Prologue part 3: A morning of preparation
Two days later…
The Sun begins to show its light in the kingdom of ice, bringing a bit of warmth in this endless land of ice and snow that clouds are not present to stop.
Coldspine wakes up from his bed like many others. Putting on his light helmet and uniform over his back, taking his simple spear, he rushes towards the tent's entrance with his partner.
"Now is not the time to be tired" thinks the young icewing to himself.
Indeed, today is the day when many icewing like him would go to the kingdom of sand, near some ancients ruins of a temple. While it can be very surprising for icewings soldiers to travel to the most hostile territory of Pyrrhia and nearby some ruins of all places, just to train differently. All of them have been aware of the possibility for months, so nobody thought it was that weird anymore.
As Coldspine regains the group of soldier gathering in front of their commander, his partner stops on his left and speaks to him with a focused stance and lack of doubt:
- "So this is it, we really are going in the domain of Queen Scorpion, where the sun hate us."
- "Indeed Frosttongue, we are going in that very... hazardous place, but we're icewings, we can stand more than that." Replies Coldspine with confidence, but his partner shows a bit of hesitation now.
- "And do you know anything peculiar about these ruins? I think I am still missing some details about the reasons our commander took such a decision."
- "I am not inside that dragon's head, but I may know more informations than you about the place. It is some ruins of a temple called Telunabris that are enormous and… cursed or poisonous, I don't know which it is. Oh, and there some dragons that aren't scared to get blood on their claws nearby, but we already knew that. But there apparently are treasures and lore buried deep inside that are more than worth it. Maybe even powerful and working artefacts along with magic."
- "Are you sure you are not spitting out legends and myth created by some dragons that needed to justify their losses? Such failures at such scale. It sounds like a Queen's excuse for her bad decisions."
Coldspine remains silent, surprised by that reply for a moment before finding what to say.
- "It is not, I know dragons that have gone to it and learnt enough about it to know it's not that simple. The sort of curse, for example, is really lethal and unnatural, it is a product of magic, that is certain."
- "So an animus would have put that curse over all of the temple, that sort of feat is comparable to our great cliff I suppose. They really were capable of unleashing their powers to its limist in the past, it seams."
- "Well, I don't know that much, we'll to see for ourselves when we'll be here."
- "That is if we are close enough, have the time, and are not forbidden to."
- "Of course, of course…"
- "Still suspicious our commander decided to go there, I suppose he is more than interested in these ruins. Coldmoon really is inspiring anyone they can for a small organization."
- "You're right, they aren't picky at all, and that subtle either. But the royalty and nobles let them run free for now. So..."
The two dragons barely finish their discussion that they become aware they have missed a large part of their commander's speech. So they try to correct their behaviour like nothing ever happened.
The commander finishes his words, ordering all the soldiers to take what they need. But as the two icewings start to do that, he come to them.
"Commander Nordclaw?" Answer the two dragons at the same time.
- "You think I did not see you two chatting instead of listening?" The icewing's stare was serious, telling its targets that hiding was futile. Quickly realizing that, Coldspine answers.
- "Yes, and that was a mistake. So what do you have in store for us commander?"
Nordclaw smiles slightly, his annoyance diminishing at his soldier's reaction.
- "Since you asked directly and are honest, I will execute a more appropriate and useful punishment."
The imposing icewing walks away to return with a broken spear, its blade long gone, but the metallic rod is still long and solid enough. Coldspine reacts with a bit of curiosity but no fear, something that is lightly present in Frosttongue.
- "This will teach you an important lesson. A dragon must be ready to fight at any occasion and under any circumstance. You must never let surprise persist in you, and you must not let unfamiliarity bring you down in a fight."
Says Nordclaw with his most serious tone. The two dragons prepare for battle as he ends his sentence.
- "Frosttongue! You will fight against me with nothing but your claws and breath. This duel is won when the opponent is brought down laying on the ground. As for you Coldspine, your duel is after this one."
The called out icewing gathers his courage, trying to shake any fear in him.
"A fight is often never fair…" Says Nordclaw holding his long rod to add to his battle stance.
"Ready? Fight!"
Nordclaw starts by jumping directly to arrive just before Frosttongue was. The young icewing must jump backward to avoid the spear swinging from right to left. He then goes forwards to arrive behind his opponent by his right side, but Nordclaw just rotates to have him in his spear's range.
Seeing no opening, Frosttongue jumps and unfolds his wings to push himself back even more while facing his opponent.
Nordclaw sees this and quickly charges with his weapon, front talons folded until he delivers the blow. Frosttongue reacts in time and jumps to his right, but his opponent swings the long rod into him as he just ended his charge.
The young icewing has the reflex to guard with his right talon. It hurts to receive such blow but the icewing musters the strength to take the spear's end.
The two dragons look into each other's eyes for a split second before Frosttongue uses frostbreath on him. Nordclaw moves to the left side, avoiding the breath and forcing his rival to bend and stretch his talon until he let go of the rod. Free from holding anything, nothing restrain the young icewing in his movements anymore.
Knowing that, Nordclaw jumps and unfolds his wings to beat them in an instant, gaining enough altitude to evade the frostbreath, and dives into his adversary.
Frosttongue jumps back as far as possible, but such added distance does not do much as his opponent throws the spear at him directly, the rotating object hit his front talons, sending pain in his mind. The young one takes a huge step back but Nordclaw closes the distance.
He then tries to jump to the side but his hurting talons slow him down, giving Nordclaw the opportunity to grab them. At that moment, Frosttongue puts all his will into them to push back his superior, but it is no use, Nordclaw is stronger than him and the pain and wound on his talons make that impossible.
The imposing icewing overwhelms his soldier and in a display of strength, overthrows him completely.
The moment after, Frosttongue is laying on the ground, his back touching the ground, with Nordclaw's paws over his belly.
- "Not so bad, even if you still failed."
The commander takes off his talons from him and let Frosttongue gets back on his talons.
- "R-really commander?"
- "You focused too much into dodging me and reacting to my actions instead of being more of a driving force of that confrontation, Frosttongue. But to give you credit, your wings did not receive any blow nor did you use them more than necessary despite being overly defensive. If your goal was to flee, you would have a good chance to run off without losing too much."
- "I… Thank you commander"
Nordclaw then turns to face Coldspine, slowly grabbing his spear from the ground and preparing for a second battle.
- "As for you Coldspine, it is your turn. Show me what you have inside you."
Coldspine prepares himself, looking at his commander's eyes with focus like his life was on the line.
"Ready? Fight!"
Coldspine opens the fight directly by running straight into Nordclaw like there would be nothing that would stop him from tearing through his opponent. The commander jumps to his left side but as he execute the action, the young soldier extend his right talon and prepare his claws to slice his target.
Nordclaw takes a huge step back with the help of his wings as Coldspine end his charge, clawing the air and continuing with an aggressive swing of his spiky tail to let no opportunity of attack for his adversary. The moment after, the young soldier prepares his frostbreath and unleash it on the commander who dodges just in time and charges into him.
The metallic rod hit and pushes Coldspine's head out of the way, the second after Nordclaw slams his head into his right side, inflicting damage to his neck and belly and stunning him for a few seconds. But the young icewing comes back fiercely by slamming into him, the commander absorbs the shock from his right side, having the reflex to guard but Coldspine grabs his front talons and clenches his claws.
The pain and constraint on his muscles make him let his weapon fall, despite that he reacts and tries to overwhelm his locked opponent by pushing him away with his talons' strength. But Coldspine resist unlike his partner by unleashing all his force, his expression one that renders him almost unrecognizable.
Seeing that such resistance is too much of a threat, Nordclaw rotates clockwise in one step to break the clash of strength and shoves him to the side. His soldier is surprised and does not have the time to turn his body as his commander puts his front talons over the middle of his back, putting a part of his weight on him. For just a moment, the young icewing reacts with pure anger as his opponent applies more pressure on his skin.
"It's over." Says Nordclaw with a clear voice despite his tiredness from the fight. He hadn't focused on his soldier's expression, but Frosttongue and a part of the crowd did spot it.
Coldspine regains his composure as his commander pulls out from his back, and that is when he realizes that all the others dragons have formed a crowd around them. But the commander's voice draws his attention once again.
"Don't be sad, you still put up a good fight Coldspine."
the young one's expression remains unreadable despite being calm.
- "You fought so aggressively, while using this strategy tires you fast, you didn't flinch nor slow down one bit, even after I slammed into you. An opponent that is surprised, unprepared or tired would have lost the fight quickly. Still, I hope you are able to put that much efforts and will while using others combat styles when facing a prepared opponent."
After a long silence, Coldspine replies with an ounce of gratitude.
- "Thanks for… the advice commander Nordclaw."
- "You can both go take your supplies for the travel now."
The two dragons go to their tent quickly and start to grab food, water bottles and put them into their large satchel.
Seeing that neither of them say a word, Frosttongue decides to break the silence.
- "So… How do you feel after that whole fight with Nordclaw?"
- "I feel alright." Answers Coldspine with no surprise nor any added emotion.
- "Nothing against the commander?"
- "No. My opponent could have been everyone else."
Frosttongue thinks for a moment before replying.
- "Really everyone…?"
Coldspine stops his gathering of supplies for a moment.
- "You shouldn't be surprised to see what one can do under the right pressure."
- "I shall not forget it, some things never change…"
- "Yes."
With their satchel full of the necessary goods, the two soldiers leave the tent to join the group. Seeing that every dragon is here and ready, commander Nordclaw initiate the long travel to the kingdom of sand, all his soldiers following him in triangular formation. A travel that will take more than one day, but one worth it nonetheless, icewings are made to endure more than that after all.