Chapter 4: Peer Pressure

Twelve years later….

The mid-day sunlight shone down through the glass ceiling of the temple dojo, the colossal statue that was its centerpiece rested easy as silence prevailed in the empty room. To those not in the know; the presence of this monument seemed incongruous to the purpose of the room; that being to train dragons in elemental mastery. The space left around it seemed inadequate for those who did not know the dojo's secrets. The eyes of the statue may have looked down as the silence of the room was broken by the sound of the door to the temple's interior sliding open. The eyes might then have looked down at the two separate pairs of youthful eyes that peeked cautiously into the dojo, one pair slightly ahead of the other. The green emerald spheres glanced up at the statue as a wry smile lit up the black scaled face that wore it.

The smile curved the edges of the small beak like snout that complimented the rounded, triangular shape of the young female's head. Contrasting against her black scales were her ruby red underbelly and wings with two short, rounded white horns angled rearward from the top of her head. Another pair of shorter white horns grew from the bottom of her cheek bones and a second pair grew just above them from the side of her head. Along the back of her neck was a tripled finned serrated spine that resembled like those of a porcupine while her tail was armed with a scythe like blade at its end.

Prominently featured on her face were very distinctive markings that slightly protruded from her head and resembled armored plates, the top of her head having a semi circled shaped marking with two triangle shaped pieces below loosely making up a full circle. In the center of her forehead between her eyes was a small diamond shaped marking completing the set. Below her emerald eyes were three staggered white lines that curved in a rough banana shape along the bottom curve of each socket. To a casual observer they appeared painted but were in fact hardened scales like those on her forehead.

"Come on, the coast is clear!" said the black dragoness excitedly as the amethyst eyes of her purple scaled companion glimmered with a hint of guilt. The young dragoness took a playful leap forward as the young dragon followed, albeit more tepidly.

"I don't know, Cynder. We're not even supposed to be in here on our own," he said anxiously.

"Relax, Spyro, it'll be fun!" replied the black dragoness cheerfully, "Besides, you want to impress everyone during the final trial, right?"

"Sure, I guess," he said with only mild confidence. Spyro turned his large squarish head around and looked over his shoulder as the door closed behind them automatically. His overall body shape compared to Cynder's more slender form was bulkier but not flabby. His snout was short and slightly pudgy with two nostrils perched on top of each end. His broad mouth was slightly wider than the rest of his head, his bottom lip coming in short of the beginning of his snout. His rounded jaw gave him the expression of an almost permanent smile. Growing out from his head were two golden horns which angled back from his head before the tips of them turned upwards. Cresting the center of his head were two bony, fin like ridges with golden leading edges and light red centers with several smaller spines running the length of his neck and back. Alongside them was a column of purple spots that stood out from his scales along his back. Matching his horns was a golden cone shaped spike on the tip of his tail. His rich purple scales denoted him as being quite unlike any other dragon, his golden underbelly and horns matched each other like the colors of a royal gown. His wings were an orange yellow with light red membrane, similar to the fins on his head and back.

The pair stepped up towards the statue that towered over them, looking up at its inanimate yet somehow still judging eyes. Spyro's wide eyes seemed almost afraid as they regarded the statue as if it were one of the guardians that he fully expected to march into the room behind them any moment, even though he knew perfectly well that they were in Warfang on business. Cynder by contrast seemed not to show any such concerns even if the Guardians had been nearby. It had been her idea for them to enter the dojo without supervision from their temporary caretaker, Hunter, a cheetah warrior from the Prowless tribe in Avalar. She and Spyro had last seen him meditating in the temple's sleeping quarters and she had boldly suggested they take advantage to have the dojo all to themselves. Upon the suggestion Spyro had not even a chance to answer before she took off running and he had haplessly followed along, knowing full well it was against the rules. But he had confided in his friend that he was nervous about the upcoming trial and how he would perform. Being able to use all four elements more often seemed a curse rather than a blessing as to his mind all it meant was that four times the pressure was resting on his shoulders.

Suddenly as if awakening, the statue began to rumble loudly. The stone dragon's body turned away to the left as the entire statue began to descend, turning clockwise as it began to lower into the ground beneath the temple. The two young dragons watched as the stone behemoth slowly descended below the floor, its eyes passing over them one last time as it finally disappeared from view. Immediately after several large triangular stone shards grew out from the edges of the circle and covered over the floor as if the statue had never been there. Luckily for the two young dragons, a magical ward was placed over the dojo so that any sounds from within were inhibited so as not to disrupt the rest of the temple. Cynder stepped forward as the floor closed over, walking just inside the outer rim of the large circle. She turned to face Spyro who remained standing where she had been.

"Okay, ready to get started?" she asked.

"Ready when you are," he said reservedly.

"Alright, well you know how this works; step into the middle," she invited warmly. Spyro smiled hopefully as he stepped into the circle and walked over towards the middle. In the centre was a circle around his own size with a bold outline. Spaced a few meters out and surrounding him was a ring of similarly sized circles, twelve in total. Four of the circles, the one directly to his front, rear and sides, matched the size of the circle in which he stood, standing out like the points of a compass. In the outer most ring where Cynder stood the floor was decorated with the symbol of Aether, at a glance looking like an inverted number '9' or letter 'G' locking into each other.

Cynder would be acting as the instructor and as such could tap into the magical properties that lived in the very stone that made up the dojo. With just the power of thought it was possible to conjure the likeness of almost anything the instructor wished, such as lifelike dummies of Ape soldiers or dangerous wildlife that might be encountered in the reams. It was these facts that gave Spyro pause for thought;

"You sure you know what you are doing?" he asked her anxiously.

"It can't be that hard," she replied lightly, "Just stand outside the circle and whatever you think of appears inside the circle."

"Yeah, well, don't go conjuring Malefor himself in front of me!" he chuckled grimly.

"Relax, we'll start with a warmup," Cynder said reassuringly. She took a step back and adjusted her stance, closing her eyes as she focused her mind to the task at hand. Barely a moment later, a magical glow suddenly appeared above the circle ahead of Spyro, a green shimmering light that spun, flashed and contorted, giving off a light electric crackle as the light morphed and took shape. In a few short moments this spectacular lightshow and wondrous display of engineered magic produced a crude straw dummy, made in the likeness of a common Ape soldier. An amalgamation of straw, sticks, cloth, rope and a sheet of tree bark on which was painted the rough likeness of a face. The dummy stood still; its body tied to a wooden frame like a scarecrow. Spyro looked across at Cynder as she smiled triumphantly at her successful conjuring.

"Alright, that's an ape, you are a dragon, figure it out," she said humorously. Spyro let out a short laugh as he turned his attention to the dummy. The crude caricature looked more comedic than intimidating, but he knew it was vital he hone his skills against these dummies for when the day came he fought against the real enemy. Though there had been no active war between the Dragons and Apes for twelve years, the Fire Guardian Ignitus had always stressed to them that they never let up their preparedness. Spyro felt especially obliged to do proud by the Fire Guardian.

He lowered himself, spacing his paws out as his tail straightened out. He breathed deeply and his thoughts turned to fire, heat, flames, ashes and glowing sparks. He conjured images of Boyzitbig, the cantankerous volcano that dominated Forge Island where the dragon and mole armies sourced the metals to produce their weapons. He focused all that mental imagery into the mana that ran through his body, opening his mouth and forthwith came a sputtering, flameless black cloud of smoke. Spyro felt his heart drop below the floor.

"Keep trying!" Cynder called confidently. Gritting his teeth, the purple dragon scowled at the dummy and the black puff as it faded into nothing. Was that the best he could do? He knew he could do better. He knew he would. He opened his mouth again, this time a black puff with some dancing sparks came fourth. An improvement, technically. He growled at the dummy, staring vehemently into the cheap buttons that were its eyes. He couldn't help imagining that it was laughing at him.

'Come on!' he said mentally, 'What if it was real? Are you going to stutter then too?' The thought of real life combat cut deeply into his mind. His habit of being unable to muster the power of his mana had been a sporadic problem. It was like trying to control a sneeze, one that came and went like the seasons. He could not afford to let it happen in the trial.

"Come on, Spyro!" Cynder cried supportively. A thought then brushed through Spyro's mind like a springtime breeze…

'What if Cynder,Flame and Ember were counting on you?'

Before the question had even finished passing, a bright orange cloud of fire erupted from his maw, nearly startling him as the flames clung to the dummy, turning it into a pile of ash with unnerving ease. Spyro's eyes bulged with accomplishment.

"Woah, I did it!" he cried, though his inner cynic reminded it was the easiest warmup technique that there was. Not the greatest possible achievement of the purple dragon of legend.

"See?" Cynder smiled as she entered into the right side of the ring, "Now you've broken the ice. Just wish we knew what it was giving you the chokes."

"Nerves, I guess," he replied shortly, "I think about all the things Ignitus talks about. All the things everyone expects of me. It's like the whole world it balancing on my shoulders."

"Well let's deal with them one at a time," Cynder said stoutly. She turned about and returned to the outer ring of the dojo. Bursting with confidence, Spyro opened his mouth and cast a wide sheet of fire in front of him, toying with his awakened ability. He didn't see Cynder's humorous expression as he flaunted his prowess, well aware that outside the dojo he would have already exhausted himself whereas the dojo's magic ensured a dragon could never exhaust his manna while in training.

"Careful, Spyro, you've got four other flavors to choose from," she reminded him prudently.

"Then how about we turn things up a level?" Spyro suggested cockily. The black dragoness raised a roughish eyebrow as he bounced with enthusiasm.

"Alright then, lets try a little multitasking. Ready?" "Ready!" "Okay… three on one!"

Across the three circles in front of him, three shimmering flashes danced and took the form of three more Ape dummies. But these did not hang like scarecrows but stood on their own straw feet. Suddenly the heads of the dummies lifted and eyed the purple dragon before them; the branches that were there arms lifted and the sticks that made up their fingers opened menacingly. The dummies bodies heaved as if they were breathing, one began beating its chest and another settled on its tree branch knuckles as if it were roaring, though it had no mouth to make a sound. The dummies had no consciousness or sense of their own; their behavior being simply magically engineered to mimic real life intelligence. Spyro fanned his wings out in response, still wearing his cocky smile. The three dummies began to charge, their advance stopped short as a glistening stream of gold lightning shot from Spyro's mouth, forking out like a devil's tail and latching onto the dummies. The powerful voltage lifted the dummies off their feet as Spyro held the stream for a few seconds before cutting it off, the smouldering dummies crumbling and vanishing into another flash of green.

"Too easy!" he bragged.

"How about a change of direction?" Cynder smirked deviously. Another trio of dummies appeared, this time behind Spyro. He turned his head in time to see them charging, spinning himself to face them as they converged. He leapt into the air, spinning as he did, his tail clouting across the face of the first dummy, causing it to stagger. He thrust himself back with his wings before coming back down, narrowly missing the grip of the other two dummies. The pair charged him again, the third bringing up the rear. Spyro opened his mouth and unleashed a white, wailing mist in the likeness of snow in a blizzard that enshrouded the two lead dummies, freezing them almost at once in their running stance. The third dummy came mindlessly leaping over the other two at him, Spyro casting a quick burst of ice over it. The dummy turned into a virtual snowball mid air and hit the ground rolling, arms and legs sticking out humorously as Spyro merely sidestepped out of the way and watched the frozen ball roll over and bounce against the dojo wall, leaving a wet trail of icy snow behind.

"Ice seeing you!" Spyro laughed even as part of him died on the inside at the horrendous pun. Cynder resisted the urge to comment on it as much as she abhorred his fatuous humour.

"Well, I'm sure Cyril would have a decade's worth of critiques to give you," she remarked resignedly, "But you were fast and thought on your feet," she complimented.

"Thanks," Spyro nodded as he turned and walked back towards the centre, "Guess that's three out of four."

"Hard to keep track?" Cynder asked teasingly.

"Oh, its hard," he nodded gravely as he stood back in the middle, "You've got to think about everything you can do; what breath to use and when, how to keep your mind straight on what power you are going to use. It's not like that for anyone else. They've just got one breath to think about, life's so much simpler .You don't know how lucky you are to be just a Wind dragon," he replied casually. There was a deliberate pause in her response that did not go unnoticed by the young purple dragon. He turned his head to her and she on reflex avoided his gaze.

"Yeah, lucky, just a Wind dragon…" she said dimly. At once Spyro's heart softened as he turned and took a step nearer to the black dragoness.

"Cynder, I'm sorry," he appealed humbly as he walked over to her, "I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I just meant to say…."

"It's alright, I'm fine," she replied sternly, Spyro's pupils grew as large as the Celestial Moons. She levelled her gaze at them, seeing the emotion pouring out of them. She sighed lightly and shook her head, "I know I shouldn't listen to those elitist jerks, but there is so many of them and so few like me."

"Never mind what they say," Spyro said warmly, "They don't know anything. Why, all they've got is hot air! Not like you at all." Cynder tilted her head in a bewildered manner,

"What do you mean, 'Not like me?'"

"Hot air. You know, Wind, hot air," he grinned playfully, "Just drawing a line between them."

"Oh, you and your terrible jokes!" Cynder scowled while breaking into a smile. Spyro laughed as she began to step towards him menacingly to which he began stepping back into the ring.

"Hey now, what would the Guardians say if you hurt the Legendary purple dragon?" he chuckled.

"If I beat you, no one would tease me for being a Wind dragon again!" she retorted with feigned aggression as they both entered the centre ring. Spyro mimicked her stance as she took up a fighting posture.

"Hey, cut it out!" he chuckled, leaping to the side as she made a biting lunge for his tail.

"How about a little sparring?" she asked mischievously.

"Sparring? We've barely even started training!" he replied incredulously.

"There are no warmups in combat," she said pointedly, her front paws scratching at the dojo floor like a bull ready to charge. Spyro grinned confidently, flexing his claws eagerly though he had no desire to put them to use. As if in tandem, both took a galloping step and lunged at each other, Spyro's greater mass tipping the scales as Cynder was pushed over. Hitting the floor, they tumbled over each other, each hoping momentum would be on their side as they rolled over the other. Momentum was on Spyro's side as he pinned Cynder down, grinning triumphantly. A devious glint in her eyes foreshadowed the sudden gust of wind that rushed into his eyes from her maw, causing him to squint as she lurched forward, unsettling the victor as she threw him over on his back.

"Hey!" he protested at her use of elements. His hind legs vengefully narrowed to her stomach and in one swift thrust with the balls of his feet, he sent the startled dragoness somersaulting overhead, nearly leaving her eyeballs behind in the process. She landed over in a heap on her back, a disgruntled yelp escaping her mouth as she and Spyro both rolled over back onto their feet.

"You cheated!" he frowned.

"Guess my breath is stronger than I thought," she retorted mockingly. Without a hitch Spyro began strafing and pouncing from left to right, a pattern closely mirrored by the black dragoness. He made faux leaps and retreats to try and unsettle her as both dragons gave a wide berth to each other. Her subtle use of her element had riled the young dragon as he pondered how best to pay her back. Of course, he had no desire to harm her as he contemplated how best to achieve this. Fire and electricity were too dangerous, perhaps a blistering jet of Ice over her legs to freeze her to the ground? Certainly not, if not so much for how irresponsible it was but how he feared she might get back at him afterwards. His eyelids lowered as another idea came to mind that fashioned a sly grin on his face. He continued to sidestep and pounce deceptively, Cynder's expression becoming increasingly annoyed. As she pounced, he leapt to the side out of the way and then again as she tried to catch him off-guard. Spyro gave a teasing laugh as he rapidly stamped his feet on the ground as if he were dancing , flaunting his quick footedness.

"You're dancing skills certainly aren't legendary," said Cynder sorely. Spyro only laughed as he shuffled his feet even faster. He moved to the left and then to the right. Suddenly his stance became unbalanced as at last his feet moved too quickly for him. He exclaimed as his right foreleg caved in, causing him to tumble and collapse on his right side. Cynder beamed with glee at his arrogance and at once took off in a gallop towards him, shouting a battle cry as though she were at the head of a charge. Spyro seemed to have difficulty regaining his footing as she closed the distance, a fact not unnoticed by the dragoness as his fearful expression suddenly turned to one of accomplishment. He suddenly rolled onto his back and lifted his tail up between his legs, its yellow tip slamming hard down onto the dojo floor. Instantly the ground shook as a low green wave of energy flashed across the room, passing straight through Cynder harmlessly. As the strange tingling sensation touched her feet, the ground directly under them turned against her, the rocky floor breaking into several narrow chunks that shot up and rippled under her body like a rising volcano, the shock of which was enough to cause her heart to freeze for a blink.

The ground under her hindlegs rose steadily before bowling her over back end first, her fall suddenly broken as an unfamiliar softness cradled her lower back mid fall. Cynder was wide eyed and stunned like a bird as the miraculous bed of flowers that stretched out from the stone floor carefully, tenderly lowered themselves with her to the floor, the flowers shrivelling away back into the cracks in the ground. She remained still, confused and possibly frightened by the very earth seemingly turning on her.

The sound of Spyro's feet awakened her from the trance but it was too late for her as he suddenly pounced into view, leaping on top and pinning her down like he had done at the start of the scuffle. His triumphant glow looked down on her startled paralysis.

"That makes four out of four!" he boasted, quivering with excitement. He looked into Cynder's near lifeless eyes as they stared blindly back, her mouth slightly ajar. His excitement began to turn to worry.

"You don't say?" she suddenly asked. He watched her blink and then suddenly felt something coil around his tail. Thinking it a snake, her looked over his shoulder to see the form of Cynder's black tail wrapping itself around his.

"Wha…?" he stuttered as her paws suddenly grasped his head and forced him back to her now sly expression. His heart froze cold like an iceberg as she mercilessly, villainously, dragged her moist tongue across his snout. He recoiled at once, yelling and scurrying backwards against the dojo wall, desperately rubbing his paws over his face and snout as though poison had been rubbed on them.

"Argh! Yuck! Gross!" he cried, "That's cheating! Double crossing! Underhanded! Revolting!" he carried on as Cynder only stood up and laughed. Her laugh was cut short as another voice entered the room.

"I see some of Volteer's vocabulary has rubbed off on you," it said. Spyro and Cynder's eyes bulged as the voice regarded them judgingly. Spyro looked to the right towards the door to the interior just to his right to see standing just inside the dojo was a tall anthropomorphic Cheetah dressed in a maroon tunic with golden trim. Standing behind him on each side peered two young dragons, one male with crimson red scales to the cheetah's left and to his right a young dragoness with bright pink scales. But the attention of the two rule breakers was locked firmly on the jade, feline eyes that scowled at them firmly.

"Hi, Hunter," Spyro and Cynder said nervously.

"Hi, guys," said Flame weakly. Ember's jaw was open in abject horror at witnessing Spyro's ordeal.

"What have you done to him?!" she squealed. Hunter said nothing at all, which was far more frightening to them than anything in the world right then. With swift feet, Spyro and Cynder both ran and sat obediently before Hunter, both dragons sitting rigidly still with only their eyes daring to move, if only to look up at the piercing eyes of the Cheetah. His long snake like tail rocked steadily from side to side under his cloak, swinging deliberately as if it too was judging them or perhaps overseeing their companions standing nearby. Hunter's red woven arm braces were crossed over his chest as he stared down at them, his feet and shins also wearing similar red sheaths. A wooden longbow was worn across his body with the string across his chest and a cluster of arrows on his back. Spyro swallowed hard as he closed his eyes to escape the judging gaze for a few relieving moments, opening them again to find his eyes latching onto the medallion that was tied to the left side of the Cheetah's chest close to the shoulder. He corrected his gaze as he felt his teeth clamping hard against each other. Unknown to him Cynder was doing the same.

To Hunter's left, Flamaeus the red dragon, though universally known simply as "Flame", peeked nervously up towards the stern face of the Cheetah warrior. The young red dragon bore a strong resemblance to the purple dragon across from him, apart from his crimson scales and yellow wings, horns and underbelly. But he had his own unique traits, apart from being infinitely more anxious and cautious than Spyro. His head was slightly longer as was his snout which was more rounded in shape than square. His horns followed the same basic shape as Spyro's but the crest atop his head was taller and comprised of a single yellow fin with five pointed edges along its length rather than separate, individual spines. Along his back was a row of spines similar to Spyro's though his tail spike took more of the shape of an arrowhead. The red dragon's name and appearance was almost stereotypically representative of a fire dragon of which of course he was.

Opposite to Flame with an expression not unlike that of Hunter was Ember, her name not short for anything else. But uniquely for her it did not denote her breath ability, for Ember was in fact an Ice dragoness. Her rose-pink scales gave no hint of this though they shone brighter than those of any of her companions, her underbelly a faded yellow colour close to white. Her name, like all of their names, had been chosen by the Guardians after they were born. She had been the last of the four to be named as her unusual colouring, believed to be the result of generations of intermarrying between dragons of different elements, had made her element hard to decipher. While it was not unheard of for a Fire dragon to be born blue or an Ice dragon red, her name was prematurely given based on what seemed the most probable outcome. It was quite a surprise when this dragoness named after the genesis of fire sneezed a sheet of blue ice in the first few months of her life.

Her angelic, aqua blue eyes were the one suitable characteristic of her abilities as they shone with an uncommon rage as her heart shaped tail spike swayed furiously. Her physique was not as angular as that of Cynder's but still lacked the weight of her male companions. Her head was smaller and shaped similarly to Flames's but with a smoother, less boxy shape, her snout more rounded but not as small as that of Cynder. The horns atop her head were golden and angled back away from her while she wore a low purple crest atop her head with three prominent spines on its length. Her back between her pink wings was smooth until the beginning of her tail where another low crest grew out with four spiked fins, smoothing out before the tip of her tail. It swung stiffly from side to side as furious indignation coursed through the pink dragoness, but Spyro payed little heed to this as the possible consequences of that indignation were far less reaching than that of Hunter, who was the ultimate authority in the absence of the Guardians. His arms finally uncrossed themselves as he moved his hands down to his hips.

"I take my eyes off of you to conduct my meditation, trusting that you won't cause any trouble in the meantime and what do I discover? Two of my charges conducting training exercises with enchanted dummies without supervision!"

"We're sorry, Hunter," said Spyro and Cynder together.

"And so you should be!" cut in Ember fiercely to the surprise of Hunter, "Putting Spyro in danger like that! He's too important to have an amateur trying to play master in the dojo!"

"Thank you, Ember…" Hunter said dismissively.

"Amateur?" retorted Cynder hotly, "I think I was doing pretty well for myself." Spyro leaned over and whispered hoarsely,

"Probably not the right time to congratulate yourself."

"Yeah," Ember sneered, "You did pretty well coaxing Spyro into breaking the rules!"

"Come on guys, don't fight," interjected Flame timidly.

"That will do!" Hunter said sternly, his voice drowned out among the back and forth between the young dragons.

"Since when do you care about the rules?" asked Cynder sardonically, "You can do anything you want with Cyril and he still praises everything you do!"

"Cynder…!" Spyro hissed through clenched teeth.

"Hey, that's kinda mean!" Flame objected crossly as Ember was fuming,

"Why I ought to…."

"SILENCE!" bellowed Hunter, finally silencing the dissenting dragons. Spyro and Cynder resumed their ridged posture as Flame and Ember both clamped their mouths. Hunter cast a foreboding glare across the room before resettling his gaze upon the purple and black dragons.

"Now, if we won't have any further interruptions," he said pointedly, "As I was saying, you two took advantage of my absence to have the dojo all to yourselves, without permission or supervision."

"I'm sorry, Hunter," Spyro said lowly, "It was my fault. I asked Cynder to help me with my training. I shouldn't have asked her to break the rules." Cynder raised a questioning eyebrow as she made to interfere,

"But…"

"Is that so?" asked Hunter, apparently not noticing Cynder's obvious surprise. Flame and Ember both cast curious glances at each other.

"So this was all your idea?" the Cheetah asked acutely.

"That's right," Spyro answered quickly.

"No, it's not!" Cynder declared sharply, "It was my idea! Why are you taking the credit?" she demanded as Hunter began to shake his head, laughing as he did.

"Even without Cynder's heartfelt confession," he said humorously, "One thing you are not good at, young Spyro, is lying." The purple dragon's face flushed as he hung his head sheepishly. Cynder in turn avoided the eyes of all the others as she scowled in humiliation. Flame and Ember snickered on either side of Hunter as he cleared his throat and ceased his chuckling.

"However," he continued in a firm tone, silencing the others, "The Guardians would not take lightly to such blatant disregard of the rules. What would they think if they were here saw you using the temple's magic so light heartedly? What would they say?" Ember's face lit up with smug delight at the lecturing that was being delivered, less so for Spyro but for Cynder who she had always known was behind it all, yet at the same time she was not surprised when Spyro had tried to put all the blame on himself. But that was only to be expected from such a great dragon such as he was; the purple dragon of legend.

"I don't know, Hunter," Spyro confessed sadly, "I don't know what they'd say."

"Oh, I think I know what they'd say," Cynder replied, more vexed than apologetic.

"Well, do you know what I would say?" asked Hunter irritably. Flame swallowed hard and held his breath while Ember continued to grin spitefully while Spyro and Cynder looked up fearfully at the Cheetah warrior's hard face. The tension seeped into their bodies like a hot desert wind as his eyes shot back and forth between them until they settled and stayed on the black dragoness.

"I would say that for someone acting as Master you were not making the best of it," he said finally. Ember's exclaimed as her gleeful expression changed to one of bamboozled disbelief.

"What?" she exclaimed as Spyro, Cynder and Flame's faces lit up at the playful tone of Hunter's voice.

"And using elements during a sparing session?" Hunter continued in good humor, "You are supposed to be testing each other's skills in close combat. Hardly a fair match."

"Well, she did it first," Spyro announced stoutly as he glared at Cynder, his confidence now reinvigorated. She only smiled boastfully.

"Never mind that, now," Hunter declared as he stepped forward, "From now on you will all observe the rules of a fair engagement. No more tricks."

"Yes, Hunter," they all replied, save for Ember who continued staring in open mouthed disbelief, much to Cynder's amusement.

"And if you insist on acting as Dojo Master, you should be setting more appropriate challenges. Spyro's skill level is far too advanced for such easy trials," Hunter advised her.

"Well," she said resignedly, "I'm happy to turn over the role of Master to you. It only seems fair." Spyro let out a short laugh,

"Yeah and rule abiding," he added.

"This is ridiculous!" cried Ember despairingly, "She should be punished!"

"Guess that's what they call, 'friends in high places,'" Flame chuckled as he strutted cheerfully out of the doorway to join the others, leaving the pink dragoness fuming further still.

"But…"

"Nobody likes a tattle tale, Ember," Hunter said looking over his shoulder at her, "Now be a good sport and come join the rest of us."

"Oh!" she balked as she stamped her feet, pointing her nose sourly in the air as she trotted at her own pace reluctantly towards the others. Spyro only laughed to himself as he shook his head merrily as Flame took a spot beside him. Cynder regarded Ember with a pompous smile as the moody dragoness walked up beside her, lowering her nose but keeping her eyes straightforward. The four young dragons stood in a row before Hunter who now stood in the centre circle. The group were all facing forward towards the outside door. Hunter reached over his back and unslung the bow, holding it in his left hand as he reached with his right for an arrow.

"Please excuse me while I first indulge myself," he announced as he held the bow low with his thumb lightly gripping the nocking point of the string. Flame stepped back nervously as he eyed the sharpened arrowhead, Spyro feeling his heart quicken with anticipation as Hunter's breathing almost stopped, his face becoming hard with purpose. In a flash, an Ape dummy appeared in front of them and just as quickly the bow was drawn, aimed and shot, the arrow splitting the forehead of the hapless straw dummy as it flopped over on its back.

"Woah, nice one!" Spyro cheered just as another bright flash appeared ahead of them. The flash stretched wide across the floor and it spawned four more dummies standing in a line before the group. No sooner had they appeared that Hunter drew another arrow, shooting down the one on the furthest right before turning to the left end of the line, the second arrow springing from the bow as the dummies charged. He held the bow horizontally as his fingers grasped a pair of arrows with lightning reflexes, drawing and firing off both at once into the two dummies, the straw antagonists falling flat just before the feet of the four dragons.

As soon as they vanished another group flashed into life, the group becoming surrounded by four dummies in a cross pattern. Hunter drew and shot the first one dead ahead, spinning a full turn and firing at the one behind them from the hip, striking the dummy in the chest. The third and fourth only just started to charge when he spun left, holding the bow horizontally again and releasing another arrow, spinning to the left and repeating the same act in a breakneck pace, the fourth arrow meeting its target mere moments after the third. The two dummies fell limply after each other, vanishing in a flash of cleansing magic as the audience to the display lauded it excitedly.

"Dead on, Hunter!" Flame cried jovially.

"Awesome!" cheered Spyro.

"Terrific!" proclaimed Cynder.

"Hmph!" huffed Ember moodily, "Its not so hard when you know where they are coming from," she grumbled. The three other dragons all cast frustrated glances over her, the ever resolute Hunter regarded the pink dragoness oddly. A smile curved his lips as he began to step backwards out of the rings of the mosaic floor. Spyro on impulse turned to follow as did the others when the Cheetah warrior held up his paw to them to stop. Spyro tilted his head queerly as Hunter stepped outside the mosaic back in the doorway.

"Well," he announced in a roguish tone, "Perhaps the young dragoness is right. It is easy when you know when and where the enemy will appear, an advantage you will rarely have in a real situation."

"Why have I suddenly got a bad feeling?" asked Flame anxiously. Hunter hooked his bow over his shoulder and chuckled wryly,

"That is why it always pays to expect the unexpected!" he proclaimed as suddenly every circle on the mosaic flashed and produced a wall of ape dummies encircling the four young dragons. The enchanted scarecrows raised their branch hands and beat their straw filled chests.

"Yikes!" Flame exclaimed.

"You and your big mouth!" Cynder growled to Ember as the pink dragoness gasped at the sudden threats.

"Come on, guys, we can handle this!" Spyro called assertively, "They're only made of straw!" he said with a cocky grin. The squabbles of just a few moments before were quickly out of mind as the four dragons hung low to the ground, backing in until their tails touched each other. To Spyro's left was Flame, to his right was Cynder and behind him was Ember. The Ape dummies acted with some intelligence, not charging mindlessly but waiting and observing them, at least as well as could be replicated under the temple's conditions. Spyro's eyes shot to Hunter's, searching for a tell-tale sign as he played puppet master. Hunter had been their trainer in the past, but rarely did he take the role of Dojo Master as it was usually one of the Guardian dragons. Spyro had learned to study the body language of the Guardians for any hint if they were about pull any tricks; Volteer would lightly flex his front toes, though sometimes he thought it was just a side effect of being an Electric Guardian. Cyril would blink slowly, presumably as he mentally processed whatever change he was about to enact. It was easily missed, but Spyro had learned to trust it when he saw it. Terrador was as stony as the Earth element he had mastered, but even he had his subtleties. The hulking green dragon's taught muscles would clench or his thick eyebrows would flex, subtle nuances that would be readily attributed to his more athletic nature but Spyro had witnessed these motions right before a dummy suddenly went on the attack or a whole new threat suddenly materialized in the dojo.

But he'd never had any luck with the Fire Guardian, Ignitus. In all the time he had spent training with him, there was no hint in the least that he had ever gained from watching him. When he was the Master of the dojo, he became much like the statue that normally filled the room. He blinked only rarely and barely seemed to breath; it was uncanny and Spyro had wondered if perhaps his observations had been noticed and Ignitus was trying to counter him. But then why not tell the other guardians to control their body language? Regardless, he hoped to learn something from the Cheetah warrior now taking the lead as Dojo Master, hoping his lesser experience would favor them. Hunter then slowly began to sit down, crossing his legs as he did when meditating, the ape dummies still holding their positions. Spyro's eyes shifted back and forth, watching Hunter and the nearest dummy, bracing against the tension. He looked back at him as the Cheetah finally settled down, and suddenly the ape dummies rushed. Letting out an involuntary gasp, Spyro unleashed a burst of flame as his three companions responded in kind; Flame released another jet of fire, a strong current of Wind from Cynder bowled over her attacker and a blast of Ice from Ember turned her foes into icebergs.

"Let's do this!" Spyro cried as more dummies flashed into the arena. Forgoing his elements, he bowed his head and charged into the nearest dummy, knocking it back with his horns as he swung his tail across another. In his left peripheral he saw Flame delivering a kick to the chest of a dummy and as Spyro swung his head to the right against another, he saw Cynder leaping into a dummy and clawing at it face, its painted mask shredding apart and the entrails of straw flying all about. He missed the sight of Ember spinning herself like a ballet dancer, a blade of ice forming on her tail and slashing the feet out from under another helpless dummy.

In the melee they had given each other space to avoid clashing with each other, but the spacing had left them exposed as more dummies appeared to replace those vanquished. Each was now fighting their own separate battles, each dragon trying to execute every move they made as close to the book as possible to impress their teacher. Caught in their own battles they only glimpsed each other; a fact Hunter had noted.

"Remember you are not alone!" he shouted, "You must work as a team! Support and protect each other!" Spyro grimaced as a ball of crackling lightning shot from his maw, the golden orb exploding between two dummies and leaving them shaking on the floor. The brief respite allowed him to look to Flame who was struggling to fend off a trio of dummies. He breathed fire on one but the other two struck him across the face and began to tackle him to the ground. Hunter's words stuck in Spyro's mind as another dummy appeared before him and an idea along with it. As the dummy charged, Spyro struck it with a quick bolt of lightning to stun it, quickly shouting across to Flame who was trying to push off his attackers,

"Hey Flame, heads up!" With that Spyro tossed the dummy into the air with his horns before leaping up after it, kicking it with all fours as it crashed down and tumbled into the dummies attacking Flame, rolling the belligerent scarecrows off their feet and away from the red dragon.

"Thanks!" he cried cheerfully as he leapt back to his feet and with no small joy began burning and tearing at the two dummies that had tried to best him. Inspired, or perhaps simply more aware of her surroundings, Ember took a leap back from the three dummies that she was fighting, casting a sheet of Ice from her mouth onto the floor in front of her, the dummies slipped and tripped on the impromptu ice rink. With a deceptively innocent chuckle, Ember ran towards the nearest straw ape as its tree branch arms flailed on the ice. "Cynder!" she called as she seized the dummies' arm in her mouth, the black dragoness looking up from her own battle to see the pink dragoness spinning herself in circles with the dummy flying around like a dog's chew toy. Cynder looked back in time to role over to the side to avoid an incoming blow. With a final spin, Ember released the dummie's arm from her mouth and sent it to soaring towards Cynder. Holding her breath and acting as quickly as she could blink, the black dragoness jumped into the air, arching her body backwards as she somersaulted, her scythe like tail slicing through the dummy's neck as it shot past her, the headless scarecrow rolling across the floor as she landed back on her feet.

"Ouch!" Spyro exclaimed as he torched a dummy of his own, half amazed and half frightened by the display of cold precision by her. Cynder cast a quick glance at him and only winked before once again diving headfirst into another dummy. He quickly looked back to Hunter, who remained sitting as before, his hands resting easy on his knees only moving his head to observe the four dragons in action. Spyro frowned at his lack of readable body language, jumping on his hind legs and slashing his claws at another dummy, tearing its straw innards out across the floor. Two more came charging from either side, the purple dragon propelled himself forward, rolling onto his back and spinning himself back on all fours, a jet of blue Ice blew from his mouth and encased the two dummies in a cloak of icicles. He turned to Hunter once more, noticing a solitary claw now tapping thoughtfully on the Cheetah's chin.

'So that's it!' he thought confidently. Now he was sure he had him worked out, Spyro tried to mentally prepare himself for the sudden change that he expected to happen. There was a sudden rush of air inside the dojo, Spyro in its direction as his eyes bulged in surprise at what he saw. Cynder was suspended in mid-air about her tail's length off the ground, spinning rapidly as if caught in a vortex. In fact, it was a vortex of her own making; the last three ape dummies were caught in their own miniature cyclones, ripped right from the grasp of Flame and Ember who had been battling them. They and Spyro watched as the three dummies were suddenly released and sent hurtling in different directions into the dojo walls. Cynder stopped spinning in the air as her feet came back to earth, her chest panting heavily as the swirling wind dissipated and calm settled over the dojo. The spawning of enchanted dummies ended abruptly as all eyes focused on her. Spyro, still half expecting a sudden surprise or curve ball to catch him off guard , rushed with Flame and Ember immediately over to the black dragoness.

"Wow, cool!" exclaimed the red dragon brightly.

"Trying to outshine the rest of us?" Ember asked snootily, thinly veiling her concern.

"Are you okay, Cynder?" asked Spyro earnestly as she continued to breath heavily. She raised her head and eyed him humorously,

"Wasn't," she panted, "Going to… let the Legend himself pull any fancy tricks," she laughed weakly, alluding to Spyro's earlier use of Earth to throw her off her feet. He sighed wearily and shook his head.

"You should be careful. You know you're not strong enough for that. Last time you tried that you could barely walk the rest of the day!" She gave no verbal response, only nodding vaguely as her heavy breathing continued.

"Is everything alright?" called Hunter who had risen to his feet, taking a few steps into the outer ring. Spyro turned about to face him saying firmly,

"Hunter, I think maybe that should do for now."

"I'm fine, Spyro," Cynder croaked sternly, "I'm just… a little winded…" With that, Flame suddenly burst out laughing, his merriment not shared among his companions who all shot daggers from their eyes at him, save for Spyro who kept looking toward Hunter. Flame then meekly shut his mouth. The Cheetah strode over towards the group, kneeling down before the black dragoness who stubbornly tried to save face. Hunter's jade eyes were heavy with concern. He extended his paw and gently lifted her chin.

"I commend your spirit, young lady," he said caringly, "But such an advanced use of elements at your age is reckless. Your body cannot take it."

"Ignitus told you about this!" Spyro added emotionally as he moved his way to the front, "It's dangerous!" he exclaimed critically. He watched with a heavy heart as her eyes widened and she looked at him squarely as if ready to offer a retort, but her eyelids suddenly dipped and she gave in to the fatigue inflicted on herself and planted herself firmly on her haunches with a low sigh. On reflex the group all edged closer out of concern, Spyro moving his snout barely a few inches from her forehead.

"Yes, I think that will do," Hunter agreed to the purple dragon's earlier suggestion, "Lets get you some water. I think you could all use it anyway," he said as he stood up and began walking quickly towards the temple interior for water.

Without need for invitation or instruction, Spyro stepped up beside Cynder and placed a warm paw on her left shoulder. She turned her head to him gratefully as Flame followed suit and moved to her right side. She turned to him as well and shared a thankful glance as Ember stood out in front, peeking forward anxiously. Spyro gave her an encouraging nudge with his shoulder as she mustered the effort to lift her hindlegs, Flame thoughtfully but impotently trying to help lift her to her feet with his front paws. Spyro smiled at his friend's genuine but ham-fisted attempts to help, knowing he was merely trying to emulate the example made by himself.

"You sure you're okay?" the red dragon asked frantically as he tried to hide his embarrassment.

"Fine, Flamerboy," Cynder replied jeeringly but kindly, Ember inching over closer before her.

"You sure you don't need a physician?" she asked, dropping any pretense of insensitivity.

"Spyro's here, remember?" Cynder asked with mock infatuation, "He's here to save me, right?" Spyro only blushed as a broad grin stretched from ear to ear. With a hearty chuckle he simply replied,

"Right."

Presently Hunter returned with a brown clay jug filled with water, filling a matching clay bowl and giving it to the dragoness. She started by lapping at the water before simply laying down and holding the bowl in her paws to drink straight from it. After emptying its contents, Spyro and Flame helped Cynder back to her feet and the group began walking slowly towards the door to the interior, Cynder laying her wings out across red and purple dragons walking alongside her. Ember crab walked just ahead to the right of them as Hunter watched over his shoulder as he led them towards the grotto. As the door opened for them, Spyro's eyebrows lifted as he continued to ponder what Hunter might have planned to throw at them before Cynder's display had obviously distracted him, still certain that the claw tapping on his chin was the giveaway and had not been as innocent as it might seem. As the group passed the outer ring of the dojo, the floor suddenly shifted and opened up and they heavy rumbling began once more. The mighty dragon statue began to rise from its hideaway, turning counter clockwise as it rose from beneath and back to its original place, eyes watching over the now deserted dojo.

A few hours later, the northern horizon was awash in a fabulous orange glow as dusk settled over the realms. Far out from the temple balcony the glowing sun lay half hidden by the great sea that stretched out seemingly for eternity across the horizon. Appearing just above the sun's crown were four distinctive silhouettes flying abreast of each other, massive wings carrying them across the evening sky. As they closed in on the temple the figures took the shape of four large dragons, each one the colour of the four celebrated elements; red for Fire, yellow for Electricity, blue for Ice and green for Earth. A few hundred meters from the balcony, Ignitus broke from the group and lined up towards it, aiming for its centre as the rest of the guardians broke off in single file in concert. The Fire Guardian swooped in and glided to a swift halt on the balcony, followed by the others in an orderly fashion. The first to land behind him was Volteer, the Electric Guardian and behind him was Cyril, the Guardian of Ice and finally Terrador, Guardian of Earth.

Hailing from the frozen tundra known as Dante's Freezer, Cyril did perhaps have the most pedigree of the four guardians, or at least that was his belief and he had no hesitation in bringing this up where and whenever he could. He pompously boasted about the noble legacy of the great Ice dragons of which he was descended. He was as skillful and as knowledgeable as his fellow guardians no doubt, but easily the most arrogant. Naturally his scales were a glistening blue as were his eyes, with some scattered white spots along his neck, forelegs and back while his wings and underbelly were colored a light purple. His face was considerably more jagged in appearance than his colleagues, an icicle like spike grew up from the top of his snout with a crown of pointed spines growing out above his eyebrows and his forehead with more hanging down from his bottom jaw like a frozen beard. Growing from the sides of his head and elbows as well as his shoulders were more ice-like frills that acted like natural plate armour, both decorative and protective. His horns were also blue and angled back before growing straight into a tapered point. An unbroken line of blue spines lined the dragon's back just before the end of his tail, which was armed with a flower like cluster of vicious spikes.

Lumbering behind Cyril was Terrador, the green scaled, sinewy boulder like Guardian of Earth. He was undoubtedly the most robust of the group and most hard headed, literally and figuratively. Contrasting suitably against his green scales were his light brown wings and underbelly, his stocky shoulders layered with hardened brown frills similar to Cyril. Across his body were odd patches of greenish yellow spots that dotted his bulky frame. His blocky head was topped by two thick horns shaped like those of a ram with two smaller horns growing in front of each of them. On both sides of his mouth were two exposed fangs that poked out and up from his bottom jaw while a goatee like brown spine grew from his chin and the back of his jawline. The green dragon's head and back was protected by a row of hardened brown spines while the tip of his tail resembled a mace, round like a ball with protruding spikes. Beginning at a young age, Terrador already had a distinguished military career long before becoming a Guardian, which had seemed to come to him like another promotion rather than a lifelong journey of elemental mastery like the others. His skills had come almost soley from his experience in combat rather than through study and training. But he was more than mere brawn, his warrior mentality gave him a mind that was sharp and steeped in wisdom with an almost religious devotion to the concept of honour; on the field of battle and in everyday life. It was this reason perhaps that he was Ignitus's second in command. As the group strode towards the temple, Cyril huffed patently in his usually posh tone,

"I hope the young lads and lasses didn't give poor old Hunter any grievance,"

"Whatever do you mean?" stammered Volteer sharply.

"Well, you know," Cyril replied unequivocally, "How prone the youth are these days to acts of wanton disobedience. Why, back in freezer, while disobedience was never a real problem among us, the few that did…"

A chorus of disgruntled sighs were uttered over Cyril's ranting, which soon enough proved too much for a certain yellow dragon.

"Ah!" he exclaimed bitterly, "Your pomposity, arrogance and pretentiousness is odious to the extreme!"

"Well let me tell you…" began the Ice Guardian menacingly.

"Please, Please!" Ignitus barked sharply, silencing the pair abruptly, "There was enough bickering in the council chambers today and I have no wish to bear witness to anymore!"

"Well said, Ignitus," concurred Terrador's deep voice from the rear. Not another word was spoken from the group, save for Cyril and Volteer mentally tongue lashing each other even further as the temple doors opened to them.

End of Chapter 4.

Note from the author:

My choice to make Cynder specifically a Wind dragon was once again something that came from looking into the head-cannon of LOS lead concept artist, Jared Pullen. Something that always stuck out to me in the games was the fact that all the dragons had the same eye color as their scale color except for Cynder, who has green eyes and black scales. I wondered if this meant she was originally a Earth or Wind dragon as a result. Jared did address this and confirmed my suspicion that Cynder's scales were not naturally black but as a result of her corruption in the original story.

Though during development it was a friend of his that worked specifically on Cynder (referred to in preproduction as the 'Anti-Spyro'). I decided to run with the idea of her natural element being Wind and even considered giving her green scales to go with it but personally I just couldn't imagine a green Cynder so I left her scales unchanged.

But if Cynder hasn't been kidnapped in my story then why was she born with black scales? That is a very good question and I will give you the answer... eventually when it is revealed in the story ;)

Here is an excerpt from the Q/A Jared did with DragonoffireandIce dragonoficeandfire/journal/Q-A-with-Jared-Pullen-lead-concept-artist-of-TLoS-556546930

Q: I got some quick yes/no questions that don't need an explanation from you - I'm sure you're still too busy for that. I already asked one of the questions, if a dragon's eye colors depend on their element (orange for fire, yellow for electricity, etc)... (he explained anyway XD)

A: The eye colour was, in truth, less about which element they were from and more about colour balance with their overall scheme... I would dabble about for ages, actually finishing their eyes last til it felt right for the character, but usually in the end it just made good colour theory sense to have their eyes match their overall skin tone - which matched their element So in a round about way, you could say yes. Spyro however needed to not be restricted so much by rules... he is very much the 'wild card' dragon who can be anything and be any element we requires... simply put green tends to contrast nicely with purple, and I wanted to go that way to add an offsetting contrast, but by then we'd indirectly established that the dragons eyes matched their element hehehe I settled on an electric purple.

Q: (...)Cynder had teal eyes though, which leads to another few questions I asked. What was her original element and original scale color(assuming the blackness of her design came from the corruption)?

A: (...)I'll sneak you a response a bit later on, but suffice it to say... Cynder did not start life as a 'Dark/Shadow' elemental dragon And her colour and subsequent markings are indeed the result of Malefor's corruptive ritual magics.

Q: You confirmed Cynder's dark scales and markings were a result of her corruption. So what was her original element?

A: Heheheee this has been one of the greatest wee mysteries to emerge from the whole TLoS series, as Cynder is one of the most beloved characters, and has gone on to have a life very much of her own. Everyone wants to see her do well - and everyone I know seems to believe she ends up with Spyro in some romantic manner... OK, so the very first time Cynder was mentioned to me was back in 2005, and she was simply called 'The Anti-Spyro' as we did not have a name for her... and truth to tell we didn't really know that she was going to be a 'she' at that point.

The Lead Artist on ANB (Bruno Rime) for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for had one wee condition on TLoS... I could draw everything that was to be, but the 'Anti-Spyro' was to be his baby And that is totally fair, as Bruno is one heck of a great guy and Lead. He came back a week later and said 'So, she's going to be a BIG Scary Black Dragon... like the thing out of Sleeping Beauty... only worse!" That was the first time I'd heard mention of the character that was to be Cynder... Bruno tried a few different variations on a sketch, showed me and we talked on line and angles and the way she was put together overall... but Cynder was his from the very beginning. I never saw any colour variations, but we had a conversation that Cynder was 'the product of her conditioning... and not inherently dark by breed or nature'... we toyed with the idea that she 'was a flyer' and had connections to the air, to storms and specifically to the Wind ... So... So she was a wind dragon originally?* (*my response) There is that logic yes. While Bruno never said "Cynder is a Wind Dragon" - she was certainly put together as such and the connotations were there.