Ch. 4: Crash, Ramble and Shock

"Nice place," Gill Grunt appreciatively commented. The coordinates had lead the Skylanders to a small village in a giant cloud forest, hewn from giant tree trunks. It was collectively known by the locals as Woodburrow, and, in Jet-Vac's words, "it was a quaint little place and just the sort of town he might retire to,"

"This is a quaint little place," Jet-Vac declared to the group he was with upon arrival. "Just the sort of town I might retire to in a few decades or so,"

"We know," Pop Fizz groaned. "You've said that twice now,"

"Okay, everyone here?" Sprocket asked upon the arrival of the group that had been with Spyro. "Now that someone finally arrived," Whirlwind snorted, casting an irritated glare at Camo. "I'm a boyfriend first and a Skylander second," the plant dragon defended himself. "And you'll be fired third if you keep that attitude up," Cali snorted.

"Ay, lassie, why are you here? Shouldn't ya be keeping an eye on the others back at the Core?" Jet-Vac questioned the feline Mabu. For a second her eyes widened in panic, then returned to normal in a practised mask of indifference. "I'm, ah, here to keep an eye on the rookies. Everyone back at the Core is a qualified Skylander, they can take care of themselves, and if necessary they still have Hugo, Brock and Ermit there - though I really question whether I should classify Ermit as help or not,"

"Ooh, I vote not," Trigger Happy squealed.

"Anyway," Cali continued, casting an irritated glare at Trigger Happy, "but the rookies still aren't qualified. While at the end of this two-week probation period, you all will have the say in whether your trainee is inducted as an official Skylander, I should still be here if they need support,"

Prism Break frowned. "Where are them rookies anyhows?" he questioned.

"Remember Flynn's ship crashed?" Cali asked. "Yeah, but that was, like, three days ago," Pop Fizz frowned. "They've been getting it back here. It's taking a bit longer than expected,"

Suddenly a loud explosion sounded from above them, and everyone quietened. Sprocket had donned her goggles, and had used her spanner to bat a mine into the air, where it had exploded. "I repeat," she growled. "Is everyone here now?"

Chop Chop surveyed the group, as did Cali. "Jet-Vac and Whirlwind are here, that's Air. Stealth Elf and Camo, Life. Eruptor and Hot Dog, Fire. Chop Chop and -"

"Everyone is here except Spyro and Terrafin," Chop Chop interrupted her. "I was just about to reach that conclusion," the Mabu snorted in irritation.

"Spyro? Didn't he get here?" Cynder asked, worried. "And Terrafin?" Pop Fizz gulped, feeling guilty. "I'll track their ships," Sprocket resolved, pulling out a device that resembled a Wii U Gamepad. After a few moments, she smiled grimly. "Good news and bad news. Good news is, I have a strong fix on Terrafin's signal. He's crashed a little way outside Mudwater Hollow - which is good, we were going there anyway. But," Sprocket paused, obviously having trouble with saying this. "The bad news?"

"Please don't say it, please don't say it, please don't say it," Cynder begged under her breath,"

"I can't find any trace of Spyro. His phone's off the grid and the tracking beacon in his house is either disabled," Sprocket paused and gulped. "Or destroyed," she finally finished.

"So, Spyro's dea-" Pop Fizz started, before being snatched up by Chill. "Not in vront of t'e girlfriend," she whispered in his ear.

X

Nervously, Spyro peeked over the bathtub he had taken shelter in. Remarkably, it was mostly intact, and was falling on an angle, with his nose pointed diagonally downwards. The dragon breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a forest several hundred metres beneath him, he would not fall into the Abyss.

The Abyss was the common name for the space below Skylands. Down there, it was a sea of cloud, thick and white. No one had ever come up from there, though plenty had gone down. The people foolish enough to attempt such an endeavour were commonly called Divers. Anyone who Dived to below cloud cover had never been seen again - and Spyro was in no hurry to join the ranks of the Diving departed.

Debris and clutter from his home fell around him. A novel fell inches from the edge of the bathtub, and Spyro desperately retrieved it. He panicked for a second, thinking of the mysterious piece of parchment he had found in the library three days ago, but sighed in relief upon recalling that he had entrusted it to Cynder. It would be safe with her - assuming she had safely escaped to the rendezvous point.

"Eragon. I remember that series," Spyro smiled at the sight of the book's cover.

The dragon ducked as a chunk of wall fell past, narrowly missing his scaly head and knocking it to the side as it chipped against his horns. Feeling them in momentary panic, his eyes widened as he felt a small gash that had been torn out of the back of his left horn. It would grow back, given a few weeks or months, but nothing was more sacred to a dragon than their horns.

Spyro thought for a second. If he didn't have something to cushion the blow when he landed, the dragon would be flattened like a pancake. His velocity was too great to attempt to take wing, if he tried that the membrane of his wings would be shredded like paper. He needed something to break his fall.

The dragon's eyes locked onto the slab of former wall that had just swung by him. That looked to be his best option, as it fell less than a metre away. But how to reach it?

A tube of rubber piping, broken away from the shower, soared by underneath the tub, and Spyro, spotting it, snatched it seconds before it span out of reach Using his fire breath, he hastily welded the lingering metal housing of the nozzle to the edge of the bathtub. Spyro grasped the other end in his claws, and, making sure that it would hold, jumped towards the wreckage of the wall.

He landed on the side of the wall and, in an instant, dug his back claws into the wall, making sure that he was firmly anchored in.

Spyro, nervously noting that the ground was getting closer, pulled on the rubber tubing, hauling the bath closer. Normally this would be an impossible feat, but the weightlessness of the fall meant that some of the laws of physics had been temporarily suspended. So, in a feat of strength reminiscent of the Giant Skylanders, the dragon managed to heave the bathtub and chunk of wall together, resting the metal rear of the bathtub against the side of the wall.

The ground was less than five hundred metres away. In a frantic hurry, Spyro welded, again with his fire breath, the steel tub to one side of the wall, climbed inside the tub having made sure that the orientation of his improvised impact shield was correct. He absent-mindedly noted with some interest that the book he had rescued was still inside the tub -

CRASH.

The vessel smashed into the ground, the wall beneath the bath disintegrating upon impact with the earth. The impact threw the tub, in addition to a few surviving fragments, a few feet into the air, toppling forwards and back to the vertical.

With a frantic thrust, Spyro pushed backwards, returning the bathtub to it's correct alignment, even as it crashed to the ground. The dragon's head rung from the impact, and he weakly groaned as the tub ground to a halt, listing to one side.

"Ouch," Spyro moaned, more out of shock and dizziness than any real injury. His quick thinking with the improvised impact absorber had almost definitely saved his life.

Doing a quick inventory, he had bruises on his claws and underbelly, his muzzle hurt where he had knocked it against the side of the bath, and his tail felt like he had torn a ligament somewhere. But it was nothing he wouldn't be able to walk off.

Spyro cast a fond glance at the book he had rescued. It was seemingly all that was left of his home. His phone had been left recharging in the console, so the dragon didn't have that with him and couldn't call for help. He would need to find civilisation.

Luckily, he felt well enough to fly.

x

Terrafin staggered out of the crashed craft. "What the hell happened?" he groaned. "Where is everyone?" he muttered. "Did that gremlin get me drunk? Pop Fizz? Pop Fizz?" The dirt shark was obviously still partially drunk

"Why, hello there," a new voice appeared. "Whozat? Gill Grunt, is that you?"

The speaker, despite being a Gillman like Gill Grunt, was not the Gillman Skylander. "Why, hello, name's Snagglescale. Snagglescale Sandscratcher. Very nice to meetcha. Say, that there's is a mighty fine dinghy thingy behind ya. But it kinda looks like it's in a bit of a shambles if ya know what I mean,"

Terrafin blearily turned around looked at his house. It was a wreck, having crashed into a dried-up riverbank. One end had totally collapsed in on itself, and about a third of Spyro's room was still attached - not that it was in any better condition. Chunks of plaster had rained down on the surrounding area. Jagged shards of glass were scattered where a window had broken and the roof had buckled. "Maybe I shouldn't have knocked out so many of the walls," Terrafin lamented. "You know what, old chap? I don't not think that that thingy's gonna be going anywhere, and I mean anywhere, unless ya count nowhere as part of anywhere, because that's where that thing is going, absolutely nowhere, and ain't that the truth," Snagglescale rambled.

"Well, now I need to work out where Spyro is," Terrafin groaned. "Y'now, I'msa thinking I've seen you somewhere before, were you ever in the ring? And I mean like the boxing ring, not a wedding ring or a friendship ring or some other kind of ring,"

"Yeah. Used to be champion before I joined up with the Skylanders, what's it to ya?" Terrafin questioned.

"Now I'm not sure if you remember or not, but I used to be pretty good at boxing. They used to call me the Grievous Gillmen - because the families of the people I beat grieved, if you know what I mean, and I'm not saying you do, so lemme elaborate -"

"Hey, yeah. I think I saw you once," Terrafin smiled, interrupting. "Boxers salute," Gurglefin suggested. "You got it!" Terrafin smiled in pure joy and punched the Gillman in the face. "Now that's a right hook," Snagglescale smiled, picking himself up and returned the gesture, ramming his webbed fist into Terrafin's nose.

"Ouch," Terrafin sniggered. "Maybe I'm getting soft," he frowned. "Soft? From the Sandsea Slugger? No way, nu-uh, never. I would never believe somethin as lucridious, and I mean absolutely lucridious, as that, and that's a complete fact, you can believe that right from the horse's mouth, but of course . . ."

Terrafin groaned. "Now I remember why we all called him the Chatty Cabbie behind his back,"

"But getting back to the point, how's about I take yas down to my village? You can contact ya Skylander buddies and get everything sorted out. Whaddya say, old chum?" Snagglescale suggested. "Sounds great, but, how do we get there?" the dirt shark questioned.

Snagglescale smiled. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Oh, you'll see. And I'll bet you'll like it a lot, and I mean really like it, cause there ain't nothing better than my surprise that I have planned, and that there is a fact that you can count on, now follow me," Snagglescale beckoned, and walked down the dry riverbed, still chattering away. Terrafin groaned. "This is gonna be a long trip,"

X

Snatching up the book in his mouth, he leapt into the air, beating his wings against the gentle forest breeze and grabbing hold of a sturdy branch. Cat-like, he leapt higher into the canopy, carefully spreading his weight between several branches when individual branches could no longer take his weight. Eventually he made it to the top of the canopy and spread his wings wide, groaning in pleasure at the relief it granted as he leapt into the air.

The dragon fist/claw-pumped at the sight of a small, ramshackle-looking village a couple of Skylands away. "Score. They have to have a phone there, I can call the others," he resolved, twisting around and aiming in that direction.

A/N

A/N

Seriously? No guesses? Final hinter towards the two mystery characters! They both had a close relationship with Master Eon before his spirit-ization-whatever.

Also, I have finally identified Chill's accent as Russian, not German. And the only character I've ever seen/heard with a Russian accent is North/Santa Claus from Rise of the Guardians, so I have based her accent on him. I don't think it'll make much difference, she's only a minor character anyway.

Anyway, I have a resolution not to let things get too complicated with the plot, so the current three plotlines will converge quite quickly.

Nothing else to say. Peace!