Hello, my little dragonlets! Who's ready for some headcanon and exploiting one of Autumn Plains' most controversial areas? :D Then let's get on with the show!
You found a disclaimer!
Spyro the Dragon, both the game and all related characters (c) Insomniac. They own the Spyro that's in this story, so nyeh.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage / Gateway to Glimmer, as well as all related characters (c) blah-blah, same copyright.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: War
Beaky gave a smile as he blew out his torch, ruffling his feathers to warm them in the heat of his newly-stoked fire. The steam-powered engines were a godsend; all of the energy they'd ever need, and all it took was a tower of water and a little fire!
Splish! The breezebuilder cringed as he felt the warm flame quickly extinguish into the chilly night. Immediately, the first culprit was the nearby water bucket. Nothing else around had water, right? Cautiously holding the suspect bucket at wing's length, Beaky slowly peered inside.
Splish! An orange landblubber popped his head out, just long enough to spit a mouthful of sea brine in the breezebuilder's face and bounce away with a laugh.
Beaky grumbled, wiping the grimy water from his beak. Landblubbers. Yuck.
oo00oo00oo
Breeze Harbor was the first area of Autumn Plains that actually reflected the autumn weather. Unlike the frozen tundras of Crystal Glacier and the blistering heat of Skelos Badlands, the Harbor was filled with cool night air, covered in salty breezes from the nearby ocean. It was a pleasant place to land.
...Until you stopped and listened to the metal racket that rang around every corner.
Spyro eventually found the source to be one of the local breezebuilders, smacking at a bouncing bucket with his wrench, cursing the "landblubber" for ruining his boiler. Unable to contain his hero-senses, the purple dragon rushed into action, head-butting the bouncing bucket straight off the harbor. "You guys always have that much trouble with buckets around here?"
"Not exactly," Beaky groaned. "I wish I could welcome you to Breeze Harbor, dragon, but the place is kind of a mess right now. Those landblubbers have taken over the whole harbor, putting out the fires on our boilers and shutting down our warship!"
"Warship?"
"Yeah! We just finished construction on a flying ship that we can use to drop soldiers and ammunition into the fields, and those landblubbers keep ruining it!"
Spyro's ears perked. A flying ship that could send back-up from across the Plains into Autumn Manor? Ripto wouldn't stand a chance! And all he had to do was knock a few more riptocs out of the way?
"Hey, if I clear out the whatchacall'em, could I get a tour of your ship?"
"Dragon, if you can fight back the landblubbers and fire up our boilers, you'd be more than welcome to the Breezebuilder Platoon!"
oo00oo00oo
Spyro gave a groan as he came down from the train-tracks. With all of their land-mines and TNT boxes, Ripto wasn't messing around in the harbor. (And if he heard Fisher ask "Hey, Spyro! Having trouble with the trolley?" one more time, he would be roasting breezebuilder meat over those fires he'd been stoking.)
Still, as he looked up and watched the SS Breeze lift up into the skies, all of the hard work was worth it. It was a beautiful vessel, reinforced with the toughest Avalari steel and equipped with rows of cannons. And yet, it was light as a feather, able to lift into the air with its powerful, scaly wings. And the entire thing was powered by water and fire.
The ship's head engineer, Squawk, ruffled a feathered hand over Spyro's frill when the ship became airborne. "You're a good soldier, Spyro. We couldn't have gotten this thing flying without you!"
"Ah, it was no problem." The dragon waved to the waves of breezebuilders who began loading the ship with ammunition, provisions, and birdpower. "So you're gonna take this thing out and dock it at Autumn Manor, right?"
"...Why would we take it to the Manor?"
"Oh, yeah, you're right - that'd be too obvious, Ripto would be onto us. Where do you suggest we dock it?"
Squawk gave a nervous look, grabbing his toolbox and preparing for a swift escape. "Uh...I dunno what you heard, Spyro, but we gotta take this ship into Zephyr. Those landblubbers poured into the harbor, so now we gotta strike back while the pan's still hot!" He took off, one of the last to board the ship before it left the harbor. "But hey, be patient! When we flatten Zephyr, we'll help you out with your Ripto friend, okay? Thanks again!"
So Spyro sat and watched the ship fly off into the night. Not on a journey of justice, as the young dragon had thought, but on a mission of vengeance. Ripto wasn't involved - those creatures he had been charging all night weren't Riptocs. The breezebuilders were attacking other Avalari. They didn't even know that a crazy dinosaur had taken over their realm!
The Artisan gave a frustrated snort before rushing towards the portal. The breezebuilders were heading to Zephyr? Then so was he.
oo00oo00oo
Moneybags stretched with a relaxed sigh. This had to be the best job he'd ever have. Hundreds of golden gears from the breezebuilders, and all he had to do was keep the portal to Zephyr closed? Ripto didn't even seem interested in either of the worlds - the sorcerer seemed more than content to let the blubbers and builders blow each other up.
No Ripto. No dragon. No hassle. Just a relaxing evening of babysitting a disabled portal.
...Or at least, that's what it looked like. Until he was forced to his feet by the scorch of hot steam. "Ouch! My goodness, what in the world do-"
The bear was scared speechless upon seeing the fire in Spyro's dark eyes. "Oh! Uhm...g-good afternoon, Sp-Sp-Spyro! H-How goes the-"
"Not now, Moneybags," Spyro snorted. "Is this the portal to Zephyr?"
"...W-What, this portal? Oh, why would you be interested in-"
"Open it. NOW."
Moneybags swallowed nervously, adjusting his top button. "O-Oh, I'm not sure if-if I can, Spyro! It, uh...y'know, requires a lot of...things that..."
Ching! The bear looked down to find a loosely-tied sack at his feet. Through the small opening, he could make out sparkles of red, green, blue, yellow, and violet. Dragon treasure.
"I know you've been itching for some gems," Spyro said. "Fine, take 'em. I've got business to take care of in Zephyr. OPEN THE PORTAL."
Not wanting to stand in Spyro's way any longer, Moneybags jumped for the switch and re-activated the portal, watching the purple dragon rush inside. As soon as he was gone, the bear quickly counted the gems. There were four-hundred of them.
So he might have to put up with a few angry breezebuilders; at least he could put this towards his Lizard Burger joint in Skelos Badlands.
oo00oo00oo
"Alright, builders, at the ready!" Beaky commanded, trying to rally the chaotic forces aboard the SS Breeze. Zephyr was down below, with cannon-wielding landblubbers taking shots at every opportunity. Their bomber unit was already in the area, littering the battlefield with bombs and TNT while trying to hold down the Zephyr attacks. Their strike was postponed with the landblubber raid on the boilers, so all of the breezebuilders were relieved to see that their boys were still holding strong.
"Alright, steady the bombs! Prepare to fire in three! Two! O-"
Before the order could be finalized, the SS Breeze took a heavy hit to the hull, sending the ship spinning towards the Zephyr plains. "Commander, we've been hit!" Squawk cried, tumbling across the deck.
"Yes, Squawk, I can see that!" Beaky snapped, trying to scan the area for the sharp-shooter that hit them. (Landblubbers had notoriously-bad aim.)
The breezebuilders escaped just in time to avoid the fiery crash-landing, and Beaky was quick to approach the enemy lines. "Blub! You and your landblubbers have trashed our machines for the LAST time!"
"Why you gotta come over here 'n be yellin' at me?!" Blub snapped back. "You 'n yer dag-nabbed birds keep comin' inta OUR turf, blowin' up OUR b'ildin's, 'course we gon' blow yer fancy flight-a-ma-jig outta the sky!"
"HEY!" Just as Beaky went in for a blow, both leaders were forced to look up at the small dragon storming up to them. "Stand down, Beaky - I'M the one that knocked out your boat."
"Yee-haw!" Blub jumped. "Take THAT, bird-brain! We got the dragon on our side!" The landblubber gave a jump, though, as a sear of flame rushed across his hide. "Owowowow!"
"I'm not on anybody's SIDE," Spyro spat. "If I knew that warship was coming over here, I wouldn't have helped them fix it in the first place. I'm just making up for my mistake."
The dragon scraped against his stone platform with his claws, eyes dark with anger and frustration. "Seriously, what are you two THINKING? Don't you guys realize what's happening in Autumn Plains RIGHT NOW? All of Avalar is under attack! It's about to be taken over - something bigger than you, you, both of you. And you two are busy bombing EACH OTHER?! I don't even care what it's about; how DARE you two focus on this stupid fight when your ENTIRE REALM is in danger?!"
Beaky opened his mouth to retort, which only earned him a faceful of hot smoke. "No, shut up!" Spyro interrupted with a growl. "I don't want to hear it. ANY of it. From EITHER of you." The dragon kicked a fistful of dirt at the breezebuilder commander. "Take what's left of your boat, get your birds, and fly straight back to Breeze Harbor." He then nudged a horn towards the landblubber colonel, who jumped back in a fright. "You keep your buckets out of the harbor and focus on fixing this place up."
Spyro shook his head. "Both of you should be disgusted with yourselves. I'll at least be nice enough to help clean up Zephyr, but after that, I'm going back to doing something IMPORTANT. You two are just wasting life, resources, and my time. If I hear you two are at each other again while I'm here, I'll flatten BOTH of your portals. Is that clear?"
"Y-Y-Yessir..."
"I SAID, IS THAT CLEAR?!"
"SIR, YES, SIR!" With a squelch and a squawk, Beaky and Blub rushed to their corners, immediately enacting Spyro's ceasefire.
oo00oo00oo
As he promised when he first arrived to the war-torn fields of Zephyr, Spyro spent some time cleaning out the debris. (...Namely, breezebuilder bombers. Who would've guessed that landblubbers were such terrible shots?) After helping out a farmer by the name of lil' Bo find his cowlecks, all of which got scared and scattered from the bombings, Spyro eventually ran into the commander and colonel on his way towards the exit. "What do you two want?"
"Spyro, we want to, uh..." Beaky shyly bowed his beak. "Apologize."
"Yeah, Spyro, we didn't rec'anize what was goin' on out in da Plains," Blub added, pulling off his pot-hat and placing it over his chest. "Yer right, we shouldn't be pickin' on each other if trouble's brewin', an' we'd be mighty glad ta help ya once we get the harbor 'n Zephyr all fixed up."
Spyro gave the nervous leaders a soft smile. "Good to hear you two changed your tunes."
The dragon turned to leave once more, but was stopped yet again. This time, the bird and blubber each had a sparkling item in their hands - Beaky, a glass anchor, and Blub, a ruby bomb. "Look, we can't be a whole lot of help now, but we at least want you to have these," Beaky said.
"Yeah, if we ain' at each other's throats, we won't be needin' these bad boys," Blub agreed. "We want you ta take 'em 'n go fight the good fight out in the Plains fer us!"
Spyro gave them a nod as Sparx grabbed the pair of talismans and dropped them into the guidebook. "Well, thanks, guys! I'll do my best to save Autumn Plains for you. Just make sure you two keep at this peace treaty, okay?"
All three cringed to hear an explosion in the background, followed by the squawks of a newly-roasted breezebomber. "I, uh...think you'll need all the help you can get."
Ah, Zephyr and Breeze Harbor. Annoying seeds and trouble with the trolley as far as the eye can see. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! :) Thanks for reading; see you next week!
§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §