A hunter stocks its pray in complete silence, not even letting himself hear his own breath. Silently, a hunter creeps through its surroundings, using everything and anything as cover to sneak up on its pray. As quiet as a mouse, a hunter spots it's pray and moves forwards aiming for the kill. A hunter is also vigilant, always keeping an eye out for anything that could scare the prey away or make your presents known. Nothing is meant to get past you, and never ever lose focus on the-

SNAP!

Spyro gasped. He didn't notice the twig till after he stepped on it. The elk he'd been following the past half an hour poked its head up from the tall grass it was munching on, alert to whatever made the noise. It didn't wait long before it ran off further into the forest. Luckily for Spyro it didn't get far before an arrow whizzed by, catching it in the neck. Now most people would be happy to have a fresh lunch, but Spyro just slumped his head and stared bitterly at the twig at his feet.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Hunter drop down from the tree tops to finish off the elk in a humane way before preparing it for the trip back to the cave. Despite their victory, Spyro felt nothing more than utter defeat. He'd did so well up till this point, hunting that elk. He did everything Hunter has been trying to teach him in the past year and a half.

He kept low to the ground, he concealed his breath, moved quietly and quickly, but in the end, like every other attempt, he would fail. Sometimes it was just from dumb luck, like another predator catching his prey, but most of the time it was the little things, like this twig that cost him his prey. In his bitter rage Spyro threw the two ends of the stick aside.

It didn't really help his mood.

"You don't need to be so hard on yourself you know." Spyro lift his head up to Hunter, who'd already had skinned, gutted, and placed into a large sack just about every piece that was edible on the elk. Spyro wasn't in the mood for another pep talk and looked away. Hunter placed a paw on Spyro's shoulders, hoping to make him feel a little better.

"Why can't I ever get this right?" Spyro said out loud, more to himself than to anyone in particular.

"You will figure it out Spyro, I know- "

"Stop it Hunter… just… stop…" He wasn't in the mood to another one of Hunter's speeches on how he will get better, that he just needed more practice. He's had enough practice, over a years' worth of practice and he was still no close to catching anything. Spyro stood back up and without another word began to walk back home. If it wasn't for the fact that someone could follow the trail back to the cave they hid in, Spyro would be dragging his tail along the ground to accompany his drooping head.

Hunter felt sorry for the kid. He wanted to help cheer him up, but if he were to be honest he was rather tired giving the same speech as well. It would always end the same. He'd give a grand speech about not giving up on yourself, but Spyro wouldn't really listen. Not anymore at least. When they first started Spyro believed in every word Hunter told him, and Hunter truly thought that Spyro could achieve greatness. He had seen Spyro surpass great feats before in the past, such as escaping Warfang, but now Spyro given up on himself. Hunter wasn't sure if Spyro can achieve anything anymore. Not until his mood improves at least. Hunter followed Spyro back to his cave. He just hoped that Cynder would do a better job dealing with Spyro.

"How'd it go?" Cynder ask as the two boys walked inside the cave. She got her answer when Spyro just walked past her without saying a word. She didn't follow him as he walked towards the end of the cave, instead deciding to speak to Hunter. "Is he at least getting any better?" Hunter shook his head.

"It's the same as every week that we try this." He kept his voice low, hoping Spyro wouldn't hear. "The boy has given up on himself and I don't know if I can really do anymore to help him." Cynder understood what he was getting at. She pressed a paw against his knee.

"Please don't give up on him yourself." She pleaded with the cheetah. "He's barely hanging on as is, and…" She looked back over to where Spyro went. She couldn't see him where she stood as the light didn't reach that far into the cave, but in her heart she knew the look on his face as she's been seeing it a lot lately. She knew he was killing himself on the inside with ever mistake he's made, no matter how small they really were. And it killing her to see him like this. "But Spyro still needs us. I know it's hard, I'm having a hard time myself. But please just give him more time…" She didn't sound confident in her words.

Hunter set the elk aside and kneeled down to her eye level. "Why don't you try talking to him again Cynder. He needs as much support as he can get right now. I'll cook some dinner in the meantime." This wasn't something that Cynder wanted to hear, but she did as she was told anyway. It felt better than doing nothing at least.

"Spyro?" she called her name as she walked towards the dark end of the cave.

"Yes Cynder?" She was happy at least that he responded to her calls still. It was the only hope she had that he might get better one day. She stopped walking as so her eyes could adjust to the dark a little. "I just wanted to talk, mind if I sit next to you?"

This time he didn't reply right away. Each second he spent in silence, made Cynder lose more and more of her confidence in him. "Sure I guess." He finally replied after several seconds of waiting. Cynder stumbled around a bit in the dark till she could make out a faint outline of Spyro's body and she made her ways towards it, plopping herself down next to him. She made sure to stay close to him, knowing that he liked being right next to her.

"I've heard you've gotten better." She began. She just hoped that he would talk about it. This sort of thing was a shaky thing to talk about with Spyro nowadays. Most of the time he didn't feel like talking about it, but today was one of the lucky times where he would.

"I don't know if 'getting better' is the right thing to say." Spyro admitted. "I keep on making mistakes. It irritates me to no end, why can't I learn from my screw ups?"

"I…" she took the moment to choose her words carefully. "I think that you are focusing way too much on what you're doing wrong, and not enough on what you are doing right. How long did you spend tracking that elk?" Cynder laid her head against what she figured was his shoulder blade, and poked his tail with her own wanting to coil them together, knowing he would like the gesture. Really she was just doing it so that he would open up a little bit.

"I don't know." She felt him shrug. "Half an hour or so. Maybe a little more. I've done better." He felt her tail press against his. He knew what she wanted from him and he had to smile at her attempt to make him feel better. He gave in to her tail's demands and wrapped them together. She nuzzled the base of his neck making his smile grow. Spyro was always amazed how easily Cynder could make him smile.

"That is still pretty good. Just give it a little more time Spyro." She didn't realize her mistake in what she said till after she said it. She knew his smile left his face, but at least he still held her close which was a good sign for her.

"I've been giving it my all every day Cynder. I don't think I can do any better than what I already am doing." He snorted and shook his head seemingly in disgust of himself from what Cynder could tell. "I'm useless aren't I?"

"What? No Spyro how could you say that?" she lifted her head up to look at him. Her eyes adjusted to the dark enough as so that she could make out most of his facial features. "Spyro I believe that you can do far more than what you give yourself credit for. That's why I still want you to go on these hunting trips with Hunter. I want you to see that you can be better than-"

Spyro interrupted her before she could finish. "Please stop Cynder. I'm really not in the mood for another speech. Not today please." He moved away from her slightly, just enough so that there was a small enough space between them where he could curl up with himself. She tried lying next to him, and putting an arm around him, but Spyro rejected her kind gesture, by knocking her arm away with his shoulder. Cynder just sighed.

"Alright Spyro I'll leave you alone." She said, much to her own dismay. "But don't mope too much. Dinner should be done soon." Giving him a quick kiss, she left him to help Hunter with dinner. Spyro didn't leave from his spot, feeling rather tired from hunting and he thought about taking a nap. As tempting as it was, his dark half has been pestering him more and more the past couple of months, mostly in his sleep. He figured his dark half had more control of his thoughts when he slept which could explain why he was more active when he was asleep. Either that or maybe Dark Spyro just didn't want him to have good dreams.

Spyro knew it was silly, but he'd started to grow worried whenever he got tired, wondering if Dark Spyro was going to pop up again. He told Cynder before about these dreams. She would tell him not to listen to anything his dark half ever had to say, which he believed for a long time, but everyone has their limits. After being called pathetic or incompetent so many times, especially from yourself, you begin to believe it.

But he was so tired. "Maybe it'll be peaceful this time." He thought to himself closing his eyes. It couldn't hurt to try right?