Legend of Spyro AoH BkII Ch.65

Cynder woke with a chill.  Her head was throbbing and every bone in her body ached. Her eyelids lifted and she looked up to see Stella sitting next to her. The lightning dragoness looked rather weary. She had a nasty scrape along the left side of her neck and shoulder from being slammed into the ground.  Cynder groaned as she lifted her head.
"Cynder!" Stella jumped in surprise at the black dragoness's sudden movement. "Thank the ancestors, you're awake!"
"Ung, not so loud, please," Cynder groaned as she was helped to her feet. "My head hurts too much right now."
"Join the club," Flame grumbled as he and Ember walked over to them.
"Where are we?" Cynder asked as she pressed her talons against her temples, trying to sooth the pain. She closed her eyes and concentrated on overcoming the wooziness that threatened to topple her over at any moment.
"In a dungeon of some sort." Flame sighed. "Ember and I have been up for a few hours trying to find a way out."
"Any luck?" Cynder opened one eye to stare at the fire guardian.
"Take a wild guess."
"I didn't think so." Cynder sighed and sat on her haunches. As she continued to massage her temples she scanned the room around them. There was something frighteningly familiar about it. They were not in a dungeon or cell; rather, a large chamber fit for several adult, heavy-weight dragons.
"Not bad for a prison, huh?" Ember piped up, noticing the black dragoness's expression.
"This is where I woke up after Liun captured me the first time." Stella muttered darkly.
"Really?" Cynder locked her eyes with Stella's. The feeling of recognition was growing stronger by the second.
Stella nodded sternly, seeing her friend's expression harden. "It wasn't this same room exactly but it was definitely similar."
Cynder was on her feet in an instant and nose to nose with the lightning guardian. "Stella, I need to you to do something. Can you remember what this place looked like when you escaped?"
"I don't follow you." Stella squinted into Cynder's aquatic eyes.
"When you escaped from Liun, do you remember what this place looked like from the outside?"
Stella lowered her gaze and closed her eyes as she concentrated. She remembered the escape, but it was coming to her in a blur. She saw the black dragons charge her before she blasted a hole in the floor to escape. When she blew another hole in the wall she heard the ceiling collapse behind her. She ran as fast as she could, down long hallways and stair cases, looking for a way out with a swarm of black dragons closing in. After what had seemed like ages of running nowhere, she had found the entrance to the fortress which had been guarded by a small pack of wolves. With a burst of speed and lightning, Stella smashed through them in into the open night. The wolves staggered to their feet and howled furiously after her. The lightning dragoness looked back over her shoulder at the black dragons spilling into the night from inside the enormous castle. A chill went down her spine as she stared at the gruesome towers around which dark magic seemed to cluster. Eerie blue crystals could be seen scattered throughout the structures and lined the base of the floating island. The very memory now seemed to make her want to crawl into a hole and hide.
"Stella." Ember placed a paw on her friend's shoulder. "Stella!"
"Huh?" Stella jolted out of her trance and stared the pink dragoness in the eyes.
"Are you all right?"
"Y-yeah. Why do you ask?"
"You were starting to look a little petrified there," Ember pointed out. The lightning guardian's scales had gone slightly pale and her scales seemed to stand on end.
"It's just a little cold here, nothing to worry about." Stella smiled but then looked at Cynder. "If I'm right, then we're in the same castle Liun was using as his fortress."
"A castle?" Cynder's eye widened and Stella nodded. "Damn it! It's my old fortress!" Cynder exclaimed, slamming a furious paw on the floor.
"Your fortress?" Flame raised a suspicious brow.
"This place was mine when I was under the Dark Master's spell all those years ago. I had completely forgotten about this place." The black dragoness's expression darkened even further. "Though it would make sense that Malefor would bring us here."
"Why? Because it's his territory?" Ember asked distastefully.
"If you've never heard the saying before, the elder dragons and anyone who encountered me as the Dark Master's general knew my tactics in torture..." Her voice trailed off. "Basically, Malefor is sending us a message. By coming here, hope is supposed to die."
"And us along with it." Ember sighed.
"I'm assuming that's his plan." Cynder nodded. "I'm certain he has Spyro at the top where the tallest spires are. That's where I had Ignitus when I captured him. Spyro's powers are probably being drained as we speak."
"So how do we get out?" Flame sat down on his haunches and waited for an answer. "Ember and I tried to get out through the windows, busting down the walls and even the front entrance." He jerked his head towards the giant double doors to the chamber. "There seems to be some type of restricting spell on this room keeping us here."
"How can you tell?"
"Watch this." Flame growled and charged the door.
"Flame, don't!" Ember cried, but the fire guardian smashed through the doors with a comet-dash. A split second later bolts of dark energy crackled and shrieked. Flame hollered and was thrown back, nearly slamming into Cynder. "Flame!" Ember was at his side in an instant, checking to see if he was alive.
"I'm alright." The red dragon smiled as Ember helped him back up.
"I think that was a little on the unnecessary side." Cynder groaned. "But you have made your point." She let out an exasperated sigh and looked back as the door began to rebuild itself.
"I tried that five times and it just fixes itself each time I do," Flame grumbled as he watched the last splinters fall into place.
"So what do we do?" Stella turned to face the black dragoness.
"There's nothing we can do." Cynder sighed sadly. "We have to be busted out from the outside, not the inside."
"So we're stuck here?" Ember exclaimed.
"Unless Candice can get us out somehow..." Flame sighed.
"Candice?" Cynder looked around the chamber but found no sight of the ice guardian. "Where is she?"
"We don't know." Flame replied broodingly. "She wasn't here when we woke up. We think she might have been taken to another part of the castle or something."
"Then that just leaves the question as to why," Stella said and looked towards the door.
"We'll worry about that later." Cynder raised a paw. "Let's just hope she can come through for us."


A sudden rush of wet and cold jolted Candice awake. The ice dragoness coughed and sputtered, trying to get the dirty, chilled water out of her nose and mouth.
"I think you've slept long enough," A gruff voice snarled.
"W-what? Who are you? Who’s there? Why can't I see?" Candice struggled to turn her head. Her back was to a wall and her front paws were chained together over her head. She dangled helplessly as she struggled against the aching pain that coursed through her body. Her wings were tied to her body with a rough, itchy rope. A chain attached to an iron ball was clamped around her tail rendering her tail blade immobile.
Candice squeaked in surprise when the blindfold was yanked off her head. Her vision blurred and she spent a couple minutes blinking, trying to focus her sight. Another splash of cold, mucky water hit her in the face leaving her to spit and sputter yet again. As she coughed she looked up into Snarl's beady yellow eyes. The dragoness hissed only to receive a blow across the face.
"Know your place dragon," The Alpha growled. Candice glared at him as she turned back to face him with blood dripping from her mouth. The wolf smiled showing his disgustingly yellow teeth. "I've waited quite a while for this."
"What's your game mutt?" Candice spat and was promptly answered by Snarl grabbing her about the throat. The dragoness coughed and choked as she felt the crushing pressure on her neck intensify.
"You know, I'm not going to kill you just yet dragon." Snarl sneered. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to take any of your tongue." He paused to think for a moment. "Though that would save me a lot of trouble with having to listen to you." He drew his ragged blade and pressed it to Candice's cheek. "Though, I suppose doing that now would take away from the fun of listening to you scream when I kill your mate."
"How dare you!" Candice hissed and her eyes turned white with frost. "You have a lot of nerve opening that wound." She hissed and Snarl bellowed and staggered back, clutching at his face. The tiny ice particles stung his eyes worse than angry hornets on the attack. As he moved away from her Candice's eyes grew wide in shock. Lying before her in the middle of the room was a body, chained to the floor. The once brilliant yellow-green scales were covered in soot and ash giving it a slightly charred appearance. "T-Tremor?" Candice's jaw hung open as she stared at the sight before her. She shook her head hard and stared again; she wasn't dreaming.
"Surprised?" Snarl gave a forced chuckle. His eyes were red and watery from the pain of the stinging ice. "We found him lying at the bottom of the volcano."
"What did you do to him?!" Candice shouted struggling to free herself from the chains that held her.
"I haven't so much as touched him." Snarl waved, ignoring the dragoness's efforts.
"You lie!"
"You have my word dragon. I haven't laid a single hair on him." He narrowed his eyes at her. "But that's not going to be the case for very long.”As soon as he wakes up, I'm going to kill him." He walked back to her and grabbed her muzzle in his massive fist. "And then I'll be sure to kill you in the most painful way imaginable." He thrust her head away and turned towards the door. The metal doors creaked as the guards opened them from the outside.
"Hey! Get back here you flea-bitten mongrel!" Candice shouted furiously but the slam of the iron doors drowned out her voice. The ice guardian sighed and let out a stream of frost that froze a thin layer of ice over the doors. She turned her eyes back to the earth dragon lying motionless in the middle of the room. "Come on Tremor..." She pleaded silently. "We don't have much time. Please, wake up."