Chapter 33: The Dragon Temple

Link, Sparx, Luna, Clay, Glory, Tsunami, Sunny, Flame, and Starflight spent the rest of the day and the next night with Ignitus. They neither saw or heard anything more of Cynder, a fact that both pleased and worried them.

Link and Luna continued training the dragonets in combat with human weapons. Ignitus tried to argue that the dragonets were too young to use weapons.

"Tell that to my great grandfather," Link argued. "He was only nine years old when the fate of Hyrule rested on his shoulders. He lost seven years of his life being in a temporal slumber. These dragonets had this life thrust upon them before they hatched from their eggs. They were stolen from their homes to fulfill a prophecy about ending a war. And with Clay being a child of Hephaestus, the god of the forge, monsters from Tartarus will come for him."

Ignitus nodded in understanding. "You are doing your best to look out for them," he stated before he sat and watched the dragonets spar.

When morning came, Ignitus and Link woke the others early and told them it was time to leave.

"You can sleep properly when we get to the temple," Ignitus stated in response to Sparx's complaints. "Right now, we need to get moving."

Once the dragonets and Flame had woken properly, Ignitus led them out of another entrance to the cave. It was carved into the side of a ridge. There was a heavy canopy over the area, which explained Cynder's inability to find them. Ignitus lead them down a narrow forest path. It wasn't as gloomy as the marshlands, but was still very shadowy.

"So how far exactly is this Dragon Temple of yours?" Sparx asked. Ignitus shook his head before answering.

"Several miles north," he answered. "Please try to contain your complaints, Sparx."

The dragonets and Flame tried not to laugh. They kept moving through the lightening forest. They past a world gate that most likely lead to the Lost Woods in Hyrule due to the Kokiri symbols decorating the gate. Soon, a green tinge hung in the air as the sunlight shown through the leafy canopy overhead. There was no sign of any apes.

"It should be close now," Ignitus stated. They pushed apart a thick wall of leaves and found themselves standing next to a plain on the edge of a cliff. Between them and the cliff stood a magnificent marble structure. It was four stories tall with decorative columns shaped like dragons supporting the many balconies and roofs. Directly in front of them was a giant wooden door guarded by two stone dragon sentinels. On one side was a perfectly round room with a small door on the side. The building was infested with ivy and vines, implying that it hadn't been inhabited for many years.

"Welcome to the Dragon Temple," Ignitus stated. "What do you think?"

"It's amazing!" Clay exclaimed in awe. "Was this your home?"

"Yes," Ignitus stated. "There were several more fortresses like this located across the world. Even in Hyrule, the fortress used by the SandWings was built based off of the design of this very temple. The other fortresses have been destroyed, however. But when they stood, they all served as homes for dragons. They were all abandoned when Cynder entered the war.

"Rumor has it that Eon has recently reconstructed one of them for the purpose of training future Skylanders. With there being so few dragons now, we need all the help we can get."

"Why is this one still here, if all the others were destroyed," Glory asked.

"It takes an extraordinary amount of dark energy to destroy this temple," Ignitus stated. "An amount Cynder can't possibly hope to muster. Now, come. We can't stay in the open too long."

They all approached the front door. Soon, the door statues were towering above them.

"How will we defend against Cynder if she decides to come swooping, then?" Sparx asked.

"With the Master Sword, of course," Link joked, but stopped at the look in Ignitus' eye. "But it's a last resort. I believe Ignitus might be showing the temple's security."

Ignitus smiled. "You are correct there, Spyro," he stated. "The temple will be protected with this." As he spoke, a space in the floor opened and a pedestal rose from the floor. On top of it was a blue crystal.

"This is a spirit gem," Ignitus explained. "This particular one fuels an enchantment around the temple. Once it is active, no one without an innocent soul may enter the temple. Though, Cynder in particular might be a special case due to the divine nature of her soul."

"What exactly are spirit gems," Starflight asked.

"Gifts," Ignitus replied, "from Demeter herself. The blue ones improve your knowledge and capacity to learn, the red can heal your wounds and restore mental health, and the green are the source of our elemental power. If we enter a world without green gems, we, elemental dragons, wouldn't keep our powers for long."

Luna stepped forward. "I'm sorry to interrupt Spyro's introduction to being an elemental dragon," she said, "but my son is more than that. He is actually an alicorn, meaning that his elemental abilities will be tied into his alicorn magic, disregarding his need to utilize green spirit gems entirely."

Ignitus and Flame whirled on Link and their jaws dropped.

"An alicorn?!" Ignitus exclaimed. "That's-"

"Does that mean that he has more potential than you thought prior, father?" Flame asked.

"Indeed, I believe so, my son," the Guardian of fire replied. "My hopes of his plan working have increased." He smiled contentedly. "The elemental training won't start yet. First, come inside and explore your new home."

The doors opened and Link walked in with the dragonets following him. Before following them in, Ignitus waved a claw over the gem, which glowed brightly before sinking back into the ground.

"There," he said as he came in, "we're safe."

The dragonets and Link didn't say anything. They were staring, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, at the interior of the temple. Directly in front of them was a huge, golden double door. To both sides of the door, there was a grand staircase. There was a golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling, adorned with torches in the brackets instead of candles. There were hallways stretching further than they could see the ends. Joined to the hallways were hundreds of doors, leading to rooms the dragonets could only begin to guess."

"Welcome home," Ignitus stated. "That is if you choose to stay, of course."

"Definitely!" the dragonets exclaimed looking around in awe.

Link, however, could sense Midna's disbelief at the beauty of the temple. We'll talk later, Midna, he thought. "I'm willing to stay," Link stated. "But when I need to leave, I have to leave."

Luna nodded. "The fabric of the flow of time is very delicate," she stated. "There will be a time that he would have to go back to when he came from."

"Excellent," Ignitus stated. "Then, please allow me to show you around." He turned to Flame. "You can wait in the training arena if you wish, Flame."

Ignitus lead Link, the dragonets, and Luna up the left staircase, which lead to another hallway lined with doors.

"This is the dormitory area," he explained. "The room on the end is an emergency healing room, the next is the Guardian's quarters, and all the others are rooms for dragon trainees. Flame will be sleeping in the third room down. Spyro, the fourth one. Clay, the sixth. Glory, the seventh. Tsunami, the eighth. Starflight, the ninth. And Sunny, the tenth.

Glory gave Ignitus a suspicious look. "You are leaving the fifth room down for Cynder, aren't you?" she asked. "In case the plan goes in the direction of freeing her from the Dark Master's control?"

Ignitus smiled. "I might be," he admitted. "Now, let us move on. Flame is waiting for us."

Link, Luna, and the dragonets nodded in understanding. Ignitus led them back downstairs and went through the golden doors in the center. It led to a perfectly round room, with three more doors leading off, and a round pool of a murky green liquid in the middle. Ignitus crossed the room and went through the door opposite them. It opened into a flat courtyard in the middle of the temple. They could see Flame doing target practice.

"This is where you will be trained," Ignitus stated. "So, give me your best shot, Spyro."

"But he hasn't been trained yet," Sunny stated.

"I'm guessing that Ignitus is trying to have the primal knowledge within me awakened by me finding it myself," Link reasoned. "Am I right to say that, Ignitus?"

Ignitus smiled. "You are correct, Spyro," he stated. "Have a go."

Link looked back at the targets, concentrated, took a deep breath, and blew himself off his feet and backwards into a wall with a small explosion of fire, flooding the ground with smoke in the process.

"Well," Ignitus stated, "there is certainly room for improvement."

Link tried again, thinking of the words of his ancestor's ghost. When I falter, stand back up, he told himself. Sadly, he only managed to hit the middle target.

"There you are," Ignitus stated. "But you need to learn to do it properly, if you are to master the art of Fury."

"Do you mean by that flaming punch he hit me with at the SkyWing arena?" Tsunami asked.

"A flaming punch!?" Ignitus asked. "That's very interesting. No elemental dragon was able to do that. Not even the Dark Master was able to do an attack like that. But, no. Fury power is gained through the use of magical energy. It builds up until the point it can come out in the form of a devastating attack. It takes a while to charge, though, so use it wisely."

"Noted," Link replied.

"Now then," Ignitus stated as Flame and the dragonets left the courtyard. "Onto the next lesson.

"Dragons, as well as having elemental abilities, are very adept at melee combat. Your legs, wings, and tail can be lethal weapons, if used correctly."

"He's already mastered that," Sparx exclaimed. "You should have seen him brawl with a darknut in the Temple of Light."

"We'll soon see, won't we?" Ignitus stated. Suddenly, a group of stuffed ape dummies appeared and began to move, charging at Link, wooden weapons aloft. Link charged forward and hurled two of them into the air before tripping some of them with his tail.

"Very good," Ignitus congratulated. "But you will need to learn to use attacks in harmony with each other, combining them to form new, complex ones."

Link thought for a moment before mass shifting to the size of a SkyWing and smashing his tail down upon the dummies. That was immediately followed by him shrinking back down.

"Jump and flip in the air," Ignitus stated. Link did so as another ape dummy approached him. As he flipped, his tail uppercutted the ape in the jaw, knocking its head off and making straw and hay fly everywhere.

"It is always best advised to keep a large arsenal of attacks," Ignitus stated. "The more you have, the less predictable you are."

"I'll experiment with this form's capabilities, then," Link stated.

"That air attack looked awesome!" Sparx exclaimed.

"Yes, it did," Ignitus stated. "And the higher you go, the more devastating your attacks can be."

Link nodded in understanding.

Later that night, Link walked onto the balcony attached to his room in human form to stargaze. He lay the cloak he received from Zelda on the bannister and stroked the cloth.

"Your sacrifice won't be in vein, princess," he muttered. "We are one step closer to completing the Mirror of Twilight. Our home will be free of Zant's tyranny."

Little did he know, Ignitus had heard him from his own balcony.

"Heartache tears at you, doesn't it, Spyro?" he asked.

Link nodded. "Throughout my travels, I saw families torn apart, ways of life threatened, and sacred places corrupted by evil. My resolve has been tested numerous times. One time, I nearly lost my sense of self due to a curse placed on me by a servant of the King of Evil."

Ignitus nodded. "This servant must be this Zant character, you mentioned earlier, correct?"

Link only nodded.

Every night, Link would tell the others about his plight against Zant. It took him two weeks to tell Ignitus of Midna's existence and telling them that she taught him some twilight magic.

Not only that, but Link became a master of draconic combat, and had learned everything that Ignitus could teach him about fire manipulation. But only once he mastered fire, that Luna began to instruct him on the art of magic and weather manipulation.

"You are coming along rather quickly, Spyro," Ignitus complimented. "We might have a chance at freeing Cynder from the Dark Master's grip."

Far away from them, in a black fortress beneath a stormy sky, Cynder was sitting alone in her throne room, thinking about the words Link said when they first met.

"Who is the Goddess' reincarnation?" she mumbled to herself. The door opened.

"My lady," said a voice. "We have found the crystals, and they're genuine. Where shall we send them?"

"Excellent," she replied. "Have them sent to the forts at the Tundra, Tall Plains, and the Forge. I will be along to each to make sure they're used properly."

"As you wish," the ape stated, starting to close the door behind him.

"Wait," Cynder stated.

The ape opened the door once more. "What is it my lady?" he asked.

She told him what Link told her back in the swamp. "We don't have a prisoner that claims to be Hylia's reincarnation, if I am correct," she finished.

"We barely know anything about him," the ape replied. "All we know is that he has the Master Sword and is a purple dragon. He might be a liar."

Cynder thought his words over. "You might be right there," she replied. "However, there is something about his claim that has some level of truth to it. Even though it is highly outlandish, what he said is of the most importance. We must discover who Hylia's reincarnation is."

"Is that all, my lady?" the ape asked.

"That is all," Cynder stated. "You may go." The ape nodded in understanding before leaving.