"The first thing they'll test you on is your battle skills," Thoughtful explained as they all re-entered the massive, colorful hall.
Their lunch had been short. They were all led to a small room where they ate a brief meal of roasted pork with mushrooms and beans, one of the least extravagant meals to the Dreamkeepers, before the entire group returned. At that point, Cody began to tense with nervousness at the fact that he would be tested by such a powerful group of mentors, at least as far as he had seen. It was very likely that they would be surprised by how little he knew, and Inferno was just as nervous.
Their battle instructor, Fearless, stepped forward, his long green hair rolling about him, before he spoke to them, "Alright Cody, Avalsmokes, and Omen, I will test your battle skill, as Thoughtful said. Inferno, Destiny, and Ashheart, it will be Playful's job to test your battle skill."
"What will you have us do?" Avalsmokes asked, most excited of the three men.
"First is Cody. Have you got your weapons?" Fearless asked.
Thoughtful stepped forward and handed a very large bag to Cody, saying, "It took some work, but I was able to convince the king to release your weapons to us."
Cody easily felt his heavy, double-sided battle axe inside the bag and thanked his mentor profusely, getting only a nod of acknowledgement from the man. From the bag he pulled out his axe, sword, bow, and all of his arrows, suddenly overjoyed to see them. The axe, he suddenly realized however, felt much too large and sluggish in his arms. Shrugging to himself he put his bow and sheath of arrows on his back and belted on his sword.
With weapons but no armor, he felt strangely exposed, but he quickly shook off the feeling and passed the bag to Avalsmokes. From the bag Avalsmokes pulled his old family heirloom: the jewel-encrusted dual swords, which he belted to his waist before putting the empty bag down.
"Haven't you got a weapon?" Fearless asked curiously.
"No sir," Omen answered slowly. "But I have wielded a hammer my whole life; I was a blacksmith for over a decade before I left my home."
Fearless smiled and rushed over to Cody. Wordlessly he picked up Cody's axe and looked into the rider's eyes for permission to take it. Cody nodded his head in agreement and his mentor brought the massive axe over to Omen before holding it out to him expectantly.
"Your axe?" Omen asked in amazement. "Are you sure Cody?"
"It doesn't feel quite right in my hand anymore."
Seemingly unsure of what to say or do, Omen reluctantly stretched his arm out and grasped the shaft with one careful hand and hefted it with apparent ease. He turned it around so that the butt of the axe was nearly touching the floor and grabbed the shaft with the other hand before leveling it out a bit. He weighed it and shrugged.
"It looks nothing like a hammer, but I'll be damned if it isn't the closest I've felt from a weapon," Omen said as he shifted it around a bit to get a feel for it.
Fearless smirked, obviously pleased with himself, before stepping away from Omen and instructing Cody, "I'd prefer you not use arrows yet, we'll get a look at that with a target later. For now just use your sword and see if you can't hit me."
"Are you sure?" Cody asked. He was positive he couldn't land a blow on the skilled warrior if he tried, but it wasn't impossible for even the mightiest of warriors to come by an accident.
Fearless laughed a deep, warm-hearted laugh before answering, "I'm sure. If you're even better than I expected I have my armor on underneath my tunic."
Cody nodded and drew his sword from its sheath. He stared at Fearless for a few moments as he settled into the only battle-stance he knew while his mentor drew a strange double-sided dagger from the inside of his shirt and held it ready.
Unsure of how to begin, Cody crept around his mentor and lashed out several times in an attempt to lure Fearless into attacking, but he remained mostly unresponsive to his tricks. Finally Cody lunged straight for Fearless's midsection, which earned him a teeth-jarring impact of metal on metal when his mentor brought the dagger up at the last second to deflect the blow. Cody tried several more times to strike at his opponent, but soon enough it looked as though Fearless had had enough. The man twisted around Cody faster than the eye could see and before Cody new it, the tip of the dagger was at his throat and the bite of cold steel silenced him.
With a smile Fearless let him go and nodded to Cody. "I'll admit, it looks like you've at least used a sword, which is more than I can say for some. But still, I expect to be working with you a lot. Aval, show me your best."
Avalsmokes was a bit quicker than Cody, using his more agile body to swing around their mentor with skill as he wielded the dual blades with skill and precision in a fantastic display of deadly talent. Then again it seemed as though Cody had never known what grace and skill was, because in less than a minute Avalsmokes was defeated, much like Cody had been.
"The technique that I'm least familiar with," Fearless began, "but it could definitely use work. Still, better than I expected. Omen, ready to try out your axe?"
Omen nodded nervously and stepped forward, massive axe in hand. Slowly but steadily he brought the axe down towards Fearless's head, but the axe's head glanced off the polished floor harmlessly. Omen quickly shifted and brought the axe over from the side, barely missing Fearless as he dove to the side. It took longer than Cody or Avalsmokes's fights, but Fearless soon bested Omen as well.
"Good job. You'll need a lot of work, but that's to be expected. You all must have lost a lot of muscle mass in your imprisonment, but we'll get it back soon enough," Fearless said to them all.
Thoughtful nodded and announced, "Playful would like to test Inferno, Destiny, and Ashheart's battle skills next, as well as your teamwork with your partners, aerial maneuverability, and agility on the ground."
Destiny was on her feet in a second, her wings ruffling in excitement and anticipation. A chuckling thought came from Inferno's mind as he watched her excitement and gave a big grin, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth as he stood. Ashheart was the last to stand, mostly curious to see what the dragons would do, it seemed.
Playful asked humorously, "Destiny, would you like to test out the agility course first? We're not on to that yet, but we can save it for you."
"Sounds excellent," Destiny cooed. "What will you have us do first, Master Playful?"
Playful laughed a quiet, high-pitched and squeaky laugh before answering, "First I would like to test Ashheart's fighting skills."
"How will you do that?" Cody asked curiously.
Playful whistled, and suddenly Cody realized what the plan was. Somewhere above them he heard a screech, something between an eagle's cry and a dragon's roar as a gryphon dove down to them from above. Its fur and feathers were a pretty baby blue flecked with almost unnoticeable traces of white along its body. Similar in appearance to dragon horns, the animal had a thick frill of feathers on its neck; only it formed something similar to a mane as it traced down to its throat. And instead of a beak, like with Mournful, the animal had a lion's muzzle with two large teeth jutting out from its upper lip. The animal nuzzled close to Playful and flicked its lion tail with pleasure as the woman stroked its mane feathers.
"This is Mushroom," Playful explained. "She's a big softie, but she loves to play-fight, which would be perfect to test Ashheart's skill."
Playful gave a sharp whistle again and stepped back as Ashheart approached curiously. The gryphon was twice his size and easily twice as strong, if not more so. On its master's whistle, Mushroom crouched down and flicked her tail in the air excitedly. Ashheart crouched down as well, a look of stern determination set upon his wolfish features. Suddenly Mushroom dove at him, and the wolf had to jump to the side to avoid her playful nips.
Then Ashheart went on the offensive. He dove for Mushroom's side when she was most unprepared and bowled her over. With a little clicking sound, evidently of surprise, the gryphon latched on to Ashheart's shoulders with her sharp eagle talons and pulled him with her before she grabbed his skull in her mouth and nibbled on it gently.
It was hard for Cody to suppress a giggle as he watched the fight. All he saw was an odd-looking flying kitty-cat playing with an oversized puppy, and when he saw the frustration on Ashheart's face and felt it in his thoughts, it was very difficult not to chuckle. Luckily for Ashheart, after he got in a good bite on Mushroom's tail, Playful stopped the fight.
"That was an amazing fight considering you've never been trained, and you were pretty young when you fought." Playful paused and looked at Destiny, then Inferno. "You two, would you mind practicing your own fighting techniques on each other?"
Inferno brought his head a bit lower to the ground in a submissive position to Destiny before asking "Can't I fight a gryphon?"
Playful seemed confused and shook her head. "No, you'd either easily outmatch your opponent or the one we chose would very likely hurt you. We only have softies like Mushroom which we use for labor and work, and warriors that we've trained specifically to kill things twice their size or larger."
"What's wrong; scared of me kicking your tail?" Destiny teased.
Inferno snorted angrily and shook himself, his wings fluttering a bit. "The blood, the pain...the unbearable pain. It's all too soon," Inferno said as he curled into a tight ball and shamefully hid his face from view.
Destiny looked at Inferno with sympathy in her forest-green eyes. With a huff she went up to him and prodded his neck with her head. When he didn't move, she batted at him with her wings. When even that didn't work, she sat next to him in silence. With a sorrowful frown on her draconic features she nuzzled his neck comfortingly.
"I promise I won't hurt you, let alone rip up your wings. I highly doubt I even could if I tried." Destiny assured him. "The sooner we get this out of the way, the sooner we can go through the agility course. After that we might even learn to use our inner fire. I can't imagine anything more deserving of that frostbite worm Micah than him burning to a crisp under your flames."
A snort and a puff of smoke later, Inferno drew his head out of the shelter of his wings. "Promise you won't hurt me?"
"I promise. And hey, your fight with Frostbite would have given you some experience in fighting."
Without a word Inferno rose steadily back onto his legs and shook himself again, this time letting the energy course through his veins as he prepared to fight. Without warning he dove at Destiny, aiming a harmless nip at the base of her tail. Startled, the golden Drake jumped away from him and leaped into the air. Inferno immediately followed suit. Even though the golden dragon was faster, Inferno had gotten a strong push off of the ground and caught her with a single beat of his wings and gripped her tail in his teeth.
With a growl Destiny pulled them up a bit higher and whipped around, smacking Inferno's neck with a paw before flapping furiously to the top of the hall. She made a mistake, however, and as soon as she reached the top it was apparent that she had nowhere to go but down or forward. Before she could even move Inferno reached her and, flipping upside-down, grabbed on to her armored stomach and latched onto her leg with his teeth.
Destiny let out a grumbling roar of anger and clawed at his neck gently enough to not break the skin or rip past the scales. The two continued to tumble about in the air before landing again and fighting on the ground for a minute or two, when Playful signaled that they had fought enough. Inferno shot Destiny a quick glance of gratitude before the two approached their mentor, their breathing only slightly faster than normal.
"Now I need to test you on how the dragons work well in the air with their riders, and how well Ashheart and Omen can keep up," Playful said, ignoring the fact that the dragons had already flown for a while.
"Relax, we'll take it just like yesterday when we were flying in here for the first time," Cody said to the dragons and Avalsmokes, sensing Inferno's nervousness.
"It'll be fun," Destiny assured Inferno.
In less than ten seconds each rider was mounted, the dragons ready to fly, and the wolf ready to run. They threw some rocks and a small puddle of water on the floor to make the landscape more realistic and difficult to traverse for Ashheart so that he'd have more of a challenge than just sprinting from one end to the other.
"What I want you dragon riders to do is keep your legs out of the straps and keep active in this, it's called teamwork for a reason," Playful said. "This isn't to see how well Inferno and Destiny fly together, it's to see how you work with your soul partner to predict each other's moves and react to them in turn. Cody and Aval, you need to know when Inferno and Destiny are going to turn and react to that. Inferno and Destiny, when your riders react, you react, got it? And be prepared for anything."
Cody and Avalsmokes nodded while Omen cracked his neck. No matter what Playful did, there wasn't much she could do to test how the wolf and rider worked until they did the agility course. Rolling his shoulders, Cody unbuckled his legs and prepared for Inferno to take off. And on the count of three, the dragons and riders were up in the air.
It was simple enough for Cody to stay on without the leg straps; after all, he had done it so often before. They did aerial moves much the same as yesterday, but it soon began to bore Cody, Inferno, and even Destiny and Avalsmokes, and they were all sure that Playful and even their other mentors wouldn't likely be too impressed.
"I'm going to try something," Cody told Inferno as he began to move his legs and informed Avalsmokes of his plan, and he instantly agreed to try it as well.
Inferno was instantly concerned, but didn't dare interrupt Cody after he was moving. The black dragon continued to twist and turn as Cody got into a crawling position, hardly altering his routine for his rider. It was a challenge for Cody, but if he stayed connected with Inferno he could predict the movements and react, even when Inferno twisted and spiraled.
Then, as they were flying mostly straight, Destiny passed upside-down above. Time seemed to slow down as an empty scarlet saddle came into view, and Cody jumped to the side and grabbed its handle. Mustering every bit of strength he had within himself, Cody pulled himself into Destiny's saddle and settled in as well as he could. To his surprise Destiny's flight was very different. You couldn't notice the difference between the two dragons while on the ground, but it was plainly obvious that Destiny's flight was more erratic and fast-paced.
Cody looked down and saw Inferno pass under, a very confused Avalsmokes sitting in the silver saddle. A few seconds later Destiny flipped onto her back and Cody let go of his grip on her saddle and fell a yard or two before catching Inferno's neck. When he looked to the saddle, he saw Aval grab on to the red saddle and take off with Destiny, saddle held firmly in his grasp.
Adrenaline pumping in his veins, Cody climbed up Inferno's spine and settled in the smooth spot at the base of his skull, hanging on to his large white horns for support as he flipped upside-down. And then, just to say he tried it, Cody carefully made his way down Inferno's spine to the part of his tail where his spines ended, which was about three quarters of the way down. He clung on to two of the last three spines as Inferno spun.
Then, for the grand finale, Cody crept to the middle of Inferno's back just behind the saddle and between his wings. The dragon turned around with Destiny beside him and the two dragons remained completely still. Then both Cody and Avalsmokes slowly stood up and held their hands up in the air as their dragons slowly made their way to the ground. The riders sat down for the landing and slid from the backs of their partners with the biggest grins on their faces. Their mentors stared at them in complete and utter surprise.
"That was amazing!" Playful announced with evident glee and awe. "I've seen those tricks before, but never could I have expected you to do them! And excellent job to Omen and Ashheart as well; it couldn't have been easy to do tricks like that either."
The six grinned from ear to ear and bowed their heads to Playful, who seemed simply too stunned to speak. After a few moments, however, she shook herself and nodded to one of the magic mentors: Doubtful, to be exact.
To the group's surprise, Doubtful walked to the other side of them and faced the large hall. He brought his hands to his hips and raised them above his head, and in response to his movement a tall wall of white and grey stone rose from the floor. Behind that he made a long tunnel of the strange rock that ended with a very steep incline, which rose high above their heads and didn't have a back side to go down. After that was a pit of jagged rocks that wouldn't be fatal to land on but would hurt badly, and last of all Doubtful carved a deep pit into the ground for the course.
"And here is the agility course," Playful said, seemingly more relaxed and calmed down from the previous test. "Here you will try one by one to get through the course with your riders while I count how long it takes. You will likely want to try a second time, but I assure you that we will return to it in the new future, as it is essential. Who would like to go first?"
"Won't it be too easy for the dragons? They can just fly over," Omen pointed out, shooting Inferno and Destiny an apologetic glance.
Playful smiled and grabbed a bag a few feet away before pulling out one thick coil of white rope. "This is a soft cotton rope that we'll use to tie the dragons' wings down so they can't use them in any way to assist with the course."
Inferno and Destiny shot one last, worried glance at the course and reluctantly agreed that it was for the better. After it was settled, Omen agreed that he and Ashheart would go first. The wolf and rider quickly leaped over the beginning wall and disappeared from view for the most part, so Cody and Aval occupied themselves with getting in the saddles. Aval, having been decided that he and Destiny would go next wrapped the thick white rope around his dragon's wings three times and tied it just tight enough to keep her from using them unfairly. By the time he was done, Cody looked over to find that Ashheart and Omen had already finished with a time of approximately 88 seconds.
Soon enough Goldscales disappeared over the jump, and it seemed like no time passed at all before the two ended the course with a time of 106 seconds, much to their disappointment. When Cody began tying the rope around Inferno's wings, he suddenly felt nervousness coming to his mind once again. With a big gulp he climbed back onto Inferno's back and crouched down, ready to go.
"Ready. Set. Go!" Playful shouted.
Before Cody knew it Inferno was approaching the first jump. With a big kick Inferno sent them flying over the first jump, clearing it with no trouble at all. Without speaking to each other and just knowing what to do, they passed through the pitch black tunnel. The two with their excellent night vision made quick work of the twisting tunnel and Inferno made a flying leap up the steep incline. It must have taken many precious seconds as Inferno scrambled and clawed his way up, and when they did, Cody instantly wished they had stayed on the ground. They were easily 20 feet in the air without flight.
Inferno didn't hesitate however, and took a flying leap off of the pillar of smooth, milky stone. They landed very roughly on the ground and Cody cringed as he felt the pain lance up Inferno's legs, but still the dragon continued. Cody watched in amazement as Inferno jumped more than 50 feet over the pit of jagged rocks. And then, a sudden drop.
Cody and Inferno fell into the last of the obstacles, so far down that Cody couldn't accurately judge the distance. He only knew that Inferno managed to cling on to the wall before they reached the distant floor. With grunts of exertion and several puffs of smoke, Inferno slowly clawed out of the deep hole and burst over the top and collapsed at the end, the breath coming out of him in quick gasps.
"83 Seconds!" Playful announced happily.
"How is that possible?" Avalsmokes and Omen complained at the same time.
Playful walked over and explained quickly, "Destiny is very agile and quick, especially in the air, but she is not quite as good at climbing or jumping. Ashheart is much faster than any dragon could possibly hope to run, but he hesitated a lot on the jumps and is simply terrible at climbing. Lucky for him and Omen, he managed to jump over the last obstacle before falling into it. Inferno, however, is built for the tougher things. He is the slowest runner among you, but he more than makes up for it with his bravery, and his strong legs and slightly more curved claws are very useful for climbing. In a rough environment without wings, I daresay Inferno and Cody would do the best."
Inferno snorted with glee and raised his head a little proudly. But soon enough he had to drop it again to focus on regulating his breathing. He tilted over onto his side and Cody laughed to himself as he was thrown off. The course had been an energizing experience. A complicated, scary one, but an energizing experience nonetheless.
Thoughtful stepped forward then, a glimmer of pride in his eyes as he announced, "I think that we can all agree that the group is almost ready to move on to rank two: Air. Now we just need Doubtless to check Goldscales and Blackscales's special gifts."
At that, the older woman stepped forward with a warm smile on her face. Inferno slowly pulled himself to his feet, shook himself, and Cody took off the rope so he could stretch his wings briefly. Inferno, Destiny, and their riders stood in front of her, awaiting whatever she would say to them, and waiting for orders.
Doubtless dipped her head respectfully at them and said, "All I need to know from you is what your special gifts are, and which one of your pair controls it, or if it's both of you."
"I'll go first," Destiny announced. "I am the sole possessor of our gift."
A cloud of smoke wreathed and writhed around Destiny, steadily shrinking as the seconds wore on. After a short while the smoke cleared to reveal a beautiful young woman, looking to be exactly Cody and Avalsmokes's age. Her hair was waist-length and the same golden-yellow of her glittering scales. Her eyes were a deep forest green and her nose and cheeks had some light freckles, as though specked with dried raindrops. The freckles only contributed to making her look like the warm sun, as though the light were playing on her face with varying shades.
Doubtless smiled widely at her and said, "Ah, yes. I had guessed that your element would be fire, and this proves it. Ever since I first say you I knew, with your reckless, frivolous, but protective nature, you and your rider were born for fire."
"What do you mean? What are the elements really, and how did you know?" Cody asked confusedly.
Doubtless turned to him and answered slowly, "There are six elements. The main four are elements of the world: fire, water, earth, and air. The other two are elements of spirit: life and death. With each element there is a certain personality, and even colors, that go along with it. The spirit elements have no specific color or personality, but fire is always about fiery colors, earth can be brown, green, russet, tan, or anything in that range, while water and air make up the rest of the colors. But I won't get much into personalities right now, which would take a year and a day to explain. But, I will tell you that dragon riders and wolf riders can control all areas of magic besides spirit magic. Only a magician of that element specifically can use the magic of a spirit element, but a dragon and its rider's element determines what they do best when it comes to earthly powers. Aval will always be best at using fire magic, but he can use all others, besides life and death. Now come, dear, it's time to see what you can do, and maybe we can find your element."
Cody nodded and answered, "Inferno and I both carry the power, though we have not had a chance to use it since we've discovered it, really."
When he was finished speaking, Cody focused on moving he and Inferno to the top of the pillar of stone. After a moment he felt a shift of wind and opened his eyes to see that he was exactly where he had intended, Inferno standing beneath him and clinging to the pole. After a moment Inferno brought them back to the group, and it was fascinating for Cody to watch as a silvery-black mist surrounded them before clearing to reveal that they were back where they started. Just in front of them all their mentors stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
Cody looked to see Doubtless trying to speak but her jaw only flapped about uselessly on her face. She looked at the other mentors, shook herself and thought for a moment before looking closely at Cody and Inferno. Her eyes seemed to hold a mixture of intense awe and fear as she approached them slowly.
Quietly, though still loud enough for the others to hear Doubtless announced, "You are of a spirit element; the element of death. It is the power to command skeletars, and manipulate and deceive people through their minds."