Chapter 35
When Zoe and I entered the area of Desert Ruins, we saw the place was very sandy and that there was a mouse person nearby that looked troubled. "Excuse me, sir. What's the matter?" I asked him, the mouse perking up when he saw me. "Would you happen to be that dragon named Blaze?" he asked. "That be me," I smiled. "I've heard good things from numerous people about all the things you've done for them... do you think you can help find my girlfriend Tara? She went to raid the tomb of the Stone Golem and I haven't seen her since. I'd go in myself, but I'm deathly afraid of scorpions," he said. "You can count on us," Zoe smiled as I noticed a duo of scorpions nearby and flamed them apart, collecting the gems they dropped as well as the gems around the place.
We then continued on and I saw an even bigger scorpion that shot a flame trail at me, which I jumped over and flamed him to bits afterwards, Zoe gasping at something nearby. "I see a treasure chest over there with a padlock on it!" Zoe smiled. "Alright! Time to smash it," Sizzle smiled as we flew over to it and Sizzle connected a blow to it, the chest opening to reveal tons of gems inside of it. "Oh yeah, hot dog!" I smiled as I turned around and saw an egg atop a hand-shaped monument along with a couple gems. It belonged to Heloise, so I flew over to it and touched it, the egg hatching into a female dragon with a white color to her that sneezed acid onto the ground after being born. "Beast Maker genes and a white skin tone. Your name is Sadie," I smiled at her, the baby dragon giggling at that as she warped away in a snap.
We then continued further into the place and we came across some enemies that tried to light some metal beams on fire, me having to charge them to defeat them before my butt got fried. And when we reached the next area, I saw an egg up and to the right by some gems in an elevated area as well as a side portal to the left. "Let's get this egg first, then we'll proceed through that portal," I smiled at Zoe, me flying up to it and seeing it was one of Shoutfire's. I touched it and it hatched into a small brown dragon baby with a pink ribbon around her neck. "Nelly," I smiled at her, the dragon spitting a small flame onto the ground with a bit of sass as she got warped away soon after... I then noticed that Zoe wasn't around, which concerned me a bit. "Zoe? Where are you?" I asked aloud. "Over here! I found another egg in this cave here!" Zoe exclaimed as she called from the cave next to the portal area, me noting that it was filled with green acid and that there were scorpions on some less-than sturdy platforms. And at the end of a cave was a dragon egg belonging to Jewel! "Okay, I'm going for it," I smiled as I flew the whole way over there, dealing with the scorpions and picking up gems along the way until I reached the egg. I then touched it and it hatched into a small boy dragon that had quite the buck teeth on him. "Andy," I smiled at him, the dragon kid warping away with a smile.
After that, we proceeded through the cave some more and collected more gems, us gasping when we broke a fake wall to find a ton of loot! We ended up getting a ton of gems from it, bringing our total to over 400 so far for this world. "We haven't even gotten to the tomb yet and we already have over 400 gems! How many could be in this world?" I asked with a crazy smile. "We'll find out after going into this portal and then into the tomb itself," Zoe smiled as we flew to the portal and gasped at how, when we got on the other side, we were unable to move left or right. We could only move forward or back! "Some kind of spell has been cast in this area. You can only walk to the forward and you can't turn around at all... that Sorceress is a real sneaky bitch," Zoe frowned as we went forward and started to take out some more scorpions and flame breather enemies, collecting their gems as we came across two different eggs during the trek. One was a male dragon that cried upon being hatched, who I named Lester. And the other was a green baby wearing a ball cap, who I named Pete.
We then left through the portal on the other side and went on our way back through the ruins and into the tomb itself, us having to get more treasure and deal with more enemies as we went through, getting everything we could until we were back outside again and we saw an explosion happen inside of a giant head, a female figure emerging from it with quite the look of disappointment. "Are you Tara by chance? Your boyfriend sent us to check up on you," I asked her, the mouse girl turning and gasping at us. "A dragon and a fairy? Never thought I'd see a duo like you in the Desert Ruins. So Gus was worried about me, huh? He worries too much. I live for temples and tombs!... Unfortunately this treasure was nothing special. Just a lousy egg with a black and white pattern to it," Tara said with a frown. "Well, you're wrong about that much, Tara. May we see this egg?" I smiled at her. "Fine, may as well keep it for yourself," she smiled as she gave the egg to us and I touched it, her shock plain as day when it hatched into a light blue dragon kid with purple stripes on his torso. He then breathed out a breath of some kind of magic, it hitting a nearby rock and causing it to grow feet and start running away!
"Oh my word! A dragon egg?! And it has the power to turn inanimate objects alive?! I had no idea I'd be witnessing this of all things!" Tara gasped. "Sadly, you can't keep him, as he belongs to some dragons in the Dragon Realms. But maybe you could have something else instead," I smiled as I looked at Sizzle and she smiled as she produced some items we had kept since our Avalar adventures. "Oh my... look at all these treasures!" Tara gawked. "You may have one if you wish. Pick wisely," Zoe smiled. "Hmm... I really like this jeweled scarab, so I'll take it... whoa! It feels imbued with powerful magic!" Tara gasped when she touched it. "It's a talisman from my home of Avalar. It's filled with magic of the world it comes from, that being a world called Scorch. It also happens to be a desert world like this one. And if in the hands of a talented mage or sorceress, it can give them serious upgrades to their magic capabilities," Zoe explained.
"Cool! This is certainly a worthy find! I shall hold onto it with my life! Thank you, friends!" Tara smiled. "No problem, Tara. Just make sure you see Gus, okay?" I smiled as I saw the portal appear and I decided to name the baby dragon. "Your name is Marty, little guy," I smiled, him giggling at that before being warped away. I then collected the final gems and Zoe and I smiled at how this level contained a whopping total of 700 gems! The most in any world we'd ever visited before! "Oh yeah! This is great!" I smiled as we then went through the portal and reappeared in Midnight Mountain, us running into Spyro as well as a monkey that held a blaster in his hand. "Who's the ape?" I smiled. "Oh, say, are you two planning to fight the Sorceress and kick her butt too? Because if so, Wazza! Yippee! WOOHOOHOO!" the monkey exclaimed in a hyper fashion, me smiling at this. "His name is Agent 9 and he's actually a special lab monkey made by the Professor to help his quest to these realms. I had to free him from Moneybags for, get this, 1300 freaking gems!" Spyro groaned. "He really needs to get a good kick in the pants when we're done with this Sorceress business. In the meantime, how many levels have you gone to other than his?" I asked him. "We just finished exploring the Crystal Islands so that means we only have Haunted Tombs and Dino Mines. After that, all that remains is a Speedway and a crack I found earlier that would lead to some kind of robotic bug factory," Spyro said.
"Robotic? Bug? Factory? Some kind of? Sounds like a job for me!" Sizzle smiled. "Do you think you can look after her while I tackle the Speedway, Zoe?" I smiled at her. "Sure I can. Then you can help get past the level Spyro doesn't go to," Zoe smiled. "Of course. By the way, Spyro and I are going off to Haunted Tomb first. We're gonna give those Rhynoc mummies some dancing lessons, heehee!" Agent 9 smiled as he stroked his gun. "Okay, let's go off to our duties," I smirked at Spyro, him going off for the place with the mummies while I headed for the Speedway by my lonesome. "Harbor Speedway, huh? Sounds fun!" I smiled.