Chapter 5: Tricks

Flame walked in and saw the three of them, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx, in the middle of the training room. "Uh… what are you guys doing?" Flame asked.

"Nothing!" they each said in unison.

Flame stared at them suspiciously. He wasn't going to tell the Guardians that they were acting weird, but he knew that they were doing something that would get them in trouble. "Well, the Guardians are back… just to let you know."

"Okay," Cynder said quickly with a nervous voice, "thanks!"

After Flame left, Cynder gave both Spyro and Sparx a panicked look. They still needed to bring the giant dragon statue back up before the Guardians walked in and saw that they'd been using the training room without them. She quickly ran over to the door and pulled the lever that would make the statue rise again. She tried to pull it, but it got stuck halfway down. She looked into the small window of the door, and she saw the Guardians starting to walk into the room with the pool of visions, which was right beside the training room.

Shit! She thought. This was her idea, so she knew she'd get in trouble if they found out what they'd been doing. "Spyro!" she whispered, "Come over here and help me pull this down!" Spyro ran over to her immediately and started to pull. Cynder called Sparx over as well, "Sparx, can you go and distract the Guardians? Make sure that they don't come in here before we get the statue up!"

A bright smile came upon Sparx's face, "Haha, sorry, Cindy! You got yourself into this mess."

"Please, Sparx!" she begged desperately.

Sparx looked at Spyro, who was staring back at him. "Come on, Sparx. Just do it."

After lowering his eyes at Cynder, he finally agreed to do it. "Fine, but you owe me."

So, Sparx took the long way around to the Guardians' room. Before he got there, he bumped into Flame.

"Hey," Sparx said, "Wanna help me with something?"

Flame hesitated, "Like what?"

"Spyro and Cynder … mostly Cynder, were fooling around in the training room while the Guardians were out. They can't get the statue to come back up, so Cynder got down on her knees and BEGGED me to distract the Guardians, haha." Sparx explained.

Flamed smiled a little, "Okay, but how are we supposed to distract them?"

"I have an idea…" Sparx stared at Flame mischievously.

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"Aaaaaaaahh!" A dragon cried out.

Sparx burst through the Guardians' door. All of the Guardians' head shot up.

"What's the matter, Sparx?" Ignitus asked, concerned.

"It's Flame! He tripped and he just started screaming his head off!" Sparx exclaimed.

They all began to run towards the door, "Where is he?" Terrador asked Sparx.

Sparx smiled and relaxed against the wall while they all ran out, "Oh, you know, just right out there."

Volteer quickly ran back in the room, and was headed towards to training room. Sparx flew in front of him, blocking his way.

"Woah there… where are you going? Flame's that way," Sparx told Volteer.

"Flame needs ice! I must go into the training room's medical closet to go and get some; you see… ice will help stop any inflammation in the-" Volteer was interrupted.

"Well, isn't Cyril an ice dragon? Can't he help Flame!?" Sparx asked desperately, continuing to block the door.

Volteer gave Sparx an odd look, "Of course not! Elemental ice is much more powerful than a regular pack of it. If Cyril did that then it would only hurt Flame further…" Volteer explained. "Now will you please move out of the way? I need to get in-"

Sparx interrupted him again, "No!"

"Well… why not?" Volteer asked.

Sparx looked behind himself, through the window of the training room, only to see that Cynder and Spyro were still trying to un-jam the lever to raise the dragon statue. What am I going to do!? Sparx thought. He looked back at Volteer, who was still staring at Sparx. Sparx put the back of his hand on his head, "Oh-oh my goodness…" he began.

Volteer looked shocked, "What's the matter, Sparx?"

"I… I think I feel faint…" Sparx said, slowly lowering to the ground. All at once, he stopped flying and started to fall. Volteer caught him in his hand, and lifted him up to get a closer look. "Volteer…" Sparx whispered in a weak voice, "I think I…. I think I see the light…" Sparx reached up to the ceiling. Volteer wasn't sure what to do.

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"Flame! Are you alright?" Ignitus asked, concerned.

Flame was lying on the ground, holding his arm while clenching his teeth, "Agh, I think my shoulder is dislocated…"

Terrador inspected Flame's shoulder, "It doesn't look dislocated to me…-"

"Well it is!" Flame yelled, glaring at Terrador.

Ignitus and Terrador looked at each other. Cyril was on the other side of Flame staring at the wall. He had no idea what to do, and was sort of bored. Where is Volteer with that ice? He thought to himself.

"Okay, Flame," Terrador started, "I'm going to try and pop your shoulder back into place. Now this will hurt quite a bit…-"

Oh no… Flame thought. He remembered his friend Derrick once dislocated his shoulder. He didn't remember how it happened, but he did remember the scream that came out of his friend when his dad popped it back in for him.

Terrador and Ignitus started to lift him up. They put his good shoulder up against the wall, and Terrador put both of his hands on shoulder bad shoulder. Flame closed his eyes and braced himself for what was about to happen. Terrador took a step back and then shoved Flame's shoulder "back into place".

Flame clenched his teeth, "Nngh!" and then slowly slid down to the ground. Fuck Cynder… he thought. He was holding his shoulder.

"Yes, it will hurt for a while, Flame," Ignitus told him, "But if you ice it each day, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Flame said, not wanting to listen to his father anymore. "Thanks, Terrador… I guess…" he whispered to himself. Then, Flame limped away from the Guardians. He made his way into the far entrance of the training room. Spyro and Cynder were still trying to fix the lever. Flame shook his head as he walked over to them.

"Move," he said to them. He then proceeded to lift the lever, push it forward, and then bring it down. The dragon statue started to rise. "You gotta push it," he told the two of them.

Cynder and Spyro both looked at Flame. "What the hell? How did you know to do that?" Cynder asked him, while giving him a suspicious look.

Flame wasn't sure what to say. He didn't want to tell them that he's seen Ignitus do it a million times while giving Flame extra training time and tips. "Uh, I just… thought it might've worked."

"Well, thanks, Flame. You really saved us." Spyro told him. Cynder didn't say anything, she just looked at Flame. She wasn't buying the story he just told them.

Flame lowered his eyes at both of them, "Actually, my shoulder saved you." He then quickly limped to the medical closet, grabbed a pack of ice, and then walked out of the room.

Spyro gave a confused to Cynder, not understand what Flame meant about his shoulder. Cynder looked back at Spyro and shrugged, "I dunno…" she mumbled.

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Cyril was looking down with his eyebrows furrowed at Sparx, who was lying on the ground pretending to feel faint. "I'm sorry, what's the matter with you, again?" Cyril asked.

Sparx rolled his eyes, "I feel faint. You know, light-headed."

"Well, you don't look pale," Cyril pointed out.

Sparx took a deep breath. This was about the fourth time that they've had this conversation. "Well, Cyril, that doesn't change the way I feel. My head hurts a lot."

The rest of the guardians were sitting around the room, bored. They all knew Sparx was faking, except for Cyril, and they didn't seem to care why.

Cyril asked Sparx again, "Do you want some ice for your head? I can go and get some in the medical clos-"

"No." Sparx said dryly, looking straight up at the ceiling.

Everybody stayed silent for a couple minutes. Ignitus yawned.

"So, Sparx, tell me again what's wrong?" Cyril asked. All of the other Guardians sighed.

"Oh my god," Sparx said as he got up and flew towards the door. "You know, I'm actually fine now. Thanks, bye." Sparx flew out of the room and down the hall.

Cyril looked at the rest of the Guardians, "Odd fellow, isn't he?" he chuckled.

"Yes, Cyril," Terrador agreed, "he is…"