A/N: here we are, Chapter 7. It took me a bit longer this time because I was playing Cave Story (Which if you haven't played it it's a good game.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Spyro, only my OCs

Chapter 7: The Deepest Forest

Gneiss' POV

Jolt and I had carried Spyro and Tempest into a small grotto some distance from the clearing where Sparx had distracted the 'Skavengers'. We'd assembled a campsite, and took turns keeping watch, both for the Skavengers and for the others to wake up. Luckily, we didn't have long to wait.

"Gneiss, they're waking up!" said Jolt.

I hurried back, and arrived just as they were getting to their feet.

"Where are we?" asked Spyro.

"A cave underneath the Ancient Grove which made a convenient campsite," I replied.

"Hey where'd Sparx get to?" asked Tempest.

We got our answer quickly, as Sparx came flying towards us… still being pursued by the pirates!

"Spyro," panted Sparx, "I'm out of shape".

The pirates slid to a stop in front of us, and appeared to be sizing us up.

"What have we here?" said one of the pirates, "Arrr first catch of the day!"

The pirates then rushed us, when an icy barrier suddenly appeared before us, freezing the pirates in their tracks. I looked around to find the source of protection, and I realized it was Tempest. We finished off the frozen pirates and moved out.

To exit our little grotto, we had to carefully leap across a lake of poisonous water. The first jump was narrow enough for a simple jump, but the other gap were wider. At these gaps, Spyro and Tempest took turns creating ice platforms for us to cross on. As we continued, we repeated the previous process, taking out some grove worms at the same time.

Soon enough, we reached a more solid piece of land and, after breaking a few grove mite nests and fighting off a couple of wolves, we climbed over a small ridge and saw…A pirate base camp?

"Okay… that definitely wasn't here a couple of hours ago," I said, "Tempest, earlier it sounded like you knew who these pirates were. What can you tell us about them?"

"They are known as Skavengers," said Tempest, "they travel the world aboard their flying fleet, raiding and pillaging as they go. Taking hostages and slave for various purposes, including making them fight in gladiatorial games. Last I heard their commander was a salty old sea dog known as 'Skabb'. Then again, rumors say that the REAL brains to the operations are his two birds, Scratch and Sniff".

After this, we moved into the encampment, and were soon spotted by the Scavengers. We blasted through them with a combination of our elements and melee attacks. I roasted them with my Fire, Spryo froze them with his Ice, then knocked them into the nearby pools of purple 'water', Jolt was frying the pirate with Light, while Tempest was busy summoning a Polar Gale (Ice/Wind Combo), blowing the enemies away.

Once the area was clear, Sparx pointed out a carelessly exposed fuse line, which I proceeded to light, setting off a cask of dynamite, opening a new path for us to take. In the newly revealed area, we fought off another group of pirates, and then moved around to climb up of the crates they'd placed to create a makeshift wall. As we climbed across them wall, we took out a few more pirates, before boarding a nearby ship. Onboard the ship, we found a cannon, which was conveniently aimed at a weak section of wall, along with a cannonball dispenser. We loaded and then lit the cannon, and watched as the cannonball flew over to its target, destroying the wall. We glided off the ship, and entered the newly revealed tunnel. Inside, we put out a couple of pieces of flaming debris, and came to a sharp bend in the tunnel. As we were about to move on, we heard a loud screech form behind us, and turned to face a large creature similar to a Dreadwing, being ridden by another pirate.

"I'm guessing that must be the 'Skurvywing' they were talking about earlier," I said.

We leapt into the air, and took flight, surrounding the Skurvywing. It tried blasting us with red energy blast, but we easily dodged out of the way. We retaliated with our own elemental attacks. Then out of nowhere, Spyro spat out what looked like an ice crystal with flames contained within. It struck the Skurvywing, and gave off a MASSIVE explosion, blowing the creature clear out of the sky, and throwing us back into the tunnel.

"What in ancestor's name was that?" shouted Tempest.

"I'm not sure what to call it," replied Spyro, "I was trying out an element combo, to see what would happen when you combine Fire and Ice… and, well you can see what happened".

"Yeah… just be careful with that in the future, alright?" I said, "Now we know that opposing elements react violently when mixed".

After that… excitement, we continued down the tunnel, coming to the next clearing. Here we fought our way past some new type of enemy that seemed to be related to the swamp creatures we'd fought earlier, along with a few grove worms. The next area saw us fighting our way past another pair of these 'Grove Beasts'. After we took them out, a third one burst into the area… and immediately walked right into the poisonous water!

"Well, that makes things a little bit easier," said Tempest.

From there, we entered the tunnel that the third Grove Beast had left behind, and when we came out of the tunnel we were on the edge of the abyss. The path we'd been following ended at a cliff, which dropped away into the darkness below. The trees in this area also seemed to be rooted into the depths, but how far down that was, was impossible to tell. However, we could spot a jumping path amongst the branches of the trees in the area and across the… Giant Jellyfish from Convexity?

"Um, what are those doing here?" I asked, "I thought we'd seen the last of those when we left Convexity!"

"Apparently not," said Jolt, "their presence here IS odd, though".

Anyway, we leapt across the first few branches to the first jellyfish, then carefully time our across the second to the branches and the stable platform on the far side, seeing as the second one was periodically electrified. This platform had a doorway leading into the tree it was attached to. Seeing no other way to go, we headed inside. Within the tree, we fought our way through about half a dozen more Grove Beasts. Once they fell, an elevator platform descended, allowing us to continue once more.

Outside, we hopped across quite a few more jellyfish, with Spyro using Dragon Time at several points to assist our movements, before finally reaching solid ground once again. Of course solid ground doesn't necessarily mean safety, seeing as three Grove Beasts and an entire pack's worth of wolves soon assaulted us. After taking then all out, we came to another lake, this one decorated by a flaming shipwreck.

We crossed the lake by way of ice floe, and move in to examine the wreck. We soon reached to only non-burning section of the wreck were we fought a single lost looking Skavenger, then move on to the lake's far shore, where the path we'd been following seemed to pick up again. Just as we made the final turn before entering the next (and hopefully final tunnel. We saw a group of Scavenger running in our general direction, followed by another one being THOWN out of the tunnel with enough force to topple a nearby tree, which crushed the rest of the Scavengers.

"Whoa, I wonder what did that?" Said Sparx.

"Whatever it was, I doubt it's friendly," I replied.

We then steeled ourselves and entered the root tunnel, not knowing what lay ahead.

We emerged from the root tunnel and ford ourselves looking out over a large lake, and staring at a great, gnarled-looking tree: the very same tree the Chronicler had shown us in our dream! Sparx, of course, was being his usual self. That is to say, unhelpful.

"Is that your dumb tree?" asked Sparx, "It's beautiful. Let's go".

"This feels like the right place, but… I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here," said Spyro.

"Yeah, it feels like we should do something but I don't know what," said Jolt.

"Wonderful," said Sparx sarcastically, "I'm going to wait over there… you know give you a few minutes. Oh, maybe there was a lily pad you forgot to sing on, or a RAINBOW you can talk to…"

He then flew off to look around for himself, probably looking for more butterflies to eat.

"Uh, hello? I'm here. Give me a sign or… something," said Spyro.

Unexpectedly, the tree sank into the lake with a loud… roaring sound? This caught Sparx' attention, and he drifted over to see what was happening. From where the tree once stood, a MASSIVE wooden creature rose from the waters, looking to be the guardian spirit of the forest, who was in a rather foul mood at having its slumber disturbed by us.

"Umm… you wouldn't know where we could find the Chronicler would you?" I asked the tree monster, hoping we could resolve this matter peacefully, " he was the one who told us to seek you out.

Surprisingly, it brought its head down to our level and answered!

"Young dragons on a journey to find the Chronicler," it said, its voice ancient, wise, and kind, "that is something I haven't heard of in countless generations, since I was just a sprout. You have taken upon yourselves the dangerous journey across the realms and beyond, to find the Guardian of Time, and I, Arborick shall show point you to where you must go…"

"Great! Thank you Arborick," I said.

"Don't thank me just yet, young dragons," said Arborick, sounding amused, "I shall show you the way… IF YOU CAN DEFEAT ME!"

He then reared up again, and roared louder than before.

"Uh, I think it's my turn to pass out," said Sparx, "You're on your own, guys".

He then fell to the ground in the fakest faint ever.

"Oh brother," said Spyro

As the battle with Arborick began, we took to the skies to avoid being crushed under its massive limbs. Seeing as Arborick was made of wood, Spyro and I took the lead in attacking him, with Tempest and Jolt providing support since their elements weren't as effective against this foe. As we circled around him, Spyro and I set Arborick aflame, while avoiding his strikes. At a couple points, Arborick started spinning, throwing our own flames back at us. After taking enough damage, Arborick got a lucky swing, and knocked all onto one of the platforms surrounding the area.

"Ouch," said Jolt, "let's avoid that in the future".

We looked up just in time to see Arborick hauling himself up onto the same platform as us, intent on defeating us.

"Waaargh!" Said Spyro, "This doesn't look good!"

We continued the battle, running around to avoid Arborick's smashing feet. Spyro and I continued blasting Arborick's feet with our flames. Luckily, he fell before long. The seismic vibrations from Arborick's fall convinced Sparx to get up again.

"What the… oh, you killed it! We came all this way so you could kill it?" said Sparx, sounding exasperated, "Spyrooo… I am the mighty tree… calling you from across the voiiiid. Journey hither and vanquish meeee".

"Yeah, I don't think I was supposed to do that," said Spyro, "Wait, you don't suppose that was the Chronicler?"

"I highly doubt it Spyro, for two reasons," I said, "one, Ignitus told us that the Chronicler was a dragon. Two, he said his name was Arborick, and that if we defeated him, he'd tell us how to find the Chronicler".

"True enough, young dragon," said Arborick's voice, on the wind blowing through the trees, "you must find the White Isle. Ask the Leviathan Turtle for the way…" After hearing this, we prepared to head out, only to be stopped when we heard another voice.

"Alas!" said the voice, which sounded very cultured and refined.

We turned to see a very large Skavenger wearing a pair of birds on his shoulders, flanked by smaller pirates. This could only be one person: Skabb, leader of the Skavengers, along with his birds, Scratch (the purple one), and Sniff (the reddish one).

"The group of dragons who have been wandering lost in the Ancient Grove," said Scratch, "You've been quite a nuisance to us".

Skabb responded by grunting, and nodding vigorously.

"Whoa! What's with the gurgling nitwit?" said Sparx.

"If I were you, I'd shut my mouth," said Sniff in a higher pitched and less cultured voice, "I won't say it again!"

"Sparx, maybe you should stay out of this one," said Spyro.

"Yes… mind yourselves," said Scratch, "to answer your earlier question… no! That wasn't the Chronicler… whoever that is. That was Arborick; he was going to be the main attraction in our tournament! And now it's ruined…"

"Gosh. I really feel bad about that," said Spyro sarcastically.

"Yeah, I seriously doubt that he'd just let you take him away from this place," I said, "how were you planning to subdue him anyway? We saw your… earlier attempts, and they weren't very successful".

"Don't worry yourself with that," said Scratch, "and there's no need for remorse in any case, as you'll do just fine".

"What does he mean by that? Said Sparx.

It was then we realized that we were surrounded. They had thick chains and cages at the ready. Tempest attempted to get them to let us leave by pulling rank.

"STOP!" said Tempest suddenly, "allow us to go free or you shall face the wrath of the Sea Dragons! So says Princess Tempest".

"Well then!" Said Scratch, "It seems we have a valuable hostage on our hands. Chain her more securely than the rest".

The pirates surrounding us the moved in and overwhelmed us, knocking us out cold.

The last thing I say before I lost consciousness was Skabb grinning at use like an idiot…

A/N: and there we are! Next time: Arena fights begin, and maybe more... see you then!