Spyro stayed awake all night, or day, he couldn't tell because of the dark clouds of ash. He waited hours on end for either Cynder or the blue dragon to wake, but with every hour came nothing. Occasionally, he slightly amused himself by matching his breathing with Cynder's, but it got tired out really fast.

He almost fell asleep several times himself, but pushed himself past it with willpower and motivation. But finally, just as he was about to surely fall asleep, the blue dragon stirred. Spyro knew the dragon was awake now, but he stayed quiet to make him feel secure.

Apparently it worked, because after a few minutes he opened his eyes and looked around. When his eyes rested on Spyro, he instantly panicked and got up in a defensive position. "Explain yourself, now, before I blast you to hell," he said. Spyro didn't expect him to be that violent.

"I'm Spyro," he said, "Cynder and I saw you were hurt when we were trying to fly over the ring of fire, and we couldn't leave you to die."

"Who's Cynder? Why did you help me? Why are you inside the ring?" He asked, arming an attack.

"Well, in order, that's Cynder," he made a gesture towards Cynder, who was still deep in sleep. "Why we helped, well, that was just how we were raised. And why we're inside the ring, I'd rather not say."

"Say or die," he said, his aggression increasing with every sentence.

"Well…" Spyro told him the story, starting from when they went through the ring, over the course of which the blue dragon calmed down.

The blue dragon waited a little after Spyro finished, taking some time to soak in what was just told to him. "You killed him?" he finally asked with awe.

"Actually, we imprisoned him, but he's not going anywhere." The dragon stared at him, amazed. "What's your name, anyway?" Spyro asked.

He paused for a moment. "For now, call me Nine."

"Why, don't you have a name?"

"It's a long story," Nine sighed.

"I've got time," Spyro said, glancing at Cynder.

"Well," he sighed, "fine, I can trust you." He took a deep breath. "Malefor had, let's say ideas. One of his ideas was for a non-purple dragon to have all four elemental breaths. He captured me and two of my friends, um, Five and Seven, so he could test on us. Five was a red dragon, Seven was green." Spyro wondered if Five and Seven had other names too, but he waited and listened. "The numbers he gave us soon became our names, as everyone in the castle started addressing us by our numbers. We tried to use our real names amongst each other, but we were separated too often, and eventually we forgot what our names were.

"The first few months were easy; all he did was test our physical condition so we would…survive the real tests. The next couple months weren't too bad; we were just injected with different mixtures so we would be affected. Then the last months, those were a living hell. The only theory he had for our bodies to harbor the element was to blast us with it. They put us in sealed rooms and somehow filled it with an element. Five died the first day of testing, within seconds of being hit by the elements.

"Seven, remarkably, gained all other three elements, but she escaped the next day. Everyone in the castle said that she only escaped because she had all four elements. In return, I was guarded more heavily. I was constantly in chains, and I didn't go anywhere without an escort. But finally, after three years, it ended.

"A rumor was spreading around the castle like a virus, about two dragons named Spyro and Cynder. They feared that you would free me, so they killed me off, or at least that's what they thought. They slashed my chest, and dumped me here. So here I am."

Spyro looked again at Cynder, who was laying the same way, only awake. After traveling with her for so long, he knew when she was awake. He wondered how long she had been listening. "Cynder, you don't need to fake it anymore." At first she didn't do anything. "Cynder, I know you're awake." Finally, she sighed and got up.

"How long have you been awake?" Nine asked nervously.

"Long enough," Cynder replied, shooting him a look she gave Spyro all the time. "So how didthat testing go?"

"Well, I'd rather not say." It looked like he was going to faint, but he stood his ground.

"Say or die," Cynder said, quoting him exactly.

"Come on, Cynder," Spyro said, trying to break in.

"No, no, it's ok. The truth is, well, the testing backfired, and now my element's gone." There was a slight pause. "Go ahead, laugh," he said. Cynder tried to be polite by holding it in, but eventually couldn't take it anymore and fell to the ground, laughing for about five straight minutes.

While Cynder was laughing, Spyro took the time to closely examine Nine. He was about the same age as Spyro, with dark blue wings, the same color as his crest and underbelly. The spade at the end of his tail had a diamond shape, which was black. His horns closely resembled Spyro's horns; only in a shade of blue so light it almost looked green. But the thing about him that stood out most, were his eyes, the color always glazing over a new shade of red, the only part of his body that wasn't blue.

Finally, Cynder calmed down and got up, her eyes tearing up from laughing so hard. "No element?" Cynder laughed. "You've gotta be kidding."

"Try me," he said.

"Ok," Cynder said, "hit me, hard as you can."

"I wouldn't feel comfortable attacking you," he said, trying to back out of it.

"I dare you." She shot a bit of shadow around his feet.

"Fine," he walked up to her slowly, slashing at her with his tail.

"Is that it?" she asked, blocking his attack easily with her wing.

"No, but again I'm not comfortable attacking you." Cynder attacked him with wind this time, knocking him back.

"Ok, fine, you've inspired me." He walked up slowly again, slashing with his tail, again. Cynder blocked, but instead, this time, Nine slid across the ground, swiping his tail with him, tripping Cynder. When she was still trying to recover from her fall, Nine flipped her over and put a paw on her neck. "So, how'd I do?" He flipped over the paw on her neck, an attempt to help her up.

Cynder denied the help, blushing a little as she got up. "I—I wasn't ready," she said, making a quick excuse.

"Are you ready now?" Nine asked.

"Um…yeah, I am." Nine repeated the maneuver; the only variation was a missed shadow attack.

"I think I've proven myself," Nine said, offering to help her up again. Cynder blushed even more, brushing imaginary dirt off herself.

"Uh, I was distracted," Cynder said, making another excuse.

"Cynder, I think you lost."

"Fine," she seethed, glaring at Nine.

"Hey," Nine said defensively, "you challenged me." Cynder only got angrier, but didn't say anything.

--

"Nine, do you think you'll be okay to fly to Warfang tomorrow?" Spyro asked.

"I don't know, I haven't flown in three years."

"Go practice, now," Cynder commanded. Nine sighed and took off with horrible form. Cynder made sure he was out of earshot before talking to Spyro.

"Cynder, you don't have to—" He was cut off by Cynder putting a paw over his mouth.

"Spyro, I had another nightmare," she whispered. "Only this one was worse than last night." It looked like she was about to cry, but she held strong.

"What was this one about?" Spyro asked.

"You and I were walking in a dark hallway, and we came to a room, and you attacked me. You put me in chains and shackled me to the wall and…and—" Her eyes began welling up with tears. "And you tore my wings off." She said it fast, wanting it to end as soon as possible.

Spyro shuttered at the thought of ripping off Cynder's wings, swearing to himself that he would never think of it again. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. It was all he thought about until Nine landed.

Cynder backed up as he touched down. "I still need practice, but I can fly to War—hey, what's wrong with her?" Spyro looked back at Cynder, who was lying down, staring at the ground, a tear dropping into the ashes.

"Nothing, she's fine," Spyro said, turning Nine away from her.

"Here, try taking off like this." He took off, Nine mimicking it perfectly, hovering next to Spyro. "When we ride the volcano's updraft, you need to angle your wings like this." He tilted his wings, the way that increased agility. Nine lost some altitude when he did it, but quickly recovered. "Then when we clear the volcano, like this." Spyro angled his wings for lift. "Then dive and land." He dove fast to the ground, landing much better than the first time he landed there. Nine did it too, but not as gracefully.

They practiced landing and taking off for a while, but eventually moved on to the flying styles. Nine did well on all of them. "So how did I do?" Nine asked.

"You're as ready as you can get," Spyro responded. "Now get some sleep, the flight is a lot longer than it looks." Both of them swooped down and made a perfect landing, no side movement at all. Nine was asleep within seconds of landing.

Spyro walked up to Cynder, who was still lying on the ground. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"No," Cynder answered truthfully. "I'm scared about these nightmares, what if I have them for the rest of my life?"

"Come on," Spyro said. "Don't talk like that, they'll go away eventually."

"What about tonight?" she asked.

Spyro draped his wing over Cynder. "I'm not going anywhere." Cynder stared into Spyro's eyes, hers still teary.

Spyro closed his eyes and rested his head on the ground, disturbing images swimming around in his head.

"I know," said Cynder, putting her head near Spyro's. "That's what worries me." She closed her eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.

The last thing Spyro remembered before falling asleep was biting down hard on Cynder's wing and pulling hard, feeling her flesh give way.

Nothing to say here, move along.