Originally posted: 08/05/2019

Edited for continuity error correction and quality of life edits: 12/20/2019

Chapter 1: Peaceful days

The city of Warfang had changed a lot over the past months. It was fortunate that when the world began to break apart, most of the city was spared from the fracturing. The recovery of the world would do more damage as, like the rest of the world, it was not put back together like it had been before. Instead, there was a degree of error that had come when the task of piecing something as massive as the world back together. That was not the primary issue that the master masons had been concerned with. They worried that many of the structural foundations and walls to buildings had been damaged and the progression of time, it would only be a matter of such until there would be an epidemic of structural collapses. It took many grueling hours of demolition, reconstruction, and restoration, where the damage wasn't significant enough to warrant new construction. At the center of the city, the new dragon temple was built. This one was an even bigger complex than the one previous. Here too was the abode of not only the guardians but also Spyro and Cynder.

After the defeat of Malefor by the two young dragons, their lives had simmered down. There was not much conflict in the world since their main adversary had been vanquished. With the world acting like its got some sense about it, there were not many times where they were needed to intervene. Their lives could have taken a different turn. Soon after the world's restoration, they were offered an honorary position along with the guardians, allowing them to have a world on the decisions that had to be made. They turned down the offer. They continued to live in the city without much difficulty. Anywhere they went, they would always get special treatment thanks to their actions. Meals for free, reduced prices on anything that they wanted to purchase, gifts given to them by adoring fans, and those who idolize them. Now, the attention they had gained when they went out in public had declined to where their presence was acknowledged but wasn't given much attention. Things were becoming enjoyable for them now.

They walked the echoing interiors of the dragon temple. Walking for the sake of walking. There was nothing much that could be done at the moment. They wandered from room to room, not caring where they ended up. Through the course of their trek, they made their way into the training room. It was an exact replica of the training room in the old temple, although this time, it was more abundant in its dimensions, with the giant, lowering statue in the center is replaced with one in the likeness of Spyro and Cynder. The statue had been lowered down, and the floor was in its place where the training would take place. They would have continued on with had Cynder not stopped in the center of the room.

"You know, Spyro. It has been a long while since we last had fought a battle." Cynder said. Her smooth voice echoing off the walls. Spyro stopped and turned to face her.

"It has." He responded right to the point. His amethyst eyes meeting her emerald-colored ones.

"Don't you think that it is time that we get back to doing what we did best together?"

"If that is what you want to do, sure. But the question is, what? We don't have a common adversary to fight against, and even if we do, it's nothing that would bring back the old days."

"You might be right." She sauntered towards him in an intimidating fashion. "But you forget that there is one that you've never thought of." Spyro looked at her nervously.

"And who is that?" She continued to walk up to him until both of them were face to face with one another. Her eyes peering right into his soul, he was starting to get frightened at her sudden change in demeanor. She broke eye contact with him, moving her head to the side of his and whispered:

"Me." Spyro's heart sank when she slammed into him, knocking him flat on his back. It hit him like a ton of brick what she meant and what she was intending. A broad grin formed on his face as his excitement built for the challenge that she had issued him.

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" He said playfully. He reacted quickly and knocked her off the top of him. She recovered quickly and landed gracefully on the ground without as much as a single scratch. "Then show me what you got!" Both dragons proceeded to engage in mock combat with one another, exchanging physical and magical blows. Spyro being slower but having more force behind hits while Cynder delivered fast, successive blows that in their combined effect would equal that of Spyro's one. Magically speaking, both had their advantages and disadvantages that gave neither an advantage or disadvantage. This continued for several minutes until both collapsed on the floor several feet apart. Still panting, they laughed.

"You know, Cynder, I haven't felt by heart race like that in a long time," Spyro said, still on the floor. Cynder had tried to and failing to get back to her feet, flopping back on her belly.

"It makes you miss the old days when we were younger, doesn't it?"

"I have to admit, it does."

"I've been thinking as of late, how do you fancy the idea of moving out of the temple and city?" She said with genuine curiosity as she had been thinking about this for longer than she had been letting on.

"Well..." Spyro was conflicted. He did not know how to respond to the question that his lover had asked him. While he yearned for a life with more freedom, he enjoyed the conveniences of Warfang. "I'm not sure how to go about answering that question. Where would we go?"

"The wilderness somewhere. There's plenty of lands out there that we can explore and find a suitable place for us. I'm thinking somewhere in a range of mountains far from here, with plenty of room for both of us."

"I'd prefer a nice wooded area with plenty of rivers and streams. Its a contrast of what you'd be looking for, I'm sure."

"Or… we might find one that we are both satisfied with. A nice blending of both." She said optimistically. Once again, she tried to get up off the ground, and this time succeeded with her attempt, as did Spyro.

"When do you want to leave then?"

"Sooner rather than later."

"We could go out looking as soon as the weekend." It was a Monday. As much as Cynder wanted to go right away, she knew then they had the obligations that they had to attend to before they could go out on their little adventure. She nodded.

"I'll hold you to it then. Don't disappoint." She walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. Spyro blushed. "I love you." Spyro smiled and kissed her back.

"I love you too, Cynder." Both dragons walked out of the training room and went on their way, forgetting to have Spyro use his earth breath to clean and repair the stone. Not too long after they left, the guardians walked into the training room, only to find it cracked, scorched, and eroded by various means. It was evident by assessing the different types of damage was that it was Spyro and Cynder that had been in the room last. Terrador growled. The very least that they could have done was clean up the scorch marks. Quick usage of his earth breath both cleaned and restored the stonework to its original condition. The other guardians laughed. From the door opposite of them, a cheetah walked in.

"Hunter, it is good to see you once again." Terrador boomed, his voice carried and echoed too well in the room. Hunter of Avalar, a trusted ally of the dragons, had become the official envoy of the cheetahs to the dragons. "What is it that brings you to us on this day?"

"Same to you, old friend. As for what brings me here, the cheetahs have been anxious lately. I've been told stories that many have been seeing creatures circling around the villages. They are certain that they are not dragons, saying that they are too small to be dragons but too big to be birds circling overhead." The guardians looked at each other. Even the most knowledgeable of them, Volteer, was at a complete loss. He was the first to talk back.

"I have to inquire, on how many occasions have they been observed? And how have they been flying? Knowledge of their frequency will help paint a more lucid picture."

"It's been a frequent occurrence, and we are unsure if it is the same or if it is multiple creatures. As for their flying, it seems methodical, too specific to be a random flight path."

"Well, I am positively, absolutely, undeniably certain that there is no other large aerial Animalia that possesses the ability of flight." He said in his usual motormouth manner.

"Not be too certain, Volteer," Cyril interjected. "Surely you and that brain of your had not forgotten the dreadwings that those unintelligent, uncivilized apes rode upon?" His arrogant tone only sought to make Volteer discredit Cyril further than he was already planning to do.

"If you had been paying any attention, you'd know that they have been significantly thinned ever since the defeat of Malefor. If I recall correctly, they have not been observed ever since the world had been restored by the marvelous work of Spyro." He quickly retorted. Cyril already had his mouth open ready to respond, but quickly realized that he would not win the argument in the making.

"Then what do you suppose that they are, Volteer? A figment of their imagination?" Volteer rolled his eyes.

"Clearly, we have witness reports of a new creature, or perhaps one that has done a marvelous job of avoiding our observations. If anything, we should try to have someone go out to observe them further. The more information that we possess, the better understanding that we will have of them." Volteer, despite his jabbering habits, did possess the sharpest mind. Terrador was next to speak.

"I have to agree with Volteer. If we can get observations of them, we even have the chance to apprehend and question them of its motives." He looks at Hunter. "If they fly, then they must land for rest. Do you think it possible that one of your fellow tribesmen could pursue one until it lands? That might be our chance to catch one while it is vulnerable."

"Hold on now, boys. I think that you are going about this the wrong way." A softer, higher-pitched voice said from behind the others. The other guardians craned their necks around to see the new fire guardian sitting behind them. Her name was Pyra, a younger dragon who showed great promise. With her more youthful, more vigorous, and, most importantly, compassionate nature, she had been deemed the best pick for the new fire guardian. While not as physically imposing as the other three, she was acceptation in her magical abilities. "You are going about these new creatures as if they were criminals needing to be locked up." She said in a slight, confrontational manner. Terrador sighed.

"Pyra, you have a heart of gold, but you have to understand that the world is all sunshine and rainbows." He said. "The apes were thought to have been peaceful, but look back. They have been responsible for many atrocities." Pyra was aware of the apes and their past but could read Terrador like a book. She tried to suppress a grin as she knew that her response would both lighten the mood and embarrass him.

"Oh, I'm aware of the ape's past, but how much do you know about them before Malefor? As a warrior, you see them as enemies, but I've done my homework, and if you ever were to go into a library for once in your life, you might learn that apes lived in harmony with the dragons before they pledged allegiance to Malefor." She couldn't help but giggle. Terrador's cheeks were turning a noticeably red under his green scales. The rest of the guardians and Hunter laughed out loud, not helping Terrador's situation. Volteer, in particular, was rolling on the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

"And how will this change my opinion?"

"It's not, you're too headstrong for that. But it goes to show you that just because all of your life that you perceive something as malicious doesn't always mean that it was always malicious." She giggled again. That was enough for one day. Thankfully for Terrador, this would be the last time that he would be humiliated. Hunter was quick to get back on topic.

"Anyway… I have to side with both Volteer and Terrador. We do not know their intentions and therefore have reason to be suspicious. Although, I appreciate you're more open to trust and friendship rather than distrust and hatred." He walked over to Pyra and hugged her around the neck. Everyone in the room smiled.

"Thank you, Hunter." She said happily. Volteer, Cyril, and Terrador all exchange looks and nodded as if they had been talking to one another telepathically. Volteer would be the one to close the meeting.

"Then it's settled. By the efforts of Hunter and his fellow tribesman, will attempt to apprehend and interrogate-" Pyra shot him a mean look. He backtracked quickly. "Rendezvous and inquire about their travels. On our part, we will try to intercept them in the air where, if they are compliant, we will be able to learn further about them."

"These terms are acceptable," Said Hunter. "I wish you the best of luck, and we will do all we can on our part."

King Bevan sat on his throne, pondering the logistics of his plans before him. If this invasion was to be a success, he needed many things to go in his favor. The simple things, such as the geography of the Dragon Realms, were mostly unknown to the Quillians. He sighed. It had been twenty years ago since the dark army was defeated on Traeblesh and a few months since the world was torn asunder and mended back together. Any maps they had in archives or that any scouts that had been dispatched were made completely irrelevant, assuming that geography of the Realms had changed like Traeblesh had. He was a lucky man; however, that being one of the few significant setbacks. The world's restructuring did take its tole as well as they were not expecting it to happen, nether were the dragons when Malefor was revived. It occurred at the right time of year, with the harvest in, and there was plenty of food to go around for the population. With the world put back together, albeit not perfectly, had it happened earlier in the growing season, there was no telling if they would have survived. It was the loss of the needed able-body people that worried Bevan the most. He needed manpower. His concentration was lost when a courier walked into the throne room with a sizable sheaf of papers in his hands.

"Your majesty." He said, kneeling down before Bevan.

"Yes, good fellow. What is it that you have brought to me?" He asked in a calm voice. While he had to have the outward appearance of a stern ruler, but there was no need to intimidate the helpers that had had.

"Many things, my lord. Most of it being land deeds." Bevan rolled his eyes. Nobody could quit bickering over whose land was whose, it was getting annoying for Bevan, who was as tired of having to look at the papers, as well as the scribes who had to copy everything in the rather large and now new Book of Records. "There is something that you've been anticipating." Bevan's expression lightened.

"Go on, then, spit it out, lad."

"New maps of the Dragons Realms fresh from scouts you ordered sent out."

"Thank the gods! We are finally making progress." He exclaimed with a joyous attitude. "If we have any luck with us, not much at all would have changed."

"I hope so too, my lord." The courier began to leave the hall before wheeling right back around and walking back up to the throne. "Also, my lord, the head alchemist, requested your presence last evening, but you had retired before I could deliver the message, and I did not want to wake you from your rest." Bevan didn't mind this. It would be an excellent opportunity to get his bones to move.

"That's fine, lad, let's go see them."

The alchemist was a new asset that was at Quillum's access ever since the war against the dark army's sizable detachment had come from the Dragon Realms all the way to their continent, Traeblesh. Ever since those that drank the brew derived from the green gems, the ability to do, quite frankly magical thing, was a highly sought after trait that needed further study and refinement. The problem was that it took several pounds of green gems to get one brew for one person. With the small supply that they have left, it was often former soldiers that became alchemists in their efforts to not only understand their newfound magical abilities but also manipulate the physical world around them. Diseases once thought not treatable was now possible with the advent a new medicines due to their work, and technological advancements were made faster than ever. Bevan and the courier walked down torch-lit hallways until they reached what had been dubbed the hall of alchemists. In the alchemist's chamber, bookshelves, tables, doors leading to other rooms connected to the main hallway, various devices and machines, and iconography of increasing hedonistic and occult ideologies were littered throughout. They walked through the hall until they found themselves at another door, this time being the entrance to the office of the head alchemist, Bradan. He was a man whose physique had gradually languished over time he spent out of the army and in the book pages. He was the average when it came to height and possessed a slightly muscular build. They knocked on his door, him opening the door a few seconds later to welcome in the king and his courier.

The room had that distinctive and enjoyable smell of books and papers. Peering in further, it was clear that the ability to organize was not his most active skill as books and papers were strung across the room with books from the shelf being stacked up in seemingly random places. Bevan was not one to judge the state of Bradan's room. The vast bulk of their progress came from Bradan's mind running at one-hundred miles per hour. Rather than sitting at the desk in the center of the room, he was sprawled out on his belly in the floor, fast asleep with a quill in his hand and an inkpot turned over. Despite fountain pens being made years ago, he still preferred a feather quill. Bevan and the courier laughed out loud. Kneeling down, Bevan shook the sleeping alchemist awake. He groaned at first, barely moving from where he was before, then stretching out, running his left arm right through the puddle of spilled ink. Bevan and the courier contained their laughing this time, but barely. Bradan was unphased by it.

"Bradan, my boy, if this keeps up, we will have to build you a bed in here too!" Bevan outstretched his hand to him. He took it as Bevan lifted him off the floor.

"I'm sorry, my lord. I seem to be falling asleep more and more on the job."

"I think that you need to take it easy for a bit. I can tell that you've been working hard."

"My work is never done. It's a rabbit hole. One discovery leads to new mysteries, which, when solved, leads to new mysteries needing to be solved. To think though, this here is because we threw the dragon's green gems into a still and brewed them like the hops and barley we use to make our beers all because of a joking suggestion a brewer told us."

"Twenty years ago..."

"Yes. We've made so much progress since then, which is why I wanted you to come to see me so that you and I can discuss this in private." He looks over at the courier, who nods in understanding and leaves the room, shutting the way out. "First off, How are you doing these days? I believe that we are becoming more separated than we were back when."

"I do miss those old days when the crew and we could do whatever we wanted. Hunting, fishing, swimming, or mountain climbing, we'd do it. Of course, we grew older and acquired new responsibilities, either it is family or duty. For me, obviously, it was the heir to the throne." The reminiscing brought Bevan a sense of nostalgia, one that brought a small tear to his face.

"I miss those days too. I've got some good news." Bradan smiled widely. Bevan could tell that it was important to him with the expression on his face. "Katrine is expecting. We think that it is due sometime in February, but that's just a guess."

"Congratulations! Do you have a name for it yet?"

"If it is a girl, we think that that Winter would be a good name. If it is a boy, we think that Phillip would be a good one."

"Nice. Anyway, what is it that you wanted me to talk to you about?"

"Yes, yes." Bradan moved throughout the room, collecting various books and individual pages from the desk and the floor, ignoring the noticeable puddle of ink and miraculously avoiding it in the process. Once he gathered all the needed materials, he moved the remaining contents from the desk onto the floor. "Take a seat in that chair."

"What chair?" Bevan looked around confused as the only chair in the room was behind the desk on Bradan's side.

"Just watch this," Bradan smirked. He closed his eyes and focused his breathing. He outstretched his arm. A sea-green aura emanated from his hand and stretched up his forearm to the elbow. Books all throughout the room except for those on shelves began to stack themselves on the floor behind Bevan. Some opening and interweaving their pages together. Bevan turned his head back to notice the books were being arranged in such a way that would be a chair for him. He was thoroughly impressed. "That chair."

"I regret not drinking the green gem brew now." Bevan sat down in the chair made of books.

"There are many things that I want to discuss." He grabbed the first book of the stack on his desk and began to flip through pages before stopping in one that. "First off, with the world's destruction and the subsequent restoration of it, there has been a large amount of ambient magic about, so I've hypothesized that it was a magical force that had restored the world."

"Who do you think is responsible?"

"Well, what few magic practitioners we have surely can't do it, and since there is no current evidence that any other species can, that leaves one conclusion."

"The dragons..."

"That is the conclusion that I have come to. I believe that the inverse is true as well."

"That they destroyed it too..." Bevan said grimly as his blood began to boil. He had enough of the dragons. First Malefor in the past, the dark age that followed, and the dark army's attack and the dragons that slaughtered countless innocents. Now the destruction of the world. He knew in his heart that he shouldn't be quick to condemn them, as it was the dragons that put the world back together, but he could not forgive them for the dead. "What other developments have you made?"

"I'm glad that you asked because I was just getting there." Bradan moved the current book aside and grabbed another off the stack and opens it. This time, taking his time to read what is assumed to be the notes he has taken over the years. "We have been trying to figure out the mechanism behind how the green gems worked. My team and I have been working on a recent discovery that will give us results in the coming weeks. Once we understand how it works, we could possibly with the help of our alchemy, well, there's a lot of potentials here for future applications."

"Good to hear. Scholars have been working on it for twenty years, as much as I wish that it would have been accomplished sooner, it is great knowing that we will have some results. Anything else?"

"One more thing of note. You know how we not only have been manipulating not only the physical world around us but also the magical energy that permeates throughout as well? A small group of us had been working on something even deeper. Manipulation on the metaphysical level." Bevan looked at him with a confused look on his face.

"What do you mean by 'Metaphysical' exactly?" He asked cautiously, not wanting to downplay what he was doing, any advancement made before their war would be much appreciated, but was also not wanting to down another rabbit hole.

"Is it not obvious?" Bradan responded sarcastically. Bevan rolled his eyes. "The soul." The soul? What was he talking about?

"So, you mean to tell me that you could mess around with someone's soul?"

"That's possible. We would be treading in dangerous waters with the wrath of the gods if we did. I'm not all that concerned with it," Bradan said indifferently. Quillum was still profoundly religious; not many people would be willing to go along with what he was implying.

"So, we could find out the reason for our existence?"

"Far greater, actually. If we keep up the initial progress that we have made, we could remove it from a body, the physical vessel for it."

"So you are a soul thief now, aren't you?"

"Not necessarily. But…" He leaned in close. Bevan did the same. "We could take the soul out of a dragon's body, from there, the possibilities are endless." He said softly in his ear.

This seems like an excellent place to stop this chapter. For now, I will leave the appearance of the Quillians vague, leading it up to a detailed description later on in the story because "Reasons." Any and all reviews are appreciated. If you have any questions, leave them, and I will answer them in the next story update.