Chapter 2: Memories

The next day was pretty relaxed for everyone. No one really talked that much; they just enjoyed having their first day off. Spyro wanted to talk to Cynder, but he figured that Sparx would pull the same thing he did yesterday, and he knew that must've hurt Cynder a lot. He didn't talk to Sparx for the whole day, because he was upset towards him. Sparx stayed with Spyro for the morning, but when he got tired of being ignored, he went to go and bother some of the other dragons.

First, he flew into the room with the pool of visions, where Ignitus was. Ignitus was busy looking into the pool of visions. Sparx flew beside his head, looking where he was looking. After a few seconds, he looked at Ignitus. Ignitus knew he was there, but chose not to say anything, hoping that Sparx might just go away. Instead, Sparx started to fly around his head. Ignitus rolled his eyes.

"Hellooo?" Sparx finally said.

Ignitus continued to stay silent, still looking into the pool of visions.

Knowing it would annoy Ignitus, Sparx decided to sing the only song he knew, "Swing low, sweet chariot-"

Sparx stopped when Ignitus looked up at him, unimpressed. He took a long breath and let out, "May I help you, Sparx?"

"Hmm, " Sparx thought, "No. Not really."

"Very well, " he sighed, "Why are you here then? Where's Spyro?"

Sparx shrugged.

Ignitus knew he was lying, but he didn't know why. "Well, go find Flame, then," he suggested, "or Cynder."

Sparx flew out of the room. Jeez, this sucks. Spyro's mad at me, Flame's been acting weird ever since we got back, and there's no way I'm gonna go talk to Cynder.

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"I saw you!" a woman's voice yelled, "You can't lie to me, I saw you!"

"I-I'm sorry" a man's voice replied, "It didn't mean anything. You have to believe me. I promise. I'm sorry."

The woman continued to yell, "I don't care! You still did it. I don't care if you were drunk again."

"I know…" the man said quietly.

"I can't stay here anymore, Ignitus," she said, "I don't want to fight in front of him anymore."

Flame woke up from his dream. He hated those dreams the most. Right before his mom left the temple for good, her and Ignitus never stopped fighting. He remembered that they started fighting because Ignitus would often get drunk, and his mom didn't like that especially since Flame was so young. What Flame didn't know was that he aw the reason for Ignitus' drinking. Ignitus wasn't ready to be a father; he didn't want to take on the responsibility. After that, they started fighting about everything. And then one day she just left. She didn't even say bye. He hated her for that.

He got up and walked out of his room. He thought about going into the room with the pool of visions, but he figured that his dad was there and didn't feel like seeing him. He took the long way around the temple and made his way into the training room. He saw Cynder sitting in front of the big dragon statue. She was staring up at it, expressionless. He decided to walk over and talk to her, as he hadn't introduced himself yet.

"Hey," he said in a low voice, "I'm Flame."

"Hi," she said brightly, "I'm Cynder…but you know that."

"Heh, yeah," he said awkwardly.

Cynder started to apologize about anything she ever did before, but he wasn't listening. He was too busy staring at her. Not because he was attracted to her, but because he felt like he's seen her before (other than when she was considered a monster.) He's seen her emerald-coloured eyes before, but he doesn't know where. He was too lost in his thoughts to realize that she stopped talking.

Wow, this is weird, Cynder thought. He's just, like, staring at me. What is he doing? Is there something on my face?

"Um…hello?" she asked him.

Flame snapped out of what he was thinking about, "Oh, sorry. I just… you look like someone that I know."

Cynder smiled a little, not really knowing what to say. "So, yeah, I'm really sorry about anything I ever did to you," she looked down.

"Oh…" Flame said. He didn't really know what to say to her. He knew that she was under the control of the Dark Master, but she killed his mom. He wasn't quite ready to forgive that so easily. Still, he told her that it was okay and that he understood what she went through. He decided to not tell her what she did to his mom, because he didn't think telling her would do any good; it would just make her feel worse.

She changed the subject, "So, what is this room?"

"It's the training room," he explained, "It was a part of school to come here a couple times a week and train with one of the guardians. You'd train with the guardian that possessed the same element as you."

"So, did you train with Ignitus?" she asked.

He looked down a bit, "Uh, yeah."

She was confused at the way he replied to her, "Tough teacher, huh?"

He looked at her and smiled a little, "You have no idea."

They laughed as Flame told her stories about all of the guardians, and some of the other dragons that taught him. He was a big troublemaker in school alongside his best friend Derrick. Flame didn't stop to think about how he missed everyone and everything; he just enjoyed telling Cynder about how it used to be. Also, Cynder didn't stop to think about how much guilt she felt for taking all these things away from him. Flame and Cynder got along perfectly; they had a lot of things in common personality wise. They let their problems float away for a while as they talked and laughed together.