Elemental Powers: Fire and Water

Eroded Rock and Trust

They had also enforced this when a Shadowground managed to hide as a Solarflare and penetrate the Kingdom. Solarflares that told the Shadowground in disguise all the secrets of the sacred Fire Empire were brutally slaughtered along with the Shadowground.

The others told Ash to stop daydreaming and get out to locate his homeland again.

"I also found this. She murmured, pushing him to the back of the cave as he spread his wings again. "Careful." She warned. "There's water. Rogue Coral was definitely here."

And there was a water-filled space in the rock which spelled out in spiky letters: Don't try to find me. I will kill you.

[Coral's POV]

I finally reached a landmass after flying north, over random chunks of lands, spotted an occasional nature monument by humans...

That's north enough.

I tucked my wings in and almost got a concussion as I landed headfirst into... snow? I stood for a moment on my hind legs. Bare, snowy tundra. Doesn't seem like any Solarflare will appreciate living in this place. I was sure that this was where the Solarflares were though...

I cast my eyes around, and spotted a stream of cooled lava. Aha.

Everything was gone. The mountain that used to be a volcano had cooled down, and the caves that used to house Solarflares had been collapsed.

The Solarflares definitely did not want anyone following them.

Well, I'm not giving up. I'll just chill atop a mountain and they'll land on me after a day or two.

I took a step forward, heard the crunch of crumbling snow and the ground below me dropped and I fell. I managed to open my wings but I fell into a net anyway, which helped to break my fall.

But still, stuffed into a net like a big fish?

Slicing the net holding me and landing neatly on the ground, I heard a voice.

"Well... well... look who we have here..."

Two Solarflares loomed from the darkness, their fire suddenly starting and their eyes glowed gold, flashing and fire surged into the air, clearing away shadows. The flames licked hungrily up the rock walls, casting an ominous red glow over the Fire Dragons' faces.

It was a circular cave with only one corridor out, where a trench was dug around the edges, holding the fire like a pair of hands cupped together. I opened my mouth to say something but boiling hot chains were wrapped around my snout. I ripped it off and leaped for the Solarflare's neck, blasting light out of my eyes as my scales darkened. With a piercing crack, I snapped his neck. Silence as the remaining dragon looked at me in horror. My scales were fully black now and I lost control.

He grabbed my tail and swung me high into the air and bound my limbs together with fire before I could react. I tried my best to ignore the pain and unleashed another bright flash. The Solarflare holding my tail dropped me and backed away, flying blindly down the corridor, before coming back with a Solarflare larger than even Marsh. He threw me to the wall, throwing a thicker metal cage over me as I jumped for him too, plunging the cage chain into the gap between the rock right under my claws.

With a sizzle and a hiss, my ice-cold scales froze the chain into the rock.

And all this happened in a matter of twenty seconds.

"Hmph. Imf fuf wumf fu falk!" I managed to say through the thick, hot metal trying to regain back some control.

"Get our korscof here. We need his permission to kill it." The Solarflare spat at my feet. I stopped struggling for a moment.

'Korscof' was an ancient dragon term, and meant 'strong one'. The word came from the dragon called 'Korcsof' and he managed to single-handedly 'split' the world into two with a strong mist that went on across the entire world, which contributed to the myth of there being two more continents out there. Legends said that Korcsof had found those continents and blocked it off for the rest of eternity by a layer of mist. If anyone went through that mist, they would never come back.

Only the oldest of dragons still occasionally spoke in the ancient dragon tongue, so this Solarflare that SPAT on me must be the older dragons. The other Solarflare bowed deeply and flapped off to get...

Flare.

His electric blue eyes were wide in confusion as he landed next to me and ordered some dragon to clean the mess I had made up. When nobody moved, he sighed and swept the body into the fire. The flames crackled and rose wildly, consuming the dragon.

Narrowing his eyes, he looked at me suspiciously, like he was trying to see if I was an illusion.

"I thought Amber would kill you. On orders, in fact. She didn't, I'm assuming, because then you'd be dead."

I shrugged. I remembered Amber trying to balance being a Solarflare, but she couldn't kill or attack any of us, not because of Marsh Disembowelment Threats, but because she didn't want to upset Ash. It was confusing.

Flare turned to the oldest Solarflare, "Flame, please send an army to kill the Hydroblast group. Don't leave any survivors." Flame nodded and walked down the corridor, his tail swinging in an almost hypnotic manner.

Then Flare asked why I was here.

I closed my eyes, pushing the blackness out of my scales, knowing that what I said would make or break, and murmured, "I want to join the Solarflares."