It was the next morning, Spyro and Cynder were in midflight somewhere between the tree tops and clouds. The sun was half risen and shining bright, it was no later than midmorning. By this time they had already cooked about a half dozen fish they had caught in a nearby stream for breakfast and took off into flight, in desperate hope to find civilization.
They had been flying for well over half an hour now, looking at the beautiful scenery bellow that stretched for miles. The only thing separating it was a river of rushing blue water stretching from the ocean to the far west, splitting the forest in half disappearing in the horizon.
Beyond the forest they could see what looked like from their distance, the shadow of a small mountain range but was actually a tall snowy mountain range off several miles in the distance, hours from their current location. They also noticed a string of thunderclouds moving above the mountains.
"Looks like a storm might come through we need to find somewhere to stay quick" said Spyro
"Agreed" Cynder said back as they began to fly faster.
As they flew Cynders thoughts wondered off into thinking about their battle with malifore, her confession of love towards Spyro and wondering if he had heard it. So after moments of thinking she decided she would tell him.
"Hey Spyro.. I need to tell you something" Cynder said hesitantly
"Yea Cynder, what is it?" but as soon as Spyro answered they noticed a group of four creatures emerged from the woods below heading towards them.
The creatures are only four foot long, their skin is of a stony texture they have no wings only a leathery strip of skin on either side of their body but despite their lack of wings they can still fly.
"Cynder watch out, waverns!" Spyro warned
At that moment the waverns were practically right on top of them.
Cynder spit out a glowing green glob of venom on one of the waverns causing it to hiss n pain as the acid started to melt off the creatures stony flesh.
Spyro then engulfed another wavern with a torrent of fire.
Just then another wavern came up to Spyros right flank hitting him with a blast of energy to the side he tumbles through the air, using his wings to steady himself and glares daggers at the wavern as it charged, but was quickly dispatched when Spyro used his razor sharp talons to rip open the creatures throat sending out a shower of purple blood as its limp body fell back down to the forest floor below.
The last wavern then charged toward Cynder, but Cynder quickly dodged the attack and used her sharp scythe shaped tail blade to nearly decapitate the creature the purple ooze soaking her silver tail blade.
Hearing the commotion a group of twenty more waverns came rushing out of the trees toward spyro and Cynders position,
"We need to lose them this way" Cynder said to Spyro as she dived down toward the trees with Spyro fallowing right behind.
The group of waverns then fallow Spyro and Cynder into the trees below.
Spyro looked behind them to see the horde of waverns chasing them.
"What are you doing Cynder?" spyro asked
"We're going to lose them, this way" Cynder said as she and spyro made a sharp right past a row of trees heading in the direction of a river.
The waverns made the sharp turn fallowing them two of which crashed into the trees.
They kept going bobbing and weaving between the trees, spyro looked up shooting a lightning bolt from his mouth at a large tree branch behind him sending it falling to the ground crushing three waverns the rest flying past the branch still chasing the two.
"How are we going to lose them" Spyro shouted over the rushing wind
"You'll see just watch" Cynder shouted back as they flew in the direction of the river.
As they kept going they made it to the river and proceeded flying up stream.
They kept flying up river as fast as they could towards a group of three grizzly bears.
"What are you doing Cynder?" Spyro shouted with eyes widened.
"Just grab my arm and hold on" Cynder shouted back holding out a forepaw.
Spyro held onto her arm and just at that moment Cynder engulfed the two of them in a shroud of shadows causing them to disappear into thin air.
They disappeared mere moments before colliding with the bears ahead, they had caught the waverns by surprise, their sudden disappearance causing them to collide with the bears, before they could realize what is happening the bears started attacking each one of them.
Meanwhile spyro and cynder were hid behind some nearby bushes watching the carnage in front of them as the bears start to rip apart the waverns one by one and begin devouring the corpses.
"How did you know that would work?" Spyro said as he backed away from the bush looking at Cynder.
"It's easy, hungry bears and a lot of free food coming straight into their den. What would you do?" Cynder replied with a grin
"True but how did you know they were here?" Spyro asked
"I saw them when we flew over a few minutes ago, I was leading us right towards them the whole time. We lost maybe a mile at the most. Now how about we get out of here before anymore show up it would probably be best to walk just so we don't attract anymore un wanted attention" Cynder said giving Spyro a sly grin before walking past him.
Spyro nodded in agreement and fallowed behind. Several hours went by when spyro stopped dead in his tracks sniffing the air.
"Do you smell that?"
Cynder stopped smelling the air "smoke!" she said realizing the scent.
"come on! This way!" spyro said heading off into the direction of the scent
After a few moments of running they saw the walls of the city appear in the distance. They slowed down to a steady walk due to being tired and out of breath when Cynder stopped knowing that once they reached the walls of the City they would not have much time alone.
"Hey Spyro…. I have something to tell you" Cynder said hesitantly looking at Spyro as he too stopped and turned to face her.
"Yea Cynder, what is it?" Spyro replied a little anxious to get to the City.
"I.. I was wondering if you had heard me before; when.. When I.. Well I'll just come out with it; I love you Spyro!" Cynder blushed heavily realizing what she had just confessed and looked at Spyros wide eyes.
Spyro couldn't believe it, he was right! She did say it, and she just said it again. He stood in a confused shock of not knowing what to say when he finally opened his mouth to speak, at first it felt as though no words would come out, like he had no voice at all and it would be a useless attempt to try to even muster a sound. But he fought the shy confusion and spoke anyways.
"R-really?"
Cynder hung her head "Yes" she said hesitantly when suddenly she felt Spyro nuzzle her and heard his soft voice
"I love you too Cynder"
Cynder raised her head as a smile spread across face and she nuzzled spyro back. The two stayed this way for a few moments relieved to have confessed their love, when Spyro finally broke the silence.
"We should get going, the City isn't that far away"
"Agreed" said Cynder smiling and glad that her dark scales masked her blush.
They continued walking through the thick grassy field both of them smiling wide with joy until they reached the gate. Two guards stood post in front of the gate one was an orange cheetah with green eyes, garbed in brown robes with a sword hanging at his waist and bow and arrows hanging on his back. The other was a black tiger with bright blue eyes garbed in silver robes and carrying two swords crossed on his back. Both of them stood around seven feet tall.
They both turned to look at Spyro and Cynder.
"Halt" the orange cheetah said firmly "who are you? What is your business here?"
"I am Spyro, this is Cynder. It is a long story but we are kind of lost and hoping for some food, rest and directions to warfang"
"Warfang? You mean you come from warfang?"
"Uhm.. yes, is that a problem?" Cynder asked
"No but you're a long way from home" the orange cheetah chuckled slightly and motioned for the door to open
"How far exactly?" Spyro asked confused
"About eight hundred miles to the mainland and then a good six hundred to Warfang, so possibly a good two day flight three with ease" he answered
Spyro nodded as they walked through the gate then sighed looking to Cynder
"Damn we are far away from home. We will get some rest and head out tomorrow" Spyro suggested
"Sounds good to me" Cynder yawned looking around at the city.
The roads were of gravel and dirt, the buildings were made of sand stone appearing to be a chalk like silver color, some were two stories high most were only one. There were various creatures running from place to place doing chores and working hard at their jobs whether it be manning a grocery stand to working as a blacksmith with clanking metals, or even to menial things such as sweeping the wood sidewalks that go from building to building up the sides of the street.
As they walked through the entrance of the city Spyro turned to Cynder
"So where should we go first?" he asked
"I'm not sure, our best bet would be to find someone in charge and get directions and somewhere to stay for the night. I don't know about you but I'm tired"
"Yea me too" Spyro yawned looking around the city.
"And besides we should probably find some kind of shelter because that storm isn't looking very good" Cynder mentioned as Spyro looked up noticing the sky was getting darker the clouds were moving in, the wind was beginning to pick up and whistle between the buildings of the city as a few random leaves danced along with it.
"Agreed" spyro said. They kept walking in the general direction of the heart of the city when they heard sobbing coming from a nearby ally, as they approached they heard a female voice trying to comfort the other.
~thirty minutes prior~
A red dragon sat alone at the end of a dark ally way crying heavily he had blood red scales that appeared dark crimson in the darkness of the ally, he had a golden underbelly and wing membrane and a gold arrow head shaped tail blade. He was crying to himself tears streaming from his clenched eyes over his cheeks to fall to the ground. Just then a pink dragoness walks into the ally after hearing the commotion going on. She slowly walks up to the red dragon.
"flame are you okay?" she said in a soft voice
This caused the dragon now known as flame to look up in surprise.
The female dragon had bright pink scales and light pink underbelly and wing membrane, with a heart shaped tale blade, she was also wearing a gold necklace with a red heart shaped ruby in it.
"E-ember, what are you doing here?" flame stuttered
"I've been looking for you all day, no one has seen you. I was worried what happened? Are you okay?" the pink dragoness now known as Ember answered with a worried expression.
"I-I'm fine" he said turning his head back around ashamed to be seen in such a state.
"I know that's not true, what happened?" Ember asked even more worried for her friend as she stepped forward
"I'm fine just.. Go away it's nothing"
"I know there's something clearly wrong what…" she stopped in mid-sentence noticing bruising and cuts on flames arms, shoulders and back.
"Flame what happened? Tell me!"
"Life.. Life is what happened!" he almost yelled out causing ember to jump in surprise
"Between my step parents and my reoccurring memories of that night in our village I can't take it anymore!"
"You can't keep letting those memories haunt you, you're not the only one that lost everything that night. And your step parents may be assholes but you can't let that get to you" she said stepping towards flame
"It's worse this time my step father is the one that did this to me and the memories are becoming more frequent like a nightmare that will never end. I want to get out, I want to get free! I feel like I could scream! But I can't, I came here to end it all; I've had enough of it"
"Flame you can't do that.. Things may be rough but you still have people who love you.. Someone who's here for you! Think about it all our child hood, all this time we have been best friends, I've always been here for you and nothing is going to change I'm still here and I always will be. Don't do this to yourself, flame. I can help you. We can get through this together like we always have"
"Like we always have? My parents are dead. Your mom died that night we were left with nothing, and nowhere to go. Where do you suppose we go? What do you think we should do next?"
"I don't know yet. We can pull through it, even if it takes running through the middle of nowhere not knowing where we're going we can still make it" she hung her head as she sat beside flame "I'm not going to let you harm yourself, we are going to get out of here one way or another.. We just have to figure out where to"
"What do you suppose we do when we do get away from this?"
"Anything! We will be free. As long as we can get to some place far enough away that no one would bother fallowing we can restart our lives the way we want them to be!" Ember looked at flame with hopeful eyes "Or even.. Start a new life together.. I love you Flame"
Flame sat there stunned by what he just heard "You.. You love me?" he sat there his expression changing from one of sorrow to one of hope "Really?" he looked into her eyes
"Yes Flame, I do" she gazed back into his eyes
Flame hugged her tightly in a warm loving embrace "I love you too" he said softly, although their loving hug didn't last long until they heard foot steps coming towards them slowly and they both let go.
"Someone's coming Ember what should I do? Their sure to ask questions about what happened to me" flame whispered
Ember quickly reached into her satchel and pulled out two healing crystals "don't worry about it" she smiled holding the crystals to Flames wounds until they were fully healed and the crystals had fully desolved.
"Hello? Is everything okay? We heard noises from the street sounded like someone was upset" Spyro asked concerned
"Yes, everything is fine.. Now" Flame answered
"Good"
"We just entered the city and we've never been here before, we are trying to find our way back home to warfang and were wondering if you knew anyone that would help us?" Cynder asked
"Oh why yes we do" Ember said with a sweet smile looking to flame "just wait I will explain later" she whispered to him "we will show you to the leader of our little city, you can speak with her and she will arrange somewhere for the both of you to sleep tonight, and a map"
"Oh that would be wonderful!" Cynder stated
"Lovely!" ember said excitedly "fallow us" Ember and flame stood up leading the way out of the ally
They all proceeded to walk out of the ally and down the street.
They walked down the wooden sidewalks passing by all the vegetable stands and craft stands to their right and doors to various buildings on their left. As they walked Cynder looked around at the buildings and various dragons and cheetahs walking through the dirt streets shopping from the stands.
She admired the perfectly carved building signs that read "Black smith" "Seamstress" "Diner" etc.
'How beautifully carved' she thought to herself as her gaze met a string of pink, blue and yellow flowers with a row of red roses behind, lining the perimeter of a three story medium sized building at the center of the city. The other buildings were fairly sized but this one was slightly larger with more detail in the swirl carvings around the door, and where the other buildings were built of a sand stone appearing to be a chalky silver color, this one was mixed with something. It looked as though it shined in the evening light, it appeared to have a smooth surface and looked as though to have tiny chips of some kind of crystal in it.
'What in the world is this building made of?' Cinder thought to herself admiring its glow.
As they approached the green earth dragon guard at the front door Cynder noticed large chunks of the crystal lining the door frame.
'It's diamonds!' she told herself
"Excuse us Thorn, we are here to speak to Ms. Pyra we shall only be a moment" Ember stated to the guard.
"Do you have an appointment?" he asked
"No Sir but I assure you we won't be but a moment, our friends are new here and they need some directions back home" she assured
"Very well then" he moved aside allowing them entrance inside.
They walked through a short entrance hallway the floors were of tan and light pink marble and the walls were of tan stone. They reached the end of the hallway coming into a large room with stair cases to each side. The room was of the same marble flooring, the walls were white and there were four smooth stone pillars going from the floor to the ceiling in each corner, and just as outside they had a single ring of diamonds going around the pillar at both top and bottom.
"This way, fallow me" Ember stated walking over to the stair case to the right and proceeding up it.
The stair case was also marble the railing was surprisingly plain and made of silver but looked as though freshly polished and very well kept.
"This is the temple as you may have figured out, Mrs. Pyra makes sure it is kept spotless, this building is her pride and joy mostly because she designed it herself! There are two rooms on the first floor that house four people. On this floor there are about six they bunk two people each" Ember explained as they started ascending the last flight of stairs
"The Top floor is strictly Mrs. Pyra's, she likes her space" she finished as they came to a door at the top of the stair case.
"Thus theirs a door at the top" Flame said leaning against the stone wall
Ember knocked gently on the door and waited a moment. The silence was broken by a firm female voice on the other side
"Who is it?" the woman called
"Mrs. Pyra it is me Ember, I wish to speak with you for a moment. I assure you it won't take long" she replied
"Very well, you may come in" she stated allowing them entrance as Ember pushed the door open with a smile revealing a full grown red dragoness standing on the other side.
She was of a feminine build fully grown, her scales were bright red her underbelly and wing membrane were white. Her eyes were seemingly glowing blue. She had horns that resemble Ignitus' and a series of ivory white needle like spines protruding from her neck down to her spiked tail blade.
"Hello Mrs. Pyra, how are you?" Ember asked politely
"Good my child, why are you here?" Pyra asked as her eyes widened at the sight of a half grown purple dragon
"Well you're an odd one aren't you, I haven't ever seen a dragon of your color before. Tell me, what is your element my dear?" Pyra asked Spyro politely
"Well…" he hesitated for a moment "All of them. Fire, ice, electricity, and earth"
"So my suspicion is correct, you are the prophesized purple dragon, and that must be Cynder!" she stated with enthusiasm
"Yes" he answered
"Lovely! The two of you have returned at last! We shall have a celebration!" she exclaimed
"Uhm… that's really not necessary" Spyro tried to explain
"Nonsense! You two saved the world you deserve a night of celebration! Plus there is a storm brewing outside we will have a room set up for you by the time you are ready to leave the celebration" Pyra stated with a smile
"I guess if there is nothing we can say to convince you otherwise, that will be wonderful" Cynder said reluctantly
"Great! This evening about sunset, it will be in the ball room. Ember it is yours and flames job to show them to the ball room"
"Yes Ma'am" Ember nodded
A moment of silence passed as Pyra turned around and started walking towards her personal library where she had been reading a book when she turned to look back to Ember "Well… Was there anything else?"
"Huh? Oh.. No Ma'am that was it…. We'll be on our way now"
"Carry on" Pyra said walking back to her book as the four dragons left the room and exited the building
"They really do make a lovely couple" she said with a smile
Nearing sunset
In the garden
They walked through the paths of the garden Flame and Ember with their tails intertwined and Spyro and Cynder fallowing a few feet behind, nuzzling each other as they walked. They eventually reached the end of the path at the exit of the garden and the two couples stood under the large arched gate way looking across the street at the ball room.
It was elegantly built from all angles it had two white pillars in front on either sides of the door, the door was currently open, revealing people inside placing platters of food and drink on tables lining the back wall of the room.
"Let's go in and see if they are ready yet" Ember said as she started walking across the street with flame right beside her.
The four dragons walked into the ballroom the back wall was lined with food tables and beverages and at the left and right were tables and chairs leaving a large space in between. They noticed moles still placing a few trays on the tables when Pyra walked up to them with a smile
"Hello friends! How are you this evening?"
"Good, thank you" Spyro answered
"Wonderful to hear! You can take a seat anywhere and we will start when everyone gets here"
They nodded turning to look at a row of tables with chairs scattered around for the moles and cheetah people. They walked up to a table with no chairs that was just big enough for four.
"So; what is your background?" Cynder asked
"Whose?" Ember asked "Mine or fames?"
"Well.. Both I guess"
"It's um.. Kind of a long and sad story. I don't really want to go through that right now"
"Oh that's fine, I can relate"
"Yea you don't know how often we hear that"
"I can imagine, but in my case it's true. I know it doesn't help any to try an relate and could actually make it worse but keep in mind there are some people out there who understand"
"I know, but when you're dealing with the images of your mother being killed in front of you while trying to protect you and your father blaming you for her death, every day growing farther and farther away from you it's kind of hard to listen"
Cynders eyes widened and Spyro looked and Ember with sympathy
"I'm so sorry.." Cynder tried to sympathize
"It's fine.. You think my story is bad? You should hear flames.. He lost his whole family in that attack of Malifor, now he is forced to live with an abusive family"
Flame kept his head down as Ember draped a wing over his shoulders.
"That's awful" said Spyro
"That's why I was going to ask you two…" Ember gave a ragged sigh "we are so tired of this place, it holds nothing but pain for us, yes there is nice people around the city but what we have to live with here is un bearable we want to leave this place and start a new on our own, make a better life for ourselves. And you two are our chance to leave, we don't know the route out of here we would get lost on our own. So can we fallow you back to WarFang?"
Spyro and Cynder glanced at each other and before Spyro could speak Cynder answered
"Yes of course you can, everyone needs a clean start every once in a while"
Ember smiled "Oh thank you!"
"Just meet us in the morning at day break in the garden"
While they were talking the room had filled with various creatures and suddenly they heard pyra's voice breaking through the chattering crowd behind them
"Welcome everyone! We are here to celebrate the returning of the prophesized purple dragon! Please have fun and enjoy your selves!"
For a second everyone gave a happy cheer and then went back to talking as a band of moles started playing music. Each one of them had their various stringed instrument and were sitting in a small semi-circle at the end of the food tables.
The four dragons watched as six figures walked to the center of the room. One was an orange tiger dressed in a long red dress with a matching scarf over her shoulders and running down her arms to be held in her paws. A snow leopard dressed in a long light blue dress with a matching scarf hanging on the back of her neck and wrapped around her arms leading down to her paws. A solid black panther she was wearing a long pink dress with long sleeves and a matching sheer veil over her face. An orange tiger who was wearing a long yellow dress with long sleeves and a matching veil over her face. A solid white panther that was wearing red dress with a matching scarf over her shoulders leading down her arms and into her paws, and a pink panther she was wearing a black dress with a matching veil over her face.
They gathered in a circle in the center of the room for a second then spread out and started dancing.
"Wow, I didn't know there was going to be a performance" Cynder said while nuzzling Spyro
"Yes. Mrs. Pyra loves her dance group, she has them perform for everything and their really very good too" Ember explained
As the night went on they ate and talked and became good friends learning about each other, They were laughing and having a nice time when a black dragon slightly larger than flame walked up beside Ember.
"Well, well it's not every day you see a dragoness of such a color as you, I like it" He said looking to Ember
"Uhm.. Thanks?.." Ember said hesitantly
"Come take a walk with me, we can hang out somewhere else"
"No thanks, I'm perfectly fine right here. But feel free to re locate yourself, I have no problem with you leaving"
Cynder and Spyro chuckled as flame slowly started to get up
"What did you just say to me?"
"The nice lady told you to leave her alone now get your sorry ass out of here before I have to kick it out" Flame growled as he turned to face the black dragon
"Hah! Try it little boy"
Flame smirked for a second then punched him dead in the snout knocking the black dragon backwards, when he finally regained his balance he lifted his paw to his snout to find out it was bleeding and broken.
At this point everyone had become aware of the commotion and was watching as the dragon tried to throw a punch back but flame caught his paw before it made contact and twisted his arm around breaking it and kicked him backwards sending him hurdling towards the dancers.
Ember and Cynder gasped when they saw that thinking he would hurt one of the ladies when suddenly one of them grabbed his arm and spun him around tossing him to the next dancer and all six of them repeated that when the last one stopped him and shoved him out the door.
Everyone started laughing and cheering, this caused Pyra to come out of the back room to see what was going on. When one of her dancers told her what happened she started laughing and walked up to Flame.
"Nice job Flame! That man is so self-centered he thinks he's the Ancestors gift to dragonesses! I'm glad you put him in his place" Pyra praised
"Thanks"
"I think its probably time for us to go" Ember said with a yawn "can we stay in the temple tonight Mrs. Pyra?" Ember asked
"Why of course why don't you take the room beside Spyro and Cynders, they are in room four on the second floor"
"Thank you so much"
"Yea I think we'll fallow you" Spyro added while standing up with Cynder standing beside him
They walked out the door saying goodnight to Pyra and started down the side walk towards the temple a few buildings down.
"Flame that was nice standing up for Ember like that" Cynder stated with a smile
"And hilarious" Spyro added
"I was only taking care of what I love"
At that moment the thunder roared above them startling them.
"We should probably hurry" Ember said as they all took off in a sprint towards the temple.
They made it to the door of the temple just when the rain started pouring down and they rushed inside.
"Well that was close" Cynder said gazing outside at the pouring rain
"Yea… I'm tired" Ember sad with a yawn
"Me too" Cynder agreed "I'm going to bed" she said as her and Ember walked away Spyro and Flame still gazing at the storm and talking
"Uhm.. Guys? Ya coming?" Cynder said breaking their gaze
"What, where?" Spyro said confused for a moment
"Apparently not.. Good night" Ember teased as her and Cynder turned around and walked up the stairs.
"Oh!" Spyro said turning and walking after Cynder who had already made it to her room and shut the door in Spyros face, Flame fallowed suit and Ember giggled shutting the door just as he reached it
"Oh come on, I beat up a dumbass for you and this is how you repay me?" flame said in a joking tone when the door opened to let him in.
"Hey he got in what about me?"
Cynder giggled "fine I guess I'll let you in" she opened the door and smiled as she walked to her separate sleeping pillow and laid down
"Thank you" Spyro laughed shutting the door and walking to his sleeping pillow and to fall asleep.