They limped through the halls of the palace, making their way towards the entrance. It was a slow, painful trip, and it remained in silence as neither Forzen or Cynder spoke to each other. The quick, sharp breathing from Cynder, as well as the small whimpers that left her throat, told Forzen that she was struggling not to let the fear coma get the better of her. He didn't know what she was seeing, but he figured it was something to do with him. She acted scared around him, which was something she didn't normally do. She spoke softly and seemed very unsure of herself, unsure of him. He caught her glancing at him intermittently, as if she was wary of him.
The fight in the throne room had been awful, easily one of the worst moments of his life. He had never had to fight off so many opponents before, and he swore it was a miracle that he had avoided every single fear attack and hadn't been captured and handed over to Spyro. It was a miracle that he had single-handedly killed almost fifty dark dragons. His plasma element helped significantly; it was actually the first time he'd ever felt grateful that he had this element.
Since discovering the plasma element, it had haunted Forzen like the plague. It was his most destructive, uncontrollable element, and he genuinely feared what it could do. Even after the fight, he still did. Whether it was the deer he decimated back in the fields or the room of fearbringer corpses that he had created, the sheer destructive power of the plasma element horrified him; it's like the lightning element had mutated to become something that had no use outside of murder. It had become an element purely intended to destroy and massacre.
But that had come in handy since there was no way Forzen would have avoided getting hit with a fear attack or knocked out and taken by Spyro's forces without it. There was no way he would have gotten Spyro's awful second-in-command off Cynder without it. There was no way he would have killed an entire room of twenty to thirty fearbringers all at once without it.
As much as he despised the element, he couldn't deny how helpful it had been today.
His body tingled from using it so much; he wasn't used to it. He also wasn't used to the new ways he had discovered how to use it, or rather, the new ways to use it that he had just used after he was hit with Cynder's siren scream last night. Shooting it out of his mouth and paws was a new feeling for him, same with channeling it through his whole body and practically turning himself into a bomb, like he had in the throne room. The tingling was painful, but luckily nowhere near as bad as his eyes had hurt when he first unlocked the element. It seemed his body was familiar enough with the element to not cause excruciating pain when shooting it out of somewhere new, but like his eyes, the rest of his body felt like it was forming those tiny cells that create the plasma energy ready to release.
Admittedly, it made walking a little tricky since his paws were tingling quite a lot, but it was still doable. The cuts on his body gave him more pain than the tingling, however, so his focus was put more towards the deep cuts on his body rather than the aftermath of using his plasma element out of his paws.
As he hobbled down the hall, he turned to look up at Cynder, who was limping beside him, her face contorted in a look of fear, something that he had never seen on her before. Her eyes were wide, her mouth curled into an open frown, her chest heaving with heavy breaths. Sweat drenched her face, mixing with the blood on it, whether it was her own or that of her enemies. She gave quick, brief glances towards him every few seconds, and it was out of fear rather than anger or hatred, something he was so used to receiving from her. It was bizarre, seeing Cynder so terrified and devoid of the hatred that he had come to know her by. He knew it was because she was now in her own fear coma, but it felt wrong. It felt unnatural to see her in this state.
Not only that, but why did she take the fear coma for him? Why did she protect him? She put herself in harm's way, let herself take the fear coma for him. Why would anyone do that? Why would she do that? Cynder hated him; what could have possessed her to take a fear coma for him?
He thought he had her figured out; she was a very easy dragoness to read, or so he thought. All he had ever seen of her was hatred. He had the feeling that she hated everyone and everything, had no friends and no love for anyone. He got the feeling that she had become so hardened by leading the Warfang Army in the war that she had no compassion, no love, no positive emotions. She didn't even have sadness or fear. The only emotion he would have ever associated with her was anger.
So why did she protect him? Her current terrified state was explainable due to the fear coma, but moments beforehand where she decided to leap forward and protect him was another story. Hatred wouldn't have made her do that. Clearly there was something else buried deep underneath her eternal rage, but what? And why did she use it to protect him, the dragon that he was sure she hated so much? He was sure he was the dragon she hated most besides Spyro, so why did she protect him?
"General Cynder?" Forzen asked.
"Y-yes?" Cynder replied, her voice shaking slightly.
"Why did you save me? Why did you take the fear coma for me?"
"I… I…" Cynder stammered, before pausing for several long seconds. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about it."
Forzen didn't push the subject. He knew better than to push Cynder. Trying to ask her that personal of a question while she was at her lowest was the furthest he was daring to push her. He knew that right now she probably wouldn't do anything to him; he could easily get all the answers he wanted from her and not be worried for his life, but he knew that Cynder would eventually come out of her fear coma, and if he abused her fear coma too much, she would abuse him twice as much. He shuddered, thinking about the last beating he had received from her.
He turned his attention from Cynder and towards the world around him. As opposed to before the fight in the throne room, the halls were silent. Dead silent. The stench of gore was strong. He dared to veer off towards one of the rooms slightly, peeking his head through the door that was now only barely opened.
The room was red with blood. The bright, pristine marble that decorated the floor and walls were filthy with gallons of dark red liquid sprayed throughout the room as several dragon corpses littered the room. One of the dragons lay on his back, his underbelly torn wide open from the top of his chest to the bottom of his stomach. His ribs were pried open and hollow, his lungs and heart pulled out and thrown beside him. His guts lay in untidy, knotted strands spilling out of his abdomen and onto the floor.
Two more dragons lay on top of each other in the middle of the room, one male and one female. They lay crossed perpendicularly over each other, their chests touching. The male lay face-down on top of the female, his throat torn out, eyes wide and glassy, and the female lay underneath him on her back, her jaws ripped apart, tongue sliced out, and blood streaming down her throat and chest as well.
Forzen gagged from the stench of blood permeating the room, his heart wrenching at the awful sight. He had barely spent a couple seconds taking in the sight before turning away and continuing to follow Cynder. He thought he had become used to those horrid images that no dragon ever should have to have become used to, but they still bothered him. He had seen so many awful things in his few short years, particularly recently, after the death of Kyoren by Spyro's claws, the state of many of the slaves he had ran past in his escape, and the awful wounds he found he was able to afflict when fighting dummies and dark dragons, and slaughtering deer with his plasma element. He had seen the state of Eleizen's body after they dug her up from her backyard, rotting away from not only the poison she had died to, but also the amount of time her body had spent underground, dead. He had even seen fifty corpses fall just minutes ago in that throne room, burned to a crisp by his plasma element.
But this room of a few corpses still unsettled him significantly. Was it because they were all innocent dragons who deserved a good life, who had succumbed to awful cruelty and violence and torn apart so violently and disrespectfully. The wounds that covered their bodies were horrific.
The strong smell of blood got even stronger as they continued down the palace halls, and Forzen didn't need to look inside the rooms to see what carnage was in there; he could smell it. He looked up at Cynder again, seeing her own face twist in disgust at the awful smell assaulting their noses.
Forzen reached out with his wind element. He could feel all of the dead bodies throughout the whole palace. They were empty, devoid of both a spirit and lifeblood. They were broken shells of flesh and bone, missing gallons of blood as it painted the room around them.
They were already incredibly on edge from the sights and smells around them, and when new sounds started to reach Forzen's ears, he felt everything within him lurch. He froze, holding in his gasp as best as he could. His breath went hard. In front of him, Cynder stopped and turned around to him. "What?" she asked; the tone in her voice made it sound like she was trying to snap at him, but she didn't seem to have the energy or strength to do so.
"Footsteps," Forzen whispered, jumping as he heard them again.
The footsteps were very faint and distant, sounding at the end of the long hall closer to the entrance of the palace. He tried to listen a bit closer to see if he could hear any extra sounds, such as voices, but it was only footsteps. There were quite a few sets of footsteps; it sounded like there were about five or six dragons that had entered the palace from the entrance.
"They're at the entrance, five or six of them," Forzen whispered.
"Dark dragons?" Cynder whispered back.
"I can't tell; I can only hear footsteps."
"That spirit-reading thing or whatever it is you called it… can you do that to figure out what they are?"
"Reading a spirit trace?"
"Yeah. The thing you did back when that venomfang was disguised."
"I don't know; I've never done it without seeing or being near the target. I've never tried to do it from a distance as I was just told I had to be close to them. I could try and use the wind element to try and feel for them but they might be too far away to do even that."
"Well try it."
Holding back a groan, Forzen first reached out with his wind element, trying to send a small breeze down the still halls to try and feel the moving bodies of the dragons that had entered the palace. He could still hear the footsteps near the entrance, slowly stalking towards the staircase that led up to the halls they were in.
He got quite a fair way down the hall, before the breeze dissipated. The wind magic had gone too far from his reach and he lost it. Forzen tried once more, pushing as hard as he could to get it further and further down the hallway, but it dissipated at around the same spot, maybe a little further.
In the meantime the footsteps continued, but it was so distant that Forzen knew they were still a very long way away.
"I can't reach them with my wind element," Forzen whispered. "Too far away."
Cynder swore under her breath. He heard her take a few deep breaths afterwards, probably trying to calm herself down as fears started to play out in her brain. She stood there staring blankly down the hall, fear gleaming in her eyes. "Stupid fear coma, it's not real. We don't know what's out there yet. Calm down…" Cynder whispered towards herself, at an even softer volume as to try and hide her reassuring words to herself that were clearly only meant for her.
"What should we do?" Forzen asked.
"I don't know."
Suddenly, Forzen heard another voice, distant and commanding, yet also in a quiet, rumbling voice. "Split up. Three pairs. They could be anywhere," the voice whispered.
"They're splitting up. Six of them by the sounds of it, split into three pairs," Forzen relayed to Cynder.
"They could be trying to cut us off. I reckon we continue the way we're going," Cynder replied.
"What if they get close?"
"You can hear them, right? If they start getting too close, we hide in one of the side rooms, or use the shadows for a bit."
"Can't we just use the shadows now all the way down to the exit?"
"I don't know how long we'll have to do it for; I'm not sure I'll be able to hold using the shadow element for that long. I think my essence core's close to reaching its limit after that fight earlier."
"Your essence core? What's wrong with it?"
"Long story. Not now. Right now we need to move. Keep an ear out on their movements."
So, they pushed on, continuing cautiously down the hallway they had started their trek down. Forzen hoped that they would avoid running into one of the dragons, but he didn't like their chances. He didn't know the layout of the palace, but surely there were only a few ways up to the throne room. There was of course the chance that the dragons had gone searching elsewhere through the palace, but if they were looking for him and Cynder, he was sure they would know they were heading up to the throne room, particularly if they were dark dragons.
There was of course the chance that they weren't dark dragons and that they were friendly, but Forzen also doubted that. After all, by now all of Dryovell was either dead or beaten so badly they couldn't move. There was an extremely low chance that any Dryovellian would have entered the palace to search for them, particularly when the city was as full of dark dragons as it was when they had flown in.
He listened out, trying to follow each pair of footsteps as they moved throughout the palace. He lost one of them as they moved further away from them. One of them stayed in his range but still pretty distant. The third was getting closer. He had no clue where they were, but he was worried that the third pair of dragons was closing in on them, and fast.
"I think one of the pairs is gaining on us," Forzen whispered.
He looked up at her, seeing her nod in acknowledgement, but she didn't say anything. In the meantime, he kept an ear out, specifically on the pair of dragons that was still getting closer to them.
As the distance between them closed, he tried again to send out a tiny bit of breeze to try and feel for the dragons hunting them down. It didn't take long before he found them, and he stopped, realising they were closer than he thought. Cynder stopped, seeing him pause out of the corner of her eye. It was best not to close the difference even faster than they intended as they advanced on the pair of unknown dragons who were already walking towards them.
Having felt them, Forzen wondered if he really could read their spirit traces from a distance. Using the small trail of air he had created, he used it to latch onto the spirits of the two dragons walking slowly towards them. To his surprise, it actually worked!
To his horror, he felt darkness emanating from them, bearing the elements of fear and shadow.
"I did it, I read their spirit traces. They're dark dragons; fearbringer and shadowclaw," Forzen whispered.
"How far away are they?" Cynder asked.
"I don't know, they're getting really close, though."
The footsteps got louder and louder as they got close to rounding the bend; the way Cynder stiffened made him realise that she could now hear the footsteps. Immediately, she sank into the shadows. Forzen followed suit. He then followed her as she crept into one of the rooms, still hiding in her shadow, trying to wait for the dark dragons to pass them by.
Forzen cringed as he saw the room around his shadow, sprayed with thick red blood and nine corpses scattered throughout the room. It looked to be a large guest bedroom, where three bodies were slumped over on the large, luxurious bed, blood draining from them and washing over the pristine white bedsheets, gracing them with the colour of gore. One of them was slumped over a desk, his head pried open and spilling blood and pieces of shredded brains over the top of the desk. The other five lay crumpled on the floor, broken and ravaged.
As he and Cynder watched from their shadows, they saw the fearbringer and shadowclaw step past the room, glancing inside it. They scoffed, before continuing their march down the hallway. Forzen thought they had gotten out safely, before the shadowclaw suddenly reappeared, sticking its head back around the corner, looking into the room suspiciously.
"What's wrong?" the fearbringer asked, his voice low and hoarse.
"Something's off in this room. I can sense it. I'm going to investigate," the shadowclaw replied, her voice raspy and crisp, her sibilance harsh and piercing.
Forzen's heart skipped a beat as the shadowclaw stepped into the room, looking around suspiciously. He watched as she looked around, her eyes wandering across every part of the room. She stepped forward, looking around and behind the bed, near the desk, and spent some time kicking at each of the dead bodies.
"Come on, it's a room of dead bodies. They surely can't be in here. I don't see anything," the fearbringer growled, baring his teeth with hostility.
"I sense it more than I can see it, shut up and let me figure this out," the shadowclaw snapped in response.
Forzen looked towards Cynder in the shadows, and he could tell she'd come to the same realisation as him: that the shadowclaw could sense that they were here in the shadows. Moving to sneak out would make it worse, as it would alert the shadowclaw and blow their cover. They had to stay as still as perfectly possible, although Forzen knew that just their mere presence was setting off warning signs in the shadowclaw's brain.
Please don't let this be another fight we need to get out of. Both Cynder and I have had enough fighting today, I think, Forzen thought, gritting his teeth and wincing as the shadowclaw started to step towards the corner they were hiding in.
He looked up, watching as the shadowclaw stared down at them. It felt like she was looking directly at them through the shadows. A brief moment of silence lasted, before she spoke, "Found them."
She disappeared into her own shadows, entering the realm of shadows with Cynder and Forzen. The shadowclaw launched herself towards them, but Cynder stepped forward and intercepted the attack, swinging her tailblade forward and slicing it across the shadowclaw's face. The shadowclaw staggered backwards, hissing in pain, before Cynder quickly whirled her tailblade around again to try and decapitate the shadowclaw.
"Damn, you're fast!" the shadowclaw snarled, before biting down on Cynder's tailblade as it whirled around towards her throat, before yanking it hard and sending Cynder sprawling down.
Forzen lunged forward, leaping over Cynder and into the shadowclaw, ramming his horns into her chest. The shadowclaw hissed in pain, before grabbing a firm hold of Forzen, prying his horns out of her chest, before she leapt out of her shadows and into the air. As she leapt into the air, the shadowclaw raised Forzen high above her head, before hurling him hard into the ground below. Forzen bounced backwards, before landing with a thud at the fearbringer's paws.
"Well, I guess you found them," the fearbringer said.
"See, I know what I'm doing! Don't complain again next time a shadowclaw feels the need to explore somewhere if we're looking for shadow users like these two," the shadowclaw snapped. "Now, knock out the whelpling and take him back to Dark Peak. I'll deal with the Terror of Warfang."
Right as she said that, Cynder leapt out of the shadows as well, tackling the shadowclaw to the ground. Great, leave me to the fearbringer once again, Forzen thought as he looked up, seeing the fearbringer lean over him, mouth wide and glowing with fear energy, readying a siren scream.
Forzen rolled to the side, just narrowly missing the attack, before letting electricity build up inside his body. He let it out in a violent arc of lightning, and he watched as the fearbringer seized up, collapsing to the ground and writhing in pain. As tremors took over him, the fearbringer still tried to release another siren scream at Forzen, but the young purple dragon saw this and proceeded to let out a plasma beam, searing through the fearbringer's jaws and blowing them clean off his face.
The rest of the large wound around the fearbringer's mouth was made up of completely melted flesh, and the interior of his mouth was exposed completely to the open, the soft, tender pink flesh now awfully red and burned as dark, crispy pieces of flesh hung down his face where his snout once protruded from. Both jaws lay separated, blown off a few metres away in the hallway.
In the meantime, Forzen turned to watch as Cynder was beaten into the ground by the shadowclaw. The shadowclaw held Cynder by the horns, slamming her face into the corner where the ground and wall met. Blood streamed down her eye ridges, snout and mouth. Cynder thrashed violently underneath the shadowclaw, trying to throw her off, but the shadowclaw held on firm, pressing down hard on Cynder's body.
The young purple dragon snarled, before letting out another plasma beam, sending it searing right through the shadowclaw's head, leaving a gaping hole running in and out of both sides of her head, burning flesh now sending smoke rising into the air. The shadowclaw hissed with pain as she staggered off Cynder, bits of thin, melting flesh flapping loosely about as she shook her head.
With a snarl of hatred, the shadowclaw growled a strong curse at him, before running forward, claws outstretched, trying to grab him. He sidestepped, before using his wind element to throw her to the ground. She cried out loudly, before screaming out for help as loud as she could. Due to how silent the palace was, there was no way that the other dark dragons would have been unable to hear her scream.
Forzen heard Cynder curse behind him at the sound of the shadowclaw's call for help. In response, Forzen silenced the shadowclaw for good, sending a beam of plasma slicing straight through her entire throat in a long sweep, decapitating it.
He heard a pained, yet enraged roar sound from behind the shadowclaw, as the fearbringer he had downed earlier leapt over the corpse of the shadowclaw that had freshly fallen, eyes filled with bloodlust towards him. Before Forzen could react, Cynder had lunged forward and, with a mighty swing of her tailblade, sliced the fearbringer's head off his neck with one clean strike.
"We need to go. Now," Cynder panted.
"What do we do about trying to not get seen?" Forzen asked.
"Stealth be damned, there was no way the others didn't hear that deafening call for help!"
Forzen listened out with his sound element, and sure enough, the other pairs of footsteps had gotten faster and heavier as they sprinted towards their location. He could also hear the pair of footsteps that had disappeared earlier had now returned into his range, sounding like they were not too far behind the other group.
"Yeah, they're already on their way here," Forzen murmured.
Cynder swore, before stepping over the two dark dragon corpses and peeking her head around the corner, staring down both ends of the hallway. "I reckon we turn back and find another way out. There's no point continuing forward when we know they'll intercept us," Cynder murmured, wiping blood off her face.
With that, Cynder and Forzen turned and went back the way their came, picking up their pace to a sprint, trying to keep their paws as light on the ground as possible. The dark dragons didn't have anywhere near the heightened hearing that Forzen had, but they still wanted to make sure they made as little noise as possible, particularly since the whole palace was deathly silent, meaning any loud, sudden noise would be very noticeable throughout the entire palace.
As they ran, Forzen winced as he suddenly picked up another set of footsteps. He listened as intently as he could while he sprinted, and his heart skipped a beat when he realised that the footsteps were coming from inside the walls.
"There's more footsteps," Forzen alerted Cynder.
"What? What do you mean there's more?!" Cynder hissed.
"I've picked up another pair of footsteps!"
"Where?"
"In the walls!"
"Inside the walls? That's impossible!"
As she said this, a piece of the marble wall in the hallway slid open, causing Cynder and Forzen to screech to a halt, their bodies ready to leap into action. Out of the new mysterious doorway that had opened, a pale blue face covered in scars peered out from around the corner. It was a normal dragon!
"Oh, thank the ancestors we were able to find you!" the ice dragon breathed, sighing with relief.
"They're here?" another voice asked from inside the secret passageway.
"Yes they are. Quick, you two! Get in!"
"Can we trust you?" Cynder asked defensively.
Forzen looked up, seeing her eyes betray her fear; clearly she was not seeing a normal ally dragon like he was. The effects of her fear coma were still lingering, and it was getting in the way of her seeing an obviously trustworthy dragon.
"General Cynder, you can trust us. We're Dryovellians, survivors. We can help you get out, but you need to follow us!" the ice dragon said. "The dark dragons have surrounded the palace; this is your only way out!"
"Are you sure?" Cynder asked.
"Yes, I'm sure. Now please, come on! You don't have much time!"
"They're closing in on us; we need to go, now!" Forzen added, hearing the thundering footsteps of the dark dragons getting closer.
"Fine!" Cynder exclaimed, rushing forward and barging past the ice dragon staring out towards them.
Forzen quickly followed, and as he entered the dark, secret passageway, the ice dragon stepped back in and shut the marble doorway, before whispering a single word and with a soft blue glow, the doorway sealed.
"Quick, follow us. Quietly, now," said the other dragon in the tunnel, a fire dragon who was missing both his horns and had a massive chunk of flesh torn out of his left cheek, exposing raw, pink flesh.
Cynder and Forzen followed the two dragons silently for a bit, the tunnel dark and cold, only briefly lit with a few yellow crystals that glowed dimly. It didn't take long before the tunnel turned on itself and began to descend rather steeply. Once it started to go down, the Dryovellians leading them slowed from a jog to a steady, careful walk. Cynder and Forzen slowed to match their speed, following closely behind them.
It didn't take long before Cynder broke the silence. "Where are we going? And… who are you? I got the feeling Dryovell was all but gone after the fight in the throne room," Cynder murmured.
"Centuries ago, our predecessors had created several safety passageways that go deep underground, creating an underground safehaven should Dryovell become overwhelmed," the fire dragon said. "There are about four that lead to the palace, and each of the passageways are interconnected at some point. It's why some of the walls in our infrastructure look so big, because there are actually hidden tunnels that run inside them, and why most of our homes look like they're practically touching."
"I've visited here many times and I didn't know of that. That's… impressive."
"The tunnels to the Underground Haven aren't something we usually tell or show outsiders unless absolutely necessary, even if they're an ally to Dryovell."
"How many of you are down there at the moment?"
"There's about four thousand of us down there; I believe they're the only ones who survived," the fire dragon said.
"Four thousand? Only four thousand have survived out of three million?" Cynder exclaimed, her voice breaking with emotion.
"That's just those of us who managed to make it to the Underground Haven. I don't know how many more managed to escape through other means. All I know is that somehow, Spyro's forces managed to wipe out over ninety-nine percent of us. A few of us who are still in fighting condition have been working our way through each of the tunnels, trying to sneak out and save anyone else who might still be alive and bring them back with us, but the entire city is just… dead. Particularly the palace."
"So how did you know we were still there?"
"Fulgris and I were out when the fight happened," the ice dragon explained. "We could see that massive explosion from where we were in the field, and since we knew that we were expecting you two as per Drachen's orders, we figured we would try and intercept you there. You're lucky we found you when we did, because we also noticed almost every single dark dragon had made their way to the palace once that massive explosion went off."
"Massive explosion?" Forzen murmured.
"Your plasma blast. The one that took out all those fearbringers," Cynder replied. "It was a massive explosion; I'm not surprised that it rocked the exterior of the palace as well."
"You must be spent after that fight; we have a few healers in the Underground Haven as well. We can get you two looked at if you need," the ice dragon offered.
"That would be helpful, thank you," Cynder said, wiping blood from her mouth again.
Forzen looked Cynder over, and then himself. It was only just now where he realised that they were actually both in awful conditions. They were drenched in blood, both their own and their enemies'. Their wounds were deep and savage. He had registered the immense amount of pain he was in, but until he looked himself over, he didn't realise just how severe his wounds were.
A heal seemed really nice right now.
"Chivan, did you want to run ahead and let those in the Haven know that we're bringing back the Warfangians? It may be worth a bit of heads up to get some space prepared for them so they can be looked at," Fulgris asked the ice dragon walking alongside him.
Chivan just nodded, before he picked up the pace into a speedy jog, running ahead. Fulgris slowed his pace, getting a bit closer towards Forzen and Cynder. He still walked in front of them to help lead the way, especially because the tunnel was also too narrow for all three of them to walk side-by-side, but he wanted to try and spark up some conversation to break through the silence.
"How's Warfang doing in these times, General Cynder? Hopefully doing well since the last time we aided each other," Fulgris asked.
"Doing as well as we can. We had a bit of a peaceful season, which was good to help recover and repair for a bit, but I think we've hit the next big season of struggle since this little menace entered the picture," Cynder murmured, her tone taking on a hard edge when she mentioned Forzen.
"Yes, the Purple Offspring. All of Dryovell heard plenty about him from Drachen."
"What did he say about me?" Forzen asked, curious.
"That you are Dark Peak's most prized possession and playing piece, and they fully regret not keeping a close enough hold on you. They want you back. Spyro wants you back. Desperately."
"Because I'm a weapon. Not because I'm Spyro's son. I'm only useful to him because I have potential as a purple dragon."
"Precisely."
"I don't want to go back. I don't want to do the awful, horrible things they're doing. I've seen how they fight, how they kill, how they love it. I don't want any part of that."
"Hold onto that, because that's the best standpoint you could have. You're a good kid, I'm sure of it."
"You can't seriously believe him, right?" Cynder asked.
Fulgris stopped, looking back at Cynder with a confused expression. "And you don't?" the scarred fire dragon asked. "You heard him; joining them is the last thing he wants."
"But how long will that last, though? What if in a couple years time after this is all said and done, he also decides to go evil, like Spyro did?" Cynder scoffed.
"But he's not evil. He's not evil now. Spyro's the one to worry about. If it ever comes about, that'll be a later problem, but right now, we need to make the most of the fact that Forzen wants nothing to do with Spyro and his darkness."
"He's a purple dragon! He spent twelve years raised in Dark Peak! I don't trust him!"
"The colour of his scales and who he was raised by means nothing, particularly once he breaks away and wants to have his own say. Out of all dragons, I would have thought you would have understood that the most, given how you were raised, and given the struggles you experienced throughout your teenage years."
"Don't you dare compare me and him, got it?"
"Fine. But just know that he is not defined by who his father is, got it? I want you to think about that. Now come on, let's get you two looked at."
With a huff, Fulgris whirled around and resumed walking. Forzen silently followed suit, slightly uncomfortable after the argument that had burst out between Fulgris and Cynder. He looked back, noticing Cynder slowly walking behind them, putting distance between him and Fulgris, her head down and her eyes distant and deep in thought.
Forzen looked up at Fulgris, wanting to talk to him, but quickly decided against it. Not while Cynder could overhear them in such a tiny space. But he was very curious; Fulgris didn't even know him, but almost immediately trusted him. It was such a strange, unusual viewpoint towards him. There weren't many people who shared that opinion of him, especially the moment they met him. He wanted to know why Fulgris wasn't so hateful of him. Maybe once they arrived in the Underground Haven, he could ask him.
After a few more minutes of walking down the steep, winding tunnel, they saw it open up into a massive cavern, likely having been hollowed out by earth dragons all those centuries ago. Large torches with huge fires burning inside them filled the cavern, illuminating it with a warm light. Small tents scattered the cavern, where many dragons lay, seemingly too close for comfort, but they were at least safe. There were dragons of all elements, sizes and ages, and it was quite upsetting to see dragons as young as four bear similar horrendous wounds to the adults.
Fulgris walked them down a pathway towards where the healers were. As they walked, Forzen looked around at all the dragons surrounding him, staring at him as he walked by them in close proximity. He felt rather uncomfortable with all the eyes just watching him. He looked at their faces and bodies, taking in the horrific wounds they bore.
A dragoness with no wings, her left front leg missing, and a bloodied bandage around her right eye. A dragon with his top jaw entirely missing, exposing the length of his tongue and teeth alongside his bottom jaw; his tongue looked incredibly dry, and his eyes were filled with pain. Another dragon with several deep, wide gashes covering his body, dried blood caked over the wounds. A younger dragoness, maybe two years older than Forzen, with the right side of her face practically torn open, her right eye missing from her eye socket, flesh peeled and pried open around the socket and running down the length of her face from her forehead to her bottom jaw. Twin dragons, aged five; they both were missing their tails, one of them had no eyes, and the other had deep bite marks around his abdomen, which was very misshapen, likely having been crushed under the force of whatever jaws had bitten down around him. The twins' mother sat behind them, a deep gash running along the left side of her snout and snaking all the way down to the base of her neck.
These were just a few dragons that Forzen had seen, and the sight of such ugly, fresh wounds sickened him. How could anyone do this? How could anyone find enjoyment out of doing this to someone? It was absolutely horrific and barbaric!
Eventually, they arrived at the healers' tent, where Chivan ran up to greet them. "Perfect timing, they just cleared up some spots for them!" the ice dragon exclaimed, running up to Fulgris, Cynder and Forzen. "Come on, this way."
They were led to a tent where three dragonesses were inside waiting for them. They checked over their wounds, washed them, and gave them some red gems to do as much healing as they could. Some of their wounds were too large or deep to be fully healed without overdosing on red gems, so for those wounds, it was up to the natural healing process.
Forzen wasn't too happy about this, as he knew it would mean more scars added to his body, but as he looked over at Cynder, he could see the same thought going through her own mind. It was only now that he properly started to notice the scars marring her own body, particularly around her chest. She probably had just as many as him. He didn't know how he had never noticed before, but he supposed he had been too busy trying to stay on her 'kinder' side to avoid her beating him whenever he was near her.
"What?" Cynder snapped.
Forzen held in a frightened yelp, not expecting her to yell at him. He suddenly realised he had been staring, and he quickly diverted his gaze, hoping Cynder wouldn't lash out at him. He was starting to notice her irritable, angry side starting to flare up again, and he had a feeling that maybe the effects of the fear coma were starting to fade, giving the old Cynder an opportunity to return.
He wasn't happy about this at all; he definitely preferred her when she wasn't yelling and angry at him all the time, but at the same time, he knew it wasn't right to want the scared, terrified Cynder to be out again. It didn't feel right to wish a fear coma on anyone, even Cynder. Particularly after seeing how it had broken her down into a whimpering, terrified wreck. She'd gotten over it quickly and done her best to hide it, but he could tell she had struggled to do so.
He had also noticed how she got worse whenever she looked at him. Obviously she was seeing something with him in the fear coma, and it concerned him quite a lot. She seemed to be scared of him; why? He thought she had just despised him; this wasn't great either and he also had no idea why she hated him so much, but to see her suddenly so scared of him once she was exposed to her deepest fears complicated things significantly. What did she really feel towards him? What did she really see him as?
He felt the urge to ask her. The questions started flowing out before he really comprehended what was leaving his mouth.
"Hey, Cynder?" he asked.
"General Cynder, remember?" Cynder snapped.
"Yes, sorry. I just… wondered if I could ask you a question. I apologise if it's too personal, but… I would like to know something, if that's okay."
Forzen could see the hesitation in Cynder's face as she bit back a snarl, contemplating whether to entertain his curiosity or not. Eventually, Cynder let out a sigh. "It entirely depends on the question and how personal it truly is," Cynder said.
"Okay, I just… if you don't want to answer, that's fine, but… I wanted to know what you really thought of me. Why do you hate me so much that all you want to do is yell at me and beat me? And are you… are you afraid of me?"
Cynder's face fell at the question. A new side of her broke through, likely completely unintentional, and it perplexed Forzen even more. It was soft, and it was hurting. It was a broken part of her. Fear entered her eyes, but this time, Forzen could tell it wasn't from the fear coma.
Had he read her right? Was she afraid of him? And was this new side of her showing now that she realised he had seen through her overbearing anger and hatred towards him?
"I can't… I can't answer that. I don't want to. And you don't need to know," Cynder stammered, trying to make her tone as firm as possible.
"But I do. If there's something I did wrong beyond just existing… if I somehow did something to hurt you before I even met you… I need to know. I don't want you to hate me. I don't want anyone to hate me. I just want to know what I can do to fix it. I don't want to make you like me, I just want to make you not hate me."
Cynder recoiled at his last few sentences and a tear formed in her eye, slipping slowly down her cheek. Forzen tried not to make it obvious that he had noticed; there was no telling what she would do if he made her crying such a big deal. A shuddering breath left her, before she wiped her cheek and let out an aggressive huff, trying to put her strong, aggressive mask back together.
"You don't need to know; you just want to know," Cynder replied, causing Forzen's heart to sink. "There's nothing you can do to make me tell you what I think of you. You don't get to just ask to delve into my deep, dark secrets just because I'm weakened from battle and from a fear coma, especially the latter. I will not let you take advantage of me in this state."
"But I'm not trying to take advantage of you. I just want to understand what I'm doing wrong, towards you and towards Warfang," Forzen said, emotion breaking his voice a little bit. "And… and if the problem is me just existing, then… then tell me what I can do to make my existence better for everyone."
"There's nothing you can do."
Forzen recoiled at the aggressiveness behind Cynder's voice as she said that one sentence. They sat in silence for an uncomfortable two minutes, before Forzen slowly stood up. He looked around, seeing the nurses standing a little bit away talking to each other, appearing to be about another patient in one of the tents nearby. He also noticed Fulgris and Chivan were still there, talking amongst themselves.
"Excuse me," Forzen called out towards the nurses. "Can I go out for a bit of a walk, please?"
One of the nurses paused the conversation she was in, before turning around to Forzen. "Yes, you can. Just make sure you're back here in ten to fifteen minutes so we can make sure you're all healed up properly after the treatment so you can go back home, okay?" the nurse said.
"I will, thank you," Forzen murmured, nodding his head and slowly standing up off the bed that he was lying on.
"One of you two, would you be able to go with him, just in case?" the nurse asked Fulgris and Chivan.
"I can," Chivan said, the ice dragon stepping forward to walk alongside Forzen.
Forzen started to walk away from the tent, Chivan beside him. His sound element caught a glimpse of a conversation that started to flare up between Fulgris and Cynder; it seemed that Fulgris was standing up for him again.
"I can't believe you said all that to him," Fulgris murmured.
"What? What's wrong with it?" Cynder retorted.
"All of what he said… does that not sound familiar to things you would have said a little over a decade ago?"
"Shut up."
"No! Cynder, you've become the very type of dragon that hated you all those years ago."
"Hey, kid. You doing okay?" Chivan asked, snapping Forzen's attention away from Cynder and Fulgris.
"I… I don't know," Forzen murmured.
"Try not to take what she said to heart. She can be harsh… very harsh."
"I just wanted to know what I did wrong."
"Sometimes… people hate others just because they can. There isn't always a reason. And… I know that's hard to hear, but… maybe there isn't a reason for everyone hating you," Chivan said. "Her, though? I know there is a reason, and I think I know what it is, but unfortunately I don't think it's my place to tell you."
"What do you mean?"
"Cynder has not had an easy life. All through her life, she went through many years of abuse, trauma, and heartbreak. It moulded her into something that… is quite hard to get along with. Something Fulgris and I have learned, as have most of the others here who have worked with her and spent time with her, is that she is emotionally very unstable, and as a result, she is just angry, all the time, and no matter what you try, you can't get her to open up to you and be vulnerable. At all. I can't imagine what it's like having hatred fuelling that anger when it's towards you, but… this is just the type of person Cynder is. I guess she also holds grudges very close to her."
"Grudges? For what? I haven't done anything to her. She hated me the moment we met!"
"Forzen, I don't think her hatred is purely to do with you. I think part of it is to do with Spyro as well."
"But why should she hate me for something Spyro did? What did I do to make her hate me?"
"You're his son."
"You think that's the reason?"
"I do."
"But… I'm nothing like Spyro! I want nothing to do with him and what he stands for! She knows this!"
"She may know that you claim this, but I don't think she truly believes it in her heart. Even if you try and prove yourself to her, I don't imagine she'll be able to see past her years of trauma and hurt that have helped make her reach the decision she has. Now, I don't know if she's trying to believe you or if she's just outright throwing your word out, but if she's at least trying, then I think that's enough."
"I just… wish there was something I could do to… at least make her tolerate me…" Forzen murmured. "I've tried to show her that I have no bad intentions, and I've seen other dragons back in Warfang stand up for me against her and she barely listens to them. I don't know why. I'm just surprised I actually have others on my side, to be honest."
"Give her time. I really do hope she comes around. But at the moment, getting you two out of here so you can head back home is the most important thing," Chivan replied.
"But what about you guys? What will you do?"
"Stay down here for a few days or maybe weeks, possibly. I think some Dryovellians might have made it out of the city as well so they should all hopefully be safe, too. I'm not quite sure what the future looks like for us, but please don't worry about us. Worry about yourself and Cynder, and getting back home to where you belong and where you're both needed."
"Okay. I… I want to thank you for saving us back there. I don't know what we would've done to get out of that situation."
"No need to thank us, Forzen. We're just looking out for our allies, trying to make sure they're safe. Warfang would do the same for us, I'm very positive about that."
"Hah, Warfang isn't as great as you say it is," Forzen scoffed.
"You've been shown a lot of hate there, not just from Cynder, haven't you?"
"Well yeah, everyone hates me. They think I'm a spy or some part of Spyro's big plan to destroy Warfang from the inside. They're scared that I'll just do something out of nowhere. I had dragons try to kill me, several times, both adults and other kids. I could probably count across all my digits the amount of dragons that actually trust me."
"Has it increased since you first arrived in Warfang?"
"Yeah, I guess. But not by a lot."
"The fact is, you've been able to show people who you really are and helped them change their mind about you. I'm sure that at some point, all of Warfang will be on your side looking out for you."
"That's impossible."
"It happened before with Cynder. It was a very hard and painful journey for her, but she got Warfang to like her. And I'm sure that can happen with you as well."
"I… I don't know about that…"
"Trust me. Life won't always be horrible to you, understand?"
Forzen huffed, before he nodded silently. He didn't look Chivan in the eyes as they walked. They walked for a few more minutes in silence before Chivan suggested that they turn back and return to the healers' tents, so they did.
When they returned, Fulgris was sitting on his own just outside the tent, and Cynder lay on the bed, curled up. From the expression on her face, Forzen could tell she was in a very bad mood. Chivan seemed to notice this too. "Fulgris, everything okay?" Chivan asked.
"She's just being very stubborn and difficult. Nothing too different from normal," Fulgris said with a shrug.
"I hope you weren't being too difficult towards her either, Fulgris. I know how heated you can get in arguments sometimes."
"That's why I moved myself here and ended the conversation. It was starting to get a little ugly and upsetting such a trusted ally isn't what I want to do, even though I think some of her thoughts need to be challenged," Fulgris murmured, lowering his voice to a hushed whisper at the last part of the sentence.
Chivan just sighed, turning to look at Cynder with a shake of his head. Fulgris spoke again, bringing Chivan and Forzen's attention back to the fire dragon. "Look, I think deep down, she's still a good dragon, and I know that she's been through so much trauma that has made her this way, but I just wish she wasn't so… angry and horrible all the time. Not only for everyone else's sake but her own; she's just going to burn bridges this way," Fulgris said with a shrug.
"I just wish she would see that I'm not Spyro and stop trying to compare me to him," Forzen said. "I'm not evil. I'm literally just trying to survive and learn things back at home."
"I know. I don't know the specific struggle you're going through, but I know what it's like to live under the shadow of a father who has done awful things. That's why I got so passionate in the tunnel about it because I lived something similar."
"You did?"
"Yeah. I wasn't born in Dryovell, I ran away and fled here when I was sixteen, and I grew up here ever since, completely on my own. Back in the city where I came from, my father was exposed to be a secret crime lord, overseeing many criminals, from robbers, to murderers, and worse. Being a young teenage fire dragon with a father who had always been quite harsh, but also quite absent before he was taken away and executed, I had developed a pretty bad temper, and many others feared I would become my father. They didn't know what he'd taught me or raised me to be, as I only had him in my life; my mother died delivering my egg so I only had my father around. I spent four years in the orphanage after my father's execution, and I couldn't handle the fear and hatred that everyone had towards me, so I left and came here.
"So just know that even though we live very far apart, I have your back, Forzen. I know what it's like to have people think you could just kill them out of nowhere, because of actions your father did. It's not the extent that you have it, with claims of dark magic and your purple scales and all that being thrown into the mix too, but I understand you. I'm sure there are plenty in Warfang who are willing to try and understand you as well."
"There are, but not many, though," Forzen replied.
"At least you've got some. Don't take them for granted; if you need someone to talk to, go talk to them. If they truly care for you and want to understand you, your experiences and thoughts and opinions, then find safety in them," Fulgris said.
Forzen just nodded. "I… I'll try."
"Great! You got this; stay strong and you'll get through to brighter skies, I know it. There's still a lot of life left ahead of you."
The three dragons suddenly became aware of movement behind them as one of the nurses made her way up to them. "Back from your walk, I see. How do you feel?" the nurse asked Forzen.
"Um… good, I guess?" Forzen replied.
"No pain or anything while you were out walking?"
"I mean… my legs were a little sore but that's about it. Nowhere near how painful everything was before coming down here," Forzen explained.
"That's good," the nurse said, before turning to address Fulgris and Chivan. "I've checked Cynder as well, who also feels fine. Apparently she had also been under the effects of a fear coma when she arrived in the Haven, but she seems to be completely free of all the fear coma effects now. I'd say you're good to escort them back above ground and see them out of Dryovell, as discussed earlier."
"Great, thank you for looking after these two," Fulgris said with a slight bow of his head.
With that, the three dragons walked up to collect Cynder, before Fulgris and Chivan led them back through the crowded tents of the Haven, leading them into a different tunnel to the one they had entered in. Chivan said that this tunnel went towards the edges of the city, allowing them an easier opportunity to escape than from the palace closer to the middle of the city.
They walked in silence the whole way through the tunnel, and when they reached the exit, Chivan spoke a hushed word, before a cyan glow emanated around the door and it opened for them. As the door opened, the stench of death wafted into the tunnel, causing Forzen to recoil with disgust at the smell.
The ice dragon stepped forward cautiously, looking around to see if there was anything nearby. He then looked back and beckoned the rest of them forward, stepping out into the open. Dark red liquid flooded over the ground from the amount of corpses that had been torn apart and drained of their blood. The corpses had been thrown around carelessly, scattering the streets and courtyards with no pattern to them. The gashes across their bodies were deep and vicious, the wounds and flesh now old and dry. Forzen could smell that some of these bodies were already rotting, quite badly in fact.
"Alright, we've got one major courtyard to go before we get to the gates. We'll escort you there, and then after that you're on your own," Fulgris whispered. "Don't fly too close to the gates as to not alert any dark dragons that may still be here, so maybe walk along the valley floor for a bit to make some distance and then fly off."
Cynder nodded silently in response. They then all continued forward, stalking carefully and quietly through the dead streets. They neared the courtyard eventually, and Chivan made a motion to tell them to stop. The ice dragon carefully looked around the corner of the building they were hiding behind, staring out into the courtyard.
"There's like… ten of them in there. I don't know how we can make it through without being seen," Chivan whispered.
"How do we get rid of them, then? I don't think we'd be able to fight our way through; we're quite outnumbered if we engage in a fight," Fulgris asked.
"Forzen can take them; he decimated an entire room of like thirty of them earlier," Cynder said.
"Cynder, we're not here to turn Forzen into an expendable weapon. Besides, trying to start a fight will just draw more attention to ourselves. I'd like as little loud, violent interactions as possible," Chivan said sternly but softly.
"I… I might be able to do something, though," Forzen said. "I want to try something."
Forzen stepped forward, pushing past Chivan as he stood in a position where he could peer around the corner to look into the courtyard. He saw the ground once more littered with a ridiculous amount of corpses and blood, and walking over a mountain of them were several dark dragons. The party of dark dragons was made up of seven fearbringers, two shadowclaws, and one venomfang.
"I can confirm there are no survivors here," the venomfang said in a hushed voice to the rest of the group.
"Are you extra sure? There could be someone alive hiding under the masses of dead to try and hide themselves," one of the fearbringers said.
"Come on, we've searched through this courtyard twice already. Surely we could make use of our time some other way?" a second fearbringer asked.
"The orders were to ensure that all of Dryovell is dead and rotting. Drachen has asked for the entire city to be slain. No survivors."
"What about Lord Spyro? What were his orders?" a shadowclaw asked. "Drachen may be second-in-command but Lord Spyro is our true master."
"Lord Spyro told us to follow Drachen's orders, and to bring hell down onto Dryovell if the Purple Prince wasn't given over. So that's what we're doing. Check again for survivors."
The venomfang snarled in frustration, before walking around and spewing copious amounts of venom all over the corpses covering the ground. The sound of the sizzling, melting flesh reached Forzen's ears. No screams came out of the bodies.
Behind the dark dragons were two extra exits down into more streets. Forzen looked back towards Chivan. "Which street do we need to go down?" Forzen asked.
"The right one," Chivan replied in a hushed whisper.
Forzen nodded, before turning back to look into the courtyard where the dark dragons marched around, searching for any signs of life amongst the dead. He looked down the street on the left and tried his very hardest to imagine someone running down it, maybe even a small yelp of fear. He reached deep down within his essence core for his sound element, and then released it.
He didn't hear anything, but all ten of the dark dragons did. They all stopped, whirling around to stare down the street. "Did you hear that?" the venomfang asked.
"Quick, after them!" another fearbringer exclaimed.
"We'll fly forward to try and corner them off!" the shadowclaws said.
"Four of you, stay back, just in case," the first fearbringer who had spoken said, and the remaining four nodded.
With that, six of the four dark dragons had all run down into the street on the left in pursuit of a Dryovellian that didn't even exist.
"Ancestors, how did you do that?" Fulgris asked.
"Sound element," Forzen whispered.
"You have the sound element?"
"Yeah, I do."
"We don't have time to have this conversation," Chivan hissed. "How do we get rid of the other four?"
"I don't know. I tried to get them all but I don't think using the same trick on these four will work again," Forzen murmured.
"I think I have an idea. They have no control over shadow, so I could try and trap them in their shadows," Cynder whispered, before stepping forward and sinking into her shadow to try and get close to the four fearbringers.
Forzen, Fulgris and Chivan watched in silence as Cynder disappeared from their view, and a few moments later, each of the fearbringers dropped into their shadows one-by-one, before Cynder leapt out, leaving the fearbringers stranded in their shadows. She beckoned them forward, and all three of them quickly burst into a sprint, running up towards her.
"They're stranded in there until the shadowclaws come back to pull them out. I don't know how long Forzen's diversion will work on them, so I don't know how long that will be. We should get going, now," Cynder said.
They all quickly ran down the street on their right, making their way past hundreds more corpses littering the pavement. They even had to climb over a small mountain of corpses at one point.
Eventually, they made it to the outer gate, thankfully without any extra encounters with dark dragons. "Thanks for helping us get here," Cynder whispered. "Will you two be okay on your own?"
"We've been going in and out of the Haven over the past few days, particularly the last few hours, quite frequently. I think we'll be fine," Chivan said. "Good luck, and hope you have safe travels back to Warfang."
"Thanks. Good luck to you and all those in the Haven," Cynder said, before she turned and started to climb up the large wall surrounding Dryovell's grounds.
Forzen turned and looked back at the two Dryovellians who had aided them. "Thanks for everything," he said with a soft smile.
"You're welcome. Like I said, we're rooting for you. Now go home," Fulgris replied.
The young purple dragon nodded, before starting to climb up and over the wall after Cynder. They walked in silence for quite a while; Forzen wasn't sure how long they had been walking for, but Cynder wanted to put as much distance between them and Dryovell before they took off into the air.
Forzen was excited to get back into the air again. He wanted nothing more than to smell clean, fresh air. His nose had been assaulted by the awful smells of blood and death the entire time they had been in Dryovell.
Eventually, Cynder finally decided they were far enough, and so they opened their wings and began to fly back to where they had left Muras. Their wings and bodies ached, and they were tired; Forzen couldn't wait to actually rest, but first they needed to meet up with Muras, and then make the long flight back home.
Apologies for the wait on this chapter, I had so many other things pop up in the last month and a half, from Monster Hunter Wilds' release (which is an amazing game btw, highly recommend), a metal festival I went to, getting very sick for a whole week, picking up art again, and a bit of writers block. This chapter was a challenge to get onto the page, but I finally managed to get it out and fingers crossed next one comes out a lot easier, especially considering it contains a sequence I've been waiting to write for so long.
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MysticFire824: I wouldn't go so far as to blame Cynder for it lol, there were also a lot of moving parts completely out of her control, and no one could have known there was a bloodluster inside that hare that Forzen ate as well, but she definitely hasn't been the nicest on this trip. We see her aggressive self coming back through near the end of the chapter once her vulnerable state wears off, but as we saw last chapter, there is a large internal battle hiding behind the aggressive front she has up. But the events of the last chapter definitely were some significant progress for her, even though in the larger scheme of things it doesn't seem like much.
And yeah, Drachen is a terrifying dragon. He's being held back on a leash; he's truly a problem if he was ever to be truly let free. Definitely called for a darker chapter for sure lol
Dragon of Mystery: Yup, last chapter was quite intense for everyone, including D'varin and Gu'rath who both have been through a lot being part of the Dark Assassin Corps. We see the full extent of the carnage of the city throughout this chapter and yeah, it's not pretty. They did what they intended to do, and that was kill off all of Dryovell, eliminating one of Warfang's biggest allies.
And as mentioned earlier, definitely some progress in Cynder's internal battle. We'll see a bit more of this moving forward where she'll continue to get challenged on her views on everything.
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Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Hoping the next one doesn't take too long, I'll see you in the next one!