The sun peeked over the horizon off the eastern coast, the smell of freshly caught fish and the cries of the hungry seagulls it attracted hung in the air. Cynder stood on a pier, her gaze slightly northward. Port Dagon was a large hub for fishing as well as exporting and importing goods. Even in the very early hours of the morning, it was a buzz of activity. From drunken sailors stumbling out of the local bars and taverns, to the early risers on their way to work.
"Captain Cynder?" A voice called out to her. Turning her head around she spotted one of her squad mates. Ignile, her second in command, was a large fire dragon a couple years her elder. He had red scales with a cream colored underbelly and chest. He had golden horns that jutted out of the back of his head straightly, and a matching golden jagged edged tailblade. He sat at attention, his bronze light scout armor clanking against his scales lightly. "The squad is waiting for you ma'am."
"And the ship captain? Did you manage to purchase his services?" She asked as she began walking deeper into the port, Ignile seamlessly matching her pace slightly behind and to the right of her.
"Yes ma'am, he's agreed to keep his ship docked and waiting for us for two weeks time." Cynder gave him a gentle nod in acknowledgement as the entered a tavern where four other armored dragons sat within. Their large physiques and armored hides easily standing out from the rest of the taverns morning patrons.
"Captain." The gruff gravely voice of Gregoir spoke out. He was a large earth dragon bearing heavy golden armor. Underneath said armor he was coated in dark green scales, with a dark brown underbelly and chest. He had brown eyes that carried decades of experience and wisdom behind their gaze. He had one curved goat like horn on the right side of his head, his left horn had been broken off in a battle ages past. At the end of his tail was a large blunt ball of hard bone, which he was famous for using to bash in the skulls of Malefor's servants back during the war.
Catching the silent nod of the frost dragon besides Gregoir, Cynder's eyes landed on Aurora, the youngest of the group. She wore the standard scouting armor like Ignile did, but hers was silver instead of bronze, a large stripe of red running down from her right pauldron all the way down her front leg, identifying her as a medic. Underneath her armor were icy blue scales and a snow white underbelly. Her eyes had a mix of both purple and green coloration, and stared at her captain with deep admiration. She had ivory white horns that curved downwards than back up pointing at the sky, and a small arrow head shaped tail tip.
On the other side of the table they were sitting at were two other dragons, their bronze armor concealing their faces and most of their features. The only way to tell them apart was the one had straight horns coming out of the back of their head, and the other had horns shaped like lightning bolts on either side of his head pointing backwards. They were Ash and storm, twins born with different elements, a rarity amongst dragon families, but not unheard of. Ash was an exceptionally skilled fire dragon, and Storm was just as, if not more skilled with electricity.
"Is everyone ready to move out?" Cynder asked, getting nods and positive responses. "Good. Now to recap, our objective is on an island about half a days flight northeast from here. There's a shadow leviathan guarding the waters surrounding the island. We are first to land on the island, locate the trapped H.V.D. and than deal with the leviathan so the ship we charted can come and collect him. We are than to escort him back home with us to Warfang. Any questions?"
"Yeah I got one." Storm said raising a claw. "How do we know that we aren't wasting our time on this? I mean… our only witness that Sp- our objective, is even on this island is a traumatized sea captain who barely escaped the leviathan with his life. Who's to say that he didn't conjure up the H.V.D. due to delirium and panic from the situation?"
"Storm… shut up." Ash said to his brother in an exasperated tone. "Ignore him captain, he always second guesses and over questions things."
"Hey I'm just putting it out there. If the guy is really as powerful and resourceful as the stories say, he could've gotten off the island on his own, missing wing or not."
"While I disagree with his lack of decorum, the lad does bring up a good point captain." Gregoir spoke out, his gruff voice drawing all eyes to him. "I have no doubt that the stories are true, but that does raise the question as to why he hasn't dealt with the beast himself and escaped the island. Theoretically he could've made a land bridge back to the mainland by raising sections of the ocean floor to the surface, or even made and ice bridge."
"That's what we're going to find out." Ignile spoke up. "Our place is not to question our orders, we are here on a mission given to us by the guardians themselves. So I say we stop sitting around and get it done."
"Ignile's right people, we have a job to do." Cynder began. "Even if he's not on the island, that leviathan is still a major potential threat that needs to be taken care of." She said with authority. "Besides if he is on that Island… I've got a few questions for him myself."
Spyro stood outside the den, gaze looking upwards to the sky. The morning winds brushing against his scales hide, a longing look on his face as he subconsciously flexes his wings... well what's left of them anyways. "Longing to return to the skies big man?" Dante's echoing voice asked as the robed revenant moved to stand beside him.
"You have no idea… I don't… remember flying before. But sometimes… I dream of taking to the air, my wings whole and strong. I feel the wind on my face welcoming me like an old friend, and my heart swells in happiness. Off in the distance I see three others flying ahead of me. One large and red, another around my size and black, and a tiny speck of golden light… But I can never catch up to them… never see their faces or here their voices over the wind. Even though I know they're calling out to me… I always wake up before I ever get close enough."
Dante was silent as he let Spyro talk, slowly digesting what he'd been told. "If I had to guess, I'd say that you were seeing Ignitus, Cynder, and Sparx respectively. They were important people to you, so it makes sense that even with your memory as… damaged as it is, you'd at least remember those three on some level."
Spyro hummed in agreement. On some level, he knew Dante was right… but he still had many questions for the revenant. His story last night answered many, but some still lingered. And there were a few new ones that came to his mind after meeting him.
"You said we are cursed, that you are a glimpse into our future. What did you mean by that?" Shadow asked the most pressing question on both their minds. Dante sighed tiredly, suddenly feeling a million years old as he contemplated how to best explain it to them.
"It happened… thirteen… fourteen? Years ago. During the night of eternal darkness. The realm Malefor was banished to so long ago was… where the source of our curse originated. When he was freed by Gaul, you were unintentionally exposed to it… You… transformed into something… dark… You were a draconian revenant, the first to ever exist. You somehow managed to return to normal soon after, so we dismissed this as a fluke of some sort… Than came the death of Ignitus… and you transformed again but we're able to shake off the shadows so easily. We… grew interested in you after that."
Both Spyro and Shadow listened to Dante's explanation, both kind of understanding why his people were so curious about them. To have been forced to bear an incurable curse for so long, than to see someone who carries a similar condition just shrug it off so casually, it's no wonder they'd been keeping and eye on him.
"We thought it was unique to you, that your unique physiology as a purple dragon was somehow able to fight off the curse. Then Malefor corrupted Cynder again right before the final battle. Demonstrating a level of control over the shadows we never thought possible…." Dante trailed off, letting his two listeners digest what he said.
"Okay… that explains why you're interested in me. Seems being able to control shadows is something innate to purple dragons…" Spyro trailed off, still coming to terms of his rather… mythical status granted to him by the color of his scales.
"Not… fully it seems…" He said , pointing to the small dark swirl of black coloration on Spyro's golden chest. "The curse is still infecting you Spyro. Your physiology, your raw elemental power, and the medicine my kind developed millennia ago to try and fight it, have kept it at bay… but not for much longer I fear." He looked over at Shadow. "You are new though. Never seen anything quite like you."
"You haven't?" Shadow asked confused. Dante merely shook his head negatively in response.
"Nope. You're an oddity, and another thing our lead scientist wanted to study. They think that you're a factor as to why big purple here hasn't turned yet."
"How so?" Shadow asked, prompting Dante to shrug.
"Couldn't tell you mate. I don't stick my nose in that science stuff."
"Okay… I'm getting a clearer picture here. You Revenants are interested in me because I'm somehow resistant to your curse. But you're not sure how though…"
"Standing theory is that your vast pool of elemental powers can purge away the shadows. We've tested this with other dragons… without them knowing of course. But the results, from what I've been told, seem to confirm it. Pure elemental magic weakens the curse, and if we had enough of it..."
"You could potentially cure yourselves." Spyro finished his train of thought. "But there's a catch isn't there? Otherwise you'd have just asked me directly… right?"
"Maybe..." Dante trailed off nervously. "Look Spyro, I'll level with you. While my kind isn't all that well known among the common folk, the upper echelon of most races know of us. And let's just say we're not all that well liked… especially with the cheetahs."
"Why?" Such a simple, but loaded question Shadow asked.
"You know my people followed Malefor during the war, right?" Spyro nodded. "Malefor promised us a cure, said he'd help us if we helped him… so we did. We spied, we stole, we sabotaged and killed for him… some of the greatest atrocities during the war can be attributed to my people… most of us didn't really care. Not with the promise of a cure so close…. It wasn't until Malefor… punished the apes by turning them into undead skeletons that we realized we shouldn't have joined him." Dante said sadly, his voice laced with shame.
"I… don't know what to say to that. Did you…" Dante nodded, admitting his guilt. Spyro wasn't so sure of the Revenant now. He seemed like a decent sort, but he just admitted to being a war criminal… "What changed? You just said that you were desperate enough to do terrible things for a cure, but now…"
"Is it to hard to believe I have a conscience? I… grew tired of the fighting, of the bloodshed. A lot of us did… Guess that's why I've finally decided to become a deserter now…" He paused deep in thought for a minute before taking in a deep breath and speaking again. "Spyro… my people are on the move again… we need the elemental magic your kind provide. If you weren't tainted by the curse we'd have used you… but you are and… it seems you won't be getting better."
"Dante… what's wrong?" Spyro asked, a dreadful feeling in his core.
"The only way to get the amount of magic we need… is from other dragons… a lot of other dragons…" He trailed off, as he looked to the mainland across the ocean. "Those sailors you rescued not so long ago, they saw you. And they went straight to Warfang."
"The dragon capital city?" Dante nodded.
"The guardians have sent a team to deal with the leviathan in the oceans, and to bring you home… Cynder, the only one who could stop us, is leading the team… Warfang is practically defenseless against us with her gone… so Virgil, our leader, gave the order to execute project Exodus."
"Exodus? Explain that to us." Shadow requested.
"To put it bluntly… my people are- Dante's next words were cut off by the shrill echo of a fearful scream coming from the far side of the island. "Wait… that sounded like-
"Ember!" Spyro shouted before bolting away from the revenant to find his daughter, fear and panic etched on his face.
"The hell is she doing over there?!" Dante asked no one in particular as he himself broke into a run, following the trail of his purple companion, hoping beyond hope that nothing bad happened to the pink youngling.