Another little one shot. Unbetaed. Set during the events of "year of the Dragon", just after the "An Apology, and Lunch" and during the "The escape" cut scene, if any of you can actually remember which scenes those titles stand for... Hm.

Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit are, as ever, appreciated.

Knowing That You Have Trust Issues.

It wasn't that he didn't like her.

'See it wasn't just a skate park, it was like, huge! Did you know you even had places like that in this world? We totally don't have anything that cool in Avalar. And Spyro's really good at skateboarding, for a guy with four feet...'

No, Bianca had enough intuition to know better than that. On the contrary, Hunter seemed surprisingly fond of her, especially given his current situation. And it wasn't really that he didn't trust her either, even though he probably shouldn't.

It was more the fact that...

'...Course I told Elora that we could just let him torch the guy and I could get the talisman's but I guess she kinda didn't think I'd be able to keep them safe...'

Well, Hunter was telling Bianca a story about Spyro. About something that the dragon did for him once. For all of his people, in fact. He told her while leaning against the bars of the cage where the sorceress was keeping him, talking to Bianca as if she were just an old friend rather than the servant of the person who had imprisoned him. Bianca sat on the floor outside, with her knees pulled up to her chest, listening and trying not to be amazed by what she heard.

'...And then there was the time that dumb Artisan guy got my feet stuck in rock. Huh. I tell you, if it wasn't for Spyro...'

Actually, it was more like listening to a lot of little stories put together than one big one. Spyro, it seemed, has done an awful lot of world-saving in his short life.

Spyro's own world had been attacked some time before the Year of the Dragon, leaving Spyro the only member of his species alive and functioning. He'd travelled the entire world, all on his own, freeing members of his species along the way before eventually defeating Gnasty Gnorc himself (Bianca had no idea who Gnasty Gnorc was, but Hunter said something about him being "even meaner than the sorceress", so...).

'Did you know that a Gnorc is like, a cross between an Orc and a Gnome? And just as ugly as both of those are, too. They're made outta gemstones, like all the Rhynocs here are, y'see, and...'

And then not long after he sorted out that awful mess, Spyro had succeeded in usurping an evil dictator (single pawedly, Hunter made a point of adding) in a distant realm by the name of "Avalar" (which Bianca remembered only vaguely from books she had read in her childhood). The dictator's name, Bianca said, had been Ripto.

She had to admit, he sounded a lot scarier than the Sorceress. And that was really saying something.

'...We were kinda working with what we had handy,' Hunter said. 'I mean we couldn't just let Spyro couldn't go up against Ripto alone. Using the orbs like that was really a last minute idea in the first place. Zoe came up with it. She's good at that kind of stuff.'

'Zoe?'

'Oh, she's the fairy. Little lady,' Hunter held his hands a few inches apart to demonstrate. 'Like this. But don't let her hear you saying that 'cause she's got some damn good electricity spells and she knows how to use 'em. And she's really, really strong for such a little thing. Gulp tried to eat her once and she hit him in the eye with her wand. Twice.'

Bianca smiled faintly and decided to take his word for it. 'Ouch...And then what happened? When Spyro went up against Ripto, I mean.'

'What? Oh, uh... no idea. I think I got hit by a flying rock or something about halfway into the fight and blacked out.'

So it wasn't that Hunter didn't trust her. If he didn't then he probably wouldn't be telling her this in the first place, as it pretty much amounted to giving her important information about her enemy. Hunter probably wasn't actually bright enough to realise he was doing that. It's more the fact that he was... unsure about her. Kept giving her looks as if he was trying to figure her out, and probably failing.

'That was really brave of you, you know.'

'What, the flying over the arena thing? Nah, Elora made me do that. Being brave... that's always kinda been Spyro's department.'

'Then what's yours?'

Hunter seemed to have to really think about this point for a long time before he could come up with an answer. 'Um, find the eggs and try not to die?'

Bianca felt a smile tweak her lips. 'Oh-kay. Explanatory enough, I guess.'

Somehow Bianca had a feeling that if the sorceress did happen to come down here and try using one of her famous "Veracity Spells" on Hunter, she wouldn't get much information out of him regardless of how well the spell worked. Nonetheless, the sorceress hadn't really bothered to try any truth spells anyway – it was common knowledge that species such as Hunter's were not easily affected by magical spells of any kind anyway. This was probably why he'd dealt so well with being pelted in the stomach by a ball of light-energy.

Yeah. Ouch.

No, if Hunter had any purpose to the sorceress right now, then it was bait. Bait to get Spyro here so she could kill him. Or maybe bait to scare him into staying away. Either option didn't say much for Hunter's survival chances.

'I meant what I said, you know,' Hunter's voice pulled her out of her trail of though. 'About asking the dragons to come back, I mean.'

'And so did I when I said I can't let you out.'

'Never said you had to. I don't want anyone to die.' He shrugged. 'And lots of people will, if the here magic disappears completely, won't they?'

'Yes. I suppose quite a few of them will.' So many people were dependent on magic here. It flowed in their veins like blood and oxygen. There was no way that some people's bodies – people like the sorceress, for example – would be able to adjust to a world without any magic whatsoever. Besides, the economy of pretty much every realm in the world would collapse, machinery would break down, systems would come to a grinding halt. Without magic they had no power, and without power, they had nothing.

Hunter was quiet for a moment, and his tail kept curling into weird, almost amusing patterns. 'Will you die?'

Bianca hesitated.

She had never really thought about it like that. Had never really imagined the effect that losing all of her magic would have on her. 'I'm... not very good with magic,' she said, after a pause. 'Most of my spells never work properly... and I got my powers from the sorceress, so...'

Hunter scratched his head. 'That's not really what I asked, Bianca.'

'Alright then. I don't know. I don't know if I'll die. But I don't think it'll be very comfortable. It'd be losing something that I've had for such a very long time. You understand?'

'Hey, man, I'm sittin' here in a cage on an empty stomach, you don't have to talk to me about comfort.'

'We've already been through that, Hunter. I can't let you out of the cage.'

'But you still came back here.' Hunter said.

Bianca frowned. 'Yeah, so?'

'So she told you not to go near me again,' Hunter said, plainly, as if it were just a piece of common knowledge. 'Didn't she?'

Bianca shifted. '...I never told you that.'

'You didn't have to; it's written all over your face.'

...Okay, so maybe he wasn't quite as dense as he was making himself out to be. Or maybe he was just smarter than he knew he was. He smiled at her, apparently with no idea of the impact of what he had said. Bianca bristled, the fur prickling on the back of her neck. 'It is?'

'Yeah, cats have six senses so we know these things, did you know that? Like how you have magic, we know what people are thinking... or at least we're supposed to. It kinda doesn't work a lot. Or ever.' he paused. 'Okay so I was just kinda guessing.'

'...Good guess.'

'Thanks! I think.'

Bianca wasn't sure if he was just playing around with her right now, or if he was being serious.

'You realise this is a completely screwed up situation?' Bianca sighed, leaning back on her hands in the dirt. 'You told me that Spyro doesn't like letting good people die, but he's been charging about taking out the Rhynocs with no regard for them.'

'But.. .the sorceress made the Rhynocs.'

'That doesn't matter, though, does it?' Bianca asked. Hunter didn't seem to have an answer for her. 'And what about you? You're still here. He hasn't stopped fighting... I think he's looking for you.'

'I think he knows the sorceress probably won't kill me, not while she can still use me as bait.'

'He really knows that? Seems like he's taking a big chance to me. I mean, he's already seen me whack you with an energy bomb.'

'Which you were aiming at him.'

Bianca felt herself smiling. 'That what you told him?''

'...Actually yeah,' Hunter half grinned, but the smile faded quickly. 'I guess... just stopping when the bad guy tells him to isn't exactly Spyro's style.'

'Why? Because that would be giving up? Even if not giving up puts you in danger?'

Hunter shuffled. 'You really don't understand him, do you?

'No I don't,' Bianca said evenly, and mentally she added: but I think I understand you pretty well. Even if I don't really know what you're thinking. 'But then again, I'm not really sure I want to. What about what happens to this world when he takes all the eggs away again? Does he care about that? We've worked so hard to keep this world alive, Hunter... the dragon eggs are our only chance.'

'Which um... brings me right back to my earlier point about getting him to bring the dragons back here?' Hunter suggested. He sounded a little less sure about the chances of this plan working than he had before, but if anything Bianca admired his perseverance.

'And why, exactly, should I trust you, Hunter?' Bianca asked, calmly. Suddenly remembering the cheetah's seemingly fierce loyalty to the small dragon that was causing havoc in the realms above. 'This could be a trap.'

'I... yeah, guess it could,' Hunter admitted. Well, at least he didn't try and lie to her.

Bianca stood up very carefully, brushing the dust from her knees before she turned to walk out of the room.

She was pretty certain that Hunter watched her leave.

"That's it. I've had enough. I'm going to create a monster to end all monsters! And I'm going to send it out to destroy all the dragons, even the little hatchlings."

'Stupid, stupid, stupid...!'

She should've known this was coming.

When Bianca was just a small girl, not long after she had first been employed by the sorceress (she believed that particular stage of her training had involved washing an awful lot of dishes) the sorceress had sent her armies into The Midnight Mountain, claiming she was looking for a new magical power source to make up for her dying supplies. The "new source" they had returned with was a number of the Local Magical-Wizards, whom had been locked up in her dungeons, to be drained of their magic one by one in the coming weeks.

Then again when Bianca first began training seriously as her apprentice, she had been sent to track down all the Mountain Kangaroos of the Alps. The sorceress had said that they were "relocating" the creatures to a new colony somewhere so that she could mine the jewels in the mountains. Oh, they'd been relocated alright – relocated to the burning pits of Molten Valley, where moist of them died within weeks from smoke inhalation and the oppressive heat.

So really, Bianca knew that she should've figured it out by now the sorceress wasn't one for telling the truth about really important things. Not when lying would prevent panic and/or rebellion. So Bianca should've realised she was lying, about just keeping the dragons here.

She should have known the sorceress had been planning to kill them from the start.

'What did you think I was going to do with all those dragons? Open a zoo?'

Stupid,' Bianca muttered to herself again, while racing down the corridor in the direction of the dungeon. Or at least she thought it was the direction of the dungeon. She was so worked up she hadn't thought to check the map in her spell book first.

She practically burst into the cell, tripping on the doorframe as she did so and ordering the Rhynoc standing guard (a short purple guy with big eyes... how ironic) away as she did so. Hunter was, of course, exactly where she'd left him an entire day ago.

'Hey, Bianca. Did you bring anymore food? I'm starving...'

Good to see that he had his priorities sorted.

Bianca caught her breath. 'There's no time for that, Hunter. We have to stop the sorceress. She's going to kill all the dragon hatchlings.'

Hunter (who had looked a little surprised by her apparent change of heart, at least until she mentioned the dragon hatchlings, flinched away from the bars as Bianca started messing with the lock. Damn thing was magically sealed; there was no way she'd get into it with just a key. 'Wait... when you say kill them you mean?'

'I mean that she's going to destroy them all slowly and painfully with every ounce of magic she has, remove their wings and use them to make an immortality potion,' Bianca elaborated, still pulling at the lock. There was a tiny voice inside of her head screaming at her that this was a really, really bad idea, but Bianca just told it to shut up. After all it hadn't been much help to her for the last twelve years, so why should she start listening to it now? 'I should've known this from the start; she never cares about anyone but herself... Oh, damn it, how do I get this lock?'

'Uh... well if I knew that I probably would've been outta here by now.'

She could practically feel Hunter looking at her, as if he was trying to work out just how serious she was. 'Hey wait a minute... Why should I trust you? This could be another trap.'

Bianca resisted the urge to role her eyes. And he thought it was her who has the issues. 'You're in a cage, you furry numskull! How can I trap you by letting you out?'

Hunter looked at her. 'I don't know. You sorceress types can be sneaky.'

Bianca blinked.

Yeah. He was taking the mick, wasn't he? Stupid cheetah. 'Oh... we don't have time for this!'

Trying to ignore the smile on his face, Bianca fired a quick bolt of lightning into the lock of the cage, swung the door open, reached in and grabbed his hand.

Hunter pretty much stopped grinning when she did that. In fact, if Bianca didn't know better, she could've sworn he was blushing.

'I never thought she was going to hurt the dragons,' Bianca said, as firmly as she could manage, as if she could force him to believe her with the strength of her words alone. Maybe she could, because he certainly seemed to start smiling again as she pulled him along after her. 'Come on, we don't have time for this.'

'Bianca, wait a sec—!'

Hunter screeched to a halt, pulling her to a stop with him. She didn't let go of his arm as she turned to face him, still catching her breath from her race down the corridors. 'You mean you're actually gonna trust Spyro with this? You're gonna help him free the other dragon eggs? You're going to help us?'

It was a really bad time to be pausing and thinking about things like this, Bianca knew, but something else also told her that she'd probably never get another chance. And Hunter was looking at her with the same curious, somewhat interested face that he'd worn the time in Sunrise Springs, when she'd hit him with that energy attack. Curious when he should have been scared, interested when he should have been repulsed.

'No,' she said, softly. 'I'm not going to trust Spyro, but you're a different story, Hunter.'

He didn't say anything to that. He just allowed her to pull him through the corridors of the castle, avoiding the Rhynocs as best she could.

Bianca knew that she had never trusted anyone, really. Not since the day she started working for the sorceress. Not since the day she realised that the sorceress would never tell truths when lies came to her so much easier.

But on that day in the dungeons of the Mountain castle, she found that she trusted Hunter without a moment's hesitation. '...Yes. Now hurry up, we've got an entire species to rescue.'