Authors Note: Troublemaker Spyro strikes again! I explored Nestor's POV for a bit as an insight into the family's relationships. I also sprinkled in some World Building; Skylander islands are actually planets, space is breathable, faries have elf ears, oh and each dragon Clan has their own planet. And if you are anxious for plot, I swear it's coming eventually. In the distant future.
PS: Delvin is the official name of the blue baker Artisian Dragon character, but I thought it sounded too close to Deblin, so I made an anagram of Delvin and got Vindel
In the grassy hills of the home world of the Artisan Dragon Clan, there's a father shouting out in terror.
"Spyro!! Don't you dare jump or you're going to be grounded for a month for giving me a heart attack!" Nestor is positioned below Spyro, who is crouching on a stone tower balcony rail. "But Dad! I'm a dragon, and dragons are supposed to fly!" Spyro has had enough of Sparx's jokes about him being too fat to fly. He'll show that four winged glow stick!
"Spyro you're too young to fly right now! How about I show you some gliding tricks by the rolling hills? We can bake cookies together afterward? Just go back down the stairs." Nestor's tone is a familiar mix of a desperate parent trying not to let his gremlin sense weakness while setting a boundary. The green dragon would absolutely love to fly up there and yank his dumb son into his arms, but he was sure Spyro would jump if his feet so much as shifted on the ground. This line of thought also had Nestor's yellow wings a tense folded line against his back; still as a statue. Nestor would not risk miss catching Spyro in midair. Not when there's a chance to talk him down from the edge, but Spyro looks to have stopped listening after the word 'young.' As a matter of fact, he looks even more determined.
Hopefully, someone nearby will finally gather their courage enough to help him contain Spyro, if only stop Nestor from disturbing the peace.
"You'll break a wing! Then you'll be in a brace, grounded, and in pain!" Nestor resorts to using scare tactics. Spyro just shrugged as he called down, "Sparx can just heal me!" Nestor facepalmed with feeling. Sparx is a great big brother for Spyro, but sometimes Nestor wishes Sparx's healing abilities didn't feed Spyro's recklessness. An idea quickly popped into his head, "Sparx will feel really sick if he has to heal you! Don't you want to build a pillow fort instead?" Anything but this new bright idea. Spyro tilts his head in consideration before shaking his head enough to make him wobble. Nestor's heart climbs in his throat. "He can deal with it!" With a last flail of Spyro's tail, Spyro leaps off the balcony railing. "SPYRO!" Nestor roars as his wings snap down with a sharp burst, sending him into the air. Spyro flaps his wings like he's seen every single dragon in the clan do; but when he does it, it just drags in the air unbalanced and sends him tumbling into a tailspin. The ground was hurtling toward Spyro in a green and blue blur. He barely drops five feet before Nestor catches him by a leg and tail. Nestor quickly reorients his son in his arms before starting to scold him. "That's it, I hope you like staring at the walls of your room cause that's exactly what you'll be doing for the next four days, just so I don't have to worry about you getting hurt every time I turn around," Nestor starts flying for his cave home. He notices Spyro shivering against his chest silently, which he won't mention as long as Spyro ignores Nestor's own shudders. Nestor takes the rest of the short flight home as a chance to breathe before landing at his home archway. Carrying his son inside the cave, Nestor tiredly plops onto the worn green couch and settles Spyro in his lap. "Spyro, look at me," Nestor patiently waited for his sullen kid to look at him. "I want you to understand that it is actually physically impossible for a dragon your age to fly. Practice isn't going to fix it either," He interrupts when he sees Spyro open his mouth. "This is just how dragons are until around fourteen. Now you can glide, which involves holding your wings wide and steady as you float forward, but at this moment, anything involving that will have to wait a while. Now, I want you to tell me why you want to fly so bad that you would risk hurting yourself."
Spyro sniffled a little as he dropped his eyes and mumbled something. Nestor hummed as he nudged Spyro to speak up. Unfortunately, these kinds of talks are common between them, though mostly about destroying things, fire safety, and emotional awareness of other Clan members' feelings.
"Everyone can fly but me," Spyro confesses to his dad reluctantly. Before Nestor can form a response to that, Spyro continues, "You can fly, Sparx can fly, even old Astor can fly with a hill or something, but I can't." It was obvious in his voice that this really bothered him. Nestor tried not to sigh because the certainty in those words hints that Spyro has already tried; likely with multiple attempts. "You can't fly yet, but one day, you will Spyro. I fully believe that you will become a great flyer one day, but being a great flyer doesn't make a dragon." Nestor nuzzles Spyro's head with his chin. "You are already so brave and loyal, and I want you to know how proud I am of you." They both hugged each other for a while before Nestor continued, "You're still grounded though because I love you, and I want you to be safe." Spyro groaned as Nestor cracked a smile. "Four days jail time, and after tutoring, you will spend one hour with a Clan member every day for a month. This is mostly so someone can keep an eye on you a little longer each day. I fully expect you to help them with chores if they ask, and no complaints either. Okay?"
Spyro grumbles in agreement before Nestor sends him to his room to do his homework with preemptive snacks and a drink. Nestor sighs deeply before getting up to do chores around the cave; he uses his green tail to scoop up Spyro's lamb stuffy off the floor. The poor thing looks worn and well loved. He's going to have to convince a few dragons to sign up for 'a chore helper.' Nestor looks around his cave; sees the cluttered table, toys on the floor, dirty dishes, random wood carving tools from his workshop that has mysteriously wandered in here and thinks he probably needs to borrow his own son for chores. For now, making dinner is the priority.
With the healing bond between Sparx and Spyro, everyone has gotten too lenient when keeping an eye on the both of them. Spyro is almost at the age where he can spend more time unattended, but maybe it's a bit too early. Sparx, when he's not feeding into Spyros' chaotic energy, is generally well behaved and tones down Spyro's worst ideas, but there are times when Sparx is at his grandma's; like now.
Green Hills Village is supposed to be the safest and most boring spot within thousands of miles, and with Sparx there to voluntarily heal scrapes and bruises, there really wasn't much to worry about. Except he realizes Spyro will always find a way. Nestor, as a first-time parent, hadn't even considered that this developing recklessness would become a problem for Spyro. At the time, he was more focused on making sure Sparx wasn't feeling obligated to heal anybody. He wanted Sparx to always have a choice, even if it was an awful one between someone's discomfort and his own. After several deep conversations on injuries, choices, and mortality with Sparx; they bonded in a father-son relationship. And with a quiet shovel talk from Sparx's grandma, Nestor had even officially become a co-parent. She said Sparx was going to need to talk man stuff with someone since her husband died shortly after they adopted Sparx. Nestor was a "decent sort" as a replacement.
When Spyro was a small hatchling, Sparx would come over to the only other youngling in the Village for play dates. As Spyro hit his head on counters and stumbled with his four legs, young Sparx healed him every time, and really, after checking on Sparx, Nestor could only be grateful. But over the years, the shortness of the initial bursts of pain when injured has made Spyro brave, and consistent healing has created a growing recklessness in him that Nestor doesn't know how to fix. Perhaps... perhaps its time to widen horizons, maybe a vacation? Spyro's mostly just bored, and seeing other non flying races might help his restlessness to fly. Plus, it's been a while since Nestor's traveled.
Just as Nestor was putting the hastily made Casserole into the stone oven, he heard Sparx's buzzing wings fly through the archway. "Hey Uncle Nes! Smells good in here, what are we eating for dinner?"
"You can wait till dinner to find out. How was Grandma's house?"
"Good, we just ended up doing one of her word puzzle games. I don't know why I always get my hopes up that I'll beat her at that game. She always wins."
Nestor chuckled before turning around. "Sparx, I think we need to talk." Sparx winced, "I swear I didn't do anything! Or at least I can't think of anything I'd be in trouble for. Wait, talk about what?"
Nestor sits at the dining table on one of the stools as he pats the table for Sparx. Sparx reluctantly flies over and settles. "I need to talk to you about Spyro."
"Whatever prank he did today, I had nothing to do with it."
"It's not that," Nestor pauses as he considers his words. "Have you noticed Spyro being upset lately? More specifically about flying?" Sparx sighs in relief, "Geez you scared me for a second man. The only thing I noticed is how positively green Spyro's face is when I show him these flying tricks I've been practicing." He laughs a bit. Nestor could feel a headache coming on. Nestor brings up a hand to gently scratch his claws around his horns.
"Did you know that dragons can't physically fly until they're around fourteen? And that Spyro is currently the only dragon youngling in Green Hills?"
Sparx's antennas jerk in surprise, "Oh, no I didn't know it took dragons so long to fly. And sure, I know Spyro is the only other kid in town; everybody else is adult or old." Nestor smiles a bit before sighing again. "Sparx, this means Spyro is going to feel left out as the only ground bound dragon in the Village, and that he is going to feel that way for many more years as he watches everyone else fly."
"...oh."
Nestor hums as he sees the guilty and devastated look on Sparx's face before he brings a gentle hand to scoop his second son into a hug as well. "I didn't mean to hurt his feelings," Sparx mumbles into Nestors chest scales. Nestor mumbles back, "I know kid, maybe at some point today you can tell him you're sorry."
When they pull back from the hug Nestor explains to Sparx that Spyro is grounded for 'doing a dangerous stunt trying to fly,' and that 'to clear up further misunderstandings' Sparx is now going to get the Dragon Puberty Talk with Spyro. Much to both of their displeasure. Nestor was planning on having the tutors handle this conversation, but he better do it himself.
Surprised that Sparxs loud complaints and the smell of dinner hadn't lured Spyro onto sneaking out of his room, Nestor goes to check on a suspiciously quiet Spyro. He barely sticks his head past the door before getting a face full of glitter blasted into his face.
Turned out that Spyro was only grounded for three days, if only to spare Nestor the headache.
Sparx sighs in despair and slams his head into the table.
He and Spyro have been at Astors library for an hour now, and if Sparx doesn't find a way to interrupt the old faded purple dragon from continuing his lecture he will end up joining Spyro in dreamland. Sparx looks at Spyro snoring with his head laid on the small chair's backrest, horns hooked over the wood, and narrows his eyes. Best friends don't leave each other to suffer alone! Sparx jumps from the table to hover over Spyro's closed eyes, thinking of happy thoughts to brighten his yellow glow. "Wake up dude!" Sparx starts flying in figure eights to buzz his wings harder. Spyro scrunched his eyes shut tighter and groaned. "Nooo," Spyro mutters, "Go away." With a scowl, Sparx uses his hands and grabs the edge of each nostril, yanking Spyro's nose outward. "Ow!" Spyro yelps loudly; getting up real quick to toss Sparx off with a head shake. Sparx straightens out of his momentary tailspin in the air. He crosses his arms and turns to frown at his brother. Spyro on the other hand is covering his nose with teary eyes and a scowl back.
Astor didn't notice anything happening behind him and kept talking to the chalkboard.
Sparx gestures with a flail at the exit impatiently, and Spyro nods back seriously. Carefully and quietly, Spyro slides backward off the wood chair to follow the dragonfly out of the archway and to freedom. Unfortunately, this is when Astor decides to turn around, "-nd as dragons carved out caves from the green hill - hmm, is it break time already? Well, go ahead and grab some lunch from Gavin's, we can start organizing the library when you get back. Nestor was very specific about chores after class." Astor straightens his old hunched back briefly to pop it, then uses his walking stick to slowly move to his desk. "Yes Uncle Astor," both Sparx and Spyro say monotonously to the old purple dragon before running out the classroom and through the library. It was a nice sunny day outside, and this was the first breath of fresh air they've had all day. "Ugh, being grounded sucks," Spyro sighs before looking at his best friend. "It's technically only me that's grounded," Spyro reminds him reluctantly. "You can probably sneak away from the chores and nobody would say anything." Sparx flys closer and punches Spyro in the side of the head gently, "Bro, we've already been over this. Where you go, I go too. Plus, it's not like there's anything else to do in this Village." Spyro smiles back at Sparx, before slowly making his way to Gavin's restaurant.
By the time they've eaten at Gavin's and came back with Astors lunch, they found Astor asleep in one of the comfy armchairs in the library, hat pulled low over his eyes, snoring like a bear. Both younglings grin, before Spyro pulls the food wagon beside the chair. Spyro drops the leather strap from his mouth to watch as Sparx flew up to sneakily pull Astor's white feather from his hat. Both pranksters held their breath as Sparx gently wiggles the dusty feather at the tip of the snoring dragons nose. Astor snorts obnoxiously loud, hat almost jumping off his head making both kids giggle. Astor gummbles something about evil chickens before settling again, making Sparx laugh as he hands the feather to Spyro. With his turn, Spyro pinches the feather between his claws and tickles Astors feet with the feather swiping between the toes. Astor jumps awake with a bark-like shout, making the two dash away. They peer around a tall bookshelf watching Astor's disgruntled face as he looks around to make sure nobody saw that. Giggling, Spyro, and Sparx retreat outside. Both of them wordlessly decide to lay on a nearby grassy hill, watching the clouds before an adult finds them slacking off.
"Hey Sparx, Dad said he just wanted us to be with a grown-up until dinner time, right?" Spyro pondered, squinting at a spoon shaped cloud floating across the sky. "Basically. Why?" Sparx gives him a side glance. "How about we just pick a fun adult to hang out with? I'm thinking Vindel. We haven't had dessert in like 2 weeks."
Sparx brightens at the idea, "And we can sneak some cupcakes from Vindel! Spyro, you're a genius!"
New mission established, the two skip happily over to Vindel's bakery, stationed in a cave that has a passageway that curves deeper underground. Spyro remembers the time he found a snow sleigh and used it to slide down the sloped hallway. Spyro had a blast doing that, and after being caught, Vindel just put some flour bags down to cushion their landing so they could slide a couple more times. Spyro briefly wondered where the sleigh went. He kinda hopes he can ask Vindel to do it again.
"Oh, hi Sparx! Hi Spyro! Come to help me bake today? I have a commission for a birthday party from someone in Town Square, could use some help mixing up some cookies for Gavin while I focus on the birthday cake," Vindel grins at the boys over his shoulder as he uses his gaint spoon to mix cake batter in a dragon-bath sized wooden bowl.
"As long as we can taste test some cookies too!" Spyro laughs before hopping onto a clear counter.
When Nestor finally came to pick them up, they were covered in batter from head to toe, the kitchen a sticky disater. It was greatly suspicious how Vindel stood by innocently while hiding a dirty spoon behind him, looking a bit too clean himself. Nestor used Vindel's apron to clean the kids off in revenge before helping the boys and Vindel clean up the kitchen.
"And then BOOM!" Spyro jumped in his seat, watching the yellow bard's gaint white teeth with wide eyes. "The World shuddered, and with a great rumble and a great crack, this huge planet shattered into pieces. With a final roar at the stars, the Evil Star Dragon threw the lands across the sky, creating"
"The Skylands," Sparx blurts from atop Spyros head. Tomas nodded as he jestered in the air. "The islands in the sky, as they crossed the dark Oblivion, grew bigger and bigger from stardust, creating their own planets. There's ancient monoliths and temples across distant lands describing years of darkness without a sun. This period is known commonly as the Enternal Night. These worlds were eventually caught in the pull of the Suns, ending the enternal darkness for many people."
They were briefly silent before Spyro mused, "So that's why Dad says the dragon motto is 'One People.'" Tomas hums in agreement. "Indeed, this is because we all came from the same place." Sparx and Spyro exchange a look.
Tomas watches them for a bit, absentmindedly petting his lute before continuing. "People had no way to contact each other, and with this pressure to survive, each race evolved their own magics and attributes. Manweers, commonly known as the Moles, lasted many years without a sun, causing their hearing to develop more than their sight. The Faries and the Elves were rumored to once have been one race, but the Faries homeworld developed higher gravity, making the Faries grow magical anti-gravity wings, while the elves world was caught by a dim sun that has cast their world into twilight. There's also the Bunnies, which are known for their spellcasting, the Cheetahs their speed, Dragonflies," He nods toward Sparx, "are known for their healing arts, and the Orcs their strength. There's Griffins, Mermaids, Mice, Bears, Lions, Kangaroos, numerous birds, Fauns, Golems, Ents, and many more races I'm probably forgetting. Currently, there's a documented over 28 races across the Skylands." Spyro blinks at his teacher numbly. Tomas laughs, then suggests Sparx and Spyro to make a booklet on all the races.
The Summer Festival started today, and Spyro is already tried. He has spent all day helping everyone finish setting up their stands and fetching items.
Green Hill Village had a huge field in the center, with a rocky ridge surrounding the sunken field, the cliff dotted with cave archways to workshops and homes. The field was currently looking the most crowded Spyro has ever seen it. Posts were dug into the ground decorated with flowers, fireflies that Spyro caught were trapped in hanging lanterns, lighting up areas as the sun set. Gavin had set up an outdoor bar with Alvar being his cook, while Vindel has his stand of cakes artfully arranged to be prizes for anyone who wins a game. Deblin had set up a bean bag toss with the ramp painted in funny cartoons, and Gildas was leading Nevin in splashing paint across a huge designated canvas. Nestor had built a makeshift stage in the center of the field, with it being occupied by Tomas, who was playing a catchy tune with his lute. A small audience was singing along from Gavin's bar that was close by, Argus being the loudest of them all. This might be the happiest day of Spyro's life. It was an amazing sight.
Spyro laughs as he spots Nils dancing with his art masterpiece; a beautiful stone carved mermaid that he was holding hands with as he twirled around it. Spyro looked at his brother, quick to point out the drunk dragon to Sparx, who laughed with a bright happy glow to rival the setting sun.
Authors Note: Thanks for reading! I tried to make this a bit longer as an apology for not updating, it's just I'm writing the chapters as I go XD
Ps: Spyro is exaggerating about the lack of dessert