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// Dragonfly: Strangeness in the Den 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Once the group got back from Honey Marsh, and returned to the area the Blue Crocodile had been standing in before they used the raft to get to the realm they had just finished assisting, Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and Elora headed for the main castle that was in the middle of the homeworld, mostly to make sure everything was alright with the dragonflies they had rescued so far and that there was nothing they needed to do before they headed for the last two realms of this land, those being Thieves Den and Jurassic Jungle, even though they had no idea which realm was open to them. This sort of reminded the majority of them of what happened back during their second adventure, where they needed a number of Orbs to restore the power to certain portals, or their trek through Avilion, as there had been some portals that required them to recover a number of the stolen dragon eggs before their power had been restored, even though they now knew that Spike's Teleportation Breath had aided the eggs in hatching. Sure enough it appeared that all of the dragonflies were having fun with their hatchlings and seemed to have gotten over the fact that they had been displaced by Ripto's spell, especially since some of them had been placed in some dangerous situations in the realms that they had been sent to, though once they knew that the newest dragonflies were fine the group continued up the stone path that would take them back to the area that the hot air balloon for Monkey Monastery was located, since that was where they would find the two remaining portals for the last couple of realms that they needed to assist, before their showdown with Ripto.

"So, which realm should we tackle next?" Elora asked, because she knew that there were only two more realms for her and the dragons to assist, as by now they had cleared out six of the eight realms of enemies and recovered the dragonflies that had been sent to each of them, and she was curious as to which one Spyro would pick out, not that it mattered since they would be helping the residents of both of them in the near future, something that was followed by the others turning towards Spyro for a few moments, as they came to a stop in the jungle-like area.

"We should head up to the carpet that will take us to Thieves Den," Spyro replied, as he figured that they might as well take care of the furthest realm from the center of the homeworld first, that way when it came time to head back to where Ripto's portal was located they could stop by the portal to Jurassic Jungle and see what sort of problems the residents of that realm were facing, even though he knew what they were going to see next was going to be strange for them, unless the Thieves were still villains and had an ambush ready for the five of them, "then we'll come back and deal with all of the problems and Riptocs that are scattered throughout Jurassic Jungle, before heading for Ripto."

The others nodded their heads as they head that, showing that they agreed with Spyro's plan and that none of them were even going to offer up the idea of them heading for the other realm first, hence the reason they headed up the rest of the stone steps and entered the area that the structure that lead to the carpet was resting in, where the five of them quickly found the blue robed Thief standing near the carpet and noticed that, just like all of the other Thieves they had seen in the past, had a bag over one of its shoulders and had two pieces of jewelry attached to its headpiece, though as they came to a stop near it the Thief turned to look at them.

"I'm not really sure how you guys managed it, but you guys are shiftier than I originally gave you credit for, given that there's five of you and not just one of you," the Thief commented, his words implying that they hadn't rescued all of the missing dragonflies and had, in his eyes, stolen them from the various realms that were scattered throughout Castle Hills, and that their actions in the other realms had impressed him, even if he was mishearing whatever he had heard, but right now none of them said anything as they listened to what the Thief had to say, "Now you can use this carpet to fly off to our Den whenever you want to."

The interesting part of the Thief's statement was the fact that he didn't mention anything about the problems that had to be plaguing his realm, as all of the other stranded residents of the other realms had told them a little about their home realm before they used the provided transport to head through the portal area and head off for the realm they had picked out, though none of them said anything as they nodded their heads and climbed onto the carpet, finding that there just so happened to be enough room for all five of them on the carpet. Once that was done the group found themselves being lifted into the air by the magical carpet, as Spike knew it was enchanted and the others didn't need to hear it since they could see that with their own eyes, before they reached the area that the magic of the portal was located in and, just like the times they used the other portals of this homeworld, disappeared from the area they were in and headed towards the starting area for the Thieves Den. A few moments later they reappeared in what seemed to be a cave of some kind, one that had a number of large lanterns surrounding the starting area for this realm, lanterns that were either made out of gold or bronze, and there happened to be six of them, not to mention a stone path that seemed to lead into the main part of the realm, before they noticed a golden emblem of some kind below their claws, something that had to be rather important for the residents of this realm, which was when Elora picked up a nearby gem as they moved forward, so they could find someone to talk to and see if they could figure out what was happening with this realm. The path consisted of some sections that lowered and quickly came to a stop, even though it did give them a few gems to add to their collection, before they found a circular pedestal that allowed them to jump into the mouth of the massive snake head that was right in front of them, since it contained the path leading forward, though it was hard to tell if the skull was made out of bone or if it was carved from the stone this realm had been built in, or a mountain as Spike quickly determined as they looked at what was around them.

Standing near the other side of the snake's mouth were two interesting things, one of them being an obstacle course of some kind, or maybe it was a security measure due to the swinging axe that was in the doorway, while the other was a blue robed Thief that was standing off to their right, and the reason that was both odd and interesting was the fact that he didn't bother running away from them as they approached him, meaning that either he knew they were here to help or he was terrified of the fact that four dragons and a faun had invaded his realm and were here to steal all the treasure that all of the Thieves had been gathering over the years.

"Spyro, its... well, its nice to see you again, despite what happened in the past," the Thief said, something that caused the group to raise their eyebrows for a moment, due to the fact that they knew the dragons and Thieves didn't have that great of a relationship, with the Thieves stealing everything they could get their hands on, especially when they thought about what happened during their first adventure, with the Thieves stealing the couple of dragon eggs that had been resting throughout the homeworlds of the Dragon Realms, even though Spike thought about something while the others just waited for the Thief to tell them what was going on with this realm and what they needed to do to restore order to the den the Thieves called home, "Ripto has send some of his Riptoc Wizards into our den and, from what we can tell, they're using their magic to turn our gems into monsters, to either steal more of our treasure or disrupt our operations, though we really have no idea what we're supposed to do in this sort of situation, so we were... well, to be honest, we were hoping that you guys would come help us, despite what happened in the past."

"I know there are some dragons out there that might hold the past against you and your kind, but there are times where you have to look past that and focus on the future," Spyro said, though at the same time he glanced over to Cynder for a moment, who nodded her head in agreement, no doubt thinking about something that only they shared, before he turned his attention back to the Thief that was in front of them at the moment, since this would be good news for him and the rest of his realm, "but don't worry, we'll take care of the Riptocs that have invaded this place and, more importantly, do what we can to restore the order that they have broken since they invaded this place."

"Say, aren't you the Thief that we saw back in Wizard Peak?" Spike inquired, mostly because this was odd for them, as he and his siblings weren't used to working with or assisting any of the Thieves they had seen in the past, though at the same time he knew that there was one Thief that had realized that it wasn't going to be able to keep the dragon egg it had been carrying from him and his siblings and, in what had been one of the smartest moments one of their foes could have made, it bowed its head towards them and gave them the egg it had been carrying.

"Could be, as I was sent out to scout out many realms and you could have seen me anywhere," the Thief replied, but even as he said that the siblings glanced at each other for a moment, as the tone of the Thief's voice made them wonder if Spike had figured something out, though they decided to say nothing about this so they could focus on the enemies that were scattered throughout this realm and the challenges that were waiting for them, before the Thief seemed to think of something before they moved away, "Oh, and a word of warning, there's a rumor that some of the Riptocs that are in the middle of attacking this realm are immune to the various breaths that a dragon can channel, so you might want to either use their own weapons against them or use some different tactics this time around."

"Well, that will make things interesting." Cynder remarked, where she found that Ember was nodding her head, as the two of them were more warrior-like than some of the others in their group, especially since Spike was their mage, though as soon as that was done the five of them walked forward and started to investigate the area that was around them, just to see what could have been resting in the first part of this realm, despite the fact that all of them were also focused on everything else that might be ahead of them.

What they found were a few gems resting between where the Thief was standing and the area that the swinging axe was in, a weapon that had an emerald edge on both sides of the large weapon, where they discovered that a few couple of the gems they saw had legs and tried to run from them, which was rather odd given what they had seen in the past, before finding a blue scaled Riptoc that happened to be wearing a fluffy purple wizard-like hat, purple gloves, and pink slippers, while wearing a light blue colored pair of pants and carried a magical wand, something Spike wanted to collect, as long as it didn't break apart when the Wizard Riptoc was defeated. The odd thing was that it was standing on top of a pool of water, one that the path they were following happened to wrap around, so while Spyro and the others followed the path, and collected the couple of gems that happened to be resting on the ground, Spike readied his magic as the Wizard Riptoc glanced at him for a few seconds, as he was daring the creature that was in front of him to do something, though that was around the time that the Wizard Riptoc swung his wand and hurled a star shaped blast at Spike, which was just what he wanted as he channeled his magic into a crystalline mirror-like shield that stalled the attack, before firing it back into his foe's chest. Not even a few seconds later, after his attack hit his target, the Wizard Riptoc collapsed on top of the water and broke apart like all of the other enemies they fought in the other realms, and just like all of the types of Riptocs they had fought in the past a gem fell in the process, though Spike made sure to claim the fallen wand, as it looked like Ripto might have actually given these particular minions of his real magical wands, so he pulled out one of his spare bags and pocketed the wand, as it would be worth studying before putting with all of the other magical stuff inside the Magic Crafters homeworld. Once that was done, and he was sure the area had been cleared, he joined the others and nodded his head, showing that he had a spell, as in the Reflection spell, that could deal with their enemies, though for now he figured he would let the others try their luck on whatever number of Wizard Riptocs that had to be scattered throughout this realm, especially since there had to be more than one type of enemy in this realm.

As soon as Spike had rejoined the others, and they were ready to go, the group waited for another swinging axe that was in front of them to move before they took turns jumping over the gap it was swinging through, which was when they found a straw basket that walked like the gem they had seen earlier, one that, when they smashed it, revealed a gem that they could collect and they did so as soon as it hit the ground, though as soon as that was done they jumped over the next gap that was in front of them and moved deeper into this realm. The stone platform they landed on just so happened to bring them near the area that the next Wizard Riptoc was currently standing in, though instead of relying on Spike to take the foe down Spyro rushed forward and quickly drew Windshear as he approached his target, which was where the group watched as the magic of the runeblade sliced through the Wizard Riptoc like it was nothing, causing a gem to fall not a few seconds later as the group caught up with him and stared at the weapon he was carrying, no doubt due to the fact that they were a little surprised by what the sword had done. Spike, on the other claw, wasn't all that surprised by what they had just witnessed, due to all of the knowledge that he had on the runeblades and their vast powers, and he felt that such a thing wasn't outside the realm of possibility when wielding such a powerful weapon, though instead of worrying about that he quickly wrote down something in his journal before they moved forward and kept their eyes open as they explored the rest of the den that the Thieves called home. The next area they reached was a large chamber that appeared to either be a treasure trove or a holding chamber before the treasure was sent out to the rest of the realm, as there was a vast amount of gold, large gems, small gems that were the ones they collected, jade statues that had no magic lingering on any of their surfaces, and who knew what else, though as they approached the middle of the chamber, where they found one of the whirlwinds waiting for them, Spike noticed something odd in one of the treasure troves, a scabbard that looked a lot like the one that Spyro carried on his back, to which he raised a claw and pulled the blade out a little, seeing a Tungsten blade and felt a vast power inside it.

Spike paused for a moment as he thought about all of this, because he wasn't expecting to discover such a weapon in this area and considered what he had found inside the Arcanaeum, four main runeblades and four minor runeblades, but even inside the massive vault, and all of its chambers, he felt that there was something missing inside it, no doubt hidden from the entire world, so he took a gamble as he stared at the blade, a katana that was different from the other eight runeblades, as he dipped into the Aether for a moment and watched as the blade glowed, something that caused him to sheath the blade and tossed it into his bag, because he was going to ask about it later.

Once that was done he jumped the others as they used the whirlwind to get up to the floor that was above them, one that had a number of straw baskets, loose gems, a path that happened to lead deeper into the realm as a whole, and yet another massive crystal hanging from the ceiling, which the whirlwind stopped before so they could avoid being pierced by the sharp bits, before they branched out and resumed picking up everything that was on the ground, all while keeping an eye open for any enemies that might be in the upper chamber. Even though the group was used to having enemies to take down, based on all of the realms that they had been through since they started their adventures, this realm seemed quiet, too quiet given that most realms had three enemies for them to worry about and this realm was the exception, as there appeared to be only one type of Riptoc in this realm and, based on what they could see, there were only a limited amount of them, though that didn't stop them from being cautious as they explored the upper chamber. From there they moved into the next chamber and found that there was a Wizard Riptoc standing in their way, where Ember stepped forward and hardened her body with her Warrior's Armor skill and slammed into the Riptoc, knocking it to the ground for a moment as she backed up to see if it disappeared like all of the other foes they had fought, something that was followed by it getting up and raising its wand once more and was smashed into the ground by Cynder jumping into the air and using her power against its head. What the group found, as they waited for a few seconds, was that the Wizard Riptoc got back up, almost as if it was shrugging off the damage that had been dealt to it, before it raised its wand again, showing them that either the power of a runeblade or Spike's reflection spell were what they needed to use against these enemies, which was when Elora rushed forward, pulled Windshear from its sheath, and cut down the Riptoc before it could fire at them.

"Great, now we know that the Riptocs are unable to be taken down by normal means," Elora remarked, which was the moment that she returned the runeblade to its sheath on Spyro's back, while allowing the others to collect the gem that had fallen when their foe was slashed, though she did have to sigh for a moment as that happened, because confirming what the Thief at the start of this realm had said was not what she was hoping to have occur, meaning that she, Cynder, and Ember would have to focus on collecting the gems and doing the challenges that had to be scattered throughout this realm, if there were any.

"They must have been formed from special gems, to be able to resist our breath attacks and still retain their forms after being struck by your attacks," Spike stated, though while he said that he made sure to make a note of what they had just discovered about their enemies and the confirmation of what could take the Wizard Riptocs down, just to make sure that those that read his journals in the future knew what had happened in this realm and understood the decisions that he and the others had made, though as they explored the rest of this part of the chamber to watched as Spyro quickly tossed the runeblade over to Cynder, who proceeded to cut down the Wizard Riptoc that was on the other side of the area that they were currently exploring.

With the fourth Wizard Riptoc taken care of the group made sure to clear out the rest of the chamber that they were currently standing in and quickly discovered that the structure that was in the middle of the area happened to have one of the whirlwinds that seemed to be the favorite mode of transportation in this realm, before they used it to get to the next floor of the cave system that they were exploring and found yet another chamber to explore, not that they were surprised by what they were seeing, before spotting a wall that looked like it might collapse at some point, so Spike weaved some of his magic over it and modified it, splitting it in half and creating a large opening for them to walk through, one that just so happened to reveal a side section of the chamber.

"So that's where the next Wizard Riptoc is hiding," Ember remarked, claiming Spyro's runeblade for a moment as she rushed forward and struck down her target, just like the others had done so far, meaning there were five enemies down and who knew how many more of them resting around the rest of this realm, before she returned to Spyro's side and put the runeblade back in its sheath, before she glanced at the side section of the chamber that her target had been standing in and noticed something, "and it happened to be guarding one of the side portals, meaning that, once we're done clearing out the main section of this realm, we know the location of the next area we'll be tackling."

As soon as Ember struck down the fifth Wizard Riptoc the group explored the rest of the area and collected the gems that were scattered around the chamber, even though Spike climbed up the couple of steps that were nearby and picked up the gems that were along the path that he was following, which brought him to the top of the area and found three large lanterns hanging from the ceiling, though that happened to be when he smiled for a moment and he flew over to one of them and rescued the dragonfly that was resting inside it, even though there was no glass for him to worry about, and soon the first dragonfly of this realm was sent back to the main castle and the other dragonflies. Once that was done he rejoined Spyro and the others as they approached the opening that would lead them deeper into this realm, where it was easy to see the next Wizard Riptoc blocking the way forward and Spike just waited for it to loosed a blast at them so he could use his Reflection spell to take it down, allowing him to pocket the wand, just like the others he had taken since they came to this realm, where they smashed a few straw baskets and picked up a few gems before heading for the gap that was in front of them and noticed the emerald bladed axe that was swinging through the gap. Interestingly enough the second dragonfly of this realm just so happened to be in front of the gap, which was actually a gauntlet of gaps and had a number of emerald bladed axes swinging through the gaps, though since it appeared to be the way forward Spyro went first and let Spike second the dragonfly back to the others, before they took turns carefully jumping down the platforms as they quickly descended towards the bottom platform, so they could explore the rest of the den and see where the rest of the dragonflies might be waiting for them. Part of the way down the path they found the second side portal of this realm, which was a little odd when they thought about it, though the more important thing was the seventh Wizard Riptoc that was standing on the bottom platform, which was why Spyro was glad that he was the first one to reach the platform they were heading towards and cut down the Riptoc with Windshear, allowing the others to join him moments later, which was followed by them moving forward once more.

Once everyone was together again they headed down the path curved passage that was in front of them and climbed down the large slab steps that had been carved into the area, no doubt leading towards some areas that had a great deal of treasure inside them, though while they walked down all of the stone slabs the group picked up some gems, smashed some straw baskets, and found a pool that the eighth Wizard Riptoc was standing in, which was when Elora took her turn and cut down their foe by borrowing the runeblade, even though she knew Ember had to be annoyed since the blades she was carrying, the Fangs of Felinia, couldn't do the same thing, before they headed down the stone slabs that were in front of them and reached a large chamber that had a massive machine in it, before they glanced at the Thief that happened to be standing to their left.

"Is something wrong? You know, besides the obvious damage that the Wizard Riptocs have done so far." Elora asked, as while she knew that Spyro and his siblings weren't used to helping Thieves out, and she understood that after what she had seen from the ones that were running around some of the realms in Avalar, she did know that these Thieves were in trouble and her friends wanted to make sure all of Ripto's minions were taken care of, meaning all of the realms were safe and sound before they dealt with the villain that was attacking Castle Hills.

"Well, to be honest, I can't swim... and the switches to open that door are below the water," the Thief replied, though what he said was a little odd and it did catch the group off guard, but none of them said anything to that as they took a few seconds to consider what they could do to activate the switches and open the door, as that would lead them to the next part of the realm, before he seemed to think about something that might be useful to the five of them, "Oh, if you guys do attempt to activate the switches, be careful of the pool cleaner, as its rather dangerous and someone could get hurt if part of it hits one of you."

Spike seemed to want to do something with his magic, but by the looks of things it appeared that the pool cleaner just so happened to be resting above the water that all of the switches were resting in, and he could see four of them, so what they did was have Elora remain up here and clear out the gems that were above the water, not to mention any containers that might be up there, while he and the others dived into the water and separated from each other as they focused on each of the switches, making sure to collect the gems and smash the glass vases that they discovered along the way, just like most of the other underwater areas they had explored in the past. It didn't take them all that long to activate the four switches and open the door that they were connected to, meaning they would be able to move even deeper into the realm and see what sort of challenges might be waiting for them, before the four of them burst out of the water and headed over to the area that Elora was standing in, where she told them that she had found something odd, something that she felt was a key to a chest they hadn't found yet, which Spike slipped into his pack for later. Once it was done they headed up the path that was in front of them and found some metallic ladders that lead to the top of the chamber and let the four of them glide over to the top of the machine that was in the middle of the chamber, and it was one that none of them had to worry about since it wasn't near the water, before they spotted the opening that the locked door had been located in, which had another Wizard Riptoc standing in their way. It was in that moment that Cynder rushed forward and drew the runeblade from Spyro's back, where she flew over to where the Wizard Riptoc was standing and cut him in half, dropping the ninth Wizard Riptoc and allowing the others to glide over to where she was standing so she could return Windshear to where it had been resting earlier, before they advanced into the passage that had been resting behind the locked door, even though they knew that they had to be getting close to the end of this realm.

What they discovered was that there happened to be a whirlwind off to the left of the doorway and Elora took it, as it brought her to the upper level of the area and she picked up the gems that were up there as the siblings and Cynder did the same thing on the main path that they were following, before they reached the area that the tenth Wizard Riptoc was standing in and Ember made sure to cut it down with the weapon her brother carried, so once that foe was taken down Elora jumped down to where they were standing as they collected the gems that rested around them. During that Spyro found a ledge that lead to a small pool area and spotted the third dragonfly of this realm resting down there, which was the reason why Spike glided down to the area in question so he could send the dragonfly back to the others, but once that was done he returned to them and they investigated the path to the right of where the last Wizard Riptoc had been standing, even though that ended in a dead end, something that caused them to backtrack a little. As it turned out the path that Elora had taken just so happened to be the way forward, as the small platforms allowed them to navigate what appeared to be the path that was leading them deeper into the realm, something that let them collect the gems that were along the way and, more importantly, locate the fourth dragonfly of this realm, which Spike sent on its way, before they used the whirlwind that was at the end of the path to move even higher and then used the platforms that were in front of them to make their way to where the exit portal was located. That, of course, made them wonder where the remaining dragonflies were located, because normally three of them would be located inside the two side sections, and even if they did whatever challenges were in those areas that only gave them seven, maybe eight after they talked to the Thief that was standing near the exit portal, meaning they needed to keep their eyes open for the other two dragonflies before they headed through the portal that was in front of them.

"Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, Elora, thank you for your help in restoring order to our realm," the Thief said, his tone showing that he was happy with what they had done and that he was pleased that things seemed to be back to normal for him and the others of his kind, before he reached into a pack, not the sack he was carrying, and opened it so a dragonfly, the fifth of this realm, flew out and rushed over to where the group happened to be standing, not that the Thief seemed upset by what the dragonfly had done, "We heard that Ripto had displaced your dragonflies across the homeworld and the eight realms that make up Castle Hills, so, since we found that one, we figured that we would return it to you before you left our realm."

"We're happy to be of assistance," Spyro replied, as while it was still odd for them to help the Thieves that had been harassing the dragons and the other races of the lands they had been to in the past, and he figured that it had to be same way for the other side, he decided that, despite their earlier thoughts, there were some Thieves that were willing to work together with them and not outright rob them blind, before Spike sent the dragonfly back to the others, "We'll take a few more minutes and make sure the rest of the realm is secure, not to mention the side sections that we spotted the portals to earlier, before we depart for the homeworld and the last realm that needs some help, and then focus on taking down the villain that's causing problems for all the realms of Castle Hills."

As the Thief nodded his head, to show that he understood what Spyro was saying, four of them headed for the next platform that was in front of them and used the whirlwind that happened to be resting on it, as it seemed like it would let them reach the upper path again, where it appeared that one of the Challenge Gates was up there, but Spike stayed back for a few moments and noticed that the Thief raised an eyebrow, causing him to move the top of his back for a moment and reveal the weapon he had found earlier.

"So you found it... a weapon known as the Sword of Power..." the Thief said, showing that he recognized what Spike had found, meaning there had to be a reason why this was here in the first place, though at the same time just the name alone, which wasn't the true name of the weapon, was enough to cause Spike to pause before he covered it, as now he had more questions than answers, to which the Thief held a hand up to stop him from saying anything, "That is the name we know it by, as it was given to us for safekeeping and we were told to release it when someone found it, so please, take it with our gratitude... and only show it to the first of your kind."

Spike stood still for a moment, still caught off guard by what he had found, due to the fact that such a blade hadn't been found inside the Arcanaeum when he checked all of it out, but he nodded his understanding and flew over to where the others were waiting for him, just telling them that he had asked the Thief about something they had seen earlier in this realm, because there had to be a reason behind why he had been told to show it to Malefor and no one else, but for now he focused his attention on what they were doing as they finished assisting this realm. As it turned out the Challenge Gate was one of the Ice types, so Spyro and Spike approached the gate and passed through it without delay, where eight campfires appeared in their immediate area, two of them were resting on the platforms that were behind them and the other six were in the chamber that was just beyond where the Challenge Gate had been resting, even though it appeared that there was some openings in the floor that they had to be careful of, along with some stairs that seemed to lead down to an area that they would have to explore at some point in the near future, once this challenge was over. It wasn't hard for the pair to deal with the eight campfires, as they split up when they entered the chamber that was beyond the gate and made sure that each of them took three of the fires, before quickly backtracking to the other two and taking them out in seconds, allowing the sixth dragonfly to fly over to where they were standing and Spike quickly sent it back to the castle that the others had been sent to, allowing them to continue exploring the area as they sought out the chest that the key went to, since that had to be where the seventh dragonfly had to be located. It was then that Spike corrected their earlier thoughts about the floor of this area, as the stairs weren't connected to it and were actually below where they were now standing, so they jumped down to the walkway that was below them and followed the gems that were on the ground, as there were a number of them around the area, and found the stone steps in a matter of seconds, so they followed the path that they formed and kept their eyes open for wherever the chest had to be resting, before even thinking about both of the side portals they had seen earlier.

The path even had an outside area that they could explore, which the group did so without delay and found that there was a gap between where they were standing and the walkway that just so happened to have a chest at the end of it, one that had to be what Spike was looking for and they wasted no time in gliding over to where it was located, where he took out the key and slipped it into the lock, allowing him to open the chest and revealed the seventh dragonfly had, as they had expected, been trapped inside the chest, so he sent it back to the castle and the five of them took off, so they could head to the first side portal they had seen... where they discovered an area with a number of metallic platforms and rods that could be powered by either Spyro's Lightning Breath or Spike's Lightning magic.

"Hey, you guys here looking for some missing dragonflies?" a Thief asked, as there happened to be one standing to the left of where they appeared after they stepped through the first side portal that they had seen, though even as he said that he gestured out into the area that was in front of them and they noticed something interesting, there happened to be a Wizard Riptoc in the area, on one of the platforms from what the five of them could see, "That Wizard Riptoc managed to find and capture one earlier, and he's shifted the area that's usually here into his own personal tower, though you'll need to power those electric rods to get anywhere."

This time around Spike stepped forward and left the others standing near the Thief, where he followed the path that was in front of him and reach a couple of platforms that were currently moving around in a circle, like a ferris wheel if he recalled what the Gnorcs had planned for their part of Dragon Shores, so what he did was gather some of his magic and loose a small burst of small powered Lightning Bolts through the air, striking all of the targets in a matter of seconds, since he could target all of them at once, but what was interesting was that nothing happened when the six of them had some power restored to the rods. As such Spike thought about what was going on for a moment and realized that the tower, as the Thief called it, was just an assortment of platforms that lead to the high platform the Wizard Riptoc was standing on right now and, more importantly, he realized that all of the rods needed to be powered for anything to happen, so he took to the air and gathered his magic as he focused on every target that was scattered throughout the area, something that was followed by him sending out more Lightning Bolts that struck all of the other rods and restored power to all of them, causing him to pause as he watched what happened next. Once all of the rods were powered the main platform lowered into place and the Wizard Riptoc was vulnerable to attack, where Spike gathered his magic and stalled the incoming star blast, using the Reflection spell to smash it into his foe's face and stop the magic that was manipulating everything that was in this area, to which he smiled as he found the eighth dragonfly of this area and sent it back to the castle, before he rejoined the others and they bid the Thief farewell as they headed towards the other side portal. While they did that Spyro informed Spike and the others that he had a feeling that the other section had to be a Speedway, something he was still looking forward to since he did like racing those that flew around the area in question, and it wasn't long before the five of them reached their destination.

Spyro grinned as he noticed that it was a Speedway and took off before Spike could give him the rundown, to which Spike and the others took off so they could deal with the four obstacles of this Speedway, where they tackled the rings that were in the air first, before they separated from each other and tackled the others obstacles, with Cynder landing on the track and knocked out the camels that were in her way, Elora followed the couple of stone platforms and struck down all of the cobras that were in baskets, and Ember smashed her way through the planes that were flying through the air, which earned them the ninth dragonfly of this realm. Once that was done they watched as Spyro followed the planes that were the racers of this Speedway, who seemed to be more skilled than all of the other racers that he had faced in the past, but at least it gave the group a good show as he flew through the air, overcame whoever was in front of him, and eventually the race ended with him emerging as the victor, as he had reached first place and he kept it that way, allowing him to find and rescue the tenth and final dragonfly of this realm. The moment the race was done Spike sent the pair of dragonflies back to the castle before he and the others left the side section that they had been flying around, because, with eighty of the ninety missing dragonflies rescued and seven of the realms helped, there was one more realm to tackle before they faced Ripto and put and end to his assault on Castle Hills, which was the reason that they departed from the Thieves Den and headed back to the main homeworld, to get ready for the final realm of this island and whatever was waiting for them in the jungle.