Chapter Four: The First Clue
The feast wasn't even halfway complete, when Spyro noticed Cynder waving to him at the entrance of the mess hall. Terrador noticed too, and he grinned in excitement. The purple dragon leaped up and ran after her, circling round and round the spiral staircase to the floor with their room on it. Out into the hallway they dashed, Spyro chasing her tail with his teeth. Once and a while he'd get in range and give her a playful nip. She'd giggle and run faster. Lucky for her, the door to their room was open. If it had been closed; Spyro would've caught her and, in his lust, made love to her right there in the hallway.
She flung herself onto the bed, back flat on it's soft covers, "Come get me lover-boy." She taunted, spreading her legs. Spyro licked his lips in anticipation. Unbeknown to them, a group of vengeful grublins hid in the shadows behind the door.
Their leader smiled, "Perfect." He whispered, "Get him while he's distracted."
Just as the purple dragon placed his left paw on the bed, a gag was thrown over his head and pulled tight in his maw so that he couldn't speak, or breathe flame. He tried to attack his assailant, but found that his hind legs had been tied together. As he fell to the ground, writhing against his bonds, he could only watch helplessly as the grublins tackled and tied up Cynder. His Cynder! His love!
"Get her out of here. I'll take care of this one." The lead one said evilly, un-clipping some strange device from off of his belt.
"Nffmmm!" Roared Spyro, waving his tail and free fore-leg out in front of him in defense.
As the grublin got closer and closer, it cackled all the more, "Revenge is sweet."
Spyro's eyes went wide, and he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. Then everything went black.
The purple dragon awoke in the medical wing of the temple. A beautiful yellow dragoness sat on her haunches, working on his back, which apparently had been ripped open by something 'very' sharp, "Oh!" She exclaimed, "Good to see that you're awake! I was actually just preparing you for the morgue!"
"Strange sense of humor, this one has." Thought Spyro, craning his head over behind him to look at the damage, "Ouch! Then again, with that kind of slashing, anyone would think I'd be done for! Must thank her for keeping me alive." He turned his head to her, and before he could say anything, found his tongue caught, "You... You're... But how? I..."
"I know, I know, you'd never expect to see 'me' here would you?" She giggled, "But here I am none-the-less. And I actually find this job quite appealing to my tastes."
Spyro shook his head, his eyes wide with shock, "Eli, I-"
"Save it." She stopped him, "I know what you and Cynder have, and I'm happy for you. What happened in the past, was the past. We can forget about it, and move on."
As Spyro reminisced about all the wonderful times he and Elice had, the purple dragon couldn't help but have even Cynder wiped from his mind for a small bit. She was a cute yellow dragoness, probably only three years older then him, that he had known secretly at the old temple. While the guardians were discussing battle plans against Malefor and Cynder, he was playing with this hidden female in the back of the temple. Their friendship eventually grew into something that she told him was love. Elice even gave Spyro his first kiss. One day, he decided to ask her how she got there. She, apparently, was told to hide from some grublins that had attacked her mother and father. They both died, and she had to watch them, but she survived by not saying a single word throughout the entire slaying. Oh the things she must've been thinking... Then Spyro remembered the time when he caught her flying with the royal guard during the assault on Warfang. She hadn't seen him, but as soon as he saw her, his little heart fluttered, "Elice... Cynder is gone... I couldn't save her."
The older yellow dragoness gave him a understanding look, "I'm so sorry Spyro..." She sighed, then reached for something on a nearby table with her wing. Gripping it in the two talons she had, Elice handed it over to the purple male, "Some one left this for you while I was away. I never read it, or even looked at it."
Spyro took the thing into his paw and closely examined it. It was something rolled up in leather, with a tiny string of lace keeping it all together. Spyro looked up at her, as if to ask for permission.
"Go ahead." She urged, looking back to her work on his back.
He slowly untied the knot at the top of the leather cylinder, and felt the flaps loosen. Then it unfurled completely, and he saw what was inside, "A torch!" Elice returned her gaze to Spyro's open paw, "What would I need a torch for?" In his clawed hand, was a short wooden stick, with a burnt end like it had once been lit on fire.
"Maybe... It's a clue?" Offered the yellow dragoness, lifting an eye ridge.
Spyro looked past the stick at the leather underneath. It had writing on it. He picked the wood out of his paw with his mouth, and spat it out onto the bed. Then he began reading out loud, "I know what you've been through, I've felt it myself. If you want to see your girlfriend again, think of where in the world you'd need a torch most. Then go there, and the next clue you will find. What kind of rubbish is this!"
"Spyro! It's not rubbish! Some one's obviously trying to help you!" Exclaimed Elice in excitement. She always 'was' found of games.
"Help? Help! If they wanted to help, they'd come here and tell me themselves! Why then hell did they have to leave some fucking clues all over the whole god-damn world for me to find, like some stupid treasure hunt!" The purple dragon's eyes were burning with rage.
The yellow medic shook her head slowly and sadly, "Think it over, I bet by tomorrow morning you'll be off on another adventure." She lifted her tail-end into the air and started to walk away.
Spyro's heart softened, "Eli! Wait!" She paused, not turning around, but listening, "I-... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have left you like I did."
Elice sighed, "Spyro, you did what you had to. Cynder was your one true love, and I understand that. I was just... Well... An experiment." Her head drooped, and her tail stopped sweeping back and forth across the floor. Spyro looked at her with pity, and grunted as he lifted himself off the bed, "No! Spyro wait! What are you doing!" She ran over to him and tried frantically to repair the broken stitch-work on his back.
Spyro smirked, "How else was I going to get you to come closer?" She looked at him in shock as the purple male sent a nerve shattering kiss onto her lips. At first she tried to mentally fight the feeling, but eventually succumbed to it, relaxing, and closing her eyes. For a long moment, he held the connection, then pulled away, her trailing behind slowly, not wanting to separate. They stared deep into each other's eyes, wanting deeply for each other, "Elice, I still love you. Just not as much as Cynder right now."
She nodded slowly, still floating in bliss, "I know."
Morning. Elice was gone, and Spyro's back had healed. Time to find the next clue. He heaved himself off of his bed and onto his feet. Then it was out the door, and straight to his room. Inside, he found the whole place ruined. Apparently they had saved him, but forgot about his dorm. Maybe the cleaning ladies gave up hope? After checking the room thoroughly, Spyro sat on the ripped up and blood-stained bed to think about the message he was given, "Where would I need a torch most?" He thought out loud.
"Maybe, in the old cavern where Malefor was trained?" Offered some one's voice.
"Who's there!" Spyro sprang to his feet, talons unsheathed and teeth barred.
"Relax! It's just me." Sparx buzzed into the room through the door this time, "Door was open, and I heard you talking to yourself."
The purple dragon gave a sigh of relief, "Oh, it's only you." He sank back into the bed, heart slowing down, "So you think it would be in the old purple dragon training cave?"
Sparx nodded confidently, "So buddy, going on another adventure?"
It took a few seconds for his brain to clue in, but when it did, Spyro reacted with a strange look, "How do you know that Sparx?"
The little golden bug shrugged, "I know 'everything' that happens in this place!"
"Everything?"
"Well, not that little incident involving you, Cynder, and a bunch of grublins. I have to admit, I was too busy partying to be scouting the temple." Sparx chuckled nervously.
Spyro slowly got up this time, feeling the slowly increasing pain in his back. The scar must've reopened on the inside when he jumped, "Thanks for the help Sparx, but you can't come."
"Why not!"
"Well... I just don't think that this is the adventure for you. Now stay here and do what you do best." Spyro exited the room, leaving his old best friend to wallow in loneliness.
The humongous old doors creaked as they swung open. It sounded like no one had activated the mechanism for a thousand years! Yet, the strong and powerful craftsmanship of veteran dwarf architects pulled through. As soon as Spyro took the first step towards entering the dark cave, his nostrils filled with the rank smell of decay and rot. Odd, for those massive doors, and the powerful walls shouldn't have allowed any living animal inside. How could something have gotten in here and died? Spyro kept looking around.
Of course, the only way for the little purple hero to traverse the place, was to preform the trials set in place for the purple dragons of the past. Jumping, leaping, swinging, flying, floating, and fighting were only some of the challenges. And as always, he preformed valiantly, "What the-?" He thought he heard a snicker, and spun around. Nothing. Strange...
Eventually, Spyro came to the end of the tunnel and sure enough, found yet another clue wrapped in leather. It lay inside the mouth of a dragon statue about his size. Unraveling it, Spyro caught an ice-pick as it fell out. He read the message out loud, just because it was easier that way, "Good job! I actually didn't expect you to make it this far! Especially with the pack of death hounds I had hired to keep you at bay... Wait, death hounds?" He couldn't even begin to turn around, when something large, heavy, and stinky flew at his flank, and slammed him into the wall.
There must've been around a hundred of them, all growling and hissing at him. Then, an ape stepped out of the crowd, "Hello Spyro, nice to see 'you' again."
Spyro's eyes, when they had adjusted to the lack of light, widened in disbelief, "No! No, that's not possible! I killed you!"
Gaul shook his head slowly, chuckling his creepy evil monkey chuckle, "No Spyro, you didn't. You only imprisoned me in the after-realms."
"After-realms?" Spyro was confused.
Gaul just laughed, "Didn't the guardians teach you anything?" Then he unsheathed a long jagged blade, before leaping onto a nearby stone ledge, "If you can defeat my minions, you will have the privilege of facing me once again."
"Privilege?" Spyro scoffed, righting himself so that he stood in battle stance, aimed at the lizard-dogs, "It would be an honor." That part, he growled.
End Chapter Four: The First Clue