Disclaimer: I don't own ANY characters of TLOS, the only character I own is Ivor.
Shadow scales
"….Happy birthday to yooooou~"
Spyro, Cynder, the guardians (Terrador, Cyril and Volteer), Hunter and his fiancé Bianca, Flame with his wife Ember and their daughter Ignitia, Sparx and Nina and Flash all gathered around a table where they all sang and smiled at the small white dragon who was seated at the head of said table.
He was officially four that day!
It had been 4 years since the young dragon had first hatched from his egg and he had grown into a lively young whelp who, much like his father, accepted the world into which he was born and, not only that, but he was fearless, courageous and kind-hearted like his father as well. Alas he also had inherited a few things from Cynder such as his tendency to be feisty, be headstrong and loyal to a fault when he needed, and a tad overprotective of his family despite being so young.
Ivor was growing up to be fine…if only for one little hiccup:
The whelp had yet to display any sign of learning to wield any elemental magic such as fire, electric, earth and ice or even time itself —granted, Spyro himself didn't learn about his own elemental magic until he was twelve years of age but he was a special case…
The small whelp, a party hat perched on his brow, was grinning down at a huge cake set in front of him —his huge amethyst eyes sparkled with joy and excitement.
He was beaming at his birthday cake!
The birthday cake was a single tier Victoria sponge cake with a single lit candle popped in the middle. The top of the cake was slathered with white icing and clotted cream as around the candle there was some writing scripted by even more icing. The inside of the cake was (quite literally) jam-packed with more clotted cream and strawberry jam with a hint of mint.
Ivor's favourite flavour.
After the birthday song was over, Spyro smiled.
"Go on! Blow out the candles, son!" He encouraged.
Ivor immediately did as instructed. He leaned down and stretched his neck forwards so he stared intensely at the tiny flame that flickered and danced whilst being supported by the singular wax candle protruding from the top of the cake. When he was close enough, the young dragon inhaled so as to fill his lungs with oxygen before he blew the candle as hard as he possibly could.
For some reason, however, the candlelit flame didn't go out.
The birthday boy tried again but, again, to no avail…
He tried a third time with the same result.
Why was this candle not going out? Was he not blowing hard enough? Was there something he was missing? What was going-! Before he could even ask one of his parents to lend him an extra pair of lungs, however, someone blew some ice and extinguished the small kindle into nothingness.
Ivor's eyes glinted with disappointment and confusion.
Before anyone else could react, Cyril spoke up.
"What?" He shrugged "This exercise was beginning to become most tedious, so I thought I should intervene before it took the youngling all day to blow out that candle. You are welcome."
The ice guardian's efforts were merely rewarded with a harsh whack delivered to the back of his head, curtesy of Terrador. Cyril couldn't keep from crying out in discomfort since one of Terrador's wings was the one that lashed him across the back of his head.
"Ow!" Cried Cyril.
Terrador snarled.
"Cyril, did you really have to blow out a whelp's birthday cake for him? You do realise that your impatience and pompous attitude will get you into a lot of trouble one of these days!"
The ice guardian just mumbled an apology whilst flinching due to the fact that he was also on the receiving end of a scathingly intense glare coming from Cynder. Her eyes were narrowed into slits and she let an almost serpentine hiss slip through her tightly gritted fangs, silently warning him to not interfere anymore with her only son's birthday unless he wanted to face a mother's wrath.
Spyro decided to step in to remedy the situation by simply inhaling and then exhaling flames, despite the fireball he spat being way more tame and diminutive then any other fire he'd created over the years, everyone backed off a bit to avoid getting burned by the red hot flames.
The fatherly purple dragon snapped his jaws shut when the candle was successfully re-lit.
"Okay, Ivor," Spyro said, sitting closer to his small son "Let's blow this candle out on 3."
Spyro and Ivor inhaled simultaneously as the former counted.
"1…2…3!"
Ivor and Spyro made a joint effort in blowing the candle out and this time they did it successfully; their accomplishment was promptly followed by a big round of applause for not only blowing out that dastardly candle but also to further celebrate Ivor's birthday in proper celebration. The purple dragon and white dragon whelp both wore huge smiles as the latter snuggled into the crook of his father's neck with the most affection his tiny body could muster.
Cynder joined in on the love and affectionately nuzzled little Ivor.
"Did you make a wish, sweetie?" She asked.
Ivor giggled and nodded.
"I did! I can't tell you what it is, though,"
Cynder furrowed a brow in amusement.
"Oh? And why's that?"
"Because if I tell anyone what I wished for then it's less likely to come true!"
Ivor stated that fact as if it were common knowledge; of course, to his childish mind, it probably was common knowledge. Nevertheless it was obvious that the small dragon was enjoying his birthday party and to see Ivor so happy made everyone just as delighted in response. His happiness was infectious since it spread to everyone in the room in no time at all.
In the meantime, Spyro got up from the table and went to go grab something. Nobody had noticed before since everyone was rather focused on the birthday whelp instead of anything else going on around them.
It was Hunter who noticed the purple dragon's absence.
"Hey," He spoke up "Where did Spyro go?"
Volteer was the one who answered the humanoid cheetah's question.
"I am under the presumptive notion that Spyro had left the table temporarily to gather the offerings and contributions that everyone had brought for the current gathering meant to celebrate the anniversary of little Ivor's day of hatching."
Everyone stared at the electric guardian dragon with blank stares, especially Sparx.
What in the world did Volteer just say?
Sparx never understood what the elder hyperactive was saying due to his very posh vocabulary and his tendency to use words that nobody should be able to understand. As a matter of fact, the yellow dragonfly found it simply embarrassing that even after all these years he was still clueless on how to internally translate what the guardian of electricity was saying.
"Wha…?" He uttered, his brain filling with so many questions that his train of thought ran off track, crashed and then burned.
Seeing her brother-in-law struggle, Cynder decided to step in and translate. She closed her eyes as she hung and shook her head as if to say "I can't believe I'm having to do this" while she exhaled deeply through her nostrils to the point where visible puffs of oxygen became little vapours that exited and rose through those same nostrils.
"He said that he was pretty sure that Spyro left to go and grab Ivor's birthday gifts." She explained.
Volteer nodded in agreement while Sparx moaned.
"Ugh, why couldn't he have said so earlier?"
The group resumed conversing with one another while Spyro continued to apparently gather all the birthday gifts which had been accumulated just for the birthday whelp. Their words swarmed and intermingled, twined and combined, and the sheer volume of which they spoke was drowned by another one of the guests as they all spoke at the same time even though not one individual conversation could possibly be followed.
Ivor stared down longingly at the huge cake with spit dribbling right out of his open mouth. The birthday cake looked so appetising and he wanted nothing more than to slam his face into the cake and devour it within seconds. Just the thought of licking the delectable icing made his small spine tremor up and down and his small tail started to wag enthusiastically.
"Mmmhmmm!" Spyro suddenly spoke up through muffled words "Ef got da pressents!"
It was discovered quickly that the reason for Spyro's words being muffled was due to the fact that he had returned with a small box wrapped in bright and colourful wrapping paper with a little red bow tied around it —it was stuffed in his mouth. The other gifts were carried on his back, making the purple dragon resemble more of a pack mule rather than a hero of the realms.
The large yet slender purple dragon traipsed his way through the dining room and made his way back towards his chosen seat beside Ivor and proceeded to place all of the birthday gifts down.
Spyro felt his heart melt when he saw the excited expression on his small son's face. Ever since he first lay his eyes on Ivor, he knew that this was a being that his love for would never waver or falter; Spyro's adoration for his small white-scaled son only increased when it turned out that Ivor's first words were "Da" and his heart swelled to the size of an entire planet.
Ivor and Spyro were as thick as thieves (don't misunderstand, Ivor was very close to his mother too) and the small dragon loved listening to the tales of his parents and uncle Sparx's adventures as well as their trials and tribulations.
It was one of his favourite things to listen to before bed.
The full-grown purple dragon finally put the gift in his mouth down in front of Ivor and, after watching the purple dragon place the gifts down on the table, the entire crowd fell completely silent and all eyes suddenly fell upon Ivor —whose eyes started to sparkle and glisten the instant he saw the small mountain of gifts set up in front of him.
Ivor wore the worlds biggest smile as his wings started to buzz and flap so much that he was beginning to hover right out of his seat. His amethyst purple eyes were overflowing with excitement and the aura surrounding the small white dragon was filled with just as much joy and excitement as he was himself.
Cynder chuckled warmly at her only son's excitement.
"What are you waiting for, baby?" She asked gingerly, "Go ahead and open it."
Ivor wasted no time and tore the wrapping paper open and opened the lid of the box to behold…!
The excitement gave way for befuddlement while he stared at it as a confused look befell his small face as he stared at the material with a perplexed expression. His eyes widened but he titled his head sideways in confusion as his young mind tried to comprehend his gift and whatthis item was specifically.
It was…a piece of purple material?
Ivor proceeded to dig it out of the box to present to everyone and they appeared just as confused as he did.
This was the case until Cynder explained.
"It's a scarf, sweetie. I knitted it myself so that, if you happen to feel lost or upset then you will always have a reminder that your family loves you no matter what."
Ivor's eyes shined like stars of awe as he stared at the material in silent wonder; he didn't know why but his opinion (a not very good one) on the accessory had changed the instant those words rolled off of his mother's tongue. His mouth quivered despite gaping open and his small yet underdeveloped wings flapped reflexively and he immediately hugged the material close to him with tears rolling down his cheeks.
Spyro smiled warmly, his heart growing even larger with warmth due to the adorability of the interaction between his mate and son.
"You want me to put it on?" The purple dragon offered.
Ivor immediately nodded so fast that his head was practically a white and yellow blur until Spyro made work of taking the scarf in his own mouth and furled it around the small dragon…only to find that it didn't fit him too well at the moment. The scarf tails wrapped themselves around his small body but it he rest of it was a snug fit around his neck.
The response to seeing the whelp wearing his new scarf was practically a chorus of "Awwww".
Ember cooed "Awww! He looks so darling and handsome in that scarf! It barely fits him, bless…"
Flame nodded in agreement with his mate with their daughter sat atop his head.
Ivor couldn't have been happier with his new scarf and wasted no time in expressing his gratitude to his mother. He bounced up and happily nuzzled his mother with every ounce of love and adoration he had for the motherly black dragoness, his throat even emitted a very low purr as he soaked in the loving embrace of his mother.
"Thank you, mama!" Ivor said with a voice as warm as a fire in the midst of a blizzard.
Cynder returned the loving embrace as she licked Ivor's cheek and then rubbed her snout against her young son's cheek, minding the yellow horns sprouting out from each side of his cheek. The ebony-scaled dragoness couldn't help but wonder what great deed she had done to deserve such a sweet little whelp such as Ivor?
Her son was perfect and she couldn't have asked the ancestors for better…
"You're very welcome, Ivor…" She whispered gingerly.
Next up was all the other gifts and Ivor opened them all and loved them all equally within their own right, but nothing came close to his mother's paw-made scarf she had made for him. He loved everything he had received —there was a cool book chock full of old stories that was given to him by the Guardians, another gift was a swamp lamp that came from Sparx along with Flash and Nina respectively, the third gift was from Hunter and Bianca which was a book on mastering elemental powers, the fourth birthday present was from Flame, Ember and Ignitia which turned out to be a fire-proof teddy bear which was greatly appreciated…and the final gift came from Spyro.
Spyro had at first struggled on what to get his son but eventually he came across the perfect gift.
Ivor tore the wrapping paper to reveal whatever was inside.
The small white dragon was astonished to discover a set of armour that was just his size which included a toy wooden sword that he happily clutched in his teeth and held it up to present to everyone else present. Everyone went "ooh" and "aah" the second the whelp revealed the gift his father brought him and he couldn't have been any happier than he was at that very moment.
"Oh…my…GOSH, THIS IS SO COOL!" Gushed the whelp.
Then he turned and lunged at his father, tackling him, and almost knocking him to the floor below.
As he tackled his father, he jumped as high as he could until his forelegs had wrapped around Spyro's neck. The purple dragon stumbled a bit at the surprise weight but he pulled himself back and straightened his stance. He wrapped his own neck and head around son to keep him aloft and smiled.
"Thank you, papa!" He exclaimed, not letting go of the large purple dragon.
Then the pair of dragons looked to everyone else —they were all staring at the scene with smiles and knowing eyes; Spyro supposed that they were going to mock him for this later judging by those facial expressions…
"Thank you for my presents, everyone!" Ivor gratefully exclaimed.
Everyone responded with their shares of "you are welcome" before Cynder called out to them to regain their attention.
"Okay then! Who wants cake?"
There was a hungry uproar of "yes" everywhere as Cynder used her scythe-tail tip to cut the cake into multiple slices, enough for everyone, and proceeded to serve them to all of the birthday party guests but only after fetching some cutlery and plates from the kitchen. The second everyone had their spongey desert in front of them, everyone quite literally dug their faces into the delectable delight that was the miracle called cake.
The birthday cake was scrumptious and nobody could even come close to being as happy as little Ivor.
This was his very best birthday and he actually found himself looking forwards to becoming a dragon like his mother and father.
He just hoped he'd make them proud.
A/N: Hi, everyone, here's a new chapter of "Shadow scales" where Ivor gets a special gift. Oh and Flame and Ember are in this story too since I sort of see Flame as Ignitus' nephew. I don't know why, I thought that would just be a good idea.
I hope you lot are having a lovely morning/afternoon/evening/night.
-Chloemcg
