• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • - •
Spyro didn't waste time; at full charge he bolted off the high ledge and clattered to the rooftops below. He made it to the bottom within seconds, taking out two gnorcs in an instant. He didn't notice the one behind him and got a good whack in the side for his troubles. He rolled but landed on all fours, facing the ugly yellow brute and blasting an impressive mouthful of fire in his direction in an impressive counterattack. The gnorc flew back, burning up in an instant.
The little dragon whirled, this time ready for the worst. But he was surprised to see he wasn't much needed; Marco had grabbed one gnorc in each hand and flown upward as high as he could, higher than Point S, then let the screaming beast go to drop to its doom. The two younger dragons were holding their own as well. The blue one, a male by the length of his horns, had three gnorcs surrounding him, but in the next second he had whirled at the left-most one, taking it out with a strong foot the face. He landed on two legs and cart-wheeled through the air, spinning and kicking the second gnorc in the stomach and flinging it into the third. They disappeared in a puff.
The pale green dragon was taking longer to vanquish her foes. Spyro recognized her as a female instantly; not only was she smaller and slimmer than her blue clutchmate but her actions were less flashy and she made considerably less physical contact with her opponents. He watched as she darted between the two gnorcs she was engaging, dodging their lances and ignoring their tormenting croaks. She didn't quite have the force to knock them out in one blow, Spyro noted, as she grabbed one's arm in her teeth and hurled it to the ground. But then she snatched the lance from its grubby hands and in one quick motion ran it through, whirling around to slice through the second one. They too puffed away, and Spyro went to touch the gems left behind by his own opponents, vanquishing them to the dragon vaults. It was a nice change to have his battles finished in a matter of seconds, unlike the last several foes he had faced in the Forgotten Worlds.
Looking back to his companions he saw them collect the gems as he had. The two youth had satisfied grins on their faces and gave each other a congratulatory head flick. The mature dragons greeted Marco, then began walking over the bridge to the castle.
They all assembled in the large bastion furthest from the cliff, making full use of the pleasant sun shining through the large door.
"So whom do we owe for the pleasure of your presence, hatchlings?" Enzo, Vulric and Halvor were clearly taken by the young female. Spyro couldn't blame them; he could barely take his eyes off of her himself. It had been generations since the dragons had been blessed with females in their clutches and after a lifetime (at least for Spyro) without, the opposite gender seemed like a blessing.
"We were only sent to see if you had finished the Conclave. Someone of Vulric's kin was asking for him from Doctor Shemp." The male was the one who answered. From the tone of his voice Spyro figured he didn't much enjoy the attention his female friend was getting.
Vulric nodded. "My father no doubt." Spyro thought of how few elderly dragons still lived in the dragon worlds and understood why he would need attending to. Without another word Vulric turned back for the cliff. Being a Beast Maker, his wings weren't suited for flying, so he's walk and take the whirlwinds up to the Golden Whirlwind back to Peace Keepers.
"Now then," Enzo brought the attention back to their slightly smaller group. "I do not think you have been introduced, Spyro. Or maybe you remember..."
Spyro looked back at the two hatchlings. He figured he should stop referring to them as hatchlings, since they were fairly grown, even standing on two legs. Probably earlier than he had learned at any rate. Though they were still smaller than him, they made Spyro realize how long he had been away from home.
"I'm Shemp." The girl dragon told him, holding out her claws like Halvor had done earlier.
Spyro blinked. "Like the Witch Doctor?" He cocked his head.
She nodded once. "The one who you got rid of some years ago, yeah."
Wasn't that something? Newborn dragons spoke their own names as soon as they were out of the shell, so nobody could be questioned as to the reasons. If one felt their name should be something, that's what it was. Nobody had questioned his name choice and it had certainly been different from the previous generation's tastes. Then again, he had been an oddball early hatchling
The male dragon stepped forward, reminding everyone that he was still there, and held his claws up. "I'm called Bruce."
Spyro tilted his head. "Nice to meet you Shemp, Bruce. You two have really grown up since I last saw you." Okay, now he really felt old.
Halvor gave a deep booming hmmph. "I had forgotten you were the one who sent us our hatchlings from the Forgotten Worlds, Spyro. Do you enjoy having dragons younger than you running about?" Endo gave a small laugh.
Having somebody else around who didn't speak as an elder dragon did was a nice change, too, but Spyro didn't say so. He gave a noncommittal shrug.
Halvor changed the subject. "Endo and myself have more business to attend to, young ones. We'll be taking our leave now." He turned and moved for the exit.
Endo nodded. "If we are needed we will likely be in Dry Canyon with most of the refugees. Don't run into trouble- not that you ever run in to trouble, eh Spyro?" He winked at the purple dragon before departing after Halvor.
Spyro gave a nod, a bit taken back at their speedy and a bit unexpected exit. The two dragons left the structure and spread their massive wings, soaring up the cliff where they undoubtedly would meet up with Vulric halfway up. He turned back to the young dragons.
They stared at him expectantly and Spyro thought he saw a glimmer of admiration. Was he really well known here in the Dragon Realms? "So, you guys hatched when all this started?" He started walking to the exit, shifting to all fours now that the older dragons were gone. Shemp and Bruce followed suit eagerly, relieved to give their haunches a break. They all walked towards the small sunny field right outside the castle; basking in the sun sounded like a good idea.
"Yeah," Bruce said eagerly, "We've had to deal with these problems as long as we remember."
"Sometimes it's hard to see what the issue is." Shemp chimed in. "Not to be disrespectful..." She added quickly. "Only when somebody unintentionally casts magic do we really feel bad about the situation."
"Have all the hatchlings been trained in fighting like you two?"
"Um, mostly." Bruce cocked his head thoughtfully. "We two play a lot, and it comes in handy. Everyone knows how to get rid of Gnorcs if that's what you mean."
"So the whole situation isn't entirely out of control." Spyro mused, more to himself than the two younglings. He lowered himself to the ground, stretching out his front legs and tucking his rear two underneath him. "From what I've heard all the dragons have been taking action. You all know roughly what you're up against, if not what's causing it."
Bruce and Shemp laid down as well, Bruce with all of his shimmery blue legs stretched out, Shemp tucking her limbs beneath her. Sparx laughed and buzzed in Spyro's ear. "You all look like cats!" He said. Spyro didn't see how they looked anything like his friend Hunter, but didn't ask him to elaborate.
"But now you can save us!" Shemp said with excitement. "You've dealt with bad guys before, you can fix this up in no time!" Bruce nodded in agreement.
Spyro was amused that they looked to him automatically as their savior. He was used to this; ever since he volunteered himself for heroism and beat up Gnasty Gnorc he'd played the hero. He just hoped he could get to the bottom of this, since he really had no idea what could be causing it. "Well what do you guys think is happening?"
They blinked and looked blankly ahead, not having been asked that before, Spyro supposed. It took them a minute to answer.
"Maybe it's a natural disaster like tornadoes and tsunamis?" Shemp suggested. "Or maybe we've done something that knocked it off and we didn't notice, and it just needs to be reversed."
"Or maybe somebody did it on purpose." Bruce said. Spyro and Shemp looked at him curiously. "Maybe there's some baddy out there who wants to destroy the worlds."
Spyro had thought of this, but the situation didn't add up. "If they had wanted to destroy the Dragon Realms they aren't doing a good job of Peace Keepers..." Spyro noted. "They are doing a fantastic job of the other worlds, yet I'd think there would be more effective ways of destroying us. Maybe it was an accident, or something just happened randomly, sort of like Shemp said." None of it was ringing true with Spyro, but he didn't say so in front of the others. He appreciated their feedback and truly enjoyed having younger dragons to bounce ideas off of.
Shemp nodded. "Yeah, nothing but the weather has really changed. Nobody's gotten hurt. Nobody has gone missing, we just can't contact the Artisans, Beast Makers or Dream Weavers."
"What if they planned that, though? What if it's all just leading up to something really bad?"
"It's always right to be prepared, of course. We have to keep in mind Bruce's idea, incase it turns out to be an enemy after all. We have to be prepared for anything since we don't know what's doing on." Spyro felt wise dealing out this advice. He decided he liked having a bunch of youngsters running about and wondered if the adult dragons felt like this around him. "I'm thinking we're still missing some important bit of information. We're overlooking something. I just can't think of where else to look. Where has all this stuff been happening? I mean, where is it strongest?"
Bruce replied. "Here there's the most plant growth, for sure. All the vines coming from up on the cliff. But most of the weird stuff happens in the main world, around the portal to here."
"Well, let's go check it out then!" Spyro got up, stretching his body out, front legs first then taking a few steps and stretching out his rear legs one at a time. He felt thoroughly rested even from those few minutes sitting and talking.
Their party went to the whirlwind and was up the cliff face in no time. Bruce and Shemp went first, gliding into the golden whirl of sparkles and disappearing into the atmos. Spyro gave one last look at the spread of vines creeping from high above his head. He didn't feel alone; he supposed it was just the plants that made him sense the presence of something else. He wondered if there was another dragon on watch in Cliff Town.
But Sparx was buzzing in his ear to hurry up, and he lifted himself into the gold home whirlwind and was launched back to Peace Keepers.
As soon as Spyro landed he spotted the commotion. Near two of the antique canons left behind by the Gnorcs there was a small crowd of dragons and even a couple of faeries. They all huddled close around something in the middle of the group. Shemp and Bruce were already half there, back on two legs again, and had just stopped when they noticed him come out of the portal. Spyro shifted to bipedal and hurried over with them.
Spyro found himself having to squirm underneath the massive dragons, unable to push past or get their full attention. Shemp and Bruce did the same, even better at weaving past with their small frames.
Spyro was about to resort to his flame breath when he heard a familiar voice in the ruckus.
"Ow ow OW don't touch it!"
"Marco?" Spyro called through the din.
"Oh hey ow stop it let Spyro through, let Spyro through!"
A couple dragons moved out of the way and Spyro could fully analyze the scene. A Peace Keeper and a Beast Maker were holding down the lithe form of Marco, who was struggling in vain against their bulk. At first Spyro was only confused but then he saw the blood.
Marco was smeared with blood over his chest and face, a huge gash on his chest and neck bled openly, and under his right horn there was a deep cut that ran to the back of his head. For a scary moment Spyro thought the other dragons had attacked him, but he realized they were trying to heal him with salves and he was finding the ordeal rather uncomfortable. But why didn't they have a dragonfly heal him?
Spyro looked through the crowd and noted several dragonflies, but they were looking on with worried and scared expressions. "What's going on?"
Marco was using his feet to hold off the Peace Keeper dragon, a large purple and blue spotted one named Ragnar who Spyro had saved from Ice Cavern. Ragnar had Marco's blood splattered on his chest and forelegs. The purple dragon looked at Spyro and backed away from the kicking injured dragon. "He showed up like this from Dry Canyon. He was supposed to be standing watch in Cliff Town but-"
"BUT I was following a lead!" Marco cut in, batting away the Beast Maker, Claude, who was trying to smear a pinkish, flesh colored cream into Marco's wounds. He was just short of sitting on the poor beast to keep him still. "Th-there was a- a thing! Some thing was running off out of Cliff Town! I had to follow it, what if it's the reason for all the weird stuff that's been happening!" He tried to sit up but instantly fell back, holding his arms over his chest and grimacing the way only a dragon could, eyes closed and teeth bared, a small burst of flame licking between his tightened jaws. Claude and Ragnar jumped onto him again, Claude brandishing a clawful of salve. "I wasn't gonna hurt it I swear! OOF." Claude had pulled Marco's head back to better apply the ointment to the cut on his neck. "It used magic! It used magic!"
Spyro didn't know what to think about that. He felt helpless watching them deal with Marco's wounds, and distracted by the blood that was getting everywhere. He hadn't ever seen blood before; sure he'd nicked himself on sharp edges, but there was never more than a small glance before Sparx had healed it up. He thought many of the other dragons felt the same way; not many were talking and none had offered any more help. Shemp and Bruce had come up behind Spyro and just stared, probably not sure what they were looking at. "Why don't the dragonflies heal him?" He asked.
Claude answered. "They tried, it just splattered blood everywhere. They're too afraid to try again. We're all afraid..." He trailed off, his brown furrowed. He really was scared.
Spyro knelt by Marco's head. "What exactly did you see?"
Marco shook his head. "I don't know, it was small, dark, like a thief. But it wasn't a thief, it- ow, ow! It wasn't a thief! If was covered in black clothes and had blue, and it wasn't as fast. And it... it was using magic. I felt it before I saw it. I had to go see what was going on. Ah!" Blood was running into his eyes, turning the whites red. Spyro felt like gagging, but kept himself calm. "I didn't see its face, just that black and blue cloth. After we went to... to Cliff Town, he knew he couldn't loose me, so... so he used magic... man did he use magic..."
Spyro nodded, resting his hand on Marco's nose in a motion of comfort. Marco sighed, accepting the motion. He was growing tired, his eyes heavily lidded.
Claude and Ragnar had almost finished packing the ointment onto and into the gashes. They spread some over the cut on top of his head, stopping the bleeding.
Spyro got up. "I need to go after it then." Nobody opposed him; they had likely hoped he would do something where they couldn't.
Bruce and Shemp were immediately at his side. "We'll join you."
Another two dragons stepped out from the crowd. Two more hatchlings. One was an earthy brown with red horns, broad shoulders and a light belly. The other was a pale grey with blue horns, lean and long, taller than his brown companion. Peace Keepers and Magic Crafters, respectively, if Spyro had to guess. "We'll come, too." The brown one said in a determined voice. The rest of the dragons just looked on, observing.
Spyro felt strange having so many accompany him, but the support he was receiving ignited something in him that he'd never felt before. Always he'd had to fight alone, and he was so filled with gratitude that he could not turn them away. He nodded, extending his claws in greeting. "I'm Spyro."
They bobbed their heads in acknowledgement and lifted their claws, imitating his gesture. The red one spoke up first. "My name is Evie." She said.
The Magic Crafter made the same actions. "I'm Buddy." A male. His front fangs protruded from his mouth even when it was closed, lending him a fierce appearance for a gentle Magic Crafter.
Spyro looked over his makeshift troop, eyes lingering over Evie and Shemp. He still felt overjoyed at the prospect of female dragons once again making an appearance in the Dragon Worlds and looked forward to the coming decades with them, hopefully to be trouble free years. But they had to solve this problem first. He nodded in approval at the four young dragons facing him, then led them from the crowd. He turned back momentarily.
"Is anyone else in Cliff Town?" He asked to anyone who knew.
Ragnar nodded. "Titan, Gunnar, Conan... Roscoe maybe." He called back.
Spyro nodded. "Alright, let's get going."
He led his group to the Cliff Town portal, wondering what sort of trouble they would find, and hoping he wasn't leading them straight to danger.
• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • -• - • - •