Spyro collapsed in his room, his body aching. Every day had been non-stop since he had arrived in Manzithot, packed with a huge amount of activity, whether it be physically or regarding his fire element training. He had spent a week here, and each day had been either training with Ma'vhelma, or working in the Fireworks with Elaren.
This was something that she had requested since Spyro wasn't able to pay rent for his room since he didn't have the currency they used, and his wasn't convertible to it, so the drake had said he would pay with labour, three days a week. The other four days would be spent with Ma'vhelma.
Luckily Elaren had put him in a role where he was mostly in charge of keeping the furnaces lit, and he was able to have a little bit of practice with his fire element while doing that, but a lot of the job also involves cranking gears, beating metal into shape, helping spin glass, or whatever was needed of him really. Aside from keeping the furnaces lit, he didn't really have a major role; he was just there to help when he was needed.
He had just finished a big day in the Fireworks, and he was exhausted. It was a lot more physically demanding than he had expected, and every day so far had put him in a state where he would crash into bed and not move for the rest of the night.
Mentally, he was also exhausted. He hated the environment in the Fireworks. No one talked to each other and only cared about getting work done, and no one called him by his name despite how many times he said it. It was always 'purple boy' this, 'purple boy' that. He didn't mind it at first but now it was getting old. He didn't expect this would change, however.
Right now was a moment he wished Cynder was by his side. He wanted to just cuddle up with her, to bathe in her scent and warmth. He thought of the engagement ring he still had lying in the bottom of his satchel. Groaning as he fought through the pain, he lifted himself up and reached over to the satchel, pulling out the ring. He stared at the gems on it, watching as they shimmered in the candlelight.
"I'm doing this for you, Cynder," Spyro whispered, putting the ring back into his satchel as he looked at the candle burning on the wall opposite him. "I'm doing this all for you."
He closed his eyes and reached out with his paw, trying his best to connect with the flame. Over the time he'd spent with Ma'vhelma, he'd gotten much better at this, so he was able to connect with it almost instantly. He could feel the small flame as it flickered; he could feel the hot candle wax melting under the heat of the flame.
With a small flick of his claws, he beckoned the flame towards his paw. It shot towards him quickly, and he caught the flame in his paw. The tiny little flame sat suspended in his palm. Eyes remaining shut, he called on his own fire element and pushed it towards his palm and the flame already burning inside it. Using his fire element, he made the flame bigger and bigger, until it engulfed his whole paw.
He opened his eyes and looked down at the paw. He could feel the heat but it wasn't burning. He rotated his paw around and watched as the flames licked around his claws. It was fascinating, encapsulating. Spyro couldn't tear his eyes off the fire.
Spyro thought back to the first lesson he had with Ma'vhelma; he'd definitely been learning. This type of control over fire was definitely not something he had when he started. He'd mainly been learning various forms of fire and lava manipulation, so he hadn't learned to do too much offensively yet, although he assumed he could use fire manipulation in an offensive moveset.
Suddenly, the door to his room opened with a loud bang, and Spyro jumped, crying out in shock. His mind was thrown off the fire in his paw, and as the rest of his body exploded into action, so did the fire. With a loud whoosh, the flames shot out in a large explosion, and Spyro immediately recovered from his shock to try and control the fire again.
He had to fight hard to stop the fire from getting too out of control, but he was able to squeeze all of the free flames into one large fireball that was suspended in the middle of the room. Reaching out with both paws, Spyro began to slowly compress the fireball into a smaller and smaller size, before eventually it returned to the size it had been while burning on the candlestick.
Spyro moved the tiny ball of fire back to the candlestick, watching as it began to burn, and he felt it stabilise and return to that one lonely flame it had been earlier. He sighed, slumping forward into his bed a bit more. That scare had sent the fire extremely out of control, so it was very hard to try and keep it in. That was something he needed to work on.
Now that that was sorted out, Spyro turned to the door to see who had opened it. It was a manweersmall, holding a large tray of food that was way too heavy for him, evident by his shaking as he tried to hold it. Another part of the agreement he had with Elaren, and something that she had suggested that he was thankful for, was that they would also provide him dinner. He wasn't expecting her to make that type of gesture, but he wasn't complaining.
Running up to the manweersmall, he carefully took hold of the tray and took it off him, before putting it on the table towards the side of the room. "I'm really sorry about that," the manweersmall murmured.
"No, no, there's no need to apologise," Spyro said. "I should apologise; that got quite out of control. Are you okay?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you want to come in and rest for a little bit? That's a heavy meal to carry for someone of your size," the purple dragon offered, looking towards the large cut of steak sitting on the tray; it was the perfect size for a grown dragon, meaning it was probably the same size as the manweersmall, maybe even bigger.
"Uh… no thanks, I would hate to intrude," the manweersmall stammered, stepping back.
"Look, I'm offering," Spyro said with a kind smile on his face. "It wouldn't be intruding at all."
"No, I'm good. I got more things I need to do anyway; enjoy your meal."
With that, the manweersmall turned and speed-walked away. Spyro frowned; he was just trying to be nice. It was so weird seeing how everyone interacted with each other here in Manzithot. No one really seemed to be friendly with each other, and was so work focused. He remembered the young drake kids he saw playing marbles when he first got here; he wondered when they would stop being friends and become like the rest of the adults here, not wanting anything to do with friendship or kindness.
He sighed, shaking his head. That wasn't a life worth living, having no friends and no fun and being nothing but passive aggressive to each other. He doubted he could change how everyone here viewed life, however.
The purple dragon turned back to the table and sat down, starting to eat his food. He figured he should get an early night to rest up after the intense day of work he'd had, especially since another intense day of training was waiting for him tomorrow. He was never ready for each lesson Ma'vhelma gave to him; each one brought new challenges his way, and either made him use his fire element in a way he never thought he could, or had him try and increase the power or control he had over fire.
He assumed the same would be with his other elements; he was going to need a long break after he'd completed his training and beat Vhel-Ak'rhair. He had so much to learn. It intimidated Spyro, especially since he was already super warn out from doing both lessons with Ma'vhelma and full days of work in the Fireworks on his days off. He only hoped any other towns or cities he had to pass through or stay in were a bit more welcoming to him.
Spyro quickly finished his meal, and before going to bed, he took one glance at the candle burning on the wall, illuminating the room. He contemplated trying what he had attempted earlier, but figured after the disaster that almost happened when the manweersmall had barged in and made him jump, he decided it was best not to.
With that, he laid down, before closing his eyes, and reaching out with his mind towards the fire. He let the flame shrink even more, until it had completely been diminished. He yawned, before he managed to fall asleep.
It's a common saying that the more you do something, the easier it gets. That wasn't the case with the hike to Ma'vhelma's home, or the Magma Crypt, as the Manzithot civilians called it. The excruciating hour-long hike along large hills of igneous rock remained a huge challenge to face, and the disgustingly boiling temperatures didn't make it any better.
The environment was quite boring after the third time making the hike; there wasn't even anything interesting to look at. There was no beautiful lush foliage and trees with huge amounts of wildlife scattered everywhere doing its thing; the world around him was barren and lifeless. The only thing that moved was the thick river of lava that slithered ominously down the surface of the hill, bubbling threateningly.
It was much more of a chore to make the trip to the Magma Crypt and back every day, but Spyro knew it was necessary; going to the Magma Crypt to see Ma'vhelma was the whole reason he was in Manzithot in the first place.
Eventually, he made his way into the Magma Crypt, and exchanged quick greetings with Ma'vhelma—very quick greetings. She didn't want to hold for long on pleasantries, preferring to just get straight into the lesson; the greeting was usually just a quick 'hello Spyro', before beginning the lesson immediately.
"Now, today we're going to use a skill called the fire aura. What it entails is letting loose the fire inside you in a way that basically turns you into fire. This can be a helpful way to increase the power of your fire, as well as making it harder for most opponents to touch you due to your body being practically made of fire," Ma'vhelma explained.
Spyro raised an eyebrow. This seemed really cool, and also quite helpful. "Would this have any similarities to the comet dash?" Spyro questioned. "Y'know, with the whole engulfing yourself in fire thing as part of the attack?"
"Kind of; it's not so much having a layer of fire surround you, it's more like you are becoming the fire," Ma'vhelma replied. "Now I can't show a great example of this due to me already being a phoenix, therefore already having fire as a core part of my buildup, but think of something similar to me."
As if to reinforce her point, Ma'vhelma flapped her fiery wings, and Spyro watched as the flames moved with her wings. She may have said it wasn't the greatest example, but it allowed Spyro to get the picture of what Ma'vhelma wanted from him by 'becoming fire'.
There was only one question left: "Hey Ma'vhelma, how do I actually do this?" the purple dragon asked.
"Well, it's quite simple. Firstly you want to connect to your element inside you, the lone fire that burns with in. It starts similar to the comet dash in releasing the fire all around you, but it's done in a slower, much more concentrated way, that allows the fire to be pushed out of you, but to remain attached to your body, letting it burn on you. In this, you need to adapt the mindset that you are the fire, and the fire is you; it is now part of your physical body, and you need to make sure you remain attached to it.
"Now, you won't be able to hold this form forever, as the fire will eventually burn out, and you may need to wait some time before doing it again. However, it can last for quite a while, especially depending on how much control you have over your fire, and how much focus you have," Ma'vhelma continued. "This will get easier and quicker the more you do it, and the feeling of the control and focus will become very second-nature, allowing for quick uses of bringing out the fire aura, but you need to do it slowly at first to be able to use it effectively. This is the same with all the other moves I've taught you regarding manipulating fire."
Spyro nodded. "I… I think I got it," he murmured.
As it turned out, he didn't. He just couldn't get the right level of control or focus. He always ended up with the fire aura exploding out like a static comet blase, fizzling out, or not even beginning to let itself out of his elemental core. Spyro found himself getting increasingly more and more frustrated, and he was getting called out by Ma'vhelma for several things he was doing wrong, which she did in a cautionary way, but it still felt she was being super nitpicky to Spyro. "Calm down, you're too angry," she would say. "Slow down, you're rushing. It's going to blow up."
Spyro had never gotten so frustrated over learning an elemental move before; he often seemed to have a very good instinct with this sort of thing, but for some reason, he was struggling with the fire aura. It was very finicky, and needed the right amount of calmness and focus, which was also hard to do considering how aggressive fire is as an element, and how it was always wanting to just burst out of Spyro's body. Being so used to comet dashes didn't help either; he found himself trying to unlearn the technique of the comet dash.
Eventually, Spyro found himself giving up. He was too upset that every attempt he did got worse. Ma'vhelma wasn't happy about this, but she realised that he was likely not going to learn the fire aura properly today.
"Spyro, you must believe in yourself, okay?" Ma'vhelma said.
"Yeah, I'm trying! I've never struggled this much with an elemental ability before!" Spyro exclaimed.
"It's okay, Spyro. This one is something that I know many fire dragons have struggled with; you are not the only one. But getting angry is not going to help matters, especially while learning, since you haven't got the move achieved under neutral circumstances. In the future, of course you can fuel your anger into a more powerful fire aura, but while learning, we need you to be calm so you know how to use the move before channelling your anger to make it stronger."
"That's good to know, but… I don't know, I'm struggling to stay calm. I'm just really agitated and I've been doing this for like two and a half hours straight; that feels like a long time for something like this."
"If you want, we can take the rest of the day off. Go home, rest up well, and we can return to the fire aura next lesson. In your current state I'm not sure if we'll get anywhere, both with the fire aura, or with any other new move I want to teach you."
The purple dragon just nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, I guess that would be a smart idea. Thanks, Ma'vhelma," he said, before turning and walking slowly out of the Magma Crypt, trudging back to Manzithot.
Spyro wasn't wanting to return so soon; he liked being away from Manzithot. The culture there was just rough and something that got on his nerves; he didn't think he could ever understand it. He was lucky however that the hike back to Manzithot was an hour long, so he had plenty of time to himself to calm down and think about the fire aura and what might've gone wrong.
He spent quite a bit of time thinking on the way back to Manzithot, thinking about the prophecy, his massive task, saving Cynder. He was doing this to save the world, and to save Cynder, but already this task seemed too big for him. This was only his first element that he was learning to master; he had many many more left, some of which he had never used in his life. He didn't know if he was even going to be able to do this.
But he had to. The world was doomed if he didn't. Cynder was doomed if he didn't. It tore Spyro up to no end knowing that if he failed his task, the one he loved would be gone forever. Right when he was ready to propose to her, she was stripped away from him, in the worst way he could imagine. He had one opportunity to save her and he didn't think he was ready to do it. He didn't know how long mastering all these elements would take, and Spyro was worried at how quickly Cynder and the other ak'rhorans would awaken Vhel-Ak'rhair.
Spyro feared he wouldn't have much time.
His thoughts eventually got way too deep on the subject, and he had to stop. He sat down on the ground, feeling the tears start to flow. If all this hadn't have happened, Cynder and I probably would be engaged by now, Spyro thought. We could be getting married. But no, Vhel-Ak'rhair had to come and take that all away from us!
The purple dragon let out an anguished, furious cry, feeling his claws curl into the hard stone underneath him. He glared angrily at the river of lava flowing past him, and decided to channel his anger across to the river of lava. It gave a strong pulse before it swelled into a large bubble, which then exploded and sprayed lava all around Spyro's surroundings.
He hardly took in the massive eruption of lava that he had caused. He sat there, breathing heavily, continuing to stare at the river of lava, before he broke down, burying his face in his paws. Large sobs shook his body as a wave of helplessness washed over him.
As he mourned the life he could have had with Cynder, his sobs slowly came to a stop, having cried all the tears his body was able to give. The hot environment drying up his eyes didn't help much either.
However, as his angry, anguished sobbing died down, clarity returned to him. This… was never supposed to be easy, was it? he thought to himself. Here I am, having to learn every single element to mastery, and I'm expecting to be perfect at everything? I wasn't perfect when I first learned these elements, and I won't be now. There's going to be something for every element that I'll struggle on.
The purple dragon cursed himself for his moment of weakness, forcing himself to get over it and move on. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down, standing up with a sigh. He turned to his satchel, opening it and pulling out the engagement ring. Spyro sniffled, kissing it softly, before quickly putting it back in the satchel.
"I will do this, Cynder; no matter how hard or difficult it is," he whispered. "I will do this, for you. For everyone."
With that, Spyro made his way back to his apartment, settling down for the afternoon to rest and calm down. He got a few confused looks from many of the citizens working as he walked by them, as his existence was now well known around Manzithot, as was his situation and work plans. Today was a day at Magma Crypt, and he was back early.
Spyro tried not to take the looks to heart, just making his way home. He was concerned when he got there that someone would tell Elaren and she would barge in asking him what he was doing back so early and maybe even making him work since he was back early, but luckily she never showed up. That was a good thing at least.
He spent most of his time just resting and doing not much else. There weren't any books to read or anything to really do, especially considering all anyone ever did in this village was smelting and building things. No one had any hobbies or things they enjoyed doing—unless they enjoyed smelting or building things, of course.
After nightfall, he was delivered dinner by the same manweersmall from the night prior. He'd tried to spark a conversation but it fizzled out very quickly, as the manweersmall turned and left almost the moment he handed the meal over to Spyro.
Once he'd eaten, Spyro had the random thought to return to the outskirts of Manzithot, out to the Fiery Crater, a large pool of lava that lay in a large crater in the ground. It was a detour from the path to the Magma Crypt, and was only another twenty minutes of walking on top of the fifteen he had already done.
He got there and sat down at the edge of the crater, staring down at the pool of lava. He could feel the intense heat on his face, watching as the lava bubbled ominously. It was threatening, but at the same time it was slightly beautiful and satisfying.
Spyro reached out a paw, sensing the heat coming off the pool of lava, before he extended his reach and he could sense the lava himself. He turned his paw so it was facing palm up, before he lifted it higher in the air. A large pillar of lava followed suit from the crater, and the lava began to rise highed and higher. Spyro flicked his claws and the pillar of lava detached from the pool, holding a clear form of a ball of lava.
The purple dragon moved his paw around, manipulating the ball of lava as it floated around in the air. He flicked his claws again and the ball of lava shot up into the air, as if he had thrown it. It went up high and fast, before it slowed and then plummeted back down towards the earth below it.
Quickly, Spyro curled his paw into a tight fist, and the falling ball of lava screeched to a halt, holding itself not too far above the crater. He smiled, before gently lowering it back down to the pool, returning the lava to its resting place.
He took a deep breath, before standing up and taking a few steps back from the crater to give himself some space. He took another deep breath, closing his eyes.
Come on, Spyro. You can do this. Just believe in yourself.
Spyro closed his eyes and reached deep inside himself, feeling the fire burning within his core. He spent as long as he could just feeling it, before slowly, he tried to bring it out. The first few attempts, only a few lame flames came out of his body, or it might have just been a few puffs of smoke. One time it exploded out of him like it had done in the Magma Crypt.
Despite this, Spyro promised himself he wouldn't get angry and would try and keep his cool. He owed it to Ma'vhelma to get this right. He wanted to return to learning from her with the fire aura under control.
A few more attempts went by, before Spyro paused, knowing this wasn't working. Spyro sighed, taking another few steps away from the crater, before turning around and looking at a large rock that protruded out of the ground. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before he did a comet dash, rushing straight towards the rock, head down and horns out.
With an explosion of fire he shot towards it, horns ablaze as his paws moved him at an incredible speed. He slammed into the rock with incredible force, splitting it in two as an eruption of flames burst out of him. He turned and did it again and again, really trying to pay attention to how the fire deep within him was coming out of him.
The more he did it, the more he became aware of the large pulse of energy that ran through his body each time he activated the comet dash, the sudden burst of flames shooting out of his body and enveloping him.
After a few more comet dashes, he stopped, returning to a standstill. He stood there for a few moments to catch his breath, before he closed his eyes once more. He felt the fire burning in his core, waiting to come out of him.
I can do this, he thought. I can do this.
Focusing intently on the fire, he let it expand, moving out from his inner core towards the outer layer of his body, and he tried his best to keep the flames intact and in control. He felt the fire reach the edges of his inner core. He paused, feeling it there for a few moments, before he let it push through into his external form.
He finally felt the heat was no longer inside him, but around him. He looked down, and gasped as he saw fire covering his whole form. It really did look like he was made of fire. He lifted his paw and moved it around, watching as his paws burned gently, yet hungrily, providing an outer layer of protection and wishing to burn anyone and anything that would come into contact with it. His eyes moved to his arm, seeing how the fire continued to burn up it, running to his shoulder and then to the rest of his body, which he couldn't see that well, but he could feel his body surrounded by the fire.
He had done it! He'd brought out his fire aura!
Spyro smiled, trying to keep his cool so it wouldn't get too out of control. He relished in the feeling for a moment, before he let the fire aura dissipate. He then tried to bring it out again, with success. The purple dragon did this a few more times to get familiar with summoning his fire aura, before he then tried to walk and move about with the fire aura active. He took it slow, before speeding up into a full run, before spreading open his wings and taking to the sky, flying circles and cheering as he left a trail of fire behind him. All through this, the fire burning around him burned strong, never distinguishing until he landed back on the ground and let it dissipate.
"I did it!" Spyro cheered. "I actually did it! Oh ancestors, I feel so proud of myself! Ma'vhelma's going to be so happy!"
He couldn't wait to show Ma'vhelma that he'd finally learned how to do this on his own. He did it a few more times just to get familiar with the feeling of it: summoning his aura, moving around and flying around in the aura to make sure he can keep his control up when he was moving a lot. His next test would be fighting in it; he knew that would be the task Ma'vhelma would put him up to next.
Once he decided he was happy with his familiarity with the fire aura, Spyro just sat down and looked down into the Fiery Crater. It was really peaceful just sitting under the night sky, the lava lighting up the area with a warm orange light, the heat filling the brisk night air. Spyro could stay here for hours, but he only decided to sit there for a few minutes, knowing he needed to return back to the apartment to rest up well for the following day of work.
After today, Spyro was excited to learn more, and to see what challenges he could face. He made it past this hurdle, he knew he could get past many more.
He knew there would be more.
And that's another chapter done! This one was honestly quite a hard one to write, but I got there in the end!
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Dragon of Mystery: I'll be totally honest, the Fireworks reference was a complete coincidence lol; I don't know a lot about Classic Spyro, and have only played about 2/3 of the way through Spyro 1 in the Reignited Trilogy (I should get back to that). I'm glad it turned out to be a reference though, so I'll take it hahahaha
And yeah, I kinda wanted a very different environment with Manzithot, being a place that's very isolated from the rest of the world, and I'm glad that showed with how I portrayed the culture and each of the characters that I've introduced so far.
MysticFire824: I wouldn't really say it comes down to a bias between drakes and dragons as there are fire dragons in Manzithot, it's more just a fact of they are extremely isolated and never really leave Manzithot. And learning is definitely gonna be much more in depth and challenging for each of Spyro's main elements, and it'll be a challenge for Spyro in different ways across each element.
On the elements thing, my plan is to mainly focus on Spyro meeting the teacher, one or two of the main problems he comes across (with a small recap of how he's been going), and then when he completes everything he needs to know, and then I'll work some other moves he's learned throughout the rest of the story to show off a lot more of what he's learned. I think it's a much better way to show the struggle and that he's learning, without spending a massive amount of time on the specifics with each element and move. Plus it then gives me time to have moments with him interacting with other people at where he's staying, as well as other important story beats that show up.
With my planning I'm currently up to wind (Spyro's fifth element that he'll learn), which is at Chapter 44, so there'll be definitely be a very large amount of chapters; I'm just hoping I'm able to write quickly so I can get this story complete in a reasonable time lol; we'll see how this goes (especially coz I have Purple Legacy to return to at some point).
Austin: I'm glad you've been liking this story. I'm sorry to say I have no idea who the large majority of those characters are, and I already have the characters for Spyro's first four teachers pretty much already fully sorted out, so I won't be changing them. I have a very particular idea in mind for a lot of the teachers and how Spyro learns the elements. I'm glad you liked A Crumbling Heart too; I actually did have a sequel that I made for it, but it was also more of a vent piece of writing which was why I never posted it. I might revise it at some point so it's at a point that I feel comfortable posting it (and to update it so the writing style isn't two years old).
Kranos459: I can't make any promises unfortunately. I'd like to aim for one or two chapters a month with this (or just writing in general) but I do have a life. I work, I have many other hobbies that take up a large amount of my time like writing does, such as writing music and digital art. A month also isn't a long time for updates in the long scheme of things. You're free to do what you want, but a month is not a long time to wait at all for new chapters. These fics mean a lot to me and I love writing them, so I will never cancel any of them, and if any of them do enter a hiatus state like this one did for a bit, I'll communicate that.
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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and hopefully I can get the next one out relatively quickly. Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a review, and I'll see you all with the next chapter!