kyser the ice dragon: Thanks for the constant support!

gr4n1t3 th3 dr4g0n: Chapter is finished! You were a big help in getting this out! :)

SpyroandCynderloveforever {Victor (Guest)}: Glad to know that you liked the chapter! Good luck with your fanfiction account! :)

RayJay1499: Glad to know you like the story! We try our best when writing Spyro and Cynder to get them as close to the game counterparts as we can! :)

Cynder's POV

Cynder stared absentmindedly at the drawing she was working on, moving between colors and blending them together as she thought. Today was another freestyle day since they had just recently completed a larger project, so she was free to draw whatever she wanted. Typically, this meant that she drew a picture to go with what she was thinking about.

The drawing had started out as a simple sketch, lines stretching together to create shapes, but had quickly turned into something else. The scene had – somewhere along the way of Cynder's train of thought – taken on hues of darker grays and green. There was more shadowing in the picture with just a hint of moonlight. It was only a reminder to something that had been bothering her.

That night… she thought as she chose another color from the package of utensils, unable to stop the strange feeling that ran through her. She thought she had been imagining things, especially since Spyro hadn't seemed to notice anything…

"Something just isn't right." The former dragon whispered, shaking her head as she grabbed another utensil. How exactly was she supposed to let Spyro know about what was bothering her? What if he hadn't seen anything? What if whatever she had seen was just her imagination? She let out a sigh as her hand stopped, poised above the paper.

A shadow fell across her paper, causing her to look at the owner. "Not feeling well today, Cynder?" Mrs. O'Neil had come over, most likely because of the brooding aura the former dragon was emanating. Cynder mustered up the best smile she could give in her current state.

"I'm alright." Her answer was short, but she knew she had to elaborate. Her teacher was pretty nice when it came to flexibility, but she could always tell when something was bothering a student. "I just have a few things blocking my thoughts lately, that's all."

"Well, you know if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here." The polite expression had been used at the beginning of their stay here and Cynder was truly glad for it. There are just some things that would be too complicated to tell her. Mrs. O'Neil sat down in the seat next to her, intently studying the teen's drawing. "That's a very nice forest. A bit downcast, but the shading brings an air of mystery to it. Do you draw any inspiration from places you visited?"

The ideal chit-chat was something that she always looked forward to. The teacher always made time to talk to the students individually. A small, genuine smile appeared on Cynder's face as she looked back at the drawing. "Yeah, I sometimes do. I was out in the forest the other day just enjoying the scenery."

And flying. She left out the last part, knowing it would sound completely absurd if she said such a thing. Her teacher's face turned slightly concerned at her words.

"Well, you be careful around that forest. Some… rumors have been flying around about some creature making its nest there for the time being." The older woman's words caused Cynder to inwardly pale.

She couldn't mean… whatever I saw wasn't an illusion. Then what was it? Instead of voicing her inner thoughts, the teen decided to put her mentor's mind at ease, even if it was just secretly. "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Many hours later and long after their classes were done, Cynder sat on the edge of her bed, covers half pulled back. Lily was already fast asleep, light breaths coming from her side of the room. They had met up with the two boys earlier after class to discuss a group project they had to do for one of their classes. Lily had gotten pretty fired up about what they were doing, which had not surprisingly drained her strength. I'm pretty sure she won't wake up, but I'll be extra careful, just in case.

Her thoughts briefly flew to their plans for the next day. After classes concluded, the two girls would take a walk around the campus. They had little time to do so lately because of their increased work load – and our poor excuses to allow some time for investigating – and the weather was supposed to be fairly nice. Maybe we could walk near the forest. I know Mrs. O'Neil told me to be careful, but it would give us a chance to see it during the day, and I could observe through the viewpoint of a human then.

Her mind made up, Cynder placed one foot after the other carefully on the floor, feeling her bare feet hit the carpet below. The movement barely made a sound, but she still made sure that Lily hadn't moved. It only took a few steps to make it to the window. Thankfully the air outside wasn't too different temperature wise than the room, so she didn't have to worry about a sudden wind waking her friend up either.

The latch to the window came undone easily and she was for once glad that they didn't have a security system monitoring their dorms. Our investigations would be a lot harder if that was the case. Let's just hope that someone doesn't discover our outings. After one last glance at her roommate, the former dragon placed her hands on the windowsill, inching her way towards the night sky beyond. The window would be left open for her return, and she wasn't planning to let her investigation take too long; she did have plans tomorrow.

"I'll just take a quick look. That should put my mind at ease." The words left her in a quiet whisper as she was perched against the outside edge of the dorm. Taking a deep breath, Cynder closed her eyes, pushing off of the building as she thought about flying: the wind gliding past her scales, catching under her wings to lift her higher. Even when she had been under Malefor's influence, flying had been the one constant that she could – secretly at that time – enjoy. Despite the fact that her wings were now much smaller than her former wingspan, the feeling was still the same.

Soon enough, those same wings lifted her into the warm air and towards the forest. The moonlight had waned since their last visit, casting less light than what had been portrayed in her picture. It might be more challenging to catch a glimpse of something in this light; whatever it is could easily hide among the shadows. Her emerald eyes narrowed as the sea of trees came into view. Luckily enough, I'm plenty used to the dark, if I can even count that as something to be proud of…

The dragon slanted her body, her dark wings following they cut the air around her. She turned towards the western grove of trees, remembering that she had first seen the strange glinting form around there. The first night they had flown, they had both been distracted from their lack of sleep. She had only seen the slight change in lighting due to an accident, and even then it could have just been a hallucination.

"What am I even looking for anyway?" The question slipped from her as she shook her head, scanning the scenery below her. She could have seen anything: the reflection of water through the trees or even an object that someone could have carelessly thrown away. Mrs. O'Neil did say that there were rumors of a strange creature lurking around though…Just as the thought surfaced in her mind, a shadow seemed to morph against one of the further trees. No, the shadow is moving. That's what I'm looking for! Her wings beat against the air, silently but picking up speed.

The shadow moved several yards further, with Cynder following closely behind, before the glint appeared again. Patches of moonlight illuminated the shadow, causing surprise to course through her, nearly stopping her course. The bright green glint that had caught her attention the nights before was clearly there but… "The shape… it almost looks like a…"

Before her musings could continue, something slammed into her back. The force of the impact disrupted her flight, causing her to fall towards the ground at an unnatural angle. Her wings moved futilely, the angle of the wind – which by now seemed to have changed, urging her towards the ground below – made flight impossible. The trails of an element blazed blood red against her scales from where she had been hit as she impacted with the ground.

As her strength drained from her, the shadow disappeared from her sight. Everything then faded to utter emptiness.

AnimeWolfGirl9: Hi everyone! Well, I'm finally done with the chapter! Haha, sorry I didn't realize it had been so long since we updated. Oops~! We were plotting and stuff. Big things are coming, people!

AnimeWolfGirl16: *cough* OCs *cough* XD

AnimeWolfGirl9: A-ah, are you alright?! Oh, never mind. It's what you hinted at that's important! But no spoilers allowed before the big chapter~! :D

AnimeWolfGirl16: Fine… I'm going to have a lot of work to do. Time to look at those descriptions and information again. If you have any extra information you'd like to tell us about your OCs before the chapter is finalized, please post in a review. The main ones we have so far are:

Andre Akari from SirisTheKitsune

Michael from MurasakiKuroAkai

Siren Mooncolt from Queen Chrysalis (Guest)

Elaine Moon (with mentions of the other characters listed) from Metal Kor (Guest)

In regards to the story, anyone have any thoughts on what happened to Cynder?

AnimeWolfGirl9: Yes, any thoughts? I could say my thoughts, but that would spoil a few things… We've been planning this chapter for a while, but it just took a bit longer than planned to get out. I hope it was (somewhat) worth the wait though!

AnimeWolfGirl16: I can guarantee the next chapter won't take nearly as long as this one did to get out. :) Until the next chapter though, have a great week!