TLOS legend of the black dragon chapter 25 playing with Ember
Author note: The young dragons are having fun with the tournament and with each other. Time for some bonding of friends and some fun.
I know it took me like forever but as you know I have had a some problems at the moment with motivation and with my school being over. Well this chapter is another filler but I really like the playing scene. This chapter is split up, I'm going to tell you now that every chapter without exception is going to be split up. Some in even more than 2 parts. However this is the last filler chapter, things are going to accelarate
The legend of Spyro
Legend of the black dragon
Chapter 25 playing with Ember
"No! I can't do that!"
"But why can't you?"
"Sorry, I just can't."
"But why? It isn't such a big request"
"I just can't alright! Stop asking it!"
"Don't you trust me? Is that it?!"
"No, I do trust you but this is just too dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
"Please, just go and forget you ever knew about it."
"I beg you not to get involved with this."
Cynder opened her eyes now as she woke up from another voice dream.
"Well this one made even less sense than that one I had yesterday." Cynder thought a bit dry. By now she was neither frustrated nor confused by it anymore.
The constant vague voice dreams were all starting to become part of her daily routine.
For whatever reason, Cynder could recall every last one of them perfectly. That part was what did still annoy her about the voice dreams. She knew them all but didn't understand a thing about what any of them meant.
She didn't even bother asking herself the questions anymore because she never had answers to the reason or origin of them.
"I think this one makes about 12 voice dreams up until now." she concluded after counting them in her head.
She then shook her head to try and get the thoughts out. As soon as she turned her head around she spotted the large purple form of Spyro lying next from her, his large body slowly moving up and down from his breathing.
In order to get the voice dreams out of her head she brought her herself closer to him and draped her wing over his body. Then, she positioned her head underneath his and laid her tail blade also on his. Immediately it felt like her thoughts were drained away and she now felt at peace again.
As long as she had Spyro to cuddle up to she would be fine. With him next to her she could handle anything that ever might come her way.
She kept cuddled up to him for about half an hour. Cynder actually wanted to get even closer to him but she didn't as she knew that Spyro would freak out if she did.
As Cynder lie there in her half asleep state she thought she felt Spyro's body move. It indeed seemed like it moved as she could no longer feel the warm energy from his body.
She opened her eyes and saw that Spyro had woken up and moved away from her again, just like he always did.
She had done it so often now it had become a casual thing but she would just like it so much if he didn't reject it every time. She would love it to wake up together with him. To be together with her love but knew she just had to wait.
Spyro now stood up and stretched out like a feline. Cynder kept watching him intensely, deeply interested in watching his strong body move.
When Spyro had popped his joints his eyes met hers. He had looked a bit mad at her but Cynder didn't feel even the slightest bit intimidated by the purple dragon.
"Why do you insist on doing that every time Cynder?" He asked annoyed.
"Oh, no reason." Cynder shrugged, smiling innocently at his failed attempt to look intimidating.
"Then stop doing it already!" Spyro said aggravated.
Cynder couldn't help but giggle at his reaction.
Spyro always panicked whenever she did that. She would like him to accept it more but that Spyro flipped like that every time also had something amusing to it.
"So what are we going to do today?" Cynder asked as she now also got up.
"Well watch the tournament some more I guess." Spyro shrugged as it was their usual day spending.
"I really would like to see how Ember does in her next battle." Spyro said.
To Cynder this was no surprise; Spyro had never missed a match of Ember.
"However you didn't seem to be that interested in Oxidus." Cynder said a bit accusing as he had missed that one yesterday.
"With Oxidus you know he will win so that's boring." Spyro said as an excuse.
"Yeah, who's interested in that down drake anyway." Sparx said, now fully awake as well.
Cynder wanted to say something back but she didn't, it probably wouldn't do her much good and she was not really in the mood to start a discussion with Sparx.
She just shrugged and walked down towards the kitchen together with Spyro.
With the tournament in full swing they also ate rather early in the morning. The two were still heroes after all and they don't really enjoy eating while over 100 eyes are watching them.
The two dragons continued to talk about the tournament as they walked towards the counter and placed their meals.
Spyro ordered a boar and Cynder ordered a sheep. Because of the large number of cooks, the two dragons didn't return to their table but just waited for their meals to arrive.
Because of the large number of cooks it took them very little time to prepare the two animals, and having received their meals, the two dragons walked towards their usual table.
As Cynder looked around before digging in she found the kitchen look kind of empty.
There were tables and chairs everywhere but they were all empty. The two of them were sitting alone in the kitchen.
"So how do you think Ember is going to do today?" Spyro brought her attention back to him now.
"I don't know Spyro. I think she will do fine." Cynder said casually. She wasn't worried. Ember was not a dragoness who was going to lose so soon.
She was a very powerful dragoness. Cynder knew that very well. She even started to wonder now what it might be to battle against Ember herself one day.
That would surely be some battle.
"Yeah, she is creative." Spyro replied.
The two dragons continued to talk about the tournament for the remainder of their meal.
Spyro was especially interested in Ember so they mostly talked about her. Cynder did think it a little irritating to solely talk about her but also was interested in what Spyro and Ember had actually done yesterday. Spyro hadn't told her anything about it yet.
Meanwhile in the centre of the city that same dragoness had just finished her meal together with her mom.
She looked up to her as her mother just finished swallowing the last pieces from their sheep.
"Hey mom." She said.
"Yes?"
"Thanks for giving me those pointers about my battling style." She said. Ember was sure that without her mom's advice, she wouldn't have been able to defeat Inge yesterday.
"Just keep them in mind." Her mother replied, her voice not giving much emotion.
Ember didn't pursue that question as she had something else she wanted to ask.
"Mom, can I go to Georga now?" She asked. She really wanted to visit her friend again. It felt like it had been forever since she had last been there.
"No, you're going to come with me." Her mother said sternly.
Ember dropped her head a little in disappointment and instead went to the garden to train.
When she was out she practiced her fire attacks as she had learned yesterday that her thermal coat wasn't unbeatable. Inge was tough and she was just the first opponent she would have to face now.
"If I still want to win the cup then I have to get better." Ember thought determined, her body filling up with energy.
She now stopped practicing and started pondering about what she needed to do.
"Other moves..." It was obviously the solution. She doubted she could push the thermal coat any further so her new technique needed to be of a different sort.
Something new, something that her opponent wouldn't expect.
She kept thinking trying to come up with new moves but didn't really get many bright ideas.
After spending 20 minutes and coming up with zero results Ember gave up on the pondering and got training again.
She just did what she had trained before yesterday. Improving her speed and her control of the thermal coat.
It wasn't what was going to do the trick for her major opponents but any increase in strength would help.
Ember had just activated her thermal coat again when she heard a familiar sound from inside the house.
"Ember!" Her mother shouted, indicating that it was time for her to go.
Ember walked back inside the house and joined her mother's side.
"Ready?" Her mother asked, sounding more like a demand than a actual question.
"Sure." Ember nodded eccentric, she was always ready for another battle.
They walked outside and both Ember and her mother spread their wing to head for the citadel.
As they flew Ember found it far more pleasant to go together with her mother than going alone. It always felt better to fly with her. She was her mother after all.
Her mother might not say anything during the flight, but that didn't really bother her. Her mother just wasn't a very talkative person and it felt reassuring for Ember to be with her.
She flew a little bit closer to her and got just next to the underside of her belly. Why there she didn't know but she just felt like it.
When they reached the citadel her mother walked inside and Ember followed close behind.
As they walked the number of strange dragons around them increased and Ember got a little closer to her mother. Crowds just weren't really her thing.
Her mother didn't seem to notice it at first but she could feel it for certain. She didn't look at her but she pushed Ember away with her right hind paw.
"Mom?" Ember asked clueless as she wanted to stay. It was not that she couldn't handle the crowd but she just didn't like it.
"Keep to yourself!" Her mother snapped as she seemed to reject her.
Ember felt a little bit hurt by it, but pushed that thought away. After all she was no hatchling anymore.
Following her mother through the crowd at a reasonable distance this time Ember reached the time-tables and looked up to find out when her next match was going to be.
She found it quickly as she already knew where to search.
The list indicated that she was going to face a dragon named Nitro and it was already at 8:30. Her match was the first one today.
"Mom, my battle is almost up." Ember said as the clock read 8:20 "Can I go now?"
"Sure." Her mother said a bit uninterested as she looked for her own match. She didn't even turn to look at her.
Just ignoring her mother's uninterested attitude Ember walked away.
She still wanted to say 'hi' to her friends in the honour box before she went to her battle.
After forcing herself through the crowd again she looked around in the honour box to see who was already there.
Cynder was standing in the corner talking to Spyro. Above his head the three dragonflies were floating like usual. Further in the honour box were Frost and a couple of other dragons. Georga had apparently not arrived yet.
"Hallo there Ember." Nina said kindly.
"Hallo." Ember replied.
"My battle is up soon." She said mostly to everyone.
"Good luck with it then." Nina said.
"Yeah, she's going to need it with that performance yesterday." Sparx said.
This hit Ember quite hard. Did she really look that pathetic yesterday?!
"Au!" Sparx cried as his dad gave him a pull on his antenna.
"You don't say things like that Sparx!" His dad said in a sharp and authoritarian voice.
Ember couldn't help but chuckled a bit. She could understand Sparx's pain.
"Well I'm off." She said "Bye."
"Bye." Most of her friends said.
Ember walked out of the honour box to get to her place for the match she suddenly stopped as she saw Georga emerging from the large crowd of dragons.
"So going to watch his match today?" Georga with a hint of annoyance as Ember was now leaving the honour box.
"I'm sorry that I missed his match yesterday Georga." Ember said knowing very well 'him' meant Oxidus.
"I was just so caught up in Spyro's stories that I just forgot."
"Yeah, well, just don't forget it again!" Georga said, her face twisting into a dark frown, while she tried to imitate the demonic glare her mother had.
However Ember found it to be a big failure. With her face all twisted up Georga looked really stupid rather than intimidating. Nobody ever could come close to the frightening leer her mother possessed.
"I have a battle now." Ember said holding back a few chuckles from Georga's failed attempt.
"Good luck then." Georga said smiling instantly dropping the act.
"I won't need that." Ember said a bit cocky tossing her head up.
"Well, do your best anyway." Georga said as she walked past her.
"Ember is sure working hard." Georga thought as Ember was already in the second match of the victory tournament.
"I hope she wins, because if she does, she'll will have deserved it." Georga thought that Ember really was an dragoness who could win it.
And not only could she win, but Ember also really wanted to win. She really wanted that match with Spyro.
As Georga tried to imagine it she didn't guess Ember acting as such a terrible guardian either. Ember was honourable, responsible and able to keep calm in almost any situation. All the characteristics that were necessary for a guardian.
Since the Igus cup began the bond between Georga and Ember had grown considerably.
Since the siege Ember had been injured during the siege. But when she had been healed she had done a great deal of voluntary work to rebuild the city. Georga was very busy with Oxidus and the death of his mother so they hadn't really spend that much time together.
"Hi Georga." Cynder said as Georga entered the box.
"Hi Cynder, Ember just went by?" She asked rhetorically.
"Yeah, she just wanted to say 'hi' to us before the battle." Spyro said.
Georga laid down near the edge of the large box like she often did to watch the matches.
"I wonder how this battle will go." Cynder said excited as she walked up to her and laid down next to her.
"Yeah, we can only guess." Georga said smiling.
Suddenly she remembered something "By the way Cynder," She said. "You were right."
"Right? About what?" Cynder asked clueless.
"Since the victory tournament has began the battles have been a lot more fun to watch." Georga said grinning.
"You're right in that, Georga." Spyro said having moved with Cynder "With every passing round they keep getting better and better" he said with almost a hatchling like excitement.
"For sure." Georga nodded in agreement.
Her attention was drawn into the arena as Terrador got into position to referee the first match.
"I hope Ember wins." Georga forced herself to think as deep inside she somewhere wanted Ember to loose.
She would not like it if she won.
Just as that thought was circling through her head Georga spotted Ember walk into the arena.
Ember looked confident, eager and strong like always so Georga shifted towards Ember's opponent.
Nitrus was a male of a medium build and with long horns. She couldn't spot anything remarkable but she knew that right now there were no weak dragons in the tournament anymore. He must be tougher than he looked.
"There are no more easy fights." She said in her head.
Ember clashed her tiny tail against the thick tail of the adult dragon and they nodded before turning their backs on each other and walking back.
"Ready, get set, Fight!" Terrador shouted. While he was shouting it Georga could see Ember's body light up.
At the second the battle started Ember made the first move.
Normally she waited for her opponent to make a move but this time she took the offensive.
She ran towards her opponent to try and jump into him, then she could burn him with the high temperature of her body. Her usual tactic.
However Nitrus wouldn't let that happen braced his hind legs.
With a speed that was very impressive for a dragon his size he jumped over Ember.
As he went over her he grabbed Ember's tiny horn in his mouth and dug himself into the ground with his hind legs.
Grabbing the horns didn't seem to burn him so he could hold it without any ill effects.
Ember didn't even get a chance to see what was happening as he threw her away and she crashed hard into the wall of the arena. She wheezed as the air was forced out of her from the heavy blow.
Nitrus was not going to spoil his opportunity with her. He couldn't touch her but if he could put a claw at her throat he would still win the match nonetheless.
He used a comet dash to reach her more quickly. This was a very risky move since there was a real danger he could crash into the wall if he didn't stop in time. Ember was far too small to break the collision.
Suddenly, as if vanished by magic, he stopped and his claws went into the direction of Ember's head.
He sure was incredibly agile for a male of his size and his battle instincts also were no laughing matter. Yet Ember was not out of the fight just yet.
Ember might have taken a hard hit, but she was fully aware of what was happening and wasn't going to let it.
Just as he was about to grab her horn with his paw again she moved her hind legs backward and braced herself against the wall. Jumping forwards she clamped onto his front paw, digging her claws in to keep grip.
Nitrus screamed as his scales were burned by the extreme heat given off by the glowing pink dragoness.
Ember now let go of his paw but she wasn't finished with her assault just yet.
With a rather slow speed she jumped towards him and now grabbed his chest scales.
Because Nitrus couldn't see Ember he noticed it too late to avoid it.
He screamed out again as now his chest was being burned, this time with every bit of Ember's body and not just her chest.
Smoke started rising and sizzling sounds could be heard.
"Ember surely lives up to her name" Georga thought grimly.
Then Ember did something very unexpected.
She dug her claws into Nitrus and climbed up towards his neck. It was only a short distance for her to travel, but it was odd seeing a young dragoness climb up an adult like that.
Nitrus shook his chest violently to get her off.
Ember dug her claws deep into his neck to try and hold on, but still couldn't get sufficient grip.
After a hard swing to the right she lost her hold on him and she only just managed to avoid crashing by flapping her wings in the nick of time.
Nitrus now did another comet dash her way hoping his size would give him an edge.
However just as he came in range Ember jumped and with her tiny paws grabbed hold of his neck.
Nitrus was still engulfed in flames but Ember's thermal coat protected her from the heat.
Nitrus quickly stopped his attack as he saw what she was up to but it was too late.
Ember put her claws at his throat and at that moment she also deactivated her heat attack.
"The winner is queen of burns, Ember!" Terrador shouted.
Ember walked out of the arena, her head held high and filled of satisfaction. Although it hadn't been an easy battle she had won it.
"That was good Ember, but now what are you going to do?" Georga thought a bit fearfully.
There was still a possibility that it might be avoided so Georga hoped on that.
However the possibility seemed very remote, so it was now very likely that Ember would have to do it.
"That Ember is sure smart." Cynder said as she seemed impressed by Ember's resourcefulness.
"Yeah, she sure is." Georga said but she was worried about what Ember might think now that she had to do it.
"Something wrong?" Cynder asked as apparently her worry was noticeable in her voice.
"Haven't you guys checked out the match-ups?" Georga asked Cynder but also everyone else.
"Well, yes for today." Spyro now said.
"Yeah, same here." Cynder said.
"Well I suggest you look into the battles of tomorrow." Georga said.
"Hello." the always sweet voice of Ember announced her arrival.
"Hello Ember." Georga said as she weaved with her wing for her to join her.
Ember smiled and laid down next to her.
"How do you think it went?" Ember asked curious and still excited from the battle.
"Very good Ember. It was smart to get into his comet dash and do that." Georga said complimenting.
"Now it is just 4 battles before I get a shot at battling Spyro." Ember said highly excited.
"Why do you want to battle me anyway? Most females want Cynder." Spyro said looking at Cynder. This was true, most males seemed interested to test themselves against Spyro while most females were eager to challenge Cynder.
Ember suddenly looked nervous and quickly shifted her view back and forth from Cynder to Spyro, seemingly very unsure of what to say at this moment. Or maybe she was looking to him for support, Georga wasn't really sure.
After reading the situation Ember felt that she had no choice but to admit it.
"Well, it's just that, I've always been a large fan of you Spyro." Ember admitted shyly while her cheeks flushed red very quickly.
"Yeah who isn't?" Georga said sarcastically. Having experience with how much Spyro hated fans.
"Hey! Wait a second there pinky!" Sparx exclaimed "Is that the only reason you came to look up our birthplace?!" he now asked sharply, attempting to sound intimidating but failing miserably. "Humph, should have figured" he grumbled.
"Course not!" Ember shouted defensibly "I was really interested but, I have just always liked Spyro." Ember said as she looked shyly towards Spyro, her blush intensifying even more.
"That's fine Ember." Spyro said as he walked a bit closer now.
Ember was still feeling a bit embarrassed but she forced herself not to cringe in as Spyro approached her up till just a few centimetres.
Georga was watching with joy at Ember being put through this torment. Ember had always seemed unbreakable and so strong. It felt kind of good that she finally was ripped of her high wings.
"Hey isn't Wilmfe your mother Ember?" Cynder asked a bit unfriendly what broke the moment.
"What? Well, yes, she is." Ember stammered a bit surprised by the sudden question.
"Well her battle is beginning." Cynder said, which immediately directed Ember's attention down towards the battle ground.
She looked and indeed saw the crimson red Infernal Diva walk out of the iron gates and into the arena to begin her second match of the victory tournament.
"Do you best mom." Ember encouraged silently, too embarrassed to cheer her mother on in public.
Her mother walked to the middle of the arena and there she clashed her tail with her opponent.
It was a bright orange fire dragoness who looked a lot like her. She too had long back spikes and a strong build. However with the spikes being red instead of ominous black and also having a much lighter colour overall she didn't look as infernal as Wilmfe did.
Despite that, the similarity between the two dragonesses was very striking.
"Ready, get set, Fight!" Cyril shouted.
At the first second Wilmfe and Thermana used a comet dash and clashed head to head in the arena.
The blast unleashed an explosion what temporarily blocked the view from the spectators.
When the smoke cleared it revealed Wilmfe en Thermana strangled and wrestling over each other to try and pin the other down.
Wilmfe was laying on her back and Thermana was laying with her belly over her.
They both tried to grab hold of the other's paws and tail but their speed and strength was too similar.
Wilmfe and Thermana not only looked alike but they also seemed to be of equal strength. Neither one could get any visible edge over the other.
Suddenly, trying to break the tide, Wilmfe trusted her head forward and struck Thermana in her neck.
Thermana was struck by a jolt of pain which caused her to be distracted and stop resisting for a second.
Wilmfe took advantage of this one second, and using her wings to push herself up while throwing Thermana off of her.
She then instantly followed it up with a comet dash. Thermana was still a bit confused by being thrown off and spotted it too late. Wilmfe hit her full on hard in her soft belly.
Thermana wheezed but recovered very quickly. Flapped her wings sideways to make a rapid turn and attacked with a high speed fire breath to Wilmfe's flank.
Wilmfe didn't spot it as she had only just stopped her comet dash and her vision was blocked by the flames.
Wilmfe was blasted away and crashed into the ground. She quickly got up again and growled at her opponent.
Thermana also had recovered and roared back.
The two kept roaring and snarling at each other for about a minute.
Then they both veered their heads up and took a deep breath.
The dragonesses breathed a stream fire at each other.
The two attacks clashed and they both tried to force more power into it and push it away.
They were very evenly matched, so the point of connection kept steady for almost an entire minute.
However, it slowly became apparent that Wilmfe was starting to gain the upper hand as it seemed her energy supply outmatched Thermana's.
Thermana pushed her every bit of power into her attack. Feeling the power increase Wilmfe pulled out all the stops as well.
The two streams almost doubled in size and the two battlers dug their claws into the ground to keep steady against the powerful recoil.
However increasing the power was a pointless effort from Thermana as the essence of the situation hadn't chanced at all. The only thing she had achieved was that now the clash would be over sooner because they were both using up their energy supplies much faster.
Suddenly Thermana's attack stopped as she completely ran out of power.
Wilmfe's stream shot towards her and quickly enveloped her in fire.
Thermana was gasping pain and was clearly suffering from the fire, despite being a fire dragon it really seemed to cause major damage.
Wilmfe broke her attack and ran towards her, too tired to still use a comet dash.
The flames around Thermana disappeared but that didn't matter anymore. She was completely exhausted and therefore defenceless.
Wilmfe grabbed Thermana's head and put her claw at her throat.
"The winner is Infernal Diva Wilmfe!" Cyril shouted.
"Mom is so great isn't she?" Ember exclaimed, panting and all but bouncing around from excitement.
"Yeah she sure is powerful." Georga said as she knew what this meant.
It really seemed like Ember didn't know it yet. Georga wondered for a short moment if maybe she should tell her now.
"No, let's do that later." She decided as Ember wouldn't like it at all. She was now so excited and happy, it would be a real shame to break it.
Having pushed it to the back of her mind Georga looked around for something to shift her attention to.
The first thing she saw Ember walk out of the box again, most likely to talk to her mother.
"Ember." Georga muttered, almost getting a feeling of awe of her. She still couldn't believe sometimes how Ember was so strong that the spankings didn't make her afraid of her mother at all.
No matter what seemed to happen Ember didn't fear her and even searched her out for comfort when she was scared. She adored her and really seemed to look up to her mother.
That thought brought about something else in Georga.
"Oxidus, what is going on with you?" She wondered. She had promised herself not to ponder about him but preventing that was difficult.
"No, the time isn't there yet so I can't think about it!" She demanded of herself.
Georga just laid back down and watched the matches unfold beneath her.
"But, when will the time be?" She wondered a bit sadly as she forced her attention to the match. However she was barely taking in any of it.
"You were great mom!" Ember said excited to the her.
Her mother had just exited the battle arena and stood near the entrance, completely exhausted from the battle.
She was gasping deeply and it nearly took 5 seconds before she answered Ember.
"Yeah, it wasn't easy, but I did it." She wheezed as her energy levels were very low.
"I will go home now." Her mother said as she turned around to leave.
"I will be back home before dinner." Ember said as it was her usual curfew.
"Fine." Her mother almost grunted, not turning her head to look at Ember.
Ember watched her mother stumble a little as she walked towards the exit. It was clear she was exhausted.
"It was pretty intense after all." Ember thought to herself, as the battle had come down to stamina. It was no wonder that her mother was so tired.
"Now what to do?" Ember thought as she now was standing alone in the citadel. Her battle was over and those of Flame and Oxidus were still hours away.
The gang of Frost was busy with the tournament and Flame was also no option. Spyro and Cynder were absorbed in the tournament as well for that matter.
After thinking about for a few minutes she decided just to watch some random matches as well until she thought of something better.
She walked back to the honour box where she approached Spyro who was in a conversation with Cynder who lay to his left.
"Mind if I join you?" She asked as was polite.
"Sure, go ahead." Spyro said as he turned his head around to look.
Ember laid down on the right side of Spyro while Cynder still laid on the left. Georga lie next to Cynder and Frost was about a metre away.
Sparx and his parents floated above them and they waited for the next battle to begin.
"Hey Ember." Spyro asked after a while, trying to start a conversation with her now.
"Yes?"
"What do you think about-" He started.
"Playing at home with you!" Georga finished for him.
"Well actually about-" Spyro started again but Georga cut him off once more.
"That he has never been in your house before" Georga said his sentence again.
Spyro looked a bit annoyed at Georga but she shook her head quickly, indicating to Spyro not to tell it.
Spyro finally got the hint and said nothing more.
"So does Spyro want to come or not?" Ember asked as she was a bit confused by the way Georga kept cutting him off.
Spyro didn't contradict Georga, as it was clear that Georga wanted to keep him from saying something.
"Sure." Spyro said as it did sound like fun to him.
"Do you want to come as well Cynder?" Spyro asked.
"Well, I-" Cynder had to think about it for some time.
She looked towards Spyro who smiled eagerly "Okay, I will" Cynder nodded.
"Mind one more?" Frost asked as he got up from the floor.
"Not at all, come along." Ember smiled as she loved to play with friends.
With that the 5 dragons walked out of the honour box.
However then Ember stopped for a second "So what are you going to do?" Ember asked the three dragonflies simultaneously.
"We'll just come along" Nina answered.
"But what are you going to do?" Ember asked as she couldn't think of something.
"Oh, don't worry about us, we're used to staying on the side lines." Sparx said cynically obviously a bit annoyed by the fact.
Seeing that it apparently was fine, Ember just dismissed it and turned her attention back to her friends.
They walked out of the citadel and, while talking about things they were going to do they left towards Ember's house.
As the five friends were flying Ember turned towards Frost as there still was something she would like to ask him.
"By the way Frost." she said to draw his attention.
"Yes?"
"How did your dad react after his little clash with Cyril?" she asked.
"Yeah, how did he blow off his steam?" Sparx said highly interested.
"Well he was furious, as you would expect you have seen" Frost answered, ignoring Sparx.
"Did you also get punished for it?" Ember asked further.
"After all you also did say that you liked Igüsa while your father despises her." Spyro added from next to her.
"No I didn't get punished. Well, not really." Frost snickered in amusement.
"He just went grumbling by all day, the only thing I needed to do was listen to his endless tirade about how great he was, how bad Cyril was and how low Igüsa was." Frost said.
"That sounds boring." Ember stated.
"You have no idea." Frost said cynically as he slowly shook his head. His voice was cold but also had something of amusement in it.
Believing that details of an endless tirade from Blizzard wasn't worth asking for, Ember looked down and saw the central square already appear into view.
She dove down and landed in front of her house, The 4 other's landing right behind her.
They walked into the house, Ember opening the door for them.
"Oh, you're home and-" Wilmfe appeared from the corridor but then looked a bit surprised by seeing so many dragons walk in together with her daughter.
"Can they all come mom?" Ember asked as it indeed was quite a crowd she had brought with her.
"Sure, just don't damage anything." Her mother answered a bit uninterested.
She turned around and disappeared again, most likely to get some more rest.
Most might have dismissed the second part as unimportant but Ember took it to heart. If they did damage something, she would be the one who would have to pay for it. And Ember knew perfectly well how her mother collected a bill.
"So what do you have here to play with?" Frost asked when Wilmfe had left them.
"Well-" Ember quickly tried to think up a game or toy that they could all play together.
Her favourite toy had always been her strangle ropes but Ember didn't really know a way so that 5 dragons could play with them at once.
She quickly searched for something, was there something they could all do together with it.
"Wait a second!" Ember exclaimed, as she suddenly had an idea. "Let's go outside" She suggested "I'll go and pick up what we need."
None of her friends asked her any question and they all walked outside into the garden.
Ember walked to her room and picked up the thing she played the most with. Her roughly bonded bunch of strangle ropes.
The ropes were about 0,3 centimetres thick and came in a wide variety of bright happy colours.
"What are you going to do with those?" A female voice asked.
"Huh? What!?" Ember looked around her room but didn't see anyone.
"Up here." Ember now spotted that Nina had followed her.
"You'll see." She said smirking as she rolled up ten of her ropes into a neat ring and picked it up in her mouth.
The bundle of ten ropes wasn't easy for her to carry. All the ropes together was a lot of stuff to have inside her mouth and her jaws were stretched to the limit.
However she walked out of her room and into the garden where she found her friends waiting, looking at her intrigued.
"What are you planning with those?" Georga asked although it was obvious that Ember couldn't answer her.
Because it was such an obvious thing that she couldn't answer Ember also just ignored her and walked towards one of the trees in the garden. As soon as she had put down the bundle of ropes she got to work on bonding them to the tree. With 10 ropes to bind, it would take her quite some time.
Luckily Spyro, Frost and Georga came and helped her even though they had no idea of why she was doing it.
Cynder didn't help but Ember didn't blame her. She knew that Cynder had a very poor dexterity so she just concluded that Cynder thought that she would be more of a burden than a help.
When all the 10 ropes were bonded to the tree Ember picked them up and hung them to another tree on the other side of the garden. The ropes were about 20 metres long so she could span them over quite a distance.
She made sure they were intertwined as much as possible so that they would be able to share the load.
This time Cynder also came to help and they guided the ropes to the tree and, once there bonded them as well.
When the rope was on the tree Ember did her best to tighten it. The rope was long and she couldn't really get it very tight.
"So now what?" Spyro asked as Ember had said that it was enough.
"Yeah we have created your little clotheslines but what's next?" Sparx asked.
"Let's try to climb on it." Ember proclaimed.
"Climb?" The four dragons and the dragonfly gasped.
It was a very strange idea indeed.
Seeing there bewildered faces Ember also started to doubt it, the idea seemed pretty good in her head but now that she actually looked at it, it did look a bit lame. It was just a large rope hanging from a tree.
Ember pushed the thoughts away and walked to the tree where they had started. She figured that the best way to start it is to begin herself and hope they would like the game.
Actually she wasn't really sure of how to do this but she just jumped on the ropes and spread her wings wide to try and keep balance.
It was tough, but slowly she put one paw in front of the other as she delicately moved along the rope.
Strangle ropes are very strong. They are made so that even adult dragons can play with them. Therefore 10 strangle ropes bonded together could take the weight of a young dragon like Ember with ease.
Ember had a good sense of balance from all of her battles but even for her it was difficult.
The paws of a dragon have 3 toes directed forward. However they can't bent their feet all the way around, so Ember couldn't grab the rope she walked on.
She had to use purely her sense of balance to not fall off. Also the ropes were not on very tight. They sagged from Ember's weight what made climbing them even more tougher.
Though it was difficult Ember slowly found her balance on the rope and tried to get into a rhythm of walking.
However after taking just a few steps Ember tilted very slightly to the right. She still tried to correct it but that was futile.
After only having passed about 1 metre she fell with her back hard on the ground.
She landed with a loud thud, and the pink dragoness lay slightly dazed on the ground, unharmed from the fall.
Suddenly she was slightly startled when the face of Spyro suddenly fully filled up her view "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Sure." Ember chirped and she rolled back to her feet.
"Care to try it?" Ember asked. Her failed demonstration brought a more doubt with her.
Her four friends all stood idle and exchanged glances. It still seemed a bit like a weird idea.
However then Spyro walked out of the crowd and jumped on the rope.
He tried to pin to rope between the footpads of his paws in the hope that he had some point he could use to hold on to for grip.
The entangled rope was very thick but Spyro did manage to squeeze it in between. However that was not a very pleasant experience as the sensitive footpads were pushed outwards.
However despite the discomfort it worked decently and Spyro got about twice as far as Ember.
He went 2 metres before a slight gust of wind distorted his sense of balance.
Spyro still tried to balance himself by flickering with his wings but without a solid point to hold on to he fell down as well.
He landed on his back but he had folded his wings in just before he hit the ground so they cushioned most of the impact. He didn't even have a bruise.
Quickly rolling back to his feet he saw that Ember had approached him.
"Better, I guess." Ember said smiling.
"Yeah, it sure is tougher than it looks" Spyro said.
"I want to try next!" Georga said as she now jumped on the ropes.
Instead of spreading her wings like Spyro and Ember had done she instead folded them in and raised her tail up to just above her folded wings.
Ember was a bit surprised by this at first but when Georga started walking on the thin bridge she understood what the plan was behind it.
Georga's had a very heavy tail appendix. By trying to keep it in the air and moving it the other way she was falling Georga tried to let it act like a sort of pendulum to balance herself.
The trick worked and it brought her even further, she walked along the rope for 4 while moving her tail slightly left and right to counteract any imbalance she felt.
However then she made a misstep with her right paw and it slit off the rope. In reflex she moved her tailglobe to the left but she did it too much.
Her body weight shifted much too far to the left and her paws lost their footing.
She fell down from the rope but wasn't hurt. They were getting progressively better at it but the bridge was a full 15 metres long and Georga had not even come to a third of that.
"I'm next" Frost said as it felt it was his turn now. He eagerly raced towards the rope and jumped on.
However after making only like 5 steps he already fell down. Unlike the other's he didn't get a chance to use his wings to brake his fall and fell down hard on his head.
The others quickly ran up to him worried that he might be hurt. However he just looked up to them while grinning.
"Well, that could have gone better." He said as he rubbed his head painfully, being sure a bump was there.
Now all the friends laughed from it and Frost couldn't help but laugh as well.
"Well only one left!" Sparx said smirking, once they were all finished laughing.
Ember wondered why he found it so amusing as she couldn't spot the joke in it.
Feeling what was expected Cynder took a step back from everyone and didn't seem so willing to do it as everyone else had been.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you're scared" Georga said mockingly as she spotted Cynder backing away from them.
"I-I just don't feel like it" Cynder said nervous.
"Well we do so up you go!" Georga said with a voice not open to any debate as she walked behind Cynder.
Cynder looked a bit desperately towards Spyro but he just looked away towards one of the trees as if observing it. She wouldn't get any help from him.
Then Ember spotted Cynder look at Frost who also looked away, choosing to observe her house.
Seeing how it worked Ember shot her head up and observed the weather for the day.
It was clouded everywhere and the sun was only just visible behind a thin layer of grey clouds. It was a rather cold day for this time of year and clouds was all that the sky was filled with. Ember just hoped that with this many clouds in the sky it was not going to rain.
The fascinating colour of grey everywhere kept her attention for about 15 seconds and then Ember looked back at Cynder who was being guided towards the rope by Georga.
Cynder clearly didn't want to climb over the rope yet she didn't want to drop out on the gang.
When she had arrived at the tree Georga left her and all eyes looked at Cynder with anticipation.
Cynder looked back for a moment, spotting their anxious faces she more or less forced herself to do it.
She still let out a deep tired sigh before jumping up to the rope.
With her long silver claws she trapped the rope tightly between her paws to keep hold of it and guided it past her footpads.
Cynder walked on the rope much faster than the other ones had done but kept her balance perfectly on the thin span.
Ember looked with amazement at Cynder's sense of balance.
It had been a major challenge for her to just make a few steps on the rope, it was so thin and it moved up and down very much. Yet Cynder didn't seem to suffer from any of that at all as she moved on the rope perfectly fine.
However as well as she went Cynder didn't reach the end of the rope and fell off because of a gust of wind. She had reached about 9 metres, which was still more than double of what Georga had reached.
Now it was Ember's turn again.
She jumped on the rope and after having observed her friends she used a few tactics from them to try and do it better this time. However she didn't have a heavy tail like Georga nor had she the long talons like Cynder.
She raised her tail all the way up over her head and folded her wings inwards.
It worked decently with her and this time she went 3 metres before falling off again.
The five friends continued to climb and fall off again and again, trying everything they could come up with to reach the full 15 metres but none of them ever succeeded.
After doing it for about an hour they more or less decided the fun was out of it so they quitted without much argument.
The record had been made by Cynder: 11 metres.
"So what now?" Georga asked.
As they were at Ember's place she felt that she would be the one who had to come up with a new game for them.
"What to do?" She thought. The expecting gaze of her friends put pressure on her. They of course didn't mean to pressure her that but Ember still felt chased by it.
However unlike last time Ember now couldn't think of something.
"I need to coil my tail around somethi... That's it!" Ember suddenly had another brilliant idea.
"That was a test of balance" she said grandly to get their attention.
It worked well and they all looked towards her with expecting gazes.
"The next test is going to be of endurance" She said with the best authoritarian voice she could muster.
"And what did you have in mind, Ember-sensei?" Sparx asked.
"Well Sparx-san" Ember said although the joke sounded better in her head. "It's to see who can muster up the most-" she stopped her sentence there.
"The most what?!" Frost urged impatiently as Ember had hoped he would.
"Tolerance" Ember said, chuckling with an almost sadistically sense of humour.
"Well what were you thinking of?" Cynder said dryly and almost venomous.
"Well to summarize it-" Ember tried to draw it out as long as she could.
However after waiting for multiple seconds and with her friend's faces going from anxious to annoyed she felt like she had to tell it.
"We hang from that rope and the last one to remain wins" She said.
"Hang? With what?" Spyro asked, curiously cocking his head.
Ember didn't speak but she raised her tail and flickered it in the air to sent the message.
"What?! Um," Spyro exclaimed understanding what she was up to.
Frost, Cynder and Georga also had doubts about it. They started muttering to each other.
"Oh, come on you guys" Ember urged bring up enthusiasm. "I'll be fun"
"Well, Okay then" Spyro agreed.
"If I have to" Georga gruntingly agreed.
"Just one time only!" Frost now agreed as well.
Ember now looked to Cynder who, just like before seemed to be the least willing of them all.
Ember felt like just like Georga had done last time, she needed to give Cynder a little nudge. "Come on Cynder" Ember pressed.
"Well I-"
"Will do it Ember" Sparx answered for her.
Ember quickly caught on "Fine Cynder, hope you win it as well."
Cynder came along although by her stance it was clear she didn't really want to do this.
"Hey, where are you going?" Spyro asked as he spotted Sparx heading into the house.
"Dragons hanging upside down from a washing line, that my parents gotta see." Sparx said highly amused.
Ember now tried to picture it in her head. It did look a bit humiliating to be hanging like that but somewhere she also could see the fun in it, maybe because of the humiliation.
Ember took the initiative and walked towards the line that was hanging between the trees.
The line was about 1.5 metres in the air. Ember really had a luck in that. It was exactly the right height. Low enough for them to reach yet high enough to hang from.
The rest of the group now positioned themselves next to Ember and they all stood side by side underneath the rope, ready for the sign.
"1, 2, 3, Now!" Ember shouted.
At her que all the five dragons jumped and flipped over. They hang their tail on the rope and cramped it tightly. All of them grabbed hold and they were now hanging upside down side by side on the rope span between the trees.
It sure was a weird sight. The closest thing to compare it with are death animals hanging in a butcher shop.
As Ember hang by her tail she was already feeling the muscles in her tail starting to ache after only the first minute had passed.
It was heavy to support her entire weight just with her tail alone and that they were hanging upside down also didn't really help.
She could most certainly feel her face becoming red and her thoughts light as the blood all rushed to her head.
However she ignored the cramp and discomfort and continued to hang while tightening her grip a little more.
Doing this was far tougher than Ember had expected it to be. Her tail muscles ached from it more and more and her head seemed like it was on fire.
'THUD!' Ember quickly looked around and spotted Georga on the grass. She was the first who gave up. That she had a large globe as a tail appendix was a disadvantage for her here.
Ember just forgot about it as she kept focusing on keeping herself up.
Her tail muscles kept aching more and more painfully with each second that passed and she clenched her jaws tight to keep her muscles contracted and keep herself up.
However biting through pain was something Ember was used to so she could handle it.
'THUD!' Now another one fell but Ember had her eyes closed and didn't look.
She needed all her focus on keeping her tail curled and herself suspended.
"Well, who would have thought?" Ember heard the voice of her mother say.
She just ignored that as well but the strain on her muscles was starting to almost become unbearable.
'THUD!' Another one had fallen and she knew that meant that only she and one other were still hanging.
Multiple seconds passed but for Ember it seemed more like hours as she kept her muscles contracted despite that they were very tired.
She tensed up every muscle in her entire body as to find any way to fend off her fatigue.
'THUD!' the sound was more beautiful than any Ember had ever heard in her life.
She eagerly released herself a second later and finally fell down safely on the ground. Her tail finally able to get some rest.
She looked to her side and saw that it had been Spyro who had fallen last.
He was still lying on his back in the same pose as he had fallen in, his paws nursing his aching tail.
Ember now also felt dazed and air-headed as the blood finally returned to the rest of her body.
"Well looks like you won this round." Spyro said as he finally got up.
"Well I think that if you had held on for one more second you would have won." Ember said as she also got up from the ground.
She walked towards her group of friends, her tail dragging uncomfortably along the ground.
"Now that was something new." Ember looked to see her mother standing in the garden with an amused look on her face. The look was mostly from surprise but Wilmfe also had found it a bit comical to watch them all hanging upside down.
"Yeah, just trying to be creative." Ember shrugged, a whelpling smile across her face.
"And creative it was." Nina said.
Nina and Flash were floating beside her mother who smiled back at Ember.
"Hey mom, what time is it?" Ember asked.
"It is 13:50." Her mother answered plainly.
"Guess we better go to the arena now if we don't want to miss the battle of Oxidus" Georga said, casting Ember a strong suggestive look.
"Yeah, guess so." Ember sighed a bit disappointed.
The 5 dragons turned around and spread their wings to fly away.
Ember looked back for a second and spotted her mother walking back inside, most likely to get some more rest. She had yet another battle to fight tomorrow after all.
The five young dragons took off and headed back towards the citadel to go and watch the matches of their friends.