Chapter Seven: Trouble
when the trio of teenage dragons finally reached the training field Blizzard saw a large black dragon lying on the grass overseeing a small group of dragons who were practicing their breath attacks on a few moving targets that looked like apes.
"im gonna take a guess here and say that he is the Shadow guardian?" asked Blizzard pointing at the dragon on the grass. Both Spyro and Cynder nodded their heads in response to his question.
"ah, I see the newcomer has already taken a liking to my training grounds." said the large dark dragon as he made his way over to the trio of friends.
"yes sir!" Blizzard said excitedly. The shadow dragon chuckled.
"no need for formalities today in just here to supervise those here. Glad too see that your eager to learn how to master your new found abilities. May I ask what your name is?" replied the black dragon
"my human name or the one I go by now?" asked Blizzard
"both if you would be willing to share them." said the guardian.
"sure. My human name was Thomas and the one I currently go by is Blizzard. Whats yours?
"my name is Darken." answered the guardian
"Darken?" asked Blizzard.
"yes, it is an unusual name even for a dragon like me but it would make perfect sense If you knew what I used to do as a young dragon." smiled Darken.
"well enough chit chat, what kind of targets would you like first?
"can we have one like those over there?" Blizzard asked pointing to the group of dragon who were almost finished obliterating the remainder of the dummies.
"alright then." replied Darken as he walked over to a group of small pads on the ground and stood on one.
"thanks!" Blizzard called out as he ran towards a group of targets that had appeared out of the ground. Spyro and Cynder ran after the overly enthusiastic blue dragon when they saw where he was heading.
'he may not have been born a dragon, but he is defiantly not letting that slow him down' Darken thought to himself smiling.
"ha!" yelled Blizzard as he sliced one of the training dummies in half horizontally using the blade on the end of his tail.
"nice one. But watch this." Spyro said with an evil grin. The purple dragon dug his claws into the soft ground and focused all of his energy into one large fireball and launched it into the closest dummies chest incinerating it instantly and making such a large explosion that the group of dragons had stopped their own training to watch the legendary dragon.
"remind me to never piss you off." commented Blizzard, staring at a large crater in the ground where the dummy used to be.
"thanks... but doing stuff like that takes a bit out of me." said Spyro who was slightly gasping for air.
"humph. Whos the show off now?" Said Cynder who spat what looked to be a small grape at a dummies head.
"wait for it..."
Blizzard watched the dummy closely, eager to see what Cynder had done to it. After a few seconds of nothing happening he was about to ask Cynder what it was she did too it when the dummies head started to melt and dribble down its leg.
"poison, depending on which one I use is highly toxic to anything that doesn't posses the poison element" explained Cynder.
"which one you use? You have multiple?" Asked Blizzard, getting a little worried about the green puddle that was forming at the bottom of what remained of the training dummy.
"dont worry, its not like my spit is always like that. And yes, I have multiple. That was one of the more deadly ones." replied Cynder.
"well that definitely make me fell better." said Blizzard sarcasticly. Cynder sighed.
"look ill show you." Cynder then walked over to Spyro and put one of here claws on one of Spyros forelegs. Before the purple dragon could protest Cynders claw started to glow green and Spyro collapsed.
"Spyro! What did you do!?" cried Blizzard as he ran over to Spyros prone form.
"relax im fine. But can you hit Cynder for me?" came Spyros slightly muffled voice. Cynder smiled.
"paralysis, doesn't hurt what ever it affects. Just keeps them still still for a few minutes." said the dragoness as she poked Spyro with her paw. Spyro let out a small half serious growl which just made Cynder smile again.
When Spyro regained the ability to move he hit Cynder with his wing.
"id appreciate if you didn't do that again, oh and Blizzard I forgot to mention that you can focus your element or elements as the case may be for some dragons, through your claws and tail blade like Cynder did, observe." Said Spyro. Blizzard watched as all of the purple dragons front left claws grew red hot as Spyro ran towards a large sheet of metal and make four large horizontal slashes in the sheet.
"that all you got purple boy?" asked Storm who had been watching the three dragons train for a while now.
"i suppose you think you can do better?" Spyro asked the wind dragoness.
"i know I can do better!" replied Storm proudly who, using her wind powers threw one of the sheets of metal into the air and take off after it.
'hope there watching this' Storm thought as she sped up towards the metal sheet that was now coming back down.
'come on come on... now!' she shouted in her head as she performed a mid air somersault and using her tail, cut the entire sheet of metal in half.
"yeah!" shouted Storm.
"impressive, but I bet I can do better!" Said Blizzard just before he released a large ice bolt directly at one of the remaining metal sheets intending to freeze it solid then smash it to pieces.
"wait, Blizzard! No!" Spyro frantically cried out, but it was too late.
Instead of freezing the metal like Blizzard thought it would, the bolt of ice rebounded off the metal and flew up into the air where it made contact with Storm who was still soaring above the trio admiring her acrobatic performance. All the dragons could do was watch in horror as the beam of ice hit its target knocking her unconscious and freezing her entire left side.
"no!" screamed Blizzard as he ran after Storms falling body.
"Cynder go get help! Ill go after Blizzard!" Spyro yelled as he tried to catch up to the running blue dragon. Blizzard stood on the edge of a waterfall he helplessly watch Storm collide with the swelling water and disappear under the surface.
"Storm!" Blizzard cried out just before jumping off the ledge and into the water.
'please be alright' he thought in fear as he fell towards the water. Once he resurfaced the blue dragon frantically looked around, trying to find Storm and only just caught sight of her before here body disappeared under the surface.
"Storm! Hang on im coming!" Blizzard cried out as he swam towards the spot she disappeared. Diving under the water, blizzard wrapped one of his fore legs around the unconscious dragoness's waist and pull her towards the surface.
Back on the top of the waterfall Spyro was scanning the river downstream trying to figure out where Storm landed and where Blizzard went.
"damn it!" Spyro cursed himself for loosing the dragons, flew off to find Cynder.
Blizzard had dragged Storms seemingly lifeless body out of the water and towards a large tree where he let her lay. Blizzard looked at the dragoness's crumpled form hoping that she was still alive. A lot of her left side was still frozen but there also a dozen or so bruises covering her stomach and legs where her body must of hit the rocks at the bottom of the river. And if that wasn't enough there was also a long but shallow gash that had started to bleed running from her shoulder to her elbow, or the dragon equivalent of an elbow.
"oh god. Im so sorry storm." Blizzard whispered as he started to cry. As the fist tear rolled off his scales he noticed a slight movement in her chest which meant she was still breathing.
"she's still alive!" Blizzard cried out happily.
"but what do I do now?!... The red gems!" the blue dragon almost screamed out. He wrentched the box of red gems out of the sling that was still somehow wrapped around his neck. He looked at the box in dismay knowing that there wasn't enough to heal this many injuries
'I think I remember Spyro saying something about them being found around rocky areas' Blizzard though, putting the box down and walking back to the rivers edge. Looking aroung for anything that might give a clue as to where he could find more of the red crystals he saw a rather large one partially hidden behind a few bushes.
"perfect!" blizzard said as he used his tail to smash it into smaller pieces so he would be able carry it back to where he left Storm. Once his sling was full he ran back to the tree as fast as the sling bulging with gems would allow him.
"please god let this work." Blizzard pleaded as he placed the gems on the roots of the tree Storm was laying up against. As if the had a mind of their own, each one of the gems flew towards Storms battered body. Blizzard held his breath as he watched the bruises on the dragoness's body slowly fade away as she absorbed each of the magical gems. When Storm failed to awaken, Blizzard hung his head in defeat and cried silently.
Storm slowly opened here eyes. The first things she felt when she awoke was a dull throbbing pain on her right foreleg and a sharp chilling pain that covered a majority of her left flank. When she looked down she saw why, hearing a quiet sobbing noise Storm twisted her head right to see Blizzard looking at the ground with tears rolling off of his lizard like head.
"B-Blizzard?" whispered the dragoness weakly. hearing storms voice, Blizzard instantly looked up at her with the look of relief in his red puffy eyes.
"Storm y-your alive!" Cried Blizzard as he lent forwards and hugged the gray dragoness. Storm started to blush slightly, other that here parents no one had ever shown any kind of affection towards her before. But her current feeling was quickly replaced by one of pain from her frozen side as her body gradually regained its feeling of pain.
"ah.." Storm said weakly with a pained expression on her scaled face.
"sorry I..." Blizzard started to say but stopped when he thought he heard something.
"Blizzard! Storm! Where are you!" called out Spyro as he fell over head.
"Spyro, down here!" Blizzard shouted as he ran out form under the shade of the tree. It only took Spyro a few seconds to locate and land next to the blue dragon.
"wheres Storm? Did you find her, Is she alright?" asked the purple dragon who was partially out of breath from having to fly after blizzard once he had lost him over the waterfall. Once Spyro had somewhat caught his breath Blizzard pointed towards the base of the tree that Storm was propped up against. The purple dragon let out a sigh of relief as he made his way over to the dragoness.
"Storm are you alright?" Spyro asked Storm with concern.
"im fine, a little cold though." the dragoness replied motioning her head towards her left side. Careful not to burn her, Spyro used a small jet of fire to melt the ice that encased Storms left side.
"ahh... much better." said Storm while she stretched out her sore limbs.
"think you can fly?" asked Spyro. Storm tried to stand but failed and needed blizzard to help her up.
"i dont think ill be walking let alone flying anywhere for a little while." Storm said sadly.
"wait here ill go and get help." Spyro said shortly before flying off and leaving the two dragons. Blizzard gently let storm down so she could rest, walked back to the river edge and sat down.
Storm frowned 'its not like I blame him for what happened, it was just an accident. So why is he acting like I do?'
Blizzard had closed his eyes and was now thinking about how he had almost killed the gray dragoness by trying to show off. 'its only been a couple of days since I awoke to find myself as a dragon and ive already turned the best week of my entire life into a complete nightmare.' he thought tears started to spill out of his eyes once again. Storm noticed this and half crawled half dragged herself to where the blue dragon sat and rested her head on his right shoulder. Blizzard shivered sightly from the unexpected contact but soon calmed down and leaned his head against hers.
"i am so sorry for what I have done to you." Blizzard whispered quietly. The dragoness removed her head form Blizzards shoulder and looked up at him.
"if you apologize to me about what happened one more time, I am going to hurt you." Storm said with a smile and was glad to see Blizzard smiling back. She put her head back on his shoulder as they waited for Spyro to come back with help. their peace was short lived however as Blizzard finally collapsed from exhaustion with Storm still leaning up against him for support.
"ooh!" Storm cried out before landing on top of blizzards now unconscious body.
