Hi all! I've been meaning to write a Spyro story for quite some time, so here is my first one. I got the idea while playing Spyro the Dragon, the first game in the series.

You've Got to be Joking!

The sun shone down upon the Artisan world, where the residents of the kingdom were spending their Saturday afternoon outside, visiting, playing checkers, or conversing about times gone by. A certain young purple dragon was running around with his dragonfly friend, chasing sheep. This was, of course, Spyro, the small but brave dragon who had who had saved the dragon worlds from a certain Gnasty Gnorc. The dragonfly was named Sparx, and he was Spyro's best friend and had been his assistant on the great adventure.

At last Spyro skidded to a halt and watched the frantic sheep hop away on the bright green grass to graze in a more quiet area. "You know, Sparx," he said, "after that ordeal saving our kingdom and defeating Gnasty Gnorc, everything we did for fun seems pretty boring now."

"Bzzz, bzz, buzzzz bzz bzzz," said Sparx, which meant, "Hunting down Gnasty Gnorc was definitely exciting, but let's hope no more danger will come to these lands."

"I know," said Spyro, smiling. "I guess we'll have to find new things to do these days."

"You will," replied a nearby dragon, who was sitting on the grass relaxing. "We know you will be a great protector of all dragons, but until threat actually comes, if it ever does, you should relax and enjoy being young, until you end up like them." He pointed to some of the older dragons, who were playing chess and yelling in protest whenever one of their pieces was knocked off the board.

"Well, that's true," Spyro nodded. "But how are you sure that I'll be a great defender of the dragon worlds?"

The dragon, whose name was Enzo, looked slightly surprised. "Because you defeated that awful gnorc, of course!" he said. "If we had known you didn't have the courage or persistence to pursue him, we wouldn't have made you do it at all. But we thought you might make it, and you did." He grinned at Spyro.

"Oh, I made it, all right," replied Spyro. "And now Gnasty –" He paused suddenly, confused. "Wait a second. You guys made me do it? But there was really no choice. I was the only one who escaped being crystallized."

"Well, yes," said Enzo, a bit flustered. "That's right, of course. And believe me, Gnasty's minions did everything they could to keep you away, but it didn't take as long as we expected for you to release us." He nodded.

Spyro stared at him. Something didn't sound right. How could Enzo, or anyone else, know how long or how hard the gnorc minions had been to defeat? All the other dragons had been trapped at the time, frozen in crystal. And what did he mean by "as long as we expected"?

"Weren't you all expecting me to fight as hard as I did?" he asked.

"Of course!" answered Enzo. "Of course we were. And now we know just how brave and strong you are, and you'll be ready if danger decides to show its face – um, again."

"You sound pretty cool about the fact that Gnasty Gnorc almost took over our home," said Spyro, still mixed up. "It was a tough situation. Weren't you all afraid that I might have gotten trapped in crystal, too?"

"Oh, no," said Enzo lightly. "Somehow, we knew you wouldn't."

Spyro was now thinking a bit suspiciously. "It's like you knew that Gnasty Gnorc would wait to see if the smallest dragon would come to face him –" He suddenly cut himself off, frowning. "Wait! You guys all knew that's what would happen! You knew I would be spared being trapped and would go looking to fight the gnorc alone! Is that right? What was it, a challenge for me that everyone planned?" he began to freak out.

Enzo smiled ruefully and uneasily. "You're not only a good fighter, but a clever thinker as well. Is that what you really believe?"

Spyro turned around and dashed across the grassy plain towards Magnus, a dragon whom he knew most well. Sparx flew behind him. Interrupting the conversation Magnus was having with a few other dragons, Spyro flamed the air to get his attention. "Tell me the truth," he began, without waiting to be asked why he had been running in such a hurry. "Did you plan for me to be the one to fight Gnasty Gnorc?"

The dragons looked at one another. "What makes you think that, Spyro?" asked Magnus in amusement. The youngest dragon just looked at him, waiting impatiently for a direct answer.

The older dragon sighed. "Well, I guess there's no hiding it now." He looked at Spyro and sighed again. "Well, Spyro, you're right. I don't know how you could have found out…oh." He glanced around to see Enzo, waving at him with a meek smile. "You see," Magnus continued, "It, well, was sort of a test. We decided to see if you were up to being the next great dragon hero. You've always had a feisty, adventure-seeking spirit and you're always full of energy, and so we knew you would most likely find the strength to defeat the gnorc, and have a fun time along the way."

Spyro's head was spinning. He thought of everything he'd gone through – all the gem-minions he'd faced, all the hard work of getting to seemingly impossible locations to retrieve treasure, all the times he'd fainted and chased those annoying thieves – what had ever happened to those eggs, anyway?

The point was, he'd thought that Gnasty was aiming to take over the dragon kingdom by his own free will, but the other dragons had planned it since the beginning! Why? How could this be?

"How did you get Gnasty to agree to this plan, then?" Spyro challenged.

"We made a compromise. If he would fight his hardest and command his minions that he created from gems to fight their hardest as well, we dragons would give him a free ticket to a tropical island vacation."

"That's where he is right now," added Lateef, another dragon standing nearby.

"Well, what about all the animals that turned into butterflies to feed Sparx?" Spyro asked anxiously. "They never changed like that before all of this!"

"A spell was put on them to make them transform when attacked," explained Magnus. "Afterwards, we used the spell book to remove it from the remaining animals."

"And the fairies? What about all the interviews?" Spyro demanded.

"Yes, the fairies were in on it too," Magnus admitted, "and the news interviews had been previously rehearsed, except by you, of course."

"By the way, we were willing to be frozen in magic crystal for a while so you could go on your first quest. We also tried to help you out in the rough parts," the dragon Marco spoke up.

"But it wasn't even a real quest!" Spyro protested. "And helping me!"

Then it hit him. All the things they'd told him when he'd freed them:

"Be careful, Spyro! This boss has many tricks up his sleeve."

"You're in Gnasty's world now, Spyro, and you are the dragon who must defeat him."

"Just toast those enemies and collect the treasure!"

"Spyro, you're not afraid of those big, noisy, gigantic, awful beasts, are you?"

"You have much to learn first. Do you know what the dragonfly following you is doing?"

Spyro suddenly spun around to face Sparx, who was hovering in the air. "Sparx! Don't tell me you knew about all of this!"

"Bzz! Bzzz bzz, bzz," the dragonfly said, looking surprised. He'd said, "No! But I suspected something funny might be going on."

"I don't believe this!" exclaimed Spyro. "What was the point of it all again?"

One of the oldest dragons, Asher, answered him. "We needed to see if our assumptions about you becoming a great dragon with high fighting skills were correct. And so you proved it."

Spyro closed his eyes. It was too much! The older dragons seemed to have meant well, but to him it was simply a disgusting trick. With that thought, he felt himself falling backwards and landing with a thump on the grass.

"Bzz bzzzz!" was the next thing Spyro heard. He opened his eyes to see Sparx buzzing above him and calling his name. The purple dragon sat up, and saw that he was in one of the interior rooms within Stone Hill. "Sparx!" he said. "What is it? What's going on?"

Sparx buzzed him the message that it was lunchtime, and the other dragons were looking for him. Spyro realized that he'd been sleeping all morning, and that his appalling dream had ended. With a shiver of relief, he followed Sparx outside, where a few dragons were eating. Magnus put Spyro's food in front of him and nodded at him. "Finally awake, huh? You'd better eat your lunch now, because later we all must talk of the impending danger – there is some other tyrant trying to invade our kingdom! We have to get planning! You'll need to be ready, so eat now."

Spyro stared at his elder in horror and slowly began backing up. He turned around and started to run, only to crash into a stone wall and fall to the ground, knocked out. Sparx, Magnus, and the other dragons present watched this, bewildered, and then looked at each other in complete confusion.

THE END

Thank you for reading my first Spyro story! Please review!

By the way, here's a cool (well, I think it's cool) glitch in the first Spyro game: Go to the level called "Dark Passage". Find the place where the dragon named Apara was trapped. Go past that platform, fly over the gap, go up the stairs (getting rid of any dogs along the way), and get rid of the cupid. Next to where the cupid is is a small pool of the deadly purple water. Jump into it. See what happens!