Dragons of War - Rising Storm

Chapter 10 (2/2)

I continued my messenger duties and soon enough I was a well-known presence in the colony among the soldiers. Although I was annoyed by how they viewed me, as an innocent figure like a mascot. Everyone loved the 'child' who ran around with their messages. It gave me a purpose though, and I was happy to be helpful in some way. That was all I needed.

The weeks past slowly at first, and then started to blur together. Every day was the same busy routine. I would wake with a splitting headache, take my pills and begin training at 5 am. By 2 pm training was over and from 3 to 9 I ran through every tunnel my messenger duties required. I met many high ranking officers and generals through my duties, but few cared for more than the message I delivered. I guessed that was for the best.

I got to know the group of Dragon Warriors I trained with well, despite them including me very little. Every day we had breakfast and lunch at the same times. While the lot of them always ran together in a pack, I was left to follow behind simply because we were headed in the same directions.

Every once in a while they would talk to me, ask me questions, or comment on something that had happened that day. Sometimes they would surprise me with giving helpful comments or tips. Then the next day I would get ignored again. I couldn't blame them, though. I never tried to include myself. I guess I thought it would just be a waste.

Fred was by far the most thoughtful of the group. He always took the time to speak or check up as I liked to call it, on me at least once a day. If he ever saw me struggling in the training, or simply falling behind, he would hang back as well, so I wasn't the only one. I knew Dave didn't like it, but I didn't care. I was just glad there was someone else there.

Howard was the loud one of the group. Everything said needed to be taken with a grain of salt. If he wasn't talking about women or complaining about the training, he was badmouthing someone. We all knew who not to pick a fight with. Except for Kevin.

Kevin was the 'star pupil' of the group. He was Dave's favorite and had the best times, tracks and scores on almost all the training. He'd been a soldier before joining the Dragon Warriors, so he was already ahead of most of the others, but not only that, he was very passionate about being number one. Not that he'd let anyone forget it anyway. Kevin was the only one who always picked a fight with Howard.

Jen was the only person to beat Kevin at anything, and it constantly angered him. As another soldier herself, she was well versed in many things even Kevin wasn't so good at. She was by far the most rounded member of the group, and the only reason she wasn't number one was because she didn't demand the spotlight.

Evan and Sarah were the quiet ones of the group, like me. As the youngest other than myself, they tended to lag behind but stuck together, and sometimes would go off on their own altogether. Since Sarah was related to one of the Head Generals, everyone thought she would get special treatment, and it seemed to make a rift between them all. Susan, Cole, and Bailey all seemed to take her side, and they often stuck together.

I often looked around at all the faces around me, hoping to see someone familiar, but Aaron was never there. I didn't know what department he worked out of, who his commanding officer was, or if he was even still alive. I knew he was probably just still avoiding me though.

Dave wasn't lying when he told us that it took at least three months of training for any progress to be seen, and by the end of our third month, still not one of us had transformed. Until it was three months and one day.

Unsurprisingly, Kevin was the first, and it was terrifying.

The star of the class, the proudest member of the group, and by far the most buff, tumbled to the ground screaming like a girl and sobbing his eyes out. He was only able to transform his left arm which lead to an agonizing fifteen minutes until he was finally able to return the arm to that of a normal human. He was taken away for the day to rest, and left us all with a horrified dread of what was to come for ourselves. But no one else managed, or wanted, to transform for the rest of that day, and on the next day, Kevin returned.

He boasted of the experience but we could all see how shaken he'd been by it. Yet when it came time to try again, he did. This time, he'd managed to transform both of his arms, and the experience seemed far less painful. By the end of that week, he was able to transform his entire body into that of a dragon within thirteen minutes and little pain.

His scales were a dark, pale, green color and he had long sharp horns atop his head. There were spikes that ran down his spine, and his wings had a lighter shade in the membranes. His form was relatively plain, but his limbs were proportional, and his stance strong.

Dave told us that Kevin was the fastest to fully transform in a long time and he was moved up to a different group to train, leaving the rest of us to eventually follow.

Howard and Jen were second to make the change, a week later. They too were only able to transform a portion of their bodies and they too fell from the agony of the process. After only two weeks they followed Kevin to the higher levels of training.

Then it was Evan, Sarah, Susan, Bailey, and Cole in the following weeks. One by one they left me until it was just Fred.

I knew Fred was no exception.

A part of me knew he was holding back for my sake but once we were alone, I was holding him back. It took him only a day afterward to half transform and then another week and a half to move on to the next level.

Every one of them had managed to transform at least a portion of their bodies and then eventually, the full transformation. They had each been able to tap into their 'feeling of power' enough to transform. They were one of the most successful groups in recent years to have such a high rate of full transformation, but everyone knew there was always one bad apple in the group.

Me.

I stood completely alone on the plateau. The wind blew by with a warm comfort of evening but inside I was cold. The skyline around me had a pale lavender hue and it calmed the storm in my heart only slightly.

No matter how hard I tried, how close I came to crying from the emotions I dug through, nothing changed. I recalled memories that sent fire through my veins, memories that gave me chills of fear, ones that I lost all feeling from and ones that made my heart sing with joy. Every one of them had no effect.

I thought I knew what my feeling of power was but once I was alone, I realized that I didn't. I just thought I did.

I had asked Fred, one day, what his feeling was. He told me it was a memory of his lost daughter. Embracing her in his arms filled him with a protective power that transformed him into a beast that reflected it.

I had no such memory but I knew, even so, it was different for everyone.

Sarah said hers was the sight of the morning sun, how it filled her with awe. Kevin told me his was tearing apart the gunman who took his partner in the war. Howard never told me his. Said it was not for someone under the age of eighteen. I didn't quite understand that one until I thought about it for a while. Then I wished I hadn't.

All around the sky above my head the beating of wings could be heard. Every one of my group and the other Dragon Warriors was up there but me. In the later evening hours, they took to the sky's, a moment of free time that they used to float peacefully through the air.

So what was it then? Was revenge not a powerful enough feeling? The memories of my family being taken in a single day not raw enough?

Then why hadn't the other emotions I'd tried, worked?

The joy of clean air, in a world with so few safe havens, the sight of a calm forest, where other places were like an open graveyard. Yet nothing worked.

Was I just a dud and completely unable? I had the power of a Dragon Warrior in my human form, but it meant nothing if I could not transform into an actual Dragon, and I knew I wouldn't be the first. There were many who simply did not have the ability.

I stared out at that horizon line with hazy eyes.

I needed to transform.

I had to.

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