Change of Heart

As Gnasty Gnorc intensely watched the small green dragon pull something out of her bag, he became rather curious. She acted as if she treasured the crude little bowl. Why? He'd seen much fancier dishware left in the junkyard to rust. What made that simple thing so special? Before he could think of an answer, she set down the bowl and peered inside her bag. What else was inside it?

After a moment the dragon returned the bowl, closed the bag, and hugged it almost protectively. Gnasty narrowed his eyes in suspicion. She must be hiding something, he thought before noticing her depressed expression. Then he became confused. What a strange dragon. He hadn't ever known of one so... weak before. Even the few other Magic Crafters he'd met would have spent this time scheming a way to escape. They were crafty beasts. Maybe that was it. She was trying to make him think she wasn't a threat, all while plotting something.

Occasionally she would glance at him, then quickly look away again; exactly what a guilty creature would do. He thought he even caught the glint of tears in her eyes. She was good. Her act was so convincing, anyone could fall for it. He knew better though. She wasn't going to trick him into letting his guard down. What about sharing her food? Or waking him up from his nightmare? Those seemed like unnecessarily sincere actions to fake.

Ha! What was he thinking? They had to be part of her plan. Or were they...? What if she was being truly kind? If that was the case then maybe he had been too quick to judge all dragons by the behavior of the few he'd interacted with in his life... Nah, couldn't be. They were all just pompous, greedy, prissy lizards.

At some point, the green dragon managed to doze off, still clutching her bag securely. Gnasty relaxed a bit but continued to watch her and ponder back and forth weather some dragons might not be as awful as he thought. He did so for the rest of the night and into the early morning hours before he himself dozed off again too.

Day 4...

About midmorning, Ripto ordered Gnasty to bring the dragon to his throne room again in order for them to make duplicates of her collar. He had asked him why they didn't just make new ones, but Ripto's response was that a duplication spell would be much easier and faster. Perhaps he was right, but he hadn't needed to be so snarky about it. With an aggravated snort, the gnorc led the dragon by her chain along the same path to the throne room he had the day before.

Outside the room, he glanced back at her and immediately wished he hadn't. She looked like a frightened dog; tail curled between her legs and sulking along low to the ground. His thoughts from the night before came rushing back to his mind and he felt a tiny odd sensation in his chest that caused him to frown and his eyes to droop solemnly. His pace slowed almost to a stop before he shook off the feeling and continued forward to enter the chamber.

"Good, you're here. Place the dragon in the center there, and we'll begin," Ripto snapped impatiently and indicated to the middle of the room in front of himself and the Sorceress.

Gnasty wanted to blurt something out in return, but chose not to and did as he was commanded. His fist that held the end of the chain clenched tightly. He was really trying his hardest to get along with the riptoc so they could all get their plans over with and he would never have to see the short red dinosaur again. Hopefully.

When he'd led his charge to the designated spot and dropped the chain, he took up a position opposite her from the others so that the three villains formed a triangle surrounding her. First the Sorceress, and then Ripto started chanting the words of a spell. Gnasty caught on to them pretty quickly and joined in at the next verse. He noticed that the dragon stood still as a statue and stared wide-eyed at the other two villains as he did so. As far as he could tell, the glowing magic particles that swirled around her weren't hurting her in any way and the others' attentions weren't on her directly, so he wasn't quite sure what she was so scared of. None of the guards or their weapons were close by either.

With his mind so distracted, his tongue slipped and he spoke the wrong word for the spell. Instantly the magic dissipated and he found his colleagues glaring at him.

"Can you stop being such an idiot for once and concentrate for just a few minutes?" Ripto growled rhetorically.

The Sorceress just frowned and lifted her staff in preparation to restart the spell. Gnasty grunted in response but otherwise did not apologize. He was growing very tired of allowing Ripto the satisfaction of ordering him around and treating him lesser than himself.

"Let's try that again, correctly this time," The Sorceress said and started up the spell again.

Ripto joined in shortly after her, followed by Gnasty. The magic swirled up again and soon the collar around the dragon's neck started to glow with a pinkish light. When Gnasty noticed that detail, he also spotted that the dragon's demeanor was considerably less scared. Instead, she looked at him and with pity in her eyes. This caused him to lose concentration again and his next word came out garbled.

"Arrrg! You useless buffoon!" Ripto yelled, now furious. Then he suddenly pointed his scepter at Gnasty and fired a blast of energy at him.

It wouldn't have done much damage to him if it had hit, especially with his armor on. However, in an emerald and turquoise blur, the green dragon leaped up and intercepted the magic bolt. It flung her several feet away, where she flopped on the polished stone floor. Somehow, her little bag remained strapped around her chest.

Gnasty was dumbfounded. He almost didn't hear Ripto continuing to rage at him. The dragon had taken a hit for him! That was definitely not something someone would do if they were acting unless they were outright crazy or dumb.

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Ripto screamed at him, angry his shot hadn't hit his intended target.

Gnasty snapped out of his shocked state and decided it was probably best to leave. Shooting one last glance at the dragon, who seemed to be standing up, he turned and hurried out the throne room doorway. He headed all the way back to the dungeon, feeling the same odd chest ache from before along with more confusion and some irritation at Ripto. When he got back to the dragon's cell, he slammed the barred door shut in frustration, then plopped on the floor to sulk. The harpixes in the surrounding cells shied away.

Back in the throne room, the Sorceress brushed imaginary dirt from her chest.

"Don't worry. We only really needed him for the extra energy anyway. We can just use her for a power boost. I'll gladly do the honors," The Sorceress stated, then waved her hand and a pinkish bubble formed around Stella. A moment later, the dragon inside it writhed in pain and the Sorceress smiled. Pity, she couldn't hear her scream.

Ripto took a few moments to calm himself, then proceeded to attempt the spell once more. With her free hand still keeping up the draining bubble, The Sorceress used her wand hand to join Ripto's enchantment. An exhilarating amount of power coursed into her from the dragon, which she then channeled into the collar around the beast's neck. In just a few minutes time, she and Ripto easily finished the spell and had a pile of collars to show for it. Once they were satisfied, The Sorceress dispelled the bubble and then snapped her fingers to make Stella vanish from the throne room, only to reappear inside her closed and locked cell within the dungeon.

Her sudden appearance caused Gnasty to jump but he quickly recovered and moved so that he could study her more. He was a bit disgusted with himself to find he was actually relieved at seeing her in one piece. However, she had sacrificed her own safety for that of his own; probably the kindest thing someone could do for another. A dragon, being nice to him!

Furrowing his brows and scowling a moment, Gnasty thought hard about his new situation. Then he finally sighed. He was officially convinced that she wasn't like the dragons he knew. She really was being nice to him. He didn't understand why though, especially after everything he had done to her kind, but it was sort of nice; having someone not treat you like a gross dumb monster.

So, what now? After disappointing Ripto and The Sorceress so much, he doubted they would include him in any further important tasks. They probably didn't even care about his goals and plans for the Dragon Realms now. Well, fine! Maybe he didn't want to help them anymore either! They treated him no better than the dragons did. Maybe then he should do the opposite of helping them, and help his new friend instead! Wait, friend? Was she his friend? Was this what it was like to have a friend?

Gnasty mulled over the word. It felt very foreign to him but as he stared at the dragon, she glanced up and smiled slightly in his direction before returning her sad gaze to the floor. Then he decided he liked the sound of the word after all, as well as the idea of having a friend.

For the rest of that day, Gnasty began plotting how he would go about helping the dragon to escape. That's what a friend would do, right?

Day 5...

In the morning, Stella woke to find Gnasty already awake and continuing to stare at her. Or maybe he hadn't slept at all? He sure took his guard duty seriously. Although, the way he stared at her now seemed more like he wasn't focused on her and was instead lost in concentration. Since he did not appear to notice her, she watched him curiously.

Several minutes later, the chef rhynoc entered the dungeon with his cart again, bringing the prisoners breakfast. This time it was some sort of porridge in a bowl. He served everyone except Gnasty, then left quickly again, though the gnorc still didn't snap out of his thoughts.

Stella lapped up a few mouthfuls of the food, then pushed it back outside her cell in Gnasty's direction. It had been bland and wasn't much, but it wasn't right for him to have to go without food. When she slid her tail back behind her and looked up at him, Gnasty had finally returned to attention. He glanced from her to the bowl, shrugged, and picked it up. Then he dumped the whole thing upside down in his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.

Next, he tossed the bowl aside, stood up, and unlocked her cell door. When he opened it, she became worried. What did Ripto want with her now? Instead of reaching for her chain, however, Gnasty just stood in the doorway of the cell.

"Well dragon, you're coming with me. That puny red shrimp and the witch have bossed me around for the last time. I've had it," he boasted loudly.

Stella was shocked and unsure what he was planning to do, so she stood still and waited for him to make a move. Gnasty waited as well, looking confused as to why she wasn't reacting.

"Come on. If you want to run, now's the time. Unless you want to stay in there,"

At that, Stella's mouth fell slightly agape in surprise. Was he actually helping her escape? Who was he and what had he done with Gnasty Gnorc? Hesitantly, she took one step toward him. Then she remembered her collar. Maybe he could get it off? She looked up at him pleadingly and tugged at the device on her neck with a forepaw.

"Oh, right. Here..." the gnorc said, holding his hand out toward her.

She approached him slowly, hoping it wasn't a trick to grab her up and eat her or something. When she got up to him, he surprised her again by hesitating himself.

"Y-you promise not to flame me? Or bite?" he asked.

Stella blinked at him, bewildered. Then she quickly shook her head in agreement. After a final pause to make sure, Gnasty knelt down to her and touched the crystal end of his club to her collar. After muttering a single word, the collar unclasped itself and fell to the floor at her feet. Relief washed over her and she reached up to rub her neck where it had been.

"Oh, that's much better. Thank you," she said, looking at Gnasty's face.

His expression was quite awkward, somewhat like Shade when he had first started learning to properly smile. "Why..." she tried to ask him, but he interrupted her.

"You were nice," he blurted, then looked away from her.

"Oh," she responded, still not sure what was happening. "Um, do you mind showing me the way out?"

"Fine, follow me. Hurry."

Gnasty picked up the dropped collar and chain then turned and lead the way to the dungeon door, which he swung open. Just before he was about to step into the hall beyond it, Stella called out to him.

"Wait! What about them?" she asked, looking back to all the imprisoned bird creatures.

Gnasty wrinkled his nose at the thought of saving things he didn't care about. Then he got an idea, pulled the key from around his neck, and tossed it over her head. It landed with a clink on the floor in the center of the room.

"Someone else will come for them," Gnasty stated, knowing all too well that heroes always rescued the innocent captives. Leave that to them. He wasn't a hero.

Stella frowned but decided she had better take her chance of escape while it was available. She could always come back for them when she found Spyro and the others. Together, she and Gnasty took off through the halls of the fortress. At first, they had no issues. As they traveled closer to the main levels though, a pair of rhynoc guards spotted them and questioned Gnasty. He did not wait to think of an answer and instead bashed them both over the head with his club. They fell to the floor unconscious and he prepared to continue when Stella stopped him.

"The collar! Maybe we can make it look like it's still active and that you're just leading me somewhere? Then they won't question you again," she suggested.

Gnasty thought about it a moment, then nodded.

"How do we do that?"

"Um..." Stella trailed off, looking around her for an idea. If they clasped the collar shut again, they risked it reactivating, but what if they could rig it to just look like it was clasped? They needed something to tie it together with... Something like that!

Looking at one of the fallen rhynocs, she noticed it had a long loose thread hanging from its pant leg. She quickly pulled it free and tied one end to the collar Gnasty held out for her. She couldn't help feeling a little proud of herself. Her time around Fuchsia had apparently enabled her to pick up some quick thinking.

"Could you...?" she asked Gnasty shyly, standing on her haunches, holding the collar around her neck, and turning her back to him.

He hesitated, then took the ends from her as gently as he could.

"Just tie it loosely, please. Just so it will look normal."

It was quite difficult for his large fingers to manage and took several tries but eventually, he was able to create a crude knot that held the collar together without it being clasped.

"Now you can lead me with the chain. Just don't tug it too much or the thread might break," she warned.

Gnasty nodded and picked up the free end of the chain again. Then they set off through the halls once more, looking as if Ripto had only ordered him to deliver her somewhere again.