10.

The day after my party, I decided I would make a sword out of the star metal I'd been given. I cut a small piece to work with – maybe about twenty pounds – and headed to the fire pit. That was the same fire pit Spyro and I had used to repair my armour. The dirt in the pit had turned to glass from the heat used to melt it.

I put the piece of star metal in the pit and began heating it with flame from my palms. Sparks were bouncing everywhere. I took my shirt off so that it wouldn't be burned. Finally, after several minutes of agonising heating, the metal finally turned molten. I drew some up to see if I would need to purify it. But whatever it was made of was the only material I could detect. It was pure.

I began to forge it into a sword. At first it was going to be a long sword, but the more I thought about, the more I wanted a unique sword. So I started over and made two three-foot long swords with two blades each. Considering how big they were, they were unusually light. In fact, they couldn't have weighed more than ten pounds total. That must have been one of the strange properties of star metal.

I left the hilt of my swords bare metal with a round hand guard. I picked one up and sent a charge of electricity into my palm and up the sword. The lightning bounced in between the blades, mesmerising in a way. I heard someone open my back door, distracting me.

"Hi, Cole," Gust greeted as he entered. I turned to face him, surprised.

"Hey, Gust. What are you doing here?" I asked curiously.

The wind dragon shrugged, "I came to make sure you're ok."

I smiled wearily, "I'm not hurt; just tired."

"Yeah," Gust gave me a look, "but when you see a pillar of flame behind your friend's house, you tend to get worried."

I guess I hadn't told anyone I was forging a sword, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare anyone."

"Well, you're ok," Gust shrugged, "So it's ok.

Then he noticed the two swords I had forged, where I had placed them on the bench, "Hey, nice blade!"

I was about to reply, when I noticed something that hadn't been there before. All the blades were different colours. One was green, while the other on the same sword was deep red. The blades of the other sword were bright yellow and sky blue. I stared.

"Hm? That's strange," I muttered, staring at the swords with a frown on my face.

"Hey, Cole, did you colour them?" Gust asked curiously, a little awed by the pair of swords.

I shook my head, "No, when I finished them they were silver."

"Weird," Gust cocked an eyebrow and looked back at me, "Anyway, Cole, Flash wanted to practice with you."

"Sure, but why…" I started to ask, before I understood, "Flash wants to battle me."

"Yep," Gust grinned, "he said we're all too slow."

"Ok, tell him I'll be there in half an hour," I replied, thinking it over, "I'm hungry."

"I'll tell him," Gust promised as I left.

I went inside to wash myself off and find something to satisfy my hunger. I've always liked deer. After I finished, I ran to the dojo to meet Flash and the rest of my friends. They seemed to have been waiting for me for a while.

"Jeez, Cole," Flash snorted, rolling his eyes, "I thought you would never get here."

"Yeah, yeah," I brushed him off and turned to Gust, "Rules?"

"Just one," the wind dragon replied gravely, "Don't kill each other."

"I think I can agree to that," I smirked, "You, Flash?"

"Yep," he was already getting into a battle stance. I mimicked him and prepared for the signal.

"START!" Gust yelled and Flash wasted no time.

The electricity dragon disappeared with a bang as he went supersonic. I made a shield just as he rammed into me, but it wasn't enough. I was sent flying from the force of the tackle. Flash was now standing where I had been a second ago.

"And here you said you couldn't fly!" he joked, laughing loudly. I was actually stuck in the wall.

"Very funny," I growled, prying myself out of the wall. I'd left a rather large crack in the stone. I hurled a fireball at Flash without warning, but he was already gone. The stone where he had been standing shattered as the fireball hit it. I heard another bang.

"Crap."

I was sent flying again. This time I landed feet-first onto the wall and super charged my legs. Now we were both moving at supersonic speed. I jumped and nailed him square in the chest with my shoulder. I heard and felt several things crack and break, bones no doubt – my guess most of his ribs and most of my collar bone and the upper half of my arm. My force propelled me past Flash and I slammed head first into the wall on the opposite side.

Flash had dropped down onto all four knees. Gust and Specter ran to him, while Rumbler came to help me. I tried to wave him away, wincing as my broken bones ached painfully.

"Rumbler, I'm fine," I grunted, "help Flash."

He just gave me a look, "Like hell, Cole."

I tried to protest, but he picked me up and put me on his back. There was nothing I could do to protest, so I resigned to being carried like a hatchling.

At the healers, Flash and I were put in the same room. After we had been treated, we sat in awkward silence. But not for long.

"Cole?" Flash broke the silence and I looked at him.

"What?"

"I want a re-match."

Despite the fact that it hurt like hell, we were both laughing our heads off. After that, we talked through the night and finally fell asleep when the moon was high in the sky.