What is the first thing that happens when you wake up?
Well, for Spyro, it was the feeling of consciously breathing, the air filling his longs, and next, it came the feeling of his own body, as his muscles slowly came back to life after a time of inactivity. Right next, it was as if his mind was waking up, and it was as if he was suddenly becoming aware of the world around him, when before he was aware of nothing.
Maybe it was a feeling similar that hatchlings had when they first emerged from their eggs and into the world. However, Spyro was still unable to make this connection, as his body and mind both came back from the world of unconsciousness.
Spyro felt his muscles, he moved each one of them, very slightly, as they were still waking up, but he was able to feel them. They were so heavy… but he could feel all of them, and that was what his mind was able to register. After that, he could feel the place where he was laying. It was soft, and it felt somewhat comfortable. Spyro started to get cozy in there, and still, he started to open his eyelids slowly.
It was a hard work, for he felt that his eyes themselves wanted to remain closed. It didn't helped that the place he was in felt really illuminated, what hurt his eyes. Spyro let out a small groan as his eyes adjusted to the light and tried to open at the same time. In this, he got the attention of someone.
An adult dragon, with indigo scales and cream underbelly was sitting by the side of Spyro's bed. He was wearing a golden armor on his body, and a helmet that he had was sitting on the ground next to him, while he was resting on there and reading a book, using one of his paws to hold it. As soon as he heard the groan form Spyro, he stopped readying the book and looked at the purple dragon, seeing that he was waking up. He put the book aside, and focused all of his attention to the purple dragon on the bed.
Spyro stirred his body as he woke up, looking over, he could see a shape. It was a dragon. That much Spyro knew. By blinking, Spyro could take a better look at the creature that was in front of him.
No doubt it was a dragon. He was big, so it was to be suppose that he was an adult. He was wearing an armor, and he was looking worried at the purple dragon.
Spyro groaned as he tried to wake up completely.
"I… where..." He was able to mumble, and soon, the strong voice of the adult came to Spyro.
"Hey, relax, young one." The indigo dragon said. "Your body is still recovering, you have to go easy."
His tune was gentle, and it made Spyro stop for a moment, as it remembered him of Ignitus…
Ignitus.
Memories started to flash in his mind. About Ignitus. About meeting the fire guardian. About being raised and trained by him. About their travel to the mountain… About the fire… About…
"Ignitus…" Spyro said, feeling a wave of sadness wash over his body once again. The indigo dragon looked at him, and he had a sad expression as well, as he looked at the young purple dragon in the bed.
Spyro felt the sadness, sadness for the loss of his mentor and father figure. However, this feeling was washed away when the next wave of memories flooded back into his mind.
Their travel to the mountain.
Their battle with Malefor.
Their victory.
The world breaking.
Ignitus' voice telling him what to do.
Spyro's decision.
The moment when he was doing what he needed to do.
Cynder's voice whispering these words.
I love you.
Cynder…
Spyro suddenly felt himself snapping awake, his eyes wide and looking at the sides.
"Cynder!" He said as he looked around, and his hastiness seemed to worry the bigger dragon.
"Hey, hey! Calm down." The indigo dragon said to him. "Relax, you are gonna have a stroke like this."
"Cynder!" Spyro said, and he finally was able to fix his gaze into the dragon who was in there with him. "She was with me! We were in the mountain! Where is she?"
"She is in here!" The indigo dragon said back at him, trying to tranquilize the purple dragon. "We found her along with you and brought you two back to Warfang. She is in this very same building, is receiving medical attention as we speak."
The way that the dragon spoke made Spyro relax, but only until Spyro realized what he said.
"Medical- Is she hurt?" Spyro said, and the indigo dragon once more worked on soothing him.
"You both were in a certain condition when you were brought back." He explained to him. "You both needed to receive medical attention once you were in here. You got well quickly, but her case is more serious, so she is still receiving the needed care. Relax, we have the best healers all working on her, she is under watch, and we are giving her all the necessary cares."
Spyro looked up at the indigo dragon. He saw in his eyes that he was telling the truth. This was enough to make the purple dragon relax a little.
Now that he was free from worries, and felt more awake than before, he could finally realize where he was.
He was into a room, a big one, with stone walls, and with some fine decoration, somewhat fitting for a palace, but which also somehow remembered the walls of the Dragon Temple. The room was furnished with some nice things, like a few tables and laying-sofas, and it had tapestries decorating the walls, all of which had the colors attributed to Warfang, with also the corresponding symbols. The light of the place came from three sets of balconies, all which opened to the open air, letting the light of the day come in.
Spyro noticed now that he was laying into a very comfortable and fancy bed. The sheets were of a regal golden coloration, and they were soft and comfortable like few things that Spyro ever had as a bed before. It beat sleeping in the ground, that much Spyro could say.
"I… I am in Warfang?" Spyro repeated, starting to come to grips with the situation. "I… I did it?" He asked, and the indigo dragon was the one who answered to it.
"Yes, you did, young dragon." He said as he looked at Spyro with admiration. "You saved the whole world. Every single living being in the world is in debt with you." He finished as he gave the purple dragon a bowing of his head.
Spyro felt a bit awkward at this, and he looked at the dragon clad in armor. This one had raised his head and looked at the young purple dragon. "My name is Aquarius Watercrest. I'm captain of the 16th regiment of Warfang's army. I was the one who was leading the mission that found you and Cynder and brought you both back to the capital city of Warfang."
Spyro looked at the dragon, and soon, his mind was fishing something back from the depths of it, and he was able to recover something. A memory of a form looking down on him, talking to him, asking him questions. The voice was familiar…
"I remember you." Spyro said, "You talked to me back there! When you found me!"
Aquarius smiled as he looked at the purple dragon. "Yes, indeed, young dragon, I did." He spoke that. "I cannot say how much of an honor is to meet you in person."
Spyro felt a blush forming on his scales. "P-please, don't talk like that." Spyro said, and he looked away. "I really feel uncomfortable with this kind of treatment."
The indigo dragon chuckled a bit. "Well, I guess it is natural to want to act like that around someone like you, after what you did. Still, if this makes you uncomfortable, I won't be the one to make you feel bad; especially after all you have been through."
Spyro felt thankful for that, and he looked at him. "So, is everyone really okay?"
The indigo dragon adopted a more serious tone, and he looked at the young dragon. "Well, we had casualties during the battle with Malefor's forces, but we also had a great number of survivors. The Guardians are among them. All of them emerged alive after the war and after you fixed up the world."
"T-the guardians?" Spyro asked.
"Yes, Terrador, Cyril and Voolter." The indigo dragon confirmed. "All of them survived the war."
"… not all…" Spyro said, looking down, and the indigo dragon agreed with him.
"Yes, Ignitus, the fire Guardian. We are all aware of his fate." He spoke to him, "He will be forever remembered."
Spyro looked down, and after a few moments of silence, the indigo dragon spoke once more: "You suffered no injuries that we could perceive, but you were showing signs of an extremely low life force, and we needed to use some crystals to restore your mana. You are now completely reestablish; still they all said that you should rest now, to avoid your body from overexerting itself once more."
Spyro looked at the indigo dragon, his words made some sense, but still, there was something that Spyro could not ignore…
"I want to see Cynder." He spoke to the indigo dragon. "I need to talk to her."
"She is still recovering." The indigo dragon said to him. "She is in no conditions to talk."
"I need to see her." Spyro insisted.
"You will." Aquarius assured him, "As soon as she is fine and in conditions to talk, the first thing I'll do will be arrange for you two to have a meeting." Aquarius said to the purple dragon. "You have my word."
Spyro looked on his eyes, and he had the feeling that the dragon dressed in armor was telling the truth, and that he could trust him. This was a kind of feeling that Spyro had by looking in the eyes of that dragon, the look in them made Spyro believe that the dragon of the guard was being honest with him. This was enough to make Spyro relax slightly, even though he was still worried with Cynder, if the dragon said that she was being well treat and that he would be reunite with her soon, he felt like he could believe him.
After seeing that Spyro had relaxed enough, the indigo dragon spoke once more:
"Well, I guess that I'll be going now." He spoke to the young purple dragon. "I'll order someone to bring you food, after all, you must be hungry after so long."
"So… long?" Spyro said, confused by the way that the indigo dragon said that. Aquarius looked back at him, and he spoke:
"You were brought back to Warfang three days ago, and you have been sleeping ever since." He explained to the purple dragon.
Suddenly, for the first time, Spyro realized that he felt both hungry and thirsty.
"Yes… some food would be good." He admitted, and blushed as his stomach growled particularly loudly. Aquarius could not help but chuckle at this.
"I'll tell the guard to bring you some food and also water. He will be here with a few minutes. Please, do not leave this room until I come back, and try to relax." He said, as respectfully as he should with the young purple dragon. As he was walking to the doors, he said: "And, Spyro?"
The purple dragon turned to him, and the indigo dragon was looking at him, a smile on his scaly lips. "Many people will want to see you when you are feeling better. It is good to have you back."
With that, the dragon in golden armor walked out of the doors, which closed, and left the young purple dragon alone in that room, to reflect about his whole situation.
Spyro spent a good deal of time on recalling the events that had lead him to this very moment.
It was hard to believe that he had come through all of that. It even seemed that the life that he remembered was the life of someone else.
Years ago, when he was still living in the swamp, and thinking he was a dragonfly, and so, he believed that his life would be pretty much the same that all of the dragonflies in that swam: to grow up, find a mate, and spend his life feeding on butterflies and fruits.
He would never imagine that he would start a travel in which he would discover his own species, would see himself as part of an ancient prophecy that would prevent the end of the world, or would save the life of a dragoness who was not as lucky as he was to escape. He would never imagine himself going into a race to save the world, facing several dangers and problems on his path, and he surely never imagined himself having to fight an ancient mad dragon who thought that he should destroy the world to create a new one.
Spyro would never had imagined any of these things, even on his wildest dreams. Still, that was the path that his life had taken, a path, as it seem, was defined far before his egg even got laid.
It was still hard to believe, and it was even harder to believe that it had finally ended.
Sighing, Spyro got off the bed, tossing the covers aside, and he was able to get out of the warm bed into the cold stone floor. A transition that his body seemed to be complaining about, but Spyro barely gave it any mind.
The purple dragon instead only walked across the room, looking around the details of the place.
Did they put me on a room of the palace? Spyro thought, seeing just how luxurious that place was, when compared to other places he had been before in the lands of dragons (which were actually not much). It looked like the kind of place in which a noble or a member of the royalty would be staying.
Spyro continued to walk, his claws tapping the stone floor as he walked in direction to the balcony, and soon, he was walking on the outside, and he had to let his eyes adjust to the brightness for a moment before he could look clearly.
He could see the city of Warfang seen from the top of the balcony, and it seemed like it was high.
The purple dragon had a privileged view of the city, with tis smaller buildings, of one or two parks down in there, and he could even see the great wall that surrounded the city. He had a view from that balcony he was in right to the main gate of the city.
"Wow…" Spyro said, as he admired the city from that point he was in. For the first time, he had the chance to stop and look at it without having to be under the fear of a war that would cost everyone's lives. He was able to look at it and to relax as he enjoyed the sight of the city, which had a nice architecture, now that he stopped to look at it with more attention.
He had a particular degree of attention turned to the park underneath him, which seemed like the kind of place that he would like to see closer up when he had a chance. It seemed like a good place to where he could go when he was on a break, or maybe where he could spend some time, or meet up with someone…
His thoughts traveled to the others, like the Guardians, Hunter, and Sparx.
Did they knew that he was in there?
Maybe Spyro should have asked Captain Aquarius about that. His friends probably were waiting for him to wake up and they would like to talk to him now that he came back. Well, Spyro knew that Sparx would want that. He could still remember the look in the face of his adoptive brother when he had to depart to his mission. He was sure that he could expect the dragonfly to come flying at him at any moment in the next minutes, as soon as he would hear that Spyro was in town and that he had finally woke up.
Spyro sighed as he looked around, and in there, he climbed a bit in the balcony, and was looking down on the street underneath as he took a deep breath. He looked to the scenery, when he saw something strange happening.
For a moment, it was like a few parts of the environment got out of focus, and became some kind of blue-colored silhouettes. Spyro blinked and shook his head when he saw that, and looked again, to see that these parts were the way that they were suppose to.
Wow… maybe I really need some rest. Spyro thought as he shook his head once more, and he was getting down from the balcony, when he heard the door of the room opening.
"Hello?" The voice said, and it was different from Aquarius' voice. "Mr. Spyro?" The voice called, "The captain said you wanted some food."
"I'm right here!" Spyro said, letting the one who had just come to know where to find him. Soon, the dragon would come to him. This one was a dragon of gray shades for his whole body, he had a tailblade that was shape like a spiral, and his horns had the same spiraling pattern. He was wearing pretty much the same armor as captain Aquarius, and he was carrying what seemed a plate with a steamy piece of meat in it, along with a bow of fresh water.
The dragon stopped on his tracks as he looked at the young purple dragon, and he just kept staring at him for a few moments. It was like he had never seen a creature like Spyro in his life. Spyro remembered himself that this was possible, because Spyro was currently the only purple dragon alive.
Still, this did not changed the fact the Spyro felt uncomfortable for someone staring at him like that.
"So… may I help you?" Spyro asked, and this seemed to make the bigger and older dragon snap out of his trance.
"Huh? What? Oh! Sorry!" He said, sounding embarrassed as he spoke. "I-I didn't mean to stare, sir! I-its just… I-I-I never imagined that I would be face-to-face with-… I-I brought some food!" He finally managed to say, tripping on his own words as he showed Spyro what he had brought.
"I-I didn't knew what you wanted. I mean, I didn't knew if you preferred chicken or maybe some fish, so I brought you some roasted sheep." He said, and he still sounded nervous. Spyro looked at him for a few moments.
"Well, I do like sheep." Spyro admitted, and he added, "And this one smells really good."
"O-okay. Glad you like the smell. I-it also tastes good." The dragon said, still clearly nervous about all of this. "I mean, I didn't tasted it myself, but I guess that it is good. I mean… I just…" The dragon said, sounding more and more nervous at the moment, and Spyro finally decided to tranquilize him.
"So, why don't we share this sheep?"
"W-what?"
"I mean, I'm kind of hungry, but this sheep seems a little big all for me." Indeed, the piece of sheep that the dragon brought was big. Maybe enough to feed two adult dragons easily. "So, I guess we can both eat it, if you agree."
The dragon stared at him for a few moments, and Spyro even wondered if he had said the wrong thing.
"O-okay…" The dragon said, and he walked in direction to Spyro, joining him in the balcony, and soon, the roasted sheep was in the ground, and both dragons were sharing bites of it.
True to what the older dragon had said, the sheep was correctly roasted, and it was juicy. It tasted really good, as it had been seasoned just right. Well, Spyro himself didn't had many cooked and seasoned food in his life, so he had little things to compare to. Still, this food was one that was really good to have once in a while.
"This is really good." The purple dragon said, "Was it hunted today?"
The bigger dragon hesitated for a moment. "Well, it was just prepared to eat." He said, and continued to eat his part. "Indeed, this tastes really good. The guys really know what they do when they prepare these things."
"Yes, my compliments to the chef." Spyro said as he continued to eat, and he found himself enjoying this, as well as the water from which he took a few gulps to help the food wash down. It was something rare to him, having a chance to eat a good meal and enjoy a nice view, with a windy breeze and the sun beating down. Spyro could also enjoy the sight of the city of Warfang, even though he felt a nudging on the back of his mind that told him that there was something wrong with the scene…
Still, Spyro could really enjoy this, especially with some company. Of course, he still wished to have a different company than the one he had.
"So…" Spyro said, looking at the older dragon.
"Typhoon." The grey dragon said to him. "Cyrus Typhoon. All my friends call me Cyrus."
"So, Cyrus, would you know how Cynder is going?" Spyro asked him.
The dragon looked at him a bit surprised.
"Captain Aquarius said that she was being treated. But, is she fine? They are feeding her?"
The dragon seemed to think for a moment, and after a few seconds, he said: "Well, they say that her state is… delicate, but I'm sure she will be fine!" He finished with a little more enthusiasm. "I mean, she is Cynder! The one who followed you all over your adventures! The one who helped you save the world! She is surely a lot more resilient than other dragons around!"
Spyro smiled at him.
"I mean, just like you! You have been through so much, and you are so young!" He spoke more, and this caused Spyro to blush. "It is hard to believe that you went through so much, and I'm talking to you right now! Oh, my brothers and sisters would be so envious of me right now!"
"I don't know about that." Spyro said, "I mean, I just did what I had to do. I also had a lot of help during this whole thing."
"Yeah, but you are the one who overcome the difficulties." Cyrus continued as he continued to eat. Spyro was already done, but there was still plenty of sheep left, and the older dragon seemed to have a little more hunger as he continued to eat the pieces, one by one. "You are the legendary Spyro! You fought armies of apes and dark creatures! Defeated terrible golems! You fixed the whole world together! Man, I grew up hearing your stories, my mother told them to us to sleep since we were hatchlings!"
"Yeah, I'm sure…" Spyro said, but he suddenly realized what the older dragon had said. "Wait, since you were a hatchling? But you are older than me."
Cyrus almost choked on a piece of sheep after the purple dragon said that, and he found himself fighting for breath, as he looked at the younger dragon, and he looked like he was trying to find a way to justify what he just said.
"W-well… I-I mean… I-I didn't meant really..." He said, and he seemed to almost had a problem to move around in the armor he was wearing. "Damn old armors, why they are so uncomfortable!?" Cyrus muttered to himself.
Old armors? Spyro thought as he looked at the armor that the gray dragon was wearing. It looked almost exactly like the armor that captain Aquarius was wearing, save for a few details. How could it be an "old armor"? It looked pretty much with what Spyro was told that the armors of the dragon knights and of the royal guard looked like by the guardians and also by the books and scrolls that they had in their libraries.
Of course, Spyro reminded himself that the armors were said to have the same design they had originally for over eight hundred years, but it was still not a reason to call them "old", since, as far as Spyro knew, the ones who fought in the war used them…
The war…
The war!
Suddenly, it was like something in Spyro's head clicked, and he rushed to the edge of the balcony, looking down at the city beneath. A city that seemed not the way that it was supposed to be, and now Spyro knew why it seemed like that.
"The city is perfect…" Spyro mumbled, and the gray dragon looked at himl and at the edge of the balcony.
"Oh, yes. It surely is." He spoke to the young dragon, seeming to be glad that the subject was changed. "Warfang surely is a city like few others. I mean, not there are many cities around to compare, but, you know-"
"The city is perfect." Spyro said, a bit louder, and the gray dragon noticed something off about the way that the dragon was saying that.
"Huhhh, yes?"
"The city was not supposed to be perfect!" Spyro finally said, and he turned to the dragon by his side. "The city was supposed to be damaged as a result of the war with Malefor's forces!"
The dragon looked at him with wide eyes, and now Spyro was looking back at him in a way that was not like before.
"That building!" Spyro said, pointing to a certain building at the distance. "It was not supposed to be there, it was demolished! That road had been covered in rumbles from an attack! That park had been incinerated during a battle with dark creatures!" He said as he pointed at each place of what he was talking about as he spoke, growing more and more erratic at each inconsistency that he pointed out. Then, he finally pointed to the thing that was out of place more than anything, one that he had not even realized up until that moment.
"The wall…" Spyro said, and looked at the wall, which stood tall, proud, and completely whole.
That disturbed Spyro.
"The wall was not supposed to be whole!" The purple dragon said as he pointed at the construction at the distance. "That part of the wall was not supposed to be whole! It was demolished when we fought that giant creature!" Spyro said, and he looked at the dragon.
"I know that none of these things was supposed to be whole, I know that the city was trashed in the war, because I was there!"
The gray dragon looked at him with wide eyes and mouth.
"How the city is not trashed?" Spyro inquiring, looking at the gray dragon with a grave expression. "I was brought back three days ago, right? There is no way that you fixed everything while I was sleeping. All of that damage would have taken weeks to be fixed!"
The tune in the purple dragon's voice was almost one of accusation, and it made the gray dragon stagger a little, as if he was finding for the words to say. He seemed just like a hatchling that was caught with his hands in the cookie jar.
"W-well, y-you see… what happens is… I mean… it doesn't…" He said, tripping I his own words as he was searching for the ones that would justify what the purple dragon had pointed all. If anything, that only made Spyro realize that things were surely out of place.
"I'm really in Warfang?" The purple dragon asked, looking at the bigger dragon with mistrust, and this question seemed that it had hit the gray dragon like a stone right in the face.
"Of course you are in Warfang!" Cyrus told him. "Well, it might not be the same Warfang you knew back then, but-" He only stopped himself with a paw on his own mouth when it was already too late.
"Not the… same Warfang… What does that even mean!?" Spyro demanded, now looking at the other dragon with a hint of anger. Cyrus looked at him.
"Spyro." Cyrus said, and he approached Spyro, "Calm down… Just give me a minute to explain..."
As he approached, Spyro gave some step behind, and now he was looking at the older dragon as if he was dangerous.
"What is this?" Spyro inquired to him. "What is this place? Where I am? What is happening?" His tone was of someone who demanded answers more and more with each question. The gray dragon continued to walk on his direction, while Spyro continued to walk backwards, until they were once more inside the room.
"Just stay calm…" Cyrus told him as he approached more. "If you just go back to bed and try to relax, I can explain everything to you…"
"Where is Cynder?" Spyro asked him, now trusting less and less in the dragons in there, and now wondering if they had lied to him about everything. "What have you done to her!?"
"She is fine!" Cyrus said, "I mean, as far as it is possible, considering how many times her heart stopped…"
"What!?" Spyro cried out, and Cyrus seemed to just realize that he had made another mistake.
"Cynder!" Spyro said, and he was now rushing to the door.
"No, wait!" Cyrus said, rushing to him by using his wind element to rush and to tackle Spyro, pinning the smaller purple dragon to the ground and keeping him in there.
"Let me go!" Spyro said as he was held down by the bigger dragon, clawing aimlessly as he wanted that dragon to let go of him.
"Calm down, please!"
"What is all of this?" Spyro demanded. "Who are you!? Is this another of Malefor's tricks!?"
"Calm down and let me explain, please!" Cyrus insisted, as he continued to hold him down in the ground, and he didn't that with certain care, as if he didn't want to hurt the purple dragon that he was holding down, even though he was determined on preventing him from running away. "Hold still, please!"
"I want to see Cynder!" Spyro demanded, "I want to know where I am and what is happening!"
"If you do it might be bad for you!" Cyrus said to him, "We are all wanting to make sure the transition is the less traumatizing possible for you!"
"What transition!?" Spyro demanded again. "Tell me what is happening!"
"Man…" Cyrus said, as he was searching for something into his armor. "I'm really sorry for this…" he said as he pulled a strange object from the armor. It was shaped somewhat like an ellipse, and one of the round ends opened, revealing a spike that protruded from it.
Spyro didn't know what that object was, but with that pint and metallic tip, he was pretty sure that it was meant to stab. His eyes widened, as he struggled more.
"Let me go now!"
"Hold still!" Cyrus said to him as he tried to hold him down to use the object on him. "It will only sting for a moment, I promise!"
"Let me go!" Spyro said, and he was able to summon his electricity element, forming a stream of electricity that connected with the object. With a jerk of his head, Spyro made the object fly from the hand of the dragon and land right on his neck, stabbing him.
"GAHHH!" Cyrus cried out as he let go of Spyro, who looked at him as he moved about. The object on is neck made some strange sound, and Cyrus soon reached for it and yanked it out of his neck.
He looked at it in shock for a few moments, before he turned his gaze to the purple dragon.
"Y-you just… wohhhh." Cyrus said, suddenly wobbling a bit on his feet, as if he had been hit by a sudden dizziness.
Spyro looked at him as he wobbled on is feet, and his eyes were turning more and more out of focus as the moment passed.
"I… I wonder if any of the guys had to go through this with the other ones…" Was the last thing that Cyrus said before he went down, hitting the ground heavily and staying down.
Spyro looked at him, as he dragon was no longer moving.
D-did I… killed him?
However, a closer look revealed to Spyro that the older dragon was not dead, but just unconscious. Actually, it looked as if he was sleeping.
Spyro looked at the objects that he had dropped, as the metallic tip retreated to inside the object, and it returned to have a perfectly round surface.
It serves to make others sleep? Is it some kind of magic? Spyro caught himself wondering as he looked at the strange object. However, the purple dragon soon caught himself thinking on much more important matters than the ones of the present moment. He had to get out of there, find out what was happening, and find Cynder!
Looking at the doors, Spyro walked to them and tried to push them, but it was hard, it seemed that they were locked. As Spyro tried to force them open, he suddenly saw something very strange happening to them: they lost their focus and for a moment became what seemed to be door-shaped blue constructs.
Spyro let out a startled sound of surprise, and he took a few steps back. That was exactly that he had seen happening to the city!
Just what was going on!?
Spyro lost his patient, and he decided to force his own way out!
Focusing his energy, Spyro allowed himself to be involved by the power of the earth element, which manifested as a green glow around his body, specially over his horns, which seemed to almost grow in size. After a few moments, Spyro looked ahead, and he charged as fast and hard as he could against the doors.
The sound of metal bending and breaking was heard, as Spyro was successful in breaking the doors, and he found the situation around himself getting even stranger.
The outside of the place did not match the room in which Spyro had woke up. While that room was made from solid rock, and had the style of a traditional Warfang royal place, the one in which he had just found outside of the room was like a hallway of material that was somewhere between rock and metal, and it was all white with blue glowing lines running into the walls and in the ceiling.
Looking around, Spyro also looked at the doors, which were now winking blue and out of focus, until they changed from the wooden doors that had he had seen inside there to some kind of metallic doors.
Blinking in surprise, Spyro looked inside the room, and he saw that it was still the same luxurious room in which he woke up, which only made it not fit the outside environment.
What is this? Spyro thought to himself. Where am I? What is this place?
The purple dragon continued to ask himself these questions, and he felt himself a bit dizzy. It seemed that they had not lied about him still recovering from… whatever it was that happened to him.
Spyro was able to shake it off, and he was able to walk into a direction into that white hallway in which he found himself. Of course, he was just running into a random direction, once he didn't truly knew where he was, but he was pretty sure that it was better than to just stay in there, waiting for someone to come to get him.
However, navigating in that place was starting to prove somewhat difficult for Spyro, once the hallway he was in lead to another, and to another, and these seemed to form bifurcations and crossed roads of hallways. It was becoming difficult to navigate in there, and all the while Spyro had to keep himself out of sight, for he could hear and see other creatures on the hallways.
Many of them were dragons, or at least looked like dragons. Of course, there was the fact that all of them were either four legged or two legged. The two legged seemed to be dragons too, once they also had the reptilian aspect and wings on their backs, but Spyro knew that he had never before seen or heard of any dragon who walked fully on two legs before.
Of these dragons, many were wearing what seemed to be armors, but they looked nothing like armors that Spyro knew that armored dragons normally used. These armors were of a different coloration, and there were parts of them that actually seemed to glow.
Could they have some form of magic? Spyro thought as he looked at them, and he noticed that some of the parts of the armors had interesting aspect, like a two-legged dragon who was having a conversation with a screen of light that was being project in the very air by part of his armor, and the screen was actually answering to him! It actually made Spyro remember the time when Malefor used that crystal to speak to everyone in Warfang from his hideout in the mountain…
Spyro also passed by some that were wearing what seemed to be white garments on them, and they seemed to be to cover their bodies, and these were treated differently from the others, by what Spyro could hear. It seemed that the ones in these white garments were scholars…
Of course, there were also the doors. Or what Spyro thought that were the doors, once he tried to open one of them, but they didn't budged, and they seemed not to have hinges or handles, seeming as if they were just built as part of the walls.
Spyro even thought that they were merely decoration, or that maybe there was some kind of secret to force them to open, like the doors of the Dragon Temple. His question was answer when he heard a sound nearby him, followed by voices.
Shlhnnth!
"I'm just telling you is absurd!"
Spyro jumped and rushed over a corner to hide from sight, and he could see two dragons walking out, one two-legged and one four-legged. The two-legged was wearing one of the white garments, while the four-legged was wearing just something on his neck that seemed like one of the collars that the Guardians always wore.
"They can't charge that entire price just for a small reform in my apartment." The four-legged said as they walked out of one of the doors, which had just opened to reveal what was on the other side. "I mean, I don't even want to change the design, I just want to change the color of the walls and open a little more the windows so we get more daylight! Still, my landlord acts as if I'm asking him to restructure the whole building just because of the hatchlings that will be coming soon."
"You still are lucky." The two legged said; his hands seemed to be hiding in pockets inside the white robe-like garment that he was wearing. "I'm still struggling to pay my rent, and working in here seems not to convince my landlord that I deserve a little discount. I mean, do you know how many people would love to live on a building of the New Dawn Company? And with a special discount for working for them?"
"Yeah, but there are so many regulations that it borders on being ridiculous!"
"Still better than the place I live in! They also have intern sports area and gym, a pool, and special intercommunication devices that you can access all free just for living in there. I'm saying that the advantages outweigh any regulation."
Spyro had no idea what they were talking about, and he watched as they went their way across the hallway, and Spyro looked back at the door from which they came from. It was open now.
However, Spyro didn't had time to see what was on the room it lead to, because suddenly, with the same noise that Spyro heard before, the door slid off the wall and closed the gate once more.
The doors slide in and out of the walls! That is why there are not hinges! Spyro thought, as he made sure that the dragons were gone and that there were no one else coming around as he approached the door, and he touched it. He tried to slide it to the side, but it did not moved, as if it was stuck. Now, how did these two made it open?
Spyro didn't had time to think of it, for he heard a voice.
"How did he managed to get out of the room!?"
Spyro immediately got startled, started to move away from the voice, and was able to hide just as the owner of the voice was walking into the hallway.
"There was a problem during the simulation." Said another voice, a female. "He realized that the city of Warfang that he was seeing was not real."
"Didn't you created a perfect replica?"
"We recreated the city the way that it was supposed to be, but we forgot to add damage that would fit the war from which he participated himself! When he realized that the city was not damaged as he remembered, he realized that the city could not be real."
"How have you let something so important just slip by your minds! You were supposed to be the smartest dragons of this building! For crying out loud! Now we have a young, scared, confuse and, if half of the stories about him are true, very powerful purple dragon running in the facility!"
"Yeah, he sure is nervous with the things that Cyrus told him. That blabbermouth, don't know when to shut his mouth." The female voice said, a bit bitterly.
"I'll have him demoted because of this. But that's for later, now we need to find the Savior before he manages to leave the facility. He surely is already erratic enough, I don't want to think what would happen if he managed to get outside."
As they talked, Spyro moved over the hallway, being able to turn into a corner to avoid getting even close to their line of sight. Spyro was able to remain hidden as he turned another corner, and he continued to hear their voices.
"I want the security staff searching for him, but keep it quiet, to avoid alarming anyone, especially him. The last thing we need is he attacking us and creating a ruckus inside here. Contact the vigilance and tell them to repass the recordings of the security watches, see if they can track him and discover where he is now."
Their voices were getting more and more distant, and Spyro took this as a good sign, as they were moving away from him. However, the young purple dragon was not able to let out a sigh of relief, for there were too many questions going on his mind.
The Warfang he saw from that balcony was a fake? Was it some kind of illusion? They made that to deceive him? With what purpose? Keeping him inside and having control over him? Where he was? What kind of place was that he was into? Was it all another of Malefor's tricks?
Many questions swan into Spyro's head, and the few things that he managed to hear from the dragons had not helped, for they were talking with terms that Spyro did not understood completely.
However, he knew that they were coming after him, and that he needed to avoid that from happening. He needed to get out of there (wherever there was), for once he was outside he could figure out what to do yet…
No.
He could not leave.
He could not leave Cynder behind.
He had to find her and get both of them out of that place.
But… how could he find Cynder when he was barely even able to orient himself inside that place? Spyro had most chances of getting lost in there and ending up getting captured by them than of finding Cynder and being able to escape from that place before they got them both. At worst case, there was a chance that he could actually be killed while he tried to escape.
Still, Spyro knew that only standing and doing nothing would also result in nothing good. He needed to keep moving, at least until he could have a clue of where to go to next. That was it, Spyro needed to keep moving. He needed to figure that place out, find Cynder, and find a way to get them both out of there.
So, Spyro continued to move across the hallways, avoiding detection at all the time. He made sure to avoid being see by any other dragon who was on the way. It was a bit of a challenge, considering the mount of the creatures that were walking around the place. Many dragons, but also other creatures walking around in the place, wearing pretty much the same kinds of garments of the rest of the dragons.
Spyro found it curious. In his life, he saw few dragons in his life, and now, it seemed that he was running into them at every few moments. Of course, this only made Spyro have more questions to himself.
Who were all of these dragons? Why they wore either an armor or the white garments? What were they doing in such a huge place? Did they all served Malefor? They were his servants?
No, it was not likely. Malefor was not the kind who had servants unless he knew that he would have absolute control over him. Besides, the big evil dragon was the kind who would want to keep servants, considering that his goal was to annihilate all life and destroy the world. People like that did not tended to keep servants around for too long.
This entire situation was strange, that much Spyro knew. The young purple dragon decided that he would worry about the meaning of all of that later on, when both he and Cynder were out and away from there and safe. Of course, he had to find her first, and this was proving to be a bigger challenge than he had first anticipated.
The place really was big, and Spyro was finding himself kind of lost in there, once he had the feeling that all of these hallways looked exactly alike, with a few key differences. However, getting lost in there was proving to be quite easy for the purple dragon, who caught himself walking in complete circles over the hallways. More than once, he had to stop to try to orient himself. He also had to turn around and go back to the path where he came from to take another route once he found himself walking into a dead-end. By "dead-end", we were talking both about hallways that ended into walls and others that ended with these sliding doors.
These doors were another issue, for Spyro had to watch them for when they could open and someone would come across the door. It also didn't helped the fact that Spyro was unable to open these doors himself, for he didn't knew how to. That was a very bad thing, for as far as Spyro knew, Cynder could be behind one of these doors, and so, reaching her would require some planning.
This whole place was a mystery to the purple dragon, and he wanted to solve it to be able to escape and take Cynder with him.
Spyro groaned as he just ran into yet another dead end, and this one was a bug door into the wall. Spyro knew that there were others in that place who were looking for him, and if he continued to roam like that, they would eventually find him and do Ancestors-knew-what with him. Spyro just needed to find a way to find Cynder and finding a way out.
As he turned around, the door behind him just opened. Spyro could immediately hear voices.
"I'm going and you won't stop me!"
"Look, I know that you are nervous about all of that! Believe me, we all are! But you can't just- who is this?"
Spyro immediately turned around, and he stopped as he looked at the two… no. Three creatures that had just passed by the door.
The purple dragon stared with wide eyes at the three other purple dragons who looked back at him…
