The next couple of days went by slowly for the four dragons. It was spent resting their tied bodies and exploring the haven. It was an interesting place. Everything was made from ice, from homes to nests and even the strange currency they used. Each dragon walked around with a small leather bag tired around their neck, which was full of circular ice chips called IC's. They were a little confusing to Silver. The larger one was the more it was worth, and a certain amount of one size equalled another. A human way of life in her mind.
She sighed, walking down one of the many roads that circled the haven. She had heard there was some sought of training arena in the area and had wanted to check it out. Zepos was asleep and Retrix had wanted to explore the area by himself. Merene had disappeared the night before, saying she had needed to take care of something and still hadn't returned. It was a little worrying but Silver was quite confident in the mind dragon's abilities.
As she walked she attracted the view of many of the other dragons. Sometimes they would stare openly and others would quickly glance her way before hurrying on. She didn't know if they were nervous, scared or just interested. A few of them had even approached her to talk, but no one had really known what to say.
Silver stopped at a crossroad and turned left to see the building she had been looking for. It was dome shaped, like most things in Eldawin's Syndicate, but larger. There were a couple of dragons around the outside in small clearings, sparring against each other and the sounds of dragon elements being used on the inside. It made her smile. She hadn't had a good fight in a while, and was itching to do something while waiting around for Zoralth's summons again.
Taking a breath she walked up to the wide-open entrance at the front of the dome. Two dragons were at the entrance, laying next to each other and talking in murmured voices. As Silver approached one of them, an ice drake, hauled himself to his feet and walked forward to intercept her.
"It's one large IC to enter," he said in a droning and board tone.
Silver hesitated, "Aaah, I don't have any."
The ice dragon looked at her oddly, as if he was unused to an answer, "Then... no entry."
She snorted in annoyance, "Please. I mean, I just came here and wanted a look around. I heard about this place and wanted to see what it was like. Surely you can make at least on exception."
"Sorry dragoness, there are no exceptions," he said, sounding a little annoyed.
"Is there anything I can do then? Like, I don't know, help around for the day, fix some stuff?" she tried.
A glint ran through the drake's eye and a seductive grin formed on his face, "Well... there is one thing."
With one look at the dragon Silver knew what he was thinking, "Besides that."
"Hmm, nothing else that I can think of," he replied, sitting down on his haunches with his grin still intact.
She growled, "Well, what about if I kick your ass in a fight? Will I be allowed inside then?"
The ice dragon tilted his head, considering the proposal, "Okay. If you beat me in a fight I will let you inside."
"Good," Silver said.
"But... if I defeat you... I get you. Deal?" he grinned again.
The dragoness hesitated for a moment, doing a quick study of the ice dragon. He was a little older then her, maybe thirteen or fourteen, and had a rather strong build. There was no enormous radiation of power from his body, and his attitude was the overconfident type. It meant he probably hadn't lost in a while, but he also probably hadn't fought anyone with any real training for a while either. But ice was her official weakness, slowing her down considerably. However that was only because she had been fighting an incredibly powerful ice dragon. This was a little different, and she was stronger now anyway. The risk was minimal.
"Deal," she replied, "But either way I still get in?"
"Of course," his eyes twinkled, "Follow me."
The other dragon that had been guarding the gate, earth, chuckled slightly and shook his head before getting up and following Silver and the ice drake inside. It was a rather large place, with a series of arenas. Some were empty while others had pairs of dragons fighting each other. It was rather surprising to see that any elemental attack that missed what was being aimed at hit an invisible field surrounding each stadium and dissipated. At each fight sat a rather board looking life dragon, watching the fights with limited interest. They were probably there for safety reasons. The same thing happened at Sky Mountain.
"Hey, Arak! Could you come over here for a moment," the ice drake yelled out to one of the life dragons that seemed to be doing nothing.
The life dragon looked up and let out a sigh before walking over to where they were. He glanced at the ice dragon with a degree of annoyance before turning his attention to Silver. His eyes widened slightly and he glanced between the two with a frown.
"You're sparring with one of the new comers?" Arak said to the ice dragon, "You sure that's a good idea, Frost?"
"Yep," he smirked at Silver and winked.
The dragoness sighed and glanced at the arena they were supposed to fight in. It was a rather small thing, maybe thirty metres in either direction, and the fighting floor, like everything else in the haven, was made from ice. There was a small wall surrounding the arena, about two metres high, and a shimmering in the air around it. Silver assumed it was that invisible wall that blocked elements.
"So, what fight type are you going to choose?" asked Arak with a grunt.
"I'll let the dragoness decide," replied Frost.
Silver looked at the two, "What 'types' are there?"
"Well, there is non-element, sparring, and real fight," replied the life dragon, "Non-element is where it's a fight, but you can't use powers, sparring is where you just have to hold your enemy down for ten seconds, and a real fight is pretty self explanatory, its practically a real fight. The dragon that looses is the one that either yields or is unable to continue."
"We'll do a real fight then," Silver said. She had done actual fights a lot.
"Awesome," Frost said, seeming even more confident then before.
The metal dragoness shook her head with disgust. Some dragons were really still hatchlings. Her wings rippled, and the sharp edges became blunt again. As much as she disliked Frost, she didn't exactly want to kill him. The three dragons that were with her seemed to be slightly surprised at what she did, and glanced at each other. Frost seemed to shrug and entered the arena with a single bound, walking to the far edge. Silver followed, shivering slightly as she went through the invisible field that surrounded the arena.
Frost took a low stance on his side of the field, looking a little awkward, "Don't worry, after this I'll make sure we both enjoy what is coming."
Silver growled in response, choosing not to goad the dragon on. Instead she spread her feet and opened her wings for balance. There was no way she was going easy on him, especially since he seemed so confident.
"And... begin!" Arak yelled from the sidelines.
Frost was the first to move, lashing his tail forward in a storm of ice spikes. Silver simply swiped them out of the air with a single movement of her wing, and they shattered against the metal, causing ice pieces to scatter across the ground. Then the metallic dragoness retaliated, opening her maw and spraying liquid metal at the ice drake. He growled in surprise, not fast enough to react, and found himself stuck to the floor with metal coating his wings and forelegs. He struggled to get up, but was unable to. He whimpered when Silver pounce on him, grabbing his head in her paw and placing her claws against his throat.
"Yield?" she asked, sweetly.
"I... I yield," he said, fear in his eyes.
She snorted and formed a blade with her tail. With a single strike she cut the bonds holding him to the floor and all the metal fell off. She stood back, allowing the ice dragon to get up. He stared at her with surprise, and a little bit of fear. He didn't look at all pleased that he had been defeated so easily. Even the other dragons were surprised.
"Well that was anticlimactic," Silver murmured to herself before turning away from the ice dragon and walking to the edge of the stadium, jumping out. In all honesty she had been expecting the fight to be a little better then that.
She sighed as she walked away. Dragons were the same everywhere, thinking they were the top of the world. Sometimes they needed to be reminded that they couldn't get everything they want. She smiled to herself before looking around the training arena again, wondering what to do next. She hoped there were some more powerful dragons here then the ice dragon she had defeated.
"That was rather impressive," said a familiar voice.
Silver let out a silent groan before turning to Firefly, who had the ever-present smirk on her face. The fire dragon looked as beautiful as ever, and she knew it. The male dragons in the area couldn't keep their eyes of her, even the ice drake that had just been easily defeated. It was like the fire dragon owned the room.
"Not really," The metal dragon said, "If all the fighters in Eldawin's Syndicate are this bad then I don't see how you have survived for so long."
Firefly snorted, "Of course not all of us are that bad. Many of our elite warriors are some of the best fighters in the world. The white ice dragon you first met up with, Kunder, he is undefeated. Of course I haven't faced him yet, or many of our other stronger dragons, but you get the point."
Silver titled her head, "True, I guess. Now, why are you here? I doubt you really came just to discuss the capabilities of your forces."
"My, my Silver, so formal," chuckled the fire dragoness, "No apparent reason. I just was interested in why a dragoness such as yourself would be interested in a dismal place like this."
"I'm bored. Couldn't really get out to the outside world and I heard about this place. I've always like a good fight, and was a bit disappointed I didn't get one."
"Of course you wouldn't find the real challenge here," snorted Firefly, "This is the public place. One you need to pay, in some form another, to get into. I know this other place where only the best of the best get into. Of course you have to have certain qualifications to get into that place, some which I'm sure you have."
"What qualifications?"
"Well, have you done or fought anything that requires a great amount of power and strength?"
"Aaah.... I defeated two of D.E.D's most powerful collarless dragons by myself, went head to head with Sky Mountain's combat trainer, faced A.O.D.H multiple times and am still here, defeated a void dragon, with a little bit of help, and... was trained by the best fighter in the world," the silver dragoness said, thinking.
"That first one alone would be enough," grinned Firefly, not rebutting her last comment, "Here, follow me, I will lead you there."
They left the training arena behind and flew over the world of Eldawin's Syndicate once again. They arrived at what Silver knew was where Zoralth lived.. The younger dragoness frowned slightly. She thought this was only the place where the king of this haven lived. Though it could be similar to what Iraliene had set up, like with the rarer dragons training in one of the three stretches of her cave.
"It's in here?" she asked, confused.
"Yep," Firefly replied, walking past the guards at the front gate.
Silver followed and they slowly made there way through the twists and turns of the ice castle. This time, instead of going up, they went down, travelling through the many sections. It took a fair bit longer as well, and they passed a few more dragons on the way. Many of them nodded a greeting to the fire dragoness and cast curious glances at Silver, wondering what she had done to gain the attention of someone as esteemed as Firefly.
They eventually ended at the entrance into a cavern filled with light and noise. There were dragons laughing and talking to each other, along with the occasional high-spirited clash of arms, with two elements crashing into each other with an enormous amount of power, causing the very foundations of the place to shake. It made the metal dragon a little nervous, and she glanced at the ice above them.
"Haha, don't worry about that youngling. This place has withstood fights far greater then the playful things happening inside," the fire dragon laughed.
"What?"
"Oh, you'll see," A glint went through Firefly's eyes.
The two dragonesses entered the cavern. The first thing that Silver noticed was the amount of dragons in there. Two hundred at least. All different species from light and darkness to fire and water. There was even a gravity dragon, lying on a long ledge that reminded Silver of a park bench in the human world. In the middle of the cavern was a massive round hole, taking up about three quarters of the space inside. It rounded out at the bottom, like a dome, and inside were two dragons going head to head seemingly without care if they hurt each other. It was a acid dragon against another ice dragon, the white one, Kunder. Around the edge other dragons were looking inside, cheering for their favourite.
On the platform surrounding the pit were numerous tables, made from ice, with dragons sitting around, talking and laughing. Ice bowls were being passed around with a strange liquid inside. Everyone downed it readily, and it was enough to make Silver curious.
"See, look at this place," Firefly said with a grin, glancing around, "So much better then that other pit you were in."
"Yeah, but it's a bit loud!" Silver replied.
"True, but what is fun without a bit of noise ha?" the fire dragoness grinned.
"Firefly! You did end up getting here today!" said the big booming voice of a male earth dragon, causing Silver to jump.
"I did," replied the fire dragon with her smirk, "Couldn't miss Kunder and Eseilia going at it. Those two always put up quite a show."
"And who's the new comer?" asked the earth drake, glancing at Silver with interest, "And what species are you young one? I haven't seen your kind before."
"Aaah... I'm Silver, metallic dragon," she replied, a little nervously.
"You can't be more then eight years old," he said, tilting his head, "What brings you to a place like this?"
Before Silver could answer Firefly spoke, "Oh, I thought she could do with a bit more of a challenging place. She was at that other training arena and wasn't impressed with the ease in which she defeated Frost, that 'promising' drake you nutheads keep talking about."
"She defeated Frost... easily?" he exclaimed, before grinning slightly, "You must be one heck of a fighter."
"It was no big deal," replied Silver, "Besides, I doubt he even got an opportunity to use his full power on me."
"And did you?"
"I didn't want to kill him."
"Hmm, I like you. I think you'll do well here," the earth dragon grinned, "I'm called Tyrole. May I ask where you are from?"
"Pleased to meet you. I'm one of the diplomats from Sky Mountain."
"Aaah," a twinkle of understanding went through Tyrole's eyes, "That makes more sense. They would have to pick someone rather capable to fly from there to here, though I'm surprised Iraliene allowed you to go. You must be an extremely rare species."
"I'm the only one," she replied quietly.
The earth dragon glanced at Firefly and hesitated, suddenly at a loss of words to say from her reply. The fire dragoness shook her head, as if understanding what was going through Silver's head, and Tyrole nodded back.
"Well young Silver, welcome to our little escapade. Go around, talk to the dragons, have a drink. You're more then welcome here," he said with a friendly smile.
"Thanks Tyrole," replied the silver dragoness with her own smile.
The earth dragon nodded before turning around and heading back to the scene of the fight where Kunder had managed to successfully freeze the acid dragon against the wall. He continued to bombard her as she hurried to melt the ice using her acid, before breaking free and tackling Kunder out of the air. A few of the dragons booed, while others cheered. It reminded Silver off humans watching a football match on their television, and she chuckled slightly. As much as these dragons supposedly hated humans, they were so similar in so many different ways.
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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. The books moving a bit slow at the moment I know. Next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!
Pennator^^