Spyro shook his head, "Besides some healing gems? Not much. All we can do now is wait." he admitted, before aiding with lighting the fire by puffing out some flame himself, "But now when we've got this fire going we're pretty much set for the night."
Miarko nodded and remained kneeling, finishing up the fire setup with one more movement. Breathing him for a moment, he exhaled, a small flame emitting from his maw. Immediately, the wood and scrap caught flame and roared in ignition. The Fire Captain leaned back and sat down fully. The two men sat in silence for some time, the only noise between them being the short, gasped breaths coming from Sethelis' maw.
Eventually, Miarko's voice again broke the silence, "What do you know of this...place we're going to, Director?"
"Very little, admittedly," Spyro answered at first, focusing onto the flames between them, "It is an island far away from everything and everyone, where the sand is as white as marble, where the laws of time and space don't apply like they do everywhere else. A heap of ruins and rubble, but at the same time a testament to timeless stone architecture that will last for eons. And books, lots and lots of books," The purple hero finished.
Looking back up, he continued, "Can you imagine a library so large that it keeps one tome for every dragon who has ever lived, and will ever live? Just try to fathom that for a moment. It is… Incredible."
The other man nodded at first, but then eventually shook his head, "Sounds almost unbelievable," he chuckled, "If you didn't have personal experience with it, I'd assume that it wasn't believable."
The Fire dragon laughed again and shook his head, "Gods. Possession. Cults. If you'd told me all of this would be happening five, ten years ago...would've throttled you. Never thought my career would come this way. Of course," he trailed off for a moment, looking up at the Director with a grin, "This stuff is probably all second nature to you and the Director by now."
Spyro let loose a little laugh in response, just a small one, "Oh, what I wouldn't give to wish I could say "No" to that statement," He said, a smile lingering on his maw when he spoke, "The amount of things Cynder and I had to do just to seemingly get this world to even function as if there was some form of normalcy around here is enough for five lifetimes."
The Director looked over at Miarko, and then down to Sethelis, "And now we have gone and drawn you two into this mess with us, even if something is telling me that you really do not mind it all too much, do you?" The purple Hero questioned, even sending a sly wink the Captain's way.
Miarko laughed lightly and looked down, shaking his head, "My life has been a long series of conflicts, struggles and more struggles."
His eyes passed down to Sethelis once more, "She's been a good working partner, and even a good friend, Director. I might not know much of her just yet, but she fights like no other Shadow I've dealt with and has been more than capable of running her platoon. It's more than a little bit impressive."
The man spoke with fondness in his voice, perhaps too much of it, but the Purple Dragon decided not to push the issue any further. For now.
"I'm afraid I don't know much of your career before you joined the Defenders, Captain," Spyro spoke, changing the subject away from the slumbering Shadow, "Or much of your background and life even while you have been with us."
Miarko stroked his chin at the question, "You know the story of my family," Spyro nodded at this, "As for everything else, it's just been a lot of clean up work and simple protection drills."
The man sighed, shaking his head again, "Thought the Dark Times had ended when you and Cynder took down the Dark Master. We settled into complacency. What was the worst that we had to deal with in the last ten years? Some small bandit raids, a few periods of instability? Nothing like this, nothing like that. We weren't prepared for this."
Spyro moved his paws, one over the other, "There is much you don't talk about, isn't there, Captain? What aren't you telling us?"
Miarko waved a paw, "It really doesn't matter, Director."
The Director stared at him, but shook his head, "Whatever demons you are dealing with Captain, I hope you can conquer them. You're a good soldier, regardless of whatever else is going through your head."
Miarko looked away and laughed, "More than you could ever know."
"You do know that if you need to talk to anyone about anything, now would be the chance. Something tells me that this might just be the last bit of calm we will have in a long time." The Purple hero said, looking back out over the horizon. "We'll need clear heads for what lies ahead, after all."
The Fire Captain sighed, his head quickly returning to look downwards, "This isn't something I've even considered talking about before now. Not since it happened," the man shook his head, his head returning to face Spyro, his eyes light and emotional, "What's it been since the end of the actual Reclamation Campaigns? Five, six years?"
Spyro nodded. "Almost seven by now. Time flies." He spoke, sighing lightly before looking up to the red dragon. "I take it something happened?"
"I'm surprised that none of you ever found out," he chuckled for a moment, clearly more out of stress than anything, "I suppose I wanted privacy with it, but none of the papers, none of you, ever found out."
He looked Spyro straight in the eyes.
"I had a life mate once. Her name was Keesha," he spoke, emotion in his eyes.
"Heh, now that is… Honestly surprising." The purple hero admitted, tilting his head slightly as he looked towards Miarko. "I assume your infamous reputation came out of… Her loss, perhaps?"
Miarko shook his head, the fires dancing upon his eyes, "She died giving birth to my son."
This revelation actually caused a surprised reaction from Spyro, whom simply burst out with a "What!?" before taking a moment to compose himself, "I-... I am so sorry to hear that. Did the hatchling at least…?"
Miarko's eyes returned to the Purple Dragon, deep wells of sadness. The answer immediately became clear.
"I see," Was all that Spyro said, at least for a few more minutes of silence, "But why does thoughts of them come up now, if you don't mind me asking?"
The young man sighed and shook his head, "Because a young man who thought he knew everything, only has continued to make mistakes."
"Ah. And you take it this mistake will have… Dire consequences once more?" Spyro replied, having raised a purple eyeridge in what could only be described as a pondering frown. The implications were there, but…
Miarko shook his head, "I've made mistakes, Director, too many to count. My attempt to cope with this horrible tragedy has made me into a man that I barely recognize. One that I cannot appreciate."
Spyro sighed slightly. What he saw before him wasn't Miarko, Captain of the 17th. This was a broken dragon who shouldn't be in charge of anything until he could get his life back together.
"And you haven't looked for any help? Just tried to cope on your own?" the dragon asked.
He nodded his head, "I am...receiving help. But sometimes it is not entirely sufficient. I have...relapses, I suppose you would call them."
"And during these relapses, I take it that this is what has eventually… Grown to such a high tally?" Spyro asked in response, trying to lightly tread out on thin ice to find out more.
The Fire Drago rubbed the back of his head, sighing, "Perhaps that's the best way to put it, yes."
"Hmm… And, if you don't mind me asking, who is it that is helping you out?" Spyro then questioned, giving a smile as to show his genuine compassion. Or maybe just to mask the fact that he indeed is prying.
Miarko shook his head again, as if he was battling with his own inhibition.
Finally he chose to speak, "Lady Ifrit and Captain Sethelis."
Spyro's smile did… Not leave his maw, no. He kept it there, for it was genuine.
"At the same time?" Was all the Purple hero asked, "And before you say anything, I cannot guarantee that Cynder will not find out. But one thing I can reassure you about is that I won't be taking action as long as I don't hear about any of this.. Well. "Obstructing" mission objectives."
The Captain laughed once, a genuine one, but nothing further, "Despite what the Madame Director thinks, it hasn't, and won't."
"You've got guts, Miarko. I'll give you that. Here you are, under the nose of two of the… No, three of the most powerful women in our entire nation, and you are somehow still alive, and not neutered," Spyro jokingly commented, reaching over and nudging the Fire dragon's side with a wing, "I honestly am impressed with how long you have been able to play this game."
Miarko looked away from the Lord Director, "I wish I didn't play it. I'd give anything to…" he trailed off, but the point was clear.
"I suppose you have a hard time to find someone who is worthy of Keesha's place?"the Director asked lightly.
Miarko looked out onto the ocean, looking across the sea, in the direction of the lost White Isle.
"I just want my family back."
AN: Mike here. Yes, I'm actually going to type one of these things for once. Our schedules finally linked up a bit better, so here's a chapter a little faster for you! Hope you enjoyed the work here, and we'll see you again soon!