Author's note
Oh noes Politics duck in cover.
Meh not really more of arguments over who gets a bigger slice of the metaphorical cake.
Chapter 11: That which bothers
The Desert ambassador glared at Hydrius.
"You water dragons think you are better than most!" He shouted.
Hydrius turned to him, Hydrius looked calm but his eyes revealed a blazing inferno of anger.
"Aldun, you are such a hypocrite." Hydrius retorted calmly. "You tread over everyone else and your son thinks he has free reign over everything."
"My son deserves respect I advise you show it to him!" Aldun yelled.
"As soon as he shows some to my son." Hydrius said as he wiped Aldun saliva from his face.
Venik sighed as he walked past.
"This place is a minefield." Venik muttered to himself.
Volia was still in a meeting with the rest of the guardians and the council discussing Tixir's plan to move to Warfang. Spyro and Cynder walked by him but he did not notice he was busy walking back to his room, suddenly he found himself plowed over by six electricity hatchlings.
"Hello Volia's friend." One chirped. "We want to go to the park but our parents say we need someone to watch us and they are busy."
Venik smiled Volias little crew of hatchlings were so full of energy they made him feel as if all the bad in the world has just faded away. The hatchlings got off of him and circled him as they all walked to the garden in the temple. When they got there he sat down and watched them as they ran around the grass circling around the flower beds. Four of them stopped and ran over to Venik. Venik noticed it was the four siblings the two younger ones were girls.
"Want to play with us." The youngest of them asked.
Venik shook his head.
"He is too busy dreaming about Volia." The oldest teased.
Venik did not say anything. The hatchlings wasted no time.
The oldest one jumped in front of him, followed by the youngest male, than the oldest female, and finally the youngest of them all. The four of them began to sing like a barbershop quartet.
"Volia is in love with Venik oh it's so true." The eldest sang.
"Oh she loves you oh yeah its true." The second one sang.
"You Love her oh yes you do." The third one sang.
"Oh yes its true." The fourth one sang.
"And you know it too." They all finished.
Venik snickered. The song was a bit off key and out of sync, it seemed to not make sense at some points but Venik got what they were going at he might as well let them have fun.
"Oh so you want to play that game huh trying to get a response from me." Venik said with a smile.
"eek." The youngest said with a giggle as they all bolted with Venik chasing them.
The two that kept playing were the oldest of Volias students standing out from the four siblings at nine years old. They looked over to see Venik chasing the siblings and smiled at each other.
"Shall we?" The male asked.
The female nodded.
Cynder had split off from Spyro for just a moment while they were talking to Hydrius. She now found herself cornered by the pompous Sawdust.
"Hello Darling." Sawdust said as he did a quick bow.
"Ugh." Cynder thought.
"I would like to spend the evening with you, why don't we go walk through the gardens." Sawdust suggested.
Cynder looked away and rolled her eyes. She began thinking of an excuse to get away from him when Spyro approached.
"Sorry I lost you there for a moment Cynder." Spyro said as he approached.
Spyro noticed Sawdust standing there.
"You must be Aldun's son Sawdust." Spyro said trying to be civil.
Sawdust snorted.
"Please do not interrupt when I am courting a beautiful dragoness." Sawdust said with a sneer.
Cynder pushed past Sawdust and nuzzled against Spyro.
"First I am spoken for." Cynder hissed. "Second don't speak to my mate like that."
Sawdust's face when from shock to anger to a confident smile.
"He does not look very powerful." Sawdust gloated. "A dragoness of your stature deserves someone from a noble bloodline."
"Ha!" Cynder voiced. "You may be noble but you are a terrible individual, you are not looking for someone to care about you just want someone to show off."
Cynder bared her teeth and snarled.
"Keep away from me!" Cynder hissed.
Sawdust frowned.
"Very well bitch." Sawdust mumbled as he turned around.
Sawdust yelped as electricity shot through his body.
"NO ONE CALLS MY MATE A BITCH!" Spyro shouted.
Sawdust got up and turned around to see Spyro in a combat stance.
"So you want to fight very well then." Sawdust chuckled.
The two circled around the open room. Sawdust attack first he leaped at Spyro with his claws. Spyro easily blocked it with his wings. Spyro forced his wings open causing Sawdust to stumble back, Sawdust sent an earth bullet at Spyro but it crumbled and only pellets of dirt and rock hit Spyro.
"You never trained in combat have you?" Spyro asked.
Sawdust did not answer he just snarled and charged at Spyro. Spyro sidestepped his reckless charge and brought his paw down on Sawdust's neck. Spyro stood on it gently enough to let him breath but hard enough to hold him down.
"You need to learn to respect others." Spyro said. "Or this treatment may become common for you."
"What is going on here." Aldun said as he came running into the room. "Attacking my son you have some nerve."
"He should know better than to challenge me." Spyro said as he walked back over to Cynder.
Aldun snarled.
"You keep away from my son and away from his business." Aldun said.
"When he is pestering my mate I will intervene." Spyro retorted.
Aldun was about to push the subject when Hydrius entered the room.
"Are you about to start an incident because Warfang has more support than the eastern dragons and a war can't be started over Disputed between young dragons." Hydrius stated.
Aldun growled and ushered his son to follow him out.
"We won't have to deal with him for much longer the eastern dragons leader will be arriving soon." Hydrius said.
"Why?" Spyro asked.
"it will be good to see him after all these years he is an old friend after all." Hydrius chimed. "Now before I have to pull your ass out of the fire again why don't you two find something else to do."
Spyro and Cynder both nodded to him and left the room and began wandering through the hallways of the temple.
"So is there anything you want to do?" Spyro asked.
"Gardens?" Cynder suggested. "Or we could go exploring."
"It would be nice to stretch our wings." Spyro replied as he stretched his wings out.
Cynder nodded and they began to walk to the temple entrance. Along the way they passed Lute and Volteer escorting Vinda and Volia.
"What going on there?" Cynder wondered aloud.
"Guardian business perhaps." Spyro suggested as they left the temple.
Volteer closed the door to his study. Volia and Vinda sat among the various oddities that inhabited Volteers room while Lute rested on the large cushion near the side of the decorative room.
"Why have you called us here?" Volia asked.
Volteer sighed.
"I'm not sure how to tell you this." Volteer said in an unusually serious voice.
"What's going on?" Vinda asked.
"What do you know about your parents?" Lute asked.
"Not much other than the fact that they were forced to give us away when we were eggs." Vinda stated.
Volia gave Volteer a confused glance.
"Where are you going with this?" She asked.
But the answer came to her.
"Are you our…" Volia looked stunned.
Volteer nodded.
"It all makes sense now." Vinda stated. "Why we could never meet our parents, it was all because you were bound by protocol."
Lute nodded. Vinda and Volia sprang to their feet and embraced their parents.
"Its so hard to believe." Volia stated.
"We did everything to confirm it." Lute said. "We wanted to make sure it is true."
"Your adoptive parents left information that we managed to find among the many documents here in Warfang." Volteer stated. "Very perplexing but it was like they suspected that we would look and so the cleverly hid the documents in a place we would most certainly look."
"Your study?" Vinda asked.
"Certainly." Volteer chimed. "How they got in has certainly vexed me but the files are there if you would like to read them."
Vinda walked over and quickly read them while Volia looked at her hopefully. After a short moment Vinda stopped reading and Turned to Volia.
"They are our parents alright our foster parents confirmed it and this is their writing." Vinda stated.
Volia Jumped at Volteer and hugged him and Volteer returned the hug. Vinda meanwhile hugged Lute.
"This has been a long time coming." Lute whispered.
"Yes it has been and I am glad that I finally found you." Vinda whispered back.
Both group edged closer together until they were in one big embrace. They were so busy hugging they did not notice the crack in the door where the other guardians sat watching.
"Glad to see that everything is finally settling down." Dahlia whispered.
"Yeah it is good to see Vinda happy." Frostbite replied in a hushed voice.
The guardians quietly closed the door and wandered off to their own hobbies.
Flame walked by Terrador and Tixir both were laughing. Flame stood there shocked.
"Terrador…laughing." Flame thought. "I must be going crazy."
Terrador waved to Tixir as the two separated and then Terrador noticed Flame.
"Ah Flame." Terrador chimed. "Good to see you, how is Ember?"
"She is happy that we no longer have to hide our relationship." Flame said. "Have you gone to see Jade yet?"
Terrador frowned.
"She was not conscious, the doctors say she that it is rare for her to be and that when she is she does not respond to anything." Terrador said in a sad voice.
"I'm sorry." Flame said as tear came to his eyes.
"Its not your fault, it's the apes." Terrador said.
"Its not fair!" Flame shouted as tears began to slide down his scales from his eyes. "All of us deserve to be happy and live a happy life with loved ones but the apes took your away!"
Flame began crying. Terrador just sat there surprised by Flames outburst and sympathy for a foolish old dragon that tried to wreck his relationship Terrador smiled.
"Flame you should not be crying lift your head and smile because you have given me something I never had growing up." Terrador stated.
Flame looked at him with a confused look on his face.
"Huh?" Flame said as he wiped tears from his face.
"You have shown sympathy to me." Terrador said as he lowered his head to be close to flame while quieting his voice. "You have shown this foolish old dragon who has only been looked down upon and followed a dying code Sympathy when he tried to tear you away from what you care about."
Flame looked at him.
"What about your family?" Flame asked.
"Mother died at birth." Terrador stated. "And if my father's hostility to me was any indication he blamed me."
Flame gasped and a second voice did too. Both turned to see Ember standing there with shock on her face. Terrador turned to Flame.
"Perhaps we should continue this story in private." Terrador said and motioned for them to follow him.
They made their way through the temple to Terrador's room. Like before Terrador sat on his cushion and Flame and Ember took position on the floor in front of him, they had lots of room on the floor as Terrador's room lacked many decorations. There were some pieces of armor of various sizes sitting around the room. Terrador sighed and took a deep breath.
"My father always pushed me past the limit." Terrador began. "He never showed me respect."
Terrador struggled to rise to his feet. He was only a hatchling yet his father was testing him as if he was an adult.
"Get up you wimp." Limestone shouted.
"Please father I'm exhausted." Terrador begged tear forming in his eyes.
Limestone smacked his son sending flying across the dirt floor of the training grounds. He then walked over.
"So weak you expect to be powerful when you can't even handle sustained combat." He hissed.
"Mommy!" Terrador cried.
"She's gone you made sure of that." Limestone stated emotionlessly as he walked away.
"y-y-you can't be my real father." Terrador stuttered behind tears.
"Well I am so suck it up." Limestone retorted.
"He pushed me every day." Terrador said. "He seemed to get some sick pleasure out of it."
Terrador shuffled a bit.
"I was about 13 when I finally cracked and hid away my emotions at least until I met Jade." Terrador said. "I thought that if I hid them and actually completed his challenge, he just kept hitting me down, but there was a day when I met a group of dragons who made the next seven years of my life some of the best ever."
The targets finally stopped coming and Terrador stood in the middle of the area smiling and holding his head high. He had taken no hits and had held off and onslaught of targets. The sound off wings appeared behind him and Terrador assumed an emotionless outlook.
"Pathetic." Limestone hissed.
Terrador was unfazed he just stood there with a calm look on his face.
"That was sloppy uncoordinated and slow." He continued. "You will never become a guardian if you keep this up."
Terrador had enough of this his life has been hell due to this sad excuse of a dragon.
"Now I know why mother gave up on life when I was born." Terrador said.
Limestone turned.
"It was not me that caused her death." Terrador said with a dark smile. "It was you and your declining attitude, you never loved her."
Limestone stood there for a moment than let out an enraged roar and struck young Terrador across the face. Terrador was still standing he turned his head back to face his father and spat blood on the ground in front of him before taking his paw and putting it to the gash on his cheek. He let the blood coat his paw than wiped it on his father's chest.
"Now you are stained with my blood as well as hers." Terrador said with a dark chuckle.
Limestone went berserk he beat down Terrador and walked away leaving a semi-conscious Terrador lying on the area floor.
"I will join you shortly mother." Terrador whispered with a smile he closed his eyes and heard footsteps approaching him multiple footsteps.
Terrador awoke in Warfangs hospital. He looked around and noticed four dragons his age staring at him. They were each a different colour meaning one was a red fire dragon one was an ice blue ice dragon one was a yellow electricity dragoness and one was a green earth dragon.
"Hiya." The dragoness chimed.
"You are lucky to be alive even after we hauled you here from the arena." The earth dragon said before sticking out a paw. "Names Graphite and my friends are Coal, Stutter, and Melive."
"Hi." Coal the fire dragon said.
"H-h-ello." Stutter the ice dragon stutter.
Terrador sat there for a moment considering these four odd dragons.
"I'm Terrador." He finally said as he put his paw to graphite's and shook it.
"They became close friends, and even joined me on the field some days to the annoyance of my father." Terrador chuckled. "He hated them and told them off but they stood defiantly beside me, I was glad they were there."
"what happened to your father?" Flame asked.
"Much like Jade he was captured by the apes." Terrador said. "He fared better though and never broke."
Terrador snorted.
"I had finished guardian training and was a full-fledged guardian." Terrador began. "This was five years after the incident with Jade.
Terrador walked up to the door into the chamber near the prison he knew it was the torture room. He carefully opened the opened the door and peered through there was no one in there except a dragon. Terrador entered carefully and walked up to the dragon expecting a weak and feeble dragon who would be begging to die instead he got a hostile growl and two defiant brown eyes looked at him.
"Took you long enough." The voice growled.
"Father." Terrador muttered.
He recognized his dusty colour and noticed the marks on his body that the apes have caused.
"Get me out of here so I can do my job." Limestone growled.
"My mission is to handle these apes." Terrador began. "Saving prisoners is a secondary."
Limestone looked at him with anger.
"Don't you fucking dare walk away from me!" Limestone snarled as Terrador left the room. "YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE SHI-."
Terrador closed the door behind him as he left.
"You left him there." Flame said.
"Officially he would have been a hindrance because of his wounds unofficially it was revenge." Terrador said.
"What happened to him?" Ember asked.
"The soldiers behind me rescued him." Terrador replied. "He was not that old than so if the war did not kill him I hope he is miserable."
Flame and Ember stayed there with Terrador discussing the issue before leaving when the sun set. Both yawned as they head for their room passing a similarly yawning Spyro and Cynder. Flame and Ember cuddled together in their room and drifted off to sleep.
Author's note
Damn a lot happened in this chapter. Oh and new characters and developments. Also this has been the longest chapter so far wow.