FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The "No Yiff" rating is a bit misleading, as there is explanation of sex and pregnancy. Sorry for the minor spoiler of the chapter content.

If you're under 18, gtfo NAO, rawr.

I'm not dead, yet xD;;;

gonna explain my slowness soon here, I'm close to finishing everything.

Also, I apologize if the writing from here on out is choppy or lower quality, but I'm far too distracted to write anymore...I've lost a bit of my spark with everything going on.

Know this, though, the stories WILL be finished.

CHAPTER 22

Spyro smiled to himself, watching Flash and Kira wrestle by his side while Anya tried to teach Aleron a paw-clapping game. "Hey, hey, no biting," he said when Kira screeched, her brother's jaw locked on her wing. He tapped Flash on the nose and the little dragon backed away instantly. "No biting." They're so cute, he thought to himself as they sat there looking guilty. "It's okay, you two can play, but you can't bite."

In the next room, Cynder and Flare were talking about Anya while Solar napped with his kids. Cynder poked her head around the corner to find Spyro doing the paw-clap game with Anya. "He's so good with them," she said with a giggle. "It's so cute..."

"You sure about this though? Solar said he'd want to."

"Spyro agreed as well; if you two are planning to head back to the mountains, I think it'd be better for her."

Anya laughed when Spyro lost. "You did it again!" she squealed.

"Guess I did...but I can still win."

"How?" Cynder looked back in the room just in time to see Spyro's paws dart forward and tickle both Anya and Aleron, the two dragonlings shrieking with laughter. "N-no f-fair!!!" Anya laughed, trying to roll away from the purple dragon's paws. Flash and Kira crawled over to see what the excitement was, and were swiftly caught up in the tickling storm.

"He's so cute with them," Cynder said to herself with a happy sigh. Flare came up behind her and looked in as well. "Y'know, it's a faint memory but I remember crying myself to sleep because I felt I'd never have a family...it still seems so surreal in a way."

"We both got lucky. I was afraid my parents would lock me up in a jail cell to keep me from Solar. I was just a toy for them to use in their political bantering. I used to want to show them up by having my own family and raising it properly..."

Flash and Kira both yawned. "Awww...tired?" Spyro asked, getting sleepy stares from them. "Awww..."

"He's getting tired too," Anya said, pointing at Aleron. The little yellow-and-white dragon was swaying where he sat.

"C'mon guys, let's head to bed, it's naptime." He picked up the three baby dragons and stood up on his hind legs, staggering a bit but balancing himself and walking to the bedroom. Anya tailed him, batting at his tail as it swayed behind him. Cynder and Flare waited for him to come back out.

"Spyro?" Cynder asked quietly as he passed.

"Hm?"

She rubbed against him. "You sure about...Anya?"

"She needs a family."

"Sure you don't want Solar and Flare to look after her?"

"Solar said it's probably best if she stays here, with everyone else."

Anya ambled up to them, yawning and looking bored. She sat down by Spyro and leaned against his leg, staring into space. He folded his wing over her. Cynder leaned down and nuzzled Anya's little nose softly. "I miss daddy..." the little dragoness said sadly.

"You want a family, don't you?" Cynder asked.

"Yeah..."

Spyro rubbed her gently with his wing. "Anya...if you want, you can call me 'dad' from now on. And you can call Cynder 'mom'."

Anya looked up at them in surprise. Flare smiled to herself and left them to have some alone time, heading into the tunnel hallway to find Solar still fast asleep with their kids tucked under his wing. She lifted his wing and giggled quietly when she saw them grouped into a small ball, using each other as pillows. Solar yawned, getting her attention. "How...how's it going up there?" he asked through a yawn.

"Anya has a new family it seems."

"Good, good...*yawn* mph, so tired today..."

Flare lay down next to her mate and draped her wing over him. "Ignitus wants you soon."

"Urgh..."

"I'll be fine with the kids, you'll feel better if you get up and move around."

Solar stood up and stretched, flicking his tail back and forth rapidly. "Be back soon," he said, pecking her on the lips and quickly licking her on the nose before heading off to find Ignitus. She hummed to herself softly as she laid down in his place and tented her wing over her babies.

"Sleep, little ones, through the day...tomorrow is a new day....to play..." she sang quietly under her wing, watching them sleep.

Solar found Ignitus once again looking into the Pool of Visions, speaking to himself under his breath. "Ignitus?"

The old fire dragon looked up with a glimmer of alarm in his eyes. "Solar...something else is coming. That cloud of darkness is growing again, but there's something more at work here."

"What's going on?"

"I hate to cause alarm, but the...the Paralosin portals are very slowly regaining power."

Solar froze. "That can't be...we took the crystals that were keeping them active!"

"I don't understand it either, there's no power input from this side. It's as if they're forcing the portals into activity from their side."

"This isn't good..."

"I know, but there's even more than that. There was a reason Malefor had all your comrades slain. It wasn't for being failures as the scientists thought."

Solar's eyes darkened a bit as his focus went into his thoughts, his mind racing. "...Shit...if they get through, we're not gonna survive that!"

"I'm going to alert Tall Plains and tell the Atllawa to activate their ancient defense barriers if they can. Solar, I want you to mobilize everyone starting tomorrow, and train them the best you can. Terrador is already working on training with the more experienced ones."

The ice dragon groaned, sitting up and rubbing his forehead. "Damn it...damn it all! What abot the shadows, apes, and mages? Any sign of them?"

"None."

"Caligin and Craga?"

"They were waylaid on their way here, and are in hiding. Cyril is seeking them out."

Silent footpads and sobbing breath approached them. Solar looked over his shoulder to see Miaqua stumbling into the room, her face wet with tears and her eyes unfocused. "Help me..." she whispered, then fell onto her side. Solar rushed over to her and picked her up.

"I need Spyro's help!" he said, cradling Miaqua and trying to comfort her. Ignitus rushed out of the room. "Miaqua what's wrong?"

"The-the face!" she gasped. "It-it won't leave m-me!! It k-keeps talking...evil things..." She buried her face against him. "Make it go away!!!"

"What does it say?"

"I d-don't know, it all sounds evil..."

Spyro raced into the room. "What's wrong?"

"That shadow creature is still haunting her."

The purple dragon edged up to her. "Miaqua...I'm gonna try something. It may be scary, it might hurt a bit, but it'll help us get rid of this thing."

"What're you doing?" Solar asked as Spyro placed his paws on the young dragon's head.

"I'm going to enter this thing's curse on her." With that the room suddenly gave off a dark flash and Miaqua screeched as something hot rushed over her. Solar saw Spyro glow at the moment of the flash, and when it died off his form had become like shimmering heat waves in the air. ~"Hold her,"~ Spyro's voice echoed to Solar, ~"and don't let go until it's over. Feed her light if she feels pain."~

Miaqua looked around to find herself in a strange, misty world with Spyro floating next to her. To her surprise she no longer had the face of the shadow creature etched into her vision. "Where...where are we?"

"We're in the netherworld," Spyro explained. His voice seemed to be inside her head. "The creature connected itself to you, and we're going to hunt it down using its link to you." He hovered over to her and reached out in front of her. A tin thread of darkness floated before her between his claws. "This is its link to you. The only way to break it is to trace the thread back to its source."

"Do I need to come too?"

"Yes. Out here anything can attack you, and you need to be by me so we can see the thread and follow it."

"What's out here that can attack us?"

He pointed off to the side and she turned to see a thick black fog drift by. "That's what we look like to them, mere fog. Those are our enemies, and one of them is at the other end of this cursing thread. Just follow me and you'll be okay. They can't really hurt you because you're only able to see things, you're not actually 'here' like I am."

"O-okay..." She followed him as he pulled himself along the thread very carefully. As her sight adjusted to what was going on around her she could faintly see that they were no longer in the Temple, but floating through the air heading down to the forest below. Where was this dark thread going?

After what seemed like hours Spyro finally stopped. "We're here. Miaqua, I'm sending you back to yourself so you don't get hurt."

"But what about you?"

"I've done this before. Solar will take care of you while I do this."

"What're you gonna do?"

He pointed towards a bank of dark fog. "The thread of your cursed vision leads to this darkness. I'm going to destroy it. Hopefully. If not I'm gonna try to break the thread."

"Can't I watch?"

"There's not much to see. It's a struggle of willpower. I'm sending you back now before it senses us here." Miaqua's vision suddenly darkened and she opened her eyes a bit to see that hideous face grinning at her, but beyond that was Solar still holding her. She was about to ask how much time had passed when something sent a sharp electric jolt through her eyes and made her scream in pain. Something in her mind hissed like a rabid animal, then screamed and faded away with a straing of archaic curses. The pain in her face died away slowly and she looked up to see Spyro waver and solidify in front of her. He looked exhausted.

"Did it work?" Solar asked.

"It should have, but she need to rest. Solar, we've got work to do, I've found the shadow campgrounds." Miaqua tried to stand up but her legs wobbled. Spyro caught her and held her up. "You need to go sleep and recover."

"The face is still there..." she whimpered.

"It should just be an afterimage now, it'll go away in time. Sleep is the best cure right now." He looked up at Solar. "Tell Ignitus we need him to gather the better fighters, we leave at dawn to attack them."

A chaotic half an hour later, Miaqua was settled, Solar and Ignitus had mobilized the best dragon combatants, and a general company was assembled for defensive training in case of attack while Spyro, Solar and the others were gone. Spyro walked into his room to find Cynder curled up on the bed with Anya. He smiled to himself when he saw a happy smile on the little one's face. Cynder greeted him with a similar smile when he nuzzled her.

"She's so happy now," she whispered, running her paw along Anya's back.

"That's good..."

"Something up? What was all the commotion?"

"Miaqua's curse was getting worse so I had to break it. In doing so I found the shadow camp where the shadow forces have gathered."

"And there's an attack planned?"

"Yep. Tomorrow. Sooner we eradicate them, the better."

"Something bad is gonna happen tomorrow, I just know it is," Cynder sighed, folding her wing over Anya to keep her warm. "Be safe, okay?"

"I will," he said, licking her on the cheek. "C'mon, what's worse than Malefor returning?"

"The Paralosin army invading us."

"Oh that..." Spyro sighed. "I don't know what we'll do about that, if it's true. The gates are gaining energy, but we can't get to them in time." He nuzzled her again and stepped back. "I'll be back soon."

"Go do what you need to." She watched him leave, then sighed and stared at the ceiling. She felt like something was closing in on them, and fast... After a while she stretched and left Anya on the bed to nap while she went for a walk, taking the opportunity to stretch while the kids were asleep. A memory flashed across her mind and she sighed again, suddenly wanting to get pregnant, but knowing she was rather far from her next heat.

"Something wrong?"

"Ah!" She whipped around to find Solar following her. "Oh...hey. No, just thinking..."

"You sighed like you miss something."

She shrugged, then laughed to herself. "It's nothing much, I just kinda miss being pregnant."

"Oh really?" he asked humorously, sitting down. "What, you miss the sickness and laziness and overbearing hunger?"

"Those I could do without, but...I dunno, it just felt good knowing I was actually creating life. Even though I don't really know what all is involved with the whole process...I'm still confused about stuff."

"I can try to explain it. What confuses you the most?" She tried not to laugh when she saw that he was steeling himself; he looked like he was embarrassed about the thought of explaining procreation.

"How exactly does pregnancy-termination work?" she asked, smirking a bit when he cleared his throat and shifted a bit uncomfortably.

"It's a bit complicated, but when you're in heat you have two 'eggs', or ova. There's the infant-ova and the egg-ova. In the womb, the egg-ova wraps around the infant-ova." Solar blushed but forced himself to continue. "When Spyro fills you with semen---that white stuff that comes from his penis when he orgasms---his sperm has to first fertilize the egg-ova so it can attach to the walls of your womb. Most animals expel excess semen, but dragon wombs contain it and absorb the unused fluid in most cases. When the egg-ova latches itself to you, that's when you feel something; your womb tenses so your mate's semen can't escape, since it's still needed."

"Why?"

"Because the infant-ova isn't fertilized yet. During the first two days when you feel this, you have the ability to send a rush of anti-latching hormones that will cause the egg to fall off and discontinue fertilizing. However, after about 48 hours the egg-ova is fully fertilized, having absorbed your blood and attached itself to you, and it's then that Spyro's sperm can finally fertilize the infant-egg and truly create a new life. After three days the excess semen is usually absorbed and your womb seals itself and fills with amniotic fluids to help protect and nourish the growing babies. Just before birth this fluid is absorbed again, that's why your delivery wasn't really messy. Other animals though have their 'water break', which happens when the womb opens itself in preparation for the birth soon to take place. Sometimes, usually with the second pregnancy, your womb won't absorb the fluid again, which makes things rather messy."

Cynder had a rather furious blush across her face. "Why is it absorbed though?"

"Semen and amniotic fluid absorption is a defensive measure of the female body; if the fluid is contained, predators or enemies can't smell it, which helps dragonesses hide their nests more effectively than other creatures."

Her mind was ablaze now. "How to the babies keep growing inside the egg then? And if they're inside the egg how do they get food inside me?"

Solar sighed, trying to tune his memory. "Dragons are sort of like mammals. In the first month of development, the baby is attached to your womb via a 'placenta'; it literally connects itself to your blood vessels to gain nutrients and immunity. That's why you feel tired in that first month, your blood is going through you and your babies, and they're using food in your blood that is otherwise used by your body. The actual egg only forms about a week before the birth, during those two months the baby is growing and forming a sort of 'yolk sac' that sustains it when the egg is out of your body. This is what really saps your energy; the yolk is incredibly rich, able to last the baby for the entire duration of development, and it gets these rich nutrients from you. The egg itself, up until the week before birth, is really a protective mass of thick gel that slowly calcifies as it takes nutrients from you. A week before birth, the placenta pulls more calcium from you, and then detaches, absorbed by the baby's body for extra nourishment. The calcium is absorbed by the egg-ova gel, allowing it to quickly grow and harden into an egg shape around the baby."

"Wow..."

They sat there in awkward silence for a bit before Solar cleared his throat. "In case you're wondering, the twin-egg you had was a very rare occurence, when two egg-ova combine while surrounding infant-ova. The egg-ova are very jelly-like, which would explain why that happened, but they can only fuse like that when their spherical structure is deformed in order to surround the infant-ova."

"Can an infant-ova become a baby on its own?"

Solar fell silent. "In theory, yes. That would be 'live birth', and the baby would be inside your womb for the entire four months of development. In practice though, it's unheard of; the only recorded medical case of this resulted in a severely deformed baby that died shortly after birth. Technically it's impossible, since the egg-ova and infant-ova have separate chemicals that they need from each other in order to become truly fertile and can only get those when the egg-ova takes in an infant-ova. A healthy live-birth dragon baby would be nothing short of a miracle."

Cynder mused briefly to herself, then grinned at him humorously. "Was that really so painful?"

"Huh?"

"Your face is red enough to cook a goose-egg."

He looked away and coughed. "Sexual education is far from high on my list of discussion topics."

She laughed and stretched again. "Well thanks for the explanation anyway. Know where Spyro went?"

"No clue, but it can't be too far."

"He has time and supernatural powers, he could be ANYWHERE." She looked up at the glass ceiling of the dojo. "Spyro...wherever you are, be careful, something bad is gonna happen...I just know it..." She wandered back into their room, lying down with Anya and the kids and gently pulling them closer to herself. Solar adjourned to the tunnels to find Flare returning, their kids tucked under her wings against her sides. He kissed her and she murred.

"How's Anya?" she whispered.

"Happy. She fits better with Spyro and Cynder because they're more like her parents than we are."

"I know...I'm gonna miss her though, she's so sweet."

"Me too..." A mischievous gleam sparked in his eye and he licked her cheek. "Though we have all the time in the world to make more little Anyas of our own," he whispered teasingly. Flare giggled and nipped his neck.

"Stop it, the kids'll hear you you sly bastard."

He persisted, making her shiver, giggle and squeal in frustration as he nibbled her neck. "They're too far asleep to hear us if your walking hasn't woken them..."

"Lemme go set them down in the nest, Solar!" she half-cried, fighting her urge to remain there and let him arouse her. He laughed and stepped back. "By the way, where's Spyro? I feel like something big is coming...so do the other moms, they've got the kids underground. It feels like something terrible is about to break loose."

"As Cynder said, with his time and supernatural powers he could be jsut about ANYwhere right now."

Indeed he was "anywhere"; Spyro was making his way through the Celestial Caves of the White Isle. Something was bugging him and he wanted to see if he could get any straight answers. That weird dimensional feeling was creeping up on him instead of zapping him like it had before when Flare, Alex, Christine and the other creatures had warped into their world. As he walked through the barren tunnels, remembering his fights against the animated statues and the elemental golems, something in the back of his head stirred and he sat down on a cliff edge to tune in.

Spyro?

"Hey Christine, long time no hear! What's going on?"

I wish I had more time to tell you, but there's something really strange going on in the inter-realm tethers, and the Shadow has disappeared! What's worse, Alex feels that Paralos has become really active and is causing these tremors!

"I'm at the White Isle about to see the Chronicler again-"

Make it fast! We're on our way to you guys but- The link cut off abruptly with a rather painful snap. Spyro jumped up and raced through the cavern, using his time power to give himself more leeway if something really was coming. He dashed over the candle-lit pit where he'd fought the elemental replica of Cynder's dark form, and forced the doors of the Chronicler's chamber open. He froze in pure terror.

A dark writhing cloud laced with purple electric forks of pure malice and hatred was snaking around the huge hourglass in the center of the room. Many of the bookshelves had been blown to pieces, and the far wall was now considerably misplaced a few tens of meters. In the back lay the Chronicler, beaten badly. The shadow seemed to turn and face him, two dark red eyes forming in the void of evil essence.

"Excellent."

Spyro tried to move but something had him frozen in place. His eyes narrowed in fright when he realized that he was trapped in time! This shadow was using the time power of the Chronicler's hourglass to paralyze both of them! A spear of shadowy energy formed in front of the purple dragon, its tip sparkling maniacally with destructive power.

No, I can't die again!! Not now!!! Spyro thought to himself, desperately trying to activate his time powers to counteract this foe. HELP!!! he shouted mentally even though no one could hear him. The spear drew back, but Spyro couldn't flinch or look away; his eyes were frozen open, forced to watch this thing about to impale him. Cynder!! No!! I can't leave her!! STOP!!! The spear thrust forward and Spyro screamed in his mind.

Another scream pierced the air; out of nowhere green scales suddenly flashed into view and the spear missed its target, embedded in another. In his panic Spyro's time powers surged and he broke free of the snare to find Alex lying on the ground, the spear in his side, having just barely missed his lung. Spyro's eyes glowed and his scales went dark in his frustration and sheer anger. Alex looked up, his teeth clenched in pain. "Spyro, NO, not yet! Go! Get to Cynder and save everyone! Protect the kids!!"

"'The children of two, born at once, are ultimate protection from evil's grip'," came the Chronicler's voice from the back. "Spyro, go!" he shouted hoarsely as he forced himself to stand. "This is only the tip of the iceberg!"

"We'll take this from here," Christine said, stepping out of a shimmering heat wave in midair. She glared at the shadow writhing against the hourglass. "Damn you, you do NOT separate a dragoness from her mate!" Two blades of light appeared in her icy-blue paws and she lunged at the writhing black mass. Spyro took the chance to leave, casting a glance back at Alex to see him pulling the spear out of his side. Halfway out of the cavern he ran headlong into something and they both rolled backwards in a painful heap.

"Caligin?!"

"Ow, watch where you're running you novice!" he growled, rubbing his chest where Spyro had hit him. "I followed your light signature here, what's going on?"

"We have to get back to the temple, NOW!! The Shadow is back and hell's gonna break loose soon!"

"Damnit!" Caligin followed Spyro through the caverns, limping a bit from the impact.

"How'd you follow me so quickly?"

"Dark teleportation along a light signature, it's how I hunted dragons back in my evil days, I'd lock onto them and teleport through shadows to their location-Whoa!" He flapped his wings and caught up to Spyro; they had run clean off the edge of a cliff. "You idiot, give me a heads up next time!"

"Sorry, geez, but we're in a hurry!"

Caligin flew up over Spyro with a powerful wingbeat and grabbed him tight. "Think of Cynder! Now!!"

"Wha-"

"NOW!!"

Spyro's thoughts flashed to Cynder. All of a sudden there was a disgusting chilly grip all around him and the next thing he knew they were on the temple balcony, sliding out of the shadow of the railing. "Wow, that's handy..."

"Craga's inside with the others, what's happening?" Caligin demanded, following Spyro into the building. Ignitus was waiting for them.

"Spyro, what is going on?!" he demanded.

"The Shadow attacked the Chronicler, and I have a bad feeling we're gonna get hammered soon here! Has anyone left for Tall Plains yet?"

"Not yet-"

"Send them out now! We don't have any time to lose!"

The next fifteen minutes were pure chaos, filling with panicked shouting, a thunder of wings and the crying of startled children. Cynder rushed out to find Spyro on the balcony, the wind picking up around him as storm clouds rolled in at unnatural speed.

"Spyro? What's going on?!"

"Cynder...take care of the children. I need to give the others safe passage to Tall Plains."

Cynder was torn between wanting to help him and her sudden maternal urge to shield her babies, but she gave in to his orders and kissed him. "Please, be safe...and don't die..."

"I won't, but if I don't come back...there are others our age now." He raced into their room and kissed each of his kids, including Anya, on the forehead. "Love you guys...may the ancestors look after you."

"May they look after us all," Cynder whispered as he brushed against her.

"Love you baby," he whispered, a tear running down his face. "This is the calm before the storm...let's just hope it's a popcorn shower and not a hurricane." With that he flew off and went invisible as he warped to meet the group heading to Tall Plains. Cynder shed a tear and wrapped herself in a protective circle around the little ones. Flare and Solar brought their kids into the room as well and they huddled together, afraid of what would happen. Cynder shivered when the air shuddered around them; somehow she knew Spyro had just unleashed a small Time Fury around the dragons heading to the Atllawas' protection.

"Please, oh please Spyro be safe..."

Caligin and Craga came into the room and Cynder lifted her head to look at them. Despite her fear she couldn't refrain from smiling when she saw Craga's belly big and round with eggs. "Where's Spyro?" Cal asked. "Did he just..."

"He used a Time Fury, a small one, to get the others to Tall Plains in time."

Cal growled. "That was a bad move...any move is a bad move now."

"What's going on?" Solar asked, standing up.

"The Paralos portals are being forced back into operation. They're waging war on us for bringing me back and depriving them of my influence. Grouped together, they could have wiped us all out here. Separated, they'll kill us individually. Either way we're screwed." He looked down at Craga. "But with Spyro and me together, our combined powers will give them a run for their money. Craga, I want you to stay here with them."

"Where are you going?" she asked, starting to cry out of fear at the situation. He nuzzled her softly and licked her cheek.

"What I've done in the past, I deserve to die for...I pray that the ancestors will let me remain here with you, but if I must I'll take full responsibility for my actions, forced though they may have been under the Shadow's control."

She wept but smiled. "Go then...my dark lord."

He gave her a passionate kiss, then rushed off, using his shadow teleportation to locate Spyro. Craga sat down and rubbed her belly. Solar lay his paw on her shoulder and she jumped slightly. "You okay?"

"No, but at least the father of my babies is a true warrior..." she said, looking down at herself.

Flare came up on her other side, forcing a friendly smile through her worry. "When're you due?" she asked, trying to lighten the situation a bit.