Ronny: well hello again everyone, I don't have much to say this time only that I wanna say thanks to anyone who took the time out of their day to read this little tale of mine and to those few who are enjoying it enough to follow it I thank you as well, and before we begin i just wanna take a sec to acknowledge a comment made by "Light The Dragon 29" in response to the moment's that Malefor and Cynder are having, I honestly get your opinion as way back when I would never even consider that pairing myself, but I will say this I have a plan and a reason for everything and while i know many would disagree with the direction I choose for this story, I hope everyone is still able to enjoy this story to an extent but don't let it go unnoticed that Cynder and Malefor aren't the only characters here... We have only just made it out of the real prolouge so I urge everyone reading to stick around for the climax of this tale. I do appreciate the constructive criticism you gave a while back on the first few chapter's btw and it was actaully that comment that gave me the drive to keep going honestly was knowing that someone took the time out of their day to write that, so thanks ;)Now then enjoy the show my friend's as we find our cast of characters far from the wall's we have known all this time. Miles upon miles away from the city of Warfang. Let's get a closer look shall we?

Flame was worried beyond belief. He didn't let it show, but he was unsure about what would happen when they ran into his other two friend's. The lovable electric goliath that was Herc, Flame can see him trying to get along with Malefor to an extent, that's just who he was, nice to all around him and never showing hate for another living being. But with Ventus the stubborn and easily irritated wind drake who had been left an orphan by the war, this could go quite a few ways. Either Ventus would be furious to see the purple drake but wouldn't say much of anything about it opting to contain his anger, which was the best scenario the red drake could probably hope for, or the worst case scenario would be Ventus attempting to attack the purple dragon and possibly being hurt when Malefor attempted to defend himself, or even worse, killed. These thoughts did not sit well with the young drake and it seemed Crystal noticed his discomfort as she had previously been gliding alongside Cynder, opting to speak with the black dragoness about her unique element's. Now however the ice dragoness was beside him with a concerned gaze as she noticed the inner turmoil going through his head.

"Flame? You ok? You haven't said a word since we left the city." The fire drake sighed before he cast a quick glance at his friend. "I'm fine Crystal, but I'm worried about-" The ice dragoness cut him off. "Ventus, right?" She spoke in a knowing tone, her muzzle twisting in a small frown as Flame nodded in response. "I guess we'll have to worry about him and Herc when we see em, until then try not to stress yourself out so much, it won't do us any good to come out here and try to have fun when your wound up like this. Alright?" She asked hoping to ease her companions fears even a little. The red dragon nodded in agreement "Your right, your right. Let's just...get there before it gets too dark." Minutes after Flame had spoken, the brief silence that follow shortly after was shattered once more, this time by the purple drake Flame was so cautious of.

"Excuse me, Flame?" The sudden approach of the former tyrant made Flame jump in his scales, but he didn't let it show, managing to keep his wits about him. "Yeah, What's up?" He replied causally. "If you don't mind my asking, I was wondering exactly where it is we are going? We have been flying for a few hour's now." Malefor asked a brow quirked in curiosity, as he kept pace with the fire dragon. The red dragon considered simply telling him, but a quick glance ahead of him changed his mind as a small smirk came to his face. Gesturing with a claw toward the horizon, he responded. "Why not take a look for yourself? Up ahead." Curious as to what Flame was talking about Malefor turned to face the horizon straight ahead, squinting his eye's to try and make out the oddly vibrant blue's and green's he was seeing. He let out a gasp as his eye's widened. "Is that a..." His voice trailed off. Malefor's gasp of surprise happened to catch the attention of Spyro and Cynder who had just been conversing about when and where they would like to eat out to dinner as Spyro had offered to the black dragoness a day ago. When the duo saw what had startled the purple drake, their own maw's were agape with awe.

In the distance not too far off from where they were located high above the sky, there sat a large vibrant cyan lake surounded at all side's by glorious green grass which was littered with tall standing oak tree's. The land and brush by the water's edge cleared way for the muddy and moist dirt, the plant's of the area not growing amongst it as it was to wet for roots to take hold. But what really caught the group's attention, wasn't all of this stuff that they could barely register from afar, what really caught their attention was a steep waterfall pouring from the mountain side, down into the lake below, the overall height of it was impossible to determine especially from this distance, but if they had to guess they would assume it must be at least 700 or so feet. Now normally a waterfall isn't all that special, but this one was definitely unique, because this one flowed down from a floating mountain to the lake below, seemingly forcing out a never ending stream of water from who knows where, the entire massive chunk of earth and stone hovering seamlessly above the ground, as a result of Spyro's interference during the destruction of the planet.

Spyro was the first to speak, his jaw agape at the sight. "It's a flying mountain..." Malefor spoke next his voice filled with astonishment and curiosity. "It must have been caused by you Spyro, when you put the world back together."

The bright purple dragon looked at hid predecessor with a raised brow. "But weren't you the one making building's and chunks of earth fly about before? I don't even know how to do that." Malefor nodded in response to Spyro's question. "I was but my magic should have faded when I was defeated, it's why the volcano isn't leaking magma anymore and why the dark crystal's I used have all become dormant. Is that where we are going Flame?" He asked turning to face the fire dragon in question. Nodding in response to Malefor he began to explain how he knew of this place. "Yeah, that's it, before we got to Warfang we saw it when passing by. Later on we talked about how great it looked there and we all wanted to check it out so what better time to do so than now right, it looks amazing doesn't it?" He asked glancing at the purple drake who was still somewhat shocked by the sheer magnitude of the floating hunk of rock. Cynder was curious about the source of the water that seemed to flow infinitely, while Spyro was looking forward to exploring this new area. Flame and Crystal were both somewhat worried for what the night would have in store for them and their new tag along involved.

As the group continued to fly toward their destination, making much more haste all together at the promise of being able to rest their wing's and enjoy the sights, Malefor thought about how much his friend's would have loved to see this. "Anise would have adored the sight of this place, I should show it to Terrador someday. I'm sure he would like to see this view."

(A few hour's ago in the city of Warfang)

Terrador had left the main foyer of the temple not long after the purple dragon had departed to head toward Volteer's library, hoping to speak with the electric guardian on the matter of providing Spyro, Cynder and Malefor with a sort of allowance seeing as they didn't understand much of life in Warfang and likely would need help to secure a living here, not to mention the prejudice that would certainly be held toward the black dragoness as well as his oldest friend. On the way down the hall he walked past a small gray and black dragon and a large yellow drake, both male who were walking toward the entrance of the temple having a conversation with one another as they went. Normally Terrador was not one for eavesdropping, but the word's that left the smaller drake's mouth concerned him.

"I will never understand why they all just let him get away with it. After everything he did, everyone he hurt, he gets off scot free. I want to know why..." He spoke ending the sentence with a snarl. The larger drake responded with a tone of sincerity and compassion. "Hey let's try not to be hasty here, I'm sure they had a good reason, we can always ask about it next time we see em. Just please don't do anything rash if we run into the guy, I don't want to see you or anyone else get hurt." The yellow dragon practically pleaded with the short and somewhat standoffish drake. As they passed Terrador by, the earth guardian couldn't help but guess who they had been referring to, his mind immediatly jumping to the purple and red scaled drake who had only day's ago tried to destroy the world.

"I just hope Malefor doesn't get involved in any sort of mess where he ends up making things more complicated than they already are." He thought as he turned to step into the doorway of Volteer's favorite room in all the temple, finding the electric dragon to no suprise nose deep in a scroll and several books at his side. Clearly the yellow drake didn't hear or see him enter, so the earth guardian cleared his throat in an attempt to catch his cohorts attention. From the look of suprise upon Volteer's face as he seemed to acknowledge the green dragon's presence, he was quite invested in his research, more so than usual even. "Terrador? I'm so sorry my friend, I did not hear you enter. Is there something I can assist you with?" He asked a small compassionate smile upon his face.

Terrador smiled briefly at the electric drake's eagerness to help other's in need, a trait he could not imagine Volteer without. "It's alright my friend I came to inform you that Spyro, Cynder and Malefor have all departed from Warfang for the next few day's to join a campout with some new friend's they made, more than that I wanted to speak with you regarding a sort of monthly allowance for thode three. If you are not too busy that is." The eccentric scholar closed his book's and rolled up his scroll's before setting them all gently aside, before placing his empty claws atop the table which he sat, a smirk on his face. "Never too busy to assist, now as far as an allowance goes I had a feeling we would be having this conversation soon enough, seeing as it will likely be very difficult for either Malefor or Cynder to find work in the city for good pay due to the past event's." Terrador sat down opposite his friend, nodding in agreement. "That's why until they find a good source of income on their own we should at least provide them with some means of currency so that they have money to either save for the future or spend on other things, perhaphs a day will come when they will all move out of the temple hall's and into their own property here in Warfang, or even somewhere else. We need to ensure they are able to take care of themselves until they can live life without our assistance." He explained his reasoning, the yellow guardian nodding in agreement before asking a question. "Well how much were we thinking, perhaphs a pouch of gold every so often?" He proposed, somewhat dismayed when Terrador shook his head. "No I was thinking more along the line's of providing them with roughly five thousand gold coins a month each, that's more than enough to be worthwhile but not so much as to be overwhelming."

Volteer seemed to consider this suggestion before he began to nod his hesd in agreement. "I think that would be perfectly fine, we just need to inform Cyril of this development first and foremost and then we can begin setting asi-" The electric guardian was cut off from finishing his thought as the previously mentioned ice drake walked through the door at that moment, his face a mixture of stress and irritation. "I tell you both wolves are all nothing but trouble, FILTHY SCAVENGING RUFFIANS THE WHOLE LOT OF THEM!!!! He shouted, slamming a clenched fist upon the doorframe causing the two other drake's in the room to flinch. Volteer curiously asked the fuming ice guardian what was wrong almost regretting it as he noticed the look of pure rage in his friend's eye's. "What's wrong is we have a pack of wolves prowling about the valley's and hunting our kind! Hunting dragon's and using their teeth and hides to fashion weapons and clothes! The injustice and the absolute gall of those creatures! We must deal with them before anyone else fall's victim to one of their hunting party's." Terrador almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, wolves going out of the way to fight with the dragon's was a shock, but the green drake found himself becoming furious at the thought of what was happening to so many innocent lives.

Volteer had a look of sorrow adorning his muzzle, his thoughts normally would be going to the fates of the unfortunate victims of such a dreadful tragedy. All he could think about now however was how much he prayed that Spyro and the other's didn't run into this pack of animal's.

(Back with the group)

As the group of five descended toward the shimmering lake, their paws touching the soft grass allowing them to finally rest their weary wing's after hour's of nonstop flight, Flame looked up toward the dimming sky to see that the sun would be setting in the next two or three hour's. Suddenly he was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice of Spyro "Hey Flame, I thought you said Ventus and Herc would be here." He spoke somewhat concerned by the lack of yellow and grey scales to greet them. In response Flame turned his gaze to the purple dragon "they'll be here a bit later, they got held up by some stuff back in Warfang, for now though let's focus on getting camp setup." Turning his gaze on the ice dragoness Crystal, his voice taking on a somewhat commanding tone. "Crystal, please set up the firepit if you don't mind." In response the dragoness nodded before heading over to a shaded spot below one of the larger oak tree's. Once there she began picking up several loose stone's from around the area and began arranging them in a neat and tidy circle. With that out of the way Flame turned to face Spyro and Cynder. "Can you two see about catching some fish from the pond? Also if you could please keep an eye out for some deer or a sheep herd." The duo nodded an affirmative, as Cynder and Spyro split up, the black dragoness went toward the encompassing tree's while Spyro dove headfirst into the lake.

Flame cast a curious gaze toward the only other drake who had yet to receive a task. "Malefor?" The male in question stepped forward and asked "What do you need?" In response the fire dragon gestured to the surrounding forest before he spoke. "Mind getting us some fire wood, and when you finish with that come help set up camp with me and Crystal." The purple drake nodded in agreement before turning to walk toward the nearest tree and turning his side to it. Once he was before the oak tree he began pulling his axe bladed tail back for a heavy swing and using his wind element to form a thin barrier of wind around his sharp tail blade, swung it into the tree. His strike swung clean through the tree using the high speed wind flowing perfectly around his tailblade to slice it effectively.

As the tree began to fall Malefor stepped out of the way, before walking over to the bushel of leaves upon it's head and doing the same thing he had done to it's stump removed the entire top of the tree and taking it's leaves with it. From there he began to slice the tree into multiple segments, before placing the segments up right and cutting them in half with a vertical swing, and then turning those halfs into quarter's afterwards. Withing but a few minutes he had finished tearing apart the entire tree which would provide enough firewood for the night before they would require anymore. Carrying the pieces over to where Flame and Crystal had opened up three large bags they had been carrying the whole flight, he set them up in a neat pile off to the side out of the way. With his first task complete he stepped over to the fire drake who was pulling out several metal rods from one of the bags and taking a large tarp from the other. He began attempting and failing to fit the rods through the correct holes in the side's of the large blue piece of plastic.

Stepping up to assist, Malefor placed his claws upon the cold material before holding it in place for Flame to insert the metal rods that would hold it up. The fire dragon cast a quick glance at the purple dragon who had so quickly jumped to helping and following his directions, when he had not even originally wanted to come on the trip to begin with. The sight of the helpful drake brought a small smile to his face as he continued to set up the first tent. As this was going on the hero of Warfang and the only other purple dragon, Spyro was swimming below the water, searching for a good enough meal for his friend's. He had been below the water for a few minutes now and decided he should surface for some air before diving back down to resume his search. As his head burst free of the water with a gasp of fresh air he saw out of the corner of his vision that Flame, Malefor and Crystal were setting up three different tents on the grass, he also noticed that Flame and Malefor seemed to be having a conversation as they worked. Seeing the older purple drake coming out of his shell brought Spyro a feeling of immense joy. Moment's later the young hero inhaled a deep breath of air and submerged himself once again, the year's he spent growing up in a swamp paying off as during his youngest year's he had a nasty habbit of falling into the river quite a bit, and over time had learned to hold his breath for a rather at least a few minute's with no trouble.

Meanwhile in the darkness of the forest, a single buck was grazing the grass of the forest floor silently, when it jolted it's head up rather suddenly at an odd cracking sound. The lone cervine whipped it's head about to see if it was being watched, upon finding nothing it returned to it's green meal. However it did not notice the shadows cast by the tree's behind it were moving slowly toward it, stretching out along the ground at first almost like a mass of darkness before it split from the encompassing darkness and began to rise out of the ground slowly behind the deer, before long the shape began to gain color, it's lower body changing to a deep shade of red, while it's claws and large pointed horns became a bright ivory. The once bright and white eye's that made it stick out against the darkness now closing once, before they opened as a pair of emerald pools. The now revealed Cynder, seeing she had not been discovered, reared up on her hind legs her tailblade trembling with anticipation, and stretching out her claws and tail, slammed her sharp implements down toward the mature buck ending it's life in a single painless instant.

Minute's later and Malefor and Flame had setup two of the three tents, while Crystal had succeeded in erecting the third on her own. As Malefor looked at the three blue shelters he realised, he would have to share with someone tonight, and that thought brought him mild discomfort due to the fact he didn't exactly have the best reputation right now, though he decided to just let it go for the time being. A few minutes after the tents had been erected, Spyro emerged from the lake sopping wet and was carrying two rainbow trout, the aquatic creatures attempting to wriggle from his grasp as he came over and placed them on a flat rock by the firepit, before going back to the shore and picking up two more he had caught earlier. Crystal grabbed several wooden thin wooden sticks from one of the bags, shoving the object's through the fish lengthwise piercing it through the head and tail. As this was done Flame began to place several pieces of firewood down to light, igniting the campfire with a single controlled plume of heat.

As the ice dragoness began to set the fish above the fire to cook, Cynder had arrived from the depths of the forest, dragging with her a single and rather large buck by it's horns, leaving it in a heap next to the now flickering fire. Upon dropping the cervine's horn from her beaked maw, a smirk crossed her face. "Dinner is served." She said raising her head up high in an exaggerated display of pride. Spyro allowed a small chuckle to escape his lips at the proud dragoness, before turning his gaze on the fire drake who had invited them out here. "So Flame when do you think the other's will be here? If everyone is interested I think we should take a peek at that mountain up there, and I don't wanna leave anyone out or nothing." He suggested, a claw pointing up to the skybound chunk of earth. Flame who had been placing several blankets and coverings in each tent for the night, turned to face the purple dragon. "Not sure exactly but they said they wouldn't be too long, at any rate it will likely be getting dark just before they get here or around at least pretty close."

A smile adorned his maw now as he continued to speak. "But I think we should go with your idea for sure, I wouldn't mind seeing what could be up there, if anything." Cynder stepped up to the fire before taking a seat next to Spyro, sitting rather close to the purple drake, so close in fact her own black scaled form was pressed right into his left side, causing a comforting warmth to fill Spyro at her touch. "I really wanna see where all that water could be coming from so I'm all for this plan." Crystal merely nodded while Malefor said nothing and watched the fish cook occasionally.

Flame then turned his gaze toward Crystal, the ice dragoness keeping a close eye on the cooking fish. "Hey Crystal, you mind putting that thing on ice for a bit so it doesn't get rotten before Ven and Herc get here?" The flame dragon requested, gesturing to the large cervine Cynder had brought back. The ice dragoness quirked a brow before responding. "We have two purple dragon's here one of them can do it, besides they have a lot more mana than I do so they can afford to throw it around a bit." Flame was about to respond before Malefor who had been sitting off to the side stood up and walking over to their dinner for the night, responded. "I got it." Before Flame could say another word the purple drake had already allowed a hazy mist to pour from his maw in small amounts, just as it had that morning in the courtyard. The mist then maintained it's position around the fresh corpse, not even moving when the wind began to blow, seemingly settled into that spot by invisible roots. "There that should keep it from going bad for the next few hour's." He said, moving back to sit down next to the fire, though he tried to maintain a slight distance from Flame and Crystal so as not to cause them discomfort.

"Thanks." The fire drake said with a nod, before he glanced back at the fire before an idea came to mind. A slight smirk came to his face as he turned to face the group. "Hey I have an idea while we wait why don't we tell some spooky campfire stories?" He suggested almost giddy at the thought of spooking his new friend's. Cynder quirked a brow at this suggestion and was about to speak when suddenly an idea came to mind, an idea that she had to try desperately to not grin about. "I like the sound of that plan Flame, why don't you go first?" She offered to which the red drake gladly nodded, while Spyro had a slight grimace as he had never been one for scary stories to begin with. Flame began to tell his story, adopting a massive grin as he spoke. "This story begins right in a deep and dark forest not unlike these one's, way back when Warfang was still new and fresh, dragon's and all sorts of other race's hoped to expand their reach and grow their territory. One day a group of settlers, cheetahs in fact moved to this very place, and upon seeing the plentiful wildlife and fresh water began planning construction of a small town, little did they know they had invaded the resting ground of-"

At this point Malefor had stopped listening not really finding much interest in the tale, however when he heard a voice whisper in his ear for a moment he tensed up fearing the worst. He relaxed however upon recognizing it as Cynder's voice though he was sitting opposite the campfire from her slightly behind Crystal, he was confused until he realized how it was she could whisper to him even without being next to him. "She must be using her wind element to carry her voice, she has learned a few clever tricks I see." He thought before he listened to the dragoness's word's. "Malefor I have a plan and I want you to help me, when I tell my story to the other's I want you to go behind Flame and Crystal and jump out at them, can you do that? Wink your right eye if you can." She whispered into her paw so the other's couldn't see she was speaking as pretended to be covering her face in shock, while using her wind element to carry the sound past Flame and Crystal and straight to the purple drake behind them.

Malefor thought it over, almost deciding against it, when he remembered they were out here to have fun and he did like the sound of this silly and somewhat childish idea. Winking his yellow eye at the black dragoness he realised Flame was reaching the end of his story. "-and to this day if anyone gets lost in the forest they would be haunted by the mad cackling of the insane chieftan looking for his next victim." The group all clapped their forepaws together repeatedly in an applause for the red drake's story, even those who weren't paying nearly as much attention. Malefor decided before he would help Cynder with her plan he would provide the group with a tale of his own.

Flame bowed his head in thanks for the applause, before looking amongst the group. "So, who wants to go next?" He asked. Before Cynder could say anything she was suprised to hear the voice of Malefor speak up. "Mind if I tell one?" He asked somewhat raising a paw as if waiting to be called on by a teacher. Flame was more than happy to allow the purple drake to take center stage as he moved closer to the fire. As he took a seat inbetween Cynder and Crystal he spoke a small smirk upon his muzzle. "This isn't exactly a horror story, rather more of a personal experience but I can assure you all, it is very much true." He reached a claw out toward the fire, using his elemental control to twist it's visage, the flames crackled and popped before the bright orange and red began to turn a new color, a very deep vibrant purple hue.

"This place lacked a little mood lighting, hope you don't mind. Anyway, this all started during the early year's of my corruption, when the dark master was still very new. I presume you all know of the well of soul's and it's power, do you not?" He asked looking back and forth amongst the other dragon's, all of which nodded. Everyone knew of the history behind the imposing mountain which had crumbled to rubble year's back. "Good that makes this easier then. As I was saying this was around the time where he had only recently adopted the title of dark master, when my other self had been attempting to harness the power of the well of soul's, something that normally could only be done on the night of eternal darkness, but when you have a nearly limitless supply of Convexity within your body, you can find loopholes for that type of thing. My other self, the dark master filled the well with his own power, causing it to forcefully activate, he only did this once however, because something spoke to me."

Flame spoke up before the purple dragon could speak again. "Hold up, you mean it spoke to him right, you've been talking about the dark master as another entity entirely up till now so why are you talking like it was you who experienced this?" Malefor cast a glance toward the curious drake before his reply sent chills up everyone's spine. "That's just it though, the voice didn't speak to my dark self, it spoke to me directly. The reason I know this is because while under the effects of Convexity I could still comprehend what was going on in reality, to an extent I was able to see through my own eye's but I could not look away, I could hear but I could not reply, I could feel sensations but I could not choose to touch something."

Malefor scratched a paw along his chin as he attempted to think of how to explain the whole experience, "Picture it this way, I was a prisoner within my own mind, strung up by chain's in a dark place, I was only able to do one thing and that was watch my body kill and maim. When I heard voices they were muffled as if they were underwater, my senses felt diluted, that's why it came as such a shock that the voice I heard that night wasn't muffled at all, I could hear it speaking as if they were right next to me. It was speaking in a language I didn't understand, but it said one thing I could comprehend." Crystal almost trembled at the lack of an explanation before she leaned forward on her haunches and asked "what was it?" Malefor used his manipulation over the fire once more to create a vague shape in the violet flames, almost unrecognizable at first but as the group looked they all realized it was a rough depiction of the planet which soon fell apart as if made of ash. "It said it would turn everything to dust, because of those who had wronged it." With that he allowed the fire to return to the comforting red and orange hue. All was silent for a moment before Spyro spoke.

"What... What do you think it was that spoke to you?" He asked hesitantly, unsure if he really wished to know the answer to that question. "I don't fully know but the well of soul's was a way of contacting the dead so it was likely the spirit of someone who was wronged in life and are simply full of vengeance, either way the well is no more so there is no longer a way to contact that spirit to find out now." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Flame's face had twisted into a sour grimace, and decided to ask the fire drake what was wrong. When he heard his name he sighed before responding with a sypathetic look to the purple and red drake. "How? How were you able to just... Sit there and watch all that happened, all that you did, how can anyone survive that without going insane?" Malefor said nothing at first but decided to be straight with the younger male. "That is a simple one, I had to give up my emotions for a long time, if I didn't I likely would have gone insane long ago, it was a difficult thing really but I forced myseld not to feel for other's because I knew if I did there would only be more pain."

"I see..." Flame whispered, almost afraid to speak more on the subject. Cynder took a step forward before she offered to tell a story next. "Mind if go next?" She asked politely to which Malefor stepped back and took his original spot behind Crystal and Flame. Cynder wasted no time begining her tale. "You all know how Spyro defeated me, and how he beat Gaul, but did I ever tell you that there was one general of the dark army he never fought?" Spyro quirked a brow at this wondering if that was true or not as did Malefor who for certain knew Cynder was making this up. The black dragoness continued to weave her web of a tale. "The only difference was this guy was the worst of the worst, you thought I was bad when I was the enemy, you should be gald you never met him." "W-Who?" Crystal aksed her normaly stoick voice trembling now. "I don't know what his real name was all I know is everyone called him the Ripper, because everyone he would kill ended up the sameway, torn limb from limb and even beyond that cut up into the tiniest of pieces. He was a real psychopath, he once received orders to go and retrieve a messenger for the rebel forces and interrogate him but the messenger was attempting to flee."

As Cynder allowed this info to sink in, she caught the sight of Malefor moving up clode behind Flame and Crystal who were to preoccupied with her story to notice, even Spyro who had clear sight of the othe drake payed no attention to him. Resisting the urge to grin, she continued. "When the Ripper caught him his screams rang out for miles, and it was only day's later a search party found him bound in chain's hidden in a small hut within an abandoned village, his fingers and toes cut off and shoved into his mouth." At this Crystal let out a small gasp. Barring the minor interruption the black dragoness went on. "When they pulled the severed bits out of his maw, he was delirious for a few seconds before he realised who was before him, he screamed at the top of his lungs 'IT'S A TRAP!!' But it was too late. The Ripper had locked them all in and killed them right then and there. Let's just hope we never run into him ourselves." She sighed putting on a false hopeful tone.

"Wait your not telling us that guy is still alive are you?" Flame asked somewhat worried. As Cynder replied she began using her shadow element to manipulate the shade cast by the tree's, and as the sun had set while Malefor told his story there was more than enough darkness for the black dragoness to coat the purple drake in, causing him to appear larger and taller than he really was. "He is and-" she cut off as she feigned a look of terror and pointed a claw at the shadow coated purple dragon behind Flame and Crystal. "HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!" She screamed causing the duo to whip their head's back and scream as the large shadowy figure before them roared in their faces, causing them to clench their eye's in fear as they found themselves in an embrace.

Spyro nearly fell for it but he had noticed Malefor just before he was enveloped by darkness, so he only had a small smile on his muzzle as he realised it was all a prank. Moment's passed as the ice and fire dragon's huddled close together waiting for the end, when suddenly they heard laughter, feminine laughter as, they slowly opened their eye's they saw the large figure leering over them but doing nothing else while Cynder was on her back wailing like a banshee. Suddenly everything clicked together for the two as they untangled their own limbs before beginning to chuckle as they saw it was all a hoax. Suddenly Malefor heard an ear splitting yell from above, and just as he looked to the source, he sensed a massive blade of wind moving through the air in his direction, for a moment he felt the world flash purple as he almost dodged out of the way but stopped when he saw that the strike would hit Flame and Crystal if he dodged. In the moment before the sharp blade of condensed air hit, Malefor shoved his now uncovered body toward the duo who barely even registered the yell from a second ago, and put himself between them turning his body to face the strike.

He felt fear for a moment, then he felt pain, horrible pain, and he could smell iron. Then he felt the blood burst from his chest in the form of a massive gash across his tan underbelly. Everyone's eye's widened at the sight of the blood splattering over the grass before they all excluding Malefor snapped their heads up to where the attack came from. Cynder felt rage when she saw who had fired the attack, Spyro was angry but also confused, Crystal was shocked and somewhat frightened, And Flame was furious, because up in the sky there were two dragon's, one was the large electric behemoth known as Herc to his friend's, his own face twisted in fear and terror. The other was his significant other, the wind dragon Ventus, his wing outstretched forward in the motion of a strike, his face a twisted mixture of fury and fear.