Hello again, to anyone still reading that is haha. It's been quite a while since my last update hasn't it? I won't lie, this story just kinda slipped off my radar…. I have no real reason for why I haven't continued it, but I'm trying to get back into it! Hopefully the story will begin to pick up from here, so here is chapter eight.

TLOS: Why we fight

Chapter 8

As the sun began to crest the horizon, spyro watched through half lidded eyes from his perch in the fork of a tree overlooking the makeshift camp. With a large yawn, he unwrapped his wings from around his body and stretched them out to get rid of the slight cramping. He jumped down to the ground lightly and stretched some more, trying to shake the soreness from his sleep deprived body. Spyro finished with a shake of his head and a sigh before walking over to the others. He woke Swift and Heather first with a small shake before walking over to Cynder.

Spyro smiled ruefully and contemplated getting Cynder back for yesterday morning, but decided against it and leaned down to nudge her flank before whispering softly "Cynder, wake up. Its morning and we need to get moving if we want to reach warfang today." She mumbled quietly and curled up tighter. Spyro sighed and nudged her again. "Come on Cynder. Get up!" he said again. Cynder fluttered a wing, but remained otherwise motionless and quiet.

Spyro smirked and leaned in close again before breathing a small jet of ice breath between her shoulder blades. With a loud yelp, Cynder jumped away from the sudden cold. "Hey! What was that for? Couldn't you see I was sleeping? That was really cold." Cynder grumbled annoyed. "Yeah, that's the problem Cynder. We need to go, unless you'd rather spend another night sleeping on the ground instead of in a bed?" Spyro asked teasingly as he stood and walked around her before sitting back down next to her. Cynder rolled her eyes and jabbed him in the side lightly with her paw and a smirk. "I didn't realize you were so eager to get me into a bed Spyro." She said teasingly. Spyro blushed madly and tried to stutter out some kind of rebuttal, nothing but word fragments leaving his mouth. Cynder laughed heartily and wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. "it's okay Spyro, I was just joking" she said with another teasing poke at his sides.

"You know that's not what I meant Cynder. I was just trying to get you moving. Besides, i wouldn't try for anything like that unless you wanted to, and plus we have to keep focused on the mission" Spyro finally was able to say. "Besides, from the way things are it seems pretty clear that you don't want to go there yet" he said in conclusion. Cynder stood up and began walking away, trailing her tail tip up his side as she walked. "But Spyro, I didn't say I was opposed to the idea" she said with a wink, flicking his nose with her tail before walking towards Swift and Heather, swaying her hips and tail seductively. Spyro was blushing furiously, unable to tear his eyes away from her before swallowing his heart, which had jumped into his throat, with a loud gulp and getting up to follow her.

He joined the others as Heather finished securing the rest of her things to her pack. Swift looked over to Spyro with a nod. They began trekking towards warfang again at their usual pace. Not long into the walk though, Heather yelled from a little ways behind "hey! Wait up!"

The others stopped and waited for her to catch up. She soon rejoined the group, but was panting lightly. "Sorry. I'm just not used to walking at this pace" She said. Swift looked over at Spyro and said, "That's right. I almost forgot she isn't trained like the rest of us. We'll have to slow down a bit if we don't want to work her to death." Spyro glanced at her before looking to Cynder and back to Swift. "Heather, Give your bag to swift and give your things to me, Cynder. We will carry our things while you two go further ahead and make sure the path is clear. This way, you won't grow tired as quickly and we can keep up a quick pace."

She reluctantly handed over the bag and walked ahead with cynder. She looked back to see Spyro and Swift distributing the weight evenly between themselves before turning back to Cynder and the task at hand. As they moved further along the path, Heather kept looking around at the scenery and Cynder to make sure she didn't lose her. Cynder glanced over at her and gave a friendly smile when she saw Heather looking. "So, besides working for Reed back in Avalar, what do you do Heather?" Cynder asked, trying to get rid of the awkward silence.

Heather looked over at her and back to the path ahead. "I really didn't do much other than learn the craft of stone masonry. I don't have many friends, and Reed always had something for me to do" she said with a shrug, "I guess in what spare time I did have, I was either fishing or tying flies as a hobby." Cynder looked over puzzled. "Tying flies? You don't literally me tying flies together do you?" Cynder said confused. Heather chuckled softly, "I forgot you dragons don't do things the same way we do. Tying flies is an art I guess you could say. It's using a combination of threads, furs, feathers, and other materials to create lifelike imitations of insects to use as bait for fishing. I would show you one, but my fly box is back with the guys." She said a little apologetically. Cynder smiled and replied with a small laugh "It's okay. You can show me them later. It's very interesting learning all these new things from you Avalarians" Heather smiled back and went back to looking for anything new in their surroundings

Swift groaned as he walked "maybe we shouldn't have taken all their stuff Spyro?" he said. Spyro gave a small grunt in agreement from under the weight of his and Cynder's combined packs. They kept up a decent pace however, almost matching the girls but never falling too far back to lose their scent trail. Spyro looked further up the path and sighed at seeing another small, but steep hill they had to climb over. Once over said hill, Swift looked over at him before looking forward again. "So why act so embarrassed around Cynder when you clearly have feelings for her?" Swift asked bluntly. Spyro looked over at him with a slightly annoyed look before sighing and answering him. "it's just that we've been through so much that its almost become second nature to have her watching my back and vice versa, but now that we aren't in constant danger…. It's almost like I'm completely lost! I never know what to say and what I do say always seems awkward…" Swift nodded in though, but didn't say anything. "Plus I haven't really known anything but fighting. I found Ignitus when I was pretty young, and I never had any love interests until I met Cynder." Swift looked over at him again slightly surprised. "Didn't you ever feel anything towards anyone else in your…. Err…. Community? Or whatever you dragons call your groups you live in?" Spyro shook his head and looked down with a small sigh. "I wasn't raised by dragons. I was found still in the egg by Sparx's parents, and they took me in and brought me up as his brother." He said softly.

"Sparx?" Swift questioned, to which Spyro looked over confused. "oh!" he said, realization dawning on him, "Sparx is my 'brother'. He's a firefly" Spyro explained. Swift stared at spyro like he was completely insane, before tripping on a root and landing under the unfortunate weight of all the bags he was carrying. Spyro started at the sudden movement and noise before dropping his and Cynder's things and running over to help Swift out. He pushed the bags off of Swift and helped him back to his feet. Swift huffed before looking at Spyro again. "Sparx is a dragonfly? How did you not notice you were different than the others?" he asked incredulously.

Spyro laughed and started reorganizing the bags. "I did notice that I was different. It's just that I wasn't really thinking about it all that much. I just thought I was a really big, weird dragonfly" he said with a flutter of his wings in a dragon version of a shrug. "How did you think that? You look nothing like a dragonfly!" Swift exclaimed, laughing loudly. Spyro glared daggers at him and stayed quiet until his laughter had subsided. "if you're quite done, how would you think if you were born and the first and only thing you were exposed to were wolves for your whole childhood? If you didn't know cheetahs existed, you'd probably think you were a weird wolf wouldn't you?" Spyro said aggravated. Swift looked off in thought, holding his chin. "I guess you have a point there, but it still seems weird to me." He said with a shrug before picking his bags back up. Spyro rolled his eyes and slung his share of the bags onto his back before following after Swift.

A few hours later, Spyro walked around a bend and looked up from the ground to see Cynder and Heather sitting on a large flat rock at the edge of the seemingly endless forest. He nudged Swift to get his attention before nodding his head towards the two. They quickened their pace and closed the gap between them and the girls in seconds. Heather looked over Cynder's shoulder and waved welcomingly.

Cynder looked back to see who Heather was waving at and smiled happily when she saw it was Spyro and Swift. She waited until they were closer before calling out to them. "Hey guys! How were things with the bags?" She said jokingly. Spyro snorted in mock amusement before dumping their bags. "It was just great!" Swift said sarcastically before slumping onto the rock next to Heather. He slid out of the straps keeping the bags on his back and began rubbing his neck with a cringe. Cynder snickered at the two and heather giggled softly at their reactions. "Well we had a great walk and a nice talk too." Cynder said with a smile. Heather nodded in agreement. "Yeah we did. It was nice to just talk with someone without being watched or having to work during the conversation." She added.

Spyro looked up at the sky to check the suns position before looking back down at the bags to make sure they hadn't lost anything. "So why are we stopped?" he questioned while he checked the bags. Cynder stood and walked over to help him and said "we stopped because after this last hill we will be within sight of the city and it's only another hour after that. Plus we wanted to take some of the weight off you guys for the last stretch". Spyro looked over and nuzzled her cheek. "How thoughtful of you two!" he said playfully and shoved Cynder's bag towards her ungracefully. Cynder rolled her eyes and grabbed the bag before standing and looking over to see Heather taking her bag back gratefully from Swift, who helped her situate it on her back so it wouldn't spill and would sit as comfortable as possible. Cynder sighed and glanced back to spyro and smiled playfully. "Why don't you do things like that?" She asked teasingly and poked his side with her wing tip. "Because you've always been to headstrong to let me help you with anything like that." He said back with a coy grin on his face.

Cynder laughed and pressed their sides together as they began walking. "Yeah, that's true." She said as she nuzzled his neck softly. A soft rumble began to emanate from Spyro's throat and he draped a wing over Cynder's back and bag to help guide her and to keep her close. She chuckled when she heard the noise. "Almost like a cat purring," she said, "but more dragon like." He smiled and planted a kiss on her nose. "I didn't even know dragons made this noise. I've never made it before, so its new to me." He said and looked further up the road. "I like it" Cynder said, "It's comforting." Spyro smiled and the rumble got a little louder. Cynder giggled "and I guess I'm the one causing it to happen!" She said.

Spyro Chuckled and kissed her again before looking at the city looming in the distance. "Well, at least we'll be back in warfang soon. It'll be nice to see everyone again and let them know that we aren't dead." He said. Closing her eyes and resting her head against his neck, listening to his pulse as they walked, Cynder nodded in agreement. "If only we were going to stay longer than a week or so. I'd like to take a break from all this saving the world" she sighed. Spyro nuzzled her and kissed the top of her head. "Me too Cyn, but we have to do this. For the sake of the realm and for Meadow. We can't just leave him to Malefor like that." He said softly. Cynder pulled her head away, "I know, I know. I just hope this is the last we'll see of that evil dragon. He's tormented us and the realm for long enough." She replied. Spyro nodded and wrapped his tail around hers. "I hope so too Cynder. I hope so too."

The last rays of the sun were peeking over the mountaintops behind them as they approached Warfang. A mole called out from the top of the gate when they neared the gate. "Halt! State your names and business. The war may be over, but we don't normally allow anyone through the gates after sunset" he called out. Swift looked up at him, "we come from Avalar, and are on our way to see the guardians. I'm Swift and this is Heather, and we have Spyro and Cynder with us!" he called back.

"But Spyro and Cynder are dead! No one has seen them since they went to fight Malefor. You expect me to believe those two are them?" he yelled back. Spyro sigh and called out, "last time I checked my name was Spyro, unless you know of some other purple dragon?" the mole looked thoughtful for a second before he disappeared back over the edge. A minute later the gates grated open just enough to let them in. the four walked through and looked back as the gate closed behind them, watching the ornate lock seal itself with a flash of light. The mole from before walked up to them, a torch in hand, and got a closer look at Spyro and Cynder. "Well I'll be damned, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the mole you two helped with the cannon. It's good to see you are alive!" he said happily. "You said you were on your way to the guardians? Follow me. Ill lead you there." He turned and gestured for them to follow. Spyro and Cynder smiled, glad to see that the mole had survived the war, and began to follow him. Heather and Swift were close behind as they walked down the wide street towards the large temple in the middle of the city.

When they reached the foot of the stars leading into the building, the mole turned to them and said, "I'll leave you here. Just go up the stairs and through the big doors at the top. A mole will be inside, but just tell her I sent you and she'll get you some rooms for the night. Ill inform the guardians of your arrival and have someone sent to get you when the guardians are ready for you. My name is Onix by the way." he offered his hand, which Spyro shook happily. "Well thanks Onix. I appreciate all of this and hope to see you again Spyro said thankfully. Onix smiled and waved farewell as he walked down another path further around the building.

The group walked up the stairs and told the mole inside what Onix had told them. He showed them to four rooms all next to each other and bid them a goodnight before leaving Swift walked through the curtain into one room and instantly dropped his bag and fell face first onto the bed within. Heather said her goodnights to Cynder and Spyro before walking through the curtain into her own room. Spyro walked into the next room down and set his bag down before turning around to see Cynder standing in the room too. "What's wrong Cyn?" he asked concerned. She looked away, blushing softly. "I… I just don't want to sleep alone" she said bashfully. Spyro smiled and walked over to her and nuzzled noses. "It's okay Cynder. I'd love to share a room with you." She smiled and kissed him softly. He smiled and returned the kiss before breaking it and grabbing her bag. He put it over with his things and then helped her over to the bed. She lay down and curled up with a soft goodnight. Spyro climbed into the bed and curled up around her, draping his wing over her like a blanket. "Goodnight Cyn. Sleep well and ill see you in the morning." He lay his head down and drifted off into unconsciousness, happy to be with his love.

Well that's all I have for now folks. It's not much, but it's what I've got. I hope you all liked it and ill see you all next chapter! JVuk out