A few moments later, Cynder and her beaten opponents found a nice place to eat, and they had all ordered their meals before they sat in silence, unsure what to say. Cynder felt like her presence had killed the normally bright mood that might accompany a lunch like this, after the recent event of Tyrax's fear coma. She looked across the table to Tyrax, who looked like he was in a worse place than her, tapping half-heartedly on the table with a claw and staring at it like it was the most interesting thing in the world around him. "Hey, are you alright?" she asked soothingly.
"Yeah. I'm… I'm still trying to get the vision out of my head." Tyrax said, his deep, gravelly voice hoarse and croaky. He cleared his throat and looked up at Cynder, and her heart sunk to see his eyes were still red and wet. "I know it sounds stupid, but I've always had a fear of the dead, that they would return to life and try to find a way to seek out their revenge on others. Those who killed them, those who hated them, those who teased them. I know it seems irrational, but… my brother used to tell me stupid stories about zombie dragons that would come after their murderers, bullies, and the like from their old life, and it scared me ever since. I've never been able to get myself free of that fear. Ever. No matter how hard I tried to, the damned images of those stories clung to me, and I've always hated myself for it. I'm a damned twenty-seven-year-old, and I can't even get childish fears out of my head!"
"It's not childish, Tyrax! I had a similar fear upon my first year or two living here." Cynder replied. "I still… kind of do, I guess. Although I think it was because I was the one doing the killing, and it was more about the families and friends of those I killed that would come after me."
"At least you know, now, Tyrax." Vetar said emotionlessly.
"Yeah." Tyrax croaked. "I'm sorry, Vetar."
"Am I… missing something?" Cynder asked, looking between the two drakes with confusion furrowing her brow. "Should I know something?"
"Oh, um… are you sure you want to know?" Vetar questioned. "I just want to be sure, because it involves you, and I know you're sensitive about…"
"Yes. I need to know about these things." Cynder interrupted. "Over the past eight years, I've made it my goal to learn as much as I can about what I did, although I know I'll never learn everything."
"But why? Doesn't it just bring up bad memories?" Apata asked.
"Not really if I don't remember everything. I remember what I did, but not in specifics. It also helps me understand people's pain, and to see if there's anything I can do to help with it, and to see if there's anything I can do to make up for it. So if there's anything I've done to you, please, tell me now." Cynder said, before speaking again when she was answered with silence. "I know the time here might be depressing with all these grim stories, but it will make me so much better if I know. And I know that Logron said to get to know me, but you most likely already know every damn thing about me. What else is there to learn about my sad excuse for a life? It's pretty damn basic. I was stolen, I hatched, I was corrupted, leading me to murder; I was rescued and then helped save the world, before coming here, getting a little education. Getting together with Spyro, having the nightmares, followed by a son, and then for Spyro's betrayal and a few fights with him and his army, and now what? All this?"
"Alright, we get it." Blitz said, trying to calm Cynder down.
Vetar nodded, before he hesitated, trying to find the right words, as well as trying to keep his emotions in as he thought back to his experience. "You may have noticed, Cynder, that before our battle, I said 'round three', am I right?" Vetar recalled, and Cynder nodded. "I have battled you twice before, both when you were the Terror of the Skies. The first time was when I was off duty for about a month, so I was having a little holiday with my family."
"I murdered them, didn't I?" Cynder interrupted, tears pricking her eyes as she immediately put the pieces together. Vetar simply nodded in response, and Cynder swallowed the huge lump in her throat. "Who… who were they? And how did I kill them?"
"My mate, a beautiful ice dragoness by the name of Fronen, was taken by a slit throat." Vetar recalled with a shuddering voice as he stared Cynder in the eye. "And… and my two daughters: Embarol, a fire dragoness, and Bronlin, an ice dragoness. Embarol was taken when she lost her heart, and Bronlin died of blood loss."
"How old were they?" Cynder questioned.
"Embarol was five, and Bronlin was two. Bronlin was a year younger than you. And… Fronen was… she was gravid." Vetar replied, before sniffling and choking on tears, trying to hold them in. "She was carrying our third child…"
There was a moment of silence as Vetar controlled himself, fighting against his tears as he grieved for his family. Once he had composed himself, he continued speaking. "I couldn't save them from you, Cynder. And I almost couldn't save myself that night." he explained, voice raw and croaky, eyes downcast, unable to meet Cynder's gaze. "I barely made it out alive, and I stayed there in Volkra, recovering for about two months, before I returned to Warfang. Even then, I was too weak to do anything, and had to take it slow to finish the recovering process. That took another week.
"But it was about three weeks after I was fully healed when you and the apes attacked Warfang. I fought so hard to try and avenge my family, but I made it out worse than before, reduced to a bloody pulp, captivated by my nightmares as you left me with a parting vision of horror." Vetar recalled, his gaze not moving from Cynder's. "I remember vividly what I saw; my family, Fronen, Embarol, Bronlin, and… and my… my son… all blaming me for their deaths, beating me up and calling me a failure. My biggest fear was that I wasn't a good enough father, or a good enough mate, and that I was failing my family. And between their deaths and the fear coma, I believed it with all my heart. When I saw my son, I was filled with sadness, until he started blaming me and I felt fear. From an unborn hatchling! A dragon whose egg hadn't even been laid! I was stuck in the fear coma for two hours, and I was greeted by Logron, Tyrax, and a few other faces that I knew. Somehow, I had survived the siege, squirming on the ground fearing for my life."
"And I teased him." Tyrax interrupted.
Cynder's gaze flicked from Vetar to Tyrax quickly as her jaw dropped in shock. "You… you what?" Cynder asked.
"I didn't know! I didn't know how bad it was, or what was going on!" Tyrax blurted. "But I teased him nonetheless. I called him a wimp and a freak… and asked him if he was really cut out for this… 'violent experience'. I didn't know what it was like. So… I guess I deserved what I got earlier, you know? I finally understand, and I regret everything I said back then. I'm sorry. And I mean it this time. Not like that stupid, weak, meaningless apology all those years ago."
"It's alright, Tyrax." Vetar said, before looking back to Cynder and finishing his story. "When we fought today, Cynder, I… I knew you were different. I knew of the stories, I'd heard of everything you'd done to aid in saving the world, and I'd heard of everything you tried to do to help others when they were in need. I knew you wouldn't try to kill me this time, but I couldn't get those damned… bloody memories out of my head. I remembered the blood that flowed from Fronen's neck, I remembered the first heart I saw outside of another dragon's body, let alone the first dragon heart I ever saw; Embarol's heart. And I remembered the bright cyan scales of my Bronlin, turned completely red by the huge amounts of lacerations on her body, including the missing left eye. I was taunted by their screams, and it was all I could think of. I was determined to win, to avenge my family, despite it being a controlled match. I knew I wouldn't kill you, despite the haunting sounds and images in my mind, but I still wanted to win, regardless."
Cynder smiled warmly at Vetar. "You did good, Vetar. And you were brave. I'd say your family would be proud of you. You went up against me again after I… I killed your family, and for a third time just now, putting those memories behind you to try and emerge victorious one final time. I may have won the match, but I'd say you won in your own way. You had been through so much thanks to me, and you still put your all into the match until the very end." Cynder said. "Your family's watching over you, Vetar, and I know that they're watching you with a smile. You didn't fail them. I did."
Vetar returned Cynder's smile. "Thank you." he said, before a small tear slipped down his cheek.
"Anyone else?" Cynder asked.
"Not really. My family were nomads. We moved around everywhere and were lucky enough to avoid your attacks. But my family was killed by the shadow apes during the three years you and Spyro were in the Time Crystal in the Well of Souls. I was the only one to make it out alive, and I figured that since I was eighteen I would join the army. I guess I wanted to make them proud and fight against the forces of darkness." Tyrax said.
"I'm somewhat similar." Apata said. "Although we lived in the underground earth dragon residence called Rahggen. We never saw a glimpse of the Terror of the Skies or the apes because of how well we were hidden. We were safe. For the most part anyway. We… we did end up… getting attacked as we were… found by… inside sources… and because of that I moved to Warfang, joining the army to try and fight back. So it wasn't you that attacked us Cynder, since you were in the Time Crystal back then. But uh… yeah, it wasn't the best time for me."
"Okay… I'm sorry to hear that, Apata. Blitz? Molron?" Cynder asked.
"I'd prefer not to share…" Molron muttered.
"That's alright. In your own time. I'm not forcing anything from you. You don't even have to share it at all if you don't want to." Cynder said. "What about you, Blitz?"
"I haven't… really had an encounter with you but… you did end up killing my brother and his son." Blitz said hesitantly.
"And… his mate?" Cynder asked, ready for the worst.
"Died of a heart attack five years prior to his death. Four years prior to the raid at the Dragon Temple. Her death wasn't your fault." Blitz said quickly.
Cynder breathed a sigh of relief, before her expression went grim again. "Please, tell me what happened." Cynder pleaded.
"Well… I don't know the details. My nephew was never found, but my brother…" he said, before pausing and shuddering. "He was missing his right eye, and had been mauled pretty badly. The death was definitely from the huge slit in his throat, but he had been reduced to a bloody pulp around the chest and limbs, and his eye socket bled profusely. He was even missing half of his tail. His yellow body was pretty much almost entirely red, leaving no sign of his natural yellow scales. But he died serving. And he died a hero. He was holding an unconscious hatchling, a fire dragoness, in his bloodied paws."
"Oh. Him." Cynder said sadly, closing her eyes.
"You remember him?" Blitz asked.
"Yeah. He's one of the few dragons I killed that I still remember vividly to this day. I'll never forget how well he fought. Like you said, he died a hero." Cynder recalled. "I remember how much spirit he had. He kept going, no matter what happened. I cut his eye out, and cut his tail in half, but he kept fighting. And that hatchling he held, he grabbed as he fell, trying to hide her from my sight. Because I remember seeing him reach out, but I never saw what he was trying to grab."
"Cynder, it's alright." Blitz said, and Cynder suddenly realised she was crying.
"Thanks, Blitz. And thank you too, Vetar. I needed to know." Cynder thanked.
"No problem." Vetar said.
"Now, let's talk about some more… happier topics." Apata said.
"Happy? Happy?! You do know that a war has just started? It won't be long until nobody will know what that word means anymore, because the meaning will not exist! The Dragon Realms will be pulled into darkness and fear." Cynder scowled. "And don't say I'm overreacting, because I'm not. It will be worse than the Dark War. Spyro is more powerful now than Malefor ever was, and it won't be long before things take a turn for the w…"
Cynder immediately cut off as her head began spinning and her ears began ringing. She groaned in pain as she lowered her head and hissed air through her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to stop the pain. "Cynder? Cynder, what's wrong?" Molron asked, his eyes widening.
"It's… happening… again!" Cynder managed to blurt out, before her eyes snapped open and the world turned red.
They're coming!
He's still searching!
It won't be long before the Toxic Hour!
He's found it! He knows where it is! He's coming for it!
Slaves! They're taking us as slaves!
The darkness is coming, and there's a new creature coming with it!
Cynder let out a pained roar as her headache immediately stopped and her vision returned to normal. Her breath was heavy, and she looked around as she received worried looks from all five of her companions. "What happened?" Tyrax asked.
"I… I don't know. It's only happened once before. I've been hearing voices. Voices of other dragons, I'm guessing. Last time I had that experience, it basically foreshadowed the fight we had at Jorgarath a few days ago." Cynder explained.
"Voices? What did they say?" Apata questioned.
"They were saying all sorts of things. Things like 'he's found it and he's coming for it', and 'the darkness is coming, and there's a new creature'. They also mentioned this 'Toxic Hour' and… slaves." Cynder replied.
"Slaves? Is Spyro taking dragons as slaves?" Molron asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
"That's my guess, but what is this 'Toxic Hour', and what has Spyro found?" Vetar said.
Cynder gasped. "The Sound Gem! He's been searching for it for the past few days! He must have found it!" Cynder exclaimed.
"But what is the Sound Gem, and what does Spyro want to use it for?" Apata questioned.
"I don't know, but it can't be good." Blitz said. "We need to tell Logron and the guardians about this."
"But what about our food?" Tyrax complained.
"That doesn't matter now!" Cynder scowled, standing up. "This is more important!"
A shout suddenly roared out from nearby. "There's something wrong with Dark Peak!"
Big cliffhanger for you! How's that one? :D
But I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Fairly short compared to the previous four or so chapters, but the next one is another 6K-word chapter so back to long action-y stuff. I also hope I created some interesting backstories, especially for Vetar (which continued over from last chapter).
…
To lord typhlosion, thanks for your review. It's always great to see people enjoying my work. To be honest, a lot of these things were never going to see the light of day because it was just for me, until I realised I was getting good and should actually do stuff with. The Fazbear series is the oldest piece of work I still have and decided to post due to some interesting concepts I came up with (sorry about the wait on that one too – I know you've been reading Bitten), but my first fanfictions were a Sonic the Hedgehog one from 2012 and a Skylanders one that I spent a few years writing (2013 to 2015 I think), but I've long since gotten rid of them. I also had another Legend of Spyro one before I wrote Broken Perceptions, and I kind of wish I still had it (it was a three-part series, albeit fairly short ones). I might try and rewrite it someday as I still remember some certain bits, but a lot of it will be incredibly different to my original version.
As for the fights in the last chapter, I was pretty happy with Vetar's as well, and the only reason why his was the best one was because, unlike the other four that went up against Cynder, Vetar had actually already fought Cynder as the Terror of the Skies. Twice, to add to that. However I do think Apata's was good too, and while Tyrax's one never finished, it was good to get rid of his arrogance and to get him to understand what happens in a fear coma. It was also a good way to introduce fear comas into the series (well, in all of my writing; I don't believe the fear element made much of my writing in Broken Perceptions).
…
Well, I'm off again. Got a lot of things I want to get done coming into the holidays now. My goal is to learn C# and to finish modelling Lefty in Blender, and I also have a few videos to edit for my YouTube channel (played and beat Sonic CD in one sitting, and I even managed to start playing The Joy of Creation: Story Mode, which is an amazing game if you haven't already seen/played it).
See you in the next chapter!