Chapter Text
It seemed like it was all over.
On the proving grounds of her castle, the cruel tyrannical sorceress who ruled the Forgotten Realms had been defeated via a pool of hazardous acid. A climactic battle had ensued just recently between her and the heroic dragon Spyro, who was there to rescue his kind from a dark fate.
With Spyro having returned back to his homeworld with his friends the previous day, there was nothing left in the place where they had fought. The only thing that had surfaced from the acid that had become the tomb of the Sorceress was her crown. With a light splash, it emerged from the purple depths.
Nobody knew of what strong material it was built from, or if it was magical, but it had survived the acid. Softly, it had floated away from the acid, into the fringes of the area that weren´t covered in acid.
There it stood, without a head for it to be placed upon. Like as a grim relic of an once dark reign. A reign that almost wiped out the entire dragon species and at worst could´ve ruled for eternity.
However, that was not all there was to it.
One of the crown´s jewels begun shaking, swelling and cracking, until it finally burst. Strange noises begun echoing in the air as black smoke erupted from the broken jewel. A diabolical, deep, dark laugh followed suite.
“I am free”, a bone-chilling, booming voice was heard.
Suddenly, a shadow of a snakelike creature with a strange head slightly resembling a dragon with catlike features and sharp fangs crawled against the wall, almost slithering. Yet despite the shadow´s presence on the wall, nothing could be seen there in the flesh. Almost like a ghost.
There was no body for said creature. But even with only its shadow being visible one could sense a great feeling of dread and an almost otherworldly presence around it if anybody could come across this entity.
But what was this creature exactly? And why was it trapped in the crown of the Sorceress for so long?
Nobody alive at the Forgotten Realms knew at that point, especially when nobody was there to see it get released.
However, this was only the beginning of dark events that´d put the entire kingdom at grave peril, even worse than before….
A few years passed, and nothing special seemed to happen.
Back at the Dragon Realms, at the homeland of the Artisans, a very special celebration was about to take place. A midsummer festival celebrating a nightless night that took place every June.
By the square of the town was strolling none other than Spyro himself, eyeing the bustling activity at the scenery around him. He had grown older a bit since his last adventure, getting a bit more muscular and now going on two legs more than before. Yet from his face and smile he looked still pretty much the same.
Along with him was flying his dragonfly partner Sparx and a cheetah Hunter, a friend from Avalar´s neighboring kingdom that had been helping him on his previous adventures. They all looked happy and ecstatic for the festival.
“Every year, it feels like this is the highlight for us at the Dragon Kingdom. Second only to what happens during the fall, that is. If you know what I mean”, Spyro smiled at Hunter.
“Yes. Fireworks, parade, dance…even Avalar hasn´t this much during its festivities”, the cheetah nodded.
Hearing the mention of Avalar made Spyro smile sheepishly. At that kingdom lived another very close friend of his, the faun Elora. She and the dragon had grown very close during the years ever since they defeated the evil sorcerer Ripto who tried to rule over Avalar. Some might say more than close; Spyro clearly enjoyed her company a lot, and Elora often looked forward to his visits to Avalar the most.
Hunter often playfully teased Spyro about it, and being very young, tended to get blushy and defensive about it. Ironically Hunter had a flame of his own with whom he was in a very close bond with. Their former enemy from the Forgotten Realms, the beautiful rabbit witch Bianca. She used to work for the Sorceress until she realized her true plans and switched sides. Nowadays she lived in the Dragon Realms with Hunter and Spyro.
“So…is she coming to see the festival?” Spyro asked Hunter after being reminded of Avalar.
“I guess so. I paid a visit to Fracture Hills and she seemed enthusiastic about it. Bet she´ll be here in no time”, Hunter noted, adjusting his belt.
“Good. I´d hate to see her miss the fireworks”, the dragon nodded.
Suddenly, a small explosion was heard nearby. A small military penguin walked to the two friends, looking stern.
“I swear, it wasn´t me! I haven´t even lit anything yet!” said Sgt. Byrd, another friend of Spyro from the Forgotten Realms. He was in charge of the fireworks for the festival, being a natural at pyrotechnics.
Hunter and Spyro turned, seeing smoke coming from a small house near the town square.
They had a good idea on what was going on.
Out of the house walked Bianca. Soot was tattered all over her cape and dress tunic.
“Who did you toast this time?” Spyro asked.
“Nobody important. I was just trying out some alchemy I learned from that fella at Fracture Hills”, Bianca wiped soot off her clothes with her wand.
“That bozo who tried to “turn my boots into gold”? Wouldn´t rely on him for professional advice”, Hunter remembered his past mishap there.
Bianca smiled awkwardly.
“Still got any magic tricks ready to show for the festival?” the cheetah nudged his girlfriend.
“Well yeah, I´ve got some. The disappearing pig act is a good one in particular”, Bianca answered, eyeing Hunter amorously.
Spyro looked at the couple with a playful smile on his face, like that of a wingman happy for his friend.
Sparx buzzed something to his ear, which caused him to raise eyebrows curiously.
“They´re coming?” the dragon asked eagerly.
Before the dragonfly could answer, a bright green light emerged at the middle of the square. A ball-like machine appeared there, out of which walked Elora and her close friend, the Professor. This elderly mole was a helpful inventor who had also lent a paw during Spyro´s previous two adventures.
“Elora!” Spyro said cheerfully.
“Spyro!” Elora shouted, hugging the dragon as he hopped near her.
“You made it just in time. The festival will start soon”, the dragon answered.
Hunter eyed the Professor´s machine curiously. He had never seen that one before.
“Quite a strange contraption. I would´ve preferred to just use portals the old fashioned way”, he noted.
The Professor lifted his glasses.
“It´s a new invention I decided to test with Elora in arriving here. A teleportation device that can take one anywhere at a notable radius. Saves some time in comparison to portals, at least according to my calculations”, he explained.
Bianca, on the other hand, wasn´t impressed.
“What a piece of junk. I agree with Hunter, portals are more practical”, she said.
“Practical, but science can achieve something magic will never”, Professor disagreed.
The rabbit shook her head, but out of respect, didn´t comment further on that. She was a strong believer in magic and didn´t like to see it belittled like that.
“Glad to see you here regardless, Professor”, Spyro greeted.
“Bet you´d be interested in a game of chess with Elder Tomas? He heard you´re one master player”, Hunter told the mole.
“Sure, why not”, he answered.
In no time, the festival began. Spyro and his friends had set up near the edges of the parade road, enjoying some cake and watching the show.
Byrd was showing his fireworks while fairies were dancing in tune to Celtic-esque music played by Zoe, an Avalar fairy familiar to the dragons. Spyro sat near Elora and Hunter held hands with Bianca while enjoying the festival.
Sun had just set, and the sky was almost cyan in color, like often during summer nights. A perfect ambience for such festival.
“Is there ever any jousting at dragon festivals? Always wanted to try some out”, Hunter asked.
“There was until Elder Magnus almost cracked his skull at that, and we haven´t featured that at the festival since then”, Spyro answered.
Hunter sank a bit.
“Aw man, I kind of wanted to show how strong of a rider I am”, he cockily stretched his muscles at Bianca, who looked slightly embarrassed.
“Maybe some other time”, she shrugged.
“Well, at least the offerings at the table are great”, Hunter grabbed a biscuit.
Spyro emptied a glass of punch, feeling very relaxed and calm at that moment. No bad guys or people needing to get saved. Just the type of rest he needed.
“Even the best of faun parties aren´t like this”, Elora admired the music.
“Glad you get to experience this for the first time here too”, Spyro answered.
“For a folk known to be fierce and powerful you dragons certainly have some eye for beauty in your culture”, Elora commented.
“Spyro probably feels that way about her too”, Hunter whispered to Bianca.
However, as the dragon was about to talk more about the party, they could feel something was wrong.
A cold breeze touched their skins as a dark cloud rose up on the sky. The mood of the party changed very soon.
“Ah, rain again”, Spyro looked at the clouds.
“That doesn´t look like rain clouds” Elora commented.
Suddenly, Spyro felt a strange sensation all over his body. It lasted for a second or two, but when it was gone, he felt different.
As he rose from the chair, he felt tired and shaky, with a cold tremble against his skin. Something much stronger than the average goosebumps.
At the distance, gasps and moans could be heard from some other dragons too. So he was not alone at that.
“Uhh…I don´t feel so good”, he trembled.
Elora, Hunter and Bianca all went almost pale.
“Spyro!!” Hunter was horrified, lifting the tired dragon as he almost fell over.
“Are you sick?” a worried Elora asked.
“I don´t know. Perhaps, but I´m not sure what it is”, Spyro said in a soft, slow voice.
Bianca looked at him seriously.
“This doesn´t sound good. Let´s head back to my cottage, I might check that out”, the rabbit witch said.
The Professor was a bit skeptical.
“Are you sure? I have some fever medicine in my suitcase”, he suggested.
“Highly doubt this is something that simple”, Elora said.
The four all took Spyro with them right into Bianca´s house.
Her home was a small, messy but cozy cottage near the town square. It looked incredibly simple from the inside; a creaky little bed, a large table at the middle with a cauldron near it, a modest kitchen and several shelves full of books and jars.
“You don´t have any fever apparently”, the Professor checked out Spyro with a thermometer. He sat down on a chair, wrapped in a blanket and having some herb tea.
Bianca scrolled through her bookshelf, clumsily dropping a jar of butterflies on the floor in the progress. Spyro sneezed at that moment.
“Whoops. Sorry”, Bianca said as she took out a book regarding diseases. The rabbit read through it carefully through the section regarding dragons.
“Can you find any solution?” Hunter asked.
“Hmm… no idea. I have some potions that can make you feel better though. Try this one”, she poured a small vial of purple liquid into the dragon´s tea.
Spyro tried to warm it up with his breath, but much to his horror, he noticed that no flame came out of his mouth.
Almost instantly, he drank the vial´s contents. As he finished it, he could feel somewhat better.
“Did that help?” Bianca asked.
“A little, I guess. Thanks”, Spyro answered.
However, he tried his fire breath again, but to no avail.
“I don´t feel that bad anymore….but I cannot breathe fire!” he said.
Elora and Hunter looked shocked.
“Did something go wrong with the potion?” Elora asked.
“No, I couldn´t breathe before that either”, the dragon answered.
“Well, at least a little strength recovering is better than nothing. Can you at least fly?” Hunter asked.
Spyro rose up and tried to fly, but could only hover a bit. He couldn´t believe it.
“No”, he gasped.
The Professor was horrified too.
“The ability to fly and breathe fire - both gone at the same time. No way there´s a scientific explanation for that. Almost like something took your dragon essence away”, he said.
Bianca heard that, and checked out more information on his book. Yet what she found was not enough.
“According to this a dragon´s essence has no connection to any disease, only dark magic that only the most powerful of beings can cast on them. But only by cutting the source of said dark magic can this be cured”, she explained.
Everybody looked terrified. Something had to be done, but nobody knew how Spyro could be helped.
Suddenly, Bianca´s door was opened. Someone walked in.
“Spyro, may I have a word with you?” Elder Tomas, a blue male adult dragon walked in. He was one of the leading elders of the Dragon Realms and a close mentor to the young dragon.
“You too have lost your breath and flight?” Spyro asked.
“I´m afraid so. Most dragons have been losing their essences in this realm, more and more by minute. It has become widespread. Something has to be done”, Tomas said.
Hunter and Bianca looked at Spyro.
“I know. But what must we do? We don´t know where the source of this plight is”, he asked.
“If something has affected all of us at the Artisan Realms, then it most likely it must be at the core of the realm”, Tomas explained.
Spyro nodded sternly. The core of Artisans was a deep dark underground place dragons hadn´t used since a past war before Gnasty Gnorc´s era. It had a reputation as a dark, haunted spot where nobody had been at in a very long time.
“Looks like I´m off to another adventure…with or without my fire breath”, Spyro sighed.
Elora walked behind him, clasping him by the shoulder.
“You´re not alone in this”, she said.
Hunter and Bianca followed behind.
“We´re coming with you too. Magic is involved in this, so I might be of assistance here”, the rabbit said. Even though she too was just as worried as Spyro was.
“Since you cannot fly, we can use my machine to head there”, Professor suggested, leading the way.
“Very well. Let´s go” Spyro said.
As they walked outside Bianca´s house, the young dragon looked at the sky with worry in his gaze. Even though Spyro usually loved going on an adventure, this felt rather different to him. He wasn´t his usual confident self when going on this quest.
Back when he went after Ripto or after the Rhynocs on Forgotten Realms, at least then he knew what was waiting for him there. Now this wasn´t the case.
It felt like a great leap into the unknown which he hadn´t been prepared for. But the steadfast young hero was going to do what it took, even if he didn´t feel as strong as before.
Yet none of them was truly prepared for what awaited.
Meanwhile, something strange was going on at the Dream Weavers, another of the Dragon Realms.
An eerily glowing purple crater with gems sticking out of it was located at a mountain peak at the outer edges of the homeworld. It looked like something that had not come out of the rock naturally; instead it was like it had spawned out of a completely different world.
Suddenly, a strange rotund portal opened in the ground near it, and a hooded figure hopped out of it, almost instantly smashing the gem with a silver staff. Sinister, almost screaming noise could be heard as the purple glow around it dissipated.
The hooded figure caught its breath and lifted the cowl a bit. It turned out to be a young and beautiful pinkish-purple dragoness with a physique similar to Spyro´s, except feminine. She also had a heart-shaped ruby necklace, an elegant purple cape and a golden sash on her.
Sniffing around, the dragoness was searching for something. After a moment, she found something lying on the ground.
The dragoness lifted a tiny broken piece of golden armor and clutched it in her claws. A determined look shined on her blue eyes.
“Almost there”, she said in a young, cheerful voice.
Who was this mysterious stranger? And what was she looking for at the Dragon Realms?
It was only a matter of time when it´d be found out….