FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Master, it seems that one of the squads we sent to conquer the Green Isles has not returned."

The master looked over the Drow commander.

"Fascinating. Any idea what may have caused this?"

"No. We are trying to find this out."

"I would hope that it's not because the Skylanders have found out about us yet. Even then..."

The master's eyes seemed to move, gesturing the commander to look over at his left. The commander turned his head.

"We have many more reserves."

Standing there was a legion of shadows, some looking like other humanoids, others looking like ants.

~ ~ ~

Back in the elder's home, Jillian was having a closer look at her greaves. Even the elder couldn't see anything else with that strange piece of armour. She tried removing the stones, only that didn't seem to work. Jillian tried touching the glowing fire stone with a claw, only for nothing to happen.

"I... just don't know what to do. There's no way to remove these things. There's no way to clasp these open."

"Well... I hope this isn't permanent or anything." The dragon responded, "I mean, sure, being a fire breathing dragon is cool, but... maybe I want to be human again. I want to go show my friends, but I bet a lot of others will go crazy upon seeing a dragon."

The elder moved back into her chair, gently rubbing her back. She had been bent over for a little while, now, and it wasn't good for her.

"Where was it you said you came from?" the elder asked.

"Earth." Jillian said, "But it's ah, not the earth stone like this." She pointed at the earth stone with a claw. "We don't... well, it's just humans like me. We know OF dragons, but if I went home looking like this, they'll probably react with fear."

"But you said you wanted to show your friends." The elder said.

"Yeah, I have a few friends who would probably go 'EEEEE! A DRAGON!' if they saw me... and then start hugging me."

"You have some odd friends." The elder said.

There was another knock on the door. It was immediately opened up by one of the vilagers. However, they didn't seem to be tired at all.

"Elder... it's someone else."

"Who is it now?" The elder asked.

"It's a mabu, calls himself Flynn. He says he knows the Skylanders."

"Those Skylanders again..." Jillian said.

~ ~ ~

Jillian followed the elder back into the village square. Just like when she first came in, the elves all seemed quite intrigued. However, the newcomer was most definitely not human. Jillian wanted to say that he looked a bit like a lynx of some kind, although he didn't seem to have a muzzle at all.

The feline looking man smiled at one of the village girls, before turning his attention to the elder and the dragon.

"Hello there... Name's Flynn - I happened to be in the neighbourhood, when I noticed some drow were attacking. You seem to be doing alright yourselves."

"So are you one of the Skylanders?" The elder asked.

"What? No. I uh... know the Skylanders."

That definitely confirmed it. Jillian stepped forth.

"I don't suppose you could tell me who the Skylanders are then. The elves here thought I was one. The drow did as well."

"Whoa." Flynn said, looking over at Jillian, "Say, you look a little like some of the dragons I know. You sure you're not a Skylander?"

"You don't know all the Skylanders yourself?" The elder asked.

"Well, things change. I only recently met this group of Skylanders when I went to the Cloudbreak islands. The more I go around Skylands, the more Skylanders I encounter."

"Hm. Well my name's Jillian." She said to Flynn, "I'm not normally like this. I'm normally a human-"

Jillian was interrupted by an odd sensation. She seemed to be standing on two legs again, and was missing her wings and tail. She momentarily blushed, before noticing the clothes on her skin. However, she felt something a little different.

She looked at her hoodie, noticing that her forearms seemed a little wide. Jillian pulled back the left sleeve oddly. Her mouth dropped open a bit, seeing something dark, blue, and metallic around her arm. She pulled the sleeve up even more, noticing the metallic band seemed to go all the way up her arm. There were also four 'holes' in the gauntlet, one of which was filled with that purple marble.

"Nice armwear." Flynn said, calling Jillian back to their conversation.

"Err... well this is new." Jillian said, pulling the sleeve back up over the gauntlet. "Seriously."

"I've definitely never seen any Skylander quite like you before. Sure, you're not as beautiful as Cali at all, or-"

"...Are you hitting on me?" Jillian asked.

"No! No no." Flynn said, holding his hands out defensively. Jillian simply rolled her eyes - she knew he was just trying to keep from getting a hand mark on his face.

"Alright, so if you know the Skylanders... where are they?" Jillian asked.

The human felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked behind her, only to find the elder. She gestured up to the sky. Jillian tilted her head up, noticing a rather unusual looking bird.

Or at least, it looked like a bird with the feathers. The creature glided around the village, before landing next to Flynn.

Jillian now got a good look at the quadruped. It looked to be a blue-feathered dragon. Although Jillian could see that their main body was covered in fur. Rather than a thick reptilian tail, a somewhat avian looking tail trailed behind her. Most notably, rather than multiple horns gracing her face, the creature had a single orange and yellow horn poking out of her forehead. She also had two rather large triangular looking ears that flopped just a tad.

"Meet Whirlwind." Flynn said.

"Twists of fury!" Whirlwind said.

"Whoa..." Jillian said, looking over Whirlwind. "You're... beautiful."

"Of course." The dragon responded, "I am a dragon-unicorn after all!"

"Boy... I really should find a way to get my friends here. I know a few who'd probably hug you and never let go."

"If they do that..." Whirlwind said, showcasing her horn to Jillian.

"Err! Well it's a figure of speech! They'd be stunned by all of that!" Jillian responded.

"Wow, the Skylanders ARE back!" a few of the elves said, looking over Whirlwind. She smiled as they approached her, probably enticed by her appearance.

"You don't need to be so vain." Another feminine voice said.

Jillian looked towards this voice. It seemed to be coming from an area behind Flynn and Whirlwind. Jillian raised another eyebrow when she saw a purple dragon walking towards them. No, she somehow knew it was a purple dragoness. A scaledragon, at that.

The purple-scaled dragon looked over the human. She then looked towards Whirlwind. Whirlwind shook her head as soon as she made eye contact with the other dragoness. Jillian didn't know exactly what they were thinking, but she assumed it to be along the lines of "This isn't who we're looking for" or "I don't know her, do you?".

"Never met you before." The dragoness said, "What's your name?"

"Jillian." Jillian answered, "Or Jill if you want... but yeah."

"Definitely don't know you. Unless you're some new Skylander we don't know about."

"That's because well, I'm not a Skylander. I sort of came from some other world. I'm not from around here."

"I can see that." Flynn said, "Never seen anyone dress quite like that."

"When I came here," Jillian said, "I sort of found these things that let me change into some kind of a fire-breathing dragon! Except I was red." She puled up her sleeve to show the gauntlet with the red stone.

"Interesting... interesting indeed. I've seem those who could change themselves into different creatures before." The purple dragon said.

"Some beautiful, some not." Whirlwind said, "Like that uncouth Chompy Mage."

"I'm not a mage, unless these things are magic... and even then I know how to use them! I'm not like someone who can take magic and shape it into whatever they want." Jillian said.

"And you say you found these gauntlets... interesting. Do you mind if I see them?"

Jillian held her arm out to the purple dragoness. She hoped that the dragon wasn't going to bite onto her arm and try to pull the gauntlets off. Thankfully, the dragon hopped onto her hind legs and placed her front paws on Jillian's arm. She tried to pull, only for the gauntlet to remain firmly wrapped around her arm.

"You, help take this off." The purple dragon said, turning to the Mabu.

The dragon hopped back to all fours again, as Flynn tried to pull on her gauntlet. Just like when the purple dragon tried, it didn't budge. Jillian gestured for Flynn to let go while she tried. Unfortunately, it appeared to be attached.

"...Aw crap, seriously?" Jillian asked, "I can't remove these? Well there has to be a way."

"Fascinating... ever so fascinating." The purple dragon said.

"Think she's trustworthy?" Whirlwind asked Flynn.

"You know I'm right here." Jillian said.

"Why not, you DID save this island from the drow, didn't you?" Flynn said, "You should come on board with us."

"Well..." Jillian looked over at the elves, "I'm not going to learn that much if I stay here. There has to be a reason for my presence here... and these gauntlets."

"You're absolutely right, I must admit." The elder stepped forth, "We are but a simple village. And if the Drow have been interested in us... I fear what the rest of the Green Isles look like."

"Then my help is needed elsewhere... so let's finish this awkward conversation now."

Whirlwind and the purple dragon nodded.

"However... You'll have to prove your trust to us." The dragoness said, "And show us how strong you are. We Skylanders don't accept anyone who wants to play hero."

"Right..."

~ ~ ~

Somehow, Jillian expected to see an airship in some place called the Skylands. Even when expecting to see some kind of airship, she still felt her jaw drop the second she saw it. Just seeing something like that was not only hovering off the side of the island they were on and knowing that thing could be maneuvered like a boat in the water or an airplane was impressive.

The ship itself seemed to be mostly blue and gold looking, with a red roof over what must have been the captain's cabin. Jillian simply couldn't help but stare at it - it looked somewhat like a children's toy, yet that thing was able to fly and fight. Then again, maybe it was supposed to look harmless, so that it could fool any suspecting pirates.

"First time seeing a ship? You're definitely not from around here." Flynn said with a smile, "Come on board then."

"An Airship, yes..." Jillian said, as Flynn lead her up the gangplank. Jillian looked behind her, wondering where Whirlwind and the other purple dragon went.

"Leave something behind?" Flynn asked.

"Where'd Whirlwind and that other dragon-"

"They're Skylanders. They come and go as they please. Some of 'em appear on the ship, then somewhere else. It's because they got a Portal Master helping them."

The two words stuck out to Jillian like a sore thumb. Portal Master. That's what that strange person must have been. That's how she got sent to this world. All of a sudden, she thought to herself - maybe that's how she could get out of here. Jillian heard a mental echo, from her memories. The words, "The Darkness is coming."

"You coming at all?"

"Oh, err, yeah." Jillian said, walking up the gangplank onto the ship.

~ ~ ~

When one looked over the Green Isles, one area simply didn't fit the name of 'green'. That area was a floating mountain range, with the occasional valley and plateau. Snow and ice blanketed almost the entire area, save for the green valley. Elves didn't hang around this area as much, and apparently neither did the Skylanders.

A human sat on a mountain ledge, overlooking the white mountainscape. Conquering this area was quite the trivial task - the Green Isles in general were a rather simple area, it almost made him wonder why the Master would want to start with such a simple area.

Then again, it was a little close to the unofficial base, the Pirate's Graveyard. Nothing like a little undead stronghold not too far away from some land of conquest to help make things easier. Heavy footsteps crunched through the snow behind him. The human didn't budge one bit.

Eventually, the massive figure of Thumpback, or rather his dark counterpart made it up to the human. Despite how much noise his footsteps made, the human still didn't seem to respond to the whale's presence. The whale smiled and opened his mouth wide.

"WA-BOOM!"

The human tumbled off of the ledge. The dark Thumpback blinked, then leaned over, careful not to fall off himself. He thought he saw something like a familiar light, but maybe it was just the sun reflecting off of the snow. There wasn't any sign of the human.

"Oaps, ah knocked heem aff." The whale said.

He felt a tapping sensation at his arm. The large cetacean turned around. He didn't see anything, before he remembered to tilt down. Standing right before him was a rather large-eared figure.

The figure had an almost vulpine looking face to him, although it still looked a little different. His eyes seemed to be a little red, or maybe that was the sunlight. The rest of the figure's body seemed to be concealed in a somewhat leathery looking cloak - obviously the bat creature's wings.

"Aw, it was jist a practical joke. It's nae loch ah can kill ye when ye can dae 'at, Frygus." The thumpback said.

"You're lucky that I'm not hungry." The bat-like man said, "Otherwise, I'd sink my fangs into your skin for that."

"Guid luck puncturin' mah thick skin." The thumpback said, pointing at his own chest with his thumb.

"The master was right... that outrageous accent really DOES need to go..." Frygus murmured, lowering his furry face just a little bit.

"Wot accent?" the Thumpback said.

"That fake accent." Frygus said, "You never speak with an obviously fake accent when you try to be anyone else. I fear what would happen if you tried to mimic Zap... or worse, Trigger Happy."

"I cannae help it." Mymic responded, "Just as ye cannae help soondin' all teeny as a raptor."

"Hmph." Frygus said. Mymic noticed a few small bulges shifting underneath the bat-creature's neatly folded wings. Unlike what some might have assumed, this vampire bat had arms detached from his wings. It wasn't hard to imagine that Frygus had his furry arms crossed at the moment.

"Well until we receive orders from the Master himself, we're stuck here."

"Aranae yae cold?" Thumpback asked.

"Ha." Frygus laughed, "The cold never bothered me anyway."

His large ear twitched just a tad after he spoke. He turned his head to his left. Mymic looked in the same direction as Frygus, wondering what it was that his furry friend was hearing. After about a minute, he noticed small black shapes in the air. They looked like flies, before Mymic could make out a mass of 'flies'.

Mymic soon heard the noise. The incessant 'caw'ing ruckus hit him first, followed by the flapping noise of the black birds' feathers. The murder of crows eventually reached the ledge where the two were standing, seeming to congregate around one certain area. And still the uproar of 'caw's and flapping continued. Frygus didn't seem to mind, instead looking a little more annoyed at the noise.

Finally, the two were able to make out a figure from the flock of blackbirds. Or at least, just her arms. She started waving around, trying to get the birds to disperse. The corvids didn't seem to listen at all, instead flying all around the figure stuck inside the middle.

"HEY! Disperse! Come on! I can't speak over the din!" The woman's voice shouted.

After several minutes, the black birds finally dispersed, revealing the figure they were concealing. A rather human looking figure, dressed quite stereotypically as a witch, with her steepled hat and the black clothes. (Though in this weather, wearing black helped.) However, unlike the stereotypical witch, she didn't look deformed at all, simply like a human female dressed up as a witch.

"Well Eva?" Frygus said, "What do you and your crows have to say?"

"Aside from how I wish I had a broom or your wings. Some of the isles around here have not actually been taken."

"Really." Frygus said, "The Green Isles aren't exactly uninhabited, we were bound to have some kind of resistance."

"But... I saw a ship."

"Flynn..." Frygus spat, "Curse that mabu... he'll serve the Master eventually. Where is he now?"

"Leaving a farming village. Southernmost isle."

"Ah'll squish heem flat!" Mymic spoke up.

"No. You know what will happen." Frygus turned to Mymic, "Where there's Flynn... there are the Skylanders."

~ ~ ~

Some part of Jillian wanted to just look over the end of the airship and watch the sky pass by. Another part of her feared that she was going to be blown overboard by a gust of wind, and her draconic wings wouldn't be able to catch up. Another part wished for her phone so she could at least call home, or that this was some kind of a bizarre waking dream brought about by her mistakenly saying "Extra Spicy" when ordering Drunken Noodles.

Maybe if she were lucky, this would be like Narnia, where if she really was stuck in another world she could return roughly five minutes after she left. It would keep her friends and her family from worrying. After a few days missing, she would be declared legally dead and cause all sorts of mourning - and it's not like her parents could tell her online friends that she went missing. They didn't even know the password to her computer or her electronic accounts - and she didn't bother to keep a password cheat sheet. At least, not after her older brother snuck into her room, copied the cheat sheet, logged into her Neopets, then changed the password after selling all her virtual items.

Suddenly, Jillian noticed someone with reddish looking hair. It was the exact same hairstyle as Shawna. Jillian walked closer to this person, before getting a look at what the Shawna-like girl was wearing. Shawna would never wear a heavy metal looking suit - there wasn't any camo on there.

The girl turned around. Jillian blinked a bit at the girl. She most definitely looked human, but her skin looked golden. Not just golden with a tan, but an actual metallic colour. Almost like someone had replaced her spray-tanning material with that liquid gilding stuff you would find in crafting stores. (And that caused cancer in the state of California.) Jillian couldn't see the girl's eyes at all; they were covered by a thick set of black goggles that must have also doubled as sunglasses.

"Can I help you?" The girl asked.

"Oh! You just looked like someone I knew." Jillian said.

There was a banging noise from behind the gold girl. It sounded like a broken heater of some kind - but what was it she was fixing?

"One second." The girl responded, as she got back to work on the gadget.

Jillian noticed that there was a box of tools on the ground. The contraption looked like some kind of a turret gun - that made sense, it was something to help defend the ship.

"Hold on a moment!" Flynn's voice came over the loudspeaker.

Before either of the humans could brace themselves, the ship seemed to tilt a little bit to the side. Thankfully, it wasn't steep enough to actually send the deck's inhabitants off of the ship. Instead, it just sent Jillian to the ground, and the toolbox sliding.

"Darn it!" The gold human shouted.

"Let me get that!" Jillian said when the ship tilted back to normal. She climbed back onto her feet, running to the toolbox.

"Thanks." The gold human responded, "I'm just fixing some of these things."

"Well... you know way more than I do about this." Jillian said, leaning against a nearby wall, in case the ship took another turn.

"After being attacked by pirates, this ship really needs some automated defense systems." The gold girl said.

"Oh, I'm Jillian, by the way. I guess I'm... some follower of the Skylanders."

"Another one, huh?" The gold human looked up from her creation. "I happen to be a Skylander myself - name's Sprocket."

"Oh! Lucky me, another one. I... well, I came from this other place - Earth."

"So are you a Portal Master?" Sprocket asked.

"Well... no. I sort of found these." Jillian pulled her sleeve up a bit, "They're... I don't know what they all do, they let me transform."

"Fascinating." Sprocket said, "I've never seen that happen before. You sure you're not a robot or android?"

"No, it's different, I'm organic! Or... whatever that technical term is."

"I've heard of a few who could do that. Magic, never understood it myself." Sprocket responded.

The ship made some noises. Jillian immediately looked around for something to grab onto. All of a sudden, Jillian saw another figure on the deck. Another human, like her, but this one looked much older, and somewhat otherworldly.

Jillian dared guess that he was a wizard of some kind. There weren't many people who dressed in robes casually, especially ones with white beards. (Though this wasn't a long beard, like she assumed most wizards to have.) Perhaps most surprisingly, the man wore a horned helmet, rather than a conical hat with stars and crescent moons adorning them.

"Master Eon!" Sprocket said.

"What?" Jillian asked.

The man looked directly at Jillian. Jillian sheepishly stepped back a bit, smiling nervously. What was she supposed to say to him?

"Greetings." The man named Master Eon said, "I am Mast-"

"Master Eon." Jillian said, "Err, I'm Jillian. So are you someone like the master of the Skylanders?"

"Indeed I am. I am a Portal Master, it was I who assembled the Skylanders, though you appear to know this already."

"Oh, good, someone in charge... so... let's get this straight." Jillian begun, "I sort of came from another world, if... that's believable. Well, okay, I guess it is, since you're a Portal Master and all... a little while ago, I came from another world. You probably know a little more than I do, so let's just skip this part where you ask me questions I don't have the answers to and cut to the chase, alright? I'm going to instead just ask you questions about stuff you think I should know, but I don't."

Master Eon blinked. He had seen a lot of stuff in his days, but he never expected to hear any response like that before. Even when discovering new portal masters, who had known of other worlds, they weren't as self-aware. The portal master was silent for a second, as he tried to think up some way to answer this bizarre set of questions.

"Well..." he finally spoke up, "I was going to ask you where you came from."

"Earth - not like the element." Jillian said.

"Earth?" Eon responded, "Yes... I know of Earth... It's the world with no magic."

"Wait a second..." Jillian said, "Portal Master... magic... Say do you know of some like... evil master who curses people into..." Jillian suddenly remembered what happened when she pulled up the phantom's hood. "Skeletonized shadowy creatures?"

"I do." Another feminine voice spoke up, deeper than Sprocket's. Jillian didn't notice anyone else coming in - so she was caught a bit off guard.

She turned to look over at whoever had just spoken up. The first thing that Jillian noticed was someone with a black dress, with detached sleeves (however that worked). However, her eyes widened the second she saw the woman's skin. It was pale blue, just like the drow that she had seen on the islands. The ones who had been serving someone named "Chaos".

"Don't fear - she's on our side." Master Eon noticed Jillian was reaching for her wrist.

"I did not catch everything... what is it that you said about shadows and skeletons?"

"Hm... bit of a long story." Jillian said.

Jillian told Eon, Hex (And by extension, Sprocket) about the day before she came to Skylands. At least, everything she remembered. She told them about the phantom, and the vision she had seen. She didn't remember everything that he said, but it seemed to help.

"I have seen the effects of petrified darkness myself, but it wasn't anything quite like that."

"I can tell you whose magic could twist mortal forms such as that."

"Kaos? His mother?" Sprocket asked.

"No. Malefor."

Jillian didn't know what to say. Sprocket and Eon recoiled at the mention of the name.

"Yes... he may finally be acting." Hex said, "I just came from another island, thanks to the help of one of your students, Master Eon. These aren't minions of Kaos we are facing."

"So the Undead Dragon King is finally acting..." Eon said, "What else have you learned?"

"They still have the mountains." Hex said.

"I'll tell Flynn." Sprocket said, walking up to where the captain's quarters likely were.

"Let me guess." Jillian said, "Because I described something that was identified as Malefor's magic, and because of my understandably strange origins and timing of coming here, you don't entirely trust me. So in order to prove that I'm trustworthy to you, I have to go help liberate these mountains, right?"

~ ~ ~

"I hate it when I'm right." Jillian said as she walked off the gangplank.

Jillian crossed her arms as she waited for someone, Eon, Flynn, Hex, anyone to give her some kind of orders. Obviously they weren't stupid enough to leave Jillian with liberating an entire island in the Skylands herself. This one was much bigger than the other island she had woken up on.

Hex had followed her, for obvious reasons, of course. Hex knew Malefor better than anyone in the Skylanders except for someone whose name sounded like "Cinder". The drow didn't say anything as she walked off of the ship, practically hovering. (Maybe it was magic.)

Claws clacked against the gangplank behind her. Jillian didn't even bother to turn around, simply waiting for whomever this was to make themselves known. The quadrupedal figure walked in front of Jillian and sat down. The figure looked a little like the purple dragoness that she had seen before, only a bit darker. He (Jillian was somehow able to tell he was male at a glance - maybe her brief stint as a dragoness left some lingering instincts) also had somewhat orange-gold looking wings, and much larger horns.

"Hello, I'm Spyro." The dragon introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Jillian." Jillian responded, "How many of you guys are there?"

"Quite a lot!" A somewhat French sounding voice said, accompanying much heavier steps.

Jillian immediately turned around, wondering what that heavy noise was. She was stricken completely mute, mouth stuck open in a silent scream. The creature leaving the ship was, for lack of a better term, a massive wasp-man. He towered over Jillian and the other two Skylanders.

He could have flattened a chompy without effort whatsoever. Jillian still couldn't say a thing as the wasp got closer and closer to her. His chitinous hide gleamed in the sunlight. Blades seemed to erupt from the bee's wrists... and there was sure to be a massive stinger emerging from his behind.

"Hello? You alrright there?" The massive bee asked.

"AAAAAAAAH!" Jillian finally shouted, as she scrambled out of the way. Before she got too far, she stopped herself.

"Wow, you've neverrr seen a bee before?" Swarm asked.

"Not bees that are big enough to step on me!" Jillian said frantically.

"Awww, I won't hurt you." Swarm promised the scared human.

"If you two don't mind... we have the forces of the underworld to stop." Hex impatiently said.

"And I can lead the charge. Let's make Skylands proud." Spyro said.

Spyro took a few steps forward. Jillian walked after him, only for Hex to hold her hand out.

"Wait a second... Jillian, what did you say about those gauntlets?"

"Oh, uh... this one made me turn into a fire dragon... oh, wait, I get what you're saying. You want me to activate them, huh?"

"If that's how you fight, that would be much appreciated. I don't intend to be taking hits for you, although Swarm here might appreciate it."

Jillian looked over one of her gauntlets. She already used fire, and had Earth and Magic with her. Mentally, she flipped a coin. Heads earth, tails she'd use magic. She imagined the coin landing on heads. Sure, maybe it wasn't the best option, but it might have worked anyways.

"Alright... so, Earth!" Jillian ordered her gauntlet.

Immediately the earth stone started glowing. Jillian's frame seemed to vanish into a silhouette to the other Skylanders. They watched with curiosity, seeing the human's form contort in the light.

The first thing Jillian noticed was that her ears seemed to elongate. They seemed a bit like an elf's ears, but then they got longer and longer still. They traveled up her head, coming to the tops of her heads. Then, they seemed to fall down behind her, before new muscles formed in her head, allowing her to move her ears up and down.

Jillian reached behind her and grabbed one of her large ears. It was incredibly soft, covered entirely with plush fur. Her nose sank into her jawline, which started to swell in front of her. She stared cross-eyed as light brown fur covered her face, leaving a small pink spot for her nose.

She blinked a bit, as the plush fur spread down her body more and more. Just like when she turned into a dragon, her clothes vanished. However, her hoodie and gauntlets remained. It was a light brown, probably beige, all except for her cream-coloured front.

A large tuft of fur appeared at her chest. She felt a small poking sensation at her rear. She looked behind, noticing a rather powder-puff tail. She felt her feet growing. Her toes merged, each of which widening. Jillian wiggled her wide toes a bit.

"...I know some people who will love this." She mumbled to herself.

Her changes finalized with a weight on the top of her head. She reached up and rubbed her fingers over where the weight connected with her head, in between her ears. They felt like two horns... but they branched out a bit. There was also a strange velvet-like covering to the antlers.

The Skylanders looked over at Jillian, still feeling over her antlers. Through her hoodie's sleeve, they could make out a faint brown glow emerging from the small holes in the weaving. Spyro had seen a few creatures like this before - a jackalope. One of the cutest critters in all of Skylands, though it was rare to see outside the arid desert islands. Jillian blushed a bit when she realized the Skylanders were looking at her. She pulled her hands away from her antlers.

"Err... what am I?" Jillian asked.

"A Jackalope." Spyro said.

"Awww you are cute!" Swarm said. He seemed even bigger to Jillian now. Wait, did she get smaller?

"Oh, err, thanks? I assume bunnies are supposed to be cute."

"Very interesting... no time to waste now." Hex said, "Malefor's forces have probably noticed the ship by now."

~ ~ ~

A skeleton-like being emerged from a small pool of darkness, grasping onto the snow as it pulled itself out. The anthropomorphic vampire bat was still looking out into space, as if brooding over something. Or maybe he was simply awaiting some kind of orders.

"Frygus," The skeleton said, "I come bearing bad news."

"Well, what is it?" The bat turned his furry head around.

"It's the Skylanders - they are here."

"Figures, right after I had sent Eva and Mymic back to the Pirates Graveyard." The vampire bat said.

"But the entire village around here has been converted, they serve the Undead Dragon King now."

"Good... that's all we came for essentially." Frygus said. "We should leave them with a surprise. Start bringing the converted elves out... I'll retreat last."

"You don't even wish to fight the Skylanders?"

"I am not stupid." The bat turned around, "Thanks to that idiot Kaos and his much less idiotic mother, Eon has connections to portal masters. All of which can all but ensure that I will be outnumbered. We may have reserves, but I'm not wanting to waste them."

Frygus's pendant glowed. The skeletal minion watched as Frygus's eyes suddenly turned solid purple, trails of flame emerging from them.

"Besides," Frygus said, another voice speaking alongside his own, "retreating last will allow me to gain some important insight into how many portal masters there are."

Frygus's eyes "extinguished", as did the pendant hidden under his leathery wings. The skeleton said nothing - it was one way the Master kept track of his servants. Frygus stared at the skeleton.

"Well? Go on, start taking the new recruits out." Frygus said, "I will be right behind you."

~ ~ ~

The gang looked over a ledge, into a valley. There was what looked to be a village down there - possibly elves, maybe yeti, they couldn't tell. What they could tell was that there was something wrong. Nobody seemed to be wondering around. It wasn't a snowy day at all; there should have been at least one person outside.

What was also just as disturbing was that these undead forces haven't been seen at all. To use a common cliché, it was far too quiet. The only thing that they had heard was their own feet crunching through the snow and the heavy footsteps of Swarm.

"That magic is here, I know it." Hex broke the silence, "They are all in hiding."

"Why hide?" Jillian asked.

"Surprise, of course." Spyro whispered, "Keep your voice down... both of you." He looked to Swarm and the jackalope.

"Hey, sorry." Jillian whispered.

"It seems there is someone in the vil-" Hex was suddenly stopped talking. She looked around rapidly. Jillian and the other two Skylanders couldn't help but follow Hex's gaze around.

"I can't see anything." Swarm buzzed quietly, "What did you hear?"

"There!" Hex said, standing back up.

Several orbs started floating around her. Jillian immediately hopped close to the purple dragon. Swarm held his arm blades out, getting ready to flap his wings and take flight.

"SHAW." Hex said, throwing her arms up into the air. The orbs followed, and started to fall down like some kind of a rain.

Several heavy objects fell from the sky. One of them landed right on the ground, before crumbling into dust. Another seemed to land right on something. It seemed to bounce a bit, as if it had hit something solid, but invisible. Then, Jillian saw it. It was a drow.

"Looks like we got a fight on our hands!" Swarm said, levitating a bit off the ground.

Several more figures appeared from the landscape around them. Jillian made out several skeleton-like figures, although they seemed to have four arms. Another figure looked to be another one of these six-limbed creatures, but instead flesh and bone, and pure black.

Just like some kind of a gorilla. One of the skeletons slid towards Jillian and Spyro, while another was knocked down mid slide towards someone.

Jillian and Spyro both set off in different directions; while Hex chanted another one of her spells, though her voice was silent. Jillian seemed surprised at how fast she was moving, and how she wound up hopping instead of running. Jillian noticed a few trees in the distance, and came to a stop.

Except she fell forward, and landed flat on her face in the snow. She slid a little more, cursing Isaac Newton and that darn first law of motion. She rolled onto her back, just in time to notice one of the skeletal apes headed right her way.

Instinctively, Jillian threw her legs back, bending her back a little forward. Then, she threw her lapine feet forward, the momentum sending her right to her feet. The ape still got closer and closer. She squatted a bit, and hopped.

Surprisingly, she went a little high. Almost higher than she would have expected. But it wasn't high enough to hop over the black skeleton. She landed right on the creature's broad shoulders. The jackalope didn't have time to think, and instead pushed off of the shoulders. It wasn't until she was in the air that she remembered that he had four arms.

Or that she had bounced even higher than she had before. She made the realization, as soon as she neared the apex of the hop. Not long after she begun to fall, she heard a massive buzzing noise, before feeling herself scooped up by a hard pair of hands.

"You need to be carrreful!" She recognized Swarm's voice, as well as his odd verbal tic.

Jillian looked away from the giant insect, before noticing the scene below them. Spyro breathed fire on one shadow, before charging it with his large horns. Hex had holed up behind a fence of bones, and rained more skulls down. But they weren't covering all of the shadows. She noticed a few shadows coming from the village.

"Swarm! Down there!" Jillian shouted.

"I got it!" Swarm said, leaning to his side. He lowered himself to the valley, behind the climbing shadows.

"Jump that one, I can handle those ones." Swarm whispered as much as he could, gently letting Jillian on the ground.

The figures stopped their advance up the ledge. They had heard Swarm's buzzing. Jillian ran right up to the one Swarm had pointed out, and then brought her furry foot right into its chest.

Or at least, that's what Jillian wished she could do; the creature's chest seemed to be a little too high for her. Her foot went right in between the creature's legs. The creature stopped dead in its tracks, somewhat falling back. What was worse was this creature wasn't one of the skeletal ones, it looked to be one of the black yetis.

"Oh shit!" Jillian said, bunny-hopping back.

The creature reeled in pain. It must have still had some kind of nerves. The rabbit had a sudden idea, hopping back up to the creature. She landed on her right foot, twirling on the ground. The dark yeti was swept right off of his feet by Jillian's roundhouse.

While the creature was down, Jillian hopped right onto his back and gave him several powerful thumps. Her massive ear twitched, as she looked up at the sky. Right above her was one of Hex's skulls.

Thankfully, the jackalope got away just in time for the skull to land right on the creature. She looked towards the massive bee, who was busy cutting up the rest of those creatures with his arm-stingers.

"Not bad, for a novice." Jillian heard Hex's voice say.

Spyro and Hex were walking towards them, having climbed over that hill. They must have finished destroying out all of the shadows and the drow on the other side.

"Thanks. I know I'm not really a fighter." Jillian said, scratching herself behind her antlers, "I've... not really physically fought before, except for those drow and-"

"Who's that?" She was interrupted by Swarm.

Jillian looked around, wondering where 'that' was, or who it is. All she saw was someone on one of the building roofs in the village. She ran-hopped closer to the village, before stopping.

"What are you doing?! It's probably a trap!" It was Spyro.

Jillian was able to make out the figure with a little more detail, though. It was some kind of a man, covering himself up with a cloak almost. Maybe his arms were crossed. But he didn't have a human looking head; Jillian was able to make out a pair of ears, not nearly as large as her own, though.

The creature seemed to fade into the air, before vanishing entirely. By this point, Spyro, Hex, and Swarm had caught up to her.

"Don't run forward like that." Hex said, "You're lucky that wasn't a trap."

"Okay, I'm sorry I leeroyed - but I thought maybe he was that person living in the village."

"Could have been a spy." Hex said, "Consider yourself lucky... that could have been a gargoyle, or a vampire bat."

"Well... should we look around the village then?" The jackalope said.

"So long as you don't run ahead."

~ ~ ~

Within a silent ship, Frygus gradually faded into existence. Nobody must have been around, the ship had to have been docked. A voice rang through the bat's head.

"That was the one I warned you of..." It was the Master.

"Spyro and Hex. So... Frygus, time to assemble the Vanguard."