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This may be the final chapter I put up for a while...college is kicking into overdrive now that there are only 3 days left. After that is studying for finals. And this story is one of my few means of escape... glad people are enjoying it thus far! gives me something to look forward to

If yous be under 18, and have read up to this point, I'm not gonna bother telling you to get outta here. If you haven't already gotten the hint, get out and find something better to do with your underage time.

Chapter 15 -- The Second Portal

Cynder woke with a yelp as something cold touched her face. She looked around but didn't see anything. Her shriek had woken Spyro, and he was looking around too.

"What is it, Cynder?" he asked, worried. She shook her head and sat up, rubbing her eyes with her paw.

"I felt something...some...thing cold touch me," she yawned, and started rubbing a spot on her cheek.

Spyro stood up, taking a closer look around. Nothing but the flat expanse of land around them. Solar was nowhere to be seen, but Spyro didn't need to wonder long; Solar's long, powerful wings created a cloud of dust as he came in for a landing not too far away. He ran up to Cynder and looked at her face.

"Spyro? Do you see what I'm seeing?" he asked, and Spyro looked at Cynder's very confused face. Where she had been rubbing her face, there was a small bleached spot that was very slowly becoming lighter.

"What is that?" Spyro asked.

"I was fighting another shadow and it was carrying some strange liquid. Some went flying out of the container as I defeated it, and as I feared, some hit Cynder. It seemes to be reacting with something on her scales."

Her eyes widened but Spyro grabbed her paw as she went to rub it off. Solar touched one of his white, slender claws to the spot on her face, and she felt a strange, soothing warmth flow over the afflicted scales. The white spot vanished, leaving only a very tiny discoloration on her black scales.

"Good to know it can be easily cured if treated in time," Solar said, relieved. "I was afraid it might have a terrible adverse effect on you."

She nodded gratefully. After a while they decided to get going, but it took them a bit to get off the ground--they hadn't eaten in two days and they weren't used to it. Solar was used to going for weeks without much food so he waited for them to gather up enough strength to join him in the air.

As they flew, following Solar now as he used his light abilities to locate the source of the darkness, Cynder and Spyro just lazily glided. He was flying slow, knowing that they were physically weakened. He was also on the lookout for any food or water sources for them. Around midday the horizon turned a lush shade of green and the air grew more humid, though it wasn't nearly as muggy as it usually was now with the growing darkness and cold. Spyro and Cynder flew towards it eagerly, hoping to find something to settle their roaring stomachs. Sure enough, the green turned into the edge of a thick forest, separated from the flat land by a wide, deep river. Spyro and Cynder plunged into the water without slowing down, their speed causing them to fly back up into the air as they curved through the water and re-surfaced. Solar just watched them play in the river. He stared into the forest, looking for signs of trouble. He jumped as Cynder resurfaced in front of him with a gasp for air.

"Hey, c'mon, Solar! Join us!"

He just sat there looking at her.

"Oh come on! You need a little fun every now and then!" she said, and splashed him. He jumped back as the cold water hit him.

"I'm just...not in the mood right now," he said and turned away.

But Cynder would not be satisfied until he joined them; she hated seeing him so depressed. She pulled herself up out of the water as quietly as possible and motioned for Spyro to follow her as he came up to the surface. They crept up behind Solar; even though he knew they were there, he yelled in surprise as they both tackled him. Though he was almost twice Spyro's size, he wasn't as heavy as most dragons his size would be, and they had no problem dragging him to the water.

"Oh, so now you play dirty, is that it?" he asked, and shook them off. They thought he was going to fly, but he rolled to the river and with a skillful swipe at the water's surface he drenched them both. They spluttered a bit, looked at each other, and tackled him into the river with a laugh. He resurfaced and ducked back down to avoid a wave from Spyro, coming up with a splash and retaliating Cynder's water-swipe. They played in the river for a good half an hour, laughing and having a good time, before Spyro and Cynder flopped onto the river shore and sunned themselves dry. Though the darkness was growing and beginning to cloud the sky, there was still enough sun for them to dry themselves in. Solar came up, shook himself off with a laugh, and flew over the river to the forest to find some food for them. He came back a short time later with some clusters of large fruits, and woke the two napping dragons. Cynder yawned and sat up as Solar placed a cluster of fruit in front of her.

"Solar, you gotta admit, that was fun," she said, and he and Spyro looked at each other. Solar rolled his eyes with a half-smile.

"Okay, fine...I admit it..."

"See? Being loose every once in a while isn't so bad," she said, and bit into a large berry.

"But why did you do that?"

"To put it bluntly, I was getting sick of seeing you so depressed," she said, not looking at him as she chowed on the berry.

Solar laughed to himself and took a large chunk out of a fruit. Cynder looked at Spyro; he was unusually quiet and listlessly rolling a berry around with his paw.

"Spyro? Something's on your mind, I can tell."

He looked at her with a small smile, but looked back down at the ground. "I dunno...I just...for some reason I just...I don't feel too thrilled about anything."

"It's the shadow," Solar said with a grunt. "It's slowly influencing you. When we finish here we need to get moving."

Spyro nodded and ate as much as he could get himself to. When they'd eaten and drank their fill and had rested a bit, Spyro and Cynder followed Solar up into the air again as he tried to pinpoint the portal. They didn't search long; soon they found a clearing, and in the center of it was the portal. This time the field within the archway was a disgusting red color. The arch had apparently been covered in a thick layer of brass plating, and Solar ran his paw over it.

"This isn't one of our metals," he said. "It's too coarse. Someone in this realm redecorated it."

"So?" Spyro asked, and gritted his teeth a bit as he realized how snide it sounded. "I mean, what's the importance of that?"

"It can affect the transportational abilities of the portal," Solar replied. "Once a portal is contructed it is not to be tampered with. I hope our foes knew what they were doing."

"How do you know they plated it?"

"It's a very poor job," the white dragon replied, digging his claws into the metal plating without much effort. He pulled back and the brass peeled away easily from the frame with a metallic cracking sound. "But they've survived transportation, I don't see why we won't."

"What about the color of the field?" Cynder asked, looked at the ugly red glowing shade.

"That just denotes where it leads to," Solar replied. "It's a fire base we're headed to now." With that he motioned for them to follow as he stepped through the red aura. Spyro and Cynder looked at each with determined expressions and followed him through.

* * * *

Spyro took a step forward and his paw sank into black sand, and he jumped back as red steam spurted from the depression. They were on a small outcrop of glassy black sand that fused into a solid sheet of rock further out as a river of glowing laava flowed by. They looked around quickly and saw a lot of tall spires of rock protruding from the lava lake before them, and the ones nearby were situated like stepping-stones, increasing in height and leading to a path set into the wall high up to the right.

"Where is this?" he heard Solar grumbling. He was up above them, looking at the wall. Cynder and Spyro flew next to him and saw that the portal was the doorway at the base of a huge map carved into the dark rock wall. They were underground in what looked like the interior of a volcano. The heat was intense, but luckily they were dragons and could resist it.

"Solar? Is this in your realm?" Cynder asked.

"I doubt that," he said, squinting at some finer lines in the rock. Even with the light from the lava it was hard to see much of the map. "I know there are underground systems but we never dared to go near magma chambers because of their instability. Technology can only predict nature so much..." He trailed off as he studied the carving. With a grunt of frustration he flew away and they followed him to the pathway on the wall. The cavern they were in was unnaturally straight and flat-walled, and there was a strange air current pulling them forward, and after some time they found out why: it was a huge hallway leading to an immense stone construction in the middle of a vast magma lake. The cavern opened up over the rock fortress, and the heat of the lava was being sucked up into the clouded sky above as it rose. Fighting the updraft the three dragons crossed to the fortress and went in through the wide-open doors. It was a gigantic construction; it may as well have been carved from a small mountain. As they walked inside things began to cool off fast until the air currents blowing towards the door chilled Cynder. There were thousands and thousands of glowing crystals adorning the smooth rock walls as they slowly and cautiously entered, their footsteps echoing through the hallways.

* * * *

Spyro leapt and rolled to the side as a huge chunk of lava-covered rock flew at him, and he jumped back up into the air. They'd travelled to the depths of the fortress, eradicating fifteen huge trolls and countless small shadow creatures on the long and tiring trek, and were now fighting a huge mechanical guardian. The main control unit was high at the top of the chamber, protected by a force field. Four smaller units flung chunks of lava and rock at the three dragons as they swooped around through the air, trying to find weak points to attack. In the center of the room was a tall rock spire amidst a wide lava lake, and at the spire's summit was the crystal, protected by an extension of the main unit's force field.

"Solar! What do we do against these?!" Cynder shrieked as she rolled in midair to avoid a spray of molten rock.

"I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" he shouted desperately. He'd seen the schematics for this very model, but as he flew around he couldn't fully recall them. He flew behind a stalactite on the chamber ceiling, avoiding detection. He observed Spyro and Cynder, trying to find a pattern to the machine's movements. They didn't notice his absence as they tried to avoid being crushed or scalded. He looked quickly back and forth...the metal of the machines was resistant to the lava...but they were also grabbing rocks as well...

Seeing a pattern he flew straight in front of one of the four machines. It locked on to him, and as he expected it grabbed a large boulder and took aim. He stopped right above a machine across from it, and it flung the boulder at him. He flew out of the way, and the boulder knocked the mechanical nightmare behind him into the lava below, cutting it off from its power supply. Spyro and Cynder took the cue and took out the next two machines this way. There was one left, though, and they had no way of disabling it as it rapidly flung claw-fulls of lava at them. The main core was still shielded...

As Cynder flew by to avoid a piece of lava, she discovered something--there was a ledge right above this machine where it couldn't detect her.

"GUYS!" she screamed over the hissing of lava and the echoing of the impacts, "OVER HERE!" They quickly joined her, and the machine went into sentry mode, unable to locate them.

"What do we do now?" Spyro asked quietly.

Solar sat back, thinking back to the schematics he'd studied two years ago. They could see his mind blazing as his face wrinkled in thought.

"No...that won't work..." he mumbled to himself. Cynder jumped when she heard a lava bubble below pop in a loud release of hot gases.

"If we don't get outta here soon the gases from the lava will kill us," Spyro said nervously.

"Just gimme a second!" Solar growled. He looked at the main unit on the ceiling... "Auto-defense turrets!" he said. He turned back to Spyro and Cynder. "There's four turret systems guarding the core. If we can get them to lock in on us we can blast the last arm, and then, once the core reveals itself to try to wipe us out, we all attack it at once." On his mark they flew up and around the main control unit. Four metallic arms came through the force field and began firing bright blasts of light at them. Swooping and weaving around each other the dragons avoided the blasts, and swooped around the flying lava that the re-engaged semi-unit flung at them. They hovered in front of the arm unit briefly, and the turrets fired. Cynder just barely made it out of the way as the light blasts decimated the arm unit, shutting it down. Spyro plummeted and caught Cynder as she fell from the explosion's blast, and they both looked up to see Solar flying rapidly around the control unit, the turrets firing at him as a huge, electrical network of finely-etched crystals lowered itself from the force field and began powering up.

"SPYRO!" Solar shouted, "THUNDERBREATH!! BEFORE IT ATTACKS!!"

Spyro carried Cynder with him, charging up a powerful lightning attack. Taking aim, Spyro zapped the crystalline network. It pulsated and crackled wildly with the excessive electrical energy. Below him, Cynder unleashed beams of light, guiding two of them to the contact point between Spyro's electric breath and the control unit, the other ones homing in on the turrets and shorting them out, freeing Solar. Solar added in a powerful ice blact as he whipped around and fired at the huge crystal brain of the machine. There was a bright flash as the unit died and fell, the crystalline network falling onto the spire below and shattering. The force field around the light crystal faded. Spyro looked at Cynder and she craned her head around to look back.

"Looks like we gotta do this," he said, and she nodded as he carried her to the spire. They breathed deeply and put their paws on the crystal, Solar watching intently. They both yelled in pain and clenched their teeth as the shadow escaped from the crystal along their arms in a dark fire. At the same time, light began to appear in the crystal. Once all the shadow was gone the crystal, like the one they'd gotten before, sent out a blinding flash of light energy that healed their burning pain and restored them. This time, instead of floating to Spyro, it joined Cynder and faded. As soon as the crystal was safely in Cynder's possession, a portal to the front gates appeared in the wall by the door to the room. Spyro carried Cynder to the portal, entering behind Solar, and they emerged at the huge entrance to the stone fortress.

* * * *

That night they camped by the river, listening to to running water. Now that they'd cleansed the crystal of darkness, the air was quickly regaining its native feeling, and they were surrounded by comfortably warm, humid nighttime air between the river and the edge of the thick jungle. Spyro was lying on his back with Cynder lying across him, their eyes closed in enjoyment of each others' presence. They figured it to be their close relationship, but Cynder had noticed that their heartbeats were almost perfectly aligned.

"Guess we really do belong to each other," Spyro had said, giving her a loving kiss. As she lay there on him, she opened her eyes and looked at the bracelet on her foreleg, remembering those words he'd spoken not even an hour ago. She sighed contentedly and turned her wrist, looking at the way the moonlight glanced off the gold and silver threads and the clouded ruby. She looked from the bracelet to Spyro's face, and she leaned over and planted her lips on his. Without opening his eyes he returned the kiss and she pulled away with a wide smile.

"You did really well back there," he said, slowly opening his eyes to look at her.

"Well, so did you, y'know," she said. "Who'd've known I'd fall in love with a thunderstorm?"

Spyro smiled at her. "Solar really saved us in there," he said, thinking back. "I still don't know how long it would've taken us to solve that on our own."

"We gotta find his girl," Cynder said, and Spyro put his finger to his lips and then brushed that paw along her face.

"Can't let him hear until we're sure he needs to be involved," he whispered, and she nodded against his paw.

"I know...but I can't help feeling sorry for him, Spyro," she said, setting her head down on his upper chest, close to his head. He bent his head down (or as he was oriented, up) and kissed her on the forehead, and she closed her eyes with a deep, satisfied breath. He put his arm over her and stared up at the sky, feeling her breath gradually settle into sleep against him. He closed his eyes and slowly lost his consciousness to sleep as the day finally took its toll on him. Now that they had another crystal in their keeping, Spyro didn't feel as depressed as he had just hours ago when they'd been romping in the river with Solar, and he felt its healing power emanating from Cynder as she lay on his chest. As his eyes went from seeing the physical world to his mental world, he kept hearing a voice calling to him, but he couldn't quite understand what she was saying...

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Gotta go through and iron out the remaining chapters, so they may not get put up for a few days.