(So recently I found this song called Used to Like by Neon Trees, and I'm practically addicted to this song, and whenever I hear it, I think of this story, simply because Spyro and Cynder's relationship will act like Romeo and Juliet, and which neither side wants them to be together, but they do so anyways, well, enough about me, time for you to read, enjoy!)
Chapter 3: first day
Spyro awoke in his quarters, the sunlight was blazing onto his bed, which made it much regrettable to get out of bed, he saw Sparx was snoozing in a little hammock he made for him.
"Time for training..." Spyro thought to himself as he stumbled out of his bed, took his shower, brushed his teeth, and grabbed his book bag, all without disturbing Sparx. As he left his door, he accidentally got his wing wing caught in the door, irritated, he opened the door so his wing could loosen up and free itself.
"Seriously, why?" He sighed, he still didn't like the idea of tutoring Cynder, he wanted to welcome her with open wings, but it wasn't her that he was mainly afraid of, even if Ignitus told them about the situation, they might be very disapproving of it.
"I just hope Ignitus knows what he's doing...oh, what am I saying? Of course he does" Spyro reassured himself in his thoughts as he walked out to the fields, where all his friends were waiting.
"Your up early" Shard pointed out as he walked up to them.
"Well, you know what they, early bird catches the worm" he replied as they looked a little suspicious.
"What? Come on guys, cut the crap, what's going on?" Spyro asked as Flame finally came forward and spoke.
"Spyro, Listen, Ignitus told us about your "tutoring" lessons with Cynder, and we don't think it's really a good idea" he explained.
"Yes, she is indeed a diabolical specimen, her actions yesterday proved so" Alastor added as Spyro sighed.
"Come on guys, give her a chance, and wether you like it or not, Ignitus has assigned me to this task, so I intend to fulfill it, now if you'll excuse me, I need to find Cynder to begin her training" Spyro told them rather coolly and walked off.
"He's not been himself since the fight, something's off" Terrain pointed out.
"Come on, what's the worst that can happen? He's just helping her master her abilities, it's not like anything serious will happen between them" Rose reassured Shard as Sparx crossed his arms.
"Don't be too sure" he muttered to himself as Spyro entered the Secondary Elemental section of the Temple, as he walked down the halls, groups of Secondary elemental Dragons were eying him.
"Just keep moving..." he thought calmly as he neared Cynder's quarters, he was suddenly pushed by a Shadow Dragon.
"What business does the Dragon of Destiny have with us?" A Shadow Dragon sneered as Spyro kept quiet and tried to keep going, but the Dragon persisted, and pushed him against the wall.
"Hey! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" He snarled, to recap a little, Secondary Dragons weren't huge fans of Spyro, he wasn't really valued amongst them, and naturally, they thought he was stuck-up and his head was in the clouds because of his extended time with Primary Dragons, Spyro recognized this as one of the traits that Cynder initially hated him for, although he was nothing like their descriptions of him.
"Might I ask what your name is?" Spyro asked, unfazed.
"It's Nero, remember it, you sure have a lot of nerve being on our turf" he growled as Spyro figured a bit of smugness couldn't hurt.
"Last I remember, the Temple grounds were open to everyone to visit" he retorted in a subtle way as Nero threw him on the ground.
"You don't scare me, punk! Cynder proved that no one is invincible" he sneered as Spyro looked up.
"So anything more to say?" Nero asked threateningly as Spyro chuckled.
"From this angle, your face doesn't look as ugly" he knew he would push Nero to the limit, but the Shadow Dragon could initially do no harm to him, or Ignitus would pretty much hang their heads on his wall, figuratively speaking.
"Nero, lay off!" Spyro looked back to see Cynder, upside down as Nero backed off.
"My apologies" he solemnly stepped back as Spyro stood up.
"Nero, he's mentoring me, I suggest you behave unless you want a quarrel with Ignitus himself" she told him as he shrugged.
"Ignitus doesn't scare me" he was overconfident in his abilities, Spyro could definitely tell, and all Cynder did was whisper in his ear.
"He will soon" she told him and had Spyro follow him back the way he came.
"Thanks for the save back there" he told her as she shrugged.
"It was nothing, so what do we start with?" Cynder asked as Spyro considered this.
"Well, I was thinking we could train in the forest, you know, where's there's not too many Dragons to actually hit, you know?" Spyro suggested as Cynder agreed.
"All right, I'm down for it, lead the way" she replied as Spyro nodded and the two of them walked over to what appeared to be an exit to the forest, as they walked out into the woods, Spyro took them fairly deep into the valley.
"Um, Spyro, quick question? How will we get back?" Cynder asked.
"Well, I usually come out here for privacy, if I want to just be by my myself, or read, I just find it a great place to get away from the crowd or just everything else, so I know where to go to get back, and almost no one knows about this place, so we can do training without interruption" Spyro explained as Cynder understood what he meant.
"You mean you actually want to get away? I always thought you liked the popularity you received" she pointed out as Spyro shrugged.
"Truth is, I'm not really into the attention I get, and since no one knows about this place, I can get away, you should prepare yourself for that as well, I'm sure most of the Secondary Dragons will see you as the most famous among them now, since you sort of bested me in that fight we had" Spyro replied as Cynder blushed in embarrassment.
"If I had known what I could've done, I probably wouldn't have done it" she told him as he shrugged.
"Well, that's why we're here, so you can know what your able to do, alright, this place looks good enough" Spyro and Cynder stopped their little walk in the middle of a clearing, then Spyro pulled out some Secondary elemental scrolls.
"Okay, We're going to start with some basic abilities, we'll go with Shadow first, since that's the element you have the most practice in, considering it was the element you were born with" he explained to her as she prepared to demonstrate her abilities.
"First skill: we'll try a basic Shadow blast, can you do that?" Spyro asked as Cynder sighed.
"Of course I can, you dork" she replied as Spyro felt a little embarrassed.
"Okay, well, demonstrate" he told her as she performed an admirably good Shadow blast against a tree.
"Okay, okay, good, we'll go to something a little more advanced, how about Shadow Fire, I want you to show me your most powerful blast, since you used Shadow Fire on me yesterday" Spyro instructed her as she nodded and used a powerful blast of Shadow Fire on the grass, giving them little black flames.
"Hmm, well that's a good sign" Spyro thought to himself as he froze up the flames with his ice breath, and thawed out the grass with a light blast of Fire.
"Good, you were trained well, I take it you have been instructed in all the advanced combat methods for Shadow?" He asked Cynder as she nodded.
"Okay, I can't train you anymore in that element, my suggestion would be to take some time off to improve your skills with Ravan, let's go to the first element you revealed during your fight with me: Poison" Spyro told Cynder as her throat illuminated a lime green, something that impressed Spyro.
"Interesting, she shares that cosmetic with me" he thought to himself.
"Okay Cynder, the Poison you used on me the other day was a little crude and archaic, similar to any other creature that spews Poison, you share this ability, and it can be redirected through your body to form certain shape" Spyro explained as Cynder grew confused.
"So what does that mean?" She asked.
"I mean you can redirect the Poison within to create deadly blasts, let's try an example, I want you to redirect the Poison in your body to create a Poison stream and hit that tree right there" Spyro directed Cynder's attention to a nearby tree, she sunk down into a hunter's crouch, which caught Spyro's eye, as she slithered across the ground, her throat illuminated lime green yet again as a stream of Poison was blasted from her mouth, shooting through several trees.
"She exceeded expectations, that's new, her powers are certainly strong" Spyro thought to himself as he watched Cynder return.
"So? How'd I do?" She asked, optimistically.
"Well...you did better than I expected, considering you've only known about these abilities for a day or so" he answered as Cynder appeared to grow more happy about this.
"Well, I learned from the best" she smiled as Spyro grew confused.
"Oh? And whose that?" He asked out of curiosity as Cynder rolled her eyes.
"You, silly!" She said playfully as Spyro grew confused at this tone, it had only been a day, but something felt different between them, she seemed...friendlier, as if she'd known him her whole life, when just yesterday, she was his biggest hater, Spyro pushed the thought away as he was prepared to continue the lesson.
"Okay, you've mastered your Poison stream it would seem, I want you to take some time off and improve it when we come back for our next session, I can't really help improve that ability, only you can do that, I'd recommend that you use Poison stream more than just a spew, as a spew releases different amounts of Poison onto an enemy, of a tiny drop hits them, it might not be enough to stall them even, as you used the spew on me yesterday, but it wasn't that effective, anyways, let's move on" Spyro explained and prepared to move onto Wind, but then Cynder did something surprising.
"Spyro, can we take a break?" She asked as Spyro grew confused.
"A break? But we've only been at this for 5 minutes" he replied as she sighed.
"I know but...I've kinda got a lot of energy pent up right now, and there's only one way I know about how to release it" her tone shifted to a much more playful tone.
"Well, what do you-ahh!" Spyro was pushed by Cynder as she playfully cried.
"Tag, Your it!" She announced as she bounced off into the woods, Spyro immediately grew a mischievous grin on his face.
"Oh, your gonna get it!" He chases after her, eventually he could see her slim form moving through the trees, she was fast, but he was faster. He took a move that he learned from Volteer about redirecting his Lightning throughout his body to make him go faster, which he did as his eyes turned a bright yellow, and he sped up, zipping through the trees at momentus speeds, Cynder saw this and quickly slowed down so Spyro would overshoot her, and so he did, but what Cynder wasn't expecting was for him to quickly turn right back around and crash into her, the force was so powerful that neither Cynder nor Spyro had time to comprehend what just happened.
"Spyro! Slow down!" Cynder tried to tell him, but he was going too fast.
"I can't!" He replied, they eventually left the woods and came to hill slope, and Spyro saw his opportunity to stop, channeling his Earth Element, Spyro added extra weight to his body, and the the two of them tumbled down the hill, with Spyro's speed having worn off, and the first thing they saw were each other's eyes, Cynder was laying on top of Spyro, causing them to both blush, but then they started laughing.
"Did that quench your energy?" Spyro asked as Cynder giggled.
"Yes, yes it did, I could stay here forever" her response made Spyro blush even more, as she was still on top of him.
"Cynder? Could you please get off of me?" He asked politely as Cynder blushed at realized how long she was laying on him and got off of him, allowing the Purple Dragon to stand up, as they walked back up the hill and returned to the clearing, Spyro grabbed his bag.
"Alright, we'll do one more thing before we call it a day, I'm going to hand you these scrolls on Advanced Poison combat, I was going to try and teach you about Wind, but I find it best we tackle that next week, each week we'll focus on one of your elements" he explained as he handed Cynder the scrolls, and she took them compliantly.
"Okay, that's day one of training, let's head back to the Temple, and you can rest yourself" Spyro added as Cynder followed.
"Um, Spyro? I know this might not be that concerning to you, but I get the feeling that your friends might not support you teaching me, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful, even though it's been a day, but, isn't it practically an unwritten rule that Primary and Secondary Dragons shouldn't interact?" Cynder asked as Spyro stopped.
"Cynder, I was given a job to do, and I intend to go through with it, we've befriended each other, and my friends can't stop Ignitus's decision, there are reasons he assigned me as your tutor, some reasons that even I don't know yet" he explained as Cynder thought about that.
"Well, thanks for the training, I'll be sure to work on my Poison stream...and hopefully I'll get to see you again soon, maybe before tomorrow?" She suggested as Spyro grew confused.
"Well, I mean, it is the Holiday break, I suppose we could set up a time today...where would we meet?" He asked as Cynder shrugged.
"I'll let the big Purple Boy figure it out, I'm going to my quarters, send me something telling me where we'll meet" she replied as she walked off, leaving Spyro dumbstruck.
"One, did she just flirt with me? Two, did I just inadvertently set up a date? Aw man, I need to think about this" he was confused and lost in his thoughts, he figured he'd head back to his quarters to think about what just happened, as he walked back through the courtyard, Shard was waiting for him.
"How'd it go?" He asked as Spyro shrugged.
"It was pretty uneventful" he told him in a rather monotone voice as Shard walked with him.
"Listen, me and the others were talking, and we were gonna ask Ignitus if you weren't partnered with Cynder" his statement made Spyro grow a little irritated.
"Why? Ignitus made the decision, not you, you can't just try to decide what's good for me" Spyro snapped, which surprised Shard a little.
"Dude, she's a witch!" Spyro looked up to see Sparx.
"Sparx! What are you doing here!?" Spyro asked grumpily as he crossed his arms.
"Trying to discourage anything unsound" he replied calmly as Spyro sighed.
"Cynder's not all bad, okay? Our training went fine anyways, why should you both even care?" He told the two of them.
"Spyro, I'm not sure if you remember correctly, but Cynder absolutely despises you, this could be a ruse to use you against us" Shard's response infuriated Spyro, there was never a time where he thought his friends were being ignorant, but now was definitely that time.
"Oh yeah? You weren't there when she apologized, I don't know how to explain it, but I could sense her emotions, there was no deceit, no lies, no nothing! She was honest, and realized she was in the wrong!" Spyro's temper was as short as a bomb fuse, both Sparx and Shard took note of this.
"Spyro, calm down, think rationally" Shard told him as Spyro did so.
"Listen, get to know her, you'll see that she's not so bad, I'm going to my room, and Sparx, don't think about coming in, or I'll do something much more drastic then slap you against the wall" Spyro said the last part with a growl, leaving the two of them behind.
"Sparx, something's not right, I want you to keep watch of Spyro, just don't be obvious, if he leaves, follow him" Shard whispered to the Dragonfly as he sighed.
"I'm always the one putting myself in danger for these missions...why?" Sparx sighed as he flew after Spyro to Spyro and see what was going on...
Cynder was heading back to her quarters when she caught sight of Nero heading her way.
"Oh great...what does this lugnut want now?" She rolled her eyes as Nero walked up to her.
"Hello Cynder, you were out late" he said to her as she noticed the sun was setting.
"So?" She replied bluntly as Nero grew suspicious.
"Listen, I heard about Ignitus assigning you to be Spyro's apprentice or something, so I say it's the perfect time to strike, I know you pretended to save him from me earlier today, but I know it's a ruse, take the opportunity" Nero explained as Cynder looked away.
"No, I'm not, he's my teacher, therefore I must respect him, now if you'll get out of my way, I have somewhere to be" she said rather cooly as Nero grunted.
"Just remember, we're counting on you to make the move!" He said rather menacingly as Cynder rolled her eyes and entered her quarters, only to see a slip of paper at her window, as she unfolded the paper, she smiled.
"Oh Spyro, you are a genius sometimes" she thought to herself as she read the letter.
"Meet me in the clearing in the forest, 20 minutes, I need to get some things ready, see you there"
-Spyro
As Cynder read the letter, she hid it so no one would find it should they barge into her room uninvited, and figured she would wait for the next 20 minutes to go by, marveling at stars.