Time for food had come, as the big ape and the two dragons were now sitting around a table that had been prepared for them. Some nice food brought, served in leaves in the place of plates. The menu consisted in fried cream-bellied mantises, spiced with pludia grass and swamp tea leaves, a wonderful first course; followed by a smoked meat of alpine rattlesnake with sweet vines on the side. Some nice lagople juice to drink in bowls, and a huge bowl of heart cashews for dessert, courtesy of the harvesters, who made sure to separate the best ones for Gaul and, by extension, Spyro.
"They were really rude to Aerea." Spyro said to his father in between bites, "She was helping them and they just acted as if she was getting in their way. I guess they were envious of her skills. Dad, you had to see, she was so amazing using her wind element. It was just like in the stories that you told me about the wind dragons that flapped their winds and created winds strong like those of a hurricane."
"Sounds like it was truly amazing." Gaul said, as he took bites of his food. It was mostly picking it up with his hands and taking it to his mouth to eat, while Spyro ate it with gusto with great bites. Meanwhile, Aerea was looking at the food that was bring to her, and she looked as if she was still trying to figure out if that was edible or not.
It was clear that she was not use to eat bugs or snakes. At least, not the same way that Spyro and his father surely were. The fried bugs remained in front of her, staring back at her with their dead bug eyes, and the pieces of the snake looked like the snake itself had been cut in half, both haves had been skinned and then dipped in spices and smoke. The strange, lilac-colored vine that was right by the side of it looked a bit strange too, as the dragoness had never seen anything like it where she lived.
This food all looked quite strange to her.
It smelled really good, though.
"The food is really good, Miss Aerea." Gaul said as he looked at the dragoness, who looked back at him surprised. "You should really try. When eating the mantis, you should start with the head. It is the crunchiest part, and don't worry about the snake, they completely removed all parts that had poison, and even if they didn't the sweet vines can neutralize most natural poisons, not to mention that they go really good with snake meat."
He took a bite out of his food, while Aerea looked at him, before she looked back at her food.
It was so different from the food that she was used to having. Still, so was most of the food that she had been eating in the past week that she had been staying with Spyro as his guest, and most of it proved quite good.
So, the dragoness decided to give it a try, as she (awkwardly) picked up one of the fried bugs and (very hesitantly) took a bit on the head of the thing.
She never imagined that a bug could be so delicious.
She was soon eating them with gusto, just like the other two.
"Yeah, I just want to say how much I am appreciating being here, guys." Sparx said, looking at the three as he was on the table as well. "Really nice of you to eat bugs with a bug on the table. Very thoughtful."
"Oh, quit being dramatic." Spyro said to him, "These bugs are not sentient like you dragonflies, besides, they taste really good."
"And don't you eat butterflies?" Aerea asked, and Sparx said nothing, just looking at her as she took another bite.
"Oh, by Yo! I never knew that bugs could taste so good! I'll want these fried mantises more often!"
She continued to eat, and Sparx looked at her eating. After a few moments, he started licking his chops. Then, he lunged at the nearest leaf that had mantises and took one of them.
"Here, I am becoming a cannibal. You guys happy?" He asked, before he started to bite at the fried mantis, all under the eyes of everyone else.
"Hey! These guys taste just like orange butterflies!" Sparx said, and he started eating more voraciously, causing Spyro to laugh at him and Gaul to chuckle. Aerea, on her end, didn't really looked at the dragonfly, as she had soon found out that seeing him eat was a sure way to make her lose part of her appetite, and she didn't wanted that, not when she just found out how good these things tasted.
She soon was also trying the snake and the vines, and she found out that these things really did tasted great together. The savory taste of the snake somewhat harmonized with slightly sweet taste of these lilac vines. The vine was a bit chewy, but it did went along great with the soft snake meat.
This was really proving to be a great meal.
All the while, Spyro was talking to his dad about all that had happened while he was away. He spoke about his training, about the things that he had seen on his walks, about how things had been ever since Aerea had come along, and he even made some commentaries on the inside of the owlbear's cave, with the many glowing gemstones that there were inside of there. He even showed Gaul the one that he had rescued from inside there, and that he had kept ever since.
"Indeed, it is a beautiful gem." Gaul said, as he looked at the curious thing that now seemed to have become a dear possession of the young purple dragon. The ape looked at it with great interest before he gave it back to Spyro, "You better keep a good eye on this. I could be valuable."
And so the talk continued, all the while Aerea remained watching the two while they all ate. She saw how the purple dragon spoke to the massive ape of all that had been happening lately, no matter how big or small, and the ape would hear it with interest, before saying something back that would either make the purple dragon blush, laugh or beam with pride.
She just continued to look and, at some point, it almost seemed that she had forgotten all about her food.
"Are you satisfied, young Aerea?" Gaul asked, snapping the dragoness out of her thoughts.
"W-what? Oh, y-yes, I am. I mean, kinda." She said, looking at her nearly finished food. "Yeah, I guess I'll only have one of the heart cashews as dessert." She picked up one, and soon she was eating. After a few moments, however, she talked to the two.
"You two seem very close." She said, not really thinking on what she was speaking, and the two looked at her, what prompted her to look away, somewhat embarrassed, she was about to apologize, when Spyro said:
"Well, of course we are close." He said, as if this was something obvious. "After all, he is my dad."
"Y-yeah, but..." Aerea said, looking at him, "With the war and all, he probably has to focus a lot in it and you might stay away from each other for a long time, right?"
Gaul was the one who answered this time.
"Indeed, I have my responsibility due to the war." Gaul said, looking back at the gray dragoness. "But that does not means that I'll neglect Spyro. I come back as often as I can, and I make sure that I'll spend the available time that I have with him, at any moment that I have it."
"He is always there when I really need him." Spyro said, looking at his father with admiration. "And he is always supporting me. Once he stopped a meeting with other generals right in the middle of it only to check on my when he heard that I had been stung by a scorpion. It was a false lotus scorpion, the kind that doesn't have any venom, but dad stopped everything juts to come check on me and be sure that I was okay." Spyro really sounded like he admired his dad for that, and he truly did. "That is how all dads should be."
There was a silence following these words, and Aerea looked at him. For a moment, Spyro even wondered if he had said something wrong, for the dragoness now looked sad.
Really sad.
"Yeah... you are right." She said, looking down. "Dads should be like that..."
More silence followed this, as Spyro looked at both Sparx and his dad, as if asking "what did I do wrong?" to both of them, and hoping that one of them would answer.
"So, I hope you have enjoyed the food, Aerea." Gaul said, the dragoness looked back at him and nodded.
"Yes, sir." She said, "It was delicious. It was the best meal I had ever since I left the Dragon Realms. It was so good." She sounded sincere as she said that, and then she added:
"So different from what I thought that the meals of apes would be."
She said that in a low voice, and it seemed that she was talking to herself and not to them. However, Spyro had picked up what she said, and it peaked his curiosity.
"What did you thought an ape's meal would be like?" He asked, and she looked at him, once more making him think that he might have said something wrong. However, this was not sad like the other, but it seemed to be... what was that? Fear? Embarrassment? Guilt?
"I..." Aerea said, and it seemed that she was trying to decide if she should or not tell them what was going through her head now. "I... heard some things about apes and their meals... back in the dragon lands."
"What, that they eat with their feet?" Spyro asked, "Because I've seen a few of them doing that, but most of them don't do that, it is anti-hygienic."
"W-well, they told me that too." Aerea said, and she looked at them, "Just as that they eat their own young, and their own poop." She said, and Spyro looked at her, "And that they liked to drink the blood of the enemies that they defeated in battle."
Spyro looked at her with a disgusted expression. Sparx was more neutral, but he still said:
"Ew."
"That's ridiculous!" Spyro finally said, looking at her, "No ape that I ever met did any of that."
She flinched a bit at his tune, what made the purple dragon regret having spoken like that to her, however, the dragoness soon was trying to justify herself:
"I-it's just what they have told me about the apes back on the Dragon Realms." She said, "They... they say a lot of things about the apes. And not only about how they eat."
"They say that the apes like to torture little animals to pass their time, and that they use the bones of their fallen enemies to make jewelry." She spoke, "They say that they live in the trees and like to leave captured dragons tied into vines and hanging for several hours before they finish them off by carving them up alive. And then they eat their guts and drink their blood, and laugh while they do that."
"They don't do any of that!" Spyro said, sounding outraged. "They never did and they would never do! Not even Kallag would go that far!"
Aerea flinched a little more, and she looked away.
"This is part of the war." Gaul said, now causing everyone to look at him. His expression was serious, but it was serene.
"Dad?" Spyro asked, and the big ape soon was talking once more to the ones on the table.
"In wars, it is very important to make yourself look like the good guy to your own people." Gaul said to them, "To make your cause seems correct and righteous, so your citizens will be by your side, even if you are doing wrong things."
"But you don't do wrong things." Spyro said, "You don't have to look like the good guy, because you are a good guy."
"Wars are never simple, Spyro." The big ape told the dragon, "Wars always involve much more than who is right and who is wrong. They involve interests. They involve conflicting ideologies, and sometimes it is hard for the ones involved to actually say who is right and who is wrong. Sometimes, even the ones who are fighting for the right cause will seem wrong to their enemies, either that or they will be made to look wrong, in order to favor the other side."
Spyro looked at his father, and the ape continued to explain:
"It is common in wars for the leader and his army to be depicted as paragons of moral, and for the causes that they fight for to be described as righteous and in the interest of the people as a whole." He said, "Also, it is not uncommon for them to depict their enemies and opposers as being evil. Malefor has always been keen on using both of these tactics. He presents himself as a noble leader for his people and paints all the ones who oppose him as evil. It is actually no surprise that he would be depicting apes as cruel and merciless, once we are the ones who oppose him the most."
He sighed.
"Most of the dragons have never even met an ape before in their lives, and they all know that we live in the forests. It must not be hard for Malefor to convince them that we are a bunch of brainless savages." Gaul said.
Neither of the two dragons said a thing, and Gaul looked at Aerea.
"I bet that you have also heard quite a few things about me, haven't you?" He asked, in a very friendly tune. At this moment, Aerea looked at him, and then she looked down.
"What is it?" Spyro said, looking at the gray dragoness. "What do they say about dad?"
Aerea hesitated, as it seemed that she was unwilling to share what she knew. However, she saw herself with little choice with a direct question like that. So, the dragoness soon was speaking:
"You are right, Malefor really does preaches how his causes are noble for all dragon kind, and he demonizes all of the ones who oppose him." Aerea said, and the others looked at her. "The apes in particular... and their king."
Spyro looked at her, and he could already feel outrage raising in anticipation, already imaging the kinds of lies that they told about his father. Gaul, on his end, had more of a neutral expression.
"He, and all of the others, say that Gaul is a monster." She said, "The biggest, cruelest and most violent ape who has ever lived. They say that he often kills his own subordinates when they fail with him even once or question his orders. That he tortures captured dragons until madness and then has them placed on stakes and watches as they bleed to death , and that he later drinks their blood. That he destroys dragon eggs and then eats the unborn dragons as a delicacy. All these shorts of things. I once heard my father say that, if you are about to be captured by Gaul, then you better try to kill yourself as fast as you can, because if you live, Gaul would torture you for fun so much that you would be begging for death, and then he would laugh at you and just keep torturing you."
Spyro is shocked for a few moments; however, it is soon giving away to outrage.
"None of that is true!" The young dragon nearly roared. "Dad wouldn't-! He would never-! He doesn't even-! How can they think that he would-!? That is all crap!"
"Spyro!" Gaul said, causing the young dragon to look at him, "Language, please."
"But this is all lie!" Spyro said, looking at his father. "You would never do any of these things! You never killed or tortured anyone! You are not like that!"
"I know." The ape said to the purple dragon, "This is propaganda. Malefor is selling me to his people as a monster so he can keep selling his image a righteous and noble king who will guide dragon kind to 'their rightful place'."
"Yeah, he never stops saying that." Aerea said under her breath, the others on the table looked at her, and then she added:
"Well, according to what I heard. I mean, everyone in the kingdom speaks of how Malefor has helped the kingdom improve, but everyone seems to forget how much he controls everything that happens in the kingdom, and how much he taxes everyone to have more funds for the war. Did you know that dragons who openly badmouthed him would either disappear or die on very suspect circumstances, like some strange accident on their home or an unexplained suicide? I mean, how can a dragon accidentally fall on a spear twenty times?"
The two said nothing in return, and Aerea simply looked away, before she continued:
"Not to mention that he is always demanding that more and more dragons at the age of fighting join his army to help in the war. They don't have a choice, you know? Refusing is seen as betrayal and punished as a crime."
Silence followed these words, as everyone took in what the dragoness had just said to them.
"Man." Sparx said, "No wonder I hear of so many dragons packing their bags and leaving the place in the dead of night."
"Yeah." Aerea said, "Trying your chances out here is better than remaining in that tyrant's shadow."
Spyro looked in between the two as he took in all that he just heard, and he didn't liked it in the least.
How could Malefor spread such lies? Okay, it made sense, considering what Gaul had just said, but this was unacceptable! Gaul would never do any of these things! He was not a monster! Malefor was the monster! He was the one who wanted to destroy and enslave everyone else!
Gaul was the good guy in this story!
To think that the guys in Dragon Land actually thought that he was evil...
"I am sorry." Aerea's voice suddenly broke Spyro out of his reflection, and he looked at the gray dragoness, who had her head down, as if in shame.
"For what?" Gaul asked, and she soon was saying:
"For believing these stories." She said, and it was clear that she regretted having believed in them. "They kept telling me such things about apes and about you ever since I could remember, in those rhymes, in the sleep stories, in the books, I guess I just took what they told me and never questioned it."
She rose her head to look at him. "But, now I see that none of these stories are true. That maybe none of the stories that they told me about the non-dragons are true."
She bowed her head once more.
"I am sorry that I ever believed in such things."
She sounded sincere as she said that, and it really seemed that she regretted having believed in the stories that they told her since she was a hatchling. Everyone in the table could easily see that.
After a few moments of silence, Gaul was the one who spoke:
"It's alright."
Aerea slowly rose her head, and she saw that Gaul was giving her a kind smile.
"You never met an ape before, so you clearly had no way of knowing if the things that they told you were truth or not." Gaul said, and Aerea looked back at him.
"B-but I should have suspected." She said, "I should have suspected that he was telling everyone this to justify why they should kill the apes and show them no mercy. I should not have let him..."
"Malefor is manipulative." Gaul said, cutting her off as he rose his hand. "He might be cruel and ruthless, but he knows how to be charming and how to control the masses. If he didn't, he wouldn't have been able to remain in the position of ruler, even with all of his power. He only managed to remain as king for so long because he knows how to influence and fool the dragons into thinking that he is right. It is no surprise that you ended up being convinced by his words as well."
"But I am..." she tried to say, but Gaul once more cut her off.
"You are a runaway now." He said, looking at her. "You realized the wrongs on Malefor's ways and you decided to leave. At the very least, this is what I presume."
Aerea looked at him in the eyes, and she nodded.
"Yeah, I started to see what he was doing, and I realized that there was no way that what he was doing was right, no matter what he said." The dragoness said, "I realized that I had no choice but to leave while I still could."
Gaul looked at her for a few moments, and he nodded.
"You are welcome here in our village, for as long as you need." He said, and the dragoness looked back at him, "You will have all the shelter and protection that you may require. I'll see to that myself."
"Thank you." Aerea said, "You are so generous."
"Hey, you saved my son's life." Gaul said, "This is the very least I can do for you." He had a smile on his face, and the dragoness could not see a single shadow on his face. She didn't saw anything that would indicate that any of the things that she heard about the king of apes could be truth in any sense. Once more, she felt ashamed of having believed in the stories.
Soon, someone was coming. The ape approached Gaul was whispered something on his ear. The king nodded.
"Tell them I'll be going soon."
The ape bowed and rushed away, and Gaul looked at the two dragons.
"Well, the good food is certainly an advantage of being called a king." Gaul said, getting up, "Still, it has some drawbacks, like when you need to have an urgent meeting with your generals to discuss a lot of important matters regarding a war just after you have returned from a campaign."
The two dragons looked back at him, and he said:
"I'll be busy for the rest of the day. You two are free to go around the village or to stay on the rut, as you want." He said, looking back at the two, "Just make sure that you kids have a lot of fun, okay?"
"Yes, sir." Spyro said, making a salute to the big ape, who smiled back, although he did said:
"Don't you think that this means you are not in trouble, young man." He said to the purple dragon, "We will have a more serious conversation on this later. No go have fun, you two." He said, and the two dragons were soon leaving, the dragonfly coming right after them.
Gaul smiled at them, before sighing and turning his mind to the more serious things at hand in there.
He needed to speak to the generals about their behavior with the other tribes.
Spyro loved to have his father at the village for many reasons.
Because he was always willing to listen to him. Because he never looked at him the way that most other apes did. Because he was always there to help him anytime he had some kind of problem, no matter how big or small it could seem.
Another thing that Spyro liked very much was, when his dad was on the village, his bodyguards didn't kept following him around all the time.
The guys all followed him around while Gaul was away in a campaign, however, when he was at the village, they often left him alone and gave him more privacy. Spyro had the theory that this was because they thought that he would be less inclined to try and pulling out any kind of misbehavior while his dad was around. After all, any teenager would feel disinclined to try and do things that they shouldn't do it their parents were around to hear about it.
They weren't completely wrong...
What Spyro knew was that his dad did not insisted for him to have his bodyguards with himself while he was around the village, only when he was away doing something else.
Anyway, with his dad in the village, this meant that his nannies would not be following him everywhere. In other words, Spyro and his friends had all the freedom they could have to go around the village without anyone tailing them all the time.
This was all that a teenager like Spyro could want.
Soon he and his two friends were going around the village and seeing all that they couldn't see when the bodyguards were near them. Spyro took them to some places that only he knew, like a water pond hidden among the rocks near a cliff, and a small road that lead to a clearing filled with delicious berries (which Spyro ensured them that were not poisonous, for he had learned about these specific berries from one of the many botanic books that his dad had brought him).
They also went around the village, with Aerea taking this chance to take to the skies and survey the area from above, while Spyro and Sparx followed from bellow. Well, Spyro was the lower of the three, as Sparx could still fly in the air several feet above the purple dragons head. That was a moment when the purple dragon really wished that he could be up there with both of them. He really was thinking of holding onto Aerea's promise of teaching him how to fly.
The villagers, in their turn, were not very keen on having Spyro run around the village without his bodyguards with him. They probably thought that he would try something now that there was no one with him all the time to rein him in. Also, some of them were nervous for having yet another dragon on the village, one that was flying right over their heads and that could probably strike them from up there if she wanted to.
However, today, it seemed that the villagers were actually not giving that much attention to the purple dragon, and not even to the other, strange dragon that was on the village.
Today, they had other things to focus on.
Gaul and his army had come back to the village.
This meant that the soldiers who had gone with Gaul to the battle were coming back to their families, reuniting with them after a long absence. Husbands reunited with their spouses. Fathers reunited with their chimps. Everyone was having a good meeting with the loved ones that they left behind in order to protect these very same loved ones.
And that was happening right on the day of the harvest.
What could make such a day more special to this village?
Of course, in such joyous circumstances, it was no surprise that the village would be in the mood for a celebration. A great dinner table was prepared, with everyone in the village cooperating for it, bringing several types of food in for the upcoming great feast. Also, there was a great space being prepared for recreations and for dancing, along with a great bonfire that they would soon be lighting up to illuminate the celebration.
This was all made to prepare for the night, which was quickly approaching, and soon, Sparx noticed it.
"Yeah, getting dark already guys." The bug said, turning to both of them. "I gotta go back to my swamp now. See you tomorrow." He said, and Spyro and Aerea both waved at him as he departed, flying across the darkening sky in direction to the swamp, saying that he should go soon, "before it got so dark that he would get lost in there and be eaten by one of these strange plants".
As he left, Spyro chuckled.
"He just doesn't wants his parents to star yelling at him again for being late to help cleaning his house." Spyro said, looking at Aerea. "He still lives with his parents, by the way."
"Yeah, I figured that out." The dragoness said, "He does sounds like a bit of a momma's boy."
"Yeah, I think the same thing." Spyro said, "But, I don't say that aloud very much. At least not when he is around. When I do, he shots back that I am a daddy's boy."
Aerea chuckled at this, and Spyro could feel himself blushing. Luckily, he was able to diverge her attention from the subject by saying that maybe they could sneak around the party, which she accepted.
Spyro was pretty sure that he and Aerea would not really be welcome into the celebration. Even though they couldn't really stop Spyro from taking part in it if he wanted (not with Gaul on the village to hear about it), Spyro had long found out that worse than being left out of a party was to be in there when no one wanted your presence.
Still, Spyro soon found out that he could have just as much fun by being near the party and away from everyone's side. It was almost as if the purple dragon was making a celebration all by himself.
Of course, this time he was not really all by himself.
This time he had some nice company.
Female company, it was to be added.
Soon she and Spyro were in a certain spot, as the day got darker. It was close enough so they could pretty much see and hear what was going on in the celebration, however, it was also far enough that none of the apes would notice their presence and start being rude to them until they decided to leave.
To Spyro, it was a perfect spot.
They could smell the delicious smell of the food, and it made their mouths water. And their stomach grumble.
"Maybe we can snaek in with no one noticing." Spyro said, already planning on how he would sneak into the table. That was a disadvantage of being purple, you stood on the background. However, that was when Aerea surprised him once more.
"Hold up, I have an idea." She said, and soon she was standing in there and making a few movements with her wings. Soon, a small hurricane was forming on the ground. It was very small, and the wind that formed it was so clear that the thing was practically invisible to the naked eye.
Soon, Aerea was making a movement, and she was sending the small hurricane forward. It was a matter of minutes before the hurricane would come back at them, carrying some food inside itself. Mostly it were small snacks, like some friend mantis and also some toasted heart cashew seeds. The kind of thing that can vanish from the table without anyone truly noticing.
"Cool." Spyro said, feeling glad for having the food.
This was not stealing. Not at all.
Stealing was when you took something that belonged exclusively to another person. It was a celebration. Everyone who wanted could go in there and take all of the food they wanted, it was free for all. They had all of the right to eat the food as anyone else. They simply were getting the food from a distance, you know, without being there in person.
The food was good, and the two young dragons were eating their fill, with the extra hurricane to pick up some juice. It was basically a spiraling wind that picked up the liquid and floated with it back to them as it spiraled inside of it. They had to drink it straight from the hurricane, but it was as good as if they were taking it from a bowl. To Spyro, it was an amazing experience.
The celebration was continuing, with the apes now playing games and forming groups to talk to each other. That was something that Spyro and Aerea could do by themselves, as they found out that they had a lot to talk about.
They talked mostly about their shared interests, and about the things that they could do on the following days. Spyro was excited to have his first flying lessons with Aerea, while the dragoness didn't really looked forward into going into a stroll around the border of the swamp where Sparx lived.
However, one subject that they didn't spoke was Aerea's past or her family. It seemed that something about the subject really made her uncomfortable.
"I'd really just leave all of that behind." The gray dragoness said to the purple dragon, and Spyro accepted her words, thinking that she must have gone through a lot before leaving the Dragon Realms.
Soon, however, his mind was distract from this by the familiar sound of music.
He could recognize well the sound of the aslexo's strings. The percussion that was achieved by beating the bailtu. All of that accompanied by the sound of two teawe pipes. All of that was strung together to form a melody with a fast pace and a very upbeat vibe to it.
"Great, the music started." Spyro said. Aerea rose her head, looking at the scene in the distance, and she was able to make out the apes at the distance playing their instruments. They looked quite strange to the dragoness, but they did made music alright.
"That sounds really good." She said, and Spyro was already bobbing his head up and down at the rhythm of the beat. He was not the only one that was getting on the rhythm, for it was just a matter of time before the apes into the celebration were all getting into the center of the area, and they were all starting to move in it, as Aerea was able to see from a distance.
"Is that a dance?" She asked, seeing the fast, wild and yet graceful movements of the apes.
"It sure is." Spyro said, getting more and more on the rhythm of the music. "That is sembla, a very traditional form of dance that all apes know."
"It looks difficult." She said, looking at how the apes moved, made swings, wide gestures with their limbs, and some of them even made mortal backflips as they stood in there, all of them following the rhythm of the music.
"It is not that much, actually." Spyro said to her. "It is all about letting your body go as free as possible. You just go crazy and let your instincts guide you. The very word 'sembla' comes from the old ape dialect, and it means 'craziness'."
"Well, it certainly looks like craziness." The dragoness said, seeing how these apes were going wild with their more and more daring dance moves. Some of them just dropped to the ground as they tried to make a move, only to get back up and once more start dancing as if nothing had happened, and everything was all part of the script. It looked like these creatures didn't had a single worry or care in the world.
"Yeah, the trick to it is to go wild without looking stupid." Spyro said, "And, even if you end up looking stupid, you just gotta not care about it at all. After all, you are doing that to have fun and to celebrate at something."
Aerea nodded as she continued to look at the apes that danced in a way that nearly seemed frenetic. She was amazed at how they didn't bumped on each other as they danced like crazy. It did seemed that they were all having fun.
"So, wanna try it?" Spyro said, and Aerea looked at him. "It is pretty easy once you get going."
The gray dragoness was hesitant, but she ended up accepting to try to dance. The purple dragon was soon making a demonstration to her of his own version of sembla.
"Can you really dance it?" She asked the purple dragon, who was getting ready to start. "Isn't it only for two-legged creatures, like the apes?"
"Apes are very adaptive." Spyro said to her, "And so are their arts. Be them martial or a dance, the arts of the apes are made to be very easy to adapt to your own style or, as I came to find out, your own body type. You just have to get the gist, find the style that works for you and... go for it!"
With this, Spyro soon started to dance.
It was as frenetic as what the apes were doing. The difference was just that the dragon danced in a way that four-legged creatures like him could easily manage. Still, the style was pretty much what it seemed to be for the rest of the apes, a form of carefree, managed madness of pure movement on the rhythm of the music.
"See? It is not hard." Spyro said, as he continued to dance, and he made three backflips, looking at the dragoness as now he was standing on his front-legs as he moved his legs and tail into the air as if they were the end of a whip. Aerea only looked at him.
"Not hard?" Aerea said, looking at him, and the purple dragon looked back at her.
"Oh, come on. Just give it a try." Spyro said, going back to all fours and looking at her. "Look, it is not very hard. Just start by sweeping your limps into the ground or into the air as wide as you can. Do it as if you are trying to stretch your body and swipe. Just like this." Spyro demonstrated what he was saying, and Aerea looked at him.
It seemed simple enough.
The gray dragoness was soon imitating the purple dragon, doing these movements, while Spyro kept encouraging her to keep dancing. He showed her more and more complex moves, and she repeated them the best she could. It took a few minutes for her to realize that these were not actual dance moves.
Sembla was the kind of dance that didn't had actual routines or practiced steps. It was all about letting yourself lose and let your body go with the flow, being as crazy and free as it wanted to be. That was what sembla was about, and the gray dragoness was soon getting quite into it, along with the purple dragon.
Spyro was used to dance by himself during celebrations, as he would stay from far and listen to the music, just going along with it. After all, it was his own party. Nothing wrong with dancing sembla by yourself in the case you had no one else to dance with (or in case you were the kind of creature that others would rather not dance with).
However, Sembla was the kind of dance that you could dance with someone else. Spyro simply never had a partner to dance before. Of course, that changed on that night.
Soon the two dragons had dwelled into their own improvised form of dancing. They would sway and skip around each other, and at some points, they would get really close, nearly rubbing themselves at each other as they danced along. Of course, Aerea was still a bit awkward with all of that, once she had just now started to learn sembla, and it take a while before you could dance it with the same skill as Spyro or the apes. However, the gray dragoness was showing that she was truly getting in the hang of things.
She was now starting to get into it, and once you got into it, it became easy. All she needed was Spyro's guidance, his encouragement and the little correction when she made something that could actually be consider a mistake, like moving her limbs in a way that they could cause a sprain.
The two dragons now were dancing together at the sound of the apes' traditional music, moving their bodies at the rhythm of their dance, and they both looked like they were having a lot of fun with this. Spyro would do handstands and mortal backflips, while Aerea would move her body with the grace and dexterity that a wind dragon could have. Sometimes they would be side by side, sometimes they would be moving so close to each other that they snouts would almost touch, looking into each other's eyes as they had a hind-leg and a tail stretched in direction to the sky.
It was all going with the rhythm of the music, which was getting more and more intense.
That was how sembla went. You followed the music and let your body go free. Of course, this meant that, if the music got faster, you would go faster to match it. That was another thing that Spyro instructed Aerea into, and the gray dragoness followed his instructions well.
Maybe a bit too well.
When the music reached its climax, Aerea was so into it that she was barely thinking of what she was doing anymore and, when Spyro jumped to make another mortal, she instinctively tried one as well. Of course, that was when things got complicated, for the two dragons bumped into each other in the air and collapsed into the ground, tangling on each other.
They were a mess of legs and wings as they tried to get back up, only for them to end up one on top of the other, both panting and looking into each other's eyes.
For a moment, the world seemed forgotten. Even the sound of the clapping and cheering of the apes to the end of the music seemed something very far away from them.
For a long moment, they stayed like that, with Aerea on top of Spyro, and the purple dragon was looking up at her as she looked back on his eyes. They both then looked away, both blushing.
"S-sorry." Aerea said, to which Spyro answered:
"I-it's okay. Stumbling around and bumping into others is part of learning how to dance sembla." He spoke, before looking back at her. "Actually, you were doing surprisingly well for a starter. You managed to do some very cool moves before we ended up like this."
"Yeah... well, I had a really good teacher." She said, looking back at Spyro.
"Yeah, and you fell on him while dancing." Spyro said, "And he might be a bit bruised tomorrow, but that's fine. He will try to stand a little farther away during next lesson."
"And I'll try not to go for the hardest things like I did today, teacher." Aerea said back, and the two dragons laughed at this.
They were once more looking into each other's eyes.
In that moment, it was as if everything around them was forgotten, and they only focused on each other.
Spyro had never had so much fun at a celebration before. He really liked the fact that Aerea was there with him. She was really fun and Spyro really liked being around her.
With her around, Spyro felt like he didn't needed to care about all of the apes who rejected him and didn't appreciated him.
He didn't meet many people who could make him feel like the rest of the world didn't mattered. In fact, the only ones that made him feel like that were his father, who always cared about him; and his friend Sparx, who always made him smile and laugh. Guess he could now add Aerea to that list.
He really liked the fact that she was there with him, and he felt like he could forget everything about everyone else.
However, this was not as simple as Spyro would like.
"It is just an absurd, you know?" A familiar voice broke them out of their thoughts. A voice that they preferred not to have to hear in a moment like that.
Kallag was walking nearby. Two other soldiers were with the crimson ape, both smaller than him but bulky and strong-looking nonetheless.
"Gaul is one of the best warriors and strategists that I've ever met, and I'll not deny that his decisions have helped us many times." The crimson ape said to the two other apes, "But sometimes he just cannot make the best decision. He lets his emotions get too much on his way of thinking. Especially when it comes to that little scaly pipsqueak that he calls his son."
The crimson ape sounded like he was ranting, and the two apes listened, as well as the two dragons. Luckily, the apes didn't saw the dragons, once they had tumbled and ended up behind a set of vases. They were hide from their sight, but they could still hear to everything they were saying. The two dragons just remained low, on the same position that they were, as they didn't made a sound and listened to what was being said.
"I mean, accepting a foreign dragoness into the village?" Kallag said, "Someone who could very well be a spy for Malefor's forces, and who could pose a threat to everyone in here? I mean, I can almost understand why keeping the purple dragon, once Gaul has already trained him, but a strange dragoness? And he didn't even considered putting her imprisoned with the other dragons!"
Spyro remained silent as he heard that, although he did wanted to say something.
"Trained him"? What, they thought that Spyro was a pet or some wild beast to be trained?
Aerea also didn't seemed happy that Kallag was still thinking of imprisoning her.
"Yeah, I can hardly believe that as well." One of the other apes said, "And I heard that it was the purple dragon himself who brought that dragoness here. He is actually bringing his kind to the hidden village now."
"Yes, he is." Kallag said; the resentment was clear on his voice. "Of course that sooner or later he would start favoring his own kind, even after Gaul domesticated him. It is like I've been saying for years; we cannot trust someone like him."
Spyro flinched as he heard that. Once more, he could not avoid the sting that came from such words, even when they came from someone like Kallag, who had had absolutely no respect for. The crimson ape sighed, "Well, I guess that all of my warnings fell on deaf ears all this time."
The two other apes agreed with him, and the second ape said:
"Yeah, I don't feel comfortable with that dragoness running loose on the village. I mean, I already feel uncomfortable with these dragons in chains on prison. By the way, what Gaul will do with them?"
Kallag scoffed, "What else? He is going to free them, like he does every time."
The other apes didn't liked to hear that.
"This is too dangerous." One of the apes said, "With so many dragons being freed after being brought here, it is only a matter of time before they start to get a clue of where the village is."
"They probably laugh at us." The other one said, "They laugh at us for letting them live while they would kill our kind without hesitation. Those monsters torture and kill our kind once they are taken prisoners and we don't do anything to them. I don't like this."
"Yeah, me neither." Kallag said, and he paused for a moment, before he turned back to the other apes.
"You know what?" He asked, looking at both with them with a smirk. "What about this time we don't let them go free?"
The two dragons tensed as they heard that, while the two apes looked at the crimson one, who was smiling at them.
"The dragons are currently chained and wearing these collars that suppress their elemental powers." Kallag said to the two, "They are now incapable of defending themselves. With a few more apes and good weapons, it would be like shooting arrows at wingless ducks."
The two shared a look.
"But... wouldn't Gaul be mad if we did this?"
"What? Being mad at us for having no choice but to kill the dragons after they had attempted to escape, and we happened to be close to intercept them as they were trying to escape from the village and go back to the army to reveal our location and put all of us in danger?" Kallag said, and the two apes looked back at him.
"If we all agree in our story, I am sure we can convince Gaul." Kallag said, "I've seen these two who Gaul put to guard the dragons, and they were drinking their butts off. By now, I doubt that they are even conscious. It would be very easy for everyone to assume that they slept on point and let the dragons sneak past them. Maybe we could even convince them to agree with the story, if this would keep them out of trouble for drinking and sleeping on duty."
He looked at the two. "So, you two want to do something about those winged lizards?"
The two apes looked at him, and they both nodded, what made Kallag's smile widen.
"You go and gather a few more soldiers." He said to one of the apes, before turning to the other. "You and I are going to get some weapons, really sharp ones. Dragon hide is thick. We all meet in front of the prison in twenty minutes."
With this, the three apes went their way, all of them ready to go ahead with their business. None of them noticed that, just behind a couple vases, were two young dragons who had horrified expressions with what they had juts heard.