Before I uploaded this chapter to this website, I realized that I have sixty-seven chapters for this story written (aside from the Prologue) and forty-six of them already uploaded. With just the number of words in the previous chapters nearly reaching two hundred thousand words, including prior author's notes. The plot lines of Wings of Fire books 4-13 (as of this chapter's upload date the series is ongoing) will be given a separate story of their own as they won't have any direct involvement from the Dark Master. Including the events of the Legend of Spyro trilogy is injecting the story with such filler between obtaining the final mirror shard and entering the Twilight Realm enough. The last Wings of Fire book where this story interferes with is Hidden Kingdom as the rest would happen between Eternal Night and Dawn of the Dragon.
Now then, on with the story.
Chapter 47: The Storm Rages
The next morning, Link woke to find Cynder curled up beside him, sleeping peacefully. He smiled nervously. Due to what happened the night before, Cynder was likely to fall gravid. Was he ready to be a father? Was Cynder ready to be a mother? What would happen to their children if Ganondorf found out?
Link sighed in stress. If the gods deemed it necessary for them to be parents, then so be it. He got up and walked to a mirror that hung on the wall. He noticed something was different. There was a mark on his neck in the shape of the bird that was emblazoned on his shield.
During his time at Jade Mountain Academy, he learned that when a female elemental chooses a male to have her first clutch of eggs with, both she and the male she chose would gain a mark that symbolized the female's soul. The mark appears in the same location for the two. It was very rare for the mark to appear on the same location for different couples and bear the same symbol for it.
Link sighed in content as he began to polish his shield since it was lying against a nearby wall. Just then, Cynder began tossing and turning.
He began to worry. Ignitus did tell them that the nightmares wouldn't stop immediately. He got up and dashed to Cynder's side as she jolted awake, covered in sweat and a look of worry on her face.
"What's wrong, Cynder?" he asked.
"Nightmare," she replied. "My mother was being attacked by my dark self. I saw her face. It was scarred very badly."
Link nodded in understanding as he frowned. "The scarring of Queen Scarlet's face happened weeks ago, Cynder," he admitted. "However, it didn't happen at the talons of your dark self."
"Who did it, then," Cynder asked.
"Glory," Link replied. "She was actually aiming at Burn, but the SandWing pushed your mother into the path of Glory's RainWing venom. She is currently locked up in Burn's collection of oddities. RainWing venom wasn't a widely known ability. She will try to have Glory murdered in a few months. She'll fail, of course."
Cynder's jaw dropped. "RainWing venom?" she asked. "RainWings don't have poison."
"It isn't used as a weapon all that much," Link stated. "Most of the time, RainWings use the venom as part of a mating ritual to ensure that no inbreeding occurs. If the venom of one RainWing stops the effects of another RainWing, the two dragons are related by blood."
Cynder nodded in understanding. "Aren't we leaving this morning?"
Link nodded. "We are headed to the Summer Palace in the Kingdom of the Sea of the SeaWings," he replied. "I'm heading to the supply room to gather supplies for the journey. The Guardians won't miss a few stacks of salted meat, would they?"
Cynder chuckled at that. "I doubt that they will miss the meat at all, Spyro."
Link left through the door to grab the supplies as Cynder got to her feet. She walked to the door to find Tsunami waiting.
"I'm guessing that you and Spyro are together now?" she asked. "Why aren't drakes fawning over me? I'm the daughter of Queen Coral."
"Maybe the males at the temple aren't fawning over you, Tsunami," Cynder replied. "There might be a drake out there for you."
Tsunami chuckled. "You might be right there, Cynder," she stated. "By the way, Ignitus wants to speak with us before we leave."
Once they ate their breakfast, the dragonets were waiting in the courtyard with Ignitus. Cynder was sitting to Gloy's left. Link was still busy gathering supplies for the journey.
"This is the day the six of you start your journey to end the War of SandWing Succession," he began. "Luna, Spyro, and your previous protectors have prepared you for this. We need all the help we can get in order to win the fight against the Dark Master. If anything concerning him comes up, Luna will contact you through the realm of dreams to return to the temple."
At that moment, Link emerged from the temple, stashing a rather large duffle bag of meat in his near bottomless pouch.
"Having a briefing, Ignitus?" Sparx asked. He was hovering over his brother's shoulder.
"Is everyone ready to go?" Link asked. The dragonets nodded. "Off to the world gate, then."
With a flash of flapping wings, the seven of them were flying toward the swamps.
Sparx kept trying to initiate conversation several times. On the second time, Cynder silenced him.
"Quiet, Sparx," she stated. "Do you hear that?"
Indeed, there was a low rumbling sound. It sounded almost like thunder but it was persistent and Cynder noticed no streaks of lightning prior to that.
She peered around. The sky was obscured with dark clouds but was otherwise normal. Maybe the storm was in the distance.
Then Cynder realized that the clouds were moving too fast. She looked closer and realised that they weren't clouds at all! A sense of dread settled upon her as she realised that she was staring at the largest swarm of Dreadwings she had ever seen in her life.
There were so many of the bat like creatures that the collective beating of their wings was like thunder rolling across the land. Not even the squadrons she had commanded while as Malefor's puppet were this numerous and those had been enough to crush entire armies. What hope then did they, five dragonets, four old dragons, two weakened alicorns, a dragonet stuck in an adult body, a small troop of clones, and a bug have against the unending deluge of black wings, serrated talons with wicked blades that, even now, rushed to engulf them?
Link smirked as the mark on his left paw glowed a bright white. "The gods are with us," Link stated. "Back to the temple!"
They turned around and landed. Link ran up to Ignitus. "Large swarm of dreadwings coming."
The Master Sword slid smoothly out from between an ape's ribs. The armored corpse fell with a heavy clatter to join the other limp carcasses at his feet. He immediately took advantage of the brief reprieve to pounce on the unprotected back of the ape who'd been fighting Cynder, running the ape through.
Link watched as Cynder gazed around the temple's interior wearily. The barrier that protected it fell very quickly. The clones were dispatched to shoot as many dreadwings down as possible, but the apes still got through. Half of the clones lay dead now. Glory was now wearing clone helmet to protect herself when in human form. She hefted a rather large version of what the clones called a blaster with several smaller ones in clips at her waist. It looked like Cynder's strategy was paying off after all.
Cynder's memories as the Terror of the Skies gave her an extensive knowledge of what dreadwing-mounted apes can and can't do. There was no way that they would've been able to fight them out in the open. They would be inevitable surrounded, cut off and overwhelmed.
They needed to funnel them into a bottleneck- any enclosed space where the apes wouldn't be able to come at them at the same time. So Cynder instructed everyone to head deeper into the narrow confines of the temple's corridors.
Since then, they'd been fighting without pause as numerous waves of apes moved upon them. So far, their numbers hadn't proved too overwhelming. The apes had been further disadvantaged as they were forced to dismount. Their dreadwings, while lethally agile in the skies, were rather clumsy on the ground and thus weren't much use in the confines of the halls.
For now the fifth wave of attackers had been successfully repelled and the group could take a breather. The Guardians were holding the other corridors so the apes couldn't come at them from behind.
Link looked over the scores of bodies, discarded blades, and blasters that littered the floor. How many apes had they defeated? How many clones have been lost in exact numbers? How many of either were left? Link was pained by flashes of other clones being massacred on a desert planet. He wanted to believe that they'd dealt the apes a grievous blow- that their numbers were dwindling and that they'd leave. But he remembered how large the swarm had been. The chances of that were nonexistent.
He harnessed the power of the Four Swords to summon three clones of himself just as the heavy tread of boots interrupted his thoughts. Sure enough, Link turned to see Glory pull the trigger on the giant blaster she wielded, letting loose a stream of blue bolts of energy at the squadron of apes that stood in the doorway. They were blasted squarely in the chest and they crumpled as another squad stepped over their bodies.
The giant blaster Glory held smoked as if it was a dragon breathing fire. She dropped it on instinct. "It got too hot," she admitted as she picked up an ape sword. The three of them crouched low as the apes charged forward.
They dodged a few clumsy strikes from the apes' longswords before retaliating with their weapons and claws. There lay another problem for the attackers. They were an air cavalry unit by the looks of things and they were all armed with long cavalry swords. The weapons were perfect when used from atop a speeding dreadwing or a horse-their heft affording them reach and striking power-but to an infantryman, they were too long and cumbersome to be used effectively. These apes weren't used to fighting while dismounted and their heavy, unwieldy weapons weren't exactly helping matters either.
Cynder tumbled away from a desperate stab and cut the legs of the offending soldier right from under him. Several more apes closed in, flailing wildly with their swords and keeping her back. She snapped at them and growled, looking for an opening.
"Careful!" a gruff voice growled. "The Assassin wants her alive, you idiots! Get a scratch on her and he'll cut you to mincemeat himself!"
"You cherish your ability to think for yourselves, right?" Link criticized the apes. "Malefor took that away from Cynder for two years! She was nothing more than a walking weapon, not a person to him! Would she willingly go back to him after she had recently got it back?!"
The apes hesitated. "Why does that concern you, Hero?" an ape asked as he swung his weapon at Link, which he blocked with his shield as he charged a Skyward Strike.
"Because I am Hyrule's Hero," he replied. "Cynder is of Hyrule's nationality, making her under my protection! She is also Hylia reborn and my betrothed!"
Cynder spotted a gap in the apes' defences and lunged, tearing an ape's windpipe out with her claws. A well-timed stab with her tail pierced another's armor and left him with severe internal bleeding and a punctured lung. Two more closed in on her as one of Link's doubles backflipped over them and spun on the spot with his blade. Cynder vaulted over the apes at the same moment. Twisting as she landed, her tailblade swept their feet from under them as the double's spin decapitated several of them. She finished them off with two quick swipes with her claws.
Link was still engaged with two other apes on the far side of the corridor. He looked up and saw Cynder. "Run, Cynder!" he called. "Take the others and run for the Summer Palace! I'll meet up with you! Queen Coral needs to know that her daughter is alive!"
Cynder nodded in understanding. She gestured to Glory to follow her and the dragonet assumed her RainWing form and followed. The other dragonets heard Link's yell and noticed Cynder charging for one of the balconies. They caught up with Cynder as she leapt skyward.
They soared straight through the gates and right past the startled apes on the other side of it. They beat their wings to gain speed and altitude, rising high above the masses of apes. Cynder paused momentarily so that all the gathered apes could see her clearly.
"Cynder!" the Assassin's voice rang out above the rest of the din. He pushed through the throng of ape soldiers to the fore, his eyes filled with genuine relief and concern.
"Come on, Cynder!" he called, his voice as sincere as the care in his eyes, his arm outstretched and imploring. "We're getting you out of here! Come with us, Cynder."
Cynder shook her head as Glory turned to face the Assassin. "You must be the Assassin," she stated. "Cynder looked up to you as a father. But you let Malefor take her free will away! That is unacceptable! Unforgivable! Death would have been more merciful than being forced to do terrible things without control over them!"
"That's quite enough, Glory," Cydner stated. She looked at the Assassin, the ape that saved her from death at Burn's talons. "It's been good to see you again," she said in a choked whisper. "Goodbye, Father."
She turned and flew off, Glory and the dragonets following behind her. Tears were streaming down her face.