Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro, or any other characters, or assorted items.

Chapter 12

There's A Way

Cynder groaned as she woke up. She glanced around trying to locate what had awoken her and glanced at the bars. Crystalis was standing there, barely visible in the darkness.

Pyris and Cynder rolled to their feet and approached the grinning youngster. Cynder really didn't see what there was to be happy about, she and her sister where about to get burned alive. They hadn't been able to figure out a way out of the cell and had gone to sleep hoping that something would intervene and save them. Cynder could hear the crowd that had gathered to see their destruction chattering outside the window.

"What are you doing?" Pyris asked.

"I can get you out of here," Crystalis said.

"Really? How?" Cynder asked.

"Well, I told the guard that my dad wanted to see him, since my dad has a notorious temper he didn't want to risk that I might be lying," Crystalis explained.

"But what about the key?" Cynder asked.

"Who needs a key?" Crystalis replied and gestured for them to step back. They did and Crystalis exhaled a stream of ice at the bars. The metal was quickly covered with ice. He stepped back and then charged forward and rammed his horns into the weakened metal, shattering it. "Come on!"

"Won't someone spot us?" Cynder asked, stepping through the hole.

"They're all probably gathered to watch our execution," Pyris said.

"They are," Crystalis nodded. "Now, come on, follow me."

Seeing that they had no choice, they did. Crystalis lead them through the halls, avoiding the areas that other dragons were at (he had scouted the escape route before saving them.)

They finally climbed out through an open window into an alley between the buildings. Crystalis told them to be quiet and then the trio quietly moved forward. The shadows were illuminated by the lamps that burned on the streets side, they avoided the light as much as possible.

They were nearly to the forest and safety when Edord jumped out from behind the building in front of them. He sneered as he hovered above their heads. Cynder and Pyris both hissed at the Dark Master's minion.

"Like I said, you can either join the Dark Master, or get barbecued, which is it?" Edord asked.

"Drop dead," Cynder growled.

"Fine," Edord grinned and then shouted at the top of his lungs. "Prisoners escaping! Get them, they're over here."

"Hide!" Cynder shouted and then leapt into the air, her wings propelled her toward the dragonfly and she opened her mouth. The incest vanished into the darkness and Cynder's jaws closed around thin air.

"Over here!" Crystalis shouted, standing on the doorstep of one of the buildings. He exhaled a breath of ice on the door and it immediately swung open.

Cynder swept her wings back and dived through the opening after him and Pyris, the door sung close afterwards. Cynder's feet touched down on the floor and she found herself skidding forward because of her momentum and crashed into the other two dragons. The trio rolled into another room and stopped in a heap.

They looked up as they heard footsteps outside and the clamoring of voices. Then one voice spoke above all the others.

"Find them!" Feron roared. "And capture them."

The three of them waited in silence as the crowd dispersed following the ice dragon's orders. Cynder took the opportunity to glance around the room and a particular object attracted her attention. A large shard of black and purple crystal that was set over a fire place.

"Whose house is this?" Cynder whispered to Crystalis.

"It's my dad's actually," Crystalis replied.

"Interesting," Cynder muttered to herself.

They heard the door swing open and jumped in panic as they saw Feron enter. His eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness of the room and he didn't see them right away. They slowly backed away as Feron glanced around. The ice dragon turned and went to investigate another room.

"Come on," Crystalis whispered, leading them over to the wall, where a window was located. He pushed the window open and squeezed through.

Cynder was about to follow when a growl sounded and they glanced back, finding Feron standing there. Cynder quickly jumped through the window. She hit the ground and turned around. Pyris was almost through the window, when she cried out and was pulled back in. Feron's head appeared in the window. Cynder turned and ran, Feron was too large to fit through. She jumped into the air, avoiding a blast of icy air. Crystalis was just a few feet ahead of her. She could hear Feron roaring in rage behind her.

The two dragons flew into the woods. Once, they were sure that they hadn't been followed, they landed. The two glanced at each other.

"We've got to go back and save her," Cynder gasped, she really was out of shape now that he didn't have the Dark Master boosting her physical powers.

Crystalis nodded, too out of breath to reply.

A twig snapped and the two dragons growled as more noise followed. Something was approaching. Cynder sighed when a purple head emerged from the bushes.

"Spyro!" Cynder exclaimed, charging forward and rubbing her head against his in greeting. "You're okay."

"Yeah, thanks to Ignitus," Spyro replied. He glanced back at the cat-like creature that followed him. "This is Hunter. He helped me recover."

Cynder glanced up at the feline. "I'm Cynder. That's Crystalis."

Hunter frowned and then shrugged his shoulders. "Nice to meet you."

She glanced back at Spyro, barely registering that Sparx was hovering a few feet away. "We've got to save Pyris."

"Who?" Sparx asked.

"My sister," Cynder explained. "They're about to execute her, just cause she's related to me."

Spyro and Sparx both glanced at each other. Up until this point they had both been having trouble believing Hunter's description of the dragons' condition, but what Cynder had just said cleared up their doubts.

"So what do we do?" Spyro asked.

"Why not just walk over there?" Crystalis suggested. The other four each gave him a shocked look. "Think about it, they've been living in fear of Cynder for so long, if the prophesized purple dragon where to show up, it would probably quell all their doubts and maybe convince them that you're really reformed."

Cynder glanced over at Spyro. "It might work."