Whirlwind and Warnado, meanwhile, still stood on the hunt for a way to get the tornado out of the way, and so far, their journey was far from fruitful.

"You think this'll actually work?" Warnado asked Whirlwind.

Whirlwind shrugged and gave him a frown. "I don't know," Whirlwind muttered as she looked back down at her paws. "After all, we have barely anything to go on—just a wild guess from Flynn, of all people! And if he's wrong, then what are we gonna do? There's no way to take down this tornado—"

"That's what you think," said a voice behind Whirlwind and Warnado.

The two of them shook their heads and turned around to find two drow guards dress in red and gold armor! The two soldiers leaned up against a giant, shiny golden pylon that was probably about the height of a short tower.

"But we would never tell you that this pylon settles the storm if it's lowered," said the first guard.

"Yeah, we never would, and we never will!" shouted the second guard.

Whirlwind and Warnado gave them blank looks, before Warnado burst into laughter. Whirlwind herself couldn't help but chuckle as she masked her laughter with her paw.

"Dude, you already told us!" Warnado shouted between bellowing laughs.

The two guards panicked and sputtered out nonsense as they glared down each other, and after a moment of sputtering panic, they brandished shiny, sharp golden spears in Whirlwind and Warnado's direction.

"Well then, we can't have you going around blabbing our secret now, can we?" The guards remarked in unison.

Whirlwind and Warnado both nodded to each other and quickly took battle stances! They stood strong and spread out wide, as if to make themselves seem like the most powerful things in the entire area. The guards, meanwhile, gripped their spears tight and prepared to charge.

Whirlwind started the battle with rapid-fire rainbow shots from her horn aimed at one of the guards! The rainbows caught him in an eye-searing light and sent them both stumbling backwards out of shock. When the light faded, the guards both looked at each other, then themselves, and the first guard screamed in shock—as his entire body changed color to a bright, fluorescent neon rainbow! He stared down at himself in shock as the other guard laughed it off, and the colorful guard shot his fellow guard a glare.

"Don't just stand there and laugh at me!" The multi-color guard scolded. "Stop the Sky—"

He never completed his sentence, because Warnado created a tornado that consumed the two and sent them flying away.

Whirlwind held up her wing and slapped it against Warnado's paw. She then walked over to where the guards were standing and examined the pylon they were guarding. It was probably very resilient given that it was able to stand the raging winds of the tornado, and something about it resonated with some kind of enchantment Whirlwind could feel in her bones.

"Now, let's see if those guards were telling the truth," Whirlwind said as she held her paw against the pylon.

It was all consistently shiny and smooth until she felt a small button under her paw and pressed it. It didn't seem to work at first, but slowly, the pylon descended and descended! Its slows, repetitive motions almost hypnotized those around before finally it finally set itself at the bottom.

Whirlwind opened her eyes and looked out at the tornado, before she smiled like a fool since she knew it had worked! The tornado had shrunken at least a few feet, and a piece of the bridge fell out of its winds and safely onto the beginning of the bridge!

"Yes!" Whirlwind threw her paw into the air. "One step closer to getting the Eternal Air Source!"—She turned towards Warnado and smiled widely—"Come on, Warnado! This tornado's not going to clear itself! Let's see if we can find more of those pylons!"

And with that said, Whirlwind took to the skies and lead the way ahead while Warnado quickly followed suit.

§

Chihiro roamed the ruins of Master Eon's Citadel as her heart pounded with excitement while she herself bounced from place to place. Each room seemed to carry some kind of mystic air about it, like a magic long untouched and waiting to be rediscovered. At least, it would be if half of it wasn't covered in rubble.

"This place really took a beating, didn't it?" Chihiro remarked as she moved the lantern around in front of her to illuminate the path.

"Yeah, no kidding," Spyro added as he looked around. "This area must have taken a lot of damage from when Kaos attacked,"—Spyro looked down at the pathway before him—"say, where are we going, anyways?"

This path ahead of her split down into several other pathways, each one brimmed with mystery. Chihiro stopped and placed the lantern by her feet, then rubbed her fist against her lips as she tried to decipher which of the paths in front of her should be next on the tour. There were about three in all, each seemingly identical aside from direction, but none seemed to truly pique her attention.

Chihiro sighed as she plopped down on the floor and crossed her legs as she sat, still trying to brainstorm where to go. "I dunno." Chihiro rubbed her hand against her chin. "Why don't you pick, Spyro?"

Spyro frowned discerningly as his eyes glazed over the paths before them, and perked up as he heard what sounded like a rumbling noise.

"Do you hear that?" Chihiro asked as she shook her head and looked up the ceiling.

Spyro nodded rapidly before a giant slab of stone slammed down from the ceiling just inches from where they were! Both of them screamed as they jumped out of the way, while above them, the ceiling caved in!

As more slabs fell down, Chihiro froze for a moment before her instincts took hold of her. She grabbed Spyro and pushed him down the middle pathway, which from her gaze seemed to be the most stable. Without a moment to hesitate, she raced down the leftmost one, lantern in hand, as the ceiling caved in and sealed the entrance behind her. Her heart pounded against her chest as she moved deeper and deeper into the Citadel until the rumbling quieted and pebbles stopped dropping everywhere she stepped.

After she turned around to find complete darkness in the hallways aside from her lantern, Chihiro heaved a sigh of relief and sat down. "I think I got out of there," Chihiro wheezed as she felt slight relief fall over her, before her mind came to one thought and stopped.

"SPYRO! Oh no, I lost him!"

Chihiro panicked as she grabbed her lantern and ran.

"He's gonna kill me for completely abandoning him! If he's even still alive! What am I gonna do?!"

§

Spyro, meanwhile, hit his head as he fell to the floor. As he stood and came to his senses, he noticed that complete darkness enveloped and snapped his claws. A sphere of bright light formed in his paw, and then immediately flew towards the sealed entrance.

"Geez, I didn't expect it to be that run-down," Spyro remarked, before his mind shut him down with one realization.

He was alone.

Oh no.

"CHIHIRO!" Spyro exclaimed as his whole body trembled from raw fear.

Spyro raced over towards the stone and pried them away, but to no avail—they were too big, and he was too small. He then clenched his jaw as his eyes flashed brown, his entire mind focused on moving the stones. However, that didn't work either. They were still too big, and his mind was too unfocused!

"CHIHIRO! ARE YOU THERE?!" Spyro's heart pounded so fast that it could burst and he pounded a clenched paw against the rocks, "ANSWER ME!"

No response.

"Oh no, no, not again," Spyro's breath turned fast and then slow. "Calm down Spyro, panicking won't help the situation any better. Just gotta focus," Spyro gnawed on a claw as his mind raced. "Right now, just focus on finding another way to her. If she's still alive…"

And with that, Spyro flew down the pathway as fast as he could, his sphere of light behind him ever so diligently.