Spyro: Dawn of Light

Part 2, Chapter 4

"Spyrooooo!" Shimmer called, running through the garden. "C'mon you lazy! Cyril wants to see you!" She looked up at the sky, her skin crawling under her scales. "Big hurricane rolling in within the next week...great." She looked in all his usual hiding spots but couldn't find him, until finally she spotted his tail hanging out of a mossy bush. She giggled and shook her head. "Poor guy...he did seem tired after today's training rounds." She walked over quietly and gently nipped his tail, getting a flick and a quiet groan. With a humored sigh she grabbed his tail in her mouth and yanked him out of the bush, earning a surprised yelp as he tumbled out onto the ground. He lay there in a tired stupor, looking around groggily. "Afternoon, sunshine," she said, giggling and giving him a friendly lick on the cheek, which as she predicted snapped him fully awake.

"Sh-Shimmer?!"

"Hehe, you should wake up when you're called." She rubbed against him, her smile fading a bit. "You okay Spyro? You seem preoccupied lately."

He shied away from her contact nervously and sighed. "I've got too much to think about, that's all."

"Cyril really ran you and Neves for a loop today."

He yawned with a slight growl. "No kidding... and I still have to train with Plazyma yet..."

She nuzzled him softly with a sad face. "Must be tough...you're in every single training session because of your elemental diversity."

He shrugged with a snort. "It's what I get for being purple. First I was an object of mockery, now I'm a living weapon."

She sat back and sighed. "Well...you're gonna love the new news then..." she said with a sarcastic tone that made him roll his eyes.

"Lemme guess. Another mission to fight off a horde of Elites and their cronies."

"Mmhm...but..."

He looked up sharply. "I don't like 'but', whenever Ignitus says that it means extra objectives."

"This is more dire than just locating missing totems. Warfang is under siege again. We fought off the first wave but this time there are scaling towers to get over the walls. They mean business this time. The Elites have arrived and are camped outside the citadel walls. Hunter and his soldiers and the chief of his home village have convened and are planning a counterstrike, but their numbers are small."

Spyro sighed and stretched. "Finally, some action. But lemme guess, we can't move in until they attack."

"Mhm...Ignitus is pissed about it, but they've threatened full-out war if we go in, which Warfang can't withstand in its current lockdown state. And they're fully prepared to attack too, as if they're testing our patience."

"So it's a stalemate, they're trying to lure us into making the first move so they can claim self-defense or something. And we can't go in because they're toying with us and we can't risk them carrying out their threat. Great."

She stood up and stretched as well, her fluid tail lashing behind herself briefly. "Flame says we should just go in and bomb them with elemental attacks, but they have an entire army encamped on the plains between Warfang and the Burned Lands. Even if we went in, by the time we wiped out a few sections they would be mobilized and still have enough force to overtake Warfang."

Spyro shrugged. "So the plan is to remain alert and ready for action I take it."

"Yep." She sighed again. "Also, Caelos is becoming more adamant about finding someone to remove or at least nullify his curse, he's growing much stronger but is held in check because of his curse limiting his power output." She turned, signaling with her tail for him to follow. He watched her body move briefly and then shook his head with a growl to himself and followed her.

"He fights well and makes excellent use of wind, I agree he needs to be cured. But who can do that?"

Shimmer's wings shrugged. "Nightshade is looking around. I have a bad feeling that we won't find anyone that isn't in league with Ripto..."

Inside the Temple Volteer and Plazyma were waiting for Spyro. Plazyma snorted as he at beside her. "Snoozing again I bet."

"You would be too if you were me, you only have one training session," Spyro growled back.

Shimmer rubbed his back softly. "This is your last round for the day, Neves and I will be waiting for you outside. He wants to talk to you." Spyro glanced at her questioningly but she was already heading outside. Volteer cleared his throat to catch Spyro's attention.

"You both are conscious of the power of electricity by now. However, you must learn its true potential at high bursts of energy." A metal block appeared by him. "Be advised, you must hold your breath, inhaling the toxic fumes resulting from the following demonstration can be lethal."

"Why not just get Caelos in here?" Plazyma asked, idly twirling her crests over her eye.

Volteer paused. "That is actually a rather splendid idea, but the young wind dragon is currently indisposed. We shall move this outside then." Several more blocks of metal appeared and vanished, reappearing outside on the balcony. Spyro and Plazyma followed the electric guardian outside and sat down again as he faced the original metal cube. "High currents of electrical energy have the capacity to instantly vaporize even the most durable of metals." With that he growled and shot the cube with a blinding flash of lightning from his mouth. Spyro and Plazyma both cringed with squinted eyes as the cube practically exploded into smoke, some of it melting onto the balcony tiles and slowly fading. "The electrical energy in lightning does have this power, however you two are able to generate far more electric voltage than even I can. Therefore this lesson will be beneficial against heavily-armored foes. You may begin."

For the next hour Spyro and Plazyma drained themselves trying to repeat Volteer's trick. They succeeded several times, but their elemental stamina wasn't conditioned to putting out so much energy into one quick breath attack. Spyro finally roared and completely vaporized a metal block, then fell over from lack of strength. Plazyma was already out, curled up and holding her stomach off to the side. Volteer sighed and the cubes vanished. "Excellent efforts, both of you, we will pursue this endeavor tomorrow."

Spyro nodded and stumbled off, having to force himself to walk to the Garden. He found Shimmer and Neves already there waiting for him, and... "What're you guys doing with health gems?"

"SHHHH!" Shimmer hissed, looking around. "We know we're not supposed to use them here after training, but..."

Neves straightened his glasses. "Spyro, about what happened in the sky earlier with the glass cannonball. Think you can replicate that again?" Spyro groaned and flopped on the ground. "I know you can't right now, but with these gems you should get enough energy to try it. We only need you to do it once to confirm my idea."

Spyro glared at him and rolled his eyes. "Fine..." Shimmer chucked a few gems at him and they flashed dimly on contact with his scales, restoring a bit of energy. "I don't see why I should bother though."

Neves growled at him. "Fine, have it your way." A huge snowball came flying of of literally nowhere straight at Spyro, giving him nowhere to run. Spyro panicked a bit, hating the cold of Neves' ice. All around him, in that flash of panic, it happened again; everything slowed down to a snailish crawl, Shimmer caught in mid-blink nearby. Spyro ran to the side, again feeling like he was moving through water, and then suddenly stumbled with a weary yelp, feeling suddenly drained again as everything around him resumed motion. The snowball thudded against the ground, sending up a thick spray of snow powder all over them. Neves and Shimmer both stared at the purple dragon lying on the ground. "Well...that just about proves it," Neves mused, adjusting his glasses. "Spyro, as I thought...you possess time control as well."

Spyro would have been surprised, but with this drained feeling all he wanted was a bed away from everyone. "Urgh..."

Shimmer rubbed his back softly and looked over at Neves. "For now I think we should keep this quiet from the elders, they'd pounce on this and train him to the bone..."

The ice dragon nodded. "Normally I don't like to hide things from them, but in all our interests I'd say this is for the best. Spyro can train this on his own I think."

"Thanks guys..." Spyro grunted hoarsely.

Shimmer giggled and suspended him on a bubble of water. "Let's get you inside to bed, can't have you sleeping out here."

"I don't get a ride?" Neves asked with a fake whimper. Shimmer rolled her eyes with a humorous smirk.

"Alright fine, you get one too after I put him to bed." She literally wheeled Spyro into the temple, the water at the bottom of the bubble cycling in a rolling motion and carrying him atop relatively undisturbed. Neves laughed to himself and looked up at the sky, his face falling to a serious look as he gazed at the twin moons overhead. "This is not gonna be good..." he muttered under his breath.

"FINALLY a vacation from the temple!" Flame whooped, jumping off the balcony and free-falling into the forest below. The others all looked at each other.

"Three, two, one..."

Flame's voice rose up faintly. "Ow...guys, little help?"

"Typical peaceful day here at the temple," Shimmer said with a giggle, watching Plazyma let herself free-fall as well to go retrieve Flame from the treetops. Rivyera and Nightshade came outside behind them, Rivyera laughing at Flame's antics.

"Now you kids behave yourselves out there."

"Yes ma'am," they all replied simultaneously with the typical kid-like "We know" drawl. Spyro stretched and grunted.

"I'll keep an eye on them."

She giggled at him. "You do that, Spyro." Nightshade smirked and nuzzled her belly, making her giggle and flick him with her wing. The other guardians walked outside, breathing deeply. Ignitus flapped his wings a few times.

"Gnasty's still unaccounted for but I believe we should be safe for now."

"You kids be careful out there, okay?"

"We've got it, dad," Neves said flatly. Plazyma's lightning breath crackled below and Flame shrieked and flew up onto the balcony, his tail crackling. The others broke out laughing. Nightshade chuckled and shook his head, then froze, looking up at the sky. Ignitus noticed his reaction.

"Something the matter?"

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" the shadow dragon roared, flinging himself over Rivyera like a shield. The others had no time to react. Right when he moved into position a green beam of magic shot from the sky and hit him. More green beams rained down on the temple, striking Terrador and Ignitus. In a flash of green, three emerald statues stood there petrified in their last positions. Rivyera stood there in complete shock and horror, staring at the green statue form of Nightshade standing over her. Neves was almost catatonic, staring at what had just happened. Ignitus, Terrador and his father were now solid emerald statues.

"...D...dad..."

Spyro was the first to recover from his stupor; he growled loudly, rising into an enraged roar. "GNAASTYY!" He snarled and scratched deep gouges in the balcony tiles, the stone slowly reforming under him. Shimmer slowly approached Terrador's stone form, not believing what had just happened. The chatty and boisterous Volteer was completely speechless, and the prideful arrogant Cyril was humbled. Rivyera whimpered and nuzzled her mate's crystalline figure, tears rolling down her face when nothing happened.

"No...Nightshade...oh no! NO!" she wailed.

Fifteen minutes later they had carefully moved the three statues to the dojo, Rivyera, Neves and Shimmer still stunned and upset. Neves was completely quiet and rather unresponsive, staring at his dad with unseeing eyes.

"This is no time for perturbation," Volteer sighed, "Seven it's imperative you relocate to the library below and investigate this assault. Your father cannot be assisted with you standing dumbstruck." The electric guardian gently ushered Neves to the Pool room and then down the hallways. Plazyma tailed him, tail and wings down, Caelos slipping after them. In the dojo, the others just mulled around the statues, at a loss for words or action. With a loud snarl Spyro went into the bedroom; Shimmer and Flame looked at each other and followed him, finding him staring out the window at the sky above.

"Spyro? You okay?" Shimmer asked, coming up alongside him. He snarled.

"They took Cynder from me...now they've taken Ignitus...and Neves' dad... I'm gonna kill them. I am so gonna-"

"Spyro, NO." Flame yanked him away from the window. "You're not going to-OW!" Spyro snarled and bit his wrist, throwing him off.

"Don't you DARE try to stop me! Everything I cherish gets taken-"

Shimmer raced up and slapped him hard across the face, making him stare at her in shock and rage. "SPYRO SHUT UP! Calm down, RIGHT NOW! You're not helping the situation any! We don't know where they are, and they're probably using this to draw us out in blind rage like you're trying to do right now! You're no good to Cynder or Ignitus-

"SHUT UP!" he screamed, but she slapped him again and continued.

"You's no good to them if Gnasty or Ripto catch you or kill you! You need to calm down, RIGHT NOW, so we can figure this out! Now apologize to Flame!"

Spyro only growled loudly, his eyes narrowed still. He stormed out of the room. Shimmer sighed and nuzzled Flame. "I'm sorry he did that..."

Flame shrugged, licking his bleeding wrist. "He's going through hell, bound to snap sooner or later. Least he didn't go for my neck."

That night was very awkward. Neves was so shocked and depressed, he wouldn't even eat, which in turn stressed both Rivyera and Shimmer. Spyro was moody and a little violent, which agitated everyone and led to rather snappy attitudes. As night fell and everyone finally headed to bed, Spyro remained at the Pool as he'd seen Ignitus so many nights. He glared into the luminescent water as it swirled softly with faint colors. "I don't know what to do now. I have all the elements. I now have time control too. And yet I couldn't even..." He growled, punching the floor. "I need power. Strength isn't everything, but without power to stand on I can't do anything now."

"Power isn't everything either, dumbass."

He spun around with a loud snarl, jerking back when his nose met the stern face of Plazyma sitting there behind him. "What the hell are you doing up so late?"

"I should ask the same of you, and don't give me the 'purple dragon' crap, that's too Elitist."

"What do you want this time," he growled, pacing around the Pool, "to torment me with your snide remarks like you always do?"

"Nope. I just want to watch the next Dark Lord's evolution so I know better how to fight against his logic about falling to darkness."

He froze in his tracks. "...What...did you..."

"You don't get it do you? You've been fighting against the Dark Master's ways for three years and now of all times you're going to fall right into his trap?" She sighed and shrugged. "It's your choice, Spyro. I'm not stopping you from screwing up everything you've worked for. It'll be fun taking you down when you fall for power and decide to become the next Dark Master."

"You know not of what you speak," he snarled back.

She shrugged again and yawned. "Have fun with your blind rage then. Good luck ever rescuing Cynder and Ignitus when you're only blinded by your own pride." She walked away without a second thought, leaving him alone. He glared after her, furious that she'd challenged him, but...the more he thought about it...the more correct she was. But he wasn't about to give up that easily. Turning back to the Pool he glared into it.

"Show me the White Isles."