When they awakened, Araxion and his clutchmates were split into five groups. Their group would determine the dragons they saw regularly, who they trained with, and who their commander was. The reasoning wasn't explained in much detail: they wanted to be able to compare the most effective broods, methods of creation, and commanders, something like that. It was of no consequence regardless.
The process itself was something like a draft. Each commander had a separate part of the room, and they each picked a dragon for their group in a predetermined order. There were six commanders total: the blacks Haresion, Esteria, and Barelion, and the twilights Irixiona, Nasciona, and Karesion. Irixiona and Nasciona were the two twilight drakes whom Araxion had seen when he hatched, and they commanded a group together. Karesion was to pick first, and he chose a female drake named Voriona.
Esteria took a moment to glance at a select few dragons, before making her selection. "Araxion," she announced.
He walked towards her, nervous, as the other dragons bantered from their perches above. "Come on, Esteria, you know we wanted him. Right before our turn too? I swear you do this just to spite us," Irixiona said.
Esteria purred with amusement, flicking her tail in response. "You know I wouldn't pick something I didn't like, dear."
The rest of the process went much like this, and Araxion ultimately ended up with one other sibling from his clutch. Esteria introduced them to the rest of their group, composed of eighteen other dragons from various backgrounds. All of the others had been corrupted from eggs of other flights: around five were from the Blue Dragonflight, and there was one dragon from each the Bronze and Green Dragonflights, but most had come from red eggs. One could tell in young dragons because of the slight tinting of their scales, although it required one to know what they were looking for.
Araxion could no longer feel the strange cold feeling with such intensity, because it was often difficult to tell if it was coming from himself or from another dragon around him. One of the other dragons stuck out to him, however, because the feeling about her was especially intense. Her aura didn't cause any sort of numbness or discomfort, like the feeling had when Araxion was in the egg, but it was different from the others. Her name was Sariona, and she was the dragon that had come from a bronze egg.
His first interaction with her came quickly. Esteria had tasked the drakes with their first combat practice: simple ground content, using only their talons, with special covers put over them so they couldn't actually tear flesh. All the drakes put them on, and Esteria read the combat pairings out from a list.
"First pair: Araxion and Sariona, second pair: Fyriona and Tasarion, third pair..." Esteria announced.
Both Araxion and Sariona moved quickly into the middle of the group of dragons, and watched Esteria expectantly. The black dragon looked somewhat annoyed, but Sariona opted to risk her wrath regardless. "How do we do it?" she asked.
"However you want," Esteria answered. "You'll figure it out."
For a moment, Araxion and Sariona moved around each other nervously, neither wanting to make the first move. It was Sariona who finally attacked first, flaring up her wings and lunging forward towards Araxion. Araxion moved to dodge, but her talons landed on one of his shoulders. In response, he took to the sky more by instinct than conscious choice, allowing himself to drop behind her. He clawed at her wings, taking care to avoid her tail. She yelped, attempting to smack him with the mace-like end of her tail, but he was too far away.
Sariona took to the air, and Araxion followed her. They locked talons, each dragon attempting to get at the wings, belly, and other vital parts of each other. Araxion let his grasp lax for a moment, and Sariona immediately moved as far in as she could in an attempt to break what remained of his defenses. In response, Araxion kicked at her with his hind legs and pushed back with his wings: being unprepared for that movie, Sariona went crashing to the ground.
"Juvenile," Esteria commented, "But decent. Next up, Fyriona and Tasarion."
After this, Sariona and Araxion became quick friends. When picking their partners was an option, regardless of whether it was fighting practice or when they were learning Common, Sariona and Araxion made sure that they were together. They grew to become Esteria's favorites, and she often began to pair them together regardless. The cold feeling from Sariona never changed, and never wavered in intensity, but Araxion stopped thinking about it, and after time, stopped noticing it.
Their dedication to practice continued beyond the exercises that they did during the day, too. During several nights, Araxion and Sariona snuck out into the open space between their resting areas, both to talk and to practice.
"You're good at feinting, Araxion," Sariona commented. "I can never figure out how to do that without actually making that mistake, though. Y'know, losing my guard."
"It's hard to explain," Araxion replied. "You just sort of... You know how to brace yourself for the start of a fight?"
"Yes," Said Sariona, "And I get that it's similar, but I can never figure out how to make it look like I'm not-"
"What are you two doing up?" Esteria's voice echoed through the hall, and the two drakes froze where they were. The black wyrm flicked her tail with amusement, emerging from the shadows where she had been watching. "You should always check to make sure you aren't being watched before you do something you're not supposed to, you know."
"You don't appear to be disciplining us for it," Sariona noted.
Araxion shot Sariona a look, fearing Esteria's reaction. Instead of becoming enraged, the black dragon purred with amusement. "You two work fine with little sleep, and you're not too far out of line. You're doing something productive, even," she said. "If either of you were Tasarion, though... The Master knows he can't afford to be up late like this."
"Tasarion doesn't really seem to know what he's doing, either," Araxion added. "Maybe it's that Red Dragonflight blood getting to him."
Both Esteria and Araxion chuckled for a moment, while Sariona sat back, curling her tail around her feet. Esteria moved to walk away, saying, "You know, I like you two. Your attitude, Sariona, and yours too, Araxion... Ah, you remind me of myself as a drake."
A few weeks later, the young drakes were subject to their first real trials. For a few months, they'd been practicing attacks on only each other and the cultists. Esteria, however, wanted to send her small group out on a mission to attack a caravan just outside of the Twilight Highlands. They were nobody of particular importance, just a peculiar mish-mash of merchants and society's outcasts, and it was of no consequence to anyone whether they lived or died. What mattered, however, was that they were real people that would not simply stand and let themselves get killed by a group of young drakes. Not willingly, anyways.
The group of twilights found a small sheltered outcropping of rock along the border of the Twilight Highlands and the Arathi Highlands, with a clear view of the caravan. Esteria, being to big to watch unseen, shapeshifted into a humanoid form, and sat on a drake's back. Her voice was quieter in her human form, and she had to yell to be heard.
"Alright, I'm not expecting all of you to go down there and attack the caravan. Indeed, I'd rather you not, as it'd be rather conspicuous if eighteen twilight drakes decide to go burn down a caravan all at once," Esteria explained. "But I would like any of you that do not assist in the attack to watch closely and learn from your fellow drakes. I want this to be a learning experience for all of us."
Esteria sat back and waited, while the drakes watched and talked amongst themselves. Araxion slipped over to Sariona, whispering to her, "Would you like to kick this thing off?"
"Sounds like a plan," she replied. "You get the front of the caravan, I get the back. Let's trap them. If there's any problems, fly up. It doesn't look like it, but we don't know if they have weapons or anything."
At once, both Araxion and Sariona lifted off from the ground, diving towards both ends of the caravan. The drakes were too small to shake the ground by landing, so they wasted no time in setting the wagons aflame, spewing shadowfire across the area. It swiftly spread across the structures, sending the caravan's occupants running. Other drakes came down from the outcropping to catch the fleeing mortals, and Araxion joined them. Sariona opted to finish the job, ensuring that every wagon was completely engulfed in flame. Araxion swooped down and landed in front of one of the merchants, an elf decked out in gaudy clothing.
The merchant screamed as the dragons approached, cursing them and speaking of his wife and children. His efforts, ultimately, were futile from the start.
"The Destroyer knows no mercy," Araxion answered.
The dragon took a step forward towards the elf, and he turned to run the other way. Araxion moved his right foreleg forwards, hooking the elf's body on it. He slammed the elf into the ground, leaving the body to bleed out onto the grass.
Araxion caught a few more mortals, too, but not in quite as dramatic a fashion. He and the rest of his group returned to the outcropping, where Esteria had once again taken on her true, draconic form. She was pleased, as was evident from the tone of her voice and the position of her tail. "Brilliant," she said. "Once again, still quite juvenile, but brilliant for a first time."
After the attack on the caravan, the drakes' sleep schedule switched. There was less time to rest and relax, and more time spent on intense training. Sariona and Araxion excelled together, and moved far beyond the rest of their group when it came to skill. Both were capable of lasting long in a fight against each other, and when Esteria tested them against other dragons, Sariona and Araxion could defeat them with only minor difficulty. Eventually, Esteria approached them with an offer.
"I'd like you two to go with a group of older drakes to test your skills against a real challenge," she said. "You know the Vermillion Redoubt is in the area, yes? The wyrms in the area often need to be healed by their red dragonspawn. When they land, we send in a team of wyrmkillers to attack them. I'd like you to try to assist one of these teams; just watch if you must, but go with them, won't you?"
The older drakes were slightly intimidating; they were perhaps around half as large as Araxion and Sariona, and it was obvious that they had seen battle. The older drakes were covered in scars from swords, claws, and all manner of things. One was missing an eye, and many had parts of their wings torn off around the edges. A few of the drakes were more welcoming than others, but both Araxion and Sariona heard a few mocking whispers. Most appreciated the help, and both of the younger drakes were eager to face red dragons for the first time.
The attacks began at noon, when the first wyrms returned to the Vermillion Redoubt to heal. The wyrmkillers moved in swiftly, descending upon a fallen red wyrm like vultures upon a corpse. They tore the poor old dragon apart, to the horror of the nearby drakes. When most of the job was done, a few drakes went after the dragonspawn, chasing them around the area as a cat would to a mouse. Such games would not go on for very long; it was early, however, and there were not many red wyrms landing yet. There was time to play until the real challenge began.
"They look like they'd be delicious," Sariona commented, watching from a distance as an elder drake slew one of the red dragonspawn.
"They're dragonkin too, though, they'd be too similar to us," Araxion replied. "It'd be... Strange to eat them. Especially because there are twilight dragonspawn, too: haven't you see them?"
Sariona was dismissive. "I don't really see much of a problem," she said. "It may be a bit odd, but I'd much like to try red dragon someday too. Look at all the meat they have on their bones! It's not anyone's loss if one dies anyways."
The Redoubt began to get busier as the red dragons moved in and out, and the twilight drakes had more work to do. Although the wyrmkillers first worked together, they slowly began splitting up into smaller and smaller groups to cover more ground. It was with one of these smaller groups that Araxion and Sariona witnessed their first deaths: three older drakes had been harassing a red wyrm that appeared to be too injured to fight back. In a swift, unexpected movement, however, the wyrm spewed a stream of flame onto the three drakes. They attempted to escape, but the wyrm lunged forward, trapping them under her massive talons. There was no way they could have survived. It chilled both Araxion and Sariona, but it did not make them afraid: this was what they were born to do. No red dragon was going to stop them.
A smaller wyrm landed on the outskirts of the Vermillion Redoubt, and both Araxion and Sariona noticed it quickly. Wordlessly, they moved to strike at the dragon together, with Sariona landing near the head and Araxion taking a position along the side.
"Insolent young drakes," the wyrm spat, "You know not what you do." He was silenced by a strike to the eye, courtesy of Sariona.
The two drakes made quick work of him, tearing away at the webbing at his wings and the softer, weaker skin at his belly. Normally, they would have been able to simply leave him to bleed out; this was a red dragon, however, and he would be healed by the dragonspawn. For some time, Araxion and Sariona guarded their kill from the dragonspawn that sought to heal him. Eventually, the wyrm took his last breath and was no more.
One of the eldest drakes, the one with the single eye, flew over to meet the younger drakes. "We need to be going," he said. "We've lost too many and we've done enough."
The rest of the twilights had already begun to flee, so Araxion and Sariona followed suit. They returned to the part of the compound where their group was, and joined them just as they were finishing up the day's training session. Esteria moved to meet them as the rest of the drakes returned to their sleeping areas.
"How did it go?" she asked.
"Fairly well, all considered," Sariona replied. "Araxion and I took down a red dragon, just the two of us. I feel we learned a lot, it was more valuable than these trainings we've had day-after-day."
"I thought it would be, especially because of how well you two have taken the initiative in our earlier practice sessions," Esteria said. "I'm going to check with Feresion, and if all goes well, I expect that you two will be doing more of this. I'm proud of you two, you know. I hope I can see you out on the battlefield soon, giving those 'defenders of Azeroth' what they deserve."
Araxion and Sariona slept well that night, having gone to sleep early. The day's work had been exhausting, and they were glad for the brief period of respite. Esteria crept into their caverns early in the morning to awake them, and had the two drakes come together with her to speak. She seemed strangely excited, both from her body language and the tone of her voice.
"I spoke with the lead wyrmkiller and a few of my own superiors," she said. "I've set you two up to go to Mount Hyjal as apart of the next group of twilight dragons. It won't be particularly challenging over there: the green drakes are more a challenge to the mortals than anything, and the druids can't do much to you. It'll be good practice in a real-life combat scenario."
Both Araxion and Sariona took a moment to process the news, and it was Araxion that spoke first. "We'd be honored. Thank you, Esteria, for everything. We'll make you proud."