I was awakened from my sleep by the door opening swiftly. I blinked sleepily and stood up.
"Spyro? Hey, I'm so glad to see you." I smiled at the sight of Spyro, but my smile vanished when I saw the look in his eyes. "Spyro? What's wrong?"
Spyro seemed to be nervous. He closed the door and paced around a few times. I knew he wanted to say something, but he couldn't seem to speak.
I waited patiently. Finally, he did speak. "Crystal... I'm going to break you out out here."
"What? Oh, you're kidding. I get it." I laughed nervously, but Spyro's gaze remained resolute. "...You aren't joking, are you?"
Spyro shook his head.
"Spyro, I can't let you do that. You'll just hurt both of us. Those guards mean business, and they won't hesitate to kill you or me if they catch us."
"The won't catch us. And if they do, we can just knock them out," Spyro said.
"No. I can't leave. I've done enough illegal things... I can't spend the rest of my life running away, and I'm not going to make you, either."
"We won't run forever. I have a plan."
I tried to come up with another reason as to why I couldn't leave, but I found that I couldn't. "I... I don't know..."
"Do you trust me?" Spyro asked.
"Of course I do, but—"
"If you trust me, then come with me." Spyro turned, opened the door, and walked out.
I hesitated. I knew that I shouldn't leave, but...
I've got nothing else to lose, I thought to myself. Sighing, I turned and walked out of the door. Spyro was going to get us both killed, but it was either that or stay in the darkness forever...
"Stay low," Spyro whispered to me, crouching down. I followed suit.
I examined the area. I had never seen but a glimpse of it before. There were two floors, but it was a single room. Everything here was made of stone. Every few feet on either side of the wall was a steel door. The top floor was the same, except there was only a railing on either side. There were two lit torches on the wall every three cells, alternating sides. Most importantly, there was a guard coming!
Spyro and I slunk into the shadows. When the guard was behind us, Spyro lashed out and hit him in the head. The guard slumped and fell to the ground.
"Great, now what do we do with him?" I whispered.
"Put him in your cell. That way nobody will find him," Spyro said.
I opened my cell door and, with Spyro's help, dragged the dragon inside. I closed the door quietly. "Wait. Before we leave, there's just two things I need to do," I said.
"Crystal, we don't have time for this."
"We have plenty of time. Just be patient." I walked over to the cell that was to the left of mine. The numbers '38' were imprinted on it in large gilded writing.
I tapped the door three times. After a few moments, there was a very light tap on the door. I slid the seeing-slot open.
"Jayred?" I asked.
"Crystal? I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the tapping... How did you get out of your cell?" Jayred asked, disbelief apparent in his voice.
"Spyro's helping me get out of here. You're coming with us. I can blast the door open... the guard we knocked out doesn't have any keys."
"I'm afraid I can't."
"What? But Jayred—"
"My place is here, Crystal. I belong here... this is my home."
"No, Jayred, you have to come with us," I pleaded.
"Get out of here and find your home, Crystal."
"Jay..."
"Go."
I paused. We didn't have time to argue, and Jayred just wasn't coming no matter how long I stood there. Holding back tears and knowing I was going to lose my friend forever, I slid the panel closed and turned away.
"Come on, Crystal. We need to leave, now," Spyro said.
"Wait. We're going to need to move through the prison without drawing attention to ourselves. Every door that leads to the outside is locked, each with an individual key. And I know just the dragon who has them." I narrowed my eyes.
We continued on, sticking to the shadows, until we were out of the cell areas. Garrison had become the lead guard, and therefore he had his own room, rather than sleeping in the barracks with the other guards. I wasn't sure where his room would be, but I had a feeling it would be in the eastern wing, so that's the way we went.
Because we didn't have anywhere to hide a body, we refrained from knocking out the guards and instead went around them. By the time we reached Garrison's room, my heart was pounding in my head.
I opened the door and slipped inside. The room was a modest size. There was a desk in one corner and a bed in the other. On the desk were a few papers and a lit candle. I closed the door behind me and walked over to the sleeping dragon. The keys were wrapped in his paws, held on a keychain.
I knew I should have just knocked him out, but I had a few words to say to him. I grabbed Garrison's muzzle and clamped it shut. His eyes shot open and he began to struggle, but Spyro held him down.
"Hello, Garris. Didn't expect to see me, did you?" I grinned, my face right in front of his.
Garrison struggled, but he couldn't get away.
"I could do so many horrible things to you. After all the things you did to me, there's no doubt that you deserve it," I growled. Spyro's face was stoic and unreadable.
"Mmm!" Garrison cried.
"But..." I said, dropping down to his level. "I won't." With that, I hit Garrison in the head with just enough force to knock him out.
"You really scared me for a second there. I thought you were going to kill him," Spyro said, releasing a breath.
I shrugged. "He's not worth my time. Come on, let's get the keys and get out of here." I pried Garrison's paw open, picked up the keys with my teeth, and set out.
About ten minutes later, we came to the hallway that led to the exit. I peeked out around the corner and saw four guards near the door.
"What do we do? There's too many of them," I whispered to Spyro. I jumped as the sound of clanging bells reached my ears.
"Uh-oh! That's the alarm! They're onto us!" I hissed.
"Hey, you! Stop right there!"
Spyro and I whirled around. There was a group of guards standing behind us. Two of them were cheetahs, one of which had a bow pointed right at me. The other three were dragons.
"Spyro, they don't accept surrenders... RUN!" We bolted, and not a moment too soon, as an explosion of electricity blasted where we were standing.
Luckily, the doors were opened outward. Spyro slammed into him, and considering how strong he was, they flew open with ease. We continued forward, but were forced to skid to a halt. We had nearly right into a lava stream!
I looked around frantically. On either side of the top of the walls were cheetahs and panthers armed with bows. When they saw us, they raised their weapons and wasted no time in firing.
Well, no flying here, I thought to myself, dashing forward, around the stream, and hugging the wall.
"Aah!" Spyro cried as we entered a large volcanic field. He came to a halt. There were geysers everywhere here, and now the bow-armed forces were on foot and running after us! I obviously hadn't been getting very much exercise, so I would never be able to outfly them. I wasn't even sure if I remembered how to fly. And, just to add to it, there various lava pits hidden in the ground! If we tripped over or fell into one of those...
I suddenly hatched a plan. I remembered what I had done at Twilight Falls years ago... what was mindless fooling around then now would save our lives.
"Spyro! I have an idea." I picked up a long slab of wood-like debris. I didn't know where it came from, but I didn't care. I tossed another piece to Spyro and ran over to the lava stream. It was going downhill, steadily increasing. Perfect.
"Wait... are you crazy? !" Spyro yelled.
"It's the only way!" I threw the piece of debris into the lava—thank the ancestors, it didn't melt—and hopped onto it, beginning my descent.
Spyro, after glancing back at the guards quickly approaching, followed me.
We began to pick up speed after about a minute as the slope increased. I struggled to balance on the board and I wished I had picked a wider one.
"Crystal, we're going to need to stop in a few minutes! There's a magic forcefield surrounding the volcano! We need to turn it off if we're going to get out!" Spyro yelled.
"Alright, but that's not the main problem here!" I yelled back.
"What is?"
"That! STEER RIGHT!" I swerved my board to the left and just barely missed slamming into a strip of land.
Spyro went right. We glanced at each other. The river had split into two... and we weren't on the same side!
This went on for a few minutes... That is, until the river turned sharply on both sides, leading us even farther away from each other.. But that wasn't the end of it, no. The river came back together into one again.
I tried to slow down, but I couldn't, and I didn't have enough time to jump off the board. I collided into Spyro when the rivers met up again, and we were sent flying onto the land.
I sat up, dizzy, and barely noticed a fire dragon running towards us. I breathed a weak burst of earth that hardly staggered him.
"What was that?" Spyro asked, getting up and knocking the guard over.
"What do you expect? We aren't allowed to use our elements," I replied, walking over to the guard and hitting him in the head. "There's the exit building. That's probably where they keep whatever has this forcefield going!"
We dashed forward and ran into the building. Just on the outskirts of it, the air was wavering—most like the forcefield. No guards in sight. We walked up to a desk in front of a large glass window.
"That has to be it," Spyro said, motioning to a blue glowing orb. Most likely powered by the ice element.
"Oh, that's one of the things that was on the White Isle. But how to we turn it off?" I wondered aloud.
"There has to be a way to reset them. Maybe..." Spyro placed his paw on the orb. It began to glow and it faded to white after a few moments.
"What did you do?" I asked, glancing out the window and watching the forcefield fade away.
"I absorbed it like it was a Spirit Gem," Spyro explained.
"Hmm. Alright, let's go. The guards will be here any second."
We exited the building and quickly ran forward. We had reached the end of the volcano's slope, but we weren't out of it yet.
I was right. After a few minutes, we arrived at a chasm. But it wasn't just any chasm—it was too deep to see into, too wide to jump over, and most importantly, it was a ring that surrounded the island so you couldn't run around it! Although its main purpose was likely to stop lava from reaching the forest or any cities, it also functioned as a way to keep prisoners who hadn't flown in years from escaping.
Spyro jumped into the air and flew to the other side. He turned. "Come on, Crystal! They're coming! Fly over!" he shouted.
"I... I can't..." I said, shaking my head.
"What? What do you mean?" Spyro demanded.
"I forgot how to fly! I can't cross!" I glanced back behind my shoulder. There were about ten guards, and among them was Warden Khadi.
"Just jump into the air and flap your wings! Hurry!"
I closed my eyes and concentrated. I had to fly... I at least had to try. I couldn't fail Spyro now.
"Just forget everything you thought you knew. Forget yourself! For only by forgetting, you will remember what your ancient blood already knows."
I couldn't fail Ignitus again.
"You can fly."
I could feel everything melting away. I cleared my mind, forgot myself, forgot the world itself...
I opened my eyes. It was just like the first time. I closed my eyes and I was on the ground, and when I opened them I was flying.
The feeling was the same too. I felt like I was a young hatchling again, first flight, that exhilarating feeling...
I flew forward, dodging a fireball and laughing all the way. We had escaped them! I was free!
We flew for about ten minutes before landing in the cover of a forest. I was still laughing when I collapsed on the ground. "I cannot believe we just did that!"
Spyro laughed too, but his face turned serious after a moment. "It's nearly dawn. We should sleep and keep going tonight."
"Are you crazy? The guards will be right on our tail! They'll search the area and find us."
"They'll be able to see us in broad daylight, though, especially if we fly. We need the cover of night. Anyway, we need sleep. We're going to find the evidence that proves your innocence tomorrow."
"We are?" I asked, cocking my head.
"We are."
"I don't know if there's anything left to prove. But we can try." I nodded my head resolutely. "We can try."