Spyro and Sparx reached the area that the pirate ship was stopped at, between the mountains and the forest close by. When they got there, Spyro noticed the large steel anchor that held the boat to the ground, the tree that it was connected to nearing being ripped out of the ground. Dangling below the ship was a rickety looking rope ladder which posed quite the problem for Spyro. "So how do we get up there?" Spyro looked over to Sparx, hoping that he had noticed some other way up.
Sparx looked back at him. "This lack of a wing is becoming really annoying just so you know." Sparx groaned and looked around, but didn't see anything that could help them either. "Looks like you're just stuck with climbing." Without another word Sparx zipped on past him, flying up to the hatch that the ladder lead to.
"Have fun." Dark Spyro chimed in.
Spyro tried his best to stay calm. "You know you don't have to be an asshole right now?" he said as he walked up to the ladder. "How am I supposed to climb this thing anyways?"
"Why are you asking me? Figure it out yourself."
"Well… I guess I could try biting it?" Spyro stood up onto his hunches and put them onto the ladder. Doing the best he could to hold onto it, he cursed his lack of thumbs, and tried to start climbing. He clamped his jaws into the wood slab that his paws where resting on, and moved both hands up a notch. He put his feet onto the bottom plank, causing the ladder swung backwards under his weight when he took his legs off the ground. Knowing he was about to fall, Spyro tried to dig his claws into the wood, but he still fell off. After spitting any wood shavings out of his mouth that he tore off, he tired his plan again, this time he tried biting the rope.
It was awkward to say the least, twisting his neck around like that as he slowly moved his paws up the ladder. When his feet where off the ground, the ladder swung back again, though he managed to stay on this time. "Ok, so far so good… Now I just need to reach the top. How hard could that be?" He thought, doing his best not to think about how high up he really had to go. Spyro wasn't sure how long it took him to climb up to the hatch, if he had to guess maybe an hour. How long it took to reach the top didn't really cross his mind when he got up there as he was to confused by the site of Sparx hovering over two pirates that where passed out.
"Took you long enough," Sparx scoffed when he noticed his purple partner. "You just missed me fighting off some of the strongest men on this ship. You're welcome by the way." He flew off, flying to the other side of the room and up some stairs. Spyro stared blankly at the two pirates in shock and awe, trying to figure out how someone like Sparx could take two large pirates out without breaking a sweat.
"Maybe he's stronger than he looks." Dark Spyro spoke up, just as baffled as Spyro. "You should probably keep an eye out for him next time." Spyro could hear his counterpart snickering in the back of his head, laughing at him for worrying that Sparx might be able to beat him.
Now that Spyro had gotten off the ladder, he figured that the hardest part was over. That is until he started to walk up the stair case that led from the cargo hold to below the deck. Only half way up the stairs, he saw a massive looking ape walk past the stair case, carrying two wooden crates, one in each arm. He had no idea of knowing what was in those crates, but the loud thud that echoed through the ship when the ape dropped them gave Spyro a pretty good idea why he shouldn't be spotted.
Still not moving from his spot on the stair case, he looked ahead of him, hoping that he'd be able to spot Sparx. "How hard is it to find a glowing bug?" Dark Spyro questioned, seemingly looking around as well. It was hard to see, but Spyro did find Sparx, hovering beside one of the support beams, his glowing body severely dimed.
Having no way of actually communicating with the dragonfly from so far away, Spyro tried to motion him over. Sparx noticed this and just waved at him. Rather annoyed by this, Spyro tried something else. Moving his body about in several different motions, he tried to silently tell Sparx to tell him when the coast is clear. Naturally Sparx was greatly confused.
"Is that some sort of dance you dragons like to do?" Sparx asked, making Spyro worried that someone might have heard him. Noticing this panicked look that he was making, Sparx continued to say "Oh calm down, there is no one around."
"What?" Spyro ran up the rest of the steps and poked his head up just above the floor to scan the room. Sure enough, the room was empty outside of the rows of cannons, crates filled with cannon balls, and other devices that Spyro couldn't even imagine what their use might be. "Why didn't you tell be sooner?" he asked as he walked up the final few steps. Sparx floated down to his eye level.
"I thought you would have known, don't you dragons have this keen sense of your surroundings?"
"Not if I can't see anything ahead of me." Spyro replied, the sudden urge to smack Sparx popping up in his head, which was most likely thanks to his counterpart.
"Ah, you're worrying to much" Sparx shrugged as they both walked around below the deck. "So… what are we doing here again?"
Spyro resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "We are here to save Cynder and Hunter. We just need to find them and get out."
"So are you guy's friends or something? I'm confused." Sparx said as they looked around for any clue as to where his friends might be. "Cynder told me that she was going to help me capture you, and then we ran into that cheetah dude."
"Of course they are my friends. I wouldn't be trying to save them if they weren't" Spyro sounded even more annoyed than ever at the clueless, loud, dragonfly.
"Then why am I even here? Why should I help you, my sworn enemy?" Sparx stopped walking and stared at the back of the purple dragon's head.
"I don't know." Spyro stopped a few feet ahead of the dragonfly and turned around to face him. "You don't have any reason to be here. Hell I wouldn't blame you if you decided to leave." Spyro wanted to tell Sparx how much of a nescience he has been, and that he would have been better off if he did leave, however, Spyro also knew he wouldn't be here without Sparx's help. "If you want to leave, then by all means go, but before you do, I just want to say thank you for helping me." Spyro began to laugh. He never really imagined that he was more useless than a dragonfly, but here he was thanking one for getting him this far.
"It's pitiful really." Spyro's second counterpart spoke up, going silent just as quickly. He did his best to ignore him.
"I doubt I would have found this ship if it wasn't for your help" Spyro continued to speak through his laughter, sounding a little insane by doing so. Sparx stared back at Spyro, confused and amazed by how pathetic Spyro was making himself out to be. When Spyro stopped laughing the turned back around to search again. "If it means anything to you, you dragonflies are better than a few dragons."
Sparx knew exactly what Spyro meant by that, and all that want and need to capture Spyro to prove to the world that the dragonflies where better than what people make them out to be, just sort of faded from his mind. He pitied Spyro, in more ways than one. Here before him was the evil purple dragon whom he had heard several stories about, ranging from how he was building an army, to how he has already enslaved several races and was forcing them to do his bidding. That dragon made Sparx sick to his stomach that such a person could live with himself by doing those things, which was one of the reasons he went on this presumably suicide mission.
Now, looking at who the horrific purple dragon really was, Sparx felt sorry for him. He wasn't a monster, just a dragon who the world hated. Sparx couldn't even begin to imagine how someone could handle that sort of weight on his shoulders and still smile at the end of the day.
It took Sparx a moment to realize that Spyro was well ahead of him, and he quickly caught up. "Hey um, what I said before back in the forest… look you're not the monster that people make you out to be, and if it even means something coming from a dragonfly… well I'm sorry." Spyro was rather shocked by this, and the frown on his face easily told him that he was being sincere about what he just said.
Spyro managed to smile back at Sparx and gently patted his back with his only wing. "You know, dragonflies should never frown, it makes them seem so weak. After all you are the strongest dragonfly if I recall correctly right? I mean look at what you did down in the cargo hold. I would have been doomed if you weren't with me."
Sparx began to smile as well, and nervously chuckled. "Well, um actually about that. I didn't really beat them up… They spotted me right away and charged at me from both sides. I just dodged out of the way and they hit each other in the head and passed out from that."
This managed to make Spyro laugh as well. "Hey, you did better than I could have at least. I would have been caught with ease."
"I wouldn't sell yourself short. After all you did survive attacks from the strongest dragonfly around!" Sparx flexed his arms, making Spyro laugh some more.
"Alright Mr. Super Bug, let's go find my friends."
Must to Spyro's surprise, it didn't take them that long to find them. Towards the back of the ship was a row of prison cells, one on the left was holding Cynder, while the one to the left hers kept Hunter inside. "Cynder!" Spyro ran up to his friend and the two nuzzled each other through the bars.
"Spyro?! What are you doing here?" though she was happy to see him, she was worried what he had to go through to get here, images of him fighting pirates flashing in her mind. Most of her worry was put to rest after looking him over, finding no bruises or cuts.
"I saw you guys were captured, so I came to rescue you guys." Spyro looked over to Hunter. "They didn't hurt you did they?"
Hunter shook his head. "Other than a few bumps, we are just fine, but you shouldn't be here Spyro. This is all a trap!"
"Oh right you are!" Barked Scratch, just as the pirate captain appeared seemingly out of know where and roughly grabbed Spyro around his throat and picked him up into the air. "We've got big plans for you, now in the cage you go." Skaab dragged Spyro to an empty cell and tossed himself, his head hitting the wall with a loud thud.
"Hey! You leave him alone!" Cynder pressed up against the bars in her cage and began to growl at pirates.
"Oh? And what are you going to do about it lil-missy?" Sniff sneered back at the black dragoness. Cynder defiantly blasted the bird with a torrent of black flames, but Skaab was quicker. Before the bird was roasted, he reached through the bars and clamped her mouth shut, digging his claws into her jaw. Cynder tried to pull her mouth out of his grip, but he only pulled her forwards, slamming her face into the bars, rattling the whole thing, before letting her go. Dazed, Cynder stumbled backwards before collapsing.
"Hey, you have Spyro, now why don't you just let us go?" Hunter angrily started to shake the cell bars hoping by some miracle that it would break open.
"Not after the little stunt your black friend just pulled. Your coming with us." Scratch began, while Sniff and Scaab began to laugh, knowing exactly what the bird was talking about. "We've got a plan for you two. Now just hold on tight while we head to our next destination. Skaab took a pair of keys from his pocket and locked Spyro's door before turning to leave.
Just as he started to walk away, Sniff noticed the petrified Sparx who became motionless and silent the moment he saw the two large birds. "Ohh, lunch!" Sniff leapt off of Skaab's shoulder to catch the dragonfly. Sparx screamed like a little girl and took off in the opposite direction, fleeing for his life. "Come back lunch, I bet you taste delicious!"
Once the pirates where gone, Hunter called over to the two dragons. "Are you to ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Cynder rubbed her forehead. Spyro never replied. "Spyro?" She called his name, getting a little worried. "Are you ok?"
The two heard him scoff. "Yeah I guess that's one word for it." His voice sounded hollow, and it was pretty easy for Cynder to imagine what he was doing in his cell. He was lying on his side, not moving from where Skaab had tossed him and was staring blankly in whatever direction his head landed in. He had often done similar things when they all lived together after he failed to hunt any animals and would just slump onto the floor to mope.
"Come on Spyro, it's not that bad… I mean, we are together again at least." Cynder called to him, hoping to at least get some sort of reaction out of him.
"Don't give me that crap Cynder." Spyro barked back at her. "I heard what you and Hunter said that night." His voice started to change from angry to sad, and both Hunter and Cynder could hear it in his voice that he was beginning to choke up on his tears. "You hate me, both of you do. I annoy you, I'm a burden to you both, and you would be better off without me."
Cynder opened her mouth to say something, but the words never came out. She did say something along those lines, and even if she just frustrated at the time there was nothing she could say to take back what she said. She was thankful that Hunter spoke for her.
"Spyro, Cynder loves you, and I care for you like any other friend would. Yes, what we said was despicable, and we shouldn't have say any of those things behind your back. If we could, we would have taken it all back. We both will always support you, but sometimes we just need time to breath. As much as we both care for you, sometimes you give up to easily, leaving us to pick up the pieces for you. When we can, we will always be by your side, but we can't always help you at every turn. We all have our demons we must conquer, and it's not fair to Cynder or I to deal with these demons for you."
The two waited for a while for Spyro to say something, leaving his looming tension in the air. Hunter was worried that Spyro would take it the wrong way and despise them both even more, while Cynder was scared that he would over react and try to leave them again, probably for good this time.
"I know." Spyro finally spoke up after a minute of silence. "I'm a challenge to handle, and I lean on you guys for support more than I should" his voice started to crack again as more tears formed in his eyes. "It's just that, you two are perfect at what you do. You can hunt, you can use your abilities to their fullest, and you both are able to support yourself if need be… I can't even manage to help you two with any of those things. I can't hunt, I can't fight, I can't cook, I can't fly, and I can't do anything right." Spyro stopped talking to cry. Hunter and Cynder stayed silent themselves to give him as much time as he needed till he was ready to speak again. "I…I…I just don't know how you guys do it… How do you guys manage to be so perfect?"
"Well isn't that just a puzzling question?" Everyone jumped when they heard Scratch's voice and the sudden appearance of Skaab, leaving Cynder to question how they manages to just appear out of thin air without anyone noticing. "I'm afraid though that we will never know the answer to that one. We have reached our destination, and its time to collect."
Skaab picked up the keys from his pocket and unlocked Spyro's cage and grabbed him again. Spyro yelped and tried to fight back this time, breathing small puffs of smoke and ember while clawing whatever he could and whipping his tail around to hit whatever he can all the while both Hunter and Cynder were yelling profanity at the pirates, telling him to let him go.
They were all put to silence by a single loud boom. It was Sniff, flying beside a cannon with smoke steaming out from its openings. "You guys are so loud. We'd ought to just load each and every one of you into a cannon and blast you off into oblivion." The bird shouted at them all as he flew back to Skaab. The bird looked down at the now quivering drake in Skaabs hand and then up to his fellow crew mates. "Well what are we waiting for?" Skaab nodded his head, looking even more excited than ever as his dried tongue flopped about sticking of his mouth.
The four of them left the holding area and began to descend the rope ladder, Spyro firmly grasped under Skaabs arm. "So did you ever catch that bug?" Scratch asked his fellow bird in crime who shook his head.
"No, damn bastard escaped before I could get him." Sniff let out a tired sigh. "Man I am so hungry to."
"Oh hush up about your stomach will you?" Scratch rolled his eyes, clearly indicating that this wasn't the first time they had this sort of conversation. "After we get paid you can go blow it on all the food your fat mouth can take." Skaab laughed at this, only for Sniff to peck at his head.
"You shut up to you big oaf!"
Spyro figured he'd speak up so he wouldn't have to listen to three of them bicker any longer. "So you are taking me to Warfang? Then what, you'll watch my execution?"
"What are you blind or just really stupid?" Scratch stared down at the purple drake, confused as to what he was talking about.
"Oh, maybe he's both!" Sniff began to laugh at his own expense. Spyro just looked up at each of them just as confused.
"But I thought you were taking me to Warfang, and claim the bounty so I could be publicly executed or something… isn't that what they plan to do to me?"
Scratch merely shrugged. "How should we know. In case you haven't notice, we aren't remotely close to Warfang." Taking a moment to actually look around, Spyro couldn't see the dragon city at all. Instead, below him, he saw what looked to be a giant stone structure, build in the middle of an even larger meadow. The place reminded Spyro of a caste, only it didn't have any towers at each of the corners and was covered by a stone roof on top. He thought it was odd to see several tiny bright lights move about the roof.
"What are we doing here?" Spyro asked even more confused than ever.
"Originally we were just going to give you over to those blood thirsty monsters in Warfang, but then a good customer of ours offered us an even bigger prize for you!" Sniff explained seeming over joyed by the simple though of getting money.
They soon reached the ground and approached the building. Spyro began to shack with fear and he heard Skaab begin to chuckle, probably at him he assumed. When they got closer, Spyro noticed that there were some guards patrolling along the roof. One of them was looking down at them and waited for them to get closer before calling out.
"Hey you! What do you want!" Spyro couldn't tell what kind of animal he was, as his whole body from head to toe was covered in silver armor knights armor that gleamed in the light. Obviously they were the moving lights that Spyro saw earlier.
"Are you blind under that tin bucket of yours?" Scratch yelled back. "It's us numb nuts, go fetch your master already!" Realizing who it was, the guard quickly ran off. Only moments later the large ornate wooden door swung open, and out came a grizzly bear wearing a neatly made suit and a monocle. "Oh how delighted I am to see you guys again, and OH my goodness is it really him?!" The bear came sprinting towards them and stop centimeters from Skaab, kneeling down to take a closer look at Spyro. "It is you! How I've waited for this day!" Spyro looked confuse at the bear who did a little joyful dance. "But wait!" the bear stopped and looked at Spyro once again. "What happened to his wing!" The bear suddenly when from over joyed to severely crossed and his eyes turned to daggers as he stared at the pirates. "I thought I told you that I wanted him in pristine condition!"
"Hey don't look at us, we found him like this?" Sniff nervously explained to the bear as Skaab dropped Spyro and took a few steps back, for once actually looking worried.
The bear turned around and walked back, shouting to the heavens as he pulled fur off the top of his head. "FINE!" he shouted as he turned around to face everyone again. "You guys have good to me so far and have brought me exactly what I've wanted before, but even this is unacceptable. If this ever happens again, I'll mount each and every one of your heads above my fireplace, and stuff your bodies so that I can use them as stepping stools to get into my bed!"
Scratch, Sniff, and Skaab each hastily nodded their head, their bodies as stiff as board. "Good." The bear said, now seeming calm again. "Now with that out of the way." He snapped his fingers and out came a dozen knights, each carrying a chest with them. They deposited the chests in front of the pirates who didn't waste a heartbeat and opened on of them up to reveal that the chest was filled to the brim with gold, gems, and other shiny objects.
"OOOOHHHH! This was always my favorite part!" Sniff chirped happily just as Skaab closed the chest. He grabbed one of them and hauled it up the ladder just as both bird waved goodbye. "Have fun at your new home!" they both called out to Spyro.
With that matter done the bear turned to Spyro, who had remained in the same spot, scared out his mind as thoughts of what the bear was going to do to him danced in his head. "Oh don't look so scared, I'm not going to hurt you." The bear gave Spyro a large and rather friendly grin. Easing up a little, Spyro asked what was plaguing his mind, the moment he realized that he wasn't being taken to Warfang. "Who are you, and what am I doing here?"
The bear placed a paw on Spyro's back and gently pushed him towards the door, just as the knights surrounded them giving Spyro no way of escaping. "You may call me Mr. Money Bags, and you see I am a collector of exotic things! And in case you couldn't guess, well, your now part of my collection."
Man I haven't written this much for a chapter in a long time. I have to say that I didn't expect this chapter to be so long, but I doubt any of you will complain about that. Anyways, I hope you all like the additions of Money Bags to the story. This annoying bear doesn't show up in enough Spyro stories so I figured it would be fun to throw him in. Now obviously I did change his character a little bit, so I hope you guys don't mind to much. Thanks again to you all for reading this chapter!