You said that you were going to work on this chapter as soon as you could.

Yeah, well I didn't think I would get addicted to a video game at the time.

You're a freakin' lair man.

The good news is during my short break I was able to look up some keyboard shortcuts so now I can accesses the thesauruses.

You can use big words now big whoop now your story will just be harder to read.

Well there's only one thing left to do now … on with the chapter.

Chapter 7

Shadow Dual

Cynder awoke late the next morning, and she walked into an empty corridor with many doors. At that time Ignitus walked in to greet her, "Good morning young dragon, I assume you slept well."

"Yes I did, where are the others?"

"They already setout for there training."

"So, I guess you expect me to do the same right."

"That is correct … follow me." Ignitus led her to the end of the corridor where there was a final great large door. "Through here is where you shall be trained." Cynder walked through the great door, Ignitus followed close behind.

When they got in Cynder found they were in a room, in which the walls and ceiling were shrouded by a veil of shadows; however she could not see Spyro, Elpida, or Azimuth anywhere.

"Where's Spyro?" she asked.

Ignitus answered, "Your question shall be answered in do time young dragon." Cynder began to feel slightly annoyed by the fact that she didn't get a straight. Then Ignitus once again began to speak, in a spirit-like tone of voice, "Cynder, you are a very intelligent young dragon, however, you have been tainted by darkness, and so you are vulnerable to the dark forces. You must be able to keep your spirit strong, don not lose yourself in the shadows."

"So, what am I suppose to do?" Cynder asked.

"What you need to do is simple … you must slay this creature." Just then a mysterious dark hooded figure materialized in the center of the room.

"What is that thing?" Cynder inquired.

Ignitus responded, "That, young dragon, is a soul hunter, one of Regis' servants."

"And you expect me to kill it?"

"Yes."

"Sounds fun," With that Cynder jumped into the battle field with the soul hunter.

The soul hunter was the first to move, it backed up to a wall, and out of the shadows it pulled out a black dagger. "No fair," Cynder thought to herself. Then the shadow hunter ran her, dagger in hand, and sliced her on the side just below her neck, blood started dripping out. "You'll pay for that," Cynder murmured. Cynder then spun around and slashed her tail through the soul hunter, she hit it full on, but her tail went straight through it without dealing any damage. The soul hunter punched at Cynder his blade cutting her fore head as she tried to dodge it. It spun around while making an odd low hissing noise, and then swung its dagger again, this time leaving a deep wound on Cynder's left shoulder. Cynder tried slashing it three more times, but to no avail. Then the soul hunter jumped on top of her and pinned her back to the would not give up easily though, she wrapped her tail around it, and flipped it over. The soul hunter sliced at her neck, Cynder barely dodged it. She spun around slashing it with her tail several times, but still it just passed right through it without hurting it.

"Why can't I touch it?" Cynder asked herself, just before the soul hunter slashed at her three more times. Cynder was able to dodge the first two by jumping out of the way, but the third one cut her leg, and blood slowly oozed from where she was hit. While she was in the air she tried to head but it. It moved too quickly, hitting her on the side, and knocking her to the, where the soul hunter had her pinned again, this time making sure that it had her tail held down.

Cynder tried to break free but it was pointless the thing had her trapped.

She looked into the soul hunter's face only to see that its head was a decayed green skull. Cynder could feel her energy being slowly drained into the creature. Then it brought its black dagger up ready to stab it into Cynder. She know this was going to be the end, so she closed her eyes and thought of only welcoming her death. Then the soul hunter brought its dagger down through where Cynder's heart should be, but to her surprise it didn't hurt her at all, although she did here the creature's blade go through and hit the floor. She opened her eyes, looked down, and saw that where the dagger had gone through her had turned into shadows, Cynder then realized what she had to do. She emptied her mind of all thoughts, and then the rest of her body turned to shadows.

Now it was her turn she flew, in shadow form, behind the soul hunter. Then she seized it and threw it to the ground. She was finally able to touch it. Cynder pinned it to the ground the same way it had trapped her. She then swung her sword-like tail blade at the soul hunter's neck so that the sharp end hit first, and she cut its head off, but as soon as her tail went through it faded into shadows.

"Very good young dragon," Ignitus said, "Fallow me." Ignitus led Cynder back through the great door and back into the main room, where Spyro, Elpida, and Azimuth were waiting.

"Hey, Cynder," Azimuth said. Cynder then ran over and stood with them.

"What took you so long, Cynder?" Spyro asked.

Cynder replied, "Don't worry I'm ok."

End Chapter

This chapter sure went by quick.

Yeah, I know. I suppose that the next three chapters will to.

Well that's what happens when you take one idea and split it into four parts.

Uh huh. You have just seen (read) Cynder's training and you will see the next person's (dragon's) in the next chapter, but … till then

-shining darkness dragon-