Artisans

Chapter 3

Angie's body felt light as she was floating through a colorful tunnel of time and space. This was what she thought it was like to travel through a portal from one place to the next.

In the distance she could see Spyro, and right next to him was Sparx. It looked like he was flying. Angie paddled her way to catch up to the purple dragon as an energy pushed her forward and out the other end.

The area was a peaceful, sunny countryside land full of green rolling hills with stoned walls circuling around, just like the last place Angie was at. In the middle was a well, and there were shiny objects of red, green, and blue everywhere.

"What are all those things," the girl asked as she pointed to one of the shiny objects.

"That's our treasure," Spyro replied, "they stole it from us."

"Who?"

Spyro scanned the whole land as he started forward. "Gnasty's servants."

Angie almost asked who Gnasty was until she saw that the small dragon was heading toward the shiny objects. She followed.

"We have to collect it all," said Spyro as he placed his dragon hand on a red one and Sparx picked up a green one.

"But where do we put it? We don't have a bag or anything to put them in."

The dragon gave Angie a determinating smile. "It all goes to a secret magic portal where it wiill be safe in a golden chest that never gets full. Once us dragons and dragonflies touch it, its safe."

Angie nodded and thought that idea was pretty cool. She thought maybe that's what awlays happened when you had to collect stuff in a game, althought it was feeling so real now that it seemed impossible.

"What about me?" The girl reached down a picked up a gem, and right away a vanished in a flash of light.

Spyro turned to Angie and gasped. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know! I just picked it up, and then.."

"You must be really special. I think you were meant to help me on this quest afterall."

Angie had never been complimented so much, and she didn't want it to stop. She continued to help Spyro collect the rest of the gems as they faced yellow rams in the process. Spyro was able to charge them away with his horns, even just as Angie almost got attacked.

"They had some of your treasure," Angie said as they walked through a tunnel in the sstoned wall.

"Right, they are Gnasty's servants. He can control any creature as he pleases."

The tunnel's floor was made of tile, and as the two came to the end that circled, they could see a green stoned dragon in the middle of the room, that had stoned walls of swirly deisgns on it.

Angie stared wide eyed at the dragon, for it was the first time she had ever seen one up close.

"Another dragon," Spyro said as he slowly stepped up to it.

"How do you free it?" Angie asked as she stayed in her place, watching the purple dragon.

Spyro answered by placing his foot on the platform that held the stoned dragon in place. Once that happened, it glowed, and the stone began to shake, as Spyro backed up and watched.

Angie stayed in her place, noticing that Spyro didn't seem a bit surprise. But it probably wasn't the first tiime seeing this happen. The girl was amazed when she saw the rocks crack and break off, revealing a big blue dragon.

"Lindar," Spyro said in a pleasing tone.

"Spyro," the unfamiliar dragon started as he stood on his two feet, something Angie hadn't seen Spyro done, "Thanks for freeiing me, how far have you gotten?"

"Not very far," Spyro answered, "I only freed two others back at Artisans: Nestor and Delbin."

Lindar shook his head in disaproval. "Gnasty Gnorc has frozen everyone. And I mean everyone, not just Artisans."

"I know. Nestor told me."

"Good." The blue dragon didn't seem to notice Angie as she stared at Spyro seriously. "I hope you're handling things okay."

"I'm doing fine. I haven't gotten into much trouble."

Lindar nodded, and walked out the builing before flying away.

Angie then stepped up to Spyro. "How come he can't help us?"

Spyro looked at the girl. "Because he needs to do some research on where Gnasty could be hiding. They all do. It takes a lot of time. It's up to me to free everyone and collect our treasure."

It didn't seem a lot of sense to Angie, but she figured it was something you had to do in games. You didn't get much help from others. You had to do everything yourself. That's what life as a game was like. That thought startled her but she shook her head to forget before collecting the reamining treasure around her following Spyro outside.

"Where do we go now?" Angie asked.

"We still have this whole land to explore," Spyro answered as he walked around and glanced at another opening in the castle like wall. "This way."

Angie followed the dragon, and when they got to the other side, they saw that, just like the side they were at, there were more charging rams and more treasure. What made the difference was that there were shepeards. "People. Maybe they can help us."

But Spyro wasn't so certain when he saw that nasty look in the shepheards' eyes. "No, they have our treasure." He went charging at them, knocking them out easily and collecting the gems they had dropped.

Angie was amazed with Spyro's strength. She continued to collect the remaining gems as Spyro entered an open tower. The girl curiously follwed after him, and was surprised to find just a small space, and no Spyro.

"Spyro, where did you go?" Angie asked before gasping as she saw shimmering dust floating to the top. It reminded of her something she saw in fairy tail movies. She slowly stretched her arm out to touch it.

Angie watched as her arm started to flap in the air as the dust circled around it. She then stepped in, and soon let her whole body stand in the sparkling elements. The girl began to float to the top.

It's just like Peter Pan, she thought, it's fairy dust. Angie was a little startled at first, but once she got to the top, she felt more confident. Spyro was standing in front of another stoned dragan. He stepped on the platform.

Once again, the figure began to shake, and after a blast of light, a blueish green dragon appeared. "Spyro!" he shouted with excitement.

"Gildas," the purple dragon responded, "you alright."

"I'm okay now! I'm so glad you saved me!" He then turned behind him, gazing at the tall hills ahead. "There's more stuff over there."

"How do I get there? I can't fly yet."

"But you can glide. I'v seen you. Go ahead. It's important everything is collected."

Spyro nodded as the big dragon flew off, and then turned to Angie. "You should probably stay away as I do this. You don't have wings."

"Oh." Angie sounded dissapointed.

"Go and see if you can find the way back to Articans."

"But, the portal dissappeared."

"There's always some other way back. Go ahead, I'll meet you there."

Angie nodded, but before she let the fairy dust take her back down, she wanted to see Spyro's gliding skills in action. So she watched as the dragon made a big leap forwared, and let his wings stretch out. He was flating across.

Angie's watched with amazement. The dragon looked just like a soaring eagle. It was a beautiful sight. She then let herself down once Spyro got onto the hill. She then left the tower and started towared the tunnel that led her way back to the other side of the wall.

The girl scanned the land to see if there was another way. She found it, and immeietally walked through ontop the tiled floor. But she gasped and turned away when she saw a ram inside. "Oh no. I can't beat that thing."

Angie glanced ahead of the ram and saw the other end. She thought that if maybe she hurried she could get away from the creature. But what if it follows me? She shook her head, knowing she had to give it a try.

So after a deep breath, the girl ran through as quickly as she could. The ram immedietally saw her and began to chase her with it's horns. When Angie got out to the other side, there was another stoned dragon, and right behind it was a gold circular stage looking object, and fairy dust was flying around on top.

Angie stared at it carefully. "Is this the way back?" She thought if she could free the dragon and ask, she would find out. But before she could even turn to the stoned figure, the ram came charging at her.

With a scream, Angie jumped back, high enough to fall over the small wall behind her. She fall backwards, and befor she knew it, the girl was layiing on her back in sand.

She could smell salt and could hear the splashing sound of waves. It only took her a few seconds to realize she was now on a small beach. She glanced up at the tall wall to look where she fell from. It looked to be about teen feet high at least.

"Oh no, how do I-" she stopped when she noticed the familiar particals of fairy dust. It was there in plane sight so she could float back up to the top. She stepped forwared when she heard the roaring sound of the ram again.

The girl gasped and shifted back, staring up at the wall. The creature was still up there, waiting for her. The girl whined as she explored the coast. "What do I do now? I wish Spyro was here."

Angie then thought of a great idea. All she had to do was wait down here until Spyro was finished gathering up the rest of the treasure. He would come rescue her then. She nodded, agreeing with herself and noticed a small cave ahead.

The girl ran in, and to her amusemet there was more treasure. She reached her hand down and picked up the gems, which vanished in her hands. Then she picked up each of the solid chests and threw them against the cave wall to smash them open. She knew that Spyro could easily break them with his horns.

After collecting all the treasure, Angie noticed something else. It was a large golden key. She gazed at it, wondering if it could come to use. She knew that keys in games were important if you wanted to unlock doors and such.

She picked it up and eyes it with curiousity as she shifted it around to get a good look at it.

"You found a good place to hide stuff."

Angie turned behind herself and saw Spyro standing at the mouth of the cave, with Sparx floating next to him. "Spyro!"

He smiled. "Was there treasure in here?"

The girl hurried to him with a nod. "And I found this key. Could we use it?"

The purple dragon nodded. "Great, I'm sure it will unlock a chest somewhere."

"A treasure chest?"

"Yes, let's go find it." He turned around and started away from the cave.

Angie follwed behind. "There's a ram up there. I was hiding from it."

"Don't worry, I got it. I also freed the dragon. He said that portal behind him was the way out. They will be in all the realms."

Angie nodded as Spyro let the fairy dust take him to the top. She did the same after him, and made it to the top. Then she followed Spyro through the tunnel of the hill. "Did you find lots of treasure up there?"

"Yes," he answered as he searched around the land, "I also found an egg thief. He had one of ours eggs."

"An egg thief?"

"Yup, he was dressed in a blue hood. He was fast too. I guess Gnasty ordered them to kidnap the eggs."

"Baby dragons?"

Spyro nodded and then stopped moveing. "I don't see any chests around here. Unless it's..maybe in that well?" He and Angie stared at the well that was sitting in the middle of the area. "I'll go down there and check."

"Alright." Angie handed him the key, and away he went. He was easily able to get down. Angie ran over and peaked down. "Is it down there?"

"Oh yes!"

Angie smiled, feeling great she had found something important to use. I was the first time she had accomplished something all on her own. She waited for Spyro to unlock the chest, collect the treasure, and float back to the top with the help of more fairy dust.

"We did it! We got all the treasure! Now let's go back."

Angie nodded and followed the dragon back to the sparkling portal. After climbing on top, they were floating into the air, and began to travel through time and space.