Chapter 11: End of the Beginning
"Are you sure this is a good idea Spyro? He could still be dangerous." Elora said as she watched the Dream Weavers come and take Shadow away.
"We couldn't just leave him there to die." Spyro said. Spyro was now bandaged up like the rest of his friends. They were at the docks in the Artisan home-world. Bianca had closed the barrier around the dragon world successfully. Spyro had insisted that they bring Shadow back with them. He was under someone else's control and it wasn't his fault, was what Spyro said to justify his actions.
"I just hope that this won't come back to bite us." Flame said.
"You guys worry too much." Spyro said. The balloon with Shadow and the Dream Weavers lifted off and they set sail for their home-world. The Dream Weavers had taken him in order to repair Shadow's mind as best they could. His mind had been so warped from the dark magic that they weren't sure how much of it they could save. They would study his mind and then weave together the missing pieces while he slept in an effort to restore his sanity and his memories.
"Elder Cosmos's funeral is today." Ember said in a somber tone. "Do you think we should go and pay our respects?" She asked.
"We just got back. I don't really want to be around all of those grieving people right now." Spyro said looking down at his paws. The loss of one of the Elders still didn't completely register with him. It didn't feel like he was really gone; going to the funeral would only drive the fact home and Spyro didn't want to deal with it.
"Okay." Ember said quietly. There was silence among the group for a moment until Elora said that it was time the she, Hunter, and Bianca returned home. Everyone said their farewells to the Avalarians before they made their way to the super-portal.
"Well, what do we do now?" Flame asked.
"Relax I guess." Spyro said. He really wasn't sure what to do with himself now that the adventure was over. His wounds from Shadow hadn't fully healed despite Bianca's healing potion, and it bothered him when he walked. Resting would be the best thing to do. Spyro began to walk in the direction of his home with Ember, Flame, and Rali following behind.
"Gracia, now that Elder Cosmos has passed away, you may assume the role as the Magic Crafters Elder." Elder Nestor said. He stood at the head of a table within the Crafters temple. Around him were the other Elders along with Cosmos's family. They all looked on at a young dragoness. Her scales were a sea green color and her crest was a dark green, Gracia's wings were gold with blue wing-sails and her front side was a pearly white. She stood alone at the table end opposite of Nestor. Her fists were clenched tightly at her sides, a determined look on her face, but the pain of loosing her father still reflected in her eyes.
"Do you feel that you can assume the responsibilities and powers of an Elder despite your inexperience? Or would you leave the position in the hands of another?" Elder Titan asked. Gracia looked down at her feet for a quick moment. Being Cosmos's only heir, there weren't any siblings she could give the position to. There was always her mother, but many felt that she lacked the abilities needed to be a good leader, and she didn't trust anyone else. Gracia knew that people looked at her with high expectations which put an enormous pressure on her. They all saw that she would be a capable Elder one day, or that's what they all said. But now she was faced with a life altering decision all too soon. She hadn't gone through all of the proper training yet.
"Gracia, this is your choice and your choice alone. We can't force you to do something that isn't in your heart. If you would like time to think about this, then we will let you. But a choice must be made within the week. A land cannot go without a leader for too long." Elder Nestor's words eased Gracia some.
The room went silent as they waited for Gracia's answer.
"I'll do it." She said in a loud but slightly shaky voice.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm ready to become the Crafter's Elder." She said in a steady voice this time.
"Very well then…." Nestor said. "The ceremony will begin tomorrow at sunset." With that the Elders and family began to file out of the gathering room leaving Gracia alone. Gracia's mother stopped at the door leading out and turned back to look at her daughter. She looked very similar to her Gracia. Gracia looked back at her mother.
"I'm proud of you." She said. "Your father would be proud too." A sad smile crossed Mona's face.
"Thanks Mom." Gracia said. Mona turned and left knowing that her daughter wasn't one who was fond of being coddled, but she always let her know that she was there to support her.
As soon as her mother was gone, Gracia slumped down into one of the chairs. Being silent through the whole funeral Gracia finally began sobbing.
About a week later, Elder Nestor returned to his temple. He sat in the study going over some papers regarding the Banished Elders. He looked up when the sound of footsteps came from the hall. It was a Peace Keeper with a lean build. He was clad in light armor and had a short sword at his side.
"Sgt. Dustin, what can I do for you?" Nestor asked.
"Elder Titan sent me. He says that all reported Earth dragons have been contained. Now all that's left to do is to figure out a way to send them home." The young dragon said. Elder Nestor knew that this was another issue that had to be taken care of. The only problem is that the barrier was closed now. Would it be possible to send the dragons back? Since there was a portal linking Avalar to the dragon world even though there were barriers around them, then it could be possible to make a portal that lead to Earth.
"Alright, I'll get started organizing those needed to help send the Earth dragons back home." Nestor replied. Dustin gave a quick bow before he turned and left.
Four Dream Weavers sat in a circle around a young dragon. The Weaver's eyes stared blankly at nothing as their minds entered the one of the young dragon in front of them. They searched and read through the thoughts, dreams and memories of the sleeping young dragon. If the young dragon's mind were a blanket it would be a blue, torn, and tattered one. Once the Weavers finished mapping out Shadow's mind-blanket they inserted their dream-magic into the blanket like a needle into fabric. Slowly they began to sew the ripped pieces of the blanket back together. The spots that they were able to find were weaved back in, in the same blue color. Some spots, however, they couldn't recover immediately, so the thread ran white.
Shadow slept unaware of the repairs being made to his mind. Slowly things were coming back to him in his dreams, memories that he had forgotten because of the dark magic's negative effects. There were many people that he re-met in his dreams. Some people he didn't remember, just blank faces from his past. Others held a more prominent meaning. The old faces of the Banished Elders appeared from time to time. He could remember each of them clearly enough. He remembered that it was Clenten that trained him the most. He remembered that Genus was always angry and that he stayed out of the old Peace Keeper's way. Gyra was always kind to him.
Shadow's dreams stretched farther back into his memories. The face of an old black dragon with piercing, ice blue eyes entered his mind. This dragon seemed very familiar. Shadow spent some time thinking of who this dragon could be, but his name escaped the young dragon like a dandelion seed on the wind. He remembered their last meeting during his battle with Spyro. He watched the old dragon as if he was some kind of spectator looking at a movie. He didn't feel like he was there in the middle of the memory, an out-of-body experience. He watched as the old dragon advanced toward him and raised his dark-light staff. The memory ended there.
Shadow's mind floated on through other memories as the Dream Weavers worked, being pulled along by their mind-threads. Shadow could remember other dragons as well, he felt he should remember them, but they were from long ago in his early childhood. They could've been his parents, or relatives. They might've been old friends. Shadow couldn't remember them. The mind-thread had run white.
It was a few more hours before the Dream Weavers' work was done. Carefully one of the dragons picked Shadow up and carried him to a containment cell in one of the smaller temples. There they would watch him to make sure that he recovered. The cell was fairly small, but clean. It had a bed in the right corner in the back and a table against the opposite wall. A small window was placed high near the ceiling. The Weaver placed Shadow on the bed and walked towards the door of the room. He stared back at Shadow for a few seconds. He had seen some disturbing things in that kid's mind. Silently the dragon walked out and closed the door behind him.
Shadow awoke with a start. His yellow eyes darted around the room as his mind scrambled to register where he was at. The pale light of the moon filtered in though the small window in the room casting a silver square on the floor. Shadow calmed down when he realized that he wasn't in any danger. In fact he was lying in a comfortable bed. The sweet scent of freshly cut fruit wafted through the room. Shadow spotted a bowl of cut melon the table on the other side of the room. Shadow realized how hungry he was and darted for the bowl ignoring his sleep stiffened limbs and proceeded to gulp down the fruit with a ravenous appetite. The melon didn't satisfy his immediately so it took a few moments before his belly realized that it was full. Shadow licked the juiced out the bottom of the bowl as his eyes scanned the room. It wasn't very big and there was only one door. The door had a small window in it for observers to look in. When Shadow was done with the bowl he placed it back on the table and made his way back to the bed. It was then he realized that his mind was now clear; clearer than it had been in weeks. He could clearly recall some memories and think straight. He no longer had that feral mindset stalking in the background waiting to take over, that beast the dark-shard had spawned. Shadow sat down on the bed and looked down at his forepaws. He wondered what happened to him, he wondered if it was all a dream. No, it was too real. He could remember Spyro's face when they first met in Cloud Temples. He could remember killing Gnorc. He could remember his previous master (before the Banished Elders took him in), that black dragon, and how he ripped the dark shard from his body. He remembered the pain he felt. He could barely remember being carried back to a balloon by these people around him. He assumed it was Spyro and his friends.
Shadow's mind wandered for a while before coming back to his master. He wondered why he took the shard from him. It must've had something to do with his unpredictable behavior. He then wondered why his master didn't come for him. He had no idea how many days passed since their last encounter. It could've been weeks for all he knew. Suddenly he remembered his master's name, Dark.
A sound jarred Shadow from his thoughts. A dragon was walking down the hall and stopped in front of his room.
"I see you're awake." The dragon said.
"What… what happened to me? Where am I?" Shadow asked. It was strange hearing his voice again. It was somehow different.
"You are in the Dream Weavers world. You were brought here on Spyro's request and we repaired your mind. So… what's your name young one?"
"My name's Shadow." Shadow replied.
"I see. How much do you remember?" The Dream Waver asked. Shadow thought hard for a moment. He felt that he could remember most things, but he wasn't sure if some things he forgot were due to normal memory loss or the dark-shard's affects.
"Enough I guess." He said after a few moments.
"Your memory may not be completely restored yet. That dark shard you had in you badly damaged your mind. You were pretty close to the point of being completely changed. Don't worry though. The mind-thread is designed to recall the memories that we weren't able to immediately fix. You see, you can't forget something once you remember it. It just may take a while for it to come back."
"You fixed my mind?" Shadow asked slightly disturbed at the thought of having someone poke around in his head.
"Yes. You're should be pretty much normal now. But we will have to keep you under observation for a while." Shadow was silent for a moment before he nodded his head.
"You should go back to sleep. You may find that you remember more in the morning." The Dream Weaver said before leaving. Shadow laid down on the bed and looked at the moon beams cast on the floor. There were still some important memories that he couldn't remember, he could feel it. Shadow closed his eyes and drifted back into a deep slumber.
A few more weeks passed. Spyro and his friends were all completely healed. Things had returned to relative normalcy and the thought of the Banished Elders was all but forgotten, except by the Elders. They still kept on high alert. With the Banished Elders still out there the world wasn't safe. As long as the inhabitants didn't get worked up into a panic then things would be alright.
The Magic Crafters had discovered a way to send the Earth dragons back home. They found a way around the barrier to let the dragons through. They would then use portal magic to bridge the gap between the dragon world and Earth. They would have Dream Weavers go through the Earth dragons' minds to extract the information needed to send them back to as close to their home as possible. It would be a major task and it would take days to send them all home, but at least they could do it.
Elder Nestor stood on a hill overlooking the Earth dragons that had been sent to Stone Hill. There had to be at least two hundred of them. They were all of varying types from the classic European dragon to the Mexican amphithere. A particular dragon caught Nestor's eye. The slender aqua green seemed to stand out from the more neutral colors of the other dragons. Elder Nestor glided down to meet the young dragon.
"Well Rali, I see that you've made it."
"Yes." The Chinese dragon replied. Spyro, Flame, and Ember stepped out from behind Rali and greeted the Elder.
Preparations for the transporting carried on long into the night. Rali and his friends had shuffled off into a corner of the large town square waiting for Rali's turn. The Dream Weavers had been busy extracting memories of the dragons' home lands and giving them to the Crafters who had constructed a super portal. The portal was in the middle of the square. Each dragon was walked up to it and had their memories read. Then the Crafters would change the portals landing point to where ever the memories directed.
Rali had dozed off a couple of times, and each time he awoke there were less and less dragons than he remembered. Then the dragon transporting stopped for the night in order for the Weavers and Crafters to get some rest, but they began again early the next morning.
Rali grew more and more excited as he felt that his turn was approaching and fast. The thought of seeing his parents and his home again nearly made his heart burst. Spyro, Ember, and Flame just sat back and watched as Rali stared at the large portal. With each dragon that went in his time with them grew shorter and shorter. Before long Rali was in line himself and only four dragons stood between him and his home. But then something made him hesitant. Rali looked back solemnly at Spyro, then Flame, and lastly Ember. The three sat quietly off to the side watching him. Rali then turned his head towards Elder Nestor who was off attending to other matters.
Now only two dragons separated him from his home then one, then it was his turn. The Weaver that was stationed at the portal was about to read Rali's mind but the Chinese dragon stopped him.
"I want to say goodbye to my friends really fast first." Rali said. The Weaver didn't have time to react before Rali bounded away from the portal towards his friends.
"What's wrong Rali?" Ember asked confused as to why he turned away from the portal.
"I wanted to say goodbye, and that I was glad that you all were with me." He said sadly.
"It was a pleasure to meet you too." Spyro said. Without warning Rali wrapped his tail around the three smaller dragons and gave them a hug of sorts before giving them each a sloppy wet lick on the forehead.
"Aww Rali! Cut it out!" Flame protested. Unwillingly Rali let them go and then bounded back to the transportation line. He had lost his spot and had to wait again, but it wasn't long before it was his turn again.
"You ready to go home now kid?" The Weaver asked in a gruff voice. Rali was silent for a few moments. He could feel a lump forming in his throat and it was a major task to not start crying. Something deep in his heart told him that he'd never see his friends here again; Earth didn't have any portals so he couldn't come back.
"Yes, yes I am." Rali said past the lump in his throat. With that the Weaver placed a hand on Rali's head and accessed thoughts of the Chinese dragon's home. It only took a few seconds for the memories to be read and then transferred to the portal. The portal flashed a white color before it turned to the lush mountains of China's highlands. It seemed unfamiliar at first, but quickly Rali recognized the dark spot on one of the mountains, it was his home cave. With a quick look back at Spyro, Ember, and Flame, Rali leapt forward into the living picture crossing the dragon universe back to his own.
Two serpentine figures moved around in the darkness of the cave. The sunlight didn't reach this far back into it. One figure raised his head and gazed sadly out towards the cave entrance. The second opened her eyes to look at her mate.
"Is everything alright?" She asked.
"Yeah," The male said. "I just had a dream about Rali, that's all." The female could hear the pain in her mate's voice. The loss of their only son had greatly affected them both. They never really recovered. The female curled her tail around her mate in an attempt to comfort him, but her heart was just as pained.
Without warning a sudden glow appeared in the cave. The startled dragons stared in shock at the glow as it grew bigger and bigger until it was blinding. When the glow died down and the dragons opened their eyes there was an aqua green dragon standing before them. The other dragon's scent was immediately recognized by the pair. They still stared for a few moments longer their minds trying to register what just happened.
"Mom… Dad?" The young dragon said. Without hesitation Rali's parents rushed towards him and scooped him up in their tails embracing their son.
"Oh Ralicamur, we thought you had left us forever." The mother said close to tears. The father said nothing as he nuzzled his son.
"But, I'm back now." He said his body almost shaking with excitement and happiness. Something glowing around Rali's neck caught his father's attention.
"What's this?" He asked nosing the necklace.
"It was a gift from these magicians." Rali said looking down at the orb-pendant. He had never taken it off since it was given to him by the Temples people.
"What happened to you?" Rali's mother asked. Rali was silent for a few seconds as he drew in a breath to begin telling the story of his adventure.
Genus stomped back and forth along one of the wooden platforms in the swamp. His face was creased with anger and impatience. Menga still hadn't shown up and Dark had stopped Shadow from killing Spyro. The thought of Dark infuriated him, but he managed to keep himself from decimating the nearest object. He couldn't fathom why Dark wanted Spyro to live or if he had done it for the purple dragon's sake at all. Perhaps Dark wanted their plan to fail, but why. He also couldn't figure out why Dark appeared so suddenly after all of these years. There were still many pieces of the puzzle that were missing. The fact that Shadow had come to them with immense dark magic powers and that he tore Avalar's barrier didn't make any sense at all. Genus growled to himself as he tried to make everything fit. Genus stopped pacing and looked down at the super-gem shard that hung from a silver chain around his neck. He had claimed his own piece of the super-gem and his own youth was restored as well. He and the others had found out that if they let go of the gem its effects would dissipate and they would rapidly return to their former state.
The sound of wing flaps alerted Genus. He looked up to see that Clenten and Gyra were returning. They landed on the wooden platform near Genus.
"Well?" He asked.
"We found him." Gyra said.
"Where is he?" Genus asked.
"He's on the southern part of the island."
"Why didn't he come with you?" Genus continued to drill Gyra with questions.
"He says he'll be here, but when he's ready to come. You know how Beast Makers can be." Gyra said. Genus's pent up anger exploded and he obliterated a nearby tree with a powerful fire blast. Genus took off and flew towards the southern coast. This was not the time to be playing games Genus thought.
"Why do you think he's like that?" Clenten questioned. The smallest thing would set Genus off.
"I have no idea why." Gyra answered. She watched as the Peace Keeper became nothing more than a sand colored dot in the sky.
Spyro laid in the lush grass of the Artisan home-world taking in the sun's warming rays. He looked up at the sky and the clouds drifting lazily along. Sometimes he wished he was a cloud.
Flame and Ember had returned to their own home in the Dragon Kingdom a day after Rali left. Spyro missed them, but he missed Rali most of all since he would never see him again. He hoped that he made it home alright and that he got to see his parents. Spyro suddenly thought that he didn't even know his own parents. Spyro sighed.
"Sparx?" Spyro asked.
"Yeah?" The dragonfly replied.
"Do you think the Banished Elders are going to attack us? They have the super-gem. But nothing of them has turned up since they killed Cosmos."
"I dunno Spyro. Only time will tell I guess." The thought of the Banished Elders caused anger to well up inside of Spyro. They had to be stopped no matter the cost and be put to justice, but he had no idea where to look for them. Even if he did and confronted them himself it would be suicide. If they could kill an Elder then he knew that he wouldn't stand a chance. Spyro decided that the only thing he could do now was to enjoy the momentary peace as he knew it wouldn't last forever.
A/N: THE END.
What? You're still here? Go on, get out! Nothing more to see here!
Oh alright. Yeah that was kind of a cliffhanger wasn't it? Yes I will be making a sequel to this, but no telling when. I am pretty random with this kind of stuff, but since it's summer break now it could be pretty soon. ;D More questions will be answered and destinies will be fulfilled, an epic adventure will ensue and yadda, yadda, yadda. You know the drill. There might even be some romance! wink wink, nudge nudge No tellin' who's got the love bug though, that would spoil some things. But I'm sure your minds are already churning about the possibilities.
Anyway thank you all for reading my story. It's changed quite a lot since I very first began writing it. Of course I sucked at writing back then so this story has gone through quite a few rewritings from the ground up. I'll be going back and making revisions (mostly grammatical stuff) so that things flow easier and make more sense. I gotta tell ya coming up with the Banished Elders' plan and making everything fit into what's been set down by the games and my own plot is a lot harder than I thought. I go back over something only to find that the continuity is screwed up. :P
Enough of that; I hope you like the next installment as it'll be even greater than this one! I just gotta think of a good title! Super Spyro Adventure! No that's really dumb…. Evil Attack: The Banished Elder's Strike Back! Ha! Yeah right! How about… Dark Reign? Yeah… that sounds cool:)
See ya till then!