Legend of Spyro: Stormfront
Chapter 18
"Cyn get up…"
The black dragoness in front of him blinked her eyes wearily.
"Hmmm, Spyro that you?" She responded drowsily.
"Of course Cyn." Spyro responded kindly.
"Since when do you wake me up?" She turned towards him from her from her cushions an amused look on her face.
"Ohhh, um, I couldn't sleep much." Spyro said dismissively trying to avoid the subject. It's not like he needed anyways, he couldn't remember the last time he felt tired. Even after flying for the past two days not once had he felt even winded.
Cynder then remembered her sneaking around last night. Well if you weren't having secret meetings maybe you would sleep more.
Cynder decided now wouldn't be the best time to ask him about Ignitus's and his discussion. She would wheedle whatever it was out of him later. She had a formulated a far more important question during the night, and she was determined to have her answer by the end of the day. Although, she couldn't decide where to ask it, the place and time needed to be right. Cynder stepped off her cushions, and followed Spyro out of her room, and down the dimly lit blue corridor.
They entered the main room where Ignitus was standing next to the ever glowing hourglass.
"Good morning young dragons, I trust you will be on your way soon?"
"Yes, we need to get back to warn the others and prepare." Cynder responded.
"May the ancestors watch and guide you then young dragons."
Spyro stared into the teal blue eyes of the Chronicler, an unseen nod passing between them.
"Your satchels are over by the door. It has been nice to have the both of you; I don't get many visitors you know." Ignitus said with a grin.
"When this is over we'll be sure to return soon." Cynder responded in a cheerful manner.
After throwing on their satchels and final goodbyes Spyro and Cynder exited the Chronicler's Domain and returned the White Isles. This time no voice interrupted them. Spyro was eerily quiet the entire time, Cynder decided to try starting a conversation.
"We're going to need to hurry to get Sparx, and still make goodtime."
"We aren't picking him up." Spyro said with a cold determined tone and continued walking.
Cynder stopped in her tracks and watched Spyro continue a moment before she recomposed herself.
"What? But you do everything together?"
"That was before I knew a war was coming. He'll be safer with mom and dad, and other than us and the Guardians no one knows where they are."
"He's been with you through worse though Spyro."
"That doesn't matter, and we don't know how bad this war is going to get."
"But with us fighting it will be a breeze Spyro."
"I'm not so sure about that…" He trailed off.
Quake rolled over looking at the window that showed an already risen sun, and moaned loudly at its intrusion on his sleep. He tried to roll over and escape its ever brighter rays, however they were inescapable. He got off his cushions and went to the window and closed the green curtains.
"Take that you evil ball of light." He returned to his bed, careful not to step on any of his text books or papers that littered the floor. He had studied for a test the night before last and had not bothered to put them up afterwards. He had no reason to get up today, he had another sparring match with Flame later in the day, but he had plenty of time before that. Sleep retook him quickly however.
"Rise Quake." A mysterious voice ran through his ears.
"But I just got back to bed." He groaned in response without even opening his eyes.
"We do not have time for this young dragon."
"Yeah, whatever," Quake said before opening his eyes to see a teal blue dragon standing before him.
"What the devil!" He said jumping away and crouching low into a battle stance
"There is no need for that here young dragon; do you not remember who I am?" He said calmly.
Quake realized that he was the dragon who helped them fight Spyro, and dropped his battle stance. "You are Ignitus the Chronicler."
"That is correct young dragon; I have summoned you here to tell you something very important."
"Where is here… exactly." He said looking around; it seemed they were on a small island of blue rock surrounded by a blackness that had streaks of color bursting around them, only to disappear a moment later.
"This is a realm of dreams, however that is unimportant. We have far more urgent to discuss." Ignitus said stepping closer to him.
"What is it?" Quake asked curious as to what the Chronicler could possibly want with him.
"In these coming days, you are the most important person next to Spyro himself. He is going to require your help young dragon." He said seriously.
"But I'm nothing compared to Spyro, let alone Cynder. How could I be important?" Quake responded, he didn't like putting himself down like that but facts were facts.
"I want you to trust Spyro, no matter what happens you must know to trust him. He will need your help very soon. It is my belief that you will do what he asks of you, however should you not… he will use force if necessary."
Quake tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. "Use force…" He trailed off.
"Of course both of us would rather not have that happen and would rather have you follow willingly."
"What do I need to do?" Quake asked nervously.
"You will find out soon enough young dragon, however the fate of the dragon race rests with Spyro and yourself." He said as his form began to fade away.
"Wait! What how am I going to help Spyro?" He said his voice growing desperate as he raced towards the fast disappearing Chronicler.
"Trust Spyro Quake." Before he disappeared and everything went black.
"You seem a little distracted Quake." Flame said in mocking tone as he landed another blow to his shoulder. Flame quickly back flipped away from Quake who missed a retaliatory strike. Quake cracked his jaws and let loose an earth missile at Flame.
Flame dodged to the side and spewed a swath of flames from his mouth. Quake threw up an earth barrier between himself and the inferno. The pause gave him a moment to think. Flame was right he was distracted, that encounter with Ignitus had messed with his mind. What was he supposed to do?
Suddenly Flame appeared above the earth barrier hovering in place before releasing another burst of flames.
Quake rolled sideways and stamped his paws on the ground, sending a pillar of earth flying into the sky from underneath Flame.
Flame dropped one wing and flapped as hard as he could with the other, rolling away midair from the incoming bulk of rock. Quake had apparently not paid attention because now Flame was directly over him by an only a few feet.
Flame furled his wings dropping him from the sky.
Quake looked up only to see the incoming danger and had no time to avoid it. He felt a huge weight place on his shoulders and he collapsed to the ground unable to move. He felt Flame's tail blade placed against the back of his neck.
"Game, set and match my friend." A proud Flame triumphantly stated.
"Yeah, yeah, now get off my back." Quake gave and irritated snarl.
Flame complied readily, "What was the deal out there it was like you couldn't catch your focus?"
"I was distracted." Quake spat angrily.
"Distracted by what? We are the only ones here you know. Wait a second… You are thinking of a dragoness aren't you?"
"No I'm not." Quake retorted.
"Fess up Quake who is it? I won't tell her I promise."
"I said it wasn't a dragoness Flame, and I don't want to talk about it."
"Fine big guy, don't come crying to me when you blow it with her then." He said smugly and then walked out of the earthen arena, Terrador having banned them from the tiled ones for fighting to rough, apparently the moles spent days repairing it after their last bout.
Quake snorted loudly, he would have to find something to take his anger out on after this.
Spyro and Cynder touched down on the beach. The blue water lapping up the shore in its endless cycle, marching through time unimpeded.
"How long do you want to break Spyro?" Cynder asked, she hoped they would stay a little it was a beautiful day out, however a little hot.
"Well I was thinking that since we aren't picking up Sparx, we could spend the day here."
"What really? That would be delightful Spyro, but do we really have the time?" She asked skeptically, however inwardly cursing herself this would be a great spot to ask him.
"Well since we're not going to get Sparx, we don't have to go out of our way to reach mom and dad's place. I figured that you might… um, err, spend the day with me…"
"I would love to Spyro." Cynder responded with a flirty twist in her response.
The army camped for another night in the monotonous journey that had now lasted them several weeks. Scouts were deployed to give warning of any other approaching beings. Tents were pitched to provide shelter for the army. The cook's tent was now turned into a black fortress, to prevent any light from the fires from escaping. They were well within enemy territory now, and caution was of utmost importance.
However one terrain feature had broken up their journey today.
The dragons had been flying east as usual towards Warfang, with Erwing at the head of the column. A black began to suddenly materialize through the clouds. Erwing signaled for a stop with his wings, and the army quickly descended from their lofty positions in the clouds. Upon landing Erwing immediately called for his navigator.
"Get that guy-in-back up here immediately." He ordered angrily and word was passed down the chain of dragons. Most were sitting down quietly eagerly taking the rest. Erwing decided it would be best to join them and sat down on his haunches. A few moments later another dragon approached him. He was also a fire dragon like his father with the same orange, fox colored scales. He was smaller than the great general, due to being younger.
"Y-Yes General." He asked nervously.
"Come with me." Erwing responded sternly, before taking off from the ground, the similarly colored dragon took off just behind him.
The smaller dragon hung his head in shame; he was expecting a scolding from his superior. He didn't even know what he had done wrong. Unlike his father he was not brave; in fact he wasn't even a fighter. He preferred books and study and at the youngest of ages he spent hours in the libraries back home. He loved to study maps and charts and the like he found them fascinating. The prospects of visiting unknown lands gave him a huge rush.
However all this knowledge came at a price. Being the son of the greatest military commander in the colonies, and knowing more about the foreign lands outside of the twelve cities got him the position of navigator in the army, popularly referred to as GIB or guy-in-back.
The great fox colored dragon that was his father stopped before him and wheeled about in the sky. He himself slowed and hovered in place.
"What the hell is that son?" He pointed angrily his paw towards what looked like a great sea, however it was completely black with no sign of movement. The forest they had stopped in abruptly stopped at the shore of the great sea.
"I don't know dad." He responded perplexed and curious about the formation. Nowhere in his maps did their mention a sea between them and Warfang. There entire route should have been over land. Which meant… he had flown them off course…?
"We should be on the direct approach to Warfang there shouldn't be any water here. We have been heading due east for over a week now." He said desperately trying to defend himself. He was really going to be in for it after this screw up.
However his father did not heed his words, he snorted loudly in what sounded like disgust.
"Hold on a second, you might not be in trouble yet Rey." His father responded.
"Do you smell that son?" It smells like charcoal. His father looked back towards the great black sea, before abruptly winging downwards and approaching the shore.
As Rey approached the shore he began to make out what looked like hills in the sea. How does a sea have hills? Maybe they were large waves, but then they weren't moving.
His father landed on the shoreline and looked outwards towards the vast sea.
Rey landed next to him and that was when he realized that this was not a sea at all. He looked out on the endless rolling hills and valleys of utter black. The ground had been scorched to ash for miles and miles.
"Wha—what could have done this?" Rey asked in utter awe. He put a paw onto the black scorched earth to insure that what he was seeing was real and felt the grit as the ground crumbled into a black chalk underneath his paw. He picked it back up from the cursed ground and looked at the underside to see that it was stained black.
His father was also examining the ground before him with a piercing gaze without moving or showing any sign of shock.
"This is undoubtedly the doings of that accursed beast Malefor." His father responded grimly.
A shot of fear ran through Rey's veins at the name, the stories of old having been read to him countless time of how the evil purple dragon destroyed so much. "Who were they to oppose such a force?"
"Come were heading back now, we will not find food or shelter within that accursed land, and we must go around." His father said stoically before taking off from the ground and turning back towards the army.
Rey gawked at the site before him one more time before following.
Cynder thought about what was probably the best day of his life as he sat cuddled next to Spyro on the warm beach with a bonfire blazing before them. The sun was slowly sinking below the waves giving off all sorts colors from blue to violet. The sea was sending its lapping waves and sounds towards them. Then she remembered her question, this was perfect time and place for it.
"Spyro?" She asked sheepishly.
"Yes Cyn." He responded lovingly.
"I was wondering after this war was over and a few years have passed would you like to umm, marry me?"'
Now how's that for a cliffhanger ehh? Please review I read each and everyone and respond to as much as I can.
