Trials of Light and Dark

Training Grounds and New Moves

Days later, out in the center of the dragon mansion, in the training field, Blue-Eyes stood. An adult dragoness stood beside them, and other adolescent dragons, of all genders, surrounded them in a circle. In the background, the elders of the dragons watched as well, always interested to see how the future proctectors of the dragons were fairing. This was the "daycare" The White One had mentioned before, which was actually training. Since Blue-Eyes was the son of The White One, who was the leader of the dragons, Blue always got to fight first, againts whatever opponent he wished. Red-Eyes was his first pick.

"Iiick, a shadow!" A random child dragon said from the circled crowd, and the adult turned to him. With a stern look, he quickly fell back to silence.

"And now," a loud, strong female voice boomed over the field, all the living things nearby hearing clearly, "Blue-Eyes has selected his opponent for the day. He is a newcomer to our tribe, and has been granted entrance to us from the authority from The White One himself," a few of the kids stuck their tongue out to Red-Eyes, and the adult turned to them with an angry glare. Before her eyes could focus on them, their tongues slithered back into their mouths, but she still knew of the action. "Respect shall be given, unless I say otherwise. Now, let the battle between Blue-Eyes the White Dragon and Red-Eyes the Black Dragon.. begin!"

"Blue-Eyes always wins," a child dragoness said boredly, eyes lazily watching as if she knew the outcome of the battle.

Blue and Red lowered their heads, showed their fangs, and extended their claws at the same time, ready to attack. Slowly, they walked in a circle, keeping roughly six feet inbetween eachother. Red circled left, and Blue at the same time circled to his right to keep his opponent from gaining any apparent advantage. After a few short moments of snarling at eachother, Red-Eyes saw it fit to pounce his "brother". Some of the children gasped, surprised that Blue was taken off his feet, this being the first time for many to witness. Red attempted to snap his deadly fangs at Blue, but his jaw was held back by clawed hands. Blue-Eyes, still in the early stages of controlling his powers, seemed to lose control over himself. His mouth twitched open, and his eyes glew a much brighter blue as a small ball of blue energy formed in his mouth. Red-Eyes stopped snapping, and simply stared into Blue's mouth in confusion. It grew to the size of a baseball, and then shot out, becoming a beam of energy. It hit Red under his chin, making his head snap up, and his whole body flew into the air with the beam. After soaring about twenty feet, the energy ray finally withered away, and dropped Red down to the ground, landing him with a painful "Oof!"

"Blue-Eyes! What has gotten into you!" The adult dragoness hissed at Blue.

"I-I'm sorry, Mom! I was scared, and I lost control!" Blue raised a clawed hand, trying to explain himself.

Lana growled at Blue, and then turned to Red-Eyes, who's head was still smoking from the point-blank energy blast. Nuzzling him softly, Red finally cracked open his eyes to look at the dragoness hovering above him. His eyes were glowing more dim than normal.

Coughing weakly, he smiled to Lana, "It's only... a scratch," Red managed to choke out. With those words, his eyes closed again, and he fainted.

Turning to her son, she whispered into his ear, "You're in big trouble, mister."

Blue simply gulped hard, and nodded. Though Lana had spoken softly enough for no one else to hear, most of the crowd could guess what was said. The elders in the background shook their heads in dissappointment, and walked away. Lana picked up Red in her mouth, made way back to the living quarters; Blue-Eyes following close behind.

A bored sigh was heard, and the same female who commented before on Blue's all-wins-no-losses record before chimed in yet again, "I told you Blue-Eyes always wins."

---

Lana, with Red-Eyes in her mouth and Blue-Eyes by her side, reached the room that they lived in. Dropping Red down onto some soft coushining in the corner of the giant room, she turned to her son, with the most angry look Blue had witnessed to date.

"You could have killed him, you fool!" She yelled out, which caused Blue to scream, and Red to groan softly in his unconcious state. Seeing that screaming out her anger wouldn't help the situation, she lowered her voice to a low tone, but the anger still remained, "Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in now!"

Blue didn't look directly at his mom when she asked, and so she slapped Blue, making him whimper. This made him look up to his mom with tears in his eyes, and he nodded slowly, "Yes, ma'am."

The mother of the family continued on, now that she had her attention, "When I was your age, I never-!" Lana was cut off by a sharp hiss of pain, sipping away between her fangs. She turned around to look at what seemed to have stabbed her. Red-Eyes had unnonitcedly been stirred back to conciousness, witnessed Lana slap Blue, and carefully lifted up her scales so he could bite into her soft flesh.

Red pulled his bloodied fangs out, and spoke harshly to Lana, his eyes glowing a red that seemed to hold a bottomless pit of rage, "Don't. Slap. My. Brother."

Lana was in a short moment of shock. She had been bitten, such a disrespectful act from someone so much more... insignificant as herself! She deserved worship from someone so pathetically weak, especially from a shadow, and especially since she was trying to protect him.

"You filthy little whelp! Why, I ought to throw you off the side of the cliff and hail rocks at you before you die from slamming into the stone ground!"

Red growled what hoarse growl could come from his weak throat, "Just try it, hag!"

Just as Lana had raised her claws to slap a deathblow to Red, the doors to their room opened. Lana turned, and saw The White One entering the room.

"There seems to be a lot of noise coming from this room. I also saw what happened at the training grounds. Is everything here alright?" The White One seemed to be unaware of the anger between Lana and Red-Eyes, though he did look curiously at the blood trickling from his wife's leg.

Seeing him look at her leg, she quickly thought of an excuse to get away, "I just came back to drop the kids off. I need to get back to patrolling," and with that, she quickly walked out of the room, and down the flight of stairs.

The White One turned to his children, with a concerned look on his face, "She's acting quite strange..."

Blue-Eyes quickly turned his head to his brother, whispering into his ear, "Don't tell him anything about Mom!"

Red's eyes widened, and he turned to Blue, "What! Why not?"

Annoyed, he nipped Red's ear, which got a light yelp out of him, "Just don't!"

The White One tapped a claw from his left foot onto the stone ground, "Well? Do you two know anything?"

Red-Eyes looked back to his adoption father, and back to the pleading eyes of Blue, thought for a moment, and shook his head, "Sorry, I don't know anything. Maybe she's just a bitch by nature."

The White One's mouth hanged open for a moment, "... Excuse me?"

Red cocked his head, not aware that he had done something wrong, "What?"

His father barred his fangs at Red, "I don't know where you learned a word like that, but around here, we do not call people by that name. Especially people who are far more older, wiser, and stronger than yourself. Treat her with respect - I don't care what your excuse is to not do so!"

Red-Eyes was about to protest, but Blue stopped him with a facial expression. He simply sat back down, pouting. The White One turned around, half of his body out the door. Speaking loudly enough for the children to hear, "You're both grounded until further notice. No leaving this room unless I or Lana escorts you."

Both Blue and Red screamed, "But that's not fair!"

Their father yelled back, "Deal with it!" He walked quickly out of the room, using his tail to grab the door handles and close them from behind. A loud click was heard, implying that the door had been locked.

Red grouned loudly, and turned to his brother, "Man, what were you doing! We could have told him the truth, and gotten out of this whole mess for free! We didn't deserve any of this, why do you have to be such a whimp?"

Blue-Eyes rose to his feet, and barked out to the ignorant half, "She's my mom, I can't do that kind of mean things to her! She may... hurt me, behind Daddy's back... but she's still my mom, and I'm not the only one who relies on her! Maybe if you loved your family, maybe if you had a heart, you'd understand!"

The black dragon roared softly, almost ready to pounce his brother, both of them getting in a battle stance. But, the words finally sank in, stabbing him like a knife through his black heart. 'Maybe if you had a heart...' That hurt him so much. He did love his mother, more than anything! But she had left him here, with these strangers, in this strange home, with strange rules. Was this some kind of punishment? He began to wonder if he loved someone who didn't love him back. Red lowered his head softly, and began to sob.

Blue edged closer to his brother, realizing a fight was not going to occur. He "hugged" Red with his neck, wrapping in around his shoulders, and licked at the shadow's cheek, "Don't cry, please don't cry! I didn't mean what I said, I was just angry."

Red half-angrily pulled out of the hug, and turned around, walking back to the coushining in the corner, curling up, "Don't be sorry. I deserved it."

"Don't say that! Of course you didn't," Blue-Eyes trotted over to Red's side, looking down at him. His brother refused to make eye contact, and simply stared at the stone wall.

"I'm just a disgusting shadow, not something meant to live happy. No soul, no friends, just death," Red was speaking loudly enough for Blue to hear, but it was mostly him talking to himself, putting his self-esteem even lower than neccessary with his own self-punishments.

Blue-Eyes growled, "No, you couldn't be more wrong! You're not disgusting! You have a soul, and you have a friend - me. I don't care if you were meant to be happy," at this time, the blue dragon licked Red's cheek, which was enough to grab his attention, and look back to Blue, "because I'll make you happy."

Red smiled to Blue, and licked him softly back on the cheek, returning the favor, "You better mean what you say. I'll stick by your side, as a friend... forever. Promise me the same."

The blue dragon sat up straight, and placed a clawed hand on his chest, "I cross my heart, and hope to die."

Red-Eyes laughed, and then his eyes lit up, remembering something, "Oh! Hey, I just remembered something. When you shot me with that energy beam thing..."

Blue chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Hehe, yeah, about that... sorry."

The black dragon shook his head, "Agh, shut up! I'm not looking for an apology," that caused Blue too look a little hurt. "Uhm... sorry. What I mean is, I wanted you to tell me how to do it, too."

Blue-Eyes blinked, "What?"

Red hopped on his feet, "Yeah! Show me how to do it, it'll be so cool! I bet I can do it better!"

"Hah! You think you can!"

"Know I can!"

Blue grinned slightly, and scritched the bottom of his chin, "Well, I suppose I can try to show you. But I am a bit new to it myself, so I don't know if I can do it right."

"Just try your best!" Red could barely hide the excitement in his body.

Blue-Eyes shrugged, "Well, it's a somewhat hard to explain. You have to focus on something important to you, a strong emotion of some kind, which can sometimes be hard when you're in a heated battle, and your mind is filled with strategy. The power of the love, or whatever the feeling is, gathers in your mind, and the stronger the emotion is, the bigger the energy ball will form in your mouth. Or, atleast I think that's how Mother taught m-... hey, what are you doing?" Blue bursted out laughing, "You look silly!"

The shadow dragon's mouth hanged open, groans escaping him as he tried to follow Blue's instructions. Getting frustrated with the teasing, he sat stood up on the soft bedding under him, "Trying to focus on things to make energy!"

"What were you thinking of?"

"Food."

Blue-Eyes laughed even harder, spit flying out of his mouth and onto Red. The black dragon didn't even blink as the saliva hit him, but rather just looked a bit annoyed, "What's so funny, Blue-boy?"

"You can't make it work with the thought of food," he explained. "You have to think of something else. Like, say... earlier when we faught, I was thinking of my mom. That's how I formed my energy againts you."

"Moms, huh?" Red closed his eyes, and concentrated. He tried to think of how his mom used to talk to him, tell him urban legends before he went to sleep everynight, how she always told him he was special. He opened his mouth, attempting to form his energy, but nothing came. He wondered why.

"Uhm, maybe you're doing it wrong..." Blue suggested.

"Shut up. I can do this," he spoke harshly, not bothering to open his eyes to speak. Red pondered as to why the love of his mom was not powerful enough to do anything. Then it hit him. He didn't love his mom as much as he used to, infact, he was growing a rather strong disliking to her. The same went to most of the people of the dragon mansion as well. Flashes of all those children who teased him for what he is, Lana, even The White One was on Red's annoying list. The biggest one of all, ironically, was the one he knew the least: his father. The bastard had left them shortly after his birth, leaving him alone with an apparently uncaring mother. All the anger boiled in his heart, hidden away, completely unnoticed until Red-Eyes had searched himself for answers just now.

He opened his jaw slowly, feeling that he was ready. He couldn't see it with his own eyes, as they were closed, but he could feel something slowly form up in his mouth, and heared his brother gasp, "Red! Red, you're doing it!" It grew larger, and larger, until it was painful to even hold in his mouth. Red wasn't sure how to "launch" this energy, so he went with what first came to his mind. He raised his head back, and then suddenly jutted his head out forward, attempting to push the energy out quickly with his tongue, opening his eyes the second he did so. What he saw amazed him. The attack was unlike Blue's stream, but rather a solid black and red energy ball was surging towards the door of the room, and when it slammed into it, there was a large explosion of flames. The noise most probably got the attention of several dragon guards.

"Wooow, that was even more powerful than what I have ever done!" Blue-Eyes stared at the burning wood chunks around in the room, and then looked back to a smirking black dragon.

"Told ya' I could do it better."

Just then, a random white dragon came racing to the doorway of the room, "Oh my God! What has happened? Are you children alright!"

Red-Eyes poudfully trotted up to the guard, his head held high, "Yes, my lower-class standard protector. I was just showing off my moves to my little friend here."

"...What did you call me?"

Blue-Eyes chuckled nervously, running up to the guard, "Hello, good sir! I'm Blue-Eyes the White Dragon, you probably know me. We're fine, there was just a little accident."

The guard looked around, and nodded, "You two should get out of here. I'll call some maids to clean the place up. But, you must be aware that I have to ask how this happened. The White One will definately need to know."

Both of the children sighed, knowing that they just put themselves in even more trouble than what they really needed at the moment.

---

Author's Note: Now, before people go off complaining about how Red seems too much more powerful than Blue or something, just remember: Blue-Eyes is still early in his training, and Red-Eyes has a head start from Blue due to his focused anger. Things will change as time goes on.