Reviewer Response

To BunnyBlues: Yeah, there will be an island or two in between where some lore stuff will happen. Maybe that will attack on sight, maybe not. You'll have to wait and see ;)

To Darklighteryphon: Thank you for being the second reviewer! As for your points that you gave, I can give some answers to them. 2) Yeah, that one is all on me. I knew before had that only one person can see the visions and I wrote it like that anyway. Reason why was that it was just easier to do that than write additional dialogue. 4) It's not going to revolve around Cynder, although she does have a major role in it. 1 and 3) That will be answered later on in the story, which if I reveal here would ruin a major plot point. If you have anything else to say, please say it and I'll get back to you on it in the next chapter update. Once again, thanks for the review.

Chapter 4: The journey Begins

It was the weekend once again, which meant that it was time for the journey to the north. Cynder had told the guardians days prior that it was her intention to do so, and received less than expected responses, the typical overly cautious responses. As much as they tried to sway her from the mission, they words might as well have fallen on deaf ears. Naturally, Spyro was one to voice the most concern, but he was more understanding than the guardians were; More so, he had faith in her abilities. And with the mana that she had taken in still in her system, she was ready to make the flight across the ocean. Both dragons said their goodbyes to each other. Cynder had promised that she would be there and back again withing two weeks time.

She had returned to the clifftop where they had been a week before. Unlike last time, the sun had already set below the horizon. This played into her favor greatly as there would be a land breeze that would provide a tailwind, assisting in the journey. Using where they had both slept as a reference point, she orientated herself northward, which happened to have a cliff edge not too far from where they had been. Cynder closed her eyes and breathed in slowly and deeply, exhaled, and repeated the process. The wind at her tail began to pick up faster and faster. When the time just right, she snapped open her wings and with a single powerful flap, took to the sky. With the assistance of her wind magic, she was up normal flying speed where she maintained it with very little physical input, relying on the large reserve of mana that she had taken up before hand. This would make the seemingly impossible journey much more easy to achieve, and as powerful as her wind magic was, she would need very little physical input.

/\/\/\

Spyro was writhing on the floor again, this time there was nobody there to look after and or comfort him in. Once again, this was the same incessant nightmare that had been plaguing him for the past week. Ever more perplexing was that there was still no visions being seen in the pool of visions. There was something wrong with these nightmares, any there was nothing that could be done about it.

Once again, there was nothing but darkness, save for the same two aspects: The vertical beam of dark aether and Dark Spyro toying with the purple dragon. He was as helpless as ever, all of his magic based attacks did the same as before. Fire spewed out embers and smoke, Ice blew out snow, earth spat up dirt, and electricity shot out tiny sparks that might as well been a shock of static. Physical attacks had a little more effect, but he was woefully outclassed by his dark reflection. He had been killed over and over again, 'waking up,' and having the scenery change once again to the blackness. This continued for hours, literal hours, as if this was not actually a dream at all, but sort of dimension that happened to be for the duration of his sleep.

It would all come to an end when the sun rises and his sleep came to an end. But this nightly rest would not be as relaxing. While physically rested, he would be mentally drained. This had to stop one way or the other, even if it means forgoing sleep for a bit of sanity. He needed help for sure, but where to get it was a whole new question that needed to be answered. All that he could do right now is pray to the ancestors in the hope that these nightmares would stop.

/\/\/\

The guardians had completed this days worth of training the next generation of dragon young to proficiency in their respective element. There wasn't many children there to teach, but it was still better than nothing. Each one had their own particular style of teaching their elements. Terrador was militaristic and expected discipline in his students, each one training like a soldier. Volteer was more technical and sought to teach the mechanics of electricity, more so than actually teaching the magic itself. Cyril sough to make his students out that they were superior to the other elemental types, and pushed his students harder to make sure of it. Pyra had a more interesting way of teaching that made her special.

Pyra viewed the learning process as a recursive, rather than a linear process. The end goal was all about learning and mastery of skills and techniques, but with a lot of reinforcement of already learned skills. Some days, they would learn a more advanced technique while other days it was review for something that they already had learned. While they might not have gone on to learn more complex techniques as quickly as the others, they do however have a better understanding of the skills and abilities that will build up to the more complex techniques. All and all, she saw it as a better way to learn and by the looks of things, it was working fine.

When the schooling for the day was over, it was back to business as usual, which was usually pertaining to the governance of the realms. Unlike other species living in the realms that were ruled under a different system of governance, the dragons looked to the Elemental Guardians for guidance and leadership, and it was easy to see why. For one, they were older and wiser than most, living lives long enough to have the life experience to be able to make judgment calls that younger dragons might make rash decisions on. Second was that they were all war veterans that fought throughout the war against the dark armies, which gave them the respect and honor of other dragons. Thirdly, they already hold an influential position already as it was being the Elemental Guardians. Today was the day that the workload was lighter, and each guardian went about their day in about an hour of work.

/\/\/\

Ingitus was scouring through as many of the books in the Chronicler's library. Being endowed with the task of chronicling the new age, it came with some perks like the ability to live without the need for nourishment, hydration, or sleep, which was nice, although Ignitus missed being able to enjoy a nice hot meal and the cool refreshing feeling of fresh water. He was troubled by recent events that were unfolding. For starters, he was trying to piece together what snippets of Cynder's future since she did not heed his warning. He was browsing the oldest and most worn sections of the library looking for any information pertaining to the coming invading army, without finding any success. Last and most disconcertingly, he was unable to get into contact with Spyro.

Being more omnipresent, he had the ability to peer into peoples lives, communicate to them in their sleep, and the ability to see limited bits of their future. In the case of Spyro, he had lost everything. Something was happening that prevented him from being able to do any of it. He dug through countless tomes of books looking for answers as to why, but like finding information on the invading army, it proved to be futile. He was stumped.

After thinking on it a moment, he came to a rather c rafty conclusion. He might not be able to communicate to him directly, but he could do it indirectly by having the guardians relay the message from him to the young purple dragon. Now it was to whom the message would be sent to. All of the guardians were a great choice, and he could only communicate to one of them at a time, or at least he through that he could talk to one. But time was of the essence, and there was not time to be experimenting with his abilities when of the two most powerful dragons alive, one was a journey of impossible odds, and the other was unable to be contacted and seen.

He decided that he would send the message to them all. One by one, he entered their dreams and told them all to relay his message of concern to the purple dragon. Each one would skeptical at first, but would be reassured when they wake to find that they all had the same dream as each other. Ignitus was content with his work. With the messages delivered and ready to be relayed, he continued to crawl through the books to find the answers that he was looking for. And with the whole library to cover, there would be no telling how long it would be before he found those answers.

The royal chambers were dimly lit by small candles that sat on candle brackets mounted on the wall. There were single-night candles, and the user had no need to blow them out as they would not have enough wax to burn for more than maybe an hour to two. Both Jadney and Bevan were still awake, getting into bed not too long ago. While the through of being a little frisky entertained their minds, neither of which had the urge to act on it. They laid together, one right next to the other, it gave them the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart that they couldn't have with guard detail that was assigned to them.

Tomorrow was the big day, the day that the quill would sign the parchment that would bring the Kingdom of Quillum to war with the Dragon Realms. He was still so unsure about it all. He hoped exploiting the general hatred of the dragons that he would be able to drum up so much support that sustained offensives could be waged for years to come, he was not all that sure if the hatred permeated throughout the Quillian people. Those that were alive and remember the Dark Army's dragons have already reached an age where their combat effectiveness had dropped significantly compared to the newer generation. And if Bevan's army was to be successful, it had to have more than aging soldiers in it.

He signed out loud, that which was immediately noticed by Jadney. "What's wrong?" She said, Bevan looking her into her vibrant golden-colored eyes.

"It the war once again. Even though everything is good to go, I am still unsure of the army."

"Are you that determined to see it through?" She said. It was a while before Bevan could answer her back. It wasn't a simple answer that he could give. He wanted to continue his father's work, the one who stated the build-up that had lead to this moment. "If you don't want to, then you do not have to."

"That's easy to say, Love, but it's not that simple. We had spent the last twenty years preparing for this moment, and it's going to be hard to tell the kingdom 'Sorry, folks. All of those years of increased taxes and initiatives was for nothing and everything will go back to normal.' Gods, they'll come for our heads if they heard that."

"Bevan..."

"It's the truth. If we don't show results for all these years of prep work, then the people lose faith and trust in the crown."

"I know, I know. But if you think about it, there is a way that could be a win-win situation."

"Go on..."

"Think about it this way:" Jandey shuffled around once again under the covers. "You can still technically go to war with the Dragon Realms, send a small expeditionary force to dip their metaphorical toes in the water, and if we can do it, then we continue. If we can't, then we withdraw and can call off the war from there." She had a great point. It opened up a new can of worms that Bevan began thinking of. There was no true winning condition so he could just make one up arbitrarily as to get it over with easily.

"I swear sometimes, Jadney, if only I had your intellect."

She laughed back at him. "Oh don't worry about it. There are qualities that each of us excel in." She said in a prideful way. Bevan already through of the perfect response that in which he knew that she would fall for

"Like endurance?" He joked back in a more suggestive manner. The look on her face said it all, the disbelief that she had fallen for that so easily.

"Oh shut up. Just go to sleep already."

Bevan laughed back. "Fine then, but only if we cuddle together."

"I'm not feeling like doing it tonight, I thought we had already agreed to this"

"I didn't say anything about doing it, I only wanted to cuddle."

Jadney rolled her eyes in a not-so-serious manner. "Fine, come on then."

Both Quillians shifted under the covers until they were in each others' embrace. Facing each other, Bevan kissed Jadney on her cheek, a noticeable blush forming on her face. She reciprocated. Both of them in a comfortable position quickly fell into slumber. If there was one thing that they could be certain on, it was that they always had each.

/\/\/\

Bradan was pacing around his office, lost on a long train of thought. The fact that he lied about the breakthrough he mentioned earlier to get resources from the treasury was something that was always in the back of his mind. He and a small team had been working on the manipulation of the metaphysical world for some time now. With all the advantages that they had, magic, alchemy, and ever increasing reliance of the mystical, the progress that they were making could be compared to one trying to wade through a mud pit. Before they could even begin to even attempt to manipulate the soul, they first needed to understand the metaphysics needed to even get to that point, which might as well have been them trying to fit a circular block through a square hole. Everything about it was different than their current understanding of how the physical world worked. The prefix "Meta" was defiantly appropriate.

Another thing that was hindering their progress was the lack of people willing to take on the role in researching, which was expected. Those that refused cited that the team was trying to play gods or was messing with higher powers that they couldn't comprehend. The religiously devout especially were against it, fearing that they would receive the wrath of the gods if they pursued any further than what they had. That did not get in the way of progress, however, and Bradan and his small team continued working on their task at hand. But wouldn't be surprised if they were damned in the process

He sat back down at his desk with his journal, an inkpot, and a quill. Writing down all noticeable observations from the previous days of researching, there was some basic connections that were made. Him and his team traveled to as many ancient religious sites as they possibly could, documenting everything that might be useful to them. Turns out, there was something that they all had something in common. There was a mysterious energy that seemed to permeate from each site, an equal amount from each despite some sites being large megalithic temples and other being simple arrangement of stones in a pattern of significance. Even more confusing was that certain places in towns and cities that had some sort of religious or cultural value also radiated this same energy. This observation was noted in detail in his journal.

Maybe this energy was key to what they were looking for, or might be a coincidence that the energy appeared in paces of significance. It would need further research. He needed time to think on it, or rather sleep on it for that matter; being late at night was not the greatest time to begin experiments or be lost in thoughts of the hypothetical. And it was in his best interest to get a good night's rest before continuing. But that was not what Bradan intended to do. Instead, he continued to work alone in the laboratory. He stood up and walked out of his office and out into the lab.

The lab was completely abandoned except for Bradan. All of the previous experiments had found their stopping places, waiting to be continued the next day when the Alchemist's returned from their homes. All of them were seemingly random and without any connection between one or the other, and generally that was the case. If there was something specifically requested by anyone or any department in particular, they usually delegated the tasks out to be done. This inevitably lead the artillery corps to take up most of the queue in their quest for a better cannon. Bradan was not interested in any of the experiments currently taking place, rather he was wanting to study that mysterious energy that his team felt. And that is exactly what he began doing.

He quickly rushed back into his office and returned quickly with a stack of books, papers, and his quill and inkpot in his arms before plopping himself and his book onto the floor of the room. First to be done was to determine a connection between all of the ancient religious sites. He quickly got to work on a blank piece of paper noting all of the similarities. There was many, mainly symbology that they all had in common. Perhaps that might have been key to the synthesis of the energy. It hit him like a brick wall when he realized that all of the symbology, occult or otherwise, had all been cleaned up during the previous days. He palmed his face in frustration. He needed to get something that he could use to draw the symbols out.

He quickly got to his feet and quickly left the lab and made his way throughout the palace. His first instinct was to make his way to the kitchens to use the wild berries to make a dye, which with his alchemic abilities, would not be difficult to make a dye at all. He moved swiftly through out the corridors and rooms before coming to the kitchens, where he proceeded to scour the cabinets and stores for the berries that he desired, and failed to find any at all. He growled. He made his way out of the kitchens, but not before slyly taking a chunk of rye bread as he left.

He went back to the lab and continued to pace throughout it. There had to be something that he could use. The thought of using the ink in his inkpots crossed his mind but there would not be enough available for him to not only complete all of the symbology and tank observation notes as well. He was stumped. The greatest alchemist and magic practitioner that the kingdom had couldn't find an easy way to solve his problem. His next thought was the flower royal flower gardens. Sure, it could work, but the gardeners as well as Bevan and Jadney would be angry at him for picking an entire section of flowers from the garden just to test something that might not yield any results.

I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't, so why not? He thought. He grabbed a small sized bag and left the laboratory once again and made his way to the garden. This he determined would be a little more risky. There was not many entrances into the palace so there wasn't a need for a large guard force on patrol, but if they saw him out in the garden and did not know it was him out there, they were likely to shoot him with one of their sizable crossbows. He would risk it anyway. Swiftly and silently, he exited out the palace and entered into the royal garden, making sure to avoid the figures that patrolled regularly. He couldn't help but admit that the sense of danger had a thrill to it.

In the pale moonlight, he began to pick various flowers in their entirety from each section of plants, trying to mimic what the gardeners did when the flower beds got overgrown. One by one, he got a verity of different plants to be crushed up and made into a pasted that could would meet the demand for a writing substance. Every now and then checking to make sure that the guards were not patrolling nearby. Thankfully for him, none had shown up nearby. "Well now, that was pretty easy. Now, lets get back to work." Bradan said out loud quietly as he made his way back to the palace. Little did he know that there was a guard assignment that were behind the door with the intention of going out to patrol the very place that he had just been not two minutes earlier.

When the door swung open, Bradan's heart sank to see two burly guards in front of him in full armor and weapons ready to be drawn from their scabbards. Lucky for Bradan, not only was he wearing the distinctive alchemist's robe that signified his job, but also that the bag of flowers that he had picked were under the robe and out of sight as to avoid their suspicion,

"Bradan, what are you doing at this hour? Shouldn't you be getting some shut-eye?" One of the guards said rather loudly. Bradan cringed, as it echoed through the hallways, almost as if they were trying to get the attention of all of those that were asleep. He needed to think quickly to come up with an excuse as to why he was out this late, and it was rather easy to come up with one.

"Earlier I writing down some notes in my journal about some observations that me and a team had made while working on a new project. I thought that it would be a good idea to take break and decided that a midnight walk through the garden would do well." He lied back in reply. They believed him pretty well by the way they acted.

"Well, you get some sleep soon. You're not good when you're tired." It was ironic considering that the guards here were on the night shift. Granted, they probably operated on a nightly schedual so it didn't matter all that much.

"Same to you." Bradan replied back.

"That would be sleeping on the job, and I can't have anyone come in trying to peep at the king and queen at this hour." They all laughed. The guards went on their way outside as Bradan walked back to the laboratory with the sack of flowers that would make the paste that he needed. After a bit of work, a large bowl of a greenish gunk that will have to substitute for paint.

He got to work, quickly, using his own hands to paint on the floor the combination of symbols that all appeared at and on the religious sites. He was frantic in his work, almost in a trance-like state, determined to complete it. Left and right, runes, iconography, hieroglyphs, and common patterns. Running out of paint, he had to hurry up, forgoing some of the more paint-intensive symbology. He worried that he might run out before it was completed. However, that worry soon as he finished up the mural on the floor, sealing the symbols together withing one large circle.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, The energy that Bradan and his team discovered began to surge from the circle on the floor. Unfortunately for Bradan, he was still in the circle when this happened. He was subjected to a large and continuous dose of the energy, so much so to cause cause him to lose conscientious and collapse into the center.

An unknown amount of time passed beforeBradan's eyes shot wide open. He quickly recounted all that had happened before he was knocked unconscious. Sitting up, his eyes moved around the room, checking to see if anyone or anything had happened. So far, so good. Everything had been just how it was left before. The circle on the floor was also in tact and still flowing energy. His observations ended when his eyes locked onto another figure on the floor in the circle with him. He got to his feet and walked cautiously over to the figure. Had another alchemist walked into the circle and fallen victim to the mysterious energy? That was all answered quickly as a quick look at the Quillian on the floor revealed that it was himself.

He might as well have been standing there above himself for hours in perpetual shock. He was a man of science, alchemy, and of magic. There was no rational explanation as to why a duplicate of himself is on the floor. Or was there? The only way to know was to do something to find out. He stepped out of the circle and walked around the room, stretching many muscle groups while doing so. No physical differences could be felt. Next was to find out if interacting with anything was different.

Exiting the circle, we began to walk back towards his office. When he reached for the door handle, his hand slipped right through the top of it and right out the bottom. The epiphany he experienced was like no other he had experienced before. He had done it, although accidentally, separated a soul from it's mortal vessel; from his mortal vessel no less. It was a crude way of doing it, but for the time being it is what him and his team had to work with. As much as he wanted to say like this to see what was truly possible, he decided no to as he could do this again at any point if he wanted to.

He stepped back into the circle where his physical body laid. He though that re-joining his body would be easy as touching the body, and that simple assumption was correct. The moment he touched his body, his perspective changed from a pseudo-third person perspective back into a first person. The energy that permeated from the circle was still intense as it was when he first felt it, but rather than a soul-knocking punch that it gave when it first manifested, it was just extremely noticeable. He got up off the floor and walked out of the circle.

He contemplated on what to do next. It was his habit to document any of his findings but he also didn't want the energy to disturb anyone any further than it already did within the palace. He sought out a brush to break the circle and erase the symbols on the floor. Once found, he erased the circle and the energy stopped. That was good enough for him. He picked up the mess of books and papers on the floor and retreated back into his office where he would document everything that he experienced. Most likely, he would fall asleep in there like he did the other day.

/\/\/\

Lyle had been stationed at Fort Ledura for a while now, and since his arrival, the higher ups had him do a series of aptitude tests on top of his regular soldier training. This would be alright, if he had not shown his recruitment officer his understanding and basic usage of poll arms; they were probably going to put him with the spearman anyway. Lyle didn't dismiss their aptitude testing as useless, although it should have been obvious.

He laid in his soldier's bunk, waiting for enough time to pass until he would slip out of consciousness. Most other soldiers in the room had already fallen asleep. It gave him some time to reflect on his life decisions up to this moment. To put it lightly, there was a falling out with his father that he had not accounted for. Lyle had hid his desire to go into the Royal Army from his family since he was a little boy. His parents were naturally obstinate to his decision no matter how he would have approached them. But he was an adult now, he could make his own decisions.

It was the forge and blacksmith shop that his father ran that was the biggest deciding factor. Lyle had seen the backbreaking work that the forge was, as well as how easy it was to get injured. The same risks were present in joining the Royal Army, and that was many of the things that he had to consider. In the end, it came down to this: If he was ever discharged, he was given a pension based on his merits and time served. If he were to follow his father's footsteps, he would be beaten and broken working till the day he died to make a living. That was no way to go and he was sure of it.

But then again, there were other factors to consider. The kingdom had been preparing to fight the dragons for a long time now, longer than he had even been alive. Had the world not broken apart, the invasion might have already begun, and he could have been on his way to the Dragon Realms by now. The feeling of dread began to creep through him, up his spine to the back of his neck. It was dragons that the Royal Army would be fighting. The apes were somewhat easy to fight; most lacked the intelligence to know the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground. Dragons on the other hand? Not only were they extremely intelligent, but they are able to fly, and use magic naturally from birth. They flying part didn't bother him, it was the idea of dying to the searing flames from a dragon's maw. No… He pushed these thoughts away. This was not the time to be thinking of such things.

He shifted in his bunk, his sore muscles not making it any easier for him. Finally, he slipped away into sleep, joining the rest of the soldiers that had already been sleeping long ago.

AN: I'm sorry for not updating this sooner. I had periodically lost interest and had trouble figuring out what I wanted to do with this chapter, which consequently makes me feel like this is one of if not the weakest entry so far. But that wont discourage me =D

I have a better idea of what I want to be done next chapter so that's good. Also, I'm thinking of jumping on that "Fanfic soundtrack" bandwagon, which I kind of already have some of the song that I would want to include. I do not know for sure though, but I will think on it.