Italics - inner thoughts - Malefor
Bold letters - author speaking - Malefor
Dialogue in quotations - "Malefor"
(With Spyro and Cynder)
As Volteer, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx walked along the hall's of the dragon temple, leaving Terrador with Cyril, Spyro had been conversing with the talkative librarian. While Cynder on the other paw, was deep in thought regarding some of Malefor's previous word's, aswell as Terrador's connection to him. She looked to Volteer who had just finished his lengthy talk on the composition of the gem shards that dragons use to empower themselves and heal their wounds. She picked up the pace of her stride to come up alongside the left of the older yellow drake mirroring Spyro on his right, hoping to ask him a question.
"Hey Volteer?" The guardian craned his neck to look at her "Hm, oh yes Cynder, was there something else you wished to know about the gem shard, for example di-" The black dragoness cut him off there before he could contiue that thought, knowing very well when Volteer started it was hard to get him to stop. "Uh no thanks Volteer, I just wanted to ask if it would be possible for us to ask Malefor some questions tomorrow? there's a lot of questions I have for him about my connection to Convexity." She craned her head past the electric guardian's blue hued chest, to glimpse at the purple dragon opposite her "I think Spyro might have some thing's to ask as well, right Spyro?" Sparx who had been rather uncharacteristically quiet up untill now decided to speak up "Woah, hold on a second there, edgelord you mean you WANT to go talk with the guy who tried to kill you, not to mention made you try to kill us, and also sent a bunch of ape's after us so they could kill us?" He listed raising a small yellow glowing finger for each of the time's they had someone trying to snuff out their lives. He looked to his adopted sibling, with hope's that the purple dragon would talk some sense into their dark scaled friend. Unfortunately for Sparx however, Spyro liked to think he had been around Cynder long enough to tell when she was hinting at something.
He realised right away that Cynder was expecting him to agree so they would have all the more reason to get Volteer to say yes to her request. "Yeah." he agreed actualy truly having his own questions for the dark lord in the dungeons below. Sparx was currently holding his face in his hand, shaking his head. "Really dude, come on man why do you wanna talk to him?" Spyro waved his brother off with a puff of air from his mouth blowing the small dragonfly away. The sudden request caught Volteer a bit off guard, and he was unsure as to whether or not this would be a good idea "W-well uh i-uh am not absolutley certa-" he stopped his train of thought for a moment, thinking on how much Spyro and Cynder have done for other's and just how little in return they have ever asked for, ultimately he was not certain whether or not Cyril or Terrador would condone this course of action. He felt a sort of debt to the younger dragons striding through the hall's with him. He sighed, hoping beyond hope this didn't get him into trouble with Terrador and Cyril. He reached into his small satchel, and pulled the key from within its depths. Looking to Cynder, he held it out to her. "Just make sure your careful, I dont really believe he will do you two any harm, but don't take any unnecessary chances please." He pleaded with the two hero's.
Cynder accepted the key from his outstretched paw, while spyro simply nodded in response to the electric guardian's plea to be cautious. "We'll be careful Volteer, I promise." Said Spyro. "Then I suppose all I can do is hope I don't get chewed out for giving you the key." he sighed a little concered but otherwise accepting of their response. Not a moment later they had just so happened to arrive at the room's where the 3 would be spending the night in untill more permanent living arrangements could be made.
Volteer bid his farewells and good tidings to the 3 teen's, before making his way back down the hall where they had come from towards his own room for the night. Cynder jingled the key ring in her claw watching it bounce about, as she began to think about when she wanted to ask Malefor when she got back down to the dungeon cell's. Before out of nowhere a purple paw had zipped in front of her snout and snatched the ring from her before she had a chance to realize it was gone, only to be mildy annoyed that her purple companion had snatched the key to her much desired answers. She attempted to snatch it back but Spyro was having none of it holding it out of her reach all the while. "Come on Spyro give it back, Im going back down there and im going to get some answers." Spyro simply shook his head no in response and stated "Sorry Cynder that can Wait until morning, for now we both need to sleep, he'll still be there when we wake up you know." Cynder grumbled at this course of action, refusing to wait until the morning for her answers. She leaned away from Spyro feigning compliance, before she leaped at him when he had mistakenly let his guard down, managing to grip the key ring and tearing it from his paw, she smiled feeling victorious, as she watched Spyro's sudden realization at the loss of the key, he sighed. "Your not gonna let this go are you?" She grinned, her white and razor sharp teeth showing, her glee obvious. "NOPE!" she cheered as she bounded back down the hall they had watched Volteer depart down not too long ago in fact.
Sparx could only watch in exhaustion as he witnessed the black dragoness leaping away, he sighed before turning to his purple brother and aksing "your going with her aren't you?" As he pointed in the direction Cynder had gone. Spyro glanced at him before he opted to open his own bedroom door for the dragonfly, before calmy stating "yep" sparx simply flew into the opening of the door, sighing in exasperation. "Just go do your thing I'm gonna stay here and get some much needed Z's". Spyro nodded in response closing the door behind his brother, before running after his black and red companion.
Eventually he managed to catch up to her just as she was running down the hall where the entrance to the dungeon awaited, as they ran, Cynder noticed an assortment of other room's in the temple she was passing by, including a library, which she imagined was overseen by Volteer, what appeared to be some sort of cafeteria oreating area for a large group of people. At the end of those doors was one that really caught her intrigue, it appeared to not be anything special, as it wasn't actaully different from the other doors, except that it was blocked off by several wooden board's having been nailed to it's front, making a mental note to examine the closed off room at a later time.
When she stopped running she found her self standing in front of the locked doorway hiding the curving stairs leading downward into the dungeon where the one with her answers awaited. She looked to her right just in time to see Spyro stop right next to her as he glanced at the door before them, he took a glance at her before they both silently nodded, almost mentally agreeing to go down into the depths of the temple to get the answers they seeked. Cynder inserted the key, and twisted until she heard the telltale click of the lock turning before she pulled the door open with a creak. She cast a brief glance at Spyro before opting to descend the stone steps first, Spyro following close behind her.
As the two teens descended the steps, down below Malefor had managed to push the thought of his recent encounter with what he deemed an abomination out of his mind enough to lay his head down upon the cold stine floor and attempt to find rest while he still had time to. Unfortunately for him it was moments after he had only layed his head upon the ground and closed his eye's, that he was disturbed by the quiet pitter patter of footsteps coming from down the hall. Hoping to get a little bit of rest he opted to turn on his right side and face away from the bars, and pray whoever it was would assume he was fast asleep and leave him be. When the sound of footsteps reached directly behind him just outside his little cell, he deduced it must not be the guardian's as these footsteps were much to light and there had been two pair's of them so it could only be Spyro and Cynder who had come to visit him even though they had left not too long ago with the guardian's.
As he continued to feign unconsciousness, he heard the voice of Spyro speak up, albeit softly likely out of respect for the supposedly slumbering drake. "Looks like he fell alseep, let's just go back to our room's for the night we can come back tomorrow when he wakes up... Cynder what are you doing?" Spyro asked as unbeknownst to Malefor, the black dragoness had begun walking back towards the stairs away from Spyro. In response she said over her shoulder "stay here ill be right back, just gotta go get something." As those word's left her mouth she had begun to run back up the stairs where they had entered going off to do who knows what.
A few minutes of silence later, the imprisoned Malefor once again heard light footsteps that could only belong to the lithe and acrobatic dragoness. When the footsteps came closer he was able to hear something else for a moment. It sounded a lot like... Water?
That was Malefor's last coherent thought before he was covered in something very cold and very wet, the sudden appearance of these sensations causing him so much discomfort that he jolted upwards with a yelp. When he had composed himself he was standing staring at a very shocked Spyro and a snickering very guilty black dragoness holding a small wooden bucket in her paws that was without a doubt once filled with the water that now drenched his body. Cynder upon seeing the now very awake purple dragon, allowed the bucket to clunk to the floor with a small thud. Malefor could only stand there in his small cell all four legs spread as wide as they could without allowing his torso to touch the floor, his wings and tail splayed out as far as can be. His face was what could only be described as a mixture of anger and contempt for the liquid that now drenched his body. His torment was made worse when Cynder spoke "Guess the dark master's All Washed Up huh Spyro?" She asked looking to the other purple dragon beside her for approval, completly ignoring her friend's wide eye's and gaping mouth at what she had just done.
Cynder smirked at the sight of all those around her being speechless for one reason or another, before she turned to face Malefor once more. "So how about those questions?" The conniving black scaled demon that was Cynder spoke with such glee that it made Malefor want to puke. He finally managed to work up enough coherent thought to glare daggers at her before allowing a seething snarl to leave his gritted teeth. "What. The. Hell. Was. That." He growled, absolutely furious that he had just been treated in such a way. "I know I'm a prisoner... BUT BY THE ANCESTOR'S COME ON THAT'S JUST HARSH!!!" He thought to himself.
Cynder's smirk finally disappeared, ready to get to business, she strode closer to the bar's and glared at the dark purple dragon. "I said I'm ready to get my answers from before. Tell me everything you know, about me. Tell me why I have a natural connection to Convexity and tell me the truth." She demanded. Malefor simply huffed at her brutal tactics and demands. Knowing Cynder, she wouldn't leave here without some information, so he figured his best bet to get some peace would be to comply. He allowed himself to sit on his haunches, his body still dripping with water. He glanced to the demanding little dragoness who had disturbed his quiet, and sighed before attempting to ask "can I atleast have a towel or something to dry off with first?"
Cynder put her claw to her chin in mock thought for about five seconds, before answering. "Maybe. If you give us the answers we want." Malefor sighed in response. "Fine" he relented. "As much as this will displease you Cynder, I don't actaully know why you were born with a connection to Convexity, I was only made aware of how special you actually were when Gaul came into possesion of your egg." This answer dishearnted the black dragoness visibly. Malefor felt his heart twinge with guilt at seeing Cynder's disappointed expression, hoping to remedy that he did what he could to try and give her some hope. "However just because I dont have the answers you seek doesn't mean they aren't out there somewhere, perhaphs The Chronicler will tell you something if you can find them. Or perhaps theres something in Volteer's library that can give you a clue, I know there was at least a few other black Dragons throughout history, you could look into them." He offered. This seemed to lighten her mood somewhat her eye's looking just a bit more hopeful.
Malefor had to resist the urge to smile at the sight of her green eye's becoming bright once more, when for a moment he felt a slight chill run up his spine and he could have sworn he heard a feminine voice speak into his ear. "Dont go making friends love, you already know exactly how that will end~" He shook off the chill momentarily, befire turning his gaze to Spyro, the othe purple dragon having said nothing since their arrival. Malefor narrowed his eye's at the younger drake knowing fully well there was something he wanted to ask, but he wasn't speaking up about it. "Alright hero" he taunted, catching Spyro's attention. "Your turn, ask what you came here to ask, so that I can go back to sleep." Spyro took a step closer to the bar's, as Malefor turned around and began shaking his wings and arm's off in the direction of the back wall in an attempt to remove some of the clinging moisture from his scales.
"You called Terrador your old friend, can you tell me why...how you know each other?" He asked tentatively, his question catching Cynder's intrigue as well. Malefor his head facing away from them at the time froze up for a second, before resuming his attempts to dry himself to an extent, speaking as he went. "That is...a long story, one you should ask him about and not me." He suggested, hoping to dissuade them from continuing this course of action. Spyro insisted further. "We would but, knowing Terrador he isn't the talkative type usually and I'd wager there being a pretty large chance of him refusing to tell us anything, but you knew that already didn't you?" The dark master sighed before he turned to face the two younger dragons. "Alright but remember you asked to hear it." He received two silent nods in response. "It was...a long time ago really, back when I was slightly younger than you two, back then the weight of the world wasn't on my shoulders, I had yet to hear of the prophecy at the time. It was a simpler time, I wasn't the most popular kid around due to my... Unique color, I was often taunted and teased due to the fact that i wasn't the legendary purple dragon, I was the strange looking purple dragon." He continued allowing himself to begin to reminisce at the easier times. "Back then no one actually knew of the prophecy of the purple dragon, it had been kept hidden for some time even before I was born, but there were two people who never treated me different, one of them was an earth dragon who you know as...
"Terrador!!!" A voice called out to the apprentice guardian from across the temple courtyard, in response the green drake turned his head away from his training dummy, which he had rendered beaten and torn with his savage attacks. His eye's were met with a bright red blur tackling him to the ground causing him to tumble over onto his back, a large weight on his chest now. When he opened his eye's he looked up at the upside down purple dragon before him, his judgmental purple irises gazing into his leafy green hued one's. "I tried to warn you, but you know how she is when she's impatient." A slight smirk was on the purple drakes face. Finally the weight lifted off of terradors stomach allowing him the chance to get up and stand on his own four legs once again, when he was properly balanced he looked at his agressor and saw a red dragoness with golden ram-like horns, fiery orange eye's, and a unique spear like tail.
The smirk on her face was seemingly infectious, as now Terrador could not help but smile himself. He turned to fully face her and his purple friend and asked "Malefor, Anise what are two doing here so early, dont you both have training to do today?" Malefor spoke up first. "Our fire training got cancelled for the day, old man combustus came down with the flu or something, point beinf he's in no condition to teach us anything today." Anise bopped the purple dragon on the nose with her paw. "Show him some respect Malefor, he is teaching us how to use our elements effectively after all, it's not nice to point out someone's age you know?" She chastised. Malefor simply rubbed his nose with his paw before rolling his eye's. "Yea well I wouldn't call making me puff air until I'm blue in the face instead of purple, fire training." He retorted half jokingly. Terrador smirked as the two of his friends continued back and forth with their mock argument, before he decided to change the subject. "Hey as fun as it is talking about Anise's old man-" "HEY HE'S NOT THAT OLD!" she snapped. "I have an idea on what we could be doing instead, what if tomorrow afternoon after we all finish our training lesson's, we all go out to eat dinner somewhere nice, I heard there's this new really good place down by the southern wall of the city that has the best smoked meat." The promise of decent food certainly seemed to appease them, Anise's maw adopting a small smirk, while Malefor visibly began to drool at the thought of smoked meat.
"EWW GROSS MAL YOUR DROOLING!!!!" Anise yelped in disgust at the now drooping line of saliva leaking from the side of the purple drakes maw. "H-HEY COME ON ITS NOT MY FAULT!!" he retorted embarrassed. "Smoked meat is just really good is all!!" He attempted to defend himself from judgement only for Anise to run off yelling at the top of her lungs that Malefor was a filthy drooling monster, the purple drake opting to follow behind her as best he could to hopefully get her to stop destroying what little reputation he did have, all the while Terrador followed closely behind them laughing at his two close friend's antics all the way.
"Wait a moment...?" Said the voice of Spyro, jolting Malefor from his memory. "If you guy's were such good friend's what happened?" He questioned, causing Malefor to quirk a brow in response. "You wish to know why it is we are no longer friend's? I would think that part is a bit obvious given our... Circumstances." He said, slightly confused as to what the younger purple dragon was getting at. "No I mean earlier you had said it would be the bonds with other's that would protect me from ending up the way you did right? So if you ended up this way it stands to reason something happened that meant you guy's weren't friend's anymore right?" He inquired, his logic bringing a grimace to Malefor's features. "Well your certainly perceptive, let me guess, you want me to explain exactly what changed don't you?" Spyro nodded in response eager as ever to learn more about Terrador's and Malefor's shared past.
Malefor sighed dreading having to relive one of the memorys of that time he'd much rather forget all together. "Alright, I'll tell you what happened on the day that changed the course of my entire life." He began his recounting of the memory of old time's long past. "It was actually a few day's after I had discovered I was this supposed legendary hero meant to save everyone, according to the prophecy that is." He began his tale allowing himself to be drawn back into the memory of his past once more.
Malefor was a nervous wreck, he was sitting by himself in his room, completly uncertain on how to process this information the guardian's had just dumped on him. He couldn't begin to believe he was meant to be this legendary purple scaled hero from the prophecy, and yet the proof was all over his body, in the form of his violet scales. He began to hyperventilate and panic, his mind racing. "I can't be the hero from that prophecy, THERE'S NO WAY A DRAGON LIKE ME WHO CAN BARELY EVEN SPARK A SINGLE FLAME COULD BE SOMEONE AS IMPORTANT AS THAT...Dont the guardian's realise they must have the wrong dragon...?" Before he could continue his train of thought however, he heard a slight knock on his door. He managed to shake himself out of his thoughts in order to get up and open the door, being met with the faces of his two friend's. "Hey Mal, what you up to?" The smiling red face of Anise asked him, Terrador standing right beside her. "They don't know...no of course they wouldn't. The guardian's wouldn't tell just anyone about it." As he looked to his friend's he responded with as real a smile as he could muster. "Oh nothing much right now, why?" "It's probably for the best I just keep them out of it, I dont want to worry them with my problems." He thought.
Terrador spoke next his voice having an excited edge to it, as he smiled in an almost childish like manner. "We were gonna go out to eat somewhere nice tonight and we decided we'd go to that place the three of us went to last time with that smoked meat you like so much, we were hoping you'd like to come with?He offered. Malefor desperately wanted to join his friend's but before he had left the guardian's earlier that day, they told him that his training was going to be much more detailed and a lot more difficult starting tonight of all night's, he didn't understand why they were so rushed to get him to learn the element's but he knew that he'd have to say no to his friend's offer despite the fact he hadn't asked for any of this.
His features lowered slightly, as he shook his head no and responded. "Sorry guy's i can't today Combustus asked me to do some extra training tonight, so I gotta say no, hope you guy's have fun though." He said with a small albeit hollow smile, pushing past the 2 surprised dragons. As he walked he realised that a lot of his time was going to be taken up by the guardian's and their new training regiment. After that night, more and more time had passed as Malefor began to speak and spend time with his dear friend's less and less, and yet it seemed that his training had become more effective than ever, he had practically mastered almost every lesson Combustus could teach him, and was excelling so much in the lightning and earth element's that they had him attempt to learn ice aswell. His entire daily life had been taken over by elemental training and other studies imposed on him by the guardian's.
One rainy night when he arrived at his now very messy room, which he hadn't cleaned in quite some time, due to always coming back too exhausted to care, he collapsed on his soft bedding with a sigh of relief as his body ached. His once vibrant indigo irises now tired and, filled with a desire to be free of this burden.
As he was about to drift off to sleep he heard a voice whisper to him seemingly from nowhere though he couldn't make out what it had said. A chill wind had begun to blow from his window. Purple mist seeped in from under the doorway startling the young purple drake. He leapt to his feet and stared at the billowing cloud entering his room before it began to swirl with the wind, spinning so quickly he couldn't see past it. Until the wind stopped and standing in front of him was a vague silhouette of a dragon, no real distinctive features that could indicate who it was suppose to be. It stared at him with a nearly featureless face, it felt as if this creature was looking directly into his soul. "Who...what are you?" He whispered. The mist responded in a voice that didn't sound male nor female. "Who am I you ask?" It bowed it's head and ethereal wing's "I am a friend, a friend who wants to help you be rid of those expectations plauging your mind." Malefor wasn't sure how to respond to this situation, he felt his mind getting hazy, his vision feeling more and more cloudy. He began to feel... Good.
He looked to the creature in his room, and asked "H-how can you help me?" It seemed to smile though it had no visible mouth. It spoke once more. "Simply take my hand and I will show you how I can make all your troubles disapear." It reached out a transparent smoky claw to him, waving it almost expectantly. Under normal circumstances Malefor would have turned this thing away, and refused. But it seemed the mist and it's mere presence was affecting his mind and making him much more accommodating to it's offer. Malefor began to realise that he was reaching out to it with his own claw, but before he could think about pulling away, he had already grasped the creatures transparent limb. "It feels cold..." He was able to think before his mind suddenly went dark for a time.
Malefor's purple eye's closed for a moment, the mist around him begining to dissipate but it wasn't just disappearing it seemed to be entering his body, being absorbed by his skin. When his eye's opened again, they were not the kind violet eye's of Malefor, these eye's were an eerie shade of yellow, the sickly color making up the entire shade, aside from the black slit pupils. The purple dragon's maw twisted into a sadistic toothy smile. With a plan in mind the creature posing as Malefor opended the door and left his quarter's behind for the last time.
Cynder and Spyro sat in the dark depths of the dragon temple with baited breath as Malefor finished his tale. The dark dragon having finished his story, looked to the younger children. "That night under the influence of dark aether I killed the guardian's in cold blood, soon after the deed was done I was found by Terrador and Anise. My claws and muzzle had been drenched in the blood of Anise's father and the other guardian's." He said, his voice wavering. He looked down at the ground, at his own red tinted claws, before letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in. Spyro took a tentative step closer to the bar's, his eye's clearly looking all over the place as he began to process what he'd been told. "So... After that they showed up and, chased you off, clearly you didn't win because, Terrador is still here right?" Malefor sighed. "If only it were that simple Spyro." He lifted his head to stare at the other purple warrior, his dual hued irises clouded over with deeply buried guilt. "Before Terrador and a few other dragons had been able to get me to retreat, I had lunged for them with no remorse in mind. I had pushed them away of my own accord, and because of that there was nothing that could pull me back from the brink." Malefor had to grit his teeth to prevent a sob from breaking out of his throat, and it did nothing to hide his pain from the young dragons.
"Before Terrador had been able to do anything... My jaws were already upon HER throat... She died that night, the last thought's in her mind being of someone she used to call her friend having killed her father, and 3 other's..." Spyro and Cynder were silent for what felt like hour's to the three of them. Before Cynder spoke, her own voice a tad shaky. "Do... Do you regret it?" She asked. Malefor merely nodded his head once and replied "Every single day of my life I've regretted it, and yet I was too weak to stop any of this pain from happening, I Failed to stop this war I had caused. My punishment was being trapped, forced to witness my body, my own claws commit heinous act's." He turned away to face the back wall of his cell once more. "Now that you know of my past, what will you do with that knowledge, will you do your best to ensure you don't fall into the same grave I dug for myself so long ago? Or will you truly embrace the role of Warfang's hero?" Spyro opened his mouth to respond, but the dark drake raised a paw to silence him Before continuing. "Dont tell me, tell yourself what your going to do, it does not matter what I think." He turned to face them as he lowered his body to the ground and lied on his stomach.
"Consider this Spyro. Fear is prominent in all living creatures, the more you allow fear into your heart, the more power it has, but fear itself is not worthy of concern." This caused Cynder to quirk a brow, whike Spyro only listened intently. "It is who you become while in it's clutches, will you forgive yourself? Will you understand why it is that person did the things they did? Will you recognize them I wonder? Or will the thing staring back at you be what you should have feared all this time? We all find out the truth sooner or later." He spoke softly, drooping his head down to the stone floor and turing to face away from his visitor's.
A minute had passed before Spyro realised, that no one had spoken since Malefor laid down to rest, and he tapped Cynder on the shoulder with a paw, jolting her as she too had been so deep in her thoughts that she had not been as present as she would have liked to be. She craned her neck to look at him and then back at the drake in the cell who now had a steady and slow pace of breathing indicating he was in fact asleep. Spyro motioned for her to follow him out and she did so promptly casting one last glance at the shivering dragon in the cell.
The whole walk back to their room's neither dragon and spoken a word somehow silently agreeing to save this conversation for the morning. Both of them thoroughly shaken by the word's spoken to them by the former dark lord. As Spyro and Cynder both entered their respective room's for the night, the purple drake having collapsed and fallen asleep almost instantly, still thoroughly exhausted from the event's of this very long and difficult day, Cynder looked to her bedding and upon feeling it mold under her sharp talons had an impulsive thought, one she decided to act on before she changed her mind, she grabbed a rather heavy blanket from her bedding, and promptly rearranged her sleeping area to be comfortable without it's presence.
As Malefor continued to slumber, he found his dreams plauged by visions of purple mist and moving shadows, when all of a sudden it all began to fade, the darkness and cold giving way to warmth and bright dreams of a time long past. So deep in slumber Malefor didn't even properly acknowledge the new presence of a soft gray blanket covering his previously shivering body his subconscious opting to pull the soft warmth closer and tighter around him. A single dragon slinking out of the cell and locking it behind them, the only thing visible in the darkness being the glint of a pair of emerald eye's.
Ok i dont know if this worked out the way i wanted or not but the main issue i had was attempting to make Malefor a little easier to sympathize with from the point of view of spyro and cynder. this is my first time writing so i dont expect a lot of love because honestly its probaly all over the place but im gonna keep trying regardless. anyway chapters are gonna come out slower from here on seeing as they are getting longer and longer i just needed to push this last one out to appease the voices in my head :) hope someone enjoys this lol