When Aspen-leaf finally reached the Tharwin caves, the sun was rising, warming the forest with its fiery touch. Ducking her head, to avoid low-hanging branches, she approached the cave, calling out in the gentle tone she always used with Fire-flight.
“Hello? Fire-flight?” her call was answered moments later by the thundering of paws followed by a large, scaly head ramming into her chest. At first she thought it was Red-rock’s dragon, but as it affectionately nuzzled her, she realised it was just Fire-flight having been separated from her for the longest time in her life. “It’s okay. I’m here now.” She assured, fingers running over Fire-flight’s scaly back. The poor creature had probably been terrified to have been separated from her even for a day.
The creature backed up, tipping her head to the side as if trying to get a good look at her. After a moment, Fire-flight leaped forward, crashing clumsily through the trees, tail thrashing back and forth with each thundering step. As Aspen-leaf charged after her, she realised how much her dragon had grown, now bigger than a horse.
Together, they raced across the large slice of stone that made up the ground around them, Aspen-leaf ducking under bare trees while Fire-flight simply crashed through them. Nearing the treeline where the stone ended, Fire-flight began to change, scales shifting from a dull grey-brown to the deep, rich green of the woods.
Mouth agape and eyes wide, the young elf followed her dragon through the pine trees and occasional oaks that surrounded them. She leaped over fallen logs, dodged boulders and ducked under sharp branches as the hill’s decline became steeper. Where was Fire-flight going?
Soon, she had her answer. Brushing away a thorn branch, she followed Fire-flight into a sunlit clearing filled with summer butterflies. The young dragon turned to Aspen-leaf, looking very pleased with herself. Memories swirled around Aspen-leaf, reminding her of the training session they’d had there only a few days ago, when Fire-flight had been tiny. Aspen-leaf’s dragon was clearly eager to train, but this clearing wasn’t big enough for what she had in mind.
“Very clever, Fire-flight, but I’ve got a better idea.” With Aspen-leaf looking exited and Fire-flight looking confused, the two headed into the woods, descending once more until they reached a much larger clearing, his one bordered by a cliff. It was hard to demonstrate flight when she, herself couldn’t fly, so she tried to flap Fire-flight’s so that she would get the idea. The idea of flying seemed like a novel concept to Fire-flight and progress was slow, but at least it wasn’t nonexistent as it had been before. Slowly, Fire-flight was getting the idea that she had to flap her wings while running and leaping into the air, but flight still hadn’t occurred. In an attempt to encourage Fire-flight, Aspen-leaf raced her, wanting to show how important speed was, but still, the dragon wasn’t able to take off. Collapsing on the ground in annoyance, the young elf found herself staring at the way her dragon’s scales changed colour to mimic their background, wondering to herself why none of the others had mentioned that. Was it unique to Fire-flight?
“I’ve got a better idea.” Frost-raven’s voice sounded from behind her, making her jump a little in surprise. The elven-year-old was the only elf Aspen-leaf had ever met who could sneak up on her like that. Approaching, Frost-raven gave a cautious look to Fire-flight, the dragon responding with a friendly nudge. “My grandma always used to say ‘you can’t write without a pen’.”
With a confused expression settling onto her face, Aspen-leaf nodded, encouraging her companion to get to the part where that applied to her situation. The young girl paused, mouth open but no sound coming out, as if second guessing herself. Maybe it was Aspen-leaf’s pressing gaze that finally made her speak.
“Maybe, if you can get her to jump off, her flight instinct will kick in.” Frost-raven looked hesitantly up at Aspen-leaf before adding, “It’s worth a try.” The young girl smiled as she always did when she came up with something. Aspen-leaf gave her a doubtful look, unwilling to send her dragon over a cliff with no knowledge of how to fly. It took her a while to agree, running the scenario over and over in her mind, but eventually she gave a nod.
Astride the great dragon, she closed her eyes, blocking out the bright sun and the valley of Loth that it illuminated. Fire-flight’s muscles tensed in preparation, the creature clearly not aware of the danger she was in. “Go!” it was only a whisper but Fire-flight heard it immediately, claws gripping the ledge, hauling herself forwards and sending the two of them surging off the cliff.
Fingers tightly gripping the sides of Fire-flight’s neck, Aspen-leaf huddled into the dragon, as the two of them fell. It was an exhilarating, thrilling experience, to be so at one with another creature that she could almost predict her dragon’s thoughts. Pressing her forearms into the back of Fire-flight’s neck, she felt the smooth, stiff scales shift as the creature prepared itself for the crucial moment that would decide both of their fates.
The wind combed it icy fingers through her hair as the ground drew nearer, the pressure to succeed growing with every second. At the last possible second, Fire-flight beat her colossal wings, gliding out of their fall. Eyes wide, Aspen-leaf gasped as dragon and rider soared up into the air, their destination unknown. Continuing upwards, they neared the cloud layer, the young elf still shocked by the reality of what was happening.
Softly, the moist, fluffy clouds brushed her checks, dampening her clothes and giving Fire-flight’s scales a magical shine. Once they were above the infinite blanket of clouds it felt like the whole rest of the world had just disappeared, leaving the two of them behind in a realm in the sky.
Tentatively, Aspen-leaf adjusted her grip, rising slowly to her knees, but it seemed like nothing was enough. She brought first one foot and then the other up onto the dragon’s back, slowly standing up until she had reached her full height. Letting out a cry of excitement, she pumped her fist in the air victoriously. Suddenly, she found herself losing her balance, her flailing arms catching hold of Fire-flight’s back just before she slipped from the scaly surface. It shook her up a bit but she recovered quickly, deciding she needed more practice at balancing on her dragon.
The pair soared together for the entire morning and much of the afternoon, until Aspen-leaf caught sight of a storm brewing in the distance, lightning flashing and wisps of dark cloud lashing out. “It’s time to go home.” She spoke the words when all she needed to do was think them. Swiftly, the dragon swooped downwards bursting from the magnificent land above with a roar, her scales flickering with white for a moment before returning to the bright shade of blue that she adopted when they were in the sky.
Aspen-leaf was surprised to find a wave of light depression passing through her as they neared they neared the ground. It wasn’t clear whether Fire-flight felt it too or whether she was just sympathising with Aspen-leaf the way the elf was beginning to adjust to. Either way, when they met Frost-raven on the ground Aspen-leaf’s apology for being gone so long was infected by her disappointment.
“That’s okay; I had a training session with Speckled-pebble around noon, so I wasn’t waiting for long.” Pausing, she starred off into the distance for a moment, and then urged Aspen-leaf to say goodbye to Fire-flight and head back to Loth.
On the way back, Frost-raven was fairly quiet, responding to questions only when necessary, and even then her answers were short and to the point. It had never been this hard to talk to her, even when they didn’t know each other. The awkward silence that followed gave Aspen-leaf a chance to wonder why her friend was so distant. They hadn’t seen each other much in the past few days; had something happened?
“Are you okay?” Ignoring her, Frost-raven picked up the pace, rushing into the clearing in the center of Loth. Hurrying to catch up, Aspen-leaf barely noticed, out of her corner of her eye, a small limp in Frost-raven’s step. She paused for a second, waiting to see if it occurred again but she seemed fine. Maybe it hadn’t even happened, but there was something strange about the way Frost-raven acted – something hauntingly familiar.
“Hurry up!” Frost-raven tossed over her shoulder as she ran. Obliging, Aspen-leaf hurried across the clearing, feet pounding the dry earth, causing dust to swirl at her ankles.
“What’s going on?” she called trying to catch up. For a second, Aspen-leaf wondered if it had anything to do with Frost-raven’s odd behaviour, but her theory was rejected upon hearing the young girl’s response.
“Cliff-breeze called a meeting while you were flying.” Her words reminded Aspen-leaf of the surreal experience of being up above the clouds, the feeling of owning the world that surged through her very essence, fluttering her soul. She hoped she'd get a chance to do that again soon, but she was forced to turn her attention to other things when they reached the great hall where the meeting was supposed to be held according to Frost-raven.
Climbing the trunk of an oak, Aspen-leaf reached the hall where a hurrying Cliff-breeze met them at the door, ushering her inside, and assigning a pair of guards to escort Frost-raven back home. At first, Aspen-leaf thought they were worried about the young girl spying on them, but a glance at the sky reminded her of the time. When the sky grew dark and shadows crept across the ground the Nightmare came. The guards would be for protection, in case the vicious creature showed up early. It’s appearances came less and less often, but just when they let their guard down, the monster would appear.
“Aspen-leaf,” Began a solemn man with a thin, brown beard once she was seated, “the dark elves had made another attempt at taking the border, but this one was on a much bigger scale. They had at least two hundred troops with much better weapons. We suspect they’ve struck steal in their mines and have opened a forge.” Aspen-leaf clearly recalled the dark elven sword Cliff-breeze had showed them a few months ago. It had been slightly warped and one side of it looked like it had been melted, the metal covered in ripples with bubbles forming in some places. Many of the combat hunters had been scared by its unsavoury nature, but Aspen-leaf, realising the technical disadvantage to having a malformed sword, had laughed.
“What are their blades like now?” She asked, worried that the nasty creatures had developed light swords like the forest elven ones she was so familiar with. “Well,” The warrior began, “they’re simple, and nowhere near as easy to wield as ours, but they’ve lost the melted look they used to have.”
Scolding herself for jumping to conclusions, Aspen-leaf reminded herself that their swords were made out of a special metal called Elinium which the dark elves didn’t have access to. A startling idea occurred to Aspen-leaf and she worried aloud, “If they’ve reopened their old mines they might find Elinium.” The elf with the beard hesitated a moment before he spoke, and Aspen-leaf realised how annoying it was that he knew her name but she didn’t know his.
“We’ve discussed that at length, but there seems to be nothing we can do.” He stroked his beard a few times before adding, “We do think that they’ll attack again, though; they’re following a pattern which predicts their next attack to be in two days.” What was he getting at? Did he want the dragons to be present? If he did, his hopes were about to be crushed – they weren’t ready. She nodded, hoping he’d tell her what was going on, and that was exactly what he did.
“We were hoping your team would ride out on their dragons and give the dark elves a taste of forest elven fire.” A small smile crept onto his face which Aspen-leaf found slightly funny. He was the classic commander, enjoying the destruction he caused.
“I’m sorry,” She reflected his smile, but hers was apologetic rather than exited, “we haven’t practiced any formations, only a few of us know very much about strategy, and the dragons aren’t ready.” She shrugged, watching his expression sink back to the solemn one it had been before.
A second later, though, Black-robin’s hesitant voice sounded from the end of the table, all heads turning in his direction. “North-pine’s been running over strategy with Hidden-stream and I.” Aspen-leaf understood that he was trying to help but if he continued like this he would give them false hope that the squad was ready. Beyond a few strategy sessions, they were nowhere near battle-ready. They needed the other week and a half that they’d been promised.
Another voice added to Black-robin’s comment, “Red-rock’s dragon and mine can both breath fire.” It was Hidden-stream, eager to help them out by offering up any helpful information. Before Aspen-leaf could silence her comrades with a glare, Crow-talon added that his could also breathe fire. If she hadn’t been in an important meeting, she would’ve slapped her hand to her face, but she resisted on the grounds that a leader could never be seen to be representing her team badly.
The only logical thing she could see to do was to roll with it and hope that the commander forgot about her denial of their readiness earlier. “My dragon flew this morning.” She added, while North-pine, Red-rock, and Hidden-stream supported her with similar comments.
“I sketched out some possible formations, taking into account the geography and wind patterns near the border.” She was surprised when hawk-wing offered up his sketchbook, having expected him to stay silent. “I’ve also been studying dark elven tactics, armour, and weapons.” He added. The proof was in the leather book that was passed down to her. She selected the page that she thought the commander would find the most impressing and then slid the book over to him, watching with satisfaction as his eyebrows rose.
“I take it you’ll be practicing some of these strategies in the next few days, before the battle.” He looked expectantly at her, and when she nodded, giving a curt “Yes, sir.” He added that he expected every dragon to be able to breathe fire before they flew out. She agreed to that as well, this time adding “of course”. Glad she’d been able to turn the conversation around, she stood, shaking hands with the commander as well as the handful of advisers he’d brought along.
As they exited the hall, Cliff-breeze stepped close to her, leaning down a little to whisper, “Nice catch, but you might not have that chance next time.” Aspen-leaf didn’t need her mentor to point that out to her, she knew what she’d done wrong and she would do her very best not to let it happen again.
On the way home, escorted by a pair of heavily built guards –one of which was a dwarf – it hit her that no matter how many times she had to correct the others, they weren’t idiots. Her skill set allowed her to perfect the art of combat, but there were things that they knew more about as well. She had to start trusting them more if they were ever going to work as a team.
She thanked the guards for escorting her home, and climbed up to her cabin. A glance out the window revealed the other cabins around her, belonging to other members of her team. Some of their windows leaked candle light into the clear night around them. The air smelled like rain, though, and she predicted that the storm she’d seen that morning would strike in the night. Slipping into her bed she relaxed a little, but she continued to run over the advantages and disadvantages of each member of her squad. Crow-talon’s weakness was obvious – his child-like arrogance, although he had been a little better after he spent that day cleaning up after the citizens of Loth. Reminding herself to focus on the positive she acknowledged his skill with a sword, his prowess with throwing knives and his experience in battle. In the five years he’d been in the training program for he’d really learned to predict his enemy’s next move.
Black-robin shared Red-rock’s heavy build and brute force, but Black-robin was only seventeen – a year younger than his friend. Both warriors preferred swords to bows and arrows, their skill at the later was far below the standard that she was used to from her teammates, but they made up for it with strength.
North-pine was a little slow to react to or block his opponent’s moves, but he understood the way dark elves thought, the way they planned, and tactics they used. He was a valuable asset, but if it was Aspen-leaf’s choice he would be an adviser not a combat hunter. She did enjoy the way he acted like an older brother to the younger team members, being nineteen and looking even older than that. She appreciated his maturity, and hoped it would rub off on Crow-talon. As she shifted in her bed a thought occurred to her – she should review Hawk-wing’s formations with him.
Hidden-stream needed to toughen up. Even after Cliff-breeze had talked with him, he continued avoiding moves where he might bruise himself. Honestly, if it weren’t for his intellect he would be long gone, but she supposed they needed a few elves who could think outside the box. Maybe he would prove himself in the next few days. Hawk-wing was similar, but at least he tried hard to compete at the same level as the others.
As for Glacial-stone, he needed better aim, more practice at thinking ahead, and a great many other things, but he was almost as strong as Black-robin and Red-rock, and was only thirteen – a promising combat hunter. He was extremely tough as well, and she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to him. For her it was the loss of her family that drove her to prove herself, to push harder, run faster, and climb higher. What was his drive? What made him want to walk this path? More questions filled her head, but she pushed them aside, telling herself she had to get to sleep – tomorrow would take lots of energy.
Planning to rehearse formations and practice flying in the morning, she drifted into a light and restless sleep, waking repeatedly that night, always thinking she heard the Nightmare climbing into her room