Apologies for taking so long to update this one. I fixed many grammatical mistakes in the first few chappies and made very minor changes. It's not worth re-reading the whole thing though, unless you want to.

Chapter 15

Looking for Trouble

Everyone was quiet at first. Magnus rubbed his eyes as he looked around the room. He saw many faces, two of them he knew. The rest, he had no idea.

"Where am I?" the silver scaled dragon slowly asked.

Lateef quickly answered, "Your in the cheetah village. Boy, am I glad your okay."

Magnus took it easy as he sat up on the couch. He scratched his head as he studied everyone in the room. Then he set his eyes on a pink dragoness, who seemed to be smiling toward him. "Ember?"

"Hey," she greeted simply. Then her smiled disappeared as she asked, "Are you alright?"

Magnus stretched his limbs, "I feel sore."

"You need your rest," Spyro assertively said. "Take it easy, Magnus."

"Well," the silver scaled dragon began. He layed back down and continued. "It seems you know me, but who are you?"

"I'm Flame," the red dragon introduced.

The red dragon looked at Cynder with a small grin. Cynder rolled her eyes at him then introduced herself. "Cynder."

"And I'm Spyro," the purple dragon finished.

Magnus studied Spyro for a moment. The room felt a little hot and he felt like he was beginning to sweat. Maybe it was just him. "So you're the purple dragon I've heard so much about."

Spyro cocked an eye, "Didn't know I was famous."

Lateef chuckled to himself. "Just for today."

The silver dragon looked back at Spyro with a satisfied look on his face. "Everyone in class has heard about you today."

"What about me?"

Everyone looked over toward the door and saw a small golden dragonfly hovering in front of it, just as it closed. Half of the crowd grew surprised at the dragonfly while the other were either smirking or sighing.

"I thought you had gotten yourself lost," Cynder greeted.

The dragonfly hovered his way over Cynder's head. "Well it would have been easier to find if you gave better directions. Telling me to go 'that way' didn't exactly cut it."

The purple dragon smiled. "It's not like you haven't been here before."

Ember studied the dragonfly for a while, then guessed, "You must be Sparx."

The dragonfly showed the first grin she had seen. "The one and only. I'm sure you've heard about all my heroic deeds."

"I bet she has," Flame sarcastically remarked.

"Anyways," Spyro began, getting himself more comfortable. "I'm sure you want to hear the rest of my story, so I'll just hop to it."

"Story?" Magnus repeated.

Ember happily answered, "Spyro's been telling me his story of his adventures."

"Oh," the silver dragon simply went. "Well, it sounds like a good way to pass the time."

Spyro smiled as he began. "Well, Sparx stayed with us for a little while, but it didn't take long for him to tell us that he needed to get back home to his swamp."

Barkwood

Three Years Ago

"I have to get back home," Sparx pointed out, hovering near the front door of Ignitus's home. "My parents are probably worried about me by now."

Cynder was the only one in the living room at the moment. She didn't really know what to do with him. "I understand, but can you wait here for a little while? I need to tell the others about this so I won't get into trouble."

"Well then hurry up, it's starting to get dark out and I really don't want to be out when it's dark."

The young black dragoness didn't waste any time. Last time she seen any dragon was in the backyard. So she quickly made her way through the house and found her way into the backyard. Everyone was still there. They looked at her as she opened the back door, wondering what she wanted.

"Sparx wants to go home," Cynder announced.

Spyro and Flame looked at one another. Maia looked toward Ignitus, waiting for his answer. "Then we will let him go," Ignitus replied. "Stay out here Cynder. I need to warn Sparx about the apes."

"Okay," Cynder quietly said.

She stepped to the side and allowed Ignitus by her and into the household. He closed the door behind him as he made his way back to the living room, where Sparx impatiently waited.

"Well?" the dragonfly inquired. "Am I gonna be held prisoner here or can I go?"

"You may leave when you wish, but I must warn you about something first."

The dragonfly cocked an eye, "And that is?"

"There have been sightings of apes near the swamplands," Ignitus informed. "I would ask you to be careful, and stay alert. I want you to tell your relatives about this. They must be warned."

"Right," Sparx slurred. "Gotcha. Now just point me in the right direction and I'll be out of your hair . . . I mean spines."

Back to Spyro and Ember

"That was the last time we saw Sparx," Spyro comfortably told. "At least for a good while anyways."

Ember smiled, "When you see him again?"

Spyro thought for a moment, then continued, "Well, everything was pretty boring after that. Barkwood was quiet and not a lot happened. A good year quickly came and went. Me, Flame, and Cynder occasionally sneaked off and went exploring, but because of the ape sightings, we stayed airborne and were never gone too long. "

"Until . . .," Flame began with a smirk.

Spyro sighed. "But one day, we finally had the guts to actually land in the swamp and begin looking for the mushrooms again. All the times we went flying, we never spotted the ruins Sparx spoke of. So there was only one explanation. The ruins were hidden underneath the swampland trees."

Swamplands

Two Years Ago

"You know," Cynder began in a respired tone. "Sometimes, I wish my view to be a little more . . . sanitary."

"I know your tired of the swamp," Spyro replied. "But those ruins has to be here somewhere."

Spyro looked ahead, only to see marsh and plenty of willow trees, along with cypress trees. There were plenty of bugs flying around as well, making Cynder even more aggravated.

"What about those apes?" Cynder began.

Flame looked over toward her with a concerned look. "What about them?"

The black dragoness looked at him expectantly. "What if they show up?"

"Well, that's easy," Flame inspirationally replied. "We deal with them and move on."

Spyro nearly laughed. "You make it sound like it's going to be so easy."

"That's because it will be. Especially when I'm here."

Spyro looked back ahead and slightly shook his head. "Yep, Flame, what a character."

The trip went to being quiet afterwards. Mainly, because of Cynder. She continued to shush them whenever they talked, which wasn't like her. She would always listen to their conversations while they were flying. It gave her something to do. But that was above the trees. When that black dragoness stood underneath them, she showed another side of her that Spyro rarely seen.

Thirty slow minutes came and went, and still no sign of any sort of civilization. As time passed, Spyro grew more and more worried. He quietly mentioned that they might get lost, but Flame quickly passed it off by saying he had a good sense of direction. The purple dragon didn't know if they had been this deep in the swamp before.

Then Cynder stopped in her tracks. Spyro immediately noticed, while Flame bumped into her. She hardly noticed.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, worry in her face.

Flame picked his head up, "Hear what?"

"Shh," Cynder quietly went. "Listen."

Spyro didn't ask twice. He kept as still as he could and listened to the best of his abilities. It only took a moment for him to hear a noise, deep in the swamp. It almost sounded like a roar, or battle cry of some kind.

"What is that?" the purple dragon whispered in wonder.

"I hear it too," Flame added in with the same tone as Spyro.

Cynder shook her head. "I don't know. But it has me worried."

"Worried?" Flame repeated. He looked at Spyro for a moment to see he didn't look as boastful as he was. "What is there to worry about? It sounded like it was way over in that direction." Flame pointed with his paw across the swamp, then quickly got back to all fours.

The purple dragon looked as far as he could, but he couldn't see anything other than trees. "What do you think Cynder? Is it worth investigating?"

The black dragoness thought about it for a moment. Maybe this was just some swamp bear or some other wildlife creature that lived out here? It was possible, but as much as Cynder wanted to believe that, it just wasn't likely. But something was causing the roar.

"It could be someone that's in trouble," Cynder quietly replied. "We better go see what it was."

"Yes," Flame quietly remarked. "Finally, a change of pace. I've been begging for it."

"It could be a false alarm as well," Spyro informed.

"Don't be a mood breaker," Flame retorted.

Cynder scowled toward the two of them, immediately ceasing their interruptions. "We should fly there," she suggested. "Maybe we can catch the owner of the roar before he disappears."

Flame and Spyro nodded in unison as Cynder began to flap her wings, lifting herself off the marsh. They quickly followed her and flew through a gap in the trees and over the landscape. The sun shown through the partly cloudy sky as a cool breeze blew against them. Then Cynder heard that roar again. She quickly looked toward her left and began to make her way toward it. All Spyro and Flame saw was a seemingly endless sight of trees. It was going to be tough to find the source of the bellow if they could hardly see through the tree tops.

But as they drew closer, it seemed as if they didn't have to use their eyes to find them. An indistinguishable noise was heard, but it was more constant and loud. Spyro looked Cynder over with anxiety, wondering what the cause of the ruckus was. But Cynder didn't seem so eager. She kept her concerned look.

"I'm not liking this," Cynder lowly stated. "Bad feelings are stirring."

"Hey," Spyro began, getting the dragoness' attention. "It's going to be alright. I'm here for you."

It took a few seconds for Cynder to show that satisfied look on her face. "Thank you."

"Hey," Flame began, breaking up the conversation. "Don't get mushy on me."

Spyro shrugged as his face turned a slightly red color in his cheeks. He quickly returned his attention down to the landscape below, avoiding eye contact with Cynder. "Whatever Flame."

Cynder watched Spyro for a moment, nearly forgetting about the task at hand. Then she began to hear activity in the swamp ahead, slowly growing as they flew closer. "That must be where that roar came from," Cynder suggested. "We better hurry, it doesn't sound good."

It didn't take long for them to reach their destination. While still above the treetops, all three dragons heard several noises from below. There were even voices.

"Let's go," Flame smirked, slowly descending back down into the swamp.

"Wait," Cynder called out. Flame only ignored her request. The red dragon quickly disappeared underneath the tree limbs. She then looked over at Spyro, "Should we really be doing this?"

"Probably not," Spyro replied. "But seeing as Flame is already down there, we better check it out. You with me?"

Cynder nodded. "Alright, let's do this then."

The two dragons slowly descended down into the swamp, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. As soon as the two of them were safely underneath the tree limbs, they both became shocked.

There were apes. Spyro counted four of them as they marched over a group of mushrooms, smashing them, stepping on them, destroying them in any way possible. But what was worse, was that there were dragonflies fleeing the scene.

"Spyro!" Cynder exclaimed. "We have to stop them! This is the colony that Sparx told us about!"

"If your right," Spyro began. "Then it's possible that Sparx is here."

Then Flame decided to show himself as he took his place beside the purple dragon. "You ready to do this Spyro? These apes don't stand a chance against us."

Spyro nodded. "I hope your right Flame."

Then one of the apes turned his attention toward the dragons hovering in the air above them. He quickly got the all the other apes attention, just as the three dragons began their quick descent toward them.