"Okay, I'm pretty sure we passed that tower like five times now." Chihiro said while Spyro still clung to her back.

Spyro pressed his head against the back of Chihiro's and made a soft groan, still in plenty of pain from his unexpected spin.

"I'm getting there, Golden Boy," Chihiro whispered as she nudged her head against his in a surprisingly gentle manner.

"It's Spyro," Spyro mumbled, before he shook his head and came to his senses. "Why do you keep calling me that, anyway?"

"Cause your eyes are gold, and so are your horns, and your claws, and—"

"Okay, I get it." Spyro climbed back down from Chihiro's back and situated himself on the ground before looking over his surroundings.

Chihiro, ever true to her word, was right—it seemed like they had been running circles around the same path with the same stone bridge, the same stone tower, the same spell punk…

"Wait a second," Spyro exclaimed as he noted the tiny spell punk. "What are you doing?!"

The spell punk pointed at itself with a frown and a tilted head.

"Yes, you!"

The spell punk stood frozen like a sheep in the path of a mighty dragon that aimed to make it into an afternoon snack. Then, it squealed and zoomed off all while it exclaimed some kind of gibberish language!

"After it!" Spyro exclaimed as he stormed after the spell punk in hot pursuit, his mind so fixed on it that he only took slight notice to Chihiro and Gill Grunt running behind him.

"Krtz, krtz, Chihiro to home base, we've got a little hooded guy making a break on…" Chihiro said into an invisible walkie-talkie before she looked over the pathway and paused.

The spell punk had disappeared over a wooden gate with a shiny golden lock positioned next to a stone platform.

"Yeah, I probably can't jump over that." Chihiro heaved a sigh and gazed at the gate before her grin turned wide. "Y'know, if there's a gate, chances are there's a key somewhere too!"—She peered upwards to find a mint-skinned drow soldier clad in black and silver armor who took a snooze on his job with a glistening golden key tied to his waist—"and there it is!"

Chihiro jumped onto the platform's edge and grasped it with pale hands as she struggled to pull herself up. But, it was to no avail. She struggled for all of five seconds before her arms turned to jelly and she fell on her rear! As she whimpered slightly, Chihiro staggered back up and looked back at Spyro and Gill Grunt, who were still searching all over the passageway for a key, before she cleared her throat and waved her arms.

"Guys, I found the key!" she shouted.

Spyro and Gill Grunt turned around as she pointed to the sleeping drow guard with excitement. Before they did anything, however, Spyro flew up and shushed her first.

"Keep it down, we don't wanna wake up the guard," he whispered.

Spyro soared up, looked over the guard for all of five seconds, and snatched the key from his belt. He then flew down to where the gate was standing, pushed the slender key inside and turned it. With a swift walk back, Spyro smiled as the lock fell down onto the sun-warmed stone pathway!

"We did it!" Chihiro whispered, "Now let's get out of here before—"

The sound of clanking metal resounded through the area, and the guard awoke and looked at them for all of three seconds before he screamed.

"INTRUDERS!" he screeched as he grabbed his spear, "YOU'RE NOT GETTING THE PROPELLER, NOT ON MY WATCH!"

Chihiro squeaked and hid behind Spyro, and the drow cackled with his whole chest.

"Hide all you want, child! It won't do you any good!" The drow narrowed his eyes.

Spyro snarled and stood his ground as he spread out his legs and flared out his wings. But, before he addressed the guard, he turned around and gave Chihiro a serious gaze.

"Stay back, we'll handle this," Spyro whispered. Spyro stared the drow guard straight in the face, then took to the skies and charged up a flaming hot fireball. "If you want a fight, then we'll give you one!"

The drow guard readied his spear and charged when the fireball hit him straight in the face and sent him reeling! Instead of enacting the assault he planned, the guard merely stumbled back and yowled in pain.

Spyro scoffed and dropped back down, about ready to carry on when the sound of pounding footsteps caught everybody's attention.

What seemed like a whole platoon of drow soldiers now stood right on the other side of the opened gate and stared them straight in the face. There were foot soldiers who brandished spears and curved swords, mages with shiny staffs and blades, muscular brutes with rippling chests… It seemed like at least a good fraction of their forces had arrived in response to the call! The soldiers looked at them and they looked at the soldiers, everybody expressing emotions that ranged from fear to shock to absolute exasperation. Some soldiers even dropped their weapons in shock!

"Intruders?! In OUR stronghold?!" shouted one soldier decked out in shiny, elaborate silver armor as he glared daggers into the face of one of his subordinates. "You told me that those gates were impenetrable!"

"That wasn't me, sir, that was C-4!" retorted the soldier.

His higher-up scoffed and heaved a sigh.

"How would I know? You all look the same to me!" Shouted the officer as he turned back to Spyro and Gill Grunt and gave them piercing glares. "Whatever, what's done is done, and if we don't want Lord Kaos to cut our salaries," the officer scoffed and cast an aside glance, "as if he even pays us in the first place," the officer raised his voice and glared down Spyro and Gill Grunt. "We should stop flapping our lips and get fighting!"

"Gladly!" Spyro exclaimed as he took to the skies and shot red-hot flames out of his mouth that scorched his opponents in a straight line below.

Meanwhile, Gill Grunt took the righthand side and cocked his harpoon gun. The gun's barrel rotated out, which left an open space where the harpoon once was—an open space that streams of scalding hot water quickly filled by streams of scalding hot water! Screams of pain and battle cries resounded all around as the drow collapsed in a wet, scalding pile.

Shielded by the heat of the battle, Chihiro got on all fours and crawled through the warfield before she hid behind a collection of rough wooden barrels. Once she was certain she was safe, her limbs safely turned numb from panic.

Oh crap, oh crap, I didn't think things would get THIS bad! Chihiro panicked as her eyes shrunk and her heart pounded. What am I gonna do?! Maybe this is why Spyro wanted me to stay behind…

Chihiro ran her soft hands against the grainy surface of the largest barrel and observed the battle through a hole in its surface. As she watched, her mind raced with all sorts of possibilities. BAD possibilities.

I can hardly perform magic, I don't have any weapons, and I'm not good at fighting at all! There's no way I'll be able to hold my own… Unless…

With a wicked smile stretched across her lips, Chihiro shoved the barrels in front of her into the crowd of drow. While the barrels hit many of them in the head, Chihiro dashed off to a group of crates. Screams of shock and yowls of agony rang all around as drow soldiers fell down due to the sudden concussions and tried to pick splinters out of their uniforms.

"Who's there?!" shouted the drow's commanding office while his head swerved left and right.

But there was no solid reply—in the chaos of battle, there were so many voices that shouted about and nobody could tell who was who!

"If there's one thing I've learned from TV," Chihiro proclaimed as she heaved up a medium-sized oakwood crate and launched it at the commander's head. "It's that the element of surprise is your best friend in the heat of combat!"

The crate hit the commander in the head and his helmet flew off as he himself fell to the floor. Meanwhile, the crate splintered open, and gunpowder-filled bombs scattered everywhere—and as it just so happened, Spyro casted out flames overhead, and those hit the wicker fuses of the bombs in mere moments of their casting!

"TAKE COVER!" Gill Grunt yelled as he caught the sudden rain of bombs, gulped and dived to safety.

The few that heard him turned around in shock and mumbled among themselves, before they saw the bombs at their feet—and those bombs' burnt-away fuses. One could probably guess what happened next—the bombs exploded from the heat of Spyro's flames and sent off a chain reaction where one bomb exploded after the next. A huge blast like a giant show of fire burned across the land, and it scorched the drow soldiers or sent many of them aflame.

The battlefield erupted into incoherent screeching and babbling, and then into one loud, collective "RETREAT!" as the soldiers all ran off in the westmost direction, their flaming coats so unified that together they looked like one big bonfire. The few that couldn't run off stayed unconscious on the floor, which the few conscious ones moaned and wailed in pain.

Gill Grunt blinked, before he turned around and saw Chihiro, who only giggled and waved her hand.

"Chihiro, did you do that?" Gill Grunt asked as he blinked several more times, maybe a little unsure of his question.

Chihiro giggled for a solid five seconds before she beamed and nodded firmly.

"Let's just say that I'm better at improvising battle strategies than I thought I was," Chihiro trilled while her heart pounded still from the anxiety of earlier.

"What on Skylands was that?" Spyro asked as he flew down.

"That was me, heh." Chihiro stood as tall and proud as she could, though the twitch of her smile implied a bit of residual anxiety still.

"That was… Actually pretty impressive," Spyro admitted as he watched her and nodded firmly.

Chihiro beamed.

"But watch what you're doing next time—you could've gotten us all killed!" Spyro scolded as he looked at her and pointed a claw.

Chihiro stood stung by his words for mere moments, before she nodded and weakly, slightly smiled.

"You're right, Golden Boy," Chihiro admitted as she scratched the back of her head, "and… Sorry for not listening to you earlier. I didn't realize how dangerous this actually was, and I thought you guys were just worrying too much, but... Now I know you were just looking out for me. I'll just let you guys take the lead from now on."

Spyro just stood silent, completely surprise by Chihiro's change in attitude, before he smiled himself and nodded. "Apology accepted." Spyro then turned around and gazed down the open path, "Now follow me, we've got a golden propeller to get!"