A/N: Just now noticed the mistake in the last chapter. Yeah, if you saw that, that was a mistake. Probably my biggest L I've taken so far, Don't know if that's how it was originally posted or if I accidentally replaced it with another document when trying to edit. Anyways, it's fixed now.

I awoke feeling sore. I was inside a tent, surrounded by a group of cheetahs. Shamans were shaking rattles and beating drums, while healers were using a mixture of magic and medicinal herbs to treat my wounds. One cheetah, a female healer with light brown fur and green eyes, held me back as I tried to sit up.

"Easy," she said, "let the healing spells and herbs do their work."

I complied and laid back down. "What happened?"

"You passed out. The soldiers brought you and the rest of the wounded to me and my siblings. I must say, you've become very popular among the village in your three days of absence. Because of you, we fought off the rival tribe, and because of your decision to spare their chief, we may be able to establish peace. I would like to thank you on behalf of our people."

You're welcome. What's your name, by the way?" I asked.

"Sayla." (The "y" in the name being pronounced like the letter "i")

"It's nice to meet you, Sayla."

Sayla continued working on my wounds, applying a few more herbs before wrapping them in bandages.

"There, that should do it. You'll need to rest for a few more minutes." Sayla looked to one of her sisters. A shaman with white face paint covering the right side of her face, golden fur, and brown eyes. "Kayla, (the "y" being pronounced as in words such as "say") keep an eye on him, would you? We need to report back to the chief."

Kayla nodded, smiling at me.

"She's mute. She can still mouth words, but she can't speak." Sayla explained before she and her siblings exited the tent..

"Oh." I looked at Kayla. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

"So, how did it happen? If you don't mind me asking."

"I fell from a high place, the impact caused brain damage. I have not been able to speak normally since."

I gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. Life must have been hard for the first few months."

Kayla nodded. "I would cope by walking through the valley."

"I'd do something similar. Whenever I'd have a bad day, I'd take long walks through the park. I find nature to be very calming, what about you?"

She nodded. "We have a lot in common."

I chuckled. "We sure do."

Sayla and the rest of Kayla's siblings returned after a few minutes. Say\a allowed me to leave the tent and when I did, I was met with a crowd of what must have been the entire village. They all erupted into cheers as they saw me.

"It's Brandon! He's alive!" One called.

"You saved our village!" Another cheered.

I made my way through the crowd, shaking paws with and accepting gifts from all who approached me. To say I felt like a hero would be an understatement. I felt like a king. One cheetah who was on the outskirts of the crowd caught my attention. This was the same cheetah that I had saved three days prior. I smiled as I saw him.

"Oh, it's you. How is your leg?"

.

He smiled back. "Ah, it hasn't healed much, the healers have been mostly focused on healing you. Don't apologize, you saved me and the village. You deserve the treatment."

"Thanks, what's your name by the way? I feel like I've seen you before."

"Meadow."

"Oh, so that's who he is. He's the cheetah who Prowlus sends Spyro and Cynder to find. Huh, wonder how I remember him." I thought.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Meadow. Where's Chief Prowlus?"

"He's in the dungeon, under his home. Go to the war room, corner on the left, opposite side of the room, you should see a carpet, underneath is a trapdoor leading to the dungeon. Mind if I take your place in the tent? I need to get this looked at."

"Go ahead."

When I entered the chief's home, I expected the war room to be empty, however, Prowlus was there, looking at a map of each of the realms. The map had a few flags of either red or blue on it. When he noticed me, I asked him what each flag meant, and he explained that each flag represented a key territory held by either his forces, represented by blue flags and Malefor's forces, represented by red flags. He then explained that in my absence, he sent a small scouting party to search for camps, garrisons, and supply lines used by Malefor's army.

"Impressive. Have you been looking through my stuff?" I asked

"Yes, I must say, this 'Sun Tzu' person is very intelligent. Now I understand why you advised me to send such a small number of troops to the frontlines."

"It has its advantages, in the right situations at least." I leaned on the large table, careful to not mess up the war map.. "Anyways, the enemy chief, your brother, is down there in the dungeon, yes?"

"Yes. He has refused to talk to me." Prowlus frowned. "I do not understand why, we were so close as children."

"May I go down there? Perhaps he'll talk to me."

Prowlus scoffed. "You're certainly welcome to try, but I doubt he'll talk to you."

I nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

I remembered Meadow's directions. "Corner on the left, opposite side of the room."

I saw that the carpet had been moved aside and that the trapdoor was left open. I descended and found myself in a hallway, in this hallway was a row of cells on each side, each cell housed an enemy soldier that had been captured. The hallway led to a door labeled "INTERROGATION."

"That must be where they're holding him." I thought.

"You! You won't get away with this!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"Listen. You all deserve better than this. You know, if you join us-"

"Save it! We will never join you!" He interrupted

"Oh, really now?"

I walked over to the cell slowly, grabbed the cheetah by the ears and slammed his head against the iron bars, knocking him out. "Now, as I was saying, if you join us, you could become heroes. Also, we will make sure that not only will you be taken care of, but your families will be taken care of should you die fighting for us."

This seemed to pique the interest of the others.

"You know, the chief never took care of us, let alone our families. I don't know about the others, but if you keep your word, my loyalty is yours." One promised.

"Same here." Another added.

"Us too." The rest finished.

"Well, you have my word." I said before reaching the end of the hall.

I opened the door to find Spyro, Cynder, Little Wolf, and Sparx guarding the enemy chief who was in the middle of the room.

"Hey, guys." I waved.

"Brandon!" The dragons exclaimed in joy and relief.

"We were beginning to think you died on us." Spyro said before hugging me.

"Yeah, you had us worried." Cynder added before she hugged me.

"And miss all the glory of our victory?" I asked jokingly. "Not a chance."

Little Wolf, or I should say not-so Little Wolf now, ran up to me, scratching at my legs and whining.

"Hey, buddy." I said in a soothing voice as I petted him. I tried to pick him up, but he was much too heavy for me to do that anymore.

"I gotta stop calling you Little Wolf in my native language, that name's not gonna stick." I realized.

I pondered on what the wolf's name should be. "Ice? Blizzard? Snow? Nah, names referring to a dog's fur color are too common."

I looked back down at the wolf, and that's when I noticed the shirt I was wearing. The design was of a man with black hair. He had a beard and an afro, he was wearing samurai armor, and he had a katana resting over his shoulder. Above the man was the word "samurai" in all caps with red text. Below the man was the word "shogun" with the exact same red, all caps font. At the very bottom of the shirt was his name, or online personality, rather.

"A great man. An inspiring man. Naming the wolf after a reference to him would suit him. He did have a dog, what was the dog's name again? Samson the Savage. Yeah, I like that name. A bit long, but I'll just call him Sam." I thought.

"Hey, Sam. Yeah, that's your new name now. Whaddya think?"

Sam barked gleefully at his new name.

"Good to hear that you like it too." I said

"Anyways Spyro, how worried was everyone that I was gonna die? Just curious."

"Very worried."

"Could you elaborate on that?"

"Even Sparx has been worried-oh before I forget, he has something he wants to tell you." Spyro mentioned.

Sparx flew toward me, his head hanging low. "Uh, listen dude, about that first time we met, that was uncool of me, my bad. You saved my brother's life, and to thank you, I wanted to apologize for what I said."

"Hey, don't sweat it, what I said back then wasn't cool of me either. We just got off on the wrong foot, that's all. So yeah, I'm sorry too."

Apologies given and accepted, a new title bestowed. and pleasantries exchanged, it was now time to address the elephant in the room. I sat down in the chair across from the enemy chief. His arms and legs were bound to prevent him from moving.

"My name is Brandon… What about you?"

No response.

"What is it between you and the people of this village?"

No response. I leaned back in my chair.

"You know, your brother needs allies. He's going to war with Malefor. You could join us, your people will have peace, glory, and you could become a hero."

A quiet mutter.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I don't want peace, I don't want glory. I want to see Prowlus suffer, to pay for what he did."

"Why? What is it between you two? What did he do?"

"You want to know? Ask him yourself. Or did he lie and tell you that he doesn't understand?"

"How can you be so sure that he's lying? Look, if you don't want to tell me what he did, then that matter is between you and him."

"Fine. Tell him I'll talk to him."

I didn't have to, because as he said that, the door opened and Prowlus entered.

"You!"

"Abel, please talk to me." Prowlus begged.

"Oh, I'll talk as long as you admit that you know what you did!"

"I genuinely don't understand. What is it that I have done to upset you? You disappear for twenty years and all of a sudden, you reappear seemingly out of nowhere and begin terrorizing the ones you once called family and friends!"

"I didn't disappear! You know that! I was captured by another tribe! Tortured for nearly twelve hours a day FOR TWELVE YEARS! YOU NEVER LOOKED FOR ME! And I'll bet neither did our parents. They probably never even noticed. You always were their favorite."

"We DID look for you. When you hadn't been found for three days, our parents assumed that you were dead. Did you ever stop to think that maybe that's why you were never found?"

"You don't just give up on family like that! Do you see these scars all across my body? They did this to me!"

They both began to cry. "I… I didn't give up for another two years. Even when our parents begged me to. You know why? Because you're my brother and I love you. And that's also why Brandon and I agreed to keep you alive despite my promises to have you executed. Don't you see? I'm trying to make things right!"

"You were my closest friend when we were little. But even more than that, you were my big brother. You used to be my hero… But you let this happen to me."

Prowlus embraced his brother. "I see it, brother. I see what I've done, and I'm sorry. I will do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness. I'll take my place back if you'll have me, and I promise that I will never let something like this happen again."

Abel sighed. "I'll never be able to completely forgive you. But I'll give you a second chance. Just… just keep your promise… please. That's all I want from you now."

"So does this mean you'll join us?" Prowlus asked after pulling away.

"Will you keep your promise? Yes or no?"

Prowlus nodded. "Yes."

"There's your answer."

Prowlus smiled before untying Abel and placing a paw on his shoulder. "Go. Tell your tribe that we've made peace."

Abel nodded before exiting the room.

Prowlus turned to face Sparx. "Follow him. Make sure he doesn't backstab us."

Sparx groaned. "Do I have to? Why don't you send one of these guys to do it?"

"Well, I figured it'd be safer to send you. You're smaller, you can hide easily, and no one ever notices you."

"The chief's got a point, Sparx, besides, we're about to go to war. Everyone's gotta do their part." I said.

"Come on, Spyro, back me up here."

"Usually I would, Sparx. But they make good points."

"Fine!" Sparx responded in an exasperated tone before flying out the open door.

"Spyro, Cynder, you mind if I speak with both of you?"

"Sure." They responded in unison.

"Alright. Meet me outside the village. Come on, Sam, let's go."

I wandered around the village, greeting all who passed me by for the next few minutes before going to the meeting spot. Spyro and Cynder were already waiting for me.

"Hey." I said as I sat on the grass.

"Hey, so why'd you want to speak with us?" Spyro asked.

"Well, now that I think about it, this conversation is pretty unnecessary." I answered.

"Well, you brought us out here, so just say it."

"Well, alright. We're going to war. And that means it's about to get serious, that battle from three days ago? Be ready to go into battles like that at least once a week, alright?"

They nodded.

"And another thing. If anything happens, just know that the two of you were good friends. Two of the greatest friends I've ever had."

"Jeez, Brandon, I've never seen you act this serious. And the way you said that... it almost sounds like you're expecting something bad to happen. Is there something you're not telling us?" Spyro asked.

"What? No! I'm just being realistic about this situation, Spyro. And realistically, we could all be dead in two weeks. Like you said, this isn't a game." I lied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you're my friends, why would I lie to either of you?"

"Well, my adoptive parents didn't tell me who I really was, but they did that to protect me. So maybe you're hiding something to protect us."

"Spyro, I promise I've got nothing to hide."

Cynder interrupted. "Leave it, Spyro."

"No. As he said, we're his friends. So doesn't that mean that if he's hiding something, we deserve to know?"

"Not if he doesn't want to share it. Yes, as his friends, we are supposed to trust him, and he's supposed to trust us. But if there's something he's hiding that he wants to keep to himself, then as his friends, we have to respect his wish."

"You're right. Sorry, Brandon."

"It's alright. I'll admit, you're right. I am hiding something, but now's not a good time to talk about it."

"Okay. Just tell us whenever you're ready."

"I will."

Spyro looked to the west. "It's getting late. We should head back."

"Agreed."

We got back to the village and said our goodbyes. I entered the small hut which had been the roof over my head for the past few weeks. I sat down on the floor which I had covered with animal pelts. Sam laid down next to me. I was about to drift off to sleep when I heard someone enter. It was Cynder.

"Oh, sorry. Were you sleeping?" She asked.

"Not yet. I was about to."

"Sorry. I can come back tomorrow."

"No, no. You're already here. You might as well tell me what's bothering you."

"Nothing's bothering me. I was just curious about that thing you didn't want to talk about."

"You know, I was actually planning on telling you first. So what are you curious about?"

"You know more about me, Spyro, and this world than you've been telling us, don't you?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Brandon, there have been too many things that I've noticed you say or do over the past few months for it to be pure coincidence. When I needed someone to talk to, whenever I would doubt myself, I would always come to you because you always knew exactly what to say, word for word what I needed to hear. Almost as if you've known me for years, and know exactly what I went through, if I remember correctly, you said yourself that you understood what I was going through. You know things about both me and Spyro that I don't think we ever told you. And to top it all off, you seemed to know a lot about magic despite the fact that you said your species doesn't possess it. And Spyro was right, that tone in your voice when you said 'if anything happens' made it sound like you expected something bad to happen."

I sighed. Cynder was right. Over the past few months, I hadn't been exactly careful with what I said or did around both her and Spyro and now I was facing the consequences for my carelessness.

"Alright, you got me. I'll answer whatever questions you have. Just don't tell Spyro. I should be the one to tell him."

Cynder nodded. "You have my word. How much do you know?"

"Just about everything, your backstory, Spyro's backstory, the raid on the temple, how Spyro defeated you, I even know what would have happened had I not arrived here, though some of it I don't remember exactly."

"What do you remember?"

I looked up in thought before giving Cynder a short summary of the events of the second and third games.

"So, to put it all in a single sentence: What has happened in the past few months, and what will happen in the future would be very different had I not been sent here."

"That's… a lot to take in."

"Yeah, I bet it is. "

"How do you know all of this?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know. I don't want you to know."

"I thought you said you'd answer any questions I had?"

"I know, and I will in time. But I fear the answer to your last question might cause you to have a mental breakdown, and right now, one of this world's most important defenders having a mental breakdown is the last thing we need. Just drop it for now, and I promise I'll tell you the truth once the war ends."

Cynder sighed. "Alright."

"It's late. You should probably go now. I'll see you tomorrow, Cynder."

"See you tomorrow."