Today was the day. Dawn was up at his house, eating his breakfast, and preparing for his big day. As he looked up at his mother's painting on the wall. "I finally made it, mom. If only you could see me now." He had woke up a little bit late that morning so when he was about to walk out the front door, he got an idea. He sprinted upstairs to his balcony. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon as the day was starting. He got up onto the balcony railing. "Well, here goes nothing."
He jumped from the balcony, feeling the wind hit his face. Instead of fear, he felt the excitement. He spread his wings and took to the skies. And made his way to town. Everything around him looked alive and full of energy as if nature itself was rooting for him. The wind felt so natural blowing against his face. Then he looked down at the town as it came into view and slowly started descending. He spotted a group of dragons gathered around the entrance. He figured those were the candidates.
He landed and smiled as the rest of the candidates looked at him. One of them, an azure dragon, ran up to meet him. The dragon looked just a little younger than Dawn, with silver horns and blue eyes. "Good morning! Are you ready for today?" The dragon seemed as enthusiastic as Dawn was.
"Yeah, I've never been more ready. By the way, it's nice to meet you. My name is Dawn."
"Oooh, so your one that Frost has been talking about. He's been muttering to himself about you nearly the entire time I've been here. Anyways, my name is Rathal. I'm one of the fire guardian candidates. " Before he could continue, a pink dragoness with small silver horns yelled at him from afar.
"Rathal, what are you doing?" She walked up to him. "Who are you talking to?"
"Just one of the candidates, sis." He turned back towards the black dragon. "Dawn, this is my sister, Ratha. She is also a fire guardian candidate." The two dragons were clearly twins.
The dragoness turned to look at the Dawn. "Hi! Nice to meet you! Which guardian do you want to be?"
The black dragon froze. He thought that far ahead yet. "I actually don't know. To be honest, I don't even know what my element is."
Rathal gave a shocked expression. "Wait, you don't know your element? Then why did you get picked out as a candidate? I'm pretty sure everyone here knows their element.,so it's kind of weird that you don't know yours."
Ratha hit her brother in the arm. "Stop being so rude. If he was chosen, then he was chosen for a good reason. You shouldn't question that." She gave her brother a stern look before walking away.
"Good morning Dawn!" The black dragon turned around as Amethyst was walking up to the group. She rushed over to Dawn and hugged him tightly. Both dragons embraced each other. They stood there for a second, soaking in the moment.
Amethyst looked up to stare into his sparkling purple eyes. "I'm so happy to see you. Are you ready for today?"
Dawn smiled. "I've been ready since yesterday."
Before they could continue their conversation, the elder guardians walked in front of the group. "Ok young dragons, we hope you are ready to depart. Let us start our journey. Follow us for the time being." And with that, the group departed from Northtown. The forest looked beautiful from up above. The trees were forest green with hints of orange, red, and yellow, indicating summer turning to fall. The wind blew calmly into the faces of the thunder of dragons.
As they flew, Dawn pushed up to Rathal. "So why do you want to be a guardian?"
Rathal looked at Dawn and gave a goofy smile. "Well; one, my sister wanted to be a guardian so I don't wanna make it easy for her. Two, I wanna protect those who can't protect themselves. It's what my father used to do as a protector of our town." He looked back at Dawn. "If anyone, especially my sister, was ever in any type of danger. I would lay my life down to keep them safe. What about you?"
"Well, I also wanna protect those around me. And I feel like it's something my parents would want me to do. My dad was a guardian once, but I never really got to know him all that well." The dragon finished his sentence with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"I'm sorry about your dad. But your dad was a guardian? It's strange that I've never heard of him."
One of the elders, Char, had overheard their conversation and responded, "Well, his father was a very strong dragon, but mysteriously disappeared one night. There was no trace of him left. We assumed the worst. But I can assure you, your father was an honorable dragon."
Dawn gave a relieved smile. "Thank you."
Char looked back towards the rest of the group as they had just hit the crossroads. "Everyone! This is where we part ways. Candidates continue heading towards Warfang. You all know the way. Good luck."
The group split into two as the guardian candidates continued towards Warfang. Dawn backwinged to fly next to Amethyst. Ratha noticed and curiously turned to speak to her brother.
"Have you noticed how often those two talk to each other?" The azure dragon turned towards his sister.
"No, I haven't been paying much attention to how much those two talk to each other. Maybe they're just really good friends." The pink dragoness looked back towards her brother, who was blushing slightly.
She smiled flirtatiously, "You like that white dragoness, don't you?"
The azure dragon's cheeks lit up like red light bulbs. "What?! No! No, of course, I don't." He tried to appear serious but his sister could see right through his disguise. She brushed up against him.
"Rathal, you can't lie to me. I know you too well."
Before he could respond, a large explosion sounded through the air. "What was that?" Rathal looked out towards the land below. And then he realized that they had reached Warfang.
And that explosion was the sound of a hole being blown into its walls.
