Disclaimer: I don't own the Spyro series, just several characters of my own creation.

Chapter 1

In the Shadows

The shadowed figure of the Dark Master watched emotionlessly from the shard of black crystal as the baboons threw down the large body. The dead creature was a mixture of white fur and black scales, its muzzle part dragon, part baboon, and a small pair of wings sprouted from its back.

"Another failure," Edord scowled from the ledge that he was laying on, his arm propping his head up. "This is a waste of time!"

The Dark Master turned his red eyes on the small dragonfly. "You should learn when to keep your mouth shut."

"My apologies," the dark dragonfly looked a little nervous. "But I think we should be trying to force the dragons out of the islands before they have time to reestablish a firm hold on them. Perhaps if we deliver enough defeats to them, they will get too demoralized to fight and they will retreat back to Dark Pines."

"We no longer have Cynder to lead our forces," the Dark Master growled, glaring at the baboons. "It would just be the same as before, the dragons would win. We need something more powerful, something that can match the mighty dragons themselves."

The Dark Master glanced back at the dead creature. At least, it had lived longer then the others and they were getting further and further in the process, soon he'd be ready…

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Cynder hung her head as she stalked down the hallway. The group of chattering dragonesses behind her where the reason for her sour mood. As she had passed, they had stopped talking and stared at her as if she was going to attack them on the spot.

Why couldn't they believe that she wasn't still under the Dark Master's spell? She shivered. Maybe she still was. The demon still haunted her dreams and she couldn't remember her last night of uninterrupted sleep.

Pyris was beginning to worry about her, not that she knew what her nightmares were about. Cynder hadn't told anyone about the dreams, not even Spyro, who she had grown rather close to.

Cynder stopped and entered the room that she shared with her sister. The red dragoness was there, nipping a few dead bugs off one of several plants that she had growing from pots on the floor, or hanging on the wall.

Pyris looked up at her sister, concern flashing in her eyes at seeing her sister's sad expression.

Cynder flopped down on her stomach on the floor, resting her head on her paws. She could see that Pyris wanted to ask her if she was okay, but her sister already knew the answer and went back to tending her plants.

Cynder's eyelids drooped and she soon gave into her exhaustion and was sound asleep.

The darkness of sleep had barely claimed her, when she found herself standing on the edge of the floating rock of Convexity. The nightmarish shadow was once again calmly walking towards her, its red mouth parted in an evil grin.

Cynder hissed at him, mustering as much courage as she could. "Don't you have anything better to do then to torment me?"

The Dark Master's smirk widened. He had caught the tone of terror in the dragoness' voice. "As a matter of fact no."

Before Cynder could react, the Dark Master's arm shot out growing impossibly long and then dragged her back toward him, retracting to its normal length.

His grip tightened, squeezing the air out of her lungs. She found herself looking at the demon's face and could smell his putrid breath. "You should come back to me, Cynder. We both know that you'll never fit in with the dragons and you'll never have another good night of sleep as long as you live."

He raised his other hand, each of his fingers growing into wicked looking claws. Cynder's eyes widened in fear.

"Wake up!" Cynder jumped to her feet, glancing around with wide eyes. She was back in her room, she gasped trying to clam down. Pyris was standing a few away with wide eyes.

"It was just a nightmare…" Cynder gasped. He glanced up and noticed that Pyris was staring at her, her eyes wide with fear. Cynder glanced at her side, seeing the four large red slash marks in her scales and the blood dripping from them onto the ground. She stumbled and then her legs gave way all together and she fell back to the floor unconscious.