Chapter 12: The Snare (Part 2)

I think I've really gotten myself together with this next chapter. No more blind fumbling through the plot. I plan to pick up the pace with the story now, so prepare to encounter turbulence. I've been working on my word choice to try to sound more refined and "crystalline," so I would love some feedback on what you guys think of my word choice and placement. You may notice that this is "Part 2" instead of "Part 1." There's a reason for that ;)

Spyro was the first to wake up of the three dragons in the house where he was. He felt like he was trying to remember something, but couldn't. He did feel like it was a happy memory though, something to cherish.

The white dragoness on the other side of the room began to stir. Selene slowly opened her eyes.

"Morning," she murmured softly as she eyed Spyro's awake form. As if on cue, Lyra also awoke from her nightly sleep.

"Good morning everyone!" she cheerfully said. Lyra turned to Selene. "The daycare is closed today, so I thought I could show you guys around the city," explained the green dragoness. Selene turned to Spyro.

"How about it?"

The situation reminded Spyro of his original intention to establish a place for Selene in the city, and then depart, but something in the back of his mind urged him to stay. "I might as well," replied the purple. Lyra grinned at her two friends

"Great! When we're ready, I'll take everyone down to the café for breakfast. We can meet Amber there."

Selene recoiled at the mention of the name while Spyro just rolled his eyes at the thought of that orange dragoness. She tries too hard, and it was unfortunately for her, blatantly obvious.

When the trio arrived at the café, they were greeted by a waiter who showed them to a table, and provided them with menus.

"Wait, there wasn't a waiter last time," mentioned Selene as she browsed through the food options on the page.

"Oh, this café works that way. They are set up like a formal restaurant for breakfast, but they switch to a walk-in for lunch and dinner," explained Lyra.

Selene couldn't help but consider this a bit odd and quite redundant. The white dragoness was startled out of her thoughts when Amber came in through the door, spotted Spyro, Lyra and Selene and walked over to sit with them.

"Hi Lyra," said the amber dragoness as she sat in her place at the table. "And a special hello to you, Spyro," she muttered quietly to the humored purple dragon.

Selene got that same upset feeling that she experienced the day before when Amber was acting the same way towards Spyro. The purple dragon himself just rolled his eyes. At that moment, the waiter came to take everyone's orders. Once everyone had ordered what they wanted, conversation resumed.

"So what is like where you guys come from?" asked Lyra to Spyro and Selene. Spyro passively looked away in disgust.

"We come from the great dragon city of Warfang," replied Selene. "It's really urban." At her remark, Selene noticed that the café was almost empty. She and everyone at her table were the only customers in the establishment at the moment. "Is it always this empty here?" asked the white dragoness. Lyra took note of the café's small population. She leaned in a bit close.

"You will often find that in our city, people are right where they need to be at the time when they need to be there," replied the green dragoness a bit darkly. No one else but Selene seemed to be the slightest bit bothered by this maneuver. Suddenly, the waiter came back with the party's food, and placed it at the table.

"That was fast," remarked Selene. Lyra nodded.

"Yes, but we're the only ones here."

'Still though…,' Selene murmured to herself. Everyone conversed between bites as they ate.

"So Spyro," Amber started with a gleaming smile. "What is Warfang like? Other than the fact that it's urban," she asked. Spyro's expression darkened at the memory.

"Unforgiving" was the only word that the purple dragon uttered in response. Amber sensed that she had struck a harsh memory in Spyro.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry," she replied sympathetically. "But I do hope that you find this city a wonderful new start," she added optimistically. Spyro's expression perked up a little bit in response.

"Thanks," he replied, a bit surprised with Amber's sympathy. The purple dragon hoped that it wasn't just a flirtatious trick. Amber then gained a glint in her eye.

"Hey, I know! How about I personally show you around the city a bit?" she suggested. Spyro shrugged.

"Sounds fine to me," he replied. Spyro then remembered his traveling companion. "Will Selene be coming with us?" he asked. She turned and looked over at Lyra.

"Actually, I was wondering if Selene and I could maybe go on our own too," Lyra replied. "As long as that's okay with you Selene."

The white dragoness was torn, but found herself instinctively speaking for herself. "I'll go with you." The earth dragoness beamed.

"Wonderful! We'll split up as soon as we're done here. I'm going to take Selene to the square and then Silver Salon. We'll meet back up at this café later to regroup, okay?" asked Lyra to Amber. Amber nodded.

"Then it's settled."

Selene watched Spyro walk away with Amber, and waved awkwardly. The poor white felt incredibly uncomfortable enough with Spyro leaving her, even for a little while, but with someone like Amber? Selene felt like she had lost Spyro forever despite the fact that it would just be a few hours without him.

'Come on you, she's just showing him around, when we meet back up here, everything will be alright,' Selene thought to herself reassuringly.

"So I was thinking that we could first go to the square, and then afterwards, maybe to the Silver Salon." Lyra's voice pierced Selene out of her musings, and she turned to face Lyra.

"Works for me," she replied. Lyra nodded and the two started walking down a street. When they had gone a little ways, Selene glanced up and noticed the statue that she had seen the day before. Lyra noticed Selene's gaze, and stopped.

"Interested in that statue?" Lyra inquired.

"Yeah," replied Selene as she stood, transfixed by it. There was something about the statue that made Selene feel a strange and almost sentimental feeling. At the same time, Selene noticed something about its eyes and its expression. It almost looked scared and anxious, which seemed odd, considering that it was supposed to be a heroic figure.

"It's pretty isn't it?" asked Lyra. Selene nodded.

"Yeah… it's almost feels familiar to me somehow," the white she-dragon remarked as she continued to gaze at the statue, almost trying to look for an answer to questions that she didn't have.

"Well, when you're done, I have more things to show you," said Lyra. Selene's face flushed.

"Right… let's keep going." The two continued on their path through the streets.

Spyro stared up at the pub in front of him with a sick feeling in his chest. For whatever reason, the place brought back painful memories of that one horrible night that the poor purple dragon had been trying to forget.

"And this is where I used to work before I met Lyra," said Amber to Spyro. "I was thinking that we could maybe relax here before going to the marina. Do you want to?" the crimson dragoness asked.

Spyro really didn't want to, but the place seemed meaningful to Amber, and it wouldn't hurt to maybe stop and sit for a spell.

"Okay," he replied flatly as the two entered.

Spyro noticed that like the café before, the bar was empty of patrons except for himself and Amber. There had been people on the streets, but there was almost no conversation, as if everyone had somewhere to be and no time to chat. The pair sat down, and as if on cue, an earth dragon bartender appeared from the doorway behind the counter.

"May I help you?" he asked warmly.

"I'll have a Bloody Sunday," requested Amber.

"A shot of brandy for me," Spyro added plainly. He wondered if Amber would be okay paying for his drink as well since he didn't have any money that was of value in the city.

As the bartender prepared the drinks, Spyro decided to humor himself; poke fun at his own past and the whole situation.

'And here is where she is psychically adding the love potion to my drink,' he thought as he watched Amber, who seemed to be staring at his drink. The bartender finished with Spyro's simple brandy order and moved on to mixing Amber's more complicated Bloody Sunday.

'And now she is fantasizing about all the things she plans to do to me.' Spyro stared over at Amber who seemed to be concentrating on the bartender's actions as she waited for the drinks.

Spyro halfheartedly snickered inside at the whole imaginary scenario that was playing through his mind, and at the grotesque parody that it was of his admittedly tragic life. The bartender finished the drinks, and brought them over to Amber and Spyro, who each took theirs. Amber started to sip hers slowly.

Spyro looked down at his drink, and smiled. 'And now I drink the lobiscon loxi and become her pawn,' the purple dragon mused in his head, bringing his fake scenario to resolution. He picked up the brandy, and drank halfheartedly waiting to feel the effects of the love potion which he knew would never come… but come they did.

The dragon felt his senses dull for a minute as he simply stared at Amber longingly for a minute while she smiled a devilish grin… and then lucid realization came in a wave, and the purple dragon realized with a start what was going on.

"Harlot!" Spyro shrieked as he pounced at Amber, truly deep and feral rage coursing through every part of him.. The crimson dragoness was completely taken off guard as she was bawled over by Spyro, a livid expression of pure hate on his face. Amber stared up in pure horror at the purple dragon above her as he slapped his claw across her face.

Black blood oozed out of the wounds on Amber's face, causing Spyro to react with surprise, his love potion induced trance long shattered. Amber got up and glared back at him, eyes burning with rage like two black coals.

"You pathetic wyrm!" she shrieked in a distorted and echoed voice. "You were supposed to give yourself to me! Body, mind, but most importantly, soul! Do you know how valuable you would have been to us?" Something strange was happening to Amber.

Her pupils were dilating, getting slowly bigger until they completely covered both of her eyes.

"But now it seems that you've seen too much," the thing that called itself Amber said in a demonic voice. It turned to the barkeep as its body turned completely black and its eyes completely red.

"Get him."

Adrenaline spiked through Spyro as he made a mad dash out of the pub, creating wall of earth behind him in the doorway to impede whatever would be chasing him. The purple dragon took flight and sped back through the streets, retracing his steps. He desperately had to find Selene…

As Lyra and Selene passed through the square, Selene noticed a strange aura about the place. There was very little conversation, yet the air was somehow thick, as if it were holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.

"And this is the main market area where various salespeople go about their business," remarked Lyra as she pointed out the various stalls. Selene felt like everyone in the square was watching her, but when she turned to face them, they seemed to just be going about their normal business.

"If you see anything that you want, let me know," said Lyra in a friendly way.

"Oh I… I really couldn't," replied Selene, slightly embarrassed by her feeling of dependency.

"Well, if you don't find anything here that you like, then let's just keep going," said Lyra, a bit disappointed that her friend didn't want to get anything from the square. The two continued on their path past a few more sites, and eventually, Lyra stopped in front of a building labeled "Silver Salon," prompting Selene to stop as well.

"Why are we stopping?" asked Selene.

"I booked an appointment here for us yesterday," answered Lyra with a grin. "I thought you might enjoy it as part of your day off."

A large smile broke over Selene's face. It felt so wonderful to finally have someone actually acting genuinely nice to her, and plus, she had never been to a beauty salon before. The two entered the building, and were greeted by the receptionist. Lyra gave her name, and then walked with Selene to the back where they met the stylist who showed Selene and Lyra to their respective seats.

"Hey Selene," called Lyra, getting Selene's attention. The green dragoness held a necklace out to Selene with a black jewel in its center.

"I got this for you back in the square. I thought that it would go great with your scale color," she said with a sweet smile. Selene beamed back, a little unsure of what to say.

"Wow, um, thank you! It's… it's beautiful," the white she-dragon stuttered as she slipped the necklace on.

At once, dark energy poured out of the crystal and shocked Selene, causing her to scream in pain. She desperately tried to remove the artifact, but it was stuck in place. Lyra simply stood unmoved, and watched Selene with a smirk. Suddenly, the pain stopped, and Selene collapsed on the ground, shaking.

The white dragoness could feel that something was terribly wrong, and she looked inquisitively up at Lyra, who gained a shadow of remorse.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way, but we first needed to soften you up, dear. We couldn't have those powers of yours getting in the way." Lyra then turned to the "stylist."

"Shackle her." Selene, too weak to put up a fight, unwillingly allowed her adversaries to do with her as they saw fit.

Spyro was flying through the square through the unsettling silence, when a piercing scream, faint, but detectable cut through the air. The purple dragon's eyes widened in recognition of the cry, and he flew towards its source.

Selene could only watch in horror as she was raised into the air, sprawled on top of a platform and tied down, the whole front of her body exposed. Selene watched as a massive black crystal was being lined up with her chest.

"Now don't worry, this won't hurt," comforted Lyra. "At least not physically."

A sudden explosion at the front of the salon caught the attention of Lyra and the stylist, who turned to face the source. There at the door stood a purple dragon, his face glaring, and ready for action.

His expression changed to one of horror when he caught sight of Selene tied down. Lyra stared at him in anger.

"Wasn't Amber supposed to take care of you?" she asked, annoyed. Spyro laughed humorlessly.

"Trust me. She tries way too hard. She never had a chance in the first place."

"Who said anything about my chance being over?" asked a disembodied and distorted voice. A black shadow of a dragon materialized beside Selene, and then took on the color of Amber as she held a claw to Selene's throat.

Spyro stared in horror as he realized the situation he was now in.

"Enough games," said Amber in an annoyed voice herself. "Now, you will do exactly as I say, or your precious concubine goes to hell." Selene recoiled on the inside at the insult that Amber had thrown at her. Spyro simply said nothing.

The very next instant, Spyro had vanished from where he was standing. Amber smirked and brought her claw backwards to cut into Selene's throat, but all that she found was air. Spyro and Selene were gone.

Spyro, with Selene in his paws, flew as fast and as far as he could while he could still hold his time fury in place. He had just crossed over the city wall and was in the outskirts when he finally felt it break, and time caught up with him. The purple dragon kept flying, this time lower to try to be more difficult to see in case there were pursuers… but none came.

Eventually, Spyro's wings gave out, and he stopped in a forest clearing to rest, putting Selene down. The purple dragon then realized that she never said anything during the entire flight away from whatever that city was. Spyro turned towards Selene.

"Are you okay?" he asked. No response.

Spyro turned her over so she could face him. Her face was limp, but her eyes were in an expression of horror. It was then that Spyro noticed the necklace around her neck and the dark crystal in the center, radiating with an evil aura.

With a quick swipe of his claws, the purple dragon sliced the weak gold chain and it fell off of Selene. Immediately, she gasped for breath. When she had finally pulled herself together, she stood up.

"Yes… now I am," she said in answer to Spyro's question.

Selene and Spyro shared a long gaze, and then Selene reached over and hugged him with one of her wings. Spyro was initially startled by the gesture, but he found himself returning it with his own wing embrace, comforting the white dragoness.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered to her. Selene looked up to Spyro, eyes brimming with adoration.

"You saved me. You don't need to be sorry," she returned. Rain clouds started building up in the sky, and the two dragons broke their embrace.

"So where do we go now?" Selene asked. "And what was that city?"

"I… I don't know," replied Spyro. "But we have to get away from here, that's for sure."

As the two dragons padded away from what was nearly both of their demises, Spyro found himself with that same feeling again that had been bothering him. The purple dragon tried to focus on it, but it still lacked clarity. Spyro's thoughts then went back to the city, as he was still shaken by the memory. Spyro nearly shed a tear when he thought of the memories of the hilariously unfortunate tragedy that was his life. How would he move on?

Rate and Review please. Song for this chapter is Half Light II (No Celebration) by Arcade Fire. I don't know why... but after writing this, I felt an incredibly strong feeling of sadness and fear... I would REALLY appreciate some constructive criticism on the aesthetic quality of my story, how "realistic" it seems, especially in the characters' reactions to certain stimuli. I also have a poll on my profile about what I should do next after I finish this story. Please vote on that if you can. Thanks!