Part 7

It was late afternoon, and the sky was tinged with orange as the sun was halfway down towards the horizon. The young dragons were outside the Artisan Temple in preparation for the fight between Spyro and Flame.

Unknown to them, the Death Hound appeared and watched the dragons from the cover of the tall grass on the hill. "Tonight's the night." He growled softly, baring a sinister smile before the hound backed away into the rolling hills unnoticed.

At the front of the temple, Spyro growled at Flame, spreading his wings apart as they circled each other, waiting for one of them to strike first. With a roar, Spyro suddenly lunged at Flame, sending the both of them tumbling away from the others until they rested at the edge of the hill.

The other dragons looked towards the fight with anticipation, as Coltrane cheered aloud his support, "Come on, Flamey! I think you could do it!"

"Yeah, we don't want to do girl's work!" Bruce added.

Flame regained his composure and charged at Spyro with a roar, but the purple dragon countered the attack with a charge himself. The two dragons clashed, trying to gain advantage over each other in the fight. As Flame lunged, Spyro veered out of his opponent's way and grabbed Flame by the back, lifting him up into the air. With all of his might, Spyro carried Flame into the air with several pumps of his wings and then slammed the red dragon against the ground before backing off.

"Ooh! Bad luck!" Grayson moaned at the blow, but he quickly encouraged Flame, "Come on, Flame, I've seen you fight better!"

Flame groggily stood back on his feet and growled at Spyro, flaring his wings open again.

Spyro growled back, keeping a distance from the red dragon before the purple dragon clashed with him again. Spyro was struggling to gain advantage over Flame, but due to the red dragon being slightly bigger and stronger than him, he was easily knocked aside. The purple dragon quickly sat up and witnessed Flame leaping at him for the final blow.

As soon as Flame was upon him, Spyro quickly positioned his back feet against Flame's stomach and kicked him off, hurtling the red dragon over the edge of the hill where he tumbled. The red dragon cried out in shock as he tumbled down the hill in a quick rate, before he sprawled painfully at the very bottom.

Spyro stood back to his feet and looked down towards Flame, panting slightly from the fight. He saw the red dragon staggering to his feet, and thinking he was still willing to fight, the purple dragon growled ferociously.

Flame glared up at Spyro and began climbing up the hill, still willing to fight. However, as soon as the red dragon reached the top and was about to attack, Flame suddenly staggered and collasped to the ground, obviously too injured to continue fighting.

Smiling, Ember, Ruby, Ami, and Spyro realized that they had won the deal for the male dragons clean the temple, much to the others' annoyance.

Grayson, Halvor, Coltrane, Bruce, and Flame looked to their friends, knowing now they have to do a girl's work in the morning. A childish giggle emitted from behind the male dragons laughed at the male dragons for their loss.

"He he he!" The little Magic Crafter giggled, "Now you gotta clean with us." She giggled again only to stop when Flame cleared his throat angrily.

The red dragon growled to her venomously, "If you don't shut up, I'll knock you off the hill whether you'll get hurt or not."

"Hey, leave her alone." Daisy spoke out defensively, hovering in the air beside Flame as the red dragon glanced down to her, "You're not a fire dragon, you're a bully dragon."

Flame snarled at the blue fairy, "I thought you were leaving."

"I was." Daisy replied, "Until I saw that you dragons needed my help, hot head."

Grayson had walked up to Spyro with a glare before he snarled to him, "You cheated, didn't you?" He scoffed angrily, "Hm, those purple dragon powers of yours. Why...you weren't even exhausted."

"Hey, enough." Flame intterupted, stepping in between Grayson and Spyro as the red dragon turned to the young Peace Keeper solemnly, "I lost. And as a guard of honor, I accept that." He then glared at Spyro, "Whether it was fair or not."

With one last glance, Flame ran towards the other side of the hill, accepting his defeat against Spyro. Grayson, Bruce, Halvor, and Coltrane all exchanged glances towards one other before they followed Flame, all sharing the same consequences to clean the temple.

Ember scurried over to Spyro and smiled to him, "Well, at least you won."

"Did we?" Spyro questioned solemnly.

Ember turned and walked back into the temple, leaving Spyro to sit down and rest from the fight while overlooking the sunset on the hillside horizon. At that moment, Daisy flew over to Spyro and landed on the ground in front of him. "Oh...Things has been a bit rough on the first day in Artisans, huh?" She remarked gently.

"We won't survive if we keep fighting each other." Spyro answered grimly to the blue fairy, "And I don't know how to bring us together."

Daisy replied, "That's the trouble with two leaders, there could only be one."

"I know." Spyro responded, "I guess my job's over, I got us safetly to Artisans." He looked to the direction where Flame went, "Maybe it's time for a dragon, like Flame, to take over."

Daisy retorted defensively, "No! You're the leader."

Spyro turned back to Daisy reasoned calmly, "You're not listening..."

"I'm listening fine." Daisy interrupted, pointing out the fact to the purple dragon, "You led them to Artisans, that makes you the leader. Period."

Spyro looked at Daisy for a moment, a bit surprised. He did lead his friends through the journey, and indeed led them to Artisans. Though still the purple dragon is unsure why he must be a leader, and it concerned him...