-1Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro the Dragon, or any of its characters, but I do own my characters. If you attempt to steal anything, you will find yourself at the mercy of my rather unsavory security system.

Chapter 8

Darkness Rising

Spyro groaned as consciousness returned to him. His entire body hurt. He opened his eyes. He immediately closed them again, when he found himself staring into a source of bright light.

He turned his head to the side and opened his eyes again. Spyro found that his vision was horribly blurred and could barely make out the yellow creature in front of him.

"He's awake," he heard someone say. He realized the voice was female.

"Where am I?" Spyro asked weakly.

The female voice replied. "You're in Avalar."

"Avalar?"

"It's a small village where a lot of outcasts live," a male voice replied.

Spyro's vision was clearing and he could finally make out the creature in front of him. It was yellow with a white chest. It stood on two legs and had a thin cat-like tail and its face was also cat-like. Its tail ended in a white tip.

"What are you?" Spyro asked, forgetting to be polite in his exhaustion.

The cat crossed his arms. "I'm a cheetah. Hunter the cheetah to be precise."

"I'm Spyro," the dragon replied glancing around at the rest of the room. It appeared to be inside a hollowed out tree. There were tables carved out of the tree itself. A red female faun stood a few feet away.

"What were you doing so close to Deep Pine?" the faun asked.

"I wasn't even aware that I was near it," Spyro replied. "Could you lead me to it?"

"You want to go to Deep Pine?" the faun asked in surprise.

Spyro nodded.

"He managed to blast the Dark Master," Hunter said.

The faun turned to the cheetah. "Hunter, there's no way that kid managed to hurt the Dark Master. It was probably just something that wondered out of Deep Pine. Besides you've never even seen the Dark Master."

"I'm pretty sure it was him," Hunter said crossing his arms. "He was all spiky and shadowy."

The faun sighed in frustration.

"That was the Dark Master," Spyro spoke up. "How do you know of him?"

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"Good bye, insect," Edord laughed and released the bolt of energy.

Sparx rolled out of the way and shot a blast of yellow light from his own hand. The blast hit Edord in the thorax.

The dark dragonfly groaned and held his arm over the injured area. "H-how…?"

He glanced up to find Sparx's holding onto the end of a tree branch and pulling it back. Sparx let go of the branch and it went flying forward and slammed into Edord, sending the dark dragonfly flying through the air.

"Sayonara, incest," Sparx wasn't sure how he had managed to launch an energy blast, but he was just glad he was able to.

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A cloud of darkness appeared in the Dark Master's prison and the demon himself emerged from it, clutching his chest in pain.

Ignitus was standing a few feet away with a smug look on his face. The Dark Master growled up at him and shakily stood to his feet.

"You failed," Ignitus said.

The Dark Master smirked in spite of the pain he was in. "I failed this time, but the darkness is still there. Eventually, it will overcome him."

Ignitus shook his head. "No, it won't."

The shadow's smirk widened. "Think what you like, dragon."

The Dark Master turned away from him and another even larger cloud of darkness appeared. Ignitus stared up at the large pillar of dark magic as it faded away. Ignitus blinked when nothing appeared and then glanced down at the ground to find a dragonfly hovering there.

"Well, Edord?" the demon demanded.

The dragonfly looked to the side nervously. "I didn't get him."

The Dark Master frowned. "You disappoint me."

Edord gulped. "But he's just a little dragonfly. How can he be a threat?"

"You are just a dragonfly, Edord," the Dark Master started to pace. "Yet you have been useful to me. Besides he shares a friendship with the purple one. Friendship could cause problems with my plan. In fact, it already has!"

He spun and sent a blast of dark magic in Ignitus's direction. The aged dragon jumped out of the way.

The Dark Master growled, but did nothing more. "Now, Edord, this is your first failure. Fail me again and you will not live long enough to know it."

The dragonfly nodded and turned and disappeared into another cloud of darkness.

The Dark Master laughed. "Now, for phase two."

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Cynder stood up and looked around her cell. It was actually pretty nice for a prison. There was a soft nest, which was where she had been lying. Shelves lined the walls and several potted plants sat on them. There were even some on the floor.

Cynder gasped as she saw the room's other occupant. A red dragon was lying on the floor across from her, its feet tucked under it. The dragon looked to be the same age as Cynder. The dragon's horns were a light yellow as was its stomach, what had elicited the dragoness' surprise though was that other then the coloration, the other dragon looked almost exactly like her.

She closed her gaping mouth. "Who are you?"

"I'm Pyris," the other dragoness replied. "Who are you?"

"I'm Cy-," she stopped herself, judging from the reaction of Feron and the other dragons before maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to use her real name. "Spira."

Pyris blinked, but just shrugged it off. "You know, you look really similar to Cynder. Or that's what they said, I never actually saw her myself."

"Yeah, I know," Cynder replied. "That's why they imprisoned me?"

Pyris nodded. "They imprisoned me because I'm Cynder's sister."

Cynder couldn't stop herself from gasping. Pyris just nodded as though ashamed. That's why Pyris bared such a striking resemblance to her.

"But the Dark Master's army destroyed all the eggs from the last Year of the Dragon," Cynder said.

"All that he could find," Pyris said. "My father gave Cynder's egg to Ignitus to look after while he kept watch over mine. This way there would be a better chance for one of the eggs to survive."

Cynder sighed. "Where are your parents?"

"Dead," Pyris replied. "Dad died shortly before the dragons went into exile here. Mom…"

Pyris burst into tears before finishing. Cynder frowned and found a tear trickling down her own cheek.

Cynder quickly wiped the tear away with her forepaw. "I'm sorry…"

Pyris shook her head. "It's okay," she said. "That was a long time ago. I should really be over it by now."

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The faun sighed. "His armies ripped my home kingdom apart. I'm Elora, by the way."

"I need to get to Deep Pines," Spyro tried to stand, but he collapsed backed to the floor.

Elora frowned. "You're in no condition to get to any place."

"Yeah, you're going to have to rest up," Hunter said.

"But-."

"Just rest," Elora said sternly. "We'll explain everything later. Just rest for now."

Spyro sighed and closed his eyes. Sleep quickly washed over him.