TLoS: Challenge of Hearts (Chapter 3)
Chapter 3: Jumbled Words
Cynder awoke the next morning to feel the sun beating down on her half-closed eyelids. The black dragoness yawned expansively, before resting her head once more on her soft bedding. Cynder couldn't stop thinking about Spyro, once more her dreams were filled with them both being close together.
* * *
Both of their heads darted from one side to another, flying around in the sky as if searching for something. But when Spyro pointed towards a mountain with a cave opening on one side, Cynder followed the purple dragon to the ground and into the un-expectantly large cave. Cynder glanced around, admiring Spyro's spotting techniques as it was almost concealed completely from the outside with undergrowth. Cynder looked at Spyro as he slowly neared closer to her.
"Are you sure about this Cynder?" The purple dragon stopped several feet from Cynder, just within reach if they both extended their necks to each other.
The black dragoness glanced around the cave once more, finding that it satisfied every one of her guidelines. "I love it here... But there's only one thing missing Spyro."
The purple dragon recoiled slightly at Cynder's comment, but Spyro kept his eyes on Cynder, knowing that there was something more to it than just a simple answer. "Cynder, we've been together for a while now. Everyone thinks that we've already mated just because we spend all of our time out here alone."
"That doesn't matter to me... But now we have somewhere to stay away from it all. Now there is only one thing I desire. And that is a family..."
* * *
Cynder opened her eyes once more. Her dreams felt so real, but she knew that it would be too good to be true. Spyro doesn't love me... He would've said so by now if he did. Cynder closed her eyes for a long moment, wanting nothing more than to believe that it wasn't true. Cynder slowly opened her eyes again, finding a dragon-shaped shadow in her view, blocking the sun from her eyes.
The shadowed form continued to hover before the black dragoness, inching closer to the curtained window. "Cynder? Are you awake?" It was Spyro.
Cynder quickly jumped to her feet. What is he doing here now? The black dragoness took tried to take a step forward, feeling the hard floor against her still injured paws. The stone caused her the same pain as yesterday, but when on her bed no pain came through. "Y-yes I'm awake... What are you doing Spyro?"
Spyro continued to hold his position outside Cynder's window. "Is it ok if I come in?"
Cynder quickly glanced around her room, it was clean, but not as clean as she would've liked if Spyro was to come in. Cynder braced herself, and started walking towards the window. Each step felt like she was walking on arrow heads, but Cynder held her face strong, not allowing anything as much as a grimace into her expression. When Cynder reached the window, she poked her head through the curtain, finding Spyro almost immediately on the other side. Both of their faces were within inches of each other before Spyro backed away from the window, giving them a few feet of space.
"You could've told me that you were coming out." The purple dragon steadied his position once more after the sudden shift of his weight.
"Sorry Spyro... Why did you want to see me this early?"
"I'm not sure whether or not you accepted my apology yesterday. So, I thought that I could make it up to you today." That was just another thing that Cynder loved about Spyro. He always followed through with anything that he was unsure of. But Cynder was just going to use it as an excuse to be close to him for another day.
Cynder stared passionately at Spyro, eventually unnerving the young dragon into speaking again. "Are you going to come with me? Or do you want me to carry you again?" He said gesturing out into the wilderness with his head.
"Oh, yes... Sorry Spyro... I'll be right out." Cynder ducked her head back underneath the curtain, watching as Spyro's shadow disappeared off towards where his room was situated.
Cynder quickly darted around her room, cleaning up the rest of her possessions and putting them in their designated space. The pain she once felt was gone completely, it was as if her paws had never been hurt at all. Cynder continued to clean up her room until she saw another shadow appear outside her window. But to Cynder it seemed a little smaller than last time.
"Spyro, I'll be out in a minute, I'm coming..."
"I'm afraid that you aren't going to spend the day with Spyro." Cynder was facing one of the walls upon hearing the strange voice. "Spyro will be mine. I mean, how could he even think about caring for you? You destroyed cities, killed hundreds, even served the dark master... If you ask me, I wouldn't be surprised if he just feels sorry for you enough to even to talk to such a pathetic excuse of a dragon!"
Cynder turned to face the window, anger rising to almost a new level. Only the smallest voice in her mind managed to keep her in position. "Get lost Ember! You don't know anything about me or Spyro! I love him more than you ever could!"
"Oh really? Have you told him yet?" Ember continued to hold her position outside Cynder's window. There was a long silence between the two. "That's what I thought. You're too scared to tell him, you're afraid that he'll say that he loves me, which he does, by the way..."
This pushed Cynder over the edge, she wanted nothing more than to tear Ember's wings off and watch her fall to the ground. Cynder leapt through the window tearing the curtain with her. A fierce growl escaped her throat as Cynder dove straight at the almost unsuspecting Ember, colliding as a giant ball of black and pink. Both dragonesses clawed at each other, creating cuts and gashes that almost immediately started to release blood.
Neither dragoness felt the pain from the cuts, they both were too intent on killing each other rather than caring about their own wellbeing. Roars rang throughout the entire outside of the DragonTemple, sending the many birds in nearby trees away from the area regardless of what they were doing. But both Cynder and Ember continued to attack each other.
Cynder turned to the other side of Ember, being able to see the dragon temple on the other side of Ember, but along with the temple, there was Spyro. Cynder continued to dodge, and give attacks to Ember, but knew that only one way would end it with the result she wanted. Fighting Ember was easy, the pink dragoness was much slower than Cynder. Many times she could've ended the pink dragonesses' life and tried to take her place by Spyro's side, knowing that he would grieve the loss of Ember and never forgive her. She had only one option, and it was going to hurt, a lot.
Cynder ducked under Ember's swinging paw, knowing quite well that another one was coming the other way straight at her. Cynder clenched her jaw, preparing for Ember's strike to slash against the side of her face. And soon enough, it came.
The pain it caused the black dragoness was tremendous. Although Ember was much slower, she still held a high amount of strength within her.
"Cynder!" The black dragoness heard Spyro yell. He had seen the strike Ember gave and feared for Cynder's life almost immediately.
As the black dragoness fell lifelessly out of the sky, she could feel that she was gaining altitude at an alarming rate, and she would hit the ground soon if she didn't do anything. Cynder glanced back towards Spyro, seeing him speeding to her aid. Her plan had worked perfectly, but there was still one part that she dreaded. The landing.
Cynder braced herself once more, knowing that she wasn't going to feel good afterwards. She took one last glance at the fast approaching ground, and took a deep breath. The black dragoness prepared for the impact, only to feel a strong grasp on her hind legs. Cynder took a quick glance up at her rescuer, seeing a flash of purple as the morning sun reflected of the dragon's scales. "Spyro..." She knew that there was much explaining to do, but for now, all she had to do was recover.
Spyro turned around in a wide ark, heading back towards the dragon temple. Ember was flying towards him, but Spyro only growled at the pink dragoness as he passed her. Ember took a shocked expression, and continued on her way, planning on avoiding Spyro for a while. The moment he leaves that... Thing... Alone, he's mine.
Spyro flew towards his room, picking up the rest of Cynder's limp form so that they would fit through the window. Spyro flew straight through his curtain and placed Cynder on his bed laying the limp dragoness on her back. Cynder groaned slightly in pain, she felt fine apart from a headache caused by Ember's blow to her head, which helped her act injured, as she actually was. After all, this was just a plan to get closer to Spyro.
"Stay still Cynder. I'll be right back. Just don't move." Spyro darted out of his room, leaving Cynder alone.
The black dragoness couldn't believe what was happening. She was in Spyro's room. Not even she expected that much, but she knew that the purple dragon would be back soon so Cynder just stayed her position, trying to gain a single thought in her jumbled mind. The blow from Ember was enough to send her into a spin, but the strong scent of Spyro sent her over the edge. The way Spyro had put her down left her in a position with her head at the end of his bed, with her head resting on the bunched covers. Her nose was in ecstasy, each breath was filled with Spyro, but luckily enough for Cynder her head was in too many places to tie everything together.
Several minutes of loneliness passed and Spyro burst into the room once more, carrying various rags and bandages. "Just hold still Cynder, this is going to hurt a little..." Spyro reached over and picked up a bandage. "Ember got a few good cuts on your stomach and sides. There are also a few more across your tail, but your shackle managed to block many more." Spyro examined the locked steel noticing many scratches and dents on it, yet the lock still held strong around Cynder's tail.
Spyro placed one end of the bandage on Cynder's stomach, and proceeded in lifting her up and wrapping the entirety of it around her midsection. It was a bit of work, but after several minutes Spyro had used up the entire first bandage and clipped the two ends together.
Spyro looked over Cynder's form once more, she lay lifeless before him. Cynder was still conscious, but pain wracked through her body as the adrenaline of fighting removed itself from her system. Spyro stood still. Cynder's beauty had him frozen, he had noticed everything about her before, but only now did his thoughts turn to emotions and dreams.
Spyro had always liked Cynder, and over the past few weeks he had become attached to her despite their distance. Spyro had almost missed seeing Cynder during the two weeks after the battle against Malefor, but seeing the one he secretly loved in such a sorry state caused him to change accordingly. He was sad because she was. Spyro walked around Cynder, passing over her tail as he stepped onto his bed. The purple dragon looked over his handiwork deciding that it was done well enough to hold only the minimalist of movements. But if it were up to him, Cynder wouldn't be going anywhere, anytime soon...
Spyro stopped his movement for a moment, glancing down the rest of Cynder's uncovered form. He knew that it was wrong, but the young dragon couldn't help himself. Spyro had been taught about mating by Ignitus on one of his rest days. It was something that he considered important as by the dragon's lack of numbers. And everything from that one day suddenly became clear in his mind. Spyro was staring at the base of Cynder's tail, her scales were hidden from the sun leaving them dulled, but as he followed the outlines of Cynder's scales Spyro caught a glimpse of her most vital organ. Spyro slowly continued his movement around Cynder, unable to remove his gaze. As the sun streamed passed Spyro the black dragoness glistened more than what he had normally seen, he was in a trance within his own mind, until he felt Cynder's tail brush up against his underbelly.
"Spyro..." Cynder whispered out. The purple dragon quickly made it to her side, placing his head within view of the black dragoness, allowing her to see him clearly.
"What is it Cynder?"
The black dragoness blinked once, taking her time in trying to find the right way to word her response. She was unaware that Spyro had been staring at her womanhood only moments ago. "I'm sorry for all of this, I should've ignored Ember."
Spyro jerked his head away from beside Cynder's, only to slowly put it back down on the end of his bed. "It's ok Cynder. I know that she's only jealous that I'm spending all of my time with you." Spyro took a deep breath, trying to find the right way to word his response properly. "But I love having time beside you Cynder. It's like I can really be myself around you. It's like you don't care about what the legends and scriptures say, you treat me like a normal dragon."
Cynder missed most of Spyro's words, the effects of Ember's attack taking its effect on the young dragonesses mind. So all she heard were a group of jumbled words. 'I love... You Cynder. I... Care about... You...'
"I love you too Spyro..."
"What?"
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Geez.... this way oh updating/posting stories is SOOOO annoying......
sorry it's taking so long to update..... Story should get slightly more interesting from here... if I remember correctly..... been so long since I wrote this......