Whirlwind's heart throbbed with excitement as she and Warnado climbed the spiraling stone staircase that lead up to the castle. It was just so thrilling, being so close to their goal at last! Around her, the winds grew stronger and stronger and blew medium-sized rocks off the top of the platform above them, which only amplified her excitement.

In fact, didn't that sound like…

"Warnado, look out!" Whirlwind exclaimed as she pushed Warnado out of the way!

A tiny boulder rolled off the top platform and crashed right into where they formerly stood while they gathered their bearings!

Whirlwind threw her wing in front of her face and flinched as the boulder shattered into millions of tiny pebbles. Warnado, meanwhile, quickly retreated into his shell until the coast was clear. When both of them calmed down, Whirlwind flapped her wings slightly and pressed her paw against her chin. Her eyes trained themselves on the pathway ahead before she looked around in several other directions. The winds still howled, but the rocks seemed to have stabilized and no longer threatened to fall off and crush her under their weight.

"Coast's clear, Warnado!" Whirlwind breathed in and dashed ahead, the sound of her paws pounding against the cold surface of the pathway a new white noise in the chaos.

Right in front of her, the path receded and receded as she got closer and closer, while her heart pounded with every step she took. The spiraling pathway slowly absorbed itself into the walls of the building as they got higher up, until the pathway ended and led them to a platform on top of the building. The winds howled even louder than before, and their strength took a sharp increases.

Whirlwind threw a leg in front of her face as she wrapped her wings around her body to use as windbreakers. Her heart swirled with Air Element magic and beat even faster than before as her whole body shuddered with excitement and swelled with power at the same time!

"Just a little further, Whirlwind, you can make it!" Whirlwind exclaimed as she trudged through the winds and found herself at the very top of the platform!

The winds grew stronger around her, but strangely enough, the area didn't seem to be affected—it was almost tranquil, like she was in the eye of the storm. Or more specifically, in the eye of the Eternal Air Source's storm!

There in the center of it all, hovered over a wooden platform was the Eternal Air Source! It was a large, oval-like sky blue orb that glowed with sky blue light as a tiny tornado stormed within it. For something that wasn't any bigger than a large dinner plate, it seemed almost intimidating as it brewed with the unhampered, raw power of the collective Air Element. Just standing next to it as an Air Elemental made Whirlwind surge not only with an energy more powerful than she had ever felt, but a kind of smallness that made her respect its power in a sort of fearful way as she felt the storms it brewed storm around her.

Whirlwind carefully stepped closer and closer until she stood right in front of the Source, then reached out her front paws and gingerly clutched it. She trembled with excitement raw energy that emanated from the Source—this felt almost surreal, so dreamlike… As she held it close, the storms around her slowly stopped! Whirlwind looked around and saw that the islands were at peace once more, for their throbbing storms traded out in favor of clear skies and gentle breezes, and a wide smile stretched across her face.

"Mission complete," Whirlwind whispered as she hugged the Eternal Air Source close to her heart. "Now, to get this back to the—AAAAAAAAA!"

All of a sudden, the wooden floor underneath her caved in and both she and the Source fell through!

§

"Hey, Spyro, didn't we walk past here already?" Chihiro asked as she looked back and forth across the hallway they were walking through.

For the past several minutes now, she and Spyro walked through endless hallways and corridors and tried their hardest to get out of the shadow of what was once Master Eon's mighty citadel. But, it wasn't of much luck—the shock from their earlier mishap dampened Chihiro's memory of its layout.

"No, I'm pretty sure that portrait's new," Spyro replied as he pointed towards a framed portrait of a younger Master Eon while he lifted up an orb of light with his other front paw.

"…Are you sure? I'm pretty sure I've seen that one before." Chihiro squinted at the painting and shook her head, "But then again, it seems like all these portraits look the same,"—Chihiro looked ahead and saw that Spyro had dodged her remarks and had flown quite a bit ahead—"hey! Spyro, wait for me!"

As she rejoined Spyro, Chihiro paused for a moment and caught her breath. "Think, we're, near the exit, yet?"

"I'm not sure, unfortunately." Spyro pressed a paw to his chin while he flew in place. "I've never really been in this part of Master Eon's citadel before. For that matter, I didn't even know it existed until now!"

"Does that mean we're lost?"

Chihiro heaved another heavy sigh and sat down on the floor. As she sat and rested, she placed her stack of books down next to her, pressed her legs against her chest and dragged her finger along the stone.

"No, we're not lost." Spyro hung his head slightly. "I'm sure I remember the way we came. I've got a photographic memory, after all."

"You do?"

Spyro nodded slightly before looked over the pathways while he racked his brain.

"Hey, Chihiro?" Spyro looked back to see Chihiro look up at him.

Chihiro picked up the books next to her and stood tall. "Yeah?"

"Hey, well," Spyro scratched the back of his head. "thanks for saving me back when we got caught in that cave-in. And, well, I'm sorry if I scared you or anything."

"Oh, it's no big deal." Chihiro shook her head and smiled fondly. "You are my friend, after all!"

Spyro just stared at her with complete, confused silence.

"But, we could've died—YOU could've died—"

"I wasn't just gonna let you die! You and the other Skylanders are the first real friends I actually have! I'm not just gonna lose you guys like that! And besides, if you're safe then who cares what happens to me?"

"I DO!" Spyro's voice echoed out before he turned solemn as he clasped a paw.

"You're our portal master, Chihiro—you're more important to all of us than you realize. If we lost you… If you had actually died, I don't think I could've ever forgiven myself."

Chihiro drew back and looked down at her feet. The two of them went silent for what seemed like forever, and the only sound was that of Chihiro's voice as she breathed in sharply and drew back. She then looked to the side and clutched her books close to her heart.

"Did I say something wrong?" Spyro let go of his clasped paw, his jaw ajar just slightly.

"No, no, it's just…" Chihiro jerked up and looked at Spyro before she shook her head and smiled slightly. "Nobody's really told me that before, or ever actually bothered to apologize to me in the first place."

Spyro wanted to say something, but was at such a loss for words that he could only nod slightly. Chihiro was as well, for she only gazed over the repeating stone pathways or occasionally cuddled her stack of books. Surely, neither of them expected to blurt out something like that so suddenly.

"So, Spyro…" Chihiro whispered at last before she raised her voice slightly. "There's something I've always wondered…"

"Yeah?"

"The night we met, when we were talking with all the other Skylanders… You said you used to go on all sorts of adventures before you became a 'lander, right?" Chihiro made a wide smile. "Could you, well, tell me about them?"

Spyro broke a chuckle for the first time that day. "Well, I guess I could, but it might take a while—I've got a lot of stories…"

"And we've got lots of time." Chihiro looked up at the ceiling. "Something tells me it'll be a while before we get out of this place."

The two of them looked back at the path they went through, then the one in front of them and heaved heavy sighs.

"Well, I should at the beginning—see, it all started with a guy named Gnasty Gnorc…"