Now it's Gracious' turn to get a song:
Requiem for a Dream. This song is a beautiful and intense piece of music. Both sinister and mournful. Play it whenever Gracious shows up.
Sandstorms were nothing new to Shattershelf. True, the city's nearness to the mountain range put it in a position where direct storms were rare, but the fire dragons were desert dwellers, and they had dealt with sandstorms in the past.
This, however, wasn't a sandstorm. Thousands of grublins crawled over the cliff walls of the city, searching every exposed face of rock and stone for a way inside. No sandstorm had the intelligence and single-minded determination to get inside the city walls that this storm possessed.
From outside the city walls it did indeed look as if Shattershelf was being attacked by a dark sandstorm, the clouds of flying creatures hovered and pulsed around the city, casting it in twilight.
Inside the city the noise was constant. Grublins crawled out of the walls and the floors; grublins scratched at the doors and beat on the barricades that had been constructed in the windows. The defenders fought their way back and forth along the corridors, Grublins died in their hundreds before the fire dragons. But more were pouring into the city each second.
Magmar waited in his throne room. He was a warrior and a leader with few rivals among dragonkind, and he had earned the respect he was given. It was obvious that the cracks in Shattershelf's defences were too small for a major assault force to threaten the city, the accursed purple dragon or the rouge ice dragon or whoever and whatever else was in command of the orc army would be well aware of this. Grublins were not going to take Shattershelf.
That meant that this assault, impressive though it was, would be nothing but a distraction, not designed to take the city but to clear the way for what came next.
He did not concern himself with the ice caverns, Magmar assumed that it would be only grublins down there; he had almost forgotten that he had even sent Spyro and Cynder down there, he had other concerns.
Asha walked into the throne room, she was still unharmed but had clearly been fighting.
"Sister. Has the situation within the city walls changed?"
"No, it's been an hour and no major internal assault has been launched, I believe there is no weakness in our defences. I suspect that this attack is cover, designed to keep us busy and buy time for our enemies to make their next move."
"I reached the same conclusion." Magmar said. The huge dragon rose from his throne and paced across the room. He had abandoned his armour for now. When he said nothing more Asha continued speaking.
"I advise that we send a reconnaissance team out to determine their plan and if possible to locate Malefor and this ice dragon Gracious."
"I have already done it. I expect reports at any moment. I have also prepared a lightly armoured force of dragons to battle the grublins and wyverns in the air, these pathetic creatures have only numbers as their advantage, now that we will no longer be armoured for battle on the ground our dragons will crush the swarm."
"But what about the siege ballista? There are at least four hundred of them. The dragons will be under fire from the orcs below."
"A risk worth taking. The grublins and wyverns themselves will shield our dragons from the aim of the bolts below."
"We can't be sure of that."
"No. But that's why I said it was a risk worth taking. We will not wait here for our enemies to make their next move; we will make them pay for daring to attack our city!"
Another fire dragon entered the room.
"A report on the state of the army outside, my lord." The dragon bowed.
"Speak." Magmar commanded.
"The enemy's current air force is estimated at between sixty and eighty thousand. Considering the number of grublins that are moving around through the stone at this moment the numbers our enemies have fielded may be as high as one hundred thousand. Adding in the ground troops we estimate Shattershelf is besieged by a total force of just over two hundred thousand. This flying division of the army has a clear purpose: to keep our military focus here and obscure our views of the plans, below us the orcs had brought forth battering rams and were destroying the dividing walls on the plains."
"They know that taking the main gate is their best chance of capturing Shattershelf. This was a logical tactic for them to take, I suspected as much. Can we successfully attack the battering rams from the air?"
"I fear not, the ballista have been repositioned to protect the larger siege weapons from any attack we might make."
"Can we send our forces out to destroy the flying swarms from the outside rather than waiting for the grublins to find their way into Shattershelf?"
"Skirmishes are feasible, but a major assault would almost certainly draw the aim of the ballista, orcs don't care how many of their fellows they kill if it means taking a shot at a dragon."
Magmar growled in irritation.
"These ballista are annoying me, can we get rid of them?"
"I can see no way to do so."
"Fine. Asha, inform the dragons I've chosen for this attack of the tactics they'll need to follow, make sure we have a safe retreat open for them if needed. Also tell them all that if they see any safe chance at turning so much as a single ballista into kindling then they are to seize it!"
Magmar whirled around back to the dragon who had scouted, his eyes blazing.
"One more thing, did you see Malefor, this ice dragon I've been warned about, or any other commander for the army?"
"We believe Malefor has taken position in one of the watchtowers in the mountain pass, we cannot locate any other commander or determine a ranking structure."
"How well defended is this watchtower?"
"Brother, I don't recommend we attempt to send dragons after Malefor."
Malefor looked at her, Asha met his gaze, for a long moment neither dragon said anything, and then Magmar turned away.
"I would go after him personally… but perhaps not. Very well, both of you have tasks to do, you may leave."
The scouting dragon left, as Asha went to depart as well Magmar spoke after her with a much more gentle tone to his usual growl.
"Thank you sister. You have been a great help."
"I do what I can for our city, and for you."
"Send Flare to me, please."
"I shall."
Spyro and Cynder had found the ice caverns with some help. Suna had only been fighting six grublins that had managed to break through one of the barricades in the window; he hadn't been that busy really. They'd helped out with finishing off the grublins, not that the fire dragon had needed their assistance; he was more than capable of taking down grublins. After they were done with the grublins Spyro had used his earth element to block the window, allowing the three of them to take a breather for a few moments.
"So what's new since this morning?" Suna asked. Spyro grinned and shook his head.
"Oh nothing much, there's just been a war on, and we got caught unexpectedly in a sudden downpour of grublins."
"Hang on, you were outside?"
"Yeah, we went outside in that first little battle."
"You're kidding right? They seriously let you guys out there?"
"And Flame and Ember." Cynder put in.
"That's not fair; we were stuck on guard duty. You two are lucky."
"It wasn't nice. They were all over us, horrible, scratching, screeching things."
"I didn't get touched. I used my wind to protect myself." Cynder smiled.
"She's the lucky one." Spyro said, tucking the black dragoness under his wing.
"So what are you two doing?"
"That's right, we're doing something." Spyro remembered. "Do you know where the entrance to the ice caverns is?"
"Course I do. Why?"
"Two dragons from the school have gone missing down there, Magmar asked us to search for them. He thinks grublins might be gathering in the caverns, do you want to come with us?"
"It's not like there's much to do up here." Suna said with a smile.
"Not at all." Spyro said, grinning. "It must be so boring guarding a besieged city from monsters that can pass through solid stone."
"They're hardly monsters; grublins are tiny compared to us."
"You weren't out there when they attacked us; trust me their size doesn't matter when there are thousands of them."
"Fair enough. Come on I'll show you to the ice caverns."
"Wait, are they cold?" Cynder asked warily.
"I don't think so."
"You're a fire dragon, you have cold resistance. I can't trust you."
"Are you afraid of the cold?"
Cynder didn't respond. Suna grinned.
"Come here." Spyro said. Cynder was already pressed against his side, but she squirmed a bit closer because she could. He tucked his wing around her tighter. "I'll keep you warm."
Cynder licked his cheek.
"I can't believe that you two are expected to do anything." Suna said, shaking his head at the couple's behaviour.
"We're famous for doing stuff." Spyro said brightly. "But we also get side-tracked a lot. Let's go to the ice caverns then."
The ice caverns were big, bigger than Cynder had expected, the upper levels had been built up. Originally this had been done by the peacekeepers, but the Shattershelf dragons had not let this part fall into disrepair, they had maintained and improved the original stairways and supporting walls to ensure that they had easy access to the water frozen in the caves when they needed it.
The ice caverns weren't as bad as the mountains of Darkmire's tomb, there was neither snow nor wind, but they were still a bit too cold for Cynder's tastes, she let Spyro keep her warm as they went.
The main part of the caverns was far below the ground but the dragons had constructed a series of stairways and sloping passages that looped around a central shaft of the caverns and descended into the depths. Spyro, Cynder and Suna followed this passage down. They had been walking for a few minutes when Cynder stopped the boys.
"Quiet." She whispered. Spyro and Suna had been discussing fire weapons some more but they obediently fell silent when Cynder spoke up.
The three dragons listened.
"I can hear something." Spyro whispered. "Cynder, you have sensitive hearing, is that a grublin?"
"Yes, I'm sure of it. Possibly more than one. Let me out please."
Spyro released Cynder, and she quickly realised the ice caverns were a bit colder then she had thought. She decided that she wanted Spyro to take her back again, but it was too late to change her mind now. She shivered but put the cold aside to focus on what was happening; she could cuddle Spyro later.
"I'll go first." Cynder said, using her wind magic to speak directly to Spyro and Suna so that they would not be heard. She manipulated the air around them to deflect more of the sound before moving on.
Cynder stepped into the air and drifted silently down the next set of stairs, as she reached the next room she spotted two grublins standing guard. Neither of them was watching the roof especially closely, so the black dragoness flipped herself upside down and walked softly across it.
Once she was above them Cynder paused for a moment before leaping down gracefully and slashing through both of them with wind blades.
"She's pretty cool." Suna said to Spyro.
"She's awesome." Spyro said proudly.
"And gorgeous."
"That too." Spyro agreed.
"Do you think she'd be interested?"
"Huh?" Spyro stared at the fire dragon; he had vaguely wondered if the fire dragon fancied Cynder but this direct question caught him by surprise.
Spyro's surprise quickly evolved into a whole mess of conflicting thoughts. He didn't know quite what to think.
He liked Suna, and didn't think that the fire dragon was being malicious towards him or Cynder, but he was also annoyed at the upfront way in which he had asked, not to mention his sense of timing.
Spyro wasn't very knowledgeable about romantic relations between dragons; he only knew what he'd been told by Seizo and what he'd noticed from other couples like Volteer, Imperia and Flare.
Suna waited patiently as Spyro tried to deal with his internalized relationship crisis.
"I'm sorry; maybe I shouldn't have said that. She already likes you, I won't mess things up between you."
Spyro didn't respond immediately, after a while he decided there was only one thing he could do: be honest.
"She might. I don't know. I think you should ask her yourself."
"Just like that?" Suna asked.
"Yes. Cynder will appreciate that you were honest with her. I don't know what she would say though."
"Right. Thanks." Suna said. "Sorry about this. I just had to ask and I thought I'd talk to you about it. Are you okay with it? I really didn't think this through before I asked you."
"I don't know, it's Cynder's decision."
"I'll ask her."
The two of them stood in rather awkward silence for a few moments. Cynder walked up the stairs back to them.
"Hey, Cynder?" Suna began.
"You aren't seriously going to ask now are you?" Cynder said. "It's too cold for this."
Suna was entirely taken aback.
"Did you hear the whole thing?" the fire dragon asked.
"Every word." Cynder said. "This isn't the time to talk about it though."
"Right. We need to keep searching." Suna said, trying to hide his embarrassment.
Cynder turned and went back down the stairs. Spyro walked past the astonished fire dragon to follow her.
"Like I said, she's awesome." He said proudly, Suna nodded vaguely. Spyro bumped him. "Come on, she's going without us."
Suna knew where he was going, he suggested they start from the top of the ice caverns and search every section of the cave on their way down so that no grublins escaped their search and they could find the two dragons that had gone missing.
There were many small ledges and passageways, Cynder had no idea why the peacekeepers had done their building like that. The moles were usually more practical and so were the fire dragons and the apes, it seemed, most of the unnecessary passages had been blocked off.
Cynder took out three more grublins that had been keeping watch on the passageways down into the ice caverns.
"Why are there sentries?" Spyro whispered to the other two. "Why bother keeping watch if you're just going to hide?"
"The ice caverns are big; they could fit hundreds of grublins down here. When we reach the bottom levels you'll see, there's an entire frozen lake down there." Suna responded quietly. "But they can't have done that, we've been killing all of the grublins that have made it through the walls."
"Could grublins have been coming through down here?" Spyro asked at the same volume.
"The ice caverns are older than the city." Suna replied. "Older than our reinforcement of the walls, they aren't threaded with wire. But surely they wouldn't be coming through down here, it would take too long for them to get here, and what would the grublins be able to do anyway?"
"I don't think we're dealing with grublins anymore." Cynder said. "Malefor has got bigger things to send down here."
"It would take a really skilled earth dragon to dig this deep, a dragon like Magmar or your Guardian dragon Terrador probably wouldn't be fazed by wire anyway." Suna told them.
"Wait. Cynder, say that again. The last bit you said." Spyro asked, stopping and looking at the black dragoness. Cynder stopped too, shaking herself to stop the chill from sinking into her body.
"Malefor has got bigger things to send down here."
"They wouldn't." Spyro murmured.
Cynder caught on to what he was thinking.
"They probably would."
"What are you two talking about?" Suna asked.
"A golem." Spyro said.
"You mean the giant monster? I thought that thing was dead. I heard that you killed it."
"We did kill it, and then we killed another one in the Catacombs, but if there are two then there's probably more."
"But why haven't we seen it on the battlefield yet?" Suna asked.
"Because it's the best tunneler they have; knowing our luck the first dragons to see the golem that Malefor and Gracious have brought here… will be us."
"There's probably a major attack coming." Cynder said.
The three dragons looked at each other, deciding what to do now, for a few seconds before their decision was made for them when they heard a scream.
"That way!" Cynder hissed, she spread her wings, hopped into the air and accelerated in the direction she'd indicated. Spyro ran after her as quickly as he could to prevent their chain from reaching its full length. Suna was right behind him.
Cynder emerged into the large cavern Suna had promised was at the bottom of the ice caverns. She found herself on the frozen shores of a huge dimly lit lake, there were a few glowing lights along the shores but most of the lake was shrouded in gloom.
There was one bright spot about a hundred meters out onto the icy surface that was not a glowing light, it was fire.
Two little dragons, about the same size as Spark, stood back to back surrounded by at least ten grublins. One of them had screamed, most likely the one that was now limping badly on his left paw.
Cynder didn't even hesitate, she whipped across the room, Spyro was yanked forwards a few meters when the chain reached its full length, but Cynder wasn't slowed down at all, she created wind blades on her wingtips and slashed several of the grublins apart as she landed beside the young dragons. Cynder maintained her spread wings to protect the young dragons and hissed dangerously at the remaining grublins. There were eight of them and they hesitated, realising that they had now encountered a much more dangerous enemy then the little fire dragons.
Cynder remained in her threatening pose for a moment longer, when the grublins didn't turn and run at the sight of her she gathered some magic and rapidly spat three poison shots, each one hitting a grublin and killing it in seconds. The last of the grublins decided it was a good time to run away, Cynder created a wind blade on her tail and with a graceful turn sent it sweeping after them, cutting down three more.
The remaining two grublins turned around when their companions were obliterated, and were each hit by a fireball at exactly the same moment.
Cynder looked around, Spyro and Suna had joined her, Suna grinned.
"Teamwork." Spyro said.
"Are you alright?" Cynder asked the young dragons. They nodded silently; the one with the injured paw threw himself forwards and clung to Cynder's foreleg. She wasn't sure how to react at first, but after a moment she leant down and nuzzled the little dragon. It was what Imperia would have done.
"It's going to be okay." She promised.
"Thank you, miss." The second dragon said. "But who are you? I don't recognise you. Except Suna." Suna grinned at the little dragon and nodded.
"Magmar heard that you two hadn't come back from your searching, he sent us down here to find you." Spyro said.
"Oh, that's cool. Thanks."
"We chased the grublins down here." The clinging dragon told Cynder. "There were four in our corridor and we chased them away, then the others came from behind us."
"We got a few of them as we ran." The uninjured dragon said proudly. "I told our teacher we were old enough to do searching. But then we came down here and we were surrounded and they kept on circling us and hitting until you came."
"You were very brave." Cynder said.
Spyro frowned; he twitched his paws, pressing them against the ice below his feet.
"Vibration." He said. He put his head on the ice and listened. "It's harder to tell through the ice."
"Is it the golem?" Suna asked warily.
"Almost certainly." Spyro said. Then he grimaced. "I may be reading this very wrongly, but I think it's not just one, I think there are two."
Cynder turned to the young fire dragons.
"I want you to run back up to the city and warn the others that there's an attack happening down here. It's very important that you go and don't stop until you reach the grownup dragons."
"But what about you?" The dragon clinging to Cynder's paw asked. Cynder nuzzled him again and gently prised him off her foreleg.
"We'll be fine. We've done this sort of thing before."
"Let's go!" The other fire dragon wrapped his tail around the injured one and started dragging him away from Cynder.
Spyro Cynder and Suna all looked across at one of the far walls as it began to shake, then a huge section of the stone cracked.
"Run!" Cynder yelled to the young fire dragons, and they did as she told them.
A huge hand emerged from the wall; the crack was forced open further until a head pushed through. The fiery eye pits of the golem fixed on the three waiting dragons, but the massive creature did not attack.
Even in the huge space of the frozen lake the Golem was cramped, the stone ceiling disrupted its movement; the monstrous creature had to crawl its way into the cavern hunched over. It's talon like legs slipped and scraped on the ice with a harsh screeching sound. Another section of the wall began to break and a new golem started to break through it.
"Those things are enormous." Suna said, awed. "We don't stand a chance against them."
"Yes we do. Spyro's attacks do a lot of damage to them, and I can keep them distracted until he can prepare an attack to finish them off. We've killed these things before."
"You two are insane. The way back to the surface is right there, we can just run for it." Suna said. Spyro and Cynder made no sign of intending to run away. Suna shrugged. "Or we can stay and see how it goes. We may get lucky. I respect your courage."
"That's one of-" Spyro paused midsentence; he looked down as he felt more vibration in the ice, then he looked back up at the others. "That's not good."
One entire wall of the cavern exploded and a third golem surged out of it, thrashing in the confined cave and roaring in fury. Its eyes locked onto the three dragons and it rampaged towards them, cracking the ice and stone as it came.
"What do you think, Spyro?" Cynder asked.
"Shall we try dragon time?"
"I'll make sure it doesn't get far, you take it down."
The world turned purple and the attacking golem edged its slow way towards them. Cynder flew around the head of the golem; she casually aimed wind blades into both of its burning eyes, the wind moved slowly but would hit it soon enough. Cynder wondered if she was able to use wind at normal speed while in dragon time or if everything around them was slowed.
Spyro used a comet dash on the golem, aiming for its throat, the flames he created hung in the air behind him because of the slowed time. It was quite a beautiful sight, Cynder thought. Spyro didn't do enough damage to the golem, so he quickly climbed over its body to the back of its head.
Cynder took over keeping dragon time active as Spyro's control faltered; they didn't have much longer left. She noticed the golem start to react to their attacks, still in slowed time it started to be knocked back by the effects of Spyro's comet dash.
The purple dragon fired an ice spike into the golem's head, targeting the place where it would have a dark magic crystal giving it energy. He did it a few more times to be sure, and then jumped off the golem. Cynder landed on the ice beside him a moment later.
Time returned to normal.
"I have no idea what you just did." Suna said.
The charging golem reeled at the impacts, unable to even roar in anger because of the suddenness of the attacks; and then it fell, cracking the ice around it.
"But that was awesome." He added. "What was that?"
"Dragon time." Spyro said. "The ability to slow down time for a short while. It's just as useful as you'd expect."
"Can you do that whenever you want?" Suna asked, incredulous.
"It takes a moment's focus to activate, it doesn't last very long and it can't be used too often either." Spyro said.
"You're just being modest. That is epic!" Suna exclaimed.
The first golem was still looking at them, it shifted as if it wanted to attack them, but instead it turned and began to dig back out the same way it had come.
The second golem forced its shoulders out of the wall before backing up and disappearing into the rock again, all three of the golems had left broad tunnels behind them.
Cynder tilted her head as she heard walking paws. A dragon was coming down the tunnel. The three of them waited to see who it was.
Gracious emerged from the passage the golem had created. He leapt lightly onto the ice and sighed as he felt it under his paws.
"I've been waiting for this moment for so long." He said softly. "Finally I stand in Shattershelf again, no longer as a slave but as a conqueror."
"It's certainly a great moment. We're the welcoming committee."
Gracious looked across the ice, surprised. His eyes narrowed in recognition.
"You two. Stop this. Stop spoiling my plans, what is it that constantly puts you in my way?"
"Well, when you sprang your trap on us you happened to go and mention where you were heading next. We had to come here because we won't let innocent dragons die because of your quest for vengeance. Also you tried to kill us, so this is sort of payback." Spyro said.
"You owe nothing to these dragons. Stand aside and let me do what I came here to do."
"That's not going to happen." Spyro said.
"You're Gracious, aren't you? The ice dragon that came to destroy us." Suna said. He noted the ease and confidence with which the ice dragon stood, he wasn't quite as intimidating as Suna had expected, certainly not in comparison to Magmar, but he was still threatening.
"You are correct. I am Gracious. My offer stands to you as well, fire dragon. The four of us can have peace here. My business is specifically with your king."
"No." Suna said. "I won't let you into Shattershelf."
Gracoius sighed.
"You disappoint me. What of you, Spyro, Cynder?"
"I agree with Suna, you're going no further." Spyro said.
"You're aware that I could kill the three of you and complete my surprise attack anyway? This is just a minor setback."
"I'm afraid you're wrong on both counts there." Spyro said. "Your grublins were trying to kill two small dragons from the school and chased them down here. Now the two of them will be on their way to warn Magmar that you're coming."
"The grublins irritate me. They are not as easy to control as the orcs. Nor are golems, they have too much aggression. That should not have happened, and you shouldn't have been attacked by this one." Gracious stepped forwards, he gestured at the still shape of the golem they had brought down. He walked towards Spyro, Cynder and Suna. "So they've spoilt the surprise. You three will cause more trouble in the future I'm sure; if you won't surrender then I will kill you. This is your final chance."
"This is Shattershelf, fire dragon territory." Suna said. "You don't stand a chance against us on our own ground."
Gracious laughed. He made a point of looking around.
"These are the ice caverns, foolish dragon. I am quite literally in my element here. I said I could kill you and I assure you that I'm more then able to do so. I'll take no pleasure in it, but it's time for you three to die."
Spyro turned to Suna.
"You just had to say that, didn't you? You just had to say it."
"I wasn't thinking." The fire dragon said. "Sorry."
Gracious pressed his paws against the icy floor; Spyro felt the power of the pale blue dragon running through the ice below their feet and sensed what Gracious was doing a moment before he did it.
"Up! Into the air!" He yelled.
Cynder and Spyro made it up just in in time as the entire floor of the cavern shifted and cracked, hundreds of razor sharp splinters of ice turned the cavern floor into a deadly trap.
Suna howled in pain as icy shards struck him, his hard scales deflected most of the attacks but several of them cut through and stabbed at him.
Gracious used his power to move a large sheet of the ice to crush the huge frame of the golem out of the way; in doing so he turned his attention away from Spyro, Cynder and Suna for a moment.
Spyro cursed, he dove back to the cavern floor, using his earth boulder quickly to smash an open landing space beside the wounded fire dragon. Spyro put his paws against the ice and retracted the shards around Suna. Suna staggered and Spyro supported him.
"Next time when I say up, you go up. Okay?"
"I'll keep that in mind." Suna said, he fought back the pain and stood straight.
Spyro looked around; Gracious had rapidly circled them so that he was between them and the way back up to Shattershelf.
"I am being very kind to you. I'll give you yet another chance to surrender." Gracious said.
"Stop giving us chances. We aren't going to take them." Cynder said.
She floated weightlessly across the cavern towards Gracious; the ice dragon watched her patiently. When she was in midrange Cynder spat poison at the ice dragon.
Gracious twitched and a wall of ice grew between them to catch the poison. The ice brought the poison to Gracious and he considered it.
"I assume that this is deadly. What is it?"
"It's a little bit deadly, in the short term all it would do is paralyse you, but if I didn't give you an antidote then you would eventually die."
"Interesting." Gracious glanced back up at Cynder. "And is-" He abandoned his question to dive aside as Cynder spat more poison at him.
"Sneaky." He growled. Cynder nodded.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Gracious pressed his paws against the ice and concentrated. A long icicle stabbed up from the frozen lakebed. Cynder twirled aside effortlessly. Gracious aimed another, but again Cynder danced aside.
"I can do this all day." Cynder said.
"Your elements are excellent." Gracious admitted. "Very powerful. I should not have underestimated you."
Gracious tried again, this time making not just an ice spear but a jagged thorny wall that rose up around Cynder. First he cut the both of them off from Spyro and Suna, then he targeted her directly. Right when Gracious expected to hit the black dragoness her body turned into nothing more than a shadow. The ice crushed the shadow but it trickled down through the thorns and spun itself back into Cynder once it was free of the trap. Shadows remained clinging to Cynder's body; she was prepared to use her power again at any time.
"Your brother made the same mistake." She said.
Gracious flinched.
Cynder frowned, she'd expected some reaction, but not like this.
"Please… do not speak of Seth." Gracious said.
"I won't." Cynder said. "I'm sorry."
She actually was sorry; the ice dragon looked pained, not just grieved but also ashamed. She wondered what had happened to him after his brother's death.
After a while the two of them heard one of the others use a fire attack on the ice wall to burn through it.
"I was trying to kill you wasn't I?" Gracious said.
"You were." Cynder confirmed.
There was a sound from behind her, she turned around to see the ice wall Gracious had created split into hundreds of jagged fragments, the fragments trembled in the air for a moment before hailing down on the dragons.
Spyro used an earth boulder to shield himself and Suna from the attack.
Cynder turned to shadow again and the rain of ice blades passed through her body harmlessly. She spread her wings and expanded the darkness to fill the cavern before advancing on Gracious. The ice dragon backed away from the shadow, not knowing how to combat the dragoness within.
Gracious retreated away from the door, spreading his wings and flying around the cavern to make space between himself and Cynder. The black dragoness was in no hurry, her creeping black fog was still expanding and she knew she'd catch him soon.
Gracious thought quickly, trying to work out some sort of weakness in Cynder's attack. While she was in the shadow he had no doubt she could become immaterial at any time, and she'd just phase through any ice attack he sent her way.
"Your elements really are impressive. You seem to have no weaknesses." Gracious said. Then he smiled. "But let's not be too hasty to assume that. I'd like to see how you'll cope with… this!"
Gracious reared up and spread his wings, breathing out as much as he could. Pure cold flowed from his body, and the ice in the room seemed to radiate an intense chill. The temperature in the cavern started dropping within seconds and Cynder felt the cold sweep right through her slender body.
She abandoned her shadows and leapt into the air, trying to position herself as far away from the cold surfaces as possible, but there was no escaping the rapidly falling temperature.
Gracious saw her begin to tremble and growled in victory.
"I win." He said.
"You're forgetting someone."
Gracious frowned and started to turn around; before he could complete the movement Suna hit him dead on with a comet dash.
Cynder couldn't keep flying; she fell to the ground and curled herself up in a ball, her entire body shivering violently. Spyro rushed to her and gathered her up, trying to warm her.
The temperature was no longer falling now that Gracious had been distracted, but it was still much colder than it had been. Suna threw fire at Gracious, forcing the older dragon to retreat, but when he tried to hit him with another comet dash the ice dragon surprised him with his extraordinary speed, striking the fire dragon hard and knocking him off balance before aiming to finish him off with a series of ice attacks. Suna scrambled out of the way of Gracious' attack. Gracious was not toying with the fire dragon, he made all of his attacks lethal, but Suna was as fast as Spyro was, and that was just fast enough to keep him alive.
"Help!" He yelled.
Spyro looked up from Cynder to see the fire dragon throw himself away from a spear of ice Gracious had launched. Spyro was torn, Cynder was in danger and so was Suna, he had to keep Cynder warm, but Suna didn't stand a chance against the ice dragon.
"Go." Cynder whispered. "I'll be fine. Help him."
"You won't be fine!" Spyro exclaimed, clutching her to him tighter. "It's too cold for you."
"I'll be fine." She insisted. "Just hurry back… please." Cynder feebly tried to push Spyro away. Her strength was gone, replaced by the numbing chill.
Spyro went, and left Cynder to the cold.
Suna had taken an ice spear in the side, it cut deeply and sent lances of pain through him whenever he moved. He knew he couldn't keep fighting for long. Gracious moved in for the kill, calm and confident, preparing to finish the fire dragon off quickly and efficiently. As he gathered his magic he felt magic that wasn't his in the ice below his feet.
He leapt aside just in time as Spyro turned the patch of ice he had stood on into a bed of spikes. Spyro rushed to Suna and checked him for injuries.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm okay. Where's Cynder?"
Spyro pointed, Suna saw Cynder curled up and not moving on the ice, she looked very small and weak.
"What's wrong with her?" Suna asked, shocked at seeing her like this.
"It's the cold; she can't cope with it like we can without a fire or ice element."
"Will she be okay?"
"I don't know." Spyro hesitated. "We can't leave her; go, keep her warm for me."
"What? But you-"
"Doesn't matter, this is the best choice we have. Just keep her safe."
Suna looked at Cynder again, he nodded.
"I will."
Spyro turned back to Gracious.
"Let's warm things up a bit in here."
He breathed in and exhaled a firestorm.
Cynder was barely able to think, she had closed her eyes against the cold and knew almost nothing of what was happening around her, this was much more intense than it had been at Darkmire's tomb, but there was no wind, she could be grateful of that much at least.
She felt a warm dragon pick her up and hold her. She opened her eyes slightly, just enough to see the dragon's red colour.
"What are you doing?" She asked quietly.
"Not letting you die." He replied.
"Right." She mumbled. He was warm; she wrapped herself around him, snuggling and allowing him to hold her close. "Don't get any ideas." She said.
"I'll try not to." He said, draping his wings over her. Cynder sighed, she wasn't warming up yet, but Suna had taken the chill out of her surroundings. At least she no longer felt like she was about to freeze to death.
"Thanks Suna."
"No problem."
Gracious was getting annoyed by this. Cynder had been bad enough, posing a formidable threat to him and delaying his attack on the dragons he actually wanted to kill. He had taken her out of the fight in a way that should have crippled Spyro's own fighting effectiveness, but the purple dragon was still posing a problem.
"Why won't you just die?" He complained. He created ice spikes to spear the annoyance, but while Spyro was not nearly as skilled as Gracious he was skilled enough to weaken Gracious' attacks and evade them.
"That'll be the last thing I'll do." Spyro joked. "You're good with your ice element, nearly as good as Cyril."
"I've learned from the best." Gracious said briefly.
Gracious split the ice below them, manipulating entire sheets of the stuff to try to crush Spyro. He got the purple dragon trapped and slammed tonnes of ice down on him, but Spyro used an earth boulder to protect himself from the attack then began to glow with heat. He shattered the weakened ice and sent it flying at Gracious, then followed up with lightning. Gracious used more ice to protect himself, Spyro took advantage of the break in attacks to create another firestorm.
Gracious launched ice spikes into the fire, Spyro used them to judge where the ice dragon was standing and fire bolts of lightning in that direction. Gracious was backed up into one of the tunnels the golems had dug for him.
Spyro realised where the ice dragon had gone and worked out how he could take advantage of it.
He considered calling Suna over to help him, but he was sure he was capable of what he wanted to do on his own.
Gracious waited patiently for the firestorm to abate, he radiated cold at it to try to chill it and make it more difficult for Spyro to maintain. The purple dragon had a huge amount of mana, but he couldn't maintain so much fire forever. Gracious only had to wait; he backed away as on the other side of the firestorm Spyro inched forwards.
Spyro put his paws on solid stone again, he didn't mind fighting on ice, but when he was up against a dragon like Gracious any other type of terrain was a relief.
This time however, stone wasn't just evening the odds; it was putting them firmly in Spyro's favour. He advanced a few steps forwards, closing his eyes as he strained to keep his fire going. Then he found a fault in the stone.
He put his paws against it, using both fire and earth at the same time for separate tasks was a unique challenge, but he was able to extend his power around the cavern, after a moment he worked out what force he needed and he roared with determination as he used his power to bring down the tunnel.
Gracious looked up as the ceiling cracked, he had only seconds before it collapsed he was sure. He cursed furiously as he turned tail and flew as fast as he could back up the tunnel.
Spyro cut off his fire, looked up, saw the ceiling about to come down on top of him and yelped. He shot from the tunnel back into the ice cavern and glided a way across the frozen lake before falling. Behind him the tunnel collapsed with an echoing roar.
I'd really love to get more reviews...
In fact, I have an incentive for you to write a decent review: The writer of the review I consider the best will get the chance to read the next TWO chapters of my story without having to wait.
"Radical freedom!"
-4Dragons