Authors note: Please note I posted three chapters instead of one so to those of you who used the little arrow thingy that takes you to the last chapter done, go back to chapter 5.

Chapter 7

Meeting Of The Minds

The fifth grade class had just got outside and a silver dragon sat by himself on a swing. He looked out in front of him at his other classmates then hung his head low with a sigh of boredom.

"Hey Magnus!"

Magnus looked around from the swing. He noticed a blue dragon coming toward him.

"Yea Lateef?", he responded as he hung his head low again.

Lateef stopped in front of the silver colored dragon then continued, "I've been thinking over the last couple of minutes. I'm worried about Ember."

Magnus seemed interested and lifted his head back up, "Why do you like her or something?"

"No no its just me and Ember have been friends for a few months and I'm beginning to worry on where she went. She's been gone for well over an hour."

Magnus looked ahead past the merry go round and saw the rest of the class grouped up as if they were deciding what game to play. "We still have about an hour of school left. Do you want to go look for her?

"Look for her? What about Mrs. Rune? What about the rest of the class? What will happen of they find out we are gone?"

"Do you just wanna sit here and do nothing or go look for her? It doesn't look like Mrs. Rune is gonna do anything about it."

Lateef thought about for a quiet moment then said, "I don't like the idea of just leaving without telling anyone though."

"Do you really think Mrs. Rune would just let us leave? I really don't think she would",Magnus explained.

"Yea I suppose your right there",Lateef replied then looked over at his other classmates. "Let's leave now while they are occupied."

"Aren't you worried we'll get caught?",Magnus joked. "After all this is a stupid idea."

"I know it is but it's this or wait and I really don't want to wait."

"Yea and something about this other dragon she's with, didn't someone say she was a with a purple dragon? And yet this purple dragon seems familiar and I am curious."

Lateef looked out into the forest in the distance, "From what I've heard she went toward that forest so we should start going that way."

"Right, lets get going before someone sees us",Magnus replied.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Valley of Avalar

Spyro gave out a sigh of relief when they finally reached the cheetah village. As Hunter walked through the front gate he told the guardsman that he had two dragons with him. The guardsman looked at the two dragons for a second then slowly nodded in approval. Hunter turned toward the two dragons then signaled them inside.

"Your welcome to stay here as long as you like",Hunter said as the two dragons entered the village. It seemed the village had prospered a little since Spyro's last visit for there were huts as homes for the cheetahs and tall guard towers at the two front corners of the village with a cheetah keeping watch over the valley. A small light colored dirt road circled around the whole village with homes on both sides of the road. Hunter led them to the left first and the trio walked by a few huts and cheetahs giving him a few of those looks Hunter was expecting to see. A few of them seemed surprised and even one of them told Spyro, "Welcome back." After they passed about six huts from the right Hunter led the two into his home as the two dragons entered Hunter walked into the kitchen on his right and placed the herbs he had into an overhead cupboard.

"Your welcome to eat what you can find",Hunter said as he left the kitchen. "But right now I'm real busy so if you would, could you stay here and out of trouble?"

Spyro couldn't help but show a grin, "Alright Hunter, is there any place you think we could take a nap?"

"Living room, there's a few places where I think you'll find a few comfy places to sleep",Hunter said as he opened the front door. "I'll be back in maybe about a half an hour or so."

"Ok Hunter, be seeing you",Spyro waved.

Hunter closed the door and Spyro quickly made his way into the kitchen and started opening cupboards. He found a loaf of bread and took it out and decided to heat it up to make the bread soft and taste better. He blew a small stream of fire near the bread, kind of like an oven but being careful not to set it ablaze. He didn't want Hunter to come home to a burned up kitchen. When he felt it was finished he let the bread cool for a few minutes before tearing off a piece and popping it into his mouth.

"It's pretty good but maybe fire wasn't the best thing for it",Spyro muffled.

"I could have told you that before you started",said Ember.

Spyro swallowed then replied, "Yea I'm soooooooo sure."

Ember just shook her head, "Yea whatever. So tell me about Flame."

"Well",Spyro began as he took another bite of bread. "How about I just continue with the story from where I left off? I'm gonna take you to meet Flame tomorrow hopefully but its getting a little late."

"Ok",Ember nodded.

Spyro swallowed the bread and tore another piece off and offered it to Ember. She thought about it for a second then decided to take it and eat it anyways. Had sort of a charbroiled taste to it.

"Where did I stop at?",Spyro asked himself. "Oh yea, of course Ignitus let may stay at his home. Flame was willing to share his room with me but there were no more beds in his room so I had to sleep on the couch for that night."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Barkwood Six Years Ago

"I'll have a bed for you tomorrow Spyro but for now it would be more comfortable if you slept on the couch for now",Ignitus said as he led Spyro down the stairs and to the couch nearest to the stairs. Spyro flopped on the couch and Ignitus placed a cover over him.

"I'll wake you in the morning",Ignitus said as he walked away into that dark room Spyro saw on his way inside. It must have been the room Ignitus and Maia slept in.

Spyro laid on the couch unable to sleep for about an hour. He thought about his dad and what was going to happen. Spyro thought about his future. From the looks of things it seemed as if Spyro was . . . adopted into another family. All these thoughts kept him awake. Then suddenly Spyro felt a presence in the room. He thought it was just him for the first few seconds but he still felt the same exact feeling. That feeling made him look around and about. Then he noticed who it was, he was standing at the base of the stairs.

"Flame?",Spyro simply whispered to keep Ignitus and Maia asleep.

"Hey Spyro I was just thinking",Flame began in a whisper also. "Do you want to sleep on my bed for tonight?"

Spyro thought then answered, "Where will you sleep?"

Flame smiled, "I'll sleep where you are. We can switch places."

"If that's what you want",Spyro responded.

Flame nodded and Spyro got off the couch. Flame laid down on the couch and tucked himself in. As Spyro made his way upstairs he turned around toward Flame, "Hey Flame."

Flame looked up, "Yes?"

"Thanks."

Spyro made his way upstairs and into Flames room where he tucked himself into its soft plushy goodness. It had been three straight days since he was able to sleep on an actual bed so he was pretty happy and grateful.

But what Spyro didn't notice on his way upstairs was that Maia was watching the two switch places from bed. She looked at the snoring Ignitus with a smile then closed her eyes.

The Next Morning

"Wake up sleepyhead."

Flame slowly opened his eyes to see Maia sitting in front of him. She had a small smile on her face as Flame slowly sat up on the couch.

"Hi Mom",Flame greeted as he rubbed the cold out his eyes.

"Do you know where Spyro is at? I can't find him",Maia asked playfully already knowing the answer.

"Well Spyro is . . . in my room. We switched places last night so he could sleep on a bed."

"That was very nice of you Flame. Remind me to get you some candy later ok?"

Flame smiled, "Ok Mom. Do you want me to wake Spyro up and ask him if he wants to go to school with us?"

Maia couldn't help but widen her smile, "Ok ok, you can go ask him."

Flame quickly threw the covers off himself and quickly made his way upstairs at a fast walking pace. He slowly creaked the door open in his room to find Spyro was actually already up. He was sitting in front of the window across the room just watching the dragons go by.

"Hello Spyro",Flame greeted.

"Hello",Spyro replied.

"Me and my mom are about to get ready for school and I was wondering if you was going to come along or not."

Spyro thought about it for a few seconds as he stared through the window. Soon those seconds became minutes but Spyro didn't realize. He didn't realize until now that he was missing something, or someone. One of the main reasons he went to school. Because of his friend, Ember. He didn't realize what he had until it was gone. But who knows what is in store?

"Ok Flame, I'll come with you."

Flame felt like doing backflips but he simply said, "Ok, I'll go tell my mom."

Spyro watched Flame quickly leave the room and he turned his attention back through the road below as he thought about his friend Ember.

Some Time Later

"That was a good breakfast Maia",Spyro commented on his way to the school. "I liked the bacon the best."

"Thank you Spyro",Maia replied as the trio turned around a corner.

Spyro watched the school open up before him. It was almost a replica of his older school only smaller. Maia led the two to the front door and opened it for them. The two entered and Maia followed them in. The hallways were slimmer than Spyro's old school and it was less decorated but it still held that artistic touch to it from various things on the wall. Spyro thought that the teacher let loose some kids will paint on the wall for it had different paw prints on it and other sorts of stuff. It was going to be a meeting of the minds in a few minutes. Maia led the two into the third room on the left. Maia slowly turned the silver knob and creaked the door open to let Spyro and Flame in. From what Spyro saw after Maia turned on the lightswitch, there was no one other than Flame and Maia in the classroom.

"I'll be right back you two so don't get into trouble. If you want you can go ahead and start to play a game or something",Maia said as she left the room again.

Spyro watched Maia leave then asked a few seconds later, "Where is everyone?"

Flame looked surprised, "They are coming but we have to get here earlier than them so my mom can unlock the door. Didn't she tell you that she is the one watching us as we play? Like a teacher?"

Spyro shook his head, "No."

"Oh, maybe she was thinking that I was gonna tell you, sorry."

"It's ok, when is everyone coming?"

Flame sat for a second then answered, "Maybe in a few minutes. It's gonna be great to have another friend other than Cynder to play with."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Back to Spyro and Ember

Ember sat on the couch with a clear question in her mind that Spyro could clearly see.

"What is it?",Spyro asked as he sat on the adjacent couch next to the couch Ember was on.

"Who is Cynder? You never mentioned that name before."

"She was just a friend of Flame's. That's all I'll say for right now." Spyro made a deep and long yawn and laid down on the couch. "I'm just gonna take a quick nap. If you need me just wake me."

Ember was too deep in thought to hear him. She noticed a few minutes later a small snore coming from the couch which made her look. She saw Spyro asleep.

"Does that mean we're staying here for tonight?",Ember said to herself.

Then out of the blue she heard a bell and someone from the outside yell, "Grublins just outside the walls!"

Ember went to the door and creaked it open to take a look, "I guess that answers my question."

I hope you've been enjoying it so far. I know I'm not getting as many visitors to this story because there isn't much Ember likers out there. It shouldn't be Ember you don't like its the way the author changed her personality, well thats what I think. I working on chapter 8 as of right now so don't worry on me not updating.