Chapter 1: Training Troubles
The dark day sky rattled and boomed as sparks of bright lightning flashed and thunder rumbled across the Gorm. The waves of the ocean rocked and splashed with the heavy, strong winds, yet under the sea, the water was calm and quiet. Many different Water Gormiti swam about their usual daily lives, doing chores and enjoying their lives.
In the Den of Marina, in the Water Nation's capital, the servants were rushing around, trying to make the palace as perfect as possible.
However, they all stopped as bowed as a tall figure silently walked passed them. This was Lord Nebula, the Lord of Water. Nebula was a beautiful Water Gormiti who had dark indigo and light blue scaled skin, webbed feet, very long purple colored tentacle hair, measuring at 7ft, that was tightly braided and bright blue eyes. She had pale pink pearls decorated to her hair.
The Lord wore a gorgeous long, dark blue transparent floor-sweeping cape that was decorated with small star-like diamonds attached to her slim shoulders.
In her hand was a gleaming trident and perched on her shoulder was a little green lizard named Razzle. Two guards bowed and opened the doors for Nebula. The Lord nodded to them. She then stepped into an arena where a Gormiti with a tentacle arm and a crab claw arm named Delos and a dark blue Gormiti named Mantra, both were watching a training battle take place.
Nebula silently took her seat as she carefully watched the battle between her Sergeant of the sea, Quarry, two of her soldiers and her son and heir Toby.
Toby was a 14-year-old male with yellow tentacles for hair that went down to his waist, blue eyes, webbed feet, and light blue skin. Toby quickly kicks two water blasts toward both warriors. Quarry quickly raised his arms in an attempt to protect himself from the powerful attack, but he was still sent flying and crashed to the ground.
As Toby landed, the two soldiers simultaneously shot a few water globes at him.
Toby gasped as he was suddenly engulfed in a large ball of water, but he dissipated the water by moving his hands in a circular motion. As he took on a fighting stance once again, one of the soldiers charged him, shooting three water globes at the future Lord. But he dodged the first and second one, dissipated the third and rushed forward.
Quarry then jumped up and sent two water whips in the young Lord's direction.
However, Toby quickly ducked underneath the whips and extended his leg, throwing the warrior off balance. Quarry flipped over several times and crashed to the ground, but managed to stand up almost right away. He glared at the smug grin on the teen's face. Toby, now in between the soldiers, caught the water stream attack of the Gormiti in front of his head on while he kicked back the soldier that was attempting to charge him from behind.
Retaliating with water blasts of his own, he managed to knock down the soldiers.
He quickly turned back and forth to defend himself against incoming attacks from all three warriors. He blasted the first soldier with a stream of water from his stomach into the ground, knocking him unconscious. Toby then powered up his next attack and fired it at the soldier in front of him, sending him flying all the way up and over the observation balcony.
"He's very strong for his age." Mantra suddenly said, clearly impressed.
"He may be strong Mantra, but he lacks restraint." Nebula replied, dismayed, as she continued to watch the battle and the damage being done to the arena.
Quarry charged at Toby while showering him with a water stream. Toby ran towards the warrior, smiling confidently. Toby ran straight into the blast, parted it, and pushed Quarry's arms apart, effectively stopping his attack. Toby used him as a step-up to propel himself into the air. From his elevated position, he shot another blast of water at him and proceeded to shower him with a powerful water stream as he descended.
Quarry tried to block the attack but was thrown back slightly where he sagged down to his knees, out of breath.
"Woohoo!" Toby cheered as he ran up to the three spectators. "What'd I tell ya? I nailed that fight!"
Suddenly, he felt something grabbed his hair and threw up into the air and slammed him back down on the ground, front first. Toby grunted in pain as he slowly lifted himself up as he rubbed his sore chest. He looked up and saw Quarry staring down on him.
"As usual, young Lord, you're getting ahead of yourself." The warrior grinned as he helped the teen off the ground. "What was the first thing I ever taught you?"
"To never turn your back on your enemy," Toby mumbled before looking up at his mother hopefully. "But I did still beat those two guards so that's gotta score me some points right?" He smiled nervously.
"It's true that ever since you were a little toddler, you have more than excelled at the warrior side of your destiny, but you have ignored the spiritual, emotional and political side." Mantra scolded.
"A Lord of Nature must learn how to balance it all," Delos added.
"I haven't ignored them, they're just so boring." He whined. "But that's why I should start training with the trident as soon as possible; I mean, what's more, spiritual than the greatest heirloom in our family."
"Do you believe he's ready, my Lord?" Mantra asked. Nebula took a deep breath as she rose from her seat and stepped forward. She carefully looked around the battle-damaged arena, the unconscious soldiers, exhausted Quarry and the hopeful gaze of her son.
"No." She finally said without emotion, much to the shock of the others, Razzle included...
It was shortly after nightfall until Razzle finally found Nebula in the city's library, tossing aside book after book in frustration. Her trident was lent against the wall beside the bookcase the Lord was stripping bare of old, dusty books. He had no dought in his mind that she knew he was there. Nebula was just choosing to ignore him to focus on her task.
The lizard At this time of night, the library was cold, dark and empty meaning that Razzle had the chance to speak to the Lord of Water in private.
"I must say Nebula, you certainly surprised me and everyone else." He finally said.
"He's not ready yet, he just needs to focus less on the physical and more on the spiritual. She replied, not taking her eyes away from the few books left before her.
"How are you going to get him to do that?"
"I just need time to form a well-structured lesson plan for him to follow and with time he'll learn.
"Or he could struggle for the rest of his life and when the trident is passed on to him he won't have a clue how to control it; what could possibly go wrong?" The lizard shrugged.
"What am I going to do with him, Razzle?" Nebula sighed.
"You know there is one option that I know many Lords of Nature and others have used and succeeded."
"I'm serious, Razzle." She glared, instantly knowing what he was referring to.
"So am I."
"He'd be killed before the second sunset." She argued.
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do."
"No, you don't!" Razzle exclaimed before taking a breath. "The fact is Nebula, you won't always be around to protect him; one day, any day, he's going to take your place and he'll need to be prepared, which he won't be if you keep him locked up for the rest of your life."
Nebula simply sat there, lost in her thoughts so much that she didn't even notice her small friend had left her until the morning sun shined through the blue waters of the sea...