Dovish- synonym for peaceful.
Incredulity- unbelievable, incredible, astounding
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Chapter Five
The Plan
Spyro was the first to wake up in his cave to greet a new Christmas Eve morning. He yawned as he rubbed his waking eyes, then slowly forced himself to sit up with a silent groan. The first thing he noticed was the sunlight gleaming into his cavern. His squinted his eyes until they adjusted, then was finally able to see into the snowy outdoors.
It seemed like the elders must have gotten up a little earlier that normal. Spyro could see a new Christmas tree laying down on the snow, letting the toddlers decorate it with whatever ornaments were left. It wasn't as much, but the tree still seemed to sparkle regardless of that.
The purple dragon sluggishly stood to his feet then eyed the dragonflies, sleeping on their beds with dovish looks, which made him smile in spirit. Sparx was usually the first one up out of bed so the purple reptile figured that they must have been out late last night. He was proud of his golden partner. Ruby hadn't ran away yet which must have meant something good. If Sparx was happy, so was Spyro.
The dragon decided to head on outside to say hello to a chilly breeze. He shivered to it's greeting as he walked over toward their new tree only to watch the toddlers place the last few ornaments on it's limbs.
"Hey Spyro!" A green scaled toddler waved with a grin.
Spyro smiled and replied, "Good morning Chad."
It only took a few minutes for all the participating toddlers to finish up with the ornaments. As soon as they finished, they happily told the nearest elder about their accomplishment. The gray elder smiled and told the other elders that they were finished with the tree. The two other elders nodded in approval and praised all the involved youngsters on a job well done. Now it was the elder's turn to set the tree up.
The tree was actually a bit shorter than the other one but it still looked just as grand. Spyro just sat back and watched two of the three elders set the tree up onto a wooden pedestal which helped keep it standing. Spyro showed a smile, glad to see the toddlers work was finally complete. He just hoped that this one would stay. He didn't want to see those faces the toddlers made when Mirelth cruelly burned the other one to the ground. Spyro made a promise to himself that if Mirelth ever tried another stunt like that again that the purple dragon would show off his own flames up close and personal.
Later
Ruby and Sparx woke up an hour later to some Christmas carols that were being sung outside. Sparx wasn't much for singing so he stayed in his bed for a little while longer, too lazy to get up. But Ruby listened to the carols the best she could, grinning as she did. She hadn't heard those hymns in what seemed like ages. But it seemed as if she caught the tail-end of their performance for it appeared to have stopped after a few minutes.
"Rise and shine!" A purple dragon announced as he entered the cavern. "Come on, Christmas is going to be here before you two even think about getting up!"
Then in as quick as a flash, the dragon disappeared back into the snowy outdoors. Sparx sighed as he began flapping his wings to find that Ruby was already up and hovering about. She was looking out the cave at the toddlers who were playing in any way they could. Tag, snowball fights, even a game of capture the flag. The elders kept a close eye on the toddlers playing that one, they could get rough at some points.
"Does Spyro always get you up in that sort of way?" Ruby asked without looked at the approaching dragonfly.
Sparx stopped in his flight and peered out of the cave as well. Dragonflies were a little more vulnerable to the cold than dragons. So if it was really cold out then the dragonflies would be forced to stay inside.
"Only if he gets up before me," he finally answered. "It's just his way of rubbing it in my face."
Ruby cracked a smile at the response then decided to go on outside. Sparx watched her for any sort of reaction as the cool breeze blew through her wings. She didn't seem all that affected so Sparx decided to head on outside. As soon as the breeze stroked Sparx's back, the dragonfly retreated back into the safety of his cave.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, noticing Sparx's sudden reaction.
"It's cold out there so I'm getting my scarf and hat. Do you need one?" Sparx replied as he headed for his bed. "I've got some to spare."
Ruby shrugged, "I guess you can get me a scarf and hat."
Meanwhile
Mirelth sat at his rickety table, puzzling on when he was going to strike. Revenge sounded so gratifying at the moment, he couldn't describe the feelings he was having behind his wicked smile. But he couldn't get a certain memory out of his mind. It was stuck tight, not wanting to leave the fur dragon's thoughts.
"Why is that dragonfly still sitting around Artisan? I thought he would have been long gone by now." A second passed then he continued talking to himself. "Finally, I didn't rhyme this time." It didn't take but another second for him to show a frown. "This is all this holiday's fault, I'm going to take it down in one final assault. Without my partner there's only but one to get this thing as good as done. Without the gifts they'll be defenseless, then down with this holiday known as Christmas."
So Mirelth thought up of a plan. His plan was to put his flames to use to burn the gifts down to ashes, thus ruining the dragon's Christmas plans. Could he do it? Was it really that simple? From what he heard from last night, the dragons were going to have a replacement tree in their front yard. So if they were desperate to replace it, then it must have meant that they were going to put the presents under it when the toddlers went to sleep. And when that happened . . .
Christmas Eve
5 P.M.
Sparx was out and about with a small green hat on along with a red scarf wrapped around his neck, just his size. Ruby wore the same, comfortable with the warmth it gave her.
Both of the dragonflies were at the frozen lake, watching a couple of toddlers skate on the ice to their hearts content. It looked like they were having a grand old time. Spyro was at the scene himself but just sat on the sidelines with Flame, talking about their plans for the next day. Or so Sparx thought. They were really talking about Mirelth.
"You think he's coming back?" Flame asked in skepticism, not taking his eyes off the toddlers skating in front of them.
"Call me paranoid but I think he is. You gotta think about it, he's as nasty as the big gnorc himself. I think he's planning to come back to ruin our Christmas."
"Interesting, sort of." Flame sighed then continued, "I guess you could be right."
"Of course I am," Spyro replied. "I'm the hero."
"Now your being self-centered. Your egoistic personality isn't going to help us at all."
"Such big words from a small head," Spyro grinned.
Flame shook his head as he looked his friend over, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that. So if you think he's coming back, then when?"
"Think about it, if you were the bad guy what would you go after to ruin Christmas and when?"
The red dragon sat in thought for a few seconds as a toddler skated on by. "I think the toddlers would be very disappointed if there were no presents. That is what they are looking forward to. Of course, if this is the last night before Christmas then I would probably come to take the presents away tonight while every is sleeping."
Spyro showed an admirable grin, "Seems like your genius is showing today."
"Right," Flame began. A cool breeze blew through the air making the two dragons uncomfortable until it stopped. "So what are we supposed to do about it?"
"I may have a plan," the purple dragon answered.
Flame sighed and sarcastically replied in a voiceless tone, "Oh great, he has a plan."
So Flame politely listened to Spyro's plan, just out of plain curiosity of what he could have came up with. But the more Spyro went on, the more impressed Flame became. Impressed to the point of surprisal.
When Spyro finished his lecture, Flame said back with incredulity, "Your serious? I can't believe you just came up with that? It's incredibly complex."
"Well I wouldn't really think of it as that complex but, okay whatever. So it's a good plan?"
"I was trying to be nice about it being complex," Flame groaned. "But I have to say that it is a descent plan and it may work. But-"
"But?" Spyro discourteously interrupted. "But what? My plan is foolproof."
"We'll need some help with this one," Flame finally indicated. He saw his friend's disordered look then continued, "We'll need some of the elders to help us out. We'll just tell Nestor about your plan then I'm pretty sure he'll understand."
"Fine," Spyro profoundly sighed. "But I'm telling him."
Then some buzzing noises came from behind the two dragons, which pretty much startled them enough to make their heart rate increase a tad. They turned around as soon as the buzzing was heard to find Sparx and Ruby had been hovering behind them the whole time they were talking.
"Sparx? Ruby? How long have you two been there?" Spyro dumbfoundedly asked.
Ruby answered for both of them to make Flame look with wonder. So Spyro turned to him as soon as she was finished and translated, "They've been here long enough to hear out on our plan. So they're in on this as well."
So the four of them made their way to Nestor's cave to tell the elder about their plan. The plan to hopefully save the toddlers Christmas and confront this unusual fur dragon on his behavior.
Meanwhile, that same fur dragon was on top of the snowy cliffs, overlooking the plains at a distance, studying everyone's movements. He spied mostly on the elders for he was worried about them the most. But as he did, he noticed a familiar purple dragon walking through the snow along with a red friend of his. He watched him for a moment to see him and his friend disappear inside of one of the many caverns. He was barely able to make out two colored dots that followed them, one was a ruby color while the other was golden.
"Ruby," Mirelth began in his thoughts. "Sparx."
Time passed as the sun slowly drifted down onto it's horizon as the crescent moon began to show in the sky. It's faint light was enough for him to see down into the plains as the elder's began to gather the children to go indoors. Another hour passed and the fur dragon had shifted his positions onto the other side of the cliffs, above the caverns where he was the night before. He sat in the snow, cold but curled up as he watched the new Christmas tree.
The green fur dragon thought he fell asleep at one time but it didn't seem much changed. He shook the snow off himself then sat back down in his spot as he noticed something. A tall orange elder was making his way toward the tree with a small gift wrapped box in his paws. He set the present down in the snow under the protective limbs of the Christmas tree then left to go retrieve another. Soon after, a couple more elders began to show up as they began setting down gifts for the toddlers under the tree. Mirelth impishly smiled at the sight, knowing that his revenge was right in his paws.
