Spyro took a deep, shaky breath as he watched the class of little dragons walk in, following behind the fire dragoness that supervised them. Abella… her name was Abella, Spyro remembered. The kids sat down, and Abella began speaking to them, ready to pass the class over to him. Spyro swallowed as he looked over and saw Volteer sitting down in the seating piers at the back of the room, looking over the class eagerly, a smile on his face. However, it seemed rather neutral; Volteer was almost always smiling, or at least appeared to be, so unless it was a very wide smile, it was hard to know when Volteer was actually happy.

Ancestors, Spyro was nervous, more nervous than he was last time. The purple dragon was worrying too much; he knew it, but couldn't stop it. Spyro wasn't just worried about the lesson today, but he was worried about Cynder. He was worried about her so much. His heart ached for her and knowing that she was hurting made him hurt as well. The dragoness' confrontations yesterday had not been good, and they were extremely concerning. There was definitely something wrong with her, but he didn't know what. It terrified him.

The young dragon couldn't get Cynder off his mind. Seeing her so broken really scared him. He couldn't sleep a single wink last night, tossing and turning constantly as the thoughts raced through his head. All that he could think of was Cynder, curling up inside his hold, clinging onto him desperately as she sobbed her poor heart out. He had spent the whole night terrified that something would happen to her. He was worried she'd knock on his door in the middle of the night, bawling her eyes out and wanting to find some comfort in his embrace.

The sound of her sobbing had taunted his mind, and thinking about it again now, it began making its way back into his head. Each whimper, each sob, each agonising cry tore away at him. It was almost worse not being able to see her physically there. His heart ached knowing that she was struggling and he couldn't be there to help her.

"Anyway, I'll hand it over to Master Spyro," Abella's voice tore through his thoughts.

He snapped back into the present and saw the fire dragoness stepping away, leaving him alone with a group of kids who watched him with every bit of their attention. He was worried he'd become a nervous, blubbering wreck in front of them, or lose his cool. If Cynder got mentioned once, Spyro feared what he would do. He swallowed nervously, before clearing his throat and starting with a shaky voice, cursing himself inwardly as the nervousness he tried to hide began to leak out of him.

"Well, good morning kids. Uhh, today we will be working on improving your elemental breath and getting you more in tune with your magic," Spyro announced, clenching his claws into the ground slightly to help with his nervousness and anxiety as his mind continued to half-linger on Cynder.

"Now stand up, spread out to give each other some space, and let's try and breathe out some more elemental breath."

And so they did, all the younglings spreading out as they had a few days earlier and beginning to focus in on their elemental power. A few sparks of elemental energy began to burst from some younglings' mouths, but every single one of them fell on their rear ends as the force knocked them to the ground.

"Keep a firm stance so you don't fall to the ground, okay guys? Spread your forelegs out and lean downwards," Spyro suggested, demonstrating the action himself.

They weren't able to control their elements yet, so all that was coming out was big forceful blows. The next thing after the stance and getting them used to their elements was control and balancing their power. They needed to learn how to control their element so they can remain standing and upright while they release their elemental breaths, as well as balancing their power so they can manage both small blasts and powerful blasts when they are necessary.

"Alright, that's enough," Spyro said, and the kids all stopped what they were doing. "You're all doing pretty good; you can call on your element and use it at will, but what we need to learn now is control. All of you are just releasing super powerful blasts that are sending most of you to the ground.

"Now you'll get used to the power with more practice, and power isn't a bad thing, but sometimes you only need a small amount of power in an elemental attack. You're all rather new to this as well so your mana reserve isn't exactly the best. It will get increased later on, but right now it's not entirely the best at the moment."

"How can we increase our… mana reserve?" an ice dragoness asked, looking up at him with wide cyan eyes.

"It comes with practice," Spyro explained. "Over time, the more you use your element and the more you learn, your mana reserve and the amount of things that you can perform get increased, or you can also speed this process up with blue spirit gems. They are very rare and hard to come by, so we suggest that they aren't used too often. When you use up all of your mana however, you can use green mana gems to help fill your reserve again."

"Just like how the red gems heal us!" a young electric dragon exclaimed, a wide smile on his face.

"Yes. Just like that."

"My mummy is a healer, so she told me these things! She's even helped heal daddy quite a bit, since he's a soldier!"

"Ah! You might have to tell her you learned more about gems, as well as the fact you got to share your knowledge about them," Spyro said with a half-hearted chuckle.

The façade was getting harder to keep up by the second. Even now, Cynder's upset, disheartened self still haunted the back of his mind. But he needed to stay happy for the kids.

He realised he was wallowing in his thoughts, clearing his throat and head, shutting them out. The purple dragon hoped he hadn't been lingering on them for too long.

Spyro took a deep breath, ready to continue. "So, uh… can anybody tell me what you feel when you use your elements?" he questioned, looking over the students with a fake smile.

"Uh… it was hot?" a fire dragoness asked.

"It made my mouth cold," piped up an ice dragon.

"No, it started tingling," exclaimed an electric dragon.

Spyro chuckled. "Yes, you will all feel those side effects, which you will all get used to down the track, to the point where you won't even feel the heat, cold, tingling, or the dusty, earthy taste the earth dragons will feel," he explained. "But there is one thing that is shared between every dragon, regardless of elements. One feeling that every dragon feels when they use an element. Does anyone know what that is?"

Spyro was met with silence as the kids looked at him blankly, some tilting their heads in curiosity. The purple dragon chuckled, before answering them.

"Every time a dragon uses their element, it will form in their elemental core, located near their heart," he explained. "It will swell up, before being pushed through where you want it to go after a moment of focus and direction. If you want to shoot your element out of your mouth, it will shoot up your throat and out your mouth. If you want to release an element from your paws, it'll run through your arms and out of your paws. Or, if you want it to come out of your whole body…"

He paused as he summoned up fire inside him as a demonstration, his chest swelling with energy, before he mentally dispelled it throughout his whole body. With a bright flash of light, his entire body became alight, flames burning idly along his scales and horns. Gasps of awe came from the kids staring at him, especially the young fire dragons, their red and orange eyes blazing with delight and astonishment.

"...it will direct itself throughout your entire body," Spyro finished with a smile, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as the fire around his body dissipated, fading away with long trails of smoke.

"That was so cool!" one little fire dragon exclaimed.

"Do it again!" a fire dragoness pleaded.

"Can you do it with electricity please?!" asked an electric dragoness.

"Alright, calm down, kids," Spyro chuckled. "Unfortunately we've only got a limited amount of time so I think the one demonstration is enough. But I tell you what, if we finish early, I can show you that same thing with electricity."

"Yes! Thank you!" the electric dragoness cheered.

"Can you do it with ice as well?" an ice dragon questioned.

"What about earth?!" demanded an earth dragon.

"Remember? Only if we finish early!" Spyro said firmly, a teasing smile on his face.

"Yes, Master Spyro," the class muttered in unison, before silence swallowed the room.

Spyro inhaled to talk, but that one moment of silence turned into a moment of hell for him. It was enough for thoughts of Cynder to slip in through the business and noise of teaching. The purple dragon closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth, keeping his lips shut as to not frighten the kids with his display of clenched fangs. He tried to keep calm as he filtered out Cynder to the best of his abilities. Stressing about Cynder's wellbeing would have to wait, if he could help it. He had a task ahead of him and it was important.

Teach the kids. I need to teach the kids. I can worry about Cynder afterwards.

The purple dragon took another deep breath, trying to clear his head. All this only happened in a matter of seconds, so Spyro hoped that no one noticed, especially the kids. Colours assaulted the purple dragon's retina as he opened his eyes again, taking a very brief glance over to Abella and Volteer sitting in the seating piers. Abella hadn't seemed to notice his hesitation, but his heart sank as he saw that Volteer's mouth was curled in a frown, eyes gleaming with concern at him.

Ancestors damn it, Volteer knows something's up… Spyro thought, cursing himself mentally. Enough about that though. I need to teach the kids.

A colourful field of hatchlings greeted him as he turned his head back to the class. Their eyes were wide with curiosity and interest, waiting for him to continue. Spyro almost faltered again, but knowing how that one moment of hesitation cost him a lot more time, as well as a great deal of fear for Cynder's wellbeing to arrive in him, he ignored the urge to do so and just went straight into it, knowing that he needed this to get his mind off Cynder for a bit. He needed to teach these kids.

"Alright, so I want you all to use your elements again, but get used to the feeling of that energy flowing through your body. Notice the amount of strength surging through your body from your core and out of your mouth. Pay close attention to it," Spyro instructed.

He stood back, watching as the children took their battle stances, determination edging their faces as their eyes narrowed. There was silence as they all took deep breaths and concentrated, before a plethora of pops and crackles sounded as elemental magic burst out of the hatchlings' maws. Some of them landed flat on their rear ends again, still not used to the burst of raw power surging through them.

"Okay then, what did you notice about the way your elemental energy moved throughout your body?" Spyro questioned.

"It was really fast, and very powerful. It all kinda just went whoosh out of my mouth!" an enthusiastic electric dragoness exclaimed.

"Yeah! It all came out at once!" an ice dragon added.

"Okay, so what we want to do now is control that energy. We want to guide that energy slowly out of our mouth and let it flow gently, rather than trying to force it out when we feel it," Spyro explained. "Now, get back into your stances and try and let it out slowly. See if you can hold it for ten seconds. It doesn't matter how weak the element is; we can work on holding strong outbursts of energy for a long time much later on when you're more experienced. As long as something's coming out for ten seconds, you're doing fine."

The hatchlings all took their stances and concentrated hard once more. Some of them squeezed their eyes shut, some held their breath, and some held their eyes wide open, unblinking. The silence lasted for a good half a minute, before a few sparks flickered in the back of the room.

A small electric dragon was breathing a thin, weak beam of electricity at the ground, the crackling of the electricity soft and faint. Spyro started counting in his head. Two seconds went by. Three more dragons let out their elements. Two more seconds passed and five more younglings let out their elements. Within a couple more seconds, the whole class was aiming a thin elemental stream at the ground, but they all held it.

Every single dragon held the elemental beam for ten seconds, some of them longer. Younglings began to cease the energy flow, heaving for breath, a few of them sitting down on the ground to relax.

The purple dragon smiled at them. "Congratulations," he said happily. "You all have done very well and I am very proud of you."

"We did it! We did it!" the hatchlings cheered.

"Alright, calm down," Spyro chuckled. "You all did a good job; you should be proud of yourselves."

He turned his gaze briefly towards Volteer and Abella, wanting to just be done for the day. He'd spent enough time teaching; he was drained with everything going off with Cynder and he was starting to near being empty. Volteer seemed to notice Spyro's blank look and stood, nodding to Abella who stood as well.

Like last time, Abella told the kids to say thank you to Spyro, before they all left the classroom, leaving Spyro and Volteer alone. The guardian walked up to Spyro, a wide smile on his face. "You did good, Spyro. I think the kids learned a good amount today about control. It won't be too long until they can let out powerful elemental streams for that long," Volteer chuckled.

Spyro mumbled in agreement, his faked smile fading into a strong frown as he looked down. Now that he'd finally gotten the class over and done with, his thoughts about Cynder's problem began to assault his mind once more.

Volteer frowned, letting out a slow sigh. "Spyro… are you… are you okay?" he questioned.

"Not really," Spyro murmured, his gaze fixed on his paws which fidgeted slightly.

"Oh… o-o-okay. What's wrong?" Volteer asked.

"I, uh… I'm worried for Cynder. She's all of a sudden extremely upset and apparently she yelled at one of her friends yesterday. She said she hasn't been feeling like herself, and it's worrying me. She's had mood swings, she's been yelling at her friends, she was an absolute emotional wreck when she arrived at my house to ask for help. Cynder said that sometimes she just does things without even thinking, and at times it's like she can't see at all. Like she's not herself. It scares me. I feel like something bad's happening to her, but I don't know what."

Volteer just nodded, taking in the information. He took in a breath, sounding as if he was about to speak, before he let the air out again. A couple more seconds of silence ensued, before he inhaled again. "Why didn't you confront me or one of the other guardians regarding this unexpected predicament? I could've let you off class today to devote some quality time with Cynder and ensure that she is faring adequately," Volteer suggested.

"I mean… I tried," Spyro mumbled. "I guess I just… I don't know, I felt it wasn't worth being a bother when I came in to ask you about it yesterday."

"Oh. Was that the reason behind your appearance at the Warfang Temple yesterday afternoon?" Volteer questioned, to which Spyro nodded in reply. "I, uh… I deeply apologise for trying to rush you into this and not attempting to listen to you."

"It's okay, Volteer. At least you know now."

"Mmm, that is true I suppose. By all means however, I am greatly sorry to learn of this current situation with Cynder. If there is anything that you require my help with, please approach me and inquire my aid."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Was there anything else that Cynder mentioned regarding this sudden predicament, circumstance, hardship… uh, when you last saw her?"

"Not really. She just said she felt like a terrible person, not knowing fully what she was doing at some points in time, and just having so many mood swings," Spyro explained, his voice still small. "I saw that myself honestly; I was at her place yesterday morning and she was happy. We went our own separate ways for lunch, and afterwards she arrived at my place completely distraught and bawling her eyes out after having gotten upset at her friends."

Volteer just murmured, nodding and scratching his chin in thought. "This perplexes me. I'm not entirely certain on what may be happening to Cynder either, but I can research on the matter if that helps," he suggested.

"Yes, that'd be great!"

"I've got classes to attend and teach, however I will prepare some time tonight to concentrate on figuring out what might be the matter with Cynder. I just pray that nothing terrible happens. Tomorrow you can come around to the Temple if you wish, so we can fill the other guardians in on this occurrence together, and to receive their opinions on the matter."

"Thank you. I'll be sure to be there tomorrow morning," Spyro said, before smiling faintly. "I guess I'll… I'll see you later, Volteer."

"Affirmative. I will inform you of any information I uncover regarding Cynder's wellbeing, and I hope that she recovers. Goodbye."

With that, Spyro turned and left to go home. He was tired and needed rest. Trying not to think of Cynder during the class put a lot of mental stress on him, on top of the stress already there of trying to teach. And now with Cynder in the front of his mind, it was worse. He just needed to sleep it off. The situation was in Volteer's paws right now. There wasn't much more he could do. Especially not with the way his mind was bogging him down. He'd do some research after a nap.

And nap he did. He slept for the remaining hours of the morning, before eating lunch and going to the library to do some research on mood swings, without luck. He spent the whole afternoon researching, but couldn't find anything, so returned home with a heavy weight pulling at his heart, fearful that he couldn't help out.

He ate a small, half-hearted dinner, not feeling up to preparing a proper meal, before going immediately to bed. He lay awake for a good few hours, trying to figure out a reason for Cynder's situation, before he gave way to a deep slumber.

And Chapter 5's done! Holy crap this was a real struggle to get done. I spent so long trying to get that teaching scene right and it was very difficult. Uni didn't help much either coz that piled up quickly. But it's finally done, and I hope you all enjoyed!

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Dragon of Mystery: I'm happy I've got your nerves wracked lol; we'll see how it goes the next few chapters lol. Glad you enjoyed and hope you liked this chapter too.

TARDIS1039: Glad you enjoyed! Also happy you liked the Spynder moments (they're hard for me lol, but apparently nowhere near as hard as this teaching scene, big heck).

Fim-Larzitang: I'm kinda flattered lol; I'd definitely not consider myself one of the best romance authors out there as it is definitely not my strong point, nor is it something I have experience in. But I'm happy you've enjoyed it, and thanks for reviewing!

The Silent Insomniac: Happy to see you're liking the story man, and don't worry about Demonised; it's not everyone's thing and I get that. I'm honestly surprised I've been getting as many views as I have on it considering it's pretty dark and gory.

Derick Lindsey: Don't be sorry! It was an interesting idea I hadn't thought of, and I can see why you made that assumption. It made sense. So I decided why not, I'll put that in the chapter haha. I think it worked, so yeah, don't worry about it.

DiabloPProcento: Thanks for the review! I'd love to hear some more of your thoughts on this.

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With that done, I'll try and get started on the next chapter of GEM and Demonised as soon as I can, and I'll see you later! Stay safe, and hope you enjoyed!