Cynder let out a low, croaky moan as she awoke, pain flaring up through her body once more as she returned from her unconscious state. She blinked furiously, her vision clearing up. She looked around her surroundings and saw that she was in a dimly lit cave. She was quite deep into it as well; the entrance to the cave was not visible, surrounding her completely with rock and moss. She lay on her side in a makeshift nest of silky grass and soft vegetation. A well-made fire sat burning a few metres away, keeping her warm within the dark cave and lighting up the cave walls around her with an eerie orange light. She sighed, rolling over onto her stomach and staring into the flames, losing herself in the beauty of the flickering fire. The faint sound of crickets chirping reached her ears; it was night outside.

A little bit of time passed before she started to question why she was here. Last she remembered, she was… falling. She had been knocked out, and she didn't know how much time had passed since then. Where was she? Who brought her here? How had she survived the fall? She should have died.

She looked down over herself and saw that her bloody wounds were wrapped in bandages of soft foliage like what she lay on; some of the bandages were stained with dried blood. Her wounds weren't closed, but they weren't bleeding and looked to be well-treated. She remembered she had been a bloody mess; Spyro had really done a good deal of damage on her. She remembered the terrible feeling of blood gushing down her scales.

But who treated her while she was unconscious? How long had she been unconscious for? Was anyone from Warfang looking for her?

She tried to stand, but her hind leg quivered, pain searing through it. It was still broken. Her head suddenly spun, her chest flared with pain, and her stomach heaved with nausea, threatening to bring up her digestive fluids. She slumped back to her soft nest with a thud, suppressing a groan through her closed mouth, not wanting to open it for fear she would let the repulsive vomit out. She swallowed, wincing as the sour, burning liquid returned back to her stomach, and she shivered in disgust. Her throat burned from swallowing the vomit, and she coughed violently, before letting out a hoarse groan of annoyance. She couldn't get up to return to Warfang. Not like this. But she needed to be back; they needed her. She was their best asset against Spyro's forces. Hopefully she hadn't been gone for too long. Warfang was vulnerable, and she would never forgive herself if Spyro attacked Warfang while she wasn't there to protect it.

Thunder began to rumble ominously from outside the cave. Cynder sighed. The weather was as miserable as she was. It was meaningless to lie here. She needed to be in Warfang where she was needed. She was alone, in an unfamiliar place, and she didn't like it. She didn't know who had saved her or treated her. She didn't like the fact that someone had had their grubby paws on her without her knowing who it was.

A massive thunderclap tore through the air, followed by the faint sound of rain. The storm was very close, and the thunderclaps loud and sudden. She looked to the crackling fire again, thankful that there was at least a heat source here, keeping her warm and cosy. She stared into the dancing flames as they entwined lovingly with one another. She was enthralled by the flames, hypnotised by their delicate movements.

Cynder yawned, exposing a terrifying set of fangs. She was extremely tired, but she didn't know why; she'd literally just woken up. She had been out for a long time and she didn't know how long it had been. She tried to figure out the time of her unconsciousness. It had been a little after midday when they had gotten to Urgussen. It was night now; no light was shining into the cave from outside, and there had been crickets chirping outside before the rain and thunder had come. Cynder didn't know how late into the night it was, but she guessed that at least half a day had passed. Hopefully it was just that and not a full day, let alone more.

She winced as the thought entered her head. She needed to be back home. She couldn't stay out here, lying about and staring into fire, but what could she do? She couldn't even stand without feeling violently nauseous. She was tired, and her chest ached. A lot.

Something inside her chest also felt… empty.

But she didn't know what that something was.

Cynder shuddered, her mind still grinding at the thought that she would be away from home, from work, from friends, for that long. She had never been away from home or friends for over a few hours, as of recently. She'd been alone for the first twelve years of her life; no friends, and no proper home to call her own. Just Malefor and her victims. Spyro (she winced as the name entered her head) was the first person that actually cared about her, coming in to save her from Malefor. But during the time that she was tethered to Spyro after the Time Crystal was destroyed, she realised that Spyro wasn't just an alliance, but her… friend.

Yeah, 'friend'. Look what that ended up turning into. He'd been her only friend until she met Pyron, Freeze, Rubblerust and Electrika, but he had still been her biggest friend until they started dating. She couldn't understand how their friendship had blossomed into love now; it seemed almost impossible given the current events. She despised him so much now, that she almost threw up at the thought of how she had confessed her love to him, of how he'd asked her if she meant it a few weeks later. Of their first date. Of their last date before Spyro proposed to her. Of their soulmate ceremony. Of… No, she wouldn't think of that one.

Spyro meant nothing to her now. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Cynder groaned, before yawning again. There wasn't much to do. She was alone. She decided to go to sleep and let her body recover properly overnight before she returned to Warfang. She laid her head down on the soft, silky nest under her, turning it away from the fire so the bright light didn't disturb her from getting sleep. The steady rain and the chirping crickets from outside began to lull her, and the soft crackling of the fire was smooth and relaxing. The thunder had seemed to tame now, and only rumbled subtly in the distance. Her breathing and heartbeat began to slow, and her eyes started to close.

She was almost asleep until loud pawsteps and rustling sounds came from outside, and she groaned petulantly, turning her head towards the sound as a large fire dragon walked in, in his mid-fifties, hauling the carcass of a deer behind him. He let the carcass drop to the ground with a thud, and he turned to Cynder, who seemed to shrink almost half her size in nervousness, despite the strong and defensive look on her face. The fire dragon simply smirked. "You're awake. I didn't know how long it'd take for you to finally stir." he said.

Cynder stammered wordlessly, before pausing to clear her throat, and attempting to speak once again. "Who… who are you? Why am I here? What happened, and can I go home now?" Cynder asked.

"Slow down! One question at a time!" the dragon chuckled, his voice soft and soothing, and very friendly. But somehow… it was also… familiar. Very familiar. But she couldn't pick out where the familiarity came from. "To answer your first question, my name is Muras."

Cynder blinked. "Muras? The word for 'violet' in the dialect of the ancients?" she deadpanned.

"Yes. I was named for my eyes." Muras said with a shrug. "They're the purest violet my parents had ever seen. They thought something was wrong with me at first, but we… we figured one of my ancestors could have been a purple dragon. It's the only explanation for this."

"That's… odd. But for you to have even had colour traits inherited, the purple dragon would have had to have been your parents or grandparents; dragons can't inherit traits any further than that; almost everyone knows that. And your grandparents would only date back to about two hundred to a thousand years back, depending on how old they were when your parents were born, and when you were born. It's probably a pigmentation disorder or something, I don't know. I've seen ice dragons with orange or green eyes and a fire dragon with mismatched eyes, one blue and one orange, so it's possible." Cynder murmured with a look of concern for Muras, before she took another look at him.

Her jaw dropped. A bright red fire dragon with violet eyes. She looked his body over and saw that his chest was complete with bronze scales. Three bronze crown-like horns adorned his head, and bronze back spines and a long, elegant bronze tailblade were also sported. "I know you!" she exclaimed.

"Uh… y-y-y-you do?" Muras stammered, a weird expression appearing on his face.

"Yeah! I dreamt of you once! I had future sight about a month or so ago, and you were in one of the visions!" Cynder exclaimed, and Muras released the breath he seemed to be holding.

"W-w-well…" Muras stammered with a half-hearted chuckle. "I-I guess, technically, I can say I-I-I know you, too. N-n-not personally, of course, but I know… of you. I heard of… all the stories and everything that happened. You're one brave dragoness, you know that, Cynder? After going through everything you have."

"Yeah, I do. Look, I'm not here for the flattery. I just want answers, and to leave this junkhole."

"Junkhole?! This is my home!"

"Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, I… I didn't know!"

"It's alright. I know you didn't mean it. As for where we are, we're about a kilometre or so north-west of Urgussen, in probably the densest rainforest in the Dragon Realms. I love it here. It's not perfect, but it's home; has been for years. When I grabbed you as you were falling from the sky, I was actually out grabbing some firewood out in the forest just outside of Urgussen, when I saw you and I caught you. You were literally falling right on top of me. I couldn't save your leg, though. It got broken badly."

Cynder scoffed. "It was already broken beforehand. But it's not that big of a deal anyway. Red gems could have easily fixed that up, no problem."

"That's just it! I tried using red gems! But your body refused to accept them!"

Cynder screwed her face up. That was extremely weird. She'd never heard of a dragon who couldn't use red gems, but even if there were such a thing, she'd been using red gems for years. Why would they suddenly just… not work on her?

Muras continued to speak. "My father was a mage, and I learned a few things from him, back when the practise was legal of course. I eventually found out that the reason was your essence core. It was weak, almost empty. It couldn't take in the red gem's energy. It has to heal, slowly. I tried using a few spirit gems and green mana gems to try and speed up the process, but your core only accepted a very small portion of the spirit gem's power; it refused the energy of mana gems. I did as much healing as I could do, but magic can only do so much. I put your leg in a brace when I brought you here to try and set it, and it seemed to only be a minor break as it set after a few days, but it'll still be a little sore and weak."

"Wait, a few days?! How long have I been here?!"

"Uh... about eight to nine days."

"Eight to…?!" Cynder shouted, before swearing.

Muras flinched as Cynder swore. "Uh, there's no need for that language. You're fine, Cynder. You'll recover."

"My recovery isn't what worries me! I'm needed in Warfang! Really badly! I can't be here lazing about, you worm!"

"Look, Cynder. If I could get your health back to normal, I would, but your essence core isn't cooperating! It needs another three or four days!" Muras shouted. "I can see you're eager to get out of here and you might even feel ready, but the fact of the matter is that you're not, and you need to take it slow and calm so you can heal!"

Cynder lowered her head. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two. Muras looked over towards the fire, which was beginning to dwindle, he spat a small fireball at it to keep it going, and the fire burst to life again, flames dancing and entwining beautifully. The only sound between their silence was the crackling of the revived fire and the distant rain from outside, until eventually, Muras broke the silence. "Are you hungry? I have a deer that I just caught, so… if you're hungry you can have some. You'll be stuck here for at least another day, so you should probably eat; you've been unconscious for eight days as well, so you've been running on empty for a while."

"Ugh, why not? I've never been one to turn down a good deer anyway. Give me a flank."

And so, Muras turned to the carcass and tore off one of the deer's flanks, before tossing it in front of Cynder. She murmured her thanks and took a bite. Muras ripped off a leg, sitting down to take a few bites, before he then stood and started speaking. "Alright, I should probably try and get some more spirit gem energy into you; I managed to get a little bit more in the second time I gave it a go this morning. I'm going to need you to cooperate and stay still." Muras instructed.

Cynder hesitated. She still didn't trust Muras. She didn't want his paws all over her unless she knew he could be entrusted with her health. Muras seemed to guess the reason behind Cynder's discomfort. "Cynder, it'll be alright. I know what I'm doing. I did this yesterday and this morning and got some progress. I even used to help Father with healing using my magic powers, seeing as that was something he taught me." he explained softly.

She sighed, finally giving in, but she wasn't sure if she would regret it. "Yeah, sure, whatever." Cynder groaned, rolling her eyes as she took another bite of her deer flank.

Muras left for a bit to grab some spirit gems, before returning with a basket filled with four medium-sized blue crystals. He placed it on the ground beside her, and she turned to look at the basket, chewing on her food. It had been a long time since she had seen the glowing blue crystals. The last time was probably just before the face-off with Malefor eight years ago. She was surprised they still existed. She thought they'd all been destroyed when the world started to fall apart, or had become so rare that no one had seen one. Obviously, there were still some growing nearby.

The fire dragon sat down next to her. "I'm going to need to cut into you a little bit to get the gem inside your body so your core can accept it easier. It's still fairly weak and needs a bit of help." he warned. Cynder nodded and told him to hurry up and do what he needed to do. Slowly and carefully, he began to work his claw into her right flank, before peeling open a small hole in her side that bled profusely. Cynder winced in pain, focusing on the up-and-down motion of her jaws chewing her food to distract her from the pain.

Then Muras grabbed one of the spirit gems and fed it gently into the wound, whispering indistinctly. He held it quite a fair way in the wound, shoving some of his claw in as he tried to hold the gem in place. Cynder's blood seeped out onto Muras' claws, and he sighed. He raised his free forepaw and held it out in front of him, waving it over the wound and the gem, still murmuring under his breath. Cynder looked to Muras and saw that the sclerae of his eyes began to glow a mysterious lilac colour, and particles of the same lilac colour flickered about his claws.

Cynder suddenly felt an odd sensation inside her. Like air filling her lungs to full capacity. Like life entering her spirit. She shuddered as she felt the warm power flow through her body, and she felt something swelling up inside of her. She didn't know what it was, but suddenly, she felt energised. She looked to Muras with a look of shock on her face, and he withdrew the gem. Bits of black crystal could be seen through the blood that had spilled on top of the gem. "It worked. It took all the energy from a gem this time. That should be enough for now. Feel any better?" Muras asked.

"Yeah. A bit, thank you." Cynder said, feeling sorry she doubted him. It had worked well.

And with that, Muras turned and grabbed a red gem from the basket, holding it against Cynder's wound, hoping that her core had enough energy to accept the red gem's healing forces. It did, as sparkling red energy flowed into her body, and her wound closed, before healing completely. Muras wiped the blood off her flank and smiled with satisfaction. "Your core is getting stronger." Muras said. "It's on its way to full recovery, and it's doing well. To be honest, it's a huge miracle."

"Thank you." Cynder said, before adding, "I've been a bit confused after something you said, and I've got a few questions. You said my essence core wouldn't accept the power of a red gem. Why is that?"

"Well… it's a bit hard to explain, but us dragons… kind of have two spirits in a way. Our living spirit, which is the sense of spirit you're used to, and our elemental spirit, which we call our essence core, or core for short. I'm sure you've heard of that before." Muras explained.

"Yes, I have. But I've never exactly known what the essence core does. I know what it is, but only the real basics. We never learned too much of it at school. Really all I know is that it's how we use our elements and it stores the mana inside it."

"Well you are right, Cynder. Our core is the essence of everything magical inside us, like our elements, and our connection to the gems that allow them to do their work on us. And when we use our elements, we use what is called mana, like you said. The majority of our core is made up of mana, and the rest is made of another particle which we call ancestrite, which is the direct connection to the gems, and even more so, the spiritual connection to the ancestors. It's not that concerning when we run out of mana as we just can't use our elemental breaths. That what the green gems are for; inserting extra mana into our bodies. The mana can regenerate on its own though, but this happens at a very slow rate.

"The ancestrite, however, is much more vulnerable, and we need to be careful with it. When I found you, your essence core was running extremely low on ancestrite, I'm not sure how. Spirit gems are used to repair ancestrite if the core is wounded, but in the shockingly weak state your core was in, it couldn't even accept the repairing work of the spirit gems; it was a miracle that your core eventually gave into the spirit gem's power. I fear you could have lost all of your ancestrite if I wasn't there to help you."

"And what happens then?" Cynder asked.

Muras sighed. "Well, you've experienced what happens when you're terribly low on ancestrite. You get woozy, violently sick, and incredibly weak. Complete loss of ancestrite won't kill you; you will heal afterwards. But if you lose all your ancestrite, your essence core dies completely, and your element and access to the ancestors will be blocked forever, and you will go brown and nullen. As a null, you'll recover, but you'll have to live without elements and the ability to link with the ancestors and to use spirit and mana gems; healing gems will still work on you. You will go to be with the ancestors if you die, but here in the living realm, you will have no link to them."

"So if you hadn't come to my aid, I'd probably be a null right now? An elementless dragon?"

"If you hadn't died first, but yes. You're lucky I found you. You have a very fragile core."

"What? Why? And how do you know?"

"A wind dragoness like you is not built to bear four elements. You have a lot of mana and ancestrite capacity in your core, but it is extremely volatile because it is trying to control three extra elements than it should be."

"Oh. So that's what those training sessions were for. Malefor and Gaul made me train day in, day out, back when I was about one, I think, maybe a little younger, to control my elements. Apparently, they said my body was extremely volatile when they inserted the dark elements into my system, and at first, I didn't know why. They said to take it slowly and carefully, but I went against their words and used a full-force siren scream one day, and according to Gaul, I almost died because the extent of internal damage was too bad for a one-year-old youngling's body to handle; it affected my physical form as well as my essence core by the sounds of it."

"Then that's why your core is fragile; it's trying to handle too much, and has been since too young an age." Muras muttered. "No offense, but your core is an accident waiting to happen. It's fragile, and even after all your training and care, it's still quite delicate. And you were very close to losing it all, even your birth element."

Cynder mumbled in agreement, pausing to take another bite of her flank. Muras turned and put the basket of gems against the wall of the cave, before grabbing the leg he had started eating and sitting next to Cynder, taking another bite as he began to finish his food. "Do you have any more questions?" Muras asked. "I'm quite happy to answer them for you. It's the least I could do."

"I do have more questions, actually. I hope you don't mind me asking them; there's a fair few things I want to ask."

"Not at all. Ask away."

"That… that power you used when you put the spirit gem into me to… to repair my… ancestrite… what was that?"

"That was phantasm. It's an element of ancient times, until an electric dragon mage learned how to replicate it, back in the early years of sorcery when replicating elements was a big thing among them. His name was Lygryth, and he was very big on rituals and magic. He came across the phantasm element by accident. His childhood friend was a phantasmal dragon, as a matter of fact, so he knew phantasm when he saw it. He taught it to some of the other mages, and it became common practice among the mages. As a matter of fact, a lot of the abilities us mages have used to be elements that were accidentally stumbled upon and mastered. But when the mages learned it, it became altered, and the sorcerers' version of phantasm has a few different limits and abilities than the natural element. And phantasm, along with about three other elements, were the only ones able to be replicated after a million years after the mages came into existence. Many elements had been attempted to be replicated, but failed, and a few mages even took in some dragons as slaves to help them, but with no prevail. And the only elements that could be replicated were paranormal ones that were linked to more supernatural beings and forces, like phantasm. Physical elements like fire and earth, for example, could not be replicated.

"The practise of being a mage later died out, and when I was around, there were only four known mages in the whole world. Five if you include me. Shortly after I learned the practise, it became illegal."

"And what is phantasm?" Cynder asked.

"I was just about to get to that." Muras said with a chuckle. "It's an element… or paranormal ability practiced by mages and sorcerers, and the phantasmal dragons, of course, that allows the user close connection and communication to spirits and phantasmal energy around them. Most of them were spirit-seers and prophets, and could manipulate phantasmal energy, such as that of the ancestral gems. I used phantasm to help guide the phantasmal energy of the spirit gem towards your core. I could even talk to your core, and hear it pleading for help. Your spirit pleaded to accept the spirit gem I offered, but it took a while for your core to actually agree and accept the gem's energy. It's weird, I know, especially when you're so focused on the physical aspects of this world. You have been all your life, haven't you?"

"Yes. I've had the ancestors visit me and send me dreams and visions before, but this… phantasmal connection… that's unlike anything I've heard of."

"It's something that isn't practiced much these days."

"Yeah, you said that. You also said your father was a mage. What was he like?"

"He was amazing. He was the kindest, most loving father ever. Even my friends were jealous of me. But he was powerful, too. He was a strong fire dragon, and rivalled the guardian in skill."

"Your father knew Ignitus?"

"Uh… uh, yeah. Yeah, he did. They were… close friends and both undertook the guardian course. He, uh… He didn't win, of course, but I will always be proud of him. It was after the guardian course that he got into sorcery, and he was one of the most skilled mages to ever exist. He… He taught me all I know."

"He sounds like a good father. Is he still alive?"

"No. He was beheaded in public execution. He did some pretty… unsavoury things… in his later years that eventually caused him to be executed. Mother committed suicide about a day or two after. She couldn't handle the grief of Father's death and the crimes he had committed."

Cynder nodded. She wanted to ask what Muras' father did, but she didn't want to pry. This was something personal to him, and Cynder didn't want to upset him, especially when he was still in the process of treating her, and he could turn her back on her at any time.

"Do you have any more questions?" Muras asked, his voice cutting through her thoughts.

"Uh… no." Cynder said. "I'm kind of tired. I might go to…" She paused to yawn. "…go to sleep now."

"Good idea. I might too. I'll be down the far corner if you need me." he said, turning and leaving.

Cynder noticed with surprise as she looked around, noticing that there were actually corners and other rooms trailing off the main cave. They looked paw-made. "Did you make those?" Cynder called.

"Yeah! A friend and I made this place! He's an earth dragon that still lives in Urgussen. Pretty skilled." Muras replied. "This has been my home ever since! Anyway, good night!"

And Muras was gone, and Cynder was left to her own thoughts. She stared into the fire that was beginning to dwindle. She didn't mind Muras. He was a cool guy. He had a lot of knowledge that could be helpful, and he was also a mage. He could be a big help to her. To Warfang. Well… if he wanted to help, that was. She thought he might, though. He was pretty intent on nursing her to health, and he was doing a great job at it. He was kind and friendly, too. She felt bad for doubting him originally.

Cynder turned her head away from the fire and closed her eyes with a smile. It wasn't long before the soft rain from outside and the crackling of the fire lulled her to sleep.

And I'm back. Posting this because I haven't heard anything from my beta-reader on Chapter 31 yet and I don't want to have another five-month break like last time lol. But anyway, hopefully this was any good guys.

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Derick Lindsey: You're really hating on Spyro aren't you lol? I mean, fair enough due to what he's done but it's pretty funny seeing your reaction to Spyro doing what he did lol. I love seeing what people take out of my stories and how they react, especially since everyone has different interpretations of certain bits of a story.

lord typhlosion: Hey man, been a while and I honestly thought you'd stopped reading but oh well. Glad to see you still around and that you're still enjoying it.

AquillaPrime: I was pretty happy with the idea of the essence core too lol, and my beta and I had to talk a bit to get the idea working properly. I was also really happy with the little bit of Spyro at the start of last chapter, as was my beta. And you're right, ultimately Spyro left Cynder to die, no matter how bad he felt about it. He's fallen quite a bit lol. Anyway, thanks for the review and glad you're enjoying it!

DragonLover2468: Yeah, not much is really going well for anybody lol. But Cynder's alive so she'll still be around for a while lol.

MysticOTDH: Didn't expect to see your review man due to you not liking this type of stuff haha, but thanks for the words, and keep up the great work with your own stuff lol!

TheDragonPhylakas: Eh, we've had some extensive talk on this lol, but long story short for anyone else interested about the points you raised, this was my second proper fanfiction and my first attempt at being dark and gory so of course it wasn't spaced out very well and I could've also written the gory sections in different levels of intensity to make the more intense bits more intense. Pacing too is something I need to work on, so I'm hoping not to throw things out too quickly like I have done previously. Also I didn't exactly have a plan for what to do with Terrador lol; he was always going to die with the other guardians but I didn't think of how I could've implemented his knowledge of the future, specifically Cynder's future, into the story. Anyway, glad you're enjoying it though. Hope this chapter lives up to the expectations from last chapter haha.

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And that's me done for now, see you soon hopefully. Bye!