Watching, waiting, the time to strike approached ever closer. Though that time came in the evening, the exact moment was irrelevant until that very moment it came. The shadows wait as long as they need, always watching, always from places unseen. Those who would hide in them would learn to adopt this into their own being, lest they fall from the shadow's favor and be rejected.
One dragon of purple scales knew this well. Despite having only become a disciple of the shadows in recent days, Spyro's ingrained warrior's instinct and sharpened mind had worked to his favor as patience was as a tall pillar among his virtues. Since his first experience with Cynder, his attunement to the shadows had only grown and he found himself able to integrate with them with increasing ease as he continued his practice. In fact, once he found that the shadows were not bound by certain rules, he began to push himself to see what was possible with them and found that he could go up the walls and even to the ceiling with a certain amount of concentration, which is where he currently found himself.
Directly above the doorway in Cynder's room, Spyro's shadow clung in wait. He knew his target was close by as he had seen her just prior, but apparently she still had things to do before coming back as he found himself waiting a bit longer than expected. Regardless it would work to his favor if for no other reason than to give him extra endurance training, seeing how long he could maintain his position.
Finally the time came when she entered, having finished her rounds for the day. Dropping off a satchel near the door, she took a glance and saw something on a nearby table that wasn't there before. As she went to investigate, his shadow quietly followed above her. Being in a full shadow walk, he was unsure if his claws would make any sound on touching whatever could be considered the ground, but instinctively he was careful in slowly lowering each claw all the same to make sure to not to alert her to his presence. When she came to a stop at the table, she began to read the note he had left, and that was when he began to make his move.
Nose first, he slowly began to leave his shadow. Immediately he began to feel the pull of gravity upon him, the pulling force magnifying with each part that left the shadows, but he couldn't exit too fast. His shadow was his anchor, holding him to the ceiling as he continued to emerge, straining to maintain concentration in the balancing act of only being partially submerged in shadow while gravity threatened to yank him out of it. Downward he gradually extended himself to reach as far as he could until he was hanging from the ceiling by his toes and the tip of his tail. With a short stretch, that was just far enough.
Spyro was not the best of writers. At least, not the best in terms of legibility, but he Was raised in a swamp, so she couldn't blame him if his access to writing implements and practice thereof was...limited. Not to be blamed on the part of his parents though, they were good dragonflies and meant only the absolute best. Thankfully, this note was simple enough to be easily read with only three words and a heart squiggled beside them.
I love you~
Right as she started to set the note back down, Spyro planted a light kiss right on top of her head. Cynder snapped her head straight up just in time to see the purple dragon rapidly attempt a retreat back into his shadow. In his rush to return to the dark, he inadvertently tried to force his re-entry and instead was rejected and ejected from the shadow entirely, promptly falling down right on top of Cynder with a yelp from both of them.
"...Bag of apes, I thought I had that down." Spyro said as he rolled off Cynder. "You alright?"
Not really hurt so much as caught off guard, Cynder chuckled, "Yeah, I'm fine. Tried to force your way back into the shadows, didn't you?"
"Eyyyup." he confessed. "Doesn't work too well."
"Nnnope." she mimicked his tone. Back to her feet, Cynder padded over to a large cushion at the corner of her room, settling into the thoroughly-worn hollow of it. "So how was your day?"
"Fairly good. I'll have some training with Volteer tomorrow again. He had some time to help me with focus and shadow training." Spyro answered.
"Volteer? Helping with focus, let alone shadow training?" she laughed at the very thought. "Somehow I have a hard time picturing any of that. Is this the same Volteer?"
The purple dragon shared her amusement, "Hard to believe, but what he lacks in practice he more than makes up for in teaching theory. He can be a good side-mentor for things beyond his ability once he knows the concept. And it helps to learn how to understand Volteer-speak."
"So his mile-a-minute speak doesn't interfere?" Cynder skeptically queried.
"Well...you could say it was part of the focus training. He's pretty self-aware. You'd be surprised how quick you learn to focus when you hang upside down and he decides to see how fast he can recite the history of the past twenty years of Dragon-Mole relations. And then quiz you on it afterwards."
The black dragoness stared at him wide-eyed. "You poor dragon. And here I thought our soldiers had it rough." she remarked with sarcastic sympathy.
"Oh I'm just. So. Tired." he played along to the tune of her humor, approaching her as she scooted around to make room for him on the cushion.
She snickered, "Oh come on over here, you dork."
Settling down onto the soft, plush bedding, the two dragons curled up together. There wasn't much better a way to wind down the day than to snuggle up and relax with one another with some nice peace and quiet. Their tails happily intertwined as they nuzzled around each other, only stopping briefly for Cynder to preen a scale on Spyro's shoulder. In between tongue-tip licks on the muzzle, Spyro laid his wing over and pulled close to his black dragoness partner, adjusting to accommodate the increased contact. Underneath his wing, Cynder searched with her paw to find a purple counterpart, meeting suddenly when he found hers first and clutched it softly with his own paw. Satisfied, she sidled up next to him and pressed her chest to his, resting her head just below his. With his love against his chest where he could feel every contented purr rumbling within, he likewise found himself at peace with her.
"...And that concludes the synopsis of the commercial import and export agreement between the Atlawa and tribes of Avalar in addition to the reason thus to give cause for rejoicing!" the electric guardian ended.
The purple dragon breathed a sigh of relief as the thunderstorm of history and vocabulary finally passed. Once again he found himself hanging upside down by the toes in his shadow, but rather than a more intimate setting, he was in the training room with a pair of boulder-bracers around each wrist pulling down on him. "Quite the informative monologue but if I may be permitted to question an immediately pertinent matter before discussing hypotheses on the agreement's potential positive influence on Warfang…" Spyro said, putting on his best Volteerian-tongue. "...Was the fire really necessary!?" he asked in exasperation, staring at the flames directly below.
"It will be most conducive if you stretch as much as possible, and with more heat, objects expand and thus gain more pliability, which I believe would be of assistance to you in the act of warming up." Looking down at the fire and back up to the hanging dragon, Volteer tacked to the end, "...Although, perhaps I may have been slightly over-ambitious. In either case, that should be an adequate amount of time. Come down when ready."
The moment Spyro released the earth from his wrists, he felt so light that he nearly doubted he would actually fall once he let go from the ceiling. With a short blast of frosty air, he extinguished the fire and flipped down to the ground with his mentor. With whatever traces of energy that hadn't been sucked out and dried up, he managed to reach for and take the last of the spirit gems he had brought along.
"Look on the bright side. At least he hasn't made you do tail curl-ups yet." a black dragon chuckled from beside the guardian.
"Don't give him ideas, Vin!" Spyro nervously shot back, flashing a glance at Volteer in hopes that he showed no reaction to the idea.
"No need to worry, I don't believe that will be necessary for now." Moving on, the guardian spoke, "Although Cynder did admirably in passing on her elemental knowledge, I perhaps wouldn't say she was entirely correct, though not wrong either, perhaps simply showing her young age and lack of articulation and knowledge as a mentor. However, it is not by her own fault and indeed even was helpful despite that as she provided key insight to the lesser seen elements."
"How so?" Spyro dared to prod him on.
"In many respects, much of our control of the elements falls into two categories: projection and integration. Projection in this case refers to the expulsion of the element from the dragon to the target, whilst integration is more akin to the dragon combining with the element itself. Most of what we teach I would say is projection, as it is often the first to be learned and becomes most familiar. Integration usually comes with need for a greater control, but in a most unusual fashion, it seems to be the reverse for shadow as you were taught integration prior to projection, which would be more comparable to the shadow flame she is capable of emitting. Shadow I rather doubt is strictly submissive on the half of the dragon, as that is more often a small trait of integration instead. I would theorize that projection of shadow requires a little more assertion just as projection of any other element."
"Projection and integration represent a certain harmony between dragons and elements. Projection one could consider is where the dragon asserts control, where integration requires that submission. Not complete submission, lest one simply is so passive that they actually do nothing, but rather a respectful admittance of position and yearning for cooperation between dragon and element. By this nature, this tends to be why projection comes first, as the desire to master an element can often be a blinding ambition in the face of true mastery."
The purple dragon spoke up, "What of integration with other elements? Have I been able to do such?"
"Hm...it is difficult ascertain, but perhaps in a few cases. When you encase yourself in a boulder, that is a step in the right direction but is still simply projecting around yourself. Your comet dash is perhaps the closest common example, as you seem to have become quite intimate with fire." Thinking for a moment, Volteer added, "Although, there are two possible examples I would note. If your theory on flight being relevant to the wind element is proven true, then flight could quite easily be integration. Then there is...whatever you did in the core after fighting Malefor, perhaps that was the integration of your power as a purple dragon. That is for you to judge however, as that is something I nor anyone else could teach, only a purple dragon could know that."
Solemnly he nodded, "Fair enough. Now before my warm-up wears off and I need to be roasted again, where does this bring us in training?"
"Why, integration with lightning, of course!"
Spyro squinted, "...Is this going to make me speak faster than I can be understood?"
"Ifyouwantitto." Volteer returned. "Perhaps my first integration coupled with a desire for more gave me a little too much speed and I found myself needing to expand my vocabulary to slow myself down and be understood better."
Spyro rhetorically asked, despite the answer being obvious to anyone who had ever spoken with Volteer, "How'd that work out for you?"
"Ask Cyril." Internally he chuckled at the thought of some of the aggravation he caused the ice guardian. "Vocal shenanigans aside, let's carry on! This will be potentially rather grueling on your energy reserves, which is why I requested your friend's presence."
"Oh you didn't have to, we've got plenty of spirit gems!...Somewhere." Spyro started to say, remembering he emptied the last from his satchel earlier.
"Don't worry, consider it to be my own training." Vin assured him. While Spyro knew by his experience with Cynder that dragons had a minor ability to transfer small amounts of energy, he later found that Vin was somewhat of a practitioner of that ability and even trained it regularly. "Do whatever you feel you need to do and I'll try to keep you topped off on energy." Already he settled himself into position, sitting in a sort of meditative pose with his front paws together.
"Well...if you're alright with it then." Turning to Volteer, he said, "Alright, let's get started then."
After a very brief rehash on the behavioral patterns of lightning, Spyro began to focus on the element, bringing it to a rise within him. The speed of lightning was the point he was directed to focus on. There was a point where lightning came from, and point where it struck, and in this lightning would travel in almost an instant. His eyes trained on a point ahead of him, but he had to hold himself back until the time was right. Integration with lightning would not be the same as with shadow, as the latter required submission, but his current act required a direction to be given, which needed a certain amount of assertion on his part. Balancing the two to have the harmony with and respect of each individual element seemed to grow increasingly daunting, but he stayed the course.
With a thundering crack, he bolted halfway across the room in a single step. Likewise he felt his energy half drained with that single act, though steadily it refilled. At the very moment he began to turn around, the purple dragon no more had time to glance at the other two's direction when he promptly fell over.
Vin blinked and shook his head, then loudly exhaled from his nose, "...Yep, that'll knock the breath out of you. Even I felt a bit of that one."
"It remains ever astounding to see the aptitude of the purple dragon!" Volteer exclaimed. "No doubt his experience with electricity has worked wonders in aiding his understanding, but it always amazes me that it takes him mere minutes to make progress."
"...Should we...go help him?" the black said as he kept looking at the collapsed dragon.
Shaking his head, Volteer told him, "Give him a moment, the first time is a always a brisk venture." Within a few seconds, Spyro began to stir, the guardian returning attention to the purple dragon, "Ah, there we go! Now was that experience not electrifying?"
"Oh it was en-lightning." Spyro answered with flat sarcasm and a masked laugh. "A little bit taxing too. I nearly blacked out and couldn't see either of you."
"Yes, that particular technique will prove to be rather heavy in its demands. You may only ever have energy to use it once or twice without endangering yourself, but with training, your body should become accustomed to the side effects enough to eventually nullify them."
Vin spoke up, "Your body isn't used to moving so fast, plus with having such a sudden stop, it jarred your insides too much and they had a brief shock."
Blinking at the black dragon, Volteer concurred, "More or less that would be the short of it. Your body is tough, but it still has some work needed to be appropriate for such a performance. Continue your efforts and you will be rewarded most graciously by the fruits of your labor."
As his mentor suggested, continue he did. After only a few more attempts, he was at least able to remain standing afterwards. By the tenth try however, he found his ability was beginning to strain and the rushing river of energy that flowed in and through him had reduced to a babbling brook. Only then did he remember and turn to see Vin on the side, still in his meditative position but straining to squeeze out every last drop of energy to give to Spyro.
"Hey uh...h-how about we call it for n-now?" Spyro called, not expecting the involuntary stutter of his tongue.
Vin wordlessly relaxed from his pose, placing one foreleg on the ground only for it to immediately collapse, the black dragon tipping forward and slamming nose first into the ground. Pulling himself back up and rubbing his nose, he decided to verbally answer, "Y-yep, sounds good, let's call it there."
"A wise conclusion. I eagerly await the time we reconvene for further training!" Volteer said to the two of them before departing his own way.
Only when he began to walk did Spyro feel an odd jerking sensation, but to the black dragon it was visibly clear as day. From tail to nose to the tip of his wings, the purple dragon twitched and his muscles spasmed rather strongly. Stepping over to pick up the empty satchel, he tried to steady himself to take it but the more he fought, the more strongly his spasms fought back and kept his body shaking. Laughing that neither was much better off than the other, Vin hobbled over and took the satchel for him. "Come on, a little at a ti-" he ended, nose first on the ground again.
Propping up one against the other, the two dragons managed to shake and shudder themselves down the halls of the temple. Reaching Vin's sleeping quarters first, they separated and made sure neither would immediately collapse again. "I-I think I'll be taking t-tomorrow off from training." the purple dragons stated.
"But we're just getting started, don't you want to do that ten more times?" Vin joked. "Ah, I'll...yeah. I might wander the streets tomorrow. There was a place I wanted to see."
"I'll have to s-see what Cyn's plans are. I'll spend the day with her if possible, might run into you if she wants to head down into the city as well. We'll see."
Turning to stumble his way to bed, Vin called back, "Sounds good, see you later then, Spyro."
"Take care, Vin." Spyro returned. Hopefully the incessant twitching would end in a timely manner. For all he cared, that would probably be the last time he trained with electricity for awhile.
A/N: I guess I might do a few more. I'm not making any promises though, but we'll see. This time I felt like exploring a little bit more into possible mechanics of the elements and giving my take on them. Given that my main project is at a comparable place in discussing its magic mechanics, I felt this would be a good little exercise while at the same time putting my Spyro mood to use. The next chapter will likely be down in Warfang, we may see some other dragons, but we'll just have to see what I feel like. Until then, hope you enjoyed it!