Fairy's Kiss

Something's wrong.

Zoe liked to think of herself as an intelligent fairy. Truth was, all fairies were intelligent as far as she was concerned, considering that their brains were sophisticated enough to control their wings, as well as giving them the insight to use magic. Yes, not every fairy was on the level of the Professor, but having spent the last month with Hunter and Elora, the former of whom was no shining beacon of intellectualism, she liked to think that yes, she was intelligent.

But even a rhynoc dropped on its head at birth, and knocked on its head as a reminder every birthday, could see that something wasn't right with the dragon limping in her direction. A small purple dragon, far removed from the ones she'd read about, but damn it, that was the dragon the gate portal had given them, and damn it, something was wrong. Not just with him, but his dragonfly companion as well, his body a sickly shade of green rather than the bright yellow he usually was.

"Spyro?" she called out. "You alright?"

The dragon looked at her and winked, revealing a swollen eyelid. "Oh yeah, fine. Totally fine."

She flew over. "You don't look fine."

"Looks can be deceiving. I mean, there was this one guy who was large and green, but he was a total pushover, and-"

"Spyro, you're bleeding."

The dragon followed her eyes and looked at his left wing. "What, this silly thing? Don't worry about it."

Zoe could afford not to worry about the wing. Not worrying about Spyro's swaying, as if he could barely stand, was another thing. And given the look the dragonfly was giving him, she wasn't the only one.

"Spyro, maybe you should sit down."

"Nah, I'm fine. Just do your wand zappy thing and save my progress or somesuch."

"Excuse me?"

"Y'know, the thing. The thing where you zap me with the thing, and then there's a zappy thing, and things…lots of things…things…"

Zoe wished she could say she was surprised when the dragon passed out before her.

She also wished that zapping him with "the thing" she carried would wake him up, but alas, beggars couldn't be choosers.


"So your name's Sparx?"

"Bzzt."

"Right. So every dragon has their own dragonfly?"

"Bzzt bazzt bizz!"

"Oh. So what are you going to do when Spyro grows up and you have to leave him?"

"Bzzt…"

"Oh. That's so sweet…" She looked at the body of the dragon beside them. "Does he know that?"

"Baz bzz buz."

Zoe tried not to weep after hearing such a beautiful story, and instead focused her attention on Spyro. Her magic hadn't been able to do anything for him, but she knew some basic medicine, and here in Summer Forest, there was no shortage of herbs and moss she could gather to apply as salves to the critter before her. Not that she knew how dragons operated, but she figured it was the same principle – stop the flow of blood, treat the swelling, then find a lollipop or something.

So far, she hadn't found any lollipops. There was meant to be a gingerbread house somewhere in this forest, but awhile back the witch there had been charged with cannibalism and infanticide, so if she was going to get lollipops, she thought it better to source them from elsewhere. And besides, while Spyro's injuries had been nothing to sneer at, Zoe had realized what the real issue was.

"Poor little guy." She patted him on the head. "He's worked himself to the bone."

"Bzzt…"

"He's doing it in a rush?"

"Bzz baz bizzity."

"Oh." Zoe's face fell. "So he's that eager to get to Dragon Shores?"

Sparx nodded.

"I see." She looked back at the sleeping dragon. "Well, as long as he defeats Ripto, we-"

"Toast!"

Zoe let out a shriek and flew back as Spyro sprung to his feet – eyes wide, and steam coming from his nose. She knew…hoped…that he wasn't going to eat her, but this was still a dragon, and dragons didn't live in Avalar. So how sure could she be of anything?

"Bzzt!"

Well, she could be sure that he and Sparx were friends at least. She smiled as she watched the dragonfly fly around his dragon, the two of them laughing. Sparx had returned to his former yellow self, and looked raring to go.

"How you been buddy?"

"Bzzt bazzt buzzzt bee."

"Oh. Really?" He looked at Zoe. "You helped me?"

She shrugged awkwardly.

"With the zappy thing?"

"No, just…other things." She gestured to the salves she'd applied to Spyro's body.

"Ew…"

"Keep them on for now. We can't have you dying on us."

"Who, dying? Me?"

Zoe didn't say anything. Not at first. But looking at the dragon before her, she could tell that he was at a crossroads. Raring to go on one hand (well, wing), yet appreciating the need for rest on the other. So slowly, hesitantly, she said something.

"Toast."

"Toast?" Spyro repeated.

"Yes, toast. You said toast when you woke up."

Spyro gave her a look.

"I mean, you could have said bread, but you said toast, so…"

"Oh yeah. Toast." He chuckled. "I was dreaming about Gnasty Gnorc."

"Nasty Orc?"

"No, Gnasty Gnorc." He gave her a look. "What the heck's an orc?"

Zoe admitted that she had no idea. After her confession of ignorance, she murmured, "must have been a short dream. You weren't out that long."

"Oh yeah, I'm a bit of an insomniac." He chuckled. "It's weird. Usually my dreams involve bandicoots wearing blue shorts and raccoons wielding giant wrenches."

"I see…"

"Bzzt?"

"What can I say Sparx, I'm an imaginative guy."

Silence returned to the trio again. A silence that the breeze couldn't break. A silence that only now, could Zoe appreciate just how silent it actually was. Ripto had taken over Summer Castle, true, but it was like all the wildlife had fled as a result. No birds, no beasts, no fish even.

She watched as Spyro looked at his wing. "Stupid rhynocs," he murmured. He looked at Zoe. "Can't you speed this up? Do a spell or something?"

"Um…"

"I mean, Sparx gets better every time he eats a butterfly."

Zoe stared at Sparx. "You eat butterflies?"

"Bzz…"

"Right. And do they know that?"

Sparx looked away in shame.

"Um, Zoe?" Spyro asked. He shook his wing. "Spell? Me? Ripto? Beach?"

Zoe bit her lip. She didn't want to rush things. But with every passing moment, Ripto did more damage to Avalar. So if Spyo wanted to get going, who was she to stop him?

"Anything?" he asked.

Zoe sighed. "Do you like lollipops?"


One gingerbread cottage, one homicidal witch, two skeleton children, and a clutch of glowing rocks later, Zoe returned with a single red lollipop, stuck it in Spyro's mouth, and said "there. Suck on this."

He gave her a look.

"Literally. Just suck, and it'll make you better."

"Um, okay." Spyro kept sucking. "Are you going to have anything?"

Zoe shuddered. After that cottage, she wasn't sure if she was going to eat anything again. But, as Spyro sat, she hovered, and Sparx flew around the flowers, devouring numerous innocent butterflies, she felt the need to say something. Anything. Anything to end this silence, and take her mind off candy.

"So you're a dragon," she said.

Spyro gave her a look.

"I mean, I've never seen a dragon before. But we did bring you from the Dragon World, though I'm not sure if there's things other than dragons there, so maybe you're not a dragon, and-"

"Trust me sister, I'm a dragon."

"Oh. Okay." She looked around, checking for rhynocs, witches, and butterflies. "You, er…meet any fairies in the Dragon World? I mean, not necessarily meet, but-"

"Oh yeah, tonnes. Fairies are like cockroaches. They're always there, and you can't get rid of them, and…heh." Spyro chuckled sheepishly. "I said something stupid, didn't I?"

Zoe folded her arms. "You tell me, genius."

"Um…" Spyro rubbed the back of his neck with a wing. "I, er…well, I meant to say that…well, there's other fairies in the Dragon World."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah. There was a fairy like you who did the zappy thing every time I came close."

"Oh." Fighting the weird surge of jealousy within her, she asked the fairy's name.

"Um…" Spyro rubbed his neck even harder. "Y'know, I never got her name."

Zoe stared at him. "A fairy did the zappy thing every time you got close, and you never got her name?"

"Hey, I had to remember the names of over sixty dragons, give me a break."

Zoe supposed she could oblige him that.

"Y'know, I never got the zappy thing," Spyro continued. "You, what? Record my progress?"

"Something like that." Zoe got out her wand and waved it around. "If this is the great liberation of Avalar from Ripto, then Elora wants everything recorded."

"What, that goat wants a slice of history?"

Zoe zapped him.

"Ow!" Spyro jumped up, his body steaming. "It never hurt like that before!"

"My finger slipped."

Spyro clearly wasn't buying it. "The fairies in the Dragon World didn't do that to me."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Do tell."

"Yeah. Some of them would carry me around on floating clouds. And some of them would kiss me."

"Kiss you?!"

"Yeah." Spyro smirked. "They'd give me a kiss on the nose, and my fire would get some firepower, you know what I'm saying?"

"They…kissed you," Zoe said, staring.

"Yeah. And?"

"Nothing," she murmured, turning away. "Nothing at all."

Silence lingered between them. Silence that was broken only by the sound of a faint breeze, butterflies being eaten by a homicidal dragonfly, and the sound of a lollipop being swallowed.

"Have I upset you or something?" Spyro asked.

Zoe tried to ignore him.

"I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but girls are weird. Like, half the time Elora's giving me a look, and I don't know what's up with that, and every time I ask she looks away, and maybe this is a goat, sorry, faun thing, or maybe the air's different here, or-"

Zoe looked at him. "You don't know anything about girls do you?"

Spyro shrugged. "What can I say? There wasn't a single female character in the last game."

"What?"

"Oh, er, nothing." He looked around. "Hey, look. Another girl."

Zoe did look. And cursed. And felt her heart beating a mile a minute. And cursed again. Uttering a word that wouldn't be fit for reprint in a story about fairies, dragons, or anything else.

"The witch," Zoe whispered.

The hag, acting like a drag, was dressed in rags, and other things that rhymed with those words. Also she was yelling absolute nonsense as she came towards them.

"Bagga dagga wagga! Zagga zug zig! Baaar!"

"Um…is she okay?" Spyro asked.

"Wah-zhug-hai!"

"She used to be a crazy cat lady," Zoe said. "Then she became a crazy dog lady. Then she ate all her dogs, so she started eating children instead."

"Ga-hai-uh!"

"Oh, sorry. She didn't go straight to eating children. She started eating rats after the dogs before moving onto them."

"Yeah, okay…" Spyro murmured. "So what does she want with us?"

"Gugga-po! Gugga-po!"

"Her lollipop," Zoe sighed.

Spyro looked at Zoe, then the witch, then back to the fairy. "Did you…?"

She nodded sheepishly.

"Right. Okay." He began pawing the ground. "Well, time to pop some lollies of my own."

"Spyro, what are you-"

With a yell of "geronimo," the little dragon charged over the grass. Having gorged himself on numerous innocent butterflies, Sparx flew over to his dragon companion, and joined in the fun. It was just as well that he did, because with a speed that belied her decrepit nature, the witch drew out something from her rags, and whacked Spyro with it.

"Spyro!" Zoe called out.

"Gugga-hup! Gugga-hup!"

Zoe wasn't sure why little yellow stars had appeared above Spyro's head, but right now, that was the least of her worries. The most of them was that the witch had drawn out the one thing that all witches carried. The most deadly weapon in their disposal.

"A rake," Spyro murmured. "She hit me with a rake!"

Zoe sighed. "That's what witches do."

"Yeah, but, don't witches have brooms?"

"…what in the world are you talking about?"

Spyro opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, he bounded towards the witch again. Not a mad charge like last time, but rather, keeping close enough to shoot jets of flame at her, and staying agile enough to miss her rake.

"Bu-hai-yuh! Pop-rop ko!"

Problem was, it wasn't doing anything. Spyro huffed and puffed, but while that might have been enough to make some pigs file for home insurance, it wasn't enough to deal with the witch. Every time he blew, she rose her cloak, and that somehow kept the flames at bay.

"Waza waza ju! Krazack!"

Spyro evaded the swing of her rake and jumped back to Zoe. "It's no use," he said. "Can't hit her, can't burn her."

"Waza! Krunk!"

Zoe couldn't understand the witch, but given the way she smiled at them, her teeth cracked and stained with what was either blood or dry lollies, she had no doubt that she could understand them.

"Any ideas?" Spyro asked her.

She blinked. "Me?"

"Well, you took the lollipop, and you've got the wand, so can't you zappy-zappy, make Spyro happy?"

Zoe gripped her wand. She could try and zappy-zappy the witch, but it certainly wouldn't make Spyro happy. Instead, it might make things crappy. But the witch was closing in, still going yappy-yappy, but with a brainwave, Zoe started feeling sappy-sappy, and going flappy-flappy over to Spyro, gave him a kiss on the nose.

"Um, what did you just…oh."

Spyro's body changed colour, like one of those weirdos in Metro Speedway giving their bikes a tune-up. His scales turned darker, and a fire pattern appeared on his body. It appeared that what worked for dragons in Spyro's world also worked for them here.

"Bzzt?" Sparx asked.

"Guh-zai-uh?"

Spyro snorted, small jets of flame coming from his nostrils. "Watch and learn, pal. Watch and learn."

Sparx did so.

Watching the dragon bound forward, so did Zoe for that matter.


The witch was dealt with quickly. So quickly and so easily that Spyro spent a good minute going on about boss fights, and how easy they were, and whether this counted or not. Truth was, it didn't make much sense to Zoe, but it didn't matter. She was here. The witch wasn't.

What also wasn't here, much to her frustration, was Spyro's new scale pattern. He wasn't surprised – fairy kisses didn't work their magic too long in his world either – but even so, if she could make it permanent, then Spyro's work in Avalar would be done much quicker. Then he'd be off to the beach, and she wouldn't have to worry about him anymore.

Which was a good thing, she reminded herself. Wasn't it?

"Well, I'm off," Spyro said. "I've got talismans to take, orbs to find, gems to collect?"

"Gems?"

"Well, how else am I going to pay that bear?"

Zoe frowned. "You mean Moneybags?"

"If you mean the guy who bags my money for every single little thing, then yeah." Spyro sighed. "More greedy than a gnorc."

"An orc?"

"No, gnorc. Seriously, what the heck's an orc?"

Zoe's silence was all the answer Spyro needed, far as she could tell. Either way, she got out her wand again. The record of Spyro defeating a homicidal witch on his quest to defeat a homicidal sorcerer didn't sound like a major plot point, but Elora's wishes were her command.

"Whoa, whoa," Spyro said. "You ain't going to zap me again are you?"

"Oh don't be silly."

Spyro sighed. "Fine. Okay. But if I die from electric shocks, I'm coming back to haunt you."

Zoe worked her magic, and Spyro didn't react – at least not to the zap. But as he turned to bound off, to enter another world, to solve its problems, steal its gems, and slaughter all manner of creatures along the way, she called out to him.

"Spyro?"

"Hmm?"

Zoe fingered her wand nervously. "Just wanted to say…thank you."

"For what?"

"Oh, you know, everything. Helping Avalar. Defeating Ripto. Solving problems…"

"Oh, is that all?" He laughed. "Come on, solving problems is what I do. It's pretty much in the platform mascot job description."

Zoe had no idea what that meant, but instead knelt down, and kissed him on the nose. Like before, Spyro's body changed colour. Unlike before, he gave her a look of confusion.

"Um, what was that for?"

Zoe looked aside, trying to hide her blush. "Just…trying to say thank you."

"Oh. Okay. But you do know that this effect is going to wear off by the time I reach the next world, right?"

"I know."

"And that I'm perfectly capable of dealing with things without fairies doing stuff that could be grounds for litigation on the question of-"

She zapped him.

"Ow!"

"Finger slipped."

"Yeah, my purple arse. Come on Sparx."

"Bzzt."

Dragon and dragonfly went bounding off. Leaving a fairy alone in the depths of Summer Forest. Twiddling her zappy stick, and wondering how much magic she should send into it next time.

After all, progress had to be recorded.


A/N

So, playing through the Reignited Trilogy. Can't help but wonder why not all fairies give Spyro a kiss, when it would make life so much easier, but alas...