Crash and Spyro, A Friendship Across Lifetimes

Chapter 9: Temporal Displacement

EVERYONE in the room did not move or utter a word for at least five seconds. Crash was kneeling on the center table; he was stuck with fear and froze, for he did not know where he was or how dangerous this place was. He saw the Elder Dragons all around him, large, intimidating creatures with huge wings and imposing figures. Spyro and Cynder, who were well hidden on the support beams near the ceiling, were also in shock at what just happened. Who was this creature, they both thought, and how in the world did he manage to teleport into the Council of Elders meeting, and by extension bypass the magical barrier surrounding the Realm of the Dragons? It was Red who acted first. He lunged toward Crash with surprising speed for a Dragon of his age. Though Crash was not looking at him, he leaped remarkably high to avoid Red's claws and landed on the floor behind Red's seat at the table.

"Stop the intruder, at once!" Red snarled as repositioned himself on the table. Magnus, who had sat to the right of Red, began conjuring a spell to immobilize Crash. Magnus was considered the premier magic caster of all the Realms. He launched the magical entrapment spell at Crash, and then something unprecedented happened. A green sphere illuminated around Crash. Magnus, astonished at what just happened, was perceptive enough to realize that the talisman that hung around Crash's neck had begun to emanate light. He sensed the spirit that was entangled within the artifact that hung from this creature's neck. Magnus would not continue to fight this creature, for he had nothing to fear.

"Did that thing just deflect a spell from Magnus?" Spyro whispered to Cynder. She did not respond, for she was too focused on what was transpiring below. Astor, who was the next closest Dragon to Crash, unleashed a torrent of fire in Crash's direction, yet the green sphere around Crash's body insulated him from the sweltering blue flames. At this point Crash bolted for the windows on the west side of the building. He narrowly avoided Titan's grasp as he slid past him, recovered to his feet and vaulted through a window, shattering it.

"We need to append the intruder immediately" Red barked at Thomas. "Set of an alarm, nothing gets on or off Artisan Island." Thomas, the Elder Dragon of Artisans, raised his left arm in concentration, and within a few moments, all of Artisan's warriors were alerted of the threat told to them by their Elder.

"Red, I believe you had mentioned just moments ago about how unbreachable the barrier to the Dragon Realms was." Titan said sarcastically to a now fuming Red.

"This is no time for jokes, Titan! That thing could be a spy for the Gnorks, and he may have just heard the contents of our entire meeting! He needs to be captured now."

"Let's move, Elders!" Thomas said commandingly. "We're not going to do any good in here. Let's go outside and monitor the progress made to apprehend the intruder."

The Council of Elders vacated the Senate Building, giving Spyro and Cynder the opportunity to quickly leave in the opposite direction, through the same window that Crash had busted earlier.

"We need to capture that orange creature immediately." Cynder commanded once Spyro and Cynder were a good distance in the air.

"Why, shouldn't we leave that thing's capture to the Elders? If we apprehend and turn it over to the Elder's, wouldn't they suspect that we knew too much?"

"We're not going to hand it over once we capture him. We're going to interrogate it ourselves."

"You can't be serious?"

"Dead serious. Look Spyro, all signs are pointing to fact that Sorceress has finally found a way to enter the Dragon Realms and finish off her thousand year campaign to kill all Dragons. And it seems she is using the Gnork's to accomplish that goal. If that orange... thing has anything to do with the Gnorks, it may know crucial information about how the Sorceress entered the Gnork's Realm and how he himself got to our Realm."

"This sounds like information that the Elder's would need to know. Why would we keep this information to ourselves?"

"We're not going to withhold that information we get once we capture the intruder, we'll just know the information first. We can incapacitate the intruder and leave him somewhere the militia will find him once we know what we need to."

"This still sounds crazy. And how do you plan on finding him in the first place? We don't even know which way he went after escaping the Senate Building."

"He will head to the nearest forest to find cover, which is the direction we're currently flying towards. Once there, we'll hover over the tree line and find him. It's important that we locate him, so be vigilant."