Part 3

"Everyone, come look at this!" Ember called out, as she was standing in front of a large temple she discovered while the other dragons were enjoying the view again, "There were dragons here, long gone now."

Spyro stepped forward and sniffed the air around the entrance, as he muttered, "No smell of disease, or enemies." He turned back to the others, "It's safe."

Ember then walked into the temple, before followed closely by Daisy while the other dragons waited outside for the results. The pink dragon scurried through the hallways of the temple, inspecting every room and chamber, including the gardens.

"Is it good?" Daisy asked, flying beside Ember before she landed and stood at the foot of a statue, "It's very big."

"Yeah, very big." Ember remarked, as she stood in front of Daisy. She turned her head to the entrance of the temple and shouted aloud, "It's in good shape! If everyone helps out with the cleaning, we'll sure to have a home here."

Outside the chamber, Flame, Grayson, Halvor, Bruce, and Coltrane glanced at each other at the mention of 'helping out with the cleaning'.

"By everyone, I assume she doesn't mean us." Grayson muttered, convincing the other males that Ember was referring to the other girls.

Flame called to Ember, "Ember, in case you've forgot, boys don't have to clean up."

"Oh hear we go again..." Ember muttered softly to herself with aggravation, rolling her eyes.

Daisy wondered curiously to the pink dragon, "What's so good about boy dragons that they don't clean up?"

Ember looked to Daisy before she worriedly turned to the boys outside the temple, hopefully wishing that they would help the girls clean up the temple instead of just the four of them.

Spyro spoke out defensively to the other males, "Now be reasonable. Rikki, Ami, Ruby, and Ember are the only girls. We can't expect them to clean up the entire temple."

"Yes." Coltrane answered, not caring if four girls cleaned up the entire Artisan Temple as he arched an eyebrow to Spyro, "So?"

Spyro finished, "So...we're all going to pitch in."

"Oh, I don't think so." Flame retorted, shaking his head in protest, "Girls are supposed to do the cleaning, Spyro."

Spyro reasoned sharply, "Look if we're going to survive here, we need new ways of thinking."

"I've had my fill of new thinking." Flame snarled, "You already have us living with fairies."

"So fairies are no good huh?" A voice growled, as Flame turned his head to see Daisy flying over to him with a glare, saying, "You don't want fairies around?? Fine! I'm gone." With that said, the blue fairy flew away and hovered away from the dragons and the Artisan Temple.

Ami sadly looked at the fleeting form of Daisy before she said sternly to Flame, "Oh very nice, Flame. Very thoughtful."

Flame only nodded in reply with no sign of remorse of what he said before he also walked away into the hallway.

Grayson, Halvor, Bruce, and Coltrane exchanged glances to each other before they too walked away, not wanting to do a girl's job. After watching the boy's vanish, Spyro turned to Ami and declared softly, "We've got to get everyone pulling together, or we're done for."

"Maybe they just need time to get used to a new place, Spyro." Ami responded.

Ember emerged from the room and said firmly to Spyro, "You might try might leading for example, Spyro, the cleaning won't do itself." She then went back into the room to start cleaning up. Ami soon joined her pink companion into cleaning the room to start with, before cleaning the rest of the temple, leaving Spyro to shake his head in disbelief as he walked away into the corridors.

Ami turned to Rikki and spoke to her, "Uh, Rikki, maybe you should go out and pick some flowers. We can handle on our own for a while."

"By myself?" Rikki asked, looking to the outside towards the hills.

Ami smiled, "Yeah, you're old enough. Besides, there's nothing else out there but fairies."

"Oh, okay." Rikki nodded slowly, before she turned and ran out of the temple, leaving Ami and Ember to start cleaning the first chamber...