Chapter Two
Kain and Trice walked across the fields together, taking in the warm air after class.
"Ugh, how did that runt ever become a dragoon? His wyvern must be bigger than he is!" Kain complained as they walked along. He looked toward the tree he had dozed off under earlier and let out a low sigh.
"I know he's tough," Trice tried to console him, "but there's not much time before we finally graduate…"
Kain gave her a frustrated look; the end of each year was always hard on him.
"Hey! We have battle training next," Trice said, changing the subject, "you love that class!"
"Not the people in it though, have to deal with Hunt…" Kain said, sounding depressed.
Trice gave him a disgruntled, annoyed look.
"Humph, fine, I tried cheering you up, but if you just wanna mope around all day, that's fine with me!"
Trice stormed off toward their next class, with Kain trudging along behind. Kain stopped and turned around; that tree and the soft, cool grass looked pretty good to him…
He let out another long sigh and continued toward his class.
Kain and Trice stood outside the edge of the forest surrounding the academy, along with many other students in the class. They were all standing in a big group, watching their Elvaan instructor, Kuraude, pace back and forth across the grass.
"Today, class, we will be practicing the newfound art of flame projection. Although the original corps of dragoons never used, or even knew of, this technique, recent soldiers have perfected it. Flame projection is performed by grasping your lance-" Kuraude looked over at Kain, the only one in the academy without a polearm, "err, grasp your weapon and focus your energy, your rage, your strength; harness every ounce of fire burning within both you and your wyvern's soul and…!" With one smooth motion, Kuraude grabbed his lance and thrust it forward towards the woods behind him. A raging inferno shot forth from the tip of his lance toward the trees; then, as Kuraude slashed his lance upward, tip pointing to the sky, the flames followed where the lance pointed; flying high into the air. Suddenly, the fires burst apart in midair, sending flames spiraling across the sky, giving it a beautiful orange glow, almost as if twilight had come early.
All the students gazed up at the amazing light show overhead. Kuraude gave a proud smirk; he loved showing off, even if it was to just his students. Like all Elvaan, Kuraude was very tall, standing at almost eight feet, with dark skin, black hair, pointy ears; a pretty typical Elvaan.
He, like all the instructors at the academy, was clad in a dark purple vest made from steel, two large shoulder pads of the same color and material, and a brown leather undershirt. On his hands he wore purple gauntlets; his legs were covered with dark purple leather brais; and his feet were dressed in purple greaves with small points at the end, upturned and facing his legs. On his head he wore a dark purple helm; pointed in front; rounded in back; and two fins rising from the sides of the helm, resembling the ears of a wyvern. This whole ensemble was known as "Drachen Armor," and was the uniform worn by all high-ranking dragoons.
Kuraude held his lance off to the side with his right hand and turned to the crowd of students.
"This is a very difficult and sometimes dangerous technique, so I shall be observing each of you individually. I'm afraid that since we are so far behind in our training, that you shall not be able to master this technique here in class, you must work on it out in the field during your final exam." He thrust his spear into the ground and leaned lazily on it. "SO, who wants to go first?"
Kuraude scanned the group of students; no one said a word. Kuraude got a disgruntled look on his face, soon replaced with a devilish grin.
"Fine then, we don't have to work on this, it's not all that important anyways…" Kuraude pulled his lance from the ground then slouched over; slowly walking away from his pupils. Suddenly, without any warning at all, he leaped high up into the air, spinning like a bullet; he flung his lance down toward the group of students with every ounce of strength in his body, sending the weapon hurtling at them with the force of a hurricane. As the lance whistled through the air like a dart, all the students jumped away in fear. The lance hit the ground very hard, driving its way deep into the earth, leaving only about a quarter of its shaft remaining visible.
"You kids disappoint me," Kuraude said as he came back down to the ground, "I doubt any of you could even remove my lance. Go on now, just try to budge it!"
The polearm had dug its way deep into the ground, creating a small crater in the soil around it. A few students went over and gave it a hard tug, but none could even make it so much as budge an inch.
"Humph," Kuraude scoffed as he walked over to the lance, "pathetic." And in one smooth motion, clenched the lance with his right hand and pulled it cleanly from the ground.
All the students stared at him, wide-eyed and mouths hanging open as Kuraude spun the lance above his head. He brought it down fast, stopping it less than an inch away from a young Hume boy's nose.
"You were the first to jump away from the lance, you shall be first to attempt flame projection!" Kuraude said in a loud, booming voice.
The blonde-haired boy stood trembling for a moment, then smirked in an attempt to intimidate the other students and appear tough.
"Sure, no problem!" the boy, Hunt, said as he brushed Kuraude's lance away with his hand. Hunt walked forward to the front of the field and unhooked his polearm from the back of his orange gi. He stepped back with his right foot, lowering the tip of his lance down to his heel with both hands and focusing his energy. He tilted his head off to the side, grinning back at Kain.
Hunt twisted his torso around to the left, slashing through the air with all his might. As his lance cut through the atmosphere, Hunt was dumbstruck as only a few sparks trickled forward, burning out on the ground.
Again and again, Hunt waved his spear around in an attempt to get a great inferno, never producing any more than a few embers.
"All right, all right, that's enough. Stop before you hurt yourself!" Kuraude interjected.
Hunt slowly lowered his spear and walked back to the crowd, grumbling under his breath.
"Well, as you can all see from Mr. Hunt's amazing performance," Kuraude announced sarcastically, "that you have nothing to worry about! You'll all probably fail miserably anyways."
One by one, the students took their turns trying to produce fires, but none achieving any more than a few simple sparks. Trice only managed to release a small puff of smoke on her turn.
At last, it was Kain's turn to give the technique a shot. He walked in front of the class, Kuraude struggling to keep awake at this point from all the unspectacular performances.
Kain drew his sword from its scabbard and raised the hilt up to his right shoulder, blade pointing up at an angle behind him. He gripped the sword tightly with both hands as he swung down to his left. Nothing. He heard Hunt laughing behind him, but ignored it. He lifted the hilt up to his left shoulder this time, swinging down to his right. Nothing.
"Ha-ha! Even Trice did better than you!"
Trice glared over at Hunt, his macho attitude getting on her nerves.
"Don't listen to him, Kain, you can do it!"
Kain ignored the both of them. He kept his blade low, hilt on his hip; he rotated it so the tip of the blade was pointing behind him. With one strong swing, Kain spun his body around in a semicircle, his sword following with immense force. As the blade migrated from his right side to his left, a huge burst of flames erupted from it; he had produced a great explosion from a mere sword, an explosion that was rushing straight at Hunt with all of its speed and might.
Kuraude leaped in front of the blast, quickly holding up his lance in an attempt to stop the blast. He held it back as best he could, but his mere steel weapon would not hold. The flames hit Kuraude like a charging buffalo, sending him flying back into the mass of students. As the fires disappeared and the smoke cleared away, Kuraude was seen kneeling on the ground; his lance shattered into dozes of tiny shards and pieces strewn around the grass.
Suddenly a giant shadow fell over the entire field. Everyone looked up at the monstrous beast hovering overhead. The giant dragon landed on the ground hard, causing the earth to shake and knocking several students off their feet. It reared its head up and let out an immense roar, causing the students had to cover their ears from the booming reverberation of the dragon's call; the ground even shook under the power of its howl. The gigantic reptile trotted over to Kuraude, the land trembling with each great step. It lowered its huge head and gently nuzzled Kuraude.
"There, there, girl, everything's okay; just a demonstration gone a bit wrong, nothing to worry about!" Kuraude said happily to the dragon, petting its muzzle gently. With his free hand, he reached into a small pouch hanging from his belt and pulled from it a small, bone-shaped biscuit. He tossed the brown treat into the air, the dragon skillfully catching it in its jaws.
"Now, back on over to the fields, we can play later." Kuraude said as he patted the dragon's snout.
The dragon munched happily on its treat before raising its great wings into the air. The great beast leapt from the ground, beating the air with its colossal wings and causing a great gust of wind; knocking down several more students in the process, but Kuraude and Kain stood firmly. The giant dragon flew up high into the air and over the academy; out of sight.
Kuraude dusted himself off as the students all stood back up and regained their bearings. Kuraude walked over to Kain and rested a hand on the young boy's shoulder. Kain looked up at the towering Elvaan next to him.
"Well," Kuraude said, exhaling deeply, "I think that's enough practice for one day…"
Kain sheathed his sword and walked back over to the rest of the students. All the other students were murmuring, muttering, whispering, and spreading rumors about what had just occurred with Kain; everyone was staring at him with their cold, accusing eyes.
"What was THAT about?" Trice whispered to Kain as Kuraude started lecturing about flame projection again.
"I…I…" Kain started.
"Hey! Kain! This is important! Stop talking to Trice and pay attention!" Kuraude yelled over at Kain.
Kain glared over at Trice, whose cheeks turned dark red.
"Oops, sorry about that." Trice whispered over to Kain.
"Just forget about it, okay?" Kain whispered back to her.
"Kain! Shut up!" Kuraude yelled at Kain again.
"Y-Yes sir, sorry!"
Kuraude gave Kain a dark look, and then continued on. Kain and Trice both kept quiet, paying attention to Kuraude's lecture; neither of them noticed Hunt, who had been staring coldly at Kain…