Lush Canopy, Outer Realms
Greeted by vines and thick overgrowing foliage, dragging first along Spyro's horns and then swiping at Elora's tufts of hair, the young and adventuring couple stepped fully through a long-forgotten and years-untouched portal frame, filling their insides with intakes of a dank and lush rainforest, and their ears with the echoes of distant and endlessly numerous creatures inhabitant around them. Managing cautious steps forward, pushing through wet and broad-leafed groundcover, Spyro ducked his head lower as both of his golden points kept snagging slimy natural rope, drawing Elora's attention in brief spells of curiosity and mild amusement.
"Found a trail... I think."
Nudging up against Spyro's arm, holding onto it as she leaned forward, Elora's squint of inspection revealed finer hints of footprints, and with a rise higher, several distinctly broken stems and branches bordering the narrow channel through the verdant cover.
"Recently traveled."
"Sure doesn't look like it."
Bringing Spyro forward with a gentle tug on his arm, nose wrinkling from ongoing sampling, Elora peered onward, relinquishing her boyfriend's limb and lowering her hand to the pommel of her dagger as the couple hesitantly traversed the possible path.
"Smells like it too."
"Well, okay, right now I only smell smoke."
Chin rising, and hooves pausing their thumps on and through the underbrush, the faun then looked around in a full circumference.
"...Don't see any."
"It might be hiding in all this mist."
"Think its from a village?"
"Nope. Smells of a volcano. Brimstone."
Halting Elora mid-rotation, her eyes flitted down and away in a turn of pulse-quickening remembrance.
Stinky, I-burn-everything, volcano...
Continuing past his hesitant girlfriend, Spyro tromped further and alighted upon a sunny opening in the overwhelmingly humid cover, halting his lead-taking as Elora hustled up beside him. Perching her free hand on her hip as soon as she saw the tiered stone pyramid that now garnered their shared sight, peaking twice-higher than the rest of the forest, the faun then quirked her brow toward her plum-colored mate.
"Still think it isn't someone's fire?"
"I think we haven't seen the volcano yet."
"Maybe not."
"Should we check out that pyramid?"
Flitting toward the great distant structure again, Elora shifted on her hip from his query, curiosity blooming.
"If you're up for it, I am too."
"Might just be another haunted tomb though."
"Might be treasure inside."
"Inside the haunted tomb."
Glancing back at Elora's cheeky tilt, his narrowed brow then softened with a smile from her playful gaze, sweeping several large plants aside from the trail with the length of his tail.
"Tell you what, I'll go in if you come in there with me."
"Of course." Dork. "I'll hold your paw if you're scared."
"Heh. Yeah? I'll hold yours even if you aren't scared."
"Please do."
"I will... Once I don't have to keep smashing through everything ahead."
Grinning as the bipedal reptile thrust his limbs through the innumerable plants reaching over the path, claws selectively slashing low-hanging and obnoxiously wet targets, Elora patiently paced behind his weaving tail, watching the movements of his muscle beyond his retracted wings.
I like when you smash through everything. Me included... Hee.
Lopping off several healthy and large leaves in staggered pauses, regularly measuring them against her own layered and leafy attire, Elora gripped a bundle of cut plant lengths beneath her arm. Skipping ahead to keep pace with Spyro's path-clearing slashes, pausing and drawing an edge of her dagger along the stem of another plant, a trickle of water bled from the plant's flesh along the blade and onto her soaked wrist, and she touched the tip of her nose against the flat tang of the dampened blade, squinting at the auburn color reflecting on it.
Glad to find all these... Need to replace a few on this armor of mine.
Lowering and shoving the damp dagger into its sheath, and then swinging her satchel around and shoving the whole pile of broad leaves within, her fingers towed the draw string of the bag tighter, sealing off the top.
"Sure is moist around here."
"Yeah."
"Must rain a ton."
"I don't think I've found any spots that aren't wet."
Ear turning from the shuffle of unseen movement near, Elora's vision rose higher toward the steamy canopy, listening to the rustles of a breeze-less area hidden among the warbles and hoots of glimpsed avians and primates.
"Everything's moving."
"We probably should be too."
Slowly nodding from Spyro's suggestion, looking beyond his thumbed claw to the winding curvature of the path ahead, her soaked shanks pressed on through the trampled and wiggling carpet of green behind Spyro's heavy footfall.
We have to be getting close to the pyr-
"Elora, something's..."
Freezing to a halt as Spyro's arm reached back with a spread palm, his snout swept left and right, militantly alert to the shuffles of disrupted foliage ensuing in all directions around them. Managing several more steps forward, into a small clearing that was oddly denuded of groundcover, Spyro then recoiled as a small and dark creature burst out from the cover just ahead, joined by two more on both sides.
"What... Wait a minute..."
Looking in all directions in a shared realization that three stubby creatures were now numbering upwards of a dozen, Spyro's posture straightened, only for his head to shake.
"...More of these guys, huh?"
"More of... Who?"
"Idols."
Hands tightening as she stood rigidly in place, Elora eyed the numerous pointed rods in the hands of the grunting and dancing faces, either excited or very bothered by their presence.
"Idols."
"Yep. Wood idols... Kinda like the ones back in the springs. A little uglier though..."
Ears twitching from the continued arrival of dye-decorated timber expressions, Elora's palm slowly closed around the handle of her dagger.
"Yeah? There's... More appearing."
"Sure are. Don't worry. A little flame takes them out instantly, so, let me just..."
Halting his attempted forward tromp as a perimeter of spear points were thrust at him in close range, Spyro crossed his arms, eyes rolling from the pint-sized opponents seemingly escalating their threatening demeanor.
"Really, guys? All I have to do is take a d-."
Startled by a dumping of soil on his head, shaking off the powdery dust that gleamed from the hints of sunlight sneaking through, the twinkles of fine grains cast airborne filled his vision as he looked upward, in search of the perpetrator in branches higher above. Giving up the effort, hearing his own respiration increase in volume, the plum beast then turned back toward Elora, seeing her formerly-rigid stance now undulating left and right in a peculiar manner of wiggling. Shaking his head and blinking, seeing the also-wiggling shafts and shade beyond her fur, Spyro squinted as her auburn fur gained a distinctly reddish hue, finally blooming into a wash of crimson across her features that brought his vision to her magenta irides, framed by a dancing brow that bobbed above peculiarly muted-speech leaving her lips.
'...Deep, ahm... Elora? You're, you are, ah, hah...'
Staring at the invisible words departing the female's blue-tinted and yellow-eyed expression, with faint hints of his own name chanted in repetition, a swallow of confusion from the twists of liquidity and vibrant flares of light and color meeting his eyes further clouded his mind with an intense fuzz of sensory information. Seeing her arm reach out toward him, Spyro then found his head spinning down in a blur, folding forward with an awkward descent to the earth below that then dumped streams of water onto him in great flash floods. Body twitching as small stick legs jumped and pranced around him, his limbs were forced together, and his snout refused to open despite his determination to pry. Glimpsing the slow crawls of normally-unseen insects on the forest's lowest layers, the hint of winged and multi-legged life blurred into a dizzying swirl, as plants and bugs and rocks and things drifted past in a procession of incoherence.
"Really, guys? All I have to do is take a d-."
Warily eying the small wooden spirits that were now encircling her boyfriend with a full compliment of spears, Elora then whirled up from the stream of powder that poured onto his him from somewhere higher, exploding into a cloud of light-colored dust around the entirety of his head. Certain she glimpsed the departing silhouette of the perpetrator leaping through branches, the faun then eyed Spyro's visible confusion after shaking most of the sift off of his prominent cranium and shoulders.
'...Deep, ahm... Elora? You're, you are, ah, hah...'
"I'm, huh? What is that stuff?"
Met with his chin rising, squinting far off above her shoulder, Elora's heart raced as the idols backed away from the winged beast that was now swaying with a furrowed brow.
"Spyro? Are you alright?"
Seeing his throat move in a slow swallow, his eyelids drooping over irides that slowly returned and latched onto her again, Elora reached outward, bosom aching with alarm from his woozy and unfamiliar weakness that finally toppled him into a limp crumple forward.
"Spyro!"
Seemingly summoning the idols into a return, now with plant fibers in their animated twig limbs, a majority of the wooden totems immediately set to work binding the subdued dragon's ankles. Seeing others begin binding his snout, seemingly to prevent his touted fire, her teeth clenched in frustration from the developing situation.
"Hey! Stop tying..."
Stomping forward, only for two idols to turn and jump into her way, pointing their spears at her, Elora stared at the gnarled and twisted faces held in glares to combat her own, hands balling into fists. Glancing up as Spyro began to be pulled away by his tail, her ears flattened from the increasingly irritating grunts of departing and clearly hostile planks, heart thrumming steadily.
"Ohhh, seriously?!" Can't everyone just... Leave us be?!
Looking around in place, considering her surrounding opponent's positions with more of the remaining idols appearing in an encroachment around her, her chest began huffing with heavy and frequent breath, giving off an impression of panicking. Then, with the distinct tug of something grabbing hold of her bag behind, Elora thrust her arms back, finding and clutching hold of the hollow creature that began flailing its limbs, swiping at her ponytail-bound hair.
"No you DON'T!"
Thrusting the wooden body over and forward with a grunt, knocking down both of the two spears in front of her, Elora hastily bounded over the disrupted duo of idols, turning and additionally chucking the wood body back at the resurgent crowd of opponents regrouping in the clearing. Allowing a mere pause to discern the wriggles of the thrown idol now impaled on its comrade's spear, the faun then darted aside as one of the sharp rods was then thrown with surprising velocity, burying itself into the moist trunk of a tree behind. Tromping toward the shaft and ripping it from the tree in passing, now armed with a sharp stick herself, Elora hurried further onto the overgrown trail that Spyro was previously drug along, only to divert aside mid-dash and sink into the foliage, holding the short acquired weapon readily.
Idols. Idols have abducted my boyfriend.
Listening to the rampant crash of wood-through-leaves as the remaining number of the possessed trunks scattered in an apparent pursuit, Elora then stared straight ahead as one walked past in front of her, looking up and around at the cacophony of noise. Squeezing the shaft with her palms, the faun then charged forward and thrust her sharpened length into it, turning the weapon and its victim down into the ground in a ruthless pin.
"Gotcha."
Stomping onto the idol, crunching it flat, her anger-narrowed eyes watched victoriously as a shimmering trail of energy fled the stilled body, vanishing into the mist.
First the springs, and now here... You sure aren't friendly spirits, are you?
Hunching as another presence fought through the tall undergrowth, ears perked to determine its direction, she pulled the spear free from the flattened body beneath her hoof. Starting into a converging stomp towards the expected arrival of another totem, the wet and startled being froze from the much taller creature descending onto it, grunting angrily and forcefully impaling the wooden body with the obsidian-tipped spear. Hoisting the helpless being into the open air, wiggling stick limbs having since released whatever stubby weapon was held, Elora lifted her coiled leg and shot her hoof into the idol, kicking it away and splitting the hollow entity in half from the force. Humming as another spirit particle leaked free from wherever the split body had landed beyond, she looked left from several grunts and shifting branches, seeing the swift leaps and jumps of a remarkably agile totem. Following its procession with narrow and focused eyes, seeing it turn toward her and begin to swing down from the canopy, the spear turned upward in her grasp.
I see you.
Gripping the pointed length with both hands, standing firm as the speedy and small opponent hurtled towards her on the end of a vine, she turned in a coiling twist and smacked it away with a fierce and forceful redirection, sending the totem tumbling into the overgrown groundcover. Wasting no time with pursuit, the faun tromped forward, and upon finding the object pushing itself upright, slammed the spear on top of it, breaking the shaft of the weapon with a sharp crack. Finding the idol now patting its damaged top, Elora glared at the fazed object, only to punt the idol further into the trees with a swift strike of hoof. Watching its flight through the brush, bouncing off of a tree's trunk, she then cast aside the broken rod and stormed onward along the prior path, searching for a visual of the glimpsed pyramid rising beyond the canopy.
Need to get higher, and see what's going on around here...
Scaling moss-covered and vine-strewn stone blocks, as one of four central paths up the tiered faces of a prominent and time-forgotten pyramid, Elora paused her four-limbed ascent and drug the back of her hand across her brow, wiping aside loose and dripping bangs. Turning further across her shoulder, glimpsing a thin and broad trail of vapor reaching across the clouded midday sky, her eyes followed the wisp of smoke to its source, confirming the presence of a wide and low volcano with its bare and ashen top poking just above the crown of bright green forest.
Oh. You were right.
Taking in the swirl of muggy air that tried to toss her sweat-laden hair, her vision lowered to the ancient stairs she had ascended, only to gape with abject surprise as the idol party dragging a captive and limp Spyro appeared at the foot of the monolith.
Ah, huh. Now that you're all here...
Sinking to a crouching stance and hustling toward the eroded corners of giant cut slabs, she sank to a seat on her rump out of view of the grunting and chanting totems. Turning her satchel aside and loosening its cover, she then brought her crossbow into her grasp from beneath, leaning back in a stretch as she pulled the slide open along the barrel. Peeking around again, seeing the distant idols now paused in a circle around their captured victim, she snuck forward and lowered herself onto the next shelf, staying out of sight around the block's chipped edges. Plucking a bolt from the quiver hidden in her bag, Elora sank further into a prone position on one corner block, resting the crossbow onto the flat stone, and its feather-flighted ammunition onto the central channel. Squinting one eye, staring down at the variety of prancing and static targets, she then aligned the sights of the handheld ballista above one particular brightly-painted totem, dancing and bonking Spyro's leg with some form of a staff.
Spyro... If I accidentally hit you... I apologize in advance.
*KA-CHINK*
Numerous eyes observed the abrupt silencing of the animated totem, dropping into halves and revealing the dark shaft firmly imbedded into the ground just behind. With a collective turn along the angle of the projectile, however, the source remained unseen anywhere along the tiers of the pyramid.
Exhaling with relief from not actually shooting Spyro, hiding around the block corner and swiftly plunking another bolt on, Elora peeped back around and fired another at a closer target with little hesitation. Missing entirely and additionally revealing her position, the idol party split into two groups, with half continuing to haul Spyro away towards the distant volcano, and the other half beginning to scramble up the pyramid to pursue her.
Okay. No hiding on this, uh...
Yanking the slide back open and slapping another bolt on, she stood fully and shot at one of the idols hustling up the smaller central stairs, sending it skittering back down and breaking apart from a number of heavy drops. Swallowing from the steadily nearing number of small spear-laden threats, Elora holstered the crossbow with a shove beneath her bag, and yanked her dagger free from its holster instead. Sprinting back across the face of the pyramid, hopping over vines and crumbling rock alike, she descended upon one particular club-dragging idol, squatting down and slashing at it with her dagger. Managing to sever one of its arms and swiping at it again, the blade dug across the totem's rough wooden exterior, only for the idol to turn and stare at the owner of the retreating knife, shortly before her hoof swung into its face and launched it away into the air.
Maybe you don't bleed, but... That doesn't mean you're tough!
Turning from approaching patters of feet, she gripped the dagger firmly and hopped down onto the next level of blocks, bounding towards the stairs, and leading the rest of the pursuant idols into a chase down to the rainforest floor. Crossing the path bordering the foot of the pyramid and crashing through the brush, she slashed at various plants in her way, finally deciding to holster the dagger as she pushed through wet and slimy obstacles. Alighting upon a large fallen tree branch, grasping its leafless length and breaking it in half, several swings into the ground broke smaller branches away, turning the length of dead wood into a large and pokey club. Fully expecting the crashing through underbrush, she raised the newly formed club high, bringing it down with a noisy crash onto the first idol to stumble into sight. Bursting forward over the crushed debris, shuffling past the ghostly particle slithering away into the mist, the branch then swept around and collided with a rock, only to drag over with snapping nubs, and then be forcefully delivered into the side of another totem, sending it tumbling away with snapping stick limbs.
You're doing good but you're snagging on everything!
Halting herself to listen, realizing from the ensuing stillness that the other idols had ventured elsewhere, she hurried aside to the open area around the pyramid's footings. Fur soaked with sweat and breath heaving, turning with her nose as it located a fresh trail of disturbed earth near, she dropped the easily tangling branch and tromped forth along the fragrant lead.
Lest you little wood faces forget... I'm a forest spirit too.
Opening his eyes one at a time, swirls of clashing color stilled into several bright and shimmering surfaces, eliciting a puff of exhale from the dragon as he blinked. Gaining detail and finding the lazy lean of a palm tree ahead, with a coconut in the sand near, his vision pushed onward to brilliant crests and washes of coastal waves churning and spreading over peachy sand. Finding the strength to lift his chin from the sift beneath, staring at the foamy water that repeatedly neared his snout, Spyro looked left along the beach, and then right. Watching then as a plank of wood began lowering into view from the center, its facial features brightly painted and a rainbow of tribal feathers adorning its top, Spyro stared at the faintly familiar object. Paw rising from the sand, one toe pointing outward, his maw parted with a serious question at hand.
"Aren't you..."
"Hoo-mah-dah-gah!"
Silenced by the bark of speech emitting from the plank of wood, Spyro's paw drooped flat, and the floating spirit lowered near to his face.
"Spy-rooo, dragon of the age."
"Ah, yeah. Hi."
"Do you ever wonder how spirits of the world end up... Maligned?"
"Um, I don't, so, no."
"To seek a home, and then be driven from the home... Perhaps you can imagine the frustration born from it."
"Yeah, uh, my kind have been driven from old homelands more than once."
"As have the spirits you desecrate and mock."
"I make fun of a lot of creatures."
"Consider, for even a moment, their circumstances."
Brow furrowing, already dismissive of the remark, Spyro's head turned in disagreement.
"So I do that, and they attack me, and then what?"
Rising upward in a higher bob, the face-plank began levitating two similar rocks from the sand.
"A reaction, to prior actions. If you wish to be free of retribution, you must strive for balance."
"...Right. Balance. 'Kay. I've gone out and saved the day more than once, you know. Helped creatures out."
"Perhaps. But to whom have you been a savior?"
"Them. My friends."
"Certainly not your enemies."
"Duh. They're bad guys."
"Bad to you, and your friends, perhaps. Mind you, dragon, all creatures of the realms have their own beliefs and desires, and many have those dear to them."
"I know. But the world isn't fair, and natural order decides everything."
"Most things, but not everything."
"Yeah, well... Pardon me for being a big mean dangerous reptile. We get hungry, and have our own wants and wishes too, you know."
The broad mouth-oval formed into a smile, and both of the floating rocks dropped simultaneously.
"I do know. Dragon-kind has been assailed by those smaller and weaker for millennia."
"Yup. Wait... How do you know that?"
Met with ensuing silence, Spyro stared impatiently at the possessed object now declining to answer.
"...What's your name, while we're at it?"
"My name is irrelevant in this sphere."
"Well you sure know mine."
"Many creatures know your name."
"I'm sure they do."
Sourcing an errant drinking straw from behind, both beings fleshy and wooden watched as the straw stuck into the coconut, piercing the hard-shelled drupe with unexpected ease. After a descent and several sucks on the transfer tube, the yellow-eyed spirit turned and levitated it nearer to Spyro, dropping it into the sand in front of his snout.
"Here."
"Oh, thanks."
Closing his maw around the narrow tube, lips pursing as he pulled several sips out of the coconut, Spyro blinked with a shake from the sour taste filling his mouth, seeing the levitating plank look away to the lapping waves.
"Since you're all knowing or whatever, um, do you know where Elora is?"
"I'm right here, Spyro."
Startled from the sudden introduction of her female voice out of nowhere, the plum dragon attempted to push upright with his front legs, only to find them unexplainably immobile, stuck to the sand below.
"Huh?"
Recoiling with a lean away as the anonymous lumber turned back to him, suddenly superimposed over a specter of Elora kneeling on the sand beside, the dragon stared as both voices began speaking in a confusing mash of octave.
"I'm right here with you, Spyro."
Swallowing, finding his mouth dribbling with salty water leaking out from his teeth, the bodily specter of Elora reached forward and grabbed hold of his horn, lifting him upright, his legs heavily draping down as the combined presence hoisted him off of the beach.
"I'm always here with you... Always."
Grunting, neck tremoring from being uncomfortably held up by only his horn, Spyro's snout parted, brow furrowing, only for the nearly-transparent vision of Elora to fade. Dropping heavily onto the sand in a heap, he was then washed over by an inbound wave of steaming hot water, sweeping his tail down and claiming the coconut in retreat.
"What..."
Sinking low in front of Spyro's face, the feathered mask rotated in place, revealing clear hollows behind his yellow sockets.
"See yourself through the eyes of others, dragon. Perhaps then, you will better understand their less-than-desirable motives."
"I don't care about seeing what my enemies see! All they see is me as a threat!"
"Then take steps to convince them otherwise."
"Hah! I can't convince bad guys that don't care to listen, which, is pretty much all of them, by the way!"
Turning around, the mask's features filled nearly all of Spyro's sight with encroaching proximity.
"Balance. Find it, and maintain it."
Glaring at the talking plank from the apparent challenge, Spyro then jutted his chin away.
"Maybe. If I feel like it."
"Do as you wish. Just keep in mind, the universe will always bring reactions, to counter your actions taken."
"Yeah, well, I'll deal with the universe and its mojo however I want to. I am a dragon after all... Don't think I'm just some pushover."
Floating into a backward retreat, the spirit's grain-split lips smiled with amusement.
"Do you know how you wound up here, dragon?"
Blinking beneath his increasingly furrowing brow, Spyro grunted, resorting to one of his least favorite statements.
"I don't know. Where are we?"
"We are... Within you, and without you, on an astral plane, and on the shores of imagination."
"Ahm, huh?"
"And, for the record, dragon, you are a pushover when your ego is swollen."
"Hey... My ego isn't..."
"It is, and is entirely why you are here."
Seeing the floating plank grow branches, forming into arms and legs and lowering to the ground, a spear materialized in its grasp. Swiftly blasting a burst of flame at the now-armed specter, only for it to fade behind the unburned mask, Spyro squinted as the hovering plank levitated increasingly higher.
"Easily provoked, too."
"Hey, that just looked like those... Idols... Earlier." Wait a minute...
Hustling through lessening bushes and progressively thinner groves of trees, finding the ground beneath becoming steadily crunchier, Elora pawed through foliage on the top of a ridgeline, finding the full breadth of the previously seen volcano rising up in front of her.
Oh. Its you... An actual monster.
Sinking down and shuffling forward, hooves sliding through crispy remains of plants once rooted in a recent flow path, she skipped down along the curved bank of dried lava to the warm and layered wasteland ahead. Peering up along the surrounding faces of the earth's violent vent, an already-steady heart kicked into overdrive, finally spotting Spyro's purple hide, and the idol party dragging him up along the volcano.
"Of course you are..."
Facing primal fear of being directly on a volcano, and additionally entertaining the idol's intent to dump her mate into it, the young mammal stormed up the rocky and crunchy hill, with ash flying from each firm stomp. Maneuvering aside and coming up behind a large and rough lava rock, belched from depths beneath, she peered around the obstacle, only to reach down and grab hold of two different black rocks. Ducking low and scuttling aside, closing the distance behind the struggling group of masks and totems, Elora chucked both of the held lava rocks toward the idols, fully missing and deliberately gaining their attentions.
That's right... Come for me and leave your friends.
Kneeling low, hand hesitantly flattening onto the warm and dusty rock beneath, her other palm squeezed and pulled the dagger free from its sheath. Patiently watching the stumbling bob of one eagerly grunting idol, listening to its ungainly little feet as it neared, she pounced closer, kicking away its thrusting spear and stabbing it with her blade. Crushing it with her bodily weight and ripping the dagger free from the fractured wood, finding its spirit particle exiting the new orifice, she recoiled back as another idol skittered onto the scene with a club raised. Leaning back, bracing her balance with her available arm, her leg shot out in a swift horizontal kick, punting the totem backwards and sending the diminutive opponent tumbling down the ashen slope. Pushing back up to a proper footing, hair tossing as she discovered the remainder of idols were ever-closer to the rim, she stormed up to the smokey crown in a panicked sprint.
You, are... "NOT, doing this to MY BOYFRIEND!"
Greeted with a blast of raw heat as she neared the center of the disaster-birthing orifice, the first of the laboring idols ambled over the edge, straining to haul Spyro over by his tail. Pouncing bodily onto the dragon's crested back, adding her own weight and halting the effort, she pried his limp legs aside with a heave, tucking the dagger beneath the fibers binding his legs and cutting them free. Crawling up along his narrowing tail and peeking over, greeted by four remaining idols straining in front of the bubbling lake of bright and unforgiving despair, the stubby wooden beings began flailing from the sight of the very determined fur beast staring at them from above, repugnance highlighted by the glow of magma beyond.
"Not sure where you think you're taking this one, but..."
Grabbing Spyro's tail and roughly shaking it up and down, a smirk curled onto her face as the quartet of idols clung onto the tail they were originally towing.
"...You're not in a good position all of a sudden!"
Shaking his tail more, one idol on the end lost grip of the golden point and tumbled down the steep and loose slope directly into the lava, howling and silencing after burning and sinking.
"I of all creatures know, that wood, doesn't, survive, FIRE!"
Proceeding to heave the purple appendage left and right, Elora smashed the remainder of the wooden spirits into the caldera's faces on both sides, continuing the slapping motion until all three were knocked free, tumbling down to their ends in the magma. Parting her lips from the unbearable heat, and peeping over both shoulders past her crossbow's limbs, seeing no other sign of spirits, the faun then turned and flopped bodily onto Spyro in a slump, sliding with him down the rock and ash.
"Saved... Your butt."
Hugging his available limbs, realizing his chest was rising and falling with respiration beneath herself, she sat up and turned his head. Touching his neck, feeling a regular familiar pulse beneath her fingertips, her innards deflated in a sigh, seeing his eyes glazed and drool dribbling from his mouth.
"Whatever stuff they hit you with..." Sure immobilized you.
"Nngh."
Pushing outward, feeling loose rock and dusty sift churning between his digits, Spyro's eyes pried open one by one, finding a band of green spreading above the dark and sulfur-scented rock. Moving his sprawled leg, getting a proper bearing of his downhill orientation, the presence of a warm knee left his thigh, and he grunted. Twisting aside, discovering Elora's distinct figure seated cross-legged beside him, her ember-laden phoenix quill ceased its drags on the parchment in her lap.
"Find your way back?"
Eyes meeting after her asking, immediately gifted with her relieved smile, Spyro shoved upright with a groan, sitting back on his rear and wiping drool-slicked chops with his paw. Finally bothering to inspect their volcanic surroundings, and then the flattened remains of several wood idols scattered around, he turned back to his patiently waiting mate, arms crossed beneath her still-growing smile, fur dusty and disheveled.
"Where, and... Huh. Did you do this?"
"Saved your butt? Yep."
Scratching an itch on the side of his belly, the plum reptile then brought his aching tail near, looking it over.
"What happened?"
"Your idol friends drugged and captured you."
"Oh. Really?"
"Really. First they went to that pyramid over there..."
Pointing the dark feather of her quill at the monolithic stone structure rising above the rainforest, she then swept it back toward the plume of smoke drifting from the caldera behind.
"...Then they brought you here. Either way I think they wanted to sacrifice you."
"Sacrifice?"
"For burning their friends long ago, in the Springs."
Neck rising, fully recognizing the rumble and stench of volcano they were seated on, he eyed the destroyed remnants of timber scattered among the dark and cooled ejecta.
"Those, huh?"
"I think they wanted to burn you in the lava."
"That's lovely."
Patting his scaly shoulder, Elora then bumped it bodily.
"Good thing girlfriend has your back."
"You wiped them out?"
"Probably not, but the remainder haven't returned."
Leaning nearer to his mate, their arms snuck behind and pulled the other closer in an embrace.
"Wish I could have seen you fight them."
"You were busy drooling. Its alright."
Grunting from the unflattering truth, the ash-dusted reptile looked on to the distant pyramid.
"I assume we aren't staying much longer?"
"Nope. I'd like to get out of here."
No treasure. Oh well... "Let's bail."
Rising to his feet as she packed away her parchment, offering his paw to her and clasping around her firm and thankful grasp, the weary and wary couple began tromping down the slope of the simmering volcano.
"Would have carried you already if you weren't so floppy and heavy."
"Hey."
Shuffling into the outskirts of the surrounding foliage, clambering up and over the curved ridge of long-dried lava, the faun took to slicing through thin stalks and all other green things in her way, leading Spyro by their lovingly tethered arms.
"Should make a note to not come back for a while, yeah?"
"Already have."
Gilded River Falls, Outer Realms
Backstroking lazily through crisp and cool river water, listening to the splashing of a shallow and ever-cascading waterfall, Spyro lazily eyed the fading twilight above silhouetted trees, with the darkness beneath interrupted only by the gentle glow of giant luminescent mushrooms, feasting on the moist material around the natural pool and casting a gentle glow onto the rippling waters.
Finally cooling off... Been pretty hot lately.
Feeling his elbows drag along the soil beneath, followed by his shoulders and wingstems dragging to a halt on the damp soil shore, just beneath the shadow of a large rock outcropping, the beast elected to simply relax, allowing his legs to lower in settling submersion. Peeping aside toward the waterfall from a distinct change in the flow's sound, he found Elora seated on one of the large rocks strewn beneath the falls, enveloped by the cascade as it splashed into her backside. Waiting until her gentle gaze arose from her silent seat, absorbing the massaging force of water, her vision alighted upon her reclined mate, and she sank forward, descending into the pool with an effortless transition into forward strokes. Seeing ripples of waves preceding her bobbing hair and ears, both heavy with water, her irides peeked above the surface as she neared, and with a similar lowering to the dark soil beneath, she began toward Spyro's position. Rising out of the water, auburn and ocean-laden geography streaming with falls of its own, her waterlogged fur and hair dribbled onto his belly plating as she crawled over him nude, knees finding solid landings under the water as her palms spread onto his collar, squeezing his muscular breadth as she sat her rump onto his groin.
"Feeling better?"
"Mmhm."
Inspecting damp clumps of her brunette hair, loosely draped around her arms and teasingly obscuring her slender breasts, the dragon further marveled the female's mammalian curvature as she remained perched on his lap, rising to the alluring gleams of her teal irides behind unkempt and soaked locks. Hoisting his idle arms up and breaking through the pool's surface, he reached around her arms and began dragging his claw tips along the entirety of her furry backside, from her shoulder blades down to her rump, squeezing both cheeks with his paws.
"Thinking we should head back home for a time."
"Mmm, who's home?"
"Whichever. Avalar, or Artisan."
Nuzzling his snout with a groan as his pointed digits drug back up along the small of her back, she sank lower with a bending of her arms.
"Little too much excitement lately?"
"Little bit. I'd like to be in tamer pastures for a while."
Reaching up and caressing his bristles between his horns, her crystal necklace blooped into the water, bobbing up and down from her arm's motions.
"We'll have some stories to tell."
"And treasure for the stash."
"Yeah."
Waiting as his pointed caress rose over her shoulderblades, tingling from the pleasant drag of eight of his claws through her damp follicles, her nose sank and flattened into the front of his snout, eyelids lowering in a flutter as his quiet breath revealed a parting jaw. Nudging her lips onto his, flattening and forming into the finer scales of his maw with a slight turn, her fingers gently grasped his horn and big cheekbone alike, sharing in the intimate arrival of a simple and prolonged kiss.
Peeking through wet tufts of her brunette locks flowing around and resting on his nose, Spyro's huge irides sank in a shuttering of view, his paws sweeping back and forth in opposing drags along both sides of her flank. Finding her tongue's innocent nudges, greeting the member with an intercepting squish, the earthy taste of her saliva lifted the corners of his busied chops.
Wherever we go...
Limbs constricting in a returning embrace, his massaging movements ceased, content with keeping his mate safe within his legs amid their oral and physical coalescence.
...I'll be right there with you.