The dark blue demidragoness blinked as she watched the small red hatchling approach her with a squirrel firmly lodged in her jaws. She had just recently sent her out to fetch at least one peice of prey, suspecting that she would most likely return with a mouse at most, considering it was only yesterday that the demidragoness had taught her the proper way to catch prey.

Despite this, the young demidragoness had returned with a squirrel, a decent catch for the newest apprentice of the LightningClan refugees. The red hatchling trotted over to the fresh-kill pile, and placed it neatly down, then did a run that could only be described as cantering, over to the dark blue demidragoness.

"Did I do well, Nightshade?" she asked in Ancient Greek, the only thing she really understood at the moment.

The dark blue demidragon—Nightshade—smiled down at the small demidragoness. "Yes, Blaze," she replied, using the same language. "But I do believe we need to work on your English skills a bit more."

Blaze's ears lowered a bit...her equivalent to how a cat's ears would flatten in embarrassment, fear, anger or disappointment. "Okay, Nightshade."

"Before we start that lesson though, I want you to get some lunch and see if you can at least make one friend in the apprentice den, okay?"

Blaze dipped her head in acknowledgement. Blaze trotted over to the fresh-kill pile, selected a vole, and then walked over to the apprentices den.

Nightshade sighed. She normally wouldn't have encouraged an apprentice to try and make friends with the other apprentices, but Blaze was new to the clan life. She didn't understand the importance of loyalty and friendship quite yet. It was not only this, but the mere fact that Nightshade had this growing concern for Blaze, as she didn't fit in that well. That, and her instincts told her Blaze needed friends to keep her grounded, to shape her into the demidragon she could become.

Meanwhile, Blaze approached the apprentices den with uncertainty. She wasn't too sure of many of the apprentices. Those who weren't friends with Rod, often shied away from her, or gave her hostile glares regardless.

There was one face that was familiar though. The small, pale blue demidragon with two different colored eyes: the right one dark blue, the left one light brown.

She approached him with caution, the vole hanging from her jaws.

"I sit with you?" she asked, the unfamiliarity of the English words rolling off her tongue. On occasion, her father; Hades, had spoken to her in English. She'd learned even more words from her stepmom, Persephone, and a few more from her nannies, the Furies. Not enough to speak fluently, but enough.

The young demidragon looked up. Upon focusing on her face, he smiled. "Sure. I don't normally get a lot of people asking to sit with me."

Blaze smiled gratefully, and settled down next to him, dropping the vole and beginning to eat it, fur and all.

The demidragon looked at her curiously. "You eat everything?"

Blaze nodded. "Better that way."

He nodded. After a few more minutes, he spoke again. "My name's Thrushfoot. You're Blaze, aren't you?"

Blaze nodded, enthusiastic that he'd recognized her. "I is Blaze," another bite to the vole. A minute went by and she chewed and swallowed the piece of meat. "I no speak English good."

"But you understand it well?" Thrushfoot asked.

"Well enough to get g-gist."

The two young apprentices continued to talk, laughing and retelling tales. Thrushfoot heard a little of where she'd come from, only an implied fact though. In fact, the two were so absorbed in conversation, Blaze jumped when Nightshade nudged her.

"I see you've met the acquaintance of Thrushfoot. Good choice of a friend, Blaze." Nightshade said approvingly in Greek.

Though Thrushfoot didn't speak Greek, he recognized his name and Blazes. Blaze smiled.

"He is nicer than the other apprentices. Are we learning English now, Nightshade?"

"Yes, Blaze," Nightshade said. She turned to Thrushfoot, and spoke to him in English. "Would you mind coming with me to help Blaze learn English, Thrushfoot? I asked Meadowclaw."

Thrushfoot nodded. "Certainly, Nightshade."

…

Two months after the lesson of English, Blaze was now capable of speaking the language perfectly, and best friends with Thrushfoot, now Thrushwing. The two were young warriors, Blaze had grown into a powerful young warrior with the young teenage lankiness that she hoped to grow out of. Thrushwing possessed small build, much smaller than the still growing Blaze.

Blaze and Thrushwing were taking a leisure flight around their camp, occasionally circling around Camp Half-Blood, where Blaze would drop down to visit Annabeth Chase, Luke Castellan and Grover Underwood. It was suddenly apparent that they were not alone in the air. Especially since Blaze spotted the dark aqua blue scales of Rod, her greatest enemy in the clan.

"Hello Blaze. Leading the weak kit along on a flight cause he can't fly without a skinny teenager leading him?" Rod taunted.

Blaze felt a fire ignite in her, unlike anything she'd ever experienced. She dove at him, and there would've been a serious fight had Nightshade not been walking along the ground, looking for Blaze. She heard the growls and roars, and zoomed up to find her old apprentice fight Rod and actually faring well, despite him being bigger.

"Enough you two!" she roared. Blaze had to be pulled away from the battered Rod, Thrushwing risking it to do so.

Despite Nightshade's anger, she sensed something great about Blaze. Despite the fact that Blaze was two years younger than Rod, she had managed to beat him off, without the proper training to do so. She was lanky, unexpectedly good at bearing him off, despite the fact that Rod was admittedly stronger than her.

She led the three young warriors back to camp, where she sent Rod to the Healer's den to be fixed up and sent Thrushwing out to hunt. She then led Blaze to her den, where she sat down, and insisted that Blaze do the same.

"How did you do that?" she demanded.

"Do what?" Blaze asked, the fire still glowing.

"Beat Rod. You're smaller than him, and not nearly as strong."

Blaze shrugged. "I don't know, I just felt something burning inside me and had the strength to do it. He was bullying Thrushwing, and I guess I just snapped."

Nightshade studied Blaze. "I think you have a special destiny when it comes to being a warrior, Blaze. No normal warrior of your build would be able to do such a thing. I think you're destined to be an Elite."

"What's an Elite?"

"An Elite is the best of the best, a great warrior with enough battle training to make them nearly impossible to beat in combat. They are supposed to be strong, and most of them are male, but I think you would make an excellent Elite."

Blaze looked at Nightshade with sudden interest. "So who will train me then?"

"I will."

"But you're a leader!"

Nightshade raised her head proudly. "I am an Elite, Blaze. I think you're loyalty will make you the best warrior's we've seen in a long time. It will be your greatest asset and your greatest weakness."

Blaze's eyes took on a new sort of light, a different fire igniting inside of her. "When do we start?"

A/N

Aaaaand we all know how great of a warrior Blaze came out to be. That last bit was a bit of a special thing. I wanted to show how it was Blaze's loyalty that landed her with being an Elite. Blaze isn't actually a teenager, she's about 6, and close the part where the PoisonClan attack is launched. So what do you think? Bit of an explanation as to why Blaze is how she is. I also wanted to mention that before training, Blaze had a bit of growing to do, she was actually pretty small when she was younger. Then as she began her Elite training, she had a bunch of growth spurts, making her this huge beast of a demidragoness. Those muscles she has didn't just happen all at once, she's actually more fit than most of the warriors in FireClan. Hope you all enjoyed my short story!