Bright and early the next morning, Spyro, Cynder and Flicker met Nestor by the Artisan Home's waterfall.

"Peace Keepers next, right?" Cynder checked. "I know that's the closest, and it makes sense."

"You are correct," Nestor nodded. "The Peace Keeper lands are far from here, but not nearly so far as any of the other homes."

He sat down. "Cynder, Spyro. If you want any help, from any of us, you have but to ask."

"I know, Nestor," Spyro agreed. "And I understand what you mean by that, too… but if you start talking about who should or shouldn't have to fight, then you just end up with nobody doing anything."

He shook his head. "I'm choosing to help."

"And so are we, Spyro," Nestor assured him, then chuckled. "But you may find it easier to get good help from the Peace Keepers."

"Don't forget, we're in this together, Spyro!" Flicker buzzed. "I won't let you down!"

Cynder touched the tip of Spyro's wing with her own. "He's right," she said. "I can't think of anything that would make me not want to be right by your side, Spyro."

Spyro smiled in thanks, but then they had to set off for the long flight to the lands of the Peace Keepers.


At first, there were rolling green hills below them, part of the green coastline the Artisans had settled on and made their own. Then the landscape grew yellower, replacing the green coast with a different type of grass further inland, and as the two dragons and one dragonfly flew the ground rose beneath them.

They weren't travelling blind, there were way stations every twenty minutes which had a little pointer to the next and that was usually enough, but it was more than halfway to noon when the ground suddenly dropped away beneath them to reveal a wide, dark lake and red sandy rock all around.

"There it is," Cynder said, flying ahead a little and pointing. "That looks like Titan's house… there, see?"

"I see it," Spyro agreed. "And… I think your eyesight is a bit better than mine. Do you see any Gnorcs?"

"Yeah," Cynder confirmed. "In the box canyon behind his house. And they've got some kind of weapon."

The two dragons exchanged a glance.

"I can handle it!" Flicker said, confidently.

"I don't doubt you can," Spyro told him. "But let's try and make sure you don't have to… Cynder, what do you say we drop down to that lake and fly in low?"

Cynder considered that.

"I say I'm getting there first!" she replied teasingly, a current of whirling air flickering for a moment around her wings.

"Hey, I didn't say-" Spyro protested, then laughed and surged ahead. Cynder did too, and the pair of dragons swooped down almost to the level of the lake before zooming across the wavelets towards the home of the Peace Keepers.


Cynder was the one to release Titan, and the martial dragon let out a sigh of relief.

"It's good to see that you're okay," he said. "What happened?"

"Gnasty Gnorc, we think," Spyro explained. "We're almost sure, anyway… there's Gnorcs everywhere. I don't know how he froze you when you're inside, but he missed Cynder and he missed me."

"I've been wondering about that," Flicker admitted. "You two are immune to the magic, it seems like… or, you can make it disappear in other dragons."

He buzzed around in a loop. "I'm no Magic Crafter, but what if the spell targeted all dragons and your own magic sort of sucked up the bit that told it where to go?"

"That's as good an explanation as any," Spyro admitted.

"Well, I know you were living in the Artisan world," Titan went on, absently hefting his battleaxe onto his shoulder. "So I'm guessing that they're all okay?"

"We freed them all," Cynder said. "Every last one… but thieves were stealing dragon eggs."

"That's no good," Titan frowned. "All right, you two, come with me. We're clearing out the Peace Keeper lands."

Even as he spoke, a Gnorc yelped. The green creature pointed a spear at them, and charged, and Titan spat a jet of flame at it.

The Gnorc exploded into a gemstone in a whoosh of smoke, just a second before a surge of electricity passed through where it had been.

"Spyro, you've remembered how to use your electric breath!" Cynder gasped.

"It's as much of a surprise to me as it is to you," Spyro said, trying not to burp.


Spyro had been trained by Ignitus and the other elemental masters in a little bit of how to fight on his own, beyond the mechanics of how to attack into an education on tactics, and Cynder had spent years as a commander of ape armies – even if she mostly wanted to forget the whole experience – but something neither of them had had any real training in was how to fight as a small group.

Titan ran them through the most basic principles in a few hushed minutes, explaining how to turn their experience fighting as a pair into more of a style, and how to work out what was best handled by one dragon or another. Then he held out his paw, giving them a three-two-one count, and all three dragons went charging out into the Peace Keepers' portal nexus.

Some of the Gnorcs yelped and began to run away, others grabbed at spears and waved them, but three of the nearby ones began pushing large metal cannon around to point at the dragons.

"I'll go right!" Spyro called, accelerating, and jumped into the air with a flap of his wings to speed himself up. The first cannon boomed a moment later, and Spyro dropped back to the ground with the cannonball whipping past close enough to give him a breeze along his tail.

"Careful, Spyro!" Cynder shouted. "Look out left!"

The Gnorc in charge of the next-nearest cannon was bending down to light it, and Spyro rolled to the right as the cannonball shot towards him.

"Go!" the black dragon added, and Spyro charged the pair of cannons over by the ridge. He switched to fire for a moment and used that for a speed boost, then swapped back and fired out a fan of electric breath that caught both cannons. The lightning arced from there to the Gnorcs Cynder had noticed, sending them both sprawling backwards and making one dissolve into a gemstone, but it also made the cannon fire with a wham and the cannonball knocked Titan's axe out of his claws.

Cynder's tail slashed out, firing a wind blade which cut the top off a Gnorc's spear, and the unlucky creature wailed at being suddenly disarmed before running in the first direction he saw. Meanwhile Titan demonstrated that he wasn't helpless even without his own weapon by diving forwards and lashing out with his horns, then picking up a spear Gnorc and throwing it into the one who'd fired the first cannon. Both Gnorcs went flying into the nearby lake, and Flicker gasped.

"Hey!" he buzzed. "I'm going to need to go and get those!"

"Save it for someone who cares," Titan snorted, scanning the area for a moment before going to fetch his axe. "We should clear out the whole portal nexus first."


The central plain area was mostly populated with spear Gnorcs, who didn't seem very willing to stay and fight the dragon trio as they swept through the area, and before long Spyro and Cynder had chased down the fleeing Gnorcs as Titan brought up the rear.

"You're doing well," he said. "It's good to see that. I know you said you did a lot of fighting, back where you came from, but I'm never sure until I see someone doing it personally."

"It's something we're both… I don't know," Spyro admitted. "Or, I don't know how I think of it. I'd rather be good at this than not be good at this, but I don't like that it's necessary. Or how we got a lot of this skill."

Cynder nodded. "I know what you mean," she said. "But knowing we can do this properly, it helps me feel… safe."

"And knowing I'm around helps, too, I bet," Flicker buzzed.

"That's true," Spyro smiled, then leaned to the left a bit. "There's a frozen dragon over there… who is it? I don't recognize all the Peace Keepers off the top of my head."

"That'll be Magnus," Titan said, then slowly grinned as he looked between Magnus and the four timid Gnorcs forming a spear-wall between him and them. "I'm sure he'd love to join in."


"I think it's your turn," Cynder pointed out, and Spyro nodded as he reached out. The crystal fragmented into tiny pieces, surrounding Spyro in a swirl of blue light, and he flared his wings slightly at the sensation.

As the prison dissolved, Magnus laughed. "So, I'm guessing you're the ones who rescued Titan, rather than the other way around?"

He posed. "But since I'm out, the rest of you can stop worrying!"

"Just because you don't use a weapon doesn't mean you're stronger than the rest of us," Titan said, snorting. "Same story for you as for me, I assume."

"A bolt of magic froze me in crystal, and then half the hoard came to life as Gnorcs," Magnus agreed. "Still, I'm sure – look out!"

Spyro whirled to see what Magnus was pointing at, and saw another of the Gnorc cannons had been laboriously turned to point at them through a gap between a rock spire and a tent. The cannon boomed just as he spotted it, and a cannonball slammed straight into Cynder – knocking her rolling backwards, nearly into the nearby lake.

"Cynder!" Spyro called, glancing at Flicker in panic, and saw the dragonfly had gone blue with the effort of absorbing the attack. Then he broke into a sprint, lightning fizzing over his wings, and went straight through the tent in a single bound before exhaling an electric arc that lifted both of his Gnorc targets into the air.

Grabbing one Gnorc with both foreclaws, Spyro blasted it with electricity and then slammed it into the other in an explosion of sparks. The electricity under his scales wanted to burst out in a Fury, and it nearly did, but the memory of Cynder being near the lake stopped him.

He didn't want to ever hurt Cynder, even by accident.


"I'm okay," Cynder said, once Spyro was back. "Just surprised. It hit like crashing, but not dangerously."

Spyro pressed his wing against hers, trying to give her support without being overprotective. "I was worried…"

"I know," Cynder said.

She nodded up at Flicker. "I guess we owe you some more butterflies, huh?"

"You should watch your temper, Spyro," Titan counselled, then raised his paws at the look he got from both young dragons. "I'm not saying your reaction was wrong, Spyro. I think you did the right thing. I'm only telling you this because it could be a weakness, and I want to make sure you learn everything I can teach."

Spyro frowned, shaking his head a bit. "I… think you're right, Titan. But I think it's something about our kind of dragons, as well… I nearly went into an elemental fury, there. Cynder did with wind yesterday. It's part of us, the way we touch our elements, and it just wouldn't make sense for us to try to shut ourselves away from it."

"You know yourselves better than we know you," Magnus said. "Just make sure problems don't sneak up on you, like I couldn't."

He stroked his chin. "I think Gunnar was around here as well, I saw him before the spell. So let's go break him out!"


There was another egg thief, next to Gunnar, and the moment the thief saw Spyro and Cynder coming he yelped and began to run away around the nearby lake.

Fortunately, though, there wasn't anywhere for the thief to run to, and the two young dragons exchanged a wordless glance before splitting up – one going left, the other going right – and caught the thief in a pincer movement before Cynder blew him into the wall and Spyro flamed him.

"Quick work," Titan approved, as Cynder freed Gunnar. "You're taking to this well."

"We know each other well," Spyro replied. "Or… I don't know. It just seemed to come to us, back when the necklaces chained us together."

"Maybe it's because I know how other dragons fight," Cynder wondered.

"I don't think it is, Cynder," Spyro told her. "I'm thinking about how you're going to react, too, and I'm not going to let you believe you're slower at picking that up than I am. So it's nothing to do with that."

"That's all of us who were here at the time, I think," Gunnar said. "Hmm."

He glanced up at Titan and Magnus. "What do you think? How should we handle this?"

"Divide and conquer, or mass and attack together," Titan considered. "Hmm. I don't know."

"Did you see who was put in charge of the land?" Spyro asked. "In the Artisans world it was a sheep called Toasty, he took over High Gallery."

"Oh, I think I know," Gunnar decided, pointing. "There was a big gnorc who went into Mesa Grotto yesterday. I mean, really big."

"Won't be any match for us," Magnus said. "And by us, I mean me!"

"Hold on, Magnus," Titan said, holding out his arm. "Before you go charging in, there's something we should think about."

"What is it this time?" Magnus asked. "You're always finding reasons like this. Why bother thinking when you can just charge in and solve all your problems that way?"

"That doesn't work, Magnus," Titan said.

He turned his attention to Spyro and Cynder. "You've dissolved those crystal prisons every time, so far… but what I'm wondering about now is, if that is because your own magic sucks up the magic of Gnasty's spell, then you might be the only dragons immune to it."

"Right, I get that," Cynder said. "And even if we're not, so long as one of us is free the other one can break them out."

"Exactly," Titan nodded. "Good instincts."

He pointed. "Which means that the two of you might have to be the ones who battle Gnasty, or be there when the battle with Gnasty happens. And that means you're going to need to improve. Improve your magic, improve your tactics, re-connect with all the abilities you know you have but which you haven't yet managed to use."

"I get it," Spyro realized. "What you're saying is that… you think we should fight. Not doing it alone, but doing a lot of it."

"I am," Titan confirmed. "Training would be better, but it would take much longer. And while I'm definitely planning on a strike team going after Gnasty Gnorc… I have to plan for if they fail too."

"Oh."

Cynder's voice was small, and Spyro reached out a wing to her.

"Are you okay, love?" he asked.

"I think so," Cynder replied, distracted. "I – well, I think so, but I just realized something about planning the way I did with the ape army. It's… it's not quite the same, but it's the same sort of skill to do it to keep other dragons safe, isn't it?"

"That's right," Titan said. "Now, come on. Magnus and Gunnar are going to keep an eye on what happens in the main Peace Keepers nexus, but I'm going to fly overwatch for you in… hmm… Cliff Town, I think. I'll be there if you need me, and I'll come down if Flicker's strength is fading, but I think it's better for your strength to learn yourself."

"Hey, shouldn't you ask them?" Magnus asked.

"It's okay," Spyro said. "He's right – I think he's right."

"I agree," Cynder nodded.


Cliff Town, as the name suggested, had both a large town and a lot of cliffs.

The portal let them out in the air overhead, and Spyro backwinged slightly to hover as he looked around.

"Why is this place like this?" he asked. "As a town. I didn't think about it at first, but – do all the Peace Keepers live here?"

"No, we don't," Titan replied. "It's a good question, though… this is mostly used when training young dragons."

Cynder tilted her head, then nodded.

"I think I see," she said. "It's like… it's like the dragon temple, isn't it?"

She glanced at Spyro. "It's somewhere where young dragons go to learn how to be safe. All of them, not just the ones who are Peace Keepers."

"That's right," Titan agreed. "The town has enough space that we can handle a lot of young dragons at once. Town Square's the same in the Artisan world… I don't recall the others, though. The Magic Crafters might not bother and who knows what the Dream Weavers do."

After a moment, Spyro pointed. "We'd better get down there," he said. "Go around in a circle, to make sure we don't miss anything?"

"Sure," Cynder agreed, then looked up at Titan. "Is there anything we should do to make it harder on ourselves?"

"Don't take unnecessary risks," Titan told them. "But try and learn, as well. If you have a single way to win all your fights, then the moment it doesn't work you're screwed."

"Not while I'm around!" Flicker buzzed.

Spyro nodded, then dropped down into the nearest building – a large, open-topped hall.

Cynder landed next to him a moment later, taking a position half a length behind him in support, and Spyro looked at the two armed Gnorcs that ran up to menace them.

They had metal capes… which meant Spyro was going to be able to test something.

He inhaled, then spat out a jet of lightning at the left Gnorc. The Gnorc yelped, lifted into the air, then Spyro flicked his head across sharply and the left Gnorc crashed into the right one.

"Go!" he said, and Cynder charged forwards. She hit both Gnorcs with a blast of wind magic, blowing their enchanted metal capes so they streamed away from their wearers, then swiped at one of the Gnorcs. It stumbled backwards, and Cynder flicked her tail with a coating of sharp, cutting wind at the other Gnorc.

It managed to parry her attack with a sword swipe, producing a jarring clang as her metal tail blade collided with the metal sword, and Cynder glanced back. "Spyro!"

"Here!" Spyro replied, charging in low while the Gnorc's sword was busy. It went from pleased to scared as it realized what was going on, and Spyro's head butt lifted it into the air just before Cynder's wind breath blew it off the cliff.

The other Gnorc was still getting up as Flicker darted off the cliff to retrieve the gem, and Spyro electrified that Gnorc more thoroughly.

"So," Cynder said, assessing the skirmish. "That metal doesn't protect them from your lightning breath."

"I think it helped a bit," Spyro replied, thinking. "It soaks up a bit of the energy, that is… but lightning definitely works better than fire."


There weren't any other surprises as Spyro, Cynder and Flicker worked their way through Cliff Town.

Having Titan hovering overhead to help out was... comforting, but the big Peace Keeper wasn't actually needed at any point, as the two younger dragons battled across town and then up the cliffside collection of homes. Not routine, never routine, because - as the steady Terrador had told them more than once, a routine was simply the point at which you both stopped thinking about fighting and became predictable - but with two dragons and the safety net that Flicker provided, they didn't have anything to be properly worried about.

There was an egg thief here in Cliff Town as well, but their cunning plan of running away from Spyro turned out to work particularly poorly when there were two dragons able to split themselves up, and after another egg had been rescued - the fourth, so far - they finished with that side of the river and crossed to the open training field on the far side.

"Vultures," Cynder said, as she landed. "Huh. What do you think, Spyro?"

"I guess they could just be here for unrelated reasons," Spyro replied, considering. "So far we've seen gnorcs, dogs... those really nasty sheep back in Stone Hill and High Gallery..."

"And then there's the lizards," Cynder mused, looking back over the river to Cliff Town itself. "These could just be more wildlife like those, and if they are they'll run away."

She paced forwards, and one of the vultures took off to swoop down on her.

"What do you think?" she asked, dodging out of the way. "Is this normal wild animal behaviour?"

"Not that I'm used to," Spyro replied, then flamed it as it banked around to attack his girlfriend again.

There was a flash, and a gemstone clattered to the ground.

"I'm on it!" Flicker buzzed, collecting it, and a moment later Titan landed next to them.

"I don't think we ever actually discussed it before," he said. "Is there a reason your dragonfly's collecting all the treasure?"

"It's in case Gnasty tries turning it into more soldiers, sir," Cynder explained. "For now it's all going in our house in Town Square, so if he tries turning the gems into soldiers they'll all be packed into a tiny space and explode straight away."

Titan nodded. "Good thinking. Though I hope you're keeping track of how much there is... the amount of treasure in each world was sorted out a long time ago by a lot of arguments."

"I'm doing that!" Flicker said proudly. "Dragonflies have to be great at maths!"


There were more vultures prowling the training field, but they didn't cause much trouble either, and after reaching the very peak of Cliff Town and freeing Marco Spyro was ready to head back to the Peace Keeper home.

Flicker, however, made a buzzing noise.

"So, uh... this place has a whole hundred amount of treasure, right?" he asked.

"Of course!" Marco agreed. "Or it should, and I didn't see any of it leave."

Flicker winced. "Because we're about thirty-three short."

"We are?" Spyro asked. "Really?"

He looked around, for the glitter of gems or the shape of treasure chests. "Where?"

Cynder took off, circling, and he did the same.

"I know we broke into the metal strongbox with that rocket," Spyro said, thinking. "We got all the Gnorcs and other soldiers..."

"Did you flame all those pots?" Cynder checked.

"Yeah, I think so," Spyro replied. "Maybe those big Gnorcs were trying to hide the gems in there, but I think we got them all out... we should check, I guess."

While a good guess, however, that didn't pan out. Nor did checking the inside of the hall where they'd started, nor even did a long trip down to the bottom of the cliffs, down past a cloud layer to the ground below.

When the two young dragons returned to Cliff Town itself, though, Titan was chuckling.

"Found them," he explained, and pointed. "They were behind the hall."

Halvor looked embarrassed. "It was a good hiding place," he defended himself. "Even hid them from myself, heh..."


After Cliff Town came Dry Canyon, which was a place built into the walls of a narrow, twisting canyon. A few pools were dotted around, but there were more cacti than pools, and the cries of more attack vultures filled the air as Spyro and Cynder swooped down to a landing.

Titan landed behind them, though, rather than staying overhead.

"Is something wrong?" Spyro asked, glancing around. "I thought you were going to fly overhead."

"I was," Titan agreed. "But I might need to be closer. See those Gnorcs over there?"

He pointed, and both younger dragons followed his finger.

"The ones with the shields?" Spyro checked, to make sure. "And something else…"

"Yes," Titan confirmed. "I'm not quite sure what those weapons are, Spyro, Cynder – but I do know you should be very careful. We don't know what they can do, and that's a bad situation to be in."

Cynder snorted.

"This is serious," Titan chided.

"No, no," Cynder replied. "I believe you, I just… I remembered something that happened. Before. Back before we ended up here, I mean."

"Which one?" Spyro asked. "Or was it-"

"It's a happy memory," Cynder assured him. "Or… it is now, anyway."

She flicked her tail. "I remember thinking, 'he's tiny, how can he possibly be beating me'. Then you exploded in blue light, beat me up in ways I didn't even know existed, and freed me."

Cynder twined her tail around Spyro's for a moment. "It hurt, but… it's a happy memory, Spyro. You freed me, and then you saved me even though I was your enemy."

"You weren't my enemy," Spyro told her. "You never were – you were a victim of Malefor's."

The black dragoness closed her eyes, bowing her head, and Spyro touched his forehead to hers.

Titan gave them a moment, then got their attention with a cough.

"As I was saying," he said. "We don't know what that weapon can do, so you'll probably need Flicker's help… but that shield of theirs can only point in one direction. They'll be vulnerable to the two of you working together."

"Right," Spyro said, all business now. "Any other advice?"

Titan considered.

"Not yet," he said. "I can't tell enough about how it works. Sorry, Spyro."

Spyro shrugged. "If you don't know, you don't know, Titan. We're grateful for your help."


Both young dragons approached the first pair of Gnorcs at an easy lope, wings half-unfurled and ready to move in any direction, and the closer Gnorc raised its weapon.

It went bang, and a ball of metal went flying out towards Cynder. She yelped, ducking and feeling the ball whip past her just above her tail, then Spyro charged in and knocked the Gnorc into the air with a headbutt.

Leaping into the air, he slammed the Gnorc twice with his paws. Then did a forwards flip and tailstrike, knocking the Gnorc back to the ground where he bathed it in flame and made it burst into a gemstone, but as he finished the second Gnorc fired at him.

Cynder exhaled a jet of wind to try and knock him backwards, but it was too little and too late. The metal ball hit Spyro, and Flicker blocked it with a flash of light but was unable to prevent the hit from knocking Spyro sprawling.

His girlfriend charged past him, wind curling off her wings, then flicked her tail across to launch a wind blade. The Gnorc raised its shield to block the attack, resulting in a whung of impact – but Cynder had spotted the downside of that, which was that it had raised its shield too high.

It couldn't see her.

She turned, tail lashing out to hook the lower edge of the shield, then snatched it away with a sudden yank and exhaled a blast of wind to knock the Gnorc into one of the nearby cacti.

Spyro set both it and the cactus on fire, and when the Gnorc exploded Cynder slowly relaxed.

"What was that?" she asked.

"A cannon, right?" Flicker asked. "A small one, but – yeah, it's got to be a cannon."

"That would make sense," Spyro admitted. "We'll have to feed you a lot today, Flicker."

"I'm not so sure," Titan told them, coming over with a rabbit, then flaming it to release a butterfly that Cynder's dragonfly companion gratefully ate. "I was watching, and I think you're going to be able to dodge those weapons… as long as you're paying attention."

"Right," Spyro realized, shaking his head. "I was doing my normal air kata, but that meant I was in one place – and I wasn't looking."

He sighed. "Sorry, everyone."

"This is why facing new weapons is a problem, even for an experienced Peace Keeper, Spyro," Titan said. "We try our best to train so you know how to react to everything, but we can't train against things we don't know about… the best we can do is teach you how to improvise."

He gave them a curt nod. "And you're doing well. Don't worry."


Now that they had more information about how to deal with the weapons, Spyro and Cynder moved out working as a tag-team.

The armed Gnorcs seemed to come in pairs or even trios as much as individuals, but the two of them together were able to focus on one without ignoring the shots fired by the others. Cynder used her wind breath to batter at the shield of a Gnorc, only for Spyro to charge down on it and knock the shield into the Gnorc and both of them into the floor, or Spyro used a jet of flame breath to force the Gnorc to shield and Cynder used a wind-blade swipe from the side to hit the Gnorc while it couldn't block her attack.

Or Spyro just used a Fire Bomb and blew the Gnorc into the air, though after he did that once the next one grounded their shield so the blast wouldn't be quite so effective.

There were attack vultures, as well, and the first time they encountered them they also encountered a new kind of enemy with an attack neither of them had really considered before.

"...um," Spyro began. "Cynder, are… are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"I think so," Cynder replied, frowning. "I hope so, or otherwise I'm going crazy."

She pointed, past the wooden posts, then ducked down and swiped a wind blade across to knock an attack vulture out of the sky.

"Because that," she continued, without missing a beat, "is a large Gnorc holding an attack vulture by the legs."

"It doesn't make sense," Spyro said, frowning. "Which is why I'm worried, because there must be a reason it's doing that."

He glanced at Cynder. "Still, I'm not very worried. Not when we're together, love"

Cynder smiled back, then shook her head slightly and got ready for battle.

"I think… two wings apart," she said.

Spyro nodded, and spread his wings as a measure. Cynder did as well, and the two dragons moved apart so their wingtips were only just touching.

Then they advanced.

The big Gnorc raised his vulture, and began swinging it around his head. The unconventional weapon began making squawking sounds, and Spyro stopped for a moment to stare.

"Roll!" Cynder said, urgently, and Spyro rolled to the side. Cynder's warning came just in time, as the big Gnorc brought the attack vulture down like a massive club that made a crater in the ground where Spyro had been a moment before.

Cynder lashed out, swiping with wings and tail enhanced with cutting blades of wind, then jumped back with another surge of wind around her wings as the Gnorc tried hitting her instead. By then Spyro had recovered from his roll, and spat flame, and the Gnorc roared in protest before kicking out at him.

The foot whipped just past Spyro's muzzle as he backwinged, then he switched elements on the fly from fire to lightning. Jumping into the air, he hovered there as he fired out a jet of lightning, and it latched magnetically on to the much-abused attack vulture their opponent was using as a weapon.

"Now!" Spyro called, doing his level best to hold on to the lightning breath as he did so, and Cynder took Spyro's meaning. She charged in again, launching into a full kata which knocked the Gnorc reeling, then used an uppercut headbutt to knock it into the air and used a jet of wind to blow it off the cliff.

"Nice, but I'm going to have to get that!" Flicker complained, zipping off the cliff after the Gnorc and their gemstone.

"We need a better system for them," Spyro admitted. "I know we didn't get hurt, and we know what we're expecting now, but…"

"I know what you mean," Cynder said. "Using the lightning breath was clever, but my wind element just isn't destructive enough to quickly defeat those big, tough enemies."

"Cynder, I-" Spyro began, and Cynder shook her head.

"It's not a bad thing," she said. "My other elements are a bit more dangerous… but I don't mind being a wind dragon."

She nuzzled him. "And even if it was a bad thing, it's not your fault. Don't feel bad about something you didn't do."

"Cynder," Spyro said, more firmly. "It shouldn't be like that. And if that's the rule, it should be – don't feel bad about something that's not your choice."

He thumped a paw on the ground. "You shouldn't feel guilty about what you did before, and the way you said it… it was like part of you was trying to be guilty again."

Cynder looked away.

"Maybe," she said. "I didn't notice it myself, I was trying to help you feel better, but… you might be right."

She managed a smile. "Maybe, next time, you hold the vulture in place, and I take it away? Then you can focus on flaming the big guy."

Spyro nodded, then Flicker flew back up.

"I got the gem!" he announced.


Dry Canyon's last major challenge was an egg thief – though they proved no better at dealing with a pincer movement coming from two directions than any of the others – and then the main thing Spyro and Cynder had to deal with was comments from two of the dragons they released.

Ivor said brightly that they'd always expected great things from Flame, patting Spyro on the head, and that left Spyro vaguely worried about both the old Peace Keeper's eyesight and the safety of him carrying around a very large bomb as his weapon of choice.

Maximos, meanwhile, regaled them with several minutes of attack vulture cooking recipes.

From there, though, it was back to the portal nexus and then on towards Ice Cavern.

"This is a bit of an odd place out," Spyro said, trimming his wings and dropping towards one end of the cavern. "Isn't it?"

"The rest of the Peace Keeper worlds are hot deserts," Cynder agreed, but her tone was more musing than anything. "I know it's not like Dante's Freezer, but you remember what Flame told us about the Magic Crafter worlds? And the Dream Weavers?"

"I guess that's true," Spyro conceded. "If there's enough magic involved, you can change things around. I guess I'm just not sure why it's an icy cavern."

He flared his wings, hovering, then pushed upwards again.

"Titan?" he began. "Why is this an icy cavern?"

Titan chuckled.

"It's about training, again," he said, as Cynder came up to listen to the answer as well. "You might already know this, but a dragon can be as good as they want at fighting on solid ground and still make mistakes on uneven ground. The ice here is meant to teach that lesson, so watch your footing."

"Right," Spyro said, glancing down at his claws. "I think I'll be okay… Cynder?"

"I'll be fine," Cynder confirmed. "Just watch your fire breath, Spyro, you don't want to melt something in the wrong place."


Spyro had half-wondered whether simply being in the icy landscape would reawaken his ice breath, but it didn't happen.

Instead, the two dragons ducked under high-speed snowballs and tag-teamed both normal and large Gnorcs, freeing Ulric and Todor, and their second rescuee winked before adjusting his helmet.

"Watch out," he said. "I saw some big Gnorcs wearing armour up ahead."

"Armour," Spyro repeated. "That's a problem."

"Todor doesn't seem to think so," Cynder pointed out. "Are you going to help us?"

"I will if you want," Todor replied, checking on the tension in the string of a bow as tall as he was. "But in a cave like this, armour makes your feet very slippery."

Spyro looked down at his claws again, then Cynder made an oh sound.

"I get it," she said. "Come on, Spyro, let's get them!"

"Wait up, Cynder!" Spyro called, claws skittering slightly as he got a grip, but he wasn't upset at all.

Seeing Cynder like this was amazing. It was seeing the dragon he loved, confident and happy in all the right ways. Like their peaceful times, but different, and like her time at war, but better.

Driving out the old memories with new ones.

Then he heard a yelp, and when he arrived Spyro saw that Cynder had tried using her wind breath to blow an armoured Gnorc off the slippery ice path.

Instead, the recoil from the wind gust had overcome Cynder's own footing, and she'd gone sliding backwards to fall off the path herself. She hadn't quite dropped into the mist below, but only her foreclaws and wings and a hastily-wedged tail combined had managed to stop her.

Spyro couldn't help it, and started laughing.

"Oh, shut up," Cynder grumbled, then tensed and pulled herself back up onto the ice path. Her tail whined for a moment with concentrated wind, then she braced herself and fired a slug of compressed air at the armoured Gnorc.

That did it, knocking the Gnorc into the mists below with a plaintive grunt, and Cynder exhaled.

"That's a new trick, right?" Spyro asked. "I don't remember seeing that before."

Cynder nodded her agreement.

"Well, now we know what to do," Spyro added. "Who first on the next bit?"

"You go," Cynder decided. "I've got to let my pride recover…"


"Flame can't fly, right?" Cynder asked. "I just thought – this set of platforms here might be to help young dragons learn how far they can jump."

Spyro had been springing from platform to platform, collecting up the gems, but paused.

"Maybe?" he said, thinking. "I don't think Flame and Ember can fly, no… they can glide, but it takes the enchantment in a Flight portal to let them fly. You're right."

"Always a good sign," Cynder smirked. "But it's funny to think about, really… not being able to fly, that is."

"It's something that I found easier over time," Spyro said. "It's… a knack, I think?"

He took off, hovering in the air. "At first I had to focus, then… I don't know. Maybe the times the Chronicler taught me helped me get more used to it, or maybe it's something to do with when I froze us in time."

Cynder nodded.

"It's always been easy, for me," she replied. "I think that's a wind dragon thing."

"Probably," Spyro agreed. "Or maybe it's just something you're good at, love."

That won him a smile, then Spyro collected the last gem on the platforms and they moved into the final part of the Ice Cavern.


With another area behind them, Spyro and Cynder moved on to the final part of the Peace Keepers world – the mountaintop area called Mesa Grotto.

"You'll have to be careful, Spyro, Cynder," Titan warned them. "Gnasty put one of his henchmen in charge of the Peace Keepers lands, and he's made Mesa Grotto his home. He calls himself Doctor Shemp."

Spyro frowned, looking around before asking the question that came to mind, and saw that Gunnar and Magnus had both been frozen within line of sight of the portal.

That was probably how they'd found that out.

"The only dragon unaccounted for is Trondo," Gunnar told them. "So watch out for him when you get to Mesa Grotto… but apart from that, good luck."

"Got it," Spyro said, and Cynder gave a confident nod.

"We're on it, sir!" Flicker agreed.

The three of them jumped through the portal, followed by Titan, and the big Peace Keeper split off to stay in his overwatch position while both younger dragons drifted down to the ground.

"Those big Gnorcs look familiar," Spyro said, taking a few steps forwards. "And there's an armoured one, next to-"

The big Gnorc slapped the armoured one, and it gave a blood-curdling shout before charging directly towards Spyro – yelling like a demon all the while.

"Look out!" Cynder called, and Spyro yelped before shooting out a Fire Bomb at the armoured Gnorc. It detonated, splashing off the armour plates the Gnorc wore on its chest and head, and hit Spyro head-on.

Flicker buzzed, absorbing the hit and turning blue, and Spyro ducked under a wild swipe from the staff his opponent was carrying.

Cynder's tail whipped out, intercepting the second staff blow before it could collide with Spyro, and took off in a whirr of wings. It took her only a moment to get high enough, holding the staff tight so the Gnorc couldn't use it to attack Spyro, and the respite let Spyro get a handle on things again.

He headbutted the Gnorc, knocking it into the air, then landed two powerful blows in succession that knocked the Gnorc reeling. He had to pause, then, glancing over to see if any of the other Gnorcs were aiming at them, but confirmed that they weren't as Cynder disentangled her tail.

Spyro had enough time before the Gnorc landed to deliver a final blow – a straight-forwards charge engulfed in flame that knocked the Gnorc off the cliff.

"Stay there, okay?" Flicker asked, then darted down to collect the gem.

"Are you okay?" Cynder checked.

"Yeah, I think so," Spyro agreed. "Flicker protected me again… I should really avoid making a habit of being saved like that."

"I'd prefer it to the alternative," Cynder pointed out, and Spyro nodded.

Flicker came back up.

"Got the gem!" he reported. "But I hope you've got a plan."

"I'm thinking," Spyro admitted. "Cynder, if you think of something, let me know, but… it looks like the Gnorcs here have taken hints from this being the Peace Keepers world, right?"

Cynder paused, then nodded.

"Yes," she agreed. "Yes – they've all had weapons, you're right. I didn't notice. Even if the weapons were ladles… or vultures."

"But I think I just noticed something they missed," Spyro went on, and advanced.

The big Gnorc that had sent the armoured one at them was an easy enough target, going down to a jet of flame and a flurry of blows, but not far ahead was a second big Gnorc with an armoured assistant.

"Spyro, are you sure about this?" Cynder asked, torn between concern and curiosity.

"Not really," Spyro admitted, walking a bit to the right – towards the cliff – then the big Gnorc slapped the armoured one to send it forwards.

Spyro waited as the big Gnorc got closer, then skipped to the side.

Cynder watched in amazement as the armoured one ran straight ahead, right over the edge of the cliff.

"How did that work?" she asked.

"I said they missed something," Spyro replied. "Eye holes."


Now that Spyro had spotted the trick, the rest of the armoured Gnorcs only took a few minutes to handle all-told.

It actually took longer for Flicker to gather up the gems that had fallen off the cliff, and before long they were into the hidden garden at the heart of Mesa Grotto.

"Wow," Cynder said, quietly, staring at Doctor Shemp. "I know some of my minions before looked weird, but… that Gnorc looks weird."

Spyro was too busy giggling to reprove Cynder for bringing up her evil past, and he wasn't even sure if he should criticize her for it, but he had to admit she was right.

The big orange Gnorc was holding a staff festooned with skulls and masks, with a glowing magical aura around it, and had a thick plate of armour strapped to his front.

And that seemed to be all he was wearing.

Spyro reached up to touch the crystal that held Trondo in place, and it dissolved in a whirl of green and blue light.

"Thanks, Spyro!" Trondo said, exhaling. "This guy's been bragging about himself for hours! But if you ask me…"

He leaned down, to whisper. "He should watch his back."

Spyro and Cynder exchanged glances, then looked unimpressed.

"What do you mean?" Cynder asked. "Is that meant to help, or not?"

Trondo frowned. "Uh."

He glanced up at the three pedestals arranged in Mesa Grotto. "You know, I usually do subtle hints…"

"This isn't the time for that right now," Spyro asserted. "We need to beat this Gnorc, that's what matters."

"I guess, yeah," Trondo said, sounding disappointed. "Well, uh… his armour doesn't cover his back at all."

"There we go, see?" Cynder asked. "That's better."

She glanced up at Spyro. "How do we handle this, Spyro?"

"We don't know what kind of magic he can do," Spyro replied. "I guess he's not doing anything to us at the moment…"

He frowned, thinking, then lowered his voice. "We need to make sure one of us can attack him from behind, where his armour isn't. So we'll need to split up. He's on that pedestal… maybe we can attack from different sides."

"Right," Cynder agreed. "So maybe…"


A minute later, Cynder crouched just next to Doctor Shemp's pedestal.

Spyro circled overhead, then fired a Flame Bomb, and Cynder jumped up in the same moment. The bomb exploded as Doctor Shemp knocked it out of the air with his staff, and Cynder flicked out with her tail coated in an air-blade.

It slashed across Doctor Shemp's undefended backside, then he whirled around and bashed her with the staff. The impact made her see stars, despite Flicker taking most of the force of the blow and turning green, and she staggered back a step before flaring her wings to recover.

Doctor Shemp raised his staff again, pointing at her flamboyantly, then Spyro was there. He used a mid-air flame charge to jet straight down and cannon into Doctor Shemp's back, knocking the big Gnorc sprawling forwards as Cynder rolled out of the way, and her claws dug into the ground as she braked out of her roll and lashed out with another attack.

Spyro came down to land as well, but Doctor Shemp shoved himself upright again, then ran off towards the next-highest pedestal.

"I've got this!" Cynder said, wind coiling around her wings, and she charged after the fleeing Gnorc.

"Wait up, Cynder!" Spyro called, concerned, and followed her, but Cynder got there first. Doctor Shemp whirled, swiping his staff around in a low sweep aimed to knock her sideways, and Cynder managed to get just enough warning to hop over the staff rather than being knocked into the water below.

She exhaled a jet of wind at Doctor Shemp, hovering in the air, then he flipped his grip on his staff and brought it whipping down to hit her.

This time, Cynder was ready, and she wrapped herself in a whirlwind. The impact as the staff hit her was still stunning, making Flicker's glow cut out entirely, but she caught the staff-head and her wind lent her strength – holding her in place, countering Doctor Shemp's strength, and stopping him from using the staff to attack Spyro.

"Get him, Spyro!" she called, strain in her voice, and Spyro whipped past before doing a wingover and blasting Doctor Shemp with three fireballs.

The big Gnorc wailed, yanking the staff out of Cynder's grip with desperate strength, and Spyro circled her as she dropped to the ground.

"Are you okay-?" he tried to ask, but Cynder pointed.

"The bridge!" she said.

Spyro did a double-take, then surged forwards.

Doctor Shemp had run away again, sprinting across a log bridge to the third pedestal, but Spyro reacted to Cynder's warning in time – he set the bridge on fire, then hit it with a fire bomb, destroying it and dropping Doctor Shemp into the water with a spa-loosh.

The armour on his chest proved to be his downfall, and he was dragged under in moments.


"I was so worried," Spyro said, alighting next to Cynder. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better," Cynder replied, shaking her head a bit. "But I'm okay, Spyro – really. I just…"

She tossed her head. "Maybe that wasn't a good idea, but it made sense then, and I thought – if we could get his staff away from him, it would work. Then he began to run away and I realized the bridge could…"

Spyro twined his tail around hers.

"That was brave, Cynder," he said. "But… please, don't do something like that again. Unless you warn me first. It was so scary…"

He pressed his muzzle against hers, then his forehead against hers, and closed his eyes. "I think I'm more worried to see you hurt than I am when I get hurt… and I know you're tough, but I keep thinking of Ignitus…"

Cynder's wings wrapped around him.

"I'm sorry, Spyro," she said.

"No, I don't… I don't know what to say," Spyro admitted. "I… you're amazing, Cynder, and you shouldn't apologize for that, I'm just afraid to lose you and sometimes…"

He shook his head. "I love you, so much…"


Twenty minutes later, back at the Peace Keepers portal nexus, Titan ran down how well they'd done.

Spyro and Cynder had been expecting… neither of them really knew what they'd been expecting.

It was all too easy to think about the mistakes they'd both made. But it was all too easy to remember how much of their lives had been war, before.

"...it's something to watch out for," Titan said, firmly. "If you feel you have to accept a hit, make it so it's not the last hit your dragonfly has – if you can."

"I get it," Spyro realized, after a moment. "Flicker can protect us from things going wrong, but he can only do that if he's still got charge."

"Exactly," Titan said. "I know you're both tough dragons, but I'd rather that Flicker was keeping you safe rather than you end up with injuries that might take days to heal."

Cynder grimaced.

"I keep forgetting you don't have red crystals here," she admitted. "I keep seeing red gems and thinking they're healing me, it's… hard to keep that in mind."

"We'll do better," Spyro promised. "What else should we know?"

Titan smiled slightly.

"It's very important," he told Spyro, and pointed to the Night Flight portal. "Go and have some fun."

"...what?" Spyro asked, looking around. "But we should get moving to the Magic Crafters!"

"Spyro," Titan replied, sounding firm. "I was not joking when I said it was very important. You will do the Magic Crafters no good at all if you turn up there exhausted."

He folded his arms. "I see no reason why you can't do this yourselves, though you can always ask for help. But if you try to do everything all in one go, you will make mistakes and you will get hurt – even if you succeed."

Spyro took a deep breath, then let it out with a sigh.

"He's right," Cynder said. "The crystal is protecting the frozen dragons as well as trapping them. We can wait until tomorrow morning to fly to the Magic Crafters."

"You're right," Spyro agreed. "I… thank you, Cynder. Titan. I hadn't thought of it like that."

"Relax," Titan said, making it an order. "Get advice from the others if you feel it would help, but more than anything – make sure you relax and get rested. It's the best thing you can do right now."


For a wonder, it actually worked.

Cynder set a new record on Night Flight, weaving in and out of lighthouses and staying just a fraction of a second ahead of Spyro's time no matter how hard he worked. They skated around Ice Cavern, went fishing in the portal nexus, crashed into one another after turning the wrong corner in Dry canyon and ended up in a laughing heap.

Went skydiving over the cliff at Cliff Town.

Shared a meal back at the top of the cliff, as the sun went down.

"Titan's right," Spyro said, stretching out his wings. "This is… it's important to remember that this is why we're fighting. It's not really to beat Gnasty Gnorc, it's to make sure there can be peace."

"Peace," Cynder agreed, then cuddled into his side. "You're right."

They didn't say anything more. They didn't have to.


AN:

Peace Keepers!

And that really is the important bit. To keep the peace.