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secret-fiction · 6 months

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Spyro, Wrath of the Wraith

CH 3 - Dream Weavers Descent

General Audiences, Action Adventure. Contains depictions of cartoon violence.

After recovering Hunter and the Professor, as well as the very much not waterproof plane Hunter had crash landed in the sea, Spyro sets out in the hot air balloon toward the direction of Gnasty Gnorc’s new air warship, the Creeping Gale. While the conversation with the now freed Professor is enlightening, Spyro finds that the balloon does not take him right to his enemies. Instead, he finds himself at the currently peaceful flying Dream Weavers homeworld. With Gnasty Gnorc meeting a secret ally within purposefully hidden ruins Spyro continues his pursuit to retrieve his magic guidebook of Avalar and reprise the lesson he’s taught before. This is a Tumblr Exclusive early release of the third chapter of this Spyro Fanfiction. Check it out from the beginning with the link below! https://www.tumblr.com/secret-fiction/731931011540271104/spyro-wrath-of-the-wraith-ch-1-artisans-ambush

The Creeping Gale descended into what appeared to be an endless void of sky as a great sense of unease descended onto Gnasty Gnorc’s knees. Despite his pretense of strategic gain, the thought resurfaced that he should’ve never mentioned this place. Only once when he was a desperate exile with fresh rage in his heart had he peeked under this illusory shroud. Now this second trip undeniably came about from desperation and bitterness. It wasn’t an exact circle, more of an oval. That distinction was real and mattered.

“Land below!” shouted Dr. Shemp while leaning over the edge of the deck.

Gnasty allowed all of his minions to scramble to the edges of the Creeping Gale and gawk before he too peered on from behind them. Certain composure was important, especially when meeting with him.

Indeed what once seemed to be open sky faded like a shroud of fog, unveiling a landscape modest in colour. Dark gray stone reigned as the most prominent feature of the terrain. Directly below was a wide basin dotted with craters full of fluids and debris. Several spires of what even Gnasty would describe as junk towered from some of these craters.

From all sides of the basin below swelled a sharp and ghastly whistle. Several of Gnasty’s minions shuddered around him, but he knew it was most likely merely a ghost. Upon one of the junk spires Gnasty noticed movement, it appeared to be some sort of bird perched upon a spear. It was shrouded by the Creeping Gale’s shadow, but Gnasty did not like the way it watched him.

“Lord Gnorc,” said Blowhard from behind Gnasty.

“Augh, what?!” Gnasty didn’t want to take his eyes off this shrouded figure.

“The waterfalls ahead are not mere phantasms, though they fall from the dreamful isles.”

“Your poetry is unhelpful, focus on your magic!”

“I speak literally!” Blowhard's voice cracked as he spoke quickly now.

“What?!” Gnasty looked up and saw several bright blue waterfalls falling from the open sky above. The paths they poured shifted around with the breeze, spraying curtains of sparkling mist over the land. “Evasive maneuvers! NOW!”

“Heh, worry not boss,” said Dr. Shemp whilst leaning on a shorter Gnorc, “This fine vessel can bear much more water than that.”

“Those are Dream Weaver springs!” said Gnasty Gnorc.

“Ah.”

The next few minutes of turbulence only served to increase Gnasty’s stress. With the size of the Creeping Gale he was forced to order some rather harsh maneuvers that resulted in one or two overboard Gnorc minions. That cost was acceptable if it meant keeping this ship in good condition. There was no way Gnasty was going to show weakness to his new benefactor.

After a protracted few short moments of intense flight they were clear of the waterfalls. Gnasty ordered a damage assessment, then a head count. Fortunately the ship seemed mostly unscathed aside from the port side wing-sail. It seemed to have magically grown slightly larger and was throwing the balance of their flight off. How aggravating.

To remedy this misstep Gnasty canceled the head count and had his crew work to exhaustion adjusted mechanisms. Eventually the starboard wing-sail was compensating for the imbalance well enough. The size difference in the wing-like sails was surely unnoticeable.

Soon the Creeping Gale was sailing past wastes of stone at the edge of the basin. Ahead approached a dark green mass on a knoll, a forest. Parts of a gray stone wall marked out a circle of land in the middle of this forest. Within these walls lay only the overground foundations of what once were many buildings. Even in the daylight the stone and flora here were dark in colour, accentuating long drawn shadows within which any threat could be hiding.

The Creeping Gale’s shadow passed over one large central ruin with some standing stone walls. Gnasty had his minions drop anchor and it landed with an echoing clank. Then alone he took hold of the guidebook and leapt down, landing before a mostly intact archway.

“Well you didn’t take too long,” said an inherently malicious voice, “You didn’t fail your part of the bargain already, right?”

From the open air chamber behind the archway a short reddish-orange figure with a single horn stepped forward. Gnasty suspected the purple cape with a tall collar around his head served to increase his presence in lieu of body mass. His green eyes dilated as he stepped into the light, focusing on the book in Gnasty’s hand. A glimmer shown from a gemstone amulet on his chest that kept Gnasty’s ire warm. It was Ripto, of whom held no renown.

“Fail?!” said Gnasty with the deepest tone he could manage, “I have the power crystal! AND I nearly had the purple whelp’s life!”

Ripto sniffed the air loudly and glared, “I don’t smell any Dragon stronger than before, that’s good enough.”

“Now your end,” said Gnasty, thrusting the Guidebook into Ripto’s face.

Ripto took the book and grinned, “Yes, this will make a fine scepter again!”

Letting out a loud wicked laugh Ripto grabbed the power crystal embedded in the Guidebook. Then he pulled, yanked, and wrenched the unbudging crystal as his laugh faltered. The orange on his face turned bright red as he wasted another moment struggling against the book.

“I’ll do it,” said Gnasty, snatching the book without giving an opportunity for objection. He then attempted once to slowly pull the power crystal loose, only to find it resist his strength. Once was enough for him, so he dropped it onto the ground.

“What in all curses?!” yelled Ripto as he picked up and shook the book, shedding several talismans from its pages that clattered to the ground. “Give me the crystal you stupid book!!!”

“Did I just aggravate the Dragons for something you can’t even use?” said Gnasty slowly, leaning over Ripto and giving the meanest look he could.

Ripto scoffed, Gnasty’s looks seemed to have no effect on him. This filled Gnasty with a dark feeling, though not rage. It was something murkier.

“Of course I can,” Ripto picked up the Guidebook and skipped into the ruins, “I was able to peruse the dungeon below and unearth a few curse.”

Years ago Gnasty had taken instructions for only one spell from this place, it was all he was willing to risk. Now the best option must be to see if this Ripto was right to risk delving deeper.

______

“What’dya think they’re talking about?” asked Hunter.

Bianca found it surprising Hunter couldn’t hear Spyro and the older cyan Dragon’s conversation. One glance at his face reminded her how much smaller Hunter’s ears were compared to hers. Maybe it’d be rude to point that out.

“I mean your ears are much bigger than mine,” said Hunter as he tapped one of his ears, “They can’t just be for show.”

Bianca scoffed out of surprise and manufactured offense. To this Hunter shrugged with a silly smile.

“Yes Hunter, they’re functional,” said Bianca, “It sounds like the older Dragon, Lateef, is telling Spyro that the ship didn’t come through the Dream Weavers homeworld here. But he’s also saying it did… but only in an abstract way?”

“Oh I see, that Lateef fella doesn’t know anything.”

Bianca scrunched up her face as she considered this. It began to sound like Spyro had come to the same conclusion.

“I am very prepared for what isn’t here!” said Spyro with a raising pitch to his voice, “That’s why I want to be where it is!”

“You must accept the unexpected young one. The Gnorc’s lured you here but never arrived themselves.”

“AUGH!” Spyro began pacing near the edge of the floating island, “Then where could they be?! In that void down there?”

“Quite possibly,” said Lateef.

The expression of sheer indignation on Spyro’s face almost made Bianca chuckle, but that would be rude.

“Okay well why don’t I just hop down there and check?” said Spyro as he leaned over the edge of the island and glared at the skyline below.

Bobbing slowly in the air above Spyro, Sparx offered Spyro a sharp buzz and a few clicks of his mandibles. To this Spyro leaned back and softened his posture.

“No, I wasn’t actually gonna ‘drag you into the abyss’ with me.”

“Some of the fairies are heading down to check, I expect you’ll know where to go from there,” said Lateef as he glanced past Spyro at the void. “Perhaps you can quell your nerves in the meantime, consider having a mushroom or two.”

Sparx gave an eager trill and nodded enthusiastically, to which Spyro sighed and nodded sluggishly. Despite the lack of conviction, Bianca witnessed him easily chase down some animated mushrooms. The ensuing feast of magic butterflies clearly pleased Sparx, but Spyro spent this time spitting mangled mushroom corpses off of the island.

“He seems bored,” said Hunter, “too bad I don’t know what activities there are to do here, Spyro’s never let me see this place before.”

To Bianca it was clear these disparate floating islands posed a great danger to any unwinged beings. As she looked out she saw a young Dragon hatchling stumble off the edge of one of the islands. She flinched, but quickly noticed the hatchling get caught midair by a fairy’s magic spell.

What an abundance there was of magic. Enough to be tossed around willy-nilly for frankly silly purposes. “It’s weird seeing just how much magic the Dragons have, to think the creation of a place like this was feasible. Floating real estate like this would be unthinkable back home, until recently at least. ”

“Yeah you wouldn’t know back at Artisans. The architecture at that pad is way more basic,” said Hunter.

Over the next several minutes Bianca explored the Dream Weavers homeworld with Hunter. It was odd to her that Spyro declined an offer to join them, as he instead sat near the Professor who was repairing Hunter’s plane.

Sparx however, now bright sparkling yellow once more, did join them. Neither she or Hunter could perfectly understand Sparx’s speech but this dragonfly still made a decent tour guide. They visited all the portals of interest, observed the chronomatic culture of the flying fools, and even got to shoot a magic cannon at some targets on the islands around.

In what seemed like no time at all a familiar fairy, Zoe, appeared before them. Some of the local fairies had already found something. In very short order they returned to the island and castle they had left Spyro and the Professor on.

While Zoe hovered over to the local fairies and Lateef, Bianca looked over at Spyro who was wallowing in boredom. Or was he? As he laid on the ground his posture was upright and alert and his tail swung around energetically. The Professor was listening attentively as Bianca overheard Spyro speaking at an increasingly fast pace.

“Yeah Gnasty Gnorc ran away from me the whole time! He didn’t even stand to fight until he was cornered!”

“That malefactor certainly sounds less threatening than Ripto was, what with the mess you and he made of our castle in the Winter Tundra,” said the Professor.

Bianca was really starting to wonder if all the Dragons were as capable, or dangerous, as Spyro must be. Looking at Lateef as he returned she noted that other than his size, this cyan dragon looked hardly dangerous. But then again neither did Spyro most of the time.

“You may stay in our lands as long as you wish, young one. I’ll send word to the Artisans that you’re here for the time being.”

Spyro looked up at Lateef and waited for a moment before speaking up. “What about Gnasty Gnorc?”

“I expect he’s remained quite worried about you,” said Lateef, “It seems Gnasty has found the land beneath that is unseen. To whatever end he seeks, he will find it claimed by those already deceased. Now he may never again be seen.”

“What?” Spyro stood up and squinted at Lateef, “What?! What land? Why wouldn’t Gnasty come back?”

“I’ve heard it called the Shrouded Kingdom,” said Zoe, “It’s apparently a very dangerous place.”

A Fairy in a red shirt and purple pants fluttered up beside Zoe and spoke. “They’re badlands. Looming below Dream Weavers and at the edge of the wider Dragon Kingdom. Most Dragons and Fairies are unwelcome there and I doubt you could handle that.”

Zoe turned and faced this other fairy. It looked as though her expression shifted but her face was too small for even Bianca to be sure of this. Even then she was certain she felt a tension suddenly brew between the magic winged ladies.

“Now hold on,” Hunter stepped forward as he spoke up, “Is this a second ‘Forgotten Worlds’ deal?”

Oh yeah, that is what Bianca’s homeland was called by the Dragons. “If you’ve forgotten about those lands below, do you know who lives there now?”

There was a noticeable grimace on Lateef’s face at the last few words Bianca said. The way he took a moment to think before speaking worried her that she’d stumbled into a faux paus somehow. “We did not forget about these lands as we had yours. We merely found them unwelcoming and put up a curtain of indifference.”

“They’re one of three forsaken realms,” said the Fairy in red and purple.

“At least,” said Zoe.

“We’ve learned what to expect from there,” added Lateef, “If you wish for a reprise of Gnasty’s defeat, it’d be wise to let him fall to his own conceit.”

“Okay…” said Spyro, “He still has my Guidebook. So I’m going to go get that back.”

“It would be dangerous to leave that power crystal with him,” said the Professor. “Not only for the impeded progress on the Axis Gate, but anyone could use it to power any sort of vile contraption or spell.”

“Until the rest of the Dragon Council can offer input, I should not expect to offer any further advice other than that it may be of use to remain unseen,” said Lateef.

Before Spyro could object further, which he clearly was going to do, Lateef warped out of sight by a blinding flash. This felt rude. Very rude. Bianca quickly started to wonder just how rude it was when she did that to people at the end of a monologue or conversation. Either way as the other fairies left it seemed likely this situation had been put on hold.

“If you want to go to the Shrouded Kingdom Spyro, I can guide you on the descent,” said Zoe, pointing at the hot air balloon all backs were turned too. “I saw the way the other fairies took.”

“Great!” said Spyro, a smile returning to his face, “So how ‘bout it Hunter?”

“Oh I better go with, to keep an eye on you and all,” said Hunter.

The contrast in Spyro and the others' low concern against the warnings of the older Dragon perplexed Bianca. It really sounded to her like Lateef was serious. More serious than he wanted to appear to be. Even so as she looked back at Hunter he gave her a confident smile. Clearly they were going to go regardless of any nonspecific problems she could bring up.

“I’ll help too if I can,” said Bianca, “IIt’s the least I can do.”

“Well sure, if you want,” said Spyro, before he trotted over to the professor, “How’s Hunter’s plane looking?”

“Oh quite terrible,” said the Professor, “I suspect it will never fly again.”

“What?! That’s a punch to the arm,” said Hunter.

“Indeed,” the Professor pointed over to the hot air balloon tied down nearby, “but with a few adjustments I can get this balloon to navigate us down.”

The Professor quickly requested Bianca’s assistance in magically growing the balloon basket to fit more people. She then prepared her studied knowledge of magic and physics for whatever the professor needed her to do next. It turned out though that his adjustments to the balloon’s travel capabilities entailed simply adding more weight to it. So alongside her, the whole group traveling alongside Spyro boarded the balloon and pushed it over the edge of the island dock.

________

After a few minutes of guided descent, it was surreal to see land fade into view as an illusion of empty sky came unveiled.

A wide box canyon of dark blue stone grew closer quite rapidly. There were several large and small craters, each lined with a rising ridge that suddenly cut off into a cliff. The bright blue waterfalls rained onto the edges of these craters, filing them with a muckier brew. Most interestingly though were the mounds of abandoned artifacts and trinkets that rose up like spires out of these craters.

While her eyes dotted around the landscape, her ears picked up a high pitched shrieking whistle. It seemed to echo up from the wider basin below. While the thought occurred that this sound was reminiscent of a haunting, she knew it was likely not a ghost. But where was the source?

“Uhh, we’re falling kinda fast, aren’t we?” said Hunter with a subtle crack to his voice, interrupting Bianca’s observation with this more pressing matter.

“Oh my I suppose we are,” said the Professor, who stood too short to look over the brim of the basket, “Allow me to adjust the air real quick…”

The basket shook and swung around as the balloon suddenly reheated. Bianca’s stomach started to turn and she had to stop looking down. Warping around by magic was less nauseating than this.

“Watch out!” shouted Zoe as she flew down into view by the basket, pointing at a dangerously close waterfall.

Spyro seemed unbothered while he looked at the approaching rain. He turned to Bianca and Hunter and said: “Well, good luck with the landing.” He gave a salute with his wing, as did Sparx with his leg. Then both of them hopped out of the basket.

“Hey!” said Hunter.

Before any further indignation could be expressed the Balloon lurched. An Impact with the waterfall sent them dropping down much faster before they were thrown out of its reach.

While she was soaked and her hands were sore from her grip on the basket, Bianca thought they’d stabilized. That was until a cloud passed over and cast a shadow upon them. By untimely magic, the balloon shrunk, and suddenly it wasn’t able to support the weight of three individuals.

“Uh, any ideas Bianca?” asked Hunter.

“...No,” was all Bianca could say as the ground approached at an accelerating rate.

There was a loud snap, then a tearing sound as their momentum suddenly halted. It took a few minutes for Bianca to regain her bearings. She looked up and saw their savior was in fact a rock spike holding the torn balloon precariously. They were hanging meters above the bottom of a smaller crater.

“Is the Balloonist going to be upset about this?” said Bianca.

“I ‘unno,” said Hunter.

“Nah they’re cool,” shouted Spyro just as he landed gracefully on a nearby rocky perch.

After some careful climbing Bianca and Hunter were able to carry the Professor to stable ground. Under the shadow of the crater ridge around them pools of red fluid sat mostly stagnant. They filled slowly from a flow of water down the side of the crater. A strong scent of rust permeated the air above these pools.

“This doesn’t seem like a Kingdom so far,” said Bianca.

“I got a good look around from above. If we find a path or portal out of this basin we’ll find wherever Gnasty Gnorc is hiding,” said Zoe

“Okay, I’ll find you all when I’m done looking around!” said Spyro from his perch.

It took Bianca a couple of seconds to think of how to word some advice to Spyro. In that time she noticed him take off out of her sight. He probably knew what he was doing anyway, it’s not like her attempts to scare or caution him in the past ever worked.

“Where should we start Hunter?” said Bianca. She turned to face Hunter, only to find him already leaping up along precarious ledges to the ridge of the crater.

“You don’t suppose you could help me out of this crater?” said the Professor.

“Oh sure, let me just-” Bianca stopped as she noticed where some sunlight fell onto the pools the rusty fluid was cut off by sparkling blue water. “Huh…”

It didn’t take long for Bianca to carry the Professor up to the higher land between the craters. Apparently it took less time for Spyro to find out there was treasure left in abandoned chests and small mounds of clay. She watched as he charged around, stopped, let Sparx grab something out of a pile of scrap, and then charged off.

Elsewhere Bianca could see Hunter scaling several of the precarious spires of clutter. He seemed to have an easy time, except when something would break loose and send him tumbling to the ground. The first time this happened Bianca rushed over, only to see him already on his feet and running off in some other direction.

Near the center of the wider basin was the tallest spire of scrap and clay. It looked like Spyro and Hunter were steadily making their separate ways there as they navigated the craters. Since Zoe went ahead to keep an eye on him, and the Professor became preoccupied examining every loose bolt sticking out of the ground, Bianca decided to scope out that highest tower.

Due to her unfamiliarity with the area Bianca wasn’t willing to chance magically warping herself ahead quite yet. That, and she was feeling some weariness creep back into her head. There wasn’t time for that, she’d already taken a power nap earlier. So the next best thing was to focus on something useful.

As she trotted along Bianca heard a muddy plop sound, followed by scraping. It came from a smaller crater right next to her path. Her years of snooping kicked in as she crouched low and crept up to the edge of this crater. There she saw a very dirty creature placing a blue gemstone inside the shattered pieces of a pot. It then clamped its massive mitts around the shards and gem then planted them atop a very small mound. It pulled its arms away, leaving behind a casing of clay that had just been its hands.

“What…?”

The creature turned and Bianca ducked. Only then did she notice it wasn’t just a dirty creature. This mass of gray clay was only a large torso and two arms with a rusty iron cap melded where its head should be. Some sort of magic must’ve fallen down here and animated this contrivance of clay.

“Clay Contrivance, heh…” muttered Bianca to herself.

With a glance around, Bianca realized there may be more than one of these things. Listening closely, she noticed several more subtle plops and bubbling sounds that could’ve been mistaken for the natural ambience of the rusty pools.

With a better vantage point Bianca figured she could confirm her theory. Hopping up a large rock Bianca swiftly reached a wooden pole. It seemed to be an old ballista bolt pierced into the rock. More pressingly, she now had a view into several of the craters. Indeed there were many of these Clay Contrivances, all shaped slightly different from one another. In each crater they were apparently working to build up their own respective spires with scrap and clutter.

Down in a larger crater that blocked the way to the tallest spire, Bianca saw Spyro approaching some of these Clay Contrivances. Even if she hadn’t seen them attack anyone, they were creepy enough to warn him about.

Eyes focusing on a safe spot nearby, she spoke a well practiced incantation and expended the energy to warp over. Everything around melded into an abstract wave of rainbow colours until she landed with a flash.

Spyro stood in front of a mound of clay and clutter looking at Bianca curiously. “Nice flash, this place can use the colour.”

“Careful Spyro, there are strange clay creatures or contrivances here animated by magic,” said Bianca.

“...and?” said Spyro.

“They’re large. And probably dangerous!”

Sparx came crashing out of a wooden chest behind Spyro with a yellow gem on his back. Spyro looked up at him, and they seemed to shrug at each other. Right, this kid isn’t afraid of anything. He looked back at Bianca, but the mound of clay and chests behind him shifted. A big clay torso stepped out of the mound, leaving behind a man shaped hole.

“Watch out!” shouted Bianca.

“Huh?” Spyro and Sparx turned around and looked at this Clay Contrivance in its lack of eyes for a second. It moved its limbs slowly and lumbered toward them. “Oh! It is made of cla-”

A loud splat cut Spyro off as the creature slammed its mitt down on him, smothering him completely under a brick of clay. Sparx dimmed and buzzed with concern. It then lifted its arm, leaving the brick of clay atop Spyro, and turned to Bianca.

“AH!” shouted Bianca. She reflexively raised her hands and sent a blast of magic energy at the Clay Contrivance. It hit it directly and exploded in a flash of light and shrapnel. Chunks of clay went flying every which way alongside an echoing blast.

Flying clay debris hit Bianca’s left arm and threw her onto her back. She was now at the edge of one of the pools of rusty fluid. From around the mound she saw two more contrivances approach. One was smaller and covered in a spikey layer of arrowheads and the other larger with pots for hands.

Bianca tried to lift her arms but found her left one stuck under the heavy clay. She started to dig away at it, hearing the two contrivances approach with concerning speed.

Then came a thwap sound, followed by running and the orange light of fire. Bianca looked up to see Spyro breathing a spout of flame on the larger Clay Contrivance. Its movements slowed and cracks formed across its body as it was baked solid by dragon-fire.

Weighted arrows rained down at Spyro but he kept himself moving. He easily dodged each one and looped around at the shorter Clay Contrivance that was throwing this volley. Then with a thud he charged right into it, impaling it with his horns. The force sent it onto its back, carrying Spyro with it.

Now upside down Spyro started flailing, then giggling. “I got stuck! Hah! This never happens!”

“You… need help?” said Bianca whilst freeing her arm from under some clay debris.

“No no I got this!” Spyro proceeded to plant all four of his feet on the clay body. Then with great effort he ripped his horns free, sending a blue gem flying out of the Contrivance. It then fell into the rusty fluid with a plunk. “Oh heck.”

“I think I can help with that!” Said Bianca. She rushed toward that pool of rust, passing the petrified Clay Contrivance . Then she casted a light spell over the area with ease. Under illumination the reddish goop changed into sparkling blue water. “Now I don’t know if it’s actually safe now, but-”

While Spyro looked impressed for a moment, he didn’t take time to listen before diving into the pool. Bianca cringed, but saw through the rippling surface that he was perfectly fine and collecting the fallen blue gem. What wasn’t fine was the cracking sound from behind her.

The Clay Contrivance that had been petrified by fire now shed its outermost layer, losing only part of its mass. It then turned and lumbered toward Bianca. This was startling, but she didn’t panic! She just needed to think of a good spell… even though it was already almost upon her.

The Clay Contrivance suddenly stopped approaching her, even recoiling and moving back away. Bianca looked down and saw that it was avoiding the light of her spell.

This pause gave enough time for Spyro to emerge from the water, focus on the Contrivance, and blast it with another bout of fire.

“I think they’re frightened by light,” said Bianca.

“Okay, my fire’s pretty bright,” said Spyro as he circled around the re-petrified Contrivance. “Now to actually deal with this guy…”

Bianca started to think about what the best way to deal with this large one was, since the fire-baking was temporary. Meanwhile Spyro clearly did his thinking through action as he charged into the petrified Contrivance. With some creaking it tumbled onto its back. Spyro gasped and smiled, then promptly hopped overtop of it and slammed down onto it with a headbash. This successfully shattered the contrivance and freed a yellow gem.

Clearly Spyro had this place well figured out already. Still, Bianca felt like there must be something more she could do to help.

“Would you like me to assist you on the way to that larger spire?” said Bianca.

“Eh… sure, If you want,” said Spyro.

________

Even though everything smelled like dirt here, Spyro grew to appreciate this area pretty quickly. Now with these animated Clay Creatures, which Bianca started calling ‘Clay Contrivances’ for some reason, there was excitement alongside exploration to be had. Sparx was enjoying this little adventure too as he excitedly smashed through pots and chest for treasure. The only thing that he needed now was some increased elevation.

Looking ahead to the tallest spire of clay and junk Spyro couldn’t help but smirk. Though first he had to figure out how to get there. There was one large crater in the way, mostly flooded with the rusty goop. He noticed there seemed to be some rustier Clay Creatures bobbing in and out of the goop, as well as a few more stable platforms. This could work. If it didn’t… the goop would probably only hurt a bit.

The glide down was easy enough. From there Spyro and Sparx spent a few minutes struggling across the lake of rust. The Clay Creatures did not make using their heads as platforms easy as they tried to grab or crush Spyro before he glided to the next one. He fumbled a bit, taking one short spill into the rusty goop to find out it did in fact sting a little. With Sparx’s help in guiding though he managed to clamber onto a safe platform and take a breather.

Back where he’d come from Spyro saw Bianca attempting to follow him. She likewise had a bit of a rough time managing the trek, but seemed more panicked about it than she ought to be. It wasn’t long till one of the Creatures knocked her off of its head. Though she managed to avoid dealing with rusty goop by casting some magic light before falling in. It didn’t make much sense to Spyro that the light of his fire didn’t have the same effect on the goop.

Since Bianca could take care of herself, Spyro continued on his way to the spire. Taking a moment to find a good path, he managed to leap-dragon to the solid ground around the base of this spire. Here he found a butterfly for Sparx, courtesy of a toad. Next he just needed to find out where best to start climbing.

While Spyro looked over the ledges up the spire he heard a sudden thwap behind him and a sudden stop to Sparx’s fluttering. After walking a circle to turn around he saw a small Clay Creature carrying Sparx to the base of the spire. There it placed him like a brick alongside several other yellow items, including some gems. The Creature then lumbered away toward the rusty lake.

“Wow, that was rude, huh Sparx?” said Spyro.

With only his head and legs sticking out of the rusty clay brick, Sparx made eye contact with Spyro and frowned.

“Okay okay, I’ll help you out pal.” Spyro proceeded to charge horns first into the clay under Sparx, sending him and a bunch of other junk tumbling to the ground. Among this junk was none other than Hunter, who landed on his belly and immediately hopped to his feet.

“Oh hey Spyro!” said Hunter while shaking off the fall, “There isn’t enough solid ground to glide up this mound like you normally would, so you’ll have to swing across those bars.”

Spyro glanced up and saw several wooden poles sticking out of the spire. “I guess so…”

Bianca leapt to the solid ground from the rusty lake and took a few heavy breaths. “Hey! I think I saw another deflated balloon at the top. We could use it to get our hot air balloon moving again.”

A careful look up showed that there was in fact a colourful piece of fabric hanging from the top of the Spire. Though it was too blurry from this distance for Spyro to be sure of what it was. “Okay, I’ll go get that real quick.”

“Now hold on Spyro,” said Hunter, “Allow me to explain how to navigate those bars.”

“Or…” Spyro looked at the rough texture of the entire spire, “I could climb it.”

Despite Spyro’s suggestion Hunter insisted on offering a demonstration. He’d clearly taken a few tries himself, as even Spyro could see the stains of clay on Hunter’s torso.

With great ath-a-letic ability Hunter spun and swung from one wooden pole to another. Spyro humoured this and attempted it himself, only to find his limbs nowhere near long enough to do it as Hunter had. After one fall he resorted to clinging to each pole statically, then gliding to the next. This got him most of the way up the spire until they reached one gap clearly too wide.

Yet Hunter managed to cross this last gap with a hefty bounce off of a pole to add to his momentum. Spyro scoffed at seeing this and shared a skeptical glance with Sparx. Still, anything Hunter could do he could do. He batted his wings, then jumped on the wooden pole a couple times. It eventually gave him some extra spring on the end, allowing him to glide to the last ledge.

As Spyro landed next to Hunter and suppressed some nervous heavy breathing, he heard a loud obnoxious whistle from nearby. Its shrill tone echoed back from the wider basin. The source was at the very tip of the spire. There a silhouette moved and revealed it was not a bird shaped wind compass but in fact a red Bearded Vulture person.

Bright red sclera accentuated the silver irises of this Vulture as he looked over Spyro and Hunter. He adjusted his black sleeveless jacket and stood tall on his perch to face them. On the belt of his black pants Spyro saw a small shape, some sort of smaller bird skull?

“Well that was some impressive gliding for a young Dragon with your proportions, little guy,” said the Bearded Vulture.

“You’re impressively easy to overlook for a bird with your size standing so high up,” said Spyro.

“Hah!” The Bearded Vulture lifted one of his black boots, revealing shiny metal talons protruding from it that he used to lift up the green waving fabric they’d seen from below. “Your rabbit lady seemed interested in this balloon. Yins having a party?”

“No!” said Hunter, “We need that to follow a flying ship!”

“Oh!” The Bearded Vulture began folding the balloon up with his wings, “I was actually planning to follow the very same vessel. It’s quite a nice vehicle to be roaming these forgotten lands like that.”

“Which way’d it go?” said Spyro, casually stretching his wings ready for flight.

“Can’t you or your little Dragonfly there tell by magic?” said the Bearded Vulture.

“No?” said Spyro.

“Well then, we oughta do a barter!” said the Bearded Vulture.

“Uh oh,” said Spyro.

“Oh yeah, the names Marrow, and I could really use a hot air balloon basket. It’d make gliding to certain locales so much easier.”

“Uh, yeah, I don't think we can give you that,” said Hunter, “Besides, we’ll find our way to that ship on our own.”

“You look like you’d get lost in a fairies humble apartment,” said Marrow, “And I doubt you got the speed to match those legs.”

Hearing such an assumption prompted Spyro to interject. “No, actually he’s quite fast.”

“Thank you,” said Hunter.

“But yeah He gets lost all the time.”

“Hey!”

Marrow finished folding up the balloon and stuffed it into his jacket. He then looked past Spyro and Hunter, leaning his head down and giving the appearance of a grin on his beak. “Well, I happen to see an abandoned balloon with a basket down there.”

“What?” said Hunter.

“Don’t” said Spyro, smiling and baring his teeth.

“Oh…” said Hunter.

Marrow hesitated, then said: “Good luck walking back to those flying islands.”

Spyro jumped and spit fire, but Marrow sprung from his perch and glided toward one of the other spires with his red and black wings. Seeing the path, Spyro pursued off of the ledge and descended after Marrow.

“Hey! Don’t take our balloon!” shouted Hunter.

“Don’t worry about that!” said Spyro, not taking his eyes off of Marrow.

Spyro didn’t have time to check if Hunter was following as he saw Marrow land atop a shorter spire. There he kicked a wooden beam out of the clay, then jumped to another spire.

When Spyro landed he felt the platform sinking and beginning to slide down. He immediately jumped into a glide again before the landslide could carry him down, but then had to correct his flightpath. Marrow was getting distance ahead of him as he landed on a ledge halfway up the third spire.

“Sparx, grab a rock!” said Spyro as he approached this next ledge.

As they landed on this next ledge Sparx buzzed and started flying circles looking for something projectile sized. Seeing a talon mark in the spire here, and hearing the top of it collapsing toward him, Spyro took off toward a fourth much shorter one.

He saw Marrow heading toward a different spire, but Spyro looked ahead to their balloon hanging on the side of a crater. They could cut him off, as long as that wouldn’t cause him to turn around like an infuriating egg thief.

As he rapidly planned mid glide Spyro saw Sparx fly ahead of him and toss him a rusty rock. It tasted like spicy iron dirt, which was probably good for his purposes. Once he leapt from this shorter spire, Spyro curved his glidepath to intersect with Marrow. They made eye contact, and Spyro spit the rock with the force of his flame breath.

Marrow gave a high pitched screech as the rock hit him and sent him dropping to the ground between the craters. There he landed on his talons and continued running with a shrill laugh. “Good aim kid!”

“Heh,” muttered Spyro to himself. He turned his glide more directly to the hanging balloon and got parallel with Marrow.

Landing well ahead it was quickly apparent to Spyro that he was much faster on his feet than Marrow. While he gained a good lead, Spyro saw the shine of a couple gems off to the side. The thought of leaving them bothered him too much, so he detoured to have Sparx pick them up before realigning toward the balloon.

This cost Spyro and Sparx their lead, as Marrow had started flapping his wings and kicking himself forward in a fast horizontal glide of sorts. No amount of teeth gritting and full on charging was able to help Spyro catch all the way up.

Marrow swooped over the ridge of the crater ahead, the ink-black tips of his tail feathers so close to firebreath reach. Spyro leapt over into the crater immediately after him. Right as Marrow reached the balloon basket Spyro spat out a spout of fire. It just missed those tail feathers though as Marrow lost no momentum when landing on the basket. He sent it swinging all the way above the opposite ridge of the crater, then cut the string with his metal talons.

Spyro growled as he landed in front of a pool of rusty goop and watched Marrow land perfectly with the large basket on his back. Before he could clamber up the crater though, Spyro saw the yellow streak of Hunter pouncing at Marrow from behind. Evidently seeing Hunter in his periphery, Marrow jumped and let him dive under him and tumble out of sight.

During that distraction Sparx buzzed up and offered Spyro another ammunition sized rock. Speaking of rocks, the rock perch Marrow stood on looked precarious enough. With a bad angle of this Bearded Vulture but a good one on his perch, Spyro spat the projectile.

“Heh, bad luck ki-” the projectile impacting the perch cut Marrow off and sent him falling into the crater with a whistling screech. He landed right into the pool of rusty goop with a splash and the basket landed right next to Spyro.

“‘Heh, bad luck kid,’” said Spyro in a higher pitched tone, “That’s you.”

The pool of rusty red liquid bubbled where Marrow had fallen into it.

“...Oh slag, are you dead?” said Spyro.

With another splash Marrow jumped out of the pool and onto solid ground. He beat his wings and shook his body, splattering rusty goop all over. Despite the rusty goop dripping off him like blood from a head wound he didn’t look hurt, just even more red than before.

“Have a nice bath?” said Spyro.

“Yes I did! Thanks for asking!” said Marrow. After shaking his feathers some more he faced Spyro and held his wings out wide with sharp metal spikes brandished off subtle bracelets. Spyro stepped in front of the basket and Sparx hovered over him. They held eye contact for a little bit, before Marrow took a step back.

“You give up?” said Spyro.

“I suppose I don’t need a flying balloon right now.” Marrow paused to glance up. He suddenly jumped backward, dodging Hunter who landed face first onto the ground. “I may be having a whole winged ship soon anyway.”

“You better watch it guy,” said Hunter as he bounced to his feet and patted off his fur.

“I always watch rather well,” said Marrow, reaching into his jacket with his wing.

Hunter glared and pointed, but before he could give anymore threats Marrow tossed the green balloon fabric over him and jumped away. Spyro ran around Hunter but it gave Marrow enough time to return to the ridge above the crater.

“Well, I’ll be off to the old cap-i-tol,” said Marrow with a shake of his head, “And be careful kid, a lot of folks around these marches don’t take as kindly to small Dragons as I do.”

“Marches?” said Spyro.

Marrow did not offer a definition for Spyro. Instead he kicked a boulder down off the crater ridge which looked too heavy for him to budge so easily. Then a spiraling vortex of sparkles rose out of a platform revealed from under that boulder. Marrow then winked, and jumped into this magic vortex that carried him upward and warped him out of sight.

“Oh cool. The exit is right here, right where we started,” said Spyro.

“Wait, then we didn’t need this balloon?” said Hunter from under the green balloon fabric.

Though they didn’t need it now, Zoe caught up and pointed out that it’d be polite to repair the balloon for the Balloonist at some point. So they refolded the fabric and stuck it inside the basket. Soon Bianca caught up to them as well and the lot of them were ready to see where that vortex led.

“Wait, where’d the Professor go?” said Spyro.

“I… don’t know,” said Bianca, “He was wandering around looking at stuff stuck in the ground last I saw.”

“And you left him alone?” said Zoe.

“Does he need to be watched?!” Bianca looked quite worried suddenly, “I’m so sorry, I’ll go find him!”

“Hey Spyro!!!” shouted the familiar voice of the Professor, “Look what I discovered!”

It didn’t sound like he was very far away, so everyone followed the Professor's voice. There on one of the upper paths between the craters they found the Professor standing in a newly dug out hole. Behind him was an old but quite intact wood and steel ballista.

“Have a look at what I dug up!! And If my hypothesis is correct, there are several more of these old siege engines buried around this basin. I think we’re at the sight of an old battle!”

“Oh awesome!” said Spyro, “Can we take this with us?”

Sparx buzzed angrily at Spyro. They both knew the Dragonfly couldn’t lift and magically store something this big but asking was always fun.

“I concur with Sparx, it’d be unwise to move it,” said the Professor, “But if we run out of options, we could perhaps launch ourselves out of this area by adjusting the tension of this siege ballista.”

“We found a vortex actually,” said Zoe.

“Even better! Let’s be off then!” said the Professor.

Leaving this Phantasmic Basin behind, Spyro went on to leap into that magic vortex followed by the others. Perhaps the ruined locale he was destined for would keep him busy. Then maybe Gnasty wouldn’t mind that the two small Gnorcs who’d crash landed in the pools here had hidden in the clay rather than impede him. They looked at each other and understood without grunting that they were to be one with the Clay Creatures here now, living off of anything that fell from Dream Weavers above.

#Spyro Fanfiction #Spyro the Dragon #Spyro #Spyro Fanfic #Fanfiction #Bianca the Rabbit #Gnasty Gnorc #Fanfic #My art #Secret Person

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