Autumn Plains, Avalar

Hiking up the gentle incline of flower-dotted and leaf-laden grass, passing beneath the shadow of a large stone arch spanning towering turrets of the great castle surrounding them, both Spyro and Elora reveled in the cool and lively landscape, a far cry from harsh and barren rock and soil many steps behind.

I know why you always come back here, Elora... I would too, if Avalar was my place of hatching.

Witnessing the rise of the mammal's flat nose beside, sampling earthy breeze-carried scents that spread adoration across her comely expression, a hint of her teeth gleamed from the rays of the early evening sun, keeping Spyro's attention to the undulation of her auburn hair dancing from her stride.

Even though it isn't... This home world has a lot to like, and I'll always come here with you. You love being here, and I love you. So, I can love being here too.

Glancing onward to the quartet of sturdy trees guarding the world's cobblestone-lined pool, always shedding turning leaves in a mysterious perpetual offering, Spyro nearly surged forward to leap into the inviting shimmer of clear water. Remaining hesitant as distinct and familiar chimes of laughter entered his hearing, turning Elora's broad ear and her attention in matching attentiveness, his large irides broadened in realization.

"Whoa, hey, there's Hunter, and rabbit girl."

"Bianca!"

Shouting outward after halting their procession together, Elora's arm shot up and swung outward in a wave of greeting, garnering the attention of their friends unexpectedly near.

"Ha-hey, look who finally came back after falling off the world!"

"Is Spyro standing up?"

"Whoa, whoa whoa, what?!"

Finding the bipedal cheetah sauntering closer, a grin of surprise spread on his streamlined and chiseled maw, and Spyro stood firm as the tall feline crossed his arms, leaning left and right in inspection, with Bianca approaching in a calmer pace just behind.

"Sure is! Check this guy out. Bigger and... Still not as tall as me, but hey."

Snout wrinkling, Spyro then met Hunter's outstretched arm in a first bump anyway.

"Good to see you, purple dude."

"Likewise."

"Hey 'Lora."

"Heyoo."

"Been a little while. You two been busy?"

"Kind of. Trading and traveling."

Leaning aside, ear drooping in a sway, Bianca's loose-sleeved cloak pulled back along her rising arm, index finger aligning toward the sheath on Elora's hip.

"Whatcha got there?"

"Something new."

Gaining Hunter's attention also from her drawl, Elora brimmed with a tingle of excitement, fingers clasping around the grip, and with a concise jerk upward, withdrew her dagger and twisted it in her grasp, laying it flat on her opening palm and stepping nearer to her mammalian friends.

"Ooh, that's badass."

"I didn't know you were the type to carry a knife."

"Neither did I, until recent events."

"Sooo, all done being a pacifist eh? Ow!"

Playfully bonking Hunter's side from the remark, Bianca couldn't resist a smile from his exaggerated recoil.

"Maybe."

"That blade should keep any troublemakers at bay if I'm not around."

Quirking her brow toward Spyro's words, humming as Elora leaned into her upright boyfriend, Bianca shrugged both of her sleeves back in an idle motion.

"The way you two keep hinting at trouble makes me believe you got into some recently."

"We did. But we're fine."

"Hope so. Was starting to wonder what became of both of you."

"You two have been gone for at least a month."

Both Spyro and Elora traded glances from Hunter's confirmation of elapsed time.

You were right about the duration at the fortress... Humm.

"We had things we were looking into."

"We're all done now, so we're back in Avalar."

"Funny we run into you guys, actually... Hunter and I are about to go out to the Savannah for an evening."

"Oooh. Going on a date?"

"Uh huh! Wanna join us? We're going to get drinks and watch the sun set."

"Mm. That's romantic."

Grinning from Bianca's expression directed at her playful drawl, Elora then looked to Spyro against her shoulder.

"Double date?"

"I'm game."

"Well that settles it then... Everybody stay still now."

Withdrawing her wand from the depth of her cloak, all eyes followed the enchanted stick as it rose into the air in the rabbit's grasp, producing a twinkle of summoned mana. With a quiet chant of indiscernible words, and then twisting in a circle above the four of them, a growth of prismatic energy expanded around them, and Elora hastily sheathed her dagger as Spyro clutched her nearer wrist preperatively, blinking as the autumnal realm they previously stood in faded into a blur of changing color.

Guess we're changing locations without a portal...!

Acacia Savannah, Avalar

Seated on the flat plank of an outdoor bar's bench, with wafts of grilled food both savory and sweet winding through the warm and still air, Elora and Bianca sat together in similar leans, elbows resting on the shaded and customer-worn gloss of the tree-ringed counter, looking on to both Hunter and Spyro patiently inspecting the active cooking of more food by another fellow cheetah, with large bones picked clean and remaining in their grasp.

"Pickled cactus?"

"Love it. Tangy and crunchy, and big. Never had anything like it."

"Aren't dragons all meat eaters?"

"Nope. Spyro's had plants here and there... They're omnivores. One of them loves cooking, and another bakes."

"Huh. Cool."

"Have had a lot of yummy new stuff out there."

"You're one of those foodies, huh? What's the word... Epicure."

"I mean, maybe. I just like tasting what the worlds offer to eat, wherever I go."

Tilting a fibrous cup to her lips, savoring the sweet swirls of Almond splashing across her palate, Elora's throat burned from the swallow that followed, lowering the Amaretto beverage to the counter again in a delicate placement. Glancing aside to the remainder of the distinctly orange liquid trickling into her friend's gullet from a clear glass, Elora squinted at the drink with a bloom of inebriated curiosity.

Bunny, Mary. Who's Mary anyway?

Leaning further forward, elbows drifting along the counter in a stretch and gripping the far edge, Elora briefly garnered the attention of the prone feline bartender near, who she largely ignored. Slumping lower, her attention then flitted down to the small clatter of her crystal necklace, laying flat and glowing on the shaded platform of petrified wood.

"Hey, 'Lora."

"What's up, B?"

Ear perking from the crunch of a stiff vegetable, she glanced aside to Bianca from her ensuing pause, nibbling on the length of celery that formerly sat in her emptied beverage, eyes focused beneath her chin.

"I keep forgetting to ask... Where did you get that necklace?"

Pushing upright, vision descending to her collarbone, with the point of the slender white crystal laying in her fur, Elora gazed upon the luminous pendant near to her leafy bosom. Prying her index finger beneath the thin chain and lifting it free, draping it visibly below her digit, the faun cracked into a knowing smile.

"I had a smith in Magma Cone forge it."

"The chain, sure. What about that rock?"

Tingling with a buzz, she slid her cup near, taking in another gulp, turning the textured cylinder in her fingers with a cheeky grin blossoming.

"The same place you stole a bunch of eggs from."

Flitting toward the flattening brow on the rabbit, resultant from her loaded prod and flicking tongue swiping across her lips, Bianca's elbow sank onto the counter in a lean and a seep of exhale.

"So you took that from the dragon realms."

"Found it, in a cave... Broke it off the wall on accident, actually."

"Why'd you keep it?"

"Its just a nice little reminder."

"What, of Spyro?"

Elora's cheeks broadened even further, teeth capturing her tongue between.

"Him, and the first place he and I made love. ❤"

Sinking back, looking up to the thatched straw roof above with an eye roll, Bianca tried and failed to keep from cracking up, chest shaking from a muted giggle.

"Wow... 'Kay. You two got busy in a cave?"

"We did. It was wet, and hot, and magical."

Curling forward with a snort, the curvaceous rabbit laughed more.

"Yeahhhh, all the, hah, proper conditions for crystal growth."

Eying her female friend, fit to burst, Elora managed to pry her teeth apart mid-mirth.

"That too."

Succumbing to a fit of shared laughter, both female creatures bent onto the countertop in consecutive flops, and Elora firmly gripped her cup after nearly knocking it over.

"You're too much."

"You asked about my necklace!"

"Its pretty, but I didn't think it was that kind of memento!"

Twisting aside, peeping onward to their boyfriends still patiently awaiting flame-seared sustenance, Elora fumbled back up onto her elbows.

"I, ahh, have other things for other reasons... But this little sparkle reminds me that him and I are compatible, no matter how different we are as species."

"Sexually compatible."

"Romantically."

"Uh huh."

"You're just as guilty, B. Cuffing Hunter down... I've seen how you kiss your big kitty."

Diverting away with a restrained blush, Bianca hummed with embarrassment and amusement.

"Shup, you."

Resting in differing positions among the outer growth of several giant Acacia trees, with Dragon and Faun reclined against the girth of one tree's old and solid roots, and Cheetah and Rabbit draped along the length of an equally sturdy branch, the higher mammalian couple whispered sweet little nothings to the other as the landscape's heat and bright light continued to fade. Witness to the horizon-wide display of rich yellow and orange colors, having since overtaken the light blue of the earlier evening sky, the palette of the arid environment was blasted by the rippling hues of a gigantic crimson corona, casting its sun-fueled colors across all facets of the land willing to give up their own.

Studying the fringes of magma-like ripples of energy, of heat vanishing into looming night sky, Spyro then looked to the red-tinted fur of his companion draped back across his belly, relaxed and fondly admiring the natural beauty within reach, filling big eyes and bigger hearts in much the same fashion.

I wasn't sure about being in a hot climate again but... Things are cooling down now that we're done eating at the cat village, and... I'll go swimming at some point. Not now. Not missing any of this.

Fangs peeking free from a smile as Elora's digits drug back and forth in a soothing caress across his forelimb's scale-clad muscle, the lavender beast looked on as a similar hint of purple crept across the silhouetted leaves above her pointed ears, and rustles of unseen life brushed through the thin stalks of grass surrounding, camouflaged by the song of crickets. Looking in a turn to the hint of lighter color perched in the tree above, the twinkling fabric of a cloak sat draped on a smaller branch, and the lanky legs of Hunter hung freely from his posture, curiously reclined upside down on the branch. Seeing soft and pale fur moving on top of his comrade's flattened posture, and then realizing his friends were in fact in the throes of an intimate mingle, kissing in the fading light, Spyro blew a puff of breath free from his nostrils, turning away.

Yup. No surprise there. Lovebirds... Mm, love, uh, mammals.

Returning to the remainder of the fiery celestial descent, with vibrant crimson now blueing into a deep purple of dusk, the shifting of legs in the mottled dirt and dry grass then gave way to the pressure of physical weight sinking onto his side. Twisting and bumping his cheekbone into the arrival of Elora's nose in a surprise revelation of proximity, the twinkle of her teal irides captured the last of the sunlight in a glassy reflection beneath lowering eyelids. Drawn fully to the sight, with specks of ever-distant stars no longer veiled by the day, her digits delicately drifted along the length of his snout in a gentle turning, and the beast rolled back onto his shoulder, wordlessly inviting his mate closer as he twisted onto his backside with a slump of mass and flattening wings. Heart beating, and gullet pooling with lava from the allure of her eye's playful flits, her sturdy frame and soft curvature sank onto his muscular definition, and his tail swept in small idle turns, fully attuned to the passage of respiration from her flat nosed perched on his own.

"Hey."

"Hi."

Needing little further invitation, his tongue slithered past pointed teeth, sweeping across her parted and fuzzy lips in a ticklish brushing. Sucking it back in in a fleeting retreat, the female's folds then turned and planted into his maw, forming into a comfortable place of resting, and letting a murmur seep from her throat mid-collision. Suckling and licking at the other's tasting members, a wash of almond flavor greeted his receptors, and Spyro's shuttered brow perked in a moment of interest.

So that's what you drank earlier. Don't mind me tasting like... Barbecue. Ooh.

Groaning from the settling of her rump onto his groin, upper knees nudging closer to his sides, her fingertips drifted and squeezed softer muscle on his shoulders, and all four of Spyro's legs captured her haunches and her bent shanks in a great squeeze, freeing pleasant breaths from both creatures in a brief parting of salivated lips as their bodies tightened in an intimate embrace of earned strength.

"Don't light the tree on fire while we're up here, flame breath."

Peeping open to the darkness, large eyebrows quirking from Bianca's teasing remark above, Spyro slackened as Elora's features lifted free and turned up to match, but before she could retort, now freed of her locks of hair tickling the bridge of his snout, Spyro grunted.

"I won't. Elora's the hot one down here."

"Hah!"

"Wow."

"Ooh, noo, that's all you, smoky slobber."

Toothily grinning with success, and from Elora's breathy and lowering octave, finding her moist nose nuzzling his chin, their chops reunited in a supple and sweet smash of scale and fine fur.

"Mmmmff, hmmf."

"Smoky slobber... Cute."

Mirthfully humming from the humored echo, Elora's grips of Spyro's hide tightened as his arousal came to form beneath her swishing tail, straddling his groin in the veil of the star-speckled night, letting their physicality depict her mate's features further beneath her closed eyelids.

Sexy, smoky dragon slobber. Too bad we're not alone right now... Hot stuff.