The original Spyro the Dragon series, Spyro, Elora, Hunter, Bianca, Bartholomew, Dragon Shores, Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds are properties of Insomniac Games or whichever company owns the franchise now. Macy is Topaz16's original character and she belongs to her. Smokey is one of my original characters and he rightfully belongs to me, he is created exclusively for this collaboration.

Once again, it's me, Flowerstar, bringing you another chapter. I'd like to say thanks to ChrisMSMB, Scarlet Embers, A Frog Called Stevie-Wonder and Evowizard25, our reviewers so far for reading and reviewing the previous chapters. I'm sorry for the extremely long hiatus but there are many kinds of excuses why the rest of my fanfictions are on hold such as my main reasons, a month-vacation in Hong Kong, followed by a 5-day vacation in the capital of China, Beijing, where the Beijing 2008 Olympics is being held at and I've fallen ill with a medical condition or some sort of thyroid disease. Ever since I've gotten sick, the updates have gone sluggish lately. My thyroid gland was swollen since 24th March, when I still had a bad cold that lasted for 14 or 15 days but I never expected to get even sicker.

Who knows when I finally recover? It really sucks to be poorly for so long, trying to cope with the symptoms most of the days or every day is very annoying. I think surgery is the only way to get better, the doctor already seen the scan report and the x-ray pictures of my thyroid test from Hong Kong and now, I'm currently waiting for news from the doctor, the scan report to come through the post and his decision whether I should go through an operation or not. Also, I had to wait to find out the actual date for the other test. Luckily, my family and I don't need to pay for appointments, surgery and medical stuff. Then again, my country tends to do things at its own pace.

Anyway, the other excuses are due to my lack of motivation (which explains why I haven't updated my previous fanfictions for years, for instance, "Crash Landing on the Mushroom Kingdom"), being occupied with personal, confidential things, doing a song fanfiction for this story, "I'll Stand By You" and working on my video tribute to the good ol' Spyro from the original Spyro the Dragon series, "Spyromania (Extended Version)".

To lighten up the mood, this is the chapter where Spyro's friends will finally make their appearance, including Topaz16's original character, Macy, from the fanfiction, "A Yeti's Love" which takes place during Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. I recommend you reading this story before reading and reviewing this collaboration. Also just giving a heads up, Stanley and Daniel will be absent from this chapter but they may show up in the later chapters. I'll try my best to get Macy and the rest of the characters in character in this chapter, just like I did for my previous fanfics.

So, let's continue on with the fanfiction with the fifth chapter of our collaboration.


Chapter 5: Faun in the Sun

After their gruelling and exhilarating training sessions are over at last and their instructor, Daniel, has taught them everything he knows, Spyro and Smokey were taking a little break in the lifeguard watchtower in the next day before heading out heading to start their part-time occupation for real and Dragon Shores is finally opened to the public. Ever since their first encounter with each other, they become fast friends and are like "brothers in arms", even though they aren't literally brothers and their friendship nearly rivals to Spyro's companionship with Sparx. Their friendship is strong, regardless of their bickering several hours ago.

Eager to begin the day off right away and looking forward to what kind of challenges and events await him, Smokey started off the chitchat with his cold-stricken colleague and newfound friend, who was completely in an opposite mood, due to his awful cold and the symptoms. So far, coping with them was like a downright, ghastly nightmare to him since he wasn't used to falling ill with any ailment. "So, are you ready for the first day of our job?" To prove that he's overexcited, the pubertal, grey-coloured dragon was grinning in the poorly, purple dragon's direction, bearing his razor-sharp, draconic teeth.

"Yeah… as long as my cold does—" Spyro stopped in mid sentence when a series of horridly, hacking coughs were inconveniently discharged from his fiery lungs while he moved a clenched claw to his miniature maw and coughed raucously, roughly and harshly, they were unpleasantly displeasing to the ear. They appeared to be loud coughs that sound painful. After his bout of hacking coughs, he cleared his throat and promptly composed himself. "… doesn't get any worse for me. They've gotten s—" Another harsh cough interrupted his sentence before he could say the rest as he coughed into his little, right claw. "They've gotten so worse to the point it's like I'm coughing up a lung."

Smokey cringed while gritting his sharp, draconic teeth from when the cold-stricken, purple protagonist described how he coughs. "Ewww… I'll pretend I didn't hear that from you but I've noticed your coughs are getting really worse. Are you sure you'll be feeling okay?"

"Sure I will." Spyro swiftly said before he sniffled, due to his blocked-up, stuffy nose and teeny nostrils. "You're lucky you're not in my—" For what seemed like the third time, his speech was cut short when a single dry cough was ejected from his reptilian lips as he coughed into his small, purple-scaled claw. His cough appeared to be a cough without expectoration. "…my position right now."

"If I were you, I'd have the common sense to head home and try to recover from my bad cold. It's the sensible thing to do if you've fallen ill."

"Don't start that again, Smokey. I'm not in the mood to start another argument wi—" Spyro shot an irritated, icy glare at his concerned colleague, fed up with hearing advices and his sympathetic suggestion. Just before he finished saying his words, an extremely loud, hacking cough abruptly erupted from the his oesophagus which are incredibly noisier than his previous coughs, it happened so quickly he didn't have a chance to cover his mouth. It was a loud cough that sounds painful. It was so disturbingly jarring, it went echoing and bouncing off the walls inside the lifeguard watchtower. "…with you." He clutched his neck in intensive pain since he coughed intensively harder. "Ow… my throat…!" He then laid a claw on his chest, grimacing from the immense amount of discomfort and soreness, due to the fact he coughed exceedingly noisy, yet disturbingly. "I'm going outside."

Avoiding eye contact and fed up with his colleague's advices, Spyro walked off in a huff, exiting through the doorway. Since it's stifling, airless and boiling inside the watchtower because of the temperature and the tropical heat wave, the door and the windows were already opened to let the cool, breezy air in. Seeing as he has little regard for his own safety, it makes sense why he seems to hate taking care of himself. Before the thirteen-year-old dragon could say another word, the door was somehow slammed shut, causing the whole room to rumble and shudder like an reasonable large earthquake shaking the ground violently to give emphasis to Spyro's stubbornness and grumpiness.

Smokey sighed and shook his head in disbelief, less than happy with his colleague's attitude and his pig-headedness. Sure, he admires and looks up to the dragon hero but at times, he doesn't know he has to tolerate with his behaviour. "He may be my idol and my colleague but sometimes, I don't know why I need to put up with him."


Once he's outside the watchtower, Spyro wearily travelled to his lifeguard chair while trying to keep his sickly, purple eyes open. It's hard to tell whether he's falling asleep or he has just woken up. To make matters worse, the colour of his scaly face changed to a paler shade of purple as if the colour actually drained from it, due to his ill condition. He's so sick, he felt like not doing anything on this day or any day of the month and he doesn't know which is worse: the inflammation of the lining of his throat or the rest of his symptoms.

It didn't take him long to reach his chair but at the pace he's going, it's going to take more than a while to get there. His journey eventually came to an end when he arrived at where his chair was located at and he hesitantly ascended the ladder when his claws grabbed onto it. With every step he makes, he climbed up until he slumped into the chair in a tiredly mood. Before making himself comfortable and making him feel at home, he hung his purple bag of belongings on the right side of it.

Luckily, there's someone to cheer him up, uplift his spirits and attempting to make him take his mind of feeling poorly. Elora entered through the entrance to Dragon Shores wearing a forest green bikini which covered most of her pear-shaped, womanly body while holding a light yellow-tan picnic basket, just in time to hear a couple of ear-piercing and horrifically disturbing, hacking coughs coming from somewhere or someone.

"What a nice, sun-drenched day! A perfect day to have a picnic, kick back and relax, watch the sunset, the salty ocean rolling in and retreating back and there's not a sign of trouble in sight." She beamed, she momentarily took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air despite that it's unbearably humid, not to mention airless and then exhaled as she let her eyes wander all over the sunny, tropical landscape around her. That's weird… why am I hearing someone coughing just now and where those coughs are coming from? She thought to herself as soon as a few, dissonant hacking coughs entered her ears and echoed deafeningly through the seaside.

Wondering where those unbearable noises are come from, she let her eyes wander around until she finally gazed up to see Spyro who is unwell, coughing roughly and harshly into a tissue. They are coughs that made loud rough sounds. They are so discordant and ear-splitting, he hardly heard Elora's hoovesteps and noticed her already standing on the right side of him. After a bout of hacking coughs, he removed his crinkled handkerchief from his purple, reptilian lips and threw it into a nearby recycling bin to get rid of it.

"Excuse me, sir? May I speak to you?" Elora attempted to get the poorly, well-known defender's attention by increasing the volume of her feminine, pleasant voice to the highest level, due to the lifeguard sitting on a high, white chair that's towering over her. Given that she doesn't know his name yet, she refers to him as "sir".

Her pleasant-sounding, feminine voice got the ailing lifeguard's attention straight away but due to the one of the symptoms of his severe cold, it's not easy for him to hear her voice, let alone anybody's voice. He looked around with half-opened eyes in an ailing, non-drowsy mood in various, different directions to search for the source of the voice.

"Is someone here?" He asked in a frail, tiredly manner, speaking through his clogged up, ruddy nose at a slower pace.

"Down here."

A faint, weak smile stretched across Spyro's lips when he located the source of the lovely, womanly voice. The instant he laid his eyes on her, he climbed down the ladder of his chair and once his paws touched the uneven, sandy surface of the sand, he walked up to the seemingly new visitor in a laid-back manner in spite of his mild ailment, in order for him to welcome her to the beach. Due to wearing sunglasses over his watery, bloodshot and puffy eyes, he barely recognised the creature or being in front of him.

"Hi. Welcome to Dragon Shores, I'm one of the lifeguards of this beach. Can I help you?" He attempted to greet the seemingly new visitor in the best he could in a polite and courteous way even as he spoke in a shallow, raspy voice.

Seeing as it is her first time in Dragon Shores and she hardly know anything about the lifeguard, Elora rested her hands and arms in front of her waist and chest, fiddling with her fingers awkwardly. Since Spyro gave her a proper welcoming, it was no harm in being respectful back to him. "Er… yes. I was wondering if you could give me a tour since this is my first time being here, sir."

"Sure, I'll show you around but when this is over, I have to get back to work."

After Spyro finished his sentence, he let out a series of disconcert hacking coughs from his reptilian lips, he covered his mouth with his right claw to prevent any disgusting germs from spreading. They are small and frequent coughs, usually short and dry; broken coughs with rough and loud sounds.

Hearing the cold-stricken hero coughing threw Elora off balance, made her skin crawl uncomfortably and sent a sequence of shivers as well as bringing discomforting, uninviting chills to her spine. Sure, it's nice and pleasant to stand next to someone she's beginning to develop a crush on but not just to let his coughs blare deafeningly in her delicate pointy ears. She slightly shuddered before gazing into his sickly eyes with a frown.

Since the little lifeguard's painful-sounding, hacking coughs took her by surprise, it took her a while to recover from the unsettling, off-putting moment after feeling ill at ease right near him. "Are you all right? Your coughs sound very disturbing and you don't look so good. I think you should go and see a doctor."

Overwhelmed with the symptoms that he's currently suffering badly from, Spyro shook his scaly head as his answer to the fretful, female faun's question as he lifted a miniature, purple-coloured claw and placed it on his forehead, a wave of dizziness began to sweep over him. "I feel awful… I feel like I'm gonna—"

Before he could finish his sentence, everything around him is spinning at an incredibly fast pace and the scenery, the inhabitants and Elora are becoming blurry as he began to lose his vision and everything is starting to go black. He gave out a breathless sigh before his purple eyes roll backwards until he fell, losing consciousness. Luckily, the blue-eyed, brunette-haired faun acted quickly and managed to catch him in her arms before he collapsed to the rough, uneven sand.

"Oh my goodness! Please wake up! Oh… what am I going to do?" Elora shouted in alarm, shaking him frantically and repeatedly but to no avail. No matter how many times she tried to move him about or how anxiously she agitates him, he wouldn't wake up or respond to her. Her voice was filled with extreme worry, feeling a lot of sympathy towards the fainted lifeguard while her tears streamed down her face and cheeks. Phew! He's still breathing and his pulse is still there.She thought to herself as she gently caressed Spyro's chest to see if there's any sign of life until she felt his heart thumping against her feminine hand while his chest was moving up and down in rhythm to his heartbeat or breathing. "Great. I fall head-over-hooves for a cute lifeguard and he ends up falling on me." She mumbled to herself in a quiet tone of voice, she felt like facepalming herself or smacking her forehead for getting herself into this situation. All she wanted was a relaxing, peaceful vacation and all she ended up with a sick, young lifeguard fainting in her arms.

Exceedingly alarmed out of her wits, the auburn-haired, sapphire-eyed faun desperately looking for a way to get or find help as soon as possible. Her eyes darted in each direction at a swift speed until she caught sight of the watchtower in the distance. She assumed it's an appropriate place to get proper assistance when there's a cold-stricken, fainted lifeguard in need.

"Maybe there's someone at this small building who can help me." She muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.

Using the strength she has, Elora flung the passed out, purple-scaled teen over her arms and hands. She then began her trip to the watchtower but due to the weight of the poorly, purple protector, she's having trouble with moving him around.

"Boy, you're… kind of… heavy!" She gasped, panting between her words and struggling to carry Spyro around.

To her, it isn't easy trying to carry an unconscious lifeguard all over the beach. While travelling to the building, she can't help but glancing at him laying peacefully and unconsciously in her arms, feeling sorry for him. It's like as if his body is utterly limp and lifeless, not responding to her or to anything at all and not a single sound or voice left his petite jaws.

After numerous minutes have passed, Elora ultimately arrived at her destination with a motionless Spyro in tow as the bottom of her black hooves made noisy, clopping sounds when they touched the first step below the deep tan-coloured, wooden door. She knocked on it twice with one hand because of her politeness that is part of her personality and patiently waited for someone on the other side of the door to answer it.

Her pointy, pink ears picked up the sounds of small, noiseless footsteps, followed by another sound of the door being unlocked and gradually creak open. Standing right before her eyes was another young dragon who has a similar stature to Spyro but his scales were grey and he wore a swimsuit that's nearly identical to him. Obviously, he's known as Smokey, who happens to be the dragon hero's new friend and colleague.

"Hi! How may I help yo—" Before he could complete his sentence, his eyes instantly bulge out at a greater extent in a traumatized fashion and his sentence was cut short when he noticed Spyro's unconscious body in Elora's arms. "Wh-wh-what happened…?"

"He was fine before and now, he passed out right in my arms. I'm worried that…" Elora's eyes are filled with emotion and were beginning to well up with watery tears, she couldn't bear to see Spyro suffering like that while her tears continued to stream down her cheeks. "…that… there's se-seriously s-something wr-wrong with him!"

Couldn't bear to see the Avalarian faun weeping, Smokey lowered his voice to a lower level, in order to set her mind at rest and reassuring her that his co-worker will get through his minor illness. "Hey, don't cry. My colleague will pull through. I'm sure he's just suffering from a mild sickness. Unfortunately, it's going from bad to worse. Can you put him down on the step for me so I can bring him in?" He asked nicely, telling her to settle his unconscious workmate on the ground before him and deciding to change the subject.

The minute she heard those comforting words from the thirteen-year-old, grey-scaled dragon, the grief-stricken faun wiped away her teardrops from her dry, tear-stained cheeks and reddish eyes with her fingers and her voice was choked up with tears while water dripped from her eyes. "All-all right… then."

"Thanks." Smokey grinned, expressing his thanks to Elora for settling his fainted, sick colleague on the front doorstep for him.

Careful as she was, the Avalari faun knelt down and softly laid Spyro down on the doorstep before she rose up to her feet or hooves and allowed Smokey to take care of the rest. He somehow clutched the body of his unconscious workmate with his pint-sized claws, his tiny talons gripped it mightily and pulled him backwards while flapping his wings up and down speedily. Since he refused to ask the female faun for help because if she helped him bring Spyro inside the watchtower, that means she will have to come in and thus, breaking the rule. He can't risk this happening so he'll have to sort out this situation himself. In spite of the thirteen-year-old, pubertal dragon not requesting for assistance, Elora took the liberty of crouching down until she is facing before the fourteen-year-old, purple-scaled juvenile's feet and pushed against them with both of her hands until she and the other lifeguard left him near the doorway and inside the building, reclining in an upright position.

Before the saddened, green vest-wearing faun could walk into the building so she can keep the ailing, purple-skinned pubescent company, the grey-coloured adolescent took action by making his way back to the doorway and stopped her from going any further by extending his teeny wings to a larger extent, thus blocking the doorway.

"Can I at least see him if he's all right?" Elora enquired, still fretting out of her wits and dreading that the symptoms of Spyro's sickness might be worsening by the minute to the point he is absolutely in no condition to defend himself, much less save the Dragon Realms (including Dragon Shores), Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds from harm, evil doers and villains.

Remembering the sign on the door, Smokey shook his head and knew it's still his duty to enforce rules, especially preventing anyone from entering the doorway of the watchtower as he tried to sound authoritive. "I'm sorry but you'll have to wait outside 'til he wakes up. I'll try to do everything I can to get him better again. The building is off limits to anyone except lifeguards. Catch you later!"

Without saying goodbye and another word, he pulled his unconscious colleague into the main room of the watchtower and immediately closed the door in front of Elora as it moves to the left slowly but surely before shutting completely.


After what seemed like a small amount of hours has passed and innumerable hours of waiting at the doorstep, Spyro departed out of the lifeguard watchtower after regaining consciousness from passing out. Clutching the door with his teeny, left wing, Smokey stood in the doorway, having a brief conversation with a cold-stricken Spyro and Elora.

Being a worrywart that he is when it comes to feeling sympathetic towards his newfound friend, Smokey asked the unofficial leader of the Avalari if she could carry Spyro back to the watchtower if he fell unconscious again, due to the symptoms of his severe cold taking their toll on him. "If he's gonna collapse again, can you bring him back here?"

"Certainly. Don't worry I'll take better care of him and I'll always be by his side." Elora nodded in a strong-minded way and gave Smokey a comforting wide smile, reassuring him that she'll look after the cold-stricken, purple protector and try to do everything in her power to nurse him back to health. Obviously, she means it with each word that left her beautiful lips.

"Just let me know if his ill condition gets any worse."

"You worry way too much. Besides, what's th—" Spyro's words are cut off when a discomforting feeling was tickling his throat, causing a chain of dry coughs let out inopportunely from his scaly lips as he placed his front, right claw over them to cover his coughs. They seemed to be coughs with expectoration. He immediately cleared his throat before ending his sentence. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"What I meant were your ailment and the symptoms appear to be worsening with each passing minute and I worry about you 'cause you're my friend and workmate. We're lifeguards and we should stick together, even if one of us is feelin' under the weather at the moment." Smokey promptly placed both of his front, small claws on Spyro's aching haunches and stare deeply into his bloodshot, tired, ill eyes sympathetically, causing him to meet his gaze, realising the young, purple dragon's mild illness is already worsening by the second and telling him again that they are still a team and they should help each other out.

"He's right. The sooner you get over your sickness, the better." Elora couldn't agree any more, she knew that the quicker Spyro recovers from his severe cold, the less he or anybody else needs to worry about him and his health.

"For now, I've got a lot of paperwork to do and you have your share of it. Until then, see you guys later!" The 13-year-old, grey-coloured dragon removed his miniature claws from his poorly, purple-scaled peer and reminded him to do his paperwork that is left inside the watchtower by their stingy, strict employer instead of their easy-going, open-minded instructor before bidding his mates goodbye.

And with that, he somehow shut the door, letting it close at a snail's pace until it is entirely shut, leaving Spyro and Elora alone. They decided to leave the 13-year-old, grey-scaled lifeguard to his paperwork and as a pair, they leisurely walked away from the watchtower like they are having a relaxing, unhurried walk together. There's nothing like a stroll in the beach to make a certain, purple dragon take his mind of feeling pain from his severe cold.

The whole beach fell silent except for the sounds of icy-cold waves rolling in and retreating occasionally, various dragon families chatting and playing and other denizens enjoying themselves, whether they are catching some waves in the ocean, having a round of volleyball or engaging themselves in other summery activities.

The tranquil quietness was suddenly broken by rasping, barking (not like a dog, canine or puppy) and wheezing sounds, followed by a hacking cough coming from Spyro, who covered his purple, reptilian lips with one of his small claws and coughed disturbingly. His hacking cough is a dry, painful cough with a harsh, unpleasant sound that reverberated off the rocky cliffs, bounced off the sea and echoed through the unventilated, stifling air. He laid a claw on his chest in extreme pain because his throat hurt so much from how terrible his hacking cough is.

It's so disconcerting it made Elora's skin crawl discomfortingly and sent an uninviting chill down her spine. Despite that, she managed to retain her composure and decided to break the awkward silence between her and the cold-stricken, undisputed hero of the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds.

Still feeling concerned for the celebrity hero, Elora couldn't help but ask him if he is okay whilst she took a fleeting look at him before gazing distractedly towards the icy-cold, undulating waves and the big, burning ball in the clear, cloudless sky on the horizon. "Are you all right now? You fainted an hour ago and you seem a bit out of it."

"I'm okay now, I—" Spyro stopped in mid-sentence when he covered his snout, drew back his head and neck, on the verge of letting out an ear-splitting sneeze from his nostrils. He threw his cranium and neck forward, sending out a powerful torrent of fiery, scorching flames and a great deal of perfectly revolting snot. "AH… AHH… AHHH… AHHHH… AH-CHOOOOOOOO!"

"Bless you." The Avalarian, brunette-haired faun simply replied, uttering the usual words whenever someone or a creature sneezes. She somehow pulls out a clean, green-coloured hankie out of nowhere and held it out to the sick, young lifeguard in one of her womanly, human hands. "Here's a tissue for you, use this to blow your nose."

The fourteen-year-old, heroic dragon snivelled before he graciously took the handkerchief with both small, purple claws and blew his nose violently. "Thanks, I really needed that."

"It's my pleasure." Elora's lovely lips curled into a kind-hearted, genial grin, clearly happy to help the daring, teenage dragon in his time of need. Sometimes, she wonders if the only way to spend plenty of time with Spyro is to care for him and nurse him back to health.

"Obviously, this is Dragon Shores. It's—" Spyro's words was unfortunately cut off when a round of harsh, hacking coughs were ejected from his reptilian lips while he moved a clenched claw to them and coughed harder. They sounded dreadfully disturbing and grew louder with each cough. After a short period of coughing, he resumed to giving the sapphire-eyed, brown-haired faun an explanation about the beach and the whole area. "It's a popular vacation spot for dragons and everyone to go on holiday and to have fun. On the left side of the beach is the lighthouse, it's located on a cliff." As he said this, he motioned his head to a lighthouse sitting alone atop a stony, rock-strewn cliff on the horizon.

"Have you ever been there?" Elora curiously asked, interested to know if the sick, teenage lifeguard has visited the lighthouse before in his life. Usually she isn't the type of creature to be nosy and poking into anybody's business that doesn't belong to her but she couldn't help but questioning him to find out what he does, besides being on duty, patrolling the beach, rescuing drowning victims or doing anything else.

"Not really." A snuffling sound was sent out from Spyro's reddish, blocked-up nose and nostrils before he responded to the blue-eyed, auburn-haired faun's inquisitive question and giving her directions to the whereabouts of the theme park. "My colleague and I don't head over there, it's not part of our job. Anyway, if you exit the beach, there's the amusement park." To show Elora what he was talking about, he motioned his head to the theme park in the distance. "Before I had a part-time job as a lifeguard, I tend to go there with my best friend but he's not with me at the moment."

"I know this is none of my business but where is he?"

"He's—" Once again, Spyro's sentence was interrupted when a series of persistent hacking coughs were inconveniently let out of his fiery lungs whilst he placed his right claw over his mouth to cover his hacking coughs. The more he coughed intensively, the rougher and louder they get. They appeared to be dry, painful coughs with harsh, unpleasant sounds. Realising how much harm was brought to his lungs, the more he was coughing violently, he puts a claw on his chest as he frowned and grimaced in an uncomfortable manner. "All of that talking is making me cough and the air is worsening my coughs."

"Maybe you should stop talking and let your co-worker temporarily replace you for a bit. That way, you can rest for while." Elora advised, still a teensy bit shaken and traumatised from the little lifeguard's previous continual, yet painful-sounding, hacking coughs.

"He can't, his shift isn't today. Y'know, your voice kinda reminds me of someone I met a few years ago. We had… erm… a short date in the amusement park at Dragon Shores… but…" The purple protagonist gave an account of his brief date with Elora, who was standing near him and listening to every word that left his miniature maw. He began to trail off as he lowered his voice until it's hardly a whisper, frowning about what happened to his relationship with Elora. "But… it didn't work out. She's probably busy or she had a lot of things on her mind."

Without hesitation, Elora tried her hardest at telling her account of how the young lifeguard reminds her of a certain, purple dragon she once had a crush on. "Coincidentally, you seemed to remind me of a guy I used to know a couple of years ago. I…" She trailed off as well as she quietly spoke, saddened that she hasn't seen Spyro in a couple of years, not knowing she's speaking to him the whole time. "I haven't seen him in a few years, he hasn't even sent me a letter and I've been wondering how he's doing, each day. You could say he saved my world at least once. He's a nice guy and he's very cute but he can be um… how should I put this? I don't know… a bit of a dork sometimes."

Once Elora's account of her relationship with the golden-horned, fire-breathing saviour was brought to an end, he was blushing slightly in an embarrassing way, he's at a loss for words because of what Elora told him as her words made him recall his past, including the memory of when they officially met in Summer Forest near the Glimmer portal. "I… I don't know what I could say about that."

Sensing that the lifeguard teen is acting strange, the vacationing, bikini-clad faun asked him why his cheeks and his scaly face abruptly changed from a pallid hue of purple (due to his terrible cold) to a vibrant tint of red. "Is there something wrong with what I said? Why are you blushing?"

The instant the blue-eyed, female faun asked him two questions, Spyro raised his front, two claws upwards in defence as if he already did something wrong as the redness in his cheeks began to steadily wane little by little and vanish until there's not any reddishness at all. He didn't want her to know that he felt awkward and self-conscious of the way she described him and their past relationship. "I-I'm not! I-It's no-not like I've got a crush on you or something! Besides, what makes—" Another consecutive chain of raucous hacking coughs disrupted his sentences as they escaped from his throat as he covered his miniature maw with one of his claws to prevent any disgusting germs from spreading. His coughs are short, frequent, shallow and feeble coughs and they are getting worse and disturbingly by the second. "What makes you think I remind you of whomever you're talking about?"

Upon observing him, Elora was listing the details of the reptilian lifeguard's appearance and facial features that are awfully recognisable to her, starting to suspect that he is truthfully the same young dragon she met at Glimmer in Avalar. "Well… you've got purple scales, your voice sounds familiar despite your minor illness and—"

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream cut through the sun-drenched, daytime sky that interrupted what appears to be a pleasurable conversation between Spyro and Elora, even though neither of them recognised each other yet. Despite the symptoms of his nasty cold, Spyro's hidden ears picked the scream up and his purple eyes immediately grew to a larger size at the sound of a desperate cry for help from a drowning, helpless denizen.

"HEEEEEEEEELP! SOMEONE SAVE ME!" The way the unknown creature or living being screamed at the top of their lungs sounds exceedingly desperate and in desperate need for some help from one of the new recruited lifeguards. Since this tropical resort is called Dragon Shores, the drowning victim is most likely either any type of dragon, regardless of what age he or she is.

Disappointed to end the discussion with Elora, Spyro gave her an apologetic look for leaving her at such short notice and frowned in a saddened manner. "Uh-oh! Sorry but I gotta go, duty calls. I'll see you later, okay?"

Without hesitation, he scampered off within a blink of an eye to the left side of the beach as fast as his four, purple-scaled paws could carry him, in spite of his mild sickness. Moments later, he can be easily seen with a burnside buoy from the corner of Elora's cerulean eyes before diving into the ocean with finesse to save a drowning swimmer as if he's been saving people's lives for years. Obviously, he must have brought it with him from the lifeguard tower.

Suspicious that the cold-stricken lifeguard might possibly be Spyro, Elora pondered to herself and was lost in thought. "There's something strange and recognisable about that lifeguard…"


Ever since her encounter with the local lifeguard, she couldn't get him out of her mind but there's something suspicious and familiar about him. His teenage, pleasant-sounding voice (despite that it now became shallow and hoarse, due to his mild ailment), his large, golden horns, the colour of his chest, his charming purple eyes, his uneven, purple-coloured scales and so forth fits the description of the dragon she met a couple of years ago at Glimmer in Avalar. Yet, she hasn't seen him anywhere on the seaside yet.

Her thoughts stopped flowing through her head when she caught a glimpse of a pair of sunglasses washed up on the shoreline and lost in the sandy lumps and layers of sand as the icy, salty water retreated into the distance. Curious to know whom the dark glasses belong to, she carefully lifted it up and brought it up to her face.

I wonder if these sunglasses belong to anybody? She wondered to herself while holding a pair of shades in her right hand and gazing puzzlingly at them.

A small number of miles from her, the poorly, purple protector is searching for something that's valuable to him as he bent his head down, shifting his eyes in every direction. While he's looking around, a sporadic string of hacking coughs are expelled from his throat roughly and harshly. They are loud coughs that sound painful. He placed a small claw over his mouth to cover his hacking coughs and prevent infectious, repulsive germs from scattering. They are horrendously jarring; they caused the blue-eyed, auburn-haired faun to swivel around to glance at him sympathetically.

With the sunglasses in her right hand, she jogged over to him and she stopped in her tracks, remaining still in front of him.

"Pardon me, what are you looking for?" She questioned the pubertal, reptilian lifeguard in a courteous fashion, she couldn't help but speculate what he is searching for on the uneven, sandy surface near the shoreline of the beach.

"I'm searching for my sunglasses." The young, purple dragon distractedly replied, obviously occupied with looking for his shades and avoiding eye contact with the auburn-haired, cerulean-eyed faun. It seems nothing could sidetrack him or knock off his concentration.

"Are these are what you're looking for, sir?"

To prove what she is talking about, she stretches out her hand to show that she found the shades after it washed up on the shoreline. Spyro's eyes instantly lit up in extreme cheerfulness, the instant he saw his dark glasses in front of him, immediately forgetting about his severe cold.

He smiled a draconic, toothy smile in Elora's direction, overjoyed that she found his shades for him. "My sunglasses! How the heck did you find it?"

"I found it washed ashore on the sand so I wondered if it belongs to anyone." The sapphire-eyed, reddish-brown-haired faun explained to the poorly, purple-eyed dragon in detail of how she located the dark glasses.

Gladly taking it from her hand, the 14-year-old, headstrong dragon promptly let himself and his paws settle on the sand as he took it back into his possession.

"Thanks for finding it. I won't be able to look cool without it and it always protect my eyes from the sun." He expressed his thanks to the Avalari faun as his purple, reptilian lips curl into an appreciative, amiable smile and he was grateful for her for finding his sunspecs for him.

Since the sunspecs is covered in a large amount of sand and grimy dirt, he softly wiped the sand off the frames and glasses with his claws. Without the dark glasses over his eyes, the identity of the lifeguard is revealed and turns out to be the same, heroic dragon Elora met a small number of years ago in Avalar. His innocent eyes, despite the fact they are watery, bloodshot and puffy, mesmerized her while he's occupied with cleaning his sunglasses.

She couldn't take her eyes off of him and she doesn't know what she sees in a dragon like him. Not much has changed about him except that he grew a few inches taller and matured a little. Spyro paused to move a clenched claw to his reptilian lips and expelled a few hacking coughs from his fiery lungs abruptly before he snivelled and resuming to clean his sunglasses. They are loud coughs that sound painful. He is so occupied in wiping his tinted lenses, he hardly noticed Elora continuing to stare lovingly at him. Just before he is about to place it over his eyes, he finally spotted her right before his eyes as he jumped in surprise, almost dropping his sunglasses in the process.

"What the—? El-Elora, i-is th-that you…?" He gasped, finding this hard to believe as he took a couple of steps backwards. He was completely taken aback and cannot believe his eyes that he finally saw the faun he thought he'd never see again ever since the last time they met, he narrowed his eyes to get a closer look at her to see if it's who he really thinks she is.

"Sp-Spyro? What are you doing here?" This was all Elora could come out with, never expecting the lifeguard to be her past crush or love interest this entire time. The last time she encountered him when she, the Professor and Agent 9 were discussing with him near the entrance of the island laboratory before heading off to the Fireworks Factory to find him and Sparx there and joined them to watch the fireworks and Hunter and Bianca are enjoying the firework display, hand in hand, after sharing a kiss under the full moon hanging above them in the moonlit, starry sky while Sgt. James Byrd set off the fireworks.

To protect his eyes from the unforgiving rays of the sun, the poorly, purple defender slipped on his sunglasses over them and weakly smiled, a tad bit cheered up from his mild sickness. "Same thing I would ask you."

"My life was hectic in Avalar so I decided to go on vacation to take a break from my busy schedule. And you…?" Elora gave details of how hectic her busy schedule is back at her home and made a decision to travel to Dragon Shores to relax and let her troubles wash away with the tides.

"I usually come here for a vacation but this is not the reason this time. Gildas suggested I should a part-time job as a lifeguard at Dragon Shores and gave me a leaflet. I was so busy in my part-time job; I never had the chance to tell it to my friends yet. Sparx was the first one to know about this." Spyro explained, giving a detailed account of how he ended up with a part-time job as a lifeguard and the fact he hasn't informed his companions and allies yet.

A hoarse, hacking sound can be heard from his lungs before he coughed even more after he finished speaking. Just as he expected, a sequence of dreadful hacking coughs were sent out from his reptilian gullet as he squeezed his eyes shut and moved a clenched claw to his scaly lips to stop any awfully, gross germs from spreading everywhere or anywhere. They are coughs that made loud rough sounds and whenever he coughs, his lungs hurts from how bad his hacking coughs are. They grew noisier and increasingly painful with each cough, they are so unbearable, they made Elora cringing uncomfortably. After a bout of hacking coughs has ended, he opened his eyes, removed his claw from his small jaws and sighed deeply, relieved from his coughing.

"Sorry about that, Elora. I came down with a bad cold yesterday; I might have been infected with it after I did a babysitting errand, taking care of the baby dragons. I realised I had it when I arrived home at night and started coughing later on." A sickly, apologetic frown was plastered on his face as he enlightened his old friend with his short account of how he became ill with a cold.

Feeling sympathetic towards the heroic, winged reptile after realising that he has fallen ill, Elora knelt down to his level and gently placed her right, womanly hand on his rough, uneven back, caressing it in a compassionate manner. Even though his back had teeny, yellow spikes, she managed to settle her hand on it without getting pricked by the sharp, pointy ends of the spikes. "I'm sorry to hear that. If I known you were sick, I would have arrived here in time to see you. I'll tell you what: if you're not occupied with lifeguard duty, I'll go with you to see a doctor."

The purple protector somehow used one of his reddish-brown wings to shove Elora's hand away from his back and was scowling in her direction, not liking where this conversation is going and trying to retain his reputation, despite his severe cold. "I'm perfectly fine without seeing a doctor and I don't need anyone taking care of me like a dragon hatchling, I'm old enough to look after myself."

Deciding to talk some sense into the little dragon, in an attempt to make him change his mind, Elora removed her hand from his back, positioned it on the right side of her hip, along with her other hand on the left side and rose up to her feet or black hooves. Since she's taller than him, she can easily tower over him. "Stop being stubborn, you dork! You need to visit a doctor whether you like it or not, it's for your own good. If you don't, you won't get better anytime soon and your cold will worsen." The volume of her voice gradually rose up to the utmost level with every word that flew out of her feminine lips, giving the ailing, fire-spewing hero a good scolding.

Spyro opened his mouth to argue back but he didn't had a chance to when he saw Elora pouting as if she's about to sob or show displeasure on her womanly, human-like face when he shifted his eyes to her direction.

"Oh, all right, I'll go but only 'cause you talked me into it." He showed displeasure and eventually gave in, speaking in a reluctant tone as his teeny wings flopped down to both sides of his little, purple-scaled body.

Satisfied that she came out as the victor of the argument, the auburn-haired, strong-willed faun giggled cheerfully with a pleasurable smile across her lovely lips while her expression slowly softened and the volume of her voice dwindled to a normal level or to a minimum. "I knew you couldn't resist my pouting and it's pointless to continue arguing when it comes to your health and wellbeing. It's almost lunchtime, are you hungry?"

In response to Elora's question, Spyro merely nodded and softly rubbed his pallid yellow underbelly with one of his petite, purple claws, suggesting he's hungry and suddenly have a appetite for some grub, a handful of morsels or a serving of scrumptious, mouthwatering food. "Yeah, I'm fam—"

Before he could finish his sentence, an uncontrollable, sneezing fit ensued as if someone is using a incredibly soft, fluffy feather to tickle his ruddy, blocked up nose and nostrils as he kept throwing his head backwards with a lot of force and thrusting it forward, sneezing out torrents of scorching, burning fire and extremely gross snot intensely at an alarmingly fast pace for minutes on end. His sneezes sound just as awful as his hacking coughs, they seemed to be dry painful sneezes that are repeated often.

Elora stifled a gasp, not expecting an unmanageable sneezing fit from the purple-scaled boy of a dragon. Feeling empathetic for him, she stretched her arm out, in order to put it around him as her way of consoling and calming him down. All she could do was watch the cold-stricken lifeguard being in so much pain from his continuous sneezing.

"I think a bowl of chicken soup will fix you right up. It's a surefire cure for your horrible cold. Let's search for a spot to set up a picnic; I've got all the essentials to make chicken soup. It's supposed to be for myself but I think you need it more than I do." She lowered down the volume of her voice to the lowest level until it's barely a whisper, in order to make the young dragon feel at ease and in attempt to quietening him down.

And so, they began their leisurely walk around the beach, touching the roughness of the sandy surface of the sand underneath their hooves and paws, a trail of hooveprints and paw prints were left behind them as they go. Besides the sounds of the population and the dragon families enjoying themselves and going about their business, the only sounds that filled the air, echoed and reverberated piercingly through the seashore is non-stop sneezing coming from a certain purple dragon.


After what seemed like an endless quantity of hours has passed as if the time is running too fast and finding flammable wooden logs (that are in a shade of the darkest brown there is) for starting a fire, Spyro and Elora eventually came across a suitable spot to set up a picnic for the two of them or more, if their buddies and allies showed up. By the time they found somewhere to have lunch, Spyro has eventually recovered from his dreadful sneezing fit.

Being the diligently faun that she is, Elora gently settled the blanket in front of her after pulling it out from her picnic basket which the teenaged, purple dragon held one of its handles in his mouth. He carefully placed down the picnic basket beside her while she laid down the firewood and kindling on the left side of the blanket, on the burning, uneven sand with care. Before they took a seat on the blanket, the Avalari faun smoothed it out neatly in case there are any creases visible. Once it's ready to be sat on, she repositioned the picnic basket and changed its position so it's situated between her and the ailing, fire-breathing lifeguard.

"Fortunately, I've brought a can of chicken soup and a lot of equipment but I was so busy in packing up for my vacation I've forgotten to take a can opener with me. Spyro, can you please open the can?" She withdrew a tin container from the picnic basket after she opened the left side of the lids and reached out her right hand to offer the small, tin can to the ill, purple-scaled boy of a dragon for him to open the oval-shaped, silvery lid with his petite claws or little, white talons.

"Sure thing…" Spyro weakly responded in an unwell, non-drowsy mood, a few throaty wheezes were ejected of his reptilian gullet before he could concluded his sentence. Apparently, his ragged breaths and his croaky voice interfered with his speaking. "…Elora. I'll open this in a jiffy."

Elora lends the can of chicken soup to the cold-stricken, purple protagonist and with a single, white talon, he pushed it through the thick metal with the large amount of strength he has to create a reasonable, normal-sized hole. Once that was done, he began cutting around it in a clockwise motion, in the same manner as using a can opener. The minute he reached the end of the silver, metal lid after a small number of minutes have gone, he used one of his claws to pull it upwards to an immense extent as mightily as he could.

Deep inside the can is a watery, coloured liquid of goodness filled to the brim with chopped up bits of carrots, succulent chicken and perfectly cooked peas, it looks delicious enough to drink and has full of flavour. Those were an adequate amount of nutrients to make him feel a bit better and good inside. A chicken-flavoured aroma lingered in the stifling, tropical air, it's so highly seasoned anyone can smell it from a mile away except Spyro, because of his blocked up, red nose and nostrils.

"Here ya go, Elora." His voice became even hoarse than before as if he almost completely lost his voice whilst he uttered these words and he extended out one of his claws out to hand the opened can back to his past buddy.

"Thank you for opening it for me. It smells wonderfully good; take at whiff at it, Spyro." Elora showed her gratitude to the reptilian, winged teenager and reached out one of her human-like, tan-white hands to take back the opened container from him before hoisting it upwards to her nose to smell the chicken-flavoured aroma, taking the delight in appreciating the scent while it travelled into her nostrils.

She then brings the opened can to the cold-stricken dragon hero's red, snot-filled nose and he sniffed it but no matter how many times he gets a whiff of it, not a single chicken-flavoured scent travelled into his tiny nostrils. After a moments whiff of the odour, Elora positioned the opened tin can on the right side of the picnic basket.

"I can't smell anything." This was all Spyro could say after giving up on sniffing the unprepared, chicken soup which was packed inside the can-shaped, silvery container after what seemed like over a hundred times he tried.

Nonetheless, Elora quickly knew why the poorly, winged reptile couldn't take a whiff of the chicken-flavoured goodness of the soup and took the opportunity of stating the reason. "That's because your nose is stuffy and blocked. Spyro, can you please light up the firewood and logs with your flame breath?" She graciously asked, moving on to the next question which she required the forthcoming response from the teenaged lifeguard.

"Sure…" Spyro sniffled when a trickle of snot inconveniently dribbled out of his nostrils and promptly snuffled the gooey, bright green mucus straight back into his red, stuffy nose which caused a loud, sniffling sound in the process. Since his purple bag is still hanging on the right side of the lifeguard chair, he couldn't be bothered to get a packet of tissues. Once he composed himself, he resumes his sentence while he smiled feebly in the brunette-haired faun's direction. "…Elora. Just let me catch my breath and stand back."

The brown-haired, azure-eyed faun did as she was told, she rose up from her spot and walked backwards, making sure she's stood a little further away from the fire-breathing lifeguard. He closed his eyes, puffed out his chest and took a deep breath, preparing to blow out a powerful torrent of scorching, fiery flames but the moment he breathed out, he coughed up smoke instead.

He was coughing faintly and frequently, or in a short, broken manner; as hacking coughs. As he coughed roughly and harshly, he covered his mouth with a single, purple claw while the Avalarian faun shuddered uneasily and uncomfortably with each hacking cough that were released from his reptilian lips. After a short period of hacking coughs, he opened his eyes, moved his claw away from his lips and heaved a sigh of relief, feeling at ease from his coughing whilst Elora cautiously walked back to her sick friend, lifeguard and residential hero as she settled down next to him on the picnic blanket.

This definitely spells bad news for Spyro. Without his signature ability, he's in deep trouble, not to mention being totally defenceless, incapacitated and in a weak position to do anything. Understanding how serious the situation could be for her fire-breathing friend, the anxiety and her worries were starting to get to her as she glanced at him in a nerve-racking manner. "This is very worrying and a predicament, how are you going to defend yourself without your fire breath?"

Spyro shrugged with his front claws, unsure of how to whup his adversaries' sorry butts without his signature ability, which is his fire breath. "I'm not sure, I could try charging my enemies with my horns but that will probably give me a headache. It's bad enough I already have one right now." As if on cue, he was rubbing his forehead with one of his pint-sized claws to ease the agonizing, sharp pain that was throbbing insufferably in his head. "I can barely breathe through my nose, let alone breathe fire."

As she mentioned the word, 'matches', she stuck her right hand into her picnic basket and painstakingly rummaged through to search for a box of matches. "Luckily, I brought a box of matches in case of emergency or if something like this happens. I think this qualifies as one, due to your lack of fire." She stated, in a matter of fact tone of voice, grasping the realization that her cold-stricken chum is unable to breathe fire because of his mild sickness.

After what seemed like several minutes, she dragged out a teeny, yellow box of matches that is in a shape of a teeny rectangle with a light brown cover concealing the entire box. Secondly, she pulled the cover to the left to reveal a set of approximately twelve matches. Afterwards, she chose one of the matches randomly and the top end of the match came contact with the right side of the box after the match struck it. The match instantly ignited and caught fire within minutes, the fire burned brightly and numerous sparks are giving off in different directions.

Once that's done, she moved the match to the lumbers and timbers, causing the flame to touch them and immediately moved the match back to blow out the blaze that radiated vibrantly on the top end like an eternal flame. Since the logs are highly flammable, they were easy to be ablaze. Countless sheets of red, orange and yellow flames all came together to become one inferno and they are running wild at an unbelievably fast pace.

Subsequently, she went back to looking through the picnic basket for a medium-sized, black pot that is perfect for her size and a long, wooden spoon for stirring the soup. At long last, she found a pot and promptly lays it on the fire with her left hand and dragged out a spoon before settling it down on the blanket, in front of the basket.

Next, she lifted an opened can of chicken soup from its position and carefully poured the runny, chicken-flavoured liquor, along with its contents into the pot and once that's done, she slipped the empty can back into her picnic basket until she finds a bin. Afterwards, she grabbed hold of the wooden spoon, gripping it tightly in her hands and began stirring the soup continuously while the chopped-up vegetables were mixed with the liquid and they occasionally dissolve into it.

"As long as nobody's taking advantage of my severe cold or knew about it, I've got—" A few productive coughs interrupted Spyro's speech and were ejected from his reptilian gullet as he covered his mouth so he doesn't spread any revolting germs, they were coughs with expectoration of material from the bronchi. "I've got nothing to—" Once again, he stopped in mid-sentence when several, disturbing hacking coughs are forced out of his pocket-sized mouth as he coughed dreadfully into his right claw. They are small and frequent coughs, usually short and dry; broken coughs with rough and loud sounds and whenever he coughs his throat hurt from how bad his hacking coughs are. Depending on how hard he coughed, they can range from the quietest to the loudest. The more dissonant they are, the more painful-sounding and unendurable they can get. "…To worry about."

Curious and slightly afraid that she might have broken a rule, Elora turned her attention to the sick, teenage dragon asking him a question that came to her mind. Since he's one of the lifeguards and they are kind of like authority figures when it comes to enforcing rules and keeping the peace, he is the only lifeguard to turn to at the moment while Smokey is still inside the watchtower. "Spyro, is there any rule in the rulebook about making fires on the beach if I have to cook anything?"

"Not really. I think it—" Spyro stopped in mid sentence when a series of dry coughs were released from his oesophagus while he was constantly coughing into his small, purple-scaled claw. They appear to be coughs without expectoration. When his coughing ended, he cleared his throat and continued his sentence from where he left off. "I think it's acceptable. However, nobody is allowed to illegally set fire to any buildings, facilities, houses or landmarks here. My instructor never said that rule to me but it's definitely in the rulebook."

"How did you know about this rule? I don't remember you reading any books in your spare time."

"Hey, I may not be the type of guy to read books but reading that rulebook is part of my job."

After Spyro's last sentence, he and the auburn-haired, blue-eyed faun hardly spoke a word or engage themselves in any more chats, due to running out of things to talk about. The only thing that broke the awkward silence between them were the occasional one or two hacking coughs coming from the poorly, purple protector as he coughed loudly, roughly and harshly into his purple, right claw. They are dry painful coughs that are repeated often but they weren't as ear-piercing as his once continual hacking coughs from several minutes ago.

After what appears like more than several minutes have rapidly swept by, Elora loosened her grip on the wooden spoon, in order to fetch a medium-sized, bright green bowl and a silvery teaspoon from the picnic basket. She reached into it to drag them out and held them securely and steadily in both of her hands, to prevent herself from accidentally dropping them. After she withdrew them from the basket, she situated the bowl in front of her and gently placed the silver spoon inside, leaving it in a diagonal position.

She had a hunch that the soup is finally ready by taking in the chicken-flavoured, delectable aroma with her nose, feeling it worming its way into her teeny nostrils in a collection of curls and coils. Careful as can be and using all the strength she has within her, she gently lifted the pan and cautiously poured the edible, steaming soup into the medium-sized bowl until it fills it up little by little to the highest level. The soup seems to be in a colourless, white colour with innumerable freshly, pieces of vegetables such as vibrant, orange carrots, spherical, green peas and minuscule, yellow sweetcorn buoyant about in diverse directions, in the thick, gooey liquid with a chicken-flavoured aroma; it smells deliciously delectable it's good enough to drink or take a sip.

Fortunately, the sparkly, silver spoon didn't sink deeper into the bottom of the bowl and bobbed in the middle of the liquid like a pair of armbands or any sort of buoyant object was stopping a swimmer from plummeting into the ocean floor of the sea.

She raised the bowl with the spoon inside using left hand from where she left it until she held it facing towards her chest and picked up the spoon, nearly shoving it to her feminine, luxurious lips and gently blew on the spoonful of soup to decrease the temperature and blow away the transparent steam which caused them to scatter and disperse to various, different directions before pushing the spoon towards the sick, lifeguard teen.

"Now, open wi—"

Before Elora had a chance to feed the first spoonful of warm, succulent soup into the ailing, teenage lifeguard, she dropped the spoon back into the bowl and her sentence was disrupted when they turned to the sounds of footsteps approaching. All they can make out are four silhouettes walking forward in the distance that are in different heights, widths and sizes. Feeling a strange sensation tickling irritatingly in his throat and having the urge to cough again, more hacking, rasping, barking (not like a dog, canine or a puppy) and wheezing sounds fell out of Spyro's reptilian lips, followed by a uninterrupted chain of disturbing, hacking coughs were let loose from his lungs as he squeezed his eyes closed firmly and coughed very abhorrently and unpleasantly into his claw. They are coughs that make loud rough sounds and short, frequent, shallow and feeble coughs. They were noisy but not horrifically noisy for the unknown, mysterious figures to hear, therefore they were unaware that the cold-stricken, dragon hero is suffering badly from his painful, hacking coughs and his very bad cold right now.

As the four silhouettes come within reach of a disconcerted Elora and a coughing Spyro and crossed their field of vision, it turns out they are a quartet of his dependable pals which were walking side by side from left to right: Hunter, Bianca, Bartholomew and Macy. Out of the four-piece group, Hunter was surprised and thrilled to finally see his old, Avalari friend again after what seemed like a small number of years when he and his friends are approaching her and the cold-stricken defender of the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds. The Avalarian cheetah was incredibly ecstatic and excited to get started with his gossip with his Avalari chum and catch up with other stuff, he hardly realised his close friend is suffering from a bout of hacking coughs at the moment.

Hunter decided to wear a pair of dark navy shorts that came down to near his knees and it concealed his spotty skin with a white belt tied firmly around his waist, due to the sweltering, airless heat wave, searing, sizzling temperature and the tropical, sunny climate. As always, he forgot his running shoes so he had no choice but to walk along the sandy, gravely surface barepawed.

Bianca wore a purple bikini that matches her eye shadow above her sapphire eyes instead of her usual attire that she was clothed in during the ordeal with the sinister Sorceress. Her appearance didn't change much except her clothing. She and the thick-skulled cheetah haven't married yet but they are still a pair, currently they were linking arms together.

Just like Hunter, Bartholomew also wore a pair of light grey shorts that are in a shade similar to his feet but they only reached the top of them. Ever since they shared a kiss at the Fireworks Factory, he and his girlfriend have been doing things together as a couple, regardless of their age. It is unusual for him not to hang around with Bentley at the outpost in the Forgotten Worlds but he made decision to mingle with his love interest and his two friends.

Macy has white fur just like the cat witches from Charmed Ridge and she used to work for the Sorceress as an apprentice, just like Bianca. Her eyes are emerald-coloured and she wears a crimson-coloured renaissance dress. It has a circular neck and laced down the front with a blackish color. The sleeves would get wider as you would go down and somewhere near her upper arms there was a black line. What separates the lower part from the upper part of the dress is a black stripe that helps to give her some shape. The lower part of her dress opens out like a puffy, red tutu with black layers under it that matches the black lace at the ends of her sleeves. Finally, she wears a black cloak and she never wears shoes.

Not expecting to come across his previous pal any time soon, Hunter stopped linking arms with his rabbit sweetheart and was completely astonished but thrilled at the same time, his eyes immediately grew to a larger extent at the sight of her being in Dragon Shores. "El-Elora? It's been a long time since I last you!"

"Hunter! It's nice to see you again! Do you live here now? Where are Zoe, the Profess—" Elora perked up the minute her pointy, pink ears picked up Hunter's voice and was clearly psyched to eventually see him again. It seemed like a small number of years since they last shared a conversation as buddies. She was so eager and thrilled to see him; she couldn't help herself but ramble on at a speedy pace.

Hunter immediately cut Elora off while he was pushing his paws forward in her direction as his way of telling her to stop talking and rambling quickly. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, Elora! I hope you haven't been drinking too much coffee in the morning." He suddenly notices Elora holding a medium-sized, bright green bowl of warm chicken soup in her right hand and a silvery teaspoon in the other. "Um… what in the Dragon Realms are you doing?"

"I'm feeding chicken soup to one of the lifeguards." Elora replied in an unperturbed way, she dips a spoon into the chicken-flavoured, healthy fluid until she had a spoonful and feeds it into Spyro's opened mouth, feeling the liquid disappearing down his reptilian gullet. Apparently, his bout of nasty, hacking coughs stopped before he opened his small jaws to have a taste of the warm, chicken soup.

"Er… isn't chicken soup usually for people who are unwell?"

"Normally it is," Elora calmly answered, motioning her head to Spyro, who simply sniffled due to his reddish, blocked-up nose and tiny nostrils. In the midst of the chat between the Avalari residents, he turned his head to the left and proceeded to let a few productive coughs escape his reptilian lips as he coughed nauseatingly and discordantly into his front, right claw. They appeared to be coughs with expectoration of material from the bronchi and they are hoarse and wet with a hint of mucus, not to mention they are displeasing to anybody's ear. When his bout of coughs subsided, he cleared his throat while slowly regaining his composure and faced the front. "he probably needs it more than I do."

Reminiscing her from Fireworks Factory, the cat wizard approached the reddish-brown-haired, Avalarian faun until she stood on the opposite side of her and had the desire to have a chat since she was interested to know more about her. "I'm assuming you're Elora, aren't you?"

Immediately spotting a new, talking animal to make a conversation with, Elora stopped feeding chicken soup to a cold-stricken Spyro and delicately laid down the bright green bowl with the silver teaspoon inside which was lying in a diagonal position on her knees. "Why yes. I didn't quite catch your name, what is the name that you go by?"

In spite of normally being timid around strangers or creatures she never met before, Macy managed to muster up the courage to introduce herself to the brunette-haired, green, strapless shirt-wearing faun as well as telling her where she was originated from. "My name is Macy and I was born in Felinia."

"That's a lovely name. How did you know me?" Elora questioned the female cat wizard, curious to know how the diminutive feline knew her name without her letting her know what her name is.

"Spyro told me about you a few years ago in the amusement park but he didn't mentioned much about you." Macy recalled the time when she and the purple dragon were chatting to each other while they were on the pink, coaster cart in the midst of the roller coaster ride, a few years ago after the seemingly downfall of the wicked Sorceress.

However, Macy wasn't the only one who wanted learn more about the blue-eyed, auburn-haired faun. Elora also wanted to discover more about the mysterious cat wizard so she required some extra answers from her and decided to ask her another question but this time about the greatest dragon hero the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds has ever known and the agile, idiotic cheetah. "So, how did you know about Spyro and Hunter?"

"Erm… it's a long story but I don't want to bore you with the details. I'll try to shorten it. Basically, after the Sorceress came to Charmed Ridge looking for a new apprentice, I had no choice but to team up with Bianca and we were ordered to sneak into the Dragon Realms to steal all the dragon eggs. Thanks to my partner's stupidity, we got caught but despite that, we managed to obtain the eggs and returned to the Sorceress's lair in one piece. It wasn't until I met them again in Sunrise Spring and it was no surprise Hunter was stupid enough to reveal his name and his friends' names to me. That's when I started to change for the better when Bartholomew and I kept coming across each other, exchanging words. Later on after my betrayal, I had no trouble bonding with Spyro, Hunter and my other companions and together as a team, we defeated the Sorceress twice and saved the dragons from extinction." Macy exhaled deeply after explaining how she encountered her former enemies, how she keeps on bumping into Bartholomew to the point they made friends with each other, how she befriended her ex-foes, how she betrayed the Sorceress and how they defeated her, thus saving the dragons from extermination and returning all 150 dragon eggs to the Dragon Realms.

"That's an amazing and exciting story, it must be one heck of an adventure full of action, friendship and love."

"You could say that. I suppose if I didn't meet the Sorceress, none of this would have happened and I'll never be surrounded with wonderful friends, not to mention what it's like to be loved and experience life without using my magic."

Hunter spotted Spyro sitting by Elora's side on the picnic blanket, not knowing it was him and mistaking him as a typical lifeguard or a different fellow. "Saaaaaay… it's about time you've hooked up with someone!"

Failing to recognise the little lifeguard as Spyro from underneath his sunglasses, Macy didn't fancy the thought of him broken-hearted and crestfallen with grief, witnessing Elora with another guy. There's nothing more anyone hates than being cheated on by someone else. "Ooooh boy… Spyro would be very disappointed and heartbroken if he realises you found yourself a boyfriend or a new guy to link up with."

"Actually, the lifeguard IS Spyro!" Elora covered her mouth with both of her hands, giggling heartily to herself since Hunter, Macy and the rest of her chums scarcely recognised who the lifeguard really is.

Hunter's cheerful expression changed to a stunned, feline face, his eyes instantaneously bulge to a larger extent, doubting his best friend is also a lifeguard as well as a well loved, famous hero. "No way. I didn't see that comin'!"

"This might explain why we haven't heard anything from Spyro this morning and this afternoon." Bianca pondered, putting two and two together and came to the conclusion that the adolescent lifeguard they were chatting with turns out to be Spyro this entire time. It's like as if he was hiding his identity right under their noses or right behind their backs.

"Guys, I can explain." Spyro spoke in a slight stern tone of voice while he slowly removed his sunglasses from his eyes and he gripped tightly them in his claws. He felt ashamed, seeing as he hasn't informed his allies and his chums relating to his new part-time job as a lifeguard and his severe cold as if he actually lied to them, not notifying them where he was.

"Then fill us in." Bartholomew was egging the littlest dragon on, waiting for him to put in plain words why he was missing and was nowhere to be found in the first place.

Before telling his group of companions his account in his point of view, Spyro carefully positioned his sunspecs above his sickly, purple eyes and eyebrows on his forehead. "I was on a babysitting errand yesterday, taking care of Brian, Roxy and Hank until Gildas came over and suggested I should take on a part-time job as a lifeguard at Dragon Shores. Before he left, he handed me a leaflet advertising the job and he departed, leaving me to think. But the part-time job isn't the only thing I've got. I also got a—" He stopped in full flow of his explanation when he felt like something was tickling his diminutive nostrils. Not having the time to pull out a packet of tissues from his bag, he lift a small claw to his nose, took a ragged breath as he threw back his head and thrust his head forward, expelling a blast of searing, red-hot fire and abhorrently, gross snot suddenly, involuntarily and noisily. "AH… AHH… AHHH… AHHHH… AH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The sudden expulsion made Hunter, Bianca, Macy and Bartholomew slightly jump in reaction to Spyro's startling, strident sneeze, throwing them off balance excluding Elora, due to the fact she was already aware of the fourteen-year-old, reptilian teen's minor ailment but the worst of it is yet to come. His buddies cautiously exchanged a glance in a concerned fashion before exclaiming out the usual words whenever a certain creature, animal or inhabitant sneezes.

"Bless you!" Elora, Bianca and Macy shouted in unison, their feminine voices combined to become one, ear-splitting voice which was deafening enough for the sick saviour of the three worlds to hear.

"Gesundheit!" Hunter and Bartholomew simultaneously bellowed, just to make sure the German word gets through to the fourteen-year-old teen, who is still in poor health. They clearly don't know the German language but they know that it's another way of responding to their poorly, purple pal after he sneezed.

"Thanks guys." Spyro feebly smiled, snuffling once again and expressing his thanks to Elora, Hunter, Bianca, Macy and Bartholomew in a sickly, non-drowsy mood whilst a small amount of rasping, hoarse wheezes are sent out from his miniature maw, having difficulty with breathing through his minuscule nostrils.

The ear-piercing, unexpected sneeze was followed by a series of consecutive hacking coughs that were released from his fiery but sore lungs even as he moved a clenched claw to his mouth and coughed disturbingly. They were harsh, dry and spasmodic and they are dry, painful coughs with harsh, unpleasant sounds. With each hacking cough coming out of his miniature maw, they made his group of allies and chums shudder, grimace and send unnerving shivers down their spines, due to how painful and sickening his coughs sounded. Once his bout of hacking coughs has quietened down, he removed his purple-scaled claw from his reptilian lips.

Upon looking at their cold-stricken pal, lifeguard and protector, he had seen better days and he looked exceedingly exhausted as if he hadn't slept for countless months. His eyes were watery, bloodshot and puffy and his fire-breathing glands are swollen and inflamed from the inside. To top it all off, an enormous excess of snot were seeping out of his red nose and nostrils endlessly like a crystal clear waterfall descending into a extremely, vast body of water from above.

It didn't take Hunter long enough to grasp the realisation that his best friend has recently came down with an awful cold after watching and hearing him coughing and sneezing. "Aww, crud! Don't tell me you're ill, Spyro!" He yelled in a groaning tone of voice, dismayed that Spyro's sickness has ruined his chances of having a rematch with him in one of the skate parks in the Forgotten Worlds as well as feeling sorry for the ailing, heroic protector and lifeguard.

Elora momentarily sighed in a subdued manner, feeling down in the dumps due to the feisty, overconfident hero becoming infected with a horrific cold as well as feeling sorry for him. She nodded her head, having the same opinion with her absent-minded, feline friend. "I'm afraid so. Apparently, he's been feeling under the weather since I first arrived here but I'm not sure how long he's been poorly."

"Dang… I guess this isn't the right time to ask you if we should do a skateboarding contest or not, huh?" Hunter immediately flopped his spotty, furry arms and paws down in front of his furred, supple body, still unhappy about having no choice but to cancel the skateboarding competition.

For what seemed like the umpteenth time, Spyro sniffled before he replied to the athletic, unintelligent feline. "Nope. You'll have to wait 'til I've recovered from my cold or skateboard with someone else if you're not patient." He heaved a sigh in a disappointed fashion that resulted in him wheezing a tad bit; he felt it was his fault that he spoiled their opportunity to hold a skateboarding competition in the upcoming days. "I picked the wrong week to get sick, haven't I?"

"You're telling me!" Hunter exclaimed in a moaning tone of voice for the second time, upset that he has no one to skateboard with to idle away the hours and the fact that Spyro is too sick to come to any skate park in the Forgotten Worlds with him. "How the heck am I gonna find a way to pass the time?"

Placing a finger underneath her chin while she is being deep in thought, Bianca suggested other ways for her boyfriend to kill time instead of keeping himself amused with his hobbies. "There are other ways to occupy yourself like you can always spend plenty of time with me, keep Spyro company or hang around with our friends."

Fearing about the possibilities of being ill with a minor illness if he and his friends stayed near a cold-stricken Spyro for long or brief periods of time, Bartholomew instantly brought them down with his worries. "But if any of you were planning to keep Spyro company, wouldn't you guys catch whatever he's got? Besides, he might be contagious."

"Don't worry, Bartholomew. Elora's been with me most of the time and—" Spyro assured the young yeti that the faun is out of harm's way and she fortunately hasn't caught a horrible cold from him yet. A single mucus cough was let out from his pint-sized jaws before he could finish his sentence. He covered it with a claw to prevent from spreading any revolting, gross germs. "…And she hasn't been infected yet. She's—" He stopped in mid-sentence once more when persistent hacking coughs were sent out forcefully and grossly from his oesophagus, he placed one of his small claws over his mouth to cover his hacking coughs as he coughed roughly and harshly. They are dry painful coughs that are repetitive. "She's perfectly safe."

After hearing her cold-stricken friend's constant hacking coughs for several seconds without end from earlier, Macy couldn't take it any more and she's on the verge of losing her temper. She may be a nicer person now after the ordeal with the Sorceress but she couldn't hold back the fact she's still annoyed of Spyro's discomforting coughs. Never in all her life she heard coughs that are nauseatingly disturbing, especially from the undeniable hero of the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds.

"Ugghhh! Can you stop coughing? It's getting on my nerves!" She directly bursts into an angry outburst, flying into a rage. She felt like she had the urge to tear her fur out repeatedly in infuriation or strangling her cold-stricken, reptilian chum to cease his painful-sounding coughing. However, she knew if she actually did either of those methods, it would result in losing a friend.

"I can't stop coughing, Macy. Besides, it's difficult to hold them in but if yo—" Another round of unbearable hacking coughs disrupted Spyro's speech and inconveniently were expelled from his lungs as he puts one of his puny claws over his maw to cover his hacking coughs and coughed violently. They are dry, painful coughs with harsh, unpleasant sounds. "But if you can't cope with m—" He stopped in full flow of his sentence when extra more hacking coughs were awkwardly drove out of his throat as he coughed into one of his purple-coloured claws. Unluckily, his coughs are getting even worse and worse by the second this time. After his bout of hacking coughs, he swiftly collected himself and carried on from where he left off. "…with me coughing, then take your attitude somewhere else. I'm not in the mood to start another quarrel with you today."

"Fine. If you're gonna be that way, then we might as well not be friends." Macy turned to the left and crossed her arms furiously, avoiding eye contact with the poorly, 14-year-old teenager.

Trying to not retort back to his short-tempered, cat wizard friend, Spyro calmed himself down and his expression softened from snapping back at her as he told her the truth about not fancying the idea of hearing himself coughing. "Macy, you have to try coping with me coughing and sneezing 'til I get better whether you like it or not. I'm trying my best to deal with my nasty coughs, even though I don't like hearing myself coughing."

"You don't?"

"Of course I don't like listening to my coughs. It's—" Just before Spyro had an opportunity to continue talking, yet another series of hacking coughs were awkwardly ejected from his lungs while he moved a clenched claw to his scaly lips and coughed severely and unpleasantly. They are short and frequent coughs, usually short and dry; broken coughs with rough and loud sounds. When his coughing has quietened down, he managed to regain his composure and cleared his throat. "It's painful whenever I cough like that and when I do, I cough much harder and that hurts my throat. It's like as if it's on fire from the inside. Worst of all, I can't breathe fire."

Contented that her poorly, purple pal is admitting that his hacking coughs sounds annoyingly painful and off-putting to listen, Macy glanced towards him with a satisfied smirk visible across her feminine, feline lips and placed her hands behind her back and cloak. "At least you admit they are very disturbing to hear. But that's ridiculous! You've always been able to breathe fire, why can't you do it now?" She cocked an eyebrow at the fearless, adolescent dragon, doubting the probability of him not capable of breathing fire when he is in his frail, immobilized state.

"The reason is 'cause of my sore throat and my fire-breathing glands are swelling." The young, purple dragon frowned, he pointed at his reptilian gullet and swollen glands with a small, white talon. They were signs of his symptoms and showing his team of companions and allies why he couldn't spit fire like usual.

"Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good." Hunter mumbled, stating the obvious and lowered down his voice as he uttered those words when he noticed the swollen fire-breathing glands and inflamed lungs.

"Tell me about it." Spyro assented, nodding his scaly head with a saddened expression and agreeing with Hunter. He knew that without his fire breath, he might be at a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with recurring villains and minor enemies, in order to save any world or realm. "I tried to blow out flames but all I ended up with is coughing up smoke."

"I assuming he meant by if your enemies survived and they realised you're not yourself and completely out of sorts, they'll take advantage of your ill condition and your inability of using your flame breath." Elora explained the forthcoming situation to the cold-stricken, purple creature that lies ahead of him. Deep down inside of her, the unofficial leader of the Avalari is not only deeply concerned of the dragon's well-being and safety but also what the future will bring.

Being the self-confident, feisty dragon like he always been, Spyro tried to look on the bright side of things and attempted to remain calm and relaxed, despite his mild sickness. "I may be sick but I'm not too sick to take them down and put an end to their evil plans. I've whupped their butts before and I'll do it again."

Elora shook her head in disagreement, assuming that confronting the villains and antagonists while still feeling under the weather isn't such a good idea for her ailing, fire-spewing chum. "Spyro, you're in no condition to take on any villain or bad guy at the moment. Right now, what you need is plenty of rest, especially in bed, drink lots of fluids, have a lot of Vitamin C and eat loads of vegetables and fruit. Those are the things keep you healthy while you're poorly." She listed all the important things to him that are vital to be well again and in good health.

"Maybe tonight's karaoke and luau party will cheer you up and make you feel better." A familiar, male teenage voice unexpectedly replied out of nowhere.

It just so happens that Smokey came across Spyro and his friends, which took him by surprise the moment he heard his co-worker's teen voice. He was so caught up with his discussion with his old chums, he wasn't aware of the 13-year-old, grey-skinned dragon's presence and he barely heard his footsteps and also, it's difficult for him to hear anything due to his hidden, blocked-up ears. It's like as if the sounds and voices around him in his surroundings are muted.

"Whoa, Smokey, where'd you come from?" He instantaneously turned around and jumped in surprise, not expecting Smokey's presence and almost scared the living daylights out of him.

"I was overlooking the beach on the rooftop of the watchtower after I did my paperwork and I can't help but overhear your conversation with your friends so I'd thought I let you guys in on what's goin' on tonight." Smokey gave an explanation from how he was watching over the beach from the top of the watchtower to moving towards Spyro and his comrades without noticing him. Telling by the cheerful smile across his reptilian lips, he was in a chipper mood than usual and was clearly looking forward to Friday night. He always knew that luau festivities and karaoke are two of the innumerable ways to boost up the number of sightseers, visitors and holidaymakers, not to mention attracting more tourists to the seaside from each of the various worlds and realms out there.

"Sounds li—" Unfortunately, one more round of disturbing, hacking coughs were droved out from the purple dragon's lungs as moved a clenched claw to his reptilian lips, shut his eyes firmly and coughed nauseatingly. His coughs are ear-piercing coughs that sound painful. He opened his eyes, promptly laid a claw on his chest painfully and he grimaced from the massive amount of pain caused by his hacking coughs. "Sounds like fun, Smokey. How did you know about this anyway?"

"Stanley filled me in on the activities that's going on tonight in the morning before you came in the afternoon. If you weren't so late, you would have heard the news. Oh, and we're doing a presentation on the stage before the karaoke and beach party starts but also, we're kinda still on lifeguard duty and we're gonna enjoy ourselves at the same time. It's gonna be one heck of a shindig. Our shifts usually end at night on the days we're present." Smokey went on, bringing his co-worker up to date with Friday night's activities and the different assortment of events that are taking place in full detail. The second he mentioned the karaoke and the beach party, this kind of information got the gang's attention and they perked up straight away.

On the other hand, the news left Spyro speechless and confused. He blinked in a baffled manner, having a hard time to remember all of this in his mind. "…Th-That's a lot of information to sink in, Smokey."

"Weeeeeell… that's the agenda of today's activities but the line-up of the singers and vocalists in tonight's karaoke is anyone's question." The thirteen-year-old dragon casually kept on going with giving details about what will occur in the upcoming karaoke, he knew that the singers and vocalists can be anyone, depending on who is going on stage.

"Yo, Spyro. Who is that?" Hunter asked, pointing a finger a Smokey to show who he's referring to.

As an answer to the dim-witted cheetah's question, Spyro humourlessly glowered at him after noticing him rudely directing his finger at his colleague. "It's not nice to point, Hunter." He motioned his head in Smokey's direction, indicating who he is. "Anyway, that's Smokey; he's my colleague and one of the two lifeguards who are on duty here in Dragon Shores."

"So, there's two lifeguards on duty?" Macy piped up in an enquiring tone of voice, wanting to get into the conversation or at least get into one and sort have astounded to realise that there's only two lifeguards instead of a enormous team protecting the seaside.

Spyro nodded his head at Macy as his response to her curious question. "Yep, so far it's only Smokey and me. Unfortunately, not enough inhabitants have applied for this job yet." As he said this, his smile immediately became a frown. He was aware that there aren't enough lifeguards patrolling around the beach that could be problematical and challenging for the pubescent, reptilian lifeguards if more dire dangers and emergencies are happening at once.

Wondering whom Elora, Hunter, Bianca, Macy and Bartholomew are, Smokey momentarily eyed each of them before turning to his cold-stricken, purple-skinned workmate to clear things up for him. "So, who are these guys, Spyro?"

To show who he is referring to, the purple protagonist motioned his head, gesturing to his other close friend. "Hunter, my other best friend who I met in Avalar."

"Yo, what's up? A new friend of Spyro's is a friend of mine." Hunter extended out his right, hairy paw for the pubescent, reptilian lifeguard to shake it with his left, scaly claw. Since the plucky, purple dragon and his comrades are gathered together at where the picnic basket is, they were practically sitting or standing close to one another like a cluster of companions.

A tint of red or pink visibly appeared on Spyro's cheeks while he blushed vaguely as he managed to find the courage to let his words flow out of his lips, pointing his head in the brunette-haired faun's direction but since he still has a reputation to uphold, he kept a smile plastered on his face in an attempt to hide his flushed cheeks. "Elora, another ally I also befriended in Avalar."

"Hello, it's nice to meet a fellow companion of Spyro and a new lifeguard." Elora greeted, waving at the thirteen-year-old, grey dragon with her right, human-like hand and a warm, welcoming smile was noticeable across her feminine, attractive lips.

Once again, Spyro motioned his skull to Bianca instead of using any of his claws, indicating whom he's referring to. "Bianca, the former disciple of the Sorceress who I defeated a few years ago and Hunter's girlfriend."

After the small, but tough, dragon introduced Bianca to his fellow workmate, a smile gradually appeared across her womanly, pretty lips she moved her left paw left and right repetitively as her way of acknowledging him "It's a pleasure to meet you, Smokey. I'm positive you'll be a fantastic lifeguard and a role model to us all." Upon looking at the short, grey-skinned fire-breather, she believed that he would be an excellent lifeguard and a role model to all walks of life, no matter what type of magical creature or talking animal they are.

Yet again, the cocky, confident dragon motioned his head to Bartholomew, showing whom he's talking about. "This is Bartholomew, he's Bentley's younger brother and Macy's boyfriend. He's also one of my buddies from the Forgotten Worlds."

Just like the rest of his chums, Bartholomew was the next member of the crew to welcome Smokey into their group. "Hiya, it's awesome to see a new lifeguard like you. I'm sure we'll become fast friends and we'll welcome you into our group with open arms!"

Once more, the pubescent, purple dragon motioned his cranium to Macy, pointing towards her. "Finally, that's Macy, she's one of the Sorceress' former allies, Bartholomew's girlfriend and one of my chums from the Forgotten Worlds. Just like Bianca, she's able to cast spells and she's probably still mad at me 'cause she couldn't stand hearing me coughing." At the last sentence, he was referring to Macy not being able to cope with his disturbing, hacking coughs that are more than she can bear.

As if it was a coincidence that correlates with what he mentioned previously, another bout of hacking coughs ensued due to a lot of talking to his buddies as Spyro squeezed his eyes shut tightly, moved a clenched claw to his maw and coughed violently. His hacking coughs are dry painful coughs that are repeated often and while he is coughing persistently, they sounded revolting and grew more raucously with each cough. Realising his best friend is in agonizing pain from his stomach-churning, hacking coughs, Hunter went to his side and constantly patted on his back to calm him down. After twenty seconds, Spyro's short period of hacking coughs finally quietened down before he opened his eyes and grasped onto his neck in a gargantuan amount of pain, as a result from a great deal of coughing.

For the second time, Macy lost her temper and placed her paws on her hip, the volume of her voice rises to the utmost limit with each word she spoke, exasperated with her sick friend's incessant, hacking coughs. "Hey! It's getting annoying if you're constantly coughing all the time! Can you hold them in?"

Not liking where this squabble is going, Spyro removed his claws from his neck before attempting to shout without straining his voice and glowering heatedly at Macy, who glared furiously back at him. "I can't help it. Even if I wanted to stop coughing, they can't go away by themselves. If you weren't my friend, I would have kicked you out of Dragon Shores!"

Before the disagreement gets out of hand, Bianca went in the middle and stretched out her paws outwards in an attempt to separate Spyro and Macy from each other. She grimly glanced at the residential, fire-spewing saviour and lifeguard before shifting her blue eyes at her furry, best friend and shook her head, appalled at their immature and ridiculous behaviour.

"Guys, guys! Stop quarrelling! Arguing isn't going to solve anything." Her voice became more intense to the limit even as the words that released from her mouth were getting noisier by the minute, in an attempt to raise her voice above the poorly, purple protagonist and the bad-tempered, ex-apprentice of the Sorceress.

"She started it." Spyro glowered furiously, gritting his draconic, sharp teeth. He took a deep breath and exhaled in disbelief, grumbling irritably to himself. "All we can do as a pair of friends is argue…" He hates to admit it but he was right. Every time he suffers from a bout of horrible, hacking coughs or a hacking coughing fit, Macy tends to explode into a fit of rage and an outburst all at once, seeing as she couldn't stand being in the same place as her poorly, plucky pal just to hear him coughing continuously, thus a heated quarrel between them commence.

This kind of incident was familiar to Smokey as he rolled his eyes in disbelief and was thinking to himself, reflecting on his dispute with the purple dragon from a couple of hours ago. Talk about déjà vu. It's kinda like Spyro and I are squabbling 'cause he's too stubborn for his own good, refusing to rest in bed.

Trying to talk some sense into her bickering buddies, the rabbit girl carried on providing them with logic and wisdom as well as encouraging them to make peace and to forgive and forget about their quarrel. She always knew that two wrongs don't make a right. "Fighting isn't the answer. Sometimes, we have to settle our differences and work together. That's what friendship and teamwork is all about. Just shake paws and be friends."

Not liking the thought of making an apology to Macy, the purple-eyed, golden-horned hero and lifeguard was glaring angrily towards the cat wizard, his temper rising to the greatest extent. "Calling it truce with her with that kind of attitude? I don't think so."

Bianca was looking unsmilingly in the direction of Spyro, she was outraged and appalled by his disrespectful behaviour and not to saying sorry to Macy. "What kind of friend are you if you don't apologise to her? And here I thought lifeguards are supposed to be kind and help anyone if they are in trouble."

Spyro frowned and inaudibly grumbled under his breath, allowing his teensy wings to hang down over his body and half-heartedly giving in. "Fine." His expression softened as his temper decreased to a minimum. "Sorry if I wa—" Unfortunately, an uncontrollable series of hacking coughs were forced out of his sore lungs before he could finish his sentence while he covered his mouth with one of his purple, undersized claws and coughed grossly and repulsively. They are small and frequent coughs, usually short and dry; broken coughs with rough and loud sounds. The more he coughed loudly, roughly and harshly, the more damage was brought to his lungs. "…Was acting like a jerk to you."

Now, it was Macy's turn to apologise. However, she was scratching the back of her furred head, finding it difficult to make an apology to the headstrong, but stubborn, purple dragon. Deep down inside herself, she still couldn't stand hearing Spyro's continuous, but spasmodic, hacking coughs that tends to aggravate her greatly. "Yeah, and um… I'm sorry if I couldn't put up with your coughing."

"Shall we call it a truce?" Spyro asked, a friendly smirk was slowly visible across his scaly lips as he extended his one of his claws outward.

"I'd prefer it to be more like an everlasting peace but I guess that will do." Macy returned the smile, offered her white-coloured, furry paw to the cocky, yet overconfident, dragon.

To settle their differences, Spyro and Macy shook paws, thus ending their heated argument amongst a couple of chums. In spite of his horrific cold, the poorly, purple protector didn't suffer from another hacking coughing fit even though heaps of words flew out of his reptilian lips when he spoke.

"Phew! I'm glad that was over. I'm relieved you two are friends again." Bianca wiped her forehead with her right, white-tan paw as if she was exhausted from doing a huge excess of work or any sort of activity that requires a tremendous amount of stamina and strength, she was pleased that her two chums have resolved their differences and stopped squabbling, otherwise it took a turn for the worse and things got out of hand.

Trying to lighten up the mood or atmosphere that has brought to her circle of chums, Elora immediately leaned on the young, purple dragon's head, resting her head on his in a passionate manner whilst her hands were positioned tenderly on his neck. "Sooooo… any plans for tonight, Spyro?"

Feeling nervous and awkward with Elora enjoying his company, Spyro was stuttering and faltering in his words, a light tint of red gradually materialized on his face. "Well… um… uh… I—" Before he had a chance of saying anything, yet another sequence of horrendous, hacking coughs left his undersized maw while covered it with his right claw, coughing even dreadfully than before and they are worsening by the second. They are short, frequent, shallow and feeble coughs. "I might need to patrol the perimeter of the beach at night in case some unwanted guests sneak in uninvited but Smokey and I most likely don't have to 'cause our shifts are over for the day. Then again, Gnasty Gnorc is ancient history, Ripto is long gone and the Sorceress is dead so every—" Another dry, hacking cough expelled from his fiery lungs as he roughly and harshly coughed into one of his claws. It appears to be a dry, painful cough with a harsh, unpleasant sound but it wasn't as discordant and raucous as his previous coughs. "… so everything's a-okay."

"Well almost, not everything is back to normal. You're still sick, Spyro." Bartholomew replied, letting his plucky, fearless friend know about his current ill condition to jog his memory as if he has forgotten about his mild ailment. The youthful yeti didn't repeat this on purpose but all he is telling to him that things won't get back to the way they are if the hero of the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds is still unwell and not feeling like himself.

From what he experienced throughout his three adventures starting from saving all eighty dragons from their crystallised prisons to retrieving all 150 dragon eggs, Spyro knew that even if he made a full recovery from his horrendous cold, the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds will never revert back to normal because strange things can happen, whether if they are whimsical or utterly weird. Since he and his faithful allies have always lived in fairytale-like worlds and realms, fanciful events, embarking on amazing adventures and meeting quirky creatures or enemies are normal to them. "I know but even if I do fully recover from my dreadful cold, nothing is ever normal anyway. After all, we live in a fantasy world where anything can happen."

The brown-haired, female faun tilted her body away from Spyro after a moments rest and slowly lifting her head up from laying on his scaly cranium, resuming to feeding him. "For now, we should stop chatting. Your chicken soup is getting cold, Spyro."

Trying to keep cool, calm and collected and not letting the nerves get the best of him or take over his current emotions, the headstrong, courageous dragon decided it's best to enquire his fellow peer about tonight's proclamation. "Smokey, about our presentation… what should we say to everyone? We haven't prepared ourselves for it."

"I'm assuming Daniel or Stanley will explain more about it to us before we get on stage and tell us what we need to tell everybody. But I think you need to bring some tissues, bottles of water and fluids with you, in case you're gonna cough, sneeze and blow your nose most of the time throughout our speech. Anyway, I'm headin' back to the watchtower to have my lunch. After we finished eatin', we gotta get back to our duties. See ya later, guys!" Smokey warned, reminding his purple-scaled, fellow worker to prepare himself and take hankies, bottles of water and liquids with him in case the symptoms of his nasty cold took its toll on him in duration of the presentation.

Since he doesn't have any hands and lacked the ability to stand on two feet, he stood on all four paws and somehow waved goodbye to his newfound chums (just like when Spyro bid farewell to the Professor, Agent 9 and Elora at the island laboratory to continue his search for Hunter), departing from their sight and leaving them to their picnic and their reunion after a small number of years after the downfall of the Sorceress and every single dragon hatchling has returned to the Dragon Realms.

While his past pals engage themselves in continual chitchats and Elora feeding another spoonful of chicken soup to him and after giving this more thought, Spyro began to dwell on tonight's presentation. He didn't like the thought of having a difficult and troublesome time trying to speak out to the citizens, due to a great deal of coughing, sneezing, sniffling, blowing his nose etc. Not only will the citizens will be aware of his severe cold and notice he couldn't handle it at all, they will also know that he's a part-time lifeguard and all of this will lead to many, various consequences.

But as long as he keeps a low profile, the dragon race, a variety of magical creatures and talking animals won't know all of this and his reputation as a determined, but courageous, dragon hero won't be ruined. All he has to do is stay strong, not let his sickness get him feeling miserable and try to look forward to what Friday night has to offer, even if he has to do the presentation with Smokey.


Hopefully, I'll eventually recover from whatever I came down with. I've been through a lot such as having two blood tests (one blood test in the nurse's room at the doctor's clinic and two blood tests at a clinic in the Jordan district of Hong Kong) and gone through the ultrasound x-ray test twice (the first time at a clinic in the Jordan district of Hong Kong and the second time is in hospital back in my home country). Sometime in the future I might be going through a different examination which is something to do with a tiny needle being inserted the skin of my thyroid or neck, moving the needle around and taking it out, removing cells in the process. Obviously, this procedure is scarier 'cause I'm petrified of needles piercing through my skin that is an unpleasant experience. The name of the test is complicated 'cause of the medical words so it's hard to pronounce, I think I know what the doctor from the hospital is talking about but we don't know how to describe or say it. Now, I regret telling the majority of my friends that I've fallen ill 'cause I've made them worrying over me but I can't help but tell them what I'm up to.

I've been listening to a lot of summery songs lately such as "Amazing" by Inna, "Sun Is Up" by Inna and "I'll Be Ready" by Sunblock, most of the songs are clubbing floorfillers and this story has a summery feel to it 'cause it mostly takes place in Dragon Shores. When I played Spyro 2: Gateway To Glimmer (Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, in America's case) on my PlayStation 2, I believe there's more to Dragon Shores than just the theme park, that's why I included more things, buildings, the lighthouse and so forth in the third chapter. In my opinion, the songs that best suit the collaboration are "I'll Be Ready" by Sunblock, "The Flood" by Cheryl Cole and "I'll Stand By You" by Girls Aloud. Since it's still summer right now, my collab partner and I have been working on the chapters these days.

I nearly forgot to tell to all of you, I'm relieved that I eventually finished my latest video tribute to Spyro the Dragon, "Spyromania (Extended Version)", right before I went to Hong Kong with my family for a month-long summer vacation. Just think this video as a long-awaited sequel to my first video, "Spyromania - Old Spyro Tribute in Night Flight". It took me weeks and months to tweak everything, getting the wallpapers, official artwork and the images showing in time with the lyrics and get everything right. The title of the video is a combination of the classic Spyro and the fiery song, "Pyromania" by Cascada. The only error is I accidentally included the original version of "Pyromania" in the video twice, I was supposed to insert the Clubland 17 version (it is the same song but a bit sped up) in it so that's why the song was repeated. Unlike all of the videos I've made so far, it's the longest and the overall duration is 27:25. I've seen videos that have clips, footages or images shown in rhythm to the lyrics of a song on Youtube before (for instance, a video which is a Super Mario Galaxy tribute that features the song, "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen), that's what got me inspired to try to create my own videos. I'm still a beginner at making videos so unfortunately; I don't know how to add clips, footages and cutscenes inside them.

By the way, whenever Spyro was coughing in this chapter, Macy easily gets irritated since his intolerable, hacking coughs are getting on her nerves after a while and they are unbearable for her to hear which causes her to start arguments with him. This was a reference to my high school days. When the GCSE English class and I were working hard, the whole classroom was silent except for a girl (from what I remembered, she was reasonably fat) who kept on constantly coughing which annoyed everyone and her coughs were indeed hacking coughs. Instead of being sympathetic for her, some of the students asked her why she's coughing like that and a few of them are taking the mickey out of her by copying her how she coughs. You'll understand why Macy is quick-tempered and doesn't have a sense of humour when you read Topaz16's "A Yeti's Love".

This chapter is bigger than I expected, it's much longer than the previous four chapters put together. Anyway, I bet all of you are looking forward to what's in store for Spyro and his buddies in the next chapter, huh? Well, you'll have to wait and see. Topaz16 and I would appreciate it if any of you give us feedback and reviews, constructive criticism is fine as long as it helps us to improve our writing and no flames or negative comments please.