"Block, Side step, Parry, Side step, WAIT NOT THAT FOOT!" I was supposed to go right. I tripped on a stalagmite and dropped my training sword. "IDIOT" The older woman shouted as she prepared to strike. The swords may not be sharp, but they felt like bricks when Kestrel used them. I had a second to choose between holding up my shield or rolling away, I chose option two. I rolled away and got back on my feet and blocked another swing. Kestrel entered what Glory called "Tsunami mode" (Which seems to mean angrily lashing out without realizing its training) I charged at her with my shield in front of me hoping she would get confused and might give me an edge. It didn't work. She sidestepped and stabbed the side of my ribs and I dropped my shield in response. "You said no cheap shots'' I groaned as I gripped my side. "I'm your teacher. It's not cheating if I do it." She hissed. "Grab your weapon and DO BETTER this time!" She yelled as she waited for me to get my sword. It's stuff like this that makes me appreciate Webs's history lessons. He may be old and boring but we don't end our lessons needing to lay down until the sun rises over the sky hole.
I grabbed my training sword and shield then stood ready for more of Kestrel's weekly dose of pain. After some more sessions (And a lot of pain) I was wiping sweat off my face while Kestrel waited in annoyance. A bit into our next session, I knocked her sword out of her hand (It was an accident but still) and her right hand started to emit steam, knowing what would happen next, I rushed to hide behind a stalagmight. A blast of fire was shot where I just was and I took some time to catch my breath. "YOU SAID NO MAGIC!" I yelled as another blast of flames hit the stalagmite. "Why do Skywings have to be so well trained with fire?" "I said YOU couldn't use magic." She said angrily. Not that she needed to specify, I couldn't make a rock curve slightly, much less actually use it to gain an advantage in a fight. As she was about to fire another shot, she was hit by another training sword pretty hard. "Webs said its time to eat." Tsunami told our guardian while giving her a death glare. Kestrel growled then walked past Tsunami while leaving her weapons on the ground. "Geez, what did you do to get her that mad?" My basically sister asked. I grounded "I knocked her sword out of her hand." Tsunami smiled "Sweet! How'd you do it?" She asked, genuinely interested. "It was an ACCIDENT."
"Still, it must have been fun to see." She said.
"Not when she responds with fire. Can you help me bring these back to our room?" I asked, pointing to the weapons lying on the ground. She nodded and after grabbing them, we headed to our room to prepare for dinner. Guess I should probably tell you about my siblings.
Tsunami's 5,8 with deep blue hair and light blue eyes and has more muscle than Sunny, Glory and Starflight. She's from the kingdom of the sea far east of Pyrrhia, a bunch of islands with a hidden castle.
Glory hatched an hour after Tsunami, she's 5,7 and has lime hair with white streaks that can change color based on her mood and green eyes, her Starflight and Sunny are thinner than Tsunami and myself. The prophecy called for a Skywing, but after an incident, Webs brought her from the rainforest.
Starflight's the same size as Glory and hatched a minute after her. He has pure black hair and gray eyes. He was brought by the Nightwings from their kingdom that no one seems to know the location of. He's the only one of us that can kinda use magic. (Though he can only make a small flame on one finger and he gets super dehydrated afterwards)
Sunny is 5,5 and hatched three hours after Starflight, she has bright yellow hair and black eyes. She was brought from the kingdom of sand west of Pyrrhia, a land of, well, sand.
OH RIGHT! I'm Clay, I'm 6,1 and more built than the others. I have light brown hair and brown eyes and came from the kingdom of mud south east of Pyrrhia, filled with swamps.
Anyway… Tsunami and I made it to our room we're the others were moving stuff in the room for our 'Self taught lessons' Sunny was struggling to move the giant shelf on Starlight and I's side of the room. This is our sleeping cave as the guardians call it. They also call it the den of loud noises, den of the non punished, cave of infuriating brats and the cave of the worthless failures who can't do anything right. We just call it our room. It's large part of the cave is split into two sides, the girls side and the boys side, though there's no way to separate it other than the two beds on one side and three on the other. When we were younger, we moved the dresser to our side since there was more space, along with the bookcase. There's a giant map of Pyrrhia on the wall opposite of the entrance. Starflight and Glory have drawn spots to signify important things we should know. Key battles, the kingdom's strongholds, were we're most likely being held. (We decided to poke a hole so the guardians wouldn't see and take the map away) I dropped the training swords on my bed and helped Sunny move the dresser. "Hey Clay! You look worse than usual…" She said with a worried look. Glory threw a cloth at me and said "Kestrel used her magic trick again?" I wiped the sweat off my face.
"Her aim's improved a lot in the past year." I mumbled.
Starflight moved the blankets around to make the bed fort. "Clay, you might wanna get changed before we eat." I nodded, grabbed my light brown shirt and dark brown pants then headed to the spare cave next to our room. It's a small area that we begged the guardians to make into a changing room. (The restroom is across the cave and having this one would save a six minute walk every time we wanted to change clothes privately) after changing, we left to the dining room where Webs had made Sapphire fish stew. The main ingredients being, Carrots, Luppa fruit and, of course, Sapphire fish. Sunny bit her lip while looking at her dinner, Glory put her head on her hand and stared at the bowl as if she could make it change into starfruit and Starflight pretended to enjoy it to make Webs happy. Tsunami on the other hand, gladly ate her's and while Web's wasn't looking, took Glory's, who gave a grateful look in return.
Sunny leaned over to the middle hatched. "We can sneak some Fruit after we're done studying!" She smiled.
Glory ruffled her hair and nudged her back into her seat. "Thief." She smiled back.
Truthfully, I don't dislike anything the guardians bring us, being that i'm always hungry, so I ate my bowl without much care.
Webs tapped his foot on the ground in annoyance, he couldn't leave until all of us were done, which, after Glory and Tsunami found out, would be used to much enjoyment on their part. (Though it usually resulted in extra "Work" from guardians)
To kill time, Web's asked, "How was training with Kestrel?"
I debated whether to explain all of it or not, Tsunami gave me her "You better tell him" face. (I didn't) "It was fine, I did more dodging than usual."
Webs nodded. "Good, good."
Glory rolled her eyes.
Tsunami glared at me then spoke to Webs. "She used her stupid flam-!"
Webs glared back at her. "I didn't ask you!"
"No! Cuz Moons forbid someone speak bad of you three!" She hissed at him.
Starflight shifted nervously in his seat and Sunny found her bowl to be as interesting as that three tailed lizard she found last week.
"You need to learn respect!" Webs said.
I grabbed Starflights arm. "Want to help me clean the battle room?" I asked, smiling.
He nodded and we left, I turned and saw Glory taking Sunny with her to what seemed like the swimming room. (We used to call it the pool but then we learned that pools are supposed to be used for fun)
"YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO EARN IT!" I heard Tsunami shout. "Dune and Kestrel definitely heard that" I thought to myself.
We made our way to the battle room and we started to move the dust and rocks to make the room easier to move in.
I tried to cheer Starflight up the best way I knew how. "Hey Starflight, how's the book Dune brought you?"
He immediately lit up. "It's amazing! There's a chapter on how the kingdom of the sea was founded and how far back their lineage goes. They keep really good records, they've been able to date back to when Pyrrhia was settled!" He went on for about ten minutes until the room was cleaned.
"You think the girls are waiting on us to start studying?" I asked Starflight.
He nodded and we headed back.
"You know this isn't an efficient form of studying, right?" Starflight asked, for like the 30th time since we started doing it three years ago.
"It's way more fun though." I smiled. He groaned and we entered our bedroom to see Glory reading the "Rainforest, mysteries and theories." book while Sunny and Tsunami were finishing up the fort.
Glory looked from her book. "Took you guys long enough."
Starflight and I went to sit down with Glory while the other two finished up the fort.
"So how's Tsunami?" I asked.
Glory handed the book to Starflight. "She has to stay an extra two hours with Dune." "So an extra two hours of exercise and language study? She's gonna love that." I thought. "You really should have told Webs." She said without emotion.
"Not like he would have done anything." I muttered.
Glory didn't respond and Tsunami called us over.
"Alright! I'm picking. Clay! You're the peasant, Sunny, your queen Oasis." Sunny interrupted. "Um, shouldn't you be queen Oasis?' Sunny was pretty bad at fighting.
Tsunami gave her a sly smile. "Oasis loses, and I don't lose. I'm Burn, Glory, your Blister, and Starflight, your Blaze."
Starflight rolled his eyes. "Why am I Blaze?"
"Because last week you made me play a FISH!" She yelled at him. The rest of us laughed at the memory.
Glory broke her monotone. "You were a pretty good fish." She laughed.
Tsunami chucked a pillow case at me. "Just get dressed." She growled.
Sunny and I took our positions and waited for Tsunami to start narrating.
"It was dark and stormy ni-."
Glory through a pebble at her.
"Fine. in the Sandwing treasure room, Queen Oasis sits with her pile of treasure."
Sunny moved some of the rocks in the fort. "OH my LOVELY treasure! How I ADORE it!" She said while Glory and I struggled to keep a straight face. Starflight put his head in his hands, he hated when we went off from how it actually went.
"Then, a Peasant from the outer ring of the kingdom snuck into the castle to steal some of the treasure! Tsunami said as I hid behind the fort while Sunny continued to mess with the rocks.
Sunny got up and found me. "Ah! A lowly peasant is trying to steal my treasure!" She grabbed one of the two training swords and we started dueling. Sunny was no Tsunami, but she is pretty good at dueling. We did this for a while until Tsunami reminded us that the story had to continue. I pretended to impale Sunny and she collapsed to the ground.
"AHH! IT HURTS!" She whined. "I AM NO LONGER THE QUEEN!" Tsunami rolled her eyes and continued.
"Then the three sisters find their mother dead. Ahem. OH NO! Mom is dead! Oh well, guess i'm queen now!"
Glory walked up to the pretending to be dead Sunny. "Hold on, I'm much smarter and would rule better."
Everyone turned to Starflight who looked about ready to kill Tsunami. "Well, I'm much… prettier and everyone loves me." Sunny giggled uncontrollably on the floor.
Tsunami poked her side. "You can't laugh if you're dead."
Glory spoke up. "Wait, where is the eye of Onyx?" Glory said in mock surprise. (Apparently, that's how she actually said it, according to Starflight.)
Tsunami raised her sword. "Well, as is tradition, if you two want the throne you must best me in a challenge! Of course with these babies, that's not likely." She said while flexing her left arm. Starflight groaned.
"Well, how about I don't do that and instead ally myself with the Seawing kingdom and earn my place as the rightful queen." Glory stated.
Starflight rolled his eyes. "Well, how about I ally myself with the Ice kingdom? And most Sandwings like me anyway."
Tsunami growled. "Well then, I'll ally myself with the Mud kingdom and the Skywings and i'll keep the stronghold."
Sunny got up since the play was over. "Hey, why didn't they challenge Burn?"
Tsunami helped Glory move the beds back into place. "Because they're small and scrawny, like Starflight." A shoe was then thrown at her.
I put the blankets back on the beds. "If Blaze is the most popular, then why isn't she queen?"
Glory answered this. "Cuz she's an idiot. They only like her cuz she's pretty. She would probably run the kingdom into the ground."
I sighed. This war seemed so stupid. You'd think we'd have come up with a better way to transfer power but no, we get a continent sized war. "But there siblings! Why would they even consider killing each other? It just seems sad. We would never consider killing each other for power, right?" I asked them.
"Of course not!" Sunny said while hugging my arm.
"Well…" Tsunami said while Glory made a thinking gesture. Sunny had a look mixed with sadness and surprise.
"We're kidding!" Tsunami hurried while Starflight elbowed her. Glory let out a quiet laugh. Sunny gaver her a light smile while I ruffled her hair.
"WHAT ARE YOU BRATS DOING?!" Kestrel shouted.
Starflight tried to blend into the corner while Glory just stared at their guardian with her regular emotionless expression. Tsunami glared at the Skywing resident with her hands on her hips. "Studying. So what?"
"Don't start." She hissed. "Now GO TO BED!" She roared and then left.
We finished cleaning the room then layed in our beds as the three moons lights shown into our room through the sky hole. While I was dreaming about steak and pork, I woke up feeling like someone was watching me.
"Starflight!" I hissed quietly.
"Sorry" He mumbled. "I forgot to put the swords up and Webs put the torches out." He let it hang there for a second then I realized what he was saying.
I smiled at him. "Sure" I got up and we left the room. The caves were always so creepy at night. I get why Starflight always hated to go alone. Though I wonder why he always chose me to go with him.
"So, umm, how are you?" He asked.
"Tired." I joked.
His face turned in embarrassment then tried to change the subject. "Well, what were you dreaming about?"
I told him about the dream and started getting hungry again. "And then a giant ratwing made of pork landed on my-"
"What's your thoughts on leaving the cave?" He interrupted.
I stopped walking and stared at him. "Leave the cave? When did Starflight start thinking about this?" "Not really. The guardians will tell us when we're ready to leave." I told him.
Starflight fidgeted with his fingers while we made it to the weapons storage. "Well, I guess, but what if they're wrong…" He muttered.
"Do YOU think they're wrong?" I countered. Starflight always said the guardians knew what's best for us. (It's why Glory and Tsunami argued with him a lot)
He continued to fidget until I put my arm on his shoulder trying to comfort him. "What's going on Starflight?"
He shook his head. "Nothing, just tired I guess, forget I said anything."
I nodded. "So, Ready to head back?" I asked him.
"Yeah." We walked back through the dark caves in silence. I was still curious about what Starflight had asked. "He never talks about leaving. Why would he start now?" We entered the cave and I was able to get back to sleep.
"Clay..." I heard someone say. I looked around and saw an arena looking room. Filling the benches were figures with their faces blocked by fog. I found the voice and saw it was a more femine figure with her face also being obscured. "I'm sorry, I didn't want this to happen." She seemed to be on the brink of tears.
"Hey, I don't know what's wrong but it can't be that bad." I said, trying to calm her down. "Just tell me what's wrong." I walked towards her and it felt like walking into an oven. I tried to walk back but my dream self wouldn't let me.
"Stay back!" She yelled, trying backup but bumping into the dream wall that locked us together. I continued to walk forward, feeling the heat blast onto me. I wanted to cry out but couldn't. I finally reached her and stuck out my hand, trying to help her up. She slowly reached forward to grab it and the walls were engulfed in flames. I pulled her forward into a hug and the flames engulfed us.
I woke up in a cold sweat. There was only one moon left in the sky meaning Kestrel was about to take Tsunami for battle training. I got up and got dressed, then tried waking Tsunami up.
"Go away." She mumbled.
"Kestrel's gonna get even angrier if you're not up." I told her, while shaking her awake.
"Uggg." She groaned and slowly got up.
She wasn't as quiet as I was so the others woke up as well. Starflight looked like he wanted to go back to sleep while Glory walked over to his bed seemingly wanting to talk to him. (He did not look in the mood to talk) Sunny snuck up behind me, how was someone so talkative able to be so silent?
"You ok?" She asked. "You look like you didn't sleep at all."
I smiled at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a nightmare."
She gave me a sad smile. "Wanna talk about it?"
Truthfully, I wanted to. Not because it worried me, but for how confusing it was. Who was that girl, and what did she blame herself for? "No, besides, we're gonna have to focus on Webs's lesson."
Glory stormed off from Starflight, leaving him with an annoyed look, and walked over to Tsunami and whispered something to her. She groaned then glared at Starflight who in response threw a shoe at her and grabbed his clothes to change.
"Come on you five, the faster we start the sooner I can get back to sleep." Webs said while walking in.
Tsunami spoke up. "What about Kestrels' lesson?"
"That will be tomorrow. Today's lesson is too important." He said then left.
We all looked at each other then followed him in silence. "What's more important to Kestrel than punishing Tsunami?" I thought to myself. Web's room is about the size of our cave but it looks like a teachers room from the stories we read about. Lined with books and much better maps than the one we have and pictures of the stories that looked better than Glory's. (When she actually tried to draw that is) There are five chairs set up along one really long table and a big desk in the back of the room where Webs sat and taught us. Our lesson went on for a while like usual, we recently started learning about the seawing royal massacre and what led Albatross to commit the heinous act. Glory and Tsunami were pretending to listen and Sunny had finally learned how to sleep with her eyes open. (and without snoring) I tried to focus but man does Webs make it hard. Starflight kept taking notes until Webs said. "Now, what caused Albatross to kill his relatives?"
Starflight and (Surprisingly) Sunny after waking up.
"Sunny?" He asked.
"Cuz he used too much of his animus powers and it made him evil."
Webs signed. "Close, Starflight?"
"He abused his powers and like many animus before him, slowly lost sense of right and wrong. He stopped seeing how he could help others and only saw how he could help himself. He believed that his relatives were plotting his death and sought to destroy them before they killed him." He said as if he memorized it. (He probably did)
"Preacher." Glory whispered to me.
"Good!" Webs smiled. "Now, why is this important?"
Even Starflight was stuck.
"Because, uhh, it changed how we treat people born with that power?" I said, it's hard to think about the effects of something that happened 400 years ago.
"Correct!" Webs said, he seemed surprised that I got that right. (I don't blame him) "After this event, rules around animus were changed. They could no longer use their enhanced forms of magic without strict guidelines that needed to be met. Which is why, after the test, we will begin our chapter on Darkstalker and Fathom."
Starflight looked like he was about to explode out of his seat and Tsunami looked actually interested. The story of Darkstalker was the only story to give Tsunami nightmares. We've never been allowed to look into much of his life since the guardians don't give us a lot to read about, but what we do have is enough for me.
"That is, AFTER the test. So study." He growled, eyeing me and Sunny.
We sat through another two hours of lectures and questions until we were dismissed for dinner. After eating some skywing pasta, (Just pasta with extra spice, Starflight HATES it) we went back to our room and prepared for bed. Until.
"Tomorrow?!" We heard Kestrel yell.
Glory and Starflight looked at each other then to Tsunami and me. "You guys have to see what's happening tomorrow!" Starflight said in a hurry.
Tsunami nodded and grabbed my shoulder then we left to the pool area. Tsunami's swimming skills and me being able to hold my breath for a long time meant that we could use the dark cave in it to listen to the guardians when they talked in Web's room. We snuck into the swimming room and Tsunami went through the small cave first, then I followed. After making our way through, we got out of the water and listened to the guardians.
"So NOW he wants to show up? WHY?" Kestrel hissed, trying to be quiet.
"I don't know. let's just hope we meet Morrowseer's expectations." Dune said. "He didn't seem to care about the rainwing, right?"
There was silence.
"RIGHT?" Dune said with some anger.
Webs finally spoke. "I, kinda… didn't tell him." He mumbled.
"WHAT?!" Kestrel screamed.
"Maybe he'll be impressed with how smart she is?" Webs said, trying to keep the other two from getting angry.
"SHE CAN'T EVEN FIGHT!" Kestrel yelled.
Tsunami whispered in my ear, "She hasn't seen her try." Being on the receiving end of Glory's accurate strikes, I wouldn't say she didn't know how to fight.
"And she fails every test I give her." Dune stated.
"She just doesn't apply herself. She's definitely capable judging from my test." Webs fought back. It was weird hearing one of them defending her.
"And if he doesn't like her?" Dune ignored Webs.
"We'll see when he gets her." Kestrel growled. "Now let's go to bed."
Tsunami and I rushed back to the others and told them what we heard.
"Morrowseer… Why does that sound familiar?" Sunny said to herself. Starflight gave her a shocked look.
Glory shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know, maybe he created one of the fake Darkstalker stories?"
"NO!" Starflight struggled to not be too loud. "HE-"
"OH! He made the "nightwings history of the kingdom's" right?" Tsunami asked.
"He told the prophecy about us!" Starflight hissed.
We all nodded "Oh right!" we said, not actually caring.
"If he's coming he's probably going to inspect us! I knew I should have taken that History test more seriously! Why did we do the play instead of a study session!" He continued to rattle on about him not getting more than a 100% on his scores while the rest of us talked.
"So, you think he'll care that Glory isn't from the sky kingdom?" Sunny asked, holding Glory's hand.
"Probably will." Glory stated plainly.
"Well he's gonna have to put up with it if he wants our cooperation." Tsunami said while crossing her arms.
Sunny and I nodded while Glory pretended not to care.
Tsunami looked to Glory and Starflight who finally stopped talking to himself then three nodded.
"We better rest, just in case." Starflight said.
I got dressed for bed then climbed in. It was difficult, with everything going on in my head. The dream, Morrowseer and Glory, Tsunami and Starflight acting weird were keeping me up but after awhile, I finally fell asleep.
Well, that's my first chapter. Tell me if you'd prefer longer or shorter chapters and anything I can fix. Thanks for reading!