Sparx opened his eyes, and began to look around his room. It had been exactly as it was when he left years ago. Through the Dragonfly's mind emerged old memories of when he would play with Spyro. A smile went across Sparx's face. He wondered how things would have been if Spyro had never left home. The Dragonflies daydreaming was interrupted by someone calling his name.
"Sparx, you awake?" The Dragonfly left his room and saw Spyro and Cynder waiting for him.
"A little early don't you think?" Sparx was rubbing his eyes.
"Well considering how far Warfang is we probably want to get going." The Purple Dragon looked at his brother, awaiting an answer.
"Alright, let's go say bye to mom and dad." Sparx along with his brother made their way to the home of their parents with Cynder following close behind. Soon they made their way to Spyro's foster parents.
"Good morning you two." Nina smiled to her son's.
"Hey mom. Listen, we need to go back to Warfang." Spyro's mother seemed disappointed and looked at the Purple Dragon.
"I understand." She hugged Spyro and Sparx. "You two better make sure to visit, and not in three years this time." Nina smiled. They began to make their way out, but Nina called out. "Cynder!" The Dragoness looked back puzzledly to the Dragonfly. Nina flew up to Cynder. "You take care of my boys, I know they can be a handful at times." Cynder smiled to the Dragonfly and nodded, Nina returned the smile. Flash waved a hand of goodbye before the Dragons and Sparx left them, and walked into the swamp. They turned a corner and to their surprise a female Dragonfly flew there with a devilish grin.
"Hi there Sparx, I just wanted to send thanks to my savior." The Dragonfly flew close to Sparx. The yellow Dragonfly looked back to his brother.
"You two can go on ahead, I've, uh, got something I need to take care of." The Dragons let out a chuckle before taking off into the skies, temporarily leaving Sparx behind. After some time of flying and talking amongst each other a Yellow Dragonfly flew into the sky and next to Spyro. The Purple Dragon looked at Sparx and noticed markings of lips all over his face. Spyro let out a laugh, as did Cynder. The Dragonfly looked at the Dragon awkwardly.
"Seems like you have an admirer." Cynder still laughing.
"What can I say, saving the world has its perks."
"Since when did you save the world?" Spyro looked to his Dragonfly brother with a smirk on his face.
"Since you became a special once in a Purple hero." The Dragonfly paused for a moment and smiled. "And since I told everyone back at the village that I helped you save the world." Spyro let out a chuckle.
"You are a sly one, my glowing friend."
"About time someone gets it." Sparx looked to the Black Dragoness flying to the other side of him. "And Spyro, I'm not the only one with a." Sparx cleared his throat. "'admirer"' Suddenly a cyclone of wind sent the Dragonfly off course far into the sky. Spyro and Cynder laughed, Sparx quickly flew back to the two Dragons. "Wow Cynder, that didn't take much." Another cyclone launched the Dragonfly away, again Sparx flew back to the Dragons. "You can stop now." The Dragonfly waited a few moments before saying anything. "Thank you." Sparx got shot back again, it could be heard him calling out through the clouds. "Oh, come-on what did I do that time!"
The three friends, whom were as close as family made their way to Warfang. They spent their time mostly just talking amongst each other.
"So, flying. Yay, much stuffs going on." Sparx looked awkwardly to the two Dragons.
"Yup." Spyro responded to his foster brother before turning his attention to Cynder. "So, what did you think?" Cynder looked strangely at the Purple Dragon.
"Think? Think of what?"
"Of our home, where me and Sparx grew up."
"It was kind of obvious." Sparx mumbled under his breath. The Black Dragoness looked to the Purple Dragon now understanding the question.
"It was nice, your family was very kind. I'm mostly just glad that you two had the chance to see them again after over three years. I hope we get to go back sometime soon." Cynder again looked to the brothers. "We might want to hurry our pace Flame and Cynder are probably waiting for us at the training room." Spyro nodded, and instantly she took off as if she were a bullet through the sky, Spyro also did the same. Sparx did a 360 turn due to the sudden blast of wind from the two Dragons until he sped up himself.
Nearly an hour passed until they could see the city. Again, Cynder and Spyro darted towards the city at the speed of lightning, quickly entering the main temple to again see the candidates along with the Earth guardian waiting inside.
"You two are late. I'll need to speak with you after training." Spyro and Cynder nodded to Terrador. "Now let's begin. Same order as before, Flame and Spyro step to the middle." The Dragons did as they were told. "Begin!"
Flame leaped to the Purple Dragon. Spyro quickly jumped to the side out of danger and went into a defensive stance. The Fire candidate quickly reacted by breathing a stream of fire to the ground under Spyro. Quickly Spyro again jumped up to the sky and glided to the side away from Flame's stream of fire. He then released his own fire stream to Flame chose to use what he learned from Spyro and created a fire shield around him, but rather than it being a shield it became a small wall in front of the Fire Dragon. The Dragon was surprised due to creating something he didn't mean to, but quickly shook the thought out of his head. Flame looked up and saw a barrage of fire balls going over the wall targeted on the Red Dragon. Flame attempted to shoot the fires away with his own, but there were too many. Realizing this Flame covered himself in his wings to lower the amount of pain Spyro's attack would cause. Spyro attempted to direct the fire below and around Flame to prevent his best-friend from getting hurt. Only one bolt hit the Red Dragon directly, the others landed under or around him. Flame then seemed to give Spyro a face of gratitude before charging into him. Again, Spyro shot a bolt of fire directed at Flames feet, but just before hand Flame jumped to the side, but lost his footing and fell to the ground. Spyro helped his friend up from the floor.
"That could have gone better." Flame chuckled to his mistake.
"Honestly you did pretty good. Comparing this sparing match to yesterday's you did improve your defense. Nice work." Spyro smiled to the Red Dragon.
"Thanks, Spyro."
"You two step back, Ember, Cynder now it is your turn." All four Dragons did as they were told and the Dragonesses took their place. "Begin!"
Cynder seemingly disappeared into the shadows, Ember quickly took a wary stance, claws out, ready to react and attack. Ember looked in all directions but couldn't see, or even hear anything. After a few moments, she looked down and saw a shadow move.
"Oh crap." Instantly a shadow strike uppercut the Pink Dragoness sending her back causing a back flip. Ember quickly jumped back up, slightly quivering from Cynder's blow. She could see the Black Dragoness moving towards her at seemingly lightning speed. Ember released her sparkler attack, sending fire in all directions, as a precaution she also released a stream of fire to at least slow down Cynder. The Black Dragoness quickly stopped in her placed to not be burned by the stream of fire in front of her, though because of this she took several blows from Ember's sparklers. Cynder growled at the bursts of pain before she disappeared into the shadows. Ember continued to use her fire stream as she saw that it kept the Black Dragoness at bay, but she didn't notice Cynder creeping up behind Ember within the shadows. Flame wanted to call out to Ember to tell her that Cynder was just behind her, but he couldn't as that would disrupt the training. The Red Dragon covered his eyes with his wing, just moments afterwards Ember received a barrage of shadows strikes from the back before Cynder released a Cyclone of wind sending the Pink Dragoness across the room.
The eyes of the Black Dragoness again turned to their red state, Ember saw this and had already formed a plan to counter attack Cynder's scream. The siren scream never came though, and to the amazement of the Pink Dragoness rather than the scream there came two ghastly red orbs that flew to her. The Dragoness became dazed, becoming dizzier as the orbs got closer. After a few moments, Ember couldn't even move. The orbs released a burst of energy creating a blast knocking Ember to the ground.
Flame quickly rushed over to help Ember up, the Pink Dragoness continued to curse herself within her own mind. Terrador gave instructions to the Fire Candidates and they made their way out of the training room. Sparx along with Spyro and Cynder remained within the training room. The room went silent for several moments until Terrador broke it.
"Sparx you do not have to stay."
"But what if I want to?"
"I need to speak with Spyro and Cynder, please at least wait outside." The Dragonfly glanced between the Earth guardian and Spyro. The Purple Dragon gave a face of 'just do it.'
"Ok fine. Don't be too long, I don't want to miss breakfast." The Dragonfly made his way out of the training room, waiting outside.
"Now Spyro, Cynder, if you do not mind I need to speak to you about a few things." The hatchlings nodded to Terrador. "Good. Now starting off, could you please tell me what happened after you defeated Malefor, you went missing for weeks. Spyro spoke up to the Guardian.
"Well, honestly we just wanted a break." Terrador looked curiously at the hatchlings.
"A break?" Cynder then looked up to Terrador.
"Well yeah. It's just that me and Spyro spent so much time fighting for the world, worried about the Dark forces that fought for its destruction, and when we defeated Malefor there was nothing left to be worried about, we could enjoy ourselves."
"I understand. You two have given much for the sake of the world. Now, where were you yesterday, and this morning?" Spyro seemed gleeful to respond to the Guardian.
"Home."
"What do you mean by home?" Spyro went on to tell the Guardian about how they eventually got to the childhood home of the Purple Dragon and Sparx. "Well, I'm glad that you managed to see your family after so many years. I do have more questions when it comes to your battle with Malefor, but I will keep them to myself for the time-being. You two are excused." The Dragons exited the training room and saw the glowing Dragonfly waiting for them.
"Can we go, I'm already in a bad mood since we had to leave mom and her cooking." The Dragonfly sighed. "Mama knew just how to do it." The Dragons chuckled, and then all three of them began to make their way to the Dining Hall.
A few hours passed since the training room exercise. The Fire candidates were to spend the day learning from the lightning Guardian Volteer.
"Now, today as I myself cannot clarify to you the prehistoric arts of Fire, you two are allocated to do your research amongst the library, learning everything that you conceivably can. The one thing that I wish for you to divert your attention on for the day is to find an ancient combatant ability known as, epikefalís tis fotias, also meaning head of fire in ancient Dragonian." Flame rolled his eyes.
"Oh, this is going to be fun." The Lightning guardian looked down at the Red Dragon.
"Glad that you are excited to learn." Just as the Guardian said this Flame began to curse himself within his own mind for saying anything. Ember released a chuckle. "Now, get going. I will check on you in approximately a sixty-minute era." The Dragons turned around and made their way to the library.
"I swear I don't get how Spyro can understand him." Ember chuckled and looked to the Red Dragon.
"I guess it's something that you get used to."
"How do you get used to someone talking, as Volteer would say, to the molecular level." Ember giggled to Flame's comment.
"Seems like Volteer is rubbing off on you."
"I hope not!" Both candidates laughed and entered the library. They both studied together, and eventually found they were looking for. "So, do we wanna go try it out?"
"I guess so." Ember grabbed the book within her jaws, and the Fire Dragons made their way to a nearby miniature training room. After about twenty minutes Ember managed to perform the epikefalís tis fotias, or head of fire. What emanated from the mouth of the Dragoness was the head of a Dragon, though it was only a newborn hatchling, not reaching its full potential power. Ember continued to practice the attack, but several minutes past yet Flame still couldn't perform the head of fire. He directly followed each direction within the book, but all that came from his mouth was a puff of smoke. The Red Dragon slammed his fist against the floor.
"How do I do this?" The Dragon shouted, causing Ember to slightly jump. The Dragoness quickly walked up to the Dragon.
"You're too tense, try to relax a bit." Ember began to change the posture of the Red Dragon with her paws. Flame seemed to slightly jump, though didn't say anything. "Try it now." Flame took another attempt at the epikefalís tis fotias, and what came from the Dragons mouth was the head of a fully-grown Dragon that flew forward and created an explosion sending the Dragons to the back of the room.
"Woah."
"Wow, that was insane." The room was silent for a moment.
"Thanks a lot Ember. What would I do without your help."
"That's a scary thought." The Dragoness shivered. They both laughed aloud before returning to practicing the move. Flame seemed to have mastered the ability, though Ember was not very far behind. Volteer walked into the training room.
"I perceive that you two partaken in practicing, Ember do you mind making an attempt?" Ember shot out from her mouth the head of a Dragon about the age of Spyro, and strangely enough looked almost exactly like the Purple Dragon aside for the fact that it was fire. Flame felt slightly unsettled from this. "You have made significant progress young Dragoness. Flame you next." The Red Dragon released from his mouth a proud and young Dragon, that seemed to replicate a younger version of Blazeus. The head created an explosion sending all the Dragon back. Volteer stared in awe. "That is absolutely superb. That is a technique in which it takes significant time to master, at the absolute least a week, yet you managed to do it within an hour. That is absolutely marvelous, you will make a good candidate indeed."
"Thank you Master Volteer." The Guardian smiled to the Red Dragon.
"You two run along now, enjoy yourselves for the diurnal. You've earned it." Volteer left the room to the candidates.
"Diurnal?" Flame whispered into the ear of Ember.
"It means day."
"Now I understand why Sparx makes such a big deal about how Volteer talks." The Pink Dragoness giggled.
"Please don't become another Sparx."
"I don't plan to." The Dragon paused for a moment. "Well again, thanks a lot Ember, you've helped a lot already. I don't know why, I just can't seem to wrap my head around these books." Ember smiled to the Red Dragon.
"Hey, what are friends for?"
Much of the day has passed and Flame along with Ember had spent much talking. Somewhat to the annoyance of Flame, the main thing that Ember would speak up was primarily about Spyro. He tried to not show these feelings. Ember was unaware of the Red Dragon's feelings for her, and she was already his friend, he didn't want to ruin it due to jealousy. The sun began to fall, and Ember remembered the strange Dragon that hid in the bushes the night before.
"Oh crap!"
"What is something wrong?"
"No, it's fine, I just need to talk to Spyro. I'll see you in a bit Flame." The Dragoness took off into the sky heading for the Purple Dragon's room. Flame sadly looked to the ground.
"Bye…"
Ember began to ascend the stairs of the tower. Ember quickly got to the top of the tower and entered Spyro's room. Within stood Spyro and Cynder talking with each other, looking over the city through his balcony.
"Uhm, Spyro?" The Purple Dragon turned around and saw Ember entering his room.
"Oh, hey Ember do you need something?" Cynder also turned around and looked at Ember.
"Yeah Spyro. You need to come with me, it's important" Cynder seemed to hiss at the Dragoness. Spyro however simply looked curiously at the Dragoness.
"Uh, sure." Cynder turned to Spyro.
"Before you go, do you mind if I talk with Ember."
"Uhm, ok." Cynder walked up to Ember and whispered into her ear.
"Outside, now." The Black Dragoness hissed in her ear. Cynder and Ember walked just outside of Spyro's room. "What the do you think you are doing?"
"Cynder please trust me, I'm not going to do anything."
"What would I trust you."
"I can understand why you are skeptical, but please."
"Then if you need Spyro where are you going?"
"I-I can't say. I made a promise that I would only tell Spyro."
"There is no way that I'm letting you go anywhere with Spyro."
"Cynder please I promise that I won't do anything."
"Promise? Why in the name of the ancestors would that mean anything, the only thing you care about is getting with Spyro, so I will be damned before I let you go anywhere with him." The Pink Dragoness noticed Cynder's claws scratching, and breaking through the floor.
"Cynder please." Ember paused for a moment. "How about this, you take my necklace, and if anything happens to Spyro, if I try something, you keep it." Ember took off her necklace.
"No I can't do that, even if it's you."
"Cynder please." Ember forced her necklace into the Black Dragonesses paw. "Just do it." Spyro poked his head out of his room.
"You ready?" Cynder was about to speak up, but Ember interrupted her.
"Yeah let's go." Ember and Spyro made their way down the stairs.
"No way in hell you're going without me," Cynder whispered to herself. The Black Dragoness silently made her way behind Spyro and Ember, avoiding being detected.
"So, what's going on?" The fire candidate, along with Spyro just flew over the wall of Warfang.
"I found another Dragon, he was hiding. He can't even see, that's why we are going at night, his vision is obscured during the day. He doesn't have any front legs, he's supported by his wings."
"Wow, he might be in danger, let's hurry up. Lead the way," Spyro stated frantically. They both quickly bolted through the skies quickly reaching the forest where Ember previously found the strange Dragon.
"Hello?" Ember looked around. "Are you there, I have Spyro with me!" A head emerged from a bush.
"You have no idea how much this means to me, thank you very much Fire Dragoness, I owe you my life."
"There's no need to thank me, it's the right thing to do."
"I'm glad to meet you Purple Dragon, I am Ralakir." The stranger paused for a moment. "I need to get to the enchanted forest; can you help me get there."
"Yeah, I can help, it's been awhile since I've been there, but it shouldn't be a problem."
"Thank you." Spyro smiled before turning around.
"If we get going now we will probably get there in two or three days." Ember also turned around. Spyro was about to take a step until he felt a stabbing pain in his neck. The planet shook from the roar of pain emitting from the Purple Dragon until everything around him went to black.
"Spyro!" Ember quickly jumped back and looked at the Purple Dragon, and could see the strange Dragon sinking its teeth into the neck of the Purple Dragon. She released a stream of flame to Ralakir. The strange Dragon stabbed Ember's leg with his tail. The Dragoness screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
Cynder slowly and silently made her way through the land. Suddenly the ground began to shake and she could hear a roar in the distance.
"What the?" The ground stopped shaking, but rather than a roar Cynder could hear the name of the Purple Dragon being called out. "Oh no." Cynder quickly darted up in the sky, not willing to waste any time. Within nearly three seconds Cynder flew to a nearby forest and saw Ember on the ground twitching in pain. A Dragon lacking any front legs grabbed Spyro within his claws and took off. "SPYRO!" The Dragoness went at lightning speed to Ralakir. She stabbed the back of the Dragon and released shadow fire into the back of the head of the Dragon. Ralakir roared in pain and landed head first into the ground. Cynder's tail blade unlatched from the back of the Dragon sending her into the sky. They both got up and looked at each other. Cynder made the first move taking to the shadows. Within milliseconds she released several shadow strikes. She created a miniature tornado that sucked up Ralakir, Spyro still laid unconscious next to a distant tree. Cynder coated her body and claws in lethal toxin and took after the Dragon. She released several strikes, covering herself in more and more blood. The Dragoness was relentless and in a state of rage. Before Ralakir even had the chance to attack he would take another blow from Cynder.
The Dragon had cuts bruises and broken bones and had finally attempted to exit the fight. Ralakir quickly jumped back to where Spyro's body laid, blood still pouring from the Purple Dragon's neck. Cynder leaped for the Dragon, but Ralakir managed to punch the Dragoness in the face, dazing her for a few moments. During this time Ralakir again used his talons to grab the Purple Dragon, and to make sure that he wouldn't lose him, Ralakir stabbed Spyro in the leg with his own spiked tail. The Dragon took off into the sky. Cynder didn't waste a single moment, she also quickly took off for the Dragon. Rage continued to boil up within her body, she needed to save Spyro. The Dragoness could feel something build up in the back of her throat. As she flew after the Dragon in front of her, the feeling became stronger. Suddenly a large and powerful purple beam of Convexity emanated from her mouth going directly to Ralakir. The beam struck the Dragon and almost instantly Ralakir fell to the ground. The Convexity dissipated, and Cynder moved as quickly as she possibly could to get Spyro. Just before she caught Spyro she could see the body of Ralakir below. There was a massive hole that went through his chest, making it almost appear as if he had never had a torso. The second Cynder caught Spyro she bolted as fast as she possibly could for the healers within Dragon City.
It didn't take long for her to get to the healers, it seemed like the moles entered a state of shock when the saw the Purple Dragon in such a state. Cynder quickly laid the Dragon on a table and burst into tears. She sobbed over the body of the Purple Dragon. Not long after Cynder got to the healers Terrador entered the room where Spyro laid. The Earth guardian looked in shock.
"Cynder what happened?" The Dragoness had never heard the voice of the Guardian be as frantic as it currently was. She looked to the guardian, trying to stop the tears from pouring down her face, but she couldn't.
"There was a Dragon."
"What?"
"It was a strange Dragon, it didn't have any front legs." Terrador looked curiously at the Dragoness.
"Did it have a spiked tail?" Cynder looked also looked curiously to Terrador trying to get through the tears.
"Yes."
"That was no Dragon."
"Then what was it?"
"What was a Wyvern." Terrador looked at Spyro sadly now knowing the conditions. "I'm sorry Cynder. Wyvern's have a lethal poison. Spyro. Spyro will not wake up." Cynder began to sob uncontrollably.
"NO THAT CAN'T BE POSSIBLE." Cynder ran to the body of the Purple Dragon.
"I'm sorry Cynder." The Dragoness quickly shot up.
"Wait."
"What?" Terrador looked strangely at the Dragoness, unsure of what to expect.
"I know how to save Spyro." Terrador looked in shock at the Dragoness. He nodded to indicate to let her try whatever she could. The Black Dragoness looked at Spyro and focused all of what little energy she still had. Suddenly Cynder began to glow with a green energy, and a green fluid exited through the bites on the neck of the Purple Dragon. The toxin leaving his body made its way to Cynder, and was seemingly absorbed by her. Terrador appeared to be happy to know that the Purple Dragon would live, but saddened to see the pain he was in.
"That was very good thinking Cynder. I must inform the guardians of the Wyvern's attack, stay with Spyro." Cynder had her face buried into Spyro, tears still coming from her eyes. Terrador gave the Dragoness her space and left the room. Cynder raised her head and looked down to the Purple Dragon. The moles had done the most that they could for the time being, but it was still rather unsure if the Dragon would live or not. Cynder curled her body around Spyro, and listened to his breathing. It was clear that the Purple Dragon was struggling to breath, but at least he was breathing. Cynder slowly stroked the back of Spyro's head, all was calm.
Some time passed until eventually a limping Pink Dragoness entered the room. Ember instantly saw Spyro and Cynder.
"I am so sorry Cynder." The Dragoness was sobbing, even with a wound in her leg she wouldn't get treatment, not while Spyro was in danger. Cynder appeared as if she wanted to kill the Dragoness.
"You're sorry?" The Black Dragoness slowly made her way to Ember, claws fully extended.
"I didn't know. Really I didn't." Ember looked at the Black Dragoness, and then looked at her paw. Within the paw of Cynder was the necklace of Ember. "Cynder, please. I beg you, I didn't mean to get Spyro hurt. I would never hurt him." Cynder got right in the face of the Dragoness and raised Ember's necklace up with her paw. Cynder looked at the necklace.
"You trusted me with the most important thing in your life." The Black Dragoness then looked back at Spyro. "And you nearly destroyed mine."