Chapter 14

An Exiled Evil

The door swung open making Spyro, Ember, and Lateef look over to see what caused it. Flame and Cynder finally decided to join the party and the two of them were making their way toward the small group. Hunter's home somehow seemed a bit smaller now.

"How is he doing?" Flame asked, regarding toward Magnus, who still seemed like he was fast asleep on the couch in a deep imaginary dream.

"Still sleeping," Spyro answered the obvious. "He's going to be fine though. The cheetah's are very tender to the injured. I'm not sure on how much longer he'll be asleep, it could vary."

"That's good to know," Cynder softly added in.

Lateef nodded in agreement, "Indeed it is." Although you could hear the hint of slump in his voice, still thinking it was his fault that Magnus was in the position he was in now.

Lateef perked up when Spyro said, "Well, why don't I continue this story of mine?"

Ember smiled in response, "I would like that. So what did Maia do with Sparx and the mushroom you found?"

"Well," Spyro began. It took him a moment to recollect those memories of his. "Me, Flame, and Cynder did find the mushroom I was looking for, but that one mushroom wasn't enough."

"How many did you need?" Ember interrupted.

Spyro smiled and continued with the answer, "At least five mushrooms were needed for just one dose of medicine. So we planned to go back to the swamps to search some more."

Barkwood

Three Years Ago

The golden dragonfly woke up to some unfamiliar surroundings, making him feel uncomfortable. He was in someone's house on their couch with a smell of something cooking in the cool air.

The glowing dragonfly tried to think of how he ended up in this predicament but kept drawing blanks in his head. He only remembered carrying a strange looking mushroom over a patch of the more common toadstools when all the sudden a shadow blocked his view of the sun. He looked up only for everything to suddenly black out on him.

Sitting up in an upright position, the dragonfly rubbed his head with a groan. A groan that happened to catch a certain dragon's attention.

"Your awake!" A black dragon nearly exclaimed.

The dragonfly's head snapped over toward his right where the shout came from to see a young female dragon looking over the arm of the chair straight at him. Then he felt a sudden strike of fear run through his spine as he flapped his little wings as fast as he could, getting himself airborne. The dragon watched him as he flew up toward the ceiling away from the dragon.

"Hey wait!" the dragon called out as she gave chase.

"Who are you?" the dragonfly asked, finding himself cornered above the fireplace on the right side of the living room.

The dragoness could tell he was frightened, if not, terrified. Evidently he never seen a dragon face to face before. So she tried to be as sweet as she could. "Don't worry little guy, it's alright."

"H- How is this alright?"

The dark dragoness sat down in comfort in an attempt to show the dragonfly she meant no harm. "My name is Cynder."

The dragonfly didn't seem very sure at first but finally managed after a few seconds, "Umm . . . I'm Sparx."

Cynder smiled and was about to reply but she heard someone enter the room. She turned around to see Maia, exiting her room, wondering what all the commotion was. Then she noticed the dragonfly cowering in the corner of the room.

"Oh my," Maia began, making her way to Cynder's side.

"Who are you?" Sparx nearly exclaimed.

The silver scaled dragon slightly shook her head at his behavior, "Maia. Why are you so frightened by our appearance?"

"Sparx," Cynder informed in a low tone toward Maia. "His name is Sparx."

The dragonfly watched the two dragons as careful as he could. He couldn't see any signs of danger but still held his cautious expression. It took a minute or so but Sparx finally calmed himself down to the point where he was able to speak clearly, but still hovering up in the safety of his corner.

"Well," Sparx began, looking for the words to fill in his sentence. "Just place yourself in my wings for a moment and I'll tell you. Imagine waking up in a place that you don't know, only to be greeted by a creature you've only heard tall tales about."

"So you never seen a dragon before?" Cynder politely asked.

Sparx shook his head side to side, "Sorry but I've lived in the swamp my whole life." Then the two dragon's could almost hear a spark inside the dragonfly's head. "Speaking of which, where is the swamp and how did I get here?"

Maia looked at Cynder then let the black dragon answer, "Long story short. Me, a red dragon named Flame and a purple dragon named Spyro was looking for a special type of mushroom. As we landed, Flame happened to land on you."

"Mushroom?" Sparx repeated. "Does this mushroom have a red cap and blue stem?"

Cynder nodded, "That's it."

The dragonfly continued, "Well, I did have one after I went out scouting. I thought it was a little unusual so I was going to take it to my parents to show them." He stopped for a moment, "Was."

"We're sorry," Cynder apologized. "If it makes you feel any better we have the mushroom."

Sparx shook it off, "Meh, if it's that important to you then you can keep it. Looked kind of worthless to me anyways."

Maia butted in the conversation with a question, "Sparx, where exactly did you find that mushroom? We need a couple more of them to make some medicine."

"Medicine? Who's sick? Remind me to stay away from him."

"Relax," Cynder comforted. "No one around here is sick." The black dragon turned toward Maia, "Why did we need these mushrooms for?"

Maia turned to Cynder, thinking that she already knew the reason. "The main reason why Spyro is here is to gather these mushrooms to cure his father's illness. Didn't he tell you?"

The black dragoness went quiet so Sparx went ahead, "Doesn't look like it."

"So where did you find the mushroom?" Maia asked again with persistency in her voice.

"If you really must know," Sparx sighed then continued. "I found them in these old ruins of some civilization or whatever."

"Was there more than just the one you found?"

Sparx thoughtfully replied, sounding a bit more easy and a lot less frightened now. "There could be. And before you ask, I found the mushroom in some cave in the ruins itself. Kind of a creepy place if you ask me."

Maia soaked in the information, trying to picture a hidden temple in the swamp. She heard that something historic was out there but it never really interested her enough for her to travel that long way to see for herself. She turned to Cynder to see her in some sort of daze. "Cynder."

Cynder escaped her thoughts and turned toward the silver dragon and let her continue, "Go get Spyro and Flame and tell them to come back here. They will probably be wanting to hear this news themselves."

Meanwhile

In the backyard

The backyard was actually larger than the front, decorated with some various flower on the right side near a white picketed fence, and combat equipment toward the left. The equipment contained simple target boards, which were black due to fireballs, and training dummies that had seen their better days. The forest was a good twenty yards away from training grounds making it fairly safe for practice. But at the backdoor were three familiar dragons.

"It's good that you found a mushroom you two," Ignitus began, praising the two dragons. "But it was reckless for you two to go alone."

"We weren't alone," Flame indicated with a frown. "Cynder was with us."

Flame's father breathed a sigh, "I know that I can trust all of you to find the mushrooms, but there have been some difficulties in the swamplands."

"Difficulties?" repeated Spyro. "You mean like the local frogweeds?"

Ignitus shook his head, "No, there have been sightings of something that could be far worse than the frogweeds."

"Like what?" Flame asked.

Ignitus turned and looked down at his son, seeing the spirit in his eyes, "If you must know then I have no choice but to tell you. You know of the race known as the apes? There have been sightings of them coming from the swamps."

"What?" Spyro went in surprise. "I thought they were exiled to Dante's Freezer?"

"Yes, that is correct. But somehow they managed to escape, haven't you two noticed the increase of activity in the village?"

Spyro and Flame simultaneously shook their heads while Flame came up with a simple answer, "No."

"Will you two at least stay out the swamps for now?" Ignitus finally requested.

The red guardian hoped for an answer but was interrupted by the back door. He listened to it squeak open for it to reveal a small black dragoness around Spyro and Flame's size.

"What is it Cynder?" Ignitus asked having the thought that she wanted something.

"Maia told me to get Flame and Spyro. The dragonfly woke up," Cynder informed.

"Oh really?" Flame said speedily. "Well then we better go see what she wants so let's get going Spyro."

"Alright," Spyro replied.

And as quick as lightening, the two of them disappeared inside the structure Ignitus called home. Cynder watched the two dragons make their way around her with a careful eye, wondering what the rush was.

"Did I interrupt something?" she asked, looking back up at Ignitus.

"Don't worry about it," Ignitus lowly responded.

It didn't take long for Maia to explain the news about Sparx. The dragonfly found the new company a bit more frightening than Cynder and Maia, probably because they ran into the living room, trying to beat each other in some type of race. But it all went rather well, Sparx had his story explained again, letting the two new dragons here about a cave in a temple which could hold the mushrooms Spyro needed to find. But this only urged his and Flame to get back to the swamp and find this so called temple and finally cure his father's illness before his time was up. But apes in the swamp? Spyro knew they hated dragons because of what they did to them. The dragons were the reason they were locked away inside that frozen pit they called Dante's Freezer. Meaning if they ever came across an ape, it was do or die time.

Ignitus made his way inside to hear the same story, this time from Spyro and Flame. Spyro seemed the most excited about the cave that could hold the medicine he sought out for so long, which actually made Ignitus happy for him but worried as well. Cockiness was one trait that Ignitus hoped the purple dragon would never possess.

Cynder seemed to take an unusual liking toward the dragonfly. She was always keeping an eye on him like Sparx was a new pet. They talked, but very little, mainly about the swamp. Sparx only told her that it was his home where he always hoped to be safe. Little did he know about the ape sightings.

Back to Spyro and Ember

"Ah," Flame chuckled. "The apes. They were a pain in my tail."

"They were a pain toward the cheetahs as well," Cynder reminded. "Thankfully."

"Thankfully?" Ember replied in question. "How could you be thankful for that?"

Spyro answered with a grin, "Let's just say that if it wasn't for the apes, we wouldn't be here right now. But you'll see what I mean in my story."

"Hey guys!" Lateef said in an excited tone. "Look! He's waking up!"

"Who?" Cynder went.

"Magnus," Flame happily responded.

Everyone turned their attention toward the couch to see the tainted silver scaled dragon stirred, then opened his eyes to the unfamiliar surroundings.