Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.

John Wayne

Brian's POV

It has been two days since the Dark Master's death, Spyro and Cynder took some time of to be alone together, Amber finished her training as a healer and now traveled between Warfang and other settlements bringing medicine and caring for the sick. Forge was getting straight A's in school and actually got a job already.

Okay, so it was just keeping the fires hot at a general store, but he loved it.

Dixon and the Rangers had started building a barracks/armory near the temple, complete with an interesting way to harness a lightning dragon's power into batteries, Volteer was amazed to say the least.

It was daybreak as I flew over the market as I made way to the temple, most everyone was still in bed so I had the skies to myself. My job for now was to observe the dragon realms and report back to Terrador any changes I discovered.

Unfortunately, with the whole remade world around us, very few places remained the same. So I was very,very busy.

Still, the temple was a welcome sight. Well then again, home is always a welcome sight. I landed in the courtyard without making a noise. The stone brick hallways were lit by the torches dancing flame as I walked through them. Not a noise could be heard, overall, the temple was peaceful and quiet. . .

Wait, not a noise was heard. not even the crackle of the candles flame. There was no sound period. I tried to echo but never got anything back, that worried me.

We had and Intruder in the temple, one skilled in magic. I better find him and stop him.

And then I heard a voice, that caught me off guard.

"Hello? Please can anyone hear me?" I recognized it as Shade's voice, or rather, her telepathy.

"Yeah Shade I can hear you," I replied, "The whole temple is silent, I think we have an intruder, where are you?"

"In my room," Shade replied, "I thought I saw Appa, he's just standing out in the hall. I'm trapped!"

Appa? I thought Dix had shot him in the head point blank, how was he still alive? I had two objectives right now: Get Shade to safety and engage Appa. Thankfully Shade's room was special, Amber chose that room before Shade became her roommate for a reason: the bookshelf.

"Shade, I'm on my way but listen to me. The bookshelf on the back wall is a hidden door into the temple's maintenance tunnels. escape through them and get somewhere safe for now. ETA two minutes. " I explained as I picked up the pace and started running.

Upon rounding the corner I found the ape pacing back and forth in the hall, clearly very impatient. There was some sort of scroll with glowing words on it hovering in the air. I made a run for the scroll, hopefully the source of this unexpected silencing magic. As soon as I closed the scroll and retreated up into the rafters with it, sound began to return. Appa didn't notice, maybe because he was talking to himself.

"Curse those human animals! If it wasn't for them I could of extracted my revenge already." Appa swore as he continued to pace around, "I shall drink of their spilled blood, first the dragons, and then the humans. With the Scroll of Deceit in place, they will never hear anything. Ive made sure of that."

Appa turned towards my general direction giving me a clear view of his face.

Or what was left of it after the headshot, it was a hideous mess.

The entire right side of his jaw was gone, the fatal wound sealed by a weird flaming shadow substance that stained his fur.

"You know, you really need to learn to stop thinking outloud," I growled causing him to freeze in place, "Then you might of noticed that your scroll is missing."

"Show yourself coward!" Appa yelled as he summoned a staff of some kind as he moved around looking for me. Silently I dropped down to the floor and waited for him to get in front of the window. He was moving too slow, I wanted to get rid of him before someone else wakes up and walks into the crossfire. I decided to press my advantage and get Appa to make a mistake.

"Funny, isn't it?" I taunted, "You pride yourself in being of a dark nature, darkness is where you get your strength, your power. But put you in a dark room and you squirm like an insect." Appa was starting to sweat and shake. It was working.

"But do you know what's even more scary then a dark room Dirtbag?" I continued, "Being trapped in the said room with a single Night Fury."

"S-Single? Y-you mean there's more than one of you?" Appa shuddered at the thought.

"Plenty more Mate," Another voice called out, It was Jim's. That guy's clever.

"Of course there is, I mean we've got what eight, twelve Night Furys in this temple right now?" I asked playing along. Appa was terrified now as he started to back away, stepping right in front of the window.

I striked right away, teeth and claws extended.

The glass shattered as Appa was slammed into window. the noise waking half the temple. I let Appa drop as I opened my wings and flew back inside. Appa use some sort of magic to break his own fall and got away. Let him run, I'm more concerned about Shade right now. That's the second or third time Appa tried to make a move, and he showed no signs of slowing down. A bullet to the head didn't kill him, but I did find one weakness . . .

Night furaphobia, fear of the Night Furys, all of them.

When I found Shade, I told her of my plan and she agreed. Heck, she was asking me to get going already. As soon as I reported to Terrador what I found on my mapping mission I went down to where the broken window shattered on the ground and found a little of Appa's fur.

I had his sent, Shade's predator will soon become her prey. I took to the skies tracking the ape. . .