CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: Midnight Madness
Spyro took a deep breath of the chilled Mountain air once their rocket finally landed. Not only had Bentley saved his life during their battle with Scorch, but he also brought a radio to signal the rocket to pick them up; even if he did manage to win the fight on his own, there was no way he could've escaped the arena and found his way back to the Mountains.
The Midnight Mountains glistened, as if constantly lit up in the darkness by the moon and its own ethereal glow. Spyro found himself pausing as he walked the marble roads, watching the lush enchanted waterfalls cascading into the dark void below. The Mountains screamed Magic Crafters, to the point where Spyro was almost expecting to turn a corner and be plowed in the face by a druid moving some earth.
It would explain why the Sorceress and Bianca were holed up here. More so than any of the other Forgotten Worlds, the Midnight Mountain felt...well, like home. Spyro could sense the magic still flowing freely through this land, like it was the last place on this side of the world that hadn't felt the repercussions of the dragon exodus, even after a thousand years.
It also explained why he wasn't surprised to see a familiar trail of rainbows shoot down from the mountaintops to greet him (though it did take him a second to process her sudden wardrobe change). "Look, Spyro, before you say anything, I-"
"Save it, Bianca!" Spyro snarled, charging the apprentice just hard enough to knock her backwards without goring her right then and there, pinning her down under the might of his paws. "You're gonna tell me what you did with Hunter RIGHT NOW, and then you're gonna stop messing with me and the dragon eggs before I bring you back to your precious Sorceress char-broiled on a stick, got it?!"
"Hunter's out on the speedways looking for dragon eggs!" Bianca squealed, hands in front of her face to hide her from Spyro's fire-breathing wrath. "I told him to come with me, but he insisted on finding as many of the eggs as fast as possible!"
"Likely story. If he were looking for dragon eggs, why was he with you?"
"The Sorceress kidnapped him back in Evening Lake; I let him go." She gave the dragon staring her down a pleading look. "Look, I know you don't trust me. You have no reason to. But I want to help you take out the Sorceress. Please, just give me a chance to talk to you, and if you still don't believe me after, then do your worst, okay?"
She cringed, struggling to keep eye-contact with her draconic nemesis. She had been studying dragons since she was old enough to read. Fire-breath dragons were by far the deadliest breed, and if her observations were correct, Spyro's Peacekeeper nature would only make things worse for her. Even as a half-grown, he would have no problem delivering on his promise to make a rabbit kebob out of her. He didn't quite stand as tall as she did, but even at his size, he was an intimidating creature. (The way his wings were unfurled helped the frightening silhouette, even if she already noted that he couldn't fly.) Just his heated breath on her fur was enough to burn, the claws itching to dig into her could've ripped her to pieces in seconds, and that steely glare in his eyes hurt all the worse.
So she was pleasantly surprised when Spyro stepped back, folding his wings and letting her stand. "One shot. Start talking."
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"You have no idea how much I love dragons, Spyro. Never in a million years did I want to hurt you or the hatchlings or anybody. My grandmother used to tell me the legends of days before the dragon exodus, when your people still lived here, on this side of the world. The dragons lived throughout the four worlds, maintaining peace and harmony between the different groups of locals. The Artisans were our teachers, the Peacekeepers our soldiers, the Beast Makers our farmers, the Magic Crafters our sorcerers, and the Dream Weavers our jesters.
"My family comes from a long line of witches and wizards, back in the days when we learned straight from the Magic Crafters themselves. The Sorceress was, and still is, queen of the Midnight Mountain because even though she wasn't directly draconic blood, she was still more powerful than even some of the Crafters.
"When the dragons tried to revoke her crown, she banished them so that no one would ever rival her magical prowess again. Every tome, every spell, anything draconic that was left behind, she hid in her castle or had it destroyed. She's the only person left that knows anything about draconic magic. That's why I had to become her apprentice. My grandmother died when I was young, before she could start teaching me herself. I had to carry on my family heritage and train myself in Crafters magic. I didn't just want to let all of the great lessons they taught die off with the legends.
"The Forgotten Realms are dying, Spyro. I'm sure you've noticed by now. The Sorceress told me that the magic was fading because the dragons are the ones that fuel its presence. Without the dragons, the magic runs dry. If the magic runs dry, who knows what kind of repercussions it would have? Portals stop working, power-up towers fail, all of the locals that depend on magic would suffer...I didn't want the legends to die. I wanted to join her plan because I wanted to bring the Forgotten Worlds back to the old days, when dragons maintained peace and the world was full of wonder and magic, just like the stories I heard from my grandmother."
Bianca groaned as she finished her story, hanging her head. "I was so stupid to fall for her tricks. It turns out that she didn't want to bring back the dragons at all; just to slaughter the hatchlings and turn their wings into a stupid spell. That's why I left, that's why I let Hunter go and came out here to help you." She gave Spyro a shy look when she finished her tale. "Do you forgive me?"
"Forgive's a pretty strong word," Spyro answered harshly. Bianca winced, preparing herself for the oncoming bunny-kebob he threatened earlier. "But I've never been one to say no to a new partner."
"...You really mean that?"
"I'm still REALLY mad about the mass dragon-napping, don't get me wrong. But...well, I can't really be mad now that I heard your story. You were just trying to save your home. If anyone should have respect for someone doing stupid things to save their home, it would be me." His frown finally cracked into a smart smirk. "Besides, I can't knock anyone who knows their dragon-lore better than I do."
He stopped and turned to face her. "So here's your shot, Witch School. Where's the Sorceress hiding?"
"Her castle's up at the top of Midnight Mountain," Bianca explained. "But obviously, walking in the front door isn't gonna get you far. There's a secret portal around here that'll sneak us in the back way, but it's usually locked up pretty tight. It'll take me some time to break through the spell."
"What a time to not have talismans."
"Excuse me?"
Spyro shook his head with a laugh. "Nothing. So you're saying that Hunter and I need to bust tail on finding more dragon eggs to give you a magic boost to break through the door, right?" Bianca bit her lip, not wanting to bring the dragon eggs into the conversation, but the look on her face said it all. "Got it. Come on, Sparx, let's-"
Finally realizing that the recent shock of silence came from a lack of dragonfly buzzing in his ear, the purple dragon had a momentary panic attack, eyes darting high and low for a flicker of gold. "Sparx? Sparx?!"
Nothing. Spyro had lost his dragonfly.
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"So let me get this straight: the Sorceress ORDERED to have this factory made, JUST so she could hide an egg in here, make us come after it, and use this crazy place to destroy us?"
"Yep."
"And you thought it was a good idea to dragonfly-nap me and run in here?"
Zoe gave a sheepish smile. "It's nothing you can't handle, right?"
Sparx groaned. If he never had to follow Zoe into another crack in the wall to hunt down a hidden dragon egg, it would be too soon. The dragon eggs weren't going to rescue themselves, though, so there they were, quietly fluttering through the darkened factory, moving quick as they could to return to the Mountain before Spyro and Bianca noticed they were gone. "Besides, we got lucky," the fairy pointed out. "The factory's not active yet. If we can get the egg before she flips the switch, then we don't have to come back. I wouldn't have dragonfly-napped you if it weren't totally urgent."
The new partners in crime turned a corner, and froze to shield their adjusted eyes as they came across a bright light in the otherwise-dark factory. One of the gates had gone active, putting an electric force-field over their path forward. (And Sparx had more than his fair share of jolts alongside Spyro; plenty to know that touching force fields was a bad idea.) "Totally not active, right?"
"Hey, at least it's not producing bugs yet." Zoe fluttered closer to the field, searching the barrier for a way to shut it down. "These fields are just like the ones the electrolls use in Hurricos. There's got to be some kind of key or diode around here somewhere; if we find it, we can shut this down and keep looking for the egg."
Blah-blah, something about Hurricos and a shiny object. Hard as he tried to listen, Sparx was distracted by something in the room. It was a funny new feeling that he still had a hard time putting words to. A twitch in the wings, a shudder in his tail, the indescribable urge to point...the same feeling that overcame him in the Evening Lake, or any other time he heard Spyro complain that they were missing something.
"Hey, Zoe? What do you know about dragon egg magic?"
Zoe looked up, confused slightly at the random question. "Enough, I think. I did stick around in the Realms for a few Dragon Festivals before I moved to Avalar. Why?"
Sparx approached her, fighting to ignore his new senses going berserk. "I just...Something happened in the spider cave back at the Midday Gardens. I feel...different, and I can't put my wing on it. It...It's kind of like my dragon sense, but instead of going off whenever Spyro's in trouble, it just...goes off. It went off in Evening Lake, and that's how we found Moneybags hiding Bentley, and it went off in Lost Fleet when Spyro said we were missing something and I found a bunch of dragon gems hiding in their river."
The dragonfly twitched, hearing the rattle of a gem in the room's dark corner, his newfound sense continuing to go berserk. It finally got to the point where Sparx couldn't focus on his query. "Augh, hold on a second!" Before Zoe could ask, he broke into a mad dash, rushing into the surrounding darkness.
A mechanical squeak rattled the room, and a dark blue beetle emerged from the shadows, just in time to escape the dragonfly rushing at him. Sparx pursued it around the room, though; no robot bug could ever outrace the dragonfly of the Artisans' fastest dragon. He smashed the robotic creation into a wall, crumbling its scrap remains into a shiny gem and a tiny key, just the size to fit in the force-field's diode lock.
"You see?" Sparx continued, breathing easy as his new alarm system began to quiet. "I think I can sense dragon treasure now, but I haven't been able to do it before. It just started in Evening Lake. I mean, I'm a fire-breath's dragonfly, I don't come with magic powers. You know what might be causing it?"
"Dragon eggs are weird, Sparx," Zoe answered, taking the key and unlocking the gate. "Until they hatch into dragons, they're just constant streams of magical energy. That's why they sell so highly on the black market; they give sorcerers an energy source they can feed off of, and as long as the egg's unhatched, they can use it forever. So...maybe just being exposed to all of the magic is just starting to rub off on you. You've been in pretty close contact with them lately, and you aren't built to resist magic the way the rest of us are.
"Besides, we don't know..." Zoe stopped and bit her lip before she continued, not wanting to offend with her idea.
Sparx still managed to complete her thought; perhaps this incident with the eggs had also sharpened his dragonfly intuition. "I really don't think Spyro's a Magic Crafter," he pointed out. It would certainly explain things, as Crafter dragonflies were known for being more alert and sensitive than their counterparts, but even after all of the years that had passed since their fight with Gnasty, when Delbin revealed Spyro's orphaned past, Sparx still couldn't picture his dragon-brother as anything else than the Artisan-raised-Peacekeeper he grew up with.
"I don't either, but it's still possible." She dismissed the topic with a wave of her hand. "Point is, I don't think it's going to kill you. If anything, once you get used to it, it sounds like a pretty handy trick to have!"
"If it's okay with you, I'd rather just go back to the days when the dragon treasure was locked up and Spyro and I didn't have to risk our necks to find it all," Sparx joked weakly.
"I bet. Speaking of risking our necks, though, we should get going. The less time we have to spend here, the-"
CLANG! Sparx and Zoe's search ground to a halt as the lights came on, flooding the room with blinding lights. The force-field snapped back on, entrapping them in a small arena-like room, filled with discomforting hisses and clicks.
"I thought you said the factory wasn't active."
"No, I said we needed to get in and out before she activated it."
The egg-rescuers were quickly greeted by a metallic centipede, the bright lights from above gleaming menacingly off of its slick black body. It hissed loudly, oily slime spilling from its sharp pincers, then snaked its way around before rushing towards its victims.
Zoe ducked off before the centipede beast could entrap them, searching the rest of the arena for the dragon egg, if there even was one to be found in the Sorceress's trap. Sparx unleashed a stream of flyfire, strafing backwards and hugging the edge of the arena as he dipped and dodged out of the way of the centipede's-
BAM! So much for that strategy. The dragonfly's plan backfired, almost literally, as the tail end of the centipede exploded after taking enough damage. Fire and shrapnel went everywhere, including into Sparx's face, blasting the dragonfly back and smashing him into a wall. "Sparx! Are you okay?!"
"Ask later, find the egg!" Sparx snapped back, recovering as quick as he could to distract the centipede with another stream of fire, this time directed towards his middle in hopes that if the explosion happened again, at least it would take out the rest of the metal monster with it.
Zoe bit her lip at Sparx's request. That was the problem; she couldn't find the dragon egg. The arena was deserted, apart from them and it. This must've been the Sorceress' plan all along; plant rumors of an egg hiding in a bugbot factory and wait for dumb ol' Zoe to drag Sparx right into her trap.
"Zoe, look out!"
A pair of explosions drowned out Sparx's warning. As predicted, the centipede imploded at its center, and Sparx successfully braced himself to block the blast. However, instead of collapsing without a central support, the front end of the centipede circled around for another pass.
The tail end writhed and groaned as sharp, jagged pincers erupted from the top-most segment, becoming a second centipede. And this one, free of its other half, charged straight for Zoe.
Failing to hear the warning, Zoe was helpless to escape. Once again, fairy's "flight, not fight" syndrome had left her paralyzed, only watching with a scream as the metal monster scurried towards her, gnashing its pincers with an ear-shattering clash of metal. Sparx rushed to her rescue, but gave a sharp buzz as the original centipede struck its target, pinning him against the wall. The immense pressure on his abdomen made breathing a nightmare, but he fought past the pain and swallowed a mouthful of air, spit-firing a stream of flyfire just in time to topple the other half into an explosion before it reached Zoe.
Woken out of her stupor by a survival instinct dodge to avoid the blast, the fairy could turn her attention to the original threat, which still had Sparx pinned to a wall, clawing into him with its massive jowls. It slobbered and hissed, choking the dragonfly down until his greenish color began to fade and his wings went limp. Fighting off her fear the best she could, Zoe flew into the fray. "Hey, pick on someone your own size!" Readying her wand, she wound up for an attack, and ZAP!, sent a thunderous bolt of magic right into the top-most piece of the centipede.
The metal monster dropped its prey, its form squealing as the creature writhed, curling up on itself before going up in a massive storm of fiery explosion. Zoe did her best to clear the smoke - fairies weren't the best at dealing with poor air, which is why they lived in grassy knolls and magic castles in the sky - and tried to find the center of the room.
Laying amidst the soot and debris from their battle was a pristine white dragon egg.
"Hey, Sparx, we found it!" Zoe called out, wings fluttering in excitement. "The Sorceress must've hidden it inside that thing! Oh, man, I was really worried this was going to be for nothing. Isn't that great, Sparx? ...Sparx?"
The unconscious dragonfly couldn't answer.
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"Sparx? ...Sparx? ...Come on, say something. ...Wing flutter, anything?"
The dragonfly groaned as he finally came to. His thorax and abdomen were throbbing in pain, making it difficult to catch his breath. His head felt heavy, but not as heavy as his wings, which wouldn't pick him up off the ground no matter how much he willed them to.
When his vision straightened (slightly), he opened his eyes, finding himself face-to-face with a butterfly cupped in the hands of a fairy. Desperate for anything that would make the pain go away, he forced himself to jump forward and devour it, chewing it slowly to let the soothing relief of butterfly nectar wash through him, restoring his dragonfly glow. Everything still hurt horribly, but it at least gave him the strength to lift off. "Thanks, Zo, I needed that."
"Not a problem," Zoe smiled, relieved to see that Sparx was at least conscious, even if he was a bit off-colored. "I'm just glad you're alright. I was really worried about you for a second."
"Sparx?!"
Sparx winced as his dragon-brother charged towards them. "Not so loud, Spy, my everything hurts."
Spyro stammered uncomfortably, not sure where to start on his barrage of questions. Once he was back in the air, Sparx shook his head to straighten his vision once and for all, then tried to explain. "Look, Zoe needed my help to find the dragon eggs, okay? There were a bunch of them hiding out in places you and Hunter wouldn't have been able to reach. I'm sorry, I've been sneaking off because I didn't want to worry you and I didn't think you'd find out! But then the Sorceress found out, and she put a hit out on me, too, and there was this factory and I officially hate centipedes, and-"
"None of that explains why you're red."
"Explains who's what now?" Suddenly forgetting his thrown-together apology, Sparx rushed for the nearest pool of water he could find, staring down at his reflection. All dragonflies had the natural ability to change colors; they were living health gauges for their dragons, a visible marker mothers could use to make sure their dragonlets weren't hurt or in danger. Their spectrum changed depending on the dragonfly. Sparx, a yellow by birth (and aptly named as such), phased from gold to blue to green.
Red was NOWHERE in his dragonfly spectrum. And yet, here he was, staring down at the reflection of a dark crimson dragonfly.
"Look, Sparx, finding the dragon eggs, I don't mind," Spyro finally said, approaching his discolored partner. "Good for you, way to take one for the team. Just wish you would've told me instead of disappearing on me and then I find you blacked out in a fairy cove a whole different color. There something else to this story I should know?"
"I'm just as lost as you, Spyro," Sparx buzzed. "But, uh...it may or may not be connected to why I'm so good at finding gems all of a sudden. And may or may not have something to do with, like, dragon egg magic radiation or something."
"Don't get worried over nothing, Spyro," Zoe giggled. She waved her wand, summoning another butterfly with a tiny puff of smoke. Sparx, still aching from the centipede attack, quickly devoured it, and in seconds, his color surged from the odd shade of red to a more-typical grassy green. "What, you never noticed Sparx is a four-color dragonfly?"
"I'm NOT a four-color dragonfly," Sparx pointed out. "That's the thing."
The two exchanged an odd look, confusing Spyro miserably as they quietly thought back to their earlier conversation. Most dragonflies were three-color, as Sparx was prior to the mayhem. However, like Sparx's flyfire, each of the five breeds of dragonfly had their own unique abilities to set them and their dragons apart. One breed made up for their lack of physical might with special magical resistances, giving them a variety of unique powers, including the elusive fourth color.
The four-color dragonflies weren't unheard of, but they were a Magic Crafter specialty.
"Either way, Spyro, I wouldn't worry about it," Zoe said quickly, trying to change the subject. "Look at it this way: if you keep Sparx fed, you'll never have to worry about him dipping into the red."
"Or I don't have to hear him whine so much whenever he hits green," Spyro smirked.
"Or you could keep me fed, like the lady said," Sparx buzzed, graciously retaking his favorite spot under Spyro's frill.
"Or you could stop being such a fat dragonfly."
"Or you could just feed me. Not like it's hard, the way you tear through sheep-herds like scroll paper."
Bianca sat back quietly as all this went on. She studied the dragons for years, but Spyro was an enigma. Even though the color threw her off, as purple was an oddity amongst dragons, his mighty paws and horns seemed Beast Maker-esque, and his personality screamed that of a Peacekeeper. (And the fire-breath didn't hurt the cause.) But here he was, and his dragonfly was showing all signs of Magic Crafter.
She finally interjected when the argument cooled down, unable to quell her curiosity any longer. "Spyro, if you don't mind my asking...what breed of dragon are you, anyway?"
She noticed the odd hesitation before Spyro gave his answer, answering quickly so that the newly-reunited duo could rush off and resume their adventure. "Let's say Artisan, 'kay? Come on, Sparx, we got eggs to find."
"What, did I strike a nerve?" Bianca asked once dragon and dragonfly were gone. Not only had he given the one answer she WASN'T expecting, he didn't seem quite enthused to do so.
"It's a touchy subject for Spyro," Zoe answered, knowing the story as well as the rest of his Avalari inner circle did. "He's an orphan, so nobody really knows WHAT breed he is. He grew up in the Artisans, so that's the answer he usually gives."
Then the ginger fairy realized she likely said too much. "...I should go check on Spyro and Sparx. Bye!"
Bianca stayed put, stunned as the fae's words sank in. Spyro's an orphan. Suddenly, the young dragon's ferocity made sense. No wonder he was so quick to protect the eggs from being stolen; he felt a kinship to their trial, having to hatch in a strange world without a doting mother dragon to care for you, never truly knowing who you were or where you came from.
She ran off to confront the magic lock that protected the Sorceress' portal. If that didn't inspire her to rescue the eggs and send them back home, nothing would.
Sorry for the absurdly-long chapter this week, guys. I'll make it up to you with an absurdly-short chapter next week. :D Anyway, regardless of length and poor pacing, I hope you guys enjoyed! Thanks for reading; see you next week!