Chapter 2

"This place is beautiful." Cynder said with a sigh as she sat in the mouth of their cave. After she heard the news of Warfang, she had gotten a bit depressed. She just really wanted to se how Spyro's home looked like, since he grew up there, to be the wonderful dragon she knew. But because of the news, she couldn't see it before they had been in Warfang. Anyways, after the fight with Malefor, the purple dragon had changed. And Cynder thought it was for the better. As Cynder was staring into the horizon, Spyro came up beside her with a dead sheep in his mouth. He walked deeper into the came, until he came to the middle. As he laid the sheep down in the middle of the cave he said "I was lucky today." He then sat down and scorched the sheep with his fire element to remove the fur. Cynder clenched her nose at the stench. "Maybe you should have gotten rid of the fur outside of the cave, instead of in here? That really stinks." she exclaimed. "Cynder, when I scorch the rest of the creature, you won't feel that smell anymore." he said as he caught up to his breath. "The smell of steaked flesh will take it away." She only shrugged at this, as she knew he had a point. After bellowing his fire at the sheep for a while, the fur finally went away. "Cynder, can you go and get some twigs? I need this to cook for some time at a lower temperature." Cynder did as he wanted while he gutted the sheep. Spyro shot a earth bullet at the ground. This made a small hole that he could dispose the bad parts of the sheep in. He took the bad things and buried them in the hole he had made. Just then Cynder came back into the cave with a mouthful of twigs. Spyro thanked her and took the twigs, as he made a easy campfire out of them and some rocky leftovers of the hole he made. He then shot a spear out of the wall, which he later stuck the sheep on. The two dragons sat down in the mouth of the cave as they waited for their tasty meal to be finished.

As they started a small conversation, they still didn't notice the creature that eyed them. The creature had gotten clear orders of his captain. "Kidnap the dragoness. We need her for something." The creature just nodded and obeyed. It knew it wouldn't get any more information from its captain, so it just left to do what had to be done. It was now planning an assault. By the time the creature had come up with a plan, Cynder and Spyro was eating the sheep they had steaked. "MMmm, this was tasty!" Cynder mumbled through a mouth filled with sheep meat. Spyro nodded in agreement as he chew away on a sheep's thigh.

After the dragons finished off their meal, Spyro asked Cynder. "Cynder, what should we do first? Should we go to Warfang, or should we go to my foster family's village?" Cynder was torn between what she wanted, and what she should. "Lets go to your home first." Spyro looked in her eyes and saw the determination. "Then we shall go there." With that, the dragons slucked the campfire and took off towards the village Spyro had spent his younger life in.

As the dragons flew through the air, Cynder spotted something in the side of her sight. She looked towards the spotted object and saw that it was a building. "Spyro look!" Cynder shouted through the air. Spyro backwinged, almost hitting Cynder in the process, and gazed towards the building. "Should we explore it?" Cynder asked. "Hmmmm... Okay then." Spyro said. He was unsure about the situation. "We aren't in a hurry anyways". With that, the dragons changed their direction and flew towards whatever they were looking at. After about ten minutes, they had reached their destination. As they landed, Cynder just ran towards the building. Spyro took his time, as he walked, a bit more cautiously than Cynder, towards it. "Spyro, look at this!" Cynder exclaimed as she approached the building. The building was large and white, with a bell tower that litterarily towered the forest. This was what she had spotted first. Spyro was eyeing it suspiciously at first, but seemed to relax after a while. "There doesn't seem like there is anyone in there, but I feel an energetic presence." "Okay? What do you mean?" Spyro sighed. "I don't know, but there feels like there is something inside that radiates with energy." Cynder just eyed him. She was surprised that he was able to notice something like that.

Cynder was a bit more cautious when she entered the building. "Be careful, Cynder." Spyro said with a soft voice. "You be careful, Spyro." She said back. They entered the building. There was a nice and brightly lit chamber on the inside of it, that was very nicely decorated. The ground was overcroaded with pillows, which were made for dragons to be able to sit there. The decoration consisted of twelve different dragons in different poses. However, one could not point out any more of detail, as the decoration was wearing out. Spyro had read something about something similar to this building when he was training together with the guardians. He just could not remember what it was. As Spyro was trying to figure out what this was, Cynder had found something. "Spyro, look! I think It's a trapdoor." Cynder said loudly. Her voice echoed throughout the room. Spyro jumped a little at the loud noise that interrupted his thoughts, but he came over to her anyways. "I'll go down first." Spyro said. "If something bad is down there, I will make sure that you know." With that, he went down there. "It's pitch black down here!" he shouted. "Then let me go first." Cynder said back. "You see, I am a black dragon. That means that I can see through the dark." When she said that, her eyes began to glow red. "Sorry if my eyes scare you, but they always look like that when I use my night vision."

The room was dimly lit in a red shade. Cynder could only see red when she activated her night vision, which eliminated any chance of seeing any details. As she walked through the room, Spyro decided to join her. He closed his eyes, and he shut off his smelling sences as he used his ears and his imagination to navigate the area. Cynder was going to turn away from the room when she saw a fuse. "Hey Spyro, there is a fuse here." Cynder said. Spyro stumbled his way across to her. However, he was needing her to lead him to the fuse, so she twisted her tail around his neck, being careful not to slit his throat with her oversharpened tailblade, as she lead him to the fuse. "Spit a glob of fire now." Spyro did as she said and spat a glob of fire at the fuse, lighting it. The fuse went and ignited all the lights in the room. Except, these weren't normal ligths. These seemed to both radiate with flame energy, as well as taking the energy back. "Nifty." Spyro said with a slight smile. The room was slowly being lit with a dim, orange light. Cynder then noticed the statues that littered the room. But, as she tried to read their plaques, she quickly saw that it was drawn in ancient draconic. No one of them could read that. "Damn." Cynder said. "What is it?" Spyro asked immediately. "Its just that the plaques are written in ancient dragonic. With less you could read that, I don't think we'll find anything out." Cynder answered. Spyro sighed as he walked upto a statue. "This one looks vaguely familiar... I wonder why." He pondered out loud. Cynder noticed this and walked up to his side. "Wait... That is the dragoness of my dreams!" She exclaimed. Spyro raised a brow at this. "You have been seeing a dragoness in your dreams?" Spyro asked. He was going to add something witty, but he resigned from the idea pretty quickly. "Yes. Her name is Linnea. I wonder why she is so familiar to you, though." Spyro thought over the situation. After a couple of minutes with thinking, Cynder realized something. "Well, she was very motherly towards me. Maybe... No, that can't be. It just can't!" Spyro jumped at this, but he quickly understood what she ment. "Cynder, I don't think that you are my sister. However, if that is the case, I won't stop loving you." Cynder just smiled at this. After the battle of Malefor, he had become even more friendly towards her, almost to the point when it was too much. "Thank you, Spyro." She said with a loving smile towards the purple dragon. He just smiled warmly back. "I love you for who you are, not who you were born as." Cynder shed a loving tear for this. She admired the purple dragon for the same reason, too. "Same here. I wouldn't want to love a dragon that thought he was a dragonfly." She said with a laugh. Spyro laughed too.

As they were leaving the building, which they decided to call a shrine, Spyro said "I think we should mark this off." Cynder agreed. She watched as he raised a tower of earth besides the shrine. After a couple of seconds he was finished. "That will make it easier when we come back with the guardians, don't you think?" He waited for an answer. "Cynder?" He said again. There was still no answer. He quickly realized the situation as he shouted "Cynder!". He slung his paws on the ground, as he used his earth powers to locate any movement. He finally saw something in the forests. It was a bipedal creature holding something in its hands. And that something was Cynder. "No... NO! I can't lose her now!" Spyro thought as he took off, flying faster than ever before, chasing the creature down further into the forest. He followed the creature until it came to something that looked kind of like a closed off fortress village. Spyro's mind was clouded with fear of what might've happened to Cynder as he flew towards the creature, hoping to stop it. Spyro landed in the village, spreading his wings in dominance and said "You will not steal my Cynder!" He charged towards the creature that held her and aimed closely, to not hit Cynder. The hit was successful, and he knocked the air out of the bipedal creature, breaking his chest wall in the same time. The creature dropped Cynder on the ground as it flew well over thirty feet and crashed with the biggest house in the village. He tried to rise again, but his spine refused him to. Meanwhile, Spyro quickly grabbed Cynder by twisting his tail around hers, making it impossible for her to fall off into the nothingness underneath.

He just flew as long as he could, until he found a nice little cave for him and Cynder. He put her down on the dirt outside of the cave, which was soft, then to grab her with his paws. This way, he could put her more comfortably in the cave, and also eliminated the possibility of damaging her brain in the process. He went out of the cave for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, Cynder went into her dreaming state. However, this time she was ready. "Linnea? Linnea are you there?" She asked. The dragoness slowly came into her field of vision. "Hello Cynder. I sense that you have a lot of questions. So lets not waste any time. What do you want to know?" Cynder was slightly surprised by this, but she asked nonetheless. "Linnea, are I and Spyro... siblings?" She asked. Linnea sighed. "No Cynder, but I was best friends with your mother." Cynder's heart fluttered. "Who was my mother?" Linnea sighed again, this time a bit heavier. It was clear that she didn't like to relive the horrible incidents of her life. "Your mother's name was Careena. I and her were best friends, in a similar succesion to you and Spyro before. Although we didn't develop a relationship like yours, we were really good friends. I saw her die one of the most horrible ways. I consider it one of the worst things that Malefor has done. He corrupted her own daughter and killed her through her." Cynder gasped in shock. "No...No...NO I CAN'T HAVE KILLED MY OWN MOTHER!" Cynder shouted. "Calm down Cynder!" Linnea said sternly as she stared her in the eyes. "You weren't the one. Careena had another daughter than you too. She was corrupted just then, though. She wasn't corrupted at the second she was born, like you were, however, when the Dark Master saw her together with her mother in the battle, he took her over and killed Careena through her. Your sister was so upset in herself that she took her own tailspade and penetrated her heart." Cynder gasped once more when she heard that. "Whew, and I thought I had a hard time." she thought. "Who was Spyro's mother then?" This time, Linnea turned her head upwards and said in a proud, but sad voice "I was." Cynder understood all now. "So, you act like a mother towards me, because I am the only thing left of your best friend, but Spyro recognizes you because you were his mother?" she said, already convinced by what the answer was. "Yes Cynder. You always have been a bright mind." She said with a deep and motherly voice. Cynder was happy for a second, but she quickly saw the sad face of the woman. "I am so sorry I couldn't protect you all. It's just so bad!" She said. "All the wonderful dragons that could have come, was killed before they got a chance. You and Spyro were lucky to survive, Cynder.". After a couple of minutes with asking questions and chatting, Cynder noticed that the time with Linnea was running out. She still had two questions to be answered. "Linnea, who was his father?" Cynder asked. She thought it might've been Ignitus. "I think you can guess your way to that. He and Spyro shared the same qualities, and both are great dragons when it comes to power. He now has a very big title. That is what he told me, atleast." Cynder smiled. Now she was almost sure. "But now, Cynder, I have to say goodbye. May the ancestors watch over you two."

With that, Cynder woke up. Spyro was sitting beside her with a desperately worried look over his face. When Cynder groaned, he jumped of happiness. "Cynder you are alive! I thougt I lost you there!" He ran over to her and kissed her on her cheek, several times. She groaned as a wave of pain hit her. "S...Spyro..." she said. She tried to move, but her spine refused her to. "Wh..Why can't I move?" she asked with a voice weaker than ever before. Spyro gave a worried look over to her as he told her how the bipedal drake had assaulted her by stabbing her in the neck several times to paralyze her, and after how she had been kidnapped. "Why didn't I scream to you then?" She asked. "I guess you didn't really get the chance to. He did hit you pretty hard, you know." Cynder growled loudly as another wave of pain hit her. "Please... Make it stop..." she growled once more before falling unconscious.

Spyro shouted in desperation as he heard her breath go slower and slower. Her heart was beating slower, too. "No Cynder, Please don't die!" He said as he tried to nudge her awake in desperation, forgetting that she was badly wounded. "Oh no, what have I done?" He said as he wept himself to sleep beside her. Unknowingly to him and her, she was going into a state of deep relaxation. Her body simply did it for her, because she was unconscious.

As she woke up, her body didn't ache anymore. She was surprised by this. She wanted to bring the news to spyro, but she saw that he was asleep, so she let it wait. She pushed his wing back to his own body as she draped her own over him, keeping him warm. He nudged, but he did not wake up. "Goodnight Spyro." She whispered as she went asleep.

The following morning, Cynder was the first of them to wake up. Spyro had tears dried into his skin, and he was still shaking. "Spyro, wake up!" she said. He woke up instantly and looked around him. Seeing Cynder awake and alive made him happy. Happier than ever, to say it that way. "Cynder your alive!" He said loudly as he ran over to her and peppered her with hugs and kisses. "I thought you died, but here you stand, nice and healthy before me! Did you do anything special?" He said in wild excitement. Seeing him so happy made Cynder laugh. "I don't know. All I know is that I have never been that relaxed before, Ever." Spyro just sighed happily and said "We'll just ask the guardians when we are at Warfang. Which, by the way, is only a couple of days away from here." Cynder was surprised by the news, but she only ended up laughing and gave him a hug. "Well, what are we waiting for? Lets go!"

With that, the two dragons took off into the ever expanding hills and plains of Avalar.