Chapter 5

Similarity

A pleasant yawn escaped Orion's mouth as he looked upwards through the break in the snow filled forest. It was pleasantly warm considering the weather the night prior, much more comfortable than before. Still, he began to grow tired of seeing the white powder everywhere. It even got into his fur, getting him wet in some spots.

"How much further?" Orion asked, a hint of complain in his voice.

Isis shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure but we're close."

Cosmo could easily detect the fatigue in her voice. The sleepiness in her eyes was beginning to show as clear as the snow in front of him. He felt a bit guilty and responsible for what she had done.

"Are you alright?" Cosmo asked, worried for her well-being.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

The fur dragon said nothing. Either she was too tired or she knew her silence would answer for her.

Hearing no response, Cosmo continued. "Do you want to stop and rest a bit?"

"No," Isis immediately replied, almost harshly. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine, I can hear the exhaustion in your voice."

"I said I'm fine," Isis snapped. "Stop worrying."

Honestly, her response didn't surprise him one bit.

"You're cranky."

"And?"

"The only time I've seen you cranky was the morning dark being's tried to attack Star."

Isis was silent but continued forward regardless. Orion looked questionably at Cosmo but also said nothing. The yellow dragon sighed in defeat. Isis was too hotheaded sometimes.

"You know me too well." the fur dragon suddenly said. She also sighed, but more out of defeat. "Garipton isn't that far. I can make it. We'll find a place there to rest properly."

"Well that sounds great," Cosmo replied, "But we don't have any money."

Orion showed looked back and showed a toothy grin. "Let me take care of that."

Cosmo flinched and shook his head. "Just," he began, but honestly didn't know what to say. "Don't tell me what you're gonna do."

"Stealing," Isis blurted unsparingly.

"What did I just say?"

"Whatever."

Cosmo eyed that dragon, but let it slide. While he wasn't exactly used to the behavior of a tired Isis, he knew what to expect from her. In the meantime, his mind began to ponder of what was ahead of him.

He personally never got to see the city Garipton. Clawstone was an interesting place for sure but he figured if a town was that close to a large snow capped mountain they must get the occasional avalanche. Anyways, Isis knew more about that than he did. She claimed to be a little bit of the explorer way back the first time she was a dragon.

Before he realized it, they reached a break in the trees and revealed the city of Garipton. It didn't look too large to be honest but Cosmo was relieved to see civilization again. Staying on the path, although it was a bit unclear of where it was due to snow, they arrived to the nearest gate of the wall protected city. Orion sighed and polymorphed into a smaller fox, small enough to ride of Cosmo's back. His cold feet made Cosmo shiver for a moment before he turned at the fox with a disapproving look, but didn't care enough to do anything about it.

"Halt!" A strong voice emanated from a booth off to the side. The duo stopped just before passing the walls into the city itself. A young gray dragon with yellow horns emerged as he quickly made his way over to them. He was eyeing Isis and Orion more than Cosmo though.

"Is there a problem?" Isis asked in the nicest voice she could muster.

"Hmm," the guard looked Isis over. "I see . . . you're a fur dragon. We don't see many of you around here."

"Is there a problem with that?"

"No no," the guard chuckled. "It's just I'm a guard, suspicion is my occupation." He then turned toward the small fox on Cosmo's back. "I assume this is a pet?"

"Yes," Cosmo immediately responded. "A pet, a nice pet might I add."

The yellow dragon could see the gaze that Orion was giving but disregarded it.

The guard gave a small grin. "I see, I've never seen someone with a fox as a pet before. Quite unusual. Well sorry to keep you. You may proceed into Garipton."

Isis said nothing as she quickly led the way into the streets of the city, which was mostly clear of snow. A few dragons seemed to be out and about but paid little attention to the odd trio walking the streets. There wasn't much to say about Garipton so far. There were buildings on both sides of the streets but Cosmo assumed they were residential from the way they were built.

"So now what?" Cosmo asked.

"Sleep," Isis simply replied. "Find inn, or garage to steal."

Cosmo looked toward the sleep deprived dragoness. "Well that sounds good, let's find a garage to steal."

Orion grinned, "Steal a garage? What's that?"

Then the fox caught something to whiff in the air. He flexed his nose and sniffed.

"A type of housing to store vehicles . . . or junk," Cosmo replied.

"I smell smoke," the canid said suddenly.

"Smoke?"

"Smells like wood is burning. My nose never fails me."

"Someone is probably burning it in their fireplace," Cosmo explained. "It's winter after all."

"But it smells strong."

"Cosmo," Isis interrupted, pointing toward the left with her paw. "Look."

So he did. The yellow dragon was greeted to see a pillar of smoke rising into the sky. Now that they were quiet, he could also hear a commotion in the distance. Did someone's home catch on fire?

"Something seems to be burning—"

"Look out!"

Cosmo barely had enough time to turn around to see a white dragon fall out of the air and collide straight into him. Orion leaped off the yellow dragon's back as he fell to the stony ground. The air in his lungs escaped as he felt dazed by whatever had just happened.

"Oh no! Not again! I really don't want to be the EMT this time."

"The what?" Orion asked, genuinely more curious than concerned.

"It's okay," Cosmo calmly replied. He looked up to see a white dragoness four small light tan horns on her head. She reached her paw down, which Cosmo grabbed. He was heaved upwards to his feet easily. "What happened?"

"It's my fault, I have trouble flying sometimes, especially if there's cross currents. Stupid wind."

This dragon's voice sounded familiar. In fact, she looked familiar too.

"What?" Isis asked.

"Oh, I was in a hurry. I'm late for training."

"Training?"

"Firefighter training," the dragoness replied with a grin on her face.

"Ah," Orion began, "So that's what that pillar of smoke over there is.

"Ah biscuits!" the dragoness turned toward the sight. "I have to go, I'm really sorry about crashing into you. Maybe I'll see you around."

Before Cosmo could utter a syllable she was in the air again. The dragon had him intrigued. She looked so familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Well that was weird," Orion sneered.

The fur dragon agreed. "Sure was. Surprising to know that there are firefighters here though. I don't remember anything like that in Warfang."

"Well if you throw a bunch of fire breathing reptiles into a city with flammable homes there's bound to be something going wrong sooner or later."

"You alright Cosmo?" Isis asked, looking him over. "Nothing broken, no scratches either. Surprising."

"Isis," Cosmo began. "Did she seem familiar to you?"

Isis shook her head. "Honestly Cosmo, I'm a walking zombie right now. I wasn't paying her much attention. Why?"

Cosmo shrugged. "Just got a sense of deja-vu when I saw her."

"Maybe you can track her down if she's so interesting to you," Orion suggested.

Cosmo looked toward Isis, who narrowed her eyes toward him in response. "Up to you Isis."

"Fine," she replied. "Let's see who this dragon girl is. Afterwards, we're going to bed."

Isis trotted passed Cosmo as he rolled his eyes. "Alright dear."

It didn't take long to arrive at the sight of the fire. It was a small open area with a small two story burning building in the middle. It almost seemed out of control, but many dragons were stationed around to make sure everything was going as planned. There were also stone walls surrounding the sight to prevent the fire from spreading.

Before Cosmo could enter the area, he was stopped by a nearby dragon, assumed to be a firefighter. "Excuse me, you need to stay behind the yellow line for safety reasons."

The trio looked down and saw the a thick line drawn into the stoney ground.

"Thanks," Cosmo replied. "Is it okay for us to watch?"

The firefighter nodded. "Of course. We have dragons coming to watch our training sessions sometimes. Some of us are happy to show our skills to the residents here."

The trio looked towards the building with recreation. Dragons would run in, dragons would run out. Meanwhile the burning blaze inside seemed to die down minute by minute. Cosmo noticed some dragons on the roof knocking holes in the ceiling as well. It certainly looked like they knew what they were doing.

"As the fire burns," the firefighter began to explain. "Smoke builds up inside, barely able to escape. It makes breathing rather difficult, so we knock holes in the roof and windows to ventilate the area. We then send a team inside to douse the fires."

"Seems simple," Isis said.

"Not always," the firefighter retorted. "Sometimes we have to worry about cave-ins and even explosions. You wouldn't believe some of the things dragons keep in their homes that can explode when a fire gets to it. I remember back about twenty years ago someone was studying titanium in their home. Burning titanium doesn't agree with water very well so it normally explodes. It's very dangerous stuff to be honest."

The group continued to watch as the fire was slowly but surely doused and put out. Any bystanders that were watching clapped as several dragons emerged from the entrance of the building. One of which was a white dragoness with a red hard hat on her head. It took her a moment, but she noticed Cosmo, Isis, and Orion standing off to the side.

"Hey!" the dragoness exclaimed as she waved. She immediately began her way toward them as the firefighter beside the trio eyed her curiously.

"Yin," he began. "You were late."

"I know, I'm sorry."

The other firefighter sighed. Cosmo assumed he must have been fire chief of the squad. "It's okay, as long as you got here in time for training. Just please try to refrain from being late in the future."

Yin, could it be?

Yin bowed her head quickly out of respect. "Thank you Chief Battalion."

The chief grinned toward her then walked away toward the former burning building. Yin turned to Cosmo and bowed her head again toward him.

"I didn't expect to see you here. I guess you want another apology from me?"

"No," Cosmo replied, shaking his head. "I was just curious."

"Oh? About what may I ask? Was it firefighting?"

"Erm . . . yes." Honestly, Cosmo wanted to know. Was this the same Yin from all those months ago? Or did this happen to be a different Yin.

Yin chuckled for a moment before continuing. "I see, I'm not really an expert but I'll give it my best. Maybe I can get some oral practice for the upcoming test. Firefighting is all but a simple job. It's our duty to protect the citizens of Garipton. Not only do we put out spreading fires, we also perform medical emergencies as well."

"How do you put out fires?" Orion interrupted.

Yin smiled once again. "We use the water element. Luckily a few of us are born with the ability so it makes putting out fires fairly easy. Others use buckets that are dumped from the holes that are made for ventilation in the ceiling."

"You can use the water element?" Cosmo asked with genuine curiosity.

The white dragoness nodded. "Yes, I am able."

So could the Yin I knew, yet she doesn't seem to recognize me. I don't want to sound out of place but . . . I need to ask.

"Yin," Cosmo began. "Do you recognize me . . . or the fur dragon here at all?"

For the first time since she came out that building, Yin frowned.

"I don't think so. I'm sorry, am I supposed to?"

Cosmo was silent. He was sure this was her, but it he must have been mistaken.

"Well I'm sorry to cut this short but I must be on my way back to the station. By the way, your friend looks a little . . . off."

Bollocks. Cosmo completely forgot how sleep deprived Isis was. She must have been on the verge of clawing his eyes out by now.

"She's tired. We've been traveling all morning."

"If you need a place to rest come by the fire station. I'll let you use my quarters to rest up if you need to. Consider it as an apology for crashing into you earlier."

Cosmo grinned. "I just might have to take you up on that." He was also wondering how the dragon world version of a fire station looked.

"Sounds great," Orion stated simply. "I'm beat."

"You know," Cosmo began, looking toward Orion. "You're the first dragon we've come across that didn't seem at all surprised by my talking fox friend here."

Yin just shrugged her shoulders. "Meh, there's other creatures that talk, why should I be surprised."

With nothing else to say, Yin led the group down the street to a nearby red-bricked building. Kind of cliché for a fire department but it was still elating all the same. Instead of seeing an open garage with shiny red fire trucks being washed inside however, he was led through a double wooden door. Cosmo's eyes quickly adjusted to the darker lighting in the room.

Honestly, it almost looked more like a business than a place to live. There was a front desk with a taller slim dragon standing behind it, who's attention was on the newcomers. Several seats were spread out, almost like a waiting room. Sunlight gleamed through a few nearby windows making the area a bit warmer than it was outside. The fireplace off to the side also helped with that.

"Hello Yin," the dragon greeted gleefully. "I assume training went well for you?"

The white dragoness politely bowed her head toward him out of respect.

"Yes, it was exhilarating. Thank you for asking." She then turned toward Cosmo, Yin, and Orion. "These are some friends. They're very weary right now so I'm letting them recuperate in my quarters for now."

"I see . . . well as long as they don't cause trouble you're welcome to rest here."

Cosmo smiled. "Thank you sir."

The dragon merely nodded in reply. He looked back down on his desk and picked up a book he seemed to be reading before. Yin wasted no time to lead them to one of the few corridors in the room on the right and took them down the hall. After a few room down, she opened one of the doors and led them inside.

"Here we are."

Isis immediately headed in, the thoughts of sleep beckoning to her. The room was fairly small and consisted of one bed with a window overlooking it. A small desk was in the corner which held a thick looking orange coat on top of it. Other than that, the room was pretty barren.

"Sorry I only have one bed."

"It's fine," Cosmo assured, watching Isis flop herself down onto the bed. "Isis was the one who needed the rest."

It didn't take long at all for the fur dragon to fall asleep with Orion curled up on the foot of the bed.

"So," Yin began, getting Cosmo's attention. "Is Isis your . . . mate?"

Cosmo grinned toward her. "No, we're just friends. Been friends for a long time now."

"Surprising, you seem like a very pleasant dragon to be around."

That was a bit embarrassing. Cosmo could feel his cheeks flush red.

"Yeah, I get that frequently."

That was a lie.

Yin let out a short chuckle. "So what's your business in Garipton? You seem interested in firefighting earlier. Was it perhaps to become a firefighter?"

Cosmo shook his head. "I never thought about it before, but I have something I must do."

"May I ask what that is?"

He was quiet. Even though this dragon held the same name as Yin from his past, it didn't mean this was actually her. He wanted to believe otherwise but she didn't remember him or Isis at all. It should be hard to forget a brash black fuzzball in all honesty.

"I'm headed to Warfang. Some old friends waiting for me there."

"A reunion?"

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean?"

She certainly seemed curious about it, that was for sure. Considering how she helped Isis, Cosmo didn't mind explaining his situation to the white dragoness.

"It's hard to explain. Some people think . . . well . . . ."

"What?"

". . . They think I'm dead."

Unexpectedly, Yin smiled. Cosmo wasn't expecting that.

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"You're Cosmo. The Cosmo!"

"Y-yes," he stuttered, unsure of what was going on. Then he realized something. He never told Yin his name.

"How did you know?"

Yin could barely keep the excitement in her voice, but she did so for the sake of the comfortable sleeping fuzz balls on her bed.

"Duh, you guys are a legend. The six? The battle in Warfang? Come on, who doesn't know about all that."

"What do you know about the six?"

Still with that same plastered smile on her face, Yin continued. "You were one of the reborn guardians, same with Isis. The other four were Clover, Blaze, Myrianda, and ironically enough, Yin."

"So you know why I asked that question earlier," Cosmo stated, referring to the question if this Yin had recognized him.

"I do, although I don't think I'm related to this other Yin. I don't think so anyways."

It went quiet afterward. A minute passed as Cosmo thought it over. He was some kind of celebrity, both him and Isis. It was a wonder how no one else recognized him before. This was going to make things a little more difficult than before. If he shown up in Warfang and was pointed out by the citizens there, Kali would sure catch wind of it. That was something he didn't want right now. Making her go through that pain again was something he refused to do.

Later

Midday

As soon as he was told that there was an unfamiliar human spotted heading toward Garipton, he basically volunteered himself to check out what he was up to. Of course, a certain someone else had also volunteered to go with him. Whatever this human was up to was going to be exposed.

At the moment, the duo was heading into Garipton. A few dragons turned their heads spotting the famous character entering the streets, but let him be on his way. There wasn't much to see, Garipton wasn't as grand as Warfang but still held it's charm. Everything seemed to be built a little differently somehow but it just added to uniqueness of the city. Honestly, the purple dragon never visited this city, but was glad to be able to do with the a certain black scaled dragoness walking alongside him.

The task at hand was to ask the gatehouses if they had seen any humans or suspicious characters walk by recently. He hoped someone would provide some good information on where to look.

"Sorry buddy," a mellowed out green dragon began. "Haven't seen any humans come by here. Mostly regulars today."

"What about yesterday?"

"Same story, same answer. No humans, just regulars. We don't get too many visitors."

The purple dragon just nodded in response.

"Sorry I couldn't have been of more assistance."

He didn't expect much for results. Felenia informed him that the human may have avoided the city entirely. It didn't discourage him from asking however.

"Spyro," the black dragoness began. "I doubt we'll find any clues in the city itself if the gatehouse guards didn't see that human."

"I know Cynder," Spyro replied. "I planned on asking all the guards posted in the booths either for human sightings or suspicious characters. We need to find out with this human was doing."

Quickly making their way to the next gatehouse, they ended up with the same results. Nothing. Over half an hour passed since they began the search. The sun's heat begun melting the snow on the ground, turning it into slush, but there was still plenty of the white stuff hanging around in the shade. The city began to grow a bit more livelier as time passed, but still not as lively as Warfang would get during this time of day.

Finally arriving at the next gatehouse, Spyro and Cynder approached the keeper in the booth. The gray dragon appeared to be relaxing as he was leaned back in his chair against the back wall. He almost appeared to be sleeping.

"Excuse me," Spyro calmly said.

"Nerples," the dragon slurred, opening his eyes. Spyro eyed him oddly. "Oh . . . oh! What can I do for you?"

Spyro looked toward Cynder expectantly, but sighed as he looked back at the young dragon before him. "Hello, I'm Spyro and this is Cynder."

"The heroes from Warfang? What an honor! What can I do for you?"

"We're looking for a human or any suspicious characters who may have passed by here recently. Do you know anyone who could fit that description?"

"A human? I'm sorry, I haven't seen any humans pass by here."

Cynder could have scoffed. Of course he didn't. No one can see through the back of their eyelids.

"But we did get two new visitors earlier today. A yellow dragon and a black fur dragon. They also had a fox that the male claimed was a pet."

Spyro looked toward Cynder, puzzled by what he was informed.

"A black fur dragon?" Cynder repeated. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. They made their way into the city. Not sure what they were planning though. Why? Are they dangerous?"

"We don't have reason to believe that," Spyro quickly answered, dismissing the young dragon's concern. "But we thank you for your time."

"Not a problem," the guard sighed. "Have a good one."

The two dragons turned and quickly made their way back into the city. It didn't take long for Spyro to turn to Cynder with wonder in his eye.

"A black fur dragon?"

Spyro nodded. "The only one we know by that was Isis."

"But she's gone, we saw her along with the other five disappear right in front of us."

"You're right, it's impossible that it can be her, but that yellow dragon. I wish that guard had a better description for him."

"I don't think it's Cosmo and Isis Spyro. It can't be."

"I want to agree with you, but it's not entirely impossible. Maybe we should ask around?"

"What about that human?"

"We have no leads to where he could be."

Meanwhile

"That's quite a story," Yin began, enthralled by the tale of this yellow dragon's past. "So that dark planet looked exactly like this one?"

Cosmo nodded. "Except it's atmosphere was deadly. The longer we stayed underneath it, the more infected our bodies became. We had to have Star purge from us. Some of us more than once. It was almost a nightmare to be quite frank."

"I wish my stories were as interesting as yours. I can't even remember my childhood that well."

"Sometimes I wish for normality in my life. Living on the edge can dull it out faster."

More time passed as Cosmo told more stories of his previous dragon life. It made him happy that he could repay the favor Yin did for Isis, but still, it was quite the coincidence that this dragon was also named Yin. The two of them looked remarkable similar from what he could remember. There were only so many colors though. Perhaps that's all this was. One big coincidence.

Eventually, Isis woke from her peaceful slumber feeling re-energized. She stretched her limbs as Cosmo looked back toward her.

"Sleep well?"

"Yeah," Isis yawned but continued. "Thanks for lending me the bed."

Yin smiled in return.

"She knows who we are Isis," Cosmo suddenly said, informing the fur dragon of what had happened while she slept. "Apparently we're famous."

"What?!"

"A lot of us knows who you are," Yin explained. "Some of us just figure it's a coincidence though considering that news spread fast about what happened to you two, as well as the other four."

"So what happens when someone does recognize us?"

"Deny it!" Orion said, startling the three dragons in the room. "Not that hard, if someone says, 'Hey you look familiar', you say, 'You do to', and just leave."

"You make it sound so simple," the fur dragon began. "I don't think it's going to be that easy. Still, we don't have to confirm our identities to those who ask. I mean look at Yin here, looks exactly like the Yin we knew, but apparently she's different. Stuff like that can happen apparently."

"True," Cosmo stated. "Still, there's one more thing that is bothering me. What happened to that human from last night?"

"Human?" Yin asked, concern in her voice. "You spotted a human last night?"

Isis grinned. "More like he attacked us."

"Where?"

"In the forest near the western gate. Why?"

The white dragoness shut her eyes in thought for a moment, thinking of the dilemma. Orion looked at Isis, who simply shrugged, then turned her attention back to Yin.

"Human's are most unwelcome here since the incident in Warfang. The man, Ismeral Nexis was it?"

Cosmo nodded, then let her continue.

"Ever since it was confirmed that he was behind that debacle we increased security around here. Guards are posted at every gate into the city now. We even have guards in the air. If there was a human in that forest it couldn't have been for good reason."

"Yin!"

The white dragoness became alarmed as someone began knocking on her door furiously. She quickly opened the door to find one of her fellow firefighters was on the other side with a dumb grin on his face.

"You'll never guess who I saw outside!"

"You barged into my room for this?"

"Spyro and Cynder!"

Immediately Cosmo cringed on the inside. Spyro and Cynder were here in Garipton? Why?

"Really?"

"I told them of our firefighting skills and they were interesting in seeing the building. They're coming this way right now! Isn't this exciting? They seemed to be wanting to—"

"Whoa whoa," Cosmo quickly interrupted. "The Spyro and Cynder are coming?"

"Yeah! Hold on let me go get them for you!"

Before he could say one thing that dragon was gone. Isis turned worriedly at Cosmo.

"We can't let them know we're here. We have to go."

Before Orion could object, the two of them were already heading out the door. Yin, who knew what was going on already, followed. They quickly headed down the hall, but was stopped as the only exit opened. A purple dragon walked inside and slowly began to look around, just as Cosmo ducked his head back around the corner.

"Crap, now what?"

Meanwhile, Spyro was admiring the work put into the building he was in. Apparently firefighting was something new and experimental to help save lives. There wasn't anything like this in Warfang. He was quite impressed with the work that was put into it.

"I've never heard of something like this before," Cynder began.

Yin's friend seemed to be showing the two of them around, excited that he was able to share his livelihood with two real life heroes. It wasn't often you got to meet dragons as famous as these two. He could barely contain his excitement. The dragon behind the counter eyed them for a moment, before returning to his book, seeing that he didn't seem to be needed.

"We put a lot of work into it but we think it's nearly ready to be manufactured in Warfang. Our firefighters put a lot of hard work into what they do. With a station in Warfang, the citizens there shouldn't have to worry about out of control fires. I'm glad Relic finally sent someone to check up on us."

Spyro and Cynder looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and let it slide.

"Over here we have the living quarters for our own local heroes. You can take a look if you wish?"

Spyro showed a small grin, slightly amused by the enthusiasm of this dragon. "Sure," he replied.

Slowly they made their way down the hall, all the doors seemed to be open so it wasn't too difficult to look inside some of the rooms. They all seemed to be the same layout, nothing different about one from the other. Before they knew it, they reached the end of the hallway before turning around and heading back out.

"Odd, I thought there was a few recruits in the back. They must have left."

Back in the main room, the dragon showed Spyro and Cynder a few more areas of the station. Storage, classrooms, the basics were all there. It was honestly impressive.

"Well I'll be sure to inform Relic whenever we get back of your progress. Keep up the good work. You're all doing a good thing here."

Back in the living quarters, at the very end of the hall, a certain sneeze made itself known from behind the brick wall.

"Sorry," Yin whispered. "It's dusty."

"I think we're good actually," Isis informed. "Orion, would you be so kind?"

As soon as possible, the brick wall at the end of the hallway had begun to morph into a certain familiar small fox, which sighed upon becoming his old self again.

"Nice with the fake wall Orion," Cosmo praised. "I don't think we're ready to let ourselves be known yet."

"No problem," the fox replied.

Yin still seemed to be a bit surprised toward the fox however. She didn't expect him to be able to change his shape like that.

"What kind of fox are you?" she asked, unable to let it go.

Orion looked up toward her, expecting to hear something like that. "I'm a mythical Chinese Fox. We can change our shapes like you witnessed earlier, as well as make fire combust out of thin air." He showed a short smile. "We're pretty special obviously."

"Yeah, yeah, save it for the road," Isis rudely stated, making her way down the hall. "Let's get going before the purple guy gets back."

It didn't take long for them to exit the building. The dragon behind the counter didn't even seem to pay attention to them as they left. Spyro and Cynder seemed to be nowhere in sight at the moment, so Cosmo took the time to say his farewells to Yin.

"No need," Yin happily replied. "Glad to help. Maybe we'll see each other again sometime in the future?"

Cosmo simply nodded in approval toward that question.

Honestly, he had hoped to hear progress of how her training would go. Perhaps it was how similar she was to the Yin he knew, but he was interested in her development into the ranks. It was too bad he had to go. He still had no clues to the reason of him and Isis being in the dragon realms again. There had to be a reason.

Right?

Meanwhile

A lone human walked an empty path in the quiet, snow-topped forest, examining the stone shard in his hand. This certainly looked magical, the green glow it had certainly wasn't from natural causes. But he needed more. It was the only way to protect them from the harm others that would soon begin.

The dragons weren't going to like what he was doing. He didn't care however. The time he spent in this world, learning and observing, he knew what dragons were capable of. They thought that these fragments was special.

Oh how right they are.