FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 20

He was prepared for anything, he never liked this sentence, believing it to be just a fool's dream. There is absolutely no chance, no possibility to be prepared for anything, simply because anything is unknown and unknown, by definition cannot be explained and categorized.

As stupid and illogical it sounded he actually was ready, he didn't have to prepare himself for anything. The perspective of counting on that creepy thing defending Cynder, or simply imagining her being attacked made the blood in his veins boil.

There was also that shameful admittance he wanted to avoid so badly and define it as Sparx tease, something that in reality was the truest of truths.

He was really losing his mind around Creep.

That freaking monster made him insanely jealous and so damn angry that it was crazy and childish, it made him look like a fool. This made him even more mad, especially when that thing didn't even try to make him furious and especially because he trusted Cynder with all his heart and soul. He was as certain of her devotion and loyalty as he was certain of his depleted Time powers.

This was what shamed, angered and scared him the most.

All the trust he had for Cynder, all the reasoning between each other and the bond they shared, all of this and more became obsolete and wounded. Due to that boiling anger he lashed at her already and he simply knew it was just the beginning if he would stay around that creepy creature any longer things would only get worse.

He knew he has to come back, the safety of the group is more important than his personal grudges and irritations. However even such a small break was a relief, to the point that he gladly would face danger.

To his surprise there was none to be found.

The door opened the area to a large gallery, the air here was thick and stale, only slightly less pressuring and dry than the air in the lava room. It was uncomfortably hot here and the reason behind this was evident, there were absolutely no windows here.

Light was provided only by the many braziers hanging on the walls and standing on pillars, all of them were burning, ignited by magical, unending fire. The tingle of magic was strong here, the braziers being the source, they were lit with no regard for any measure. The combined heat they were emanating was strongly excessive, no wonder the air here didn't feel much different from the one in the previous room.

There was simply no ventilation to process the heat, the only slits that let some light inside were too pitiful to make any difference.

Those slits were simple cracks in the rock, not enough to clean the air, not enough to let any sunlight in. This gallery was well preserved, old stone, rough stone, durable stone. Yet those cracks were there, he couldn't shake off the feeling that they were left there on purpose.

Immediately he remembered Flare's reaction to the open sky, his paralyze when he ran away from them to just stop outside the ruins where they found him. This was a prison, and those cracks with shyly pushing rays of sun through them were a punishment.

A torture.

Just thinking about spending his whole life locked behind walls and only taking a glimpse of the outside world, freedom, sent shivers through his spine. Physical torture was probably nothing compared to the mental agony, how Flare managed to survive without a mental breakdown was beyond him.

The gallery was huge, capable of fitting dragons of every age, the ceiling was high, the pillars supporting it thick and long. Massive doors were located in the far corners of the room. The gallery lacked any sort of furniture, lacked any kind of alcove or shelves, it was a crude construction, barren terrain on which you could even spot an ant walking through.

Everything was in the same color of bloody red thanks due to the many fires all around the place. Everything was made of stone, grey, thick rock, he barely moved as he scanned his surroundings and yet when his paws twitched and claws changed position they still clicked against the ground. The sound they emanating echoed across the whole room.

There was nowhere to hide.

The echo of his impulsive move was enough to tell him that.

With no furniture and no artistic shapes to the overall construction every sound his claws made were like a rumbling noise of an earthquake. There were no shadows and no corners to hide in, everything was illuminated, every bit of privacy stolen away.

He immediately started to feel claustrophobic.

The uncomfortable feeling empowered by the only piece of artistic touch in this room, something he would rather not see to be honest. Parts of the gallery's walls were decorated with the same black stone as in the lava room, all of those carvings also depicted dragons. Some showed only snouts, some showed whole crowds, none were happy, all were stern, all were staring at you.

No matter where one would stand, the artificial eyes would follow you, even from here Spyro could tell there was no spot where he could inconspicuously stand, there was at least one artificial eye looking his way.

All of those eyes were red, there was undoubtedly small fires lit behind the crystals since all of those eyes were glowing. He could feel the magical heat of several on them on his scales already.

He instantly understood Flare's lack of any shame and tact, when he would be observed all his life he would also lose any value for privacy.

He saw only two rooms as of now, but he already imagined this whole place to look exactly the same, boring and stale, siphoning away every spark to live. It reminded him of some sort of a mole factory where the ornament didn't matter, where effects were the most crucial thing.

There was no doubt that this particular factory had a way of processing all spikes of joy and sense of life with great efficiency.

Only thing that ruined the stale, depressing image of this place besides the cracks, if you ignored the notions of torture of course, was a single rectangle of grates in the floor. Their metallic surface really stood out in the surroundings of boring and unchanging rock.

He shouldn't go there, but the nudge of curiosity to see why that grate is there was too strong. It was like spotting an oasis during a long journey on the desert. There was some improbable force in things that break monotony that you simply can't resist.

Spyro made his way towards the silver bars on the ground, he walked slowly and carefully and yet the echo of his clicking claws reverberated through the gallery with the noise of a thudding hammer.

He stopped near the barred hole in the ground, with an uncomfortable deep swallow he craned his neck forward and looked down, through the bars.

There was some sort of a canal below, the walls were narrow, vertical and rough, it was like looking down someone's throat. It was completely dark down below, the fiery light of the room only managed to illuminate a slight, top part of the canal.

Spyro tensed his eyes nevertheless, trying to adjust his sight to the darkness and perhaps see something.

He blinked when something white flashed down below suddenly. There was something at the bottom, the canal wasn't too deep it seemed.

He couldn't resist the burning curiosity, his head went lower and lower, eyes focused on the spot where he thought he saw the white shape. His head went down until finally his nose bumped into the warm, silver grate.

He spotted the white form again, all of a sudden it looked familiar. His predatory instinct making all the necessary connections.

Was that a bone?

He narrowed his eyes and impulsively pushed his head even lower despite the obstacle in his way. His nose flattened against the grate, tears appeared at the corner of his eyes and uncomfortable tingling vibrated across his snout.

He wasn't bothered by it however, he was too concentrated on discerning the shape below.

There was definitely something there in that darkness, the silhouette of that thing was forming before his eyes.

He blinked again, flicking away the tears that blurred his vision.

A pair of feral, bloodied, glowing eyes appeared on the bottom, staring right back at him.

Spyro gasped in shock, throwing his head back.

The eyes down below disappeared, sound of something being crushed filled his earholes. The creature to which those eyes belonged to moved, black figure slithering away down the tunnel.

He no longer wanted to know what was in that canal, every part of his shivering body told him however that this was in fact a bone.

"Seems pretty empty" Sparx noted as he pushed forward from the corridor, Cynder followed him closely, Creep's shadow slithered along the ground in front of them

Sparx frowned, noticing his brother frozen in a cat-scared position with every leg placed in different corner and head thrown back, purple eyes staring at the grate in the ground. His chest was heaving with labored breaths.

"What's up bro?" he joined his draconic sibling, snapping his fingers in front of the purple nose "Scary world to Spyro"

The purple drake shook his head, withdrawing thoughts from the initial shock.

"It's the vent?" Cynder inquired "What's in there?

Sparx picked up on the question, hovering above the silver, solid bars and looking down the dark canal.

"I can't see a thing"

"Maybe check it out, you'll fit through the bars"

"No!" Spyro yelped, jumping forward and stepping on the metallic bars, clenching his claws around them for better grip. His head was shaking fiercely from side to side

"You absolutely won't go in there"

"You don't have to go crazy dude. Exploring dark tunnels is not on the top of my wish list"

"I'm just warning you, alright? There is something down there"

Cynder frowned, approaching the grate and lowering her nose to the bards, taking several quick whiffs of air, her nose bouncing like that of a rabbit.

"All I can smell is filth and rot. It was probably just a rat"

"I don't know what it was, but it was at least our size and it looked at me. That was no rat that's for sure"

Cynder scratched her choker, immediately thinking about the creature that Spyro spotted, trying to find an idea what exactly could live in dark tunnels that is their size. Her thoughts then shifted to Creep and the thought of him having the answer for this mystery.

"The lost and unimportant" Creep's hollowed voice echoed across the room, his shadow floated all around the room, the black magic on Cynder's head and tail pulsing with each spoken word

"Infantile us. Punished essence. Time of purple and beginning of the Wanderer. Nothing else matters"

Sparx cleared his throat, poking at Cynder with his shoulder.

"Translation?"

She shrugged.

"I have no idea, he was talking about that thing Spyro saw if that helps"

Sparx clapped his hands "OK there" he grabbed onto Cynder's silver horn, moving his mouth close to the pulsing orb of darkness

"Listen... Creep. Be cool and repeat what you just said without sounding like a grumbling grublin. Huh? How do you like the idea? Cool ain't it?"

There was silence, Creep's shadow kept on slithering across the room without a pause.

"Oh yeah, right" he sighed "I forgot about our special team spirit. He muted us, how could I forget that this is a modern way how teams work these days. Silly me"

"Don't be mean"

"Mean? Me?" he gasped, hand landing on his heart in fake shock "Never! I wouldn't dare to be snide towards a guy who shoved our interests and thoughts down his creepy ass. For who do you take me for?"

Cynder rolled her eyes.

"I could ask Creep for a more straight explanation, but getting some reasonable answers from him would take time and we wasted enough of it already"

"Can that thing do anything else besides molesting and sweet talking you all the time?" Spyro growled bitterly

She opened her mouth, ready to snap back at her partner in defense of Creep, but one glance at his burning with fury and pain eyes was enough to silence her. Even if the truth was different, she couldn't really blame Spyro for his reaction and general attitude towards Creep, all in all she felt that he was doing a great job at holding himself back as it is. If there would be some shrew rubbing herself against him she would already have torn her eyes out.

She had to take his perspective into consideration as well, and what Spyro saw was only some dude openly calling her sweet names and repeating just how much he likes her. She was glad that she thought Creep to stop saying that he loves her, she could already imagine Spyro's heart bleeding.

If his anger was justified or not, impulsive or not, it didn't matter, she decided not to interfere. Creep decided to ignore them, so she in turn has to ignore Spyro's aggression towards their supernatural companion. It was only fair.

Crazy and unhealthy for team spirit, but fair.

She hated her current position of being in the middle of two males. She felt as if she would be a part of some cliché romance novel where the girl is being loved by two guys and she can't decide who is more closer to her heart.

She never felt so uncomfortable in her life.

Not only it ruined the youthful, erotic fantasy of being in between two males, but also disgusted love to the point that it made her cringe.

She was a girl, she enjoyed the care and affection a boy can be capable of, but even romance taken to the extreme can make you sick. It was like stuffing your maw with your favorite sweets, you can eat them for weeks maybe, but then comes that one day when you know that if you will again try it out you will throw up your stomach.

She averted her gaze, unable to stand Spyro's condescending gaze that wasn't directed at her personally, but rather at Creep. His shadow was there, yet his eyes were drawn to her as if she would be the prism reflecting Creep's soul.

"Does it at least know which door we should take to avoid trouble?"

The thought with the question rattled in her head.

"Architecture is insignificant" Creep rumbled "Rocks are a maze, all the same, they are not a path we can understand. We are one, the only way to travel, here we learnt the knot. You are unprepared Sugar, Wanderer is here, we must avoid. If we tug at the knot, the path will open to us, Wanderer will traverse it and find us. Dangerous for us Sugar, we must not be located. We are more one than in this era, we established the knot. Do not force to tug. Purple is the key, purple is the lock, purple is the waste. Bad times"

"Wonderful" Spyro hissed coldly "From what I understood that thing doesn't know where to go and managed to slip an insult towards me in its worthless blabber. We all don't know where to go and Sparx fills the role of insult thrower just as well. Why is that thing following us again?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there man" Sparx raised his hands defensively "Snarky retorts are my territory, it doesn't suit you so bugger off, alright? Just be that sweet cupcake you always were and leave the dirty job to someone who is fast enough to dodge the flying dishes"

"Spyro, please, just calm down" Cynder pleaded

"No problem, whatever you want" he snorted and practically stormed towards the nearby door, claws clicking furiously against the rock

"Cyn...umm" Sparx placed a finger on his mouth "A word?"

She sighed.

"Is it cheerful and optimistic?"

He grinned.

"And what do you think?"

"I think I don't want to hear it"

Sparx shrugged nonchalantly.

"Sucks to be you, since I'm still going to say what I want to say" he dashed towards the dragoness, rearranging the choker on her neck

"Let it go"

Green eyes aimed themselves at him, he met them without hesitation.

"Spyro, leave him alone"

"I can't do that"

"Yes you can, wanna know why?" he poked her nose with his forefinger "Because you are only making things worse"

She shook her head, pushing the finger away.

"Funny that you are saying this, you just told Spyro to back off"

"I'm different" he folded his arms "I'm his brother, I got some perks. You are his partner, you don't get those privileges"

She opened her mouth, yet he quickly clamped it shut by pressing both his hands to the upper part of her maw.

"I get it, you want to make things work out, but the problem is, every time you say please_or _calm down the more you are pissing Spyro off. You're a chick, a very questionable one look wise, but still a chick, use that intuition of yours. Spyro sees nothing else than some other dude repeating all the time how much he likes you and calling you Sugar like always"

He placed a hand on his chest, his eyes never leaving the green ones.

"It's creepy for me too, but I can understand that Creep is weird, Spyro can't. Every time you try to sort things out, in Spyro's eyes you're defending the guy who according to him leers over you. It won't work, so just man up..." he looked her over "... or girl up and take all of that bitterness, or you will piss Spyro so hard that he will do some stupid thing and get himself killed, or more likely we all are gonna bite the dust. I don't know how about you, but I still feel young and would like to make fun of you a little bit longer"

Cynder features softened, she averted her gaze, clearly accepting the current state of the situation. Moments later she looked back at him, nodding her head.

"Clever girl" he let go off her maw, patting her across the cheek

Cynder smirked, presenting rows of sharp teeth.

"I should bite your head off right now"

He grinned.

"Save it for the bad guys"

Rattling of door resounded within the gallery, somewhere in the distance a rock fell from the ceiling and shattered on the ground.

"Locked" Spyro mumbled in disbelief

"Look for that switch in the wall or something, I don't think it is possible that we could be trapped here, right?"

"Here waste became the waste. We were here many times, the origins, the source for the circle. Here we weaved the first thread of the knot" Creep's shadow straightened on one of the walls, eating completely the magical light on it

It looked like as if he would unfold one of the biggest wings the world could see. Everything ended as quickly as it began however and the shadow returned to what probably was Creep's normal size in just a moment's notice.

"This" Sparx pointed at the pulsing dark blob on Cynder's horn, bobbing his head as he looked around "This is the answer disbelievers. Listen and we are saved"

"Dork" Cynder snickered

Spyro growled, just listening to that thing talking was infuriating, he tried to ignore that thing's presence, but every time he tried he imagined that thing panting behind Cynder's shoulder.

He tried the two next doors, pulling at the handles so strongly that he felt the hinges creaking.

Neither of them budged.

"Dude, if you plan on keeping our presence secret you are seriously taking the wrong approach here" Sparx commented

Spyro snarled, aggressively sliding his paw across the wall near the door, without problems locating the special switch hidden behind a loose stone. He pushed his paw forward, just before his leg sunk into the depression it froze in mid air.

A thought as sharp as Cynder's tail blade shot through his head.

Everything was closed, everything was locked, the key to keeping secrets.

He retreated from the door, making his way quickly through the gallery and towards the entrance they arrived through. He massaged the wall nearby, as expected one of the stones moved, revealing an opening towards the all familiar switch.

He thrust his paw inside, feeling a gentle sting on his draconic palm when the depression was filled with a purple light. The wall immediately started to slide down, covering the opening to the choking, dry room.

A barely noticeable, refreshing breeze of fresh air shyly poked at the thick air of the gallery.

He rubbed his forehead with a wince, the feeling of fresh air was really helpful in pointing out just how much of a big jerk he is lately.

"Which door Cynder?" he asked as he turned around, feeling her name on his tongue was incomparably Invigorating "One? Two? Three?"

She had no idea, but when she looked at him, meeting his loving, calming gaze that reappeared after a period of absence since they arrived here, something happened to her heart. She didn't know what it was, it wasn't a sting, nor was it an ache.

She impulsively rubbed a claw against her chest, in her wild imagination feeling a form of a number trailed by her claw on her magenta chest.

"Two" she rasped out, feeling surprisingly out of breath

Spyro smiled back at her, there was something in that smile that made her blush and avoid his gaze, making her giggle cheerfully like a shy girl who just got kissed for the first time in her life.

Creep's shadow slithered towards the mentioned door, his dark, creamy figured stretching massively, devouring light in that particular spot.

Spyro shivered impulsively when the light from the braziers suddenly stopped heating his scales. He turned his attention towards the door, noticing the shadow ahead. Mouth immediately twitched, forming a rather triumphant smirk.

He made his way towards the door, touching the wall where the depression was hidden, brandishing his fangs in an arrogant grin when Creep's shadow moved out of the way.

"Get ready" purple light embraced his paw

There was a click inside the door mechanism and nothing happened besides that.

Spyro's eyes widened in surprise.

"Damn bro" Sparx huffed in honest awe "You really have a touch for the anticlimactic and you wondered why I never dragged you to parties"

He pushed the door open, gently, carefully observing the enlarging slit.

A familiar, massive, black, rocky leg appeared in the opening.

With a muffled squeal he slammed the door shut.

The lock clicked again, he was never so grateful for any sound of this kind in his entire life.

Even if he knew the door were locked, both of his front legs were pressing against them anyway.

"Spyro?" Cynder called our softly, tension muffling her voice "What is going on?"

He swallowed deeply.

"A Keeper is behind the door"

"Sentry" Creep rumbled "Wanderer's copy. It obeyed us, felt us when the knot was birthing. Uncertain if the bond persists with formed knot. Be cautious Sugar, purple may be misunderstood"

"Yeah...I think translation is not needed" she waggled her eyebrows "Story of our lives"

"I'll check the other two" Spyro mumbled nervously, his mind already traveling back down the memory lane to the time when they faced their first Keeper, remembering just damn well how hard it was to kill it

Traveling back to the Boven attack and the skirmish with the golems there, it took a whole group of dragons and Dark Spyro to take them all out. There the golems attention was divided, if they would have to face the Keepers here, every single one of those hulking statues would be triggered against them.

Knowing what they know now would probably allow them to take down a dozen, maybe more until they would be finally overwhelmed. Not to mention the purple dragons that might actually be hostile.

He closed his eyes as he approached the next door, trying to communicate, to sense his Time powers. That alone would make things so much simpler.

"Please, please, please" he begged under his breath "Just this once"

No response.

"Shit" he snarled crisply, pushing his paw into the now familiar depression

The stinging stopped bothering him.

The clicking of the door lock became more annoying.

Clenching his teeth he tilted the door open, enough to spot the same rocky leg.

Click of the closing lock followed soon after.

As expected the third door yielded the same effect.

"What now?" Sparx muttered with a deep sigh, folding his arms at the back of his head

"Creep? What should we do now?" Cynder inquired, determination trampled

"Return, avoid the Wanderer, live" Creep intoned

"Can't we just ignore that thing?" Spyro growled, rubbing his forehead "Just tell it to go away, we're going to have one less bothering problem"

"We can try that canal there" Cynder nodded at the grate in the ground "We tear the bars and jump down"

"No" he disagreed sternly "If that tunnel is as narrow as the part we could see we will never be able to get back up again. Also I have absolutely no idea what kind of creature is down there, we would be throwing ourselves into its environment. No way"

"Cyn can teleport" Sparx noted "She could be in and out whenever she wanted to"

"Cyn can't teleport!" Spyro growled at the brink of a roar, pointing angrily at the twirling shadow of Creep "That thing somehow forced her to do it and I'll be damned if I put the life of my mate in the filthy claws of that creepy monster!"

Cynder's eyes widened, not because of Spyro's outburst which was more or less expected to happen, but because of him yelling out about the state of their relationship. State that reached mateship status, a status about which Sparx was for sure unfamiliar with.

Somehow she doubted that Spyro would want Sparx to learn about their relationship this way.

"I won't go there!" she blurted out, luckily Sparx was too busy worrying about their current situation to put all of facts together "I'm afraid of rats!" she added quickly, already knowing that she loaded Sparx snide quiver with more arrows

Spyro frowned, narrowing his eyes on his partner. He was quite certain that she wasn't afraid of rats.

"What?" Sparx slurred, waking up from his worried trance with a slur "Afraid of rats? You? Girl, you're like their queen after all those months of hiding, how can you be ashamed of your family?"

"Hello?" she pointed at her snout, making circles with her paw "Black dragoness?"

"Guys" Spyro chimed in "In every other situation I would enjoy watching you fool around, but maybe we could concentrate on getting out of here?"

"We don't have any other choice, but to go through one of those things" Sparx shrugged "Find the weakest one so we won't have troubles kicking its ass"

"How exactly I'm supposed to do that?"

"I don't know man, you're the lock and the key. Look for the one that points its ass at us so we can slap it against the back of the neck"

Instinctively Cynder thought about their problem.

"We must not reveal the knot" Creep rumbled "Wanderer will find the path. Copies are him, they are one like we are one. Purple is the key and the lock, sentries are like doors. Purple may be misunderstood, Time wrought chaos, risk of combat is high. Combat dangerous, might draw hunger. Feeding is dangerous"

She met Spyro's angry gaze, it forced her head down, green eyes glistened at him meekly, tail with reserved, apologetic happiness made shy swings.

Her posture reminded him of a cheetah child that flattens its ears against the skull and looks up with pleading, huge eyes. There was something adorable in this pose that you simply couldn't stay mad for long.

Despite his better judgment, it made him consider Creep's words.

"So if I understand this right" Spyro said, turning towards the door, sparing Cynder the pressure of his stare "We might probably fight with this thing, probably drawing the attention of this whole... city, prison, factory or whatever that is. However there is that small chance that I somehow might make the golem to ignore us, or switch it off. Did I get that right?"

"I think you did" Cynder confirmed anxiously "Spyro just please don't close the door so we might help you out

His paw hovered above depression in the wall. Claws curling and uncurling nervously.

"Here goes, I have absolutely no idea what to do, so be ready guys, like real, real ready"

A flash of purple filled the opening.

A scary click followed soon after.

Spyro gulped, claws curling into a fist just right when they were about to touch the surface of the door. His heart started to sting, stabbing his ribcage with each beat. He was already familiar with this specific tension, it's an unavoidable discomfort for anyone taking his claws into battle.

A warrior's instinct. A warrior's intuition.

There was no avoiding it and it the only way to quench it was to face the nemesis that stirred it in the first place.

Holding his breath he gently pushed the door, the air escaped his lungs softly when he spotted the familiar, rocky leg in the very same place. With no other sound coming from his throat he put more pressure on the door, revealing more and more of the rocky figure.

It was definitely a Keeper.

His purple eyes impulsively traveled from bottom to the very top of the construct, unfortunately reminding himself just how hulking this creature is.

He could feel and see the magical heat emanating from the golem's body, just standing next to it was making him winded and crave for fresh air. Still it was hard to tell if the golem's aura is boiling his blood or was it merely fright.

It wasn't looking his way, he had a hard time telling if it's even active, his gut told him that it was, since when was the last time things went their way when it came to facing deadly enemies?

That glimmer of hope was revitalizing to some pitiful degree however.

The golem stared ahead, obviously it was not expecting anything to arrive through these door, especially when the only way of getting out of here unnoticed was to take a one way dip into the magma.

The presence of the Veil didn't even seem to change that.

He threw an uncertain glance at his team, they were undoubtedly cheering for him in their own, silent ways. He could read that from their tense expressions and flexed muscles, that support was somewhat heart warming.

His eyes immediately traveled to the golem's neck, its weak spot partially visible, there was an opportunity open, a risk, towards victory without breaking a sweat. He was never the one who rose his claws first, no matter whether the opponent is made of flesh and blood or not.

This reserve perhaps was the reason why he didn't decide to do anything.

Instead he slithered forward, half of his body disappearing behind the doorstep already. Purple eyes never leaving the construct, gaze aimed at its unmoving and rather dark artificial face.

Maybe it was in fact dormant.

He pushed even more farther, waist lining with the doorstep.

This was the moment when he found out that the golem was very much active.

Fiery light shot from its not so long ago dark face, Spyro already knew that the light was coming from its flaring up eyes.

With trained fighter's intuition he immediately began to fall back, same intuition kept him from uttering even the most gentle of sounds, knowing that even the smallest seconds count when your tactic was revealed.

With a rumbling noise of cracking rock the golem turned its upper body swiftly, craning his form down in a descending arc towards door.

The seconds of advantage were over.

Spyro squealed, jumping back, not really knowing what made him more surprised. The Keeper's unnatural turn, with the legs remaining in the same place, facing forward, or the golem's artificial snout appearing maybe just a few meters in front of his nose.

The whole rocky head was illuminated by a hidden red light stuck behind the black rocks, pulsing like a heating up oven.

The true strike that heavily impacted his feeling of terror were the golem's eyes, empty eye sockets were blazing with an intense, powerful fire. It immediately reminded him of the Destroyer's heated chest.

He didn't know if he just imagined it, or this was merely the color of his own eyes glistening in one of the flames, but he thought he saw some purple sparks flashing inside that blaze, reminding him of the heart they found in that very chest.

The Keeper's mouth opened, tongues of flames gushing from its gaping maw, slithering from the rocky lips like worms from a tilted, rotten branch.

The golem growled a prolonged, rumbling, deep blare. Cone of flames shooting from its mouth, growing with each rough note coming from the rocky throat.

Spyro hissed in pain as he threw himself back into the room he just left, heat scorching his snout. His back slammed into the stony floor, he ignored the pain in his spine, in panic patting against his maw. Feeling the surface of his unnaturally soft, spongy, burning scales.

He was merely grazed and his snout felt as if it was already cooked.

This was no ordinary elemental flame.

This was infused with dark power inferno.

This was the blaze of the Belt of Fire.