Welcome back, dragonlets! :) Who's ready for a brand-new chapter of Autumn Plains fun? I sure am! So let's get the show on the road!
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-FOUR: The Floor is Lava
Loonie and Trottie stretched in the comfort of their shade, enjoying a few moments of quiet before the big party was about to start. Ever since Elora hinted that the dragon-hero would be visiting, the fauns had been working their tails off to make a spectacular celebration for his arrival into the cone.
SQUISH! ...Unfortunately, their party was getting trashed more and more by the second. Now the earthshapers had activated their volcano, which tended to be a huge downer on the party.
Loonie scooted away from the lava-rock that was now crushing Trottie's body. He'd get help after a few more minutes of lava-bathing.
oo00oo00oo
Spyro frowned a bit as he and Sparx flew into Magma Cone. Elora had invited him to the volcanic hot-spot, welcoming him to take a night off and party with the fauns. (Or rather, her party-hearty cousins put her up to the story, as he later found out.) His faun host had mentioned that Magma Cone was home to endless parties and excitement, but it didn't look particularly exciting at the moment. Hulking beasts that Spyro guessed weren't fauns crawled from the depths of the earth and the lava, their rock-like bodies smashing through the smoggy fields that surrounded the explosive volcano.
However, the earthshapers weren't the only life around. As Spyro ducked to avoid the beasts (that he was quick to discover were flame-resistant and horn-proofed, which only pointed more fingers to a Ripto design), he spotted a small faun up in the wooden watch-towers. The faun caught his eye, then quietly pointed between the nearest earthshaper and a large X scratched into the ground.
Catching the gist of the plan, Spyro rushed in. The earthshaper spotted the dragon and wound up his mighty hammer, but the agile dragon easily ducked out of the way, beating the beast backwards with his horns. Spyro's charges didn't hurt the creatures, but it did nudge them back a step or two. Which added up to the earthshaper skidding onto the X.
The faun quickly pulled out a jackhammer, jumping onto the earthshaper's head and turning the machine on. Its motorized chisel smashed through the earthshaper's impenetrable skin, shattering the golem-like riptoc into a hundred pieces.
"Great job, Spyro!" Loonie cheered, hopping down from his post to properly greet the dragon. "Great ta see ya could make it to the party!"
"Doesn't look like much of a party," Spyro couldn't help but notice, noting the spilling lava and earthshapers around every corner.
Loonie nervously put a hand behind his head. "Well, we tried. It was goin' jus' fine 'til those earthshapers broke open our volcano. I's a little hard ta party when there's molten lava 'round the ring where we play musical chairs, ain' it?"
Spyro looked up to the mouth of the furious volcano, which continued to rain lava rocks down on the unsuspecting cone. He was really looking forward to the party, too. (Especially if Elora was being forced to attend and not stress out so much.)
"...You think I could get up there and shut that volcano back up?"
oo00oo00oo
Life wasn't all party-hats and lava-bathing in the Cone, though. There was also crystal popcorn to be collected. A local delicacy, only found in the depths of the volcano caves, crystal popcorn was a super-sweet hard candy - sugary minerals in the cave systems that get a blast of steam and compact into small shards of delicious. No Magma Cone party would be complete without it, and as soon as he heard, Spyro dove right into the caves to get some for himself. (...And the party. Of course.)
However, the dragon cringed to find a certain loud-mouthed cheetah already there, stretching and warming up for a race against the popcorn shards. "Hunter, what're you doing here?"
"Oh, there's a big party here today, so I'm helping to find the-" Hunter turned and found the dragon, not one of the local fauns. "...Oh. Hi, dragon."
"Wow, these fauns let just anyone walk into their parties, don't they?" Spyro teased, sliding across the slick cavern floor and up to where Hunter was waiting.
The cheetah frowned. He could've easily pointed out that Elora invited him and he was on the party-setup committee, but that may have spoiled the big surprise - whether Hunter liked it or not, the party was in Spyro's honor. "Look, don't you have the Plains to be saving? Or did you decide to give up after you let Ripto get away the first time?"
Spyro snorted a breath of hot smoke, an intimidation tactic that Hunter was beginning to get used to. "Hey, I didn't come down here to start trouble, okay? I just came down to help the fauns get some-"
Plink! Hunter and Spyro both looked up when the first piece of crystal popcorn rocketed out of its crevice, a blast of steam behind it as the burning vapor trailed off to another part of the glowing crack system in the floor. Both eager to outshine the other, both racers jumped for the popcorn, crashing at the crevice and allowing the sweet treat to crumble when it smashed against the ground.
The two got back to their feet, and similar glints appeared in their eyes as their competitive natures came up with the same idea:
"Wanna race for 'em?"
"First to ten wins."
"READYSETGO!" Both racers bolted to opposite sides of the cave, both shades of blue eyes darting along the lines of green minerals, watching for the tell-tale steam blasts to lead them to their prizes. Hunter finally spotted one and followed it, easily letting the popcorn drop into his paw as it came down from its rocket ascent.
"Hey, Spyro, got one!" Hunter teased, waving his prize.
Spyro, who had a freshly-fired popcorn in his mouth, gave a silent laugh before tracing a three in the air with his tail, then rushing off to the next geyser.
Realizing he needed to catch up, Hunter turned up the pace. He pounced from geyser to geyser, quickly racking up a line of popcorns. He paused to take count of his stash. Eight popcorns. Only two more, and-
"Ten! Got 'em!"
Spyro celebrated his victory by tossing the winning popcorn into the air, jumping up to catch it and snacking down on the sweet. "Oh, and victory has never been sweeter!" he purred.
The dragon looked up, though, when he heard Hunter's bag of popcorn hit the ground, and swallowed his prize quickly as he saw the disheartened cheetah move back towards the exit. "...Hunter? You alright?"
"No," Hunter was quick to spit. "Forget it, dragon, I'm just going to quit trying. You're too good at this, and I can't keep up. Fine, take the popcorn, get your big party, save Avalar, be the big hero. I won't get in your way anymore."
Spyro charged to catch up, sitting down in front of Hunter just shy of the entrance and stopping the cheetah in his tracks. "First off, the name's Spyro; I'll keep beating you at stuff all day until you get that through your head," he laughed.
Noting that Hunter wasn't laughing, instead trying to avoid the dragon's eye, Spyro gently knocked the cheetah onto his tail so he would listen. "Second off, what's your problem? All I'm trying to do is help, but you and I have had problems since the second I rolled into Glimmer. What did I do?"
"Nothing," Hunter argued. "That's it. No matter what you're doing or what happens, you're perfect. All of the locals love you, my best friend can't stop blabbing about you, you're faster than me, stronger than me..." The cheetah sighed. "You probably have no idea what it's like, dragon - having someone else show you up, people always thinking you're not good enough or that you can't do something."
"...Actually, I know exactly what that's like." Hunter's ears perked at the dragon's quiet admittance. "Hunter, really, think about it - do you think I was the first choice to save the Dragon Realms? No, of course not. The dragon elders think I'm just a kid. I can't fly, hate standing on my hind legs, freak out if I lose my dragonfly...Look, I'm the hero 'cause the bad guy missed. And you guys didn't get a choice in the matter, either, you just grabbed the first dragon you found. If the elders in the Dragon Realms heard you were having trouble, you know what I'd be doing? Babysitting the pups while the big guys take care of it."
The Artisan walked over to his rival, gently shoving his shoulder. "So you know what I did? Proved 'em all wrong. When the elders told me not to go somewhere 'cause it was too dangerous, it was the first place I went. So don't just sit and take it when Elora calls you names or when I happen to beat you in something - go out and do something amazing, give them a reason not to talk bad about you."
Spyro turned to return to his adventure, but not before giving Hunter a quick whip with his tail. "Point is, pussycat, quit feeling sorry for yourself and start showing people up."
He almost made it out of the caves, but stopped when a piece of crystal popcorn smashed into the back of his head. "Ow!" He whipped around, finding Hunter recollecting his bag. "What was that for?"
"Rematch," Hunter smirked. "First to fifteen."
oo00oo00oo
Spyro could hear his dragonfly's nervous swallows as the duo looked up at their challenge: climbing to the top of the volcano. The fauns had explained that there was a hatch at the top, specifically designed for this kind of party emergency, and from a distance, it seemed an easy feat.
Looking straight up from the bottom, though, the volcano looked much more intimidating.
"Should I go find the fauns and get a water-hose ready?" Sparx asked.
"Sparx, I'm a fire-dragon," Spyro reminded. "If I can't handle a volcano, the Peacekeepers didn't raise me right."
"Of course they didn't, you're an Artisan."
"Shut up."
Ignoring the worries of his dragonfly, Spyro hopped over to the base of the volcano and dug his claws into its crumbly side. The volcano was freshly-formed, meaning the newly-dried magma was loose, making for the perfect climbing board. All Spyro had to do was scale the side, one paw in front of the other in front of the other.
WHOOSH! The dragon slid a bit, scrambling to keep his clawhold as the volcano shook with another eruption. "Ugh, can't this volcano hold still for five minutes?" he tsked, resuming his slow ascent.
After regaining some ground, the volcano shook again. And Spyro looked up to find a lava rock plummeting straight for his head. In a moment of tizzy, the dragon jumped from the volcanoside, losing quite a bit of altitude as he glided to another part of the climb, away from where the rock was about to land, and scrambled to find a new clawhold.
Trying to pick up the pace, Spyro nearly charged his way to the top, stumbling frequently as his speed cost him accuracy and stability. When another lava rock shot from the skies, the dragon just barely found his grip and had no choice but to duck and brace himself for its attack.
The heavy rock rolled down the mountain, crushing Spyro's flattened wing and nearly dragging the dragon down with it. Spyro bit his tongue, immobilized by the immense pain in his most delicate joint, his wing muscles spazzing on their own accord and making the whole thing worse.
Sparx nudged Spyro the best he could, but a dragonfly could never be a match for the grip of a dragon's claws. "Spyro, come on! Move!"
"Give me a second!" Spyro hissed, flexing his aching wing.
"Spyro, rest the wing later! You don't have a second! MOVE!"
"Sparx, would you just-" Thanks to Sparx's nudging, Spyro managed to catch a glimpse of the latest lava rock and jump narrowly out of its roll down the volcanoside. "Uhm...thanks?"
"Thank me later, fire-boy," Sparx buzzed irritatedly, trying to shove Spyro up the mountain. "Come on, let's get out of here!"
After a few more close-calls, Spyro finally clawed his way to the top, ramming the hatch until it fell over the top of the volcano. With the lava flow cut off, a breeze finally cut through the smoggy air of Magma Cone, and Spyro could sit atop his accomplishment, looking down at the fantastic views below as he caught his breath and eased his wing. (It was a long glide down, after all.)
"We should climb volcanoes more often."
"Let's not and say we do."
oo00oo00oo
Finally, with the popcorn collected, the volcano shut down, the party-hats recovered, and the earthshapers smashed, the party could begin! Magma Cone immediately transformed from a volcanic base to a heated party. There was dancing, music, party favors, great food, and everyone was wearing a silly hat. How could it get any better?
...Alright, so Spyro may have had an idea.
"Yo, Hunter!" The cheetah looked up from his and Bippo's game of 'pin the horn on the Ripto'. "You see Elora anywhere? She said she'd be here."
"Any reason you're lookin' for her?" Hunter teased (quickly regretting it as his tail caught fire). "Okay, okay, no, I haven't seen her!"
"Oh, yer lookin' fer little 'Lora?" Bippo chimed in. "Didn't Loonie tell ya?"
"Tell me what?"
" 'Lora can't make it; 'parently, the earthshapers broke inta Fracture Hills, 'n she's makin' sure that they don' cause too much chaos up there." The Magma faun gave a shrug, returning to the game. "Don' worry 'bout 'em, they'll be fine. Might actually get those yo-yo-twirlin' faun gals off'a their hooves 'n doin' somethin' 'steada chasin' satyr tail all day."
Spyro shook his head slightly, shaking loose anything that might've been caught in his ears. "Did I hear that right? The earthshapers are attacking other fauns, and you're just letting them?"
"May as well. The Fracture fauns ain' been ta any'a our parties in ages."
Spyro gave a frustrated sigh as he rushed towards the portal, despite the protests of the fauns. When Elora mentioned the Autumn Plains locals not getting along, she wasn't kidding.
(But if he didn't earn hero points by ditching his own surprise party to rescue a damsel, nothing would.)
Props to DJ Scales for getting close on the impromptu "guess where we're going next" contest. XD Anyway, who's ready to save some ladies next week? If you are, make sure to tune in next time for the next exciting chapter! Thanks for reading, guys; hope you enjoyed!
§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §