Ember's eyes snap open, something is trying to enter her mind, rolling out of the bed she painfully rejects it. Letting it stop it's desperately futile attempts to forcefully enter her mind Ember growls, "what is it this early in the morning." Darkness still presses in around her inside her room, but she still has an hour after the sun rises to avoid Flame on her way out. The sun hadn't yet risen although it thankfully would soon.
"They're coming!" the Terror mentally shouts, although the actual volume of the Terror's voice doesn't increase the tone gives her away.
Ember is taken aback by the Terror's panic, she'd always had so much planned out, she'd never once heard her truly panicked before during any of their conversations. "What happened? Who's coming?"
"Cynder, and Spyro's following her; dammit, she's gotten him wrapped around her damn thumb!" the Terror backpedals explaining.
"What's going on, I thought you were prepared for this?"
Calming herself "we still have a little time, and yes I did prepare for this. But they're not alone, somehow, they've gotten their hands on the necklace; the object of my original corruption. With that powerful artifact the corruption of Spyro once he returns here will be child's play."
"Then we swipe it before she can" Ember offers.
"That's only the first problem, and definitely the lesser of the two. The second of the two is much more problematic, the appearance of the fallen Dragon Elder Red."
"Red? Isn't he from that old legend story? How can he be here?" Ember asks confused, she had thought that it was just some old fairy tale.
"Yes, I myself do not fully understand what exactly has allowed this to happen, nor do I know exactly what will happen when he arrives at Warfang. But he'll know, he'll know that I've bonded with you. And I doubt he'll stay quiet, we need to move quickly, efficiently, and silently if we hope to possibly stop the force corrupting the world."
"I understand" Ember lies, she doesn't really understand. But she knows that things look bleak, "is this the he you refused to name back when Cynder fled initially a month ago?"
"No… no this is something far less powerful, but much more inclined to interfere with our plans. Now come, we have much work to do and very little time to do it."
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
Nero pouts down the hall, it's been a full month since the two heroes disappeared, and yet nothing of significance had happened. The routine of constantly being on watch was starting to go stale; he was allowed to hang out with friends during the day, just not allowed to be out after dark. Nero was admittedly more of a night owl and ended up spending most of the nights reading and pondering current events. Although Nero enjoyed some peace and quiet sometimes, frankly, it was getting boring. The threats haven't manifested in any meaningful way and Frost still won't be back for another few weeks, waiting for things to happen had gotten boring. Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, and Zoe are all still missing, and the note in Zoe's handwriting was vague and didn't allow them any information to follow them with.
There's more problems though, something happened since last night to Ember. She's been avoiding everyone today, even more than she had the past month, Nero's not the only one who noticed; Flame's been complaining about her constantly leaving home before him. When Flame brought it up with the Guardians when he arrived at the Temple they didn't have a proper response for him; she, like all of them, is legally an adult, she just isn't fully grown yet. Although their words carry weight, it isn't their place to demand that she explain her actions or her disappearances. The Guardians think that maybe the pressure has gotten to her and that how far she's fallen behind Flame, Winter, and himself is dragging her down.
Shaking his head Nero still isn't convinced that's all that's wrong, she's even more closed off than she's ever been before. Nero keeps walking out towards the balcony, Flame and Winter have recently thrown themselves at their training with mixed results; Nero should really join them, but he's powerful enough with his unique enough abilities that stress testing them isn't the best way to develop them. Everyday he's finding new and interesting ways to use his Shadow powers, although it'd be nice if his parents had a little more faith in him in a fight. Brooding out of boredom Nero stares out the front window of the Temple, the statues of the seven great heroes of the war against Malefor.
Looking at the large statue of Spyro, Nero remembers how unhappy he was with it. He didn't like the messiah fixation a lot of dragons viewed him with, and the absolute hatred and spite the people had showed Cynder despite everything she's done to prove them otherwise. Uncertain how he feels about that he runs his gaze across the courtyard of the eight unmoving statues one last time before finding somewhere else to brood.
"Eight?" Nero audibly asks in confusion. Looking back a figure had suddenly appeared sitting on the step in front of the statue of Spyro; the black cloaked figure practically radiates malice and mystery despite sitting rather casually. Despite his casual posture the creature is nearly entirely hidden from view, his cloak revealing nothing except for a red scaly snout sticking out of the hood. Balanced on his legs is a simple wooden carved staff, somehow despite sitting shock still, Nero can tell that he's an experienced and powerful mage. Nero's eyes narrow, is this the threat they've been waiting for all this time?
He'd arrived instantly, faster than should even be possible, without leaving even a noticeable trace of magic in the air. Nero swiftly makes the decision that it surely knows he's here, and if he looks away for even a second it'll be gone. Nero is powerful, but whatever this creature is is convinced he is no threat to it, and Nero agrees with its assessment. Anyone who can carry themselves with that much confidence will have the power to back it up; Nero needs to call for help. Keeping an eye on the still not moving figure he spots a loose stone in the wall in front of him, breaking it loose Nero sees the figure sit up further in interest.
Opening a Shadow portal in front of him Nero throws it through and uses his Shadow powers to propel the rock at the creature. Moving oddly fast for how little movement his cloak made the cloaked figure swiftly raises its staff and blasts the stone with far more power than was necessary. The explosion rings out over the city and surely would have been heard all throughout the Temple. "Shit-" Nero mutters at the being's smirk, he'd just played right into its hands.
The moment the otherwise harmless explosion went off Nero hears claws on stone. Volteer, his father, rushes as quick as he can in his age, "what's going on-?" he asks following Nero's gaze as the last of the dust settles.
"Is this what they warned us about?" Nero asks putting as much caution into his voice as he can muster.
"No…. no there's no purpose in attracting attention if their plan is to kill Spyro. Unless they're here to gloat?" Volteer theorizes. With no response from his son Volteer understands the severity of the situation and hops down into the courtyard to buy as much time as possible. "Hello? Absolutely ecstatic pleasure to meet you. I see you met Nero, what can we help you with on this stupendous day?"
The being doesn't respond for a moment until Volteer gives him a befuddled look, "I see your son-"
"I never said he was my son" Volteer points out tilting his head and faking a smile. Nero being his son wasn't a secret. But that isn't something that Nero likes to flaunt around town; this creature is likely fairly knowledgeable about the Guardians and the Temple as a whole.
"Your son is a little aggressive don't you think? Coming right out and throwing stones without so much as a hello," the figure chuckles out mockingly.
"He's a good judge of character" Volteer flatly retorts flexing his claws. Above him Volteer can hear additional claws on stone; the tell-tale heavy footsteps of Terrador stopping out of sight and Cyril's proud paw steps approaching. Before the conversation can continue Cyril hops down beside his friend. Volteer huffs confidently, he can only hope that they had the time to discuss some kind of plan before jumping in.
"I'd heard there were three of you?" Red lowers his hood slowly, his scalien face resembles a bipedal dragon, something that does not exist in this time. His face was seemingly permanently drawn into a sneer with an outstretched and protruding jaw giving him a thoroughly mean if a tad comical look. His neck and back are hunched at an extreme angle, yet he's still just short of being as tall as the Guardians. His horns look as if they've obviously been magically changed from a much larger size to a much more reasonable size for his stature; Volteer wonders just what this being's original form must have looked like. The rest of his body is still obscured with the cloak, but he's still like no other creature anyone has ever seen from this time. "I had hoped to test the abilities of all of you."
"Test?" Cyril asks wary, "how would you be testing us?"
Red doesn't respond verbally, instead he raises his staff. Cyril only a second to raise a thick wall of Ice in front of him as a powerful bolt of lightning shoots out throwing up more obscuring dust, but failing to break the unyielding Ice wall. With a snide look, "I hope you can do better than that!" sending out a large spike of Ice into the dust above the Ice wall where it collides with Volteer, who had attempted to ambush him through the cloud. He manages to shatter it before it can do any real damage but it throws him out of the air back behind Cyril's protective wall of Ice.
"I see the Elders of this time aren't particularly powerful; one nearly crippled prideful old dragon, another with a plan simpler than a child could think up, and finally one too cowardly to come out and face a powerful opponent. From one action, even I can tell that that one child is more capable than all three of the adults combined, he's the only one with any kind of plan." Red taunts out. Remaining seemingly rooted in place, Red turns to the statues of the courtyard "with such an impressive impression those kids gave I thought you'd be better, maybe your truly lost without your fourth member-?"
Two loud growls come from behind the barrier of Ice, they know that what he's saying is true; the Guardians had been truly lost since the loss of Ignitus. With no additional reaction from the Guardians Red continues, "touched a nerve did I?" Red laughs manically. "What a shame it is too," Red turns back to the massive statue of Spyro "I didn't even need to test them so I had believed this time had a chance. It's a shame such a powerful generation could be led by such an incompetent-" Red stops his eyes going wide as two figures appear out the far door leading to the rest of the city.
"Flame? Ember?" Red questions with equal parts amazement and horror, his eyes are immediately dragged from Flame to Ember. He had known she was coming, but he wasn't expecting her in this form. Red suddenly realizes he's left his guard down in surprise, turning back around he's far too late to stop the massive bolder like tail of Terrador as it smashes into him flattening him into the ground and causing a small crater into the courtyard.
Shaking off the rest of Nero's Shadow magic, "you'd do well to not underestimate any of us" Terrador advises.
Cyril disperses the last of his protective Ice wall and limps over. "Does anyone have any idea what just happened?"
"Not really" Volteer joins him. "Nero found him out here, he mentioned something about testing us?"
"Yeah," Cyril agrees. "And he seemed really surprised by Ember and Flame showing up, why?"
Flame was also wondering why Red had recognized them, and why he seemed so disturbed by it. He goes to look for Ember only to find her gone, again. Sighing Flame doesn't even bother to mention it because of her constant disappearances as he walks up and gets Terrador's attention. "There's some people outside, that explosion was loud so we all came running."
Nodding in confirmation Terrador walks out to deal with the after effects of such a loud explosion in the city. The second he was gone he's replaced by Nero and his mother "what's going on?" she asks annoyed. Nero had brought them both down with his Shadow, his parents decide to not address the concerning exponential growth of his powers. "Who is this?"
"We're not sure, he just showed up shouting about some test and about how pathetic this generation of the Elders is. I would assume we should apprehend him and lock him up until he wakes and can tell us more" Volteer advises.
"I suppose so…" Cyril agrees, baffled by the bizarre course of events. Volteer takes Red to the infirmary up at the top of the Temple escorted by Flame, Cyril, and Nix. Ember escapes back out into the city to formulate her plan with the confirmation of Red's appearance.
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
"What mysterious characters have you brought to my infirmary today?" Aqua the dragon asks. Flame, Cyril, and Nix had all left Volteer to investigate the Temple for any more intrusions. She'd walked in as Volteer was chaining Red to the hospital bed, the strange creature immediately caught her attention, followed by his injuries. "I don't know what this being is, but I recognize Terrador's handy work."
"We don't know anything about him, he just sorta appeared, spouted out some nonsense, and got into a fight to test us. Hopefully we'll be able to find out something about him once he wakes up, can you come get us if he wakes. To say we have questions for him is quite the understatement."
"Certainly, I suppose I can. I trust he's the source of the explosion I heard outside?" Volteer nods in agreement. "I think you should stay here then, if we don't know who this is I don't want to be alone with him once he wakes."
"That's probably a good idea, these chains should suppress magic, but he was such a powerful mage that maybe he can overcome it." Volteer moves aside so Aqua can inspect the odd creatures' injuries.
"What are you…?" Aqua wonders running her paw along his scaly arm. Red's injuries were relatively minor, when Terrador's tail slammed into him he must have cast up some kind of shield to protect himself. That shield saved his bones and scales from damage, in fact she's fairly certain he doesn't have any internal damage from the attack. "In fact…." Aqua mutters laying a paw on his forehead; a part of her training was using magic to determine a person's vitals. Although this was a general magic spell her teacher, Medicus the physician at Warfang's hospital, had taught her; her Water element somehow made it easier. Despite repeated attempts to explain it, the best she can explain is that she can feel the waves of things like magic through someone's body. It, along with her pacifistic measure, was why she abandoned Guardianship to be a nurse instead.
"He's experiencing extreme Mana-Fatigue called a Mind-Down, when someone expends so much mana so quickly that their mind shuts down to prevent themselves from dying from exhaustion." Volteer looks at her like he's heard this all before, "during a Mind-Down one's body breaks into a cold sweet, fevers, shakes, and other symptoms of exhaustion. He-'' Aqua points to Red dramatically, "-doesn't have any of these symptoms. He's faking it."
Volteer's eyes widen in shock and looks down at the creature, "is he awake?"
"No" Aqua shakes her head. "He's well and truly unconscious, for now that is. It's the Mind-Down that's he's faking, if I wasn't this good with my sensing magic he would have been able to use his magic inside the Temple as soon as he wakes."
"But why not just sneak in?" Volteer asks. He had silently teleported into the courtyard, although Nix's runes prevented direct teleportation inside the Temple, surely he would have found a silent way in. He purposely got himself caught. What does he want…
The doors to the infirmary open a little harder than Terrador had meant to, but he manages to stop them before they can slam against the walls. Visibility flustered and annoyed he takes a deep breath before explaining himself, "the Council has gotten a little too suspicious about what just happened. They finally asked about Spyro and Cynder."
"What did you tell them?" Aqua asks. She trusts Terrador's judgment after all these years, but what can he do to explain their cover up of Spyro and Cynder's return?
Terrador shakes his head sadly "I lied. I'm sure once the truth comes out I'll be held accountable for it, but all I said is that we had heard the rumors and that we believe that there's a possibility. We can't come clean in fear of how the public would react, but if the truth comes out in poor terms this might completely blow up into a massive conflict."
"So we're safe for the time being?" Volteer says with a particular tone.
Terrador nods preparing for their obviously bleak report, "what is it now?"
"The person here is faking a Mind-Down, he's unconscious but when he wakes he'll be as fully capable as his first attack" Volteer explains. "As for why, we still have no explanations."
"I see…" Terrador mutters, beside them is a powerful unknown creature that can, and likely will, attack again. "We'll both stay here and guard him, I want to bring Flame and Ember here; he had a significant reaction to their arrival and I want to know why." Terrador's expression turns from sour to amusement, "can you do that for me, Nero?"
"Sure" Nero responds, surprising his father with his appearance. Just as he appeared from nowhere, Nero jumps back into his Shadow and leaves to find his friends.
With no answers and with concerns mounting about the decreasing safety of the Temple Aqua makes a suggestion, "I'm going to make certain that I have everything prepared. I'd bet everything's coming to a head tonight, I'll need supplies" Aqua explains walking out muttering out a list.
"Are you sure about this… about Aqua?" Volteer asks.
"I understand your concern, but I think we can handle being in the same space for a day, we've put that past behind us."
Volteer completely unconvinced of that fact continues to think of ways to stop Red while trying to discern what exactly he wants; because if they can figure out what he wants they can move to stop it from ever being possible when his compatriots arrive.
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
Nero Shadow jumps between buildings, rapidly slipping into and out of his Shadow Nero quickly and systematically look everywhere Ember and Flame would go. Although it'd look frantic from an outside view, Nero knows what he's doing. Every time someone goes running off and they need to be found quickly he's called to do it, which happens often in such a dense and crowded city. In a seemingly random corner surprising far away from anywhere he'd expect either of them to be he finds Flame, standing alone in confusion.
Nero silently slips out of his Shadow and sneaks up behind Flame, leaping out in front of him to surprise his friend. Flame hardly responds at all, too deep in thought to be surprised. When he finally does notice him Flame has an indiscernible expression, one who just got told something he simply can't understand.
"What? What's with that weird look on your face?" Nero asks.
"I don't… quite understand what just happened" Flame fails to explain.
"Well…. Walk me through what happened, then we can talk about where Ember went" Nero leads Flame back towards the Temple. Something is clearly disturbing Flame; and as they walk out into what should be a busy street he notices, where is everyone?
"Ember wanted to take a walk with me, already kind of an odd thing considering how distant she's been the last month or so. But we didn't get far before that weird guy showed up, we had heard the explosion; when we arrived that weirdo had such a strong reaction, especially to Ember. Ember bolted and after we dropped off Red with Aqua she dragged me with her all the way out here, just to tell me that she wanted to meet me back out here tonight. And then she ran off, just like that; I couldn't tell if she was asking me out on a date or telling me not to show up back at the Temple to protect me. It was that indiscernible."
"That's… odd" Nero at the loss to understand, Ember had gone from distant to hinting that she knew about an imminent attack on the Temple. There's no way that Ember could know what's going on, maybe that she's so distressed about what just happened that she might have convinced herself that something is going to happen. Unfortunately if he can't get the two of them to calm down, so we can get some answers out of Red, they might not be able to do anything about what's happening. "I think that maybe she might have been so distressed about being recognized by that big bad guy that she might be trying her best to stop a threat that's not even there." Nero stops walking and turns to Flame "now, where did she go?"
Flame just sadly shakes his head in denial, "I don't know, she's been going somewhere recently so maybe she fled there. I wish she would just open up a little, I just wish that maybe she would tell me what's going on" he hangs his head sadly. Nero's reassurance and a second to think about what just happened calms him down; he's still confused, but maybe he can figure out what's happening to her. He'll be here after sundown.
"Let's get you back to the Temple, I'll look for Ember…" Nero stops suddenly. Flame's about to question him when the sound of wing beats sound in the slits behind his horns. Straining his ears he notices what Nero did before; even after they returned to what should be a busy street, there still isn't anyone. But even more clear than it was before was the foreboding feeling that practically permeates the air, and Nero suddenly notices that the sun is going down. It was easily mid-afternoon when Red attacked, but surely it didn't take hours to find Flame. "Go."
"But-"
"Now." Nero stands firm as something approaches. But before Nero can try to continue his heroics, a dragon lands before them. A vibrant yellow dragoness with odd features that look hastily put together; with her appearance, the foreboding atmosphere, and Red's recent attack forces Nero to make a decision. Flowing from his maw comes a mass of Shadow magic quickly surrounding him and Flame and running up the walls of the street.
"Wait! Nero it's me!" Cynder looks around, calculates the risks and decides not to lower her cloak.
"And why should we believe you? Especially after what just happened-" Flame starts before a sharp piercing gaze comes from the dragoness. Despite not being entirely convinced, Flame bites his tongue, Nero's the better talker.
Nero doesn't believe that for even a moment, a wall of Shadow rises behind him and the points of spears form threateningly. Before anyone can kill each other two small creatures fly up "woah woah there pointy buddy" Sparx puts his hands up in mock defense. "Let's try not to skewer each other if we can."
"Sparx? Zoe?" Nero asks and quickly grows ashamed at his actions, he'd let the situation get ahead of him and he'd nearly hurt his friends.
Cynder walks up as Nero's Shadows fade away and he avoids her gaze, "don't worry. I already know what's going on, Red appeared to us too, and we expected that he'd come here afterward."
Nero looks up confused and his confusion grows further when he sees there are only three of them, "where's…?"
"We had felt the foreboding sensation and you and Ember were the only one's we could-"
"Ember!" Flame interrupts, "we need to find her. Did you see where she went?" The tone of his voice prevents Cynder from snapping for interrupting.
"Spyro spotted her and we split up, Sparx and Zoe came with me as… you know. I'm a little less trustworthy given the whole "terror" thing going on, although I do have good news about that. Why, what's going on?"
"When Red showed up, he recognized both Flame and Ember as if he'd met them before. Flame followed Ember afterward and had an… odd conversation."
"An odd… conversation?"
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
Spyro could have sworn he had just seen her in the street below him and they'd split up to find out where everyone went. But the second he took his eyes off of her to plan with Cynder she was gone, it was imperative that they find her and find out where the whole of the city went. But with the sun quickly setting and with no one else around Spyro's about to give up and return to the Temple when a voice calls out to him.
"Spyro?" Ember calls out from below him despite the fact he had blue-shifted his scales to be harder to recognize.
Cringing at the fact that she just announced his presence to anyone in earshot he flies down to Ember. "Hey there" Spyro greets generically realizing that he's hardly even seen much less meet the teenage pink dragoness before despite his time spent here. She's sitting in a small back alley area surrounded on all sides by concrete walls of adjacent buildings, relatively sound proofing their conversation as long as they're quiet.
"Your back" Ember states matter-of-factly, quickly "I mean, with that Red guy showing up it's practically inevitable that the purple dragon of legend would return back to us."
"Right, I suppose that's how things tend to happen" Spyro responds noticing her appearance. Although he'd only seen her a few times it's obvious that she's polished and shined her scales and she's sitting very cutely with her front legs barely crossed in front of her. Spyro admits to himself that she's pretty, very much so, although oddly Spyro gets the feeling that she had been planning to meet him here. Despite the odd enclosed area that she had led him to he banishes the idea, she's a trusted friend of all of his new friends at the Temple and a disciple of the Guardians, he's certain that he can trust her. The beautiful necklace that Flame had gifted her was displayed attractively on her chest, "that necklace looks beautiful on you."
The moment the words leave his mouth something feels wrong about them, despite the odd feeling Ember moves forward. She walks close to him, their chests nearly touching. Spyro tries to back up only to realize that he'd back himself against the wall, Ember closes any remaining distance bringing her head up to his, their lips nearly touching. "You know, being the dragon of legend brings certain... advantages in your life. Even with your stubby little nose, you're certainly handsome enough that any dragoness would be interested in you."
Ember lips nearly touched his when Spyro roughly pushed her away, "Ember? What's going on?" Even someone as inexperienced with the other sex as Spyro it's obvious that this is inappropriate.
"I'm sorry…. There's just something so alluring about the hero of our time, I had thought that I had finally caught your eye when you looked at me like that." She trembles in embarrassment and tiredness, "even if you did…. There's someone else, isn't there?"
"Someone else…?" Spyro mutters contemplatively.
Ember slinks away out of the alley and quickly runs away down the street, "I'm sorry…"
"I thought you said that you were over him" the Terror telepathically communicates. She was expecting a more stern tone, but she sounds very understanding.
"I thought I could put it past me until we could finish this, that somehow I could postpone my feelings and maybe confront them one day. Besides he wasn't taking the bait, I hadn't realized how deep his commitment to that wretch really is…"
"I've seen those emotions on his face before, during our confrontation with Malefor, I don't think he even realized at the time… But that doesn't matter, you realize that this will put him into harm's way during our operation against Cynder don't you?"
"Of course, the plan was to lure him away from the Temple along with Flame, Nero's going to be reading in the library with his mom. The Guardians will be forced to watch over Red, making certain he can't interfere, and Winter will likely be too deep in his own depression to see much past his own snout."
"I thought you might, Ember." The Terror's tone changes attempting to inspire confidence, "this is it. It all ends tonight."
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
Cynder, Flame, Sparx and Zoe had entered the Temple, from what they had gathered from talking to a few of the city's residents a huge storm was on its way. And true to their word the air had gone deathly cold, the hallmark of the coming winter, and deep large dark rain clouds moved in to block out the last remaining sunlight. The distinct hint of magic in the air wasn't the only thing to betray this storm's mysticality, there hadn't been a signal report of the storm's approach yet every single resident of the city had somehow known about its approach and prepared to stay home overnight several hours before it makes city-fall. They'd moved carefully through the streets, doing their best to avoid being noticed, and they were fairly certain no one had noticed their presence.
Spyro who was significantly delayed by the strange conversation with Ember, as well as trying to sort his own feelings about the matter, was delayed even further. He'd dare not fly because being the only one outside, much less in the air in the face of the coming storm, would make him immediately suspect and he might be stopped by some would-be concerned residents or guardsmen. Despite the lack of people wandering the streets his Shadow magic wasn't advanced enough he was confident walking out in the open; taking the paths of lowest visibility and lowest chance of being detected it took him over an hour to return to the Temple. He simply couldn't avoid taking any chances this late and alone.
Spyro, alone this time, decides to use the same main entrance that they had used during their first visit; if someone spotted him going in any kind of side entrance it might be suspicious, and the rapidly loss of visibility from the sprinkling rain made him confident he could enter without too much trouble. Sneaking into the courtyard Spyro can only hope he was never discovered during his trip here, stealth had never been his strong suit, that was more of Cynder's role. Walking towards the front service door that they had used the first time he is surprised to notice the damage the courtyard had sustained; rocks and broken masonry had only just started to be swept up when they were abandoned and there's a small crater like hole next to the foot of the statue of him that he still hates. Had the Temple come under siege while he had been away?
Before Spyro enters the Temple proper he takes another look at the proud statue above him, the stern steely expression conveys something Spyro hasn't felt the whole month he's been gone. That there was a clear goal he had confidence in: he wasn't even sure if he could find Cynder, he didn't know if she'd even consider returning with him, beating Ineptune was the only thing he was confident he could do and he still nearly drown in the process, he wasn't sure if they'd make it back in time to stop Red, and now he's uncertain how to process Ember's feelings, or his own. He's just been stumbling through these events with no real plan, although Spyro realizes that he's never had a solid plan for many of his actions, now more than ever Spyro feels that he doesn't live up to the confident expression that statue holds. He even had to sneak his way here because of the predominant feelings of the city. As Spyro turns away he can't seem to resolve the feeling of inadequacy facing that imposing statue, he isn't and never was someone who deserves such a massive celebration of his confidence and power.
Pushing through the negative thoughts Spyro finally walks out of the storm, leaving a puddle behind him, he cringes apologetically when he's reminded of the staff as he walks past the kitchen area. But this time he notices that there's something off, turning back Spyro pokes his head into the kitchen area. The area was meticulously clean and looks like any other well stocked preparing and cooking areas he's seen before, but last time there was still staff at the Temple at this hour. The continued lack of people continues to unnerve Spyro, the storm seemed powerful but surely someone would still be up and running last minute errands and preparations for the encroaching storm.
Spyro is brought back to attention when he hears a door close somewhere on the same floor as him, deciding to finally make his presence known he follows the sound. Rounding several corners and walking down several confusing passageways Spyro's worried he'd lost them when he finally hears heavy claws on stone. Rounding another corner he finds the Ice Guardian Cyril about to enter into a side room, "Cyril!" Spyro exclaims quietly, it was reassuring to finally see a Guardian again.
Cyril turns around confused and his eyes widen in surprise, but he quickly gets his composure back "thank the ancestors young one, I was just about to head out into that dreadful storm to find you. Cynder and the others had already arrived and told us you should be here soon, but then you didn't show and we were getting worried."
"I had to sneak my way around, since I didn't have Cynder's Shadow cloak to help me. And I spotted and had a conversation with Ember-"
"Ember, you've seen her? She's been missing since she ran off during Red's attack on the Temple this afternoon, it's too risky to go out to find her now but still we worry about her."
"She just met me in a random corner of an alley, it was after everyone had already left the city's streets, it was an... odd conversation." Spyro shakes his head at the thought, "so Red showed up here this afternoon? It's been two days since our encounter with him, we'd thought he'd attack sooner so we hurried here."
"Indeed, he unsuccessfully attacked the Temple this afternoon for reasons we still don't understand." Cyril shakes his head, his neck bows slightly from exhaustion "Red's attack, Ember's odd behavior, your return… We've been expecting an attack on the Temple any day now, but for all of these things to happen in one day? Spyro I won't lie to you" Cyril's tone changes significantly and somberly, "we don't know what's happening. The people of Warfang are starting to get suspicious because of the rumors about your return and certain details about current events aren't adding up. We don't know what's going to happen next, just know that we'll be here for all of you younglings when it does." It was obvious that he couldn't keep hiding all of the threats from the young dragon anymore.
Spyro nods in understanding, "thank you for telling me. I have a request though: do you know where Cynder's at?"
"Yes, she's upstairs resting in the same room she was before, everyone not guarding Red is resting for the foreseeable battle to come. Us Guardians are all going to be guarding Red for his enviable reawakening and we want all of you young dragons together so they can't single any one of you out. Unfortunately, Flame left the Temple, despite our wishes, to attempt to meet up with Ember as they had planned earlier, but with his powers we're certain he'll be safe. Nix is patrolling the lower tunnels of the Temple for anything suspicious as we speak, your safety is our top priority now that you've returned and we can only hope we've thought of everything."
"Thank you, I realize how much of a burden this must be," Spyro continues to cut off Cyril's reassurance "I need to talk to Cynder about something… personal. Will that be alright?"
"Of course youngling, I'll walk you up there and I'll leave you from there."
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
Cynder was sharpening her claws on the stone flooring anxiously, Spyro should have been back by now. She wants to go find him so she can protect him when the time comes, without much of his elemental abilities he's practically a sitting duck without their protection. Every few moments she'll stand up to go out and find him only to sit back down on the bed in a huff, if she does that she'll only be playing right into the Terror and her comrades' hands. She should have just followed him to talk to Ember instead of agreeing to meet up at the Temple; it seemed like it would have been no problem at the time, but with news of Ember's disappearance she's nearly panicking. What if it was an illusion or some other trick to draw him in? She's trying to have faith in him and it takes everything in her to not run off to go look for him.
She had stood up again and even dropped off the bed when a knocking came at the door, thinking that it's just one of the Guardians checking up on her "come in!" The door opens to finally reveal Spyro, safe and sound. "Thank goodness…" Cynder mutters and Spyro looks over his shoulder at someone and with a confirming nod steps in and the door closes behind him.
He doesn't say anything for a moment with a contemplative and aloof look on his face, as if he had something he wanted to talk about but he just couldn't. She'd expect something like this from herself, but Spyro's typically honest enough to openly talk to her. Finally after a painstakingly long time Spyro finally speaks "can I talk to you?"
"Of course," Cynder responds a little weirded out. Of course he can talk to her, what could it possibly be that he'd be uncomfortable talking to her about?
Spyro walks up to her hesitantly opening his mouth to speak but closing it without making noise several times in a row, finally he manages to organize his thoughts "Ember tried to kiss me."
Cynder isn't even sure how to respond to that, it was so out of left-field that she'd never even consider that she might have feelings for Spyro. Cynder bites her tongue on the matter, as much as she loves him she doesn't want to fight for him against another dragoness, he deserves better than that. "Do you know why…?" Cynder whispers out trying to keep her voice steady.
Spyro shakes his head in denial, "no it seemed… forced. As if she was distracting herself from something else. It was awkward and strange, thankfully she ran off after I refused her."
That was good…. Cynder thinks, the absolute last thing she wants is a cat-fight with Ember. "Are you okay?" Cynder asks, "you seem pretty upset by it."
Spyro once again hesitates to focus his thoughts, "I didn't have any feelings for her, in fact I had barely met her. But she was convinced that there was another reason I rejected her; she thought there was someone else that I have feelings for." Spyro speaks quietly looking deeply into Cynder's eyes.
Cynder's breathing stops in surprise, she's waited so long to tell him how she feels and here he is, starting the conversation himself. Breathing lightly Cynder inches forward until she's just touching her chest against his, before whispering "do you?"
"Yes I think I-" the second the words had left his mouth Cynder pushes forward and their lips meet. For a second he doesn't reciprocate and Cynder starts to pull back, but Spyro puts his paw on her back and draws her close again.
"I love you" Cynder finally admits after all this time, a visible burden is finally lifted from her shoulders after so long.
"I love you too" Spyro also admits, he hadn't realized how he felt or for how long. Everything that they had done together and for one another, it feels like everything in his life had led up to this moment of relief and joy for them to finally be together.
With a mischievous lick of her lips, with one of her paws she knocks Spyro's front paws out from under him and flips him onto his back. Faster than he can even react she climbs on top and rejoins the kiss now laying on top of him. Spyro submits and wraps his legs around her and as she returns they slip into a tight hug, the intimacy was so much more sudden and stronger than either of them had expected.
Cynder licks against his mouth and he opens it to her, their tongues twist and curl together, tasting each other growing increasingly passionate and heated love. They both want to keep going, but since he was on the hard stone floor a knot starts to grow painfully in Spyro's back, suddenly he breaks their make-out session "my back's starting to hurt. Can we move to the bed?" he pants out.
"Of course, we should-" her suggestion is interrupted with the sounds of a colossal explosion and an earthquake-like rumbling. "What on…." Cynder mutters falling off Spyro and onto her feet.
"It sounded like it came from downstairs" Spyro comments as he gets to his paws, before they go rushing out he stops to look longingly into Cynder's eyes.
"We can… continue this when we get back" Cynder promises knowing full well it won't be that simple. They'd both moved too far and it'd take time to build up that kind of trust and intimacy again, it's better to take things slow and talk about their true feelings first. With a simple and honest nod in understanding they both run out the door to greet whatever new danger had arrived, together.
