Three red dragons joined the guardians in the meeting chamber.
The first dragoness could only be the fire guardian Flare, Cynder stared at her. Flare moved with a strange skipping gait, unlike any dragon Cynder had met. She was deceptively quick, seeming to stop for a second in each step before sweeping forward with no obvious actual movement. Her wings folded in an unusual pattern, reminding Cynder of an origami flower. Her tail had no blade but rather a long feathery set of streamers, which Flare was in the habit of spinning incessantly about herself. It was quite mesmerising.
Flare false skipped her way over to Volteer and Terrador; Cyril joined them after a moment. The four guardians nodded politely to each other, then turned their attentions to the two other dragons that had come with Flare. Cynder vaguely recognised the second dragoness, she and Flare had come to Spyro right after the colosseum fight to formally end the war, or something like that, Cynder hadn't really paid attention.
Limping, bloody and battered and leaning heavily on the dragoness for support, the fire king Magmar still radiated an aura of menace that dominated the meeting chamber. His eyes quickly assessed the room; Cynder was familiar with the "if this goes bad, who do I kill first?" program of thought behind those red eyes. Cynder had made the same calculation more and more often lately. As she was watching Cynder could feel Magmar's eyes locate her. She met his gaze calmly, and practically saw "I'd kill her first" flash across the fire king's mind. Cynder had to hope the situation didn't go bad; as she would almost certainly need to reveal skills best left unseen at this time if she was to win against this dragon.
Magmar looked at Spyro last of all, and then he bowed slowly.
"Congratulations on your victory, the purple dragon has lived up to his legend. However, this battle was to the death, and we are both still alive." Magmar said.
"There was a winner." Spyro said. "That's what matters. We could go for round two, if your injuries permit."
Cynder wished Spyro had left that last bit off; she was the one most likely to end up as charcoal if the fire dragon took offence. The dragon glared at Spyro and with difficulty stood without aid.
"You would regret that." He snarled. Cynder believed him without any doubt. Spyro nodded.
"Our fight is over." He said carefully.
Magmar closed his eyes, then he staggered and the red dragoness had to catch him before he fell.
"The fight is over." She said to him.
"Thankyou, sister, you are right." Magmar looked up; the first signs of defeat were in his eyes now.
Cyril spoke up unexpectedly.
"I can't help but notice: there are four non guardian dragons here, at the meeting of the guardians. I accept that the Fire King Magmar needs to be here in person, but I feel that some of the rest of you-" Cyril looked at Cynder in particular. "Should not be present."
"I'm staying." Spyro said in a voice that brooked no argument.
"I'm not leaving." The fire dragoness said.
Cynder didn't say anything.
"She's staying too." Spyro said immediately.
"This is ridiculous." Cyril protested. "Why if one more dragon turned up there would be more non guardians here then-"
"Sorry to be late." Cynder couldn't help but smile at the familiar silky voice. The dragons all looked up, Imperia was perched in the high windows at the top of the meeting room, she casually stepped off the edge and fell straight towards the floor, she did a lazy somersault on her way down. At the last moment she lazily spread her wings and touched down soft and silent with the rest of the dragons; she certainly knew how to make an entrance.
"Somebody neglected to mention where the guardians were meeting." Imperia laughed playfully, she flicked Cyril with her tail, "But when one speaks of the devil…" Cyril looked like he was about to start filibustering until Terrador quickly got the meeting back on topic, speaking to Magmar.
"We have terms for your total surrender. Naturally you won't accept them; we have an arrangement to make."
"Yes we do." The red dragon agreed.
Cynder preened her wing while the dragons spoke; she was listening carefully while appearing to be only mildly interested.
Magmar was a difficult dragon to negotiate with, the odds of his comet dash killing any one dragon in the room, whoever pissed him off, was disturbingly high, so nobody wanted to directly argue with him, except Spyro. Magmar knew nothing of the limits of Spyro's power, or exactly what the purple dragon could do. He had respect for Spyro alone and so Spyro took on authority for Warfang.
Spyro proved to be essential to the surrender, which was reasonable as he had been the one to ensure it. Cynder felt a moment of concern over how much of the peace treaty depended on him. Then she looked at Spyro, tall, proud and strong. He gave her a smile and she felt her doubts turn to nothing but smoke, Spyro could be trusted.
The final terms: Warfang, Shattershelf and all associated dragon parties were to mutually and immediately cease hostilities of any non-sanctioned form; a legal loophole was left for training, sparring and duels, as was fitting.
Trade, as undertaken before war had been declared, was to resume at the discretion of individual trading parties, however any illegitimate dealings were to be dealt with harshly by both cities, so as not to cause further dispute.
There was more, of course, specifics such as territory and diplomatic negotiations, compensation for damage done and so on. Spyro wasn't familiar with the smaller details, as he began to struggle Flare took over his role and allowed Spyro to remove himself from the discussion.
"Do you want to go?" He asked Cynder. Cynder hesitated, as she was deciding Magmar's eyes found her again, as they had done every few minutes since the negotiation had begun.
"Yes." Cynder decided. They turned to go, but were stopped immediately.
"Cynder." She looked around; it was Magmar who had spoken. He ignored all the other dragons and focused only on her. "You still call yourself Cynder. Yes?"
"That's my name." Cynder said cautiously.
"I would like to speak to you. In private"
"Okay." Cynder said. She glanced around at the guardians, Volteer, Terrador and surprisingly Cyril looked concerned for her. Flare looked annoyed that she had been ignored, but gave Cynder a small smile anyway. Imperia looked perfectly content with the situation, but she was weird like that.
"There's a room just outside which is empty." Flare said helpfully.
The fire dragoness, Magmar's sister, whispered something urgently to him, he shook her off and limped outside. Cynder followed warily, she had a sinking feeling in her belly that she knew what this was about already.
The empty room had a water feature at its centre and was large and circular as most dragon architecture was. Cynder moved to the far side of the room from the other dragon and waited for him to speak. She wasn't kept waiting long.
"There is only one thing in the world that could give me greater pleasure then tearing you apart. I could kill you right now." Magmar said softly. He turned away and limped across the room, Cynder put the water feature in between them.
Cynder was tempted to say: "Well why don't you go and do whatever that other thing is, and leave me alone?" but realized that silence was likely to be safer.
"Do you remember when we met before?" The fire dragon continued.
Cynder didn't, but tried to remember rather than discuss the matter. A familiar voice drifted to her mind:
"We never proved that the Shattershelf dragons gave aid to The Apes on the night of the dragon temple raid, when your egg was captured by the Dark Master, but the Old Fire Dragons had long held a truce with our enemy."
Dark memories from Cynder's childhood, memories of her training under Malefor, welled up like blood from a wound, she squashed them determinedly. Once memory, however, was important.
"You were on the council of the Ape King: Gaul. I remember you now." Cynder said softly.
Magmar began to circle the room clockwise, slowly; Cynder circled the same way, keeping distance between them. The Fire King spat on the floor in disgust, he spat fire, and it started to burn a small flame on its own.
"Don't speak to me about Gaul. I warned him of what his greed would bring but he wouldn't listen, he ruined The Apes and our alliance with his madness. Keeping the black egg was the final insult. I left that piece of filth burnt and broken, I tore out his eye. I murdered him."
"Spyro killed Gaul, not you." Cynder said.
"I KNOW!" Magmar roared at her. Cynder sped up to maintain her distance from the older dragon. He stopped suddenly, and she stopped too, he took a step the other way and she matched him, then he smiled at her.
"Do you know what Gaul did in his anger, after I tried to kill him?" Magmar asked. Cynder shook her head, but the bloody memories in her head were quite clear on this particular point. Magmar took a step forward, Cynder's tail brushed the wall, and there was nowhere to go.
"He spent two years waiting, while his wounds healed. He had his eye replaced by magic. I was certain that Gaul wouldn't risk his apes against my dragons. He didn't. He called on his master, and they sent their attack dog instead." Magmar was advancing now, and no fire dragon had ever looked so chilling.
"The Black Dragon, Cynder. I think you do remember what I'm speaking about. Cynder raided the outlying villages in the night, spreading terror and pain, killing dragons and apes indiscriminately. My mate took a force of dragons and went out to guide the villagers to the safety of our city. Thirty dragons, over a hundred Apes who wouldn't follow Gaul mad plans. They were within sight of the city, of safety, when the Black Dragon came down upon them… and she tore them all apart. Every single one was killed and all we could do was watch her work from behind our walls."
Magmar was almost upon Cynder by now, Cynder tried not to panic, she could handle herself in a fight, even against a dragon with nothing left to loose.
"By the blood of my mate I swore revenge on those who had caused me and my people this pain. The purple dragon Malefor, the ape king Gaul, and their attack dog, Cynder."
"Are you going to kill me?" Cynder asked. "Because that won't work out for everybody."
"Yes. I am going to kill you." Magmar stopped walking and suddenly turned away and limped towards the door. "But it won't be today. You're under Spyro's protection, we have a truce now. Spyro cares a great deal for you and I can see you care for him too, stay close to him for as long as you can, Cynder. We will meet again, I promise you."
Then Magmar limped out of the door and disappeared.
"I'll send Spyro out to you shall I?" The fire dragon called, and then he was gone.
Cynder closed her eyes and breathed deeply to calm herself, while she did so she also crushed the memories of her evil self back into the past where they belonged. Her eyes opened as footsteps ran into the room. Spyro ran over to her, he looked concerned.
"Are you okay Cynder? Imperia did a thing with the wind, and we heard everything that you said." Spyro surprised her, and possibly himself too, when he gathered Cynder into a tight hug.
"I'm okay." Cynder said. It was even the truth; Spyro's embrace gave her comfort. She smiled at Spyro, they were close enough to kiss again, but this time they didn't kiss.
Then they kissed anyway.
Cynder was out of practice at kissing; actually she'd never even been in practice. She wasn't good at it. She could possibly ask Imperia for lessons, but knew without a doubt that she would receive more education then she probably wanted. Spyro didn't know how to kiss either, but Cynder didn't care.
They broke off and Cynder rested her head on Spyro's shoulder, Spyro tucked his wing around her, he was so warm. Cynder allowed herself to enjoy the hug; she closed her eyes and smelt the Spyro smell.
"I kind of figured Imperia would listen in, from the moment she taught me the wind warp trick I just knew she would be constantly using it to nose in on everyone."
Wind warping had a number of different uses, not least was being able to magnify, shift and delay sounds. It was a wind warp that Imperia had used to stop her fall in the Guardian's meeting without needing her wings; she had spread them only for dramatic effect. Wind warping was also an important part of Cynder's self-created fighting style, allowing her to ignore the reality of both gravity and physics to move at the speed of thought. Watching Cynder fight was amazing, fighting her was terrifying.
"Wind magic is really cool, I wish I had it. Is it difficult?"
"Hmm… yes it is pretty difficult, thought, care and using control is all just as important as raw power. Raw power only gets you things like whirlwinds and wind blades; with care you can create all sorts of effects."
Cynder felt Spyro nodding; she raised her head and looked around.
"What should we do now?" Spyro asked.
Cynder's belly cast a vote.
"I felt that in my wing!" Spyro laughed, Cynder laughed too.
"We'd better get some lunch then."
"Cynder, why are you walking strangely?" Spyro asked, as the two dragons made their way to a canteen.
"Oh, I'm trying to walk like Flare the fire guardian did. It's so strange, I can't help trying it."
"You're doing terrible, sorry to say it. You could ask her for a demonstration."
"That would be a weird conversation: "Hi there Flare, I'm Cynder and I want to walk like you do, any tips?" Actually I should do that."
"She'd be fine with it I'm sure. Try the walk again for me, I want to see."
Cynder laughed and hopped a few steps.
"Nope. Your rear left paw should start further forwards; you need to do it as a skip, not a hop."
Cynder hopped a few more steps, and then skipped one.
"I did it!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"Go again!" Spyro said.
Cynder tried again and failed but then got the false skip right several times in a row.
"This is stupid." She laughed.
"You've got it now. Practice it more, and then show Flare, I bet she'll love it."
"She seems nice. A bit strange though. Does Volteer have a thing for her?"
"He is sort of obvious about it. I also know he has a crush on Imperia, so who knows how that's going to go."
"Volteer fancies strange dragons." Cynder mused.
"They're both really sexy though." Spyro said, and then he added "Was that out loud?"
"Yes. Yes it was." Cynder told him.
Imperia was definitely sexy, Flare was certainly pretty, so Cynder didn't mind Spyro thinking so, the real question for her was rather different.
Did he think that she looked sexy too?
Cynder tried not to be arrogant, but she was proud, she was quite sure Spyro liked her as much as she liked him, he had before… The question was how to make him tell her? She knew Spyro would probably need the world to be ending… again… before he would actually find the courage to ask her out on a date, so she would need to find a restaur-
"Cynder?" Spyro asked. He stopped and looked into her eyes.
"Yes?"
"Would you like to go on a date with me… Tonight?"
Cynder opened her mouth, but no sound came out, Spyro had asked her out.
Good, so he should have.
"I'll understand if you say no." Spyro started babbling awkwardly "I mean it's only been a day, we met again this morning and we haven't seen each other so if-" Cynder interrupted him.
"Yes! Yes, yes! I'd love to go on a date with you Spyro."
Everything was going right again, Cynder had kissed Spyro two times in as many hours and now they had a date, pure happiness warmed Cynder's belly. It wasn't food, so her belly rumbled again.
"I know this really good restaurant we can go to tonight." Spyro said. "But now it's lunchtime." He laughed.
Volteer, Cyril and Terrador were talking again. Volteer wanted to return to help Flare deal with the surrender, but Cyril was determined to have the matter of the Vault break in discussed properly.
"Volteer. This is serious. The time for bickering is over; we have reason to believe that there are one or more traitors within Warfang itself!"
"Why do you think so?" Terrador asked, ever practical.
"The guards were knocked out, we suspect by a wind elemental attack, the door was unlocked, and a rooftop entrance was left open."
"There aren't many wind dragons within Warfang." Terrador said.
"And Ice, Earth and Lightning could also knock out two dragons without any disturbance." Volteer said.
"I'm not accusing." Cyril said. "You don't need to leap to her defence."
Volteer looked ready to argue, but Cyril spoke over him.
"I have moles working to determine what was stolen. We have reported two items missing. First, the snake charms Malefor used on Spyro and Cynder to bind them together."
"Nobody will miss those things." Volteer muttered.
"The other item was a sphere of black iron."
Volteer froze, Cyril didn't even freeze him.
"Iron, definitely a sphere? You don't mean that someone stole the crystal prison?"
"I think so. Is this serious?" Cyril asked.
"No. This is much worse than serious." Volteer murmured.
Thoran found himself wishing that Darkmire's tomb was easier to escape from. It wasn't the guards; they hadn't so much as scratched him. It wasn't the bridge spikes or the razor wire; they had been his allies, not his enemies. The dragon Darkmire clearly hadn't used the electric element and the whole prison ran on a series of complicated electrical systems it had taken Thoran all of ten minutes to gain total control of.
The first that any of the other dragons in the prison knew about this little fact was when a group of four dragons assembled to rush down the bridge to bring the fight to Thoran. They had made it halfway across the bridge in only ten seconds, plenty of time left to cross. Then Thoran had manipulated the electrical circuits that controlled the lethal spikes on the bridge. It took him six seconds, the lead dragon in the group almost made it.
Four dead guards, Thoran retracted the spikes again and threw them off the edge.
Nobody else dared to rush the bridge, but guards hurried to gather at the far side, ready for Thoran to make his crossing, that was no problem to him.
Thoran's whole body began to glow with bright electricity. Electric dragons on the far side recognised the Thunderlance, a technique that usually meant death for both the user and their target. The Thunderlance had a weakness though. It was completely negated by a dragon using an Earth Boulder so as the bridge spikes retracted the Earth dragons lead the way out onto the bridge. Thoran charged at them, ready for death.
At the point of his impact the electric dragon vanished. The guards looked around in sudden fear, not even the ones who had mastered the electric element knew how he had done that. Then they saw him, back at the foot of the bridge, he gave them a merry wave, and then the bridge spikes shot out again.
Ten dead dragons.
The illusion made of electricity, a projection of light only true master of the element could create, caught one further dragon in its trap, the third time nobody dared to confront it, and when the real Thoran unleashed his Thunderlance on the watching guards nobody was ready for it.
More dead dragons.
This was getting bloody. Thoran wasn't above a massacre; it was his nasty habit of butchering his fellow prisoners that had gotten him imprisoned here on his own after all. The ex-guardian was insane, but he wasn't stupid, and a killing spree right now would take up time that he didn't have.
Thoran wished Darkmire's Tomb was easy to escape from because he knew without a doubt that something very bad was going on below him, and Thoran didn't want any part of it.
I'm glad to be past Chapter three, from here on up things should only get better (should). I've had to shuffle everything back a chapter now, because there's so much that I have to get through.
I have a few quick questions for anyone who wants to answer: What do you call a group of dragons? Can you call random crowds of non human characters "people"? and what term should be used for a young dragon?
On an unrelated note I am a strange author; finishing writing each chapter takes me about four or five days (sometimes more). The weird bit is this: After I "finish" a chapter I have to close it and start the next one, to convince my mind that I've really finished the previous one. After about 500 words of the next chapter I go back to the one I just finished and spend a few hours agonizing over editing it. A day later I do the same thing again, then a day later. Every chapter I write has gone through at least five proof reads and over twenty small edits. This delays my posting, so in truth this whole side note is my way of asking for a Beta reader, then I will have a new friend, a volunteer will get to read my story in advance, the rest of you will get more chapters sooner and everyone will be happy!
Please contact me if you're interested in beta reading A Duel with Destiny.
My sincerest thanks go to everyone who has given me reviews and story has had more reads, follows and even favorites then I had ever expected or hoped for. The Spyro fanfic community is amazing!
I think that's everything I want to say.
"Being not dead is my life's work- But being alive is my life's meaning"
-4Dragons