Chapter two
In the morning, Spyro and Cynder had left the citadel and started their flight over the enormous city. The two dragons could see the front gate now, along with new faces being greeted by moles. There were a few around their age, most of which still had to look down to look a mole in its eyes.
When they landed, the moles left while the new dragons stared at the two legends. Most of them looked at Spyro gratefully while the others looked over to Cynder with a hateful glare. Cynder moved behind Spyro.
"Spyro, it's good to finally meet you. Terrador's message told us everything," A large earth dragon said. "And I really do mean 'everything'." He said as he looked to the black dragoness. His hard glare was enough to make Cynder feel uneasy.
"If my old mentor says that one has changed," he started, motioning toward her. "I'll make sure everyone here treats her as they would anyone else."
The former 'Terror of the Skies' relaxed a bit as she listened to who appeared to be in charge of the others.
"Thank you. Terrador never told me he had a student." Spyro said.
"Many of us left the night before the raid during the confusion. Maybe if we had stayed, we could have won." The large earth dragon said as he looked to the cobblestone street under him like it was the most amazing sight in the world.
"Don't worry about it." Spyro said. The earth dragon nodded walked to the citadel. The older dragons had followed Terrador's old student, but some of the younger ones had stayed behind to look around. As Spyro watched them walk to the citadel, he noticed the green dragon they had just talked to carrying a sky blue dragoness on his back.
"What about Gaul? He hated dragons more than anyone. I don't think he would give up just because the one holding his leash was killed. What happened to him?" a young dragon asked. He looked much like Spyro, but had bright red scales, a yellow underside; light gold spikes down his spine, and his yellow horns were a bit longer. His tail blade resembled a small torch.
Spyro turned back to the red dragon. "Well… I'd rather not say…" He said as his guilt sunk in. "So who are you?"
"Flame and this is Ember." He said, motioning to the dragoness beside him.
She had bright pink scales and a pair of horns that came straight out of the sides of her head before curving back. Her horns and chest were a pale yellow color while her eyes were a bright blue. Her tail blade was shaped like a heart and she wore a necklace with a heart shaped ruby.
"Hi!" she chirped. Her high pitched voice made Cynder jump.
"Nice to meet you, so who is she?" Cynder asked, looking at a white dragoness nearby.
"That's Casille. She's distant as they come but she's alright." Flame said.
The white dragoness wasn't paying any attention to them, but looking at the sky.
Casille had no wings, a small frill down the back of her neck, a pair of grey-blue horns that started at the back of her head, made a full circle, and ended with the end curved to the sides. She had three tails, each with a deadly looking pattern. The left had a few spikes running down the back and a cluster of spikes at the tip. The middle tail was similar to Terrador's, although much smaller and without the mace-like spikes. The right had a closely packed trail of spikes running down from the base to tip, ending in a spearhead. Her scales were a pure white with a grey-blue underside, frill, and tail spikes.
"Um, can I ask why she looks so different or is that too personal?" Spyro asked.
Flame just shrugged and said. "She just hatched that way. The only person she really talks to is Ember, occasionally me, but I still don't know much about her. I thought she was a wind dragon at first but she still hasn't been able to use any element whatsoever."
Spyro and Cynder looked back over to where Casille stood as Ember walked over to her. She was still watching the sky while Ember stood beside her, trying to get her to talk to them.
The white dragoness shook her head before walking over to the rest of them. She looked up at the two with bright blue eyes but didn't say a word.
"Casille?"
She just nodded to the black dragoness, still not saying anything.
"Well, this way everyone." Spyro said as he and Cynder led them to the citadel in the center of Warfang.
Once there, they saw the group in the main room with the guardians busy either rebuilding or giving orders. The guardians sent many of the adult dragons with them, one of which being the earth dragon from earlier. Spyro and Cynder led group up the staircase leading up to the rooms and split up, each taking half the group with them.
"So Spyro, how did you manage to get Cynder to be your ally?" the green dragon from earlier asked.
"Well there isn't much to say other than I broke Malefor's hold on her. She wasn't evil; she was just being controlled by someone who was." Spyro said without looking back. "So who are you?"
"I'm Granite. As I said, I was Terrador's student a long time ago." The large dragon said. "What I meant was just how did you break Malefor's hold on her?"
"Well, we were fighting in convexity and I thought I was going to lose. I tried using one of my elements again but started using some element I had never seen before. It looked like a bright purple light. I used a fury of that and then she's on the ground shrinking."
"That's quite a story." He said.
"If you say so. We're here." Spyro said as he stopped in front of a large door. After Granite left, Spyro looked to see the last of his group, the silent Casille.
Cynder opened a door and showed Ember around. It was a normal looking room, big enough to fit a full grown dragoness and room for whatever she owned. Against the far wall was a large cushion in a dark blue cloth for a bed. Ember thanked the black dragoness before she left to show Flame his room a few doors away. It was almost identical to Ember's other than the bed being grey.
"Cynder." A familiar voice called. She turned to see the ice guardian Cyril coming down the hall.
"Another group just got to the gates. I need you to get them while Spyro finishes. I'll send him out once he's done." The ice guardian said.
She nodded and followed the ice guardian back to the main hall downstairs. She looked outside to see everyone was busy. Volteer was walking just outside the front door with several young dragons while babbling as fast as ever. Terrador was not far giving orders to several moles, cheetahs, and dragons helping with reconstruction.
I'mgoingtosleeplikealogtonight. She thought. With a sigh she took off towards the front gate.
"So here's your room." Spyro said, pushing the door open with his head and leading Casille inside. It was a large room with lightly colored stone walls, a blood red bed, and a balcony above the training area outside. "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask. Cynder and I are just-" Spyro said before the normally silent dragoness cut him off.
"Thank you, now what I need is to be alone for a minute, could you and Cynder maybe come back later?" She asked, sounding a bit demanding, but grateful still. "Okay. My room is two doors away if you need something." Spyro said before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him. Casille sat out on the balcony, looking to the sky again, lost in thought.
Cynder was almost to the main gate when Spyro caught up. "Sorry I took so long."
"It's okay Spyro."
"I managed to get Casille to talk, it was short but still…"
"What did she say?"
"She wanted some time alone but asked if we could come by later."
"Sounds like fun. She's definitely interesting. I hope we have enough time." Cynder said as they began to glide down to the gates.
There were only a few dragons this time. It didn't look like it was enough for a village. It barely looked like enough to be a family.
One was a large green dragon, one red, and two dragonesses one red and the other blue. It looked like the red dragon was arguing with the girls while the green was trying to stay out of it.
When they landed, the other three stopped arguing immediately.
"Is something wrong?" Spyro asked.
"Two of our friends got separated from us last night in an attack by a few apes. We couldn't find them anywhere." The blue dragoness said.
"Voltara I understand but why are you worried about the useless one?" the red dragon said.
The other three glared at him.
"What?" he asked. "You all know what he's capable of, so why stand up for him?"
"When has he done anything wrong?" the fire dragoness asked. "If I remember right, he saved your ass nine years ago!" It was almost as if they had completely forgotten the legends were standing beside them.
Just before they tried to break it up, the sound of wings beating got the four to stay quiet. Everyone looked to the wall above the gates as two dragons flew to the courtyard. The first to land was a bright yellow dragoness who looked like she was in her very early twenties. She had a blue underside and black horns with a lightning bolt shape. The tailblade being black as well and also shaped like a lightning bolt. The one with her though, was far more interesting.
He was a black dragon with dark blue eyes, a navy colored underside, and four ivory horns each about two feet long that came straight out from behind his temples, wide navy wings, and an ivory tail blade shaped like a serrated arrowhead. Standing straight up, he was only slightly bigger than Spyro.
Cynder could only stare. She believed she was the only black dragon, but here was another one, very close to their age as well.
Spyro began introductions. Everyone was paying close attention except for the black dragon that was looking around. "We have room for you all in the temple until-"
"You guys go ahead; I want to explore this place on my own a little." The black dragon said with a hint of irritation in his voice before flying off into the city.
"Jet, wait!" The yellow dragoness cried.
"Why are you so worried?" the fire dragon asked coldly. "It would probably be better off if he just didn't come back. I thought you guys would have learned not to trust him after what his kind did to us." Without missing a beat, the fire dragoness beside him punched him in the jaw.
"What do you mean by 'his kind'?" Cynder asked.
"Shadow dragons." the yellow dragoness answered. "We were attacked by a few about seventeen years ago that were looking for something. They apparently didn't find it and ran away. Almost all of us died and our village was decimated, it's just been us since then and Torch hasn't let it go."
"Cynder, can you go find him? I'll take care of things here." The purple dragon asked. She nodded and flew off in the same direction Jet had while the others were shown to the temple.
Cynder finally found the black dragon sitting on his haunches beside a small pool. "Hey, are you alright? You seemed kind of mad back there." She asked, sitting beside him. The black dragon just stared out over the water for a few seconds before turning to face Cynder.
"A little… the trip here took a few days so I'm just a little tired, the attack last night didn't help either. If we weren't close enough to see the city, I probably wouldn't have found my way here. Torch messing with me put me over. He's not exactly the best at anger management. He ends up taking his anger out on everyone, usually me."
"Well forget him." Cynder snapped. "They said you were a shadow dragon. You could beat him down easy!"
"Yeah yeah, Amanda always told me the same thing every time Torch did something like that." Jet said.
"Amanda? You mean that yellow dragoness?" Cynder asked.
"No, Amanda was a wind dragoness I met a long time ago. We grew up together with her big sister Voltara watching us. She's the yellow one."
"So why wasn't she with you guys? Did she get lost too?"
The shadow dragon closed his eyes for a minute before answering. "I was only eight at the time but it was pretty vivid. We were all running away from some apes and we stopped to rest, but we couldn't find Amanda. We wanted to go back and find her but there were just too many apes." He said while keeping his eyes closed.
"I'm so sorry…" she said sadly.
"It's fine. What's in the past is done and we can't change it. I just try to move on and let things go. How do you think I put up with our so-called 'leader' for so many years?" the shadow dragon grinned.
Cynder laughed. "So do you know anything about the shadow dragons that attacked your village?"
"I don't. All I know is Voltara was watching the fight from cover and a thunderbolt hit a shadow dragoness who was trying to hide from both sides. She was dead but Voltara felt bad about just leaving when she saw the shadow dragoness was holding my egg. After she persuaded Torch to let her, she raised me herself along with Amanda."
"That had to be hard."
"Not really. All she had to do was basic stuff like getting food. I kept to myself and trained all the time."
"I meant convincing Torch. Why is he in charge anyway?"
"He seems like an ass, but he keeps everyone safe. He's came close to losing his tail several times just to save us. Give him a few hours and you will get to see what he's normally like. It just isn't a good day for him."
"Alright." Cynder started. "So your name is Jet?"
The black dragon nodded. "Voltara gave me the name of course. She said I was named after some kind of black gemstone she found the week before I hatched."
"So you're named after a rock?"
Jet nodded again. "I guess so. Anyway, think we can go now? I'm tired."
"Sure, try to keep up." Cynder smirked before taking off.
Her head start didn't last long though. She turned her head to see how close Jet was, only to see him shoot past her. The navy blue membranes of his wings were now coated with black shadowfire and he quickly sped ahead. They met up in front of the citadel with Jet breathing heavily.
"What was that?" Cynder asked while landing in front of him.
"Just something… I made up…" Jet said in between breaths. "You can use shadow too right? I could teach you if you like."
Cynder nodded before showing him to the second floor of the temple. She opened a door and showed Jet inside. "You can stay here."
Jet looked around for a minute before speaking up. "It looks like someone already lives here."
"Not anymore, you can have this room." Cynder said behind him. Jet turned to see Cynder taking some things out of the chest next to the wall.
"Wait, this is your room? I can't just take it from you."
"You aren't taking it from me; I'm giving it to you. I have another room to stay in now anyway." Cynder said before walking a few doors down. She knocked on a door near the end of the hall near the balcony. When it opened, Jet saw a flash of purple scales.
ThepurpledragonandtheTerroroftheSkiesasacouple… Thiscityisgoingtobeindestructiblewiththemhere.MaybeTorchcancalmdownforachange. Jet thought as he walked toward the large green bed. Ifhecanstaycalm,maybeIwon'thavetokickhisass. Jet smiled at the thought and fell asleep in his new room.
Spyro helped Cynder find a spot for everything she cared to bring with her.
"So the guardians don't care?" he asked.
"It was actually their idea. We had every room filled and Jet still needed one. When we got back to the citadel I asked Terrador what to do and this was the only answer he could think of."
"Terrador said that? We get a room together and haven't had to train in forever! Since when did he become so lenient?"
Cynder smiled. "I really don't care but as long as he keeps it up I'll be happy. Do you think we should go see Casille now?"
"Sure. I gave her a room nearby." He said as he walked out of their room with Cynder in tow.
The two walked over to Casille's room to find the dragoness curled up on the bed. When the door opened, she opened her eyes a little.
"You actually showed up?" she asked.
"Of course we did." Spyro answered.
The dragoness took a second to talk again. "Thank you. You have no idea just how many people avoid me. It feels good to actually have people that overlook the whole wingless, three tailed thing."
"What about Flame and Ember? They seem like pretty good friends." Cynder asked.
"Yeah they are, but two compared to fifty isn't much. There are a few others in the village that are glad to have me around so it's around ten to fifty but still…"
"It's alright. You got us now. You'll make more friends soon enough." Spyro smiled.
Casille smiled and got off the bed. "Thanks guys. I'm going to sleep soon but I hope I get to see you tomorrow."
"Alright, goodnight Casille." The black dragoness said before she and Spyro got up and walked back into the hall.
"You too guys."
When the sun rose, Jet ended up being woke up by its light, a down side to having a window on the east side of your room. He climbed off of the bed and walked to the door, where he heard Cynder and Spyro talking on the other side. He opened the door and the two stood up.
"Hey Jet, there's something we wanted to ask you." Spyro started. "Could you help me and Cynder out with training? There isn't exactly a shadow guardian to learn from in Warfang so I haven't even gotten the basics yet."
"You haven't learned anything from watching Cynder?" Jet asked, rubbing his eyes.
Spyro shook his head. "No, she tried but I just can't get it right. The guardians say I should be able to use it and I have made a little, but not really enough to use."
"Alright I can help you then. If there isn't a shadow user around here other than the three of us, I could help both of you."
"So you have shadow mastered?" Cynder asked.
"I would assume so, seeing how you have to master shadows before you can use-" Jet said before catching himself.
"Use what?" Spyro asked.
"It's nothing." Jet started. "So where and when?"
"Well there's an area outside where we usually train. It's just outside the temple wall. We are usually free before sundown." Cynder said, still a little skeptical about Jet's pause.
"Sounds good." Jet said.
The two thanked him before walking toward the stairs. Jet looked down the hall to the balcony. A grin crept to his face and he sprinted down the hallway. He jumped from the balcony and spread his wings to slow the fall.
He explored the city near the citadel and saw many moles and cheetahs, but only a few dragons.
Are we really in this deep? I can't believe Malefor came this close to wiping us out.
He walked around the corner to see a large open area that seemed to have taken a lot of damage.
So here's where I need to be later.
Before he could walk away, something landed on his back and forced him to the ground. As he got up, he heard a voice belonging to a young dragoness.
"I-I'm so sorry, I was leaning on the rail and lost my balance. Are you alright?" she asked, sounding nervous.
Jet looked up to see a white dragoness standing over him. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?"
The white dragoness nodded and helped Jet stand back up. "I'm fine."
"My second day in Warfang and I end up a landing pad," The shadow dragon said. "Feels like home already!" He looked at the dragoness again, this time noticing her form. With three tails and no wings, Jet found he was unable to stop staring.
"So is this the part where you run away and we never talk again?" the dragoness asked after a while.
Jet shook his head. "Of course not, why would I do that?"
"You wouldn't be the first." She said. "It always starts with staring, we talk for a while, they say they'll see me later and it never happens." The dragoness turned to walk away.
"Well we have something in common then." Jet said, getting the white dragoness to stop. "At least you get to be ignored though. I end up with a lot of people at my throat when they see black scales. Just because of my race they think I'm going to go around and be a second 'Terror of the Skies'."
"You don't really seem capable enough to take on Cynder, no offence."
"I don't know many who could. After Spyro freed her she became almost as strong as a purple dragon herself. I know when I'm beat." Jet laughed.
"Well who are you?" the white dragoness asked.
"My name's Jet, and you are?"
"I'm Casille. Maybe I'll see you again soon." She said before she turned to walk away.
"Wait. Could you show me around? I barely know a thing about Warfang."
"I'm sorry but I'm still new here too. I wouldn't be much help."
"Then how about coming with me? We could both learn a little about the city and I could really use someone to talk to."
"A-Alright."
The two new friends began walking through the streets of Warfang, just talking and laughing together about anything and everything. When Casille had a moment she would look at the sky. After she saw it was almost noon, she thought about heading back to the citadel.
"Think it's about time we headed back?" Casille asked.
"I guess, now which way was it?" The two looked around but they were too far from the citadel to see it anymore.
"I'm not sure." Casille started. "How about you fly up and look for it?"
Jet saw an opportunity to make this grounded dragoness happy for a little while and decided to take it.
"Hey, want to see something fun?" Jet asked, making Casille give him a confused look.
"I guess. What do you have in mind?"
Jet jumped on the dragoness' back and put his front paws around her mid-section. "Hold on!" he said, before flapping his wings a few times and lifting off. Casille was shocked, but enjoying feeling weightless. "There it is." Jet said, motioning toward the temple. He began to fly toward it until Casille spoke up.
"Before we go back, could we fly around for a little while?" she pleaded. Jet smiled and agreed. He did a few tricks to make the trip more entertaining.
Jet flew straight up after one of his flips. Casille was ok for a few seconds but began to worry when they started picking up speed. She looked to see that he was no longer beating his wings, but instead they were coated with black shadowfire that seemed to propel them skyward.
They were now far above Warfang, and even the clouds when Jet's wings returned to normal and folded around the white dragoness. Casille was panicking as gravity quickly pulled them straight down. She saw Jet's eyes closed as they fell and began panicking even more, causing her to squirm around. "Hold still." The black dragon said very calmly. She listened to Jet and saw the ground getting closer by the second.
Within seconds of crashing into the cobblestone street, Jet snapped his wings open and rolled over. His wings caught the air immediately and they came within inches of the ground as Jet rolled over and gently glided to a street near the citadel with Casille lying on his back.
"That was amazing!" the white dragoness cheered.
"Do you just like sitting on me? You're on my back for the second time today!" Jet laughed, catching her attention.
She had so much adrenaline rushing through her that she failed to notice she had ended up on top of him just as she did when she fell off of her balcony. Blushing, she quickly got off of him and helped him up.
"Thank you so much. I can't believe you would do all that for me."
"Believe me, it was no problem at all." Jet started. "Do you think we can hang out more tomorrow? I'm supposed to meet Cynder and Spyro for training soon." Casille nodded and walked up to her room while Jet flew around to the east side of the temple going back to the training area he saw earlier.
Casille was on her balcony again, being careful not to fall this time when she saw Jet approach Spyro and Cynder who were already there.
So what else can you do?