Post-Apocalypse Paradise

3: Foresight & Hindsight

The sun had now finished more than a quarter of its journey across the sky - perched far above the horizon, it had eradicated nearly every lingering shadow from the world below. All shadows that is, but two - the shadows of two young dragons, gliding far above the earth on gentle winds, heading towards the ancient city of Warfang.

"You still back there, Spyro?" Cynder yelled, maintaining the lead she'd started at the Temple.

"Of course! I'm not that worn out." The purple dragon retorted, surveying the ground below and taking in the familiar landmarks.

"Oh, no, that's not what I meant." Cynder said flatly. "I meant, now that we've confirmed that I'm faster than you, are you sure you can keep up?"

Cynder snickered to herself, and Spyro put on a frown while he gave a violent wing beat to close the space between them.

"Okay, I could deal with the tickling because that was actually kinda funny, but there is no way I am getting emasculated about my speed." The male dragon declared with a chuckle. "If you weren't pumping my tail full of air blasts, I could have kept out of your reach all day."

"Oh, is that so?" Cynder said skeptically, glancing sideways at her gliding mate and being sure he saw her expression.

"Completely so." Spyro replied.

"Well, you wanna know what I think?" Cynder asked.

"Yeah?"

"Put your gems where your mouth is." Cynder said, competition now apparent in her voice. "No air blasts, no tickling. First one to Warfang wins. If you win, I'll concede. If I win, emasculation numero dos sets sail with no complaining."

"You're on." Spyro agreed, returning Cynder's confident smile. The two evened out their glides until they were in perfect sync, and set their sights on the distant sight of Warfang.

"Ready...set...GO!" Cynder yelled, before the two of them took off like rockets into the horizon.

"Honestly, Volteer..." A deep green dragon began, his voice filled with exhaustion. "Can we please just give out the work schedule already? These poor moles have volunteered their valuable time and have been kept waiting long enough, and we have a city to finish rebuilding."

"Oh of course, Terrador!" An electric-yellow dragon replied in earnest. "Why I wouldn't dream of keeping these kind folk from their work, they do such a splendid job with what they do and enjoy doing what they do, why keep them from it? I'm sure they'll have this grand old city rebuilt better than new in no time - they did such a splendid job the first time around, I've no reason to doubt they'll do an even more splendid job the second go of it. Why that is to say-"

Terrador, the Dragon Elder of Earth, sighed deeply. Just then, a bright blue dragon leaned over to his ear.

"You know old friend, even without Ignitus's help, I'm fairly certain we can re-affix the gag if we both jump him at once." The blue elder dragon whispered.

"No, Cyril." Terrador whispered back. "It'll just bottle up like last time, and come out worse later on. 'Ride the Storm', as Ignitus always use to say."

"-after all, these wonderful mole-folk originally built this lovely city for us dra-...why would you look at that!" Volteer said suddenly with fascination, staring towards the northern sky. "Don't look now dear fellows but I do believe we have company - and fast company, at that!"

The remaining two dragon elders turned their attention to the sky, just in time to see two small shapes rapidly approaching.

"Why, I do believe that's Spyro and Cynder." Cyril stated.