Chapter 1: Nighttime

As Spyro and Cynder wheeled though the air, Spyro couldn't feel any happier. He had survived the near destruction of the world, he had defeated Malefor, removing a great evil and the source of all his troubles from the land, and he was with Cynder, the one dragon he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Spyro sighed as he looked at the black dragoness in front of him. That was the only thing about this moment that could possibly be better. As much as he loved her, she didn't know it, and he didn't know how she felt about him. The last thing he wanted to do was ruin the friendship he had with her. As he watched her soar in front of him he couldn't keep from admiring her. She really was beautiful.

"Hey Spyro, what's taking you so long" Cynder called from up in front of him.

"Huh… what… oh yeah I was just thinking" what he was thinking about there was no way he was going to tell her. "I wonder where we are. I can't seem to find any landmarks"

"Well we should stop for a while anyway, I'm tired, and it looks like there a good place to stop up ahead" Cynder pointed to what looked like a large cliff face overlooking a valley.

"Yeah I'm still wiped after that fight; I can barely keep my head up. I probably shouldn't have tried to fly so far today"

They landed on the cliff face in silence, too tired to talk anymore. Spyro looked around at the valley stretched out before him. He could hear the crash of a waterfall somewhere nearby and could see a river running along the base of the cliff and stretching out into the valley below. The valley was dotted with hills and low mesas, a lot like the valley of Avalar. Along one side of the valley there was a massive forest, stretching as far as he could see in the fading light, along the other side what looked like small villages dotted a large plain. But there was evidence of the large cataclysm that had almost destroyed the world. Large jagged scars were visible in the ground, some almost reaching a mile in length. The river had changed course, the old path visible as a dark stain running across the land, the new path sweeping across forest and plain alike. Leaving the river stained with mud and debris. Oh the piece paid for one dragon's malevolence.

When he turned around Cynder had already lay down under some nearby trees. "It looks like there are multiple villages nearby, we should be able to fly to one of them tomorrow and find out where we are, because it sure isn't anywhere I recognize."

"Hmm… that's nice" Cynder muttered half asleep, her mind already part of the way into her dreams.

"And after that were going to go resurrect Malefor and the destroyer…"

"Sounds good…"

"And you aren't paying attention to a word I say" Spyro chuckled as he lay down across the clearing from Cynder. Looking across the clearing he caught himself admiring her again. She was already sleeping peacefully, curled up in a ball with her head over her tail with her wing making a canopy over her. She was so beautiful, and he couldn't help his feelings for her. Maybe he would tell her tomorrow. With Malefor gone he wouldn't have much responsibility anymore. He wasn't the savior of the planet anymore, maybe settle down and live a normal life. Then again he had never lived a normal life: raised by dragonflies for half his life, then finding out that that he was a dragon destined to save the world and thrown into a wild lifestyle of training and fights. Yes he could live as normal a life as he could, and he wanted Cynder to be there with him every step of the way. As he drifted off to sleep as well he thought to himself about the life that he could have.

But he too had an unknown path set out before him; little did he know that while one adventure had ended, another had begun. This one being more life changing then the last, and while the last one had nearly ended one world, the next would have two hanging in the balance.

Finally it was all over, well at least until next year. Zach thought to himself as he climbed into bed. No more classes, no more teachers just a hundred and some days of summer vacation. He was a normal kid, well at least by his standards. Average height and a little bit overweight, he was about as plain as any human could be. Brown hair, brown eyes, it's as if his figure and features couldn't be any blander. Oh well he didn't care, he liked himself the way he was. But right before bed was not the time to think about those kinds of things. After having to wake up for school every day for the past hundred and eighty days the first thing he was going to do was sleep in, and he wanted to get a jump start on it.

As Zach lay down he let his mind drift. School was over now, but there was something he feared would stay with him. For the past few months he had been having these dreams, some more like nightmares, yet always the same people, but the dreams were never the same. It was like he was seeing the life of another person. But the weirdest thing about them was he wasn't seeing people. He was seeing dragons. Almost every night for the past month he watched as this dragon went through different trials and fights, but the strangest thing was is he could hear them. Every word every sentence he could hear, and even remember. He knew their names, their feelings, their personalities as well as he knew his own. It was like he was living a double life. One while he was awake, the other while he was asleep. But he never could interact with them, he was a silent spectator, watching events unfold before him but never affecting the outcome.

As he rolled over he couldn't help but drift into the thoughts that came to him every night. The thought that these dreams had happened before, over three years before to be exact. He thought back to that night long ago when he woke up crying in the middle of the night, not only because the characters that he had come to think of as family, as part of him, had killed people, but that they were going to die crushed by the mountain collapsing around them. After that night he had no more dreams, that was until a few nights ago. They had started again, with the same characters, and ever from the same point that his other dreams had left off. It didn't make sense, but the characters didn't seem to have any recollection of the time passed either, so he guessed they were as confused as he was. But that still didn't explain why he was having these dreams, and what they meant. Were they trying to tell him something or was it just his mind playing tricks on him?

But maybe not. As Zach shifted in bed again his thoughts drifted back to last night's dream. It put his characters, oh what were their names, why couldn't he remember he usually had no trouble remembering their names, they were like second nature to him. Ah, yes, Spyro and Cynder, it had them in the center off a large cavern, but the heart was stifling, even in his dream he could feel it, it must have been some volcano or somewhere deep in the earth. But they had not been alone, another large purple dragon, Malefor, the cause for all their troubles for the last three years, was there as well. There had been a large battle, with Spyro and Cynder almost getting killed multiple times, but the battle ender with Malefor defeated, but the world was still falling apart from his plan. His dream had ended with Cynder confessing her love for Spyro and Spyro doing something in the center of the room. His woke after Spyro released a bright flash of light form his body. He awoke drenched in sweat and crying again for the loss of his characters. He didn't know what this night would bring, would he have another dream or would he be left to wonder like those years ago?

As he mulled over these thoughts he tossed and turned in his bed. He didn't know if sleep would ever come to him, but he needed it. It had been a rough week at school with his lack of sleep form school and the finals he had to take. He just needed to wind down and take it easy for a week. Without any plans so far for the summer all he was going to do was sit around the house, sleep maybe read a good book. Yes he was going to have a nice easy, boring summer. Well that's what he thought at least. Little did he know as he drifted off to sleep that there was much more in store for him that staying at home that summer.

Fire swarmed around Zach as he flew through the air the heat was unbearable as he plummeted from an unknown height, he could smell the ozone burning up around him as his body became superheated, why wasn't he dead, he should have been dead long ago from the heat but he wasn't. As he cleared the ball of flames surrounding him he could see the scenery below him. The moonlight showed a massive ocean with various island dotting the landscape some covered in ice, others overgrown with jungle, and even weirder some appeared to be… floating… But the most prominent feature was the large island in the center with a large volcano dominating the center and almost every conceivable land mass and terrain covering the rest. From swampland to towering mountains, huge rivers to massive forests, it was all on the island, the island he appeared to be heading towards.

"Ok I have to be dreaming," he thought to himself "there is no way I could be falling from the sky. And this doesn't even look like earth anyway, at least nowhere I know"

As he fell through the night sky he couldn't help but find joy in the feeling of flight, well free falling anyway. The wind over his body, the sights, the rush of adrenaline, but most importantly the freedom. The ability to go anywhere, to do anything, to not be restrained, it was the greatest feeling in the world.

But then again maybe it wasn't a good thing, because now he was hurtling toward the ground at hundreds of miles an hour. "Ok this has got to be a dream, how did I even end up so high anyway, yeah… it's just a dream". The ground continuing to come closer and closer didn't help any, towns and villages becoming visible and more defined, their fires making small dots of light across the landscape "I just need to wake myself up" Zach tried to force himself awake like he could from his normal dreams, but nothing seemed to work. He even went so far as the slap himself across the face. Meanwhile he still sped towards the ground, the tops of trees becoming distinguished from each other and the moonlight making the surf visible along the coast as well as the rapids in a river. "Ok this is some real nightmare I'm having; I hope to god this is only a dream." As Zach fell within hundreds of feet from the ground Zach could tell he was going to crash into a forest that had been bordering the river. "Oh crap this is going to hurt"

Spyro awoke with a start. Something wasn't right, he could feel it. He sat in silence for a full five minutes listing to the night sounds. He could hear a bird somewhere in the surrounding woods as well as various nightlife, but the roar of the nearby waterfall dominated everything. In their haste they hadn't chosen a very good spot to bed down, but everything seemed to be in order. He looked across the clearing to where Cynder was sleeping. She hadn't woke; maybe it was just his imagination running wild. After spending the last few years of his life in constant danger, maybe he was overreacting a bit. He got up and walked around the clearing, making a round close to the edge of the woods; everything seemed to be in order, on his way back to his temporary bed he stopped by Cynder. She had shifted positions during the night stretching out along the grass her head now lying flat in the grass. He couldn't stop starring at her. It was probably a good thing that she was asleep or this would be a hard thing to explain. She was so beautiful, with her head out in the moonlight. He thought back to when he first met her, Cynder the terror of the skies, caught in Malefor's corruptive powers. She was his worst enemy then but now she was his best friend and he was glad for it. He had forgiven her for all the things that she had done but he didn't think that she had forgiven herself. No one blamed her for what she had done, but she still held back, still tormented by her evil deeds.

Spyro was filled with rage over the things Malefor had put her through, his blood boiling and rushing though his veins, at least he had made him pay, but it seemed like such a small price for all the things he had done. But that didn't matter anymore, Malefor was gone and he had long ago forgiven Cynder. He truly loved her but he could never find a way to tell her how, he always stumbled when he went to tell her how he felt and most of the time he had been running around trying to save the world. He moved toward Cynder going to wake her up and tell her how he really felt, but thought better of it. She needed the sleep more than he did.

Spyro crossed the clearing back to where he had bedded down for the night and tried to go back to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come. Spyro lay on his back looking at the stars in the night sky thinking about the last few years of this life, about all that he had been put through, but mostly he thought of Ignitus. Ignitus was the first dragon he had ever met, he was the one who had shown who he was, trained him, and taught him how to fly. He was the closest thing he had to a father, well a dragon father anyway. He had always been there for him, giving him counsel and hope when he needed it, but now he was gone. It was all his fault, if he hadn't brought back Malefor, if he had stopped the destroyer sooner, if… Spyro broke down into tears at lay there crying until he could cry no more.

"Spyro are you ok?" Cynder had walked up behind him.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said trying to hide his face.

"You miss Ignitus don't you?" It wasn't really a question. "I do too Spyro, you have to remember that it wasn't your fault. Ignitus did that for you because he wanted to, not because he had to. How are you remembering him if you reject the last thing he did for you?"

"But there had to be another way, he could have…"

"But he didn't Spyro, I know this is hard for you but you can't change the past. Everyone has to pass on eventually." Cynder walked over and lay down beside him. "And you know he'll always be there when you need him, you've seen it yourself"

"I just can't help it Cynder, I just feel like I could have done something to stop it"

"You know you did everything you could have, and you need your sleep. Good night Spyro."

Spyro felt the heart coming through Cynder's scales radiate into his body. Just being near her put his mind at ease and calmed him down "Goodnight Cynder"

As Spyro dosed off again he looked at the sky, and the shooting star that was streaking across it.

Spyro woke again with a start. He sat motionless, listening to the silence around him. Again there was nothing. This had to stop; he was always on edge, always expecting something to go wrong. He looked over at Cynder sleeping next to him. She was still asleep. If he didn't stop this paranoia, he would never sleep a whole night again. He just needed to calm down.

A shuffling in the bushes behind him made Spyro jump up into a ready position, his head swiveling around, ready for anything, yet nothing happened. His ears were greeted with only silence as he stood and listened to the world around him

Spyro let out a sigh of relief and frustration, his heart was pounding in his head and his adrenaline level had spiked, he was on full alert. And for what? Something he thought he had heard.

After he had made his round he laid back down next to Cynder, he was comfortable now, at least for a while, and he hadn't woke Cynder again so that was a good thing. Maybe he could finally get some sleep

*Snap*

Spyro stood up again, looking around for the source of the sound. His attention was immediately brought back to the bushes where he thought he had heard something earlier. Taking a cautious step forward, Spyro began to approach the vegetation.

But he wasn't prepared for what came out of the bushes. As soon as he turned to the tree, an ape, club in hand, leapt out of the bushes. Spyro tried to react, but wasn't fast enough and was tackled by the ape and was sent rolling across the clearing. When they had finally stopped rolling, the ape hefted his club and poised to bring it down on Spyro's head. Spyro however, had other plans, and used his hind feet to kick the ape off and into a tree, breaking his neck.

Cynder, hearing all the commotion, had stirred from her slumber. "Spyro what's going on, is that an ape, are you ok…"

But her next question was cut short as more apes leapt from the bushes, one of them knocking her out on the way by with a blow to the head.

"Don't you lay a hand on her," Spyro yelled, enraged at their actions, "don't think I won't kill you."

One ape, obviously the leader from his complete armor and well-polished sword as stepped out to address him. "Oh we wouldn't dare do that, but you, your more trouble than your worth no matter what our master says, I guess will just kill you now and get it over with."

"I'll burn you to a crisp first!"

"Oh really, then why don't you give it a try, were all waiting, and I promise, I'll stand still"

It was never a good thing when the person you're fighting challenges you to attack them like that, because it usually means it won't work. Spyro knew he was too drained to even try a fireball but he had to make the attempt; there was no way he was going to let these apes go. Spyro dug deep and opened his mouth, expecting a fireball, but all that came out was hot air, this was not looking good.

"Hah I knew it, you're too drained to even make a spark, let finish this."

The remaining apes, about seven of them in total, created a semi-circle around him, alternating sword and spear, cutting him off from Cynder and pushing him against the edge of the cliff. Spyro tried to charge one of them, but when he did, the apes around him would come to his aid, jabbing at Spyro with his weapons, forcing him to back off. To make matters worse, every time Spyro backed up, he lost ground, with the semi-circle of apes closing in and pushing him closed to the edge.

Spyro tried to fly around the wall of men, but he could barely lift his wings off the ground. He had reached the edge of the cliff and stopped when one of his feet slipped over the edge, knocking gravel into the river below.

"This is not good, I'm going to have to break their line somewhere or I'm toast. Maybe if I can take out their leader, they will break and run. It's a long shot but it might work"

Spyro gathered the strength he had left and blindly charged towards the leader in the center of their circle. However, the ape knew it was coming and simply sidestepped Spyro's wild dash and caught him in the head with the flat of his blade on the way by. Knocking Spyro to the ground.

Spyro could hear the apes talking as the edges of his vision began to close in.

One of the apes "can't we just run him through? He'd be dead and we wouldn't have to worry about him anymore."

Another "no we can't leave any evidence as to where he died, it might lead someone to our lair, just throw him off the cliff, he'll drown in the river and it will carry his body far enough away that people won't know where to start looking."

Spyro fought for consciousness as he felt his body being picked up and dragged by the apes. As he was flung over the side, the edges of his vision continued to close in as he plummeted in to the darkness of night and the river below.

Zach stirred from his slumber but kept his eyes closed, it was his day to sleep in and he was still very tired. But apparently someone had come into his room and left the door open, because he could see the light coming through his eyelids. He rolled out of bed and promptly fell onto the floor. He must have fallen asleep on something because his limbs didn't seem to work. He tried to get up but his legs were still asleep and couldn't support his weight. Zach rubbed his eyes to try and get them to focus, when he moved them out of the way his breath caught at what he saw. He was not in his bedroom anymore, but a small crater… surrounded by trees… in the middle of the forest.

"What in the world… where am I, and how did I get here?"

Zach tried to push himself up again but fell back down again. "Dang legs are still asleep; I'll have to get the circulation back into them. Zach turned to move his legs into a better position but stopped cold. His legs weren't there anymore; instead there were two long scaly hind legs.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Zach scrambled backwards fast as his arms would carry him, but the scaly appendages followed him. It was then that Zach took the time took look at his arms, and he was shocked when he saw his arms too were covered in scales, and ended not with hands, but with three fingered talons. Zach lay down in the dirt and covered his face with his hands. This has to be some dream. Some horrible nightmare, but when he looked again, the scales and talons were still there. It was then that Zach noticed that his back was stinging, probably from dragging it along the ground in his panic. But the pain was too far away from his body, not in a normal position he could place.

"Do I dare look behind me to see what's there?"

Zach had to know what was going on, and the pain had become a nuisance now, so he rolled onto his stomach and craned his neck behind him. And there, siting in plain sight and frightfully attached to his back was a pair of leathery wings.

"Ok this would be really cool if I wasn't scared out of my mind right now. Scales, talons, different sized appendages, WINGS… this is all too much if I didn't know better I'd say I was a…"

Zach stopped short, he had to find something reflective, he had to see his face NOW. Zach half walked half crawled, he didn't quite have the four legged walking thing down, to stream he heard running nearby. The stream was clear and slow, making the perfect reflective surface. Zach slowly walked up to the water, and nearly passed out at what he saw. For it was not a human face that stared back at him in the reflection, but one of a dragon. It was a dragon with pure white scales covering his entire face, a squareish jawline with what he supposed was a snout, if you could even call it that and a high forehead, it was a very strange sight. But there were two features that stood out above the rest. One of which being horns that started just above his nose and between his eyes, starting as one but splicing and ruining along the top of his eyebrows, then curving back along his head until they separated from his skull and swept back along his head. The other of the two features being his deep blue eyes. This was noticeable by its self but was made stranger by the fact that he normally had brown eyes. This was too weird, but then again, nothing was normal right now.

He gave himself another look over. The rest of the scales along his body where a white that matched the scales along his face, except for the scales along his chest and stomach. These scales were the same deep blue of his eyes. He also noted that he had a tail, how he had missed this earlier he wasn't quite sure, but it was there now. It too was white like the rest of his body and it ended in a V shaped spike that curved slightly inward, similar to the horns on his forehead. He stood at a good height, and from what he could tell, seemed fit and muscular, but then again, he knew nothing about what a dragon was like, except from what he remembered from his dreams.

Zach looked around again at the river and the surrounding forest, could he be on the island from his dream, or was it a dream, maybe it was real, that would explain the crater he woke up in. Either way, this was too weird for him. He was lost, confused, in a different body, he was definitely not going to get that quiet summer he wanted. Hopefully this was just a bad dream, but something told him that he was in for a long journey. A small smile came to him as he remembered something, he couldn't believe he was going to say it but he couldn't resist the temptation.

"I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore… heck I don't think I'm human anymore"