Chapter 53. "Winds"

Douten stood before Cynder, watching her carefully. Suddenly, he shot an earth bullet. The dragoness stood aside avoiding it easily. She spat with poison, but Douten created before himself an earth wall. Then, the black dragoness disappeared in shadows to materialize behind Douten. Primero dashed away from her, creating several earth spikes in that very moment. He stood in safe distance from her. Well, relatively safe; each of them could attack each other.
"Douten, you don't want to do this." Cynder said. "It's still not too late."
"Don't tell me what I want! You've ruined whole my life! It's only your fault of all the misfortune in my life! My parents' demise, loss of chance of getting the title of guardian… It's all because of you! And what I want is to take my revenge! You and I are standing right here, right now, so close for me to achieve my point!" Douten shouted at her. He didn't even consider giving up in that moment.
"So you want this?" Cynder looked around. "You wanted Flush's death, you intend to kill the guardians and risk your daughter's life only for your personal satisfaction?" As saying that, the black dragoness recalled Spyro telling her that Douten didn't care about Vixen at all. She expected the earth dragon to laugh in her face hearing Vixen argument. But he didn't.
"Leave Vixen alone. I don't involve her. She follows me only because she wants." In Douten's eyes, there glowed anger. Cynder watched him a little surprised, not sure what to think about it. Was it honest anger or just some game of his?
"No, Douten. You do involve her only by stepping this path. And this is your last chance to stop it." The black dragoness offered. Primero grinned ominously. He had to admit that this dragoness kept surprising him at that evening. He had to be careful about her. She had already scared him in the moment when she woke up from her slumber. He had panicked then, that's the only reason he had lost a chance to kill Zealous in that very moment. That couldn't repeat. He couldn't afford to let her surprise him anymore.
"It may be. But I've never considered turning from my way and I will not do it either today." Primero declared, not even wondering, if should he agree.

Douten and Cynder jumped to each other and disappeared in darkness of cave. There could be heard angry hisses and noise of tailblades crossing. Spyro and Vixen stood face to face. They were slowly making circles. The purple dragon didn't hurry with attacking her at all, he didn't want to fight her from bottom of his heart.
"Just like old times, huh, Spyro?" Vixen said, grinning in sinister way. Spyro remembered those words. Memories returned all at once. He could swear that he was again in Well of Souls, in time of Eternal Night, as if around him, there was crowd of apes, impatiently howling, waiting for their battle. He couldn't get rid of this feeling that this all was just great déjà vu. It would be funny... if only it wasn't so sad.
"I'm not going to fight you." The purple dragon said. Vixen smiled sadly, she would prefer to say this same. But she had orders, which she was going to obey.
"We went through this conversation already. That's the point, where you have to fight, to choose the lesser of two evils." Vixen was ready to attack every moment, but she was really curious, how would that conversation finish.
"Killing you or dying? Is that, what you mean?" Spyro guessed, begging in his mind that Vixen would refuse. The black dragoness bobbed her head once confirming. "I'm not going to kill you."
"Neither you want to die." The black dragoness hit a point, to Spyro's sorrow. "Last time, there was no need to, but now, you have to make a choice. Though neither of them you find right, lesser evil, compared to the bigger one is good." She noticed, trying to persuade him to attack. "Let's just finish this."
"Evil remains evil, whatever happens. I don't want to choose between them. I won't do that." Spyro replied. He asked her with sight to stop, not to fight.
"And now, we reached the point, where you have to abandon your good-hearted nature. When your wishes don't matter. Make this little sacrifice for me. You have no idea how many dreams I sacrificed to stand here, for my father to be happy." Vixen tried to convince him. "Come on, Spyro. Fight me."
"No." He refused. "I can't."
"Why? You have fought Cynder. You've fought me last time. What stops you now?" She asked. The young dragoness also hated to fight, but she knew that there was no other solution.
"Because in this situation, one of us will have to die. I won't let it happen." Spyro refused. Vixen sighed deeply.
"Neither I wish so." She watched deeply into her eyes. "But for my father, I've abandoned my dreams. Even, if you refuse fighting, I'll just kill you." She stopped and made offensive position. "Sorry, Spyro." Vixen had to do it. To fill her plan, she had to fight him. It was her duty towards… towards Him. Before Spyro did the slightest move, Vixen attacked. She slashed with paw, next stabbed with tailblade, but the purple dragon blocked both blows with paws. The dragoness jumped above him and tried to slash his back, but Spyro countered it with tailblade. She was quick, even faster than last time they fought. Vixen landed behind him and with wings created wave of wind. Spyro lost his balance and was pushed away by stream of cold air. He rolled away, when in the place where he had been a second earlier, there appeared Vixen's tailblade. She beaten wings again, but the purple dragon shielded himself with earth wall. The dragoness jumped on it and dove from above to him. Seeing that he was charging electricity, she flew away and avoided lightning. The black dragoness landed about ten meters from Spyro. Then between them, there flew Douten, avoiding for centimeters streams of green poison. Cynder was right behind him, she and Primero disappeared in darkness of cave again. Spyro shot to Vixen small earth bullet. She pushed it away with blow of wings. Young dragoness jumped to Spyro and slashed with her paws, but he caught both of them. They were staying like that for several seconds and forcing, Vixen was obviously losing to much older and stronger Spyro. From the lack of better ideas, she hit him with her head and Spyro did this same. As their heads crushed, there could be heard loud noise. Vixen swung her paws rapidly releasing herself and jumped away from the purple dragon just to fall on the ground, curl up in pain and hold her head with both paws and hissing painfully. Seeing that, Spyro watched her pitifully and smiled slightly.
"Are you alright?" He asked with amused voice.
"I still can fight." Vixen assured him, still lying on the ground."I'm alright."
"Are you so sure about that?" The purple dragon asked with disbelief. "You've taken strong blow. Just lay down and let me help Cynder." He suggested.
"No!" Vixen quickly stood up and jumped to Spyro. The purple dragon released from his mouth freezing breath, which turned the ground before him into ice, but Vixen jumped back just in time to avoid it. Then, she saw stream of fire enclosing to her. The black dragoness took deep breath and shielded herself from the fire with wind. As Spyro was done with fire, it had already melted the ice before him creating cloud steam between him and Vixen. The black dragoness quickly jumped in the air above steam and dove into it avoiding earth bullet for centimeters. Then she felt high voltage across whole her body and she fell on the ground hardly. She could see sparks of electricity fading in purple dragon's mouth.
"Stay there." Spyro said and turned around from her. He started walking to Primero. Vixen hissed angrily. Spyro didn't use his full strength, not even half of it. The black dragoness hated being treated like little girl. She couldn't stand when someone thought that something like that would stop her.
"Don't ignore me!"She stood up and tried to run to Spyro, when another, much stronger lightning hit her chest. Vixen collapsed, unable to move.
"I told you to stay there." Spyro repeated himself, this time with ordering voice. "I don't want to hurt you." That blow knocked her out for good. All her body burnt with pain, but she was alive. If Spyro wished so, he would easily kill her then. But he flew to help Cynder. Vixen glared at her fingers and hissed angrily. Those were barely bending and she needed to stand up quickly. "Move, move, move!" She whispered. "I must be up!" From the bottom of her heart, she wanted to join the battle again. Her fight wasn't over. She still had to protect Him.

Angelo leaned right under wyvern's tailblade and shot lightning in his chest, killing him. Another one tried to attack, but he easily blocked the blow and pushed him away. The vice-captain made wave of lightning, which forced all wyverns to jump away. Angelo turned his head to hatchlings. "Are you alright?" He asked. All five of them nodded. Vice-captain smirked. He wished he could say this same about himself. All his body was covered in scars, most of them were from talons, but he had one from poisoned tailblade. His left arm was dangling, all covered in his blood and with open fracture of bone, not speaking of terrible state of his crashed paw with all its fingers broken. The lightning dragon held right arm in the place, where was poisoned wound and sucked out some of blood. Then, he spited it out quickly. There wasn't much of poison, so if he was lucky, he had already got rid of all of it. All wyverns attacked again. The dragon sent another wide stream of lightning, but one of drakes jumped at him from above. He fell at Angelo and started forcing with him. Angelo cursed silently, he knew that if he didn't stand up in next several seconds, he would be dead. All wyverns were running to him with intend to kill. Then, they were just pushed away, with some invisible force, including the one on him. Angelo watched around surprised. In front of him landed several dragons, the ones he recognized were Ivory, Genesis, Ray and Lyrian, but there were also several other dragons, as he guessed, guards from the city. Around them, there appeared protective sphere of magic.
"I brought them." Sparxsaid proudly as he appeared next to Angelo. The vice-captain never thought that he would owe life to dragonfly. Genesis smiled, as he stood next to his brother.
"Need some help?" He asked lightning dragon. He looked practically unhurt, maybe limping a little because of one of arm, which had been dislocated by Douten.
"Yeah, I hope you'll leave some of them for us." Ray, who stood next to Angelo said.
"By the way, didn't you say you wouldn't fight?" The lightning vice-captain noticed and watched the elder suspiciously.
"When I met at the street Sparx calling for help, I simply had to go with him, right? We took also several guards from the city walls, as you see." Ray explained.
"Angelo, that's quite nasty blow of yours." Ivory noticed. Then, she glared at hatchlings. "I thought, they were supposed to remain in city, Angee." She blamed lightning dragon, smiling maliciously, as she said last word. She still couldn't forgive him calling her Ivy.
"That's long story." Angelo replied. Finally, he understood how annoying his shortcuts were. "So what's the strategy?" He asked the dragoness, since she was the oldest dragon there.
"Our two stand back." She jumped above vice-captains to hatchlings. "Someone has to protect kids."
"So everyone fight in first line and dame stands back and watches their tails kicked, huh?" Angelo narrowed eyes at Ivory. He wasn't going to forget that 'Angee' quickly.
"Will you let pregnant dragoness, who's already almost out of energy, fight in a first line? Very gentlemanly." Ivory riposted, surprised that he had suggested such a thing.
"She hit a point." Sparx whispered to Angelo's ear. The dragon rolled his eyes and, seeing his mistake, stood next to fire breather. He and his brother made defensive poses. The fire breather watched his twin brother skeptically and Angelo stood back next to Ivory; he wasn't in state for fight. Wyverns understood that Ivory wasn't going to use her magic again and they started enclosing slowly to dragons.
"Genesis, you may be a vice captain, but I'm sure I'll kill more of them than you." Ray assured him.
"Challenge accepted." Genesis made offensive pose.
"Ray, don't forget about me." One of guards, the fire breather, said. "I'll win the game." Ivory watched them surprised, not believing that anyone could treat killing as a game. She noted in her mind to scold all three of them. The dragoness planned to give them such a lecture that they would never more underestimate the worth of life.
"Tch. You'll try." After elder's words, dragons, all at once attacked wyverns.
Meanwhile, Ivory sat on the ground and focused. She had to regain all power used that day, healing Tris combined with her pregnancy really exhausted her. Magical aura in the air was really strong, so there was no problem about regaining her power. After a minute or two, she started healing Angelo's arm. It was in terrible state.
"Angelo, I'm afraid that once we return to the town, I'll have to amputate this paw." The white dragoness stated.
"Can't there be done anything about it?" The lightning dragon asked hopefully.
"No, there can't." Ivory refused. "It's far too damaged, I won't be able to save anything. Maybe if I had more power, I could try, but..."
"I understand." The lightning dragon interrupted her. "Save your energy for guardians. They may need it more than me." He agreed. After all, he would feel terribly if because of his selfishness someone lost his life, wouldn't he?
"Mrs. Ivory?" Sierra asked. "Are our parents still fighting?"
"Yeah. But before you even notice, they'll be back. No worries." She assured her smiling slightly. Everyone was saying Sierra so. But young earth dragoness, like all hatchlings, had really bad feelings and she couldn't get rid of those.

Douten shielded himself from poison with wall of earth. Then, he heard stream of fire behind him. The earth dragon jumped away avoiding Spyro's attack. In front of Primero landed Spyro and Cynder.
"You've already killed her?" Douten asked with note of surprise and disappointment, completely deprived of any worries about her. From Spyro's face, he could read answer. "That good-hearted nature will kill you someday." Douten warned him. He shot an earth bullet, but Spyro easily avoided it. Cynder blown with wings sending powerful blow of wind to him. The earth dragon lost balance for a second, but he created wall of earth protecting him from Spyro's ice spike. Right next to him, from shadows appeared Cynder. She slashed with her tailblade, but Douten leaned back avoiding it for centimeters. Spyro jumped to him from behind trying to slash him and then Primero jumped in the air. Cynder easily brought him down with beat of wings. The green dragon fell between Spyro and Cynder. They both had already started charging Convexity. Douten cursed seeing that. Two streams of energy were released right at him. Douten jumped away from it in the very last second. He created wall of earth in place he had been earlier, so as void energy reached it, it exploded throwing away hundreds small rocks. In effect of Convexity, whole cave trembled, several small stones fell from roof, letting more light reach inside. Spyro felt terrible pain, as some stone fell at his tail. He groaned painfully, as he took stone away from it. Luckily, it wasn't broken. The purple dragon watched around and saw black dragoness lying on the ground, surrounded by stones from roof. Though light was very weak, Spyro quickly understood that one of those stones fell at her knocking her out. He ran to her with no hesitations. "Cynder!" Then, the black dragoness quickly stood up and jumped to him. Spyro understood his mistake, when he was already too close. That was Vixen. She swung her paw to him. She could have killed him, but she attacked a bit too early to get him. Before she made any other blow, Cynder flew in her throwing her away. Both dragonesses rolled on the ground older one kicked her opponent away. Vixen stood up quickly and jumped away from green drips of poison. Then, dragonesses beat their wings at this same moment countering each other's wind. Spyro, glad that he didn't have to fight Vixen anymore, yet angry that she was still fighting, ran to Douten.

Cynder and Vixen crossed their tailblades. Vixen smiled glaring at the older black dragoness. "Finally we meet, huh?" She noticed. Then, Cynder grinned ominously, around her, there started gathering some dark energy.
"Do you fear darkness?" She asked with menacing voice.
"And why should I?" Vixen asked confidently. Then, darkness surrounded Cynder. She faded away in shadows to appear right behind Vixen and slash her hinder leg, thanks to youngster's quick reaction, only shallowly. Vixen hissed painfully and swung her tailblade at Cynder, scratching her forehead, other swing touched her horn, but made no serious harm again. Cynder tried to slash her with talons, but the other dragoness turned around blocking other blows. Dragonesses started forcing, but again, Vixen was losing. She cursed in mind her small body. It gave her amazing dexterity, but she was much weaker than any dragon, especially older. Cynder brought her down to the ground. She clenched her fist as she was about to knock her out. Cynder didn't intend to kill her. Then, small dragoness released herself rolled next to her rapidly, giving enemy several wounds at limbs with talons and tailblade. She stood up several meters from her enemy to see purple energy in Cynder's mouth. It was just about to be released.
"Oh, this is bad." Vixen whispered. She jumped at the right, barely managing to avoid the purple energy, which Cynder aimed at her paws. Again, not to kill, but only make unable to move. Vixen landed sighing with relief, when she saw Cynder taking deep breath. She knew what was coming. Vixen beaten her wings strongly, just in time to don't let fearful scream reach her ears. She blocked It somehow. Vixen started running to Cynder, when she disappeared in shadows. The young dragoness turned around expecting blow from behind. Then, she caught sight of Cynder out of corner of eye and saw streams of poison flying right to her from the side. Vixen beaten her wing throwing all the poison above her. Staying next to her enemy with one wing raised, she was completely defenseless. Cynder grinned, that was the opening, which she was waiting for. The black dragoness released wind from her mouth throwing Vixen at wall behind her strongly. Cynder didn't attack again, but waited for her. Vixen slowly stood up. She was breathing hardly. She wasn't sure if she managed to protect herself from Cynder's fear. She was so terrified... She felt that she was no match for so mighty dragoness, she was completely suppressed by her.
"Kid, you may look like me, use wind like me, but still you can't win against me." Cynder said. It started being annoying that such a youngster tried to be her copy. Younger dragoness jerked her head surprised.
"Why are you so sure about that?" Vixen was annoyed as well, because of being called kid.
"Because I'm older, more experienced, stronger and better user of elements." Cynder explained. Vixen just giggled like little girl.
"Oh, come on, I stand chance against you. I may be inconspicuous, but I'm smaller, faster and more..." She started counting, don't even watching her enemy. Cynder faded to shadows and appeared next to Vixen. She touched with talons small dragoness's throat, before she even managed to react.
"Reckless." Cynder finished her sentence. "Don't let your guard down." She gave her advice. Vixen pushed her paw away and jumped back. She knew that she was alive just thanks to Cynder's mercy.
"Maybe I am reckless a little." The small dragoness admitted reluctantly. "But no worries, I learn quickly." Vixen giggled childishly, grinned and made defensive pose. "I can assure you, I'm not as easy to kill, as you think." Vixen always thought that when she would face Cynder they would be equals, that she wouldn't be jealous about her anymore. She understood how wrong she was.

Spyro slashed Douten's face. The earth dragon groaned painfully and he fell on the ground. Next to his old scar at eye appeared three new wounds, but shallow ones, luckily. He was already breathing hardly, exhausted with that fight, oppositely to Spyro, who wasn't even tired. The purple dragon jumped to enemy. He went through wall of earth, leaned beneath clubbed tail of ex-elder and shot to him stream of fire. Douten started flying and shot several earth bullets. Spyro followed him in the air and shot to him the fireball. It would reach Primero, if it wasn't extinguished by blow of wind. Surprised Spyro noticed Vixen, who because of protecting her father took on herself powerful blow of hot air.
"If you play like that..." Spyro whispered to himself. "...How about that?!" While shouting, he released stream of electricity. Douten dove beneath it and landed on the ground. Spyro was about to land too, when right beneath him started appearing earth pillars. He spun rapidly flying at the right and landing next to those pillars. Meanwhile, he shot to the alchemist ice spike, which was countered with earth bullet. Douten and Spyro jumped to each other. The blocked each other's paws and stood still for several seconds, neither of them was stronger. Both males hit each other's head with their foreheads, but again, both of them appeared to be at this same level. Douten grinned, as they were abutting against each other's foreheads.
"I'm a little stronger than my little daughter." Primero noticed.
"How dare you call yourself her father?" Spyro asked angrily. He hated how Douten was playing on Vixen's feelings and using her.
"I have to maintain a semblance of my feelings about her." The alchemist explained. He jumped in the air. Spyro was about to follow him, when he caught sight of two black dragonesses, who were beating their wings simultaneously. He knew what was coming. Douten shot to him an earth bullet. The purple dragon didn't even try to shield himself, he juts dug his claws deeply in the ground. Then, powerful wind blew away both Douten and his bullet away. Spyro smiled to himself. It looked like both black dragonesses were at this same level of mastering wind. Douten fell on the ground uncontrollably about twenty meters from Spyro. He slowly stood up and then, small ice spike appeared in his shoulder. Primero groaned painfully and fell on the ground.
"Dad!" Vixen turned around from Cynder and screamed fearfully.
"I'm fine!" The alchemist shouted, as he took ice spike from his wound. The black dragoness nodded, turned around and continued fight with Cynder. Douten and Spyro started running to each other, they weren't going to attack with elements, but talons and tailblades.

Vixen turned her head to watch her father and the purple dragon running to each other. She jumped away from Cynder without even glaring at her, as if she was ignoring her. Cynder attacked with poison, but Vixen avoided her attack again and continued watching males fearfully. "Spyro will die." Vixen whispered. Cynder watched her dumbstruck.
"What are you talking about?" Older of them asked or rather demanded answer. She stopped.
"He wants to lure Spyro at the close distance and there pierce him with earth pillar." Vixen explained.
"How can you know that?" Cynder asked suspiciously.
"He was training this movement for whole days. And besides, he's my father, I know him. He will kill Spyro." Vixen said it with such a tone, as if she didn't want to believe her own words. At first, Cynder thought, it was just decoy, but then she watched two males carefully, especially Douten and his pose. She understood that young dragoness was deadly serious about her words. And realizing that, she exactly knew what to do.

Spyro and Douten were running to each other quickly, distance between them was decreasing inexorably. When distance between them was not much bigger than just two meters, from ground, there started appearing pillar of earth, thin as blade of sword, enclosing to Spyro's chest. The purple dragon noticed it, but he knew that he couldn't avoid it, he was running too fast to avoid something so close. Then, some dark shaped pushed him away. Spyro fell on the ground and then, he heard nasty noise of pierced flesh. Spyro, lying on the ground, lifted his head to see the dragoness, who saved his life. Her right side of chest was pierced with earth. Smile didn't leave her face, though at her lips, there appeared first drops of blood from pierced lung. Spyro watched her aghast, just as the second dragoness. Neither of them expected that.
"No..." Spyro whispered. He couldn't believe, she did it. He was supposed to take that blow. Douten watched her with surprise, but then, across his lips, there danced understanding.
"Just as expected from you, isn't it, my Cynder?" Primero watched blood dripping on the ground from thin pillar of earth. He watched carefully Spyro to see his eyes blazing with pure hatred. Those eyes told him that the real fight had just begun.