Chapter 7
"Speech"
"Ancient Dragon Tongue"
Some things never change, whether for good or for evil. It is in our nature to help those in need, no matter the cost...
-Former Counselor Balerum, Age of Reason and Understanding
When the trio of dragons began their descent, the first thing to draw the attention of the panicking occupants of the raft upwards to the sky was a banshee-like screeching that filled the air. The three cheetahs looked upwards to the source and saw three unmistakable silhouettes of dragons diving down towards them. A wave of relief washed over their faces as they saw one dragon very familiar to them at least in stories approaching. The legendary purple dragon was coming to save them, but that relief turned to panic when the black dragoness beside the purple one was recognized. They trembled a small bit as they saw the former 'Terror of the Skies' approaching a small bit with close on the tails of the two dragons they saw a larger grey dragon that they had never seen before.
Spyro and Cynder however didn't notice the panic on the faces on the cheetahs and took it as fear of falling off the edge, but Ravenwing picked up on the quick emotional changes in their faces and peeled off to the left of the raft a small bit, tracking his quarry in the water. The purple and black dragons landed on the raft as the cheetahs looked between scared and hopeful a small bit. "We're here to get you out of here." Spyro said as the raft rocked a small bit as something seemed to nudge it from underneath, causing the two dragons to look over the edge of the raft before a blast of white fire shot down from the sky and into the water right in front of everyone's faces, causing everyone on the raft to jump back a small bit.
"A little warning would've been nice!" Cynder said up to the owner of the fire blast as it flew over the water, banking occasionally as if following something. She huffed a small bit and turned to the cheetahs. "Is there any way we can push the raft out of the current?"
"N-n-no...the sail broke ages ago, all we have are two ropes that were used to open and close it left." One of the elder cheetahs replied with a small shiver. "C-can't you freeze the lake and let us cross?" He asked to which Spyro shook his head.
"The current's to violent...the ice would break apart as soon as it formed." Spyro replied with a sigh as the raft shook a bit, rubbing some on the rocks on the floor of the shallowing pond as it approached the cliff. The two seemed to think it over a second before the front of the raft near the middle edge of the pond was knocked upwards into the air by a sudden force, throwing some of the loose supplies overboard as well as one of the cheetahs up into the sky who yelped in surprise and began to fall backwards into the rocky waters behind the raft. The cheetah screamed a small bit as it fell to the rocks face first but was caught mid air by large paws clasping around their torso.
"Here's an idea. Grab the ropes and begin to pull the raft!" Ravenwing shouted as he flew to the shoreline to drop off the one cheetah he grabbed who was squirming a small bit in his grasp. "Sheesh lady calm down," He said to the cheetah in his grasp who seemed to fume a small bit but stopped resisting a bit once they saw where the grey dragon was taking them.
"But what about my father and brother?" She asked to the grey dragon in a worried tone. Ravenwing snorted a bit in amusement.
"i'm sure the 'legendary purple dragon' and Cynder got that handled. I'm just going to keep ferrying you three back to land." Ravenwing replied before setting down the first cheetah and took off to the raft to grab another. Approaching the raft, Ravenwing noticed Spyro and Cynder struggling to hold the raft in place as he swept down to try to grab another occupant of the raft, but was blindsided by a force of stone and vines that had jumped out of the water to attack. Ravenwing was caught completely off guard and dragged down into the waters of the deceptively deep lake.
"Ravenwing!" Spyro called out before Cynder turned to him. "What was that thing?" He said in a small panic as the blur of stone vanished beneath the waves.
"Can you hold onto my rope Spyro." Cynder said quickly, causing Spyro to nod a bit as he took both ropes and grunted in pain before Cynder dived into the water after the grey dragon while taking a deep inhale of precious air. Gritting her teeth some, Cynder began to swim down where she saw a massive vine and rock serpent like entity coiling around Ravenwing who was struggling for his life at the bottom of the lake. Cynder decided to swim down deeper into the water as Ravenwing tried ripping a long vine off the coiling stone behemoth. Cynder growled a small bit as she watched the scene and swam down, gabbing onto another vine and ripping. The rock serpent roared under the pressure of the water, releasing it's grip on Ravenwing who was surprised to see Cynder there helping him before she was knocked away by the tail of the creature. With a growl, Ravenwing sprung into action and began to chase after the creature, his air supply waning.
Cynder whined some in pain as she was sent backward, away from the stone creature before noticing the behemoth racing towards her. In a panic she began to swim upwards as fast as she could. The serpent roared again after her, approaching rapidly with Ravenwing on it's tail. With a crunch, the grey dragon grabbed one of the vines on the tail of the serpent that seemed to be glowing and yanked hard, trying to summon and fire to help tear apart the serpent. The creature yelped in surprise and turned back to Ravenwing with a hiss, allowing Cynder to break the surface of the lake. The black dragoness gasped for air as she noticed Spyro slowly drift back to the edge of the falls. She was about to dash over to assist when she noticed Ravenwing never appeared on the surface. In a panic she turned back to look into the water before a massive splash filled her view. The action caused her to fly up some and cough again to keep the water from her lungs. When the water cleared, she saw Ravenwing roaring loudly as he hovered just above the waves and dashed towards the raft again with the serpent hot on his heals as some specks of blood dripped from his frame. "C'mon you bastard!" He shouted to the serpent that dashed behind him. Spyro looked on with panic as Ravenwing sped towards the raft and the edge of the cliff. Cynder flew to Spyro and looked at the two cheetah who were ghostly pale as the sight of Ravenwing approaching.
"Spyro we need to grab them and go!" She said to which Spyro nodded as he let the ropes go, grabbed the older cheetah while Cynder grabbed the younger one. They flew up into the air with a huff as they tried their best to carry the weight of the cheetahs in their arms. A second later Ravenwing flew over the raft and dived down the edge of the cliff to which the serpent smashed the raft to bits, splinters flying everywhere and landing some fragments into the hovering dragons as they watched the serpent crash into the rocks on the edge of the cliff and fall off the edge into the abyss. It roared loud in surprise as it dived off the edge of the cliff and into the nothingness bellow. A few seconds later Ravenwing flew up with a torn wing, panting hard before landing hard on the rocks at the edge of the cliff. Spyro and Cynder in the meantime were dropping off the cheetahs on the shore next to the first one with a huff as they turned back to see the grey dragon crash into the exposed rocks.
"Thank you so much!" The youngest one said with a relieved voice. The other two smiled a bit as they were hugging each other tightly. Spyro smiled some a small bit at the pair before turning back to where Ravenwing crashed to see the grey dragon groan a small bit. He turned to Cynder who nodded a small bit before taking off to land where Ravenwing landed. The grey dragon groaned a small bit as Spyro landed.
"Hey you ok?" Spyro asked.
"D-did anyone get the license plate of that truck...? I'm sure the officers would be pissed..." Ravenwing said with a groan as his body twitched a small bit.
"What's a truck...?" Spyro asked with a cocked brow before taking note of the small tears on Ravenwing's right wing. The grey dragon was gritting his teeth as he shakily stood up.
"Oh Spyro...did you two get those people off the raft before I came through?" He asked with a pained expression, panting hard to catch his breath. "God damn I'm not used to this." The purple dragon seemed to nod slowly as Ravenwing chuckled a small bit. "Hooray for our side..." He sighed out as he tried to open his wings before grunting in pain. Spyro cringed a small bit as he saw the blood spilling from some of the membranes of the wing and looked over the edge of the cliff and into the clouds bellow. His eyes widdened some in surprise when he did as over the edge of the cliff the rock serpent seemed to have used some of its vines to latch onto the cliff-face and began to crawl it's way back upwards again with a hissing roar.
"Um...so I don't want to alarm you but..." Spyro said in a nervous voice as he seemed to back away slowly from the edge of the cliff.
"What the hell does that mea-" Ravenwing began before another roaring rang out from over the edge. "Never mind." He stated, limping backwards a bit as he tried to take off into the air, though his wings fought back and he only lifted up a foot or two before crashing back down. "Ow..." Spyro bit his lip a bit and turned to Ravenwing before looking back at the lake.
"You need to get out of here." Spyro said in a slightly stern voice.
"And leave you to have all the fun without me?" Ravenwing said with a pained chuckle as he got back onto his paws. "Not a chance."
"I'm not giving you a choice," Spyro said before he shoved Ravenwing into the water, much to the grey dragon's surprise before blasting the edge of the cliff in what seemed to be a beam of ice breath.
"Wait you can use more than o-" Ravenwing exclaimed in surprise before hitting the water and swimming up to the surface, watching Spyro spread his wings wide and dive off the edge of the cliff. Ravenwing was about to swim to the edge to go after Spyro but he saw Cynder fly overhead and beat him to it by a few seconds as he climbed on the rocky land again. 'Bastard.' Ravenwing thought a small bit when he thought to Spyro shoving him into the water. Peering over the edge, Ravenwing saw was seemed to be a stream of green goo-like liquid pouring from Cynder's maw as she flew across the stone creature. 'Now both of them can do it.' He though with surprise. 'I guess they weren't kidding about it earlier.'
The stone serpent swung it's massive tail in the air at the pair of dragons, missing just barely as a torrent and black fire was blasted upon the serpent in response, burning away some of the vines keeping it together as a flash of blue began to wash over the creature. It screamed in agony and began to climb up the rock wall faster to escape the torrent of fire being brought to bear upon it. The two dragons blasting it watched in surprise as the blue glow grew brighter and brighter before the light was blinding to them, causing them to calm their fire blasts for a split second as they covered their eyes. By the time the blue light faded, the serpent was gone and in it's place was blackened ash and a small hole in the cliff face. "Is it gone?" Cynder seemed to ask with a glance between Spyro and the hole. Spyro seemed to nod a small bit.
"Seems like it." He said with a small smile. "I knew blasting it would work." He said with a triumphant smirk. Cynder sighed a small bit and rolled her eyes some.
"Sure but I think we both know who did the most damage too it." Cynder replied with a smirk of her own as she flew up to the cliff edge again. Spyro took a second to process that sentence before pouting a bit and grumbling to himself as he flew back up to the top of the cliff to see Cynder flying past the lake and back to the shore line. He noticed a grey shape moving in the water with some difficulty as a small trail of red followed behind it a bit. With a worried glance, Spyro flew down to where the grey mass was swimming and looked down to the dragon in question who seemed to be limping in the water.
"Heh...Sorry about that." Spyro said with a sheepish glance to Ravenwing who paused and looked backup at Spyro. Spyro didn't realize it until it was too late that Ravenwing's cheeks were puffed out a small bit and a blast of water hit his face. Spyro coughed a small bit, being caught off guard, as Ravenwing chuckled to himself.
"Well you're still a dick for doing it, but I think we are even." Ravenwing said with a mild chuckle as he watched the water drip off of Spyro's deadpanned face. Spyro then smirked a bit and nodded as the two got back to land, Ravenwing limping a small bit due to the bruises forming on his fore and hind-paws. The purple dragon landed next to him and put his body on the side of the grey dragon to help support it as they approached Cynder and the cheetahs.
"Thank you so much." The younger male cheetah said with a small smile. Spyro smiled a small bit at the cheetah as Ravenwing lifted himself up from Spyro's support before laying down, cringing in pain with each breath.
"It was no problem." Spyro replied which earned a snort from Ravewing.
"Speak for yourself. You weren't hit with a freight train." Ravenwing said with an annoyed huff causing Spyro to cringe a small bit, remembering when the stone serpent first knocked the grey dragon out of the sky.
"What's a freight train?" Cynder asked causing Ravenwing to freeze a small bit and cough some. Cynder and Spyro both raised a brow at this as Ravenwing quickly thought of a response to the statement.
"It's just an expression..." Ravenwing replied. Cynder sighed a small bit and gave the grey dragon a suspicious glare before turning to the trio of cheetahs they just rescued.
"Why were you guys out on the lake anyways?" Ravenwing asked trying to take the conversation in a new direction.
"We were trying to get food for our village since the world broke apart. It left the town in desperate need of repair." The older cheetah of the group said with a small sigh. "But we didn't know it'd attract the attention of such a creature..." He said breaking off in a sad expression as the middle aged female of the group grabbed the elder most one in a comforting manner.
"We lost three other rafts before you all came. We were tying to get back to the river to escape but it kept throwing us out closer and closer to the edge." She replied looking at the dragons. "We are in your debt for saving our lives, dragons."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Spyro said looking down some and then back to the water. "It should be safe now that we dealt with the thing." He replied with a shake of his head.
"You wouldn't happen to know the way back to Warfang would you?" Cynder asked. "Our guide basically just said 'Fly straight this way for 300 links'." She said while stretching her wings some. The groups of cheetahs nodded a bit and cocked their head some.
"That may have been true a month ago, but our messengers have been making it back in record time." The oldest cheetah said looking off into the distance. "They return from the plains to the east." He added gesturing to the area where it turned to a flat semi-desert like area. "It took them at least 2-5 days before they returned to us." Spyro and Cynder both perked up at this news and smiled a bit while Ravenwing seemed indifferent about it.
"Thank you, do you guys need help getting back to your village?" Spyro asked to which the cheetahs sook their heads.
"No we know the way back. Thank you all so much." The female cheetah replied before guiding the other two back into the tree-line and along the river not to far away. Spyro and Cynder waved them off as they went.
"So I guess onward and eastward we go." Ravenwing said in a pained voice as he turned to the plains and began to walk before quickly feeling both Spyro and Cynder at his side to help his legs support his weight. "Thanks" Ravenwing mumbled a small bit as the trio began their trek towards where the cheetahs indicated they should go. The trio walked in silence for a while, getting out of range of the lake and trees and seeing just pure light yellow grasslands with the spiritic tree every now and then along their walk. Spyro turned to the satchel along Ravenwing's back as it seemed to be in the process of drying off from the dampness of the water in the fading light of the sun with a semi-upset expression.
"Guess we won't know what any of it says now." Spyro mumbled to himself as his tail seemed to drop some. Ravenwing and Cynder both perked up a small bit and turned to face the purple dragon.
"What was that Spyro?" Cynder asked with a raised brow.
"Oh nothing...just the books in the satchel...I guess we won't be able to know what they held since they got drowned." Spyro said causing Ravenwing to panic a bit and frantically move to the satchel, nearly tearing it open to investigate the contents only to be stumped as he looked to the book where a glowing glyph seemed to be absorbing any dampness or water that seemed to be trying to worm its way to the contents of the pages. The same rang true for the three scrolls he also carried with him and he breathed out a huge sigh of relief, but a massive look of confusion drew upon his features as he inspected the contents.
"How are they?" Cynder asked with a semi-worried glance at the bag.
"Well funny enough they survived." Ravenwing replied which earned confused looks from both Spyro and Cynder.
"H-how?" Spyro asked before Ravenwing pulled out the book among the items of the bag and revealed the glowing glyph that was in the shape of a stream. All three dragons stared at the book a bit as the glowing faded and the glyph seemed to go with it as it faded into the worn leather the original cover was. With a raised brow, Ravenwing opened the cover of the book and found every page as dry as it was back in the library room from the floating isle.
"This is physically impossible." Ravenwing stated as he skimmed every page.
"Must be some kind of old magic that prevented it from being destroyed." Cynder commented off-handedly, Spyro nodded a bit at the explanation while Ravenwing seemed to have a disbelieving expression. Cynder and Spyro noticed it with a cocked brow but didn't comment on it.
"Ah great now there is crazy magic in the midst." Ravenwing mumbled to himself with a sigh, as he proceeded to put the book away and continued to walk slowly. The grey dragon seemed to try putting more weight on his own legs, due to the pain numbing a small bit. He folded his wings fully against his torso tighter as Spyro and Cynder backed away from his form a small bit.
"What was that?" Spyro asked not seeming to understand the mumble but sure enough hearing it.
"Nothing." Ravenwing replied while looking to the darkening sky. "We should find a place to rest." He suggested, earning a nod from the younger dragons.
"What about under that tree?" Cynder offered pointing to a tree a couple hundred feet away. The other two dragons nodded and soon the trio arrived by the wooded shade provider. Spyro and Cynder lied down away from the tree itself while Ravenwing laid up against the tree itself, using it as support for his hurt wing. Sighing a small bit, the grey dragon began to curl up to sleep, but was stopped by the curious nature of Spyro.
"So Ravenwing, what is the book you have in the satchel about anyways?" Spyro asked. Ravenwing blinked some and pulled out said book again. He set it on the ground and opened it up to a few pages in and gestured for the purple dragon to read. Spyro scooted closer, but instead of being able to see words on the pages, it instead seemed to be muddied and distorted scribbles of black lines that could never hope to resemble text. He raised a brow in confusion and looked at Ravenwing like he was crazy for a second before said grey dragon blinked confused in return.
"What's up?" Ravenwing asked with a confused stare. "Something wrong?"
"I can't read it." Spyro replied with a deadpanned expression.
"Why not? It's written in perfect english." Ravenwing replied looking at the book and seeing coherent and eloquently put together paragraphs and sentences weaved together with the style of a 1600s writer. "I mean it's written clear as day." He added to which the purple dragon gave him a small glare and snorted some.
"Could you read it to us then?" Cynder said looking between the two. "I'm sure we're all curious what it says." Ravenwing shrugged and slid the book before his body gently, careful to not disturb and form of binding upon it.
"Ok I guess." Ravenwing said before coughing a bit to clear his throat, a little bit nervous about reading out loud. "Well...were do I begin..." He said trailing off before flipping the page.
"Just from the beginning please..." Spyro said, getting a bit excited to hear the story. With a sigh Ravenwing nodded and turned a few pages again.
"Ok..." He coughed again. "...In the beginning, a great calamity spread across the Realms. Great golems and ancient evils roamed the surface, destroying anything and everything in their wake. The world was filled with ash and fire, the ground was littered with ruins of the first ones. The great moon dragon saw this and dismayed. She had chosen the planet eons prior for is potential to make life but here it was destroying itself right under her watchful gaze." Ravenwing paused a second to take a breath and noticed Spyro and Cynder listening intently. He smiled a small bit and put on a more gruff narration accent as he continued. "...Apauled by what she saw, the moon dragon sent her kin to the surface to silence the call of death and destruction the Realms seemed to be begging for to escape the pain. The first dragons were born without elements and instead wielded mighty magic from the moon dragon herself. Though the dragons fought valiantly, it was not enough to subdue the Realms and the kin of the moon dragon died off by the droves. That was until the Realms, infused with the dead magic of the moon dragon, produced it's own dragons. Ones born of magma and fire, of wind and air, of water and ice."
"Wait is that referring to elemental dragons?" Spyro asked, which Ravenwing replied with a shrug.
"I don't know to be honest. All of this is news to me as well." He replied with a small skeptical expression gestured at the pages of the book. Ravenwing cleared his throat some and continued reading on from where he left off. "At first, the kin of the Realms wanted nothing to do with saving their dying world. Contempt with the situation as the world began to crack apart. A bitter rivalry formed between the two forms of kin for quite a many years before the golems began to start to crack the planet apart. At this the great moon dragon sent waves of emotions and fears to the kin of the Realms, begging them to save their world and help her kin. At first it was reluctant, but eventually the kin formed a union and pushed back against the golems and forced them underground, draining the ancient beasts of their magic and sealing them away forever."
"So the destroyer must've been one of those ancient golems from that era then..." Cynder mused out loud causing Spyro to nod some.
"But what had awakened it?" Spyro asked to which he hummed some in thought. "Unless 'he' found a way to reanimate it..." He trailed off before he came to a realization, Cynder seemed to pick it up too because they both exclaimed it at the same time.
"It had to have been what corrupted him!" They said together causing Ravenwing to cock a brow. The grey dragon looked between the two dragons and sighed some.
"I'm probably going to get a long explanation on it, but what are you two on about?" Ravenwing asked with a small yawn over his features as the lack of sleep from the night prior began to catch up with him.
"We are just thinking of how the dark master awoken that ancient destroyer we had to fight in the last days of the war against him." Cynder replied as if it was the most wide known information there was. Ravenwing nodded some, remembering that part from their tale of how the world was before he arrived. "We thought originally that he had found them trapped before freeing them...but if what your book says is true..." Cynder trailed off.
"Then that crystal he seemed to be sucked into did radiate from the same energy he did..." Spyro began as he tapped his claw on the ground some. "Then that must've been what did it..." He mused some to himself seeming to feel a bit relieved at the revelation. In the meantime, Ravenwing was starting to put up the book in his satchel before being stopped by Spyro. "Wait that can't be all of it, can it?" He asked as if pleading to know more.
"It's all I'm willing to read tonight ok buddy?" Ravenwing replied as he slipped it inside the satchel with another yawn. "Unlike you two I decided to be dumb and not sleep last night and I really want to rest..." He said trailing off, his voice a bit more stern than what he meant for it to be. With another yawn, Ravenwing curled up around himself and began to doze off, leaving Spyro and Cynder awake some, kind of surprised by the harsher tone Ravenwing was using to a degree.
"You think he meant it?" Cynder asked a bit perturbed.
"I don't know Cyn." Spyro replied before pausing on his words, realizing what he just referred to Cynder as. Cynder seemed to look equally surprised and looked away from the purple dragon a bit. Shaking his head some Spyro looked to the grey dragon that was resting before yawing himself. "He might've...I mean he still hasn't told us why that pink dragon stated how much she hated us."
"Maybe it was to protect our feelings or something though." Cynder added with a shrug as she curled up herself, resting on the tree near Ravenwing with Spyro padding over to rest as well. He yawned some and rested next to Cynder but not completely against her frame as to give her personal space and still being embarrassed about what he said. Cynder seemed to take note, and with a blush hidden by the rising night sky and her black scales, slid over to be right against Spyro, causing the purple dragon to blink some surprised before Cynder acted cold. Spyro didn't pick up on the act, blushing to much to notice, and put a wing around her to try to 'warm' her frame. The two feel into sleep shortly after, ready to resume their journey tomorrow morning.
Chapter End