Chapter 7

"So...you and Cynder, thought you said you were just friends," said Thorin in a mocking tone. "Yeah well," Spyro looked up to see one of Cynder's closed eyes, she had fallen asleep along the way, "things happen that we never expect."

Thorin saw the look on Spyro's face as he looked at her, he's in love alright, he chuckled and looked back to the path. They had been walking for hours now trying to cover as much ground as they could before they set up camp, Cynder had begged Spyro to let her walk but he refused every time, eventually she dozed off leaving Spyro with only Thorin to talk to.

"Hey Thorin," he glanced back at him signaling that he was listening, "do you have anyone? A wife I mean." Thorin slowed slightly but sighed and went back to his normal pace, "I used to...have someone...but..."

"But what?" asked Spyro, he quickened his pace so that he was now walking next to him, "what happened?" Thorin glanced at Cynder for a while, Spyro could see some anger in his eyes but Thorin turned away and stopped, "...we should...we should set up camp here..its getting too dark."

Spyro stared at him as he made a circle of stones and placed some dry grass inside, he took two stones out of his bag and stroke them together, he did this once or twice before stopping. "...It...happened during the war...before you came along, back when Cynder...These were hard times Spyro, you got too attached to something it was bound to go away...it always did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-Flashback-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This was back when our tribe was under another chief, chief Mirthonus, he was a nice person, always looked after his own and even those who weren't. And Prowlus, well he was his son...he was never all that friendly, the only thing he cared about was the war and that everyone did their job as expected."

"We fought for years against Cynder's army and finally had them and her cornered, we had lured them into a vast cave full of tunnels, anyone that didn't know that cave would get lost. Well, they did and that gave us a chance to finally end it all, me and Lilliath...my..wife..were told to run back to the village and give the signal."

"We ran as fast as we could to get back to the village but were jumped by chimps on the way, she...she uhm," Thorin did his best not to break down and wiped away the tears, "she uh..she t..told me to uh, to keep going...I..there were so few...she was great with swords but...As I ran I..I heard her yell...and turned around, I saw her get struck on the back by a chimp...needless to say that I killed every single one of them...but I...I was too late."

"I took her in my arms, she was still breathing and awake...I was enraged...I cursed Cynder and her army for what had happened but, she was always such a kind soul, so strong...she was so calm, didn't even look afraid...I can still feel her paw as she touched my face and told me it was okay...we all go eventually..right...

"I...I...l...love..you..Th..Tho..."

"She...did...didn't even f..finish her sentence...I broke down then and there, I didn't care if anyone was around...eventually that sadness turned into rage and...I buried her body as fast as I could..I ran back afterwards to the village...I killed everything I saw, though...butchered would be more accurate...I'm not proud of what I did."

"when I finally arrived at the village it was no surprise when I found Prowlus next to his and my dad...when he saw me he...he was ready to kill me..but managed to stay somewhat calm...he yelled at me asking me why I hadn't given the signal...I told him of what had happened but he didn't seem to care, he just kept yelling at me.

"So what if she's dead you have any idea how many more will die thanks to you and that...you doomed her and the whole tribe, we're dead because of you and so is she...it's all you fault." I guess my anger wasn't completely gone and, well...I punched him as hard as I could straight in the face...managed to knock some teeth out...Mirthonus stepped in before it got worse, before that day I had never seen him angry...guess after so many years he finally had enough."

"well as you would expect Mirthonus banished me and...my dad from the tribe...dad's tribe, oh right...you see during the war we combined both our tribes in order to have more of a chance against Cynder, anyway, they followed us and well we eventually found ourselves a place to live...well You..know the rest.

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"My dad always blamed me for what happened, can't really judge him," he struck the two stones together and managed to get a small flame going, "I don't blame Cynder for what happened, but I do blame her army for her death...and I blame myself for not staying behind when I could."

Thorin stood up and looked at Spyro, he had a sad look on his face but Thorin was in too much pain to notice. "It's good to see that you have someone...take care of her, cuz if you ever lose her.." Thorin's looked depressed as he looked down and rubbed a golden ring that was around one of his fingers, "you'll never forget it," he whispered. Thorin rubbed his paws together and stood up, "I'm uh...gonna go get some..some firewood uh...yeah," he pulled out a hatchet from his pack and walked into the forest.

Spyro stood there completely paralyzed by what Thorin had told him, hearing what had happened to Thorin made him feel awful. Spyro looked up to see Cynder still calmly asleep, He's always been so happy...I would've never expected this. Spyro thought of what Thorin said, what if I did lose her...would I be strong enough to keep going?

Just the thought made Spyro tremble in fear, he quickly shook the thought away and lowered himself to the ground. He gently pushed Cynder off with one of his wings but as she rolled of his back she awoke with a start, "wha..what happened."

"Sorry, I tried to get you off without waking you up but, I guess that didn't work," Cynder yawned and looked around. "Its okay Spyro..where's Thorin?" right after she asked that Thorin came out of the bushes carrying a pile of wood. "Oh hey Cynder," he dropped the wood on the ground and threw some sticks on the small flame trying to make it grow, "I see you're finally awake, you hungry?" Asked Thorin in seemingly better mood.

Before she could say anything her stomach growled loudly making Spyro and Thorin chuckle a bit, Cynder was a little embarrassed but simply shook it off, "I'll take that as a yes, hey Spyro, you wanna help me hunt." Spyro was about to say yes but decided not to leave Cynder by herself, "no? Fine, I'll be back," he said as he grabbed his bow and quiver as he made his way into the forest once more.

Cynder waited until Thorin was out of sight and turned to Spyro, "hey Spyro," he looked over at her, "you remember what you told me, back at the village." Spyro tilted his head a little confused as to what she meant, "what do you mean Cynder?"

She hesitated for a while not wanting to bring up the subject but eventually convinced herself to say it, "about you and me...becoming...uh...mates." Spyro tensed up a bit when she said it and feared that she was mad at him, "I'm sorry Cynder it...it was too early, I swear if I offended you in some way, I'm sorry.."

"Spyro it's okay," she said trying to calm him down, "I'm not offended, it's just...why would you want to be mates with me, not exactly the worlds greatest choice," she said looking down. Spyro looked at her and smiled, "Cynder...to me there is no greater choice," he laid a paw over her back and carefully pulled her closer to him, "and nothing would make me happier than to be mates with you, that way I'd know that we'd be together for the rest of our lives...and maybe...i..if you want...uh," Spyro seemed to hesitate for a moment but managed to pull himself together, "we could uhh...you know... have a family."

Cynder looked up at him with hopeful eyes, "yo...you wanna have a...family...with...me,"Never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought that Spyro, or anyone in that case, would ever say something like that to her and yet it was happening right now. "Eventually, I don't think I'm ready for that yet but...yeah," Cynder was so happy by what he had said that she tackled him onto his back and kissed him on the mouth before he could even move, they heard a crack coming from the woods and looked over to see Thorin standing there with a grin on his face and two boars over his shoulder.

"Am I interrupting something, I could always give you some time to uh...get comfortable," Spyro and Cynder quickly pulled away from the kiss and sat on their hunches a little bit away from each other. Thorin laughed for a while but eventually stopped and laid the boars next to the fire.

"Guess I should've taken longer huh?" he asked while he skinned one of the boars, the look on their faces alone was enough to make Thorin wanna burst out in laughter. "...is that all you could find?" asked Cynder as she walked over next to him and helped skin the other boar with her tail scythe.

Thorin stopped cutting and looked up at her with a surprised expression, "gee I'm sorry, maybe if buddy boy over there had come with me there would've been more...sorry to disappoint." "I...I'm sorry," Cynder looked down a little ashamed, "I shouldn't judge." Thorin grinned and went back to cutting, "I'm just joking around Cynder."

Cynder seemed to relax when he said that and went back to skinning the dead animal in front of her. While they did that Spyro had lied down on the ground and rested his paws, he had been carrying Cynder all night and in the weakened state he was in that wasn't exactly easy. Spyro of course kept that to himself as to not worry her but at this point he would be lucky if could feel his paws within the week.

Thorin finished taking the skin off the boar and proceeded to slitting its throat so that all the blood would drain out of its body, "why do you do that?" asked Cynder as she finished peeling the skin off the animal and placed it over the fire. "well Cynder, dragons have a stronger immune system and that allows you to eat things that to us cheetahs would either make us sick or kill us."

Cynder tilted her head to the side as she looked at Thorin, "immune system?" "yeah," said Spyro as he walked over to them, "it's what keeps us from getting sick from the food we eat, think of it as a filter in our stomach," said Spyro as he threw a piece of wood on the fire.

Thorin looked at Spyro questioningly and rubbed his chin, "okay, how do you know that...but not her" he asked as he looked over at Cynder who seemed as confused as he was. Spyro lied down next to the fire and looked at Thorin, "Volteer, he taught me many things while I was still living in the temple."

"Volteer, isn't he one of those guardian dragons that lived in the used-to-be swamp?" Spyro and Cynder both nodded, "huh, always wanted to meet them, I tried to go inside once but didn't even make it to the front door." They all laughed and kept the conversation going while their dinner cooked.

They mainly talked about their adventures, Spyro and Cynder told Thorin about their journey to the volcano, Hunter's name seemed to catch his attention more than anything but he decided not to say anything and kept listening to their story.

"Wow, I had no idea you had gone through so much, I'm surprised you guys are still alive," Thorin looked over at their dinner and seemed to get lost in his thoughts, "Hunter...could it..." Thorin shook his head and removed their food from the fire and onto a sheet on the ground.

"you okay Thorin?" asked Spyro, he noticed the serious look he had in his face before and wandered what had caused it. "of course I'm okay I can finally eat, I'm starving," he said as he ripped a peace of meat off and took a bite out of it, "hmmm, not half bad."

Cynder was next to chow down as she split the animal in half and started eating it, Spyro wasn't convinced that Thorin was okay but decided to leave him alone and began eating his half. They finished eating quickly due to the somewhat small portion of food they had but, it was enough to satisfy them.

"Well, I'd love to stay and talk some more but, I'm tired from fighting and hunting so if you need me I'll be up there," Thorin said as he climbed onto the branch of a nearby tree and dosed off. Spyro and Cynder both stood up and stretched, "how's your paw Cynder?" asked Spyro looking back at Cynder's damaged paw.

"I'll live, stop worrying so much Spyro," Cynder yawned loudly and closed her eyes, "but I am tired so I'm going to sleep," she gave Spyro a peck on the cheek, "goodnight Spyro," she said as she walked away and lied down at the foot of a tree.

Spyro smiled at her, no matter how many times that happened he still couldn't get used to her kissing him. Spyro yawned and lazily walked over to Cynder, "Mind if I sleep with you?" Cynder looked up at him with one eye and grinned, "thought you said you weren't ready to become mates," Cynder giggled at Spyro's worried expression, "I'm just kidding Spyro, and I would appreciate if you did."

Spyro calmed down and lied down next to her, he wrapped his paws around her body and draped a wing aver her, "goodnight, Cyn." Cynder looked back at him, "Cyn?" she asked a little confused as to why he had called her that. "yeah, short for Cynder...you don't like it?" Cynder thought about it for a while, Cyn...kinda cute I guess, why not, "yeah, I do its...nice," she said as she turned her body around and placed her head under his.

"that's good to hear," he yawned and closed his eyes. The two dragons fell asleep after a couple minutes and this time Cynder didn't seem to be having nightmares, she always felt a lot calmer when she slept with Spyro. Thorin chuckled and shook his head, "goodnight Lilliath," he said as he looked up at the stars and rubbed his ring, "wish you were here," he said as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

XXXXXX-MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST-XXXXX

"Stay back, all of you!," yelled a cheetah holding a dull, beat up sword, he was surrounded by a group of grublin flies that had been chasing him for the past hour. A strange light emanated from behind him and all the grublin flies flew away, leaving the cheetah confused, "uhhh...yeah, that's what I thought! Cowards hahaha..."

The cheetah turned around and froze as he looked into portal of pitch black, he stumbled back as the portal began to break apart. The cheetah dove for cover as the portal exploded into a cloud of dark clouds, as they cleared up the cheetah looked up from behind his rock and looked at a strange creature.

His ears were long and pointy, had five fingers in each hand, and no hair other than in his head, his eyes seemed to be covered with dark clouds so thick that you couldn't even look at his actual eyes. This creature wore a dark trench coat that seemed to be emanating a dark cloud of sorts, "ahhh, finally free...how nice."

"who are you...wh...what are you," asked the cheetah as he stepped out of his cover and shakily pointed his sword at him. "many pardon's, my name is Kyro...not that it'll matter in a few minutes," he said as he stepped closer to the cheetah.

"stay back...I'm warning you, I will ki" he was cut short as Kyro kicked away his sword and, catching the sword as it fell, spun around impaling him from behind. The cheetah fell to the ground and Kyro looked the blade, "pathetic sword but, it'll have to do for now."

he looked back at the cheetah and took the sword's sheath away, "now then, it's about time I took back what is rightfully mine, but this time" he sheathed the sword and took out an old looking map, "I plan to keep it," his hand glowed with darkness and a portal appeared infront of him, "no matter who stands in my way," he said as he stepped into the portal and disappeared.

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Sorry if I took too long but at least this time it didn't take me a month...right? Anyway, I tried to make some sort of schedule but I recently got Tomb Raider, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect 2 and I lose track of time so easily.

Look I'll, I'll try to get my self organized but...I don't think that's even possible at this point, maybe after I finish those games but until then These chapters might take a while...either way, like usual if you got comments, complaints, or questions feel free to private message me or leave reviews.

Sorry for the size of the chapter but I promise next chapter will be a lot longer anyway, Peace.