Chapter eight
"Make it stronger!" Jet ordered as Spyro breathed a constant stream of fire on the base of a thick tree. "It needs to be stronger for you to be able to make darkness take its form. Focus it on a small section at a time."
Spyro followed his instructions until he made a foot thick hole clear through the tree and saw the charred boulder behind it.
The purple dragon looked to his friend asked "How was that?"
"Pretty good, but you can't hold back if you intend to eventually control darkness."
"Eventually? This is going to take a long time then?" Spyro asked.
"Well it took me about ten years to master shadow. You're just getting started."Jet smirked.
"Ten years? I need control now!" Spyro exclaimed.
"Relax Spyro. You're a purple remember? It won't take nearly as long for you to get it down. I'm sure you will have it in a week."
"Okay, but why are we using fire for shadow training?"
"The easiest shadow technique to learn is shadowfire, so I figured if you can get the element's form mastered you wouldn't need to worry about it later once you awaken the element itself. I was trying to save some time."
Spyro gave a slight laugh. "Trust me, I know fire. It was my first element and to this day is still my favorite."
"Oh… Well, I still enjoyed watching you blow random stuff up." Jet laughed. "Let's get started then. What do all of the elements have in common?"
Spyro thought for a second and said the only answer he could think of. "They all use up energy don't they?"
"Well… yes, but what I was looking for was traits. All of the elements grow in power in response to a certain trait or feeling like leadership with fire, or bravery with earth. I think it might help in awakening the element in the first place too."
"Alright, so what is it for shadow?" the purple dragon asked.
"That would be comfort. You need to be comfortable with the fact that you can use an element that is so feared." The black dragon said. "When you become comfortable in the shadows, they can protect you. Darkness is the same, but to a much higher degree."
"Could you try guiding me through it step by step? Ignitus and the Chronicler both taught me that way and it made it much easier."
"I can do that." The shadow dragon said before starting his list of instructions. "No matter where you go, shadows are a constant part of existence. Even at night, the shadow of the planet surrounds us."
Cynder listened closely. 'Who knew he could be this deep?' she thought as she listened to her friend speak.
"When most dragons are little, they fear what they can't see. Even adults are cautious about it. The shadows know everything that hides inside of them, so let them be your eyes. Just trust them." Jet finished.
Spyro had his eyes shut and he focused on what he was told. Jet and Cynder grinned as black, fog-like shadowfire surrounded Spyro and his teacher. The purple dragon's eyes shot open and the shadowfire surrounding them flew straight up, making a column of the black flames before dying down and retreating into spyro's body.
"Does that happen every time you get a new element?" Jet asked.
"It did sometimes. When the Chronicler opened them back up for me, it made something like a mini fury attack."
"Well I like it. Now, let's get started." The black dragon said as he stood beside Spyro.
Jet showed Spyro a few abilities associated with shadow and, after a few attempts; the purple dragon began to catch on to the comfort provided by his new element. He could hide his body in shadows, breathe shadowfire, and jump from one shadow to another one farther away. He found the last one to be particularly draining on his power.
The two started a sparring match using only shadow elements, just as Jet and Cynder had done in Warfang, but it stayed that way. Jet won, still being more experienced with the element, and told Spyro to use his shadowfire on the tree he previously scorched. Spyro did as he was told and noticed the tree didn't even shake. It was as if nothing made contact. When he stopped, he saw the tree's leaves had turned brown. He gave Jet a curious look.
"There's nothing wrong. Shadowfire isn't hot and doesn't have a physical make-up. Instead of burning, it blinds and suffocates." The black dragon said before turning to Spyro. "Now try again, this time in your dark form." he said.
Spyro looked down at his claws before speaking. "I can't…"
"What? Why can't you? You've done it before right?" he asked.
"Yes… but the first time I nearly attacked Cynder and Sparx, and the time after that I almost attacked Cynder again at the belt of fire. You were there when it happened the third time. The reason I'm doing this training is because I have no control over it at all and I was hoping I could use darkness to fight without using that corrupting element ever again. Besides, I don't know what would happen if I changed again." The purple dragon said, remembering his nightmare in Warfang.
"I see. You want something as strong as convexity that won't corrupt you."
Spyro gave a slight nod, not looking up.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you," Jet started. "But from what I saw the other day, nothing is that powerful save convexity itself. Darkness is powerful, sure, but that was unbelievable!"
"So I can't control the change?" Spyro looked up to his friend.
"Maybe you can. You said it is convexity that corrupts and transforms you, but Cynder tells me that you saved her and beat Malefor with it without changing. If you can get control over convexity, maybe you can stay in control of your little transition." Jet said. "But… that does mean you will need to use it more. Eventually, you will even have to transform to try it."
Spyro didn't respond.
"Can you change at will?"
The purple dragon shook his head. The two stood in silence for a while before Jet broke it.
"Well I can keep teaching you with shadow, and maybe darkness pretty soon, but I don't think I can help past that."
"I'd appreciate the help. The less I have to use convexity, the better. Mind if I take a break?"
Jet shook his head. "Of course I don't. I'll see you later then."
Jet beat his wings a few times before lifting off. Spyro turned around and headed to Cynder who was talking with Flame, Ember, Celestia, and a dark green dragon he hadn't met before.
"Hey guys…" the purple dragon said as he sat beside Cynder.
"Hey Spyro, are you alright? You don't look so good." The ever caring black dragoness said.
"Well actually no, I'm not alright. In fact, I think I'm going to lose my mind. It's nothing major." He said, putting on a fake smile.
Cynder looked at him like he was already crazy. "What's wrong?"
"I'm supposed to master every element and I thought I did, but now there's four more I have to master while convexity is gnawing at my mind. I lose a little more control each time I use it. I'm not so sure I can use convexity ever again without letting out that… thing."
"Sure you can." The black dragoness gave a comforting smile. "You mastered electricity while having to put up with both Volteer and Sparx annoying mouths, this should be nothing!"
Spyro faked a smile before looking around for his dragonfly of a brother. "Speaking of him, do you know where he went? I haven't seen him around since we got here."
Cynder nodded. "He left this morning. He wants to do everything possible to help Warfang so he decided to be the messenger between our city and the cheetah's." She said.
"I bet you just love the peace and quiet though." The purple dragon smirked.
"Well it's nice to have some time to ourselves without hearing something about me being evil. The other day he called me the 'Demonic Dragoness'. I actually kind of like that one." Cynder said.
"I thought he was over that by now." The purple dragon said.
"He is. Now it's just for fun. I get back at him sometimes." The dragoness smirked.
"Get back how?"
"I usually end up calling him a nightlight or something like that. It really aggravates him."
The two began talking about all of the ridiculous things the gold dragonfly had done in the past few years, which usually involved mocking them or the guardians. About an hour into their conversation, they began feeling light headed, and fell asleep, followed by Flame, Ember, and Celestia.
Jet was flying far above the clearing where he had finished helping Spyro train. He was looking for Casille of course, but also trying to think through some recent events. He was still trying to figure out why he lost control of his dark power back in Warfang, who Flare was, how he reached Jet through his dream and why.
He finally caught a glimpse of Casille through the canopy of some trees nearby and decided to have a little fun. He glided down and landed softly near the sleeping dragoness, trying not to make any noise. He sunk into the shadows made by the trees and made his way toward the white dragoness. He was about a foot behind her but before he could jump, the mist dragoness' tails started to shake erratically, followed by the rest of her body. He quickly jumped out of his hiding spot and got his forelegs around her waist. He tried to get a grip on her, but after a few seconds of failing to hold her still, he felt every one of his limbs become heavy and he quickly blacked out.
Spyro opened his eyes to a very familiar sight, the dreamscape where the chronicler had taken him to practice dragon time and to restore his elements after the battle with Cynder. He was on a group of rocks floating in space with some ruins floating around. As he looked around, he found out he was not the only one who had been brought here this time. Cynder, Flame, Celestia, Jet, Ember, and Casille had all been brought too. As he got up, he heard a very familiar voice.
"Welcome everyone." It said.
"Chronicler?" Spyro called. "What is it this time? I thought we were done training here. Hello?"
"You were, but I didn't bring you here for training like the old Chronicler did." The voice said. "Why do you think I brought all of you young dragon?"
As Spyro began to recognize the voice, he looked back to see everyone getting up and taking in the incredible surroundings. Each one of them had an amazed look plastered across their face.
"I don't know. You brought us here so you tell me."
"You always were impatient Spyro." The voice said as a teal colored adult dragon materialized on the platform.
The purple dragon's eyes widened. "Ignitus…" he mumbled.
"Hello everyone. It is good to see all of you." The new Chronicler said as he looked over everyone.
"Ignitus, how did you survive?" Spyro said as he ran straight for his old mentor. "I thought you died in the belt!"
"I was ready to die, but the old Chronicler saved me so I could take his place in this new age." The former fire guardian said.
"So you aren't dead?" Cynder asked from behind Spyro.
"Well I'm here aren't I?" Ignitus answered sarcastically.
"Ignitus has a sense of humor?" Cynder faked a surprised look and got a laugh out of everyone.
"Now that I'm watching history unfold I don't have much else to do." The wise dragon said. "Spyro, do you remember when the last Chronicler showed you the book documenting your life and the one for Cynder as well?" Spyro nodded.
"The age you started has affected everything, including the white isle. Each of the books about a certain dragon's life now has a very interesting entry at the end."
"What kind of entry?" the purple dragon asked.
The chronicler closed his eyes and the dreamscape quickly changed from a mostly empty void to the round room Spyro quickly recognized. Book-filled shelves covered every inch of the walls now. The large hourglass in the center of the room stayed the same, including the blue sand inside.
"This is so cool." Flame said as he looked around.
Ignitus used his mind to make a book levitate off of a shelf and toward the red dragon. Flame took hold of the book and looked at the cover. It was a deep red with yellow near the edges. He opened it up and saw pictures of the day he hatched, much to his embarrassment as Ember glanced over his shoulder and started giggling.
"The section I want to show you all is in the back." Ignitus reminded the young dragons.
Everyone looked over the red dragon's shoulders as he turned to the last page. There were several names and pictures of dragons connected by a series of lines.
"The new age has given the books a new page that shows the dragon's family tree." The Chronicler said.
"This is amazing!" Flame said.
"It sure is, look here." Cynder said, pointing a claw to the picture of the male dragon over Flame's. Everyone was surprised after Flame read the text aloud.
"Immediate family: Mother; Solara. Father; Ignitus…"
Everyone looked up to the former fire guardian. "There's one more thing I want you to see. Keep reading."
Flame did as he was told and the only one who wasn't in complete disbelief was the Chronicler.
"Brother: Spyro."
They could have just looked in a mirror and figured that one out. Jet thought.
Flame looked at his brother and saw the shock in his face. Without warning, Spyro bolted across the room and tore a purple and gold book from a shelf and opened it to the last page. It was almost a perfect match to Flame's page.
The Chronicler walked over to Spyro, followed by Flame. "I intended to tell you after the war ended but I didn't get the chance as you can see." He said.
"Why did it have to wait until a time where I can never see you? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Spyro asked, not looking up from his book.
"If you had known, you would have focused more on me than the war. Everyone needed you to save Cynder and stop Malefor at any price. This was how I had to pay."
"You could have told me before we got stuck in the belt!" Spyro roared. His voice started to have an otherworldly tone in it.
"If I had let the attachment you had to me become any stronger, you would have killed Cynder just to get my body! You lost control of your darkness then and anymore would have made you lose it completely Spyro." The Chronicler said. "The things I have kept from you have been for your sake, not mine."
Casille looked to the black and navy dragon beside her who had been watching since Spyro's sudden dash across the room. "You're good with words. Is there anything you can do?"
Jet looked at her, then to Spyro, and finally to Cynder when he noticed something about the black dragoness. He ran to Spyro, whose scales had become a dark violet color at this point, and tackled the legendary dragon. Everyone was left stunned as the attacks started. Spyro got up and shot a condensed fireball at Jet. The black dragon dodged and the flames dispersed when they came near the books on the other side of the room. Jet sunk into his shadow and quickly moved behind the purple dragon. He put his tail around Spyro's mid-section, catching his forepaws with it, and slammed him into the wall beside them. Spyro was about to try attacking with his elements again, but Jet put both of his forepaws on his maw so he couldn't use his breath attacks. The purple dragon squirmed around for a bit but stopped when Jet slammed his head into the wall he was pinned against. Standing on their hind legs, the black dragon put his own head on the wall beside Spyro's.
"Calm down!" he commanded, sternly enough to get Spyro's attention, but soft enough so only the two of them would hear it, then released his friend's jaws.
"He hid this from me for years! My only blood family-"
"Count yourself lucky! Some of us never knew our blood family at all!" Jet told him, speaking more about his friends than himself.
Spyro stopped for a moment. He had forgotten about everyone who was with them. Ember and Celestia knew their parents, but they were the only ones in the group that did. He looked over to Cynder who appeared shocked at Jet's sudden attack. He forgot to think about what her life was like; it was possible she had killed her own parents as Malefor's general.
Jet released the purple dragon and they both got back down on all fours. The black dragon walked back over to Casille as if nothing happened and Spyro ran to his new-found family to apologize before sitting beside Cynder.
"You decided to bring all of us here. So does that mean you have books like these for all of us?" Celestia asked. The teal dragon nodded and looked over to a bookshelf near the group.
A few books randomly came off the shelves and went to the dragon they recorded. The covers of the books were very similar to its owner's color patterns except for Cynder's who had a book that was black and grey instead of black and red-violet that covered her.
The young dragons started reading the names in their family tree. Flame started it, they skipped Spyro's since his was the same, then Celestia and Ember, and last was Cynder. Jet went off to read his on his own for a bit. He tried to lie on his back, but the book was about as big as his chest so he sat up against a wall with the book in his lap. He read over the family tree with great interest, until he saw a name that he wished was never there.
Casille walked over to the black dragon. As she got closer, she noticed a vicious scowl on his face. Jet looked up to see who was coming and his expression softened. She sat beside him and tried to look at his page, but Jet quickly snapped the book shut.
"Is something wrong?" the mist dragoness asked.
"I'm fine. So, what do you think of all this?"
"It's really interesting." Casille answered.
"Anyone like you in your family? Maybe you inherited your form or your element from someone."
"I don't know. I already have my foster parents and they are my family now. I don't intend on looking anytime soon."
"Hey guys!"
The two looked up to Flame who was motioning them to come over. Cynder was opening her book and wanted everyone to see what was in it.
She quickly skipped through the pages about her horrible past and stopped on the one showing a very large family tree. Reading the list aloud, Cynder found she was originally a pure shadow dragon before her corruption.
"Dusk, Shadow, Twilight, Umbra, Shade…" she continued to list names in her family before stopping at the names of two dragons just above her own. She read it to herself for a moment before saying it aloud, this time with a nervous tone in her voice. Ignitus just smiled at the expression plastered across her face.
"King Eclipse and Queen Luna…"