"No," Terrador said, not giving a moment to even consider Spyro's question.
"What?" Spyro was taken back but this, not really expecting to be rejected. "Why not?"
"These friends of yours, they are the one that was captured by that pirate correct?"
"Well, yeah they are. Why does that matter?"
"Then they get what they deserve." Terrador began to scowl. "They wounded your mother when they helped you escape Warfang, and for that I leave them to their fates.
"But dad," Spryo said, growing desperate. "I thought you and mom turned a new leaf, can't you forgive them? Nova did."
The look in Terrador's eyes turned bitter, and he glared down at his son, giving Spyro the idea that he really fucked up. "And how would you know what your mother thought? You were gone, and when you left you caused her demise." Terrador stood up and raised a paw to strike the purple drake. Spyro flinched and tried to shield whatever was coming at him, but after a moment Spyro realized that Terrador hadn't done anything to him. "I'm sorry Spyro." Terrador still stood over him, though he no longer looked angry. Spyro was rather shocked to see that his father looked rather disappointed in himself for even considering hitting his son. "I'm still sticking to what I said. If you want to go free your friends, then go do it yourself." Terrador left without saying another word. He wasn't sure if he caught it, but Spyro could have sworn he saw his father tear up again just before he left.
Spyro thought about going after him, but it was the fear of his father striking him that kept him from doing so. This was followed up by him panicking as he came to realize that he had to save his friends from pirates all on his own. Thoughts started to run though his head on how he could save them, though most sounded too ridicules for it to work.
"Looks like I'm on my own on this one." That thought sent a chill down his spine as he wondered if he was actually capable of saving his friends all by himself. Getting up, he walked over to the entrance of the cave. He was thankful that it rained last night, as used the footprints that his friends, and the pirate left in the mud when they left, which he used to track them. He followed them all the way to the other side of the mountain before walking down the side and into a forest where the tracks mostly disappeared in the brush.
Taking a moment to figure out how to find them, Spyro remembered something that Hunter taught him while they were out hunting. Looking more closely, Spyro found a faint indention in the ground, which he figured was probably made by Cynder's tail as it dragged along the ground. Sure enough it led him to another set of foot prints, similar to the one's that he saw up in the mountain. Feeling rather proud of himself for a change, Spyro followed them until he reached an open area, and the footprints disappeared once again. This time, there wasn't any indication that they went any further, leaving Spyro very confused.
"Where could they have gone?" he said to himself, while he looked around the area. Figuring that maybe he was following the wrong prints, he walked back the way he came and tried again when he got back to base of the mountain. Sure enough, the same footprints from the mountain were the ones that suddenly stopped.
As Spyro pondered where his friends could have gone, a small golden figure came hurtling out of the forest screaming bloody murder as it flew towards the purple dragon. The dragonfly drew upon his mighty stick that defeated Cynder, and thrusted it forwards with all of his might, aimed straight for Spyro's neck. The stick bounced off and broke in half.
Spyro stumbled backwards, flinching from the sudden pain in his throat. The stick didn't even break through his scales, but it still wasn't a very pleasant feeling to be jabbed in the jugular. "What the hell was that for?" Spyro asked, clearly not too happy with what just happened.
"Uhhhh, well you see my mighty weapon was weakened from my last encounter against the vile black scaled heathen, whom I defeated single handedly." Sparx tired looking heroic, posing in front of Spyro as if to intimidate him when in truth his was panicking now that his only plan has failed.
"Black scaled heathen?" Spyro was very confused by what was going on, however that name did bring one person to his mind. "Oh do you mean Cynder?" he asked hoping that this bug knew where his friends where.
"Ah, so you know her name. Your partner in crime then I take it. Ha! I should have known from the moment she made that deal to help me capture you. She had that evil look on her face."
"Capture me?" Spyro was hurt to hear this, though a part of him questioned if he should even believe what the dragonfly was saying.
Sparx held up both of his fists, as he got ready to fight. "Enough chit-chat, now you die!" Flying at the purple dragon at a much faster speed then Spyro would have thought someone of his size could even pull off, Sparx grabbed him by his horn and pulled with all of his might, trying to flip Spyro onto his back.
He didn't budge. In fact, Spyro found this more annoying than when he was stabbed in the throat. "Would you knock it off already?" he shook his head, throwing Sparx off of him. "Look I don't want to fight. You said you knew Cynder. Do you know where she went?"
Sparx brushed the dirt off him and got up off the ground, meeting Spyro at his eye level.
"let's say I did," Sparx sneered. "Why should I tell you?" Spyro acted quickly, putting little thought into what he was doing. Opening his mouth, he bared his fangs and snapped them shut mere centimeters from Sparx, scaring the daylights out of him. Spyro was just glad that the dragonfly didn't run away. "Ok, I see your point, and after putting some thought into it, I think I can help." Sparx said nervously, clearly not liking the idea of being eaten.
"Thank you." Spyro took a step back to give the bug some room again. He smirked, glad that his plan worked, but on the inside he was panicking. 'Oh my god, I nearly ate another living being!'
"Hey, I bet you that he would have tasted delicious." Dark Spyro chimed in. "Ooh, maybe he'd taste even better with a hint of mint, and boiled into a pot of stew. Or maybe we could…"
Spyro tried to tune out his counterpart as he listed off more ways they could cook Sparx. "So tell me, where did Cynder go?"
Sparx still looked terrified and his shaky voice ruined any attempts that he made to try and sound brave. "Um, yeah well if you'd just follow me…" He quickly flew off towards the tree, flying above the treetops. Spyro tried to keep up to him as best as he could, though this was rather tough without a second wing. Even if he did have two wings he didn't think he could actually keep up with Sparx. For someone so small, he did move rather fast.
Hearing the sound of Spyro's claw rip up dirt as he ran, Sparx looked back expecting Spyro to be flying right behind him. Looking down he noticed that he was at least twenty feet ahead of him. Sparx stopped and flew back down to Spyro. "Why are you running?" he asked, completely oblivious to Spyro's handicap.
Spyro looked at him confused, but instead of calling Sparx out for his lack of observation, he just showed him his stump. "I can't really fly you see."
Sparx looked more confused than Spyro did. "How have you made it this long without being caught without flying?" Spyro mere shrugged. "Luck I guess." He would explain that it was through the help of his friends, but he wasn't entirely sure that Sparx would understand that.
"Augh." Sparx groaned. "You just had to make it harder didn't you?" He rubbed him forehead as he thought about how to handle the situation. Throwing his hands up, he said "Ok, how about this. I'll take you to edge of the forest and just point to where she is. Ok?" Hearing this made Spyro smile.
"That would be great, thank you." Sparx scoffed and flew off. When he went on this journey to defeat and capture the purple dragon, he didn't imagine himself helping him out, let alone being thanked by him. "Yeah, yeah, just remember that you owe me later." He said hoping to at least get something out of this.
Spyro felt a growing tension in his gut as he walked alongside the dragonfly. He didn't feel threatened by the dragonfly in any capacity, but he wasn't sure if he could trust him or not. The dragonfly was rather quick to agree to help him, though Spyro wasn't sure if the dragonfly had realized that it was pointless in even trying to attack him. It was mostly the silence that bothered Spyro. Even the forest was quiet, no birds, no wind, everything was just in a standstill.
"So um, what's your name?" Spyro asked to break the silence.
The dragonfly looked back at the purple drake. He didn't look to happy, but Spyro could tell that the silence was bothering him to from the look in his eyes. "The name's Sparx." Sparx turned around and flew backwards while flexing his arms. "The strongest Dragonfly in all creation. The mere thought of you surviving my attacks only proves how much of a threat you all to everyone."
Spyro wasn't sure if he should be hurt or skeptical of what Sparx was saying. He highly doubted that Sparx was the strongest, though at the same time he didn't have any other encounter to compare that to. Still hearing how much Sparx hated him made his heart sink. "Well I'll admit, you're the bravest dragonfly I've met." Spyro said, trying to act like what Sparx said didn't hurt him.
"Thanks I guess." Sparx didn't want to hear that from Spyro either. In fact, Spyro was acting completely the opposite way that he thought he would. From all the stories he had heard about the purple dragon, he was told that Spyro was an evil, maniacal, monster, bent on brining chaos to the realms. Instead he found a pitiful dragon how can't even fly. "at least he nicer than I thought he was." Sparx mumbled. They stayed silent for a little while longer before a question popped into Spyro's mind.
"By the way Sparx, how do you know where Cynder and Hunter went?"
"Well, before that pirate attacked, I was off fighting a huge beast and couldn't save them when he showed up. Then it started to rain and had to seek shelter, which is why I wasn't there when he captured them. Now I'm not one to break my promises to help someone so when it stopped raining I went looking for him. Not long after I started I saw him walking towards a large ship hovering above the forest and I went after them. And before you say anything, no I didn't get lost in the forest. The forest is probably just enchanted or something and it turned me around." Sparx was clearly lying, but Spyro found it a little funny how hard the dragonfly tried to act tough. "Anyways, as I was looking about for where they had gone, I saw you in the distance, and the rest you already know."
"I see." Spyro couldn't stop smiling at all the lies Sparx was making just to seem stronger than he really is. "So you think my friends are on that boat?" Sparx nodded.
"Most likely. It was a pirate ship after all, so naturally they would probably board it."
The rest of the walk was in silence again, and it wasn't until they got out of the forest when Sparx spoke. Raising a finger, he pointed to a dark brown boat with two red balloons holding it in the air. Spyro gulped when he saw the several dozen cannons attached to the sides. He pictured himself on the receiving end of one of those cannons and what he might look like after taking a hit from a cannon ball.
"So, how do we get on board that thing?" Spyro said nervously.
"Oh, so now I'm helping you save them? I thought I was just going to show you where they were." Sparx didn't seem too happy that he had to help his enemy even more. "Fine, well, they aren't moving strangely so I can only guess that they are resupplying it or something. If so, then there is probably a ladder or some way for the crewmen to get back up. Let's just get over there and just wing it." Before Spyro could stop him, Sparx took off towards the boat.
"Both that gnat and your girlfriend are going to get you killed." Dark Spyro's voice echoed in his head.
"Cynder has risked her neck for me several times. It's times I finally return the favor." Spyro said, before running after Sparx.
Hey guys, sorry again for taking so long to post this chapter. Work was a pain, and it didn't help that I didn't even bother work or think about this story when I went on vacation. I was also planning on making it longer and finally introduce a new character than I think all of you would enjoy seeing, but I wanted this to get posted soon, so I'll have him show up in the next chapter. Again, I'll try to post as soon as I can, but life is making that a little difficult. Thanks again for reading!