Spyro Bridge Across Worlds Remake
by
Bolt Greywing
Terafree
In this dark land a huge amount of creature voices echoed off in the distance, as though they were searching for something. Cynder was unsure where she was the voices felt odd yet familiar in a way. She couldn't tell if this was a dream or a real place. The voices eventually grew a bit louder causing Cynder twitch slightly as she covered her ears with her paws to shield her. "Where am I? What is this place? Why can't I move or see anything?" Her own voice kind of surprised her as it was more wavy, as though she was speaking in some kind of dream.
For a long while no one answered her questions, and yet in the midst of the darkness she felt a presence approaching her. Good or evil she couldn't tell by the sound alone. The creature appeared to be singing some kind of melody and was carrying some kind of lamp. Cynder couldn't tell what type of lamp it was, but she could feel the warmth it emitted. Cynder was wondering if it would be better to stick to the darkness and pretend that the figure was not there. Darkness had been her companion for a very long time, that light of any kind still brought her a bit of fear. Despite Spyro bringing her out of the darkness, light still caused her a bit of pain. It was not easy for others to accept her after what she had done.
The melody though soft was like a pleasant dream from long ago. As the tune continued Cynder felt herself become less tense and wondered if it was some kind of healing element. Yet nothing in her memory bank seemed to register as to this strange phenomenon. When the creature finally touched her with her paw, the darkness and her blindness seemed to have disappeared. When her eyes fully opened she could see the tall grasses and large mountains that surrounded her. She blinked for a moment or two thinking that this was all a dream. Yet here it stood perfectly preserved, what she thought would have been her home had the apes not intervened. She could even smell the nice pools of water that were at the base of the tall mountains, cool and refreshing and safe from harm.
Cynder wanted to go over to taste the water but the dragon that was there stopped her. "Easy child your body has yet to heal, thankfully we found you just in time." The cyan like dragon spoke to her.
"What is this place? Who are you?" Cynder asked.
"I am Aria the Wind Dragonness and this place is the dragon safe haven Terafree. It is the place that all wounded dragons come to heal, we do our best to protect the weak." Aria replied.
"Terafree? Safe haven? Where have I heard that name before?" Cynder murmured to herself.
"Something wrong child?" Aria asked.
"Its nothing, just a passing thought." Cynder replied. "Aria how was I brought here?"
"You were picked up several days ago by one of my kind as we are one of the fastest dragons in the world. You were found by the Silver river and had lost quite a lot of blood. We were afraid that you wouldn't make it, but you seem to be doing better. At least you are awake now. Thank the stars." Aria sighed as breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thank you for kindness Aria, its just not something I am used to." Cynder replied with a bow.
"Its no problem, I know some of us were bullied quite a lot in the past as hatchlings and you seem to have received the same treatment. Just get some rest child, you will need your strength for the days ahead." Aria replied as she pats Cynder on the head.
"I think I will take your advice and rest a while Aria. Goodnight Aria." Cynder couldn't help but blush as she was patted on the head, it felt so strange as no one ever did that to her before. To welcome her as though she was one of their own.
"Sleep well child." Aria smiled as she patted Cynder one more time before she saw her fall asleep.
The figure then broke the connection with Cynder and began to growl. Ferador so wanted to seal Cynder's soul inside her staff right there and then when she had first arrived here but chose not to. Her children had told her the terror of the skies Cynder had just arrived about 40 minutes ago. Like Ferador they too wanted vengeance on the black dragon, that had taken their very lives as younglings. The children looked to Ferador as a guardian mother of lost souls. Ferador went back to her children knowing they were probably hungry or needed some help training.
"You are quite lucky my little rat, but rest assured Terror of the Night Skies, I have plans for you yet!" Ferador laughed as she left Cynder on her own.
"Mother have you sealed away the terror beast yet?" One of the children asked her when she returned back to her quiet dark cove lit under the green sparkle gems.
"Not yet child, but she will get her turn.' Ferador chuckled.
"Oh boy, I hope we get to feast on her." Shouted another child.
"Eager are you?" Ferador smiled.
"Yes I am, she deserves horrible pain for all the suffering she has caused." Shouted the second child.
"I agree with Axe, she got to live in peace despite killing us. Why should she be allowed to roam the world?" The third child spoke.
Ferador petted each of them in turn. "Patience, patience, we need to have patience. What good is it to send her to her doom now, it would be like a blessing to her. Let her slowly suffer over time at her own actions that she can be taken at the moment when she is the most ripe."
All the children in her cave though many surround her and began to nuzzle her. She enjoyed these moments the most and fed the children ghost apples, berries, and squash.
Her time at Terafree had been cut short after the apes and Cynder crushed all the dragons that had been there. She fought a good hard fight to protect the children but it had been in vain.
She chose this place as a safe haven for good lost souls whose life had been cut short and had gathered thousands of young dragons to her camp. Ferador knew that as the guardian of the dead she needed to protect the children from any harm that might befall them. It made her quite angry that the very dragon that had killed all of them, had wound up here. Still she decided to rest and let her magic restore over the night.
It was a few days later that Aria decided to check on Cynder again. "Well child I think you should be ready enough to walk even though it might be only a little bit. I will try to help you balance." Aria spoke up.
Cynder tried to walk a few steps but collapsed in a heap. "I am better but I think I still need some support. The mountain air must be helping me regain my strength. Its so peaceful."
Aria helped support Cynder with both a paw and tail to help her walk easier. "It is child, our land is a dragon sanctuary and is the best place for dragons to recover." Aria replied.
The two made it to a peaceful meadow near a large willow tree which had a couple of berry bushes near by.
"Thank you for helping me, but I think I could have made it on my own." Cynder blushed as she was not used to people helping her.
"Nonsense child someone has to look after you and besides you are still recovering. Also I figured that you could use some company anyway." Aria smiled.
"I guess your right and there is also a bit of water and berries here too." Cynder smiled.
"I know it is not much, but I don't think you could handle deer meat just yet. I will fetch you some berries and water for you to eat and drink." Aria replied.
She then went off harvesting food from the berry bush and making a vine like basket to hold the water in for the dragon to drink from.
"Thank you Aria for doing this for me." Cynder smiled as she went to drink the water and eat the berries by the basket full.
"Careful child eat slowly, I don't want you to get yourself a tummy ache. You look a lot better now." Aria chuckled. "You act like an extremely hungry hatchling."
"I guess I haven't eaten much food in a while, still this food and water does feel really good on my tummy. I feel a bit stronger, but I still need to regain my strength." Cynder smiled.
It was about an hour or two when several other dragons started to show up and looked at the black dragon with a bit of unease. They were on another corner of the meadow and felt extremely uncomfortable that this dragon had showed up and was eating out of Aria's hand. Most viewed Aria as a fool as they viewed shadow dragons as the ultimate evil and not to be trusted.
"Um Aria I was wondering if it is possible if we could move to another meadow that um doesn't have other dragons in it?" Cynder asked.
"I guess we can move, but this is one of the better ones." Aria replied.
As the two proceeded to leave Cynder could tell the other dragons were not happy with them.
"Aria why do the other dragons hate me so?" Cynder asked.
"Its kind of an ancient hatred that burns within them, shadow dragons are not the most pleasant dragons to be around. Still you are different from those of your own kind. I can feel it." Aria smiled.
"What kind of stuff caused this ancient hatred Aria?" Cynder asked curiously.
"Its an awfully long story and its not suited for young ears." Aria replied as she nuzzled Cynder.
"I haven't been a hatchling in a very long time Aria." Cynder replied and was shocked at how soft her voice was.
"Rytha you know as best as anyone you can't hear that story, not until your tenth hatch day." Aria chuckled.
Cynder was quite puzzled by this turn of events. Who was this Rytha dragon that Aria was talking about? Why was she being called a child? Was she walking around in another dragon's life?
"I guess I will have to wait till then for that story. When will I be able to spread my wings and fly? I want to do a bit more then just sit around here all day." Cynder replied.
"Do not worry Rytha there is plenty of time for that later. All you need to do is focus on getting better is all. Your not yet ready for flight training, though you seem to have had many crash landings child." Aria giggled. "I should probably call you Rytha storm breaker."
Cynder couldn't help but feel any more embarrassed in her life. Not only was she was still very young, but she was a very bad flier. She wondered if Spyro had made it to this place or if he was someplace else. As they continued to walk to the different meadow she wondered if the other dragons were following her. She dared not look back to see. Suddenly she felt the touch of a wing on her shoulder and wondered if one of the dragons had caught up to her and began to panic. She turned her head to see and noticed it was only Aria's wing on her shoulder and began to relax.
When they went to the next meadow which didn't have any other dragons nearby Aria let Cynder eat several baskets full of berries, she went even as far as to rub Cynder's tummy after she pushed Cynder on her back.
"Eat as much of the yummy berries as you wish child, and I will put you back in the nest." Aria giggled.
Cynder couldn't help but blush even more as she was being treated like a young hatchling. The berries tasted better than anything she had in a very long time and it felt rather nice to be among friends, still she did miss being around Spyro.
After some amount of time had passed from eating the berries Cynder started to feel a bit tired and felt that it might of just been the delicious fruit that she ate.
"Don't worry child get some rest, you are safe here. No harm will ever come here." Aria spoke.
"Oof so sleepy, I think I might sleep a while." Cynder yawned before passing out.
"Good night Cynder, pleasant dreams and may the fallen haunt you." Aria chuckled and promptly moved her to some place safe.
It didn't really matter that Ferador had goofed up on Aria's last speech, the dragon was too far gone to have even notice the slip up. The poisoned food that she had fed Cynder had gone according to plan. The dragon fool heartily trusted Aria easily and without much hesitation. Her sister might have been a fool to trust a shadow dragon, but she some how had power over the other dragons that made it hard to doubt her. Like a cat playing with a mouse Ferador enjoyed playing with her victims souls and Cynder's was quite the prize. She made it feel like she was indeed helping Cynder when in fact she was poisoning her very soul. Ferador was using a very slow acting poison to make Cynder suffer as much as possible. She had got a bit of lessons of manufacturing poisons from poison dragons, which had got her into a couple of scrapes over time.
Ferador wondered if she might send her children after Cynder to toy with her prior to finishing her off. Still the magic to keep up the illusion was quite taxing and she decided to head back to her cove.
"Hello mother, what news do you bring?" The children asked as they wagged their tails eagerly.
"Well I have administered the poison to the Terror Beast, she will suffer for a long while." Ferador smiled.
"Oh you took the Teramaple, a very slow acting poison." The children giggled.
"That I did, and messing with her soul is only just the beginning." Ferador chuckled.
"Ooh bring on the fear, delicious tasty fear, so yummy she will be." One of the children sings.
"Let the chase begin, for fear of us is what she will see." Sang a second.
"When it is done, what a great feast it will be." Sang a third.
"For the Terror Beast time is nearly at an end!" Sang a fourth.
"What a great Feast, Feast, Feast, Feast it will be!" The children shouted together eagerly laughing like jackals.
When Cynder woke up again things were very different two weeks time had past and she found herself in the midst of a battlefield. Cynder was very confused as time had shifted quite drastically and she noticed that Aria was busy fighting off an army of apes along with several other dragons. Not carrying if her feet worked well or not she ran towards her. While her wings refused to work, her feet did and she was not going to let Aria get slaughtered without a fight. Cynder felt a bit woozy but she didn't let that stop her as she rammed ten to fifteen apes with her small horns. She attempted to use her fear, but it failed to work and she realized that Rytha didn't have that power.
"Rytha run! Get yourself away from here!" Aria shouted after taking down twenty apes.
"I want to help you Aria to beat the apes." Cynder replied.
"There is too many apes to fight, flee while you still have the chance." Aria shouted. "Terafree is about to fall!"
"Then I will fight with you to the bitter end. I want to help." Cynder replied.
"No child my fate is sealed, but soon yours will be too if you don't wake up!" Aria replied.
"I never did much to help my friends, but I will make my stand here!" Cynder shouted. "I will do this, to break the darkness. I have to!"
Somewhere off in the distance a large shadowy figure was coming closer. Its intentions were quite crystal clear, which was that of death.
(Author's notes: This part of the story introduces a part of Cynder's story that is not told very often. It tells the story from the slain dragonlings point of view. They wonder why Cynder was allowed to live despite all the darkness she inflicted on everyone else. Ferador is like a guardian mother to the children both in life at Terafree and in death and she believes her sister was a fool to trust a shadow dragon for all they do is leave destruction in their wake.
It has been quite a while since I have written another chapter and so I might be a bit rusty. I have to say this is the first time I have seen a chapter hit 8 pages in quite a long time. There is one more chapter that I need to write, before I need to figure out what the next set of chapters will be about. This first Spyro book will end in 30 – 42 chapters, which will give me a goal to work towards.)