Super Metal Sonic: All right, my first Spyro fic. I hope all you like.

A Taste of Darkness

Four months after the defeat of Red. The Dragon Worlds were celebrating the Festival of Elders, a two weeklong celebration for an ancient legend.

"Hey Spyro, what is this legend the dragons are celebrating?" Hunter asked Spyro,

"The legend is called The Heart of Zyrax," Spyro replied, Gildas then approached Spyro and his friends, "Spyro, what are you doing," Gildas asked,

"I was just about to tell Hunter and the others about the Heart of Zyrax, Gildas" Spyro answered.

"Ah yes. Well, allow me to help tell the story. Gildas said as he sat down to join in with the young dragon and his friends' activities.

"Long ago, five thousand years before dragons were banished from the Forgotten Worlds, there lived a dragon wizard called Zyrax. He was said to have been more powerful then all the wizards in his realm" Spyro begin, his voice filled with excitement as it always does whenever he thinks about the legend.

"So what did he do that made him a legend?" Blink asked,

"Back then, dragons were at war with each other, Beast Makers fought Magic Crafters and Peace Keepers fought Dream Weavers" Gildas replied, "Then, on this very day all those years ago, Zyrax stood between the warring dragons and using his magic, stopped them fighting and solved the problems that started the wars".

"Zyrax then untied the dragons and became the first Dragon Elder. And so, every year, when the red star that appeared during Zyrax coronation shines for two week; we celebrate with this festival" Spyro finished.

"What's the part of the Heart of Zyrax about then?" Hunter asked,

"The legend continues to tell; that shortly before his death, Zyrax turned his heart and his powers into a gem stone, were he then hid it so no one could use it to undo what he had done" Gildas said, "And now, let us return to the celebrations".

So Spyro and his friends returned to the festivities, not knowing what significant the legend will have in their lives.

The Bloodthunder Mountains are the most dangerous in the Dragon worlds. Thunder storms, rock slides and ice makes the mountains too dangerous for even yetis and dragons to live on, and yet people were indeed working on the mountains.

The creatures could be called gnorcs, but only by someone who never seen a gnorc before. Their large builds were matching that of Gnasty Gnorc's, with their muscles like beads on a st

"FASTER, YOU LAZY PILES OF GNORC DUNG!"

The beast turned as they heard the thuds of heavy footsteps approaching.

"I swear by my Chem, gnorcs would be a better then using these sakorcs" the voice boomed, drowning out the sound of everything around it.

The sakorcs cowered as a golem strode towards them. The golem, a being of clay, stood at 12 ft in height, clenching fists like sledgehammers in anger.

"The master wants it found now, while the red star is still in its aliment," the golem said, facing the sakorc's leader,

"Do not fear, Lord Korsporer," the sakorc leader said, "my men shall find the gem".

"Master! Master!" one of the sakorcs suddenly cried out, "Skr found it! Skr find!"

Korsporer stomped towards the sakorc apparently called Skr to see it standing beside a stone tablet and began to examine it,

"I shall tell the master we've found it" Korsporer finally said,

"No need, I am already here"

Korsporer turned; walking towards him was a dragon wizard. It was hard to describe the sorcerer as he was hidden with a number of robes.

"Master-" Korsporer began but was stopped by the wizard,

"Silence," the dragon said as he strode to the tablet, he then placed a clawed hand on the tablet as he examined it.

"Yes, this is it. At last, after eight hundred years of searching, I've found the Heart of Zyrax"

At this, the wall next to the tablet opened to reveal a temple like corroder.

Eyes belonging to dragon, sakorc and golem peered into the gloom of the hallway.

"Bruticus" the dragon mage eventually said,

"Yes, my lord? The sakorc leader replied,

"Send one of the sakorcs to retrieve the gem"

Bruticus then pointed at one of the sakorcs, motioning for it to go through the corridor.

A minute after the sakorc entered the temple and disappeared into the darkness a blood-culturing scream was heard before it abruptly finished.

"It would appear," Korsporer unemotionally said, "that the Heart is well protected"

"Yes," the dragon slowly said, "it is just as the tablet says then. Only a hero can make it through the traps and reach the Heart gem"

"I shall send my men to complete this task," Bruticus suggested, hoping to win favour with his master,

"The entrance will close when the red star moves out of it aliment within the next two weeks, how will we find this hero in time?" Korsporer asked,

After a moment of silence, the Dragon wizard answered, "We shall perform the Rite of AshkEnte"

"My master, is that wise?" Korsporer asked, "To summon…Him?"

"He will have the answers we seek" the dragon wizard said as he began the preparations for the ritual. A smirk appeared on the mage's mouth as he thought about all those wizards used skulls and magic candles to cast the Rite of AshkEnte, when he proved that the spell can easily be done with three sticks and four cc of mouse blood.

The air in the centre of the magic circle shimmered and thickened, and suddenly contained a tall, dark figure. Most of it was hidden by black rode and hood; it held a long scythe in one skeletal hand.

WELL? a voice as deep and heavy as lead lids closing, WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Death raised his head. His skull was frozen in a permanent grin; his empty eye sockets glowed with a bright blue light.

"I need to know who is the hero that can get to the Heart of Zyrax?" the dragon asked,

THERE IS ONLY ONE HERO THAT I CAN THINK OF. Death answered SPYRO THE DRAGON.

"I've heard of him, master" Bruticus commented, "He has beaten many foes, including the falling Elder Red"

YES. Death replied AND TO ANSWER YOUR INEVITABLE QUESTION, YOU WILL FIND HIM IN THE ARTISAN HOME WORLD.

"Very well, I send back to your domain" the dragon wizard said. Death never took his eye off the dragon as he faded away.

"Shall I go and retrieve him?" Korsporer asked, bowing slightly,

"No need," the dragon said, "I've got the perfect spell to use".

Meanwhile, in the Artisan home world. Spyro was returning home,

"What a night huh Sparks?" Spyro said to his Dragonfly companion,

"Yeah and tomorrow is probably going to be just as great" Sparks replied in his kazoo sounding voice,

"Well good night Sparx"

"Night, Spyro" with that the two friends went to their beds and fell asleep.

The dragon wizard looked up from the piece of parchment he was writing on to the immobile form of Korsporer and smiled.

It was amazing how a scroll of parchment with holy words written on them can be used to bring a pile of sculptured and beaked clay to life. And how simple it is, by means of adding to the parchment or Chem as the golems call it, to give the golem new orders.

As the top of Korsporer's head is place back on with a click of pottery, the two hollow holes that made the golem's eyes flared with a fiery light,

"Do you understand your new orders?" the wizard asked,

Korsporer nodded, "Yes master"

"Then go" the dragon wizard said and turned to his spell book and then began to chant the words of a spell.

Korsporer watched as his master begins to decay right before his eyes. The flesh rotting off the dragon's bone, soon the body crumbled into dust as a dark shadow arose and soared towards the Dragon worlds.

The golem looked at the dust that was his master and then left the words, "I shall await your return".

Spyro slept, oblivious to the shadow that entered his house. As the shadow reached Spyro, it paused as if it was watching the sleeping dragon and then wrapped it self around Spyro and absorb into him.

Spyro then opened his eyes, yet the eyes did not belong to him. They were filled with evil and malice.

"The first part of my plan is almost complete" Spyro said, as he left the house, laughing coldly.

To be continued