Chapter 3, right? The Diary

Oh my gosh! Can it be? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It's another chapter of…this story. This is a nice chapter. I've grown quite fond of it.

Also, I'll add another disclaimer for everything in the story, just in case. Gotta be safe.

Elora, finally able to control herself, opened the diary to page one and started to read it aloud. At the top, it said, in fancy letters:

November 30th, Age 14

I still don't know if Mandie notices me. She has beautiful blood red scales, with silver horns, spikes, and claws. She has gorgeous eyes, bright blue... Sometimes she'll look at me and smile, but today, in Art class, I saw her daydreaming and staring at Tommy. . I think she likes him, but I hope not.

Spyro and Elora just stared at the entry for who knows how long, until they both burst out laughing. Spyro took the Diary that Elora had dropped on the floor in her fit of giggles. Spyro started to read it aloud again from the next page.

December 11th, Age 15

Yesterday was my 15th birthday, and I went to the movies with my friends. We saw "Attack of the Killer Pillow Men," because that's what Anell wanted to see since I said I could care less what we watch. Then we went back to my place and all four of us played video games until our eyes hurt. Then I opened my presents and we had birthday cake which was cherry flavored and really gross.

February 2nd, Age 15

Today Mandie and me had our second date. We went to the drive in movies. We sat close together, and I put my arm around her shoulders, when she told me all of a sudden that she was going out with that moron, Tommy! From that day on, we never spoke to each other again, and frankly, I'm glad. Stupid Dragon.

"So that's why Ripto hates dragons!" Spyro said, feeling only a slight bit better for some reason, knowing that Ripto's hatred of dragons was not because of him. Elora picked up the diary yet again, and flipped to a random page.

February Tenth, Age 15

My mother keeps on telling me that she wants me to grow up to rule the world, but what I really want to be is a garbage man.

July 3rd, Age 15

People keep telling me that I'm short. Sure, I may be a bit on the shrimpy side, but it really hurts my feelings. If I do take my Mother's advice, and try to take over the world, I'll make sure to get a house with a really low ceiling so it doesn't seem like…

Spyro stopped. The two froze, paralyzed with fear; they heard light footsteps coming up the stairs, and by the sound of it – it was Ripto! The two searched for places to hide, but they were too late! The door opened and Ripto walked in. He saw the two, standing next to each other, mouths hanging wide open.

"What is the meaning of this? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now!" Ripto growled. By the tone of his voice, he was trying to sustain his temper – and failing.

"Must we have a reason for EVERYTHING?" Spyro groaned.

"Well," said Elora, thinking fast.

"Spyro and I were just playing marbles down in the middle of the hallway, and one rolled away so we chased it and found it up here". She said holding up the marble she found on the floor that gave her the (to her) smart idea.

"Oh!" said Ripto. "So now you're defying the laws of gravity, huh!"

"Well, what Elora means to say, is that we heard a sound up here, and we decided to check it out, and it turns out that it was a raccoon, and he went through all of yer boxes and…stuff. Funny, huh! Heh…heh…heh?" Spyro tried to explain.

"OOOOOhhh!" said Ripto sarcastically. "And I suppose that the raccoon decided to read my diary too!"

Ripto spotted the open diary on the floor.

"Well, maybe the raccoon didn't actually read it, and just opened it?" Spyro said, his voice going up very high at the end of the statement, which was oddly posed more like a question.

"These walls aren't sound proof, dragon! What, you don't think that I couldn't hear you guys laughing"?

"Actually…no." said Elora "I-I-I-mean it was the raccoon laughing. Haaaa…" Elora lied, trying to cover up what she said before.

"Oh, yeah?" said Ripto. "I know it was you, you imbeciles! Don't try to fool me!" Ripto started to say something once more, but it was drowned out by Crushes voice from downstairs.

"Boss? Gulp's eating the sofa again, so when he's done, if there's any left, can I smash it?"

"Grrrr…I'll deal with you later." said Ripto as he marched down the stairs to go yell at his lackeys.

"Wow…talk about Déjà vu!" said Spyro with a laugh.

The next night, Ripto was lying in bed trying to fall asleep but not succeeding due to the fact that he could hear Spyro and Elora a few rooms over laughing and giggling. Ripto got to the point where he just couldn't stand it anymore, and he grabbed his Scepter, and walked over to the doorway of the extra bedroom, not knowing that Spyro had gone downstairs to get a snack for him and Elora. Ripto kicked open the door to find Elora.

"Can't you two just SHUT UP for once!" yelled Ripto, and he fired his Scepter right at the face of the shocked faun. Elora ducked, but was too late, the beam of heat from his Scepter nicked the top of Elora's left ear, and continued on behind her to hit a lamp and showering the whole room with shards of glass. Elora glared at Ripto and picked up a large piece of glass. She hurled it strait at the Riptoc. But it missed his big orange head by only a few inches. Elora's eyes widened, and realizing what she had done, she turned around and started to look for a way out, but unfortunately, the only way out was the doorway, where Ripto was standing.

The first thing she thought of was to get out of the line of fire from Ripto's Scepter. Ripto pointed his Scepter at Elora and started to walk closer to her, his eyes narrowed. Elora started to back up, and she backed up into a wall. Ripto threw down his Scepter and picked up a piece of glass identical to the one that narrowly missed his head a while ago. He held the piece of glass up to Elora's neck.

"From now on, if you so much as poke me too hard, I'll make sure that this shard of glass goes so far into your throat that you can't get it out. Do I make myself clear?" Ripto said in a deadly whisper. Elora nodded. Ripto was just about to lower the glass, when Spyro came into the room.

"I've got sandwiches!" Spyro said in a singsong voice, but when he saw the sight in front of him he dropped the tray of food. His eyes started to narrow just as Ripto's had done, except now, they were full of hatred and loathing, unlike Ripto who was just angry. Spyro looked around for a better weapon than just his fire breath. Then he saw it. The sparkle of a ruby, a glint of gold. Spyro lunged towards Ripto's Scepter and grabbed it.

Spyro took the Scepter and pointed it at Ripto.

"Smafton mys…tiria…!" Spyro said stupidly. He just said some made up words that he thought couldn't have been a real spell, but he was wrong.

A beam of light shot out of the end of Ripto's Scepter and hit him so hard that he was blasted off his feet and thrown against the wall. Ripto bounced off the wall and hit the floor, where he lay with his eyes shut tight and apparently, unconscious. Spyro and Elora slowly walked over to him and bent over him carefully just in case he woke up.

"Well, it looks like he's breathing," said Elora

"Darn!" Spyro muttered to himself.

"Do you think that was a real spell?"

"I do!" said Elora. "I really do, cause, if it wasn't nothing would have come out of the Scepter." Elora replied scientifically.

"Uh, Elora, how do you know all this stuff about magical items and junk?" asked Spyro.

"Bianca! Whenever you and Hunter are out doing guy stuff, we're out shopping and getting manicures and talking about magic!"

"Oh. Sounds fun." Spyro lied.

Suddenly, the tone of Elora's voice changed from happy to frightened.

"Oh, Spyro what are we gonna do with him? Crush and Gulp are bound to find him or notice that he's gone if we hide him or something!"

"Well…" said Spyro. "We could…umm… we could…"

"Spyro!" cried Elora. "I have an idea! Even though the real Ripto isn't conscious, Ripto could still go and tell Crush and Gulp that he's going to lock himself in his room for a few days or something, and then meanwhile, I could find the antidote in one of the library books!"

"Uh, what do you mean by "Ripto could still tell them" and "YOU could find the antidote? Where am I in all this?"

"Well, what I mean is that you could make yourself look like Ripto and then tell those two idiots that you don't plan to come out of your room for a couple of days, or till Ripto wakes up!"

"Ok, one more question. WHO WOULD WANT TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK AND ACT MORE LIKE RIPTO?"

"Well if it means not getting smushed by Crush and Gulp, then I just might as well do it!"

"First of all, Elora, you're way, way, way too tall to be Ripto!"

"Ok then, you do it!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Hey!… wait a minute!" said Spyro, but Elora was already walking out of the door.

Spyro followed Elora to the doorway of Ripto's room, where the door was ajar. Elora walked into the room, Spyro on her tail. There were a number of odd things hung on the walls and set on the tables, including jewel imbedded swords, an assortment of animal heads, and hung on the wall, a poster of a kitten sitting in a basket. Spyro started looking around and examined some of the things there. And, after almost dying of laughter when he spotted the kitty poster, continued following Elora to Ripto's closet.

The Faun and the Dragon started picking out blue pants, a white shirt, and a dark purple cape. Ripto had about twenty of everything, and they all looked exactly the same, since that IS all he ever wears. Spyro put them on and they fit ok, since Spyro and Ripto are about the same height. Spyro looked at himself in a mirror. He took one glance at his "Ripto – fied" self, and screamed in shock.

"Elora?" said Spyro after getting up from the floor. "Do I look just a tad bit too much like Ripto, or is it just me? Cause I'm creepin' myself out here!"

"No! You're supposed to look that way! The more resemblance the merrier!"

"Uh, what are we gonna do about these wings?

"Oh, don't you worry. Those two dinos won't notice them; they're so dumb! And, speaking of Crush and Gulp, let's go find them!"

Spyro and Elora went back to the room where Ripto was and took his Scepter and his madallion that hung around his neck.

They found Crush and Gulp in the attic putting away all of the stuff that he and Elora where shuffling through. Spyro felt a twinge of guilt.

"Uh, hi!" said Spyro to Crush and Gulp, because they didn't turn around when Spyro walked in.

"I need you guys to do something for me."

"Hey, wait a minute! You're not Ripto!"

"Uh, yes I am." said Spyro.

'Oh no!' Thought Spyro, 'My cover's blown!'

"Ripto never says Hi to us!" yelled Gulp.

"Yeah! Why are you so nice?" Crush added.

"Um…I just…bought new shoes?" said Spyro stupidly.

"Oh! I see!" said Gulp.

"Umm… You won't be seeing much of me for the next few days…" said Spyro.

"Why?"

Elora hadn't told Spyro why, only what!

"Uh…I'm working on a 'Save the Rainforests campaign and I need a few days in my room to draw up posters, and…"

"Spyro!" came a voice from behind him.

He could see in the mirror on the wall in front of him, Elora's reflection, standing at the top of the staircase.

"Uh, about that whole 'not see me for a couple of days' thing, it was all a funny joke! Hehe! Bye!"

and he ran down the stairs.

"He's waking up!" Elora told Spyro.

When Spyro and Elora got to the guest bedroom where Ripto still was, they saw him starting to stir.

"Spyro, when you were up there talking to Crush and Gulp, I looked up that spell. Bianca has the same book that the spell happened to be in, and I thought I had read something about it so I found it faster." Said Elora, seeing the look on Spyro's face.

"So…what's the spell?" asked Spyro.

"Well, you know how before, Ripto was all "I'm gonna take over the world and kill that stupid purple Dragon", and was all evil and stuff?"

"Uh, huh."

"Well… that spell was a… a…a personality switch, Spyro, a personality switch!"

Spyro considered this for a moment, and then let out a roar of laughter.

"Ripto's…gonna be… nice… and want… to be …my best friend!" Spyro choked out.

"Seems that way to me, Spyro."

Elora and Spyro walked up to Ripto and leaned over his body. All of a sudden, his eyes snapped open, to reveal bright pink pupils, unlike the green ones they usually are. Ripto got up slowly off of the floor and looked at his surroundings. His pink little eyes searched the room until they fell on Spyro. Spyro stared back at him with a blank look on his face. Ripto slowly walked towards Spyro, and when he got a foot away from him, he stopped. Then, to Spyro's great disgust, Ripto hugged him. Spyro made a squeaking noise, sort of like Spongebob does when somebody pokes him.