~~Anglantine's Hand~~
Oh and when you review from now on, please do not say anything about my grammar or punctuation. I know it sucks. Grow up. I am more concerned about how you feel about the story-line and characters. Plus the aspects of the story itself: action-scenes, sex scenes etc.
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This chapter is extra-long and full of action to compensate for the previous talkie and horny chapters.
I need 55 reviews before I update. Oh and when you update, please say something bout the chapter and the scenes and the characters. Don't just say, "Amazing chapter. Keep it up! I give you a thousand in all categories." because it's not really helpful criticism. I like the kind of criticism my former co-writer/best critic Iceclaw14 give me.
After hours, Gavrin and his former-Dr/general guardian, Karl, enter a tunnel which branched out into a cavernous chamber. Karl remained on Star's back, injured from their escapade on Dante's Freezer.
Gavrin wouldn't stop asking questions about Karl's stomach-churning medical career in Valdin. Karl finally clutched his head with his hands and yelled, "Will you shut up?!" His sentence repeated three times as it echoed through the tunnels.
Star yelped at her master as her way of saying, 'Yeah, master, it's gross to listen to!'
Gavrin turned to Karl and Star with his left hand on his hip and torch in the other, "Sorry for being a curious teenager!"
Karl was about to say something, but the sound of flapping reached his ears. Before they knew it, furry, red bats were screaming over them. They swooped down and gave the two fugitives nips with their rotten, blade-like teeth on their faced.
Karl drew his Grublin-Mincer pistol. "Eat led, bats!" he said as he unleashed three metal-spraying shots from it into the air. He managed to kill 6 of them, which scream in agony as they fell with led pellets in their bodies.
One bat out of the dozens around him latched onto Gavrins cheek for three seconds. "Aah!" he screamed as he dislodged the bat with his grasp, threw it to the floor and stomped on it. When that one was dead, he drew the cutlass and swung it madly at the airborne ones.
Star snapped quickly and feasted upon two of them. She nodded as she thought, 'those rats they fed me at the stables tasted like shit compared to this.'
Soon, Gavrin managed to chop three of them in midair and they retreated into tunnels in the ceiling.
"Fuck," Karl cursed as he holstered his gun.
Gavrin waved the air away from his face "Those bats smelled like shit."
Karl rolled his eyes sideways shamefully "Yes...the bats."
"Who dares disturb my slumber?" an echo of a an old troll female asked. "Trolls?! Valding Kingdom trolls, too." she growled to the point where her voice was almost male and bassy. "Some nerve you have, stumbling into my sanctuary after what you people did!"
Gavrin looked around in panic and his sword-wielding hand trembled. "That voice sounds like Enola's, only thicker and older," his voice trembled.
Karl was more afraid. He had heard of this woman before and Gavrin didn't until now. He reloaded his pistol "It-it-it can't be-. The Alligatoress Haunting is true?" His expression went from scared-witless to neutral. "Nah. We might be sick or something: lack of nourishment. Seeing and hearing things, seeing and hearing things, seeing and hearing things," he repeated in an attempt to calm himself.
"The thief," the voice began, making the three jump and all hope die, "...Filthy...little...thief. Stole my kingdom from me...That so-called son o' mine. It's mine it is. I want it back!" her last words was the loudest which echoed ten times, causing Gavrin to crouch in fear.
Star yelped back at the voice.
"I don't think we're just hearing things," Gavrin's voice crashed, facing Karl and Star.
Karl's eyes went wide at the sight of rotten, rusty-armor-wearing figure creeping up on him from behind "Gavrin, look out!" Karl shot the figure in the head, which exploded and sent rotten bone-shards and dried-out meat everywhere. The headless zombie fell to its belly and its limbs broke free of its body.
"Let's see how you stand against my axe men, hmm? Attack!" Anglantine screamed with her barely-intact, raspy voice-box.
Two axe-wielding corpses entered Gavrin's torchlight. They were a foot larger than the average troll and twice the weight. They had horned-helmets. Their armor was riddled with cockroaches and decorated with the old green markings of the Valdin Kingdom. Their axes were quite blunt, circular and heavy. They were charging strait for Gavrin.
Star raced to her master, took his coat in her teeth and threw him to her side and safety. She leapt upon the of axe men and took his neck in her jaws, causing him to squeal like an ancient troll of Dante's Freezer. With one turn of her head, she ripped it clean of his body. Roaches fled from his neck and all over the floor.
The second one stood back and then charged for her. He was in the air and ready to strike her head when she unleashed a sonic scream, pushing him through the air. He shattered into naught but dry meat, bone shards, armor and a head as he rolled several feet away. He now laid all over the place.
Karl eyed the zombie's axe and then eyed Gavrin's holstered rifle and got an idea "Gavrin gimme your rifle." He pointed to the axe on the ground, "And take up that battle axe. You'll have me covering you, and you and Star can take them head-on."
"Great idea!" Gavrin threw Karl his rifle, which he caught skillfully, and raced to pick up and wield the axe. He groaned as he lifted it as high as he could. But he could only hold it horizontally and poised to swing sideways, and not pummel with overhead swings like a strong troll can.
Gavrin left his torch sticking out from the sandy floor. His ever-faithful Star took it in her teeth to light the way.
"By the gods, who would've thought those soldiers would be so rotten and useless?" Anglantine's voice complained.
Soon, the three found themselves in a hallway, which was more like an avenue of 10 vertically-placed coffins. As they entered, and the light hit the coffins, the rotting, thin, wooden lids splintered as corpses arms burst forth. Their arms opened up the coffins and a pair of katana-wielding zombies charged for Gavrin, who was in the lead.
He swung at the first "HWAH!" and chopped him clean at the waist. The 2nd one poised his katana and waved his fingers as if to say, 'Come here, you little brat.' "What, you want some blunt steel? OK!" Gavrin kicked the corpse in the pelvis and off his feet. He was on his back and his jaw went wide and he rose a skeletal hand, silently begging for his afterlife. The axe came down and shattered his chest.
It was the moment the corpse rasped his last that the remaining 8 coffins bursted open and dagger-holding zombies came for him.
Karl drew Gavrin's rifle and shot six of them in their heads, lighting up and thundering the tunnel with each shot "Stay...away...from...the boy," he shouted between each shot.
Two remained, charging side-by-side. Gavrin swung the axe and cut their heads off in a single swing and moment. Their heads plummeted to the sandy floor...but their bodies were still a match for him. Gavrin quickly rose the long handle of his axe to block mad swings of their swords. He held it horizontally and then vertically to block different moves they blindly made towards him.
Star couldn't bare to see her master humiliated by these maggoty, age-old grunts and growled. She waited until Gavrin wasn't between her and them. Her opportunity came when they had him against the wall and she screamed madly at them with her unrelenting force scream. They flew across the hall, but didn't shatter.
This gave Karl a window to shoot them both in the torsos, shattering them. Their decapitated heads groaned in agony.
Gavrin to the lit torch off the floor and began to light the ones on the walls, probably marking a way out they can follow later. But why would he go deeper instead of turning back?
"Gavrin, we have to turn back! To face the Alligatoress is suicide and stupidity."
"Turn back?...Oh, I think not, Dr Pervert," laughed Anglantine.
"That's Dr Karl Henshin to you, Alligatoress!" he corrected her over continuous laugh.
Her laugh grew louder and louder...until the passage behind them began to disappear because of two shifting walls caving in very slowly.
"Run!" Karl gave Star a kick, Gavrin hopped on and she ran as fast as she could before the passage was closed. But it slammed shut when they were inches from safety.
While Gavrin shed a tear, Karl and Star were filled with rage "Damn you, Alligatoress!"
Star let out a scream like she never did before out of pure rage. She completely agreed with Karl for once.
"Brilliant...Now use your hatred to find me. You're up against my undead faithfuls from here on."
"We're coming for you, Anglantine!" Gavrin said through his teeth.
"Ooh, a feisty Valdin Kingdom Teenager chasing a queen. Have mercy. Ha!" she mocked. "Oh and by the way, I heard all those pussy jokes you told on the way!"
"Ignore her, Karl. We can handle her walking beef-jerky."
Page Break
Spyro and Cynder lead their children and four Ice Dragons, each carrying eight cheetah worriers, towards the feared, un-inhabitable, spooky Anglantine's Hand, an hour from their current position over ocean. The four worriers bring up the rear, Spyro and Cynder lead, while their kids were stuck in the middle as the dragons flew two-by-two, dodging the clouds.
As they virtually rode the wind, Dara signaled Aventus over for a conversation. He banked towards her "What is it, sis?"
"Bro, the Guardians told us about Anglantine's Hand when we were in the academy...I-I don't think we can do this."
"We can!" he reassured with a growl "Remember, Dara, in school, they only teach us what they want us to know, not what we need to know. They taught us to master our elements and moves and that's the only thing we learn't which was true."
Dara looked at him with wet eyes "But if the trolls fear it more than they fear us, it might mean this threat's worse than us!"
"Oh," Aventus farted with his lips, "They're just greedy, green, 7-foot leathery people on two legs with guns. We'll be fine, Dara. Our dad's the Purple Dragon. Our mom's the former Queen of Darkness. And we have worriers to back us up."
"If that's the case, then why haven't 'we dragons' wiped them out after co-existing for hundreds of years?"
Aventus was desperate for a way to counter her sentence. "Um. Well...Urg!" he surrendered, "You win."
Dara giggled with satisfaction and began to chant, banking left and right in an aerial dance, "#I am so smart. I am so smart. S. M. R. T...I mean S. M. A. R. T.#"
Aventus chuckled "At least I can spell."
Two hours later, the group penetrated a gigantic cloud and Anglantine's Hand was now clearly visible. In the distance, circling the volcano, the prince's zeppelin, Courageous Minge, and Vaulta's, the Hardon Purger, were scanning the continent for fugitives known to the Valdin Kingdom.
Aventus and Dara glided in shock, freezing midair "By our ancestors...No wonder this place is un-inhabitable and feared. Look at volcano," Aventus breathed in terror. "Even I'm scared of it."
Dara felt like her heart and head would explode as the island enlarged with their approach. "This is worse than Munitions Forge. That volcano's twice as big," she pointed a hand to the volcano.
The two troll zeppelins circled a cylinder of smoke which rose from the volcano and parted the clouds. For some reason beyond their little dragon minds, maybe even the troll's minds, the clouds whirled around it.
The only thing that could draw their attention away from the sinister island and its paranormal activity...was the prince's gigantic zeppelin, dropping troops by fast-line into the thick woods.
"There's that herm's zeppelin." Aventus pointed a paw to the distant craft. "It doesn't really live up to its name. It's big, it's 'Courageous' but it's not a 'Minge.' I've seen plenty of those."
Dara faced him "When will you loose your virginity? I've lost mine to that male I met at the Winking Wyvern, Haxen."
"I almost lost mine to a rotten-smelling, Earth Dragoness who worked there." Aventus stuck out his tongue, "Urg! Doesn't she shower. Her vagina smelt like crap, and looked like a wax-flooded ear."
"You poor thing," Dara giggled. "Don't worry. I'm sure Karlotta will find you a clean Dragoness, even though she couldn't find me one...A MALE!"
"You're turning lesbian?" Aventus broke out into a fit of nothing but, "HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAA!"
Dara banked towards him and whacked him with her wing "Shut up. I'm strait."
"It's OK, Dara...I like watchin' dragonesses going down on one another."
"Shut up!" she screamed.
"You shut up!" Aventus growled.
"No, you shut up."
"No you shut up!" Aventus shouted
"Kids!" Cynder growled
Page Break
Meanwhile, in his large quarters aboard the Minge, Zakan prepares the microphone atop his piano for singing. Jester sits atop it with his 7-string guitar, plugged into a nearby, funnel-shaped amp.
Zakan began to sing and play I'm Only Trying to Help You by Culture Club. Jester picks the strings with his fingers to match the notes Zakan's playing closely
Zakan:
Clowns caress you
Figures undress your fear
Induced to crime beyond emotion
Shedding tears as big as the ocean
Don't say you didn't hear us calling
Ooh ooh
You'll be sorry in the morning
When we tell you
Mama had tears in her eyes
She's the only one who never cries
That's the way we destroy baby
They both sang,
Shut it out Shut it out
Zakan was alone,
That's the way we destroy baby.
When they were going to do the 2nd duet, Jester crashed, strum dead notes on his guitar and went into a fit of asthma. Zakan stopped playing piano and rushed to his aid, reaching into the pocket of his airforce jacket and pulling out his old-fashioned, fumigated inhaler with a tube, which he took gratefully and breathed from it.
"Sorry for making you sing with your asthma, darling."
He took the inhaler from his mouth and rasped, "It only comes on when I'm singing high and loud, my prince."
Zakan scratched his chin, saturated with the short, fine hairs of the average female troll and sported a happy face "What if we sing something deep and you let me do all the high notes when singing? You're the better musician, but not the best singer with your condition."
"Hell yeah, Zakan," he put his index finger to his own chin and thought "...How 'bout Heartbreak Hotel by Neil?"
"Brilliant! I've mastered that piano line."
When Zakan sat, Jester picked the thin string on his guitar, whilst turning the tone and volume knobs to get the proper sound for the song.
When the drummer clicked his sticks and then did his opening solo, he, Zakan and Jester began to play and sing Heartbreak Hotel by Neil Diamond.
Jester began with a deep, manly voice,
Since my baby left me, I've found a new place to dwell
It's down by the end of lonely street. It's heartbreak hotel yeah!
They both sang. Zakan had an impressively-feminine voice for the duet,
I've been so lonely, baby. I've been so lonely.
Zakan dropped out,
I've been so lonely, I could die.
When Jester finished his riff, Zakan sang alone, in his woman-like tone,
Though the door gets crowded, you still can find a room
for broken-hearted lovers to cry there in their gloo-oo-oom.
Jester jumped back in,
I've been so lonely, baby. I've been so lonely
I've been so lonely, I could die.
The music drifted off when a Banshee Terror Soldier burst through the door "My prince, Jester, you must take the bridge immediately!"
"Was the matter, darling!" he asked half-heartedly in complaint "We were about to nail a Neil song when you bursted in."
"Dragons! Approaching the volcano!"
Jester and Zakan immediately put down their instruments and ran through the iron halls towards the flight-deck "Dammit! Our presence here must've provoked them...Stupid General Vaulta, leading us here!" When they arrived at the flight-deck, Zakan took his throne behind the captain's, and Jester took his rightful place as lead pilot.
Zakan shouted into the mic, "Gunners, prepare for air-to-air!"
Slowly approaching the cylinder of smoke rising from the volcano, the navigators with their telescopes got a clear glimpse of the dragons and his heart almost stopped when he saw the Purple Dragon. "My prince, it's the Purple Dragon!"
"If that pretty-boy is here, these lizards are here to purge or drive us away." He faced the radio-operator "Be a darling and alert the Hardon Purger of this."
"Aye my prince." the radioman frantically turned knobs and pulled sliders to find their allied zeppelin's frequency and he alerted their captain.
"We may have to retreat to the Hardon Purger incase we can't take the dragons ourselves, my prince. So maybe have the pressurized tanks ready for the burst of speed we might need?" Jester suggested.
"Yes, darling, I see your point. We'll radio engineering, too. Bring us in, Jester. I want to see the Purple Dragon blown to mince midair up-close."
"Aye." Jester pushed the throttle away from him and the engines roared to life, scootering the gigantic craft along and towards the smudges in the sky which were the dragons.
Meanwhile, Spyro and Cynder spot the gigantic craft turning and the roar of its engines reached their ears "Spy, the Courageous Minge. It's after us!"
"Everybody, single-file, we'll try and loose it in the woods!" Spyro ordered. Cynder flew behind her purple life-mate and all the dragons flew in single-file as the group dived for the trees a thousand feet beneath them.
The dragons found themselves awkwardly flying between trees. Dara and Aventus had to bank so they could glide between them. Soon, the dragons ran out of space to fly in single file and they split, but kept the Purple-Dragon in their sight.
Dara and Aventus stayed close to each other. Aventus went wide eyed as they were approaching two trees with a gigantic spider's web and gasped. "Dara look out!" He climbed, but Dara responded too late and flew through the unpleasant, grey webbing "Eww! Slimy stuff!"
She flapped vigorously, trying and dislodge the web. Though the web was not removed, she rejoined her brother. They finally flew into an area where trees were fewer and further apart, which meant more room to maneuver. But the Minge's engine-roar was only getting louder and louder...until it was directly over them by only a few dozen feet in distance. Its shadow darkened their flight path
Zakan shouted, "Belly-gunners, fire storm!"
The Minge's gunners fired madly at an area behind the dragons. Working their way towards the dragons, They were like an approaching rain of hot iron slugs.
Spyro and his dragoness looked behind them and their hearts almost stopped when they saw the storm of bullets approaching "By the Ancestors, brake away!" Spyro shouted over the thundering of the guns.
They split into three groups, the children's, Ice Dragon's and the parents groups. Spyro and Cynder flew away 3-O-clock of the Minge, the children flew away 9-O-clock of it, and the Ice Dragons and their riders lay siege to the craft. They climbed out of reach of the belly-gunners and flew strait towards the hexagonal windows of the bridge.
"They're coming strait for us! Nose gunner, fire at will!"
The flak gun on the crafts nose fired three shots at the four Ice Dragons. The Ice dragons rolled as their riders clung tightly, narrowly avoiding them, as they almost fell from the sky from the explosive force of the flak, exploding between them.
Flying two-by-two, the dragon's riders lit sticks of dynamite, and waited until there was only a second of fuse left. When the dragons began to turn away and split at the craft's nose, they threw them at the bridge windows and the nose gunner.
The nose gunner and his gun were dislodged form the nose and he screamed as he was still strapped to his gun, falling to the forest bellow
Zakan screamed like a little girl and covered his head as glass rained throughout the flight-deck "EEEK!"
Jester brushed away the glass on the instrument panel "Relax, my prince!" he reassured aloud, "We've just got to breath the thin air up here,
that's all."
Jester had more to fear however, as one Ice Dragon, and his riders, avoid the riflemen on the deck and make it to the very rear of the craft. There, there were fewer gunners. He flew in circles and avoided bullets, hissing and snapping past him, until the one riding his neck spotted the crafts flapping rudder.
"There!" the cheetah pointed to gigantic rudder "Take that rudder off, and they'll unable to maneuver to escape."
The Ice Dragon growled as she flapped vigorously towards the rear of the craft, avoiding a barrage of bullets from the deck, and clinging to the crafts balloon. Using his claws, he shimmied towards to the rudder and took the iron hinges in his jaws. With a powerful grunt and twist of his head, he dislodged the many hinges of the rudder one by one every few seconds. After he dealt with three of them, his cheetah riders spotted a enemy Dreadwing approaching with a conscript rider.
"Take it out!" the rider on his neck ordered.
The other riders on the Ice Dragon's back fired a barrage of arrows, forcing it to screech, roll out of the way and steer away...right towards Spyro and Cynder. He flew between them. Spyro and Cynder unleashed their Darkness and Fire breaths in unison upon the conscript rider. His strapped, keeping him in place, melted and snapped. His hair and uniform ignited and he screamed, plummeting to the forest below. His mount flew away and shook flames of its body before retreating back to the Minge.
Soon, the Ice Dragon clinging to the rudder had broken off more than half the hinges and the rudder began to warp and groan "Perfect," the rider on his neck praised, "Now let's get the hell outa here!" They detached and flew away to join Spyro and Cynder.
The rudder now warped and groaned aloud with ever turn Jester, the pilot, made.
The teenage son and daughter of the Purple Dragon are cocky, and go sly strait for a blown-out gunner's seat in the side of the craft. It was surrounded by red-hot, smoldering wood. Wires on the edge of the ruined wall arced. But the children tore through the blazing wall nonetheless. They found themselves in a narrow hallway with a row of manned canons, firing at their fellow dragons and parents on the outside.
The gunners remained on their machines. But two crewmen in iron chain-body draw their katanas "Off our ship, scalies!" they yelled as they charged. One swung at Aventus twice: Once to swipe his legs "Hiyah!" And again from an overhead swing to try and get him midair "Wah!" His sword got stuck in the grate of the steel floor and he hadn't landed one hit. "Ah shit!" He tried his best to dislodge it, but to no avail.
Aventus knocked him into the air, as his father would've, leapt, and then "Yah! Hwa!" scratched him to death in midair.
Dara used her Electricity to shock her opponent. He screamed in agony and dropped his cutlass. This gave her brother the opportunity to smoke him in Fear Breath.
This made him draw his sidearm "I die for my...Kingdom!" and shoot himself in the head.
Two more charged, armed with pistols, and fired when close. The siblings leapt to avoid the shots and broke their neck with a swing of their heavy tails.
Dara and Aventus glided over their corpses and made their way through the hall, slashing at the throats of gunners and pulling their bodies from the seats.
Every time a gun was unmanned by her brother, Dara used her new Electricity to set off the gun's ammunition piles, destroying them.
When all ten were history, Dara made another hole in the hull with her Electricity and they bursted through it.
All the dragons regrouped. All were relatively unharmed. The kids followed the Ice Dragons, who followed Spyro and Cynder and they flew aimlessly around the craft, firing icy shards.
A few trolls up on deck aimed there rifles for them. But thick, sharp shards of ice embedded into their rib-cages. Mist came out their mouths and they wheezed to death.
All hell had broken loose on the flight-deck. Jester's instrument panel lit up red with faults and errors. Alarms screamed and the whole room went red...Then as Jester made full rudder left, he felt something snap in the wheel and it spun to the point where it was like a wet bar of soap in a tab. It had happened. The rudder finally broke free and plummeted to the woods bellow them.
Jester's breathing was heavier s he turned the wheel only to hear faint clicks in response. And absolutely no turning power. "My prince, I lost rudder control!" he screamed in a single breath.
Zakan had to throw in the towel and swallow his pride and ask Vaulta Stone-Fist for help. "We can't take these dragons alone. We need an extra defensive platform to company us. Send 'Red-Alert' to Hardon Purger!"
"Aye, my prince." the radioman matched the frequency of the Hardon-Purger's radio and forwarded the urgent message.
Whilst the radioman sent the distress, Jester felt a glimmer of hope as he spotted a friendly airship approaching. He was bouncing in his seat "My prince, Hardon Purger's approaching!"
"Haha!" the prince laughed triumphantly "'Bout time that 'queen's-foot-stool' came!"
"You're a queen," the radioman snickered quietly.
Spyro and Cynder were about to lead the Ice Dragons and their children to make another strafing run on the Minge.
However, Cynder turned head and spotted the light, fast, heavily-armed craft heading for the Minge's aid: Vaulta's Hardon Purger. "Spy, another zeppelin!"
Spyro turned to where she was facing and felt her fear "We can't take them both with our current force. Retreat!" Spyro ordered.
The dragons and their riders fled to the heavily-wooded area of the base of the volcano.
Zakan picked up his mouthpiece for the radio. Zakan broke out into a hateful rant. "General, you ass! Look at my airship! One more minute and we'd be finished. Why don't go back to my mom's bed where you belong, and do her. That's all you're good for, you queen's foot-"
"Prince Zakan, the general is ashore, searching for the fugitives. I am the captain. I have the airship in his absence."
"Oh crap." the prince slapped himself "Hehehehe. Ditzy witzy," he giggled. He cleared his throat "Apologies, captain, for my rant. But we need repairs immediately. We also can't fly alone, as those dragons are still skulking in the woods bellow. They could attack anytime. We've also lost our rudder, so we can't yaw very well. My pilot will have to improvise. I know I he can."
"Standby. We'll draw a cable and tow you away to a safe spot so you can repair."
"Make it fast, captain-our hull and compartments are still smoldering and burning. And a new wind shield would be good, too."
Soon, Cynder looked back at their children and the Ice Dragons and saw them struggling to flap and mostly gliding. Their breathing was wheezy. SOme them had bellies doused in their blood from the trolls rifles. She faced Spyro. "Spy, we should land and rest. We can't fight with exhausted worriers."
Spyro didn't have a clue what to do...until one of the Ice Dragon's complained aloud, with a slight growl and wheeze, "Spyro, we not going any further, until we've had a breather," in a tone simular to Cyril's, but brighter.
"...Good point, Cyn. We may aswell set up base somewhere too and send someone to get us some reinforcements, later."
The hero couple lead them to a small clearing closer to the ruined temple at the wrist of the island. The tree's fine-leaved, dark-green, red-flowered foliage covered all but an opening a few feet across. However, Spyro could spot it quite easily and lead them in with a dive. One by one, they hovered and lowered themselves into the gap in the leaves and found themselves in a small, dark clearing with a little flowing stream and glowing mushrooms on the tree-trunks...perfect for a make-shift base camp.
Spyro and his dragoness looked around, while the children and worriers caught their breath behind them. "This place is perfect for a staging area." He pointed to the stream and the foliage with a paw as she said, "There's a stream for drinking, cover for hiding from the airships. Perfect!"
Cynder however took a closer gander around and, because of her experience with such things, cold feel the dark presence. She turned her gaze to Spyro, tapped him with her tail and gained his attention. "Spy, you shouldn't get too comfortable and cocky...This place feels-and I know well-sinister."
"Oh," he playfully moaned, joining her in a dragon head-hug "Don't be so paranoid, Cynder."
"It just makes me afraid: the fact that neither trolls nor dragons would be able to peacefully step foot on this island." Her tone became shaky, recalling her sinister past, "This place...it makes me feel like I'm standing before...the Dark Master. She shed tears and rested her head on his neck. "I-I-I don't wanna be here...I feel claws in my spine...voices in my head."
Spyro slowly licked up and down her neck from throat to chin. He rubbed her back with a paw.
As Spyro tried his best to calm Cynder, the Ice Dragon's dismissed their riders and they began to check their stock rations and cherry-bombs in their bags. Some sharpened their swords with stones.
One out of them all approached the stream. He bend down and sucked some up. The moment it was inside his mouth, his gums, tongue and lips were burning, as if he had eaten molten magma "Aaarrggg!" he screamed after he spat it out.
All gathered around him as his eyes reddened and he began to wriggle on his back with his tongue hanging down his cheek
"By our ancestors!" a cheetah cried out.
"He's possessed!" one suggested aloud.
"It's a seizer!"
"Somebody help him!"
Two of his comrades kneeled down to his aid. The moment they laid a paw on him, he drew his claws, hissed and slashed violently at them. The medic was left no choice but to seize him and knock him on the head, out cold, but alive still. It was for the best.
One Ice Dragon, since dragons were sturdy and virtually-immortal beings, dipped a claw in the stream, had a taste and immediately spat it out. "Poisoned. With what, I do not know."
Another cheetah worrier was awestruck when the stream began to flow a midnight-purple color "It's gone black!"
Spyro and his wife shook their head in disbelief "...It was clear and clean when we landed."
Cynder nodded in agreement "It's as if the stream was telling us, 'begone or die'." Cynder's heart beated against her ribs and she turned gaze to her male. "Spy, I don't wanna be here anymore." Her gaze went from fearful to the expression of a sudden realization and an idea emerging. "Let me go back to Warfang and get some reinforcements, some extra rations and clean water," she suggested. "The guardians don't know we're out-gunned."
Spyro took a deep breath before surrendering, "OK." he licked her cheek "Wait 'til the airships are out of sight and then fly fast and safely, OK?"
"Of course." Cynder approached her children and gave them each licks on the face "You kids stay with the Ice Dragons and your father. This place is just...evil. Pure Evil. I can feel it." She took to the air and exited through the gap in the foliage. There wasn't a zeppelin in sight. That was her cue to fly for Warfang with haste. She flew towards the sunset. Slowly, Anglantine's Hand darkened, allot faster than it darkens in Warfang.
"I need a volunteer for scouting."
"I'll gladly scout for you, Purple Dragon," an Ice Dragon volunteers, stepping forth, no riders on his back.
"I need you to go to the temple nearby and search for signs of trolls, particularly generals. There aren't that many generals in the Valdin Kingdom. Killing one will be like tearing a limb off of their kingdom."
"Got it." he took flight and approached the ruined temple, a two-minute flight away. Upon arrival, he could see, like ants, on the temple's balcony, a general-like figure, followed by two armored elites, and 30 conscripts. The Ice Dragon's eyes were glued on the general "A Valdin Kingdom general. My lucky day." He swooped down towards them.
A Conscript spotted him "Look out!" he and soon did his allies, fires madly at the dragon.
The Ice Dragon fired shards, three at one time, which fanned out, the conscripts, killing ten of them. He climbed and pulled away "Dammit, I was aiming for the general.
When he located the gap in the foliage tht concealed the base-camp, he hovered and landed. The Purple Dragon and hsi children immediately approached
The Ice Drgon was excited to say, "Spyro, I chased a general of the Valdin Kingdom into the temple ruins nearby. And I think it's...General Vaulta Stone-Fist; the queen's very best!"
Spyro went wide-eyed and triumphant "If I lead our worriers right in there, we can trp them, pin them and down kill them all in that order."
He wrapped hsi tail around his daughter "C'mon, Dara, it'll be a great daddy-daughter-activity."
Dara smiled and bounced on her feet. "Yay!"
"Hello! What about me?" Aventus growled.
"You, my son, can motivate these Ice Dragons in my absence."
Aventus was speechless "I-I-I can be a leader?..." his expression went joyful almost instantly "I can be a leader! Ha ha."
"Well you and Dara aren't hatchlings anymore. Its time I stopped treating you like it." Spyro and his daughter faced the cheetahs "Follow me through the woods. The glory of killing the queen's very best general, and ripping a limb off the Valdin Kingdom, awaits!"
The cheetahs raised their bows, swords and spears "Avalar!" and followed the Purple Dragon and his Wind Dragon daughter.
Page Break
Meanwhile, General Stone-Fist leads his task force deep within the temple, searching for his son and the traitorous former Dr/General Henshin. Following him were two Banshee Terror Soldiers, in there typical heavy armor and staffs, and 20 conscripts, wearing naught but uniforms, but armed with semi-auto Valdin Kingdom Rifles. The general himself was wearing full-body steel armor with iron chain-body beneath. He was armed only with a brass cutlass and pistol. At this particular time, Vaulta's face was as if he was three times his age. Red, veiny tattoos played across his face and glowed. His eyes were lifeless and dark-red like rat's. His skin was loose, as if it was coming off his meat.
After an hour of delving, they were stopped by the very wall that traps the two fugitives. "Take this down. We cannot allow a mere wall delay our cause!"
A conscript stepped forth and took four sticks of dynamite from his satchel. He taped them all together, wound the fuses and lit them with his zippo. He rushed back to the group, hiding behind pillars holding up the ceiling. Since the wall was so tough, when the explosion accrued, thundering and lighting the tunnel and filling it with smoke, it only made a hole with wriggle-room for him and his men.
Vaulta was the first to enter, followed by his men, coughing through the dust. When he entered, he was shocked to see a three-way fork in the tunnel. His son and the Dr could've gone through any of them.
When the Banshee Terror Soldiers joined him at his side, he turned to the conscripts. "You must remain here. I have a feeling this wall we destroyed trapped the fugitives. If we all go in, we will leave this exit unguarded and loose them again. Set up two tripods by the pillars and make cover were you can. And set it up on the other side of the wall-you'll only have to concentrate fire on the hole we made."
"Aye, general." the conscripts squeezed through the hole and carried out the generals orders.
The general and the two Banshee elites decided to take the tunnel in the middle. Soon they found themselves in a circular room with coffins lining the walls...with no door to be found, but the way they came.
Vaulta drew his cutlass "We took a wrong turn. Dead end!"
His voice angered the occupants of the coffins, which now began to thud, crack and fall over. On impact with the floor, they shattered and the zombies, armed with bronze, curvy swords, burst forth and charged for the general and his two elites.
"We'll deal with this, sir." The two elites leapt into the air, swung their axe-like staffs downwards and split two of them in a clean, vertical half. Three more charged for the 1st elite. He swung his sword sideways and cut them at the waist all at once.
The 2nd elite was dealing with one his own size, wearing iron armor and a horned helmet like Dante's Freezer trolls. He executed a front-flip, clung to the undead troll's back and broke his neck with his staff.
The three coffins on the other side of the room finally bursted. Three large undead trolls appeared with battle-axes. Vaulta armed a stick grenade, waited a few seconds and threw it at them. The explosion turned them into chunks of jerky and the wall behind them collapsed. Before they could approach it, the cavernous temple began to shake for a moment, making them tremble on their feet to stay in balance. Sand poured from the ceiling when it finally stopped.
"General, I'd suggest keeping the explosions to a minimum. This place is not stable."
Page Break
Spyro and his daughter lead the cheetah worriers into the temple, riddled with the already-rotten husks of ancient trolls. Soon, they find themselves in the room Gavrin and Karl were once in, standing before the statue of Anglantine, surrounded by the skeletons of fully-grown guardian dragons, and the little, fragile ones of newly-hatched infants. Age-old Egg-shell laid everywhere.
"I think this is who the trolls call the Alligatoress, daddy," Dara sis, standing before the statue with her father, holding tails.
"She's too evil-looking and soulless, even for a troll," Spyro said maliciously.
The door with the glowing red orb behind them slammed shut and roared with the red cloud of a Fear Dragon
"Dragons. Here!" the raspy, dried up voice of Anglantine echoed.
Dara gasped and pressed herself against her father for some 'daddy daughter' comfort. As she would with Aventus for 'brother sister' comfort "That's her," she whimpered.
Spyro absorbed her sadness and turned it into anger within himself "Anglantine, you troll bitch!" she shouted.
"The Purple Dragon. For a filthy lizard, you're a hero, even to us troll today. The Valdin Kingdom, governed by my descendants, respect, fear and hate you, all at once" she said half-heartedly "...But here, on the island I haunt, you're just lizard. A fragile little lizard!" her voice raised on her very last sentence.
"Troll she-devil!" yelled a cheetah before they all unleashed feline screams, raising their swords and spears and bows.
"When we're done with General Stone-Fist, we as well pop off Anglantine," suggested Spyro.
"I think not. Why don't you pick one someone of your own species." Anglantine let out a cackle, soft at first, but louder and louder. Soon the eye-sockets of two nearby fully-grown dragon skeletons glowed red. Even the skeletons of infants came to life.
Spyro swallowed "Um. This can't be good," he said with wide eyes, squeezing his daughter's tail even harder than she did to his.
"Even our deceased can't be free here," cried Dara as the skeletons stood and let out T-rex roar, shaking the room.
The cheetah worriers felt like they were cubs once more, standing before the skeleton of a fully-grown dragon, one of their allies.
"Charge!" shouted Spyro. The cheetah worriers leapt for the dragon skelly.
In midair, the dragon skelly snapped out and got one of them in his jaws "Aarrg!" by the head. With two shake to the left nd right, the felines neck snapped and his corpse thrown behind the dragon skelly.
Spyro and his daughter were faced with five dragon infant skellies half their size, charging strait for them.
Dara charged head-on with them "No more miss nice girl!" and slashed them to shards. She finished off the final one with her Electricity.
Four more came to life and tried to jump for her and bite her. Luckily she slapped them in midair and shattered them "Hiyah!" The last one to leap for her was rewarded with a gigantic tail-slap when Dara jumped and spun around.
. He then turned his attention to one of the gigantic ones. He doused it in fire. Though the bones of the dragon skelly did not catch, they smoldered and it screamed in agony, as if it could feel it.
Spyro made a mistake, however, as when the cheetah leapt to cling to it, they squealed in agony as their tender paws were seared.
Luckily one cheetah took an axe from the wall, leapt, and crushed the dragon skelly's skull. He walked around headless, until his bones were smoldered to the point where they couldn't take the weight and turned to embers.
Spyro turned his attention to the other, making the cheetahs feel like cubs before it. He hovered and used his Earth wrecking ball. First he smashed its tail off. Then the head. And delivered one final strong blow to the gigantic ribs, finishing it off. A pile of bones remained.
Spyro and his daughter admired their work, standing side-by-side.
"Now that was one intense daddy daughter activity," giggled Dara. "Pity I couldn't do anything."
"You did great, Dara. But there's still more to do and a troll general to kill." He turned to the cheetah worriers "Take the troll's axes and find a hiding spot... If General Stone-Fist or anybody tries to come out this way, ambush 'em."
"Yes, Spyro." The cheetahs scurried and armed themselves with ancient troll war axes, maces, and even high-poundage bows from that era of the trolls. They even found some armor they can strap to themselves for added protection.
Spyro and his daughter went deeper into the temple "Time for them to see a real daddy-daughter team!" he said triumphantly.
Soon, they were faced with the conscripts Vaulta left behind "Hey-. Dragons. On top of us!" They fired madly as the Purple Dragon and his daughter took flight. Spyro baked them in their leathery uniforms with his Fire. His daughter immobilized them with her Electricity. Soon, all that was between them was a narrow hole in the wall they squeeze through.
Spyro and his daughter delved into the ancient ruin for over half an hour, before they found themselves on a stone balcony in a gigantic, cavernous, cylinder-shaped room. Lining the tall walls were coffins, roaring torches and trollish banners.
When the sound of clashing swords reached their ears, Spyro and his daughter looked down and over the railing. They saw what seemed to be an old troll and an adolescent one fending off their own kind. The two were taking cover behind slabs of bricks and fired upon a uniformed troll in a veil and his two elite guards.
"What the-. They're fighting each other now?" Spyro was baffled.
"Maybe they're rebels or something."
Page Break
They hadn't clue that the old troll and the adolescent one was Karl Henshin and Gavrin Stone-Fist. Gavrin's faithful dreadwing couldn't fit through the small tunnel leading to this room, so she was left nearby. Which meant Gavrin couldn't expect her to save him with her scream.
Vaulta and his two elites surprisingly stand out in the open, believing they are so immortal. As bullets from Gavrin's rifle hit, it merely made a dry hole, as if he were already dried out. When the lead pellets from Karls shot-pistol hit the elites, it sparked on their armor.
Soon, Gavrin and Karl ran out of ammunition nd sat back-to-back in a very small cover of bricks
"Give up, son!" growled Vaulta "You'll never escape this time-I have countless conscripts gathering at the entrance. You're trapped."
Gvrin shed a tear as he got the very last magazine of bullets out of his bag "I-I can't believe I'm your son, da. I'm not a monster. I don't age three times father...and not a queen's footstool!"
"You dare disrespect the queen of our species. The very woman who's sweat and blood has built the Valdin Kingdom."
"You're always there for the queen, da, but what about me, your only son? Where you...when I was five and got attacked by grublins? Or when I was eight and went swimming in the gator-infested waters of our homeland?...When my only girlfriend was hanged by that bitch you call a queen?!"
Karl took out two of his sticky red grenades and handed one to Gavrin. " No use talking to your da when he's in this form. On my signal, let his guards 'ave it," he whispered.
"You're no better than that fat whore who runs the Scorpion Mercenaries...erm," He scratched his chin. "What's her name?"
"Carliah Van Vulture 'The Cunning', sir," one of the elites said.
Before he knew it, two red grenades were stuck to the necks of his two guards "Ah! Get this SOB off me!" They exploded and their heads flew high and their bodies fell on their fronts
Vaulta fired two shots as his son and the Dr ran into the narrow tunnel nearby "You slippery-. This will change nothing!" his last word echoed through the cylinder shaped, tall chamber three times. He approached the tunnel and was determined to follow them. But when he was about to enter, a ringing reaches his ears. He looked down to see the Dr left behind four sticky red grenades wrapped in tape "Oh shit!" and ran in the opposite direction. But he was too late and leapt into the air the moment it exploded. "Arrg!" he flew through the air and smacked into the wall ten feet above the ground "Oh!" When he was on his stomach and looking, he could feel sadness in his heart for his son, and his vision went front red and snake-like to light yellow, as most trolls see.
He raised a weak arm to the caved-in tunnel, thinking his son may be buried alive or dead, and it would've been his fault "My boy. My only son. Why?"
Page Break
"He's alone and wounded. Now's our chance, Dara." Spyro and his daughter glided down in a circular motion.
As Vaulta got on his feet, he grunted, "Arg!" as Spyro got him by the shoulders with his talons. He hadn't a clue what creature was lifting him high into the air. Spyro then threw him down and he rolled over three times. When he got on his feet, Spyro and Dara landed behind him
"General, remember me?" Spyro and his daughter were poised like hunting felines.
The general rotated to faced them and the General plead, raising a hand "Sp-S-Spyro. You truly are a hero...even...even to us trolls." Vaulta's voice was that of a 90-year-old.
Spyro was baffled by the generals sudden sincerity, tilting his head "You hate dragons, don't you?"
"No." Vaulta broke out into a fit of asthma. His years were coming back to him. When he recovered he continued "That day in Warfang all those years ago...when I lead that raid, I had no control over myself. Nor did any others of my rank"
"You mean you're...hypnotized? You poor thing," Dara pitied.
"No, worse...eternally cursed, just like all of the queens generals. I'm like a radio-controlled zeppelin. You must...take my life, Spyro. I would be honored if you'd...release me. Use Convexity Breath. It should be enough to purge this beast within me, and send my soul to the gods. I m only 40 years old, and I look like one of Anglantine's zombies already."
Spyro had never been more dumbfounded in his entire life. But his daughter felt sorry for the general, turned head to her father and plead, "You can't let him suffer, daddy, do something," with a tear in her eye.
"And as an old general and a father's dying wish, please...make the queen pay for what she's done to me and all peace-loving trolls. And..give this to my boy, Gavrin." he took his brass-bladed, silver-handled, gold-trimmed cutlass. So sharp, one can shave with it. It was in a tan leather sheath.
"Tie it to me," Spyro ordered.
General Vaulta tied the sheathed sword to Spyro's being.
He kneeled before the Purple Dragon. An honor it was, to be sent to the trollish afterlife by such an infamous dragon "Quickly. Her teeth are at my ear and her fingers down my spine."
Spyro concentrated all his energy into turning to Convexity state. When he was the dark Spyro, he breathed a rail of convexity breath on the generals chest. The rail pushed him against the wall. He screamed in agony for 10 seconds, before Spyro released it. Purple embers began to slowly cover his body from the chest outwards. Vaulta felt all that was impure in his being fading away. The other parts of him, his wkin and everything, was tightening and lightening. His veil fell off an his teeth blunted to normal.
The last two words to escape his lips were, slow but joyful and sounded like the tone of his own son, "Thank you."
When the convexity cleared and Spyro was in typical form, a blue soul with wavy tail and a troll's joyful face scream forth from Vaulta's corpse. Flew around the room for a moment nd rocketed to the ceiling.
Dara gave her father a nuzzle "That was so sweat of you, daddy. You've sent him to a better place. And we got rid of the beasty general we knew him as."
Dara approached his corpse, which was like that of a teenager.
Spyro gasped at this action "Dara, stay away from him!" and pulled her back.
"Look how young he looks. The curse must've made him age faster. You know, like mom said she was by Malefor."
"I had no idea trolls were capable of this kind of dark magic."
I will complete this story. There's not doubt about that. But I need to know which of my characters people like better.
Prince Zakan Carmeleon & Jester.
Spyro and Cynder.
Dara and Aventus.
Gavrin and Karl.
The poll is in my profile. Cast your votes!
Oh and I need 55 reviews before I update.
I should have the next chapter up in 3 weeks max.
I need these scales judged for this particular chapter
Action 1-10
Story-Line 1-10
And cast your votes in my profile poll!