The bright sun setting to make way for the night was a perfect representation for the mood that had fallen in the Artisans Realm. What started as a joyous celebration for the Dragon Realms had quickly devolved into a depressing disaster; or as Bentley would describe it, a melancholy, oppressive, abominable, atrocious, unsightly, horrendous, ghastly situation.
The young dragons were devastated having lost their dragonflies. They had just received them and already they were gone. However none more so than Spyro. He and Sparx had been near inseparable since he was a little hatchling and the two had stuck together through all of Spyro's adventures. And now, within a flash, he was gone, no longer by his side.
Meanwhile, everyone was hard at work, cleaning up the damage from the attack, with the exception of Moneybags who just kicked a piece of debris underneath a table.
"Well, that was hard," Moneybags said, feigning fatigue. "Time for a break."
However, he soon walked into Bentley and it didn't take long for him to get back to work after Bentley held his club up in his face.
Spyro solemnly slumped his head while Elora tried to comfort him. "I can't believe it. My best friend, gone!" he said.
"Don't worry, Spyro. We'll find Sparx. And the other dragonflies too," Elora said reassuringly.
After they moved some damaged furniture, Hunter and Bianca joined them.
"Spyro, I am so sorry, I tried but the Sorceress was just too strong," Bianca said, racked with guilt.
Hunter put a comforting hand on Bianca's shoulder. "Ah, don't beat yourself up about it. You did the best you could," he said.
"Yeah!" Spyro said, nodding in agreement.
"Did she?" Elora asked leerily.
Hunter, Spyro and Bianca were taken back a bit by Elora's somewhat accusatory tone.
"What do you mean, Elora?" asked Spyro.
"I was watching and Bianca didn't put up much of an effort before Gnasty grabbed her and Hunter. How do we know she wasn't in on this in the first place?" Elora speculated.
"Bianca wouldn't do something like that!" Hunter said, getting up in Elora's face.
Bianca gently pulled him back. "Listen, Elora, I understand why you might think that, but.."
But before Bianca could finish, she was cut off by one of the Peace Keeper dragons; Magnus, who flew in and landing before the accused bunny.
"Elora makes a good point! You were probably just pretended to help so that there would be no suspicion on you!" Magnus bellowed.
Hunter quickly stepped in front of Bianca to defend her. "Hey! Back off!" he said.
In response, Magnus growled, showing off his teeth to Hunter. In response to that, Hunter cowered behind his girlfriend.
"Um...if you wouldn't mind, that is," he said, nervously chuckling.
The other elder dragons looked towards Bianca, most of them sharing in Magnus' suspicions. The rest of the Peace Keepers stood with Magnus before Bianca with arms crossed and menacing glares.
"I think she's in cahoots with those creeps!" said Gunnar.
"Yeah! I bet she knows where the dragonflies are!" said Todor.
"What?! No! No I don't!" Bianca replied.
"Hmph, a likely answer," said Gunnar.
Granted, it wasn't entirely fair to place accusations on Bianca, but given her track record, it was hard for most of the elder dragons and the others not to.
Suddenly, Agent 9 rapidly circled around Bianca, pointing his laser at her. "So did you do it?! Did you?! Did you?! DID YOU?! Where'd ya hide em?!" he said before he was grabbed by Bentley.
"Settle yourself, you fidgety, hysterical, restless primate," Bentley said. "Now I will be the first to admit, I wasn't fond of my misfortunes being in captivity at the hands of that disreputable, opprobrious, malignant, contemptuous Sorceress; however, though our judgment in light of Bianca's previous transgressions is logical and coherent, as a gentleman, I feel that such accusations should not be present without the palpable proof."
"Bentley's right, um...whatever he said," said Hunter in Bianca's defense. "And besides, if Bianca knew where the dragonflies were...uh...do you think she would...still be here right now?"
The Elder dragons and the others looked at one another, pausing to think about what Hunter said. Admittedly, he presented a fair point. If Bianca had in fact been in on it and she indeed knew where the villains had taken the dragonflies, she most likely wouldn't have stay behind to where she could be easily interrogated.
"Hunter does make a good point," said Sheila. "And I also don't think we should be quick to accuse Bianca either."
Cleetus from the Beast Makers stepped in to give his thoughts. "In the Beast Makers, we have a few sayings. One of them is; if it's furry and runs on four legs, it makes a great gumbo; and the other is innocent until proven guilty," he said.
Sgt Byrd flew in next to Sheila, giving Bianca a skeptical look. "I still have my doubts," he said.
Cosmos of the Magic Crafters was adamant on his feelings. "Bah! Once a villain, always a villain! A leopard can't change its spots!" he said.
This comment made Hunter look at his spots in confusion.
Meanwhile, the Dream Weavers leader, Lateef, gave his thoughts on the matter. "I am a firm believer that you are judged by your recent deed and by that account, the fact that Bianca helped Spyro defeat the Sorceress last time proves that she can be trusted," he said.
"Pfft, makes sense that you would be on her side, Lateef. You're always so naive," scoffed Cosmos.
Soon, an argument escalated between the elders and the others. Suffice to say, the gravity of the situation was putting mostly everyone on edge.
Finally, Nestor stepped in and gave a hard stomp to the ground, bringing everything to a halt. "Enough!" he commanded. "No matter who is responsible, the fact is the dragonflies are gone and they must be found! They are essential to the magic in our world!"
Spyro and the elders nodded in agreement.
"Nestor is right! Sparx and the others are out there somewhere! We've gotta find them!" Spyro proclaimed.
With that, Nestor ordered a search throughout the realms for any sign of the dragonflies with Spyro agreeing to join in.
Bianca also agreed to join in, feeling that it would at least help gain some trust among the elders, and the search was on.
But while Spyro and the others were anxious about their loss; Ripto, Gnasty, and the Sorceress; were square dancing like maniacs in celebration of their gain.
In a far off castle, the villains held a party with the guests of honor being the captured dragonflies, including Sparx.
A rhynoc and a gnorc were fighting over a piece of cake, a gnorc was beating the stuffing out of a Spyro pinata, and another gnorc and rhynoc were engaged in a punch drinking contest.
Indeed it was a time for celebration as far they were concerned. Individually, they had failed against the purple dragon, but together, they had succeeded and victory was theirs. And since Spyro and the others didn't know where they were, there was very little chance of them messing up their plans.
Ripto hopped onto a table and grabbed a cup of punch, proposing a toast. The other two villains acquiesced.
"Here's to victory!" proclaimed Ripto. "Thanks to my brilliant leadership, of course."
"Leadership?!" the Sorceress responded objectively. "It was my spell that did the trick."
"Oh, the one that took a hundred years? I hadn't noticed," Ripto argued.
Gnasty interjected. "Hey! Me and my gnorcs helped too!" he bellowed.
"Your gnorcs wouldn't have gotten anywhere without my rhynocs!" the Sorceress protested.
"Those inane, incompetent, imbecilic, morons couldn't find their way out of a paper bag without my guidance!" Ripto shouted to Gnasty before he turned to the Sorceress. "And the same goes for those filthy animals of yours!"
The Sorceress and Gnasty glared at Ripto, growling.
"I don't know what you said, but I'm extremely offended!" Gnasty growled at Ripto, hitting his club.
"As am I!" said the Sorceress.
In response, the Sorceress took her staff, pointed it at Ripto, and turned him into a toad, much to her and Gnasty's amusement. After a croak, the annoyed Ripto grabbed his staff with his mouth and retaliated by turning the Sorceress into a mouse. The two went back and forth, turning each other into things; Ripto into a pig, the Sorceress into crab, Ripto into a fly, the Sorceress into a sloth; with Gnasty and the gnorcs and rhynoc just amusingly watching while eating cake.
When the two returned to normal, they glared at each other, ready to go at it again, but then a blast of energy, stopped then in their tracks, knocking them, Gnasty and the gnorcs and rhynocs back. Another blast destroyed all the decorations and food, much to their dismay.
"ENOUGH!" a voice bellowed.
Before them, from the shadows, a figure stood. Though barely visible, he had the appearance of a dragon holding a long scepter of his own.
The three villains trembled at the sight of the figure, Ripto and the Sorceress both bent a knee, however, Gnasty was too scared to move, so they forced him down.
"I did not go through the trouble of resurrecting you three fools to watch you bicker like a trio of hatchlings!" the voice bellowed again. "Did you get the dragonflies?!"
"Yes...master," Ripto answered, reluctant to call him master.
"Good, phase one is now complete...time now for phase two," the figure chuckled as his eyes glowed a sinister red.
Night fell and hours had passed since the search began. In the Artisans castle, a distraught and somber Spyro returned where Elora was waiting for and immediately rushed to him.
She could tell just by looking at him that the search didn't go well. "No luck, huh?" she said, putting a hand on Spyro's shoulder.
The purple dragon solemnly shook his head. "Nope," he answered.
Nestor, along with the other leaders arrived alongside Spyro, equally discouraged.
"I and the other Artisans searched all through the Artisan realm, but we found no trace of the dragonflies," said Nestor.
Neither Titan, Cosmos, nor Bruno had the better luck in the search of their realms, much to Spyro's dismay.
Titan slammed his ax to the ground in frustration. "I should've fought harder!" he shouted.
"We all fought our hardest, Titan. Do not blame yourself," said Nestor.
"Evidently not hard enough," Cosmos pointed out.
"Oh, put a sock in it, Cosmos! Things are bad enough as it is!" said Bruno.
Sheila, Sgt, Byrd, Bentley, and Agent 9 were the next to arrive.
"We didn't have much luck either, mates," sighed Sheila. "We couldn't find em anywhere in the Forgotten Worlds."
"I'm afraid our efforts proved to be most fruitless," said Bentley.
"Affirmative," agreed Sgt. Byrd. "We covered all areas of our sector and found nothing."
"And no ugly rhynocs or gnorcs either! My blaster didn't like that! Not one bit!" said Agent 9.
More bad news was the last thing that Spyro needed to hear. It didn't help matters when Hunter, Bianca, the Professor, and Moneybags arrived with virtually the same news.
"Well? Did you find them?" Elora asked.
"No, they weren't anywhere in Avalor," Bianca sighed.
"We looked everywhere and there wasn't a single sign of them," said Hunter.
"Great..." Spyro responded, slumping his head down in distress.
Elora patted Spyro on the head to try and comfort him, then turned to Hunter and the others. "Are you sure you didn't find anything?" she asked.
"Well, the smell of dragon breath didn't permeate the air, so no," answered Moneybags.
Hunter responded by giving Moneybags a hard hit on the head, knocking him out.
Unfortunately, not even the sight of Moneybags getting knocked out could cheer up Spyro at this point. Sparx was gone, the other dragonflies were gone, and to make matters worse, they were nowhere to be found in any of the previous realms.
"There's gotta be some way to find them!" Elora said.
"But we don't even know where to look!" said Spyro.
"I think I might," said a voice.
Spyro and the others looked in the direction of the voice to find none other than Oswin, hovering in.
"You say you may know where Gnasty and the other have taken the dragonflies?" Nestor asked Oswin curiously.
"Yes, but it's kind of a stretch," Oswin answered.
Spyro quickly ran over to Oswin with resolve in his eyes. "I don't care! Stretch or not, I'll take it!" he said.
Oswin could see the seriousness in Spyro expression and so with that, he had Spyro, the elders, and the others follow him to the library in Dark Hollow.
With everyone gathered at the library, Oswin presented a red book with gold lining and opened its pages.
"It wasn't an easy search. I must've spent hours looking for this information; granted some of them were spent reading some old comics, but still, it wasn't easy," said Oswin.
Nestor and the other elders rolled their eyes.
Awkwardly, Oswin opened the book, coming onto a page detailing what looked like a series of islands which he brought everyone's attention to.
Spyro leaped onto the table to closer observe the page on the book "What's that?" he asked.
Nestor walked over and looked at the page on the book as well. His eyes widened as he instantly recognized the islands drawn in the page. "The islands of Illica. Of course!" he said.
The elders gave each other serious looks while Spyro and the others looked at each other befuddled.
"The islands of Illica?" Spyro asked after jumping off the table.
"What are those?" Elora also asked.
"An archipelago of islands far beyond the waters of the Dragon Realms," said Nestor.
"Many believed they were just a myth, but they were said to have existed long before the Dragon Realms," Cosmos added. "They are also said to contain more magic than any of the realms combined."
"The key word is 'myth,'" Titan scoffed. "No realm has more magic than the Dragon Realms! Not even Avalar has more magic than us!"
Titan's comment made Elora, Hunter, and the Professor all glare at him.
Meanwhile, Oswin picked up the book and paced around Spyro and the others. "I found this book years ago and had been studying its contents, but for the past couple of years, I hadn't really put my hands on it until now. It tells of an ancient dragon god named Thasius, who is said to be the dragon god of all creation, who created the islands and the magic that inhabits it. He is also said to have created the dragon realms as well as Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds as well," he said.
Spyro and the others were astonished by this, but especially Spyro, seeing as how this was the first time he had ever heard of dragon gods and the creation of the realms and such.
"Well, I must say, I am thunderstruck by this information," said Bentley.
"Huh? Struck by thunder? Where? I don't see it," Hunter responded, checking Bentley for burn marks.
Bianca rolled her eyes before cracking a smile. "He means he's surprised, you furry numskull," she said with a giggle.
Oswin continued. "If there's any place Gnasty, Ripto, and the Sorceress have taken the dragonflies, chances are they're probably there."
For the first time in a while, things appeared to be looking up as now the group had an idea as to where to find the dragonflies.
However, Titan was not convinced. "Ridiculous!" he bellowed. "We don't even know if these islands exist!"
"Maybe we don't, but it's not like we have any other choices," said Bruno.
"We can't place the entire fate of the realms on a story! Only a fool would venture that far outside the realms!" said Titan.
Spyro adamantly stood before Titan with resolve. "Quite frankly, I don't care! Sparx and the others are out there somewhere and right now, Illica is our only lead! If there is a chance to find Sparx, I'll take it!"
Cosmos intervened. "The young dragon has a point, you know," he added. "Besides, it case you hadn't noticed, we live in a world with magic portals, floating islands, and talking kangaroos."
Titan looked down at said kangaroo, Sheila, who winked at him, then at Spyro, seeing the resolve in his eyes, and he couldn't help but smile. "Such confidence, you remind me a lot of myself at your age," he said.
Spyro smiled back.
"He is also very stubborn," added Nestor.
"And reckless," added Cosmos.
"And hotheaded," added Brutus.
"And sometimes has a one-track mind," Elora teased, elbowing Spyro.
Myth or not, nothing was gonna stop Spyro from going. His expression made that clear. So, seeing as there was no way of stopping him, Titan had no choice but to acquiesce, much to his own pleasure, as Nestor walked up to Spyro.
"Spyro, in the past you have proven yourself and overcome many challenges. I have no doubt you will do the same with this one," Nestor said with pride.
"You can count me in," said Elora.
Though she couldn't help much when Ripto invaded Avalar, she was determined to help Spyro find the dragonflies and his friend.
Hunter was in too, as well as Bianca.
"I know I haven't given everybody much reason to trust me, but I wanna do what I can to help the Dragon Realms," Bianca said.
Elora still had trust issues when it came to Bianca, but still, she knew they would need all the help they could get.
Sheila, Sgt. Byrd, Agent 9, and Bentley were the next to approach.
"Well, we can't let you guys have all the fun, now can we?" said Sheila.
"Yeah! Just point me near one of those rhynocs or gnorcs and I'll turn them into Swiss cheese!" said Agent 9.
"I am at your command, soldier!" Sgt. Byrd said, giving a salute.
"I too resolve to aid you in your endeavors, little dragon," said Bentley.
Spyro gave an approving smile as all his friends stood beside him. He wasn't sure what was in store for him in Illica, but regardless, he was gonna do whatever he had to do and go wherever he needed to go in order to save Sparx and the other dragonflies. And with more friends aiding him than ever before, he was confident that he could do it.
The last one was Moneybags who had not given his decision whom everyone looked to.
The greedy bear nervously held his bag. "Now you know, I would be more than happy to assist, but in light of everything that has gone down, I feel it would be...more essential if I were to stay here to make sure that...the gems don't get stolen. Yes! And besides, with my pugilistic background it probably wouldn't be fair to the rest of if I upstage you, so I'll just leave it to you," he said before running off.
Spyro and others just rolled their eyes at Moneybags' typical cowardice.