They stood there like that, staring at each other for minutes. Spyro was unsure whether he should attack or not, but decided against it. From what he saw, the creature had an incredible reaction time; it had turned around and pulled a bow and an arrow in less than a second and a half after they had landed. Without doubt, the creature would have no problem with seeing any attack Spyro could think of, and fire the arrow before Spyro would even reach the creature. Spyro could sense that Cynder was fighting a similar battle within her, her muscles were tense and her tail twitched ever so slightly. However, none of them decided to attack, neither did the creature.

Even more time passed, before the creature finally seemed to make up his mind. The angry look turned to nothing more than a scowl, before he slightly lowered his bow, but still pointing it towards the two dragons, ready to fire in case they were to attack. Spyro and Cynder relaxed slightly, seeing that the risks of being attacked were reduced. Yet another minute passed before anyone made a move. Spyro took a careful step backwards, and to his relief the creature did the same. Slowly but steadily the creature and the two dragons moved further away from each other, until the creature sent Cynder one more ugly look and turned his back to them and began to walk away, making some barely audible hissing sounds.

As the creature began to vanish between the trees, moving south-east, Cynder turned towards Spyro,

"Well, that was interesting… I don't think he likes me very much though, he sent me some quite ugly looks."

Spyro nodded. "At least he didn't attack us," he replied. "I think we won't be followed by him anymore, it didn't look like it was really us he was looking for."

"I don't know… If you're that determined to find someone as he was, you'd have to be pretty sure that you're following the right targets to go through what he has. I could see that he was pretty damaged, that gash in his side didn't look too good either."

Spyro couldn't do more than nod a bit in agreement. "Well, now that this is somewhat over I think we should get moving again, we still have no idea where we are."

"You know what, Spyro," replied Cynder. "I think that we should perhaps follow this creature. It seems that he knows exactly where he was heading, and perhaps we'll get a better idea of where we are. After all, heading the same way as he can't be any worse than continuing north, we'd still have no idea what's next anyway."

Spyro seemed to consider the idea. "I think it's too risky. That creature would probably be able to take us both out, if he only wanted to. If you ask me, that arrow didn't look like it couldn't pierce our scales. Who knows what he really wanted anyway?" Spyro lowered his head. "I just don't want you to get hurt…" he whispered.

"Spyro…" replied Cynder, moving a bit closer to Spyro. "We'll get out of this before any of us gets more hurt, but following this creature might be our best bet right now. We don't know what's north, and we don't know what's south-east either."

"Well… If you really think so," said Spyro and raised his head slightly. "Then we might want to get moving before he gets too far away."

…

The creature cursed his bad luck; he had been chasing these dragons for too long, and it turned out to not be what he had been looking for. In the distance he could see that the colors were right, but he had been unsure about the size. The only time he had been close enough earlier, was during the night before, when it was too dark to see the two dragons clearly. And now, that he had finally gotten a good look at the both of them, he had decided that they were too small and too young. It couldn't have been any of them, it just wouldn't be possible.

It was a close call for him though; he would have killed both the dragons if I wasn't for their age. They were still so young, and had a whole life in front of them, taking their chance of living that life would be wrong of him. Every creature deserved a chance to live, even dragons. Besides, these two dragons were too young to have caused so much pain for him. But then again, he knew that once they had grown up, things could be completely different. He knew from experience what a grown dragon is capable of; he had been there to witness the horrors of that one dreadful day…

He let out a small whimper, a small tear formed in his right eye, slowly making its way through the fur on the cheek. The mind seemed to drift away, back to the past, re-living the day, seeing what had happened again. Back to the time when he had made his promise, to find the one who was responsible for all the pain and sorrow, and bring forth justice. A sharp pain brought him back to reality; one of the small gashed on his side had opened again. He frowned, biting his teeth together and ignored the pain. It could wait.

After the meeting with these two dragons, he wasn't too sure what he would do now. He began to move east, thinking that maybe he would have more luck in that direction. After traversing the continent for so many years, seeking out the places where he thought he would be able to find the one he was searching for, he seemed to have lost some of his spirit. So many dead ends and wrong tracks had been leading him many different places, from the frozen wastelands in the north, to the great oceans to the west, and the vast plains in the south. The only place he hadn't been in for a long time was to the east. He wasn't too sure about what he would find there, but it couldn't be any worse than what he had already encountered.

…

Flying over the forest, the two dragons kept an eye on the creature, as he slowly made his way through the vegetation. He moved surprisingly smoothly through the bushes and grass that grew everywhere, making little to no noise. From time to time the creature would stop up and listen to any sounds around him, and look in different directions. Sometimes he would smell the air, perhaps trying to sense a scent of some wildlife.

"It looks like he knows where he is heading," noted Cynder as she followed the creature with her eyes. They were flying quite high above the trees, so high that they hoped the creature wouldn't be able to see them even if he did look up.

"So far it looks like you're right, but he sure isn't moving in a hurry." Said Spyro as he slowly drifted past Cynder, floating on the rising warm air. "I don't think this is even a fraction of the speed he had moved in when trying to follow us."

Cynder leaned forward a bit and she began to drift forward, past Spyro. "I think he found something," she said. She wasn't wrong; the creature had stopped up to examine something. He bent down to pick up something from the ground and rubbed it over some wounds, then put it in his bag. Neither Spyro nor Cynder could see what it was from up where they were, but they assumed it was something that would help heal the injuries. The creature looked around a bit before continuing.

As the hours went by, and the sun began to fall down towards the horizon, the creature began to slow down, searching for a place to spend the night. It didn't take long; just before the sun had fallen completely behind the horizon, the creature had found himself a shelter formed by a couple of fallen trees and a cliff. The trees had fallen onto each other, and the both of them had tilted towards the cliff. Now the two trees were interlocked, and with the branches hanging down, covered most of the wind.

Spyro and Cynder had landed not long ago, as they had to work too much to be flying. The sun didn't warm up the ground anymore, so there weren't any rising air that could hold them up in the air. As they watched the creature tried to make this small shelter a bit cozier, they decided that they too would need some form of protection against the elements. The air felt a bit moist, and it could start rain at any time.

They tried to move around the area, albeit silently, trying to not let the creature know that they were there. They did find something that could be of use; an extra thick cluster of trees had grown on top of the cliff, about two hundred meters from the place they had seen the creature. The tree cluster were so densely packed that rain wouldn't be able to reach the two dragons unless it came in horizontally, but that wouldn't happen reckoned Cynder, as the wind wouldn't get that strong this night.

"A shame we can't set up a fire here," whispered Spyro. "Not when he is this close to us."

"We can, but not in the way you think Spyro," replied Cynder and smiled. "Let me handle this."

Cynder focused on some wood lying on the ground, and let out a small jet of shadow fire. The wood quickly caught on fire, and provided a surprising amount of heat. To make things better, the wood burned with a dark color, and didn't provide more light than illuminating a few meters around them.

Noticing Spyros impressed look, she simply smiled at him and giggled a bit for herself.

"Finally a bit of warmth, having to fly as high as we did this late sure is chilly, even without wind," she said and crawled closer to the fire. The fire crackled softly and threw some embers into the air. Cynder watched them slowly fall back the ground again, slowly burning out on the way down. They lied there around the fire, enjoying the rest. Slowly, but surely they fell asleep.

~Flashback~

They had both followed Malefor outside. They were surrounded in a storm made out of fire and ash, held together somehow, by Malefor, and fueled by the raging volcano below them. The red and black clouds were thick and caused both Spyro and Cynder to cough, desperately trying to free their airways from the suffocating volcanic ash. The dry air irritated their eyes, and small tears formed. The tears were quickly absorbed into the air due to the heat. The wind kept blowing them around, as if it tried to tire them out before they would be able to reach the place Malefor hovered around. They could see him there in the distance, mocking them for even attempting to try.

The two young dragons flew straight towards Malefor. As they came closer, Malefor opened his mouth and fired a huge ball of fire from his maw, straight towards the two dragons. Spyro and Cynder both quickly rolled to the sides, escaping the scorching ball. Spyro answered with the fire of his own, sending a wave of fire towards Malefor. The fire never even touched Malefor; it was stopped against a purple shield around him. Malefor just laughed at the pathetic attack and lobbed another ball towards Spyro. Spyro tried to roll to the sides, but he was too close and too slow, and the ball hit him on the paws. The stench of burned scales filled the already smoke-filled sky. Cynder had moved up behind Malefor, and send out waves of her fear attacks. None of them were able to reach Malefor, his convexity shield held strong.

~Present time~

Spyro woke up with a jolt, looking around him. The fire had burned out long ago, and his joints were stiff and sore. It almost felt as he had been running for miles during his sleep. Exhausted, he sat upright and looked around him. He was still lying under the trees, on the now moist grass.

"Cynder?" he said, and looked over to her. She were still sleeping, her chest raised and fell slowly as she breathed in and out. Seeing as she slept so peacefully, he didn't want to make her up, so he started to take a look at their surroundings. It was still very early in the morning; the sun was barely visible over the horizon. The golden rays shone through the trees, illuminating the tree cluster. From the other direction, the wind blew some white clouds towards them. This would be a nice day, and hopefully a warm one too. Spyro could feel his strength returning as the sun's rays reached his body.

He stood up and took a quick look into what once was their fire; the ashes were gray and cold. The fire probably died out two hours ago. After stretching out and letting out a quick yawn, Spyro moved towards the site where they had seen the creature, hoping that it still was there. Spyro tried to sneak up, as slowly as he could to prevent any noise from escaping. When he reached the cliff he let out a sigh of relief, the creature was still there, sleeping. Apparently the creature was very tired as well. Spyro could only imagine what it had gone through, considering all the injuries on its body. He turned around and went back to Cynder, whom was still sleeping.

The sun climbed a bit higher, and the dew in the grass and on the leaves on the trees began to sparkle like a thousand stars. Soon all the dew would be vaporized. A grumbling noise from Spyro's stomach stopped the flow of thoughts that he had. He was very hungry; after all, they hadn't eaten in many hours. Still having a stray thought or two, Spyro moved further from the tree cluster in search of something edible. However, after searching for a half an hour and still not found anything he decided to go back. If Cynder had woken up, she might be worried about him.

To his relief Cynder was still sleeping peacefully when he got back. The sun had now climbed well over the horizon, and the beams made Cynder's scales almost sparkle. Spyro lied down next to her and let out a small sight. Here they were, in the middle of a hostile land and no idea where they were. So far everything they had met had tried to kill them in some way or another, with the exception of this creature. But he was sure that creature would have killed them, if they had given it a reason to do so. He kept thinking; what did the creature want? Why did it follow them, who and what was it?

Not long after did Cynder wake up.

"Good morning," said Spyro and smiled. "You must have been tired"

"Mmm…" mumbled Cynder in return, her eyes still closed. "How long have you been awake?" she asked, as she lifted her head and rubbed a paw on her eyes.

"About an hour," he replied. "Couldn't sleep…"

"Nightmares again?" asked Cynder. Spyro only nodded.

"It's just… So much has happened, and I… I don't know. I just wish it could all be over…" he said as he turned away from Cynder trying to conceal a small tear forming in his eye. "Everything that I once knew, is now gone…

"Spyro, it is over, we've won! Malefor is gone forever," said Cynder in an attempt to cheer up Spyro. "We did it." She moved over to Spyro's side, and held a paw around him. Spyro let out a sight.

"How can be sure that he's gone forever? I can't even remember how it all ended. I can only recall small bits, only flashes of what happened." Spyro sighted. "And even if Malefor won't return, that still won't bring back or lost friends…"

Cynder knew who Spyro meant. Ignitus, the former Fire Guardian, had been almost like a father to Spyro. Ignitus had given his life so they could cross the belt of fire unharmed, using his last bit of strength to send the two young dragons from him, out of the Belt of Fire. Spyro had been completely crushed by the loss of Ignitus, turning to his inner darkness. Only because Cynder were there for him, Spyro didn't lose everything to the grief and sorrow, or give up completely.

"I know he meant a lot to you Spyro… But he would have wanted you to move on, not dwell with the past and what could have been. As for Malefor, would we be here if we didn't defeat him? I doubt he would let us both go just like that," said Cynder in an attempt to cheer up Spyro. "Anyway, we'd better get moving. I'm sure that guy back there has already started to walk, and if we are to follow him, we don't want to wait for too long."

The mood wasn't the best during the next hours. Spyro didn't say much, if anything while they slowly followed the creature. They didn't fly, because of the winds over the trees were too strong, and it was a bit cold. So they fought with the vegetation, trying to make as little noise as possible, not wanting to alert the creature. They kept their distance, barely able to see him through the thick bushes and grass. The trees had branches that stretched all the way to the ground, grabbing hold of their wings and tails. It happened a few times, where one of them would get so tangled so much in the vegetation that the other had to use the tail blade to cut loose the trapped one.

A few times they lost sight of the creature, and walked in the direction they had hoped he had gone. Sometimes they would find his tracks leading them back to him, but other times, such as now, they had nothing.

"He was right there!" pointed Cynder. "I know I saw him there."

"If that was the case, we would see his tracks," said Spyro shallowly as he walked over to where Cynder pointed. "There are no tracks here at all."

"Well, he went this way…" said Cynder as she began to walk in one direction. "Or not…" she said sheepishly as she noticed the huge hole in the ground behind the small bush she had gone through. "Must be at least twenty meters to the bottom," she said. A small river was flowing at the bottom.

"This is an old volcanic tunnel," noted Spyro. "Look at the walls, they are too smooth, and they look like they have been melted once in the past. Though it looks like this tunnel will collapse shortly, so I wouldn't want to go down there… But let's not stray too far from what we're trying to do now, let us find that creature."

Spyro turned around and went another direction, hoping that that might have been where the creature went. "Spyro, definitely not that direction…" said Cynder.

"And why is that?" asked Spyro as he turned around to face Cynder.

"That's where we came from," she said.

"Oh…"

They didn't have time to ponder about that for too long, a sharp yell shot through the forest. Both the two dragons looked around, trying to pinpoint the location where the sound came from. Another sound was heard, this time a more growling sound. There was more than one source for the growling sounds.

"This way!" said Spyro and took off. They jumped over an old and rotten log and ran towards the source of the sounds. It sounded like a battle, cries from someone, or something, wounded. The two dragons jumped over the small bushes standing in their way and navigated around treacherous ground. The area was filled with holes down to the volcanic tunnels below them, and if one didn't take care when taking a step, one could easily fall down to certain death on the rocky floor in the tunnels.

They ran for at least three hundred meters before they found the source of all the sounds; four of the same black creatures they had encountered earlier, those that had almost killed Spyro. A fifth of these black creatures lied on the ground, dead. A sword was buried deep into the head. The four others, they all stood there over the broken body of the creature that had been following them earlier. One of them looked right and Spyro and Cynder, and snarled. The rest of the group turned around, and charge straight towards the two dragons.

AN: Well, there you have it! Two and a half year after I announced that I had discontinued this story, someone mailed me, wishing that I would pick up this story again. And I decided to do so! I once had written this chapter, but it was deleted before I uploaded it, so I had to rewrite it. Unfortunately, many of the ideas of what I would do next were in that chapter, and now they are lost, so forgive me if this doesn't quite live up to the expectation. I'll try to do better in the next chapters! ;)