Chapter Text
Cynder awoke with a wide yawn, opening her eyes to the light of the early morning sun shining through the bedroom window. She got up, groaning as she stretched, before heading out to wake the kids.
It was a standard weekday morning. As usual, Spyro’s day had started with the sunrise, long before the rest of the family was awake. He was a construction supervisor, and was currently working on a project to build a new house for a family looking to move to Warfang from one of the large coastal cities on the other side of the continent. Warfang was getting much bigger now, and had needed to compensate in the amount of buildings there were, so Spyro’s team had had many big jobs expanding the walls of Warfang and building new houses. This one was a particularly important one since the family moving to Warfang was quite a rich one, and had asked for a pretty fancy home to be built in the less busy areas of Warfang.
This left Cynder to get their three children ready for school, which she didn’t mind; she liked the extra time alone with her kids. Once they had gotten ready, they would then walk to school, and she would head off to the Warfang Temple to her own job; she’d landed a job about five years ago as the guardians’ secretary. The thirty-eight-year-old dragoness loved it, and also felt it was a good fit for her to be away from the majority of the people in Warfang. She was still very cautious of her previous reputation, despite the war having ended twenty-three years ago. The type of impact that she left on many dragons all over the Dragon Realms was not one that went away in a lifetime.
Walking up the stairs, she made her way to her children’s rooms. She stopped at Cory and Xorin’s room, knocking on the door to announce her presence, before opening it and walking in. Cory was sitting up in his bed, wiping his eyes with a yawn, while Xorin was still fast asleep. Cynder rolled her eyes with a sigh. She almost found it funny that Xorin, being the most energetic out of the litter, he was the hardest to wake up. She supposed he needed more rest since he was using more energy than his brother and sister.
It was moments like these where she wished she had Spyro’s elements; she always got a good laugh watching Spyro force Xorin out of his sleep with a freezing cold cloud of ice breath. She didn’t have that, but as of recently she had started to make use of her wind element to throw his sheets off him. If that didn’t work she would literally throw him out of bed.
Cynder didn’t quite get that far, as Xorin groaned out in protest once his thick, warm sheets were thrown off him. “Muuuuum, put them back on,” he complained.
“Nope, it’s school today. Get up,” Cynder ordered.
“It’s cold.”
“Only coz you’ve been boiling in those hot sheets of yours. Now get up or I’ll do it for you.”
“Okay, okay, I’m getting up,” Xorin muttered, rubbing his eyes and rolling out of bed.
Cynder turned to Cory, who she could tell was holding in his laughter. “Alright, I’ll go check on Waedra and I expect to see you two down in the kitchen for breakfast when I come back,” Cynder said, before turning and leaving the room.
As she made her way to Waedra’s room, she stifled a scoff and rolled her eyes. Teenage boys, she thought with a smirk. I remember when Spyro was this difficult to wake up, although it didn’t hit him until he was seventeen.
She knocked on Waedra’s door. She didn’t even get a chance to open the door before she got a response. “I’ll come down in a moment,” Waedra said from inside her room, her voice small and soft.
Cynder slowly opened the door, noticing her fifteen-year-old daughter sitting on the ground, drawing on some parchment. “How long have you been up doing this?” Cynder asked.
“About ten or fifteen minutes, not long. I’ll finish drawing this leg and then I’ll come down for breakfast,” Waedra replied.
Cynder just smiled, before she left the room and made her way back to the kitchen. Waedra was a great kid, but had grown to be very shy and softly spoken, which was the complete opposite of her brothers, especially Xorin. Even though she was fifteen, Cynder would do anything she could to protect her little girl.
When she got down to the kitchen, both Cory and Xorin were there, like she had asked, and they were currently grabbing some assorted berries from the cupboard for a bit of breakfast. Xorin had also grabbed half a deer flank from the meat pantry. She gave a small smile to them, before making her way down the hall into the living room to grab her satchel, which had a few pieces of parchment and some charcoal pencils inside, some of the parchment with some notes on it that she needed for the day.
“Will you guys be good to get yourselves sorted for school after breakfast?” Cynder asked her children, Waedra having now joined Cory and Xorin in the kitchen.
“Yeah? How come you’re going so early?” Xorin asked.
“I have a breakfast meeting with Terrador this morning, and I’ll have to be there in about five minutes.”
“Alright, we’ll see you this afternoon, Mum,” Cory said, waving a wing at Cynder.
With that, Cynder was out the door, leaving the fifteen-year-old triplets on their own. They ate in almost complete silence, before they went up to their rooms to grab their school supplies for the day. Cory and Xorin got themselves organised first, and so made their way to Waedra’s door to wait for her. She stepped out of her room shortly after, two satchels hung around her shoulder: one full of her art supplies, and one with all her other school supplies.
“I’m still jealous you get your own room,” Xorin muttered under his breath.
“Xorin, you know very well why Mum and Dad gave Waedra her own room,” Cory reprimanded with a shake of his head. “We’ve had this conversation before.”
“Well why can’t we get our own rooms?”
“You know we don’t have any spare rooms in our house; Mum and Dad had to clear out their spare room for me,” Waedra said with a shrug.
She just smirked when Xorin let out a sad groan. Throughout their early years, the three of them had all shared a room; it was kind of common for littermates from a clutch to share a room for the first few years of their life, and later they would be split apart, whether it be because they were getting uncomfortable being in each other’s space all the time, or puberty hitting them and it being more appropriate to split the siblings up if they were of opposite genders. The latter was what happened with Waedra.
Spyro and Cynder had planned to move Waedra out just before she turned ten, as ten was about as early as dragonesses began puberty, however Waedra began very early, and had begun her very first cycle a few weeks before Spyro and Cynder had planned to move her to her own room.
Luckily Cynder had explained it to Waedra beforehand so it wasn’t as much as a shock, and Spyro just happened to have taken the boys out for a father-son afternoon, so Waedra couldn’t have timed it any more perfectly. It was an awkward conversation with the boys when they inquired why Waedra was getting her own room. It made Waedra smirk just thinking about it; she thought seeing their discomfort was funny.
“Alright enough moping about our room configuration,” Cory scoffed at Xorin. “We need to be heading off to school so we’re not late. Let’s go.”
With that, they were on their way to school, Waedra walking between her two brothers. It was a fifteen minute walk to the school, which was often pretty uneventful, aside from meeting up with a few friends on the way. Waedra was hoping for a nice calm walk to school today, but unfortunately, Xorin wanted to talk even more.
“So what classes have you guys got today? Anything exciting?” Xorin queried, his voice filled with energy as he skipped with each step.
“I mean I’ve got a longer literature class today so I’m looking forward to that, and I think a book I reserved at the school library is due to come back in today so I’m excited to read it,” Cory said with a shrug.
“What about you, Waedra?” Xorin asked.
“I… I don’t know. I have art class today which is fun,” Waedra said softly, with a slight shrug.
“Oh that sounds fun!”
“Would you be able to tone it down a bit, Xorin? It’s a bit… overwhelming…”
Xorin just blinked. He and Waedra had had this conversation many times. Over the years, Waedra had developed a much shyer nature, and also got easily overwhelmed by lots of things, particularly Xorin’s vigorous, energetic personality. He’d asked her to let him know if he was being too much for her. It always hurt him a little bit, but he wanted to do his best to keep her comfortable around him.
It was the least he could do for his sister, especially after the way she had looked after him when he was younger, as he grew up quite small and weak, the runt of the litter. As he grew older, he had grown much larger and stronger, as he very much liked sports and combat, and spent much of his time doing physical work, which in turn ended up in him bulking up quite a bit. Now he was between Waedra and Cory in terms of height, Waedra now being the smallest, but Xorin was now the largest in terms of bulk.
He had put it upon himself that it was his turn to protect her sister, and the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel overwhelmed by his energy. Even he understood he could be a lot sometimes, which was a lot for him to admit, and something that took him a good many years to recognise. Cory had helped him a lot with this.
“I’m sorry, Wae,” Xorin murmured, taking a small step to the side away from her.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
They walked for a little longer in silence, before Xorin piped up again, seeing his friend Eradrin in the distance. Calling out his name, Xorin ran off towards the fire dragon. Waedra breathed a small sigh of relief. As much as she loved her brother, he was often way too much for her to handle.
“Are you okay?” Cory asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need a break from him right now,” Waedra replied.
“I know he can be a lot, but he really is trying to be aware of it. He’s just… one of those people who’s super energetic all the time. He always has been.”
“I know. Hopefully he grows out of it.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure he will; he’s been like this all his life.”
“Maybe just a little bit then?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe.”
By this point they had now arrived at the school grounds. They heard the bell ring, signalling the start of their first class. With that, Waedra and Cory said their goodbyes, before they split apart to go to their own classes. Cory was a little worried for Waedra, but he figured that by the time recess rolled around she would probably be fine.
It was an interesting dynamic amongst the siblings. Cory, the middle triplet, was really the one who cared for his other siblings. He tried to keep Xorin in line when he was getting a little too crazy, and he was always there for Waedra if she needed someone to talk to so she could destress and return from her overwhelmed state if she was in one. He didn’t mind it, though; he very much loved his siblings, and would do anything for them.
He just worried a lot about Waedra especially, since she had become much more fragile and easily overwhelmed than she had in years past. She was much quieter, not that she was a loud dragoness to start with, and kept to herself often when they were at home.
Xorin was mostly fine; he just got a little too energetic or crazy at times. It had been fine for the last fifteen years but Cory worried how long it’ll take for Xorin to make a dumb decision that would end up hurting himself or others.
Master Tharin, the physical education teacher, had split his students up into two teams of ten. There was a little bit of grumbling amongst the students as some of them had been split up from their friends. Xorin had been split up from Eradrin too, but he wasn’t too upset. The two of them were always pretty competitive, and they enjoyed versing each other every now and then. Xorin also was just happy to play; capture the flag was one of his favourite games to play.
Each team was given a stash of ten strips of fabric to put on their side of the playing field, one team being red and one team being blue. They were also given some horn-bands matching their team colour. Strapping his blue horn-bands around his curved indigo horns, Xorin prepared himself for an adrenaline rush.
He watched Eradrin across the field, throwing the red strips of fabric onto the far side of the red team’s field. When Eradrin turned around, they met eye contact. Xorin could only just see the competitive smirk on Eradrin’s face from the distance, and he lowered himself into a pouncing stance, ready to jump into action.
“GO!” Master Tharin called out.
Xorin leapt into action, bursting forward into a sprint, as did Eradrin and another dragon on the red team. Everybody else was a bit later jumping into action, as they weren’t preparing for such an immediate, explosive start.
Xorin was very quick in outrunning many of the defending red team students trying to chase after him; it was an easy feat as he was one of the fastest in the class, even with four students closing in on him from many directions. He safely got over the line, grabbing one of the red flags and holding it in his mouth.
The electric dragon watched as several dragons on both sides were tagged as they tried to run across, sending them back to their side of the field. Looking onto his team’s side, he watched as Eradrin stood on the other side of the field, holding a blue tag in his maw. Xorin knew he had to run before Eradrin made it back, as the fire dragon was a very fast dragon too. Eradrin was probably even faster than him.
The four dragons guarding his exit turned around as three dragons from the blue team decided to make a run for it, and while they were distracted, Xorin ran out, sprinting towards his side, ducking and jumping around the red team as they all ran at him. He noticed Eradrin making a run for it too, hoping to get back onto red team ground before Xorin could leave it in hopes of tagging him. Xorin picked up the pace even more, pushing his limits, and diving over the line marked out in a few stones, tapping Eradrin with his front paw as they shot past each other.
Eradrin fell face first into the ground as Xorin knocked his leg out from underneath him, and Xorin rolled on the ground to catch his fall. Eradrin huffed in frustration, murmuring a small ‘good job’ to his friend before dropping the blue flag to the ground. Xorin stepped back to grab it to take it back to his side, as flags got returned to the side it came from if the runner was tagged.
Xorin tagged out another dragon on the way to the blue team’s flag stash, returning the two blue flags and his red one to it. Another dragon ran up and placed a second red flag beside him, before running back to hopefully grab another one.
Xorin turned around, about to do the same, until he noticed four dragons on his team in the red team’s flag zone trying to find a way out, and the other six already chasing opponents rushing in. There was no one in front of the flag zone, so Xorin decided it would probably be smart to play a bit of defense for now since everyone had decided it was a good idea to leave the back of the field fully unprotected.
The electric dragon watched as many more dragons ran, blue team trying to get red flags back across, two of them failing and two succeeding, and red team trying to make a run to the blue team’s flags. One of them was tagged but two of them made it through.
Xorin knew he could only grab one as they widened out, running across opposite sides of the field. He ran for one of them at full speed, and leapt forward, paws outstretched. He tagged the ice dragon, although it was more of a push, and quite a strong one at that.
Hardly thinking straight, Xorin took a full one-eighty turn, paws slipping on the ground as he took the sharp turn, before propelling himself at full speed towards the other red team player who had almost made it to the flag stash. With eyes fixed only on the opponent, paws moving mindlessly as he shot across the playing field, he launched himself at the fire dragoness, tapping her on the shoulder as he ran past her.
Suddenly, he felt a large form colliding with him, and Xorin was knocked down to the ground, rolling on top of a fellow teammate that he had ran into, who was just delivering another red flag.
“Xorin, careful! Stop being so rough!” Master Tharin called out, watching the rough play unfold in front of him.
The yellow dragon hardly heard his teacher’s voice, as he immediately got up and ran back into his defensive position in front of the flags. The blue team had half of the red team’s flags at this point, and the red team had only two of theirs.
We can win this. I know we can, Xorin thought.
He studied the field, noticing a lot more of blue team was on their side of the field, and two of them were closer to the flag stash; although one of them was helping up the ice dragon he had pushed over.
He knew this would be a good chance for him to rush over and grab another red flag, which was what he did. He made his way forward in a slow jog, before breaking into a sprint once he crossed the line. Xorin looked beside him as he saw Eradrin and two other dragons, all of them of quite lean but strong builds. A strong look of determination was painted across Eradrin’s face, wanting payback on Xorin for his earlier tag.
Xorin however was just fast enough, able to make it into the red team’s flag stash before he could get caught. “You’re not getting out this time!” Eradrin taunted competitively, staring at Xorin across the line, watching as the electric dragon made his way towards a red flag and picked it up.
Breaking into a small jog, Xorin tried to make his way to the other side of the field, but noticed Eradrin was keeping up with him on the other side of the line. His friend was going to make sure that he would not get past him. A determined smile pulled at Eradrin’s lips. Seeing the smile made Xorin smile too, their eyes burning with friendly competition.
Eventually, Xorin knew that Eradrin wasn’t leaving him, so Xorin had to try and make a break for it. Quickly, he feinted a sprint to the left, but immediately bolted right, taking a large curve to run along the side of the field for a bit, before curving back in towards the middle to give him more dodging room. The feint fooled Eradrin, and while he was quick to recover and make his way after Xorin, he didn’t recover fast enough.
Xorin safely made his way over the line, capturing his second flag. He made a slow jog towards the flag stash to drop off the red flag, before moving back to defending as he saw a few more opponents enter his team’s side. He launched himself at one of them, paw outstretch to tag him, but the opponent managed to slide underneath him, sending Xorin flying over the top of him.
Xorin recovered quickly, chasing after the fire dragon, but he made it over the line before he could catch him. The electric dragon huffed in annoyance, before watching as the second dragon also made it towards their flag stash. A third dragon wasn’t too far behind, so Xorin rushed forward with a huge burst of speed.
He leapt forward at the thin ice dragon, paws outstretched for the tag, but due to his momentum, strength, and size, it ended up being a very heavy tackle. They hit the ground hard, and there was a loud crack. The two dragons rolled on the ground for a bit, before soon coming to a stop. The pained groans from the ice dragon brought Xorin out of his huge adrenaline rush, and the loud crack from earlier only now seemed to register in his mind.
The ice dragon lay underneath Xorin, his right arm outstretched and bent at an awkward angle; it was clearly very broken. Xorin immediately got off Yettgan, and winced as he heard the teacher running up behind them. “Oh ancestors, what happened, Yettgan?!” Master Tharin exclaimed.
“Xorin tackled me and my arm broke when we landed,” the ice dragon winced. “It hurts a lot.”
“Marley, can you take Yettgan to the nurse to get this looked at?” Master Tharin asked a large earth dragoness, before turning back to Xorin. “And Xorin, after class you can come with me to the principal’s office.”
“What? But Master Tharin, it was an accident, I swear!” Xorin cried, thinking that his teacher was overreacting just a smidge.
“Xorin, I’ve told you many times in the last year and a bit that I’ve had you in this class that you are being too rough and will hurt someone, and you’ve showed no signs of listening to me and trying to play a bit less rough. I understand it was an accident but you were being way too reckless and dangerous.”
“I… I’m sorry, Master Tharin.”
“I sure hope you’re not like this in combat class when you’re actually fighting other people.”
Xorin winced, understanding Master Tharin’s concern. Injuries were normal in combat classes, and everyone seemed to be aware of that, but there was still a level of safety and restraint that needed to be exercised to keep the training safe for everyone. He definitely was quite rough in general, and was also very strong and had a lot of weight to him due to the bulk that he had developed over the last few years. He hoped he wasn’t as rough or reckless in combat class as he had been today. He didn’t know if he could answer ‘no I’m not’ to Master Tharin since he wasn’t even sure.
Master Tharin took the silence as a ‘yes I am’, and his frown intensified. “Xorin, I want you to sit out for the rest of the game, okay? I can’t continue to have you in and be a risk to the others.”
“Yes, Master Tharin.”
Xorin turned and sat down a few metres away from the field, watching as Marley helped Yettgan up, giving him some extra support on his right side as he held his arm up off the ground. After the two left, the game continued, and Xorin observed the way everyone else played. It was much more tapping and proper tagging than he was doing. There was no pushing and definitely no tackling.
He started to feel really bad. He had gotten way too into the game, way too invested and way too swallowed up by his adrenaline rush to even realise how dangerous he was being. Had he always done this? He was a lot more aware of his energy levels when he wasn’t in an intense sport game or in a spar in combat class, and even more so when he was around Waedra, but it looked like in these intense games, and maybe even in combat class, he was so deep in his adrenaline rush and enjoyment that he really was blinded to how full of energy and how rough he really was.
A sigh left his lungs as he reached up to untie the blue horn-bands from his horns. He was a bit worried about what Master Tharin or the principal would say. He wasn’t sure if they would understand where he was coming from at all.
Not only that, but the principal scared him. She was Master Terrador’s sister, and was like him in many ways; however, she was much more stern and intimidating than Master Terrador was. Xorin was pretty sure that Mistress Tassaris scared most of the students at the school.
Xorin waited until class was over, and stayed back while everyone else left. He spent the time to help Master Tharin pack up the equipment for the game, before following him to Mistress Tassaris’ office.
The principal was free basically right away, so they didn’t need to sit and wait at all. Xorin didn’t know whether it was worse to go straight in or to have to wait. Mistress Tassaris could immediately tell by the look on Master Tharin’s face, as well as Xorin’s nervous and almost fearful body language, that Xorin was in pretty big trouble.
“Master Tharin, what seems to be the problem?” the bulky earth dragoness asked, her eyes flicking between the two male dragons.
“So, during our physical education class, we were playing a game of disc-tag,” Master Tharin explained. “Xorin over here was being way too rough and literally pushing or tackling some of the students. He ended up tackling one student down and broke his arm. Now, it was definitely an accident, but Xorin’s unnecessary roughness in class is something I’ve pulled him up on many times while I’ve had him, and even today I gave him a warning before the incident occurred. It’s been going on for way too long and considering a classmate got injured from it I feel like some decent punishment is in order.”
Mistress Tassaris looked over towards Xorin, who shrunk under her gaze. It was no surprise that she was Master Terrador’s sister; they were both as intimidating as each other. She was almost more intimidating.
After several seconds of silence where she had clearly been contemplating what to do, she turned back to Master Tharin and said, “Go find someone to collect Cynder from the Temple and bring her here. I feel like she should have a say in what happens,” Mistress Tassaris said, to which Master Tharin nodded and left.
“But… Mum’s working,” Xorin said, before wincing as he just realised he’d talked back to the principal of all dragons.
“Look, Xorin,” she replied, causing Xorin to shrink in on himself. “I understand your concern, but the guardians, especially Terrador, are very understanding when it comes to family. Now I know they wouldn’t be too happy considering the circumstances of why we’d be pulling Cynder away, but I know they’ll at least be somewhat understanding of it. Plus, given your father’s line of work I think it would be pretty inappropriate to pull him away from supervising the construction site for a matter such as this.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Good. Now, go wait outside please. Your mother and I will talk once she arrives and then we’ll go from there.”
Xorin just muttered a small ‘yes’, before he stood and left, sitting down on the line of seats opposite Mistress Tassaris’ office. He knew it wouldn’t take long for Cynder to arrive since the Warfang Temple was rather close to the school, but it felt like an eternity waiting for her to get here. He especially wasn’t ready for a scolding from his mother. Mistress Tassaris was scary and intimidating, sure, but Cynder was something else.
Cynder could be pretty stern when she had to, and it was a scary experience. Even when she was angry at him or his siblings, she rarely yelled. That almost made it scarier.
He got so caught up in his worrying about his mother that he was caught off guard to actually see her walking down the hallway. Xorin freaked out, getting incredibly anxious. He didn’t need to be since it was only a broken arm—it wasn’t like he had done anything super extreme like break someone’s neck or something—but his mother terrified him when she was angry.
“Mum please, I swear it was an accident,” Xorin pleaded as she walked past him.
“Zip it,” Cynder said calmly, although there was firm anger in her eyes. “We can talk after I chat with the principal.”
Xorin just nodded and looked down as she walked in. He could hear the muffled voices of them chatting in the Mistress Tassaris’ office, but couldn’t make out any words. He could tell Cynder was frustrated though.
The young electric dragon felt that the direct punishment regarding the school environment wouldn’t be super harsh, but he had a good feeling Cynder would be much rougher on him in their family environment. He had never been in trouble from the principal’s office before, nor had his siblings, so this was a first for Cynder. It was no surprise why she was angry because of that.
Before long, Cynder finally made her way out of the office. Xorin looked up, trying to study her features, but didn’t know how to read her expression. “Alright, Xorin. You’re coming with me back to work. We’ll talk on the way there,” Cynder said.
Xorin didn’t reply; he just stood up and followed Cynder as they walked out of the offices, and then out of the school grounds. He was at least thankful Cynder didn’t rip into him in the school grounds where there was a likelihood that many of the kids he knew could see it.
As they walked down the streets of Warfang, Cynder gave a great sigh. “The principal’s office? Really, Xorin?” she groaned.
“It was an accident, Mum! I got way too into it and I wasn’t paying attention to how aggressive I was being!”
“You’ve been given repeated warnings from Master Tharin from what I hear, and you still don’t listen to him. Xorin, you’ve got to be more careful,” Cynder scolded. “I know you’re very energetic and that’s fine, but you can’t let it get to a point where you’re hurting people, and where you’re not calming down when you’ve been told to.”
“Yes, Mum,” Xorin mumbled.
“Now I know you may think it was a minor injury all things considered, but a broken arm is still a pretty big liability, and you’ve got to be responsible for it. Yes we have red gems to help the healing process but broken bones are still too much for just a gem or two to heal completely. You’re lucky it was just a broken arm, too.”
“I understand. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologise to me, apologise to Yettgan next time you see him. I want you to do that, understood?”
“Yes, Mum.”
“Now, for your punishment, you’ll be suspended from school for today and tomorrow. Instead, you’ll be spending the rest of today and tomorrow helping me in the office. I’m head-deep into filing away paperwork and I could use some help.”
Xorin had to swallow back his complaint. He didn’t want Cynder to be even more upset at him for complaining about how boring paperwork would be. He figured it would be better to just suck it up and do the day and a half of filing with his mother without making it harder for either of them.
“Oh, and you’re grounded for a week,” Cynder added.
“What?”
“Did you want me to make that two?”
“No…” Xorin murmured.
“Good. Now let’s head up to my office, and then I can show you where things are meant to go.”
While Xorin was over at the principal’s office, the school day continued as normal, sending Cory and Waedra into math class together. The two of them usually sat together, as it was the one class that the triplets shared. Xorin, however, usually still sat with his own friends at a different table. Because of this, Cory and Waedra didn’t even notice their brother’s absence.
It was a very standard math class: learning a new formula and slowly beginning to put it into practice with a bunch of questions that Master Volteer put on the chalkboard. Maths was one of the few classes that was taught by a guardian, and even then, they only actually taught the last few grades in school; this was the triplets’ first year with them.
Waedra was almost immediately head-deep into the questions the moment Master Volteer put them on the board. She liked to just get into the questions and do them; she was always one to just do her work so she didn’t fall behind. It was at the point where sometimes she would go ahead and do some of the homework during class or even in recess or lunch breaks, just so she had all the free time in the world when she got home.
Xorin on the other hand was the complete opposite, as he would often leave his homework until the night before it needed to be done, which frustrated Spyro and Cynder to no end. The yellow dragon had never liked homework, and just wanted to hang out with his friends after school. Waedra had suggested at one point that he join her for her lunchtime study sessions, but he just complained about wanting his lunch breaks to be a break from schoolwork.
This was the one thing Cory was inclined to agree with Xorin on regarding homework. He at least knew it had to get done, so he just did it, making sure he got at least an hour in a day, maybe two, before hanging out with friends. But he also thought that recess and lunch should be breaks from schoolwork to eat and hang out for half an hour.
Cory smirked as he watched Waedra speed ahead, knowing full well she was also getting the questions right. Then he decided to focus on his own work, knowing he needed to at least get the questions on the board finished.
Mathematics was never Cory’s strong point; he wasn’t the worst at understanding the concepts, but it took a lot longer to cement the concepts into his mind than it did with Waedra or some of the other students in the class. He looked at the questions on the chalkboard, writing them into his notepad to get a start on solving them.
However, as he continued looking up at the board, his eyes started to wander to another desk further towards the front of the classroom. He caught sight of an ice dragoness sitting at the desk, also working on her maths problems, however she was whispering quietly to the other girls at the desk while they worked. The dragoness that had caught his eye was Marille, the daughter of a pretty well-known chef in Warfang, and Cory had had a crush on her for the last few months now.
The earth dragon had never managed to find the courage to actually talk to her; he’d only ever admired her from a distance. He didn’t know if that was a smart idea or not, since there was the possibility of some other guy getting to her before he could, but Cory just wanted to make sure he actually wanted to get together with her, and to find the best way to ask her out.
It was something he also wanted his parents’ advice and opinion on as well, and he wanted to talk to them first. He very much wanted to, but he was way too nervous to approach them about it.
Cory decided not to worry about it right now. Right now, all he wanted to focus on was Marille, and the way her pale blue scales glistened brightly like ice in the sunlight, the elegant curves in her horns, the way she sat with a dignified, regal posture. It was a good twenty seconds that he sat there fully distracted by her, before her own eyes started wandering, and they locked eyes.
As much as Cory wanted to stare back into those piercing crystal blue eyes, embarrassment filled him to his core, and Cory’s eyes shot like a missile back to his book, looking at his handwriting like it was the most important thing in the world.
“Eyes on your work, Cory,” Waedra whispered from beside her.
A strong blush filled Cory’s cheeks, knowing full well that his sister had caught him staring at a girl on the other side of the classroom. He was too swallowed up by his embarrassment to catch the smirk on her lips.
He spent a bit of time doing the next question on the board before stealing one last glance at Marille and her friends. With the way her friends were snickering and giggling at her, he had a feeling they had all seen him looking at Marille. He cursed himself inwardly; usually he was a lot more subtle when he ended up staring at Marille for a while, but he had been so obvious just now and it was super embarrassing.
Before long, the class was over, to Cory’s relief. He was very quick to pack up his stuff and leave the classroom, wanting to get as far away from it, and by extension Marille, for the time being, just to let himself recover from the embarrassing episode he had just had. Waedra wasn’t too far behind him as they walked over to their lockers together, ready to put their stuff away for the lunch break.
“So, I see you have a little crush,” Waedra said slyly, bumping Cory on the shoulder playfully.
“Shut up,” Cory murmured with embarrassment.
“Hey, hey, I’m just teasing,” the wind dragoness chuckled. “I understand. I… may have a crush myself.”
“Wait, you do?”
“Yup.”
“Who?”
“That one I’m not telling,” Waedra said with a snicker, before picking up the pace and speed-walking in front of Cory, head high and a smug smile on her face.
Cory just blinked at the response, before shaking his head with a smile. “Come on, you know mine!” he complained, jogging forward to catch up with her.
“Nope, it’s more fun to leave you guessing anyway,” Waedra chuckled.
“Surely you can at least tell me when you developed this crush of yours,” Cory said.
“Eh, it’s quite recent; like maybe three or so weeks.”
Cory had to stop walking as he blinked, standing in surprise. Waedra noticed him stop, so turned around to look back at him. “What’s wrong?” she questioned.
“Only three weeks? I don’t know, that surprises me,” Cory explained. “I always assumed you’d be the first one to develop feelings for someone.”
“Really?” Waedra queried, before looking off to the side in thought. “Interesting. I’m assuming based off that you’ve been crushing over Marille for a bit longer than that then?”
“Yeeeeah, it’s been about… I don’t know, eight or nine months since she first started catching my eye.”
“Wow. Now that’s a lot longer than I expected.”
“Guess we both proved each other’s assumptions wrong,” Cory joked as they started walking again. “Now, I wonder when Xorin will start developing feelings for someone, or if he’s been keeping it a secret like I have.”
“Oh that’s impossible for him, and you know that.”
“Yeah that’s true; he’d probably come home and tell us all, or maybe even jump straight to the conversation during lunch.”
“Probably,” Waedra laughed, before getting serious. “Speaking of Xorin, I wonder what’s happened. I wasn’t really paying attention but I don’t think he was in maths this afternoon.”
“Really?”
“No, I don’t think so. Unless of course he was being super focused and not causing any disruptions like he usually does. He also hasn’t come out to find us either,” Waedra murmured, since the three triplets usually walked to their lockers together from maths class.
On the way to their locker area, they caught sight of Eradrin making his way out from the locker area. Knowing that both he and Xorin shared the class right before maths, they decided to run up to him and ask.
“Hey, Eradrin! Can we ask you a question?” Cory asked.
“Uhhh… yeah, what’s up?” Eradrin replied.
“We just noticed that Xorin may not have been at maths today, and we’re just a bit worried. Did you see him at physical education beforehand?” Waedra questioned.
“Yeah, he was there. He got sent to the principal’s office, though. That’s as much as I know of the consequence.”
“What?! Sure he’s a bit disruptive and all that but he’s never been sent to the principal’s office before! What happened?!”
“He was being way too rough during a game of disc-tag and ended up tackling Yettgan and breaking his arm. This was after already being warned by Master Tharin, too.”
Cory and Waedra gave each other concerned glances. “Disc-tag? It’s… basically tag. You’re not supposed to tackle,” Cory said.
“Exactly,” Eradrin replied.
“Wow… I hope they’re both okay.”
“Yettgan should be fine. He was in a lot of pain but he’s broken bones before. Xorin should hopefully be fine too, he’s just taken a bit of an emotional hit. I’m sure you two know how much he hates getting in trouble.”
“Yup, we sure do. Anyway, thanks Eradrin. We’d better let you get back to lunch.”
“All good. Thanks, guys.”
With that, Eradrin continued on his way to the lunch hall to grab his food, while Cory and Waedra continued to their lockers to put their maths books away. They didn’t really speak much, feeling like not much else needed to be said regarding their brother. They briefly discussed what they thought the punishment would be, and Cory suggested that if they didn’t see him after lunch, he was likely to have been sent home, to which they had to only wish that Xorin would be okay, especially since they knew Cynder would be the one to pick him up. She was a wonderful, loving mother, but it was never good to be on her bad side.
Spyro on the other hand was a lot gentler than Cynder, but even he could still be pretty stern when he needed to be. However none of them wanted to get on his bad side either, since getting on Spyro’s bad side often meant Cynder’s bad side later on.
The two siblings made their way into the lunch hall to grab their food, and once they did that, they split up. Cory wanted to spend lunch with his friends, leaving Waedra alone. She didn’t mind the alone time though; she did enjoy it. She didn’t really have many friends to hang around; the only two friends she had were both siblings, and their family was on holiday to Spalyn, a small dragon village on the north coast where the rest of their family lives.
So, Waedra found a spot on her own in the lunch hall, eating her food. Eating it rather quickly, she then put her food tray away and proceeded to walk back to her locker to grab a notebook and charcoal, wanting to find a seat at the school courtyard to sit and draw in the sun.
On the way to her locker, she bumped into a group of older dragons, not looking where she was going. Immediately she apologised, but the eighteen-year-old boys had other words of choice.
“Hey, watch where you’re going, baby-Terror,” the large fire dragon sneered.
“Baby-Terror?” Waedra whimpered, assuming they were insulting her looks and calling her ugly.
Meanwhile, the fire dragon’s friends just stood there laughing. “Oh, ancestors, that’s a good one, Falgor,” the lean ice dragon snickered.
“I mean he’s not wrong, she very much looks like her mother,” the earth dragon added.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Waedra questioned, getting a little defensive of her mother. “What’s wrong with my mother?”
“Oh, do you not know?” Falgor, the fire dragon, pressed, almost in a mocking manner.
“Obviously not,” Waedra snapped back.
“Ancestors, she really doesn’t,” the lightning dragon said; Waedra wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be mockery or genuine surprise.
“Are they really hiding that from their kids?” the ice dragon murmured.
Falgor just smirked and shook his head, speaking in a low, dangerous tone. “Why am I not surprised? So, you know how your parents, and by extent, their kids, somewhat, are very popular and well-known in Warfang, right?” he asked.
“Yeah? I thought that was just because Mum’s the guardians’ secretary and Dad’s one of the most well-known construction supervisors in Warfang. Everyone knows them,” Waedra said in confusion, suddenly noticing the two other dragons behind Falgor drop their jaws; now that was genuine surprise.
“Okay, how much of their past have they talked about to you guys?”
“Not much; it never really comes up in conversations.”
“Oh ancestors, have I got a story for you… Waedra, was it?” Falgor said, walking forward and starting to pace circles around her. “So, many years ago, probably a good twenty-something years now, Warfang was involved in a war against this big, evil purple dragon named Malefor. Now, Malefor had a… servant, if that’s the right way to put it, and she was ruthless . She killed tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people, she destroyed families and ruined the lives of millions , made slaves, tortured them, the list goes on. All this, she did with a smile on her face, because she loved it.”
Waedra shrunk in on herself, almost forcing her brain to not connect the dots. It was obvious given how the conversation started, but she refused to believe it. It couldn’t be true. The wind dragoness felt tears well up in her eyes as Falgor continued to say more horrible, terrifying things.
“Now, this servant… apparently turned a new leaf upon meeting another purple dragon about her age, this younger purple dragon being your father, Spyro,” Falgor explained as he continued to pace circles around Waedra. “How he saw the good in her, I will never know. She did too much wrong to warrant even still being alive. I was not alive when she ravaged the world, but what she did is personal to me.”
By now, Falgor was getting aggravated, angry, emotional. He got up real close to Waedra, placing his claw underneath her chin and lifting her head up so that she was looking up into his eyes, as he thrust his face inches away from hers. She could see the raw emotion in his eyes: rage, sorrow, grief, hatred. It scared her.
“You know why it matters to me so much? Because my father was one of her slaves. He is missing a wing because of her,” Falgor growled, his voice remaining low and controlled, which scared Waedra even more; she almost wished he was yelling at her. “My mother can’t speak. She was also a slave, and was choked by her, and it destroyed her vocal cords. My grandfather was in the military. He was killed by her. All of my mother’s siblings. Dead, from a siege. I only have one set of aunts and uncles, because my mother has no brothers or sisters anymore. On my dad’s side, three of my older cousins, burned to a crisp as infants in a housefire, also from a siege.”
Falgor leaned forward, still holding Waedra’s chin. He turned her head to the side, allowing him to get real close so he could whisper in her ear. “The servant that did this? Cynder , the Terror of the Skies.”
This whole monologue, she knew that was coming. It was too obvious not to see it. She just didn’t want to believe it. Now that Falgor had said it, she was having a hard time denying it. Waedra wanted to believe it was fake, but the way Falgor spoke was too real. Emotion like that couldn’t be faked. The emotion in his eyes couldn’t be faked.
With a wordless scream, she tore herself from Falgor’s grip, landing on her rump and almost falling onto her back. She tried to convince herself that this wasn’t happening, that none of what was happening and Falgor’s account of what had happened wasn’t real, but despite her attempts, there was nothing she could use as a way to actually deny any of it.
She suddenly realised that Falgor was still talking to her. “I don’t know how anyone can look at you and not see her. I don’t know how anyone can look at her and feel safe. I don’t know how he … managed to convince her to settle down with him and… produce offspring! They should both be punished! Spyro was supposed to save the world! Which arguably, he did; he killed Malefor. But in doing so, he brought the she-devil home and hooked up with her. You and your brothers… cursed, the lot of you!”
Waedra just stared up at him, struggling to process what he was saying, not wanting to believe it. Tears streamed down her face as she trembled uncontrollably. I’m not the daughter of a killer, she told herself. I’m not the daughter of a killer.
Denying it only made it worse.
Falgor’s emotions were too real for it to be fake. Something like this couldn’t be acted.
Waedra watched as Falgor’s friends quietly asked if he was okay. Falgor responded with a wipe of his eyes and a small nod. He gave one last look at her, before spitting on the floor in front of her. Then, in one swift movement, he whirled around and walked off in the direction they were heading before she bumped into them.
Now, Waedra was all alone again, however this time, her thoughts occupied her as Falgor’s words lingered.
Suddenly, she didn’t feel so good about herself anymore. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so good about her family anymore.
She thought they were such a good family, where not much ever went wrong, but now she realised that her parents had been hiding so much from all three of them. Why had they not told them? Surely they deserved to know.
And why did Spyro get together with Cynder? Why did he bring her home? Why did she change ? What changed? Whenever Waedra looked at her parents, she always saw it as a display of a good relationship; they were so happy, so in love with each other. They were almost like friends. What did Spyro see in Cynder, a murderer of thousands, to want to get together with her? How did he know she would change? How did he know she would stop killing? What if she still has that love for killing?
Waedra’s mind continued to spiral into darker and darker questions, and she continued to lie on the floor, curled up in a ball. No one stopped to check in on her. She could hear many students walk past her, but no one asked if she was okay. Were all of the students wary of her?
Sure, Cynder’s time under Malefor was obviously way before all of the students here were even a thought in their parents’ minds, but considering how many people Falgor said that Cynder had killed and messed up, everyone in Warfang would be affected, even a whole generation after it happened. Falgor’s parents were broken; his father had a missing wing and his mother’s vocal cords were destroyed. Who knew how many other students’ parents were broken because of her parent?
Falgor said she looked like Cynder.
Waedra thought it was just her shy nature that stopped her from making friends. Maybe it was the fact that she looked like a very well-known murderer that caused that. Maybe it was being her daughter that stopped that.
Cory and Xorin didn’t have that issue. Sure, they were her children too, but they didn’t look like her.
The sound of the bell cut through her thoughts. School was back on.
Wiping her eyes, Waedra stood up and resumed making her way to her lockers, now intending to get out her supplies for the next class instead of her art supplies. She stopped at her locker, opening it and slowly taking out her gear, before Cory arrived at his locker, which was beside hers. Xorin didn’t arrive at his locker beside Cory’s which pretty much confirmed that Xorin was no longer on the school grounds anymore.
Waedra was barely aware of Cory asking if she was alright, as he noticed the dried tear streaks and the red eyes, as well as her downcast frown. She didn’t respond. She just wanted to get through school, go home, and cry in her room.