"Hero or fool?" I repeated.

Reena put the paper into an inside pocket. "Yeah, a hero to find him or a fool who'd actually be stupid enough to fly into the Whorl. Do you even realize what the Whorl IS?"

"No." I responded curtly. Sparx finally decided he'd had enough of trying to fight the wind, and hid in one of Reena's sleeves. "But I have a bad feeling it has something to do with that wind you warned me about."

"Smart dragon." She grinned. "Stormy Terrace has always been surrounded by these winds. They're called 'The Whorl'. At the bottom of the whorl is the base of the mountain— in there, supposedly, is the entrance to the Cleansing Chambers. As for what's in the Chambers . . . I don't want to know, and I doubt that you do, either."

I nodded. "So, how do we go about finding him? I'm sure he would hand us the scroll in reward for saving him. After all . . . how hard can it be for two dragons to fly a pilot out of there?"

She sighed. "You have NO idea . . .."

Reena

I wish I could've explained it to him right then and there. I wish I could've told him that no dragon's ever been able to fly out of the Whorl under their own wing power. That chances of the pilot still being alive— let alone the chances of the two of us being alive once we found either the pilot or his body— were slim to none.

Would he have listened?

I stopped him just before he was about to jump down. "Spyro Prime, we can't go unprepared. We'll need ropes."

"Ropes?" He looked up. "It's only a simple mission . . ."

"Since when is flying into the whorl ever simple? Besides, this is normal travel around the terrace. See those metal rings sticking out of the ground?" I said, pointing to one and threading it with a length of rope near where I was standing. "You attach one end of the rope to a ring, get to the next ring, tie it down, have someone untie the first knot, and 'hop' between rings until you get to where you need to go. Since we're trying to head down there, we'll have to make a rope chain down there without untying any of the rings. they way, we can get back up once we find the pilot. It'll be too difficult to fly up. At least going lateral, you can swing around until you reach something." I checked the knot, and looked down.

A quick gust came up, flipping my coat over my head. After silently cursing myself for exposing my backside to the wind, I jumped down, rope in hand, swinging with the winds. After gaining a little leverage, I was able to find some footholds near the first new ring, and tied the rope down. With that, I climbed back up to where Spyro Prime was waiting. "You get it tied down?"

"Of course. We just need to find some more pieces of rope so we can keep hopping down." He glared at me, looking at my left  sleeve. "Listen; I can't control what the wind did with my coat—"

"I don't care about the wind . . . . Where did Sparx go!?" He spoke, looking in my sleeve, I winced, and looked. His Sparx was still in there, but tucked deeply inside of the sleeve, clinging onto me. I sighed.

I quickly cooed a little something to the dragonfly, and buttoned up the cuffs. "There. Now he's less likely to fly out of my sleeve. He's safe." I convinced Spyro Prime. "Now, can we just find some ropes? That was the only one over here, so we'll have to glide with the winds to find more. Unless..." I entered one hut, finding another bundle of rope. "Good. We can do rope hopping instead." I tied the second rope to the first ring, and tied one of Spyro's legs to the other end. "There's an island just to the left you can reach. I'll follow behind you to get the next one, and then we can continue from there."

He nodded, and jumped into the air. I kept a hold onto the rope, flying up with him as the wind filled his wings and tried to pull him away. With a little luck, we made it to the second ring. I instructed Spyro Prime to stay back as I grabbed the next rope, and then we inched our way back.

"So . . . that's it? Just hop, get ropes, hop back, and repeat that until we get enough to reach the bottom."

"Correct." I replied.

"Crazy . . ."

"Crazy or sane, it's exactly what we'll have to do if we ever expect to get that scroll. Now, unless you want me to tie you up with the rope we just got, let's continue. I think there's another loop to the east that we can use to get to that chain of islands over there . . ."

ShadowSpyro

After I separated from Sparx to go 'practice', I headed off towards the courtyard near the temple. Glancing around, I saw Reena's faerie partner Mai'ko tending to the fountain, finding coins in the water for temple funds. I surprised her from behind, causing her to slip.

SPLASH!

"Spyro, considering that . . .." Mai'ko started to scold me, and then sighed. "Calm . . . I'm calm . . .."

I helped her, fishing a few gold coins out of the water and handing them to her. "Sorry, Mai. I just wanted to know if things were . . . in arrangement for the ceremony tonight."

"I'm afraid not. I'm afraid there's a bit of a crisis."

I looked over. "What sort of a crisis?"

"Shadow Crisis. A fool in the city tried to polish up Xoyto's disc. Needless to say, You-know-who is now at large. I've had to lock the temple entrances up for safekeeping. Speaking of the temple � Do you know where Reena is? I need to let her know about what I did. She'd panic if she thought the temple was in real danger."

"No." I sighed. "So the ceremony's delayed?"

"Only until I can safely open up the temple entrance to the Reaches." I glanced over at him. "Besides, you can afford to last a few more days. You've come too far to be so impatient."

"Mai'ko, it'll be a year tonight. I was hoping to have this done on the anniversary."

"You can last one more day before you get ma-MMPH!" She spoke, before I silenced her with two fingers over her mouth.

I hissed, keeping my staff on her to pin her down. "Keep your voice low! If Sensei Sadiki hears about this, he'll flay me!"

"If you would just explain to him the circumstances, I am sure he would not mind that you—"

"He WILL mind . . ..  Since I cannot walk without a crutch, he still considers me a student. If I'm a student, then I'm treated like a hatchling. No talk of love, no talk of dating, and Tahla forbid that he talk of marriage! I can't let him find out what I've been up to!"

She sighed, looking over at me. "Perhaps." She then stood up and stepped out of the fountain, looking over at me. "It's not even noon yet. I will have to check if the temple is safe. If You-know-who has not been able to leave the city, then perhaps the ceremony will concur tonight as scheduled. I make no promises."

I walked away from Mai'ko, hissing to myself. "You also make no trust."