The inside of the tree was dark. The only light came from two torches on the wall, Sparx, and a hole at the top area of the tree, out of reach. It was spewing golden sunlight.

The bark in the hole behind us suddenly grew, blocking out the entrance. I spun around, then looked back in front of me. Growths had appeared, somehow, in the tiny space. And they weren't the small variety, either, although they weren't quite adult-sized.

"Let's skip this, shall we?" I asked, taking to the air and flying up to the hole above us. Spyro and Sparx followed.

I looked up. Most of this area was dark, but there was a gape in the foliage above us. Through it, sunlight spilled in on us.

We flew over many jellyfish, stopping to rest on some. I landed on a light blue jellyfish.

"AAAAH!" I screeched as the top of it convulsed with electricity. When it finally stopped shocking me, I was out of there quickly.

We landed on another pathway, cut off because of the cliff, and continued on. About halfway down the pathway, more small Growths were here. They surrounded us, so Spyro and I had no choice but to use our fire furies to get rid of them. That put them in their place.

We crossed a fallen, dead tree and headed up onto a higher area. It led to a cliff, situation above a large lake. A sinking pirate ship was in it. It was partly on fire.

"Come on. It looks like there's some Spirit Gems down there," I said, flying over to the ship. Thankfully, there was a large cluster of all three varieties.

Once we were done absorbing the Spirit Gems, a dog dived for us. Spyro managed to sidestep his cutlass swing and knocked him overboard into the poisonous water.

"Spyro?" I asked, as the dog landed into the lake.

"Yeah?" Spyro asked.

"I miss the apes."

There were no more dogs, or any enemies for that matter, to hinder us as we continued on, up hills and through caves.

It was so dark. I preferred light areas. In the Swamp, it was always bright, and only a few places were completely overgrown with mushrooms. This grove, although resembling the Swamp in some ways, was so different. I smiled slightly. I missed that place, and Mom and Dad, to death.

Some pirates came flying around the corner. One went too fast and rammed into a tree. The tree fell over and he wasn't able to get out of the way. The others were easily killed.

Around the bend, was the final tunnel. I suddenly felt mesmerized. The tunnel seemed to be drawing me into it... I broke my gaze and exchanged glances with Spyro, falling back beside him. We headed through the mysterious tunnel and emerged on the other side.

There it was.

The tree from my dreams. It was so pretty. It was a small tree, branching out in three directions with leaf clusters at the end of the top, and it was glowing with a strange red and purple light. Leaves slowly fell from it. Moths, butterflies, and other insects flocked around.

"Is that your dumb tree? It's beautiful. Can we go now?" Sparx asked. I shot a mild glare at him.

"This feels like the right place but... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here..." Spyro said uncertainly.

"Wonderful! I'm gonna go wait over there, you know, give you a few minutes. Maybe there's a lilypad you forgot to sing on, or a rainbow you can talk to!"

Spyro and I glared at Sparx as he turned and flew over to the other side of the small area. I rolled my eyes and looked at the tree.

"Hello? I'm here! Give us a sign or... something..." Spyro said.

"Would you just get out here! I've been traipsing along all day, now DO SOMETHING!" I yelled.

In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have said that.

I jumped back as the tree roared and moved... but trees don't roar and move! It sunk into the ground. Sparx flew forward beside us, shocked at what was happening.
I squeaked as a giant wood... thing... climbed out of the water. Whatever this was, it was completely made of wood, his merely vines with wooden blocks for hands and feet on the end of them. Its eyes glowed purple, and its mouth seemed to be hinged to its face.

It roared again. I looked at Spyro, fear in my eyes. The thing was so big... it was even bigger once it stood up.

"Uh... it's my turn to pass out. You're on your own," Sparx said before fainting dead away.

"Oh, brother," Spyro said. His voice was calm, but I knew he at least had to be a little afraid. I picked up Sparx and set him by a tree, out of the way of the battle that was going to happen.

The wooden thing beat its chest like a gorilla and roared a final time. Spyro covered his face with a wing. I flinched.

"Spyro?"

"Yeah?"

"If I get out of this alive, I'm never mouthing off anyone again."

Spyro looked at me like I was insane.

The wood thing beat its chest once more for good measure. Spyro took this time to throw a few fireballs at it. It retaliated by trying to hit Spyro with his a punch from his fist. Spyro wasn't able to get out of the way, so I jumped in front of him. We were both knocked backwards, but I took the brunt of the blow.

"Stop doing that!" Spyro exclaimed.

"I'm okay, see?" I said, getting up and shaking myself off.

Spyro and I both turned to the monster and breathed fireballs at it. Mine hit it in the face. That had to hurt, right?

I managed to dodge another bunch from the thing, but just narrowly. I shrugged it off and shot a fireball. It was completely on fire now.

Spyro and I both screamed and scrambled to get behind a large rock. The monster had started to spin around, sending fireballs all over the place. It wasn't even on fire anymore.

"What the heck? !" I shouted to nobody-in-particular. I sighed and threw a fireball.

I kept breathing fireballs, and repeatedly glancing back at the place where Sparx laid. I worried that he would get hit by the wood monster's fireballs.

I sucked in my breath, and breathed a killer fireball that hit the thing right in the chest, making it stumble. I grinned triumphantly, but quickly stepped back beside Spyro when the thing beat its chest again.

I'm just gonna call him Mr. Wood Face. Less redundant.

Mr. Wood Face kicked for Spyro and I, but we jumped out of the way, dashing up onto a grassy plateau/stairstep-like area. He kept trying to hit us, but we jumped up higher onto the platforms, and he always missed. I slipped once, and just barely managed to dodge Mr. Wood Face's next punch, which completely shattered the ground I had been standing on a moment before. Finally, we made it onto higher ground where Mr. Wood Face couldn't reach us. He roared at us.

"Roaaaaaaaaaar!" I shouted back down to him.

"Okay, now you're just being silly," Spyro said, rolling his eyes.

I grinned and shrugged, breathing a fireball that missed.

Mr. Wood Face spun around, fireballs flying, but none got up to the higher place we were on. I peered over the edge to try and spot Sparx, but he was nowhere to be found. When I looked back down to where Mr. Wood Face had been previously, he was gone. All was silent.

"Where'd he go?" I asked Spyro.

"I'm not sure..." Spyro replied.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Spyro and I screamed, as Mr. Wood Face climbed up onto the place we were on, roaring all the way.

"This doesn't look good!" Spyro exclaimed, staring up at him.

We had to dodge being stepped on repeatedly. We breathed fire with all our might and main, strafing around the monster and nearly being killed many times.

Mr. Wood Face started to look a little woozy after a while. He made it quite clear he had a pain in his foot, probably caused by the fact that it was practically burned off. He lifted his foot up to his face, hopping on the other for balance.

Let me tell you, when you're big and heavy, balancing is not your strong point. Mr. Wood Face fell back into the poisoned water below, with a bellow that made my head pound and my ears ring.

Sparx, having recovered, floating up to us, staring down below at the decaying remains of the monster.

"What the—oh, you killed it. We came all this way so you could KILL IT? !" Sparx yelled.

Sparx did have a bit of a point. Maybe this 'kill every big thing you encounter' way of looking at things was getting to my head.

"Spyrooooo... Crystaaaaaaal... I am the mighty treeeeeee, calling you from across the VOIIIIIIID... journey hither and vanquish meeeee!" Sparx teased in a wavy voice.

"Yeah... I don't think I was supposed to do that..." Spyro said.

"Wait, what if that was the Chronicler?" I interrupted.

"Alas..." I looked up and glared. Another pirate was here, and he was a big one, standing tall over me. Two parrots stood on his shoulder, although they weren't quite normal parrots. They had long tails and webbed wings. One was purple, one was orange, and both had large stitches on their stomachs and were wearing eyepatches.

"The purple dragons have been wandering lost in the Ancient Grove. You've been quite a nuisance to us..." the orange parrot continued. The big pirate grunted something incoherent and nodded.

"Whoa! What's with the gurgling nitwit?" Sparx asked.

"If I were you, I'd shut my mouth! I'm not gonna say it again!" the purple parrot yelled at Sparx.

"Hey! If I were you—" I began, but Spyro gave me a look that settled me down.

"Sparx, Crystal, maybe you should stay out of this one," Spyro suggested.

"Yes, mind yourself. To answer your earlier question... no! That isn't the Chronicler, whoever that is. That was Arborick! And he was going to be the main attraction in out tournament! But now it's ruined..." the orange parrot muttered.

"Gosh, I really feel bad about that..." Spyro said, glancing suspiciously at the parrots and the pirate.

"Oh, really, no need for remorse. You'll do just fine..." the orange parrot said.

"What does he mean by that?" Sparx asked.

Suddenly, Spyro got hit by the blunt side of the pirate, who I assume what the captain's, sword. Unable to sustain a blow like that, he passed out.

Angered, I yelled out and tackled the captain. The two birds fluttered off onto a tree. The purple one yelled at me, but I ignored him and went for the dog's throat. He managed to push me off, though, and swung at me, but I backed away. I had only done a little damage.

The purple parrot flew up to me. "Fool, you just made a big mistake!"

I snapped at him and managed to grab his tail in my teeth. He tried to fly away, but I held him, finally letting go. He went flying.

The orange parrot flew up to reprimand me, but I snapped my teeth together with a quiet click and jerked forward ever so slightly, bluffing. He flew away.

More pirates suddenly appeared on-scene. I fought them off, but I ran out of breath energy after the fight, so could only melee them. I regained enough magic to shoot a fireball that killed one, rammed two off the edge of a cliff, and meleed one to death. The rest I only knocked back. The captain sneaked up behind me as I was fighting a pirate and hit me with his sword. I was knocked out as Spyro had been, but at least I had killed a few of the pirates.

Moral of the chapter: Don't mess with Crystal.