It didn't take Spyro, Spike, and Ember long to return to the front of the castle that rested in Summer Forest, by using the underwater tunnel to get up to where they had first found Moneybags in this homeworld, and both Spyro and Ember were happy that the Water Safety spell kept them from getting soaked, which made Spike happy as well, though even then they focused on what they were doing. They had two choices to pick from, the portal that was hanging in the middle of the small lake and the portal that was surrounded by a small river, though as the siblings approached them once more Spike noticed something he had missed earlier, as the residents of Avalar seemed to have enchanted their portals to display the name of the realms they were connected to. As such the one near the river was Idol Springs and the one in the lake was Colossus, a name that made them wonder why it was called that, especially when they considered the naming scheme of the realms that were connected to their homeworlds, but, even as they thought about that, it wasn't hard for them to come to the decision to check Colossus out first, to see what sort of problems the residents were having at the moment. While they walked over to the portal, however, Spike made a note of the names in his own journal, so he had something to give his fellow scholars when they got back home, before putting his writing stuff away as they reached the edge of the platform and got ready to head over to the portal in question.
"Shouldn't we split up, like we did when we were tackling Gnasty Gnorc and his forces, so we can save time by taking care of multiple realms at the same time?" Ember inquired, as she was interested in seeing if her siblings agreed with her or if they were of the other opinion, because sometimes there was no telling what was going through their minds, and she had to admit that the tactic had worked out quite well in the past.
"No, we should stay together." Spyro replied, surprising Spike for a moment, as he was about to say the same thing that his brother had said, to which he remained silent as they stared at the portal that would take them to Colossus, as he knew both of his siblings were interested in seeing what was on the other side, something that he agreed with, as he was curious as to what they would find in Colossus, "We're in unfamiliar territory, where we know next to nothing about the various realms of Avalar, despite the fact that we have the guidebook that Elora gave us, so we should stay together and tackle whatever challenges the realms have for us."
"Okay, I just figured that I would offer the idea before we went through that portal," Ember said, though she did have to agree with her brothers, especially since she knew that Spike shared Spyro's opinion, as it made more sense for them to remain together and tackle the obstacles of the various realms, instead of separating and doing things on their own, to which she dropped the idea entirely as they focused on the portal in front of them.
The siblings glided over the water for a moment and touched down in front of the portal to Colossus, which was when they walked through the portal and headed to the realm in question, though it didn't take them very long to arrive in the starting area of the realm, where they found that they were at the very edge of a meditation area of some kind, though one thing they did see was an odd wooden sculpture that was quite large, but looked like a weird head. There was an odd humanoid creature that was standing near them, who wore a white robe over his body, and instead of looking terrified about something, like they expected to find when they arrived in this realm, he was rather peaceful looking and that made them wonder if this would be rather quick, but they knew there was something about this realm they would have to take care of before they returned to Summer Forest. The other thing they noticed was that there were some stone walls to their left, to stop them from trying to climb up the mountain and explore the mountain range that this temple had been built on, which reminded them of the Magic Crafters homeworld for a moment, while to their right they found an opening that would allow them to glide off into the distance and leave the area, but that wasn't a good idea, since they had no idea if there were any fairies to catch someone if they jumped over the edge. There were also some blue coated goats, two of them to be exact, wandering the area between them and the wooden sculpture that was blocking them from reaching the next part of this realm, but right now they had no idea if they were friendly or if they were enemies, so they decided to talk with the monk and see what the problem with this realm was.
"Hello there. My name is Spike, and these are my siblings, Spyro and Ember." Spike said, to which he gestured to his siblings for a moment while he talked, so the monk understood who was who and didn't get confused, before he glanced at the area that they were in, as they were all curious as to what sort of problem the monk and the other residents could be facing at the moment, "What seems to be the problem?"
"A yeti has been rampaging around our home, but we've managed to trap him in a room by shutting all the gates that lead to where he's resting." the monk replied, to which he raised a hand and gestured to the wooden sculpture that they had seen as soon as they arrived in this realm, meaning that there was more than one of them and that they were more important than what they originally thought, before he focused on them again as he continued his explanation, "If you talk with the other brothers, who are currently standing beside the gates, they will open the way and guide you to the yeti, who you need to defeat before he goes on another rampage."
The siblings nodded their heads, to show that they understood what they needed to do, before they started to walk around the starting area and explore it a little, where Spyro found five gems resting behind them, something they could have missed if none of them bothered to check the area they landed in, which meant that the same thing might happen in the other realms they would be visiting in the future. As they did that the goats rammed each other, where their horns locked for a moment or two, before they pulled apart and separated from each other, but as that happened the pair came to a stop as they noticed the siblings investigating the area, only to charge at them for no reason, informing the siblings that they were enemies and that they needed to be taken care of. A quick flame from one of them was all that was needed to take care of a single goat, so while Spyro and Ember took care of them, and released their Spirit Particles to power the Powerup Gates that were in this realm, Spike gathered the gems that were laying on the ground and smashed the four straw baskets he found near the walls, before he rejoined his siblings as they approached the first gate. The other thing they noticed were the small penguins that were wandering around the area, totally ignoring them and clearly wanted to be left alone, making them wonder if they were the type of creature that would release butterflies if they were harmed, but, since none of their dragonflies were harmed, the siblings turned their focus to the gate and the monk that the first monk told them to talk to.
"I know what Brother Harry asked you three to do, and, by concentrating on the necessary chant, I can open the way for you, so you can tackle the yeti." the monk said, to which the siblings watched as he hummed or did something with his vocal cords, as whatever he was doing manifested as a bluish-green aura in front of his face, while at the same time the central part of the first gate rotated, revealing a wooden tunnel they could use to get to the other side and continue on their way to where the yeti was located.
As Spyro and Ember walked through the short tunnel, however, Spike paused for a moment and stared at the rest of the structure, the outside part that they had seen, and realized why the gates were so important, as it appeared that they were designed to emit invisible barriers that would prevent anyone from entering or leaving the area, meaning that once the yeti started to rampage around this place they had sealed him inside the room he was in. Of course that also meant that the monks had sealed themselves in various locations of the temple, to act as guards for the various gates that they were maintaining, so whoever was guarding the next gate had been stuck in the area that he and his siblings were heading to, ever since the outermost gate, the one they had seen upon their arrival, had been sealed. He was also sure that the barrier that was covering this area had been disabled as well, meaning that birds and other flying creatures could return to what they were doing earlier, to which he turned his attention to what they were here to do as he joined his siblings on the other side of the tunnel, which meant he joined them on the short bridge that linked up to the main area that the temple rested in, though they all spotted some golden statues of a monk with some sort of stick in his left hand. None of them were sure what the stick was supposed to be, not without checking the guidebook for information, but as they crossed over the bridge a red eyed bull charged at them, where Ember loosed a burst of fire and knocked the creature out, which let them finish collecting the gems on the bridge as they spread out to pick up the gems that were in the new area, starting with the three on their right.
Near the pair of golden statues rested two metallic vases, which the siblings smashed to get the gems inside them, before they continued down the path on their left and found one more angry bull blocking the way, to which Spyro took care of him while Ember and Spike collected the gems that were laying on the ground, including breaking the straw basket that was nearby, before coming to a stop at the second gate, which was identical to the first one.
"We're here to help you guys take care of the yeti," Spyro said, speaking to the monk that was guarding the gate that they needed to get through, though at the very least it meant that they didn't have to go looking for a key or have Spike work his magic on the gate, because it saved them time and effort, which all three of them would use to help the monks reclaim their temple, not to mention whatever else they were having problems with.
"I know, hence why I am guarding this gate," the monk replied, showing that he understood why they were there, how Spyro and Ember weren't sure of since they were sure that none of the other monks could have told him anything, but, at the same time, they didn't want to question what was going on, not when they were positive that Spike would be able to tell them everything they wanted to know, "and, with the power of the chants I know, there's no need for a normal key and lock, like some of the other realms use."
The siblings watched as the monk chanted just like the guardian of the first gate did, though this time the tunnel didn't turn like the first one did, rather it was raised up to be like a platform between the area they were in and the next area that they would have to explore, one that was higher than their current position, and once the platform was in place the monk stopped his chanting, clearly pleased with himself. Spike confirmed that the barrier produced by the second gate was down, just like what happened with the first one, before he and his siblings climbed up to the new area and noticed that they were in a courtyard of some kind, one that seemed to be on a level that was below where the yeti was resting, something that informed them that they were getting closer to their destination. In front of them rested a small gap between the area they were standing in and the courtyard area that they would be exploring soon, which had some goats trying to ram each other, like they were trying to assert their dominance or something, but that gave Spyro and Ember the chance they needed to glide over to the pair of goats and flame them, while Spike jumped down into the lower area that was in front of them and picked up the gems that he found, before returning to his siblings. That also gave him the chance to flame the bull that was rolling towards his siblings, instead of charging like they expected to see it do, allowing him to defeat another foe and add another Spirit Particle to the Powerup Gates that were in this realm, something he was sure they were going to use in due time, likely to face the yeti and restore order to the realm.
In fact Spike found the Powerup Gate for this realm, one of them at the very least, off to their left, which had three straw baskets near it and three green gems just further beyond those, so while he stopped to study the inactive gate, to see if he could figure out what sort of power it gave them, Spyro and Ember picked up the gems and broke the baskets that were near them, including the two near the doorway that would take them inside one of the temple's buildings. Since the Powerup Gate wasn't giving off any magical energies, not like the active ones from Glimmer, once they had taken out enough foes to power them anyway, Spike was unable to determine what sort of power this one would give them, to which he and his siblings turned towards the doorway and headed inside the building, so they could see what else needed to be done before they reached the yeti. They found that the interior of the room they entered, along with the rest of the building, was rather well lit up, and there were a number of paintings on the walls, either of places the monks liked to visit, of different locations of their own realm, or some portraits of the monks that called this temple home, though even as they looked at the paintings they made sure to pick up the gems that were on the floor and break the metallic vases that were lining one of the walls, before heading towards the next room. What they discovered in the next area was another monk that was standing in front of a slab of stone that looked like it would move with the correct chant, almost like what those green druids did to the Magic Crafters realms after Gnasty Gnorc trapped all the dragons in those crystalline statues, but before they interrupted the monk they headed over to the other side of the room, walking by the golden statue, and made sure to break the four metallic vases that they found, before collecting the gems and returning to the monk.
What was interesting was that the monk really didn't seem to notice that they were standing there, showing them that he was really focused on making sure his platform was correct, or something similar to that, before Ember tapped he claws against the floor, causing him to turn around and smile at them, once more showing that the monks were expecting them, without actually hearing that they were coming, not unless Elora sent the various races of Avalar a notice that they should be expecting some dragons to help them in the near future.
"Hey, look at what I can do!" the monk declared, to which he started to chant and the platform rose into the air for a few seconds, revealing that it wasn't just a stone slab since it was attached to a long stone rod that went down into the ground that was below the temple, before it eventually lowered itself back down to where they were standing, once more with the monk's chants helping it move.
Once it was back in it's original position the siblings climbed onto it and let the monk raise them to the next level, one that was pretty close to the ceiling and was split between two sections, meaning a glide was needed to get across the gap, but the first thing they did was break the straw baskets and pick up the gems that fell, before actually gliding over to the other side to smash the metallic vases that were stored up there. From there they jumped up to the next platform, walked through a short hallway, and then climbed up to another platform that overlooked the first room they walked through a few moments ago, an area that had two straw baskets to their left, which were quickly broken and the gems collected, before they turned their attention to the area in front of them. In that moment the siblings took turns gliding down to the ledge that was below them, which would take them outside and give them access to the level that the yeti was on, as they were now higher than that level by the looks of things, so Spike went first and made sure to pick up the gems and break the straw baskets, before Spyro and Ember followed after him so they could head outside once more. As soon as they were outside they found three more straw baskets and three goats wandering around the area, so what they did was move away from each other and each took out one of the aggressive goats that were in this part of the temple, allowing their Spirit Particles to join the ones they had released earlier, before collecting the gems from the straw baskets as they headed towards the building that the yeti was in, including the few behind the building in the middle of the area.
In that moment they reached the entrance of the room that the yeti, a large white furred creature that looked like it could hold it's own in a battle and would be a rather good opponent for them to understand how the creatures of Avalar actually fought, that stood twice as tall as the monks, but as it focused on where they were standing, and they prepared for the fight, the yeti beat his chest and roared at them, causing part of the ceiling to collapse on top of the yeti, flattening him while liberating the realm at the same time.
"That... was anticlimactic." Ember remarked, as she had been looking forward to fighting the yeti and seeing how she measured up to the residents of this land, the ones that could actually fight and defend themselves, before she sighed and let the monk that had been standing outside the room walk inside, though she did find a seemingly inactive portal on the wall that was behind where the yeti had been standing.
"Yeah, I have to agree with you on that." Spyro said, because now that the yeti was knocked out, and hurt by the piece of the ceiling that had fallen on him, which looked like a statue of some kind, all they could do was see what they needed to do to get the Talisman and then find out how many more people they had to help before they returned to Summer Forest and headed to the other realm that was outside the castle.
"You know, I was under the impression that the yeti was much tougher than that, given the fact that the other monks activated the gates to keep him contained." the monk near the entrance commented, to which he turned towards the part that had fallen on the yeti, as if he was thinking about something while the siblings gathered near the portal, before he shook his head and faced them, indicating that he likely had something to tell them, "I guess he was all bark, but no bite. Anyway, I was tasked with keeping our Sacred Talisman safe from the yeti, but, since the others asked you to help us take care of the yeti, even if he took care of himself, I think they would be okay with me giving it to the three of you in thanks for assisting us either way."
The Talisman in question looked nearly identical to the statues the siblings had seen during their brief adventure in this realm, with the exception of the missing stick, but Spike was quick to pull out the guidebook and transfer the Talisman into it's pages, just like Glimmer's Talisman, which actually seemed to activate the portal back to Summer Forest, informing him and his siblings that they were likely going to find deactivated exit portals near the area that the Talismans were located in, and that being given the artifacts in question would power the portals in turn. The first thing they did was pick up the rest of the gems that were in the room, where Spyro spotted a walkway that would take them to another area of the temple, before they headed outside, only to find that the Powerup Gate had been turned on, no doubt counting the yeti as a defeated foe for them.
"Hm, the marking on this one is different, it's three supercharge marks pointing towards the sky," Spike commented, as he was curious as to what they were seeing and wanted to see what sort of power this type of gate gave the users, and he could tell that both Spyro and Ember were hoping that he could tell them more about it, before they even attempted to use the Powerup Gate, "I wonder if that means the user can jump higher if they use this, as that seems to be the only real explanation behind the symbol that's floating between the two pillars."
"Then I'll be the one to test it." Spyro remarked, to which he stepped forward and passed through the Powerup Gate, though this time around, instead of flying off like he did with the Superfly Powerup, he was launched into the air and found that he could roll forward a few times before he reached the section of the roof that was above where his siblings were standing, meaning they could explore a brand new part of the temple, "Wow, that was interesting. Spike, do you have any idea what sort of powerup that was?"
"Given the appearance of the symbol, if we take Glimmer's into consideration, this could be a Spring Jump Powerup, one that allows the user to reach new areas," Spike answered, though at the same time he waited for Ember to go through the pillars and watched as his sister repeated what Spyro had done, landing near him, before he did the same thing and touched down near them, though it was an exciting time to be constantly discovering new things like this, things that he would add to his own journal, when it was time to do so, "Fascinating. I wonder how many different types of powerups we will encounter as we help the residents of Avalar out with their problems."
"Hopefully they're all as useful as the first two have been." Ember stated, because she found that the Superfly had been a great powerup for them to use, and that she could see them making good use of the Spring Jump as well, but she was really hoping that the others helped them to the same degree, before she turned her head and looked at something that was near them, "Though it looks like we might have found a missile of some kind."
What Ember was referring to was a missile that was on the roof that was below them, which had a few gems and three metallic vases near it, though before the siblings headed down there, after just getting up here, the first thing they did was walk around the exterior of the area they were in and found a few gems resting off to one side, before dropping down to where the missile rested. While the siblings did that they found that the central rock that was in the area that looked like a small courtyard, which they had passed by earlier, had an oddly shaped metallic chest on top of it, one they could tell they couldn't open with charging, since the top of the rock pillar was too small to allow them to do such a thing, revealing the reason behind the missile. Spyro and Ember collected the gems that were on the roof, both resting on the roof and the ones that were inside the metallic vases, while Spike stared at the missile for a few seconds, before loosing a bit of fire that ignited the fuse and sent it flying through the air, where they watched as it spun through the air for a few seconds and collided with the circular metallic chest, freeing the gems that had been trapped inside it. With that done the siblings glided over to the top of the pillar and let Spyro land on it, since it was only large enough for one of them to land on top of it, where he collected the gems in a few seconds before jumping down to his siblings, where they used the nearby Spring Jump gate to launch themselves into the air, but instead of heading back up to where the yeti had been resting they glided over to an area that had a bull and a goat.
As soon as they landed on the raised area Ember flamed the bull that was in front of them, allowing Spike to grab the gems that were behind it as Spyro charged into the goat that was near them, before he smashed the metallic vases that were nearby and picked up all the gems that were near them, which lead to them returning to the roof area that had lead to them spotting the missile, only for the siblings to locate a room that the Professor was standing in, which had some rock fragments resting near the Professor and a black spirit that fled the moment they entered the room.
"Professor, are you okay?" Spike asked, because while he and his siblings could see that no harm had been done to the person that was responsible for bringing them to Avalar in the first place, since his attire seemed to be fine, he felt like asking anyway, just to be sure that there wasn't something they were missing, before glancing in the direction the spirit flew off in, which split into ten fragments and disappeared, "Was that a spirit?"
"I'm fine, especially since you and your siblings scared away the evil spirit that was bothering me," the Professor said, though even as he said that he pulled out his notepad once more and seemed to be in the middle of making some notes about whatever he had been focused on earlier, before the spirit had arrived, and quickly finished the calculations that he started on the pad, "I was studying one of the older statues that the monks had, one of their relics to be exact, when the seals on the statue broke and the spirit was freed from it's prison, or at least that was the story I was told when I asked to study the statue, and it felt the need to chase me for a time. Of course, now that it's been freed and seems to have split itself, it's likely going to inhabit a number of the statues that rest throughout this realm, why I do not know, but, since it seems to be scared of dragons, maybe flaming the now cursed statues will deal with the spirit and purge it from the realm, which the monks would be happy about."
"Chase down and purge an evil spirit, that's new for us, but I'm sure we can handle it." Spyro said, though at the same time Ember smashed the three straw baskets that were resting off to their left and collected the gems that were inside them, before they headed outside the room that the Professor was in and started to look around the area for any signs of the cursed statues he had told them about.
As it turned out it was rather easy to figure out what the cursed statues looked like, as one of the golden statues that rested outside the room they had just been in had it's color dulled, the monk now seemed violent, and instead of a stick he was holding a sword in his left hand, making him look more like a warrior than a monk, but when Spyro flamed it the fragment of the spirit that had flown into it was forced to remove itself, breaking apart in the process. The other part that was interesting was the fact that the other statue that was outside the Professor's room had been twisted as well, which made it easy for them to take out two of the fragments, instead of just one, before they glanced at the area they were in and started to search for the other cursed statues. Spike spotted some gems on the central structure that was near where the yeti had been located, to which they glided over to it and quickly picked up the four gems, before spotting a path that rested on top of the yeti's former room, where they found three gems, a small cavern that had a few metallic vases and some gems resting on the ground, and, more interesting to them, a path that seemed to be made of ice that lead to an area that a hot air balloon was resting in. As such the first thing they did was flame the cursed statue and gathered the gems that were there, as well as breaking the metallic vases, before jumping down to the walkway that connected to the outside of the yeti's room, which also connected to the ice path, but that also gave them the fourth cursed statue and three gems, which the siblings were happy to collect, though they decided to ignore the ice path as they sought out the rest of the cursed statues.
The fifth statue, as it turned out, was near the Spring Jump gate that was just outside the yeti's room, which they had just crossed over a few moments ago, so they purified it before they heading into the temple, as they remembered seeing a statue inside it and were curious as to whether or not it was one of the cursed ones, though it didn't take them all that long to determine the truth. The statue that was near the monk that was focused on the moveable platform was one of the cursed statues, so the siblings breathed fire on it to deal with the fragment of the spirit that was inside it and return it to normal, before they retraced their steps as they headed back to the starting area for this realm, as they figured that they could find the remaining cursed statues along the way. As it turned out the next cursed statue was on the raised area that the lone goat and bull had been in, which they accessed thanks to the Spring Jump gate that was near them, so Ember headed up there and took care of the statue as Spyro and Spike retraced their steps so they could return to the starting area and see if they could find any of the remaining cursed statues. Interesting enough the remaining three cursed statues were just outside the second gate, as in the first two statues they had seen when they passed through the first gate and the final one was hidden by the monk that had opened the second gate for them, so the siblings split up and tackled one of the statues, purifying all of them in the process.
Once the tenth and final fragment of the spirit had been purified they gathered into a single spot, one that was near where the Professor had been studying a ruined statue, before the reformed spirit disappeared entirely, meaning they must have succeeded in their mission, and Spike was sure the spirit wasn't lingering in the shadows, before they returned to their new friend so they could tell him the news.
"We've dealt with the spirit, so the monks won't have to worry about it." Ember remarked, though even as she said that she noticed that Spike was making a note of what they had done in his journal, for when they returned to the Dragon Realms after stopping Ripto and thwarting his plans, before all three of them focused on the Professor, in case he had something he wanted to say before they left to search the other part of this realm.
"I'm sure the monks will be happy to hear the news," the Professor replied, to which he reached into his coat for a few seconds and seemed to be looking for something, what the siblings had no idea since they weren't familiar with what he could be hiding inside his pockets, before he withdrew an Orb and presented it to them, "I, um, borrowed this from the temple, so I could study the legend about the statue being a prison, and it seems that my actions were a mistake, since I accidentally broke the statue and freed the spirit... but you took care of it, instead of allowing it to inhabit the statues and do whatever it was trying to do. Here, I'm sure they won't mind me giving you this Orb as a reward."
The siblings had to raise their eyebrows for a moment, as it was odd that the Professor would admit to taking the Orb, without permission from the monks, but there had to be a reason behind why they needed the Orbs and Spike made sure to collect the one that was being offered to them, as he was sure it would be returned to the monks in due time, before he and his siblings headed for the other area they hadn't explored yet. It didn't take them long to return to the icy area and found that, when they started to walk on the ice, they had to shift their legs from side to side, almost like they were rowing a boat or something, and found that they were able to skate their way through the area, where they slowly collected the gems that rested on the ice, before reaching the other side of the path. The stairs that were on the other side of the ice brought them up to a very interesting area, as they discovered a ring made out of ice, stands that seemed to be filled by monks and a number of other creatures they hadn't met yet, and the hot air balloons, and that included some flags that bared the symbol of the monks. In fact there was a monk near the top of the stairs, who seemed to be waiting for them to arrive, so they made sure to pick up the gems that were on the stairs before reaching the monk, before they stared out at the area that was resting in front of them, as all three of them were curious about what they had discovered and that caused Spike to pull out the guidebook.
"Ah, Spyro, Spike, Ember, welcome to our practice hockey ring." the monk said, where he beckoned to the ring for a few seconds, as if they couldn't figure out that the ice ring in front of them was the ring that he was referring to, but none of them said anything as he refocused on them and smiled at them, showing that he was happy they had found out where he was standing, "We have found that hockey is a peaceful and calming sport, as opposed to the sport that we were doing at one point in the past. Would one of you like to take part in a practice session against our goalkeeper?"
"Sure, why not." Spyro replied, to which he jumped down into the ring and watched as the large stone door that was on the other side of the ring raised for a moment, revealing a larger person who was wearing a blue uniform, had one of the sticks in his hand, and had some gear on that looked like it was supposed to protect him from harm, though as that happened the monk informed him that he had two minutes to score five points in the red goal, meaning this had to be the goalkeeper for the blue side and that he was protecting the red side for practice.
As Spyro started to move around the ring, to get a better feeling for how he was supposed to move, the monk pulled out a black object and tossed it into the middle of the ring, where he carefully chased after it and found that, in order to actually score against the goalkeeper, he had to pick it up in his mouth and spit it, as when the puck approached the red goal the person he was practicing with hit the puck away from him. While that happened, and Spyro moved after the puck to pick it up with his mouth, Ember sat down near the edge and watched as the pair did what they were doing, as she was a little interested in seeing how many points her brother could score before the time limit was up, because if he failed she was willing to try it. Spike, on the other hand, pulled out the guidebook once more, as he took a seat near his sister, and started reading up on Colossus, just like he had done for Glimmer, showing that his interest was more on the past and less on what was happening in front of him, though he was slightly interested in what the monk had said about this being the sport known as hockey. He found that the monks of Colossus had, at one point in time, been warriors and guardians of Avalar, almost like the Peace Keepers were that for the Dragon Realms, but after some undetermined amount of time they left that life behind and took up being monks, apparently sealing all of their warrior desires and darker thoughts in a very specific stone statue, the same one that the Professor had shattered by bringing an Orb to it, so the spirit they took care of had been the warrior nature of the monks... it was hard to say whether that was a good thing or if it was a bad thing, but only the monks would be able to tell them which it was.
The other thing he discovered was an explanation of what hockey was, where he found that this game was generally played between two teams that tried to score in the goals of the opposing team, as in the blue team would go for the red goal and the red team would be going for the blue goal, but from what he could tell this wasn't the game in question and wondered why this was even called hockey.
"Are you sure this game is named correctly?" Spike asked, though at the same time Spyro scored the third goal against the goalkeeper that was trying to stop him, who seemed to be getting frustrated with what was going on at the moment, before seeing that the monk glanced in his direction, causing him to gesture to what was in front of them, "You said that this is a hockey ring, right? Well, based on the guidebook's explanation of the game, and how the two teams are supposed to play it, this isn't hockey... rather, this seems more like it should be called Shootout Challenge or something."
"Remember, I called this our 'practice' hockey ring, as this is more suited for training new goalkeepers or players that will be hitting the puck around the ring," the monk said, though at the same time he wasn't annoyed by the question and was more than willing to tell Spike what was going on, while Spyro managed to get another puck around the goalkeeper and scored his fourth goal, despite the fact that he was running out of time, "the truth of the matter is that we have two hockey rings in our realm, one that we use for practice and one for the actual games, which is much larger than the one we're standing near at the moment. In the other ring we play actual games of hockey between two full teams, who will spend an hour to an hour and a half trying to score on the other team, and the other residents of Avalar come to enjoy the games that happen there... in fact, we would have had to cancel tonight's game if you hadn't stopped the yeti, so now we can prepare for the game and hope everyone manages to make it."
Spike thought about that for a moment, as he guessed it made sense that the monks would have a practice area and an area to actually play the real games, and accepted the monk's explanation, just as Spyro managed to score the last goal he needed on the goalkeeper, within ten seconds left, which caused the monk to admit that he was impressed by how a beginner was able to tackle the challenge and, interestingly enough, offered them an Orb for what Spyro had done. Spike made sure to collect the Orb and store it inside the guidebook, with the other Orb and the Talisman, before Ember jumped into the ring and tried her luck against the goalkeeper, though the person she went up against underestimated her within the first few seconds, as she was able to score rather quickly and continued to test the goalkeeper's reactions, while also scoring on him whenever a hole appeared in his defenses. When Ember was done they turned to Spike, as if he was going to join them, but he decided that, for now anyway, he would save his energy for something else, allowing Spyro to take on someone from the red team that would be trying to score in the blue goal, the one that the goalkeeper they had been practicing on defended, where he and Ember watched as two more hockey players came out and stood in the red side of the ring, before engaging Spyro in a game to see who could score five goals the fastest.
As it turned out the red team wasn't able to actually score on Spyro, who was a total beginner at the sport and had only one practice session, to which Spike and Ember watched as their brother managed to score five goals rather quickly while his goalkeeper protected the goal from the red team, where the red shirt wearing people growled in annoyance as he score his points and returned to them when the match was over. The monk, accompanied by the cheering fans that had been watching the entire thing, offered them a second Orb for the show, showing that they all enjoyed what Spyro was able to do, before the teams went back to what they were doing, meaning they were getting ready for the next game they would be partaking in. As the siblings turned around, so they could return to the portal and head back to Summer Forest, to focus on one of the other realms, the monk told them that they would be honored to see them in action in the future, when they were done saving Avalar from Ripto, where Spyro grinned as Spike and Ember nodded their heads, an action that pleased the monk as they departed from the area. Spike was still surprised that there was another ring in this realm, one that they weren't going to see for some time, but this land and the realms had many surprises for them and he was interested in seeing what the other realms had for them, even if his siblings might have a different opinion.
It didn't take them long to return to where the yeti had been, where they found that the poor yeti was knocked out and likely wouldn't be up for some time, to which they headed through the portal and headed back to Summer Forest, so they could focus on another realm and the residents that needed their help, before focusing on Ripto, his minions, and bringing an end to his plans.