The Realms of Chaos
Chapter 13: "Meet Me At Diamond Palace"
Rating: High PG
Author's Notes: I got a very idiotic flame lately from a girl that obviously doesn't have a single brain cell in her head. Hah hah. A "Your story sucks" from a person who writes about a girl "eating trash and stealing food" is nothing. She told me that I have no brain, read only one chapter out of twelve, and doesn't even know who Spyro is. She's just making herself look good because her pride was hurt when I constructively critised a story that got deleted very quickly.
A stray wind blew in the area of slaughter that was Changeling's arena. Only eight creatures felt the breeze, and none of them seemed to notice. Snowflake sat on the ground, clutching the fallen form of Ripto to her chest as she thought about all the punishment they had took in the last few weeks. Spyro slumped on the rocky floor next to the large squid Kraken, licking his wounds and making sure that no bones were broken. Incinder, now ashamed of his acts against the group, talked with Grunge in a language that none of the non-Guardians could understand. Wart and Elora seemed to be thinking about their current situation, as they sat solemnly with their voices down.
"You have some nerve..." Heads turned to Changeling. The cat furry had to struggle to get up, and Wart couldn't help but laugh when he saw that she had broken one of her legs in the fight. Changeling stood where she had fallen in the fight, her face twisted with pain but too proud to admit that she was suffering. Her Silver Gigas Crystal was still clutched in her left hand as if the magic could help her summon the Ripto monster again to her need.
"You've thought you've won, haven't you?" Changeling snarled. Her voice was lowered down to a satanic hiss. Her glowing purple eyes, bruised body, and hunched-over stance made the cat creature look like she had crawled out of the darkest pit of the underworld. Wart cowered slightly, nine years of slavery coming back to him in that instant.
"Yes, we have. We beat your monster, and we kicked your evil tail! Of course we've won!" Spyro yelled back. Shouts of agreement rose from his friends. The wind began to pick up, and soon Changeling's cape started to billow. Changeling narrowed her eyes at the dragons, but she mostly glared at the little Riptoc that was once so comfortable in her power.
"Just because you've won this fight doesn't mean you've beaten me. You forget who owns this beautiful castle of pain and torture here, dragon." Changeling snapped in a tone of voice that made Spyro's good mood falter. Her turquoise hair whipped against her face as her tone began to change from one of pure malice to one with a sickly sweet tone to it.
"There's more then one way to slay a dragon. Ripto may have failed me, but that doesn't mean my magic will."
Dragons, rhynoc, and Guardians all watched as Changeling took out the other two Gigas Crystals from her pouch. Yellow, silver, and purple glew in a mixture of colors as Changeling clutched them in both hands. Energy started to build around her body until all her wounds fixed themselves. Wart narrowed his eyes when he saw her mend her broken bones in one spell; she always told him that her magic never healed broken bones when he was working for her. A refreshed overlord stood in front of them. Spyro and Snowflake held their ground.
"I hope you like Hell kiddies, because that's where you're going." Changeling hissed. She held the three Gigas Crystals above her head with outstretched arms and shouted a command in a runic language of her people. The Gigas Crystals began to glow until sparks of energy flew off her hands. Snowflake ducked with a bolt of magic lightning passed right over her head.
Suddenly the ground began to shake. Snowflake rose to her feet, still holding onto Ripto, as the ground underneath her began to buckle. Spyro launched himself into the air with his wings to avoid a rock shard sent flying from the shaking. The Guardians faded away without a trace, having overstayed their welcome. Only Changeling stood still, watching trivially as her beautifully crafted stadium began to fill with more cracks and broken rock shards.
"Time to test your abilities, pests. I have rigged my castle to explode within a small amount of time. You've proven yourself in terms of magical strength by defeating my monster of might and magic, now let's see how quick-minded you truly are. If you're not fast enough, my castle will entomb your remains for all eternity. If you do make it out..." Changeling grabbed the person closest to her, who happened to be Spyro, and held his face to hers. Her putrid breath made Spyro choke.
"Meet me at Diamond Palace."
Changeling dropped the dragon onto the ground and then held out the three Gigas Crystals in front of her. With a final parting sneer, Changeling disappeared with a sudden flash of yellow light. Spyro and Wart both cursed in unison.
"Great, this castle is going to explode with us in it, Changeling is better off then us, and we don't even know the fastest route out of here!" Spyro shouted. Panic seeped into the hearts of the creatures that heard his cry. At that moment, nothing frightened them more then a death caused by falling rubble.
"Correction. I know the fastest route out of here. You forget that I've memorized the entire layout of this place while you were knocked out." Wart corrected Spyro. Wart's statement raised the hopes of his friends. All of them actually had a chance of survival after all.
"Good, so you can show us the way and-" Snowflake was cut off immediately by Wart. "No. I have to free the slaves. You have to escape without me. I promised to them that they would all make it out of here safely, and I'm not going to have the whole castle fall on top of them!" At first, Spyro, Snowflake, and Eledor thought that Wart was bluffing. A brief silence fell before they realized that he was telling the truth.
"WHAT!?!" Spyro, Snowflake, and Eledor all shouted at once. To them, this act of kindness seemed like a suicide mission. Nobody knew how long Changeling gave them, and Wart was suggesting that he should journey into the castle's dungeons. They all knew exactly how far below the castle the dungeons were; when the castle collapses the dungeons will be buried under many tons of solid rock.
"You don't need me to lead you. I have to play the hero for the first time in my life, so just try not to get killed in there."
Wart turned to leave, but he was blocked by Eledor. She grabbed the dragon by his shoulders and held him still. "Oh, no you don't! You're not leaving without me!" Wart opened his mouth to protest, but he closed it when he saw the raw determination burning in the rhynoc's eyes. The mutated dragon nodded in agreement.
"Okay. After all, we have been a team for a long time already. It would be a shame to break up a good partnership now..." Eledor's hands let go of his shoulders, and Wart turned his head to an unconscious Ripto, an anxious Snowflake, and a determined Spyro.
"You guys go on ahead! We'll rendezvous at the entrance! Now, GO!"
The two reptiles immediately dashed into the corridors Wart indicated, both of them helping in carrying Ripto. The red-scaled form slumped against Spyro's back, with Snowflake's hand keeping him from falling off, as they followed Wart's instructions. Dust filled the air as some of the ceiling dislodged itself and rained upon the three-scaled forms running down the hallways. Snowflake shielded her eyes with her only free hand as she kept following the line of torches hung on the walls.
"You know, what would happen if the ceiling suddenly collapsed in front of us?" Spyro shouted as they passed some blocked corridors along their way to the entrance. Snowflake had to squint her eyes to make out the purple shape to her right. The sound of falling rubble made even the loudest scream hard to make out, but Snowflake had heard him clear enough.
"Spyro, when you say stuff like 'I hope the ceiling doesn't crash down in front of us', it's called 'jinxing the moment'. I wouldn't be surprised if the ceiling took your suggestion and did it just right now!"
As if on Snowflake's cue, a large shower of boulders fell from the ceiling right in front of the exit out of Changeling's crumbling castle. The two dragons were blanketed with soot, and soon they were sneezing and coughing from the exposure to all the dust. Spyro glared accusingly at Snowflake and she forced an innocent-looking smile.
"I suppose unblocking the rocks shouldn't be too much of a hassle, if you like lifting individual rocks with your hands until the castle falls on top of you or you drop from exhaustion. At least they won't have to bury us when they find us!" Spyro said cynically. Standing near a pile of rubble blocking your only exit from a castle that was going to come crashing down on your pathetic body doesn't help your sense of humor at all. Snowflake shot Spyro an icy glare before she started the long process of clearing the rubble away.
"You're not helping matters yourself, Spyro. Now help me dig." Spyro got up on his hind legs and began to help Snowflake clear away the rubble. Both of them worked as fast as they could, despite the fact that their sight was limited to about two feet in front of them due to the choking dust surrounding them.
They were about half way finished with the rubble clearing when the ceiling above their heads began to fall down above them. Boulders the size of SUVs began to rain down towards the hapless lizards. Snowflake and Spyro shielded their heads with their claws. The thought of Changeling discovering their broken bodies and stealing the final pieces to her world domination rang through their heads.
"Keeeeeeeaaaaar!"
A large winged form suddenly swooped out of the dust cloud that was hindering Snowflake and Spyro's and put its body between the falling ceiling and the helpless reptiles. Snowflake and Spyro gazed confusedly at this strange stroke of luck that was now shielding them from the falling rock. It was a large, red bat-like creature with rows of sharp teeth, yellow eyes, and giant wings strong enough to take the abuse of the falling rock. Spyro recognized the red winged creature, but he was reluctant to acknowledge it.
"...Scorch?" Spyro asked. Why was this monster, one of Sorceress' created monsters of might and magic, saving their skins? Why was Scorch here in Avalar and not out terrorizing the folks of the Forgotten Worlds?
After darting a quick, confused look at each other, the two dragons decided to make the most out of their lucky break and began to make a mad dash over the rocks and through the exit.
Snowflake and Spyro raced across the ground until they threw themselves onto the safe, flat, sandy ground out of harm's way. Catching their breath, they watched the castle in awe. For several minutes the castle quivered like a frightened animal, the roar of Changeling's magic filling the air. Finally, after felt like a horrific eternity, what Changeling had thought as the most beautiful architecture of Avalar shuddered and collapsed in on itself. The winged form of Scorch was seen flying out of the rubble, unscathed and well out of harm's way.
"Well...we escaped with our lives, all thanks to an enemy of yours." Snowflake panted. Fresh air never tasted sweeter to her tongue, especially after spending a night in a dungeon and fighting a gruesome battle against one of her dearest friends.
"Don't remind me. Scorch put up a good fight. He's one of the last people I expected to appear here." Spyro said. He sat back, his yellow wings folded against his shoulders.
"Well, the only thing we can do now is wait for Wart. If he's still alive, I mean." Spyro quickly added the last sentence as if it was a very good possibility that the little warty dragon got himself killed. Snowflake shuddered at the thought; Wart seemed like such a good companion. The thought of his scaly body getting crushed by many tons of rock drove a shiver down her spine.
The three reptiles sat in the sand, waiting for Wart's return. The peaceful atmosphere of their new haven seemed too much for them, however, for soon Snowflake and Spyro drifted off into an undisturbed sleep, their wings shielding the fragile form of Ripto in their slumber.
As Spyro and Snowflake made a mad dash to the exit, Wart and Eledor ran in the opposite direction to the dungeons. The magic-induced earthquake roared in their ears like a monster from another world. It didn't take long, but now they were standing four stories below the castle's heaviest foundation of rock. Both of them knew they didn't have much time.
"See? I told you I'd be back." Wart said as he stepped into the dungeons. Nazza gave a half-hearted cheer. The rest of the slaves crowded to their prison cell door, all of them eager to escape from this hellhole. Wart glanced down the many hallways of prisoners and then to the rhynoc witch next to him.
"Eledor, remember when we escaped from the Outlaws of the Balance and you used that spell to blast the door off its hinges? Do you think you're able to make that spell so that instead of just one target, there's about three hundred of them?" Wart calculated.
"I'll see what I can do. This isn't ordinary metal, but these cells don't have a magic barrier like Jira set up in her base." Eledor stated as she ran a finger down one of the bars to Nazza and Elora's cell. Wart backed away when Eledor stood in the middle of the hallway with her wand outstretched and her eyes shut. She began to mutter in a rhynocian language.
BOOM!
Every last door in the dungeon flew off its hinges and landed right in the middle of the hallway, creating many neat piles of barred doors. Nazza and Elora jumped out of their cage with a holler, and somewhere down another row of cages, Spyrius, Scott, and Spyretta did the same. The older, more damaged slaves crawled cautiously, almost reluctantly to their freedom. One of the more noticeable creatures was Moneybags, who was now reduced to a mumbling, quivering mass of abused fur. Wart took a moment to amass and count the slaves before turning to Eledor."Wow, that was simply amazing Eledor! How did you do it?" The dragon cried. Eledor blushed and rubbed the back of her neck.
"I didn't really cast the spell. I was halfway through the speaking portion of the spell when all the doors flew off without my help. Either I've become so skilled that magic is like air to me, or someone else did the work for me..."
"Go with the latter, Rhynoc." Eledor and Wart flinched in unison when a mysterious voice spoke behind them. They both turned their heads, and sure enough, the Purple Gigas Guardian Robin was standing behind them with her hands on her hips. Her eyes were narrowed at Wart, and he could tell that she was mad at him for losing his namesake Gigas Crystal to Changeling.
"Yes, I guess it's rather surprising to see the icy Guardian of the Balance Stone help a dragon and a rhynoc free a few flea-bitten slaves. Don't expect me to stick around much, seeing as you did lose the very Gigas Crystal I entrusted to your care!" And at the sound of her words, the sorceress vanished into thin air.
"So, what are we going to do now, Wart? In case you've forgotten, you have three hundred slaves trapped in a castle that's falling apart." Nazza explained. Wart and Eledor both gave Nazza a dirty look for even suspecting that they forgot about the spell, what with all the falling dust and rocks, and the ever-growing sound of the collapsing castle. The warty dragon stepped onto a large, fallen rock to act as a pedestal, and then shouted to all the slaves.
"Okay! If you want to be free, you'd better follow me. Help the sick and the elderly by giving them a hand! C'mon!"
The air was filled with two large sounds; the sound of the ever-growing magic earthquake, and the cheer of more then three hundred slaves running to their freedom. It was a very gratifying sight to see a crowd of freedom-seeking creatures of different shapes and sizes slice through the rising dust cloud surrounding all the air in the castle. As usual, Wart led the party, his knowledge of the castle not going to waste. Eledor took up the rear to make sure that none of the slaves fell behind in the rush.
Everything went along smoothly. Soon they were all rushing through the main gate and into the fresh air of the castle. All the slaves seemed content enough on relaxing, but Wart and Eledor weren't ready to take chances. Together, they divided up the group of freed slaves and counted them all. They saw that everyone was accounted for, and just then the castle crumbled to bits.
"I'd never thought I'd see the day that castle fell to bits. After all the pain that monster put us through, it was worth it." Wart said to Eledor and Nazza as they watched Changeling's home collapse.
A loud cheer rose from the ranks of slaves standing behind them when the castle finally settled to the ground. Some of the elderly, who have lived in those dungeons since the time of Otpir's rule, were silently crying to themselves. It was a beautiful sight to see all the slaves fill with so much hope, and yet Wart was still not happy.
He looked back to the castle's debris, and said in a low voice that only himself could hear, "Let's just hope we'll live long enough to see the fall of Changeling herself..."
"Where is that sea serpent? He better not be drinking himself silly while I'm wasting time finding him!"
As Snowflake's group ran towards one exit and Wart ran to the dungeons, Changeling glided through the rumbling corridors with an amazing grace found only in her species of cat-like creatures. Her teleportation spell had worked, and now all of her horde members were safe from harm's way. It was a simple task of simply finding the break room and teleporting all the occupants inside. Laigon, however, was not resting and joking with his fellow horde members. Changeling was now wasting her neck to save her newly appointed Second-in-Command.
'If he's in a drunken slumber, I'm going to stuff a squirrel in him!' Changeling thought to herself. The villainess quickly evaded any fallen rocks in her way as she searched very room in the castle for any signs of Laigon. As she passed by pictures and sculptures that had fallen to the ground and were ground into dust by falling stones, Changeling would quickly mutter about how long it took to steal those priceless artifacts before continuing her search.
Changeling was about to give up on her search for Laigon and take off when she came up to a familiar-looking door. Laigon's room; of course he'd be hanging out there! She shoved it open by kicking its wood, and a shake from the castle walls caused the door to fall off its hinges and onto the room inside. A growl escaped her lips when she saw her Slave Master face down in a puddle of wine while his room crumbled apart around him.
"Laigon! Get your scaly ass off the ground and get my stuff! This castle is exploding and I don't want my possessions to explode with it!" Changeling shouted, her voice nearly blocked out by the boom of a large stuffed reptilian head falling off the wall. Laigon didn't budge or even make so much as a snort of recognition. Confused, the cat overlord grasped Laigon by the shoulders and picked him up so that his snout brushed against her face. Her nose wrinkled; the sea serpent smelled of something foul that she couldn't quite place, until she realized...
"Wart." Changeling said only the name of the creature that drugged her new second-in-command. Somehow, this wasn't a surprise to her. Wart's room was loaded with vile chemicals, but she never thought that he would use Elixir of Sleep on Laigon. A simple potion filled with fatal chemicals would've done the job, but thankfully Wart was lenient enough to spare the sea serpent's life.
Placing all three Gigas Crystals to Laigon's heart, Changeling began to recite a spell that would purge all the poisons from Laigon's body. Several seconds of nothing but the sound of the castle falling apart around her reached her ears. The still form stirred, and Laigon slowly opened his heavy eyelids. The sea serpent's head snapped up when he realized he was now being held by Changeling and his tongue quickly tried to form excuses of his slumber.
"No need, Laigon. You and I both know that this was Wart's doing." Changeling explained to the dragon in a soothing tone. Laigon narrowed his eyes at the sound of Wart's name, and his form seemed to stiffen with his raw anger. Changeling set him down to the ground, despite the fact that the yellow sea dragon still was woozy from the drug.
"That little toad! When I get to him, he's going to be lucky if he has any bones left!" Laigon shouted, pumping a fist into the air. This sudden action caused him to stumble, but Changeling caught him before he could fall backwards.
"Now's not the time to be plotting revenge. When we get to the horde, we'll discuss this little idea of yours." Changeling said. If Wart, along with those pesky three reptiles and his slave Eledor, escaped from the castle with his life, then there was another way of getting rid of him. The overlord let her eyes wander down to the two scimitars hanging on Laigon's belt. They shimmered with their lethal poison, and Changeling could catch her smiling reflection in their flawless steel.
Of course, it was so obvious. Laigon and Wart hated each other. What better way of killing a useless lackey by using another lackey against him?
The three Gigas Crystals shone in Changeling's outstretched hands as she and Laigon both gave each other a scheming grin. Both of them knew what the other one was thinking, and the idea tasted sweet on their tongues. Wart was going to rue the day that he decided to mess with them.
As a bright flash of light filled the demolished room and took Changeling and Laigon with it, the demolished room was also filled with the sound of sinister laughter...
Spyro stirred slightly, and groaned when bright light penetrated his eyelids. He blinked his purple eyes and stretched his battle-weary limbs With a quick survey of his surroundings, Spyro found that he was in safe hands. The mountains were only a faded memory to the west, and now he was surrounded by sand. He knew this place, remembering what Elora had taught him about the unexplored terrain of Avalar.
This was the Lost Desert, a place where many wars were fought in Avalar's history, from the Great Faun War hundreds of years ago to Otpir's battles only a little more then twenty years ago. To the east of this small desert lay more unexplored terrain, which could only mean one thing; they were getting closer to the Diamond Palace.
"So, you finally decided to join the living, dragon?" Spyro recognized that familiar voice anywhere. Sure enough, Ripto was standing right next to him, looking as arrogant as ever. His clothes were now mended so that they no longer were ripped at the seams. Spyro growled in annoyance at him.
"Yeah, no thanks to you. If we didn't have to carry your dead weight, we would've gotten out of there faster!" Spyro yelled. Ripto's mood changed from happy to angry. Soon both of them were yelling at each other, a nice memory of the good old days.
"Let's see you keep your consciousness after changing your shape twice in thirty minutes!" Ripto yelled back.
"At least my normal shape isn't extremely short like yours is." Spyro retorted.
"Short!?! I'm just as tall as you are!"
"My kind has a slower maturity rate then yours, you little lizard!"
"Knock it off you two!" Snowflake had joined into the argument, and like the last few times in the adventure, she was the one to stop it. Just then, Spyro noticed that they weren't the only ones in the desert.
Large, billowing tents made of animal hide surrounded them, and groups of creatures from many different species filed in and out of the tents, talking joyously and without a care in the world. Had Spyro spent more then one hour of consciousness in the presence of Changeling's army, he would've recognized the tents as the ones that her horde used during their brief stays in the Rainforest of Mist, the shores of Avalar, and the Mystic Mountains.
"So, you're finally awake!" Elora walked up to Spyro and wrapped her arms around his neck. Spyro was happy to see her, especially after he saw how bruised and battered she was back in the Mystic Mountains. With Elora here, that only meant that this camp wasn't filled with normal creatures; all these people were saved from Changeling's dungeons and now they were living in a nomad-like community all heading to the same destination."So Changeling wasn't kidding when she said 'Meet me at Diamond Palace'. She really did intend for us to follow her..." Spyro thought out loud to himself.
"And follow her we shall!" Wart said as he walked up to them. He walked up to them with a sword slung over his shoulder. It seemed kind of awkward to see the normally shy dragon carry an actual weapon, but Spyro, Snowflake, and Ripto didn't bother to ask any questions.
"When we discovered you three fast asleep near the ruins of Castle Changeling yesterday, we didn't know how long you'd sleep. Lucky for us, you were only out of it for a day. We even had the Holder of the Yellow Gigas Crystal come join us."
"The Holder of the Yellow Gigas Crystal is here?" Snowflake asked. The white dragon only remembered the Yellow Gigas Crystal as one of the two that Changeling had already collected before they started this quest. The correct Holder would have no power, but he would probably know some stuff about his Gigas Crystal that no one else knew. "Where is he?"
Wart pointed towards the sky behind their heads, and Snowflake, Spyro, and Ripto followed his finger to a large form in the sky. It was the same monster that had saved them from a very horrible death back in the crumbling castle. Scorch landed in front of them and unfurled his giant wings in a greeting. "It's good to see you three alive." Scorch said in a gruff voice. Spyro was taken aback by this change of things.
"Hey, you can talk?" Spyro inquired. Scorch shrugged his giant wings. "Nobody said that I couldn't!"
"How did you get here? From my knowledge, the Sorceress and her goons don't travel to Avalar every chance they get." Ripto stated plainly.
"Well, it's sort of a long story, but we have time to kill. Before Spyro and his group of buddies were lured into the Forgotten Worlds, I was just a normal-looking rhynoc that worked for an honest living with the Sorceress." Spyro interrupted to give a loud whoop of laughter. "Now, sometime after Ripto got defeated, the Sorceress became very interested in the land known as Avalar. She sent several troops of rhynocs to secretly explore the lands of Avalar, me being one of them. We traveled across the lands until we came to a peculiar desert. Ruins surrounded the place and we could almost hear the ghostly wail of the spirits that haunted that site. My troops chickened out, so I went on ahead."
"Suddenly, I came upon this large circular room. A pillar was in the middle of the room, with a large yellow crystal imbedded in it. However, that wasn't the most interesting thing in the room. A large cluster of rocks made into the shape of a dragon surrounded the pillar in its rocky coils, and you can almost feel its lifeless stare fixated on you. As I walked closer to the yellow crystal, the dragon seemed to come alive. It growled a warning not to proceed, but I didn't listen. Maybe I was too foolhardy, for I charged right towards the crystal and grabbed it. Long story short, the dragon called me the Holder of the Yellow Gigas Crystal and then disappeared."
"The Sorceress thought that the crystal wasn't meant for someone as simple-minded as me, so she stashed it into her room. The events of the Year of the Dragon happen, and then this warty number" Scorch jabbed a wing in Wart's direction. "Comes into the Forgotten Worlds to steal the Yellow Gigas Crystal for Changeling."
"When it turned out that the Yellow Gigas Crystal was a special gem with cosmic powers, I vowed to get it back from that Changeling. I followed her but kept a safe distance. I flew over rainforests, coastlines, mountains, and finally to her castle. When I saw that you were doing the same, I kept an eye on you. Seeing you get captured was a very disturbing experience for me, because it meant that Changeling was strong enough to beat up even the great Spyro the Dragon. I waited for the right moment to help you. The fight against Ripto and Incinder went well and I decided to follow you three. When the ceiling started to collapse, well, you know the rest of the story..."
When Scorch was talking, the three reptiles were sitting in the sand and listening quite well. After a brief silence, Snowflake asked a question. "But why are you helping us? One of our friends just happened to steal the crystal from you in order to give to Changeling, and Spyro here fought against you and won!"
Scorch smiled, which was somewhat intimidating with his many rows of teeth. "We all have the same enemy; it would be foolish to fight against each other. It would also be very foolish to waste your energy on an ally when tomorrow is going to be filled with bloodshed." Scorch then launched himself into the air and disappeared into the clouds.
"'Tomorrow is going to be filled with bloodshed'. What does he mean by that?" Ripto questioned, turning to the green dragon that had helped them so much in the castle. Wart looked somber, as he rubbed abrasive against the blade of the sword he was carrying.
"The Lost Desert is only half a day away from our final destination; the Diamond Palace. The only problem is, separating the palace from the desert is a grassy plain called the Blood-Soaked Plains for obvious reasons." Wart stated.
"What reasons?" Snowflake said a bit cautiously.
"Well, there's a lot of history in those plains. It was there that Otpir's army slaughtered the entire army of Avalarians. It was there that the Gigas Crystals were used for their first purpose, which was to execute the worst criminals of all of Avalar." Wart stated solemnly.
His eyes started to fill with tears. "Don't you see? Every time a large group of people is led into these plains, a war starts. The land surrounding the sacred Diamond Palace is perfect for massacres and slaughters! We'll be lucky to live through tomorrow!"
"Now I know what Changeling meant when she said 'Meet me at Diamond Palace'..." Spyro said as he soaked in Wart's words. The purple dragon glanced sadly at the slaves, for he just noticed that they were all preparing weapons salvaged from Changeling's storage for a big battle. The sound of blades sharpening, arrows nocked and prepared, and shields polished and cleaned filled the air like a requiem.
And yet, none of the slaves seemed unwilling to do this act. All of them chattered happily; this was a do or die situation, and they were ready to prove themselves in the upcoming battle. Even Moneybags, who normally cared only for himself and his riches, was preparing a battle mace while muttering about creating new openings in Changeling's body to himself crazily.
"For tomorrow we're going to fight a war against her..."
End of Chapter 13
I know this chapter is dreadfully boring, but think of it as a transition between two very exciting battle-filled chapters. Chapter 12, there was Ripto and Incinder. Chapter 14 there's going to be sword fights, wars, and all kinds of exciting stuff like that.
I made Scorch's appearance by memory, and don't complain to me if he seems OOC. Scorch had no speaking lines, and all he did was fight you.