Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro, or any other canon character.

Chapter 11

There's A Will

Spyro and Hunter looked up as an unearthly wail filled the forest. Hunter drew an arrow and Spyro barred his teeth as the wailing neared them. An eerie yellow light now appeared off in the distance and was nearing them. The light was blocked out by a tree and vanished. The two companions glanced around afraid that whatever it was would jump out at them.

Whatever it was screamed as it jumped out of the bushes and clung to Spyro's chest like its life depended on it.

"Sparx!" Spyro exclaimed, relieved to see his friend. "I was beginning to worry about you."

"B- big monster!" Sparx stammered, pointing nervously in the direction he had come from.

"What it'd look like?" Hunter asked.

A roar sounded and the creature emerged from the bushes. It was larger then Hunter and was covered with brown leathery skin. It had two pairs of muscular arms, but no legs. Instead it's entire body below its chest was a tail and it moved by slithering. It opened its beak-like mouth and roared.

"It looked exactly like that!" Sparx exclaimed.

Hunter launched the arrow at the creature and hit it, but the arrow only stayed fixed in its skin. The worm slithered forward and the three backed away, Hunter launching arrows at it as he did.

The monstrosity leapt forward and smashed its arm into Hunter, sending the cheetah flying and smashing into a tree. Hunter fell to the ground, unconscious, or worse. Spyro growled and leapt at the creature. He was whacked away by it as well and into a tree. Spyro moaned as he hit the ground. The worm turned towards him and opened its mouth. Sparx could only watch in horror as it approached.

When the worm was standing over Spyro, the purple dragon opened his eyes and rolled to his feet. Spyro swung his tail into the worm's side, but its only response was to grunt. The worm raised its arm and whacked Spyro again. Its claws tore through the scales on the dragon's cheek and sent him flying through the air. Spyro rolled across the ground, the rocks tearing further at his scales. He shakily stood up as the worm slithered forward. Spyro could only stand there as the worm raised its claws to finish him.

Hunter cried out as he jumped onto the worm's back. The cat dug his claws into leathery flesh and slammed his fist down on the back of its head. The worm groaned and started bucking, trying to throw Hunter off. The cat yelped as his claws lost their grip and he fell to the ground.

The worm turned on the cat and prepared to clamp its beak down on his flesh. Spyro roared and opened his mouth, a flash of flame emerging and hitting the worm's turned back. The beast roared and jumped away the flames on its back staying alit for a moment before burning out. It was going to attack, but Spyro breathed another flash of flames at it and it backed off.

Spyro smirked and advanced on the worm breathing more fire to force it to back off. The worm growled as the flames scorched it, deciding it had had enough, the worm turned and darted back into the bushes.

Spyro turned and walked over to Hunter. "You okay?"

Hunter pushed himself back to his feet. "Yeah, I'm okay. Good thing he didn't like fire."

Spyro nodded, glad to finally have one of his elemental breaths back. He glanced over at Sparx. The dragonfly still looked terrified, but he didn't seem to be hurt.

"We should get out of here in case he changes his mind," Sparx said. The other two nodded and they turned and continued on their way. "Man, that thing was huge!"

"You're a couple of inches tall," Hunter muttered. "To you, everything is probably huge."

"Oh, very funny," Sparx commented. He noticed Spyro chuckle and growled. "What are you laughing at? Oh, you don't think I'm funny, but the big pussy cat that you barely know gets a chuckle. Well, me, your best friend, you just roll your eyes at roll!"

"He always like that?" Hunter whispered to Spyro.

Spyro nodded. "He's at his worst just after something tries to kill him."

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Cynder groaned as consciousness returned. She almost shut her eyes and tried to go back to sleep when she realized where she was, but that wouldn't solve anything. She rolled off the bed and unto her feet.

She glanced up and found Pyris talking to someone on the other side of the bars, but Cynder couldn't see who it was at this angle. She moved to the side and a dark blue ice dragon the same age as herself came into view.

Pyris glanced back at her. "This is Crystalis."

Cynder nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm-."

"Cynder," Crystalis interrupted. There was no tone of fear, or loathing in the youngster's voice like there had been in the older dragons. "Anyway, I'm going to go see if I can convince my dad to change his mind."

Cynder watched as Crystalis turned and disappeared down the hall.

"Who's his dad?" Cynder asked, having the feeling that she already knew the answer.

"Feron," Pyris replied. "Though he's nothing like his father."

Cynder nodded. "Yeah, I can see that."

The black dragoness turned and stared out the bars of the window and noticed that a stack of wood was being set up in the clearing below. A thick wooden pole was sticking up in the center and oil was being poured over the wood. It took no small stretch of the imagination for Cynder to imagine herself tied to that pole and surrounded by flames.

Cynder glanced back at her sister. "Any ideas on getting out of here?"

Pyris sighed. "No. Nothing. How are we going to get out of here anyway? We're just kids."

"I know a kid that saved all four of the guardians and managed to defeat me," Cynder said. "If a special purple dragon can do all that, then we can sure as heck get out of here, we just have to put our hearts into it."