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“Spyro, are you sure about this? Gnasty’s world isn’t exactly the most…” the ballonsist gulped, “...friendly.”
The purple dragon puffs out his chest with a smile, “Well, if nobody else can stop him, then who will? I want to torch him, Amos!”
The mentioned balloonist wrings his hands nervously, before looking at the dragon in front of him. The purple scales reflected the aurora borealis sky, the light pink and blue shining on his scales. He sighs; he hears from his other friends about how well Spyro has been doing, relieving the stress of any possible anxieties they might have. If he’s doing so well, why deny him, right?
“Alright, but please be careful, Spyro. The winds are quite unpredictable when you travel to Gnasty’s world.”
“Sure thing!”
Spyro runs up to the basket of the balloon, excitedly getting inside before Amos closes the basket. Sparx flies up next to the dragon, making a small buzz which Spyro gives a small nod to. Meanwhile, Amos was checking the status of the balloon, making sure proper supplies were in the basket for Spyro and Sparx to use. Finally reaching the conclusion that all was well, he backed away from the balloon, before speaking.
“Good luck, Spyro! And stay safe!”
Spyro says his farewells before watching the balloonist cut the rope that suspended the balloon from flying. The hot air balloon is released into the vividly-colored sky; Spyro’s tail thumps against the basket in pure delight over being so high. Sparx, on the other hand, gives a small buzz before pointing to the balloon.
Spyro chuckles, “Don’t worry! I got it all under control, buddy!”
The sky around them then shifts to a sickly dark gray, and Spyro’s tail swags in excitement. He absolutely could not wait to kick Gnasty’s butt and return home; Devlin and Alvar would probably make him a small feast to celebrate! His mouth watered thinking about sinking his teeth in perfectly seasoned chicken and the sweet flavors of icing dancing on his tongue.
Sparx, noticing Spyro daydreaming, rolls his eyes before pointing ahead of them and making a concerned buzz.
Spyro snaps out of his daze before replying, “Hey! Didn’t I say don’t worry? Us dragons can handle anything thrown at us!”
An eyebrow raise.
“...Well, mostly everything. Unless its crystal statues then-”
Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder was heard, making both of the occupants deathly silent. They stared at each other momentarily, before the balloon jostled, earning a yelp from Spyro and a fearful screech from Sparx. The small dragon holds on to the rim of the basket, the gusts of wind pushing against him.
“W-Whoa! The wind-!”
Spyro immediately runs to the rope, only to be thrown back by the tilting of the balloon. The small dragonfly goes to the rope, managing to get a hold of it, before buzzing loudly. Spyro manages to find decent footing before falling to his feet, struggling to get up.
“Sparx! Pull the rope!”
With all his might, the small dragonfly attempts to pull the rope, but unfortunately barely makes it budge. Spyro attempts to get up again, and makes his way over to the dragonfly before being thrown overboard by the gust of wind.
“Wha-?!”
Sparx gives a gasp before letting go of the rope and going outside the basket to help Spyro. The latter was flapping his wings in a vain effort to fly before deciding that gliding might be better suited. However, even with that thought, it simply passed when he realized if he were to hit the ground, he would be nothing but a purple splatter. A small chirp interrupts his thoughts before he turns his head to see his small dragonfly friend .
“Sparx??? What are you doing here?! What about the ba-”
Right before his eyes, he witnessed the aforementioned balloon get struck by lightning, creating a small fire before it fell out the sky. Spyro gets his thoughts together before getting in a diving position.
“Maybe if I can see what’s beneath me, I can determine whether I can be saved with a glide or something…”
The yellow dragonfly flies closely to his friend, as they both watch as the clouds beneath them disappear to reveal…
“Water?!”
With that, the dragon collided with the water, immediately sinking underneath the waves. He resurfaces with a small cough, Sparx landing on him with a concerned chirp, to which he was rewarded with a small chuckle from the dragon.
“At least we’re alright, except for the balloon. Amos might not be happy about that.”
Spyro begins to use his legs to propel himself forward in the water; he immediately regretted not taking Cyprin’s offer on learning to swim, but nonetheless, he did what he could.
“Hey, Sparx. If we ever got lost, Nestor said to follow the North Star, right? Can you check to see if we’re near any land?”
The mentioned dragonfly nods his head before going ahead of Spyro, becoming nothing more than a faint, yellow light in the distance. Within a minute, the dragonfly comes racing back, a happy series of chirps escaping him! With this newfound determination, Spyro begins swimming towards the land.
Finally managing to see the dock, Spyro uses his strength to climb up the pole, and onto the boardwalk. With a gasp, he flops onto the wooden deck, taking a moment to catch his breath. His buddy lands beside him, a concerned chirp escaping from him before going up to Spyro. The adolescent dragon gives him a thumbs up with a strained smile, before getting up.
“I didn’t think swimming was that tough, whew! Anyway, this should be Gnasty’s world, right? What was it called? Gnorc Gnexus?”
Spyro walks up to a sign, before raising a confused eyebrow; whatever was written here was scratched off, leaving nothing of the former writing there. He then tilts his head to the sky, noting the color of it.
I knew Gnasty wasn’t a good guy, but even then, this sky is really dark. It reminds me of when I was fighting Blowhard…
Shaking his head, he walked into the center plaza of the area, only to be surprised at not seeing a crystal statue.
Did he pass it up? Or…?
He shook his head, maybe he didn’t look around enough. It was only when he sneezed did he realize something was off about this homeworld.
“Where’s the grass?”
Beneath his paws wasn’t the usual rich soil he’s grown so used to, but instead with what seems to be faux grass. Even with that, scratching away the faux grass revealed copper grounds. Spyro looked at the few flowers littering the area and realized that they were shaped more angular; almost sharp.
Just where were they?
Suddenly, a gentle tap on his shoulder made him turn his head to Sparx pointing at a crystal dragon. Spyro nods before running over to it, getting ready to release the dragon from its prison before he stops. He’s never been here before, nor does he know what dragon is trapped behind the crystal. For the longest time, he knew the Peace Keepers, Magic Crafters, Beast Makers, and Dream Weavers to some degree, but wherever he was now was a mystery. Heck, he doesn’t even know if Lucas has it on one of his maps. Nonetheless, Spyro touches the crystal, feeling the warm energy spreading in his body before he backs away from the statue.
It cracks and shakes before a form of a dragon takes its place. The older dragon had soft, blue skin accented with a pale, pastel yellow. Wild hair topped his head, with a set of jewelers goggles to match, hydraulic gloves adorned the dragon’s hands, with a small satchel worn on his being. However, what caught Spyro’s eyes was the mechanical set of wings the dragon had on his back.
The dragon gives a grunt before speaking, “Thank you for…”
He pauses as he takes in the sight before him; a small purple dragon with a small dragonfly next to him.
“...releasing me?”
The two dragons stared at each other with a different flurry of emotions; confusion, bafflement, surprise, and any other synonym of the word. To Spyro, he had never seen or heard about this dragon before. On the other side of the spectrum, this dragon has never seen this small dragon, and didn’t expect to see another dragon in such a long time. They both uttered out the same words.
“Who…”
“Are…”
“You…?”
Spyro, deciding to be the bigger dragon, shook himself out of his stupor, and introduced himself, “I’m Spyro! And this is my buddy, Sparx!”, the mentioned dragonfly gives a small chirp.
“Ah, well, it’s nice to meet you…Spyro.”, the dragon adjusts his posture before speaking,
“My name is Lindar.”
Lindar then takes a bow, and Spyro realizes that this dragon had a lot of mechanical pieces on him. One would have assumed that he was mechanical himself!
Excitedly, Spyro begins to ramble, “What are you…? I never seen Nestor mention you before? Are you an Artisan? Oh! Are you a Magic Crafter or-!”
“None of the above. I’m a Machinist.”
Spyro immediately stops his excited bounce once the words reach his ears, “A…Machinist?”
“Yep. Surely, you heard of us?”
A shake of his head makes Lindar’s wings droop slightly.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, this is…new. I didn’t even know you existed! This place isn’t on any map or in any book I read.”
“Hm, uncharted…”
Spyro shrugs, “Yeah, and like I said before, not even Nestor mentioned you.”
Lindar immediately turns to Spyro, “Did you say Nestor? As in, a green dragon who has a slight leader posture to him?”
“Yeah! Do you know him?”
“I wouldn’t say known, but we did encounter each other a few times.”
“Oh!” Spyro nods his head before looking at the grass again, “So, do you mind telling me what’s going on here? Where’s the grass? Wildlife?”
Lindar nonchalantly turns his head away from the dragon and begins to walk, “Gone, simply put. What remains here I do my best to preserve, but otherwise, nothing.”
“Oh.”
“As Machinists, it is our job to provide machinery and energy to power up industrial sites you might have seen a few times on your adventure. However, after Gnasty zapped me, his little…minions took over. Now the factories here do nothing more than create weapons for that cretin.”
Spyro nods his head before stopping and looks at the false wildlife around him, not even butterflies grazing here, it was almost pitiful, “I haven’t seen anyone else here, are you the only one?”
“...”
“Lindar?”
“I would assume so. There used to be a lot of us, you know. We made sure factories were running, we made sure the pollution never happened, we even made tools that would make it easier for other dragons to do their daily chores. Then, one by one, they started to leave and never return.”
“So you’re the last one?”
The dragon nods his head, “Foolishly, I expected them to come back, but they never did. So, it's been just me checking the factories. As I stated before, those gnorcs took over; I doubt it will be easy to clean up the mess they made.”
“Then, let’s get rid of them!”
Lindar stops, “What?”
“Yeah! You and me! We’ll take these gnorcs out, no problem! Then, after I beat Gnasty, I’ll take you back to Nestor!”
Lindar stares, in absolute shock over what came out of the little dragon’s mouth. Spyro just met him a few minutes ago, heck, he doesn’t even know that much about him! So why would he…?
Spyro gives a big smile, “Being lonely isn’t fun at all! I doubt you even have sheep to burn or charge into. All the others would be interested in learning about you and your culture, too! So, please join me!”
The small dragon puts out his hand towards him, expecting a handshake. Nervously, Lindar looks at it and reflects on his life up to this point. For so long he had been alone, waking up, checking the power, making sure the remaining “wildlife” was preserved, and then do what? Tinker in his shop? Stand next to the broken portals? Open the doors to shops long forgotten? Quietly waiting for the dock for someone, anyone to come to him? Yet, here he was, in front of a dragon who was giving him an opportunity to see so many new things.
He thinks about the machines, the factories, and the electric supply momentarily before shaking his head.
This was his only chance. Something like this will never present itself again.
Lindar takes Spyro’s hand, shaking it.
“Alright, Spyro. Let’s go.”