Chapter 5: Visions Shared

Returning back to the Dragon City was something that neither of them particularly wanted to do. Their whole reasoning for being in such a remote place was specifically to get away from the city. Yet, with Cynder's prophetic vision, and Spyro's less than ideal one, they had to cut their excursion short. After talking amongst themselves about the visions they both received, the duo surmised that the Guardians needed to know about what was coming. And more importantly, Spyro needed some guidance on what exactly his vision meant.

Flying directly back with Cynder's wind powers took the whole day, save for some time taken to rest and recharge her mana reserves, and for the tasty morsel of wild game and scavenged fruits. When they arrived at the city, it was night time, and the torches of the city had already been lit by the night watchers. Most of the residents of the city had also retired for the evening, save for those nocturnal few, the city guards and watchmen, and the occasional romantic couple wanting some time to themselves.

It just so happened that they fit quite well into that last category. It was Cynder's idea to take their time getting back to the temple — the guardians were probably already asleep anyway, and their assistance would have to come in the morning when they were all awake. In the meantime, Spyro and Cynder took a stroll through the back streets of the city.

The section of the city the duo ambled through was a more rustic section. Compared to the prominent sandstone architecture that the city was known for, this section had quaint red-brick buildings and wrought iron ornaments and light posts. With the growth of ivy up some of the walls, it felt like this place was taken from some other rustic town and plopped right here in the dragon city.

Together, both of the dragons walked side by side with one another, adding to the romantic atmosphere that permeated the air. The fires of the street lights flickered and danced around, casting light and shadows across the cobblestone path and brick walls. After a short bit of walking, the duo found themselves in a quaint plaza with a fountain spraying water in the cool night air.

Even with the haunting visions fresh on his mind, Spyro still had the capacity to have fun and enjoy all of the pleasures of life. With the fountain spraying, and winter approaching, a cheeky idea came to mind. Feigning the urge to sneeze, he over exaggerated the noise he made, and sprayed out ice magic that froze the waters of the fountain in its exact place.

He looked over at Cynder, who giggled a little at the purple dragon's antics. If he could have a little fun like that, then so could she. Like him, she put on a fake expression, one that made it seem like she was about to sneeze. When she did, she let out a burst of strong wind that pulverized the ice, sending it all skyward. When it fell back down, it was a near perfect recreation of snow.

Even though there was likely nobody there to see their shenanigans, to the both of them, it was a nice moment of fun they could share, given their respective circumstances.

They continued on, making their way back to the temple and back to their room where they joined each other in bed, cuddling together. "You know," Cynder spoke softly. "I don't know if any other dragon would have done that…"

Spyro chuckled a little. He replied, "I'm glad that you enjoyed my antics…"

"It's one of the many things that I love about you. Serious when you need to be, but you always know how to have fun when it's the right time…"

"Heh. Well, I try to do my best to treat you like royalty," he chucked a little.

"Royalty, huh? Well, my king, how about we rest together, and maybe have a little fun before we do," she giggled at that last part. Spyro blushed a little, but smiled warmly, leaning in and kissing her on the lips.

"Perhaps, my queen," he said back to her with a single chuckle.

"Good… I'd like to sit on the throne for a little," she said suggestively.

"I wouldn't mind that one bit…" Spyro kissed her once more, bringing a paw up to cup her cheek, looking lovingly into her teal eyes.

/\/\/\

The duo had woken up later in the morning, both around the same time as each other. Like the previous night, both dragons received some form of message in their dreams. For Cynder, it was the chronicler trying to convince her not to attempt the journey to the land of the invading army. For Spyro, it was another dream involving his darker reflection.

When Cynder naturally inquired about the nightmares that Spyro was afflicted with, he told her that it seemed to last unnaturally longer than normal, almost as if he was in the dream for the entire duration of the night. "I'm really sorry that you have to go through all of that, Spy," she spoke in a hushed voice.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about, Cyn…" he replied back with an equally soft tone. His dreams were not unlike those of the Chronicler where they lasted however long he needed to relay the message to the recipient. What made this odd, though, was that it wasn't the work of the Chronicler; rather, it seemed as if Dark Spyro was responsible. Not much more was said, and the two began their morning.

They began their day by bathing, washing themselves clean after their night of passion. Afterwards, they ate a light breakfast consisting of dense bread, bacon, and glasses of fruit-infused water. Once their appetites were satisfied, they met up with the Guardians and told them about their dreams from the previous nights.

Immediately, they all congregated into the Room of Visions, a special, innermost room in the temple that contained only the Pool of Visions. It was regarded as a sacred place where those with the gift of visions could be without any interruption.

"This is most peculiar indeed," Volteer spoke in his usual jabberjaw fashion, going into a long rant-like speech involving what he thought of the situation, so much so that he got carried away in his verbosity. He was promptly tuned out.

Terrador shook his head after hearing the news from Cynder. It had only been three years since the defeat of the Dark Master. Now, there was a new war looming on the horizon, all coming from a place so far away. It had to be some kind of fluke, right? "Whatever the case may be, we are woefully unprepared for any conflict, at all," the Earth Guardian surmised.

"That was the very thing that he told us to do," Cynder added. "He said that he had given me these visions to help us prepare for this coming conflict." She didn't want to divulge right away that she planned on going to this far-off land in hopes of settling things diplomatically before the conflict began. The best outcome of a conflict is one that can be resolved before it happens.

"That's easier said than done, young one. People want lasting peace now that the Dark Master has met his end. It will be hard to convince the populace of a threat that they have never seen before — nobody will believe that the threat will come from our northern shores when nobody has ventured far enough to confirm that there is a continent there or not…"

The Earth Guardian had a fair few points. As far as Cynder was aware in all of her years of life, both good and bad, she had never even known that there was another large landmass to the north of the dragon realms, and she was a former general that had to know the lands like the back of her paw. It was unlikely that anyone knew about the other land.

"Then what are our options? We can't be left off guard when they do come."

"I know. But the issue remains. Nobody will want to fight another war after one that threatened our entire race had just ended."

Spyro meanwhile regressed into his thoughts. Here in the Room of Visions, they could find out the cause of his unpleasant visions, and work to find a solution that would rid him of them. Even though it had only been two nights, it was evident that waking up from such visions was leaving him more mentaly drained than usual.

If there was anyone that could help the purple dragon, it was Pyra. Just like Ignitus before her, she too had the ability to see visions in the pool. Spyro also had this ability. Together, if they both focus on the pool, they would be one step closer solving his issue.

About this time, Volteer realized that all he had said was mostly ignored, leaving him to scoff in frustration that nobody had listened to the verbose and tangential subjects that he could go on. This was to Cyril's delight, who snickered behind a paw. That snicker got the two of them at each other's throats per the usual.

"Spyro, while Cynder and Terrador talk over her visions, how about we go over to the pool here and see if we can see anything, okay?" Pyra approached him gently. If there was one thing that could be said about her, it was that she was as motherly as Ignitus was fatherly.

The purple dragon blinked as her words reached his ears. He perked up a little and nodded. "Yeah, sure." Spyro easily walked over to the Pool of Visions, sitting down, soon joined by Pyra who sat across from him. His eyes lowered down into the pool and he focused his mind, focusing just on the waters held within the retaining ring

At first, the pool would show a person's reflection in its still waters, then over time, the image of the reflection would begin to warp and change. With enough focus, prophetic images like the ones that Cynder had seen in her dream would appear before one's eyes.

Both the Fire Guardian and the purple dragon of legend focused into the waters of the pool, their minds so focused that the conversation going on beside them was drowned out in their focus. For a while though, nothing changed in the reflection. Pyra broke her focus for a bit and raised her brow, cocking her head sideways for a moment before focusing back in. Although not outwardly showing it, Spyro was in a similar state of perplexion.

Being on the patient side, both of them peered down into the pool still. Normally by now, there would be some kind of vision that either of them would see, and so far, there was nothing at all, nothing but the reflections casted back at them.

When Terrador and Cynder wrapped up their conversation, they quietly took positions at the pool, the black dragoness flanking her lover as Terrador sat off to the side. Meanwhile, the Lightning and Ice Guardians were finally over their bickering enough to join the rest of them at the pool, silently watching; while the Guardians other than Pyra didn't have the ability of seeing visions, it was more or less seen as a sign or respect to watch, even if they weren't able to see anything.

Finally, the Fire Guardian shook her head and looked away. "I don't know why, but I'm not able to see anything." She sighed and shook her head, feeling downtrodden. She looked back over at the purple dragon and inquired, "Did you see anything, Spyro?"

The purple dragon was in much the same mood as Pyra was. "Nothing…" he said down on himself. Whenever he had any form of dream or message, usually what he saw or was told would appear in the pool. Even with nightmares, it would give him a message of some kind to interpret. But this resulted in nothing. Nothing at all

All of those gathered took pity on the purple dragon to some extent, especially Cynder, who was hoping that he would get some kind of answer. But, there was no shame in failure. Perhaps not everything had a clear-cut meaning; maybe there was nothing to show.

Pyra glanced over at Cynder, perking up just a little. While she might not have been able to see anything with Spyro, there was still the chance that she was able to see something with the black dragoness. If successful, it would show that she wasn't as bad as she thought. It would be the black dragoness who brought it up to the Fire Guardian.

Cynder asked, "Do you think that we could try to see what I saw in my dreams?"

Pyra nodded her head in agreement. "Sure. I'm sure you know how this works, yes?"

Of course she did. After all, it was the Chronicler that instructed her before, so she wasn't quite new to the concept. "I do." Cynder scooted up closer to the water's retaining ring, and began to peer down in it and observe her reflection — as did Pyra.

After a bit, the mystical magic that was the Pool of Visions began to work its wonders. The reflection of Cynder and Pyra slowly began to shift and change, as if they were colors being dispersed in the waters itself. Terrador, Volteer, and Cyril were not able to see their reflections change, and Spyro wasn't focused enough to notice it either. Only the two dragonesses were able to observe this change

Finally, their reflections were gone to the both of them, now nothing more than a swirling spiral of colors that faded into a monotone grey. Finally, there was some semblance of an image taking form, and it was the one that Cynder regretted seeing. Just like in the visions with the Chronicler, it was the image of the mobilizing army.

"Oh my goodness…" muttered the Fire Guardian, a little wide eyed at what she was seeing. It seems there was some truth to Cynder's claims about an army. Like before, there was nothing more there than what was originally seen.

"What visions have you been gifted with, young one?" Terrador shifted closer, looking down into the pool, hoping to see some hint of what the others were. He failed in that regard. He didn't have the gift of receiving visions.

"I see…" Cynder went on into detail about what she saw from the picture and what she was able to extrapolate from it. Just like the Earth Guardian, she too was a general at one point in her life, albeit a much darker part of her life. She pointed out the ships in the pier, which gave off the impression that along with the presumed first wave of soldiers, they would be offloading their supplies and establishing a supply chain to help keep their army stocked with all necessary rations and supplies.

After that, she described what she surmised were artillery pieces, as well as the concept of it to everyone in the room. It seemed that she and Terrador had some knowledge and understanding of the concept, but the rest of them were lost on it. She continued on, trying to get as many details out of the hazy picture as she could. The more information they had on the subject, the more they would know about their future adversary.

"I will say that this means of waging war called artillery is most intriguing," said Volteer. "Oh, and there's so many variables too! Just by the means of aiming does one take into consideration the complex mathematics of ballistic calculations and —"

"And it is most cowardly in principle," Cyril added pompously. It wouldn't be any fault of his own for having these thoughts. Many others believed that combat should be face to face with your opponent, and the use of a ranged weapon, such as a bow, was considered cowardly, as one had to stand off from the target in order to properly draw, aim, and release the bow to its deadly accuracy.

"While I am inclined to believe you, Cyril, you cannot shame anyone in devising a way to gain an edge in combat," the green dragon spoke, shaking his head. Terrador was a tried and true warrior in both body and mind. If he had it his way, then all fighting would be face to face where you matched against a single opponent, and fought honorably until one or the other fell in battle. Warfare though did not stick to such strict ideas of combat. Whoever had the better method of waging warfare was usually the more successful side, even in defeat.

After Cynder had explained to them the picture she saw, another one began to take shape, blurring out the old image into a hazy murk before shifting back into an intelligible picture. Both dragonesses were in a state of surprise; neither had really expected another image.

Unlike the previous image that focused on a much larger group, this one was focused on a much smaller group, which allowed them to see more details on what appeared to be the soldiers. However, it was still not clear enough to determine what species these soldiers were, but it allowed Pyra and Cynder to get a rough idea of what they were.

There were five soldiers.

What immediately stuck out was that they walked on two legs. They could be comparable in size to the other bipeds in the Dragon Realms. The soldiers all shared a similar uniform, but due to the monochrome nature of the image, it was near impossible to discern what the colors were. However, the type of articles worn were able to be extrapolated. The soldiers wore a long, open trench coat that draped down and overlapped slightly with their tall boots. Underneath the coat, they wore pants with many pockets, and a cozy-looking, yet durable shirt.

Each of them appeared to have a different kit apiece, indicating that each one of them had a certain role to fulfill. One of them appeared to have a large pack, with crutches. Another had a pack of similar size, but lacked the crutches. And another appeared to have bundles of what appears to be cigar shaped sticks – themselves bundled together to form one single unit. The other two didn't seem to have anything particular about them. Some accessories in particular were common between all of them, such as leather pouches attached by straps, canteens and others.

And the weapons that they carried were strange indeed. Cynder had assumed from the first image that their adversaries fought with some kind of strange spear. But with this closer-in image, it was clear that it wasn't exactly a spear; rather, it appeared as if there was a large knife attached to the end of a foreign weapon that she had never seen before; neither had Pyra, nor would Terrador be familiar with the weapon based on description alone.

But not all five of the soldiers used those, with two having a different form of weapon. The soldier with the bundles of sticks had a weapon that had a stick-looking piece sticking out the side, and a spike-like point attached to the end of it. Finally, the soldier with just the backpack had a rather large weapon, which could only be described as a tube with a handle attached to a boxy-looking contraption, with a round drum attached to the right side.

This was a strange force that they were dealing with.

Finally, there was a third image shown to both Cynder and Pyra. This one was a well-maintained forest trail. In the center of the image on a small hill in a clearing in the forest was a single, small evergreen tree, maybe a pine or a spruce of some kind — it was hard to tell from the image. One of the bipedal creatures from the previous image was standing away and looking at the tree intently, as if the tree.

After that, there were no more visions for the pool to offer them. The last image began to swirl around once more, and the reflections of Pyra and Cynder were back to where they were before.

The dragonesses told the others in the room what they saw in the visions.

The three other guardians were intrigued indeed. Spyro stayed quiet and kept his thoughts to himself. Neither of them had much to say about the last image, given that it seemed to be rather erroneous in nature. But the other two images gave all of them intrigue, all of them falling back into their mental habits.

"How particular, Cynder," the lightning guardian said. "Even with all that you and Pyra have told us, I am truly at a loss. If only we had more information on them, then perhaps we could learn more about not just these creatures, but their civilization, culture, language —" He rambled on for a little bit more, very much intrigued about everything that these creatures had to offer. Through all of this, he did have a point. The Dragon Realms had never before seen anything like what was seen in the images, so the history behind those in the image was a very intriguing subject. It was like them finding a long lost civilization.

Cyril, however, had something more to add. "It is rather hard to believe that there has been a civilization out there that has existed without us knowing about them. Surely, there would be some kind of evidence of their presence in this world." That too was a fair point.

Cynder spoke up before the two could get into another debate of intellect versus pompousness with each other. "The thing is, they are on another continent…" She had yet to tell them about her plans to try to stop the war before it began, and by the way things were looking, it was going to be a difficult sell to them. Already, Cynder was anticipating that the Guardians would do everything that they could to convince her otherwise.

"They are?" Volteer questioned her. "Where did you see this? Did you receive another vision that Pyra had not or…?"

"Well, the Chronicler told me this in my dream. I... I told him that I just couldn't sit by and let this war casually happen, and that I want to try to stop it before it begins. So… he showed me a map of where these creatures come from." There was no need to sugar coat it — being completely honest with them was the best course of action to take.

Naturally, all of the guardians were opposed to her idea. Each of them voiced their concerns to her. Terrador tried to advise her that he did not know how hostile they would be to her presence or attempt to defuse the situation. Cyril and Volteer were of the same opinion. Pyra meanwhile, put up the most compelling argument, attempting to convince her about the good that she could do remaining in the Realms as opposed to leaving.

Being the defiant dragoness that she was, Cynder would not let them talk her down. "As I told the Chronicler, if we do not do anything other than lay down and wait for them to come to us, then we are sure to fail!"

"Young lady, you need to calm down and think about your rash decisions," Cyril countered sternly. "I understand your eagerness to solve these issues, but sometimes it is wiser to prepare for what is to come rather than try to charge head-long into the issue. It is sometimes better to weather the storm as opposed to running through it in an attempt to shorten your time in it." It was an excellent analogy, for sure, but it didn't dissuade her.

"But if we don't do anything, then we're doomed to be dragged into this war. We can stop it before it begins, I know we can!" If there was one thing that all of them could say about Cynder, it was that she was certainly a beacon of hopeful optimism despite the grim warning she received.

After more futile attempts to dissuade her, the Guardians conceded their attempts. Cynder stood tall and proud that she was able to sway them over into her favor, or rather, make them stop attempting to stop her. But there was one person that she had yet to hear an opinion from: Spyro.

After they left the Room of Visions, the purple and black dragons returned back to their room. If her mate approved, then she would soon begin her preparations. There were all sorts of things that would be needed for such a long journey: food, fresh water, medicines and basic first aid, and some spirit gems would be nice to have with her too, should she sustain any injury that required more than just basic first aid, or if she needed a magical pep-up.

But now that the two were alone, she could now consult her mate on the topic without having the other Guardians there to put their opinions in, which would likely influence his line of thinking.

"Spyro?"

"Yeah, Cyn?"

For a moment, she hesitated, not sure how he would react to her proposal. Even when she told him about it on the cliffside, he hadn't given his thoughts and opinions to her. Perhaps that would explain the distant mood that he seemed to have all day, in combination with the disturbing dreams that he had. "Are you alright with me going through with my plan?"

Spyro sat there in silence for a bit, musing as he laid down on the bed. He had a look of deep thought on his face as he looked back up to her with an answer a little while later.

"I'm stuck in the middle," he admitted. "I agree with the Guardians that it is extremely risky to go off to that continent and try to defuse the situation, especially when we don't know where they are in terms of hostilities. However, I also agree that if we don't at least try something, then we are bound for war no matter what by the looks of it. We can at least try something, which may help us in the long run, but at the same time it might harm us in the long run too."

Spyro brought up valid points, some of them echoing the Guardians' cautious nature, while also embracing some of her more brave and daring nature. If there was anyone that could help sway or encourage her, it was him. Again, he spoke up. "But, I don't want you to go by yourself. I'll go with you —"

"No," she interrupted firmly, causing him to raise a brow as to why she would refuse his assistance. "At least not with your strange dreams. If they go away, then you can come with me. But as long as you are still affected by them, I don't want you to come with me, because there's something wrong with you."

The purple dragon dimmed down a little, but he couldn't deny her logic either. They knew so little, and had so many questions that needed to be answered.

"I'm sorry, Spy… but I'm just as concerned with you as you are concerned with me," she said, padding over to him and gently nuzzling his cheek, causing him to smile warmly as she showed her love and affection.

"I know. Hey, maybe these past two nights are the only times that it will happen, and we can make that journey together. It will be just like our old adventuring days, minus those green snake chains keeping us together."

"Now that is the optimism that I like to see," she smiled.