//------------------------------//
// Year: Terrace Troubles 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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"That realm wasn't so bad," Elora commented, speaking the moment that she, Spyro, Spike, and Ember returned to Midday Gardens and landed in front of the portal that lead to Spooky Swamp, the realm that they had just assisted by taking out all of the Rhynocs that were bothering the residents of the realm, before she considered something as she looked down at the magical rune Spike had placed on all of them, "I'm glad you were able to find a spell to deal with the haiku enchantment that was resting on the realm, as that would have been annoying to deal with."

"Spooky Swamp was interesting, to a degree." Spike replied, because it had been nice to show up Moneybags and stop another of his schemes to steal the gems that they had recovered so far, not to mention recover all of the eggs that had been placed in that realm, before he took a moment to remove the enchantment that he had placed on him, his siblings, and Elora, allowing the rune to disappear in a matter of seconds, "I'm also glad that I took some time to research the book and see if such a spell existed, because I'm not sure if all of us could have lived through speaking in haikus for the duration of our visit, but now we won't have to worry about it."

"That's right, and we have one more realm to assist," Spyro said, where he walked up the steps that would lead them to the highest point of the homeworld and came to a stop as he glanced at the area that the portal to Bamboo Terrace was located in, which was the final realm that they needed to head to and repeat what they had been doing to the realms they had visited so far, even if that wasn't counting the Speedway that was near it, "Once we're done dealing with the enemies that are bothering the residents of Bamboo Terrace, and have recovered all of the stolen eggs that are scattered around the realm, we can tackle the Speedway, get the eggs that are scattered around that island, and then return to the keep so we can head out for the next homeworld and see what sort of realms we'll have to deal with next."

"Getting to the next homeworld sounds nice, especially since we'll find Moneybags trying to sell us another hero that was captured by the Sorceress' forces." Ember added, referring to the fact that they were likely going to find the bear and someone that was being engaged against their will, due to trying to help the residents of the Forgotten Realms in taking down the person that was ruling over them with an iron will, especially since she seemed to be sending her forces to all of the realms to enforce her desires upon each and every one of them, "Besides, Sheila did mention that there were three other captured heroes that we were going to meet and Sgt. Byrd is definitely one of them, so it makes me curious as to who the other two could be."

The rest of the group nodded their heads for a moment, as they had to agree with Ember's statement and were a bit curious as to who the next captured hero had to be, which was something that they would discover once they reached the next homeworld, which was the moment that they stopped thinking about the next homeworld that they would be visiting and headed through the portal that was in front of them. Not a few moments later they appeared in the starting area for Bamboo Terrace, which looked like an intricate structure that mimicked what they had seen in the painting when they first arrived in Midday Gardens, a style that Spike knew was mostly timberwork of beams, posts, and joints, and it seemed like the structure they had appeared in was a bare pavilion, which made sense due to the pair of houses in front of where they were standing. Beyond the pair of houses rested another structure that looked like it contained the path forward, one that was being blocked by a round boulder that had a panda's face on it, which was rather odd and meant that it had to be a security measure of some kind, though to their right rested another pavilion that was resting on a lone pillar of earth, one that seemed to connect the starting area to the area the exit portal was in, if the previous realms were to be believed due to what they knew. Other than that this realm actually seemed rather relaxing and nice, even if it was under attack by the Rhynocs at the moment, informing the group that another peaceful realm was in the process of being torn apart due to the Sorceress ordering her forces to attack the realm in question, to which the group determined that it was time for them to get moving and see what they needed to do this time around.

While they walked over to where the first Panda was located, to replicate what they did with the previous realms they had visited, Elora took a moment to switch out the Spring Jump Form for her wings, as she had the feeling they would be more important for this realm, before they came to a stop in front of the Panda, who did seem a little worried about what was happening to his realm.

"What seems to be the problem?" Spyro asked, even though he could guess what was going on without having to ask the question, due to everything the group had seen so far, since they started this adventure and explored the Forgotten Realms, but he knew it was better to ask the residents what was going on so the four of them could have a much better understanding of what they needed to do to make things right, especially since such a thing might give them some new information that they weren't aware of.

"Well, Rhynocs have been harassing us all day, stopping us from harvesting bamboo." the Panda replied, showing that she wasn't happy with what was going on at the moment, which was understandable given that the Rhynocs were in the middle of bothering her and the rest of the Pandas that called the realm home, before she sighed for a moment as she thought about something, "Our workers haven't been able to gather any of the bundles of bamboo that we need to build the whirligig that will take you guys to Evening Lake."

"The whirligig?" Ember inquired, because this was the first time that they had heard of such a thing, given that none of the residents of the other realms in Midday Gardens had mentioned such a thing, but at the same time she didn't bother to question the part about Evening Lake, due to the fact that she was under the impression that it was the name of the third homeworld that they would be heading to.

"Its a vehicle that is faster than a hot air balloon, so instead of taking two hours to get there with the hot air balloon it will take a hour to get there with the whirligig." the Panda stated, revealing that it was a step up from the vehicle that they had been allowed to use after helping the residents of Sunrise Spring out, something that interested the group and meant that they would be able to save a bit of time in the future, once the vehicle was completed, "Anyway, we've been trying to gather the bamboo needed to build it, but with the Rhynocs harassing us we haven't been able to make any progress... we've even tried asking them to leave, peacefully I might add, but there's no reasoning with them."

"Gem creations, generally, have limited intelligence and only listen to a few orders, so it makes sense that they would ignore you and continue to follow what the Sorceress told them," Spike commented, recalling what he had learned about the spell in question, thanks to everything they had seen during their first adventure and everything they had seen during this adventure, though at the same time he was a little curious if there was a way to improve the spell, something that he might try out in the future, before he focused on what was going on at the moment, "but don't worry, we'll take out the Rhynocs that are here and restore order to your realm."

"I believe you, so I'll be waiting for the Rhynocs to be cleared out." the Panda said, where she was the first resident to actually reply to the fact that the group was promising that they would take care of the problem that the realm was facing at the moment, not that the siblings or Elora were surprised by that fact, which was the moment that she stood off to the side and let the group move forward.

The first thing the group did was pick up the couple of gems that were resting around the pavilion, adding them to the Bag of Holding that Spike was carrying, before they quickly found a Rhynoc that was wearing a green kimono, had some fireworks in one hand, and had a match in the other, meaning that it was a Firework Rhynoc and that it was going to use the fireworks to attack them. It was rather easy to dodge the attack, as the siblings just rolled to the side as Elora jumped into the air, where they allowed the firework to head over the cliff that was behind the pavilion that they had started in and exploded a few seconds later, before Spyro charged into their foe and knocked it to the ground, allowing them to turn to their left and see what else was near the pair of houses. There was a brown furred buffalo, who had rather sharp horns on its head, that was guarding the area between them and the area that the boulder was in, though it proved to be rather hostile as it tried to charge them into submission, only to be stopped by Ember as she hardened her entire body and let her foe collide with her, only causing the Buffalo to stagger for a moment as it collided with her. That was an opening that allowed her to hit the Buffalo with her hardened tail and defeat it, dropping a gem to confirm that they had found another of the Sorceress' creations, before locating a taller Rhynoc that was wearing a blue kimono, though its weapon of choice was an umbrella, the weirdest of choices, meaning it was, as per their naming scheme, an Umbrella Rhynoc, where Elora kicked it in the face and brought it down before it could hurt them.

Once that was done the group picked up the gems that were on the ground near them, and smashed a pair of straw baskets which were resting near a wall, as a pair of Pandas walked up to the boulder and rolled it out of the way, revealing a passage that would allow the four of them to reach the next part of the realm, one that was also designed in the same manner as the houses and the pavilion. From there the group entered the intricate wooden passage that had just been opened and collected the gems that were in the area, along with a few more straw baskets, before they walked through the other side of the passage and entered the much larger second area of the realm, where they found a house, a tower, and a couple of enemies that needed to be taken out. The first foe they took out was one of the Umbrella Rhynoc, where Spyro dodged the incoming attack by rolling out of the way, infuriating his target in the process, before flaming his foe in the back and bringing it down in a few seconds, while that allowed Spike, Ember, and Elora to focus on the rest of the area that they were in, not to mention the rest of the enemies that had to be walking around the area. What happened was that Ember stalled a Buffalo that charged at her, where it staggered for a moment as it came into contact with her hardened body, allowing her to strike it down with a quick swing of her tail, dropping a gem that was added to the collection that Elora was picking up off the ground, while Spike spotted another Buffalo in the area and used his Arcane Missiles to blast it into one of the raised sections of the ground that was around them. Elora, after picking up a decent number of the gems, jumped over a small gap that was nearby and picked up an egg that was resting over there, bringing it back to where Spike was standing so he could check it out and send it back home.

With the egg taken care of Elora turned her attention to the area that a Umbrella Rhynoc was in, chasing one of the Pandas around no less, where she jumped over the attack that was coming her way and then kicked her target in the side of its head, knocking it to the ground and allowing the Panda to return to what they had been doing before the Rhynocs invaded this realm. At the same time Spyro found a Firework Rhynoc to the right of the opening they had walked through, who was in the middle of tormenting yet another Panda, so what he did was head over there and charged into his target in a matter of seconds, freeing that Panda from what was happening, which was when the two they saved joined a third one at the tower the group had seen and formed a stack of their own by stand on each others shoulders until they could reach the lever that was above them. They then pulled the lever and caused a bridge to lower, one that would allow them to head through another wooden passage and access the next part of the realm, but instead of heading over to that area the four of them regrouped near the house and found a side path that seemed to curve around in the direction of the very first passage they had walked through earlier. The group found a gap that they jumped over, discovered an Umbrella Rhynoc that was blocking the way forward, who got taken down by Spike being simple and just flamed it before it even had a chance to attack them, and picked up a couple of gems along the way, before finding a hole in the side of the mountain that the first passage was connected to, where the group glided over to the cave in question.

What they found was an Umbrella Rhynoc guarding a few gems, a couple of straw baskets, and, more importantly, a dragon egg, so out of them Ember was the first one to react as she spun around and slammed her hardened tail right into the shoulder of her target, crushing it into the floor in a matter of seconds, which allowed Spyro and Elora to focus on the gems as Spike made sure that the egg was fine and then sent it off with his Teleportation Breath.

Once the egg was sent back to the Dragon Realms, to join the other eggs they had rescued so far, the group turned around and glided down into the area that the bridge to the next part of the realm rested in, though when they reached the bridge in question they discovered something interesting under the water that prompted Spyro to dive into the water for a few moments. What he discovered were a few glass vases and a number of gems that he added to the collection that Spike was carrying, and that included smashing a wall down that had nothing on the other side, meaning it was just a rather weak wall and by smashing it the water would shift a little, though once that was done he jumped out of the water and landed on the bridge, allowing him to regroup with the others. From there they found one of the Umbrella Rhynocs guarding the entrance of the next wooden passage that they needed to pass through, to which he approached their next foe and drew its attention to him, something that allowed Ember to get behind it, use the wall near their foe to jump into the air, and then used her tail to crush her target into the floor, something that allowed Elora to enter the small chamber and collect the gems that were in their way. As the Umbrella Rhynoc fell to the ground, and the gems were picked up, the group walked over to the other opening of the passage and discovered that they were already at the area that had to be where the exit portal was located, causing them to raise their eyebrows for a moment, due to the fact that they weren't expecting such a thing to happen at all, mostly since the other realms had taken longer to get from the starting area and find where the end was located.

The only structures in this area, that they could see at the moment, were a tower that was resting near the pavilion they had seen when they started their adventure in this realm, which didn't seem to be connected to either of the sections of the realm, and a temple that had to be where the exit portal was located, though there was a ruined bridge that would have connected the area they were in to the temple, meaning that the Rhynocs must have ruined it at some point during their assault, to keep their targets in one area to make their lives easier.

After checking out the area the first thing they did was pick up a few gems that were laying off to their left, though at the same time Elora found an Umbrella Rhynoc that was guarding the path on their right and rushed at it, where it tried to hit her with its umbrella and missed a few times as she dodged them, which was quickly followed by her punching her foe in the face and knocked it to the ground. Beyond that rested one of the Buffaloes they had seen since they started helping out the Pandas, where a quick ball of fire rushed by where she was standing and struck down the Buffalo that she would have fought if the siblings didn't join her, though because it was a fireball and not a burst of fire she knew Spike was the one that had stuck the next foe down, allowing them to access another couple of gems as they curved to the left and were soon pointed in the direction of the temple. That allowed the group to see that there were an Umbrella Rhynoc and one of the Firework Rhynocs standing guard in the area that the path had brought them to, where Ember hardened her body once more and let both of their foes try to hit her, the umbrella doing nothing and the firework just exploding in her face while doing no damage to her, but that was exactly what she was expecting to happen. As the pair of foes stared at her in shock, due to the fact that neither of them were expecting such a thing to occur, Spike blasted the Firework Rhynoc with his Arcane Missiles and knocked it into the wall that was behind it, while at the same time Spyro charged into the Umbrella Rhynoc as Elora kicked it in the side of the head, taking it down as well. Of course, as they took those foes down, they did find another Buffalo guarding the edge of the area, where the path to the temple was located in, but Ember was the one that took it down by allowing it to charge into her hardened body and then jump into the air so she could slam her tail down on her foe's backside, crushing it into the ground.

From there the group picked up the gems that their foes had been guarding before approaching the waterfall that was in front of them, where Ember dived into the water and smashed a few glass vases so she could add them to the pile of gems they had recovered so far, not to mention the couple of gems that were there in the first place, though it wasn't long before she jumped out and rejoined them. Once that was done they took turns jumping over the two raised stone platforms and reached the area that was in front of the temple, where a Firework Rhynoc was in the middle of preparing a firework to knock them out of the air, but Spike reacted within seconds and blasted their foe before it even had a chance to fire a second attack at them with another Arcane Missile. Instead of heading into the temple immediately, like one would normally do, the group explored the outside and made sure that there were no more enemies lingering in the area that they were in, finding a lone Firework Rhynoc that was hiding behind the temple, so Elora kicked it in the side of the head and took it down as it raised its weapon at them, allowing the siblings to collect the gems and smash the couple of straw baskets that were behind the temple. With that done they turned around and made their way back to the opening that would allow them to enter the final structure of the realm, not counting any of the side areas that they would be exploring in the near future, before coming to a stop when they approached the Panda that was standing near the exit portal, meaning they had reached the end of the realm and had succeeded in helping the residents out.

"You guys are amazing! Those Rhynocs didn't stand a chance, and now I can freely extend the emergency bridge that connects to this area to the starting area," the Panda said, revealing that she was incredibly happy about the fact that they had taken care of all of the enemies that had been attacking the realm, while assisting all of the Pandas that were being chased by the Rhynocs, before she considered something for a few moments, "Now that the Rhynocs have been taken care of we can harvest the necessary bamboo to build the whirligig that will allow you to reach Evening Lake, and Sgt. Byrd told us that you guys are looking for these, so here's the dragon egg that was hidden inside the temple."

Spyro, Spike, Ember, and Elora glanced at each other for a moment as the emergency bridge was activated, because that statement explained why there were so many enemies in this part of the realm, before Spike made sure that the egg was just fine and then sent it to the Dragon Realms, just as the Panda headed through the exit portal, which was when the group headed for the other opening to their right... something that brought them to a portal that looked like something that was connected to an icy area of some kind, as in the realm someone called home, before they located a sign that had a picture of a white furred creature.

"Lets see, 'To all explorers: there is no yeti here, and there never was! He was just a myth!', and, just like the last one we found, its signed by the Sorceress." Spike said, reading the sign that was resting near the sealed off portal, something that reminded them of what they had seen back in Molten Crater, before he considered what the sign had said and what they had learned from both Sheila and Moneybags in the past, while the rest of the group waited for him to speak his mind on what they had discovered, "Based on what we know, this yeti has to be the third individual that the Sorceress captured and locked away in a cell, one that we'll likely find in Evening Lake and free as soon as we discover where the cage is located, which means dealing with Moneybags as well... and the Sorceress seems to be trying to stop people from looking for the heroes that she's framing, which doesn't seem to be working at all."

"Well, hopefully this yeti is nothing like the one from Colossus," Elora remarked, referring to the danger that the yeti in question had posed to the Monks of the realm that it had been resting in for some time, even if the siblings had been able to turn the tables on it without actually fighting it, something that still annoyed Ember whenever she thought about what happened in that realm, mostly because she wanted to fight the creature and see how strong it was, instead of having it be knocked out by a large stone.

"We'll find out when we find where Moneybags is hiding in Evening Lake." Ember commented, though at the same time she turned away from the portal and looked around the rest of the area that they were in, mostly because she was ready to continue exploring the rest of the realm and see if they could find the rest of the eggs that had to be here, even if one or two might be out of reach at the moment.

Spyro said nothing as he turned and climbed the stone steps that were to their left, of which there were a few of them and came to a stop a few seconds later, something that revealed a gap between where they were and the next platform that would bring them to a lone platform near the temple, one that he had to glide to and then jumped into the air to do the same thing for the final platform, only to come to a stop as he landed on the lone area and waited for the rest of the group to reach where he was standing.

"Is that what I think it is?" Elora asked, as she was staring at a yellow jar with green stripes, which happened to have a red question mark on it, though she was being serious about the question, mostly because she had heard of this type of jar before, back in Avalar to be exact, even if she had never seen one with her own eyes and only read about it when she went over what Spike had written down about the realms that had them, but this did match the description that was in the book she read earlier.

"Yeah, its a Question Mark Jar." Spyro replied, as he knew what they were looking at and figured that this time around he could show Spike that he was paying attention to what Spike had said in the past, even though this sort of thing was a little interesting in how they worked and had to wonder if his brother had learned how to track them down when they teleported to a new area of the realm, something that they would discover in the next couple of seconds.

Once Elora knew that they were staring at the teleporting jar that moved around whatever realm that they were in, and understood what was going to happen when they struck the object in question, Spyro smacked it with his tail and it disappeared not a few seconds later, which was the moment that the rest of the group turned to Spike as he felt the magic that was in the air. Not a few seconds later he glided over to the backside of the temple and walked back to where the exit portal was resting, where he waited for a few seconds and let the group discover that the Question Mark Jar had moved to the walkway that connected the temple to where the closed off portal was located, surprising the four of them with the fact that it hadn't moved that much from the area it had been resting in earlier. Ember glared at the jar as she slapped it with her claws, not even bothering to use her tail this time around, and they moved the moment it disappeared, but as the group started to leave the temple through the main entrance, as they had used the side entrance that was opposite of the one that lead to the closed off portal, they discovered an egg thief standing near the ramp that lead into the temple, which was when Ember glared at it and started to chase the thief as it ran off with the egg. The thief, as it turned out, jumped over the ruined bridge and headed for the emergency one, where a Firework Rhynoc happened to be standing, but that poor fool was taken out by Ember charging into it as she followed the thief, who ended up getting slammed into not a few seconds later as it tried to get away from her, which was when the rest of the group walked over to her side, where they found a side path connected to the pavilion that lead to another section of the realm.

Spike took a few seconds to make sure the egg was just fine, and it was in the same condition that all of the other eggs had been in when they recovered them, before sending it back home and they returned to the search for the Question Mark Jar, since they were sure that it would move if they went to another section of the realm, and Spike leaded them back to the area the three Pandas had been in, who were still standing on each others shoulders. Oddly enough the jar was next to them, where Elora kicked it with her right leg and it disappeared again, only for it to reappear not a few steps away from where they were currently standing, as it was in the shadow of one of the structures in this area, the house that was to the right of the wooden passage that first lead to this area when they were first exploring the realm. The group stared at each other for a moment, as they were honestly expecting it to move further than that or maybe head up the hill that was near the tower, that had lead them to the cave with one of the eggs, but in the end the four of them sighed as they walked over to the jar and Spike gave it a good whack with his claws, mostly out of annoyance due to the fact that the jar was more of a joke this time around. This time around Elora found the jar before Spike did, as it happened to be in the middle of the opening that lead to this part of the realm, in the middle of the wooden passage to be exact, and it took them a few seconds to locate it and strike it down by Spyro flaming it, causing it to move right behind the boulder that the Pandas had moved out of the way earlier, something that caused them to sigh again as it moved back to the starting area for the realm and beckoned them to come get it.

As such the four of them spent a few moments walking back to where the starting area was located and smashed the jar so they could get all of the gems that were inside it, though once that was done they headed for the emergency bridge was located and headed up the side path that would take them to a new area that would hold a few things for them to obtain while they were there... where they found themselves in a room that a Panda was standing in, along with one of the Powerup Gates that was a Superflame and, based on the symbol below it, the powerup would least for as long as they were in this section of the realm, making them wonder what they needed to do this time around.

"Spyro, Spike, Ember, Elora, you guys have to help us!" the Panda declared, informing the group that the residents of the lands of the Forgotten Realms were starting to hear their names and use them when they were helping people out, meaning that someone was telling them what their names were since they really hadn't given them out, where Sheila and Sgt. Byrd were the ones that had to be doing it, but none of them were annoyed by that and remained quiet as they waited to hear what the problem was, "My friends are trying to go home after a long shift in the fields, but those rotten Rhynocs keep bothering them and won't let them leave the area."

The group said nothing as they passed through the Powerup Gate and empowered themselves, or at least the siblings did since Elora and her armor couldn't access the various offensive abilities that the gates offered, but she could point out where the Rhynocs were as she and the others came to a stop on the boat the Panda was letting them use and let it start moving as they followed the river that was flowing through the area in question. Once they started moving the siblings took turns focusing on the Umbrella Rhynocs that Elora called out, blasting them out of the area before they could even head to where the Pandas were standing, allowing the Pandas to leave the various areas that they had been forced to stand in for who knew how long. Of course that gave the group a chance to see that all of the houses were above the area that the river was in, meaning that the various enemies that they were taking down had knocked the Pandas off the short ladders that allowed them to access their homes, where a few of the Pandas even celebrated over what was going on as the group moved through the area and continued to help everyone else out. The group also discovered that there was no challenge to this mission, as none of the Umbrella Rhynocs even got close to the Pandas that were trying to head home, not with the siblings taking turns knocking all of their targets off the ground and out of the air, as a couple of their targets tried to attack the Pandas from the air, before they eventually found that no more Rhynocs were in the area and that all of the residents of this realm were able to return to their homes. Such a thing made the Pandas happy, as they waved at the group as they let the boat take them all over the river for a few seconds before heading into their houses, to rest up and do whatever it was when they weren't working on collecting bamboo or working in the fields, like they had been doing before the Rhynocs showed up earlier.

As such the four of them quickly returned to the Panda that had asked for their assistance and gave her the news that she was waiting for, where they got an egg for their efforts and Spike quickly sent it back to the Dragon Realms, which was the moment that they left the section of the realm that they were in, returned to the main area of Bamboo Terrace, and made their way towards the exit portal, as it was time to head back to the keep, that was back in Midday Gardens, and see how long it would take for the whirligig to be made ready for them to head for Evening Lake.