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Spyro: Dawn of Light, 2-24

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SPYRO: DAWN OF LIGHT
Part 2




CHAPTER 24




Spyro winced, then yawned and stretched, the sunlight poking through the window right at his eyes.  Looking around sleepily he found Cynder sleeping right next to him, lying on her back with her paws curled against her chest, her head hanging off the edge of the bed.  The gentle rise and fall of her ruby-red chest and the slight snore from her mouth told him she was still deep asleep.  Her wings were tucked against her sides, one of the blades stuck in the mattress fabric.  Spyro gently slid his claw into the small circular groove of her wingblade and pried it loose from the mattress, then laid down on his side and watched her sleep.  Last night she'd said she remembered everything... a smile spread over his face, then faded again as he realized it might have been another of her fleeting moments.  He needed to make sure she was back...he needed to ensure that the real Cynder had finally returned.  Hearing voices outside he reached over and rubbed her belly, marveling at how silky soft her scales felt.  She stretched lengthwise and started purring in her chest; Spyro grinned and continued rubbing her scales.  Eventually her purring rose into a groan; she stretched again, her forelegs stretching forwards over the bed.  She meeped and jumped a bit, the forward motion causing her to start slipping off the bed.  Spyro caught her and stabilized her enough that she could regain her balance.  Rolling up and scooting back on the bed she did an all-body stretch, her wings flaring several times.  Spyro got up and stretched as well.  

"Wow...I haven't slept that well in...years..." she mumbled, then yawned again, looking really out of it.  

"Any dreams?" Spyro asked out of curiosity.  Cynder just smiled and shook her head.  

"Nope...for the first time, I actually slept without any dreams.  Just deep sleep."

Spyro chuckled a bit.  "Well, good, you need it.  How about we get something else we need?"  She tilted her head curiously; Spyro had to fight back a blush.  She was just too cute.  "You know...breakfast?"

She nodded and yawned again, then hopped off the bed and stretched her hind legs.  "Mmph...ouch.  Think my legs fell asleep...but yeah, breakfast sounds really good."

So it begins...the test, Spyro thought to himself.  "Come on, I know the perfect place."

"Oh really now...where is this, that place by Logan's?"

"Well, we can stop there and buy some bagels, but no."

Cynder chuckled, following him into the hallway.  "Bagels...such funny things.  How are dragons supposed to eat them?"

"Well adults pinch them between the toes, same way we hold everything else."  Looking down at his own paw, Spyro shook his head.  "Doesn't quite work for us younger ones though."

"So bagels?"

"As an appetizer, sure.  But the entree is on me."

Tilting her head at him again, a sudden blush covered her face.  "You know, I used to say you taste good but I was just joking."

"Wait, huh?!"  Her meaning hit him and made him laugh.  "NO, no, not like that!  Not on me physically."

"I know."  She giggled and trotted up alongside him, giving his cheek a lick.  "You're just too fun to tease."

He growled, shaking his head.  "You and Ember..."  He led her through the streets to Logan's armor shop, going into the small eatery right next door and coming back out with a bag of bagels in his mouth.  Hooking it on his wing he then led her down to the old gate they used to pass through to go home.  Cynder looked around at the rows of trees lining the pathway.  

"I remember this place..." she whispered to herself.  "The gnorcs were hiding behind the trees when..."  Just ahead of her, Spyro smiled to himself.  Furhter down the path they came across a ruinous structure, making Cynder gasp.  "This landmark...we're not far from..."  Continuing into the fields, they found some things neither of them remembered; the ruins of battle.  Hundreds of gnorc armor pieces and broken weapons lay scattered, the ground scorched, pitted and rutted everywhere.  "Regiment 24 B Delta..." Cynder said under her breath, studying a fallen shield.  "They got what was coming to them, damn rebels."

"Hm?"

"Nothing..." She muttered, shaking her head.  "Ripto put me in charge of this regiment for their training, then deployed them without my knowledge."  She smirked and huffed.  "It's kinda...morbidly amusing, to be on the other side of the line seeing what became of them."  She spat acid on the shield, then followed Spyro as he continued.  

"By the way Cynder...where'd you get these new attacks from?  It's like...you have more elements or something."

She growled.  "I'd...rather not talk about it before breakfast.  Speaking of which..."

"Yeah, hang on."  He was listening intently.  As they crested another hill, the smell of the grass, the feel of the sun and the sudden breeze sweeping around her made Cynder gasp again as memories of almost four years ago flashed into her head.  

"This is..." she whispered, following him over the hill.  Down below, just like four years ago, was a small flock of wild sheep.  

"I'm a little rusty at this, but..." Spyro hunkered into the grass and practically slithered down the hill.  Cynder sat down and watched, feeling a little surreal as her memories seemed to overlap with reality.  She could see both the younger and the older Spyro, like two visions overlapping each other, slinking off through the tall grass, then the sheep scattered, Spyro darting this way and that, almost playing with them before with a loud yell he lunged at his quarry.  Cynder giggled at the memory; he'd left something out.  He looked rather handsome and cute as he came back up the hill proudly with his catch.  After cleaning and roasting their meal Spyro handed her a decent portion of meat.  Taking a few bites she giggled again.

"You forgot something out there."  Now it was his turn to headtilt at her in confusion.  "Yar, fear me'?"

He laughed and chewed on his mouthful, then gagged.  "Ack, chew first, then laugh..." he grumbled, then looked up at her.  "I...I did that on purpose."

"Why?  Too embarrassing?"

He shook his head.  "I wanted you to remember."

She rolled her eyes.  "Spyro, my memory's still a little fuzzy, but..."  Staring at her unfinished mutton she sighed, then glanced back up at him, her tail swishing in the grass behind her.  "Well...I can say this for sure...it's good to be back."

"It's good to have you back."  They finished their meal in silence, Cynder constantly glancing up at Spyro and watching him, studying him.  Three years...he'd done a lot in those three years.  He was gentle and careful with his actions, but as she watched him eat...even just his breathing seemed to retrain untold levels of power.  Back in the forest last night, she felt that he was holding himself back.  The muscles under his hide, to her eyes, almost seemed to exude pure power, held in careful check under his vigilance, his willpower.  Now that she thought about it...he felt like...

"Light..."

"Huh?"

She fell silent again, contemplating to herself, reminiscing on her time under Ripto's control.  Ripto had often voiced concern about a "Dawn".  He kept tirading about a "Night" of sorts, an unending Night, and something about a Dawn that must be prevented lest it end that Night.  Now she wished she'd paid more attention, but looking at Spyro made her memories circle around that idea of a "Dawn".  Picking the bones clean, Spyro then led her to to the stream they used to know so well, washing up and getting a good cold drink before heading upstream.  Cynder and Spyro crested another hill and stared.  There was Spyro's old hill, still beaten and trodden, and the roots of the tree that once stood over it, but all along the nearest bank of the stream was a row of small trees.  Cynder darted to them and looked them over, running her wing delicately across one.  "They actually took...I remember planting these!" she said excitedly, smiling up at Spyro.  The purple dragon smiled back as he joined her.  The green branches she had cut from the fallen tree had taken root, and one had a single but prominent rose-pink flower.  Spyro looked at it, then tilted his head a bit.

"This is strange...the flowers of the previous tree didn't have this."  Pointing with his wingthumb, he traced out the edges of the flower petals.  They were a ruby red color.

"Huh...could it be the soil difference between the hill and the stream?"

"Maybe."  Looking from the flower to her he smirked.  "It's your color though."

She hid behind her wing to hide the slight tinge of red in her face.  Spyro looked up at his old hill again and sighed.  She looked up as well.  "You keep talking about the tree...why was it so special?"

He stared at the big pit in the ground where the tree's roots had once resided, then shook his head.  "It's nothing."  Looking up at the sky he rolled his shoulders.  "Come on, let's go look around a bit more."

"Shouldn't we head back to the Temple?"

"Yeah, but we don't have to be back immediately.  We have time.  Wanna go see your old home?"

She shook her head.  "Nah.  Not today anyway."  She followed him back to the field of the battle remains.  Spyro kept getting a strange feeling that there was something here.  As they split up through the tall grass, Spyro watched Cynder sidelong, noting her attraction to colorful objects and how young she seemed when she saw butterflies.  One landed on her outstretched paw, making her giggle at the light tickle.  

"Hey Cynder..."

"Hm?"

"YAAAR FEAR ME!!!" he shouted, tackling her.  She shrieked and laughed, tumbling under him.  They tussled in the tall grass, constantly pinning each other, tickling each other, then Cynder escaped and Spyro gave chase, nipping at her tail every time he caught up to her.  She was laughing the entire time.  Not watching where she was going her paw got caught in some fallen grass blades, making her trip.  Spyro fell over on top of her and they came to a rolling stop on their sides, facing each other, laughing and catching their breath.  As they calmed down they ended up just gazing at each other.  "Was that what I forgot?" he asked at length, his nose pressed against hers.  She giggled and sighed.  

"Yep...just like old times..."

They fell silent again, eyes locked together, until suddenly they both realized they were holding each other.  With surprised yips of embarrassment they scrabbled up to their feet, brushing and shaking themselves out and mumbling inarticulate apologies.  "Sorry Cyn, I uh..."

"I know...me too..."

Avoiding eye contact he cleared his throat, flexing his wings.  "Maybe we should...y'know...head back."

"Yeah."  They both leapt up into the air, giving powerful sweeps of their wings and launching high up in the sky before splaying their wings and gliding, watching the land slowly sweep by under them.  Cynder heard faint sound like thunder in the distance.  "Spyro, you hear that?"

"The Skavengers are abroad again.  Probably looking for us.  Be careful, the clouds above us don't look too promising."

"Spyro...I've been thinking.  While we're waiting, tomorrow should we go to the Outer Realms and start looking for some of the stuff we found in those scrolls?  Like, those carvings up in the Dreamweavers' castles?  Or those really olds texts in Peacekeepers?"

"We could.  Actually that's not a bad idea."

All at once, something huge and heavy swept past them at incredible speed, the slipstream sucking them into a mad but brief tumble.  They righted themselves and flew lower, looking around wildly.  "Wh-where the hell did that come from??" Cynder yelped.  

"Let's not stick around to find out!  Fly!!"  They darted off towards the temple island, a few more gigantic cannonballs soaring by but not nearly as close as the first one.  Using flat, shiny pieces of ice on his paws Spyro tried to get a glimpse of anyone following them, but to his bewilderment there was no one in visible range.  Their cannons didn't have that much range...this was bad.  They had a new trick, and were keen on capturing him or Cynder, or both of them.  

"Spyro, are you charging shadow?" she asked.

"...Uh, no, why?"

"Something's gathering nearBYYYYYY-" she screamed, suddenly spinning uncontrollably.  Spyro shouted and dove after her, grabbing hold of her.  His attempts to straighten out were useless though; something was fighting against his wings, and winning.  

"HOLD ON!!" he shouted.  Cynder clung to him, feeling that warmth of light again as his scales glittered and shone.  In a blink they were hurtling again, but this time...nothing.  No land below them, just a vast expanse of ocean.  This time their motion was out of control and they both passed out from the velocity of their spinning, crashing into the ocean.  Below them, something large rose up, lifting them above the water's surface.


----------------------


Flame roared and spun around, lacing himself in fire and lashing out at the elemental gnorc copies with flame-wreathed claws.  Upon landing he rolled to the side, then jumped out of his roll onto an ape general's head, latching onto its armor with his claws and blasting it with fireballs.  He leapt off and Comet Dashed to the ground, landing with a fiery blast that ignited everything around him.  Caelos landed nearby and swept up off the ground, hovering in the middle of a miniature twister, gathering the flame, ash and smoke from Flame's attacks into a cloud above himself.  Shielding himself from attack with bursts of air and shockwaves of sound, the wind dragon strained to keep his power in moderation, the memory of his outbreak back at the Oceanic Isles replaying in his head.  From Flame's destruction Caelos was able to form a cloud.  The twister around him started crackling, the static electricity it was generating now being harvested.  Plazyma funneled it up into the cloud, then flew up into it and began raining lightning on her enemies, Caelos using the shockwaves of the thunder blasts for further fuel for his own offense.  Shimmer and Neves were, as usual, tag-teaming.  Shimmer defended the with walls of water, creating slick areas that tripped up their lighter foes.  The age generals however werent fazed by these tactics, cutting at her through the water walls.  Neves would freeze the walls of water, catching the blades and allowing Shimmer to blast them with high-pressure water while Neves hacked away with blades and blasts of ice.  Coming down the "hill" of this simulated battleground they saw another fresh wave of enemies; finishing off the ones around themselves the two skated off on a stream of water, swishing by the front line, Neves freezing them solid with his ice breath.  However, many of them broke free, their bodies gleaming with ice energy.

"SWAP!!" Shimmer called.  "ANTI-ICE!!!"  At that, Flame glanced up, then Dashed over to her, Neves spinning with ice blades to take his place with Caelos and Plazyma.  Flame and Shimmer both hunkered and breathed fiercely, their elements merging into a high-pressure stream of boiling water and steam.  The ice-aligned enemy entities were no match for the onslaught, but they just kept on coming in huge droves down the hill.  

"Really friggin' wish we had an earth elemental here!" Flame gasped.  "How the hell long have we been here??"

"Pointless question outside of time!" Shimmer replied sharply, ducking under a thrown sword, then springing up off the ground into a sideways spin to bring her hind paw around for a kick right to the jaw.  Upon landing she dug her claws into the ground and sprinted off, then breathed water, forming a sort of U-turn wall into which she leapt, following its curve and shooting off into the air.  Bringing her arms and wings around her front, she started glowing brightly; flinging her wings apart with a roar, a sphere of water flew outwards from her, rippling over the ground and turning into a huge tsunami-force wave that pushed back most of their opposition.  Flame caught her as she clumsily landed, exhausted.  "We've been out here way too long..."

Behind them, Plazyma growled, arcing with electricity.  She picked up a fallen sword and held it tightly in her teeth.  The air shimmered and sparked as she zapped everywhere amongst the remaining foes, slicing through them with the force of the blade.  She couldn't keep it up long though; she wasn't immune to the impact shock of the sword versus its target.  She finished by blasting herself into the air, falling bade-first onto an ape general's back, then immediately using the sword as a lightning rod, zapping herself away and using the return strike to attack.  The elemental general had no time to react, ripped apart by the electric blast.  His regiment panicked, making them easy picking for Caelos' concentrated air blasts.  Up in the air though, Plazyma spotted something coming towards them.  Flying over to investigate, she groaned.  "An entire flock of Dreadwings...great."  Glancing at the holographic ground below she paused, staring; something black was down there looking up at her.  It was too slim to be an ape and too tall to be a gnorc or a rhynoc... She zapped herself down to the ground by it, leaping out of the lightning strike in a shower of sparks.  Whatever it was, all she saw was a mask over half its face, the side facing her.  It also wore a black, tattered cloak, which a mere second after her landing began to swiftly spiral around the strange figure, spiraling tightly into darkness, which shrank into an infinitesimal point.  In a sudden blast of dark blue electricity that sent her sprawling it zapped away.  "What the..." she asked in shock (metaphorically), staring dumbly after it.  

"PLAZYMA!!!" Flame called, "WATCH OUT!!!"  She looked up and yipped in fright, rolling aside as the Dreadwing flock passed over her and began dropping things.  Her roll was insufficient; with a sudden blast she was launched into the air, the falling bombs detonating on impact with the ground.  Shimmer spotted her and inhaled sharply, then exhaled just as hard, a swift stream of water energy coursing from her mouth and forming a sphere of water.  Plazyma fell headlong into the bubble, swirling around inside from the inertia before landing on the ground as it dissolved.  The electric dragoness struggled to her feet, then collapsed.  A beam of light shot up from her and she vanished.  She was out.

"Plazyma's down!" Neves shouted.  "Guys, keep going, we have to hold out!!"  Just after he said this, a sudden blast of light shot up in the distance and surrounded them, then a blast of shadow power.  When the two had died off, everyone on the battlefield turned to look.  Neves squinted, then took off his glasses.  "Shimmer, water please."  He sat up on his haunches and held his paws up in front of his face, a tube of ice forming.  Shimmer flicked her paws at him, water forming inside the tube into lenses.  Using this primitive element-telescope Neves tried to get a look at what had just happened off in the distance.  

"What is it?" Flame asked.

"I...don't know...it's hard to tell-...WHAT THE??  When did they get here??"

"Who??" they all asked at once, Neves dropping the telescope.

"Spyro and Cynder are training over there!!  But...wait...when..."

"Test failed," came a voice behind them all.  Before they could turn, something clubbed them upside the head all at once; in a blink they fell over from the impact into the Chronicler's den.  The elder dragon chuckled to himself.  "But, even though you failed the aspect of surprise recovery, you held out for quite a while."

"What's going on here??" Flame demanded.  "When did Spyro and Cynder get here?"

"A week from now, actually, if you insist on using time references out here."  Flame just stared.  

"Idiot..." Plazyma grumbled nearby.  She was propped up on a reading couch.  "You still don't get it do you dumbass?  We're in a realm where 'when' doesn't exist.  It doesn't matter 'when' Spyro and Cynder got here.  They got here when we did, or earlier, or they jsut got here five minutes ago, it doesn't matter because it doesn't exist here!"  She turned to the Chronicler, brushing her crests back and exposing her face.  "But still...did they get here before us?"

"I am not at liberty to talk about their stories yet, young ones.  Their training is specialized."

"That's not fair..." Flame grumbled.

The old dragon just smiled at him humorously.  "Is it then not fair that you are here and other fire dragons can barely even dream of receiving the elemental training of this level?  Is it fair that any of you are gifted beyond others of your alignments?  Spyro has power levels far, far beyond any of yours, but only he can realize this and access those levels."  Caelos signed quickly.  "Ah yes...Cynder is...a puzzle even to me.  Her alignment is fire, yet she has latent shadow powers as well.  But her training is specialized for a different reason.  We must purge the evil power still latent within her.  She has new elemental alignments that have been bonded to her with Gaul's dark magic powers.  She controls wind, fear, and poison in addition to her shadow and fire."  Caelos signed again, Neves nodding.

"Yep, it's just like drawing poison.  You get the blood flowing to pump the poison out.  By exercising her new bonds she's draining herself of the dark-magic amplifications.  But...I assume she'll still have these alignments?"

"It's unfortunate, but yes, until Malefor himself is finally vanquished, for it's from Malefor that Gaul's power is drawn.  That story will be unveiled later."

"But how are they here a week after we got here in world time?  Does that mean they can tell us what happens a week from when we left?"

The Chronicler laid down on the floor, crossing his forelegs.  "There is no answer to that, Neves, for what you suggest is a form of future prediction.  The Spyro and Cynder you saw out there are the result of the choices they made in your absence; even a small difference in choices, a delay or a reversal of a choice, could mean that they might not even be here at all.  When you exist outside the realm of time, you begin to see things differently.  It may not make sense to you to think of these things, for you've grown up and been trained your entire life to think in a time-constrained thought process where everything is completely linear."  Seeing their confused faces he sighed.  "I shouldn't do this, but..."  The floor seemed to slowly crystallize under them, becoming more and more transparent as if they were watching a cloudy ice crystal melt.  There, they saw Spyro and Cynder arguing outside the Settlement, Cynder rushing down the hill and disappearing.  "Watch Spyro."  They did, noticing him begin to walk away.  It shifted to the side to show Cynder taking off into the air, then back to Spyro.  He was watching her, clearly struggling with himself.  "If time were passing normally here, this would be what's happening right now.  Spyro's choice here could affect the entire balance of the war.  Should he pursue her and see to her safety, even though she just broke his heart...or should he leave her to think to herself and give both of them space?"

"Why were they-" Flame started, then checked himself.  "Oh...right.  Stories."

"You may see this, but what happened that night is between them."  They saw Spyro fly off after Cynder, cloaking himself with his air powers.  "That is another choice he had.  Should he let her know he's following, or should he stay silent and merely watch?  Had he chosen differently, the outcome would have been vastly different."  The floor went "cloudy" again, reforming into the marble tiles it had been before.  "You are still bound to the cycle of time, holding though you may be.  Do not try to bend your minds to the complexities of this realm.  It is not time for that yet.  You are here for your own sakes, do not concern yourselves with Spyro or Cynder until you return to the real world.  Once you return, you will need all your strengths you have gathered here."

"So we really were swept up before the 'hammer falls', as Spyro sometimes says..." Neves mumbled.

"If choices play out, then yes, that is certainly a possibility.  However, I say you will need your strengths for a different reason."

"May I interject quickly?" Plazyma asked.

"Your question is relevant to my explanation, so yes."

She tilted her head at him, wondering how he knew, then sighed.  "Well, while we were out there...I saw this...thing."

The others looked at her with querying expressions.  "Thing?" Shimmer asked.

"Yeah.  It stood on two legs, but...was dressed all in black, had this...this mask over half its face, with a red triangular eyehole, and...was electric."  Her eyes darkened.  "It had the exact same dark feel to it that I sensed at the Oceanic Isles, especially during the time Spyro was attacked just after releasing the dragon statues."

The Chronicler nodded with a low growl.  "Yes... we are not within a specific realm.  We are...between planes, you could say, though that's not nearly a concise enough explanation.  There are things in your world that do not belong there.  They are not of your plane of reality.  And they are in the background, pulling the strings."  He shook his head.  "But I must end my explanation there, for you will find out soon enough."

"And that white thing Spyro and Cynder saw at the Ancient City?"

"Likewise.  Where there is evil doing wrong, there is good working against it.  Do not concern yourselves with them either, for that is not your battle.  Only when the battle comes to you should you take concern."  With a swish of his tail, meals appeared for them.  "Eat and rest.  Much has been revealed, but your next training round will be the most brutal yet.  You will need all your strength."  With that he headed into the back room to supervise the books being written.  Flame picked up an apple and sighed, turning it over idly.

"So...there are others here in our world who don't belong?"

Neves stared at his food, his mind churning.  "Sounds to me like the black thing Plazyma saw is working against us, while the white thing only steps in against it where the black thing has actively tried to oppose us.  Erasing the mistakes it's committing."

"Or they could be working together.  There's no way of telling.  The black one didn't really attack me so much as force me back," Plazyma grumbled, then took a bite of meat.  

Caelos just dove into his meal.  Shimmer smirked and rolled her eyes.  "I guess Caelos is saying we shouldn't think about it, since the Chronicler just told us not to."  The gray dragon's tail swayed slowly in approval.  "But technically, Spyro and Cynder could be getting here after we leave, but since time doesn't exist here, they're still here simultaneously with us.  That's probably why we haven't been joined with them, because they're here, but not at the same...er...well, 'time' that we're here."

"You're hurting my head," Flame groaned, faceplanting.  He yipped and jerked back up, half his meal on his face.  The others burst out laughing.  "Guess I deserved that..." he growled, cleaning his pace with his paw like a cat.

"Classic Flame..." Shimmer giggled, then noticed that Neves had barely touched his food.  "Nev, you really should eat."

"Huh?  Oh...right."

After dinner was finished, the hourglass-door opened up, giving them leave to stretch their legs and sleep wherever they wanted.  Shimmer followed her ice dragon out to the courtyard, tailing him.  Something was up.  He ended up sitting down at the far end, staring up at one of the trees with swirling energy leaves.  She came up quietly behind him.  "Alright Seven...what's wrong?"

He shrugged.  "Nothing..."

"You barely ate.  That's not 'nothing' with you."

He sighed.  "Shimmer... I have new siblings due to hatch soon.  Every time I wake up here I can't stop thinking about it, and...seeing how things are going back home..."

She moved up next to him and nuzzled his neck.  "It'll be fine."

"No it won't."  He turned to look at her, trouble written all across his face.  "You heard what he said about choices affecting the outcomes of everything.  How can we be sure that choices made won't...you know..."

She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and chest, her neck under his.  "No one can be sure of anything.  Since we're on hold here, who's saying the Chronicler won't just plop us down back home the same time we took off from the Temple?  True, he's made references to time passage equivalents, but since time doesn't exist here, we could always end up looping back in time and landing at some more opportune moment in the past."

He draped his neck over hers, hugging her.  "I know...but...I just..."

"Stop thinking and just hold me."  They sat there in that embrace for a while before Neves sighed again and licked her neck.

"Thanks Mér..." he whispered.  She giggled; he had started secretly calling her that after finding it to mean "sea" in another language.  "I'm feeling tired...I'm gonna get some sleep."

She nodded and pulled away, nuzzling his nose.  "I'm gonna look around for a bit."  He nodded, then licked her cheek slowly before lying down.  She blushed a bit and headed off, going through the passages leading out to the ocean.  Padding down to the shore she laid down in the sand, staring out across the strange water at the purple horizon.  Above, a white aurora shimmered, green at the edges, letting off a faint but constant, unsteady pattern of crackles, pops and electric humming.  

"It's so peaceful here...I wonder where this ocean goes..." she mused to herself.  Pawsteps in the sand nearby made her look to see Caelos approaching; the way he held his wings by his side and how his head was rather low, he seemed apprehensive.  "Hey Caelos."  He just nodded to her, sitting down a few steps away.  "You okay?"  He shook his head.  "What's wrong?"  His eyes met hers with a searching look; they stared at each other for a while before Caelos silently sighed and looked away.  That look of heartache from the Warfang Ruins...  "Caelos...please tell me.  You keep acting strange around me and to be honest it's getting either aggravating or creepy."  When he didn't respond she got up and moved over to him.  "Caelos?  Come on."

He shivered a bit, then looked up at her.  ~I...I can't...~

"Look, if it's something about me, I think I have the right to know." He looked away again.  She leaned closer.  "Caelos...please."  He paused, then quickly looked up and licked her nose, blushing and looking away again.  She sat there staring at him.  "Wh..."

~Shimmer...I-I...I love you...~

Stunned, she just sat there staring at him, jaw agape.  "...Wha..."

He shivered and hid behind his wing.  ~I've loved you for the last two years...but...you and Neves...I d-didn't want to... I'm sorry...~

"Caelos..."

He shook his head.  ~I don't deserve you...you and Neves match more perfectly...~

Shimmer had no idea what to say.  "But...what about...I thought you and Plazyma?"

His wing fell, a pained look on his face.  ~She's not interested...I've tried so hard with her...~

"Have you tried, y'know...actually talking to her?"  He glanced up at her with a small glare.  "Er, well...in a manner of speaki-...y'know what, forget it.  Have you tried actually telling her face to face that you like her?"

~No.  She'd kill me.~

"I highly doubt that.  She's rough around the edges, but I don't think you've actually tried taking time to get to know her.  You took that curse not only to protect her...but to get her to notice you.  Didn't you?"  His eyes looked down at the sand, his head giving the tiniest nod.  "Caelos...you can't just sit in the background all the time protecting her.  She'll never see the real you until you put yourself before her."  He didn't react.  "Do you love her?"

~...I thought I did...I don't know anymore...it's hard to love someone when they're not returning it...~

"Just tell her.  Try to get to know her, try to get her to know you.  You need sleep."

~You do too.  You should get back inside.~

"Not until you do.  I just need some time near water before I head in."  He stood up and slowly trudged back up to the cliffside entrance.  Shimmer sat back down and looked out at the ocean again.  

In the courtyard, Plazyma ambled around until she found Neves sitting there staring at the tree, his chin on his paws.  "That's an odd way to sleep."

"I'm not asleep yet..." he grumbled, rolling onto his back.  "I can't stop thinking."

"Me neither..." she sighed.  He glanced up at her.

"Something wrong?"

She hung her head, hiding behind her crests.  "It's nothing..."

"Your body language says otherwise."

She sighed heavily and paused, then glanced up at him.  "Neves...What...what does love feel like?"

He shrugged.  "It's hard to say."  Caelos flew by on his way back from the beach; Neves watched Plazyma tracking him.  When the wind dragon had gone back inside, probably to sleep atop the bookshelves like he always did, Neves whispered "It's Caelos...isn't it?"

Plazyma's cheeks went red.  "Is...is it that obvious?"

"Not really.  But...what's the problem?"

"I...I don't know how to feel about him...when I first met him on Elamrof, I hated him...I was a jerk back then...but he wasn't exactly nice either...now he's always making sure everyone's okay, but he's still hanging in the back...I just...I don't know what to think about the dumbass."

The ice dragon shrugged again.  "I take it you've never tried actually talking to him without being nasty or rebellious?"

"...No..."

"Try that first, then start wondering what to think."  He took off his glasses and rolled onto his side, his back to her.  "I need to try to sleep though.  Go get your rest, the Chronicler's probably gonna wake us up before we've had a full sleep."

She glared at him, but then realized he was right.  Sighing to herself she meandered back to the junction room, lying down in the bowl-shaped depression in the floor and staring at the vaulted stone ceiling above.  On the shelf nearby she heard Caelos quietly breathing, then saw his tail flop over the edge.  She stared at him for the longest time, thinking to herself, then rolled the other way and closed her eyes.  
Chapter 24

wheeee, I'm flying.
*crash*
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
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darkdruid1206's avatar
New and old typos

Furhter down the path they came across a ruinous structure