The funeral was held two days later after the attack. The guardians were nothing less than distraught at the news. Candice was the one to tell them, insisting that Tremor be given his space and time to himself.

It rained the day of the funeral. The guardian's tears only added to the water that flowed from the roof of the cave into the drinking pools scattered throughout the city. The casket was empty at the burial ceremony. Candice continually had to brush off the tears that froze up around her eyes. She made constant side glances at Tremor who stood up up at the head of the pallbearers. The earth dragon didn't so much as shed a tear as he watched his sister's casket get lowered into the ground. Seeing him this way just made Candice cry harder. Stella did her best to comfort her guardian friend and draped a wing over her.

Tremor avoided any contact with anyone for the remainder of the week. His friends made an effort to bring him his meals to his home pavilion, but the guardian barely touched any of his meals; not even the ones consisting of his favorite dishes.

Candice was out flying across the city one morning heading back to the pavilions. She had gone to the outer walls for a morning walk by herself and had ended up running into Spyro, Sparx and Cynder there. The four of them held minimal conversation, since none of them were in a much better frame of mind. At last Candice broke away from them to head back to bring Tremor his breakfast, in hopes that he would eat today.

As she glided over the pavilion rooftops, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. She pitched down and came to rest in a small courtyard with a rain pool in the center of it. The dragoness immediately recognized the spot and hurried to leave. but something drew her attention. Sitting over in the corner sat a statue. It looked brand new from the way the polished stone gleamed. As she looked closer, Candice saw it was a statue of Gaia. The earth dragoness sat upon a small pedestal and looked at Candice. Even the figure seemed to be filled with the Gaia's kind and gentle energy as it smiled at her. Candice leaned down to read a message carved into a small plaque on the platform.

In Loving Memory of Gaia

Guardian, Sister, Friend

I'll Miss You and Love You Always

Your Twin Brother, Tremor

Candice felt another tear form and freeze up on her cheek. Just before the frozen droplet could hit the ground the dragoness caught it delicately between her talons. "We'll miss you." She whispered as she set the tear down on the plaque. With that she spread her wings again and took off to find the earth guardian.

Candice walked calmly down the hall to Tremor's pavilion. Having seen the earth guardian's last gift to his sister she felt her spirits lift a bit. She stopped at the doorway and wrapped on the entrance with her tail spade. She didn't expect Tremor to answer so she poked her head in. Inside it was still dark. The earth dragon hadn't lit any of his candles since he'd lost his sister. Candice waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She searched the chamber but found no sign of Tremor. There was a loud crash as the tray fell from her jaws. She turned and bolted out the door and down every hallway she could see trying desperately to find him.

"Where could he be!" She gasped as she paused to catch her breath. "He wouldn't..." She shook those thoughts from her head. "No! Don't think like that!" She told herself. She took off running again and nearly trampled over Flame and Ember.

"Candice, where's the fire at?" Ember stared her friend in the eye.

"I didn't do it." Flame raised a paw innocently.

"Have either of you seen Tremor? He's not in his room!"

"No, we haven't." The fire breathers exchanged worried glances.

"Could you help me look for him?" Candice asked with pleading eyes.

"Of course!" Ember nodded. "We'll grab the others to help search for him.

"Thanks you guys." Candice gave a half smile before taking off again. Another hour of searching passed and still there was no sign of Tremor. Candice was beginning to grow desperate. "Damn it! Why can't I find him?" She slammed a paw against the ground furiously. "Okay Candice, calm down." She whispered to herself and took in several deep breaths before exhaling a cloud of frost. "Now think, where would he go if he were troubled about something?" After a long hard moment the lightbulb turned on in her head. She dashed off down the halls again and didn't stop until she reached the spot she had thought of.

Sure enough, much to the her relief, she found him. Tremor sat atop the ledge that extruded from the cave wall where she had sat with him a week before. The earth dragon stared out across the city towards the outer walls and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. As Candice emerged from the cover of the pavilions she accidently knocked a rock off the edge. The noise caused Tremor to snap out of his trance and look at her.

"Hey." He said plainly.

"Hey yourself." The ice dragoness replied and took a few cautious steps towards him and paused. When Tremor didn't say anything she gathered the rest of her nerves and moved closer until she was standing next to him. After a moment of staring at each other she sat down next to him. Tremor looked at her for a long moment before turning back to looking over the city. An extended silence passed between them.

After a while, Candice spoke. "Did you come out here to think?" The earth dragon nodded. "Would you like to be left alone for a while longer?" Candice felt the sorrow returning. Much to her surprise Tremor shook his head. She sighed, somewhat content, and turned back to gazing at nothing.

Another hour passed in silence. This time Tremor was the one to speak.

"You know, this was the spot Gaia and I used as our 'secret' meeting spot." He said and nodded towards the ledge they were on. "Whenever we needed time to ourselves, to think, to cry or whatever, we used to come here to this spot."

"I see." Candice looked at him. He looked like a completely different dragon from the loud-mouth pain-in-the-ass she was used to. He seemed so much deeper now. So much more intelligent and almost more mature-looking.

Tremor turned and gazed into her eyes. Candice felt herself lost in his yellow-green eyes. They had been bright yellow-green before but now the iris' seemed to be lined with a deep forest green, much like his sister's. His scales even seemed to imitate the same gradient pattern.

"Do you know how we got our names?" Tremor broke her concentration. Candice shook her head dumbly. Tremor smiled slightly and sighed. "According to what the elders said, our mother named us after the forces of nature."

"How so?" Candice cocked her head sideways. Tremor, not even Gaia, had talked about their past history before with anyone. So why was he telling her?

"Gaia is the spirit of the world we live in. It flows through every living thing. Our mother thought Gaia was the perfect resemblance of that, from the way she seemed to be able to put a smile on everyone's face no matter what was going on in the world at the time. It always felt like her influence was everywhere."

Candice nodded with a smile. She had noticed that about his sister many times; especially during the times when Tremor had been prancing on her last nerve. "And what about you?" She asked.

Tremor sort of smirked. "Well, according to what I hear, I used to have this habit of shaking whenever I got excited about something. When I did I would cause the ground to shake in response to my body. Mom felt that tremors were a sign of things to come. That when one hits, there will be a change following close behind. She always felt that I would be one to change to world in some way." He straightened up and smiled. "Of course I've done my best to break that habit over the years so I don't give away anything I may be planning at the time."

"That's too bad." Candice raised a brow and a smirk spread across her lips as well. "It would warn me when you're up to something."

Tremor laughed for the first time in several days. The sound was refreshing to both the dragons. "Well I guess that's good for me. Then I get to have more fun that way."

"Dear Ancestors." Candice rolled her eyes. She got up and stretched. "Don't stay out here too long. I don't want you catching a cold."

Tremor retained his smile. "The only cold I could ever catch would be from you Candy."

The ice dragoness froze at the sound of that name again. Then she sighed and shook her head as she headed back towards the pavilions. "Great, he's back." She muttered under her breath.

Down below the ledge Spyro, Cynder and the other guardians watched the scene play out before them.

"Well, they're making improvement." Cynder shrugged as she watched Candice march off towards the pavilions.

"Yeah." Stella nodded. "But it's probably best if those two take baby steps."