Chapter six:
Homecoming...
Spyro and Cynder continued to follow the black dragon past the forest where they found him. Their wings were almost frozen from Crimson's blizzard wind as they entered a barren mountainside. The ground began to turn a rotten black. The unnatural cloud cover turned an eerie sickly green from the sunlight that filtered through them.
Crimson dove down to the ground and landed; his blizzard wind pulling Spyro and Cynder down roughly with him. When they landed, he turned around to face them and said, “Welcome to the Valley of Decay, my old home.”
“Home?” Spyro asked, looking at the degenerated land.
“This land has been drained of all hope for life.” Crimson began to look around franticly. “Come on, we should move. I don’t want to stay any longer than I have too.” The three dragons slowly snuck about, careful not to be spotted by anyone… or anything. The tainted armor of the munants made them hard to see amongst the black landscape as they scurried from and to their posts. A strange blackish red light was emitting around a large cave surrounded by at least fifty high-ranking munants, all barking orders to each other. “The egg chamber is in there.”
“How do we get in?” Cynder asked as she stared at the insurmountable force in front of her. It was obvious she was thinking what would if they tried to charge through.
“There’s got to be a way.” Spyro said looking at Crimson, who just sat there and watched the munants work. They marched like noisy ants, carrying scrapes of wood, rocks, and metal into the cave. He noticed a small gap in their steps, large enough for a single dragon to slip through at a time.
Crimson stood up and said quietly, “Follow me, I think I found a way to get in.” Spyro and Cynder followed Crimson through the shadows to the side of the cave; its dark red light was almost intimidating. Crimson slowed and lifted his paw. His claw began to twitch with each munant that left the cave for more resources and each munant that enter. A noticeable pattern began to appear. Without saying anything, Crimson dashed into a corner in the cave and signaled Spyro and Cynder to come. The next go was Cynder followed by Spyro. They continued down several corridors; the hallways were lit by the crystal torches. The torches glowed blood red, the color seemed nearly liquid. Crimson stopped suddenly as they heard the roars and sneers of munants.
“They here. I wanna kill them.” A loud bang of steel against stone was heard ahead.
“Master wants the two safe. You will not touch them.”
“You not master. You no order me.”
“You will not hinder master.” The sounds of a deadly battle were heard throughout the halls before going silent again.
Crimson slowly moved into the passageway where the fighting was heard and saw a mutilated munant pinned to the wall by a rusted old damaged blade, its clear blood etching into the stone of the wall and floor.
Spyro and Cynder soon caught up but they stopped when they the horror hanging there. “Come on, the eggs should be in the smallest chamber farthest in the back, where there is the least guards,” Crimson whispered, after Cynder puked.
“The least guards?!” Spyro said with a loud whisper.
“Most of the guards in here are around the chamber but not immediate area. Once we get past the guards, we shouldn’t have a problem…until we have to get out, that is.”
Spyro and Cynder continued to follow Crimson as the torches began to die down and their way was lit with bright reds, yellows, greens, and blues. It was getting harder and harder to hide with less and less shade there was.
After several uneventful hours, they finally found the cylindrical egg chamber. The walls, ceiling and floor were neatly cut of marble, slate, and blood red crystal unlike the rest of the cave. In the middle of the room was a single pedestal of spirit gems with the two missing eggs, one red the other blue, sitting side by side. The bright and colorful lights originated from around the eggs. They began collect together into four ribbons, blue, red, yellow, and green. The ribbons filled the room and seemed to dance around each other and the dragons. The lights wrapped and hugged the dragons as if to greet them. The warmth emanating from the lights was almost calming and relaxing… but suddenly they unraveled themselves and began to spin quickly around the pedestal, forming a barrier to the eggs. Something wasn’t right!
“Wait! Why didn’t we see a single guard?!” Crimson said before he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and it all went dark…
