Okay, so Spyro was one dragon year old in the previous chapters, he's now 13 dragon years old. Just thought I'd explain that. Also, I'd like to thank Lithe for boosting my confidence. Thanks!

Mid-life crisis.

BANG!

Another spell was sent Spyro's way, missing him by a millimetre.

Spyro charged around to the opposite side of the arena, just as the part he was standing on crumbled into the lava.

"What's the matter Ripto?"asked Spyro in his trademark cocky voice,"Too fast for you?"

"Grrrrrr!"growled Ripto in frustration,"Stand still you irritating, purple pest!"

Another spell was fired which also missed its target and hit the section of the platform that Spyro had been standing on.

"Yeah, I'm really going to stand still while you try and kill me,"replied Spyro in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Shut up and die!"yelled Ripto in a feeble attempt to scare Spyro.

"Neh, I think I'd rather live,"replied Spyro, wearing an amused smirk.

Spells were fired again and again and kept missing by miles.

Time and time again, Spyro dodged and ducked and in some cases leapt.

It all started when Ripto had stolen all the light gems and kidnapped the professor so that he could build and power an all-new super gadget called the super cannon, designed to tear apart the realms and destroy villages.

Suddenly, Spyro felt a great jolt of pain from the patch of scales between his hind legs.

He collapsed and was caught off guard by one of Ripto's spells.

"Damn it, not again!"thought Spyro, slowly getting up and wincing at another rush of pain.

"Hah!" called Ripto, as Spyro was hit by another spell, "not so cocky now are you!"

"I can't believe he got me!"Spyro said to himself as he charged right at Ripto.

Ripto was sent flying across the arena and on to gulps back.

"I'll be back you purple scaled freak!"he called as he ran off.

The professor walked cautiously over to Spyro who was still shocked that Ripto had hit him.

"It happened again, professor,"Spyro said, sounding rather upset.

"It's okay Spyro, you've reached a stage in life that all male dragons go through that can be quite painful,"explained the professor.

"Are you talking about puber-,"started Spyro, except the prof cut in.

"No time to talk, look!"shouted the professor, pointing at the part of the platform that had started sinking.

"follow me!" shouted Spyro as he ran out the exit portal.

Once outside, Spyro confronted the professor about his situation, but the professor said that he'd no time to talk because he had to dis-assemble the cannon before Ripto returned.

"Why now?"thought Spyro, thinking through all the fights in the past year. Every one of these fights he had felt the same pain.

He was thinking so hard that he hadn't been paying attention to the direction he walked in.

He found himself outside the abandoned school tower that had been shut down after the bomb.

He slowly approached the building, looking up for the sign that had once said 'hatchling development facility'. All he found was a tall metal stump where one of the supports had been.

He walked slowly into the tower and up the steps into his old classroom.

Memories flooded back to him as he looked around the room.

Then something caught his eye. It was a black and purple object, propped up against the wall.

It didn't take him long to realise that it was his old cushion.

He remembered himself as a hatchling, along with all the challenges that he'd been faced with.

They would all be so easy now that he was a teenager.

He remembered Frost and Pyro, who had made his life such a misery back then.

He growled as he remembered the time when Pyro had attacked Ember,

it all seemed so distant.

He collapsed to the floor when he received another painful jolt.

"Great, now I can't even think of Ember without hurting,"he thought, angrily.

Suddenly, he heard a scuffling coming from around the corner. Obviously some-one had been in the room before Spyro and had heard him growl.

"Hello?"called a voice. a voice that ,to Spyro, sounded like an angel,"anyone there?"

"Yes," replied Spyro, just as the source of this heavenly, feminine voice came around the corner

"Who are y...EMBER!" he yelled in disbelief. Another pain shot through him but he tried his best to hide it.

Sure enough, Ember stood just in front of Spyro, looking radiant in the sunlight.

"S...SPYRO! What...what are you doing here? I...I...," She looked shocked and scared at the same time.

"I...I was just...well...er..-," he started, but stopped when he noticed that she had been crying.

"What's wrong?" he managed to say.

"N...nothing...none of you business anyway," she said, wiping her tears away.

She'd actually been thinking of Spyro, just as she did almost all the time. Except she felt heart broken at the fact that a relationship between them would never be possible. So she'd been crying her eyes out.

Spyro noticed that Ember had changed a lot over the period of time that they'd been apart.

Her scales glistened magically and she looked a lot more mature. More pain shot through him but this time he couldn't hide it.

He cried out in pain again and fell to the floor.

Ember blushed as she realised what Spyro must be going through. After all, she'd read the professors books on this part of a male dragons life.

In fact, Ember was quite a book worm nowadays. She'd read all of the books in the town library and all of the professors science books.

She thought of what she could do to help but thought Spyro wouldn't feel comfortable with it.

So she put her hand on Spyro's back.

Spyro's eyes then squeezed shut as the pain came over him again.

Ember realised what she'd done and instantly backed away again.

"Spyro...I'm so sorry...I didn't realise!"she said quickly. She started crying and fled the room, thinking about how stupid she'd been to try and help.

"I can't believe I did that!" thought Ember, as she climbed into bed.

Ember had read about all the pains that males and female go through at puberty,

but fortunately for Ember, her pain only affected her when she was trying to sleep.

She squeezed her eyes (and hind legs)shut and tried to block out the pain that coursed through her private section.

"Damn, damn, damn, damn!"Ember cried aloud as the pain increased and decreased at random intervals.

And back at his cave, Spyro was going through the same as he writhed around in his bed.

That night was restless and difficult, just like the nights before it.

Well I hope you enjoyed it! I have no idea what this stage in a dragons life would be like so I just made it up, okay.