I got stuck writing this chapter and I was helped out of it by a song. 'Stereo Hearts' by Gym Class Heroes.

It's a nice love song, the lyrics don't quite perfectly fit but that's okay. Play it whenever you like, or don't. Up to you.

Story now:

Flying was tiring; despite Cynder's helpful wind Spyro was feeling the strain. He had rarely ever flown long distances before; certainly he hadn't done so constantly over multiple days. All the fighting hadn't been helping either. Add in the minor fact that neither of the two of them had slept, having found the catacombs in the evening and not been given a chance to rest what with all the fighting and talking and traps and disrupting things, both Spyro and Cynder were exhausted.

Stopping in the vicinity of the Catacombs didn't seem like a good idea either, grublins, orcs or worse were quite probably looking for them, just waiting for Spyro and Cynder to make a bad move.

The two dragons had left forest behind them for now, scrubby foothills with irregular valleys slashing through them covered the ground Spyro and Cynder flew over now. The entire landscape was extremely drab. It didn't seem like a very liveable place.

Cynder noticed Spyro seemed to be tiring. She was in somewhat better shape, but not by all that much. It had been years since she had felt fatigue in flight, her wind magic made it effortless, but she remembered what it was like to have aching wing muscles.

Dawn was breaking now, pale and miserable, rather than helping the couple fly it only seemed to make everything more exhausting. They had to stop.

"We should land." Cynder called to Spyro. The purple dragon only nodded in agreement.

The two dragons began to fly lower, Cynder was about to circle down to a sheltered valley when she spotted something interesting.

"Hey Spyro, is that a town?"

Spyro looked up; curiosity temporarily restarted the minds of the two dragons.

"Looks like it."

The two dragons flew closer, it was indeed a town. The buildings were too small for dragons, but not sturdy enough to be built by moles. On the other hand they weren't the ramshackle all-purpose buildings that the Cheetahs tended to create.

The town was abandoned; the buildings were in a state of disrepair, some of the more central buildings had been burned down, what had been a town hall was thoroughly destroyed but most of the houses had been spared.

"Who lived here?" Cynder wondered as the two dragons set down in the town square.

"At a guess, the wolves." Spyro said.

"The wolves? I've ran into them a few times. They don't come this far to the west, it's too warm and too near to Warfang."

"The architecture is wolven, before the ice and fire wars the wolves did come this far west. It's actually Shattershelf they prefer to stay away from; the wolves are more neutral to Warfang. But I guess this place must have been abandoned for a while. The Wolves pulled back when the Ice dragons lost their war."

"Why?" Cynder asked.

"The wolves are suited to the cold; they survive in temperatures that are too dangerous for most dragons. The only dragons that can happily live in wolf territory are the ice dragons; it was beneficial to both sides to make an alliance."

"So the wolves fought in the war against the fire dragons?"

"Oh yes, and they were killed in the hundreds of thousands."

"Hundreds of thousands!" Cynder repeated incredulously. "There were that many?"

"You do know about the five greater races, don't you?"

"Uh, no. Wait, it's the wolves, moles, apes, cheetahs and dragons, isn't it?"

"Yes, they're named the greater races because they have the most power in an economic, military or strategic sense, and each one has power for a different reason."

"What are the reasons?"

"The apes had their unity; before the ape king Gaul took control the apes were always agreed on ine side and could never be turned against each other. They were also masters of seigecraft, most of the catapults and siege towers used by the other races were designed by the apes."

"I thought those were made by moles." Cynder was curious, and the erudite purple dragon certainly seemed to know what he was talking about.

"They are, but they were made to ape specifications. The moles have their building skills, they build faster and more effectively than any of the other races, they have little military power but their services are highly sought after, only a few dragon masters have ever been able to build things that can compare to the moles, Darkmire's tomb is an example of dragon architecture."

"What about the Cheetahs, why are they so strong among the realms?"

"Pretty much because it's impossible to stop them from doing what they want to do. If they want to raid you then you'll get raided, if they want to move to another area they just do it. The Cheetahs are adaptable and powerful."

"Not as powerful as the dragons, right?"

"No, the dragons are unmatched among the five greater races and often called the master race, but each of the other races does something better than we do, the apes worked together, the cheetahs adapt, the moles build, and the wolves have their empire."

"That sounds dramatic, what do you mean empire?"

"Hundreds of thousands of wolves died in the ice and fire wars, but that is no more than a fragment of their population, the main wolf tribes are far to the northeast on the edge of the Legacy Sea, and according to some sources they number more than the other four races put together."

"How many would that be?"

"Millions."

"Millions?" Cynder could hardly begin to visualise such a large number, she didn't even know how many zeroes to put on the end of it.

"The wolves do their own thing, and they get along with the ice dragons, leaving the rest of us to our warmer climates. They have little interest in us and, just like you; most dragons can't stand the snow so we don't bother them either."

"Snow is awful."

"Don't worry Cynder; I'll protect you from the wicked snow." Spyro said with a teasing smile.

"Oh quit it." Cynder grumbled.

They chose to sleep in the open, in an old sheep paddock on the edge of the village. There were no sheep around, they had escaped and probably gone far away. Cynder decided that she couldn't care less where the sheep were.

The two dragons found a patch of softer grass and settled down. Spyro let tiredness overtake him and flopped to the ground. Cynder followed him to the ground, and then they curled up beside each other and fell asleep.

Cynder woke up late that afternoon. As she rose she brushed Spyro enough to wake him too. She looked around, but the landscape around them had become no more interesting over the day, it was still bare and boring.

"I am feeling really sore." Spyro complained. Cynder looked back at him.

"We've been flying for days, I'm not surprised."

"I'm sore all over." Spyro added.

"You got punched by me, hit with an axe and then squashed by a giant monster. I'm still not surprised."

"Yeah. How's your side?" Spyro asked.

Cynder stretched it carefully, being hit by a massive mace was generally considered a bad thing, but she had largely recovered from it. Dragons were tough.

"Not too bad."

"Uhh, you're lucky." Spyro groaned, slowly shuffling around to try to get up but unwilling to actually make an attempt at doing so.

"Would you like a massage?" Cynder asked.

Spyro sighed deeply.

"You are amazing Cynder, you know that right?"

"Of course I know that. I'll take that as a yes then?"

"Please."

Cynder walked around Spyro and lightly hopped up on his back. She spread her paws and gently stroked Spyro's back, tracing and admiring his lean muscles.

"You're tense." She told him. "This may hurt a little bit."

"It feels nice so far." Spyro said helpfully.

Cynder finished her caressing and got started on the massage itself, placing her feet carefully and pressing down until Spyro sighed with pleasure. She began to work; the movements of the method Imperia had taught her to massage were actually heavily based on the Way of Balance. That is, they were based on the modified version she practiced, the original version did not require the extremely specific pattern of steps and graceful twisting pivots that made the massage so effective.

Spyro groaned happily as Cynder worked her magic, he felt so lucky to have someone as wonderful as she was.

Cynder smiled, seeing Spyro react like this to her attentions was delightfully rewarding. She savoured the moment as she carefully did her dance like pattern. She could feel the effect she was having on him, not just in the pleasant buzz of his happy humming but in his muscles themselves. She could feel Spyro relax; she found the massage relaxed her too, stretching her body out comfortably.

After an indeterminable, but pleasantly long, amount of time Cynder was quite sure she'd done as much as she could for Spyro. She had done all of his major muscle groups and pressure points and she couldn't find any tension or soreness left in his body, after that she stopped doing specific techniques and just did whatever Spyro most seemed to enjoy.

Spyro's paws caught her tail, she let him keep it. Spyro shuffled around under her a bit, moving into a more comfortable position.

Unexpectedly Spyro gently bit down on Cynder's tail, she turned to look at him. Spyro grinned at her and she sighed in amusement.

"Yes, that would be mine."

"Mhmny mngur" Spyro replied.

"Did you just say 'not any longer'?" Cynder asked, doubtful of her translation.

Spyro nodded happily, gently chewing on Cynder's tail.

"I'll want it back eventually." Cynder told him.

Spyro shook his head playfully.

Cynder lay down beside Spyro and he tucked his wing over her. She shrouded her tail in shadows and stole it back from him. Spyro snapped after it playfully, and then nudged Cynder with his nose.

"You don't need to content yourself with just my tail; you have all of me." Cynder said quietly to Spyro. He licked her cheek.

"I adore you, Cynder. And that was amazing, thankyou."

"It was a pleasure." Cynder smiled.

"Should we spend the night here as well?" Spyro asked, glancing up at the darkening sky.

"I think so. We should take a proper break from flying; we've done plenty over these past days."

Spyro nuzzled her and shifted so that Cynder was resting on his side, he laid his paw on her waist and Cynder sighed in pleasure at the touch. Spyro was so warm and gentle and his body was so firm, she felt completely content. The two dragons snuggled up together.

"I have all of you?" Spyro asked, giving the black dragoness a squeeze. Cynder smiled playfully.

"I can prove it, if you'd like that."

It was before dawn the next day when Cynder woke. She used her shadows to get up without waking Spyro, and began to wash and preen herself as she usually did in the mornings. Cynder smelled strongly of Spyro and she liked that. She inspected her scales and body before licking herself clean, she enjoyed washing herself. She flexed and tucked her wings, flicked her tail and stretched out her muscles.

After a few minutes Cynder realised the sun would be rising soon. She looked around for a place to watch it from, eventually deciding on a nearby hill. She went to climb the hill but before she had gotten very far she felt a tug on her neck as she reached the end of the chain that bound her to Spyro.

She looked back, seeing Spyro roll to his feet in alarm before he realised what had happened. He looked around and spotted Cynder, then trotted over to her.

"Did you forget about this chain?" He asked, and then he yawned widely.

"Yes, I'm sorry I woke you." Cynder said.

"That's okay. Where were you going?"

"I was going to watch the sunrise." Cynder said.

"Next time wake me up first. I like sunrises." Spyro said with a smile.

The two dragons walked to the top of the hill and sat there waiting for the sun. Spyro's yawn proved contagious, Cynder closed her eyes and yawned.

Before her eyes opened again she felt Spyro kiss her gently. She returned the kiss, not bothering to open her eyes anymore, the two dragons sat for a while enjoying the intimate moment, before breaking off their kiss and looking at the slowly lightening horizon.

"I love you Cynder."

"I love you too." Cynder said with a gentle smile as she rubbed her side against Spyro's warm body.

As sunrises went it wasn't a very impressive one, the pale sun merely brightened the sky to a shade of faint yellow, and the spreading light revealed all of the breathtaking glory of a rather boring landscape.

Spyro and Cynder gave up watching it halfway though and just went back to kissing each other.

Rather than fly on their way the dragon couple decided to walk for a while to give their wings a chance to rest. Walking was slow and the views of the landscape they were travelling over were no more interesting from close range, but Spyro and Cynder found it peaceful to spend time on the ground for a change.

Cynder worked on her sexy walk as they travelled. She knew she had the basics of the sexy walk properly done. Placing her feet lightly, swishing her hips and involving her tail in a sinuous full body wave. She posed slightly on each step, but still kept the fluidity of her walk. It wasn't all that difficult to do, but it required more thought and focus then Cynder's normal practical fighter's walk. Cynder had always walked with grace, adapting to the sensual movements was quite easy. Imperia had wanted her to learn, Cynder had proven quite talented.

Spyro could hardly take his eyes off her. He walked into three shrubs in as many minutes.

Eventually Cynder got tired of walking.

"Spyro. Can I have a ride?"

"Sure." He said.

Cynder skipped up and stood on Spyro's back, he remained still for her until the slender dragoness had settled down. Cynder found a comfortable way to drape herself over Spyro, resting her head on his. Spyro folded his wings up to make her more comfortable and then started walking again.

Cynder enjoyed the gentle rocking motion of Spyro's walking, relaxing herself. Spyro couldn't help but smile.

Eventually Cynder went back to walking again, Spyro began making small roses of fire rather like the one he had done in the catacombs. Cynder watched with interest.

"Where did you learn to do that?" She asked.

"Flare taught it to me. It's a control exercise that doesn't take much power." Spyro created another little flower. It hung in the air above them for several seconds before fading. "Part of the challenge is making them last as long as possible."

Cynder nodded. She watched Spyro's next fire flower for a second before deciding to try something.

Spyro hissed in annoyance as the fire flared up and messed up his rose. He made another one and it flared up too. Cynder giggled, she giggled more when she saw Spyro's accusing but playful expression.

"Are you trying to make this more difficult?" Spyro asked with an amused scowl.

"I was trying to help, I swear." Cynder said around her giggling.

"Help? How?"

"Well the flowers run out of air because they're folded in on themselves don't they? I was trying to feed the fire with wind."

"Can that even happen?" Spyro asked.

"You're the fire dragon, you tell me."

"Let's try again."

Spyro made a flower, Cynder wrapped wind magic around it; it flared up softly but maintained its shape. The dragons stopped walking to watch it, each focusing on part of the magic required to keep it floating there.

Five seconds, then ten, then fifteen and it were still floating there.

"Even Flare herself can only create one of these for forty five seconds." Spyro said.

"We're nearly there then." Cynder said.

After some more time had passed Spyro smiled.

"There goes the record. That's easily more than fifty seconds."

"Poor Flare, her student has surpassed her."

Spyro laughed.

"Not even close. Flare may not be able to create fire for this long, but she can do insanely complicated shapes and movements. I'm not even close to her level of fine control."

"I'm sure you'll get there."

"I will, and sooner rather than later." Spyro assured her. He stopped paying attention to his fire flower and it faded.

"Do dragons use magic in combination often?" Cynder asked.

"Not really. It's very dependant of the trust the dragons have in each other and often it's limited by the elements of the dragons that use it."

"We hardly have that problem." Cynder noted.

"I don't think so."

"But flowers probably won't help us against Malefor." Cynder said.

"You never know. We can add it to the list."

"We really should work out a way to defeat him."

"Oh yes, I was going to try to teach you about Dragon time."

"You were." Cynder agreed.

"Right."

Spyro paused.

"Yes?" Cynder asked eventually.

"I'm trying to think. I don't really know how to teach."

Spyro thought for a bit longer.

"I guess this is a bit like explaining wind magic, it's hard. Can you feel time at all?"

"Feel time? That's not helpful." Cynder said teasingly.

"I'm sorry. It'll probably be in your belly, if you focus you should feel a sort of tingle." Spyro reached out and put his paw on Cynder's belly. "Somewhere around here?"

The black dragoness laughed.

"You're tickling me." She said. After a few seconds Spyro removed his paw, but there was still sensation there. "I'm getting a sort of buzz." Cynder said.

"Is it a tingly buzz?" Spyro asked.

"I suppose so." Cynder said. It was the same sort of feeling she'd gotten when Spyro had used dragon time in her presence before.

"Okay, now let that feeling expand around you, it should spread out all around you."

Cynder tried to do what Spyro told her and she felt it working, she was doing something right. It was no longer a buzz like it had been; it was more like Cynder's wind magic then she had expected, just like she could always sense the air around her and anything moving in it, here she could feel a gentle pressure on everything.

There was one thing Cynder was suddenly aware of that she hadn't been before, and that was Spyro. Well she'd known he was there of course, but when she focused on him she found something unusual about his presence. He seemed to be a step removed from time, as if time was a river and he was floating on a boat, or possibly he was just floating on a log, but whatever analogy Cynder used Spyro was certainly something distinct from the rest of the world. So was she, Cynder realised, did all dragon time users have this sort of effect on them?

"Are you feeling it?" Spyro asked.

Cynder nodded.

"You seem differently effected by time, or is that just normal for all living creatures?" Cynder asked.

"Not quite. All dragons are like this, but no other creatures."

"So all dragons are weird in time?" Cynder asked.

"That's one of the oddest sentences I've heard in a while." Spyro said. "But as far as I know yes."

"Do you know why?"

"No. I haven't found any books to read up on dragon time theory; I've just had to work out the practical side myself."

"Perhaps we can ask Malefor."

"That would be an interesting conversation wouldn't it?" Spyro said with a smile.

"I'd say so." Cynder agreed.

"He might even know. We actually should do that." Spyro said.

"And that's why I suggested it." Cynder pointed out.

"Fair enough. So back to dragon time, can you feel time around you?"

"Yes it feels a lot like wind magic."

Spyro blinked.

"Really?"

"Yes, why?"

"No particular reason, it's just that Imperia tried to teach me wind magic. She thought if I could learn it then it would support her bid for a fifth guardian element."

"I think that wind probably is a fifth guardian element. Imperia is quite persuasive and she'll probably become a guardian sometime in the future. But you weren't able to unlock any dormant element, were you?" Cynder said.

"No, but I think that maybe we were trying to find it in the wrong way." Spyro shook his head. "We'll come back to that, in fact-" Spyro grinned. "We'll just ask Malefor!"

"Forget our list of how to kill him, let's just make a list of what we want to ask him." Cynder said.

"Okay, so you can feel time. It's a bit like a pressure, right? I'd say it's a bit like being caught in light rain."

"It's a sensation that's really like wind magic, and yes light rain does describe the feeling."

"Okay, so now I want you to make it stop. I haven't really done great explaining anything up to this bit but you've still done it all perfectly. I think you should just follow your instincts. Just stop the pressure and stop time. If you squeeze it and control it then it should all just… slow down for you."

Cynder followed her instincts, trying to catch the feeling of pressure and control it. After a long moment she felt the world flicker purple. Spyro tilted his head, pleased, Cynder looked at him and he gave an encouraging nod. Cynder focused again and turned the world purple. Spyro smiled in approval.

It wasn't exactly hard to maintain Dragon time it a typical sense, there was no effort involved, but she could sense that she wasn't going to be able to hold it for long. Cynder quickly picked up a pawful of dust and scattered it, watching with fascination as it fell ever so slowly towards the ground. She reached out and picked most of it straight out of the air, she looked at it in her paw and then blew on it, and it scattered immediately but slowed down again the moment it was out of direct contact with Cynder's breath.

She grabbed it out of the air for a third time and held it before rapidly dropping her paw down again. The pawful of compacted dirt began to fall in slow motion, then the world returned to its normal shade and the dirt finished its fall normally.

Spyro was smiling brilliantly; he advanced on Cynder and kissed her firmly. Cynder responded with equal enthusiasm, feeling only blissful happiness for a moment before tentatively stretching her tongue into Spyro's mouth. His met hers and the two dragons traded saliva, engaging in gentle play before stepping up to full scale making out.

As Spyro and Cynder flew again, back on their way to Shattershelf, they learnt that they could combo with their respective dragon times, while one needed to recharge the other was able to use their own power to maintain both of them in dragon time. If Spyro started dragon time and Cynder took over just before he had to let it go then the two dragons could manage about four minutes of slowed time in total.

After they had flown for a little while Spyro decided to bring up the topic of multiple personalities, which had been creeping around in the back of his mind since he had briefly lost control of his power when he had seen Cynder hurt.

"Cynder?"

"Yes?"

"I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it or if you just can't remember, but I was wondering if you remembered actually having multiple personalities like Gracious claimed you did."

Cynder frowned, thinking about the question.

"I can't really be sure. You might know better than I do, Gracious said that the end of our little spat in Convexity was when Malefor arranged to have you defeat my bad side."

"Yes. Well to start that was a bit more than a spat; you tried to kill me and Sparx in what would probably have been horrible ways."

"Love at first fight." Cynder said playfully.

"Well first impressions are important." Spyro said with a smile. "Now that I think about it there was a moment right at the end of the fight…"

"So just before when you started to beat me up mercilessly?" Cynder teased.

"Umm, yes, just before that bit. And you sort of changed and used different energy attacks to what you'd done before, if Gracious was referring to that, and I think he might have been, it makes most of his story hold up as being true."

"We know that you have a dark side, and if I did too then Malefor probably does as well. It all seems to work out." Cynder said.

"I can't really believe that Malefor could plan both of our lives, and game with the future of the whole world."

"It's audacious." Cynder admitted. She could help but be rather impressed. That someone could even conceive of a plan like that, let alone pull it off, was quite spectacular.

"It's crazy; he arranged even his own death just to kill his dark side."

"They lived." Gracious stalked into the chamber.

He was in no mood to behave with obeisance, he was furious. One could hardly help but want to bow before Malefor; the purple dragon's presence alone commanded respect and Gracious would willingly have given it to him before now, but not this time.

Malefor was deep in thought, sitting with his tail coiled around him and idly tapping his claws on a chessboard. Where the chessboard had come from, Gracious didn't know, and right now he didn't care.

"My brother died. My little brother is dead."

Malefor looked up at him; there was sadness in his eyes.

"I know."

"Of course you do." Gracious hissed. "You planned it! Spyro made a comment, you know; he laughed and said we served a dragon who constantly arranged for his generals to lose. He was right wasn't he? You let my brother die."

"Yes, I did." Malefor said calmly.

Gracious snarled and blurred forwards, he was just as fast as his brother had been, perhaps even faster, the long spike of ice he created halted millimetres from Malefor's gleaming purple eye. The purple dragon did not even flinch, didn't twitch or make any move to defend himself.

"I did not think you would really do it." Malefor said, as he watched the ice dragon try to bring himself to make the attack. "But your brother would have."

Gracious stared. The ice spike wavered and then was lowered. Gracious stepped back.

"You know I'm telling the truth." Malefor said softly.

Gracious believed him, and so he should have, because it was indeed the truth. But Malefor had not let Seth die simply because he was violent.

Malefor was a genius at disguising his plans. Seemingly random moves were always in advancement of an underlying strategy. Gracious didn't know what Malefor was thinking, and Malefor made sure it stayed that way.

"Like Thoran and the ape king Gaul, like Magmar, those who cannot leave this world in peace will be made to leave this world themselves."

"Seth wasn't like them." Gracious said, unsure. "He wasn't a monster. Was he?"

Malefor allowed a crack to show in his calm demeanour, he hesitated for a moment.

"He was not irredeemable, not like Thoran or Gaul. But he was savage, inefficient and he cared nothing for collateral damage."

Gracious spotted Malefor's hesitation and realised that the purple dragon was keeping something from him. Malefor carefully contained his smile, all of these false leads to obscure the only part of his plan that he didn't want Gracious to question.

"What are you hiding from me? What did my brother do that was so horrible?"

Gracious had fallen for the bait, just as Malefor had expected he would. The ice dragon was clever, but Malefor knew how to deal with clever dragons.

"May we discuss something else?" Malefor asked with gentle politeness.

Gracious nodded and bowed, all of his anger was gone now, completely crushed out of him. The look on his face was so broken that Malefor couldn't help but feel sympathy for the grieving and confused dragon.

"Some things are better left unsaid." The ice dragon said quietly.

Malefor nodded sympathetically, this was just too easy. There was only one dragon he'd never be able to fool, and that certainly wasn't Gracious.

The ice dragon was silent for a while. Malefor was silent as well, to allow the other dragon time to think, but he didn't want to leave him like this. He decided to offer Gracious some comfort.

"Seth may have been misguided, but he loved you, I know he did. The death of every dragon is a sadness… even that of dragons like Thoran, when Magmar dies I shall mourn him too. But Seth was special, he believed in a world that would be better than this one is, and his life really did mean a great deal."

Malefor bowed his head. He had done his best for the ice dragon. There was a sniffle, he looked over and realised that Gracious was crying.

He had lost his brother. Malefor could understand why he cried.

"I am sorry, Gracious."

"You did what you had to do. I understand that… Malefor."

Malefor glanced down at his chessboard. He thoughtfully nudged a piece one square across the board and smiled to himself, satisfied. That made things easier for him.

Gracious nodded to himself, trying and failing to fight back his tears. He drew breath and added a few more words.

"And thankyou."

"The finest lies are woven from threads of truth."