Cynder beat her wings across the night sky. The wind was cold against her scales but she ignored the chill. She pressed on determined to find her purple dragon and the guardian candidates. The moons covered the land in an unearthly red-violet. They seemed to be foreshadowing what was to come and the dragoness shuddered.
"No, I won't think that way." She shook her head and pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. "I have to find Spyro and warn him about what's going to happen."
Tremor woke to the sound of footsteps crunching across dried leaves and twigs. He perked his head up and cringed from the pain that lingered in his neck. Flame and Ember entered the camp ground to see the fire nearly dead from Candice's ice covering the ground.
"Tremor, you're awake." Ember's voice was a little raspy from exhaustion.
"How are you guys doing?" The earth dragon worked a kink out of his neck with a loud pop.
"We've been better." Flame grunted as he breathed new life in to the camp fire. The sudden heat made Tremor scoot closer. He had been shivering slightly on the semi-frozen ground Candice had created. The dragoness had done her best to keep him warm but she could only do so much.
"Any luck?" Candice asked worriedly. Ember shook her head sadly and sat down beside the fire.
"Did anyone see what happened to her out on the battlefield?" Tremor asked as he sat up on his haunches.
The guardians all looked at each other hoping for one of them to answer.
"I don't recall seeing her after the second wolf attacked us. I should have paid more attention. I failed my duty as a guardian. And now Stella is missing..." His voice trailed off and Ember's eyes grew wide as she imagined what could have happened to her friend.
"You...you don't suppose she's..."
"Don't talk like that!" Candice snapped and caused the fire breathers to jump in surprise. "We haven't found her but that's just probably because it's dark out. We'll keep searching until we find at least something."
Their attention was grabbed from a faint glow among the trees. Sparx fluttered into the campsite followed closely by Spyro; both of them looked exhausted.
"Find anything?" Flame inquired as he sat down next to Ember.
"Nothing." Sparx replied. "It's like she vanished into thin air or something."
"Damn!" Tremor slammed a paw on the ground and shook the whole earth. "We should have been looking out for her!"
"Tremor, calm down." Candice scooted closer to him in hopes of settling him down.
Tremor gave a dejected sighed and shook his head. "We should have been watching each other's backs out there today. We've been trained on this over and over, but when it really came down to it we couldn't even follow through on something that should be second nature to us!" The guardians all slumped their shoulders.
"We were all too focused on ourselves out there today." Flame muttered darkly. The other guardians nodded in deep regret.
"Well I'm not going to give up looking for her!" Spyro said and took a determined step towards the fire. "She's a guardian like the rest of you. She's tough and she's smart. I'm certain she must still be alive somewhere!"
The other guardians were a little taken back by his sudden boldness. They hadn't seen that in him in months; but it seemed to bring new life to their spirits.
"You're right." Tremor, as usual, was the first to rise. "If it weren't for Stella I would have given up on Candice before we even had a chance." He caught the ice dragoness stare up at him out of the corner of his eye. "The least we can do is not call it quits just yet."
"Yeah." Candice nodded and stood up beside him and thrust her chest out. "After all, she's the one who has always been there for us. It's our turn to return the favor."
"Yeah!" Flame ad Ember chimed in together. The guardians all smiled around at each other with newly inspired energy. Spyro looked at the group of dragons and felt a new sense of pride swell up within him. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so confident with himself.
Just then the sound of beating wings grabbed their attention. The guardians all whirled around with their wings spread wide, ready to face any enemy. The sound of the wing beats grew quieter and the next thing they knew, a shadow flew overhead.
"Spyro!" A familiar voice called out.
"Cynder?" Spyro squinted against the light of the fire into the dark sky above. The shadow hovered overhead before dropping into the firelight. Cynder had returned to her normal form and tackled Spyro to the ground. The guardians all watched with surprised expressions as Cynder covered Spyro with kisses. They were a bit hesitant about her presence but Spyro's laughter put their minds at ease.
When Cynder got off of Spyro she turned to the others with an ecstatic look on her face. "It's so good to see you all again!" It felt so good to be back with her friends that Cynder couldn't contain herself. She transformed into her adult form and gathered the other guardians together into a group hug, squeezing them tightly to her chest.
At last she released them so they could get their breath back. Spyro smiled and walked over to her as she revered back to normal. "It's great to see you Cynder." Spyro nuzzled her lovingly.
"I agree." Sparx nodded, giving the dragoness a friendly pat on the neck. "Speaking of which, where have you been?"
"Yeah." Ember piped up as she and the other guardians moved closer to her. "Where have you been?"
"Well..." Cynder sighed. "It's a long story."
"What?" Malefor roared and struck Snarl across the face, sending him flying across the demolished chamber. The wolf wiped the blood from his lip as he got to his feet. Liun lunged and pinned him to the ground, his eyes burning with convexity. Malefor towered over the wolf, his yellow eyes flashing furiously. "You seriously thought that the black dragoness was under my control? How incompetent are you?" Liun grabbed Snarl's arm in his jaws and hurled him across the room again. Snarl smashed through the opposite wall and rolled to a stop. Liun picked his way through the rubble and waited for Snarl to move.
"Seriously, did you really think that the black dragoness was siding with us?"
"Yes!" Snarl coughed on his own blood as he staggered to his feet. "She was using this power that I had never seen before. I assumed it was from the crystal you told us to corrupt her with."
"I haven't even felt the dragoness's presence among my consciousness." Malefor growled and pinned Snarl to the floor again. The black flames began to burn into his fur. Snarl cringed and did his best not to show any signs of weakness. "How could she have possibly fooled you into thinking that she would side with us?" Liun demanded.
"Silence!" Malefor snapped at the black dragon and Liun cowered immediately. He was surprised that his master had snapped at him in such a harsh manner. Malefor pressed down harder on Snarl's chest burning his flesh with his dark flames. Snarl emitted a growl but refused to let anything else past. "You will go to Munitions Forge, and you will make certain that the preparations are complete for when I arrive." He stepped off of Snarl allowing the Alpha to gasp for breath. "And if you fail at that..." Liun's mouth opened wide and fired a concentrated beam of dark magic. Snarl howled in pain as the energy burned his left arm. He fell to the floor clutching at his wounded limb. "I will be sure to end your life before you can even blink."
Malefor looked down at Liun who nodded. The black dragon walked up beside the Alpha and placed a paw on his burned arm. He absorbed the dark magic back into his body, leaving Snarl with an arm that looked as black as the night. The wolf leader flexed his arm, surprised that the pain had suddenly gone away. He looked up at the young dragon who curled his lip at him. The wolf got to his feet and stormed out of the chamber.
When he was gone Liun looked up at his master. "So what do we do now?" He asked.
Malefor roared angrily and the flames that made up his body began to dissipate. Liun gasped as he felt the power swell up inside him again. When all was still he breathed a deep sigh and his eyes flashed with convexity.
"We're going dragon hunting." Malefor's voice came from his own lips. Liun bellowed and spread his wings wide. With a tremendous flap of his wings he shot straight through the roof and into the night sky.