FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Cynder woke up to the morning sun on her face, but all her sleepy brain could think was 'warm'. After a few minutes the rest of her brain realized why she was warm. In their sleep Spyro had curled up around her in the same way they had during the cold nights in the wild, his fire element keeping them both warm. Blushing, her mind was split between staying or slipping out without waking Spyro up. But her body decided for her, her eyes begin to droop down as she fell back asleep in pure comfort.

Cynder woke up again to a lesser warmth, she got up to realize that Spyro had thrown a blanket over her. As she climbed out, she noticed how much colder it was this morning. She looked out the window to see that the fortress had ascended to level with the lower clouds. 'That must be why he threw the blanket' she thought. Looking around she noticed that Spyro had left the room, she left and looked around and found that the next-door room was also empty. 'They must be at that famous mess hall' she thought, her stomach rumbling at the thought of food. She walked out toward the other side of the fortress, more towards the facilities part of the island. As she walked towards the mess hall she passed by the training grounds, stopping for a moment to watch. Dragons and wolves fought side by side, the wolves using weapons that Cynder had never seen before. One of the sparring groups finished their match and called over at her.

"If you're looking for the others there at the mess hall" One of them yelled over to her.

"Thanks" She yelled back

As she made her way, she could smell the food before she reached it. But the smells did the food no justice, rows and rows of food on one side of the room, and many tables on the other. Spread out among the tables were dragons and wolves, talking and eating. Cynder spotted the group near the middle of the tables and walked over to them. Flame was deeply enthralled in a book that appeared to be about the element cannons, while Ember, leaning against Flame, was talking up a storm with Spyro.

"Hey" she said to Spyro

"Hi, I saved you some food" Spyro responded, sliding a plate of food piled high with food.

"Thanks" she replied, settling down "Why didn't you wake me up"

"You looked so peaceful, so I decided to let you sleep" He answered with a blush

"We have an announcement" Cynder stated "Flame, tell them"

"Hmm?" He looks up from his book "ooh yeah, were engaged to be mated"

"Congratulations!" Cynder replies, very surprised.

"For royal ceremonies, another royal must give their blessing, and since my mother would never give hers, we needed someone else's. Now though we have either Spyro or Michael, who both can give royal blessings" Ember tells Cynder, clearly excited

"Ceremonies?" She asked

"Most mateships have ceremonies, usually with friends and family. They are simple events where everybody dresses up, then the female joins the male and an officiator makes it... well... official"

"When are you going to have yours" Cynder asks

"Hopefully soon, I have to invite my siblings, and Flame his. Your invited too of course" Ember responds

"Oh, Michael said the fortress is ready for travel when we are" Spyro tells Cynder while he finishes his meal "Take your time though"

"This is cool" Flame joins in, looking up from his book "The element cannon can amplify magic, so an experienced dragon can fire over 600 shots before tiring"

"Wow 600" Spyro replies, huffing at the thought.

They finished their meal, and walked over to the control center. When they got there, Michael was waiting for them, reading a book casually. He got up from where he was laying and got on the indents. Mixed with the normal humming of the core there was another noise, a loud shudder shook the whole fortress as again a flash of light appeared, this flash was longer though. After a few seconds the flash was gone, Spyro looked over at the projection to see that they were on the ground. Spyro blinked in surprise and looked out the window, seeing many overgrown structures. Some of them appeared to be warehouses, while others appeared to be housing. Abandoned markets lay strewn throughout the abandoned town.

"This used to be a fortress dock for my army, but grew to disuse due to the lack of war." Michael informed the group.

"Are we on another planet" Ember asked

"We are on the Triad Homeworld, the capital of the Triad province. We are a quick flight to the city of Faun" Michael answered, preparing for the flight.

The group flew to faun on a wind stream. The younger dragons relishing the clean air and warm wind. As they approached the suns reflections shined off of many windows of the city, twinkling with radiance. The city was even bigger when the reached it, most of it hidden by a valley. The city seemed to sprawl off into the distance, Michael led them to a market square and gave them some currency and a map so they can explore while contacts some friends and checks on the state of the square where he used to live. The group went through stall after stall of wares, apparently Michael gave them a lot of currency, so they bought some things. Flame and Spyro huddled around a jewelry stand, eyeing Ember carefully to make sure she doesn't notice Flame buying her something. Cynder chuckled while watching the boys. She looked over at the weapons smith, inspecting some interesting looking weaponry. She then moved on to a gemstone store, and decides to buy a few jewelry grade onyx stones. Spyro seemingly appearing beside made her jump. He laughed a little then motioned to her to tell her that the group was moving on. The hustle and bustle of the crowd was so loud and thick Cynder can barely see Flame jogging to catch up to Ember. After a few hours of shopping, and some strange whispering between some of the older dragons when they passed by, Michael caught up to them and brought them to a calmer area.

"Did you have fun" He asked with a smirk

"Yeah" The group responded

"Good, Faun is famous for its mile long markets, filled with anything anybody would ever need." Michael said "but they like to price gouge you, that being the reason I gave you so many coins"

They began walking deeper into the city.

"I reconnected with my contacts here and was informed that the square that your parents and I lived in was maintained and survived the war." Michael told them, walking along the side of an alley.

"So, the houses where are parents lived is...?" Spyro asked

"Dirty, but still there, left untouched by civilization" Michael answers

They walked past a medical center, the older physicians openly staring at Spyro as he walked.

"Of course the older doctors here would recognize your eyes and your underbelly configurations, your mother used to work here" Michael remarks

The group watched as a jade dragon statue was dragged into the center, a doctor walks up to the statue. The doctor then casts a spell on the statue and it explodes, releasing the dragon trapped inside.

"Jade petrification, a common spell used by almost any creature when fighting dragons. This spell uses the most power to remove, which is why its so popular." Michael informs, watching the released dragon wake up his dormant limbs.

A young dragoness approaches the group. Too embarrassed to speak, she silently hands Spyro a flower, then runs away giggling.

"Looks like you have an admirer" Cynder remarks, chuckling with Ember.

Spyro, blushing slightly, follows Michael and the rest of the group out of the center. They make their way to a silent part of the city, the sun setting in the background. They could tell that they reached their destination when the spotted a square with a statue in the center. The statue depicted three dragons, Rose, Silver, and Fury. The plaque at the base stated "Three heroes trying to save a friend". Michael inhaled a deep breath, then blew a breath of pure ice across the square. After the frost settled, four ice sculptures formed, showing both Spyro and Cynder's parents. Spyro stared intently at his mother's sculpture, she was clutching her belly, visible cuts leaking frozen blood. She was in a state of summoning power when Malefor's spell went off. Cynder was looking at Malefor's sculpture, seeing the fury and corruption in his eyes. She moved on to her mother. Silver was in a battle stance, preparing to strike with her powerful poison attack. Then they both looked over at Fury, he was also in a battle stance, his head held low and a tail blade attachment waving behind him, in his mouth Fury had a long sword. The sword was meant to be gripped by the jaw; the blade curved slightly backward. Michael looked over at some new cobblestones behind Fury's sculpture, then began digging. After a minute he pulls the same sword out of the ground, throwing the blade towards Spyro, he flicks his wrist and the cobblestones below him snap back into place, leaving no trace left behind.

"This is..." Spyro starts

"Yours" Michael cuts in "I made it myself"

Michael taps his foot twice, and the sculptures collapse into tiny flakes of ice.

"Do you want to see your houses now?" Michael asks looking over at his old house.

"Cynder, do you want to see yours first" Spyro asks

"Sure" She replies, seeming lots in thought

They walk towards the house, Ember and Flame lagging behind to give them some space. They walk into the living area of the house, Michael snaps his claws and the dirt and dust vanishes, leaving the whole house completely cleaned. Cynder pulls a book from the shelf and opens it. She gasps at photo after photo of her parents on the pages. As she flips through pages she sees photos of her parents as children, young adults, and adults. She also sees many photos of Spyro's parents. Nudging him, he looks over and softens at the sight of his parent's photos. She also found photos of some other dragons, and even a phoenix.

"Your mother loved to take pictures" Michael states, smiling at his memories

Cynder looks through book after book of pictures, then finally finishes looks up and began to look at the other decorations around the room. She notices multiple items, a glowing feather, a core of some kind, and a set of gems. Cynder walks around and enters one of the studies and immediately recognizes it as her mothers. Meanwhile, Michael summons three books, opens them to specific pages and hovers them in front of him. Then he draws a rune on his right paw and shines it around the room. After a moment, nothing happens, Michael then poofs the books away with a huff, Dissatisfied.

Back in the study Cynder looks at camera sitting on the desk. Then she turns to the jewelry set sitting on a cabinet, slowly she picks up each piece, looking it up and down, and puts it back. Then she changes her mind, Switching out her simple set with the silver one. After grabbing a few more items and placing them in her magical storage, she then walks into the other study. This one noticeably less cluttered, she takes a quick look around and grabs a few items before hurrying out. The next room was the nest, Cynder could see the intense care that Silver put into the nest. She could also see that there were black scales laid carefully around the nest, mixed randomly with purple ones. Grabbing a few of each Cynder left the room. The next room contained the nursery. she found a dozen small toys scattered around a miniature version of a nest. Felling tears well up in her eyes, she grabs the toys and rushes into the last room.

Back in the living room Spyro and Michael sit in silence, Michael reading another book, when a blue dragon rushes into the house.

"Who are you? you are trespassing on private land" he says before recognizing Michael "your back?"

"Yep" Michael answers, not looking up from his book.

"Who are you" Spyro asks, still in his battle stance

"Hi, my name is Lumi, and you must be Spyro!" The blue dragon replies, excitedly

"How do you know my name"

"Your father chose your name, and told the guardians who enchanted it to you. Basically, any other name would have felt weird. Malefor knew that Silver wanted her daughter's name to be Cynder after her mother, whom she never knew" Michael told Spyro, still not looking up from his book.

"Is Cynder here too?" Lumi asks, looking around for her.

"She's down the hall" Spyro answers

"Of course," He replies "Michael, I've been looking for those ingredients you left for me and only found two"

"Which ones?" Looking up from the book

"I only found a black moonstone and a Phoenix Gem, Much to Torch's disapproval" Lumi answers

"None of the cores?" Michael asks

"Ethereal cores are impossible to find lately, many were broken during the war. Also, soul cores are being bought up for some reason, and are now super expensive, and for that sun core... well, no sun dragon wants to be retrieving those, instead the just pluck stones and make plenty of money with that. Lumi replies, exasperated

"I found an ethereal core on Genrir, but for the others, we'll just have to keep looking." Michael says, returning to his book.

"Are you talking about the spell for my parents" Spyro asks hopefully

"The ingredients I need for those spells are very difficult to collect, though not as difficult as these, and a lot of time is needed to calibrate it right, weeks to months. Also, the caster is needed for some parts of the collecting." Michael answers

"This might take a lot longer than expected" Lumi replies, looking down

Suddenly with a crash and a burst of light, a phoenix bursts into the room.

"Lumi, some scouts spotted a flying fortress in the old dock! They said that it might belong to Michael's army!"

"Yeah, he's right here" Lumi chuckled

As if just noticing the others in the room, he looks at Michael and gasps.

"Took you long enough, ultimate Guardian my tailfeathers." He said, flicking his beak at him, then looks over at Spyro. "You're here too! That must mean Malefor was..."

"Defeated, now trapped in the center of Genrir" Michael finished his sentence

"So that's why his armies became so... disorganized" The phoenix suddenly perked up "How rude of me, I'm Torch, I'm a phoenix, and I've heard all the jokes"

"Jokes?" Spyro asked Torch

"Never mind"

Just then, Cynder walked back into the living space with the new jewelry, suddenly blushing when all the eyes turned to her.

"You look just like your mother" Lumi spoke, Torch shaking his head in disbelief.

"And who are you" Cynder asks

"I'm Lumi, and this is Torch. We're old friends of your parents" Lumi answered, shaking torch out of his shock.

"Hi" he said weakly

"Spyro's house now?" Michael asked, poofing away his book with a snap.

"Sure, let's go" Spyro answered.

The group walked over to Spyro's parents house in silence. Ember and Flame eyeing the new members. Spyro gave some quick introductions before heading with Michael and Cynder into the house.

"I don't feel comfortable staying in my house, Michael said we might be here awhile, lets stay here" Cynder whispered to Spyro

"Sure" He whispered back.

With a snap, Michael removed all the dirt and dust, and lit a few candles for light. Spyro marveled at the living space. The room was lined with bookshelves, a mix of different types of books were scattered about. Some of the books were about magic, others about fighting styles, there were even a few cookbooks lying around.

"Your father was a terrible cook, except for deer, he could roast a killer deer" Michael tells Spyro settling back with his book

Chuckling at this Spyro walks into the hall, looks back to Cynder, who hesitantly follows him.

"You want me with you?" She asks, surprised

"Of course," Spyro replies, then blushes

They walk into the first room, unlike Cynder's house this one had the nest and nursery closer to the living space rather the master bedroom. Looking down at the nest Spyro picks up a few of the pink and red scales scattered around. Then walks into the nursery, and freezes. Cynder, alarmed follows him and sees a room with a small nest. Around the nest were four small toys, each toy carefully designed and carved from stone and wood. The toys left for Cynder were nice, but these ones looked like it took them hours to make. Spyro quickly picked them up and put them in his storage, then hurried out of the room. The first study was clearly his dad's. The walls lined with weapons of different kinds. On the desk stood a special set of horn circlets. The design seemed to be specifically for a king. Spyro left these and looked over at the core sitting on the corner of the desk. The core seemed to be glowing with a unique energy, familiar energy. Spyro gasped as he realized that this was his mother's energy, the core must have been a gift for his father so he can always be connected to her. He grabbed the core and went to see his mother's study. This study was filled with an assortment of magical ingredients and books. One book floated up and opened as Spyro approached it. Showing a spell about clearing traces of portals. 'This was what she was last reading' Spyro thought, then looked over at the desk. Despite the rest of the room, the desk was surprisingly clear. The only thing on it was a starmap.

Back in the living room, Michael was still reading his book when the two dragons returned. Michael got up and began to recast the same spell he did in the other house. But instead of nothing happening, a bright light burst out when Michael pointed the rune to Spyro. Confused, Michael sat back, then Spyro pulled the unique core out of his storage and handed to Michael. He looked down at it and closed his eyes, after a few moments he opened his eyes.

"Genius" He muttered

"What is it?" Spyro asked, looking worried.

"She must have cast some sort of binding spell between this core and her soul before the attack. When her body was vaporized, instead of going practically anywhere, the binding pulled her here." He answered, still focused on the core.

"Does that mean we can bring her back" Spyro asks hopefully

"Not yet, I don't know what state her soul is in, nor do I have nearly enough ingredients, or power." Michael, looks up from the core "but the chances are higher now with this"

He flicks his risk, and the orb vanishes. Spyro looked worriedly at Michael.

"Don't fret, she is now in the safest place that she can be, my personal vault" Michael says in a calming voice

The three went back out to the group. Spyro, Ember, Cynder, And Flame went back to the fortress to pick up their things and bring them back to the houses.

"You're welcome to stay in my house, I don't really feel comfortable staying there right now." Cynder tells Flame and Ember

"Thanks, but I wouldn't want to do that, Michael has already offered us one of the many houses he owns. I think he gave it to us to own, not just stay in. He was very blunt about it" Ember replied

"Oh! where is it?" Cynder asked

"Actually, it's right next to yours" Flame answered, smiling at Ember

"While we were talking to Michael, he brought up the ceremony, and thought it would be a good idea to do it here, in the main square. He said that he can open a portal to Warfang's main square to this one. So we decided that we want to do it tomorrow" Ember barely got out the last part before squealing.

"Ooh its gonna be so fun" Cynder said, also squealing

The group returned and Michael gave them a tour of Flame and Ember's new house. After a few minutes of settling in, the girls flew off to have a 'girls night'. Giggling as they flew off towards the clothes and jewelry district.

"Dragons wear armor during ceremonies right" Flame asked Spyro, watching the girls fly away.

"I don't know, but I think Cynder is glad to have a friend, and to go somewhere where she isn't hated. It seems to distract her from her past, I've never seen her act like THAT though, but at least she isn't gloomy" Spyro answers.

"That is not the direction of Michael's armorer friend" Flame stated

"Yeah, I don't think they're getting armor right away, I heard them talking about a spa and a stylist before they left?" Spyro replied. Looking back to Flame with raised eyebrows.

"Good, Ember needs it after the amount of stress her mother has been putting on her lately"

"Hey" Michael walks up to them "So... They left, you want to get your armor now?"

"Sure" Flame answers

Then the three take flight toward the armorer.