Blackness filled Cynders vision, as she began to awake. She fluttered her eyes opened, only be greeted by more darkness. Slowly she began to stand, her body stiff from lying upon the floor all night. As she stood, she tried to recall the events of last night, only to find a blank slate were the memory should be. Her thoughts were interrupted however when she hear a knock on her door.
She walked out of the bathroom, only to shield her eyes from the light coming in through the window in the living room. Still sore from last night Cynder slowly walked towards her door. Upon opening it, she saw Flame standing in front of her.
"Oh thank goodness you're alright," said Flame relieved to see Cynder.
"What did something happened last night?" asked Cynder worried that Warfang was attacked last night, or something of that degree.
"Well I was rather hoping that you would tell me. I had just arrived at the training area when one of your neighbors ran up to me and told me that they heard you screaming last night. They saw me walk you home last night, so they figured that I was your boyfriend or something like that. Is everything alright?" said asked still rather concerned.
"I don't really recall anything that happened yesterday night. I guess I had a really bad dream or something," said Cynder rather confused as to what Flame could be talking about.Cynder then noticed that Flame still had a concerned look on his face and said, "Really I'm fine, no need to worry about it,"
"Alright if you say so," Flame said as he let out a sigh. "So how is your paw doing?"
Cynder looked down at both of her paws before asking, "What is wrong with my paws?"
"You really don't remember do you? Well yesterday you said you cut your paw on something. By the looks of it, it's not bandaged, so I'm guessing you haven't done anything to it. May I come inside?"
"Why?"
"Because I would like to bandage your wound,"
With a shrug, Cynder stepped aside and let Flame in. He then walked into her bathroom and quickly found a roll of bandages. Cynder lifted her paw up as Flame returned, and carefully Flame wrapped it in a small layer of the medical roll. As he did a question formed in Cynder's head.
"What is it like growing up here?"
Flame shrugs before answering "I guess it's everything people would imagine, it's nice and peaceful for those who didn't want to think about any war going on. And there we go all better," he said as he finished bandaging Cynder's paw.
"Well thank you Flame," said Cynder with a smile.
"You're quite welcome," Flame said as he bowed to Cynder slightly.
Cynder took a look at her paw. Now that she had it bandaged, it felt nice to have it cleaned and wrapped up. With a very slight blush and smile, she looked at Flame.
"Hey Flame, remember Warfang's park you showed me yesterday?"
"Yes ma'am," he answered.
"Well I was thinking of going there today to start my search for a place where I can feel at peace. So I was wondering if you could come along and help give any helpful advice or tips,"
"I would gladly assist you," said Flame as he gestured towards the door with a wing. "Shall we?" With a nod, Cynder walked out her door, with Flame close behind her.
Cynder wasn't the only one waking up that morning, as Spyro began to arise from his sleep. However unlike Cynder, the thoughts of yesterday were still fresh in Spyro's mind, to the point where it began to worry him. The thought of who this Ripto character, still baffled Spyro, and the fact that there is a griffon out there wanting him dead, as well as the possibility of another war breaking out because of the actions of that Griff, weighed heavy upon his shoulders.
Getting out of bed, he decided that he should visit the library, in hopes of some form of information about some of his worries. He had seen the inside of the library inside the temple once before, and knew about how massive it is, and he knew he needed help searching. Reaching out towards were Sparx slept, he gently began to shake him until he woke up.
"Ug, what do you want Spyro?" Sparx asked, still slightly tired.
"I need your help, searching up any form of information about Griff, Ripto, and the griffon society,"
"Go find someone else to do that, I'm going back to bed,"
"Oh come on, please. I could really use your help," pleaded Spyro.
Sparx lay there still, not saying a word for a few short moments. "Fine I guess I can help you just a tiny bit then," groaned out Sparx.
"Thanks Sparx,"
Sparx only mumbled in response. The two soon were walking down the halls of the temple towards the Library. Once they get to the library, they approached the old mole working at one of the sections.
"Um excuse me?" Spyro asked politely.
"Ah, the Purple Dragon Spyro, here at my library, how can i help you?" replied the old mole.
"I was wondering if there are any books talking about the Dragon-Griffin War?"
"Oh yes sir, there's a whole section retaining only to that information."
The old mole points to the enormous section containing all the books retaining to that information. "You're seriously not going to go through all those books right?" asked Sparx.
"I am Sparx, and I'll need your help,"
"Well isn't that a bitch,"
"Yes it was a very serious war that to this day no one knows how it started or who struck first, the only thing I can tell you is that both races had very serious issues with each other at that time."
"Thank you," said Spyro as he nods to the old mole while he and Sparx head to the Dragon-Griffion War section.
Spyro takes flight and flies up to some of the upper levels, carefully inspecting which books he may want to read.
"You know this is going to take us forever to do. Can't we just do something that is the opposite of how boring this will be?" asked Sparx.
"Sparx please this is important, I have no idea what's going on and I need find out who these two are."
As Spyro starts collecting books, he tosses them down to Sparx, forgetting that he's small because they all end up falling on him and crushing him. Meanwhile, as Spryo is tossing Sparx more books, Ember walked up to them, not expecting Spyro to be there.
"Spyro?" she asked.
This took Spyro by surprise, almost causing him to knock the book shelves off but he quickly regains his balance.
"Ember?" he asked.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"I just need to find some important information."
She looked around a bit before she asks, "isn't your brother usually with you?"
"Under here dammit!" he yelled finally poking his head out from under the pile of books.
"Sparx why are you under there?" asked Spyro.
"Because you dropped them on me, you big, purple, idiot,"
"Sorry about that Sparx," Spyro said feeling a little embarrassed. Sparx only mumbled in response. "So why are you here Ember?"
"I usually come to the library to do my studies,"
"Oh, ok."
"But while I'm here, I need need to tell you that my parents want you to go to the griffon kingdom and meet with their king about Griff,"
"What?!" Spyro said almost shouting. "Why do they want me to go?"
"Well from what my parents told me, they want you to go, because they want to show them that not all purple dragons are evil,"
"Wait I thought Malefor, only attacked dragons, and their allies?"
"Not quite. When he was first released from his imprisonment, from what I have been told, he sent his army towards the largest griffon village. Not only that but he led the attack,"
"Why did he do that?"
"Well we are not sure, but we are guessing it's because he wanted to test his strength after being trapped for so long, and decided to test them on the griffons,"
Spyro remains silent as Sparx pulls himself out from the books saying. "Damn, sounds like they had it rough,"
Deciding to change the subject to something less gloomy, Ember asked, "So what are you guys doing here?"
"I wanted to learn anything I can about the griffon-dragon war, and I figured that coming here, would be the best place, I just didn't know that there would be this much information on it," Spyro said as he gestured to all of the books around him.
"If you want, I can help you?" offered Ember.
"That would help me a lot, thanks," smiled Spyro.
Ember then sat down next to him, and picked up a small pile of books, and flipped one open.
Meanwhile, Flame had challenge Cynder to a flying race around the park. Despite what he thought, Cynder had won the race.
"I thought I had that one. How did you get so fast?" asked Flame as he landed.
"Well you would say that it was practice, but I would rather just call it supreme victory," said Cynder with pride in her voice.
Flame only rolled his eyes in response to her gloating. Instead he glanced into the sky, and saw that it was nearly noon.
"I have a bit of time to kill, what to walk around the park?" Flame asked.
"I don't see why not, is there any place in particular that you wish to walk to?" replied Cynder.
"How about the lake?"
"Works for me,"
The two then began to walk towards the park, all the while admiring the beauty that the park held. Soon they found themselves at the lake. Much to Cynder's own surprise, the lake seemed to have this peaceful feeling to it. She wasn't sure why, but something about the area just seemed to put her mind at ease.
"It's beautiful here, I think I might have just found my place where I feel at peace," said Cynder.
"Good, I'm glad. Here let's rest under that tree over there," suggested Flame. Once they were over there, the made themselves comfortable.
When they sat down, Cynder asked "So Flame do you live here in Warfang on your own?"
"No, it's always been with only my mother, honestly, I've never met my father in person. I knew who he was and I've seen him before. But I've never actually ever talked to him and i've only seen him I think four times in my entire life."
"What happened to your father?"
Flame remain silent, Cynder could tell he didn't want to talk about it, so she kept silent. Flame glanced into the sky, and saw that it was nearly noon.
"Well I better be going, I'm needed places,"
"Really were?" asked Cynder.
Flame seemed to sadden when Cynder asked him that. "I have to go to my father's funeral,"
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that," said Cynder.
"It's fine, he was a noble dragon. Im just sad that he didn't make it through the war. Hey Cynder, if you wouldn't mind, could you come with me?"
"What?" Cynder said surprised Flame was asking him that. "Um yea, I guess I can. You sure you want me to?"
"Yea I'm sure. Because of the war, I didn't make any other friends, and it would be nice to have at least one with me, during the funeral,"
Cynder couldn't help but pity him, before saying "Of course, I will come with you, what else are friends for?"
"Again, thank you. Now then shall we be going?" Flame said as he stood up. Cynder also stood up, as Flame flew off, and Cynder followed close behind him.
Back over with Spyro, Ember, and Sparx, they continued to flip through several pages, trying to find anything that might help them. Sparx however nearly a few moments after they started, grew bored of it, and was only silently and slowly flipping through the pages, only pretending to read them, as he thought up a plan for how to get back at Spyro for waking him up so early. Suddenly an idea came to mind.
"Hey Spyro, I'm going to be right back,"
Spyro didn't respond, to focus on reading the pages in front of him. A grin grew on his face, happy to see that Spyro was distracted. Quickly he flew off, past several book shelf's, trying to find a certain section. When he found it, he snickered, just thinking of Spyro's reaction. He quickly grabbed a book from the shelf, and carried it over to Spryo. Quietly and carefully, Sparx placed the book he grabbed on top of Spyro's stack, before flying back over to his spot and returned to pretending to read.
Sparx was glad to notice that neither Spyro, nor Ember noticed his disappearance, and out of the corner of his eye, he watched Spyro. After some time, Spyro put away the book he finished reading, and picked up the next book on the stack, not bothering to read the title.
He flipped open to the first page and read the title of the chapter.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Dragon Reproduction System.
Spyro gasped as he quickly closed the book and looked at the title.
The Experiences of Mating: Complete Edition.
Ember heard, Spyro gasp, and quickly looked over to him. "Is everything alright?" she asked, not paying attention to the book in front of Spyro.
"Um, yea im just fine, don't worry about it," Spyro said quickly. Ember looked at him questionably, but soon shrugged, and returned back to her reading. Once she was looking away, Spyro quickly set the book upon the ground next to him.
Sparx however noticed this, and decided to have more fun. He waited a bit, to make sure Spyro was distracted again, and this time he grabbed the same book, and placed it in Ember's pile.
Now like Sparx, Ember was starting to grow tired of all the reading, but she promised to help Spyro, and that was what she was going to do. Not paying attention to the book she grabbed, she flipped it to a random page, and was surprised to see, instead of image of some griffon or something related to them, she saw an image of two dragons mating, their genitals in full view and detailed to her.
Shocked to see such a thing, Ember quickly slammed the book. Spyro jumped from the sudden loud noise that echoed through the library and he quickly looked over to Ember. "Is everything alright?" he asked worried.
"Oh yea of course, I just say an um… spider is all, and it scared me a little. No need to worry," said Ember nervously.
Spyro seemed to have bought her lie as he let out a sigh of relief, and returned back to the book in front of him. Ember then quickly got up and placed the book, on a cart so that it could be put away later. All the while Sparx was silently laughing at the two, glad that his prank went so well.
Several minutes later, Spyro started to grow bored himself. He looked at the books around him and saw that he had finished only a fourth of the pile. He groaned before saying "Well I don't know about you guys, but I think I'm done reading for today,"
"Finally," said Sparx.
"So where you able to find what you were looking for?" Ember asked.
Spyro only sighed as he rubbed his eyes in tiredness.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing, every book I've read said almost the same thing,"
Spyro turns towards Ember and Sparx.
"Where you guys able to find anything?"
"Dude I ante found shit," Sparx answered.
"I couldn't find anything; every book was almost the same. Only minor differences here and there but still told the same thing," Ember answered.
Spyro sighed. "Alright then, let's just go," The trio, then began to leave the library, but just before they reached the exit, two dragons walked through, and appeared them.
"Thank goodness we found you, lady Ember," said a blue dragoness.
"Why did something happen?" asked Ember worriedly.
"Not at all, but your parents have sent us to tell you that, the memorial is about to start, and they want you there," said a green dragon.
"Oh I'm sorry, I must of lost track of time, I will be there shortly," said Ember. Then with that said the two dragons bowed to Ember before leaving.
"What memorial are they talking about?" asked Spyro.
"Well my parents finally decided to create a memorial for those who died during the war,"
"Oh may I come?" Spyro asked.
"Of course you can, its open to everyone, but we should leave now, before it starts,"
"Well then lead the way," said Spyro before the three of them took off towards the memorial.
It wasn't long before, Ember led the two boys, to a large open room, filled with people. When one of the guards noticed Ember approaching, he told the people to make room for her. Ember thanked the guard, and began to walked towards her parents. As she walked by, she pasted both Flame and Cynder. Cynder who saw Ember for the first time leaned forwards towards Flame and asked, "Who is that?"
"That is the princess," he said back to her. Just as Ember reached her parents the crowed moved back to their original spots, which Spryo and Sparx were forced to squeeze through to get to the front. Just as they got to the front, they saw Terrador walk up to a stand, which was in front of the memorial. The memorial was a large emerald green dragon statue, with names and family symbols of people who were killed in the war carved into the scales, an inscription stating the official end of The Dark Army war on its forehead, and a small section devoted to Ignitus carved into its chest.
Terrador then stepped up to the podium and began to speak.
"We are gathered here to honor the lives of all who've perished in the war to stop Malefor from destroying the world. They have touched each of our lives in different ways. We knew them as our friends, our family, and our children," Terrador started.
He then paused for a moment. During the short silence, Spyro could hear the sounds of some people softly crying.
"Out of all we owe our thanks for their sacrifice, Ignitus deserves the most of our graduated," He said sounding a little sad.
Terrador turned back to the crowed.
"Ignitus suffered a rough life, even before and during his time as the Fire Guardian. Like all of us, he too at one point lost hope. Believing himself to be a failure in everything he did. But it was Ignitus that saved Spyro's egg from being destroyed by the Dark Armies. For the longest of times he led our armies against Malefor's forces. And even when he knew it would be his death, he protected both Spyro and Cynder through the belt of fire so they would confront and defeat Malefor. In the end, his choices have allowed Spyro to fulfill the Prophacy and stop the Dark master. Not only has his choices saved countless of lives, but insured that those who did die were not in vein. That those who did perish could rest in peace for their ultimate sacrifice," Terrador continued.
As everyone listened to Terrador's speech, Spyro himself felt his eyes tear up as he fought the strong urge to cry.
"Now I could go on, for a while now, about what he has done for all of us however, I was given a request from his son, to speak," Terrador then stepped away from the podium, and Flame walked on stage.
Both Spyro and Cynder were surprised to hear this, Spyro shocked to find out that Ignitus even had a son, while Cynder was shocked to find out that Flame was Ignitus's son, though now that she thinks about it, he does have his similarities.
Once Flame was on staged, he hesitated at first before clearing his throat.
"When I was little I used to look up to my father because of all the great stories my mother used to tell me of him. He was my hero and I wanted to be a great dragon just like him. When I got a little older I started despising him because I've never seen him ever be there for me or my mother. However I would eventually learn that the reason why he was never there was because he wanted to protect us, he didn't want the dark armies to know of our connection to him. He chose live far away from his own family to keep his family save," Flame started.
Flame remains silent for a moment, taking a deep breath to keep himself from crying.
"I cannot even imagine what a horrible burden that must've been for him. And to think I was angry at him for that. I regretted those actions and began to admire him again. Only this time, I just wanted to know more about him. I wanted to talk to him. I think I've only seen him three times in my entire life. Two of those times was secretly in the background. While the third time happened during the Battle of Warfang."
Flame remained silent again.
"Some of the Dark Amry got inside through the wall and into the temple. Attacking the wounded and women and children. I was there trying to do fight off as many as I could. And he popped out of no where and helped me. He knew me and I knew him but we didn't say anything to each other. And the first and only words he ever said to me was to make sure everyone there would get out safety. And my first and only words to him were…yes sir."
Flame paused again.
"That was the only time I ever talked to him, and that was the last time I ever saw him. To this day I still don't know anything about him personally. But if there's anything I do know about him now, he was what he was, everything my mother told me as a child. A brave and heroic Dragon. He gave his life to safe this world like everyone else did."
Flame choked a little and whipped a small tear from his eye with his tail.
"That's all I've got, thank you everyone for your time," Flame finished before he walked back to where he was next to Cynder.
As Flame stepped down, a few people in the crowd, clapped for him quietly. Then Drake came back up on stage.
"For us, the darkness has passed... the war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed with us and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure; sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight... our fight, was everywhere. As we start to rebuild, this statue will be the beginning, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten," Drake said to conclude the memorial.
With the speech finished, Spyro saw a few dragons leave, but most stayed. He then noticed Ember walk up to him.
"Hey Spyro, are you alright?"
Spyro used the back of his paw to wipe away the tears forming in his eyes. "Yea im going to be fine, but I just need to walk around a bit,"
"If you wouldn't mind, I could go with you,"
"Yea that would be nice,"
"Alright just give me a few seconds alright?" Ember then left and ran over to her parents. Spyro couldn't hear what she was saying, but regardless to what she did say, she soon walked back over to Spyro. "My parents are going to stay here for a while, so I can go with you anywhere,"
"How about I just walk you home," suggested Spyro in a depressed tone in his voice.
As Spyro and Ember left the room, Cynder approached Flame, who had walked closer to the memorial, while sitting next to an adult fire dragoness. Cynder sat down next to him, and saw the sadness in his eyes. Hoping that it might cheer him up, she says
"So, Ignitus was your father?"
"Yea was," nodded Flame before looking at Cynder. "Oh where are my manners, Cynder this is my mother," Flame said as he pointed to the dragoness next to him. "Mom, this is Cynder, she is a good friend of mine,"
The ruby scaled dragoness looked down at Cynder, and wiped away some of the tears in her eyes. Cynder noticed that she had an average yet gracefully build for a dragoness. Her dark gray underbelly and wing membrane, seemed only add to the sad demeanor that she had on. "Hello, Cynder," said Flame's mother. "You can call me, Adara,"
"Hello Adara, im sorry for your loss,"
"Thank you," was all she could muster up before more tears began to fall down her muzzle, as she turned her gaze back to the statue. "I should have shown you to your father when I had the chance. He was standing not too far from us, when you were merely a hatching, and I didn't do anything. It's all my fault you never met him," she said before breaking down letting rivers of tears, stream down her muzzle.
Flame began to cry even harder when he hear this, and draped his wing over his mother's back. "Mom don't blame yourself, you would have only hurt dad if you did,"
"But…" she choked.
"But nothing, you would have only hurt him, as he would miss us even more," Flame said.
Adara can only look at her son with deeply sad eyes as she brought her head down to eye level. Flame gently nuzzled her cheek to try and comfort his devastated mother as best as he can.
"You made the right choice mom, you eased his terrible burden as best you could, I'm sure where ever dad's at he's very proud of you," Flame said as he smiled at his mother, before turning his gaze back to the statue.
Cynder couldn't help but get teary eyed from what she had witnessed. She felt rather sorry for them, and wish she could do something that would help. She got closer to Flame and placed a paw on top of his, trying to comfort him. Flame looked down at the paw, before looking back up at Cynder and smiled, silently thanking her.
Meanwhile Sparx, Spyro, and Ember were all walking quietly together, a cold and sad atmosphere around them. Felling slightly uncomfortable Sparx said "Hey guys, im just going to head back to our room; I will catch you guys later,"
Spyro didn't say anything still quite sad. Noticing that Spyro wasn't going to say anything Ember decided to say "Alright then Sparx, Im sure he will come right back once we are done," She tried to sound convincing, but in all honesty she didn't know what he was going to do. Sparx left shortly after that. Hoping that it would cheer Spyro up a tiny bit she asked, "So what was Ignitus like? I know that it was explained during the memorial, what he was like, but what was he like personally to you?"
Spyro remained quiet for a while before saying "He was many things to me. One of them was my savor. He told me that when I was just an egg, he saved me, and I ended up being raised by Sparx and his family, but he was more than just that. He was a father figure to me. Not only was he the first dragon that I saw, he was the first person to show me who I really was,"
Suddenly it began to rain softly. He then noticed out of the corner of his eye Ember shivered when a small breeze washed over them. Spyro then moved closer to her and put his wing about her head, protecting her head and part of her upper body from the rain.
"I'm ok you don't have to do that,"
"It's alright, I don't mind," Spyro said, though still in a sad tone of voice. Ember couldn't help but blush a little by his act of kindness, but liked it none the less. However that moment was quickly replaced by an awkward silence. Ember wanted to say something but nothing really came to mind. It wasn't until Spyro said something that the silence was broken.
"You know, in all of my life, I have never imagined how many people were counting on me to save them. Even when I found out who I was and what my purpose was, It never accrued to me that there were so many people out there in need of saving," Spyro then began to cry as he continued. "So many people who were scared, hoping to be saved, only for no one to come, no one other than death, and it's my fault. I am supposed to be the one who was meant to save everyone, but look at all who I have let down. I might have saved hundreds, but I have failed so much more,"
Out of the corner of Spyro's eye, he noticed that Ember had stopped walking. He stopped and turned to face her and saw that her mouth hung ajar a bit, and had a dumfounded look on her face. "How could you say that?" Ember questioned him, still not fully believing what she had heard.
Spyro remained silent, too sad to even speak now.
"Spyro you saved the whole world, countless upon countless of people of all life are alive now because of you. And those that didn't make it can now rest in peace knowing that the world and loved ones they've loved so much are safe now. You've done everything and more then what was expected from you. But most importantly, you still saved allot of lives and our world," Ember said gently.
Spyro still remained silent, feeling slightly better but still sad.
"Thank you," Spyro choked a little.
The two remained silent for the rest of the trip, however the atmosphere was a little brighter then when they started. Ember opened the door to the throne room, which would then lead to her own room, but before walking inside, she turned to Spyro.
"Thank you Spyro for walking me home,"
"No problem Ember, but before you go, I must ask. Do you know when your parents want me to leave to the griffon kingdom?"
"That I do not know. However I do know it will be a few days before you leave, as they are waiting for a letter from their king. My parents sent him a letter this morning, requesting an audience with him, so they are waiting for that to come. Also I should mention that I am coming with you to the griffon kingdom,"
"What?!" Spyro said, both shocked and surprised to hear this. "Why are you going?"
"Well according to my parents, it will be a sign of good faith towards them as I am there only child. Not only that, but I am to learn from my experiences, as one day I will rule this kingdom, so I need to know how to deal with this kind of situations,"
"But still this could be dangerous, you know,"
"Yes I am aware of the dangers, however it's my duty as future queen of this kingdom, that I do whatever I can to help and protect my people, no matter the cost," Ember said nobly.
Spyro remain silent a little before looking Ember straight in the eyes.
"Alright," Spyro says in defeat. "However if we come into any form of danger you are to listen to everything I tell you, no matter what. Got it?"
"Alright, I agree to your terms," said Ember reluctantly.
"Thank you. Now then, if there is nothing else, you need to tell me, I bid you a good night," said Spyro
"That is all that I needed to inform you of. Thank you again Spyro for walking me home. I wish you a good night," Ember said before walking inside and letting the door close behind her.
Later that night, everyone tucked themselves into bed, ready for a good night's rest, however not everything was at peace in the realms. Deep down in the depths that once was Mount. Malefor, there was a room, basically untouched by the outside world, there stood a large grouping of yellowy-orange crystals, a being trapped inside. It was sealed inside by Malefor himself, as it was too dangerous to let it roam free on its own, so he kept it locked away, waiting for the right time for him to be unleashed his secret weapon in grim times. However with Malefor gone, his magic was slowly disappearing, and the magic that held the crystal intact shattered, and the being inside sank to the floor, its slow, shallow, deep breaths echoing through the room.