Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro the Dragon or anything from this franchise!

Summary: With Avalar being threatened by a being named Ripto three inhabitants of Avalar attempted to bring a dragon to their world to deal with them, what they got instead was a human child. Jacob just wanted to enjoy his day when he got abducted to some sort of fantasy land, something that really interested him. Rated T for now.

Chapter 02: Explaining the Situation

After that near death experience, Jacob was a bit more subdued as he made his way through Glimmer, managing to get another pickaxe from one of the smaller lizards, now knowing not to throw it at the larger ones.

Still he did appreciate the beauty of this place. The Giant gems one could see in the walls and in the background, the color of the sky. The architecture.

Nothing back home could even come close to how this place was.

To pass the time while no enemies attacked, Jacob tried to learn more about Avalar from the book and much to his surprise it seemed that it had different worlds.

Yes worlds, plural.

There were three hubs that had different gateways to various worlds which only increased Jacob's interest in this world.

Summer Forest being one of them which was where he was heading, he just needed to find the gateway out of this one to learn more about what was going on and why he was brought to Avalar.

But he did promise to help with the Lizard Problem and Jacob wasn't really one to break a promise.

"I just need to find the way to Summer Forest."

He wasn't expecting for anyone to answer, but lo and behold someone did.

"You're not that far, just go through the cave and go across the bridge." A voice made Jacob jump as he looked around, not seeing anyone, he even looked down to see if it was one of the Gemcutters. "Up here."

Looking up, Jacob saw the fairy that helped distract Ripto earlier, giving a small wave.

Now that he had time to think about it, Jacob found the fact that he was seeing a fairy pretty cool.

He really was living out some sort of fantasy adventure.

Still, he returned the wave with a friendly grin. "Sorry, didn't see you there," He apologized a bit sheepishly. "So Summer Forest is close? That's great, thank you-er sorry, but what's your name?"

The fairy didn't seem to mind and gave a small giggle. "It's fine, I'm Zoe, a friend of Elora's." She said with Jacob unsure of which of the three he met were Elora. "She asked me to help you out a bit while she followed Ripto."

She-okay Elora was the goat girl. Got it.

"So be my guide?" Jacob asked, wondering what sort of help this Zoe would be.

Not that he was doubting her ability after what happened earlier.

"In a manner of speaking, I'm just here to make sure you know how to get to Summer Forest, we didn't know if you knew about gateways to the other worlds." Zoe explained to him. "And to do this."

Zoe gave a playful zap to Jacob with her wand, making him jump as that stung a bit.

"What was that for?!"

"Think of it as my way in wishing you luck." Zoe explained while Jacob rubbed his head.

"Could've warned me." Jacob muttered to himself. "Or just say good luck."

Not that he didn't appreciate the sentiment, but seriously there were better ways.

"I better go catch up with Elora, see you later." Zoe took off flying after giving another friendly wave.

Watching as she left, Jacob shrugged it off and began entering the cave, feeling a course of excitement that he usually only felt while playing video games.

Now normally when one goes inside of a cave, you would think that it would be too dark to see, but the Gemcutters had lanterns on the roof of the cave, the lights from them making the gems in the walls sparkle, allowing for there to be plenty of light.

And this wasn't like one of the caves that you would find back home, not that there were any where Jacob lived but what he meant was in the end it was only a normal empty cave.

This one had far more to it.

Seeing another Gemcutter being chased by a lizard, Jacob sprang into action, using his pickaxe to slam into the lizard, making it dissipate.

'Good thing it only takes one hit.' Jacob tried to twirl the pickaxe, in his mind acting like one of the Final Fantasy characters after winning a battle, but he dropped it where the sharp point nearly landed on his foot.

Despite looking like an idiot, the Gemcutter didn't seem to mind, in fact he was relieved that the lizard was taken care of. "Thanks, he's been chasing me for awhile." He said, sitting down in relief. "The name's Whiskers."

'At least that'll be easy to remember.' Jacob picked the pickaxe back up, pretending he didn't just drop it.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jacob." Jacob gave a wave, grinning to hopefully not scare him, remembering how Pogo was uncertain about him earlier.

He then glanced towards the nearby ladder, a damaged ladder with pieces of it destroyed.

"What's up there?"

Zoe said that he needed to cross a bridge, nothing about a ladder.

"Oh it's where the flight power up is." Whiskers explained, immediately getting Jacob's attention.

"Flight power up?" Jacob asked, a smile going across his face.

Flying sounded awesome.

"Yea, we use it to light the gems over there." Whiskers pointed towards the gem-like lanterns scattered throughout the cave. "But we have to be careful of the time limit so we don't get injured."

Hearing there was a time limit on this flight, disappointment crossed Jacob's face.

He was hoping the flight would be permanent.

Oh well.

"I take it you're going to light the gems?" Jacob asked looking around to see what had to be the bridge, only it wasn't connected-.

And was that a bear in a black suit?!

Staring for a few seconds as the rather plump bear seemed to be waiting for something, Jacob shook his head.

That shouldn't really be a surprise, he already met a few animals who can walk and talk like humans, a bear in a suit isn't that surprising in comparison.

"Well I would, but the lizards damaged the ladder pretty badly, I'm too short to fully climb it." Whiskers sounded embarrassed before glancing up at Jacob. "I know it's a lot, but would you mind doing it?"

Not even hesitating, Jacob grinned. "Sure." He said marking this as his first side quest.

Whisker's eyes lit up, his ears twitching to show relief. "Thanks Jacob, you're a lifesaver."

Jacob just grinned, rubbing his nose in the process before placing the pickaxe in the bag that Pogo gave him and he began to climb the ladder.

Upon making it to the top, he saw the arch that had to be the power-up, sparkling light surrounding it to show that it was active along with a nearby torch along with a few sticks.

Now getting the idea, Jacob grabbed a stick and lit it before stepping to the arch.

He had no idea what to expect, but the moment he walked through, he felt… Light.

No not the actual light, but like a huge load was forced off his shoulders, probably lessening the gravity around him?

But he was floating.

"Whoa!" Jacob waved his arms around, not knowing how to fly, accidently dropping the stick as the fire went out upon hitting the ground.

Trying to regain control, Jacob ended up being upside down.

Seeing his predicament, Whiskers called up. "Don't think about flying, just do it." He said as if that made sense.

It probably did, perhaps he was only overthinking it instead of going with the flow?

Taking a deep breath, Jacob imitated how Superman would fly, one fist out while the other was pulled back and it seemed to work.

Giving a laugh at how he was getting the hang of it, Jacob goofed off a bit before the time limit ran out while he was above the chasm where the bridge would be, forcing him to fall with a panicked scream, barely grabbing the edge in time.

'Right, time limit.' Jacob thought, his heart pounding. 'Can't get too into flying.'

Pulling himself up, he heard a soft chuckle and turned towards where the bridge would be to see the bear trying not to laugh.

He guessed it looked hilarious from another's perspective, so Jacob didn't really hold it against him, instead just getting back to Whiskers with a sheepish grin.

Thankfully Whiskers just shook his head. "Don't worry, everyone did the same thing when we first learned how to do it." He said knowing how it felt to be flying for the first time.

Feeling a bit relieved at that, Jacob tried again, this time knowing what to do as he relit the stick and stepped through the arch.

From there it didn't take too long to light the gems, lighting up the cave even more and the gems on the walls and ground began to sparkle, adding to the beauty of this place.

'Oh I get it.' Jacob realized the second reason this was done besides the obvious, landing next to Whiskers in time for the flight to wear off.

The light helped them locate any hidden gems to mine.

That was pretty smart actually.

"Thanks, that will help a lot, Roo was worried that we would have to cancel the baseball game." Whiskers began with Jacob nodding only to blink and give the Gemcutter a strange look.

"Baseball game? I thought these were to help with mining."

"They are, Roo just loves playing baseball here at night." Whiskers just grinned at Jacob's confusion. "Still thank you, hang on I think I have something, some fairy left this with us, but we don't have any need for it."

He reached into his pouch and pulled out some sort of green crystal orb with yellow handles, handing it over to Jacob who accepted it with a raised brow.

The moment he touched it, some sort of energy flowed through him, a small amount but it was gone before he could understand what it was.

He did feel rather energized though.

Despite not knowing what this was, Jacob didn't want to be rude. "Thanks." He said, thinking it would make a great souvenir, placing it in his bag.

Wait Fairy? Were they talking about Zoe? Or were there other fairies in Avalar?

Most likely the latter.

Waving good-bye to Whiskers, Jacob approached the bridge.

Auric Moneybags hummed as he checked the final adjustments on the bridge in time to hear the latest suck-er, he means customer walking towards him.

Many people in Avalar would tell you many things about Moneybags if one asked.

Greedy. Selfish. Self-Centered. Sell-Out.

They say that he would sell his own parents for a couple of gems and Moneybags would be insulted if some of those weren't true.

In his defense he was simple, he just liked Gems and he was a businessman after all.

Sure he, like the other residents of Avalar, was terrified of what would happen should Ripto succeed in taking over the lands. Despite how he was, this place was his home as much as it was with anyone else.

He was even more horrified to hear about how Ripto was taking gems for himself, leaving none for the businessman.

But then he managed to overhear about how Elora, Hunter, Zoe and the Professor planned to bring a Dragon to Avalar in order to fight Ripto.

A very dangerous idea, but possibly a profitable one.

After all he's heard legends of how Dragons hoard treasures, so he kept to the background, watching with bated breath only to be disappointed when a human came through the portal instead.

But he came over that rather quickly, knowing that he could still work with this.

The human looked like a child and children were gullible, along with this child not knowing about Moneybag's reputation as a businessman. The combination of those traits would work well in his favor.

So he put on his best, warm and friendly smile, turning as Jacob finally made his way to him. "Ah hello there, you must be the human that everyone is talking about, here to save the land from the likes of Ripto and his ilk, hm?" The bear asked, placing a pawed hand on his stomach. "You can call me Moneybags."

"Nice to meet you?" Jacob found the name a bit odd and something was really off with this guy. "I'm Jacob."

People were already talking about him being here? He only saved two Gemcutters and the only other ones who knew he was here were Ripto and the ones who brought him here.

So he was surprised by this development.

"Is the bridge broken?" Jacob asked, looking over the chasm with a frown.

Perhaps this Ripto destroyed it to strand him in Glimmer?

His theory was shot down as Moneybag's grin grew. "Oh yes, it was quite a sight, but luckily for you I can fix it quite easily, though getting it done would be costly and I'll need a few gems for materials, say 100 Gems?"

Jacob just stared for a few seconds before looking at the distance, an idea forming in his own head. "Sorry, but I'm in a hurry." He said turning around to walk off.

Moneybags stared, a bit flabbergasted by what just happened, watching as Jacob made his way back to the ladder and climbed it for the flight power up.

From there, he easily made his way across it, landing on the other side, giving a wave to Moneybags. "I hope you get your gems." He called back as he ran off.

It was silent as Moneybags just stared in disbelief that this kid just did that before hanging his head, flipping the switch to make the bridge appear.

Getting Gems from that kid would be tougher than he thought.

"Thank you for taking care of those lizards, Jacob." Twitchy the Gemcutter said an hour later as he was hopping next to the human, escorting him towards the portal leaving Glimmer. "They've been nothing but a nuisance."

"It's no problem." Jacob said, placing his hands behind his head as he walked, a grin on his face.

Thankfully there weren't any more of those huge lizards like the one near where he started, so the little ones he handled pretty easily.

There were even some small red ones he helped take care of and along the way he found another flight power up to help light some of the gems outside.

The Gemcutters gave him another green orb, one for each of those two leaving him with three, the human now very curious in what they were.

But that can come later. He was just happy that he helped out around here.

"Let me tell you, it'll be a relief to get back to work, we need to do some overtime to make up for what we lost when this began, Avalar counts on us for the finances." Twitchy, came to a stop right next to the portal. "This will lead you to Summer Forest."

Jacob stared at the portal, finding it very interesting and was about to go through it only for Twitchy to speak up again.

"Oh and before I forget, here as a token of our appreciation." That made Jacob glance at Twitchy to see him holding what looked to be a Golden Pickaxe. "This Talisman is one of our greatest treasures, normally we wouldn't be giving it out like this but given what's happening, I think you might find it useful."

"Okay?" Jacob accepted this talisman with a strange look.

It looks pretty cool and they said it was a great treasure, but how would this help with what's happening?

Deciding to question it later, Jacob placed it in the bag before waving good-bye to Twitchy as he stepped through the portal, feeling the same sensation of falling that he felt when he first appeared in Glimmer.

Only this time it was a bit more controlled.

"Oh no." Elora muttered in annoyance, watching as the turquoise flags of the castle in Summer Forest were replaced by flags showing a sneering Ripto.

Things were just getting worse and worse the longer Ripto remained here.

Ever since he showed up, he's been slowly taking over with her and the others always one step behind. All they could do was slow him down and even that wasn't enough given how he's taken over the entirety of Winter Tundra and Autumn Plains.

Now Summer Forest finally fell to his command.

Thankfully even though he took over the main areas, the other worlds aren't fully under his control, though Elora had no clue how long that would last.

It really was starting to seem hopeless right now.

If only their plan to get a dragon worked.

Instead they got a human kid.

Which was disappointing in comparison.

Elora knew that wasn't fair to the kid because it wasn't like he asked for this either, but they were running out of time and with the portal destroyed they had no way of getting a dragon or sending the kid home.

Not to mention how Hunter seemed to have disappeared which made her very worried for the cheetah and that added to the annoyance.

'Why can't things just go right for once?' Elora thought, tired from how this whole thing was playing out.

Hearing the portal to Glimmer ripple behind her, Elora's ear twitched before she turned to see the kid coming out, landing on his feet as opposed to the crash-landing from when he first appeared.

He did stumble a bit, trying to regain his balance. "Man that was weird." He muttered before seeing Elora.

Pushing down the annoyance, Elora gave a friendly smile, not wanting to take it out on the kid given how none of what happened was his fault.

"Hello, nice to see you made it." She said, looking a little uncertain on how to proceed. "I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

"Besides the lizards and that strange bear, it wasn't that bad." Jacob said with a shrug, leaving for Elora to be bewildered about the last part before coming to a realization.

Of course Moneybags had to take advantage of this situation.

Great, now she felt guilty because he most likely swindled Jacob out of his money.

Jacob ruffled his hair, seemingly thinking about something. "So I'm Jacob and you're Elora, right? I think Zoe said that."

Elora blinked, just now realizing that with everything that happened they never did introduce themselves.

"Nice to meet you." Elora clasped her hands behind her back, her ears lowering a bit to show some embarrassment at forgetting that. "I guess I should explain what's going on."

"That'd be nice." Jacob agreed, crossing his arms as while he was enjoying this makeshift adventure he was still annoyed about being abducted.

As Elora gathered her thoughts, wondering where to start, Jacob looked at her, seeing the goat legs once more before he spoke.

"So are you a Satyr or something?" He asked, remembering reading the first Percy Jackson and the Olympians book and how it described Grover.

In response, Elora leaned towards him, tilting her head with an amused look, despite initially feeling a little offended. "I'm a Faun you dork, Satyrs are the males."

Jacob gave an apologetic look, not meaning anything by it. "My bad."

At least he didn't ask if she was a donkey or a goat, that might've made her angry.

"Did you talk with the Gemcutters in Glimmer?"

"Yeah they were pretty nice, gave me some sort of gold pickaxe for taking care of their lizard problem." Jacob shrugged that off while Elora tensed up for some odd reason.

"Gold pickaxe?" She asked, a possibility coming to mind.

"Yea, called it a Talisman, I think-?"

Elora cut him off, shock in her tone as she leaned in. "They gave you a Talisman?!"

Taking a step back in surprise from how close she got, Jacob gave a short nod. "Yes? It's in the bag they gave me, was I not supposed to accept it?"

"No, that's great." Elora sounded elated.

Any annoyance at their plan in getting a dragon not working was gone.

They needed the Talismans, but convincing each world to hand them over was a hassle. The fact that Jacob got one, without even knowing how important they were was one of the best news she's had in a long time.

For the first time since Ripto showed up, Elora felt like they might finally have an advantage.

Perhaps the portal brought them the right person after all.

"There are fourteen Talismans in Avalar and they are all magical," Elora elaborated to Jacob, the boy looking surprised by the amount of them. "They would be of great help against Ripto."

"Right what's the story with the scaly midget?" Jacob wasn't sure how these Talismans would help but he was more curious about this enemy of theirs.

Elora went to answer, but the Portal to Glimmer rippled only for Hunter to jump through looking exhausted.

The relief at seeing he was safe turned to annoyance as Elora placed her left hand on her hip. "Hunter where were you?! I thought Ripto caught you!"

"Oh, uh I uh-," Hunter looked embarrassed as he lightly scratched his head. "Got a little lost."

"I explored Glimmer, how did I not see you?" Jacob asked in genuine confusion while the annoyance in Elora faded to look amused at what she found was normal for the Cheetah.

And how did he get lost? It wasn't that difficult to get through Glimmer.

Hunter gave a start, not seeing Jacob but before he could speak, Elora intervened. "Jacob's going to help us collect the Talismans."

Hearing that, Jacob balked, not expecting that or for it to be said without his consent.

"He is?" Hunter asked, looking confused.

"I mean I could and this world seems interesting but I need to get home before my parents are back."

Elora fidgeted a bit, looking rather unsure. "About that, remember how we brought you here and how it was destroyed?" She asked, seeing Jacob connect the dots, his shoulders slumping in realization.

"So I'm stuck here?" He asked, no longer finding this exciting.

He thought they had another way for him to get back.

"Look, I get that you want to go home and I'm sorry we abducted you but we're desperate right now, Ripto has taken over all the hub worlds with his monsters," Elora quickly said, her words bringing Jacob out of his thoughts. "We need help, I promise if you can help us defeat Ripto, the Professor will find a way to return you home, if anyone can do it he can."

Not really seeing another way, Jacob gave a nod, seeing relief flood Elora's face.

"Good, now in order to beat Ripto you need to go to the other worlds in Avalar and convince the inhabitants to give you their Talismans, perhaps by doing what you did in Glimmer?"

So free them from the monsters that plague each world?

Sounds simple enough.

"Hey, I can do that." Hunter said, not expecting it to be that simple.

If he knew they just needed the Talismans he would've handled it easily.

Elora however thought differently, now with both hands on her hips. "Hunter, you can't even keep track of your running shoes," She pointed out with him looking down to see that he wasn't wearing any. "How can we trust you with fourteen Talismans?"

Not able to come up with a retort, Hunter went quiet and walked off, most likely to try and find his running shoes with Jacob unsure of how to take that.

Shaking her head, Elora smiled. "Don't mind him, Hunter has his… Reasons for being like this, he's helpful but also rather clumsy."

Despite being curious about the reasons, Jacob didn't ask, feeling like it wasn't really any of his business.

"Oh and if you find any green orbs those are important too, they can be used to help return you home once Ripto is taken care of."

Jacob paused and pulled the three he obtained out. "You mean like these?" He asked, hoping he was right.

"Exactly, you have a bit of a head start." Elora was rather surprised by how well this was working out. "Keep that up and Ripto will be gone in no time."

"Alright, gather Talismans, keep an eye out for orbs and kick Ripto like a football." Jacob listed off the main things he needed to do.

While Jacob knew that he was far from what they tried to get, remembering how Hunter mentioned something about a Dragon, he wasn't going to sit back and do nothing.

Besides he might as well see the sights if he was stuck here, no one said he couldn't have fun while getting these Talismans.

To Be Continued…

Geez, not going to lie I actually forgot this story existed for a bit, only just found it again recently and I figured I could finish up the second chapter to update it before the new year starts, sorry for the wait.

But more on Jacob's personality being revealed, such as how he does some things without thinking and can get caught up with stuff, I tried to have the flying power ups explained in a bit of a realistic manner, figured it was used for the Gemcutters when they needed to take care of some stuff. And the monsters won't reappear in Glimmer so that world is officially saved.

Unlike Spyro, Jacob can climb ladders so it was easy for him. I do plan for him to get different stuff from Moneybags when the time comes but I hoped I portrayed each character pretty well.

I love typing Moneybags and then the interactions between Elora, Jacob and Hunter were my favorite parts so far.

I'll try to get the next one out a lot sooner than this one.

Okay happy new year and let's hope 2021 is a lot better than 2020.

So let's get the Reviews out of the way.

Pyrojack25: I was three when the third game released but I didn't play any of them until I was seven, still have the PS1 with those games, Crash Bandicoot and Gex. Spyro 1 was the only game I've ever completed at 100 percent, so when Reignited came out I was hooked, even more when the characters were shown. I did think about having Zoe follow him around like Sparx did with Spyro, but I figured it would've been too much like Jaune and Tatl in my Land of Termina story. I do plan for him to meet Spyro at some point and possibly help out with the egg issue. Yeah he is a bit arrogant, not as much as Spyro but treating things like a game doesn't help matters, still it's his way of doing things and he is a kid at the moment so it's understandable.

Starlord Master: You said it.

Sol1234: Maybe, not revealing anything yet.

RonaldM40196867: No kidding, they're tough.