Ahoy, dragonlets! Welcome back to Legacy, where updates apparently happen on Sundays. XD Anyway, apologies for the lateness, 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 3: Year of the Dragon, as well as all related characters (c) blah-blah, same copyright.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: A Game of Chicken
"PLEASE tell me I didn't just hear that."
"You did."
"PLEASE tell me we're not about to do what I think we're about to do."
"We are."
"PLEASE tell me this is going to be the only weird thing we have to do."
"It's not."
Spyro dropped his head, scraping his horns against the tile in sad, tired frustration. At first, Sunny Villa seemed like a genuinely pleasant place. It was warm, it was sunny, it was well-kept; okay, sure, so there were a few rhynocs around, but that wasn't out of the ordinary, right?
Then Councillor George said it: The rhynocs have kidnapped the mayor. AND THE GIANT CHICKENS.
"For ONCE, can't we just go somewhere normal and not have to do crazy things to save the townsfolk?" Spyro sighed, picking himself up and smashing the rhynocs waiting at the gates.
"Look at it this way, Spyro!" Sparx buzzed, attempting to be the chipper one in this delicate game of hide-and-go-seek. "At least it's never boring, right?"
oo00oo00oo
"A'right, so lemme make sure I got this story straight..."
After a long afternoon of fighting off rhynocs (and the obsessive urge to burn down every cyprus tree in sight), clearing lizards out of the skate park, and helping Roman and Julietta clear up the finer details of a restraining order, Spyro, Hunter, Zoe, and Sheila had run into each other by the town fountain. The heroes decided to take a few minutes to catch up their kangaroo partner on the story of the missing dragon eggs.
"There be a HUNDRED-'N-FIFTY'a these here dragon eggs, just hidin' all over the worlds," Sheila echoed. "An' the rhynocs ain' supposed ta let you have 'em?"
"Not according to Miss Doom and Gloom with the cape," Spyro finished, a sour note on his tongue at the mention of the apprentice.
"Sounds like you ruffled feathers with Bianca," Sheila explained. "She's the Sorceress' numbah-two 'round these parts; does all the stuff the Sorceress can't do from her cushy throne."
"So you think the Sorceress is wrapped up in the egg-napping?" Hunter asked.
"Aw, almost sure of it, mate," Sheila replied. "It's a kinda partnership thing - Sorceress always causes bad stuff ta happen, 'n bad stuff always seems ta happen when the Sorceress is 'round."
"Then it sounds like we better hurry up 'n find the rest of those eggs!"
"How many'a those things have ya found, by the way?"
"...Counting yours? Twelve," Spyro sighed with a slight roll of his eyes. For a moment, he was brought back to his very first adventure, when egg thieves had taken advantage of the dragon captures and broken into the High Caves. Back then, there WERE only twelve dragon eggs.
"We got a long way ta go, don' we?"
Before anyone could reply, the town square shook with stomping feet and the bloodcurdling squawk of a bird. "That's the giant chicken!" Spyro realized, rushing off towards the commotion (and leaving a very confused Hunter and Sheila in his wake).
But the Artisan was too late. He and Sparx cringed at the sight of the mauled, battered chicken, nearly blinded to the large rhynoc's taunting laugh as he looked down upon them and took a grisly, slobbery bite from the chicken's leg. In a moment of righteous fury, Spyro charged for the rhynoc, knocking it down with a mighty blast of his flame breath.
"Oh, thank the gods, the dragons have returned at last!" Mayor Leo cheered, finally able to slip free from his "prison" (that was clearly not a hiding place during the rhynoc takeover) and meet their dragon savior.
"Sorry about your giant chicken," Spyro winced, trying to look away from the mangled mess of blood and feathers.
Mayor Leo looked down at the fallen chicken. "Fantastic! We will feast like kings tonight!"
"B-But I thought I had to-"
"Oh, do not concern yourself, young dragon hero," Leo laughed. "There are more giant chickens where this one comes from!" (Rather than make him feel better, Spyro became more concerned about the idea of tiny locals in togas handling a farm of giant chickens.) "We have plenty of eggs that are ready to be hatched!"
The Mayor pulled out one of the eggs; one painted such a pure shade of white that it couldn't have been a chicken egg in a thousand years, giant or not. "Here, why don't you take one? Giant chickens are fantastic pets, and also make for hearty meals!"
"Uhm...don't worry, I'll take good care of your...chicken egg."
oo00oo00oo
Bianca stayed crouched behind her sparse tree cover as she stalked the dragon and his feline lackey through the Sunrise Woods. The rhynocs simply weren't doing their jobs; the kangaroo got loose, they lost Sunny Villa, all of the eggs in Sunrise Springs were gone...
The Sorceress was fuming. It was time for someone more experienced to step in.
The apprentice held her breath as the dragon suddenly pulled to a stop, praying to the gods that he didn't turn towards her. Spyro's eyes darted every which way; he and Sparx could both feel it, that sense of magic that was so desperately missing from the Forgotten Worlds that it stuck out like a sore thumb.
Hunter, on the other hand, kept walking, and found his nose in a pile of grass and dirt as he tripped on Spyro's tail. "Hey, Spyro, what gives?"
The Artisan tried to shush his partner, but Bianca's inopportune laugh at Hunter's folly exposed her. With two pairs of blue eyes focused right on her tree, the robed apprentice had no choice but to step out of hiding and face the fight like a true sorceress.
"Oo~oh, look out, Hunter!" Spyro teased, giving a playful whip of his tail. "It's the big scary Sorceress!"
Hunter played along, laughing, "Hold on, Spyro - I think you mean the big scary Sorceress...'s lackey!"
"Look, I gave you two your fair warning!" Bianca snapped. "The Forgotten Worlds are a big, scary place! It's not a playground for little dragonlets and pussycats."
"Thanks, tall, dark, and trying too hard," Spyro continued to tease. "But like I said, Hunter and I are big boys - we can look after ourselves."
Bianca charged up two handfuls of concentrated energy, throwing them both at the dragon with as much force as she could. "Try looking after THIS!"
Spyro, blessed with the magical resistance and reflexes of a dragon, easily rolled out of the way of the blow. Hunter wasn't so lucky, and the resulting explosion of Bianca's magic sent the cheetah flying backwards, crashing into the ground with several discomforting thuds and a pained groan.
"Hunter!" Concern immediately flared into rage as Spyro turned his sights to the apprentice. Seeing the hunger for blood in the dragon's steely eyes, Bianca realized she had made a terrible mistake. She did the only reasonable thing to do when staring down a raging dragon - RUN.
Spyro gave chase, though, and managed to singe her cape just before she disappeared in another rainbow of sparkles. "Come back when you finish witch school, okay?!" he sneered, blowing another burst of flame and smoke at the spot where she disappeared for good measure.
Once Bianca was gone, the Artisan turned back to Hunter, who was shakily sitting up. "Hunter, you okay? Really sorry about that, man - I think she was aiming for me."
"Eh, I've survived worse," Hunter said, wincing slightly as he stretched what were sure to be fresh bruises in the morning.
"Way to be a soldier, Hunter." Spyro turned to resume their search for the eggs, but noticed that his cheetah partner was holding back. "Uh, Hunter? You comin'?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'. I'm just thinking...Is it just me, or is that sorceress chick kind of cute when she's angry?"
"...I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear you say that."
oo00oo00oo
After the venture through Sunny Villa came the trip to Cloud Spires, Spyro's first real chance to stretch his wings since arriving in the Forgotten Worlds. However, the rhynocs were determined to make this trip through the upper atmosphere as precarious as possible for the still-flightless dragon. His old archnemesis electricity was back, though luckily much easier to dodge this time around, and giant birdnocs were blowing the wind in every direction they could, desperately trying to blow Spyro off the edge of a bellow or a bridge and into the cloudy abyss below.
Pair that with eggs hiding on fiery ledges, stuffed inside of cloud machines, boiling inside of sun pots, and the rhynocs seemed to have the area locked down. But no rhynoc could stand up to the fright that was waiting above the clouds of the spires.
It seemed a simple request at first; the bell-towers were lodged, preventing the cloud-sprites from summoning their storm clouds. Nothing a superfly power-up couldn't fix. (And Spyro was THRILLED to see the ancient originals of the Professor's experiments hiding in the Forgotten Worlds.) But as Spyro and Sparx took to the skies and circled the first bell-tower, they found their mission would not be so simple. At first (and second and third) glance, the towers were in perfect working order; no obstructions, no damage, nothing out of place.
As Spyro flew through the tower, though, his wings seized up uncomfortably, and the dragon quickly crashed to the ground. "Ow! What the-"
The Artisan looked up, seeing that the Cloud Spires had disappeared into an uncomfortable darkness, and gave a shiver as a vaguely-familiar cackle rang through his ears. "You've got guts, young dragon - your legends speak the truth about your talents. In another age, you MIGHT actually pose a threat!"
Spyro gave a cough as the icy air from the Colossus shrine filled his lungs, numbing his chest and weakening his inner flame. "W-What do you want, anyway?" he snapped, trying to keep a strong face as he searched for the black spirit. "Why do you keep following me?"
"I'm only doing what was asked of me, young dragonlet. There are dark forces in these Realms, magic someone as young as yourself could only dream of comprehending!"
The spirit appeared in front of Spyro's face with a slobbery laugh, spooking the dragon back a few nervous steps. "I warned you once, dragon - return home before you get hurt! You don't know what you're dealing with!"
"I don't need to know what I'm dealing with!" the Artisan huffed. "If there's any "dark forces" in the Dragon Realms, it's my job to get rid of them!" With a desperate breath, Spyro reared back and unleashed a furious flame at the bothersome spirit, who disappeared with a screech as it did in the Colossus Valley. "And that includes you."
With the spirit defeated, the dark void slowly returned to the Cloud Spires, where all of the bells were chiming, as if in celebration of Spyro's conquest. The slumbering cloud awoke with a lazy shiver, right before rocketing into the skies and beginning to pour a friendly rain down upon the Spires.
The dragon flew up to the top of the tallest bell-tower before the superfly enchantment wore off, looking out over the rainy Spires. He had just re-lit their baby sun moments ago, so with the two weather titans sharing the skies, rainbows seemed to pour from every cloud.
It was a moment of beauty, of peace. And I'll torch ANY dark forces that try to ruin this picture.
Booga-booga, bad guys doing bad guy things. What else will our heroes encounter on their journey through the Forgotten Worlds? Find out next week! While you're waiting, make sure to check out my profile and maybe pitch into my multiverse collaboration. :) Thanks for reading, guys, hope you enjoyed!
§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §