Chapter Four
The Old Parts
"Jeez he didn't have to fuss at me," Spyro grumbled as he entered his cave. Evidently the elder's didn't find Spyro's late walk very smart, so they told him to go back into his cave. They were mainly worried about Mirelth but Spyro didn't even think about it.
"Sparx?" Spyro quietly called out. There was barely any echo.
The purple reptile looked around the cave but couldn't spot neither of the dragonflies. Spyro turned around to take a quick peek outside of his cave to see if he could spot his glowing little friend. He couldn't have been that hard to miss, especially since it was night. But he didn't see anything that could have resembled the dragonfly.
"Naw, he's alright," Spyro said to himself. "They're probably just having a date." Then he found himself chuckling at the matter.
He turned toward his bed, then walked over to it. He took a second but forced himself to sit down on it. As soon as he was still, he found his cave to be a bit chilly.
"Knew I was forgetting something."
Spyro stood back to his fours and walked over to the firewood in the corner of his cave. He placed just enough wood to start a small fire, then made sure that all flammable materials were clear of it's radius. Satisfied, he blew a short fire through his nostrils to start the comfortable heater.
"That's better."
Spyro turned back around and made the few steps back to his bed, then had to force himself to sit down again. Even if he couldn't say it to himself, he was wondering on what Sparx was up to.
Meanwhile
None of the sights seemed familiar to Ruby in any way. The hedge maze was the closest thing she remembered from thirty years ago, but the hedge maze was new and improved from the old one. So Sparx finally decided to take her down memory lane.
The two dragonflies made their way through the rock tunnel to arrive at the old parts of the Artisan home world. There were still some inhabitants, but there were no toddlers whatsoever in these parts. Then that was when Ruby's memory kicked in.
She remembered the short and small hedge maze from before, but she was actually seeing it now. The two dragonflies hovered in front of the entrance before they entered. Sparx didn't even know if this hedge maze could even be classified as a maze but he just went with it. The archway portal that Sparx remembered still stood at the end of the maze, it just wasn't working. It used to go to a land called Dark Hollow.
Ruby looked at Sparx with a smile of appreciation as they headed back towards the exit of the hedge maze. The red colored dragonfly was happy to see the small waterfall still working as it should in the distance. Sparx knew what she was looking at so he took her on over to it. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the waterfall. The falling water emptied into a small pond with five large stepping stones all evenly spaced out from each other. Sparx remembered on how Spyro stepped jumped on each stone consecutively to unlock a hidden portal behind the waterfall. The portal which led to Sunny Flight.
"Does the portal still work?" Ruby asked, referring to the hidden portal behind the waterfall.
Sparx nodded, "As far as I know. The elders just has it turned off to keep the little dragons out."
Ruby hovered in her spot, as still and quiet as she could as she watched the moonlight sparkle off the water. For thirty years she spent in murky old caves, forests, mountains, and rarely being able to visit the Artisan lands. She soaked in as much beauty from this kingdom as she could, knowing that soon she would be back in the caves where she belonged.
"I don't want to go back," Ruby said in a down voice. "I miss this place too much to leave so suddenly."
Sparx himself looked unhappy at how desperate she looked. He couldn't picture what it would have been like to spend all those years, only to look forward to another day of staying in the darkness of a cave. It must have been awful.
"Then don't," Sparx suggested. "Stay here with me and Spyro."
A few moments passed as Sparx studied the dragonfly. It looked like she was considering it for a moment but she ended up shaking her head, "I can't. Mirelth needs me."
"But has he considered on what you want?" Sparx desperately asked.
"He won't even consider it," she replied.
Sparx made a deep sigh of slight aggravation. "Well . . . I don't know. How about we head on back? Spyro is most likely wondering where we are."
Ruby watched the waterfall for another minute, still in thought of how she could persuade Mirelth to forget about what happened to him in the past. But she couldn't think of anything worth mentioning.
"Alright," she finally said. "Let's go."
Meanwhile
Mirelth scanned the area from atop the cliff wall, hoping to see a sign of his dragonfly partner. He sat on the edge of the cliff where all the dragon's caves were, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. The only thing he saw was snow, the frozen lake to his right and the frosty looking hedge maze toward the top left corner along with a couple of closed stalls in front of it. He mainly kept his eyes on the platforms below.
"I better not have come all this way for naught," Mirelth whispered to himself. "I really do not feel like getting caught." He shook his head at what he said, "Again with the rhymes, what is wrong with me."
A few minutes passed and the fur dragon saw that it was beginning to snow a little. He couldn't really tell how cold it was due to his fur. That was the bright side to having fur but Mirelth still didn't appreciate the way he was born.
When he was about to give up, he finally saw a speck of red below him. He saw the glowing red dot disappear inside one of the caverns below him before he saw it no more.
"Hold on Ruby there's nothing else to see, I'll save you from this place and away we will be."
Soon afterwards the fur dragon hit himself in the head for saying such a thing. It was like he was purposely coming up with the rhymes now. But before he began his descent, he took one last look around the plains for any activity. Everyone seemed to be in their warm caves away from the weather, giving the dragon the perfect chance to go after his partner. But he was about to act too soon as two large elders made their way out onto the platforms below.
One of them was red with a gray underbelly. He looked a little chubby but muscular at the same time. The other was gray, tall, and pretty slender. His underbelly looked almost like a tainted green but Mirelth couldn't tell for sure. Soon, they began talking to each other about the very subject Mirelth hated. Christmas.
"So have you gotten the gifts you need?" the gray elder asked. He didn't sound all that old.
"Mostly," the red dragon replied. His voice sounded a bit deep but courteous at the same time. "I still have to pick up a few more when the toddlers aren't around."
"We still have to whip up another Christmas tree for the toddlers. I can't believe someone would burn it down on purpose."
The red dragon shrugged in response, "I can't either. Do you have an idea of who it was?"
The gray elder nodded, "Somehow he seemed familiar. I can't place him but my memory isn't what it used to be."
They continued talking about Christmas gifts and what they were going to do about the new Christmas tree, which was making Mirelth fall asleep in the snow. It seemed like they stayed out there for hours doing nothing but talking.
"Can't these fools take a hint and leave?" Mirelth thought, dozing off in the process.
Later
The elders finally finished their chat and went their separate ways. But that was over two hours ago. Mirelth fell asleep while listening in on their conversation and was just now waking up to find himself with plenty of fallen snow on his back. Mirelth shivered, rubbed his eyes, then shook himself free of the snow.
"How long was I asleep?"
Mirelth guessed it must have been for a while, considering the snow that was on his back. The white, slow falling, precipitation had gotten a tad worse last time he remembered it. A thin layer of fog covered the plains and it felt a little colder than before.
The fur dragon shook his head until he was wide-awake, then remembered the reason of why he was here. He looked down on the platforms below, hoping there wasn't a soul to see. Glad to see there wasn't and the coast was clear, he jumped down onto the closest platform below and landed with a thud. He peered into the cave he nearly landed in front of to see a large dragon sleeping on a bed inside of it with a dieing fire in the back corner.
Glad to see the dragon was still asleep, Mirelth jumped down another level. He landed in the snow, which covered his paws in an attempt to make him shiver. He made his way down a few caves to where he remembered seeing Ruby, hoping that she was still here. The dragon took a few breaths before peering inside of the faint lit cavern. A small fire still let out enough light for him to see everything there was. A purple dragon seemed to inhabit this small cave, but he wasn't looking at anything else other than Ruby. His dragonfly partner was sleeping in a small bed on top of a shelf above the purple dragon's bed. So Mirelth sucked in his gut and sneaked inside, careful not to run into anything.
Mirelth smiled as he approached the sleeping dragonfly, ready to break her out of her prison. But he saw something that he didn't expect to see. She didn't look sad. She actually looked kind of happy. The fur dragon sat frozen in his spot, unsure of what to do. The last time he remembered seeing that face on the dragonfly was too long ago. Then he spotted something else that made him think more than twice. There was a golden dragonfly, also in a bed similar to Ruby's a little more ways up on the shelf. Mirelth carefully leaned over to get a closer look at him.
"You? Your still here?" He sat in his spot, studying the dragonfly for a few seconds. "I can't believe he's still here after all these years." And just like that, he turned around and left without another thought.
The fur dragon stood outside of the cave as he remembered that golden dragonfly. No wonder Ruby looked so happy.
"I've been trying to make her happy for years but you manage to do it within one night?"
Mirelth took one last look into the cave before showing a smile. "Maybe he was right. I shouldn't have ran away like that. It was foolish of me. I shouldn't have been so selfish."
The green dragon thought if he was actually wrong about getting revenge for what they did to him in the past. He considered it, but he remembered on how everyone laughed at him and called him the dragon mop that day. He remembered on how much they made fun of him because of how he was different from the others. It didn't take long for him to find himself in anger, voiding his thoughts from earlier.
"I'll be back to ruin this holiday. Starting with the gifts."
Mirelth flapped his wings until he was airborne then began his dark flight toward the cliff in the distance.
