FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 17

He felt as if he would be underwater, really, really deep underwater where pressure starts to play on your skull and in that funny way squeezes your brain like a fruit. He heard absolutely nothing, everything was just a rumbling, humming, deafening echo.

His vision was the same chaos as his hearing, he was surrounded by chaotic, blurry and constantly changing mess of colors and lights. From the brightest blue to the darkest black.

Absolutely nothing made sense.

He could think straight however, feel the world with every sense, capable of thought. Thanks to that he knew he was screaming, he knew he was terrified for his life and for the lives of his companions, he knew it was getting unbearably hot, finally, he knew that he lost the battle with the Veil.

And now it is devouring them.

Them was a funny word in this space of bright nothingness, there was absolutely no guarantee that Cynder and Sparx were here with him, whether they stayed in the real world or the magic of the portal that sucked him in tore the two of them to pieces.

He was already horrified to his limit to allow any other scary idea to slip by, nothing awaited further but a heart attack.

The hum began to lose on its power, the colors were also shedding their intensity, to the point where the sound of his screaming broke through and a bulging red mass started filling his sight.

The temperature kept on growing.

His nose was assaulted by all kinds of smells, too many at once to discern what is what, but the unexpected slap silenced his screams. Now instead of the throat, his nose began to work, far harder than any other sense.

It was thanks to this nose, not the colors taking shapes, neither because of the hum that was nothing but a whisper now. It was his nose that discerned the source of one particular smell that made some veins on his huge eyes pop in bloody tension.

He smelled magma.

Nerves connected, impulse was sent, it cracked within the brain that dispersed the curtain of red ahead and morphed it into a bulging mass of searing lava.

He was heading right at it.

He once more started to scream, his horrified blare at first was nothing more than a whisper, as if it was coming from behind him. Then as time passed the scream was gaining on strength, crescendo raising as a voice of a talented singer during a scream on stage. It was becoming louder and louder, to the point where it hurt his head, and then it continued onward, towards the growing image of the magma, again losing its strength.

Not all of it however.

The scream suddenly stopped and then with an unimaginable force shoved itself back, directly into his throat with an audible pop.

His scream was his own again, the world was no longer a colorful, incoherent mess, but a real world with gravity. The magma and heat it was emanating was very real too.

As well as the sensation that he is falling, entirely under the mercy of gravity.

He thrashed in the air wildly, fighting through heat and the overall, stifling air in this place. He tried to open his wings, but he shot from the portal too fast, membranes couldn't conquer the current, they were struggling against the wind like an unfurled sail tugged fiercely at the sea.

His eyes scanned the surroundings in, ironically, trained panic, momentarily they spotted a ledge down below, stretched like a bridge. He didn't care what it was, as long as it was possible to grab onto it.

He steadied his fall to the best of his ability, unfortunately he was falling too fast to be able to counter the spin completely. With no other choice available he curled his claws into hooks, straining the muscles in his forelegs.

He approached the ledge way too quickly to his liking.

He thrust his claws into what turned out to be a well used rock, instead of bouncing up, his claws sunk into the stone that seemed to have a lot of use judging by the cracks he found. Claws didn't sunk deep, but even this was enough to sent a powerful, sharp bolt of pain through his legs.

He slowed his fall, but the speed he gained was too high to be dispersed by one blockade. Gravity was still pulling at him, jerking fiercely at the speed that enveloped him.

Even if burrowed his claws started to slide down the rock, the pain was horrendous, he felt hot, thick liquid on his paws.

Blood.

As his claws were roughly pulled back the scales on his toes tore apart.

Spyro growled in anguish and feral determination of a survivor, flexing the muscles in his legs to the very limit, beating the pain into a numb submission.

He stopped eventually.

Rocks fell down on his head, playing an irritating melody on his skull. Muscles bulged under the scales on his legs as he looked up, observing the ledge above.

He swayed in the air gently, realizing that he stopped just in the right time, it was really some sort of a platform. He empowered his grip by pressing his paws against the well used rock, blood poured from underneath his paws like juices from a crushed fruit.

It started to flow down the ledge, dripping lazily on his mouth and top of the head.

He was forced to look down, to watch his dangling paws and tail down below his stretched and straight body. The lava bulged even lower, he still had a distance of maybe two dragons his size to the hungry lava, but even from here he felt the heat it was radiating. The hot air was for now only stinging his tail and legs, but the longer he will stay here the more the pain will intensify.

Not to mention that the magma was constantly spitting blobs of heated lava, a ball was as scorching as the whole, deadly pool itself.

A distant feminine scream filled the cavern, a scream that was getting louder as it was getting familiar.

Spyro looked up, just in time to let out a gasp of both terror and relief when he spotted Cynder being spat out from the bluish Veil like an egg from an irritated huge vagina.

She was screaming at the top of her lungs and thrashing as strongly.

"Cynder! Over here!" he yelled as powerfully as he could

"Fucking lava!" she squealed

"Grab onto me!"

"I can't open my wings!"

She was dropping so quickly, he could already feel the pain.

"Grab me! NOW!" he roared in fear for her life and as commanding as he could

She looked at him, he instantly noticed the horror in her eyes as they both realized that her claws will serve as stopping hooks.

This time however the landing zone wasn't made of rocks.

She steadied herself, prepared her paws, but then hid them quickly, hesitating, looking for another option.

"NOW CYNDER!" he roared once more

This shook her into submission, he narrowed her eyes on him, both in fury and caring apology. He prepared her claws, curling them like a bird does with its talons as it prepares to catch its prey.

He swallowed deeply, flexing his every muscle.

Part of her body flew past him, the momentum and current she emanated forcing him to sway.

His foretoes started to sting badly.

This was unimportant however, all that mattered was the agony that exploded throughout his whole body.

He roared in anguish, muscles clamping in painful spasm, if he wouldn't be busy roaring his lungs out he would notice that this actually improved his grip on the ledge.

She sunk her claws into his flanks, sliding down his body, disgusting noise of torn scales filled both their heads, in Cynder's case the reminder was far worse. Hot blood of her mate gushed from the cuts she created and flew down her forelegs, occasionally dripping onto her head and rest of the body.

Not to mention that she could feel his body, his flesh giving away and snapping under her slice, the feeling of that was so horrific that for a moment she considered letting go and allow herself to be devoured by the pool of magma.

Survival instinct triumphed however, something that was learnt and honed for years had a powerful force of taking responsibility and dominance.

She withdrew her claws as far as she could, to make the injuries as shallow as possible, until she finally slowed down enough to risk pulling them out completely.

She did that right before his waist, straining her muscles she wrapped her paws around his thick, male thigh, pressing itself to it as hard as she could.

She was slipping however, due to the fading momentum and the slick blood on her paws.

"I can't hold on!" she squealed, forcing her way up to the best of her ability

She felt as if her hind paws were on fire.

"You must!" he cried out, literally, tears shimmered in his eyes, wavering voice filled with agony and the perspective of losing his mate, a feeling that was even more hurtful than the physical anguish

She didn't give up, jerking her body in every possible way she slid up his stretched form, gaining only a little higher before the slickness attacked again, pushing her down.

She yelped when she lost the grip on his leg, instead focusing all of her weight on his tail, due to the fins there she had a better grip. .He let out another full of agony blare, the pull on his tail was so strong that he felt as if his whole spine snapped, crushed into a ball and was about to be pulled out right through his ass.

"My tail!" he groaned, his voice low, like a grumble of a starving beast

She screamed, letting go of the tail, mostly due to the fact to avoid causing him more pain, his groan startled her beyond belief, than actual loss of grip.

She latched onto his right hock instead. The burning sensation crawled now up to her rump, she felt as if she was melting.

"Grab it again Cynder! Don't you dare fall!"

Magma made another blob

She squeaked down below, surprisingly finding enough strength to somehow jerk her body so fiercely that she leapt up, squeezing her paws around his waist.

"It's so hot!" she cried out

Another scream joined their combined two, Spyro threw his head up, spotting his brother being hurled from the portal.

"Sparx! Lava!"

Dragonflies are small and their wings work with the speed of a mole transport cart speeding across the tracks. Before Sparx really acknowledged what is happening, he only heard his brother's shout and immediately began a fight for balance.

He was grateful for his size and for his wings incessantly working wings. Due to the speed of the flaps and the fact that his wings compared to draconic ones need to work almost all the time to keep him alive. Despite their size, they were extremely strong and practically immune to changing winds currents.

He won the battle for balance when he was still high in the air, not so far from the slit in time that spat him out.

His brotherly instinct momentarily knew where to direct his attention, Spyro didn't even have to shout. His eyes immediately widened, body bursting with more intense light when he spotted his siblings hanging from the ledge, struggling valiantly to avoid taking their final bath.

"Holy crap!" he immediately dashed forward, diving towards his brother "Holy shit bro!"

"I know" Spyro grunted in exertion, his bloody paws doing their best to maintain grip on the ledge and fighting with whatever ounces of strength he had in reserve to pull himself up

"Come on Spyro!" Sparx yelled, grabbing onto a single, gold horn and pulled with all power his small body could provide "Pull up!"

Spyro was biting his lips, grunting all the time, his fangs so strongly sunk into the lips that blood poured out from his mouth.

"Pull up!" he commanded again, groaning the anthem of his own personal war

Whether it was his shout or assistance his pitiful strength provided Spyro was evidently pulling himself up.

Cynder yelped from down below.

He felt as his quickly beating wings processed droplets of blood that suddenly splashed from behind, followed by some small, shooting rocks. Tiny stones rolled down the edge when Spyro unexpectedly lost all of the progress of his pull-up, again flattening on the ledge and dangling freely, straight as a pencil.

He returned to the starting point.

"Bro!" Sparx blurted out a wavering, grunting command as he put once more all of his strength to help his brother by pulling at the horn "Pull up! What kind of hero are you!"

His draconic brother tried again, screaming as he was rising, muscles bulging under every possible scale. Mouth parted, fangs glittering with blood, tongue lashing wildly, dripping drops of saliva from the tip.

Another feminine yelp came from below.

More blood splatter, more rocks and again every progress was lost as Spyro with the sound of crashing, rumbling stones flattened on the ledge again.

"I can't" his brother rasped

It was clear as day that he couldn't achieve anything because he had no stable weight attached to him, it was always changing focus, always changing pressure, pulling him down as a result.

And there was only one female in their party.

"Cynder! Girl! Stay still!" Sparx roared furiously

"My ass is on fire!" she squealed, he felt as she tugged at his brother's legs

With a wrathful snarl he let go of the horn and turned his angered attention at the dragoness below. The fury was forcefully shoved back into his throat when he spotted Cynder making a dodge when the pool of magma spat a blob of searing lava into the air.

It would be comical and hilarious if the situation wasn't so dire, to avoid the fiery ball Cynder flung her rump so fiercely up that she would be able to shove her own hind toes into her mouth if not for the body in her way, the tail was curled around one of her legs so tightly that her black scales turned purple as she blocked the blood flow.

She looked as if she tried to kiss her own ass.

There was nothing funny in this however and the searing ball of magma that flew just a few centimeters from her body proved that.

With each jerk she was forced to latch on some other part of his brother's body, her paws were red with blood, to the point where she smeared the stuff all around the lower part of her purple companion. Triggering confused thoughts about his brother's origins, thoughts that said that perhaps he is some kind of weird hybrid between a red and a purple dragon.

"Try your best sis! You need to stop jumping around so much! You're dragging Spyro down!"

"I'm slipping for fuck's sake!" she squealed from below

"Do your best!" he urged her once more, wrapping his hands around the gold horn for another try

The magma spat at her again, she jumped out of its way and latched to her friend's waist, feeling as she was getting lower with each leap up instead of raising. She was truly dragging him down.

She looked at the bulging pool of deadly lava, its heat enveloped her so strongly that her every scale seemed to congeal like an egg. It was only getting worse since the distance that separated her from the pool was becoming smaller and smaller.

Sparx was right, either she does something or they are both dead.

Her options were limited however, with magic being useless and flight basically a suicide, there was only one thing she could do.

She hugged the purple waist of her mate tighter, claws burrowing into his soft flanks. She kissed his rump, right above the bulge of his tail base before pressing her cheek to his chest and shutting her eyes. Slamming teeth against teeth with such power that her jaw hurt.

She held her breath, her paws were slipping but she didn't care about it now, knowing that it won't last long.

She was raising, Spyro was pulling himself up with grunts of nearly nauseating exertion.

"Good girl!" came Sparx' approving, tired shout from above

The magma released another fiery blob into the air.

The heat was unbearable, she felt as if her brain is turning into a puddle inside her skull.

This was nothing however compared to the thing that came later.

The roar of agony that came out of her throat was a combination of sheer suffering and true crying. Her mouth shot open wide, teeth glistening as she spat saliva in every direction, between both set of her sharp teeth was a gaping hole that was her widely spread mouth with a fluttering tongue inside like a flag under a strong wind.

Her claws impulsively dug into the purple body, with all possible self control she prevented them from sinking too deep. It slowed her slipping a little.

The ball of lava grazed her hanging left hind leg only a little, slicing across her hock, it was enough however to leave a burning trail behind that sliced and cauterized the flesh at the same time. The pain was similar to the one after you get cut with a sword, but instead of slicing through the blade gets stuck and to withdraw it the attacker needs to pull at it over and over again.

Sending pulses of agony across every nerve, forcing them to beat like a heart.

Such pulses now coursed through her leg, they were so painful and violent that her paw under the hock twirled around wildly, kicking at the air as if it would be having the orgasm of its life.

The agonizing shriek of his mate froze the blood in his veins, to the point that he forgot about everything, starting from his own pain and ending on the task to get them away from here.

"Spyro! Dude!" Sparx grunted, trying his best to keep his brother from losing entirely all the progress he achieved

"Cynder!" Spyro cried out after hearing her heart stopping shriek of anguish

"Go!" she commanded from below, her blare intertwined with groan and screech

"Focus dude!" Sparx slapped the purple head before returning to pull at the horn with all his remaining strength

He focused, they were rising again, who would thought that they actually have a chance of succeeding, and all it took was a single bone deep burn.

The magma had to hear her thoughts since it spat out another globe, one that liked to fly especially high.

It trailed its fiery dash right at the thickest part of her tail, in a spot where it was morphing into her rump. There was a lot of flesh there, it was essential because of the fragility, sensitivity of the spot, here is the place where the spine of every draconic creature changes shape. This is why this spot in a body is so well protected by scale and flesh.

The lava however ate through most of it.

Her eyes were filled with tears of agony momentarily, turning her perception of the world into a watery, blurry mess.

Cynder screamed so loudly that a stone cracked in the distance under the pressure of her full of suffering wail. Even a golem would feel pity at the sound of this shriek.

She herself however didn't feel nor hear any noise coming out from her throat, she only knew that her mouth was opened to its limit and pushing even further that corners of her maw started to crack. All she felt was the pain, sharp indescribable pain that couldn't be compared to anything, it shot along her spine, making it rattle like dice bouncing off of each other.

She heard her scream, not the tone of pain, but despair.

Her nerves couldn't take it, they strained like a coat of a pissed off cat. The paralyzing pulse lasted for a second, but it was enough to make her slid down his body. She would fall if not for the fins on his tail, her paws slipped accidently in between them, latching onto the piece of them that was close to the scale and not so flexible and elastic when the bone freezing shock was over and muscles returned to their relatively normal working order.

"NO!" Spyro roared in despair, he didn't have to look to know what is happening, all he needed was a tug on his body

When the weight changed focus he usually fell down and had to begin his pull-up from the start, this time however nothing like that happened. There is always that moment in life, where you think that you can't do anything more, but then have that special impulse that makes your muscles grow beyond their normal size and pump adrenaline and strength with the intensity of the lungs of a sprinter.

Sometimes you just need the right trigger to do the seemingly impossible.

With her numb weight pulling at his tail she found it greatly surprising that Spyro manages to lift himself up. Her teary eyes stared at the bulging pool below, its heat no longer bothering her as much as the wait before another fiery spit which she knew was coming.

Life unfortunately has a trick for ruining hopes and shattering dreams.

And hope was the only thing that she could count on now, she had no strength to pull herself up any longer, she barely felt her muscles at all. Either another blob gets her or she will slip, something that she couldn't feel doing as well, perhaps she hanged by his tail tip right now.

He was pulling himself up.

The lava bulged, releasing a small, teasing blob of low altitude lava into the air.

She could swear the magma grinned at her, licking its hot chops.

Her defeated watery eyes looked up, looking for any kind of hope, or perhaps a confirmation of the meaningless of this situation. What she saw however was either a wishful trick of the mind or a delirium of a mind accepting its gruesome, final faith.

"Creep!" she squeaked loudly

Both brothers were too busy to pay any attention to what she was screaming.

It was Creep, his bloodied body right in front of her. He was standing on all three paws on a vertically stretched and lifting himself Spyro, as if her partner would be his personal floor that is ignoring any rules of gravity. His green wings were opened, one of the paws extended in her direction, offering support, ready to be shook.

She only now noticed that his claws were dark as the mist surrounding him.

"Accept me"

Shadows twirled around his ready for a pawshake leg.

The lava bulged mischievously underneath her.

Without thinking and sacrificing every bit of hope and foothold she reached up and slammed her paw against the misty purple one. Her eyes widened in utter terror when she noticed that Creep didn't grab her, he puffed instead, turning into a shadowy smoke.

This was it then.

A trick of the mind.

Now she is surely dead.

Only after a while she realized that the smoke didn't disperse, that she could actually feel its surface as it was some kind of rock. The shadows lunged forward, enveloping her paw swiftly, coiling as a snake around it and as a snake devouring it. She tried to scream when she spotted that the shadow was actually changing her leg into the same very black mist that Creep became.

No sound came from her throat however since the shadow roughly shoved itself down her gullet. This was the only thing that she felt actually and it lasted only for a moment, when her body transformed into a dark mist both from inside as outside she felt absolutely nothing.

Like it was a normal and a completely natural thing to turn into a dark smoke.

It's not like she couldn't feel, she could if she wanted to, she simply didn't care. A shadow is a reflection, why should it care about anything. It just floats, forgotten by everyone, so it forgets in return.

Cynder vanished, literally, nothing remained of the dragoness clutching to the purple tail. Body disappeared, however the shadow she cast on the walls remained. This time she didn't bend it to her will, this time she was that shadow.

Uncaring, cold, forgotten and ready to forget about everything in return. Fading away as a result.

No!

Her loved ones are out there, she'll be damned if she lets anything bad happen to them.

The lone shadow without a body casting it swooshed up the rocks, in a moment notice crawling on top of the platform and slinking past the bloodied, struggling purple paws and towards the ledge.

There the pool of shadow got thicker, a tendril shot up from the dark puddle and instantly latched itself around one of the purple legs.

"What the fuck?!" both brothers exclaimed in shock, both of them stopping what they were doing

"PPPPPPPPPP-" a distant, hollow echo resounded from the twirling shadow that intensified its grip on the purple leg

More and more of the thick, black mass poured from the puddle on the ground, no longer a tendril, but in fact materializing into a black silhouette, that soon took the shape of a draconic figure, feminine one, the puddle turned into legs

The shadow adopted the form of its host casting it.

"PULL!" the distant echo morphed suddenly into a blare, Cynder pushed through the form of the mist, sucking the darkness away

She was leaning forward, hind legs pressed firmly against the ground, both fores locked on the elbow of a single purple leg. She was pulling with all her might. Her green eyes glimmering and full of energy, looking almost demonic in the face of the retreating shadow.

The brothers gasped and immediately returned to their task with even harder beating hearts. The trio groaned and then let out breaths of shock when their combined strength surprised them, they basically threw Spyro into the air as they pulled him on the ledge with a single jerk.

Cynder yelped, loosing foothold, smacking her back into the rough stone, Spyro landed on top of her with a grunt.

"Damn!" Sparx gasped, looking at the bloodied edge, the lava and the duo of dragons alternately, he couldn't comprehend that everything turned out how it did when just a moment ago they were hanging on a thread.

"Nice trick Cyn! Couldn't you think of it a bit earlier tho?"

Pressed against a soft, beautiful body he was familiar with Spyro pushed himself up on front legs, forgetting about the pain in his torn front toes. With his upper body arched up he looked down, seeing Cynder watching and grinning at him lovingly.

He was never before so glad to see her.

He bent his wounded paws, slipping his legs underneath her head, ignoring the stinging touch of her horns. Pulling her into a tight hug.

"Ghak!" she grunted as her throat was crushed in the loving embrace

He let her go, enough to allow her to breathe freely before he attacked again, licking and kissing her all over her black snout.

Cynder giggled.

"Spyro, cut it out, it tickles"

He obliged, sliding his tongue across her nose for the final time before pressing his forehead to hers, breathing heavily.

"Don't you scare me like that ever again"

Sparx rolled his eyes.

"What did I tell- Ancestors rotten buttocks, dude!" he blurted out in shock, darting next to the hugging dragons, eyeing the purple body with a painful wince, especially the cut on the flank "You look like a badly mowed lawn"

Spyro threw a look down his left flank, nearly in the middle run a cut that was now filled with blood, from what he could tell the wound didn't retain the same depth. It was the worst near his shoulders, where Cynder first, literally hooked herself, to his body. It became more tolerable the farther it reached and that was almost to his waist.

Looking at the wound reminded him of the pain, his sides started to hurt, pain intensified by the increased temperature in this place.

"It's nothing" he lied with a shake of the head, turning his attention back at his mate who was eyeing him with a stern, guilty look

"Let me see"

"It's really nothing"

She started to wiggle under him.

"Cynder, you should be worrying about yourself, that lava got you pretty bad"

"No excuses mister" she thrashed harder, slipping away from underneath him with difficulties "Let me go, we have no time to argue"

"Finally she does something smart!" Sparx clapped his hands

He had to give up, rising on all fours, painful hiss escaping his throat when he pressed his wounded paws to the ground, he let her go.

She picked herself up momentarily, limping on one of her back legs, he didn't know how badly she was hurt, but if her screaming would be any clue then it had to be some serious injury. The wounds he saw were bad, but definitely not as he imagined.

As a matter of fact they looked like they healed partially already.

"Shit, I'm so sorry" Cynder hissed craning her neck to Spyro's flank

"Whatever it takes Cynder, the important thing is that we're alive" he comforted his friend

She nodded before she began licking at the wound.

Spyro hissed, her tongue was comforting and licks gentle, but unfortunately pain is still pain.

"And now, as always, she does something disgusting" Sparx commented, pressing a fist to his mouth to stifle a gag "What are you doing?"

"And what do you think I'm doing?"

"Fulfilling one of your really disturbing, perverse fantasies?"

"I'm cleaning the wound you idiot" she threw the dragonfly an angry glance, licking the lips of his brother's blood, before she returned to her task

His brother's blood.

He gagged again, turning his head away "I'm going to be sick" his eyes landed on his brother who was currently doing the same thing with his front legs

He felt as everything from the last week he ate was gushing up his throat.

"Oh, come on!" he spun around fiercely, coughing and spitting to hold back the retch "What the hell is with all this licking? Can't you do it later, or preferably never? You're going to heal anyway"

"Believe me when I say that I hate to see Spyro's blood, let alone taste it, just as much as you do, especially when I'm the one responsible for it. We have to do it however" Cynder commented, intoning words in between licks

"Why?"

"Clean wounds heal faster" Spyro explained, taking breaks in his own work to do so "Every piece of junk stuck in the wound slows the regeneration process. It has to kick in quick, who knows what we'll find here"

"Finnnneee!" Sparx whined in defeat "Can you at least ease down on the squelching?"

"Start talking if you don't want to listen to it" Cynder commented roughly, he didn't know if it was on purpose, or he is simply oversensitive, but the disgusting smacking of lips grew louder

He shuddered.

"You could spare us all of this if you used that trick earlier. Why did you wait so long?"

"Creep"

Spyro balked.

"Hey!" Sparx snapped angrily, spinning around, pointing a finger at the dragoness who now was busy working on his brother's other side, all he could see was her bobbing part of the head and horns but it was enough to pinpoint a target for his wrath

"You said yourself that I should start talking, what is your problem?!"

Cynder's head sprung up from behind the purple flank, green eyes stared at him in confusion, covered in blood tongue hung from her mouth. She seemed really surprised by his outburst.

Seconds later tongue rolled back into the mouth, emerald eyes sparkled with realization and mouth stretched into an amused, teeth showing smirk.

His brother's blood glistened on her fangs.

"I wasn't talking about you, you dork" she laughed softly

"Oh yeah?" Sparx folded his arms "You're horns over claws with my fat brother so there is only one cool guy here"

"Two actually" she corrected the dragonfly with a grin

"He's not cool and we don't know if it's a guy" Spyro added bitterly

"He looks like a guy"

"Doesn't mean he's one"

"Wait!" Sparx exclaimed, throwing his hands forward, his body flashing with a bright light "What are you two blabbering about? I'm getting mixed signals here"

"We're talking about Cynder's invisible companion" Spyro explained

"OK pause!" he empowered his words with the popular gesture of saying stop before he massaged his forehead thoughtfully

"I know Cyn's crazy and she might have come up with a friend or two to take care of the loneliness, pretty weird tho that you would still keep that relationship going. But hey! Nobody judges here!" he shrugged "But did we really advance so much as to listen to Cyn's imaginary friend?"

"He's not imaginary!" Cynder's voice boomed from behind Spyro's flank, head obscured by the body and bobbing gently to the tune of her tongue

"I wouldn't call it a friend either" his brother stated bitterly

"We're back to the sex issue I see" she grumbled

"What issue? Danox explained everything. Creep is an it"

"If he's really just some thing then why did you bother to talk to him?"

Spyro snorted.

"Talk? That was the creepiest, weirdest moment of my life. Try speaking to a wall and you'll understand"

"Alright team! I get it!" Sparx threw himself between the heads of the two dragons "Cynder has a friend that Spyro doesn't actually like. Invisible friend, anybody's gonna explain to me why is that?"

His gaze jumped between both dragons.

Spyro turned his gaze away.

Cynder sighed.

"Creep is my element probably, we don't understand it very well, but it seems Dark has its own way of showing itself. I treat him like a person because he actually looks like a dragon and talks, he doesn't make much sense tho"

"Ask her how it looks like" Spyro grumbled, slurping at his wounds louder than usually

She scratched her choker, when it came battling Spyro about trusting Creep or not, on the level of outside appearance, she had no counter for his argument.

"I called him Creep because he talks weird, calls me Sugar, he's dark, showing no emotion, his body is battled and bruised and... he kinda looks like Spyro"

Sparx frowned, narrowing his eyes on the dragoness.

"I think I'm starting to understand why my bro hates that guy"

"I know it's weird, but he has never done anything that would harm me in any way"

"Besides that one time when it took control of you and now when it showed up even if you told the thing to stay away" Spyro hissed, baring his teeth, he nearly sunk them into the wound he was cleaning

"He respected my wish. I agree that he might have been a little too violating in the first matter, but he always interfered when I was in danger. In both cases I would be dead if not for him"

"You don't know that"

Cynder's head dropped on her shoulder, giving her partner a doubtful, sour look.

"Somehow I can't imagine Iris missing a still target from one meter when she was so passionate on gutting me. If not for Creep right here we wouldn't be talking now since I would have been turned to cinder"

"I was pulling us up, we could have made it"

"You were struggling Spyro, that and there was always that risk of the magma spitting again"

"First of all dude, we were pulling us up" Sparx cleared his throat "To be honest Cyn is right that you were struggling, how many times did I tell you to drop a salad in your diet every now and then. Bottom line is, there was no guarantee if we would made it or not, important thing is that we're alive and if there is anyone or anything out there willing to help us I would take it. That trick you pulled out there Cyn was real neat, I didn't know that you were able to do that"

Cynder shrugged.

"Neither did I. Danox was right it seems about Creep, he sure looks like my element. Maybe through him I can find a way to improve my Dark abilities. I never turned into a shadow before, it was scary but awesome at the same time. And it saved our assess so it has to count for something, right?"

She tenderly poked the purple flank in front, with now properly cleaned wounds.

"Right?" she asked once more, shyly, apology ringing in her tone

Spyro sighed deeply, no matter his distaste for Creep there was no denying the fact that his interference probably saved their lives.

"I suppose" he agreed half-heartedly, mostly because of the respect for Cynder than actual acceptance of Creep's assistance

Sparx clapped his hands, his aura pulsing brightly.

"Great, now with the drama out of the way can anyone tell me where are we?"

They all looked around at the same time.

They were in a massive dome like cavern made from once a clean marble, but now it seemed like whoever was responsible for taking care of the stone gave up on his duties a long time ago. From the constant exposure to high temperature the marble cracked in many places, not to mention soot covering most of the marble, turning it nearly black. Huge pillars, clearly heat resistant rose from the pool of lava and supported the ceiling.

There were absolutely no windows here, or any kind of ventilation for that matter, the only corridor that allowed the air to somehow circulate was located at the end of the platform they were in. A long, stretched bridge, or a big ship's plank. It led to the only corridor ahead, which from the looks of it opened the way to a staircase.

DISPOSAL was carved above the entrance in bold, black letters.

If this cavern was used to dispose of certain things the magma didn't have to be the only way of getting rid of unwanted things. Leaving something alone here on this very bridge, guaranteed that it would eventually melt or ignite itself from temperature alone.

That would explain all the soot.

Not to mention that this rocky plank was cracked and shattered in many places, as if it has seen much use, revisited over and over again by something heavy and massive. It was clear from the cracks that some of them were deeper, as if enlarged constantly by pushing against the same spot.

Clearly trampled by strong footsteps.

Besides the obvious huge pit with an even bigger pool of bulging magma within, there were two more things that caught their attention. On both sides of the dome there was the same, massive mural, done so realistically on a true black stone that it seemed like it was real.

It depicted four draconic snouts, all big, purple and of different facial build. What all of those snouts had in common was the clear despise, irritation and disgust painted on their artificial expressions. Their cold, unnatural yet somewhat intimidating gazes were locked on the plank, making sure that whoever walks it is reassured of his meaninglessness and stomp worthy existence.

That alone would make someone more sensitive cringe and throw himself into the pool.

At the front wall, one that couldn't be missed was a beautiful mosaic, despite the scene it depicted and soot covering most of it. Gems, glass and all sorts of other, colorful materials were used to create it. It showed a group of sitting purple dragons in the distance, as happy as the snouts on both sides of the dome. In front of them, in the main focus, stood another towering purple dragon, he was huge and massive, impossible to miss by anyone that entered the dome. If the gazes of all those snouts and smaller dragons wouldn't have an impact, this artificial dragon surely would. His unreal narrowed, massive eyes seemed to send lighting bolts, one paw was stretched forward, claw directed down at the pool, commanding you to end your miserable life. No matter how innocent one could feel, how cheated and believing his fate is unjust, there was no way of convincing that dragon of your innocence. You were condemned the moment you stepped onto the rocky bridge and with each step you made you became more convinced of your guilt.

Even if they crossed the veil, traveled back in time, all three of them recognized where they were. With the eyes of their imagination they could see the walls shattered and trees of the outside world protruding from the cracks. They could see the towering golem clenching small Flare in one of its immerse hands.

They knew where they were, this was Flare's world.

Sparx gulped.

"And how do we get out of here?"

Again, all three looked in the same direction, at the Veil that hung in the air, right above the pit of lava. It was visible, by all the Ancestor's bones, it was visible.

"Spyro?" Cynder intoned his name softly, he could hear the question in that one word

He was concentrated on the portal, trying to feel what he felt back in the true realms. There was nothing however, it was just an unnatural slit in the air, like a worthless ripple in the water.

"I don't think I can get us back" he mumbled, trying to channel his Time powers

They were depleted.

"What do you mean that you can't get us back?" Sparx snarled "You sucked us in, now unsuck us back!"

"I don't feel my Time powers, it's like we would jump out of the time crystal again. I mean, I can try to-"

"Over my dead body" Cynder snarled sternly, interrupting him "You are not getting into the air in this temperature and above that damn lava until you are entirely sure you can drag us through. This thing is visible, there has to be a reason why no one passed through it besides those damn walking rocks. Who knows how many poor souls had the same idea as you and ended up as snoot on one of those walls. You are not risking, we'll have to find another way back and that's final"

"Another way back?!" Sparx blurt out, laughing mockingly "How are we supposed to find another way back from a different era?!"

She glared at the dragonfly.

"I said that's final"

"Gah!" Sparx threw his arms in the air, shaking his head in defeat "Just this once when I really need to go back to Warfang, everything goes to shit" he covered his face, natural glow dimming "Hold on girl" he muttered

Spyro's head dropped down in feeling of total failure.

"I screwed up, I'm sorry guys"

"Hey, hey, hey" Cynder whispered softly, lowering her head so it was in the exact level with Spyro's before she tenderly poked his cheek with her nose "This is no one's fault, shit happens, to us on a constant basis. We'll get through this, we always did, besides we've been through worse"

"There really was something worse than being stuck in another world with the only known exit closed behind us?" Sparx patted his chest several times "Come on, shoot"

"We're alive" she looked up at the dragonfly, determination shining in her eyes "As long as we live everything's is possible, we're good guys, if somebody can pull it out, it can only be us"

The dragonfly frowned.

"Since when you're so determined?"

"Since I have something to fight for and let Ancestors smite me if I ever give up"

Spyro clenched his recently healed paw into a weak fist.

"Cynder's right. People are counting on us and if that's not enough, find something that you want to fight for" he looked at his partner, immediately remembering the promise of good life he gave her, there was no chance of keeping it in a different and probably hostile world

"Fine!" Sparx whined "Just stop repeating after each other Twin Tails. I have enough of a headache already" he shook his head in disbelief, he didn't want to fight, but he also had a reason to get this over with "OK, so, as of now I'm starting to believe Flare, we surely are in his hellhole, so if he didn't made up the rest we're going to face those unkillable golems and a city of pissed off purple dragons. I propose Cynder calls her creepy buddy"

"No!" Spyro protested, his tail making a wild swing "We don't need that thing!"

"OK dude, I get it, you're pissed because there is some other guy who got his paws, or whatever he has, on your girlfriend. But just think, that thing is an element right? Magic existed like forever, if that thing can talk, then it has to know something about this place and help us out. I mean they're pretty intimate with Cyn right? He's inside her all the time after all so he kinda will want to keep it that way"

Spyro growled, his purple eyes sparkled with barely contained fury, he absolutely didn't like the images his mind was giving him after Sparx ambiguous words.

"Do you really want to provoke me right now Sparx?"

"What? What did I say?"

"I agree with Sparx" Cynder stated "About Creep's possible insight I mean, not the implication about him molesting me"

"Yes!" Sparx exclaimed, pointing at the dragoness "Maybe he'll even show Cynder another cool trick or two, we might need all the arsenal we can get"

Spyro frowned, he really disliked the idea of that thing interfering in their lives, just as much as he disliked its possible knowledge that would assist them. Most of all he disliked it for making him feel useless and incapable. Remembering however what he was fighting for, he couldn't simply discard the thought that a being that is practically a part of the world itself might be a great help in shedding the veil from the unknown.

Getting out of here is their top priority, no matter how talented they might be, having a whole world against you doesn't increase your chances of survival.

"OK" he sighed finally "But I want that thing to only guide us, and if it comes to fighting, I want to know exactly what it wants to do before I let it act. No more spontaneous shadow morphing alright?"

Cynder nodded with a smile.

"Creep I need you"

"I'm here Sugar" hollow voice immediately responded

Her head jerked up swiftly that something snapped in her nape, last time when she called him it took him a while to manifest. Here it seemed as if he would be always here, waiting only for permission to reveal himself.

He was still the same Creep as she remembered, it was possibly gratefulness behind it, but she was quite glad to see that creepy angel of hers.

He was standing right next to Spyro.

"Wow, that was fast"

"He's here?" Sparx asked excited, looking around fervently

"He's standing right next to Spyro"

Spyro shuddered involuntary.

"Great"

Sparx tensed his sight, flying all around his brother.

"I don't see him"

Cynder snickered.

"He's invisible to you, remember?"

Creep remained in place, oblivious or ignoring the circling dragonfly, as always for him only her existed.

Sparx extended his arm, clenching at the empty air.

"Am I touching him right now?"

Cynder smiled, amused by the placement of his arm, arm that was reaching through Creep's tail.

"You're actually shoving your arm into his ass"

"Aaah!" Sparx yelped, throwing his arm in the air and watched it in horror as if it was about to disintegrate any minute now.

She giggled.

"Don't worry, I don't think he felt it . He didn't choke, or make wide eyes, or anything"

"Just ask him what he knows about this place" Sparx groaned with a wince, wiping his hand across Spyro's flank

"Hey!" Spyro jumped out of the way "Keep that hand away from me!"

Cynder rolled her eyes.

"Creep, do you know where we are?"

"Yes" he replied instantly, he was surely prepared

"Do you know how we can get out of here?"

"Through the portal. This is a bad place Sugar. Bad time. Dangerous time for us Sugar"

"Why is it so dangerous? Because of the purple dragons?"

Creep pulsed, the shadows surrounding him acted as if they wanted to fade and blow out with intensity at the same time.

"We are one, too many. Knot is not formed, balance never existed. Short time, waste, sensitivity, dangerous, for all of us. We are too frail Sugar, we must avoid, Wanderer is here. Free, unbound, dangerous. Avoid Sugar, I like you. Avoid. Abomination worthy danger. Avoid. Sugar?"

If his emotionless, brown gaze would radiate any emotion she would be certain it would be plea.

"Ok I get it, avoid the Wanderer, whatever that is. Can you tell me who is that?"

"Interloper. Avoid. Escape and destroy this world. It must end. Dangerous. Very dangerous. I like you Sugar"

"Yeah, yeah I know you like me" she nodded at the Veil behind her "Do you know how can we reopen the portal?"

"No. Magic unknown. Circle must be complete, always was the only way"

"And?" Sparx pushed forward, blurting out an anxious question, dashing right through Creep's head which rippled with shadowy tendrils before forming back the structure of his head again "What does he say?"

With a sigh Cynder looked up, at Sparx and then at Spyro, giving them both the same apologetic, hopeful and desperate look. For all her prep talk before she really felt insignificant now.

"We're in trouble"