Sunlight, was the bright rays of light stinging the black dragoness’s eyes begging for her to keep them closed. Squinting her eyes she quickly shut them tight for the light was too strong but the dragoness tried again but with no prevail. “Argh, the light… am I dead or something?” The dragoness tried again and went through the pain of opening her eyes to finally see her surroundings. “Wha… am I… in the Valley of Avalar?” Shock? Nervous? Excited? Just what was she supposed to be feeling right now? “What? I’m here? How did I get here? All I remember was that me and Spyro just defeated Malefor and then the planet started breaking apart and- hold on… WHERES SPYRO?!” 

Complete panic came to the dragoness as her heart started beating a hundred miles per hour and she struck up frantically shaking her head looking for the purple hero. “Spyro? Spyro?! SPYRO?!” The birds fled from the trees as the black dragoness called and called for the purple dragon but no matter how loud she called there would be no response. The dragoness collapsed to the ground as she felt watery tears come to her eyes as she felt her heart break in half. Her tears forced out as the water streamed down her cheek.

“Cynder?” That voice, she recognised that voice anywhere, that same voice that always follows the purple hero where ever he goes. “Sp-Sparx?” Her head turned to see the presence of a yellow dragonfly that was flying but stayed at a distance. “Cynder? Is that you? Where’s Spyro? What happened?” It sounded like a million questions at once forming even more stress to overcome the black dragon’s mind. “I-I-I don’t know…” She managed to choke out but only left with more tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t care if the dragonfly was there; she poured her heart as if she never cried in her life. 

“WHAT?! Oh man oh man oh man this is terrible! We gotta find him and fast!” Sparx took a glance over at Cynder, he had never seen her like this and felt some pity for her deep down. Sobs were the only thing heard between the silence of the two as it became kind of awkward. “Hey, um, you wanna go and find Spyro?” Cynder didn’t respond, instead she stayed still while her sobbing had quiet down a bit. “Cynder?” “Y-yeah, let’s go…” On four legs, Cynder got up quickly as her and Sparx went off to search for their purple friend.

“Argh… my head… where am I?” Not too far off on a mountain cliff patched with lush green grass laid a purple figure stirring from unconsciousness. “Avalar? But how… is everything the way it was before? Was the planet fixed? And… hold on.” He looked over his surroundings and found that something was odd… something was missing. “Where’s Cynder?” The purple dragon tried standing up but fell back down. He got up again with success and started walking around to move his legs but now flying was a problem.

The dragon unleashed his wings giving them a good stretch and looked down the cliff side to stumble across the Cheetah Village not too far away. “The village? All the cheetahs are there too? Maybe I can ask if they’ve seen Cynder.” With that he gave his wings one last stretch and jumped off the cliff with a boost of his wings the dragon started gliding towards the village.

“Hey look! It’s the purple dragon! He’s alive!” Called out a blue shaded cheetah pointing towards the incoming dragon as all the others looked to that direction in shock and surprise. The leader of the village came out walking towards the dragon making his landing. “Purple dragon, I never should have underestimated you and for that I give you my apology.” “That’s okay and you can call me Spyro.” Chief Prowlus nodded in response, “Very well then Spyro, what brings you here? Shouldn’t you be heading off to the Dragon City?” Spyro shook his head, “No but I was wondering if you’ve seen Cynder or Sparx?” “The dragonfly went out to find you but the black dragoness I do not know.” Spyro nodded his head, “Okay, thanks.” Spyro then took off with a boost from his wings and flew out to find his friends. 

Complete silence filled the air as a black dragoness walked along the lush green grass long with a yellow dragonfly flying beside. It felt kind of awkward between the two for they never had to partner up before. “So… um, lovely weather we’re having huh?” The black dragoness didn’t respond, she just kept her head down and kept walking. “Oh come on Cynder, cheer up. You know Spyro, he doesn’t go down that easy.” No response came from her, she only kept walking.  Sparx thought for a moment until he had an idea, “Hey you wanna hear a song?” No response. “I’ll sing it anyway. If your happy and your know it clap your hands, if your happy and you know it-““Oh keep it up Sparx, I think it’s working.” That was the first thing Cynder said for a while but it was surprisingly a sarcastic answer. “Sarcastic now huh? Well that was very surprising.” Cynder didn’t respond once again. 

“Look, I’m worried and stressed out too but we just gotta keep our hopes up you know.” Cynder finally looked up for what seemed like the first time in ages with a slight smile on her face, “Thanks Sparx.” The dragonfly was surprised, that was the first time ever she said that to him and Sparx smiled back in return, “No problem.” Sparx finally for the first time ever felt comfortable around Cynder, he felt like she was now… a friend. He thought back to where he would insult Cynder about her past and he now felt a little guilty, he thought about it and decided to ask her something. “Hey, um, Cynder?” “Yeah?” Sparx gulped, “I’m sorry for how I treated you before all this and well, would you like to be friends?” Now it was Cynder’s turn to be surprised, she thought Sparx would never ask that question, she thought about it and smiled, “Sure.” Sparx smiled as well knowing the dragoness accepted his apology for now a new bond had formed between the two.

Through the air was like a bird’s eye view as the wind blew freely through the dragon’s wings. “Okay, where would those two be?” The purple dragon known as Spyro was flying mountain height looking for any sign of his friends. “Hmm… what happened after me and Cynder defeated Malefor? Oh now I remember.” 

FLASHBACK

“Spyro, when a dragon dies, he does not truly leave this world. His spirit lives on, binding itself with nature, offering hope for the future…”

“I know what I need to do. Just get out of here Cynder.” 

“Spyro, no… You don’t have to do anything. Let’s just go.” 

“Where Cynder? There’ll be nothing left! The world is breaking apart. But I think I can stop it. I think I’m meant to.”

“Then I’m with you…

I love you…”

END OF FLASHBACK

A shade of pink came across the dragon’s purple cheek remembering those last three words. “Does she really love me? I have to ask her if it’s true. If it is… then I love you too Cynder…” While lost in his thoughts, Spyro didn’t notice that he was flying into a mountain and if he didn’t wake up from his thoughts then he would crash into the mountain.

“And so, Spyro got me out of the Frogweed and I was like ‘see ya later loser’ and left but he caught up after some time.” Laughing was heard from the new friends as Sparx was telling the black dragoness about his and Spyro’s time in the swamp. “Ah… good times. Hey! I’ve got an idea! Once we find Spyro we should go to the swamp and see how everything is and you can meet our parents… well Spyro’s foster parents but you know what I mean.” A slight chuckle was Cynder’s response, she really liked the idea of seeing the two ‘brothers’ home but remembered something as a frown crept over her face. “Hey, what’s wrong? Frog got ya tongue?” Sparx stopped playing around when he saw Cynder’s expression. “Oh… right. Hey don’t worry, I’m sure my peps will get used to ya even if…” The dragonfly cut off seeing Cynder’s depressed look, he knew about her past and what happened but he thought she would have put that behind by now.  “Hey, don’t worry about it anymore. Creepy dude is gone now so we don’t have to worry anymore so let’s put the past behind our backs and look out into the bright future.” Cynder smiled in response and nodded as a smirk crept upon her face, “You sure do talk a lot trying to cheer others up.” The dragonfly grinned in response, “Well now who’s talking, I thought I would never hear anything come out of you.” They both shared a laugh and continued walking or flying.

They kept going on as the dragoness perked her head up to see something she thought she would never see in a long time. “Spyro!” Sparx whipped his head to look in the direction the dragoness was looking. “Hey Spyro!” No response came from the flying dragon as he kept flying as if he was part zombie. Cynder looked in the direction the purple dragon was flying as her eyes widen. “Sparx! He’s going to crash into the mountain! We have to wake him up!” The dragonfly looked to where the dragoness was referring too as he nodded in response. “Alright, mission wake up Spyro got it.”

The black dragoness unleashed her bright pink wings as her and the yellow dragonfly flew up to the dazed purple dragon. “Yo, Spyro man wake up!” No response, “Hey! I’m talking to you here!” Still no response, “Hey lets shout ‘wake up’ at the same time in one… two… three…” “WAKE UP SPYRO!” The two shouted loud enough to wake a neighbourhood. Purple eyes shot open as he looked at his surroundings, a connection of rocks was just ahead of him. Spyro slammed his wings backwards to prevent himself from making contact to the mountain. With success, the purple dragon just stopped right in front of the mountain with a sigh of relief.

“Okay, now to-“ Spyro stopped in his sentence to see a yellow glowing dragonfly flying next to a dark violet dragoness. “Sparx? Cynder?” The purple dragon was shocked to see his two friends right in front of him but sort of blushed when he looked at Cynder. “Yep, the one and only! Now gimme a hug already pal!” The dragonfly dashed towards his best friend as they shared a brotherly hug, “Nice to see you too Sparx.” Spyro’s gaze went to Cynder as they locked eyes for what seemed like forever but that moment ended when Sparx left his buddy’s side and flew next to Cynder. “Hey guess what were friends now!” Spyro couldn’t believe his eyes; Sparx and Cynder had finally developed a friendship. He thought that would never happen.

“Heheh, shocked now are we?” Sparx grinned at the others expression; he would never forget that hilarious expression. “You know, everyone is kinda wondering if you two survived at Dragon City so I suggest we go there.” The two dragons nodded as they shared another moment for a few seconds. “Alrighty then! Chop chop it’s time to go!” The trio then flew into the skies on their way to the Dragon City.