REVISED AUTHOR'S NOTES

4/3/2022

Not much changed. Just better grammar and stuff. Better dialogue with a few more lines.

Chapter 3

"Shattered Hope"

The silence in the room was deafening. Nobody knew what to say, they had just been there for the moment that a young dragon's life had been taken. And nobody was happy.

The first movement was Spyro standing up and turning around, only to slam his paw into a nearby wall, causing the room to shake slightly. Fate visibly jumped at the action, and Cynder turned to calm him down. "Spyro…"

He turned with newfound anger towards Ignitus, "Fools! Both of you!" He said.

Ignitus sighed as he held his head in his paw, "Spyro this wasn't our intention-"

"Neither of you understand the weight of your actions! The universe, reality, it's not a toy for god sake. Souls are precious, and you threw one away for an experiment!" Spyro yelled.

Fate unwilling to look at anyone had curled inward on herself, and cried. "I'm sorry so sorry…" she repeated over and over, like a broken record.

Cynder moved over to comfort Fate, disregarding her previous feelings. She looked up at Spyro from her side, "It was an accident, Spyro."

Spyro, not breaking eye contact with Ignitus, continued, "Okay, just one accident am I right? How many more are going to follow? How many hatchlings are you going to murder?"

Ignitus growled, "Calm yourself would you! We still saved an entire realm didn't we? I-"

Spyro growled back even louder, "You killed, a hatchling damnit. A hatchling Ignitus! What if that was our Kaali? That hatchling was begging for his family, before death. So what if you maybe saved his realm? Did you ever stop to think his world would've been fine with outside interference?"

Ignitus' stoic face faltered, and a few tears fell from his eyes, "I-It's done now… Spyro. We can't change it."

Spyro chuckled, "Really now? We have the celestial of Fate itself in this very room, and we can't save a single hatchling? You're both jokes!"

"Spyro!" Cynder said with tears in her eyes, as Fate clung to her embrace, absolutely devastated. "Just, stop for now."

Spyro finally looked over to his mate, and he grunted. "Wake me up." He said with his back turned, as he slowly faded.

Ignitus turned to Cynder with a questioning yet solemn gaze, she just shook her head.

Upon reaching the waking world Spyro gazed around his room. It was still dark out, so he figured it was one or two hours until sunrise. He looked down towards his mate, but she didn't wake, he lightly growled and left the room.

He walked towards his daughter's bedroom and gently cracked it open. He saw the familiar rise and fall of his daughter's breath from under the blanket, he smiled solemnly and shook his head, shutting the door once again.

Heading downstairs Spyro made his way to the kitchen. He grabbed himself a glass, and poured some water, drinking it in one go. After a moment he splashed the water against his face. Staring at his reflection in his glass he shook his head and growled.

Moving over to a cabinet, he opened it and roughly began to dig through it, not minding the mess he was leaving in his wake. From behind him he heard the clear voice of Cynder, "Spyro? Are you… okay?" She said with a rather confused look on her.

Spyro, not paying much mind, continued digging. Making Cynder slightly concerned, "Spyro, I think we should talk…"

Still not minding her, he grunted as he found nothing. Moving on to the cabinet right below, the mess only piling up higher. Cynder tried to keep her voice low through the anger, "Are you really ignoring me? Why? Because I thought you were being a-"

Spyro drew his head out carrying a long tube, letting out a sigh, "Sorry Cynder, what did you say?" He continued walking towards the kitchen table, ungracefully clearing it off.

Cynder, completely baffled, continued, "I was calling you a… What are you doing?" She asked as she came up beside him.

Spyro pulled the cap off one side of the tube, tilting it over to allow a long piece of paper to slide out. After a moment he spread it open and tacked it down to the table. "A map? Spyro are you seriously doing this right now?"

He looked at her with a grin, and Cynder almost felt disturbed, Spyro spoke up, "We're going to find him."

She looked at him incredulously, "I don't think… I want to see the uh… scene."

Spyro shook his head as he examined the map, "I had a feeling, and my feelings have never betrayed me."

Cynder raised her brow, "The "purple dragon" feeling? I was joking yesterday, y'know."

He looked at her surprised, "Oh, I was dead serious."

She just sighed, "Trust me, I hope your feeling is correct as well. But what makes you think so, other than this little hunch of yours."

"Oh nothing," he said. "I'm just a firm believer that a corpse is required before judgements are made."

Cynder sighed, "Okay, fine. But please, don't entertain the thought too much. You heard the situation he was in." Cynder said with a shudder.

Spyro nodded, "Go back to bed, at least one of us needs energy for this."

She hummed a yes, "If I can sleep, I'm still… kind of shaken. It would be easier if you came back to bed too." She said hopefully.

He walked over and gave her a nuzzle, "If there's even the slightest chance, I can't. Sorry to disappoint."

She chuckled, "Why am I not surprised." She turned with a smile, and began to walk back upstairs as Spyro scanned the map.

After a few hours Cynder woke up to the smell of breakfast. She mildly prayed it would go better than last time he attempted, but still smiled at the gesture. After walking downstairs, she could see he had picked up his mess, made breakfast, and his map looked like the writings of a mad man to her. Their daughter sat at the table eagerly, "Mom!" She said happily as she entered.

Spyro turned, "Morning sleepy, breakfast is ready." He set down 3 plates at the table of food as he sat down.

She smiled, "This is odd, for you."

He shrugged, "Can't fly for hours without a healthy start."

Kaali stopped eating for a second and tilted her head, "You guys going to find the alien today?"

Cynder held her tongue with a face in despair, as Spyro smiled and laughed, "Don't worry sweetie, we already found him, we're just going to check on him."

She frowned, "Aww, I want to meet him though."

Spyro nodded, "I know, but he's not very good around new people. Maybe someday."

She just sighed and nodded, "Okay daddy."

Cynder's tail whipped Spyro on the foreleg from under the table, and he gave her a shocked look as he began to rub the pain off. Cynder sighed, "Actually, honey, the alien is-"

"He's sick!" Spyro interrupted, "He's feeling bad lately, we thought it would be best that we help him feel better, but we don't need you getting sick as well."

Cynder looked at him in disbelief, and Spyro shook his head at her. Kaali smiled, "Oh, that makes sense."

Later after breakfast, Spyro was showing Cynder the map, and explaining his writings. "So you think he was near this village right here?" She said as she pointed towards the next major continent not far away. "But you've never been over there?"

He shook his head, "No but I've heard plenty of stories of people that are from there. And many talk about the great mushroom valleys."

Cynder nodded and looked towards him, "Spyro, I believe you."

Spyro raised a brow, and she continued, "I know you sound crazy right now. But you haven't steered me wrong yet, so… I believe you."

They shared a nuzzle as they heard the doorbell ring, Cynder broke off to answer, only to find Ferra, her face slightly ridden with annoyance as Cynder turned and glared at Spyro, then began apologizing profusely. "Sorry for the short notice, I'll pay you double, we might be back sooner than Spyro asked of you as well."

Ferra shrugged, "I mean, it must be important if Spyro personally asked the academy to excuse me for the day." She smiled, "But I still will take you up on that offer."

Saying their goodbyes, the two older dragons took their leave. With a rather long flight ahead, they stretched their wings and took off, with a waving Ferra and Kaali below them. Spyro shouted back, "On the off chance we don't return by sunset, tell the guardians and they'll handle it!"

Cynder added, "Also we'll pay you triple upon returning!"

She just yelled back, "You're the reason I'm failing my math class!"

Spyro laughed, "Free tutor lessons as payment as well!"

Ferra shook her head with a laugh, "Be safe!"

Ignitus paced the length of his desk over and over, as if the world depended on it. In the corner still barely holding on to a semblance of herself was Fate, still quietly sobbing to herself. After a few minutes Ignitus sighed and approached her, taking a seat next to the younger celestial. "Fate, listen." She hadn't even raised her head at his voice.

Ignitus sighed, "Fate, it's not your fault. You only did what you felt was right."

She shook her head, and buried her face in the pillow beneath her. Ignitus laid his paw gently on her back, "It's my fault if anything. I knew keeping the order between realities was too important. I shouldn't have put the burden on your shoulders I-"

Fate whipped around, pushing his paw off, "Why am I here?" She teared up more, "I thought I finally had a reason for being a celestial, I thought I could make a difference. And look at what I accomplished!"

Ignitus, at a loss for words, stuttered a response, "I-It's not… this accident has no proof of your worthiness of a celestial dear. I'm sure you can accomplish many great things, I've made countless mistakes myself."

She lowered her head and broke eye contact, "You didn't have a front row seat to your mistakes. You just write and read books." She said sourly.

Ignitus chuckled solemnly, "Oh, how I wish my mistakes had been that simple. I promise you, I know what it's like to feel like you've failed everyone, that you weren't good enough. Sometimes I still feel like that myself."

She buried her face once again, and growled, "Reflection won't bring back that young one's soul. Nothing will, and I'm the one to blame for it."

"No. It won't. But it does help us learn, and from that we can make the future better, as long as we reflect on our past mistakes."

Fate after a minute, nodded, "Thank you for the words Ignitus… But, I'd like to be by myself now, I think."

Ignitus backed away solemnly, "Of course my dear."

She rose to her feet, and nearly dragged herself all the way to a nearby secluded room. Ignitus worryingly watched her, but sighed as he looked back at his books.

Several hours later, the two finally spotted land across the seemingly endless ocean, "The village I suspect isn't very far from the coast, maybe ten minutes in."

The entire continent had a curious look about it. From the super tall mushrooms, to the awkward jagged mountaintops that welcomed any who came ashore. The sand on the shores had an odd charred color to it, due to the nature of being a much more recent continent, formed by a large amount of volcanoes in the surrounding area.

Cynder nodded, and after a while the two came soaring over a valley, the rooftops of a village in their sights. "Down there," Spyro said.

As they landed very close on the outside of the village gates, the town's regular daily work came to a halt. Multiple races lived here, with dragons being the main race you'd see. And yet all stared wide-eyed at the duo, some in fear of Cynder, others in surprise. Not long after, a much rougher and serious looking dragon with dark brown scales and a yellow underbelly approached them. "Welcome, Spyro, Cynder. Our saviors." He bowed respectively.

Still not used to the overwhelming praise, the two awkwardly shuffled as Spyro cleared his throat, "The pleasure is ours, uh…"

The brown dragon's eyes widened, "Oh of course my apologies. I am Reval Lopun, Chief of our humble little village. How could I assist you two?"

Spyro nodded, but came to a blank, as Cynder stepped in front of him. "We are here looking for a potential… misplaced, dragon. Have you had any out of town visitors lately?"

The Chief thought to himself before looking back with a concerned glance, "I'm sorry, but no visitors of note have made their way to my memory recently. But our little village does get many outsiders, we are the last bed and warm meal for any wishing to cross the oceans."

Cynder nodded, and Spyro looked weary, "Would anybody around here keep track of any visitors? Current and past?"

Reval nodded, "Either our head of the guards here, or any of the tavern or innkeepers would be your best bet. I'm sorry I can't personally be any more help to you two." He gave them a bow.

They both returned his act, "That's quite alright. Our mission is a bit hypothetical and we're not sure where to start.." Spyro said.

He smirked at that and directed them towards their most likely candidates for information. Eager to interrogate, Spyro smiled thankfully, "Thank you for your help Chief Reval."

"Oh just call me Reval if you may. It was my pleasure."

Afterwards he departed into a nearby building, and the two were left with a small marked map of the town. Cynder looked at Spyro curiously, "That seems rather unpromising, who do we ask first?"

Spyro thought for a moment, "Our best bet would be to split up and ask both. After all, time is important if he's out there."

Cynder nodded In agreement, "I will talk to the guard's commander."

A bit caught off guard Spyro shrugged, "Sure thing, meet back here in an hour or whenever you find something out."

Cynder sighed as she made a path through the small town, some people looked at her with reverence while other continued to give her weary looks. It had been more than ten years since the war, but a lot of the more secluded towns such as these had been without information for years at a time. So people farther away weren't always caught up on her exploits.

As she continued she couldn't help but shake her head at the thought of being on another continent, searching for a dragon that was confirmed dead, by a celestial who witnessed the tragedy. The thought amused and quite honestly confused her, that Spyro has that much confidence in his gut feelings. It wasn't as if Cynder was hoping the young hatchling had died, she was rather unhappy with it all in the first place. But she had to admit to herself that the likelihood of him being alive was nearly undebatable. Which made this entire search more for Spyro's sake than anything, to help him accept it.

After all, Spyro in her mind was much more… Naïve, at least in Cynder's mind. Sure he had fought in a war, and had seen death on a personal and detached level. Yet Spyro had always held that hope, and the younger version of himself was always thinking like that. After all, it was either them defeating malefor, or the death of nearly everyone in the world. Spyro would have to come to terms with the fact that someone seemingly important due to circumstance died with zero regard for his life. That it wasn't a new prophecy or some other thing, just a poor kid. That nature had decided to remind them of what it truly was, to remind them that it was always prevalent.

She wasn't sure if she was prepared to see what the future truth could possibly hold for Spyro. This was a dangerous situation, as if the hatchling lived, Spyro was right all along and would grow expectant of the feelings he had. While if he was dead, the emotional weight would hit him like a ton of bricks. Cynder wasn't sure which one she'd rather deal with, yet she resolved to help the best she could either way.

Cynder snapped out of her thoughts as she came upon a tower made of brick. She had been told the commander would be here, so she raised her paw to knock, only for the door to open. Not expecting the suddenly missing door, she lost her balance as someone gripped her paw firmly, to help her regain her balance. "Whoa there." The stranger said from in front of her.

She turned and met a rather large dragon that nearly towered over her. He had gray scales and a dull blue to his underbelly, with an impressive amount of scars, including one that had seemed to blind one eye, as only one kind golden one stared down at her. While the other was dull and clearly unused. She looked up sheepishly, "Thanks for the catch. Reval sent me over here so that I might ask some questions."

He chuckled, "No problem at all, my soldiers warned me I may have an interrogation approaching. At least it's from the very saviors of the realms themselves." He said with a bow.

Noticing her sheepish look at the mention of interrogation he grinned, "I'm Commander Vigil. I'd be happy to answer anything you need to know, provided I have an answer for it." He gestured inside and Cynder accepted as they sat around a planning room table.

Cynder shuffled nervously and sighed, "Alright first off, have any strange, or noteworthy dragons come through or stopped here, like visitors of any sort?"

After a minute Vigil chuckled, "Yeah, quite a few entertaining ones lately. Let's see, there's that one crazy dragon that came through a few days ago, tried to hide 30 salt containers in Miss Saben's backyard… Oh! This one rather odd fellow, had brown fur and a mask he refused to take off. He said he was here on business, and we all thought one of us would have to escort him out-"

Cynder interrupted, "I'm… Sorry, commander. I was mostly talking about any potential young dragons? Maybe very young, possibly injured."

The commander thought, "Odd question. Not many young dragons visit us, unless with their parents. But I did hear a couple of the overnight guards talking about something odd they heard, that might be of interest, might help with this investigation."

Cynder's ears perked up, "What would that be?"

He shifted as he tried to remove the confusion from his own face. "Something happened in the woods outside town last night, or so I hear. It's so early in the morning we haven't had time to send out any early morning scouts."

"Well from what they said, it sounded like a large humming, and an odd light hung over the forest out to our east. They said they could swear the air had a metallic smell on it, and after a few seconds a burst of air came out from the forest. They said it shook the trees near the light, and that the air around them changed. Immediately afterwards the smell of death carried on the wind towards them, so strong that one fell ill. Some weird stuff."

Cynder stares at him, fascinated. "Commander, is the area known for wolves or beasts of some kind? Traveling in huge packs?"

He nodded, "Weird you mention it. I was about to say the forest hounds around here have been getting rather riled up lately. Usually they'd only travel in max of ten to twenty at most. But reports and my own ears have definitely confirmed that they are grouping together more frequently. We aren't sure what's causing it, but it began rather recently. Howls have been getting closer to the town every night, I've begun putting more and more guards on night shift due to it."

Cynder nodded, "This might be very useful. Would you happen to know exactly where the happenings from last night occurred?"

He nodded, "Yes, well. If you two are to investigate I'd be happy to guide you."

She smiled, "Thanks, I'll have to inform Spyro though. He's probably scaring the locals right now…"

"Meet me at the east gate when you are ready," Vigil stood up and opened the door guiding Cynder out.

"Thank you again, Vigil." Cynder began trailing off in search of Spyro.

Spyro growled as he left his 5th conversation with the locals. None of the tavern keepers, or the innkeepers, had any clue who came and went. Nevertheless their specific target. Spyro shook his head as a thought came to his mind, the hatchling had no money, of course he wasn't going to taverns or inns! He nearly kicked himself over the obvious.

He began talking to random people across town, but most just gave him an odd stare and an apology. Spyro grew impatient and began just searching around himself, to see if he was possibly hiding in alleys. The towns' people were starting to look at him warily, concerned by his odd behavior. As he looked inside of a nearby trash can Cynder called to him from behind, "Spyro!" He turned, and as she got closer she looked at him with an exasperated sigh, "Really?"

He laughed awkwardly and backed away from the trash can, "Nobody knew what I was talking about, I've seen hatchlings In stupider places!"

Cynder shook her head, "And I should have expected that, seeing as I've seen you in stupider places as well."

He wanted to look offended but she nudged his paw as she turned, using her tail, "Come on, we have a potential lead, the Commander is waiting at the gates for us."

With a bit more eagerness, Spyro quickly followed her. "What is this lead?"

She got up near him and began relating the information she had learned, and Spyro laughed, "I knew it, either someone saved him or he saved himself! That's great!"

Cynder looked at him with a sigh, "Or you know, something happened to him…"

Spyro seemed to ignore her as they reached the gates, Vigil conversing with some guards. They saluted as Vigil turned to greet them, "There you are, we have a bit of time before my troops do their early morning training routines."

Spyro smiled, "Thank you Commander…"

"Vigil" he replied as they shook paws.

Trailing off, the three entered the forest by ground, to have a better chance of spotting anything. After a minute Vigil cleared his throat, "Not to intrude, but who are you looking for, exactly?"

Spyro and Cynder shared a look as Cynder spoke, "There's been a bit of a mishap. A rather important young hatchling has gone missing, think of it as… Royalty levels of importance."

The commander grunted, "Yep that would be an issue. Since you have to ask around, I'm assuming he's not on the public side of things as well?"

They shook their heads, Spyro spoke. "To be honest we don't know what he looks like either. But we know he was outside your town by a couple miles just last night, which makes your story rather… concerning."

The group traveled in relative silence, and after a few minutes Cynder's face turned in disgust. "You weren't kidding about… The smell…"

The other two were appalled by the massive scent of death, but nevertheless the three pushed through and into the clearing. The sight meeting them as they got there brought a mix of shock and horror. The log that The hatchling had been in was there, but surrounded by it was around twenty five to thirty dead wolves. The entire scene was more of a massacre than anything, every wolf body had been ripped into multiple pieces, with lacerations covering their whole bodies.

But what sat at the center made their hearts catch in their throat. A small hatchling lied there in a pool of blood, scales soaked from the amount. The three rushed over and upon laying a paw on the hatchlings throat the Commander shook his head, "He's… dead, I'm afraid."

Spyro and Cynder looked down at the thing, Cream colored scales and a light blue underbelly, and an odd set of horns on his head. Curiously he had no tail blade, raising questions of how the lacerations occurred. He had a small bit of hair on the back of his neck trailing down, that was colored a dark gray. Neither of them were unconvinced, this had to have been the hatchling they were searching for.

His tail was nearly stripped clean at the middle, and multiple bits of his scales and skin had been torn from his neck, they both turned away, feeling ill from the scene. The commander used his paws to shut the eyes of the hatchling gently and sighed, "Very sorry, you two."

Cynder, though sad, had been expecting this. But she looked towards Spyro and his eyes were welled up with tears. She approached him, "You did everything possible." She said gently.

He growled, "Than my everything isn't much is it?" He turned and walked back the direction they came from, a tree nearby falling to a swipe of his claws.

The commander shook his head, "I wish I could do more. I'll have to leave him here for the scouts to write a full report of the situation. Would you like us to bury him nearby, or would you like to stick around and carry his body back.

Cynder hesitated an answer before she heard Spyro call to her from back down the path, "We're leaving Cynder!"

She sighed, "Give him a proper burial, we'll relay the news. He seems to have gone down a rather unforgiving death…"

The commander nodded, "Killed more wolves than a lot of my trainees, he'll be sorely missed."

They left the scene and returned to town. Cynder thanked Vigil a final time as Spyro sat near the entrance, ready to depart once again. Cynder came upon Reval once again and thanked him for his troubles. He tried to offer more accommodations but Spyro turned them all down. After a few minutes Cynder approached, "Okay. Let's go home."

"Is this your fate?"

A loud ringing pierced the sound of the village, and birds in the area fled. A second passed and a light blue flash erupted out of the trees not far away. The two looked around confused as did the rest of the villagers. After a few minutes a scout came running into town, Spyro grabbed hold of one of the young dragons horns, "Hey! What's going on!"

The scout stuttered, "T-The body of the hatchling it's… gone!"