Legend of Spyro AoH BkII Ch.64

"Spyro, one question," Flame asked as the dragons soared high over the trees. "How do you know where we're going?"
The guardians had been flying for about three hours straight. They were still tired from the previous days but were willing to push on none the less. Spyro had explained to them about his dream and that they needed to investigate this new place right away before returning to Warfang. The other dragons had seemed rather numb to the whole idea. The loss of their fellow guardian weighed heavily on their shoulders. The purple dragon felt guilty about asking for such a favor, but knew they would understand. After all, they were friends and guardians with a strong sense of duty, just like they had all been taught.
"I don't," Spyro replied plainly. "All I know is, that this was the direction I was going in my dream and it led me all the way to this mountain range I've never been to before."
"And there you have it folks." Sparx waved to his brother. "Straight from the dragon's mouth." The remark was only met with half-hearted smiles. Sparx sighed sadly when he realized his attempt at cheering the group up had failed.
The dragons flew on a little longer before Candice broke the silence. "I've been thinking Spyro." She flew up closer to the purple dragon and Cynder. "What do we do when you lose all your powers? I assume you only have your lightning breath right? What's our plan of action when you lose that too?"
Spyro and Cynder stared at each other.
"What about the power of Convexity?" Cynder asked. "Can you lose that too?"
"I don't know." Spyro shook his head. "I haven't had time to think that far ahead."
Candice gave him a long hard stare. "I see." She muttered and drifted back next to Stella.
Cynder watched the ice dragoness for a moment before turning back to Spyro. "You know, she has a point. What are we going to do? And more importantly, what's Malefor going to do?"
"Do you think he actually survived that eruption?" Spyro raised a skeptical brow.
"I wouldn't put it past him," Sparx answered. "That guy is harder to get rid of than those wolves you keep running into."
"I have to agree with Sparx on this one." Cynder nodded. "Each time we've tried to defeat the Dark Master he's come back at us more vengeful than the last time. It's like the longer he's around, the more powerful he gets."
"I wonder how he does it." Spyro scratched his chin curiously. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed but it's still troubling to us. If he's getting stronger then my powers would make him nearly invincible."
"As if that's ever changed." Sparx rolled his eyes.
"Do you think we'll be safe where we're going?" Cynder thrust her head ahead of them. "Malefor's just going to keep following us until he either has your power or kills you." Spyro and Sparx watched as the dragoness hung her head sadly. "And I can't bear to lose you Spyro." She glanced over her shoulder at Candice who just stared straight ahead. The fire in the ice dragoness's eyes seemed so dim that it might die at any moment.  Her expression was so blank it was impossible to tell what she was thinking about.
"Don't worry yourself Cynder," Spyro assured her. "As long as I have you and Sparx with me, we'll protect each other."
"Hey, I don't need protection," Sparx pointed out. "The baddies go after you guys more than me anyways. If anyone needs protection it's you two."
"Oh, brother." Cynder rolled her eyes.
As the three of them continued their conversation Stella pushed forward until she was next to Candice. “How are you holding up?"
Candice barely glanced in her direction. "All things considered, I'm just peachy."
"I wish there was something I could say or do to make you feel better Candice..."
"Don't trouble yourself with it." Candice turned and Stella saw that she was crying. "I can't do anything about the past, but I can make steps to improve the future."
Stella was a bit surprised by her determined words, but something in the ice guardian's voice struck a note of fear in her heart. After a moment of silence, she spoke again. "What are you going to do?"
Candice only sighed. "I wouldn't want Tremor seeking revenge against someone who wronged him. And it wouldn't be fair to be a hypocrite by seeking revenge on Malefor and Liun." She turned to look at the lightning dragoness and her eyes grew white with frosty energy. "But when the time comes I will show them no mercy."
Stella swallowed hard but continued to stare her friend in the eye. "Just do me a favor. Don't lose yourself to the darkness. Okay?"
Candice stared at her for a long tense moment. "Alright." She sighed.
"That's my girl." Stella smiled and brushed the dragoness with the tip of her wing before falling back behind the group.
Candice just kept her stare on the horizon ahead. "No promises." She muttered to herself.
Several more hours of flying passed in silence for the dragons. They had all stopped to eat and get some water at a couple of lakes along the way; but Spyro had insisted that they keep moving.
"We'll keep going until the sun sets, and then we can rest for the night." He promised. No one complained; they were all too numb from the loss of their fellow guardian to care much about anything else.
Up ahead, Sparx spotted the faint outline of the mountains in the distance. "Hey Spyro! I think I see them!" He called and pointed ahead of them.
"Is that the same range?" Cynder asked squinting into the distant fog.
"Yeah." Spyro nodded. "I didn't think we'd reach them this quickly."
"Who cares?" Sparx shrugged.
"Spyro!" Flame called as he and Ember caught up to them. "If that's the range you're talking about then I would suggest we stop and rest before we head through the mountains. We don't know how much shelter or food is around them so we should load up before hand."
"I agree." Spyro nodded. "We'll get a little closer before making camp."
Suddenly there was a loud crack from below. The guardians all turned their attention toward the ground. The trees collapsed before spreading out in a wide radius. The dragon's eyes widened as they recognized what was about to hit.
"Incoming!" Stella shouted a warning as the ground froze over. The frozen turf where the forest used to be cracked and suddenly a menacing roar cut through the air. Dark magic burst from beneath the ice and catapulted the giant, jagged shards of ice up at the dragons.
Spyro curled himself around Cynder and Sparx and tried to form a barrier of earth around them. "Spyro!" Cynder cried as she realized what he was trying to do. She held onto him and Sparx as a barrier of convexity surrounded them. Flame and Ember both unleashed a wave of fire, destroying the slabs of ice that threatened to impale them.
"Look out!" Candice wrapped herself around Stella and breathed a wall of ice around them. Stella closed her eyes tight and listened to the sounds of ice smashing against ice. All at once there was a loud crash and Candice jerked. When Stella opened her eyes she saw blood dripping onto her arm.
"Candice?" The lightning dragoness looked up to see a pair of spikes had penetrated Candice's defensive wall and had lodged themselves into her left shoulder and thigh. A third had almost made it through and left the dragoness with a small laceration across her forehead next to her large horn.
"I'm alright." The ice guardian replied, a bit shaken from the sudden strike. She smashed the barrier with her tail, sending a shower of spikes down on the wolves below. The mutants growled and smashed the shards with their barbaric weapons.
"That was totally our move!" Flame snapped.
"Which means someone had to have copied it." Candice released Stella and narrowed her eyes at the wolves. It was then her eyes locked on Snarl. With a cry of hate and anguish Candice dove towards the wolves.
"No! Candice! Wait!" Stella cried but another sound grabbed her attention. A roar came from above and then a shower of dark lightning rained down on them. Flame and Ember were struck but the bolts bounced off Cynder's convexity shield. "Flame! Ember!" Stella wailed as the two fire breathers fell towards the ground. She dove after them as a bolt of lighting narrowly missed her. Another bolt shot toward the ground just in front of her causing the dragoness to back-wing to avoid getting hit. From out of the clouds a swarm of black dragons descended upon them. The fastest struck Stella like a mass of bricks. The blow knocked the guardian unconscious before she was driven into the ground.
"I'll kill you!" Candice shrieked, her eyes white with frozen rage. The mutant wolves unleashed waves of lightning and ice blades as she charged them head on. The ice guardian breathed a massive cloud of ice across the ground, freezing them in their place for the few seconds she needed.  Candice beat her wings once and shot like a missile towards the Alpha. Snarl was frozen in place like the others and was wide open to attack. Candice charged up a blast of pure energy as she closed in on him.
It was then that the two combatants locked eyes. Snarl's eyes smiled and Candice's grew wide. She tried to change course but she was too far committed. With a loud howl, Snarl burst free. The Alpha swung a thick, muscle-bound arm, clipping the dragoness and catching her aside the head with his claws. Candice spun head over heels before hitting the ground with crushing force. She skidded and bounced along the frozen earth before a rock burst up from the ground. The dragoness slammed into the rock and lay still.
"What the hell was that?" Sparx yelled as the black dragons swarmed around them making it almost impossible to see past their masses of bodies.
"Spyro! We have to do something!" Cynder shouted. "Those wolves will kill them!"
"I know!" Spyro shot back. "Sparx, stay close to me!"
The dragonfly didn't argue. He hugged his brother as he curled into a ball and began to shake. Cynder saw what was about to happen and moved in closer as well. She grabbed Spyro's paw and did her best to help channel her energy into him as well. Bolts of lightning cracked around the two dragons and the barrier expanded. The screech of the crackling lightning hurt the wolves’ ears. They began to howl in agony and fell to their knees.
For a brief moment the black dragons were distracted by the wolves below.
"Now!" Cynder shouted as she felt their flight patterns waver in the wind.
Spyro let loose a roar and the lightning burst from his body. Cynder felt the power inside her surge from her body as the sky was filled with electricity. She let out a scream as the power seemed to be ripped from her very body. Spyro's roar turned to a cry of torment. His eyes went white as he began to lose control of his lightning ability. The black dragons scattered, doing their best to dodge the stray bolts that shot in between them.
Cynder's body was the first to fall and a moment later Spyro began to plummet towards the ground. "Cynder..." He whispered as he saw the ground rush up at him. "What.... happened?" He fell unconscious just before the moment of impact.
"No.... Spyro... Cynder." Candice watched as the bodies of her friends hit the ground. She was about to try and get to her feet when a shadow loomed over her. The dragoness turned her head to see Snarl staring down at her with a wicked grin spread across his muzzle. He raised his foot and brought it crashing down on top of her head.
From out of the woods stepped Liun. The black dragon wore an enraged look on his face as he walked over to Spyro and Cynder. His shadows spread out and Malefor appeared overhead. The Dark Master gave an evil laugh that echoed across the tree tops.