Things were starting to heat up, if the artillery and combative gnorcs were anything to go by. They were still easy enough to take out but still.

After clearing out the homeworld's treasure and...mooning gnorcs he went over to Gosnold the balloonist and asked him what was up as he seemed dismayed.

"I don't feel comfortable leaving my post until you gotten all that treasure, Spyro," he says.

"Okay...wait? How did you-"

"Word spreads around fast young dragon. Now go on, save the realm please?"

"Oh, alright then..." He stampers away heading towards one of the portals.

Spyro sat near the exit portal of Dry Canyon staring up at a high ledge. He could see a...dragon, some gems and a shiny gold thing that he just knew was the key to a far away chest on a ledge you had to take a, what seemed to be hours long glide to get to.

Now how would he get up there? He couldn't glide from here as it was too high to reach. That might be so but could he glide from somewhere else? And that's how Spyro found himself the edge of an opening in the back of the canyon. He sticked his head out looking around the canyon wall to his left. He couldn't see anything but he was sure this was the direction of that ledge he had his eyes on.

He took a deep breath and jumped off the edge opening his wings. He glided around the canyon wall then he saw the ledge come into view and he landed on it and nabbed that key.

Hmm... So, Dry Canyon does reward good gilders.

"Hmm...I wonder what's on the other side of that river?"

From the top of the Cliff Town's buildings he could see the other side of the purple river a cliff with gems sparkling in the distant. No point in wondering, he gotta get over their.
He backed up till his tail hit the wall behind himself then he ran and jumped off.

Wind puffed up his opened wings slowing his descent. Gliding was always bliss, he felt free and calm though it was often short lived unfortunately. However the bliss he felt distracted him enough to underestimate how far was the gap was entirely. By the time he realized he wasn't gonna make the glide it was too late.

His claws hooked into the wall. Pure adrenaline pushed him to scramble his way up and over the ledge. Then he flopped down, belly resting against the warm sand, just breathing. He gazed down into the pit he almost fell into. Purple doom dark as the night with no way out of it once you fell in.

He let out a sigh of relief. "That was a close one, wasn't it Sparks?"

Sparks buzzed in dismay.

"Sparks? Sparks!" He called as he ran through the freezing caverns frantically looking for his dragonfly. He was nowhere to be found, after his most resent fight the little guy disappeared. No light, no soft buzzing, No nothing. He was alone in the Ice Caverns with nothing but the silence and it chilled him to the bone.

What happened to Sparks? After that fight... No... He better not be...

"Sparks-" His shouts were cut off by frozen slush hitting his face. Then he tripped and tumbled head over heels. He felt something sharp rip across his side making him cry out. He tumbled to a stop near the edge of a cavern. Ignoring the pain in his side, he quickly turned to snarl at the gnorc and flamed it.

He stared with annoyance as the charred gnorc poofed back into a gem.

Spyro sighed looking back at the edge he almost fell off of. A trail of blood followed where he tumbled, some of the more sharp looking rocks where covered in the crimson. He grimaced now aware of the sticky warmth running down his side. Tentatively he moved his head to look at himself. Deep red streaks parted his scales. They went from his hind leg to his shoulder. Lines of blood trailed down from them to the ground.

Oh. Oh man. Jeez.

How was he gonna stop the blood? There was nothing he could use around here to staunch it. Uh... The cold was numbing his wounds so maybe it would stop the bleeding too? He would just have to deal with it and hope it got better. After all how could he find Sparks and save the day if he was dead?

He wasn't sure if taking on Dr. Shemp now was the best idea. His side thankfully stopped bleeding a long while ago but the pain was still there.

Whether it's from his injuries or not he found himself taking a more cautious approach, something most, even him, would not expect to see from Spyro. Which is ironic, considering the enemies charging in recklessly.

With this approach it was quite simple to get to Dr. Shemp's door step. He peeked over the ledge of the boss' platform.

Shemp was just standing around admiring himself saying stuff like 'look at me I'm so pretty' and 'oh mama, looking fine since the day I was born.' Spyro rolled his eyes at him.

Spyro glanced back at the dragon trapped in crystal behind him and frowned. He can only imagine the horrors of listening to this guy all day everyday.

He let go of the ledge when Shemp tried to bash him with his staff then he jumped onto the platform to start the fight. Spyro kept his distance, as Shemp was covered in metal and he didn't really know how to attack him yet, but as he turned around to do a cool move he saw his bare armorless butt. Spyro grinned.

Bingo.

He flamed him in the butt and Shemp hopped away trying to put out his flaming bottom. Spyro chuckled in amusement and chased after.
Shemp may have changed up his attacks but it made no difference as Spyro fought accordingly.

He jumped over Shemp's staff and nabbed the final hit on the boss. But just after he got the final hit the staff came back around and whacked him off the platform. He managed to hook his claws into the wall and he struggled back up towards the ledge.

Not again! I can make it, I can-

Then he heard it.

The crumbing of rock under his paws and his eyes widened.

Then the ground slipped out from underneath his paws and he fell backwards towards the purple doom.

AN/

In the original games the developers had an inside joke that whenever something went wrong they'd say someone got the Shemp. This is where the title of this chapter comes from. Spyro got the Shemp.