Hurrying forth in an what was hoped to be a straight heading, with no color or elevation to identify among the empty overcast-grey environment, Elora's hoofsteps echoed as far as her ears could discern with no returning sound. Actively running away from the churning dark mass behind, glimpsed in quick peeks of her wide-eyed vision and presumed to be an existential threat, black angular entrails burst outward in errant directions above the horizon, re-consumed by the ever-following turmoil of what could only be described as a rolling storm of seemingly infinite width.
This is... What is this?
With an oddly uncomfortable ripple of heat meeting her back, fur standing on end, she looking vainly in all directions at the featureless expanse. Then, identifying a darker grey splotch in a passing sweep, she locked onto the variation among the gloom, discerning the approach and pacing of a slender hovering silhouette, shrouded among the unending curtain of grey mist.
Is that... "Zoe?"
Met with naught but emptiness following her fading speech, the silhouetted figure seemed to turn in place in a leaning hover beside her. Unfurling what looked to be wings, expanding in parallel, the figure came nearer with an observed flap, and just as she witnessed the drifting undulation of a tail, her vision blurred, prompting her to swipe her forearm across her eyes. With no tears coming away onto her fur, and finding herself unable to blink back into focus, the figure cautiously neared, captive in a shroud of vapor.
Uh, who...
Mind racing with questions from the forced obfuscation, a thin rod appeared near to her ear, and a gleam of gentle changing colors bloomed from its tip. With a physical tap onto her head, flattening a tuft of her bobbing hair, the wand was pulled free, and a dark trail of unknown composition followed it towards the winged silhouette, exiting her head entirely. Then, mere heartbeats after the retreat of the wand, the silhouetted creature vanished into the mist, and Elora's vision sharpened, as did the extreme fatigue that rippled across her legs. Immediately succumbing to the blasts of ache, stumbling and dropping down onto all fours, she whirled around to face the pursuant storm, only to find that the foreboding phenomenon she had been fleeing was entirely absent.
...What?
Blinking without a flinch from the thunderous slam of an unseen object landing onto the featureless plain, she turned aside to find the source, mouth prying open, but no words escaped her throat as the entire horizon abruptly contrasted into pitch black.
Eyelids peeping open, one after the other, a splash of dim colors gained clarity as the painted stone bricks of a wall, and the colorful outer fibers of the rug beneath her cheek. Blinking several times, turning up toward the wooden shutters over the room's single window, blocking out all but a spare few cracks and beams of permeating sunlight, her bosom expanded with the forcefully deep intake of breath.
Sooo... Definitely saw something. Someone. Dragon, maybe.
Cheeks puffing, exhalation ejecting from her nostrils, she reached outward, arms flopping onto her cast-off satchel in a stretch.
Not sure how, but whoever had that wand, made that big doom cloud go away.
Reaching above in continued stretching, rubbing an itch on her nose against her bicep, her head rolled over as her arms returned, bumping into Spyro's neck just beside. With the rise of his head in a delayed response, he turned and lowered his chin onto her collar, eying her lazy smile with a tilt.
"Hey."
"Hiii."
"Been awake long?"
"Noo."
Vision lowering to his fangs on display as his jaw tremored amid a big yawn, both of her arms found new landings on his scales, fingers finding and dragging through his bristled crest.
"I think I saw a dragon in my dreaming... Wasn't you though. Never seen this one before."
"Mm, what did they look like?"
"Kind of tall. Had a wand... Couldn't tell what color. Was just a floating shadow in a flat land of nothing."
"Weird."
"Do you know any dragons like that?"
"Several."
Eyes meeting, both creatures equally half awake, Spyro fed Elora's growing curiosity with a knowing pause.
"You saw them in your dreaming... That means you witnessed one of the dream weavers."
Brow perking, Elora drug her middle digit along the entire length of his golden mane.
"Dream... Weavers?"
"They live in the sky and help ward off our nightmares."
Met with her pointed nod, fully expected, Spyro affirmed his own statement with unyielding seriousness.
"Their realm requires having wings or being able to float with magic."
"Up in the clouds?"
"Entirely."
Imagining their shared flight from Avalar, high above the horizon, the imagery of fluffy orange-tinted vapor faded as Spyro stood fully to his feet, toes spreading in a back-and-forth stretch of his legs. Noticing a band of green on his left horn as he turned, revealing the loops of a fabric bow tied on the ribbed point, Elora's lips tightened as she cracked into a muted laugh, trying to keep it bottled in her throat. Cheekbones curling higher with mirth as Spyro looked directly at her, seeing the freely dangling lengths of the bow tossing from his motion, she pushed herself into a roll, flopping across the rug and bumping against the cool brick wall.
"What?"
"Just remembered something from yesterday."
"Something I did?"
"Kinda, sort of."
Met with her ambiguity and cheeky smiling, visibly unaware of the decoration gracing his horn, the plum reptile ambled towards the room's drawn curtain.
"A-Anyway, I'll be right back."
"Kay!"
Watching his tail slither through the folds of the thick fabric, she burst into a giggle after a delay.
Oh, Spyro.
Heaving herself onto her forearms, Elora crawled toward the glinting mass of his treasure pile, inspecting the mound of gems gathered from worlds near and far. With a pluck of one of the large crimson gems, turning it in her fingers, she set the faceted rock aside onto the smooth floor, grabbing another and placing it near.
I wonder if he even knows how much wealth he has right here.
Legs crossing behind herself, hooves touching together and swaying in little motions, she began sorting more of the gems by color. Looking in detail at the flat-cut top of a purple gemstone, seeing her reflection among a glint of light, she cupped the object in her palms, chin sinking onto her forearms.
If the dragons just accumulate stuff like this... What do they even spend it on?
Inspecting slopes of sorted gems, decorating one entire side of Spyro's treasure pile in segments of matching shades, Elora's ear turned, attentive to the entrance of a creature through the room's curtain. Glancing aside from her handiwork and seeing the green ribbon now captive inside Spyro's maw as he approached, she turned away, flopping onto her cheek as her chest shook with laughter. Listening to his clawed footfall as it neared, his shadowed presence appeared in the corner of her vision, and after a moment, the saliva-dampened ribbon dropped to the floor in front of her face.
Peeking up toward him, she then burst into laughter from his cocked eyebrow, above a pricelessly pointed expression.
"Do you like coffee?"
"I, hah, I don't have it often, but..."
Rolling back over, shoulder flattening his toes, she reached up and squeezed both of his big cheekbones in her palms, giggling from the squish of his features around his big batting eyes.
"...Dragons make coffee?"
"And tea, yesh. Gavin has promished to brew you whatever you want dish morning, for making him laugh as hard as he hash."
Fingers sliding lower, mirthfully cupping his chin, her head bumped against his forelegs.
"I might have to accept his offer."
Basking in the riches of a late-morning sun, serenaded by the busy chirping conversations of local avians, two creatures of vastly differing color and origin sat atop the tallest of four wide pillars. With a ream of clean paper open on her lap, and a fibrous cup of still-steaming tea within arm's reach, Elora withdrew the mysterious phoenix quill from its thin metal tube, inspecting the dark tufts of hair comprising the utensil's feathers. Positioning the object within her grasp, she carefully touched the thin tip of the shaft to the paper, lifting it away and finding a small dark spot left behind. Dragging her fingertip across, finding nothing spreading from the swipe of her fur, her brow furrowed with interest as she began drawing a line away from the spot.
"I'm thinking we'll go to another realm today."
Largely distracted by the drawn lines of runes appearing behind the tip, scorched permanently into the sheet as she wrote her own name, she finally produced a single nod.
"Which one?"
"Haven't decided yet. Probably spend the night there, since they're all sort of far from here."
Flitting up to Spyro, patiently seated and observing her writing, the quill rotated between her fingers.
"How many are there?"
"Five. Four besides this one."
"How many can wing-less me safely visit?"
Tail sweeping left and right behind him, Spyro drug his claw along his neck to relieve an itch.
"At least three... And most of the worlds in them."
Touching the tip of the quill with curiosity, her hand jerked away in immediate recoil from the startling heat it produced. After a moment's glance at the cooling beverage beside, Elora then noticed the gleam of four young eyes peeking from the shadow of the tunnel passage to the right, prompting a discreet smile as she resumed writing on the paper.
"Our shadows are near."
Noticing Spyro looking down to his own shade in response, she hummed with amusement.
You goof. "The little ones."
"Oh. Where?"
Pointing the feather toward the hiding youths in a sweep, Spyro grunted upon visual confirmation, and his rear arched upward in preparation.
"I got this."
Turning and springing off the platform, wings flapping deftly as he gained momentum, Spyro circled around the pillars with a tightening orbit. Suddenly breaking off behind the faun and zeroing in on the mouth of the tunnel, he tilted left and right, orienting into a swift turn and vanishing into the dim passage. Fully attentive to the squeals echoing through the tunnel, Elora's writing stilled, and after a seemingly idle moment, both Titus and Della scrambled out of the orifice in a hurry. With Spyro appearing on foot a short distance behind, chasing their tiny-legged pace across the meadow with little effort, Elora fondly watched his pursuant gait, laughter echoing from his toothy smirk all the while.
Propping her free arm onto her knee, resting her head on her palm, the skittering bounces of fleeing sheep in the distance preceded the colorful chase, turning towards her position. With their approach, a trifecta of wide reptilian eyes both fearful and mischievous scrambled near and past, and Elora's chin settled onto her shoulder in a turn, seeing Spyro's playfully bobbing tail slip out of view.
That's my dragon.
Artisan Coast, Dragon Kingdom
Reclining within the wooden basket of a hot air balloon, legs folded and hands curled around the tea in her lap, Elora cautiously avoided seeing the extent of their altitude, keeping the horizon just out of sight as they floated onward over open water. Just beside her, much more used to traveling in the air, Spyro looked on with limitless curiosity, bristles tossing in the wind as he stood on his rear legs, forelimbs resting on a sack of ballast.
For all of the magic and wings... We're under a big balloon. I guess if you can't fly long distance, or fly at all...
Following the motion of his tail as it lowered to rest on her knee, she drug her digits along the staggered bumps, inspecting the conical tip in detail.
One day, we'll fly together on your wings. Maybe to somewhere far away, where neither of us have been. Maybe fly the long way between worlds, without using a portal... That would be a little crazy. I know there's lands in Avalar that aren't all that far from each other.
Looking to Spyro's still-growing limbs, she covered her increasing smile with the rim of the tea cup.
If we can't fly, we can still walk. Wander to the far edges of our worlds, with you by my side... Yes please.
Peace Keeper Stronghold, Dragon Realm
Hooves settling into a layer of sun-bleached and thickly packed sand, just beyond the dry timber and smooth rock work of a large fortress, Elora stepped out from beneath the shadow of the imposing structure, bristling with stored weaponry and supplies and guarding the only passage through the rough cliff walls visible in all directions.
"Different, isn't it?"
Reaching across and clasping her hand around her opposite forearm, sliding down to the leaf cuff on her wrist, she looked on towards jagged pillars and precipices lining the hazy light blue horizon.
"Really warm."
"And dry."
Weaving forth through little drifts of sand, curving left and right through the ever-changing sift, the militaristic profile of several iron cannons lined up in idle storage caught their attention, barrels glinting among the shadow of a wind-carved rock arch.
"Whoa."
"Yeah. Those are how you deal with Gnorcs too gnear to the coast."
"Did you guys forge those?"
"We took them."
"Oh. Spoils?"
"Yep. Big metal treasure. Fun to fire too."
Flashing a grin of fond memories, imagination booming with the blasting of countless shells from various cannons in his travels, Spyro curled his claws into the sand, lifting and dropping a paw-full of the grainy powder.
"Boom."
"So, the warriors among your kind train here?"
"Here and in the worlds within."
"Why desert?"
"Toughens everyone up."
Glancing aside from the sight of a flat expanse of dark purple, contrasting sharply against the light brown and tan palette of the realm's arid geography, the sight of heat-driven bubbles expanding and bursting on its surface caused both creatures to wrinkle their noses at the thick purple sludge.
"That's definitely goo."
"Nasty sticky stuff. Don't fall into it."
"I don't plan to."
Cliff Town, Peace Keeper Realm
Leaning forward on the side ledge of an arch viaduct, arms warmed by the sun-heated stone, Elora squinted toward the horizon of the arid vista beyond. With a shimmering haze of unforgiving heat adrift along passing winds, desert dunes spread for untold distances beyond the foot of brown rock cliffs, and a far-off gathering of vultures rode upon the prevailing airflow, floating high above clouds of airborne sand sweeping across.
This desert looks huge.
"I like sand on a beach, but there's no water here. Too dusty."
Fur swept by grit-sprinkled gusts from the narrow chasm beneath the bridge, Elora cocked her eyebrow toward Spyro from his comment.
"If you think this is dusty, try hiding out in the fortress in Scorch, right when a sandstorm hits."
"Ahm, sand storm?"
"Never heard of that?"
"No."
"Well, imagine constant blowing wind... Like a heavy rainstorm, but instead of water, its just sand. Everywhere. Can't see hardly anything, even in the middle of the day."
"Jeez. Sounds awful."
"This one was real dark and fast too. Never seen anything like it."
"Was the entire place buried?"
"The sides facing the storm were covered to the roof in drifts... Everywhere else was about as deep as my knees."
"Oh wow."
Hands coming together, fingers interlacing, Elora looked higher into the pale glare of the sky.
"Had to help dig out of the place to even get to the portal... Had sand in my fur for days after that."
"Yeah, no thanks."
"Other than that delay in getting back to the home world, that trip was still worth doing."
"Sure hope so. I'd hate to be stuck digging for a day."
"Wasn't all that bad... All the sand piled up made it easier to climb around the place."
"You sure like climbing things."
Head tilting, eying Spyro's idle sitting with a batting of her lashes, partly to combat a wisp of traveling sand, she flicked her brunette bangs aside among the curling breeze.
"Its in my nature to seek high places."
Placing a held bowl of peach-colored soup onto the rock-trimmed ledge in front of a newly arriving Spyro, having hovered into a landing seconds earlier, Elora's attention returned to her own serving on her lap. Described merely as a 'savory special', ladled out of the percolating caldera inside an iron cauldron, she brought the liquid mixture near to her nose, investigating the heat-driven scents rising from the center of the wooden dish.
Smells decent.
Leaning back on the bumpy flank of an adobe wall behind, sitting on the low side ledge of one of the town's buildings, both creatures were silently thankful to be residing in the wall's shadow near to the cliff. Tilting the edge of the bowl to her lips, pinning a spoon in place with her thumb and allowing in a trickle of the soup, a splash of salt, starch and protein washed across her tongue, tingling from hints of spices.
Ooommm.
Swallowing the wave of flavor, vanishing among her teeth, she promptly introduced a bigger splash of the warm meal. Looking to Spyro beside as his tongue lapped into the dish, with Sparx perched on the edge of the bowl just across, she smiled, only to turn from the screech of a whistle-like instrument. With an immediate introduction of sound and motion, four separate armor-laden silhouettes swept up into the sky, only to immediately turn towards each other and collide forcefully above the hot horizon. With limbs swinging in swung and received blows, tails slapping and jerking about beneath the deft thrust and flaps of large wings, masculine voices grunted from the labors of mock aerial combat, looping and intersecting high above the rock-decorated dunes.
"Wow. They're really going at it."
"That's without using weapons too. Just claws and muscle."
With another burst of the shrill whistle, two of the dragons departed the mid-air brawl in downward glides, and hearty laughter was traded in echoes as a new pair of combatants launched free from perches on the cliff rocks. With several exchanges of muscular conflict, strikes meeting armor and scales alike, a column of flame erupted from one of the dragon's throats, embers crackling into the air beneath. Several jeers ensued as the flame was ceased by the clamping of a bulky arm around the perpetrator's muzzle, and after observing the determined thrashes of escaping a chokehold, Elora peeped towards the muscle of Spyro's legs, cheekily nudging the nearest with her elbow.
"You can do all of that, right?"
Lifting the purple dragon's attention toward the ongoing brawl again, his horns tilted away.
"I can fly like that, but, haven't really done battle in the air."
"So you just need practice."
"Yeah. Years of growing up as a Peace Keeper."
Eying the faun with a pointed glance, she looked between him and the battle spectacle several times.
"Don't all dragons train to fight?"
"Basic survival, sure. As far as full-on combat... You'd have to be hatched into Peace Keeping to start off."
"You're a fighting spirit though."
"I just like to wipe out every minion and bad guy that stands in my way."
"Oh I know. Coming around to Avalar and disposing of every last enemy you encounter. If that's not peace keeping..."
"It is, but no matter what, I was born an Artisan."
Bangs shifting from his declaration, her curiosity continued as she dipped her spoon.
"Do you feel like an Artisan?"
"I... Have wondered about that, for a long time, and I can't ever really give myself an answer."
"Not quite sure?"
"Not at all. There's things I do that say yes, but then there's others that are an obvious nope."
"Hummm."
Pulling the emptied utensil free from her mouth, Elora pointed the object at Spyro with a twist of her hand, swallowing the delivered gulp of soup.
"Maybe... You're just a super special and awesome dragon that's capable of anything."
"Uh, yeah, totally."
"You just have to put your mind towards whatever it is you feel like doing."
"So, what, I just need to focus on things?"
"Yes. Focus on what's important to you. The stuff that stands out in your heart and mind."
"Is that what you do?"
Hesitantly glancing aside, finding Elora's gaze firmly set on him, her smile broadened in the corner of his vision.
"Its what I've been doing."
Feeling his gullet grow warmer, no longer from the soup, Spyro cautiously brought his left paw aside, dragging his claws through the thin layer of sand on the rooftop. Spreading his scaly digits and lowering his pad to rest, he bashfully observed the expected arrival of her hand, fuzzy fingertips finding the spaces between his toes and falling into them one by one. Palm settling atop his knuckles in a blanket of dextral velvet, their fingers and toes curled closer, closing any gaps between with a squeeze, and Spyro's chest tingled from the murmur meeting his ear beside.
You stand out in my mind. Heck, I've dreamed about you over and over. I can focus on you. I DO focus on you! I came back to Avalar to find you, and you focused on your heart, and I... Well... I guess I listened to mine.
Nostrils flaring from a long sizzling sigh, Spyro's vision remained on the grainy edge of the roof beside his bowl.
You know... I think the reason I've dreamed about you... Is because I care about you. Or, wait... Care? Is that... I mean, friends care, but you up and told me you love me, back in Summer Forest. Loving is a lot more than caring. Well, its caring, but to a huge amount. Like, massive, emotional, I need to be around you and feel empty without you, stuff. Which then begs the question... Would I feel empty without Elora here next to me?
Looking directly at the faun, her thumb drifting across the bumps of his outer toe, he swallowed from the small and pleasant sensation.
She is pretty cool. Pretty, and cool, and clever, and amazing. Everything she says is wise and sincere, and she's... She can't stop looking at me. Like I'm the best thing in the world. Like I'm the one being that she appreciates above everything else... And being all that for someone who's already pretty much the nicest and coolest friend I could have, feels really good. So, yeah, I think I would feel empty in the heart space if she was gone, cause... I really like her. Like? Like-like, right? Nah. That's kid stuff. I adore her. She adores me. She loves me, actually, and...
Feeling a flare of heat flash into his cheeks, Spyro sat still.
I, uh, love her? Yeah. That sounds right. More than liking, is loving. L-U, wait, L, O, V, E.
A padding of tiny feet through the sand pulled his attention lower, revealing the hurried scampering of a little green and pink-frilled lizard beneath. With a startling surge of noise and motion, Sparx took flight from the edge of Spyro's bowl and swooped down from sight in hot pursuit of the local creature, and Spyro then resigned into a lean back.
Okay. She said it. I can too.
Grabbing his bowl awkwardly with his mouth and tilting it back, the reptile gulped down the remainder of his serving of soup, swiping both sides of his snout with his free paw.
"Heeyyy, Elora."
"That's me."
Exhaling from her use of his line, his forelimbs grew tingly.
"So, I really like you."
Immediately pulling her attention aside, a sliver of her teeth were revealed by the cute smile curling onto her cheek.
"You do?"
"Yes, but, ah, I want to, um..."
Eyebrow rising from his disjointed drawl, and then perking higher as the purple beast grunted in either consternation or contemplation, his huge eyebrows popped upward, alighting upon her once more.
"Alright. I'm pretty sure I like you more than just, you know, liking, so..."
Posture straightening from his fumbling speech, her breath remained held as his jaw pried back open with a pause.
"I think, that, I love you."
Digits tightening around his paw in her grasp, her heartbeat hammered from his unprovoked admittance.
"You... Are you sure, that's how you feel?"
Met with her expected question to follow, his tail coiled into a spiral behind the crooked smile on his snout.
"Pretty sure."
Chin sinking into her shoulder, with a newly obscuring tuft of her brunette hair settling in front of her eye, her vision wandered aside, listening to the throbs within her chest.
He said it! But... "You're really sure?"
"Are you sure, Elora?"
"What, of how I feel about you?"
"Yup."
"Oh, I'm certain I love you. I love everything about you. All of your quirks and your smirks and goofy smiles, the way your tail wiggles when you run, how your hair feels between my fingers... The way your slobber tastes like smoke, and... Tons of other things."
Entranced by the flush of crimson on her pale cheeks, and the breathy little laugh that pitched higher into a giggle, Spyro gazed at the female creature as she turned to face him, legs crossing beneath her outstretched arm.
"You uh, really like all of that about me?"
"I do, and that's just the beginning... I could write a big long list."
Shoulders bashfully perking, his cheeks began to fill with pools of rising magma.
"Well... If making a big list of all the great stuff about someone... Is part of knowing you love somebody... Then yes, I'm sure."
Aww! "I do believe you, Spyro. You're just really good at keeping people wondering about your feelings."
"I'm sorry... I don't always know how to say how I feel."
Lifting her hand from his paw, turning up and forming around his chin, she tilted nearer to him, the bowl still in her lap.
"You don't need to apologize. I'm glad to hear you tell me what's on your mind." Especially all of this...!
Eyes closing from the softening of her speech, he turned into her hand, and her thumb drifted in a back-and-forth caress across his coarse warmth.
"Believe it or not... I like hearing everything you have to say."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"Even dumb stuff?"
"Doesn't matter."
Aligning to her soft-eyed reverence, bringing her hand aside with a gentle push of his nose, his fangs peeked out from a returning smile.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Cutie pie."
Faltering into a chuckle, the lavender lizard brought his outstretched arm closer. Twisting into a stretch, and then reaffirming his focus on her complexion, teal eyes peeking irresistibly from behind her breeze-swept bangs, his chest churned with a fireball of pride and emotion.
"Elora."
"Spyro."
Feeling a tremor of elation ripple across his hide, from her returning whisper solely of his name, both of his paws flopped onto the roof towards her.
"I love you."
Luring both of her hands back to his digits with ease, coalescing with the sweet simplicity of squeezes, she propped herself forward onto her arms, fingers interweaved among all eight of his claws.
"I love you... Dork."
Adjusting his rear, turning fully towards the female he faced, the wooden dish beside his rump was struck by the outward sweep of his tail, and both creatures magnetized toward the skittering object as it spun and vanished over the edge of the roof. With the inbound buzz of a very determined dragonfly entering the area at the same time, the squeal of a small animal was muffled by the dull thud of an object landing in the sand below, and Sparx suddenly appeared in a vertical rise of elevation. Leaning towards the edge with matching glances of curiosity, both Elora and Spyro watched as the cast-off bowl began scurrying around in errant headings, bouncing off of walls as it fumbled into the town's eminences.
Vision meeting, with hints of amusement creeping onto their flushed cheeks, the couple then looked to Sparx who had since landed near their connected limbs. Eying both of the much larger beings with bulgy eyes narrowing in scrutinization, the dragonfly's tiny arms pointed outward at both of them, and then touched together, and Spyro laughed lightly from the questioning buzz of the large insect.
"Yes, pal, it is like that."
Scaling a series of angled ledges, rising above the upper platforms of hollowed and roofed residences, Elora's hooves planted firmly onto eroded shelves of rock, assisting her grasps of sandstone above in her continued ascent. With Spyro peering over various edges above, flouncing higher to new positions above her climbing, her expression alternated between the furrowed focus of determination, and flashes of mirth from the glimpses of her reptilian partner, just out of reach above.
"You're almost there!"
"Yeah, yeah." If you want to talk about distractions...
Seeing her pale fingers grasping the ledge he stood upon, Spyro bounded upward with a laugh trailing his flapping wings, alighting onto the very top of the narrow mesa. Peeking down at Elora's steady climbing, luring her teal eyes closer with his encouragement, he sank onto his rear, sending a puff of disrupted sand into the passing wind.
"Good thing is... There's tons of things... To grab on this. Whoof."
Pulling herself fully onto the angled precipice, staying hunched low to ensure balance, Elora crept to the top of the rock spire, sinking onto her knees. Looking out in a sweep across the entirety of the harsh expanse below, heated breaths of perspiration issued from her nose. With the jagged rocks of the cliff side wandering further in errant directions to the left, disappearing into the distant haze of the horizon, the gathering of dwellings crowded onto the clearing opposite began to look increasingly small in comparison.
"What a view."
Glancing back to Spyro, now present just behind her, her heart beat from the climbing labor and the steep drops alike. Expressions sharing visible trust in the other upon the desert world's highest known perch, fur and bristles swept aside in undulations of arid airflow, the whistle of the wandering wind didn't feel lonely at all to either of them.
"Do you think anybody is out there?"
"In the dunes? Maybe."
"Are there any records of meeting other desert species?"
"Not that I've ever been told about... And I've never had any reason to fly out that far."
Pensively poring over the rock-speckled hills of seemingly infinite sand, Elora's hand met her chin, and a smile edged onto her cheek as Sparx hovered near, his golden sparkles carried away from his whirring wings.
"There could be treasure hiding somewhere."
Seeing Spyro's attention perk, the purple lizard then rolled his eyes, wings buffeted by the breeze.
"Sure, and I'd spend a hundred years digging for it."
"Can't find things if you don't look for them!"
"That's assuming there's even anyone out there WITH treasure to bury!"
Revolving back to face her companion, Elora's hands came together, fingers fanning out in a spreading arc.
"There's treasure everywhere."
"There is until I find all of it."
Grinning from his confident conclusion, her hands flopped onto her chestnut knees.
"I'll help you dig."
"I would hope so."
