//------------------------------//
// Hero: Backtracking 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

The first thing the group did, after resting in the village that they had first appeared in when they picked Icy Wilderness after clearing out the realms of Lost Cities, was stop as Ember headed back into the tunnel that connected Frostbite Village to Ice Citadel, or rather Ice Castle since Vicky was convinced her castle had been shifted from its normal appearance and Spike was willing to believe her after the magic that had been in the air, before they focused on Ember as she charged outside and headed for the other locked metallic door that happened to be resting in this area, where it was clear that she had taken a moment to empower herself with the Supercharge Gadget so she could smash the door to pieces. With that done they found a tunnel that had two of the spinning spike traps and two of the swinging log traps, to which the group carefully moved through the area all three of the traps had been placed inside the tunnel, though there was a side path to their immediate left that ended with two Eskimoles guarding a pair of metallic chests, where Bianca jumped into the air and blasted both of her targets with small Fireballs, opening the way for Aurora to smash the chests open and take the gems that had been resting inside them, before they rejoined Spyro and the others. At the end of the tunnel they found a new area for them to explore, even though there was a Dark Gem in front of them and three dark crystals resting near it, so Flame jumped into the air and smashed the sinister gem to pieces, clearing out the corruption as Cynder smashed the smaller crystals, though his actions caused a platform that a cannon rested on to rise a bit from where it had been resting earlier, meaning they could use it to blast some things open and continue moving through this area. Of course there was also a shop pad in this area, something that they mostly ignored since Moneybags seemed to be missing, likely telling the Professor the news that they wanted him to know about, before discovering that there were some Eskimoles in this area and that there was a close set of walls near the shop pad, to which Spyro used the new Wall Kick technique to see what was up there, which turned out to be an Eskimole that he flamed, a dark crystal, a metallic chest, and another close set of walls, which was smaller than the first.

That was when he found one of those golden doors that required a number of Light Gems to open, where he called Spike up to check out the door and his brother quickly determined that they needed a decent number of Light Gems to open the door this time around, probably close to a hundred based on what he was feeling at the moment, as they had about sixty to seventy of the gems in question, so it would be a while before they had enough gems to break the seal and see what was on the other side, possibly another Thief with a dragon egg. Since they couldn't open the golden door the brothers flew down to where the others were standing and watched as Amelia took down an Eskimole that was close to where the cannon rested, while at the same time Hunter jumped up the first set of close walls the brothers had jumped up and then jumped over to the cannon, where he took a few moments to make sure it was working properly before focusing on the area they were in, as there were a few things he could blast apart with this cannon. What he did was blow apart a metallic door that was high above the area the Eskimole his sister had taken out had been standing in, as well as blast apart two of the metallic containers that had been resting along the walkway that lead up to where a large snow boulder had been resting, though he also used a cannonball to blow apart the boulder, as it was, in reality, just a massive stone boulder that had been covered in snow, though once that was done he climbed off the weapon and joined the others as they made their way up the walkway that lead to the tunnel the boulder had been blocking. The group quickly made their way up the path that was beyond the latest Dark Gem's location, picked up the gems that Hunter had freed from the pair of metallic containers, and walked into the tunnel that was now unblocked, which quickly brought them to a chamber that actually had some water inside it, unfrozen water to be exact, though as they stepped into the area it was clear that some of the icy stalactites on the ceiling were in the middle of cracking, to which Spike weaved his magic through the air and froze all of them so they wouldn't break, as he was sure they weren't supposed to break at all, while Bianca used her magic to form a wide walkway for the group to walk on, as there were a few places for them to check out in this area.

In fact the first area they headed for was the one where an armored Gnorc Brute and a lone Eskimole were standing, the latter resting on a wooden platform, where Ember smashed her tail into the chest of the larger foe and knocked its loose armor off, where she dodged the incoming axe swing their foe send her way and grinned as Elora spun around and kicked her foe in the side of its head, knocking it right into a wall, all while Spike loosed a short Lightning Bolt that shocked the Eskimole into submission, before they spotted a side passage that held a golden chest inside it. As such he headed over to the golden chest as Flame broke the pair of straw baskets that were near it, along with Cynder smashing a metallic chest that was outside the small side passage, though after using his magic to unlock the chest, which Spike had to admit was a rather handy spell, he discovered that a dragon egg had been resting inside it, one of the purple topped, red bottomed, and yellow zigzagged centered eggs, to which he sent it off to the Nursery before rejoining the rest of the group as they made their way through the rest of the cave the tunnel had brought them to. From there they headed over to a wooden platform that rested near an icy wall that looked like it could shatter at any moment, to which Aurora performed the Horn Dive and smashed the sinister Dark Gem they had found, which had been on the wooden platform, causing the small bits of corruption to fade away as the group watched the icy wall shatter, revealing a tunnel that would allow them to get even deeper into this part of the realm, hence the reason they started to move down the brand new tunnel. The group quickly discovered that the tunnel was rather short and there was an Eskimole that was emerging from a snow house of some kind, just like the Pygmies they had faced earlier, so what happened in the next couple of seconds was that Hunter used his blades to parry their foe's incoming attacks while Cynder smashed the snow house, though once the structure was in pieces, and there was no way for any additional Eskimoles to spawn from it, since Spike had determined that the snow house was like what they had seen in the past, before Hunter knocked his foe down and reduced it to a pile of gems for the others to take. Once that was done they glanced at the path that was in front of them, some of the poles that had a Gnorc Brute at the end of it, before Amelia noticed that there was a hidden path below the bridge that allowed them to get to where the Eskimole and its house was located, to Aurora flew down there and quickly returned with the information that there was a golden chest below the bridge, where Spike quickly headed over to it and used his magic to unlock the chest in question, revealing a number of gems for him to take.

With that done he returned to the others and watched as Elora flew up to where the Gnorc Brute was standing and kicked off its armor, allowing Amelia to use an arrow to knock it out and leave a pile of gems behind, before she spotted a second Gnorc Brute further up the path, this one without armor, and punched it into the wall that was to the left of where it was standing, opening the way for Cynder to use the Pole Spin technique and make her way up to where the second foe had been standing, before she reached the highest point of the area and located a Light Gem, one that she collected not even a few seconds later and returned it to Spike, who slipped it into the bag the others were held in. Once that was done the group glanced around the area that the destruction of the last Dark Gem had allowed them to access and found out that there were no other paths, except, of course, for the one that allowed them to access this area, so what they did was head back to where the cannon was resting, took a moment to ignore the metallic door, and headed back to the main village that Moneybags' shop rested in, before making their way back over to the area that contained the tunnel that had come to an abrupt end after that mammoth smashed the end of the tunnel, so everyone stopped when they reached the area the caravan was resting in. Once they reached that area the group headed over to the set of close walls that were on the right side of this area and came to a stop as Ember quickly used the Wall Jump technique to get to the highest point, despite the fact that she had to do so a few times before reaching the highest point possible, where she smashed a few straw baskets and then smashed a Gnorc Warrior into the ground with a swift whack of the edge her tail, though once that was done she jumped over to a button that was resting on a nearby pillar and activated it, causing the metallic pillar the cannon that was in this area happened to be on. With that done Hunter jumped up the other set of close walls, the one that rested on the left side of this area, and spotted an armored Gnorc Brute standing near a snow covered boulder, to which Bianca loosed a lightning bolt that was absorbed by the armor, something that knocked all of its armor off, so Hunter could use an arrow to take it down, opening the way for him to jump over to the cannon and activate it, with Bianca creating a platform for him to jump on so he could reach his destination, though once he had control of the cannon he blasted the boulder apart and beckoned for the others to head up to the new tunnel he had revealed, before returning to his friends.

The tunnel didn't have much inside it, so they were able to get to the large chamber it brought them to with ease and they found that a Dark Gem rested in this area as well, one that Spyro smashed to pieces with the Horn Dive and cleared out all of the corruption that was in the chamber, which freed some magically floating platforms that lowered down into place and resumed floating around the rest of the chamber, though based on what the group could see the platforms would let them access a Light Gem and who knew what else. Instead of using the platforms, even though it was nice to see the rest of this area return to normal, Spyro flew over to an area that a bullseye chest and four straw baskets rested in, where he smashed them to pieces and took a few moments to pick up the gems that were freed from the containers that they had been locked inside, even though Spike landed on one of the platforms and let it take him to where a Light Gem rested, one he claimed as soon as he got near it, but once that was done they headed over to a new tunnel and walked into it, even though Aurora smashed the few dark crystals they ended up passing by. What they discovered was that the tunnel came to a quick end and that it contained a few bullseye chests, a new straw baskets, and a few metallic chests, meaning this had to be a lost treasure trove of some kind and it didn't take them all that long to smash up all of the containers and free the gems so the dragonflies could collect them, but once that was done, and everyone was sure they had reached the end of this area, they turned around and headed back outside so they could reach the area the latest cannon rested in, which was when the dragons glided over to a lower area, which had a few gems and a breakable wall, while Bianca formed some walkways for her, Hunter, and Amelia to walk on, before Ember smashed the wall to pieces and revealed another tunnel for them to explore, even though this one was rather short as well and ended with them finding a light blue dragon egg that Spike quickly sent back to the Nursery, so it could be placed with the others they had found so far. Once he was done with that the group decided that, despite the fact that all of them assumed the tunnel would still be collapsed, they would take some time to check out the tunnel and found something interesting when they reached the area that the mammoth had been and found that the fallen snow had been cleared out, either by the creature or by someone else, to which they headed into the dead end area and found a Light Gem resting on the other side of the area, one Spike collected not even a few seconds after spotting it.

What none of them were expecting to find was an entrance to Gloomy Glacier resting in this area, though from the looks of it there wasn't anything for them to collect or fight, to which they turned around and started to retrace their steps back to the village, before Amelia pointed out an area they hadn't explored and they jumped up the platforms so they could land in front of another tunnel, which had a bullseye chest and some straw baskets to break, before they headed down the tunnel and discovered an area that had a few Eskimoles and a pair of Gnorcs guarding it, along with a few platforms that seemed to form a way to cross the other side of the area. Spike and Bianca targeted the Eskimoles, each taking one of the two and shocked them with Lightning Bolts, something that opened the way for Hunter to take down a Gnorc Warrior with one of his arrows, to which some of the others jumped over the platforms to reach the other side, where Elora kicked the Gnorc Brute to take care of its armor so Ember could charge into its chest, though Cynder used her Shadow Play technique to get passed the spinning spike trap that was in front of her and then took down a Gnorc Brute that was inside the small tunnel it happened to be guarding. From there she found a Light Gem that she brought to Spike, after smashing the pair of metallic chests and the bullseye chest that rested near the gem, though as that happened the others headed down into the lower section of this area and mostly dealt with a bullseye chest that was resting on a platform, even though that was around the time that Ember spotted a Thief and chased after it, as it was holding a white dragon egg that had green spots on it's shell, and it didn't take her long to smash into her target's backside, forcing it to drop what it had stolen let her take the egg back to Spike, who made sure it was unharmed before sending it back to the Nursery. Once the egg was safe the group took a few moments to clear out the rest of the area, of straw baskets and a few other containers that were in this area, before they headed back up to the tunnel that brought them to this area and made their way back to the village that Moneybags' shop was resting in, as at this point Spike knew they had taken care of all ten Dark Gems that were scattered throughout this homeworld, the magic number apparently since the last two had the same number apiece, and that had to mean the way into the Guardian's lair had to be open, as he was curious as to who they would have to fight to free this land from Red's grasp, before heading to the last homeworld to confront Red.

Sure enough it was easy to see that the dark barrier that had been covering the cave entrance had disappeared once the tenth Dark Gem in this homeworld had been broken, with the vines having disappeared, the darkness had vanished, and the sky had returned to normal, to which the group stopped in the space that was between where the cave rested and the area that the Teleportation Device rested in, as they could take some time to rest and recover some of their energy before deciding where to go next.

"So, are we going to head into the cave and face whoever Red and the Dark Master have picked to act as the Guardian of this homeworld?" Flame asked, because while he and Aurora were getting used to acting as heroes, as they had learned a lot from watching Spyro and the others fight the enemies that had been standing in their way, there was much they didn't know about how to be heroes or how to work in a group as dynamic as this one was, hence why he asked the question, as he knew Spyro was the leader and the others usually followed his decisions.

"Normally I would say yes, but right now I know we missed a few things in the previous realms," Spyro replied, referring to the couple of realms where they had been forced to leave due to the fact that they didn't have the skills or techniques that would have allowed them to clear out an entire realm during their first visit to it, something that they preferred to do since it meant they didn't give their enemies time to really plan for what they were doing, before he focused on the others for a few moments, "so that's what we'll do: we'll return to the realms that we didn't finish clearing out, recover whatever we might have missed the last time around, and then, once we're done making sure all of the other realms have been taken care of, we'll return to challenge whoever Red's next Guardian is."

The group took a moment to nod their heads before they headed over to the Teleportation Gadget and used it to teleport back to the first area that Spike had made notes about, as he reminded them of the Supercharge Gadget that was located in the swamp and so they carefully teleported back to Dragon Kingdom, which would allow them to head back to Crocovile Swamp for a few moments, as that was the first realm he knew they needed to finish cleaning up, with the gadget pad and an area that had some electric nodes they would have to activate. As such it only took the group a few moments to return to the first place they had appeared in some time ago, when they first started this adventure after learning what Red was doing and who he was allying himself with, but once everyone was standing in front of the first Teleportation Device they headed off and headed towards the area that allowed them to visit the first Elder of Capora, who taught them the other name for the Headbash technique, where most of the group were actually fine with calling it the Horn Dive technique, and once they reached the area that contained the tunnel that lead to Elder Harnell's home they walked over the bridge that rested nearby and headed into Crocovile Swamp, which meant dodging the couple of traps that were in their way again, though at this point none of them were worried about the traps. It took them a few minutes to reach the area that the pad they were looking for was located in, and that was mostly the trip from the Teleportation Device to this realm, but once the group reached their destination Ember activated the Supercharge Gadget and empowered herself so she could run over to the metallic container that was near the entrance to the area the gadget was located in and smashed it to pieces, and while she did that Aurora smashed some of the metallic containers that rested near the gadget pad itself, as they hadn't found any fireworks to break those ones, allowing the two of them to pick up a good number of gems in the process, even if Flame was surprised that none of their foes had come back yet. Spike explained that, due to their enemies actually being gem creations, the one way they could return would be for Red or the Dark Master to gather some additional gems and use the spell that created minions on them, and since neither of them had done that, no doubt figuring that it would have been a wasted effort in the grand scheme of things, they didn't have to worry about enemies returning to bother them, so that was why the majority of the group was a little more lax and lower some of their guard at the same time, where Flame nodded his head in understanding before they got back to the reason why they were here in the first place.

Once all of the metallic containers had been smashed apart, and they were sure that there were no more of them resting in the area that was around them, Cynder empowered herself and smashed her way through the metallic door that was at the bottom of the nearby temple they had broke the top of earlier, where they found a chamber that had two more of the metallic containers for her to break, which included some metallic chests as well, before Spike found a Light Gem right in the middle of the chamber and collected it so it could be added to their collection. The moment they were done breaking everything that was resting inside the previously hidden chamber, and left nothing behind, the group made their way over to the winding tunnel that lead to the temple that contained the electric nods they had seen earlier and headed through it without delay, where they were able to avoid the couple of spike traps and reached the area that the other temple rested in, allowing them to walk into the structure and head over to where the electric nodes were resting. Not a few moments later they stepped into the room that the four electric nodes were resting in and activated all four of them, as in Spyro hit one of them while Spike hit two of the others as Bianca blasted the fourth, something that caused the nearby door that they were connected to to lower and open the way for them to explore the part of the temple it had been protecting, one that had a few straw baskets at the very least, before they discovered an area that held one of the Thieves, though while Flame and Aurora had no idea how he had gotten inside this area the rest of the group did, where Spike explained that the Thieves had their own Teleportation Magic, but, once they were carrying something, that magic seemed to unable to even be used until certain requirements were met. Of course that was when Ember raced forward and started chasing after the Thief that was on the other side of the new chamber, allowing the others to head into the lower section of the chamber and smash a few straw baskets, not to mention a few metallic chests as well, before they came to a stop and watched as Ember smashed into her target and forced it to drop the white egg with green spots it was carrying, where Spike checked it out for a few seconds and then sent it back to the Nursery, adding another dragon egg to the amount they had recovered so far, before they departed from the area and headed to the next realm they needed to clear out.

With Crocovile Swamp cleared out, and they were sure of that, the group made their way back to the area that was outside Elder Harnell's cave and headed for the area that the Professor put the Ball Gadget in, where they used it to travel back to Dragonfly Falls and resumed their search for anything they had missed in the past, even though it was quite a trek through the rest of the realm so they could make it to the area that Hunter and Amelia had tackled on their own, a nice one since there were no enemies for them to worry about. Along the way to their destination the group stopped when they passed by the area that the first golden door was resting in, so it didn't take them long to jump up the pile of crates that allowed them to reach it and that was when Spike weaved his magic over the door, unlocking it when its magic realized they had all the Light Gems necessary to access the area it was protecting, so once the golden door was open, and they found a path on the other side, the group walked forward and stopped when they found a decent sized area that had a Gnorc Brute or two seemed to be guarding, which turned out to be four after Spike took a moment to look around some corners, to which Hunter and Amelia loosed a pair of arrows into the air and took one down. From where Cynder flew down to the area that was below them and swung her runeblade at an armored Gnorc Brute, cutting it down in a matter of seconds, leaving one of the brutes for Elora to punch in the face and then take out with a swift kick to the head, while the last one was flamed by both Flame and Aurora, though once those four enemies were taken care of the group spread out and started looking for anything that needed to be collected or broken, the latter falling to several metallic chests and straw baskets that were scattered around the area, before Spyro glided through a short waterfall and found a path that lead to what appeared to be the other part of this hidden area. Interestingly enough there happened to be a shop pad in this area, meaning one of the Thieves might have accidentally stolen it at some point in the past, since none of the other explanations made sense to any of them, though they stopped worrying about everything else and smashed the few straw baskets and metallic chests that happened to be in the area that Spyro had brought them to, before they headed down the other path that was nearby and walked down the tunnel it was connected to, one that brought the group to an area that had a few blue monkeys that seemed to be guarding the area, but Spike weaved his magic through the air and put them to sleep, as they didn't seem like the gem creations, as they hooted at them and made threatening motions, where the creations only attacked without taking the time to think about their actions, allowing the others to explore the area they were in.

Sure enough there happened to be a Thief in this area and Ember rushed after it within seconds of seeing it, where Spyro and the others simply sat nearby and watched as the pair ran around the area that they had discovered, even though they could see that Ember was gaining on her target rather easily, and it wasn't long before she struck the Thief down and took the white dragon egg with green spots that it had been carrying, something that she returned to Spike and let him check for a few seconds, before sending it back to the Nursery as well. Once that was done the group glanced around the rest of this hidden area and quickly regrouped not a few moments later, as from what they could tell there was nothing else for them to collect or worry about in this area, to which Spike checked out what was inside his journal and took a few seconds to figure out which realm was next, though that was around the time that Aurora found a cracked wall and Ember charged right through it, revealing a small cavern for them to explore before Spike finished determining which realm was next, as he was sure it was one of the Lost Cities' realms at this point. What they discovered inside the small cavern, after looking at it for a few seconds, was that there were a number of bats flying around a Light Gem, though since these ones seemed a little more hostile than the other bats, Cynder took a moment to gather her Wind Breath and that was when Aurora took a step forward and combined her Fire Breath to it, as she had seen Spyro do it and she was relieved to see that it worked for her, in the sense that it wasn't just something Cynder could perform with her boyfriend since they had practiced it quite a bit in the past, but the combination attack dealt with the bats so Spike could claim the Light Gem. As he did that Ember and Flame glided down into the lower section of this area and smashed some of the metallic chests that were down there, not to mention a bullseye chest, before they picked up all of the gems that were in the water and used a whirlwind to get up to where the others were standing, as that meant there was nothing else for them to worry about and they made their way back to where the Professor's lab was located so they could use the Teleportation Device to head over to Lost Cities, as Spike had determined that the next realm they needed to clear out was actually Sunken Ruins, so they had to head back to Coastal Remains and make their way through the realm so they could reach the elevator that would take them down to where the Mermaid and the other aquatic foes had been located in the past.

This time around it did take them some time to make their way through the passages and tunnels that rested throughout Coastal Remains, ride the elevator down into Sunken Ruins, and then make their way through the tunnels of the ruins, as in both the normal water ones and the acid ones, before they reached the area that they had allowed Sparx and the other dragonflies to tackle on their own, which was where Spyro used the Invincibility Gadget to empower himself and then took a moment to use the new Wall Kick technique on the overheated pipes, where he found that using the Invincibility Gadget like this worked quite well and allowed him to reach an area they didn't explore earlier. One thing he found was one of the fireworks that, when activated, flew down into the lowest part of this area and wiped out three metallic containers that he and the others had ignored earlier, during their first visit to this particular realm, to which Aurora headed down there to collect the gems he had freed, though as she did that Spyro jumped over some of the sections of the ruined floor and was able to find a pair of Trident Mer-Gnorcs guarding a dragon egg, even though Bianca blasted them with a Lightning Bolt to open the way forward. What he discovered was that this particular egg was one of the fire designed ones and he took it down to where Spike was waiting, who checked it out for a few seconds and then sent it back to the Nursery, though as he did that Aurora returned to where the rest of the group was waiting and declared that she had recovered all of the gems, something that was followed by them retracing their way through the rest of the ruins and the passages that would allow them to return to the elevator, which would allow them to return to Coastal Remains and head towards Cloudy Domain, as Spike was sure there was one or two things they had missed there as well. While they headed out of the ruins the group had a chance to see the Mermaid that had talked to them the last time they were here, as it appeared that she had moved to another part of the realm and waved at them while they were walking by her, something that reminded Bianca of the spell idea that she had asked Spike about earlier, the potential mermaid spell, but while she wanted to talk about it while they walked she figured that it could wait until after Red and the Dark Master were beaten and Capora was saved from all of their foul plans.

As such it took them a few more minutes to make their way from Sunken Ruins and return to the platform that would take them up to Cloudy Domain, though once they reached their next destination they headed through the realm so they could reach the area that they had met Sgt. Byrd in, where Spike remembered that none of them had tried out the hidden area that was below one of the machines, something that was eventually followed by him and the others discovering that there was a whirlwind that raised them into the inside of the structure they had walked on earlier, not to mention a close set of walls that allowed them to reach a Light Gem, before discovering that it rested on a platform that fit the hole in the roof that had been a walkway the last time they had walked through this area.

"Well, that's everything we might have missed during our visits to the other realms," Spike said, though while he said that he had the feeling that the glass roof that doubled as a platform only activated the latter function whenever someone just so happened to come from below, as odd as that sounded when he thought about it, but decided that it was all he could come up with without asking the Elders why they had constructed something like this in the first place, before he glanced at the rest of the group, "So, whose up for facing the Guardian of Icy Wilderness?"

The group nodded their heads, as that was the next location that they had to go to now that they knew every realm they had been to so far had been cleared out, to which they headed back to the area that the platform was located in and made their way back to the Teleportation Device so they could face the next Guardian Red and the Dark Master had picked out to stall them or slow them down, though even as that happened Spyro and Cynder glanced at each other for a moment, as they had the feeling that this next fight was going to be even harder than anything they had seen so far and this was going to be one of the few times they hoped they were wrong.