Vortex : The Dragon Lands

Chapter 11 Number 7

Back at the cabin Jake had acted a bit strange but the others played it off as him having one too many drinks. Flame walked in a bit later with a dead deer as a midnight meal not to arouse suspicion of where he may have been. Everyone pulled an all nighter coming up with the perfect strategy, finally settling on a plan to infiltrate Malefor's mountain through the top while archers provided support from the bottom once they escaped with the hostages. Nearing the end of the planning Spyro began to notice Cynder was avoiding him all night turning down his deer hoof snack offerings as she focused abruptly on Jake's battle plans. "Hey Jake, Cynder, are you alright? If this strategy plan is a bit much I can help you plan out too".

Jake: "Oh um, thanks Spyro, but I think we've got everything in order, everyone's had a long night so we're going to discuss more tomorrow okay." Jake patted him on the shoulders. Spyro began to pick up a strong lingering scent, not concealing the fact he was obviously sniffing his arm."

Jake froze and turned to Cynder with fear in his eyes, "That's a strong scent you've got there, what is it?" Spyro said. Violet pounced on Jake's back pretending to be cheery, "Chanel Number 7, I spritzed Jake since he downed half a vodka bottle and hasn't showered in like 2 days." Spyro laughed "HAHAHA! 2 days, It's been almost a week since I've bathed and even I don't smell that bad, go take a shower buddy."

"Gross", Violet said.

Jake played his cards casually, "Hehe, You're totally right Spy. I'll get right on that first thing in the morning, right now we've gotta get some rest. We're heading out one of these days and we're gonna rescue our friends". Spyro couldn't help but notice Jake was nervous, he never called him Spy before, "Well you're right, let's get some sleep."

Cyril, "Make sure you're all well rested, the council and I will discuss the strategy and let you all know when we've agreed on your plans. Until then you all get some rest. Thank you Jake." The elders made their way home and everyone settled.

The next day humans were seen playing a few games of soccer in Warfang Park, news quickly spread throughout the town and Sparx woke everyone in the house. "Guys there's a huge game of soccer going down! It's Blue team versus Red team and I think the blue team's winning!" Everyone in the house woke and decided a nice sports game would be good way to start the morning. They quickly grabbed some energy bars from Violets backpack and ate them on the way to the park. As the group got closer they heard anthros cheering in the distance on the red team. Humans and Anthros were on both sides playing a casual match. The score was 3-3 and everyone in Warfang was having a blast.

"GO CYPRESS!", Zofia cheered her boyfriend from the sidelines as he scored another goal. It was no surprise more humans made up red since most all of them had the same colored skinny ties; Although Humans had better knowledge of the game's strategy some of the Anthros were quicker and aggressive leveling the playing field.

We're gonna need two more players on opposite teams. Dante ran up to Jake and Cynder who were the closest to the field, "Jake how about you take red team and Cynder takes blue". Both were eager to let loose and have a good time. The ball passed back and forth between two statues which laid the foundation for the goals. Tobious made a merciless goalie for the red team countering quick cheetah kicks like his life depended on it. Once the ball had reached Jake he saw his moment of opportunity to dodge several dragons trying to steal, but not before Cynder could take the soccer ball away with her tail. He chased her down the field and tried stealing it back, but having 3 limbs to use gave her a huge advantage. She quickly tail whipped the ball straight through Tobias's goal. The score was now even again for the blue team, "Hey you can't use your tail!" Jake said.

Cynder teased him, "First time seeing you complain about that." Jacob gave an impish smirk at her as they ran towards the ball. Most of the citizens just passed the comment off as a harmless joke, but Spyro had begun to sense something more.