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Chapter 10: Missing Meadow Part 1 of 2.
Taking off in a sprint, Spyro spread his wings and jumped into the air, Cynder, Ember and Flame flying after him as he took off following the river back towards the village. They flew only a few feet off the ground so as not to waste time with trying to gain height but also to warn any of the villagers they may encounter on the way back. He doubted, or rather hoped, that the Apes had not decided to launch a full scale invasion of the valley, but such a thing he expected would leave much more evidence than a handful of tracks left by a single Dreadwing. The possibility, however, could not be discounted. Spyro felt his wings slapping down hard as he tried to force as much speed as he could, his teeth clenching hard on the blade’s hilt as he kept scanning around for anything else amiss, any other sign of danger. His mindset had changed seemingly in an instant; he had stopped thinking of what the Hermit had said, he had stopped putting himself down and thought only of his training, of Terrador’s lectures about tactical awareness and knowing his surroundings.
As they swooped back into the main valley, the wide-open spaces suddenly seemed not tranquil or inviting, but dangerous and lacking concealment. At once Spyro banked a hard right, careful that his companions were following as he stayed close to the treeline in case he and his friends needed to duck into the cover of the forest if there were indeed Apes roaming the area. He scanned ahead as they flew on towards the village, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when he spotted one of the Cheetah’s fishing with his son by the river. They sat contently, enjoying the day and each other’s company, Spyro immediately aimed for them to raise the alarm. The cub turned his head and saw the frantically approaching dragons, waving to them cheerfully followed by his father. Spyro tried to shout to them, but couldn’t through the knife clenched in his teeth, but his friends did so for him.
“Hey! Help! We need help!” cried Cynder from behind him.
"Apes! Badguys! We’ve got trouble!” Flame concurred.
“Meadow is missing! Help us!” pleaded Ember as they landed just in front of the Cheetah father and son who hastily rose to their feet.
“What?” the Cheetah cried incredulously, “What in the world is happening?”
Spyro dropped the blade onto the ground in front of them hurriedly, looking up to them gravely, “Meadow is gone! We think he was taken by the Apes. We found this where we last saw him,” he explained, nodding to the blade.
“Dad?” asked the cub anxiously, “What’s happening?”
“Easy, son,” replied his father, touching his shoulder comfortingly as he leaned down and picked up the knife, staring at the bloodied edge before he lifted his eyes to the young dragons.
“Where did you find this?” he asked. “Down river to the south east, near the waterfall. We found…” Spyro suddenly paused looking over his shoulder to his companions, unsure if he should mention the Hermit. It was of course due to their absence that Meadow had been left alone, and they would have to explain that in due time since he was after all supposed to be taking care of them. There was no way they could escape the blame.
“You found what?” asked the Cheetah impatiently.
“We found a cave,” Spyro blurted out, “We went exploring it. When we got back, Meadow was gone.”
“So you weren’t present when he was attacked?”
“No,” Cynder interrupted, “But that is a Dreadwings blood, so the Apes must have entered the valley.”
The Cheetah quickly slipped the blade into his belt, instructed his son to leave the fishing rods as he grabbed him up in his arms, “We must get back to the village and raise the alarm. Come quickly!”
The Cheetah took off running, breaking out into incredible speed even with his child in his arms as the four who lived took flight once more to catch up to him. They struggled to keep pace with him as he ran, the young dragons flailing their wings like humming birds as they followed the father and son back towards the village. Spyro looked anxiously over his shoulder towards his friends, all of them sharing the same look of worry for both Meadow and the cold reception they expected from Chief Prowlus.
The village soon came into view, the Cheetah fisherman began waving and shouting towards the lookout in the tower as they approached. The other Cheetah’s training and working outside the village all looked towards them as his shouts of alarm drew their attention.
“Raise the alarm! Intruders in the valley!” Spyro and the others finally overtook the running Cheetah as they neared the village palisade, a flurry of confusion and excitement overcame the villagers as they began to gather around as the dragons flew in and landed just inside the gate, the fisherman and his son following quickly behind.
“Intruders? What intruders?” asked someone. “Has there been an attack?” asked another.
“Meadow is missing!” cried Spyro frantically, “He’s out there somewhere! We have to find him!”
“Meadow is missing? What happened to him?” asked one of the female Cheetah’s, holding the shoulders of her cub standing before her fearfully. Before anyone could answer, a voice roared from behind the crowd,
“What is all this nonsense?”
Spyro gritted his teeth hard though he kept his lips draped over them as Chief Prowlus stormed through the gathered villagers until he stood before the four dragons and the fishing Cheetah and his cub. The tribe leader scowled as he scanned them captiously, though more so to the dragons than his fellow villagers. Spyro stood on his hind legs as he opened his mouth to speak,
“Chief Prowlus…”
“What is the meaning of all this?” demanded the tribe leader, ignoring the purple dragon and speaking to the fishing Cheetah first. Spyro hid his frustration as he dropped back to all fours.
“Chief Prowlus, there is danger in the valley,” explained the fishing Cheetah, placing his son onto the ground, “These dragons say Meadow is missing. They came to us for aid, they showed me this,” he said as he drew the knife from his belt and handed it towards Prowlus.
“Missing?” he repeated as he took the blade into his paws, staring at the bloodied edge just as they had. He spared only a few moments for this before he turned towards the four dragons, eyeing them suspiciously.
“What happened? Where is Medaow? I thought Hunter had left you in his charge,” he said harshly.
“Y-Yes, sir,” Spyro nodded nervously,
“We… we sort of went off on our own while Meadow was taking a nap…”
“You went off on your own?” Prowlus snapped, “You were supposed to stay with him at all times!”
“We know, but…” started Cynder.
“Silence!” Prowlus snarled as he pointed the knife towards her, “I don’t want to hear your excuses. Just tell me what happened to my herbalist!”
The anger in his voice seemed to take even the Cheetah’s by surprise, they who were the most used to his leadership. Spyro gulped as he and his companions found themselves huddling closer to each other as they bore the full brunt of Chief Prowlus’s fiery eyes. Looking among themselves as if hoping the other would speak up first, Spyro ultimately spoke up.
“We found the knife and what was left of Meadow’s basket on the ground where we had last seen him, in the southeast corner of the valley by the waterfall. We found tracks and signs of a struggle; we think he was attacked by a Dreadwing.”
“A Dreadwing?” gasped on of the Cheetah cubs, almost humorously mirroring Ember’s reaction when the belief had first been stated. Prowlus turned his eyes back towards the blade as he held it up towards the sun, the villagers staring at it with garish fascination.
“It is the colour of a Dreadwing’s blood, Chief Prowlus,” added the fishing Cheetah pointedly. Prowlus grumbled moodily as he placed the blade carefully across his palm and lightly touched the bloodied edge with his thumb. He lifted his eyes and turned back to Spyro and the others.
“So you saw nothing else? No trace of Meadow or anyone else when you returned?”
“No, sir,” Spyro answered carefully, “That was all we found.”
“And because you four went gallivanting off on your own, the herbalist of my village is now in grave danger! We could all be in grave danger! If you four had stayed by him, you may have been able to do something about it!”
“I’m sorry, we…”
“Whysker!” Prowlus called, turning away from them as a yellow furred Cheetah in a dark blue tunic quickly stepped up to him, “Send a falcon to Warfang and inform the dragons of what has happened. Tell them we will require help to find Meadow, and be sure to summon Hunter back here with all due haste.”
“Right, Prowlus,” Whysker answered as he turned away promptly before Prowlus bellowed another announcement,
“Listen everyone! I want you all to prepare your weapons and remain on alert! If the Apes have entered our territory, we must be ready should they arrive in force.”
“But what about Meadow?” asked Roaraya as she shuffled her way to the front of the crowd, “We must find him!”
“No. It is too dangerous for us to send a search party without knowing what we might be up against. We cannot risk it until we get reinforcements from Dragon city.”
“But that will take hours!” Roaraya protested, “By the time they arrive we may never find him.”
“Meadow is a friend to all of us,” argued another Cheetah, “But we must consider the risk to us all if we leave right now.”
“We cannot just abandon him!” shot back someone else, siding with Roaraya. In a spit moment there was an uproar, the sentiments of both side readily expressed by many of the villagers as a chorus of voices soon erupted, drowning out each other as Spyro and his friends watched the arguing helplessly, feeling caught in the middle and ultimately responsible for the strife.
“QUIET!” Prowlus screamed above the noise, bringing the entire village to a dead silence, the four dragons looked around at the raw emotion etched into the faces of every Cheetah, the one underlying feeling fueling the disagreement was the concern for their fellow villager, Meadow.
“Their will be no argument! We will stay here and remain ready, only venturing outside these walls when the dragons have arrived. I fear for Meadow as much as any of you, but I must put the safety of the village as a whole first. Now prepare your weapons and secure the village. Everyone move!” he ordered.
There was a short grumble among many of the villagers, but they promptly went about as they were ordered, Spyro and the others sat planted where they were as the Cheetah quickly armed themselves and began making preparations. As the crowd dispersed, Spyro quickly broke from the group and trotted over towards Chief Prowlus.
“Chief Prowlus…” he began.
“What do you want?” he asked coldly. The steel in his voice made Spyros voice leave him for a moment as he awkwardly tried to force out his words.
“We want to help you anyway we can,” he said earnestly, “We could go back out there if you want and search for more clues…”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” growled Prowlus, “No one is leaving this village until we have more troops on our side.”
“Yes, but I thought…”
“Thought nothing!” the orange Cheetah barked, “You will stay here and for once do as you are told! If you had done that in the first place we may not be in this crisis!”
Cynder angrily stormed up from behind a disheartened Spyro, staring daggers up at the tribe leader. “We want to help,” she said sternly, “If we are to blame for this then we should help to fix it, right?”
“Wrong,” Prowlus sneered, “Once the dragons have arrived, I will have you four return to Warfang with them. You can explain yourselves to the Guardians when you get there!” he rasped before he turned his back and stormed off, leaving the four dragons in a mixed state of confusion, fear and anger, the latter in particular in Cynder’s case.
There were few eyes turned towards them as the Cheetah’s shuffled hurriedly around the village as the gates were closed and locked. Spyro and Cynder looked at each first, then to their friends behind them as they stared back at them wide eyed and lost for words. The black dragoness let out a haughty sigh as she strode over to them as Spyro slowly turned to follow, his eyes down on the ground and his heart sinking in his chest.
Passing by the Cheetah’s busying themselves, the four dragons wandered sullenly towards the far end of the village, passing by the hut they knew to be Meadow’s, none of them looking at it for too long as they slowly walked by.
They approached Chief Prowlus’s larger hut at the top of the ‘L’ of the village, slipping between it and the huts to its left as they reconvened on the grass in a quiet corner of the village. Behind them was the palisade wall and its raised platform running around the perimeter of the village, the wooden planks creaking every so often from the Cheetahs moving back and forth as they scanned over the walls observantly. Occasionally they would glance down at the four sulking dragons, some eyeing them with sympathy while others, sharing the mind of their Chief, eyed them snidely, judging them for foolheartedly ‘abandoning’ a member of their tribe who was now likely in the custody of their most heinous enemy. Spyro stopped taking notice of them after a short while, his previous melancholy mindset returning in force when his offer of help was sharply cut down.
He sat with his back to the huts as Cynder, Flame and Ember sat in a rough circle in front of him, for a time sitting quietly with their own thoughts as they lulled over the current predicament and their role in it. The silence eventually became restless as Cynder stood up and began pacing back and forth, Flame groaned and slumped over on his back like a sloth and stared at the sky while Ember toyed joylessly with the ornate necklace the red dragon had bought for her. Spyro sat, eyes half lidded with his tail curled around himself and his back feet exposed as he sat with them laying back on his heels.
Flame broke the silence with, “Should we have told him about the Hermit guy?” he asked as rolled his head to his left.
“Why bother?” replied Cynder embitteredly, “I almost think Prowlus was waiting for this kind of foul up so he could throw us out.”
“You know he wouldn’t try that if Hunter was here,” concurred Ember firmly, stamping her paw into a fist on the ground. Flame lifted his head and rolled onto his left side, eyeing her nervously as Cynder continued pacing between them. Spyro said nothing.
“You really think the Apes have got Meadow?” asked Flame earnestly.
“What else could have happened?” Ember asked back, “There are no wild beasts in Avalar that are big enough to take on a Cheetah or leave tracks like that,” she said as Cynder continued to stride moodily in and out of her view.
“You think maybe the Hermit had something to do with it?” asked the red dragon curiously.
“How could he? He was with us while we were in the caves,” answered Ember again.
“Maybe he was working with them,” added in Cynder, “Maybe he was spying for the Apes. But what were those cretins doing in the valley anyway?” the black dragoness asked aloud, her face wrinkling as she digested her thoughts, “Why would they appear now after twelve years, and why would they kidnap a Cheetah?”
“Maybe it’s their idea of hunting,” Ember suggested grimly, Flame immediately shot to his feet in alarm, gasping,
“No way! That’s horrible!”
“Of course it is,” Cynder replied tersely as she stopped pacing, “What would you expect?”
Flame suddenly became jittery, his body began shaking as his wholesome red eyes shrank to the size of those of a Mole. He looked across to Spyro for solace, finding his purple eyes staring emptily at the ground so the red dragon looked back to the two dragonesses for some kind of support, but found they shared the same despair in their eyes as well.
“We really kinda’ messed up, didn’t we?” Flame asked meekly.
“Yeah,” nodded Ember guiltily, “We are going to get in so much trouble for this.”
“I don’t think that matters so much. Meadow’s in a lot more trouble than we are,” Cynder remarked categorically,
“Right, Spyro?”
“Its my fault!” the purple dragon exclaimed despondently, startling the others, “We should never have gone into that cave! We should never have left Meadow alone like that! Its my fault this happened,” he said as he shook his head furiously.
“Spyro, we all left him alone, not just you,” Cynder replied softly.
“But I should have known better!” he retorted sorely, springing to his feet, “Everyone expects more from me! I’m the one everyone is counting on! What’s everyone going to think when they hear about this? Meadow’s in mortal danger and its all because of my stupid mistake!”
The despair in his voice was harrowing, leaving the three other dragons speechless as Spyro began to move about aimlessly as if he was searching for something, avoiding their gaze as he started breathing heavily. Flame cleared his throat awkwardly as he said,
“Well, you know, I found the cave after all, you could say its my fault…”
“No, no, its not,” Spyro replied insistently, “I should have listened when you said we should go back, but I didn’t listen.”
“None of us listened, Spyro,” Cynder added sternly, “We all should have known better, but we all let our curiosity get the better of us. What’s done is done.”
“No, its not,” Spyro said coldly, anger brewing in his voice as he finally stood still, “Meadow is in danger and I can’t just let him pay with his life because of me, not him or anybody else.”
Ember raised her eyebrows with salient concern, “Spyro, what are you getting at?”
“Why do you think the Apes came here?” he asked her gravely, “Why would they come to Avalar just to kidnap a lonely Cheetah? Easy; he’s not the one they were after; they were after me. They’re always after me.”
“But why would they take Meadow if they were after you?”
“To interrogate him! They’ll torture him to find out where I am. If he tells them or not, they’ll kill him when they don’t need him anymore. I can’t let anyone else die to get to me…”
Cynder cocked her slightly, stepping up closer to the distraught purple dragon. He shifted his eyes to the corner of his sockets, dodging her piercing emerald gaze, curling his bottom lip as stood face to face with him.
“We all feel bad about it, Spyro. But the Guardians will be here soon enough, they’ll know what to do. They’ll get Meadow back.”
“It will take at least two hours for them to get here if the message gets to Warfang quickly enough,” Spyro replied dismissively, “If he’s been taken prisoner then there is only one place he’ll be; the Mountain of Malefor,” he said chillingly, the mere mention of the name put fear in the hearts of the young dragons. Cynder gulped nervously as she tried to force her composure to stay.
“If that’s where they’ve taken him,” she began solemnly, her voice heavy, “Then…. I don’t think there is any hope for him….” she remarked sadly.
“Not while I’m standing around here there isn’t,” Spyro replied shortly, turning about and making to walk away before Cynder clapped her paw on his tail, Flame and Ember quickly scurried up beside her as they regarded their friend with odd hesitation.
“Where are you going?” asked Ember cautiously.
“We were gone not even half an hour, right?” Spyro asked swiftly, “They’ve got about half an hour’s head start if I leave right now…”
“Leave?” exclaimed Cynder, “For where?”
“The Mountain of Malefor,” he replied grimly but frankly, “That’s the only place they’d have taken him.”
“Are you nuts?!” cried Flame hectically, “You’re going after Meadow all alone?!”
“Keep it down!” Spyro hissed, turning around and looking about to see if any of the villagers had heard the red dragon’s voice, “Every second I wait gives them more time to get ahead.”
“You can’t be serious, Spyro,” said Ember disbelievingly, “You might be the purple dragon, but not even the Guardians would try and go their alone. Its suicide!”
“And its certain death for Meadow if he gets there. I won’t let him die because of me. I’ve got to try, no matter how dangerous it is,” the purple dragon declared emphatically, making to turn away again but was once more stopped by Cynder’s paws on his tail. He scowled as he tried to tug free from her hold. “Don’t try and stop me. I’ve got to do this,” he said warningly.
“You’re not going anywhere, Spyro,” Cynder promised harshly, “Not without us.”
“What?!” stammered Flame with shock.
“Nobody is coming with me,” Spyro retorted, “I won’t endanger anyone else. I’ve got to do this on my own.”
“Says who?” demanded the black dragoness as she let go of his tail, striding up to him as he turned to face her and the others. He hesitated for a moment, the three pairs of eyes staring back unsettled him. He breathed deeply as he opted to oppose them, despite them being his friends.
“This is what I’ve been training for isn’t it? Its what its expected of me, that’s all there is to it.”
“Is it?” asked Cynder doubtfully, “Did you let that Hermit get under your skin? Is this about what he said?”
Spyro felt his heart tighten like a clenched fist, his sense of humility becoming inflamed. He involuntarily shook his head as if trying to literally shake off the question.
“Its not important. Now I’m going,” he decreed firmly, turning to leave for yet a third time, but yet again he was foiled as Cynder swept around in front of him, blocking his path and fanning her wings out wide.
“If you go, we go with you, its that simple,” she stated bluntly with a glint of mischievousness in her eyes.
Spyro sighed irritably, “Cynder, no….”
“We’re the four survivors, aren’t we?” she asked brightly.
“Yeah, and if you stay here you might be lucky enough to be called the ‘three’who lived,” he retorted sardonically. Ember then appeared at his left side, her blue eyes brimming with determination.
“Its all or nothing, Spyro. We’re a team, you know that,” she said comradely, her steadfastness and cheerfulness was infectious to him, despite his reservations. He retained a glum expression even so as Flame approached Ember’s right side with noticeably less enthusiasm than the pink Ice dragoness has approached him.
“Well, I…” he began hesitantly, just before Ember’s tail whipped hard against his own, “Right behind you, buddy!” he proclaimed, eyeing the pink dragoness fearfully as she glared at him.
Spyro sighed heavily as he lowered his head and closed his eyes, lamenting for the first time in his life the naïve loyalty of his friends, until he recognized the equally naïve prospect of himself single handily traveling to the very heart of darkness to try and rescue another friend from the clutches of the Dark Armies and whatever other horrors stalked the halls of Mount Malefor.
“All right,” he conceded, lifting his head slowly, “But you know what we’re getting into right? This won’t be like training; if we make a mistake, it could be fatal. If we fail, there’s no coming back.”
“We get it, Spyro, we’re not playing games here.”
“Yeah,” Flame added anxiously, “It’d be pretty stupid to think this was a game, right?”
“Sure would,” Ember said thoughtfully. Drawing a long breath through his nostrils, Spyro looked at Cynder before turning his head and looking to both Flame and Ember, seeing their hearts in their eyes and the determination that was pumped through them. He nodded to them and then back to Cynder before he silently beckoned for them to follow him. With the same silence, the three of the them trailed Spyro as he walked slowly out from between the huts to in front of the entrance to Prowlus’s hut. There they stood in a line alongside each other as the Cheetah manned their posts and scanned the skies for intruders, no one taking any notice of them. A fact that was soon to change. Spyro looked up at the sky, watching the clouds drifting by as his adrenaline began to build as he tried to wrap his mind around what it was the four of them were about to set out to do.
“Okay,” he said heavily, still looking up at the sky, “We fly over the valley to the southeast, we cross the Enchanted Forest, fly over Twlight Falls, and then press on to the Shattered Vale an onto the Mountain of Malefore, right?”
“Sounds about right,” Cynder answered uneasily.
“Are we really sure about this?” asked Flame almost hopefully.
“Well, when I take off, it’s all on you. I won’t hold it against any of you if choose to stay…” He was abruptly cut off as Cynder suddenly lunged into the air, filling the view he had of the sky as she hovered several feet above him.
“Let’s just go before you change our minds!” she demanded impatiently, her display finally drawing the attention of the Cheetahs in the village.
“Hey, what are they doing?” asked a voice from somewhere among the huts. The sudden alarming prospect of being caught seemed to override any other fears in that moment as Spyro leapt into the air as did Flame and Ember and hovered beside Cynder just as Chief Prowlus suddenly appeared as he stepped out from his home behind them.
“What is the meaning of this?!” he roared.
“Sorry, Chief Prowlus!” Flame called out apologetically, “They talked me into this!”
“You Fink!” Ember sneered.
“Get back down here, right now!”
“When the Guardians arrive, tell them we’ve gone to find Meadow. You can punish us when we get back!” Spyro called earnestly before he spun around and took off at great speed over the roofs and the palisade fence back into the valley.
His friends followed in tow as a great uproar of shouts and curses followed, seemingly all from Prowlus as the Cheetahs stared in blank disbelief as the four young dragons soared away through the air. Spyro took a quick look over his shoulder as his wings propelled him along, seeing the others following and the village shrinking behind them. Looking forward, he lifted his head and aimed upwards as his trajectory gave him more height, flying up towards the clouds as he struggled to lift the weight of the task he had placed on his shoulders. He looked down at the river, following the sparkling line as is stretched out below, heading over the path they had followed with Meadow as the rocky plateau that bordered the main valley approached them. Checking again to see that the others were still with him, Spyro propelled himself higher to clear the plateau, the clouds now almost in reach as they swept over the mountaintop, crossing over gorge and the log Flame had tried to hide under less than an hour before when they had played Hide and Seek.
End of Chapter 10, Part 1 of 2.
(Full chapter available in submission file. This and part two will both share the same file)
Taking off in a sprint, Spyro spread his wings and jumped into the air, Cynder, Ember and Flame flying after him as he took off following the river back towards the village. They flew only a few feet off the ground so as not to waste time with trying to gain height but also to warn any of the villagers they may encounter on the way back. He doubted, or rather hoped, that the Apes had not decided to launch a full scale invasion of the valley, but such a thing he expected would leave much more evidence than a handful of tracks left by a single Dreadwing. The possibility, however, could not be discounted. Spyro felt his wings slapping down hard as he tried to force as much speed as he could, his teeth clenching hard on the blade’s hilt as he kept scanning around for anything else amiss, any other sign of danger. His mindset had changed seemingly in an instant; he had stopped thinking of what the Hermit had said, he had stopped putting himself down and thought only of his training, of Terrador’s lectures about tactical awareness and knowing his surroundings.
As they swooped back into the main valley, the wide-open spaces suddenly seemed not tranquil or inviting, but dangerous and lacking concealment. At once Spyro banked a hard right, careful that his companions were following as he stayed close to the treeline in case he and his friends needed to duck into the cover of the forest if there were indeed Apes roaming the area. He scanned ahead as they flew on towards the village, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when he spotted one of the Cheetah’s fishing with his son by the river. They sat contently, enjoying the day and each other’s company, Spyro immediately aimed for them to raise the alarm. The cub turned his head and saw the frantically approaching dragons, waving to them cheerfully followed by his father. Spyro tried to shout to them, but couldn’t through the knife clenched in his teeth, but his friends did so for him.
“Hey! Help! We need help!” cried Cynder from behind him.
"Apes! Badguys! We’ve got trouble!” Flame concurred.
“Meadow is missing! Help us!” pleaded Ember as they landed just in front of the Cheetah father and son who hastily rose to their feet.
“What?” the Cheetah cried incredulously, “What in the world is happening?”
Spyro dropped the blade onto the ground in front of them hurriedly, looking up to them gravely, “Meadow is gone! We think he was taken by the Apes. We found this where we last saw him,” he explained, nodding to the blade.
“Dad?” asked the cub anxiously, “What’s happening?”
“Easy, son,” replied his father, touching his shoulder comfortingly as he leaned down and picked up the knife, staring at the bloodied edge before he lifted his eyes to the young dragons.
“Where did you find this?” he asked. “Down river to the south east, near the waterfall. We found…” Spyro suddenly paused looking over his shoulder to his companions, unsure if he should mention the Hermit. It was of course due to their absence that Meadow had been left alone, and they would have to explain that in due time since he was after all supposed to be taking care of them. There was no way they could escape the blame.
“You found what?” asked the Cheetah impatiently.
“We found a cave,” Spyro blurted out, “We went exploring it. When we got back, Meadow was gone.”
“So you weren’t present when he was attacked?”
“No,” Cynder interrupted, “But that is a Dreadwings blood, so the Apes must have entered the valley.”
The Cheetah quickly slipped the blade into his belt, instructed his son to leave the fishing rods as he grabbed him up in his arms, “We must get back to the village and raise the alarm. Come quickly!”
The Cheetah took off running, breaking out into incredible speed even with his child in his arms as the four who lived took flight once more to catch up to him. They struggled to keep pace with him as he ran, the young dragons flailing their wings like humming birds as they followed the father and son back towards the village. Spyro looked anxiously over his shoulder towards his friends, all of them sharing the same look of worry for both Meadow and the cold reception they expected from Chief Prowlus.
The village soon came into view, the Cheetah fisherman began waving and shouting towards the lookout in the tower as they approached. The other Cheetah’s training and working outside the village all looked towards them as his shouts of alarm drew their attention.
“Raise the alarm! Intruders in the valley!” Spyro and the others finally overtook the running Cheetah as they neared the village palisade, a flurry of confusion and excitement overcame the villagers as they began to gather around as the dragons flew in and landed just inside the gate, the fisherman and his son following quickly behind.
“Intruders? What intruders?” asked someone. “Has there been an attack?” asked another.
“Meadow is missing!” cried Spyro frantically, “He’s out there somewhere! We have to find him!”
“Meadow is missing? What happened to him?” asked one of the female Cheetah’s, holding the shoulders of her cub standing before her fearfully. Before anyone could answer, a voice roared from behind the crowd,
“What is all this nonsense?”
Spyro gritted his teeth hard though he kept his lips draped over them as Chief Prowlus stormed through the gathered villagers until he stood before the four dragons and the fishing Cheetah and his cub. The tribe leader scowled as he scanned them captiously, though more so to the dragons than his fellow villagers. Spyro stood on his hind legs as he opened his mouth to speak,
“Chief Prowlus…”
“What is the meaning of all this?” demanded the tribe leader, ignoring the purple dragon and speaking to the fishing Cheetah first. Spyro hid his frustration as he dropped back to all fours.
“Chief Prowlus, there is danger in the valley,” explained the fishing Cheetah, placing his son onto the ground, “These dragons say Meadow is missing. They came to us for aid, they showed me this,” he said as he drew the knife from his belt and handed it towards Prowlus.
“Missing?” he repeated as he took the blade into his paws, staring at the bloodied edge just as they had. He spared only a few moments for this before he turned towards the four dragons, eyeing them suspiciously.
“What happened? Where is Medaow? I thought Hunter had left you in his charge,” he said harshly.
“Y-Yes, sir,” Spyro nodded nervously,
“We… we sort of went off on our own while Meadow was taking a nap…”
“You went off on your own?” Prowlus snapped, “You were supposed to stay with him at all times!”
“We know, but…” started Cynder.
“Silence!” Prowlus snarled as he pointed the knife towards her, “I don’t want to hear your excuses. Just tell me what happened to my herbalist!”
The anger in his voice seemed to take even the Cheetah’s by surprise, they who were the most used to his leadership. Spyro gulped as he and his companions found themselves huddling closer to each other as they bore the full brunt of Chief Prowlus’s fiery eyes. Looking among themselves as if hoping the other would speak up first, Spyro ultimately spoke up.
“We found the knife and what was left of Meadow’s basket on the ground where we had last seen him, in the southeast corner of the valley by the waterfall. We found tracks and signs of a struggle; we think he was attacked by a Dreadwing.”
“A Dreadwing?” gasped on of the Cheetah cubs, almost humorously mirroring Ember’s reaction when the belief had first been stated. Prowlus turned his eyes back towards the blade as he held it up towards the sun, the villagers staring at it with garish fascination.
“It is the colour of a Dreadwing’s blood, Chief Prowlus,” added the fishing Cheetah pointedly. Prowlus grumbled moodily as he placed the blade carefully across his palm and lightly touched the bloodied edge with his thumb. He lifted his eyes and turned back to Spyro and the others.
“So you saw nothing else? No trace of Meadow or anyone else when you returned?”
“No, sir,” Spyro answered carefully, “That was all we found.”
“And because you four went gallivanting off on your own, the herbalist of my village is now in grave danger! We could all be in grave danger! If you four had stayed by him, you may have been able to do something about it!”
“I’m sorry, we…”
“Whysker!” Prowlus called, turning away from them as a yellow furred Cheetah in a dark blue tunic quickly stepped up to him, “Send a falcon to Warfang and inform the dragons of what has happened. Tell them we will require help to find Meadow, and be sure to summon Hunter back here with all due haste.”
“Right, Prowlus,” Whysker answered as he turned away promptly before Prowlus bellowed another announcement,
“Listen everyone! I want you all to prepare your weapons and remain on alert! If the Apes have entered our territory, we must be ready should they arrive in force.”
“But what about Meadow?” asked Roaraya as she shuffled her way to the front of the crowd, “We must find him!”
“No. It is too dangerous for us to send a search party without knowing what we might be up against. We cannot risk it until we get reinforcements from Dragon city.”
“But that will take hours!” Roaraya protested, “By the time they arrive we may never find him.”
“Meadow is a friend to all of us,” argued another Cheetah, “But we must consider the risk to us all if we leave right now.”
“We cannot just abandon him!” shot back someone else, siding with Roaraya. In a spit moment there was an uproar, the sentiments of both side readily expressed by many of the villagers as a chorus of voices soon erupted, drowning out each other as Spyro and his friends watched the arguing helplessly, feeling caught in the middle and ultimately responsible for the strife.
“QUIET!” Prowlus screamed above the noise, bringing the entire village to a dead silence, the four dragons looked around at the raw emotion etched into the faces of every Cheetah, the one underlying feeling fueling the disagreement was the concern for their fellow villager, Meadow.
“Their will be no argument! We will stay here and remain ready, only venturing outside these walls when the dragons have arrived. I fear for Meadow as much as any of you, but I must put the safety of the village as a whole first. Now prepare your weapons and secure the village. Everyone move!” he ordered.
There was a short grumble among many of the villagers, but they promptly went about as they were ordered, Spyro and the others sat planted where they were as the Cheetah quickly armed themselves and began making preparations. As the crowd dispersed, Spyro quickly broke from the group and trotted over towards Chief Prowlus.
“Chief Prowlus…” he began.
“What do you want?” he asked coldly. The steel in his voice made Spyros voice leave him for a moment as he awkwardly tried to force out his words.
“We want to help you anyway we can,” he said earnestly, “We could go back out there if you want and search for more clues…”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” growled Prowlus, “No one is leaving this village until we have more troops on our side.”
“Yes, but I thought…”
“Thought nothing!” the orange Cheetah barked, “You will stay here and for once do as you are told! If you had done that in the first place we may not be in this crisis!”
Cynder angrily stormed up from behind a disheartened Spyro, staring daggers up at the tribe leader. “We want to help,” she said sternly, “If we are to blame for this then we should help to fix it, right?”
“Wrong,” Prowlus sneered, “Once the dragons have arrived, I will have you four return to Warfang with them. You can explain yourselves to the Guardians when you get there!” he rasped before he turned his back and stormed off, leaving the four dragons in a mixed state of confusion, fear and anger, the latter in particular in Cynder’s case.
There were few eyes turned towards them as the Cheetah’s shuffled hurriedly around the village as the gates were closed and locked. Spyro and Cynder looked at each first, then to their friends behind them as they stared back at them wide eyed and lost for words. The black dragoness let out a haughty sigh as she strode over to them as Spyro slowly turned to follow, his eyes down on the ground and his heart sinking in his chest.
Passing by the Cheetah’s busying themselves, the four dragons wandered sullenly towards the far end of the village, passing by the hut they knew to be Meadow’s, none of them looking at it for too long as they slowly walked by.
They approached Chief Prowlus’s larger hut at the top of the ‘L’ of the village, slipping between it and the huts to its left as they reconvened on the grass in a quiet corner of the village. Behind them was the palisade wall and its raised platform running around the perimeter of the village, the wooden planks creaking every so often from the Cheetahs moving back and forth as they scanned over the walls observantly. Occasionally they would glance down at the four sulking dragons, some eyeing them with sympathy while others, sharing the mind of their Chief, eyed them snidely, judging them for foolheartedly ‘abandoning’ a member of their tribe who was now likely in the custody of their most heinous enemy. Spyro stopped taking notice of them after a short while, his previous melancholy mindset returning in force when his offer of help was sharply cut down.
He sat with his back to the huts as Cynder, Flame and Ember sat in a rough circle in front of him, for a time sitting quietly with their own thoughts as they lulled over the current predicament and their role in it. The silence eventually became restless as Cynder stood up and began pacing back and forth, Flame groaned and slumped over on his back like a sloth and stared at the sky while Ember toyed joylessly with the ornate necklace the red dragon had bought for her. Spyro sat, eyes half lidded with his tail curled around himself and his back feet exposed as he sat with them laying back on his heels.
Flame broke the silence with, “Should we have told him about the Hermit guy?” he asked as rolled his head to his left.
“Why bother?” replied Cynder embitteredly, “I almost think Prowlus was waiting for this kind of foul up so he could throw us out.”
“You know he wouldn’t try that if Hunter was here,” concurred Ember firmly, stamping her paw into a fist on the ground. Flame lifted his head and rolled onto his left side, eyeing her nervously as Cynder continued pacing between them. Spyro said nothing.
“You really think the Apes have got Meadow?” asked Flame earnestly.
“What else could have happened?” Ember asked back, “There are no wild beasts in Avalar that are big enough to take on a Cheetah or leave tracks like that,” she said as Cynder continued to stride moodily in and out of her view.
“You think maybe the Hermit had something to do with it?” asked the red dragon curiously.
“How could he? He was with us while we were in the caves,” answered Ember again.
“Maybe he was working with them,” added in Cynder, “Maybe he was spying for the Apes. But what were those cretins doing in the valley anyway?” the black dragoness asked aloud, her face wrinkling as she digested her thoughts, “Why would they appear now after twelve years, and why would they kidnap a Cheetah?”
“Maybe it’s their idea of hunting,” Ember suggested grimly, Flame immediately shot to his feet in alarm, gasping,
“No way! That’s horrible!”
“Of course it is,” Cynder replied tersely as she stopped pacing, “What would you expect?”
Flame suddenly became jittery, his body began shaking as his wholesome red eyes shrank to the size of those of a Mole. He looked across to Spyro for solace, finding his purple eyes staring emptily at the ground so the red dragon looked back to the two dragonesses for some kind of support, but found they shared the same despair in their eyes as well.
“We really kinda’ messed up, didn’t we?” Flame asked meekly.
“Yeah,” nodded Ember guiltily, “We are going to get in so much trouble for this.”
“I don’t think that matters so much. Meadow’s in a lot more trouble than we are,” Cynder remarked categorically,
“Right, Spyro?”
“Its my fault!” the purple dragon exclaimed despondently, startling the others, “We should never have gone into that cave! We should never have left Meadow alone like that! Its my fault this happened,” he said as he shook his head furiously.
“Spyro, we all left him alone, not just you,” Cynder replied softly.
“But I should have known better!” he retorted sorely, springing to his feet, “Everyone expects more from me! I’m the one everyone is counting on! What’s everyone going to think when they hear about this? Meadow’s in mortal danger and its all because of my stupid mistake!”
The despair in his voice was harrowing, leaving the three other dragons speechless as Spyro began to move about aimlessly as if he was searching for something, avoiding their gaze as he started breathing heavily. Flame cleared his throat awkwardly as he said,
“Well, you know, I found the cave after all, you could say its my fault…”
“No, no, its not,” Spyro replied insistently, “I should have listened when you said we should go back, but I didn’t listen.”
“None of us listened, Spyro,” Cynder added sternly, “We all should have known better, but we all let our curiosity get the better of us. What’s done is done.”
“No, its not,” Spyro said coldly, anger brewing in his voice as he finally stood still, “Meadow is in danger and I can’t just let him pay with his life because of me, not him or anybody else.”
Ember raised her eyebrows with salient concern, “Spyro, what are you getting at?”
“Why do you think the Apes came here?” he asked her gravely, “Why would they come to Avalar just to kidnap a lonely Cheetah? Easy; he’s not the one they were after; they were after me. They’re always after me.”
“But why would they take Meadow if they were after you?”
“To interrogate him! They’ll torture him to find out where I am. If he tells them or not, they’ll kill him when they don’t need him anymore. I can’t let anyone else die to get to me…”
Cynder cocked her slightly, stepping up closer to the distraught purple dragon. He shifted his eyes to the corner of his sockets, dodging her piercing emerald gaze, curling his bottom lip as stood face to face with him.
“We all feel bad about it, Spyro. But the Guardians will be here soon enough, they’ll know what to do. They’ll get Meadow back.”
“It will take at least two hours for them to get here if the message gets to Warfang quickly enough,” Spyro replied dismissively, “If he’s been taken prisoner then there is only one place he’ll be; the Mountain of Malefor,” he said chillingly, the mere mention of the name put fear in the hearts of the young dragons. Cynder gulped nervously as she tried to force her composure to stay.
“If that’s where they’ve taken him,” she began solemnly, her voice heavy, “Then…. I don’t think there is any hope for him….” she remarked sadly.
“Not while I’m standing around here there isn’t,” Spyro replied shortly, turning about and making to walk away before Cynder clapped her paw on his tail, Flame and Ember quickly scurried up beside her as they regarded their friend with odd hesitation.
“Where are you going?” asked Ember cautiously.
“We were gone not even half an hour, right?” Spyro asked swiftly, “They’ve got about half an hour’s head start if I leave right now…”
“Leave?” exclaimed Cynder, “For where?”
“The Mountain of Malefor,” he replied grimly but frankly, “That’s the only place they’d have taken him.”
“Are you nuts?!” cried Flame hectically, “You’re going after Meadow all alone?!”
“Keep it down!” Spyro hissed, turning around and looking about to see if any of the villagers had heard the red dragon’s voice, “Every second I wait gives them more time to get ahead.”
“You can’t be serious, Spyro,” said Ember disbelievingly, “You might be the purple dragon, but not even the Guardians would try and go their alone. Its suicide!”
“And its certain death for Meadow if he gets there. I won’t let him die because of me. I’ve got to try, no matter how dangerous it is,” the purple dragon declared emphatically, making to turn away again but was once more stopped by Cynder’s paws on his tail. He scowled as he tried to tug free from her hold. “Don’t try and stop me. I’ve got to do this,” he said warningly.
“You’re not going anywhere, Spyro,” Cynder promised harshly, “Not without us.”
“What?!” stammered Flame with shock.
“Nobody is coming with me,” Spyro retorted, “I won’t endanger anyone else. I’ve got to do this on my own.”
“Says who?” demanded the black dragoness as she let go of his tail, striding up to him as he turned to face her and the others. He hesitated for a moment, the three pairs of eyes staring back unsettled him. He breathed deeply as he opted to oppose them, despite them being his friends.
“This is what I’ve been training for isn’t it? Its what its expected of me, that’s all there is to it.”
“Is it?” asked Cynder doubtfully, “Did you let that Hermit get under your skin? Is this about what he said?”
Spyro felt his heart tighten like a clenched fist, his sense of humility becoming inflamed. He involuntarily shook his head as if trying to literally shake off the question.
“Its not important. Now I’m going,” he decreed firmly, turning to leave for yet a third time, but yet again he was foiled as Cynder swept around in front of him, blocking his path and fanning her wings out wide.
“If you go, we go with you, its that simple,” she stated bluntly with a glint of mischievousness in her eyes.
Spyro sighed irritably, “Cynder, no….”
“We’re the four survivors, aren’t we?” she asked brightly.
“Yeah, and if you stay here you might be lucky enough to be called the ‘three’who lived,” he retorted sardonically. Ember then appeared at his left side, her blue eyes brimming with determination.
“Its all or nothing, Spyro. We’re a team, you know that,” she said comradely, her steadfastness and cheerfulness was infectious to him, despite his reservations. He retained a glum expression even so as Flame approached Ember’s right side with noticeably less enthusiasm than the pink Ice dragoness has approached him.
“Well, I…” he began hesitantly, just before Ember’s tail whipped hard against his own, “Right behind you, buddy!” he proclaimed, eyeing the pink dragoness fearfully as she glared at him.
Spyro sighed heavily as he lowered his head and closed his eyes, lamenting for the first time in his life the naïve loyalty of his friends, until he recognized the equally naïve prospect of himself single handily traveling to the very heart of darkness to try and rescue another friend from the clutches of the Dark Armies and whatever other horrors stalked the halls of Mount Malefor.
“All right,” he conceded, lifting his head slowly, “But you know what we’re getting into right? This won’t be like training; if we make a mistake, it could be fatal. If we fail, there’s no coming back.”
“We get it, Spyro, we’re not playing games here.”
“Yeah,” Flame added anxiously, “It’d be pretty stupid to think this was a game, right?”
“Sure would,” Ember said thoughtfully. Drawing a long breath through his nostrils, Spyro looked at Cynder before turning his head and looking to both Flame and Ember, seeing their hearts in their eyes and the determination that was pumped through them. He nodded to them and then back to Cynder before he silently beckoned for them to follow him. With the same silence, the three of the them trailed Spyro as he walked slowly out from between the huts to in front of the entrance to Prowlus’s hut. There they stood in a line alongside each other as the Cheetah manned their posts and scanned the skies for intruders, no one taking any notice of them. A fact that was soon to change. Spyro looked up at the sky, watching the clouds drifting by as his adrenaline began to build as he tried to wrap his mind around what it was the four of them were about to set out to do.
“Okay,” he said heavily, still looking up at the sky, “We fly over the valley to the southeast, we cross the Enchanted Forest, fly over Twlight Falls, and then press on to the Shattered Vale an onto the Mountain of Malefore, right?”
“Sounds about right,” Cynder answered uneasily.
“Are we really sure about this?” asked Flame almost hopefully.
“Well, when I take off, it’s all on you. I won’t hold it against any of you if choose to stay…” He was abruptly cut off as Cynder suddenly lunged into the air, filling the view he had of the sky as she hovered several feet above him.
“Let’s just go before you change our minds!” she demanded impatiently, her display finally drawing the attention of the Cheetahs in the village.
“Hey, what are they doing?” asked a voice from somewhere among the huts. The sudden alarming prospect of being caught seemed to override any other fears in that moment as Spyro leapt into the air as did Flame and Ember and hovered beside Cynder just as Chief Prowlus suddenly appeared as he stepped out from his home behind them.
“What is the meaning of this?!” he roared.
“Sorry, Chief Prowlus!” Flame called out apologetically, “They talked me into this!”
“You Fink!” Ember sneered.
“Get back down here, right now!”
“When the Guardians arrive, tell them we’ve gone to find Meadow. You can punish us when we get back!” Spyro called earnestly before he spun around and took off at great speed over the roofs and the palisade fence back into the valley.
His friends followed in tow as a great uproar of shouts and curses followed, seemingly all from Prowlus as the Cheetahs stared in blank disbelief as the four young dragons soared away through the air. Spyro took a quick look over his shoulder as his wings propelled him along, seeing the others following and the village shrinking behind them. Looking forward, he lifted his head and aimed upwards as his trajectory gave him more height, flying up towards the clouds as he struggled to lift the weight of the task he had placed on his shoulders. He looked down at the river, following the sparkling line as is stretched out below, heading over the path they had followed with Meadow as the rocky plateau that bordered the main valley approached them. Checking again to see that the others were still with him, Spyro propelled himself higher to clear the plateau, the clouds now almost in reach as they swept over the mountaintop, crossing over gorge and the log Flame had tried to hide under less than an hour before when they had played Hide and Seek.
End of Chapter 10, Part 1 of 2.
(Full chapter available in submission file. This and part two will both share the same file)
Category Story / All
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