The Darksield Chronicles, Book 1: Legend of Spyro

Chapter 2: Cynder

Wraith POV

Wraith awoke with a gasp. He was in a clearing surrounded by lush trees, and it was daytime. Wraith stood and stretched. As he did, he noticed something different about himself.

His jeans were no longer ripped, and he was wearing steel-plated boots and a black hooded jacket. Along with a black facemask on his face, he had a pair of knives strapped to his thighs. He looked down at his arms and saw that he was wearing fingerless leather gloves and steel gauntlets with silver accents on them.

He felt some kind of a weight on his back, and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that there was a sheathed sword on his back and a dagger sheathed below it horizontally.

He unsheathed the sword and stared at it. It had a black leather grip and a bright silver blade. The hilt was pure black, and it had a silver crystal embedded in the pommel. He slashed it through the air and marveled at how light it was. He sheathed it and looked around at his surroundings.

He still had his backpack, which amazingly fit over his sword. He drew his dagger and stared at it. Suddenly he felt an urge to will the dagger into a different form. As soon as he tried it, the dagger lengthened into an exact copy of his sword. Grinning, he willed the dagger into its original form and sheathed it.

"Wow, the stories don't do the abilities of the Chronicler justice." Wraith said. He glanced around and noticed that the sun was starting to set. "Well Ignitus. You certainly know your stuff." And so, he set off for Warfang.

3 hours later

Wraith was walking through the woods when he heard something in the clearing up ahead. He desperately wished that Ignitus was right about him being invisible while in the shadows. He edged forward so that he was barely standing within the tree line. Just ahead of him was a small clearing.

And in that clearing was a dragon. He didn't know how he knew, but he could tell she was a female. She had a blood-red underbelly and black scales. She had six silver horns on her head and jade-green eyes. She was sitting, and she had her head down. Even sitting down, she was at least twice as tall as he was. He edged to the left, so he could see what she was doing. What he saw shocked him.

The dragon was crying, her body shaking with sobs. Wraith knew he should follow Ignitus's orders and avoid dragons until he reached Warfang, but he couldn't just stand there and watch her cry.

He was about to step forward when seven apes leapt out of the foliage. The black dragoness leapt to her feet and turned. The apes each held a sword and made a circle around her.

One of the apes said to another, "Quickly, if we strike fast, we shall avenge the dark master."

The black dragoness was fast and tried to fly out of there, but two more apes leapt out of the trees to attack her. They jumped on her back and knocked her to the ground. Unfortunately for her, her head hit a rock so hard it seemed like she was going to black out, but she managed to stay on her feet. She staggered.

Just as she staggered, an ape charged her from the side, slicing at her neck. Wraith felt something surge within him. He didn't know how he did it, but one second, he was there; then he was right in front of the black dragoness, sword out, parrying the strike aimed at her neck. He ignored everyone's shocked looks and focused on the task at hand. He shoved the ape's sword away and slashed. The sword cut through the ape like it were butter. Wraith held the stance as one half fell to the ground, then the other. He could literally feel everyone's eyes on him.

Wraith stepped back and placed himself between the dragoness and the remaining eight apes. The apes readied their swords. One of them growled, "What are you?"

Wraith took a step forward, and half the apes stepped back. "Something you don't want to mess with." His voice sounded strange, even to him.

Another ape leveled its sword at him. "Whatever you are, you shall not keep us from our prey. Kill him!" All the apes charged.

Wraith blocked a pair of strikes with his sword and side-kicked another. He spun, dodging three swords, and lashed out with his sword, taking out three apes. The remaining five charged, and he charged as well. Just before they would have collided, he slid underneath them and jumped to his feet on the other side. He spun and killed two more, before reversing the blade in his hand and decapitating two others. With one ape left, Wraith blocked its strike, slid his blade up his opponent's, and stabbed. The ape collapsed to the ground, and Wraith turned to face the black dragoness. Her eyes were wide.

Before either of them could say anything, Wraith heard more twigs snapping and turned. Charging out of the underbrush was a purple dragon with a golden underbelly and purple eyes. Wraith got that feeling again and knew that this one was a male. All of the sudden, both of the dragons started to seem familiar.

Suddenly, the purple dragon yelled, "Cynder watch out! There's an ape over there!" He shot a fireball at Wraith. Immediately, several things clicked at once. That black dragoness was Cynder. The purple dragon was probably Spyro, and a fireball was shooting toward Wraith's face.

Time seemed to slow down as the fireball sailed toward him. Wraith could feel the shadows slipping away as the fireball came nearer. He concentrated and teleported just as the fireball hit where he had been. Luckily, he reappeared in the shadows and immediately turned invisible.

He watched as Spyro ran over to check on Cynder. Wraith couldn't believe it. He had saved CYNDER. The former 'Terror of the Skies.' Wraith remembered when he used to play Legend of Spyro, and how he liked Cynder the most out of all the characters there. Wraith couldn't explain it, but he felt a certain connection to her. All these thoughts shot through his head before he realized Cynder was speaking. "How could you do that, Spyro? That thing saved my life."

"It did?" Spyro sounded surprised. Wraith would have stuck around more but decided that his work was done. And besides, he had to get to Warfang.