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-SIX: Sparx's World

The Midday Gardens welcomed our battle-worn heroes with inviting sunshine wrapped in a cooling breeze. They were quickly greeted by the Gardens Lake, and after such a heated battle with Buzz, even the once-hydrophobic dragon was eager to take a dip. The Gardens were alive with color, from the flowers that filled the grasses to the beautiful clouds in the sky. The ones above the lake in particular seemed to be dotted by a rainbow.

SCHING! SCHWING! A rainbow that was heading straight for them.

The heroes backed up and braced themselves as the rainbow made its landing, their new favorite apprentice stepping out of the spell. "Alright, dragon, I'll give it to you - you've lasted longer than I thought."

"Does that mean I win a bet?" Spyro teased.

"Not quite. You don't have the slightest idea what's coming for you next. You think the armies in Sunrise Springs were tough? It'll only get worse from here."

The young Artisan, who personally thought the rhynocs in Sunrise Spring were fairly simple to defeat, lazily stretched his shoulders. "Ooh, yeah, that sounds real scary," he yawned. "I'm shaking in my scales."

Bianca gave a frustrated huff. "Look, dragon, I'm giving you one last chance. Get your cat friend and the eggs that you've found and go home already. You think I'm doing this to waste my breath? I'm warning you, it's for your own good."

"Go home already? Come on, we just got here!" With a flick of his tail, Spyro ran off to begin his exploration of the Midday Gardens. "Besides, I'd be grounded for a month if I went home with less than half the eggs! Sorry, Bianca, but no deal!"

oo00oo00oo

After a long day of target practice, exploration, chasing thieves, and all sorts of other adventures, our heroes could retire for the night with five more eggs safely returned to the Dragon Realms. "You think that Bianca chick meant what she said earlier?" Hunter asked as he and Spyro made camp by the edge of the Gardens Lake. (Sheila went ahead without them; she said something about visiting some friends in a swamp and sitting in on a poetry slam.)

Spyro gave a yawn, curling up and nuzzling his head into his paws. "Eh, you know how bad guys are," he shrugged. "They'll say whatever they gotta to make you leave 'em alone." He opened a tired, navy eye, just to peer over at the star-gazing cheetah next to him. "Why you so hung up on her, anyway?"

Hunter shrugged. "I'm not. She's just kind of cute, that's all."

"I didn't know you were into evil sorceresses."

"Well, you don't look like the type that's into fauns." Spyro swiped a patch of grass, blowing the debris into Hunter's face. "What?!"

"Quit doin' that, it's getting annoying," Spyro tsked, tucking his paw back in.

"Doing what?"

"Bringing up Elora like that."

"What, you don't like her or something?"

"I do, just as a friend. Dragon warriors don't have time for love and girlfriends and all of that mushy stuff. I can't take a girl out on dates or whatever while I'm busy finding dragon eggs and returning stolen treasure and torching bad guys and all of that saving-the-world stuff."

"...You know she's got a MAJOR crush on you, right?"

"Good night, Hunter."

oo00oo00oo

Heroes may need sleep, but their attention is needed around the clock. Zoe just hoped that she wasn't being too much of a bother as she fluttered down to where Hunter and Spyro were sleeping in the middle of the night.

Ever the vigilant dragonfly, Sparx was nudged from his sleep as Zoe approached his dragon, though tingling dragonfly senses didn't always make for the most effective alarm. He gave a few annoyed buzzes, none particularly coherent, and the young fairy flew backwards to give the heroes more personal space. "Sorry, Sparx, wasn't trying to wake you!" she whispered nervously.

"No, I love getting up in the middle of the night," Sparx buzzed with a yawn, drowsily flying up to the top of the Midday Bridge, where he and Zoe could talk without bothering Spyro and Hunter. (Not that they were the lightest sleepers in the Forgotten Worlds, but it was the courtesy that counted.) "What's up, Zoe?"

"I was looking around Sunrise Springs to make sure we didn't forget anything," Zoe explained, taking a seat on the arch. "A-And I found this little hole, and on the other side, I found a dragon egg!"

Sparx's eyes lit up as he awoke at the mention of an egg. "Great, so that's one more found!"

Zoe bit her lip. "Not...quite."

"Eh?"

"I went to go grab the egg, but the Sorceress hid it in the center of a crawdad farm," the young fairy shrugged with a blush. "I-I tried to get it, really I did! But I couldn't fight off all those crawdads by myself, so I couldn't get it."

"Alright, no problem," Sparx answered, trying to calm the nervous fairy. "We'll tell Spyro in the morning, and-"

Zoe shook her head. "I looked everywhere. There's no WAY Spyro and Hunter can get in; there just aren't any passages big enough."

"So...how are we supposed to get the dragon egg?"

"Well, I, uh...thought maybe..." Zoe put on the best smile she could manage, putting a pleading sparkle in her bright blue eyes. "You could go in and get it?"

"Me?!" Sparx jumped into the air, taken aback by the idea. "Fly into a crawdad farm? Rescue a dragon egg? By myself?!"

"Sparx, you and I are the only ones who can get inside!" Zoe pleaded. "Dragonflies are magic, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"You can fight off a few little crawdads, right? You're not up against full-size rhynocs or anything, right?"

"I could, but-"

"Come on, Sparx, do it for the dragon egg! Ple~ase?"

Sparx sighed. Arguing with a fairy was nearly impossible, especially when they had a good point. "Alright, alright. No promises I'll get the egg, but I'll try. But you're the one breaking the news to Spyro if something goes wrong."

"Don't worry, I will!" Zoe giggled, dropping down to Spyro and Hunter's camp. "Come on, let's just tell Spyro and-whoa!"

Sparx grabbed Zoe, dragging her back to the top of the bridge. "Oh, no, we're not telling Spyro," the dragonfly insisted.

"Why not?"

"If Spyro knows I'm gone, he'll have a panic attack! I'm his dragonfly, I'm not supposed to just disappear without him! Especially if I'm going to go play hero and leave him out in the open like this!"

"Then what do we do?"

Sparx looked up, quickly calculating the time by using the stars. "Think we can make it to Sunrise Spring and back before morning?"

"Absolutely; I can use my fairy magic to zap us straight into the farm."

"Then come on, we'll just have to sneak off and hope we get back before they notice we're gone."

oo00oo00oo

"LOOKOUTLOOKOUTLOOKOUTLOOKOUT!"

Sparx and Zoe ducked behind a corner, pausing to catch their ragged breath once they had escaped the mobs of crawdads. Zoe saw a few enemies by the missing egg, but she didn't take the rest of the farm into account. The area was CRAWLING with crabs and crawdads, all of them deadset on destroying the intruding dragonfly.

"Why did I let you talk me into this?" the grassy-green hero groaned, dropping to the ground to rest his wings. Luckily, being the dragonfly of the fastest dragon in the Artisans came with a certain level of training - namely, being the fastest dragonfly in the Artisans, which was serving Sparx well in his mad dash to escape the skittering swarms of baddies.

Zoe also sat, nervously biting her lip. "I'm sorry, Sparx," she pouted. "I-I didn't...I mean, I wouldn't have said anything if..."

Sparx looked over and tried to pick himself back up upon seeing the upset fairy. "Hey, hey, it's fine. Last thing we need right now is for you to start cryin' or somethin'."

"I just wish I could do something to help, that's all."

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine...ish." The tired dragonfly stretched his tail. "I could just go for some food; little pick-me-up and I'd be all over this."

Zoe's eyes lit up. "Right! Dragonfly fodder, how'd I forget?" With a flick of her wand, the fairy summoned a small zap, which fizzled into a single pink-and-yellow butterfly.

Sparx jumped to attention, snatching the butterfly mid-flutter, enjoying its sweet and magical nectar as it filled him up, restoring his glow to a healthy (or at least healthier) shade of blue. All dragonflies depended on fodder to survive and continue protecting their dragon companions, but Sparx was a particular sucker for the treats, munching on them even when he and Spyro were the picture of health. It's a bad habit you pick up when your dragon companion chases down sheep-herds for fun. What else is a dragonfly to do when the sky fills with munchies? "Aw, man, does that hit the spot!" he purred.

Zoe giggled at the reaction a simple butterfly garnered. "You're welcome."

Swallowing the remains of his snack, Sparx took to the air again and moved forward into the next chamber of the farms. "Alright, so come on! The sooner we find that dragon egg, the sooner we can-"

Dragonfly and fairy moved forward, only to skid to a stop as they reached the final chamber. The dragon egg was in sight, but unfortunately, it sat behind a large, imposing crawdad. The snapping beast was easily the size of a dragonlet, with pincers that could've torn either of them in two. And said pincers were pointing right for them.

"Zoe, go hide," Sparx instructed, trying to gauge the opponent.

"Sparx, what are you-"

The dragonfly had no choice but to ram her aside when a pair of fireballs launched straight for them, just barely moving her out of the blast. Needless to say, Zoe didn't argue and immediately found a safe place to hide.

Sparx, on the other hand, spun around quick, firing a barrage of flyfire in the crawdad's direction. All dragonflies had special abilities tied to the breed of their dragon. Though Sparx rarely used his, much preferring to let Spyro do all the hard work, it was times like this he thanked the ancestors that his companion was a fire-breath.

The barrage made its mark, and the crawdad's flame-blasting claws went up in a fit of fire and smoke. Thinking the danger was gone, Sparx made a beeline for the dragon egg. However, the crawdad wouldn't have this, and as it reared back, a pair of red rockets shot from its clawless arms, both spiraling straight for Sparx.

The dragonfly just barely managed to charge out of their way, watching the explosives wreck holes in the surrounding wall structure. With a frustrated groan, he U-turned around the egg, jumping back into a fire-fight with the crawdad king.

The two exchanged a few barrages, but eventually, the crawdad's arms crumpled in the same manner as its claws, leaving little more than a body to protect the stolen egg. Sparx couldn't help himself, and the cocky attitude he learned from Spyro shone through. "Aw, what's the matter, Mr. Lobster-Man?" he buzzed condescendingly. "Can't fire your big, scary rockets without your little arms 'n big, scary pinchers?"

The crawdad wriggled menacingly, then reared back and unleashed a dragon-like flame, sending Sparx into a panicked flutter to avoid it. "Okay, okay, so maybe you don't!"

It took another rush of fire-fighting, (including one round that managed to scorch Sparx's tail), but eventually, Sparx's flyfire managed to take down the Crawdad King, as the mighty creature finally fell beneath the might of the intruding dragonfly.

Sparx breathed a long sigh of relief once the crawdad farm showed its first sign of silence since they had arrived. "That was WAY too close."

"Yeah, but Sparx, look!" Zoe flew over to the dragon egg. "We found it!"

Sparx couldn't help but groan as he flew over to join the redheaded fairy. "Whoopee, only a hundred and ten to go."

"Hey, fourty eggs safe and sound is better than none, right?"

"Yeah, but a hundred and fifty safe sounds even better." Sparx carefully sat down on the just-saved egg. "Whoever this egg hatches to be, they owe me one, big time."

"Whoa!" The dragonfly was quickly kicked from his seat as the dragon egg gave a small twitch, rocking just enough to make a dent in the sand it sat in. "Uhm...are dragon eggs supposed to do that?"

"Not really," Zoe swallowed, tapping the egg with her wand to send it back to the Dragon Realms. "The dragonlets must be getting antsy. The Year of the Dragon celebration is almost over. Still, it should be alright. Dragon eggs don't just hatch on their own; it takes an incredible amount of magic to hatch them."

Sparx thought back to the story Delbin told of Spyro's mysterious hatching three years prior to the last Year of the Dragon. "Right, nobody ever heard of that happening."

oo00oo00oo

The skies were just beginning to show the first glimmers of pink and gold as Zoe and Sparx fluttered back to the Midday Gardens. Hunter was in a much stranger position and teethering on the edge of the lake, but other than that, the heroes were undisturbed. "Phew, we made it," Sparx sighed.

"Thanks again for all the help, Sparx," Zoe smiled.

"Eh, don't worry about it," Sparx shrugged. "Just doin' the hero thing." He gave a light yawn, then quietly fluttered back over to his slumbering dragon-brother. "If you don't mind, though, I'mma get a little shut-eye before Spyro wakes up."

Zoe did the dragonfly a favor, summoning one last butterfly, which Sparx quickly U-turned to devour. "Alright, sleep tight, Sparx. I'll see you and Spyro around later, okay?" Sparx gave a nod, mouth too full of butterfly to respond any other way, and the redheaded fairy vanished.

As he swallowed the snack, finally restored to his proper shade of gold, Sparx took a moment to look down at his dragon companion before cozying into bed. Spyro hadn't moved so much, though the slight changes were noticable to an old pro like Sparx. His tail was unfurled, which meant Spyro was hot and uncomfortable. His claws were dirty, and the ground near his front paws was torn up and scratched away, which meant the young dragon was scraping the ground in his sleep - one of Spyro's few secret nervous ticks.

Sparx resettled into his usual sleeping spot, right under Spyro's frill. And he had just began to doze off when a familiar twitch of Spyro's horn awoke him. "Sparx?"

The dragonfly gave a tired groan. "Sparx isn't here right now, leave a message after the buzz."

"Spa~arx..." One-syllable Spyro was just being pesky and shaking him out of bed for fun. Extra-syllable Spyro was genuinely trying to get his attention.

"Wha~at?"

"Did you...go somewhere last night?"

"No. Why?"

Spyro shrugged with a hum. "Didn't sleep last night, that's all. Anxious 'bout somethin' 'r somethin'."

Sparx almost had to laugh. He wasn't sure which one of them sounded more tired. "Spyro, you're fine. Go to bed."

Satisfied that his dragonfly was returned to his proper place, Spyro's paws and tail refolded to their natural positions. "A'right..." he yawned, burying his snout, using a loose paw to cover his eyes from the slowly-rising sun. "G'night, bro. Sorry ta wake ya."

If only he knew. "G'night, Spy."

And on this day, Sparx became useful. XD As always, make sure to tune in next week, and while you're waiting, make sure to check out my profile (and PLEA~SE vote in my Legacy poll!), my other stories, and maybe pitch into my multiverse collaboration. :D Thanks for reading, guys, hope you enjoyed!

§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §