"Who's that?" asks Umbrae as they arrive at a room dominated by a large statue.
"That is Malefor," answers Ignitus as if that answers everything, "The first purple dragon," upon seeing Umbrae's confused look he continues, "Have you not been told?"
"I'm not from around here," replies Umbrae.
"Oh? Then where are you from, I'd love to know," cuts in Volteer, "You said you aren't from around here. Please do enlighten me, I'd love to learn."
"Classified," answers Umbrae.
"A most curiously puzzling term. 'Classified' what does it mean?"
"It means it's a military secret only properly cleared individuals may know," he examines the group, "And random dragons I just met aren't cleared," provides Umbrae.
"Oh you're a soldier, serviceman, a comrade-in-arms-"
"Oh do please shut it Volteer," spits Cyril.
"You first."
"Why you insufferable twat! I ought to freeze you solid."
"I'll reduce you to a blob of charred flesh doing a nice little jig on the floor before you breathe a single snowflake."
"Guys," Says Ignitus, being completely ignored.
"Like you can beat me. You are only a lead guardian because there are no electrical guardians left. I was actually in consideration for the position of Lead Ice Guardian."
"We all know you got to that position because you engaged in coitus with the Lead Ice Guardian of the time."
Seeing as Ignitus is unable to get a word in, Umbrae calls in a deep, booming militaristic voice, "Attention!" At that call they cease their pointless bickering, "Separate rooms, now!"
"I'm not a dragonet," spits Cyril, "I am a full grown dragon."
"Really?" Asks Umbrae, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "I can't tell. If you insist on pointlessly bickering like one then you can be treated like one. Seperate rooms for the day. You can only come out to go poopsy or when I call you for dinner."
"Bu-" starts Volteer before he is interrupted by Ignitus.
"You heard him," once they leave he turns to Umbrae, "I've never seen a stranger so easily wrangle them out of an argument."
"Is it true? What Volteer said about Cyril and..."
"He'll deny it to the moons and back but yes. He was in a romantic relationship with his superior, in fact they were quite loud and usually went all night."
"A pupil and his teacher in a romantic relationship? Doesn't that seem like a conflict of interests?"
"As long as you kept it professional on duty we didn't care what you did with who, as long as it was legal. It helped keep morale up even in the darkest hours."
"Where is this superior of his now?"
"Dead. They were pinned down by apes and Volteer was meant to lead a force to relieve them. However Volteer was just a couple minutes too late and she lay dead in the arms of a very distraught Cyril."
"Oh I know a thing or two about losing loved ones," replies Umbrae growing distant as a memory rises.
Fires raging in the dark, bombed out ruins of an apartment complex, the sounds of war booming in the distance. Corpses littering the ground.
He shakes the memory from his mind, "So are we going to test my combat skills or are we going to lay about swapping sob stories?"
"Yes we are," answers Ignitus, "You might want to stand back."
Before Umbrae can ask why the giant statue starts to sink into the ground. After a few short moments a vaguely ape shaped straw dummy appears out of thin air, "Now just fight as you normally would."
"Do I get a weapon? Like a Sword or Bow?"
"Right now I'm testing your hand to hand.
Before he can muster a rebuttal the dummy charges at him. In the surprise the dummy lands a slice that isn't deep enough to permanently injure but sure does hurt.
"Why do these dummies move!" exclaims Umbrae, "Where I come from they don't!"
"It must not feel very realistic then," muses Ignitus.
Overcoming his shock he slashes through the dummy only for two more to appear. After dispatching those he is greeted by four. With some effort he dispatches them as well. As he is catching his breath another eight jump at him leaving shallow gashes with their weapons. When a larger one bashes him aside with a large club the dummies simply disappear.
"That was disastrous," comes Ignitus' voice, "You never once used your teeth, your tail, your wings, or even your back legs. Nor did you even attempt to use your element. What was your position in the army?"
"I lead it."
"You lead an entire army and yet you can't fight?"
"I never needed to engage in hand to hand. Why do you think I asked for a weapon?"
"How about you show me your element?"
Returning to the center of the room a dummy appears. At Ignitus' call he releases a stream of black fire that smothers the dummy. Just like last time two more appear which he then dispatches. Noticing that the shadow seems to be clinging to the dummy's eyes he decides to only dispatch three before targeting the eyes of the last one. As he expected the dummy is effectively blind and unable to fight, with a final burst he dispatches it. When eight appear he searches for shadows only to notice that the brightly lit training room has no shadows. Surveying the room he sees a torch relatively nearby. After blinding the dummies between him and the torch he knocks it to the ground where its cinders scatter and the flame dies out. Satisfied at the new dark spot he recedes into the ground and proceeds to eliminate more torches until just the sunlight streaming through the windows in the ceiling remains. Using quick hops in and out of shadows to strike he quickly finishes the dummies before emerging in front of a rather surprised Ignitus.
"Seen enough?" Asks Umbrae.
"We thought all of the Shadow dragons were eliminated by Cynder and her forces. While we lack the capability to teach Shadow specific techniques I can still help to teach you base elemental control."
"Sure, what next?" Asks Umbrae.
"This," answers Ignitus as he holds his claws up where they burst into flame before going out leaving his scales unmarred.
"How are you not burning yourself?"
"Your own magic will not harm you and with practice it won't harm your allies either."
"Oh so how do I do the fire, or I guess shadow hands thingy?"
"Try to channel your magic into your claws."
With little effort he draws his power to his scales before willing it to migrate to his claws. Pleased at the result, Ignitus summons another dummy.
The rest of the day was spent transferring his power to various body parts and honing his hand to hand.
"Well done," compliments Ignitus, "If you so wish you may explore the grounds just don't venture too far the world is a dangerous place."
Wandering around the temple he finds himself on a balcony overlooking a wide river. Looking towards the twin moons hanging near each other in the sky a thought crosses his mind.
'This is definitely not earth. I have no idea what this world has to store. I guess I'll have to explore."
As Umbrae is about to reenter the temple he has another thought, 'Wait I'm a dragon I don't need to explore by foot,' returning to the balcony he looks down over the railing. Picking up a stone he drops it and listens for the impact, 'Just about half a second.' Umbrae carves a calculation into the rough stone, "Assuming an acceleration of 9.8 m/s/s then half a second would be 4.9 meters. If I hit the ground it'll hurt but I'll live. Welp might as well see if I can fly.' Stepping back he runs to the railing and leaps over it with his wings stretched out. When he doesn't feel himself hitting the ground Umbrae opens his eyes to see himself gliding down the shallow slope. With a few experimental wing beats he starts to rise.
As he is rising his mind is consumed with an overpowering feeling of euphoria and freedom.
"I'm flying!" calls Umbrae. After a generous helping of acrobatics he is hovering far above the clouds. Surveying the land he spots the river meandering to a large forest in the distance looking like a vein of silver shooting through the land, 'Might as well follow that river so I can find my way back. And to be honest the forest looks far more interesting than more mushrooms.'
After a brief flight Umbrae lands in the forest. While looking around he hears a strange high pitched chattering. Following the sound he sees a group of chattering apes camped around a large wooden cage lit by the twin moons above. Peering into the cage he sees what appears to be a dragon.
"The Dark Master will be pleased by this dragon," comments a rather large nearby ape.
"What do you think he wants with a dragon?" asks a smaller ape.
"Maybe he wants to have a tea party. Who cares, I'm getting paid."
'I don't like the sound of this dark master. While I haven't the foggiest idea what he wants it's probably not a tea party,' Melting into the shadows he sneaks up to the cage. With a final look around he taps on the bars. When the dragon looks at him he starts, "I'm Umbrae."
"Veneneer," answers the apparently female dragon, "why are you here?"
"Do you know what this Dark Master wants with you?"
"No. Though I wouldn't mind getting out of here."
"Very well. I just need to find a distraction."
Looking around he sees a cart at the opposite end of the camp. Upon arriving at it he sees that it is full of what looks like dynamite. Spying a nearby sleeping guard he approaches and carefully searches them, finding a fire starter and a pouch of gems. After lighting the dynamite he disappears into the forest as he grabs a leather pouch from another cart and places the bag of gems and the firestarter in it before strapping it around a foreleg. With a thunderous explosion the entire camp is awake and attempting to extinguish the roaring flames. With a slash of his claws he slices through the rope holding together Veneneer's cage. Slipping away in the chaos they don't stop until they are confident that they were not followed.
Taking advantage of this moment of respite Umbrae breaks the tense silence, "How'd you come to be in that cage?"
"I had fallen asleep while gathering mushrooms and the next thing I knew I was being roughly shoved into the cage. I tried to fight but I had never been good at it."
"Well might as well escort you home. Where do you live?"
"A small village deeper into the forest where the water isn't yet poisonous."
"Great, which way?"
Veneneer takes to the sky and, after a moment of searching, starts flying in a seemingly random direction. Following her Umbrae manages to catch up, "It's kind of hard to escort someone who doesn't warn you when they leave."
"You asked me which way. So I'll show you."
After an hour of flight that takes them deeper into the forest Veneneer points to a waterfall, or more accurately a bunch of cave openings next to it, "The great thing about my village is that it was built to mimic nature. The oldest part is in those caves and when we ran out of space in the vast cave network we expanded outwards and built the new part to resemble a grove of trees."
Landing on the shores of the river we follow a winding trail through thick underbrush, before long they arrive at what looks like a wall of giant pointed logs.
"This is odd," mumbles Veneneer slipping through a large gate that is hanging on a single hinge at the bottom, "The gate's meant to be closed at night. Cinis must be on guard duty; he always was the lazy one."
Entering the village she moves deftly through streets before tripping on an unexpected lump. Upon examination Veneneer starts, "You should be in bed young one."
When the lump remains limp, Umbrae finds a downed torch nearby. With a strike of the firestarter a circle of flickering light reveals a grizzly scene. A giant pool of dark red blood under a sunny yellow dragon that appears very young. On either side are a pair of larger dragons that look as if they were cut down while protecting the younger dragon, numerous wounds littering their scales.
With a gasp Veneneer rushes to the young dragon and starts shaking them, "Remedia! Wake up. This isn't funny!" When her shaking causes the body to roll over the source of the blood is revealed to be a large gash across their neck. As Veneneer is vainly trying to awaken the bodies Umbrae wanders around finding the streets to be choked with the bodies of dragons and apes alike.
Arriving back at Veneneer, who is staring deep into Remedia's unseeing eyes, Umbrae speaks, "It looks like it was an attack by apes. Probably the same ones who captured you."
"It can't be!" She rushes to the cliff, "There must be someone left!"
After a while of fliting between caves she lands back in the plaza she left Umbrae in, "They're all gone. My entire life is gone."
"Let's go," answers Umbrae.
"How? In twenty years we never got attacked, we were too well Hidden. Someone must've betrayed us! But who?"
"Let's go, they might return and I would like to be out of here with any equipment we can salvage by then."
"Salvage?" asks Veneneer a note of anger in her voice, "You want to just rob these corpses and go like nothing happened?"
"We might as well get some use from the equipment. They won't be needing it."
"An entire village is dead and all you want to think about is theft! What kind of psychopath are you! It's like you don't care!"
"If you'd lived my life you would be desensitized to everything too. You learn to not let your emotions affect your decisions."
"But these are my family. My friends! You know that hatchling we first encountered, Remedia? That was my baby sister! Those dragons next to her, my parents," she points to a nearby body, "That dragon? Master Seela. She taught all the young hatchlings and was one of my first friends. I can't just loot the village!"
"Very well," aquieces Umbrae, "How do you dispose of the dead?"
"We put them on rafts and float them down the river. Though we don't have nearly enough rafts."
"Then we make due without them, once they run out of course. I understand that you may not want to touch the bodies but I'll need you to tell me what children go with what parents so they can float down the river as a family."
By the time the last dragon, an adolescent green dragon that was found in a cave having died protecting a now desecrated hatchery, is placed in the river and the apes dumped in a pile outside the gate it is nearly midday.
"Not even the eggs lived," mumbles Veneneer, "What kind of monster would kill dragons that haven't even taken their first breath. They never knew joy or love. They never even tasted deer. Who would do this?"
"Unfortunately it is the nature of war that those who suffer most are those who never even fought," Umbrae's eyes grow distant while he sighs, "In the face of such cruelty the best you can do is smile, remember the good times and not dwell on the past."
"How could someone so young be so wise?" asks Veneneer.
"You learn a thing or two when you've walked the streets of hell and survived," Umbrae uses a wing to turn her away from the river, "Let us sleep. We've been up all night and half the day."
"I doubt I'll be able to, but there is an inn just down there where you can sleep."
"Veneneer," starts Umbrae, "We have to fly back to the Great Dragon Temple when we wake up. I can't have you falling out of the sky."
She sighs, "You're right. I have to try."
"That's all I ask," comments Umbrae as he enters the inn.