Hi everyone, it's been a while, but sadly i've got less time to dedicate to writing and it will be even worse in the next months. Rest assured that this story will be concluded, it will just take a while.
Anyway, thank you to all who reviewed the last chapters, I really appreciate your feedback.
-Azotac
It's been a couple of days since our heroes returned home from their journey to Seascale. After the third day of rest, they were offered to resume their training that remained halted since Spyro was kidnapped almost a month before.
For the five young dragons it was indeed weird to return on the sandy training ground that replaced the usual clear marble pavement of the Great Hall. They were all sitting near each other, waiting for Terrador to give them the instructions for the day.
Spyro was particularly tense.
He knew that he was healing, nobody expected him to be fully 'operational', to say so, after what he endured. Well…Nobody except himself.
The guardians already told him he had to be patient and everything would go back to normal, eventually.
To the purple hero, it was still difficult to wait.
Not because he couldn't fiscally do it, not because he wasn't patient, but just because he felt the burning need to know if he was still capable, if he was still useful to the guardians, if he was still able to fight-
…Well…
Now that he thought about it, maybe the situation wasn't so bad…If he couldn't fight anymore like he used to do, that would mean he could stop fighting…forever? It was his dream, right? To finally live in peace, no more wars, no more dark forces to smite, no more being the center of the attention every time he entered in a room.
Just a normal dragon, that once did something that could be considered heroic…
Then why he felt so bad in thinking like this?
Was this guilt?
If he couldn't fight anymore, that would also mean he couldn't protect Cynder anymore, not that she really needed to be defended, but still… The realms would surely still need someone skilled as his black dragoness and while she would be out there, fighting for her life, he would be at home, safe and sound, away from pain, waiting for her to come back.
Thinking about all this now…He couldn't withstand a single day knowing that Cynder was away from him, fighting without himself by her side.
It just felt wrong.
His train of thoughts was interrupted when Terrador's low baritone echoed in the hall.
"Very well young ones, after so many perils we can finally go on with your training."He said with a grin.
"I'm sure that after your deserved rest, you're all ready to give your best today, so we should begin with some free sparring matches. You can use you element and close combat, the rules remain the same as the last time."He announced, looking across the row of young dragons.
"So, who want to go first?"He finally asked.
There was an awkward silence that lasted a couple of seconds, before Auros stepped onward.
"I'd like to try."He said.
"Very good young one, come here in the ring"
"I want to try too."Said Cynder, stepping into the ring. Auros smiled at the dragoness even if Spyro clearly saw a bit of shifting into his demeanour.
The white drake was worried.
Well, Cynder was clearly the most skilled fighter in their little group, even himself felt a bit intimidated by the dragoness the first times they sparred together. He chuckled inwardly in thinking about those times, when they barely knew each other… And looking at themselves now, growing and trying to see if they could share their life together, it felt surreal how much their relationship had grown over the last months. He followed with his eyes the black dragoness, as she positioned herself few metres in front of the white drake. Terrador stood up and left the sandy ground to sit near the other trainees.
"Very good, Cynder"He called."In order to be fair you can choose two elements to use in this fight"
"Hmmm, I chose Shadow and Fear"She answered confidently.
"Excellent, then you can begin whenever you want."Announced the guardian. The two dragons took their stance.
Cynder smirked, and in a heart beat, she dived into the shadows, disappearing from the battleground.
Auros's eyes widened, but he quickly recollected himself jumping in air and taking flight. He began circling around the ring and waiting for the dragoness to come back out.
Meanwhile Cynder was staying still on the same spot where she disappeared, keeping her eyes focused on the circling drake.
"C'mon, come a little closer"She said in between herself. As if someone listened to her thoughts, or by a mere sheer of luck, the drake began to slowly descend towards her direction. She smiled in the shadows as she prepared herself to attack him. Moments later, as the drake was almost two metres from the ground, she sprung out of her concealing, claws extended to his underbelly, coated in shadow fire.
The drake noticed it a moment before the dragoness could swing her claws on his scales, as he flapped his wings, instantaneously condensing a fire wave which directed towards the dragoness. Cynder managed to duck at the last moment.
Both young dragons landed on their paws on the sandy ground of the arena, their breath now heavier, according to the fatigue their bodies where withstanding.
In a blink of an eye, the black dragoness evoked her signature fear element and directed the daunting red shockwave towards the white drake. Sadly he didn't have the time to evade it, so he took the full impact of it.
He recoiled back as his eardrums practically screamed in a high pitch noise, making him completely lose any sense of orientation. He scrunched his eyelids closed, trying to dominate the pain. His instincts were screaming at him to defend himself, but he didn't know where his opponent was. So he did the first logical thing that his brain suggested.
Auros summoned his ice element and cast an ice barrier around himself, trying to at least cover his sides.
In amidst the deafening noise in his ears, he caught a loud "thud" coming from his left. Something had collided with his makeshift barrier.
In fact, by sheer luck, the drake managed to rise his defence just a moment before the dragoness could collide against him, probably also dodging a premature end to their sparring.
Cynder recoiled a back in shock, as her sight wavered a bit. She had to wait a couple of moments before she could regain her bearings. She had totally hit her head pretty hard on that ice barrier and now she had probably lost her advantage on the white drake, that still not dared to leave from his protective shell.
With an impressive speed, she shot a rapid series of shockwaves against the ice, making it crack loudly. Grinning she continued her onslaught, leading the ice barrier to lose pieces very quickly.
Meanwhile Auros was still standing behind his crumbling barricade, waiting for the right moment to retaliate. When he felt his defence was about to collapse, he conjured a powerful comet dash and sprinted tough the breaking ice, directing at great speed towards his attacker. Cynder widened her eyes and barely managed to evade the drake, which spun at the end of the arena and returned to charge her. She dodged again the attack and retaliated with a Siren scream, which proved to be almost useless.
At his third charge, the drake stopped his Dash and engaged the dragoness with melee combat.
The two exchanged several blows, with Auros managing to cut Cynder shoulder with is Ice Tail and Cynder retaliating with a scorching laceration on the drake's left bicep. The black dragoness noticed that white drake was visibly more tired than herself, so she spiked up her assault, trying to overtake him. In moments Auros was taking more hits than before, with his defence falling behind her quick attacks. Cynder grinned, as she spun her tail, which collided with his flank, making the drake loose his footing. She didn't waste the chance and straddled him, holding her sharp claws of both her paws against his neck, signalling the end of their spar.
The dragoness looked down at the drake and the memory of herself almost choking him hit her with full force, making her cringe and remove instantly her paws from him.
She stepped out from him, helping Auros stand up. Meanwhile, Terrador reached them with a pawful of red crystals. The two young dragons thanked the guardians for his help and proceeded in curing themselves before returning to their place, at the border of the ring. The black dragoness noticed that even after curing himself, a slight rosey scar remained where she scorched the drake. Her thoughts were however interrupted by Terrador's booming voice, breaking trough the apparent silence.
"That was a good display of skills young dragons, I'm very glad you managed to retain what we've learned some time ago."Observed the Earth guardian. He then turned his gaze to the other three youngsters.
"Do you want to have a try against Spyro? Once at a time of course."He asked to the girls, who promptly nodded. The first one was Nix, who walked towards her side of the arena.
Spyro stood up too and followed her, positioning, as usual, in front of her.
"Spyro, you get to choose one element."Said Terrador.
"I'm using Ice"said the purple dragon.
"Very well, begin whenever you want"
So the two youngsters prepared themselves, their muscles tensed, ready to jump into action as soon as they needed. Spyro, by his side, was trying to focus as best as he could, trying to forget his previous insecurity and give his maximum, nobody was expecting nothing surprising from him, so he shouldn't either.
"Just have fun and do your best"He said to himself.
They stood still for a couple of moments, before, surprisingly, Nix engaged him, with a series of ice shards shot in a wide fan shape. Spyro widened his eyes, before dropping to the ground with his belly, letting the attack passing narrowly over his horns. His opponent however didn't relent, so the dragoness expelled a fairly big ice shot towards his direction. Again he opted to dodge it, so he rolled on his left as the attack exploded, making some ice condensate over his scales.
Nothing too serious.
"So far soo good"He thought, in seeing his ability to respond fairly in time to the attacks.
He quickly regained his footing and as soon as he had a solid grip with his paws, he charged at great speed towards the dragoness, while he condensed a blunt ice blade on the tip of his tail.
In seeing this, Nix tried to slow him down with other ice shots aimed towards his paws, but the drake managed do dodge them all.
"Still good"
Once in range for his attack, he placed his right paw firmly on the ground, using it as a fulcrum for a tail spin. The tip of his appendage shot at great speed towards his opponent. Nix hadn't time to dodge the attack, making a direct hit on her flank, which sent her tumbling to the side. Spyro was about to conclude his spin, when he felt a sudden strain on his shoulder, in the same place where he received the wound during his imprisonment.
"Shit!"
His grip faltered for second, not because of pain, but from the unexpected feeling, making him lose balance and almost fall into the ground. At the last moment he manage to catch himself, and fall on his four, while Nix scrambled back on her paws, trying to hold a defensive stance.
Spyro shot a quick ice shot aimed towards her left, making the dragoness promptly jump to the other direction. The purple drake smirked, launching himself towards her. Nix didn't have time to evade again, as the drake collided with her and sent the female across the arena and slightly out of the ring, signalling the end of their sparring.
He immediately caught himself up and went towards her friend, offering her a paw. She grabbed it and stood back on her legs, with a small grin.
"Well I managed to endure a bit more this time…"She said with a bit of a heavy breath. Spyro only smiled in answer as he watched her going back to her seat near Auros. Terrador offered the ice dragoness a couple of healing crystals and a couple of mana crystals to Spyro, before letting Gaia enter the ring.
The spar with the earth dragoness went pretty much the same way, only with Spyro actually getting hit a couple of times by his opponent's attack, one of which left a nasty bruising to his left flank.
The drake still managed to get the dragoness out of the ring, this time using the dragoness's impulsiveness, making her attack him faster and faster until she lost control of herself, assuring his victory.
The dragoness got up and huffed, before laughing at her own mistake and returning to sit in line with the other youngsters. Terrador swiftly reached for him, offering a couple of more healing crystal, in order to cure his bruise.
He applied the gems, sighing in satisfaction as he felt the warm and curative energy mending his flesh. Once he consumed them all, he returned to seat near Cynder, ready to listen how the training will proceed.
Spyro noticed just now, that the Captain of the Temple Guard had joined the guardians and they were all sitting near the entrance of the great hall.
"Very well"Said Terrador, beckoning to his colleagues.
"You all have proved to have retained the fruits of our previous sessions of training, which is indeed a great thing. Now we will proceed with a bit of elemental training. Gaia, you will train with me, Nix will train with Cyril, Cynder with Volteer while Spyro and Auros will work with Captain Ashen, which gently managed to reserve some of his time to help us today."He said, nodding to the latter. He then scanned the young dragons, which seemed to be pretty excited.
"Good, we can begin."He concluded.
The various groups split the space of the arena in order to have their own space to train with. Gaia looked to be super excited to train alone with the guardian of her own element, Nix looked like more anxious than excited. Cynder was curios and wondered what kind of research did Volteer do in order to help her develop her skills in her unusual elements.
Finally, Spyro, Auros and Ashen had moved to they own side of the arena, as they prepared to begin.
"Ahem…"Began the captain.
"The Guardians told me that you, Spyro, are already mostly proficient with the fire element and that Auros is more on an intermediate level, which is totally fine. So there aren't really any breakthrough techniques that I can show you, but I can help you two work a bit on your control over the flames you expel."He said.
The two drakes watched him with curiosity, waiting for him to continue.
"So, as you probably know, Fire element is very wild and unpredictable, it is in its nature after all. This implies that is fairly easy, albeit energy consuming, to expel powerful fire attacks, even without much experience."
"What it's really difficult to master of the fire element is the way we expel it, and to control its flux to give us advantages on the enemy. I'll give you a demonstration."He said turning, to the white dragon.
"Dear Auros, could you please sit a few metres in front of me?"Asked the fire captain. Auros nodded as he walked away fro the other two and did as he was asked.
Ashen took stance and prepared himself.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you"He said, trying to reassure the drake.
A second later the captain expelled a powerful fire-breath attack, which instead of going straight towards the drake, it bent diagonally, forming a parabola that straddled him, burning the ground behind.
Ashen cut the stream of fire soon after, sitting back on his haunches. Both young dragons remained astonished by the display of power of the soldier.
"As you saw, we fire wielders can literally bend the flames to our will. So it's going to be my duty and pleasure to teach you the way to do it."Continued the fire dragon.
"In order to learn this kind of technique, you need to focus on how you expel the element. I know it seems kind of trivial to say so, but it's the reality of the facts. When we breath fire, we subconsciously direct it in front of our muzzle and it's this kind of habit that first hinders us into learning to bend the flames. So for our first exercise I want you to focus a narrow stream of flames and try to gradually turn your gaze and focus to another side of the training ground, in a bit of time you'll see that your element will follow your directions."
And so the two young dragons began to exercise this new technique with great interest, while the fire drake advised them.
In the end, after a couple of hours they had barely began to act on the trajectory, but to Ashen it was a great start to their training and at the end of their session he complimented with the two young dragons.
Eventually they all reunited back to the border of the arena and saluted for the day. The elders watched them leave in silence, until the earth guardian broke the quiet.
"How did Spyro do today?"He asked.
"He seemed very interested in apprehending the new fire technique I introduced them."Answered the fire captain.
"Did he mention any kind of pain or general physical problem?"He asked again.
"No that I heard of it"
"But I think we all noticed the falter he had during the spar with the ice dragoness. I mean given what happened to him and the relative short time that passed, it's something that we should have expected."Continued Cyril.
"Ah yes, but again, our dear young dragon had to bear an indescribable amount of pain and some very disfiguring wounds, we have to give him time and accompany him during his full recovery. I witnessed him fight back at Seascale, and he still managed to hold the pace of us all and make an almost normal progress of magical recovery." Interject Volteer.
"Which now reminds me that I totally forgot to give Auros his medicine, how stupid and unkind of me"Added the electricity guardian, frowning a bit.
"I'm sure the boy will forgive you…Anyway now that we've closed on Spyro's condition, what about the team we sent north?"Asked Cyril.
The scouts were taking a walking break from their long flight towards north.
"It's fucking cold up here."Stammered a fire soldier, walking along the snowy path.
"Language, Amiur, and yes, it's getting cold, you should get your padded armours on as soon as you can. We're taking five."Announced Corporal Nemes.
"Thank you sir"Answered in choir the other soldiers. The ice drake nodded and turned to stare along the path they were walking on. The trees where lightly covered in snow, with the evergreen pine needles still visible under that white thin layer.
To be totally honest, Nemes felt at ease in this kind of climate, being an ice dragon, but still he had to care for his whole team, which was not wholly formed by ice wielders.
His eyes turned to look at the sky, which was getting cloudier by the minute, he prayed to reach their destination before a snowstorm could hit them.
Not that where they were going was a much safer place.
The northern side of their continent was, in the past, a beautiful and flourishing site for exchange and culture, a safe dock for many merchants ships to harbour…But centuries ago, the climate began to change, the winters were harsher and colder every year. The snow began to be perennial, reaching impressive heights and almost submerging whole villages, making almost impossible even for the rescue team to reach them.
Eventually with the winds of the Dark War beginning to stir, the population migrated southward or to other northern islands, like Dante's Freezer for example, which still held a cold but much more stable climate.
The corporal didn't really know what to expect to find, but the purple dragon suggested that the infamous crystals were probably hidden in secluded and distant places, and where they were going, fitted perfectly the description.
He never personally visited those places, but he saw paintings and heard stories from his grandfather, which did live there for a good part of his life. Thinking about it, the last century of his life passed like a blur. Maybe it was the war, the routine of a soldier, the fact that almost everyday felt the same as the previous, no until the news about a new purple dragon arrived.
What a dark time it was back then… Even the guardians had lost all hope, their ranks were scattered all across the continent, decimated by hunger and their enemies.
Nemes shook his head, trying to disperse those thoughts, in hearing someone approaching from behind.
"Sir, we are ready to leave whenever you want."Informed the soldier. He turned around to face his comrades.
"Well, as you can see the sky is growing dark, we are going to fly low and as fast as we can in order to reach our destination before the snow arrives, be careful not to slam on a pine tree."Said the drake, taking flight.
In seconds, all the team was behind him, flying in a V-shape formation.
They flew for a couple more hours, until an harsh and freezing wind began to stir. The typical and now unwelcome smell of a snow-storm filled their nostrils, as the first flakes began to dance in the grey sky.
"We must haste, or we'll get hit by the storm before we arrive."Said Nemes, beating faster his wings. The others silently agreed, following their leader.
The snow was getting thicker by the minutes, but eventually a slender and dark-coloured spire came into view, in admits the sea of white surrounding it. The corporal recognised the shape from one of the illustrations he saw during the briefing, if he remembered well, that should have been the roof of the central city hall. He quickened his pace again, reaching to what he deemed to be a safe place for them to rest.
The group circled around the errant building, before one of the soldiers pointed to what seemed to be a window. Without thinking about, another crashed into it, followed by the whole team soon after.
Once they were all inside, Nemes proceeded to seal back the window with a layer of ice.
He then turned around, checking for his team, which seemed to be all ok. The room they were in was something that could be compared to an observatory. There were lots of tomes and parchments scattered on the stone floor, many bookshelves were piled in various corners of the room, also several tools like telescopes and star charts laid broken or frozen on the ground. From the cracks on the perimetrical walls, there were ice stalactites leaking out.
"Sir?"A soldier called his attention, to a now free descending stairway. It was dark and barely illuminated, with the light filtering trough the ice covered cracks of the walls. Nemes frowned before looking around the room.
"Shall we proceed, corporal?"Asked again the soldier.
"A second, I'm just looking for…Ha!"Exclaimed the ice dragon, moving away an old and broken bookshelf, revealing a small device with a translucent clear crystal fixed on it.
"Amiur, use your fire on this crystal, please."Asked the ice dragon to the fire soldier in his team.
The dragon obeyed, and as soon as his fire touched the crystal, a series of other devices shone dimly with a yellow-orange hue, making the room a bight brighter. They also noticed that the stairway had now become visible though the door
"Amazing, it still works."Whispered another soldier.
"Now we can go on"Said Nemes, taking the lead.
The whole team of dragons proceeded with a slow pace down the narrow stone stairway. After the first couple of minutes they managed to reach another of the lower floors, but the entrance was completely blocked by what seemed to be an impenetrable wall of snow.
They proceeded again down the stairway, keeping to find closed or impeded passages, until they reached another passing that presumably led to another hall. Fortunately it seemed to be clear from any impediment, so they began to explore that way first.
The dragons proceeded along a corridor that soon opened into a wide and dark hall. Nemes located the pilot crystal and the fire soldier promptly lit it up. Immediately the place was dimly illuminated by a series of other crystals fixed along the walls.
"Oh my…"Whispered a drake.
To say the place was big was and understatement.
The hall extended in all directions, so long that they couldn't properly see the end of it, while the ice covered tiles of the floor reflecting perfectly the feeble light coming from the ancient crystals. Scattered across the room they could see a multitude of stalagmites sprouting from the icy ground. With those ice spawns, a multitude of different amenities laid there, consumed and enveloped by the cold, testifying how old they were and how much time had passed since any living form has been in this place.
Going upwards, several marble statues were towering over them, depicting great dragons all standing on their hind paws, while their fore ones were placed against the ceiling, literally sustaining all the weight of the roof and the tens of metres of snow deposited over the whole building.
There were so many of those columns, all different and unique. A couple of them laid collapsed on the ground, with a thick layer of ice covering them from below.
"What should we do sir?"Asked a soldier, his whisper carried trough the empty hall with an impressive and gloomy echo.
Nemes looked around and then back to his team.
"I remember of reading a bit about this place. If I recall correctly, this should be the antechamber to a sort of smaller temple hall, where they used to keep ancient Ancestors relics."
"So much area, just for a liminal space…"Commented a soldier.
"Well, it was more than just a place of passage, here dragons and other species met to trade and communicate. The space dedicated to prayers and veneration was just the other room hall at the end of this one."Answered the corporal.
"Anyway, we should proceed on and try to traverse this place, maybe there will be something at the end of it. Then we'll come back and try to see if there are any other accessible entrances to other rooms. We must keep or voices down and be careful when you move, loud noises could be dangerous…Are we clear?"Said finally the ice dragon.
"Yessir."The other whispered.
Nemes nodded and promptly turned around in order to proceed on along the empty hall.
The group of dragons began to walk straight on, the clicking of their talons on the ice reverberated in the silence. Some of the dragons were aiming their snouts to the ceiling, looking at the majestic draconic columns. Their presence being intimidating and ominous. They tried to imagine, how this place must have been in its prime.
Definitely even more lustrous than the Temple of Warfang.
Where now there was only ice and desolation they could see countless dragons and other animals chatting, trading, meeting and laughing. Broken furnitures were whole again and the frozen iron goblets on the ground were instead filled with exotic beverages from all around the globe. A beautiful and intoxicating scent of Ancestors knew what food or delicacies wafted in their nostrils instead of the old smell of decay and ice.
It would have been truly a sight to be seen.
Their hopes however were not completely lost. A new purple dragon had arrived and he brought almost single-handedly the secular Deep War to an end.
There was a chance for the whole draconic population to return to where once they lived, to rebuild what was destroyed and discover again all that they thought it was lost.
There was hope.
But first, they had to clear the world from the remnants of what was now a dark past.
So they focused back on the present and on their mission.
The group kept on walking until something appeared in their range of view.
It would be a good news, if it wasn't for an eerie and definitely not friendly purplish light coming from the direction they were going.
Nemes flicked his head back towards the point they came from. The stairs and the corridor were basically a spec of dim light in the distance.
He never thought that they walked so long.
Or that the place was so big.
"Sir, is that what I think it could be?"Asked a soldier, whispering.
The ice drake didn't know how to answer.
If it really was the dark crystal, their mission was done and they could already return home, still they had to inspect the place. He really didn't want to get closer to that thing.
On the other paw, if it wasn't it, and the probability of not being it was decreasing with every step they took towards the eerie light, they'd have to search even more this abandoned place. Which would be delightful, if it wasn't for the probably thousand of tons of snow over their heads, held at bay by a secular roof.
"I don't know…We have to keep going"He finally addressed the soldier.
"Stay sharp and focused"He said to the whole team, his tone a bit higher.
The purplish light was getting stronger.
In matter of few minutes they reached what seems to be a wooden gate. The dim purple light was coming from behind it, filtering through the cracks in the door and reflecting in the thick layer of ice that surrounded it.
It seemed that that corner of the hat was completely devoid of the light coming from the other crystals, like if there the darkness was stronger and more present, sucking away the already dim brightness that gave a bit of comforting safeness to the exploring team.
"Amiur, could give us a bit of light?"Asked Nemes, still whispering.
Said drake moved beside him, the spewed a narrow stream of flames up above their heads, shedding golden-orange light in the cold darkness. It felt like the wisps of the cold and obscurity retreated for a second, before a cascade of horror fell over them.
"Holy fucking…"Murmured Nemes, taking a step back.
There was a dead dragon literally fixed on the gate.
It was definitely a male, his body completely enveloped by a thin and bristled layer of ice. His muzzle was eaten and seemly contorted into a painful, and now eternal scream. His wings were spread wide along the whole gate, the bones pierced and stabbed by two big stalactites that held the weight of the body.
The entirety of the team took another step back, as the fire dragon cut the stream of fire, making them falling back into an apparent darkness.
"Sir, what does this mean?"Asked a soldier again. Before he could try to answer, however, another soldier interjected darkly.
"Do not enter…"