Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar

by Blackdrag-rose

Dragonfly: Bees in the Marsh

With their journey through Monkey Monastery complete, and the group knew they had all the gems and had rescued all of the dragonflies that had been sent to that realm by Ripto's spell, Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and Elora returned to Castle Hills and made their way back to the central castle, mostly since that would allow them to check and see if the other two realms that were near the area that the hot air balloon that took them to the monastery was located, as they wanted to see if the ways to Jurassic Jungle or Thieves Den were open, so they could head to one of those realms next. Sadly, based on what Spike was feeling at the moment, both of the portals in question weren't ready to be used, so all they could do was head back to the area that was beyond the first Elemental Lock they had encountered, the one that lead them to Crop Circle Country and and Luau Island, because there was one more area for the five of them to explore and it would take them to Honey Marsh, where the Blue Crocodile would be waiting for them to give the group the good news. Once they were done with whatever problems that were in the marsh, however, the group suspected that the other portals would be ready and they could use one of the others to explore the realms they connected to, though right now they focused their attention on reaching the area that was their current destination and quickly passed by the area all of the adult dragons were waiting in, tending to the dragonflies that had been rescued, to which they waved at them for a moment before heading out, all so they could assist another realm with their problems.

Sure enough they found the Blue Crocodile standing next to the large raft that seemed to be the way to get to the next realm they would be exploring, where it appeared that the individual in question was pleased with what they had done, as in the magic had been returned to this area, or at least Spike knew that was what the stranded residents of the various realms likely thought, though the way to Honey Marsh was definitely open, hence the reason they came to a stop in front of the Blue Crocodile and waited to see if he had anything to say to them before they climbed onto the raft.

"I don't know what you guys did, but the raft is ready to go!" the Blue Crocodile stated, informing them that they had been right to think that he would have claimed that the magic had been restored to this area and that the way was open once more, especially since Spike knew that some people might not understand him when he talked about magic and that the residents in question were incorrect in their thoughts, but he decided not to do that as they listened to what the Blue Crocodile was saying, "Hop aboard and get ready for the Honey Marsh Rapids."

The group said nothing to that as they climbed aboard the raft and a section of the fence that was beyond the Blue Crocodile opened before their eyes, sort of like what happened when they went to Luau Island earlier, and it wasn't long before the raft shifted and headed out of the area it had been resting in, though when they got a certain distance from the area the resident of Honey Marsh had been standing in the magic wrapped around them and took them to the realm that was their next destination. Not a few seconds later they reappeared in the starting area of Honey Marsh, which appeared to be some ground that was at the start of the marsh itself, though instead of swampy water resting in some places the group could definitely tell that the realm lived up to its name, as the areas that were normally filled with water were filled with honey, which had some large flowers resting nearby and had some small bee hives resting off to the side, though all five of them were a little impressed by what they were seeing. At the moment none of them could see any enemies to take down, before they talked to the Blue Crocodile that was right in front of them, but that didn't mean there weren't any foes in this realm, as all of the other realms had Riptocs attacking them and it would be weird if this realm was the odd one out, so they kept their eyes open for any enemies that might be lurking in the area that was ahead of them as they approached the Blue Crocodile that would tell them what was going on and what they could do to assist this realm. Despite what they were seeing Spike knew that it wouldn't be outrageous to think that there might be some bees that were rebelling or just attacking the residents of this realm, so his mind as at the ready so he could make sure he accurately wrote down what he and the others saw, for the book that would be written about this adventure, while listening to what the Blue Crocodile had to tell them.

"Allow me to welcome the five of you to Honey Marsh, even though we have a slight problem plaguing our realm at the moment," the Blue Crocodile stated, not that the group was even a little surprised by that information, as it was easy for them to determine that there was something bad happening to this realm, based on what they had seen during their visits to the other realms, though they remained silent as he finished telling them what was going on, "those Riptoc critters have messed this place up but good. I think they've set up some honey stills, to drain our honey for some reason, but it would be mighty nice if you guys took out all of their stills and stopped the Riptocs from doing whatever they're trying to do to our realm."

"Considering that Ripto is behind sending them out to attack the realms, I wouldn't put it passed him to try stealing your honey for his lunch or something," Spyro commented, because he really didn't see much of a reason for their foe to send his minions into this realm and have them steal as much honey as they could get their claws on, but that thought was likely him thinking about why Ripto had sent his forces into the realms of Avalar, where he had been trying to conquer the realms, because it was clear that their foe was only attacking the eight realms of Castle Hills to distract them, no doubt to make sure they didn't come after him, before he focused on the individual that was in front of them, "Don't worry, we'll take care of the Riptocs and whatever they're doing to this realm, even if that means taking down however many stills they have set up since they came to this realm and started their assault."

As the Blue Crocodile nodded his head the group headed out and started to clear out the area of the gems that were resting near the starting area for this realm, which was when Elora reached into one of the two bee hives and pulled out a gem that had been hidden inside, something that she repeated on the other hive and found another gem inside it, though she made sure Spike cleaned the honey off of the gems before putting them with the rest of the gems they had recovered so far, though once they had cleared out the starting area the group moved forward to see what else Honey Marsh might throw at them. It was around that point that they found the first type of enemy that they would be fighting in this realm, a pair of green scaled Riptocs who wore blue overalls, wore a straw hat on their heads, and carried what appeared to be a banjo in their hands, which would no doubt be used as a melee weapon when they got close to where they were standing, though that was when Ember jumped into the air and simply smashed her tail into the one on their left, crushing it into the ground, while Cynder charged into the chest of the other Banjo Riptoc, allowing them to take the pair down while the rest of the group collected the gems, smashed some metallic vases, and cleared out a few bee hives. After that the five of them climbed up the step that was in front of them and found another type of Riptoc, this one wearing a red shirt with the blue overalls and had a yellow beany on its head, though interestingly enough it carried a laser gun, instead of any of the other weapons that it could have been wielding since it seemed out of place in this realm, but that didn't stop Spike from blasting the Laser Riptoc in the chest with a Lightning Bolt, dropping it to the ground and reduced it to its gem state so the others could smash a couple of straw baskets and pick up the gems that were around them, before following the path as it lead them deeper into the realm.

Not a few moments after finding the first Laser Riptoc they found a second one standing at the top of some steps that were made out of stone, where Spyro took to the air for a few seconds and then loosed a burst of his Fire Breath to take it down, before it could fire at one of them, allowing Cynder and the others to catch up while he scouted out the area, just in case there were more enemies that they needed to know about ahead of time, even though the steps did bring them to an area that had some bee hives, a few metallic vases, and a Laser Riptoc off to their left, guarding what appeared to be one of the honey stills they had learned about a few moments ago. Of course there were also two Banjo Riptocs on platforms near the Laser Riptoc, not to mention a rather large bee that was flying above some of the honey river that was flowing through this part of the realm, though instead of allowing the Giant Bee to attack them Elora raised her arm and loosed a small beam of energy at it, just like she had done in the past, and blasted it out of the air, opening the way for the group to head out and deal with the other enemies that were standing between them and the first honey still. Spyro dealt with the Banjo Riptoc to their left by charging into its chest, Cynder took out the Banjo Riptoc to their right with her Shadow Play as she knocked it into a nearby wall, and Ember jumped over the blast that came from the Laser Riptoc, which was followed by her crushing it into the ground with her tail, before they backed off and let Spike channel his magic into the still, which caused the structure to fall apart before their eyes, not that it was hard for him to do that since the still was mostly made out of wooden planks and metal pipes, so it was easy to tear it to pieces. Once that was done the group headed to the couple of tree stumps that had been resting behind the second Banjo Riptoc, something that allowed them to climb up to an opening that lead them right to the second honey still, one that appeared to be inside a large tree and was guarded by a Laser Riptoc, so Ember smashed their foe into the ground and let Spike dismantle the still, while allowing the others to smash some metallic vases and collect the gems that were around them.

Once the area was cleared out, and they were sure of it, the group followed the wooden platforms that were in front of them and found a pair of Giant Bees flying along part of the path that they were now following, which was when Spike sent out a pair of Ice Spikes and knocked the pair of enemies out of the air, allowing the others to continue along the path and collect the gems that were along the way, which brought them to another set of tree stumps that lead right to where the third honey still was located. As they entered the next area it was easy to spot an actual waterfall of honey, meaning that the bees of this realm had to be very busy to produce all of the honey that they were seeing, enough to make rivers, waterfalls, and even an entire sea of honey that rested around the island the five of them were currently exploring, though even as they thought about that Spike realized that there had to be a barrier of some kind off in the distance, one that surrounded the entire realm and was like the barrier that separated the Beast Makers homeworld from the vast sea that was between it and the other homeworlds. At the top of the waterfall, which was a river that quickly turned into the small waterfall, they found the third honey still, a Laser Riptoc that seemed to be guarding it, a red robed Thief that likely had a key or a dragonfly, and a few Banjo Riptocs that seemed to be scattered around the area that the still was in, which was when Elora jumped into the air and bypassed the beam that the Laser Riptoc fired at them, causing the others to scatter as well, even though that meant Spyro, Cynder, and Ember rushed out to the rest of the enemies that were in the area while Spike shattered the still with his magic. In addition to the couple of Banjo Riptocs that were scattered around this part of the realm there was one more Laser Riptoc, so what happened was that Cynder used her Shadow Play to deal with the Laser Riptoc and one of the Banjo Riptocs, Ember smacked the other Banjo Riptoc around with her Emission skill, and the Thief ran off as Spyro chased after him.

Something that was rather interesting was that the group found the first side portal in the area that was just beyond where the third honey still was resting, and the reason it was that interesting was due to the fact the five of them weren't expecting to find one of them so quickly this time around, since they were thinking it would be some time before one of them located a side portal, though instead of worrying about that the group made sure they remembered where it rested for later, once they were done helping the Blue Crocodiles with their problem. As it turned out Spyro was able to take the Thief down while the rest of the group was clearing out the realm, where he revealed that the Thief had been carrying one of the dragonflies of this realm, which just so happened to be the first one they had recovered, and Spike quickly used his magic to send it back to the main castle that everyone was resting in, before the five of them made sure the rest of the area was cleared of gems and metallic vases, which revealed the second dragonfly of this realm had been hiding near the edge of the area and Spike sent it home as well. With that done the group started to climb the wooden stands that were on the other side of the section of the realm they had been exploring, coming from the area that the small waterfall was resting in, where they found a Banjo Riptoc guarding the lowest part of the wooden path, though there was a large flower that served as a platform for them to walk on for a few seconds, and Ember was the one that took the Banjo Riptoc down as she let him hit her, smashing the instrument to pieces, before she headbutted him and took him down. From there Cynder flamed the Giant Bee that was in their way and opened the way for them to climb up to the area that the fourth honey still was located in, which just so happened to have a Laser Riptoc guarding it, just like the other stills they had seen so far, but while four of them headed up to where their foe was standing, so they could take it down and wipe out two more Giant Bees that were beyond it, Spike climbed up a different path and found the third dragonfly of the realm, who he send back to the castle, before he rejoined the others and smashed the still with his magic.

As it turned out the pair of platforms the two Giant Bees were guarding, which were taken out by Elora blasting them with her palm blaster, lead them right to a passage that was made out of stone and reminded them of a castle's hallway, though they didn't worry about the nature of the passage and followed it to the area of the realm that it was leading them to, where the group quickly came to the end and discovered a path formed from large flowers and were being guarded by some of the Giant Bees, at least three of them at the moment. Interestingly enough, as they followed the path and struck down their enemies, by letting Cynder use her Wind powers to smack the Giant Bees around, Spike found a lower path and separated himself from the others, allowing them to follow the main path while he investigated the other one, which was where he found two more Giant Bees guarding a dragonfly, the fourth to be exact, so he loosed a few Fireballs at the pair of Giant Bees, struck them down, and then gathered his magic to send the dragonfly back to the others, which was when he headed for the passage that a Banjo Riptoc was guarding. Cynder ended up tripping the Banjo Riptoc and that was the moment that Ember spun around and struck it with her tail, crushing it into the ground, allowing them to enter the tunnel that it had been guarding and follow it to the next section of this realm, though the next area turned out to be full of large bee hives, not like the ones that rested on the ground, and there was a path of platforms that lead to the fifth honey still, which was unguarded, so it was easy for Spike to smash it to pieces as the others followed the rest of the path and headed for the tree stumps that were at the end of it. From there it was easy to find a few enemies blocking the way forward, a Giant Bee and a Laser Riptoc, the former brought down by Spyro flaming it while the latter was taken out by Elora blasting it in the face with her blaster, allowing them to approach a Blue Crocodile that seemed to be waiting for the five of them so he could tell them something.

"While I'm glad to see you guys, we've got a bit of a problem over here," the Blue Crocodile stated, where he waved his right hand for a moment and beckoned to the couple of large bee hives that were scattered around the area that the last couple of platforms had been located in, which was why the group glanced over at the area in question and wondered what sort of problem he and the other residents of this realm were having, though some of them were thinking about how they could break the bee hives, in case they were asked to do such a thing once the resident was done talking, "we've seen those Riptocs using the couple of bee hives to stage their attacks on our realm, by using the bees that call the hives home, and we've been thinking of ways to take them down, to no success."

Spike considered what was in front of them for a moment and weaved his magic into the area that rested in front of where they were standing, where he focused on the closest bee hive and the honey that rested below it shifted for a few seconds, something that was followed by spears made out of honey forming and piercing the hive that was his target, an action that did some decent damage to the structure in question, before he frowned as he realized his spell didn't do as much as he was hoping for, so he switched to channeling some magic into the pile of rocks that rested nearby, where he empowered the stone he picked and hurled it at the hive he had struck. This was the Boulder Bash spell, one of the Earth style spells that was designed to rip out sections of the ground and use them against the caster's target, but in this case he was using stones that had been provided by the residents of this realm and that turned an ordinary stone into a large rock that was enough to smash the weakened bee hive to pieces, and once the energy was spent it returned to being a small stone that floated on top of the honey. As soon as the first one had been broken, however, Ember flew through the air and used her Emission skill to smash the couple of bee hives with the force of her own power, something that surprised both the Blue Crocodile and the couple of Riptocs that were hiding inside the bee hives, though once four of the bee hives had been smashed open they returned to the resident they were helping out and reported their success to him, stunning him in the process as he revealed the fifth dragonfly of this realm, allowing Spike to weave his magic over it like he had done for the last ones the group had found. Once that was done the group turned around and continued climbing the area that was near the resident they had just assisted, though none of them had any idea on how many more honey stacks all of the Riptocs had built throughout the rest of this realm and they had no idea where the exit portal was, so all they could do was move forward and tackle the enemies that were in their way.

The first foe that stood in their way was one of the Laser Riptocs, who fell to the ground as Ember struck its chest with her Emission skill, allowing the others to jump over to the stump that was in front of them and follow the path that was leading them towards the uppermost part of this area, even though Elora made sure to smash the couple of metallic vases that were off to the side before rejoining the dragons that were moving forward, before spotting the sixth dragonfly of this realm off to their left and let Spike fly over so he could send it back to the castle. One thing he discovered was that there was a wooden chest off in the distance, over the tops of the trees that he was standing on, so what he did was smash all of the straw baskets that were in his way and collect every gem he found on the walkway, before studying the chest for a few seconds and then turned around so he could rejoin the others as they headed for the area that the sixth honey still was located in, which also just so happened to be the area that the exit portal rested in, which only made them wonder where the second side portal could be resting. Instead of worrying about the missing side portal, which they would no doubt find at some point in the near future, the group jumped over the gap that was in front of them, something that happened to be a flat piece of ground between the honey river and split it into two halves that formed the waterfall that had been near the wooden platforms they had climbed up to get here, before they landed near the final honey still and had the lone Blue Crocodile move out of the way as Spike shattered the still with his magic, something that was followed by him and the rest of the group walking over to the area that the Blue Crocodile was now standing in.

"You did it! You guys saved up a whole lot of trouble by get'n rid of those troublesome Riptocs and breaking all of their terrible honey stills." the Blue Crocodile said, his tone showing that he was very happy with what they had done, to save the realm from everything that the Riptocs had been doing to it, though that just so happened to be when a dragonfly flew down to the area that they were standing in and joined the group, meaning they had found the seventh dragonfly of this realm and wondered if there was only one side portal to this realm, unlike the two they were used to.

Once Spike sent the seventh dragonfly back to where the others were waiting the group jumped over to where the exit portal was located and discovered that the honey had frozen in some odd manner and formed a wall that covered a hidden passage, even though the honey was still flowing like a waterfall should flow, so what they did was follow the new tunnel and picked up the gems that were along the way, before quickly reaching the end and stopped as they found one side path that did have the other side portal inside it, along with a flower and platform path that seemed to be heading downwards, to an area that they couldn't really see at the moment. The path in question brought them to some straw baskets and some gems that were laying on the ground, before they spotted another tunnel that could be heading back to the starting point of this realm, so they followed it and collected the gems like they had done throughout the rest of this realm, before discovering that it definitely lead them back to the start of the realm, to which they made sure to collect the rest of the gems that were around them and took to the air, to see if they could find the key to the chest Spike had seen earlier, since they were sure that a dragonfly was resting inside it. What the group discovered was that the first area that Spike had separated from the rest of them, so he could get one of the dragonflies on his own, just so happened to have a path in the trees that was slightly had to find if one wasn't looking for it, though since they were flying it was even easier for them to find the key and grab it, but instead of heading back towards the chest it would open they headed for the first side portal they had passed by and entered it, figuring that they would get it out of the way, then unlock the chest, before checking out what the second side portal had to throw at them, which should clear out of the realm of dragonflies and the gems that had been scattered in this realm.

What they discovered was one of the Blue Crocodiles that happened to be standing near a tank, in what appeared to be a shooting range that was like the range they had seen in Dragonfly Dojo, and while four of them stood in front of the resident that would no doubt tell them what sort of challenge they would be getting themselves into Ember studied the tank for a few moments, showing that she wanted to make sure that it was the same as the other tank before they even considered taking the challenge, even though this was where the eighth dragonfly would be found, and then the ninth had to be in the chest.

"Welcome to Honey Marsh's Sticky Swamp Shootout," the Blue Crocodile stated, where he waved his hand towards the tank for a moment, allowing the group to see the course that one of them would be driving through in the very near future, though that was around the time that Ember rejoined the group and listened to what the resident had to say, just in case there was something interesting he had to say before they took on the challenge, "us honey folk done love shootin' stuff with our tank, so much so that we've devised the hardest course possible. We're even giving away a dragonfly that showed up in our realm earlier, something that hadn't been there earlier, to anyone that manages to take down all of the targets without being defeated."

"Don't worry about us, we'll take care of this," Ember replied, to which she climbed into the tank and closed the lid as soon as she was inside the vehicle, not that the group was even surprised by what they were seeing at the moment, given what they had seen during their time in Dragonfly Dojo, though it wasn't long before she started moving it forward and focused on the challenge they had discovered, which meant blasting at whatever was in her way as she followed the path, since she was sure this was just like the previous time this challenge had rolled around, "and by that I mean I'll blast all of the targets that are in my way and complete your challenge."

From there Spyro, Cynder, Spike, and Elora walked behind the tank as Ember moved forward and used the small circular platform that was in front of her to move to the next area, where she opened fire on the enemies that were in her way and smashed the fortifications that they were using the defend themselves from danger, though from what she could tell it appeared that only the blue enemy tanks counted towards her total, so that left the others to lash out at the yellow insect enemies who accompanied the tanks. Of course, as the group made sure to take down their enemies, they found that Ember really didn't need their help at all, as she was blasting everything that needed to be blasted and focused on all of the tanks that decided to stand between her and the end of the course, though it wasn't long before Ember noticed that she had been wrong to assume the tanks were her true targets, as the flying versions of their enemies were the ones she needed to take down and informed the others accordingly, leaving the tanks for either herself or for Spike to take out with his magic. The only reason the rest of the group was even helping Ember was due to the fact that it allowed her to focus on her targets as she drove through everything the course had to throw at her, not to mention the fact that they hadn't been told that this was a single person challenge, like the Monkey Monks had done during their visit to the monastery, but it did give Spike a chance to see everything so he could accurately record everything in his next book, which he was happy to have after everything that they had seen so far. Eventually Ember reached what appeared to be the end of the course and drove right through it, something that returned her and the others to the start of this area, to which she parked the tank and climbed out of it as the others joined her, where they glanced at the Blue Crocodile, who expressed his surprise by the fact that they had cleared out the challenge on their first try, which was the really surprising thing since most of the residents of this realm usually needed two or three tries before they succeeded in beating the challenge, though that was when the eighth dragonfly of the realm joined them and Spike sent it back to the others.

As soon as that was done the group returned to the main part of the realm and took off as they targeted the area that the chest was resting in, where they found that it was rather easy for them to make their way back to the final area of this realm and located the chest that was their target, something that they landed in front of and waited for Spike to slip the key into the lock, where they watched as the lid opened and a dragonfly, the ninth, flew out so he could send it back to the castle that the others had been sent to, before they headed for the location of the second side portal. What they found in the other side section of this realm was what appeared to be a slide like what they had seen in Monkey Monastery, only this time it was made of honey and not ice covered stones, though there was a bee that happened to have a cage attached to its small legs, ones that had a dragonfly inside it, before the bee flew off and the Blue Crocodile that was standing near them threw several pieces of bark into the honey for them to use as makeshift skateboards, because those were what the group first thought about when they noticed the pieces of bark. Instead of relying on their wings, like they would normally do in a situation like this, the group jumped onto the fragments of bark that had been placed in front of them and landed on them, something that caused them to move forward and start heading down the slide as they followed the bee, which was when they found out something interesting, the bark of these trees seemed to repel the honey, or at least not get stuck in the sticky stuff, so that meant they were able to do rather well as they chased after their target and headed down the slide that was in front of them. There were, of course, a few obstacles for them to jump over and avoid, and that even counted a couple of gaps that happened to be in the way, but for the most part it appeared that they were able to keep up with the bee as it lead them towards the bottom of the slide that they were racing down, so much so that the group also threw in seeing which of them could get to the end first, like an actual race, because this seemed far too easy for them to do and the bee was far behind them, even though it was still following the course that they were racing down.

In the end Spyro was, of course, the winner of their little race, as he was the first one to reach the end, though both Spike and Ember were surprised that Cynder beat them and smiled at them, which was followed by Spike coming in third with Elora managing to actually get ahead of Ember and take fourth, though the bee was the sixth one to reach the end and that was when it released the dragonfly, where the group watched as Spike sent the tenth dragonfly of this realm back to the castle before they departed from the area that they were in, allowing them to head back to Castle Hills and figure out which of the remaining realms they were going to help next, even if there were only two more for them to pick from before they tackled Ripto and put an end to his plans.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

Honey Marsh:
Dragonflies Rescued: 10

Total Dragonflies rescued: 70 / 90

what a "sweet" realm this was almost feel like i am gunna get a cavity just from looking at all that honey. Spike definitely made me laugh today with his reasoning for why Rptio had invaded this place (but can't blame the little dino dude honey is great). 2 ore realms to go and then its finally time for ripto to pay. As always another great chapter am definitely looking forward to the next few. Keep up the great work

[zachary12]

nice work.

[Comickook]

Again, superb work on the action, exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up here. Absolutely loved the tricks and teamwork the gang used against the Riptocs and Giant Bees in Honey Marsh. Just two more levels to go before the final showdown with Ripto. And then, after, a few interlude chapters, we find out for certain what's next.

REALLY looking forward to more of this.

[castroedgar316]

"Hob aboard and get ready for the Honey Marsh Rapids."

It's you put a B instead of a P for hop.

[Dragon52096]

You going to do a hero's tale after this game? I'm curious as to how Cynder and Ember (MLP) will react to Ember (Spyro) when they meet her.

[Blackdrag-rose]

10295591 As of right now, I'm not planning on doing A Hero's Tail.