Journey to the Snowcano
The riders were in the Crystal Realm chasing away rogue Flamethrowers. They were still coming in the the Crystal Realm, but so far they never got far. With the riders, the Draconians, and all the Crystal Realm dragons constantly driving them back to the Fire Realm.
Edelweiss was in her dragon form and helping to chase the Flamethrowers. She was hot on the tail of two of them. They were smaller and could maneuver better than she could, so she kept crashing into the crystal. The riders were chasing more Flamethrowers. They all met up as they got closer to the Fire Realm.
"We've almost chased these guys back to the Fire Realm," said Tom, triumphantly.
"When will these Flamethrowers take the hint?" D'Angelo asked. Suddenly one Flamethrower broke of from its fellows and disappeared around a corner.
"They're trying to divide us," Tom said.
"We'll handle that one," Eugene boasted. "We'll head them off at the flank." And he took off on Webbs before anyone could protest. They all watched as Eugene chased the Flamethrower, only to get blindsided by another that was hiding in the crystal. It blasted Eugene and Webbs out of the air. The first Flamethrower rejoined the second one, and they charged at their target. Eugene and Webbs were completely defenseless now.
"Come on Wu and Wei," said Jun. She steered her dragon and landed between Eugene and the Flamethrowers. Wu, Wei and the two Flamethrowers blasted at each other at the same time, and the fire streams met in the middle. Both sides kept their stance. Wu and Wei were starting to falter, but they didn't back down. They pushed harder against the Flamethrowers who pushed harder against them. After a minuet the Mist Twister was starting to feel the strain. Edelweiss dove from above and knocked the Flamethrowers back with her tail. They crashed near by as the rest of the riders and dragons landed. The Flamethrowers were about to attack again but Edelweiss charged at them and they took off, with her on their heels. Jun tended to her winded dragon, while Tom turned on Eugene.
"That wasn't cool Eugene," he scolded.
"What, I had a plan," Eugene defended himself.
"You call that a plan?" D'Angelo asked, scowling.
"Sure, flesh out the one we didn't know was there," said Eugene uncomfortably.
"You were lucky Jun, Wu and Wei saved your butt," Tom said. Edelweiss rejoined them, wincing from the sliver of crystal in her left front foot. They all looked over at Jun and her dragon. Wu and Wei were hanging their heads and panting heavily.
"Guys I think Wu and Wei hurt themselves," Jun said, worried. They all gathered around.
"They've run out of mist before," said Tom.
"But this feels worse," said Jun. "They're coughing."
"What do you think D?" Tom asked. D'Angelo went over to Wu and Wei and looked at them.
"I'm sure they're fine," he said. "I think they're just tired."
"They probably never had a stand off like that before," said Edelweiss.
"We should get back and let them rest," said D'Angelo. Jun didn't look relieved, but didn't argue. She got on her dragon and the others got on their respective dragons. They took off and headed out of the Crystal Realm, Edelweiss brought up the rear.
They all got back to the sleep cave and started to wind down. Edelweiss pulled the slivers of crystals out of her foot. Tom was looking at the old dragon journal he'd found in the metal cylinder. It showed pictures of dragons and landscapes. Tom turned a page to a large picture of six people: there was a tall thin man with shaggy hair, a blond woman carrying a huge ax, a shorter man wearing a smug look on his face, two gnarly looking twins, and a husky man covered in fur. Their names seemed to be written beside each person, but they weren't written in English.
"I wonder if I'm related to any of these people," Tom said. Everyone, except Jun, looked over his shoulder.
"You, kind of look like him," said Alex pointing to one of the gnarly twins.
"Or him," said D'Angelo, pointing to the overly confident man.
"What do you think Edel?" Tom asked. Edelweiss looked over at them and Tom showed her the picture. She looked closely at it.
"Hmmm, I know bit about that lot," she said. "They're the first dragon riders. I forgot half their names, I didn't interact with them much. But, and I could be wrong, you might actually be related to two of those people." She pointed with a gold talon, first at the blond woman then at the tall shaggy man. "I remember these two got married." Tom looked at the picture again.
"I wish we could read their names," he said. "But this whole book is written in runes. Can you read runes Edel?"
"No," said Edelweiss.
"What about you Jun?" Tom asked. "Can you read runes?" But Jun didn't answer. They looked over at her and her dragons. It didn't look like Wu and Wei had improved.
"Guys, they aren't getting better," Jun panicked. "Usually when they run out of mist they just need to refuel with water. They've been drinking from the stream ever since we got back."
"I'll take another look," said D'Angelo. He went over and examined Wu and Wei again. "Hmmm. I don't hear anything. My guess is still that they overloaded themselves, lost their breath."
"Like the Dragon King," said Jun.
"Uh oh, nerd alert," said Eugene, crossing his arms.
"Dragon King?" Tom asked. "What's that?"
"It just some silly story our dad used to tell us," said Eugene. "About some evil brother or something."
"It's an old Chinese myth," Jun defended. "The Dragon King had four sons that caused so much trouble that the king lost his magical breath." All the dragons exchanged a glance. Edelweiss got down from her perch.
"Has this ever happened to you Wu, Wei?" She asked. The Mist Twister took a deep breath.
"No, not to us," Wu panted. "We've never had to fight Flamethrowers before."
"What's this Dragon King Jun speaks of I wonder," said Feathers. "I've never heard of it."
"I've met a few dragon kings," said Edelweiss. "And none of the had four sons, usually only two." Just then Wu and Wei started coughing again.
"Are you guys going to be okay?" Thunder asked.
"Yeah, we know where to go," said Wei. "We just came back to get our second wind."
"Well, we best get going Wei," said Wu. "We have a long way to go, and not much time."
"Right," Wei said. "Should we bring Jun?"
"Oh yeah," said Wu. "I'm sure our alpha won't mind." He picked up Jun, and placed her on Wei's saddle. Then they took off and headed for the fissure.
"I don't think Jun should be taking Wu and Wei out in their condition," said D'Angelo.
"You didn't look carefully D'Angelo," said Edelweiss. "Wu and Wei are the ones taking Jun somewhere." She then took off as well, the rest of the riders got on their dragons and followed.
They all followed Wu and Wei into the Ice Realm. They ignored Jun trying to turn them around or slow down. Tom pulled Thunder alongside them.
"Jun, wait up," Tom said.
"I'm trying," Jun said. "They're leading us somewhere."
"I think we need to lead them back," said D'Angelo. "They should be resting." Wu and Wei gurgled and moaned.
"They said they can't go back," Edelwiess translated. "They said they don't need rest, they just need to get to the top."
"The top of what?" Alex said.
"I think I know," said Jun. She pointed at a tall, steep mountain that towered over the rest of the Ice Realm. Thick clouds surrounded it, and snow covered its peak.
"You want to go up there?" Edelweiss asked. Wu and Wei nodded.
"In the Dragon King legend," said Jun. "One of his sons climbed the highest mountain he could, to ask the gods for help."
"Oh come on, that was just a silly story to put the two of us to sleep," said Eugene. "And it worked. You think Wu and Wei are acting it out?"
"I don't know," said Jun. "But they seem to think that whatever they need to heal is on top of that mountain."
"You should see this," Tom said, holding up the Dragon Journal. It showed a drawing of the mountain on one page, and on the other was a snow covered trail surrounded by whirl winds. "Whatever's on that mountain, isn't good." Wu and Wei both snorted.
"It may not be good for humans," Edelweiss pointed out. "But might be good for dragons." Wu and Wei headed for the mountain, and the others followed.
Wu and Wei led them to a ledge on the mountain side. They all landed and the riders dismounted. The ground was slick with ice. Edelweiss had trouble since she was so big, she soon managed but had to land on her hind legs and hold onto the wall.
"Sorry about the ice guys," Wei said to the other dragons.
"Why can't we fly right to the top?" Plowhorn asked. "I thought you were in a hurry."
"We are," said Wu. "But we can't fly right to the top, the winds are too strong. We'll have to walk from here." No sooner had he said that then Eugene took off on Webbs and they headed for the mountain top. But in seconds a strong gust of wind caught them and threw them back to the ledge, they both landed on their backs. Edelweiss laughed. Tom and D'Angelo looked down at them, smirking.
"You should put some ice on that," D'Angelo teased. "Oh wait, you're on ice."
"See? The book warned us about those winds," said Tom. "Whoever wrote this book knew what they were talking about. It's not just some myth." Jun whirled around to face him.
"Some myth!?" She said, offended. She marched up to Tom, glaring at him. "Myths and legends can provide answers to the unanswerable Tom. It's not about whether or not the myth is real. I'm trying to understand my dragon." Thunder turned to the Mist Twister.
"That rail looks slippery, how are we going to get up that?" He asked.
"One step at a time," said Wu. "And go slow." They turned and headed up the icy trail. The riders soon noticed.
"Wu, Wei, wait up," Jun called. She ran to catch up. The others hesitated, but then followed in single file with Edelweiss bringing up the rear.
It was a slow progress up the trail. The riders climbed from rock to rock, and the dragons used their claws and teeth to pull themselves up. They seemed to be making progress but then Wu and Wei sneezed which caused them to loose their footing. They slid back down the trail; taking Jun, Tom, Thunder, Alex, and Feathers. They slammed into Edel's hind legs, causing her to fall forwards and hit the ice hard. Then they slid over the edge and would have all fallen had Webbs not caught them in a net. Everyone took a minuet to catch their breath, then Eugene, Webbs, Plowhorn, and D'Angelo pulled their friends back up onto the ledge.
They tried again to get up the trail. Edelweiss now had a bruised chin and a bloody noes, but she ignored it and focused on not slipping again. No one spoke to save their breath. The higher they went, the thinner the air got.
After what felt like ages; they all reached another ledge. Everyone was out of breath and could barely stay standing. The dragons all collapsed from exhaustion and their riders crawled over them and laid down on the rock. Edelweiss took the moment to put snow on her bloody nose.
"Sorry about what happened back there," Wu panted.
"It's fine," panted Thunder. "We lived, and we made it up here." They looked over at their riders who were starting to recover.
"How far are we from the top?" D'Angelo asked. Tom looked at his book again.
"Halfway-ish," he said. "But then there's this." He pointed to a skull shape drawn in the book. "Smoking skull."
"I don't see any skulls, do you?" Jun said smugly. "Guess your book doesn't know everything." Tom glared at her, slammed the book shut, slammed it into D'Angelo's chest, then got to his feet.
"Says the girl who believes in following a thousand year old myth," he snapped.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Jun shot back. "But isn't that book a thousand years old too?" The dragons all looked at each other.
"Uh, they're fighting again," Feathers said, annoyed.
"Mmmm, give them a minuet," Edelweiss said, still cleaning her nose with snow. "They just got to blow of steam. They're clearly not getting enough oxygen to the brain from this altitude." Suddenly the air was filling up with a neon green gas, which caused the riders to move sluggishly. Their speech became slurred and they couldn't hold themselves up.
"Uh oh, guys," Plowhorn alerted. "We're loosing them." All the dragons rushed to their respective riders just as they lost consciousness.
"They'll be okay, we just need to get them to the next level," Wu said, placing Jun onto their shoulders. "It's not as far." The dragons hoisted their riders onto their shoulders and followed the Mist Twister, again Edelweiss brought up the rear.
Once they were on the next ledge; the dragons set their riders down and started nudging and licking them back to consciousness. They all stirred one by one. Wu and Wei laid down heavily. Jun rushed to them and knelt beside them.
"Well, we got to the top," Edelweiss said in Dragontongue. "Now what?"
"Just give us a second," Wei panted. "That was a tough hike." They went back to listening the rider argue.
"In the legend," Jun was saying. "There's a lake."
"A lake?" Edelweiss repeated. "Like the Lake of Avalon, with its healing mists?" Jun gave her a small smile.
"Sort of," she said. "Kind of like the Chinese version of it." Tom looked like he was getting more and more frustrated.
"Why are you so set on believing in this dumb myth?" He asked. Jun looked so hurt and felt tears in her eyes.
"You think you're the first to tell me I'm crazy for believing in myths," she said quietly. "I know these myths may not be real. But they have guided my grandmother and my father for many years. And they told them to me so I would be guided by them as well." She knelt beside Wu and Wei. "So you guys can head back down the mountain if you wish. But I need to trust my dragon." No one spoke for a short while. Then Tom gave Jun an apologetic smile.
"Then we're with you," Tom said. Jun took several deep breath and wiped her eyes. Then she turned to Edelweiss who was admiring the view.
"I'm curious though, does your queen believe that the original Isle of Avalon exists?" She asked. Edelweiss considered.
"She thinks that it did once exist," she said. "But there's nothing left of it now. Even magical realms and can fade over time, when people stop believing them."
"Um, where's your dragon going now?" Eugene asked. He pointed at Wu and Wei who were climbing up the the side of the peak. They both turned to Edelweiss who was leaning on the side of the peak.
"Edel, you should move," Wu said. Edelweiss didn't ask questions, and took off. She circled above the mountain. Jun watched her dragon heading to the very top, feeling both anxious and intrigued. Wu and Wei stopped about half way, and let out a roar. Suddenly the whole mountain started shaking violently.
"Guys, I hate to be the one to point this out," said D'Angelo, clutching Plowhorn to stay upright. "But this isn't just a mountain, it's a volcano."
"Technically since it's covered in snow, that makes it a snowcano," Eugene joked.
"Jun, does your myth say anything about snowcanos?" Tom shouted over the rumbling.
"No," said Jun. "But it does include….." But before she could finish; a huge cloud of steam erupted out of the top of the snowcano. From the steam cam an enormous black and white Mist Twister. It looked down at Wu and Wei, who looked relieved. Tom looked back at his book. A gust of wind blew open an extension of one of the pages. Tom looked at it. It showed a large two headed dragon hovering over the hole in the snowcano and seemed to be dropping a smaller dragon it. Horrified, Tom ran to Jun.
"We've got get Wu and Wei out of here," he said urgently.
"But I think it'll be okay," Jun said. "Look, Wu and Wei are calm."
"Look," Tom showed Jun the picture. "This book shows a titan dragon throwing dragons to their death."
"What if it isn't," said Jun. The paused and watched the titan dragon. It suddenly grabbed Wu and Wei. Edelweiss paused and hovered to watch. The riders jumped onto their dragons, Jun got on Thunder behind Tom, and they all flew at the alpha Mist Twister.
"Aim carefully," Tom said. "We don't want to hit Wu and Wei." The dragons all fired at the alpha dragon. However, the alpha didn't release Wu and Wei, and just looked irritated. Tom flew Thunder over to Jun's dragon. Jun held her hand out for them, but Wu and Wei didn't budge. Suddenly a loud roar rattled the sky. Edelweiss dove out of the clouds and landed on the rim of the snowcano. She shielded the alpha Mist Twister from the other dragons' blasts with her wings.
"Edel, what are you doing?" Tom asked. "That titan dragon's going to throw Wu and Wei to their deaths."
"Wu and Wei wouldn't have come here in the first place if that were the case," Edelweiss said. "They clearly trust their alpha."
"Thank you Silver Lining," said the alpha Mist Twister. Edelweiss went stiff with surprise, then looked at them.
"You mean me?" She asked. The alpha dragon nodded.
"We've heard about your fight with the Sky Torcher," the white head said. "You seem to show up when things are at their bleakest."
"Huh, interesting," Edelweiss said. "What are your names? If I may ask."
"I am Yin," said one head.
"And I am Yang," said the other. "Now will you please move aside? We need to get this one into the healing pool." But before Edelweiss could move, just then Eugene flew in on Webbs.
"Leave my sister's dragon alone," Eugene yelled. Webbs blasted Yin and Yang. The alpha dragon growled, they'd had enough. He blasted Eugene and Webbs, who got out of the way just in time. The blast hit the peak of the snowcano. Edelweiss quickly jumped off it and hovered next to it. The snow and ice around the peak cracked and exploded. Large snow balls started falling from the sky, and hitting everyone. The riders had their dragons blast the snow balls so they didn't hit Yin and Yang, or Wu and Wei. Eventually they got them all and the sky cleared. The riders landed their dragons back on ledge. The alpha Mist Twister landed back on the peak next to Edelweiss.
"Let's hope we did the right thing," Tom said. They all watched as the alpha dragon gently lowered Wu and Wei into the snowcano.
"Very strange these humans," said Yang. "First they attack us, then they help us."
"They're new around here," Edelweiss explained. "They don't fully understand our kind yet."
"Well, since one of ours has made friends with them," said Yin.
"Might as well see let them in," said Yang. They then blasted a hole in the side of the peak, big enough for all the riders and their dragons. They entered a large cone shaped cave. In the center was a large pool, what was steaming. Jun walked to the very edge, excited. A moment later Wu and Wei rose out of it, looking much better. They smiled down at their rider.
"Look they're good as new," Jun said happily. Wu and Wei nudged her and she hugged them. Then Thunder looked into the dense mist. They all followed his gaze and saw more Mist Twisters lounging on the shore of the pool. They sat up and looked over curiously.
"It's a whole family," D'Angelo said. Wu and Wei went over to their fellows and chattered to them, most likely explaining these strange visitors.
"This must be their home," Tom said. The group cautiously investigated the family of Mist Twisters, all under the gaze of their alpha. Thunder was the only one not excited. He was happy for his friend, but seeing Wu and Wei with their family was making him really miss his own. He sighed sadly and laid down. He thought about his family; his parents, his little brothers and sisters, and his grandfather. Just then Tom came over and sat next to him. Thunder watched him pull out the Dragon Journal and a pencil. He opened to the picture of the alpha Mist Twister, and drew smiley faces on it. Thunder looked at him critically.
"I know, I need to work on my drawing," Tom admitted. Thunder laid his head down on his paws. Tom must have seen the look of longing on his face and patted his neck. "I know pal. Hopefully someday we'll all find out where we came from." Thunder gave him a small smile.
A short while later, Wu and Wei thanked the alpha, then followed their friends back towards their sleep cave. By the time they reached it, it was time for the riders to head back home. They were all talking excitedly about the day's events as they headed up and out. Edelweiss was about to take off and head back to the Crystal Realm.
"Edel wait," said Feathers. "You can stay with us if you want." Edelweiss looked over her wing at them. She considered.
"Unless your queen is expecting you," said Plowhorn.
"Oh, Avalon always knows where I am," said Edelweiss, turning around. "She has magic and I'm on her team. If she needs me, she'll let me know." She went back over to the dragons.