It's been way too long since I've posted a chapter, and I'd like to apologize for the hiatus. Aside from always updating this story on Fridays I can't predict when I'll be posting; but I do promise that there won't be a wait as long as this one again.

I have a song for Flare, it doesn't fit anywhere in this chapter but it's a graceful and mysterious song which suits her very well: Shadows, by Lindsey Stirling

Cynder watched from one of the rooftops of Warfang as group after group of dragons took off from the walls and began to fly to their searching areas. The dragons chattered and joked as they flew, and Cynder was sure Cyril would be regretting agreeing to this plan. She wondered if they'd joke less once they were out of sight of Warfang, if once they had no chance of backup or help they'd become more cautious and follow the Official Warfang Searching Procedure.

As far as she knew Cyril had made up the Official Warfang Searching Procedure on the spot, but it was all basic common sense as far as she was concerned so she was fine with that: maintain a distance of no more or less than five dragon lengths from each other, never walk or fly for more than five minutes without checking for threats and making sure that nobody is missing. Cynder would have also taught them about how to fly among trees to stay out of sight or how to move silently through a forest, but some of them would be searching open areas so she supposed it didn't really matter. None of the dragons was wholly stupid, she was sure; even if she doubted that any of them were really capable of locating and tracking Dark Spyro.

Cynder doubted that Dark Spyro was going to be found by a search party, and even if he was then by the time it had been reported he would have probably moved on. The first time they'd get a good idea of what Dark Spyro was up to would probably be whenever he decided to make a direct attack on Warfang. With that in mind Terrador had organised for many of the moles and dragons who were staying to hide in the underground, right after they had searched it with maximum priority to make sure that Dark Spyro wasn't waiting down there. Warfang was now partially evacuated and those who hadn't already taken shelter were ready to do so the moment they felt unsafe.

The black dragoness stood and shook herself, she then jumped off the roof to the street three floors below her. She landed and stretched, catlike; she'd been sitting around for most of the morning and she needed something to do. The calm before the storm wasn't her favourite moment.

It was nice to walk the streets of Warfang when they were nearly empty. It reminded her of the romantic evening she'd had with Spyro in her first few days back at Warfang. It felt so long ago…

Currently it was daytime, but the quiet streets suited Cynder well, and it was nice to know that the fear in the eyes of the occasional passer-by was not fear of her but simply fear in general. Small things to take pleasure in, but now Spyro was gone she had to find fun somewhere. She refused to be miserable, not now she'd decided that having fun felt so much better. That was one of Imperia's beleifs that had meshed especially well with Cynder's personalty.

Cyril and Terrador would be overseeing the search parties departing, Imperia would be in the dungeons. She had no idea where Flare and Volteer would be, possibly with Imperia, and she didn't really want to talk to Malefor. Cynder began to wander towards the Temple, there would be training areas there. Beating a target into kindling might be just what she needed right now.

Before she'd gone very far Cynder head someone shout her name. A quick brush of wind over the shouter told Cynder who it was. The voice and body shape of a young dragoness were easy enough to recognise, while the way that she walked and the heart shaped tail blade were a total giveaway. She smiled and turned, waiting for Ember to catch up. The pink dragoness had a red flower tucked behind her horns and while her expression was slightly sad she still returned Cynder's smile.

"Hello Ember, what's up?" Cynder asked, she tilted her head. "I take it you don't want to evacuate to the underground?"

Ember stuck her tongue out, good natured annoyance crossing her face. "Ew, no. It's so stuffy and dusty and old. I mean I will go down there once I really have to… but I won't like it."

"I liked it down there." Cynder said. "It was big and quiet and not as dusty as you seem to think. I've only been down there a few times, but I found it kind of relaxing."

"Dust makes me sneeze purple fire." Ember complained.

"Purple?" Cynder raised an eyebrow. "How can fire be purple? Besides I assumed you'd love to have purple fire, considering how much you like Spyro."

"I don't know how it's purple, and I'd be fine with the colour aside from that it irritates my nose. I think I have a dust allergy or something."

"Right." Cynder nodded. "So what were you up to? I like the flower by the way. It's very pretty."

"Oh, thanks…" Ember brushed it with a paw. "I was saying goodbye to my parents."

"Oh…" Cynder realised now why Ember had been looking a bit downhearted. "So they're joining the search?"

"Yes, they left a few minutes ago. My mother put the flower on my horns. I'm sure they'll be fine…" She trailed off with a sigh.

"They're in the same search group then?"

"Yes they are, and I'm happy about that. They'll look after each other. It's just…" Ember looked at the ground.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. They'll take safety precautions and Dark Spyro probably won't be really aggressive anyway."

"I know. I just don't like goodbyes… especially if I'm scared I might not see them again."

Cynder wasn't sure what to say to that. She wanted to comfort Ember, but anything she said would probably be a lie or would make her feel worse.

Ember shook her head and forced herself to smile. "I will though, and they'll be fine. Getting some time out of the house might be just what they need to get over Spark; and also me going missing." She looked thoughtful. "Going on an adventure with you has really helped me with that. I wish he could have seen it…"

Cynder watched Ember swing back and forth between happy and sad, she too felt a pain of sadness in her chest at the mention of Spark. "He was so brave; he saved my life, and so did you."

"I know." Ember nodded.

"Are you okay?" Cynder asked, offering Ember a reassuring wing.

Ember nodded, gladly stepping under Cynder's wing. When standing the pink dragoness was taller at the shoulder, but Cynder still could comfortably wrap her wing over her back. "I'm fine. Adventuring and exciting things helped me not feel too awful. Even the bad news like Spyro going dark and Imperia getting nearly killed… somehow it still sort of helped. Y'know what I mean? Are you okay? You can talk about things if it'll help."

Cynder smiled. "I'm fine. I tend to deal with emotions by breaking things. Imperia and I did the whole 'talking' thing whenever we met and that was nice. Oh, and after I fought you and hurt Flora I cried a lot which helped me feel a bit better. But mostly I break things."

"I see." Ember nodded. "I definitely prefer the talking method. And did you really cry after you won the fight with me? I certainly cried after I lost it, but I hadn't imagined you might be doing the same thing."

"I felt really bad about what I'd done, so yeah I cried." Cynder shrugged.

"Not even you can be tough all the time." Ember said.

"Pfft, of course I can." Cynder said with a grin, showing that she was joking. "I cried very tough tears. They sizzled when they hit the floor."

Ember giggled. "I can picture that. Drip… Psssh! You could have set a building on fire."

Cynder laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment. So I'm heading up to the Dragon Temple training areas, want to come with me? We can beat up some practice dummies together."

"You're a bit weird Cynder." Ember said warmly.

Cynder tilted her head questioningly. "Is that a no? I understand. You solve your problems differently to me."

Ember laughed. "Don't worry! It's a yes. I already wanted to learn your violent ways, after all."

In another part of Warfang Malefor was standing outside of Terrador's office. The purple dragon knew that Terrador was out at the moment, but that was fine. He wasn't here to see the earth guardian.

While a guardian was out of the temple their assistant would typically take charge of their duties, and even though Terrador was only overseeing the scout parties and would be back in a few hours that hopefully meant that his office would be occupied by an elusive and interesting dragon who Malefor had wanted to meet for a while now.

He knocked on the door and a voice invited him inside.

Malefor stepped into the office and smiled to the young drake who was sitting at the desk. He was greeted by a look of terror, before the green dragon adjusted the huge set of glasses he was wearing and bowed to him politely.

"Hello, my name is Seizo and I'm apprentice earth guardian. How may I help you?"

"I've heard about you, I'm pleased to meet you." Malefor said.

At that moment a green dragoness walked into the room from behind Malefor, she was carrying two bags in her mouth that smelled like they contained food. She saw him and squeaked in terror, dropping the bags and scrambling around the room to be beside Seizo. Malefor looked at her with curiosity, noticing the smoky black pattern on her scales. She was no earth dragon, and considering her shyness he had no doubt that this was Miasma, the poison and shadow dragon.

Seizo stood up, putting himself between Malefor and Miasma. "What do you want?" He spoke in his best challenging voice, although he was clearly feeling out of his depth in this situation.

"I don't want anything." Malefor said soothingly. "I was just curious to meet you for myself. Imperia told me a lot about most of the young dragons in Warfang, and you two were particularly interesting."

"I see…" Seizo said hesitantly. He sat down, but still stayed between Malefor and Miasma. "I'm pleased to meet you too, I guess. Just a bit rattled."

"I do have that effect." Malefor said. "It's annoying. It makes it harder to have efficient conversations." He picked up the dropped meals and placed them on the table as well, but neither Seizo or Miasma made any move to eat.

"Right… I guess it would." Seizo nodded.

"I hear you like chess?" Malefor said. "We should play sometime."

Seizo hesitated, then reached under Terrador's desk and pulled out a chessboard. "Now?"

Malefor chuckled. "What was that doing in here?" He aligned the board between them both on the desk and sat down.

"I'm here a lot, and Terrador knows how much I like having a chessboard to play with." Seizo told him. He switched lenses on his glasses, looking more comfortable now that he was in more familiar territory. He gestured to Malefor. "You can move first."

Malefor did so, looking thoughtful. "Smart people play chess. That what Imperia keeps telling me, she seems to find it funny."

Seizo shrugged. "I wouldn't know what everyone else believes. I just really like it." He responded with his own move. "It helps me think."

"Same here." Malefor agreed. "So you were the one who guessed I'd try to capture Spyro at Shattershelf?"

Seizo shook his head. "Not really, I never got that far through your plan, I just saw that you were setting up for something big and I tried to get Warfang there to stop you. We were so busy trying to dismantle your plan that we put ourselves in the perfect position for you to swoop in and get what you'd wanted all along."

"Winning is so predictable. Every time Spyro and Cynder had a success it was obvious what they were going to do. The only matter of chance was making sure they heard about Shattershelf in time to attend the show, and in fact they even got there ahead of me." Malefor told him. "Thwart one part of the nefarious scheme and move on to the next. I wanted them to do that; and they did. At the end the best game piece you have is always yourself, so you must plan everything to make sure the only link which really matters in the chain is you."

"And Imperia." Seizo observed. "She was a link which you made far too important. She told Cynder where to go looking for you."

"I made a few mistakes, but trusting Imperia was not one of them. Not bringing Cynder with me after I defeated her was the mistake which caused this whole mess." Malefor sighed. "Overall Imperia's value was greater than her risk. Cynder's value is practically infinite, but her risk is infinite as well."

He frowned at the chessboard, the game was progressing quickly and he was finding himself constantly on the defensive; he needed to play more aggressively in response. He moved his pieces up, aiming to take Seizo's king and win the game directly. He looked up and across at Miasma. The green dragoness was watching the game with interest, but hanging back and being as silent as possible.

"Miasma, isn't it? Imperia has told me a bit about you too. Your elements are incredibly rare, do you have any idea where they come from?"

Miasma cowered away from him and shook her head. Malefor didn't press her any further, but she surprised him after several seconds by responding. Her voice was so faint he had to strain to hear it.

"They say that my elements were made by you, they say that I'm corrupted." There was a faint hard edge to her voice, despite how quietly she spoke.

Malefor heard it and guessed the reason behind it. Judging by how Warfang had responded to Cynder he could guess that the strange and dangerous poison and shadow elements would have been unpopular.

If it was assumed that he had himself created Miasma's elements then things would only be worse. He briefly pictured how Miasma would feel, not being trusted, everyone always wondering if she was behind an illness or sudden death; being thought of as a lesser mutant dragon and not even really knowing why…

He stopped thinking those thoughts quickly. He'd estimated how she felt and while he did feel sympathetic he didn't want to dwell on it. Following those thoughts to their conclusion would drive him mad, and he'd spent too long in convexity putting himself back together to go mad again now.

"I sincerely don't know where your elements originate. I didn't create them." Malefor told her. "I have heard stories of them from when I was young, but Cynder was the first dragon of that kind I saw and her elements are all natural."

"I see…" Miasma said.

Seizo touched tails with her encouragingly, then he smiled. "Want to take over this chess game?"

Miasma stared at him with horror, and Seizo gestured to the board. "Trust me; you can win."

Malefor also looked down at the board, despite his cleverness he was quite out of practice with chess and used to making his decisions over a very long time period while meditating in Convexity. Seizo was taking control of the game easily and Malefor saw that he was outmatched. He sighed. "You definitely play at a higher level than I do. Perhaps I should concede."

Seizo shrugged. "You could still win if you played perfectly and your opponent threw the game."

Malefor chuckled. "I think we could swap sides and you'd still beat me. Don't worry your point is proven. You win. No need for me to embarrass myself by letting Miasma finish the game."

"Actually I was just trying to do something nice for her." Seizo said evenly.

Malefor looked at the earth dragon. He was nowhere near as intimidating and confident as Cyril, but he was just as hard to read and probably cleverer. As for Miasma, she had a vast amount of potential, even if currently she was doing her best to seem as unimportant as possible.

Warfang contained interesting dragons.

Malefor relaxed slightly, realising he had gone tense as he'd noticed how badly he was losing the game. It was not an important game all things considered, but he was still surprised to have lost. He smiled at them.

"I have only goodwill for the two of you, and you certainly both lived up to Imperia's high opinion of you." He stood up and headed to the door. "I'll leave you alone now and I'll try not to impose again." He nodded to them both before walking out of the room.

That had gone relatively well. It was sort of nice to do things just for the sake of doing them; without it being part of some master plan. It reminded him of the time before his dark side; it had been thousands of years since he'd done something out of simple curiosity apart from talking to Imperia. Physically doing something, meeting someone new, it felt like living again.

The thought of Imperia tempted him. It had been some time since the two of them had been able to properly have a conversation. In fact he'd only ever talked to her face to face in situations when something urgent was going on. That seemed like something that ought to change.

The way back to Imperia's cell was easy enough to remember, and happily the guards were easy enough to pass. He simply nodded his head to them and they stepped aside. One looked fearful, but the other returned the nod with calm politeness.

Malefor descended the steps and emerged in Imperia's cell room. He hadn't been all the way down here last time, so a small part of his mind had been idly wondering exactly what sort of dungeon they'd imprison an errant guardian in.

It was nicer than he had expected, about as nice as the room he'd locked Cynder and Ember in. Yellowish stone, windows high on the wall, a simple bed, and a few books lying around. The door to the cell itself was slightly open.

Within the cell were two dragons; Imperia and Flare. Malefor bowed slightly to them both.

"My apologies if I'm interrupting something."

"You're not interrupting anything." Flare said, she swung the cell door open. "Warfang is on maximum level of alert. I ought to help Volteer supervise the moles evacuation but… here I am." She sighed. "Come and join us if you want."

"That doesn't seem the sort of thing to be dismissive about." Malefor observed.

"Blame me for requiring so much attention." Imperia said brightly. "I am deeply grateful to her though, I know that you all have a lot to do and it's not helped by there being one fewer guardian to lend help."

"Letting personal feelings get in the way of duty was what Ignitus always said was my biggest flaw." Flare said. "A flaw he admitted that he shared, but he did do his utmost to help me overcome it."

"My feelings just run me." Imperia laughed. "I feel like you two both try too hard to ignore your emotions. I mean, it works for me."

"You are in jail." Malefor pointed out immediately.

"But it's a nice jail." Imperia responded. Then she turned serious for a moment. "Okay, things are really bad. Dark Spyro: that's at least half my fault. But I'd argue that's a result of me failing in my actions more than it's a result of my feelings leading me astray."

Flare made a sound of disapproval. "You make yourself hard to trust sometimes Imperia. I see you're your point about how following your emotions can be a good way to live, but you never do seem to learn anything."

"Speaking of trust…" Malefor said thoughtfully. "A few years ago Imperia told me that she thought you were onto her. She suspected that you suspected her of… treachery I suppose. But she seemed almost glad. Clearly you never did betray her or me, but I've been wondering about it for years now."

"You know the trick that I used to try and knock out Dark Spyro?" Imperia said confidingly.

"No actually." Malefor raised an eyebrow. "You might have forgotten, but you dropped me through a hole in the floor. I was in no state to observe any tricks."

"Oh ok. Sorry about that…" Imperia glanced to Flare, as if seeking permission; the fire dragoness shrugged and gestured to Malefor. Imperia took this as being allowed to continue her line of conversation. "Well all I did was take away some of his air. It turns out air is made up of a good bit and a useless bit; so I took away the good bit from him, he was still breathing normally but he would have felt his head go funny like he was holding his breath. It would have made him faint if I'd been able to do it for long enough."

"Interesting." Malefor said, rather impressed. "I assumed that such a thing was possible in theory, but I hadn't learned how to do it. Congratulations on discovering a new use for wind magic."

"I had help." Imperia told him. "Help from Flare and from my sister. Between the three of us we worked it out and perfected it. Flare would make fires for us to put out. It's the only time in the last sixty or so years my sister has willingly had anything to do with me."

"When I found out Imperia's association with you I wanted her to have a way to protect herself. Something that would be an ace against even a creature who could completely outfight and overpower any normal dragon." Flare said.

"A way to prevent me from taking advantage of her." Malefor clarified. "Understandable. Although the idea of doing that to any dragoness, or drake, is abhorrent to me."

"I figured." Flare said, nodding. "I don't know as much about you as I'd like. But I know just enough about your personality to allow you to stay in this city. If I thought you were dangerous, well…" She sighed. "I don't know what I'd do. I doubt I can kill you, but it'd definitely be my preferred option. No offence."

"None taken. If I was a normal dragon dealing with a dangerous freak of nature who had a history of violence then I too would be inclined to try and kill them; for the protection of everyone else."

"You're not a freak of nature though." Imperia said defensively.

Malefor chuckled. "By definition I am. I'm a highly abnormal dragon. It's easy enough to think of me that way, especially for the sake of an analogy. Don't worry though, I don't feel like a freak."

"What do you feel like, then?" Flare asked.

Malefor considered the question. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only being in the entire world with the intelligence and power to do the right thing. I feel like a saviour, the world bothers me with it's cruelty and imperfection. I feel like I'm the one destined to make it perfect, why else would I have so much more power than any other dragon?"

"I'd like to think I do the right thing in my own small way." Imperia sulked. "As do Flare and Terrador and Volteer and… maybe even Cyril too; in his own snobbish way."

Malefor nodded. "I agree. And I couldn't have come this far without your help Imperia. I only sometimes feel like the only sane dragon in the world. It's a dangerous way to think, and I am aware of that. Other times I just feel happy. Like now." He smiled.

Flare returned the smile, but her concerns were far from satisfied. "I don't wish to offend, but why are you really working with us? I can't imagine you're here purely for the sake of Spyro and Cynder."

"In a way…" Malefor said thoughtfully. He gazed at Flare. "You were trained by Ignitus. You're a lot like him, you know. He asked me the same question."

"And what did you tell him?" Flare asked.

Imperia decided to answer that question; she put a paw on the fire dragoness' shoulder. "I'm sure you've guessed. You know me well enough. Our end goal is a perfect world for all of us."

Flare looked back and forth between them both, silently demanding a full explanation.

"Destroying the Dark Master and the dark sides of Spyro and Cynder has made and will continue to make this world a better place." Malefor said. "But after that there are other problems I would like to resolve."

"What are those, and how would you 'resolve' them?" Flare asked suspiciously.

"The dragon realms are fractured, and there is always conflict and mistrust, the risk of war festering around our society. I would like to see closer ties between the dragon civilisations."

"And rule them all." Flare finished for him. Malefor opened his mouth to object, but Flare waved a paw. "I'm not going to shoot down the idea. The Guardians were founded as a worldwide organisation, Imperia, Cyril and even Ignitus were not native dragons to Warfang. Our rank is known across all of dragonkind but right now we only have official authority within the walls of Warfang."

Flare looked distant and thoughtful.

"Because of that we have been recruiting our newer members almost exclusively from Warfang. I would see that changed. I don't like the idea of you alone ruling dragonkind, but a council with you, leaders of the other dragon societies, and the guardians…"

"Intruiging…" Malefor said. Flare surprised and impressed him with her ambition. "I think that could be an excellent arrangement."

"It would require a lot of effort though." Flare said. "Even you would have no guarantee of success… and that's where you want Spyro and Cynder to come in, isn't it? You're saving them so that you can use them."

"They would have the choice." Malefor said softly. "Forcing them to help me would end in a disaster. But if they did help their reputations would be a great asset, and the knowledge that there were two more dragons with similar abilities and a similar agenda to myself would discourage possible assassins."

"If and when we save Spyro we can talk about this more." Flare decided. "And don't make Spyro feel indebted to you, if he helps you he'd do it because he believed in what you're trying to create."

"There is a bit more." Imperia said. "The part that I'm not so keen on…"

"I've been hearing that a lot." Malefor frowned with slight annoyance. "The dragon ancestors are powerful, and if they've caused destruction and stagnation then they must be held accountable for it."

Imperia nodded. "That's reasonable; but frankly we don't know how to punish the ancestors or what a world without them would look like. The notion discomforts me. I want the world to be happy, but I also don't want it to change too much…"

"I'll consider your view. There is a lot that I need to think about before finally deciding on my next goal."

Flare said nothing, her thoughts were unreadable. Imperia looked at the fire dragoness.

"What do you think?"

Flare sighed softly. "I think lots of things. But I always tell my students not to go looking for fights where there haven't been fights before. A fire that burns everything in it's path is an enemy to itself as well as it's surroundings. I'm not going to pretend that one rule applies to every situation, and it certainly might not apply to this situation, but it's worth keeping in mind: wildfires choke on their own destruction."

Hope watched the comings and goings of Warfang with keen eyes and a distant mind. Every time he saw a dragon with dark shaded scales his heart leapt, but it was never Cynder. Dozens of dragons were leaving the city, and the rest were retreating somewhere deeper inside; it was starting to look like a ghost city.

Hope stayed still, perched halfway up a tree on a small hill that gave him just enough view of the city. His dark purple colour wasn't ideal for camouflaging in a forest, but it was better now than Spyro's shiny bright scales had been. Nobody seemed to be searching the immediate surrounds of the city for him anyway.

Hope saw the search parties fly out, and he wondered where they were searching, and why. The White Isle with its knowledge was the only thing in the world that held any interest for him, and that was only because it was supposed to be a step closer to Cynder.

The branch cracked slightly under his claws, but he sighed quietly and relaxed. One failure was a poor start. Then again he'd killed Imperia too, and that was probably a failure. Two failures was an extra bad start. But none of the failures would matter so long as he didn't fail once he and Cynder were face to face.

He could wait if he had to, he wasn't sure what he was waiting for, but nightfall would be a start. He didn't care to go into Warfang during the daylight. Tonight he would try to explain everything to Cynder, he would show her how to accept her dark side. He didn't know how to do that, but he didn't want to wait any longer. Tonight was the night.

He must succeed.

Dusk came quickly to Warfang. Cynder took Ember home and the pink dragoness was sound asleep the moment she reached her bed.

Ember had tried hard and shown promise in their training session, but she had nowhere near Cynder's stamina and by the time they were done she was exhausted. Cynder had taken her through some strategy, environmental awareness and tested her reflexes. Teaching was kind of fun, and Ember was a great learner; but Cynder had been making up almost everything she said on the spot and they both knew it. Ember hadn't minded though.

Cynder contemplated trying to sleep as well; but she wasn't as tired. She slinked out of Ember's room and began to wander back towards the dragon temple. Ember's family weren't around to make it awkward, which Cynder was glad of. When she got tired she could just wander back to Ember's place and sleep anywhere without feeling embarrassed.

The sun had gone down, and most of the sky was hidden by Warfang's high buildings and walls. Cynder drew her wings tight around her body even though the cold of night was still hours away. She wandered upwards, maybe one of the guardians would be in the temple so she could talk to them.

There!

Hope felt his whole body fill with warmth and light, the sight of the black dragoness filled him with excitement and a thrill of nervousness.

Cynder was walking along below him. Hope breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. He stilled his wings and glided down towards her, but he didn't want her to notice him yet. He stayed outside her range of wind senses, she might notice a dragon flying but she hopefully wouldn't recognise him.

What should he do? How did the situation right now end up with the two of them kissing and swearing their eternal love to each other? He didn't know, but he had to start with something.

Hope circled a few times, seeing that Cynder was heading upwards in the city. He had some time to think. His eyes reluctantly left Cynder's mesmerising walk and came to rest on one of the city beacon towers. Nobody should be up there, and if anyone was then Hope could just kill them. It was the perfect place to get some time with Cynder uninterrupted.

He touched down on the balcony and looked inside. There was nobody there; just an empty fire pit. The beacon towers were almost never lit, mostly during storms or fog. Hope sighed quietly in relief and turned back out towards the city; he looked down and spotted Cynder again.

Taking courage from seeing her, even though seeing her was paradoxically also the thing taking away his courage; Hope made a flicker of energy, a small purple flame in his paw.

He blew on it, making it brighten and glow softly, then he threw it.

Cynder froze in midstep as a large purple spark landed a few metres ahead of her in the middle of the road. For a long second she remained perfectly still, not even breathing. None of her senses were picking anything up, no sounds or scents and nothing interfering with her wind senses.

A purple spark could only mean two dragons, and this did not feel like Malefor.

Cynder breathed in and then out calmly, looking up where the spark had come from.

There, on one of the city's tallest buildings. A dark dragon shape was standing, watching. She couldn't see their colour against the evening sky, but she was sure that they had sent the flame to her.

She spread her wings and crouched, leaping upwards and spreading her wings to glide. She flew a circle, weighing her options.

The thought of calling the guardians and Malefor and raising the alarm crossed her mind briefly; but Cynder abandoned that idea as quickly as it came. If anyone could deal with Spyro then it would be her. The only other dragon who she would have been confident having as backup was Spyro; and… if she was lucky… then Spyro would be there already and able to help her.

Gently the wind lifted her higher, letting Cynder see the darkened purple scales of the dragon. She swooped down to land softly on the beacon tower.

Thanks for reading!

-4Dragons