The dragons all stared up at the clouds of ash. Balls of fire and basaltic bombs rained all around them. Candice wept silently beside Stella who did her best to comfort her.

"I shouldn't have let him go alone." Flame shook his head.

"It's not your fault." Ember placed a hand on his shoulder. "We would have lost you too if you had stayed behind."

"But at least he wouldn't have had to die alone," Flame muttered. Ember bit her tongue to avoid scolding him for his language; now was not the time.

"Come on." Spyro spoke up after a long moment of silence between the dragons. "We should get out of here."

Stella nodded and turned to her friend. "Candice?"

The ice dragoness sniffled a few more times and wiped the tears from her eyes leaving streaks of soot across her face. "Give me a moment." She whispered. She gave one last look at the volcano, scanning the skies for any sort of sign that the green dragon had survived; a wing beat, a falling body, a glowing ball of earth, anything. The sky was empty. Candice sighed as the last of her tears fell from her eyes to the ocean below. She sucked in a deep breath and a determined look spread across her face. "Come on," She said as she flew past the other guardians. "We need to get Spyro away from here."

The dragons all looked at one another before taking off after her. Sparx glanced back over his shoulder. He had seen a slight disturbance in the color of the lava bursting from the volcano's mouth but the other dragons had paid him no attention. As the guardians followed Candice, they ignored the aftermath of the eruption behind them. The burning, red hot lava had turned to dark violet.

Spyro groaned as he lay down on the ground. His whole body ached and he was physically drained.

"Are you okay?" Cynder asked as she lay down beside him.

"You mean besides the obvious?" Sparx asked as he lay down beside his brother. Cynder gave him an annoyed look. It was then that she noticed Spyro was already fast asleep. She was surprised but understood the strain Spyro's body must have been going under. She kissed his cheek before laying her head across his neck. She looked around the group of guardians. Flame and Ember were curled around each other trying to stay warm. The night was unusually chilly. Stella was curled up next to Candice who lay awake, staring into the darkness. The ice guardian hadn't said a word the rest of their retreat. Her eyelids drooped; she was getting tired. All the guardians were tired from the constant fights and flights lately. Cynder sighed. Her fatigue began to take over and she quickly fell asleep.

Spyro groaned as he raised his head. His entire world spun for a moment before settling. The purple dragon looked around to see the other guardians fast asleep; even Candice. He looked down at Cynder who was still resting on his neck.

"Oh," was all the purple dragon could manage to say as he realized what was going on. He watched as his body lifted into the air above the trees. It was night again and the moons were already high in the night sky. Spyro turned towards the west and began flying, not even using his own wings. He was being carried by something he couldn't see towards a place he could only faintly feel in his heart.

The trees moved by slowly beneath the purple dragon but his speed began to quickly increase. Before he knew it, Spyro was simply a purple blur across the dark sky.

"Where am I going?" He asked himself.

The forest began to break up into patches and before long had disappeared completely leaving only fields of ice. Spyro continued flying into the mountains, keeping an eye out for anything eye catching. Mountain after mountain looked the same; large, cold and barren. The purple dragon sighed in despair. As if things weren't hard enough when he was awake, now he had to solve this new mystery of where he was going while asleep.

All of a sudden Spyro saw a shadow in the clouds above. Curious as to what it was he began to beat his wings to try and climb higher for a better view; but he was unable to gain any altitude. Up ahead, the mountains seemed to be getting higher, reaching towards the clouds to make an almost natural tower. Spyro looked back up at the sky to see the figure drop from the clouds. Spyro's jaw dropped; it was a dragoness.

"What's a dragon doing in a place like this?" Spyro whispered to himself.

As if hearing his reaction to her presence the dragoness paused and turned towards him. Spyro was almost certain that she could see him so he called out to her. "Hey, excuse me!" He waved a paw. The dragoness only continued to look around as she hovered in the air.

It was then Spyro began to notice her odd form. The dragoness had a long crest that raked back over her head with a hook-like horn on either side of the crest. Her tail spade and wing barbs resembled the crest and even the spines that lined her back. She was yellow with blue thunderbolt stripes along her back and legs. Before Spyro could get a better look at her, the dragoness turned and dove straight for the rocks at the base of a particular mountain that seemed to shoot straight up into the clouds.

"I've never seen a dragon like that before." Spyro whispered to himself as he flew closer to the mountain. Down below he could see the dragoness picking up speed with her dive. "Oh no! She's going to hit the ground!" Spyro cried and struggled to fly on his own; but whatever force had him, held him tight. Just before the dragoness hit the rocks she spread her wings wide and nearly turned on a dime making a sharp climb straight up the side of the mountain. Spyro watched in awe as she shot straight up the side of the rock before disappearing back into the clouds. Spyro struggled to try and follow but was unable to budge. He gave up after a minute and sighed.

All of a sudden he felt something warm on the back of his neck. He turned around to see the sun beginning to rise.

"Spyro..." Cynder whispered softly. The purple dragon stirred in his sleep. "Spyro, wake up." Cynder coaxed more forcefully.

"Ung." Spyro groaned as he lifted his eyelids. "Wha... Cynder?" He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath.

"Welcome back." Cynder smiled warmly and kissed him on the forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Tired and drained," Spyro replied then turned his head to look at her. "But other than that, I'm good."

Cynder's smile sank as she watched Spyro struggle to his feet; he was weak alright. His vibrant scales were dulled down to a mid-grey purple. His scratches and cuts were much more visible now in the morning sunlight, along with various other battle scars. Cynder sighed sadly. Spyro's physical demeanor had been diminished to the point where he looked almost sickly.

The black dragoness shook her head, removing those thoughts temporarily. "We should get going," She said, turning towards the northwest. "It would probably be a good idea to return to the dragon city and report to the elder guardians what's been going on."

"I agree we should be heading out." Spyro nodded in agreement but then he shook his head. "But not to Warfang though."

Cynder's head jerked back in surprise. "What? Why not? Spyro, we have to tell them that we're okay! We have to tell them what's become of the Dark Master, to the world." She glanced over at Candice who was lying beside Stella. "We even lost Tremor. You have to acknowledge that!" Candice's head rose at the sound of her mate's name.

"Tremor?" She asked looking around groggily. When she saw only the two dragons talking she lay her head back down sadly.

"I know." Spyro let out an exasperated sigh. "But something's telling me we have someplace else to be before we can return home." He turned and looked in the direction of where he had flown in his dream. Cynder stared hard at him before nodding slightly.

"You had a vision didn't you?" Spyro turned to her with a faint smile and a smirk tugged at Cynder's mouth. "I thought so. Well, if that's the case, then I'm with you as always."

"Thanks Cynder." Spyro pressed his lips to hers. When they finally broke the kiss, Spyro turned towards the other guardians. "Come on." He said to Cynder thrusting his head in their direction. "Let's get them up. We have somewhere to go."