TLoS: Challenge of Hearts (Chapter 8)
Chapter 8: Away From the World
As the two dragons walked side-by-side down the long corridors, Spyro and Cynder almost didn't care if others were able to see them. They were both overjoyed with their world and how everything had turned out for them. For Cynder it was her one true dream to be with Spyro, and although she had fanaticised such an event, in her mind, it truly never felt this good. He had admitted to loving her without even realising it which, for some reason, made it seem all the more special to Cynder. But he had said it before, when they were in Spyro's own hand made cave he admitted to it, but having him say it without even knowing meant something special to the black dragoness.
Spyro seemed to direct Cynder back through the corridors that they had just travelled down to reach the pool of visions, leading them back to their own respective quarters. But as the two dragons reached the doorway into Spyro's room, that was when the purple dragon was lost within himself.
Should I ask her in? What if she says no if I ask? Spyro glanced around the long hallway looking at anything but the young dragoness before him, which only made his indecision all the more obvious.
"Spyro, we still have half the day left," Cynder said after a few moments of silence. "What are we doing back here?"
The purple dragon suddenly found his train of thought and refocused back to Cynder. "I don't know, we just stared walking and ended up here..."
"Right..." Cynder said in disbelief. Although she wouldn't have wanted anything more than to be alone with Spyro, shut off from the world. "Well?"
"Well what?" Spyro asked in a half serious tone.
Cynder chuckled slightly at the purple dragon's inability to stay on one subject. "Well," The black dragoness tilted her head slightly and brushed up against Spyro. "Are we going to do anything?"
Spyro simply returned her affection with one of his own and turned back towards the main part of the temple. There must be something to do around here... The purple dragon thought to himself, wanting to get out of the situation as soon as possible. "But for now, I'm hungry... Do you want some lunch?"
Cynder turned with Spyro hesitantly, she wanted to be alone with Spyro, regardless of how long they had been together. She knew that everything was right, that he wouldn't change anything if given the chance. But Spyro had said it himself, he wasn't ready just yet. He wanted to have some time of freedom before becoming a father. Cynder wasn't looking forward to having offspring yet either, but she wanted to have Spyro as her own, to call him her own. She didn't care if she fell gravid and had to lay an egg, Cynder just wanted Spyro.
"That would be nice." Cynder said in a sigh.
Spyro then realised what she wanted, then the purple dragon thought about it himself, realising that his own words stood between them. He shook off the thought quickly, knowing that each second dwelling on it would only make it harder to follow his words. It was then that Spyro wrapped his tail around Cynder's, and started walking down the corridor.
I have to try harder, he didn't even realise what I meant! Cynder shouted inwardly at herself. There must be something I can do to get his attention. Cynder then remembered her action from before they left to go to the pool of visions. The black dragoness held herself against Spyro and this time licked his cheek slightly, which was more than enough to get a reaction.
Spyro stopped in his tracks and searched both far ends of the corridor, unfortunately to him the purple dragon heard other coming from the path before them. Immediately causing Spyro to step away from Cynder and seal all emotions within him.
Approaching around the corner were two dragons that looked like they were together, much like Spyro and Cynder were, but these two were able to show the world about their relationship.
One of the approaching dragons had very bright scales, almost white, but as it approached Spyro and Cynder a slight yellow tint became visible. Four horns sat at the base of the dragon's skull with a slight king angling out at the same points, almost like lightning bolts would ark out at the ground. As the electric dragon approached it became clearer that it was a male dragon.
To his left was a near fluorescent red dragoness with two spiralling horns which spiralled outward near the top of her head. The red dragoness was held close against the male much like how Spyro and Cynder were moments ago, but upon noticing the purple dragon, the unknown couple seemed interested in meeting Spyro, just for the fact that he was the saviour.
"Hey, Spyro!" The light yellow dragon spoke. "I've been meaning to find you for a while now... Where have you been?" Spyro, still trying to hide his emotions from Cynder's affection struggled to notice the other dragon's call. "I've been looking for weeks, and I never realised how big this place really is."
Cynder glanced at Spyro, and noticed that she had almost physically incapacitated the male, so she decided to cover for him. "He's been showing me around." Cynder stepped forward towards the two dragons. "But your right, this is a big place."
"I suppose that you could get lost in it easily." The red dragoness added, promptly followed by a slight laugh of all three dragons. "You're Cynder, right? The 'evil' one?"
It was moments like these that Cynder wished that she hadn't come back to the dragon temple after Malefor's defeat. "Not anymore and never again" The black dragoness said through clenched teeth, trying not to lose herself from that one ill aimed comment.
"I'm sorry if you took it the wrong way... But I don't understand why none of the others trust you. The day you arrived here unconscious the guardians gathered everyone and explained that nothing could happen, that you were one of us again." The red dragoness quickly explained.
"So you are the second, non-guardian to trust me?"
"If you want to put it that way, yes." The red dragoness answered.
Cynder was uneasy about the whole situation, but as she knew almost nothing about the guardians it was all she had to go by as Spyro wouldn't have been there for the supposed 'meeting' the guardians had called.
"So who are you two?" Cynder asked, wondering how much they trusted her.
"I'm Singe," The red dragoness started. "And this is my-"
"Jolt. My name is Jolt." The electric dragon spoke quickly, cutting off Singe.
The red dragoness turned to face Jolt. "All I was going to say was..." She leaned in and whispered into the male dragon's ear. Promptly after she finished talking, a shocked look covered Jolt's face. "That was all."
"Then I'm happy I stopped you. But we should get going now, it was nice meeting you Cynder... And, Spyro?"
The purple dragon snapped out of his trance-like state upon hearing his name. "Y-yes? Sorry, what did you say?"
The red dragoness nudged Jolt with her form slightly. "Never mind Spyro, it was nice meeting you both." Singe said before Jolt could answer, and she started walking slowly as Jolt finally decided to go with her, their tails intertwined.
Spyro waited until the two were out of view before speaking. "Who were they?"
"They were Singe and Jolt. And they were interested in talking to you."
"Oh... How long were they talking to me?"
"Not long. I kept them distracted for long enough for them not to notice anything about you, so in a way, you owe me one." Cynder said as she stepped back to Spyro's side.
"I owe you? If it wasn't for you licking me then I would've been fine."
"Oh really? Is that what you think?" Cynder said with an opportunistic tone. "Maybe then I shouldn't do this." The black dragoness rubbed against Spyro's side once more, running the tip of her bladed tail up the underside of Spyro's, causing the dragon to shiver from her touch.
"Cyn, you have to stop doing that..." Spyro said with his voice almost shaking.
"Now there's that name again..." The black dragoness turned around and rubbed herself against Spyro again, nipping at the end of his tail playfully. I knew this would work! He's going to lose it soon!
"Cynder, you have to stop this..."
"Or what? You're going to lose yourself like you did through that entire conversation?" Cynder answered after tugging at one of his forepaws with her tail.
"You have to stop before we do something we'll regret. You said it yourself, it's too soon."
"Spyro, I know what I said, but there is nothing I can do about this. I can't seem to control my actions as much when I'm around you, it's like there's a force driving me to act this way."
"I know what you mean Cynder." Spyro said regretfully. "But if you can't stop this I'm going to have to."
"What are you talking about Spyro? What's going on?"
"I know why you're acting this way. If what you told me is true then this is simply the nature of it all." Cynder stepped in front of the purple male, confused by what he said. "I knew that this would happen if I wasn't careful..."
"What is it Spyro? Tell me..."
"I am getting the same urges that you are towards me, but males usually have a better control over their instincts than females do. What you are going through could be one of many things, but there are two answers that will stop your behaviour."
Cynder shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry, what was that Spyro?" She had clearly missed everything that Spyro had just said.
"That's exactly what I mean. You just can't control yourself so the options are either that we do what you're proposing, and run the risk of becoming parents, or we stay apart for a while until we can think straight."
"I don't care anymore Spyro!" Cynder shouted back at the purple dragon.
"Do you know how many-" Spyro stopped speaking and looked towards the main part of the temple, hearing the remnants of Cynder's shout echo throughout the entire temple. "Come on, we have to get out of here unless we want them to know about us!"
"I don't care anymore Spyro, I want them to know about us, I don't want to have to hide ourselves from the world."
"Unfortunately, I do care." Spyro grabbed hold of one of Cynder's forelegs with one of his own. "Come on, we have to hide."
Spyro quickly moved back to his room and opened the door for them both to enter. It was Cynder who went in first and Spyro immediately shut the door behind him.
It was exactly how Cynder remembered it, even though it had only been a few hours since she had seen it. The single book-shelf was filled almost beyond capacity, his bed was still a mess from when she had lay on it, and the curtain had disappeared completely. Not even remnants of the fabric were on the floor, but Cynder's attention wasn't on the room, it was the owner of it.
"Are you happy now? We're away alone just as you wanted."
"Spyro, I'm sorry..."
"Don't be Cynder. You can't help this, and soon enough I'm not either."
"But you never told me what it is..." Cynder sat down on her haunches, staring straight into Spyro's amethyst eyes.
"It's just our instinct Cynder. Our desire to mate with the one we're closest to."
"You said there were two things..."
"And that one's purely you. It isn't a bad thing but it's just your cycle. I thought you knew all of this..."
Cynder simply shook her head. "It's all new to me..."
"It's ok Cynder... I know that it's not your fault." Spyro stepped forward and stood on his bed, facing out the window, watching as the near cloudless sky rolled by. I should fix that... Spyro thought to himself, picking up the sheet in his mouth and pinning it to the wall the same way the curtain was.
"Do you know if we're going to-?" Cynder quickly blurted out as the breeze generated by the sheet carried over wafts of Spyro's scent.
"I don't know Cynder. I will resist my urge for as long as I can, but that might not be for long." Spyro finished sticking up his make-shift curtain, allowing the two privacy from the outside world
"Is it ok if I lay next to you?"
Spyro looked across to Cynder, and then back at where he was laying. There was enough room for them both if he moved over, but indecision struck him once more. I know how this is going to end... Spyro glanced back at Cynder again, and then followed with the lesser of two evils. "If you want to."
Cynder slowly stepped onto Spyro's bed and lay against the male, his scent stronger than she could ever remember. "I'm sorry for this Spyro, I know that you wanted to wait-"
"Nothing's happened yet Cynder, so there's nothing to be sorry about. But I know that the others will be going back and forth trying to find either of us, and I know that they'll be watching outside, so all we can do is wait until the coast is clear."
Cynder coiled her tail around Spyro's, pressing them much closer together. Spyro wanted Cynder like he never had before. His mind actually came to the conclusion that there was only one option in his situation. They were stuck in his room, and all other dragons would be searching the temple, trying to find the source of the shout. All the other dragons knew was that Spyro was involved, that was it.
But it was only the female population that wanted to know what was happening. Spyro knew that this would happen, and thankfully he had, in one of his previous speeches, made all contact to him, while he was inside his room, cause the culprit to seem 'less wanted' by the purple dragon. It was an absurd rule and Spyro knew it, but it worked nonetheless. Otherwise he would never get any sleep.
Spyro picked his head up and turned to face Cynder, who was staring straight at him. There was nothing else he wanted than to call Cynder his own, and he felt that the moment was sooner than he expected. "Cynder?" He said slowly.
"Yes Spyro?" Cynder replied, tightening her grip on the purple dragon's tail.
Spyro breathed deeply, taking in as much of the dragoness' scent as possible. "I don't think I can restrain myself for as long as I wanted to..."
"Don't" Was all Cynder could reply. For they were hidden together, away from the world.