We're sorry, but your usual friendly opening is being foregone because the author of this story needs to prepare one hell of an apology for the readers, to be found at the end of this chapter. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy 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-SEVEN: Ripto's Tundra

Elora paced nervously by the clock tower that stood at the entrance to Winter Tundra, fervently scanning the skies for any sign of an incoming dragon. They needed Spyro to get into Winter Palace, and they needed him sooner rather than later. Where is a dragon when you need one?!

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to the watch-faun, Spyro soared into the Tundra, landing by the clock tower when he spotted his target: "Elora/Spyro, we need to talk!" they started simultaneously.

Elora quickly recoiled, noticing the bite in Spyro's voice. "Oh! Uhm...y-you go first."

Spyro, on the other hand, backed off when he noticed the panic on Elora's face. "No, no, forget it - what's wrong?"

Elora gave a sharp, nervous sigh. "Ripto's still alive."

She explained the whole story, from coming in and fixing the super-portal to Ripto's invasion to the stolen power crystal...and ending with pleading eyes as she mentioned that they would need to find the missing orbs to crack the super-charged magic seal on the door. "So you need me to go play hero one more time," Spyro summed up with a laugh.

"I'm sorry, Spyro," Elora apologized. "I hate to keep dragging you back into this-"

"Don't apologize," the Artisan interrupted, turning towards the Palace. "This is just me finishing the job."

Before Spyro could run off, though, Elora stopped him. "Hey, Spyro! Did you...need to talk about something?"

"...Forget it, this is more important right now."

oo00oo00oo

The Winter Tundra was the least-inhabited of the Avalar lands. Most of its locals were robots that could handle the cold, as well as scholars who came to study at this crossroads between ancient magic and new-age technology (like the Professor, who called the snowy lands home). The Tundra held no talismans, as there wasn't nearly enough demand for them in the lonely mountains, but according to Zoe, the fairies hid several of the orbs in the area, dropping them off quickly in the homeworld to prevent the risk of running into Crush or Gulp at the portals to the Summer Forest and Autumn Plains.

First, they had to track down the Professor, who was studying ancient scrolls in the Mystic Marsh, trying to find ways of defeating the power-crystal that was now on Ripto's side. (And Spyro cringed to see that the magic of the Water Wizards was eerily Dream Weaver-like.) However, before the dragon could leave the Marsh, the Professor needed his help in the most urgent of missions: finding his pencil. So Spyro spent the afternoon putting eggs back in nests, planting seeds, returning missing baby ducks, boiling turnips, and flipping coins into wishing wells to hunt down the missing pencil. Truly hero work at its finest.

With his pencil returned, the Professor suggested that Spyro visit the Cloud Temples, a magical place that would surely be able to assist in breaking open the seal. So the young dragon spent the better part of the day chasing fire imps and nearly being knocked off of the floating islands by territorial rams. No closer on breaking the seal, apart from finding a set of orbs, but at least he beat Ripto's apprentices out and gave the Avalari magicians their wands back.

With only a handful of orbs left to find, it brought Spyro into the robotic areas of Winter Tundra, which were thankfully less...shocking than his previous experiences with machines and electricity. Ripto had unleashed a swarm of mechanical bugs onto Robotica Farms (not that they stood much chance against a dragon), and an invasion of space cows and sheep saucers had taken over Metropolis. (Spyro questioned them once, but a sullen Hunter simply said that it was a long story. The Artisan decided not to press the matter further than that.)

And though they couldn't let Elora find out they were sneaking off, Hunter and Spyro slipped Moneybags a bag of gems to pop open the Canyon Speedway.

Finally, after lots of needless exploring, Spyro finally tracked down the sixty-four orbs that were scattered at Ripto's arrival so very long ago, and when brought back together, their magic blew down the door to the Winter Palace.

Finally, it was time to fight Ripto.

oo00oo00oo

Ripto gave his new sceptre, namely the power crystal at its head, one last polish and twirl before turning to the terrified sheep that stood in front of him. The magical staff was fully constructed, but needed to be tested before he could go after his enemies - namely, the dragon. He raised the sceptre high, charging it with magical energies, then fired a fiery bolt down, one hot enough to even scorch the troublesome fire-dragon.

However, Ripto underestimated his targets. Sheep are outfitted with the most amazing reflexes, their only form of defense against their natural predator, the almighty dragon. All three pranced away at the last second, all untouched by the attack. The sorcerer gave a frustrated growl. "Get back here, you useless animals!"

"Hey, shorty!" Steam nearly blew from Ripto's nose as he turned to find a purple dragon standing behind him, touching down from his glide and tensing his legs for the fight. "Sheep aren't great for target practice; that's a waste of fodder. Want me to help you out instead?"

For a moment, Ripto was speechless from blind and utter rage. "W-W-W-WHAT?! You AGAIN?! Dragon, how many times do I have to try and kill you?!"

"The last guy who tried tapped out after six," Spyro smirked. "Hey, if you want to test out that power crystal, why not try it on me?" He scratched his claws against the marble arena, taunting Ripto into battle. "Come on, I'll stand still - promise."

Ripto pondered it for a moment, then slowly broke into a menacing laugh. "I like that idea. Alright, dragon, you've just sealed your fate!"

The sorcerer charged up another fire blast, aiming it straight for Spyro. Keeping true to his word, the dragon held his ground...but he did manage to duck under the attack. "Sorry, Ripto, you missed!" he laughed, rushing into the fight. "You got your free shot! My turn!"

Ripto gave a yelp, stumbling out of the way of Spyro's charge and firing another scorching projectile. "Fine, I don't need you to hold still! I can hit you regardless!" The sorcerer fired a few more shots, barely scraping Spyro's underside as he rolled out of the way of one of them, only to tumble out of the way himself when he got tackled by the dragon's horns.

The tussle continued, a close back-and-forth...until an orb suddenly bounced between the adversaries, ceasing the battle. And not a normal orb, mind you - this one was a deep blue, rather than the orbs' typical emerald green. Rather than pay mind to the all-powerful artifact in their arena, both battlers instead looked around, trying to find where it had come from.

The answer was Hunter, who was circling up above and gave a nervous wave when both parties spotted him. "Oh, uh...hey, guys! How's it, uh...how's it goin'?"

Ripto fired a blast into the skies, forcing Hunter to veer off-course and crash to the nearby ground. "Go back to chasing your tail, pussycat!" he snapped. "I'll deal with you and the goat and the old man later!"

The sorcerer turned back to the battle at hand, only to be nearly-flattened by a sudden dragon-tackle. He stumbled to his feet, and was immediately blown over again. Ripto could hardly keep track of his opponent, who was blazing around in a cloud of smoke. "DRAGON, HOLD STILL!"

Spyro rounded the arena with a laugh, aimed for supercharge number three, but on the third time around, Ripto was ready. He used his sceptre as a trip-wire, forcing the dragon into a high-speed tumble and ruining his power-up momentum. "Oof!"

Ripto dusted off his cloak, spying another orb nearby, this one a glittering red. Finally, it made sense. "So the old man's powering up the orbs, is he?" The sorcerer gave a laugh, grabbing the orb before Spyro could reach him. "Well, then! Two can play at that game!"

Spyro slid to a stop as he watched Ripto grab the orb, and couldn't jump out of the way as Ripto swung his sceptre, sending a flaming shockwave across the arena, leaving a newly-blackened dragon to tumble out of the way once more. The Artisan eventually rolled to his feet, shaking off the damage. "Alright, shorty, then game on!"

So the war continued, orb magic against orb magic. The two sides battled it out, magic against magic, until finally, Ripto stopped the running and chasing to catch his breath. Being respectful, Spyro slid to a stop alongside him. "What's the matter, shorty? Can't run on those stubby legs of yours?"

Death burned in Ripto's eyes. "No, I've just decided that I've let you live long enough!" The sorcerer waved his sceptre in a frantic circle, lighting up the arena with a reddish glow. "You've been lucky so far, dragon, but I'm going to end that streak right now!"

Spyro could only brace himself as the stone arena began to shake, and the reddish light broke into a fiery portal, from which climbed a gargantuan beast. Its metal limbs creaked as it entered the fray, giving a familiar roar as it turned to face its meal.

A robotic Gulp.

While Spyro processed this new attack, Ripto scurried up onto his contraption's back. "Alright, Gulp! Let's see if those robotic lessons I picked up in Metropolis make you any better at dragon-hunting!"

The Artisan scoffed. "Come on, Ripto, I already beat Gulp once! You really think that hunk of junk's gonna keep up with-OW!"

Spyro's taunt was interrupted as Ripto shot him down with a fireball. From the much-higher vantage point, Ripto had much better aim of his draconic foe. Spyro still rushed for the orbs (a feat that became much more difficult, as Mecha-Gulp took up so much of the arena, his size alone allowed him to outrun the small dragon), but found his dodges getting more and more difficult as he had to get closer and closer to the mecha-menace to avoid Ripto's blasts.

Finally, after a heated blast of fire blasts from a super-charged Spyro, the Mecha-Gulp took its final blow. The mecha-monstrosity exploded, sending Ripto tumbling and sending a series of cracks through their marble arena. "DRAGON!" the sorcerer fumed. "That is IT! That is the LAST STRAW!"

Ripto waved his sceptre at the pieces of Mecha-Gulp, levitating them and morphing them into a new creation. The pieces melded into a magnificent bird, which became Ripto's new ride as he hopped onto its back and forced it to the skies. "I've been watching you, dragon, and if I've learned anything, it's that you can't fly!"

Spyro snorted, watching Ripto circle the arena. He hated when baddies were right. "Yeah, and you're a coward! Get down here and fight me like the short, scared dino you are!" Instead, Ripto fired fireball after fireball at the fissured arena, shots that were all more than easy enough to dodge.

...Because Ripto's target wasn't Spyro, as the Artisan realized after nearly falling through the crack in the floor, which Ripto's magic was quickly filling with lava. Realizing the sorcerer's plan, Spyro hopped to the largest remaining chunk of marble, scrambling to stay as far from the lava pool as he could manage.

The dragon turned to the side of the arena, from where the orbs had been firing. "HEY! You guys got something back there to help a dragon out?"

Forced to jump without a response when his safety island began to sink, Spyro leapt towards the edge, flapping his wings in a desperate attempt to stay above the lava. In a perfectly-timed (or EXTREMELY lucky) throw, however, a golden orb shot forth from the hiding place on the edge of the arena. The sparkling super-orb sent a rush of wind circling through the stage, enough to fill Spyro's wings and allow him to avoid the lava and take to the skies. It also brought a touch of heat, a burning in the dragon's chest that brought him back to saving the baby turtles, blowing up metal sharks, and taking down flag-thieves.

It was an odd combination, but one he recognized, having used it once before in Metropolis to conquer the sheep UFO invasion: the Professor's superfly/superflame power-up.

And so, the Palace arena filled with deadly lava, setting the stage for the final showdown. Spyro and Ripto returned to exchanging blows, each narrowly missing the other as their matching attacks would force the other to dodge out of the way. The Winter Tundra radiated with an unnatural heat as the enemies sent scorching fireball after scorching fireball across its wintery landscapes, both desperately firing and waiting for a hit.

Realizing that this contest was going nowhere and fast, Spyro came up with an idea - a risky one, but one that would settle the score once and for all. "Hey, Sparx, you doin' alright?"

The electric-blue dragonfly didn't answer; he knew all too well what Spyro meant by that question. "What're you planning?"

"Something really stupid. Can you hang on?"

Dragon and dragonfly diverged for a moment to avoid another one of Ripto's attacks. "You owe me a box of butterflies after this fight!" Sparx buzzed, ducking into his dragon-brother's frills.

"Alright, done deal." Waiting for his chance, Spyro circled the arena, then pounded his wings as he shot straight forward, charging through the air towards Ripto's creature.

Ripto fired bolt after bolt of fiery energy at the oncoming dragon, snarling as the agile Artisan ducked and rolled around every blast. Once in range, Spyro blasted one of the bird's wings, causing it to take a wrenching dip on one side, sending the sorcerer scrambling to straighten out his ship. With Ripto distracted, Spyro jumped onto its head, tilting it towards the floor and sending both of them spiraling. Ripto charged up his sceptre, smashing the young dragon in the head and sending him flying, crashing into one of the Palace walls with a stone-crumbling THUD!

However, it was too little, too late. As Ripto looked up, his mecha-bird had already hit the lava, and he had only a second to process the scene before its exploding engine bucked him off, sending him face-first into his own lava pit. By the time Spyro got back to his wings and his vision straightened, not a single piece of Ripto remained...except for the power crystal, which floated to the surface once loose of Ripto's staff.

Finally, Avalar was safe. For real this time.

oo00oo00oo

Spyro made his way down the stairs, just as the orb-magic wore off, where he met his Avalari hosts by the super-portal. "Spyro, my boy, that was fantastic!" the Professor congratulated. "What a show! What a thrill!"

"I couldn't have done it without those orbs, Professor," Spyro returned with a gentle bow. "Thanks."

Hunter gave a playful scoff. "Yeah, that was pretty cool. For a dragon."

Spyro just had to laugh, though; finally, he and Hunter were on pleasant terms. "Well, tossing in those orbs was pretty sweet. For a cheetah."

Elora stepped forward, but was short on words. (Especially after all of the times Spyro had scolded her for saying "thank you" and "I'm sorry".) So, with nothing else to say, she quickly knelt down and pressed her lips to the top of Spyro's head. "Thanks, Spyro," she said quietly. "We couldn't have done it without you."

Spyro's brain froze for a moment as he tried to process what had happened. He wasn't expecting his first kiss anytime soon, especially not from a faun. "Uh...you're welcome?"

Everyone then turned to Moneybags, who was being abnormally quiet in this moment of victory. "Moneybags? Don't you have something to give Spyro? Hmm?"

The bear scoffed. "I've no idea what you're talking about, Miss Elora. Yes, yes, dragon, thanks for all your work, we owe you our lives, yadda-yadda-Oof!"

Hunter tackled Moneybags down, sitting on the bear's back and wrestling loose his bag of gems. "Here! Catch!" he called, tossing the jewels to his dragon companion.

"I'm sure Moneybags MEANT to say that he's very sorry for trying to swindle you while you were here," Elora filled in tensely, "and he'd like to return all of it. We want you to keep any of the gems that you found as a reward."

Spyro laughed as Sparx snatched up the bag. He would've paid every gem he had to watch Moneybags get pounded. "I'm sure the dragons wouldn't mind a few thousand more gems around the Realms. Thanks, guys!"

Putting in his coordinates, the Professor re-engaged the power crystal and finally activated the Dragon Shores portal. Quickly backing away, Elora motioned to the sunshine-filled doorway. "So, uhm...you'd better get going, right? I think we can be pretty sure you got Ripto for good this time."

"Uh...yeah, I guess I better. They're probably looking for me in the Dragon Realms. Plus, I could REALLY use that vacation now!" The Artisan took a few steps towards the portal, then stopped and turned to Hunter and Elora. "Hey, wait a second! Why don't you guys come with me? I'm sure I'm not the only person here who needs a vacation!"

Hunter moved to pounce on the opportunity, but Elora stopped him with an elbow to the ribs. "Sorry, Spyro, but we can't," she said instead. "Ripto made a mess of this place. We'll be cleaning up the damages for weeks!"

Spyro gave a sharp sigh. All work and no play, Elora as usual. "Right, you guys should...y'know, do that."

Feeling a pang of guilt in her chest, Elora shot Spyro the best smile she could manage. "Hey, but, uh...we'll keep the portal open. Y'know, if you ever want to...come visit?"

Spyro smiled back - it was a start, right? "Alright, sounds like a plan!"

Sparx tugged at his dragon-brother's horn. "Come on, can we GO yet?"

"Yeah, we can go. Come on, last one to the beach's a riptoc!"

The Professor turned a glare to Elora the second Spyro and Sparx were gone. "Elora, why did you tell him that?"

"Tell him what?"

"That we don't want to go to Dragon Shores!" Hunter cried. "Come on, all this work to open a portal to the biggest amusement park beach resort thing in the world, and you don't even want to GO?!"

"I didn't say that!" Elora jumped nervously. "W-What about all of the-"

"Oh, Ripto this and Ripto that," the Professor tsked. "The worlds of Avalar are in better shape than ever thanks to Spyro. Anything that needs to be done can wait a day or two."

"B-But what about the orbs? Or fixing the portals? Or-?"

"All things that can wait." The Professor adjusted his glasses. "Personally, Elora, I think you were incredibly rude to our guest. The least you could do is accept his invitation and go have some fun."

"Rude? Me?"

"You did kind of act like a stick in the swamp," Hunter agreed. "I mean, you're always kind of like that, but-"

"Am not!" Elora snapped, shoving her hoof in Hunter's gut.

"Point is, Elora," the Professor interjected, grabbing both of their arms and dragging them towards the portal. "You two owe it to Spyro to go enjoy yourselves. You leave the portal research to me and the cleaning to the locals."

Hey, guys! So there was kind of a lot of protest that I skipped Shady Oasis and a speedway, and now I've basically skipped all of Winter Tundra. So here's the formal apology: I'm not here to bore you guys. Yes, I'm trying my best to novelize the story, but at the same time, I don't want to feel obligated to include really boring parts of the game just for the sake of being true to the games. (I'm not the only person that thinks Spyro games have notoriously-weak final homeworlds, am I?) I'm trying to include as much as I can, but I don't want to drag this story out by writing chapters that are just dull and nothing all that interesting happens. :( I'm just trying to compromise and give you guys the best story I can, so just enjoy what we've got going and not stress about anything I skip, okay?

Alright. With that said, get excited, guys! One more chapter 'til the Year of the Dragon! :D As always, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you next time! Thanks for reading!

§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §